Skip to main content

Primary sourcePhotograph1901

Tolstoy and Chekhov at Gaspra

Petr Alekseevič Sergenko · 1901

A 1901 photograph showing Leo Tolstoy seated with the younger writer Anton Chekhov in Yalta, Crimea.

Shows Tolstoy in person with fellow writer Chekhov, documenting his relationships within Russian literary life.

Ask Leo Tolstoy about this sourceView the original(opens in new tab)
Black and white photograph of two men seated side by side on a white upholstered bench in front of a window. The man on the left wears a dark hat, pince-nez glasses, a dark suit, and has a short beard. The man on the right wears a light-colored wide-brimmed hat, has a long white beard, a dark coat, and tall leather boots. A handwritten caption in the lower right reads Tschechow u Tolstoj.
Petr Sergenko, photograph of Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov, 1901, Yalta.

About this source

What it is

This is a black-and-white photograph taken in 1901 by Petr Sergenko, showing two men seated side by side on a bench. One is Leo Tolstoy, wearing a wide-brimmed hat and long white beard; the other is Anton Chekhov, wearing a hat, pince-nez glasses, and a short beard. A handwritten caption identifies them.

Why it matters

The photograph documents a meeting between two giants of Russian literature. Chekhov, younger and admiring of Tolstoy, visited him at Gaspra in Crimea. The image captures a personal connection between generations of writers and reflects the literary culture of late Imperial Russia.

Look closer

  • What differences in dress or posture do you notice between the two men?
  • Why might this meeting have been considered worth photographing?
  • What does the handwritten caption tell us about who kept or valued this photo?

This photograph is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Leo Tolstoy on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

More Leo Tolstoy sources

Meet the AI Leo Tolstoy →
Title page of Volume Six of the Russian novel Война и мир (War and Peace), in Cyrillic. Text reads Сочинение Графа Л. Н. Толстого, Том шестой, Москва, 1869, with a bookseller's stamp reading Книжный магазин Н.П. Карбасникова.Book

Primary source

War and Peace

Leo Tolstoy · 1863–1869

Black and white studio portrait of a woman with dark bobbed hair, seated in a chair with a white collar, a cameo brooch, and a sheet of paper on her lap. Printed text reads 'Alice Verden als Lisa' and 'Hugo Erfurth Dresden'.Photograph

Secondary source

Alice Verden as Lisa in The Living Corpse

Hugo Erfurth · 23 December 1913

Title page of the 1878 Moscow edition of Anna Karenina in Russian. Large heading reads АННА КАРЕНИНА, followed by РОМАНЪ ГРАФА Л. Н. ТОЛСТАГО, ВЪ ВОСЬМИ ЧАСТЯХЪ, ТОМЪ ПЕРВЫЙ. Below are the printer's imprint МОСКВА, ТИПОГРАФІЯ Т. РИСЪ, У ЯУЗСКОЙ Ч., ДОМЪ МЕДЫНЦЕВОЙ, and the year 1878, with two circular seals at the bottom corners.Book

Primary source

Anna Karenina

Leo Tolstoy · 1875–1878

Scanned page of an 1880s Russian printed book, page 23, showing the title 'Смерть Ивана Ильича' (The Death of Ivan Ilyich) above the opening paragraphs of Chapter I in Cyrillic text, with a faint page header and a running page number at the bottom.Book

Primary source

The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Leo Tolstoy · 1886 (written 1882)

Book

Primary source

A Confession

Leo Tolstoy · written 1879–1880, published 1882

Ready when you are

Start chatting with Leo Tolstoy now.

20 messages free · No credit card · Available in 50+ languages.

Trial Humy for freeGet a quote for institutions