elikhovo, situated to the south of the capital in Moscow Region, is a well-known place where a Russian writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860 - 1904) lived and worked.
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Outbuilding. where "Sea-Gull" was written.
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Chekhov bought the estate in 1892, when he returned from his trip to Sakhalin. In Melikhovo he lived until 1899 and created more than 40 literary works, including "Ward No. 6", "House with an Attic", "Muzhiks", "A Man in a Case", "A Black Monk", "Ionych", "Sweet Heart", plays "Sea-Gull" and "Uncle Vanya" which brought him fame and determined the development of drama and theater in the 20th century. The Melikhovo period was the time of A.P. Chekhov's medical and public activity. With his funds and to his own design he constructed tree schools in the villages Talezh, Novoselky and Melikhovo which became model schools in Moscow Gubernia. He took part in the organization of the Post-Office in Lopastnya. At that period he was a member of Zemstvo, Sanitary and Teachers' Councils and a juryman.
After the writer's death the estate became a place for pilgrimage and worship. In 1940 it was decided to form a memorial museum of A.P. Chekhov in Melikhovo. The Museum was opened in the outbuilding which was constructed by Chekhov to the design of F.O. Shekhtel and which was the place where "Sea-Gull" was written.
In 1960, for A.P. Chekhov's 100th birthday the main estate house was opened in Melikhovo with active support of the writer's sister Maria Pavlovna Chekhova and his nephew Sergei Mikhailovich. The authentic articles, which surrounded Chekhov and were witnesses of his life and work, returned to the reconstructed rooms. Hundreds of objects of Chekhovs' everyday life helped to create the atmosphere.
At present the Museum-reserve in Melikhovo is a large museum complex. It consists of the estate house, kitchen which presents a cozy corner of Russian everyday life of the end of the late 19th - early 20th century, outbuilding where the play "Sea-Gull" was written, memorial garden, kitchen-garden called " A Corner of France", pond "Aquarium" where Chekhov used to sit with a fishing-rod, Levitan's hill called in memory of the great landscape painter who worked in plain-air there, school constructed by A.P. Chekhov in 1899.
The Melikhovo Museum-Reserve includes three branches: dispensary in Krukovo, where Doctor Chekhov received his patients, is a museum of Zemstvo medicine now; Novoselky branch houses the exhibition illustrating the writer's social activity and charities; "The Museum of A.P. Chekhov's Letters" in the town of Chekhov is housed in the former Post-Office constructed with the writer's contribution.
The Museum annual events: School Theater Festival "Performing Chekhov in Melikhovo", Competition "Children Illustrating Chekhov", Children Music Festival.
