Witch from a farm near Dikanka crossword clue. What is the name of the witch, the mother of the blacksmith Vakula, in Gogol’s work “Night”

Genre: dark fantasy, humor, chrono-fiction, pastiche, mashup

Publisher: Alpha book

The year of publishing: 2016

Series: Fantastic action movie

Similar works:

• The Third Jungle Book by Pamela Jaeckel (collection of short stories)

Writer Andrei Belyanin is one of the standard-bearers of the Armada publishing house. Many readers know him as a supporter of humorous fiction. Of course, they don’t call him the “Russian Pratchett,” but no one is in a hurry to call him a graphomaniac, despite the abundance of works. But it’s never been seen before - Belyanin made a pastiche of the classics, “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” and “Viya” - works, although they contain elements of humor, are basically gloomy prose, a reflection of the terrible folklore of Little Russia. The author, being a big fan of Nikolai Vasilyevich, cherished the idea of ​​​​creating a stylization for a long time. And so, in 2016, in his “home” series “Fantastic Action” Belyanin released “Night on a Farm near Dikanka”. And after reading this novel, you experience conflicting feelings.

Let's move on to the summary. The narrator of the novel comes into the hands of Gogol’s own manuscript, which sets out the “true” story, taken as the basis for the works of the classic. This technique, naturally, is not innovative, and has been used by writers for a long time. The genres of the work are the so-called pastiche and mashup.

Something similar would have appeared sooner or later, if not from Belyanin, but from anyone else. Still, it is interesting to read a novel in which the author of his own works (that is, Gogol) is a direct participant in the actions. “Night on a Farm near Dikanka” is structurally an adaptation of the motifs from “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” and partly from “Viya”, but, as was said, the plot represents something completely different. Let's break it down into its components and consider it.

First of all, the plot is framed by the history and characters of “The Night Before Christmas”. Here you have Vakula with his witch mother Solokha, his love Oksana, Chub, the deacon, the devil, the Cossack character Patsyuk, and so on. The story of “The Night Before Christmas” is extended throughout the entire work: it begins with it, and ends with it. Almost her. The ending is tacked on to the ending from Viy. The blacksmith Vakula here is none other than Gogol’s best friend, whom everyone in the novel calls “Nikolya” in the French manner. Actually, with the arrival of Nicolas in Dikanka, the misadventures of the friends begin, filled with clashes with various local evil spirits. Vakula himself sometimes wonders how it happened that the arrival of high school student Gogol shook up the quiet life of the village so much, catalyzing a chain of malicious events.

A short story about mermaids, “May Night or the Drowned Woman,” is inserted into the narrative without any major changes. Everything is the same as in Gogol’s story: the drowned mermaid asks the hero to help her identify her stepmother-villain among other mermaids.

The most frightening story from the collection of “Evenings...” “The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala” is missing for some reason. Not really! The infernal image of Basavryuk is remade into Baystruk, a personality that is at least not so frightening, but no less crafty. Moreover, Belyanin played Gogol’s main character in his own way, making him not just a fool, but an antagonist with a sense of humor, which is why he becomes one of the most interesting characters in the novel. The story of sacrifice, of course, is absent: Belyanin is not Gogol, he does not write horror stories. The only one who really scares us is the Cossack Khanurik Sverbyguz, who is the devil’s drinking companion. His episodic appearance reminds us, at least a little, that initially the genre of “Evenings...” is still closer to horror, as well as the hooded characters from the forest who know the way to hell. But as the novel progresses, the heroes will have to seek help from the devil Baystruk, going into hell. This episode plays on “The Missing Letter”, remotely, of course.

One way or another, an attentive reader can find certain references to “Mirgorod” or “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”, but in addition to borrowed stories there are also quite original ones. For example, a duel between a Zaporozhye devil and a Polish one. The latter is subordinate to two animated, creepy-looking winged hussars, which the illustrator did not forget to capture on the pages of the book.

By the way, about the illustrations. They are an integral part of the work, and without them, reading “Night...” would not be so exciting. We must give credit to Belyanin himself, because the pencil sketches of the characters were his doing. The talented Belyanin is talented not only in prose. The cover and front pages are decorated with paintings by Ilya Voronin, a member of the Union of Artists of Russia and simply a good illustrator. His works can be seen in almost every tenth book in the science fiction genre.

Let's not forget the worst aspect of the book - the excessive use of narrative in the form of journalism. Well, a very tedious text, removing which would not have lost anything. Only the volume of the book would be reduced by thirty to forty pages. Perhaps this is the cost of the publishing house's requirements, so that the volume of the novel is brought to the required standard by the writer. Well, you can endure it, although with difficulty.

As for historical inconsistencies that may alienate the reader, it should be recalled that Gogol sometimes did not disdain them. So, the latter is more likely Belyanin’s courtesy, rather than a defect.

It is also worth noting humor, where would we be without it in Belyanin’s works. The author skillfully interweaves topical topics that are relevant for the present time, such as inveterate tolerance and the promotion of non-traditional, so to speak, values. Just read: " ...they collapsed... right onto the wide bed, where two naked beautiful witches were just about to do something fun and useful for mutual education...“Therefore, first of all, we can recommend “Night...” not to fans of Gogol, but to Belyanin. Humor is the writer’s calling card in all his works. It is the humorous component that is the driving force of this pastiche, and not the gloomy folk music characteristic of Gogol. Perhaps the most ardent fans of Nikolai Vasilyevich, when reading “Night...”, will generally spit and want to burn the book, just as Gogol burned the second volume of “Dead Souls”. However, there is no need to show such fanaticism: yes, this is not Gogol, but only a stylization of him through the prism of Belyanin, so to speak. Is it worth reading “Night on a Farm near Dikanka”? Absolutely yes! Should it be called a masterpiece? Definitely not! Otherwise there will be an overestimation. Enjoy reading.

P.S.: Despite all its merits, “Night on a Farm near Dikanka” looks better not as a novel, but as a script for a film, and even better for a TV series. It would be good if they filmed it and preferably added more horror, since there is so little of it in the book.

Pencil sketch of Belyanin

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gogol. Christmas Eve. Audiobook

“Meanwhile, the witch rose so high that she was only a black speck flashing above. But wherever the speck appeared, there the stars, one after another, disappeared from the sky...” And then, according to Gogol, the devil stole the month hanging in the sky above Dikanka.“Around the World” went to the Poltava region to find out what the hell was going on in these places.

As soon as I got ready to go to Dikanka, strange things began to happen in my life. On the evening before departure, a thunderstorm suddenly began, so strong that 30 settlements in the Poltava region were left without electricity. On the way, a fox from nowhere rushed under the wheels of the car. And just as suddenly she disappeared. Following this, a cloud of rooks rose over the road, and the sky turned black. I looked at the counter - the number of kilometers covered ended in three sixes. "What the hell is this?" - I was already afraid to guess what would happen next. And then, before reaching 60 kilometers to Dikanka, I turned into the village of Gogolevo, where the writer spent his childhood...

Origins of legends

A few years ago a black cat wandered into our home. She was missing one leg. Perhaps the animal fell into a trap, says Yulia Boridko, a researcher at the National Museum-Reserve of N.V. Gogol in Gogolev. - So, if you remember, in the story “May Night, or the Drowned Woman,” the centurion’s wife was a witch. One night she turned into a black cat and attacked her unloved stepdaughter. But she cut off the animal’s paw. And in the morning I saw that my stepmother’s hand was bandaged...

One story from Gogol’s childhood is also connected with the “bad” cat. One day, five-year-old Nikosha (as the future writer was called when he was little) was left alone in a big house. It was getting dark, the silence was broken only by the striking of the clock. Suddenly the boy saw a green-eyed cat with an unkind look sneaking towards him. Nikosha mistook her for evil spirits, grabbed her and carried her to the pond, where he drowned her. Then I suffered for a long time because of what I had done.

Holy Trinity Church was mentioned in the story "The Night Before Christmas"

The same artificial pond is depicted on the family coat of arms of the Gogol-Yanovsky nobles. The pond curves like a horseshoe around the estate with columns. Near the pond at the exit from the museum there are seven birch trees: two individually, and five smaller ones sprouting from the same root.

After the restoration of the museum, we planted three birch trees,” says Yulia Boridko. - One dried up in the fall. And already in the spring, five shoots appeared in its place. This family of birch trees seems to symbolize the Gogols. The two larger trees are the parents, and the rest are the five children. What a coincidence. I try not to pay attention to any mysticism, but it is difficult to ignore it when you are dealing with Gogol. The writer himself said that he only succeeded in what he took from life, and did not invent. He simply captured everything he saw and heard.

Gogol is held in high esteem in the Dikan library

Nicholas's scary stories

Gogol's parents are buried in the park across the street from the museum. This is the only grave that remains from the local cemetery. I walk along the path and in horror see that the grave is engulfed in flames...

The fire is the work of Nikolai, a guard at the Gogol museum-estate. Using a welding canister, he burns a forged fence.

“I clean off the paint with fire,” Nikolai explains, seeing my frightened face. - Then it will be easier to apply a new layer.

“But I thought it was Gogol himself who was burning something,” I try to joke, “manuscripts, for example.”

No, Gogol does not appear here. He usually wanders around the estate.

In terms of?

While on duty I saw him often. And I'm not alone. Sometimes you look at the screen, and near the bushes - wow! - and a human figure appears. For a minute or two a dark silhouette is clearly visible. Then he disappears... When the estate was being restored, various figures also often appeared on the film-covered façade: the auditor and other Gogol characters. And one day at lunch the men and I played cards at will. The loser had to knock on the window of the outbuilding where Gogol lived and say hello ten times. The guy who did this began to be haunted by failures. Either he nearly cut off his fingers, or he stepped on a nail... One day, five of us were walking, and a branch almost gouged out his eye. And the others didn't even notice her. As a result, this guy’s wife advised him to knock on the window again and ask for forgiveness. He did just that. And the troubles were over.

You can’t immediately recognize a witch in Dikanka. Many exchanged brooms for the same bicycles

How often do such strange things happen to you?

Happens. There are witches living in our village.

Do you know them?

I knew one personally. Her grandmother's name was Grynykha. She lived opposite my house. It was old. As soon as she looked at any child, he began to cry. Maybe Grynykha didn’t want it, but that was her look. The children then screamed all night, unable to calm down until the old woman removed the spell. The witch didn’t let anyone into her house, but for some reason she let me in. I visited her house two or three times. Scary... The ceiling is low, I had to bend over. The grandmother did not turn on the light - only a kerosene lamp. I spied how she removed the evil eye: she moved matches over the water. Then I even tried to repeat this ritual when the children were capricious. And it did work.

And where is she now?

She died. She died for three days. You look - he doesn’t seem to be breathing, but she opens her eyes. I suffered until the boys punched a hole in the sky - they cut a hole in the ceiling above the bed. As soon as this was done, the witch's soul flew away.

And how many witches do you have?

There are probably about a dozen. Although there are only about five hundred of us here. Right now it's raining all over the region. All the villages around Gogolev are flooded so that the road is not visible. Over there, three kilometers from here, all the potatoes in the gardens were washed away. But it’s dry here, not a drop has fallen. It's all their doing. I'm telling you for sure, there are witches.

Glory is a legacy

Solokha is in front of you,” laughs Natalia Dzyuba, a cheerful blonde with blue eyes. Natalia is a researcher at the Dikanka Museum of History and Local Lore. - We call all married women Solokhs.

And indeed, looking at local women, you catch yourself thinking that although they are not witches, they are definitely sorceresses. It is impossible to cope with so many things without magic. In Dikanka, working women have time to raise children and do everything around the house. The huts in the village are well-groomed, flowers and fruit trees are planted in the courtyards, which bend to the ground under the weight of fruits. At the same time, Dikan girls manage to find time for themselves. No matter what you look at, everyone has neat manicure and makeup. And in high heels. Like Gogol's Oksana, probably all the women in this village have a weakness for beautiful little shoes.

Our girls have broken more than one heart. Even Pushkin got it,” continues Natalia. - Alexander Sergeevich’s first love was our Natalya Kochubey, who later became Stroganova. The poet dedicated poems to her and described her in Eugene Onegin. From Natalya he learned about Dikanka. And earlier Gogol mentioned our village - in the poem “Poltava”. The Kochubey family was very influential. This Cossack family owned Dikanka for more than 200 years, starting in 1689, when Mazepa donated the village to Vasily Kochubey, the general clerk of the Zaporozhian Army. The Kochubeys here in Dikanka had a huge palace, a brewery and a greenhouse with exotic plants. Dikanka was considered advanced, as they would say today. And Viktor Pavlovich, Natalya’s father, was a count and minister of internal affairs of the Russian Empire. Everyone in St. Petersburg knew about the Kochubey family and their native village. Emperor Alexander I himself came to visit them. In memory of his visit, Viktor Kochubey erected the Arc de Triomphe. So Dikanka, which is located God knows where, was on everyone’s lips at that time thanks to the Kochubeys. And Gogol took advantage of this.

The triumphal arch was erected in 1820 in memory of the arrival of Emperor Alexander I in Dikanka

This is probably why Nikolai Vasilyevich in the main Dikanka museum is given only one room out of nine, while a significant part of the exhibition is dedicated to the Kochubeys.

fertile soil

Why do you think Gogol called his work “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”? And not, say, near Vasilyevka or Yanovshchina (the old names of Gogolev. - Note "Around the world"), where did he spend his childhood? - Valentina Polozyukova, a teacher of foreign literature with 30 years of experience, asks me. - Yes, because Dikanka was already a brand. Gogol wanted to become famous at all costs. His first work, Hanz Küchelgarten, written under the pseudonym Alov, was torn to smithereens by critics. The second book, “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka,” owes its success to its successful title. No, Gogol, of course, is a talented writer, but if he had called his collection differently, he would not have seen such fame.

A lesson in foreign literature at the gymnasium named after N.V. Gogol

Valentina works at the gymnasium named after N.V. Gogol - one of two Dikanka schools, located in the center of the village, next to Gogol Street. At the gymnasium, children get acquainted with the works of their fellow countryman during foreign literature lessons. Because Gogol wrote in Russian. Today, schoolchildren study “Taras Bulba” and “The Overcoat,” but “Evenings on the Farm” are optional in the gymnasium.

- They say that it was Gogol who made Dikanka mystical. Nothing like this. She was shrouded in mystery even before Gogol, says Valentina. -Have you heard that we have our own subway? Under Dikanka there is a whole network of underground passages that have existed for a long time and stretch for many tens of kilometers. Local residents hid in them during enemy raids back in the 15th century! When in danger, people ran to the church and... disappeared. In the church basement there was an entrance to these dungeons, which connected many houses. This is how they escaped from the enemy. My neighbor, Grandma Sonya, told me that one spring, about 50 years ago, the floor collapsed in her house. A hole appeared near the stove. Sonya's grandfather went down into that pit and saw a long corridor. It led to an underground room with a table and chairs made of earth. Grandfather lived for almost a century in that hut and did not even suspect that there were some tunnels under it.

So there were rumors about Dikanka as an enchanted place, the inhabitants of which disappeared inexplicably where and appeared from somewhere just as inexplicably, like devils from snuffboxes. And now Dikanka’s underground past is tormenting public services. Ten years ago, a deep hole appeared near Valentina’s house. It was covered with crushed stone and covered with asphalt. But the ground in this place still collapses. There are many such pits in Dikanka. All the utility workers do is pave the roads, cursing the devils at the same time.

Church affairs

I have not encountered demonism. But I know that there is evil spirits,” says 74-year-old Father Pavel, rector of the Holy Trinity Church. - We encounter it every second at every step. How? We will offend someone, we will think badly of someone, we will commit a bad act. But the demons leave me. I’ll pray and my soul will feel good.

Father Pavel Sverlovich - rector of the Holy Trinity Church

Father Pavel has served in the Holy Trinity Church for more than 25 years - as soon as it was restored from ruins. The original church was built by the Kochubeys at the end of the 18th century. Today, the snow-white building with golden domes is surrounded by literary streets: Pushkin, Shevchenko and Belinsky. A little further is Gogol Street. The writer often visited church and recalled it in his “Evenings...”.

The book says that the blacksmith Vakula painted the wall in the T... church. This is our Trinity Church. Vakula portrayed a devil so disgusting that everyone spat when they passed by. And when the women showed the image to the children, they huddled close to their mother’s breasts in fear,” says the priest. - We have another church in the village, St. Nicholas. She played a very important role in Gogol's life.

This church stands apart at the exit from Dikanka. The forests surrounding the ancestral temple-tomb of the Kochubeys saved it from demolition during the Soviet era. According to legend, on the site where the church is now located, the Dikankovites discovered an icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. The parishioners took it to the active village church. But the next day the icon disappeared - and it was found again in the same place on a stump. This happened several times. Local residents took this as a sign from above and in the 17th century they built a temple in honor of St. Nicholas.

The fame of the icon spread far beyond Dikanka. Maria Gogol-Yanovskaya, the writer’s mother, experienced its power firsthand. After her first two children were stillborn, the woman walked 30 km to church. Mary prayed that God would send her a healthy child. She promised to name the boy in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. And the future writer was born.

Nowadays people don’t go to church much. Twenty people is already good. Here is a man selling a house, if only he would come to us to light a candle. All people think about is money. Officials keep buying apartments, cars, and expensive clothes. But you can’t take all this to the next world...

Every evening Father Pavel turns on the lights on the makeshift chapel in his yard

Father sighs and turns on the lights in his yard. His makeshift chapel in the garden lights up with lights. And the stars light up in the sky. And the full moon rolls out. I think that somewhere out there, far in space, there is another Dikanka. This is the name of a small asteroid. It revolves around the Sun in three years and eight months. In Dikanka they often talk about him. And they call the celestial body a planet. But few people here know that there is another asteroid in the solar system, named after Gogol. It was opened on April 1, 1976, on the writer’s birthday. On the same day as the planet Dikanka.

Location orientation
Dikanka, Poltava region, Ukraine

Dikanka Square 10.77 km²
Population 7730 people
Population density 718 people/km²

Area of ​​Poltava region 28,750 km²
Population 1,462,500 people
Population density 50.9 people/km²

ATTRACTIONS Triumphal Arch, Kochubeevsky Oaks in Dikanka; monument to dumplings in Poltava; museum-estate in Gogolev; Mirgorodskaya puddle with a monument to Gogol and his heroes in Mirgorod, Sorochinskaya fair (in August) in Velikiye Sorochintsy.
TRADITIONAL DISHES Poltava pundyki - thin flatbreads fried with onions; dumplings.
TRADITIONAL DRINKS vodka, Mirgorod mineral water.
SOUVENIRS ceramics with Gogol's characters, embroidered shirts, lard.

DISTANCE from Moscow to Dikanka ~ 700 km (from 2.5 hours in flight from Moscow to Kharkov, then to Dikanka 160 km)
TIME lags behind Moscow by an hour in winter, coincides in summer
VISA not required
CURRENCY hryvnia (1 UAH~ 2,2 RUB)

Photo: NATALIA MAIBORODA (X11), GETTY IMAGES, OLESYA BONDARENKO / LORI PHOTO BANK, ALAMY / LEGION-MEDIA

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