To V. V. Bilibin, 22 February 1892. Moscow.
В. В. БИЛИБИНУ, 22 февраля 1892 г. Москва.
Headnote
a dateline, a repeated short date, an apology for a slow reply, the Melikhovo-purchase news, a warm response to Bilibin’s personal life, an anecdote about a stranger asking for money, travel plans, closing remarks, and the signature. Dated 22 February 1892, from Moscow – the same day as (to I. M. Kondratyev), and close on the heels of the family letters from the Voronezh famine-relief trip (, -1107, -1108).
A letter to the humorist V. V. Bilibin (addressee,), a longtime correspondent from the Oskolki days, catching him up on the estate purchase Chekhov has been negotiating: not the small plot in Malorossiya he had hoped for, but 213 desyatinas in the cold Serpukhov district some seventy versts from Moscow – the future Melikhovo. Chekhov jokes about the price, the timber, and offering Bilibin a "gift" of firewood. He then turns warmly to Bilibin’s own news, approving his new domestic arrangement with a woman named Anna Arkadyevna and dismissing Bilibin’s worry that others will judge him for it. An odd interlude follows: a stranger calling himself Cherskii turned up asking for train fare to Petersburg, claiming to write for Oskolki under the pseudonym "Chikh" and to be owed money by Bilibin; Chekhov gave him nine rubles and asks Bilibin to settle the debt through Lazarev or Yezhov if the story checks out. The letter closes with Chekhov’s plan to move to his new place ("Monrepos") on 1 March, a rueful note about having no money (not even trousers), and regards to Anna Arkadyevna.
4 uses "хохлам" (rendered "the Ukrainians") in a plainly affectionate, self-directed sense – Chekhov regretting he is not buying land among people and songs he loves – not as a pejorative; no slur-strength rendering applies here.