The First Distiller

In Short

This play unfolds as a supernatural comedy, tracking a peasant’s descent from humble, God-fearing labor to wretched, drunken volatility. After failing to corrupt the man through deprivation, an imp discovers that "too much" is far more dangerous than "too little." By teaching the peasant how to distill excess grain into spirits, the imp unleashes a cascade of vanity, greed, and violence that turns the entire village against itself. The work endures for its punchy, allegorical clarity and its cynical, biting insight into how prosperity can erode human character.

The Story

The narrative begins in a field where a hardworking, pious peasant faces a minor crisis: his lunch has been stolen. An imp, tasked with his corruption, watches from the shadows, expecting the man to curse God and call upon the Devil. Instead, the peasant simply remarks that the thief must have needed the food, wishing them well. The imp returns to Hell, humiliated and punished for his failure to capture any peasants while his peers have easily ensnared merchants and nobles with greed and vanity. Threatened with flaying, the imp begs for one last chance to redeem himself through a new, secret strategy.

The imp returns to the mortal world as a laborer, taking a position on the peasant’s farm. With uncanny foresight, he directs the peasant to sow in unlikely places, resulting in a miraculous, overflowing harvest. The peasant soon finds himself with more grain than he can use. Seeing his opening, the imp suggests they distill the surplus into a powerful spirit. The peasant, initially skeptical and worried about the sin of wasting food, is eventually convinced by the promise that the drink will make the old young and the weary strong.

Once the first batch is ready, the peasant and his wife taste the liquor. The effect is immediate; they grow giddy, loud, and foolish. They invite the grandfather and mother to share in this "rejuvenation," turning a quiet farmhouse into a scene of chaotic, drunken dancing. When the grandfather protests, pouring the spirit onto the ground as an act of defiance against this "devil’s drink," he is mocked and pushed aside.

The corruption deepens in the final stages. The imp manipulates the peasant into using the spirits to bribe the village elders into stripping the grandfather of his property rights. As the elders arrive and begin to drink, the imp’s plan reaches its zenith. The men transition through different states of bestial behavior: first, they are fawning like foxes, exchanging hollow compliments; then, as the intoxication takes hold, they turn into snarling wolves, arguing and fighting; finally, they descend into the grunting, wallowing state of swine. The peasant, now fully consumed by his own creation, ends up facedown in the dirt. The Chief of the Devils arrives to witness the triumph, confirming that while the peasant always carried the seeds of the beast within him, it was the surplus of his own harvest that allowed those demons to fully take command.

How It Unfolds

The test of character The peasant’s virtue is established when he remains kind despite the theft of his only meal. This act of grace leaves the demon in charge of his soul completely bewildered.

The descent into Hell The imp receives a brutal lashing from his master, the Chief, for his inability to lure the peasant into sin. He is given a final three-year ultimatum to succeed or face a horrific fate.

The temptation of harvest The imp returns to earth disguised as a laborer and engineers an unnatural agricultural boom. He convinces the peasant that his excess corn is not a blessing to be shared, but a resource to be exploited for personal pleasure.

The distillation of vanity The peasant, his wife, and eventually the elders are introduced to the spirit. The process of making the drink mirrors the moral decay of the household, moving from initial curiosity to total loss of self-control.

The trial of the elders The peasant attempts to use the liquor to cheat his own family, only to find the social fabric of the village unraveling. The elders, meant to provide wise counsel, instead descend into a chaotic, drunken brawl.

The final degradation The play concludes with the peasant reduced to a grunting animal, fulfilling the imp's promise to his master. The Chief of the Devils declares victory, having proven that material wealth is the most effective trap for the human spirit.

The People

The Peasant begins as a man defined by his connection to the land and his faith. He is industrious and generous, but he lacks the strength to resist the allure of "easy" joy. By the end, his greed and addiction have hollowed him out.

The Imp serves as a clever, desperate antagonist who functions more like a corporate middle manager than a mythical fiend. He is motivated primarily by fear of his master, and he succeeds by weaponizing the peasant’s own prosperity against him.

The Grandfather is the moral anchor of the play. He is the only character who recognizes the spiritual danger of the distillery, and his act of spilling the spirits is a futile but symbolic attempt to protect his family from their own undoing.

The Wife and the Village Elders represent the collateral damage of the peasant’s decision. Their transformation from respectable, if slightly flawed, community members into fawning, violent, and eventually incoherent drunks illustrates how individual sin quickly ripples outward to corrupt an entire social circle.

In Its Own Voice

"If some one has taken it, he's taken it; let him eat it, and may it do him good."

When a demon steals his only lunch, the peasant surprises his tormentor by offering a blessing rather than a curse.

"God has sent you a good harvest for you to feed yourself and others, but you have turned the corn into devils' drink."

The grandfather confronts the family, identifying the transformation of food into liquor as a fundamental betrayal of their natural purpose.

"As long as he had only as much corn as he needed, he did not grudge his last crust, but when he had more than he knew what to do with, the fox's, the wolf's, and the swine's blood in him awoke."

The imp explains to his chief that the peasant’s downfall was not triggered by his lack of resources, but by the moral rot caused by his own surplus.

What It's Really About

The play acts as a critique of the corrupting power of material excess. It suggests that poverty often preserves human goodness because it requires reliance on God and neighbor, whereas surplus provides the means for selfishness and vice to flourish. The core argument is that the "beast" inside humanity—represented by the fox, the wolf, and the swine—is always present, but it requires the vanity and distraction of wealth to take full control. It is a cautionary tale about how easily human structures of wisdom and family can be dismantled by the desire to "grow young" again through hollow, self-indulgent pleasures.

Why Read It Today

Reading this work feels like watching a dark, fast-moving fable unfold. It is remarkably lean, stripped of the sprawling complexity often associated with the author's larger novels. Readers who enjoy biting social commentary and sharp, allegorical humor will find much to admire here. The structure is simple and punchy, making it an excellent choice for a single sitting, though the brutal cynicism of its ending is likely to linger.

There are, however, hurdles for the modern reader. The dialogue reflects a stylized, rustic Russian peasant life that can feel distant or caricatured. The play assumes a traditional, agrarian worldview—where grain, elders, and the village square are the pillars of life—which may feel archaic to those living in an urban, globalized society. Furthermore, the casual brutality of the Devils, who talk about whipping and flaying as one might discuss office politics, creates a jarring, grotesque tone. If you are looking for a gentle, nuanced character study, this is not it. It is a harsh, didactic piece of theater designed to provoke and unsettle. It is best read not as a realistic drama, but as a stark warning about the fragility of human virtue in the face of sudden, unearned success.