The story of one knife from my next book: Google translation, sorry, the book will be in Russian.
“Our wonderful Chust.
It has long been - here and archaeologists are lost in the dating - in Chust they forged knives, embroidered skullcaps and wove multi-colored chorsi - belt scarves. Without these three objects, a man and from the yard, it happened, would not come out, would be ashamed. I will make a reservation right away: the Kokand blades, the Bukhara round skullcaps and the Samarkand suzans will argue with the Chust ones for beauty and antiquity. But there is one subtle difference here that is not always understandable to an outsider. Bukhara skullcaps are worn only by women and children. The Kokand cleaver, shaped like a Finn, is somewhat heavy and long; in kinbokah - the decorated sheaths, most often metal, with blackening on silver - it looks great on the wall. But after waking up in the morning, millions of men impose Chust skullcaps on top of the crown, and the shepherds, when they go on the road, lay for their tops the Chust pechaks in a soft leather casing. And they tie yellowish-pink chorsi, which has no wear, on top of their dressing gowns ...
Over the long centuries of its existence, Chust burned more than once, was empty, then again filled with working people. Master Rakhimdzhan Salidzhanov remembers how he was empty at once on June 25, 1941. From the neighboring MTS drove cars. In the body tightly seated people. These were all men of the town - from 18 to 45 years. The column started moving, the streets froze. It was heard how the water roars in the shallows. Only here and there, because of the duvali, came the female crying and barking of dogs. Rakhimdzhan was supposed to go with everyone, but at the last minute he was summoned by the military commissar. Showed the drawings. “Can you grind out like that?” Rahimjan shrugged. He could do everything. “Scouts need such swords, and more such cavalrymen. Understood? "How not to understand? “Submit a list of assistants and necessary equipment. And on this paper, sign here that you pledge not to disclose military secrets. ”
So Rakhimdzhan Salidzhanov, the most cheerful person in the market, turned into a recluse. For four years he had been grinding excellent daggers and short sabers, but there was something cruel in these razor-sharp implements. Pecach, to whom he was accustomed, was intended only for a peaceful life. And only the consciousness that his current knives are military weapons and they are necessary for the front, brought satisfaction from work. Masters who sewed scarves for brides, and they began to scribble shirts and mittens, and the best embroiderers cut footcloths .....
The military commissar handed over letters to Rakhimdzhan from the front. The fighters praised his work. Light chust knives were indispensable in hand-to-hand combat. But the master dreamed of a time when it would be possible to throw off an apron, move away from the forge, which, bent over, stood day and night and from the heat of which his skin on his face hardened and his mustaches faded, breathe a breeze from the mountains, and then return to blow up the fire, and forge Pechak, so that people gasped, glancing at him, and said: “This is Pechak! Knives for all knives! ”
Rahimdzhan-aka does not like to remember the products that he had to forge in the war. But his apprentice, Rustan Akbarov, who from the age of seven years old, trained as an old man, will not fail to show the guest diplomas of the Committee of Defense and four medals received by usto ... ”
