The ideological and aesthetic originality of the work of Nikolai Semenovich Leskov (1831 - 1895) is primarily determined by the religious and moral foundations of the writer’s worldview. Participated in a priestly family, educated in an Orthodox religious environment, with which he was connected hereditarily, genetically, Leskov invariably strove for the truth preserved by the Russian paternal faith. The writer passionately advocated for the restoration of “the spirit that befits a society that bears the name of Christ.” He stated his religious and moral position directly and unequivocally: “I honor Christianity as a teaching and I know that it contains the salvation of life, and I don’t need everything else.”

The theme of spiritual transformation, restoration of the “fallen image” (according to the Christmas motto: “Christ is born before the fallen image is restored”) especially worried the writer throughout his entire career and found vivid expression in such masterpieces as "Soborians" (1872), "Imprinted Angel" (1873), "On the edge of the world"(1875), in a cycle "Yuletide Stories"(1886), in stories about the righteous.

Leskovskaya story "Unbaptized Pop"(1877) did not attract particularly close attention from domestic literary scholars. The work was more often attributed to the genus of Little Russian “landscapes” and “genres”, “full of humor or even evil, but cheerful sparkling satire.” Indeed, what are the episodic, but unusually colorful images of the local deacon - “a lover of choreographic art” worth, who “with merry feet” “snatched in front of the guests trepak", or the unlucky Cossack Kerasenko: he still unsuccessfully tried to keep track of his “fearless squatter” - Zhinka.

In foreign Leskoviana, the Italian researcher of Ukrainian origin Zhanna Petrova prepared a translation of “The Unbaptized Priest” and a preface to it (1993). She managed to establish connections between Leskov’s story and the tradition of the Ukrainian folk district.

According to the American researcher Hugh MacLane, the Little Russian background of the story is nothing more than camouflage - part of Leskov’s method of “literary pretense,” “multi-level camouflage” wound “around the core of the author’s idea.” English-speaking scholars Hugh MacLane and James Mackle mainly tried to approach the work “through the Protestant spectrum,” believing that “The Unbaptized Pop” is a clear demonstration of the Protestant views of Leskov, who, in their opinion, since 1875, “decisively moves towards pro-Testantism."

However, the writer’s attention to the spirit of Western religiosity should not be exaggerated. Leskov spoke quite clearly about this in his article "Cartoon Ideal" in 1877 - at the same time when “The Unbaptized Priest” was created: “It’s not good for us to look faith in German". The writer put a lot of effort into calling for religious tolerance in order to “attract the minds and hearts of his compatriots to gentleness and respect for the religious freedom of everyone,” but he adhered to the opinion that “one’s own is dearer, warmer, more trusting.”

According to the exact words of the researcher, Leskov showed a “brilliant instinct for Orthodoxy,” in which faith is “heartened” with love for God and “inexpressible knowledge” received in the spirit. As for Protestantism, “it generally removes the problem and the need for an internal invisible battle with sin, and aims a person at external practical activity as the main content of his existence in the world.” A significant moment in Leskov’s essay "Russian secret marriage"(1878), when an Orthodox priest gives a “sinful” woman hope for God’s forgiveness, reminding her that he is not a Catholic priest who could reproach her, and not a Protestant pastor who would be horrified and despair at her sin.

In connection with the objectives of this article, it is important to clarify from what positions the writer depicts the fate of his heroes, their way of thinking, and actions; how it interprets the essence of the human personality and the universe. “An incredible event”, “a legendary incident” - as the author defined his story in the subtitle - also has a paradoxical name - “The Unbaptized Priest”. It is no coincidence that Andrei Nikolaevich Leskov, the writer’s son, defined this title as surprisingly “brave.” At a superficial dogmatic glance, it may seem that an “anti-baptismal motive” is stated here, the rejection of church sacraments. This is precisely the opinion held by Hugh MacLane.

However, such a subjective interpretation is opposed by the objective truth of the entire artistic and semantic content of the work, which continues the development of the theme stated by Leskov earlier in the stories "On the edge of the world"(1875) and "Sovereign Court"(1877), - the theme of the need for baptism, not formal (“We are baptized into Christ, lest we put on it”), but spiritual, entrusted to God’s will.

The hidden meaning of Orthodoxy is determined not only by the catechism. This is also “the way of life, the worldview and worldview of the people.” It is in this non-dogmatic sense that Leskov considers “a real, albeit incredible event” that has received “among the people the character of a completely completed legend;<...>and to trace how a legend takes shape is no less interesting than to understand “how history is made.”

Thus, aesthetically and conceptually, Leskov combines reality and legend, which are melted into an ever-new reality of the historical and superhistorical, like the “fullness of times” commanded in the Gospel.

A similar sacred time with unusual forms of flow is inherent in the poetics of Gogol’s “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” and - in particular - the Yuletide masterpiece "Christmas Eve". The Christian holiday is shown as a unique state of the whole world. The Little Russian village, where Christmastide is celebrated, at night before Christmas becomes, as it were, the center of the entire world: “in almost all the light, both on the other side of Dikanka, and on this side of Dikanka.”

Gogol cannot be adequately understood outside of church tradition, patristic heritage, and Russian spirituality as a whole. Leskov is one of the Russian classics closest in spirit to Gogol. According to him, he recognized a “kindred soul” in Gogol. Gogol’s artistic heritage was a living, inspiring reference point for Leskov, and in the story “The Unbaptized Priest” this tradition is quite visible - not only and not so much in the recreation of the Little Russian flavor, but in the understanding of personality and the universe through the New Testament prism. Both Gogol and Leskov never parted with the Gospel. “You can’t invent anything higher than what is already in the Gospel,” said Gogol. Leskov agreed with this idea and developed it: “Everything is in the Gospel, even what is not.” “The only outcome of society from the current situation is the Gospel”, - Gogol prophetically asserted, calling for the renewal of the entire system of life on the basis of Christianity. “A well-read Gospel” helped, according to Leskovsky, to finally understand “where the truth is.”

The core of the artistic awareness of the world in the story becomes the New Testament, in which, as Leskov puts it, “the deepest meaning of life" The New Testament concept determined the leading principle in the formation of the Christian space-time organization of the story, which is based on events going back to the Gospels. Among them, the Orthodox holidays of Christmas, Epiphany, Resurrection, Transfiguration, and Dormition are especially noted. The Gospel context is not only given, but also implied in the super-fable reality of the work.

The intricate story of the incidental case about the “unbaptized priest” unfolds under Leskov’s pen slowly, like a scroll of an ancient chronicler, but in the end the narrative takes on “the character of an entertaining legend of recent origin.”

The life of the Little Russian village of Paripsy (the name may be collective: it is also often found in modern Ukrainian toponymy) appears not as a closed isolated space, but as a special state of the universe, where battles between Angels and demons eternally unfold in the hearts of people, between good and evil.

The first fifteen chapters of the story are built according to all the canons of the Christmastide genre with its indispensable archetypes of miracle, salvation, and gift. The birth of a baby, snow and blizzard confusion, a guiding star, “the laughter and crying of Christmas” - these and other Christmas motifs and images dating back to the Gospel events are present in Leskov’s story.

In the birth of the boy Savva to elderly childless parents, the “hope beyond hope” commanded in the Gospel is revealed. The Lord does not allow a believer to despair: even in the most hopeless circumstances there is hope that the world will be transformed by God’s grace. Thus, Abraham “believed in hope, and became the father of many nations.”<...>And, not fainting in faith, he did not consider that his body, almost a century old, was already dead, and the womb of Sarah was dead" (Rom. 4: 18, 19), "Therefore it was counted to him for righteousness. However, it was not written in relation to him alone that what was imputed to him, but also in relation to us” (Rom. 4: 22 - 24). This Christian universal - beyond temporal and spatial boundaries - is realized in Leskov’s narrative about the life of a Little Russian village.

The old rich Cossack nicknamed Dukach - Savva's father - was not at all distinguished by righteousness. On the contrary, his nickname meant “a heavy, grumpy and impudent man” who was disliked and feared. Moreover, his negative psychological portrait is complemented by another unsightly trait - exorbitant pride - according to patristic teaching, the mother of all vices, stemming from demonic instigation. In one expressive stroke, the author emphasizes that Dukach is almost possessed by dark forces: “when they met him, they disowned him,” “he, being by nature a very intelligent person, lost his composure and all his reason and rushed at people like a demoniac.”

In turn, fellow villagers wish the formidable Dukach only harm. Thus, everyone is in a vicious and vain circle of mutual hostility: “they thought that the sky, only through an incomprehensible omission, would have long ago struck the grumpy Cossack to pieces so that not even his guts would remain, and everyone who could, would gladly try to correct this is an omission of Providence.”

However, the miracle of God's Providence is not subject to human vanity and takes place in its own way. God gives Dukach a son. The circumstances of the boy’s birth are natural to the atmosphere of Christmas: “on one frosty December night<...>in the sacred pangs of childbirth, a child appeared. The new inhabitant of this world was a boy.” His appearance: “unusually clean and beautiful, with a black head and large blue eyes” - draws to the image of the Divine Infant - the Savior who came to earth, “for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1: 21).

In Paripsy they did not yet know that the newborn was sent into the world with a special mission: he would become the priest of their village; the preaching of the New Testament and the example of good living will turn people away from evil, enlighten their minds and hearts, and turn them to God. However, in their inert vanity, people living by passions are not able to foresee God's Providence. Even before the birth of the baby, who later became their beloved “good priest Savva,” his fellow villagers hated him, considering him “like he would be a child of the Antichrist,” “animal-like deformity.” The midwife Kerasivna, who “swore that the child had neither horns nor a tail, was spat on and wanted to be beaten.” Also, no one wanted to baptize the son of the evil Dukach, “but the child still remained pretty, very pretty, and also surprisingly tame: she breathed quietly, but was ashamed to scream.”

Thus, existence appears in a complex interweaving of good and evil, faith and superstition, Christian and semi-pagan ideas. However, Leskov never called for turning away from reality in the name of individual salvation. The writer was aware that existence is good, and just like the Divine image in man, given to him in gift And exercise, being is not just given by the Creator, but given as co-creation: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you”(John 14:27), says Christ, commanding the “crown of creation” to create itself. A person needs to begin this process of transformation and creation with himself.

The circumstances of the hero's baptism are providential. Since none of the respected people in the village agreed to baptize Dukachonok, the godparents of the future priest, again, paradoxically, became people who seemed unworthy: one with external deformity - the crooked "crooked" Agap - Dukach's nephew; the other - with a bad reputation: the midwife Kerasivna, who “was the most undoubted witch.”

However, Kerasivna is not at all like Solokha in Go-Gol’s “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka,” although the jealous Cossack Kerasenko suspects his wife of sometimes intending to “fly down the drain.” Her name is emphatically Christian - Christina.

The story of Christ is an independent, curious short story within the main Christmastide narrative about the circumstances of the birth and baptism of the baby Savva. Under Christmas circumstances, “in winter, in the evening, on holidays, when no Cossack, even the most jealous one, can sit at home,” Kerasivna managed to cleverly lead her husband with her nobleman suitor (it’s not for nothing that he is nicknamed “Rogachev’s nobleman,” that is, he instructs husbands "horns"). In a figurative and literal sense, the lovers planted a pig on the unlucky Cossack - the Christmas “dew”, and this strengthened Christ’s “such witch fame that from that time on, everyone was afraid to see Kerasivna in their house, and not just to call her godfather.”

The gospel antinomy about the “first” and the “last” comes true: “the last will become first, and the first will be last.” It was precisely these “last” people that the arrogant Dukach was forced to invite into his godfathers.

On a cold December day, immediately after the godparents and the baby left for the large village of Peregudy (later known to readers from Leskov’s “farewell” story “The Hare Remiz”), a severe snow storm broke out. The motif of holy snow is a stable attribute of the poetics of Christmas literature. In this context, it takes on an additional metaphysical meaning: as if evil forces are condensing around a child for whom everyone, without any reason, wished harm in advance: “The sky above was clouded with lead; Snowy dust blew up below, and a fierce blizzard began to blow.” In metaphorical imagery, this is the embodiment of dark passions and evil thoughts that played out around the event of baptism: “All the people who wished harm to Dukachev’s child, seeing this, devoutly crossed themselves and felt satisfied.” Such sanctimonious ostentatious piety, based on superstition, is equivalent to the devilish power “from the evil one.”

The patristic heritage holds the idea that God created man and everything that surrounds him in such a way that some actions are consistent with human dignity and the good order of the world, while others are contrary. Man was endowed with the ability to recognize good, choose it and act morally. Yielding to evil thoughts, the villagers seemed to provoke and release dark forces that played out to prevent the baptism event. It is not at all by chance that Leskov defines the blizzard confusion as “hell”, creating a truly infernal picture: “there was a real hell in the yard; the storm raged violently, and in the continuous mass of snow, which shook and blew, it was impossible to take a breath. If this happened near the dwelling, in a lull, then what should have happened in the open steppe, in which all this horror should have caught the godfathers and the child? If this is so unbearable for an adult, then how much did it take to strangle a child with it?” The questions were posed rhetorically, and it would seem that the baby’s fate was predetermined. However, events develop according to the non-rational laws of Christmas salvation by the miracle of God's Providence.

The child is saved on Kerasivna’s chest, under a warm hare’s fur coat, “covered with a blue nankee.” It is deeply symbolic that this fur coat is blue - a heavenly color, which signifies God's intercession. Moreover, the baby was preserved, like Christ’s, “in the bosom.” This Orthodox, trusting image of the “Russian God, Who creates an abode for Himself “behind the bosom”,” was formed by Leskov in the story “At the End of the World” - in the confession of the righteous father Kiriak, who, like the heroes of “The Unbaptized Priest,” had to go through through the cold and impenetrable darkness of a snow hurricane.

A special feature of Christmastide is “a carnival-like disruption of the usual order of the world, a return to the original chaos so that out of this chaos a harmonious cosmos would be born again, and the act of creation of the world would be “repeated.” The blizzard confusion and chaos in Christmas symbolism are inevitably transformed into the harmony of God's world order.

However, harmony is achieved only through the transformation of fallen human nature. So, around Dukach, forced to admit that he has never done any good to anyone, the terrifying attributes of death thicken. Unable to find his son, he ends up in terrible snowdrifts and sits for a long time in this snowy dungeon in the darkness of a blizzard. As if the sins of his entire unrighteous life, Dukach sees only a row of “some long, very long ghosts that seemed to dance in a circle above his head and sprinkled snow on him.”

The episode of the hero's wanderings in the blizzard darkness should be interpreted in a Christian metasemantic context. The image of the cross is especially significant. Wandering into the cemetery in the dark, Dukach stumbles upon a cross, then another, and a third. The Lord, as it were, makes the hero clearly understand that he will not escape his cross. But the “burden of the cross” is not only a burden and a burden. This is the path to salvation.

At the same time, in a snowstorm, the baptism of his son took place: the godparents, caught in the blizzard, drew on the child’s forehead with melted snow water the symbol of the cross - “in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” A new Christian was born. Blood father and son united spiritually. Both are saved from the snowy “hell” by the cross of the Heavenly Father.

Old Dukach does not know about this for the time being. He is still spiritually blind. The lost soul, tangled heavily and for a long time in the darkness, searches for the road, its path to the light. The hero of the story still hopes to get out, having seen some faint flickering through the snowstorm. However, this deceptive earthly will-o'-the-wisp finally leads him astray from the path of life: Dukach falls into someone's grave and loses consciousness.

It was necessary to go through this test in order for the world to transform from chaos to a harmonious cosmos. Waking up, the hero saw the world, born again, renewed: “it’s completely quiet around him, and above him the sky is blue and there’s a star.” In the New Testament context, the Bethlehem guiding star showed the Magi the way to the Infant Christ. So Dukach found his son. For the old sinner, the heavenly light of truth gradually began to open: “the storm noticeably subsided, and there were stars in the sky.”

At the same time, Leskov rightly shows that people who are not firm in their faith are not able to free themselves from semi-pagan ideas. A dukach who accidentally falls into someone’s grave is persuaded by his wife to make a sacrifice to God - to kill at least a sheep or a hare, in order to protect himself from the consequences of an evil sign. A profane, as in a distorting mirror, performance of a Christian rite in a pagan manner takes place: a “necessary” sacrifice - the accidental murder of the unrequited orphan Agap, sent to baptize the child and swept away by snow. The only thing sticking out of the snowdrift was his fur hat made of smushka - lamb's wool, which Dukach mistook for a hare. Thus, along with the image of the slaughtered Agap, the Yuletide motif of an orphan child is included in the narrative, as well as a peculiar phenomenon of Yuletide literature called “the laughter and crying of Christmas.” Agap in a sheep's cap unwittingly played the role of a traditional sacrificial animal, an uncomplaining “lamb of God” given to the slaughter.

The problem of awareness of the horror of sin and deep repentance is posed very acutely in the story. Repentance is considered “the door that takes a person out of darkness and into the light,” into a new life.

According to the New Testament, life is constantly renewed and changing, although for a person this may be unexpected and unpredictable. So, we see a completely new Dukach, a new Kerasivna, not at all similar to the old dashing Cossack girl, but quiet, humble; internally renewed village residents. Everything that happened for Dukach served as a “terrible lesson,” and Dukach accepted it well. Having served his formal repentance, after five years of absence from home, he came to Paripsy as a very kind old man, confessed his pride to everyone, asked everyone for forgiveness and again went to the monastery where he repented by court decision.”

Sava’s mother made a vow to dedicate her son to God, and the child “grew up under the roof of God and knew that no one would take him from His hands.” In church service, Father Savva is a real Orthodox priest, wise and sympathetic to his parishioners, and not a conductor of Protestant ideas in the Russian church (as English-speaking researchers see him). Leskov emphasizes: “there was a shtunda all around him<христианское движение, берущее начало в протестантизме немецких эмигрантов на Украине. А.Н.-C.>, and his small church is still full of people...” The way of thinking of Leskov's heroes is determined by the traditions of the Orthodox worldview, and this determines the ideological and artistic originality of the story.

As popular wisdom says: “Like the priest, so is the parish.” Even when the secret of Savva’s baptism was revealed and a terrible commotion arose among the parishioners: if their priest was not baptized, were marriages, christenings, communions valid - all the sacraments performed by him - still the Cossacks “don’t want another priest as long as their good Savva lives” . The bishop resolves the confusion: even though the baptismal rite was not completed in its entire “form,” the godparents “with the melted water of that cloud wrote a cross on the baby’s face in the name of the Holy Trinity. What else do you need?<...>And you, boys, be without a doubt: your priest Savva, who is good to you, is good to me, and is pleasing to God.”

We must agree with the position of the Italian scientist Piero Cazzola that Savva belongs to Leskov’s type of righteous clergy along with Archpriest Savely Tuberozov in “Councils” and Archbishop Neil in the story “At the End of the World.”

The most important thing for Leskov is the idea of ​​life-creation, life-building in a harmonious synthesis of the secular and the sacred. In the Christian model of the world, man is not in the power of pagan “blind chance” or ancient “fate,” but in the power of Divine Providence. The writer constantly turned his gaze to faith, the New Testament: “ Dondezhe light imate

"Unbaptized Pop"

Incredible event

(Legendary case)

Dedicated

Fedor Ivanovich Buslaev

I dedicate this brief record of a real, albeit incredible event to the venerable scientist, an expert on the Russian word, not because I have any claim to consider this story worthy of attention as a literary work. No; I dedicate it to the name of F.I. Buslaev because this original event, even now, during the life of the main person, has received among the people the character of a completely completed legend; and it seems to me that tracing how a legend develops is no less interesting than understanding “how history is made.”

In our circle of friends we paused over the following newspaper news:

“In one village, a priest was giving his daughter in marriage. Of course, the feast was a great one, everyone drank a lot and had fun in a rural, homely way. By the way, the local deacon turned out to be a lover of choreographic art and, celebrating the fun, grabbed with his “merry feet” in animation in front of the guests

Trepak_, which brought everyone to considerable delight. Unfortunately, at the same feast there was a dean, to whom such an act of the deacon seemed very offensive, deserving of the highest penalty, and in his jealousy the dean scribbled a denunciation to the bishop about how the deacon at the priest’s wedding “hit a trepak.” Archbishop Ignatius, having received the denunciation, wrote the following resolution:

"Deacon N"_hit the trepak_"...

But _trepak_ does not ask;

Why is the dean informing?

Summon the dean to the consistory and interrogate him."

The matter ended with the fact that the informer, having traveled one and a half hundred miles and having spent a lot of money on the trip, returned home with the suggestion that the dean should have made a verbal suggestion to the deacon on the spot, and not started a slander because of _one_ and, moreover, an exceptional case.

When this was read, everyone unanimously hastened to express full sympathy with the original resolution of St. Ignatius, but one of us, Mr. R., a great expert in clergy life, who always has in his memory a rich store of anecdotes from this unusual environment, inserted:

This is good, gentlemen, even if it is good: the dean really should not have “started a slander because of _one_, and, moreover, an exceptional case”; but case differs from case to case, and what we have just read brings to mind another case, by reporting which the dean put his bishop in much greater difficulty, but, however, he got away with it there too.

We, of course, asked our interlocutor to tell us his difficult case and heard the following from him:

The matter, which at your request I need to tell you about, began in the first years of the reign of Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich, and took place at the end of his reign, in the most hectic days of our Crimean failures. Behind the events of great importance at that time, which so naturally captured everyone’s attention in Russia, the incidental case of the “unbaptized priest” was quietly curtailed and is now stored only in the memory of the surviving persons of this intricate story, which has already received the character of an entertaining legend of the latest origin.

Since this case is known to many people in its place and the main person involved in it is still happily alive, you must forgive me if I will not indicate the location of the action with great accuracy and will avoid calling persons by their real names. I’ll just tell you that it happened in the south of Russia, among the Little Russian population, and it concerns an unbaptized priest, the father of Savva, a very good, pious man, who is still happily living and serving as a priest and is very loved by both his superiors and his peaceful rural parish.

Apart from Father Savva’s own name, to whom I see no need to give a pseudonym, I will use all other names of persons and places other than the real ones.

So, in one Little Russian Cossack village, which we, perhaps, will at least call Parips, lived a rich Cossack Petro Zakharovich, nicknamed

Dukach. He was already an old man, very rich, childless and menacing, menacing. He was not a world-eater in the Great Russian sense of the word, because in Little Russian villages world-eater in the Great Russian way is unknown, but he was, as they say, a “dukach” - a difficult, grumpy and impudent man. Everyone was afraid of him and, when meeting him, they disowned him, hastily switched to the other side, so that Dukach would not scold him, and in case his strength took him, he would not even beat him. His family name, as often happens in villages, was completely forgotten by everyone and replaced by a street nickname or nickname - “Dukach”, which expressed his unpleasant everyday qualities. This offensive nickname, of course, did not help soften the character

Pyotr Zakharych, but, on the contrary, irritated him even more and brought him to such a state in which he, being by nature a very intelligent person, lost his self-control and all his reason and rushed at people like a demoniac.

As soon as the children playing somewhere saw him, they rushed in fright, shouting: “Oh, darling, old Dukach is coming,” then this fear turned out to be not in vain: old Dukach rushed in pursuit of the scattering children with his long stick, which is appropriate to have in in the hands of a real sedate Little Russian Cossack, or with a twig accidentally plucked from a tree. However, it was not only children who were afraid of Dukach: as I said, adults also tried to avoid him, “just so they wouldn’t get too fast.” This was the kind of man he was. Nobody loved Dukach, and no one promised him any good wishes, either to his face or behind his back; on the contrary, everyone thought that heaven, only through an incomprehensible omission, would have long ago struck the grumpy Cossack to pieces so that not even his guts would remain, and anyone who I would have gladly tried to correct this omission of Providence as best I could, if Dukach, as luck would have it, had not “been invisibly blessed with happiness” from everywhere. He was lucky in everything - everything seemed to fall into his iron hands: huge flocks of his sheep multiplied, like Laban’s flocks during Jacob’s inspection. For them, the proximity and steppes were no longer enough;

Dukach's sexual, steep-horned oxen are strong, tall and also went in new carts in almost hundreds of pairs to Moscow, then to the Crimea, then to Nezhin; and the bee apiary in its linden forest, in the warm bush, was so large that the bees had to be counted in hundreds. In a word, the wealth of a Cossack rank is immeasurable. And why did God give all this to Dukach? People were only surprised and reassured themselves that all this was not good, that God was probably “beckoning” Dukach in this way so that he would become more exalted, and then he would “knock” him, and he would knock him so hard that the whole outskirts would hear .

The good people eagerly awaited this reprisal against the dashing Cossack, but years passed after years, and the god of Dukach did not knock. The Cossack grew richer and prouder, and from nowhere nothing worthy of his fierceness threatened him. The public conscience was greatly disturbed by this. Moreover, it was impossible to say about Dukach that he would pay back with children: he had no children. But suddenly old Dukachikha began to avoid people for some reason - she became embarrassed, or, in local terms,

“I was wandering around” - I didn’t go out into the street, and after that the news spread around the outskirts that Dukachikha was “not empty.”

Minds perked up and tongues began to speak: the public conscience, long tired of waiting, was awaiting imminent satisfaction.

What a child this will be! what will the child of the Antichrist be like? And no matter how he is born, he will perish in life, so that he does not have a large retinue!

Everyone was waiting for this impatiently and, finally, it came: on one frosty December night, in Dukach’s spacious hut, in the sacred pangs of childbirth, a child appeared.

The new inhabitant of this world was a boy, and, moreover, without any bestial deformity, as all good people wanted; but, on the contrary, he is unusually clean and beautiful, with a black head and large blue eyes.

Grandma Kerasikha, who was the first to bring this news to the street and swore that the child had neither horns nor a tail, was spat on and wanted to be beaten, but the child still remained pretty, very pretty, and also surprisingly calm: she was breathing quietly, but I was definitely ashamed to scream.

When God gave this boy, Dukach, as stated above, was already close to his decline. He was perhaps over fifty years old at that time. It is known that elderly fathers warmly accept such news as the birth of their first child, and even a son, the heir to their name and wealth. And Dukach was very happy about this event, but he expressed it as his stern nature allowed him. First of all, he called to him a homeless nephew named Agap, who lived with him, and told him that he should no longer spoil his uncle’s inheritance, because now God had sent him to his “thinness.”

the real heir, and then ordered this Agap to immediately equip himself in a new cap and hat and get ready, as soon as dawn breaks, to go with a message to the visiting judge and the young priest - to call them godfathers.

Agap, too, was already about forty years old, but he was a driven man and looked like a chicken with a scruffy head, on which he had a funny bald spot on the side, also the work of Dukach.

When Agap was orphaned in adolescence and was taken to Dukachev’s house, he was a lively and even nimble child and was of benefit to his uncle because he knew how to read and write.

In order not to feed his nephew for free, from the very first year Dukach began to send him with his Chumaks to Odessa. And when Agap once, returning home, handed over a report to his uncle and showed the expenses for a new hat, Dukach became angry that he dared to make such a purchase without permission, and so brutally beat the guy on the neck that it hurt for a very long time and then was forever a little askew ; and a hat

Dukach took it away and hung it on a nail until the moths ate it. Krivoshey Agap walked around for a year without a hat and was considered a “laugher” by all good people. At this time, he cried a lot and bitterly and had time to think about how to help his need. He himself had long ago become dull from persecution, but people told him that he could deal with his uncle, only not so easily, through directness, but through “polytyk”.

And it is precisely through such a policy, a subtle one, to buy a hat, but not show the expense for it, but to “spend” that money somewhere a little, under other items. And besides all this, just in case, when going to your uncle, take the longest towel and wrap it around your neck several times, so that if Dukach starts to fight, it won’t hurt too much. Agap took this science into his mind, and a year later, when his uncle drove him back to Nezhin, he left without a hat, and returned with a report and a hat, which was not included in any expenses.

Dukach didn’t notice this at first and even praised his nephew, telling him: “You should be beaten, but no matter what.” But then the demon pulled Agap to show the guy how unfair human truth is in the world! He tried to see if the long towel, which was supposed to serve his political purposes, was well wrapped around his neck, and, finding it in good order, said to his uncle:

Hey, uncle, good! no way, bits! Is Axis so-and-so really on the retinue?

What's the truth?

And the yak axis is true: get it out, man. - And Agap, clicking on the piece of paper, said: - Isn’t there a hat here?

“Well, it’s dumb,” answered Dukach.

And that’s where the hat comes from,” Agap boasted and tilted his new smart hat made from Reshetilov smushkas on one side.

Dukach looked and said:

Good hat. Well, let me make peace too.

He put on his hat, walked up to a fragment of a mirror set in a board covered with brightly colored paper, shook his gray head and said again:

And it’s really such a good hat that, even if I didn’t have it, it would have been good for me to walk.

It’s okay, it would be good.

And where are you, son of the enemy, who stole?

Why, man, why am I going to steal it! - Agap answered, “God forbid I harrow from this, I’ve never stolen anything.”

Where are you and where are you buried?

But Agap replied that he didn’t grab the hat at all, but just so-so, he just took it out through a cane.

Dukach found this so funny and incredible that he laughed and said:

Come on, I'll be a fool to you: what if you're going to be a fool?

And that’s why I earned it.

Well, move on.

By God, I did it.

Dukach only silently shook his finger at him: but he stood his ground that he

"I've done the trick."

And what the hell, that puff got into your head,” Dukach said, “

Why would I wonder if you, such a rural croak, could make potty in Nizhyn.

But Agap stood his ground that he really did the job.

Dukach ordered Agap to sit down and tell him everything as it was about the policy he had made, while he poured plum liqueur into his bowl, lit the cradle and prepared to listen for a long time. But there was nothing to listen to for a long time. Agap repeated his entire report to his uncle and said:

No hats here?

“Well, it’s dumb,” answered Dukach.

And here is the hat!

And he revealed exactly what, how many kopecks and in what expense item they had counted, and he said all this cheerfully, with an open soul and with full hope to the towel tightly wrapped around his neck; but then the most unexpected surprise happened: Dukach, instead of hitting his nephew on the neck, said:

Look, you really are such a fool: you stole it, and even twisted your neck, so that it wouldn’t hurt. Well, then, I’ll give you another stick,” and with that he tugged at the tuft of hair that had frozen in his hand.

This is how this political game between uncle and nephew ended and, having become famous in the village, strengthened Dukach’s even stronger reputation that this man is “like a fireplace” - nothing can take him: neither straightforwardness, nor politics,

Dukach always lived alone: ​​he did not go to anyone, and no one wanted to get to know him closely. But Dukach, apparently, did not grieve at all about this.

Maybe he even liked it. At least, not without pleasure, he used to say that he had never bowed to anyone in his life and would never bow to anyone - and he did not look forward to such an opportunity that could force him to bow. And really, why would he curry favor with anyone? There are many oxen and all sorts of thin things;

and if God punishes with this, the oxen are killed or whatever is burned by fire, then he has plenty of land and meadows - everything is in order, everything will be ugly again, and he will get rich again. And even if it were not so, he knew well in the distant forest one noticeable oak tree, under which a good cauldron with old ruble notes was buried.

Once you get it out of there, you can live for a whole century without any hassle, and even then you won’t live. What did people mean to him? Should he baptize the children with them, perhaps?

but he had no children. Or in order to console his Dukachikha, who, out of a woman’s whim, pestered:

That, they say, everyone is afraid of us and envy us - it would be better to make someone love us.

But was this woman’s whining worth the Cossack’s attention?

And so years after years passed, passing harmlessly over Dukach’s head all sorts of everyday accidents and adversities, and the opportunity that could have forced him to bow to people still did not pass him by: now he needed people to baptize his child.

To anyone else, not such a proud person as Dukach, this, of course, would have amounted to nothing, but Dukach’s walking around, calling, and even begging was beyond him. And who should I call and who should I “beg”? “Certainly, not just anyone, but the very first people: a young dandy priest who walked around the village in Poltava hats, and the ship’s gentleman, who was visiting the deacon’s father at that time.” Let’s say this company is good, but something is scary: how will they refuse? Dukach remembered that he did not pay attention not only to ordinary people, but also did not respect Father Yakov, and once rowing with the deacon

“fought” because he, driving towards him, did not want to turn off the road into the mud. What a good thing, and they have not forgotten this, and now, when the proud Cossack needed them, they will probably remember this to him. However, there was nothing to be done. Dukach resorted to cunning: avoiding personally facing the refusal, he sent to call his godfathers Agap. And to make it more convenient for him, he provided him with the invited gifts of the village supplies, which he took out of his treasured hiding place: for the lady a tall tortoiseshell comb “with a vegetable garden”, and for the lady a gilded flask with a rooster with a German signature. But all this was in vain:

the godmothers refused and did not accept the gifts; Moreover, according to Agap, they laughed in his face: what, they say, is what Dukach is concerned about: can the children of such villains as him be baptized? And when Agap noticed that the child would not be baptized for a whole week, it was as if priest Father Yakov himself directly prophesied:

that he should remain unbaptized not for a week, but for a whole century.

Hearing this, Dukach cupped the barrel with his right hand, stuck it in his nephew’s nose and ordered it to be offered to Father Yakov for the prophecy. And so that Agap would have more fun walking, he turned him with his other hand and escorted him along the back of his head.

Agap, of course, did not consider this to be the worst outcome that he could expect for his unsuccessful embassy, ​​and, having rolled out of his uncle’s eyes into the tavern, he managed to tell what had happened so well that within half an hour the whole village knew about it, and that’s all, from the smallest They were extremely happy that Father Yakov “read in books that Dukachonka was destined to remain unbaptized.” And if now old Dukach had forgotten all his importance and began to call the last of the last in the village, he probably would not have called anyone, but Dukach knew this: he knew that he was in the position of that wolf who had spoiled everyone in some way, and because he has nowhere to go and no one to seek protection from. He went ahead: thrusting a barrel addressed to Father Yakov to Agap’s nose, he decided to do without not only the assistance of all his fellow villagers, but also without the services of Father Yakov himself.

To spite everyone, but perhaps especially Father Yakov, Dukach decided to baptize his son in a foreign parish, in the village of Peregudakh, which was no more than seven or eight miles from Parips. And in order not to put off urgent matters, baptize your son immediately, precisely today, so that tomorrow there will be no talk about it; but on the contrary, so that tomorrow everyone knows that Dukach is a real Cossack, who is not mocked by anyone and can do without everyone. His godfather had already been elected - the most unexpected one - this is Agap. It is true that such a choice could surprise many, but Dukach had a reason for this: he took simple godfathers - “those he met,” as the belief is that God sends such people. Agap was indeed the first “vetrechnik”, whom the rich Cossack first looked at at the news of the newborn; and the first “meeter” was grandmother Kerasivna. It was a little awkward to take her as godfather, because Kerasivna did not have a very harmonious reputation: she was the most undoubted witch; so undoubted that even her husband himself, a very jealous Cossack, did not deny it

Kerasenko, from whom this cunning woman knocked all the spirit and all his unbearable jealousy. Having turned him into the most beaten fool, she lived in all her free will - a little shredding, a little subsistence, then selling palyanits, then, finally, simply “plucking flowers of pleasure.”

Both young and old knew her witchcraft, because the incident that revealed it was the most public and scandalous. Kerasivna, even in her maiden days, was a fearless self-willed woman - she lived in the cities and had some kind of sophisticated-looking bottle with a horned devil, which was given to her by a Rogachev nobleman from Pokotya, who cast such devilry in the neighboring guta. And Kerasivna drank her health from this bottle and was healthy. And finally, all this is not enough - she showed the most impossible courage by voluntarily agreeing to marry

Kerasenka. No one could do this except a woman who is not afraid of anything, because Kerasenko had already killed two wives with his jealousy, and when he could not find a third anywhere in the area, then this accursed

Christia herself fell in love with him and married him, only she made such a condition that he would always believe her. Kerasenko agreed to this, but he himself thought:

“Fool woman: so I’ll trust you! - Let me get married, - I won’t let you take a step away from me.”

Anyone in Christ’s place would have foreseen this, but this nimble girl seemed to have gone stupid: and not only was she not afraid of anything and married a jealous widower, but she even took him and completely changed him, so that he stopped being jealous of her altogether and let her live in all her freedom will. This is what was arranged by the most insidious witchcraft and with the undoubted participation of the devil, whose neighbor

Kerasivny, Pidnebesnaya, she herself saw in human form.

This was soon after Kerasenko married the lively Christa, and even though a good ten years had already passed, the poor Cossack, of course, still remembered this damnable incident well. It was in winter, in the evening, during holidays, when no Cossack, even the most jealous one, could sit at home. And Kerasenko himself “bored with his retinue” and did not let his wife go anywhere, and because of this they had a battle, during which Kerasivna said to her husband:

Well, since you are untrue in your word, then I’ll give you a hard time.

How dashing! How are you daring me? - Kerasenko spoke.

And I’ll be spoiled, and everything will be here.

Why won’t I let you out of my sight?

And I’ll put a mara on you.

Yak maru? - Hiba, are you vidma?

But you’ll get the hang of it, whether I’m visible or whether I’m not visible.

You’ll say: marvel at me, hold on to me, and I’ll earn mine.

And she set another deadline:

“It won’t be three days before I do it,” he says.

The Cossack sits for a day, sits for two, sits for a third until the evening and thinks: “The term is over, but they should have taken me a hundred devils at once, because it’s boring at home... and the Pidnebesnikhin tavern is right opposite my hut, from window to window:

mini zvidtil everything will be visible when someone comes to my house. And in the meantime I’ll drink two or three or four quarters there... I’ll listen to what people are talking about in the city a little... and I’ll dance and have fun.”

And he went - he went and sat down, as he thought, by the window, so that he could see his whole hut, he could see how the fire was burning; you can see how the woman dangles here and there. Wonderful?

And Kerasenko sat down and had a drink, while he kept looking at his hut; but out of nowhere, the widow Pidnebesnaya herself noticed this trick of his, and well, tease him: oh, they say, you’re such and such a stupid Cossack, - what are you looking at, you won’t see that in life.

Well, okay, let’s have a little fun!

It’s no big deal - they look after us, the zhinks, more; they help us, the zhinks, even more.

“Talk, tell yourself,” answered the Cossack, “but since I myself am astonished at the grain, then the devil won’t be able to earn anything.”

Here everyone nodded their heads.

Oh, this is not good, Kerasenko, oh, this is not good! - either you are an unbaptized person, or you have become so mad that you don’t even believe in the devil himself.

And everyone was so indignant at this that even someone from the crowd shouted:

Why even look at him: give him such a fool, so that the vin trichi will turn over and stand on the good side.

And he really almost got beaten, for which, as he noticed, some stranger had a special desire, about whom Kerasenko suddenly, out of the blue, thought that this was none other than the same Rogachevo nobleman who had given him to his wife a bottle of the devil and because of which he and his wife had an explanation before the wedding, which ended with the condition that they should not talk about this man again.

The condition was concluded with a terrible oath that if Kerasenko even once remembered about the nobleman, then he would be in the devil’s mouth for it. AND

Kerasenko remembered this condition. But only now he was drunk and could not bear his confusion: why did the Rogachev nobleman appear here? And he hurried home, but did not find his wife at home, and this seemed even more incongruous to him.

“Don’t remember,” he thought, “it’s as if we agreed not to remember about him, but why is he hanging around here - and why isn’t my wife at home?”

And when Kerasenko was immersed in such thoughts, it suddenly seemed to him that someone had kissed him in the hallway behind the door. He perked up and began to listen... he heard another kiss, and another, and a whisper, and another kiss. And everything is right at the door...

Eh, a hundred devils,” Kerasenko said to himself, “or is it I, out of habit of vodka, treated myself so nicely at Pidnebesnikha’s that the devil knows what’s showing to me; Or was it my wife who got wind of the fact that I wanted to argue with her about the Rogachev nobleman, and already managed to unleash a stigma on me? People have told me more than once before that she’s a witch, but I didn’t have time to see it, but now... look, they’re kissing again, oh... oh... oh... here they go again and again... .

Oh, wait, I'll watch for you!

The Cossack got down from the bench, crawled quietly to the door and, putting his ear to the groove, began to listen: they were kissing, undoubtedly kissing - so they smacked their lips... And here was the conversation, and this was the living voice of his wife; he hears her say:

What the hell is my husband, such and such a bastard: I’ll marry him and let him into your house.

“Wow!” thought Kerasenko, “she’s the one who’s bragging about kicking me out, but she wants to let someone into my house... Well, that won’t happen.”

And he stood up to push open the door with a strong push, but the door itself opened, and Kerasivna appeared on the threshold - so good, calm, only a little red-faced, and immediately began to quarrel, as befits a real Little Russian woman. She called him a damn son, and a drunkard, and a dog, and many other names, and in conclusion she reminded him of their condition, so that Kerasenko would not even think of being jealous of her. And as proof of his trust in her, he would immediately let her go to the vespers. Otherwise, she will arrange such a thing for him that he will remember it forever. But Kerasenko was smart enough to let him into the vespers now after he had seen with his own eyes the Rogachev nobleman at Pidnebesnikha and now heard how his wife was kissing someone and conspiring to let someone into the hut... this, of course, was what he imagined already too obvious stupidity.

No,” he said, “look for such a fool elsewhere, but I’d rather lock you up at home and go to bed.” This way it will be more reliable: then I won’t be afraid of your mara either.

Kerasivna, hearing these words, even turned pale; her husband spoke to her for the first time in such a tone, and she understood that this had come in her marital policy the most decisive moment, which must be won at all costs: or - everything that she had led until now with such dexterity and persistence , disappeared without a trace and, perhaps, will turn on her own head.

And she stood up - stood up to her full height, poked the Cossack in the nose with the most offensive blow and wanted, without hesitation, to wave out the door, but he guessed her intention and warned him, locking the door with a chain, and, dropping the key into the endless pocket of his wide trousers, said with outrageous calm:

This is your whole road, from the stove to the gate.

Kerasivna’s position became even more decisive: she accepted her husband’s challenge and fell into such an indescribable and terrible ecstatic state that

Kerasenko was even scared. Christia stood in one place for a long time, all trembling and stretching out like a snake, and her hands were writhing, her fists were tightly clenched, and something was clicking in her throat, and white and sometimes crimson spots were running across her face, while directed point-blank at The husband’s eyes became sharper than knives and suddenly began to sparkle with a completely red flame.

This seemed so scary to the Cossack that he, not wanting to see his wife in this rage, shouted:

Tsur tobi, damned vidma! - and, blowing on the fire, he immediately turned off the light.

Kerasivna just stamped in the darkness and hissed:

So you will know me, Vidma! - And then suddenly, like a cat, she jumped to the stove and made a loud noise; shouted into the trumpet:

Oooh! soul him, pig!

The Cossack, however, became even more afraid of this new frenzy, but in order not to miss his wife, who, obviously, was a witch and had the direct intention of flying into the chimney, he caught her and, tightly grasping her with his arms, threw her onto the bed against the wall and immediately I lay down on the edge myself.

Kerasivna, to her husband’s surprise, did not resist at all - on the contrary, she was quiet, like a meek child, and did not even scold. Kerasenko was very happy about this and, holding the key hidden in his pocket with one hand, and taking his wife by the sleeve of her shirt with the other, he fell into a deep sleep.

But this blissful state of his did not last long: he had just snatched half of his first sleep, in which his brain, overflowing with wine vapors, had softened and lost the clarity of ideas, when suddenly he received a push in the ribs.

"What's happened?" - thought the Cossack and, feeling more tremors, muttered:

Why are you pushing, woman?

Otherwise, how can you not push: listen, what’s timid in the yard?

What's going on there?

But listen!

Kerasenko raised his head and heard something squeal terribly in his yard.

Hey,” he said, “but this is probably someone dragging our pig.”

And of course it is. Let me in quickly, I’ll go and see: is it locked well?

Should I let you in?.. Hm... hm...

Well, give me the key, otherwise they will steal the pig, and we will sit all Christmastide without cowbass and without lard. All the good people will eat the cowbass, and we will just watch... Whoa, whoa... listen, listen: you can feel how they are dragging her... I really feel sorry for him, how he, the poor pig, squealed!.. Well, let me in quickly: I’ll go and take it away.

Well, yes: so I’ll let you in! Where has it been seen that a woman would do such a thing - take away a pig! - answered the Cossack, - I’d better get up and go and take it myself.

But in fact, he was too lazy to get up and did not want to go out into the cold from a warm hut; but he only felt sorry for the pig, and so he got up, threw on his scroll and went out the door. But then that unsolved event happened, which, with the most undoubted evidence, strengthened Kerasivna’s witch fame that from that time on, everyone was afraid to see Kerasivna in his house, and not just to call her godfather, as the arrogant Dukach did.

Before the carefully walking Cossack Kerasenko had time to open the barn, where a pig was howling sadly, dissatisfied with the disturbance caused to her, something wide and soft, like a cart sack, fell on him from the impenetrable darkness, and at the same moment something hit the Cossack in the back of his head, so that he fell to the ground and forcibly got free. After making sure that the pig is safe and in its place,

Kerasenko locked her tighter and went to the hut to finish the night's sleep.

But that was not the case: not only the hut itself, but also its entryway were locked. He's there, he's here - everything is locked. What kind of daring? He knocked and knocked;

called, called Zhinka:

Zhinka! Christ! unlock it quickly. Kerasivna did not respond.

Wow, you dashing woman: why did she decide to lock herself in and fall asleep so soon! Christ! to her! Zhinka! Fuck it!

There was nothing: it was as if everything had frozen; even a pig sleeps, and it does not grunt.

“What a thing! - thought Kerasenko, - look how I fell asleep! Well, I’ll crawl out through the fence into the street and go to the window; she’s sleeping close to the window and will hear me now.”

He did just that: he went to the window and knocked, but what did he hear? - his wife says:

Sleep, man, sleep: don’t worry about what’s knocking: behold, the devil is walking among us!

The Cossack began to knock harder and shout:

Now fix it, or I'll break the window. But then Christia got angry and responded:

Who dares to knock on the door of honest people at this time?

Yes, it's me, your husband,

What is my husband like?

We know what kind of husband you are - Kerasenko.

My husband is at home - go, go, whoever you are, don’t wake us: my husband and I are sleeping together, hugging each other.

“What is this?” thought Kerasenko, “am I really dreaming and seeing things in my dreams, or is this really happening?”

And he knocked again and began to call:

Christia, and Christia! Yes, unlock it by God's grace. And everything sticks, everything sticks with it; and she is silent for a long time - does not answer anything and then answers again:

Yes, you have completely failed - whoever is so attached; I’m telling you, my husband is at home, lying next to me, hugging me, - here he is.

Can this be shown to you, Christia?

Hey! thank you for that! Why, am I so bad, so completely insensitive, that I don’t know any sense about anything? No, it’s better for me to know what is shown and what is not shown. Here he is, here is my little man, very close to me... so I’ll cross him: Lord Jesus, and here I’ll kiss him: and I’ll hug him and kiss him again... So it’s good for us together, and you, unkind slut, go on your own to your wife - don’t bother us sleeping and kissing. No good - go with God.

“Oh, damn it to your father: what kind of parable is this!” Kerasenko reasoned, shrugging his shoulders. “What the hell, when I climbed over the tine, I didn’t recognize myself as a hut. But no: this is my hut.”

He walked to the other side of the wide village street and began to count from the well with the tall crane.

First, second, third, fifth, seventh, ninth... This is my ninth.

He came: he knocks again, calls again, and again the same story: no, no, a woman’s voice will answer, and every time with great displeasure and all in the same sense:

Well, if your boyfriend is with you, let him talk.

Why should he talk to me, since we have already discussed everything?

Yes, I want to listen: do you have a guy there?

And now there is: listen, how we will start kissing.

Phew, there is no abyss with them: they actually kiss, but they assure me that I am not me, and they send me somewhere completely away, home. But wait a minute: I’m not completely stupid - I’ll go and gather people, and let people say: is this my doc or not, and me or who else is my wife’s husband. - Listen, Christ: I’ll go wake up people.

The two of us kissed and now we lie quietly hugging each other, and you go to hell!

There was nothing else left to do: Kerasenko was convinced that someone else in his rank had come to Christ’s side, and he went to wake up the neighbors.

Long or short it went on until the crazy Kerasenko managed to wake up and gather to his house about two dozen Cossacks and curious Cossack women who voluntarily followed their husbands - and Kerasivna remained in her position and kept assuring everyone that the Mara was with them all, and that her husband at home with her, lying on her hand, and as proof, she more than once forced everyone to listen to her kiss him. And all the Cossacks and Cossack women listened to this and found that it could not possibly be false, because the kisses were real, and from behind the window, although not particularly clearly, a male voice was still clearly heard, which, according to Kerasivna, , belonged to her husband. And everyone heard how this voice once approached the very window and from there, terrifying everyone, said:

Why are you fools going after the dirty stuff? - I’m lying at home with my wife; and it’s Mara who’s leading you. Give her one good backhand, and she will immediately fall apart.

The Cossacks crossed themselves, and whichever of them stood closest to Kerasenka was the first and hit him with all his might on the back of his head, but he himself immediately gave the pull: and others followed his example. And Kerasenko, having received a backhand blow from each, in one minute was brutally beaten and mercilessly thrown at the threshold of his enchanted hut, where some insidious demon had so diligently replaced him in the marital bed. He no longer tried to alleviate his grief, but only, sitting on a snowball, cried bitterly, as if it was completely unbecoming of a Cossack, and it was as if he heard that Kerasivna was kissing him. But, fortunately, all human torments have an end - and this torment of Kerasenka ended - he fell asleep, and he dreamed that his wife took him by the collar and carried him to a warm bed that was familiar to him, and when he woke up, in fact I saw myself on my bed, in my hut, and in front of him, his dashing Kerasivna was busy at the stove, cooking dumplings with cheese. In a word, everything was as it should be - as if nothing unusual had happened: there was no mention of either the pig or the mara. Kerasenko, although he really wanted to talk about it, did not know: how to take up this?

The Cossack simply gave up on everything and from then on lived with his Kerasivnaya in peace and harmony, leaving her to all her will and space, which she used as she knew. She traded and traveled wherever she wanted, and her domestic happiness did not suffer from this, and her well-being and experience increased.

But Kerasivna was lost in public opinion: everyone knew that she was a witch. The cunning Cossack woman never argued against this, since it gave her a kind of aplomb: they feared her, honored her, and when they came to her for advice, they brought her either a pile of eggs or some other gift suitable for the household.

He knew Kerasivna and Dukach, and knew her, of course, as an intelligent woman, with whom, in addition to her witchcraft, in any causal case it would not be superfluous to consult. And since Dukach himself was an unloved person, he did not really disdain Kerasivnaya. People said that more than once they had seen them standing together under a thick willow tree that grew braided into the fence that separated their gardens.

Some even thought that there was a little bit of sin involved, but this, of course, was gossip. It’s just that Dukach and Kerasivna, who had something in common in their reputations, knew each other and found something to talk about with each other.

So now, in that annoying incident that followed regarding the unsuccessful call of his godfathers, Dukach remembered Kerasivna and, calling her to the council, told her the annoyance caused to him by all the people.

After hearing this, Kerasivna thought little and, shaking her head, bluntly snapped:

Why, Mr. Dukach: call me godfather!

I call you godfather,” Dukach repeated thoughtfully.

Yes, or do you believe that I'm a vid?

Hm!.. they say that you are a vid, but I don’t care about your tail.

Yes, and don’t worry.

Hm! your godfather... and what will all people say?

What kind of people?.. those who don’t even want to come into your house?

True, but why will my Dukachikha speak? After all, she believes that you are visible?

Are you afraid of her?

I'm afraid... I'm not such a fool as your husband: I'm not afraid of women and I'm not afraid of anyone: but Tilko... you're really not a witch?

Eh, yes, I bach, you, Mr. Dukach, are such a fool! Well, call whoever you want.

Hm! Well, wait, wait, don’t be angry: if you really were godfather. Just look, will the priest from Peregudin baptize with you?

Why won't it!

Yes, God knows: he is such a scientist - he starts everything from the scriptures -

will say: not my arrival.

Don’t be afraid, he won’t say: at least he’s a scientist, but Zhinok has good ears...

He will begin with the scriptures, and will end, like all people, with whatever the woman points out. I know him well and was with him in company where he didn’t want to drink anything. Says: "In

Scripture says: do not get drunk with wine, for there is fornication in it." And I say:

“Fornication is still fornication, but you drink a glass,” and he drank.

Well, that’s good: just look, so that when we drink the wine, he doesn’t spoil the lad - he wouldn’t call him Ivan or Nikolai.

Here you go! So I will give it to him, so that he can call his Christian child Nikola.

Hiba, I don’t know that this is a Moscow name.

That’s just it: Nikola is the most Muscovite.

The problem was also that Kerasivna did not have such a warm and spacious fur coat to take the child to Peregud, and the day was very cold -

This is a real “barbaric time,” but Dukachikha had a wonderful fur coat covered with blue napkin. Dukach took it out and gave it to his wife Kerasivna without asking.

“Here,” he says, “put it on and take it for yourself, just don’t dig around for too long, so that people don’t say that Dukach’s child was not baptized for three days.”

Kerasivna was a little confused about the fur coat, but nevertheless took it. She rolled up her sleeves, lined with hare fur, and everyone in the village saw how the witch, cheerfully twisting her motley cap on the back of her head, sat down next to

Agapom in a sleigh drawn by a pair of strong Dukachev horses, and went to the priest of Yerema in the village of Peregudy, which was a little eight miles away. When

Kerasivna and Agap drove off, curious people saw that both godfather and godfather were quite sober. That although Agap, who was driving the horses, had a round bottle of liquor with liqueur visible in his knees, this was obviously intended for treating the clergy. Kerasivna had a child lying in the bosom of her spacious blue hare fur coat, with whose baptism a most strange event was about to happen - which, however, many experienced people vividly foresaw. They knew that God would not allow the son of such an unkind man as Dukach to be baptized, and even through a witch known to everyone. It would be nice if all the baptized faith would come out after this!

No, God is fair: he cannot allow this and will not allow it.

Dukachikha was of the same opinion. She bitterly mourned the terrible arbitrariness of her husband, who chose a known witch as his successor for his only, long-awaited child.

Under such circumstances and predictions, Agap left and

Kerasivny with the Dukachev child from the village of Parips in Peregudy, to priest Yerema.

This happened in December, two days before Nikola, two hours before lunch, in fairly fresh weather with a strong “Moscow” wind, which immediately after Agap and Kerasivna left the farm began to blow up and turned into a fierce storm. The sky above was clouded with lead; Snowy dust began to blow below, and a fierce blizzard began to blow.

All the people who wished harm to the Dukachev child, seeing this, devoutly crossed themselves and felt satisfied: now there was no longer any doubt that God was on their side.

Premonitions spoke unkindly to Dukach himself; no matter how strong he was, he was still susceptible to superstitious fear and was a coward. In fact, whether it was for this reason or not, the storm that now threatened the godfathers and the child seemed to break loose just at the time when they were leaving the outskirts. But it was even more annoying that Dukachikha, who had spent her entire life in servile silence before her husband, suddenly opened her silent lips and spoke:

For our old age, for my consolation, God gave us a piece of meat, and you ate it.

What else is this? - Dukach stopped, - how did I eat the child?

And so, I gave it to Vidma. Where has it been heard throughout the Christian Cossacks that a child would be given a baptism by Vidmi?

But she will cross him.

It has never happened, and never will happen, that the Lord would allow a villainous vid to reach his Christian font.

Who told you that Kerasivna is a witch?

Everyone knows this.

There is little that everyone says, but no one has seen her tail.

They didn’t see the tail, but they saw how she wrapped her husband.

Why not turn such a fool around?

And she turned everyone away from Pidnebesnikha so that they would not buy buns from her.

Because Pidnebesnaya sleeps softly and does not beat the dough at night, her palyanitsa are worse.

But you can’t talk to you, but you can ask all the good people you want, and all the good people will tell you one thing: that Kerasikha is a witch.

Why should we torture other kind people when I myself am a kind person.

The Dukachi woman looked up at her husband and said:

How is it... Are you a kind person?

Yes; But what do you think, am I not a kind person?,

Of course, not kind.

Who told you that?

Who told you that you are kind?

Who said I'm not kind?

And to whom have you done any good?

What good have I done to anyone!

“And a hundred devils... and it’s true, what is it that I just can’t remember: to whom did I do some good?” - thought Dukach, unaccustomed to objections, and, so as not to hear the continuation of this unpleasant conversation for him, said:

That’s all that was missing, for me to start talking to you, the woman.

And with this, in order to no longer be with his wife face to face in the same hut, he took off the smoky cap that had once been taken from Agap from the shelf and went for a walk around the world.

Probably, Dukach’s soul was already very heavy when he could stay in the open air for more than two hours, because there was real hell in the yard:

the storm raged violently, and in the continuous mass of snow, which shook and blew, it was impossible to take a breath.

If this happened near the dwelling, in a lull, then what should have happened in the open steppe, in which all this horror should have caught the godfathers and the child? If this is so unbearable for an adult, then how much did it take to strangle a child with it?

Dukach understood all this and probably thought a lot about it, because it was not for pleasure that he crawled through the terrible snowdrifts to the row that stretched beyond the village and sat there in the darkness of the blizzard for a long, long time - obviously, with great impatience, waiting for something there, where nothing could be seen.

No matter how much Dukach stood until darkness in the middle of the rowing, no one pushed him either in front or from the side, and he saw no one except some long, very long ghosts that, like a round dance, danced above his head and sprinkled snow on him . Finally he got tired of it, and when the quickly approaching twilight increased the darkness, he grunted, untangled his feet from the snowdrift that had covered them, and wandered home.

Tangling heavily and for a long time in the snow, he stopped more than once, lost his way and found it again. Again he walked and walked and came across something, felt it with his hands and was convinced that it was a wooden cross - a tall, tall wooden cross, the kind they put up along the roads in Little Russia.

“Hey, that means I left the village! I need to take it back,”

thought Dukach and turned in the other direction, but he had not taken even three steps when the cross was again in front of him.

The Cossack stood, took a breath and, having recovered, went to the other hand, but here the cross again blocked his way

“Is he moving in front of me, or something else is going on,” and he began to spread his hands and again felt for a cross, and another one, and another nearby.

Yeah; Now I understand where I am: it was I who ended up in the cemetery. There's a light at our priest's. Ledachy didn’t want to let his priest come to me to baptize the kid. And there’s no need; but where the hell should there be a watchman?

Matveiko?

And Dukach went to look for the guardhouse, but suddenly he rolled into some hole and crashed so hard on something hard that he remained unconscious for a long time.

When he came to his senses, he saw that everything around him was completely quiet, and above him the sky was blue and there was a star.

Dukach realized that he was in the grave and worked with his arms and legs, but it was difficult to get out, and he fumbled for a good hour before he climbed out and spat with ferocity.

A good hour must have passed - the storm had noticeably subsided, and there were stars in the sky.

Dukach went home and was very surprised that neither he nor any of his neighbors had a fire in any of their huts. Obviously, a lot of night has already passed. Is it really true that Agap and Kerasivna and the child have not returned yet?

Dukach felt a compression in his heart that had long been unfamiliar to him and opened the door with an unsteady hand.

It was dark in the hut, but in a remote corner behind the stove a plaintive sobbing could be heard.

It was Dukachikha who cried. The Cossack understood what was happening, but could not stand it and asked:

Is it really still...

Yes, Vidma is still eating my meat,” Dukachikha interrupted.

“You’re a stupid woman,” Dukach snapped.

Yes, it was you who made me so stupid; and even though I’m stupid, I still didn’t give Vidmi my meat.

Damn you and your witch: I almost broke my neck and ended up in the grave.

Yeah, to the grave... well, she brought you to the grave too. Better go kill someone now.

Whom to kill? What are you talking about?

Go ahead and kill a sheep, otherwise the grave will fall on you - you will die soon. And God forbid: what is it for us already, about whom all people will say that we have given away our child.

And she went back to dreaming out loud about this topic, while Dukach kept thinking: where is Agap really? Where did he go? If they managed to get to

If they heard the horn before the blizzard hit, then, of course, they waited there until the blizzard subsided, but in this case they should have left as soon as it became clear, and they could still be at home.

Didn’t Agap take a sip from the bottle too much? This thought seemed

It was enough for Dukach, and he hastened to tell it to Dukachikha, but the note groaned even more:

What is there to guess, we can’t see our child: the vidma has seized him

Kerasivna, and she brought this weather into the world, and now she flies with him through the mountains and drinks his scarlet blood.

And with this Dukachikha annoyed her husband to the point that he, cursing at her, again took his hat from one regiment and a gun from another and went out to kill a hare and throw it into the grave into which he had fallen shortly before, but his wife remained behind. cry out your grief over the stove.

The distressed and unusually excited Cossack really did not know where to go, but as the hare had already slipped out of his mouth, he more mechanically than consciously found himself on the threshing floor, where the mischievous hares were running; I sat down under a stack of oats and thought.

Premonitions tormented him, and grief crept into his soul, and tormenting memories stirred in it. No matter how unpleasant his wife’s words were to him, he realized that she was right. Indeed, throughout his entire life he did no good to anyone, and yet he caused a lot of grief to many. And so, because of his own stubbornness, his only, long-awaited child dies, and he himself falls into the grave, which, according to general belief, is an imminent evil sign. Tomorrow all people will know about all this, and all people are his enemies... But... maybe the child will still be found, and in order not to get bored, he will sit down at night and kill a hare and thereby take the threat threatening him away from his head. grave.

And Dukach sighed and began to peer around to see if a hare was jumping somewhere across the field or fidgeting under the stacks.

It was so: the hare was waiting for him, like the ram was waiting for Abraham: at the outermost stack, on a fence covered with snow, level with the top of the fence, sat a seasoned hare.

He was obviously scouting the area and took the most unparalleled aiming position.

Dukach was an old and experienced hunter, he had seen many different kinds of hunting, but he had never seen such a clever stand for a shot and, in order not to miss it, without thinking twice he took a shot and fired.

The shot rolled, and at the same time some faint groan rang through the air, but Dukach had no time to think - he ran to quickly trample down the smoking wad, and, stepping on it, stopped in the most restless amazement: a hare, which Dukach did not reach a few steps, continued to sit in his place and did not move.

Dukach got cold feet again: really, isn’t the devil joking with him, isn’t this a werewolf in front of him? And Dukach made a ball of snow and threw it at the hare. The lump hit its target and crumbled, but the hare did not move - only something moaned in the air again. “What kind of dashing is this,” thought Dukach and, crossing himself, cautiously approached what he took for a hare, but which was never a hare, but was simply a smoky hat that was sticking out of the snow. Dukach grabbed this hat and in the light of the stars he saw his nephew’s deathly face, doused with something dark, sticky, with a damp smell. It was blood.

Dukach trembled, threw down his towel and went to the village, where he woke up everyone

He told everyone his mischief; He repented in front of everyone, saying: “The Lord is right in punishing me - go dig them all out from under the snow, and tie me up and take me to trial.”

Dukach's request was granted; they tied him up and put him in someone else's hut, and the whole world went to the bean field to dig up Agap.

Under a white heap of snow covering the sleigh, a bloody

Agap and unharmed, although frozen, Kerasivna, and on her chest there is a child sleeping completely safely. The horses stood right there, up to their bellies in the snow, with their drooping heads hanging over the fence.

As soon as they were freed a little from the notice, they set off and took the frozen godfathers and the child to the farm. Dukachikha did not know what to do:

whether to be sad about the misfortunes of the husband or more rejoice about the salvation of the child. Taking the boy in her arms and bringing him to the fire, she saw a cross on him and immediately began to cry joyfully, and then raised him to the icon and with hot delight, in a deeply moved voice, said:

God! because you saved him and took him under your cross, and I will not forget your affection, I will feed the child and give him to you: let him be your servant.

Thus a vow was made, which is of great importance in our history, where until now nothing has been seen concerning the “unbaptized priest,” while he is already here, like the “hat” that Agap had when it seemed that her as if not.

But I continue the story: the child was great; Using simple peasant means, they soon brought Kerasivna to her senses, who, however, did not understand anything of everything that was happening around her and repeated only one thing:

Dytin has been baptized, and call him Savka.

This was enough for such a hectic occasion, and besides, the name was to everyone’s taste. Even the upset Dukach approved of him and said:

Thanks to the Peregudinsky priest, the wine did not spoil the lad and did not name him Nikolai.

Here Kerasivna had completely recovered and began to say that the priest wanted to name the child Nikolai: “So, he says, he follows the church book,” only she argued with him: “I said, God bless them, these church books: why did they surrender to us?” “But it’s not possible for a Cossack child to be called Nikolai in Moscow.”

“You are a smart Cossack girl,” Dukach praised her and ordered his wife to give her a cow, and he himself promised, if he survived, not to forget her services in any other way.

This was the end of the procession for the time being, and a long and dark funeral time began. Agap never came to his senses: his head, shot with a thick column of shot, turned black before it could be washed, and by the evening of the next day he gave up his long-suffering soul to God. That same evening, three Cossacks, armed with long sticks, took old Dukach to the city and handed him over to the authorities, who placed him in prison as a murderer.

Agap was buried, Dukach was going to court, the child was growing up, and although Kerasivna recovered, she did not “settle down” and changed a lot - she still walked as if she was not herself. - She became quiet, sad and often thought; and did not quarrel at all with her Kerasenko, who could not understand what had happened to his wife? His life, until now so dependent on her persistence and willfulness, became the most serene: he did not hear any objection or reproach from his wife and, no longer seeing the Rogachev nobleman either in a dream or in reality, he did not know how to brag about your happiness. This amazing change in Kerasivna’s character was discussed for a long time and in vain at the market in the town: her friends themselves, vociferous bickers, said that she was “all getting better.” And indeed, not only one, but even at least two buyers from her tray with scones, she would not even promise a single damn thing to either her father, or her mother, or other relatives. There was even such a rumor about the Rogachev nobleman that he allegedly appeared in Paripsy twice, but Kerasivna did not even want to look at him. Her rival herself, the baker Pidnebesnaya, and she, not wanting to ruin her soul, said that she heard that once this gentleman, going up to Kerasivna to buy a palyanitsa, received from her the following answer:

Go away from me, so that my eyes never look at you. I have nothing more for you, neither free nor for sale.

And when the gentleman asked her what happened to her? then she answered:

It’s so hard: because I have a great secret.

This case also turned upside down old Dukach, who, under the good old order, was tried for three whole years and languished in prison on suspicion that he had deliberately killed his nephew, and then, as his behavior was disapproved by his fellow villagers, he was almost exiled to a settlement. But the matter ended with the fact that his fellow villagers had mercy and agreed to accept him as soon as he served the church repentance assigned to him in the monastery.

Dukach remained in his homeland only due to the condescension of those very people whom he despised and hated all his life... This was a terrible lesson for him, and

Dukach received him well. Having served his formal repentance, after five years of absence from home, he came to Paripsy as a very kind old man, confessed his pride to everyone, asked forgiveness from everyone and again went to the monastery where he repented by court decision, and took his cauldron there with rubles for prayers “for three souls.” What three souls they were - Dukach himself did not know, but Kerasivna told him that because of his terrible character, not only Agap disappeared, but two more souls, about which God knows and she - Kerasivna, but she can’t tell anyone this .

So it remained a mystery, for which the monastery was responsible for a cauldron full of thick old ruble notes.

Meanwhile, the child, whose birth and baptism was accompanied by the events described, has grown up. Raised by her mother - a simple, but very kind and gentle woman - she herself pleased her with tenderness and kindness.

I remind you that when this child was given to the mother from the breast of Kerasivna, then

Dukachikha "doomed him to God." Such “ quitrents ” were common in Little Russia in relatively recent times and were fulfilled accurately - especially if the “ quitrent children ” themselves did not oppose it. However, if there were cases of resistance, they were not often, probably because “quite children” were already brought up in this way from their very childhood, so that their spirit and character were revealed in an adaptive mood. Having reached a certain age in this direction, the child not only did not contradict the parental “quitrent,” but even strove to fulfill the quitrent with that reverent sense of obedience that is available only to living faith and love. Savva Dukachev was raised precisely according to this recipe and early on he discovered a tendency to fulfill the vows his mother made for him. Even in his very childhood, with a somewhat delicate and weak build, he was distinguished by his fear of God. Not only did he never destroy nests, strangle kittens, or whip frogs with twigs, but all weak creatures had their protector in him. The word of a tender mother was a law for him - as sacred as it was pleasant - because it was in everything consistent with the needs of the child’s own tender heart. Loving God was for him a necessity and the highest pleasure, and he loved him in everything that reflects God in himself and makes him understandable and invaluable to the one to whom he came and with whom he made his abode. The whole environment of the child was religious: his mother was pious and religious; his father even lived in a monastery and repented of something. - The child knew from a few half-hints that something was connected with his birth that changed their entire home life - and all this took on a mystical character in his eyes. He grew up under the roof of God and knew that no one would take him from his hands. At the age of eight he was sent to study with Pidnebesnikha’s brother, Okhrim Pidnebesny, who lived in

Paripsakh, in a nook behind his sister's tavern, but had nothing to do with this establishment, but led an extraordinary life.

Okhrim Pidnebesny belonged to a new, very interesting Little Russian type, which began to be identified and formed in the Trans-Dnieper villages almost from the first quarter of the current century. This type has by now already been completely defined and is clearly expressed by its strong influence on the religious mood of the local population. It is truly surprising that our folk historians and lovers of people, who delved into all the little details of people’s life, overlooked or did not consider the Little Russian commoners worthy of their attention, who launched a completely new stream into the religious life of the South Russian people. “There’s no time to do it here, and I can’t do it either; I’ll just tell you briefly that these were some kind of hermits in the world: they built themselves small huts at their family homes, somewhere in a back street, they lived cleanly and neatly - both mentally and in appearance. They did not avoid or shun anyone - they worked and worked together with their families and were even models of hard work and homeliness, they did not shy away from conversation, but they brought their own, slightly puritanical, character into everything. They greatly respected “learning,” and each of them was certainly literate; and this literacy was mainly used for studying the word of God, which they took up with fiery zeal and reverence, as well as with the prejudice that it was preserved in purity only in one book of the New Testament, and in the “traditions of men”, which the clergy follows, - everything is perverted and spoiled. They say that such thoughts were instilled in them by German colonists, but, in my opinion, it doesn’t matter who inspired it - I only know one thing, that from this later came the so-called

Pidnebesnikha’s single brother, the Cossack Okhrim, was one of this kind of people: he himself learned to read and write and considered it his duty to teach all this to others. He taught whoever he could, and always for free - expecting for his work the payment that was promised to everyone “who teaches and instructs.”

This teaching usually weakened in the summer, during field work, but it intensified in the fall and continued unabated throughout the winter until the spring arable land. The children studied during the day, and in the evenings Pidnebesny had “evening parties” - work gatherings - just like other people. Only at Okhrim’s place they did not sing empty songs and did not engage in idle talk, but the girls spun flax and wool, and Okhrim himself, putting a plate of honey and a plate of nuts on the table for a treat “in the name of Christ,” asked for this treat to allow him to “talk about Christ” .

The young people allowed him this, and Okhrim delighted the good souls with honey, nuts and gospel conversation, and soon he became so keen on them that not a single girl or guy wanted to go to vespers in another place. The conversations went on even without honey and without nuts.

At Okhrim's vespers, rapprochements also took place, the consequences of which were marriages, but here, too, a very strange feature was noticed, which unusually served in favor of Okhrim's reputation: all the young people who fell in love with each other at Okhrim's vespers and then became spouses were, as if by selection , happy with each other. Of course, this most likely happened because their rapprochement took place in a peaceful atmosphere of spirituality, and not in a rebellion of riotous passion - when the choice is guided by the desire for blood, and not by the sensitive attraction of the heart. In a word, it was written according to the scripture: “The Lord brought into the house those who were of the same mind, but who were in great sorrow.” So everything went in favor of the reputation of the Heavenly One, who, despite his simplicity and unpretentiousness, became in Paripsa the most honorable position - a man pleasing to God. They did not go to him for judgment only because he did not judge anyone, and everyone who was “waiting for the resurrection” wanted to learn from him.

There were several people like Okhrim Pidnebesny in Little Russia at that time, but they all hid quietly and for a long time remained unnoticed by everyone except the peasant world.

A full quarter of a century later, these people themselves made their mark, appearing in a vast and closely knit religious union, which is called “stunda”.

I knew one of these leaders very well: he was a friendly, kind, single, virgin Cossack. Like most of his comrades, he learned to read and write self-taught and taught all the surrounding boys and girls alone. He taught the latter at vespers, or, in Great Russian, at “gatherings”, to which they gathered to work with him. The girls were spinning and sewing, and he was talking about

His interpretations were the simplest, completely alien to any dogma and liturgical institutions, and having almost exclusively the goals of moral education of a person according to the ideas of Jesus. A Cossack preacher I knew lived, however, on the left side of the Dnieper, in an area where there is no stunda yet.

However, at the time to which the story refers, this teaching had not yet been formed on the right bank of the Dnieper.

The boy Dukachev Savka was sent to teach literacy to Pidnebesny, and he, noticing, on the one hand, the child’s quick abilities, and on the other, his ardent religiosity, fell in love with him very much. Savva repaid his sincere teacher in kind. Thus, a connection was formed between them, which turned out to be so strong and tender that when old Dukach took his son to the monastery in order to dedicate him there, according to his mother’s vow, to serve God, the boy yearned unbearably, not so much for his mother, but for his simple-minded teacher . And this melancholy had such an impact on the weak organization of the gentle child that he soon fell ill, lay ill, and probably would have died if the Heavenly One had not unexpectedly visited him.

He understood the cause of his little friend's illness and, returning to

Paripsy, managed to convince Dukachikha that a sacrifice to God should not be infanticide. Therefore, he advised not to languish the child in the monastery any longer, but to arrange him as a “_living sacrifice_”. Pidnebesny pointed out a path that was not entirely alien and unfamiliar to the Little Russian Cossacks: he advised sending Savva to a theological school, from where he could then go to a seminary - and could become a rural priest, and every rural priest could do a lot of good to poor and dark people and through this become a friend Christ and friend of God.

Dukachikha was convinced by Okhrim’s arguments, and the youth Savka was taken from the monastery and taken to a religious school. Everyone approved of this, except for one Kerasivna, who, probably because of her old sins, was possessed by some gloomy spirit of contradiction, which manifested itself in very violent antics when it came to her godson. She seemed to love and pity him, and yet God knows how embarrassed she was about him.

It started from infancy: they used to carry Savka to give him communion - Kerasivna shouts:

Why are you being timid? No need; don’t wear it... it’s so long... it’s impossible to give him communion.

If they don’t listen to her, she will turn green and either laugh or ask the people in the church:

Let me out quickly, so that my eyes don’t glaze over, how will he

Give the blood of Christ.

To the questions: what is it that confuses her so much? - she answered:

Yes, it’s hard for me! - from which everyone concluded that since she corrected herself in her life and no longer casts spells, the devil found a cleared closet in her soul and returned there, bringing with him several others

"_encores_" who do not love the child Savka.

And indeed, the “_encores_” were cruelly in trouble when Savka was taken to the monastery: they set Kerasivna on fire so much that she chased the sleigh for more than three miles, shouting:

Don’t ruin your soul - don’t take it to the monastery, because it’s not fit for purpose.

But, of course, they didn’t listen to her - now, when there was talk about defining a boy in the school, “where they come from,” Kerasivna got into trouble: she was struck by paralysis, and for a long time she lost the gift of speech, which returned to her, when the child had already been identified.

It is true that in identifying Savka there was another small obstacle, which was that they could not find him recorded in the metric books of the Peregudin church, but this is a terrible circumstance for civilian schools - in theological schools it is accepted somewhat more mildly. IN

religious schools know that the clergy often forgets to enter _their_

children in metrics. Having baptized, they get quite drunk - they are afraid to write that their hands are shaking; the next day they get a hangover; on the third day they walk around without memory, and then they forget to write it in. Such cases are known, and, of course, it was the same here, and therefore, although the caretaker scolded the account of drunkards, he accepted the boy as he was recorded according to the confessional paintings. And in the confessional paintings, Savva was recorded perfectly: accurately, and not even once a year.

With this, the whole matter was corrected - and the good boy Savka went to study excellently - he graduated from college, graduated from the seminary and was appointed to the academy, but unexpectedly for everyone he refused and declared his desire to be a simple priest, and then certainly in a rural parish. The young theologian’s father, old Dukach, had already died by this time, but his mother, an old woman, still lived in the same Paripsy, where the priest died just about that time and a vacancy opened up. The young man ended up in this place. The unexpected news of such an appointment greatly delighted the Paripsyan Cossacks, but it completely deprived the outdated

Kerasivna.

Hearing that her godson Savva was being promoted to the priests, she, without shame, tore the scaffold on herself and namisto; fell on a pile of humus and howled:

Oh earth, earth! take us both! - But then, when this spirit freed her a little, she got up, began to be baptized and went to her hut. A

an hour later she was seen, all dressed in a dark uniform and with a cane in her hands, walking along a large road to the provincial town, where the performance was supposed to take place

Savva Dukachev as a priest.

Several people met Kerasivka on this road and saw that she was walking very hastily, she did not sit down to rest and did not talk about anything, but looked as if she was going to death: she kept looking up and whispering something in a whisper - That's right, I prayed to God. But God did not heed her prayer either. Although she got into the cathedral at the very moment when the deacons, hitting the protege in the neck, shouted “command,” but no one heeded the fact that from the crowd one village woman shouted: “Oh, I don’t command, I don’t command!” The protégé was given a haircut, but the woman was kicked out and released, having been kept in the police custody for ten days while she washed all the bailiff’s linen and chopped two cabbages. - Kerasivna was only interested in one thing: “Where’s Savka peep?” And, having learned that he was a priest, she fell to her knees and so on her knees crawled eight to ten miles to her Parips, where the new “pip Savka” had already arrived these days.

The Paripsyan Cossacks, as stated, were very glad that they had been appointed a pan-father from their own Cossack family, and they greeted Priest Savva with great cordiality. They were especially endeared to him by the fact that he was very respectful to his old mother and immediately, as he arrived, asked about his “godmother” -

although I probably heard that she was this and that, and a witch. He did not disdain any of this. In general, it seemed to everyone that this man promised to be a very kind priest, and that is what he really was. Everyone loved him, and even

Kerasivna did not say anything against him, but only occasionally arched her eyebrows and sighed, whispering:

It would be good if there was a fish in this fish bowl.

But, in her opinion, there was no fish in the ear, and without fish there is no fish soup. Therefore, no matter how good priest Savva is, he is worth nothing, and this must certainly be revealed.

Indeed, strange things began to be noticed in him: firstly, he was poor, but completely indifferent to money. Secondly, having soon become a widow, he did not howl and did not take a young hireling; thirdly, when several women came to tell him that they were going to Kyiv on a vow, he advised replacing their trip with a vow to serve the sick and poor, and first of all to calm the family with concerns about a good life; and as for this vow, he showed unheard-of audacity -

volunteered to resolve it and take the answer upon himself. “To allow the vow given to saints...” This seemed to many to be such a blasphemy, which is hardly possible for a baptized person. But the matter did not stop there - pop

Savva soon gave himself even greater doubts: in the very first Lent, when all the parishioners were in his spirit, it turned out that he did not forbid a single person to eat what God sent him, and did not assign penance bows to anyone, and if and there were penance assignments from him to someone, they showed new oddities. So, for example, the miller Gavrilka, who knowingly used a very deep ladle for grinding, was strongly ordered by Father Savva immediately after confession to trim the edges of this ladle so as not to take excess grain. Otherwise, I didn’t want to give him communion - and gave him arguments from scripture that an unjust measure angers God and can bring punishment. The miller obeyed, and everyone stopped being offended by him, and the grinding fell on his mill without interruption. He publicly admitted that this is the case with him

Savvina did her penance. A young, very hot woman, who was with her second husband, was furious over her first-married children. Father Savva intervened in this matter, and after his first shit, his young stepmother was reborn and became kind to her stepdaughters and stepsons. Although he accepted sacrifices for sins, -

but not for incense and not for candles, but for two homeless and homeless orphans

Mikhalki and Potapka, who lived with priest Savva in a dugout under the bell tower.

“Yes,” priest Savva would say to a woman or girl, “God grant that this may be forgiven you and that you will not sin in the future, but for this, do your best: serve the Lord.”

I'm glad, my friend, I don't know how to serve him... I'd rather go to Kiev.

No, you don’t have to go far anywhere - work at home and don’t do what you were doing, and now go and measure up God’s children Mikhalka and Potapka and sew them a pair of little porticos, even a short one, or a shirt. And then they became big

They are ashamed to show their naked bellies to people.

The sinners willingly bore this penance, and Mikhalka and Potapka lived under the tutelage of Father Savva, like Christ himself in the bosom - and not only did they not show their “bare bellies,” but they almost did not notice their entire orphanhood.

And similar penances about. Savva was not only within the power of everyone, but also very much to the heart of many - even comforting. Only, finally, Fr. Savva threw out a trick that cost him dearly. Roundabout people from the Peregudin parish, where he had been baptized and where now there was a different priest - not the one with whom she drank in her youth, began to visit him and his small church.

Kerasivna and to whom she took Savka, through an acquaintance, to baptize Dukachev. This marked the beginning of hostility on the part of the Peregudin priest towards Fr. Savva, and then another harmful incident occurred: a Peregudin parishioner, a rich Cossack Oseledets, died, and, dying, he wanted to bequeath “a pile of rubles for the Great Dzvin,” that is, for the purchase of a large bell, but suddenly, having talked with Father Savva just before his death, cool canceled his intention and did not assign anything for the Great Dzvin, but called three good owners and announced that he was giving them this pile of pennies with a will to use them for whatever God needs, as the Father said

Savva." - Cossack Oseledets died, and Father Savva ordered that a bright hut with open windows be built for his pennies and began to gather children into it and teach them to read and write and the word of God.

The Cossacks thought that this was perhaps a good deed, but did not know whether it was a godly deed; and the Peregudinsky priest explained it to them in such a way that the matter was not pleasing to God. He promised to write a denunciation about this, and he did. Father Savva was called to the bishop, but was released in peace, and he continued his work: he served and taught at school, and at home, and in the field, and in his small wooden church. Several years have passed. The Peregudinsky priest, competing with Father Savva, at this time rebuilt a stone church much better than the Paripsian one and got a rich image, from which he told people various miracles, but the priest Savva did not envy his miracles, but still carried on his quiet business in his own way. In the same small wooden church he prayed and read God’s word, and his little church was sometimes cramped for him and the people, but the Peregudin priest in his stone church was so spacious that he was almost friends with the sexton throughout the church walked around and watched how boldly the church mouse ran out into the pulpit and hid under the pulpit again. And this finally became very annoying for the Peregudin priest, but he could be angry with his Paripsian neighbor, Father Savva, as much as he wanted, but he could not do any harm to him, because he had nothing with which to undermine Father Savva, and the bishop stood for Savva to the point that he acquitted him even of the great guilt that he changed the Cossack’s mood

Oseledtsa, whose pennies were spent not on money, but on school. For a long time the priest of Peregudin put up with this, being content only with making up some incoherent nonsense about Savva, such as that he was a sorcerer and his godmother was a well-known reveler in his youth and is still a witch, because he doesn’t repent of anyone’s spirit and doesn’t may die, for the scripture says: “God does not want the death of a sinner,” but wants him to convert. But she doesn’t convert, she fasts, but doesn’t go to the spirit.

This was the truth: old Kerasivna, who had long ago abandoned all her weaknesses, although she lived honestly and fearing God, did not go to confession. Well, rumors have revived again that she is a witch and that perhaps Father Savva is really good “for helping her.”

There was such talk, and then another empty incident came to the fore: the cows’ milk began to disappear... Who could be to blame for this, if not a witch; and who else is a greater witch than old Kerasivna, who, everyone knows, unleashed a mara on the whole village, turned her husband into a devil and now has outlived all her peers in the village and is still living and does not want to confess or die.

It was necessary to bring her to this and that, and several good people took up this task, making a promise to themselves: whoever first meets old Kerasivna in a dark place will hit her, as a real Orthodox Christian should hit a witch, once with anything _backhand_ and tell her:

Breathe out, otherwise I’ll beat you again.

And one of those worshipers of God who took on such a feat was lucky: he met old Kerasivna in a deserted nook and was honored to treat her so much at one time that she immediately tumbled on her face and moaned:

Oh, I’m dying: call the priest - I want to confess. The witch immediately found out why she was hit! But they barely dragged her home and her father came running to her in fright.

Savva, she changed her mind again and began to delay:

“I can’t confess to you,” he says, “your confession is of no use, I want another priest!”

The good father Savva immediately sent on his horse to Pereguda for his scolder, the local priest, and he was afraid that he would become stubborn and not come; but this fear was in vain: the Peregudinsky priest arrived, entered the dying woman and stayed with her for a long, long time; and then he walked out of the hut onto the porch, put the monstrance in his bosom and burst into the most obscene laughter. He laughs so much, he laughs so much that it is impossible to stop him, and people look at him and cannot understand why this is enough.

Come on, God bless you, sir, you’re so embarrassed that we’re scared,” people tell him. And he answers:

Oh, that’s how it should be, so that you’re scared; Yes, it would be terrible for everyone - for the entire baptized world, because you have such filth here, the like of which has not been seen since the very first day - from Holy Prince Vladimir.

Oh, God be with you, don’t be so scared: go, be kind, go to Father Savva - talk to him: let him do what you want, as you will help the Christian souls.

And the Peregudinsky priest laughed even more and suddenly turned green, his eyes bulged and answered:

You are all fools - dark and unenlightened people: you set up a school for yourself, but you don’t teach anything.

Yes, we ask you the same thing: go to our father Savva, - you are waiting in your hut: sit down with him to talk: the wine is still pouring.

Bachit! - the priest from Peregudin shouted. - Neither; I don’t drink anything; I don’t even know who the wine is; who is there in the retinue?

We all know that our pan-father is a pip.

And then peep.

And I’ll show you that there’s no peep at all!

Yak not peep?

And so, not pip, and not a Christian.

I'm not a Christian! God bless you: why are you lying?

And neither: I’m not lying - he is not a Christian.

What about wine?

What wines are there?

But you know him, what’s wrong with him! People even recoiled and crossed themselves, and the Peregudinsky priest sat in the sleigh and said:

So I’m going straight from you to the dean and bringing him this news that there will be a great shame on the whole Christian world, and then you will say that your peep

He is not a pip and not a Christian, and your children are not Christians, but which of you has he married?

Those are the same as if they were not married, and those whom he buried died like dogs, without remission, and they are tormented there in the heat, and they will continue to suffer, and no one can get them out of there. Yes; and all this that I am saying is a great truth, and with that I am going to the dean, and if you don’t believe me, go all at once to

Kerasikha, and while she was still breathing, I ordered her under a terrible spell so that she would tell you everything: who is this man that you call your priest Savva. Yes, he’s about to spoil people already: there’s a magpie sitting on his roof and shouting: “Savka, take off your caftan!” Nothing; see you soon. - Boy!

drive to the dean, and you, shirt, chant louder: “Savka, take off your caftan!” And the dean and I will be back now.

With this, the Peregudinsky priest rode off, and the people, how many of them there were, wanted to pile into Kerasivna’s hut in order to interrogate her: what did she say about her godson, Father Savva; but, after thinking a little, they decided to do something else, to send two Cossacks to her, and so that the third one would be priest Savva himself.

The Cossacks and Father Savva came and found Kerasivna lying under the icons and crying bitterly.

Forgive me,” he says, “my dear, my unlucky little heart,”

she spoke to Savva, “I carried your secret reason in my heart, and I carried my guilt for more than thirty years and was afraid not only not to tell it to anyone in reality, but I didn’t even go crazy in a dream, and that’s why I didn’t give up for so many years, Well, now, when I need to appear before the Almighty, I revealed everything.

Father Savva, perhaps, was a little afraid of something, because this whole secret touched him too severely, but he did not show it, but calmly said:

What the hell is this?

I committed a great sin, and it was against you.

Over me? - asked Father Savva.

Yes, over you: I ruined everything in your life, because although you have been taught the Scriptures and have been promoted to priest, you are not fit for anything, because you yourself are still an unbaptized person.

It’s not hard to imagine how Father Savva must have felt at such a discovery. At first he mistook this for the painful delirium of a dying woman - he even smiled at her words and said:

Come on, come on, godmother: how can I be unbaptized when you are my godmother?

But Kerasivna showed complete clarity of mind and consistency in her story.

Leave it alone,” she said. - What kind of godmother am I to you? Nobody baptized you. And who is to blame for all this - I don’t know and for the rest of my life I couldn’t find out: whether it was due to our sins or, perhaps, more due to

Vikola's great Moscow cunning. But here comes the Peregudinsky gentleman with the dean - sit here, too - I’ll tell everyone everything.

The dean did not want Father Savva and the Cossacks to listen to the confessions

Kerasivny, but she insisted on her own, under the threat that she would not tell otherwise.

Bot is her confession.

“Pop Savva,” he says, “is neither a priest nor Savva at all, but an unbaptized man, and I am the only one in the world who knows this matter.” It all started because his late father, old Dukach, was very fierce: everyone did not like him and everyone was afraid, and when his son was born, no one wanted to go to the godfathers to baptize this child. Old Dukach called both the judge's gentleman and the daughter of our late gentleman-father, but no one came. Then old Dukach became even more angry at all the people and at the master father himself - and did not want to ask him to be baptized.

“I’ll manage,” he says, “without everything, without their title.” He called his nephew. Agapka, who lived as an orphan in his home, and ordered a couple of horses to be harnessed and called me as godfather: “Go,” he says, Kerasivna, with Agap to someone else’s village and today christen my body.” And he gave me a fur coat, but God bless it - I didn’t wear it after that incident: there it hangs intact, just like now, after all thirty years. And Dukach punished me with one thing: “Look,” he said, “Agap is a stupid man, he won’t be able to do anything, then you look, settle things well with the priest, so that he, God forbid, but no matter what kind of malice, he doesn’t give the lad any name.” Christian, breastfeeding, or Moscow. It’s Varvara’s day in our yard, otherwise it’s very dangerous, because here Nikola lives close to Varvara, and Nikola is the very first Muscovite, and he doesn’t help us Cossacks in anything, but everything is in Moscow's hand. No matter what happens, even if it's our truth, he will go and say this and that before God, and do everything in Moscow's favor, and twist and straighten out his Muscovites, and offend the Cossacks. God forbid us and name the children in his name. But right next to him lives Saint Savka. This one is one of the Cossacks and is even kinder than us. Whatever he is, although he is not important, he will not betray his Cossack."

I speak:

“Behold: yes, the wine is weak, Saint Savka!”

And Dukach says:

“It’s okay that it’s a little weak, but the wine is very good: where his strength won’t take him, he will rise to cunning and somehow defend the Cossack. And we ourselves will give him the strength to help him, we’ll light candles and sing a prayer service: God will bless him, so and people venerate Saint Savka well, and he himself will turn to his respect, and then the wine will become stronger.”

I promised him everything that Dukach asked. And she wrapped the little one in a fur coat, put the cross around her neck, and at his feet they put a barilka with a slivyanka, and off they went. But as soon as we drove a mile away, a blizzard arose - you just can’t drive: you can’t see anything.

I say to Agap:

“We can’t go, we’ll turn back!”

But he was afraid of his uncle and never wanted to come back.

“God willing,” he says, “we’ll get there. If I freeze, if my uncle kills me, then everything will be eaten.”

And he still urges on his horses, and when he gets his way, he stands his ground.

Meanwhile, it began to get dark, and not a trace was visible. We drive and drive, and we don’t know where we are going. The horses turn here and there, spinning, and we won’t get anywhere. We were terribly cold and, in order not to freeze, we took and sipped from the bottle that they brought to Peregudinsky’s priest. And I looked at the child: I thought

Oh God, I wouldn't have suffocated. No, the warm thing lies there and breathes so much that even steam comes out of it. I dug a hole over his face - let him breathe, and again we rode, and again we rode, we rode, we see that we are all spinning around again, and there is no light for us in the darkness, and the horses turn wherever they know. Now it’s impossible to return home, as we previously thought, to wait out the snowstorm,

It is no longer possible to know where to turn: where are the Paripses, and where are the Peregudas. I

I sent Agap to stand up and lead the horses, but he said: “How smart you are! I’m cold.” I promise him that when we get home, I’ll give him zlotys, but he says:

“What do I care about your zloty, since we’ll both die here. And if you want to do something to me from the good heart, then give me another good sip from the baril.” I

I say: “Drink as much as you want,” and he drank. He drank and went forward to take the horses by the bridle, but instead immediately went back: he came back and was shaking all over.

“What are you doing,” I say, “what’s wrong with you?”

And he answers:

“Look, you,” he says, “are so smart: how can I fight against Nikola?”

“What are you saying, stupid man: why do you want to fight Nikola?”

“Who knows,” he says, “what is he worth there?”

"Where, who is standing?"

“And over there,” he says, “near the harness itself, in front of the horses.”

“Too bad, you fool,” I say, “you’re drunk!”

“Hey, it’s good,” he replies, “that he’s drunk, but your husband wasn’t drunk, but he saw the mara, and I see.”

“Well,” I say, “you also remembered my husband: what he saw - I know better than you what he saw, and you say: what is being shown to you!”

“And this thing is standing so big in the Moscow golden cap, sparks are already falling from it.”

“This,” I say, “is falling out of your drunken eyes.”

“No,” he argues, “it’s Nikola in the Moscow cap. He didn’t let us in.”

I thought that this might not be true, but maybe it’s true because we didn’t want to write the lad as Nikolai, but as Savka, and I say:

“Don’t let him go, and don’t let him in - now we’ll give in to him, and tomorrow we’ll do it our way. Let the horses go where they want - they’ll bring us home; but now at least you can drink all the bar.”

I embarrassed Agap.

“You,” I say, “drink a lot and just keep quiet, and I’ll start blabbering so much that it won’t even occur to anyone that we’re lying. Let’s say that the kid was christened and called him, as Dukach wanted, by his good Cossack name - Savka, -

Let's put the cross on his neck for now; and on Sunday (Sunday) we will say:

Father ordered to bring the dytin to give him communion, and as soon as we bring it, we will baptize and give communion at once - and then everything will be as it should be in a Christian way.”

And the little thing opened again, - it’s so lively, it’s sleeping, and it’s warm, even the snow on its forehead is melting; I circled a cross on his face with this melted water and said: in the name of father, son, I put on a cross, and set off to God’s will, wherever the horses take him.

The horses kept walking and walking - now they walk, then they stop, then they walk again, and the weather gets worse and worse, the shame becomes more and more fierce. Agap became completely drunk, at first he muttered something, and then he didn’t even make a sound - he fell into the sleigh and started snoring. And I kept getting cold and cold and never came to my senses until I

They began to scrub Dukach in the house with snow. Then I woke up and remembered what I wanted to say, and that’s what I said, that the child seemed to have been baptized and that it was as if the name Savva had been given to him. They believed me, and I was at peace, because I thought to fix all this, as they said, on the very first Sunday. And I didn’t even know that Agap had been shot and soon died, and old Dukach was being taken to prison; and when I found out, I wanted to owe everything to old Dukachikha, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it, because there was great grief in the family at the time. I thought I’d tell you all this later, and even then it was hard to open it, and so all this was put off day by day. And time went on and on, and the lad kept growing; and everyone called him Savka, and they sent him to science - I still wasn’t ready to reveal the secret, and I was tormented all the time, and I was still going to discover that he was unbaptized, and then, when I suddenly heard that they were even putting him in the priesthood, I ran to tell the city, but they didn’t let me in and they put him there, and there was no point in talking. But since then I have not known even a minute of peace - I am tormented that through me all Christianity in my native place with an unbaptized priest is laughed at. Then, the older I got and saw that people loved him more and more, the worse I suffered and was afraid that the earth would not accept me. And only now, on my death, she said it forcibly. Let all of Christianity forgive me, whose souls I destroyed with an unbaptized priest, but bury me alive in the ground, and I will accept that execution with joy.”

The dean and the Peregudinsky priest listened to all this, wrote it all down and both signed to that recording, read it to Father Savva, and then went to church, put seals everywhere and left for the provincial town to see the bishop and the father himself

They took Savva with them.

And then the people began to make noise, negotiations began: what is this over our sir-father, where is it from and why on earth? And is it possible for it to be as he says?

Kerasikha? Is it okay to believe in a witch?

And they piled up such a combination that all this was from Nikola and that now we need to “strengthen” Saint Savka before God as best as possible and go to the bishop ourselves. They recaptured the church, lit all the candles in front of the calendar, as many as were in the box, and sent six good Cossacks after the dean to the bishop to ask that he not dare to touch Father Savva from them, “otherwise we are without this gentleman father.” We don’t want to hear and we’ll go to another faith, at least if not to the Katylic one, then to the Turkish one, but we won’t be left without Savva.”

It was here that the bishop had a bigger problem than the fact that “the deacon hit the trepak, but the trepak does not ask: why is the dean informing?”

Kerasivna died, confirming in her outburst of repentance to everyone what we know, and the elected Cossacks went to the bishop and all night they were all thinking about what they would do if the bishop did not listen to them and took priest Savva from them?

And they decided even more firmly that they would then return to the village - they would immediately drink the entire burner in all the taverns so that no one would get it, and then each of them would take three women, and whoever was richer would take four, and they would be real Turks, but only They don’t want another priest as long as their good Savva lives. And how can it be allowed that he was not baptized when so many people throughout Christianity were baptized, confessed, married and buried by him? Should all these people now be in a “filthy position”? One thing that the Cossacks also agreed to concede to the bishop was that if Father Savva cannot remain a priest, then let the bishop quietly baptize him where he knows, but only so that he still leaves him... or else they. .. "they will succeed in achieving the Turkish faith."

It was winter again, and again it was in the evening and just about the same

Nikolina or Savvina of the day when Kerasivna thirty-five years ago went from Paripsy to Peregudy to baptize little Dukachev’s son.

From Parips to the provincial town where the bishop lived, it was about forty versts.

The community that went to the rescue of Father Savva believed that it would walk fifteen miles to the large tavern of the Jew Yosel - there it would refresh itself, warm itself up, and in the morning it would appear to the bishop.

It turned out a little wrong. Circumstances that tend to repeat themselves played out the same story with the Cossacks that thirty-five years ago was played out with Agap and Kerasivna: a terrible snowstorm arose, and the Cossacks in their entirety began to wander across the steppe, lost track and, having lost their way, did not know where they are, when suddenly, maybe just an hour before dawn, they see a man standing, and not in an ordinary place, but on the ice above the ice hole, and says cheerfully:

Great, guys! They said hello.

“Why,” he says, “is it bothering you at such a time: you see, you didn’t get into the water much,

So, they say, we have great grief, we are in a hurry to get to the bishop: we want to see him before our enemies, so that he can do something to our advantage.

What do you need to do?

And he should leave us an unbaptized priest, otherwise we are so unhappy that we should go to Turks.

It's like you're turning into Turks! Turks are not allowed to drink burners.

And we’ll drink it all at once.

Look, how crafty you are.

Why should we be timid in the face of such an insult - like they take a good priest.

Stranger says:

Well, tell me everything really.

They told me. And so, out of the blue, standing at the ice hole, they cleverly said everything in order and again added that if the bishop does not leave it to them

Savva, then they will “decide with all faith.”

Then this stranger says to them:

Well, don’t be afraid, boys, I hope that the bishop will judge well.

Yes, it would be so for us, they say, it seems that such a great rank looms, we must judge well, and God the Church knows it...

Will judge; He will judge, or he will not judge, so I will help.

You?.. and who are you?

Tell me: what is your name?

“My name,” he says, “is Savva.” The Cossacks pushed each other sideways.

You feel it, it’s Savva himself.

And then Savva told them: “Here,” he says, “you have come where you should,”

There’s a monastery on the hill over there, and the bishop lives there.”

They looked, and sure enough, they could see it, and in front of them, across the river on a hill, was a monastery.

The Cossacks were very surprised that under such severe bad weather they had walked forty miles without rest, and, having climbed the hill, they sat down at the monastery, took something edible from their bags and began to refresh themselves, while they themselves waited for the gate to be struck and unlocked in the morning.

They waited, entered, stood at Matins and then appeared on the bishop’s porch to ask for an audience.

Although our archpastors were not very keen on talking with simpletons, these Cossacks were immediately allowed into their chambers and placed in the reception room, where they waited for a long, long time until the priest of Peregudin, and the dean, and priest Savva, and many other people came here.

The bishop came out and spoke with all the people, but not a word with the dean or the Cossacks, until he let everyone else out of the hall, and then he directly said to the Cossacks:

Well, guys, are you offended? Do you really want an unbaptized priest? And they answer:

Have mercy - have mercy, your Eminence: what an insult... such a peep, such a peep, there is nothing else like it in all of Christianity...

The bishop smiled.

Exactly,” he says, “there is no such other one,” and with this he turns to the dean and says:

Go to the sacristy: take it, Savva has prepared a book for you, bring it and read it where it is open.

And he sat down.

The dean brought the book and began to read: “I don’t want you not to be led, brethren, as our fathers were all under a cloud, and all walked through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. all the same beer is spiritual piyahu, but from the spiritual subsequent stone:

the stone is Christ."

At this point the bishop interrupted and said:

Do you understand what you read?

The dean answers:

I understand.

And now are you the only one who understands this!

But the dean didn’t know what to answer, and so he said stupidly:

I have said these words before.

And if you are a person, then why did you cause such alarm and confuse these good people, of whom he was a good shepherd?

The dean answered:

According to the rules of the saints, father...

And the bishop interrupted:

Stop, he says, stop: go to Savva again, he will give you the rule.

He went and came with a new book.

Read, says the bishop.

We read,” the dean began, “St. Gregory the Theologian wrote about Basil the Great that he “was a priest for Christians before becoming a priest.”

What's this for? - says the bishop.

And the dean answers:

It’s only because of my duty of service that he ended up unbaptized in such a rank...

But here the bishop stomps:

Again,” he says, “and now you’re repeating everything you did!” So, in your opinion, having passed through the cloud, you can be baptized into Moses, but not into Christ? After all, you were told that, seeking baptism, they penetrated the wet cloud with the fear of death and on the forehead with the melted water of that cloud they wrote a cross on the baby’s face in the name of the Holy Trinity. What else do you need?

You are a foolish person and not fit for business: I put priest Savva in your place;

and you, boys, be without a doubt: your priest Savva, who is good to you, is good to me and is pleasing to God, and go home without a doubt.

Those are at his feet.

Are you satisfied?

“We’re really happy,” the boys answer.

Won't you go to the Turks now?

Pfu! not pidemo, dad, not pidemo.

And you won’t drink the whole burner at once?

We won’t drink for once, we won’t drink, tsur yi, bake!

Go with God and live like a Christian.

And they were already ready to leave, but one of them, for greater reassurance, nodded his finger to the bishop and said:

And please, your honor, kindly go with me to the little corner.

The bishop smiled and said:

Okay, let's go to the little corner.

Here the Cossack asks him:

Excuse me, your honor: did you know everything before, as we told you?

“And what does it matter to you,” he says?

Yes, we were wondering why Savva had given you all some advice?

The bishop, who was told everything by his cell attendant Savva, looked at the Ukrainian and said:

You guessed it right, Savva told me everything.

And with that he left the hall.

Well, here the boys understood everything as they wanted. And from that time on, the story lives on of how the feeble-minded Savva quietly and cleverly arranged the matter in such a way that Moscow Nikola, with all his strength, was left with nothing to do with it.

So-and-so, they say, our Savko is clever, as soon as he got stronger, he would come up with something that confused everyone: he would show it from the scriptures, or he would stick it in his nose from the saints, so that it was impossible to understand anything. His holy God knows: he really baptized Kerasivna’s priest Savva in his bosom, but he just so cleverly covered up everything that even the bishop couldn’t get his head around. And everything turned out well. Save him for that.

O. Savva, they say, is still alive today, and there is a shtunda all around his village, and his small church is still full of people... And although it is unknown, they are “powering up”

Is St. there today? Savka is still there, but they claim that there are still no Mikhalki and Potapki showing “naked bellies” in the entire parish.

Nikolay Leskov - Unbaptized priest, read the text

See also Leskov Nikolay - Prose (stories, poems, novels...):

NOWHERE - 01 Book One IN THE PROVINCE
A novel in three books Book One. IN THE PROVINCE Chapter one. POPLAR YES...

NOWHERE - 02 Book One IN THE PROVINCE
Chapter fourteen. FAMILY PICTURE IN MEREVE - However, something is bad...

→ → → Unbaptized pop - reading

Unbaptized pop

This brief entry is about a real, albeit incredible, event.
I am dedicated to the venerable scientist, an expert on the Russian word, not because
so that I have the claim to consider the present story worthy of attention as
literary work. No; I dedicate it to the name of F.I. Buslaev because
that this original event, already now, during the life of the main person, received
among the people the character of a completely completed legend; but it seems to me to follow how
a legend is developing, it is no less interesting than to penetrate, “how it is done
story".

I

In our circle of friends we stopped over the following newspaper
news:
"In one village, a priest was giving his daughter in marriage. Of course, there was a feast at
glory, everyone drank a lot and had fun in a rural, homely way. Between
among other things, the local deacon turned out to be a lover of choreographic art and,
celebrating the fun, with “merry legs” he grabbed it in front of the guests
_trepak_, which brought everyone to considerable delight. Unfortunately, I was at the same feast
the dean, to whom such an act of the deacon seemed very offensive,
deserving of the highest penalty, and in his jealousy the dean
scribbled a denunciation to the bishop about how the deacon at the priest’s wedding “hit
trepak." Archbishop Ignatius, having received the denunciation, wrote the following resolution:

"Deacon N"_hit the trepak_"...
But _trepak_ does not ask;
Why is the dean informing?
Summon the dean to the consistory and interrogate him."

The matter ended with the fact that the informer, having traveled one and a half hundred miles and a lot
having spent money on the trip, he returned home with the suggestion that
the dean should have made a verbal reprimand to the deacon on the spot, and not
to start a slander because of _one_ - and, moreover, an exceptional case."
When this was read, everyone unanimously hastened to express the full
sympathy for the original resolution of Ave. Ignatius, but one of us, Mr. R.,
a great connoisseur of clergy life, always having in his memory a rich reserve
anecdotes from this peculiar environment, inserted:
- That’s good, gentlemen, even if it’s good: the dean really
there was no need to “start a slander because of _one_, and an exceptional one at that.”
case"; but case differs from case to case, and what we have just read leads me
to remember another incident, reporting about which, the dean appointed his
The bishop was in much greater difficulty, but, however, he got away with it there too.
We, of course, asked our interlocutor to tell us his
difficult case and heard the following from him:
- The matter, which at your request I need to tell you about, began in
the first years of the reign of Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich, and it took place already during
at the end of his reign, in the most hectic days of our Crimean failures. Behind
then events of great importance that so naturally took hold
universal attention in Russia, the incidental case of the “unbaptized priest” has collapsed
quietly and is now stored only in the memory of those who are still alive
persons of this intricate story, which has already acquired the character of an entertaining legend
of latest origin.
Since this matter is known in its place to very many people and the main person, in
participating in it, is still happily alive, then you owe me
excuse me that I will not indicate the location of the action with great accuracy and will
Avoid calling people by their real names. I'll just tell you what it was
in the south of Russia, among the Little Russian population, and concerns an unbaptized priest,
Father Savva, a very good, pious man, who to this day
lives well and is a priest and is very much loved by both his superiors and his
peaceful rural parish.
Apart from the own name of Savva's father, to whom I see no need to give
pseudonym, all other names of persons and places I will put other than
valid.

II

So, in one Little Russian Cossack village, which we, perhaps,
Let's call it Parips, there lived a rich Cossack Petro Zakharovich, nicknamed
Dukach. He was already an old man, very rich, childless and
formidable-formidable. He was not a world eater in the Great Russian sense of the word,
because in Little Russian villages there is world-eating in the Great Russian way
unknown, but he was what is called a “dukach” - a heavy, grumpy and
bold. Everyone was afraid of him and when meeting him they disowned him, hastily
crossed to the other side so that Dukach would not curse him, and on occasion if he
the force will take, he didn’t even beat him. His family name, as is often the case in villages
it happens that it was completely forgotten by everyone and replaced by street
nickname or nickname - “Dukach”, which expressed his unpleasant everyday experiences
properties. This offensive nickname, of course, did not help soften the character
Pyotr Zakharych, but, on the contrary, irritated him even more and drove him to such
a state in which he, being by nature a very intelligent person, lost
self-control and all his reason and rushed at people like one possessed.
As soon as the children who saw him playing somewhere ran in fright,
scattered with a cry: “Oh, bald, old Dukach is coming,” as already this fright
turned out to be not in vain: old Dukach rushed in pursuit of the fleeing
children with their long stick, which is appropriate to have in their hands
a real sedate Little Russian Cossack, or with an accidentally torn off
tree with a twig. However, not only children were afraid of Dukach: he, like me
he said, the adults also tried to keep their distance, “no matter what.”
"Prychepyveya." That was the kind of man he was. No one loved Dukach, and no one liked him
promised no good wishes either in person or behind the scenes; on the contrary, everyone thought
that the sky, only through an incomprehensible omission, has long since touched upon the grumpy
the Cossack to pieces so that not even his guts remain, and anyone who
could, would willingly try to correct this omission of Providence, if Dukach,
as luck would have it, “there was no happiness in sight” from everywhere. He had luck in everything - everything
as if it itself fell into his iron hands: the huge flocks of his sheep multiplied like
Laban's flock during the inspection of Jacob. For them, the proximity and steppes were no longer enough;
Dukach's sexual steep-horned oxen are strong, tall and also in almost hundreds of pairs
they traveled in new carts to Moscow, then to the Crimea, then to Nezhin; and the bee apiary in
in his linden forest, in the warm bush there was such that the pads had to be counted
hundred. In a word, the wealth of a Cossack rank is immeasurable. And what is all this for?
God gave it to Dukach? People were only surprised and reassured themselves that all this
It’s not good that God is probably “tempting” Dukach to do more
exalted himself, and then he will be “hit”, and he will hit him so hard that the whole outskirts
will be heard.
The good people were looking forward to this reprisal against the dashing Cossack, but
Years passed after years, and the god of Dukach did not knock. The Cossack grew richer and prouder, and
nothing worthy of his fierceness threatened him from anywhere. Public conscience
I was very embarrassed by this. Moreover, it could not be said about Dukach that
He will be repaid in children: he had no children. But suddenly the old Dukachikha
began to avoid people for some reason - she became embarrassed, or, in local terms,
“strayed” - did not go out into the street, and after that it spread throughout the outskirts
news that Dukachikha is “unempty”.
Minds perked up and tongues began to speak: long tired of waiting
the public conscience was awaiting imminent satisfaction.
- What a child that will be! what will the child of the Antichrist be like? And chi won
give birth, and then disappear in the belly, so that he doesn’t have a big retinue!
Everyone was looking forward to this and finally got it: one frosty
December night in Dukach’s spacious hut, in the sacred pangs of childbirth
suffering, a child appeared.
The new inhabitant of this world was a boy, and, moreover, without any animal-like
ugliness, as all good people wanted; but, on the contrary, unusually
clean and beautiful, with a black head and large blue eyes.
Grandma Kerasikha, who was the first to bring this news to the street and swore,
that the child had neither horns nor a tail, they spat on him and wanted to beat him, but the child
Still, what remains is pretty, very pretty, and what’s more, it’s still surprising
quiet: she breathed quietly, but seemed ashamed to shout.

III

When God gave this boy, Dukach, as said above, was already
is close to its end. He was perhaps more than a year old at that time.
fifty. It is known that elderly fathers warmly accept such news as
the birth of the first child, and even a son, heir to name and wealth. And Dukach
was very happy about this event, but expressed it as his
harsh nature. First of all, he called to him a homeless man who lived with him
nephew named Agap and told him not to blow his lip anymore
uncle's inheritance, because now God has sent him to his "thinness"
real heir, and then ordered this Agap to immediately
dressed himself in a new cap and hat and was preparing, as soon as dawn broke, to go with
a message to the visiting judge gentleman and the young priest - to call them to
godmother.
Agap was also already about forty years old, but he was a driven man and
looked like a chicken with a scruffy head on which he had
there was a funny bald head, also the work of Dukach.
When Agap was orphaned in adolescence and was taken to the Dukachev house, he was alive
and even a nimble child provided his uncle with the benefit that he knew how to read and write.
In order not to feed his nephew for nothing, Dukach began sending him from the very first year
with his Chumaks to Odessa. And when Agap once, returning home, handed over
report to his uncle and showed the expenses for a new hat, Dukach was angry that he dared
make such a purchase without permission, and beat the guy so brutally on the neck that she
he was sick for a very long time and then forever became a little askew; and a hat
Dukach took it away and hung it on a nail until the moths ate it. Krivoshey Agap walked
a year without a hat and all the good people had a laugh. At this time he
I cried bitterly and had time to think about how to help my need. He himself is already
had long been dull from persecution, but people told him that he could with his
cope with the guy, but not so easily, through directness, but through “polytyk”.
And it is precisely through such a policy, thin, in order to buy a hat, and the cost of it
not to show, but to “distribute” that money somewhere, little by little, according to
other articles. And besides all this, just in case, when you go to your uncle, take the most
a long towel and wrap it around your neck several times, so that if Dukach
would fight, it wouldn’t hurt very much. Agap took this science into his mind,
and a year later, when his uncle drove him back to Nezhin, he left without a hat, and
He returned with a report and a hat, which was not included in any expenses.
Dukach didn’t notice this at first and even praised his nephew,
telling him: “You should be beaten, but not for anything.” But then the demon pulled Agap
show the guy how unfair human truth is in the world! He
I tried to see if he had a long towel wrapped around his neck, which
was supposed to serve his political considerations, and, finding him in good
okay, said to his uncle:
- Hey, uncle, good! no way, bits! Is Axis so-and-so really on the retinue?
- What’s the truth?
- And the yak axis is true: tell me, man. - And Agap, clicking on the piece of paper,
said: - Isn’t there a hat here?
“Well, dumb,” answered Dukach.
“And that’s where the hat comes from,” Agap boasted and tilted his
a new smart hat made from Reshetilov smushkas.
Dukach looked and said:
- Good hat. Well, let me make peace too.
He put on his hat and walked up to the fragment of the mirror set in
the board covered with brightly colored paper, he shook his gray head and again
speaks:
- And what a shame, it’s really such a good hat that even if it weren’t for me, then
It would be good to walk.
- It’s okay, it would be good.
- And where are you, the enemy’s son, who stole?
- Why, man, why am I going to steal! - Agap answered, - let it go
God harrow, I’m not good at all.
- Where are you and where are you?
But Agap replied that he didn’t grab the hat at all, but just so-so, just her
got it through the hole.
Dukach found this so funny and incredible that he laughed and
said:
- Well, come on, I'm a fool for you: why are you going to pay for the poultry?
- And that’s why I earned it.
- Well, move on.
- By God, I did it.
Dukach only silently shook his finger at him: but he stood his ground that he
"I've done the trick."
“And what the hell, that puff got into your head,” Dukach said, “
What the hell would it be like if you, such a rural croak, could have croaked in Nizhyn
do.
But Agap stood his ground that he really did the job.
Dukach ordered Agap to sit down and tell everything about the policy he had made.
tell me, and he poured plum liqueur into his bowl, lit the cradle and
prepared to listen for a long time. But there was nothing to listen to for a long time. Agap repeated to his uncle
his entire report and says:
- No hats here?
“Well, dumb,” answered Dukach.
- And here is the hat!
And he discovered exactly what, how many kopecks and in what expense item he
calculated, and he said it all cheerfully, with an open soul and full
hope for a towel wrapped tightly around your neck; but then the worst thing happened
unforeseen surprise: Dukach, instead of beating his nephew
neck, said:
- Look, you really are such a fool: you stole, and even twisted your neck, so as not to
it hurt. Well, I’ll give Toby another stick,” and with that he pulled the tuft
hair frozen in his hand.
Thus ended this political game between uncle and nephew and, having become
famous in the village, strengthened Dukach’s even stronger reputation that this
a man “like a fireplace” - you can’t take him with anything: neither straightforwardness, nor politics,

IV

Dukach always lived alone: ​​he didn’t go to anyone, and no one was with him
I wanted to get to know each other closely. But Dukach, apparently, did not grieve at all about this.
Maybe he even liked it. At least he's having fun
used to say that he had never bowed to anyone in his life and would never bow to anyone
he didn’t want someone who could force him to bow. Yes indeed
and why would he fawn on anyone? There are many oxen and all sorts of thin things;
and if God punishes with this, the oxen fall or whatever is burned by fire, so he has
plenty of land and meadows - everything is in order, everything will be born again, and he will again
will get rich. And even if not so, he knew well in the distant forest alone
a noticeable oak tree, under which a good cauldron with old ruble notes is buried.
Once you get it out of there, you can live for a whole century without any hassle, and even then
not to live. What did people mean to him? Should he baptize the children with them, perhaps?
but he had no children. Or in order to console his Dukachikha, who
according to a woman's whim she pestered:
- What, they say, everyone is afraid of us and they envy us - it would be better to do so that
Someone began to love us.
But was this woman’s whining worth the Cossack’s attention?
And so years after years passed, passing harmlessly over Dukach’s head all sorts of
everyday accidents and adversities, but an incident that could force him
bow to people, after all, he did not fly past: now people tell him
needed to baptize a child.
To any other person, not as proud as Dukach, this, of course,
would have amounted to nothing, but Dukach could not go, call, and even beg
matched. And who should I call and who should I “beg”? - Of course not
someone, but the very first people: a young priest-dandy who walked
in the village in Poltava hats, and the ship's gentleman who was visiting at that time
father deacon. Let’s say this company is good, but something is scary: how are they?
will they refuse? Dukach remembered that he did not pay attention not only to simple
people, but he didn’t respect Father Yakov either, and he and the deacon once rowed
“fought” because he, driving towards him, did not want to leave the road in the mud
turn. What good, and they have not forgotten this even now, when the proud
the Cossack needed them, and they will probably remember this to him. Do,
however, there was nothing. Dukach used a trick: avoiding personally meeting
refusal, he sent to call his godfathers Agap. And to make it more convenient for him, he provided
his called gifts of the village provisions, which he took out from the treasured
hide: the lady has a tall tortoiseshell comb “with a vegetable garden”, and the lady
a gilded flask with a rooster with a German signature. But all this was in vain:
the godmothers refused and did not accept the gifts; and, according to Agap, even in the eyes
They laughed at him: what, they say, is why Dukach cares: are children like that
Can villains like him be baptized? And when Agap noticed that I was kissing the child
will remain unbaptized for a week, it is as if priest Father Yakov himself directly prophesied:
that he should remain unbaptized not for a week, but for a whole century.
Hearing this, Dukach cupped the barrel with his right hand and stuck it in his nephew’s nose.
and ordered to offer this to Father Yakov for the prophecy. And so that Agap would have more fun
go,” he turned him with his other hand and escorted him along the back of his face.

V

Agap, of course, did not consider this to be the worst outcome he could
wait for your unsuccessful embassy, ​​and, roll away from your uncle’s eyes into the tavern,
managed to tell the past so well that within half an hour everyone knew about it
the village, and everyone, young and old, rejoiced that Father Yakov “was in the books
I read that Dukachonka was destined by birth to remain unbaptized." And if now
old Dukach forgot all his importance and began to call the last of the last to
village, he probably wouldn’t have called anyone, but Dukach knew it: he knew that
is in the position of that wolf who has done something dirty to everyone, and what should he
therefore there is nowhere to go and no one to seek protection from. He went ahead: thrusting towards
Agap blew his nose, addressed to Father Yakov, he decided to do not only without
the assistance of all his fellow villagers, but also without the services of Father Yakov himself.
To spite everyone, but perhaps especially Father Yakov, Dukach decided to baptize
son in a foreign parish, in the village of Peregudakh, which was no more distant from Parips
like seven or eight miles. And in order not to put off urgent matters in
long box - to baptize your son immediately, precisely today - so that tomorrow
there was no talk about this; but on the contrary, so that tomorrow everyone knows that Dukach
a real Cossack who is not mocked by anyone and can do without everyone
make do. His godfather had already been elected - the most unexpected one - this is Agap. Is it true,
that such a choice could surprise many, but Dukach had a challenge: he took
simple godfathers - “counter”, as is the belief that such a god
sends. Agap was indeed the first “vetrechnik”, to whom the rich Cossack
looked at the first one at the news of the newborn; and the first "meeter" was
Grandma Kerasivna. It was a little awkward to take her as godfather, because Kerasivna
had a not entirely harmonious reputation: she was the most undoubted witch; so
there is no doubt that even her husband himself, a very jealous Cossack, did not deny this
Kerasenko, from whom this cunning little woman gives all the spirit and all his unbearable
jealousy kicked in. Having turned him into the most beaten fool, she lived with all her
free will - a little chopping, a little subsistence, then
selling palyanits, then, finally, simply “plucking flowers of pleasure.”

VI

Her witchcraft was known to both old and young - because the incident that revealed
this was the most public and scandalous. Kerasivna was still a girl
fearless self-willed - lived in cities and had some kind of sophisticated appearance
a bottle with a horned devil, which was given to her by a Rogachev nobleman from Pokoti,
casting such devilry in the neighboring guta. And Kerasivna drank to herself
health from this bottle and she was healthy. And finally, all this is not enough - she
showed the most incredible courage by voluntarily agreeing to marry
Kerasenka. No one could do this except a woman who did nothing
afraid, because Kerasenko has already killed two wives with his jealousy, and
when I couldn’t find a third anywhere in the area, then this accursed
Christia herself fell in love with him and married him, only she made such a condition that
he will always believe her. Kerasenko agreed to this, but he himself thought:
“Fool woman: so I’ll trust you! - let me get married, - I’ll take you one step
I won’t let go of myself.”
Anyone in Christ's place would have foreseen this, but this nimble girl seemed
she became stupid: and not only was she not afraid of anything and married a jealous widower, but
she also took it and completely remade him, so that he stopped being jealous of her altogether and
let her live in all her free will. This is what was arranged most
insidious witchcraft and with the undoubted participation of the devil whose neighbor
Kerasivny, Pidnebesnaya, she herself saw in human form.
This was soon after Kerasenko married the lively Christa,
and even though a good dozen years have now passed, the poor Cossack,
Of course, I still remember this damn incident well. It was winter
in the evening, on holidays, when no Cossack, even the most jealous one,
I can’t bear to sit at home. But Kerasenko himself “bored his entourage” and his wife didn’t go anywhere
let him in, and because of this they had a battle, during which Kerasivna said
to my husband:
- Well, since you are untrue in your word, then I’ll give you a hard time.
- How dashing! How are you daring me? - Kerasenko spoke.
- And I’ll be fine, and everything will be here.
- Why won’t I let you out of my sight?
- And I’ll put a mara on you.
- Yak maru? - Hiba, are you vidma?
- And you’ll get the idea whether I’m a vidma or not.
- Good.
- You’ll get away with it: marvel at me, hold on to me, and I’ll earn mine.
And she set another deadline:
“It won’t be three days before I do it,” he says.
The Cossack sat for a day, sat for two, sat for a third until the evening and
thinks: “The term is over, but they should have taken me a hundred devils at once, like at home
boring... and the Pidnebesnikhin tavern is right opposite my hut, from window to window:
mini zvidtil everything will be visible when someone comes to my house. And I'm the one
I'll drink two or three or four quarts there in an hour... I'll listen to what people are talking about in
a little bit into the city... and I’ll dance and have some fun.”
And he went - he went and sat down, as he thought, by the window, so that he could see all his
hut, you can see the fire burning; you can see how the woman dangles here and there. Wonderful?
And Kerasenko sat down and had a drink, while he kept looking at his hut; But
out of nowhere, the widow Pidnebesnaya herself noticed this trick of his, and well
make fun of him: oh, they say, you’re such and such a stupid Cossack, why are you
you look, you won’t see it in real life.
- Well, okay, let's talk a little more!
- It’s no big deal, - they look after us, the zhinkas, more, there for us,
zhinkam, you help yourself encore.
“Talk, tell yourself,” answered the Cossack, “but I’m on my own.”
I’m amazed, then the colo and the devil won’t earn anything.
Here everyone nodded their heads.
- Oh, this is not good, Kerasenko, oh, this is not good! - or you are unbaptized
man, or have you become so mad that you don’t even believe in the devil himself.
And everyone was so indignant at this that even someone from the crowd shouted:
- Why even look at him: give him such a fool, let him win trichy
turning over and standing on good terms.
And he really was almost beaten, which, as he noted, was special
some stranger had the desire, about whom Kerasenko suddenly
for no reason it occurred to me that this was none other than that same Rogachevo
nobleman who gave his wife a bottle of the devil and because of which they
there was an explanation with my wife just before the wedding, which ended with the condition that
Don't talk about this person anymore.
The condition was concluded with a terrible oath that if Kerasenko even once
remembers about the nobleman, then he will be in the devil's mouth for it. AND
Kerasenko remembered this condition. But now he was drunk and could not bear
of his confusion: why did the Rogachev nobleman appear here? And he hurried
home, but didn’t find his wife at home, and this seemed even more incongruous to him.
“Don’t remember,” he thought, “we definitely agreed not to talk about him.”
remember, why is he running around here - and why isn’t my wife at home?”
And when Kerasenko was induced in such thoughts, it suddenly seemed to him,
that someone kissed him in the hallway behind the door. He perked up and became
listen... hears another kiss, and another, and a whisper, and another kiss. And that's it
right at the door...
“Eh, a hundred devils,” Kerasenko said to himself, “or is it just me out of habit?”
I treated myself to vodka so well at Pidnebesnikha’s that God knows what
is shown; or was it my wife who got wind that I was talking about the Rogachev nobleman with
I want to argue with her, and has she already managed to unleash a mara on me? People have told me more than once
before they said that she was a witch, but I didn’t see it
I managed, and now... look, they're kissing again, oh... oh... oh... here they go again and again...
Oh, wait, I'll watch for you!
The Cossack got down from the bench, quietly crawled to the door and, pressing his ear to the groove,
began to listen: they were kissing, undoubtedly they were kissing - they were smacking their lips... But
and conversation, and this is the living voice of his wife; he hears her say:
- What the hell is my husband, such and such a bastard: I’ll marry him, and send you to the house
I'll let you in.
“Wow!” thought Kerasenko, “she’s the one who’s bragging about kicking me out, but in my
wants to let someone in... Well, that won’t happen.”
And he stood up to push the door open with a strong push, but the door itself
dissolved, and Kerasivna appeared on the threshold - so good, calm,
only seemed a little red, and immediately began to quarrel, as befits
a real Little Russian woman. She called him a damn son and a drunkard,
and dog, and many other names, and in conclusion reminded him of their
provided that Kerasenko did not even dare to think of being jealous of her. And as proof
of his trust in her, he would immediately let her go to the vespers. Otherwise she will tell him
such a thing will suit him that he will remember for a century. But Kerasenko was small
mistake, let him go to the vespers now after he saw it with his own eyes
at Pidnebesnikha of the Rogachev nobleman and now I heard his wife with someone
kissed and conspired to let someone into the house... this was for him, of course
seemed too obvious stupidity.
“No,” he said, “look for such a fool elsewhere, but I want
It’s better to lock you at home and go to bed. This way it will be more reliable: then I and
I will not be afraid of your mara.
Kerasivna, hearing these words, even turned pale; husband with her for the first time
spoke in such a tone, and she understood that this had come in her marital
politics is the most decisive moment, which at any cost must
win: or - everything she has managed so far with such dexterity and
persistence, disappeared without a trace and, perhaps, will turn on her own head.
And she stood up - stood up to her full height, poked the Cossack in the nose
the most insulting fool and wanted, without hesitation, to wave out the door, but he
guessed her intention and warned him by locking the door with a chain and lowering
key in the endless pocket of his wide trousers, with outrageous
calmly said:
- This is your whole road, from the stove to the gate.
Kerasivna’s position became even more decisive: she accepted the challenge
husband and fell into such an indescribable and terrible ecstatic state that
Kerasenko was even scared. Christia stood in one place for a long time, trembling all over
and stretching out like a snake, with her arms writhing, her fists clenched tightly,
and something was clicking in my throat, and white and purple spots were running across my face, between
as the eyes fixed intently on the husband became sharper than knives and suddenly
began to sparkle with a completely red flame.
This seemed so scary to the Cossack that he, not wanting to see his wife in
this frenzy, he shouted:
- Tsur tobi, damned vidma! - and, blowing on the fire, he immediately extinguished it
light.
Kerasivna just stamped in the darkness and hissed:
- So you will know me, Vidma! - And then suddenly, like a cat,
she jumped to the stove and rang loudly; shouted into the trumpet:
- Oooh! soul him, pig!

VII

The Cossack, however, became even more afraid of this new fury, but in order to
not to miss the wife, who obviously was a witch and had a direct intention
fly into the pipe, he caught it and, tightly grasping it with his hands, threw it onto
the bed against the wall and immediately lay down on the edge.
Kerasivna, to her husband’s surprise, did not resist at all - on the contrary, she
she was quiet, like a meek child, and didn’t even scold. Kerasenko was this
very happy and, holding the key hidden in his pocket with one hand, and taking his wife with the other
by the sleeve of his shirt, fell into a deep sleep.
But this blissful state of his did not last long: he had just grabbed
half of the first sleep, in which his brain, overflowing with wine fumes, softened and
lost clarity of ideas, when suddenly he received a push in the ribs.
"What's happened?" - thought the Cossack and, feeling more tremors,
muttered:
- Why are you pushing, Zhinka?
- Otherwise, how can you not push: listen, what’s timid in the yard?
- What's going on there?
- But listen!
Kerasenko raised his head and heard that there was something scary in his yard
squealed.
“Hey,” he said, “but this is probably someone dragging our pig.”
- Of course, so. Let me in quickly, I’ll go and see if she’s okay
locked?
- Should I let you in?.. Hm... hm...
- Well, give me the key, otherwise they’ll steal the pig, and we’ll sit all Christmastide and
without cowbass and without lard. All good people will eat cowbass, and we will only
take a look... Wow... listen, listen: you can feel how they're dragging her... I can't help but
I feel sorry for him, how he, the poor pig, squealed!.. Well, let me in quickly: I
I'll go take it away.
- Well, yes: so I’ll let you in! Where has it been seen that a woman would do such a thing?
I went to take away the pig! - answered the Cossack, - I’d better get up and go myself
I'll take it away.
But in fact, he was too lazy to get up and didn’t want to go for fear.
frost from a warm house; but he only felt sorry for the pig, and so he stood up,
I threw on my scroll and walked out the door. But then something mysterious happened
an event that, with the most undoubted evidence, strengthened Kerasivna’s
such witch fame that from that time on everyone was afraid of Kerasivna in his house
to see, and not just call her godfather, as the arrogant Dukach did.

VIII

Before the carefully walking Cossack Kerasenko had time to open the barn, where
the pig howled, dissatisfied with the disturbance caused to her, as if from
something wide and soft, like cart sackcloth, fell in the impenetrable darkness, and
at that very moment something hit the Cossack on the back of his head, so that he fell to the ground and
I forcibly got out. After making sure that the pig is safe and in its place,
Kerasenko locked her tighter and went to the hut to finish the night's sleep.
But that was not the case: not only the hut itself, but also its entryway turned out to be
locked. He's there, he's here - everything is locked. What kind of daring? He knocked and knocked;
called, called Zhinka:
- Zhinka! Christ! unlock it quickly. Kerasivna did not respond.
- Ugh, you dashing woman: why did she decide to lock herself up and so soon?
fell asleep! Christ! to her! Zhinka! Fuck it!
There was nothing: it was as if everything had frozen; even a pig sleeps, and she doesn’t
grunts.
“What a thing! - thought Kerasenko, - look how I fell asleep! Well, I’ll get out
through the back road to the street and go to the window; she's sleeping close to the window and now I'm
will hear."
He did just that: he went up to the window and knocked, but what did he do?
hear? - his wife says:
- Sleep, man, sleep: don’t worry about what’s knocking: behold, we have the devil
go!
The Cossack began to knock harder and shout:
- Now fix it, or I'll break the window. But then Christia got angry and
responded:
- Who dares to knock on honest people’s door at this time?
- Yes, it’s me, your husband,
- What is my husband like?
- We know what kind of husband you are - Kerasenko.
- My husband is at home, - go, go, whoever you are, don’t wake us up: we’re with
We sleep together with our husbands in our arms.
“What is this?” thought Kerasenko, “am I really still dreaming and in a dream?
I see, or is this really happening?
And he knocked again and began to call:
- Christia, and Christia! Yes, unlock it by God's grace. And everything sticks, everything
pesters with it; and she is silent for a long time - does not answer anything and then again
will respond:
- Yes, you have completely failed, - who is so attached; I'm telling you, my husband
at home, lying next to me, hugging me, - here he is.
- Can this be shown to you, Khristya?
- Hey! thank you for that! Why the hell am I so bad, really?
insensitive, so I don’t know the sense of anything? No, I know better than that
is shown and what is not shown. Here he is, here is my little man, I have absolutely
close... so I’ll cross him: Lord Jesus, and here I’ll kiss him: and
I’ll hug you and kiss you again... It’s good for us together, and you, unkind slut, go
You care about your own wife - don’t bother us sleeping and kissing. No good - go
with God blessing.
“Ugh, damn it to your father: what kind of parable is this!” - shaking
shoulders, reasoned Kerasenko. - What the hell, I, having climbed over the tine, didn’t
did he identify himself as a hut? But no: this is my house."
He walked to the other side of the wide village street and began to count from
well with a tall crane.
- First, second, third, fifth, seventh, ninth... This is mine
ninth.
He came: he knocks again, he calls again, and again the same story: no, no
a woman's voice will respond, and every time with great displeasure and everything in
in the same sense:
- Go away: my husband is with me.
And the voice of Christ is undoubtedly her voice.
- Well, if your boyfriend is with you, let him talk.
- Why should he talk to me, since we have already discussed everything?
- Yes, I want to listen: do you have a guy there?
- And now there is: listen, how we’ll start kissing.
- Phew, there’s no harm in them: they actually kiss, and they assure me that
I am not me, and they are sending me somewhere completely away from home. But wait: I'm not really
stupid - I’ll go and gather people, and let people say: is this my doc or not, and I
or who is my wife’s other husband. - Listen, Christ: I’ll go wake up people.
“Yes, go, go,” the voice answers, “just get away from us: here we are.”
The two of us kissed each other and lay quietly hugging each other, and it felt good for us. And before others
no one cares.
Suddenly another, undoubtedly male voice says the same thing:
- The two of us kissed and now we lie quietly hugging each other, and you
go to hell!
There was nothing more left to do: Kerasenko was convinced that in his
title, someone else approached Christ, and he went to wake up the neighbors.

IX

This went on for a long time or a short time until the crazy Kerasenko managed to wake up and
gather about two dozen Cossacks to your house and voluntarily follow
husbands of curious Cossack women, - and Kerasivna remained in her position and all
assured everyone that Mara was with them all, and that her husband was at home with her, lying with her
on her hand, and as proof she more than once forced everyone to listen to how she
kisses. And all the Cossacks and Cossack women listened to this and found that this was in no way
maybe it was fake, because the kisses were real, and from outside the window,
although not particularly distinct, a man’s voice was still clearly audible,
according to Kerasivna, it belonged to her husband. And everyone heard this voice
Once he approached the very window and from there, terrifying everyone, said:
- Why are you fools going after the mud? - I’m lying at home with my wife; and this
Mara is leading you. Give her one good backhand each, - she
will fall apart at once.
The Cossacks crossed themselves, and whichever of them stood closest to Kerasenka was the first
and drove him with all his might across the back of his head, but he immediately gave traction: and he
others followed suit. And Kerasenko, having received a blow from each
backhand, in one minute he was brutally beaten and mercilessly thrown at the threshold
his enchanted hut, where some insidious demon so diligently replaced
him on the marital bed. He no longer tried to alleviate his grief, but
only, sitting on a snowball, he cried bitterly, as if it was completely inappropriate for a Cossack, and
everyone seemed to hear that Kerasivna was kissing him. But, fortunately, all the torment
human beings have an end - and this torment of Kerasenka ended - he fell asleep,
and he dreamed that his wife took him by the collar and carried him to a good place
familiar warm bed, and when he woke up, he actually saw himself on
his bed, in his hut, and in front of him at the stove she was busy, cooking
dumplings with cheese, his brave Kerasivna. In a word, everything is as it should be - exactly
nothing unusual happened: neither about the pig, nor about Mara and
there was no mention. Kerasenko, although he really wanted to talk about it, didn’t
knew: how to take on this?
The Cossack just gave up on everything and from then on lived with his Kerasivna in
peace and harmony, leaving her in all her will and space, with which she and
I used it as I knew. She traded and traveled wherever she wanted, and home
her happiness did not suffer from this, and her well-being and experience increased.
But Kerasivna was lost in public opinion: everyone knew that she
witch. The cunning Cossack woman never argued against this, since it gave
she had a kind of aplomb: they feared her, honored her and, coming to her for advice,
They brought her either a pile of eggs or some other gift suitable for the household.

X

I knew Kerasivna and Dukach, and knew her, of course, for an intelligent woman, with
which, apart from her witchcraft, in any causal case, one should not consult
superfluous. And just as Dukach himself was an unloved person, he was not very
and was disdainful. People said that more than once they had seen them standing together under
a dense willow that grew woven into the fence that separated their vegetable gardens.
Some even thought that there was a little bit of some kind of sin here, but this,
Of course, there was gossip. Just Dukach and Kerasivna, who had in their
reputation had something in common, they knew each other and found something to talk about
friend.
So it is now, in that annoying incident that followed regarding
unsuccessful call of godfathers, Dukach remembered Kerasivna and, calling her to
council, told her the annoyance caused to him by all the people.
After hearing this, Kerasivna thought a little and, shaking her head, directly
cut off:
- Why, Mr. Dukach: call me godfather!
“I call you godfather,” Dukach repeated thoughtfully.
- Yes, or do you believe that I’m a vid?
- Hm!.. they say that you are a vid, but I don’t care about your tail.
- Yes, and don’t worry.
- Hm! your godfather... and what will all people say?
- What kind of people?.. those who don’t even want to come into your house?
- True, but why will my Dukachikha speak? After all, she believes that you are visible?
-Are you afraid of her?
- I'm afraid... I'm not such a fool as your husband: I'm not afraid of women and I'm not afraid of anyone.
I'm afraid: but Tilko... you're really not a witch?
- Eh, yes, I bach, you, Mr. Dukach, are such a fool! Well, call someone
want to.
- Hm! Well, wait, wait, don’t be angry: if you really were godfather. Only
Look, will the Peregudinsky priest baptize with you?
- Why won’t it!
- Yes, God knows: he’s such a scientist - he starts everything from scripture, -
will say: not my arrival.
- Don’t be afraid, he won’t say: at least he’s a scientist, but Zhinok has good ears...
He will begin with the scriptures, and will end, like all people, with whatever the woman points out. Good
I know him and was with him in company where he didn’t want to drink anything. Says: "In
Scripture says: do not get drunk with wine, for there is fornication in it." And I say:
“Fornication is still fornication, but you drink a glass,” and he drank.
- Did you drink?
- I drank.
- Well, that’s good: just be careful that you don’t spoil our wine when you drink it
boy - I wouldn’t call him Ivan or Nikolai.
- Here you go! So I will give it to him, so that he can call his Christian child Nikola.
Hiba, I don’t know that this is a Moscow name.
- That’s exactly it: Nikola is the most Muscovite.
The point was also that Kerasivna did not have such a warm and
a spacious fur coat to carry the child to Peregud, and the day was very cold -
a real "barbaric time", but Dukachikha had a wonderful fur coat, covered
blue nanka. Dukach took it out and gave it to his wife Kerasivna without asking.
“Here,” he says, “put it on and take it for yourself, just not for long.”
dig in, so that people don’t say that Dukach’s child was not baptized for three days.
Kerasivna was a little confused about the fur coat, but nevertheless took it. She
rolled up her sleeves lined with hare fur, and everyone in the farm saw
like a witch, defiantly twisting her motley cape onto the back of her head, she sat down next to
Agapom in a sleigh drawn by a pair of strong Dukachev horses, and set off to
Yerema's priest to the village of Peregudy, which was a little over eight miles away. When
Kerasivna and Agap drove away, curious people saw that both godfather and godfather were
sober enough. That although Agap, who ruled the horses, was visible in
laps there was a round bottle of liquor with liqueur, but this was obviously intended for
clergy treats. Kerasivna has a spacious blue hare fur coat in her bosom.
lay a child, with whose baptism the strangest thing was about to happen
case - which, however, many experienced people vividly anticipated. They knew,
that God will not allow the son of such an unkind man as Dukach to be
baptized, and even through a witch known to everyone. It would be nice to come out after that and
all baptized faith!
No, God is fair: he cannot allow this and will not allow it.
Dukachikha was of the same opinion. She mourned bitterly for the terrible
the arbitrariness of her husband, who chose his only, long-awaited child
the successor is a notorious witch.
Under such circumstances and predictions, Agap left and
Kerasivny with the Dukachev child from the village of Parips in Peregudy, to priest Yerema.
This happened in December, two days before Nikola, two hours before lunch,
in fairly fresh weather with a strong “Moscow” wind, which immediately
after Agap and Kerasivna left the farm, he began to play out and
turned into a violent storm. The sky above was clouded with lead; started blowing from below
snowy dust, and a fierce snowstorm began.
All the people who wished harm to the Dukachev child, seeing this, piously
crossed themselves and felt satisfied: now there was no more
there is no doubt that God is on their side.

XI

Premonitions spoke unkindly to Dukach himself; no matter how strong he was, but
Still, he was susceptible to superstitious fear and was a coward. In fact, from that
or something had gone wrong, and the storm that now threatened the godfathers and the child seemed to
the chain broke just as they were leaving the outskirts. But also
It was more annoying that Dukachikha, who spent her entire life in servile
silence in front of her husband, she suddenly opened her silent lips and spoke:
- For our old age, for my consolation, God gave us a piece of meat, and you ate it.
- What is this? - Dukach stopped, - how did I eat the child?
- So, I gave it to Vidma. Where is it throughout the Christian Cossacks
Have you ever heard of a child being given a baptism?
- But she will cross him.
- It has never happened, and never will happen, that the Lord would allow it to reach his
Christian font Likhodeya vidma.
- Who told you that Kerasivna is a witch?
- Everyone knows this.
- There’s not much everyone says, but no one has seen her tail.
- They didn’t see the tail, but they saw how she wrapped her husband.
- Why don’t you turn around such a fool?
- And she turned everyone away from Pidnebesnikha so that they would not buy palyanits from her.
- Because Pidnebesnaya sleeps softly and does not break the dough at night, she has
scorch is worse.
- But you can’t talk to you, but you want whoever you want, all good people
ask, and all good people will tell you one thing: Kerasikha is a witch.
- Why should we torture other kind people when I myself am a kind person.
The Dukachi woman looked up at her husband and said:
- How is it... Are you a kind person?
- Yes; But what do you think, am I not a kind person?,
- Of course, not kind.
- Who told you this?
- Who told you that you are kind?
- Who said that I’m not kind?
- And to whom did you do any good?
- What good have I done to anyone!
- Yes.
“And a hundred devils... and it’s true, what is it I just can’t remember: who
Have I done any good?” thought Dukach, unaccustomed to objections, and
so as not to hear the continuation of this unpleasant conversation for him, he said:
- That’s all that was missing, for me to become with you, with the woman.
talk.
And with this, in order to no longer be with his wife eye to eye in the same hut, he
took off the smushkovo hat that had once been taken from Agap from the regiment and went for a walk around
to the world

XII

It was probably already very difficult in Dukach’s soul when he could stay
in the open air for more than two hours, because it was pure hell outside:
the storm raged violently, and in the solid mass of snow, which shook and
It was blowing, it was impossible to catch my breath.
If this happened near housing, in a lull, then what should have happened?
in the open steppe, in which all this horror was supposed to find the godfathers and
child? If this is so unbearable for an adult, then how much was needed?
to strangle a child with it?
Dukach understood all this and probably thought a lot about it, because he
It wasn’t for pleasure that I crawled through the terrible snowdrifts to the trail behind the village
rowing and sat there in the darkness of the blizzard for a long, long time - obviously with great
impatiently waiting for something where nothing could be seen.
No matter how much Dukach stood in the middle of the rowing until darkness, no one
pushed neither in front nor from the side, and he saw no one except some
long, very long ghosts that seemed to dance in a circle above him
head and sprinkled snow on him. Finally he got tired of it, and when he quickly
the approaching twilight increased the darkness, he grunted, untangled his legs from
the snowdrift that covered them and wandered home.
Tangling heavily and for a long time in the snow, he stopped more than once and lost his way.
and found her again. Again he walked and walked and came across something, felt it with his hands and
I was convinced that it was a wooden cross - a tall, tall wooden cross,
the kind they put on the roads in Little Russia.
“Hey, that means I left the village! I need to take it back,”
thought Dukach and turned in the other direction, but he had not taken even three steps before
the cross was again in front of him.
The Cossack stood, took a breath and, having recovered, went to the other hand, but also
here the cross again blocked his way
“Is he moving in front of me, or whatever is going on,” and he
He began to spread his arms and again felt a cross, and another one, and another nearby.
- Yeah; Now I understand where I am: it was I who ended up in the cemetery. There and the light
at our priest. Ledachy didn’t want to let his priest come to me to baptize
kid. And there’s no need; but where the hell should there be a watchman?
Matveiko?
And Dukach started to look for the guardhouse, but suddenly he rolled into some
the hole and so cracked against something hard that he remained unconscious for a long time.
When he came to his senses, he saw that it was completely quiet around him, and above
The sky turns blue and a star stands there.
Dukach realized that he was in the grave and worked with his arms and legs, but to get out
it was difficult, and he fumbled for a good hour before he got out, and with
spat with bitterness.
A good hour must have passed - the storm had noticeably subsided, and
the sky was filled with stars.

XIII

Dukach went home and was very surprised that neither he nor anyone else
neighbors, there was no longer a fire in any of the houses. It's obvious that the night has already passed
a lot of. Is it really true that Agap and Kerasivna and the child have not returned yet?
Dukach felt a compression in his heart that had not been familiar to him for a long time and opened
the door with an unsteady hand.
It was dark in the hut, but in a remote corner behind the stove one could hear a plaintive
sobbing.
It was Dukachikha who cried. The Cossack understood what was happening, but could not stand it anyway
asked:
- Is it really still...
“Yes, Vidma is still eating my meat,” Dukachikha interrupted.
“You’re a stupid woman,” Dukach snapped.
- Yes, it was you who made me so stupid; and even though I’m stupid, I still
I didn’t give Vidmi my meat.
- Yes, screw you and your witch: I almost broke my neck, I ended up in
grave.
- Yeah, to the grave... well, she brought you to the grave too. You better go
now kill someone.
- Whom to kill? What are you talking about?
- Go and kill a sheep, otherwise the grave will fall on you - you’ll die
soon. And God forbid: what do we already need to be like that, about whom all people will talk,
that we gave our child away.
And she went off to dream out loud again on this topic, while Dukach continued
I thought: where is Agap really? Where did he go? If they managed to get to
Before the blizzard hit, then, of course, they waited there until
the snowstorm had subsided, but in that case they had to leave as soon as
clarified, and they could still be at home.
- Didn’t Agap take a sip from the barilka too much? This thought seemed
It was enough for Dukach, and he hastened to tell it to Dukachikha, the note is even worse
moaned:
- What’s there to guess, we can’t see our child: the vidma has seized him
Kerasivna, and she brought this weather into the world, and now she flies with him around
mountains and drinks his scarlet blood.
And with this Dukachikha annoyed her husband to the point that he, cursing her, took her again.
from one regiment his cap, and from the other a gun, and went out to kill a hare and
throw him into the grave into which he had fallen shortly before, and his wife
I was left to cry out my grief over the stove.

XIV

The distressed and unusually excited Cossack actually did not
knew where to go, but as soon as the word about the hare came out of his mouth, he
more mechanically than consciously, I found myself on the threshing floor, where mischievous people ran
hares; I sat down under a stack of oats and thought.
Premonitions tormented him, and grief crept into his soul and stirred in it
tormenting memories. No matter how unpleasant his wife’s words were to him, he
realized that she was right. Indeed, in his entire life he did not do
no good to anyone, and yet he caused a lot of grief to many. And here he has
because of his own stubbornness, his only, long-awaited child dies, and he himself
falls into the grave, which, according to general belief, is an imminent evil sign. Tomorrow there will be
All people know about all this, and all people are his enemies... But... maybe
Maybe the child will still be found, and in order not to get bored, he will sit in on you at night and kill
the hare and thus will take the grave that threatens him away from his head.
And Dukach sighed and began to peer: was he jumping somewhere across the field?
or whether a hare is fidgeting under the stacks.
It was so: the hare was waiting for him, like the ram was waiting for Abraham: at the extreme
sitting on a stack of snow-covered hedges level with the top of the fence was a seasoned hare.
He was obviously scouting out the area and took up the most incomparable position for
sight.
Dukach was an old and experienced hunter, he had seen many different types of hunting
species, but I’ve never seen such a clever stand for a shot and, so as not to miss
her, without thinking twice he took a kiss and blurted out.
The shot rolled, and at the same time some kind of
a faint groan, but Dukach had no time to think - he ran to quickly
trample the smoking wad, and, stepping on it, stopped in the very
restless amazement: the hare, to which Dukach did not reach several steps,
continued to sit in his place and did not move.
Dukach got cold feet again: really, isn’t the devil joking with him, isn’t he a werewolf?
is this in front of him? And Dukach made a ball of snow and threw it at the hare. The lump hit
purpose and crumbled, but the hare did not move - only there was something in the air again
moaned. “What kind of dashing is this,” thought Dukach and, crossing himself, carefully
approached what he took to be a hare, but which had never been a hare, but
it was simply a smock cap sticking out of the snow. Dukach
grabbed this hat and, in the light of the stars, saw the deathly face of his nephew,
drenched in something dark, sticky, with a damp smell. It was blood.
Dukach trembled, threw down his towel and went to the village, where he woke up everyone
- told everyone his mischief; repented before everyone, saying: “The Lord is right,
punishing me, go dig them all out from under the snow, and tie me up and
take him to court."
Dukach's request was granted; he was tied up and put in someone else's house, and on
bean goose, the whole world went to dig out Agap.

XV

Under a white heap of snow covering the sleigh, a bloody
Agap and unharmed, although frozen Kerasivna, and on her chest there is absolutely
safely sleeping child. The horses stood right there, up to their bellies in the snow,
lowering their drooping heads behind the fence.
As soon as they were freed a little from the notice, they set off and drove
frozen godfathers and a child on a farm. Dukachikha did not know what to do:
whether to be sad about the misfortunes of the husband or more rejoice about the salvation of the child. Taking
the boy in her arms and bringing him to the fire, she saw a cross on him and immediately
cried joyfully, and then raised him to the icon and with ardent delight,
She said in a deeply moved voice:
- God! for the fact that you saved him and took him under your cross, and I will not forget
your affection, I will feed the child and give him to you: let him be your servant.
Thus a vow was made, which has great significance in our history, where
we still haven’t seen anything concerning the “unbaptized priest,” while
it is already here, just like the “hat” that Agap had when it seemed that her
as if not.
But I continue the story: the child was great; simple peasant
means soon brought Kerasivna to her senses, who, however, of all
She didn’t understand anything that was happening around her and kept repeating only one thing:
“Dytina has been baptized,” and call him Savka.
This was enough for such a hectic occasion, and besides, the name
it was to everyone's taste. Even the upset Dukach approved of him and said:
- Thanks to the Peregudinsky priest, he didn’t spoil the lad and didn’t name him
his Nikolai.
Here Kerasivna had completely recovered and began to say that the priest wanted
call the child Nikola: “so, she says, according to the church book,” only she
she argued with him: “I said, God bless them, these church books: what are they for?
they surrendered to us; but it’s not possible for a Cossack child in Moscow Nikolai
was called."
“You are a smart Cossack girl,” Dukach praised her and ordered his wife to give her
a cow, and he himself promised, if he survived, and in some other way not to forget her services.
This was the end of the work of the cross for the time being, and a long and gloomy period began.
it's time for a funeral. Agap never came to his senses: his thick column of shot
the shot head turned black before it could be washed, and by evening
The next day he gave up his long-suffering soul to God. That same evening
three Cossacks, armed with long sticks, took old Dukach to the city and
they handed him over to the authorities there, who placed him in prison as a murderer.
Agap was buried, Dukach was in court, the child was growing up, and although Kerasivna
she recovered, but she didn’t “slow down” and changed a lot - she still walked like
not my own. - She became quiet, sad and often thought; and not at all
quarreled with her Kerasenko, who could not understand what had happened to
his wife? His life, still so dependent on her persistence and
waywardness - became the most serene: he did not hear anything from his wife
objections, no reproaches and, no longer seeing Rogachevsky either in a dream or in reality
nobleman - did not know how to boast of his happiness. This amazing
the change in Kerasivna’s character was discussed for a long time and in vain at the auction in
shtetl: her friends themselves - loud-mouthed outbids said that she was "all
got better." And indeed, not only one, but even at least two buyers from her
pick up a tray of scones, she used to not even promise a single damn thing
father, mother, or other relatives. About the Rogachev nobleman there was even
such a rumor that he appeared twice in Paripsy, but Kerasivna on
I didn’t even want to look at him. Her rival herself, the baker Pidnebesnaya, is also the one
not wanting to ruin her soul, she said that she heard that once this gentleman,
Having approached Kerasivna to buy a palyanitsa, I received the following answer from her:
- Go away from me, so that my eyes never look at you. No I have one for you
nothing more, neither free nor for sale.
And when the gentleman asked her what happened to her? then she answered:
- It’s so hard: because I have a great secret.
This matter also turned upside down old Dukach, who, under the good old
orders, he was tried for three whole years and languished in prison on suspicion that he
deliberately killed his nephew, and then, as disapproved behavior
fellow villagers, they were almost exiled to a settlement. But it ended up being
fellow villagers had mercy and agreed to accept him as soon as he left for
monastery, church repentance assigned to him.
Dukach remained in his homeland only due to the condescension of those very people
whom he despised and hated all his life... This was a terrible lesson for him, and
Dukach received him well. Having served his formal repentance, after five years
absence from home, he came to Paripsy as a very kind old man, he apologized to everyone
his pride, asked everyone for forgiveness and went back to that monastery,
where he repented according to a court decision, and took his cauldron with ruble notes there too
for prayers “for three souls.” What kind of three souls these were - Dukach himself does not know
knew, but Kerasivna told him so that because of his terrible character, not
one Agap, and two more souls, about which God knows and she is Kerasivna, but
he just can’t say this to anyone.
So it remained a mystery, for which the cauldron was responsible in the monastery,
full of thick old ruble notes.
Meanwhile, the child, whose birth and baptism was accompanied
the events described, grew up. Raised by a mother - simple, but very
a kind and gentle woman - it itself pleased her with tenderness and kindness.
I remind you that when this child was given to the mother from the breast of Kerasivna, then
Dukachikha "doomed him to God." Such “tips” were common in Little Russia
relatively recently and were performed accurately - especially if
The “free labor children” themselves did not oppose this. However, cases of resistance, if
happened, but not often, probably because “quite children” from the very
children have already been brought up in this way, so that their spirit and character are revealed in
adaptive mood. Reaching in this direction the well-known
age, the child not only did not contradict the parental “quitrent”, but even
itself strove to fulfill the quitrent with that reverent sense of humility,
which is accessible only to living faith and love. Savva Dukachev was raised
It was precisely this recipe that prompted me to early discover my penchant for data execution.
mother's vows for him. Even in very childhood, with a somewhat tender and
He was weakly built and distinguished by his fear of God. He not only never
destroyed nests, did not strangle kittens, did not whip frogs with twigs, but all were weak
the creatures had their protector in him. The word of a tender mother was for him
law - as sacred as it is pleasant - because it is in everything
agreed with the needs of the child's own tender heart. Be in love
God was for him a need and the highest pleasure, and he loved him
everything that reflects God in itself and makes him understandable and invaluable for
the one to whom he came and with whom he made his abode. The whole situation
the child was religious: his mother was pious and pious; his father
he even lived in a monastery and repented of something. - Child of a few half-hints
knew that something was connected with his birth that changed their whole
home life - and all this took on a mystical character in his eyes. He grew up
under the roof of God and knew that no one would take him from his hands. At eight years old
he was sent to teach to the brother of Pidnebesny, Okhrim Pidnebesny, who lived in
Paripsah, in a nook behind my sister's tavern, but had no connection to this establishment
no concern, but led an extraordinary life.

XVI

Okhrim Pidnebesny belonged to a new, very interesting
Little Russian type, which began to be identified and formed in
Trans-Dnieper villages almost from the first quarter of the current century. Type
this one has by now already completely decided and clearly expressed his
strong influence on the religious mood of the local population. Truly
It’s surprising that our people experts and lovers of the people, who delved into all the little details
people's life, overlooked or did not consider worthy of their attention
Little Russian commoners who launched a completely new stream into
religious life of the South Russian people. - There’s no time to do that here, and
I can't do it; I'll just tell you briefly that these were some
hermits in the world: they built themselves small huts with their relatives
houses, somewhere in a back street, they lived clean and tidy - both mentally and in
appearance. They did not avoid or shun anyone - they worked and worked
together with family and were even examples of hard work and housekeeping, not
They also shied away from conversation, but brought their own, slightly puritanical, touch into everything.
character. They had great respect for “learning”, and each of them was sure to
literate; and this literacy was mainly used for studying
the word of God, which they embraced with fiery zeal and
reverence, as well as with the prejudice that it was preserved in purity
only in one book of the New Testament, but in the “traditions of men”, which
follows the clergy - everything is perverted and spoiled. They say they are like that
thoughts were instilled in them by German colonists, but, in my opinion, it doesn’t matter who it is
inspired - I only know one thing, that from this later came the so-called
"shtunda".
Pidnebesnikha’s single brother, the Cossack Okhrim, was one of this kind of people: he
he taught himself to read and write and considered it his duty to teach everything
this and others. He taught whoever he could, and always for free - expecting for his
the labor of the payment that is promised to everyone “who teaches and instructs.”
This teaching usually weakened in the summer, during field work, but
but it intensified in the fall and continued unabated throughout the winter until the spring arable land. Children
studied during the day, and in the evenings “evening girls” - workers - gathered at Pidnebesny
gatherings - just like other people. Only Okhrim did not sing empty songs
and they did not engage in idle talk, but the girls spun flax and wool, and Okhrim himself, putting out
on the table a plate of honey and a plate of nuts for a treat “in the name of Christ,” he asked
for this treat, allow him to “talk about Christ.”
The young people allowed him this, and Okhrim delighted good souls with honey,
nuts and gospel conversation and soon became so keen on it that not a single one
The girl and not a single guy wanted to go to the party in another place. Conversations
We even went without honey and without nuts.
At Okhrimov's evenings, rapprochements also took place, as a consequence
which were marriages, but here, too, a very strange
a feature that greatly served in favor of Okhrim’s reputation: all
young people who fell in love with each other at Okhrim evening parties and then
who became spouses were, as if by choice, happy with each other. Certainly,
this most likely happened because their rapprochement took place in
peaceful atmosphere of spirituality, and not in a riot of riotous passion - when
the choice is guided by the desire for blood, and not by the sensitive attraction of the heart. In a word, it was carried out
according to the scripture: “The Lord brought into the house those who were of the same mind, but who were in great sorrow.” So
everything went in favor of the reputation of the Heavenly One, who, despite his simplicity
and unpretentiousness, became in Paripsy the most honorable position - a person
godly. They didn’t go to him for trial only because he didn’t judge anyone,
and everyone who was “waiting for the resurrection” wanted to learn from him.

XVII

People like Okhrim Pidnebesny in Little Russia at that time
several appeared, but they all disappeared without noise and remained for a long time
unnoticed by everyone except the peasant world.
A full quarter of a century later, these people themselves made their impact by appearing in
a vast and closely knit religious union called "stunda".
I knew one of these leaders very well: he was friendly, kind
single Cossack virgin. Like most of his comrades, he learned
He was self-taught and taught himself to read and write to all the surrounding boys and girls. He's the last one
taught at vechernitsy, or, in Great Russian, at “gatherings”, to which they
they were going to him with work. The girls were spinning and sewing, and he was talking about
Christ.
His interpretations were the simplest, completely alien to any dogma and
liturgical institutions, but having almost exclusively the goals of moral
educating a person according to the ideas of Jesus. My friend the Cossack preacher lived
however, _on the left_ side of the Dnieper, in an area where there is no stunda yet.
However, at the time to which the story refers, this teaching was not yet
there was nothing formed along the right Dnieper bank.

XVIII

The lad Dukachev Savka was sent to teach reading and writing to Pidnebesny, and he
noticing, on the one hand, the child’s quick abilities, and on the other, his
ardent religiosity, loved him very much. Savva paid his
to the sincere teacher the same. Thus a connection was formed between them, which
turned out to be so strong and tender that when old Dukach took
son to a monastery in order to consecrate him there, according to his mother’s vow, to serve
God, the boy yearned unbearably, not so much for his mother, but for
your simple-minded teacher. And this melancholy had such an impact on the weak organization
gentle child, that he soon fell ill, fell ill and probably would have died if he
Pidnebesny unexpectedly did not visit.
He understood the cause of his little friend's illness and, returning to
Paripsy, managed to convince Dukachikha that there should not be a sacrifice to God
infanticide. Therefore, he advised not to languish the child in the monastery any longer, but
arrange him into a “_living sacrifice_”. Pidhebesny pointed out a path not entirely alien
and unfamiliar to the Little Russian Cossacks: he advised giving Savva to
religious school, from where he can then go to the seminary - and can
become a village priest, and every village priest can do
much good to poor and dark people and through this become a friend of Christ and
friend of God.
Dukachikha was convinced by Okhrim’s arguments, and the youth Savka was taken from the monastery
and taken to a religious school. Everyone approved of this, except one Kerasivna, in
which, probably for her old sins, was possessed by some gloomy spirit
contradictions, which was reflected in very violent antics when it came to
her godson. She seemed to love and pity him, and yet God knows how
I was embarrassed about him.
It started from infancy: they used to carry Savka
to give communion - Kerasivna shouts:
- Why are you being timid? No need; don’t wear it... it’s such a shame... it’s impossible to wear it
give communion.
If they don’t listen to her, she will turn green and either laugh or ask people
in the church:
“Let me out quickly,” so that my eyes don’t glaze over, as they will
Give the blood of Christ.
To the questions: what is it that confuses her so much? - she answered:
- Yes, it’s hard for me! - from which everyone concluded that since she
she has improved in her life and no longer casts spells, the devil has found in her soul
cleaned the mansion and returned there, bringing with him several others
"_encores_" who do not love the child Savka.
And indeed, the "_encores_" got into a cruel trouble when Savka was taken to
monastery: they set fire to Kerasivna so much that she chased after more than three miles
sleigh, shouting:
- Don’t ruin your soul - don’t take him to the monastery - because that’s not the point.
delivery
But, of course, they didn’t listen to her - now that there was talk about
definition of a boy in school, “where they come from” - with Kerasivna
disaster struck: she was struck by paralysis, and for a long time she lost the gift of speech, which
returned to her when the child had already been identified.
It is true that when Savka was identified there was also one more small
the obstacle was that they could not find it written down
in the metric books of the Peregudinsk church, but this is a terrible circumstance for
civil schools - in theological schools it is accepted somewhat more leniently. IN
religious schools know that the clergy often forgets to enter _their_
children in metrics. Having baptized, they get quite drunk - they are afraid to write that their hands
shaking; the next day they get a hangover; on the third day they walk without memory, and then like this
and they will forget to write it in. Such cases are known, and, of course, it was so here,
and therefore, although the caretaker scolded the drunkards, he accepted the boy as
it is recorded according to confessional documents. And in the confessional paintings Savva was recorded
great: for sure, and not even once a year.
This fixed the whole matter, and the good boy Savka went great
study - graduated from college, graduated from seminary and was appointed to the academy, but
unexpectedly for everyone, he refused and declared his desire to be a simple priest, and
then certainly in a rural parish. The father of the young theologian is old Dukach
by this time he had already died, but his mother, an old woman, still lived in the same Parips,
where just about this time the priest died and a vacancy opened up. Young
man ended up in this place. The unexpected news of such an appointment is very
pleased the Paripsyan Cossacks, but at the same time completely deprived the meaning of the outdated
Kerasivna.
Hearing that her godson Savva was being put in the butt, she without shame tore
on yourself a scaffold and nasto; fell on a pile of humus and howled:
- Oh, earth, earth! take us both! - But then, when this spirit is her
I freed her up a little, she got up, began to cross herself and went to her hut. A
an hour later she was seen, all dressed in dark clothes and walking with a stick in her hands
along the big road to the provincial town, where the delivery was supposed to take place
Savva Dukachev as a priest.
Several people met Kerasivka on this road and saw that she
she walked very hastily, did not sit down to rest and did not talk about anything,
but she looked as if she was going to death: she kept looking up and whispering something
She whispered, “I’m sure she was praying to God.” But God did not heed her prayer either. Although she
got into the cathedral at that very moment when the deacons, punching their protege in the neck,
They shouted “command”, but no one heeded the fact that from the crowd there was only one village woman
shouted: “Oh, I don’t tell you, I don’t tell you!” The protege was given a haircut, and the woman was kicked out and
was released, having been kept in the police for ten days while she washed the bailiff
all the laundry and chopped two cadi cabbages. - Kerasivna about only one thing
I was interested in: “Is Savka still peep?” And, having learned that he was a priest, she fell to her knees
and so on her knees she crawled eight to ten miles to her Parips, where
These days the new "Pip Savka" has already arrived.

XIX

The Paripsyan Cossacks, as stated, were very glad that they were assigned
Pan-father from their own Cossack family, and met priest Savva with great
cordiality. What especially endeared them to him was that he was very respectful
with his old mother and as soon as he arrived, he asked about his “godmother” -
although I probably heard that she was this and that, and a witch. He's none of this
did not disdain. In general, it seemed to everyone that this man promised to be very
a good priest, and that's what he really was. Everyone loved him, and even
Kerasivna did not say anything against him, but only occasionally frowned and
sighed, whispering:
- It would be good if there was a fish in this fish.
But, in her opinion, there was no fish in the ear, and without fish there is no fish soup. It became
be, no matter how good priest Savva is, he is worth nothing, and this certainly must
show up.
Indeed, strange things began to be noticed in him: firstly, he was poor,
but completely indifferent to money. Secondly, having soon become a widower, he did not howl and
did not take a young hireling; thirdly, when several women came to him
to say that they were going to Kyiv on a vow, then he advised replacing their trip with a vow
serve the sick and poor, and above all, calm the family with concerns for good
life; and as for this vow, he showed unheard-of audacity -
volunteered to resolve it and take the answer upon himself. "Resolve the vow made
saints..." This seemed to many such blasphemy, which is hardly
possible for a baptized person. But the matter did not stop there - pop
Savva soon gave himself even greater doubts: on the very first great
Lent, when all the parishioners were in his spirit, it turned out that he was neither
He didn’t forbid one person to eat what God sent him, and he didn’t prescribe it for anyone.
penance, and if there were penance orders from him to anyone,
then they showed new oddities. So, for example, the miller Gavrilka,
who knowingly charged for grinding with a very deep ladle, Father Savva
urgently ordered that immediately after confession the edges of this ladle be cut,
so as not to take extra grain. Otherwise I didn’t want to give him communion - so I brought him
He has arguments from Scripture that an unjust measure angers God and can bring
punishment. The miller obeyed, and everyone stopped being offended by him, and threw him down
his mill was grinding without interruption. He publicly admitted that this is the case with him
Savvina did her penance. A young, very hot woman who was in second place
husband, was angry over her first-wed children. Father Savva intervened in this matter too,
and after his first shit, his young stepmother was reborn and
became kind to her stepdaughters and stepsons. Although he accepted sacrifices for sins, -
but not for incense and not for candles, but for two homeless and homeless orphans
Mikhalki and Potapka, who lived with priest Savva in a dugout under the bell tower.
“Yes,” priest Savva would say to a woman or girl, “God grant that
this was forgiven you and so that you would not sin in the future, and for this you
be diligent: serve the Lord.
- I’m glad, my friend, I don’t know how to serve him... Hiba
go to Kiev.
- No, you don’t have to go far, just work at home and don’t do that.
what did you do, and now go kill God’s children Mikhalka and Potapka and
I sewed them little porticoes, even short ones, and even a shirt. And then they became big
- they are ashamed to show their naked bellies to people.
The sinners willingly bore this penance, and Mikhalka and Potapka lived under
the care of Father Savva, like Christ himself in his bosom - and not only “naked
they didn’t show their bellies, but they almost didn’t notice all their orphanhood.
And similar penances about. Savvas were not only within the power of everyone, but also for many
very close to my heart - even comforting. Only, finally, Fr. Savva threw this one away
something that cost him dearly. They came to him, to his small church
roundabout people from the Peregudin parish, where he was baptized and where
now there was a different pop - not the one with whom she drank in her youth
Kerasivna and to whom she took Savka, through an acquaintance, to baptize Dukachev. This
marked the beginning of hostility on the part of the Peregudin priest towards Fr. Savva, and here
another harmful incident occurred: a Peregudinsky parishioner, a rich
Cossack Oseledets, and, dying, wanted to bequeath “a pile of rubles for the Great Dzvin”, then
have money to buy a large bell, but suddenly, after talking with him just before his death
father Savva, abruptly canceled his intention and did not appoint anything for the great
dzvin, but called three good owners and announced that he was giving them this cop
pennies with a will to use them for that “God will require it, as Pan-Father says
Savva." - Cossack Oseledets died, and Father Savva ordered to build a mine for him
for pennies a bright house with sash windows and began to gather the guys into it
teach them literacy and the word of God.
The Cossacks thought that this was probably a good thing, but they didn’t know: it was godly
whether it is a matter; and the Peregudinsky priest explained it to them in such a way that it turns out
not godly. He promised to write a denunciation about this, and he did. Savva's father's name was
to the bishop, but he was released in peace, and he continued his work: he served and taught and
at school, and at home, and on the field, and in his small wooden church. Time
Several years have passed. Peregudinsky priest, competing with Father Savva, this time
rebuilt a stone church much better than the Parisian church and a rich image
got it, from whom he told people various miracles, but priest Savva and his miracles
He was not jealous, but carried on his quiet business in his own way. He's in the same wooden
in the little church he prayed and read God’s word, and his little church was with him
at least it was crowded with people at times, but Peregudin’s priest in his stone
the temple was so spacious that he was almost friends with the sexton throughout
church walked around and watched how boldly the church mouse ran out into the pulpit and
I was hiding under the pulpit again. And this finally became very
It’s a shame, but he could be angry with his Paripsian neighbor, Father Savva,
as much as he wanted, but he could not do any harm to him, because he had nothing with which to
it was possible to undermine Father Savva, and the bishop stood for Savva to the point that
acquitted him even of the great guilt that he changed the Cossack’s mood
Oseledtsa, whose pennies were spent not on money, but on school. For a long time
Peregudinsky’s priest tolerated this, being content only with composing for Savva
some nonsense like the fact that he is a sorcerer and his godmother was
a reveler known to everyone in her youth and still remains a witch because
no one repents in spirit and cannot die, for the scripture says: “not
God wants the death of the sinner,” but wants him to convert. But she doesn’t
He turns, he fasts, but he doesn’t go to the spirit.
It was true: old Kerasivna, who had long ago left all her
weaknesses, although she lived honestly and fearing God, she did not go to confession. Well
rumors have revived again that she is a witch and that perhaps she really
Father Savva is good “for helping her.”
There was such talk, and then another empty case arrived in time: it became
cows' milk disappears... Who could be to blame for this if not a witch; who
an even greater witch than old Kerasivna, who, everyone knows,
she put a maru on the whole village, turned her husband into a devil and now she survived in the village
all his peers and contemporaries and everything lives and neither confesses nor
doesn't want to die.
It was necessary to bring her to this and that, and several took on this task.
good people who promised themselves: who will be the first to meet old Kerasivna in
dark place, - hit her, - as a true Orthodox should
for a Christian to hit the witch - once with anything _backhand_ and say to her:
- Take your breath, otherwise I’ll beat you again.
And to one of those worshipers who took on such a feat,
was lucky: he met old Kerasivna in a deserted corner and
was honored to treat her so much in one go that she immediately tumbled
prone and moaned:
- Oh, I’m dying: call the priest - I want to confess. The witch immediately found out
that she was hit! But they barely dragged her home and her father came running to her in fright.
Savva, she changed her mind again and began to delay:
“I can’t confess with you,” he says, “your confession is not
uses it - I want another priest!
The good father Savva immediately sent on his horse to Peregudy for his
the blamer - the local priest, and one was afraid that he would become stagnant and
not coming; but this fear was in vain: the Peregudinsky priest arrived and entered
to the dying woman and stayed with her for a long, long time; and then left the house on
porch, put the monstrance in his bosom and, well, pour out the most obscene
with fur. He laughs so much, he laughs so much that you can’t stop him, and people look at
They can’t even understand him: why is this enough?
- Come on, - God forbid, sir, you are laughing so hard that we need to
scary, people tell him. And he answers:
- Oh, that’s how it should be, so that you’re scared; yes to everyone
it was scary - for the whole baptized world, because you have such filth here,
From the very first day there was nothing from Saint Prince Vladimir.
- Oh, God bless you, - don’t be so scary: go, be gentle
shvidche to Father Savva - talk to him: let him do what you want, - like
help Christian souls.
And the Peregudinsky priest laughed even more and suddenly turned green,
his eyes bulged and he answered:
- You are all fools - dark and unenlightened people: you have created a school for yourself, and
don't leak anything.
- Yes, we ask you the same thing: go to our father Savva, - you have wine
yourself in the waiting house: sit down with him to talk: the wine is still pouring.
- Bachit! - the priest from Peregudin shouted. - Neither; nothing is leaking wine: wine and
I don’t know: who is there in the retinue?
- We all know that our pan-father is a peep.
- Pip!
- And then peep.
- And I’ll show you that there’s no peep at all!
- Yak not peep?
- Well, he’s not a peep, and he’s not a Christian either.
- I'm not a Christian! God bless you: why are you lying?
- And neither: I’m not lying - he’s not a Christian.
- What about wine?
- What wine is that?
- Yes!
- And you know him, what’s wrong with him! People even recoiled and
They crossed themselves, and the priest from Peregudin sat down in the sleigh and said:
- So I’m going straight from you to the dean and bringing him the following news:
the whole Christian world will be a great disgrace, and then you will say that your
- not a pip and not a Christian, and your children are not Christians, but which of you did he marry?
- those are the same as if they were not married, and those whom he buried - died like dogs, without
absolution, and they will suffer there in the heat, and they will be tormented, and none of them from there
cannot speak out. Yes; and all this that I say is a great truth, and with
then I go to the dean, and if you don’t believe me, go all at once to
Kerasikha, and while she was still breathing, I ordered her under a terrible spell,
so that she can tell you everything: who is this man you call yours?
priest Savva. Yes, he should have spoiled people already: a magpie sat on his
roof and shouts: “Savka, take off your caftan!” Nothing; see you soon. - Boy!
drive to the dean, and you, shirt, chant louder: “Savka, take off
caftan!" And the dean and I will be back now.
With this the Peregudinsky priest rode away, and the people, how many of them there were, wanted
pile everything into Kerasivna’s hut in order to interrogate her: what is she like?
she talked about her godson, Father Savva; but, after thinking a little, we decided
do it even differently, send two Cossacks to her, and have a third one with them
Pop Savva himself.

XX

The Cossacks and Father Savva came and found Kerasivna lying under
images and she herself cries bitterly.
“Forgive me,” he says, “my dear, my unlucky little heart,”
she spoke to Savva, “I carried your secret reason in my heart, and
her guilt for more than thirty years and she was afraid not only in reality but to no one
say, but she didn’t even go crazy in her dreams, and that’s why she didn’t give up for so many years,
Well, now, when I need to appear before the Almighty, I revealed everything.
Father Savva, perhaps, was a little afraid of something, because all
this secret touched him too harshly, but he didn’t show it, but calmly
speaks:
- What the hell is this?
“I committed a great sin, and it was against you.”
- Above me? - asked Father Savva.
- Yes, over you: I ruined everything in your life, because even though you
You’ve been taught the scriptures and given a place in the priesthood, but you’re not fit for anything,
because you yourself are still an unbaptized person.
It’s not hard to imagine what you must have felt at such
opening of Father Savva. At first he took it for a painful delirium
dying - he even smiled at her words and said:
- Come on, come on, goddaughter: how can I be unbaptized when you’re mine?
Godmother?
But Kerasivna showed complete clarity of mind and consistency in
your story.
“Leave it alone,” she said. - What kind of godmother am I to you? Nobody cares about you
baptized And who is to blame for all this - I don’t know and I couldn’t in my entire life
find out whether this was due to our sins or, perhaps, more from
Vikola's great Moscow cunning. But here comes the Peregudinsky gentleman with
dean - just sit here, I'll tell everyone everything.
The dean did not want Father Savva and the Cossacks to listen to the confessions
Careful, but she insisted on her own, under the threat that it would not be otherwise
tell.
Bot is her confession.

XXI

Pop Savva, he says, is not a priest at all and not Savva, but a man
unbaptized, and I am the only one in the world who knows this matter. It all started with the fact that he
my late father, old Dukach, was very fierce: everyone didn’t like him and everyone was afraid of him,
and when his son was born, no one wanted to go to the godfathers to baptize
this is blowing. Old Dukach called both the judge's gentleman and the daughter of our deceased
Pan-father, but no one went. Then old Dukach became even more angry
all the people did not want to ask for baptism even against the master father himself.
“I’ll manage,” he says, “without everything, without their title.” He called his nephew. Agapka,
that because he was an orphan, he lived in a fool’s house, and he ordered a couple of horses to harness me too
called his godfather: “Go,” he said, Kerasivna, with Agap to a strange village and now
baptize my little thing." And he gave me a fur coat, but God bless it, I after it
I didn’t even put it on for that occasion: there she is, still intact after all thirty years
hanging. And Dukach punished me with one thing: “Look, he says, how Agap is a man
he’s stupid, he won’t be able to do anything, then just look, kindly settle things with the priest,
so that, God forbid, he didn’t give the lad any name for any kind of malice
not Christian, breast, but Moscow. It's Varvara Day in our yard,
otherwise it’s very dangerous, because Nikola lives right next to Varvara, and Nikola
and there is the very first Muscovite, and he doesn’t help us, the Cossacks, in anything, but everything
pulls on the Moscow hand. No matter where it happens, even though it’s our truth, he
he’ll go and say this and that before God, and do everything for Moscow’s benefit, and
He will twist and straighten out his Muscovites, and offend the Cossacks. Boroni is our God and
name children after him. But Saint Savka lives right next to him. This
from the Cossacks and even kinder than us. Whatever he is there, although not important, but
he won’t give up his Cossack.”
I speak:
“Behold: yes, the wine is weak, Saint Savka!”
And Dukach says:
“It’s okay that it’s low-potency, but the wine is very powerful: where its strength is not
If he takes it, he will resort to cunning and somehow defend the Cossack. And we told him
We will give you the strength to help us, we will light candles and sing a prayer service: God will bless you,
that people revere Saint Savka well, and he himself turns to his respect, and wine
Then it will get stronger."
I promised him everything that Dukach asked. And she wrapped the little one in a fur coat,
she put the cross around her neck, and at her feet they put a bottle of slivyanka, and
go. But as soon as we drove a mile away, a snowstorm arose - just go
It’s impossible: there’s no visible light.
I say to Agap:
“We can’t go, we’ll turn back!”
But he was afraid of his uncle and never wanted to come back.
“God willing,” he says, “we’ll get there. And I don’t want to freeze, don’t worry, my uncle
If you kill it, it’s all eaten.”
And he still urges on his horses, and when he gets his way, he stands his ground.
Meanwhile, it began to get dark, and not a trace was visible. We're going
We’re going, and we don’t know where we’re going. The horses turn back and forth, spin around, and get nowhere
we'll come. We were terribly cold and, in order not to freeze, we took it and pulled it out ourselves.
that barilka that they brought to Peregudinsky’s priest. And I looked at the child: I thought
- God forbid, I wouldn’t have suffocated. No, the warm one lies and breathes so that even
It's steamy. I dug a hole over his face - let him breathe, and
we went again, and again we went, we went, we see, we’re all spinning again, and no
There is no light for us in the darkness, and the horses turn wherever they know. Now already
and to return home, as they previously thought, to wait out the blizzard, and even that is impossible,
- it is no longer possible to know where to turn: where are the Paripses, and where are the Peregudas. I
sent Agap to stand up and lead the horses, but he said: “Who are you?
smart! I’m cold.” I promise him that when we get home, I’ll give him zlotys, and he
speaks:
“What do you care about me and your zloty, since we’ll both die here. And if you want me what
do it from the good heart, so give me another good sip from the baril." I
I say: “Drink as much as you want,” and he drank. He drank and went forward to
take the horses by the bridle, but instead immediately go back: he returned and all
shaking.
“What are you doing,” I say, “what’s wrong with you?”
And he answers:
“Look, you,” he says, “are so smart: how can I fight against Nikola?”
“What are you saying, stupid man: why do you want to fight Nikola?”
“Who knows,” he says, “what is he worth there?”
"Where, who is standing?"
“And over there,” he says, “near the harness itself, in front of the horses.”
“Too bad, you fool,” I say, “you’re drunk!”
“Hey, it’s good,” he replies, “that he’s drunk, but your husband wasn’t drunk,
Yes, I saw Mara, and I see.”
“Well,” I say, “you also remembered my husband: what he saw was me
I know better than you what he saw, but you say: what is being shown to you!”
“And this thing is so big in the Moscow golden cap, it’s already
sparks fly from it."
“This,” I say, “is falling out of your drunken eyes.”
“No,” he argues, “it’s Nikola in the Moscow cap. He didn’t let us in.”
I got it into my head that maybe this isn’t true, but maybe it’s true because
that we didn’t want to write the lad as Nikolai, but as Savka, and I say:
“Don’t let him go according to his will: don’t let him in, and don’t - we’ll give in to him now, but
Tomorrow we'll do it our way. Let the horses go where they want - they will take us home
will bring; but now at least drink all the baril.”
I embarrassed Agap.
“You,” I say, “drink more and just know to keep quiet, but I
I will begin to lie, which will not enter into anyone’s mind, that we are lying. Let's say that the kid
christened and named him, as Dukach wanted, with a good Cossack name - Savka, -
Let's put the cross on his neck for now; and on Sunday (Sunday) we will say:
Father ordered the dytin to be brought to give him communion, and when we get it, then
Let’s baptize and give communion at once - and then everything will be as it should be
in a Christian way."
And the little thing opened again, - it’s so lively, it’s sleeping, but
It’s warm, even the snow on his forehead is melting; I give him this melt water
She circled the cross on her face and said: in the name of the father, son, and put on the cross, and
they set off to God's will, wherever the horses take them.
The horses kept walking and walking - now they walk, then they stop, then they walk again, and
The weather is getting worse and worse, the shame is getting worse. Agap was completely intoxicated, at first
muttered something, and then didn’t make a sound - he fell into the sleigh and
snored. And I kept getting cold and cold and never came to my senses until I
They began to scrub Dukach in the house with snow. Then I woke up and remembered what I wanted
say, and she said the same thing, that the child seemed to be blessed and that it was as if given to him
name Savva. They believed me, and I was at peace, because I thought all this
correct it, as said, on the first Sunday. And I didn’t even know that Agap
was shot and soon died, and old Dukach is taken to prison; and when
I found out, I wanted to owe everything to old Dukachikha, but I couldn’t
was decided because there was great grief in the family at that time. I thought I'd tell you this
everything after, and even after it was hard to open it, and so all this day by day
was postponed. And time went on and on, and the lad kept growing; and everyone called him Savka,
and they sent him to science - I still wasn’t ready to reveal the secret, and I was still tormented, and
I was all about to reveal that he was unbaptized, and then, when I suddenly heard that
They even put him in the priesthood, - she ran to the city to say, but I’m not
they admitted him and installed him, and there was no point in talking. But since then I've already
and I don’t know a moment of peace - I’m tormented that through me all Christianity is on my
in one’s native place with an unbaptized priest one can laugh. Then, the older you get
stood and saw that people loved him more and more, the worse she suffered and
I was afraid that the earth would not accept me. And just now, on my mortal day
case, she said forcefully. May all Christianity, whose souls I am, forgive me
I was destroyed by an unbaptized priest, but bury me alive in the ground, and I’ll be executed
I will accept with joy."
The dean and the Peregudinsky priest listened to all this, wrote it all down and both
They signed that entry, read it to Father Savva, and then went to church,
they put seals everywhere and left for the provincial town to see the bishop and his father himself
They took Savva with them.
And the people started making noise, negotiations began: what is this over our
Pan-father, but from where and why on earth? And is it possible for it to be as he says?
Kerasikha? Is it okay to believe in a witch?
And they put together such a combination that it was all from Nikola and now what is needed
“strengthen” Saint Savka before God as best as possible and go to
bishop. They recaptured the church, lit all the candles in front of the holy calendar, as many as there were in
box, and after the dean they sent six good Cossacks to the bishop
ask him not to dare touch Father Savva or even think about touching them, “otherwise we
Without this gentleman father, we don’t want to listen to anyone and we will go to another faith, even if
not to the Katylitsa, then to the Turkish, but we won’t be left without Savva.”
It was here that the bishop had a worse problem than the fact that “the deacon hit
Trepak, but Trepak doesn’t ask: why does the dean inform?”

Kerasivna died, confirming in her outburst of repentance to everyone that we
we know, and the elected Cossacks went to the bishop and all night everyone thought that
What will they do if the bishop doesn’t listen to them and takes priest Savva from them?
And they decided even more firmly that they would then return to the village and immediately drink
all the taverns, so that no one gets it, and then he will take it from
there are three women each, and whoever is richer will have four, and they will be real
Turks, but they just don’t want another priest while their good Savva lives. And How
it can be assumed that he was not baptized when he was baptized, confessed, married
and so many people are buried throughout Christianity? Should everyone really now
Are these people in a “filthy position”? One thing is that the Cossacks agreed
to give in to the bishop is that if Father Savva cannot remain a priest, then
Let the bishop quietly baptize him at home, where he knows, but only so that
after all, he left him... or else they... "will succeed in the Turkish faith."

XXII

It was winter again, and again it was in the evening and just about the same
Nikolina or Savvina of the day when Kerasivna thirty-five years ago
I went from Paripsy to Peregudy to baptize Dukachev’s little son.
From Parips to the provincial town where the bishop lived, it was about forty versts.
The community that went to the rescue of Savva’s father believed that she would walk miles
fifteen to the big tavern of the Jew Yosel - there he will refresh himself, warm up and
In the morning he will appear to the bishop.
It turned out a little wrong. Circumstances that tend to repeat themselves
played with the Cossacks the same story that happened thirty-five years ago
played out with Agap and Kerasivna: a terrible snowstorm arose, and the Cossacks
they began to stray en masse across the steppe, lost track and, having lost their way, did not
knew where they were, when suddenly, maybe just an hour before
at dawn, they see a man standing, and not in an ordinary place, but on the ice above
ice hole, and says cheerfully:
- Great, guys! They said hello.
“Why,” he says, “is it bothering you at this time: you see, you don’t get into the water enough.”
didn't hit
“So,” they say, “we have great grief, we are in a hurry to get to the bishop: we want
before we see him as our enemies, so that he can play into our hands.
- What do you need to do?
- Why should he leave us an unbaptized priest, otherwise we are so unhappy,
scho in the Turks pidemo.
- It’s like you’re turning into Turks! Turks are not allowed to drink burners.
- And we’ll drink it all at once.
- Look, how crafty you are.
- Why should we be timid in the face of such an insult - like they take a good priest.
Stranger says:
- Well, tell me everything really.
They told me. And so, for no apparent reason, standing at the ice hole, everything was smart
they told the order and again added that if the bishop does not leave it to them
Savva, then they will “decide with all faith.”
Then this stranger says to them:
- Well, don’t be afraid, boys, I hope that the bishop will judge well.
“Yes, if only we could,” they say, “it seems that such a great rank
painfully, we must judge well, and the God of the Church knows him...
- Will judge; He will judge, or he will not judge, so I will help.
- You?.. and who are you?
- Tell me: what is your name?
“My name,” he says, “is Savva.” The Cossacks pushed each other sideways.
- You feel it, it’s Savva himself.
And then Savva told them: “Here,” he says, “you have come where you should,”
There’s a monastery on the hill over there, and the bishop lives there.”
They looked, and sure enough: it was becoming visible, and in front of them, across the river, on a hill
monastery.
The Cossacks were very surprised that under such severe bad weather without rest
They walked forty miles, and, having climbed a hill, they sat down at the monastery, got
who had something edible from their bags and began to refresh themselves, while they themselves waited,
when the morning strikes and the gates are unlocked.
They waited, entered, stood at Matins and then appeared at the bishop’s meeting.
porch to request an audience.
Although our archpastors are not very keen on conversations with simpletons, these
The Cossacks were immediately allowed into their quarters and placed in the reception room, where they spent a long, long time
waited until the priest of Peregudin, and the dean, and priest Savva, and
a lot of other people.
The bishop came out and spoke with all the people, and with the dean and with
the Cossacks didn’t say a word until he let everyone else out of the room, and then he spoke directly
to the Cossacks:
- Well, guys, are you offended? Do you really want an unbaptized priest? And those
answer:
- Have mercy - have mercy, your Eminence: why not offend... such
boo peep, such a peep, there is nothing else like it in all of Christianity...
The bishop smiled.
“Exactly,” he says, “there’s no other like that,” but that’s about it.
to the dean and says:
- Go to the sacristy: take it, Savva has prepared a book for you, bring it and
read where it is revealed.
And he sat down.
The dean brought a book and began to read: “I don’t want to lead you,
brethren, as our fathers were all under a cloud, and all passed through the sea, and
All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And everything is also spiritually disgusting
yadosha, and all the same spiritual beer piyahu, for from the spiritual subsequent stone:
the stone is Christ."
At this point the bishop interrupted and said:
- Do you understand what you read?
The dean answers:
- I understand.
- And now you’re the only one who realized this!
But the dean didn’t know what to answer, and so he said stupidly:
- I have said these words before people.
- And if people, then why did you allow these kind people to worry so much?
Confused people about who he was as a good shepherd?
The dean answered:
- According to the rules of the saints, father...
And the bishop interrupted:
“Stop,” he says, “stop: go to Savva again, he will give you the rule.”
He went and came with a new book.
“Read,” says the bishop.
“We read,” the dean began, “St. Gregory the Theologian wrote
about Basil the Great, that he “was a priest for Christians before the priesthood.”
- What's this for? - says the bishop.
And the dean answers:
- I’m just out of my duty, how did he end up unbaptized in such
sane...
But here the bishop stomps:
“More,” he says, “and now you’re repeating everything you did!” That is,
in your opinion, having passed through the cloud, you can be baptized into Moses, and into Christ
it is forbidden? After all, you were told that they, seeking baptism, and the wet cloud
with mortal fear they penetrated and on the forehead with the melted water of that cloud the cross
The name of the Holy Trinity was written on the baby's face. What else do you need?
You are a foolish person and not fit for business: I put priest Savva in your place;
and you, boys, be without a doubt: your priest Savva, who is good for you and for me
good and pleasing to God, and go home without a doubt.
Those are at his feet.
-Are you satisfied?
“We’re very pleased,” the boys answer.
-Aren’t you going to join the Turks now?
- Pfu! not pidemo, dad, not pidemo.
- And you won’t drink the whole burner at once?
- We won’t drink for once, we won’t drink, tsur yi, bake!
- Go with God and live like a Christian.
And they were already ready to leave, but one of them, for greater peace of mind,
nodded his finger to the bishop and said:
- And be kind, your honor, and go with me to the little corner.
The bishop smiled and said:
- Well, okay, let's go to the little corner.
Here the Cossack asks him:
- And if you please, your honor: zvitkilya you knew everything, before we told you
did they say?
“And what is it to you,” he says?
- Yes, we wondered, why didn’t Savva give you all some advice?
The bishop, who was told everything by his cell attendant Savva, looked at the Ukrainian
and says:
“You guessed right,” Savva told me everything.
And with that he left the hall.
Well, here the boys understood everything as they wanted. And from then on the story lives on,
how little Savva quietly and carefully arranged the matter so that
Moscow Nikola with all his strength was left with nothing.
“So-and-so,” they say, “our Savko is a tricky one, as he got stronger, then so
thought that he had confused everyone: either he would show it from the scriptures, or from the saints, the father
It sticks in your nose, so you can’t even understand anything. His holy God knows who he is
Kerasivna actually crossed priest Savva in his bosom, just so cleverly
everything is so narrated that even the bishop can’t unwind it. And everything turned out well. At that
and save him.

O. Savva, they say, is still alive today, and there is a shtunda around his village, and in
his small church is still full of people... And although it is unknown, they are “strengthening”
Is St. there today? Savka is still there, but they claim that it is still in
the whole parish does not show any Mikhalki and Potapki “_naked bellies_”.

NOTES

Published according to the edition: N. S. Leskov, Unbaptized priest, St. Petersburg, 1878, p.
3-91. For the first time: "Citizen", 1877, October 13, N 23-24, October 21, E 25-26,
October 31, E 27-29. In a separate edition compared to the first printed edition
The text has undergone significant stylistic edits and the text is divided into
chapters. In "Citizen" the spelling "Cossack" and
"Cossack", "Poripsy" and "Paripsy". In a separate edition Leskov almost everywhere
corrected "Cossack" and "Parips", but in several places the texts of "Citizen"
remained uncorrected. In this edition it is unified throughout - “Cossack”
and "Paripses".
The story is dedicated to the famous literary historian, linguist and
art critic, professor of Moscow University F. I. Buslaev
(1818-1897). Leskov met him in 1861 while living in Moscow and
joint cooperation in "Russian Speech". The rapprochement dates back to July 1875
years during meetings in Paris (see Leskov’s letter to Buslaev dated June 1, 1878
of the year - "Literary Newspaper", 1945, March 10, E 11 (1122), p. 3, and A.
Leskov, Life of Nikolai Leskov, pp. 311-312).
The story is based on an episode that actually took place. See in present,
volume, page 579, mention of the history of the unbaptized priest in chapter five of the essay
"Diocesan Court". The village of Paripsy is located in Ukraine on the territory of the present
Zhytomyr region.
The exact date of the story is unknown: most likely it was written shortly before
publications in "Citizen", that is, in 1877.
Critics had almost no reaction to the release of "The Unbaptized Priest." In the "Index
for Press Affairs" a retelling of the story was published with an explanation of the
her spiritual laws (1878, February 1, E 3, unofficial part, section 2,
p. 78, unsigned). In "New Time" in a very short anonymous review
it was noted that “the story was told vividly and talentedly” (1877, December 23, E
655, p. 3).

Ignatius (Brianchaninov? 1807-1867) - bishop in 1857-1861
Caucasian. Leskov talks in detail about Brianchaninov in
"Unmercenary Engineers" (present, ed., vol. 8).

Kosnit - hesitates.

The flocks of Lebanon when Jacob was examined - see note on page 684.

Sexuals are light red or gray with a yellow tint.

Zapush is a secluded place.

Chepan - peasant outer caftan.

Stuffed - decayed.

Reshetilovskie smushki - skins of young lambs, mostly gray
colors made in the village of Reshetilovka, Poltava province.

Pykha (Ukrainian) - pride, arrogance, arrogance.

Kwak is a talker.

Khudoba (Ukrainian) - property.

Rowing - shaft.

The village of Peregudy. - The fictional Ukrainian village of Peregudy appears in
Leskov also in the “Hare Harness” written in the mid-1890s (see.
present, ed., vol. 9).

Guta - glass factory.

Mara is an obsession.

I'm wondering (Ukrainian) - I'll take a look.

Prochuhan - blow.

Ochinok - scarf, hair, cap.

Barilochka - keg.

Palyanitsa (Ukrainian) - a type of wheat bun.

How the ram waited for Abraham... - Leskov is referring to the biblical story
(in the First Book of Genesis) about how Abraham, obeying the command of God, is ready
was to sacrifice his son Isaac to him. Lord, having tested faithfulness
Abraham, at the last minute he kept his hand raised over his son; instead of Isaac
a nearby ram was sacrificed.

Shtunda - this name unites various rationalistic
religious sects, especially common in Ukraine.

Wave - sheep's wool.

When the deacons, hitting the protege in the neck, shouted “command”... -
In the rite of initiation of a priest, the deacons circle the protege three times
church throne. The exclamation “command” is a symbolic question to the people and
to the priest about consent to the dedication.

Copa - a pile, a heap.

Add salt (Ukrainian) - to reinforce.

Naobolmash - at random.

Gregory the Theologian (310-390) - famous preacher of the early
Christianity. Basil the Great - (or Caesarea), (329-379) - famous
theologian, who had, in particular, a great influence on the development of rituals
worship services.

Garnenko (Ukrainian) - here it means: neatly.

Books enlighten the soul, elevate and strengthen a person, awaken in him the best aspirations, sharpen his mind and soften his heart.

William Thackeray, English satirist

A book is a huge force.

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Soviet revolutionary

Without books, we can now neither live, nor fight, nor suffer, nor rejoice and win, nor confidently move towards that reasonable and beautiful future in which we unshakably believe.

Many thousands of years ago, the book, in the hands of the best representatives of humanity, became one of the main weapons in their struggle for truth and justice, and it was this weapon that gave these people terrible strength.

Nikolai Rubakin, Russian bibliologist, bibliographer.

A book is a working tool. But not only. It introduces people to the lives and struggles of other people, makes it possible to understand their experiences, their thoughts, their aspirations; it makes it possible to compare, understand the environment and transform it.

Stanislav Strumilin, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences

There is no better way to refresh the mind than to read the ancient classics; As soon as you take one of them in your hands, even for half an hour, you immediately feel refreshed, lightened and cleansed, lifted and strengthened, as if you had refreshed yourself by bathing in a clean spring.

Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher

Anyone who was not familiar with the creations of the ancients lived without knowing beauty.

Georg Hegel, German philosopher

No failures of history and blind spaces of time are able to destroy human thought, enshrined in hundreds, thousands and millions of manuscripts and books.

Konstantin Paustovsky, Russian Soviet writer

The book is a magician. The book transformed the world. It contains the memory of the human race, it is the mouthpiece of human thought. A world without a book is a world of savages.

Nikolai Morozov, creator of modern scientific chronology

Books are a spiritual testament from one generation to another, advice from a dying old man to a young man beginning to live, an order passed on to a sentry going on vacation to a sentry taking his place.

Without books, human life is empty. The book is not only our friend, but also our constant, eternal companion.

Demyan Bedny, Russian Soviet writer, poet, publicist

A book is a powerful tool of communication, labor, and struggle. It equips a person with the experience of life and struggle of humanity, expands his horizon, gives him knowledge with the help of which he can force the forces of nature to serve him.

Nadezhda Krupskaya, Russian revolutionary, Soviet party, public and cultural figure.

Reading good books is a conversation with the best people of past times, and, moreover, such a conversation when they tell us only their best thoughts.

René Descartes, French philosopher, mathematician, physicist and physiologist

Reading is one of the sources of thinking and mental development.

Vasily Sukhomlinsky, an outstanding Soviet teacher-innovator.

Reading is for the mind what physical exercise is for the body.

Joseph Addison, English poet and satirist

A good book is like a conversation with an intelligent person. The reader receives from her knowledge and a generalization of reality, the ability to understand life.

Alexei Tolstoy, Russian Soviet writer and public figure

Do not forget that the most colossal weapon of multifaceted education is reading.

Alexander Herzen, Russian publicist, writer, philosopher

Without reading there is no real education, there is no and there can be no taste, no words, no multifaceted breadth of understanding; Goethe and Shakespeare are equal to a whole university. By reading a person survives centuries.

Alexander Herzen, Russian publicist, writer, philosopher

Here you will find audiobooks by Russian, Soviet, Russian and foreign writers on various topics! We have collected for you masterpieces of literature from and. Also on the site are audiobooks with poems and poets; lovers of detective stories, action films, and audiobooks will find interesting audiobooks. We can offer women, and for women, we will periodically offer fairy tales and audiobooks from the school curriculum. Children will also be interested in audiobooks about. We also have something to offer to fans: audiobooks from the “Stalker” series, “Metro 2033”..., and much more from . Who wants to tickle their nerves: go to the section

Leskov’s story “The Unbaptized Priest” did not attract particularly close attention from domestic literary scholars. The work was more often attributed to the genus of Little Russian “landscapes” and “genres”, “full of humor or even evil, but cheerful sparkling satire.” Indeed, what are the episodic, but unusually colorful images of the local deacon - “a lover of choreographic art”, who “with merry feet” “snatched a trepak” in front of the guests, or the unlucky Cossack Kerasenko: he was still unsuccessfully trying to keep track of his “fearless self-willed”? - Zhinka.

In “The Unbaptized Priest,” Leskov seemed to be going to show “the righteous priest Savva, who lives in harmony with the rural population and does not look like the typical “well-fed brutes,” as Leskov now says about the clergy, using the terminology of the Peter the Great era.

Meanwhile, the story, against the backdrop of the Ukrainian village, also depicts the story of the rural rich man Dukach, who quarreled with the entire village “world,” and the cheerful adventures of the roguish woman Kerasivna, who was reputed to be a witch... And about the story of the pious, but not baptized priest, the author jokingly notes in the fifteenth chapter: “ Until now, nothing has yet been seen concerning the “unbaptized priest,” while he is already here.” The fact is that the introduction, which explains in detail the circumstances of the failed baptism of the baby Savva, the future priest, due to Kerasivna’s fault, grew to the size of a real story, and the adult Savva was reported only in the epilogue.”

In this story, as in many other works by Leskov, the theme of the moral purity of the righteous, spiritual Orthodoxy and the theme of God's punishment, which sooner or later happens anyway, for sins committed, are revealed.

Reading the story, we learn that “in one Little Russian Cossack village there lived a Cossack Petro Zakharovich, nicknamed Dukach.” This Dukach never said a good word to anyone or did a good deed. Everyone was afraid of him: “the villagers, when meeting him, disowned him, hastily crossed to the other side, so that Dukach would not scold him, and if the force took him, he would not even beat him.” The children, seeing him, “in fright, rushed into the scattering, shouting: “Oh, bald, old Dukach is coming.”

And everyone was just amazed at why God gave Dukach wealth and expected that reprisals would soon come for his dislike of people.

And so Dukach had a son, but none of the villagers even wanted to hear about baptizing him. This is where it seems that God punished Dukach. Dukach, in defiance of everyone, takes as his godfather his nephew Agap and Baba Kerasivna, who was known in the village as a witch.

From this moment Dukach's misadventures begin. As soon as Kerasivna and Agat left the house, “the wind began to blow up and turned into a fierce storm. The sky above became clouded with lead, and a fierce snowstorm began to blow...