The story "A far and near fairy tale" from the story "The last bow" of the hero of the story "A far and near fairy tale" of the son of the exiled Vasya-Pole (in fact, he was Stasia Stanislav) was remembered by the residents of Ovsyanka from the older generation. Astafiev's contemporary Antonina Innokentievna Vychuzhanina told how the Ovsyan children teased: "Vasya is a Pole, his pants are on fire!"For this, my mother hit me with a nettle – and I did not run-tease », – Antonina Innokentievna recalled. Vasya worked as a watchman at a local mangazine. This is what oatmeal was called a kind of grain warehouse. And his dugout, so picturesquely described by Astafyev, was not far from this mangazine. According to Vychuzhanina's memoirs, the residents of Oatmeal pitied Vasya because he was blind and therefore gave him what they could for food. And he really played the violin well. It was through his playing that the future writer found, as he himself put it, "a heart wounded for life by music." And another invaluable conclusion was made by the writer, reflecting on his rootless hero: "If a person has no mother, no father, but has a homeland, he is not yet an orphan."