Eks Aleksey - Dmitrii Shilov - from bankput to millionaire

Mitya (as well as the author of these lines) was lucky with his school as educational establishment, not bus stop. As they say, “every cloud has a silver lining”, and “the evil” in the 90-ies was the economic situation – every closing industrial plant in Krasnoyarsk turned the whole area at once into a centre of poverty and crime. And the number of dying enterprises in those years was counted in dozens. The life of many people turned into the survival and the convulsive search for themselves in a dramatically changed country. And “the good” was the fact that several creative people saw themselves in the role of teachers and went to work at the same school. Rather born to be teachers, but mostly to have a small but stable income. So at school there was a theatre studio, Economics classes, a school choir, and as a result of the successful performance at computer festivals, the whole classroom of modern at that time 486 computers. During the day these computers were used for the preparation of reports and presentations, and in the evenings – for network games in Doom and Warcraft. Agree, not every teacher will trust his “dunces” the keys from a classroom where there is valuable equipment. And Yuriy V. Bazygin trusted us.

One of our favorite teachers, Grigory Petrovich Oliyanchuk, was the captain of KVN team in the Teacher Training University. It is quite natural that the KVN team soon appeared at school №15. And it’s more natural that Dmitry Shilov appeared in that team who was famous all over the school with his clown tricks in the lessons. The teachers made an absolutely right decision that as the energy of the guy was overflowing with energy, it was necessary to turn it into a peaceful direction. Everybody at school loved stand-up comedians and at the end of each term there was a concert where the performance of the team of KVN was very funny. And school guys were joking as they could – parodied Bogdan Titomir and the group MAXX, danced “Lambada” in ridiculous suits, showed synchrobuffonades and miniatures from the endless series “Brothers acrobats”. But one day they even went with a concert to the orphanage of a nearby village Berezovka. In humorous battles with the neighbouring schools there were even bright wins, and only one – absolutely unfair! – defeat. Mitya went to school with pleasure and only sport distracted him from communication with his friends – hockey with a ball, where he was a field player first and then, like his father, he became a goalkeeper. To be honest, the school years were.

#2011

Mitya was always surprised that many people are afraid of each other – they don’t want to go to the stage, to speak in public or consider jokes something unworthy. And the same people, sitting in the hall, laughed and they applauded everything that Mitya and his friends showed on the stage! The same things happened later – at the University, at work, in the hockey team… Everybody wanted joy and fun, but few people were joyful and merry. From the early childhood Mitya heard from his parents: “Do not shame us!”, “Do not ask for trouble!” Looking around, he understood that he was not the only who was brought up in the Soviet style but most of his friends were too. The main thing in the life of a Soviet man was not to stand out, to be like everyone else, not to draw too much attention to yourself. The same clothes, the same salaries, the same words about socialism, but nobody believed them by the end of the 80’s…

Mitya loved and respected his parents but their “trainers’ aims” were not suitable for him. There were no standard ways out from that situation. When you owe six million roubles, it’s not possible just to make jokes… You had to be absorbed in thought and find what can help. Or vice versa – to look around and to understand something? Or may be to do both?.. Past life and past experience didn’t prepare him for this situation.

One day dad brought Mitya the dream of millions of Russian children —game console “Dandy”. A little bit later, these game consoles appeared in each house but the first computer battles in “Tanks” and “Duck hunting” among Mitya’s friends happened while visiting the Shilovs. Since the console had only two joysticks, Mitya often called Max to play. It was impossible to stop paying and then the most reliable mechanism – the strict voice of mother switched on:

– Guys, stop playing! You’ll discharge the tube! And you will spoil your eyesight!

– Well, mum!

– Without any “mum”! Maxim also has to go home, his parents are waiting for him!

I wonder where all mums in the world have the invisible way to connect with other mums? At that time there was no chat in WhatsApp, even not everybody had telephones but somehow mothers felt each other. All right, we’ll have to stop playing. Having connected the antenna wire to the TV-set instead of the console cord, Mitya saw a report about the firing of the White House in Moscow on the screen. It was October 1993. In Moscow Studio, Vlad Listiev, Leonid Yarmolnik, Lia Akhedzhakova and Garik Sukachyov and some other famous people appeared one after another. They all looked into the camera with anxiety and called for peace.

But in Krasnoyarsk it was so peaceful, so Mitya responded childishly:

– Max, look, what a goat! – “goat” in Krasnoyarsk is called something funny – they play “Tanks” in Moscow too!

“Well, I don’t know how it will end, Mitya.

“Whatever they do but not to burn power unit.”

– They’ve burned down the White House, haven’t you seen?” And they have enough power in Moscow for a hundred years. They take everything from us – Yeltsin, Gaidar and Chubais. My parents said we were so poor here because of Moscow.

Mother didn’t support political conversations. First of all the child must learn.

– Come on, Maxim, do your homework! You’ll discuss about politics after all. You are not Vlad Listiev! Program “Theme”, “Spotlight of perestroika”!

– Mum!

– And you also, do your homework! Nobody will do Algebra for you! Whoever shoots somebody, it is necessary to learn well! If you become an engineer, you’ll stay at the rear of the armor, no matter what happens in the country.

Max said goodbye and left, and Mitya, despite of growing maximalism, listened to his parents again. And very soon from another trip dad brought him “Sega Mega Drive 16 bits”, after which he didn’t want to return to simple “Tanks”. But the country did like to play “Tanks” – the war in Chechnya began in 1994. Thousands of recruits from all over Russia were sent there and parents of guys – school leavers realized that their sons had to enter the university but not to get into the army…

The Avenue named after the newspaper “Krasnoyarskiy rabochiy” (or just “Krasrab”) stretches along the right bank of the Yenisei putting all surrounding space on itself. It starts at the man-made volcanoes – always smoking pipes of Krasnoyarsk thermo electric power station, goes through the plant “Krastsvetmet”, school No. 15, Krasmash plant and Siberian aerospace Academy to the University of non-ferrous metals and gold. After the university, you can see the Theatre of a Young Spectator, the circus, the cinema “Epicentre” (former “Jubilee”) and the end of the Avenue is Predmostnaya Square. According to the builders’ project, a resident of the right Bank of Krasnoyarsk could be born, learn, work and have a rest in this one single street. The Registry office, the Art Gallery, the cinema ‘Rodina (Motherland)” and the shopping centre “Krasnoyarie” were a successful addition to “Krasrab”. There was not only a cemetery but if you looked for it thoroughly, you’d find one. (Schools change their numbers, universities change their names, I left those ones that relate to my and Mitya’s times).