The Russian Zombie Story
As a teenager, I love watching and reading stories about different human-like monsters as vampires, werewolves, and zombies, who always have American, British, or Polish nationalities. Nevertheless, in one of the Russian fairy tales, I found a creature, a mix of vampire and a zombie, who would come out of its grave every evening to kill people. I derived the fairy tale from Afanasev’s book and a small collection of stories simply entitled “Stories about dead people.”
It happened so long ago, probably many centuries ago, that people even forgot about these incidents. One salesman went to sell his clay made pots in another side of Russia. As hotels were not common back then, the salesman would usually stay to sleep in locals’ houses. One night, in a way to reach yet another village to sell his clay made pots, the salesman was so tired he decided to stop and take a rest. Cemetery was the closest place for that. He laid to sleep and suddenly saw that some dead parson stood up from a graveyard and ran somewhere. The salesman was a brave, strong but not much of a clever person. His best decision was to take the coffin’s top out and hid it. When the dead or the ‘zombie’ (as usually presented in American or European fictions) came back, he saw that the coffin’s top was stolen and could not find it. The salesman went near the dead and said he would give back coffin’s top if the ‘zombie’ told where he went and what he did. The ‘zombie’ agreed and said that he went to the nearby village and killed two boys, but the ‘zombie’ did not want to explain why he did it. The man said.
- Well, I will give you your coffin’s top, but you should tell me how to revive these boys.
- Well, I will tell you. You should cut the left side of my bedsheet and burn it in a place where they died. Please, give my coffin’s top back; I need to go back. If I am not in my coffin before sunrise, I will disappear forever.
Not being an expert, I believe that any thinking person would probably refuse to give the coffin’s top to the ‘zombie’ and at the same time use its advice to revive the boys, but the salesman didn’t do that.
The salesman gave back the coffin’s top and went to the village. When he arrived, he heard sad voices and sounds of people crying. He said that he could revive the young boys only if villagers gave one-half of the entire village’s wealth. Everyone agreed. The salesman did the same actions that the ‘zombie’ told him, and the boys revived. People could not believe in their eyes and asked how he did it. The salesman told the whole story that happened to him. Villagers decided to go and pierce the heart of the ‘zombie’՛ with a piece of wood. Meantime, the salesman took the half of the village’s wealth and went home in the other side of Russia.