To the Chekhovs, 25 May 1890. Mariinsk.

Chekhov wrote this brief letter to his sister, Maria Pavlovna Chekhova, on 25 May 1890 from Marinsk, a small town on the road between Tomsk and Irkutsk, during the overland leg of his journey across Siberia to the penal colony on Sakhalin Island. The letter is one of a run of short dispatches he sent home describing the trip’s practicalities rather than its purpose, and it belongs to the earliest, most makeshift stretch of the crossing, before he had settled into any fixed traveling rhythm.

The content is almost entirely logistical and physical: the turn of the season (green fields, birdsong, a cold squall after a fine morning), the change in terrain after Tomsk (forest and ravines replacing open plain), and a small comic set-piece about his gear — abandoning his cumbersome suitcase in Tomsk, buying a flimsy replacement, then describing the springless open carriage (with a folding top) he purchased for 130 rubles, built for lying flat rather than sitting, because the road is too rough for a sprung vehicle. He closes with a wry note that he has had to ford water twice already that day and will have to swim (or wade) a further four versts that night, then a short sign-off and his family nickname signature, "Antoine." The letter ends with the address panel from the envelope: the return/destination city (Sumy, in Kharkov Province, where the Chekhov family had a rented dacha that summer) and the addressee’s name.