As in a small Karelian village, large fathers and single fathers raise children in a carpentry workshop

In "perestroika" times, the Yakovlev family left from Petrozavodsk to yarn. Times have passed, and the brothers Leonid and Anton remained in a small, 3,452 inhabitants, a village among the Karelian lakes. Here they opened a carpentry workshop, where, together with other large fathers and single fathers, they develop folk crafts, instruct their children and teach them carpentry, chess, drawing and weaving from the vine, calling this a “school of male education”.

I

The Lastu workshop (translated from the Finnish “sliver”) is refueling Leonid Yakovlev. One of his professions, as a graduate of the industrial and pedagogical faculty, is the carpenter. After the university, Leonid made furniture, taught at a local school and a youth center, acquired a large family: four children.

Leonid and his brother dreamed about his workshop and about “distracting young people from phones”. But to find the right room and tools did not work out.

Volunteers from the district fund "Together" helped: they agreed with the administration of the yarn on the transfer of the to the hundreds of an abandoned wooden building opposite the village school.

- When we were given the premises where the boys used to be laid down, we were delighted. But as they gave him ... there were no doors, people threw garbage there for years. There are containers nearby, but why get to them? I had to clean this inheritance ourselves. There were also problems with electricity. Part of the wiring was changed, they themselves connected to the network. Everything at your own expense. We also tormented warmth, it was necessary to rinse and start heating again.

From the question of how much money it took for repairs, Leoind is dismissed.

- The communal apartment goes more. In February, 640 were given for the light, 18,000, another 9,000 advance payment were counted for heat. I pay from my pocket, at work at school per month I get 25,000.

-And how do you live?

- So I live. Today I gave the last four hundred in the grocery. On the card money is for a new machine, they cannot be touched. And also on an electric guitar, the collection for the local group was opened. Nobody provides them with instruments, and concerts are required on schedule. Here, good people help.

II

Leonida with tools also helped. In any case, it seemed at first. In 2017, the municipal project “There are no strangers” invited Yakovlev to buy tools for 500,000 rubles for them in return for free carpentry with sparks. The brothers agreed. Leonid claims that according to the declarations of tools in the workshop, they put only 360,000.

- Not only did they buy the equipment not for the agreed amount, they are still recognized as municipal property. Although it was supposed to go to us instead of a fee for classes, repair of a building and other works.

- And what to do with it?

- We will ask the Spinsky administration to transfer everything to use.

- And if they are not transmitted?

- There will be no more about who will talk about the camera.

III

There is really something to tell. In the liners littered with wood and old instruments, children from eight years old are taught their own fathers to cut out of wood, play chess, weave from the vine and draw.

The children take the drawings home. But wooden and wicker gizmos - spoons, cutting boards with scorched deer, boxes and wicker baskets - the workshop sometimes sells in yarn and Petrozavodsk. The unsold remains on home-made shelves right in the workshop or is at an exhibition at the local children's and youth center.

In total, there are now two dozen pupils in Lastu - there are no lists, everyone who wants to. Even parents.

On Sundays in the chess workshop.

The chief player, Alexander, will be nine. Silent, low, almost the whole lesson, he carefully looks at the large board - she was made in “Lastu” themselves in March. In front of the board is the father of Alexander, Sergey Merkoev.

- To play well, you must have a clear goal. Not just to learn how to play and participate in the tournament, not just to win at least someone, but to take first place. It is even better to strive to dominate all other rivals, understand?

- Yes! - the children answer.

- To dominate, you need to learn from the best. Always in everything. Think about whether the teacher in a rural school can teach something?

- Yes!

Sergey is silent. He believes that the child’s school will not be taught to be the best. Son Sergey will transfer to family training. In addition to the main items, he will be waiting for many hours of chess and sambo training. The plans of the age of 15 are free speech in three languages. And medals, always gold.

IV

Yuri Gagarin happens in the workshop every other day, from its very foundation. He is a carpenter - followed in the footsteps of his father - and does not see life without motorcycles. And without a fourteen -year -old Renat. For nine years, Yuri has been engaged in the upbringing of his son: he spread with his wife, and the boy wanted to stay with his father.

- Previously, I went to watch, but now nothing. Yes, and now I’m disappearing - either you earn, or sit at home. I get tired. But the son, how to grow up, will not say: "Dad, where have you been?"

The Gagarins went to the workshop together, worked with a tree. But recently, Renat has ceased to be a carpentry, became interested in football. Training is held exactly at the same time as classes at Lastu, on the same street - Leonid is lamenting that the children were lured. And the father of the Renata does not condemn - if only he was engaged in business.

Yuri himself also chose a business. He wants to lead a motorcup at Lastu. It complains that the children “do not understand the engine” and have nowhere to learn them, and he has nowhere to restore the old father’s motorcycle. There is no place for the garage in the workshop. Renat is not interested in motorcycles. Yuri hopes that he just "has not yet grown up." And this is not the main thing:

- I have an eldest daughter, an adult already in the city. I am not ashamed of her. It remains to raise his son. It is harder with the guy than with the girl. The character is different. But his brains are already working now, he will be able to feed his head, not like us with our hands. But this is all nonsense, I want a person to grow up. And with this, it seems, it copes.

V

Now Lastu dreams of resuming classes with adults and with pensioners. They were held until 2020, but then stopped due to pandemic. They also want to move. Leonid Yakovlev found a new place for a long time:

- We have a former driving school nearby. She is empty for many years. Heating worked in it, and the area is larger. It would be possible to arrange something for the girls, and arrange tools sensibly, and open new directions-now, we have already decided with motorcycles. For several years we are already asking to be allowed to move there. The building is not used, and heat supply systems, if they do not work for a long time, breaks down, I warned them. This winter everything flowed. Now, sort of like, they gave the go -ahead to move ...

The former driving school stands on Maria Melentyeva Street, one of the central in the yarn. The building has slanting walls upholstered with boards, but a new metal roof. Leonid is afraid to change the roof at the current one: suddenly they will be taken away? Therefore, on rainy days, the workshop costs eight Vederok.

There is still an information stand on Melentyeva Street, it was created in Lastu. On it, cut out of wood and decorated under the Karelian hut, has been hanging a map of the village with all local attractions for three years:

-They did, therefore, an art object for tourists, agreed with local entrepreneurs, what sponsorship we will apply their stores on the card. Everything is fine. And with her, teenagers on weekends as if with football gates play. There, the anti -vandal coating was torn, they knocked out the hairstyles. And who, one wonders, is going to educate.

Many fathers from the carpentry workshop state: before the Covid of interest, the locals had more in folk crafts.

- Here it went to the caronavirus to the coronavirus for three groups a week. And now - everyone ran away. Nobody needs anything in this yarn, ”Leonid sighs.

- Why don't you leave?

The answer is delayed.

- Do you know a joke about worms? Two worms, father and son, crawl out of the dung pit. They look around, there is an apple tree, a pear, and a peach, just a paradise. The worm asks his father: "Dad, there is so good around, why are we sitting here?" And the father replies: "You see, son, there is such a word - homeland!"

Arina Vasilchuk