To A. S. Suvorin, 5 January 1889. Moscow.

1 A short, brisk business letter of 5 January 1889 from Moscow to Alexei Suvorin, made up almost entirely of quick items: a jab at an actor he has just given a backhanded puff, sales news for his own book, haggling over discount terms on tickets for Suvorin’s play "Tatyana Repina," hotel-hunting, an invitation to Moscow, a casting clarification held over from an earlier letter, and a closing demand for more stock to sell.

2 After the dateline (1), Chekhov opens with a bit of mischief: he has written up a promotional notice for the actor Solovtsov at Solovtsov’s own request, but has done it in a way calculated to discourage further requests (2). He reports, on the word of a railway-station clerk and Suvorin’s shop assistant Bogolepov, that his own story collection has sold out and asks for a second printing (3), then turns to ticket economics for "Tatyana Repina": the bookseller Rassokhin has three more prepaid telegram orders and is offering 50 kopecks a copy wholesale (50 roubles per hundred) against Chekhov’s preferred commission arrangement at a 50% discount, with Rassokhin retailing at 2 roubles; Chekhov is willing to cave and let him have it at half a rouble (4). He mentions scouting hotel rooms at the Loskutnaya, finding the Moscow hotel dull (5); presses Suvorin to visit by 10-11 January in time for university Tatyana’s Day, promising a look at scholars carousing (6); reports the disposition of 24 copies of "Tatyana Repina" just received – 22 to Rassokhin, one each to the actors Nikulina and Lensky, with textual insertions marked (7); and settles, in a single flat sentence, a casting point left hanging elsewhere in the correspondence: Apollonsky is playing Dr. Lvov, not Lebedev (8). He closes with a boast about squeezing money out of Rassokhin and a plan to enroll Suvorin in the Society (of Russian Dramatic Writers and Opera Composers), noting the holiday (9), and a final exclamation demanding more stock, since 22 copies is not enough for the provinces (10).