The name of Pasha Angelina saved her Christian family during the years of repression

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Now, few people remember the legendary tractor driver Pasha Angelina. And in Stalin's times, her name thundered throughout the country, just like the legendary surnames of Chkalov, Stakhanov, Papanin. But even then it was difficult to imagine that a leader in production, a stakhanovka, a “man in a skirt”, was a normal, ordinary woman. Moreover, not very happy and not very healthy.

Soviet propaganda has always looked for those to whom the youth could be equal. Those who came to the attention of the "PR people" of the Stalinist regime were made leaders, heroes of labor, idols. Only the advertising machine of the Stalinist system did not spare its heroes, who became cogs in its rigid mechanism. This is exactly what happened with the legendary tractor driver Pasha Angelina.

Young rebel

Praskovya Nikitichna Angelina took the first step on her way to the "title" of an example for the youth of the whole country on her own. This is worth noting especially, because there were those who were chosen artificially and literally forced to perform various feats of labor. And Pasha since childhood was sincerely interested in technology and various mechanisms.

By the end of the 20s of the last century, the fashion for sophisticated beauties of the Art Nouveau era died completely. Now, from the pages of periodicals, stout, full-legged, broad-hipped peasant women smiled broadly. It is not surprising - after the destruction of the peasantry during the years of dispossession, the leadership woke up. It became clear: it was necessary to somehow raise the economy. And this should be done by the young, strong and healthy. The type of powerful rural toiler has become fashionable: let us recall at least the muscular heroine of Vera Mukhina's famous composition "Worker and Collective Farm Woman".

True, according to one parameter, Pasha was not a hero of labor: she was Greek by nationality. She grew up in a Christian, very patriarchal family. Since ancient times, women in their family have been engaged in housework and children. That is why Pasha's interest in the tractor miracle machine horrified her father and brothers. But Praskovya from childhood was considered a kind of "boy in a skirt." And the family had to come to terms: in 1929, 16-year-old Pasha Angelina successfully graduated from the courses of tractor drivers and began to work in the fields of her native Donetsk region.

Soviet journalists could not help but notice the strong, pretty, smiling tractor driver. She was forgiven for belonging to a national minority. And so it began … The widely promoted social movement was called "One hundred thousand friends - to the tractor!" In 1933, Angelina headed the first female tractor brigade. Her cheek-cheeked smiling face, which has become, in modern terms, a symbol of Soviet feminism, did not leave the pages of Soviet newspapers. The example of the charming Pasha was followed not by a hundred, but by two hundred thousand women of the USSR!

So she was remembered by her contemporaries: healthy, pretty, smiling, saddling her iron horse. I wanted to ask: was Angelina a living person, did she have feelings? Feelings were. And they did not bring her much joy.

Mother, wife and drummer

Everyone who dealt with Pasha remembered her as a kind, sympathetic person, always ready to come to the rescue, and she was able to help: in the late 1930s, all possible and impossible benefits fell on her head. The post of deputy of the Supreme Soviet, higher education, which she was given to receive in absentia and without any problems, prizes, government awards …

But the fact of the matter is that the legendary tractor driver could not stop working, could not become something like a wedding general under the government of the country. From meetings in the capital, where she was often planted next to Stalin, Pasha rushed to her native fields and served her work shift from morning to night. The villagers were amazed at her energy, knowledge of technology and … interest in literature. Angelina wanted to live up to the title of a highly educated worker of the village. From Moscow to her address in her native village of Starobeshevo, parcels with books ordered by the honored tractor driver were sent endlessly.

What was the personal life of Pasha Angelina? It is difficult even to imagine, but this "woman of iron" was married - unfortunately, unsuccessfully. She raised four children: three of her own and a nephew, whom she accepted into the family without hesitation when the mother abandoned the boy.

Her husband was Sergei Chernyshev, a party leader. He was described as a capable person, but painfully proud. Even before the war, he rolled scary scenes to his wife when invitations to government receptions came. After all, it was written in them: "Praskovya Nikitichna Angelina with her husband." He felt like some kind of insignificant "trailer" to the legendary Pasha. And it hurt his male pride.

The older children, Svetlana and Valery, were born before the war. The youngest daughter, named after the leader Stalin, was born in 1942. The story of her birth clearly characterizes the mores of the era, the heroes of which became her victims. When Angelina was nine months pregnant, she was summoned to the capital for a session of the Supreme Council. And she went, fearing to disobey. And on the way back on the train, she gave birth to her youngest daughter. Then the train was bombed - Angelina with a baby was getting home for several months. The sister said to Pasha:

The girl in the family was called Stalochka. During the war, Pasha Angelina raised virgin soil in the fields of Kazakhstan. She worked from morning till night, slept four hours a day. We had to manage to set labor records. The fact is that the drummer often learned about her exploits from the press. She understood that this was how the authorities were sending her signals for action. The numbers indicated in the journalistic materials had to be matched.

Victim of time

The husband returned from the war alive - after the war the family gathered in their native Donetsk region. But Sergei did not stop being jealous of his wife for her glory. Shouted at her:

In addition, at the front, he became addicted to alcohol. The relationship between the spouses got worse and worse. Finally, it came to the point that, in a drunken stupor, Chernyshev tried to shoot his wife. But he missed - then for a long time they could not take the bullet out of the wall of the house … Pasha, like a real country woman, endured for a long time and forgave her husband a lot. For example, the mistress he started at the front. She even financially supported her and the child whom she gave birth to from Chernyshev!

But Pasha did not forgive her spouse for this angry drunken trick: she kicked him out of the house, refused alimony and changed the name of the children. They all became Angelines. Chernyshev later died of alcoholism. After the war, when the propaganda campaign ended, Angelina began to offer high officials. She wisely refused:

Her daughter Svetlana said that her mother knew perfectly well the value of the time in which she lived. She took one of the children with her on all trips. And once in a Moscow hotel, during a serious conversation, she whispered to her daughter:

Praskovya Nikitichna never married again, although she was more than once wooed. More than anything, she was afraid that some stranger would offend her children.

Angelina's relatives prayed for her, believing that only her name saved the religious family from repression. Only the brother of Praskovya Nikitichna was arrested. She managed to free him, but too late: during interrogations, his lungs were beaten off, and he did not live long after his release.

The legendary tractor driver died at the age of 46. And she died terribly. From constant contact with fuels and lubricants, Angelina fell ill with cirrhosis of the liver. The body could no longer get rid of excess fluid. Once a week, a bucket of water was pumped out through an incision in the stomach of the unfortunate woman …

And Praskovya Nikitichna joked about her huge, bloated belly:

And she laughed.

In the end, they decided to have surgery on her. After her, she fell into a coma and soon died.

Today the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Pasha Angelina live in the Don region and in Moscow.

Her children remember her mother with love. They believe that the era rode through Praskovya Nikitichna with a tractor, depriving her of her health and personal happiness.