To M. P. Chekhova, 11–12 March 1887. Petersburg.

1 Written from Petersburg around 11-12 March 1887 to his sister Maria Chekhova (Masha), who was managing household affairs and finances back in Moscow while Chekhov traveled. The letter is a terse, businesslike note dashed off mid-trip, mixing money instructions with brief personal reports – the kind of quick domestic dispatch Chekhov sent frequently during his 1887 southern journey.

2 The letter opens on a promissory note and a payment instruction (10 roubles toward a piano bought from a dealer named Klang), with an economizing plea given "how badly things have turned out." It reports on their brother Alexander, whose low spirits and drinking are keeping him tied to his ailing common-law wife; notes an aimless, wasted trip; asks that an issue of the journal "Historical Herald" be passed along to a household member; and closes with a low, unsettled mood ("hanging between heaven and earth") and greetings to several familiar nicknamed acquaintances. The opening line is marked in the source as textually damaged in the surviving autograph, and that gap is preserved here rather than silently filled in.