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A Reading of A.S. Pushkin’s The Postmaster 1999 marked the birth bicentennial of the ‘Father of Russian Literature’, the poet, who set the tone and the direction for the subsequent development of Russian Literature from the 19th century onwards – Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin. Best known as a poet, it was Pushkin who was almost the pioneer of Russian prose when he wrote his ‘Povesti Belkina’, a collection of five stories under the pseudonym I.P.Belkin in 1930. The Postmaster or The Stationmaster as it is sometimes translated, is one of the five stories published in this collection. Pushkin’s The Postmaster is considered to be one of the most important texts for any serious student of Russian Literature for more than one reason. As mentioned above, it marks along with the others in this collection, the beginnings of 19th century Russian prose. In fact it marks not just the beginnings of prose, but the beginnings of realistic prose and its main protagonist Samson Vyrin became a prototype for a number of great Russian writers that followed, including F. Dostoyevsky and A. Chekhov. Like other texts, The Postmaster has been interpreted in more ways than one. In the West it has been viewed as “an ironic depiction of a man misled by the biblical parable, who needlessly drank himself to death because he believed his daughter would inevitably end up badly” . But in Russia traditionally as mentioned earlier, it has been seen as the first of what was to become a very important theme in 19th century Russian literature - a story of the life of the ‘small man’ or malenkiy chelovek. For the first time in the history of Russian Literature perhaps Pushkin had drawn the attention of his reader to the plight of the ‘small man’. In his story after defining his ‘small man’, Pushkin writes “I appeal to the conscience of my readers.” And Pushkin goes on to tell us of the plight of this ‘small man’ in society, of how he is ill treated by society, driven by circumstances to drink and eventually to death. Samson Vyrin lives and works at a posting station and it is his duty to take care of the officers’ horses, provide them with others and look after the needs of the officers, who may stop at his station. The officers who come are usually in very bad moods and think nothing of exercising their tempers on Samson. Samson, on his part never says a word, accepts whatever the officers may or may not dish out to him and sometimes asks his daughter Dunya to help out with serving tea. Samson notices that whenever Dunya helps out, the officers usually calm down. When one such officer Minsky comes, he feigns illness and Dunya ‘nurses’ him back to health. When he is ready to leave he offers Dunya a lift to the church and Dunya never returns. Samson thinks that Dunya has been kidnapped by Minsky and goes to the city to look for her and finds her with him. She is living in an apartment and is very expensively and fashionably dressed. She sees him, faints and Samson is kicked out of the house by Minsky. Samson returns to his station, takes to drink and eventually dies. Some time later a woman comes to Samson’s station and discovers that he is dead. She is taken to his grave by a little boy, Vanka, weeps at the grave, gets back into her carriage, gives Vanka some silver and goes away. As one can see, although the story is entitled ‘The Postmaster’ and he is the prototype for the protagonists of future writers, the pivotal role in the story is played by Samson Vyrin’s daughter Dunya. It is Dunya’s absence from the postmaster’s life, which finally leads him to an unhappy death. Therefore I feel, it is important to look at Pushkin’s handling of the character of Dunya.
Approximate Word count = 2585
Approximate Pages = 10.3
(250 words per page double spaced)
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