To A. S. Suvorin, 4 June 1891. Bogimovo.

Written 4 June 1891 from Bogimovo, the Kaluga province estate the Chekhov family was renting for the summer, to Aleksei Sergeyevich Suvorin, publisher of Novoye Vremya and Chekhov’s closest correspondent, shortly after a visit by Suvorin to Bogimovo. The letter opens with the asking price on a neighboring property – evidently pursued as a possible purchase or rental for Suvorin – then turns to the aftermath of the visit: Chekhov’s flat mood once his guest had gone, his sister’s continuing illness, the return of the runaway mongoose Mangus, and a renewed pitch for a Volga steamer trip to Feodosia.

Rakovsky is the otherwise unidentified owner of the estate under discussion; a desyatina is a pre-revolutionary Russian land measure of about 2.7 acres. Mangus is the mongoose Chekhov brought back from his Sakhalin journey, missing since around the time of and here found after eighteen days at large near the Oka river; Snigiryov, whose dacha is used as a landmark, is otherwise unidentified. Yelets is a town in Oryol province Suvorin had apparently passed through; the Feodosia proposal continues the travel suggestion of earlier letters in this exchange. Anna Ivanovna is Suvorin’s wife.