Where the left-hander lived. Every fifth genius is left-handed

Even from school, many people know the entertaining story of Nikolai Leskov about the glorious master Lefty, who was able to shoe a flea. The exact title of this work is "The Tale of the Tula scythe Lefty and the steel flea." The shod flea became a microminiature of the remarkable master of the 20th century Nikolai Aldunin. Of course, the craftsman was inspired to such work was the creation of Nikolai Leskov.

How Lefty Shod a Flea

The Tula region has long been famous for its arms business. So the legend about the blacksmith Levsha glorifies the Tula craftsmen. The plot of Leskov's story mixes real events with fictional ones. The legend takes place around 1815. Once, making a trip to Europe, Emperor Alexander I dropped in to England. There he was able to observe various curiosities, among which there was a dancing steel flea. The tsar bought a curiosity and brought it to Russia.

Several years passed, the emperor died, and Nicholas I ascended the throne. To explain the essence of the overseas miracle, the Don Cossack Platov, who had once accompanied Alexander I on a European tour, was invited to the door. So Platov said that Russian architects can make a creation no worse than the British.

After that, Platov was instructed by the sovereign to visit the Tula craftsmen and interest them in creating his curiosity in response to the British. Among the three craftsmen was a blacksmith nicknamed Lefty. Platov gave the flea to the masters and asked them to create something unusual.

What did the Tula craftsmen come up with? After a while, it turned out that they were able to shoe each flea's leg with small horseshoes. The Emperor was able to verify this with the help of a "small scope".

Everyone in the palace was delighted, and Lefty was awarded a trip to Europe. He had to deliver his creation to England and demonstrate the skill of the craftsmen from the Tula region. So it became a symbol of the Tula region. The fate of Lefty was tragic, he soon died after drinking too much.

Lefty prototypes

There is a version that there was no such blacksmith from Tula. There is no evidence that such a savvy flea existed. Most likely, this version was invented by the people themselves. But some scholars believe that Lefty had prototypes.

At the end of the 18th century, in fact, two blacksmiths from Tula were recommended by Prince Potemkin to England. They were Yakov Leontiev and Alexey Surnin. They had to learn how to make exquisite metal crafts. As a result, they mastered the art of making weapons. Alexey Surnin left seven years later for Russia and was able to introduce his knowledge into the arms business. The fact that the Tula masters were in England really was, and the writer came up with the image of the Lefty himself.

Brief information about Sergei Nikolaevich Aldunin

Today, the savvy flea really exists, and with it there are many other masterpieces in the form of microminiatures. The author of these creations is Nikolai Sergeevich Aldunin (1956). He was a native of the Voroshilovgrad region and lived a very short life. Nikolai Sergeevich died at the age of 53. First of all, he was remembered as a flea-shod master.

Since childhood, he was interested in metals and metal products. He had the practical skills of a locksmith, a turner, and mastered the secrets of metalworking. Most of all, he was remembered for his microminiatures made under a microscope. Today the master is no longer alive, he lived only 53 years, died in 2009.

Work on the famous miktominatura

Once he got the idea to prove that Leskov's glorification of the Tula masters was not in vain. Aldunin decided to shoe a flea. Preparation for work lasted two years, and the microminiature itself was prepared for three months. Everything was done under a microscope. The master worked mainly at night. First he made horseshoes, then carnations. As a result, the master shod with these carnations. Aldunin performed each of his actions between heartbeats. This is how the savvy flea turned out. A photo of the microminiature can be seen below.

What can you see in this image? Before the audience is a tiny dried flea with six legs, four of which are shod with golden horseshoes. The weight of one such shoe is only 0.00000004419 g.

Other works of the craftsman

After the successful work with the flea, Aldunin decided to devote himself entirely to working with small miniatures. One of them is called the Camel Caravan. It is made of gold in the eye of a needle. Under the microscope, you can see a caravan of seven camels and three palm trees.

The work "Tula Samovar" is a real masterpiece. This is a small samovar on a needle. It consists of 12 parts and has a height of 1.2 mm.

Nikolai Sergeevich was able to make several miniatures on rice grains. So he engraved a portrait of A. Pushkin, N. V. Gogol, L. N. Tolstoy, two wedding rings and the inscription "Advice and Love" in gold.

Several more work was done on the cut of the apple grain. One of these products is the Ostankino TV Tower. The masterpiece is a small model of a tank made of gold. Also, Aldunin was able to make a Russian ruble with a size of only 0.88 mm.

The master's plans were to create a metal flea so that it would dance a square dance to the song "Tula has forged weapons for centuries." But, unfortunately, he did not have time to carry out his plan.

Sergei Nikolaevich believed that creating miniatures requires a special philosophy and psychology. Beauty and grace were in the first place in the execution of his work. Harmony and love for oneself, the world, good mood are the key to the success of a famous craftsman.

Where is the shod flea kept?

Since the main craft of the master glorified Tula and this region, it is there that the shod flea is kept. In the Museum of Weapons in the Tula Kremlin, it was kept for many years. Many were able to observe a small miracle under a microscope. Now the microminiature is kept in the old Tula pharmacy.

Famous craftsmen

Today in Russia there are several craftsmen who revive folk traditions and embody incredible legends in reality.

Master Yuri Deulin lives in Yekaterinburg. Making unusual products has become his dream since childhood. As a schoolboy, Yura was able to carve a balalaika out of bone, to which strings were even attached. The guy's product was placed in the school museum. Today Yuri has become a professional craftsman. Unique and original exhibits come out of his hands.

One of his works is "The Statue of Liberty", which fits in the eye of a needle. The craftsman was able to make portraits of celebrities (Peter I, Pope) only 1 mm in size. Deulin made a small copy of the Faberge egg. A sensational piece is a black pearl box that can hold a 3.7 mm long car.

The microminiature also captivated the artist and architect from Omsk Anatoly Konenko. He also began his work by shoeing a flea. Today the master already stores a whole collection of his products. Among them is a small grasshopper playing the violin. The train moving along the railway is unique (the composition is placed on a human hair).

The craftsman from Siberia Vladimir Aniskin can boast of amazing products. His works are simply captivating. On a cut of a poppy seed, he managed to make an airfield, on which he placed 20 aircraft. In his arsenal there is also a shod flea made of steel and platinum.

Master Dmitry Igumnov lives in Yaroslavl. He managed to shoe a mouse. In his collection there is a small frying pan with a diameter of 1 cm, on which you can bake pancakes.

Russia has not forgotten about its talented craftsmen; in St. Petersburg, a museum of microminiature "Russian Lefty" has been opened. Visitors can view the wonderful exhibits with magnifying devices.

Lefty Book of Records

The writer N. Leskov created a wonderful image of Lefty as an exponent of the national character. This name has already become a household name and symbolizes enterprising Russian people with a special grasp, always achieving their goal. It is not for nothing that Russia has created a Book of Records called "Levsha". Famous people who glorified the country in certain areas of life fall into it.

No wonder one of the news portals in Tula is called "Bloha info". “Be savvy” is the motto of this site, where the most interesting Tula news are posted.

The left-handed mystery is one of the most talked about and still the most mysterious. It is a mystery, because, despite many years of research, the number of unresolved questions here is an order of magnitude greater than the answers already received. Moreover, new findings and discoveries give rise to more and more new questions.

Lefties make up from 5 to 15% of the human population. The most common are the so-called genetic left-handed. Scientists at Oxford University have discovered the gene LRRTM1, which sets the "rules" for the work of the right and left hemispheres of the brain. This explains the fact that left-handedness is 10 to 12 times more common in families in which at least one of the parents is left-handed. Genetic left-handers may not have any developmental disorders, then this is considered an individual peculiarity, a variant of normal development.

There are other theories as well. For example, lefties are freaks., deviation from the norm. They need to be retrained. Left-handedness is a disease, like six-fingeredness, it is inherited - it must be eradicated.

Lefties are members of an elected caste. As nature gives birth to genius, so the left-hander was born on 1000 right-handers. The supreme caste cannot be numerous; there must be fewer governors. Therefore, left-handers are much smaller than right-handers.

Previously, there was an equal number of left-handers and right-handers in nature, Such games of evolution seem to be confirmed by the finds of archaeologists. The right-handed tribe, as the most intelligent and powerful, won and settled, adjusting the world and, naturally, the instrument for themselves. Since then, left-handed people have survived only the strongest and smartest warriors and leaders. And, perhaps, the most incredible and interesting theory - " Parallel world." Once upon a time, an expedition from a parallel universe visited our planet. Our ancestors perceived them as gods who descended from the sky. Later, earthly women gave birth to children from these "gods". Almost all brilliant people in distant relatives have aliens from "mirror space". "

What happened just recently ...

Earlier, in Soviet times (until 1985) and back in the Renaissance, children who took a pen in their left hand were retrained and forced to write with their right hand. This kind of violence against children, especially those with a pronounced dominance of the left hand, can lead to developmental delays, mental abnormalities and other negative phenomena, since the impact goes against the laws of human nature. There are enough examples when a person with the inclinations of extraordinary abilities (left-handed), when retraining him to work with his right hand, lost all these abilities, extinguishing the "divine spark". There are studies proving that if you return to your nature and start writing and generally doing everything with your left hand, then all acquired diseases pass, and a person becomes able to creatively realize himself. Scientists from the University of London School of Medicine believe that: "The growth in the number of left-handers can lead to a corresponding rise in the general intellectual level of society and even to the emergence of real geniuses in the field of mathematics, art and sports." The United States is sometimes called the country of left-handers. Despite the fact that there are only about 30% of left-handers in the United States, in colleges, left-handers make up more than 50% of students. And the US presidents are generally a separate conversation.

…And how long

Lefties have existed throughout the history of mankind. And in different periods, the attitude towards them was ambiguous. In ancient Rome, left-handed in Latin was referred to as "sinister", which translates as "evil" (right-handed "dexter" - good, skill). In ancient Greece, on the contrary, it was believed that the left-handed person brings happiness. Some Hindus thought the same, and almost so the Chinese. The ancient Germans, seeing the ineptitude in the treatment of left-handers with tools and weapons, called them simply clumsy. This is how the word "left-handed" is literally translated from German. As, however, and from many other languages. The medieval Inquisition considered all left-handed people to be a fiend of evil. No wonder from many treatises of the Middle Ages one can learn that the Devil is left-handed. Left-handers were exterminated. It was at this time that the percentage of left-handed people in the population fell sharply.
Still, they survived.

Celebrities left-handed

Among them are politicians and generals(Guy Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Alexander the Great, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Tiberius, Winston Churchill, Jeanne D "Ark, George Bush Sr., President Ford, Colleen Powell, Otto Bismarck, Fidel Castro, Mahatma Gandhi, Benjamin Velikiyahu , Queen Victoria). Scientists and businessmen(Albert, Leonardo da Vinci, Jack the Ripper, Garry Kasparov, Neil Armstrong (astronaut), Henry Ford, Bill Gates, Rockefellers, physiologist Pavlov, Isaac Newton). Painters(Michelangelo, Pablo Picasso, Albrecht Durer, Auguste Rodin, Peter Paul Rubens, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec). Actors(Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe, Greta Garbo, Anton Kamolov, Jim Carrey, Tom Cruise, Robert De Niro, David Duchovny, Angelina Jolie, Mila Jovovich, Nicole Kidman, Julia Roberts, Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, Drew Barrymore, Whoopi Goldberg, Demmy Moor). Musicians (McCartney, Paganini, Beethoven, Robert Schumann, David Bowie, Enrique Caruso, Kurt Cobain, Phil Collins, Celine Dion, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Ricky Martin, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Sting, Eminem, George Michael). Writers and philosophers(Hans Christian Andersen, Friedrich Nietzsche, Lewis Carroll, Aristotle, Nikolai Leskov, Vladimir Dahl, Mark Twain, HG Wells, Franz Kafka, James Cameron).

And many, many others ...

A habit of inconvenience

Left-handers are forced to adapt and are used to it, therefore, as a result, they can find a way out better and faster than right-handers, adapt to any conditions - after all, they have to do this from childhood.

Judge for yourself: left-handers have to develop a second hand, even if they are not forced, as before, to write with their right. A computer mouse, doors that open completely inconveniently for left-handers, public transport is also designed for right-handers, as well as household tools - for example, a corkscrew, can openers. You can enumerate endlessly, but left-handers no longer pay attention to it - they have adapted.

But there are tools that are made for right-handers and right-handers that are extremely difficult, if not impossible, to use for left-handers. For example, scissors are a huge problem; further - an old-style can opener, often locksmith tools (saws, knives, drills, especially electric ones) and so on. The easiest way out for left-handers is to buy special products for left-handers, but they cost an order of magnitude more expensive than usual ones, besides, in our country, unlike developed countries, they are just beginning to be produced.

Weapons and equipment in general are a separate item. It was also created by right-handers for right-handers, so a left-hander should not wait for him to be taken care of. In the West, thanks to prominent left-handed figures such as Bill Clinton, production has turned towards left-handers and produces universal machine tools and technical products in this regard.

Believe it or not

It is argued that, upon entering an unfamiliar room, the left-hander will turn to the left, and the right-handed person will turn to the right. People with dyslexia are 12 times more likely to be left-handed. The left side of the brain is responsible for the choice of words, and the right side is responsible for the tone of the voice. Lefties are much more common among twins. This is believed to indicate a lack of free space in the womb and possibly a lack of oxygen. Premature babies are 5 times more likely to be left-handed.

Some scientists believe that left-handers have great advantages in music due to the activity of the brain regions responsible for processing sounds. The cerebral hemispheres carry an unequal load of processing sound stimuli and perform this function in different ways. The left side of the human brain is responsible for controlling speech. The left side of the bird's brain governs the song. At least in this respect, the human brain is similar to that of a bird.
Lefties usually do well in algebra. Left-handed brains are thought to be significantly better at analyzing abstract concepts.

65% of people with autism are left-handed.

Animals also have lefties. For example, 99% of polar bears are. But among brown bears "left-handedness" is rare - less than 10%. Finding out what your pet is quite simple: if you are playing, for example, with a cat, take a closer look at which paw he first touches the toy.

Check yourself:

“Aim” by selecting a target and looking at it with both eyes through the tip of the pencil. Close one eye, then the other. If the target moves a lot when the left eye is closed, then the left eye is the leading one, and vice versa. Interlace your fingers several times in a row. The thumb of which hand is on top is the leading one when performing small movements.

If you want to make life easier for lefties

Present the left-handed person with the most common objects that we come across in everyday life, but with a "mirror" property. These are pens, rulers, scissors, a computer keyboard, cameras that take into account the "left" ergonomics. While we have such "gifts" in our country they don't do it for left-handers. Everything is imported. But at least they recognized the right to individuality for left-handers and stopped retraining “under right-handers.” And that's good. Left-handers also have their own holiday - International Day of the Left, which is celebrated by the community on August 13th.

Of all natural and artificial materials, from childhood I fell in love with metals and metal products. Working as a locksmith, and then as a turner at industrial enterprises, he learned all the secrets of metalworking. With some kind of inner instinct, I immediately unmistakably selected the mode of cutting metals by eye.

Nikolay considers the existing "metal technology" imperfect. Several years ago he got the idea to shoe a flea. I wanted to prove that it was not in vain that N. Leskov sang and glorified the Tula Masters all over the world. I spent two years preparing, and then sat down at the microscope. Three months later, when I finished my work, I realized that I had “found myself” in microminiature. He quit his job and decided to take seriously this very difficult and interesting craft. He believes that a person's achievement of goals in life depends on desire: the higher the goal, the greater the desire should be.

Camel caravan. In the eye of the needle. Height 0.25-0.20 mm. Gold 999.9 standard.

AKM-47 assault rifle. Located across the match. Length - 1.625 mm. Consists of 34 parts. Material - gold 585 and 999.9 tests. Manufacturing time - 6 months.

Tank T34 / 85. Located on a longitudinal cut of an apple grain. Body length - 2 mm. Number of details - 257. Material - 999.9 standard gold.

Tula samovar. On the needle. Nearby there is a grain of sugar. Height - 1.2 mm. Made from 12 parts.

A shod flea. With saddle and stirrups.

A bike. Located on the sewing needle. Length - 2 mm.

Ostankino Tower. Located on an apple seed. Height - 6.3 mm. Material - 999.9 gold.

Russian ruble. Diameter - 0.88 mm. Material - 999.9 gold.

A.S. Pushkin. Portrait on a grain of rice.

Leo Tolstoy, also on a grain of rice

N.V. Gogol in the same place

Lefty is a Russian miracle, a great master, the hero of the story of the same name by the 19th century writer Nikolai Leskov. This plot has been used in many works of art: artists, composers, and other writers. At the end of the 20th century, the Mariinsky Theater staged an opera by the composer Rodion Shchedrin "Bloch" on the same subject.

Fiction and truth

Leskov's story, published in 1881, has the full title "The Tale of the Tula scythe Lefty and the steel flea." The main event of the story is that a Tula master, nicknamed Lefty, shoots a flea-toy popped by English craftsmen. England sends as a gift to the Russian Tsar a "robot", a tiny metal flea that can dance when turned on. And Lefty makes the work even smaller, shoeing this very flea. Now the flea no longer dances ... but the primacy of Russian miniature masters over foreign ones has been proven.

In reality, such a historical fact as the gift of a toy by England and its shoeing did not exist, or rather, it was not documented. However, over the centuries, master imitators of the literary hero did appear in Russia.

Lefty prototype - Tula master

It is interesting, however, that there was a Russian master gunsmith from Tula named Surnin. He went to England "for training", like Lefty, but, like the hero, quickly showed his own skills. Surnin was hired as assistant to the owner of the plant, Henry Knock. Surnin was in England for a hundred years before the creation of "Lefty", which many forestry experts consider him to be the prototype of the Lefty. Fortunately, although the fate of Surnin was happier than the fate of Lefty. A. M. Surnin returned to his native Tula, had a high position at a local arms factory and died in 1811 in honor and respect, having done a lot of good for the arms production of Russia, and introducing a number of British developments that played a big role in the victory of Russia in the Patriotic War 1812

Nikolay Aldunin - modern Russian Lefty

However, it was only in the 20th century that a person appeared who actually managed to shoe a flea. This is our contemporary Nikolai Sergeevich Aldunin, who died in 2009 and managed to create a whole museum "Russian Lefty". He shod a real euthanized flea, cutting off its claws on tiny paws (after all, a flea is very uncomfortable and, so to speak, is not intended for shoeing). The horseshoes were gold, the carnations on the horseshoes too, but it was all microscopic! From a gram of gold, you can make 20 million such horseshoes, the master once shared in an interview.

Microminiature Museum

Aldunin created many more miniatures. Today he also has followers. Of course, he worked, in contrast to the literary character, and using a microscope (Leskovsky Levsha said that he had a "sighted eye"). But how great is the varied heritage of the master! This is the T-34 tank on an apple family, and a caravan of camels in the eye of a needle, and a rose in the hair ... All of them are exhibited in the traveling museum of microminiatures "Russian Levsha".
Aldunin's followers are miniaturists A. Rykovanov (Petersburg), A. Konenko (Kazan), Vl. Aniskin (Omsk). Their works have traveled half the world, won international competitions.
Today, savvy fleas are in the collection of the President of Russia, and in a number of museums around the world, and in the main museum of Tula, the Old Tula Pharmacy.

Who is a master

Today handicrafts, master classes, teaching creativity are very common. The ability to do something with your own hands is one of the ways to yourself! Also, a number of trainings will help you to know yourself faster. It is recommended to do them once a week.

It can be assumed that creativity, even at the simplest level, contributes to the knowledge of oneself. But also at the professional level - the one who, knowing himself and loving his work, becomes a master, develops in it.

First exercise: "Your bag"

• Take a sheet, a pencil and any bag of yours. Place the contents on the table.
• Now select three things that can reveal you as a person: those that reflect your character, human qualities - and state in writing what these things say about you (if something is missing, take another thing from the office, from the apartment ). Now read the text and think about what you just learned and what you knew before. Try to keep within 15 minutes of the exercise and then reflect on it afterwards throughout the day.

Exercise 2: Fictional Hero

This is also a small fifteen minute exercise.

• Think of or remember a movie hero, book, cartoon character who will be like you today.
• Now write what you have in common with this hero. These are character traits, appearance, life situations, and maybe a profession, personal life, family. Complete them with differences.
• Would you like to actually meet such a hero - and why? Write it down.
• Now imagine the character you would like to emulate. Also write down the similarities and differences.
• Now think about how you can use the traits of your sample? Can you get close to them, changing yourself for the better?

Exercise 3: Your Feelings

• Remain in silence and loneliness. Listen to yourself and try to write down your feelings.
• Try to describe your emotional state in three sentences. Three more are physical sensations, perhaps tension, pain, or fatigue. Could this be related to your feelings? Or a psychological state?
• Do you want to start acting yourself now? Do something like hug or hit someone?
• Your task in the course of performing this technique will be to learn how to describe in detail the state at the emotional, psychological and physical level - that is, at the level of body, soul and spirit.

So you can better deal with your feelings, be able to express yourself, develop creative thinking.
Often times, people understand during such trainings that they are afraid of death, tense in the face of anxiety, and cannot find guidance.

How to find your profession, becoming a master of your craft

Work takes up about a third of our lives and, accordingly, plays an important role in it. It doesn't matter for what and where you work - only for the sake of money, for self-realization or experience. Getting a job that you enjoy and at the same time brings income is real happiness. And here God's help is needed.

St. Nicholas the Wonderworker is perhaps the most revered saint in the entire Orthodox world. Being illiterate, many peasants even called him as part of the Holy Trinity. In his life, the saint was a true father for all the inhabitants of the city of Myra in Lycia, of which he was archbishop. Both during his life and after death, he became famous for many wondrous deeds, showing the power of God's grace: through his prayers, the sick were healed, justice was restored, the poor righteous received a reward - wealth.

They pray to Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker for all the difficulties associated with work:

• in employment, job search,
• before the interview,
• before important matters and decision-making,
• with difficulties in work,
• about getting rid of risks,
• about business development,
• on timely salary,
• when it is necessary to make a decision on dismissal or further employment in the company.

It is hard to believe in the power of prayer, but many people from all over the world testify to the signs of God at the request of Nicholas the Wonderworker: people facing a serious choice make it right; those who wish to change their jobs and profession wonderfully connect it with the Church and find the happiness of their favorite work among good people.

Prayer to St. Nicholas, who during his lifetime performed miracles of salvation for slandered and ruined people, is an important means of support, including psychological support. You can pray not only about finding a job that will give you material security, but also about finding your professional path.

Prayer for finding a job

A strong prayer for the work of Matrona of Moscow can be read in all the difficulties associated with professional activities:

• difficulties in finding a job,
• quarrels and problems in the team,
• inability to cope with work,
• pressure from superiors or colleagues,
• intrigues and impending dismissal,
• problems with paying wages or low wages for your work.

Prayers for prosperity in work and money are read only about honest deeds. The point is not that you cannot pray about unjust earnings - fraud, debauchery, casino activity, etc. It's just that these deeds are sinful, in principle it is not worth doing them: do not multiply evil on earth, do not prepare yourself for punishment with misfortune. The Lord bless you for good, for sure you have talent that can earn you a good job. Pray and ask God and Saint Matronushka to show him to you.

Prayer to Matrona of Moscow - an appeal for help to her as if she were alive. After all, the saints are our intercessors before God. Everyone needs the support of loved ones, but it is known that in a state of stress, people with their irritability create conflicts in the family. It's time to turn for help to the Heavenly Family - to God Almighty, the good Father to all of us, the Mother of God, who adopted the human race, and our spiritual brothers and sisters - the saints.

God bless you!

The tale of the Tula scythe Lefty and the steel flea

Chapter first

When Emperor Alexander Pavlovich graduated from the Vienna Council, he wanted to travel around Europe and see miracles in different states. He traveled all the countries and everywhere, through his affectionateness, always had the most internecine conversations with all sorts of people, and everyone surprised him with something and wanted to bow to their side, but with him was the Don Cossack Platov, who did not like this declension and, missing his housekeeping, all the sovereign beckoned home. And as soon as Platov notices that the sovereign is very interested in something foreign, then all the escorts are silent, and Platov will now say: “so and so, and we have our own at home just as well,” and will take something away.

The British knew this, and by the time the sovereign arrived, they had invented various tricks in order to captivate him with his strangeness and distract him from the Russians, and in many cases they achieved this, especially in large gatherings where Platov could not speak French completely; but he was little interested in this, because he was a married man and considered all French conversations to be trifles that were not worth imagination. And when the British began to call the sovereign to all their zeigauses, arms and soap and saw factories, in order to show their advantage over us in all things and be famous for that, Platov said to himself:

- Well, this is a Sabbath. Until then, I still endured, and then I can’t. Whether or not I can speak, I won't betray my people.

And as soon as he said to himself such a word, the sovereign says to him:

- So and so, tomorrow we are going with you to watch their armory cabinet of curiosities. There, he says, there are such natures of perfection that as you look, you will no longer argue that we, Russians, are worthless with our meaning.

Platov did not answer the emperor, he only lowered his horny nose into a shaggy cloak, and came to his apartment, ordered the orderly to bring a flask of Caucasian vodka from the cellar [Kizlyarki - Approx. author], fiddled with a good glass, prayed to God on the travel fold, covered himself with a burka and began to snore so that no one could sleep in the whole house for the British.

I thought the morning was wiser than the night.

Chapter two

The next day the Emperor and Platov went to the Cabinet of Curiosities. The Tsar did not take any of the Russians with him anymore, because the carriage was given to them with two seats.

They come to a large building - an undescribed entrance, corridors to infinity, and the rooms are one in one, and, finally, in the main hall there are various huge busts, and in the middle under the Canopy stands Abolon half-vedera.

The sovereign looks back at Platov: is he very surprised and what he is looking at; and he walks with his eyes downcast, as if he sees nothing - he only twists rings from his mustache.

The British immediately began to show various surprises and to explain what they had adapted to for military circumstances: sea boremometers, mantones of foot regiments, and for cavalry, tar waterproofs. The Tsar rejoices at all this, everything seems to him very good, but Platov keeps his anticipation, that for him everything means nothing.

The sovereign says:

- How is this possible - why is there such insensibility in you? Is nothing surprising to you here? And Platov answers:

“One thing is surprising to me here, that my Don's fellows fought without all this and drove out two or ten tongues.

The sovereign says:

- This is recklessness.

Platov answers:

“I don’t know what to attribute to, but I don’t dare to argue and must be silent.

And the British, seeing such an interruption between the sovereign, now brought him to Abolon himself, half of the Vedera, and took from him the Mortimer rifle from one hand, and a pistol from the other.

- Here, - they say, - what our productivity is, - and they serve the gun.

The sovereign looked calmly at the Mortimerov rifle, because he has such in Tsarskoe Selo, and then they give him a pistol and say:

- This is a pistol of unknown, inimitable skill - our admiral pulled it out of his belt from the robber chieftain in Candelabria.

The Emperor glanced at the pistol and could not get enough of it.

I was terribly excited.

- Ah, ah, ah, - he says, - how is it so ... how can it even be done so subtly! - And he turns to Platov in Russian and says: - Now, if I had at least one such master in Russia, I would be very happy and proud of this, but I would make that master noble right now.

And Platov, in response to these words, at the same moment lowered his right hand into his large trousers and pulled out a rifle screwdriver from there. The British say: "It does not open," and he, not paying attention, well, pick the lock. Turned once, turned two - the lock and pulled out. Platov shows the sovereign the dog, and there is a Russian inscription on the sugib itself: "Ivan Moskvin in the city of Tula."

The British are surprised and push each other:

- Oh-de, we gave a blunder!

And sovereign Platov says sadly:

“Why did you embarrass them so much, I feel very sorry for them now. Let's go.

They sat down again in the same two-seated carriage and drove off, and the sovereign was at the ball that day, while Platov blew out an even larger glass of sour liquor and slept in a sound Cossack sleep.

He was also glad that he had embarrassed the British, and put the Tula master on the point of view, but it was also annoying: why did the sovereign regret the British for such a case!

“Through what was the sovereign upset? Thought Platov, “I don’t understand that at all,” and in this reasoning he got up twice, crossed himself and drank vodka, until he forced himself into a deep sleep.

And the British did not sleep at that very time either, because they were also sick. While the Tsar was having fun at the ball, they staged such a new surprise for him that they took away all of Platov's fantasy.

Chapter three

The next day, as Platov appeared to the emperor good morning, he said to him:

- Let us now lay down a two-seated carriage, and go to the new cabinet of curiosities to watch.

Platov even dared to report that it’s not enough, they say, to look at foreign products and whether it’s better to go to his place in Russia, but the sovereign says:

- No, I still wish to see other news: they praised me how they make the first grade of sugar.

The British show everything to the sovereign: what different first grades they have, and Platov looked, looked and suddenly said:

- And show us your sugar factories rumor?

And the British do not even know what this rumor is. They whisper, wink at each other, repeat to each other: "Rumor, rumor", but they cannot understand that this is the kind of sugar we make, and they must confess that they have all the sugar, but no "rumor".

Platov says:

“Well, there’s nothing to brag about. Come to us, we will give you tea with a real rumor of the Bobrin plant.

And the sovereign tugged at his sleeve and said quietly:

- Please, don't spoil my politics.

Then the British called the sovereign to the very last cabinet of curiosities, where they collected mineral stones and nymphosoria from all over the world, from the largest Egyptian ceramide to the transdermal flea, which is impossible to see with the eyes, and its bite is between the skin and the body.

The sovereign went.

We examined the ceramides and all sorts of stuffed animals and went out, and Platov thought to himself:

"Here, thank God, everything is all right: the sovereign is not surprised at anything."

But they just came to the very last room, and here their workers in jackets and aprons are standing and holding a tray on which there is nothing.

The sovereign was suddenly surprised that he was being served an empty tray.

- What does it mean? - asks; and the English masters answer:

“This is our humble tribute to your Majesty.

- What is this?

- But, - they say, - would you like to see a speck?

The sovereign looked and saw: for sure, the tiniest speck of dust was lying on the silver tray.

The workers say:

- Please let your finger spit and take it in your palm.

- What is this speck to me?

- This, - they answer, - is not a speck, but a nymphosoria.

- Is she alive?

- Not at all, - they answer, - not alive, but from pure Aglitsk steel in the image of a flea we forged, and in the middle there is a plant and a spring. Please turn the key: she will begin to dance now.

The Emperor was curious and asks:

- And where is the key?

And the English say:

- Here is the key in front of your eyes.

“Why,” the sovereign says, “I don’t see him?”

- Because, - they answer, - that it is necessary in a small scope.

A small scope was brought in, and the emperor saw that the key was really on the tray next to the flea.

- Excuse me, - they say, - take her in the palm of your hand - she has a winding hole in her belly, and the key has seven turns, and then she will go to dance ...

Forcibly the sovereign grabbed this key and forcibly could hold it in a pinch, and in another pinch he took the flea and just inserted the key, when he felt that she was starting to drive with her antennae, then she began to fiddle with her legs, and finally suddenly jumped and on one fly a direct dance and two probabilities to one side, then to the other, and so in three probabilities she danced the whole kavril.

The sovereign immediately ordered the British to give a million in whatever money they wanted - they want it in silver patches, they want it in small banknotes.

The British asked that they be released in silver, because they do not know a lot about the pieces of paper; and then now they showed another trick of theirs: they gave the flea as a gift, but they did not bring the case for it: without the case, neither it nor the key can be kept, because they will get lost and they will be thrown into the litter. And the case for her is made of a solid diamond nut - and her place in the middle is squeezed out. They did not submit this, because the cases, they say, are state-owned, and they have strict about the state-owned, although for the sovereign - you cannot sacrifice.

Platov was very angry because he says:

- What is this fraud for! The gift was made and a million received for it, and it is still not enough! The case, - he says, - always belongs to every thing.

But the sovereign says:

- Leave, please, it's none of your business - don't spoil my politics. They have their own custom. - And asks: - How much is that nut, in which the flea is located?

The British put in another five thousand for this.

Sovereign Alexander Pavlovich said: "Pay", and he himself dropped the flea into this nut, and with it the key, and in order not to lose the nut itself, he put it in his golden snuffbox, and ordered the snuffbox to be put in his travel box, which is all lined prelamut and, fish bone. The emperor let go of the Aglitsk masters with honor and told them: "You are the first masters in the whole world, and my people cannot do anything against you."

They were very pleased with this, but Platov could not say anything against the words of the sovereign. He just took a small scope and, without saying anything, put it in his pocket, because "it belongs here," he says, "and you already took a lot of money from us."

The Emperor, he did not know this until his arrival in Russia, but they left soon, because the emperor became melancholy from military affairs and he wanted to have a spiritual confession in Taganrog with priest Fedot [“Pop Fedot” was not taken from the wind: Emperor Alexander Pavlovich before by his death in Taganrog he confessed to the priest Alexei Fedotov-Chekhovsky, to whom he was later called “the confessor of his majesty,” and he loved to present this completely random circumstance to everyone. This Fedotov-Chekhovsky, obviously, is the legendary “priest Fedot”. (Author's note.)]. On the way, they had very little pleasant conversation with Platov, therefore they had completely different thoughts: the sovereign thought that the British had no equal in art, and Platov argued that ours too would look at anything - they could do everything, but only they had no useful learning ... And he imagined to the sovereign that the English masters had completely different rules of life, science and food, and that each person had all the absolute circumstances in front of him, and therefore he had a completely different meaning.

The sovereign did not want to listen to this for a long time, and Platov, seeing this, did not intensify. So they drove in silence, only Platov would come out at each station and out of frustration would drink a leavened glass of vodka, take a bite of a salted lamb, light his root pipe, into which a whole pound of Zhukov’s tobacco entered at once, and then he would sit down and sit next to the tsar in the carriage in silence. The sovereign looks in one direction, and Platov sticks out his chubuk through the other window and smokes into the wind. So they reached St. Petersburg, and the Tsar did not take Platov to the priest Fedot.

“You,” he says, “are incontinent to spiritual conversation, and you smoke so much that I’ve got soot in my head because of your smoke.”

Platov was left with anger and lay down at home on the annoying couch, and so he lay and smoked Zhukov tobacco without stopping.

Chapter four

An amazing flea made of Aglitsk blued steel remained with Alexander Pavlovich in a casket under a fishbone until he died in Taganrog, giving it to priest Fedot so that he would hand it over later to the Empress, when she calmed down. Empress Elisaveta Alekseevna looked at the flea's probabilities and smiled, but did not engage in it.

“Mine,” he says, “is now a widow’s business, and no amusements are seductive to me,” but after returning to Petersburg, I passed on this curiosity with all the other jewels as an inheritance to the new sovereign.

At first, Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich also did not pay any attention to the flea, because at sunrise it was confused, but then once he began to revise the box he had inherited from his brother and took out a snuff-box, and a diamond nut from the snuff-box, and found a steel flea in it, which had not been wound up for a long time and therefore did not work, but lay still, like numb.

The Emperor looked and was surprised.

- What a trifle this is, and why is it here with my brother in such preservation!

The courtiers wanted to throw it out, but the emperor says:

- No, it means something.

Anichkin Bridge called from a nasty pharmacy to a chemist who weighed poisons on the smallest scales, and they showed him, and he now took a flea, put it on his tongue and said: "I feel cold, like from strong metal." And then he slightly dented it with his tooth and announced:

- As you wish, but this is not a real flea, but a nymphosoria, and it is made of metal, and this work is not ours, not Russian.

The sovereign ordered to find out now: where does this come from and what does it mean?

They rushed to look at the files and the lists, but nothing was written in the files. They began to ask the other - no one knows anything. But, fortunately, the Don Cossack Platov was still alive and even still lay on his annoying bite and smoked his pipe. As soon as he heard that there was such anxiety in the palace, he got up from the ukushche, hung up the receiver and appeared to the sovereign in all orders. The sovereign says:

- What do you want from me, courageous old man?

And Platov answers:

- I, your Majesty, do not need anything for myself, since I drink and eat what I want and am happy with everything, and I, - he says, - came to report about this nymphozoria, which they found: this, - he says, - and so it was , and this is how it happened in front of my eyes in England - and here she has a key, and I have their own small scope, through which you can see it, and with this key you can start this nymphosoria through the belly, and she will jump in whatever space and side of the likelihood to do.

They brought it in, she went to jump, and Platov said:

- This, - he says, - Your Majesty, for sure, that the work is very delicate and interesting, but only we should not be surprised at this with the delight of feelings alone, but it would be necessary to subject it to Russian revisions in Tula or in Sesterbek, - then Sestroretsk was called Sesterbek. , - can not our masters surpass this, so that the British do not pretend over the Russians.

Sovereign Nikolai Pavlovich was very confident in his Russian people and did not like to yield to any foreigner, he answered Platov:

- It is you, courageous old man, you speak well, and I instruct you to believe this matter. I don't need this box anyway now with my worries, and you take it with you and don't lie down on your annoying bite anymore, but go to the quiet Don and have internecine conversations with my donors about their life and devotion and what they like. And when you go through Tula, show my Tula masters this nymphosoria, and let them think of it. Tell them from me that my brother was surprised at this thing and praised strangers who did nymphozoria more than anyone else, and I hope on my own that they are no worse than anyone. They will not say my word and will do something.

Chapter five

Platov took a steel flea, and how he went through Tula to the Don, showed it to the Tula gunsmiths and conveyed the words of the sovereign to them, and then asks:

- How can we be now, Orthodox?

The gunsmiths answer:

- We, father, we feel the gracious word of the sovereign and we can never forget it because he hopes for his people, but how we should be in the present case, we cannot say in one minute, because the English nation is also not stupid, but rather even cunning, and art in it with great meaning. Against it, they say, it is necessary to take a thought and with God's blessing. And you, if your grace, like our sovereign, has confidence in us, go to your quiet Don, and leave us this flea, as it is, in a case and in a golden royal snuff box. Take a walk along the Don and heal the wounds that you took for your fatherland, and when you go back through Tula, stop and send after us: by that time, God willing, we will come up with something.

Platov was not entirely happy with the fact that the Tula people took so much time and, moreover, did not say clearly what it was they were hoping to do. He asked them one way or another, and in every manner he slyly spoke to them in the Don language; but the Tula did not give in to him in cunning, because they immediately had such a plan, according to which they did not even hope that Platov would believe them, but wanted to directly fulfill their bold imagination, and then give it back.

- We ourselves do not know what we will do, but we will only hope in God, and perhaps the king's word for our sake will not be ashamed.

So Platov wags his mind, and so do the Tula.

Platov wagged, wagged, but he saw that he couldn't get over the Tula, gave them a snuffbox with a nymphozoria and said:

- Well, there is nothing to do, let, - he says, - it will be your way; I know who you are, well, at one point, there is nothing to do - I believe you, but just look, so as not to replace the diamond and not spoil the English fine work, but don't mess around for long, because I'm driving a helluva lot: two weeks will not pass, how I’ll turn from the quiet Don back to Petersburg — then I must certainly have something to show the Emperor.

The gunsmiths completely reassured him:

“Fine work,” they say, “we won’t damage it and we won’t exchange a diamond, but two weeks have enough time for us, and by the time you come back, you will have something worthy to present to the sovereign's splendor.

And they didn’t say what exactly.

Chapter six

Platov left Tula, and three gunsmiths, the most skillful of them, one oblique left-hander, a birthmark on his cheek, and the hairs on his temples were torn out during training, said goodbye to their comrades and their family, yes, without saying anything to anyone, they took their bags, put go there that is necessary edible and disappeared from the city.

We only noticed that they had gone not to the Moscow outpost, but in the opposite direction, the Kiev side, and thought that they had gone to Kiev to worship the reposed saints or to advise there with one of the living holy men who always abide in Kiev in abundance. ...

But this was only close to the truth, and not the truth itself. Neither time nor distance allowed the Tula craftsmen to go on foot to Kiev in three weeks, and even then have time to do the shameful work for the English nation. It would be better if they could go to Moscow to pray, which is only "two ninety miles away," and many saints rest there too. And in the other direction, to Orel, the same "two ninety", but for Oryol to Kiev again another good five hundred miles. You won't take such a path soon, and having made it, you will not soon have a rest - your legs will be glazed for a long time and your hands will shake.

Some even thought that the craftsmen had boasted in front of Platov, and then, as they thought it over, they got cold feet and now they completely fled, taking with them both the Tsar's golden snuffbox, and the diamond, and the Aglitsky steel flea that had caused them trouble in a case.

However, such an assumption was also completely unfounded and unworthy of the skillful people on whom the nation's hope now rested.

Chapter Seven

The Tula people, intelligent and knowledgeable in the metal business, are also known as the first experts in religion. Their glory in this respect is also full of their native land, and even Saint Athos: they are not only masters of singing with the Babylonians, but they know how to paint the picture "evening bell", and if one of them devotes himself to greater service and goes to monasticism, then such are reputed to be the finest monastic economists, and from them come the most capable collectors. On Saint Athos they know that the Tula people are the most profitable people, and if it were not for them, then the dark corners of Russia probably would not have seen very many sacred places of the distant East, and Athos would have lost many useful offerings from Russian generosity and piety. Now the "Athos Tula" carry around sacredness throughout our homeland and masterfully collect fees even where there is nothing to take. Tulyak is full of church piety and a great practitioner of this work, and therefore those three masters who undertook to support Platov and the whole of Russia with him did not make the mistake of heading not to Moscow, but to the south. They went not to Kiev at all, but to Mtsensk, to the district town of the Oryol province, in which there is an ancient "stone-cut" icon of St. Nikolay; sailed here in the most ancient times on a large stone cross along the river Zusha. This icon is of the form of "formidable and fearful" - the saint of Myra-Lycia is depicted on it "full-length", all clothed with silver-covered clothes, and with a dark face and holding a temple on one hand, and "military overpowering" in the other. It was in this "overcoming" that the meaning of the thing lay: St. Nikolai is generally a patron of trade and military affairs, and "Nikola of Mtsensk" in particular, and the Tula people went to bow to him. They served a prayer service at the icon itself, then at the stone cross, and finally, they returned home “at night” and, without telling anyone, set to work in a terrible secret. All three of them came together in one house to the left-hander, the doors were locked, the shutters in the windows were closed, the icon lamp was lit in front of Nikoly's image and began to work.

Day, two, three sit and do not go anywhere, everyone pokes with hammers. They forge something like that, but what they forge is unknown.

Everyone is curious, but no one can find out anything, because the workers do not say anything and do not appear outside. Different people went to the house, knocked on the door under different views to ask for fire or salt, but the three artisans do not open up to any demand, and even what they eat is unknown. They tried to scare them, as if the house next door was on fire - they might jump out in fright and then show up what they had forged, but nothing took these cunning craftsmen; once only the left-handed man leaned out over his shoulders and shouted:

“Burn yourself, but we have no time,” and again he hid his plucked head, slammed the shutter, and set to work.

Only through small cracks was it possible to see how the light was shining inside the house, and you could hear that thin hammers were being pushed along the ringing anvils.

In a word, the whole business was conducted in such a terrible secret that nothing could be learned, and moreover, it lasted until the very return of the Cossack Platov from the quiet Don to the sovereign, and during all this time the masters did not see anyone or talk to anyone.

Chapter Eight

Platov rode very hastily and with ceremony: he himself sat in a carriage, and on the box two whistling Cossacks with whips on either side of the driver sat down and watered him without mercy so that he could ride. And if any Cossack falls asleep, Platov himself pokes his foot out of the carriage, and rushes even more angrily. These incentive measures acted so successfully that nowhere the horses could be kept at any station, and always a hundred jumps jumped past the stopping place. Then the Cossack will again act over the coachman, and they will turn back to the entrance.

So they rolled to Tula - they also flew at first a hundred jumps beyond the Moscow outpost, and then the Cossack acted on the coachman with a whip in the opposite direction, and began to harness new horses at the porch. Platov, however, did not leave the carriage, but only ordered the whistler to bring the artisans, whom he had left the flea, to him as soon as possible.

One whistler ran, so that they would go as soon as possible and carry him work, with which they were supposed to shame the British, and this whistler ran away a little when Platov sent after him over and over again to send new ones as soon as possible.

He dispersed all the whistlers and began to send ordinary people from the curious audience, and even he himself, out of impatience, puts his legs out of the carriage and wants to run out of impatience, but he creaks his teeth - everything is still not showing up to him soon.

So at that time everything was required very accurately and in speed, so that not a single minute for Russian usefulness was wasted.

Chapter nine

The Tula masters, who were doing an amazing job, were just finishing their work at that time. The whistlers ran up to them out of breath, and ordinary people from the curious audience did not even run, because out of habit on the way their legs fell apart and fell, and then out of fear, so as not to look at Platov, they hit home and hid anywhere.

The whistlers, however, jumped in, now they screamed, and as they see that they are not opening, now without ceremony they pulled the bolts at the shutter, but the bolts were so strong that they did not move at all, they pulled the doors, and the doors were locked from the inside with an oak bolt. Then the whistlers took a log from the street, hooked it up like a fireman under a roof jam, and immediately pulled the whole roof off the small house. But the roof was removed, and they themselves have now tumbled down, because the masters in their cramped mansion had such a sweaty spiral from the restless work in the air that an unfamiliar person could not breathe even once from a fresh wind.

The ambassadors shouted:

- What are you, such-and-such, bastards, doing, and you dare to make mistakes with such a spiral! Or there is no god in you after that!

And they answer:

- We are now hammering in the last carnation and, as we hammer it, then we will take out our work.

And the ambassadors say:

- He will eat us alive until that hour and will not leave his soul for the sake of remembrance.

But the masters answer:

- He will not have time to swallow you, because while you were talking here, we already have this last nail nailed down. Run and say that we are carrying it now.

The whistlers ran, but not confidently: they thought that the masters would deceive them; and therefore they run, run and look back; but the craftsmen followed them and hurried so very quickly that they did not even dress quite properly for the appearance of an important person, and on the way they fasten the hooks in the caftans. Two of them had nothing in their hands, and the third, a left-handed man, had in a green case a royal box with an English steel flea.

Chapter ten

The whistlers ran up to Platov and said:

- Here they are here!

Platov now to the masters:

- Is it ready?

- Everything, - they answer, - it's ready.

- Serve here.

And the carriage is already harnessed, and the driver and the postilion are in place. The Cossacks immediately sat down next to the driver and lifted the whips above him and held them out, swinging them.

Platov tore off the green cover, opened the box, took out a gold snuff-box from the cotton wool, and a diamond nut from the snuff-box, - he saw: the English flea was there as it was, and there was nothing else besides it.

Platov says:

- What is this? And where is your work, with which you wanted to comfort the Emperor?

The gunsmiths answered:

- This is our job.

Platov asks:

- In what does she enclose herself?

And the gunsmiths answer:

- Why explain this? Everything here is in your mind - and provide.

Platov shrugged his shoulders and shouted:

- Where is the key to the flea?

- And right there, - they answer, - Where is the flea, here is the key, in one nut.

Platov wanted to take the key, but his fingers were scanty: he caught, caught, - he could not grab either the flea or the key from its abdominal plant and suddenly got angry and began to swear in words in the Cossack manner.

- That you, scoundrels, did nothing, and even, perhaps, the whole thing ruined! I'll take your head off!

And the Tula answered him:

- It is in vain that you offend us so much - we must endure all insults from you, as from the sovereign ambassador, but only because you doubted us and thought that we were similar to deceiving the sovereign's name, - we now have no secret of our work say, if you please take us to the sovereign - he will see what kind of people we are and whether he is ashamed of us.

And Platov shouted:

- Well, you are lying, you scoundrels, I will not part with you like that, and one of you will go to Petersburg with me, and I will try to find out what your tricks are.

And with that he reached out his hand, grabbed the left-hander's collar by the scruff of his barefoot fingers, so that all the hooks from the Kazakin flew off, and threw him into his carriage at his feet.

- Sit, - he says, - here all the way to Petersburg, like a pubel, - you will answer me for everyone. And you, - he says with a whistle, - now the guide! Don't yawn, so that the day after tomorrow I will be with the Tsar in Petersburg.

The masters only dared to tell him for their comrade, why, they say, are you taking him away from us so without tugament? he cannot be followed back! And Platov, instead of answering, showed them a fist - so terrible, bumpy and all chopped up, somehow fused together - and, threatening, said: "Here's a tugament for you!" And he says to the Cossacks:

- Guyda, guys!

Cossacks, coachmen and horses - everything worked at once and drove off the left-hander without a tugament, and a day later, as Platov ordered, they drove him up to the sovereign's palace and even galloped past the columns.

Platov got up, picked up the medals and went to the sovereign, and ordered the whistling Cossacks to watch over the oblique left-hander at the entrance.

Chapter eleven

Platov was afraid to appear in front of the sovereign, because Nikolai Pavlovich was terribly wonderful and memorable - he did not forget anything. Platov knew that he would certainly ask him about the flea. And at least he was not afraid of any enemy in the world, but then he got cold feet: he entered the palace with a casket and quietly set it down in the hall behind the stove. Hiding the box, Platov appeared to the sovereign in the office and began to report as soon as possible about the internecine conversations among the Cossacks on the quiet Don. He thought so: in order to occupy the sovereign with this, and then, if the sovereign himself remembers and starts talking about the flea, he must submit and answer, and if he does not speak, then keep silent; tell the cabinet valet to hide the box, and put the left-handed Tula left-hander in the serf kazamat without a time limit so that he can sit there until a certain time, if necessary.

But Tsar Nikolai Pavlovich did not forget about anything, and as soon as Platov finished about internecine conversations, he immediately asked him:

- And what, how did my Tula masters justify themselves against the Aglitsky nymphosoria?

Platov answered in the way that it seemed to him.

- Nymphozoria, - he says, - Your Majesty, everything is in the same space, and I brought her back, and the Tula masters could not have done anything more amazing.

The sovereign replied:

- You are a courageous old man, and this, that you are reporting to me, cannot be.

Platov began to assure him and told him how the whole thing was, and how he went so far as to say that the Tula asked him to show the flea to the emperor, Nikolai Pavlovich slapped him on the shoulder and said:

- Serve here. I know that mine cannot deceive me. Something beyond the concept has been done here.

Chapter twelve

They took out a box from behind the stove, removed the cloth cover from it, opened a gold snuffbox and a diamond nut - and in it lies the flea as it was and how it was lying.

The Emperor looked and said:

- What a dashing! - But he did not diminish his faith in Russian masters, but ordered to call his beloved daughter Alexandra Nikolaevna and ordered her:

- You have thin fingers on your hands - take a small key and start an abdominal machine as soon as possible in this nymphosoria.

The princess began to twist the key, and the flea is now moving its antennae, but does not touch its feet. Alexandra Nikolaevna pulled the whole plant, but the nymphozoria still does not dance a dance and does not throw out a single probability, as before.

Platov turned green and shouted:

- Oh, they are rascals of the dog! Now I understand why they didn’t want to tell me anything there. It's good that I took one of their fools with me.

With these words, he ran out to the entrance, caught the left-handed person by the hair and began to flap back and forth so that the tufts flew. And the other, when Platov stopped beating him, recovered and said:

“I’ve already had all my hair torn out during my studies, but I don’t know now why I need such a repetition?”

- This is for the fact, - says Platov, - that I hoped and enlisted in you, and you ruined a rare thing.

The left-hander answers:

- We are much pleased that you vouched for us, and we didn’t spoil anything: take it, look through the strongest small scope.

Platov ran back to talk about the melkoscope, and only threatened the left-hander:

“I’ll tell you,” he says, “so-and-so-so, I’ll ask you more.”

And he ordered the whistlers to twist their elbows back even tighter to the left-hander, while he himself climbs the steps, out of breath and recites the prayer: "Good mother, pure and pure, good king," and so on, as needed. And the courtiers, who are standing on the steps, all turn away from him, think: Platov was caught and now they will drive him out of the palace - because they could not stand him for his courage.

Chapter thirteen

As Platov brought the left-handed words to the emperor, he now says with joy:

“I know that my Russian people will not deceive me.” And he ordered a small scope on a pillow.

At the same moment, the small scope was brought in, and the sovereign took the flea and put it under the glass, first with its back up, then sideways, then with a belly - in a word, they turned it in all directions, but there was nothing to see. But the sovereign did not lose his faith here either, but only said:

“Bring this armourer down here to me now.

Platov reports:

- He should be dressed up - he was taken in what, and now in a very evil form.

And the sovereign replies:

- Nothing - enter as it is.

Platov says:

- Now go yourself, such and such, answer the sovereign before the eyes.

And the left-hander answers:

- Well, that's the way I go and answer.

He walks in what he was: in garments, one leg is in a boot, the other is wobbling, and the little hole is old, the hooks are not fastened, they are confused, and the collar is torn; but nothing, not embarrassed.

“What is it? - thinks. - If the sovereign wants to see me, I must go; and if there is no tugament with me, then I have not been caused and I will tell you why it was like that. "

As the left-hander ascended and bowed, the emperor now says to him:

- What is this, brother, does it mean that we looked this way and that, and put it under the small scope, but we don't see anything remarkable?

And the left-hander answers:

- Have you, Your Majesty, deigned to watch?

The nobles nod to him: they say, you do not say so! but he does not understand how to do it in a courtier way, with flattery or cunning, but simply speaks.

The sovereign says:

- Leave him to be wise, - let him answer as he knows how.

And now he explained to him:

- We, - he says, - that's how they put it, - And put the flea under the small-scope. - Look, - he says, - I can't see anything myself.

The left-hander answers:

“So, your majesty, it’s impossible to see anything, because our work against this size is much more secret.

The sovereign asked:

- And how is it necessary?

- It is necessary, - he says, - to bring just one of her legs in detail under the entire microscope and separately look at every heel she steps on.

Have mercy, tell me, says the emperor, this is already very shallow!

- And what to do, - answers the left-hander, - if only in this way our work can be noticed: then everything and surprise will turn out to be.

They put it down, as the left-hander said, and the emperor, as soon as he glanced into the upper glass, beamed all over - he took the left-hander, which he was uncleaned and in the dust, unwashed, hugged him and kissed him, and then turned to all the courtiers and said:

“You see, I knew better than anyone that my Russians would not deceive me. Look, please: after all, they, rascals, shod an English flea on horseshoes!

Chapter fourteen

Everyone began to approach and look: the flea was really shod with real horseshoes on all its legs, and the left-hander reported that this was not all surprising.

“If,” he says, “there was a better small scope, which increases by five million, then you would be pleased,” he says, “to see that on each horseshoe a master's name is displayed: what Russian master did that horseshoe.

- And your name is here? - asked the sovereign.

- Not at all, - the left-hander answers, - my one is not.

- Why not?

- And because, - he says, - I worked smaller than these horseshoes: I forged carnations, with which the horseshoes are hammered, - no small scope can take there anymore.

The sovereign asked:

- Where is your small scope, with which you could make this surprise?

And the left-hander replied:

- We are poor people and because of poverty we do not have our own small-scope, but we have so aimed our eyes.

Then the other courtiers, seeing that the left-handed business had burned out, began to kiss him, and Platov gave him a hundred rubles and said:

- Forgive me, brother, that I tore you by the hair.

The left-hander answers:

- God will forgive - this is not the first time we have such a snow on our heads.

And he did not speak anymore, and he had no time to talk to anyone, because the emperor immediately ordered this savvy nymphozoria to be laid down and sent back to England - like a gift, so that they would understand that it was not surprising to us. And the sovereign ordered a special courier to carry the flea, who is learned in all languages, and with him that he was left-handed and that he himself could show the British the work and what kind of masters we have in Tula.

Platov baptized him.

- Let, - he says, - there will be a blessing over you, and on the road I will send you my own sour. Don't drink a little, don't drink a lot, but drink moderately.

So he did - he sent it.

And Count Kiselvrode ordered that the left-hander be washed in the Tulyakovsky public baths, shaved in a hairdresser's and dressed in a ceremonial caftan from the court choir, so that it looked like he was wearing some kind of honored rank.

How they formed him in this manner, gave him tea with Platov's sour cream on the way, tightened him with a belt belt as tight as possible so that his intestines would not shake, and took him to London. From here, with the left-hander, foreign species went.

Chapter fifteen

The courier with the left-handed person drove very soon, so that they did not stop anywhere from Petersburg to London, but only at each station they had already pulled the belts by one badge so that the intestines and lungs would not get confused; but as the left-hander, after the presentation to the sovereign, according to Platov's order, the treasury had enough wine from the treasury, he supported himself with this alone and sang Russian songs all over Europe, only did the chorus in a foreign way: ".

As soon as the courier brought him to London, he appeared to whoever needed it and gave the box, and put the left-hander in the hotel room, but he soon got bored and wanted to eat. He knocked on the door and showed the attendant to his mouth, who now took him to the food reception room.

The left-hander sat down at the table and sits, but he doesn’t know how to ask something in English. But then he guessed: again he would simply knock on the table with his finger and show himself in his mouth - the British guess and serve, only not always what is needed, but he does not accept what is not suitable for him. They gave him their cooking hot studding on the fire, - he says: “I don’t know that such a thing can be eaten,” and did not eat; they changed him and set another food. He also did not drink vodka, because it is green - it seems as if it is filled with vitriol, but chose that everything is natural, and waits for the courier in the cool behind a small bottle.

And those persons to whom the courier handed over the nymphozoria, this very minute they examined it in the strongest microscope and now a description in the public statements, so that tomorrow the slander will go out to the general news.

- And this master himself, - they say, - we now want to see.

The courier escorted them to their room, and from there to the food reception room, where our left-hander had already turned brown, and said: "Here he is!"

The British are left-handed now, slap-slap on the shoulder and, as an equal, on the hands. "Comrade," they say, "Comrade is a good master," we will talk to you with time, after we will, and now we will drink to your well-being. "

They asked for a lot of wine, and the left-hander had the first glass, but he was the first to drink with courtesy: he was thinking, perhaps, you want to poison it out of annoyance.

- No, - he says, - this is not order: and in Poland there is no owner anymore, - eat ahead yourself.

The British tasted all the wines in front of him and then they began to pour him. He got up, crossed himself with his left hand and drank to all their health.

They noticed that he was crossing himself with his left hand, and asked the courier:

- That he is a Lutheran or a Protestant?

The courier replies:

- No, he is not a Lutheran or a Protestant, but of the Russian faith.

- Why does he cross himself with his left hand?

The courier said:

- He is left-handed and does everything with his left hand.

The British began to be even more surprised - and began to pump wine over both the left-handed man and the courier and spent three whole days doing so, and then they said: "Now that's enough." They took the water with the erfix over the symphony and, completely refreshed, began to ask the left-hander: where did he study and what did he learn and how long does he know arithmetic?

The left-hander answers:

- Our science is simple: according to the Psalter and according to Half-Dream, but we do not know arithmetic in the least.

The British looked at each other and said:

- It's amazing.

And Lefty answers them:

- We have it so everywhere.

- And what is this, - they ask, - for the book in Russia "Half Dream"?

“This,” he says, “is a book that refers to the fact that if in the Psalter King David unclearly discovered anything about fortune-telling, then in Half-Dream they guess an addition.

They say:

- It's a pity, it would be better if you knew at least four rules of addition from arithmetic, then you would be much more useful than the whole Half-Dream. Then you could figure out that in every machine there is a calculation of force; otherwise you are very skillful in your hands, but you didn’t realize that such a small machine, like in the nymphosoria, is designed for the most accurate accuracy and cannot bear its horseshoes. Through this now nymphozoria does not jump and dance.

The left-hander agreed.

- About this, - he says, - there is no doubt that we have not gone into the sciences, but only faithful to our fatherland.

And the British tell him:

- Stay with us, we will give you a great education, and you will become an amazing master.

But the left-hander did not agree to this.

- I, - he says, - have parents at home.

The British called themselves to send money to his parents, but the left-hander did not take it.

“We,” he says, “are committed to our homeland, and my daddy is already an old man, and my parent is an old woman and are accustomed to going to church in her parish, and I will be very bored here alone, because I’m still a bachelor.”

“You,” they say, “will get used to it, you will accept our law, and we will marry you.

- This, - answered the left-hander, - can never be.

- Why is that?

“Because,” he replies, “our Russian faith is the most correct one, and as our righteous fathers believed, the descendants should also believe in the same way.

“You,” the English say, “don’t know our faith: we contain the same Christian law and the same Gospel.

“The gospel,” the left-hander replies, “really all have one thing, but only our books are thicker against yours, and our faith is fuller.

- Why can you judge it like that?

- We have that, - replies, - there is all the obvious evidence.

- And such, - he says; - that we have idolized icons and coffin-chapters and relics, and you have nothing, and even, except for one Sunday, there are no emergency holidays, and for the second reason - I am with an Englishwoman, even though I was married in the law, it will be embarrassing to live.

“Why is this so?” They ask. “Do not neglect: ours also dress very cleanly and housekeepers.

And the left-hander says:

- I do not know them.

The British answer:

- It does not matter the essence - you can find out: we will make you a granddev.

The left-hander was ashamed.

“Why,” he says, “it’s in vain to fool the girls.” “And he refused.

The British were curious:

“And if,” they say, “without a granddev, then how do you do in such cases in order to make a pleasant choice?

The left-hander explained our situation to them.

“With us,” he says, “when a man wants to find out a detailed intention about a girl, he sends a spoken woman, and as she makes an excuse, then they go to the house together politely and they look at the girl without hiding, but with all the kinship.

They understood, but answered that they did not have conversational women and that such a habit was not found, and the left-hander said:

- This is all the more pleasant, because if you do such a thing, you have to do it with a thorough intention, but as I don't feel this for someone else's natsyi, then why fool the girls?

The British liked him in these judgments, so they again walked over the shoulders and knees with the pleasure of clapping their hands, and they themselves asked:

“We would,” they say, “only wanted to know through curiosity: what vicious omens did you notice in our girls and why do you run around them?

Here the left-hander has already answered them frankly:

“I don’t denigrate them, but I don’t like the fact that the clothes on them are somehow waving, and I cannot make out what is worn and for what need; here is one thing, and below there is still another pinned, and there are some kind of feet on the hands. Quite definitely the sapazhu monkey is a velvet talma.

The British laughed and said:

- What obstacle is there for you?

“Obstacles,” the left-hander answers, “no, but I’m only afraid that it will be a shame to watch and wait for her to figure out all of this.

- Is it really, - they say, - your style is better?

- Our style, - he replies, - in Tula is simple: all in their lace, and our lace, even big ladies wear.

They also showed him to their ladies, and there they poured tea for him and asked:

- Why are you frowning?

He replied that we, he said, were not very sweetly accustomed.

Then he was given a bite in Russian.

It seems to them that it seems to be worse, and he says:

- It tastes better for our taste.

The British could not bring him down with anything, so that he would be seduced by their lives, but only persuaded him to stay for a short time, and at that time they would take him to different factories and show all their art.

- And then, - they say, - we will bring him on our ship and deliver him alive to Petersburg.

To this he agreed.

Chapter sixteen

The British took the left-hander into their own hands, and sent the Russian courier back to Russia. Although the courier had a rank and was learned in different languages, they were not interested in him, but they were interested in the left-hander, and they went to drive the left-hander and show him everything. He watched all of their production: both metal factories and soap and saw factories, and all their economic arrangements he really liked, especially about the working content. Every worker with them is constantly satiated, dressed not in scraps, but on each a capable jacket, shod in thick tweezers with iron knobs so that they don’t run into anything anywhere; does not work with boilie, but with training and has an idea. In front of everyone, there is a multiplication groove in full view, and under his hand is a washable tablet: everything that the master does is looking at the groove and verifies with the concept, and then he writes one thing on the board, erases the other and brings it exactly: what is written on the tsyfir, then and in fact it comes out. And a holiday will come, they will gather in a couple, take a stick in their hands and go for a walk, decorously and nobly, as they should.

The left-hander had seen enough of all their life and all their work, but most of all he paid attention to such a subject that the British were very surprised. He was not so interested in how the new guns are made, but how the old ones are in what form. He goes around and praises everything and says:

- We can do that too.

And when he gets to the old gun, he sticks his finger in the barrel, walks along the walls and sighs:

“This,” he says, “is superior to ours.

The British could not guess what a left-handed person was noticing, and he asks:

- Can't, - he says, - I know that our generals have seen it or not? They say to him:

- Those who were here, they must have looked.

- And how, - he says, - were they: in a glove or without a glove?

- Your generals, they say, are ceremonial, they always wear gloves; it means that they were here too.

The left-hander said nothing. But suddenly he began to get bored uneasily. Yearned and yearned and said to the English:

- Thank you humbly at all the refreshments, and I am very pleased with everything with you and have already seen everything that I needed to see, and now I rather want to go home.

They could no longer hold him back. It was impossible to let him on land, because he couldn’t speak all languages, and it was not good to sail on water, because the time was stormy autumn, but he stuck: let go.

- We at the boremmeter, - they say, - looked: there will be a storm, you can drown; it's not like you have the Gulf of Finland, but here is the real Mediterranean Sea.

- It's all the same, - answers, - where to die, - everything is unique, the will of God, and I want to go to my native place, because otherwise I can get a kind of insanity.

They did not restrain him with force: they nourished him, rewarded him with money, presented him with a gold watch with trepidation as a keepsake, and for the coolness of the sea on the late autumn journey, they gave him a bike coat with a wind blower over his head. They dressed very warmly and took the left-hander to the ship, which was sailing to Russia. Here they put the left-hander in his best form, like a real master, but he did not like to sit with other gentlemen in the closure and was ashamed, but would go to the deck, sit down with a present and ask: "Where is our Russia?"

The Englishman, whom he asks, will point his hand in that direction or wave his head, and he turns his face there and looks impatiently in his native direction.

As they left the buffet for the Mediterranean Sea, so his desire for Russia became such that it was impossible to calm him down. The flooding has become terrible, but the left-hander does not go down into the cabins - he sits under the present, pushed his head down and looks to the fatherland.

Many times the British came to a warm place downstairs to call him, but so that he would not be bothered, he even began to shrug.

“No,” he replies, “it's better for me to be outside; otherwise a guinea pig will become with me under the roof from the flailing.

So all the time and did not go until a special occasion, and through this I really liked one half-keeper, who, on the mountain of our left-hander, knew how to speak Russian. This half-skipper could not have wondered that the Russian land man could withstand all the bad weather anyway.

- Well done, - he says, - Russian! Let's have a drink!

The left-hander drank.

- And the half-skipper says:

The left-hander also drank and got drunk.

The half-skipper asks him:

- What secret are you taking from our state to Russia?

The left-hander answers:

- It's my business.

- And if so, - answered the half-skipper, - so let's keep an English pair with you.

Lefty asks:

- Such that you do not drink anything alone, but drink everything in a hot spot: that one, then certainly the other, and who drinks whom, that and a slide.

The left-hander thinks: the sky is cloudy, the belly is swollen, - the boredom is great, but the fishing line is long, and you can't see your native place beyond the wave - it will still be more fun to bet.

- Okay, - he says, - it's coming!

- Just to be honest.

- Yes, this, - he says, - do not worry.

They agreed and shook hands.

Chapter seventeen

Their bets began in the Mediterranean Sea, and they drank until the Riga Dinaminda, but they walked on an equal footing and did not yield to each other and were so neatly equal that when one, looking into the sea, saw the devil climbing out of the water, so now the same thing happened to the other. Only a half-skipper sees the feature of a redhead, and a left-handed person says that he is dark, like a murin.

Lefty says:

- Cross and turn away - this is the devil from the abyss.

And the Englishman argues that "this is a seawater."

- Do you want, - he says, - I'll throw you into the sea? Do not be afraid - he will give you back to me now.

And the left-hander answers:

- If so, throw it.

The half-skipper picked him up and carried him to the side.

The sailors saw this, stopped them and reported to the captain, who ordered them both downstairs to lock them up and give them rum and wine and cold food so that they could eat and drink and withstand their bet - and they did not serve hot studding with fire, because they can catch fire in their gut.

So they were brought locked up to Petersburg, and none of them won a bet from each other; and then they put them on different carts and took the Englishman to the ambassador's house on the Aglitskaya embankment, and the left-hander to the quarter.

Hence, their fate began to differ greatly.

Chapter Eighteen

As soon as the Englishman was brought to the embassy's house, they immediately called a doctor and a pharmacist to him. The doctor told him to put him in a warm bath with him, and the pharmacist immediately rolled a gutta-percha pill and put it in his mouth himself, and then they both took it and put it on the feather bed and covered it with a fur coat on top and left him to sweat, and so that no one interfered with him, all over the order was given to the embassy so that no one would dare to sneeze. The doctor and the pharmacist waited until the half-skipper fell asleep, and then another gutta-percha pill was prepared for him, put on a table near his head and left.

And the left-hander was piled on the floor in the block and asked:

- Who is and where, and is there a passport or some other tugament?

And he has become so weak from illness, from drinking and from a long hesitation that he does not answer a word, but only groans.

Then they searched him now, they took off his colorful dress and the watch with trepidation, and the money was turned off, and the bailiff ordered him to be sent to the hospital free of charge in an oncoming cab.

He led the policeman to put the left-hander on the sled, but for a long time he could not catch a single counter, because the cabbies run from the police. And the left-hander lay on the cold parate all the time; then he caught a city cabman, only without a warm fox, because they hide the fox in the sleigh under themselves so that the police’s feet would soon get cold. They drove the left-hander so uncovered, but how they start replanting from one cab to another, they drop everything, but they start picking up - they tear the fish soup to remember it.

They brought him to one hospital - they didn’t accept him without a tugament, they brought him to another - and they don’t accept him there, and so in the third, and in the fourth - until the morning he was dragged along all the distant curves and everyone was transplanted, so that he was beaten all over. Then one clerk told the policeman to take him to the common people of the Obukhvin hospital, where everyone of an unknown class is accepted to die.

Then they ordered to give a receipt, and to put the left-hander on the floor in the corridor until dismantling.

And the English half-skipper got up at that very time the next day, swallowed another gutta-percha pill in his gut, ate a chicken and a lynx for a light breakfast, washed down with a erfix and said:

- Where is my Russian comrade? I'll go look for him.

I got dressed and ran.

Chapter nineteen

In an amazing manner, the half-skipper somehow very soon found the left-hander, only he had not yet been put on the bed, and he was lying on the floor in the corridor and complaining to the Englishman.

“I would,” he says, “I must say two words to the emperor.

The Englishman ran to Count Kleinmichel and made a noise:

- How can you! He has, - he says, - although he has Ovechkin's coat, so is the soul of a man.

An Englishman is now out of there for this reasoning, so as not to dare to remember the soul of the little man. And then someone said to him: "You'd better go to the Cossack Platov - he has simple feelings."

The Englishman reached Platov, who was now lying on the couch again. Platov listened to him and remembered about the left-hander.

“Why, brother,” he says, “I know him very briefly, I even tore him by the hair, but I don’t know how to help him on such an unfortunate occasion; because I have already completely served and received full pupletion - now they no longer respect me - and you run to Commandant Skobelev as soon as possible, he is capable and also experienced in this part, he will do something.

The half-skipper went to Skobelev and told everything: what a disease the left-hander had and why it had become. Skobelev says:

- I understand this disease, only the Germans cannot cure it, but here we need some doctor from the clerical rank, because they have grown up in these examples and can help; I will send the Russian doctor Martyn-Solsky there now.

But only when Martyn-Solsky arrived, the left-hander was already over, because the back of his head had split against the parat, and he could only articulate one thing:

- Tell the sovereign that the British do not clean their guns with bricks: let them not clean them here either, otherwise, God save the war, they are not good for shooting.

And with this loyalty, the left-hander crossed himself and died. Martyn-Solsky immediately went, reported to Count Chernyshev in order to inform the Emperor, and Count Chernyshev shouted at him:

“Know,” he says, “your emetic and laxative, and don't get in the way of your own business: there are generals in Russia for this.

The sovereign was never told, and the purge continued until the Crimean campaign itself. At that time, they began to load the rifles, and the bullets in them dangled, because the trunks were cleared with bricks.

Here Martyn-Solsky reminded Chernyshev about the left-handed person, and Count Chernyshev said:

“Go to hell, plezirnaya pipe, don’t get in the way of your own business, or I’ll open up that I’ve never heard of this from you, and you’ll get it.”

Martyn-Solsky thought: "And he really will open himself," and was silent.

And if they had brought the words of the left-handed people to the sovereign in due time, in the Crimea, in the war with the enemy, there would have been a completely different turn.

Chapter Twenty

Now all this is already "deeds of bygone days" and "legends of antiquity", although not deep, but there is no need to rush to forget these legends, despite the fabulous makeup of the legend and the epic character of its protagonist. The proper name of the left-hander, like the names of many of the greatest geniuses, is forever lost to posterity; but as a myth personified by folk fantasy, he is interesting, and his adventures can serve as a memory of an era, the general spirit of which has been captured aptly and correctly.

Of course, there are no such masters as the fabulous left-hander in Tula anymore: machines have equalized the inequality of talents and talents, and genius is not torn in the struggle against diligence and accuracy. Fostering the rise of earnings, machines do not favor artistic prowess, which sometimes exceeded the measure, inspiring the folk fantasy to compose fabulous legends like the present.

Workers, of course, know how to appreciate the benefits brought to them by the practical adaptations of mechanical science, but they remember the old days with pride and love. This is their epic, and, moreover, with a very "human soul".