The ability to obey is an important skill that distinguishes strong people from weak ones. The weak obey because they have no strength to resist. The strong obey because they consider it reasonable and know how to do it easily.
Kalina Ivanovich does not like to obey
In the colony, I already found the caretaker Kalina Ivanovich. He greeted me with a question:
— Will you be the head of the pedagogical department?
I soon established that Kalina Ivanovich spoke with Ukrainian pronunciation, although in principle he did not recognize the Ukrainian language. There were many Ukrainian words in his dictionary, and he always pronounced “g” in a southern manner. But in the word «pedagogical» for some reason he pressed so hard on the literary Great Russian «r» that he succeeded, perhaps, even too strongly.
— Will you be the head of the pedagogical department?
— Why? I am the head of the colony …
“No,” he said, taking the tou out of his mouth, “you will be the head of the pedagogical department, and I will be the head of the economic department.
Imagine v.e.levskogo «Pan», already completely bald, with only small remnants of hair above the ears. Shave off Pan’s beard, and cut his mustache like a bishop. In the teeth, give him that.e.u. It will no longer be Pan, but Kalina Ivanovich Serdyuk. He was extremely difficult for such a simple matter as managing the economy of a children’s colony. Behind him was at least fifty years of various activities. But only two eras were his pride: in his youth he was a hussar of the Life Guards of Her Majesty’s Keksgolm Regiment, and in the eighteenth year he was in charge of the evacuation of the city of Mirgorod during the German offensive.
Kalina Ivanovich became the first object of my educational activity. I was especially troubled by the abundance of the most diverse beliefs in him. He scolded bourgeois, Bolsheviks, Russians, Jews, our slovenliness and German neatness with the same taste. But his blue eyes sparkled with such a love for life, he was so receptive and agile, that I did not spare him a little pedagogical energy. And I began his education in the very first days, from our first conversation:
“How can it be, Comrade Serdyuk, it can’t be without the head of the colony?” Someone has to be responsible for everything.
Kalina Ivanovich again took out that EU and politely bowed to my face:
“So you want to be the head of the colony?” And for me to obey you in some way?
— No, it’s not necessary. Come on, I will obey you.
— I did not study pedagogy, what is not mine is not mine. You are still a young man and you want me, an old man, to run errands? That’s not good either! And to be the head of the colony — well, you know, for this I am still semi-literate, and why should I? ..
Kalina Ivanovich moved away from me unfavorably. Pouted. The whole day he walked around sad, and in the evening he came to my room already in complete sadness.
— I have put a table and a bed for you here, which ones were found …
— Thank.
“I was thinking, thinking about how we should deal with this very colony. And having decided that, of course, it is better for you to be the head of the colony, and I will, as it were, obey you.
— Let’s make peace, Kalina Ivanovich.
“I also think that we will make up.” Do not mold holy pots, and we will do our job. And you, as a literate person, will be like a manager.
We got to work.