Shestov's work on Chekhov – his substantial article ‘Creation from Nothing’ (Tvorchestvo iz nichego, 1905) – has not been forgotten in modern Chekhov studies, but is referred to only rarely, and even then in negative terms. The following famous lines are most commonly quoted: ‘Persistently, dolefully, monotonously, during his almost 25-year literary career, Chekhov was engaged in one single activity: the various ways to kill human hope’. As a rule, researchers point out that what one should discuss here is illusion rather than hope. I contend that there is more to this matter than appears from this single quotation. Shestov himself felt that the quotation did not necessarily carry a negative meaning. Moreover, it did not prevent Shestov from considering Chekhov as practically the only writer among his contemporaries who spoke the truth, not because he was forced by the ‘idea’, but out of his own free will. The title of Shestov's article on Chekhov is directly related to the principal statement from The Apotheosis of Groundlessness (Apofeoz bespochvennosti): ‘all creation is creation out of nothing’.

In the current chapter, I examine Shestov's paradoxical interpretation of Chekhov's creativity, by comparing aspects of Shestov's philosophy to Chekhov's artistic world.

In my view, Shestov's philosophy can be characterized as irrational. In both his early and later works, his opposition of speculation to revelation is central.