This work by N.V. Gogol combines realistic pictures of everyday life, images of folk fiction, and historical motifs, which together paint a broad and multifaceted picture of the life of the Ukrainian people. When creating his stories, Gogol willingly turned to folk songs and legends: they most vividly and fully captured the folk understanding of life.

In songs Gogol saw primarily a reflection folk character. In an article devoted to Ukrainian songs, he wrote: “This folk history, living, bright, full of colors, truth, revealing the whole life of the people... Whoever has not penetrated deeply into them will learn nothing about the past life of this flourishing part of Russia...", since the songs convey "true life, the elements character, all the twists and shades of feelings, worries, sufferings, joys of the depicted people..."

Creating poetic, lyrical images of girls: Ganna in “May Night”, Oksana in “The Night Before Christmas”, Parasky in “Sorochinskaya Fair” - Gogol widely uses folk songs. In them he finds the soulful features and colors that his heroines are endowed with, sometimes lyrically pensive and tender, like Ganna, sometimes full of playful fun, like Paraska, but equally devoted and tenderly loving. Gogol's lovers even explain themselves to each other using the words of folk songs, because everything is beautiful and pure, which distinguishes feelings ordinary people from the people, with the greatest completeness and poetic power expressed in folk song. The explanation of Levko and Ganna in the story “May Night” is lyrical and songlike. It is not for nothing that the beginning of the first chapter is so close to one of the famous Ukrainian songs - “The sun is low, the evening is near.”

Gogol saw the best human traits and qualities in people from the people: love for the motherland, self-esteem, a lively and clear mind, humanity and nobility.

Blacksmith Vakula in "The Night Before Christmas", Levko in "May Night", Danila Burulbash in "Terrible Revenge" are the embodiment of those positive traits that are imprinted in folk thoughts and songs. Vakula is not lost under any circumstances life circumstances. He forced the devil to serve himself, and he is not shy even in the queen’s palace. His actions are determined by a great and genuine feeling of love for Oksana.

In "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka" there are no direct pictures of serf life, the oppression of peasants by landowners. This is explained not by the writer’s desire to idealize or embellish reality, but by the fact that Gogol wanted to show the people not as forced and submissive, but as proud, free in their inner beauty and strength, in its life-affirming optimism. We should not forget the historical features of the life of the Ukrainian people, who were enslaved only at a relatively late time: the final formalization serfdom acquired in Ukraine only under Catherine II.

The boys in "May Night", who decided to tease the head and help Levko, are shown not only as rake and revelers - they stand for their rights, the memory of the freedom for which the Cossacks were famous still lives in them. “What kind of slaves are we, guys? Aren’t we of the same kind as he? We, thank God, are free Cossacks! Let’s show him, boys, that we are free Cossacks!” - says Levko, raising his comrades against his head. One of the boys recalls the former Cossack will: “... it seems as if you are remembering long ago. It hurts in your heart; but your soul feels like it’s in heaven. Hey, lads! Hey, go for a walk!..”

The freedom-loving folk principle of “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” found its expression with particular completeness in the image of a Cossack, repeatedly found in the stories. Courage and love of freedom are characteristic of such heroes as the blacksmith Vakula, Gritsko, the Cossack grandfather from the story “The Missing Letter,” not to mention Danil Burulbash from the story “Terrible Revenge.”

Folklore traditions in “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka”

“Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” is N.V. Gogol’s first book, which immediately won success and recognition. A.S. Pushkin wrote: “...Everyone was delighted with this living description of the singing and dancing tribe, this fresh paintings Little Russian nature, this gaiety, simple-minded and at the same time crafty...” The author painted kind and attractive images of people from the people, at the same time, the writer’s terrible indignation was caused by spiritual emptiness, petty interests, and the stupidity of the bourgeoisie and landowners. This work contains a manner inherent only to Gogol - to notice the sad behind the funny, “through the laughter visible to the world... tears invisible to him.” Therefore, disturbing notes are woven into scenes filled with lively humor and sunny laughter. The author is trying to turn the unjust world upside down with the help of devastating satire.

Reflecting popular ideas and our own dreams of fair, reasonable social relations, ideal person, physically and morally beautiful, Gogol in “Evenings...” elevates good over evil, generosity over selfishness, humanism over selfishness, courage over cowardice, energy over laziness and idleness, nobility over baseness and meanness, spiritual love over rough sensuality. The writer convinces his readers that the power of money is destructive, happiness is achieved not by crime, but by goodness, human, earthly forces defeat the devil, violation of natural, folk and moral laws, betrayal of the homeland deserves the heaviest punishment.

“Evenings on a farm near Dikanka” are being recreated folk customs, everyday customs and beliefs mainly from ancient times, when Ukraine was free from serfdom. Poetizing the free life of working people. Gogol in the stories “Sorochinskaya Fair” and “May Night, or the Drowned Woman” addresses not the forced serfs, but the state farmers, of whom there were quite a lot of people left in Ukraine. Levko’s words: “We, thank God, are free Cossacks!” were an expression of the feelings, thoughts, desires of Gogol and his positive heroes.

In “Evenings...” the heroes are at the mercy of religious and fantastic ideas, pagan and Christian beliefs. In stories about recent events, about modernity, demonic forces are perceived as superstition (“Sorochinskaya Fair”). The author's own attitude towards supernatural phenomena is ironic. Embraced by lofty thoughts about civil service, striving for “noble deeds,” the writer subordinated folklore and ethnographic materials to the spiritual essence, moral and psychological image of the people, as positive hero of their works. Gogol portrays magical and fairy-tale fiction not mystically, but more or less humanized. Devils, mermaids, and witches are given real, definite human properties. Thus, the devil from the story “The Night Before Christmas” “in front is a perfect German,” and “in back is a provincial attorney in uniform.” And, courting Solokha like a real ladies’ man, he whispered in her ear “the same thing that is usually whispered to the entire female race.”

The fantastic in “Evenings...” coexists and intersects with the folklore and fairy-tale. Gogol literally assembles his stories from folklore blocks. Dozens, if not hundreds, of studies have been devoted to this topic. In “The Lost Letter,” for example, there is a legend about a sold soul, for which they go to hell. (Gogol, deliberately confusing the fantastic and the comic, replaces the “soul” with a “hat” in the story.) “The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala” is based on the legend about Ivan Kupala, and “Sorochinskaya Fair” is a legend about the devil driven out of the heat, and about the devil's search for his property. How did Gogol manage his folklore economy? “The next night, some friend from the swamp comes to visit, with horns on his head, and let’s strangle the neck when there is a monisto on the neck, bite the finger when there is a ring on it, or pull the braid when a ribbon is woven into it " Even this one excerpt from “The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala” shows how far the author’s prose is from the original source. Firstly, Gogol uses close up(monisto around the neck; ribbon woven into a braid). Secondly, it gives what is happening a concrete sensual character. Thirdly, it introduces an element of parody (“biting your finger when you have a ring on it”). In each story of “Evenings...” several folklore plots interact at once. The concentration of fairy-tale material in them is enormous. Gogol compresses entire fairy tales into the size of an episode. In the Sorochinskaya Fair, the grumpy Khivrya, hearing a knock on the door, hides the flirtatious priest on the boards under the ceiling. This fragment is a truncated plot of the folk tale "Pop". By the way, in the fairy tale the concrete sensual element, despite the playfulness of the situation, is completely absent. In Gogol, it plays no less a role than the plot itself: “Here are the offerings for you, Afanasy Ivanovich! - she said, putting the bowls on the table and coyly buttoning up her jacket, which seemed to have accidentally come unbuttoned. “Dumplings, wheat dumplings, dumplings, tovchenichki!” Folklore fiction is presented in Gogol's prose not only at the plot - the most obvious - level.

Water, fire, forest play the same role in “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” as in folklore. A.N. Afanasyev in the article “Sorcerers, Witches, Ghouls and Werewolves” notes that in different regions suspects of witchcraft were tortured in different ways: they were burned with a hot iron, they were hanged from trees. In Lithuania, witches were lured with jelly, which was boiled in holy church water. “In Ukraine,” writes A.N. Afanasyev, “until later times, witches were recognized by their ability to float on water. When it happened that the rain did not irrigate the fields for a long time, the villagers attributed its delay to evil spells, gathered in peace, seized the suspected women and took them to bathe in a river or pond. They twisted them with ropes, tied heavy stones around their necks and then threw the unfortunate prisoners into deep pools: those innocent of sorcery immediately sank to the bottom, and the real witch floated on top of the water along with the stone. The first ones were pulled out with ropes and released; those who were recognized as witches were beaten to death and drowned by force...

In “May Night,” Gogol, remaining true to Ukrainian custom, turns the witch into a drowned woman who lives in a pond. In “The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala” the girls throw demonic gifts - rings, monisto - into the water: “If you throw it into the water, a demonic ring or monisto floats on top of the water, and into your hands...” Did Gogol perceive Folklore as folklore, i.e. . philologically? In a sense, yes. In his letters, he asked his mother and relatives to send him folklore materials to St. Petersburg. The writer most carefully studies Pavlovsky’s “Grammar of the Little Russian dialect.” He writes down dozens of Ukrainian names from there and, as G. Shapiro notes, 136 proverbs and sayings. Gol uses some of them in “Evenings...”. And yet, the writer’s approach to folklore can only be considered philological with great reservations.

“Evenings...” are imbued with humor. The light humor that sparkles throughout “Evenings...” debunks the mysterious and fantastic and convinces the reader of its illusory nature. evening hotor dikanka gogol

Creating poetic, lyrical images of girls - Ghana in "May Night", Paraska in "Sorochinskaya Fair", Oksana in "The Night Before Christmas" - Gogol widely uses folk songs, from them he selects those beautiful spiritual traits and colors that are endowed with his heroines, sometimes dreamily thoughtful and gentle, like Ganna, sometimes full of playful fun, laughing and flirtatious, like Oksana. Gogol's lovers even explain themselves to each other in the words of folk songs.

Let us first turn to specific examples and start with the question of what pre-Christian beliefs and ideas were reflected in Gogol’s “Evenings...”. It is known that pagans perceived the world as living, spiritualized, personified. In Gogol's stories, nature lives and breathes. In Gogol’s “Ukrainian” stories, the writer’s penchant for myth-making was fully demonstrated. Creating his own mythical reality, the writer uses ready-made examples of mythology, in particular Slavic. His early works reflected the ideas of the ancient Slavs about evil spirits.

A special role in Gogol’s artistic world is played by such demonological characters as devils, witches, and mermaids. I. Ognenko pointed out that Christianity not only brought new names and Ukrainian demonology (devil, demon, Satan), but also changed the very view of it: “it finally turned supernatural power into an evil, unclean force.” “Unclean” - a constant name for the devil in Ukrainian stories - is contrasted in Gogol with the Christian soul, in particular, the soul of the Cossack Cossack. We see this antithesis in “ Enchanted place", "Terrible Vengeance" and other works of the early period.

Damn - one of the most popular characters Ukrainian demonology, personified evil forces. In accordance with popular ideas of pagan times, he is similar to Chernobog (the antipode of Belobog). Later, “he was presented as a foreigner, dressed in a short jacket or tailcoat and narrow trousers.” It was believed that he was afraid of the cross. The description of the devil in Gogol’s stories corresponds to ancient folk beliefs: “in front he is completely German<…>but behind him he was a real provincial attorney in uniform.”

The demonological character in this context is reduced and personified. "People's laughter culture over the course of several centuries, it has developed stable traditions of simplification, de-demonization and domestication of Christian-mythological images of evil,” notes Yu.V. Mann. A striking example The de-demonization of the image of the devil can be served by the story “The Night Before Christmas”, where he is presented in an emphatically comic manner with a muzzle that constantly twirled and sniffed everything that came along the way. The clarification - “the muzzle ended, like our pigs, with a round snout” - gives it a domesticity. Before us is not just a devil, but our own Ukrainian devil. The analogy of the demonic and the human is intertwined, emphasized by the writer in the depiction of evil spirits. The devil in “The Night Before Christmas” is “an agile dandy with a tail and a goat’s beard,” a cunning animal that steals the month, “grimacing and blowing, like a man who got fire for his cradle with his bare hands.” He “builds love hens”, drives up as a “petty demon”, takes care of Solokha, etc. A similar description is found in the story “The Missing Letter,” where “devils with dog faces, on German legs, twirling their tails, hovered around the witches, like guys around red girls.”

In “Sorochinskaya Fair”, from individual references to the “red scroll” and an inserted episode (the godfather’s story), an image of a devil-reveler appears, who was expelled from the inferno for sitting in a tavern all day until he drank his “red scroll”. In “The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala” Bisavryuk is also a reveler. But it evokes a feeling of fear. It's the devil in human form", "demonic man". Gogol uses here the motif of selling the soul to the devil, widespread in world literature, in exchange for wealth and money. This story, like many others from the “Evenings...” series, can be considered as a religious teaching. The author does not declare the idea that an alliance with evil spirits has sad consequences, brings misfortune. He presents it in a figurative form, demonstrating its validity throughout the course of the action.

The question of the sources of the image of the devil in Gogol’s “Evenings...” requires separate consideration and cannot be resolved unambiguously. Gogol took advantage of the wandering plot, which is a complex product of international communication. Of course, it is also the fact that the creator of “Evenings...” was strongly influenced by Ukrainian folk legends, beliefs, and literary sources. According to P. Filippovich, the image of the devil in Gogol’s first collection goes back to Gulak-Artemovsky’s ballad “Pan Tvardovsky,” which was very popular.

V.A. Rozov saw the source of the comic image of the devil in hagiographic and ascetic literature, noting that “the holy ascetics, indulging in prayer and hardship, triumphed over all the temptations and tricks of the devil,” who “turned into a simple-minded demon playing the comic role.” The researcher’s assumption that the comic image of the devil could have appeared in Gogol under the influence of nativity plays of the Ukrainian theater also seems convincing: “the devil of the Little Russian theater is of a harmless nature and plays a service and comic role near the Cossack.”

As in the works of other romantics, the artistic world in Gogol’s works is bifurcated: the real, real, earthly, daytime world and the world of fanciful fantasy, night, dark. At the same time, Gogol’s fantasy is connected with mythology, and this connection is so close that we can talk about its mythologized character.

The fragmentation of the world in Gogol is emphasized by the fact that people and mythological creatures are in the same space and exist at the same time. Solokha is a witch and an ordinary woman. She can fly on a broom, meet with the devil and with very real fellow villagers. The hero of “The Lost Letter” makes a journey to hell, where he is subjected to “demonic deception.”

The sorcerer in “Terrible Revenge” has many faces: he is both a Cossack, and Katerina’s father, and a creature opposed to the people, an enemy, a traitor. The sorcerer is capable of performing various miracles, but before Christian symbols, shrines and covenants he is powerless.

Demonological motives are very important in artistic structure stories “May Night, or the Drowned Woman”, “The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala”, “The Night Before Christmas”. The image of a witch plays an important role here.

IN folk tales In legends there are old and young witches. Gogol’s “Evenings...” also features different types this character is widespread in Ukrainian demonology. In “May Night,” the centurion’s young wife, “blushing and white,” turns out to be a stern stepmother, a terrible witch, capable of turning into other creatures and doing evil: she drives the little lady away from the world. In “The Missing Letter,” the witches are “discharged, smeared, like little ladies at a fair.” In “The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala” the witch “with a face like a baked apple” is a terrible sorceress who appears in the form of a black dog, then a cat and pushes Petrus Bezrodny to commit a crime. Gogol's Solokha does not make such a terrible impression, perhaps because she lives in two worlds. In everyday life, she is a “kind woman” who “knew how to charm the most sedate Cossacks to herself.” Portly and loving, she belongs to the category of witches on the grounds that she loves to fly on a broom, collect stars and is the devil's mistress.

Mermaids - goddesses of reservoirs in Slavic mythology depicted by Gogol in the story “The May Daughter”. The author puts the story about the mermaid lady here into Levko’s mouth. It is removed from the time in which the heroes live, by a tangible distance - “long ago... a centurion lived in this house” and is a text within a text. The episode about the mermaid lady and the witch stepmother is duplicated in the chapter “The Drowned Woman”. The inclusion of fantastic elements here is due to the dream motif. However, after awakening, the hero becomes convinced that unreal forces are interfering in his life. Gogol's depiction of mermaids has a mytho-epic character. Their appearance is preceded by a description of the fragrant night landscape: “a motionless pond”, “the peals of a nightingale”, “a strange, intoxicating radiance”, “Silver fog”. The mermaid is given in the perception of the enthusiastic “boy”: “Pale, like a sheet, like the shine of the moon; but how wonderful! How beautiful!

The mermaid’s friends are also presented in poetic lighting: “girls in white shirts, like a meadow, decorated with lilies of the valley, that flashed in a thin silver mist.”

IN research literature it was rightly pointed out that in folk art the image of a mermaid is much simpler. She has long green hair and green eyes. In the writer’s depiction, mermaids act as a symbol of the beauty of the water element, although since ancient times in Slavic mythology they have been a symbol of the danger that haunts man. The ancient legend about mermaids takes on poetic forms under the pen of Gogol and in “Terrible Revenge.” It has no independent meaning here and only enhances the mystical flavor of the story. Descriptions of mermaids are close to popular beliefs: these are “unbaptized children” who “cry and laugh,” as well as “virgins who have lost their souls,” running out of the water in lines. They are extremely attractive. However, Gogol’s enthusiastic description of the mermaid ends with the author’s warning: “Run, baptized man! Her lips are ice, her bed is cold water; she will tickle you and drag you into the river.” The antithesis of the mermaid - “unbaptized children” and “baptized person” emphasizes the hostility of pagan elements and Christian ideas.

Most of the images of Ukrainian demonology are of pre-Christian origin. Christian and pagan motifs are intricately intertwined in the artistic fabric of “Evenings...”.

We also see a synthesis of pagan and Christian motifs in the depiction of holidays, which is especially clearly manifested in “The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala” and “The Night Before Christmas.” In particular, the phrase

“Ivana Kupala” in the title of the story recalls pagan holiday Kupala, common among the Slavic peoples, which was celebrated on the night of July 6-7. With the introduction of Christianity, the feast of John the Baptist (July 7) appeared, and in popular consciousness pre-Christian and Christian tradition were united, which was reflected in the celebration of Ivan Kupala.

The author of “Evenings...” shows an increased interest in Slavic demonology. But in all the stories where there is an evil spirit - the embodiment of evil - it turns out to be defeated and punished. "<…>Defeating the devil is one of the main themes of “Evenings...”, notes Yu.V. Mann. In the fight against it, the importance of Christian shrines and symbols is emphasized, in particular, the cross, the sign of the cross, prayer, sprinkler and holy water. The mention of them in the text of Gogol’s stories takes up little space at first glance, but they play an important role in the author’s concept of the world, of which Christian culture is an integral part. The Christian elements are especially noticeable in the “truths” told by the sexton of the Dikan Church, Foma Grigorievich. For example, having mentioned his grandfather in the story “The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala,” the narrator does not forget to add “the kingdom of heaven to him!”, and, remembering the evil one and his tricks, “so that his son of a dog dreams of the holy cross.” We encounter similar accents in “The Enchanted Place.” In all the “episodes” told by Foma Grigorievich, the only salvation from evil spirits is the sign of the cross. In “The Enchanted Place,” the grandfather puts up crosses if he hears about the “cursed place.” Here the devil is “the enemy of the Lord Christ, who cannot be trusted...”. The motive for selling one’s soul to the devil is one of the key ones in the story “The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala”, in the finale of which the sign of the cross is mentioned several times as the only salvation from evil spirits: “Father Afanasy walked throughout the village with holy water and drove the devil away with sprinklers.” In “The Lost Letter” - a story about “how the witches played fool with their late grandfather” - the hero manages to win and save the missing letter thanks to the fact that he guessed to cross the cards. The theme of overcoming the devil is one of the key ones in the story “The Night Before Christmas”. Here the devil is contrasted with Vakula, whose piety the author repeatedly emphasizes: “a God-fearing man,” “the most pious man of the entire village,” who painted images of saints, in particular, the Evangelist Luke. The triumph of his art was the painting in which “he depicted Saint Peter on the day of the Last Judgment, expelling an evil spirit from hell; the frightened devil rushed in all directions, anticipating his death...” Since then, the evil one has been hunting for Vakula, wanting to take revenge on him. However, he failed to buy Vakula’s soul, despite promises (“I’ll give you as much money as you want”). The sign of the cross created by Vakula made the devil obedient, and the blacksmith himself turned out to be much more cunning than the devil.

The story “Terrible Vengeance” is one of the key stories in the collection; it summarizes the Christian motives reflected in it. An important role is played in it by the motif of God’s righteous judgment, which is repeated twice: first, Katerina’s soul warns her father that “the Last Judgment”, then in the story about two Cossacks - Peter and Ivan, which was told by a blind bandura player. In this intercalated legend that concludes the story, the foreground is the motif of betrayal, which goes back to biblical archetypes. After all, Peter betrayed his brother, like Judas. The image of a foreign land, barely outlined at the beginning of the story, is connected with the image of the sorcerer. The miraculous power of icons helps to reveal the true appearance of a sorcerer. Under the influence of holy icons and prayer, the unkind guest “appeared.” The motive for selling the soul to the devil in this story is connected not only with the image of the sorcerer, but also with his ancestors, “unclean grandfathers” who “were ready to sell themselves to Satan for money with their soul.” The sorcerer - “brother to the devil”, like the evil spirit, tempts Katerina’s soul, asks to be released from the cell where Danilo Burulbash imprisoned him. And in order to win her over to his side, he starts talking about the Apostle Paul, who was a sinful man, but repented and became a saint: “I will repent: I will go to the caves, put a stiff hair shirt on my body, day and night I will pray to God.” The motive of holiness is contrasted in this episode with the false oaths of the sorcerer. The sorcerer, capable of many miracles, cannot pass through the walls that the holy schema-monk built.

The importance of Christian motifs in Gogol's first collection cannot be underestimated. The Christian worldview is an integral part of the characteristics of the author and his characters. The unreal, night world, inhabited by devils, witches, mermaids and other characters of ancient Slavic mythology, is assessed from the point of view of Christian ideology, and its main character - the devil - is ridiculed and defeated. Christian and pagan motifs and symbols in Gogol’s “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” are sharply contrasted and at the same time presented in synthesis as opposite poles that characterize the people's worldview.

The cycle of stories “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka” presents in all its glory a picturesque picture of Ukrainian life in the 17th and 18th centuries. The period in which Gogol created his masterpiece was the happiest in the life of the author, full of grandiose literary plans that were subsequently realized. Along with national recognition, the cycle “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka” received high praise from the brilliant writer of our time, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin.

History of creation

Gogol spent his childhood in one of the most picturesque places in Ukraine - in the Poltava region, in the village of Dikanka. Since ancient times, there have been many fantastic rumors and legends about this place. Echoes of childhood impressions were fully reflected in a number of Gogol’s stories, which formed a single cycle, “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka.” In 1829, the author began work on the work, and in 1831-1832 the cycle was published and highly appreciated by the literary community. Individual stories in the series “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” have undergone many theatrical productions and film adaptations.

Analysis of the work

Description of the work

Each part is preceded by an ironic narration by the imaginary author - beekeeper Rudy Panka.

Sorochinskaya fair. The story is about a savvy, dapper lad Gritska, who won the right to marry the rich lady Paraska with his cunning and resourcefulness. The action is accompanied by a colorful description of the fair and is distinguished by a special satirical depiction of the images of some of the heroes.

The evening before Ivan Kupala. The eerie narrative, shrouded in mystical flavor, says that ill-gotten wealth does not bring happiness to its owner.

May Night or the Drowned Woman. This story partly has something in common with the Sorochinskaya Fair. The young Cossack Levka has a beloved girl, Ganna. To reunite with his future bride, the cunning young man has to turn to the help of a mystical girl - the drowned woman Pannochka.

Missing certificate. The story is permeated with a fantastic flavor with elements of lively Gogol humor. The grandfather, whose letter, money, horses and hat were stolen, uses the sign of the cross to win the stolen goods from the witch at cards.

Christmas Eve. And again the story of the marriage of a simple and savvy lad to a beautiful lady. The blacksmith Vakula seeks the love of the rich rural beauty Oksana. They find their happiness not without the help of evil spirits. Touched by the blacksmith's innocence, the queen gives the coveted slippers for the blacksmith's future bride.

Terrible revenge. A story written in an epic narrative style. Creepy story Cossack ataman Danila Burulbash and his wife Katerina, forced to make a terrible choice regarding their sorcerer father. At the end of the story, the sorcerer pays in full for his terrible crimes.

Ivan Fedorovich Shponka and his aunt. The only purely everyday satirical sketch about a small landowner trying to get his inheritance. The only unfinished story in the Gogol cycle.

Enchanted place. A story about the evil jokes of evil spirits. A phantasmagoric story about the search and discovery of “treasure” in an enchanted place.

Main characters

The heroes of the cycle are divided into several groups:

• young boys possessing both innocence and cunning and ingenuity - Gritsko, Levko and Vakula;
• beautiful ladies whose parents are very picky about their future grooms - Paraska, Ganna, Oksana;
• comic characters shown in the fullness of Gogol's humor - Patsyuk, Chub, Shponka, etc.;
• an evil spirit whose tricks often punish the heroes of some stories in the series (Petrus, Grandfather from the last story) for their passion for wealth, and sometimes the evil spirits become an assistant to cunning and savvy characters in achieving their goal.

Structure of the work

Compositionally, the work consists of 8 stories, located in two books (4 stories in each). An introduction to the colorful world of Ukrainian life is the preface of the imaginary publisher Rudy Panko, which precedes each of the books.

True poetry, seen by the author in the life and traditions of the Ukrainian people, unfolds in its most diverse manifestations: everyday scenes of modern life, historical legends and fantastic folk legends. The abundance of phantasmagoric scenes is intended to give greater contrast to good and evil, the struggle between the Christian principle and devilry.

Final conclusion

Gogol's work is of particular value - described with great love the personality of the common man is in no way diminished by the presence of satire. Many characters are described with a fair amount of good humor, gleaned by the author from real life Ukrainian peasants of that time. Originality of style, poetic talent for depicting the natural beauties of the Little Russian village, lyricism and good laugh make the brilliant cycle of the young writer a true masterpiece of world literature

On the eve of the Christmas and New Year holidays, I can’t help but think about this film.
For me, this film is memories of childhood.

The film adaptation of the classic of Russian literature Nikolai Gogol was carried out by the classic of Russian film fairy tales Alexander Rowe. Without music, dancing and other obscurantism, but close to the text, with funny horrors, special effects and wonderfully played characters.

Starring-

This is a love story that mixes everything that can be imagined on the night before Christmas. On Christmas night, a lot of amazing events take place in the quiet Ukrainian village of Dikanka. The girl wanted shoes, but not just any shoes, but ones like those of the queen herself!

The blacksmith Vakula, seeking favor from the proud lady, saddled the devil himself and went to St. Petersburg to beg the tsarina herself for slippers for his beloved. At the same time, in the village, the insidious coquette Solokha (Vakula’s mother) has difficulty coping with the flow of suitors who often visit her. The devil also has his own types: once Vakula drew the devil in such a way that even in hell they laughed at him, and now the evil one dreams of getting the immortal soul of the blacksmith. Many miracles and incredible stories awaits the residents of Dikanka on the night before Christmas. However, either Gogol himself or Alexander Rowe can retell Gogol.

“Evenings...” - undoubted success. “Everyone rejoiced at this lively description of the singing and dancing tribe, these fresh pictures of Little Russian nature, this gaiety, simple-minded and at the same time crafty.” This is what Pushkin wrote about Gogol’s first book, and we dare to say that the film would have made an equally favorable impression on the great poet - primarily due to the actors’ accurate portrayal of the characters.

Blacksmith Vakula (Yuri Tavrov) is serious and thorough, but in love to the point of timidity. The first, graduation role of Yuri became a decorous, one might say, triumphant procession of a competent, truly Gogolian couple across the screens and hearts of millions. After all, even half a century later, I don’t even want to imagine another Vakula. As well as other actors from A. Rowe’s galaxy identified with Gogol’s heroes.

Beautiful Oksana (Lyudmila Myznikova) is flirty and cheerful. Alexander Arturovich Rowe saw Myznikova, a 19-year-old studio girl, in the corridor of a Kyiv film studio (representatives of Belarus Film called her to audition) and immediately invited her to play the role of Oksana in the film “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka.” A very warm relationship developed between Row and Lyudmila on the set; the director looked after the young actress like a father.

Chub, Oksana's father (Alexander Khvylya) is a respectable and important, truly respectable father. Solokha, Vakula’s mother (Lyudmila Khityaeva) is a spectacular village witch who loves men and vodka; in the place of the “good woman” Solokha, it is impossible to imagine anyone other than Lyudmila Khityaeva.

And of course main character- the devil performed by Georgy Millyar. Pig nose, crochet tail, terribly charming and mischievous. “The Most Common Trait” is one of Georgy Millyar’s best roles.

Filming took place on the Kola Peninsula in March 1961. Before this, other northern regions of the country were filmed in the Murmansk region, Siberia and the Far East were filmed. But Ukraine!!! It was necessary to dare.

Let’s read the marvelous, almost poetic lines of the classic: “The last day before Christmas has passed. A clear winter night has arrived. The stars looked out. The moon majestically rose to the sky to shine good people and to the whole world, so that everyone can have fun caroling and praising Christ. It was freezing more than in the morning; but it was so quiet that the crunch of frost under a boot could be heard half a mile away. Not a single crowd of boys had ever appeared under the windows of the huts; for a month he only glanced at them furtively, as if calling the girls who were dressing up to run out quickly into the crunchy snow. Then smoke fell in clouds through the chimney of one hut and spread like a cloud across the sky, and along with the smoke a witch rose riding on a broom.”

Where can I find a similar nature? Rowe discovered it near Kirovsk. In the village “13th kilometer” a “real” Little Russian village was erected in a few days. White huts and fences were drowned in drifts of fluffy snow; at a distance, young boys and gay girls were strolling, joking among themselves, among whom were Kirov workers, students, and amateur artists who participated in the crowd. Except that there was no smoke coming from the chimneys, but otherwise everything was natural.

Both in the story and in the process of creating the film, the devil got the worst of it. Georgy Millyar, by that time already firmly known to the entire population of the country as “ folk Baba Yaga Soviet Union". According to Gogol, he is beaten, used as a horse-drawn vehicle, and dipped into an ice hole. Millyar was Rowe’s “favorite”, his close friend, and the director wanted, as much as possible, to feel sorry for the actor.

They planned to do the scene with the ice hole in the pavilion, but Georgy Frantsevich protested. Therefore, they filmed it live, on a real polar reservoir. Having survived several takes in the icy water, Millyar was just right to be awarded the title of “walrus.” In addition, the devil's costume was originally made of fur so that he would not catch a cold. But it restricted movement, and Millyar asked to make another suit - cold, but light and tight. I worked in it. And, as always in this film, the makeup is very complex. Again gumose, plastic compounds. And at the same time a living, moving face. The artist had another sin - a passion for verbal hooliganism, for which he called himself "Old Man Pokhabych." For example, the actor Anatoly Kubatsky, who played Panas in “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka,” was nicknamed Diarrhea; he either recited frivolous poems or came up with aphorisms that made the young costume designers blush.

In December 1961 in big hall A public screening of the new film took place at the Apatit Palace of Culture. Kirov residents became its first spectators. It turns out that special effects and theatrical premiere shows were not created in our 21st century at all. Eyewitnesses say that back in 1961, at the premiere of “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka,” they staged such devilry that today’s creatives could never even dream of! Real devils ran around the foyer of the House and threw real fake snowballs at the audience.

The film was presented by the second director V.D. Losev and Chub - aka Alexander Khvylya - who specially came to the premiere. Reviews of the film from residents of the mining town, many of whom also saw themselves on the screen, were enthusiastic. The only one who decided to add a fly in the ointment was the doctor V. Yanovsky, who noted that “against the generally good background of the film, little things slip through that might not have happened.

For example, the blacksmith Vakula kept charcoal in bags, but the Cossack Chub, who got out of one of them, turned out to be clean, and Head, after being in the bag, shakes off something gray, surprisingly similar to the dust of apatite concentrate. And about the slippers, we can say that their size and shape still do not correspond to those in the fairy tales - they look too big.” But in general, the film was received extremely warmly, as evidenced by the review of the Kirovsky Rabochiy newspaper, which published a selection of materials about the film under the general heading “A very good film!”

Rowe had problems with the film's title. In the USSR, even the word “Christmas” itself was not only written with a small letter, but was also, as it were, not approved for use. Therefore, it is funny that it was at the height of Khrushchev’s anti-religious campaign in the early 60s, when film adaptation of “The Night Before Christmas” by director-storyteller Alexander Rowe, that the general title of Gogol’s early stories was chosen.

Apparently, the director was forced to strengthen in the interpretation of Gogol’s caustic Christmas phantasmagoria, first of all, the images of the clerk played by Sergei Martinson and the clearly eccentric devil played by Georgy Millyar. Now it is difficult to say what was revised in 1970, since we are already dealing with a revised copy, which, by the way, is now popular on television at Christmas.

But the rather detailed reproduction in the film of ancient Christmas rituals, including the ritual of caroling and folk fun, presented with humor, is quite surprising if we take into account that in 1961, the showing of scenes of the celebration of a religious celebration, albeit in a national refraction, was quite could have been perceived by the authorities as admiration and glorification of supposedly outdated traditions.

The film was restored in 1970 and presented in color.

Catchphrases-
*"Hanged himself!
-Drowned!
“No, he hanged himself!”

* “We, brother, will talk about our own things with the queen!”

Interesting fact-
In the process of studying Gogol’s text, Vladimir Gurfinkel, director of the play “The Night Before Christmas” at the Perm Youth Theater, discovered some inaccuracies that were used by Alexander Rowe.
“When Vakula came across the shoes, he exclaimed: “My God, in such shoes, do you really go to the ice?” (sliding means),” says Vladimir Gurfinkel. - “It turns out that if we analyze Gogol’s text, our dear queen gave him skates.”

Declaring laughter to be his literary weapon, Gogol, like the writers of the Enlightenment, set himself the task of correcting souls not only through satirical denunciation, but also through a return to their natural and true basis. Even minor shortcomings are found in Gogol not as a condescending comic writer who kindly makes fun of people’s weaknesses and forgives them, but as a demanding author. Gogol's laughter is his angle of view on the world and his way of describing the world. Therefore, it must cover all aspects and all shades of life and be as comprehensive as life itself.

Gogol's laughter is satirical and humorous, carefree and sad, joyful and tragic, cheerful and bitter. It cannot be reduced to one scathing satire. It is broader - it contains humor, irony, and mockery. It is associated with an epic and lyrical beginning. There is a lot in it that is objective, coming from life itself, but there is also a lot of lyrical stuff introduced by the author. This laughter can be piercingly pitiful, deeply bitter and painfully tragic. All these facets of Gogol's laughter appeared gradually, as Gogol's talent matured and matured. Now it is important to understand one thing - Gogol in general is not a satirist, but he has satire; Gogol is not a condescending humorist, but humor is inherent in him. Gogol is a comic writer in whom the comic turns into a dramatic and tragic meaning.

“Evenings on a farm near Dikanka”. “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” aroused almost universal admiration. “Everyone was delighted,” wrote Pushkin, “at this living description of a tribe singing and dancing...” Critics noted the gaiety and sincerity of “Evenings...”. The success of “Evenings...” was explained by several circumstances.

Gogol was a native of Ukraine and knew its folklore, customs, morals, and language well. He managed to raise the image national color on new level, recreating the free spirit of the Ukrainian people. Gogol did not limit his artistic task only to descriptions of the Little Russian province. The farm near Dikanka and Dikanka itself are not only a special colorful outskirts of Russia, but a whole artistic world.

Petersburg disappointed the writer. The people in it are impersonal. Gogol from St. Petersburg looked at Ukraine with different eyes and appreciated the spirit of freedom, the naturalness and directness of feelings, the fullness of experiences. The farm near Dikanka is a contrast to the dead Petersburg. This romantic view of Gogol is close to the point of view of the fictional publisher Rudy Panka. The old man-storyteller unexpectedly appears in the “big world”. He is simple, spontaneous, ingenuous, but at the same time intricate, talkative, brave and proud, no stranger to irony and quite sarcastic. Rudy Papko loves to describe colorful genre scenes, gives picturesque pictures, and widely uses Ukrainian language, although he also knows Russian. He, not being an intellectual, but having found himself in the “big world”, wants to express himself in bookish language and uses rhetorical, pathetic expressions and turns of phrase. He is characterized by enthusiastic, high, even odic speech. He “translates” the speech of the common people into bookish, intelligent speech and vice versa.

Fiction and reality. Folklore and literature. Almost all the stories included in the book “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” are legends and fairy tales. They are dominated by images of folklore and folk fiction. They are permeated with genre scenes and pictorial descriptions. In the artistic world of Dikanka, naturalness and fullness of feelings, a healthy beginning of national life, have been preserved. Therefore, the dark forces of evil are not so scary for the characters to be afraid of them, and sometimes they are simply funny.

Stories about devils and witches are believed and not believed. But the devil can also resemble a lawyer, because his tail is the same as the coattails of an official, and a provincial suitor, on the grounds that it can wriggle just as coquettishly. The old Cossack from “The Lost Letter” is afraid of devils and witches, but can disown them. And the blacksmith Vakula from “The Night Before Christmas” does not stand on ceremony with the demonic evil spirits and beats them with a log.

The stories of “Evenings...” are dominated by light colors, elevated tonality and cheerful laughter. Gogol gives scope to his cheerful imagination. Dikanka's world is natural, simple and integral. If spiritual and mental health preserved on the farm, which means there is hope that it has not disappeared from the larger world of national life.

In a number of stories, sublime lyricism is replaced by an alarming mood. Notes of sadness and melancholy penetrate the stories. Sometimes the pictures that Gogol paints become scary. Science fiction becomes dark. In the story “The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala” Petro sells his soul to the devil. Basavryuk seduces him with money. Other stories also tell about how natural and family ties collapse, how death awaits people. Bright colors at times they fade, life becomes less rich and duller, less fabulous and more prosaic. Gogol sees that former wealth, daring, and fun are leaving modernity, which is losing vitality. This applies to the whole world and primarily concerns the present time.

The characters in “Evenings...” live on the edge of fantasy and reality, laughter and fear. In the story about Shponka, Gogol turned, however, to the most ordinary, unremarkable hero.

Ivan Fedorovich Shponka is so ordinary and worthless that there is nothing to say about him. At the same time, the reader, accustomed to the manner of “Evenings...”, expects that with the mention of any object or phenomenon, an out-of-the-ordinary event will certainly occur. However, nothing happens, and the life that surrounds Shponka is dull and inconspicuous. This story already foreshadows the ironic and sad stories of Mirgorod. In “Evenings...” Gogol describes the historically bygone integral world of folk fairy tales and rushes to describe modern reality. The writer tries and masters various techniques of comic storytelling.