To Al. P. Chekhov, 25 December 1887. Moscow.

1 Written from Moscow on 25 December 1887 to Chekhov’s older brother Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, a journalist and fellow contributor to the Petersburg humor press, whom Chekhov addresses here in a mock -formal, joking style as "Akaky Spiridonych, Mister Gusev." The letter is a holiday and New Year’s greeting mixed with brotherly business: instructions for collecting and forwarding a fee, family news, and a string of errands and social calls Chekhov wants Alexander to make on his behalf in Petersburg.

2 The letter is characteristic of the brothers’ private comic idiom – absurd nicknames, mock solemnity, and rapid-fire commands are folded in among real literary business: praise passed along for Alexander’s story "At the Lighthouse," news of a letter from the publisher Suvorin, an offer to send Alexander candid verdicts on his writing, and advice urging him to build closer ties with fellow writers such as Aleksei Pleshcheyev and Kazimir Barantsevich rather than living in isolation.