A memoir-story about the history of three Russian villages of the ancient Mtsensk district - Levykino, Ushakovo, Krenino - and about the fate of their peasant genealogies during the hard years of the 20th century. They began their lives in the distant Time of Troubles of the 17th century. During this alarming time, the peculiarities of the way of life of these and similar villages of state peasants, whose ancestors once carried out the sovereign's service on the southern borders of the fatherland, developed. At that time, the character traits, moral and ethical standards of behavior, civic consciousness and cultural traditions of this special layer of the Russian peasantry had already emerged. The author of the book, inherited from his grandfathers and parents by the memory of his heart, as well as with the help of the professional experience of a social historian, looks for these features in the memories of the genealogies of the Levykins, Ushakovs and Ermakovs and in them finds the answer to the question of how and why they managed to preserve themselves in cruel social , economic and political elements of the 20th century. The last tragedy on Mtsensk land took place in the fall of 1941 and continued until 1943, until the defeat of the fascist invaders in the battle on the Oryol-Kursk Bulge. The Levykins, the Ushakovs, and the Ermakovs fought in it and on other fronts. Fascist bombs and shells destroyed small villages that had stood on their land for almost four hundred, and maybe more, years. But the Red Path collective farm did not disintegrate then, and the names of their native villages did not disappear from the maps of the Mtsensk region. They were still alive. However, their end was near: it came in the bustle of the post-war shake-ups of the collective farm system. The author of the book tries to explain this reason for the drama that happened.