To M. P. Chekhov, 16 October 1890. Vladivostok.

This is a telegram, not a letter – four bare lines with no salutation and no closing courtesy, the clipped wire-economy grammar of the period intact ("Be in Moscow the tenth of December. Sailing to Singapore," prepositions and connective tissue dropped exactly as a paid-by-the-word telegram of the period would drop them). are not a second, concatenated message: "На бланке:" ("On the form:") is the editor’s marker introducing the routing/address block as it appeared on the telegraph blank itself – the delivery town and addressee, not a signature or a new communication. The whole item is one coherent telegram.

Dated 16 October 1890, sent from Vladivostok. Chekhov had left Sakhalin Island by sea on 13 October 1890 aboard the steamer "Petersburg," bound for Moscow by the long southern sea route – via Hong Kong, Singapore, Colombo, the Suez Canal, and Odessa. This wire, sent within days of departure from the first mainland port of call, tells his brother when to expect him and confirms the next leg of the route. Chekhov did in fact reach Moscow on 8 December 1890, close to the date given here.

The addressee, given on the form as "Tax inspector Chekhov" at Yefremov, is Mikhail Pavlovich Chekhov (1865-1936), Anton’s youngest brother, who in 1890 held a post as a tax inspector (податной инспектор) in Yefremov, Tula province.