Chekhov's Melikhovo Period

  Anton Chekhov is one of my favorite writers. I don’t believe I could name another with such a talent for storytelling. He has a singular style; it is strictly minimal in language yet quasi-Biblical in scope. Every word of every piece is allotted with perfect consideration of the story’s larger structure of meaning. One gets the impression that his sentences were planned out many years in advance, any other interpretation would lend him a seemingly inconceivable genius. I think this level of brevity is one of, if not the greatest traits a writer can possess. 

After the death of his friend and brother, Nikolai, in 1890, Chekhov left his home in Moscow where he had attained great acclaim and recognition as a writer of plays and short stories. His work at the time was mostly comedic, dealing with the newly emerging industrial city life of fellow Russians. He had gained popularity among the academic and literary circles of Moscow, eventually becoming Russia’s best known writer at home and abroad. However, with the death of his brother and rising cynicism towards his work (often motivated by his unwillingness to make firm political statements, a highly unfashionable choice at the time), Chekhov underwent a sort of personality crisis. In order to explore his purpose in life and focus on creating more meaningful, less frivolous works, Chekhov left for the Sakhalin Island prison colony. Upon returning from this journey, Chekhov spent two years serving solely as a doctor relieving patients of famine in Russia. At the pinnacle of his fame, Chekhov sought out complete isolation from the public eye.

        In a letter to friend, Chekhov expressed his need for greater fulfillment outside the city: “If I am a doctor, then I need sick people and a hospital; if I am a writer, then I need to live among people”. In 1893, he purchased a three acre country estate in the town of Melikhovo, 50 miles south of Moscow. During his time living there, known as his “Melikhovo Period”, Chekhov would produce his most famous and longest studied works. The estate consisted of a main house and extensive vegetable garden in which Chekhov would spent most all of his free time tending to. He would later construct a small cottage to receive patients of his medical practice and house guests. Chekhov was known, during this time, to be a great entertainer of visitors consisting of both famed writers and intellectuals (it was at this time Chekhov would come to be acquainted with his idol, Leo Tolstoy) as well as the local village folk. It is noted by biographers that some guest or other would be around the house at almost all times, everyday. Impressively, Chekhov was able to remain prolific in his writing, though now preferring a quality over quantity approach. It is recounted that his Melikhovo writing practice at times consisted of taking short breaks from entertaining houseguests to enter his study and write down newly conceived ideas, sometimes only a line or two at a time. When reading his works, to think that they were created piecemeal like this is almost miraculous.

During his time in the countryside, the short story became his preferred format. The short story lent itsef better to his newer, more serious approach to writing than did the stagplay he had become revered for. This period saw Chekhov embrace the early notions of “modernism” that would come to dominate the literary circles of postwar Europe. Chekhov focused intently on developing the minimalist style he is famed for. The Melikhovo period is highly emblematic of Chekhov’s valuation for economy of language, found in his conception of the dramatic principle now known as “Chekhov’s gun”: 

“Remove everything that has no relevance to the story. If you say in the first act that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third act it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there.”

In my mind, it is no coincidence that Chekhov’s resolution for minimalism should coincide with his change of location and lifestyle. Most of his short stories from the period deal explicitly with the kind of country life he had grown so fond of. The characters, while representative of broad social issues, maintain the simple characteristics of Chekhov’s village neighbors. These characters are passionately studied in the stories. Even the most mundane aspects of country life take on deep meaning. It is obvious Chekhov was deeply moved by his many personal encounters with Melikhovo’s people.

In The House with the Mezzanine, a painter falls in love with the romantically inclined, absent minded sister of a stern, overbearing, and highly rational schoolteacher. Where the painter believes the only way to truly nurture the human spirit is through art, the teacher, Lydia, devotes her life to practical applications of science and philanthropy, claiming that human prosperity is impossible without nurturing of the body. Eventually, upon hearing of the painter’s relationship with her sister, Zhenya, Lydia sends her away to live with relatives in a distant town, never to return. The painter contemplates how a woman so preoccupied with helping others could cruelly deprive him of the thing he loved most. In the story, Chekhov grapples with the two most important aspects of his life: his vocations as artist and doctor. Chekhov’s duties to his community as a doctor often left little time to his writing, however he felt a more immediate duty in medicine. The two houses occupied by the main characters of the story work as a perfect allegory of the two buildings on Chekhov’s estate. In fact, it is interesting to note that the cottage in which Chekhov did his medical work had a second floor terrace, similar to the titular mezzanine found in Lydia’s home. The characters frequently debate issues of labor (Chekhov was clearly grappling with emerging Marxist sentiments). The painter believes that man should be satisfied with short work hours consisting of simple duties of sustenance farming and similar pastoral occupations. The teacher believes firmly in progress towards a collective human good informed by scientific development. In these characters, Chekhov contrasts the enlightened ideals of his Moscow peers with his newfound affinity for country simplicity.

The Student is a an account of a seminary student walking home from a hunt on the night of Good Friday. Along the way, he encounters a vaguely familiar widow and her daughter from the local village. He recounts to them the story of Jesus’ betrayal, moving them to tears. He realizes that the great beauty of the story lies in its timeless portrayal of suffering shared by all humanity. The story offers us a glimpse into another of Chekhov’s newfound fascinations: Christianity. Again, the influence of rural life is clear. Where the dominate intelligentsia of Russia had, for the most part, rejected Christianity by the end of the century, it remained an important tradition among the working classes. The student’s wholehearted profession of faith is a direct contrast to the nihilist Moscow Chekhov had sought to flee in moving. 

“It was evident that what he had just been telling them about, which had happened nineteen centuries ago, had a relation to the present -- to both women, to the desolate village, to himself, to all people”.