A.P. Chekhov’s Story “The Steppe” in Ethno-cultural Context: House near the Road

In A.P. Chekhov’s Story “The Steppe” Egorushka’s Trip, in the Context of Traditional Culture, is a Plot of Challenge and Changing of the Status of the Hero. The Inn of Moses Moiseich, one of the Key Images in the Story, is Considered in the Article. The Special Status of the Image is Defined by its Being Treated like a Home and like a Road Simultaneously. It is Placed in the Center of the Steppe, “Other World” and Inhabited with Ethno-Cultural “Aliens”. Moses and Solomon Perform the Part of Peculiar “Old Man”, Cultural Ancestors which, as always, Live in the “Other” World, but the Connection with them isn’t Broken. The Structure of the Inn in an Invert Position Reflects Locuses which are Habitual to Egorushka’s World. In the Story of A.P. Chekhov not his Personal National Propensities were Reflected, but first of all Slavic Cultural Stereotypes. It’s not Hostility against some Nation, which Forms the Basis of these Stereotypes, but the Mechanism of Ethnocentrism (Homecentrism), when every “Other” is Perceived as “Alien” and is Consequently Vested with Chthonic Properties in Contrast to “Own”.