Document 103

Letter from rural correspondent Glukhov to Krest'ianskaia Gazeta on "A Happy Life," 24 December 1938

RGAE, f. 396, op. 10, d. 12, l. 12. Original manuscript.

A Happy Life

Matvei Fyodorovich Rusinov has already passed seventy years of age, he has been a kolkhoz farmer since 1929.

Before the Revolution Matvei Fyodorovich because of his advanced years grew a beard all the way down to his chest and had his hair cut evenly all around which made him show [look] like an old man. He is a hard working man before 1 December 1938 by himself he made it past four hundred labordays. He has on his farm a milking cow, poultry and a piglet. His house is covered with an iron roof, but Matvei Fyodorovich was still missing one thing he was a widower.

Matvei Fyodorovich asked advice from people close to him and he made up his mind to take what is already his third wife. In the first few days of December 1938 he performed a modest Soviet-style wedding he trimmed his beard, trimmed his hair and that made him seem just about rite for his third wife who is 42 years old.

In the old days the priests would never permit a wedding in December. It was considered Lent, and besides a man like that who is 74 years old would have been denied for getting married. We truly have a happy Soviet life.