Chekhov is asteroid #2369 and also known as 1976 GC8. Chekhov was discovered by the Russian-born Soviet astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh (Никола́й Степа́нович Черны́х) at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory at Nauchnij research campus. Chekhov belongs to the asteroid-clan Henan, that comprises asteroids with very common orbits, but reddish appearance.

Chekhov is named after the Russian writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (Антон Павлович Чехов). He lived from 1860 until 1904. His father, Pavel Yegorovich Chekhov, was a devout Orthodox Christian and director of the parish choir, where he forced his sons to join, a merchant running a grocery store, where his sons had to help too, and physically abusive. He wasn’t a capable and hence also not a very successful merchant. He was even threatened to get arrested because of his debts. All this made Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (Антон Павлович Чехов) have difficulties in school. So he stayed down two years, he repeated the third and the fifth form. Despite his difficulties he studied medicine later and got a scholarship for this from his hometown. He was a mediocre student and began to write short stories for making some more money. He wrote, as he documented, under the worst conditions. He probably wasn’t aware that making money by writing is always difficult (I never managed this), but he became very productive and influential. Although he always practiced as a medical doctor after he had graduated, he made much more money by writing short stories and theater plays. This could be less due to his skills than to reflecting the Russian society, that until today doesn’t reward academic education. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (Антон Павлович Чехов) called medicine his lawful wife and literature his mistress. He traveled to the remotest places in Russia. He died of tuberculosis and didn’t expect that his writings would survive him for long. But he became famous as one of the fathers of early modernism in theater. His short stories became very popular in Anglo-Saxon countries in the early 20th century. He influenced many Russian, American, and Japanese writers, some of them, especially Russians and Americans, praising him publicly. Lenin also was a fan.

The name Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (Антон Павлович Чехов) was in Russian and in his time written Антонъ Павловичъ Чеховъ. The transcription can also be different, so is Chekhov spelled Chekov in the name of Pavel Andreievich Chekov (Павел Андреевич Чехов), a well-known character from the classic Star Trek series. His name strikingly is the same, except the patronym, as the name of Anton’s father. The asteroid is found in the Russian part of the Wikipedia as: (2369) Чехов (WordPress’ spellcheck accepts Chekhov, but questions Chekov!)

Maybe Pavel Andreievich Chekov (Павел Андреевич Чехов) got his name also to honor Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (Антон Павлович Чехов), who is very well known by American authors too. So Chekhov can then be counted to the asteroids with the Star Trek theme.

Chekhov hints to Russia, Russian culture, and especially Russian literature. Chekhov is a person name asteroid and hence hints also to people named Chekhov of course. Chekhov could hint to blueprints for theater plays. Especially when in aspects with other Star Trek theme asteroids like McCoy or Mr. Spock Chekhov is definitely a Star Trek theme asteroid. Star Trek is well able to serve as a modern mythology. Here Chekhov hints again to Russia and Russian involvement. The character was introduced after critics said and wrote that the idea of a Federation of Planets is ridiculous while there is no peace and union on Earth. So different nationalities were chosen for the regularly appearing characters and the Russian was given the lowest rank among them while the race in space between the Soviet Union and the USA was still going on. Yuri Gagarin visited space in 1961, Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon in 1969, Star Trek was originally broadcasted from 1966 until 1969. The character Pavel Chekhov is clearly influenced by this. He could be sure that Russians were leading in technology, but other people look down on him. So Chekhov has to be interpreted as being looked down on, being bashed for having success, convincing by having success. But Chekhov also represents navigation (of spaceships) and younger comrades.