The plaster bust of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov from the collection of Taganrog Museum Group was created as part of the project of a monument to the famous writer. The statue was designed by Yulian Mitrofanovich Rukavishnikov, the People’s Artist of the RSFSR. The pedestal was created by the architect Georgy Artemyevich Zakharov.

The idea of erecting a statue of the writer in his hometown was initiated by the local authorities in 1910. A committee was formed to raise the funds and design the memorial. Members of the committee included the director of the Chekhov Museum — Mikhail Mikhailovich Andreyev-Turkin, the physician Isaac Yakovlevich Shamkovich, the writer and publisher Abram Borisovich Tarakhovsky, and the doctor and the writer’s cousin Vladimir Mitrofanovich Chekhov. The architect Fyodor Osipovich Schechtel was appointed an honorary member of the committee.

However, back then, the idea did not materialize because of the wars and revolutions. In 1934, the idea was revisited, and plans were made to erect a monument on the occasion of the writer’s 75th anniversary. On May 31, 1935, an official ceremony was held to lay the foundation stone of the monument in Chekhov Square. However, the monument was not completed until the beginning of the Great Patriotic War.

In 1944, on the 40th anniversary of Chekhov’s death, a bronze bust produced by the Krasny Kotelshchik factory was placed in Chekhov Square where the monument was supposed to be installed. It was a bronze copy of the plaster bust created by the sculptor Vera Georgiyevna Morozova in 1935.

In the 1950s, three competitions were held in the Soviet Union to design a monument to Anton Chekhov. After the third competition, the project by the sculptor Yulian Rukavishnikov and the architect Georgy Zakharov was chosen from more than 30 entries. The monument was to be erected in Chekhov Square to mark the celebration of the writer’s centennial birth anniversary.

The monument is a bronze statue of Chekhov sitting on a stone, holding a book, and facing the street where he was born. It was based on the bust from the museum collection. The bronze figure was cast at the Monumentskulptura Plant in Leningrad. Granite slabs for the pedestal were made at the Mytishchi Plant. The opening ceremony took place on January 29, 1960.