To N. M. Yezhov, 28 January 1890. Petersburg.

Written in Petersburg on 28 January 1890, in the weeks before Chekhov’s departure for Sakhalin, to Nikolai Mikhailovich Ezhov (1862–1941), a younger writer and journalist whom Chekhov had befriended and was mentoring in this period; Ezhov was placing work through Chekhov’s connection to Alexey Suvorin’s newspaper Novoye Vremya ("New Times").

The letter is business-plus-craft-advice, typical of Chekhov’s dealings with junior writers he took seriously. He apologizes for a delayed reply (he had hoped to answer in person on a trip to Moscow that did not happen), then works through three numbered items: Ezhov’s story "The Water-Nymph" (Русалка) will run in Novoye Vremya; his per-line rate has been raised to 8 kopecks; and instructions have been given to send Ezhov his copy of the paper. Chekhov then gives substantive feedback on the story – he liked it, noting real progress, but flags that in the passage narrated by the water-nymph’s father, Ezhov’s prose drifts toward the manner of Vladimir Korolenko’s "The Forest Murmurs" (Лес шумит). He follows with craft advice characteristic of his letters to younger writers: Ezhov’s language tends toward coarseness and ornateness, and he should read more, particularly serious/nonfiction prose with stricter, more disciplined language than fiction typically has, both to train his ear and to accumulate knowledge useful to a writer. Chekhov calls this "a sermon for dessert," self-deprecating about the length of the advice. He closes with a note that Suvorin apologizes for the delay on the newspaper subscription, sends respects to Ezhov’s wife, signs off, and adds a brief closing question asking whether Ezhov sees "our people" – i.e. their shared literary/journalistic circle – at all.