To G. M. Chekhov, 23 March 1887. Moscow.

1 Written on 23 March 1887 in Moscow to Georgy (Egor) Mitrofanovich Chekhov, a Taganrog cousin, with a brief postscript-style addition dated two days later, 25 March. Chekhov reports on the delayed printing of a new Pushkin edition he had promised to send: the first print run sold out in a day, leaving Chekhov himself unable to obtain a copy, and the second run of 100,000 copies is taking longer to come off the press.

2 The document has an unusual composite form: after the note to Georgy and its dated addendum, it appends what appears to be a separate, hastily written note to a "Mr. Gusev," chiding him for not replying to an earlier letter and invoking the anxiety of Chekhov’s mother over the Gusev family’s health, followed by an envelope-style address block directing the whole item to Chekhov’s brother Alexander in St. Petersburg. This layered structure – letter, dated postscript, unrelated note, and mailing address – suggests the surviving manuscript preserves several fragments written on the same sheet or sent together, rather than a single continuous letter.