To Al. P. Chekhov, 27 December 1890. Moscow.
Ал. П. ЧЕХОВУ, 27 декабря 1890 г. Москва.
Headnote
Dated 27 December 1890, from Moscow, to Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov ("Sashichka"), Anton’s elder brother, written soon after Anton’s return from the journey to Sakhalin and back through Siberia, the Far East, and around Asia and Europe.
Chekhov explains he delayed answering because he’d heard a rumor Alexander might visit for the holiday and wanted to wait and see; since Alexander never came, he writes now. He gives a comic, boastful digest of his travels – Siberia, the Amur river, three months on Sakhalin, Vladivostok, Hong Kong, Singapore, Ceylon, the ocean crossing, Sinai, the Dardanelles, Constantinople – and jokes about the three mongooses he brought home, which break dishes and are adored anyway. He recalls a bit of mock-Greek byplay between the brothers from when they sailed past the Santorini islands. The letter needles Alexander about his common-law wife and children (calling them "illegitimate," with a sighing "poor children"), asks after the dog Gershka, sends thanks from their mother for a New Year’s letter, and proposes that if Alexander wants to visit, he wait since Anton is himself about to travel to Petersburg – they could then return to Moscow together. Closes with a one-line joke that India has no vodka, only whisky.
The tone throughout is the brothers’ habitual rough, joshing intimacy: insults doubling as affection, a running dig at Alexander’s unmarried domestic arrangement with Natalia Alexandrovna, and a mock-solemn sign-off ("Ye indulgent Brother"-style formality played for laughs). No genuine slurs or prejudice requiring full-force translation; the "illegitimate children" jabs and the crack about Alexander being a drunkard are family teasing, translated directly without softening or sharpening.