War and Peace, Catherine Chudnova

Not heroic icons, varnish beyond recognition – of doctors, teachers, pilots – a great-grandmother and great-grandparents of those who live in two steps. Catherine Vladislavovna – Director of the Museum of Nature Tanguya that Bratsk district. It seems that inside her – unborn novel like "War and Peace." Only war – not with France and with the Nazis, and all the characters – a native of Siberia. Woman recovers buried in the archives of the names of the soldiers and find living people, which many have long believed dead. Thanks to her, someone could look at the person who did not return from the war relatives who had never before seen … After a two-hour conversation with this woman there is the feeling that you've just reread "The Dawns Here Are Quiet". Or watched some very good movie about the war, where the screen does not show any deaths, but that the pain even worse. Photo from history – now I'm preparing for a future book about the soldiers of the Bratsk region the story of a pre-war photographs – Catherine Vladislavovna holding a copy of the card, which depicts a group of young people. – The picture we sent veteran Vasily S. Doroshenko, it shows him with his brother Nicholas and a group of pre-war friends. Said that no one living of these people are gone, many names and could not remember. Picture for a long time hanging in a museum, instead of the names were blank. Today on the history of one of the photographs, you can write a whole book – so suddenly there were stories of those it depicts. If not for that luck and the interest of our guest, nephews Stepan Ivanov may never be known, looked like their uncle. But friends and colleagues Boris Stepantsov would consider that fact long dead. – I began to search the archives, memory books, what happened to the people in this picture – says Ekaterina V.. – Time is running out and nothing happens. And then I remembered that in the neighboring village Zarb live many Stepantsov. I came back and became interested in local: – A Boris Antonovich Stepanets died long ago? – How he died? He is alive, and is now in Tulun. Does not understand anything, not talking, but alive! … Come home to the veteran was only in the evening. – Perhaps because of the late visit me at first took for a doctor – says the woman. – I go into the house, and the veteran is on the couch, so indifferent. I show him a card and аск: who is it? – And then, do not believe it, they say that does not talk – he meets the bass: – J. – Who is that? – Kolka Doroshenko. – And this? – Vаскa. And then his wife brings the same picture, which signed all the names! After you have found relatives of Nicholas Doroshenko: it turned out that they live on the station atareynaya at Angarsk. In Tanguyskom museum today are the photos that fighter sends families from the front. Here's a snapshot of the 43rd: soldiers with pictures taken out of the fascist environment. That card is the 44 th: greetings from Bulgaria. But photos taken shortly before Victory: "Beloved mother of his son Nicholas. Remember son, who is not afraid of any threats to the enemy, took almost all of Europe today and tomorrow will return to his native Tango. Cook a decent meeting. Nikolai Doroshenko. Not so long ago from a neighboring village to his son in a tango moved old teacher Vera Stepanovna Tsarenkova, nee Dynnikov. Catherine Chudnova knew that once the woman started working in Tangue. At random, our heroine decided to аск, do not know whether her names of people to photograph. – It turned out that the man in the photograph, whose name we never could make out – not that Buranov, not Burakov – her first love, Nick snowstorms. He's very good at drawing, he promised her that he would pilot and will fly over her home. When he died in the war, Vera could not see his mother – constantly crying. And another guy from the photo, which no one could remember the name was Stepan Ivanov. It turned out that his relatives live in the nearby village Hudobok. – It is said he worked at a local department of culture. And he said, going to war, that his gate closes for the last time. He died quickly, early in the war, we have found information on the site of the Memorial. " It turned out that my relatives there was not one of his photographs. They last a long time thanks that could see his uncle. Cute, yes you are alive! Catherine Vladislavovna says a lot about people and almost nothing about himself. Told only that the tango she arrived after the Pedagogical Institute: A student as she first gave the right to choose which of the school district to go. Had not she, who was born many miles away, in Tangue probably never would have started to celebrate the holiday village. At that time, when the woman was the head of the village (and she has worked in this position for 14 years), transmission of local radio is published three times a week and tells the story of streets and houses. – People listen and begin to come: but you did not say, but I still remember so and so. And I just that right! – Laughs ethnographer. Through her love of history, people, for example, found that tango is based on a hundred years earlier than everyone thought – in 1625. And that Zhigalovo there is a school that bears the name of tanguyskogo teacher and a soldier – Gregory Galaktionovich Malkova, which took place throughout the war and left an inscription on the Reichstag building: "Here was a Siberian Malkov" … – When we began to communicate with the director Zhigalovo school, sent me photos Malkova. On one of them he stands with a young devushoops. It turned out that it Sushkina, a sniper from a nearby village Ilir. Now it is no longer alive. Relatives said that she remembered the life of this man. Malkov, the brigade commander, was considerably older than her and all the men said: "Only tronte! This is my daughter. " As possible to find so many people, when someone may be looking for all my life and never find their old friends or colleagues? Catherine Vladislavovna says that many of the "orientation" she gave tanguysky veteran Alexei Y. Shvidko. – And he often remembered a former classmate, Tonya Vyborovu. This, says a girl! Signaller, the war took place, returned on crutches … Too bad it's gone. Imagine, I managed to find it, live in Irkutsk! Just yesterday, talking to her … It turned out that was alive and her older sister, Anastasia – a former military doctor, she was 97 years old, it is now in the suburbs. Can you imagine what was my surprise? Lovely, well you all buried, and you're alive! Now the museum's director, along with local children restores monuments on the graves of veterans. And in two nearby villages over the past few years, new obelisks – without historical mistakes. To be remembered. Its not invented characters. By the way: 1941. First row: Michael Nekipelov, Basil Doroshenko Nikolay snowstorms. Second row from top, left to right: Stepan Ivanov, Alexander Pishchulin, Boris Stepanets, Nikolai Doroshenko.