To Al. P. Chekhov, 27 December 1887. Moscow.

1 Written from Moscow on 27 December 1887 to Chekhov’s elder brother Alexander, who at the time handled some of Chekhov’s business affairs in Petersburg, including collecting fees from newspapers such as the Petersburg Gazette and Novoye Vremya. By late 1887 Chekhov – twenty-seven, already the primary financial support of his parents and siblings – was publishing prolifically and closely tracking what he was owed line by line.

2 Rather than a conventional letter, this is a terse accounting note: a tally of page ranges and line counts from recent work, a payment calculation (1,257 lines at 12 kopecks a line, less 100 rubles already received), and instructions for Alexander to collect the balance and remit it, "so that my family has something to eat." The note closes with a nonsense flourish-signature and, on the reverse, Alexander’s mailing address in Petersburg – suggesting this scrap served as an envelope note or a card written in haste.