To F. O. Shekhtel, 27 May 1886. Babkino.

1 A very short comic letter of 27 May 1886, written from the Kiselyov family’s estate at Babkino (where the Chekhovs summered) to the architect Franz (Fyodor) Osipovich Shekhtel, a close friend since their days together on the Moscow humor-magazine circuit. Chekhov reports that he has sent Shekhtel a small parcel with postage due, jokingly framing the charge as a “fine” for Shekhtel’s continued refusal to visit Babkino, and threatens a second parcel – plus a mock curse involving his underwear coming undone in public – if he still doesn’t come for the Trinity Sunday holiday. He adds a one-line joke about his brother Nikolai, signs off “Waiting, and grown stouter,” and a final editorial note records that a few words were later crossed out in the surviving autograph.

2 Though barely more than a note, the letter is a compact specimen of Chekhov’s private comic voice with friends – absurdist arithmetic (“2 x 2 = 4”), mock-legalistic language (“lawless,” “a fine”), and an escalating threat delivered with deadpan solemnity. It shows the playful, teasing register Chekhov reserved for intimates like Shekhtel during the country idylls at Babkino, distinct from his more guarded professional correspondence.

3 Contains a crude, comic scatological/undergarment image (wishing that Shekhtel’s long-johns drawstring come undone in public) – mild period humor, not violent or otherwise sensitive, but flagged for content.