Čechov and the Foundations of Symbolism

This article attempts to substantiate Belyi's often puzzled-over claim that Chekhov was the “pedestal of Russian Symbolism” by examining the resonances between approaches to the symbol in Chekhov, Belyi and Viacheslav Ivanov. In his stories and plays, Chekhov developed what seems like an anti-symbolic conception of human experience in which life's deepest, most significant moments are hidden and at variance with the visible world. As Chekhov's protagonists find their way into these mysteries, both afraid of, and hungry for, an external symbolism that would make sense of their experience, Chekhov formulates a complex relationship with the symbol, one that would help to provide the groundwork for Belyi and symbolist poetics of the 20th century.