Vasilisa the Beautiful

Once upon a time, a rich merchant lived with his wife and their daughter. They lived well, and lacked nothing, until one day the merchant’s wife fell seriously ill. Her little girl came to sit by her bedside, and her mother gave her a little doll and told her:

“Take this doll and hide it well, don’t show it to anyone. Whenever you’re not sure how to do something, feed it, and the doll will show you what to do.”

Vasilisa thanked her mother and soon said goodbye to her forever. So that the merchant would not be left alone with his daughter, he found a new wife. Vasilisa’s new stepmother had two daughters of her own, and the merchant thought that Vasilisa would get along with them well and that they would all be happy together. But it wasn’t to be.

From the very first moment, Vasilisa’s stepmother and her two daughters envied her beauty. They tormented her with the hardest work. Vasilisa grew tired and thin, and dark circles appeared under her eyes. However, they didn’t know that Vasilisa had a magic doll.

Every day, Vasilisa secretly fed the doll, and then the doll did the hardest work for her. And so Vasilisa grew and became a beautiful woman, quite unlike any the world had ever seen. Meanwhile her stepsisters, who were constantly angry and frowning, only grew more and more ugly.

Then one day the merchant had to go away for a long time. The stepmother seized her chance and began to send Vasilisa into the dark forest every day on various errands. On the other side of the forest, in a hut on stilts, lived Baba Yaga. Vasilisa’s evil stepmother hoped that she would get lost there and something…