To the Chekhovs, 27 May 1890. Achinsk.

This is a brief, telegram-like letter home from the road during Chekhov’s journey across Siberia to the penal colony of Sakhalin, written just over a month after leaving Moscow (21 April 1890). Achinsk, a small town in the Yenisei Governorate on the route toward Krasnoyarsk, was one of many stops where he snatched time to reassure the family. The letter is addressed to his sister, Maria Pavlovna Chekhova, at the family home in Sumy, Kharkov Province, where the Chekhovs were summering at the Lintvaryov estate that year.

The content is minimal and practical, consistent with a note dashed off between coach changes: he reports himself alive and well, sends greetings to the household, signs simply "A. Chekhov," asks after his father and his brother Ivan, and notes he expects to reach Krasnoyarsk the next day. The final two sections (5-7) are not part of the letter’s body but capture the envelope/reverse-side addressing information as segmented from the source transcription: "On the reverse," the destination town and province, and the addressee’s name.