The snowstorm (Pushkin)
The snowstorm (Russian: Метель, 1831) is one of the five stories of the late Ivan Petrovich Belkin by Alexander Pushkin . She tells about the young Maria Gavrilovna and her love for Vladimir Nikolaevich. But because her parents are very strict, she is not allowed to marry him. She believes that if she stayed away from home for a while and married Vladimir in secret, her parents would be so happy to see her return that they would forgive her or allow her to marry. So she makes an appointment with him in a village called Schadrina, in order to marry him there in the church. Vladimir gets caught in a snow storm on the outward journey with his sledge, so that he only arrives in Schadrina via detours and late. Bad news awaits him there. You won't find out what these are until later in the book. Then Vladimir becomes a soldier and no longer wants to marry Maria. In the end, she becomes so seriously ill that her parents allow her to marry, as they believe that Maria fell ill because of lovesickness. However, Vladimir does not accept the invitation. Shortly afterwards he dies in the army. Four years later, Maria met a new man for whom she developed feelings. He confesses to have been married for four years. He had entered a dark church in Schadrina and, mistaken for the bridegroom, married a woman because he found her very attractive. It turns out that the woman he married was Maria. She didn't see him in the dark church and therefore mistook him for Vladimir. Nor did they recognize each other four years later. It turns out that this was the bad news that had been waiting for Vladimir.