Chebaki, on demand

One day in the post office on the edge of Russia

On December 18, the head of the Russian Post, Mikhail Volkov, in an interview with RIA Novosti, stated that “Rumors about the death of the Russian Post are greatly exaggerated”, and the audit’s audit, begun, begun on October 6, will end in the first quarter of 2024: “Today I can say that according to the results of the year,“ Post ”will enter operational profit.” And he added that, despite the available problems, despite the debt of 133 billion rubles and financial losses of more than 24 billion, he looks at the future of the company with optimism.

As specific achievements, wolves noted a low personnel turnover, as well as the development of new route maps. The head of the company assigns special hope to work with marketplaces. However, reality is poorly beaten with optimistic statements by the head of the Russian Post. Post offices continue to close. The window in the world for hundreds of thousands of people living in remote villages and villages collapses to the diagonal of the TV screen. We visited the village of Chebaki, Kurgan region, to find out how the post office survived its last days - the only state -owned company in this God's forgotten place. How the last thread is torn, connecting this village with all the rest of the vast Russia.

Hope

Frosty December morning, with snow, the village of Chebaki in the south of the Kurgan region. A stop, to which buses no longer come (canceled to coronavirus, and never restored), is decorated with the letter Z. Nearby - a brick one -story building. At first glance, it’s even difficult to understand whether this building is living. But the door is ajar, and from the inside, because of the icy glass, a dull yellowish light breaks through. An elderly woman behind the persistent collects a simple load in the bag: several pens, notebooks, a notebook, then - weighty envelopes pulled with a yellow elastic band. Feeling her lips, a woman considers and sorted something to several stacks. In the first, he puts off registered letters with state symbols and abbreviations of departments, in the second - all the others.

Nearby in a chair is another bag, sports, with the white inscription "Russia" on the side. This bag is slightly larger, but despite this, it is much easier. Inside - “Merch”: chocolate, magazines and several boxes of the Chinese analogue of the designer Lego. These are branded products of the Russian Post, which they obliged the postmen to sell post -posts several years ago.

Hope is the postman. Of her 52 years, the last 12 she works here in the village of Chebaki, Makushinsky district of the Kurgan region. But this is not the only village where she needs to visit today. Around within a radius of 15 kilometers - other villages that it serves.

In the era of the Internet, paper letters turned into a curiosity, but it seems that the reason for this is by no means in the achievements of progress. Many lonely old people living in villages on the very edge of Russia simply have no relatives. The only long -awaited guest for them remains a woman with bags at the ready. Hope.

Outside the window, minus 31. Pulling his beige knitted scarf on his face, almost to his eyes, scraking a shaggy hat tied with his own hand, Nadezhda dives into a voluminous jacket. A burgundy Chinese down jacket is already breaking on the right shoulder: the belt of the postal bag Putter of the seam, the shreds of white synthetic winterizer are asked out. Nadia does not even dream of buying new winter clothes.

“Oh, but I didn’t notice,” she is embarrassed when she sees my gaze, falling on a torn sleeve. “You don’t think, I am a woman at least elderly, but neat.” I'll be back home - I will sew it. New clothes now know how much it costs ...

- Is this your work clothes?

- This is mine, personal. If we were given work clothes, they would not be prices! And so only a vest, but where am I in it? Here is a down jacket, I go to work in it and about my business. There is still a fur coat, but it is completely terrible. Do she know how much about her? Older than you. I, even when I gave birth to a daughter, probably even under the USSR.

Pleasure at your own expense

Nadezhda goes to their surrounding villages twice a month. The third day you need to spread the pension, and on the 24th-distribute payments for the communal apartment.

“They are taking them now,” she tells me, packing her bag. - And before we were driving on our transport or on foot. I’ve been working for 10 years, when I started again, I asked: give at least 100 rubles for gasoline. They told me: there is no money, as you want, and get. And now, when they forced to trade goods, the car is carrying me. This is three years, probably, as they began to carry.

However, today the car did not come for hope. In the Kurgan region, abnormal frosts are worth the second week. They called from Makushino, they said that the car simply did not start, which means that hope would have to look for a car on their own. Usually, in such cases, the husband helps the postman, but right now, as a sin, for several days it has been on an examination in one of the Kurgan hospitals.

Hope just takes out an old Samsung from his pocket:

- WWII, Hi, how are you? Well ... tell me, are you very busy? There is a matter of you. I need to go to Martino through the brother. And in Makushino the car broke. Now they called - they said that they would not come - a barely noticeable smile appears on the woman's face. - Do I come to you? Yes, in the same place. Well, good, I'm waiting.

Vladimir Nikolaevich, a fellow villager, agreed to help Nadezhda, he only needs to warm up the car and clear the snow a little.

Look for a part -time job

While Vladimir Nikolaevich warms up the car, hope gets on the bench and continues to tell me about his work. It is recognized that the coming optimization is waiting with a heavy heart. Although she already works only half a time.

- And how much in rubles? I ask.

The woman becomes awkward.

- Well, the minimum wage is 16 thousand. I have half. There were 0.8 bets, but reduced. They say that you are not developing so much, you will receive half. Well, we work for eight thousand a month.

- How can you live with this money?

- It's hard, but where to go? I still have eight, also my husband feeds. And in the brother -in -laws - there is generally the postman has 0.2 bets. This is three thousand rubles in general! But we were already told in the fall: there will be even less, look for a part -time job. And in the village, where will you find the part -time job? We do not even have farmers in the village. But the school was repaired. Teachers are needed at school, but I did not learn to the teacher at one time. But they won’t take the cleaners and the technicians - there it’s a turn without me, they will not give their place, they are already there until their death. So it is here.

“Russian Post” is a hole ... both by salary, and in general, as people are treated. If you want, you can talk to the boss. She will tell everything.

- And where is she?

- Yes, here, next to the entrance to the village - a store ... Here and go there. You will see her right away, she stands at the checkout. The saleswoman works there.

Thankless job

Dull yellowish light of the bulb. Cookies, ghost sweets, three varieties of sausage are adjacent to cubes of cheese, salt and dried fish. In the air - the aroma of fresh, just brought bread. Behind the counter, sorting out and counting something, a miniature girl in a blue apron is swarming-Natalya, she is about 30.

The head of the local mail and part -time seller of the only selmag in Chebaki. Unlike “working for the soul, taxi drivers, the girl immediately admits that work at the checkout is the only opportunity to feed the family. Since the salary in the branch of the Russian Post subordinate to it is twelve thousand rubles.

However, a low salary is by no means the only reason for its dissatisfaction with this work.

Even worse - this is the attitude of the distant authorities to the employees “on Earth” and the reluctance to reckon with the problems that they have to overcome every day in order to deliver departments to the addressees.

- Here the day has just begun, and they call me in the morning, complain, they say: your postman did not come, did not bring magazines. They say that they will stop writing out and will complain. I explain to them: frost, the car did not come ... They don’t even want to listen, they scream, throw it into the phone, then call back again. And so every time, - Natalia smiles sadly.

- Is the subscription to magazines an important factor? Does it affect something?

- Well, this is first of all - support for the postman, 4%. A monthly subscription, for example, for 1000 rubles for several magazines, of which 40 rubles are just a postman for delivery. But now there are few who write out. Maybe a man of 15. Earlier, of course, there were more subscribers, people were interested in something. And now, either subscribers have died, or those who are listened to, everyone is looking for on the Internet.

- But this is a completely penny ...

- Agree. But nowhere to go in the village. There is nowhere to work, and therefore people work where they can. Where you get a penny, where there are two. Here they pay the city to the city - both posters and operators - 20 thousand. And in the village, apparently, not people live, they don’t want to eat. Here Nadia - gets 8 thousand, I - 12 thousand. In order to make ends meet, I don’t get out of the store, but there are women who get three for three, and two and a half. In the city, they have less than 20 anyone - but we have a salary and a little salary, but you know how much responsibility? Smell all the pension, count - and there is not a hundred or two hundred thousand.

Do you know that we were not brought to the post office this year? They just said: drown yourself, this year there will be no firewood, there is no money. And you go in a concrete box in minus 30 ...

Thanks to the doctors - we have a mail with a FAP in one building, a common boiler. This year we live at the expense of doctors. They allowed their firewood to drown. And if they weren't there? And this attitude in us in everything. And I already decided that I was working until May, then I was leaving. I move to Tyumen, so until May they are still looking for a replacement, if they don’t find it, then everything, there will be no mail here. Because the attitude is. Work by the postman is not life, but survival!

At that moment, the door creaked behind me, the comfort of a laid -back conversation between Selmag was violated by a loud female voice: “Natasha! I am to you, I brought money for a communal apartment: both my own and from my mother -in -law. Get a book! "

The girl was embarrassed - a dumb, a second pause - and reached out under the table. A moment later on the counter there was a weighty folder with solid binding files, payment shelter, checks inside. Women began to calculate. The postman in the village is also a utility bill. There is no Sberbank here, but local grandmothers cannot figure it out with online services.

He left women alone. I went back to the mail, but the department was already closed. So, Nadezhda still left. There is not a soul on the street, only somewhere in the distance, on the outskirts of the village in the frosty air, the barking of dogs spread.