To A. S. Kiselev, 7–15 May 1890. en route to Tomsk.
А. С. КИСЕЛЕВУ, Между 7 и 15 мая 1890 г. По пути в Томск.
Headnote
The elliptical, breathless quality of the body is Chekhov writing hurriedly on the road, not wire-economy.
Written between 7 and 15 May 1890, while Chekhov was traveling overland by horse-drawn conveyance across Siberia toward Tomsk, en route to Sakhalin Island — the journey that produced the letters collected as his Siberian travel correspondence and later informed "Ostrov Sakhalin." The addressee, Aleksei Sergeyevich Kiselyov, was a friend and neighbor from Chekhov’s Babkino summers, a minor literary figure and, notably, a zemsky nachalnik (district superintendent/land captain) in real life — which is the joke behind the letter’s salutation: Chekhov addresses him by his official title ("Mr. District Superintendent!") as a private tease between friends, not as a genuine formal address.
Content is a brief, playful travel note: praise for the practical value of a leather coat against rain and wind on the road, a wry aside that he has not had a proper meal in some time, and a promise to write again once he reaches Tomsk.
No occurrences of Yezhov/Elena-type transliteration edge cases or of китаец/similar ethnonyms in this item.