Fall of Matilda

Eugene Russ

The USSR board 75559 stood on the runway of the Pulkovo airport. It was a warm April evening in 1974. Passengers have already taken their seats and some of them have already fastened their seat belts. Most of the cadets of military schools and students were flying. They flew for a short vacation. Among them was a young couple. He was an engineer for the construction of bridges and tunnels Anatoly Ksyushinsky and his young wife Natalia. They flew for family reasons. Natalia was worried about her one-year-old daughter Matilda and was visibly nervous, "well, how she now with her grandmother is? Whole four days!"

"Not four, but three," Anatoly answered her, "I already said, it will be difficult for a one-year-old child to fly a flight. I myself get tired of the flights. And we do not have time for the train. Only three days we will not be. On May Day, we will be home."

The crew of the IL-18 also prepared for take-off and has already taken its places.

"Nikolai, why did the crew from Krasnodar refuse to fly back?" asked the second pilot of the aircraft.

"Eugene, they said there was a vibration of the fourth engine, but after that the board passed the test, no faults were found. I think they are just tired," said the commander of the ship Danilov Nikolai Valerianovich.

"Perhaps, Nikolay. We are a spare crew and this is our job. In vain they called them cowardly pilots."

"I agree that when we turned the board last month after the fire detector worked, we were also called cowardly pilots."

"I remember it was a false alarm."

"Well, Eugene, are we ready for takeoff?"

"Yes, Nicholas."

"Well, we are waiting for the command dispatcher."

"Board 75559, do you hear?"

"The tower, Board 75559, we hear perfectly."

"Board 75559, wind north-west 320°, wind speed 7 meters per second, visibility 20 kilometers, take off is permitted."

A minute later, the stewardess entered the cabin and announced by a loudspeaker – you are welcomed by the crew of the Leningrad Unified Air Squadron and the commander of the ship Danilov Nikolai Valerianovich aboard the IL-18. Please put up the backrests of armchairs in a vertical position and fasten your seat belts.

After a while, the plane began to take off on the runway and pulled away from the ground. Rising to the altitude, the passengers relaxed. Some of them unfastened their seat belts.

"The tower, Board 75559, took off," Danilov said to the ground.

"Board 75559, I pass the conditions of exit from the airport zone."

Conditions were accepted by the crew, and after two and a half minutes IL-18 performed the first turn.

"The tower, Board 75559, the lamps of ‘fourth engine fire’ panel turned on, a dangerous vibration," reported Danilov unexpectedly.

"Board 75559, make a landing at the nearest military airfield Gorelovo."

"Tower, Board 75559, we return to Pulkovo. Provide a fire truck.

After a while, the voice of the dispatcher came."

"Flight 75559, the approach conditions for Pulkovo landing at the magnetic course of 279°, line 28. The firefighting calculations arrived."

"Tower, Board 75559, the fire was confirmed. The fourth engine in the weathervane is on fire."

"Board 75559, make a landing at the nearest aerodrome. Now this is the airfield of Pushkino!"

"Tower, Board 75559, I will carry out the scheme approach at Pulkovo. Firemen are waiting for us! There are no firefighting calculations in Pushkino."

Danilov already had had a severe reprimand and he was scolded by his superiors twice from executing a quick landing with violations. Other pilots even sometimes called him a coward, and this he perceived quite painfully. This time, Danilov decided to land in accordance with the instructions on the mandatory scheme. The plane quickly approached its landing strip and behind it stretched a huge plume of smoke.

"Tower, Board 75559, the distance of 2500 meters, I enter the glide path", – Danilov said.

A second later the Board 75559 began to enter the right bank, while lowering the nose.

"Tower, Board 75559, we fall, the end of the connection", – these were the last words of the commander of the ship, which were heard from the ground.

"It's good that Matilda is not with us now", – these were the last words of Anatoly Ksyushinsky, who tightly squeezed his young wife's hand.

The years went by. Matilda grew rapidly and developed rapidly. Her grandmother, Antonina Leonidovna, tried to comprehensively develop and educate her granddaughter. She understood that her age would come to an end, and she wanted to be sure that Matilda could learn, graduate, and get a good job to feed herself.

"I need to live another ten years and put his granddaughter on his feet!" though Antonina Leonidovna.

Now she was sitting in a chair and knit wool socks. She took them every Sunday to the market and gave to her friend for sale. It was not possible to her to stand in market and sell socks. She couldn't leave the little one Matilda. Antonina Leonidovna had a small pension, only 72 rubles and 30 kopecks. On life them this was enough. Knitting socks was little bit helpful to her pension. This year Matilda must to go to school in the first grade. It was needed to buy uniform, a briefcase, and notebooks. Textbooks were given out at school for free. The house of Grandma Tonya and Matilda already had textbooks. It was an ABC book, textbooks in English and many books. Matilda at five years learned to read, and at six years the grandmother insisted on the study of Matilda of the English language. It was an English textbook for the fifth grade of high school. Twice a week had coming a young English teacher and engaging with Matilda. Grandmother was paying twenty rubles a month for these lessons. After six months of learning English Matilda's grandmother was forced to withdraw from these lessons. The pensions were become not enough. It could not be said that the products were more expensive, but they gradually disappeared from the shelves, and they could be bought at the Bazaar a little more expensive. It was hidden inflation, expressed in a shortage of goods on store shelves. Goods in the country were, and refrigerators of common peoples were at all or almost at all full. Grandma Tonya still remembered those times when 1 gram of gold was always equal to four rubles and forty-five kopecks, and inflation was absent as a concept. At the end of February 1950, she read in Newspapers about the Decision of the USSR Council of Ministers, in which the Soviet ruble was transferred to a permanent gold base and 1 gram of gold equaled to 4 rubles and 45 kopecks. Yes, it was a Gold Standard! Since then, prices for all goods fell, but after 10 years, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers N. Khrushchev abolished the government decree of March 1, 1950 and again tied all money settlements to the dollar. About it not wrote in Newspapers. But later all began to feel it on their wallet. Sometimes neighbor Zina came to Tonya. She was a little younger, and she had a husband who came back alive from the war. Tonya and Zina were one of the few Leningrad women who survived the blockade and survived. Grandma Tonya still remembered those post-war years when Zina's husband was getting drunk on vodka, and if Zina fell under his hot hand, she always got а fist under her eye. With a bruise under the eye Zina proudly went out into the yard, hanging clothes for drying or just went to the bakery. Many women envied her – a bruise under the eye meant that this woman has a man who returned from the war. Now they were already old. The Zina's husband has already stopped to drink vodka and has passed to kefir. It can’t be said that he did not drink vodka at all. Sometimes he was drinking on holidays, sometimes without any reason. He often sat in the courtyard and knocked on the dominoes. Grannie Zina had no choice but to go to the bench, where women gatherers, or go to visit hers neighbor Tonya.