To K. S. Barantsevich, 3 February 1889. Moscow.

1 Written on 3 February 1889, just after Chekhov’s return to Moscow from Petersburg, where he had been immersed in rehearsals for "Ivanov" at the Alexandrinsky Theater. The addressee is the writer Kazimir Stanislavovich Barantsevich, a Petersburg acquaintance with whom Chekhov had recently sparred publicly but clearly remained on warm personal terms.

2 Barantsevich had apparently written asking Chekhov to help place a schoolfellow of his in a job at "Novoye Vremya." Chekhov reports back that he raised the matter with Kolomnin, who manages the paper’s business side, and learned what he already suspected: every position in the office and shop is filled, with two candidates already waiting for each. He apologizes for the disappointing answer, then turns to his own state of mind – he had fled Petersburg exhausted and ashamed, undone by the fumes of theatrical intrigue, and reflects, half in earnest, that failure makes him braver than success does. He asks pardon of Barantsevich’s family for leaving without saying goodbye, sends warm wishes, signs off, and asks for a reply. A postscript relays the family’s thanks for a dinner Barantsevich had given him in Petersburg, framed through a comic account of his mother’s disbelief that restaurant food, or a rich man’s table, could ever be as filling as a married man’s home cooking.