The painting depicts a vast plain with a road that extends from the foreground into the middle, passing through woods and fields before vanishing in the horizon's blue haze. Vladimirka has an immense depth of field, drawing the viewer's attention all the way to the horizon. The length of the road is highlighted by the narrow paths that run alongside it on either side. Two other paths also cross the street from left to right. There is a golubets on the right where a praying woman is standing with her knapsack on her shoulders. According to Averil King, the lonely figure of the woman praying to the golubets, the cloudy landscape and the desolate road all create a "picture filled with sadness and foreboding" that suggests "the despair of the shackled men and women who had trudged eastward through these lonely wastes". The only signs of hope are the bright spot in the horizon and the distant white church.
