Sholokhov’s “Virgin Soil Upturned” in Brief Content
On the edge of the steppe, in the evening of January 1930, Gremyachy Log riding was driven into the farm. The passers-by asked the way to the kook of Yakov Lukich Ostrovnov. The owner, having recognized the visitor, looked around and whispered: “Your Honor, Otkel you? .. Mister esaul…” It was the former commander of Ostrovnov in the first world and civil wars of Polovtsi. Having supper, began to interpret. Lukich was considered on the farm as a first-rate master, a man of great intelligence and fox care. The visitor began to complain: in the twentieth year he returned to the bare walls, he left all the good things near the Black Sea. Worked day and night. In the first year, the new government swept out all the grain in surplus-appropriately for the grain, and then lost the account to the surrender: he gave up bread, meat, butter, leather, and poultry, paying uncountable taxes… Now – a new attack. A certain person came from the district and will drive everyone
And the man they were talking about, in the past a sailor, and then a mechanic at the Putilov factory, Semyon Davydov, came to Gremyachy to collectivize. Initially, he convened a meeting of the Gremyachin asset and the poor. The attendees registered themselves in the collective farm and approved the list of kulaks: those who were in it waited for confiscation of property and eviction from housing. When discussing the candidacy of Titus Borodin, there was a hitch. The secretary of the farm cell of the Communist Party, Makar Nagulnov, in the past the red partisan, explained to Davydov: Titus was a former Red Guardsman, out of the poor. But, after returning from the war, he grabbed his teeth with his teeth. He worked twenty hours a day, grew wild wool, acquired a hernia – and began to grow rich, despite warnings and persuasion to wait for the world revolution.
“There was a partisan – an honor to him for it, he became a fist – crush,” – answered Davidov. The next day, under the tears of evicted children and women, was dekulakization. The chairman of the Gremyachi village council, Andrei Razmetnov, at first refused to take part in this, but was persuaded by Davydov.
Gremyachentsi did not strive for the kolkhoz. Dissatisfied with the authorities secretly were going to discuss the situation. Among them were middle peasants, and even some of the poor, Nikita Khoprov, for example, who was blackmailed by the fact that he was for some time in the White detachment. But on the proposal of Ostrovnov to participate in the armed uprising Khoprov refused. Better he will report himself. By the way, who lives it with Lukich in the chaff, is not this “your honor”, which is inciting to revolt? That night Khoprov and his wife were killed. Participated in this Island, Polovtsev and the son of the dekulakized, the first village handsome and harmonious Timothy Rvaniy. The investigator from the district did not manage to get the threads leading to the disclosure of the murder.
A week later, the general meeting of collective farmers was approved by the chairman of the collective farm of the newcomer Davydov, and the head of the collective farm was Ostrovnov. Collectivization in Gremyach was difficult: in the beginning, the cattle were slaughtered in order not to socialize it, then sheltered the seed grain from the surrender.
The party secretary Nagulnov divorced his wife Lukerya because she publicly polled on the sent to Timothy Rvanom, his lover. And soon Lushka, who was known for her windyness, met Davydova and said to him: “Look at me, Comrade Davydov… I am a beautiful woman,
Polovtsev and Yakov Lukich informed like-minded people from a nearby farm that the uprising was scheduled for the day after tomorrow. But those, it turns out, changed their intentions after reading Stalin’s article “Vertigo from Success”. They thought that they were to drive everyone into the collective farm – the order of the center. And Stalin said that “you can sit in your own individuality.” So they would get along with the local bosses who rigidly bent collectivization, “and turn against the entire Soviet power” is worthless. “Fools, God’s damned!” Boiled Polovtsev, “they do not understand that this article is a vile deception, a maneuver!” And in Gremyach a week after the appearance of the article, about one hundred applications for withdrawal from the kolkhoz were submitted. Including from the widow of Marina Poyarkova, the “lyubushka” of the pres-soviet, Andrei Razmetnov. And half an hour later Marina, personally harnessed to the shafts of her cart,
Relations between the people and the authorities again worsened. And then came the carts from the village of Yarsky and there was a rumor that behind the seed grain. And in Gremyachom rebellion broke out: beat Davydov, knocked the locks from the barns and began to disassemble the grain. After suppressing the rebellion, Davydov promised not to apply administrative measures to “temporarily mistaken” administrative measures.
By May 15, the collective farm in Gremyach had completed the sowing plan. And Lushka began to pay attention to Davydov: she took newspapers and asked whether the chairman was bored by it. Resistance of the former fleet was short-lived, and soon all of the village learned of their connection.
In the forest, Ostrovnov met Timothy Rvanogo, who escaped from exile. He told Lukerye to tell him he was waiting for the food. And Lukich’s house was in for an incomparably more awful nuisance: Polovtsev returned and, along with his comrade Lyatyevsky, settled with Ostrovnova for a secret stay.
Davydov, tormented by the fact that his relationship with Lushka undermined his authority, invited her to marry. Suddenly this led to a brutal quarrel. In the absence of the chairman, he yearned, ordered the affairs of Razmetnov, and he himself went off to the second brigade to help raise the pair. The brigade was constantly clapped about the exorbitant thickness of Daria’s cook. With the arrival of Davydov, another topic appeared for rough jokes: the love of young Vary Kharlamova in him. He himself, looking into her flushed face, thought: “After all, I’m twice your age, wounded, ugly, dented… No… grow without me, my dear.”
Somehow before sunrise, the riding horse drove up to the camp. I joked with Daria, helped her to clean potatoes, and then ordered to wake Davydov. It was the new secretary of the district committee of Nestorenko. He inspected the quality of plowing, talked about collective farm affairs, in which he was very knowledgeable, and criticized the chairman for his omissions. The sailor himself was going to the farm: he learned that the previous night in Makar was shot.
In Gremyachom, Razmetnov outlined the details of the assassination attempt: at night Makar was sitting at the open window with his new-found friend the prankster and joker Grandfather Shchukar, “on it and cut from the rifle.” In the morning on the cartridge case it was determined that the man who did not fire had shot: a soldier from thirty steps would not miss. Yes, and ran off the shooter so that the horse did not catch up. The shot did not cause any damage to the party secretary, but he had a terrible cold, heard over the whole village.
Davydov went to the smithy to inspect the equipment repaired to sowing. Blacksmith Ippolit Shaliy in a conversation warned the chairman to throw Lukeryu, otherwise he would also get a bullet in the forehead. Lushka does not knit knots with him alone. And without that it is not clear why Timoshka Rvaniy shot Makar, not Davydov.
In the evening Davydov talked about the conversation between Makar and Razmetnov, he offered to report to the GPU. Makar resolutely opposed: it’s worth the gapeushniku appear on the farm, Timofey immediately disappears. Makar personally ambushed the house of his “predbylivshey” wife and on the third day killed the appeared Timothy from the first shot. Lukerye gave an opportunity to say goodbye to the dead and let him go.
In Gremyach, meanwhile, there were new people: two raisins of the cattle-breeding. But Razmetnov detained them, noticing that the handles of the visitors were white, and the faces were not rustic. Here, the “procurers” presented the documents of the officers of the regional department of the OGPU and told that they are looking for a dangerous enemy, the white army’s lieutenant Polovtseva, and a professional flair tells them that he is hiding in Gremyach.
After the next party meeting, Davydova went to Varya to say: the mother wants to marry her, she herself loves him, the fool of the blind. Davydov after sleepless meditations decided in the fall to marry her. In the meantime, I sent you to study for an agronomist.
Two days later two procurers were killed on the road. Razmetnov, Nagulnov and Davydov immediately installed a surveillance of the houses of those who bought livestock. The surveillance led to Ostrovnova’s house. The plan for the capture was proposed by Makar: they break into the door with Davydov, and Andrew will crouch in the courtyard under the window. After short negotiations, the owner opened it. Makar kicked the door shut with a kick of his foot, but did not have time to shoot. Near the threshold, a burst of hand grenades flashed, followed by a machine gun. Nagulnov, mutilated by splinters, died instantly, and Davydov, who fell under a machine-gun fire, died the next night.
… So the Don Nightingales singed Davydov and Nagulnov, the ripening wheat whispered to them, an unnamed river rang over the rocks… In the murdered Razmetnov man, the OGPU officers identified Lyatyevsky. Polovtsev was taken three weeks later near Tashkent. After that, on the edge of a broad wave of arrests swept. In total, more than six hundred conspirators were neutralized.
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