“Terrible Revenge” is a mystical story included in the collection “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”. The piece dates from 1831. Initially, it was called "A terrible revenge, an old story", but in subsequent editions, part of the name was abolished.

The story colorfully describes Ukrainian life, customs, Zaporizhzhya Cossacks. The story is replete with images from Ukrainian folklore. When reading, the influence of folk songs, parables and thoughts becomes obvious.

A Cossack, Danilo Burulbash, with his young wife Katerina and a one-year-old son, come to the wedding of the son of Yesaul Gorobets. The celebration took place quite normally, but as soon as the father brought out the icons to bless the newlyweds, one of the guests suddenly turned into a monster and fled, frightened by the images.

After this incident, Katerina's father, who went missing many years ago, suddenly appears. Katerina begins to be tormented by nightmares that the sorcerer who escaped from the wedding is her father. In dreams, he asks his daughter to abandon her husband and love him. With his strange behavior, the father only confirms her fears: he does not eat or drink anything, except for some kind of liquid from a bottle that he carries with him. Because of this, the Cossacks also begin to suspect something is amiss.

At this time, ominous phenomena occur: at night, the dead began to rise from the graves in the old cemetery, the howl of which spoke of terrible torment.

The exposure of the sorcerer, the death of Danila and the madness of Katerina

There was a quarrel between Danil and the father-in-law, which led to a fight, but Katerina managed to reconcile her husband with her father. But Danilo still did not trust the strange father-in-law and decided to follow him. And not in vain. One night, the Cossack noticed that in an abandoned castle, which everyone was wary of, a light came on in one of the windows. He went to the castle and saw through the window how the sorcerer, turning into a monster, summoned Katerina's soul and demanded that she fall in love with him. But the soul was adamant.

Danilo grabbed his father-in-law and imprisoned him behind bars, reinforced by the prayers of the priest so that any witchcraft in this dungeon was powerless. However, the sorcerer, having played on his daughter's feelings and promising that he would be tonsured a monk, persuaded her to let him out. Danilo has no idea who freed the prisoner, and Katerina is experiencing strong feelings because of her act.

In the meantime, news came of the attack of the Poles on the farm. Danilo, overwhelmed by a premonition of imminent death, went into battle, ordering his wife to take care of her son.

Intuition did not deceive the Cossack. On the battlefield, Danilo suddenly noticed his father-in-law in the ranks of the enemy. Deciding to deal with the sorcerer, Danilo rushed to him, but the sorcerer killed his son-in-law with an accurate shot.

Katerina, having received news of her husband's death, began to have nightmares again. In her dreams, her father appeared to her demanding to become his wife. In case of refusal, he threatened to kill her one-year-old son. Yesaul Gorobets took the widow to his house, ordering his people to protect her and the child from the sorcerer. But one night, Katerina jumped out of bed screaming: “He is stabbed!”. Entering the room, she really saw a dead baby in the crib.

Unable to cope with grief from the loss of her husband and son, Katerina lost her mind: she loosened her braids, sang and danced half-naked in the middle of the street. Soon she secretly fled from the captain home, to the farm.

After some time, a man arrived at the farm. He said that he fought side by side with Danila and was his best friend. The man also said that Danilo, before his death, expressed his last will: he asked a friend to take his widow as his wife.

Then Katerina realized that this Cossack was not a friend of her late husband at all. She recognized the hated sorcerer and rushed at him with a knife. But he snatched the weapon from his daughter's hands and stabbed her, after which he fled from the farm.

In our new article, we have prepared for you. This great work is imbued with the spirit of heroism and respect for the great warriors of the Zaporozhian Sich.

We invite you to familiarize yourself with the “Inspector General”, where the author painted a picture of the general fraud, bribery and arbitrariness of Russia, the images of rogues and bribe-takers who became the heroes of his play.

After that, a strange phenomenon appeared near Kiev: the Carpathians suddenly became visible. Katerina's father raced along the mountain road on a horse, trying to get away from the rider with his eyes closed. The sorcerer discovered a cave in which the schemnik (recluse monk) lived. The killer turned to him with a request to forgive his sins. However, the schemnik refused, because the sins were too serious. Then the sorcerer killed the schemer and again went on the run, but no matter what road he rode, any one led him to the Carpathian Mountains and the horseman with his eyes closed. Finally the horseman caught the sorcerer and killed him.

Then the sorcerer saw how the dead began to appear around him with faces similar to his own. And they began to gnaw at his flesh.

Denouement: song of the bandura player

The reasons for everything that happened become clear from the song of the old bandura player. He tells the story of two brothers, Peter and Ivan, who lived long before the events described. From this story it becomes clear that the fate of Katerina, her father, husband and son was sealed long ago.

One day, King Stepan promised a generous reward to anyone who could catch a pasha who could cut down an entire regiment with only a dozen Janissaries. The brothers decided to take on this mission. Luck smiled at Ivan, and he received the reward, but out of generosity he decided to give half to his brother. However, Peter's pride was still hurt, because of which he set out to take revenge on his brother. When they were driving to the lands donated by Stepan, Petro threw Ivan off a cliff along with the child he was carrying. Ivan caught on a branch during the fall and began to beg to spare at least his son, but his brother threw them into the abyss.

When Ivan appeared before God after death, he asked for a terrible fate for Peter and his descendants: none of them would be happy, and the last of his brother's kind would become such a monster as the world had never seen. After death, his flesh will be gnawed by the ancestors for all eternity. Petro himself will lie in the ground, also torn to gnaw on a descendant, but will not be able to get up, from which he will gnaw on his own flesh and experience terrible torment.

The influence of the work
Gogol's Terrible Revenge is rightfully considered one of the most significant works of the author's early period. It was she who prompted V. Rozanov to create Gogol's Mystical Page, and influenced A. Remizov's work Dreams and Pre-Sleep. A. Bely and Yu. Mann devoted pages of some of their works to "Terrible Revenge".

• The description of nature, which schoolchildren are asked to learn by heart as part of the passage of the work of N.V. Gogol, is part of the story “Terrible Revenge”.
• The surname Gorobets is also carried in “Viya” by one of the characters of the second plan.
• King Stepan, who is served by the brothers Ivan and Peter, is a real person. It means the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania Stefan Batory. He gave permission to the Cossacks to independently choose the hetman and distribute other high positions. Stefan also helped the Cossacks with the organization. There is historical confirmation of the episode of the story, in which the king grants plots of land to the brothers Ivan and Peter. Stefan Batory really gave lands to the Cossacks who had served their ranks. The story mentions a war with the Turks, which is also a historical fact.
• The period in which the main narrative takes place dates back to the reign of Hetman Sahaidachny (the first half of the 17th century). The story of Peter and Ivan took place around the middle of the 16th century.

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Daniil Burulbash came from a farm to Kyiv for a wedding. Suddenly, one of the Cossacks turned to look at some infidel monster.

“Sorcerer, sorcerer…” Everyone made a noise.

And when they sailed along the Dnieper in a boat, the Cossacks suddenly saw a terrible sight: the dead rise from the graves.

As Catherine, Daniel's wife, heard about the sorcerer, she began to have strange dreams: as if her father was the same sorcerer. And he demands from her that she love him, and refuse her husband.

Katerina's father is really a strange person in the opinion of the Cossacks: he does not drink vodka, does not eat pork, and is always gloomy. They even had a fight with Daniil - first with sabers, and then shots rang out. Daniel were wounded. Catherine, conjuring her little son, reconciled her father with her husband.

But Daniel began to follow the old man. And in vain. He saw how he left the house at night, turned into a monster in Busurman bright clothes. The sorcerer summoned Catherine's soul. Age demanded love from her, but her soul was adamant.

Daniel put the sorcerer in the basement behind bars. Not only for witchcraft, but for the fact that he was plotting bad things against Ukraine.

Catherine denied her father. The insidious sorcerer persuades his daughter to let him go. He vows that he will become a monk who will live according to the laws of God.

Catherine listened to her father, opened the door, he ran away and again began to do evil. Daniel did not guess who freed the sorcerer. But the Cossack was seized by bad forebodings of imminent death, he bequeathed to his wife to watch over his son and went into a fierce fight with the Poles. There he died. And as if someone in Busurman clothes with a terrible face killed him ...

Ekaterina, after the death of her husband, went crazy, loosened her braids, danced half-dressed, then sang. A man came to the farm, who began to tell the Cossacks who fought with Daniel and was his best friend. He also said, they say, Burulbash commanded: if he dies, let a friend take his widow as a wife. Hearing these words, Catherine screamed: “This is the father! This is my wizard father! The imaginary friend turned into an infidel monster, pulled out a knife and stabbed the crazy Ekaterina. Father killed daughter!

The sorcerer had no rest after that terrible act, he rode a horse through the Carpathian mountains, met the holy schemer - and killed him. As something gnawed at that accursed one, hell broke loose, he no longer knew what made him move. But then, on the top of the mountain, the frantic fugitive saw a huge horseman. The horseman then grabbed the sinner with his mighty right hand and crushed him. And already dead, with dead eyes, the sorcerer saw a terrible sight: a lot of dead people, similar in faces to him. And they began to gnaw at him. And one was so big that it only moved - and an earthquake occurred in the Carpathians.

Why did all this happen? An old bandurist composed a song about it. When two comrades, Ivan and Peter, fought with the Turks, Ivan captured the Turkish pasha. King Stefan rewarded Ivan. He gave half of the reward to Peter, who became jealous and decided to take revenge. He pushed Ivan, along with his horse and little son, into the abyss.

At God's judgment, Ivan demanded that all the descendants of Peter did not know happiness on earth, and the last in the family turned out to be the worst, a thief. Such a thief that all the dead after the death of the sinner gnawed at him, and Peter would be so big that he would gnaw at himself from the rage.

And so it happened.

And Ivan turned into a strange knight-rider, sitting on the top of the Carpathians and looking at his terrible revenge.

Esaul Gorobets celebrates the wedding of his son in Kyiv. The guests of honor at the wedding are the brave Cossack chieftain Pan Danilo Burulbash with his wife Katerina. In the midst of the noisy fun, Gorobets takes out and raises two ancient icons to bless the young ones. But screams of horror are heard from the festive crowd: at the sight of the icons, one of the Cossacks standing among the people suddenly turns into a terrible hunchbacked old man with a long fang in his mouth. Clicking his teeth, the old man disappears. Elderly people say that this old man is a long-known cursed sorcerer, whose appearance always portends misfortune.

"Terrible Revenge", Chapter II - Summary

Danilo Burulbash, with his Cossacks and his wife Katerina, is sailing home from Kyiv on a boat along the Dnieper, wondering what kind of misfortune the sorcerer who appeared at the wedding will bring. Not far from Danila's farm, on the other side of the Dnieper, there is a gloomy old castle, and near it is a cemetery with dilapidated crosses. When the Cossacks swim past them, three dead men suddenly rise from the graves. They scream piercingly: “It’s stuffy for me!” - and disappear again. Heavy thoughts oppress Burulbash more and more. He really does not like the gloomy, stern father of Katerina, who recently came to visit them from a foreign land, who, with his habits, does not at all look like a Cossack.

Gogol. Terrible revenge. audiobook

"Terrible Revenge", Chapter III - Summary

The next day, at Pan Danila's farm, Katerina's gloomy, mysterious father begins to rudely ask his daughter and son-in-law why they returned home so late yesterday. A quarrel boils between him and Burulbash. Danilo is indignant: why does the father-in-law never go to church? Both Cossacks begin to fight with sabers, and then shoot at each other with muskets. The fight ends with insincere reconciliation only because of Katerina's tearful persuasions.

"Terrible Revenge", Chapter IV - Summary

A day later, Katerina tells her husband that she had a dream that the sorcerer who appeared to people in Kyiv was her father, and that he was persuading her to marry him. Katerina and Burulbash sit down to dine, calling their father as well. At dinner, Danila marvels: his father-in-law does not want to eat Christian dumplings, he disdains pork, like a Muslim or a Jew.

In the evening, Burulbash looks out the window and notices that a window has caught fire in a gloomy castle on the other side of the Dnieper. Taking with him the Cossack Stetsko, he goes to the river. Making their way through the thorn bushes, they suddenly see Katerina's father walking past them in the same direction. He crosses the Dnieper and disappears from sight near the castle.

Terrible revenge. Cartoon based on the novel by N. V. Gogol

Stetsko and Burulbash follow him. Near the wall of the castle, Pan Danilo climbs a tall oak and sees through the window a witch's room, flooded with a mysterious light, with incomprehensible signs on the walls, where bats fly. Katerina's father appears in the room - and turns into the same sorcerer who appeared in Kyiv.

The sorcerer casts a spell and the soul of his daughter, woven from air mist, appears before him. Knowing clearly more than Katerina herself, the soul begins to blame her father: why did he kill her mother? Why does he continue to do terrible atrocities? The soul falls silent, noticing Burulbash looking out the window. and pan Danilo quickly descends from the oak and returns home.

Gogol's Terrible Revenge. Lithograph by V. Makovsky

Terrible Revenge, Chapter V - Summary

Burulbash tells Katerina about his night trip, and it turns out that she saw everything that happened in the magic room of the old castle in a dream. Danilo is convinced that his father-in-law is a villain and apostate.

"Terrible Revenge", Chapter VI - Summary

By order of Burulbash, the Cossacks throw the sorcerer into a deep cellar. The next day, a terrible execution awaits him. In anguish, the sorcerer, chained in chains, sits and sees: his daughter, Katerina, is walking past. With hot passion, he begins to persuade Katerina to unlock the basement lock, saying that he is not afraid of execution, but eternal torment in the next world for the crimes committed. The father convinces his daughter that if she releases him, he will go to a monastery and, by hard asceticism, will atone for at least part of his sins. Yielding to female weakness, Katerina releases her father-sorcerer - and faints at the door of the dungeon.

"A Terrible Vengeance", Chapter VII - Summary

Waking up, Katerina sees that her father has disappeared. No one knows that she released it herself.

"Terrible Revenge", Chapter VIII - Summary

Armed Poles gather in a tavern near the Burulbash farm. In the midst of drinking, card games and vile dances, they are preparing to attack the Cossack land.

Terrible Vengeance, Chapter IX - Summary

Pan Danilo sits at the table and, in a sad premonition of imminent death, tells Katerina about his former Cossack exploits. A run-in servant informs him of the approach of many Poles. At the head of his Cossacks, Burulbash rides a horse and heroically fights with cruel enemies. In the middle of the fight, Katerina's father appears on a nearby hill, shoots his son-in-law with a musket, and kills him. Katerina, who ran out of the house, sobs, falls on the body of her husband, and the Poles are put to flight by Yesaul Gorobets, who came to the rescue.

Terrible Vengeance, Chapter X - Summary

Gogol gives in Chapter X of Terrible Revenge the famous poetic description of the Dnieper in calm weather and in a storm. In the middle of a storm, in a secluded place, a sorcerer moored on a boat to the shore. Having descended into a secret dugout among the burnt stumps, he begins to cast spells. A white cloud thickens in front of him, and a male face familiar to the sorcerer clearly shows up in it. Seeing him, the villain turns white as a sheet, and screams in a wild voice.

"Terrible Revenge", Chapter XI - Summary

Katerina in Kyiv tells the captain Gorobets about her new terrible dreams. The father again appeared in them to his daughter, demanded to marry him and threatened to kill her baby son from Danila if she refused. Gorobets promises to protect Katerina, but on the same night her child is found stabbed to death in the cradle.

"Terrible Revenge", chapter XII - summary

Between Poland, Hungary and Little Russia stand the high Carpathian Mountains. At night, a sleeping knight of enormous growth rides along the tops of the mountains, holding in his hand the reins from a horse, on which a baby page gallops after him - also in a dream ...

"Terrible Revenge", chapter XIII - summary

Katerina, half out of her mind, wanders through dense oak forests, singing mournful songs about the murdered Cossacks. Early in the morning, a stately young guest arrives at her farm, saying that he is an old combat comrade-in-arms of the fallen Pan Danila. Their friendship was allegedly so strong that Burulbash even bequeathed to him to marry Katerina if she remained a widow. Katerina looks at the visitor - and suddenly realizes that this is her father. She rushes at him with a knife, but he disappears from view.

"Terrible Revenge", chapter XIV - summary

Behind Kiev, the people marvel at a miracle: a wide, majestic picture of the countries and lands neighboring Ukraine opens up in the sky. Among them, the Carpathian Mountains are also visible, and on them is a riding horseman with closed eyes. The sorcerer also sees this picture and recognizes the face of the knight: it was it that appeared to him during the recent sorcery in a dugout near the Dnieper. The hairs on the sorcerer's head stand on end in horror. Screaming like a frenzy, he jumps on his horse and rushes like a whirlwind to Kyiv, to the holy places.

"Terrible Revenge", chapter XV - summary

The sorcerer bursts into the cave to the Kiev schemnik and asks to pray for his sinful, lost soul. The schemnik unfolds his book, but sees that the holy letters in it are filled with blood, which means that there is no and will not be forgiveness for the sinner. The sorcerer kills the hermit, again jumps on his horse and tries to get to the Tatars in the Crimea, but the horse, against his will, drives straight to the Carpathian mountains. Near them, the mountain clouds are cleared at once, and a huge horseman appears before the sorcerer in terrible grandeur. Laughing, he grabs the cursed wizard with his hand, from which he immediately dies. From Kyiv to the Carpathians rise from the graves dead men similar in face to the sorcerer. The horseman, laughing again, throws the body of Katerina's father into the abyss. The dead also jump there, starting to gnaw the corpse of the sorcerer with their teeth. And one most terrible dead man tosses heavily in the ground, but due to his enormous growth he cannot rise from it.

Gogol's Terrible Revenge. Lithograph by I. Kramskoy

"Terrible Revenge", chapter XVI - summary

In the final, XVI chapter of "Terrible Revenge", Gogol explains the essence of the sorcerer's sin. In the city of Glukhov, a blind bandura player tells people a legend about how two Cossack friends, Ivan and Petro, lived in the old days. For a long time they were inseparable, like brothers, until Ivan, on the orders of King Stefan Batory, caught one glorious Turkish pasha. Ivan shared half of the salary received for this with Peter, but he envied the feat accomplished by his best friend with black envy. He hated Petro Ivan and once on a mountain road he pushed him into the abyss along with his baby son. Ivan managed to grab hold of the bough and, with his son behind him, began to climb up, but Petro, not taking pity on the entreaties of his friend, pushed them both back with his lance.

The Heavenly King asked Ivan's soul what kind of flour she herself would appoint Judas-Petro. And Ivan asked God to curse the whole family of Petro. Let the last of this kind be such a villain that his grandfathers and great-grandfathers toss and turn in their graves because of his sins, while Petro endured the greatest torment: he ate the earth, unable to rise from it.

And God agreed, when the highest measure of the evil deeds of the last of the Petro family is fulfilled, to commit terrible revenge : to raise Ivan with his murdered son from the coffin to a high mountain, bring a sorcerer to him so that the innocently killed could throw the villain into a deep abyss. And grandfathers and great-grandfathers, coming out of the graves, will torment him in this abyss with their teeth - except for Petro himself, who in the earth can only gnaw himself ...

Yesaul Gorobets celebrates his son's wedding. Among the guests is the brother of Yesaul Danilo Burulbash and his wife Katerina. In the midst of the fun, the captain takes icons to bless the young. Suddenly one of the guests turns into an ugly old man. All the guests were very scared. But the captain comes forward with icons and drives the sorcerer away.

II

Late at night, a boat is sailing along the Dnieper, in which the couple Burulbash returns home. Katerina is alarmed, she is worried about the appearance of the sorcerer. The boat just sails past the old castle, where the old man lives. It is located opposite the house of Burulbash. There is a cemetery in front of the castle.

Suddenly, a terrible groan is heard, the dead appear one after another from the grave. Katerina is frightened, even the rowers in the boat have lost their hats from fear. Only Danilo is not afraid of anything and reassures his wife. The rowers lean on the oars, soon the terrible place is left behind.

III

The next morning, Danilo quarrels with Katerina's father. Burulbash doesn't like his father-in-law. He does not behave like a Cossack and a Christian. The men grab their sabers and fight for a long time, then take up the muskets. Burulbash's bullet passes by, and the old man manages to wound his son-in-law in the arm. Then Burulbash removes a pistol from the wall. Katerina rushes to her husband and begs him to stop for the sake of her one-year-old son. Danilo cools down. He even asks for forgiveness from the old man, but he does not want to put up.

IV

Katerina tells her husband her dream: her father is that terrible sorcerer. In the evening, Danilo notices that a light is on in one of the windows of the black castle. He goes to see what's going on. Burulbash sees Katerina's father coming down to the river. Danilo is watching him. The old man unties the boat and swims to the castle. Burulbash approaches the sorcerer's lair, but cannot get inside. Then Danilo climbs an oak tree and looks out the window.

He sees how the father-in-law enters the room and turns into an ugly old man. The sorcerer summons Katerina's soul. She accuses her father of killing her mother. The sorcerer demands that his daughter become his wife. The soul of the girl indignantly refuses.

V

In the morning, Katerina again tells her husband the dream, but Danilo explains to her what it really was. He regrets that he married the offspring of the Antichrist. Katerina cries and reproaches her husband for hardness of heart: after all, she did not choose her parents. Burulbash relents and promises that he will never leave her. Katerina renounces her father and swears that she will have nothing to do with such a terrible sinner.

VI

The sorcerer sits in the basement of Burulbash's house, chained. He was captured for conspiring with the Poles, and the castle was burned. Tomorrow the sorcerer is to be executed. He cannot get out of the basement, since this is the former cell of the holy schemnik.

Katherine passes by. The sorcerer begs his daughter to listen to him. He deserved to be executed, but now he is thinking about saving his soul. The insidious warlock asks Katerina to let him out and swears that he will go to the monastery. Katerina believes the old man and lets him out. Only now the woman realizes in horror what she has done. Katerina falls unconscious.

VII

The woman is afraid that her husband will kill her if he finds out about the release of his father. Danilo confirms these concerns. He says that there is no such punishment that is worthy of such an offense. But Burulbash believes that the sorcerer escaped with the help of his charms. In the basement, instead of him, they find an old stump in chains.

VIII

In a roadside tavern, the Poles feast with their priest. They drink, play cards, swear, dance and act outrageously, mock the innkeeper. In drunken conversations, one can hear references to Burulbash's farm and his beautiful wife. Bad, apparently, these Poles conceived.

IX

Burulbash is overcome by bad premonitions, as if his death is walking somewhere nearby. Cossack Stetsko runs in and reports that the Poles attacked. The battle goes on for a long time, the Cossacks cut down many enemies. Suddenly, Burulbash sees his wife's father, who aims at him with a musket. Danilo rushes to the enemy, but falls, hit by a bullet. The sorcerer is out of sight. Katerina laments bitterly over her husband's body. Dust is swirling in the distance - this is Yesaul Gorobets rushing to the rescue.

X

The sorcerer now lives in a dugout. It is gloomy - many Poles were killed, the rest were taken prisoner. The sorcerer takes out a pot of potion and begins to summon Katerina's soul. Under the influence of the spell, a white cloud appears, and an unfamiliar face appears in it. The sorcerer is terrified. He knocks over the pot, and then the vision disappears.

XI

Katerina and her son settle at the Yesaul. But even there she cannot find peace. The woman again has a dream in which the sorcerer threatens to kill the child if Katerina does not become his wife. Yesaul calms the worried mother, he will not let the sorcerer into his house. At night, everyone settles in one room, the Cossacks sleep under the door. But Katerina wakes up screaming and runs to the cradle. It contains a dead child.

XII

A huge horseman dressed in armor appears in the Carpathians. With a lance and a saber at his side, he rides a horse through the mountains. But the hero's eyes are closed, and behind him is a sleeping child. Here the hero ascends the highest mountain in the Carpathians and stops at its top. Clouds cover it from human eyes.

XIII

Katherine is going crazy. She calls her old nanny a witch. It seems to her that her son is sleeping, and her husband was buried alive. Then the woman begins to dance and sings crazy songs.

A guest arrives at the Yesaul. He claims that he was friends with Katerina's husband and wants to see the widow. The guest tells her about the campaigns with Danila, and Katerina listens to the man quite reasonably. But when the guest says that Burulbash ordered him to marry Katerina if he dies, the woman recognizes her father. Katerina rushes at him with a knife. The sorcerer manages to snatch the weapon from his daughter, kill her, and then escape.

XIV

A miracle happens outside Kiev: suddenly everything is visible far, far to the Carpathians. And on the highest mountain, a knight appears on horseback. The sorcerer, horrified, recognizes the face he saw during the divination. In a panic, he rushes to the holy places.

XV

The old schemnik sits in his cell in front of the lamp. Suddenly, a sorcerer rushes in and begs him to pray, but the hermit refuses. In the book from which he reads prayers, the letters are filled with blood.

In anger, the sorcerer kills the hermit and rushes away. He intends to go to the Crimea to the Tatars, but is on the way to the Carpathians. No matter how hard the sorcerer tries to turn the other way, he moves further and further towards the mountains, until a knight appears before him on top.

The hero grabs the sorcerer and throws him into a deep hole. Immediately the dead come running and begin to gnaw on the body of the sorcerer. The biggest dead man wants to rise from the earth, but he cannot do it. From his unsuccessful attempts, the earth shakes.

XVI

In Glukhov the bandurist entertains the people. He talks about how two brothers, Ivan and Petro, lived in ancient times. Everything was equal for them: both sorrow and joy. One day the king announced that the Turkish pasha had to be captured. Whoever captures him will receive a great reward. The brothers parted to try their luck in different directions.

Soon Ivan brought the pasha and received an award. He immediately shared it with his brother, but Petro held a grudge against Ivan. When the relatives were passing by a deep abyss, Petro pushed his brother down along with his horse and his little son, who was riding in his saddle. So he took possession of all the wealth.

God invited Ivan to assign punishment to his brother. Ivan asked that none of Peter's descendants be happy. So that they live as the greatest sinners, and after death endure terrible torment. And when the last of their kind dies, Ivan will cast him into the abyss. The ancestors of this sinner will rise from their graves, and then they will forever gnaw on the body of their relative.

God agreed with the terrible revenge, but ordered Ivan to stand on the mountain and look at his punishment. And so it happened. The knight always stands on the mountain and looks down, where the dead gnaw at the dead.

"The Dnieper is wonderful in calm weather ...". All of us at school were forced to memorize this passage from Gogol. However, not everyone remembers what work it is from. Let's not torment the reader and say that this is an excerpt from the story "Terrible Revenge". "The Dnieper is wonderful in calm weather ..." - with these words, the 10th chapter of this work begins. That is what we will talk about today.

The story that interests us in 1831 was created by Gogol. "Terrible revenge", the summary of which interests us, is included in the collection, which the author called "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka". The work begins as follows.

Danila's wedding

In Kyiv, once Yesaul Gorobets celebrated the wedding of his son. Many people gathered for it, including Danilo Burulbash, the brother of the owner, with Katerina, his young wife, and little son. Only Katerina's father, an old man who recently returned home after a 20-year absence, did not come to the wedding. When the owner brought out 2 icons to bless the young, everyone danced. A sorcerer suddenly appeared in the crowd and disappeared, frightened by the images.

Homecoming

Along the Dnieper at night, Danilo returns to the farm with his family and relatives. Katerina is frightened, but her husband is not afraid of the sorcerer. He is afraid of the Poles, who may cut off their path to the Cossacks. All his thoughts are on this as they pass the old sorcerer's castle and then sail past the graveyard. Meanwhile, crosses are shaking in the cemetery. Terrible dead appear from the graves. They stretch their bony hands towards the moon.

Quarrel between Danila and father-in-law

Here, at last, the newlyweds with their relatives return home, but the hut cannot accommodate a large family. Danilo and his absurd, gloomy father-in-law quarrel in the morning, it came to muskets and sabers. Danilo was wounded from Gogol's story, only the plea of ​​Katerina, who mentioned her little son, kept him from continuing the fight, and the Cossacks reconciled.

Who is the real father of Katerina?

Katerina soon told her husband her dream. She dreamed that her father was that terrible sorcerer. Danila does not like the foreign habits of his father-in-law, he suspects a non-Christ in him. However, we note, describing the plot of the story, that her husband is most worried about the Poles at this time, about which Gorobets again warns.

In the evening, Danilo goes on reconnaissance to the sorcerer's castle. He climbs an oak tree, looks out the window and sees a room lit by some unknown source. Terrible things are described further by Gogol ("Terrible Revenge"). Their summary is as follows. The father-in-law appears and begins to conjure. Here his appearance changes, he turns into a sorcerer dressed in Turkish attire. The father-in-law summons Katerina's soul. He demands that the girl love him, threatens in case of disobedience. However, Katerina's soul refuses this. Danilo is shocked by what he saw. He returns to his home, wakes up his wife and tells her everything. The girl renounces the sorcerer-father.

Fatal mistake

In Danila's basement, his father-in-law is sitting in iron chains. The sorcerer's castle is on fire, and tomorrow he will be executed. However, not for witchcraft, but for collusion with the Poles. The sorcerer inclines with promises to improve and deceive Katerina to release him in order to be able to save her soul. The girl lets him go, and hides the truth from her husband, realizing that she did something irreparable. Danilo anticipates imminent death. He asks Katerina to take care of her son.

The grief that befell Katherine

As expected, a large army of Poles attacks the farm. Poles steal cattle, set fire to huts. Danilo fights bravely, but he is overtaken by a bullet from a sorcerer who appears suddenly. Gorobets, who jumped to the rescue, is unable to console Katerina. The Poles are defeated, a sorcerer sails along the Dnieper to the ruins of the castle. He creates spells in the dugout, someone terrible appears at his call. Katerina lives at Gorobets, sees her former terrible dreams and is afraid for her son. The girl wakes up and discovers that her child has died. The mind of the heroine created by Gogol ("Terrible Revenge") cannot withstand all this. The summary of the work continues with the fact that the girl becomes insane.

Death of Katerina

Katerina, distraught, is looking for her father everywhere, longing for his death. A stranger arrives, who questions Danila and then mourns him. He wants to see Katerina, talks to her for a long time about her husband. It seems that the mind returns to the girl. However, when he says that Danilo asked him to take her to him after his death, Katerina recognizes her father in a stranger and throws herself at him with a knife. But the sorcerer is ahead of her. He kills his own daughter.

The further fate of the sorcerer

Behind Kiev is an unexpected miracle. The whole earth is illuminated, all its ends are visible. A huge horseman appears in the Carpathian mountains. The sorcerer from Gogol's story runs in fear. He recognizes in the rider an uninvited giant who appeared during divination. Nightmares haunt the sorcerer. He flees to the holy places of Kyiv and kills an old man there who refused to pray for him. Wherever the sorcerer goes, his path lies to the Carpathian mountains. The rider suddenly opens his eyes. He's laughing. The sorcerer dies instantly. He sees already dead that all the dead from Galich, the Carpathians and Kyiv stretched out their bony hands to him. The horseman threw them a sorcerer, and they sunk their teeth into him.

old song

Gogol Nikolai Vasilievich ends the story with an old song. It tells about King Stepan, who fought with the Turks, as well as about the Cossack brothers Ivan and Peter. Ivan caught the Turkish pasha and shared the king's reward with his brother. However, out of envy, Peter threw his brother into the abyss along with the baby son, and then took all the goods for himself. When Peter died, God allowed Ivan to choose the execution for his brother. Ivan cursed his offspring, saying that a terrible villain would be in the last generation of his brother. Ivan, on the other hand, will appear on a horse from the failure when the time for the death of the villain comes. He will throw him into the abyss, and all his ancestors will be drawn to gnaw this villain. Only Peter will not be able to rise and will gnaw at himself in impotent rage. God was surprised at the cruelty of this execution, but agreed with Ivan.

Thus ends the work that Gogol created ("Terrible Revenge"). We outlined a summary of its main events. We now turn to the analysis of this story.

The meaning of the work

Perhaps the most significant for Gogol and Russian literature in general from the stories of the "Evenings" cycle is "Terrible Revenge". This is a historical story. Its action is timed to the 1st half of the 17th century, when Ukraine fought against Turkey and the Commonwealth for national independence. In particular, Danilo Burulbash, the hero of the work, recalls how he participated in military campaigns led by Hetman Konashevich. At the same time, this story also bore a legendary-fantastic character. It touched upon the magical themes of the separation of the soul from the body, the execution of the villain in the offspring, the apocalyptic horseman, etc.

Two epic levels of work, two traditions

Andrei Bely, a symbolist poet, at the beginning of the 20th century put forward the thesis that Katerina's father and the sorcerer are not identical. This became the starting point for subsequent observations on the poetics of this story. In "Terrible Revenge", it would seem that 2 epic levels can be found: legendary and real, in which there is a conflict between Katerina's father and husband. At the second level, that is, in the legend, there is the supernatural. At the same time, Gogol Nikolai Vasilievich skillfully masks the border between them, so one world sometimes seems like a natural continuation of the other. The sorcerer for the reader is Katerina's father. At the same time, he is a legendary projection of his father. Being in a quarrel with his son-in-law, he acquires more and more the features of a terrible sorcerer, since everything that does not correspond to the principles established in the patriarchal community is considered as the machinations of the devil. This story arose, like other works of Gogol from "Evenings", at the intersection of two traditions: national-Ukrainian and Western-romantic (mainly German). The author in it mixed the features of folk tradition with elements of modern narration. In line with romanticism is found in the work of the author's personal attitude to what is happening.

The discovery made by the symbolists

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Symbolists discovered autobiography, which Gogol's works from "Evenings" and, in particular, "Terrible Revenge" have. V. V. Rozanov for the first time saw the projection of the author himself in the figure of the sorcerer. Andrei Bely (his portrait is presented above) compared Nikolai Vasilyevich with a sorcerer who runs away from the "rider in the Carpathians." He likened the author's love for Russia to the love for Katerina of the sorcerer from the story "Terrible Revenge". With such a look, her main characters have a symbolic meaning, they are images-symbols.