A. Chekhov

Journal Zavety (Covenants) focused primarily on Russian classical literature. The article considers several points of view on the personality and legacy of Chekhov that the journal offered to its readers; similar and controversial aspects are distinguished; the outline of the edition programme attitude to the writer is traced.

The article regards the correlation of two approaches of A. P. Skaftymov to the interpretation of A. P. Chekhov’s plays – the historic and the existential; the «polyglottism» of the scientist’s works is researched; the link of his ideas with the emergent existential philosophy is revealed.

The article reviews the estimates of A.P. Chekhov "In the Ravine" writers of the twentieth century. (L. Tolstoy, M. Gorky, E. Zamyatin, V. Nabokov, I. Bunin, B. Zaitsev, K. Chukovsky, A. Solzhenitsyn). Writers are primarily interested in the artistic nature of the story, pay attention to the close and important features of poetics. As a result, the conclusion is drawn about the versatility of the story of A.P. Chekhov, as