This happened before the start of the war, either at the end of May, or at the beginning of June 1941. The postman Nyurka Belyasheva from the village of Krasnoe, spilling potatoes in the garden, looked at the sky - is it lunch soon? - and saw a huge black bird falling directly on it. From horror Nyurka dead fell to the ground. And when she opened her eyes, an airplane stood right in front of her garden. A pilot got out of the plane. The village ran. Chairman Golubev himself, a man weighed down by responsibility and constantly struggling with this burden by domestic means, was already crawling out of his gig, carefully moving his legs. The pilot reported: “The oil pipe has jammed. Made an emergency landing. "
... And at this time, the Red Army soldier of the last year, Ivan Chonkin, who still did not know anything about the accident and how surprisingly that accident would turn his fate, marched back and forth past the telegraph pole, saluting him, - was undergoing combat training under the supervision of his military authorities. Ivan Vasilievich Chonkin, stunted and bent-legged, was a purely rural man, and with horses with whom he was in the army, his relations were not better than those with people. Military science - drill and political studies - was given to him with great difficulty. And so the circumstances were that it was to him, Chonkin, that the authorities were forced to entrust the most important task - to go to the village of Krasnoye to guard the faulty aircraft, until the arrival of the aircraft repairmen there.
At first, Ivan was a little bored of standing near a fixed piece of iron on the outskirts of an empty, as if an extinct village. But, noticing nearby Nyurku in the garden and appreciating its large forms, Chonkin cheered up. He began the conversation by clarifying his marital status. Upon learning that Nyurka was lonely, for a start, Chonkin offered help in the garden. He also looked at Nyurke - even if he was not handsome and did not come out tall, but the guy was dexterous and useful for the household. After work, she invited Chonkin to dinner at home. And the very next morning, the women who drove the cattle into the field saw how Chonkin came out of the Nyurka’s house barefoot and without a gymnast, dismantled part of the fence, rolled the plane into the garden, and laid the fence again with poles.
Chonkin began a measured rural life. Nyurka went to work, he fussed around the house, prepared food and waited for Nyurk. And having waited, he tirelessly rejoiced with her life. From the lack of sleep Nyurka even slept from her face. In the village, Ivan became his man. Chairman Golubev, constantly awaiting a secret inspection from the city, suspected that Chonkin was a disguised inspector, and therefore even a little fawned on him. The army command completely forgot about Ivan. And Chonkin’s letter to the unit with a reminder of himself Nyurka, taking advantage of her official position, slowly destroyed.
But the late life of Chonkin did not last long. The war has begun. And it was precisely at that moment when Comrade Stalin’s speech was broadcast on the radio that the Nyurkina cow climbed into the garden to her neighbor Gladyshev, a Michurin breeder, who had put years into cultivation of a hybrid of potato and tomato-puks (Ways to Socialism). The shocked Michurinist tried to pull the animal by the horns from the last bush of the puchs, but the forces were unequal. The fruits of ascetic labor perished in the insatiable womb of the ignorant cattle. The breeder’s rage turned against the owners of the cow. He even made an attempt (unsuccessful) to shoot Chonkin from a hunting rifle. And then Gladyshev turned to Where It Is Necessary and To Whom It Is Necessary with an anonymous report about the deserter hiding in the village, the lecherous and the hooligan Chonkin. The captain of the NKVD Milyaga familiarized himself with the statement and, without hesitation, sent all of his seven employees of the district department to the village to arrest the deserter. At the entrance to the village of Krasnoye, the Chekists' car got stuck on a road wet from rains, and the Chekists talked with Nyurka passing by about their concerns. Nyurka had time to Chonkin earlier. “Well,” said Chonkin, “I will fulfill my duty.” And if necessary, I will accept the battle. ” By the time the Chekists appeared, deployed in deployed formation, Chonkin was already occupying a strategically advantageous position with the aircraft. “Wait, who's coming?” - He met the guests according to the charter. But the KGB did not stop. Repeating the phrase twice put, Chonkin shot. From surprise attackers hit the ground. The fight was unexpectedly short. Chonkin shot a buttock to one of the attackers, and the KGB officers demoralized by the cries of an unfortunate surrendered. Captain Milyaga, who did not wait for his team, went to the village personally to clarify the situation. Already in the dark, finding Nyurka's house, he went inside and found a bayonet attached to his stomach. Captain Milyaga had to join the arrested.
In the Dolgovo district center, the disappearance of Captain Milyaga’s department was not immediately noticed; the first to worry was the secretary of the district committee, Revkin. Revkin heard rumors about the capture of the whole department of captain Milyaga by Chonkin in the bazaar that Revkin decided to check by phone by calling Chairman Golubev in Krasnoye. The chairman confirmed that everyone was arrested by Chonkin with his woman. Instead of the word “woman”, Revkin heard the word “gang”. A regiment under the command of General Drynov was sent to neutralize the mighty gang of Chonkin acting in the rear of the Soviet troops. That night, the regiment took the village into a ring, and the soldiers approached the very fence of the Nyurkino garden. The first to fall into their hands was Captain Milyaga, who had just escaped from captivity that very night. The stunned Milyaga was dragged to the headquarters and began to interrogate. The interrogation was carried out with the help of those few German words that a staff officer knew. Shocked by what had happened, Milyaga assured himself that he had been captured by the Germans, and began to talk about his experience in the struggle with the Communists gained in the work of the Soviet Gestapo - the NKVD. He even shouted: "Long live comrade Hitler!" The general ordered the saboteur to be shot.
The regiment began to storm the gangster den. Chonkin, having settled down in the cockpit of an airplane shooter, was firing from a machine gun. The attackers used artillery. One of the shells covered the plane, and Chonkin’s machine gun fell silent. The advance units of the attackers burst into the garden and found a small Red Army lying on the ground, over whom a woman howled. “Where is the gang? The general asked, seeing instead of saboteurs bound Chekists. “These are our comrades.” Chairman Golubev explained that it was not a gang, but a woman. “What is it, this one soldier with a woman was fighting a whole regiment?” ““ That's right, ”Ivan woke up. “You, Chonkin, frankly, are a hero, even in appearance and an ordinary burdock. On behalf of the command, I award you the Order. ” Then the NKVD lieutenant Filippov stepped forward: “I have an order to arrest the traitor to the homeland of Chonkin.” “Well,” the general lowered, “follow your order.” And Chonkin was arrested.
Most of the subsequent events, in the center of which was still Chonkin, developed without his direct participation, since he himself was in prison without interruption. The investigation established that in his homeland in the village of Chonkino, Ivan had the nickname Prince, - rumors attributed Ivan's paternity to ensign Golitsyn, who was at a standstill in the Chonkin’s house during the civil war. So the investigation appeared "white emigrant trace." The district NKVD received a secret message about the presence of a German spy Kurt in the area, and Lieutenant Filippov, already arrested on suspicion of espionage, admitted that he was agent Kurt and that he worked in contact with a white emigrant protege Chonkin-Golitsyn. Replacing the alternately occupying the position of the head of the NKVD district department, Captain Milyaga and Lieutenant Filippov, Captain Figurnov launched a propaganda campaign to exalt the exploit of the hero-Chekist captain Milyaga, who fell at the hands of the Chonkin gang. The remains of the captain were brought to the city, in which the Chekists, who did not have enough time, brought the remains of a horse skeleton. However, at the moment the coffin was removed, one of the participants in the ceremony stumbled, the coffin fell to the ground, and a horse skull that rolled out of it caused a panic in the city.
And finally, another rapidly developing plot: the secret rivalry of the second secretary of the district committee of Borisov with Revkin entered the final phase - with the help of captain Figurnov, secretary Revkin was exposed as an enemy and began to testify about his enemy activities. This activity was also put by the authorities in direct contact with Chonkin. And by the time the trial began, the prosecutor Yevlampiev had every reason to say that Prince Golitsyn, an ardent enemy of the Soviet regime, who intended to sit on the Russian throne, was sitting in the dock. The court sentenced Chonkin to the highest degree of proletarian humanism - execution. Meanwhile, rumors of the Chonkin affair widened and penetrated into the highest realms. Adolf Hitler, hearing of the heroic resistance to the Bolsheviks of the Golitsyn-Chonkin organization, ordered to turn the troops advancing towards Moscow and go to the rescue of the hero. The troops received this order just at the moment when German tanks marched on the small and almost unarmed defenders of the capital under the command of General Drynov. In desperation, the general raised the soldier in the attack, and the German tanks suddenly turned at once and began to retreat. The incredible victory of General Drynov was reported by newspapers. The hero general was received by Stalin himself. In their conversation Drinov spoke about the valor of a simple soldier Chonkin. Touched by Stalin, he made a toast to a Russian soldier who showed an example of selfless service to his homeland.
Meanwhile, German tanks approached the Dolgovo district center, and Captain Figurnov received orders from the leadership to urgently shoot the convicted Golitsyn in view of the complication of the situation, and also to send him to Moscow on the orders of the commander-in-chief soldier Ivan Chonkin to receive a government award. Both orders - to execute and reward - were not destined to be executed. The Germans entered the city, and Figurnov handed Chonkin to Sergeant Svintsov with an official order to deliver him to Moscow and unofficial to shoot him while trying to escape. But in wandering around the territory occupied by the Germans, Chonkin showed no desire to flee, and Sergeant Svintsov, in turn, did not show signs of excessive official zeal. On the contrary, on reflection, he decided for himself to “run away from everyone” and lead the natural life of a “cheater”. “And you, Chonkin, go to your village,” he told Ivan. “Maybe you can find Nyurku.” Sneaking into the village, Chonkin saw a crowd of people near the board and a German standing on the steps and reading out the orders of the new German administration to hand over surplus food. Next to the German stood a new Commissioner from the German authorities, Michurinist Gladyshev. Chonkin backed away and, unnoticed by anyone, left the village.
