Joan of Arc from the nineties. You won’t see a movie
Where is he who would know how to say this omnipotent word to us in the native language of our Russian soul: GO! Who, knowing all the strengths and properties, and the entire depth of our nature, could have directed a Russian man to the high life with one magical wave? In what words, what love would a grateful Russian person pay him. But centuries go by centuries; half a million Sydney, more distant and baybaks doze awake, and a husband who knows how to pronounce it is rarely born in Russia, this is an omnipotent word.
N.V. Gogol. Dead Souls
N.V. Gogol. Dead Souls
Not so long ago on the "VO" was published my article "Russian peasant woman and her K-700". Some readers have doubted that this material is suitable for VO. In fact, it was a test of the pen, the beginning and the end stories. And now I’ve finished the whole story and I’m sure that upon reading it would never occur to anyone, as if she had no place for VO.
1998 year. Once, when one of my business trips to Moscow began, I was already sitting in my compartment next to a fellow traveler, a student-type guy. A woman quickly entered the compartment, put things on her shelf and turned to me and the student: “Guys! I have three heavy bags in front of the car, bring it here, I will pay ...” The guy and I fulfilled her request, but refused the fee. The neighbor thanked us warmly, and when the train started off, she began to persistently treat homemade pies, boiled eggs, fried lamb and other snacks, obviously of a village origin.
Gradually, we started talking. The neighbor was 45 years old, went to Moscow to her married daughter, and in heavy bags she carried gifts in the form of various food supplies from her farmstead. As it turned out, she lived in the village of the former state farm in one of the Trans-Volga regions of the Volgograd region. This steppe area is known for its melons, tomatoes and watermelons. And in the local “pampas”, small herds of half-wild horses and flocks of sheep have recently been pacing, although, on the whole, local agricultural enterprises looked deplorable.
The neighbor was a cheerful, talkative woman, told a lot about herself and with pleasure. She was originally from Armavir, lived there almost all her life and worked as a technician in the laboratory of instrumentation. She was widowed at the age of forty, her daughter by that time was already married in Moscow. And the lonely widow decided to start a family again. To do this, I turned to newspapers with marriage announcements and somewhere in the year I found a suitable person. This was a childless widower a little older than her, who lived in the state farm village of the Volgograd Trans-Volga region. Next, I will try to directly reproduce what she was saying.
* * *
I was very lucky with my new husband. He was listed as a chief engineer in this former state farm. The director lured him there when things went bad in the army. He had previously served as a major in the engineering regiment, which was nearby. He himself is also a native of the state farm, only after school he entered the military school and left, therefore, returned to his parental home after service. His first wife was a very unhealthy woman, she could not have children. He himself is a completely non-drinking man and with a weirdo! His hands are golden and don’t feed bread - give me something to craft or invent ... And he loves reading all kinds of books. He came to my heart very much, so they took a chance, gave birth at almost forty years old. The boy turned out - a sight for sore eyes! Healthy, brisk, smart, he is already 6 years old now. The husband says that this is our little prince, and he calls him, prince and prince! Well, the pryntsi needs a legacy. We began to raise our economy. There was nothing left of the state farm. The authorities bargained for the remainder, the hard workers from the gardens fed somehow, and the last shirts drank.
When the state farm land was divided into shares, each had on 11 hectares. So my husband and I have 22 ha. Why, this is all steppe unwelding. But my husband came up with, dug a few wells with the men, and bungled irrigation on our 2-s hectares. We rented this land to the Koreans for onions, and they also took 10 hectares for melons and watermelons. From this we have the first money. Gradually, we used all our land, then we started raising meat for sheep and gobies, we built a barnyard. My husband's city relatives took meat from us to the bazaar, to shops, and then two more factories began to make orders to their canteens, it became generally very convenient and profitable.
We began to expand, to rent neighboring land and take neighbors to work instead of a state farm. Only the people were spoiled, he strove to steal every little thing for a drink or to beg, especially women. But it’s easier with women, I don’t refuse requests for flour or potatoes, and then I ask myself what to do in the garden, walk around the cattle, wash, clean the house. It’s a habit for them, and not for long, but I’m freed up time for my affairs. My most important business has become - men hired to persuade, do not give a drink at work, idle and steal. Oh, and I drank at first! But then it got frayed somehow ... My husband and I paid honestly, not like a state farm, so the women gradually began to help me manage their husbands ... Little by little the remnants of state farm equipment were repaired, but they were put into business.
And then trouble, where did not wait !! Oh guys, open your ears, I’ll tell you that I myself will not forget it in the next world!
As everywhere else, there is a grocery store at our state farm from general stores, bread, soap, sugar, canned goods, tea, threads, needles, all kinds of things that have been lying for years do not spoil, and there is a booze with drinks in it in such shops. As the Soviet regime ended, so immediately the district chief Selpovsky, along with his son, rented all these stores in the district and launched a 24-hour trade in them for left-handed vodka, cheap and cheap swine. At our state farm, they hired a former veterinarian with his wife as sellers; they are quiet, honest and large families. So they began to stand up for a couple in the store around the clock and seven days a week, they received something from sales, and five children, well, they were spinning. Once a week, an UAZ drove from the owners, clogged to the brim with this poison, replenished supplies, took the proceeds. This all-terrain vehicle cursed all the women in the area! And one frigging day, it was not the UAZ that arrived, but the owner himself and his son on the brand new Volga, looked into his store for a while and came straight to visit my husband and me. The husband let them in, I set the table, and what a conversation happened between them ... The landlords praised these husbands for housekeeping, and then they say: "Gavrilych (my husband has a middle name!), You read the newspapers, you watch TV, so you understand what’s good the au pair needs good security, so we offer it to you, of course, not for free, but not a noose around our neck, we have plans for you, but we’ll tell you about them later. In the meantime, think slowly about our proposal. weeks for an answer. " With that and drove off. The husband became darker than the clouds. After all, the whole district has already discussed what these subchiks have done recently!
Throughout the Volga region from Astrakhan to Saratov along the Volga highway goes. A primer leads to our state farm, it’s a bumpy path, you can carefully walk along it for half an hour, and if the car is strong and cross-country, you can get there in fifteen minutes. From this primer, a couple of kilometers along the highway there is an economy such as an inn. It was arranged there by two families of Russian refugees from Tajikistan. They have a shop there, a canteen with beer and barbecue, you can take a shower and spend the night in a normal bunk. The main customers are truckers and truckers, but the local driver also looks there willingly. So in front of us these "farmers" and there they offered their protection, but they immediately refused, well, and three days later at night they came up to them not only on the Volga, but also with the UAZ, and in it were the beasts with machine guns. The Tajiks were riddled with their car and forced to sign a paper on which they should pay a monthly debt, and if they refused to sign, they threatened to burn everything and re-treat them. They signed and began to pay twice as much as they wanted to receive from them at first.
My husband sat for a while in silence, and then called me and said: "We will not pay this scum, and now they will not give us life here, so we are going, mother, and get out of here." My heart snapped right away! But then the director of the state farm showed up to us, he was curious, why did these traders come to us? The husband told him everything and his decision, too. And the director told him: "Do not fuck, Gavrilych, a fever. There is time, we will act, but will not work out - we will help you quickly pack up and dump." Then he went to the board, where there was one telephone for the whole state farm, he told us to wait. He returned quickly, all somber, said he had spoken with the chief of the district police, they were with the director of the match. And he said that he couldn’t really help now, but if we ourselves can somehow squeeze these bastards, then he will connect and finally kill them. The husband just got used to it, and the director oppresses his own, they say, do not get excited, you need to talk with our men.
This director is a native of the same kind, but in Volgograd, after graduation, he grew up to be the regional party leader under the Soviet regime. And then he missed somewhere, and they sent him to steer his own state farm for it. This guy was smart, nimble and grated, they respected him, although after the Soviet regime he was only director on paper. They didn’t give anything from the state, neither seeds, nor spare parts, nor fuel. Sami, they say, earn and earn, and give taxes, here you have land and freedom. But the director was spinning somehow, the economy was breathing, the people believed in him and readily listened. And he loved, and most importantly, was able to speak at meetings. The peasants among themselves called him "political commander" for this, but not evil, but kindly.
So, the director gathered in the board of his most reliable assistants and ordered them to quietly convene all the state farm men in the evening in the club, to announce that there would be something to drink, just let them come with their snack and glasses. And so that no women were even close! This didn’t happen to the people here! The men in the evening beat the club to capacity, and the women in front of the club also gathered in a crowd. On the table near the podium stands a box of vodka. The director came out and said that he would not start anything until the women in front of the club scattered home. Guys at once jumped out and dispersed all. And then such a circus went that you will never see in any movie! The director and I had placed my husband and husband in advance in the back nook, told me to listen and wait for him to call.
To be continued ...
Information