“In Greece, There Is Everything”: Why Russian Genius Chekhov Claimed He Was Greek

How a Greek upbringing shaped Anton Chekhov’s Russian genius. Credit: Public Domain

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, the Russian who revolutionized lit successful the 19th century, was shaped by the bustling civilization of the Greek diaspora, which thrived on the Black Sea arsenic good arsenic the Azov.

To genuinely recognize Chekhov’s genius, 1 indispensable look southbound to the metropolis of Taganrog. As biographers similar Donald Rayfield person noted, Taganrog was little a Russian municipality and much of an anomalous Mediterranean. It was the “Little Athens” of the Azov.

Taganrog was a halfway of Greek concern and culture. Credit: Google maps.

Taganrog and the Greek diaspora

The communicative begins with Catherine the Great. In the precocious 18th century, pursuing the Russo-Turkish wars, the Empress sought to unafraid Russia’s confederate borders by populating the Black and Azov Sea coasts with seasoned mariners and merchants. She turned to the Greeks. Offering taxation breaks and land, she invited Greeks to found a caller life. Among the cities that blossomed nether this argumentation was Taganrog.

By the clip Anton Chekhov was calved successful 1860, Taganrog was a thriving commercialized hub wherever the Greek language was heard connected each thoroughfare corner. Massive Greek firms dominated the city’s economy. The atom trade—the lifeblood of the region—was controlled by dynasties similar the Alferakis, the Scaramangas, and the Bernadakis. This was the satellite Anton was calved into.

His commencement was a multicultural affair; his godfather was the Greek merchant Dmitry Kirillovich Sofianopoulo, and his aboriginal puerility was spent navigating a metropolis wherever the “master” of the location was often a Greek merchant and the “servant” a Russian peasant.

The acquisition of the Russian-Greek and Anton Chekhov

Anton’s father, Pavel Chekhov, was a antheral of fierce ambition and flawed judgment. Seeing the immense wealthiness of the Greek merchant class, helium became obsessed with the thought that his sons should participate that world. He believed the cardinal to prosperity laic successful the Greek language. Consequently, Anton was enrolled successful the Greek Parish School of Taganrog.

The Greek School of Taganrog. Credit: Public Domain

The acquisition was, by astir accounts, a nightmare. The schoolhouse was tally by Nicholas Voutsinas, a antheral whose pedagogical methods progressive much corporal punishment than conjugation. The classrooms were damp, the teaching was archaic, and the young Chekhov felt much similar a captive than a student.

However, this play was foundational. It gave Chekhov his archetypal sensation of the “absurd,” a prime that would aboriginal specify his literate style. He observed the pomposity of the Greek merchants—men who spoke of precocious ideals portion bickering implicit the terms of olives.

It was astatine the schoolhouse that helium witnessed the prototype for Kharlampy Spiridonovich Dymba, the quality successful his 1889 play The Wedding, who famously bellows, “In Greece, determination is everything!” This line, meant arsenic a satirical jab astatine Greek provincialism, ironically became the astir celebrated “advertisement” for Greece successful the Russian language.

Greek culture: The Alferaki power connected Anton Chekhov

While the schoolhouse was harsh, the city’s broader Greek civilization was magnificent. The Alferaki family, led by the composer and aboriginal mayor, Achilles Alferaki, turned Taganrog into a taste beacon. Their palace, a Beaux-Arts masterpiece designed by Stackenschneider, was the tract of concerts and intelligence salons that the young, impoverished Chekhov could lone presumption from a distance.

The Alferaki Palace successful Taganrog. Credit: Public Domain

Yet, the Greek power extended to the Taganrog City Theatre. Founded by the inaugural of the Greek serviceman Pavlovich Karagiannis and funded by Greek merchants, this theatre was Chekhov’s existent classroom.

He would sneak into the assemblage to ticker Italian operas and Russian dramas. Without the Greek community’s fiscal obsession with the arts, it is improbable that the satellite would person ever seen The Seagull oregon The Cherry Orchard.

The aesculapian bond: Chekhov and Dr. Rossolimo

As Chekhov moved to Moscow to survey medicine, his Greek transportation transitioned from geography to deep, lifelong friendship. It was astatine the Moscow University Medical Faculty that helium met Grigory Ivanovich Rossolimo.

Grigory Ivanovich Rossolimo: The Greek idiosyncratic would go a titan of neurology. Credit: Public Domain

Rossolimo, a descendant of a noble household from Kefalonia, was a reflector representation of Chekhov successful galore ways. Both were men of the South and outsiders successful the Moscow elite, and some possessed a relentless technological humanism. While Chekhov turned his objective oculus toward the soul, Rossolimo turned his toward the tense system.

Rossolimo would spell connected to go a titan of neurology, discovering the “Rossolimo Sign”—a objective reflex trial for cardinal tense strategy harm that remains a staple of aesculapian grooming today. Their correspondence is simply a testament to a heavy intelligence brotherhood. In 1899, erstwhile Rossolimo asked Chekhov for an autobiography for a assemblage anniversary, Chekhov responded with his celebrated “Medicine is my lawful wife” letter.

Even successful their last years, arsenic Chekhov struggled with tuberculosis, Rossolimo was a changeless presence, offering aesculapian counsel and a shared nostalgia for the sun-drenched coasts of their youth. Rossolimo yet founded the Institute of Child Psychology, a feat of philanthropy that Chekhov profoundly admired.

The last years: “I americium Greek”

Chekhov with Leo Tolstoy astatine Yalta, 1900. Credit: Public Domain

In 1898, Chekhov’s wellness forced him to determination to Yalta, Crimea. There, helium recovered himself erstwhile again successful a “Greek” landscape. The Crimean Greeks had survived centuries of governmental upheaval, maintaining their connection and Orthodox faith.

Chekhov’s philanthropy successful Yalta was quiescent but profound. He became a benefactor of the Greek Church of St. Theodore Tyron and helped section Greek families navigate the complexities of Russian law. He besides donated to the acquisition of Greek children.

When locals expressed astonishment astatine his devotion to their community, helium would simply reply, “I americium Greek!” This wasn’t a assertion of biologic heritage. Chekhov was ethnically Russian, but it was a profound connection of taste identity. He felt a kinship with the Greek spirit: its resilience, proximity to the sea, and insistence connected uncovering quality successful the midst of tragedy.

The Greek power connected Chekhov’s work

Anton Chekhov died successful 1904, but the Greek power connected his enactment remains disposable to those who cognize wherever to look. The “Greek theme” appears seventeen times successful his large works, but much importantly, his benignant carries a Hellenic clarity. He rejected the heavy, moralizing “mist” of Northern Russian lit successful favour of a sharp, clear-eyed realism—a prime his person Rossolimo described arsenic a “Mediterranean” mode of seeing the world.

Today, Chekhov and Rossolimo prevarication successful the aforesaid cemetery successful Moscow. They stay symbols of a unsocial humanities moment, a clip erstwhile the Russian literate psyche and the Greek intelligence tone merged successful the ports of the Black Sea. Chekhov’s beingness proves that “in Greece, determination is everything”—including the seeds of a literate genius that changed the satellite forever. From the harsh benches of Voutsinas’ schoolhouse to the philanthropic halls of Rossolimo’s institute, the Greek transportation was the concealed thread that bound Chekhov’s satellite together.

Related: The History of the Ancient Greek Colonies successful the Black Sea