To N. N. Obolonsky, 29 March 1889. Moscow.

1 Written from Moscow on 29 March 1889 to the physician Nikolai Nikolayevich Obolonsky, this is a brief, urgent note asking Obolonsky to look in on Chekhov’s sick brother, the painter Nikolai Pavlovich Chekhov ("Kolya"), together with the practical information needed to find him and treat him.

2 After the double dateline (1-2) and salutation (3), Chekhov asks Obolonsky to go see his brother, giving the address near the Krasnye Vorota on Kalanchevskaya Street, and naming the suspected ailment with the abbreviation "pn. cruposa" (croupous pneumonia); he offers to accompany Obolonsky if told when he can be found at home, or else presses Obolonsky to call on him first, invoking a promise made "over supper at Korsh’s," and asks to be notified by telegram, giving his own address on Kudrinskaya Sadovaya, in the house of Ya. A. Korneyev (4). In case Obolonsky goes to the brother alone, Chekhov adds a clinical note: the brother has led a thoroughly bohemian life but gave up drinking some two months earlier, his pulse has always been poor, and Chekhov has already ordered eight dry cups and a warm compress, apologizing for imposing on Obolonsky’s time (5). The letter closes with a short well-wish (6), the epistolary closing "Respectfully yours" (7), and the signature "A. Chekhov" (8).