To M. P. Chekhova, 6 December 1890. Vorozhba.

This is a telegram, not a letter – six brief units in the source, and every mark of wire economy: no salutation, no closing courtesy, clipped elliptical grammar ("A great many things. Have supper ready."), and a signature that is a single self-given nickname rather than a formal sign-off. The address block that follows the message (marked "На бланке:" / "On the form:" in the source) reproduces the delivery information as it was written on the telegram blank itself – city, street and house, then addressee surname, each its own line/field on the form. This is not concatenated material from a separate document

Dating and setting: 6 December 1890, sent from Vorozhba – a rail junction/station in what is now northeastern Ukraine, on the Kursk-Kyiv line. This places the telegram at the very end of Chekhov’s return journey from Sakhalin: he had crossed Siberia and sailed home via Hong Kong, Singapore, Ceylon, and Odessa, and was now on the last domestic leg back to Moscow by rail. He is telegraphing ahead to have the household ready to receive him the following day.

Content: Chekhov announces his arrival "tomorrow," asks that everyone come to meet him, notes he is bringing "a great many things" (kupleniya from the long journey – curios, gifts, specimens), and asks that supper be prepared. He signs "Антуан" ("Antuan"), a playful French-inflected self-nickname he used with family, not his given name or surname – rendered here as written rather than normalized to "Antoine."

Addressee: Maria Pavlovna Chekhova (М. П. Чехова), the writer’s sister, at the family’s Moscow residence on Malaya Dmitrovka (Firgang’s house). "Чеховой" is the dative-case surname as written on the telegram form (a wife/daughter/sister form of "Chekhov"); rendered here simply as "Chekhova."