Doctor Chebutykin and the editor Suvorin (on the criptopoetics of Chekhov's “Three sisters”)

VB. Kataev once suggested that when creating the image of Solyony in “Three Sisters”, Chekhov transferred some impressions of his communication with Maxim Gorky into that character. The article shows that in the play, in fact, the real contradictions that existed between the writers, but which almost did not manifest themselves in their real relationships, were actually realized in the plot. Moreover, Chebutykin is a similar phenomenon in this regard: in his image, some features of A.S. Suvorin were refracted. In both of these images, Solyony and Chebutykin, a kind of hybrid prototype is seen, since one can find individual features of other real persons in them. At the same time, the cryptopoetics of late Chekhov manifested itself in the images of “The Three Sisters” and the tale “In the Ravine”: carefully concealing the connection of his heroes with their prototypes, the writer simultaneously leaves some points by which it can be restored by a future attentive reader.