Answer:
Chekhov’s father started life as a slave, but the son of this slave was
even more sensitive to the Arts, more innately civilized and in love with
the things of the mind than the son of the slaveowner. Chekhov’s father,
Pavel Yegorovitch, had a passion for music and singing; while he was still
a serf boy he learned to read music at sight and to play the violin. A few
years after his freedom had been purchased he settled at Taganrog, a town
on the Sea of Azov, where he afterwards opened a “Colonial Stores.”
