Анализируется характеристика русского купечества, сделанная А.П. Чеховым в его художественных произведениях, и сопоставляется с некоторыми реальными характеристиками купечества в документах и научной литературе. Отмечается, что великий русский писатель глубоко проник в суть исторического материала и верно показал процесс эволюции российского общества в сторону буржуазного типа развития.

The greatest Russian writer Anton Chekhov knew the merchant environment well since his childhood, but in his first works he did not share this experience with his readers. Obviously, the negative impressions of the life style in Taganrog, where he helped his father in the shop and got reprimands and punishment from him, were too fresh. Chekhov's grandfather, Yegor Mikhailovich, was a serf in Voronezh Province, and was able to redeem with his family and later, at the end of his life, served as an estate manager. Chekhov's childhood impressions of travelling through the Azov steppe to his grandfather's place are reflected in the story The Steppe, where types of merchants are also described. It will be considered later in this article. Chekhov's father, Pavel Yegorovich, owned a small grocery store in Taganrog where tea, sugar, cereals and other food products were sold. Description of the shops can be found in many Chekhov's novels and short stories, where he gives their internal environment in the most subtle details. As every merchant, his father intended to expand business, but he lacked such features of character as practicality, business shrewdness and cunning; however, they were replaced by his artistic talents. Pavel Yegorovich was a regent of the church choir. In the following periods of his creativity, A.P. Chekhov showed merchants more realistically and vividly. They are part of the background of the narrative and link the heroes of his stories and the site of action. Merchant names and surnames in Chekhov works function as names of houses and streets, industrial and commercial establishments, warehouses, etc. Merchants became indispensable elements of city life, without them the city is unthinkable. As Chekhov's writing talent strengthened and developed, as his narrative form grew larger and subjects of his stories became more complicated, the merchant topic became more serious, thorough and delineated psychologically. Individual characters of merchants became protagonists of his stories and novels, which indicated not only the more important role of the merchant class and the bourgeoisie in the life of the post-reform Russia, but also the greater Chekhov's and other Russian writers' interest in covering this topic.