Chekhov’s book “Sakhalin Island” is written in travel notes genre. It includes statistics and personal impressions of the trip. Chekhov prepared for this trip very seriously. He studied a whole library of books on various branches of science — history, ethnography, meteorology, ethnography, and many others. He understood that very big trials and meetings with a huge number of people in the vast expanses of the country await him.

In April 1890, at the age of 30, Chekhov left Moscow from the Yaroslavsky railway station to the other end of the country. That time, trains ran only to Tyumen, and the further segment to Sakhalin (almost 2700 miles) Anton Pavlovich had to ride in a cart, in damp and cold weather. At that time, even for a physically healthy person, this journey was akin to a great deed. And the writer’s lungs were struck with tuberculosis. The road to Sakhalin took 81 days, almost 3 months of trial by Russian off-road. In one of the letters sent on the way, Chekhov wrote: ‘My face was covered with fish scales from the rain and wind, … my boots turned into jelly…’. Crossing Siberia, the writer created a series of essays ‘From Siberia’. Ilya Repin admired these peculiar travel notes and equated them with Chekhov’s stories.

The postcards below the quote on the left show Tomsk, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, which Chekhov visited on his way to Sakhalin. The next row of photographs shows the motor ship “Baikal”, which brought Anton Pavlovich to Sakhalin and, to the left of it, a view of Aleksandrovsk. The writer lived in this city during his stay on the island. The house where he stayed has survived to this day. Since 1990, the museum of A.P. Chekhov has been operating in it.

For 3 months and 2 days spent on Sakhalin, Anton Pavlovich completely censused the population of the island (10 000 people). This work was the first partial census in the country’s history. And this was the work of the great ascetic - he filled out more than 10 000 cards by hand, about a 100 a day. Before that, he walked around all the bartons, given that there were no roads at all on Sakhalin.

According to Chekhov’s memories, he saw “everything except the death penalty” on Sakhalin. The gloomy pictures of the island are captured in the photos presented on the stand below. The prison building, convicts chained to wheelbarrows, the moment the prisoners were working - all these pictures were taken by the writer’s request. Chekhov was also familiar with the Japanese consul in Sakhalin. The center photo below shows a picnic attended by Anton Pavlovich and a Japanese diplomat (first from left). The last photo of the stand shows Chekhov and the priest Father Irakli, with whom the writer sailed to Odessa on the motor ship ‘Petersburg’ at the end of his visit to Sakhalin.

Trying to somehow help the Sakhalin people, Chekhov sent parcels to the island with textbooks and fiction. And his book ‘Sakhalin Island’ attracted the attention of not only ordinary readers, but also public figures.