The bridge that Yakut built

Gennady Zverkov, nicknamed Yakut, is known far beyond the village of Yamkovo, where he lives. In the summer, he built a river crossing with his own hands.

Zverkov is the only one in Yamkovo. And not local at all. Gennady Aleksandrovich is a Siberian with Volga roots on his father and Evenki on his mother. As he calls himself, “semi-cultured.” Ten years ago I came with my family to the Kostroma region from the Yakut village of Brindakit. Gennady was given a bad diagnosis; he spent a year in the hospital with an open form of tuberculosis. The doctors said: “If you want to save your family, go to the village.” The couple, without thinking twice, packed their things and moved to Yamkovo.
The village administration offered the northerners a dilapidated house built in 1926. There was no choice; we had to completely rebuild it. A small pension was not enough to live on, and Galina, Gennady’s wife, began teaching physical education at school, and he himself got a job as a watchman. Literally in the first days, fate gave Gene-Ant (another nickname of Zverkov) a test “for lice.” When he left for things in the North, someone removed the wires, and the entire village had to sit without electricity. The old women collected a ruble each and came to Galina Mikhailovna to ask her to go to Kostroma for help from the big bosses. She went, found an electrician she knew in the city, and light returned to the village. Since then, the responsibility for electricity has fallen entirely on the shoulders of the Zverkovs. The story with the bridge is generally similar. People asked - Gennady did it.
In the village of Miskovo, neighboring his village, there is a paramedic station, a school, and a peat enterprise, but in Yamkovo there is nothing at all. Local residents had to make a detour of almost five kilometers to get to civilization. It was especially difficult in winter, when there were meter-long snowdrifts on the road. The villagers raked a narrow path along which they walked back and forth. But if there was a snowstorm at night, the trail disappeared the next morning. We had to walk across the Mesa on ice. And the Mesa is a treacherous river: the current here is fast, warm springs gush from below, causing thawed patches to appear. It happened more than once that people fell through and drowned.
Previously, there was a bridge across the Mesa - a deck over the water made of two rafts secured with wire. It was built by old people who lived in Yamkovo; Without thinking through the idea to the end, the structure was placed at the lowest level of the river. As soon as the water rises, you can no longer cross the bridge.
One day Galina Zverkova was late for work and decided to take a shortcut to school. Thinking that she could easily jump from the shore to the deck, she only managed to jump to the edge. The bridge could not stand it and began to slowly sink to the bottom. Galina barely made it to shore. And at home I told my husband: “Gen, why am I walking around like that?!” Zverkov responded: “That’s it, you’ll have a bridge!” One of the neighbors helped with building materials, but Yakut essentially built his bridge alone.
Now the Zverkovs consider the village of Yamkovo their home, they say that they cannot find a better place. Gennady explains his desire to help with his Siberian upbringing:
– Where the frost is below forty, it becomes a habit to help each other. If you don't help, you won't survive.
Elena Tuzova.
Kostroma region.