Čechov nella visione di Lunačarskij

The familiarity of the Chekhovian art with the representation of reality, and the closeness to the ideal of sociality, both represent for Lunacharsky the main criterion to reason about Chekhov’s role in the new Soviet era. The writer’s inclination to reproduce vivid impressions of reality, imbued with laughter concealing sadness, opens up to a revolutionary interpretation of his literary production. The mild humor is sublimated in the tales and dramas, announcing the social force which, in the vision of the first Narkompros, would have contributed greatly to the construction of the culture of the new time. The essays of the 1920s clearly reveal the interpretative direction followed by Lunacharsky: he identifies in his contemporaneousness Chekhov’s humorous depiction of the survivals of the past.