The first tractor The name of Pasha Angelina saved her Christian family during the years of repression

An hour of memory dedicated to the great woman - Pasha Angelina

Explanatory note:
Our country is famous for great women and their exploits. They have done a lot for the development of our country. There are great composers among women - Alexandra Pakhmutova, there are magnificent singers: Alla Pugacheva, Irina Allegrova, etc., there are poetesses: Yulia Drunina, Olga Berggolts, but there are women who became famous for their labor exploits. Among these women is Pasha Angelina, the great tractor driver of Russia. This name is not familiar to students, she is given several lines in the history textbook, so I wanted to tell students about this great woman of the Stalinist period. This material is provided for students in grades 9-10. There are two presenters and readers in development.
Target: formation of an idea about a woman - a legend - Pasha Angelina;
Tasks: to cultivate love for work;
arouse the desire of students to work for the good of their homeland;
make students want to remember heroic people,
develop the ability to listen and understand the meaning of what they heard.
Class time course:
Teacher:
Dear Guys! Our country is famous for great women and their heroic deeds. What kind of women do you know?
Student responses:
Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, Valentina Tereshkova, Anna Akhmatova, Maya Plisetskaya, Irina Rodnina, Chullan Khamatova - founder of the charitable foundation: Give Life, Natalia Vodianova - Russian supermodel, actress and philanthropist and many others.
Host: (1)
We will supplement your list with some names of the famous women of Russia.
Look at the portraits of the great women of Russia. Let's read these slides.

Don't wait for answers to your questions
(Svetlana Chekopayeva)
Host: (1)
Was it - was it not?
Stalin's favorite ... It could be both very good and very bad. Good - because no one dared to touch Angelina even in the most "repressive" years. It's bad, because - and what is she, in fact, with this so-called "love", except for dirty rumors? Pasha herself never called Stalin - she was not such a person. The Supreme Commander also met with his tractor protégé at congresses and meetings in the Kremlin: why would he need extra trouble? But what about the parliamentary mandate? "Deputy of the Supreme Council" - sounds solid. Pasha always behaved very dignified. And to the resort, and at the session of the Supreme Council, she took her daughter with her. Who will molest a woman who is always with an adult child? But even so, rumors could not be avoided ...

There is peace and honor in a strong woman,
She does not promise herself to men as a gift.
There is a tribute to nobility and patience in it,
Her sugary flattery phrases do not seduce ...

Strong is the woman who is affectionately tender,
What can be both support and support.
Steps with an airy gait from the hip,
Slips between the rudeness of magical snow-white.

Where it hurts - endure, where it's insulting - keep silent,
Without reproach, he will take everything on his shoulders ...
In an affair - she won’t accuse her husband in a rush,
And torn wounds - heal with prayers ...

She knows how to be hot in the cold,
And the fear of freezing in life will definitely not show ...
Survive when offended by fate
And he will not punish another with rude revenge ...

She is strong, though she cries at night,
You can’t buy it for expensive gifts ...
Clings with timidity to native, male shoulders,
Let it be a little sad, but ... with pleasant nostalgia ...

Being a strong woman in life is not easy -
After all, by nature we are weaker than men ...
Even a word can hurt us deeply,
Isn't that why there are wrinkles on the faces of women? ...

We hasten to be strong in defiance of fate,
And we want to show willpower everywhere ...
To be a strong woman? Believe me, this is nonsense...
After all, in the depths - we are all ... vulnerable to pain ...
(Julia Chereshenka)
Reader: (1)
I can do everything.
I can do everything.
I'll survive.
I'll be ill.
I'm turning over.
I'll make it.
But I'll still get my way.
I won't fall. I won't drown.
I'll break out of the mud. I can.
Pererev. I suffer.
And the smile shines again.
Yes, it's not easy. I don't argue it's hard.
But it is quite possible to live on.
I can do everything. I can do everything.
I'm not afraid. I do not regret.
Host: (1)
Memory stays bright
Working on an equal footing with men, constant shaking on the tractor did not contribute to health: Angelina twice suffered "Botkin's disease" on her legs, or, more simply, viral hepatitis. It was after her examination that such a rumor went: Like, she earned cirrhosis of the liver by drinking with her tractor drivers ((after the war, only men remained in Pasha's brigade).

And instead of the heart - fiery motor

famous 60 years ago
Pasha Angelina, who created the first female tractor brigade in the USSR, received the Star of the Hero of Socialist Labor

She herself, as they said then, saddled the “iron horse” and called other young girls after her. 200,000 women across the country followed her example on a tractor. Soviet propaganda she spared no colors, painting it as an example of the equality for which female comrades in the world of capital fought unsuccessfully.

That was Pasha Angelina's first Golden Star. The second one was handed to her 11 years later - in the Kremlin hospital shortly before her death. It was already a completely different woman - exhausted by the disease, with sadness in her eyes. Praskovya Nikitichna passed away at the age of 46 from cirrhosis of the liver. Neither the fresh air of the collective farm fields, nor the natural health of the peasants, nor the Kremlin doctors, according to the high deputy status, - nothing helped.

Evil tongues gossiped that, while working with men (after the war, Angelina led an exclusively male brigade), she drank with them on an equal footing. In fact, cirrhosis of the liver was an occupational disease of tractor drivers of those years: they had to breathe fuel vapors from morning to evening. Her children are sure that Angelina would have lived twice as long if it were not for the grueling work exceeding her own records and constant fatigue. And now stands in front of the entrance to her memorial museum tractor, on which this woman performed her labor exploits - a monument of the communist era, which promised a bright future and did not spare human lives in the present ...

Angelina's life went along the route Starobeshevo - Moscow - Starobeshevo: from the collective farm field to the Conference Hall of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and back. The personal life of the order-bearer was always in sight, she was envied, ridiculous rumors were spread about her. Fearing evil tongues, Praskovya Nikitichna traveled everywhere with her eldest daughter Svetlana.

The daughter of the famous tractor driver Pasha Angelina Svetlana: “They said about my mother that she was Stalin’s mistress, an alcoholic and we don’t have a house, but a brothel”

"MOM EVEN AT HOME WEARED CREPE-DE-CHINE DRESSES"

- Svetlana Sergeevna, you often accompanied your mother Praskovya Nikitichna on her trips. Have you noticed - she liked men?

You can’t call your mother a beauty, but nature endowed her with charm. She smiled from the pages of Soviet newspapers and magazines like a real movie star. By the way, in the female form from the famous sculpture "Worker and Collective Farm Woman" there are also mother's features - after all, she was friends with Vera Mukhina. Mom was very feminine.

- Wow, but according to Soviet history textbooks, she seems to be such, sorry, a man in a skirt. Indeed, in the portraits of Praskovya Nikitichna is always in overalls or in a formal suit with orders and medals. Did she care about her appearance?

I never saw my mother in a nightgown, she got out of bed and immediately dressed. She did not recognize bathrobes and even wore crepe de chine dresses at home. She used lipstick, put on an emerald ring and an engagement ring at meetings. I washed my hair every day, even though I went to bed after midnight, and at five in the morning I was already leaving for work.

I will remember this story for the rest of my life. Arriving in Moscow for a session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, my mother stayed at the Moskva Hotel, where deputies were served out of turn at the hairdresser's. I decided to get a manicure, but the queue took, like everyone else. And now I hear one woman whispering to a manicurist: “There, it seems, Pasha Angelina is sitting in the queue.” The manicurist was surprised: “She’s supposed to do it without any queue!” Then my mother sat down at the table, and the manicurist said to her: “Imagine, there, in line, Pasha Angelina herself is waiting.” I could not stand it and through laughter said: “Praskovya Angelina is already in front of you.” The manicurist could not believe: “Wow, you have such amazingly delicate skin, I would never have thought that you were a machine operator!”.

Mom was a very chaste person. Only with age I began to understand why she tried not to go to the session of the Supreme Council and to the resort alone - at first she took her niece with her, then me. Mom rented a room for two, and there I was waiting for her from long meetings. It was a very wise move. Who will molest a woman who is always with an adult child? And after the meetings, we went everywhere together. So from the age of 10 I already visited the Tretyakov Gallery, the Pushkin Museum, the Bolshoi Theater. It gave me a lot for the rest of my life. At the entrance exams at Moscow State University, no one believed that I grew up in the village. I lived in a hotel with my mother even when I was already a student.

- But the rumors still could not be avoided?

Yes, there was a lot of dirt. They said that she was Stalin's mistress, they attributed a relationship with other famous people. They even chatted that she was an alcoholic - in front of the neighbors, my mother drank a glass of water, and it seemed to someone - vodka. These dirty rumors live on to this day. I have not yet told anyone about one terrible incident. Suddenly a team of doctors came to us. The doctor said something to my mother, and I saw how her face changed. It turned out that they came to take a blood test for syphilis from the whole family, even from children. I realized that something terrible was happening.

Mom began to call the secretary of the district committee of the party, but this did not give any results. She was told: "It is in your best interest to donate blood." One of the villagers wrote an anonymous letter saying that we do not have a house, but a brothel, every evening there are men, booze. Then, after all, the anonymous people had a green light. Then they apologized to my mother very much, but I will never forget her face at that moment. All this is human envy, she pursued and killed her mother. Growing up, I realized that in her environment there were many envious people who could not be trusted. I could name these people, but why? God is their judge.

- Praskovya Nikitichna had a direct telephone connection with Stalin. This honor was awarded to a few people - Stakhanov, Chkalov, Papanin ... Couldn't she pick up the phone and complain to him?

Mom never called Stalin. It seems to me that belonging to the highest circles weighed on her. Mom did not hide the fact that it was very difficult for her to attend meetings. She is a different kind of person. She was always very cautious, she warned that in the room of the Moskva Hotel, in which we stayed with her, nothing could be said, because here even the walls have ears. When I asked her some serious questions, I answered: "Grow up - you will figure it out yourself." During the World Youth Festival, I was invited to take part in scientific conference, but my mother did not allow: "There is nothing for you to communicate with foreigners." I was very upset then.

- And in what way, besides a direct telephone, was Stalin's benevolence expressed towards the famous tractor driver?

- Nothing. Even repression touched our family. Mom's brother, Uncle Kostya, was the chairman of the collective farm. He planted grain when he considered it necessary, and the chairman of the district executive committee intervened in the sowing schedule. Uncle Kostya took it and sent him obscene. He was arrested and kept in prison for several months. They beat me so that no marks were left on the body, but the lungs were beaten off. Uncle Kostya - a military sailor, survived the blockade, was an incredibly healthy person. But he could not stand these abuses. When his mother brought him to Moscow for a consultation, the professor said that he had three months to live.

During the times of repression, my mother tried to protect the Greeks, but what could she do? By the way, when I told someone in my youth that Pasha Angelina was Greek, they laughed at me: “What are you, she is a Russian heroine!”

“DRUNK DAD SHOOT AT MOM BUT MISSED”

- The official biography of Praskovya Angelina claims that her husband, and your father, Sergei Chernyshev, died of wounds shortly after the war. But it wasn't like that. Who needs this lie?

Mom cut her father out of her life and made a promise to herself that she would raise four children herself. And I told everyone that my father was dead. He drank heavily and it ruined their marriage. I think mom loved him even when they broke up. Mom got married already with a child in her arms - she adopted her nephew Gennady, whom her own mother, after the death of Uncle Vanya (this is her mother's brother), threw out into the street.

My father was sent to the Donbass according to the party order from Kursk. When his parents met, he worked as the second secretary of the Starobeshevsky district party committee, was a very capable person, a leader by nature, spoke well, drew, wrote poetry. If not for his mother, he would certainly have made a great career. But it is difficult for two leaders, like two bears in one lair, to get along. By position, the father was the owner of the district, but for everyone he remained, first of all, the husband of Praskovya Angelina. At the age of 22, my mother had the Order of Lenin on her chest. Letters came to her from all over the world, even the address was not always written on envelopes - just “USSR, Pasha Angelina”, and that’s it.

At 24, my mother already became a deputy of the Supreme Council. She stood the test of glory, but paid a very high price for it. She didn't really have a personal life. In winter, meetings, sessions, constant traveling - Moscow, Kyiv, Stalino ... In the summer in the field until dark. In addition, my mother also studied at the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy, and my younger brother Valery was born in Moscow. The war prevented me from graduating from the academy. Mom with a tractor brigade was evacuated to Kazakhstan (all the equipment that was transported in two trains was also taken there), and my father was called to the front.

During the evacuation, my mother was "lost" in the Ministry Agriculture, but when her brigade began to give large crops of bread to the country, a telegram of thanks came from Stalin. In 1942, Kalinin summoned her to a session of the Supreme Council, and her mother, pregnant with another child, in the process of being demolished, with swollen legs, left for Moscow. On the way back, near Saratov, the train in which she was returning was bombed, and only the last carriages remained intact. There, under the bombardment, my mother gave birth. But we did not know any of this and, frankly, we thought that she would not return. She was gone for several months, and then she arrived with a thin girl - skin and bones. The baby screamed all the time, often got sick. A child of war - what can I say. Mom decided to call her Stalin, in honor of Stalin and the victory at Stalingrad.

Father fought, and we considered him a hero, wrote letters to him at the front. After the war, he did not immediately come home - he remained to serve in Germany as the commandant of a military camp. He returned a complete alcoholic, but his entire chest was in orders. The war got him. Following him, a woman with a child came to us, as it turned out, his front-line wife. Mom treated her with understanding and accepted her well, but since then we have not heard anything about these people.

Once, in response to reproaches, a drunken father shot his mother. I managed to throw myself on her neck, she deviated - a miss! We had a bullet in the wall for a long time. I lost consciousness from stress, then a terrible depression began, I was treated for a long time. The next morning after this incident, the family life of the parents ended. Dad left for the Volnovakha district, married a teacher, a girl was born - Svetlana Chernysheva. We could have been full namesakes if my mother had not changed our last names from Chernyshevs to Angelinas.

Svetlana and I corresponded, and then got lost. After the divorce, my father came to us only twice - the last time for my mother's funeral, and before that - already completely ill, and she, already unwell herself, sent him to a sanatorium. My father did not drink at one time, but still could not resist. The teacher, his wife, a very respectable woman, endured for some time, and even kicked him out. He ended his life as a bum.

- Really no one else wooed Praskovya Nikitichna?

- It was. She met this man in Kazakhstan - Pavel Ivanovich Simonov. Highly handsome man, widower, secretary of the Ural regional party committee. I saw him in Moscow, and he came to us in Starobeshevo. I was surprised then that my mother met him, had lunch together, and then she suddenly thought that she had some important business, and went to her sister in a neighboring area. My grandparents and we, the children, stayed at home. He lived with us for several days. He, of course, was offended that his mother did this to him. I remember that Pavel Ivanovich rudely pulled one of the children, and grandmother heard this. She complained to her mother when she arrived...

In general, the guest left with nothing, although he was very passionate about his mother. She didn't marry because of us. I think if my mother had a husband, she would have felt sorry for herself and would not have worked to the point of self-torture.

“MOM, AS A DEPUTY, HAD TWO ROOMS IN A COMMUNE APARTMENT”

- After returning from Kazakhstan, Angelina's brigade consisted only of men. Was it difficult for her to deal with them?

- Maybe it's hard for someone to believe - my mother never used strong words. But her authority was indisputable! She led the brigade as a girl, but from the first days she was called "Aunt Pasha." Our grandfather, by the way, an illiterate person, also never cursed in the house. I never heard him raise his voice to my grandmother. And my mom never hit me. With the boys, however, was strict. They grew up without a man's hand. I had pedagogical disputes with her, defended the brothers.

She knew how to listen and spoke little. Maybe after work she didn’t have the strength to talk. In the evenings she knitted socks and mittens, sewed school uniforms for us. I think mom would be a great dressmaker. She also cooked very well.

- Soviet propaganda blinded a real icon from Praskovya Nikitichna, she was presented as a role model. For such people at all times there were considerable privileges.

Judge for yourself. A deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR then received one hundred rubles for expenses and the right to free travel. Mom, as a deputy, had two rooms in a large Moscow communal apartment. Before the revolution, a doctor like Professor Preobrazhensky lived there, and after 1917 10 families settled there. There are 42 people in total. One toilet and washbasin for all - can you imagine? My mother's niece lived in Moscow at the time. With her husband, Hero of the Soviet Union, and with a small child, they filmed some kind of bedbug. And my mother begged for a corner for them. Later, I also settled with them - it was believed that this was better than a hostel. Those were the perks.

And after the death of my mother, almost everyone left us. Only my mother's friend, Galina Evgenievna Burkatskaya, took care of her. I can call her my second mother. She was a great woman, blessed be her memory. Cavalier of two orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, twice Hero of Socialist Labor, headed a collective farm in the Cherkasy region, was a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. It was she who got me a two-room apartment in Moscow. Galina Evgenievna was twice awarded the Order of Princess Olga. She died last year at the age of 90.

I remember another such case. Once my mother and I were walking to the Moskva Hotel along Chernyshevsky Street. By the way, she liked to walk a lot. It was a very hot day, I was tired and hungry. She began to ask her mother: “Come, feed me.” We went to the dining room where we had lunch. The food was average: pea soup, goulash with buckwheat porridge and compote the color of childhood malaise. Mom was dressed in a crepe de chine dress, on her chest were two medals of the Hero of Socialist Labor, a deputy badge and a laureate. The cleaner, when she saw her, was stunned. Indeed, the deputies, who were fed in the Kremlin for free, never entered their institution. The headmistress comes out, smiles and asks her mother to leave a review - did you like the dinner. Mom nodded at me: they say, my daughter is literate, so let her write ... I look at today's deputies and think: what a bright mother was compared to them.

- So, neither to your admission to Moscow State University, nor to the search for prestigious job Praskovya Nikitichna had no relationship?

- What do you! When I entered the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University, they asked me if I was Angelina's daughter. I answered that I was just a namesake and grew up in those places where there are many Angelins. I had to study well so that they would not say that they were doing me favors. After university, she found a job at Soyuzpechat. She started as an instructor, rose to the rank of first deputy director. I had a team of 2700 people under my command. Soyuzpechat was responsible for subscribing to periodicals throughout the USSR. I think that I received a very good education, because we were taught by professors who had studied themselves even before the revolution.

Everything I earned for my retirement is trash now. My husband and I no longer work, we live in the suburbs in the country, which we inherited from relatives. We insulated it and wintered here for two winters. Moscow has become completely different now, we do not like it.

- How did it happen that the doctors did not keep track of the health of the famous Pasha Angelina?

Mom worked very hard. Never slept well, never ate well. Twice she suffered Botkin's disease on her legs. I came from Moscow and noticed how she lost weight. Aunt Nadya, my mother's sister, who took paramedic courses during the war, was also worried. They called the doctors, and they said that things were bad and that they needed to take my mother to Moscow. Donetsk doctors were simply afraid of responsibility. Mom was very surprised that they gave me a permanent pass to the hospital, although according to the rules, patients were allowed to visit only twice a week. They made an exception for me, because my mother was a hopeless patient. In the hospital, we had such a game - I called her daughter, and she called me mom. She died six months later. They buried her in Starobeshevo.

There are many centenarians in the Angelina family, but my mother left so early - at 46 years old. But I think she, despite everything, was happy man. And very kind... She made good money and helped many people. Once every two or three years I went to a sanatorium and could take half the brigade with me. In her every act, a maternal attitude was manifested, even to tractor drivers who were older than her. The pockets of her overalls were always stuffed with sweets. He drives a “victory”, sees a boy, stops, wipes his nose, kisses him, treats him. She has the mind of a mother, and he cannot be masculine. This is what they say: "a man in a skirt."

She believed that the most important thing in life is bread. There will be bread - there will be life. After the death of her mother, her brigade still existed until the collapse of the Soviet Union. Gagarin, before flying into space, once said in an interview: "I eat bread grown by Pasha Angelina." Even though my mother was no longer alive.

VALERY ANGELIN: "THE MOTHER HAD A PERSONAL PISTOL, BUT SHE CAN HIGHLY SHOT A HUMAN"

Praskovya Angelina knew how to get along with men - whether they were party leaders, deputies of various levels, chairmen of collective farms, tractor drivers of her post-war brigade. Otherwise, I simply would not be able to work. And two more little men were waiting at home - sons Gennady and Valery. To be children of the world famous woman- means to correspond to it in everything and live with care. Once, speaking on All-Union Radio, Angelina promised the whole country that each of her four children would receive higher education. This almost happened, and only Valery, once a student of not even one, but two universities, never received a higher education. He lives in a tiny house on the edge of Starobeshevo, from time to time he sabbats. They say that his character is not simple. He does not give interviews to anyone on principle, but he made an exception for Gordon Boulevard, although he was laconic.

- Children famous people often for many years after their death they bask in the rays parental glory. Did you get anything from maternal popularity?

- I have always been proud of my mother, but I never showed it and did not cling to her glory. My mother’s secretary was a teacher from our school (later she was appointed director) - she told me everything about me, my mother didn’t even have to go to school. Yes, I didn’t do anything bad at school, I didn’t drink, I didn’t smoke. Thanks to my mother, I traveled a little around the country, even met with Grigory Ivanovich Petrovsky, Lenin's ally. He was deputy director of the Museum of the Revolution.

- Praskovya Nikitichna made a promise to herself that all her children would receive a higher education. And so it happened: Gennady is a mechanical engineer, Svetlana is a philologist, Stalina studied to be a doctor. And it just didn't work out for you...

Yes, I didn't finish my studies. I managed to work with my mother as an accountant - I went and counted who fulfilled the norm. But this was a formality, because there was a rule in the brigade - to divide everything equally. Then he studied at two universities - in the Melitopol energy and Dnepropetrovsk agricultural. But the year my mother died, I crashed my motorcycle and broke my back. At the age of 20 he became an invalid of the first group. Before that, having the first category in football and volleyball, I could not walk even 50 meters - my back hurt so much. And a simple doctor put me on my feet. After my recovery, I burned all my medical records so that nothing would remind me of my disability.

- What do you remember from your childhood?

They lived in a simple old house, although the mother could build any mansions. The furniture was also ordinary, but a rich library - a lot of Russian classics, "A Thousand and One Nights", Maupassant ... Mom loved to read, but she did not have time. She dressed very simply, wearing overalls to work. I remember my grandmother baked bread for the whole team. After the war, the stove was heated with adobe. We often had guests - important people arrived in obkom cars, and my mother treated them to chebureks. Khrushchev called in, there were also foreign delegations. Mom always took them at home. The Germans will drink three glasses each and begin to sing "Katyusha", although they said that they do not know Russian. Mom did not sing with them, but her sisters Nadya and Lelya sang very beautifully - so that it took the soul.

- Did Praskovya Nikitichna spoil you at least sometimes?

- Mother sometimes came from Moscow with gifts. A model of an airplane once brought me a ballpoint pen - it was such a curiosity! But at school, no one would have allowed me to write with this pen, and the pasta ended later.

- Angelina's work was not female, but character?

She was a very kind person. It happened that he would offend one of the children, slap me, and then sit and cry. After the war, people came to us and asked her for food on their knees. She endured both flour and sunflower oil. In communication, the mother was easy. We often played chess with her, but she did not like to lose. I drove a car coolly, but sometimes I drove it if I asked, even when I didn’t have a driver’s license due to my age and I didn’t have a driver’s license.

She did not shine with a diploma, but, as far as I remember, she always found time to study with tutors. Starting from scratch, passed school course for several years. In general, her school was work. Our grandmother took care of us all the time and after her death she was with us. He and his grandfather are long-lived with us - grandfather lived until the age of 87, grandmother did not reach the 90th birthday for a year. Mom called them on you, as was customary in Greek families.

- Today the mistress of the tractor brigade could be a very wealthy person. And then? Did you live better than others?

- After the war, for two years, we, like everyone else, were starving, until my mother got better with the brigade. In the queues for food, they also stood for help that came from America, too. In 1947, my mother received the first Star of the Hero of Socialist Labor. Life began to improve, although there was devastation in the country. In the brigade, her people earned smartly. For example, before monetary reform on the collective farm, the salary was 400 rubles, and her trailer earned 1400. Tractor drivers and combine operators received 12 tons of pure grain. Not some barley, but real grain. Rest only on Sundays. They had their own canteen in the field, they dug out a “refrigerator”, pork, beef is always fresh, clean. They built a pool for rainwater to pour it into the radiators - they rusted from plain water. People built houses for themselves, had many motorcycles, and still some people ride them. Everyone in the brigade could take a car, and if there were problems, the mother, of course, would have bothered.

Then, especially for tractor drivers, my mother ordered 20 cars (these were the first "Muscovites"), but after her death they never reached here.

- And that - she had no enemies?

Many envied. Relatives were offended if they did not ask for them somewhere upstairs. She didn't like asking. After the war, the police guarded our family for two years. Mother had a personal pistol, but she could hardly have shot at a person. People respected her and knew her by sight. One day, a woman appeared in Kyiv, who introduced herself as Pasha Angelina and wanted to stay in a hotel under her name, but they immediately realized that she was a swindler.

Mother also told how once she was returning from a meeting from the region and four robbers came out onto the road. She had to stop and get out of the cab, but they recognized her and immediately disappeared. Each deputy once every two or three months conducted a reception of people. Praskovya Nikitichna wrote down all the requests and always fulfilled them. In 1938, as far as I know, people were dragged out of the NKVD. But she didn't tell us anything about it, and we didn't ask either. Who knew that the mother would live so little? They thought that by old age they would tell everything.
Tatyana Orel

Pasha ANGELINA

... A thunderstorm raged over the village. Thunder rolls from end to end, deafening peals of thunder, blinding lightning tears low-hanging clouds to shreds. The steppe howls, groans, groans in different voices.

The village seemed to be dead. The shutters are tightly closed, the lights are extinguished. Who dares to lean out on the street in such weather? Even the dogs, frightened by the raging elements, hid in their kennels and squealed softly...

But then the gate creaked at the very edge of the village. A small girlish figure darted across the road. Frightened, crouching at every clap of thunder, the girl pressed herself against the wall of the neighboring hut, impatiently drummed on the window:

Natasha, are you awake? Open soon...

Are you Pasha? What do you want?

Oh, Natashenka, what is going on in the yard! And our calves are alone on the farm, they will freeze completely. Let's run to them, shall we?

What you! In such bad weather? Scary…

Are you afraid? Oh, you ... And also a pioneer. Well, then I'm on my own...

Drowning knee-deep in puddles, unable to make out the way in the darkness, Pasha ran to the farm.

Wet, stunned by the peals of thunder, the calves huddled together, rubbing their backs against the partition. Sensing their mistress, they reached out to her with their muzzles, moaning plaintively.

The storm did not subside. Suddenly, through the howl of the wind, muffled male voices were heard. Someone went up to the barn, rummaged through the latch with his hand, cursed angrily:

Hungry people don’t even have good constipation, Communia! ..

Quiet, don't yell… - another voice muffled. - Did you lose your knife?

The gate creaked mournfully. Two entered. One struck a match, the second grabbed the neck of the nearest calf, raised a knife over it ... Suddenly, someone's shadow darted from the corner to the night guest, sharp teeth dug into his hand. Howling wildly in pain and fear, the big man dropped his knife and ran away.

His partner rushed after him, but in the darkness he caught on a bucket and with all his might crashed into an open pit in which they put fodder for livestock. He did not have time to come to his senses, as the hatch cover was tightly closed. Tried with a shoulder - does not give in. From above, someone piled on, hastily threw a hook.

“... I spent the whole night on the farm restlessly. The kulak henchman, who was sitting in a closed basement, now shouted, then threatened, then tearfully asked to be let out. I did not answer and anxiously waited for the morning to come ... I can not convey what feeling I had that day. For the first time in my life, I had a chance to face the enemy face to face and help to neutralize him.”

So, many years later, Praskovya Nikitichna Angelina, a famous tractor driver, holder of three Orders of Lenin and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, twice Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate of the USSR State Prize, permanent deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, recalled this episode from her childhood in her book “People of Collective Farm Fields” .

Then in her life there were many other clashes with open and hidden enemies, there was a difficult uncompromising struggle with routine, with stagnant concepts and ideas, with formalists and red tape. And always, just as in early childhood, desperately, without hesitation, she threw herself into a fight, fearlessly and stubbornly achieved her goal, if it was a question of the people's good, the benefit of the people. Her whole life is a bright moral lesson of citizenship, public adherence to principles, honest and open service to people.

In 1948, when the name of the heroine of the collective farm fields was already thundering around the world, the editors of the World biographical encyclopedia” sent Praskovya Nikitichna an extensive questionnaire, saying that her name was included in the list of prominent people of all countries. Here is how she told about herself in the questionnaire received from New York:

“Angelina Praskovya Nikitichna, year of birth - 1912, place of birth (it is also a place of service and residence) - the village of Staro-Beshevo, Stalin Region, Ukrainian SSR. Father - Angelin Nikita Vasilyevich, a collective farmer, in the past a farm laborer. Mother - Angelina Evfimiya Fedorovna, a collective farmer, in the past a laborer. The beginning of the "career" - 1920: she worked with her parents at the fist. 1921–1922 - a coal carrier at the Alekseevo-Rasnyanskaya mine. From 1923 to 1927 she again worked for the kulak. Since 1927 - a groom in a partnership for the joint cultivation of the land, and later - on a collective farm. From 1930 to the present (a break of two years - 1939 - 1940: she studied at the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy) - a tractor driver.

She began to work before she mastered the alphabet. Pasha was not yet eight years old when her father took her to the kulak Panyushkin. All the older brothers and sisters, together with their parents, had long been working from dawn to dusk in a foreign land, but there was no prosperity in the house. Pasha also had to graze other people's geese for a piece of bread, clean up someone else's barn ...

When the wave October revolution reached Staro-Beshev, a whirlwind of new events broke into the Angelins' family. Father disappeared for days on end: the rural poor decided to unite in an artel, Nikita Vasilyevich was elected chairman of the board. Rarely began to appear in the house and older brother Nikolai. He is the leader of the Komsomol cell, the main leader of the youth in the village. On his initiative, the Komsomol members adapted the old barn for a club, in the evenings they organized amateur concerts, games, and held conversations there.

Once Pasha approached his brother:

Kolya, will they accept me into the Komsomol? Nikolai critically examined his sister:

Still need to grow up. Where are you in the Komsomol. First walk in the pioneers ...

Although Pasha was the oldest in the detachment - she was already fifteen years old at that time, the girl proudly wore a pioneer tie, diligently carried out all the instructions ...

The air smelled of spring. The snow on the fields darkened, the trees filled with juices, the first flowers hatched on the forest edges. At night, the noisy cackling of wild geese was heard, returning after wintering to their native lands.

People rejoiced at the arrival of warm days. And the chairman of the collective farm "Zaporozhets" Nikita Vasilyevich Angelin walked gloomy, frowning. For him, this spring is a difficult exam. How will you manage to sow?

Many new concerns fell on the shoulders of the chairman with the advent of spring. The collective farm, which was just getting on its feet, lacked either one or the other. With difficulty, they prepared seeds for sowing - not varietal ones, of course, but, as they say, which God sent, and even those are not enough. Well, yes, seeds are still half the trouble. But where to get horses?

Every morning the chairman of the collective farm comes into the collective farm stable and leaves there upset. Grigory Kharitonovich Kiryaziev is a good groom, you can't find fault with him. All the harness has long been repaired, the horses have been cleaned so that, if you run a handkerchief over the croup, not a speck of dust. Why, nags are nags. The collective farm is not rich in fodder, all winter they fed the horses only with hay - how far can you go on them now?

Again - for the umpteenth time - the chairman of the collective farm went to the city to ask for support. He disappeared for three days, and on the fourth he returned - not to recognize him. The eyes are shining, a joyful smile, and even the wrinkles on the face seem to have smoothed out.

It’s immediately obvious that dad brought good news from the city, - Pasha met him on the threshold.

You guessed it, daughter, - Nikita Vasilievich answered merrily rubbing his hands, - very good. They promised in the city to send us new horses. Yes, such horses as no one else in the village has ever seen. They work for ten people, but they don’t ask for food at all ...

In the evening, Pasha made her way to the barn, where they put the driven cars, looked into the crack. In the semi-darkness she could hardly make out two glass eyes, huge wheels studded with sharp teeth. So here they are, iron horses!

... The rural guys lost their peace. Enrollment for courses for tractor drivers has been announced. Those who want more than enough. Learning how to drive an outlandish machine - but such happiness, perhaps, was never dreamed of in a dream!

Ten people were selected. Among them are Pasha's brothers Ivan and Vasily. In the damp, unheated room where the MTS workshop was located, future tractor drivers gathered in the evenings, listened to the instructions of the instructor Ivan Fedorovich Shevchenko, assembled and disassembled machine parts.

One day Pasha came here too. She quietly sat down in a secluded corner.

What do you want, girl? - Interrupting explanations, the instructor turned to her.

I’m nothing ... - Pasha was confused, - I just want to listen ...

This is not a theater, - the instructor said sternly, - I ask you not to interfere.

But the girl didn't leave. She stood in the corner until the end of classes, waited until all the guys left the workshop, then went up to Shevchenko:

Tell me, could a girl learn how to drive this ... tractor?

He shrugged.

Any literate person can master the theory, but practically ... - the instructor looked at the girl point-blank. - Do you want to become a tractor driver?

Yes, Pasha answered firmly.

I don’t advise, - the instructor said dryly, - there has never been a case in the world for a woman to drive a tractor.

There was no world, but I will become a tractor driver! - Pasha said and ran out of the workshop ...

When tractors first entered the fields of the Zaporozhets collective farm, Pasha worked as a trailer on her brother Ivan's machine. In those short hours that were given to tractor drivers for rest during the hot season of spring field work, she did not give her brother peace. She pestered me with questions, asked me to explain the purpose of every detail, every screw in the car.

Why are you doing this? asked the brother in surprise.

Necessary! Pasha resolutely answered. - Next year I will drive the tractor myself.

I thought of something else, - Ivan angrily waved it off, - I also found out - a tractor driver in a skirt! ..

Winter crept up unnoticed. In one of the long winter evenings the whole Angelin family gathered together. Father and three brothers, sitting at the table, recklessly knocked dominoes, mother sewed something in the corner, in another room sisters Nadia and Lelya were busy with books. Having chosen the moment, Pasha approached her father:

Dad, I need to have a serious talk with you. Nikita Vasilyevich leaned back in his chair and turned to his daughter:

Well, what happened there?

I want to consult. Thought up tomorrow to apply for courses tractor drivers. I want to drive my own tractor.

The father looked sternly at his daughter.

Not the case conceived, daughter. Others go to the city to study, to institutes. What do you dislike about being a teacher? Or doctor...

Tears glistened on Pasha's eyelashes.

But how can you not understand: I can’t tear myself away from the earth, I love the steppes, the fields. I want to grow high yields so that people can live easier ... After all, you yourself, dad, said that bread is the head of everything!

He spoke, he spoke, - his father grumbled angrily. - I didn’t say much ... You won’t have my permission, and we’ll end this conversation.

All in tears, Pasha ran to the political department of the MTS to her old friend Ivan Mikhailovich Kurov. He listened attentively to the girl, twirled her head thoughtfully:

In our practice, this has really never happened before - a girl behind a tractor ... Well, you never know what has never happened before. And there was no state like ours, and there were no collective farms ... In a word, since you decided, Pasha, then hold on tight, do not retreat! I'll talk to my dad...

This winter flew by quickly for Pasha. During the day she was busy in the workshop, in the evenings she sat over books and drawings. The same instructor who once kicked her out of the workshop now could not praise his student.

And then the spring of 1930 came - the first spring of Pasha the tractor driver. On a gloomy, foggy morning, a tall, strong girl in blue overalls, in a gray astrakhan kuban, approached the tractor. Obedient to her will, the car started off, moved across the field, leaving behind an even, deep furrow.

The foreman of the tractor detachment, Pyotr Boychenko, did not leave Pasha on the first day. I watched meticulously as she drove the tractor, carefully measured the depth of plowing. He could not believe that the brisk, sharp-tongued Pasha would be able to cope with such a serious, masculine business as driving a car. But the tractor went perfectly, plowed smoothly, leaving not a single flaw ...

This spring, Pasha set a record - the first record in her life. How many more great labor victories were later, but, perhaps, she never rejoiced in them as much as in this first success of hers. Her tractor worked flawlessly all season, plowed more than anyone else in the detachment. At a meeting of MTS employees, she was solemnly presented with a book of a drummer, a badge for an excellent student in agriculture, a valuable gift ...

And a few days later, having come to the workshop, Pasha saw that some unfamiliar guy was busy near her tractor.

Come into the office,” he said gloomily to her, “get acquainted with the new order.

The order of the director of the MTS read: for the successes achieved, the tractor driver P.N. Promote Angelina, appoint ... a storekeeper at an oil depot.

What are you boiling over? - MTS director shrugged his shoulders. - Well, I fiddled with the car, had fun - and that's enough. Well, how will other girls follow you to the tractor? Angelina, they will say, you can, but we can’t? .. I can’t turn the machine and tractor station into some kind of women’s battalion.

It is difficult to say how this story would have ended if the old Bolshevik, the head of the political department of the MTS, Ivan Mikhailovich Kurov, had not intervened in it.

The director's order will be canceled as incorrect, - he reassured Pasha, - I have already talked about this in the regional party committee. And you do this. Pick up good trailer girls who can quickly master the tractor. There are such?

Yes, as much as you like, - Pasha perked up. - Natasha Radchenko has been asking for courses for a long time, her sister Marusya, Lyuba Fedorova, Vera Anastasova. You can also Vera Kosei, Vera Zolotopup ...

That's good, - Ivan Mikhailovich smiled. - Let's create a whole tractor team of girls. We will appoint you as a foreman. Agree?

First Women's

... Twenty-five girlish heads bent over notebooks. A large tractor wiring diagram is attached to the board with buttons. Pasha Angelina leads her with a pointer, in an even, calm voice explains the device of the magneto ...

All winter Pasha "chased" her girls. They not only knew the tractor by heart, but also got acquainted with the basics of agricultural technology, studied the structure of soils, read the works of Williams and Dokuchaev. As a talented commander, preparing for a decisive offensive, determines in advance the direction of the main attack, pulls up reserves, provides rears, so Pasha took everything into account before going out into the field, thought everything through. Pasha did not lead her detachment to the assault with bare hands.

As soon as the first rays of the sun glided across the ground, the gates of the MTS estate opened noisily, with a roar, and a column of tractors left the workshops. Pasha is ahead, followed by Natasha Radchenko, Vera Kosse, Lyuba Fedorova, Vera Anastasova...

Keeping a clear distance, the column moved to the village. All the way the girls sang songs, joked. Everyone was in high spirits and festive.

The lead vehicle had already crossed the hillock beyond which the collective farm fields began. And suddenly Pasha's heart skipped a beat. Some people were vaguely visible ahead. A lot of them. Here they are moving closer and closer ... A portly woman, wrapped up to her eyebrows in a woolen scarf, comes out of the crowd and, blocking the way for tractors, resolutely commands:

Don't let them!..

To spoil our land ... We will not let it! ..

With trembling hands, Pasha turned off the ignition. The crowd was buzzing around her, many had already come close, surrounded the tractor, grabbed Pasha by the arms, trying to drag him to the ground.

Ivan Mikhailovich Kurov, who arrived in time on the gas truck, barely calmed the raging women. He hardly managed to persuade them to leave the road, but the crowd did not disperse. Huddled at the side of the road, she warily watched the actions of the girls.

For three days in a row, without getting off the tractors, the girls worked in the field. And on the fourth day, the old collective farmer Stepan Ivanovich Nikolaev came to visit them. He glanced over the vast mass of the plowed field, carefully measured the depth of plowing, kneaded the clod of earth with his fingers, for some reason even sniffed it and shook his head admiringly:

Here is the job! Hey girls! Well done…

Then he went up to Pasha, looking away, and said:

Here, they say, our wives quarreled. So you ... that ... do not be offended by them. A well-known case - women! ..

And who do you think we are? Pasha smiled.

Oh you women! The old man looked at her respectfully. Everyone laughed...

The girls carried out the field work in a clear and organized manner. For the whole season, not a single serious breakdown, not a single accident.

Pasha Angelina's first female Komsomol-youth tractor brigade in the Union showed brilliant examples of work: with a plan of 477 hectares, the girls worked 739 hectares with each tractor. They completed the tractor work plan by 129 percent. The brigade took first place in the MTS and won the challenge Red Banner.

In the same year, a significant event took place in Pasha's life: she was accepted into the Communist Party ... Later, when the fame of the wonderful women's tractor brigade spread far throughout the country, many asked Pasha: what was the secret of her brigade's success, what helped the girls achieve such results? She replied: “The main thing is perseverance. We have never rested on our laurels, we have introduced a firm rule for ourselves: if we have done a lot today, tomorrow we can and must do even more.”

They really were tenacious. The joyful excitement of the first great success of the brigade had not yet subsided, the stormy applause with which the collective farmers met the appearance of courageous tractor drivers at meetings still sounded in their ears, and the girls were already gathering together again almost every day ... Textbooks were again opened, drawings were hung, machine parts were laid out on the table. Together they decided: is it possible to squeeze more out of the tractor than they managed to do? If possible, how?

The girls already had a small but valuable experience, and they learned a lot of useful lessons from it. The brigade's forces were redistributed in a new way, they thought over how best to organize the supply of fuel, and compiled a list of tools that tractor drivers should always have in case of a minor breakdown.

In 1934, Pasha Angelina's brigade worked on the fields of seven collective farms. And again, the quality of work is impeccable, the output is high. The land cultivated by the girls gave an unprecedented harvest for that time: 16–18 centners of wheat per hectare. The output for each tractor was 795 hectares. Pasha herself cultivated about a thousand hectares. The women's brigade again took first place in the area, holding the challenge Red Banner.

Soon a letter arrived at MTS, which amused everyone. “We earnestly ask the MTS to send us your shock women's brigade,” wrote collective farmers from the neighboring region. “Let the tractor drivers take our male tractor drivers who can’t do the job in tow.”

You see, Pasha, - said Kurov, handing her a letter, - they made the girls respect themselves. They are already calling you...

And a few days later, Pasha was called much further than in the neighboring area. A government telegram summoned her to Moscow, to the Second All-Union Congress of Collective Farm Shock Workers.

The congress was held in the Grand Kremlin Palace. Delegates got up one by one, talked about their successes, shared their experience. At one of the meetings, the chairman announced:

The floor is given to Pasha Angelina, foreman of the women's tractor brigade of the Staro-Beshevskaya MTS.

Come on, come on, Pasha!

And then Pasha spoke. She told how the brigade was created, how difficult it was for the girls at first, how stubbornly, in spite of everything, they achieved their goal. I did not forget to mention the letter received at MTS on the eve of her departure.

And now our girls show an example of how to work. On behalf of the brigade, I make a promise: next year to work out 1,200 hectares for each tractor! - so she ended her speech. The hall answered her with stormy applause.

…That's where the girls needed all their perseverance! The autumn of 1935 was unusually gloomy and rainy. Tractors barely moved on the viscous soil washed out by endless rains. From excessive load now and then overheated, stalled motors.

The wind tossed handfuls of cold spray into his face and pierced his entire body. But the girls, soaking wet and cold, did not leave the steering wheel. They will gather for a minute at the field trailer, have a quick bite to eat, warm themselves by the fire - and again in the field, again to work.

In this difficult autumn, the girls, perhaps for the first time, really learned what an iron will, what a strong character their foreman possesses. Having lost weight, haggard from constant lack of sleep, Pasha invariably, day after day, fulfilled her norm and, in addition, managed to help her lagging friends, cheer them up, organize meals, go to the MTS estate for spare parts ... Natasha Radchenko, an old childhood friend, came up like to the brigadier.

You should have rested, Pasha. You can’t do it like that ... Pasha raised her eyebrows in surprise:

I gave my word in the Kremlin. Is it possible not to contain it?

When, having finished the work, the brigade, as usual, returned to the MTS on its own, a huge shield flaunted on the front tractor of the column: “The brigade fulfilled its obligation. Each tractor cultivated 1225 hectares. Saved 20,154 kilograms of fuel.”

That same winter, Pasha was again in Moscow, now with the whole brigade. The girls were invited to the All-Union meeting of the leading agricultural workers of the country.

At this meeting, Angelina spoke again. Now she felt more confident on the podium, she spoke more freely. On behalf of the brigade, she reported on the new increased obligations that the girls had taken on: to bring the output to 1600 hectares per tractor.

The whole country already knew about the remarkable successes of the country's first women's tractor brigade. The newspapers published portraits of girls, talked about their work.

Early one morning in the hotel room where the girls of the famous brigade lived, the phone rang.

Warmly congratulations on the high government award, - said someone unfamiliar male voice. - You don't know yet? Today the newspapers published a resolution of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR. Your foreman Pasha Angelina was awarded the Order of Lenin, all the other members of the brigade were awarded the Orders of the Red Banner of Labor ...

The next day in the Kremlin, Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin presented high awards to the girls.

"Girls, on the tractor!"

The country was rapidly striding along the roads of five-year plans. Every day the radio brought joyful news: a new factory was put into operation, a new power plant gave electricity, trains went along the new railway line. Powerful giants of the industry stood up one after another: the Stalingrad Tractor Plant, the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Plant, the Kramatorsk Machine-Building Plant, the Dneproges ... Designers created new machines to save people from heavy manual labor, agricultural specialists were looking for ways to increase productivity in order to give people plenty of bread, meat, milk, scientists worked on the problems of prolonging human life ...

Meanwhile, clouds were gathering in the West. In Germany, the Fuhrer's generals were discussing a plan to march east. The fascist Duce Mussolini hastily formed detachments of blackshirts to fight "against world communism." Blood was already shed in Spain - the freedom-loving Spanish people fought an unequal battle against the forces of reaction, and each explosion of an enemy shell on the barricades of Madrid and Barcelona resounded with aching pain in the hearts of the Soviet people ...

In Europe, the flames of a new world war flared up, and its deadly breath rolled up to the Land of the Soviets.

Another XIV congress opened in Kyiv Communist Party Ukraine. Pasha Angelina is a member of the Delegation of Communists of Donbass. She had something to talk about at the congress. From year to year, her team successfully coped with all the work. 30 hectares of arable land accounted for each collective farmer in the Zaporozhets agricultural artel, and the girls managed to sow, harrow, and cultivate all this land on time and with high quality. The output for each tractor of the brigade amounted to 1715 hectares. Nobody in the village said that driving a tractor is not a woman's job. The experience of the first women's tractor brigade in the Union showed that girls can perfectly master agricultural machinery, and manage it no worse than men.

Eighty-eight thousand tractors are working on the fields of Ukraine, - as always, passionately, without looking at the paper, Pasha spoke from the rostrum of the congress. - And what if Hitler goes on a campaign against us? Tractor drivers will go to the front... Who should replace them? We, sisters and wives, will have to replace them! Girls, on the tractor! ..

Soon the newspapers published the appeal of the first girl tractor driver: “One hundred thousand friends - to the tractor!” This call was heard in all cities and villages, in the most remote villages and auls…

Thus began the all-Union campaign of girls for mastering the art of driving a tractor. In Altai and Siberia, in the Urals and Belarus, in Armenia and the Volga region, thousands of girls came to the machine and tractor stations. Short-term courses on the study of the tractor were created everywhere, and new women's tractor brigades were recruited.

In those days, newspapers daily printed such messages: "800 collective farmers of Khakassia decided to become tractor drivers." “In the Nikolaev region, all tractor operators undertook to teach their wives and sisters their profession.” "There are already 500 women's tractor teams working in the fields of Ukraine."

The illustrious brigade of Pasha Angelina turned into a kind of institution. Vera Yuryeva, Natasha Radchenko, Vera Zolotopup have long been leading women's tractor brigades in other collective farms. They were replaced by Kilya Antonova, Liza Kalyanova, Marusya Masterevenko. Under the guidance of Pasha, the girls studied the tractor, got acquainted with the organization of work in the brigade. Many of them then went to other MTS, in order to create new women's brigades there themselves, to teach them skills.

... In Pasha's house a big joy: her daughter Svetlana began to walk. What mother would refrain from happy tears at the sight of this picture! Pasha could watch for hours how her baby timidly takes her first steps on the ground, listen to how inarticulate sounds begin to take shape in the first words ...

Dawn caught her already on her feet. Having cleaned the room and prepared breakfast, Pasha woke her daughter up, dressed her, fed her, and then, looking at her watch, exclaimed:

Oh, I'm almost too late! Classes will start in ten minutes.

And, putting on her invariable Kubanka, she ran out into the street ...

Classes at the courses of tractor drivers were held according to a strict schedule drawn up by the foreman: in the morning - theory, in the afternoon - practical work in a workshop.

From the very first day of classes, Pasha set an indispensable condition for everyone: before taking the tractor out to the ground, the driver must perfectly, to the smallest detail, study the machine, be able to identify its “diseases” by the slightest signs and know how to “treat” them.

Pasha herself really loved the car, she could dig into the engine for several hours in a row, forgetting about food and rest. And she tried to instill this love in her students.

Until late in the evening, Pasha was busy in the workshop. And then, after washing up and having a bite to eat, she was in a hurry to go somewhere again. She met with voters, spoke on the radio, held meetings of tractor drivers, wrote articles for newspapers, answered numerous letters ...

Some very short days have become, - she complained to her husband. - You won’t have time to look back - it’s already night, - and half of the work has not been done ...

That's right, Pasha, - the husband smiled sympathetically. He worked as a secretary of the district committee of the Komsomol, and he also often did not have enough time.

In the autumn of 1939, Pasha went to Moscow to study at the Agricultural Academy. The whole village accompanied her.

I’ll succeed, gain knowledge and again sit down at the tractor, - saying goodbye, Pasha said to her fellow villagers. - Yes, if all tractor drivers had sufficient education, can you imagine what crops our country collected! ...

She didn't get to finish her studies. The Great Patriotic War broke out...

On a gloomy autumn morning, Pasha led her team out of the workshop. With the banner unfolded, in a clear formation, the column of tractors moved along the road, heading east. In the distant unknown lands, somewhere in Kazakhstan, she had to continue her work.

The collective farm named after Budyonny, which spread its lands near the village of Terekta in the West Kazakhstan region, was not rich. The land dried up by burning winds gave meager harvests. Even in the most successful years, collective farmers collected six to eight centners of grain per hectare.

We heard about the famous tractor driver Angelina, the collective farmers said to Pasha the day after her arrival. - You are a great master. You know how to work well, very well... But the land here is not the same as in Ukraine. She cannot give much bread. You can't take more from the earth than it can give...

Let's take it! - Pasha answered confidently. - Since it is necessary for the front, for victory - we will take it at all costs!

Pasha firmly believed that a good harvest can be grown on any land if you work sparingly, strictly and unswervingly follow the rules of advanced agricultural technology. She already had rich practical experience in cultivating the land. Now this experience has been supplemented by the knowledge gained at the academy. After all, it was not in vain that when she left her native village, she took with her only the most necessary of clothes, and filled a huge suitcase to the top with books and notes. She strongly hoped for science ...

And science did not disappoint. She revealed to her the secrets of fertility. Since the earth is poor in moisture, everything must be done to keep it in the ground as long as possible. Sowing should be carried out as soon as possible, until the moisture has had time to evaporate from the plowed land. After the seeder, launch light harrows to plant the seeds deeper and loosen the ground. After the rain, immediately destroy the formed crust, close all the ways for moisture to escape from the soil ... Yes, this is hard, painstaking work, but it will pay off handsomely!

Tractors plowed the collective farm land several times up and down. Pasha spent six days without sleep and rest in the field until the entire huge array was sown and processed. Collective farmers only shrugged their shoulders: where does the strength come from this short, slender woman? Is it really possible for her to achieve what their grandfathers and great-grandfathers could not do - to force the land to give a bountiful harvest?

By the summer, it was filled with juices, thick wheat stood up as a wall higher than human height. As if a golden sea has spilled over the collective farm fields ...

The news spread throughout Kazakhstan about the "miracle" that a Ukrainian tractor driver performed on Kazakh land: one hundred and fifty poods of grain per hectare, six times more than usual, was received by the Budyonny collective farm. Delegations came from other districts and regions, asked about the methods of cultivating the land, and were interested in the organization of labor in the tractor brigade. Pasha willingly shared her "secrets".

... The collective farm accountant, briskly tapping the bills with the knuckles, jumped up from his seat, warmly shook Pasha's hand:

Congratulations! Do you know how much grain is due to you for your work this year? Two hundred and eighteen pounds! If you sell it ... That's a fortune!

Transfer this bread to the Red Army fund,” Pasha said calmly.

How, all? - the accountant was amazed.

Down to the last grain! - firmly answered Pasha. - This will be my contribution to the victory over fascism.

The girls and I also decided to give all our earnings to strengthen the army, ”said her sister Lelya Angelina on behalf of the entire brigade. - Let them build a tank column with these funds ...

Pasha Angelina's tractor brigade donated 768 poods of grain to the Red Army fund. The tanks built with these funds smashed the enemies for Kursk Bulge, liberated Poland, participated in the storming of Berlin ...

The front line was far from the village of Terekta. But even here, in the distant aul, there was also a battle going on - stubborn, hot, resolute. Not sparing their strength, the girls fought a battle for bread - and won it. And it is no coincidence that the soldiers of one of the guards tank brigades, formed entirely from former tractor drivers, decided to put Pasha Angelina on their lists and give her the honorary title of Guardsman.

During the difficult years of the war, agricultural workers did an excellent job of fulfilling their duty to the Motherland. The country uninterruptedly received bread, meat, vegetables ... This was greatly facilitated by the women's tractor brigades, created at the call of Pasha Angelina. Not a hundred, but two hundred thousand friends responded to the call of a noble tractor driver to master agricultural machinery. Women have passed the rigors of war. They bore on their shoulders all the difficulties of field work in war time, they themselves plowed the land, harvested crops, while their fathers, husbands and brothers fought at the front. And when the Victory salute bloomed over the ancient Kremlin wall, thousands of girls - village workers could rightfully say: “This is the Motherland saluting us!”

Work, work!

During the occupation of Staro-Beshev, the Nazis spread rumors that the famous tractor driver Praskovya Angelina voluntarily went over to the side of the enemy and left for Germany. Hitler's commandant Zimmer, who settled in the Angelins' house, ordered to gather all the inhabitants of the village to the square and announced that Angelina, who now lives in Berlin, calls on her fellow countrymen to unquestioningly obey the Nazi command and work well for the benefit of great Germany. But there was not a single person in the village who would believe this. People knew their Pasha well...

She returned home as soon as the front line rolled back from the Donbass. The collective farmers greeted their countrywoman warmly and cordially. She was told that when the Soviet troops broke into Staro-Beshevo, the Nazi commandant Zimmer fled in only his underwear. Having learned that the house from which the commandant fled belongs to Pasha Angelina, the soldiers carefully cleaned it out, removed all the dirt. In the cellar they found a "trophy" - two cases of champagne, and twenty bottles of them were left in the cupboard on the top shelf - until Pasha returned.

Well, let's celebrate our meeting in accordance with all the rules, ”Pasha exclaimed cheerfully. - And tomorrow - work, work! ..

Hundreds of villagers took to the streets when the tractor team of Pasha Angelina moved along the road into the field. As always, the red flag is rippling in the wind, a cheerful song sounds loudly. And many at that moment could not resist tears of joy: from the ashes and ruins, the native collective farm again rises to its feet.

Perhaps, Pasha has never gone to the fields with such an ardent desire to work hard, to make every effort to better sow, as in that memorable spring of 1945, the spring of Victory.

A long time ago, back in those years when the first tractors entered the collective farm fields, Pasha began to keep a diary. With scrupulous accuracy, she described in it the life of the brigade - day after day, hour after hour. These records helped her to carefully analyze the entire process of machine tillage, to find the causes and ways to eliminate the downtime of agricultural machines. Who does not know that in the hot season of sowing, the most important thing for the workers of the village is to gain time? And the foreman long and hard was looking for ways to reduce the time of field work.

Analyzing the work of the team for several years, Pasha came to the conclusion that most of the working time is lost due to various breakdowns. The diary also described the causes of breakdowns: most often they occurred due to the fact that minor defects were not detected and eliminated in a timely manner. This means that it is necessary to introduce a systematic, planned preventive inspection and repair of tractors, then in a bad time the number of downtimes will be sharply reduced.

Thus, a new method of preventive maintenance of machines was born in the brigade. This method was then widely distributed in all machine and tractor stations of the country ...

From the diary entries, Pasha made another valuable conclusion: too much time is spent on refueling tractors with fuel. Every time the gauge of the fuel level in the tank got close to zero, the tractor driver quit his job and drove to the gas station. By the time the tractor returns to the furrow, it will take an hour or more. And this at a time when every minute counts!

Pasha came to the director of MTS and resolutely demanded:

No matter how difficult it is with motor transport, we need to allocate a vehicle for transporting fuel, organize refueling of tractors right in the furrow, on the go ...

The bold innovation of the noble tractor driver fully justified itself. Strictly observing all the agrotechnical rules, clearly adhering to the work schedule drawn up by Angelina, the team carried out the spring sowing in an unprecedentedly short time - in four days.

Even the old-timers could not remember such a harvest as the Zaporozhets collective farm received in the memorable 1945. As if the land, suffering under the fascist boot, was in a hurry to give all its wealth to its true owners. From each hectare they collected 24 centners of grain, and some plots even gave 28-30 centners!

That autumn, the collective farmers did not yet know that nature was preparing a new ordeal for them. They did not even suspect that next year a terrible scourge would fall on the earth - a drought, and even one that had not happened in the last half century ...

In her diary, Pasha found the following entries: “In 1935, the pairs were raised 15 days before sowing. Ten percent of bushes and 22 percent of stems died during wintering. Harvest - 16.5 centners per hectare. In 1937, the soil was tilled a month before sowing, and 3 percent of bushes and 9 percent of stems were lost. They collected 22 centners per hectare. In 1943, they plowed forty days before sowing, in winter only 2 percent of the bushes and 5 percent of the stems died. Harvest - 25 centners!

The sooner you cultivate the soil, the higher the harvest of winter crops - that's what practice suggested.

Forty-five days before the start of sowing, tractors went out into the field to pick up steam. They diligently plowed the ground, then dragged heavy harrows. Once, at a lecture at the academy, Pasha heard a figure that struck her: during the day in Ukraine, about 80 cubic meters of water evaporate from each hectare of the topsoil. The whole lake disappears into the air if you do not have time to close all the leak channels in time! That is why it is so important to have time to cultivate the plowed land well in time. And the team did their best. As soon as the rise of vapors was completed, she carried out the first cultivation, in half a month - the second, then - the third ... In December, when the first frosts hit, carts with fertilizer were pulled into the steppe. Then heaps of branches and threshed sheaves were scattered on the winter fields.

The snow will stay longer, Pasha explained. - In the collective farms near Moscow they have been doing this for a long time ...

The summer was unusually dry and hot. Like a huge, white-hot cap, the sky breathed heat. Not a cloud, not a breeze... People with anxious hope looked at the sky whitish from the heat: "It would rain..."

But there was no rain. Not a single drop of moisture fell on the parched, cracked earth all summer.

And on the fields of the collective farm "Zaporozhets" as if nothing had happened, dense high wheat was earing. Abundantly watered during the period of growth, received excellent care, well-developed plants steadfastly withstood an unprecedented drought. From the entire sowing area, an average of 17 centners per hectare was collected.

Praskovya Nikitichna Angelina was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor for receiving a high harvest in 1946.

The rich experience of organizing work, accumulated by P. N. Angelina, her new method of cultivating the land was found wide application in socialist agriculture. At the initiative of a noble tractor driver, a movement was launched in the country for the high-performance use of agricultural machines and an increase in the cultivation of fields. Thousands of her followers led a resolute struggle for high and stable yields of all agricultural crops. Praskovya Nikitichna Angelina was awarded the State Prize of the USSR for the radical improvement of labor in agriculture, the introduction of new, progressive methods of cultivating the land.

In December 1947, P.N. Angelina reported on her work at a board meeting of the USSR Ministry of Agriculture. In the collective farm served by her brigade, despite the repeated drought, a high wheat harvest was again obtained. The winter harvest was excellent, the spring crops withstood the drought ...

By decision of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Staro-Beshevskaya MTS was transformed into a reference-indicative one. From all over the country, heads of machine and tractor stations, students of agricultural institutes, machine operators, and scientists came here for experience. The name of Praskovya Nikitichna Angelina was surrounded by glory and honor. Our friends abroad learned about this wonderful woman. Delegations of peasants from Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria came to study with her. American, British, French journalists sought meetings with her.

But fame did not turn Angelina's head. As before, she tirelessly drove her tractor, loved to delve into the engine, sat up in the evenings over her textbooks. Every day she tried to bring something new and interesting to her work. Her team from year to year overfulfilled the tasks, invariably emerged victorious in the socialist competition of machine operators.

... By the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of February 26, 1958, Praskovya Nikitichna Angelina was awarded the title twice Hero of Socialist Labor. Her breasts were adorned with a second gold medal"Sickle and Hammer" is a sign of recognition of the outstanding services of a wonderful tractor driver to the Motherland.

Until the end of her life, she remained an honest worker, an energetic, strong-willed and cheerful woman. In February 1958, she spoke at a rally dedicated to awarding the region with the Order of Lenin for success in increasing agricultural production. Those who knew her in the first years of collectivization saw the former Pasha, a Komsomol member, on the podium. The same ardor, love for one's work, the same sweeping, energetic movements and the same favorite Kubanka on lush hair ...

She always kept pace with life, actively responded to all events in the country.

Somehow, at the beginning of 1954, Praskovya Nikitichna came to MTS with fresh number Komsomolskaya Pravda.

Have you read? she turned to the tractor drivers. - The Komsomol announced an all-Union campaign for the development of virgin lands. What a big deal is underway!

She sighed like a woman and shook her head sadly.

Oh, if I were younger, without hesitation, I would have waved to the virgin lands. I know the places there, on the Kazakh lands there is where to turn around ... Excellent crops can be grown!

Komsomol tractor drivers Konstantin Biatov, Vitaly Angelin, Ivan Peftiev surrounded Praskovya Nikitichna:

And if we submit applications to send us to the virgin lands, will we be released from the MTS?

But who will keep you? Praskovya Nikitichna smiled. - Since the party is calling, we must go. Good tractor drivers are needed there ...

A few days later, a group of tractor drivers from Praskovia Nikitichna Angelina's brigade was preparing to leave for the virgin lands.

As soon as you arrive at the place, be sure to write to me, ”she said. - And in general, do not break ties with MTS, report your successes and failures ...

The guys kept their word: very soon a letter arrived from the Akmola region. It described the life of the virgin lands, the working conditions, the difficulties faced by the new settlers. Praskovya Nikitichna all the time maintained an active correspondence with the conquerors of the virgin lands. She encouraged them, sent textbooks, gifts...

In 1958, a new remarkable movement was born among the youth - competition for the right to be called brigades of communist labor. "Scouts of the Future" - this is how the people dubbed the first teams that started this competition.

As soon as the first news of a new valuable undertaking came to Staro-Beshevo, Praskovya Nikitichna gathered her brigade. With her characteristic vehemence and ardor, she said:

I propose to join this movement and win at all costs high rank brigade of communist labor!

A few days before the opening of the XXI Congress of the CPSU, of which she was elected a delegate, Praskovya Nikitichna was struck down by a serious illness. Certificate of assignment to the tractor brigade P.N. Angelina of the honorary title "Communist Labor Brigade" was accepted by tractor drivers without their foreman ...

STEPANOVA ANGELINA STEPANOVA ANGELINA (theater actress; died on May 18, 2000 at the age of 95). recent times before her death, Stepanova often complained of ill health, but outwardly she kept herself well. She even found the strength to attend the 200th anniversary of the Moscow Art Theater,