The 1890 trip to Sakhalin and the subsequent work on the book “Sakhalin Island” were extremely important for Anton Chekhov. The journey influenced his writing and marked an important milestone in his creative development. Chekhov himself noted that there were “echoes of Sakhalin” in everything he did after that. In the 1890s, his short stories and novels started focusing more on philosophical aspects, and the writer’s unique, innovative manner of dramatic storytelling began to take shape.
“‘Sakhalin Island’: An Open-Ended Story” is the second part of a larger project which started with the exhibition “People and Sakhalin through the Eyes of Anton Chekhov”. It embodies the atmosphere of Anton Chekhov’s writing and demonstrates the fate of his great book about Sakhalin’s penal colony in the worlds of theater, museums, and science.
The exhibition consists of four themed sections and an interactive area that brings visitors closer to Chekhov’s creative legacy and the history of the Sakhalin penal colony. Visitors can contribute to the Sakhalin chronicle which was started by the writer in the 19th century.
The draft manuscript of “Sakhalin Island” contains words that were not included in the final text, “In the future, [happy people] will live here, on this shore, and enjoy freedom and peace [who knows — maybe, they will live better and happier than we do]. Who knows?”
Written over 100 years ago, these words tell us that despite the inhuman living conditions of Sakhalin exiles in the 19th century and the irrational use of the island’s rich resources, Chekhov foresaw freedom and peace coming to the land that was then a penal colony. Nowadays, we are filling Chekhov’s future and our present with new meaning, “completing” in our own way what the great classic once began.
Exhibits are marked with AR stickers for identification purposes.
