Boris Petrovich Abramov (1926–1973) — chief agronomist of the Traktor collective farm.
He was a workaholic. At sixteen he had to take the controls of a tractor and plow his first furrow. It was in the thick of the war, in 1942. The shadow of those times seemed to have left its mark on his face forever — thoughtful, stern, and careworn. He had been an outstanding student and could have become a scholar or a statesman. But that would have meant forgetting the smell of earth turned by the plow in spring, the joyful green of sprouting oats, wheat coming into ear, and a skylark trembling high in the sky…
In 1950 Abramov became chief agronomist of the Traktor collective farm and devoted himself entirely to that demanding, hectic, and exhausting work. At the time, the collective farm was a celebrated enterprise. It was made famous throughout the country in an essay by the well-known writer Galina Nikolaeva, who then drew on the wealth of material she had gathered to write the widely discussed novel Harvest, which was soon adapted into the film The Return of Vasily Bortnikov. Giving himself wholly to his work, Petrovich boldly and knowledgeably introduced innovations, proving himself not only a capable tactician but also a far-sighted strategist. After eleven years as agronomist, he took charge of the considerably enlarged Traktor collective farm. As was the custom of the time, the chairman was the first to rise and the last to go to bed. Time was so precious to him that when his kirza boots wore out he would replace them on the go, stopping into a general store for a couple of minutes — new ones straight onto his feet, old ones straight into the rubbish bin. Yet for all his haste, there was never a case of him leaving any task unfinished. Above all else, Abramov was strictest with himself. Once, at a meeting of the farm's governing board, the question of piglet losses came up — something that was clearly the fault of the livestock specialist. But when the matter was raised, everyone fell silent. Then Abramov declared: "First and foremost I am to blame — I, the chairman. I failed to keep watch." Old-timers in the entire Urenskiy District cannot recall any other instance of a chairman admitting his own mistakes. Everyone was thrown into confusion and bewilderment. "Then the head of the combined brigade is also to blame," someone remarked. "Who else?" asked Abramov. "The livestock specialist, of course. It was his oversight." Under Abramov, the livestock farms became mechanized and a two-shift system was introduced, greatly easing the work of the milkmaids. Under him, care of the floodplain meadows was begun, swamps were drained, and soil maps were drawn up. And when one of the district officials demanded that the collective farm begin sowing immediately, Abramov, knowing the time was not yet right, snapped back: "Sow it yourselves, if you can't wait!" Petrovich left this life early. He spent his last six years serving as First Secretary of the Urensky District Committee of the CPSU. He received the title of Honored Agronomist of Russia and the Gold Star of Hero of Socialist Labor. A street in Town of Uren and the collective farm he led both bear his name.