VANKA ZHUKOV, who had been for three months apprenticed to Alyahin the shoemaker,
was sitting up on Christmas Eve.
Dear grandfather, Konstantin Makaritch!
I am writing you a letter.
I wish you a happy Christmas, and all blessings from God Almighty.
I have neither father nor mother, you are the only one left me.
And yesterday I had a wigging.
Vanka!
Come on!
Hurry it up, you moocher, or you'll get it!
Vanka!
And she took the herring and thrust its head in my face.
Vanka! Vanka! Vanka! Vanka!
Take me away from here or I shall die.
I wanted to run away to the village, but I have no boots, and I am afraid of the frost.
Dear grandfather, it is more than I can bear, it's simply no life at all.
Moscow is a big town.
It's all gentlemen's houses,
and there are lots of horses, but there are no sheep,
and the dogs are not spiteful.
Once I saw fish-hooks for sale, fitted ready with the line for any fish you like,
and I have seen shops where there are guns just like the master has at home,
and I shouldn't wonder if they cost a hundred rubles each...
And don't let anyone have my button accordion.
I remain, your grandson, Ivan Zhukov.
Dear grandfather, do come.
Have pity on an unhappy orphan like me; here everyone knocks me about, and I am always hungry.
And the other day the master hit me on the head with a last, so that I fell down, and only just returned to life.
My life is wretched, worse than any dog's...
Do come...
[To grandfather in the village]
screenwriter N. Len director Leonid Zarubin art director N. Sapozhnikov
camera A. Menshikov composer L. Markelov sound Igor Pogon
animators Eleonora Lisitskaya, Zhan Taran, A. Trifonov, voice artist Klara Rumyanova
script editor Svetlana Kutsenko production director O. Dragayev-Boychuk
The End Kievnauchfilm 1981
Subs by Eus & Niffiwan (2015/2023) based on Ivy Litvinov's translation