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Kruzhilin Collective Labour

For a long time there had not gathered so many smart, smiling people in the old Don village which gave the world the author of the immortal novel “And Quiet Flows the Don” that came on September, 25,  on the day of the literary and ethnographic holiday “Autumn in Kruzhilin” held by the Museum-Reserve of M.A. Sholokhov. The guests arrived from different parts of the Don country, as well as the Voronezh and Volgograd regions, Moscow, West Kazakhstan and other places.

On the Cossack farmstead next to the Sholokhovs’ house early in the morning the stove is kindled, Polyunkas, Dunyashkas, Dashutkas are darting sportively about the yard… The day is going to be hot: the ploughmen are getting the plough – “bukar” ready for work, the mowers are setting scythes, sharpening sickles. In the shed oxen are chewing hay before going out to the field. The horses are drinking water, they are awaited by harrows, a reaper, threashing stone – rollers.

There is a marching Cossack forge smoking. The blacksmiths from Vorobiyovka the Voronezh Region, are surrounded by children, Kruzhilin residents and guests of the holiday. The descendants of Ippolit Shalyi are adroit in work, with golden fire grains pouring out from under the hammer and the anvil sounding melodiously”. And in a moment the people are observing a hot horse-shoe.

Nearby there are laid out earthenware utensils and ceramic things by the master from the Museum-Reserve of M.A. Sholokhov. In no time a queue has lined up: after all, milk in an earthenware pot does not go sour and remains cool for a long time. Here Denis Vostrikov is showing in details to the amazed public, how a piece of clay on the potter’s wheel turns into a piece of art.

Andrey Seryoghin is wickering baskets of willow rods. The master is working skilfully, and there are many of those trying to master the way of wickering. Alexander Tyapkin  is giving a master-class for boys in making clay souvenirs. Svetlana Usova is teaching the would-be fishermen to make fishing rods. Those dreaming of a larger catch are admiring the work of Pyotr Ponomaryov’s making a fishing-net.

Olga Kosheleva is engaged in artistic painting of wooden spoons and is willingly teaching her “pupils”. And though the pupils’ spoons differ from those of the master the impression of the painting work is great.

On the green grass there are laid out works of the Kruzhilin needlewomen. Any one can try here a spinning work on distaff, learn knitting woolen shawls, open-worked napkins or ordinary sackcloths. And it is good to sing while working…

Boys and girls together with Nadezhda Balkova, Tatiyana Shevtsova, Elena Rebriyeva are having a pleasure to play old Cossack games, guess riddles, solve crossword puzzles.

Valentin Akhvatkin, Valeriy Chertkov, Zaury Ashkharua are teaching young people to saddle and clean horses. There are many people wishing to ride on a pedigree Don horse. Andrey Sugako and Nikolay Popov are giving a ride to children and adults along the streets in a two-horse pleasure carriage.

There is a queue to the book-stall from Rostov: it offers “Tales of Belkin”, “The Russian Language Dictionary”, “The Atlas of the World”, “100 Most Popular Jazz Performers”, “Handbook of Cossacks” and, certainly, books by Sholokhov.

At the Cossack farmstead Marina Popova and Lyudmila Volodina are treating the guests with tasty herb tea, fresh honey and pies. Valentina Zakharova is making pancakes simultaneously on three frying-pans. The firewood is burning hot in the stove…

By the well the “Zarnitsa” group performers of the Sholokhov Museum-Reserve is beginning a dance song picked up by the group “Volnitsa” from Rostov.

The people are gathering. The audience is locating by the edge of the wheat field. The elder people are taking their seats on the three-tiered tribunes, the young people are lining a long barrier.

- What is this, Granny?
- A sickle. Wheat was reaped with it.
- What is it “was reaped”?
- The ears were cut and bound in sheaves.
- And what is this?
- It is a “tsep”. Wheat grain was threashed with it. They promised to show today how it was used. You will see…

There is a scene behind the plot of wheat – a stylized Cossack house, which is being approached by the performers of the famous Cossack song group “Volnitsa” from Rostov-on-Don, the unique group “Starina” from Stanitsa Kumylzhenskaya the Volgograd Region, our people’s favourite group “Stanichniki” of the Sholokhov Centre of extracurricular work, the pride of the Upper Don – the Museum folk group “Zarnitsa”, singers from West Kazakhstan.

The hostess of the “kuren” Lidiya Nikulina, is inviting to the stage the director of the State M.A. Sholokhov Museum-Reserve A.M. Sholokhov and the honoured guests of the holiday – the head of the Sholokhov District O.N. Delnov, the head of the Kruzhilin village settlement M.V. Nikulin, the head of the Kumylzhenskiy District the Volgograd Region G.A. Shevtsov, the head of the Boguchar District the Voronezh Region A.V. Guzev, who are greeting the participants and guests of the holiday “Autumn in Kruzhilin”.

There is beginning an artistic and ethnographic composition “Bread the Urgent”, a bright narration, sapid with a good literary and musical content, about the labour weekdays of Cossacks. The labour of its director, Tatiyana Galitsina, and her team, also becomes a kind of a master-class for all those who have gathered in the country of Kruzhilin. The performance of Alexander Chukarin, Vladimir Antipov, Lyudmila Gnusina, Lidiya Nikulina made the audience delighted. The parts of the Cossack labourers, who are ploughing, sowing, harrowing, reaping, mowing, sheafing, threashing ears, winnowing the grain on a bolt, grinding the flour on the millstones, baking a tasty round loaf and treating the guests with it, are enthusiastically played by the workers of the Museum-Reserve of M.A. Sholokhov.

The Museum director Alexander Mikhailovich Sholokhov also “upturns the virgin soil” being the first to plough on oxen. The captious Shchukar is giving “the most valuable advice” on the technique of ploughing. The furrow is lying even, and “the experienced field worker” Shchukar can’t but praise the ploughman.

Those trying to plough following the example of the writer’s grandson, can feel for sure, how hard is the earth labour.

And now it is time for sowing and harrowing. The work is going on successfully…

To succeed in a good crop a co-operative labour is used: the hosts call the countrymen for help. All together they reap the wheat with sickles, mow with scythes and by a two-horse reaper, sheaf the ears and take them in a big bullock cart to the threshing-floor. Here begins grain threashing with a threashing stone-roller and “tseps”, bolt cleaning of the wheat. The flour is ground in a hand mill with millstones.

The round loaf of Kruzhilin made by the Cossack labourers is rich, and all the participants and guests of the holiday are treated with it. And again songs are heard and dances starting.

The holiday is going on. The children are grinding flour on the millstones, shaking the bolt, learning the structure of the “tsep”, feeding sheep and goats…

- How many pancakes have you eaten?
- Six…
- And I’ve had eight!
- But I’ve blown fire in the smithery.
- But I’ve learned how to paint spoons.
- But I’ve guessed twenty riddles!
- But I’ve had a ride on the Don horse!

The adults are also sharing their impressions of the holiday, who “reread” the pages of the novels “And Quiet Flows the Don” and “Virgin Soil Upturned” anew and tried themselves in the role of Cossack grain-growers.

And have you been to Kruzhilin this autumn? If not, don’t be said: next year in September, the residents of Kruzhilin will gather the people for “Collective Labour” again. Come here, please, to see with your own eyes, how the personages of Sholokhov’s books lived and worked, and to make your entry into the Open Air Novel.

S. Gribanov