Moscow. At the table, Ivan IV the Terrible. Behind, behind the king’s back, the stewards. On the contrary - princes and boyars. On the sides - security, guardsmen.
Tsar Ivan Vasilievich in an excellent mood. Well, why is there no reason to turn an everyday meal into a small, for your own, holiday? Opening the feast “for his pleasure and merriment”, Grozny commanded the stolniks to try for an oprichnina an overseas, sweet wine from the tsar’s tsar. He himself vigilantly watches how his faithful servants drink, because wine drinking is also a test of loyalty. However, the distant fighters are not shaky: they drink as expected, they drink - they glorify the king, sweet wine flows from his lips. Ivan is pleased, but suddenly notices that one of them, from the guardsmen, does not touch the golden bucket with golden wine. Having recognized his favorite Kiribeevich as a violator of palace etiquette, he threatens to recant him: “It’s indecent for you, Kiribeevich / to abhor the royal joy; / And you are Skuratovs from the family, / And you have been fed Malyutina to the family! ..”
Kiribeevich, sly and clever, like a demon, plays in front of the king, for him personally, a sentimental scene. Therefore, they say, I don’t drink - I don’t wet my mustache in a gilded ladle - I fell in love with a beauty before passion, and she turns away from me, unworthy as from unchristen, and closes with a striped veil.Having learned that his nominee’s sweetheart is just a merchant’s daughter, Ivan Vasilievich laughs: they say, take my yacht ring, buy a pearl necklace and send your precious gifts to your Alena Dmitrievna. If you get the job done, call for a wedding, well, first bow to the matchmaker ...
Malyutin outwitted the fosterling of Ivan the Fourth himself! And he didn’t seem to be lying to him, he told everything in his own spirit, he just kept the last truth to himself: he didn’t tell that the beautiful woman “was baptized in the church of God, / Baptized with a young merchant / According to our Christian law”.
Bow to the matchmaker? We will manage without match! The main thing is the king is on his side. And he himself is not without reason in the oprichnina; here the lawyers have nothing to do!
Seating yard. Silk shop of the merchant Kalashnikov. Behind the counter is the master. Counts money, smoothes the goods.
Stepan Paramonovich’s affairs are going well. And the fact that today the rich do not drop in the bar at his place, they don’t ask for delicate goods, because day after day is not necessary. But then evening, winter, it was getting dark early, the guest house had long been empty, it was time for him to go home, to his young wife, to his lovely little children. The Kalashnikov’s house is good - tall, alright, to match the owner. If it’s unlucky in the morning, it’s obligatory until night. I thought: the kids rest, and they cry! I thought: my beloved wife would meet him on a white tablecloth with dinner, but she wasn’t at home either! Stepan Paramonovich is very worried, he is a calm man, restrained, but worried: snow, blizzard, frost, darkness - didn’t something happen to Alena Dmitrievna? Oh, happened, happened, and terrible! Disgraced her Kiribeevich! And not somewhere in the middle of the street, like a thief, like a beast, he attacked, kissed, merciful, persuaded! In front of the neighbors he robbed.They laughed and showed with a finger: they say, what’s going on, well, shameless!
Having believed, although not immediately, that his wife was telling him the truth, Stepan Paramonovich decided not to put the matter aside, the benefit of the circumstances was successful. Tomorrow on the Moscow River - fist fights, and on the occasion of the holiday - with the king himself. And where is the king, there is an oprichnina kennel. So then he will come to the oprichnik. He will fight to the death - to the last of his strength. He won’t master it, so maybe the little brothers, maybe the youngest God will have mercy, he’ll help to overcome the damned.
And they, the youngest, do not fail their "second father." At first, they were slightly, in a lifely way, not too happy with the fact that Stepan was pulling them out of their late beds, having learned what had happened to their dear daughter-in-law, they give an honest merchant's word: “We won’t betray you, dear,”.
Bank of the Moscow River. Early morning. The audience is still pulling up, but the king with his retinue (boyars, squad, oprichnina) is already here.
The first, as Kalashnikov foresaw, enters the ring Kiribeevich. Excited by yesterday's “victory”, he is so aggressive and so confident in himself that none of his usual opponents budge. Here, pushing the crowd apart, Stepan Paramonovich appears. Kiribeevich, slightly surprised (he immediately realized that he was a novice), invites the duffer to introduce himself in order to know who he should serve for. Of course, this is a joke: he is clearly not going to fight to the death. Not that case. And the Tsar Tsar does not approve of deaths on fist lists. And only realizing that the opponent is the legitimate husband of Alena Dmitrievna, loses her temper.From the recent courage and traces left. And yet - he, the first fist of the tsar’s oprichnina’s team, who nearly killed Stepan Paramonovich, struck him between the ribs, poddy, treacherously vile. Having hardly risen, but immediately gathered himself (a venerable merchant a minute ago, and a daring fighter at the time of the blow), Kalashnikov dumps his foe dead. Grozny, as an experienced fan, sees that both fighters do not work according to the rules of a good game: according to the rules, he doesn’t (specifically) rely on goals or a temple, and as a judge he asks the killer: unwillingly or by will, he killed his faithful servant, and if by will, then for what and about what. Naturally, Stepan Paramonovich Kalashnikov cannot answer the second question, but answers the first one immediately: "I killed him by free will." Struck by his sincerity (he could refer to inexperience, he is a beginner), Ivan Vasilievich, playing the best of his roles - the tsar of Grozny, but the Just One, although he sends Kalashnikov to the block, promises to fulfill his dying request: not to leave the orphaned kingly mercy family. And, oddly enough, fulfills the promise! Alena Dmitrievna and the orphans - the official content, and the Kalashnikov brothers - an unprecedented right: "to trade without a duty, duty free" "throughout the entire Russian kingdom."
