420
PARTISAN REVIEW
meeting had come to an end, "In conditions of heightened enthusiasm
and will to work there is proceeding full scale ahead throughout the
kolkhoz...."
"Throughout the country ..." prompted Shchukin.
They got ready quietly to go home, and
it
was as though every–
one in his heart had a sense of fulfilled obligation and at the same
time of embarrassment, dissatisfaction with self. But on the threshold
boots were already clamping, the young people appeared in the
doorway.
"Did we come on time?" asked one of the two young fellows,
who had already come into the office.
"On time!" answered Piotr Kuz'mich, "Just the right time.
Come in,
all
of you."
Into the hut burst the cool air from the street. The flame in
the lamp revived, stools were moved around, windows opened.
"You sure have smoke in here!" the girls clamored.
With the appearance of the young people, Akulina Semenovna
straightened up, pulled the kerchief from her head. These were
people of her own age, she felt freer with them. Sergei Shchukin
also
began to hop around, pulled his necktie tighter and was already
inseparable from the girls.
The radio, which had been turned on, suddenly spoke out loud
and clear. Reports on the preparation for the Twentieth Party Con–
gress were being broadcast. Everyone listened to this message.
Piotr Kuz'mich, as though grown softer, before leaving said to
Akulina Semenovna, "There'll be firewood, don't worry, I'll see to
it." But Tsipyshev went over to Sergei Shchukin and squeezed
his
arm above the elbow, "You're staying here?"
"Yes."
"Well, see to it that there shouldn't be anything, you know...."
When the chairman of the kolkhoz Kudriavtsev and the farmer
Ivan Konoplev walked from the office down the dark, dirty street,
there started up again the conversation about life, about conditions,
about work-the very same that went on before the meeting.
"Let's see now what the Twentieth Congress will say!" they
repeated from time to time. And again these were plain, warm,
straightforward people- people, and not levers.
(Translated from the Russian
by
Miriam
B.
London)
