Fyodor Fomich Kuzkin, nicknamed in the village of Alive, had to leave the collective farm. And after all, Fomich, the collective farm forwarder, was not the last person in Prudki: he either procured bags for farming, or tubs, or harnesses, or carts. And the wife of Avdotya worked just as tirelessly. And they earned sixty-two kilograms of buckwheat in a year. How to live if you have five children?
Difficult life for Fomich on the collective farm began with the arrival of the new chairman Mikhail Mikhailovich Guzenkov, who had managed to manage almost all district offices before: Consumers Union, Zagotskot, and the consumer services complex, and so on. Guzenkov Fomich disliked for his sharp language and independent character, and therefore put him to such work where he was above the head, but no earnings. It remained - to leave the collective farm.
Fomich began his free life as a pigman for hire from a neighbor. And here milkmaids, busy up to the farm, tumbled down to him with orders. Only Fomich took a breath - I’ll live without a collective farm! - as Spiryak Voronok stated to him, no worker, but because of a relationship with the foreman Pashka Voronin, who has power on the collective farm, presented Fomich with an ultimatum: either you take me as partners, earned in half, and then we will issue you a mowing on the collective farm as a public load, or, if you don’t agree, the chairman and I will declare you a parasite and bring you under the law.
He put the Living intruder out the door, and the next day Guzenkov himself came to Fomich and immediately in all his bossy throat: “Who are you, a collective farmer or an anarchist? Why don't you go to work? ” - "And I left the collective farm." “No, my dear. So just do not leave the collective farm. We will give you a firm task and with all the giblets from the village we will throw it away. ”
Fomich took the threat seriously - he experienced the Soviet and collective farm orders in his own skin. In the 35th they sent him to a two-year junior law course. However, not even a year had passed before the retired lawyers began to be sent as chairmen to collective farms. By this time, Zhivoy already understood the mechanics of collective farm leadership: that chairman is good, who will support superiors with superplanned supplies, and will feed his collective farmers. But with the gluttony of the authorities or the dodgy of the inhuman, one must have, or live without conscience. Fomich flatly refused the chairmanship, for which he took off from the courses as "a hidden element and a saboteur." And in the 37th, another misfortune: at a rally on the occasion of elections to the Supreme Council, I unsuccessfully joked, and even the local boss, who tried to force him to "get it right", threw so that the boss had already galoshes from chrome boots. Judged Fomich "three". But Alive and was not stuck in prison, in the 39th he wrote a statement about the desire to volunteer for the Finnish war. His case was reviewed and released. In the meantime, the commissions were sitting, the Finnish war ended. Fomich fought on the Patriotic War, left three fingers on her with his right hand, but returned with the Order of Glory and two medals.
... Fomich was expelled from the collective farm in the area where they called the summons. And Comrade Motyakov himself presided at the meeting of the Executive Committee, recognizing only one principle of leadership: “We will break the horns!” - and no matter how trying Motyakova the secretary of the district committee of the party Demin tried to persuade - all the same, the fall of the 53rd, others need methods - and the assembly decided to expel Kuzkin from the collective farm and impose a double tax on him as an individual: in a month, surrender 1700 rubles, 80 kg meat, 150 eggs and two skins. I’ll give everything up to a pretty penny, Fomich vowed vowingly, but I’ll only give one skin - my wife can resist, so that I, for you, parasites, tore off my skin.
Returning home, Fomich sold the goat, hid his gun and began to wait for the confiscation commission. Those did not hesitate. Under the leadership of Pashka Voronin, they searched the house and, not finding anything materially valuable, brought down the old bicycle from the yard. Fomich sat down to write a statement to the regional party committee: “I was expelled from the collective farm because I worked out 840 workdays and received 62 kg of buckwheat for my entire outfit of seven people. The question is, how to live? ” - and at the end he added: “The elections are coming up. The Soviet people rejoice ... But my family will not go to vote. ”
The complaint worked. Important guests from the area were welcomed. The poverty of the Kuzkin impressed, and again there was a meeting in the district, only the arbitrariness of Gusenkov and Motyakov was already being examined. They are reprimanded by them, and Zhivoye is given a passport of a free man, financial assistance, and even employed - as a guard at the forest. In the spring, when the watchdog ended, Fomich managed to get a job as a guard and storekeeper with rafts with a forest. So both at home and at work, Fomich turned out to be. The former collective farm authorities gritted their teeth, waiting for the case. And it waited. Once a strong wind rose, the wave began to swing and rattle the rafts. A little more, and tear them off the coast, scatter across the river. Need a tractor, just an hour. And Fomich rushed to the board for help. They did not give the tractor. Fomich had to look for an assistant and a tractor driver for money and for a bottle - they saved the forest. When Guzenkov forbade the collective farm store to sell Kuzkin bread, Fomich fought off with the help of a correspondent. And finally, a third blow ensued: the board decided to rob the Kuzkin’s garden. Fomich rested himself, and then they proclaimed Zhivoy a parasite, seizing collective farm land. They arranged a court in the village. The conclusion threatened him. It was difficult, but Alive turned out in court, quick wit and sharp tongue helped. And here fate was generous - Fomich got a skipper place on the pier near his village. A calm and unhurried summer life flowed. Winter is worse, navigation ends, I had to weave baskets for sale. But spring came again, and with it the navigation, Fomich embarked on his skipper duties and here he found out that the marina was being abolished - so the new river authorities decided. Fomich rushed to this new bosses and as such discovered his sworn friend Motyakov, who was again resurrected for leadership work.
And again, before Fedor Fomich Kuzkin, the same eternal question arose: how to live? He still does not know where he will go, what he will do, but he feels that he will not be lost. Not those times, he thinks. Not such a man Kuzkin to the abyss, the reader thinks, reading the final lines of the story.
