To A. S. Suvorin, 7 November 1889. Moscow.

Written in Moscow on 7 November 1889 to Alexei Suvorin, the wealthy newspaper/publishing magnate (owner of Novoye Vremya) who was Chekhov’s closest correspondent and confidant through the late 1880s and 1890s; their letters cover literary business, gossip, and personal reflection in a candid, informal register. This is a short, routine note mixing several small items typical of their exchange.

Chekhov reports that a story by Nikolai Yezhov (a minor writer Chekhov mentored and helped place with Suvorin’s papers) has been revised and is being forwarded in its new form. He notes that his brother Mikhail (Misha) has already left Moscow for St. Petersburg, so Suvorin’s letter about him arrived too late to reach him there. He mentions a letter from Anna Yevreinova (editor of the journal Severny Vestnik) and uses it as a springboard for a wry complaint: the journal’s contributors ("philosophers, sociologists, political economists") take advances and then leave, emptying the till – a grievance he immediately echoes with an anecdote about his own tailor, who complains that clients wear their clothes but don’t pay. Chekhov then expresses regret that Suvorin will not be coming to Moscow, describes the first snowfall, and quotes (paraphrases from memory) the opening of the winter passage from Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin (Chapter 5) evoking Tatyana at the window. He closes with regards to Anna Ivanovna (Suvorin’s wife) and signs off.