On the alley extreme to the steppe, on a January evening in 1930, he rode into the Gremyachiy Log farm, a horse. I asked passers-by for the way to Yakov Lukich Ostrovnov’s smoking area. The owner, recognizing the newcomer, looked around and whispered: “Your nobility! Otkel you? .. Mr. Yesaul ... ”This was the former commander of Ostrovnov in the first world and civil wars of the Polovtsy. After dinner, they began to interpret. Lukic was considered the primary owner of the farm, a man of great intelligence and fox caution. He began to complain: in the twentieth year he returned to the bare walls, he left all good to the Black Sea. Worked day and night. In the very first year, the new government swept out all grain cleanly and then lost the bill: he handed over bread, meat, butter, skin, and bird, paid uncountable taxes ... Now - a new misfortune. Someone came from the region and will drive everyone to the collective farm. I made my hump, and now give it to the common boiler? “We must fight, brother,” explains Polovtsev. And at his suggestion, Yakov Lukich enters the "Union for the Liberation of his native Don."
And the man they talked about in the past was a sailor, and then a locksmith at the Putilov plant, Semyon Davydov, came to Gremyachiy to collectivize. At first he convened a meeting of the Gremyachen asset and the poor. Those present signed up on the collective farm and approved the list of fists: those who got into it were waiting for the confiscation of property and eviction from housing. When discussing the candidacy of Titus Borodin, a hitch arose. Communist Party farm secretary Makar Nagulnov, a former red partisan, explained to Davydov: Titus is a former Red Guard from the poor. But, having returned from the war, he seized his teeth on the household. He worked twenty hours a day, overgrown with wild wool, acquired a hernia - and began to grow rich, despite warnings and persuasions to wait for the world revolution. To the conspirators he answered: "I was nothing and became everything, I fought for it."
“There was a partisan - an honor to him for this, he made a fist - to crush him,” answered Davydov. The next day, under the tears of evicted children and women, dispossession took place. The chairman of the Gremyachensky village council, Andrei Razmetnov, at first even refused to take part in this, but was persuaded by Davydov.
Gremyagenschii prosperity in the collective farm, not all sought. Dissatisfied with the authorities secretly gathered to discuss the situation. Among them were the middle peasants, and even some of the poor, Nikita Khaprov, for example, who was blackmailed by the fact that for some time he was in a punitive detachment of whites. But Ostrovnova’s offer refused to participate in the armed uprising. Better he will report on himself. By the way, who does this live with Lukich in the chambers - isn’t that “your nobleness” who is inciting to rebellion? That same night, Khoprova and his wife were killed. Participated in this Ostrovnov, Polovtsev and the son of a dispossessed, the first village handsome and harmonist Timothy Ripped. An investigator from the district was unable to get the strings leading to the disclosure of the murder.
A week later, the general meeting of collective farmers approved the visiting Davydov as the chairman of the collective farm, and Ostrovnova as the foreman. Collectivization in Gremyachy was difficult: at first they cleaned the cattle cleanly so as not to socialize it, then they covered seed grain from surrender.
The party secretary Nagulnov divorced his wife Lukerya because she publicly voted on the expelled Timofei Rhvan, his beloved. And soon Lushka, known for her windiness, met Davydov and told him: “You look at me, comrade Davydov ... I am a beautiful woman, she’s already lovely for love ...”
Polovtsev and Yakov Lukich informed like-minded people from a neighboring farm that the uprising was scheduled for the day after tomorrow. But those, it turns out, changed their minds after reading Stalin’s article “Vertigo from Success”. They thought that driving everyone into a collective farm was an order from the center. And Stalin said that "you can sit in your uniqueness." So with the local authorities, who have bent hard on collectivization, they will get along, “and turning against the entire Soviet power” is worthless. “Fools, God damned! ..” Polovtsev boiled. “They don’t understand that this article is a vile deceit, a maneuver!” And in Gremyachy, a week after the appearance of the article, about a hundred applications for leaving the collective farm were filed. Including from the widow of Marina Poyarkova, the "love" of the pre-council Andrei Razmet-nova. And half an hour later, Marina, personally harnessing herself to the shafts of her wagon, easily took the harrow and plowman from the brigade's yard.
The relations between the people and the authorities again escalated. And then there came carts from Yarsky farm and there was a rumor that behind the seed grain. And a riot broke out in Gremyachy: they beat Davydov, knocked down the locks from the barns and began to unscramble the grain without authorization. After the riot was suppressed, Davydov promised not to apply administrative measures to the “temporarily mistaken” ones.
By May 15, the collective farm in Gremyachy completed the sowing plan. And Lushka began to visit Davydov: she took newspapers and wondered if the chairman had missed her. The resistance of the former naval was short-lived, and soon the whole village learned about their connection.
Ostrovnov met in the forest Timofey Rvanoi, who had escaped from exile. He ordered to tell Lucrier what was waiting for the grub. And the trouble was incomparably more terrible for Lukich’s house: Polovtsev returned and, together with his friend Lyatyevsky, settled at Ostrovnov for a secret residence.
Davydov, tormented by the fact that relations with Lushka undermine his authority, invited her to get married. Suddenly, this led to a fierce quarrel. In separation, the chairman yearned for, entrusted affairs to Razmetnov, and he himself drove off to the second brigade to help raise couples. The brigade was constantly gnawing about the exorbitant thickness of Daria's cooking. With the arrival of Davydov, there was another topic for rude jokes - the love of young Varya Kharlamova in him. But he himself, looking into her face blushing with blush, thought: “After all, I’m twice your age, wounded, ugly, chipped ... No ... grow up without me, dear.”
One day before sunrise, a horse rode up to the camp. He joked with Daria, helped her peel the potatoes, and then ordered to wake Davydov. This was the new secretary of the district committee Nesterenko. He checked the quality of plowing, talked about collective farm affairs, in which he was very well-versed, and criticized the chairman for omissions. The sailor himself was going to the farm: he became aware that the night before Makara had been shot.
In Gremyachy Razmetnov described the details of the assassination attempt: at night Makar sat at the open window with his new-found friend, a prankster and joker, grandfather Shchukar, "they cut him from a rifle on him." In the morning, it was determined on the cartridge case that the man who had not fought was shooting: the soldier would not miss the thirty steps. And the shooter was running away so that the horse could not catch up. The shot did not cause any harm to the party secretary, but he had a terrible runny nose, heard throughout the whole farm.
Davydov went to the forge to inspect the inventory repaired to sowing. The blacksmith Ippolit Shaly in a conversation warned the chairman to throw Lukerya, otherwise he would also get a bullet in the forehead. Lushka is not knitting knots with him alone. And without that it is not clear why Tymoshenko Ripped (namely, he turned out to be an unlucky shooter) shot at Makar, and not at Davydov.
In the evening, Davydov spoke about the conversation to Makar and Razmetnov, offered to inform the GPU. Makar resolutely opposed: if the gepeushnik appears on the farm, Timothy will immediately disappear. Makar personally ambushed his “previous” wife’s house (Lushka was locked up at that time) and on the third day he killed Timofey who appeared from the first shot. Lucrier gave the opportunity to say goodbye to the murdered and released.
In Gremyachy, meanwhile, new people appeared: two rye cattle procurers. But Razmetnov detained them, noting that both the pens of the visitors were white and their faces were not rustic. Here the "procurers" presented the documents of the OGPU regional administration and said that they were looking for a dangerous enemy, the Yesaul of the white army of Polovtsev, and a professional instinct tells them that he was hiding in Gremyachy.
After the next party meeting, Davydova caught Varia to say: her mother wants to marry her, she herself loves him, a blind fool. After sleepless thoughts, Davydov decided to marry her in the fall. In the meantime, he sent to study as an agronomist.
Two days later, two procurers were killed on the road. Razmetnov, Nagulnov and Davydov immediately established surveillance of the homes of those who bought livestock. Surveillance brought Ostrovnov to the house. Makar proposed a capture plan: he and Davydov burst through the door, and Andrei will lie down in the courtyard under the window. After some negotiations, the owner himself opened them. Makar kicked the knocked door, but did not have time to shoot. An explosion of a hand grenade flashed near the threshold, and then a machine gun rattled. Nagulnov, disfigured by splinters, died instantly, and Davydov, who fell under the machine-gun fire, died the next night.
... So the Don nightingales Davydova and Nagulnova buried, the ripe wheat whispered to them, an unnamed river rang over the stones ... In the man killed by Razmetnov, the OGPU officers identified Lyatyevsky. Polovtsev was taken three weeks later near Tashkent. After that, arrests swept across the edge in a wide wave. In total, more than six hundred participants in the conspiracy were neutralized.
