How We Lived During the War

The film tells about the fate of women from the villages of the Penza region. Old women collective farmers share their memories of the war years, the creation of collective farms and the struggle against religion, the difficult post-war life on collective farms, as well as their attitude to perestroika. 1 part. Residents of the villages of the Gorodishchensky district of the Penza region: Alexandrovka, Gryaznukha, Nakhalovka, Pavlovo-Kurakino - baba Katya Kolbasina, baba Sanya Kostina, aunt Orisha Yegorova, Anna Alatova, Akulina Vasilievna, Dusya Novikova share their memories (sync.) Soviet power was established, as they worked on a collective farm for workdays, without even receiving bread, which there was nowhere to buy. Working like horses, they received a mixture of wheat, oats and vetch for their work in 1939. One of the women recalls (sinhr.) That when she walked past the bakery, she inhaled the smell of baked bread and dreamed of the time when she could eat enough bread. Another woman says (sinhr.) How people celebrated Victory Day, waited for their relatives from the front, but they did not have a holiday in their family, because there was no one to wait. Women talk about how they lost their relatives in the war. A group of women are sitting on a bench in the yard. The girl plays with the dog. View of the house against the backdrop of the rural landscape. Panorama of the village. General view of the rural cemetery (behind the scenes, the local village teacher Inna Danilova sings her songs "Oh you, tears, my tears", "I am not here"). The funeral procession goes along the road, trucks and cars pass by. Women gathered in one of the rural houses stand in front of the icon. Off-screen, a female voice pronounces the words of the memorial prayer, listing the names of the deceased residents of the village. Part 2. Women from the villages of the Gorodishchensky district of the Penza region share their memories (sync.): They talk about high taxes, about loans, for which they had to subscribe. A resident of one of the villages - a lonely old woman sits on the porch of her dilapidated house, stands at the gate with a stick. This woman lost all her sons and her husband in the war. Close-up of weary female hands. A woman sits at a table in a room, portraits of her dead sons on the wall (behind the scenes, a song performed by Yaroslav Evdokimov “Vienna remembers, they remember the Alps and Danube…” is played). Residents of one of the villages at the monument to Soviet soldiers who died in the war on Victory Day - May 9. View of another village. A column of schoolchildren with a wreath go to the memorial on the village square, dedicated to the villagers who died on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. The pioneers are on guard of honor. Memorial plaques with the names of the victims on the concrete walls of the memorial. Schoolchildren are laying a wreath, an elderly woman is laying flowers, war veterans are standing. The rain has settled on the street. The street, soggy from the rain, sat down. A woman, drowning in mud, makes her way to a village store. A group of children at the porch of the store. Posters with the names of films on the wall of the store. Shop premises. A man walks into a store. A panorama of the shelves with products, on which there are 3-liter cans of tomatoes, cucumbers, cans of canned fish "Sardina" (1p.02 kopecks), "Stavrida" (63 kopecks), drying, caramel. The shop assistant releases the goods, the old women stand in line. The fish is on the scales. Festive festivities in the village. The drunken men are dancing (ditties sound behind the scenes, the button accordion is playing), the women are dancing in a circle, the girl is playing the button accordion (sinhr.). Women share their memories of the war, post-war life (sinhr.). A young woman carries twins in a stroller. One of the women shares her thoughts that there are no such products as sugar, sweets on free sale, everything is issued at the rate, but is 1 kg of sugar enough for a month? Laundry detergent and soap disappeared. “Everything went into perestroika,” she says (sinhr.). A woman with a baby in her arms is walking along a rural street, a man is walking nearby. Part 3. One of the heroines of the film - an elderly villager pulls out sprouted potatoes from the underground with buckets. A large pile of potatoes on the floor in the kitchen of a rural house. Another of the women sits at a table in the room (a woman's voice sounds off-screen, reading the words of the memorial prayer). Another villager sits in the courtyard, talks about herself, about her life, about how the church in a neighboring village was protected from destruction at Epiphany, as well as about how her father-in-law was even wounded, but she did not go that evening, stayed at home with a child (sync.). Women share their memories of the persecution of religion by local village communist leaders (sinhr.). For example, a certain Zudilov, the chairman of the village council, scolded for wearing a cross, for reading the Gospel, for singing psalms on Easter. But despite this, says one of the women, “we walked along the road and sang.” The stacker is working in the field. A group of male collective farmers relax in the shade of trees at the edge of a field where a stacker is working. Residents of villages - elderly women share their thoughts on restructuring (sync.): They say that it is not known what it will lead to. One of the women says (sinhr.) That when the collective farms were created, no one knew what it was either. At first, there was nowhere to buy bread, but the collective farm did not give it. Another woman speaks out about the perestroika processes in the country (sinhr.), Says that it is necessary to rebuild the entire collective farm administration, half of the board workers must be driven with a broom. All should be sent to work in the field. An elderly woman sits on a bench in the yard. View of a rural cemetery. Children run through the woods. A little boy stands at the wheels of a large truck. General view of the village, country road. Rural landscape: meadows. Coppices. A young woman is driving a stroller with twin children along a rural street (off-screen female voices are singing a Russian folk song). A group of young villagers on the street. Monument to V.I. Lenin on the village square. Panorama from the monument to the village. Elderly residents of the village are sitting in the street. View of an empty pedestal from the monument to V.I. Lenin. A little boy leads an old blind grandmother by the wand, brings her to a group of women. An old grandmother and a baby are sitting on a log. A flock of sheep is walking through the village.

B&W

3

sound operator I. Nifonova, editor Robinova