Impressions from Kostroma - as if I had been there for a week

My impressions of Kostroma are as if I had been there for a week. I don’t know which one is more: from the seminar or from the city. From the city because the excursion was personally led by Kolya Sorokin himself. From the seminar because there were such wonderful people there.

The first meeting was a surprise for me. Yulia and Nikita Kustov were waiting for me near the hall. Nikita is the boy from Kostroma who has cerebral palsy, which began to grow rapidly, and so that he could continue to walk with his own legs, we got him a special super exercise bike in the States. Julia and Nikita gave me a bouquet of roses. Julia was crying. Julia - as you understand, Nikita's mother. Doctors are surprised at how quickly Nikitin’s legs are strengthening with the help of the new exercise machine.

This is them.

In the hall I learned many names of new cities. For example, Sharya. This is a city 320 kilometers from Kostroma, naturally, in the direction opposite from Moscow. The nicest Oleg was there, asking about the development of self-government. I came specially. Another city is Bui. They make cheese there. There was an amazing guy from there, Sasha, who wrote a thesis on the development of beekeeping in the Kostroma region. And also the city of Nerekhta... And many, many questions about Kudrin, about the protests, about Khodorkovsky. And the main question: “What should we do?”

And then a very beautiful girl with black eyes drove up in a wheelchair. Young artist Irochka Bogomolova. She gave me a painting, or rather a batik, with a view of the Ipatiev Monastery. Red-green, delicate, sad work. Irochka, like me, has multiple sclerosis. But she wants people not to see her as a disabled person, but only as an artist, infinitely happy that fate has given her talent. We held hands. Irochka thanked me for the story.

Then Larisa came up, dressed in linen - oh, what linen! - costume. Also about the story - it gave me strength to live. Larisa was sad. It seems to her that the further development of Russia is predetermined. We are part of the matrix.

But in general the city did not give the impression of a boring province for a minute. Their movement is real. It was, however, organized by the former governor Slyunyaev. A person legendary for his stupidity, who rallied the province in dislike for himself. On April 13 it was removed. It’s clear that after such a slob, Kostroma would have chosen something completely oppositional. But in any case, they celebrated the removal of the governor like New Year - with champagne and fireworks.

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