The main players on the Red Field
Lack of city-forming enterprises, remoteness from large cities, a little more than nine thousand people in the entire region ... Unpromising outback? Locals will object: there are advantages in small numbers - there are more chances to become not a reserve, but the main player on the Red Field. The region, wounded by the Chernobyl accident, continues to live and develop, including thanks to the Decree of the President “On the socio-economic development of the southeastern region of the Mogilev region”. “This long-suffering land is a place where we are comfortable, where we are happy,” said the Krasnopolie residents with whom we met.
Say "cheese"!
After the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, 20 thousand out of 30 people remained in the Krasnopolsky district. The basis of the economy is agriculture. They rely on small industries, farms, initiatives, self-employment. For example, residents of three village councils, in order to process and sell products produced in personal subsidiary plots, in 2020 united in the agricultural women's cooperative "Gorskaya Skarbnitsa". Chairman - Irina Alekseenko .
And at the end of 2021, at its base in the agro-town of Gory, with the financial support of the Small Grants Program of the Global Environment Facility and the participation of local authorities, the Malochny Kuferak marketing and cheese-making center was opened. The building of the complex reception point, which had been empty for five years, was repaired, equipment for processing dairy products and cheese production was installed. Irina Alekseenko says:
- Many of our fellow countrymen have a cow in their yard. Previously, milk was handed over to the state, now we cook mozzarella, chechil, cachotta, burrata - more than 15 types of cheese. The emergence of the center became an incentive for the development of subsidiary farms. The number of cows has increased, some people have switched from the usual black-and-white breed to more dairy breeds - Jersey, Ayrshire. And the center is a great alternative employment option in the countryside.
Irina Vasilievna is a local doctor, she worked in the Mountains for 33 years as the head of the FAP. Now he manages to combine his main job with a hobby, housekeeping. And close people support her in this.
- At home, each of us has milking machines, churns, separators. Cooking cheeses is not an easy task, and learning how to weave a pigtail takes time and skill. But, as our girls say, when cows are “on maternity leave” for two months and milk is needed to feed the calves, our hands itch without work. Moreover, there is a demand for cheeses: regular customers come from all over Belarus.
There are three Irina and three Natalia in the cooperative. They laugh: “Standing between us, you can constantly make wishes!” What are they dreaming about? To develop further, to produce even more healthy and useful products.
As a patriot of her small homeland and a deputy of the Krasnopolsky District Council of Deputies, Irina Alekseenko is sure that their project is useful to the entire region. After all, this is a wonderful example of how enterprising and hardworking people enrich their small homeland. Her fellow villagers are constantly busy with such work. The territory is being landscaped, a park of druids has been laid out - cedars, lindens, oaks, walnuts have been planted. They want to create a comfortable recreation area with benches, flower beds and art objects.
Bobrov's inspiration
We meet with Vitaly Bobrov in the village of Kozhemyakino, where he, together with his wife Natalya, created a farm: they brought in seven cows, pigs, chickens, geese, they sell meat and milk.
“We are still very young farmers, we took shape last fall, but we are already slowly growing, three calves were born recently,” says Vitaly. - I come from these places, lived until recently in the regional center. He built a house there. But he often visited Kozhemyakino - to his grandmother. When she died, the hand did not rise to sell the inherited house. This is our family nest. He put things in order on the site, demolished the old sheds, instead built solid ones - for livestock, made a shed for equipment, storing hay. For some time I worked for a farmer from the Krasnopolsky district, Yuri Zemtsov. Then I figured it out and decided: it's time to become the master of your own land. The wife was supportive.
Natalya was born in the Krasnogorsk district of the Bryansk region, and, as she herself says, she found happiness in Krasnopolsky:
Even the names are similar. Probably a sign of fate. In Belarus, I studied to be a merchandiser, my daughters Anna and Anzhelika graduated from pedagogical universities. My son Paul is only 9 years old. I really want him, when he grows up, to continue our work, to stay to live in this region.
Farm work is not easy: getting up at 4:30, hanging up no earlier than 10 pm. The cattle must be fed, removed from the barn, cows milked, hay prepared for the winter - 11 large, 800-kilogram hay rolls per head. But, as the couple say, everything comes from childhood: love for the land, grain fields, the smell of fresh milk was instilled in both of them by their parents.
“My father was a tractor driver, my mother was a calf, a pigger,” says Natalia . - There were cows, goats, pigs, a bird on a personal farmstead. Now here is a sensible, handy husband: he can build a house himself, and repair equipment, and cultivate the land.
Natalya is an accountant in the woodworking shop of the Krasnopolsky forestry enterprise, she is busy all day at her main job. Therefore, although according to the documents she is the head of the peasant farm, in fact, her husband has assistants. He is in charge of the household. Vitaly says it's nice to see the results of your work - it inspires:
- We bought three tractors, all the equipment necessary for processing the site: a potato planter, a hiller, a cultivator. They even created a workplace - they hired an assistant. We plan to expand the farm - a great opportunity for self-realization. It's good here, this is our place of power.
Mistress of the village
At the entrance to the village of Buglai, where there are only 12 houses and 24 inhabitants, there is a small wooden building decorated with carvings. Glazed windows, inside along the perimeter of the bench, in the corner - a table with a tablecloth, under the ceiling - an icon. It was the locals who, at the suggestion of the headman of the village, Alla Kalinich, made the stop themselves.
“Most of my fellow countrymen are pensioners, so we decided that it would be more comfortable to wait for a mobile shop,” Alla Vladimirovna clarifies.
The wasteland nearby was also ennobled: here is an imitation of a crane well, which was made by the 77-year-old mother of the headman Valentina Ivanovna . Nearby are decorative sculptures and several stands with useful information: telephone numbers of the district housing and communal services, water utility, sanitation station, clinic, social security, including departments for calculating pensions and the center for social services. Also, the bus timetable.
The bus to Buglai, 52-year-old Alla Kalinich, has been living here for as long as she has never run, locals stomped a kilometer to the highway on foot. From this winter, on Thursdays, public transport turns into the village, it has become easier for the elderly to get to the regional center and back.
At the initiative of the headman, who is involved in preserving the history of his native village, the “Dunkina Krinichka” near the forest was also landscaped.
- So they named it in honor of a fellow villager Evdokia Melnikova , who found this source after the war, - says Alla Kalinich. “I took care of him, cleaned him, and before his death I asked my fellow countrymen about it. After all, the place is clean, praying: people went to the spring - the water in it is clear as dew - for many years they went to Makovey. We have already put a log cabin under the roof in that place.
The locals also help with putting things in order on the territory of the ancient temple in Vydrenka. And for the past 40 years, they have been holding an old quitrent dinner in the village on Kolyada, which is called the village amulet: they cook dishes, invite guests, sing ritual songs - so that the village lives on.
Headman Buglaev underwent two oncological operations, eight courses of chemotherapy, after a car accident she walked on crutches for a long time, wore a corset. He still wears it now - a spinal injury makes itself felt. But at the same time, she works in a kindergarten in a neighboring village. And he doesn’t lose optimism: “It’s too early for me to die, I haven’t improved the road to the spring yet.” Such Alla Vladimirovna is a person: he does not live for himself, but for people. And she does not expect to be asked for help, but helps herself.
Folk doll magic
Olga Andrianova , a resident of Krasnopolye, dedicated her life to the preservation of folk traditions . The master of the regional house of crafts creates unique dolls and teaches children how to do it.
- I made the first one when I was about five years old. Grandmother Lida took me to an exhibition where there were a lot of nesting dolls, poles, - Olga Valentinovna recalls. - Poleshki - play dolls on a stick - impressed me so much that I broke twigs in the garden, quietly cut my grandmother's "shlyubnitsa" and "twisted" ten girlfriends for myself. Although at the same time she had a whole suitcase of shopping.
Relatives did not scold Olya for “naughtiness”, so she continued to make toys. And although after school she became an engineer for standardization and metrology in the forestry, as she herself says, one day she realized that she had to return to creativity. I decided as soon as a house of crafts was opened in Krasnopolye.
Tiny and tall, young ladies in national costumes are not just toys, but symbols of Belarusian folk culture. Olga Andrianova says:
- Such dolls are a sacred thing, our ancestors had a lot of them, for all occasions. They believed that Desyatiruchka helps to manage the household competently, Zernovushka helps to attract wealth, Bereginya protects the family and home, Herbalist takes care of the health of her owners. But for the amulets to work, they need to be made according to the rules. For example, I never sit down to sew in a bad mood. Thoughts should be bright, clean - energy is transferred to products.
Olga Valentinovna is faithful to the traditions - she makes dolls from wood, linen and woolen threads.
“Wooden faces are carved for me by a local craftsman Alexei Bankuzov , the rest is my task,” the craftswoman clarifies. - It is necessary to sew the right outfit, a belt with an ornament, a wreath, paws. It takes a month to make one doll. To comply with the rules, I read a lot of special literature. I want to revive the Krasnopol system - a complex of Belarusian folk clothes, traditional for our area, including attire, shoes, a headdress, and accessories.
At festivals and fairs, her dolls stand out from hundreds of others, so Olga Andrianova has a lot of winner diplomas. At the republican fest in Alexandria, her Kupalinka won first place. And recently, for her personal contribution to the development and preservation of national culture, a woman from Krasnopol was awarded an honorary diploma from the Department of Culture of the Mogilev Regional Executive Committee. By the way, she is also fond of weaving - on boards, reeds. And her daughters are creative: 18-year-old Liza plays in the folk theater, 14-year-old Valeria helps her mother weave belts, knits, embroiders with beads, is engaged in folk dances, 6-year-old Sonya sculpts dolls - so far from plasticine.
Careful approach to the earth
Denis Kustov, a 35-year-old Krasnopol resident, is also a versatile person: a cultural organizer of the regional cultural center, a teacher-organizer of a gymnasium, and a volunteer. Recently won the republican competition for the best public ecologist in 2022.
In the gymnasium, Kustov created an ecological detachment eight years ago, and all these years, together with his students, he has been taking care of his small homeland. The guys clean the streets, parks and territories near water bodies from household waste, plant trees, together with sanitary epidemiologists control the quality of water in the area, monitor whether rivers and lakes are suitable for swimming.
Denis Vladimirovich talks about his actions on his pages in social networks - he is an active blogger:
- I explain why you need to sort garbage, get rid of weeds not only in personal plots, but also behind fences. Together with the students we print and distribute leaflets. We are trying to instill in our fellow countrymen a culture of caring for the place where they live, for their land and nature.
The mentor decided to spend the prize from the Ministry of Natural Resources for winning the competition on ammunition for his environmental squad so that his guys would be even more recognizable. He plans to sew T-shirts, vests, caps with the logos "I'm an ecologist" and "Protect nature."
Denis also teaches to be kind to our smaller brothers:
- There is an idea to build several plywood insulated houses for homeless animals, where they could hide in bad weather.
A young creative, creative teacher was lured to Mogilev, Minsk. Didn't want to. He loves his Krasnopolshchina. Therefore, he dedicates verses to her: “Pakul’s laces and palettes are turning green, // Our reki are clattering, // Quieter land - // Datul i don’t know May tsuda-kvetka - // My Krasnapolsky region i am.
