Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born on January 29, 1860 in the Russian imperial seaport city of Taganrog. Trained as a doctor in Moscow, Chekhov went on to become one of the most prominent realist authors and playwrights of the nineteenth century Russian Empire. His short stories and plays — among them “Ward No.6,” “The Student,” The Cherry Orchard, and Uncle Vanya— often offer vignettes into the trivialities, however poignant or haunting, that defined the end of the century.