(244 words) Lefty came from Tula. He was the most ordinary worker. His clothes were torn off, his hair was torn during training. Leskov did not even give him a name. And the fate of a person who was able to shoe a metal flea is not the most enviable.
The sovereign appreciated the work of the masters. Our hero personally drove the flea to the British, who did not cease to marvel at his skill. They wanted to leave him in England so that he would work for their benefit. But Lefty was a convinced patriot, he could not leave his homeland, having learned that the Russians did not properly store their guns. Finding out the secret, the Tula master rejected foreign ladies, career prospects, a secure future and drove home. On the way, the master became very ill after a long competitive booze with the English ambassador. But on arrival, the foreigner was immediately taken to the embassy, where they cured and repaired, and the Russian passenger was useless to anyone. The next day, the ambassador was already on his feet and went in search of the Lefthander and found out that the compatriots did not accept their hero, as it should. He was robbed, not admitted to any hospital, constantly dropped. It is clear that such an indifferent and insensitive attitude to human life and killed Lefty. And all he wanted to do was tell the sovereign that cleaning guns with a brick was not allowed.
Although this story is a fiction, Leskov masterfully showed us 18–19 century Russia. How important was reverence, how indifferent and cruel people can be. And it’s just that England was ready for anything, just to keep the Russian master. And in his homeland he was ruined by soulless, rude, ignorant compatriots who had no idea what talent they had lost.
