Article by Sergej Iwanaga (09.10.2025)

His first short-story and the namesake of the book is “Dark Avenues”. Written on the 20th October 1938, this story takes place in the town of Tula in the early 20th century, on a cold autumn evening. A now elderly senior officer, with a face resembling Alexander II, stops on his journey at an inn and enters into the warmth inside. Taking off his heavy winter coat, stroking his grey hair all alone in the empty inn, he shouts, asking for service. Suddenly, a dark-haired woman, about 20 years his junior, who still appears very beautiful despite her age, enters. She is light on her feet, and offers him food and a samovar. During the whole conversation he is enamored by her and she squints her eyes while talking to him. He orders the samovar quickly, but is more interested in her, leading him to ask if she's the owner of the inn. She tells him that she is in fact the owner and had chosen to run this establishment to make her living, adding that she enjoys cleanliness.

All of a sudden, she calls him by name, Nikolai Alexeyevich. "He shot up, opened his eyes. And turned red. In shock and recognizing the woman in front of him he asked: “Nadezhda! You?”" Calmly she affirms his question. He, on the other hand, is baffled and stirred. He questions how many years had passed since they had seen each other, perhaps thirty-five years? She, however, tells him it has been thirty years, with her now being forty-eight and him around sixty years old. His tiredness and his bewilderment disappear, he paces the room, staring at the floor. He begins asking her questions, due to their years apart, and finds out she was never married because of her long-lasting love for him even after they parted. He flushes even redder, growing more embarrassed, until tears start to escape him. “Everything passes my friend,”  he mumbles. “Love, youth - everything, everything.” He compares it to Job 11:16-19, “For you would forget your trouble, as waters that have passed by, you would remember it.”

Nadezhda disagrees, believing that love is something which does not pass. He lifts his gaze, and chuckles, he's in denial, he doesn't believe that she would love him for a whole lifetime.. “It’s too late to judge now. Well, it is the truth that you left me very heartlessly.” She recounts the times she wanted to end her life from resentment. “Since there was a time [..] where I called you Nikolenka and you called me..? Do you remember what? And all the poems you read to me about some ‘Dark Avenues’ [...] How wonderful you were,” he recounts. He describes her as being fiery, beautiful.  “What a body, what eyes!” He repeats himself again, everything passes. Everything is forgotten. But she defies him again, everything may pass but it is not forgotten. 

   He commands her to leave, turning away from her and approaching the window, telling her again. Drying his eyes with his handkerchief, he mumbles, “If only God would forgive me. And you, apparently, have forgiven me.” Moving closer to the door, she replied “No, Nikolai Alexeyevich. I didn't forgive you. If the conversation finally has reached the topic of our feelings, I will tell you directly: I could never bring myself to forgive you. As there was nothing more important to me then, there is nothing more important to me now. And because of that, forgiving you is something I could not do.”

His face turns back to his former, more serious demeanour, and he orders her to get his horses. While waiting, he confesses to her that he had never found happiness in life and the wife he had loved to madness cheated on him and left him even more mercilessly than he left her. His own son, whom he loved the same, grew up and turned out to be a rude, dishonorable, stupid man. He bids her farewell. He adds on: “‘I believe that I lost the most precious thing that I ever had in my life, in you.’ They kiss each other's hands as a final goodbye.”

   Sitting back in the carriage, the setting sun left its yellow glows on the empty fields with the horses running through puddles. Sitting with his thoughts, he looks back on the moments he spent with her. “Yes, of course, the best minutes. No, not the best, but in reality the most magical. [...] What if I had never left her? What nonsense? This same Nadezhda [...] as my wife, lady of my St. Petersburg house, mother of my children? And closing his eyes, he shook his eyes.”

In this short story, the dialogue between the two main characters is a clash between two world-views. Nikolai represents disillusionment, the bitterness of age. “Everything passes - love, youth, everything.” Nadezhda, on the other hand, represents steadfastness, a love that never passes. She insists that her love will never pass, but refuses to forgive him, not out of hatred, but because her feelings remain sincere and alive after decades. This conflict between the two characters reveals how Bunin viewed love: love is eternal in memory, yet impossible in life. Even though they are different, they both suffer. She suffers from the constancy of her love and he suffers from the regret of having left her.

The “Dark Avenues” are a symbol themselves for the paths that are lined with memory, lined with passion and remorse. The autumn setting and dim light reflect the passing vitality. The samovar, warmth, and domestic details contrast the emotional coldness and emptiness Nikolai feels in his later life. Finally, the carriage moving through puddles under a yellow sunset, symbolizing the passage of time and the futility of looking back. 

Ivan Bunin chose his characters to clash and contrast with each other. Nikolai Alexeyevich is a man broken by his own choices and the following consequences. He embodies Bunin's recurring theme of the Russian intelligentsia and their decline after the Russian Revolution. He is emotionally unattached, but still haunted by what he lost. Nadezhda is only given a first name, probably to position her closer to the reader, evoking an air of formality. Her name means ‘hope’ in Russian. Ironically, she represents a hope that has endured even when the love between her and Nikolai ended in separation. She is both the victim and moral victor, embodying purity and unwavering strength and emotion. 

When first reading, I had decided that this was just a love story that had not worked out. But I realize now, it is not as simple as that. It is a piece on time, memory and the irreversibility of human choices. Bunin balances his description on human struggles, the emotional tone and his delicate realism. 

After reading it a handful of times, I can only recommend that you also pick it up or find an online version. I was personally drawn in after this first story, which led me to read the whole short-story collection. This simple encounter reflected on the fragility of happiness. 

Translation:

Done by Sergej Iwanaga, assisted by DeepL.

1. DeepL Übersetzer: Der Präziseste Übersetzer Der Welt. www.deepl.com/de/translator. Accessed 8 Oct. 2025.

Sources:

1. Бунин, Иван. Тёмные Аллеи. Азбука, Азбука-Аттикус (Тёмные Аллеи), 2024. ISBN 978-5-389-25092-5

2. Бунин, Иван/Тёмные Аллеи. 17 Mar. 2015, stihi.ru/diary/arny93/2015-03-17.

3. Wikisum. “Dark Avenues · Summary of Ivan Bunin’s Short Story.” Wikisum, 13 May 2025, en.wikisum.org/wiki/Dark_Avenues_(Bunin). Accessed 8 Oct. 2025.