Читать книгу Dmitrii Shilov: from bankput to millionaire - Eks Aleksey - Страница 8

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).

In the nineties and even in the early 2000s hookers were standing along the Avenue in the evenings, who did not know the expression “girls with low social responsibility.” So “Krasrab” not only worked but also rested. Then the times changed, girls gave up the oldest profession of a prostitute, became reasonable and everybody got married to princes. But that’s not certain.

The famous” Tsvetmet – the Krasnoyarsk university of non-ferrous metals and gold is traditionally considered the main University, preparing geologists, metallurgists and economists for production. The results of school examinations of school No. 15 students could be taken as entrance exams, and therefore in September 1997 the future specialist in the field of metal processing by pressure Dmitry Shilov was standing at the entrance to Tsvetmet and holding his student’s card in his hands.

On the one hand, this piece of paper in a blue cover protected him from service in the army and was necessary for any school leavers who respected themselves, but on the other hand, -metal processing by pressure was a product of Mitya’s parents influence and the first-year student wasn’t interested in it at all. But Mitya didn’t want to give up his studies, after all, according to a famous joke, it’s better to dream for five years to pass the exam at the Siberian University, than to admire the Caucasus for two years in the company of the same young tourists in the same clothes…

First of all, Mitya was impressed by people from the university. All informal youth of the working quarters of Krasnoyarsk was hanging out in the corridors and classrooms The desks were decorated with inscriptions like “If you’re not a homosexual, draw railcar another on” – there was a picture of a steam locomotive to this inscription.

“Every lector has in ass one vector”, “the button to switch off the lecturer” – and the button was drawn there. “If you have no mind-go to Tsvetmet”, " no Mind-go to the Teacher Training University”, “No mind-go to medical university” … If to believe the inscriptions, the absence of mind opened a wide prospects for life for a future student. There were also the lines about love on the desks: “Better fuck the gnome in booty then a girl from ec. faculty” Reading these lines, Mitya, for some reason, felt sorry for the gnomes because they were not in a better position.” After the kind and creative atmosphere of the school, it seemed to Mitya that he had appeared in a prison for difficult teenagers. Many students came to Krasnoyarsk from other towns of the region, and finally getting rid of parental supervision, behaved as they could. Mitya didn’t really want to go to studies but there was nowhere to go.

There was a peeling off bench not far from the main entrance to the university building. Looking at the layer of husks, cigarette butts and broken glass around benches, one could say that a lot of students study all day long exactly here. Mitya wanted to pass by the informal guy sitting alone, but the guy said:

– Hey, guy, are you a fresher?

– Yes!

“What’s your name?”

– Mitya.

I’m Spider. Mitya, do you have cigarettes?

“No, I don’t smoke.”

“And what about beer?”

– No.

Well, at least one and half thousand roubles for a bus?

– I have.

“Well, get away from here, Mitya!

“Why?”

– Well, I don’t need you – no cigarettes, no beer. My head hurts, I do want to smoke…

Spider laughed a little bit strangely and Mitya suddenly smiled back. He was dressed from head to toe in black – a biker jacket, jeans, heavy boots, and a faded t-shirt with a silly inscription, but Mitya liked him for some reason. Spider with his jokes was better than a pack of pals from Cheryomushki and Pashenniy, and the majority of them were the first year students. In five years these guys will occupy the checkpoints of Krasnoyarsk plants every morning, and now the children of the working quarters are on their duty at the studies which they don’t like. Almost every student had a plastic bottle of beer Koupecheskoe in the bag between books. This beer from the legendary brewery “PiKra” was cheap and that’s why it was drunk in enormous amounts. It got to the point where beer was allowed to be sold in a cafe inside the University, and not only in Tsvetmet, but also in the Polytechnic and even in the State University. It was not just banal greed, but also a subtle understanding of the psychology of the student —the ability to hangover quickly and effectively increased attendance of morning lectures. Vicious practice of making students drunkards at the place of study was stopped in Krasnoyarsk only in the twenty-first century. (I hope so.) There must be some advantages of a bright future, such as the lack of light beer…

Meanwhile, his friend sat down next to Spider -an informal guy from the youth hostel Cabbage, with red hair and eternally swollen after yesterday’s guy who came from far away district center to study environmental engineering. His nickname Cabbage got because of the jars of sauerkraut that his mum sent to her son every week from the village. The son would prefer vodka or money, but the mother believed that the cabbage was good, and the whole hostel believed that sauerkraut was quite good even with illegal “Moskovskaya” vodka at 18 thousand roubles for half a litre. Cabbage wore an earring in his ear, a t – shirt with a portrait of Kurt Cobain on his fat body and knew how to play the old guitar the songs of Tsoi and Egor Letov. Sometimes he was beaten for his earring and t-shirt and sometimes he was not beaten for Tsoi and Letov. Cabbage had a difficult but interesting life.

The boys – looking at a couple of “excellent students’– are you going to pass your exams? asked Mitya,

– Exams? —grinned Spider – well, mother will send money to Cabbage and I will unload wagons, if you don’t lend me a million roubles…

A million?! – Mitya was surprised,

– “Of course! Do you think that I will buy satisfactory marks for myself? I’m a smart intelligent young man, I want to be an excellent student!

– How will you work with such a diploma?

– Work? smiled the Spider sadly, – to sell the jackets at the market, you don’t need a diploma. We’re all getting the same profession here, a legal deviationist from the army.

– We are going to be officers after the University —said Cabbage. – I saw the guys in the yard behind the building were sudying to turn the cannon.

– Which way?”

“Over there, towards the theater of a young spectator.”

– Well, “Motherland” is not a good idea to shoot! – meaning the cinema, Spider joked.

And what about you, Mitya, which troops are you going to?

No, I’m not going to the army, – said Mitya, – I am an athlete, hockey player, I play in “Yenisey”.

– You will be taken anyway – continued Cabbage, to Sport company! We will

turn a cannon towards you, and you will run away zigzags.

“And jokes are not your strong side, Cabbage,” – thought Mitya. But he said aloud:

– OK, you are interesting guys, but I have to go, I need to come into Dean’s office.

“Do you know what they call the Dean’s office?”

– How?

– Alco-deanery. So much cognac was brought there to get a credit, it’s equal to Alco-deanery for one session!

– I’ll kick the door open and tell them the joke.”

– Come on, but from the University you will have to go to military registration and enlistment office. The Dean’s office doesn’t like to joke.

– Listen, Mitya, – Spider became excited, – let’s go to “Glass” with us today? It’s fun and port “Golden” is always there. We will sit and play the guitar “All goes according to plan”, and then take a leak with port hospitable corners and entrances of our favourite city. Cultural rest, I promise you!

“Glass” was called the square in the center of Krasnoyarsk, opposite the store “Detsky Mir”. For many years it has been the most” informal” place of the city with guitars, cigarettes and those glasses with vodka and port. And nowadays there you can meet fans to remember the good old days, but they are not so young. And the square rooted with monuments of 2000s and benches of 2010th. Comfort – Letov and port will be not actual.

– No, guys, if I start with a glass, I won’t even have a bottle! Mitya joked and went to the entrance of the University where the student cards were checked by strict old women… And Spider and Cabbage turned out to be normal guys, though informal. All people are good if you get to know them better.

#2011

Many years later, Mitya learned from a casual conversation that Spider gradually switched from alcohol to drugs and died in intensive care somewhere in the middle of 2000s, and Cabbage came back to his Ust-Zapinda, took out his earring, changed his vest with Cobain into the T-shirt with Putin and became someone like the Head of the district. Alcohol – in fact, is the same as casino, it is necessary to play, but not flirting… On the other hand, the ability to drink hard with someone helped to make not the only career, including in Krasnoyarsk. You just need to know who to drink with and how much. In this case, Dmitrii Shilov was no longer an applicant, but a Professor.