My father was just fifteen years old when the family lost its breadwinner. His father, (my grandfather), a blacksmith, worked in Bryansk "Arsenal". Traumatism in the factory was terrible. Grandfather was injured too. The striker could not control the hammer and gave him a terrible blow.
He would never fully recover. Before his death grandfather was moved to higher ground - he could not breathe in the valley. He died soon after in the arms of his son. My father, after seven years schooling had to go to the same plant. The 1930s - hard times. Industrialization was in full swing. The plant was casting cannons using new alloys. The technology was unstable: one day the casting was of a high quality, the other it cracked. My father was a competent young man. At the casting laboratory, where he studied metallography, they made thin sections assessing the quality of each casting. The head of the foundry, a burly man and usually good-natured, was extremely nervous - the defect rate was higher than normal. Сommissioner arrived to inspect the quality of casting and the cracking continued. There was talk of a sabotage.
Father said, “To me, still quite a young lad, the head of the foundry, a man of about fifty, spoke obsequiously ”, that put me in an awkward position. When meeting me he asked the same question every time: "Well, Kolya, what is the test result?” The stress became overwhelming for him. He did not come out of the workshop for days on end. He even brought a bed from home. Another casting turned out to be of a poor quality. Apparently, the laboratory where my father worked confirmed this. The following day the chief of the foundry shot himself at his workplace. 2001