The Adventures of Strong Vanya

The story of the strong Wanja takes place in ancient Russia. There, the farmer Wassili Grigorewitsch lives with his three sons: Grischa, Sascha, and Wanja. Grischa and Sascha, the two older ones, are good, hardworking lads. Wanja, on the other hand, is an incredible lazybones. He dislikes work as much as a dog dislikes nettles. Grischa and Sascha find this absolutely annoying. They would love to have driven the laziness out of him long ago, but the little hunchbacked Aunt Akulina does not allow it. Perhaps she suspects that there is something special about Wanja and his laziness. When Wanja is 17 years old, he has a strange encounter in the forest. An old blind beggar foretells that he is destined to become Tsar one day, if he fulfills a condition. For seven years, Wanja is to lie at home on the stove. But during this time, he must not get off the stove, speak a word to anyone, or eat anything other than sunflower seeds. This is to be his first trial before he sets out to the land beyond the White Mountains to win the Tsar's crown. Will he pass this trial and all the subsequent adventures and be rewarded with the Tsar's crown?.