If modern Russia disappeared from the face of the earth, the works of Chekhov could reconstruct a picture of Russian life in the late XIX century, in great detail, - predicted in 1906, DS Merezhkovsky. According E.I.Zamyatina, for the study of Russian life in this era of everything written by Chekhov - a document like the chronicle of Nestor to study the beginning of Russia. Yet Chekhov, whose work has had such a powerful influence on world culture, often referred to as the writer of the XX century - and rightly so. He largely updated poetics of prose, he revolutionized the theater, offered a special type of relationship of the author and the reader: on equal terms, without an explicit prophecy and teaching. In the works of Chekhov formula speak in tongues ceased to be a metaphor, and it was a revelation, too. The playing of conflict, based on a misunderstanding of the words, actions and behavior of others, even the closest person, Chekhov is as inexhaustible as in comic stories: adult - the child, the man - woman, husband - wife, people - intellectuals, finally, a lack of understanding of themselves. But apparently, in some respects Chekhov argued with the XX century. Maybe that’s why the world created by Chekhov gloomy people in the XX century has appeared a lost paradise.