To the Chekhovs, 26 June 1890. Ot Pokrovskoy do Blagoveshchenska.

1 This letter is dated 23–26 June 1890, written aboard a Trans-Amur steamer between Pokrovskaya (a Cossack settlement at the confluence of the Shilka and Argun rivers, where the Amur formally begins) and Blagoveshchensk. It belongs to Chekhov’s outbound journey across Siberia to the penal colony of Sakhalin Island, undertaken in the spring and summer of 1890 and later documented in Ostrov Sakhalin (The Island of Sakhalin) and the linked series "Из Сибири" ("From Siberia"). The addressee is not named in the source text itself, but the content – domestic errands (sending a fur coat and mail to the "Novoye Vremya" bookshop in Odessa via Suvorin’s permission, medical advice for "Father," an errand to "Ivan" for a map), the closing "kiss you all," and the family register throughout – points to the collective Chekhov household in Moscow (his mother, siblings, and father Pavel Yegorovich), consistent with Chekhov’s other Siberian-journey letters, most of which went to family or to Suvorin. Treat the addressee as unconfirmed pending apparatus-stage cross-reference against the letter’s original placement in the PSS (Полное собрание сочинений и писем, Письма, М.: Наука, 1974–1983) volume and its published recipient line; do not assert a specific name in front matter without that confirmation.

2 The letter opens (23 June) with an account of the steamer running aground near Ust-Strelka and the days-long repair – sailors patching hull holes by hand, passengers idling on deck while an oncoming steamer with a military band turns the delay into an impromptu shipboard festivity. Chekhov reports meal times, sketches fellow passengers (a laconic exchange about not being in any hurry to leave), and describes Chinese third-class passengers and a pet fox cub kept in the lavatory. He notes the gold-rush atmosphere of the region (peasants and even a priest panning for gold, sudden wealth and poverty). shipping his fur coat and mail via a bookshop in Odessa, a request for spare money to be sent the same way, medical instructions regarding his father’s dizziness (potassium bromide, a leech behind the ear if needed), and an errand for a map of the Transbaikal region – interleaved with rhapsodic description of the Amur scenery (a distinctive comic aside inventing "Gundasova" and "Sofya Petrovna Kuvsh" as stand-ins, and quoting the Fonvizin-derived tag "умри, Денис, лучше не напишешь" / "die now, Denis, you’ll never write better"). He describes birdlife along the banks, an encounter with a gold-mine owner who presses money on him for a house call to his sick wife (Chekhov refuses most of it but keeps 15 roubles), a second gold-mine owner who serves champagne at dinner, the villages’ relaxed religious observance (meat eaten in Holy Week, tobacco used by women), the outspoken and informer-free political atmosphere on the river (including politicals among the convict laborers at Ust-Kara, and escaped politicals traveling openly by steamer), and Buryat coachmen and their unruly horses in Transbaikalia. The letter resumes 26 June as the steamer nears Blagoveshchensk, closes with affectionate instructions to family, is signed "Antoine" (Chekhov’s French-form signature used in family correspondence), and ends with a short postscript-like assurance of good health.

6 Form Dateline rendered per STYLE.md as "23–26 June 1890. From Pokrovskaya to Blagoveshchensk." (day before month, period before place, en-dash range preserved from source). Signed "Antoine," Chekhov’s customary French-form signature in family letters of this period.