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that we shan't be able to maintain Soviet power! If we don't build factories all over the country, we shall
be finished, and not only that we shan't be able to help any of the peoples who are waiting for our aid.
That's as clear as two and two makes four. Only this perishing conductor doesn't-want to understand the
obvious truth. . . And I've got a very definite feeling that Pecheritsa's tactics are playing right into the
hands of the Ukrainian nationalists, if Kartamyshev had been in town, I would have got this order
cancelled today. But Kartamyshev caught a chill during the alarm and his lungs are bad -again, so he's
gone to Yalta for treatment. His place has been taken by Sokorenko a new man to our organization.
Sokorenko's heard that Pecheritsa was sent here from 'Kharkov and he's afraid of pulling him up. I shall
have to talk to Sokorenko, and explain things to him. But it seems to me that there's no need for you to
stand aside. While I'm protesting here, on the spot, why shouldn't you go and stir them up in Kharkov?
We've not only got to fight to keep our school going, we've got to make Kharkov find jobs at factories
for our first lot of trainees, for all of you. You have every right to them."
And we decided to fight.
A resolution was carried that immediately after the general Komsomol meeting a pupils' delegation
should be sent to the District Party Committee. It was also decided that I should be sent to Kharkov to
see the Central Committee of the Komsomol.
That was the last thing I had expected! When all the chaps shouted, "Mandzhura! Mandzhura ought
to go!" I could scarcely believe my ears.
I tried to make excuses, but Nikita said confidently: "Never mind that, Vasil. It's all bunk about your
never travelling on a train before and losing yourself and all the rest of it. Your tongue will get you
anywhere and Kharkov's not far away. Are we the kind to get scared over such journeys! Who knows,
we may have to take a trip to Berlin or Paris one of these days. And you're afraid of going to Kharkov,
to one of our own Soviet towns! But you're quite a brave chap on the whole and we're sure you'll find
your way about there all right. So get cracking on the long trail and stick up for our interests! Get justice,
or die! That's all."
The meeting was declared closed.
Tired and excited, we walked back to the hostel through the quiet snowy streets of our little town. Of
was in a daze. The decision to send me to Kharkov had hit me like an avalanche. But it was good to feel
that my friends trusted me, and I swore to myself that I would do my best.
AN UNEXPECTED TRAVELLING COMPANION
No one came to see me off at the station, not even Pet-ka. That evening there was to be a pupils'
conference. Pecheritsa was expected to attend. After two invitations, he had condescended to "drop in."
Everyone wanted to hear what this ginger-moustached bureaucrat had to say besides what was in his
order. Well over half the school's pupils were preparing to speak. They intended to give Pecheritsa a real
fight and demand that he cancel the order. But the train left at seven fifteen in the evening. I had told the
chaps myself not to see me off. They had better stick together and give that bureaucrat a hiding.
I arrived at the station half an hour before the train was due to leave and saw that no one was being
allowed on the platform yet. With one hand in my pocket feeling the hard little ticket that we had clubbed
together to buy, and the other gripping a brief case, I strolled about the station, glancing up at the clock.
Firmly pinned with two safety-pins in the inside pocket of my jacket were forty-three rubles sixty
kopeks. At dinner-time we had been given our grants and most of the chaps at school had contributed a
ruble each for my journey. That was how I had come to possess such a large sum, I had never had so
much money before in my life. My papers for the journey were in the brief case that Nikita had forced on
me. He had gone specially to the District Komsomol Committee and borrowed it from Dmitry
Panchenko, the head of the instructors' department. Afraid of being laughed at, I tried to refuse it, but
Nikita was adamant.
"Try to understand, old chap," he said persuasively, "when a brief case is necessary, it's nothing to be
ashamed of. There's no reason why it should be a sign that you've turned into a bureaucrat. If you haven't
got a brief case, what will you do with all your papers, the school estimate, the lists of pupils? Stuff them
in your pockets? You'll get everything crumpled. And where will you put your towel, soap, tooth-brush?
There's nowhere, is there? But it all goes fine into a brief case. Suppose you go in to see the chief of
education himself. Do you want to fish a lot of crumpled papers out of your pocket?... You'll feel much
better with a brief case." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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