To N. A. Leikin, 7 October 1886. Moscow.

1 Written from Moscow on the evening of Tuesday, 7 October 1886, to Nikolai Leikin, editor of the humor magazine "Oskolki" ("Splinters") and one of Chekhov’s principal early publishers and correspondents. Chekhov forwards a story by his family friend Marya Vladimirovna Kiseleva for possible publication, vouching for its quality and suggesting a rate of six kopecks a line. He then turns to a running grievance: a fee owed him by the "Petersburg Gazette," promised but still unpaid, along with silence on his request for a raise. He closes with brief domestic notes – his brother Nikolai’s health, bad weather – and a postscript mentioning an earlier letter sent to Leikin’s Petersburg address.

2 The letter is a small, characteristic sample of Chekhov’s business correspondence with editors in this period: brokering work for a friend, tracking down money owed to him, and venting – with self-aware irony ("I’ve already bored you enough with my whining about money") – about the precariousness of a freelance writer’s income. It offers a concrete glimpse of the economics and social networks underlying his early journalism career, including his connections to fellow contributors such as Viktor Bilibin.