A. S. Pushkin

«Станционный смотритель» belongs to the cycle «Повести Белкина» (1831); Pushkin wrote it in the autumn of 1830 in Boldino. The cycle has five tales, and this one is considered the best. The hero is Samson Vyrin, a station superintendent of the lowest civil rank (the 14th class), and his daughter is Dunya. Travellers often vented their anger on the superintendent, but Pushkin looks at his hard work and humiliation with sympathy. The hussar captain Minsky stays at the station for several days, pretending to be ill, then offers to drive Dunya to church and takes her away to St Petersburg. Her father goes to St Petersburg to find her, but Minsky pushes some money into his sleeve and shows him out; Vyrin returns to his station without his daughter, takes to drink and dies of grief. Years later the narrator visits the grave: the boy Vanka tells him that a beautiful lady came with three small children, wept when she heard the old man had died, and lay on his grave for a long time. The tale reveals the theme of the “little man”, a father’s love and the need for compassion between people.