A very brief summary (in a nutshell)

The devil stole the month from the sky, and it became dark. He did this so that the blacksmith Vakula could not find the way to his beloved Oksana. After this, the Devil flew into the chimney to the blacksmith’s mother, the witch Solokha. When he flew through the pipe, the moon jumped out and took its place in the sky. As soon as the devil began to communicate with Solokha, there was a knock, and the witch quickly hid him in a bag. The village head came, followed by the clerk, then the rich Cossack Chub, Oksana’s father. She hid them all in bags. The last to come was Vakula's son, who did not like the bags in the house and decided to take them out. On the way, he met Oksana, who was walking and caroling with her friends. Before this, she jokingly told him that if he brought her the royal shoes, she would marry him, and now, upon meeting, she reminded the blacksmith about them. He throws away the bags, except for the one with the devil, and goes to Patsyuk, the local healer. Meanwhile, the bags are sorted by godfather and Oksana, from where, to their surprise, they take out important people in the village. Vakula comes to Patsyuk and asks for help finding the devil, but then he realizes that the devil is in his bag. He forces him to go to St. Petersburg to the queen, where he begs her to give him her slippers. Oksana, realizing that she loves the blacksmith, regrets that she behaved this way. Vakula, returning, gives her the slippers, and Chuba asks her father for Oksana’s hand. He agrees, the young people get married, and soon they have a child.

Summary (details)

The very last pre-Christmas evening was coming to an end, there was gradually increasing frost outside, it was becoming cooler than in the morning. And then suddenly a witch appeared above one of the village huts, flying straight out of the chimney. She flew over the houses and at the same time collected stars that were scattered across the winter sky into the sleeves of her clothes. No one had time to see her, because the time for carols had not yet come. The village youth were just about to leave their huts. And the devil was flying towards the witch, who wanted to sneak up on the month in order to steal it. The demon himself had long been angry with Vakula, the village blacksmith, who was the best painter on the Dikanka farm. This God-fearing man loved to draw pictures. One of them depicted the scene of the Last Judgment, where the devil was expelled from hell. It depicted sinners who, according to legend, beat him with everything they could get their hands on and chased him with whips. From the very moment this picture appeared, the devil decided to take revenge on Vakula. So he had only one night left when he could freely walk around the world. The demon planned to steal the clear month so that it would become dark on earth, and then he could detain a Cossack named Chub. Then the blacksmith Vakula, who loved his daughter, the beautiful Oksana, would not have been able to find his way into his house.

The devil’s plan was a success, and as soon as he managed to hide the stolen month in his pocket, the whole world became very dark, so it was impossible to find the way anywhere. Even the flying witch, when she saw herself in the pitch darkness, screamed in fright. Right there, just in time, the thief of the month, the devil, approached her like a petty demon and began to whisper pleasant words in her ear that all women, even witches, love to hear.

At the same time, the godfather and the Cossack Chub stood on the threshold of the clerk’s house and decided whether they should go to visit kutya in such darkness. They did not want to appear lazy in front of each other, and after some further thought they decided to hit the road.

There was only one girl left in the house - she was the daughter of the Cossack Chub, respected in the village. She stood in front of the mirror and preened herself in anticipation of her girlfriends. The girl examines her reflection with pleasure and great love, and she really likes it. It was then that the blacksmith Vakula came. He looks for a long time and cannot stop admiring this proud beauty, but the girl greets him coldly. They started talking, but suddenly heard a knock on the door. Vakula, very angry, is about to drive away the one who is knocking, but sees Oksana’s father himself, Chub, at the door, who, having lost his way, decided to return to his home. When he hears Vakula’s voice, he thinks that he has confused his house with the hut of the famous Cossack Levchenko. Changing his voice, he answers the blacksmith that he came to carol, to which he drove the owner of the house away. Chub decided to visit the witch Solokha, Vakula’s mother, but at that time the devil was visiting her and playing with her. When the demon flew, as usual, through the chimney into this woman’s hut, he accidentally dropped the stolen month.

The moon, taking advantage of this, rose smoothly into the sky, and it became light all around. By this time the raging blizzard had subsided, and noisy and cheerful youth poured into all the streets. The girlfriends also came to pick up Oksana. The girl noticed on one of them new slippers, embroidered with gold, and in front of everyone she said very loudly that she would marry Vakula if he brought her the ones that the queen herself wears. The blacksmith, very upset by these words, goes to his home.

At the same time, another guest appears in Solokha’s hut, the village head. The devil immediately hides the coal bag. The mistress of the house always willingly welcomed the Cossacks, who were very respected in the village, but they themselves had no idea that each of them had a rival. She was most friendly with the widower Chub. Solokha had serious plans for him - to take possession of all his wealth. She was jealous of her son for Oksana, because she was afraid that he might become the owner of Chub’s property before her, so she often quarreled Vakula with the girl’s father. As soon as the head shook the snow from his clothes, there was a knock on Solokha’s door again - it was the clerk. That’s how all these suitors took turns and hid in coal bags that stood in the corner of the hut. Everyone was afraid to even move. Vakula's son came after them, and when he saw several bags, he thought that it was his mother who had collected garbage, and decided that he needed to throw it away.

On his way, he met girls, among whom was his Oksana. Having thrown all the big bags onto the snowy road, he, with one small one over his shoulders, catches up with the proud beauty. But she laughs at him again, and the guy decides to go to the ice hole and drown himself, because he is unable to fulfill Oksana’s request. Entering the house of a Cossack named Patsyuk, about whom there were rumors that he was connected with the devil himself, Vakula meets a devil at his house who wants to get his soul. They sign a contract according to which the devil will take him to the queen, in which he will ask for slippers for his Oksana.

The path to the empress was long. Having met her, the blacksmith receives the desired slippers and brings them to Dikanka. On the farm, everyone thought that the guy had drowned himself on Christmas night, but Oksana, who realized that no one else could fulfill her desires and whims, felt sorry for him most of all. She doesn’t sleep at night and realizes that she loves this blacksmith very much. When he returned to the village and came to ask the girl’s hand in marriage from her father, she replied that she agreed to become his wife even without these little shoes. The young people got married, and then Vakula painted his hut very beautifully, everyone walked around and admired it.

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Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol
Christmas Eve

Stories of an old beekeeper

It's a clear, frosty night on the eve of Christmas. The stars and the moon are shining, the snow is sparkling, smoke is billowing above the chimneys of the huts. This is Dikanka, a tiny village near Poltava. Shall we look through the windows? Over there, the old Cossack Chub has put on a sheepskin coat and is going to visit. There is his daughter, the beautiful Oksana, preening in front of the mirror. There flies into the chimney the charming witch Solokha, a hospitable hostess, whom the Cossack Chub, the village head, and the clerk love to visit. And in that hut, on the edge of the village, an old man sits, puffing on a cradle. But this is the beekeeper Rudy Panko, a master of telling stories! One of his funniest stories is about how the devil stole the month from the sky, and the blacksmith Vakula flew to St. Petersburg to visit the queen.

All of them - Solokha, Oksana, the blacksmith, and even Rudy Panka himself - were invented by the wonderful writer Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol (1809-1852), and there is nothing unusual in the fact that he managed to portray his heroes so accurately and truthfully. Gogol was born in the small village of Velikie Sorochintsy, Poltava province, and from childhood he saw and knew well everything that he later wrote about. His father was a landowner and came from an old Cossack family. Nikolai studied first at the Poltava district school, then at the gymnasium in the city of Nezhin, also not far from Poltava; It was here that he first tried to write.

At the age of nineteen, Gogol left for St. Petersburg, served for some time in the offices, but very soon realized that this was not his calling. He began to publish little by little in literary magazines, and a little later he published his first book, “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” - a collection of amazing stories allegedly told by the beekeeper Rudy Panko: about the devil who stole the month, about the mysterious red scroll, about rich treasures that open on the night before Ivan Kupala. The collection was a huge success, and A.S. Pushkin really liked it. Gogol soon met him and became friends, and later Pushkin helped him more than once, for example, by suggesting (of course, in the most general terms) the plot of the comedy “The Inspector General” and the poem “Dead Souls.” While living in St. Petersburg, Gogol published the next collection “Mirgorod”, which included “Taras Bulba” and “Viy”, and “Petersburg” stories: “The Overcoat”, “The Stroller”, “The Nose” and others.

Nikolai Vasilyevich spent the next ten years abroad, only occasionally returning to his homeland: little by little he lived in Germany, then in Switzerland, then in France; later he settled in Rome for several years, which he fell in love with very much. The first volume of the poem “Dead Souls” was written here. Gogol returned to Russia only in 1848 and settled at the end of his life in Moscow, in a house on Nikitsky Boulevard.

Gogol is a very versatile writer, his works are so different, but they are united by wit, subtle irony and good humor. For this, Gogol and Pushkin valued him most: “This is real gaiety, sincere, relaxed, without affectation, without stiffness. And in places what poetry! What sensitivity! All this is so unusual in our current literature...”

P. Lemeni-Macedon

The last day before Christmas has passed. A clear winter night has arrived. The stars looked out. The month majestically rose into the sky to shine on good people and the whole world, so that everyone would have fun caroling and praising Christ 1
In our country, caroling means singing songs under the windows on the eve of Christmas, which are called carols. The housewife, or the owner, or whoever stays at home, will always throw sausage, or bread, or a copper penny into the bag of the one who sings carols. They say that there was once a fool Kolyada, who was mistaken for a god, and that it was as if that was the origin of the carols. Who knows? It’s not for us, ordinary people, to talk about this. Last year, Father Osip forbade caroling in farmsteads, saying that it was as if these people were pleasing Satan. However, if you tell the truth, then there is not a word about Kolyada in carols. They often sing about the Nativity of Christ; and at the end they wish health to the owner, hostess, children and the whole house.
Beekeeper's note. (Note by N.V. Gogol.)

It was freezing more than in the morning; but it was so quiet that the crunch of frost under a boot could be heard half a mile away. Not a single crowd of boys had ever appeared under the windows of the huts; for a month he only glanced at them furtively, as if calling the girls who were dressing up to run out quickly into the crunchy snow. Then smoke fell in clouds through the chimney of one hut and spread like a cloud across the sky, and along with the smoke a witch rose riding on a broom.

If at that time the Sorochinsky assessor was passing by in a troika of philistine 2
Philistines (horses) – i.e. peasants: peasants were called “rural inhabitants” in Tsarist Russia.

Horses, wearing a hat with a lambswool band, made in the Uhlan style, in a blue sheepskin coat, lined with black smushkas 3
Smushka is the skin of a newborn lamb.

With a devilishly woven whip, with which he is in the habit of urging his driver on, he would probably have noticed it, because not a single witch in the world can escape from the Sorochinsky assessor. He knows offhand how many piglets each woman has, and how much linen is in her chest, and what exactly from his clothes and household goods a good man will pawn in a tavern on Sunday 4
Shinok (Ukrainian) – drinking establishment, tavern.

But the Sorochinsky assessor did not pass through, and what does he care about strangers, he has his own parish 5
Volost (obsolete) – a territorial unit in Tsarist Russia.

Meanwhile, the witch rose so high that she was only a black speck flashing above. But wherever the speck appeared, there the stars, one after another, disappeared from the sky. Soon the witch had a full sleeve of them. Three or four were still shining. Suddenly, on the opposite side, another speck appeared, grew larger, began to stretch, and was no longer a speck. A short-sighted person, even if he had put wheels from the Komissarov chaise on his nose instead of glasses, he would not have recognized what it was. The front is completely German 6
We call everyone a German who is from a foreign land, even if he is French, or a Tsar, or a Swede - he is all German. (Note by N.V. Gogol.)

: narrow, constantly spinning and sniffing everything that came across, the muzzle ended, like our pigs, in a round snout, the legs were so thin that if Yareskovsky had such a head, he would have broken them in the first Cossack 7
Kozachok is a Ukrainian folk dance.

But behind him he was a real provincial lawyer 8
Solicitor (obsolete) – a judicial official.

in his uniform, because he had a tail hanging, as sharp and long as the current uniform tails; only by the goat beard under his muzzle, by the small horns sticking out on his head, and by the fact that he was no whiter than a chimney sweep, one could guess that he was not a German or a provincial attorney, but just a devil who had his last night left to wander around the world and teach good people the sins. Tomorrow, with the first bells for matins, he will run without looking back, tail between his legs, to his den.

Meanwhile, the devil was creeping slowly towards the month and was about to stretch out his hand to grab it, but suddenly he pulled it back, as if he had been burned, sucked his fingers, swung his leg and ran on the other side, and again jumped back and pulled his hand away. However, despite all the failures, the cunning devil did not abandon his mischief. Running up, he suddenly grabbed the month with both hands, grimacing and blowing, throwing it from one hand to the other, like a man who got fire for his cradle with his bare hands 9
A cradle is a smoking pipe.

; Finally, he hastily put it in his pocket and, as if nothing had happened, ran on.

In Dikanka, no one heard how the devil stole the month. True, the volost clerk, leaving the tavern on all fours, saw that he had been dancing in the sky for no reason at all for a month, and assured the whole village of this to God; but the laymen shook their heads and even laughed at him. But what was the reason for the devil to decide on such a lawless deed? And here’s what: he knew that the rich Cossack Chub was invited by the clerk to the kutya 10
Kutia - sweet porridge made from rice or other cereals with raisins; it is eaten on holidays, such as Christmas.

Where they will be: head; a relative of the clerk in a blue frock coat who came from the bishop's choir and played the deepest bass; Cossack Sverbyguz and some others; where, besides kutya, will there be varenukha 11
Varenukha – boiled vodka with spices.

Vodka distilled with saffron and a lot of other edibles. Meanwhile, his daughter, the beauty of the whole village, will remain at home, and a blacksmith, a strong man and a fellow anywhere, who was damned more disgusting than the sermons of Father Kondrat, will probably come to his daughter. In his spare time from business, the blacksmith was engaged in painting and was known as the best painter in the entire area. The centurion himself, who was still in good health at that time, 12
Sotnik - Cossack officer rank: commander of a hundred.

L...ko called him on purpose to Poltava to paint a board fence near his house. All the bowls from which the Dikan Cossacks drank borscht were painted by a blacksmith. The blacksmith was a God-fearing man and often painted images of saints: and now you can still find his evangelist Luke in the T... church. But the triumph of his art was one painting painted on the church wall in the right vestibule, in which he depicted St. Peter on the day of the Last Judgment, with keys in his hands, expelling an evil spirit from hell; the frightened devil rushed in all directions, anticipating his death, and the previously imprisoned sinners beat and drove him with whips, logs and anything else they could find. While the painter was working on this picture and painting it on a large wooden board, the devil tried with all his might to disturb him: he pushed him invisibly under his arm, lifted ash from the furnace in the forge and sprinkled it on the picture; but, despite everything, the work was finished, the board was brought into the church and embedded in the wall of the vestibule, and from that time on the devil swore to take revenge on the blacksmith.

There was only one night left for him to wander around in this world; but even that night he was looking for something to take out his anger on the blacksmith. And for this purpose he decided to steal a month, in the hope that old Chub was lazy and not easy-going, but the clerk was not so close to the hut: the road went beyond the village, past the mills, past the cemetery, and went around a ravine. Even on a monthly night, boiled milk and vodka infused with saffron could have lured Chub. But in such darkness it is unlikely that anyone would have been able to pull him off the stove and call him out of the hut. And the blacksmith, who had long been at odds with him, would never dare to go to his daughter in his presence, despite his strength.

Thus, as soon as the devil hid his month in his pocket, suddenly it became so dark all over the world that not everyone could find the way to the tavern, not only to the clerk. The witch, suddenly seeing herself in the darkness, screamed. Then the devil, coming up like a little demon, grabbed her by the arm and began to whisper in her ear the same thing that is usually whispered to the entire female race. Wonderfully arranged in our world! Everything that lives in him tries to adopt and imitate one another. Previously, it used to be that in Mirgorod one judge and the mayor walked around in winter in cloth-covered sheepskin coats, and all the petty officials wore simply headdresses. 13
A sheepskin coat (sheep coat) is sewn from skin with the skin facing out and not covered with fabric.

Now both the assessor and the subcommittee 14
Podkomoriy (obsolete) – a judge who dealt with land issues.

They polished themselves new fur coats from Reshetilovsky smushkas with cloth covers. The clerk and the volost clerk took the blue Chinese shirt for the third year 15
China fabric is a thick cotton fabric, usually blue.

six hryvnia arshin 16
Arshin (obsolete) – an ancient measure of length equal to 71 cm.

The sexton made himself nankees for the summer 17
Nank - sewn from coarse cotton fabric - nanki.

Harem pants and vest made of striped garus 18
Garus is a coarse cotton fabric that feels like wool.

In a word, everything gets into people! When will these people not be fussy! You can bet that many will find it surprising to see the devil running into the same place. The most annoying thing is that he probably imagines himself handsome, while his figure is ashamed to look at. Erysipelas, as Foma Grigorievich says, is an abomination, an abomination, but he, too, makes love hens! But it became so dark in the sky and under the sky that it was no longer possible to see anything that happened between them.

- So, godfather, you haven’t been to the clerk in the new house yet? - said the Cossack Chub, leaving the door of his hut, to a lean, tall man in a short sheepskin coat with an overgrown beard, showing that a piece of a scythe, with which men usually shave their beards for lack of a razor, had not touched it for more than two weeks. - Now there will be a good drinking party! – Chub continued, grinning his face. - As long as we don’t be late.

At this, Chub straightened his belt, which tightly intercepted his sheepskin coat, pulled his hat tighter, clutched the whip in his hand - the fear and threat of the annoying dogs, but, looking up, he stopped...

- What a devil! Look! look, Panas!..

- What? - said the godfather and raised his head up.

- Like what? no month!

-What an abyss! There really is no month.

“Well, no,” Chub said with some annoyance at his godfather’s constant indifference. - You probably don’t need it.

- What should I do!

“It was necessary,” Chub continued, wiping his mustache with his sleeve, “some devil, so that he wouldn’t have a chance to drink a glass of vodka in the morning, a dog!.. Really, as if for a laugh... On purpose, sitting in the hut, he looked at window: night is a miracle! It’s light, the snow shines in the month. Everything was as visible as day. I didn’t have time to go out the door - and now, at least gouge out my eyes!

Chub grumbled and scolded for a long time, and meanwhile at the same time he was thinking about what to decide on. He was dying to croak about all this nonsense at the clerk's, where, without any doubt, the head, the visiting bass, and the tar Mikita were already sitting, who went every two weeks to Poltava to auction and made such jokes that all the laymen grabbed their stomachs with laughter. Chub already mentally saw the boiled milk standing on the table. It was all tempting, really; but the darkness of the night reminded him of that laziness that is so dear to all Cossacks. How nice it would be now to lie with your legs tucked under you on a couch, quietly smoke a cradle and listen through your delightful drowsiness to carols and songs of cheerful boys and girls crowding in heaps under the windows. He would, without any doubt, have decided on the latter if he had been alone, but now both of them are not so bored and afraid to walk on a dark night, and they didn’t want to appear lazy or cowardly in front of others. Having finished the scolding, he turned again to his godfather:

- So no, godfather, a month?

- Wonderful, really! Let me smell some tobacco. You, godfather, have nice tobacco! Where do you get it?

- What the hell, nice one! - answered the godfather, closing the birch tavlinka 19
Tavlinka (obsolete) – a flat birch bark snuffbox.

Punctured with patterns. - The old hen won't sneeze!

“I remember,” Chub continued in the same way, “the late tavern owner Zozulya once brought me tobacco from Nizhyn.” Oh, there was tobacco! it was good tobacco! So, godfather, what should we do? It's dark outside.

“Then, perhaps, we’ll stay at home,” said the godfather, grabbing the door handle.

If his godfather had not said this, then Chub would probably have decided to stay, but now it was as if something was pulling him to go against it.

- No, godfather, let's go! You can't, you have to go!

Having said this, he was already annoyed with himself for what he said. It was very unpleasant for him to trudge on such a night; but he was consoled by the fact that he himself deliberately wanted this and did not do it as he was advised.

The godfather, without expressing the slightest movement of annoyance on his face, like a man who absolutely does not care whether he sits at home or trudges out of the house, looked around and scratched his batog with a stick. 20
Batog - cane.

Their shoulders and two godfathers set off on the road.

Now let's see what the beautiful daughter does when left alone. Oksana was not yet seventeen years old, and in almost the entire world, both on the other side of Dikanka and on this side of Dikanka, there was nothing but talk about her. The boys proclaimed in droves that there had never been and never would be a better girl in the village. Oksana knew and heard everything that was said about her, and was capricious, like a beauty. If she weren't wearing a plank and a spare tire 21
Plakha - a long piece of dense fabric, wrapped around the belt in the form of a skirt; spare tire - an apron made of thick fabric, embroidered with patterns; both are national Ukrainian women's clothing.

And in some hood 22
A hood is loose-fitting women's home clothing, similar to a robe.

She would have sent all her girls away. The boys chased her in crowds, but, having lost patience, they left little by little and turned to others, who were not so spoiled. Only the blacksmith was stubborn and did not give up his red tape, despite the fact that he was treated no better than others.

After her father left, she spent a long time dressing up and pretending in front of a small mirror in tin frames and could not stop admiring herself.

- Why do people want to tell me that I’m good? - she said, as if absentmindedly, just to chat with herself about something. “People lie, I’m not good at all.” “But the fresh face that flashed in the mirror, alive in childhood, with sparkling black eyes and an inexpressibly pleasant smile that burned through the soul, suddenly proved the opposite. “Are my black eyebrows and eyes,” the beauty continued, without letting go of the mirror, “so good that they have no equal in the world?” What's so good about that upturned nose? and in the cheeks? and on the lips? As if my black braids are good? Wow! You can be scared of them in the evening: they, like long snakes, twisted and wrapped around my head. I see now that I am not good at all! “And, moving the mirror a little further away from herself, she cried out: “No, I’m good!” Oh, how good! Miracle! What joy will I bring to the one I will marry! How my husband will admire me! He won't remember himself. He will kiss me to death.

- Wonderful girl! - whispered the blacksmith who entered quietly. - And she doesn’t have much boasting! He stands for an hour, looking in the mirror, and can’t get enough of it, and still praises himself out loud!

- Yes, boys, am I a match for you? “Look at me,” continued the pretty coquette, “how smoothly I perform; My shirt is made of red silk. And what ribbons on the head! You will never see richer braid in your life 23
Galun - braid stitched with gold or silver threads; sewn onto uniforms.

My father bought all this for me so that the best fellow in the world would marry me! - And, grinning, she turned in the other direction and saw the blacksmith...

She screamed and stopped sternly in front of him.

The blacksmith dropped his hands.

It is difficult to tell what the dark-skinned face of the wonderful girl expressed: the severity was visible in it, and through the severity there was some kind of mockery of the embarrassed blacksmith, and a barely noticeable color of annoyance spread subtly across her face; it was all so mixed up and it was so indescribably good that kissing her a million times was all the best that could be done then.

- Why did you come here? – this is how Oksana began to speak. - Do you really want to be kicked out the door with a shovel? You are all masters at approaching us. In no time you will know when fathers are not at home. Oh, I know you! So, is my chest ready?

- He will be ready, my dear, after the holiday he will be ready. If you only knew how much you fussed around him: he didn’t leave the forge for two nights; but not a single priest will have such a chest. He put the kind of iron on the forge that he didn’t put on the centurion’s tarataika when he went to work in Poltava. And how it will be scheduled! Even if you go out all the way around with your little white legs, you won’t find anything like this! Red and blue flowers will be scattered throughout the field. It will burn like heat. Don't be angry with me! Let me at least talk, at least look at you!

- Who forbids you, speak and see!

Then she sat down on the bench and looked in the mirror again and began to straighten her braids on her head. She looked at the neck, at the new shirt, embroidered with silk, and a subtle feeling of self-satisfaction was expressed on her lips, on her fresh cheeks 24
Lanita (poet.) – cheeks.

and it shone in the eyes.

- Let me sit next to you! - said the blacksmith.

“Sit down,” Oksana said, keeping the same feeling in her lips and satisfied eyes.

– Wonderful, beloved Oksana, let me kiss you! - said the encouraged blacksmith and pressed her to him with the intention of grabbing a kiss; but Oksana turned her cheeks, which were already at an imperceptible distance from the blacksmith’s lips, and pushed him away.

-What else do you want? When he needs honey, he needs a spoon! Go away, your hands are harder than iron. And you yourself smell of smoke. I think I got soot all over me.

Then she brought up the mirror and again began to preen herself in front of it.

“She doesn’t love me,” the blacksmith thought to himself, hanging his head. - All toys for her; and I stand in front of her like a fool and don’t take my eyes off her. And he would still stand in front of her, and never take his eyes off her! Wonderful girl! What I wouldn’t give to know what’s in her heart, who she loves! But no, she doesn’t need anyone. She admires herself; torments me, poor thing; but I don’t see the light behind the sadness; and I love her as much as no other person in the world has ever loved or will ever love.”

– Is it true that your mother is a witch? - Oksana said and laughed; and the blacksmith felt that everything inside him was laughing. This laughter seemed to resonate at once in his heart and in his quietly trembling veins, and behind all this, annoyance sank into his soul that he was not in the power to kiss the face that laughed so pleasantly.

- What do I care about my mother? You are my mother, and my father, and everything that is dear in the world. If the king called me and said: “Blacksmith Vakula, ask me for everything that is best in my kingdom, I will give it all to you. I will order you to make a gold forge, and you will forge with silver hammers.” “I don’t want,” I would say to the king, “neither expensive stones, nor a gold forge, nor your entire kingdom. Better give me my Oksana!”

- See what you are like! Only my father himself is not a mistake. You’ll see when he doesn’t marry your mother,” Oksana said with a sly grin. - However, the girls don’t come... What does that mean? It's high time to start caroling. I'm getting bored.

- God be with them, my beauty!

- No matter how it is! The boys will probably come with them. This is where the balls begin. I can imagine the funny stories they will tell!

- So are you having fun with them?

- Yes, it’s more fun than with you. A! someone knocked; That's right, girls with boys.

“What more should I expect? - the blacksmith spoke to himself. - She's making fun of me. I am as dear to her as a rusty horseshoe. But if that’s the case, at least someone else won’t get to laugh at me. Let me just notice who she likes more than me; I'll wean..."

There was a knock on the door and a voice that sounded sharply in the cold: “Open!” – interrupted his thoughts.

“Wait, I’ll open it myself,” said the blacksmith and went out into the hallway with the intention of breaking off the sides of the first person he came across out of frustration.

The frost increased, and it became so cold at the top that the devil jumped from one hoof to another and blew into his fist, wanting to somehow warm up his frozen hands. It is not surprising, however, for someone to freeze to death who has been hustling from morning to morning in hell, where, as you know, it is not as cold as here in winter, and where, putting on a cap and standing in front of the fire, as if he were really a cook, he was roasting he treats sinners with the same pleasure with which a woman usually fries sausage at Christmas.

The witch herself felt that it was cold, despite the fact that she was warmly dressed; and therefore, raising her hands up, she put her foot down and, having brought herself into such a position as a man flying on skates, without moving a single joint, she descended through the air, as if along an icy sloping mountain, and straight into the chimney.

The devil followed her in the same order. But since this animal is more agile than any dandy in stockings, it is not surprising that at the very entrance to the chimney he ran over the neck of his mistress, and both found themselves in a spacious stove between the pots.

The traveler slowly pulled back the flap to see if her son Vakula had invited guests to the hut, but when she saw that there was no one there, except for the bags that lay in the middle of the hut, she climbed out of the stove and threw off the warm cover 25
The casing is here: a sheepskin sheepskin coat.

She recovered, and no one could have known that she was riding a broom a minute ago.

The mother of the blacksmith Vakula was no more than forty years old. She was neither good-looking nor bad-looking. It’s hard to be good in such years. However, she was so able to charm the most sedate Cossacks (who, by the way, it doesn’t hurt to note, had little need for beauty) that both the head and the clerk Osip Nikiforovich came to her (of course, if the clerk was not at home), and the Cossack Korniy Chub, and the Cossack Kasyan Sverbyguz. And, to her credit, she knew how to skillfully deal with them. It never occurred to any of them that he had a rival. Was there a pious man, or a nobleman, as the Cossacks call themselves, dressed in a kobenyak with a visloga 26
Kobenyak is a long men's cloak with a hood sewn to the back - a vidloga.

On Sunday, go to church or, if the weather is bad, to a tavern - how can you not go to Solokha, eat rich dumplings with sour cream and chat in a warm hut with the talkative and obsequious hostess. And the nobleman deliberately made a big detour for this purpose before reaching the tavern, and called it “coming along the road.”

And if Solokha would go to church on a holiday, putting on a bright coat with a Chinese spare tire, and on top of it a blue skirt, on which a golden mustache was sewn on the back, and would stand right next to the right wing, then the clerk would surely cough and squint involuntarily at that side of the eye; Oseledets stroked his head, wrapped his head behind his ear 27
Oseledets (Ukrainian) - a long forelock on the crown of the shaved head of the Cossacks.

And he said to his neighbor standing next to him: “Eh, good woman! damn woman!

Solokha bowed to everyone, and everyone thought that she was bowing to him alone. But anyone who wanted to interfere in other people's affairs would have immediately noticed that Solokha was most friendly with the Cossack Chub. Chub was a widow. Eight stacks of bread always stood in front of his hut. Every time two pairs of stalwart oxen poked their heads out of the wicker barn into the street and mooed when they envied the walking godfather - a cow, or their uncle - a fat bull. The bearded goat climbed to the very roof and rattled from there in a sharp voice, like a mayor, teasing the turkeys performing in the yard and turning around when he envied his enemies, the boys, who mocked his beard. Chub had a lot of linen, zhupans and ancient kuntushes in his chests 28
Zhupan, kuntush - ancient Ukrainian men's and women's outerwear.

With gold braid: his late wife was a dandy. In the garden, in addition to poppy seeds, cabbage, and sunflowers, two fields of tobacco were sown every year. Solokha found it useful to add all this to her household, thinking in advance about what kind of order it would take when it passed into her hands, and redoubled her favor towards old Chub. And so that somehow her son Vakula would not drive up to his daughter and not have time to take everything for himself, and then probably would not allow her to interfere in anything, she resorted to the usual means of all forty-year-old gossips: to quarrel between Chuba and the blacksmith as often as possible. Perhaps these very cunning and cleverness of hers were the reason that here and there old women began to say, especially when they were drinking too much at a merry gathering somewhere, that Solokha was definitely a witch; that the boy Kizyakolupenko saw her tail from behind, no larger than a woman’s spindle; that the Thursday before last she crossed the road like a black cat; that a pig once ran up to the priest, crowed like a rooster, put Father Kondrat’s hat on his head and ran back.

It happened that while the old women were talking about this, some cow shepherd Tymish Korostyavy came. He did not fail to tell how in the summer, just before Petrovka 29
Petrovka (Petrov's Day) is a Christian holiday, celebrated on June 29 (July 12).

When he lay down to sleep in the barn, having put straw under his head, he saw with his own eyes that a witch, with a loose braid, in only a shirt, began to milk the cows, and he could not move, he was so bewitched; After milking the cows, she came to him and smeared something so disgusting on his lips that he spat all day after that. But all this is somewhat doubtful, because only the Sorochinsky assessor can see the witch. And that’s why all the eminent Cossacks waved their hands when they heard such speeches. “The bitchy women are lying!” - was their usual answer.

Having crawled out of the stove and recovered, Solokha, like a good housewife, began to clean up and put everything in its place, but did not touch the bags: “Vakula brought this, let him take it out himself!” The devil, meanwhile, when he was still flying into the chimney, somehow accidentally turned around and saw Chub hand in hand with his godfather, already far from the hut. He instantly flew out of the stove, ran across their path and began tearing up piles of frozen snow from all sides. A snowstorm arose. The air turned white. The snow rushed back and forth like a net and threatened to cover the eyes, mouths and ears of pedestrians. And the devil flew away again into the chimney, in the firm belief that Chub would return back with his godfather, find the blacksmith and reprimand him so that for a long time he would not be able to pick up a brush and paint offensive caricatures.

In fact, as soon as the blizzard arose and the wind began to cut straight into his eyes, Chub already expressed repentance and, pressing his cape deeper onto his head, 30
Kapelyukha and kapelukh - men's hat with ears.

He treated himself, the devil and his godfather to scoldings. However, this annoyance was feigned. Chub was very happy about the blizzard. There was still eight times more distance left to reach the clerk than the distance they had covered. The travelers turned back. The wind was blowing at the back of my head; but nothing was visible through the blowing snow.

- Stop, godfather! “It seems we’re going the wrong way,” Chub said, moving away a little, “I don’t see a single hut.” Oh, what a snowstorm! Turn a little to the side, godfather, and see if you can find a road; In the meantime, I'll look here. The evil spirit will force you to trudge through such a blizzard! Don't forget to scream when you find your way. Eh, what a heap of snow Satan has thrown into his eyes!

The road, however, was not visible. The godfather, stepping aside, wandered back and forth in long boots and finally came across a tavern. This find made him so happy that he forgot everything and, shaking off the snow, entered the hallway, not in the least worrying about his godfather who remained on the street. It seemed to Chub that he had found the way; stopping, he began to scream at the top of his lungs, but, seeing that his godfather was not there, he decided to go himself. After walking a little, he saw his hut. Drifts of snow lay near her and on the roof. Clapping his hands frozen in the cold, he began knocking on the door and shouting commandingly for his daughter to unlock it.

-What do you want here? - the blacksmith came out and shouted sternly.

Chub, recognizing the blacksmith's voice, stepped back a little. “Eh, no, this is not my hut,” he said to himself, “a blacksmith will not wander into my hut. Again, if you look closely, it’s not Kuznetsov’s. Whose house would this be? Here you go! didn't recognize it! This is the lame Levchenko, who recently married a young wife. Only his house is similar to mine. That’s why it seemed to me and at first a little strange that I came home so soon. However, Levchenko is now sitting with the clerk, I know that; why a blacksmith?.. E-ge-ge! he goes to see his young wife. That's how it is! ok!... now I understand everything.”

-Who are you and why are you hanging around under doors? - the blacksmith said more sternly than before and came closer.

“No, I won’t tell him who I am,” thought Chub, “what good, he’ll still beat him up, the damned degenerate!” - and, changing his voice, answered:

- It’s me, a good man! I came for your amusement to sing a little carol under your windows.

- Get to hell with your carols! – Vakula shouted angrily. - Why are you standing there? Do you hear me, get out this instant!

Chub himself already had this prudent intention, but it seemed to him annoyingly that he was forced to obey the blacksmith’s orders. It seemed as if some evil spirit was pushing his arm and forcing him to say something in defiance.

- Why did you really shout like that? - he said in the same voice, - I want to sing carols, and that’s enough.

- Hey! Yes, you won’t get tired of words!.. – Following these words, Chub felt a painful blow to his shoulder.

- Yes, as I see it, you are already starting to fight! – he said, retreating a little.

- Let's go, let's go! – the blacksmith shouted, rewarding Chub with another push.

- Let's go, let's go! - the blacksmith shouted and slammed the door.

- Look how brave he is! - said Chub, left alone on the street. - Try to come closer! wow! what a big deal! Do you think I won’t find a case against you? No, my dear, I'll go and go straight to the commissar. You will know from me! I won't see that you are a blacksmith and a painter. However, look at the back and shoulders: I think there are blue spots. The enemy's son must have given him a painful beating! It’s a pity that it’s cold and I don’t want to take off the cover! Wait, you demonic blacksmith, so that the devil beats both you and your forge, you will dance with me! Look, damn Shibenik 31
Sibenik (Ukrainian) – hanged man, scoundrel.

However, now he is not at home. Solokha, I think, is sitting alone. Hm... it's not far from here; I wish I could go! The time is now such that no one will catch us. Maybe even that one will be possible... Look how painfully the damned blacksmith beat him!

Here Chub, scratching his back, went in the other direction. The pleasure that awaited him ahead during his meeting with Solokha lessened the pain a little and made insensitive the very frost that crackled through all the streets, not drowned out by the whistling of the blizzard. From time to time, on his face, whose beard and mustache the blizzard lathered with snow more quickly than any barber, tyrannically grabbing his victim by the nose, a semi-sweet mine appeared. But if, however, the snow had not crossed everything back and forth before our eyes, then for a long time one would have seen how Chub stopped, scratched his back, and said: “The damned blacksmith beat him painfully!” - and set off again.

“The Night Before Christmas” is the first story of the second book “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” by N.V. Gogol.

It's the night before Christmas in Dikanka, Little Russia. A witch flies out of the chimney of one house on a broom and begins to collect stars from the sky into her sleeve. Next to her, a devil appears in the sky, who grabs the hot moon and hides it in his pocket. In this way, the devil wants to take revenge on the village blacksmith and painter Vakula, who painted an unpleasant picture in the church about the expulsion of the evil spirit from hell.

Vakula is passionately in love with Oksana, the daughter of the Cossack Chub. Chub is going to spend the night before Christmas drinking at the clerk's house, while Vakula is waiting for Oksana to be left at home without her father so that he can come and declare his love to her. But the devil, having stolen the month from the sky, plunges Dikanka into darkness with the expectation that this darkness will force Chub to stay at home and upset the blacksmith’s plan.

“The Night Before Christmas” (“Evenings on a farm near Dikanka”). 1961 film

However, Chub still goes to the clerk for a treat. Young Oksana, seeing her father off, . Vakula enters her hut. He tells Oksana about his love, but the capricious coquette only laughs at him. The heated explanation is interrupted by an unexpected knock on the door. Dissatisfied with this obstacle, Vakula comes out of the door with the intention of crushing the uninvited guest's sides.

None other than its owner, Chub, knocks on the hut. The devil, Vakula’s insidious enemy, created a blizzard on his way, which nevertheless forced Oksana’s father to abandon the thought of drinking at the clerk’s and return home. But due to the heavy snow, Chub is not entirely sure that he is knocking on his own house, and not on someone else’s. And Vakula, who comes out to knock in the middle of a snowstorm, does not recognize Chub. He tells him to get out, rewarding him with two strong blows. Mistakenly believing that the hut is really not his, Chub decides to spend the rest of the night before Christmas with Vakula’s mother, Solokha, with whom he has been playing love tricks for a long time.

Gogol. Christmas Eve. Audiobook

Gogol informs the reader that Vakula’s mother, Solokha, is the witch who stole the stars from the sky. Now she is again descending on a broom into the chimney of her hut. She is followed by the devil, who is not averse to indulging in lovemaking with the witch. In this regard, the unmarried Solokha has no equal among Dikan women. Many Cossacks enjoy her favor. Solokha is so dexterous that each of her admirers does not even suspect that he has rivals.

Having relaxed with the devil, Solokha suddenly hears a knock on the door. She hastily hides the devil in a bag standing on the floor, and another admirer of hers, the village head, enters the hut. But the date with the head is soon interrupted by a new knock. Solokha hides her head in another bag - from the clerk Osip Nikiforovich, who looked at her with the same love purpose. However, the clerk almost immediately has to be hidden - Chub, beaten by Vakula, comes to take advantage of Solokha’s female bounty. Following this, Vakula himself returns home. Solokha hastily hides Chub in the bag where the clerk is already sitting.

Vakula looks around the hut and decides that the bags standing in the middle of it are full of garbage that needs to be thrown away. The strong blacksmith puts the sacks on his back and goes out into the street, where on the night before Christmas boys and girls sing carols: they sing funny songs under the windows of their fellow villagers, receiving food or some money as a reward. Mocking Oksana, in order to play a trick on Vakula, promises to marry him if he gets her the slippers (boots) that the queen herself wears. Almost lost in mind from unrequited passion, Vakula loudly promises to commit suicide and, throwing two bags, runs away with the third - the one in which the devil sits.

Vakula decides to go to the Cossack Patsyuk, who has a reputation in the village as a healer associated with evil spirits. He finds Patsyuk eating dumplings and dumplings, which themselves jump into his mouth. In response to Vakula’s request for the devil’s assistance in bewitching Oksana, Patsyuk hints that the devil is sitting behind his shoulders. Going out into the street, Vakula discovers the devil in the bag and, by threatening to make the sign of the cross, forces him to carry him through the air to St. Petersburg to the Tsarina.

Gogol "The Night Before Christmas". Illustration by Olga Ionaitis

In Dikanka, fellow villagers untie the bags abandoned by the blacksmith, freeing Solokha’s lovers from them (in Gogol’s description this is accompanied by comic scenes). Vakula and the devil fly into the capital, glittering with illumination. The blacksmith finds fellow Cossacks there who are going to receive the queen. He agrees to go with them. Gogol describes the brilliant audience of the Little Russians with Catherine II in the presence of Potemkin and Fonvizin. In the middle of the reception, Vakula falls at the queen’s feet and asks “for his wife” for slippers from the royal foot. Laughing at his naivety, Catherine orders the shoes to be brought. Having grabbed them, Vakula, riding the devil, hurries back to Dikanka.

They are already amazed at his sudden disappearance. There is a rumor that the blacksmith either hanged himself or drowned himself. Having learned about this, Oksana spends the rest of the Christmas night feeling sorry for Vakula - and from this pity, love for him flares up in her heart. Having flown to Dikanka and driven away the devil, Vakula, with little slippers and other gifts, goes to woo Oksana, who is already ready to marry him without them.

Gogol "The Night Before Christmas". Illustration

They settle in a new hut, personally painted by an artist-blacksmith.

The last day before Christmas has passed. It was freezing worse than in the morning. Then a witch flew out through the chimney of one of the huts. She flew, simultaneously collecting stars scattered across the sky into her sleeve. Nobody saw her because the boys and girls had not yet come out to carol. The devil was flying towards the witch. He sneaked towards the month to steal it. The devil had long been angry with the blacksmith Vakula, a God-fearing man and the best painter in Dikanka, because he painted a picture of the Last Judgment in the church on the wall. On it, the devil was expelled from hell, and sinners “beat and drove him with whips, logs and anything else they could find.” From then on, the devil swore to take revenge on Vakula, and only one night was left for him to walk freely around the world. The theft of the month, according to the demon’s plan, was supposed to detain the Cossack Chub, respected in the village, at home, and this would prevent the blacksmith from coming to Chub’s daughter Oksana, the first beauty in the village. And indeed, “as soon as the devil hid his month in his pocket, suddenly it became so dark all over the world that not everyone would find the way to the tavern.” The witch, seeing herself in the dark, screamed. Then the devil, having approached her like a little demon, began to whisper in her ear what is usually whispered to the entire female race. At this time, Chub and his godfather, standing on the threshold, are pondering whether it is worth going to the clerk for kutya in such darkness. For fear of appearing lazy to each other, they still set off. The only remaining daughter, Chuba Oksana, is preening before her friends arrive. She lovingly examines herself in the mirror, saying: “Are my black eyebrows and eyes so good? What’s good about this upturned nose? And in my cheeks?.. No, I’m good! Oh, how good! Miracle!” The blacksmith finds her doing this. For a long time he cannot get enough of the proud beauty. Oksana receives him very coldly. Their conversation is interrupted by a knock on the door, and Vakula goes to open it “with the intention of breaking off the sides of the first person he comes across out of frustration.” Behind the door is Chub himself, who has lost his way. He decided to return home, but when he heard the blacksmith’s voice, he thought that he was not in his hut, but in the hut of the Cossack Levchenko, to whose young wife the blacksmith had probably come. Frightened by Vakula, Chub changes his voice and says that he came to sing carols. The blacksmith drives him away. Then Chub decides to visit Vakula’s mother, the witch Solokha, who was playing with the devil at that time. Moreover, the demon, flying into Solokha’s hut through the chimney, dropped the month. The moon took advantage of the opportunity and smoothly rose into the sky, illuminating everything around. The snowstorm subsided, and the cheerful and noisy youth poured out into the street. “Heaps of girls with bags burst into Chub’s hut and surrounded Oksana.” Oksana notices one of her friends is wearing new shoes embroidered with gold. In front of everyone, she declares that she will marry the blacksmith if he gets her the slippers that the queen wears. Frustrated, Vakula leaves her and heads home.

At this time, a head bursts into Solokha’s hut. The devil was forced to hide in a coal sack. It must be said that Solokha willingly hosted the most respected Cossacks, so much so that none of them ever suspected the existence of a rival. But most of all she was friendlier with the widowed Cossack Chub. Solokha had far-reaching plans - to take over his wealth. But, knowing about her son’s love for Oksana and fearing that Vakula might take over Chub’s property before her, she constantly quarreled between the blacksmith and Oksana’s father. And so, before my head had time to shake off the snow, the clerk knocked on the door. The overweight head had to climb into the coal sack. But the clerk himself did not have to warm up for long. Chub finally reached Solokha. And after him Vakula began to knock furiously into the hut. Chub also had to hide in the bag, the same one in which the clerk was already sitting. The blacksmith absentmindedly looked around the corners of his hut and saw the bags. Thinking that the bags are garbage, Vakula decides to take them out.

On the way, he meets a crowd of girls, including Oksana. Throwing away the large bags and leaving one small one behind his shoulders, the blacksmith follows her. The girl laughs at Vakula again and says that she will marry him if he gets her the Tsarina’s slippers. The blacksmith understands that it is impossible to fulfill her demand and, in despair, wants to drown himself in the ice hole. As he runs, he shouts to the boys to ask Father Kondrat to pray for his sinful soul, since he can no longer walk in this world.

After cooling down, Vakula decides to try a last resort. He goes to ask for advice from the Cossack Patsyuk, about whom there were rumors in Dikanka that he was “a little like the devil.” Vakula was extremely surprised to find the owner eating dumplings, which themselves dipped in sour cream and climbed into his mouth. All that Patsyuk said to Vakula was: “He who has the devil behind him doesn’t have to go far.” Then the blacksmith noticed that the dumplings in sour cream were getting into his mouth. Remembering that you can’t eat meat that night, the blacksmith runs out of the hut so as not to accumulate sin. The demon sitting in the sack decides to take advantage of the moment and get Vakula’s soul. Deftly jumping out of the bag, he climbs onto the blacksmith’s neck and offers to make sure that Oksana will belong to Vakula today, and in return asks to sign a contract. The blacksmith agrees. The devil begins to dance on his neck with joy. Then Vakula grabs him by the tail and baptizes him. The devil becomes quiet, and Vakula, sitting on top of him, orders him to be taken to the queen in St. Petersburg.

The girls find the bags abandoned by Vakula and decide to go get the sleds to take them to Oksana’s house and see what’s in them. At this time, godfather Chubov, calling a weaver for help, drags one of the bags into his hut, thinking that it contains caroled food. Chub and the clerk find themselves in the bag. The girl’s second bag is taken to Oksana, and the head comes out at the moment when Chub enters the hut. The embarrassed head hurries to leave, and Chub begins to scold Solokha for her treachery.

The blacksmith arrives in St. Petersburg and, with the help of the devil, joins the Cossacks who were passing through Dikanka in the fall. The Cossacks inform Vakula that they are going to the queen for a reception, and agree to take him with them. The blacksmith finds himself in a palace, where he is amazed at the luxury and splendor of the surroundings. And here he is in front of the empress. The Cossacks came to ask for their Sich. “What do you want?” asks the empress. And then Vakula throws himself on his knees in front of her and asks the queen for her shoes. Touched by the Cossack's innocence, the Empress orders his request to be fulfilled. Vakula suddenly disappears, and now the devil is carrying the blacksmith back to Dikanka.

And at this time, a commotion began in Dikanka. Everyone talks only about Vakula’s death. Oksana herself regrets that she treated the person who endured her whims for the longest time so cruelly. She sleeps poorly at night, and by morning she realizes that she is head over heels in love with the blacksmith.

Vakula comes home, releases the devil, having given him three heavy blows with a twig. The next morning the blacksmith takes a new hat and belt and goes to make a match. He kneels in front of Chub and offers to forget past grievances, after which he presents gifts and asks to give Oksana for him. Seduced by the gifts, Chub agrees. Oksana came in and gasped with joy when she saw the blacksmith. She didn’t even look at the slippers: “No! No! I don’t need slippers! I don’t even need slippers...” And she blushed.

Oksana and Vakula got married. Vakula, astonishing to everyone, painted his hut with paints, and in the church he painted the devil in hell, and “so disgusting that everyone spat when they passed by.”

The last day before Christmas has passed. Night has come. The moon has risen to heaven. All residents of Sorochin are looking forward to caroling. The streets are so quiet that any rustling noise can be heard. And then suddenly a large plume of smoke poured out of the chimney of one house, and from it a witch appeared riding on a broom. Nobody saw her. However, if the Sorochinsky assessor was passing by, he would immediately notice her. Since not one witch could hide from him. And in general he knew everything, even how many piglets someone had. The witch rose high into the sky, and the stars gradually began to disappear from the sky. She was the one who stole them. I collected a large pile in my hands and finished with this matter. However, suddenly something else appeared in the sky that looked like a person. From a distance he looked exactly like a German, but up close one could see that he was completely black, thin, with a tail and a heel on his face. And only by the horns could one understand that it was the devil. He has one last day left to walk free, since the next day, after the bells, he will run, tail between his legs, to his den. The devil began to sneak around by the month. He took it, but immediately let go because he got burned. Then it cooled down and he grabbed the heavenly body and put it in his pocket. And then the whole world became dark. On Dikanka, no one saw how the villain stole the month. Only the clerk noticed how the moon suddenly seemed to dance in the sky.

The devil stole the month in order to take revenge on the blacksmith, who loved to draw and painted a wall in the church on which the Last Judgment was depicted, and the devil who was shamed. The villain’s strategy included the following thoughts: The fact is that the rich Cossack Chub was going to the clerk for a kutya, and the blacksmith Vakula wanted to come to his daughter Oksana. The road to the clerk led through a cemetery, ravines and generally outside the village. And if it’s so dark on the street, then it’s not a fact that something will force the Cossack to leave his house. And since the blacksmith and Chub did not get along well, Vakula would not risk going to Oksana.

The witch, seeing herself in the dark, screamed. And the Devil quickly ran up to her and began to whisper something in her ear, thereby seducing her, like a real man.

Cossack Chub went out into the street with his godfather, they talked about their own things. And then they notice that there is no month in the sky. They don’t understand what’s going on, and they need to go to the clerk. They are thinking about whether to stay or not, but Chub says that if they don’t go, then it won’t be convenient for the clerk’s other guests, since they might think that these two are lazy and cowards. Eventually they hit the road. At this time, the daughter of the Cossack Chuba Oksana was preening in her room. She was the most beautiful girl, according to all the boys in the whole area. Crowds ran after her, but she was adamant. And the guys slowly chose others, those who were much less spoiled than the beauty. Only the blacksmith Vakula was stubborn and, no matter what, continued to pursue the girl. She stood and admired herself in the mirror. She was talking to herself. She told me that she was not good-looking and didn’t understand what there was to like about her. But then she jumped up and began to praise herself. To say that everything about her is beautiful, both herself and the clothes that her dad bought her so that the most eligible groom could marry her. Vakula watched all this through the window. And suddenly the girl saw him and screamed. I asked what he was doing here. She began to say that all the guys are so good at going to her when their father is away, they are so brave. Then she asked how things were going with her chest, which Vakula forged especially for her. He replied that he took the best iron, no one had anything like it. And when she paints it, it will be better than any other girl’s. Oksana kept preening and spinning around the mirror. With her permission, Vakula sat down next to her and wanted to kiss her. He said that he would give anything to have this girl as his. But she behaved so rudely that Vakula was deeply broken in his soul, because he understood that she did not feel anything for him at all. Someone knocked on the door.

Meanwhile, the Devil, suffering from the cold, and the witch, who is also Vakula’s mother, climbed through the chimney to her house. Vakula’s mother, the witch Solokha, was already an adult woman. She was about forty. She was not a beauty, but at the same time she was pretty. And, despite her wisdom, she attracted all the most sedate Cossacks. They came to her, and the head sat down, and the clerk, and the Cossack Chub, and the Cossack Kasyan Sverbyguz. She accepted these men so much that not one of them had any idea about the existence of competitors. But most of all she liked the father of the beautiful Oksana - the Cossack Chub. He was a widower and had a lot on his farm. Solokha dreamed of taking it all for herself. However, she was afraid that her son Vakula would marry Oksana, and this farm would belong to him. Therefore, she did everything to scold Chub and the blacksmith as much as possible. And because of this, all the old women around said that Solokha was a witch. And they came up with different stories, then they saw her tail, then something else. However, only the Sorochinsky assessor could see the witch, and he was silent, and therefore all these stories were not taken seriously. Having flown through the pipe, Solokha began to clean everything up. And the devil, while flying towards the pipe, saw Chub and his godfather who were going to the clerk, and began to shovel snow in their direction, which started a blizzard. The devil wanted Chub to go back home and scold the blacksmith. And his plan came true. As soon as the snowstorm began, Chub and his godfather immediately got ready to go back home. But nothing was visible around. And then the godfather went a little to the side to look for the way, and if he found it, he had to shout. And Chub, in turn, remained in the same place and also looked for the way. But the godfather immediately saw the tavern, and, forgetting about his friend, went there. And at that time Chub saw his house. He began to shout to his daughter to open it, but the blacksmith Vakula came out and, not realizing that it was Chub with the question “what do you want?” threw him out the door. Chub thought that he had not come to his home. Since the blacksmith has nothing to do with him, and he would not have found the way back so soon. He knew that only the lame Levchenko, who had recently married a young wife, had a similar house. But the lame man himself is now definitely visiting the clerk. And Chub then thought that Vakula came to his young wife. The Cossack received several blows on the back and shoulder from the blacksmith and, with offended shouts and threats, went to Solokha. However, the snowstorm really bothered him.

While the devil was flying from the created blizzard into the Solokhin chimney, a month got out of his pocket and, taking advantage of the opportunity, returned to its place. It became light outside and it was as if the snowstorm had never happened. All the young people ran out into the street with bags and began to sing carols. Then they went into the house of the Cossack Chub and surrounded Oksana, showed them carols, and the girl had a lot of fun. Although Vakula, despite the fact that he loved caroling, at that moment hated it. Oksana saw her friend’s shoes and began to admire them. And Vakula told her not to be upset, he would buy her slippers that no one else had. And then the pampered beauty declared in front of everyone that if Vakula gets her the slippers that the queen herself wears, then she will immediately marry him.

Vakula was in despair, he understood that the girl did not love him. And he wanted to promise himself to forget about her, but still love won, and he began to think about how he could continue to woo the girl.

Meanwhile, in Solokha’s house, the devil wanted to set a condition for the witch to please her. And that if she does not agree to satisfy his passions and, as usual, reward him, then he is ready for anything, will throw himself into the water, and send his soul straight to hell.

Solokha wanted to spend this evening alone, but a sudden knock on the door alarmed both her and the devil with his plans. He knocked his head, shouted, open it. Solokha hid the devil in a bag, and she opened it for the man and gave him a glass of vodka to drink. He said that because of the snowstorm he did not go to the clerk. And seeing her light in the window, he decided to spend the evening with Solokha. But, before he had time to finish this, they began to knock on the door again, this time it was the clerk himself, who, due to the blizzard, had lost all his guests, but he was glad, because he wanted to spend the evening with her. The head, meanwhile, also hid in a sack of coal. He began to touch his hand, then the witch’s neck, and who knows what he would touch next time, when there was a knock again. It was the Cossack Chub. The clerk also ended up in the bag. Chub came in, also drank a glass of vodka, and began joking about whether Solokha had any men. In this way she consoles her pride, since she thinks that he is the only one she has. And then they knock again, this time it was the witch’s son - the blacksmith Vakula. Solokha hastily seated Chub in the same bag where the clerk was already sitting. But he didn’t even make a sound when Chub placed his boots, cold from the frost, right at his temples. Vakula entered the house and sat down on the bench. There was a knock on the door again, this time it was the Cossack Sverbyguz. But the bag was no longer there, and so Solokha took him out into the garden to ask what he wanted.

Vakula sits and wonders why he needs Oksana. He sees the bags and decides that he needs to bring himself to his senses, since he has completely neglected everything with his love. He decides to take these bags outside. He threw them over his shoulder, although it was hard, he endured it. There was noise in the yard. There was a lot of caroling there. Fun all around. Suddenly Vakula hears Oksana’s voice and, throwing the bags, all except one, the one with the devil in him, he goes towards her voice. She talks to some guy and laughs. When Vakula approached her, she began to say that he had a very small bag and began to laugh about little slippers and the wedding. The guy's patience ran out and he decided to drown himself. And then, he approached the girl and said “goodbye” to her; before she had time to answer, he left. The boys shouted after him, but he said that perhaps they would see each other in the next world, but there was nothing for him to do in this world. And the grandmothers immediately began to mutter that the blacksmith had hanged himself.

Vakula walked without realizing it. Then, having come to his senses a little, he decided to seek help from a healer - pot-bellied Patsyuk. When he went into his house, he saw that he was eating dumplings without using his hands, he simply took them out of the plate with his mouth. Vakula began asking what to do and how to find the devil. He replied that everyone knows who has the devil behind him. Afterwards, this Patsyuk continued to eat dumplings, which flew off the plate on their own, dipped in sour cream, and just as independently flew into his mouth. Vakula came out, and the devil came out of the bag. He thought that Vakula was now in his hands. He began to say that he would do everything that the guy needed, but he needed to sign a contract. However, the blacksmith was not stupid. He grabbed the devil by the tail, threatened him with a cross, and after that the devil became very obedient. Then the blacksmith climbed onto his back and told him to fly to St. Petersburg to the queen, and felt himself take off. Meanwhile, Oksana was walking with her friends and thinking that she was too strict with Vakula. The girl is sure that he would not exchange such a beauty for anyone. She decides that the next time he comes, she will let herself be kissed, as if reluctantly.

They go and see the bags left by Vakula. They think that they contain a lot of sausage and meat, although they contain the head, clerk and Chub. They decide to go get a sled and bring the bags to Oksana’s house. However, while they were going to get the sled, godfather Chuba came out of the tavern. I saw the bags and wanted to take one, which contained a clerk and a forelock. But the sack was heavy, so when the godfather met Tkach, he asked him to help him carry the sacks home, in return he divided them in half. He agreed. When they went to their godfather’s house, they were afraid to find his wife. Since she constantly took away everything that she and her husband had acquired. And she was still at home. The three people got into a fight over the bag. And the godfather’s wife won, using a poker. And when the godfather and the Tkach wanted to try to take the loot again, the forelock came out of the bag, followed by the clerk. Chub realized that the other bags also contained men who came to Solokha. And this made him upset, because he thought that he was the only one.

Meanwhile, the girls ran up to the sacks with the sled, but there was only one there. They took him, the head that was sitting in him decided to endure everything, just so as not to be left on the street. The bag was dragged into the house, but the man began to hiccup and cough. The girls were scared, but Chub just arrived, took his head out of the bag, and realized that Solokha had it too.

While Vakula was flying astride the line, he was both scared and surprised. He periodically frightened him with a cross. When they arrived in St. Petersburg, the devil turned into a horse. There he met familiar Cossacks who were just heading to the queen, and Vakula then asked them to take him with them. They agreed. They got into the carriage and rushed off.

Everything in the royal palace was very beautiful. Vakula walked and at the same time looked at everything he saw. Finally, having passed through numerous halls, they found themselves at the princess's hall. Potemkin came out and told the Cossacks to speak as he taught them. Suddenly everyone suddenly fell to the floor. A woman’s voice several times ordered them to get up, but they continued to lie on the floor, saying that they would not get up and addressing her as “mom.” It was Tsarina Catherine. She began to ask the Cossacks about life and soon asked what they wanted. And then Vakula plucked up courage and asked where he could find such slippers for his woman. The queen ordered her servants to bring the most beautiful slippers with gold. They wanted to reason with her, but she did not change her decision. When they were brought, Vakula made a very beautiful compliment to the queen. Calling her legs “made of real sugar.” And then he whispered to the devil in his pocket to take it away and then find himself behind the barrier.

On Dikanka, meanwhile, they were arguing whether Vakula had hanged himself or drowned himself. All this pandemonium, quarrels, therefore, and in general the rumors about the death of the blacksmith greatly upset Oksana. She cannot sleep and realizes that she has fallen in love with a guy. And when she doesn’t see him at the church service, she completely loses heart.

Vakula rode very quickly across the line. He found himself near his house. The devil wanted to leave, but Vakula took the whip and hit the villain a couple of times, who himself wanted to teach the blacksmith a lesson, and in the end he himself was fooled. The guy entered the house, but Solokha was not there. He went to bed and slept until lunchtime. He was upset because he was not present at the service. I thought that the Almighty punished him in this way because Vakula got involved with the devil. The guy promised that he would atone for this sin for a whole year. Then he dressed in his best. He took the belt and hat, and, of course, the slippers, and went to the forelock. Chub did not expect to see him. Vakula fell in front of his feet and began to ask for forgiveness for everything, said that he should hit him, which the forelock did not do too hard, but three times. Vakula gave him a belt and a hat as a gift. The blacksmith then asked for his daughter's hand in marriage. He, remembering the unfaithful Solokha, agreed and told him to call the matchmakers.

Oksana came out. She was glad that the blacksmith was alive. Vakula gave her the slippers, but she did not accept them, because she said that she loved him even without the slippers. She felt shy. And the guy and the girl kissed.

They got married and had children. Vakula painted the whole house with multi-colored paints. And in the church he drew a line of someone burning in hell, and an incredibly disgusting thing that everyone spat as they passed by.