Writing
At a dusty crossroads in the Soviet Union villagers surrender their possessions - a horse, a samovar, a goat - to the state. The train which takes them away brings to the village a physically and mentally handicapped woman, barely able to speak. She makes herself bracelets of burrs and studies herself in a cracked and cloudy mirror. Befriended by very few, teased and tormented by many she seeks protection at a huge portrait of Stalin.
History teacher Nikolay Echevin on his sixtieth birthday receives an anonymous letter in which he is called the "center of public infection" and threatened with murder.
For 49 days, four young soldiers drifted on a barge that was blown out to sea by a storm. Only by the end of the seventh week they were discovered by American pilots.
The life story of two fellow villagers in the period 1920–50s.
Rodka Gulyaev is a pupil of the Gumniskii rural secondary school. One day on the bank of the river he digs out the darkened old icon. Unfortunately for him his grandmother Avdotya, an overbearing and cunning old woman, spreads a rumor that the icon is miraculous, and her grandson is a saint.
Learn to forgive others, and get forgiveness to yourself. In the forgotten taiga village lives a gloomy and unsociable Trofim Rusanov, senior fishing inspector. He is used to the fact that each day is filled with routine. But one day, on his usual round through the wood, Trofim faces a shocking discovery. He finds a baby in an abandoned forest house. For several days he wanders around the severe uninhabited taiga, fighting both for his life and the life of the little child. Finally, Trofim finds the way home... He wants to find a woman who left a baby in the forest. It takes for him a superhuman effort to find the baby's mother. But this long quest leads him to another, completely different find
The young machine operator Fyodor Soloveikov marries Stesha from a neighboring village and moves to live with her parents in a house. Young and energetic, he suffocates in the petty bourgeois world of the family, living away from collective farm life. Quarrels arise between young people, where old men pour oil of discord. Not receiving proper support from his wife, Fyodor leaves home.
The farm's chairman took the late secretary's teenage son into his house.
A story of a thirteen year old boy who lives in North Russia and is forced to make some difficult decisions.
Three of them hunted a bear, but a man was accidentally killed instead. The investigation must determine which of the hunters is responsible for this death. However, there is also a judgment of conscience — the most difficult judgment, because a compromise with one's own conscience never leads to good.
It consists of three short stories united by the theme of war: "Where Are You, Lyubov Dunyashova?", "You Have Me", "Everyday Matters".
