Completely demoralised perchers clustered amid hopes at scraps. An object lesson - a Stakhanovite* and parasites. But a Stakhanovite is a Stakhanovite just because he has a full belly. And the parasites would never sink into such humiliation should they live in an environment of normal work animals.

[Aleksandrov begged for some slush from the bucket. Not long ago he had been a tubby round-faced lad, but now Aleksandrov looked terribly - spindling, unkempt, scrubby, bow-backed, with feverishly lustrous eyes.

"I need you like a hole in the head," - Timoshenko smirked. "I will feed a calf with that slush!"

That reminded me of Yadviga who poured water into the bucket to dilute a plate of soup and feed her eight daughters.]
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 * Stakhanovite - a worker achieving the highest labour productivity owing to special conditions created for him.