LYDIA AVILOVA (1865-1943) was a writer. The nature of her relationship to Chekhov is unknown. They were probably in love, and Chekhov's friends believed that one of his reasons for going to Sakhalin was to break off with Avilova. In 1947 her memoirs were published in the Soviet Union, and were trans- lated into English as "Chekhov in My Life."
FYODOR BATUSHKOV (1857-1920) was a teacher and an author- ity on Western European literature, and editor of several maga- zines to which Chekhov contributed. After Chekhov's death, Batushkov wrote his memoirs of Chekhov and a great number of critical articles on the stories and plays.
PYOTR BYKOV (1843-1930) was a magazine writer.
ALEXANDER CHEKHOV (1855-1913) was the oldest of Chekhov's brothers. He studied mathematics and physics at i\Ioscow Univer- sity and, while still a student, began writing humorous pieces for magazines and newspapers. He started out as a brilliant and talented young man and ended as a hack writer. Chekhov's letters to Alexander were often written in a kind of teasing, insulting tone, but he had great affection for Alexander and often used him as a business agent.
EVGENIA CHEKHOVA (1835-1919), Chekhov's mother, was born Morozova. It is almost impossible to find any reliable material on her family. Her grandfather was a serf who managed to buy his own freedom and the freedom of her father, Yakov. They were peddlers and small merchants who eventually settled in Taganrog.
IVAN CHEKHOV (1861-1922), the fourth Chekhov brother, was a teacher. He taught for many years in Moscow at a city school. He was a hard-working, conscientious man.
MARIA CHEKHOVA (1863- ) was Chekhov's only sister. The family managed, somehow, to find enough money to give her a good education. She became a teacher of history and geography in a private school for girls. She was deeply devoted to Anton and was closer to him than any other member of the family. Her whole life was given over to him and, after his death, she became his literary executor and editor.
MIKHAIL CHEKHOV (1865-1936) was Chekhov's youngest brother. He translated Upton Sinclair and Jack London into Russian.
NIKOLAI CHEKHOV (1858-1889), the second Chekhov brother, was a gifted artist. During the 1880's Nikolai did a great deal of work for humorous magazines, often in illustration of Anton's sketches and stories. He died of tuberculosis.
OLGA HERMANOVNA CHEKHOVA (no dates) was the wife of Mikhail.
ALEXANDER ERTEL (1855-1908), a writer, was a good friend of Chekhov's. As a young man he had been banished from St. Peters- burg for revolutionary activities.
MAXIM GORKI (1868-1936) was born in Nizhni-Novgorod as Alexei Pyeshkov. His famous autobiography opens with a de- scription of his mother preparing the body of his father for the burial services. Gorki went to work when he was nine years old and, for the next fifteen years, travelled around southern Russia taking any job he could get and educating himself with books borrowed from everywhere. In 1895 a St. Petersburg magazine published one of his short stories: fame and success came fast. \Vithin two years he became a great literary figire, not only in Russia, but in Europe as well. His early romantic stories of hoboes and tramps made Gorki a hero to the working class; his persecution by the Czarist police made him an idol to most of
Russia. After the failure of the 1905 revolution, in which he played an active part, Gorki left the country and continued his political activities from Capri. In 1917, although he had not previousIy been a member of the party, he gave his support to Lenin and the Bolsheviks. After the revolution he became a kind of cultural arbiter for the new regime. His best known books and plays are "Twenty-six Men and a Girl," "Mother," "The Lower Depths," and "Yegor Bulichev." Gorki's reminiscences of ToIstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev are wonderfuI records of the three men.
DMITRI GRIGOROVICH (1822-1899) was a popular and re- spected Russian novelist. Chekhov dedicated his collected stories, "In the Twilight," to Grigorovich in 1887. In 1889, Chekhov re- ceived the Pushkin Prize for Literature largely through Grigoro- vich's efforts.
MARIA KISELEVA ( ? -1922) was a member of a distinguished family and the wife of a rich and cultured country gentleman. In the 188o's the Chekhov's rented a cottage on the Kiselev estate. Chekhov and the Kiselevs were close friends, but many years later Chekhov said that Mme. Kiselev had become old and reac- tionary and that he was sick of her.
OLGA KNIPPER (1870- ) came from an Alsatian family of German background who had settled in Russia. Her father died young and her mother earned a living as a music teacher. Knip- per grew up on the fringes of the cultural high-life of Moscow. She was a talented young actress with the Moscow Art Theatre when Chekhov fell in love with her. She was known as the unoffi- cial hostess of his house in Yalta long before their m^iage in 1901. In 1904 she played Madame Ranevskaya in "The Cherry Or- chard"; in 1943, at the 30oth anniversary performance of the play, she was still at it.
ANATOLI KONI (1844-1927) was a liberal lawyer, public official, and an old admirer of Chekhov's.
VLADIMIR KOROLENKO (1853-1921) was a popular novelist. He was a left wing liberal who defended the peasant against the land- owner and took a courageous stand against anti-Semitism. He and Chekhov were elected honorary academicians in 1900, but in 1902 they both resigned in protest over the Academy's refusal of Gorki.
Gorki's reminiscences contain a warm and channnning picture of Korolenko.
PYOTR KURKIN (1858-1934) was a doctor and an old friend of Chekhov's.
VUKOL L-\VROV (1852-1912) was one of the editors of a high- brow magazine, "Russian Thought." He called Chekhov an "un- principled" \\Titer and Chekhov answered with a famous, angry letter. But, a few years later, they patched up the fight and be- c^e good friends.
NIKOUI LEIKIN (1841-1906) was a writer who lived in St. Peters- burg. He was the editor of the humorous magazine, "Fragments."
IVAN LEONTIEV (1856-1911) was a play>mght and novelist who used the pen name of Shcheglov.
MARIA LILINA (Mme. Alexeyeva) (1866-1923), Stanislavski's wife, was a talented actress of the Moscow Art Theatre.
MARL-\ MALKIEL (no dates) was the daughter of a rich Moscow f^ily. She and her sister were close friends of Maria Chekhova's and she was a frequent guest at Melikhovo.
ADOLF MARX (1838-1904) was a prominent publisher in St. Petersburg. He put out the first complete edition of Chekho-'s works. He was also the publisher of Turgenev, Dostoyevski and Korolenko.
MIKHAIL MENSHIKOV (1859-1919) was a sailor who became a journalist and editor of "This \Veek." He started out in life as a liberal and ended up as a reactionary. He \\TOte constantly to Chekhov, but Chekhov in the last three years of his life ne\er answered the letters.
VICTOR MIROLUBOV (MIROV) (1860-1939) was the editor and publisher of a popular monthly, "E,"erybody's Magazine."
LYDL\ mMIZIKOVA (1870-1937) was a good friend of Chekhov's sister. She was an interesting and attractive young woman who was in love with Chekhov. Chekhov liked her and liked to flirt with her, but there is no evidence that he loved her.
VLADIMIR NEMIROVICH-DANCHENKO (1858-1943) was a well known novelist and play>Hight long before he and Stanis- lavski founded the Moscow Art Theatre. He was a brilliant and
highly cultivated man and, although his name has never been as famous as Stanislavski's, it is possible that he most deserves credit for the high quality of the plays produced by the theatre. It was he who recognized the talents of Chekhov as a playwright and it was he who insisted upon the production of "The Seagull." After the revolution, while the Moscow Art Theatre was making a European tour, Nemirovich-Danchenko established a famous musical studio where he developed a new style for the production of opera and operetta. In 1942, shortly before his death, he re- ceived a Stalin award for "Kremlin Chimes," a play about Lenin. The Chekhov-Nemirovich-Danchenko friendship went back to the 188o's, when they were both grinding out a living as writers of jokes and humorous pieces. Chekhov was always closer to Nemirovich-Danchenko than he was to Stanislavski and, over the years, they wrote many letters to each other. Unfortunately, much of the correspondence has been lost or destroyed.