The name of Pasha Angelina saved her Christian family during the years of repression. Noble tractor driver Pasha Angelina Guy in a skirt

And instead of a heart - a fiery engine

Svetlana, daughter of the famous tractor driver Pasha ANGELINA: “They said about my mother that she was Stalin’s mistress, an alcoholic, and ours is not a house, but a brothel.”

Exactly 60 years ago, the famous 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 along with her.

She herself, as they said then, saddled the “iron horse” and called other young girls along with her. 200 thousand women across the country followed her example and got on a tractor. Soviet propaganda She spared no expense in painting this as an example of the equality for which fellow women in the world of capital fought unsuccessfully. That was the first Golden Star» Pasha Angelina. The second one was given to her 11 years later - in a Kremlin hospital shortly before her death. She was already a completely different woman - exhausted by illness, 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 their high deputy status, helped. Evil tongues gossiped that while working with men (after the war, Angelina led an exclusively male team), she drank with them as equals. In fact, cirrhosis of the liver was an occupational disease of tractor drivers of those years: they had to breathe in fuel fumes from morning to evening. Her children are sure that Angelina would have lived twice as long if not for the grueling work exceeding her own records and constant fatigue. And now the tractor on which this woman performed her labor feats stands in front of the entrance to her memorial museum - a monument to the communist era, which promised a bright future and did not spare human lives in the present... Angelina’s life passed along the route Starobeshevo - Moscow - Starobeshevo: from the collective farm field to the meeting hall Supreme Council USSR and back. The personal life of the order bearer was always in plain sight, she was envied, and ridiculous rumors were spread about her. Fearing evil tongues, Praskovya Nikitichna traveled everywhere with her eldest daughter Svetlana.

“MOM EVEN WORTED CREPE DE CHINE DRESSES AT HOME”

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

“You can’t call my 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 my mother’s features - after all, she was friends with Vera Mukhina. Mom was very feminine.

- Wow, but according to Soviet history textbooks she seems like some sort of, excuse me, man in a skirt. After all, in portraits 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 got dressed. She did not accept dressing gowns and even wore crepe de Chine dresses at home. She wore lipstick and wore an emerald ring and an engagement ring to meetings. I washed my hair every day, even though I went to bed after midnight, and at five in the morning I already left 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 Moscow Hotel, where deputies were served out of turn at the hairdresser. I decided to get a manicure, but I waited in line like everyone else. And then I hear one woman whisper to the manicurist: “It seems that Pasha Angelina is sitting there in the queue.” The manicurist was surprised: “She’s supposed to go without any queue!” Then my mother sat down at the table, and the manicurist said to her: “Can you imagine, there, in the queue, Pasha Angelina herself is waiting.” I couldn’t stand it and through laughter I said: “Praskovya Angelina is already in front of you.” The manicurist couldn’t believe it: “Wow, you have such amazingly soft skin, I would never have thought that you were a machine operator!”

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

— But you still couldn’t avoid the rumors?

— Yes, there was a lot of dirt. They said that she was Stalin's mistress, and they also attributed connections 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 to some it seemed - vodka. These dirty rumors still live today. I have never told anyone about one terrible incident. A team of doctors suddenly appeared 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 children. I realized that something terrible was happening.

Mom began calling the secretary of the district party committee, but this did not yield any results. She was told: “Donating blood is in your own interests.” One of my fellow villagers wrote an anonymous note saying that we don’t have a house, but a brothel, every evening there are men and drinking parties. Back then, there was a green street for anonymous people. Then they apologized to my mother very much, but I will never forget her face at that moment. All this is human envy, it persecuted and destroyed my mother. As I grew up, I realized that there were many envious people around her 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. Only a few people were awarded this honor - Stakhanov, Chkalov, Papanin... Couldn't she really 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 the meetings. She is a different kind of person. She was always very careful, she warned that nothing could be said in the Moscow Hotel room in which she and I stayed, because even the walls here had ears. When I asked her some serious questions, she answered: “When you grow up, you’ll figure it out on your own.” During the World Youth Festival, I was invited to take part in a scientific conference, but my mother did not allow me: “You have no business communicating with foreigners.” I was very upset then.

— And in what ways, besides a direct telephone line, was Stalin’s favor towards the famous tractor driver expressed?

- Nothing. Even the repressions affected 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 interfered with the sowing schedule. Uncle Kostya took it and sent him off with obscenities. He was arrested and kept in prison for several months. They beat me so hard that no traces were left on the body, but the lungs were broken off. Uncle Kostya was a naval sailor, survived the blockade, and was an incredibly healthy person. But he couldn’t stand this bullying. When his mother brought him to Moscow for a consultation, the professor said that he had three months to live.

During 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 saying, she’s a Russian heroine!”

“DRUNK FATHER SHOT AT MOM, BUT MISSED”

— Official biography 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 needed this lie?

— Mom crossed out her father from her life and promised herself that she would raise four children herself. And I told everyone that my father died. He drank heavily and it destroyed their marriage. I think his mother loved him even when they broke up. Mom got married with a child in her arms - she adopted her nephew Gennady, whom his own mother, after the death of Uncle Vanya (my mother’s brother), threw out into the street.

My father was sent to Donbass according to party orders from Kursk. When his parents met, he was working as the second secretary of the Starobeshevo district party committee, he was a very capable person, a leader by nature, he spoke well, drew, and wrote poetry. If it weren't for his mother, he would probably have had a great career. But it is difficult for two leaders, like two bears in one den, to get along. By virtue of his 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 the envelopes - just “USSR, Pasha Angelina,” and that’s all.

At 24, my mother already became a deputy of the Supreme Council. She stood the test of fame, but paid a very high price for it. She essentially had no personal life. In winter, meetings, sessions, constant travel - Moscow, Kyiv, Stalino... In 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 finishing the academy. My mother and her tractor brigade were evacuated to Kazakhstan (all the equipment that was being transported in two trains was also taken there), and my father was called up to the front.

During the evacuation, my mother was “lost” at the Ministry of Agriculture, but when her team began to produce large grain harvests for the country, a telegram of gratitude arrived from Stalin. In 1942, Kalinin summoned her to a session of the Supreme Council, and her mother, pregnant with another child, pregnant, with swollen legs, left for Moscow. On the way back, near Saratov, the train in which she was returning came under bombing, and only the last cars remained intact. There, under the bombing, my mother gave birth. But we didn’t know any of this and, frankly, thought that she would never return. She was gone for several months, and then she arrived with a skinny girl - skin and bones. The baby screamed all the time and was often sick. Child of war - what can I say. Mom decided to name her Stalina, in honor of Stalin and the victory at Stalingrad.

My father fought, and we considered him a hero and 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 chest was covered in medals. The war finished him off. 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.

One day, in response to reproaches, a drunken father shot his mother. I managed to throw myself on her neck, she moved away - miss! The bullet remained in our wall for a long time. I lost consciousness from stress, then a terrible depression began, I was treated for a long time. The morning after this incident family life parents is over. Dad went to the Volnovakha region, married a teacher, and a girl was born - Svetlana Chernysheva. We could have been complete namesakes if my mother had not changed our surnames from the Chernyshevs to the Angelins.

Svetlana and I corresponded, and then got lost. After the divorce, my father came to see us only twice - on last time to his mother’s funeral, and before that he was already quite ill, and she, already unwell herself, sent him to a sanatorium. My father didn’t drink for a while, but still couldn’t resist. The teacher, his wife, a very decent woman, put up with it for some time, and even kicked him out. He ended his life as a homeless person.

- Has no one else wooed Praskovya Nikitichna?

- Was. She met this man in Kazakhstan - Pavel Ivanovich Simonov. Very 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 decided that she had some important business to do, and went to her sister in a neighboring area. Grandmother and grandfather and we children remained at home. He stayed with us for several days. He, of course, was offended that his mother did this to him. I remember Pavel Ivanovich rudely pulled one of the children, and my grandmother heard it. 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 get married because of us. I think if my mother had a husband, she would feel sorry for herself and not work to the point of self-torture.

“MOM AS A DEPUTY HAD TWO ROOMS IN A COMMUNAL APARTMENT”

— After returning from Kazakhstan, Angelina’s brigade consisted only of men. Was it difficult for her to cope with them?

“It may be hard for some to believe this—my mother never used strong words.” But her authority was unquestionable! She led the brigade while still a girl, but from the first days she was called “Aunt Pasha.” Our grandfather, by the way, was an illiterate man, and also never swore in the house. I never heard him raise his voice to grandma. And my mother never hit me. However, she was strict with the boys. They grew up without a man's hand. I had pedagogical disputes with her and defended my brothers.

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

— Soviet propaganda molded Praskovya Nikitichna into a real icon, 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. As a deputy, my mother 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. A total of 42 people. One toilet and washbasin for everyone - can you imagine? My mother’s niece lived in Moscow at that time. With husband Hero Soviet Union and with a small child they were filming some kind of bedbugs. And mom asked for a corner for them. Later, I also moved in with them - it was considered better than a hostel. These were the privileges.

And after my mother’s death, almost everyone abandoned 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 in her memory. Recipient 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, and was a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. It was she who secured a two-room apartment for me in Moscow. Galina Evgenievna was twice awarded the Order of Princess Olga. She died last year at the age of 90.

I remember another incident. Once my mother and I were walking to the Moscow Hotel along Chernyshevsky Street. By the way, she loved to walk a lot. It was a very hot day, I was tired and hungry. I started asking my mother: “Come on, feed me.” We went into the dining room, where we had lunch. The food turned out to be ordinary: 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 there were two medals of the Hero of Socialist Labor, a deputy badge and a laureate badge. The cleaning lady was stunned when she saw her. After all, the deputies who were fed for free in the Kremlin never entered their establishment. The headmistress comes out, smiles and asks mom to leave a review - did you like the dinner? My mother nodded at me: they say, my daughter is literate, so let her write... I look at today’s deputies and think: how bright my mother was compared to them.

— So, Praskovya Nikitichna had nothing to do with your admission to Moscow State University or your search for a prestigious job?

- 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 I was being given favors. After university, I found a job at Soyuzpechat. She started as an instructor and rose to the rank of first deputy director. I had a team of 2,700 people subordinate to me. Soyuzpechat was responsible for subscriptions to periodicals throughout the USSR. I believe that I received a very good education, because we were taught by professors who themselves studied before the revolution.

Everything I earned for my retirement is now garbage. My husband and I no longer work; we live in the Moscow region in a dacha that we inherited from relatives. We have insulated it and wintered here for two winters already. Moscow has become completely different now, we don’t like it.

— How did it happen that the doctors did not monitor the health of the famous Pasha Angelina?

— Mom worked very hard. I never got enough sleep and didn’t eat normally. She suffered Botkin's disease on her legs twice. I came from Moscow and noticed how much weight she had lost. Aunt Nadya, my mother’s sister, who took paramedic courses during the war, was also concerned. 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 I was given a permanent pass to the hospital, although according to the rules, patients were only allowed to visit twice a week. They made an exception for me because my mother was hopelessly ill. In the hospital we had this game - I called her daughter, and she called me mom. Six months later she died. She was buried in Starobeshevo.

There are many long-livers in the Angelin family, but my mother passed away so early - at 46 years old. But I think she, despite everything, was a happy person. And very kind... She earned good money and helped many. Once every two or three years I went to a sanatorium and could take half the team with me. Her every action showed a maternal attitude, even towards tractor drivers who were older than her. The pockets of her overalls were always filled with candy. He’s driving a Pobeda, he sees a boy, he stops, he wipes his nose, he kisses him, he treats him. She has a mother's mind, and it cannot be a man's. This is what they say: “a man in a skirt.”

She believed that the most important thing in life was bread. If there is bread, there will be life. After my mother’s death, her brigade still existed until the collapse of the Soviet Union. Before flying into space, Gagarin once said in an interview: “I eat bread grown by Pasha Angelina.” Although my mother was no longer alive then.

VALERY ANGELIN: “MOTHER HAD A PERSONAL PISTOL, BUT SHE COULD HARDLY SHOOT A PERSON”

Praskovya Angelina knew how to get along with men - be they party leaders or deputies different levels, chairmen of collective farms, tractor drivers of her post-war brigade. I simply wouldn’t be able to work any other way. And two more little men were waiting at home - sons Gennady and Valery. Being children worldwide famous woman- means conforming to it in everything and living with caution. Once, speaking on All-Union Radio, Angelina promised the whole country that each of her four children would receive higher education. This is almost exactly what happened, and only Valery, having once been a student of not one, but two universities, never received a higher education. He lives in a tiny house on the outskirts of Starobeshevo and has a sabbath from time to time. They say his character is not simple. As a matter of principle, he doesn’t give interviews to anyone, but for “Gordon Boulevard” he made an exception, although he was taciturn.

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

“I was always proud of my mother, but I never showed it and did not attach myself to her fame. My mother’s secretary was a teacher from our school (later she was appointed director) - that’s how she told everything about me, my mother didn’t even need 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 around the country a little, even meeting Grigory Ivanovich Petrovsky, Lenin’s comrade-in-arms. He was deputy director of the Museum of the Revolution.

— Praskovya Nikitichna promised 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 complete my studies. I managed to work as an accountant for my mother - I went and counted who fulfilled the quota. But this was a formality, because there was a rule in the brigade - to divide everything equally. Then he studied at two universities - Melitopol Energy and Dnepropetrovsk Agricultural. But the year my mother died, I crashed on a motorcycle and broke my back. At the age of 20 he became a disabled person of the first group. Having previously played first grade 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 recovery, I burned all my medical documents so that nothing would remind me of my disability.

— What do you remember from childhood?

“We lived in a simple old house, although my mother could build any kind of mansion.” The furniture was also ordinary, but there was a rich library - a lot of Russian classics, “A Thousand and One Nights”, Maupassant... Mom loved to read, but she didn’t have time. She dressed very simply, wearing overalls to work. I remember my grandmother baked bread for the whole brigade. After the war, the stove was heated with adobe. We often had guests - important people came in regional committee cars, and my mother treated them to pasties. Khrushchev visited, and foreign delegations also visited. Mom always hosted them. The Germans will drink three glasses and start singing “Katyusha”, even though they said that they don’t know Russian. Mom didn’t sing with them, but her sisters Nadya and Lelya sang very beautifully - so that it touched the soul.

- Has Praskovya Nikitichna spoiled you at least sometimes?

— Mother sometimes came from Moscow with gifts. She once brought me a model of an airplane and a ballpoint pen - it was such a curiosity! But at school no one would allow me to write with this pen, and then the paste ran out.

— Angelina’s work was not feminine, but her character?

- She was very kind person. It happened that he would offend one of the children, spank me, and then sit and cry. After the war, people came to us and begged her for food on their knees. She endured both flour and sunflower oil. The mother was easy to communicate with. She and I often played chess, but she didn’t like losing. She drove the car great, but sometimes I drove her if she asked, even when I was old and didn’t have a driver’s license yet.

She did not shine with literacy, but, as far as I remember, she always found time to study with tutors. Starting from scratch, passed school course in a few years. In general, her school was work. My grandmother took care of us all the time and was with us after her death. He and my grandfather are long-lived - my grandfather lived until he was 87, and my grandmother was a year short of her 90th birthday. Mom called them “you,” as was customary in Greek families.

“Today, the owner of a tractor brigade could be a very wealthy person.” And then? Have you lived better than others?

“After the war, we, like everyone else, starved for two years until my mother got things right with the brigade. People stood in lines for food and for help that came from America, too. In 1947, my mother received the first Star of the Hero of Socialist Labor. Life began to get better, although there was devastation in the country. The people in her brigade made great money. For example, before the monetary reform, the salary on a collective farm was 400 rubles, while a trailer driver earned 1,400. Tractor drivers and combine operators each received 12 tons of clean grain. Not some kind of barley, but real grain. We rested only on Sundays. They had their own canteen in the field, they dug out a “refrigerator”; the pork and beef were always fresh and clean. They built a pool for rainwater to pour it into the radiators - they rusted from simple water. People built houses for themselves, many had motorcycles, and some people still ride them. Anyone in the brigade could take a car, and if there were problems, the mother, of course, would have helped.

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

- And what - she didn’t have enemies?

- Many were jealous. Relatives were offended if someone did not ask for them somewhere above. But she didn’t like to ask. After the war, the police protected our family for two years. The mother had a personal pistol, but she could hardly shoot at a person. People respected her and knew her by sight. One day a woman showed up in Kyiv who introduced herself as Pasha Angelina and wanted to check into a hotel under her name, but they immediately realized that she was a swindler.

The mother also told how one day she was returning from a meeting in the region and four robbers came out onto the road. She had to stop and get out of the cabin, but they recognized her and immediately disappeared. Each deputy received people once every two to three months. Praskovya Nikitichna wrote down all requests and made sure to fulfill them. In 1938, as far as I know, they pulled people out of the NKVD. But she didn’t tell us anything about it, and we didn’t ask. Who knew that mother would live so little? They thought that in old age he would tell everything.

In 1928, in our backward village, a foreign “miracle of technology of the 20th century” appeared, rattling throughout the entire area. The tractor not only increased the speed of tillage, but also changed the entire patriarchal way of life of rural residents. Even women’s emancipation in the countryside followed the tractor track: Pasha(Praskovya) Angelina, a pretty girl who, for the first time in the history of the Russian village, took up “not a woman’s” business. Hundreds of thousands of other women followed her.

Why Pasha Angelina at the age of 16 she dreamed of becoming a tractor driverN Why did she, at the age of 20, organize the first women's tractor brigade in the USSR, instead of calmly getting married, having children and poking around in her gardenN

Our correspondent Dmitry Tikhonov talks with the nephew of the legendary tractor driver, Alexei Kirillovich Angelin.

My father, Kirill Fedorovich, and Praskovya Nikitichna are cousins. My grandfather, Fyodor Vasilyevich, died very early due to a wound received in the First World War, and Praskovya Nikitichna’s father, Nikita Vasilyevich, actually adopted his brother’s children. Grandfather Nikita treated our family as his own.

We were all born in the regional village of Staro-Beshevo, Donetsk region. My mother, brother and Praskovya Nikitichna’s son, Valery, still live there. By the way, Valery and I studied at the same institute, and I always go to see him when I’m in those parts.

Praskovya Nikitichna’s husband worked in party bodies, and during the war he was seriously wounded and died in 1947. She never remarried and said that the main thing for her was to get her three children on their feet. The eldest daughter Svetlana graduated from Moscow State University and has been living in Moscow for a long time, already retired. The middle son Valery remained, as I said, in his homeland. Stalin's youngest daughter graduated from medical school, but died early. It was still Foster-son Gennady is her brother's son. When the brother died, his wife abandoned the child, and Pasha adopted him.

What kind of person was she?

They say about such women: a man in a skirt. She really had male character. She was directly drawn to tractors! But back then in the village this was not very welcome. Those women who dared to ride a tractor were subjected to real persecution. She even described it in her memoirs. In addition, Praskovya Nikitichna is Greek by nationality, and among them women were generally forbidden to meddle in men’s affairs. Her father and the whole family were categorically against it, but despite everything, she mastered this purely male specialty and became first a machine operator and then a foreman of the first female tractor brigade in the USSR.

In 1938, attention was paid to her. She got into the groove. As a result, she made an appeal to all Soviet women: “One hundred thousand girlfriends - on a tractor!” And 200 thousand women followed her example.
She was a purposeful person, assertive, demanding, even tough, but very fair. And, of course, a great organizer. The team is always in perfect order and cleanliness. By the way, there was a women’s brigade from 1933 to 1945, but when they returned from Kazakhstan, from evacuation, the women fled, and only men remained in the brigade. And Praskovya Nikitichna is their foreman. They called her Aunt Pasha.

It must be said that she was a real ace driver: she drove both a tractor and a car, she practically never got out of her Pobeda and did not want to exchange it for the new Volga, which was fashionable at that time.

Was she really not interested in anything else in life besides tractors?

She had a very strong desire for books. And although she did not receive a higher education, she loved to read. When I was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, I sent dozens of parcels with books from Moscow. And all the neighbors thought that she was sending all sorts of scarce things from the capital. Her library was magnificent. I subscribed to a whole bunch of different newspapers and magazines. The postman brought them in bags.

By the way, at that time Praskovya Nikitichna was quite famous, or, as they said then, a noble person. This helped her in lifeN How the authorities treated herN

She never used her opportunities and connections for herself personally. Although she had great connections. Judge for yourself - member of the Central Committee Communist Party Ukraine, twice Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate Stalin Prize, had several Orders of Lenin, was a deputy of the Supreme Council for 20 years in a row, was familiar with Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin, met with Stalin several times. But she remained a foreman until the end of her life, although she was more than once offered to become the chairman of the collective farm.

I remember such an incident. She, as a deputy of the Supreme Council, had a personal driver. He once broke some rules, so she made him apologize to the guard. She did not allow anyone to use her connections. Her family was often offended by her because of this. I guess, that famous surname helped us in only one thing - our family escaped repression.
- Praskovya Angelina died in January 1959, when she was only 46 years old...
- She had cirrhosis of the liver, which is not surprising given such work. The constant presence in the body affected fuels and lubricants. Previously, fuel was sucked through a hose. She died very quickly, within a few months, and literally worked until the last. I came to the session of the Supreme Council, felt unwell, and went to the doctors. She was treated at a Kremlin clinic, but it was no longer possible to save her. She was awarded the second star of Hero of Socialist Labor when she was already in the clinic, almost before her death. They wanted to bury him in Moscow, at the Novodevichy cemetery, but at the request of his relatives they buried him at home, in Staro-Beshevo. There is still a monument to her and an avenue named after her.
- Why did you connect your life with agriculture?
- My father was also a machine operator and worked as a foreman of a tractor team on a neighboring farm. And we, children, followed in his footsteps. I am the eldest son. At first he worked as a mechanic at MTS, then he graduated from the Melitopol Institute of Mechanization and Electrification of Agriculture and became a mechanical engineer. He worked in the Kuban, was the chairman of a collective farm. My younger brother is also a machine operator. True, my children are no longer connected with the village. My granddaughter actually studies at MGIMO.
- Do you think that Pasha Angelina’s experience is applicable in modern conditions?
- Everything is fine in due time. Then it was simply necessary, especially during the war and after it. But today, it seems to me, there is no need to en masse involve women in such a difficult task. There is no need for this. The men can handle it themselves

For the Land of Soviets, Angelina Praskovya Nikitichna always remained Pasha. She was considered the first tractor driver. She was known in the same way as the legendary Stakhanov, Chkalov and Papanin.

She liked to say that she was able to ride the “iron horse”, calling other representatives of the fairer sex with her. True, this activity deprived her not only of health, but also of personal happiness... The biography of Pasha Angelina will be presented to the reader’s attention in the article.

Greek family

Praskovya Nikitichna Angelina was born in 1913 in one of the villages of the Donetsk province into a peasant family. Her ancestors are Greeks. She was brought up in Christian traditions.

Young Pasha was initially preparing for rural life. When she was only five, she worked as a shepherd. A few years later she was already working in the mine as an auxiliary worker. Of course, she gave all her earnings to her mother.

In addition, from an early age, the future record holder was attracted to technology and various mechanisms. Although in Greek families, since ancient times, women should deal exclusively with children and household chores. But Pasha was initially considered a “boy in a skirt.” And when the first tractor appeared in their village, Angelina could not remain indifferent. She decided to become a tractor driver.

Of course, members of the Angelin family reacted very negatively to this desire. However, the sixteen-year-old girl still achieved her goal. She brilliantly completed machine operator courses and began working in the fields of Donbass. She was the very first woman to drive a tractor. From then on, the development of agriculture during the Stalin era literally depended on it. She could become a legend.

Pasha Angelina - legend of labor Donbass

A few years ago, Angelina led the first female team of tractor drivers. N. Radchenko, L. Fedorova, N. Biits, V. Kosse, V. Zolotupup, V. Anastasova and others worked with her.

In the very first plowing, the girls managed to double the plan. In addition, they did not allow any equipment downtime during this period. Although at that time Soviet agriculture was going through far from the best times. There was a significant shortage of spare parts and fuel. Also, repair teams have not yet been formed.

But despite this, in the same memorable year Angelina received the title “Excellent Tractor Driver”. And the news about this reached the capital. Leading periodicals began to constantly publish her photographs. Under the conditions of the first Soviet Five-Year Plan, the country needed new “heroes.” And Pasha was like that. There was a Stakhanov movement in the USSR. And party leaders began to “sculpt” her into the image of a real worker who was devoted to the head of state.

Deputy

In 1935, Pasha Angelina was first awarded the prestigious Order of Lenin. Two years later she became a member of the Communist Party and a deputy of the Supreme Council. She repeatedly communicated with Stalin at personal meetings. She even had the opportunity to call the country's leader directly.

But she never used this. According to her recollections, belonging to the party elite was terribly burdensome for her.

However, due to her status in society, she had to constantly worry about sending equipment. She also got villagers tickets to the south, helped them with admission to universities and much more. In short, she cared about literally everyone except herself. It was extremely inconvenient for her to use her position. Although, perhaps, her surname at one time saved the entire family from Stalin’s repressions. True, her brother, who headed one of the collective farms, still ended up in the dungeons of the security officers. A little later he was released, but after being bullied and beaten in prison, he became disabled and soon died.

Highly educated worker

Her fellow countrymen were amazed at her exceptional energy. So, in 1938, she decided to appeal to all Soviet working women. She came out to them with a call: “100,000 friends - on a tractor!” And soon not a hundred thousand followed this example Soviet women, and twice as much.

In addition, the villagers were amazed at her thirst for knowledge. Angelina Praskovya Nikitichna sincerely dreamed of becoming a highly educated worker. At the same time, initially she did not shine with literacy. But she always managed to find time to study with tutors. So, in a few years she managed to complete the entire school course. And on the eve of the war, she was even able to obtain a diploma of higher education, graduating from the famous Timiryazevka.

She fell in love with literature. She constantly read and subscribed to a lot of books. And as a result, she herself took up the pen and wrote her book. It was called “People of Collective Farm Fields.”

During the war

When the war began, Angelina moved to Kazakhstan, where she again became the foreman of a women’s team.

She slept 4 hours a day. And under these conditions, she continued to develop agriculture and set records.

In 1945 she returned to Donbass. Her partners ended up in different cities. But she again led a new brigade. Only there were no women besides her at all. But representatives of the stronger sex unconditionally recognized her authority.

Post-war time

IN post-war period Angelina, as always, continued to reach new heights. Her brigade received 12 tons of grain. As a result, in 1947, she was awarded the first Star of Hero of Labor for her hard work.

Over time, life generally began to improve. A canteen and refrigerator were built in the field. In addition, a special rainwater pool was built. The fact is that drinking water quickly rusted the radiators.

Its employees received huge salaries. In the end, many of them built houses and purchased motorcycles. Also, everyone could buy a car. And if there was not enough money, the foreman immediately helped solve this problem. So, she once ordered two dozen Moskvich vehicles for tractor drivers.

New realities

After Stalin's death, completely new times came. This era required other idols and heroes. But Angelina still could not complain about the realities. She was elected to the Central Committee of the Ukrainian Communist Party. Then she continued to receive new awards. As before, she was praised in the press. She was constantly invited to various events and meetings.

She had her own personal car, Pobeda. She drove the car as masterfully as she drove the tractor. Then she was offered to take the prestigious and fashionable Volga at that time. But she refused.

She also refused the position of chairman of one of the collective farms. She remained an ordinary foreman until the very end. However best time for her, after all, it was already leaving...

Death of the foreman

Tractor driver Pasha Angelina never complained to anyone about her health. But throughout last months In her life she was troubled by pain in her liver. But she held on.

When she arrived in the capital for the session of the Supreme Council, she felt very bad. She had to see doctors.

She was put in the famous “Kremlin cell”. In another hospital room, by the way, the famous Papanin was lying. They were friends.

There she was also awarded the second Hero Star.

Meanwhile, doctors gave Angelina a terrible diagnosis - cirrhosis of the liver. In those days, this disease was an occupational disease for tractor drivers. They constantly breathed toxic fuel fumes.

Pasha was offered to undergo surgery, and she agreed, since she sincerely hoped that surgery would really help her. But the miracle did not happen. She died in January 1959. She was only 46.

They were going to bury her at the Novodevichy graveyard. But her relatives insisted that she be buried in her homeland.

After Angelina's death, the brigade did not disintegrate at all. Before the collapse of the Soviet empire, she worked and continued to set records.

Also, for a long time, a club of women mechanics functioned in honor of the famous woman. This organization united several thousand rural workers.

In Praskovya’s homeland, in the village of Starobeshevo, a bust of Angelina was erected, an avenue was named after her and her museum was opened there.

Angelina's unhappy family

At one time, Angelina had an exemplary Soviet family. Her husband was a party leader. His name was Sergei Chernyshev. He came to Donbass from Kursk on assignment and became one of the leaders of the region. They say he was considered a very capable and talented person. He wrote poetry and painted.

Perhaps he would have risen higher career ladder, if not for his wife. The fact is that for everyone he remained, first of all, the husband of the famous tractor driver, and not the owner of the area. And this incredibly hurt his pride. He began to make scary scenes and abuse alcohol.

When the Great Patriotic War began, he went to the front. He went through the entire war and was an order bearer. But during this period he had already turned into a real alcoholic.

After the Victory, he continued to serve in Germany. He was the commandant of one of the military camps.

After some time, he finally ended up in Donbass. A little later, his front-line wife and child arrived to him. Surprisingly, Angelina managed to withstand this blow of fate. She treated this woman with enviable understanding. Moreover, she subsequently began to financially support both her and the child himself.

Well, Chernyshev continued to be jealous of his wife for her inexhaustible fame. Over time, the relationship between them finally went wrong. And when her drunken husband wanted to shoot Praskovya (he missed), she herself filed for divorce, not forgiving him for this trick.

She completely cut him out of her life. She decided not only to refuse his alimony, but also to change the surname for the children. Now they have all become only Angelinas.

After these events, Chernyshev only came to them twice. At the first meeting ex-wife she even sent him to one of the sanatoriums, since his health left much to be desired. The second time he arrived at Praskovya's funeral. True, when she was still lying in the Kremlin hospital, Chernyshev wanted to see her, but the children did not let him in...

Meanwhile ex-husband Pasha started a new family. His chosen one was school teacher. At one time, Chernyshev completely stopped drinking, but then he began to abuse again. His wife kicked him out. And later he died.

...Angelina herself never married again. Although they wooed her more than once. Thus, even during the war, one of the Ural party functionaries P. Simonov became seriously interested in it. But he had a sick wife. And so Praskovya nipped these courtships in the bud.

Descendants

Angelina raised 4 children. And one of them is adopted. She accepted her nephew into the family when his own mother abandoned him.

The first two children, Sveta and Valera, were born before the war. The youngest daughter was born in 1942. She named the girl Stalina in honor of the leader of the Soviet state. In the family they simply called her Stalochka.

Today, the descendants of the legendary tractor driver live in the Russian capital and in the Don region.

And instead of a heart - a fiery engine

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

That was the first “Golden Star” of Pasha Angelina. The second one was given to her 11 years later - in a Kremlin hospital shortly before her death. This was a completely different woman - exhausted by illness, 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 their high deputy status, helped.

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

Angelina’s life followed 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 plain sight, she was envied, and ridiculous rumors were spread about her. Fearing evil tongues, Praskovya Nikitichna traveled everywhere with her eldest daughter Svetlana.

Svetlana, daughter of the famous tractor driver Pasha Angelina: “They said about my mother that she was Stalin’s mistress, an alcoholic, and ours is not a house, but a brothel.”

“MOM EVEN WORTED CREPE DE CHINE DRESSES AT HOME”

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

You can’t call my 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 my mother’s features - after all, she was friends with Vera Mukhina. Mom was very feminine.

- Wow, but according to Soviet history textbooks she seems like, excuse me, a man in a skirt. After all, in portraits 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 got dressed. She did not accept dressing gowns and even wore crepe de Chine dresses at home. She wore lipstick and wore an emerald ring and an engagement ring to meetings. I washed my hair every day, even though I went to bed after midnight, and at five in the morning I already left for work.

- But you still couldn’t avoid the rumors?

Yes, there was a lot of dirt. They said that she was Stalin's mistress, and they also attributed connections 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 to some it seemed - vodka. These dirty rumors still live today. I have never told anyone about one terrible incident. A team of doctors suddenly appeared 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 children. I realized that something terrible was happening.

- Praskovya Nikitichna had a direct telephone connection with Stalin. Only a few people were awarded this honor - Stakhanov, Chkalov, Papanin... Couldn't she really 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 the meetings. She is a different kind of person. She was always very careful, she warned that nothing could be said in the Moscow Hotel room in which she and I stayed, because even the walls here had ears. When I asked her some serious questions, she answered: “When you grow up, you’ll figure it out yourself.” During the World Youth Festival, I was invited to take part in a scientific conference, but my mother did not allow me: “You have no business communicating with foreigners.” I was very upset then.

- And in what ways, besides a direct telephone line, was Stalin’s favor towards the famous tractor driver expressed?

- Yes, nothing. Even the repressions affected 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 interfered with the sowing schedule. Uncle Kostya took it and sent him off with obscenities. He was arrested and kept in prison for several months. They beat me so hard that no traces were left on the body, but the lungs were broken off. Uncle Kostya was a naval sailor, survived the blockade, and was an incredibly healthy person. But he couldn’t stand this bullying. When his mother brought him to Moscow for a consultation, the professor said that he had three months to live.

“DRUNK FATHER SHOT 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 needed this lie?

Mom crossed out her father from her life and promised herself that she would raise four children herself. And I told everyone that my father died. He drank heavily and it destroyed their marriage. I think his mother loved him even when they broke up. Mom got married with a child in her arms - she adopted her nephew Gennady, whom his own mother, after the death of Uncle Vanya (my mother’s brother), threw out into the street.

My father was sent to Donbass according to party orders from Kursk. When his parents met, he was working as the second secretary of the Starobeshevo district party committee, he was a very capable person, a leader by nature, he spoke well, drew, and wrote poetry. If it weren't for his mother, he would probably have had a great career. But it is difficult for two leaders, like two bears in one den, to get along. By virtue of his 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 the envelopes - just “USSR, Pasha Angelina,” and that’s all.

One day, in response to reproaches, a drunken father shot his mother. I managed to throw myself on her neck, she moved away - miss! The bullet remained in our wall for a long time. I lost consciousness from stress, then a terrible depression began, I was treated for a long time. The morning after this incident, the parents' family life ended. Dad went to the Volnovakha region, married a teacher, and a girl was born - Svetlana Chernysheva. We could have been complete namesakes if my mother had not changed our surnames from the Chernyshevs to the Angelins.

Svetlana and I corresponded, and then got lost. After the divorce, my father came to us only two times - the last time for my mother’s funeral, and before that he was already quite ill, and she, already unwell herself, sent him to a sanatorium. My father didn’t drink for a while, but still couldn’t resist. The teacher, his wife, a very decent woman, put up with it for some time, and even kicked him out. He ended his life as a homeless person.

- Has no one else wooed Praskovya Nikitichna?

- Was. She met this man in Kazakhstan - Pavel Ivanovich Simonov. A very handsome man, a 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 decided that she had some important business to do, and went to her sister in a neighboring area. Grandmother and grandfather and we children remained at home. He stayed with us for several days. He, of course, was offended that his mother did this to him. I remember Pavel Ivanovich rudely pulled one of the children, and my grandmother heard it. She complained to her mother when she arrived...

“MOM AS A DEPUTY HAD TWO ROOMS IN A COMMUNAL APARTMENT”

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

- Maybe it’s hard for some to believe this - mom never used strong words. But her authority was unquestionable! She led the brigade while still a girl, but from the first days she was called “Aunt Pasha.” Our grandfather, by the way, was an illiterate man, and also never swore in the house. I never heard him raise his voice to grandma. And my mother never hit me. However, she was strict with the boys. They grew up without a man's hand. I had pedagogical disputes with her and defended my brothers.

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

- Soviet propaganda molded Praskovya Nikitichna into a real icon, 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. As a deputy, my mother 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. A total of 42 people. One toilet and washbasin for everyone - can you imagine? My mother’s niece lived in Moscow at that time. With her husband, Hero of the Soviet Union, and a small child, they were filming some kind of bedbugs. And mom asked for a corner for them. Later, I also moved in with them - it was considered better than a hostel. These were the privileges.

I remember another incident. Once my mother and I were walking to the Moscow Hotel along Chernyshevsky Street. By the way, she loved to walk a lot. It was a very hot day, I was tired and hungry. I started asking my mother: “Come on, feed me.” We went into the dining room, where we had lunch. The food turned out to be ordinary: 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 there were two medals of the Hero of Socialist Labor, a deputy badge and a laureate badge. The cleaning lady was stunned when she saw her. After all, the deputies who were fed for free in the Kremlin never entered their establishment. The director comes out, smiles and asks mom to leave a review - did you like the dinner? My mother nodded at me: they say, my daughter is literate, so let her write... I look at today’s deputies and think: how bright my mother was compared to them.

- So, Praskovya Nikitichna had nothing to do with your admission to Moscow State University or your search for a prestigious job?

- 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 I was being given favors. After university, I found a job at Soyuzpechat. She started as an instructor and rose to the rank of first deputy director. I had a team of 2,700 people subordinate to me. Soyuzpechat was responsible for subscriptions to periodicals throughout the USSR. I believe that I received a very good education, because we were taught by professors who themselves studied before the revolution.

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

Mom worked very hard. I never got enough sleep and didn’t eat normally. She suffered Botkin's disease on her legs twice. I came from Moscow and noticed how much weight she had lost. Aunt Nadya, my mother’s sister, who took paramedic courses during the war, was also concerned. 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 I was given a permanent pass to the hospital, although according to the rules, patients were only allowed to visit twice a week. They made an exception for me because my mother was hopelessly ill. In the hospital we had this game - I called her daughter, and she called me mom. Six months later she died. She was buried in Starobeshevo.

VALERY ANGELIN: “MOTHER HAD A PERSONAL PISTOL, BUT SHE COULD HARDLY SHOOT A PERSON”

Praskovya Angelina knew how to get along with men - be it party leaders, deputies at various levels, chairmen of collective farms, tractor drivers of her post-war brigade. I simply wouldn’t be able to work any other way. And two more little men were waiting at home - sons Gennady and Valery. Being the children of a world-famous woman means matching her in everything and living with caution. Once, speaking on All-Union Radio, Angelina promised the whole country that each of her four children would receive a higher education. This is almost exactly what happened, and only Valery, having once been a student of not one, but two universities, never received a higher education. He lives in a tiny house on the outskirts of Starobeshevo and has a sabbath from time to time. They say his character is not simple. As a matter of principle, he doesn’t give interviews to anyone, but for “Gordon Boulevard” he made an exception, although he was taciturn.

- Children of famous people often bask in the rays of their parents' glory for many years after their death. Did you get anything from your mother's popularity?

- I was always proud of my mother, but I never showed it and did not attach myself to her glory. My mother’s secretary was a teacher from our school (later she was appointed director) - that’s how she told everything about me, my mother didn’t even need 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 around the country a little, even meeting Grigory Ivanovich Petrovsky, Lenin’s comrade-in-arms. He was deputy director of the Museum of the Revolution.

- Praskovya Nikitichna promised 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 complete my studies. I managed to work as an accountant for my mother - 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 - Melitopol Energy and Dnepropetrovsk Agricultural. But the year my mother died, I crashed on a motorcycle and broke my back. At the age of 20 he became a disabled person of the first group. Having previously achieved first grade 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 recovery, I burned all my medical documents so that nothing would remind me of my disability.

- What do you remember from childhood?

We lived in a simple old house, although my mother could build any kind of mansion. The furniture was also ordinary, but there was a rich library - a lot of Russian classics, “A Thousand and One Nights”, Maupassant... Mom loved to read, but she didn’t have time. She dressed very simply, wearing overalls to work. I remember my grandmother baked bread for the whole brigade. After the war, the stove was heated with adobe. We often had guests - important people came in regional committee cars, and my mother treated them to pasties. Khrushchev visited, and foreign delegations also visited. Mom always hosted them. The Germans will drink three glasses and start singing “Katyusha”, even though they said that they don’t know Russian. Mom didn’t sing with them, but her sisters Nadya and Lelya sang very beautifully - so that it touched the soul.

- Has Praskovya Nikitichna spoiled you at least sometimes?

- Mother sometimes came from Moscow with gifts. She once brought me a model of an airplane and a ballpoint pen - it was such a curiosity! But at school no one would allow me to write with this pen, and then the paste ran out.

- Angelina’s work was not feminine, but her character?

She was a very kind person. It happened that he would offend one of the children, spank me, and then sit and cry. After the war, people came to us and begged her for food on their knees. She endured both flour and sunflower oil. The mother was easy to communicate with. She and I often played chess, but she didn’t like losing. She drove the car great, but sometimes I drove her if she asked, even when I was old and didn’t have a driver’s license yet.

She did not shine with literacy, but, as far as I remember, she always found time to study with tutors. Starting from scratch, I completed a school course over several years. In general, her school was work. My grandmother took care of us all the time and was with us after her death. He and my grandfather are long-lived - my grandfather lived until he was 87, my grandmother was a year short of her 90th birthday. Mom called them “you,” as was customary in Greek families.

- Today, the owner of a tractor brigade could be a very wealthy person. And then? Have you lived better than others?

“After the war, we, like everyone else, went hungry for two years until things got better with the brigade. People stood in lines for food and for help that came from America, too. In 1947, my mother received the first Star of the Hero of Socialist Labor. Life began to get better, although there was devastation in the country. The people in her brigade made great money. For example, before the monetary reform, the salary on a collective farm was 400 rubles, while a trailer driver earned 1,400. Tractor drivers and combine operators each received 12 tons of clean grain. Not some kind of barley, but real grain. We rested only on Sundays. They had their own canteen in the field, they dug out a “refrigerator”; the pork and beef were always fresh and clean. They built a pool for rainwater to pour it into the radiators - they rusted from simple water. People built houses for themselves, many had motorcycles, and some people still ride them. Anyone in the brigade could take a car, and if there were problems, the mother, of course, would have helped.

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

- So she didn’t have any enemies?

Many were jealous. Relatives were offended if someone did not ask for them somewhere above. But she didn’t like to ask. After the war, the police protected our family for two years. The mother had a personal pistol, but she could hardly shoot at a person. People respected her and knew her by sight. One day a woman showed up in Kyiv who introduced herself as Pasha Angelina and wanted to check into a hotel under her name, but they immediately realized that she was a swindler.

Pasha ANGELINA

...A thunderstorm raged over the village. They roll from one end to another, deafening rumbles of thunder, blinding lightning tear the low-hanging clouds to shreds. The steppe howls, groans and groans in different voices.

The village seemed to have died out. The shutters are tightly closed, the lights are turned off. Who would dare to go outside in this weather? Even the dogs, frightened by the raging elements, hid in their kennels and squealed quietly...

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

Natasha, are you awake? Open soon...

Are you Pasha? What do you want?

Oh, Natasha, what’s 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? Eh, you... And also a pioneer. Well then, I myself...

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

Wet, deafened by the thunder, the calves huddled together, rubbing their backs against the partition. Sensing their mistress, they reached out to her with their muzzles and moaned pitifully.

The thunderstorm did not subside. Suddenly, muffled male voices were heard through the howling wind. Someone approached the barn, fumbled with his hand for the latch, and cursed angrily:

Starving people, they don’t even have constipation, Communion!..

Quiet, don’t shout... - another voice responded dully. - Have you lost your knife?

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

His partner rushed after him, but in the darkness he caught a bucket and fell headlong into an open pit in which feed for livestock was being stored. Before he had time to come to his senses, the hatch cover was tightly closed. I tried it with my shoulder, but it didn’t budge. Someone leaned on top and hurriedly threw a hook.

“...I spent the whole night on the farm restlessly. The kulak henchman, sitting in a closed basement, either screamed, then threatened, or tearfully asked to be released. I didn’t answer and anxiously waited for the morning to come... I can’t convey the feeling that possessed me that day. For the first time in my life I had the opportunity to come face to face with the enemy and help neutralize him.”

So, many years later, the 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 Praskovya Nikitichna Angelina 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 the same as in early childhood, desperately, without hesitation, she rushed into the fray, fearlessly and stubbornly achieved her goal, if it was about the people's good, about the benefit of the people. Her whole life is a vivid moral lesson in citizenship, social integrity, honest and open service to people.

In 1948, when the name of the heroine of the collective farm fields was already thundering all over the world, the editors of the World Biographical Encyclopedia, published in the United States of America, sent Praskovya Nikitichna an extensive questionnaire, saying that her name was included in the list outstanding people all countries. This is how she described herself in the questionnaire she received from New York:

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

She started working 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 on foreign land, but there was no wealth in the house. Pasha also had to herd other people’s geese and clean out someone else’s barn for a piece of bread...

When the wave of the October Revolution reached Staro-Beshevo, a whirlwind of new events burst into the Angelin family. Father disappeared for days on end: the rural poor decided to unite into an artel, Nikita Vasilyevich was elected chairman of the board. Elder brother Nikolai also began to appear rarely in the house. He is the leader of the Komsomol cell, the main leader of the youth in the village. On his initiative, Komsomol members converted an old barn into a club, and in the evenings they organized amateur concerts, games, and conversations there.

One day Pasha approached her brother:

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

You still need to grow up. Where should you join the Komsomol? First, be a pioneer...

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

There was a smell of spring in the air. The snow in the fields darkened, the trees filled with sap, and the first flowers hatched on the forest edges. At night, the noisy cackling of wild geese could be heard, returning to their native lands after wintering.

People rejoiced at the arrival of warm days. And the chairman of the Zaporozhets collective farm, Nikita Vasilyevich Angelin, walked around gloomy and frowning. For him, this spring is a difficult exam. Will it be possible to carry out the sowing somehow?

Many new worries fell on the shoulders of the chairman with the arrival of spring. The collective farm, which was just getting back on its feet, lacked one thing or another. With difficulty we prepared seeds for sowing - not varietal seeds, of course, but, as they say, whatever God sent, and even those were not enough. Well, the seeds are not so bad. But where can I get horses?

Every morning the chairman of the collective farm enters the collective farm stable and leaves there upset. Grigory Kharitonovich Kiryaziev is a great groom, you can’t find fault with him. All the harness has been repaired long ago, the horses have been cleaned so that if you run a handkerchief over the rump there is not a speck of dust. But nags are just nags. The collective farm is not rich in feed, the horses were fed only hay all winter - how far can you go with it now?

Once again - for the umpteenth time - the collective farm chairman went to the city to ask for support. He disappeared for three days, and returned on the fourth - he was unrecognizable. The eyes are shining, the smile is joyful, 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 right, daughter,” Nikita Vasilyevich answered, rubbing his hands cheerfully, “very good.” They promised in the city to send us new horses. Yes, such horses as no one had ever seen in the village. They work for ten people, but don’t ask for food at all...

In the evening, Pasha made her way to the barn where the driven cars were parked and looked through the crack. In the twilight I could hardly make out two glass eyes, huge wheels dotted sharp teeth. So that's what they are, iron horses!

...The village boys lost their peace. Registration for tractor driving courses has been announced. There are more than enough people who want it. Learning to drive a strange machine - but such happiness, perhaps, was never even dreamed of!

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 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 the explanations, the instructor turned to her.

I don’t care... - 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 did not leave. She stood in the corner until the end of class, waited until all the guys left the workshop, then went up to Shevchenko:

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

He shrugged:

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

Yes,” Pasha answered firmly.

I don’t recommend it,” the instructor said dryly, “there has never been a case in the world of a woman driving a tractor.”

There was no such thing in the 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 operator on brother Ivan’s unit. In those short hours allotted 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, asking me to explain the purpose of every part, every screw in the machine.

Why do you need this? - the brother asked in surprise.

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

“I thought of something else,” Ivan waved it off annoyedly, “I also came up with a tractor driver in a skirt!”

Winter has crept up unnoticed. One long winter evening the whole Angelin family gathered together. The father and three brothers, sitting at the table, excitedly knocked dominoes, the mother was sewing something in the corner, in another room the sisters Nadya and Lelya were fiddling with books. Having chosen the moment, Pasha approached her father:

Dad, I need to talk to you seriously. Nikita Vasilyevich leaned back in his chair and turned to his daughter:

Well, what happened there?

I want to consult. I’ve decided to apply for a tractor driving course tomorrow. I want to drive the tractor myself.

The father looked sternly at his daughter:

I didn't have anything in mind, daughter. Others go to the city to study, to institutes. What don't you like about being a teacher? Or a doctor...

Tears glistened on Pasha’s eyelashes.

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

He talked and talked,” the father grumbled angrily. - I didn’t say much... If you don’t have my permission, we’ll end this conversation.

Pasha ran to the MTS political department all in tears to see her old friend Ivan Mikhailovich Kurov. He listened carefully to the girl, thoughtfully twirled it:

In our practice, this really hasn’t happened before - a girl behind a tractor... Well, you never know what hasn’t happened before. And there was no state like ours, and there were no collective farms... In a word, since I’ve decided, Pasha, then hold on tight, don’t back down! And I’ll talk to my father myself...

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

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 a blue overall and a gray astrakhan cuban approached the tractor. Obedient to her will, the car started moving and moved across the field, leaving behind an even, deep furrow.

The foreman of the tractor detachment, Pyotr Boychenko, did not leave Pasha’s side on the first day. He meticulously watched how she controlled the tractor and carefully measured the plowing depth. He couldn’t believe that the lively, sharp-tongued Pasha could cope with such a serious, masculine task as driving a car. But the tractor drove perfectly, plowed smoothly, without leaving a single blemish...

This spring Pasha set a record - the first record in her life. There were many more great labor victories later, but, perhaps, I never rejoiced over them as much as I did over this first success. Her tractor worked uninterruptedly all season and plowed more than anyone else in the squad. At a meeting of MTS workers, she was solemnly presented with a drummer’s book, an Excellent Agricultural Excellence badge, and a valuable gift...

A few days later, when Pasha came to the workshop, she saw that some unfamiliar guy was fiddling around near her tractor.

“Go to the office,” he told her gloomily, “and get acquainted with the new order.”

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

Why are you fuming? - the MTS director shrugged. - Well, I tinkered with the car, had fun - and that’s enough. How will other girls follow you to the tractor? Angelina, they will say, it’s possible, but we can’t?.. I can’t turn a 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, head of the political department of 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. Now do this. Select good girls from the trailer workers who could 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 brigade of girls. We'll appoint you as a foreman. Agree?

First women's

...Twenty-five girls' heads bent over their notebooks. Attached to the board with pins is a large tractor wiring diagram. Pasha Angelina moves a pointer along it, and in an even, calm voice explains the structure of the magneto...

Pasha “chased” his girls all winter. They not only knew the tractor by heart, but also became acquainted with the basics of agricultural technology, studied the structure of soils, and read the works of Williams and Dokuchaev. Just like a talented commander, preparing for a decisive offensive, determines in advance the direction of the main attack, pulls up reserves, provides rear support, so Pasha took everything into account and thought through everything before going into the field. Not with with bare hands Pasha led his squad out for the assault.

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

Clearly maintaining a distance, the column moved towards the village. The girls sang songs and joked all the way. Everyone was in high spirits and festive.

The lead vehicle had already crossed the hill, 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, emerges from the crowd and, blocking the way for the tractors, decisively commands:

Don't let them!..

Our land will not be spoiled... We won’t let it!..

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

Ivan Mikhailovich Kurov, who arrived in a gas car on time, barely calmed the raging women. He barely 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, the girls worked in the fields without getting off the tractors. And on the fourth, the old collective farmer Stepan Ivanovich Nikolaev came to visit them. He looked around at the huge area of the plowed field, carefully measured the depth of the plowing, kneaded a lump of earth with his fingers, for some reason even sniffed it and shook his head in admiration:

What a job! Hey girls! Well done...

Then he approached Pasha, looking away and said:

Here, they say, our wives were arguing. So you... don't be offended by them. A well-known thing - women!..

Who do you think we are? - Pasha smiled.

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

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

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

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

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

The girls already had a small but valuable experience, and they learned many useful lessons from it. We distributed the brigade's forces in a new way, thought about how best to organize the delivery 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 in the fields of seven collective farms. And again the quality of work is impeccable, production is high. The land cultivated by the girls produced a harvest unprecedented at that time: 16–18 centners of wheat per hectare. The output per tractor was 795 hectares. Pasha herself cultivated about a thousand hectares. The women's brigade again took first place in the region, holding the challenge Red Banner.

Soon a letter arrived at MTS, which amused everyone. “We earnestly ask MTS to send your women’s strike brigade to us,” wrote collective farmers from a neighboring area. “Let the female tractor drivers take in tow our male tractor drivers who are not doing their job.”

“You see, Pasha,” said Kurov, handing her the letter, “the girls have made them respect themselves.” They are already inviting you to visit...

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

The congress took place in the Grand Kremlin Palace. One by one, the delegates stood up, talked about their successes, and shared their experiences. At one of the meetings, the chairman announced:

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

Be brave, be brave, Pasha!..

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

And now our girls are setting an example of how to work. On behalf of the brigade, I make a promise: next year we will develop 1200 hectares for each tractor! - this is how she ended her speech. The audience responded to her with thunderous applause.

...This is where the girls needed all their perseverance! The autumn of 1935 turned out to be unusually gloomy and rainy. The tractors barely moved on the viscous soil, washed away by endless rains. Due to excessive load, the engines overheated every now and then and the engines stalled.

The wind threw handfuls of cold spray into my face and penetrated my whole body. But the girls, completely wet and chilled, did not give up the steering wheel. They will gather for a moment at the field trailer, have a quick snack, warm up by the fire - and again in the field, back to work.

In this difficult autumn, the girls, perhaps for the first time, truly learned with what iron will, with what strong character their foreman has. Thin, haggard from constant lack of sleep, Pasha invariably, day after day, fulfilled her quota and, in addition, managed to help her friends who were lagging behind, cheer them up, organize meals, go to the MTS estate for spare parts... Natasha Radchenko, an old childhood friend, came up as something to the foreman.

You should take a break, Pasha. You can’t do that... Pasha raised her eyebrows in surprise:

I gave my word to the Kremlin. Is it possible not to restrain him?

When, having completed the work, the brigade, as usual, returned to the MTS under its own power, on the front tractor of the column there was a huge sign: “The brigade has fulfilled its obligation. Each tractor cultivated 1225 hectares. 20,154 kilograms of fuel saved.”

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

At this meeting, Angelina spoke again. Now she felt more confident on the podium and spoke more freely. On behalf of the brigade, she reported on the new increased obligations that the girls had assumed: to increase production to 1,600 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 and talked about their work.

One early morning in the hotel room where the girls of the famous brigade lived, the telephone rang.

“I warmly congratulate you on your high government award,” said an unfamiliar male voice. -You don’t know yet? Today a resolution of the USSR Central Executive Committee was published in newspapers. Your foreman Pasha Angelina was awarded the Order of Lenin, all other members of the brigade were awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor...

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

“Girls, get on the tractor!”

The country was rapidly moving along the roads of the five-year plans. Every day the radio brought joyful news: a new plant was put into operation, a new power plant was running, trains were running along a new railway line. One after another, powerful giants of the industry rose up: the Stalingrad Tractor Plant, the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Plant, the Kramatorsk Machine-Building Plant, the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Plant... Designers created new machines to save people from hard 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 extending human life...

Meanwhile, clouds were gathering in the West. In Germany, the Fuhrer's generals discussed a plan for a campaign to the 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 every explosion of an enemy shell on the barricades of Madrid and Barcelona echoed with aching pain in the hearts of the Soviet people...

The flames of a new world war were flaring up in Europe, and its deadly breath was approaching the Land of the Soviets.

The next XIV Congress of the Communist Party of Ukraine opened in Kyiv. Pasha Angelina is part of the Donbass Communist Delegation. She had a lot to talk about at the convention. Year after year, her team successfully completed all the work. There were 30 hectares of arable land for each collective farmer in the Zaporozhets agricultural cooperative, 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 1,715 hectares. No one 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 without worse than men manage it.

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

Soon the newspapers published the call 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 distant villages and villages...

Thus began the all-Union campaign of girls to master 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 machine and tractor stations. Short-term tractor training courses were created everywhere, and new women's tractor teams were formed.

In those days, newspapers published the following messages every day: “800 collective farmers of Khakassia decided to become tractor drivers.” “In the Nikolaev region, all tractor drivers began to teach their wives and sisters their profession.” “There are already 500 women’s tractor teams working in the fields of Ukraine.”

The famous brigade of Pasha Angelina turned into a kind of institution. Vera Yuryeva, Natasha Radchenko, Vera Zolotupup have long led women's tractor teams on other collective farms. They were replaced by Kilya Antonova, Liza Kalyanova, Marusya Masterevenko. Under Pasha’s leadership, the girls studied the tractor and became familiar with the organization of work in the brigade. Many of them then went to other MTSs to create new women’s brigades there themselves and teach them skills.

…There is great joy in Pasha’s house: her daughter Svetlana has started walking. What mother could resist tears of joy at the sight of this picture! Pasha could spend hours watching her baby timidly take her first steps on the ground, listening to how inarticulate sounds begin to form the first words...

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

Oops, I was almost late! Classes will begin in ten minutes.

And, putting on her usual kubanka, she ran out into the street...

Classes at the tractor driver courses were conducted according to a strict schedule drawn up by the foreman: theory in the morning, theory in the afternoon practical work In workshop.

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

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

Pasha was busy in the workshop until late in the evening. And then, having washed and had a snack, she hurried somewhere again. She met with voters, spoke on the radio, held meetings of tractor drivers, wrote articles in newspapers, answered numerous letters...

Some days have become very short,” she complained to her husband. - Before you have time to look back, it’s already night, and not even half of the work is done...

That’s right, Pasha,” the husband smiled sympathetically. He worked as the secretary of the district Komsomol committee, and he also often lacked time.

In the fall of 1939, Pasha went to study in Moscow, at the Agricultural Academy. The whole village saw her off.

I’ll succeed, gain knowledge and get behind the tractor again,” Pasha said to her fellow villagers as she said goodbye. - Yes, if all tractor drivers had sufficient education, can you imagine what kind of harvests our country would reap!…

She was not able to complete her studies. The Great Patriotic War broke out...

On a gloomy autumn morning, Pasha led her team out of the workshop. With the banner unfurled and in clear formation, the column of tractors moved along the road, heading east. In 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 the burning winds, produced 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 told 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 cannot take more from the earth than it can give...

Let's take it! - Pasha answered confidently. “If we need it for the front, for victory, we’ll take it at all costs!”

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

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

The tractors plowed the collective farm soil several times along and across. Pasha spent six days without sleep or rest in the field until the entire huge tract was sown and cultivated. The collective farmers just shrugged: where does this short, slender woman get her strength? Will she really be able to achieve what their grandfathers and great-grandfathers could not do - make the land produce a bountiful harvest?

By summer, the thick wheat became full of juices and stood taller than a man. It was as if a sea of gold had spilled over the collective farm fields...

The news of the “miracle” that a Ukrainian tractor driver performed on Kazakh soil spread throughout Kazakhstan: the collective farm named after Budyonny received one hundred and fifty pounds of grain from each hectare, six times more than usual. Delegations came from other districts and regions, asked about 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 his abacus with his knuckles, jumped up from his seat and hotly shook Pasha’s hand:

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

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

How, all? - the accountant was amazed.

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

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

Pasha Angelina's tractor brigade donated 768 pounds of bread to the Red Army fund. Tanks built with these funds crushed enemies at Kursk Bulge, liberated Poland, took part in the storming of Berlin...

The front line ran far from the village of Terekt. But here, in the distant village, there was also a battle going on - stubborn, hot, decisive. Sparing no effort, the girls fought the 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 add Pasha Angelina to their lists and assign her honorary title Guardsman.

During the difficult years of the war, agricultural workers perfectly fulfilled their duty to their 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 one hundred, but two hundred thousand friends responded to the call of a noble tractor driver to master agricultural machinery. Women withstood the harsh test of war. They bore on their shoulders all the difficulties of field work in wartime; they themselves plowed the land and 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 working in the village could rightfully say: “The Motherland is saluting us too!”

Work, work!..

During the occupation of Staro-Beshevo, the Nazis intensively spread rumors that the famous tractor driver Praskovya Angelina voluntarily went over to the enemy’s side and left for Germany. Hitler's commandant Zimmer, who settled in the Angelinas' house, ordered all the village residents to gather in the square and announced that Angelina, now living in Berlin, called on her fellow countrymen to unquestioningly obey Hitler's command and work hard for the benefit of great Germany. But there was not a single person in the village who believed this. People knew their Pasha well...

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

Well, let’s celebrate our meeting according to all the rules,” Pasha exclaimed cheerfully. - And tomorrow - work, work!..

Hundreds of village residents took to the street when Pasha Angelina’s tractor brigade moved along the road into the field. As always, the red banner flutters in the wind, and 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 was rising again.

Perhaps, Pasha has never before gone to the fields with such an ardent desire to work as hard as she can, to make every effort to have a better sowing season, 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 carefully analyze the entire process of machine cultivation of the land, find the causes and ways to eliminate downtime of agricultural machines. Who doesn’t know that during the busy sowing season, the most important thing for village workers is to gain time? And the foreman searched long and hard for ways to reduce the time required for field work.

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

So I was born in the brigade new method preventive repair of machines. This method was then widely distributed in all machine and tractor stations of the country...

From her diary entries, Pasha made another valuable conclusion: too much time is spent refueling tractors. Every time the arrow indicating the fuel level in the tank approached zero, the tractor driver quit work and drove the car to a gas station. It will take an hour, or even more, until the tractor returns to the furrow. And this at a time when every minute counts!

Pasha came to the director of MTS and decisively demanded:

No matter how difficult it is for us 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 famous tractor driver fully justified itself. Strictly observing all agrotechnical rules and strictly adhering to the work schedule drawn up by Angelina, the team carried out spring sowing in an unprecedentedly short time - in four days.

Even the old-timers could not remember the kind of harvest that the Zaporozhets collective farm received in the memorable 1945. It was as if the land, which had suffered under the fascist boot, was in a hurry to give all its riches to its true owners. From each hectare they collected 24 centners of grain, and some plots even yielded 28–30 centners!

That autumn, the collective farmers did not yet know that nature was preparing a new ordeal for them. They had no idea that next year a terrible scourge would fall on the earth - a drought, and one that had not happened in the last half century...

In her diary, Pasha found the following entries: “In 1935, fallows were raised 15 days before sowing. During wintering, ten percent of the bushes and 22 percent of the stems died. The harvest is 16.5 centners per hectare. In 1937, the soil was cultivated a month before sowing, and 3 percent of the bushes and 9 percent of the stems were lost. We 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. The harvest is 25 centners!”

The earlier you cultivate the soil, the higher the harvest of winter crops - that’s what practice has suggested.

Forty-five days before the start of sowing, tractors went out into the field to raise fallow. They carefully plowed the ground, followed by heavy harrows. Once, at a lecture at the academy, Pasha heard a figure that amazed her: during the day in Ukraine, about 80 cubic meters of water evaporate from each hectare of topsoil. The whole lake evaporates into the air if you don’t manage to close all the leakage channels in a timely manner! That is why it is so important to have time to properly cultivate the plowed land. And the team tried their best. As soon as the rising of the vapors was completed, she carried out the first cultivation, half a month later - the second, then the third... In December, when the first frosts hit, carts with fertilizer reached the steppe. Then heaps of branches and threshed sheaves were scattered on the winter fields.

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

The summer was unusually dry and hot. As if a huge, white-hot cap was breathing heat from the sky. Not a cloud, not a breeze... People looked with anxious hope at the sky, whitish from the heat: “If only it would rain...”

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

And in the fields of the Zaporozhets collective farm, thick, tall wheat was earing as if nothing had happened. Abundantly fed with moisture during the growth period and receiving excellent care, well-developed plants withstood unprecedented drought. From the entire sown area, an average of 17 centners per hectare was collected.

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

The rich experience in organizing work accumulated by P. N. Angelina and her new method of cultivating the land were found wide application in socialist agriculture. At the initiative of the famous tractor driver, a movement began in the country for the highly productive use of agricultural machines and improving the culture of field cultivation. Thousands of her followers waged a determined struggle for high and sustainable yields of all agricultural crops. For the radical improvement of labor in agriculture, the introduction of new, progressive methods of cultivating the land, Praskovya Nikitichna Angelina was awarded the USSR State Prize.

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

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

But fame did not go to Angelina’s head. As before, she tirelessly drove her tractor, loved to tinker with the engine, and spent the evenings poring over her textbooks. Every day she strived to bring something new and interesting to her work. Her team exceeded its assignments year after year and 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 of twice Hero of Socialist Labor. Her chest was adorned with the second Gold Medal “Hammer and Sickle” - a sign of recognition of the outstanding services of the 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 its success in increasing agricultural production. Those who knew her in the first years of collectivization saw the former Komsomol member Pasha 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 up with life and actively responded to all events in the country.

One day at the beginning of 1954, Praskovya Nikitichna came to MTS with the latest issue of Komsomolskaya Pravda.

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

And she sighed, quite like a woman, and shook her head with regret:

Eh, if I were younger, I would give up on virgin soil without hesitation. The places there are familiar to me, there is room to expand on the Kazakh lands... Excellent crops can be grown!

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

And if we apply to be sent to virgin lands, will we be released from MTS?

But who will stop 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 Praskovya 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 don’t break ties with MTS at all, 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, working conditions, and the difficulties that the new settlers encountered. Praskovya Nikitichna always maintained active correspondence with the conquerors of virgin lands. She encouraged them, sent them textbooks, gifts...

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

As soon as the first news of a new valuable undertaking arrived in Staro-Beshevo, Praskovya Nikitichna assembled her team. With her characteristic ardor and ardor she said:

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

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

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