The Blizzard


"The Blizzard" is the second of five short stories that constitute The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin by Aleksandr Pushkin. The manuscript for the story was originally completed October 20, 1830. It was intended to be the last of The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin to be published, but Pushkin decided to push the story to the front of the volume. The novella, so comical and at the same time so dramatic, is considered to be one of the masterpieces of Russian literature.

Plot

The plot concerns the relationships of an aristocratic young woman named Maria Gavrilovna and the unusual coincidences that accompany them. The following is copied from the program notes by Ledbetter :

Style

Pushkin uses his story as a means of parody on the classical themes of gothic motivation featured in Lenore and Vasily Zhukovsky's ballad, "Svetlana". In both of these ballads, the lover is only able to dream and 'imagine' life with their deceased lover. Pushkin plays on this idea by presenting the same situation for Marya; however, due to a case of most fortuitous and unforeseen circumstances Marya is actually married to her living lover. Pushkin imitates the style of these ballads, but creates it through a set of realistic circumstances.

Themes

Hero

In The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin, Pushkin uses a variety of stereotyped gentlemen suitors as the tales' Hero. Bumin acts as the hero in this short story. His wild and borderline criminal towards marrying an unknown bride in the church ultimately led him to marrying the woman of his dreams.

Antihero

Vladimir is the story's counter or Antihero. Being a petty land owner, he is too poor to pursue Masha's hand in marriage openly. Vladimir's plans for marriage were brought to a halt by unfortunate circumstances. However, the same unfortunate events are what grant Burmin the ability to lead a successful Courtship with Maria.

Structure

Over seventy percent of the sentences within the story are considered to be a Simple sentence, which includes segments of simple sentences cut short by a Semicolon. The story's plot can be dissected into 13 unique parts:
  1. The two lovers are presented, along with their situation and plans to wed
  2. Maria makes her preparations to leave and spend her last moments at home
  3. Vladimir leaves and departs through the snowstorm to the church
  4. Maria falls ill at her home and professes her love to her parents
  5. Vladimir's refuses to enter Maria's home and enlists in the military
  6. The state of Maria and Vladimir's injury and death from the Battle of Borodino
  7. Death of Masha's father and her departure to a new estate
  8. Describes Maria's faith to the memory of her dead lover
  9. A degression to the current state of affairs in Russia
  10. Burmin arrives and the feelings between Masha and Burmin is established
  11. Burmin's declaration of love
  12. Burmin's role in the events that occurred during the Blizzard when Masha and Vladimir were supposed to elope
  13. Brief explanation of events

    Adaptations

Film

The story was made into a film by director Vladimir Basov. The film's soundtrack was written by Georgi Sviridov, who later modified the soundtrack into a musical suite of the same name.

Musical

's suite, while mostly unknown in the Americas, is very popular in Russia. Based on the film score that he wrote for Basov's film, the movements of the suite are as follows:
  1. Troika
  2. Valse
  3. Spring - Autumn
  4. Romance
  5. Pastorale
  6. Little Military March
  7. Wedding
  8. Echo of the Valse
  9. Finale