To A. S. Suvorin, 5 March 1891. Moscow.

Written from Moscow on 5 March 1891 to Alexei Sergeyevich Suvorin, Chekhov’s publisher/editor and close friend, in reply to a proposal – evidently made by Suvorin in a preceding letter – that the two of them take a trip abroad together (the plan that would shortly become their spring 1891 journey through Western Europe). Chekhov answers with enthusiastic assent ("We’re off!!!") but immediately qualifies it, laying out for Suvorin’s consideration the two practical obstacles weighing against the trip: his unfinished current work, which if delayed risks letting his still-fresh Sakhalin impressions fade before he can start writing up the Sakhalin book, and his precarious finances, already stretched thin by careful economizing. He asks Suvorin to weigh these considerations from his own position rather than dismiss them, and to answer quickly. The letter closes with a brief, unrelated note on the progress of a novella in progress and a visit to the Kiselyov family’s country estate, where he notes the rooks – an early sign of the Russian spring – had already returned.