As part of the project "Gogol. 200 years" RIA Novosti presents a summary of the work "Terrible Revenge" by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol - the second story from the second part of the cycle "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka".

Yesaul Gorobets once celebrated the wedding of his son in Kyiv, which was attended by many people, and among others, the named brother of the Yesaul Danilo Burulbash with his young wife, the beautiful Katerina, and a one-year-old son. Only old Katherine's father, who had recently returned after a twenty-year absence, did not come with them. Everything was already dancing when the captain brought out two wonderful icons to bless the young. Then a sorcerer opened up in the crowd and disappeared, frightened by the images.

Danilo returns at night along the Dnieper with his family to the farm. Katerina is frightened, but her husband is not afraid of the sorcerer, but the Poles, who are going to cut off the path to the Cossacks, he thinks about this, sailing past the old sorcerer's castle and the cemetery with the bones of his grandfathers. However, crosses are tottering in the cemetery and, one more terrible than the other, the dead appear, pulling their bones to the very month.

Consoling his awakened son, Pan Danilo gets to the hut. His hut is small, not roomy for his family and for ten selected fellows. The next morning a quarrel broke out between Danilo and his gloomy, absurd father-in-law. It came to sabers, and then to muskets. Danilo was wounded, but if not for the pleas and reproaches of Katerina, who by the way remembered her little son, he would have fought further. The Cossacks reconciled. Katerina soon tells her husband her vague dream, as if her father is a terrible sorcerer, and Danilo scolds the Busurman habits of his father-in-law, suspecting a non-Christ in him, but he is more worried about the Poles, about which Gorobets again warned him.

After dinner, during which the father-in-law disdains dumplings, and pork, and a burner, in the evening Danilo leaves to scout around the old sorcerer's castle. Climbing up an oak tree to look out the window, he sees a witch's room, lit by God knows what, with wonderful weapons on the walls and flickering bats. The father-in-law who enters begins to tell fortunes, and his whole appearance changes: he is already a sorcerer in filthy Turkish attire. He summons Katerina's soul, threatens her and demands that Katerina love him. The soul does not yield, and, shocked by what has opened up, Danilo returns home, wakes up Katerina and tells her everything. Katerina renounces her apostate father.

In Danila's basement, a sorcerer sits in iron chains, his demonic castle is on fire; not for witchcraft, but for collusion with the Poles, his execution awaits the next day. But, promising to start a righteous life, to retire to the caves, to propitiate God with fasting and prayer, the sorcerer Katerina asks to let him go and thereby save his soul. Fearing her act, Katerina releases it, but hides the truth from her husband. Feeling his death, the saddened Danilo asks his wife to take care of her son.

As expected, Poles run in innumerable clouds, set fire to huts and steal cattle. Pan Danilo fights bravely, but the bullet of the sorcerer who appears on the mountain overtakes him. And although Gorobets jumps to the rescue, Katerina is inconsolable. The Poles are defeated, the wonderful Dnieper is raging, and, fearlessly ruling the canoe, the sorcerer sails to his ruins. In the dugout, he casts spells, but not Katerina's soul appears to him, but someone uninvited; although he is not terrible, but terrifying. Katerina, living with Gorobets, sees her former dreams and trembles for her son. Waking up in a hut surrounded by vigilant guards, she finds him dead and goes crazy. Meanwhile, from the West, a gigantic rider with a baby, on a black horse, is galloping. His eyes are closed. He entered the Carpathians and stopped here.

Mad Katerina is looking everywhere for her father in order to kill him. A certain guest arrives, asking Danila, mourns him, wants to see Katerina, talks to her for a long time about her husband and, it seems, introduces her to her mind. But when he talks about the fact that Danilo, in case of death, asked him to take Katerina for himself, she recognizes her father and rushes to him with a knife. The sorcerer himself kills his daughter.

Behind Kyiv, “an unheard-of miracle appeared”: “suddenly it became visible far to all corners of the world” - and the Crimea, and the swampy Sivash, and the land of Galich, and the Carpathian Mountains with a gigantic horseman on their peaks. The sorcerer, who was among the people, flees in fear, for he recognized in the rider an uninvited face that appeared to him during divination. Night terrors pursue the sorcerer, and he turns to Kyiv, to the holy places. There he kills the holy schemer, who did not undertake to pray for such an unheard-of sinner. Now, wherever he rules the horse, he moves to the Carpathian mountains. Here the motionless rider opened his eyes and laughed. And the sorcerer died, and, dead, he saw the dead rising from Kyiv, from the Carpathians, from the land of Galich, and the rider was thrown into the abyss, and the dead plunged their teeth into him. Another one, taller and more terrible than all, wanted to rise from the earth and shook it mercilessly, but could not get up.

This story ends with an old and wonderful song of an old bandura player in the city of Glukhov. It sings about the war between King Stepan and Turchin and his brothers, the Cossacks Ivan and Peter. Ivan caught the Turkish pasha and shared the royal reward with his brother. But the envious Peter pushed Ivan with his baby son into the abyss and took all the good for himself. After the death of Peter, God allowed Ivan to choose the execution for his brother. And he cursed all his offspring and predicted that the last of his kind would be an unprecedented villain, and when his end comes, Ivan will appear from the failure on a horse and overthrow him into the abyss, and all his grandfathers will be drawn from different parts of the earth to gnaw him, and Petro will not be able to get up and will gnaw at himself, wanting revenge and not knowing how to take revenge. God marveled at the cruelty of the execution, but decided what to do according to that.

The material was provided by the Internet portal briefly.ru, compiled by E. V. Kharitonova

The work of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol "Terrible Revenge" is replete with folklore elements. This story is one of the darkest in the entire series of Evenings. The main character Danilo Burulbash will have to face a terrible family curse.

Gogol "Terrible Revenge" - a summary

The action takes place at the wedding of the son of Yesaul Gorobets. A lot of people came to this celebration, among other guests and Danilo Burulbash with his beautiful wife Katerina. According to the established custom, the captain brings holy images into the house where the wedding takes place. Suddenly, people in the crowd notice how one of the guests turns into an ugly old man and immediately disappears. The old Cossacks who were at the wedding all as one claim that the disappeared old man is a famous sorcerer and his appearance does not bode well.

Returning from Kyiv after a wedding along the Dnieper, Burulbash with a gang of Cossacks sees the ruins of an old dilapidated castle, next to which there is a cemetery. And then a terrible picture opens up to the eyes of the travelers: the dead rise from the graves, shrieking piercingly: “It’s stuffy for me.” The shocked Cossacks are trying to quickly leave the cursed place, and Danilo is immersed in gloomy thoughts - two bad omens over the past days oppress him. The arrival of Katerina's father, a gloomy and hard-hearted man, does not add to the fun.

Arriving at the farm, Danilo quarrels with his father-in-law, when he asks the young people in rude terms why they returned home so late. The quarrel reaches a boiling point, both Cossacks draw their sabers and a fight breaks out between them from minute to minute. Only thanks to the persuasion of Katerina, it is possible to prevent the duel.

The next day, the young Cossack is surprised by the behavior of his father-in-law at the table, he does not eat dumplings and pork. In the evening, Burulbash sees how in a dilapidated castle, standing on the other side of the river, a light comes on in one of the rooms. Tormented by curiosity, the young Cossack goes with a friend to find out what happened in the castle. They notice how the father-in-law is heading in the same direction.

Climbing a tree, Danilo sees a wonderful picture of how his father-in-law turns into a sorcerer, which was recently seen at a wedding with friends. With the help of a spell, he summons the spirit of Katerina, and he accuses the sorcerer of killing his mother. Shocked by what is happening, Burulbash hurries to his house to tell his wife about what happened, but it turns out that she saw it all in a dream at night. Danilo, making sure that his father-in-law is hanging around with evil spirits, orders him to be thrown into the basement, and the inevitable execution awaits the sorcerer.

The next day, kind-hearted Katerina, succumbing to her father's persuasion, releases him from prison and immediately faints herself from surging dizziness.

Meanwhile, the Poles are attacking Little Russia, and Burulbash feels the approach of imminent death, but is ready to come to the aid of his native land. In a bloody battle, the Cossacks defeat the Poles, and Danilo, in the heat of battle, is shot dead by a sorcerer-in-law who comes from nowhere.

After the death of her husband, heartbroken, Katerina lives in the house of Yesaul Gorobets, and every night she has terrible dreams in which her father threatens to kill her son. One night, she really finds a murdered baby in the cradle. From the horror experienced, the young woman goes crazy, dances wildly with a dagger, shouting curses at her parent. Forcibly, she manages to calm her down, but now it is clear to everyone - the girl has moved her mind. From day to day she walks with an extinct look through the oak forest and sings sad songs. One day, a stately young man comes to her room, introducing himself as a close friend of her dead husband. For a while, Katerina's mind returns and she understands that her father is in front of her. In anger, the woman rushes with a knife at the sorcerer, but the villain kills his own daughter.
Meanwhile, the Kyiv people see a wonderful picture - the heavens parted and a huge hero rides from the Carpathian Mountains, and next to him is a baby page. The sorcerer, noticing all this, in horror saddles his horse and rides to the Kyiv monk, persuading him to forgive his sins. The schemnik refuses, and then the murderer in impotent rage kills him. Driven by an irresistible force, the sorcerer's horse carries his master back to the Carpathian mountains.

The sorcerer sees a hero from nightmares in front of him. The knight takes him with his hand and throws him into the abyss, and the dead rush after the sorcerer. The biggest dead man also appears, but he is unable to get up from the grave.
In conclusion, the reader will learn about two brothers, Peter and Ivan, who lived in perfect harmony for a long time. But it so happened that Ivan captured a noble Turk, and divided the ransom equally with his brother. But Peter's stinginess had no limits, and he killed his brother along with his son, and took the money for himself. Presenting himself before God, Ivan asks to put a curse on his brother's family. The last of their kind will be stained from head to toe with the blood of the victims, and then revenge will take place, Ivan will appear and overthrow the villain into the abyss.

Audiobook "Terrible Revenge", listen online

Gogol N. V. fairy tale "Terrible revenge"

Genre: literary mystical fairy tale

The main characters of the fairy tale "Terrible revenge" and their characteristics

1. Danilo Burulbash. A noble Cossack, courageous, fearless, inexorable, even cruel. He loves his wife and son very much, his land
2. Katerina. Danilo's wife. Timid, beautiful, shy, suspicious.
3. Sorcerer, father of Katerina. Cruel, terrible old man. Ruthless, treacherous, sinful.

The shortest content of the fairy tale "Terrible revenge" for the reader's diary in 6 sentences

1. A terrible sorcerer appears at the wedding, and Pan Danilo dreams of getting his gold.
2. Katerina dreams that the sorcerer is actually her father, and Danilo becomes convinced that this is true.
3. The sorcerer is put in the basement, but Katerina secretly releases her father and he runs to the Poles.
4. Kodun during the battle kills Danilo, and then the son of Katerina.
5. The sorcerer sees a terrible knight and tries to run away, but the horse brings him to the knight
6. The knight kills the sorcerer and throws the dead man into the abyss, where other dead men gnaw him.

The main idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe tale "Terrible revenge"
There comes a time when the cup of human patience overflows and the hour of reckoning of the villains for the committed atrocities comes.

What does the fairy tale "Terrible revenge" teach
This fairy tale teaches you to love your Motherland, teaches you to protect it from enemies, teaches you to be proud and admire its beauties. It teaches you to be brave and courageous, teaches you not to give up and fight to the end. It teaches that it is not the business of man to judge, but the work of God. It teaches that the place of the sorcerer is at the stake, and any pity for him is inadmissible.

Review of the fairy tale "Terrible revenge"
I really liked this mystical and very scary story. There is no happy ending in it, everything is very dark in it, but nevertheless it is a very interesting story. I felt very sorry for Katerina and her husband, Pan Danilo. After all, if Katerina had not let her father-sorcerer go, then everyone would have remained alive.

Proverbs to the fairy tale "Terrible revenge"
How much the rope does not twist, but the end will be.
The age of the villain is small, the villain is an old man from his youth.
Do not return evil for evil.
God endured and told us.
God sees who offends whom.

Read a summary, a brief retelling of the tale "Terrible Revenge" chapter by chapter:
Chapter 1.
Many guests came to the wedding of the son of Yesaul Gorobets in Kyiv. Among them was the Cossack Mikitka, there was the named brother of the Yesaul Danilo Burulbash from the other side of the Dnieper with his wife Katerina and a one-year-old son. True, Katerina's old father, who had been in captivity for 21 years, did not come, and therefore could tell a lot of interesting things.
And now the captain brings out two old icons, which he got from the holy schemnik, in order to bless the young. And suddenly the people shouted and resounded to the sides. For the young Cossack, who had previously managed to dance merrily, suddenly changed his face when he saw the icons. A fang grew out of his mouth, he himself hunched over and became an old man.
From all sides they shouted "Sorcerer!", And the captain put forward the icons and cursed the old man. And he hissed and suddenly disappeared, as if he had never happened.
Soon the guests forgot about the sorcerer, and cheerful dances and songs began again.
Chapter 2
At night, Danilo sailed with his wife and Cossacks along the Dnieper. He asks his wife Katerina about the reason for her sadness. And his wife replies that she was frightened by a sorcerer about whom terrible stories are told. As if if he meets a person, it immediately seems to the sorcerer that the person is laughing at him. And they find the unfortunate dead the next day.
But Danilo answered that the sorcerer was not so terrible, that he knew where his den was, in which the sorcerer kept his countless riches. And Danilo promises to get this gold.
The oak floated past the cemetery and it seemed to the Cossacks that someone was calling for help. They are quiet, listening.
And they suddenly see how the cross on the grave staggered, how the withered dead rose up and shouted "Stuffy to me!" And then he went underground. And the second cross staggered. And another dead man rose up, higher than the first. In the same way, he shouted and went to the ground. And the third dead man rose up, taller than all, stretched out his hands into the sky and screamed terribly.
And everything was quiet. Then Danilo said that the sorcerer simply frightens uninvited guests. And the Cossack's determination to get witch's gold did not decrease
And soon the oak moored to the shore. And the thatched roof of Pan Danil's grandfather's choir appeared.
Chapter 3
Danilo did not wake up early after a night of festivities. He sat, myrrh sharpened his saber.
Then his father-in-law appeared, and began to swear at Katerina that she returned home late. Danilo was offended, because he had grown out of diapers for a long time, he fought for the Orthodox faith many times.
Word for word, the father-in-law had a fight with Danilo. They grabbed the sabers. They fought for a long time, no one can take the upper hand. But then the sabers flew off, the opponents took up the pistols.
Katherine's father shot, hit Danilo's left hand. Danilo pulled a trusty Turkish pistol from his belt. But then Katherine intervened. She began to tearfully beg not to leave their son Ivan an orphan, because she would die after her husband. And touched women's tears men's hearts.
Danilo put down his pistol and was the first to extend his hand to his father-in-law. The Cossacks reconciled. And the father kisses Katerina and his eyes shine strangely.
This kiss seemed strange to Katerina, and the glitter of her eyes seemed strange.
Chapter 4
In the morning, Katerina tells her husband that she dreamed that her father was the same sorcerer. But Danilo does not listen to his wife, he talks about the Poles, who again rose against the Cossacks. And about the father-in-law it does not matter. Danila does not like him - he does not have fun like a Cossack, he does not drink vodka. like a Turk.
And then the father showed up. Sat down to dinner. Father frowns, says he doesn't like dumplings. And Danilo teases him, saying that this is a Christian dish. The father says that he does not eat pork, and Danilo bullies him again, asking if he is a Turk.
In the evening, Danilo looked at the Dnieper and it seemed to him that a light flashed in the witch's castle. He got ready, called the faithful Stetsko. And Katerina is afraid to be left alone, she asks Danilo to lock her in the room with a key. Danilo did just that.
They went with Stetsko to the castle. They are watching someone in a red coat flash by. Danilo recognizes his father-in-law and understands that he dragged himself into the sorcerer's castle.
The Cossacks got to the castle, they see the upper window glows. Danilo climbed an oak tree, looking. There are no candles in the room, but a light is burning from somewhere. Strange weapons are hung on the walls. Suddenly someone in a red coat enters, father-in-law! And he starts throwing different herbs into the pot. The room immediately lights up with blue light. Then pink. And Danilo sees how a certain woman appears in the room. Worth swaying the floor does not touch. He recognizes Danilo Katerina, but he cannot say a word.
And Katerina asks her father why he killed her mother, why he called her again. She says that she left Katerina and Danilo understands that this is Katerina's soul.
And the sorcerer says that he will make Katerina fall in love with him. But the soul objects. She says that she will never betray her husband and will not let Katerina do it. And looks out the window directly at Danilo.
And Danilo is already descending and running home in great fear.
Chapter 5
Danilo wakes up Katerina and she thanks her husband for getting rid of a terrible dream. And Danilo tells her what he saw with the sorcerer and says that her father is the Antichrist. Only the Antichrist can summon other people's souls. He promises to protect Katerina.
Katerina abandons her father.
Chapter 6
The sorcerer sits in the basement of Danilo, bound in chains. Sitting for treason, for that he wanted to sell his native land to Catholic enemies. And he only had one night to live. In the morning they will boil him alive in a cauldron and skin him.
The sorcerer looks out the window, Katerina is walking. He calls his daughter, but she passes by. But she returns and the sorcerer begins to beg Katerina to help him save his soul. He says he doesn't want his soul to burn in hell. He asks to let him go and promises to put on a sackcloth, go to the caves, and pray to God day and night.
Katerina replies that even if she opens the door for him, she will not remove the chains.
But the sorcerer says the chains are nothing. Instead of hands, he slipped pieces of wood to the executioners. But he can't go through walls. After all, they were built by the holy schemnik.
And Katerina releases the sorcerer. He kisses her and runs away.
And Katerina is tormented, not knowing whether she did the right thing, because she deceived her husband. She hears someone's footsteps and faints.
Chapter 7
Katerina wakes up in the room. She was carried out of the basement by an old servant. Baba even closed the basement door so that suspicion would not fall on Katerina.
Danilo runs in and says that the sorcerer has fled. Katerina's face dies and asks if anyone released the sorcerer. But Danilo is sure that the devil released him, because he sees that the chains are put on the tree. And he says that if Katerina released the sorcerer, he would drown her.
Chapter 8
Poles walk and blaspheme in the tavern. Their priest blasphemes with them. There was no such disgrace yet on Russian soil. The Poles and Danilo's farm and his beautiful wife are discussing. This is not good.
Chapter 9
Pan Danilo sits, sad, reflects on imminent death. He asks Katerina not to leave her son if something happened to him.
Danilo recalls past years, dashing battles, mined gold. Scolds Judaism.
Stetsko says that the Poles are coming from the meadow. And a terrible battle broke out. Not an hour or two fought the Cossacks with the Poles. And Danilo had time everywhere and there was no mercy for the enemies from his hand. And now the Poles are already running away, and Danilo wants to equip the chase. But suddenly he notices Katerina's father on the mountain. In terrible anger, he gallops to the mountain and the sorcerer shoots him with a musket.
Danilo falls, his chest is pierced. He dies with Katerina's name on his lips.
Crying, Katerina is killed on her husband's chest. And in the distance, Yesaul Gorobets is galloping to the rescue.
Chapter 10
The Dnieper is wonderful in calm weather, the Dnieper is terrible in a thunderstorm.
At this terrible time, a boat moored to the shore. The sorcerer got out of it and went down to his dugout. Put the pot, began to conjure. And then a cloud began to appear in the dugout. The sorcerer's face lit up with joy. But suddenly he sees an unfamiliar face miraculously, which uninvited appeared to him from a cloud. And the hairs on the sorcerer's head stand on end. The sorcerer cried out and overturned the pot and the vision disappeared.

Chapter 11
Katerina stays for ten days in the house of Yesaul Gorobets, but she does not find peace. She says that she thought in silence to raise her son for revenge, but in her dreams a sorcerer comes to her and promises to take her as his wife. Calms her Gorobets, and his son. They say that they will not let Katerina be offended. They remember Danilo and his last fight, the feast they arranged.
And the child is already reaching for the cradle and says the captain that the son will go to the father, he already wants to smoke.
But at night Katerina wakes up screaming. She dreamed that her son was slaughtered. The people run to the cradle and see all the dead child.
Chapter 12
Far from Ukraine lie the peaked Carpathian Mountains. You can’t hear Russian speech in them anymore, Hungarians live there, dashing revelers and grunts.
And someone rides through the mountains on a black horse. In armor, with a spear, the page gallops next. But the riders' eyes are closed, as if they were sleeping.
They arrived at Krivan, the highest mountain, and stood there. And the clouds closed them, sleepy.
Chapter 13
Katerina secretly escaped from Kyiv. After the death of her son, she went mad and went insane to her hut. The old nanny is crying, looking at her, the lads are crying. And Katerina takes out a Turkish knife, but throws it away. Do not pierce her father's iron heart that the old witch forged in the fire.
Katerina says that her husband was buried alive, she sings songs.
Katerina runs at night through the forest with a knife, looking for her father, she is not afraid of mermaids.
But then a guest in a red zhupan arrived at the farm. He asks about Danilo. He says that he fought together. And Katerina at first looked madly, then began to listen to the words of the guest.
And suddenly she rushed at him with a knife, shouting that it was a sorcerer. Katerina fought with the guest and the father killed his crazy daughter. In the meantime, the Cossacks did not come to their senses, galloped away.
Chapter 14
An unheard-of miracle appeared over Kyiv. Suddenly it became visible far to all corners of the world. The Black Sea, estuaries became visible, the Carpathian Mountains became visible.
And a knight with closed eyes appeared on the highest mountain.
And while others marveled at this miracle, the sorcerer jumped on his horse and drove him away from Kyiv. He recognized in the knight the face that once appeared in the dugout and was terribly frightened.
But as soon as the sorcerer wanted to jump over a narrow river, his horse suddenly stopped. looked back and laughed.
The hair on the head of the sorcerer stood on end, he wept and turned to Kyiv. And it seemed to him that the trees wanted to grab him and that the road itself was chasing him.
The sorcerer rushed to the holy places, to Kyiv.
Chapter 15
In the cave sat a lonely hermit, who had already made a coffin for himself. And suddenly a wild man with bulging eyes ran up to him and demanded to pray for the salvation of his soul.
The schemnik took out a holy book and retreated in horror. An unheard-of sinner stood before him, and there was no salvation for him. After all, the letters in the book were filled with blood.
And it seemed to the sorcerer that the holy schemer was laughing and he killed the elder.
Something groaned in the forest. Dry hands rose from the forest and disappeared.
And the sorcerer galloped to Kanev, thinking to go from there to the Crimea. But suddenly he was in Shumsk. The sorcerer was amazed, turned his horse, gallops back to Kyiv. Arrives in Galich, a city almost next to the Hungarians. Again the sorcerer turns his horse, but still feels that he is going in the wrong direction.
And now the Carpathian mountains stand before him, and the high Krivan is ahead. The sorcerer tries to stop the horse, but his horse rushes straight to the knight. And he suddenly opened his eyes and laughed.
The knight grabbed the sorcerer, raised him above the ground and the sorcerer died.
And then he opened his eyes, but it was already a dead man. And the dead man saw how the dead rise up all over the earth, their faces like two drops similar to him.
One above the other, they crowded around the knight and his terrible prey. And the oldest one was so big that he couldn't get up. He just stirred, and from that stirring, shaking began all over the earth. And a lot of huts were knocked down and people were crushed.
The knight threw the sorcerer into the abyss and the dead rushed after him. And they plunged their teeth into the sorcerer.
And now, even at night in the Carpathians, a sound is heard, as if from a thousand mills - the dead are gnawing with the teeth of a sorcerer. And when the earth shakes, smart people know that the biggest dead man is trying to get up.
Chapter 16
In the city of Glukhov, people have been listening to the old bandura player for a long time. And in the end, he wanted to sing about one old thing.
There lived a long time ago two brothers, Ivan and Petro. They lived together, stood up for each other like a mountain, divided everything equally. And then there was another war with the Turks. And the Turks found a pasha who could cut down a whole regiment alone. And King Stepan announced that he who catches the pasha will be given salaries, like a whole army.
And the brothers went to catch Pasha. Yes, only Ivan caught him. Received an award from the king, shared equally with his brother. And Petro took the money, but he planned a terrible revenge, unable to bear the fact that his brother jumped.
And now the brothers are going along the mountain road, to the land granted by the king, to the Carpathians. Behind Ivan, his young son is tied up. And the road is narrow, with one side of the abyss. And then Petro pushes his brother and he falls into the abyss with his horse. But manages to grab the root. Started climbing up. And Petro instructs Ivan with a peak and pushes him into the abyss.
Petro lived like a pasha, but now he died and God called his soul and brother Ivan to judgment. He announced that Petro was a great sinner and let Ivan himself come up with a punishment for him.
And he says that not only did Petro kill him, but he did not spare his son either. The whole family was destroyed. Therefore, let each new descendant in the Petro family be a more terrible villain than the previous one. And the last in the family would be such a terrible villain that from his atrocities the dead would rise from the graves.
And when the hour of measure comes in his atrocities, Ivan would like to throw him into the abyss, so that the dead would gnaw at his bones, and so that he himself would gnaw at himself, but he could not get up.
And God said that Ivan had planned a terrible revenge, but so be it. But he cannot give Ivan the Kingdom of Heaven. And then Ivan will forever sit on his horse and watch the dead gnaw at each other in the abyss.
So the bandura player sang. And people sat for a long time, thinking about that past deed.

Drawings and illustrations for the fairy tale "Terrible revenge"

Yesaul Gorobets once celebrated the wedding of his son in Kyiv, which was attended by many people, and among others, the named brother of the Yesaul Danilo Burulbash with his young wife, the beautiful Katerina, and a one-year-old son. Only old Katherine's father, who had recently returned after a twenty-year absence, did not come with them. Everything was dancing when the captain brought out two wonderful icons to bless the young. Then a sorcerer opened up in the crowd and disappeared, frightened by the images.

Danilo returns at night along the Dnieper with his family to the farm. Katerina is frightened, but her husband is not afraid of the sorcerer, but the Poles, who are going to cut off the path to the Cossacks, he thinks about this, sailing past the old sorcerer's castle and the cemetery with the bones of his grandfathers. However, crosses are tottering in the cemetery and, one more terrible than the other, the dead appear, pulling their bones to the very month. Consoling his awakened son, Pan Danilo gets to the hut. His hut is small, not roomy for his family and for ten selected fellows. The next morning a quarrel broke out between Danilo and his gloomy, absurd father-in-law. It came to sabers, and then to muskets. Danilo was wounded, but if not for the pleas and reproaches of Katerina, who by the way remembered her little son, he would have fought further. The Cossacks reconciled. Katerina soon tells her husband her vague dream, as if her father is a terrible sorcerer, and Danilo scolds the Busurman habits of his father-in-law, suspecting a non-Christ in him, but he is more worried about the Poles, about which Gorobets again warned him.

After dinner, during which the father-in-law disdains dumplings, and pork, and a burner, in the evening Danilo leaves to scout around the old sorcerer's castle. Climbing up an oak tree to look out the window, he sees a witch's room, lit by God knows what, with wonderful weapons on the walls and flickering bats. The father-in-law who enters begins to tell fortunes, and his whole appearance changes: he is already a sorcerer in filthy Turkish attire. He summons Katerina's soul, threatens her and demands that Katerina love him. The soul does not yield, and, shocked by what has opened, Danilo returns home, wakes up Katerina and tells her everything. Katerina renounces her apostate father. In Danila's basement, a sorcerer sits in iron chains, his demonic castle is on fire; not for witchcraft, but for collusion with the Poles, his execution awaits tomorrow. But, promising to start a righteous life, to retire to the caves, to propitiate God with fasting and prayer, the sorcerer Katerina asks to let him go and thereby save his soul. Fearing her act, Katerina releases it, but hides the truth from her husband. Feeling his death, the saddened Danilo asks his wife to take care of her son.

As expected, Poles run in innumerable clouds, set fire to huts and steal cattle. Pan Danilo fights bravely, but the bullet of the sorcerer who appears on the mountain overtakes him. And although Gorobets jumps to the rescue, Katerina is inconsolable. The Poles are defeated, the wonderful Dnieper is raging, and, fearlessly righting the canoe, the sorcerer sails to his ruins. In the dugout, he casts spells, but not Katerina's soul appears to him, but someone uninvited; although he is not terrible, but terrifying. Katerina, living with Gorobets, sees her former dreams and trembles for her son. Waking up in a hut surrounded by vigilant guards, she finds him dead and goes crazy. Meanwhile, from the West, a gigantic rider with a baby, on a black horse, is galloping. His eyes are closed. He entered the Carpathians and stopped here.

Mad Katerina is looking everywhere for her father in order to kill him. A certain guest arrives, asking Danila, mourns him, wants to see Katerina, talks to her for a long time about her husband and, it seems, introduces her to her mind. But when he talks about the fact that Danilo, in case of death, asked him to take Katerina for himself, she recognizes her father and rushes to him with a knife. The sorcerer himself kills his daughter.

Behind Kyiv, “an unheard-of miracle appeared”: “suddenly it became visible far to all corners of the world” - and the Crimea, and the swampy Sivash, and the land of Galich, and the Carpathian Mountains with a gigantic rider on the peaks. The sorcerer, who was among the people, flees in fear, for he recognized in the rider an uninvited face that appeared to him during divination. Night terrors pursue the sorcerer, and he turns to Kyiv, to the holy places. There he kills the holy schemer, who did not undertake to pray for such an unheard-of sinner. Now, wherever he rules the horse, he moves to the Carpathian mountains. Here the motionless rider opened his eyes and laughed. And the sorcerer died, and, dead, he saw the dead rising from Kyiv, from the Carpathians, from the land of Galich, and the rider was thrown into the abyss, and the dead plunged their teeth into him. Another one, taller and more terrible than all, wanted to rise from the ground and shook it mercilessly, but could not get up.

This story ends with an old and wonderful song of an old bandura player in the city of Glukhov. It sings about the war between King Stepan and Turchin and his brothers, the Cossacks Ivan and Peter. Ivan caught the Turkish pasha and shared the royal reward with his brother. But the envious Peter pushed Ivan with his baby son into the abyss and took all the good for himself. After the death of Peter, God allowed Ivan to choose the execution for his brother. And he cursed all his offspring and predicted that the last of his kind would be an unprecedented villain, and when the end comes to him, Ivan will appear from the failure on a horse and overthrow him into the abyss, and all his grandfathers will be pulled from different parts of the earth to gnaw him, and Petro will not be able to get up and will gnaw at himself, wanting revenge and not knowing how to take revenge. God marveled at the cruelty of the execution, but decided what to do according to that.

In 1831 he wrote the story "Terrible Revenge" Gogol. A summary of the work is given in this article. This creation of the famous author is included in the collection of his stories “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka”. Reading this work, it can be noted that it has much in common with the plot of Gogol's mystical story "Viy": the key figures of the stories are fabulous creatures from ancient folk legends.

N.V. Gogol. "Terrible revenge" (summary). Introduction

Yesaul Gorobets celebrated his son's wedding in Kyiv. It had many guests. Among the visitors was his named brother Danila Burulbash with his beautiful wife Katerina, who was considered an orphan. Her mother died and her father disappeared. When miraculous icons were taken out of the house to bless the young, it turned out that there was a sorcerer among the guests. He betrayed himself by being terrified of the holy images and disappeared.

N.V. Gogol. "Terrible revenge" (summary). Development of events

After the wedding, Danila returned home with his young wife. The people said that his father Katerina was an evil sorcerer who sold his soul to the devil. He recently showed up in their family. The young father-in-law did not like him, quarrels often broke out between them. Rumors circulated around the farm that as soon as Katerina's father showed up, strange things began to happen here: either the crosses in the cemetery sway, or the dead rise from the graves, that their groans are heard at midnight. Not far from the village stood the family castle of the sorcerer, where he once lived. Curiosity took Danila, and he decided to go to this lair of the devil in order to see with his own eyes what was happening there. In the evening, climbing a tall oak, the young man sees that the light is on, that his father-in-law enters there and begins to tell fortunes. The sorcerer changes in appearance and summons the soul of Katerina's daughter, persuading her to love him. Seeing all this, Danila returns home and tells Katerina about everything. She, in turn, renounces her father. In the morning, the son-in-law accuses his father-in-law of friendship with the Poles who attacked his homeland, but not of witchcraft. For this, Katerina's father is put in prison. He is waiting for him. He asks his daughter to forgive him and release him. Katerina. Taking pity on his father, he opens the bars and releases the sorcerer to freedom. Meanwhile, Danila goes to war with the Poles and dies there. The sorcerer's bullet overtook him. Katerina is inconsolable when she learns of her husband's death. She is terribly worried about the life of her little son. But he was also destroyed by an evil sorcerer, who cast an evil spell. Waking up in the middle of the night, the woman finds the baby dead in her bed.

From grief, she Since then, the inhabitants of the farm began to see a vision, as if among the Carpathian Mountains a gigantic rider on a black horse was galloping. The hero's eyes are closed, he holds a baby in his hands. And poor Katerina is looking for her father to kill him for all the misfortunes that he caused her. One day, a wanderer appears to her, who persuades her to become his wife. She recognizes him as a sorcerer and rushes at him with a knife. But the father manages to kill his daughter.

N.V. Gogol "Terrible revenge" (summary). ending

The sorcerer flees from these places, where a vision appeared with a rider. He obviously knows who and why he showed up here. The old man runs to the old schemer to pray for his sins. But he refuses to do so, and the sorcerer kills him. Now, wherever this son of the devil goes, the road leads him to the Carpathians, where his rider with the baby is waiting for him. Nowhere to hide him from this giant. The rider opened his eyes and laughed. The sorcerer died at that hour and fell into the abyss, where the dead plunged their teeth into him so that he would suffer. This old story ends with a song performed by an old bandura player in the city of Glukhov. It tells the story of two brothers Peter and Ivan. Ivan once distinguished himself in the war, for which he was generously awarded. Despite what he shared with his brother, Peter became jealous of him and decided to kill him. He pushed Ivan with his little son into the abyss, and took his good for himself.

When the good brother ended up in the Kingdom of Heaven, God allowed his soul to choose the punishment for his murderer. Ivan cursed all the offspring of a blood relative and predicted to him that the last of his kind would be a terrible villain. The soul of the deceased will appear from the other world and cast the terrible sinner into the abyss, where all his dead ancestors will gnaw at him. Peter wants to take revenge on his brother, but he will not be able to get up from the ground. The Lord was surprised at such a terrible punishment, but commanded that it be so.

This is how Gogol twisted the plot. "Terrible revenge" (a summary of the story is given in this article) is one of the master's less popular works. It is not studied at school in literature lessons. But for us, this story is of folklore interest. It is based on real ancient folk tales. It is not for nothing that in the first edition the work was subtitled “Ancient True Story”. That is how N. V. Gogol described him. "Terrible Revenge" is a story written over a century and a half ago. But even now we read it with trepidation and interest.