Document 97

Letter from N. Timokhin to Krest'ianskaia Gazeta on defense measures on kolkhoz in Tula Oblast, 8 October 1938

RGAE, f. 396, op. 11, d. 56, ll.1-2. Original manuscript.

Esteemed comrades, I send you my prosperous kolkhoz greetings and wish you the best in your happy city life.

Dear comrades,

I got your letter in which you ask me about military activities in the people's consciousness including our Yezhov Kolkhoz under the Smirnovka Village Soviet. You ask me to write you at the newspaper do you have on your kolkhoz an Osoviakhim [sic] organization, a GTO, PVKhO, GSO and others. Let me explain: we don't have these organizations at our kolkhoz and if they appear, it will be unbelievable, because things at our kolkhoz have gotten to the point where the whole kolkhoz discipline has fallen apart. Our kolkhoz doesn't even have a red corner [a recreation and lecture room] where the kolkhoz's young people and the kolkhoz farmers themselves could have some fun. Our kolkhoz is the poorest one in the whole raion, it doesn't have many horses or harnesses and the harnesses it does have are all worn out. A laborday at our kolkhoz today fetches 150 grams, as for money they don't give any at all, because the kolkhoz itself borrows from other kolkhozes. Our village soviet has kolkhozes that are all right and they do have Komsomols, but they don't have a Osoviakhim organization either. Propaganda sessions on military affairs have not been set up at all, because there are no people to conduct them, and besides all the kolkhoz farmers get upset when they come to a meeting because they don't feel like human beings, the same person has to be begged to come two or three times, but never mind all that. Explain to me in detail in your next letter, where and how to get this Osoviakhim organization, what to teach and how. Our segment of the kolkhoz farmers will take part because there are interesting issues involved. And I would take part myself in an Osoviakhim organization, since I'm with the Komsomol, and I'm dying of boredom, there's no place to have fun, no place for any culture, and in the countryside this will only lead to street hooliganism with the young lads on the street, nothing else.

It's clear that if you get wet it's going to take a long time to dry off in rainy weather, and that's the case here. When there is no guiding instrument, it is a wall newspaper, it corrects all the failings on the kolkhoz, and they can't even do that properly. The kolkhoz board does not subscribe to the most interesting newspapers and magazines and there is nothing to entertain us and the Yezhov Kolkhoz under the Smirnovka Village Soviet doesn't have enough funds for a red corner and they don't allocate money for any kruzhki [small cultural or recreational groups] either. They still have failed to finish sowing the winter crops and haven't threshed the grain and turned it in for procurement, and haven't started to dig up potatoes, and as for vegetables there are none at all in the gardens. And if you ask why don't you agitate yourself about all these problems? I will answer you because I can barely cope with my own job, I'm a letter carrier, I cover five villages, and all on foot, I subscribe to newspapers, and where do I read them in the brigades, and if there is time in the evening, but I am the only Komsomol member in the village I don't do anything, I do after all need an assistant, and on top of it there is no office where I can be based. I my next letter I will describe to you where our Komsomol organization is situated and where the raikom at which I joined the Komsomol is, but our young people don't even want to think about going there, because it's too far to walk. Meantime ask some more questions don't be shy. We wish you the best in your work.

With friendly regards Timokhin