To A. S. Suvorin, 19 December 1888. Moscow.

1 Written from Moscow on 19 December 1888 to Alexei Suvorin, the day after (also 19 December, and evidently a companion piece: this letter opens by noting it is being sent "on the heels of an urgent telegram" and references "another letter" just received from the actress Nikulina), this is an unusually long and busy letter that moves rapidly through two separate casting projects, several pieces of literary business, and closing personal news. Its two main threads are (1) the cast list Chekhov and Nikulina have just drawn up over dinner for Nikulina’s benefit performance of Suvorin’s play "Tatyana Repina," and (2) Chekhov’s own dream cast for a Petersburg production of his just-finished play "Ivanov" – most notably his insistence that the actor Svobodin, not Davydov, must play Count Shabelsky.

2 The letter opens with a wry account of being fetched by Nikulina’s carriage and a joke at his and Shcheglov’s expense about the easier material lives of actresses versus playwrights (3). Nikulina reports that "Mashenka" – the actress M. N. Yermolova – has agreed to take the title role in Suvorin’s "Tatyana Repina," and the two of them draw up a full playbill for the benefit (4-9): Yermolova as Repina, Nikulina herself as Kokoshkina, Leshkovskaya as Olenina, Lensky as Adashev, Makshetev as Matveyev. Chekhov works through the remaining, harder-to-place roles at length (10): the actor Gorev is angling for the role of Adashev but Chekhov wants him for Sabinin instead, with Yuzhin as the fallback if Gorev balks; Raisa is offered to either Sadovskaya or Medvedeva; the Nanny role goes begging because it is too small for Sadovskaya to accept; Kotelnikov and Kokoshkin are assigned to Rybakov or Mikhailo Sadovsky, and to Grekov, respectively; the minor parts are left to Nikulina’s own discretion as the beneficiary. He closes the topic by asking Suvorin to send extra printed copies of the play to flatter the principal cast and let them study their parts.

3 The letter then pivots to Chekhov’s own play (11), which he has just finished and is sending along with this very letter under a self-mocking nickname, "Dolt-anov" (see note below on the wordplay). He instructs Suvorin to forward it to Potekhin by the promised deadline of 22 December, insists that neither of them breathe a word yet about actually staging it, and gives a blunt private verdict on the text: the title character is now much clearer, but the ending still doesn’t satisfy him except for the pistol shot. He then sets out, as non-negotiable instruction ("my unshakeable will"), his casting for "Ivanov" itself (12-17): Davydov as Ivanov, Savina as Sarra, Svobodin as Count Shabelsky, Sazonov as Lvov, Varlamov as Lebedev, and Sasha left to Suvorin’s own choice. He explains the logic (18): Davydov gets the title role because he already played it in the Moscow production, but Chekhov is confident Sazonov, Svobodin, and Varlamov will outshine him badly enough in their own parts to cure Davydov of drama for good – a joke at Davydov’s expense that recurs, more pointedly, in the letter’s closing lines.

4 A run of shorter items follows: a deflection of Grigorovich’s report that Chekhov has grown proud, blamed instead on plain laziness (19); a request to bow twice to "Anna Ivanovna" and a promise of a good theater box if "Ivanov" is produced (20); the date and possible postponement of Nikulina’s benefit, tied to Chekhov’s own name-day (21); a joke about his own speed as a playwright, comparing himself to the prolific Viktor Krylov (22); a request to find a doctor, Merzheyevsky, for the ailing Shcheglov (23); a one-line maxim that plays ought to be written "badly and shamelessly" (24); a note about the writer "Zhitel" sending his book (25); a renewed vow never to write another play as "cerebral and foul" as "Ivanov," with a resigned acceptance that it might not even be staged (26); praise, mixed with real puzzlement, for the first act of Suvorin’s "Tatyana Repina" as compared with his own play and with the earlier "Tatyana" (27); a plan to place the play with the theatrical agent Rassokhin on a 40% commission, proceeds earmarked for the Society for the Aid of Stage Performers (28); a note on timing "Ivanov"’s arrival at Potekhin’s office (29); a promise to write "The Princess" and a "fairy tale" for New Year’s, plus a resigned aside about writing a paying but distasteful piece for Khudekov (30); closing regards to Suvorin’s household and a wistful line about someday repaying his hospitality (31); a farewell and signature (32-33); and a final postscript-like instruction (34) asking Suvorin to promise Svobodin, in person, that Count Shabelsky is his role – worded so as to head off Davydov snatching it away for "the wooden Dalmatov."