"The virus will not get." Where to wait out the sovid-19, if you are not afraid to drown

In the Vologda region, 23 cases of coronavirus were confirmed - 21 in Cherepovets and two in Vologda. But at least a thousand Vologda is reliably protected from the infection - the village of Kuzino two kilometers from the great Ustyug was cut off from the outside world of the North Dvina River. There is no bridge, like a pontoon crossing. The virus will not get, local, but also an ambulance, if anything, too. Every year in the offseason, people risk their lives to just get home.

Two women slowly go down to the shore of the North Dvina, where there was once a shipyard. Old hangars and rusty frames remained from the plant. At the very water in Zagon, there is an anchor as a monument to the ship's condensed past - it was before the city became the birthplace of Santa Claus .

In the warm season, ferries go from Zaton to the other side. In winter, the ice crossing is poured - pouring water still, so that the ice becomes thicker and withstand trucks. And in the offseason, when there are no crossings, but the ice is very thin, people continue to cross the river in this place.

Everything melted there. How will you go?

- We "off -road" went to buy. In cousino, all products will be expensive. And we have no bread. They are transported from the Kirov region, Ustyug refused, it is very far to carry them with fresh bread, - Vologzhanks tell. They have heavy bags and bags clogged with foods in their hands. "Off -road" on local jargon is not space, but time.

Fishermen with an empty catch rise towards them.

- Where are you? - the fishermen ask. - Everything melted there. How will you go?

- How did it melt? Only in the morning they walked like that, - the women are surprised. - Do not scare us at least ...

In places near the shore, the ice was already opened. Water splashes quietly in the faults.

“We walk like that only when it is completely pressed,” says a resident of Kuzino. “It’s scary, of course, but it’s not the first time for us.” Every year so, in spring and autumn.

Some fail, of course. He failed and got out

“Let's not go anymore,” her companion says. - Tomorrow, they said it will rain, even more water. And after the ice will be exposed. It will not pass at all. It remains only to wait for the boats to be allowed - maybe two weeks and a month.

“Some failed, of course. He failed and climbed out,” fearless Vologda are shrug of their shoulders and leave on the thin ice in their village.

Stay alive

Angelica and Galina in a car drive up to the river bank, where a crossing begins in Kuzino. The street is already a plus temperature for several days. The road under the sun turned into a mess from the mud, the ice on the river melts.

- We want to make a video with photos how people walk on ice. All this is under the song Bi-2. “Stay alive, desperate crazy,” Galina hums and puts on rubber boots. Angelica is following and photographs what remains of the crossing.

“There is a cousin there, you see - a stone building,” Galina shows to the other side, about two kilometers.

Galina lives in Ustyug. On the other side, he goes to visit the grandmother. Now the village is not very similar to the one that was in Soviet times. Once a mechanical plant on which military optics was made in Kuzino. They made Finifo - an enamel decoration. Courts of the Northern River Shipping Company were wintering, a shipyard worked, and there was a regular crossing.

It was impossible to endure anymore. So they collected people

- Now a lot of people work in Ustyug. If you need a doctor, then also in Ustyug. The ice this year is at all at all. And people still go. The authorities officially closed the crossing here, but they make some bridges. So that they do not ask for crossings once again. Walk, if you want, ”says Galina, pointing to boards floating in the water.

In order for local authorities to organize a crossing, people have to arrange rallies, single pickets or shoot videos.

- In 2017, almost two months were torn off from Ustyug. It was impossible to endure anymore. So they gathered people. After the rally, we were transported on the ships of the Ministry of Emergencies on air pillows. One and a half minutes - and already on the other side, ”recalls Angelica Filimonova , a school teacher and a municipal deputy from the LDPR.

This year, the ice on the river did not get up for a long time, and on January 5, local authorities closed the crossing with the recommendation "to plan their life, taking into account the cessation of river transportation." In response, the residents of Kuzino held pickets and achieved air pillings.

A few years ago they tried to transport people by bus on a detour - this is about 300 kilometers, instead of two in a straight line across the river. This route lasted exactly one flight. The bus reached the village for eight hours, back to Veliky Ustyug left only in the morning.

The governor called us unprofitable

The situation would save the bridge. Governor Oleg Kuvshinnikov promised him in 2016: "Having built a bridge, we will finally remove social tension in the area." But in 2018, he changed his mind - the bridge across the Northern Dvina would cost 6-7 billion rubles. Instead, he promised to establish a crossing in the offseason: "Believe me, it is much cheaper and much more effective than building a colossal bridge building that will economically justify itself in several decades."

- The governor called us unprofitable. It is unprofitable to build a bridge for a pile of people. Before the elections it was cost -effective. Four times he promised to build a bridge to us: "I will be broken into a cake, you will be a bridge." So we are waiting, ”says Galina.

"No cousino - no problem"

The sound of the motor flanes along the river - this is an air cushion vessel. Either the rescuers went, or for reconnaissance-soon it will be necessary to blow ice on the river, or someone will be taken from the other side of the river. Angelica offers to go to see.

I began to drown. All was wet

“Rescuers are not obliged to transport us at all,” she says. - They have already been hesitated, to be honest. They have a different job.

Angelica with his family lives in Ustyug, and works as a teacher in a cousin, he goes there almost every day.

-One morning we walked along the ice together with another teacher-it was necessary to put the assessments in a quarter. Everything is fine, I didn’t even wet my legs. And when it returned, everything already melted. I began to drown. All was wet, ”recalls Angelica.

Now schools and other educational institutions are quarantined due to coronavirus. In Veliky Ustyug, as throughout Russia, people massively buy cereals and toilet paper. And the cousin, it seems, has become the safest place for the duration of the pandemic.

- In Ustyug, everything is sold out. And in Kuzino everything is calm. We have no road. The virus will not reach, the locals laugh.

There are no other advantages. Many sell housing in a cousin and move to Ustyug, Kotlas or Lusa. Parents complain that they cannot send children to a music school or a sports section. This year, a local bakery closed there. For fresh bread that is carried from the Kirov region, long lines are lined up - "like during the war." This time, the last in line of bread was no longer enough, and the next people are thinking of taking a place in the early morning.

We have several families left the cousino when we found out that they would close the school

Next year, in Kuzino, they plan to close the school and carry children to the neighboring village of Aristovo for 10 kilometers. This will kill the village faster than any pandemic.

- There are only 15 students and 200 inhabitants in Aristovo. We have 65 schoolchildren and the population of about a thousand people. No one wants to go there. We have several families left the cousino when we found out that they would close the school. The village will finally die out, ”Angelica is indignant.

"I failed and went on"

We reach the place where the air cushion should sail. There is already an ambulance on the shore. They didn’t have time to ask what happened - the ambulance and rescuers leave the pier.

“There are many cases that they didn’t take someone to the hospital because there is no road,” Angelica looks after the departing ambulance and rescuers.

Everyone in the cousino has their own story about crossing. For example, local students and high school students learned to skip lessons during the off -season.

- They will come to the middle of the river, scoop up boots on purpose. They return home, they say: "I have failed, I won’t go to lessons." They call to the technical school, and they are allowed not to come, ”Galina recalls.

Angelica herself once failed. It was lucky that only to the waist and almost near the coast:

- She stepped on an ice floe, and she went into the water. I began to slowly go under the water. She raised her hands up with a bag so as not to wet the documents. There is no to grab as a shore for an ice floe, but I thought about the documents. Well, it was warm on the street, April. While I was going to the bus, dried up.

His current immediately picked up, dragged under the ice.

Not everyone can get out. If it falls completely under the ice, then the flow of the river takes away almost instantly.

- Recently, the man ran to the ATM, he had to withdraw the money "on the off -road." He ran in there, withdrew the money. The wife went out to meet him ashore. She says: it goes - and there is no. He was immediately picked up, he dragged him under the ice floes, and that's all, ”recalls Angelica.

By the evening of the next day, the roller about the crossing was published. In the description of the film, the producer was announced by the Governor of the Vologda Oblast, the director - the head of the Great Ustyug district. And the director of casting is a need.

Three days after the publication of the video, the administration organized a crossing across the river. People at this point have been walking on thin ice for more than a week.

“Let me remind you that the crossing is closed, it is dangerous to use it: a very thin ice. We will take measures to protect the crossing and the prevention of people to the ice,” said Viktor Ryabishin, deputy governor.