Two peasants, Qadyr (Afandikhan) and his father Batyr (S. Khojaev), sell their cotton to the factory of Nasyrbek (Mirza Akhmedov), a notorious bourgeois and head of a political organization. One day, Batyr revolts when the weigher and the commissioner (Mullah Umar) manage to rob him on the weight and quantity of cotton delivered. He is then thrown in prison. During this altercation, only the skilled worker, Vasilii Gorbunov (V. Baibakov), comes to his defense. Perceived as a dangerous element, he will also be imprisoned following an intervention by Nasyrbek who manages to bribe the head of the local police. Qadyr tries by all means to have his father released: he sells all his possessions and takes all possible administrative steps, without success. It was then that the decree of conscription of the Muslim populations of the Empire was published, which triggered revolts, violently repressed by the imperial authorities. Faced with the scale of the revolts, the decree was modified. The notables were given the possibility of buying their exemption. Qadyr, like many others, then became the ideal prey to avoid conscription. The richest looked for a poorer one who, for money, would leave in their place. Qadyr ended up understanding that he was only "cattle", he rebelled and found himself at the head of a crowd of men and women whom he led towards the mountains.
Source: www.3continents.com
