To M. V. Kiseleva, 13 December 1888. Petersburg.

1 Written from Petersburg on 13 December 1888 to Maria Vladimirovna Kiseleva, a family friend and writer who, with her husband Alexei Sergeyevich Kiselev, owned the Babkino estate where the Chekhovs summered (see letters 353, 392, 442, 484, 485, 3-508, and 3-516). Chekhov was in Petersburg at the time for the reception of his story "The Steppe" and related literary business. This is a purely literary and social bulletin – unlike the several 1888 letters reporting on the Kiselevs’ son Sergey ("Finik"/"Seryozha,"), the boy does not appear here at all.

2 The letter’s centerpiece is a comic account of Chekhov’s visit the day before to "Sysoikha," the nickname (already established in letters 353 and 392) for the editor of the children’s journal Rodnik, for which Kiseleva wrote. Chekhov reports needling Sysoikha on Kiseleva’s behalf over her low per-sheet fee, staging the exchange as a small piece of reported dialogue in which Sysoikha protests that Kiseleva herself had claimed satisfaction with her pay, Chekhov insists the editor should have known better, and the scene ends with Sysoikha’s promise to raise Kiseleva’s rate from 30 to 40 roubles per printer’s sheet. Chekhov describes Sysoikha physically – a stout grande-dame with the bearing of a retired colonel’s widow – and predicts, with some self-satisfaction, that his intervention will cost him Sysoikha’s affectionate form of address for Kiseleva ("my dear") in favor of a more formal, but better-paying, "most esteemed." He adds that Alexander Almedingen (Sysoikha’s nephew and, per letter 392, himself an editor at Rodnik) praises Kiseleva’s current tale and predicts she will develop into a real authoress within five or ten years. Chekhov then pivots to his own Petersburg news – a telephone call with the actress Maria Savina and a successful reading the previous day at the Literary Society (the Petersburg Society for the Aid of Needy Writers and Scholars, per letter 3-520) – before breaking off because he is being called to lunch. He closes noting he will be back in Moscow by 15 December and sends regards to the Babkino household.