The Man of God
By Alexandr Piatkov
Pre-revolutionary Russia was a country of independent artisans and sole
craftsmen. Every carpenter, coppersmith, stove-maker, cabman, cook, milkmaid, and
greenrocer had their own livelihood. Manual labor was abundant, and it sustained
countless workers. There was even a practice where a man would be hired for the
winter to sew sheepskin coats for the entire family, living in the clients' log
cottage until the work was finished. Every peasant household was self-sufficient
enough to sustain life. The population grew, new lands were settled, yet the old
ones were never abandoned. The country was a living organism, and its peoples and
ethnic groups were integral parts of ecosystems and symbiotic relationships.
In the post-war era, only the very elderly remained independent workers, and they
were certainly not seen as role models. All life became centered around
manufacturing, factories, collective farms, and construction sites. Almost
everything needed was produced domestically or, at the very least, imported from
the Socialist Bloc. However, industrial production drew the masses away from
rural areas and small towns, where life had to be maintained by artificial means.
Under the planned economy, production was never supposed to decline; only growth
was demanded. Enterprises were assigned quotas, resources were allocated, goods
were manufactured, people were somehow fed, and a flicker of life remained
everywhere.
In the era of globalization, it was not just the "Rust Belt"—which brought Trump
to power—that was left behind, but also a vast number of villages, settlements,
and small towns whose existence had been sustained by industries that became
obsolete. Today, the only reminders of the old craftsmen are the carved cornices
of aging houses, while the industrial era is echoed by the empty window sockets
of multi-story buildings in abandoned towns. Manufacturing in warm, densely
populated countries is simply cheaper. New industrial zones have stretched along
the shores of ice-free seas rather than in deep forests at the heart of the
continent.
People blame private owners for the collapse of industry, believing that if the
planned economy had been preserved, life would not have changed. But life has
changed globally: all fur coats are now sewn in the tropics, and snowmobiles are
assembled there too. The world created by the Almighty, where there was enough
work for everyone, no longer exists. The old days are remembered only by a lone
stone on the riverbank where, according to legend, Righteous Simeon used to fish—
the very man who once traveled from cottage to cottage, sewing sheepskin coats.
Original text in Russian:
http://proza.ru/2017/01/22/1381
German translation:
http://proza.ru/2026/11/11/1437
Original publication: proza.ru/2017/01/22/1381
Publication Certificate No. 217012201381
Source text: proza.ru/avtor/alexanderan
Author: Alexandr Piatkov
© Copyright: Александр Пятков, 2017
Translation version: AI Translator (GPT-4o), November 2026