To M. M. Dyukovsky, 1886. Moscow.

1 Written in 1886 from Moscow, this very short note is addressed to Mikhail Mikhailovich Dyukovsky, an acquaintance of the Chekhov circle, not to be confused with Chekhov’s own cousin of similar name. It is one of the many brief comic squibs Chekhov tossed off to friends in these years, trading on mock-formal address and an absurd premise for its entire effect.

2 The joke turns on a mock-solemn scenario: an unnamed “respectable lady” has supposedly paid Chekhov a hundred rubles to broker an introduction to Dyukovsky and a union of “free love,” and Chekhov, playing the obliging go-between, asks him simply to sign the attached announcement. The stiff opening salutation (“Dear Sir... Mikhail Mikhailovich!”) and courtly sign-off (“With respect”) exaggerate the formality of business correspondence for comic contrast with the scandalous content, before the letter breaks off with a throwaway, unrelated question about why Dyukovsky never visits – a typical Chekhovian anticlimax.