Bunin’s short story Tanya is devoted to the theme of love and a fateful encounter. At the center of the narrative stands Tanya, a peasant girl, still underage yet already endowed with a delicate feminine sensibility. She works as a maid for the landowner Kazakova. The arrival of the narrator—a middle-aged man who has come from Moscow to the countryside—leads to an unexpected intimacy between them, which turns into a secret but fateful bond. The girl’s innocence and vitality are interwoven with the emotions of first love, which she perceives not as misfortune but as genuine happiness and selfless devotion.

With artistic mastery, Bunin recreates scenes of rural life: autumnal mists, winter snowstorms, the dreary poverty of the estate—contrasted with the inner warmth of the girl and the passion awakened in the man. The protagonist simultaneously experiences moments of bliss and senses the inevitability of separation, the transience of happiness. At the same time, the story offers a precise reflection of the fate of the peasant woman.