To M. V. Kiseleva, 26 January 1890. Petersburg.

A short note to Maria Vladimirovna Kiseleva, written in the weeks before Chekhov’s departure for Sakhalin (he left Moscow in late April 1890). The source heading gives the place as "Petersburg," but the letter’s content – begging off a visit because he is buried in research materials that must be returned "tomorrow morning" – reads like the day-to-day correspondence of someone working through borrowed reference volumes in his own city, and the Kiselevs’ estate, Babkino, was a frequent correspondence address for Chekhov in this period; the "Petersburg" of the dateline is transcribed as given in the source and not corrected here.

The occasion is entirely practical: Chekhov has had brought to him the index to twenty years of articles (1862-1882) from *Morskoy sbornik* ("The Marine Miscellany," the official journal of the Russian Navy), which he is combing for material on Sakhalin in preparation for his journey and the book that would become *Ostrov Sakhalin*. He is behind, in a foul mood, and cancels a planned visit to the Kiselevs for that day, proposing to come the next afternoon instead. He sends greetings to the household and to "Vasilisa Panteleyevna" (a member of the Kiselev household staff or circle, not otherwise identified here). He signs off with a joking self-address, "Your Hypocrite" ("Ваш Лицемер"), typical of the bantering tone Chekhov used with Kiseleva.