Vanka

"Vanka" (Russian: Ванька) is an 1886 short story by Anton Chekhov.

The story was first published in Peterburgskaya Gazeta's No. 354 (25 December; new style: 7 January 1887), 1886 issue, in the Christmas Stories section, signed A. Chekhonte (А. Чехонте).

A nine-year-old boy is in desperate need to convince his grandfather, his only relative (a wayward character, who seems to be totally indifferent to the boy's fate), to take him back to his country home. Stealthily, he writes a letter to describe the unbearable life he leads in the house of the shoemaker Aliakhin, whom he serves as an apprentice for, suffering from hunger, abuse and humiliation. Finally, very pleased with his effort, he puts it into an envelope, inscribes the address: "The village, to my grandfather, Konstantin Makarych" and drops it into a post-box, well aware that it is upon this precious item that his whole life now totally depends.

The Christmas stories of the famous authors: Gilbert Keith Chesterton - A Christmas Carol, Lucy Maud Montgomery - A Christmas Inspiration, A Christmas Mistake, Christmas at Red Butte, Lyman Frank Baum -A Kidnapped Santa Claus, Mark Twain - A Letter from Santa Claus, Louisa May Alcott - A Merry Christmas, Leo Tolstoy - A Russian Christmas Party, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - Christmas Bells, Nikolai Gogol - Christmas Eve, William Dean Howells - Christmas Everyday, Joseph Rudyard Kipling - Christmas in India, Lyman Frank Baum - Little Bun Rabbit, Elizabeth Harrison - Little Gretchen and the Wooden Shoe, John Milton - On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity, Charles Dickens - The Chimes, Nathaniel Hawthorne -The Christmas Banquet, Hans Christian Andersen - The Fir Tree, Selma Lagerlöf - The Holy Night, Hans Christian Andersen - The Little Match Girl, Clement Moore - The Night Before Christmas, Henry van Dyke - The Other Wise Man, William Dean Howells - The Pony Engine and the Pacific Express, Beatrix Potter - The Tailor of Gloucester, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - The Three Kings, Anton Chehov - Vanka.