The schoolmistress, and other stories

In Short

This collection of short fiction examines the quiet struggles, unfulfilled longings, and existential crises of everyday Russian citizens. Across various settings—from bleak provincial roads and snow-bound railway stations to oppressive courtrooms and isolated river crossings—a diverse cast of characters confronts the disparity between their dreams and their reality. Through pitch-perfect realism and deep psychological insight, the narrative captures moments of sudden clarity, bitter grief, and profound human vulnerability. The work has endured because of its universal empathy, subtle humor, and its masterclass ability to reveal the infinite depths hidden within ordinary human lives.

The Story

The collection opens along a dry, sunlit highroad in April, where a exhausted schoolmistress named Marya Vassilyevna returns from town after collecting her salary. Thirteen years of identical journeys have eroded her spirit, reducing her past to a vague, fading dream and her future to a endless loop of dusty roads and rural isolation. Meanwhile, in the city, an anxious law student named Vassilyev joins his jovial companions on a late-night outing to a red-light district. While his friends indulge without thought, Vassilyev is overwhelmed by intense moral revulsion, seeing the utter defilement of human dignity. His profound despair leads to a severe mental breakdown, leaving him sobbing before a doctor who merely prescribes sedatives for nervous exhaustion.

Out on the open steppe, an elderly ferryman named Semyon preaches a philosophy of absolute detachment to a homesick Tatar youth. Semyon boasts that by abandoning all desires for family, comfort, or freedom, he has rendered himself invincible to suffering, though his companion still aches for his sick father and distant home. Elsewhere, a merchant named Malahin finds himself trapped in a maddening administrative nightline as his cattle train is repeatedly delayed, marooned on siding tracks for thirty-four hours while indifferent railway officials bicker over beaver hats and paperwork.

Tragedy takes a personal turn in the depths of a winter storm, where Grigory, an old turner, desperately drives his horse through a blizzard to get his dying wife to a hospital. Midway through the journey, he realizes she has already died. Overcome with sudden, agonizing regret, he reflects on forty years of marriage wasted on drunkenness, neglect, and abuse, only to lose his way entirely in the blinding whiteout. In another winter storm, a tired examining magistrate named Lyzhin travels through freezing winds to conduct an inquest, weighing the heavy, mysterious burdens of rural poverty against the warm, easy comfort of a wealthy country house.

The tone shifts to dramatic irony as a boastful engineer named Krikunov complains on a train journey about how true talent goes unrecognized while mediocrity flourishes. In a quiet suburban town, a panicked official named Miguev tiptoes through the dark carrying an abandoned baby—his secret illegitimate child—searching for a doorstep to leave it on, only to realize the moral horror of his actions. Meanwhile, a cold-hearted shopkeeper requests a church requiem for his estranged daughter, reflecting on her upbringing only through the lens of strict religious dogma.

In a dramatic parable, a wealthy banker and a young lawyer strike a terrifying bet: fifteen years of solitary confinement in exchange for two million rubles. After spending a decade and a half studying philosophy and literature in isolation, the lawyer writes a scathing letter renouncing the fortune, declaring human wisdom worthless and escaping hours before the deadline. Elsewhere, a traveler experiences a moment of transcendent sadness while watching the effortless beauty of a young Armenian girl at a farm, realizing how fleeting and unattainable true beauty is. Finally, a weary shoemaker named Fyodor dreams that he sells his soul to the devil for wealth, only to learn that rich gentility brings its own soul-crushing rules and anxieties. Awakening back in his gloomy workshop, he quietly accepts his humble trade as the morning church bells ring.

How It Unfolds

The voyage begins A weary schoolmistress travels a muddy country road, trapped in the crushing monotony of her thirteen-year routine.

A crisis of conscience A sensitive student visits a city's brothel district with friends, but the sight of human degradation drives him into deep moral horror and a physical breakdown.

The cold steppe An old ferryman argues with a homesick Tatar laborer, preaching a hardened philosophy that one must desire nothing in order to survive exile.

Administrative paralysis A frustrated livestock merchant watches his train sit idle on cold station tracks for over thirty hours while indifferent officials argue over minor details.

Belated grief A drunken turner rushes his sick wife through a roaring blizzard, realizing only after she dies in the back of his sledge that he squandered forty years abusing her.

An oath tested A lawyer spends fifteen years in solitary confinement to win a massive wager, only to reject the prize after coming to despise all worldly treasures.

Satanic bargaining A disgruntled shoemaker dreams of giving his soul to the devil to escape poverty, discovering that the lives of the wealthy are equally miserable.

The People

• Marya Vassilyevna: A lonely rural schoolmistress who has spent thirteen years traveling between her school and the town. She desires an escape from her endless routine, but her past memories have faded and she can imagine no future beyond her dusty journeys.
• Vassilyev: An overly conscientious, sensitive student who longs to experience life freely like his easygoing friends. However, his deep empathy and strict moral compass make him unable to ignore human suffering, leading to overwhelming despair when confronted with vice.
• Semyon ("Canny"): A cynical old ferryman in Siberia who was exiled twenty-two years ago. He copes with his harsh reality by stripping himself of all human desires, insisting that total emotional detachment is the only way to avoid ruin.
• Grigory: An elderly wood-turner who spends his life in drunkenness and poverty, treating his wife with cruel indifference. When she falls terminally ill, a sudden wave of tenderness and guilt overtakes him, but his realization arrives too late to offer her any comfort.
• Miguev: A middle-aged official who panics when he finds his illegitimate infant left on his doorstep. Driven by fear of public scandal and career ruin, he tries to dump the child on a stranger, wrestling briefly with his conscience along the way.
• The Lawyer: A young man who agrees to stay imprisoned in a small lodge for fifteen years to prove that any life is better than capital punishment. Through intense reading, he gains vast intellect, but ultimately becomes thoroughly disillusioned with humanity.

In Its Own Voice

For thirteen years she had been schoolmistress, and there was no reckoning how many times during all those years she had been to the town for her salary...

After endless trips through mud and snow, Marya Vassilyevna realizes her spirit has been completely worn down by rural routine.

“If vodka had to be drunk, he would drink it, though his head would be splitting next morning.”

Vassilyev desperately tries to convince himself to let loose and enjoy a careless evening with his robust friends.

“And as though to spite him, his old woman died at the very time when he felt he was sorry for her, that he could not live without her...”

Driving his sledge through a freezing blizzard, Grigory faces the tragic irony that remorse has come only after his wife's death.

What It's Really About

At its core, this collection investigates the quiet tragedies born of human disconnection, missed opportunities, and moral paralysis. The stories consistently pit individual sensitivity against a vast, indifferent social and natural world. Whether through the cold detachment of Siberian ferrymen, the bureaucratic delays of the railway system, or the moral blind spots of respectable citizens, the characters struggle to make meaningful contact with those around them. The collection suggests that human beings frequently spend their lives asleep to what matters most—waking up to the value of love, dignity, or freedom only when it is far too late to change their fate.

Why Read It Today

This collection appeals to readers who appreciate subtle, psychologically acute fiction that finds profound drama in quiet moments rather than explosive plot turns. Reading these stories feels like stepping into a series of vividly painted atmospheric landscapes—snowy roads, humid greenhouses, and dimly lit train stations—where every detail illuminates a character's inner world. The writing carries a melancholic yet deeply humane tone, offering an authentic look at the human condition without ever leaning into melodrama or neat, artificial moral lessons.

The primary difficulty modern readers may encounter lies in the cultural and temporal distance of late nineteenth-century Russia. The narratives reflect historical class structures, rigid social expectations, and period attitudes regarding gender and morality that can feel distant or unyielding. Additionally, the deliberate pacing and lack of traditional dramatic resolution may challenge those who prefer fast-moving plots. However, these surface elements are easily surpassed by the timeless quality of the psychological observation. What stays with the reader long after finishing is the lingering ache of quiet epiphanies—the sudden, piercing realization of how easily life slips away unlived.