People were left without a roof over their heads, and the regional authorities were only concerned about how a homeless family would vote. The Solovyov family sold the house to repay the debt: the state robbed them to the skin in the days of default. So they couldn't...

People were left without a roof over their heads, and the regional authorities were only concerned about how a homeless family would vote

WITH

The Solovyov family sold the house in order to repay the debt: in the days of the default, the state robbed them to the skin. So they themselves could not pay off the people who loaned them five thousand dollars for the operation of brother Yura. And they almost became homeless - the four of us illegally live in a tiny dorm room, there is no registration, and the youngest son does not even have a passport.

M

Last summer I published in Novaya Gazeta (No. 44) a hopeless and bitter article - "The Family's Debt". How the Solovyov family from Krasnodar became homeless.

In 1998, the elder brother of the head of the family, Sergei Savelyevich, Yuri returned to the house after the army as a hero lieutenant colonel - he distinguished himself in Chernobyl. The man seems to be strong, but then he suddenly fell ill. Doctors looked and said: without surgery, not a tenant. They asked for a lot of money - five thousand dollars, but if you borrow it, and then give it in installments - it's tolerable. Both Sergey Savelyevich and his wife Elena Vasilyevna were always hard-working people, like their deceased mother and father: first, four of them, and then only two of them built not a house with their own hands - a feast for the eyes.

And then, when Yura got back on his feet after the operation for five thousand borrowed dollars, horror settled in the house, which brought a default that ruined the country and its inhabitants. Lenders went crazy - money immediately!

And the Solovyovs sold the house for only five thousand greenbacks (real estate prices then rolled head over heels), paid off their debt and went to live in a tiny room in a teacher's hostel.

Since that terrible time, Elena Vasilievna still does not believe that the state has thrown her, as bandits do, and writes letters to big people in Moscow and Krasnodar: how can we live now?

I wrote to President Yeltsin and his wife Naina Iosifovna, President Putin, the governor of the region and the mayor of the city. I wrote to Germany, to the Red Cross, to the commissioner for human rights, to prosecutors of all ranks. And to famous people: Yavlinsky, Kobzon, even Gaidar, who, as I remember, was a consultant to Prime Minister Kiriyenko just at the time when the default was being devised.

If I had known then, at our first meeting, that Elena Vasilievna so devoutly believes in the power of the printed word and the awe of the authorities in front of him that she considers my article the last hope that will come true right there, I would not even write a line.

But what can you do now, the article came out, Elena Vasilievna perked up, set about her own: she began to write again to the authorities, now local.

The secretaries of the chiefs, to whom Solovyova fell, were curious: is she really such a weirdo that she agreed to remain without a home, just to pay off her debt? So I would say: I have no money, at least cut it.

Imagine, at first I also reasoned like these secretaries.

And then she reminded me that good fellows from the FSB came to her, strictly explained: most of the money was lent to her by an official of the regional administration, who dragged the currency from the budget of the Kuban, now he is sitting, and her sacred duty is to return these dollars. In order not to be an accomplice with this crook.

And for this you need to sell the house. And it doesn’t matter that there are two minors in the family ... Not fools are sitting in the regional administration, but patriots of their native land, they will turn a blind eye to the stupid law, they will immediately give permission to sell, and her family will get an apartment.

Why should I now reproach Elena Vasilievna for the fact that, like millions of her compatriots, she has no idea about her rights, that she takes on faith the guests from the FSB and dutifully does everything they told her? Yes, she doesn’t even know the names and positions of her guests, she saw red books with a coat of arms from afar - will you go to call someone who knows to answer?

In any case, Solovieva's brief political literacy was learned, and in a statement to the administration of the Krasnodar Territory, she directly accused the local officials of illegally permitting the sale of the house and demanded that it be recognized as illegal. And, of course, I attached my article from Novaya Gazeta to the application.

The chairman of the Committee for Accounting and Distribution of Housing of the Administration of the City of Krasnodar V.M. answered her. Lobanov. He recalled that Solovyov S.S. On September 6, 1999, a home ownership purchase and sale transaction was completed, and as a result, the family was left homeless. The house was sold, and now give you an apartment?

Wouldn't you like to receive a land plot for the individual construction of a residential building, as the first deputy head of the administration suggested at a personal reception?

Another appointment was with Anna Alekseevna Ivanova, General Director of the Department of Education and Science of the Administration of the Krasnodar Territory.

- Don't you think that any day a bailiff will come to your hostel and evict you? the general asked. - And keep in mind that your youngest son will not receive a passport, it is impossible without a residence permit.

True, the boss had good advice. She recommended finding a job that provides company housing. Literature teacher Elena Vasilievna heard somewhere that janitors and district police officers use such a boon, but who would take her to such a wonderful service?

We already said goodbye when A.A. Ivanova's face changed:

- What are we all about money and apartments ... And the elections? And how do you and your husband vote?

This is the trouble so trouble. The head of education was very saddened by these sad questions and promised to think about how to help homeless people fulfill their civic duty.

And about the other, which Elena Vasilievna begged for, there was no question.