Nikolay Leskov (1831–1895) is one of the best masters of Russian prose. Every one of his works is an artistic melody that arises from real events and invisibly connects those events to the past, prompting reflections on what lies ahead.
Christmas is the happiest, the most mysterious holiday of Christian culture. Christmas is the birth of a human—God—who was sent to help make human life better, cleaner, more moral.
In fiction, this holiday is embodied in the traditions of the Christmas story (svyatochnyy rasskaz). In Christmas stories, both good and evil are always present. Such stories are instructive, but the moral is not stated outright. The reader must make the moral conclusion independently by answering the question: “What should a person be like?”