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So Nikolay Grechko came to the edge of a small, god-forgotten town, on the edge of the empire, far from the central toy store and without any enthusiasm for the coming communism.

Entertainment or cultural activities, in those years was close to zero, even in Moscow. But what you can expect from a small provincial city with a population less than 100 thousands. Well, all entertainment: soccer, basketball or ride on the bike. A theater or a concert - two or three times a year, and you have to be lucky to get the tickets. The people around are half criminals, and their children are no better. Habitat - bad ecology, knocking down wind, aggressive and angry population, alcohol, street fights and other similar "delights". So, in order to be busy Grechko began to read. And he read practically everything, which you can find in the library of his small town. At seventeen he had already read almost all the classics, read many books on history, thriller stories, and adventures, and we can objectively say that he became almost a local intellectual. Nikolay spoke smoothly, without swearing and not stuttering to find the right word. Tall, thin, with a smart look, not aggressive - really nice fellow. And he knew how to tell interesting stories. 30-40 years ago it was no Internet. Go, check if it"s true. And who will go? What, people have nothing to do? After school he went to university in Samara. The city is more than a million, there are thousands of such "smart" and knowledgeable young men. Once his class gathered in the student dormitory to celebrate some holiday. The boys were full of energy, fu

After the university he went back to his home town, got married... A son was born, then a daughter. Women again began to pay attention. Life again turned face to him. But then the glorious nineties burst forth. Everything flew backwards. People lost a lot. While he got up off his knees, established some "shuttle" business, while began to make some money... And then the default came - money turned into a paper... And he realized that he needs to start all from the begi

Grechko thought hard. He clearly realized that it was not the last default and that his whole life would be the same torn stripe - from default to default. And probably he never get out from the low social level, will grow old and nothing will see in his life. And he is already 34... Grechko decided to take a risk and went to Moscow, drove to the Canadian Embassy, took forms to complete and return back home. He translated everything in a hurry, filled everything and sat down to study English. A year later he was interviewed "in an enemy language", and in half year sold everything that he had and came to Canada.

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From the begi

Nikolay certainly understood what his department was doing, but on very high level. Especially he had no clue why it was necessary to do this way, and not otherwise. He tried not to ask any questions, in order do not draw a special attention to himself. When more experienced colleagues argued with each other, to prove that some specific coefficient should be used in this calculations, Grechko always tried to pretend that he is very busy and do not have time for discussion. And if someone insisted to hear Grechko"s opinion, kind of trying to pull him to his side, Nikolay usually tried to laugh off, throwing some neutral meaningless phrases like: "In Russia, this coefficient has always low, and now I eventually realized why USSR broke apart." He didn"t fight, didn"t pretend to leadership or career growth, he just wanted this job! And he wanted this forever. He dreamed to be forgotten and just receive this big salary.

The project, for which Grechko was taken, was slowly unfolding and the mechanical department was not too busy, because detailed design hasn"t begun yet. If the boss was needed something, he was coming out of the office, caught the first seeing designer and asked him to check some "problematic" place. Just like it was in the Soviet Army. Grechko, as an experienced soldier, immediately understood how the system works and simply tried to avoid the boss and not to appear in the workplace. If the task was a bit more complicated, i.e. not just an ordinary redrawing, but required at least some sort of qualification, then Nikolay began to ask a lot of additional questions, clarified all sorts of unimportant things... At the same time he was nodding seriously and added amicably: "Oh, now this is different story! You didn"t mentioned it from the begi