Document 111

Letter of complaint from agronomist G. I. Taranov sent to Krest'ianskaia Gazeta, 1938

RGAE, f. 396, op. 11, d. 7, ll. 101-102. Certified, typewritten copy.

I arrive an hour or two before the start of the workday, my first duty is to collect and repair my gear. The setting up and repairing take at least three to six hours, and after that I set off around the kolkhozes over a distance of ten to fifteen km. It takes about two hours, sometimes three, to cover this distance, instead of getting right down to work at the first kolkhoz I start to repair my cart again, i.e. you have to look for wheels on the kolkhoz or a harness maker to fix the horse's collar, and with that the workday is over.

You continue riding on to another kolkhoz, now things are already worse, the horse starts to pull up or the wheels have broken down, and these kinds of things keep happening every day.

On top of all that they don't provide fodder for the horse, you have to get it yourself, nobody gives it to you.

You cannot buy anything at the store, everything they bring in goes out the back door. Therefore an agronomist has to go around in an Adam shirt [i.e. without a shirt] and in his father's shoes. There are no apartments. You have do your own repairs on the lodgings they allocate. It is no surprise that agronomists quit their jobs and go into school teaching. Five agronomists have fled recently.