Hermit Fisherman

Gennady Lyakhov lives near Kharkov, but not in his own house or even in an apartment. He spent the last ten years of his life in... a dugout on the shore of the Pechenezh reservoir. Moreover, Gennady’s love for fishing drove him underground.

Dugout during the war

People in the surrounding villages have heard about Gennady Lyakhov, but no one knows exactly where he lives. In this sense, Gennady is a real hermit. You can't easily reach him. He warned me when I found his mobile phone number through tens of hands: you won’t find it yourself, so I’ll meet him.
Then we tried to keep up with his battered "five". My old friend Andrei, who agreed to take me to visit the hermit, swore quietly and doomedly all the way - Gennady drove off-road, and Andryukha felt sorry for his brand new Tavria. Seeing the spring muddy field through which we had to cross, he completely sank.
The red “five” bravely, like a submarine, swam across a huge puddle. Just in case, we crossed ourselves and followed her. Having overcome the mud of the field and meandered through the forest to our heart's content, we finally taxied to the coastal estates of Gennady Lyakhov - light wooden houses. At first, I even decided that I was on a farm when I saw a horse, chickens and dogs peacefully grazing.
In the house - a kitchen and a dining room at the same time - there is a portrait of not Yushchenko hanging on the wall, but for some reason Brezhnev, and food is piled on the table: sausage, coffee, cookies. The dugout itself, overlooking the water, is dark and cramped. But Gennady only sleeps there, and spends the rest of his time in the fresh air.
“There were battles here during the war,” he tells the story of his home. “Ours stood on this bank, and the Germans on the other.” The dugout has remained since then.
Here we must certainly remind you that Gennady Lyakhov is not a drunk at all. That’s what he says: put a bottle of vodka and I’ll look at it for a year. And he’s not homeless - he has an apartment in Kharkov, his parents live there. Simply Gennady is a fisherman. And he went underground 10 years ago precisely because of his passion for meditation with a fishing rod on the shore.

Great bite

Gennady Lyakhov is better off in the forest than in the city. There is bustle and dust, but here there is silence, fresh air, foxes are running around. In fact, his voluntary hermitage began not even with fishing, but with Chernobyl. Gennady entered the radiation-contaminated zone a month after the reactor exploded. He stood in a cordon. Returning to Kharkov in November, I went to the factory. The guy was 27 when he was fired for health reasons - it’s official. And unofficially - for intractability. At first he sued, looked for another job, but because of that very entry in his employment record, they were afraid to hire him. And then he spat. In the early 1990s, he was registered as disability group III - after Chernobyl, his health noticeably deteriorated. They gave me a royal pension - 400 rubles, several times more than usual. And Gennady reasoned sensibly: why work if you can fish? At first he did it for his own pleasure, and when inflation ate up his pension, he began selling fish. So fishing saved him from lack of money. Now Lyakhov’s pension is again good by Ukrainian standards - $250. But he never warmed up to fishing.
For several years they “thought about it” for three people - Gennady hired two assistants for fishing. It was expensive to travel from the city to the Pechenegs, and the networks had to be guarded. And one day Gennady offered to stay in the forest forever. The men scratched their heads and refused, and Gennady pitched a tent on the shore. For the first three years he still wintered at home, and in 1998 he finally dug in on the shore.
- Why here? – I look around at the endless water.
Lyakhov smiles broadly:
– And here it’s right in the middle and the bite is better.
He says he walked all over the coast in a year, but here he liked it the most. True, then he revealed to me a terrible secret: the fact is that he once caught fish with nets (he had such a sin). So, it was rare that a fish inspector reached the middle of the Pechenegs. And Gennady had the usual fishing happiness.
In general, I immediately realized that Gennady Lyakhov is not a fool - the buildings in which he lives are temporary, permitted by law. That is why he is not being persecuted. True, about five years ago he stepped on the tail of the local administration. I decided to rent a plot of land and turn it into a tourist center. Promises to outshine the Mediterranean. He is already looking for sponsors, only those prefer the real Mediterranean. But Lyakhov does not despair and is still fighting with the administration of the village, to which the Pechenegs are assigned. Tries to prove that he has the right to rent according to the law. He even quotes the Land Code by heart. This war has been going on for five years now, and there is no end in sight. Local officials have long dubbed his camp a hot spot. Once on the shore even fighting broke out. A bulldozer rolled in to level the houses. Gennady did not stand on ceremony - he grabbed the Land Code in one hand, in the other - what lay closest (it seems that it was an exhaust pipe from a motorcycle, he doesn’t remember well), and bravely went towards the bulldozer driver. He got scared, although it’s not clear what was more important - the code or the pipe, and jumped out of the car shouting: “Crazy!” And he ran away. But not far, because the bulldozer was still in his possession. Gennady, of course, did not beat him, but simply scared him so that others would be discouraged.

Longing for Natasha

The reservoir itself has been leased for a long time. Lyakhov works in one of the teams - they catch fish together, hand them over to the “owner”, and sell what remains. We also wanted to buy crucian carp from him, but there were no extra ones. But Gennady brought us three kilograms of crayfish at a price several times lower than the market price. We then drank beer with them at home. Very tasty.
Gennady rarely visits his Kharkov apartment. I entrusted my mother to receive my pension, and I can even save it – what I earned from the Pechenegs is enough. By the way, his parents were visiting their son. They liked it, but they often can’t travel because they get sick. Gennady, on the contrary, began to feel much better. He is settling more and more firmly on the shore. It has its own light, you can even watch TV. I recently bought energy-saving light bulbs, and now I’m thinking about a small sauna. Temporary, of course, so that it will not be demolished.
Recently, the same fan fishermen from other teams joined him. But after their shift they go home, and Gennady remains. Alone, because at 45 he still didn’t get married.
– Perhaps women refuse to go into the dugout? – I make an assumption.
- Not at all. I lived with Natasha for a long time, she only left a year ago.
And Gennady told a sad story about how he was happy for only four years. His Natasha grew up in a dysfunctional family: her mother “burned out” from alcohol, her father was deprived of parental rights long ago. At 17, the girl was practically homeless. And then her brother, a fisherman, got her a job in a brigade - she cooked food for the fishermen, cleaned, and did laundry. Gennady noticed her and, as they say, “lured away a valuable personnel.” Natasha moved to him, at first she simply worked, and then their work relationship grew into a romantic one. Natasha realized that with a sweetheart there could be heaven not only in a hut, but also in a dugout. They went to Natasha’s grandmother, Gennady renovated her kitchen and bathroom.
“But it turns out that old woman Shapoklyak was right: whoever helps people is wasting his time,” Lyakhov sighs sadly. – She began to turn her granddaughter against me, saying that I’m not suitable. Well, Natasha fell for it. And the two of us went to pull out the nets... I liked that Natasha grasped everything on the fly. There were many helpers, but she was the best.
- Are you bored?
– I still miss you and am even ready to take you back. I want children.
Gennady yearns for both Natasha and his failed family. And in order not to become limp, he, as before, saves himself with a fishing rod. For him, fishing is better than any psychotherapeutic session. And only she never betrayed him.