The daughter of the famous tractor driver Pasha Angelina Svetlana: “They said about my mother that she was Stalin’s mistress, an alcoholic, and ours is not a house, but a brothel. Notable tractor driver Pasha Angelina It’s not easy to be a symbol
I could move my iron horse with my hands
Pasha Angelina was known throughout the Soviet Country. Pasha Angelina smiled from the front pages of newspapers and magazines. She was not an actress. She was a symbol of the Soviet attitude towards work. A simple Donetsk girl, who tamed the miracle of overseas technology - the Fordson tractor, created the world's first women's tractor brigade and personally promised Comrade Stalin to organize ten more of the same. Of course, she kept her word. Thanks to the initiative of the drummer, 100 thousand of her friends replaced the men at the heavy helms. So that the great Motherland blooms like a spring garden, and iron machines hum peacefully in its fertile fields, obedient to the gentle hands of women.
Pasha Angelina is like a revived sculpture of Vera Mukhina - a strong, broad-shouldered peasant woman, with hard-working arms, hardy legs and an open, weather-beaten face. It seems that she could easily take a place next to the worker, moving the steel collective farmer on a pedestal.
From severe hunger
...In the winter of 1933, Donetsk Starobeshevo, like all the surrounding villages, was severely hungry. If it weren’t for the pieces of bread that were brought once a week by the fathers and brothers who went to the mines, by spring there probably wouldn’t have been not only those able to work, but also those alive. When villagers were unable to go out into the fields, the long-awaited food loan finally arrived - a few bags of flour. Dumplings or tart were prepared from it in the field camps. Anyone who reached the cauldron was given a bowl of this brew. The revived people reached for the seeders and harrows - sowing began. Here, in the camp, they spent the night, buried in straw.
Pasha also made it here. At first she helped maintain the fire under the boiler and prepare food, then she carried seed grain to the seeders. I didn’t have the strength to lift the bag, so I carried it in buckets.
The first tractors arrived from MTS for grain harvesting. An inquisitive, brave girl did not leave the outlandish cars. There were not enough tractor drivers, and it was necessary to organize training courses for them. Pasha was the first to sign up for them. Angelina turned out to be a distinguished tractor driver. She plowed in such a way that the furrows she made in the field could be measured with a ruler.
Catch up and overtake the men
From local girls who were drawn to technology like a magnet, the energetic Pasha organized a brigade. The collective farmers worked with enthusiasm, on the rise, trying to be in no way inferior to the men.
“It seems to me that it was a great thing,” recalls ordinary plowman Georgy Terentyevich Danilov, who serviced the equipment of Pasha’s brigade. - And we all understood this during the war, when the men were called to the front. It was the girls, and even teenagers, who fed the country.
Georgy Danilov was eager to go to the front, but he was assigned to the first brigade of female tractor drivers heading to the rear, to Kazakhstan.
“When the German approached Starobeshev,” says Georgy Terentyevich, “they gave me a rifle and told me not to leave the foreman’s side. And that’s true, how many people, including dashing ones, were rolling around the country. There was even a rumor that the Nazis had equipped sabotage group to grab Angelina. I don’t know whether this is true or not, but I firmly decided to myself: if anything happens, I will fight to the last. This is what he lived with until we reached Kazakhstan.
A girl’s tears sunk into the machine operator’s soul.
“Before, we at least took care of them; the heavier ones we took upon ourselves.” And here our fellow countrymen, one might say, were thrown into the inferno. It took a lot to start the tractor with a heavy handle. Even the men were injured there. But the girls endured it and didn’t even swear. Somebody will cry, move away a little, and then grab the damned hand again.
“Until 1945, Pasha’s brigade was indeed purely female,” says brigade accountant Maxim Yuryev. “Then the women’s husbands returned from the front and replaced them at work, giving their wives the opportunity to give birth. Because the longer the woman sat on those tractors, the less her chances were: the tractors were not on tracks or on wheels with rubber tires, and on the knitting needles. Shake on your knitting needles across the arable land - you can fight off everything for yourself!
A jealous husband is worse than a drunkard
Women's happiness for the foreman and deputy Supreme Council Angelina was not spoiled. With her husband Sergei Fedorovich Chernyshov, former first secretary of the district party committee of the Starobeshevsky district, she broke up - kicked out of the house after numerous scandals. The husband was so jealous of Pasha that one day he followed the tractor drivers to VDNKh in Moscow, where he caused a scandal. For such an attack on the honor of a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, another would have been sent to the Lubyanka, but he was simply escorted home peacefully.
“As a true daughter of the Greek people, Praskovya Nikitichna endured the antics of her husband until the last moment in order to save the family,” recalls the director of the Starobeshevo Museum, Lydia Donchenko. - But a domestic quarrel in 1947, when in the presence of children the husband shot at the ceiling, overflowed the cup of patience.
“Aunt Pasha (that’s what she was called in the brigade) gave my wife five thousand rubles (a fortune at that time),” says Maxim Yuryev, “and told her to go anywhere.” He tried to return, but then settled in a neighboring area. In the brigade and in general on the collective farm, no one dared to mention his name, as if he had died.
Angelina herself never remarried - she alone raised her three children and her adopted son Gennady. Maiden name Praskovya did not change. They say she wanted to remain a symbol forever. Therefore, she refused offers to head party committees different levels, become chairman of the collective farm "Testaments of Ilyich." And in the position of foreman of the first women's tractor she had considerable weight both in her homeland, where not a single wedding or christening was complete without her, like a priest, and in the highest echelons of power. Otherwise, Angelina was an ordinary, hard-working, intelligent woman. Even when she was at the very top, she still didn’t rise up in front of us, she helped, old-timers and fellow villagers remember.
The whole village was waiting for the deputy
From all over the Donetsk region we went to Angelina for... a page from her deputy notebook, which for many was truly worth its weight in gold. It turns out that at that time deputies were provided with personalized notebooks, a piece of paper from which was a kind of order, mandatory for execution.
- My former classmate survived thanks to Aunt Pasha,” says Lydia Donchenko. - The boy had bone tuberculosis, and thanks to Angelina’s petition, he got the opportunity to undergo treatment in Crimea twice a year. Not yet completely cured.
One dispossessed family also survived thanks to this leaflet: they were allocated 100 kilograms of flour. And another girl who, according to a slander, was convicted of allegedly committing theft.
It was thanks to Pasha Angelina that children from SPTU learned what duvet covers are, and her son Valery’s classmates tried tangerines and boxed sweets. Neither these nor other “miracles” were seen in the Starobeshevsky district until the year 50. Each time the entire district eagerly awaited the return of the permanent deputy from Moscow, because not a single voter’s request passed her ears. All the boys from the class where Valera studied alternately wore his uniform school jacket. And the tractor brigade, which practically lived on the field camp, really did not need anything.
The brigade is like going into space
- We were selected for Angelina’s brigade as if we were in the crew of a spaceship: physically healthy, non-smokers, with related specialties (either a welder or a mechanic), and even... singing, dancing, playing the guitar or accordion and... football,” recalls Maxim Panteleevich. - For example, for up to fifty years, I could single-handedly lift the back of a stuck Moskvich. And what stout women there were, even Aunt Pasha herself - she could move the tractor from its place if necessary.
Related specialties were needed in order to repair equipment. There was little technology. The tractors were not idle day or night; they worked in two shifts. Besides, Angelina’s brigade served three collective farms and was an experimental enterprise where they sent the latest technology- for testing. And after tests and proposals submitted after these tests to the Timiryazev Academy in Moscow, the equipment was finalized, put into mass production and sent to all farms of the Union.
But every member of the communist labor brigade had to be able to sing, dance, play chess and football because the tractor drivers actually lived for weeks in a house on a field camp. There was everything there: a rich library, and a buffet with a kitchen, where after work the workers really ate up, like at a wedding. There was also a games room - checkers, chess, dominoes and even a billiard room. Aunt Pasha herself played chess well, but did not like to lose. And when the team played football, Maxim Yuryev, as a rule, was the captain of one team, and Aunt Pasha was the captain of the other.
Ace driver in a skirt
Technology was Angelina's true passion. She didn’t let anyone drive her “Victory” and always stopped if she saw someone tinkering with their car on the road. So, one day Yuriev, a young accountant, witnessed a phenomenal scene. Aunt Pasha stopped her Pobeda near a truck that had stopped for repairs, pushed aside the driver who was fidgeting in the engine, and a minute later asked the poor fellow: “Give me 20 kopecks.” She cleaned the contacts with a coin and ordered: “Start it up!” The car started! And the dumbfounded driver stood for several more minutes, following the “Victory” with his eyes: he recognized the legendary tractor driver.
Of course, with such a field life for the family, it was not easy for girls (after 1950 there were much fewer of them in the brigade than men) and even for the men - members of the tractor brigade. Therefore, Aunt Pasha invited tractor drivers along with their families to all holidays, either to the camp, where real celebrations were held with concerts and a generous feast, or to her home, where on this occasion she very quickly sculpted and fried chir-chiry - Greek pasties. And in Everyday life The foreman tried to ensure that her subordinates did not need anything. You could ask for whatever you wanted. Once tractor drivers asked for motorcycles - the first domestic "K-700" could only be issued through Moscow at the request of a deputy. Angelina ordered 10 motorcycles for the brigade. And before her death, she asked for Moskvich cars for her brigade. However, the brigade did not have time to receive them: Deputy Angelina died. Her request went unheeded.
Praskovya Nikitichna burned quickly. Worked before last day. Arriving at the session of the Supreme Council, I suddenly felt unwell. The Kremlin clinic could no longer save the famous tractor driver. The hard work on the tractor took its toll on the liver - after all, previously you had to pump fuel through a hose with your mouth.
Praskovya Nikitichna did not die in complete obscurity.
“When I arrived at the Kremlin hospital with a couple of our tractor drivers, I saw Budyonny and Papanin looking into her room as a good friend,” recalls Yuryev. - And in those days she was close to Stalin and easily communicated with Kalinin...
Having said goodbye to her workmates, Pasha gave several orders that were to be executed before her arrival - after treatment in Moscow. Then she called Maxim aside and with tears in her eyes ordered, if anything happened, to bury her in her homeland. After the death of their mother, the children inherited only a hefty stack of government bonds.
Around 1978, the tractor brigade of communist labor named after P. Angelina ceased to exist.
for grades 3-4
“Ideals of a bygone century.
P. N. Angelina"
Teacher primary classes:
Krasnoyaruzhskaya L. A.
Target: - formation of a historically objective approach to history among young citizens
native land,
To foster feelings of patriotism, citizenship, historical
continuity;
To promote the formation of an active life position of students.
FORM OF CONDUCT : oral journal
MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT :
Who, serving the great goals of the age,
He gives his life completely
To fight for man's brother,
Only he will survive himself. (sl. 2)
ON THE. Nekrasov
Presenter 1 .
Living life is not a field to cross...
This saying is familiar to everyone.
The main thing is to find your exact path
In the name of the Motherland and home.
Presenter 2:
We should not guess, but build and dare,
Live, create and protect the origins,
We need to plow the field of life,
So that it can grow a high harvest!
Presenter3:
Yes, living life is not a field to cross.
And there is no need to wish for anything else.
Let him become the main one in life path
Holy love for everything earthly!
Vladimir Ivanov
Teacher:
Every time gives birth to its heroes. And the names of these heroes, their faces, their lives, in turn, become a symbol of the time, sometimes telling much more about it than multi-volume research. In 1938, a young and beautiful female face smiled from the pages of Soviet newspapers and magazine covers, which was known to probably every person in the country. Who is she? Movie star? Daughter or wife of a millionaire? Fashion model and fashion model? At worst, a tennis player?..(sl. 3)
Praskovya ( Pasha ) Nikitichna Angelina (December 30, 1912( ), With., , (now the village of Starobeshevo DPR - , ) - famous participantin the first years, tractor brigade, , Twice(19.03.1947, 26.02.1958) ( from Wikipedia) (sl. 4)
Presenter 4:
Born( according to the old style) in the village (now an urban-type settlement) Starobeshevo in a Greek family.“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, he was a groom in a partnership for joint cultivation of land, and later on a collective farm.”
Teacher reading an article from the newspaper “Moscow Banner” (about the case when in school age Pasha saved collective farm calves from thieves on the farm)
Presenter5:
IN Pasha Angelina graduated from tractor driving courses and began working as a tractor driver at the Staro-Beshevsky Machine and Tractor Station (MTS). having plowed more than anyone else (of course, men!) in the detachment in the first season of work. (sl. 5)
Teacher's story:
« From 1930 to the present (two years break - 1939-1940:
studied at the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy) - tractor driver.” This is what Pasha Angelina wrote about herself in 1948 in a questionnaire received from the editorial office,
published in the USA (New York) "World biographical encyclopedia”, who informed one of the first women tractor drivers that her name was included in the list of the most outstanding people all countries.
But behind the meager lines of the biography is an extraordinary life. When the first tractors were brought to Pasha’s native village and the girl began to attend tractor driving courses without permission, this did not evoke understanding, much less approval. “What, do you want to become a tractor driver? – the instructor asked skeptically. - I do not advise. There has never been a case in the world of a woman driving a tractor.” - “It never happened in the world, but I will become a tractor driver!” – Pasha answered.
Presenter 6:
And in March 1933, she created the first women's Komsomol youth tractor brigade in the Union.(sl. 6)
In 1933-34, the women's tractor brigade took first place in MTS, fulfilling the plan by 129 percent. After this, Pasha Angelina becomes central figure
campaign campaign for technical education women. In 1935, she spoke in Moscow at a meeting, giving a commitment from the Kremlin rostrum to “the party and comrade
Stalin" to organize ten women's tractor brigades. (sl. 7)
Since 1937 - P. N. Angelina - member of the Communist Party Soviet Union.
In 1937, Pasha Angelina was elected deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
Teacher:
In 1938, tractor driver, foreman of a women’s tractor brigade, holder of the Order of Lenin, Praskovya Angelina, became the main Soviet “photo model” of the Soviet Union. Or simply Pasha, as they called her when she, the first woman in history, and essentially a 17-year-old girl, sat on a tractor. Under this name - Pasha - she went down in history.
Ukraine. In the same year, Pasha Angelina’s call “One hundred thousand girlfriends - to the tractor!” was published. This call became the beginning of the all-Union movement. “800 collective farmers of Khakassia decided to become tractor drivers. There are already 500 women’s tractor teams working in the fields of Ukraine. In Altai and Siberia, in Armenia and the Volga region, thousands of girls came to motor transport stations,” newspapers wrote in those months. As a result, more than 200 thousand girls responded to Pasha Angelina’s call.INfinished. (sl. 8)
Presenter 1.
“Why is this necessary: a woman on a tractor? It’s a feat for me too!” - such words can easily be heard today, when labor is not held in high esteem and time is in demand not of creators, but of those for whom only their own profit is important. The answer was very soon given by harsh times. In 1941, when it began terrible war and fathers, husbands, brothers went to defend the Motherland at the front, in the rear, in the fields; women tractor drivers remained to replace them.
Teacher's story.
During the Great Patriotic War P.N. Angelina along with the whole team and
two trains of equipment travel to Kazakhstan - to the fields of the Budyonny collective farm,
who spread his lands near the village of Terekt in the West Kazakhstan region. While working here, Pasha Angelina’s tractor brigade donated seven hundred and sixty-eight pounds of bread to the Red Army fund. Being far from the front line, on the Kazakh
earth, not sparing their strength, the girl tractor drivers fought the battle for bread - and won it. And therefore it is no coincidence that the tank soldiers of one of the guards tank brigades, fully
formed from former tractor drivers, they decided to add Pasha Angelina to their lists and award her the honorary title of guardsman.(sl. 9)
Presenter 2.
Going to the harvest...
The ears are falling, the stubble is bristling.
The two main words are “Bread” and “Plan”.
A young girl, like a birthday girl,
With a clear smile he goes to the camp.
Come to your senses, sinner! - the wind hisses at her,
Tenderness will perish, the gaze will go out.
The slender girl is responsible for the bread
Goes against envious people.
The ears are falling, the wheat is splashing,
The rollers point to the horizon.
And a Komsomol member, not a sinner
He goes to the harvest as if he were going to the front.
Adusheva K.A.
Teacher's story .
After the liberation of Donbass from the Nazi invaders, and returning home to Ukraine, every single woman from Pasha Angelina’s brigade left, taking up
purely female labor: getting married, giving birth and raising children, running the household...
Despite the departure of women from the brigade, P.N. Angelina continued to lead the tractor brigade, which included male tractor drivers. Her subordinates - men - obeyed her unquestioningly, since she knew how to deal with them mutual language, while never allowing myself an abusive or rude word. Earnings in the tractor brigade P.N. Angelina were tall. Tractor drivers built good houses, bought motorcycles...
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated March 19, 1947, for receiving a high harvest in 1946, Angelina Praskovya Nikitichna was awarded the title of Hero
Socialist Labor with the presentation of the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal.
The rich experience in organizing work accumulated by P.N. Angelina, her progressive method of tillage has found wide application in agriculture. On her initiative, a movement for the highly productive use of agricultural machinery and improving the cultivation of fields developed in the USSR. Her numerous 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 land cultivation in 1948 P.N. Angelina was awarded the Stalin Prize.
Presenter 3 .
“If there was a person who told me: “Here is your life, Pasha, start your path all over again,” I, without hesitation, would repeat it from the first to the last day, and would only try to follow this path more directly,” as - Pasha Angelina wrote in one of her letters.
Teacher's story .
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of February 26, 1958, for skillful leadership of a tractor brigade for twenty-five years and high performance
in agricultural production, Angelina Praskovya Nikitichna was awarded the second gold medal “Hammer and Sickle”.
A few days before the start of the XXI (Extraordinary) Congress of the CPSU (held from January 27 to February 5, 1959 in Moscow), of which P.N. was elected as a delegate. Angelina, she was urgently hospitalized in the Kremlin hospital with a serious diagnosis of liver cirrhosis. The hard work on the tractor took its toll - after all, in those days
At times, fuel had to be pumped through a hose.
Presenter 4 .
The leader of a tractor brigade in his village,Praskovya Nikitichna Angelina died on January 21, 1959.
She was supposed to be buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery. But the funeral of a nationally known tractor driver and foreman of the first brigade in the Soviet Union
communist labor took place on her small homeland- in the village of Starobeshevo, Donetsk region.
Teacher's story.
Certificate of assignment to the tractor brigade P.N. Angelina, the tractor drivers accepted the honorary title “Brigade of Communist Labor” without their foreman...
And in 1978, the tractor brigade of communist labor named after Pasha Angelina ceased to exist...
She was awarded three Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and medals. Winner of the Stalin Prize (1946).(page 10)
BronzePasha Angelina was installed in her homeland - in the urban village of Starobeshevo. The coat of arms of the Starobeshevsky district depicts P. Angelina’s tractor, as a symbol of the hard work of the people of the region and the memory of P. N. Angelina.(sl.11-13)
Presenter 5:
For many years after the death of Pasha Angelina, there was a club of women machine operators named after Pasha Angelina in the USSR, which united thousands of Soviet workers. Every year since 1973, the best of them were awarded the prize of labor glory named after Praskovya Nikitichna Angelina.
Virtual trip to the museum of P. N. Angelina in the village of Starobeshevo (pages 14-20)
While the country was carrying Angelina in its arms, her own husband almost shot her, and doctors went to the house to examine the family for “bad diseases”
Pasha Angelina was from a Greek family, but this was not mentioned. She became a symbol of the industrial Soviet era - a girl in overalls, holding tractor levers in her strong hands. She also differed from the heroines of that time in that no one created her or artificially embellished her. Pasha was like this from birth: she loved technology, was deeply devoted and had the highest sense of duty. This ended her life at 46 years old.
Wikipedia
Guy in a skirt
Her first child was adopted. Pasha was barely 18 years old when her sister abandoned her son. Angelina was always ready to lend a hand to anyone who needed help. But she also knew how to stand up for herself.
In their Christian Greek family, which had long settled in the village of Starobeshevo, Mariupol district, Donbass, and sacredly preserved patriarchal traditions, she grew up as the most stubborn and persistent child. She went against the will of her relatives, who insisted that a woman’s place was at the stove, and not at all near the iron machines that appeared in the village. She was teased as a “guy in a skirt,” but she graduated from machine operator courses and became the first female tractor driver in the USSR.
Pasha was born on January 12, 1913, and started driving a tractor at the age of 16. And for exactly 30 years, until her death on January 21, 1959, Praskovya Nikitichna did not leave this main “workplace” of hers.
It's not easy to be a symbol
The year 1929, when a young tractor driver amazed her fellow villagers by appearing in the field on an “iron horse,” was special in the history of the country: a movement of innovative shock workers was unfolding. Pasha Angelina’s initiative came in handy. Other girls followed her example, and in 1933 Pasha headed the women’s brigade, which showed good results in the first year, and the foreman Angelina received the title “Excellent Tractor Driver.” The capital's newspapers also began to write about her.
The youth repeated the miner's names like a spell Alexey Stakhanov and other record holders. Pasha Angelina was also included in the list of idols. She became a symbol of a woman of a new era - free, strong, technically trained, in no way inferior to men.
For her success in work, Praskovya was awarded the country's highest award - the Order of Lenin. She was accepted as a member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), and in 1938 she became famous for the slogan “100 thousand friends - to the tractor!” Not 100, but 200 thousand women responded to the call. She met with Stalin, could even call him personally. But Pasha was embarrassed by her loud glory and she used it almost only once: it was necessary to rescue her arrested brother, the chairman of the collective farm. He was released, but too late: he quickly died from the beatings he received in prison.
She never asked for anything else for herself, but always helped others out. People often turned to her for help, and she more than once used her influence to get vouchers for villagers, help them enroll in universities, and find work. She herself found moments to brush up on her knowledge and pass exams at Timiryazevka. From Moscow, where she was invited to sessions, she sent packages home. At first, fellow villagers thought there was a shortage, but it turned out there was a shortage of books. Having become famous throughout the country, Praskovya Nikitichna still remained the foreman of her women’s brigade and, returning from the capital, day and night she made up for her plowing quota, keeping up with her friends.
Scythe on a stone
But to her husband, Sergei Chernyshev, the wife’s glory was across the throat. He himself was a leader by nature - energetic, intelligent, could speak for several hours without any cheat sheets, was an excellent drawer, and wrote poetry. And he held a decent position - second secretary of the district party committee. In 1935, he married Pasha Angelina, who already had Foster-son Gena.
It seems that everything is fine, and I could confidently feel like the head of the family. But it turned out that neither his talents nor his position had a price. For everyone, he is simply Pasha’s husband. And the invitations that the famous tractor driver received usually stated: “Praskovya Nikitichna Angelina with her husband.” Of course, since 1937, his wife began to be regularly elected as a deputy of the Supreme Council.
All this literally threw Sergei off balance. Pasha’s worries kept increasing, his family was growing - before the war they had two children of their own - Valery And Svetlana, and she still disappeared from dawn to dusk in the field.
In September 1941, Sergei Chernyshev went to the front. And Praskovya and her children were evacuated to Kazakhstan and there she continued to set her records, although she already had four children in her arms. The last daughter she almost lost it. The fact is that she, pregnant, already at a critical stage, in the summer of 1942, was called to Moscow for a session. She, afraid to disobey, went, and on the way back she gave birth right on the road. The train near Saratov was bombed. It’s scary to say what Praskovya had to go through during those few months that she and her newborn were traveling back to Kazakhstan. The girl's name was Stalin.
“You can’t fall lower than a tractor”
The war ended, and Praskovya Nikitichna returned to her native Donbass. Her pre-war women's brigade disbanded, and she headed the men's team. The performance of the “angels” continued to be off the charts, and even in the dry year of 1946, they harvested a record harvest. Angelina first became a laureate of the Stalin Prize, and the next year she received the star of Hero of Socialist Labor. Pasha came home after midnight and left at four in the morning.
This caused constant scandals in the family; her husband, who returned home in 1946, reproached Pasha for paying little attention to her family. However, this did not stop him from bringing with him his “front-line” wife with a baby in her arms. Not paying attention to the gossip of her fellow villagers, Praskovya helped her with money. And I forgave my husband.
Maybe because she understood: she couldn’t be alone. There are too many envious people around. They said that she was Stalin’s mistress, that the children were not her husband’s, they wrote dirty anonymous letters. All this fueled Sergei’s jealousy.
In addition, he returned from the war as a complete alcoholic. Once, in a frenzy, in front of his eldest daughter, he shot his wife with a registered Browning. The bullet miraculously missed, the girl lost consciousness from fear. Praskovya could not forgive him for this. She refused alimony, transferred the children to her last name and never met her ex-husband again.
She never got married again, although people approached her more than once. She had to be very careful, because for 22 years she was elected as a deputy supreme body authorities of the country, on every business trip they had to take part in feasts. To keep a fresh head, Praskovya quietly exchanged vodka for water, and on a business trip she always took one of her children with her; she believed that no one would think of pestering a woman with a child.
But even these precautions sometimes did not save her from the envy of local party bodies: she behaved too independently. Her daughter Svetlana told in one of her interviews how one day in 1949, doctors came to their house in Starobeshevo, where guests from all over the country often came. They took a blood test from everyone at home... for syphilis (!). They explained: they say, there was a signal that there were often drinking and partying in the house and in general it was unknown what they were doing. Only after Angelina contacted Nikita Khrushchev, who at that time headed the Communist Party of Ukraine, the persecution of the famous tractor driver stopped.
Praskovya Nikitichna was repeatedly offered a promotion - to become, for example, chairman of a collective farm or even deputy minister Agriculture republics. But she refused, believing that “you have to hold on to the ground,” “the tractor is low, you won’t fall any lower.” But she dreamed of giving her children a full higher education. And it almost came true. Daughter Svetlana became a philologist, Stalin became a doctor, Gennady became an engineer. Only Valery did not receive a diploma.
Praskovya Angelina died when she was only 46 years old. She never complained, suffered Botkin’s disease twice on her feet, and literally burned out at work. When they rushed to save her, it turned out that she had cirrhosis of the liver - from many years of working with diesel fuel and machine oils.
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. It went Stakhanov movement in USSR. And party leaders began to “sculpt” her into the image of a real worker who was devoted to the head of state.
MP
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 this example was followed not by one hundred thousand Soviet women, but by twice as many.
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 were 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 the 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 occupational 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. Until the collapse 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 very capable and talented person. He wrote poetry and painted.
Perhaps he would have climbed higher up the 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, his ex-wife 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 new family. His chosen one was a 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
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 did not spare color, painting this as an example of the equality for which fellow women fought unsuccessfully in the world of capital.
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 Fresh air collective farm fields, neither natural peasant health, nor Kremlin doctors, according to their high deputy status, nothing 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.
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 an amazing 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 haven't told anyone about one thing yet terrible case. 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 yourself.” During the World Youth Festival I was invited to take part in 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 - a naval sailor, survived the blockade, was incredible 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”
- 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 worked as the second secretary of the Starobeshevo district party committee, he was very capable person, a leader by nature, spoke well, drew, 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 for 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. 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...
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?
- 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 male hands. 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.
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. It was great woman, blessed memory to her. 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 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.
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 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 children worldwide famous woman- means to correspond to her in everything and live 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 famous people often for many years after their death they bask in the rays of their parents' 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 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 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.
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.
Tatiana Orel