this region was famous for its fat flocks of sheep. That’s why a meat processing plant was built here in its time. If it was a meat processing factory, it should also have a leather processing plant. As it was found out later, this work- shop was the first one in Kazakhstan, which later grew into the biggest combine in the country. Last year the whole district, region and even the entire republic was eagerly preparing to celebrate the centenary of the combine. During these preparations various meetings were held with the combine’s workers. Radio and TV broadcasts were arranged, and artists and writers began visiting the combine. During one of these meetings a guest, a writer from Alma-Ata, came to the podium and said: ‘We have forgotten how to appreciate and honour the working man. Who laid the foundation of this factory? Who was the first owner of this workshop? It is necessary to find the first tanner of leather and erect a statue to him in front of the mill! And we must do it quickly!’ A storm of applause greeted his words. It lasted for quite a long time. The orators who stood on the podium cheered the writer, who had become a prophet to them. They demanded the speedy erection of such a statue and even issued a public shakedown to the district authorities, for not thinking about it sooner. So a paper proposing the construction of a statue in honour of the first tanner went to the region, and from the region to the republic, and from there as far away as the centre. Six months passed, and only then did the paper, tired to the point of exhaustion, finally return to the district. There was no sign of the endless resolutions on it, and it was accompanied by accompanying, tongue-in-cheek letters. And this paper, shaking its leaflet tongue like a ribbon of rags in shreds from a dervish’s head, was laid on the table in front of Zhanaidarov, tempted and shabby. In short, the question of erecting the statue was resolved in principle, as they say. Now another question arose: how to depict the first tanner: full-length or only as a bust? Artists, for example, or writers can be placed on statues in different poses; they can stand, or sit, or recline on a plinth, but it seems awkward to truncate the

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