This article explores the introduction of Chekhov's plays to Italy through émigré circles in the first decades of the twentieth century, and traces how they were appropriated to suit the ideological exigencies of the time during the fascist period. It concludes with observations about Luchino Visconti's celebrated productions of the 1950s, which stressed the idea that Chekhov was first and foremost a political writer, and suggests how this particular view of the dramatist evolved in the early 1960s as the theatre once again reflected social attitudes and values. Anna Sica is a lecturer at the University of Palermo. She has published monographs in Italy on the commedia dell'arte (1997), Arthur Penn (2000), and theatre in New York (2005), as well as articles on Pirandello and contemporary Italian drama in various journals.