February 12, 2020: a unique campaign "Taganrog-Moscow...In the Footsteps of Chekhov" was organized by Taganrog Chekhov Drama Theater in cooperation with Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper and Federal Passenger Company - a subsidiary of Russian Railways. The campaign is a tribute to 160th birth anniversary of Russian writer Anton Chekhov and 30th anniversary of the newspaper.

Actors dressed as Chekhov characters met passengers on the platform of Taganrog Station before the train left for Moscow, following the same route as Anton Chekhov many years ago.

"Of course what we have here today and the way it used to be at the time of Chekhov are two different things. One can only imagine the way Anton Pavlovich travelled in this train, sandwiched in between suitcases and boxes. We often wonder what was he thinking of, giving a farewell look from the train to the moving away home city of Taganrog. This trip will allow to understand it better and to rediscover Chekhov. This is going to be interesting both for us and the passengers", - explained Mr. Sergey Gert, director of Taganrog Chekhov Drama Theater.

Taganrog to Moscow train's dining car was transformed into a theater hall called "Chekhov Saloon", where the artists of Taganrog theater staged fragments from classic works of the writer, such as "A Naughty Boy", "The Little Joke", "A Marriage Proposal", "Diplomat", "The Siren" and "I Quarreled with My Wife".

"This theater company has spent a lof of time traveling, but this would be first time for us to perform in a train! It has been a very rich experience", told theater's deputy director Anastasia Ustinova.

The performance will long be remembered - it won applause of the audience in the car, who filmed the unusual "opening night" on their smart phones.