The Anton Pavlovich Chekhov House-Museum in Yalta is located 2 kilometers from the sea in a dense urban development. The writer moved to the Crimea from his Melikhovo Estate near Moscow in 1899 and lived here for the last 6 years of his life. The museum in Chekhov`s house was opened in 1921. In the summer season, hundreds of tourists visit it daily.
One of the most famous Russian writers, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, was born in Taganrog in 1860. Now museums are open in his Native Home in Taganrog and the gymnasium where he studied. In 1879 he moved to Moscow. Chekhov`s work quickly gained public recognition, and at this time he had a desire to travel.
In 1890, Chekhov decided to go to Sakhalin. In those years, traveling not only to Sakhalin, but also to Siberia, was an unusual event. Only prisoners were sent to hard labor in Siberia and Sakhalin. The road to Sakhalin took Chekhov 82 days. There were great difficulties with roads and hotels outside the European part of Russia. The Trans-Siberian railway, which connected Moscow and Vladivostok by rail, was opened only next year in 1891.
Chekhov went to Sakhalin in the spring. Due to the cold Siberian weather and poor conditions on the road, he fell ill several times. This trip weakened Chekhov`s health so much that after his return he fell ill with tuberculosis. From 1892 to 1899, Chekhov lived in the Melikhovo estate in the Moscow region, but doctors strongly recommended that he move to the Crimea, where the climate and air were more suitable for his weak lungs.
Anton Chekhov sold the rights to his works to the book publisher Adolf Marx in 1899. Having received 95 thousand rubles from him, he bought land on the outskirts of Yalta, in the village of Outka. He built there a large two-storey house made of white stone, which the locals called the White Cottage.
In the early years, there were practically no trees growing around Chekhov`s house in Yalta. His white cottage was visible from afar. Anton Chekhov personally planted trees around the house and created a garden. These days, all trees have grown and completely hidden the house. Chekhov moved here in 1899 and has lived in this house for the last 6 years. The writer died in 1904 in the city of Badenweiler in Germany.
In those years, Chekhov was a famous writer, so many guests came to his house in Yalta. To hide from them, he bought a small house on the seashore in Gurzuf, and now the Chekhov Museum in Gurzuf is also open there.
Chekhov bequeathed the White dacha in Yalta to his sister Maria Pavlovna. She immediately started creating a museum here. The first visitors came here almost immediately after the writer`s death. In 1921, the Chekhov House Museum in Yalta was officially opened. The writer`s sister became the head of the museum and kept all her brother`s belongings and the furnishings in the house intact. She managed to do this even during the German occupation of Crimea in 1942-44.
