To N. A. Leikin, 5 January 1886. Moscow.

1 A brief business letter of 5 January 1886 from Chekhov in Moscow to Nikolai Alexandrovich Leikin, editor of the Petersburg humor magazine Oskolki (Fragments), for which Chekhov was a prolific contributor. Chekhov reports on several small editorial tasks: a commission passed to the painter Isaac Levitan, two short pieces submitted for the magazine’s "special post" humor column, instructions on how that column should be signed, and a proposed reader contest. He also mentions two other contacts (an "Agafopod" and the poet Liodor Palmin) and closes by asking Leikin to make sure his subscription to the Peterburgskaya Gazeta newspaper, which had lapsed, is restored.

2 Though slight, the letter is a good window into Chekhov’s early career as a jobbing comic writer and magazine hack: he is dispensing pseudonyms, sample contest copy, and editorial suggestions with brisk professional confidence, and casually name-drops Levitan, already a close friend at this date. It captures the collaborative, deadline-driven world of the 1880s humor press in which Chekhov cut his teeth before turning to more serious fiction.