To S. F. Rassokhin, 17 December 1891. Moscow.

Sergei Fyodorovich Rassokhin ran a Moscow theatrical agency and lending library that supplied plays – in manuscript and lithographed copies – to provincial theaters, and handled the paperwork of getting new plays past the dramatic censor. Chekhov, whose one-act vaudevilles were staple fare for touring companies, used Rassokhin’s office for exactly this kind of errand.

The note is a brief business request: Chekhov is sending along one of his short comic pieces (a "vaudeville") and asking Rassokhin to have it copied out in duplicate and forwarded to the censorship office, a routine but necessary step before any play could be licensed for performance.