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

"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 literature in the 19th century, was shaped by the bustling culture of the Greek diaspora, which thrived along the Black Sea as well as the Azov. To truly understand Chekhov’s genius, one must look south to the city of Taganrog. As biographers like Donald Rayfield have noted, Taganrog was less a Russian town …