The paper considers some aspects of composition and the plot of the Chekhov’s short story «Po delam sluzhby». The popular Russian snowstorm plot combines «chaotic» and «harmonic» plot paradigms. There are several plot and motif groups in the plot structure of the text: snowstorm (disorder), capital /city (order, civilization) and province, uyezd (chaos, disarrangement) and, finally, a total disappointment with common lifestyle. Last motif refers to all the characters as well as the snowstorm motif organizes architecture of plot events. The main character, crime investigator Lyzhin, suffers from a senseless way of living, and his mentality is the topic matter, too. It is this series of mental and emotional events that form the second motif block – the opposition
of the metropolitan and urban life to provincial life, devoid of meaning and purpose. Lyzhin’s gradually overcoming these patterns, in a subliminal way as well, is the main plot of the story.