Anton Chekhov, or Антон Павлович Чехов (29 {O.S. 17} January 1860, Taganrog, Ekaterinoslav Governorate, Russian Empire — 15 July 1904, Badenweiler, German Empire), was a Russian physician, renowned playwright and short-story writer, novelist, and philanthropist, husband of stage actress Olga Knipper-Chekhova (1868—1959), uncle of actor Michael Chekhov (1891—1955) and composer Lev Knipper (1898—1974). Particularly renowned as one of the forerunners of early modernism in theatre, alongside Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, Chekhov is universally recognized among the greatest Russian writers of all time, after Alexander Pushkin (1799—1837), Nikolai Gogol (1809—1852), Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821—1881), Ivan Turgenev (1818—1883), and his contemporary Lev Tolstoy (1828—1910).