Document 123

Letter of denunciation from village schoolteacher Ye. Koniukh to Krest'ianskaia Gazeta, 18 February 1938

RGAE, f. 396, op. 11, d. 49, ll. 208-209. Corrected, certified copy.

Esteemed Comrade Editor!

I am writing to you with the following question. Will you argue with these facts?

A Soviet schoolteacher is the figure whom the party, Soviet authority and the entire people have entrusted with an honorable task--the task of educating the rising generation in the spirit of communism, raising a patriot and at the same time instilling fine human qualities in students. If not, then you cannot deny the fact that the teacher himself must be an example for children.

We have (albeit rare) "specimens" that serve as an example, but this example has nothing in common with a person who not only carries the title of teacher, but with a Soviet person, either.

It is impossible to keep quiet about this matter. V. I. Tolstov, the principal of the Dubrova village NSSh [incomplete secondary school] in Lamsky Raion, Riazan' Oblast, is a very "prudent" man. At a teachers' conference on 6 February 1938 he laid down an ultimatum for teachers: "I categorically forbid teachers to stroll on the street after 10 p.m., otherwise I will hit the ceiling."

But he does such outrageous things himself. In 1937 he worked in the settlement of Paslovka, got "married," lived that way for three months and for some reason became a bachelor again. He came to Dubrova village as a bachelor to take the principal's position, got "married" again, except not for the entire day but only "for nights." The woman became pregnant by him, and when she saw that he would not marry her, she had an abortion and is ill. In the past Tolstov said to her: "I am studying you," but now he has refused her once and for all: "I am married, my wife is coming to join me soon." These facts do not outrage the manager of the Lamsky Raion Public Education Department, which Tolstov petitioned to transfer a female teacher from the Lelenovskaia NSSh to the Dubrova NSSh, on the grounds that he wants to marry her. But Tolstov has said, I will marry her (I just won't register), I'll live [with her] until the spring, and then I'll kick her out.

Let Tolstov get married with the awareness that his actions also have an effect on the students.

This outrageous action elicits no response from the raion organizations.