To M. V. Kiseleva, 29 March 1886. Moscow.

1 This is a joint name-day greeting sent from Moscow on 29 March 1886 to Maria Vladimirovna Kiseleva, mistress of the Babkino estate where the Chekhov family spent their summers and close friends of the household. The single sheet carries two separate notes: the first, in the hand of Chekhov’s sister Maria Pavlovna ("Maryushka"), reports on her teaching schedule and the family’s travel plans to Babkino for the season; the second, in Chekhov’s own hand, adds his own congratulations and a lighthearted promise of a gift.

2 The letter is a small, domestic document, but it captures the easy intimacy between the Chekhovs and the Kiselev family, and the playful household nicknames (Kokosha, Zhan, Finik) the Chekhov siblings used for one another. It also mentions the painter Isaac Levitan and alludes to Chekhov’s growing literary fame ("great men of Petersburg" pursuing him by letter), a light echo of the recognition – from Grigorovich and others – that was reshaping his career in this period.