A few days later, the activist announces that the kulaks will be exterminated as a class, and then their bodies will be sent down the river on a makeshift raft. Many peasants were expecting this to happen and stopped taking care of themselves long ago. One woman, for instance, is alive only to the pain she feels when stray dogs chew on her feet. Others rip their plants out of the ground by the roots, refusing to let their property be taken into collectivization. The rest of the peasants spend the night involuntarily vomiting.