Evenings on a farmstead near Dikanka

It is the night before Christmas. A joyful holiday mood prevails in the village; Girls begin to gossip about relationships, guys gather into groups to sing carols, and the aunts, as has long been done, gather to clap their tongues and give each other advice. And for the men it is a great time: you can have lots of fun at the tavern, which is just what Dyak, Chub, and Golova decided to do.

There is fun in the streets. Oksana appears. What a girl! The boys devour her with their eyes. Vakula the blacksmith is particularly smitten. He barely manages to suppress his feelings for the girl.

A Cossack delegation passes in the street, hurrying to Petersburg to tell the Queen of their concerns.

At Chub’s home, his daughter Oksana sits at the mirror admiring her own beauty. Alas, and she is beautiful! Vakula walks in, ready to once again confess his feelings of love. Sharp-tongued Oksana mocks him. He is a good guy, but is he able to satisfy her? To see this, she tells Vakula to prove his true feelings by giving her the slippers the Queen herself walks in.

Stars dot the night sky. The Devil decides to spite the joyful people in anticipation of Christmas and steal the new moon. Without hesitation, he takes it from the sky. And suddenly eerie darkness reigns over the village. Affected by such an unexpected experience Chub, Dyak, and Golova wander the streets. Whether by themselves, or perhaps out of habit, their legs led themselves to Solokha’s house, just having had a good time with her old friend the Devil and having flown across the sky, returned home. The appearance of Golova interrupts the courting devil. Solokha, frightened, hides her friend in a sack. He had no time to pinch the widow before a knock yet again. It is Dyak who decided to visit Solokha. The widow hides him in a sack as she did with Golova. And here is Chub on the doorstep. Solokha tries to hide Chub in a third sack, as with Dyak…

Hurt by Oksana’s whims, Vakula returns home. Seeing the bags in the room, he brings them out to the street, to take the grain to the mill.

A cheerful crowd of boys and girls runs into Vakula’s yard. Seeing a mountain of sacks, the gang decides to take a look at what the blacksmith has got. Crazy from darkness and suffocation, Chub, Dyak and Golova jump out of the bags. The boys and girls, thinking it is some wicked force, scatter in all directions. Then Vakula grabbed the Devil, who soared into the sky. The blacksmith firmly held the unholy one in his hands.

No matter how much the unholy one begged, the blacksmith did not release him from his tenacious hands. Fly to Petersburg, right up to the royal palace, Vakula orders the Devil!

Vakula rises up in the sky with the Devil; they fly between the stars… The village grows farther and farther from them as the radiant Petersburg gets ever closer.

Luxurious, the Queen’s palace is filled with candlelight. Boasting exquisite camisoles and dresses, valuable adornments, the courtiers gathered for a pre-Christmas ball.

Among the courtiers appear the Cossacks, who had arrived at the capital.

The nobility welcome the Queen, who appears at the ball accompanied by Potemkin. It comes time to greet the Cossacks. The Queen’s eyes fell on the blacksmith Vakula. She is not against letting him stay in Petersburg. However, Vakula lives only with the dream of returning to Ukraine, to his dear Oksana.

Vakula asks the Queen to gift him slippers. Catherine II was surprised by such a request. Learning of the whims of his beloved girl, she gives Vakula golden royal slippers.

The blacksmith once more saddled the Devil to return to his native village.

Oksana pines for her suitor and reproaches herself for her bumbling whims, because where is the usual blacksmith to go after the royal slippers?!

But alas! Here is Vakula. With joy, he gives his beloved the Queen’s slippers.

The night did not end, but a strange miracle happened in the Ukrainian village: the Cossack Vakula managed to visit Petersburg, go back and give his beloved the golden slippers of the Queen, precisely when the people joyfully celebrate Christmas.