Tashkent “bread- city”

TASHKENT - “BREAD- CITY”

1. Twelve-year-old Mishka Dodonov lives in a village in the Samara region with his mother and two brothers--Fedka, age 4; and Yashka, age 8. His father, grandmother, grandfather, aunt, and uncle have all died of hunger.

On the street, Mishka overhears some peasant men saying that grain is plentiful in Tashkent, which is 2,000 versts distant. The only problem is you need a pass and money for a ticket to get there.

Mishka decides to go to Tashkent to get grain. He's just a kid--no one will ask him for a pass. And he can sneak aboard the train, or ride on the roof. His friend, the 11-year-old Serezhka Karpukhin, agrees to go with Mishka on the trip.

2. Mishka convinces his mother to let him undertake the trip to Tashkent.

3. & 4. Mishka and Serezhka make the long trek to the train station. Mishka is carrying some bread, and Serezhka has some potatoes. Mishka also has a couple of his grandmother's old skirts, which he intends to sell in Tashkent to get money with which to buy grain.

5. Mass chaos at the train station. Peasants climbing aboard and clambering onto the train car roofs, and Red Army soldiers shooing them away. As the train starts to leave, Mishka jumps up onto the roof of one car. A peasant asks Mishka where he's going. When Mishka says, "Tashkent", the peasant tells him he better get off because the train's going to Siberia! But it's too late. The train is picking up speed. Serezhka is racing alongside the train trying to get on. But he falls into the dust. Mishka's heart drops, fearing he and his friend will be parted forever now. But the train stops, changes tracks, and returns to the station.

Mishka finds Serezhka crying near a switchman's booth. Mishka tells his friend to wait there while he goes off to find out how to get to Tashkent.