Mistress

Mayor of Yakutsk Sardan Avksentiev. History from the project "Vowel"

The manifesto of the project "Vowel"

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In the Russian media space, the voice of a woman is almost not heard. Those who publicly declare their rights or their position are label “feminist”, while implies that a feminist is most likely a deeply unhappy, ugly and lonely woman, and feminism is a “war with men”.

As for women in general, their socially approved role often consists of stereotypes like “Woman - Decoration of the collective”, “The place of a woman at the stove”, “And the clock is ticking” and so on. Many (including women themselves) still believe in the existence of “female logic”, “female intuition” and “short mind”.

Finally, a woman is often determined through belonging to a man. The hierarchy of the sexes, their division into “strong” and “weak”, still determines the discourse in our patriarchal society.

In the "vowel" project, we give a word to women. All of them are different - each has its own life path, its own principles, values, marital status, profession, place of residence. What unites them and seems to us the most valuable is their conscious choice. They can correspond to gender stereotypes, can break them with their actions, statements and lifestyle. Our task is not to integrate them into some classification.

We want you to hear the voices of strong women. Strong in the sense that they live their own life, guided by their own principles, values ​​and desires, and not imposed by society, parents, husband, authorities or religious figures.

We believe in a society where the choice of each person is important and valuable - regardless of gender, gender, appearance and other features. Where each and each of us chooses the identity, profession, social role, religion, sexuality and anything - and where you can not make excuses for our choice, but talk calmly about it.

We give our heroines the opportunity to tell about ourselves something that they often do not know how to ask.

Team of the Polaring Project: Julia Lakyvtseva, Dmitry Shabelnikov, Anna Ignatenko, Nadezhda Mironenko, Taya Krayukhina, Katerina Fomina, Elena Egorova, Alexander Sorochinskaya

From the editorial office

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The New Gazeta supports the Vowel project and publishes the first material - about the head of Yakutsk Sardan Avksentieva. In the following issues - the stories of the Moscow Chechenka, who consciously chose a hijab, a farmer who moved from a big city to raise the village, coaching of the Russian football team, mother participating in the protests - on the Glasnaya.Media website.

In September 2018, Yakutsk chose Sardan Avksentiev with his mayor. She is a kind of unique mayor - Avksentieva was not appointed from above and does not belong to any party ( at the time of publication, direct elections of the mayor were preserved only in 13 cities of Russia - approx .). For this year, at the post, she saved tens of millions of rubles to the city, putting up the SUVs of officials for tenders, canceled expensive events (for example, ballet staging and showing fur coats), cutting out expenses for information activities, external and public relations, inventing delegations, and travel expenses.

The recognition of Avksenite in the media environment goes off scale: only on Instagram she has 119 thousand subscribers. She responds to messages in the Direct.

"Well, what the hell, Sardana?"

Nobody expected the decisions to nominate in mayors - first of all, I myself. We, girls, are emotional people, there is no rationality in our solutions - which means there is no benefit. At some point, I was re-seized: I am almost 50, and I have not done anything in this life. I realized that I turn into a sofa analyst, a whiner, a hater who can not change anything - and a significant person only within his kitchen. I felt unpleasant for myself. I thought: "Well, what the hell, Sardana?"

The most disgusting for a person is a sense of his own powerlessness. When it arises, you become inferior, you have a self -esteem and a life tone.

I already worked at the City Hall seven years ago. Here I met my husband. Then he became the acting mayor. He fired me. He simply signed an order of my dismissal of his own free will.

A personnel officer came in and said: "Sardana Vladimirovna, you were fired." I burst out laughing. At that time, we believed that for family life this is not a very good job.

Over the years, I have changed a lot - no, I have not become a different person, but my views on many things have changed. It doesn't matter what you wear. It doesn’t matter by and large how you look, the clothes should be such that it does not raise questions. Rather, it is important what you are doing and what you strive for. I did not change the wardrobe when I became the mayor. I can come in jeans for an appointment. Once I arrived after a subbotnik in the seventeenth quarter ( the area of ​​dilapidated wooden houses in Yakutsk - approx .) To an official event, I was invited to the stage. In the hall everything is in hats, in heels, and I am knee -deep in rubber boots. Since then, a suit has been hanging in my office - just in case.

From the window of my office there is a house in which I grew up. There are my windows, my children's. All childhood ran through the heating mains, jumped from the garage to the garage. And my school is standing, the kindergarten is also on this street. This is absolutely my area. On the elevator at the city hall, I rode when he was only launched. When the building was built, I worked with my mother on a subbotnik.

I thought that most of all I did not want to grow old in the literal sense of the word: not physically, but so that nothing was necessary from life.

I do not hide how old I am. How joked my wise acquaintance: God forbid they think that more. Now I am 49 and I like my age. This is an age when you rethink a lot.

So I realized that I had to return. There was an idea to run for mayor, but I immediately abandoned her. And then there was a feeling that something big passes by. I could, after all, stretch out your hand and take it. There was a feeling that I was a coward. From the second call, they understood that it makes sense to try it all the same. The chances were 50 to 50.

Mom and daughter protested strongly. She was afraid for me: she knows that this is a lot of restrictions - restrictions on herself, her own freedom. Self -identification is changing. If you do not pay attention to anything and act, as you think it is right, this is one life. And when you listen to people, in a good sense you try to please - this, of course, is difficult. The work is physically and emotionally heavy, no matter how much work, there will always be shortcomings and shortcomings.

I believed, I think and I will be considered further that the position of the head of the city district of the city of Yakutsk is not a politician. This is a city economy. It's just a little more than a regular household.

I try to apply the same principles and approaches.

To the fact that I am called the "mistress", "supermar", "iron lady", I treat humor. These are some things from cinema, literature. Reality is much more prosaic. No miracle, no super, just a lot of work.

General cleaning

Yakutsk went to me not in the worst state, you see, this is not the worst city in Russia. The first year is like a general cleaning. When you buy a house, when you enter a new apartment, the first thing you wash the windows, wipe the corners.

My employer is a people. This is not a shedding, this is the education of a legal culture. The people do not realize that power is in their hands. They must understand that they are not silent sheep, that something depends on them.

Local self -government is not inscribed in the system of state power, therefore it is definitely easier for me. The townspeople give out the reaction instantly, there is no need to look around at someone else. I was recently called into one office, tried to scold, I say: “What are your claims? What will you do with me? I have my own employer, you have my own.

“I don't obey you. I have a contract for four years, and then to renew or not - people will decide. ”

I have a photograph from last year’s Ysyakh (Yakut Festival of Summer) above my desktop. Why not portraits of Putin and Nikolaev ( Aisen Nikolaev - the head of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) since September 2018 - approx .)? I decided that I should remind myself who I am, what I am, why I am here. In the oath that I gave, I said that I would defend the constitutional rights and freedoms of the inhabitants of the city of Yakutsk. How well I know the inhabitants? Don't know. How to measure their contentment? Depends on where to ask. You will go to a dysfunctional area - you will understand that in general you are in this chair. And in the center, for example, they will say that the Internet speed is not good.

The theory of two handshakes

Every week I spend the reception of citizens. Usually people come with their emotions, and this wave must be taken out while they are being talked about like a doctor. Then it may turn out that in their problem they are to blame for themselves, there is a second wave of emotions. After the fifth or sixth person, I have already squeezed out like a lemon. And there are very positive people. You know that I noticed: the more difficult the situation is, the more patient and calmer. There are two grandmothers, both guardianship took her grandchildren from both guardianship. One cries that it is time to collect grandchildren to school and that they miss her pies with meat. And the other walks and scandalide that we disgraced her in front of the neighbors. Sometimes people want to achieve something and shout that they will go to Channel One. They say: “We wrote to Putin, you still have not solved our problem!” Our people always write Putin. And how do I know what is your problem, you didn’t write to me! Then they are to me: “Are you against Putin?!”

People do not go to the city hall directly. For many years they fight for solving their question-and no longer believe that someone will help them.

We have a theory of not six handshakes in Yakutsk, but two. Any school teacher has common acquaintances, so I often receive complaints directly to Votsap. Often people are suitable on the street.

The men are asked to take a picture, and women are mainly asking for their children. We women usually think more not so much about ourselves as about children.

When women complain about the uncomfortable housing stock, they say that their children are sick. The men simply say: "We are cold." The motivation is different, but the problems are the same.

Everyone scolds me for high salaries of school principals: of course, 300 thousand rubles when a young teacher’s salary of 30 thousand is immoral in places. But I do not like the concept of "everyone to die in the mass grave." It is necessary to pull the rest to a high level.

There should be specific solutions with specific problems. When I became the mayor, I immediately grabbed the roads. I began to cut the living under universal cries: “She will freeze the city, we will not survive the winter, we will be lost with this woman!” But this is like in the family: if there is a task to finish the house or insulate some room, we will not go on vacation. We have experienced the first winter, now in the fall some trash will still think about me, you will hear about me.

I willingly come to contact, because I understand that nature does not tolerate emptiness. If people do not give information, they will come up with it. This is my protection. I hope I manage to hear the mood of people, I read them. We women are by nature more emotional, more sensitive and more subtly organized. When I walk the streets, I say hello myself, ask questions, look into my eyes, I wonder what people think. This is an assessment of my work - I am looking for confirmation whether I am moving correctly. The decisions will not always be supported by everyone. When you solve the issue in favor of some, you will inevitably step on the interests of others. Keeping balance is the most difficult thing in work.

In the team, we argue, polemicize acutely - this is work. If you say nothing and the wrong decision is made, this is your fault. Everyone must express their opinion in a timely manner. Once upon a time, one of my leaders to me, a young specialist, explained:

“Sardana, if you once notice that everyone nods your head around you, you are in a swamp, you are gone. There is support only where there is resistance. ”

Behind the gate

When I return home, the feeling is this: from a large household I returned to a small one. At home I feel like a mistress. As soon as I close the gate behind me, I try to leave everything behind her. You can not carry everything that you drag behind you. I am very supported by my husband. He knows firsthand what the municipal service is. His support and understanding in what condition I am in help. It doesn’t matter to one person - a man or a woman - it is very difficult to cope with such work, family support - this is the main thing. Ordinary household chores - I clean potatoes, cut meat - bring pleasure.

We wanted some kind of creature at home. We looked with the husband of Sherlock with Cumberbatch, saw a psa-shocke, with whom he walked along the streets of London. The husband fell in love; We started looking, ordered on the Internet, wrote it to ourselves. Martin dog is a unique creature. They say: dogs are better than people in many ways. They love us just like that, and not because we feed and caress. When this creature rejoices that I returned home, I myself rejoice. This is my anti -stress.

"Marsha" is somehow too much "

FEMINITIVES - what is it? "Blogger"? I call myself the "mayor", I do not invent anything. And in general - officially I am "Head of the city district of the city of Yakutsk." The mayor is such a everyday expression. But in order to somehow call it-“Mouress”, “Marsha”-this is somehow too much.

If they call me a feminist, I do not belong to this. There is not enough time to think - where is feminism, where not feminism. I try to avoid extremes. There is no black and white, the gamma of life is wider. I am not a feminist in the meaning of the word that is invested in it. I consider it completely remarkable that nature has created men and women different; We complement each other.

Although Yakut women are a little different. Historically, our men had to work a lot, because at that time to feed the family at that time - and Yakut families, as a rule, are large - this should be endlessly hunting, engaging in firewood, drinking water, watching cattle. The man was always in work, and the woman always stayed at home. And she took responsibility for education. As a rule, most of the time they were alone. They told me about my grandmother: she saw her husband for three months a year, the rest of the time he was on the road: either haymaking, or hunting, or goes to the city. Women had to take a lot of themselves - both upbringing and the elderly.

We have the weather - ordinary people do not survive. I think this has formed a more independent character in women. Our people, our men, have a large degree of respect for women, this is brought up in them. We are a little different.

During the Great Patriotic War, the largest victims were proportional to the entire local population by the Yakut people. Many men have not returned. Women were forced to occupy all the niches where men were supposed to be. My grandmother was a tractor driver.

In fact, in Yakutia, girls in the family are brought up as everywhere. Whatever I seemed, I am humble and obedient at home, I do not leave the framework that my husband outlines me. So accepted - both among the people and at home. You saw my spouse - it is difficult to disobey him. He knows how to speak briefly and clearly. I have a great respect for him.

"It is even more convenient to be a woman"

In the Yakut language there is a saying "While a woman from the table to the stove comes, she will change seven thoughts." Each people have jokes about women, this is normal. I believe that some things can not be treated too seriously. Sometimes a banana is just a banana. I do not attach importance to such things.

I never felt on myself that they would belittle, because I am a woman. I would say, on the contrary. Now in a leading position, I think the day every other day, that a woman is even more convenient to be more convenient. Everyone is trying to help, including the republican leadership. You can always ask if you don’t know something. We, women, do not have such a shame not to know. He does not break at all. Yesterday, I asked the Heating Director to explain technical things simply. When people begin to speak with complex words, there is a feeling that they are trying to confuse your head. We must call a spade a spade. These smart words are not to anything.

I can say that I am smart, seven spans in the forehead, and they will say to me: "This woman does not think anything." But chickens are considered in the fall. Only actions and real results can prove something.

My program is at least at the end of the term: so that people do not scold. The maximum is to deal with dilapidated housing. And after I will finally be useful to my family. We women always have something to do in retirement.

REFERENCE

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According to the Federal State Statistics Service, women holding public posts and civil service positions are two and a half times more in Russia than men (in 2016, 546 thousand women and 212 thousand men occupied such positions). However, this ratio changes depending on the level of the position: in the “main” positions of women are slightly larger than men (14 thousand and 11 thousand, respectively), but at the “higher” ratio is not in favor of women - 4.5 thousand and 6.8 thousand, respectively. According to polls of the Levada Center, less than a quarter of Russians (21%) definitely approve of women in politics; Even fewer Russians (16%) are ready to see women in state posts along with men.