Learn Hardcore Russian: На балконе пахнет землёй после дождя, и этот запах успокаивает меня. - On the balcony it smells of earth after the rain, and this smell calms me.

На балконе пахнет землёй… literally: On the balcony smells (of) earth…
There is no grammatical subject like English it.
The verb пахнет here is 3rd person singular, but it is used without a subject.
This is very natural Russian. Adding a subject (like это) would sound strange: На балконе это пахнет землёй is not idiomatic.

So you should think of пахнуть in such sentences as “to smell (of something)” in an impersonal way.

Why is землёй in the instrumental case and not, for example, nominative земля?

The verb пахнуть takes the instrumental case:

Pattern: пахнуть чем? → пахнуть землёй
Instrumental singular of земля is землёй.

So grammatically it’s like saying “it smells with earth” or “smells of earth”.

Compare:

Пахнет кофе. → кофе is indeclinable, form doesn’t change.
Пахнет дымом. (instrumental of дым)
Пахнет духами. (instrumental plural of духи – perfume)

Using nominative земля (пахнет земля) would sound ungrammatical.

Could I say земля пахнет instead of пахнет землёй? What’s the difference?

You can say земля пахнет, but the meaning and focus change:

Пахнет землёй.
- Impersonal, very typical.
- Focus on the smell itself: There is a smell of earth.
Земля пахнет.
- Now земля is the subject: The earth smells.
- This sounds more poetic or descriptive, emphasizing the earth as an active source.

In everyday speech about a smell in the air, Russians much more often say пахнет землёй.

Why is it на балконе and not в балконе or с балкона?

The preposition на is used for open flat surfaces and balconies because you are considered to be on them, not inside them:

на балконе = on the balcony (location)
в балконе would mean inside the structure of the balcony – not used for people standing there.
с балкона = from the balcony (direction away):
- Я смотрю с балкона. – I’m looking from the balcony.

So for “on the balcony (there) it smells of earth”, на балконе is the natural choice.

Why is it после дождя, and why is дождя in the genitive case?

The preposition после (“after”) always takes the genitive case:

Pattern: после чего? → после дождя

Дождь (rain) in the genitive singular is дождя.

Other examples:

после работы (after work)
после урока (after the lesson)
после обеда (after lunch)

So после дождя is just the regular после + genitive structure.

Does после дождя mean the smell itself is “after the rain”, or that the earth is “after the rain”? What does it logically modify?

In practice it describes the situation as a whole: the smell of earth after it has rained.

Grammatically, the phrase is flexible:

You can read it as “On the balcony, it smells of earth (the way it does) after rain”.
Or as “On the balcony, after the rain, it smells of earth.”

Russian word order is relatively free, so после дождя can be seen as modifying the whole scene, not just землёй or just пахнет.

Why do we say этот запах успокаивает меня and not just запах успокаивает меня?

Both are possible, but they have different nuances:

этот запах успокаивает меня – this smell calms me (the specific smell we just mentioned).
запах успокаивает меня – the smell calms me (more general; could be any smell in context).

Because the sentence just mentioned a particular smell on the balcony, using этот points back to that exact smell you’re talking about. It’s similar to the difference between English “this smell” and “the smell”.

Why is успокаивает in the imperfective aspect, not a perfective form like успокоит?

Imperfective успокаивает describes a process, state, or repeated / general action:

этот запах успокаивает меня = this smell (generally / regularly) calms me; it has a calming effect.

Perfective успокоить would be used when you focus on the result of one specific act of calming:

Этот запах успокоит меня. – This smell will calm me (at some point, as a single event).

Here the idea is more about a typical, ongoing effect, so imperfective успокаивает is natural.

Why is it успокаивает меня and not успокаивает мне? Which case does успокаивать need?

The verb успокаивать / успокоить takes a direct object in the accusative case – the person or thing that is being calmed:

успокаивать кого? что?
успокаивает меня → меня is accusative of я.

Using dative (мне) here would be ungrammatical.
Compare:

Он успокаивает ребёнка. – He calms the child. (accusative)
Этот чай успокоит тебя. – This tea will calm you. (accusative)

Could I say Я успокаиваюсь от этого запаха instead? What’s the difference?

Yes, but the structure is different:

Этот запах успокаивает меня.
- Active verb + direct object.
- Focus on the smell as the agent that calms you.
Я успокаиваюсь от этого запаха.
- Reflexive verb успокаиваться (“to calm down”) + preposition от.
- Literally: I calm down from this smell.
- Focus is more on you, and the smell is the cause.

Both are correct; the original sentence simply emphasizes the smell as doing the calming.

What exactly does земля mean here? Is it “soil”, “earth”, or “land”?

In this context земля means soil / earth / the ground:

пахнет землёй после дождя → the wet earth / wet soil smell after rain.

The word земля is quite broad:

земля = soil, ground: копать землю – to dig the soil.
Земля (capitalized) = the planet Earth.
земля = land / territory: родная земля – native land.

Here, it clearly refers to ground/soil that smells after the rain.

What is the pronunciation and stress of балконе, землёй, and дождя?

балконе → [балКОне] – stress on the second syllable: балкОне
землёй → [земЛЁй] – stress on -лёй, the ё is always stressed.
дождя → [дождЯ] – stress on the second syllable: дождЯ

Remember:

ё is always stressed in Russian (even when written as е in some texts, though here it’s correctly written as ё: землёй).

Could the word order be different, like Этот запах на балконе после дождя пахнет землёй? Is the original order fixed?

Russian word order is flexible, but not all orders sound natural.

The original: На балконе пахнет землёй после дождя, и этот запах успокаивает меня.
- Very idiomatic and clear.

You could move elements around, but something like
Этот запах на балконе после дождя пахнет землёй sounds awkward and overloaded at the start.

More natural alternatives:

После дождя на балконе пахнет землёй.
На балконе после дождя пахнет землёй.

The original order is a typical, smooth way to describe the scene.