"On the Wild Shore" by Boris Polevoy, summary Automatic translate

This novel, written in 1962, describes the massive construction of a hydroelectric power station on the Siberian Oni River. Its main value is its detailed and accurate depiction of the psychology of Soviet people during a transformative era. Drawing on actual recordings from the Angara and Sayan mountains, the author depicts the emergence of a new working class capable of tackling the most complex national challenges. The novel has earned widespread acclaim for its accurate characterization and its lack of literary fiction.

Meeting on Oni

The passenger steamship "Ermak" was on its second day of sailing down the Oni River. The deck was crowded with young people who had come from all over the country to work on the gigantic construction site. A bearded man with a basket of mushrooms and a rifle case stood out among the noisy passengers. He caught the attention of Dina Petrova, the wife of engineer Vyacheslav Petin. Dina thought the stranger looked at her husband strangely, with hostility. Petin, engrossed in his blueprints, dismissed his wife’s misgivings. A little later, Dina tried to buy mushrooms from the bearded man for her husband, but was abruptly refused. However, the Siberian gave the entire basket to Ganna Poperechnaya, the wife of a well-known excavator operator, for next to nothing — for a simple brass coin. The bearded man turned out to be Pavel Dyuzhev, a collective farm mechanic. He disembarked at the nearest pier, leaving behind a feeling of unaccountable anxiety in the Petin couple.

Night conversation and worries of the Cross

In the sixth-grade cabin, Ganna Poperechnaya was putting the children to bed. Sleep wouldn’t come. A surge of resentment toward her husband, Alexander "Oles" Poperechny, was growing into a deep-seated hostility. The family had been moving from construction site to construction site for sixteen years. Ganna had just begun to settle into their previous place in Usti, tending the cherry trees, and now they were once again forced to pack up their folding furniture and head out into the remote taiga. Ganna angrily woke her husband and poured out everything she had been holding on to. Oles, a rather dry, middle-aged man, defended himself with professional duty and promised to put down roots in a new place. But Ganna firmly declared that this was the last she could stand. Oles went on deck to collect his thoughts. In the hold, he met a young geologist, Ilmar Sirmais, and a mischievous young man nicknamed "Mommy." A little later on deck, Oles encountered a beekeeper holding a cage containing a sick canary. Conversations with these various people calmed Poperechny somewhat, and he returned to the cabin.

Fire at Ermak

Early in the morning, the steamship shook with alarmed cries. A fire had started in the stern due to film, igniting the oil paint. Panic ensued. The mate and the sailors tried to contain the fire. Oles Poperechny rushed to the rescue. He descended into the smoke-filled hold, where he discovered a wounded woman and a little boy, Minka. Oles carried the child onto the deck along with a girl named Valya, who had lost her glasses. Valya turned out to be the same violinist who had played for the passengers the previous day. Oles returned for the boy’s wounded mother. The injured were settled in the Poperechnys’ cabin. Dina Petina, who was nearby, showed her resolve and remembered her medical degree. She resolutely treated the burns of the injured projectionist and splinted the woman’s broken leg. Captain Rakov, displaying stubbornness, ran the burning ship aground near Kryazh Island. The Energetik cutter soon arrived, led by construction manager Fyodor Litvinov and party organizer Lado Kapanadze. Litvinov warmly welcomed the arriving engineer, Petin. The injured passengers began to be evacuated to the island.

Life on the Ridge

Dina temporarily settled on Kryazh Island, in the house of the collective farm chairman, Innokenty Sedykh. The time shift plagued her, and she slept until noon. The locals seemed stern and rude to this Muscovite. The collective farm leader’s courtyard resembled a fortress, with solid fences and heavy bolts. Dina met archaeologist Stanislav Onich, the grandson of a Polish exile. Onich was enthusiastically collecting historical artifacts from the Oni floodplain, which would soon be submerged. The archaeologist showed Dina a thirteenth-century Mongolian sword found by agronomist Anatoly "Tolsha" Subbotin. Onich told her a lot about the history of the region and the customs of the Old Believers. Dina became friends with the chairman’s daughter, Vasilisa. One morning, Dina overheard a conversation between Innokenty Sedykh and mechanic Pavel Dyuzhev. Dyuzhev called Dina a lap cat, one that would be cut down by the first draft. This hurt the woman’s feelings. Petin arrived for the weekend, and Dina shared her observations about Dyuzhev with him. Petin assured her he’d never seen the man before. Soon, Dina’s driver, Petrovich Litvinov, arrived to pick her up at her new cottage in Divnoyarsk. Along the way, they picked up engineer Sakko Nadtochiev, who was returning from hunting. Nadtochiev immediately began openly flirting with Dina, asking about her eyes.

Hanna’s initiative and intrigues in management

The Transverses were settling into a dugout dug into a taiga slope. Ganna had managed to create a cozy atmosphere even in the tarpaulin-covered Green Town. Party organizer Kapanadze came to see them. Ganna burst into tears, looking at a trophy military rug, recalling her youth at the front and the medical battalion. Kapanadze suggested Ganna lead a women’s raid on the tents to restore order to the construction workers’ lives. Ganna gathered the militant women, and they administered a harsh treatment to the lazy tenants. The "domovoi" movement quickly gained momentum, and it was reported in the newspaper "They of the Taiga." At this time, Litvinov received a letter from Siberians protesting the flooding of floodplains. Innokenty Sedykh’s signature was first. Petin insisted on harsh measures against the collective farmers, accusing them of possessive thinking. Litvinov decided to go to the Ridge himself. Young men Valya and Igor, who hadn’t been hired due to their health, came to his office. Litvinov gave them tea, made Igor lift a two-pound weight, and promised to enroll the boys in training courses.

Trip to the apiary

Litvinov took Dina with him to the Ridge. On the way, he showed her the Buyan cliffs, where local pilots had carved their names for centuries. Among them was Captain Rakov’s. Litvinov explained why he had defended the old man before the commission. The Ridge was deserted; all the residents had gone to distant fields to protect their harvest from the frost. Litvinov went to see the old beekeeper, Savvatey Sedykh. Savvatey Mokeich turned out to be a stern old man with the profile of a bird of prey. He treated the visitors to strong mead, which quickly made Dina drunk and she fell asleep on a bench. Litvinov and the beekeeper brewed the famous skete fish soup. The old man firmly declared to the chief that the Kerzhaks would not move from their homeland. Innokenty arrived that evening. The conversation around the campfire was strained, and Sedykh flatly refused to withdraw the letter. On the way back, Litvinov’s car encountered a brawl. A hooligan named Mamochka was beating up a girl named Murka, the dispatcher’s assistant. Litvinov forcibly took the knife from the boy, and Murka rode with them in the car, angry and applying lipstick.

Confrontation of engineers

Winter arrived suddenly, the ground froze, and the excavator teeth sparked. A young engineer, Mark Bershadsky, proposed using a method of soil extraction observed in the Arctic. Petin enthusiastically supported the young specialist, seeing the project as innovative. Nadtochiev, however, mathematically proved that this method, on a local scale, was a waste of public funds. A difficult conversation ensued at the administration. Petin accused Nadtochiev of conservatism and reprimanded him. Nadtochiev left the meeting, citing nausea. He met Dina on the street; they took a long walk, the engineer asking her about her life. At the train station, Nadtochiev encountered flatcars loaded with parts from Ural excavators. Rumors circulated at the construction site that Litvinov was being summoned to Moscow due to complaints from collective farmers. Petin was already being tipped to replace him. Litvinov indeed flew to the capital, leaving control in Petin’s hands. Nadtochiev and Dina saw him off at the airport. Litvinov looked sadly out the window at the receding taiga, fearing that he was seeing the construction site for the last time.

Capital disputes and return

In Moscow, Litvinov stayed in his apartment, where his wife, Stepanida Yemelyanovna, was keeping house. Innokenty Sedykh also arrived. Protracted debates between proponents of the two hydroelectric power station project versions raged within the State Planning Committee and other ministries. Ultimately, Moscow created a high-ranking commission to survey the Ona floodplain. Litvinov and Sedykh returned to Siberia on the same plane. Upon arrival, Petrovich informed Litvinov that Oles Poperechny had been crushed by a heavy component at the station. Oles had saved the young worker, but he himself had suffered a compound fracture of the shoulder. Litvinov visited the excavator operator in the hospital and ordered that household parcels from Ganna be received. Innokenty Sedykh returned to Kryazh, gloomy. The village had already begun to be dismantled, and the furnaces stood in the open air. During excavations, ancient manuscripts were found under the old club, and a chest of gold and two skeletons were found in the Grachevs’ yard. Innokenty recognized them as his dead relatives, killed by old Grach for Kolchak’s treasury.

A turning point in Oles’s life

In the hospital, Oles Poperechny suffered from insomnia and boredom with work. His arm was stiff. He was transferred to a general ward with Negativ and the hooligan Mamochka, who was suffering from a knife wound. Mamochka turned out to be the brother of the dispatcher, Murka. Murka visited her brother, merrily waltzing between the beds and announcing she was marrying Kolobok — that’s what the girls called Petrovich. Oles had long conversations with Mamochka about work honor. Tretyak was angry, claiming that the personnel officers were always looking askance at his past. After being discharged, Oles made a surprising decision. He left his renowned crew to his brother Boris and transferred to work on Negativ’s lagging excavator. Petin tried to dissuade the distinguished worker, offering him an administrative position as senior machine operator with pay. Petin didn’t want Poperechny’s name at the end of the reports. Oles became angry, accused Petin of trying to cover up his desertion, and left. Only Nadtochiev supported him, shaking his hand on the street.

The Petin family split

Dina Petina became increasingly burdened by the domestic microclimate she created for her husband. She was irritated by his well-spoken manner, his neatness, and his habit of brushing his teeth with a toothpick. Vasilisa moved into their house to learn German. Vasilisa bluntly called Petin a ferret — a clean but vicious little animal. The estrangement between the spouses grew. Dina got a job as a doctor at the local hospital. One evening, Petin made a scene with his wife, accusing her of being friends with Nadtochiyev and Dyuzhev. Upon learning that the collective farm mechanic’s name was Pavel Vasilyevich Dyuzhev, Petin turned pale. It turned out that in 1946, Petin had been the chief technical expert at the trial where Dyuzhev was falsely accused of sabotage. Hearing her husband’s furious and angry words, Dina finally saw the light. She packed a small suitcase and left home, settling in a girls’ tent in Green Town.

The Flood Trial and the Old Man’s Illness

Spring arrived stormily, and the On River broke the ice in minutes. The summer flood began, rising several meters. Mark Bershadsky, appointed foreman for the dam, was tormented by the question of how to lower the caissons to depth with such a current. At the tip of the dam, he encountered Pavel Dyuzhev with a fishing rod. Dyuzhev, right on a piece of notebook paper, sketched out for Bershadsky a plan for a bridge on concrete pile columns using powerful vibrators, eliminating the need for caisson work. The method was brilliant. Bershadsky brought the plan to Petin. Petin, recognizing Dyuzhev’s handwriting, tried to stall the project. But Litvinov, summoning Petin, pulled Dyuzhev’s old court case from his safe, bearing Petin’s expert signature. The old man firmly declared that Dyuzhev had been appointed chief engineer of the Banquet Bridge and ordered Petin to support the project. After this conversation, Litvinov flew out by helicopter to search for Ilmar Sirmais’s Komsomol party, which had disappeared in the taiga. The geologists were found alive at Methodius’s Machine, having discovered rich ore deposits. Overjoyed, Litvinov went skiing, but a sudden heart attack knocked him down in the snow. The old man was brought to a hunting lodge. Stepanida Yemelyanovna flew to him, and her loud voice and concern performed a miracle — Litvinov began to recover.

The finale

Oles Poperechny brought the new crew to the forefront. He and Petrovich organized a comprehensive team, combining excavators and dump trucks into a single, streamlined assembly line. Konstantin Tretyak, who had decided to break away from the past for good, also joined his team. The Poperechnys moved into a new house on Berezovaya Street; Ganna finally enjoyed the sturdy walls and planted a cherry orchard. Murka, who had become a crane operator, was expecting Petrovich’s child, affectionately calling herself "Mom." Old Savvatey Sedykh died quietly in his apiary, leaving his grandson Vansha his treasured 40-count shotgun. Innokenty Sedykh was building Novo-Kryazh on the Yasnaya River, planning the wedding of Vasilisa and Tolsha Subbotin. Dina Zakharova, having reverted to her maiden name, was working successfully at the hospital. Petin remained alone in his mansion, sending dry reports to the ministry. The builders were preparing to storm the river, and the pre-spring roar of engines floated over the Oni, announcing man’s victory over the wild nature of Siberia.