Nadia from Apaleva

The end of the 50s of the XX century. Northwest Russia. On the banks of the Itomli River is the village of Apalevo. Here with her 70-year-old grandparents lives the restless brunette Nadia Koltsova. She is 25 years old, but the suitors bypass her - as a child, she flew into a standing braid and has remained since then a scar from the temple to the neck. Nadia works on the collective farm as a projection mechanic and in a club. She gives all her strength to social work, but does not pay attention to herself. She is called a chalda by her eyes.

The narrator (author) arrives in Apalevo in the early spring to hunt grouse. Nadia leads him to the swamp, but at the last moment scares the capercaillie:
“Please don't be angry.” He sang a love song ...

The farm has a 30-year-old driver Okolosheev. Everyone calls him just about. Once he came from the city, stayed and now lives taking pictures of the corners. Sometimes he enters the Koltsovs' house.

Once in July, Nadia dropped a sack of boxes of film into the river. The whole village was going to pull out. Half a day dived Around and finally pulled out all the boxes to one. After the movie there were dances. Suddenly a new girl appears. All evening. About dancing only with her. Nadia disappears, and then appears in an absurd outfit.

Summer is ending. Zink Ryabova starts a rumor in the village that Around "plastered Nagy." Now the nickname "Chalda" has been replaced by a new one - "the planed centuries-old." Nadya is going through gossip hard.

In the club there is a lecture "on love and friendship." After the lecture, Zinka Ryabova’s husband tries to publicly shame Nadia. Around Enters and it turns out that in the barn, where Around "educated married youth", was not Nadya, but Zink Ryabova herself. Nadia both laughs and cries - nevertheless, "a blow to the Komsomol organization."

On a September morning, the Storyteller leaves Apalevo. Finally, Around openly speaks about his work: "Poor you generally understand life." Nadya escorts the Storyteller to the station and gives him a farewell pack of newspapers. In one of them is a “commendable article” written by Nadenka about the Storyteller.

The next time the Storyteller arrives in Apalevo the next time, Nadenka and Around are already married, live in the old Koltsovs' house and are going to build a new one.
“The young ones lived carelessly, but cheerfully, ate whatever came to hand, but with appetite, they often quarreled, but put up right away.”
Nadia "all shone, bathed in soft, warm light."
"She was immensely happy ..."

According to Gleb Goryshin, who wrote the preface to Kurochkin’s collection of Tales and Stories (1978), in his works, where the story is told in the first person, the figure-writer-storyteller is always derogatory, and in some places it resembles a cartoon. ^[2] However, G.E. Nesterova-Kurochkina, in turn, notes that the lyrical "I" from whom the story is narrated in the story speaks in three meanings: the author, the narrator and the protagonist. ^[2]