To A. S. Kiselev, 10 November 1887. Moscow.

1 Written in Moscow on 10 November 1887 to Alexei Sergeyevich Kiselev, husband of Chekhov’s friend Maria Vladimirovna Kiseleva and co-owner with her of the Babkino estate where the Chekhov family summered. The occasion is the imminent premiere of Chekhov’s play "Ivanov" at the Korsh Theater on 19 November, and the letter is a mock-official summons badgering Kiselev (addressed throughout in Chekhov’s parodic "Your High Nobility") to make the trip in from Babkino for the opening.

2 The letter is built as an elaborate comic threat: Chekhov lists a set of absurd "valid" excuses for missing the premiere (dysentery, rivers bursting their banks, a visit from the Shah of Persia) and vows public disgrace if Kiselev fails to appear. He needles Kiselev with an aside about "Lilisha" (a family nickname within the Kiselev household) and enlists Maria Vladimirovna as his real hope of getting her husband to come, tying her attendance to whether he will place her story with the children’s magazine "Rodnik." Domestic notices follow – a visiting monk from Mount Athos, a lost parcel, teasing reprimands for servants, and greetings to family – in Chekhov’s characteristic swing between theatrical bravado and small household news.