Concert with the department

We went to Paris. From Lviv - by buses. The builders rode, to the World Exhibition, it is clear that in construction. In the trunk there were a sea of vodka and a lot of three -liter cans with lard. Vodka and lard immediately became common, but the regions remained different. In our bus, the middle was occupied by the West (Ukraine), and the East Galler. After the first mental parking, Vanya from Donetsk rose from his place and went "to the west" - to fraternize. Vanya felt correctly: the time has come for "spvati".

Vanya stood in the aisle, beautifully spread his hands and loudly tightened: "As if everything was frozen at dawn ..." He was abruptly cut off. "So the same Roques rose. Come on ours!" Vanya did not understand. And he sang - under the grave silence of the audience - the first verse of "Moscow evenings". “Bachish, Vanya,” Pan Taras, an associate professor from the Lviv Polytechnic, “doesn’t pidhoplyu (Russian - does not pick up) . Ukrainian, Vanya, ours!”

Vanya finally realized. Vanya, it turned out, knew the nazubok a mass of “our” songs and - this time with the support of the friendly choir - performed “Sormo Embroidery”, “Gabi Gay” and the indispensable “T -ms of the Men,”.

Vodka and lard immediately became common, but the regions remained different

After the faithful song cycle, Vanya mistakenly decided that he had finally tamed the audience. "Oh, frost, frost!" - invitingly started Vanya. But the vigilant pan Taras stopped him again. For some reason, the old Russian song was also sewn by the “royty Rock”. Vanya fell silent, and the builder from the southern region screeched: "Why are you plucking his mouth?! What are you breeding an ideology? Are you from the Central Committee of the party? !!"

Pan Taras stopped. Maybe he really remembered what he was doing in his polytechnic, well, if not for seventy years, then at least a dozen who preceded unnoticed. “Good, Vanya, Spіvay,” Pan Taras nodded flexibly.

But Vanya was stubbornly silent. Then the assistant professor, as a sign of reconciliation, performed in the pure Russian language a pre -revolutionary mining song, which even Donetsk Vanya did not know. Vanya listened to the song with respect, but did not return in a good mood. "All of you are lying, everything is lying!" - Suddenly Vanya cried out bitterly, waved his hand and wandered onto the gallery. The bus was silent, stopped SPIVATI and, in the end, fell asleep tightly.

And only Vanya, as it turned out, did not sleep. He waited for total peace and again went to the middle of the bus. And quietly - and entirely - sang "Lonely Harmon wanders." They didn’t bother him anymore.

Lviv-Parizh, N Oyabr 1995

Elena Rykovtseva - Radio Freedom Observer, host of the program "Face to the event"