To A. S. Kiselev, 1888. Moscow.

1 Written from Moscow in January 1888 to Alexei Sergeyevich Kiselev, Chekhov’s friend and, with his wife Maria Vladimirovna Kiseleva, the owner of the Babkino estate where the Chekhovs had summered. The letter follows on the heels of St. Tatiana’s Day (12 January), Moscow University’s traditional founding-day holiday, and opens with a joking concession that Chekhov has lost a wager with Kiselev over whether a degree-conferral ceremony would take place.

2 Chekhov opens by quoting a line – "Villain, thou art vanquished!" – that he casts as a duet he and the character Siebel might sing at his own expense, an allusion to Gounod’s opera "Faust." He reports that the university holiday was thin and joyless for want of money and company, then turns to defend Maria Vladimirovna’s literary self-doubt, arguing that a writer who works for pay, as he himself does, has no business being falsely modest about a piece an editor (Sysoyeva) praised. He notes the death of Bogomolov, editor of the journal "Sotrudnik," sends greetings, and signs off before two informal postscripts: a wish for money, and a wry, physical complaint about a flare-up of hemorrhoids.