NIKOLAEVKA

I.M. Kirsanov, P.P. Layko, M.I. Shtelmahova, and I.M. Dudkin, farmers of collective farm "Mars"of the Nikolaevka Soviet told the story of the fall:

We were mowing grass in a field. It was a hot summer day. At four in the afternoon we stopped our horses for a rest; suddenly a far sound was heard, like the sound of a flying airplane… Nothing could be seen, and the sound grew louder with every second and then turned into an awful noise and racket. At a height of 20 m we noticed a falling black ball. When it fell to the earth, dust rose, so we recognized the place of the fall… We were scared to go to this place immediately: we thought that it was a bomb dropped from an airplane, but after about 15 minutes we approached the place. We dug up the stone. The soil around was very dry, and the stone buried into it to a depth of 0.5 m. When we picked the stone up its upper side was warm…

After we looked at the stone we just threw it. We thought that the stone was not needed for anything. Mikhail Dudkin, a teenager, was with us also, and he took the stone and carried it home, and then gave it to the collective farm strong-room.

Learning about the stone, farmers went to look at it. Old people, E. Zimchenkova, for example, when she came into the strong-room she crossed herself several times and whispered a prayer.

…In some time the stone was taken to the county seat, and what happened to it after that is unknown to us.