To I. P. Chekhov, 4 June 1887. Babkino.
И. П. ЧЕХОВУ, 4 июня 1887 г. Бабкино.
Headnote
1 Written from Babkino, the Chekhovs’ summer retreat outside Moscow, on 4 June 1887, this short note to Chekhov’s brother Ivan (a schoolteacher in Moscow) is purely logistical: Chekhov is planning a trip to St. Petersburg to visit Nikolai Leikin, editor of the humor magazine "Oskolki" ("Splinters"), at Leikin’s country estate near Kolpino, and he wants Ivan and their mutual friend, the writer Alexei Gruzinsky (A. S. Lazarev), to time their own trip to coincide with his.
2 The letter is brisk and practical – train routes, an estimate of travel costs, a proposed excursion to Lake Ladoga, a possible detour to Chekhov’s dacha on the way home – closing with the standard sign-off "Your A. Chekhov." The final four short sections reproduce the address written on the back of the letter (the verso), where Chekhov addresses it to Ivan at the Arbat School in Moscow; this mock-envelope format is preserved as a distinct structural feature of the source.