Summary of “Belogrudok” Astafyev


A small village in three houses, Zuyaty, stands between two lakes. Behind the village – a steep slope, overgrown with a thick forest of spruce and fir, mixed with elder and raspberry. Here, without fear of people, live different animals and birds. She dwells in dense forest and marten with a white breast. A few years later, Belogrudok gives birth to kunyat. Careful and careful mother, marten protects children, warms her body and catches game for them.

Once Belogrudok is tracked by village boys. She drives them around in the forest for a long time, and, after counting that the people have left, goes hunting. There are few game in the vicinity, and Belogrudok goes to a large marsh beyond the lake. Returning with the prey, the marten discovers that the children have disappeared from the hollow. On the tree, she finds the smell of people. The track leads her to the house, in which the boys brought kunyat.

Several days Belogrudok watches the house, but can not enter –

at the booth on the chain sits an evil dog. Finally, she gets to the hayloft and sees how the boy tortures her children and feeds them with raw meat. Soon one cunean dies, and the boy throws his dog.

From the same night, poultry began to perish in Zuyat. Soon the dog who had eaten the cunen died. Belogrudok teased him, the dog chased after her, hung on the fence and was suffocated. The marten was so enraged that she began to appear in the village and in the afternoon, killing the whole bird. They tried to shoot her, but only slightly wounded her.

After filling up her wounds, Belogrudok returned. She did not know that the boy was flogged and ordered to take the kunyts back to the nest, but he was too lazy to climb into the dense forest and threw the kids in the gully near the forest where they were strangled by a fox. Orphaned Belogrudok decided to choke the bird not only in Zuyaty, but also in the neighboring village.

We caught a marten, when she accidentally fell into the cellar. The master of the house, the hunter, understands that the marten is robbing because she is orphaned, and lets her go. But Belogrudok returns again, begins to rage more than before, and the hunter has to shoot her.

In both villages, they still remember Belogrudok and forbid children to offend animals and birds.


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Summary of “Belogrudok” Astafyev