The story with the conclusion is small and expensive. "Small spool, but expensive": the meaning of the proverb

About little miserable dogs that are dragged under the arm. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to briefly tell this story, but it seems to me that the story is very funny and interesting, even with my lame retelling.

Went to the Stratford Shopping Center the other day to buy a new shirt and tie. Leaving the store, I came across a beauty, very short clothes, strange skin color, stilts instead of shoes and a shaggy creature under the armpit. Here in London, to see such a rarity. Looking at this frail creature (I'm talking about a dog), I remembered an interesting story from my past.

In the late 90s I had a fighting dog of the Boxer breed. A normal animal, but unfortunately stupid, I got the dog by chance, already grown up so that I probably shouldn’t be accused of stupidity of the animal. I took Santa for a special training, I think "OZS", it was a special program where the dogs were taught to guard the owner, execute the front command, causing maximum damage to the attacker. Remember, this was the 90s.

Dogs trained in our club about 20-30. Mostly bull terriers, staffordshire terriers, dobermans, rottweilers and boxers.
The briefing was very intense from the dogs made fighting vehicles.
The trainings were held in the forest, the people were going to be specific, strong necks, heavy chains, I hope it's understandable.
Everything was very serious, strict, masculine, until one day a cute, airy creature, in a pink suit with a light head, came to us for training, I would say. It seems to me that her name was Alice, so Alice brought a small dog, I could be wrong, probably a dwarf bulldog, the muzzle looks like a boxer, grunts funny, and is the size of an average boot.
Neigh, we were not given an instructor, I thought that Alice just mixed something up and just wants to teach Tesik to sit and lie down.
Alice and Tesik did not miss a single lesson, Tesik was a very obedient dog, but it was impossible to see how he performed the front command without colic in his stomach, he ran very funny, folded up and jumped sharply up to at least somehow jump to the chest of the attacker , our dogs were taught to work on the throat.
Once, without Alice, we asked the instructor what this circus was for, he answered, Tesik might not be able to protect the hostess, but to stun the attacker and give the hostess a few seconds to escape in his power.
Tesik and Alice did not appear at the training for a month already, we already began to forget Tesik's vicious flights, as one Tuesday we saw a familiar pink suit and after a few steps we saw Tesik. Tesik looked strange, his small body was bandaged, but it seemed to me that he walked proudly, if I can say like a hero.
Alice said that a few weeks ago she was attacked by some man trying to rape, rob and possibly kill. When he showed her the knife and ordered her to undress, she was dumbfounded, her legs became cottony, and her head stopped working from horror.
A few moments later, Alice heard an animal scream full of pain. A shadow flickered in front of her rapist's face. Tesik, taking off, dug his small teeth into the maniac's nose, while very quickly tearing his face with his tiny paws.
The rapist howled, Tesik growled, whined and snored at the same time, Alice was afraid to sway.
The attacker managed to tear the dog off his face and he ran away, but Tesik barked and tried to catch up with him, where he was on his crooked paws.
Alice wept when she told us about her misfortune, her stern faces reflected respect for the small but fearless hero.

And what happened to Tesik, why is he in bandages, one of ours asked.
And it was he who tore himself in the bushes, answered Alice.
Here are such tame, funny little dogs.

" SMALL SPOOL BUT PRECIOUS…"

(Island that deserves love)

Our planet is generous with gifts: every corner of it is beautiful in its own way. It happens that a small piece of land dazzlingly pleases with its serene sunny bright beauty; and the other - beckons and indulges in year-round warmth of water and air; and another one - dazzles the eyes with tropical colors .... All this does not apply to the region that is called Sakhalin ... And, nevertheless, Sakhalin is beautiful! It can also be sunny, but also generous with snow... it can be bright, or it can become painfully cloudy and dangerous, it can warm with warmth, or it can overwhelm with typhoon cyclones...

The shape of Sakhalin Island is often compared to a dolphin, a fish, a shrimp, or a compass needle on a map of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. On the world map, it is barely noticeable - a slender island, cautiously nestled against the eastern side of heavy Eurasia - neither give nor take - "mama's boy" ... In fact, Sakhalin is a very independent, special, rich, unusual and very mysterious land.

Sakhalin is a strange word brought to Europe back in the 13th (!) century from China by the famous Marco Polo. This name is translated in different ways, but most often, as “rocks at the mouth of the Black River,” as the Manchus saw it from the banks of the Amur.

Sakhalin was not always an island; in ancient times it was connected by land "umbilical cords" with the mainland and Japanese lands. But for over 10,000 years, its shores have been washed from all sides by the cold waters of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and the Sea of ​​Japan...

This piece of land, gracefully elongated from north to south, is a little less than 1000 km long, and its width varies from 8 to 160 km. Therefore, Sakhalin, like a stiletto, pierces several climatic zones: tundra, taiga, temperate sea ...

The northern Sakhalin tundra, as it should be, is severely stingy in appearance, but generous in subsoil - gas, oil in such colossal volumes that the three strongest powers - Russia, the USA, Japan - have enough room for activity. The famous Sakhalin projects for the development of offshore fields are thundering all over the world!

Harsh climate, reindeer, polar partridges, long winter, berry places and unimaginable wealth in the earth and in the sea depths, this is northern Sakhalin.

To the south - real taiga, mountains, coal deposits, furs, gold, tangled and meandering rivers, in the valleys of which temperature drops from -56 C in winter to +34 C in summer ...

Further south - the calm of moderation - the most inhabited part of the island (the climate is milder).

Here, the flora and fauna are masterfully diverse, and a scattering of delightfully beautiful lagoon lakes, luring, does not let go ... And the bowels are generously filled - deposits of building materials, hard and brown coal, peat, building materials, marble, decorative stones, jasper, there is even amber … A special offer of Southern Sakhalin is the sea sulphide healing mud and healing arsenic water sources of unique quality. There were and still are colossal reserves of blue clay ...

The flora and fauna of Sakhalin is unique in many respects: more than 100 species are endemic.

The local population has long used everything that grows, lives on Sakhalin and in the surrounding waters for life, nutrition, and treatment.

Eleutherococcus, Schisandra chinensis, actinidia kolomikta, birch, aralia, velvet, adonis, wild rose (we have 4 types of them), blueberries, gonobobel, currants, raspberries, cranberries (all wild plants!) And, alas, "little promoted" in in the world of krasnika (in the Far East it is better known under a not very aesthetic name - klopovka) ... All these are just some of the terrestrial medicinal plants that are very widely used by the population today. And the thickets of sea meadows - fucus, kelp, ahnfeltia ... We are just learning to master them fully.

The special and most widely known wealth of Sakhalin is its fish and seafood: over 200 commercial species (both marine and freshwater), among which we note the most notable and famous - chum salmon, coho salmon, pink salmon, sim, sockeye salmon (these are salmon); there is also a Sakhalin sturgeon - fish breeders are engaged in restoring the number of its herd; among connoisseurs of nature, the legendary “Red Book” Sakhalin taimen, a fish more than 1 meter long and weighing over 30 kg, has a special account. In addition, the near-Sakhalin waters supply the tables of Russians and residents of the countries of the Asian region with delicacy halibut, several types of crab, shrimp, scallop, sea urchin, trepang, flounder, greenling, herring, trumpeter, pollock and other representatives of the abundant (still) local marine fauna …

The waters of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and the northern part of the Sea of ​​Japan are filled with life - an abundance of cetaceans, different types of seals, and fish. The land of South Sakhalin is full of greedily developing and living vegetation. Sakhalin is dotted with lakes and rivers that provide fresh water. There is everything for people's life here.

The natives of Sakhalin - Ainu, Nivkh, Uilta, Tungus - pagans. The main deities of the Nivkhs (Gilyaks) and the Ainu are the gods of the Earth and Water. Defining the hierarchy of deities, the peoples did not have to rack their brains for a long time: nature itself gave a unique hint, which, perhaps, is not found anywhere. Of course, the main God is the God of the Earth (the Bear has always been his personification). The argument is not from a person, but from nature: the God of Water annually sends his subjects as a sacrifice to the one who is more important - to the earthly God. What an amazing explanation was found for the majestic phenomenon, which still surprises all its observers - the move to spawn fish. And on Sakhalin, such a rune passage was not only salmon, but also herring. The spectacle is incomprehensible, bewitching, subjugating, sometimes frightening in its inexorability and predestination.

Isn't this a mystery and a mystery - a combination of tundra moss moss and almost tropical lianas on one piece of land; minerals from sand and peat to ... gold. Even mammoth and dinosaur remains have been found on this land.

And its history is even more full of mysteries and intrigues.

Sakhalin changed owners, names, races of the peoples who lived on it ... It was owned by different countries. His map is filled with names that reflect all stages of the development of the island by peoples - here are the Dutch names - Tonin, Castricum, given in the 17th century by Martin Garritsen De Vries; and French - Lamanon, Crillon, Jonquiere, Moneron, left at the end of the 19th century by the expedition of Jean Francois Galou de la Perouse; and Russian names - Mordvinova, Maria, Elizabeth, Mulovsky, given by Ivan Fedorovich Kruzenshtern in 1805; and sonorous, but obscure names that preserve the features of the Nivkh, Evenki, Ainu languages ​​- Tunaicha, Nabil, Aniva, Due, Poronai, Moskalvo, Okha ... There are almost no names of Japanese origin left on the map, but in the conversation of Sakhalin people you can still hear - Toyohara , Oodomari, Ochiai, Shiretoku and others - such names were worn during the period of Japanese rule by Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Korsakov, Dolinsk, Makarov familiar to us ...

Sakhalin residents are very proud of the names of those who have been on the island in different years. This is accepted not only by us. But staying on Sakhalin has always been a significant event for Russians - regardless of what brought them to the edge of Russia - work, service, family affairs or a court decision ...

There were very few who followed to a distant island at the behest of the heart, conscience. That is why Anton Pavlovich Chekhov took a very special place in our history. Having accomplished in 1890 a civil and human feat, having gone to a hard labor island, he was able to accomplish another feat - a literary one. Chekhov's Sakhalin Island, published in 1895, became the best book ever written about Russian history and the life of Sakhalin. Truly an honest book by an honest man.

And those who served here, served a hard time, B.O. Pilsudsky, and M.S. Mitsul, and P.P. Glen, and S.O. Makarov, and G.I. Nevelskaya, and V.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, and V.M. Doroshevich, and F.B. Schmidt, and N.P. Rezanov, and F.F. Bellingshausen… You can't count them all.

Sakhalin history also knew wars. In the distant past - the wars of the natives with the Manchus. The 20th century was marked by two clashes on Sakhalin land - Japan and Russia (USSR).

Both during the Russian-Japanese (1904-1905) and the Soviet-Japanese (August 1945) wars, the fate of Sakhalin's territorial affiliation was decided - and, as a result, it changed! The fighting on Sakhalin (during these wars) was extremely tragic in its essence for those who fought.

In 1905, the Russian island of Sakhalin was defended from invasion by partisan detachments, the main backbone of which were convicts and exiled settlers. Another paradox: the prisoners defended Sakhalin, their prison, because during the war the prison became the personification of the Motherland!... Sometimes, it was impossible even to assume that someone would even know about the worthy end of their sinful lives...

In 1945, when the USSR returned South Sakhalin to the bosom of Russia, a lot of blood was shed on both sides - Japanese and Soviet. The truth was on our side. But, if you think about it, for the Japanese soldiers who fought with us, born in the 20s, the Sakhalin land (Karafuto, as they called it) was also the Motherland ... They died for their villages and their homes, for their own, also native to them, edge...

Everything changed exactly the opposite in 1945: a terrible retribution came to them for the deeds of their grandfathers in 1905.

“These are the ways of anyone who hungers for someone else’s good: it takes the life of the one who has taken possession of it,” says the biblical truth ...

Everyone knows about Sakhalin. Its history is remarkable. His name is heard. It is a household word when in the European part of Russia they talk about something distant, cruel, unfair, terrible, incomprehensible and monetary ...

Life on Sakhalin is not easy, but strangely attractive.

At present, Sakhalin is incredibly polar and contradictory: it combines new technologies with the use of "the latest technology" and dying (more recently prosperous) cities and towns; staggering wealth and blinding ugliness of poverty; civilized enterprises and the wildness of the existence of the population; the growing urbanization of the capital of the island against the background of the degradation of the remaining few cities; dazzling romanticism and discouraging cynicism; incredible beauty of nature and equally incredible clutter; fantastic wealth and resources and the still far from prosperous state of the unique subject of our Federation.

Sakhalin is the main part of the only island region among Russians. From time to time this name fills the pages of newspapers and magazines. From time to time - Sakhalin chains the minds of adventurers. From time to time Sakhalin becomes the object of experiments. From time to time, the island experiences prosperity and, alas, the next one - decline. It has always been so. He is like that - he promises a lot, gives a lot ... Only most of the experimenters forget that he also strictly, by and large, asks ... Those who deceived his trust once, he punishes. Those who betray him, he refuses love. It seems to me that this is fair. Sakhalin is waiting for love and knows how to respond to it. He is waiting for worthy applicants, but they are still beyond the horizon ...

And the horizon near Sakhalin is everywhere!

… An island of contrasts. It's hard to get away from him. It's not easy to get used to it. It's impossible not to love him.

Elena Rashchupkina-Lopukhina

The text of the work is placed without images and formulas.
The full version of the work is available in the "Job Files" tab in PDF format

AT keeping

“Happy is he who is happy at home,” said the greatest Russian writer and philosopher L.N. Tolstoy. The family is a special world in which people of different generations live. A family should have its own traditions, its own holidays, its own hobbies, its own little secrets. In general, what unites everyone.

Our age is fast, and we, unfortunately, often forget about the past of our family. Everyone knows that a people that has no past has no future. After all, before the family was built on respect, reverence for elders, family customs and traditions. And families were strong, with their foundations. All this priceless baggage was passed down from generation to generation.

Hypothesis: if a family has a family heirloom, then such a family keeps a bright memory of their ancestors and honors the traditions of the family.

To prove or disprove the hypothesis, we decided to conduct a study aimed at examining relics in my family

Object of study: family heirloom.

Subject of study: antique jewelry balance scales that belonged to my prospecting ancestors.

Target research work: finding out the meaning of a family heirloom in preserving the memory of our ancestors, their traditions.

Tasks:

find out what a relic is;

conduct a survey among classmates;

study the history of your family associated with gold mining in the Urals;

to interest your classmates in the study of family heirlooms.

Methods research:

work with information sources and electronic resources of the World Wide Computer Network Internet;

conducting a survey of classmates and processing the results;

interviewing relatives.

As the historian Klyuchevsky O.V. wrote: “Studying our ancestors, we recognize ourselves. As the loss of memory leads to the degradation of the individual, so the oblivion of the past leads to the destruction of the historical self-consciousness of a person and society as a whole. Remembering the past, evaluating what has been done, it is important to critically analyze past decisions and actions, learn lessons for the present and future.”

Chapter 1

What is a family heirloom

A family is strong when there is only one roof over it.

Traditions are the basis of the way of a friendly, loving family. Tradition is translated as forms of activity and behavior that have developed historically and are passed down from generation to generation, and their corresponding customs, rules, and values. One of these family traditions can be the transfer of a particularly treasured and revered thing - a relic.

For the exact and correct use of the word "relic" I analyzed several sources. So, according to the explanatory dictionary of S.I. Ozhegova, relic- a thing sacredly kept as a memory of the past. In the dictionary of the Russian language D.N. Ushakov, we find the following definition:

this is a thing that is the subject of religious worship and seems miraculous to believers;

a thing that is especially revered, dear according to memories or according to traditions.

The etymology (origin) of the word "relic" begins with the Latin word relinquere which means "to stay".

T.F. Efremova in the new explanatory and derivational dictionary of the Russian language defines a relic as:

an object that has become an object of religious worship;

an object especially revered and kept as a memory of the past.

N. Abramov's dictionary of synonyms points us to the words rarity and relics.

An analysis of various sources showed that a relic is an object that carries human feelings, a piece of family history, sometimes even family secrets. By touching them, we can feel the emotions that the previous owners of this item once experienced.

For me, family heirlooms are items that are carefully kept in the same family and passed down from generation to generation. If the word re-lik-vi-ya is divided into syllables, then attention stops at the part of the syllable "lik". I turned to the explanatory dictionary of V. I. Dahl and found out that “face” in Russian means “face, image”. Therefore, it can be assumed that a family heirloom is an image of a family. Probably, every family has its own family heirlooms that can tell a lot of interesting things.

1.2. Relics through the eyes of modern youth

Young man - young and thoughts

Any thing, object that existed in the family for at least two generations is a family heirloom. The relic is a witness to the life of the family, the memory of close relatives. It helps to understand that a person’s life is endless if descendants remember it, allows you to touch the history of the family and feel that it is close to us, that it also affects our life, affects everything that happens today.

Not only in the history of our Fatherland, but also in the life of every person, individual family, school and city, various events take place - large and small, simple and heroic, joyful and sad. For their own memory, people write diaries and memoirs, keep letters and photographs, some things, sometimes keep in their memory amazing stories related to their personal lives, family past.

We decided to find out if the guys in our class have family heirlooms? To do this, we conducted a survey on the following questions:

What we call "relic". Explain the term in your own words.

Does your family have antiques?

What is considered a family heirloom in your family? Give examples

Do you know the history of memorabilia in your family? Will you tell it to your descendants?

Is it necessary to preserve the old things of fathers and grandfathers? If yes, then why?

29 people took part in the survey. After analyzing the results of the questionnaire, we obtained the following results:

The answers of 6B grade students who know memorabilia in their family can be divided into the following groups:

An analysis of the results obtained shows that not all the guys in the class know what a family heirloom is. Not all classmates are familiar with the history of their family, but almost everyone (except for two people) wants to be part of family history, to be an intermediary between the past and the future.

. Why do we keep relics?

Whoever needs someone, that one is remembered

Memory and knowledge of the past make our world more interesting and significant. That is why it is so important to preserve cultural memory, folk memory, family memory. In order not to be forgetful, ungrateful, incapable of good deeds, today we turn to family heirlooms.

We asked our classmates: “Is it necessary to preserve the old things of fathers and grandfathers! If yes, then why? Only two people out of 29 answered that no, the new generation does not need old memorabilia. The rest of the guys - 93%, believe that such things are worthy of respect and respect. They used the following phrases in their responses:

Memory of family and ancestors - 60%;

Value - 11%;

Pride - 15%;

Interesting - 14%.

After analyzing the answers of the guys, we came to the conclusion that the memory of our ancestors is not a whim or a tribute to fashion. It is a natural need to stick to one's pedigree, protect family heirlooms, traditions, and pass them on to the next generations. Those who refuse or neglect historical memory were contemptuously called "a person without a clan-tribe." So, from generation to generation, there was a close relationship. Parents not only tried to pass on the skills of work and behavior to their children, but also left a good memory of themselves. It is no coincidence that V.A. Sukhomlinsky in his letter to his son writes, quoting the lines of his father’s letter: “…Remember who you are and where you came from. Remember how difficult this bread is to get. Remember that your grandfather, my father Omelko Sukhomlin, was a serf and died behind a plow in the field. Never forget about the folk root ... ".

Chapter 2

2.1. History of development and mining of gold in Shural

Gold is known in fire, and man in labor

In 1716, an ironworks was founded in the Nevyansk region on the Shural River. It was founded by Akinfiy Nikitich Demidov - Russian entrepreneur from the dynasty Demidov, son of Nikita Demidov , founder of the mining industry on Ural. These lands were granted to him by Peter the Great himself, so the activity here developed rapidly.

The origin of the name of the village Shurala is interesting. According to legend, in the swampy forests of Shuraly there was a swamp goblin, which the Tatars living here called "shurale", hence the name of the village came from. According to another version, when Nikita Demidov arrived in these parts, he met a local old man on the river. To Demidov's question - "Where does the river flow from?" - the old man answered, lisping - "Sh of the Urals."

For the first time, people started talking about gold in our area since 1763. It was then that the first research work and exploration of the "gold ore" began.

In 1819, a gold rush began on the Neiva, and soon it reached the Shuralka River. The largest gold-bearing deposits in the region were found here. Shurala used to be an ordinary industrial settlement, but it became Zlatnitsa, which gave the country tons of precious metal.

This is how Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak described this production: “Gold fields stretched almost continuously along the sides of the road and picturesque groups of miners, gold washing machines, deep workings, yellowed dumps of washed sands and, in general, a complete picture of the area covered by the gold rush. Rudyanka and the Shuralinsky plant especially stood out - in the latter a pond was even lowered to work out gold at its bottom.

Before the October Revolution, 12 mines were built within the district of the Shuralinsky office. The richest of them is Shuralinsky 1.

The work was carried out by open and underground methods, sometimes with the use of steam drainage. Underground work was carried out at a depth of 20-25 meters. In the winter season, sands were mined to the surface by an underground method at some mines, and peat was uncovered at other mines. The population was employed in these works all year round. The owners of the mines developed the largest land areas with a rich gold content. The greatest development of work was achieved in the area adjacent to the city of Nevyansk within a radius of 10-15 km.

A characteristic feature of the organization of the mining business was the use, along with centralized "master's" work at the largest, richest mines, of the so-called "mining work".

2.2. Memories of my forefathers

Trouble comes in pounds, and leaves in spools

The magic word gold has been inextricably linked with the village of Shurala for many years. If you ask a Shuralin about his ancestors, he will surely remember a gold miner among them, and more than one.

Gold, cunningly hidden in the ground, attracted dozens, hundreds of simple hard workers. Did it give them good, did it bring great benefits? After all, it has always been the case that the profit was received not by the one who dug in the ground, but by the one who bought this gold. Not for nothing that on the other side of the Earth, Mark Twain once wrote: “I once worked in gold mines and I know everything about gold mining, except for only one thing: how to make money there ...”

From my grandmother Valentina Pankova, I managed to learn that my great-great-grandmother Olga Nikolaevna Konovalova (07/24/1883-04/30/1956) and great-great-grandfather Ivan Nikolaevich (09/27/1870-02/18/1965) got married in 1902.

Olga Nikolaevna was an adopted daughter in the Novgorodtsev family, her father was a well-known in the city of Nevyansk - a chebotar (shoemaker). The young wife moved to live with her husband's family in the village of Obzhorino, Nevyansk district, which was a prosperous village at that time. The husband's family worked in the mine, washing gold. And the young wife was attracted to these works.

These works were carried out by small, usually family artels of workers. It was allowed to mine gold on the terms of the obligatory delivery of the metal to the mining office at a fixed, predetermined price.

Everyone was engaged in diligence, from small to large. Gold was mined with hard work: a wooden trough was placed on the river bank, sand was poured, men pumped water with a hand pump (mazhert), and women and children washed the sand in the trough. After that, they were calcined in a ladle in a Dutch woman and waited for it to sparkle, the remaining sand was thrown out, and the gold remained.

Of all the tools needed by a prospector, miniature scales have been preserved in my family to this day, they were necessary for weighing the golden sand, there is no way without it. After weighing, the sand was exchanged in Nevyansk at the Torgsin store for "bonds" - long sheets of stamped paper, they could buy fabric, flour, cereals, etc.

Families in those days were large, and our family was no exception - Ivan and Olga had 5 children (4 sons and a daughter), of which Viktor, my great-grandfather, was born in 1911.

In 1938, Victor married Olga Baranova, a native of the village of Shurala, and, as was customary, brought her to her parents' house in the village of Obzhorino. From the stories of my grandmother Alevtina (daughter of Victor and Olga), I know that great-grandmother Olya was taught the work of a prospector in her husband's family. Gold was mined with hard work. We went to work at the mine on foot from the village of Obzhorino to Kapotino (near the city of Kirovgrad), approximately 15 km one way, in cold and heat.

Just in the period being described, in 1937, the gold and platinum industry of the region was on the rise. The volume of exploration work has increased, new deposits have been discovered. Orders were also issued on the widespread development of artisanal work. The artisanal miners were granted tax incentives. The search departments were obliged to provide them with explored deposits, equipment and technical assistance for work. The young country needed gold like air!

By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Viktor and Olga already had two small children, the third was born in January 1942. Great-grandfather Vitya was taken to the War in 1941, and great-grandmother Olya, pregnant, stayed with her young children and her husband's elderly parents in the village of Obzhorino.

Many people who survived the horrors of the war did not like to remember this, many information and interesting facts were forgotten. But here's what I found out:

In the Great Patriotic War, it was not easy for everyone to survive, this fate did not bypass our family. In the most difficult times, when food was completely running out, and there was nothing to feed the kids, great-great-grandfather Ivan went underground and took out a “gold piece” from there. Weighed her on the scales, wrote down the weight and sent her daughter-in-law (great-grandmother Olya) to exchange her for "bonds". Previously mined "gold" in the "mining work" helped the family to survive during the Great Patriotic War.

Great-grandmother Olya did not live to see my birth for 2.5 years, but from the stories of grandmother Ali I know that it was not customary to communicate in the family on the topic of “exploration”, gold, so that no one would know anything. Therefore, information about how the scales for measuring gold appeared in our family could not be found out. As, however, and many other details.

There is such a legend in our family. In the village of Obzhorino, the house of my ancestors stood on the banks of the river. Neiva, there was a well in the yard.

In 1953, the family of Viktor and Olga decided to move to the village of Shurala, because there was a kindergarten and a school for children and a railway station nearby. It was decided to sell the house in the village of Obzhorino, the buyers were from another village, and during the sale the house was rolled out and taken away. But here's the amazing thing! Everyone knew that great-great-grandfather Ivan always had "gold pieces" in the underground, and during the war years, he managed to dispose of them for the benefit of the family and leave a small reserve. But when dismantling the house, not a single grain of gold or grain of sand was found. Rumor has it that great-great-grandfather could hide the gold in the well, in the yard.

Collective gardens are now located on the site of the village, and the site on which our family home was located has not yet been built up - it has been abandoned, and it has not belonged to us for a long time. And the well in the yard still stands untouched to this day. There is no more water in it, it has dried up, overgrown, but continues to keep its secrets.

Chapter 3

3.1. The emergence and improvement of scales

Without weight, without measure, there is no faith

Scales are one of the oldest instruments invented by man. They arose and improved with the development of trade, production and science.

The first scales found by archaeologists date back to the 5th millennium BC. e., they were used in Mesopotamia. According to the ancient Egyptian "Book of the Dead", Anubis (guide to the world of the dead), at the entrance to the underworld, weighs the heart of every dead person on special scales, where the goddess of justice Maat acts as a weight. The simplest scales in the form of an equal-armed yoke with suspended cups were widely used in Ancient Babylon (2.5 thousand years BC) and Egypt (2 thousand years BC).

Sets of weights for certain weights are called weights. At that distant time, the very first system of weight units in history - the ancient Babylonian - was based on the weight of one grain of grain - a grain. Not a piece of gold, platinum, silver, but grain obtained with such difficulty and which is still the main product. Well, of course, the fact that the grains themselves were, as it were, standardized and had almost the same size and mass, played a role. Later, a system of weights made by man appeared. Measures of length and weight, as well as the shape and material of the weights, differed depending on local characteristics. For example, in Mesopotamia, weights were made of stone or bronze in the form of a pear, duck or lion. The Greeks used square or rectangular plates, round, cone-shaped, three- or polyhedral pieces of lead or bronze. The Romans used balls, cubes, round washers or prisms made of bronze, stone or lead.

comes from "zlatnik" - the name of the coin, weighing about 4.3 g, in ancient times served as a unit of weight for precious metals and stones.

Initially, this word meant a gold coin, and it is in this meaning that it is found in the agreement of 911 between the Kievan Prince Oleg and Byzantium. The concept of "spool" was also used to refer to the purity of gold. In addition, in Ancient Russia there were such measures of weight as stone, grain, belly, etc. From 1747 until the introduction of the metric system, the unit of mass in Russia was the pound.

When the Roman Empire extended its influence to the West, the Roman scales penetrated the European countries. In 996, Prince Vladimir ordered the introduction of uniform measures of weight, and in the Decree of Prince Vsevolod (XII century), the annual verification of scales was first mentioned.

In Russia, until the 15th century, the Church was the caring guardian of measures and weights. In monasteries and temples, the first caretakers for the correctness of measurements appeared. Princes Vladimir and Vsevolod instructed "bishops to observe measures and weights", and for weighing and measuring they were ordered to "execute close to death."

Tsar Ivan the Terrible generally forbade merchants to have their own weights and scales. It was allowed to use only “state” ones. Peter I, by his decree, introduced their mandatory check twice a year. During the heyday of the Russian Empire, under Peter I, was issued, in 1723, sell by weight, not by measure". This document introduced the concept of "hawk scales", i.e. certified and branded scales. It provided for liability in the form of a fine for underweight, or the use of unverified scales. And in 1736 in Russia there were exemplary measures of length, weight (mass) and other measurements were created, with which weights and other measures used in trade were necessarily compared.

In 1841, at the initiative of the Minister of Finance of Russia, a "special fireproof building" was built on the territory of the Peter and Paul Fortress - the Depot of Exemplary Weights and Measures. There, merchants were required to bring their measuring instruments for verification. Subsequently, on the initiative of D.I. Mendeleev in Russia, the Main Chamber of Weights and Measures was organized, and today it is called the Russian Research Institute of Metrology and bears the name of the great scientist. And in 1918, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR issued a decree "On the introduction of the international metric system of measures and weights", according to which the kilogram was adopted as the basis for the unit of weight.

Today, there are a wide variety of scales: household, commercial, industrial, research, jewelry, wagon, etc. Some are designed for weighing heavy objects, such as wagons, while others, research, have fantastic accuracy. Every business has its own scales.

3.2. The history of the appearance of scales in my family

Two sisters rocked, they sought the truth,

and when they got it, they stopped

A relic preserved in my family reminds me of the times of the gold rush in our country - a miniature prospector's scales. This device was necessary for weighing the golden sand. Grandma says that After weighing, gold dust was exchanged in Nevyansk in the Torgsin store for "bons" - long sheets of stamped paper, they could buy fabric, flour, cereals, etc..

According to eyewitnesses, these were the best stores in rural Russia outside of the big cities. They were always better stocked than the usual state stores in the same localities. They do not accept paper rubles, the official currency of the country, they exchange enviable goods only for gold rubles, or bonds, which in turn can only be obtained in exchange for gold.

For miners, every grain of gold was valuable, one gram - one bond. Therefore, weighing was taken very seriously. The instruction prescribed to carefully align and clean the scales from dust. It was forbidden to use coins, matches and other items as a weight, but only branded weights. The surface of the table was covered with glass, linoleum or metal sheet - materials that did not allow a single speck of gold to get stuck, and the appraiser had to work in oilcloth sleeves.

The balance consists of a horizontal arm with equal arms, called beams, and a weighing pan suspended from each arm. This construction is connected with the fact that the word "scales" is used in the plural. Gold nuggets or washed sand were stacked on one bowl, and a standard mass measure was placed on the other bowl until the beam approached the maximum possible equilibrium.

Unfortunately, I could not find a brand on the scales, the year of issue or other information about the place and time of their creation. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the original packaging of the scales has not been preserved; instead, weights, bowls and yokes are stored in an iron box on which the inscription: “Chemical powder” is read. I assume that scales appeared in my family as soon as my ancestors took up mining, i.e. at the end of the 19th century.

Since the time of gold mining, not only scales have been preserved in my family, but also other tools - trays for washing gold, a trough, scoops. These items left over from previous generations are very dear to my family. Examining and studying them, there is a sense of responsibility to the ancestors for their deeds, you feel your obligation to continue their Cause of serving the Motherland, the Fatherland, your people.

Conclusion

Exploring family heirlooms, we realized that this topic

I was able to make sure that my family is friendly and strong. We all together were researchers, chroniclers, interlocutors. Our family has a past, which means there is a future.

Our hypothesis confirmed. We proved that if a family has a family heirloom, then such a family keeps a bright memory of their ancestors and honors their traditions.

In the course of the study, the following tasks were solved:

I learned what a relic is;

Conducted a survey among classmates, processed the results and drew conclusions;

We studied the history of our family, connected with the history of gold mining in the Urals;

I interested my classmates in studying family heirlooms, after my story, even those guys who, according to the results of the survey, were not interested in the history of their kind, wanted to find at home or ask relatives about memorabilia in their family.

I am proud of my ancestors - strong, brave, hardworking people. Their life, way of life, traditions cause me great respect. I can't let their memory fade away. To do this, I will bit by bit, like golden sand, collect information about their difficult path and fate.

Bibliography

Big explanatory dictionary of the Russian language: Ideographic description. Synonyms. Antonyms / Ed. L. G. Babenko. M., 2001. - 864s.

Dal V.I. Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. Modern writing. M., 2002. - 984 p.

History of the Urals from ancient times to the present day / ed. I.S. Ogonovskaya, N.N. Popov. - Ekaterinburg: Socrates, 2004. - 495 p.

Kapustin VG Sverdlovsk region: nature, population, economy, ecology: Textbook for high school students. Nizhny Tagil, 2000. - 247 p.

Kovaleva A.E., Kovaleva G.A. Shurala - our home from the ancestors. Chronicle of the village. Nizhny Tagil, 2016. - 258 p.

Lopatin V.V., Lopatina L.E., Small Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language: Approx. 35000 words. M. 1993. - 704 p.

Mamin - Sibiryak D.N. In the Urals. Stories and essays. M., 2003 - 260 p.

Obukhov, L.A. History of the Urals XIX-XX centuries. / L.A. Obukhov, V.A. Shkerin, G.S. Shkreben. - Ekaterinburg: Socrates, 2005. - 142 p.

Pipunyrov. VN The history of scales and the weight industry in comparative historical coverage. M, 1995 - 245 p.

Sukhomlinsky V. A. Letters to the son. M.: Enlightenment, 1979. - 96 p.

Attachment 1.

Defense presentation

There lived a brother and two sisters. We lived together, you can’t spill water. Their names were Golden, Cinderella and Sister-in-law.
The spool was the smallest of them. What were they doing? Of course, gold was washed and washed in the river. In the morning they will collect all the gold from the sky and carry it to the river to wash. They will wash it clean, wipe it dry and hang it back to the sky to dry.
"What is the gold in the sky?" - you will be surprised. Well, the stars and the moon. After all, this is real gold.
With the stars, they certainly were easily controlled. They will put a ladder up to the sky and collect it in a basket, just like a cherry. By dawn, they usually had time to collect everything.
But with the moon it was more difficult. She is big, heavy, like a watermelon. It was not always possible to remove it from the sky. Especially when there are a lot of stars. They used to leave the moon hanging in the sky until the next morning. Yes, you yourself probably saw the moon during the day.
And washing Luna was harder. She was always washed last, and there was no time left. Therefore, the stains remained on it.
All this terribly displeased Zolotnik. Once he came up with the idea of ​​the first to remove the moon from the sky. To finally wash it cleaner and take on the stars.
They put a ladder to the sky and began to shoot the moon. They filmed for a long time, they got tired completely. They finally took off the moon and the sister-in-law rolled her to the river to soak in the water. She rolled over and splashed her into the water. It immediately became dark. The moon is no longer shining in the water!
And Zolotnik was standing on the stairs. He stood there and saw nothing. Only stars around. And what's the point of them? It's still dark.
He got scared. Suddenly he falls down the stairs in the dark, what then? Who will shoot gold from the sky? The sisters don't know how to climb stairs.
He shouts to the sister-in-law, “Bring Luna back as soon as possible, I don’t see anything!”
And the moon floats in the water! The sister-in-law tried to pull her out of the water, but nothing happened. The moon got wet in the water and became heavy! And slippery too! We need to take the three out.
And Cinderella is holding the ladder so that she does not fall. The spool cannot go down either, because it is dark to go down, you can fall.
So they stood until dawn: Zolotnik - on the stairs, Cinderella - under the stairs, and the sister-in-law with the Moon - in the river.
The sun has finally risen. Zolotnik was so tired of standing on the stairs that he could no longer shoot the stars. He went down a little alive and his sisters carried him home. All day they took care of him, so that he would quickly recover.
And the moon remained unwashed.
People went outside that day and saw all the stars in the sky! They were so happy! Just like children - new toys. Nobody has ever seen the stars before. Everyone slept at night and did not look at the sky.
Therefore, no one went to work that day, everyone took the children and went to the mountain to take a closer look at the stars. That was great!
By evening, Zolotnik recovered and, together with his sisters, got the moon out of the river. They took her up to heaven and hung her in her place. And in the morning they began to take gold from the sky again. Only now in order - first the stars were all removed, and then the moon.
That's what they've been doing ever since. They, as before, do not have time to wash the moon to the end. Therefore, you can notice spots on it. But still, she is the most beautiful in the sky and shines brighter than all the stars!
And people liked to look at the stars so much that they began to do it at night too. They even invented binoculars and telescopes for this purpose. To see the stars better. That's just about the fact that all this happened thanks to Zolotnik, no one remembers.
But we know that!

Sanka Polimonov was short... even very small - about 160 cm, from the lower border. He was the shortest cadet in the 45th class department and looked very comical against the background of the "thugs" with a height of 1 meter 80. Sanka was the smallest of the 144 cadets in the entire 4th company. And, probably, the smallest in the entire 1st training battalion. And maybe even the smallest in the entire Air Force School ... or even in the entire Air Force?!

Polimosha was a rather slender young man - puny with graceful arms and a leg size worthy of the fairy-tale Cinderella. His boots were so small that warehouse ensigns were looking for them for more than one day, shoveling a couple of thousand pairs until they found the 36th size! And cadet Polimonov ate like Thumbelina - a couple of grains of rice a day. And there was not enough blood in his body, he almost fainted! (see "Vampires") And his heart was also probably very small - in proportion to his skinny carcass. And the name of the cadet Polimonov in everyday life was exclusively diminutive - Polimosha. Less often, Polymon. And the attitude towards him among the cadet brethren was like a younger brother, who could not even be taken seriously! Like: "Well, what do you want, baby?"

But little Polimoshi had great love! Not just big, but huge - a prominent Ural girl who was a whole head taller than him and a little more. As the saying goes: “you can’t command your heart” and our dear Polimosha was smitten on the spot by the bright beauty and impressive size of a local beauty named Irina!

Sanka looked at the object of his adoration from the bottom up, wide-eyed and not hiding his snotty delight. And everything would be fine, but looking at your beloved girl from the bottom up is somewhat humiliating for manhood, and cadet Polimonov suffered severely on this occasion. It is understandable! Moreover, it’s not far from an inferiority complex ... Constantly looking at a woman with her head up?! You don't wish it on your enemy!

In the evenings, peering into the beautiful face of his beloved in a black and white photo, Sanka sighed heavily and was quietly sad. He was terribly jealous of all the tall guys in the company, of which there was an overwhelming majority, and with undisguised despair, he called out to the next giant.
- Well, why do you need 190 cm?! Give me 10 centimeters! To my 159 it would be just right! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

After another dismissal to the city, sophomore Sanka Polimonov seemed to have gone crazy ... Every day, when he visited the cadet canteen, he ran into the vegetable shop and filled his planchette with carrots with notes to the very eyeballs. Joking aside, Sasha devoured carrots with the fantastic performance of a huge flock of rabbits. Moreover, Polimosha hung on the horizontal bar for hours, tying heavy pancakes from the barbell to his lower back. After a couple of weeks, he turned to us with an unexpected request.
- Guys, help me grow up!

Good-natured Lelik skeptically looked at Polymon, greedily gnawing another carrot and theatrically touched his forehead to determine the high temperature.
- What else did you invent, Sasha? Has it overheated? And in general, you are kind of obsessed! Head is not weakened?
- Guys, I want to get married!

Under the friendly laughter of shameless cadets' throats, Lelik gives out another tirade.
- Get married! Who doesn't give you?! Only, mind you not on me, I have a girlfriend in Kyiv! Garny black-eyed dark-skinned girl! I'm sorry dear, but my heart is hopelessly busy! They got to the Hoof, his heart was once again shattered, maybe he will reciprocate?! Or at least caress!
- You should scoff at everything, but I have a tragedy! Irishka is a head taller than me...
- So what?! Everyone is equal in bed!
- So the OK in bed?! And how to walk the streets together! She will be ashamed of me!
- If he is shy, then he does not love! You will find another ... The Lilliputian circus has arrived in the city, such beauties are drawn on the poster ...
- I don't want another! I don't want a midget! I love Iruka!
- Well, tody, oh! What do you need?!
- Guys, pull me out!
- What?
- I hang on the horizontal bar as much as I can, but my fingers get tired quickly and unbend! Can't take long! If my hands are tied to the back of the bed, and you pull on my legs, then I can grow up ... So, I eat carrots regularly! Vitamin A is the growth vitamin! I've grinded it off so much that I'm already shitting with one carrot ...
- BUT?! I see… come on!

The personnel of the 45th class department gathered in the dormitory for a free performance. Asking for help? Why not?! Let's help! Sanya's hands were tightly tied to the metal headboard with waffle towels, and two strong guys took hold of his legs, and the process began ...

As soon as Lelik Ponomarev and Fedya Mirzaliev pulled Polimosha by the legs, he squealed like an uncut pig. The frightened guys loosened their grip, but the stubborn one, having stopped squealing in pain, demanded to continue the stretching procedure. OK! Let's go further! ... yelling again! And so many times in a row! Pull - yell! You stop pulling - you need to continue! The circus!

And laughter and sin, but we conscientiously pulled Sanka for a couple of weeks every evening before going to bed. Polimoshi's pulling proceru has become a kind of traditional occurrence for the coming sleep. Then we got a little fed up with it ... Moreover, we were afraid of harming the health of our friend. Is Mali? Stretching the spine? HZ!

As a result of our joint efforts, soon Sanka's body stretched out, and somewhat disproportionately in relation to the limbs. But the legs remained pristinely short. Having received such a somewhat unexpected result and after consulting on self-training, we decided to stop all medical experiments on our friend. And then, some kind of freak turns out!

Left without support, the stubborn Polimos continued his regular hanging on the bar on his own. Every free minute, while all the cadets lazily fell on the bunk or ran for a smoke break, Sanka Polimonov jumped on the horizontal bar and stupidly hung to the point of complete insanity and exhaustion, to cramps in tired hands and numb fingers ... That's what love brings !!! Horror!

After such exercises, Sasha's arms stretched out almost below the knees. And he began to resemble a disproportionate monkey with long arms and torso, but with very short legs ... Laughter, and nothing more!

In fairness, it should be noted that Polymon grew by about 2.5 cm, which he was very proud of. Every evening he stood by the wall of the barracks, where marks of "old" and "new" height were marked with a thin pencil. It is ridiculous to think, but the 2.5 cm of “increase” obtained in this way warmed the soul of Polymon and instilled in his heart a trembling hope for reciprocity from the prominent and stately Irishka.

The moment of truth has come - Polimosha, visibly worried, went on another dismissal to the city to propose to his beloved ...

He returned gloomier than clouds and on the verge of despair. The guys pestered with questions ... On the one hand, Irina confessed her love for Sasha, but asked for time to think. And Polimoshka stopped living, eating and drinking, and began to breathe every other time ... He was consoled and encouraged as best they could.
- If you don’t immediately refuse, then everything will be fine! The women love how they love to mock the guys! It's in their blood! Say what you like, but Irinka is a prominent mare, and even with a temper, but you hold on too! Bring on the style, you’re some kind of man, and this is the main thing! Don't call, wait...

Having withstood the "traditional" pause, Irina nevertheless agreed. Polymon glowed with delight and without a doubt at that moment was the happiest person in the world. Still would! Grabbed such a prominent beauty!

At the merry wedding, almost all of the 45th department walked. The bride was charmingly beautiful, graceful, slender and miraculously good. A white dress and an airy veil emphasized the volume and weight of the wealth that Sanka Polimonov grabbed. And although Irishka put on low-heeled shoes, she was still a whole head taller than her fiancé. Nevertheless, despite the striking difference in height, the guys were frankly happy! They just glowed with joy, and it was clearly evident!

To be honest, at his own wedding, Polimosha was a little lost against the background of his guests - the giants of the cadets, but these are such trifles !!! In every possible way we showed to everyone and everyone that, despite the flimsy physique, Sanka Polimonov, among the thugs and giants surrounding him, enjoys great respect and indisputable authority. How else?!

After the allotted time, Sanka and Irishka had a son and Polimon became the first dad in the 4th company. In order to raise his social status and personal self-esteem to sky-high heights, all the guys in our 45th squad, and then the entire 4th company, began to call him exclusively: "Father." The nickname "Polymon" gradually faded away. "Father!" …and that's it.

Naturally, we unanimously played along with Sanka, and our respectful attitude was somewhat ostentatious and theatrical and picturesque, but the frankly happy Polimosha blew out his cheeks solidly and held his back importantly. From the side it was very noticeable that he was bursting with pride.
To be honest, our respect for little Polimosha was absolutely sincere, because. none of us had children of our own yet and we had no idea what it was to be a FATHER?! And in the very last line of our 4th company there was a real “Father”, ... small and frail, but - FATHER!