To I. L. Leontyev, 10 February 1888. Moscow.

1 Written from Moscow on February 10, 1888, this short, teasing letter to the writer Ivan Leontyev, who wrote under the pen name "Shcheglov" and whom Chekhov habitually addresses as "Captain," scolds him for the querulous tone of his recent letters – his complaints about "aristocratic slowness" in getting ahead and his hankering after a place in the "Salamandra" society – and mocks the idea of the free-spirited Shcheglov settling into some dreary official post.

2 Chekhov reports he will visit Petersburg after February 20, sends greetings to the poet Aleksey Pleshcheev for the 12th, and mentions he is expecting the writer Vladimir Korolenko that day, with talk promised of "Captain Alba" – a nod to a shared literary joke rather than any real person under discussion. He adds a boastful aside about strong-arming a school inspector into buying Shcheglov’s books for a library, and a rueful note that an advance of 500 roubles from "Severny Vestnik" is already spent.