To V. A. Dolgorukov, 28 May 1890. Krasnoyarsk (?).

The prose is full, syntactically complete Russian (subordinate clauses, an opinion offered and explained), with none of the wire-economy grammar or bare-surname signature that marks a genuine telegram in this corpus (contrast the true telegram at).

Dated 28 May 1890, place queried by the editors ("Красноярск (?)"), placing it in the same short window as the neighboring items in this sequence: (27 May, Achinsk, to the Chekhov family) and (28 May, Krasnoyarsk, to Suvorin) — all written during Chekhov’s overland journey by horse-drawn conveyance across Siberia toward Sakhalin. The source file is self-contained and correctly bounded between its neighbors

Content: Chekhov reports the road as dreadful and reproaches Dolgorukov —apparently responsible in some way for the state of the road, or at least positioned to complain about it—for not cursing it more loudly. He notes that Irkutsk is a good town (he has evidently reached, or is anticipating, Irkutsk, though the dateline itself says Krasnoyarsk, consistent with a letter written and added to over several days or stops). He then turns to literary criticism: he has been reading Dolgorukov’s verses, judges the soul behind them good and the verse technique competent, but finds the language not plain/simple enough and advises the addressee to allow himself more freedom. He closes hoping to see Dolgorukov again once back in Russia (i.e., European Russia, as opposed to Siberia).