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Takie Dela

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No wonder the whole of Russia remembers

Text: Pavel Nikulin

Photo: Andrey Lyubimov for TD

Pavel Nikulin, along with the reconstructors, lived on the Borodino field for two days to understand what the olan, dragoons, cuirassiers, hussars, Cossacks and huntsmen actually fight for

I scored a charge in a gun tight

“How tired he is with his finger! It charges some crap! " - Sanya is indignant.

He sits in the camp of French reconstructors near the Borodino Museum. Behind him from the layout of the gun, under the supervision of Napoleonic artillerymen, children are scorching for a plywood soldier. A loud cotton, a smoked tennis ball flies out of the gun, the smoke from the artillery envelops the shooters.

Children rejoice: hit the target. The artilleryman is also satisfied: for a shot, he takes 200 rubles. Sanya is dissatisfied. Because of the cotton, he has to yell and repeat what was said.

He sits by the white tent, a pot of a pot at the stake gurgles nearby. Sanya drove to Borodin several hundred kilometers from St. Petersburg in a car with other reconstructors.

A Cossack on a horse cuts a saber with a bottle of water during a Cossack competition called "Shashki" Photo: Andrey Lyubimov for TD

Sanya is a former St. Petersburg cop. He is about fifty years old, he smokes Belomorin, smiles at uneven, slightly blackened teeth and squints rather, telling the young comrades about the great battles of the Napoleonic era. It has a blue uniform, yellow pants and a vest. Gray hair and bristles add a romantic fleur - veterans who passed two campaigns served in the gendarmerie. Surviving after this in the 19th century was a great achievement.

Sanya was carried away by military history at 15 years , even under the USSR. He used to reconstruct the NKVD troops and worked as an engineer in parallel. He was going to write a candidate on the topic "Optimization of the preparation of cement shiht and a grind of cement."

In the USSR, the reconstruction was not in honor, he says. They reasoned like this: “If you are fond of something that was before the revolution, you are nostalgic for the king, if after , then you are a black digger.”

After the 1990s, “when everything went to hell,” it did not become easier. Of the engineers, Sanya went into the cops. The NKVD has become immoral to reconstruct. Sanya switched to the Napoleonic gendarmerie. The difference is only in the era, he explains . The functionality of the gendarmes was not much different from the Chekists. They caught and shot deserters, and also differed in an excellent training.

One of the reconstructors shaves a comrade in the camp in front of the general rehearsal

“In fact, we reconstruct ourselves. Gendarmes are counter -terrorism and punitive units, ”Sanya explains.

He reaches the details of the victorious battles, with pleasure retelling how the gendarmes chopped the next enemy into cabbage.

“Schwarzenberg stood up at Montro and could not advance on LEI, because he was defended by 800 gendarmes and some kind of battery,” Sanya says respectfully. - Specialists! "

Built a redut

From Moscow to Borodin, you can get by car or train from the Belorussky station. In morning suburban trains with traditional summer residents, mushroom pickers and fishermen, soldiers of the Russian army and their opponents from the great army of Napoleon are stuffing. After a few hours, the mustachioed men, so far dressed in ordinary camouflage, are put on a beautiful shape, unpack the mock -ups of rifles, put on hats with plumas and once again converge in a deadly battle on the banks of the Kolochi River.

From the station to the place of battle, go about an hour with a leisurely step. The route is picturesque - on the left and to the right of the road are monuments in honor of the regiments fighting there in 1812. The largest - a black obelisk with a golden dome and an Orthodox cross similar to a grenade - stands on the site of Raevsky’s battery. Immediately before the battle there traditionally serve a memorial service for the soldiers who fell in the battle. Among the hussars and guardsmen, the priest's prayers are listened to the officials near Moscow.

Evening construction photo: Andrey Lyubimov for TD

The street in front of the Borodino Museum in the days of reconstruction turns into a market. They sell pastille, gingerbread cookies, tin soldiers, books about weapons and military, knives, cardboard kiver and patriotic T -shirts with Dmitry Donskoy and Yaroslav Wise.

The public toilet is crowded with lush hussars. The infantryman of the Russian army invitingly knocks on the drum and proudly examines the tents with barbecue and souvenir.

- Can I take a picture with you? - ask enthusiastic children.

“ One hundred rubles, ” he smiles.

In the era of 1812, you plunge gradually. At first you see how in line to the cash desk of a rural store they flaunt the mentiks and Hungarian reconstructions that study the prices of provisions. Then, in a parking lot at the gastronom, you meet a hussar on a horse. The horseman is waiting for him to drink beer. "Thank you, dear!" - With these words, he takes a plastic liter bottle from the hands of the infantrymen.

It smells of soup, pipe tobacco and pyrotechnics. A drum fraction and the sound of a drill flute are heard.

- The road of the cavalry! - The horseman who was crowded at the entrance to the historical camp from the 21st century crowded at the entrance to the entrance to the entrance to the entrance.

Those dutifully part.

And they found a large field

The battlefield, or, as it is called, a parade ground, is prepared in advance. They set up sound equipment, install pyrotechnic charges. The tractor tows a truck stuck in the future place of the battle with a “Fierce” sign under the windshield. The tractor on the Lobov also has a sign with the inscription "Seryoga".

Three girls in dresses of the 19th century are watching how Serega pulls out the fierce from the Borodino field . One of them, Snezhana, says that for the reconstructor to assemble a dress or a military suit is a whole adventure. It is necessary to strictly ensure that the material fully corresponds to the era. Very expensive, and the masters will vime.

Vasily, 34 years old, a soldier: “I serve in power structures. Our club is reconstructed by the Izyum hussar regiment. This is a glorious regiment, which was created in the 18th century. He takes his story from the Slobodian Cossacks. The hussars of our regiment on the Borodino field at a critical moment repelled the attack of the heavy cavalry of the French and saved the battery of Raevsky. We reconstruct not only the form, but also the statutory techniques, riding, we train for a whole year and we are all sick. I have been reconstructed since 2004, since 2005 I have been in the saddle. Every year with my comrades, I go out onto the field, and we beat off the adversary. We are working, investing in this money. Maybe someday the state will invest money in it, but I'm not sure "

At a distance Izumsky hussars, Cossacks and olan are practiced in riding. They are carried by a gallop past the cabbage of the cabbage placed on racks of different heights and chop them with checkers. Passers -by, which the police have not yet driven off the field, take it to smartphones.

- Mercy! - shouts the hesitating Ulan to one of the judges.

The rider could not go to the distance the first time, and he generously allowed the second entry.

- Verily Merci! - They answer him.

Ulan accelerates and crumbles cabbage with a blade.

In the Russian camp, the Semenovsky regiment restores an important and very beautiful military tradition - nullification of the banner to the pole. The guards people read “Our Father”, and then take turns hitting the cloves with a special hammer, drink vodka from the cup and bite with a red with a bulk apple.

In the morning before the reconstruction of the Battle of Borodino photo: Andrey Lyubimov for TD

The solemnity is violated only by the song of the Depeche Mode Enjoy The Silence group, which comes from the stands - technology check the speakers.

“This is a living museum,” the gendarme Sanya, delaying Belomorina, explains what is happening these days in historical camps. - Here in the museum what do you see? Sits a grandmother. Aunt walks, which repeats the same thing for 20 years. A rag hangs, a piece of iron lies. And the sign: "Do not touch with your hands." And everyone with a look of fagots in mourning is watching! "

What does the Russian fight mean

At night, all evidence of the current century becomes indistinguishable. Random passers -by in modern clothing seem to be “priests” - characters of fantastic novels, abandoned by the fantasy of the author in the 19th century, on the night before the Borodino battle. And as in the morning the hussar seemed inappropriate, digging in the trunk of a jeep, so at night a reporter in sports sneakers, with an iPhone and wristwells, seemed inappropriate at night.

“ We have a great military story, ” says the guardsman of the sea crew. “We broke the ridge to such an enemy as Napoleon.” And we will break the ridge to another enemy if he wants to attack.

“ I do not want our story to be forgotten or rewritten by false writers, ” the Russian military drummer growing from the darkness, like a ghost, echoes him from the darkness.

Morning before the reconstruction of the Battle of Borodino

At this moment, what is happening in the camp seems at the same time terrible and solemn.

In the afternoon, the olan, dragoons, cuirassiers, hussars, Cossacks, huntsmen and still features know who will converge in a fight on the Borodino field. The guns will fade, burn the huts, everything will be worried with white smoke.

The general battle, like a football match, is commented on by two announcers who say that in 1812 the Russians lost 40 thousand people killed and wounded, and the French - 46.

Explosions, ringing of blades, screams, a clatter of hooves. Hundreds of spectators are watching this because of the police fences. VIPs are sitting separately on specially mounted stands. Entrance fee : a thousand or one and a half thousand rubles.

Of the columns, interspersed with exalted patriotic speeches, the sounds of Marseelusa and the overture of the 1812 year of Tchaikovsky are carried. The announcers talk about the great victory of the Russian army on the Borodino field in 1812 and that no one will be able to steal this victory from Russia, as well as the victory over Hitler in 1945.

Reconstruction of the Battle of Borodino Photo: Andrey Lyubimov for TD

At some point, you catch yourself thinking that you really believe that we will break the ridge to any enemy, since he will want to attack. If there were at least some doubts about this, then they were already shot from the rifles together, chopped down with sabers and trampled the reconstructions of the Russian and French armies with hooves.

In the smoke, you can even see how, during the cavalry trim, the French cuirassier recognized the old acquaintance in the horseman-hussar and presses his hand, as if he had met not a death enemy, but an ally in a fight for the minds of fellow citizens.

We will break the ridge to the enemy, and it doesn’t matter who we are, who is the “enemy” as, when, when and, most importantly, why he is going to attack. There are, there is an enemy, the enemy has a ridge. And we will definitely break this ridge.

And then the smoke is scattered onto the field.

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The Cossack seats his lady of the heart on his horse