Pavel Fedoseev

Once upon a time, miles and miles away, there was an old man with an old woman. They spent with each other a long time but had no children. One day an old man made a dolly of dough, put her on the oven, and suddenly a baby was born out of a dolly, and he wasnt a simple child, because he grew before their eyes, ate like seven, until he grew into a huge and strong guy. There was the thing that grieved old men, that he had no heart, after all, he was made of dough. Once he met a neighboring beauty girl, paid compliments to her, fooling around, she thought he had fallen in love, and didnt know at that time that he had no heart, and fell in love with the hercules. He started getting cast down, and headed, as they say, to show his worth and see the others

In the house of goldmaker Tikhon Kondratievich Molokov, carnival is celebrated noisily, on a grand scale, with gypsies. Everyone drank pretty, and when the mayor tried to “seduce” the owner’s daughter Anisya, the girl’s father broke his nose. Frightened by the consequences of this incident, Tikhon Kondratievich decided to flee the city.

Story is set in deep Russia, on a wild river in woods called "Ugrum-reka" - the Moody river. Son of a dishonest trader, Prohor Gromov wants to become his own man. He takes his fathers order and goes trough the woods to deliver the furs to the byer in the nearest town. He tries to take the shorter way and get`s lost. At the highest point of this, his fathers servant, Abdulla, who is sent with him to guard him almost shoots him driven by hunger, but comes to the senses and saves his life by continuing to go on.