Mikhail Sholokhov’s "Fedotka," a summary Automatic translate

This Soviet writer’s work, written in 1932, recounts the tense daily life of agricultural collectivization in a Don village. The plot details the typical workday of collective farm chairman Semyon Davydov, who is sent to inspect a village school. This routine inspection unexpectedly turns into the confiscation of a live grenade from a local first-grader and the subsequent discovery of a hidden kulak machine gun.

This novel about collectivization in the Don region won the prestigious Lenin Prize in 1960. The book has been adapted for film several times. The first film adaptation appeared in 1939. The most famous full-length film version, directed by Alexander Ivanov, was released in 1959–1961.

This story fits seamlessly into the "Virgin Soil Upturned" book series, which consists of two extensive parts. This excerpt is an integrated chapter of the first book in the series. The second book in the series continues the dramatic story of the same characters on the collective farm. This excerpt is often published as a stand-alone work for young readers due to its coherent internal plot.

Building inspection and housekeeping

Having barely gotten rid of the annoying Grandfather Shchukar, Semyon Davydov heads to the village school. He wants to determine the scope of the renovation work on site by Sunday and speak with the principal, Ivan Nikolaevich Shpyn. The principal plans to calculate the required building materials and draw up an estimate — a preliminary financial plan for the upcoming renovation. The building needs to be restored before the start of the new school year, without any unnecessary fuss.

The hero keenly feels the weight of the approaching hot season in Gremyachiy Log. Grass cutting is still underway, but winter rye and barley are already ripening. Vast collective farm plots of sunflowers and corn are overgrown with weeds, requiring immediate hand weeding. The mass harvest of wheat looms ahead.

A huge number of household tasks have piled up. The mown hay needs to be transported, the threshing floor needs to be prepared, the kulak barns need to be gathered together, and the only steam thresher needs to be repaired. These chores are a heavy burden for the chairman, requiring constant supervision.

Climbing the creaky steps to the school porch, Davydov encounters a barefoot ten-year-old girl. She informs him that Principal Shpyn and his wife have gone across the river to water the cabbage in the garden. Only the young teacher, Lyudmila Sergeyevna, remains in the building. She works with struggling children every afternoon. Approving of these lessons, Davydov enters the dimly lit entryway.

Meeting in the school classroom

Children’s voices drift from the depths of the hallway. Davydov, walking past the empty classrooms, peers into the last room. A dozen little children sit comfortably in the front row of desks pushed together. A thin, narrow-shouldered teacher with short blond hair, looking more like a teenage girl, stands nearby. The chairwoman feels a sweet thrill, recalling the years of her own distant childhood.

He hesitantly opens the door and politely asks permission to enter. The surprised teacher recognizes the guest and becomes deeply embarrassed. Davydov apologizes for the intrusion, explaining that he needs to inspect the premises before painting. The children greet each other in disarray. The girl blushes painfully, her ears turning crimson, causing the intruder to also feel acutely awkward.

The teacher continues dictating syllables, and the children bend diligently over their notebooks. The classroom smells of stale air, dust, and hot sun. Thick acacia and lilac bushes outside block the wind, and bright sunbeams glide across the uneven floor. Davydov sits at the table and mentally calculates the materials: pine boards, a box of glass, whitewash, and drying oil — a special oil-based paint thinner. He plans to raise money by selling two culled oxen — those officially deemed unfit for draft work.

Suddenly, a wet ball of chewed paper lands softly on the chairman’s forehead. A quiet laughter echoes through the classroom. The teacher sternly asks the cause of the noise, but the children remain silent. Davydov spots an old acquaintance among the students — Fedotka Ushakov. The boy stares at him with narrow slits, barely suppressing a wide, mischievous grin.

A dangerous game in class

The chairman decides to respond to the innocent prank. He tears a piece of paper from his notebook, chews it, and rolls it into a firm crumb. Placing the projectile on his thumbnail, he aims with his left eye. Fedotka shrinks in fear. Davydov deftly flicks the paper at the boy. He ducks and hits his forehead hard on the desk. The teacher turns to the window, trying to hide the tears welling up from laughter.

Having calmed down, Fedotka again attracts the attention of his adult friend. The boy points to his mouth, where two wide white teeth have grown in place of the previous gap. Davydov responds by spreading his arms and showing his own empty gap. The child celebrates his unconditional victory in this silent competition. The hero looks at the children with warmth, reflecting on how he fought precisely for their well-fed lives.

A minute later, a truly terrifying event occurs. The mischievous student pulls a real lemon hand grenade from his pants pocket and quickly puts it back. Davydov turns pale with terror, breaking out in a profuse cold sweat. His imagination helpfully conjures up a terrifying picture: the yellow flash of an explosion, a short, wild scream, and the mutilated bodies of children. He clearly feels large beads of sweat slowly trickling down his face and tickling his eye sockets. He understands that an accidental impact of the fuse on the desk will inevitably blow the entire class to pieces. The chairman decisively rejects the idea of taking the weapon by force, terrified of frightening the child with a sudden movement.

The utmost cunning is required. The hero takes an old multi-blade knife with beautiful mother-of-pearl inlays from his pocket. He successively opens a corkscrew, a screwdriver, and small scissors. Before the eyes of a mesmerized first-grader, Davydov masterfully cuts a horse’s head out of paper. After the lesson ends, the man approaches the boy and quietly offers to trade. The knife passes forever into the hands of a delighted Fedotka, and the chairman carefully takes the ribbed grenade. The primer cap needed for the initial detonation is missing. Davydov breathes a shuddering sigh of relief.

In search of an underground cache

Before leaving, Davydov asks Lyudmila Sergeyevna to instruct Shpynya to draw up a financial estimate and return to the board that evening. He then inquires about her rural living conditions. The teacher tells him about her mother and two brothers living in Novocherkassk. Outside, the chairman takes Fedotka aside and asks her to show him the exact spot where the iron toy was lying. The boy briskly takes the adult’s index finger and leads him around the farm.

Along the way, Fedotka begins to seriously doubt the fairness of the exchange. He finds it extremely unfair to give up a magnificent, shiny knife for a completely useless, heavy round object. He offers Davydov substantial compensation: first a homemade slingshot, then some old dice. The chairman declines with a kind smile, insisting the deal was completely fair. The hero reassures the child with an old proverb, assuring him that the exchange was done "trifle for trifle."

The man cautiously questions the child about the small details of the dangerous discovery. It turns out the grenade was lying alone in a stranger’s barn under an old, broken winnowing machine. The boy was looking for a safe place to play hide-and-seek and accidentally stumbled upon the strange metal object. There were no other iron rods lying nearby. Davydov confidently confirms the child’s guess, calling the grenade a vital part for repairing the farm machinery.

Soon they reach a farmstead that once belonged to the wealthy family of Timofey Rvany. The child confidently points out the necessary dilapidated reed barn. Davydov sincerely thanks the young guide and cordially invites him to visit. Condescendingly promising to stop by, Fedotka whistles shrilly with two fingers, summoning his street comrades, and dashes off down the dusty road.

Excavations of the kulak arsenal

The chairman makes a beeline for the collective farm office, where the caretaker, Yakov Lukich Ostrovnov, is peacefully playing checkers with the storekeeper. Davydov writes a written order: immediately issue the teacher, Lyudmila Sergeyevna, thirty-two kilograms of white flour, eight kilograms of millet, and five kilograms of lard. He orders the entire amount of the issued food to be written off against his personal workdays — the accounting units for evaluating daily work. Noticing that the thin girl is clearly starving, he sternly orders Ostrovnov to immediately take the supplies to her landlady.

Having completed his current paperwork, the hero quickly goes to the local blacksmith to see the experienced craftsman Shalom. Together, they craft search probes from thick iron rods with sharpened ends. The men descend a crossbeam and enter the cool barn of the Rvanykh family. The old blacksmith logically advises starting the search from the far wall, methodically probing the loose, humus-filled earth toward the broken winnowing fan. At a depth of a meter, the steel probe clangs against a hidden metal object.

Davydov takes a shovel and carefully unearths a massive, heavy package. Inside the oil-soaked tarpaulin is a Maxim machine gun — an extremely powerful automatic weapon. The mechanism has been carefully preserved by caring hands; not a single spot of rust can be seen on the metal. The comrades silently remove the menacing find, silently unroll the thick tarpaulin, silently exchange glances, and silently light cigarettes, fully understanding the seriousness of the former wealthy owners’ intentions to fight the current government. Continuing their deep excavation under the stone wall, they one by one extract four zinc boxes containing machine-gun ammunition belts, a service rifle, a partial box of ammunition, and eight grenade launchers with fuses, carefully wrapped in half-rotted oilcloth.

Davydov and Shaly spend the rest of the day meticulously cleaning the recovered machine gun in the forge. They generously lubricate all moving parts, preparing the weapon for firing. In the thick evening twilight, the men secretly carry the weapon outside the sleeping farmstead. The silence of the heated steppe suddenly resounds with the booming roar of gunfire. The chairman fires one long and two short bursts. The complex mechanism operates flawlessly, without a single misfire.

The inspired blacksmith suddenly erupts into a full-blown rage. In a loud, bass voice, he harshly demands that they immediately take iron probes and dig up the entire vast courtyard of the caretaker, Ostrovnov. Shaly is absolutely certain that Yakov Lukich is secretly hiding a real three-inch artillery cannon in the loose earth. Davydov laughs, but categorically rejects the idea of an unauthorized mass search, refusing to illegally disturb the ordinary residents of the farm. The old man calls his partner a fool, angrily spits on the dusty ground, and quickly walks away. As he walks away, he sullenly predicts the chairman’s imminent and inevitable death from the cunning Ostrovnov’s cannon, which will one day fire directly at his apartment.