On this date in 1901, the play “The Three Sisters” debuted on the Moscow stage. The play was written by the Russian physician Anton Chekhov. Chekhov started writing short stories while he was a medical student at the University of Moscow. Later, once he graduated in 1884, he free-lanced as a journalist and also wrote comic sketches, then eventually began writing dramas for the stage. Chekhov focused his work on the human predicament in general, and unhappy life in particular, in turn-of-the-century Russia. He achieved some critical success during his lifetime, authoring such plays as “Uncle Vanya,” “The Cherry Orchard” and “The Seagull." But eventually, he was exiled to the Crimea to escape from his critics. Chekhov died in the Crimea in 1904 at the age of 44, a victim of tuberculosis. Since that time, he has become known as one of the greatest Russian storytellers and playwrights of all time.

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