The invasion is shining like flakes of mica, obedient to the breath of the sky, crystals of frozen water form castles in the air. New comment Vershinsky Alexander Nikolaevich sculptures

Days of Remembrance:

Prayers to Hieromartyr Alexander Vershinsky

Troparion, tone 4

Imitating the fiery ascent of Elijah the Divine, / in his own temple you served pretty well, / you yourself were worthy of this ascension, / O Hieromartyr Alexander, / Novotorzhsky, Ivanteevsky and Moscow villages are praised, / suffered with the ktitor Paul and accomplice Nicholas, / Your deanery overlooking the heavenly ends / do not leave us hoping in You, / and teach us to stand up for Christ, / in this adulterous age, / being filled with Your splendor.

Kontakion, tone 5

Erecting the rite of the church to a height, / fulfilling the virtues, / bringing the piety of Holy Russia as a commission to God, / you raised the relics of the Holy Princess Juliana in defense of the faith, / you suffered persecution and torment for Christ, / the flock of the city of Torzhok and the village of Ivanteevsky representative appeared in heaven Thou, / pray to Christ God in the unity of tradition to abide for us, / together with the martyrs Paul and Nicholas, / and save our souls.

life

Hieromartyr Alexander Vershinsky

Martyrs Pavel Kuzovkov, Nikolai Kopninsky

Hieromartyr Alexander Born March 6, 1873 in the village of Kunganovo, Staritsky district, Tver province, in the family of deacon Andrei Vershinsky. Deacon Andrei was a great admirer of Father John of Kronstadt. On February 22, 1906, Archpriest John served in the churchyard churchyard of Upirovichi, Novotorzhsky district, and Deacon Andrei specially came there to serve with the righteous. In 1907, Deacon Andrei left the state for health reasons.

In 1897, Alexander graduated from the Tver Theological Seminary and in the same year entered the Borisoglebsky Cathedral in the town of Staritsa as a psalm reader. He married the daughter of the priest of the Ilyinsky Church in the city of Torzhok, Mikhail Nikolsky, Elikonide. The priest Mikhail Fedorovich Nikolsky and his wife Evgenia Mikhailovna had thirteen children, six survived. The eldest daughter Elikonida was born in 1878, the youngest son Arkady - in 1900. The family was pious, Evgenia Mikhailovna was distinguished by kindness, honesty and justice. After the death of her husband, she became the headman of the Ilyinsky church.

On January 30, 1900, the psalmist Alexander was ordained a deacon at the St. Boris and Gleb Cathedral in the town of Staritsa. On February 6 of the same year, he was ordained a priest at the Church of the Archangel Michael in the village of Mikhailovsky, Tver district. From August 20 to December 1901, Father Alexander was a teacher of the law at the Yakovlev Zemstvo school in the Tver district.

On December 3, 1901, Father Alexander's father-in-law, priest Mikhail Nikolsky, died, and on December 10 of the same year, Father Alexander was transferred to the Ilyinsky Church in the city of Torzhok, where he served until the day it was closed by militant atheists in 1927. From 1902 to 1917 he was in Torzhok a teacher of the law at the school of the Ministry of Education.

The father of Alexander and Elikonida Mikhailovna had three children - two daughters, in 1912 and 1914, and a son, Nikolai, in 1918. Nikolai helped his father at the altar during divine services; with the outbreak of World War II, he was called to the front as part of the 325th Infantry Regiment of the 14th Infantry Division and went missing during the fierce fighting on September 11, 1944.

After the death of his father-in-law, all the worries about his large family fell on the shoulders of the young priest, despite the fact that some of the children were still small. In 1920 Father Alexander was awarded a pectoral cross, and in 1922 he was elevated to the rank of archpriest.

During the onset of persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church, Father Alexander did not at all doubt the path he had chosen to serve God and, having great authority among the clergy and believers, was elected by them in 1923 as the first dean of the 1st district of the Tver district and then confirmed in this position as diocesan bishop . In the same year he was appointed Dean of the Borisoglebsky Monastery in Torzhok. In 1924, Archpriest Alexander was awarded a club, in 1925, on the 25th anniversary of his service to the Holy Church, a golden pectoral cross with decorations.

After the authorities closed the Church of Elias in 1927, Archbishop Thaddeus (Uspensky) of Tver blessed the community to move to the Transfiguration Cathedral in the city of Torzhok and appointed Father Alexander as rector. In the Transfiguration Cathedral for a long time, the holy relics of the Blessed Princess Martyr Juliana Vyazemskaya Novotorzhskaya (XV century) rested under a bushel. During the years of repression, when churches were closed and holy relics were seized, Fr. Alexander "to strengthen the faith and the number of believers" received permission from the church and civil authorities to transfer the relics of the holy martyr Juliana. Raising the relics of the holy martyr Juliana hidden in the basement to the cathedral for general worship, Fr. Alexander soon accepted the martyr's crown himself. In the Transfiguration Cathedral, he served until closing in 1931, and then was transferred to the Nikolo-Pustynskaya Church. In 1932, Archpriest Alexander was awarded a miter. In March 1937, with the active support of the authorities, the church was captured by the Renovationists and Archpriest Alexander was left without a place.

Everywhere the flames of more and more merciless persecution spread, Father Alexander clearly saw this, but he did not hesitate for a moment in his decision to continue serving the Church. Being well known to the hierarchy, he was invited in March 1937 to the Smolensk Church in the village of Ivanteevka, Pushkinsky District, Moscow Region [*], where he served until the day of his arrest.

A foreign car driver in the USSR is almost a criminal and anti-Soviet. The experience of possessing forbidden capitalist fruits under socialism.

Surprisingly positive release.
Alexander Nikolaevich Vershinsky, a man who, starting from the 70s, allowed himself not only to have a capitalist car more than once and more than once :), but also by restoring them alone to give them a second life.
And this is with:
- the fact that the cars he got were illiquid, in a state close to scrap
- lack of tickets
- with multi-volume cases brought to him (for unearned income)
- a total shortage of everything and everything (from spare parts to fuel and lubricants)

ASLANYAN: Good evening.

Today is the greatest day in the history of the Crew program. Because Vershinsky Alexander Nikolaevich is my guest.

Alexander Nikolaevich Vershinsky is a person whose personal acquaintance in his biography leaves a mark, well, approximately equal, probably, to the “Hero of Socialist Labor”. A person who personally knows Vershinsky in life is already a person who, as after initiation into the greatest, can only allow himself worthy deeds, cannot afford unworthy ones. In general, he lives with wings and in a different way. This is because he knows Vershinsky personally. Good evening.

VERSHINSKY: Kind.

ASLANYAN: Alexander Nikolaevich Vershinsky is the man who, under Soviet rule, allowed himself to behave in a completely anti-Soviet manner, being, in general, a scientist, and not even Brezhnev's daughter or Kosygin's son, to drive foreign cars. In Soviet reality, in general, no one drove foreign cars. Before this sign of valor, it was necessary to rise to the rank, to get drunk, to live, to be posthumously awarded. Well, or just succeed in career growth. But so that, for example, some Alexander Nikolaevich Vershinsky allowed himself a foreign car - well, you know! ..

In retaliation for this, Alexander Nikolayevich had a multi-volume case in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the reason why Alexander Nikolayevich was not imprisoned is not known to him even to this day. By the way, I don't know either.

VERSHINSKY: Lucky.

ASLANYAN: Well, it happens. Moreover, Alexander Nikolayevich graduated from the Energy Institute, did not have thieves' parents, had absolutely no starting conditions that allow our Soviet man to be driving a car, for example, a Datsun. "Datsun" in those days, you know, it was even more decent than it is now. Or Porsche. And this is all in the biography of one person. What about the Chevrolet? In 1970 - in the USSR, in Moscow, "Chevrolet", on the street, the length of "Ikarus"? That doesn't happen.

Moreover, this is just a consequence of the interest and skill of a person to work not only with his head, but also with his hands. Do not think that a pickpocket in the subway - no, he just knew how to fix it.

Alexander Nikolaevich, how did it happen? How did the Soviet government forgive you, first of all? And secondly, how did it all happen?

VERSHINSKY: Seryozha, I was forced to do this. I'm the shit of the nation by class origin - an intellectual, you know. And we could not buy a car as such. There was no queue for a car among us. It existed at factories, but not at institutes. The only thing I could do was that I could, through great effort, get a queue for a decommissioned car. Decommissioned taxi, decommissioned disabled cars, whether it's "Zaporozhets" or a taxi. That's all that was in my power.

ASLANYAN: Is it at the Institute of Oceanology of the Academy of Sciences?

VERSHINSKY: Yes. in any institution.

ASLANYAN: Well, actually, yes. He is an academician, like a man obviously lousy, why would he suddenly drive a new car.

VERSHINSKY: No, no new ones. Therefore, having stood in line for several years, you suddenly, happy, received a postcard for a decommissioned Volga. And there was the South Port site. But it's rubbish. Can you imagine, cars that have served in a taxi for seven to ten years, this is just a piece ...

ASLANYAN: These are documents.

VERSHINSKY: These are documents at best. So there was no body, salons, and so on. Everyone dreamed of doing it, and, in general, it was a way to acquire a car. But next to this clearing in the swamp, sometimes ... And you were given the same postcard for several days, you could choose for several days. Suddenly something new will come, and so on. Three or five days the postcard was valid, and then that's it, go away, your postcard is gone? Sometimes these very unpleasant beauties stood here.

ASLANYAN: UPDC?

VERSHINSKY: Yes. Nobody had the right to buy them, only by special letters, by special papers, a separate public. But there were not so many of her - crazy Russians who would like to buy such happiness on their own heads. They were, and, of course, they selected the best cars. But this is a separate line, it did not concern us, ordinary Soviet people.
But among them, as a rule, there were those that no one needed. "Datsun", rotten to the ears, without headlights and with a tattered interior. Or "Volvo" - well, who needs it? It must be a man who went crazy, yes, and it all cost a lot of money. That's how this foreign junk fell into my hands.

ASLANYAN: Nevertheless, you turned out to be the person who got into this line?

VERSHINSKY: Yes, yes, yes.

ASLANYAN: But still, an academic institution.

VERSHINSKY: No, this is not an elite queue. This is the queue...

ASLANYAN: But permission had to be obtained. In order to just at least go up to this Datsun and pick it with a fingernail ...

VERSHINSKY: I received a postcard stating that it gives me the right to buy a decommissioned Volga.

ASLANYAN: And here, next to it, stood foreign junk, which everyone perfectly understood that it was impossible to raise for any money ...

VERSHINSKY: Yes, yes.

ASLANYAN: ... There will be no prestige, but ruin will be immediate.

VERSHINSKY: Yes.

ASLANYAN: And here Alexander Nikolaevich Vershinsky, as a person from oceanology, not so much walking on the ground as living in a completely different environment...

VERSHINSKY: Yes. Right here…

ASLANYAN: Crept up - and?

VERSHINSKY: Yes. And I had to choose and decide... Taking a risk, of course, taking a risk, you can't start it all, nothing: "I'm taking this one," I grabbed it on a rope and dragged it home.

ASLANYAN: Who was the first?

VERSHINSKY: What was the first car?

ASLANYAN: Yes.

VERSHINSKY: Here I am, of course, I already have a memory ... My teeth fall out, my memory fails.

ASLANYAN: But do you remember Lenin alive?

VERSHINSKY: Yes. With difficulty, of course.

ASLANYAN: Because I... This is the same joke: "I saw Lenin alive." "And I'm in a coffin."

VERSHINSKY: Yes, yes, yes, yes. Here I am already confused. I think it was a Chevrolet Bel Air.

ASLANYAN: And there was a year in the yard ...

VERSHINSKY: Will my listeners forgive me plus or minus a year? Around 1970.

ASLANYAN: It's in the Ministry of Internal Affairs now, when they leaf through your file, they look at how accurate you are in your testimony.

VERSHINSKY: Yes.

ASLANYAN: But we can afford backlash for a year back and forth.

VERSHINSKY: Such a backlash, yes.

ASLANYAN: And in 1970, Alexander Nikolaevich Vershinsky bought himself a Chevrolet Bel Air of what year? How old was that car?

VERSHINSKY: You are already asking me...

ASLANYAN: But she was no longer young, was she?

VERSHINSKY: Of course.

ASLANYAN: She should have already run around the embassies ...

VERSHINSKY: Of course.

ASLANYAN: …In our country…

VERSHINSKY: And besides, her engine was knocking when we started it. And right here…. This each purchase was the second research institute. How to remove this noise? How to revive her? We came up with some new technologies - we didn’t sell spare parts, as you understand, yes.

ASLANYAN: It didn't exist.

VERSHINSKY: It didn't exist, yes. And that's why you grow up with some craftsmen, acquaintances, people who could make a new camshaft out of a rusty piece of iron there. Etc. The problems started from day one.

ASLANYAN: Listen, the employees of academic institutes, having completely mastered the strength of materials normally, cooked, dyed, tinned, and soldered very well. Well, academics.

VERSHINSKY: In general, yes. There were many who did that, yes.

ASLANYAN: But even more so, many of them had training in the Gulag, when an academic perspective was combined with the ability, for example, to fell wood. Therefore, people were very handy. And sometimes even bequeathed to their children.

Do you remember how, for example, Vasily Aksyonov, why he became a doctor (before becoming a dissident)? Because his mother told him that only a doctor has a chance to survive in the camp. All the others don't. Therefore, the combination of professions and the readiness to always respond to the challenges of the time, especially in academic circles, was combined with very good locksmith skills.

VERSHINSKY: Seryozha, my case is even deeper, so to speak, here you have a superficial insight into the topic. Because, remember, as Vysotsky said, he is finishing the war, he always wrote songs for some reason about the war, although he himself did not fight. And even more so. But I also felled the forest. I have cut wood for many years.

I, as it were, you know how, was a king and sewed a little. I used to be an employee, in the summer I went to cut down the forest, you know, to earn money, and in the winter, on long winter evenings, I repaired cars after work. I felled the forest, I have it all in my hands, here.

ASLANYAN: Qualification. But you also built hang gliders in between times, which, by and large, no one in our country built.

VERSHINSKY: No, it was already then. Such were the first attempts to fly up. Already did.

ASLANYAN: Well, as you know, the first hang-glider was launched here in 1952 from the construction of the university, when the prisoners simply arranged an escape. They did not calculate, they brought people who had previously built aircraft for general work. And on sheets of plywood - one was shot down, the rest flew away. Solzhenitsyn described this story of where the hang glider came from in our country: as always, you, academicians, were not watched.

VERSHINSKY: Here, I must say, I have a gap, and my hang glider is the first. Are we going to talk about hang gliders or not? It is interesting.

ASLANYAN: And we are definitely talking about hang gliders, but we are still talking about Chevrolet. Do you remember the price, how much did it cost then?

VERSHINSKY: Only approximately, of course. All foreign cars that I got, it was all junk. And all of them were no less, and, in general, sometimes more than the price of the new Zhiguli.

ASLANYAN: Somewhere more than 5000-6000 rubles?

VERSHINSKY: Yes. When I dragged another car into the yard, local people who drank port wine nobly or played dominoes said: “Here, you fool, I drove it again, instead of taking a new Zhiguli. And when in a year or a half ...

ASLANYAN: We will now break for the news, and then we will find out how it all ended in a year or a year and a half.

News
ASLANYAN: Vershinsky Alexander Nikolaevich during the Soviet period of his life, under Soviet rule, allowed himself to travel around this country, in a Chevrolet Bel Air, bought in 1970 in a garbage dump. So you dragged this thing into the yard, alcoholics shuddered for your health, mourned the scrap ...

VERSHINSKY: Wait a minute, I would ask you not to insult the best part, so to speak, of our humanity after all, these people are not alien to me.

In a word, after a year and a half, it usually took me a year and a half to roll out this car already in this form, when these noble people immediately sat down to write a denunciation of me: “Well, did he become insolent at all ?! Bought this beauty again. And you will say that this is the one that stood ... ”- this is the norm, it was just the norm for me. The same Vanya and Petya, who nobly drank port wine with me all year, when the car came out of the garage, well, it took about a year and a half, there was a large amount of work, they immediately scribbled a denunciation: “Well, how, you bastard, I bought a luxury car again - for what money? And this happened regularly.

ASLANYAN: “Chevrolet Bel Air”, in fact, cannot be forgiven in any way.

VERSHINSKY: No, absolutely, you can sleep on the hood there.

ASLANYAN: And when you left in this car after repairs, did Moscow shudder? After all, the passage of such a car means that the police are running away, because it is clear that Brezhnev personally or his daughter is driving after all.

VERSHINSKY: You can't even imagine how many times this all happened. In general, it caused me a smile that never left my face, because the policeman either blocked all traffic on the street ...

ASLANYAN: After all, deflection is protection.

VERSHINSKY: Well.

ASLANYAN: In 1970 they bought it, and in 1971 Alexander Vershinsky, an oceanologist at the Academy of Sciences, calmly leaves like that ...

VERSHINSKY: Yes, it was all very comical. If I was driving along Rublyovka, and we have beautiful places there, you had to go there for a walk, everything also froze.

ASLANYAN: Did you salute, including even just people who walked past on the sidewalks, at the level of a reflex?

VERSHINSKY: Yes, yes, it was very funny.

ASLANYAN: Taxi drivers, and these were the most frisky guys at that time, they also quietly crawled to the side of the road.

VERSHINSKY: No, well, it was a completely different ride, of course, a completely different ride. Either they pretended that you didn’t exist, you didn’t exist, you were transparent, or all the conditions were for you - it was absolutely luxurious, it was just me becoming a king.

ASLANYAN: A man who calmly bought the Soviet Union for himself, and moving around it ... Now, in order to get three yellow Kalinas, you still need to drag a division of internal troops with you on your tail. It was easier for you.

VERSHINSKY: It was easier for me, yes, and most importantly, the times were calm.

ASLANYAN: But you were supposed to drive this car to the gas station, go to the store. There is no gasoline at the gas station, and then you drive up - and? ..

VERSHINSKY: This is a sore subject, and it concerned any foreign car, not to mention our simple cars: there was no high-octane gasoline. These cars, on our gasoline, detonated, overheated and hurt, to put it mildly. At first there was a lot of trouble, and this also required engineering. We injected water into the motor, through an adjustable needle...

ASLANYAN: At the steam level.

VERSHINSKY: Yes, it is necessary to calculate, approximately no more than 10%. This is an old topic, it was used on aircraft engines. You introduced a separate tank, and then you could drive on gasoline. It was torture, anyway, in winter it was necessary to warm. And then, after all, our society did not stand still, for the owners of foreign cars a special office was formed in Medvedkovo, which, upon presentation of documents, gave you a ton ... It didn’t give out, but you had the right to buy a ton of luxurious gasoline, which smelled of cologne and was sold on Kropotkinskaya .

ASLANYAN: Yes, at Kropotkinskaya - this is also a completely famous gas station, where there were never queues and there were no cars. There are also "Seagulls" government refueled.

VERSHINSKY: Me too.

ASLANYAN: And you. And after that, the police finally understood: "God forbid, he will just look in my direction."

VERSHINSKY: Can you imagine how he smelled? Gasoline smelled so that it was possible instead of perfume, there were no French ones, and you could use it to choke.

ASLANYAN: If you spilled it on your pants, then, in general, it’s nothing to be ashamed of.

VERSHINSKY: No, well, it just smelled better than before.

ASLANYAN: But this car did not change you, but the world around me, in general. Driving around Moscow in a Chevrolet Bel Air in 1971 meant, after all, that space was breaking down and the political system was tottering. Speculators did not come out to you, with an offer to sell you jeans or buy gum from you?

VERSHINSKY: You know, later on, after all, I have been doing this for many years, such an audience would appear that seemed to think that they belonged here. But I never made contact with anyone, I was not interested. And besides, probably, the possession of such a machine should have made me, so to speak, turn up my nose a little. Somehow I managed without it.

ASLANYAN: When did the police realize that they still need to work closely with you? How quickly did they show interest in which car, the first one? Or did they just wait a bit?

VERSHINSKY: No, I used it for a long time. Well, what are you talking about, we have an Olympics with you ...

ASLANYAN: 1980.

VERSHINSKY: 80s. Even before 1980. In 1980, they looked at me for a long time and nevertheless stopped me, believing that I was a visitor to the games, I arrived in this car.

ASLANYAN: But this is when on the street, but in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, where your personal file accompanied all purchases and sales, when did you finally have a conversation with the person who was supposed to meet personally with the anti-Soviet Vershinsky?

VERSHINSKY: Well, it was around 1982, something like that.

ASLANYAN: The system approached you systematically, from all sides: did they stop you on the street once, and then still called to the ministry for a conversation?

VERSHINSKY: Yes.

ASLANYAN: And what was the conversation about at the ministry?

VERSHINSKY: It was on October Square.

ASLANYAN: Main department?

VERSHINSKY: Yes, yes, it was very interesting there. In general, frankly, quite frankly, it was said: “We know what you are doing, you fall under the article “Unearned income”. I choked a little and asked: “How? I work all day at the factory, I spend all weekends in the garage, after work I run around, I sharpen something ... ”- and so on. But the article was unequivocally called “Unearned Income”.

ASLANYAN: And why wasn't it presented?

VERSHINSKY: I think because Perestroika has moved on.

ASLANYAN: Did it just save time?

VERSHINSKY: Yes, I think so.

ASLANYAN: Because, in principle, by 1982, when the conversation took place, what kind of foreign car did you have?

ASLANYAN: There were already so many that you didn’t even go down the category of dissidents, did you just need to slap you with something economic?

VERSHINSKY: Yes, and I repaired each of them, approximately ...

ASLANYAN: It doesn't matter, in the personal file nobody was worried at all.

VERSHINSKY: Yes, no one cares, yes.

ASLANYAN: But this means that you bought a car, relatively speaking, for 5,000, revived it for a year and a half, and then you are forced to sell it for the same 5,000, because otherwise it is unearned income if you received at least one ruble.

VERSHINSKY: No, fortunately, everything was not so sad. Having repaired the car and brought it to a state of luxury, I polished every nut there. After my hands, she came out completely different from what she called into the garage. I could officially hand it over to a thrift store and set any price.

ASLANYAN: And this, one way or another, after some time found the next buyer.

VERSHINSKY: Yes, yes, because there was a demand, it did not stand for a long time. Because either mine was standing nearby, which sit down and drive, or rusty, rotten and beaten ...

ASLANYAN: The next one is yours.

VERSHINSKY: Yes, the next one is mine. Therefore, it was, in general, everything was quite resourceful.

ASLANYAN: I understand that, after all, the material component in this process did not play a special role, was it an engineering curiosity? Or what was stopping you from repairing that Bel Air and driving it for the rest of your life?

VERSHINSKY: You are some strange person, but what should I live on?

ASLANYAN: For an academic salary. Academy of Sciences of the USSR, there were 90 rubles, plus or minus.

VERSHINSKY: Yes, yes, of course.

VERSHINSKY: This was not the case at the Academy of Sciences.

ASLANYAN: Only tea with an elephant?

VERSHINSKY: No, it was only like that at factories, there was no soldering at the Academy of Sciences.

VERSHINSKY: Nothing.

ASLANYAN: Even shirt coupons?

VERSHINSKY: There was nothing.

ASLANYAN: Yes, then you really had to spin somehow. And after the Chevrolet Bel Air, what was the next car?

VERSHINSKY: Yes, if you had warned me that it was necessary to draw up such a register, of course I don’t remember ...

ASLANYAN: But we are not the last time.

VERSHINSKY: Let's hope. Yes, Serezha, let's call it Dodge. "Dodge" is about the same class, "Dodge Dart", in my opinion, it was a "Dodge Dart". The same American with a huge hood on which you can dance.

ASLANYAN: V8?

VERSHINSKY: Of course.

ASLANYAN: It’s not clear which box, because it’s an automatic.

VERSHINSKY: Well, the main thing is that she should go.

ASLANYAN: Yes, but there was simply nothing to treat her with, in principle, because the closest analogue is LiAZ.

VERSHINSKY: You know, we were lucky, although no, there was also a problem with the boxes, if we touched the box. But let's get back to this Dodge.

ASLANYAN: We will continue after the news.

Sergey Aslanyan: Today is the greatest day in the history of the Crew program. Because Vershinsky Alexander Nikolaevich is my guest. This is a person whose personal acquaintance in the biography leaves a mark equal, probably, to the Hero of Socialist Labor. A person who personally knows Vershinsky in life can only allow himself worthy deeds and generally lives with wings and in a different way. This is the man who, under Soviet rule, allowed himself completely anti-Soviet behavior. Being a scientist, and not Brezhnev's daughter or Kosygin's son, he drove foreign cars. No one drove foreign cars in Soviet reality. Before this "sign of valor" it was necessary to rise to the rank, to get drunk, to succeed, and so that some Alexander Nikolayevich Vershinsky allowed himself a foreign car, you know. For this, Alexander Nikolayevich had a multi-volume case in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the reason why Alexander Nikolayevich was not imprisoned is still unknown to him.

Born in Moscow in 1947. Graduated from the Moscow Power Engineering Institute. He wavered along with the party line. Work: Institute of Oceanology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, researcher, graduate student in an attempt to apply the methods of cybernetics ("corrupt wench of imperialism") to the problem of fish flocking. Plant "Yantar", engineer. Diplomas, VDNKh medal, rational proposals without a number. Institute of Applied Geophysics. Development of instruments for studying the distribution of freons in the atmosphere (freon "eats" the ozone layer). The first Soviet-American research, expeditions around the world. And then Perestroika! He saved the "piano in the bushes" - a craft, because almost from school all the time he made something: water skis, boats, surfers, hang gliders, radio equipment .. And, finally, since 1970, he began to restore and repair foreign cars - the transport of the elite those times. As a result, he became the technical director in 1991 of the first 4x4 club in Russia for 10 years. Now I create useless things, sculptures - the repeated winner of exhibitions. And again I fell in love with motorcycles: I crossed America on road 66, traveled around Europe, went to Valaam, traveled through the Caucasus, Crimea. What do you wish!

Alexander Vershinsky: Lucky.

Sergey Aslanyan: Alexander Nikolaevich graduated from the Energy Institute, had no thieves' parents and no starting conditions that would allow our Soviet man to be driving a car, for example, a Datsun. Datsuns in those days were even more decent than they are now. Or Porsche. And this is all in the biography of one person. And Chevrolet in 1970 in the USSR, in Moscow, on the street, the length of the Ikarus. That doesn't happen. Despite the fact that this is just a consequence of interest and the ability to work with his hands (do not think that he was a pickpocket in the subway), he only knew how to fix it. Alexander Nikolayevich, how did it happen? How did the Soviet government forgive you everything? And how did it happen?

Alexander Vershinsky: I was forced to do this. By class origin, I am the shit of the nation, an intellectual, you understand. And we could not buy a car as such. There was no queue for a car among us. They were at factories, but not at institutes. The only thing I could do was to get a queue for a decommissioned car through great efforts - taxis, disabled cars. That's all that was in my power.

S. Aslanyan: Is it at the Institute of Oceanology of the Academy of Sciences?

A. Vershinsky: Yes. in any institution.

S. Aslanyan: Well, yes, academician, as a man obviously lousy, why would he drive a new car.

A. Vershinsky: Therefore, after standing in line for several years, you received a postcard for a decommissioned Volga. And there was a site South Port, Swamp. But this is junk, you imagine cars that have served in a taxi for 7-10 years, these are documents at best. There was no bodywork, interiors, etc. But everyone dreamed, and this was the way to acquire a car. And you were given this postcard for a few days. And sometimes these very unpleasant beauties stood nearby in the Swamp.

S. Aslanyan: Updating?

A. Vershinsky: Yes. Nobody had the right to buy them. Only by special letters, by special papers, a separate public. This is a separate line, it did not concern us, ordinary Soviet people. But. There were not so many of them, crazy Russians. who wanted to buy this. They were. And they selected the best cars. And there were those that no one needed. Datsun rotten to the ears, without headlights and with a torn interior, or Volvo. Well, who needs it? And it cost a lot of money. That's how this foreign junk fell into my hands.

S. Aslanyan: You turned out to be the person who got into this line.

A. Vershinsky: No, I received a postcard that gives me the right to buy a decommissioned Volga

S. Aslanyan: And right next to it stood foreign scrap, which, everyone understood, could not be raised for any money, there would be no prestige. And then Alexander Nikolaevich Vershinsky, as a person from oceanology, that is, not so much walking on the earth as living in a different environment, crept in and ...

A. Vershinsky: Yes, and it was necessary to choose and decide. Risking, of course. You don't start it, nothing. I'm taking this one. Grabbed on a rope, and dragged home.

S. Aslanyan: Which one was the first?

A. Vershinsky: I don't remember now. Teeth fall out, memory fails.

S. Aslanyan: But do you remember Lenin alive? This is an anecdote. I saw Lenin alive. And I'm in a coffin.

A. Vershinsky: Yes, yes. I think it was a Chevrolet Bel Air, it was around 1970.

S. Aslanyan: In 1970, Alexander Nikolaevich Vershinsky bought himself a Chevrolet Bel Air. How old was she? She was no longer young, had time to run around the embassies?

A. Vershinsky: Yes. In addition, her engine knocked when we started it. Each purchase was a research institute: how to remove this knock, how to revive it. We came up with new technologies. Spare parts were not sold, as you understand.

S. Aslanyan: It didn't exist.

A. Vershinsky: No. Therefore, you acquire some familiar, craftsmen who could make a new camshaft from a rusty piece of iron. The problems started from day one.

S. Aslanyan: Employees of academic institutions, having coped with the strength of materials, painted, cooked, tinned, and soldered very well. Well, academicians, what to take from them.

A. Vershinsky: Yes, there were many.

S. Aslanyan: Many had training in the Gulag, when the academic perspective was combined with the ability to fell wood, so people were very handy. Sometimes they even bequeathed to their children. Why did Vasily Aksenov become a doctor? Mom said that in the camp there is only a doctor who has a chance to survive. The conjugation of professions and the readiness to always respond to the challenges of the time in academic circles was combined with very good locksmith skills.

A. Vershinsky: For me, this is even deeper than your superficial insight into the topic. Remember, as Vysotsky said, he finishes the war. He wrote about the war all the time, although he himself did not fight. And I didn't fight. But I also felled the forest for many years. I was like a king and sewed a little. He was a junior researcher, in the summer he went to the forest to earn money. And on long winter evenings after work, he repaired cars.

S. Aslanyan: Hang gliders were also built in the meantime.

A. Vershinsky: These were the first attempts to fly.

S. Aslanyan: As you know, the first hang glider started in 1952 from the construction site of the university, when the prisoners simply arranged an escape. They did not calculate: people who had previously built aircraft were brought to general construction work. And on sheets of plywood, one was knocked down and the rest flew away.

A. Vershinsky: Solzhenitsyn described this story.

S. Aslanyan: Well, where did the hang glider come from in our country? Yes, as always, the academics did not watch you. But back to Chevrolet. Do you remember how much it cost then?

A. Vershinsky: All foreign cars that I got were junk. And all of them were no less than the price of a new Zhiguli.

S. Aslanyan: 5-6 thousand rubles?

A. Vershinsky: Yes. When I dragged another car into the yard, the local people, who nobly drank port wine or played dominoes, said that the fool drove it again, instead of taking a new one. It usually took me a year and a half to roll out the car already finished, it was a lot of work. And then these noble people sat down to write a denunciation of me. The bastard, completely insolent, again bought a new car, a beauty, and will say that this is the one that ... It was the norm. And this happened regularly.

S. Aslanyan: Chevrolet Bel Air cannot be forgiven. And when you left in this car after the repair, did Moscow shudder? After all, the passage of such a car means that the police scatter. This is Brezhnev or his daughter.

A. Vershinsky: You have no idea how much this all was suppressed. It made me smile that never left my face, because the policeman blocked all traffic on the street. If I was driving along Rublyovka, and we had beautiful places there before, we had to go there, then everything would freeze.

S. Aslanyan: Did you salute? at the reflex level.

A. Vershinsky: Yes. It was very funny.

S. Aslanyan: Taxi drivers, they were the most frisky guys at that time, they also quietly crawled to the side of the road. It was a completely different ride.

A. Vershinsky: Yes. Or they pretended you didn't exist. You do not exist, you are transparent. Or all conditions for you. It was luxurious. I was like a king.

S. Aslanyan: Yes, now, even on three yellow Kalinas, in order to safely ride, you need to drag a division of internal troops with you on your tail. It was easier for you.

A. Vershinsky: And times were calmer.

S. Aslanyan: But you were supposed to drive this car to the gas station and go to the store. There is no petrol at the gas station. And here you come. AND?..

A. Vershinsky: This is a sore subject, it concerned any foreign car, there was no high-octane gasoline. And these cars on our gasoline detonated, overheated and hurt. And it required engineering. We injected water into the motor through an adjustable needle.

S. Aslanyan: To the steam level.

A. Vershinsky: Yes. It is necessary to calculate, no more than 10%. This is an old topic, it was used on aircraft engines. And then you could drive on gasoline. It was torment. In winter, everything had to be heated. And then. Still, our society did not stand still, for the owners of foreign cars in Medvedkovo you had the right to buy a ton of luxurious gasoline, which smelled of cologne and was sold on Kropotkinskaya.

S. Aslanyan: This is a famous gas station where there were never queues and no cars. There are also "Seagulls" government refueled.

A. Vershinsky: Me too.

S. Aslanyan: And after that, the police finally understood: God forbid, he would just look in my direction.

A. Vershinsky: Can you imagine how he smelled? Gasoline smelled so that instead of French perfume, which was not there, it was possible to suffocate them.

S. Aslanyan: But this machine did not change you, but changed the world around. Driving a Chevrolet Bel Air in 1971 in Moscow meant that space was breaking down and the political system was tottering. Have speculators approached you with offers to sell jeans? Or buy gum?

A. Vershinsky: Then there was such an audience that thought that this is where they belong. But I never made contact with anyone, I was not interested. Probably, the possession of such a machine would have to change the brain, make the nose turn up, but somehow I managed without it.

S. Aslanyan: What was the first car that the police realized that they had to work closely with you? Or did they wait a little?

A. Vershinsky: No, I used it for a long time. Until the Olympics in 1980. That's when they stopped. And looked at it for so long.

S. Aslanyan: It's on the street. And in the Ministry of Internal Affairs? When did the conversation take place with the person who was supposed to meet personally with the anti-Soviet Vershinsky?

A. Vershinsky: Approximately 1982.

S. Aslanyan: The system approached systematically. Stopped on the street, and then called for a conversation. And what was the conversation about?

A. Vershinsky: It was Oktyabrskaya Square. It was frankly stated: we know what you are doing, and you fall under the article of unearned income. I choked and asked: how? I work all day at the factory, I spend weekends in the garage. After work I run and sharpen something. But the article was unambiguously titled.

S. Aslanyan: And why was it not presented.

A. Vershinsky: I think perestroika has moved on, it just saved time.

S. Aslanyan: By 1982, when the conversation took place, what was your foreign car?

S. Aslanyan: There were already so many that you weren't even in the category of dissidents? Something economic was already needed.

A. Vershinsky: The fifth is somewhere. Five foreign cars in 10 years. But I did every one.

S. Aslanyan: No one cares about this in a personal matter. But it means. That you bought a car, conditionally for 5 thousand, reanimated it for 1.5 years, and then you have to sell it for 5 thousand rubles. Because it's unearned income?

A. Vershinsky: No, fortunately everything is not so sad. Having brought the car to a state of luxury, I polished every nut there, after my hands it came out completely different from what drove into the garage. I could officially hand it over to a thrift store and set any price. The demand was, for a long time she did not stand. Either stood next to me, on which sit down and drive, or rusty, killed.

S. Aslanyan: But as I understand it, the material component did not play a special role in this process? Was it an engineering curiosity? Or what prevented you from repairing the car and driving it for the rest of your life.

A. Vershinsky: And what should I live on?

S. Aslanyan: For an academic salary. Was it 90 rubles?

A. Vershinsky: Plus or minus.

A. Vershinsky: This was not the case at the Academy of Sciences, it was only at factories.

S. Aslanyan: Then it was necessary to turn somehow. And what car was after?

A. Vershinsky: I'm not sure I remember exactly. Let there be a Dodge Dart. The same huge American, with a hood on which you can dance.

S. Aslanyan: V8. The box is not clear what, because the machine?

A. Vershinsky: There was nothing to treat her with, in principle, LiAZ had the closest analogue. They were all scrap, but each time they demanded some new notions, restoration. What a sober head is not always possible. Dodge was so rotten that everything he took off went into the trash. The first thing to do is to disassemble everything, weld it. As a result, on the second day, I realized that there was nothing. Returned to the dump. Luckily, nothing was stolen. And where can I get the form to restore it? What lines? Where can you get iron? You can't buy anything. And this is a special one from which the wings of the car were made. As always, God helps the lost. Light bulbs were changed in our house, they were covered with a reflector. So this metal all went to recovery. But it was a lot of work.

S. Aslanyan: You, like a tinsmith, were sitting with scissors for metal, cutting everything, making some blanks?

A. Vershinsky: Without end. It turned out that a very good construction boot on the foot. He also has a metal toe, around him any shape curved very easily.

S. Aslanyan: It’s good that our science is ready to repel the imperialist…

A. Vershinsky: I offered to deliver Moskvich to America for free, I don't know why they didn't hear me. Residents would repair them from morning to night, and that's it - imperialism would collapse entirely. We would have beaten them in two counts.

S. Aslanyan: I would start with vodka. There are, however, a number of other ideas.

A. Vershinsky: No, they have more national craving for cars than for vodka. They also go to work. And then she won't start. And Khan.

S. Aslanyan: So, you began to bend the iron, passing through the entrance and collecting the discarded tins. And the plastic headlights?

A. Vershinsky: Two technologies. The simplest is to go shopping and buy all the lights that are on sale. From "Volga", "Moskvich" ... And from them you piecewise approximate, glue and create a new form.

S. Aslanyan: Approximation is, as I understand it, a synonym for mosaic?

A. Vershinsky: This is a very painstaking work, but it brought success. If glued and polished well, it will look whole.

S. Aslanyan: The 35th stoplight in the biography: brings Faberge to the jeweler's craftsmanship. This is the first technology. And the second one?

A. Vershinsky: It is more complicated. It is necessary to make a preform and squeeze out a new flashlight. And this is what we did.

S. Aslanyan: At home in the kitchen?

A. Vershinsky: In the garage. You usually don’t guess the first mold, the dimensions are not the same. It is necessary to heat everything, to press, and I began to burn. First of all, he rushed to save, of course, the car, because it caught fire. But this is a normal process. And with 3, 4 times you guess, you screw it.

S. Aslanyan: And you get a smart American.

A. Vershinsky: I did this with a German.

S. Aslanyan: But Dodge, for example, has an automatic transmission - did you have any questions? What about the engine? Bel Air knocked?

A. Vershinsky: The camshafts were rattling. How we found out. The cover was removed, the valve looked, it was worn out. Well, he had a run. Cars of those years went insane amount. 400 thousand km is what I got. But they figured it out. Drilled a drill. In the garage. This steel turned out to be the most needed. The shape of the cam was sharpened, and the car left with a whistle. And traveled for years.

S. Aslanyan: Steel on the drill, yes. Did you cook at home?

A. Vershinsky: Yes, right here on the floor.

S. Aslanyan: Some kind of argon?

A. Vershinsky: None. I lit it, lit it, burner number 3 and that's it. What argon.

S. Aslanyan: I can imagine how many people are now hiccupping while standing on the side of the road. What about the salon?

A. Vershinsky: Sewing is not that difficult. But this is money. The most ingenious solution was found with the salon in the summer, the car was all dismantled ... Well, the salon is nowhere at all. He poured nitro paints, a spray from a vacuum cleaner, and painted. In! Some door panels had to be made. You make a template out of cardboard, sheathe it, etc. It's just easier.

S. Aslanyan: Did the cars of that time already have power steering? And they also flowed, because oil seals do not last forever, and it was necessary to get out?

A. Vershinsky: There were problems with the liquid. Where can I get it? We had no idea what was in there. I poured a spindle, it suited me just fine. It has a wide temperature range. It worked.

S. Aslanyan: And then these masterpieces, were they used year-round? Sat and went? Or only in the summer, save?

A. Vershinsky: Well, you must admit that if you restored the car for a year or two to the state of Lenin's Rolls-Royce, where all my little handles and nuts shone, then in winter, with the salt that was poured, my heart bled. Especially when it's icy. Do you remember those streets? It was 30 seconds to fly where.

S. Aslanyan: And rubber? There were non-standard sizes, the Americans have huge wheels.

A. Vershinsky: The mileage of those tires was very high. It was almost enough for her whole life.

S. Aslanyan: Can you imagine, learning how to cook rubber by hand in the garage, then cutting the tread with a chisel…

A. Vershinsky: Yes, there were such cases. When she became indecently bald, and the police could stop her, this method was invented: you remove the wheel, clamp it between your legs, draw diagonal stripes with chalk, saw with a hacksaw. Then you turn the wheel over, with chalk - in another, that is, you make the appearance of a drawing. Well, a millimeter. And enough for the season.

S. Aslanyan: And what was the most original problem that could not be solved right away, but was later solved to the applause of those who understand?

A. Vershinsky: Every time you had to die, but solve the problem. You lost money, otherwise why did you buy it.

S. Aslanyan: The Institute of Oceanology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, the Power Engineering Institute behind them. Garage in the yard. And combine all this with an engineering masterpiece, which will then travel around Moscow.

A. Vershinsky: And that's the whole point of interest. If I solved one problem today, let's say there is no door handle. I have to weld it, cut it. A month or two went to the handle, and it is already screwed. But I don't have a bumper! But there were factories, ZIL nearby. I found the masters - absolutely brilliant people. I brought them a piece of the bumper, met at the factory. He smoked, said - come back in a month. New made! When I saw him, it's a complete atas! 30 centimeters high and 2 meters long nickel-plated crap. I have it like a pen on myself! They made it the way they didn't make it at the factory. Imagine, they made it from a piece of iron, then it becomes depleted, copper is applied. Then it is polished on the sandpaper, then dipped in a galvanic bath and repeatedly brought to an ideal state by layering. I sobbed. But if that were the end. But those cars that I got were of advanced technology, and this bumper had a rubberized second half. And here I got sad. How to make it? Of what?! Cross section of 10-15 centimeters and the same length. Of what? Complex shape, it fits the entire car ... As always, the case helped. At that moment, they began a major overhaul of the house where I lived. And they smeared the seams with some kind of smelly crap. I asked them for a jar, and then I bought a box from them. And the method of building up made rubber better than new. I did it for a month, of course.

S. Aslanyan: And the color?

A. Vershinsky: Then I painted it on the outside. But such unique cases always helped. He weighs on the cradle, paints the house, I say, give it to me, what is it?

S. Aslanyan: It's good that houses around you were being renovated all the time.

A. Vershinsky: Of course, pipes and lamps were thrown away. A bunch of things have been used. Garbage dump in Soviet times is generally a house. Now there are no such dumps. They are all closed and inaccessible. In Maryina Roshcha there was a dump where I went every week, it was just a palace. There it was possible to collect such an amount of brass and copper, from which to make anything. And there was also a lot of what the artists used, there was a lot of non-ferrous metal waste.

S. Aslanyan: That is, it is not at all surprising that at the turn of your biography you are already an artist.

A. Vershinsky: I would ask. I am a sculptor.

S. Aslanyan: Brass is no longer applicable?

A. Vershinsky: Applicable. I'll show you how, you'll see.

S. Aslanyan: And the brake pads from which truck?

A. Vershinsky: Eh, you can't use foul language. So I forgot this topic, taking a piece of iron, attaching a piece of Ferodo to it, or cutting it out of a large truck with a grinder is not a problem. Absolutely unsolvable problem is the quality of Ferodo itself. She floats. I've been in an accident many times. I take a block from the Niva. I cut out a shape from it, and put it on a foreign car. But you have to drive fast. And she warmed up and swam. Here is an unsolvable problem. And I took off. I made the pads myself and the springs. But this was the effect. Repeatedly. And he comes exactly at the moment when you need to turn. And they have already warmed up, they are red, and so I left between the trees. But it was always humorous, I flew out of the car, smoke came out of it. I stopped everyone, get me out. Pulled out, laughed.

S. Aslanyan: Russian people are always responsive. Especially with you, with dudes in foreign cars. By the way, did you keep your membership card in your pocket?

A. Vershinsky: No. It never happened.

S. Aslanyan: The balancing act is fantastic. Not all masters could afford to have such a biography without a membership card. And after the Americans, did you have Europe? Volvo?

A. Vershinsky: Volvo 144 is something that the Soviet people could only dream of - a van. Children could sleep there, dogs climbed in there. She was rotten from the windows to the bottom.

S. Aslanyan: Although Volvos don't rust. And we remember that she has a galvanized body, or stainless steel.

A. Vershinsky: And when I brought her home, I felt sad because I understood. That the volume of welding work exceeds my capabilities.

S. Aslanyan: And it is necessary that not a house, but a factory be repaired nearby.

A. Vershinsky: The eyes are afraid, but the hands are doing it. I did it all winter on the street like this, because such work is impossible in the garage. But then I saw that it was upholstered with a corner, its geometry was broken. The right wing is shorter than the left centimeter by 4. Well, how is it? I applied revolutionary technology at the time.

S. Aslanyan: Were they tied to a tree?

A. Vershinsky: I used to tie ordinary cars, pull them in reverse. Here it was impossible. Very strong deformation. I made the shape of the whole car from plasticine, building it up. Already a sculptor. And fiberglass on top.

S. Aslanyan: And epoxy resin?

A. Vershinsky: Of course.

S. Aslanyan: Now I understand who was the first to think of this.

A. Vershinsky: No, boats were glued before. But here I finished it with plasticine. But who cares, she drove fine.

S. Aslanyan: And this geometry allowed it to keep the road? Or is it no longer important, was it possible to drive a foreign car sedately and with style?

A. Vershinsky: No, she kept the road pretty well. Geometry touched only the outer plumage.

S. Aslanyan: This is not like the French, the base was deliberately different on the Renault 16.

A. Vershinsky: And how many were there?

S. Aslanyan: They officially announced a difference of almost a couple of cm.

A. Vershinsky: Well, it should be noted that the majority of Zhiguli, if measured with a meter, play with centimeters. This person feels little.

S. Aslanyan: Alexander Nikolayevich, since we have just warmed up, and the time is up, next time we will talk about your other foreign cars.

It's up to you, but something is wrong with this mechanism if the monthly pension, poured into the car's gas tank in the morning, completely disappears after one day of fidgeting around the city. You can't live like this anymore! It is necessary to resolutely look for the cause of this absurdity. Well, let's try...

Eat - eat greedily
From the "Dictionary of the Russian language" S.I. Ozhegov

Underfilled at a gas station? But not as much! Although, who knows… I remember that back in the years of developed socialism, one of my acquaintances calculated how much he personally was underfilled with gasoline at the same gas station in a year. I counted and envied other people's income, and, envious, dashed a slander into a higher organization, the address of which kindly decorated the gas station. A month later, his (slanderer) personal file was considered at a party meeting, provoked by a response letter printed on official paper of the Ministry of the Oil Refining Industry. That's it ... One "trouble" - these days, underfilling is not in fashion (see numerous reports in the press).

So, it turns out that it follows? Easy. For example, through the “left” fuel filter or leaky injectors. Another option is that music aesthetes could screw the subwoofer to the floor of the luggage compartment without calculating the length of the screw, and they did it so cleverly that they drilled through the gas tank. Say it's unrealistic? I saw it myself! Another option - the car stood for many years in a damp garage waiting for customs or some other cleaning, which is why the gas pipes, gas tank and sealing gum nozzles rotted ...

Okay, we’re going to a car service, and there are apparently invisible cars, and all with our diagnosis - “gluttony”, and from each they yell: “Give me the details!” In the sense that they explained what the matter is. And this is what noodles are most often hung on the ears of customers ... The first shift foreman confidently says that an “increased duration of the nozzle opening” was found, that is, this is a reason for the engine to “eat” beyond measure. So for now, let's figure it out ... The second contact person of the car service "loads" as follows: in his words, the "disease" of the engine is reduced compression! As a result, the candles are thrown, and the catalyst is clogged. We estimate the amount of expenses, call later ... The next master also has no time to talk with colleagues in the shop. The car's EGR valve afterburning of exhaust gases is stuck - this is the time. Faulty high-voltage wires - two. Yes, and the MAP sensor readings are not normal. We find out, wait ...

The fourth automobile doctor unexpectedly cheerfully announces that the car is ready! "How, why all of a sudden?" - you ask and hear in response non-literary about gasoline, nozzles clogged with slag, dead oxygen sensors, etc. In general, take it, do not show off! And what, the above-mentioned portion of “noodles” cooked is quite edible (that is, plausible), but other reasons for increased fuel consumption cannot be ruled out:
– the engine is serviceable, and the abnormal consumption of gasoline is caused by a defective automatic transmission;
- fuel consumption only seems overestimated due to faulty instruments or wheels of abnormal diameter;
- the consumption is too big due to the braked wheels;
- the car's odometer is digitized in miles, so the amount of gasoline consumed must be divided by the distance in km, which is already 1.6 times greater;
- if you remove the "brick" from the gas pedal, then fuel consumption will certainly fall.

And one more thing: to believe the consumption rates declared by the instructions should be a stretch ...

P.S. About the title of this article. For those who do not speak French, I explain: the spring of Paris in 1973 was wrapped in lines of people who wanted to see the film "La grande bouffe", which in translation sounds like "The Big Grub" ...

PILGRIMNS
He brought us like a guide
rain from the station square
to the white-walled monastery
The Life-Giving Trinity.

Near the temple, beauty
rare, people huddle.
Ugly umbrellas.
Unsmiling faces.

Accompanies the cry of the rain
us to the cathedral.
And subsides, passing
behind the doors in the singing of the choir.

The rain stayed on the porch
and cold streaks
I wiped off my face in warmth.
Why are cheeks wet?

Passing the candle stall
slow down the pace...
Wax drops on the palm.
Hurt! So, I'm alive, sinner.

Know that Russia is alive as long as
to the cancer of Sergius the human
silent river
everything flows without drying up.
September 2000

MOSCOW TERPSIKHORA
And every evening, at the hour appointed ...
Alexander Blok "Stranger"
When over a suburban station
the sunset will warm the clouds,
she dances with childlike grace
at the music stall.

Let his acoustics wheeze
frightening rats and small birds, -
where there is neither a tree nor a bush,
the stall is the “piano in the bushes”.

And she, like a bird, is also afraid
spinning alone in plain sight
passengers waiting for the train
that the schedule is out of whack.

But tomorrow again, at the promised hour,
at the tin stall walls
the dance of a fragile woman will last
in an unfashionable knee-length jacket.

And let grimacing or giggling
onlookers look at her,
but this station is faceless
with her found her face.
May 2002

NORTHEAST
Nina
This joy is unaccountable
like believing in miracles...
If the rainbow is ethereal,
what divides the sky?

Above - the darkness of the storm,
below - a clear semicircle.
What kind of hoop, cooling down,
suddenly jumped into the sky?

Who is the blacksmith of unsteady hope
not for happiness - for peace? —
with a quiet loving smile,
with a good book at hand.

As a hint of the best lot,
whom they followed together,
shone high in the sky
seven-color halo of earth.
January 2005

LACK OF TIME
Grandfather-chaldon died.
And I regretted it too late
so little to know
from what he remembered.

The Lord took the grandmother.
Turned white at the head
natives of the Dnieper region
marble is a gift from the Sayan rocks.

And I got angry again
on yourself, on the world, on God,
that I learned a little
from her life.

Boring disposition got me.
But I don't dare to blame
neither the Dnieper nor the Yenisei.
Biryuk himself: I do not cling to relatives.

In every city a candle
in the painted churches of Russia
I put for the health of loved ones,
and I will come - and I will be silent.

So my mother's hour has struck.
On her damp grave
we talked to her
sincerely... the first time.

So why do I need this run?
Hurrying from weekday to weekday,
I'm late for people
idle person!
September 2005

Glitter
On the rocks licked by the sea
near the Solovetsky monastery
I took a memory pellet
according to an old habit of a child.

The sea pebble was inconspicuous,
small and gray, like a vole mouse,
well, I liked it ... Look
how deftly lay down in the palm of your hand!

During the day they were shaking in the wind
clouds of the gloomy White Sea.
But it cleared up in the evening.
(Or did I just rub my eyes?)

And a fragment of coastal rocks
in the golden rays of the sunset
a hundred stars sparkled!
The land is rich in miracles.

Surprise is not melting
seen by everyone who was at the same time:
my soul lit up
momentarily by heavenly light.
November— December 2010

* * *
The Lord did not give death an eye,
and she circles blindly
and sniffs out flesh
and strikes - any.

And when a homeless dog
running halfway,
whine from under the wheels -
bow to the mongrel.
April 2013

BURN
Semyonovka. Native name.
Siberian village where I grew up
whose groves and ponds he considered his own,
like all of us in childhood, remember, friends?

A spacious valley for both Russians and Tatars,
and gave shelter to exiled Latvians.
But more often to Ukrainians: it’s not for nothing that
one of the streets is called Kievskaya.

Our house for the holiday became cramped:
my mother's relatives sat at the table.
Words of drinking Ukrainian songs
I was intelligible, touched me.

And on weekdays, the gramophone, while the spring,
who labored in it was whole,
insisted that "violently kvitne cheremshina",
suffered that "pidmanula, pidvela" ...

The place where we lived is bare now.
The villagers were lured away by the cities.
When a school burned down in my native village,
I didn't even feel ashamed.

My "peaceful" age has lost settlements
no less than in the World War!
Or the sin of post-war generations -
on anyone but me?

How am I not involved in that ruin?
In a cozy suburban town
looking at the world on the monitor
with the same as himself, in short.

Semyonovka is different in front of me.
She was covered by a rocket hurricane.
Another fire snakes, burning
through the LCD screen.

The fire of logs has not yet burned out,
which ignited for brother brother.
I'm definitely not guilty of this.
Why am I toiling, as if to blame?

About blood ties as a reminder for children
I consoled my soul and did not remember evil.
Semyonovka, the burn of the Donetsk land,
on my conscience lay a scar.
June 9-12, 2014

UNDERSTANDING
If the demon complained of weakness,
would disown the ailment: "Disappear!" —
and the ailment would instantly disappear ...
No, the Lord sends sickness.

For you to feel in pain
how homeless and poor.
To shut up from their dumbness
over the still smoky ashes.

Pay for the growth of the soul
the price of a small suffering flesh.
And then pasha, and write -
burn out at handy work...
February 25, 2015

dwarfs
Plane really dad Carlo son,
it would be Carlson, not Pinocchio.
From Varangian folklore
"God's servant" - what are they afraid of
so called henchmen of darkness!
They tell us with a clown's grin:
“You are serfs. We are free.

In the darkness from which shamelessly
gnomes climb without spending on makeup,
here, from the world, not everyone can see,
what kind of threads are drawn to them.

Twitch, pinocchio, parsley,
with a lexicon of five thousand words,
they talk to us, crowding around the feeder,
meanings of Russian roots and foundations.

To them who are inflamed to sweat
only a brothel and ethereal sodom,
our carefree work
looks like slave labor...

Whoever you are: military centurion
or a cattleman tending calves,
you are first the Lord's worker,
and then the shepherd and the soldier.

It is in a fairy tale that the road is being built -
there are two sides to the lot:
become a trusted worker for God
or a corrupt servant of Satan.
February 27-March 2, 2015

GOSPEL
...you believed because you saw Me;
blessed are those who have not seen and believed.
In. 20:29
How petty is human nature,
if a bookworm, as in those summers,
omissions and contradictions
looking in the books of the New Testament!

It's nice to know such a luminary,
with a volume of Darwin at the head,
something according to Luke and Matthew -
Savior has different genealogies.

About infants - Herod's sacrifices
writes only Matthew, and the miracle in Cana
and the rise of Lazarus from the dead
only John included in Scripture.

Mark is silent about the childhood of Jesus
and the wonderful day of His birth...
The critic does not see the plus in the minuses:
a sign of authenticity - discrepancies!

And one simple truth:
in a world where fear and malice reigned,
He died, forgiving his enemies,
and on the third day he rose from the tomb.

Death corrected by his own death,
He opened the way to eternal life
to everyone who is faithful to mercy
no matter how expensive it is.

It's all history, not myths;
and, having confidence in it and thereby strengthening,
Jews, Hellenes and Scythians -
even if only a few have been baptized.

Among them were literates:
former publican, doctor, interpreter, philosopher -
pioneers of the idea
that will remove the pagan colossi.

Stored pens and ink
began, praying, to work.
Recorded what was saved
memory - not machines, people of flesh.

The Holy Spirit, declaring the earthly sphere,
gave them insight in equal proportion.
Will we take the good news on faith?
We are given free will.
April 6-9, 2015

WINGED WORDS
... and the Slovenesk language and Russian are one.
"The Tale of Bygone Years"
A volume on the table, another at the head...
A thousand names under a forty watt lamp.
Only one of them forever entered the proverb:
"Pushkin is our everything" and "Pushkin is to blame."

"Our everything": soul, nature, our conscience -
the values ​​we are trying to preserve.
And “guilty” is that the bandolier is tighter
his tone and structure have cemented our speech.

Replacing the Roman helmet with a US helmet,
The West will not understand what our earthly cross is.
We are "one language". That dough, whose leaven
Pushkin updated. The poet is to blame.
17 -April 24, 2015