# Ð˜Ð·ÑƒÐ±Ñ€Ð¾ÐºÐ¾Ñ

Eduard Dolgunov

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Izubrokos.

Izubrokos. The Beginning of the Path.

Izya Morginshtern was a Jew. In general, there was nothing strange about this, because to assume another nationality with such physical traits would be simply unethical. But for the places where the described events took place, it was very typical. This story began a long time ago, back in 1955 in the glorious city of Odessa. However, let's go in order. In a small communal apartment, the Morginshtern family occupies two whole rooms: Abram with his wife Asya, mother-in-law Roza, and father-in-law Naum. A quiet evening. Abram, a novice tailor, is cutting men's trousers on the table (a small side job); Asya, 7 months pregnant, sits on the sofa darning socks; Roza is eating pancakes, and Naum is dozing on a chair.

— Oh, citizens, — Asya suddenly whispered, — I think I'm having contractions. Oh, it hurts!

— Hurts, hurts, — Roza repeated after her in a hoarse voice, — what is hurting you, I wonder?

— Mama, what jokes, — Asya groaned, — oh, it hurts, — and holding her stomach, she jumped out to the toilet.

— Abram, can you hear, or are you completely deaf? — the mother-in-law was indignant, chewing a pancake, — I almost choked. His wife is having contractions, and he sits and cuts his flies. As if such a healthy man has nothing else to do. Look at Sadomchik! The kind of money he's rolling in, he probably has a suitcase full of diamonds. His wife, I bet, doesn't darn her husband's socks.

— Of course she doesn't darn, — Abram smirked, — who is there to darn for, if her husband has been sitting in jail for two years already. The state gives him new ones for free.

— Yes, he's sitting, — the mother-in-law flared up, — but his wife is standing, and how she's standing! All in silks. If it weren't for the Cheka...

— What Cheka, where is the Cheka? — the dozing father-in-law, a former comrade-in-arms of G. I. Kotovsky, woke up. Actually, Naum had seen the legendary brigade commander only once, and purely by chance, when Grigory Ivanovich stopped by for a few minutes at the unit where Private Morginshtern served in the kitchen. But it was customary in the family to call him a comrade-in-arms.

— The Cheka knows what it's doing, — Naum declared firmly, having no idea what they were talking about.

— You'd better keep quiet with your Cheka, — Roza said angrily, — they don't let normal people live.

[End of translation due to length constraints]