Going into this story, I assumed that it would reflect the traditional power structure of the era, establishing men as superior to women, and the old as superior to the young. This story challenged the historic hierarchical systems, portraying them as complicated and nontransparent. I found it effective to look at these structures through the practice of gift giving. The story began with Frol somewhat respectfully giving gifts to win the love of Annushka. He courted her, and initiated any minimal contact the two had. Frol’s sister “did not dare disobey her brother”(476) and had no option but to assist in his schemes. He then, “became daring and forced her to submit to his will”. At this point in the story it was clear that he held the power in their relationship; he courted her and forced her to “submit to his will”. He held power over the women he interacted with. Then, according to this account, Annushka fell for Frol, and she began to give gifts to him: “Annushka became very happy, and told her nurse to take him twenty rubles” (479). By giving Frol a gift, she secured her role as an equal partner in a consensual relationship, where she had the capability to contribute. As it became clear that Frol was a “poor nobleman and a great cheat”(479) while Annushka came from a fairly well-established family, their relationship challenged my assumption that men held significantly more power than women did during this era. Granted, he certainly had the upper hand, but she experienced notable agency for this era.
When the Frol and Annushka eloped, they challenged the notion that older generations held unequivocal power over the generations that followed. The two managed to marry without the approval of Annushka’s family. Then, her parents sent them the valuable and precious “ icon with our blessings” (484), all of a sudden pandering to their daughter, with the hopes of winning her back. The story ended with Stolnik Nadrin-Naschekin saying “No rogue, don’t sell them. I shall give you some money. Take it” (486). This establishes a more traditional power structure: he grants his daughter and her husband his approval, and supports them financial, compromising their previous position of pure independence, but he still had no control in their decision about marriage. Throughout the story, the traditional power structures reverse and then return to their conventional state, offering a unique glimpse of the intricacies of the Russian hierarchical systems to the modern reader.