Belov's summary is commonplace. Vasily Belov is business as usual

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Belov V I

Business as usual

IN AND. BELOV

USUAL BUSINESS

Chapter One 1. Direct move 2. Matchmakers 3. Union of Earth and Water 4. Ardent love

Chapter two

1. Children 2. Grandma's tales 3. Morning of Ivan Afrikanovich 4. Wife Katerina

Chapter Three

On logs

Chapter Four

1. And the haymaking came 2. Figures 3. What happened next 4. Mitka acts 5. To the fullest

Chapter Five

1. Free Cossack 2. Last swath 3. Three hours

Chapter Six

Rogulina life

Chapter Seven

1. It's windy. So windy... 2. Business as usual 3. Sorochiny

CHAPTER FIRST

1. STRAIGHT MOVE

Parme-en? Where is my Parmenko? And here he is, Parmenko. Cold? It's cold, boy, it's cold. You are a fool, Parmenko. Parmenko is silent for me. Now, let's go home. Do you want to go home? You are Parmen, Parmen...

Ivan Afrikanovich barely untied the frozen reins.

Were you standing there? I was standing. Were you waiting for Ivan Afrikanovich?

I've been waiting, tell me. What did Ivan Afrikanovich do? And I, Parmesha, drank a little, drank, my friend, don’t judge me. Yes, don't judge, that is. But isn’t it possible for a Russian person to even drink? No, tell me, can a Russian person have a drink? Especially if he was first frozen to the guts in the wind, and then hungry to the very bones? Well, that means we drank the bastard. Yes. And Mishka says to me: “Why, Ivan Afrikanovich, just one has corroded my nostril. Come on,” he says, “a second one.” We all, Parmenushko, walk under the village, don’t scold me. Yes, honey, don't scold me. But where did the whole thing start? And it’s gone, Parmesha, since this morning, when you and I took you to hand over empty dishes. They loaded it and drove it.

The saleswoman says to me: “Bring the dishes, Ivan Afrikanovich, and you’ll bring the goods back. Just,” she says, “don’t lose the invoice.” And when did Drinov lose the invoice? Ivan Afrikanovich did not lose the invoice. “There,” I say, “Parmen won’t let me lie, he didn’t lose the invoice.” Have we brought the dishes? They brought me! Did we give her up, the whore? Passed!

We handed it over and received all the goods in cash! So why can’t you and I have a drink? Can we have a drink, by God, we can. So you are standing at the village, at the high porch, and Mishka and I are standing. Bear. This Bear is a Bear to all Bears. I'm telling you. It's a common thing. “Come on,” he says, “Ivan Afrikanovich, for a bet, I won’t,” he says, “if I don’t drink all the wine from the dish with the bread.” I say: “What a rogue you are, Mishka. You,” I say, “are a rogue! Well, who drinks wine with bread with a spoon? After all, this,” I say, “isn’t any kind of soup, not soup with chicken, so that it’s wine.” “Then, slurp it with a spoon, like a prison.” - “But,” he says, “let’s argue.” - “Come on!” I, Parmesh, was puzzled by this secret. “What,” Mishka asks me, “what,” he asks, “are you going to argue?” I’m saying that if you take it slowly, I’ll bet you another white-eyed one, and if you lose, that’s it for you. Well, he took the dish from the watchwoman. I crumbled half a dish of bread.

“Lei,” he says. “It’s a large dish, painted.” Well, I dumped the entire bottle of white into this dish. The bosses who have gone wrong here, these procurers, and the chairman of the village himself, Vasily Trifonovich, look on and have quieted down, which means. And what would you, Parmenushko, say if this dog, this Mishka, swallowed all this crumble with a spoon? He slurps and quacks, he slurps and yes. quacks. He swallowed it, the devil, and even licked the spoon dry. Well, it’s true, as soon as he wanted to light a cigarette, he tore the newspaper from me, and his face turned; Apparently, he was pinned down here. He jumped out from the table and into the street.

Kicked him, the rogue, out of the hut. The village has a high porch, how can he burp from the porch! Well, you were standing here at the porch, you saw him, mazurika. He comes back, there is no blood in his face, but he burst out laughing! This means we have a conflict with him. All opinions were divided in half:

some say that I lost my bet, and some say that Mishka did not keep his word. And Vasily Trifonovich, the chairman of the village, took my side and said:

“You took it, Ivan Afrikanovich. Because, of course, he gulped it, but he couldn’t hold it in his gut.” I say to Mishka: “Okay, fool with you! Let’s buy it in half. So that no one will be offended.” What? What are you, Parmen? Why did you get up? Ah, come on, come on. I’ll also spray with you for company. It's always for company, Parmesha... Whoops!

Parmen? Who do they tell? Whoops! So you didn't wait for me, did you go? I'm holding the reins for you now. Whoops!

You will know Ivan Afrikanovich! Come on! Well, just stand there like a human being, where do I have these... buttons... Yes, cough, hmm.

We don't have long to walk, but only until nine.

Stay, dear, make a rich fortune.

Now let's go, let's go with nuts, gallop with caps...

Ivan Afrikanovich put on his mittens and again sat down on the logs loaded with Selpov goods. Without any prodding, the gelding pulled off the runners that were stuck to the snow, he quickly dragged the heavy cart, occasionally snorted and twitched his ears, listening to the owner.

Yes, brother Parmenko. This is how things turned out for Mishka and me. After all, we got enough. We got ready.

He went to the club to see the girls, there were a lot of girls around the village, some in the bakery, some at the post office, so he went to the girls. And the girls are all so thick-footed, good, not like in our village, in our country they have all moved away. The entire first grade was sorted out by marriage, leaving only the second and third. It's a common thing. I say: “Let’s go home, Misha” - no, I went to the girls. Well, it’s understandable, we, too, Parmesha, were young, now all our deadlines have expired and the juices have flowed out, it’s a common thing, yes... What do you think, Parmenko, will we get it from the woman? It will hit, by God, it will hit, that’s for sure! Well, this is her woman’s business, she also needs to give a discount, woman, a discount, Parmenko. After all, how many robots does she have? And she, these clients, never mind, she doesn’t have honey either, woman, because there are eight of them... Are there nine? No, Parmen, like eight... And with this one, which... Well, this one, what... which has something in its belly... Nine? Al eight? Hmm... So, like this:

Anatoshka is my second, Tanka is my first. Vaska was with Anatoshka, on the first of May she gave birth, as I remember now, after Vaska Katyushka, after Katyushka Mishka. After, that is.

Bear. W-w-wait, where is Grishka? I forgot Grishka, who is he after? Vaska followed Anatoshka, he was born on the first of May, after Vaska Grishka, after Grishka... Well, the devil, take away how much he has accumulated! Mishka, that means, is behind Katyushka, Volodya is behind Mishka, and Marusya, this little one, was born in between milking... And who was before Katyushka? So, so, Antoshka is my second, Tanka is my first. Vaska was born on the first of May, Grishka... Oh, to hell with him, everyone will grow up!

We don't have long to walk... But only until nine...

Whoa, wait, Parmenko, we need to slowly do this, so as not to tumble over.

Ivan Afrikanovich got down onto the road. He supported the cart with such seriousness and pulled the reins that the gelding somehow even condescendingly, deliberately for Ivan Afrikanovich, slowed down. Someone, like Parmen, knew this whole road well... “Well, that’s it, let’s look like we’ve crossed the bridge,” the driver said. “We just wish we didn’t get away with the invoice, the invoice.” .. But this is how I remember you, Parmenko. After all, you were still sucking the womb’s tit back then, that’s how I remember you. And I remember your uterus, it was called Button, it was so small and round, they drove off the dead little head for sausage, the uterus. I used to go on it to pick up hay at Maslenitsa, to the old haystacks, the road was all through a tree stump, and she, your uterus, is like a lizard with a cart, sometimes crawling, sometimes hopping, so obedient was in the shafts. Not like you are now. After all, you, a fool, didn’t plow, and didn’t travel further than the general store in a cab, after all, you only carry wine and the authorities, you have a life like Christ in your bosom. How else do I remember you? Well, of course, you got it too. Do you remember how they were transporting seed peas, and you got out of the shaft! How did we, the whole world, get you, the scoundrel, out of the ditch and onto your feet? But I still remember you when you were little - you used to run across the bridge, all festive, and your hooves kept clanking and clanking, and you didn’t have any worries then. Now what? Well, you bring plenty of wine, well, they feed you and give you water, and then what? They’ll turn you over for sausage too, they can do it at any moment, but what about you? It’s okay, you’ll go like a pretty girl. That's what you say, grandma. Baba, she, of course, is a woman. Only my woman is not like that, she will give a dusting to anyone she wants. I don't care about being drunk. She won’t lay a finger on me when I’m drunk, because she knows Ivan Afrikanovich, they’ve lived together forever. Now, if I’ve been drinking, don’t say a word to me and don’t get in my way, my hand will throw soot at anyone. Am I right, Parmen? Well, that’s for sure what I’m saying, it’s just like in a pharmacy, I’ll make up the soot. What?

We don't have long to walk, but only to...

I say that who will squeeze Drinova? No one will squeeze Drynov. Drinov himself will squeeze anyone he wants. Where? Where are you going, you old fool? After all, you are turning onto the wrong road! After all, you and I have lived a century, and you understand where you are going? Is this your way home, or what? This is not your way home, but to the clearing. I've been here a hundred times, I...

What? I'll rely on you, I'll rely on you! Do you know the way better than me? You scoundrel, did you want the reins? N-here!

And just at this time, Ivan Afrikanovich’s wife Katerina will give birth to the ninth, Ivan. And Katerina, even though the paramedic strictly forbade her, after giving birth she should immediately go to work, she is seriously ill. And Katerina remembers how on Peter’s Day Ivan fornicated with a lively woman from their village, Dashka Putanka, and then, when Katerina forgave him, to celebrate, he exchanged the Bible he inherited from his grandfather for an “accordion” - to amuse his wife. And now Dasha doesn’t want to take care of the calves, so Katerina has to work for her too (otherwise you won’t be able to feed your family). Exhausted from work and illness, Katerina suddenly faints. She is taken to the hospital. Hypertension, stroke. And only after more than two weeks she returns home.

And Ivan Afrikanovich also remembers the accordion: before he even learned to play the bass, it was taken away for arrears.

It's time for haymaking. Ivan Afrikanovich is in the forest, secretly, seven miles from the village, mowing at night. If you don’t mow three haystacks, there is nothing to feed the cow: ten percent of the hay mown on the collective farm is enough for at most a month. One night, Ivan Afrikanovich takes his young son Grishka with him, and he then foolishly tells the district commissioner that he went with his father to the forest at night to mow. Ivan Afrikanovich is threatened with a lawsuit: after all, he is a deputy of the village council, and then the same representative demands to “tell me” who else is mowing in the forest at night, to write a list... For this he promises not to “socialize” Drynov’s personal haystacks. Ivan Afrikanovich comes to an agreement with the neighbor's chairman and, together with Katerina, goes into the forest to mow someone else's territory at night.

At this time, Mitka Polyakov, Katerina’s brother, comes to their village from Murmansk without a penny of money. Less than a week had passed since he gave the whole village water, the authorities barked, Mishke wooed Dashka Putanka, and provided the cow with hay. And everything seemed to happen. Dasha Putanka gives Mishka a love potion, and then he vomits for a long time, and a day later, at Mitka’s instigation, they go to the village council and sign their names. Soon, Dashka tears off a reproduction of Rubens’ painting “The Union of Earth and Water” from Mishka’s tractor (it depicts a naked woman, who, by all accounts, is the spitting image of Nyushka) and burns the “picture” in the oven out of jealousy. In response, Mishka almost throws Dasha, who was washing in the bathhouse, with the tractor, right into the river. As a result, the tractor was damaged, and illegally mown hay was found in the attic of the bathhouse. At the same time, everyone in the village begins to look for hay, and it’s Ivan Afrikinovich’s turn. It's a common thing.

Mitka is summoned to the police, to the district (for complicity in damaging a tractor and for hay), but by mistake they give fifteen days not to him, but to another Polyakov, also from Sosnovka (half of the Polyakovs’ village is there). Mishka serves his fifteen days right in his village, without interruption from work, getting drunk in the evenings with the sergeant assigned to him.

After Ivan Afrikanovich’s secretly cut hay is taken away, Mitka convinces him to leave the village and go to

bsp; Arctic for earnings. Drynov doesn’t want to leave his native place, but if you listen to Mitka, then there’s no other way out... And Ivan Afrikanovich makes up his mind. The chairman does not want to give him a certificate with which he can get a passport, but Drynov, in despair, threatens him with a poker, and the chairman suddenly collapses: “At least you all run away...”

Now Ivan Afrikanovich is a free Cossack. He says goodbye to Katerina and suddenly shrinks all over from pain, pity and love for her. And, without saying anything, he pushes her away, as if from the shore into a pool.

And after his departure, Katerina has to mow it alone. It was there, while mowing, that the second blow overtook her. Barely alive, they bring her home. And you can’t go to the hospital in this condition - if he dies, they won’t take him to the hospital.

And Ivan Afrikanovich returns to his native village. Run over. And he tells a guy he barely knows from a distant village beyond the lake about how Mitka and I went, but he was selling onions and didn’t have time to jump on the train on time, but he still had all the tickets. They dropped off Ivan Afrikanovich and demanded that he go back to the village within three hours, and they said they would send a fine to the collective farm, but they didn’t say how to go, if not what. And suddenly the train approached and Mitka got off. So here Ivan Afrikanovich begged: “I don’t need anything, just let me go home.” They sold the onions, bought a return ticket, and Drynov finally went home.

And the guy, in response to the story, reports the news: in the village of Ivan Afrikanovich, a woman has died, and there are many children left. The guy leaves, and Drynov suddenly falls on the road, clutches his head with his hands and rolls into a roadside ditch. Thumps his fist into the meadow, gnaws the ground...

Rogulya, Ivan Afrikanovich’s cow, remembers her life, as if surprised by it, the shaggy sun, and warmth. She was always indifferent to herself, and her timeless, vast contemplation was very rarely disturbed. Katerina's mother Evstolya comes, cries over her bucket and tells all the children to hug Rogulya and say goodbye. Drynov asks Mishka to slaughter the cow, but he cannot do it himself. They promise to take the meat to the canteen. Ivan Afrikanovich sorts through Rogulina’s offal, and tears drip onto his bloody fingers.

The children of Ivan Afrikanovich, Mitka and Vaska, are sent to an orphanage,

Antoshka is at school. Mitka writes to send Katyushka to him in Murmansk, but it’s too small. Grishka and Marusya and two babies remain. And it’s difficult: Eustolya is old, her arms have become thin. She recalls how, before her death, Katerina, already without memory, called her husband: “Ivan, it’s windy, oh, Ivan, how windy!”

After the death of his wife, Ivan Afrikanovich does not want to live. He walks around all overgrown and scary and smokes bitter Selpa tobacco. And Nyushka takes care of his children.

Ivan Afrikanovich goes into the forest (looking for an aspen tree for a new boat) and suddenly sees Katerina’s scarf on a branch. Swallowing tears, she inhales the bitter, homely smell of her hair... We must go. Go. Gradually he realizes that he is lost. And without bread there is a skirmish in the forest. He thinks a lot about death, becomes increasingly weaker, and only on the third day, when he is already crawling on all fours, does he suddenly hear the hum of a tractor. And Mishka, who saved his friend, at first thinks that Ivan Afrikanovich is drunk, but still doesn’t understand anything. It's a common thing.

...Two days later, on the fortieth day after Katerina’s death, Ivan Afrikanovich, sitting on his wife’s grave, tells her about the children, says that he feels bad without her, that he will go to her. And asks to wait... “My dear, my bright one... I brought you rowan berries...”

He's shaking all over. Grief melts him on the cold ground, not overgrown with grass. And no one sees it.

Good retelling? Tell your friends on social networks and let them prepare for the lesson too!

A man, Ivan Afrikanovich Drynov, is riding on a log. He got drunk with the tractor driver Mishka Petrov and is now talking to the gelding Parmen. He’s carrying goods for the store from the general store, but he’s drunk and driven into the wrong village, which means he’s only getting home in the morning... It’s a common thing. And at night, on the road, the same Mishka catches up with Ivan Afrikanovich. We drank more. And then Ivan Afrikanovich decides to marry Mishka to his second cousin, forty-year-old Nyushka the zookeeper. True, she has a cataract, but if you look from the left side, you can’t see it... Nyushka drives her friends away with a grab, and they have to spend the night in the bathhouse. And just at this time, Ivan Afrikanovich’s wife Katerina will give birth to the ninth, Ivan. And Katerina, even though the paramedic strictly forbade her, after giving birth she should immediately go to work, she is seriously ill. And Katerina remembers how on Peter’s Day Ivan fornicated with a lively woman from their village, Dashka Putanka, and then, when Katerina forgave him, to celebrate, he exchanged the Bible he inherited from his grandfather for an “accordion” - to amuse his wife. And now Dasha doesn’t want to take care of the calves, so Katerina has to work for her too (otherwise you won’t be able to feed your family). Exhausted from work and illness, Katerina suddenly faints. She is taken to the hospital. Hypertension, stroke. And only after more than two weeks she returns home. And Ivan Afrikanovich also remembers the accordion: before he even learned to play the bass, it was taken away for arrears. It's time for haymaking. Ivan Afrikanovich is in the forest, secretly, seven miles from the village, mowing at night. If you don’t mow three haystacks, there is nothing to feed the cow: ten percent of the hay mown on the collective farm is enough for at most a month. One night, Ivan Afrikanovich takes his young son Grishka with him, and he then foolishly tells the district commissioner that he went with his father to the forest at night to mow. Ivan Afrikanovich is threatened with a lawsuit: after all, he is a deputy of the village council, and then the same representative demands to “tell me” who else is mowing in the forest at night, to write a list... For this he promises not to “socialize” Drynov’s personal haystacks. Ivan Afrikanovich comes to an agreement with the neighbor's chairman and, together with Katerina, goes into the forest to mow someone else's territory at night. At this time, Mitka Polyakov, Katerina’s brother, comes to their village from Murmansk without a penny of money. Less than a week had passed since he gave the whole village water, the authorities barked, Mishke wooed Dashka Putanka, and provided the cow with hay. And everything seemed to happen. Dasha Putanka gives Mishka a love potion, and then he vomits for a long time, and a day later, at Mitka’s instigation, they go to the village council and sign their names. Soon, Dashka tears off a reproduction of Rubens’ painting “The Union of Earth and Water” from Mishka’s tractor (it depicts a naked woman, who, by all accounts, is the spitting image of Nyushka) and burns the “picture” in the oven out of jealousy. In response, Mishka almost throws Dasha, who was washing in the bathhouse, with the tractor, right into the river. As a result, the tractor was damaged, and illegally mown hay was found in the attic of the bathhouse. At the same time, everyone in the village begins to look for hay, and it’s Ivan Afrikinovich’s turn. It's a common thing. Mitka is summoned to the police, to the district (for complicity in damaging a tractor and for hay), but by mistake they give fifteen days not to him, but to another Polyakov, also from Sosnovka (half of the Polyakovs’ village is there). Mishka serves his fifteen days right in his village, without interruption from work, getting drunk in the evenings with the sergeant assigned to him. After Ivan Afrikanovich’s secretly cut hay is taken away, Mitka convinces him to leave the village and go to the Arctic to earn money. Drynov doesn’t want to leave his native place, but if you listen to Mitka, then there’s no other way out... And Ivan Afrikanovich makes up his mind. The chairman does not want to give him a certificate with which he can get a passport, but Drynov, in despair, threatens him with a poker, and the chairman suddenly wilts: “At least you all run away...” Now Ivan Afrikanovich is a free Cossack. He says goodbye to Katerina and suddenly shrinks all over from pain, pity and love for her. And, without saying anything, he pushes her away, as if from the shore into a pool. And after his departure, Katerina has to mow it alone. It was there, while mowing, that the second blow overtook her. Barely alive, they bring her home. And you can’t go to the hospital in this condition - if he dies, they won’t take him to the hospital. And Ivan Afrikanovich returns to his native village. Run over. And he tells a guy he barely knows from a distant village beyond the lake about how Mitka and I went, but he was selling onions and didn’t have time to jump on the train on time, but he still had all the tickets. They dropped off Ivan Afrikanovich and demanded that he go back to the village within three hours, and they said they would send a fine to the collective farm, but they didn’t say how to go, if not what. And suddenly the train approached and Mitka got off. So here Ivan Afrikanovich begged: “I don’t need anything, just let me go home.” They sold the onions, bought a return ticket, and Drynov finally went home. And the guy, in response to the story, reports the news: in the village of Ivan Afrikanovich, a woman has died, and there are many children left. The guy leaves, and Drynov suddenly falls on the road, clutches his head with his hands and rolls into a roadside ditch. She thumps her fist into the meadow, gnaws at the ground... Rogulya, Ivan Afrikinovich’s cow, remembers her life, as if surprised by it, by the shaggy sun, by the warmth. She was always indifferent to herself, and her timeless, vast contemplation was very rarely disturbed. Katerina's mother Evstolya comes, cries over her bucket and tells all the children to hug Rogulya and say goodbye. Drynov asks Mishka to slaughter the cow, but he cannot do it himself. They promise to take the meat to the canteen. Ivan Afrikanovich sorts through Rogulina’s offal, and tears drip onto his bloody fingers. Ivan Afrikanovich’s children, Mitka and Vaska, are sent to an orphanage, Antoshka to a school. Mitka writes to send Katyushka to him in Murmansk, but it’s too small. Grishka and Marusya and two babies remain. And it’s difficult: Eustolya is old, her arms have become thin. She recalls how, before her death, Katerina, already without memory, called her husband: “Ivan, it’s windy, oh, Ivan, how windy!” After the death of his wife, Ivan Afrikanovich does not want to live. He walks around all overgrown and scary and smokes bitter Selpa tobacco. And Nyushka takes care of his children. Ivan Afrikanovich goes into the forest (looking for an aspen tree for a new boat) and suddenly sees Katerina’s scarf on a branch. Swallowing tears, she inhales the bitter, homely smell of her hair... We must go. Go. Gradually he realizes that he is lost. And without bread there is a skirmish in the forest. He thinks a lot about death, becomes increasingly weaker, and only on the third day, when he is already crawling on all fours, does he suddenly hear the hum of a tractor. And Mishka, who saved his friend, at first thinks that Ivan Afrikanovich is drunk, but still doesn’t understand anything. It's a common thing. ...Two days later, on the fortieth day after Katerina’s death, Ivan Afrikanovich, sitting on his wife’s grave, tells her about the children, says that he feels bad without her, that he will go to her. And he asks to wait... “My dear, my bright one... I brought you rowan berries...” He is trembling all over. Grief melts him on the cold ground, not overgrown with grass. And no one sees it.

“Business as usual” by V. I. Belov - poeticization of the hut, folk way of life, traditions peasant culture. This short story with a deliberately modest, but tragically intense title, the internal refrain “life is a common thing,” first appeared in the provincial magazine “North” (Petrozavodsk). Vasily Belov was already famous. He began as a poet, a student of the famous Vologda poet who lived in Moscow, Alexander Yashin, who in 1956 came out with the story “Levers”, the story “Vologda Wedding” (1962). In 1961, V. Belov published the story “The Village of Berdyayka” - about a quiet tragedy, the dying of one village, where the cries of newborns have not been heard for a long time... This story introduced the reader to the main humanistic problems of V. Belov’s work.

And above all, he made his alarm heard: the village lives not just poorly, poorly - it lives below the line of mercy, compassion, ordinary human attention! She survives, not lives...

The story “A Business as Usual” is small in volume, simple in its cast of characters - this is a large family of peasant Ivan Afrikanovich Drynov and his wife, milkmaid Katerina, their neighbors and friends. The character series includes the cow-nurse Rogul and the horse Parmen as equal members of the family and rural community. The things surrounding Ivan Afrikanovich - a well, a bathhouse, a spring, and finally, a treasured forest - are also members of his family.

These are shrines, his support, helping him survive. There are few “events of life” in the story: Katerina’s work, Ivan Afrikanovich’s trip to the city, “to a foreign land,” with a bag of onions to save his family, to earn money. The reader meets a married couple who is very shy in expressing high feelings. “It’s okay to come, it’s okay,” says Katerina, for example, in her dialect, when Ivan Afrikanovich ran to the maternity hospital. But she loves this “disobedience” in her husband; for the sake of such moments, she is ready for endless work in the name of her home and family.

It hurts your heart when you read how Ivan Afrikanovich, having survived his wife’s funeral, having distributed some of his children to orphanages and relatives, grieves on his fortieth day at his wife’s grave:

“...But he was a fool, he took bad care of you, you know it yourself... Now I’m alone... Like I walk on fire, I walk on you, forgive me... I feel bad without you, I can’t breathe, Katya. It’s so bad, I thought after you... But I recovered... But I remember your voice. And all of you, Katerina, I remember so well that... Yes. So, don’t think anything about being timid. They will rise. There’s the youngest one, Vanyushka, who speaks the words... he’s such a smart guy and his eyes look exactly like you. I really... yes. I’ll come to you, and you wait for me sometimes... Katya... You, Katya, where are you? My dear, my bright one, I... I need something... Well... now... I brought you rowan berries... Katya, my dear.”

In this fragment of a “tale” with typical peasant repetitions (“it’s bad for me”, “it’s bad” instead of “bad”, “it hurts”), with a pagan feeling of the inseparability of being, blurring the boundaries between life and death (“after death”), with rare inclusions pathos (“My dear, my bright one”), V. Belov’s rare ear for folk speech is noticeable, his art of getting used to folk character. This art will also be revealed in his “Carpenter's Stories” (1968), where two “sworn friends” Avenir Kozonkov and Olesha Smolin argue, in “Vologda Bukhtins” (1969), in the great novel about collectivization “Eves” (1972-1976).

This supposedly “passive” hero either actively appeals to the world for compassion, for mercy for the village, or wages a painful struggle for his home as a corner of Russia, a center of survival, for a spring of humanized existence. “If I survive, the people will survive!” - as if this powerless, passportless hero is speaking, every now and then driven even from the land dear to him.

What is sacred, eternal, priceless for Ivan Afrikanovich, for Katerina? They probably won’t even admit that the simplest, “cheapest”, and easily given things are the most valuable to them. Thus, the “focus” of the space dear to them in the story is their hut, their “home”. It is not rich at all, not “expensive”, in everything it is ordinary - with a front corner, with a samovar, a stove, with a pole screwed to the ceiling, a cradle (“chelovek”) for rocking the cradle of another baby. “Ochep” is a kind of “axis” of the entire rural, isolated world. In “Farewell to Matera” by V. Rasputin, the “axis” on which the whole wheel of life and the universe seemed to spin was the royal foliage, the holy tree, in the middle of the village.

The house of Ivan Afrikanovich suffered many blows - and the eternal need of the post-war years, experiments in “de-peasantization”, but miraculously survived thanks to the “harmony”, peasant memory, common sense, and the protective power of the family. The whole story is a chain of comic or humorous situations, scenes of labor and harmless quarrels of the heroes within the framework of “their own”, natural world, “village space”, living according to the laws of harmony, “lada”.

However, one should not see V. Belov, the author of “Business as Usual,” as a moralizer, preacher, or enemy of urban civilization. He is not such even in the novel “Everything Is Ahead” (1986). V. Belov, of course, experiences considerable creative happiness, getting used to the characters of his “children of the earth,” listening to their voices (he knows how to depict the word itself, the poetry of the “tale”), skillfully combining motley scenes into a single whole. The writer shows how his hero secretly mows hay in the forest at night for his cow (“Ivan Afrikanovich slept for only two hours the third night, it’s a common thing”), and how he furiously demands a passport certificate to travel to the city (“stepped into the middle office and shouted: “Give me a certificate! Write a certificate in front of my eyes!”). And scenes that reveal the same character are also woven into the final scenes of the story. Having lost Katerina, Ivan Afrikanovich got lost in the forest, helplessly exposed his face to the “silent clinging rain”, heard some kind of “universal and still ghostly noise”... But by some miracle, despair was defeated, the hero returned to the village, to the orphaned house. ..

Because the writer’s gaze increasingly began to turn to the past, to folklore, folk aesthetics, V. Belov’s prose became even more modern. The current “discord” can be corrected by the former “harmony” (harmony between man and nature). The result of many of V. Belov’s judgments about “lada” in connection with Belov’s stories, the book “Lad” itself, this encyclopedia of the life of a peasant, full of legends, fairy tales, stories and pictures, was summed up by researcher Yu. Seleznev:

“His goal (“lada.” - V.Ch.) ... is to comprehend the foundations, to understand the nature of its unity, its integrity, through the diversity of manifestations of people’s life. This basis... Belov embodied in the concept of “lady”.

This is extremely capacious Russian word truly represents the unity of diversity: this is the universal harmony - the whole world, harmony of world order; this is the way of a certain way of life public life- life and love: friendship, brotherhood, good neighborliness, mutual understanding; and family life: lad is marriage, lada is a beloved, dear, desired person; and labor - to get along - to do well, with skill, taste... harmony is agreement, harmony.”

A man rides on a log Ivan Afrikanovich Drynov. He got drunk with the tractor driver Mishka Petrov and is now talking to the gelding Parmen. He’s carrying goods for the store from the general store, but he’s drunk and driven into the wrong village, which means he’s only getting home in the morning... It’s a common thing. And at night, on the road, the same Mishka catches up with Ivan Afrikanovich. We also drank. And then Ivan Afrikanovich decides to marry Mishka to his second cousin, forty-year-old Nyushka the zookeeper. True, she has a cataract, but if you look from the left side, you still can’t see it... Nyushka drives her friends away with a grab, and they have to spend the night in the bathhouse.

And Ivan Afrikanovich also remembers the accordion: before he even learned to play the bass, it was taken away for arrears.

After Ivan Afrikanovich’s secretly cut hay is taken away, Mitka convinces him to leave the village and go to the Arctic to earn money. Drynov doesn’t want to leave his native place, but if you listen to Mitka, then there’s no other way out... And Ivan Afrikanovich makes up his mind. The chairman does not want to give him a certificate with which he can get a passport, but Drynov, in despair, threatens him with a poker, and the chairman suddenly collapses: “At least you all run away...”

The children of Ivan Afrikanovich, Mitka and Vaska, are sent to an orphanage,

After the death of his wife, Ivan Afrikanovich does not want to live. He walks around all overgrown and scary and smokes bitter Selpa tobacco. And Nyushka takes care of his children.

Two days later, on the fortieth day after Katerina’s death, Ivan Afrikanovich, sitting on his wife’s grave, tells her about the children, says that he feels bad without her, that he will go to her. And asks to wait... “My dear, my bright one... I brought you rowan berries...”.

He's shaking all over. Grief melts him on the cold ground, not overgrown with grass. And no one sees it.

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