The seasons of faith

Vera Zenko from Volozhin ran a girl for a wagon in which the Nazis took her mother, pregnant with a younger sister - and they took pity and put her out of the cart. Now Vera is 91, she calls her life “the last seasons” and retells her biography to photographer Tatyana Tkacheva through the contents of her wardrobe

We met with Vera in the Belarusian Volozhin, she went to the pharmacy. There were huge sunglasses, a cage dress, raspberry socks and shoes on Vera. It was love at first sight. I approached her to meet and five minutes later sat at her table at her house, and she showed me her outfits and told their story. Then I came to Vera in Volozhin several times, staying overnight.

She lived here all her life, during which multicultural Polish Volozhin became Soviet, and then Belarusian. Her four brothers and sisters scattered across Ukraine and Belarus. Vasil and Olga have already passed away, Nina and the youngest Galina remained. Their parents were of peasant origin - the mother worked on Earth, and the father was “competent” and worked in the locals, as they would say now, of self -government bodies. Vera remained in her hometown - she married here, taking the surname of reprint, gave birth to three children, worked, raised her grandchildren.

On January 1, Vera turned ninety -one year. She is not afraid of old age. One day Vera told me that the last seasons live when every spring can be the last. Likes to dress up. In the closet, her whole life: each dress is associated with her own story, her own memory.

“This is the end of my life. All such important has already been and has passed. Childhood, hunger, war, love, children. The Germans shot dad. Mom was left alone, pregnant with Galina, and there are four of us. In memory of dad, I keep a self -tied belt. He never beat us, but I was harmful, and once he scared that he would punish me if I did not stop doing Skoda. I was scared. She stopped being harmful. I still keep the belt.

Vera ordered sewing this dress so that the atelier sold her golden fabric for the outfit for her daughter's graduation evening. They planned to sew a graduation dress in the fashion house in Minsk. And the Volozhin studio did not want to just, without ordering, to sell fabric. Photo: Tatyana Tkacheva

For the first time I saw myself in the mirror when I was about ten years old. We sold sorrel Jews. They had a mirror in their house. I was upset when I saw my reflection - I was pale, thin and dressed in an ugly coat. I ran home and cried. Mom led me to a bucket of water and said that I was the most beautiful. For a bag of sorrel, we were paid five cents. My sister and I bought beads. I chose a salad color. I went for water to the well, bent down to look, deep or not, and - Bach - my beads flew down. How much I cried! Probably, now they are lying there.

Faith in a suit and in a hat. Vera bought a hat when she worked in a passport office in Volozhin. Hat - Favorite accessory of faith photo: Tatyana Tkacheva On the left: Vera bought this dress for her daughter so that money would not disappear after the collapse of the USSR. The daughter got married. Vera remains the dress. Right: Vera in the wedding outfit of her daughter photo: Tatyana Tkacheva

There were so many things over the years. I knocked everything out for myself: both a certificate and work. Then a strong letter was not needed. Four classes of the Polish school, then tips came, studied for one year, then the Germans came. I did not go to school. They began to write down in young people - this is like pioneers at the Soviets. I and a few more guys scared and ran away. After the war, she graduated from the 10th grade in the evening school-then she already worked in the passport office. I had a good handwriting, and they took me right away. Money appeared. I could already sew and buy outfits. The dresses came up with themselves. The styles were drawn from passers -by in the city. Mom made patterns. My sisters and I scribbled. I loved hats very much. I’ll go to Minsk on a business trip - I will definitely buy myself a new hat.

Faith in a dress with a belt that she stores in memory of her photo: Tatyana Tkacheva On the left: Vera in a skirt from which she made a dress with sluts. The shirt was sewn by her daughter for classes in school at school.
Right: the costume that Vera bought in a second-hand for the wedding of granddaughter photo: Tatyana Tkacheva

I was forced. I liked to dress up. And I had a lot of gentlemen. But I loved Sergey, my husband. For five years we have been friends with him. He saw me when my girlfriend and I walked along the street in the winter. Such a fashion in our city was-the youth gathered and walked back and forth through the streets. The girls looked out. And then they escorted them home.

Faith in the dress that a friend gave her. Violet - Lyubed color of faith photo: Tatyana Tkacheva On faith, a transparent white blouse and a skirt with ornaments are worn. Such white blouses wore Vera Photo during the youth: Tatyana Tkacheva Faith in the dress that her daughter sewed at school for certification for the category of seams. Beads Vera was brought by a sister from France photo: Tatyana Tkacheva

I took out a plush coat for myself. Uncle to rubber boots nailed wooden heels. Mom tied me a beautiful scarf and stabbed a brooch so that all the flowers were visible. Sergey fell in love with this scarf. Then he said that he did not see either me or my friend, but only flowers on a scarf. And I thought that this soldier walks and walks after us. And so they lived with him for thirty -one years. Three children were born. We lived together. There was no time to swear.

On the left: Vera in the dress that the daughter -in -law gave her. Vera was already retired when her son married. Parents of the daughter -in -law were against marriage. Vera settled the young at home and helped them raise the first -born.
Right: a dress put on the future daughter -in -law of faith on a date with her son photo: Tatyana Tkacheva Faith in a plush coat, which she took out by acquaintance in a store in the Volozhinsky district. It has a scarf with flowers called Shalinovka. This scarf was on Vera when she met her future husband Sergey Photo: Tatyana Tkacheva

There was a fashion for golden teeth. I so wanted to put gold crowns. Sergey discouraged me. But I did it anyway. I often remember how he took me to his knees then, hugged me, said that he loves. Sergey died of oncology after Chernobyl. Burned in a few months. All his money died with him. And I was left alone. The children still studied, it was necessary to help. I will give the whole pension to them, and my teeth on the shelf, as it is. My mother -in -law, when she died, gave me a notebook with prayers. Once I helped a woman cure a finger, just prayed over her. The finger has passed. Then people began to come to me, asked to help. I did not refuse.

On faith, the trousers that she bought when she was in the hospital with oncology. Vera does not like trousers. In everyday life, she prefers skirts or dresses. But in the department where Vera lay, everyone was in pants photo: Tatyana Tkacheva On the left: on Vera, the graduate dress of the daughter. To get this fabric and sew a dress in the fashion house in Minsk, and not in Volozhin, Vera bought a violet fabric and sewed another dress in the Volozhinsky studio. Right: skirt and blouse, which Vera bought in the department store 10-15 years ago photo: Tatyana Tkacheva

I did not take money, but did not refuse a piece of bread. So I survived. I am ugly, long -term. I’ll praise myself, then I look - and really, beautiful. Each face goes on his nose. Young are all beautiful. A whole album of these photos. And life flew by as one day. And you will fly. I’m already thinking, we must start distributing your dresses. Why do I need them? If I die, they will begin to throw it away. And so I will give people myself. There is no favorite dress. I will put on, then my favorite. Now I will show what my wealth is. I am so rich, but I have no father and mother ... "

A gray coat was worn by the daughter of Vera when she was young and studied in the first year of the university photo: Tatyana Tkacheva Funeral dress and shoes of faith photo: Tatyana Tkacheva

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Culture elderly preservation of the cultural inheritance