Abstract
T HE dramatist Shcheglov-Leontiev (1856-1911) questioned Chekhov's right to end the story Fires on the theme: One cannot understand anything in this Referring to this criticism, Chekhov defined his understanding of the task of a writer in his letter to Suvorin: is high for writers, especially for artists, to understand that we do not understand anything in this world. . .The masses think they know and understand everything; the more stupid they are the broader their vision seems to them. If the artist in whom the masses trust decides to declare that he understands nothing of what he sees then this by itself means great knowledge in the realm of thought and a big step forward. I The impatient-didactic is high time shows that Shcheglov-Leontiev had touched upon something that was important to Chekhov. Tolstoy's statement that Chekhov was an absolute atheist2 and stood outside of the religious quest3 says more about Tolstoy than it does about Chekhov. It has to be qualified by some statements by Chekhov himself about his position. On
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