The village of Ivanovka is located in modern day Ukraine in the district of Cherson and the events apparently took place in the year 1887.
A farmer had died and had been buried in the local cemetery, but shortly after his funeral rumors started to run that he hadn`t died of natural causes and if that was the case his afterlife was compromised.
In addition to this, he didn`t have the right to a Christian mass [over his corpse] and to be placed in holy soil.
A terrible drought began, and the villagers decided that the dead man had become a vampire and was the reason why it wasn’t raining.
At first the farmers tried pouring water in the grave, while they were saying magical spells. They got to the fifth barrel by the time it started to rain again.
But it did not help much so they had to resort to more drastic measures; the cross was broken in several pieces and the corpse was cut up and thrown in a ravine.
I note a couple of interesting things…
This is the first case I present to you about vampires that are believed to hold power over the elements. This type of the undead is actually a class that supposedly has knowledge of witchcraft apart from the usual powers.
NOTE: In some articles I`ve found that the occupation of the man was that of a “znakhar” – basically a healer and/or church leader.
๑۞๑ Related: ๑۞๑
† Vampire Accounts
† Legends
