Stepanova Epistinia Biography

Today it is important to remember the history of Epistinia Stepanova, because in it - the Christian motives of peaceful and good life on earth, human being. This year has turned 50 years since the death of a soldier's mother. She died on February 7 at the age of 87. Grandmother Pestya lived for a long time - she survived a lot, she saw a lot for her almost nine dozen.

But all fellow countrymen called the mother simply - the grandmother is Pestya. This name was given to her at baptism. The young pestrate would never have thought that her life would wove with the Kuban land, the Kuban Cossacks, if at the end of the 19th century her parents, Fedor and Theodore Rybalko, did not decide to move from the village near Mariupol to the Kuban.

The place is new, unassembled, rich in earth and resources. Consider that a hundred years have passed as the Cossacks, according to the gift of Catherine II, mastered the territory. Around - steppes and rivers, occasionally there are a farm with modest dozens, or even units of courtyards. So the large family of Rybalko decided, in the family of which there were nine children, to move to the lands of free Cossacks.

They collected things, loaded Arbu and went on the ground - first Azov, then Don, and after that the Kuban steppes began. Konov writes: “They moved in the spring. Warm, dried roads. By heat, you can not only find a suitable place in the huge Kuban, but also arrange some dwelling to the cold and, God will give something to grow for the winter. ” The first sadness found on the road - the head of the family died: he broke - Arbu pulled out of a puddle.

The white huts of the farm were already visible when the sudden rain was doused. Fedor died a few days after arrival. The Timashev archivists managed to find out that there were several Panov of the Shkuropatsky, but what exactly the lands had on that farm where the Rybalko family moved was not known for certain. Historians claim that Pan was lucky: he was kind, gave land for use without payment at the first time, until the families got to their feet.

Do not find the Shkuropatsky farm now on the map or on Earth. Nadezhda Basmanova writes: "A farm that is not ... did not last long - in the year it was founded by Colonel Shkuropatsky, and in M ​​was liquidated." Lude moved to neighboring, more fired farms, some even rushed to the district center, which by that time, in M, received the status of the city. They did not preserve either farm streets or the Saman's houses of the Shkuropatsky farm.

It is understandable: clay and reeds would not have stood for long in the rains and winds - consider it, almost a century has passed. Short century. They also equalized the hut of the Stepanovs, not taking a single photo for memory ... But the Khutorovo graveyard is still worth it, it has not been touched. Many Stepanovs and fishing are buried there: Mikhail, his children, and brothers, and nephews.

A man in the family has now become a brother of Danil shed. Viktor Konov writes: "Fedor punished: go to the farms, go in vnim ...". So they decided: Danila took the Epistine to another farm. The childhood has ended with pies. There, on the farm, she had to take care of the cattle of the owners, who often mocked their farm laborers. Soon, part of the family moved to the coast of the Sea of ​​Azov.

Life there was easier: the sea - neither plowing nor sowing, only fish, as much as you want. Two remained in Shkuropatsky: Danil’s brother and the sister of the gone, Epistinia was batraching in another farm, still his name is not known. Brother often visited her. She dutifully and obediently carried out his advice and orders. Having already become an adult, in difficult times, thinking and wondering how to get out of a difficult situation, she always ended the discussion with the words: “And there - the yak is said to Danaho,” writes Konov.

Gradually, Pestya got used to Cossack life, her customs and orders, peered into the examples of folk Kuban life. In the archives, no evidence of the life of Epistinia Stepanova until marriage has been preserved. Viktor Konov gathered the whole story by bit: he walked Stepanov’s paths, breathed air, which breathed a large family, recorded the memoirs of relatives, neighbors, farmers ...

Life was boiling: Pan rented lands to the new peasants, Cossacks; They started families here, led the household-to the river to hand, some few tens of meters; We went to the monastery of Mary Magdalene, whose domes were visible from the lands of a neighboring farm. First settled in the village of Olginskaya, but because of the pressure of the Cossacks to the alien, I had to move to a new place.

It turned out to be the Skaropatsky farm. They rented land from Pan Shkuropatsky. Pan for tenants took land plots on his farm, on which he allowed to build a hut, outbuildings, sow cereals, vegetables and melons. According to the Mezhe, he allowed the acacia - building material, in the courtyard - mulberry, the favorite treat of children ... ” - writes the local historian, an honored cultural worker of the Kuban Taisiya Chumakova.

Viktor Konov testifies: “In the shaky today's generic legend about the marriage of Epistigna, brittle scraps and pieces have been preserved. The first hut of the Stepanovs burned down, Mikhail elevated the second. And the worries flowed: the pestle is no longer a laborer, but his wife, Michael - husband, strength and family support. It was difficult for them to live on Cossack land at first: neither Cossacks nor Panama were - a newcomer, Katsapa.And the family of Mikhail did not sincerely accept Pesya: without a father, the family in the Kuban is scattered, Yuna was too quiet, peacefully the life of the Stepanovs.

Sent the kids. The first - Stefania - was born in m, but Stephania was only according to documents, the relatives called the walls, Stepanida. Epistinia was 17 years old. But the first loss happened very soon. The four -year -old wall fell into a cast iron with boiling water, scalded. It was winter, the girl was overlaid with snow. She died a few days later from pneumonia. The score is open.

The little coffin was attributed to the sad mound, ”writes Viktor Konov. How could the twenty -year -old girl be experienced by the death of her daughter? Where did the young people have the strength? .. New children, worries about them. She knew how to spin the yarn, knitted socks, mittens and lace on the gaps, she knew the family herself, and the family, thank God, was large. Mikhail Nikolayevich and Epistinia Fedorovna had 15 children: 12 boys and 3 girls.

For more than 11 years she went pregnant! About how Epistine was the mistress, how she cooked food, baked bread, bagels, pies and pancakes, went legends. They baked bagels with the whole family - they baked a bag and more. Pancakes did not start less bucket of Epistinium. Years passed, many knew about the Stepanovs. From the book “Epistinia” Viktor Konov: “Mikhail owned a letter, knew how to read, one of the few on the farm began to write out the newspaper.

They began to go to him with requests to write a letter, official paper, or just for advice, which was later proudly told by her husband to the children of Epistin. ” In E, hunger came to the Kuban. Mikhail could not stand it, died in the year. The sad churchyard was replenished with another cross with the inscription "Stepanov." Children have only Epistinia. The work on the collective farm "May 1" fed the family: older children worked-Nikolai, Vasily and Philip, the younger ones at that time graduated from school.

In m, May 20, in the battle over Khalkhin-Gol, Fedor Stepanov died. Before him, in July, Beloksaki was killed by Alexander the Sr.. In the year, Epistina moved to the house of Philip to the farm on May 1 now Olkhovsky. Two years later, the Great Patriotic War began. Vasily and Philip went to military training, spent to the front of Nikolai and Sasha-Mizinchik.

Vanya, Vasya and Pavlush disappeared. It became difficult to Epistinia Fedorovna alone, her life on Earth has passed over the sixth ten. The sons in the war - she himself entered with the wife of Philip Alexandra Moiseevna. Nadezhda Basmanova writes: “On December 28, at the reception in the Executive Committee, Epistinia Fedorovna Stepanova was in the executive committee.

The mother came to beat with a brow - not to remove the cow from her. Due to the fact that the exchange of cows occurred during the German occupation and the amend cow of citizen Stepanova was stolen by unknown someone, to refuse the lawsuit, to fix the cow behind the farm of the collective farm. It is hard to believe that no one then asked the mother with whom she lives, where her breadwinner, have they crossed to the side of the enemy?

It was hungry and cold in m, she saved only the bake in the hut, which was built by Philip. The Cossacks mocked about these furnaces, but its dignity turned out to be great. So the cold occupation in winter, a piece of Philip, son, warmed his mother and wife. There were days, nights, weeks and months ... There were letters of sons from the fronts.