ABSTRACT
Returning to Yalta in February 1904, Chekhov began to recover a little from the exhaustion caused by his jubilee, and started to plan the future; although he had written very little since the turn of the century, many new and attractive literary subjects were passing through his mind, and among his various projects was another four-act play. He was not only taken up with what he was going to write, but also announced his intention of travelling. He was going now to Sweden, now to Switzerland; he was going on a world tour. The outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War gave him another idea— he decided to have himself sent to the front as a medical officer. The news of Chekhov’s death had called forth national mourning on a scale which surprised even his warmest admirers, and as the procession passed through the city vast crowds of people turned out to do him honour.
