Summary “Odnodum” Leskova
Childhood and youth of Alexander Ryzhov
In the reign of Catherine II, in the town of Soligalich, Kostroma province, the son of a small office clerk Ryzhov was born Alex’s son. Having lost his father at a young age, he was brought up by his mother, who sold pies of his own making on the market. He learned the letter from a poor clerk. And then he began to earn his first kopecks by writing memorial memories to old women. He started working physically at the age of fourteen. At sixteen I decided to walk on foot and had to go from Soligalich to Chukhlomu once a week and back. On this exhausting and meagerly paid work in winter and summer, “he thought of his orphan’s thoughts, which were formed in him under the lively impression of everything he met, what he saw and heard.” Under such conditions, a poet like Burns or Koltsov could emerge from him, but Ryzhov was another fold, not a poetic one, but a philosophical… The postal soum to such a degree was not
Ryzhov knew by heart the writings of many prophets and especially loved Isaiah. The young man decided to be honest with both God and people, and live life in harmony with his conscience.
Device on service
He passed Ryzhov about twelve years, until the pedestrian post was replaced by a horse. Soligalich died in the old quarter, and Ryzhov decided to ask for his place. This position, although not very high, was of great importance for the inhabitants of such uyezd townships in the 4th place (after the emperor, the governor and the mayor). “The place is quite advantageous if the person who occupies it is well able to pull a log of firewood, a couple of beetroots or cabbages from each cart, but if he did not know how, he would be unwell.” Ryzhov from the very first day of service “turned out to be repulsive and correct”. Order in the bazaar and in the whole city, he brought up pretty quickly.
Ryzhov did not care what they thought of him: he honestly served everyone and did not please anyone; in his own thoughts he reported to God. For which he was respected, although they said mockingly that they had a quarterly “such-and-such”. After thirty years of impeccable service, he was appointed a governor.
Diary Ryzhov called “Odnodum”
Alexander Ryzhov had one hobby. He led a kind of diary, in which he wrote biblical quotes and his arguments about life. If there was an important event – a natural disaster, the coronation of the sovereign, the emergence of a new law – Ryzhov wrote it down in a large notebook, accompanying it all with his own comments. The notebooks, as they were filled, were sewn in one cover, on which stood the significant inscription “Odnodum”. Nobody knew what lay in this book, and from this it seemed to others not only mysterious, but also seditious. With the advent of the book, he received the moniker Ododum, which stuck to him for the rest of his life.
The new Kostroma governor S. S. Lanskoy visited with the inspector Soligalich and was very surprised that such an “enticing” post is an unusually honest and disinterested official. The governor was also interested in Odnodum, since he was obligingly informed about a suspicious book. He examined her, Lanskoy was surprised that Ryzhov’s previous prophecies had been fulfilled.
After a lapse of two years to the quarterly Ryzhov, the Vladimir Cross was given to the granting nobility – the first Vladimir cross, granted to the quarterly. “Both the cross and the letter were handed to Alexander Afanasievich with the announcement that he had been awarded the honor and this award on Lansky’s suggestion.” Ryzhov accepted the order, looked at him and said aloud: “An eccentric!”
Alexander Afanasyevich lived until ninety years, carefully marking everything in his Odnodume. And for many years after his death, people remembered the amazing philosopher.
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)