Chekhov Monument, Bronze monument in Red Square, Taganrog, Russia.

The Chekhov Monument is a bronze statue on Red Square in Taganrog that shows the writer seated and holding a book. He gazes thoughtfully into the distance, and the roughly three-meter-tall figure is crafted from stone and bronze.

A subscription for a Chekhov monument opened in Taganrog in 1904, and a committee formed in 1910 with Fyodor Shekhtel as honorary member; the First World War and Civil War blocked the plan. In 1944 a bronze bust by Vera Morozova's model was placed in Chekhov Square, and it stood there until 1960. Iulian Rukavishnikov's statue, chosen by residents from four finalists exhibited in the local museum, was unveiled on 29 January 1960 for the writer's centenary.

The square around the statue was planted in 1934 for Chekhov's 75th anniversary, and the monument itself was unveiled on 29 January 1960, the centenary of his birth. The writer is shown as a young man facing the street where he was born. In 2010 President Dmitri Medvedev laid flowers here during the 150th anniversary events.

The monument sits in the center of Taganrog and is easily reached on foot through the pedestrian areas around Red Square. The best time to visit is on quieter days when you can observe the statue's details without distraction.

The monument was not the first on this spot: from 1944 a bronze bust of Chekhov by Vera Morozova stood here, itself a copy of a plaster bust placed in the courtyard of the Chekhov House Museum in 1935. Rukavishnikov's statue replaced it in 1960.