: Years of civil war. The director of the correctional school guides the boy on the right path.

Introduction

That day, Volkov again drags Lenka to steal, but this time they catch the accomplices. Volkov manages to escape, but Lenka fails to get out. The boy is taken to the police and put in an empty, cold cell. Having cried, Lenka begins to remember how he came to such a life.

Chapter i

Lenky’s father, Ivan Adrianovich, had a heavy character and a tendency to long drinking bouts. Despite this, Lyonka loved his father for honesty, honesty and generosity. The boy knew only about his past that he served as a Cossack officer and participated in the Russian-Japanese war.

Ivan Adrianovich was born into an Old Believer Petersburg trading family. Against the will of his parents, he graduated from the Elisavetgrad Military School, served in the Dragoon regiment, managed to fight, but became disillusioned with officer life, after being wounded, he did not return to the regiment and began to sell timber. He married Alexander Sergeyevna from an Orthodox trading family. She was never able to find a common language with her husband, whom she was very afraid of.

Mother and father cursed, lived apart, then converged again, and the boy’s life went on as usual. Learning to read early, Lenka read everything that came into his hands. He was never a good guy, and always got into trouble. It became especially difficult for Alexandra Sergeevna to cope with her son when Ivan Adrianovich finally left the family.

Chapter II

Father Lenka died "in a foreign land", there was no funeral, and the boy all the time thought that his father would return. It was the third year of the First World War. In the fall, Lenka entered the second grade of the preparatory school. Alexandra Sergeevna gave music lessons, this was what the family lived for.

The boy heard about the Bolsheviks from Stesha's housekeeper - she was going to vote for them. The pertussis transferred in the summer prevented Lyonka from properly preparing for the exams, but he entered the real school without difficulty. College students were occupied not so much with studies as with politics and enmity with gymnasium students.

Taking an active part in the life of the school, Lenka managed to read. He was drawn to serious books. On this basis, he met the realist Vladimir Volkov, a serious and arrogant boy from a wealthy family. He gave Lenka books and once drove him in his own carriage. During lunch with the Volkovs, Lenka learned that the Bolsheviks were “Teutonic spies” abandoned in Russia to sow confusion among workers. The boy decided that Stesha was also a spy. Volkov, on the other hand, began to shy away from Lenka, learning that his father was a simple cornet.

Lenka began to follow Stesha and even opened her chest where he found a German brochure Karl Marx - proof of Steshina's espionage activities. Soon, everything opened. Alexandra Sergeevna considered her son a thief, but he told his mother about Stesha's “spy” and lost consciousness.

Chapter III

While Lenka was ill, the October Socialist Revolution took place. Returning to school, Lenka found that his class had thinned a lot. Gone and Volkov. High school students walked along the corridors in overcoats, and lessons were often canceled. Visiting a friend, Lenka found out that the Volkovs had left for their estate.

Winter stood out hungry. Stesha went to work at the Triangle factory and, as she could, helped Alexandra Sergeevna. Lenka read a lot and tried to compose poetry. In the spring, a letter came from the former nanny. She invited the whole family for the summer to her, in the village of Yaroslavl province. Stesha refused to leave St. Petersburg - she remained to protect her property.

Chapter iv

The village where the nanny Sekleteya Fedorovna lived was occupied by fighters of the Green Army. The nanny said that in this army, which was at war with the Bolsheviks, the sons of her godfather, the red-bearded Fedor Glebov, consisted.

After the revolutionary Petrograd, village life seemed to Lenka calm and well-fed. His younger brother and sister, Vasya and Lyalya, quickly made friends with the village children, and the shy Lenka watched them from the side for a long time. However, he soon joined the company of village children, where he met with the youngest son of Glebov Ignat.

Soon Lenka met with the chairman of the committee of the poor Vasily Fedorovich Krivtsov. He showed his garden where he was trying to grow tomatoes. Plants lacked a very expensive Bordeaux fluid.

In mid-June, ataman Khokhryakov appeared in Cheltsovo. Lenka rushed to warn Krivtsov, but he was not at home. The boy ran to the road, and saw that Krivtsova was already on guard sent by Ignashka Glebov, the father. Fortunately for the chairman, the Khokhryakovites soon left the village. Returning home, Lenka drank ice water and fell ill with diphtheria. Alexandra Sergeevna decided to take her ten-year-old son to the doctor in Yaroslavl.

Chapter v

Staying at the Europe Hotel, Alexandra Sergeevna called a pediatrician. He stated that the boy should be hospitalized, but Lenka never got to the hospital: the White Guards broke into Yaroslavl. The guests of "Europe" had to hide in the hotel basement. In a hurry, Alexandra Sergeevna did not have time to grab things and food. Soon it became known that the power of the Bolsheviks was overthrown, and a joyful revival reigned in the basement. Alexandra Sergeevna ventured to go for things. Upon returning, the woman said that everything had been stolen from them.

Going to the toilet, Lenka could not resist the temptation and went to the upper floors of "Europe". On the way back, Lenka got lost, went up to the front staircase and came across the hotel owner Poyarkov and his son - the White Guard officer. Taking the boy as a thief, they took him to the basement to check if he actually lives here. After making sure that his mother had been looking for him for a long time, Poyarkov convinced people to leave the basement and promised a treat at the expense of the hotel. In the morning, when Alexandra Sergeevna and Lyonka had breakfast in the restaurant of "Europe", shooting started again - the Communists fired cannons at Yaroslavl.

Chapter vi

One of the targets of the shelling was the Europe Hotel. In her basement there were only those who had nowhere to run, including Alexandra Sergeevna and Lyonka. On the fourth day, candles and food ran out, and the woman decided to look for something to eat. Lenka followed her. When they got up, they found that people lived in a long hotel corridor, and settled down next to the overweight, strict woman, the rural teacher Nonna Hieronymovy Tyrosidonskaya.

The scanty reserves of Tyrosidon did not save from hunger. Soon there was no water in Yaroslavl. Once, sneaking into the city, the women got a lot of sugar and coffee. Drinking water was sold by the son of a hotel doorman, and Alexandra Sergeevna sent Lenka to him. Not finding a water-carrier, the boy decided to go to the Volga to get water.

Once on the street, Lenka realized that he did not know how to get to the river, and went to wander around the city. Having survived dangerous adventures and having obtained a jar of Bordeaux liquid, the boy returned to his mother, who was already losing her mind. Appearing in the evening, Tyrosidorskaya reported that the Reds promised to release civilians from the city.

The next day they crossed the Volga in a small steamboat. Lenka noticed several white officers on the same steamboat. After parting with Tyrosidonskaya, Alexandra Sergeevna and Lenka decided to spend the night in the village of Bykovka. In the morning the village was attacked by Khokhryakovites. The bandits wanted to shoot Lenka with his mother, but one of the bandits did not allow the child to be killed and allowed them to escape. Behind the village outskirts, the boy remembered the Bordeaux liquid and returned for it, almost again falling into the hands of Khokhryakovites. Lyonka did not guess to grab his mother’s bag, and they were left without money. An angry old man crossed them across the Volga without taking a dime. Having reached Cheltsov, Lenka found out that the chairman, severely beaten by the Khokhryakovites, ended up in the hospital.

Chapter VII

Two weeks later, Aleksandra Sergeevna again took Lenka to Yaroslavl to the doctor. Leaving her son in the hospital garden, the mother went in search of a doctor. Suddenly, "brass music burst around the corner of the building" - the soldiers of the Red Army who died during the rebellion were buried. In the crowd, the boy saw Krivtsova and found out that the chairman had survived and was lying in the same hospital.

Lenka was healthy. They returned to Cheltsovo on the ship, where the boy noticed a young Poyarkov. In August, Alexandra Sergeyevna traveled to Petrograd several times for things that she exchanged for food. Lenka no longer played with Glebov Jr. and again became addicted to reading. At the end of the summer, Lenka’s aunt and her daughter Ira moved from Petrograd to Cheltsovo. Soon the village was occupied by the Red Army. Glebov the elder was killed, and a few days later prisoners of Khokhryakovites led by the chieftain were led through the village.

Alexandra Sergeevna spoke about the attempt on Lenin and that Stesha went to the front. Famine fell on the village, and the woman decided to go in search of a "bread place", leaving the children in the care of a nanny and aunt. In the fall, chairman Krivtsov returned to Cheltsovo, and Lenka gave him the labor of saved Bordeaux liquid with such difficulty.

Alexandra Sergeevna found a place as the head of the music school "in a small Tatar town on the Kama River." She took both the children and the aunt with her daughter.

Chapter viii

Soon, Alexandra Sergeevna "already led children's art education throughout the city." Two large furnished rooms were assigned to the family, and Vasya entered the agricultural school and lived in a boarding school outside the city. In early March, Alexandra Sergeevna left for Petrograd, on a business trip. Lenka at that time was in the hospital with typhoid. The aunt of the boy did not visit, and in the last days Lyalya stopped walking. Upon returning home, Lenka discovered that everyone was sick, and his mother had not returned. He undertook to manage the household. For two weeks he treated his aunt and Ira, ran to the hospital to Lala and cooked dinners. My aunt recovered, and Lenka became a burden for her. At this time, a letter came from Vasya, very pleased with his teachings and work, and the boy decided to go to his brother's "farm".

There were no empty seats at the agricultural school. Aleksandra Sergeevna did not respond, her aunt was getting angrier, and Lenka decided to go to the farm without accompanying papers, hoping for the help of his brother.

The principal of the school, Nikolai Mikhailovich, did not accept the boy, and he remained “on bird rights”. They stole everything here. The director, who seemed vaguely familiar to the boy, and the teachers were robbing the students, and the students were slaughtering livestock in the surrounding villages. Lenka quickly learned this craft. The boy was not given agricultural work, and he often paid for his mistakes.

Once, grazing pigs, Lenka missed a thoroughbred hog, and he had to flee school. Only now the boy realized that the school was run by a former White Guard Poyarkov Jr. Lenka returned to his aunt, but she was not happy with him, and the boy went to the orphanage, where Lyalya already lived. The orphanage was housed in a former convent. Once the guys found nuns hidden in the bell tower and tried to sell them on the market. So Lenka got to the police, and then to another orphanage. At night, he fled from there, grabbing women's shoes hidden from the guys, and went to Peter to look for his mother.

There was not enough money for a short while. Lenka starved, ate alms. In an abandoned estate, he found boxes of books and sold them. One of the buyers was a German shoemaker. Upon learning that Lenka was an orphan, he took him as an apprentice. If not for the mistress, who immediately disliked the boy, he would have remained in Kazan forever.

Two months later, the boy boarded the first steamboat that came across, got to the town of Pyaniy Bor and settled on the pier in the company of street children. Winter came. Lyonka was cold and hungry until he was picked up by a cheerful guy on the street. So the boy got into the city committee of the RKSM, where he stayed for the whole winter. Soon, the guy, Yurka, suggested Lenka to enter a vocational school. The working specialties of Lenka were not given, and he did not even hear about algebra. Learning about the underperformance of the sponsored, Yurka undertook to "pull it up". A few months later, Lenka was already getting good grades.

Lenka’s life began to improve when a kulak rebellion broke out in the province, and all Komsomol members left to fight. Yurka died, and Lenka again felt like an orphan. In early spring, he again tried to get to Peter.

Chapter IX

Lenka moved with a hare, clinging to a sled until his leg fell under a snake. Having lost his warm boots, he hardly got to the nearest village and knocked on the first hut, where he lain in fever until late spring. Out came Lenka, a middle-aged peasant Marya Petrovna Kuvshinnikova. For some time the boy lived with the Kuvshinnikovs, but then he was again drawn into wanderings.

Now Lenka traveled by train. In Belgorod, he was caught by a duty officer, an agent of the Cheka. The Chekist felt sorry for the boy, wrote out a document according to which Lenka could get to Peter without a ticket, and gave money. In the barrack where Lenka spent the night, he was robbed. The boy found the loss only in the train. He was dropped out of the car at an unknown station. All fall, winter and summer, Lenka spent in Ukraine. He could not find work, and stole in order to survive. At the end of the summer, the boy reached Petrograd.

Chapter x

Strangers lived in Lion’s apartment, and the boy leaned over to his mother’s sister, where he found his family. Ten-year-old Lyalya has changed a lot. Vasina Agricultural School closed - all the teachers turned out to be former White Guards. The boy moved to St. Petersburg and went to work in a candy store. He told how he had been looking for Lenka for two days in the forest and decided that the wolves had bitten him.

Alexandra Sergeevna also spoke about her misadventures. She was already returning to the children when a deserter squad attacked the train. The woman hid, buried in coal crumbs, and then, half-dressed, made her way to the nearest station. She caught a cold on the way, got to the hospital, where she contracted typhus and fell ill for several months. He told about himself and Lenka. Alexandra Sergeevna took an oath from her son that he would never steal again.

Now Lenka dreamed of working at some factory, but finding such a place was not easy. Finally, the boy got a job at the Express factory producing drinks. Lenka was appointed assistant to the elderly Zakhar Ivanovich. Together, they transported bottles in a heavy cart all day around the city, receiving almost nothing for it.

Chapter xi

During one of the flights, Lenka met Volkov, who became a street thief. In amazement, the boy released the handle of the cart and broke several dozen bottles. The owner fined for broken bottles. Lenka did not have that kind of money, and he had to urgently wander off. Volkov helped the boy hide in the crowd and offered to go into business with him. Lenka agreed only to get rid of his friend, who at the same time attracted and repelled him. The boy did not want to steal.

At home, Lenka was waiting for an unexpected guest - Stesha. She arranged for Alexandra Sergeevna to be the head of the music club at the Triangle factory club. The woman told Stesha about the adventures of Lenka, and she decided to seriously take up the boy.

Chapter xii

At the insistence of her aunt, Lyonka entered the Unified Labor School, which was once a gymnasium, where the old teaching staff, gymnasium orders were preserved, and the children of wealthy NEPMans studied. Soon, rumors spread about the Lenky thieves' past in the school. Despite this, Lyonka decided to stay at school, but the headmaster kicked the boy out because of a fight he had started. On the same day, Lenka came across the owner of the Express. He demanded to pay for the losses caused to him.The boy had no choice but to tell about everything to his mother.

Alexandra Sergeevna gave Lenka money. On the way to Express, he saw street roulette, and lost everything he had. Not daring to return home, Lenka went to wander around Peter, and again met Volkov. This time the boy did not refuse the offer to steal and firmly contacted him.

After an unsuccessful theft of the castle and night in a cold cell, Lenka is released under the guarantee of Stesha. The boy tells everything without hiding, not giving out only the name of the accomplice. Thanks to Stesha, the matter does not reach the court. She arranges the boy in a special school for difficult teenagers, which is headed by Viktor Nikolaevich Sorokin. The boy falls into good hands and after many years he writes a story about a school named after Dostoevsky.