In May, a folk taboo on weddings was imposed in order to "not toil." In May, they recall the veterans of the war and see for the service of future soldiers.

I have long wanted to take off without embellishment wiring into the army. He went to the military enlistment office of the city of Tara, where I live. During the draft period from our area, 80-100 guys are “shaved”. I was offered a choice of 10 draftees who today and tomorrow they will be sent to the troops for military service. Seven of the proposed were inhabitants of the surrounding villages and villages. This determined my choice - the village does not "mow" from the army. So I met Sergey Saikovsky.

He lives in the village of Grinevichi 70 km from Tara. He graduated from nine classes and went to work on a sawmill. The forest gives earnings to local men. But there are enough worries at home. Sergei's parents keep a decent economy: cows, pigs, hens, rabbits, sow hectares (!) Potatoes. 
In distant villages, they only hope for themselves and their courtyard, well, the forest still feeds.
Here are the Grinevichi - a strong village, with a taiga behind the outskirts. He lives his labor. There are almost no abandoned empty houses. I am often convinced that the further the settlement is from the city, the more natural the life of the life is established there. And people live more friendly there. Blacks and holidays are experiencing together, and in city houses, neighbors on the landing often do not know each other. 
There are three sisters in the Saikovsky family, and Sergey is the only son, so he has to do all the hard work in the house with his father. 
Further Omsk, the regional center 300 km from Tara, Sergey was not anywhere. He does not want to move to the big city. It is ready to leave the native village, but only to the northern watch for the sake of earnings. 
The guy matured early. We can say that he became a man - at the age of 19 he married. Not by "flying", as often happens at this age, but for love. His wife Zhenya graduated from the Omsk College, returned home, helps the household. 
Sergei was not particularly torn into the army.
“You know,” he admitted to me, “until the deadline will come that you will go to the army tomorrow, all the boys say:“ I want to serve! ”, But only an hour will come when no one is asking you, but they are handed a agenda with a specific date, I don’t really want to brow. I was first sent from the military registration and enlistment office to study for the rights, although I have been driving a motorcycle and tractor from an early age. 
The table sets rich, as at a good wedding. All products are homemade. They love to eat in the village. For that, they work to a large extent. Sergey's father regrets that now they have stopped driving the moonshine. Like, the domestic manufacturer cannot be trusted - "Everything from one barrel, poison ..." 
Many guests come to see. The Saikovsky family in Grinevichs in good account. Of the hundreds of villagers, half here-at the table, although many could not come due to sowing and other earthly concerns. 
When I saw people who came to the wires of a fellow countryman, all together at the same table, I felt-there is some kind of healthy natural force in them. Sometimes it seems that these strong peasants are real, non -obscene and non -core Russia. Her foundation that is not noticed. Its foundation, which is somewhere in the shade, almost in the ground, but it is not at all weak. 
There are no vulgar contests and fashion songs on the village feast. The men who once served vied with Sergey, how easier to adapt to army conditions. Almost all guests at one time pulled a soldier's strap - two, or even three years. Two of the guests participated in the Chechen war. To their words, Sergey listens especially carefully. He has only a year to serve, but you never know what can happen ... 


All men, experienced or peerly Sergey smoke. But I have not seen smoking women in Grinevichi. If there are such, then, probably, they are hiding away from human eyes when they smoke. 
Foreign songs that evening did not sound. And not because there is an accordion in almost every house. Just people sing those songs that they know. And the whole party was as if similar to action from the Soviet film, when all the heroes and emotions are in sight. As in the song it is sung: "You can’t hide from people in the village ..." And then there are words about the stone behind the bosom. So: no one held a stone behind the bosom on Seryoga. Although the people were heated to the peak of the feast, and, as I understand it, at such moments, there is sometimes a showdown on fists. 


At 3:30 in the morning, all the guests and even those residents of the village who were not on the party, went outside and went along this single street to the edge of the village. There, Sergey was waiting for UAZ - "tablet" - a car of the rural administration. On it, he went on an almost 100-kilometer path by off-road to the military commissariat of Tara, where the turnout was assigned at 6:30 in the morning. 

Zhenya went to the district center with Sergey. They said goodbye to the last time at the gates of the military registration and enlistment office. From there, Sergey and other draftees drove the bus to the prefabricated point in Omsk. Another 300 km, but on the asphalt, however, pretty gifted. 

In this photo station, there was clearly not enough Sergei's frame in uniform. And I rushed after him after him in Omsk. All day I waited at the gates of the Obl Commissariat, while the bosses agreed on something, I was waiting for permission to shoot at the territory of the prefabricated point. I did not wait. A day later, phoned with Sergey, he learned about the hour of sending conscripts at the Omsk railway station. There he made the last frame. 
Return home, Seryoga! 
And finally: maybe the simple life of Sergei will serve as an example to someone. Is it worth it in the clouds or prudently climbing the career ladder? Like, I’ll still overcome the step, but then I’m really healing ... Is it not easier to live like Seryoga, without delaying anything "for later"? From an early age to be independent, become a husband, work, not to be afraid of military service - live, and not always prepare for life?