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Belgorod and Kharkov before the war were brothers cities. How is this kinship now?

Belgorod and Kharkov before the start of the war were very close both in geographical and in the human sense. The border was conditional, citizens of both countries went to neighbors for groceries, things, dressings and just walking. Only 70 kilometers of the journey. Through Belgorod and Kharkov, a route to Crimea ran into the Crimea, for Belgorod residents - also to other cities of Ukraine. The journalist of Novaya Gazeta Europe, from Belgorod, recalls the times when the border was not a front line, and tourists, not tanks drove along the roads.

“I hear shooting. In the oak area, fire is heard from heavy guns. ”

"In Shebekino, the shelling is perfectly audible."

"So we are with the Kharkov border, and not with the DPR ..."

"So it scares."

"Well, not Kharkov bomb."

"God, what we were so afraid of so much happened."

“Our Russian brothers, you are crazy, right? We do not need to save us, I want to live in a peaceful Ukrainian Kharkov. ”

"Putin is a new Hitler?"

“Forgive us. I am very ashamed. "

"War".

So the morning begins on February 24, 2022 in the Belgorod media chat.

Belgorodians send a video with flashes on the horizon in a chat. They shoot there. Kharkovites write about explosions - the consequences of flashes in the Belgorod region.

All are amazed. All are confused. Belgorodians send dozens of personnel, later - hundreds, then it is difficult to count.

Throughout the war, many thousands will be published with missile departures.

And no one will be amazed.

I was born and raised in pre -war Belgorod. Then the road sign “Kharkov - 70 km” did not look like a sign of the path to hell. When I was very small, I was eight years old, my family and I went to Kharkov for the weekend. Now I am 18, and in Kharkov and in Belgorod, war. But I still distinguish between a photo of the arrivals, where Belgorod is and where Kharkov.

Conditional border

Each Belgorod knows the word “drum”, and everyone had at least one thing from there. This is a market in Kharkov, on Academician Barabashov Street, now it is already bombed. I have dishes with "drum", a beautiful green set. The same in a friend’s apartment - everyone was purchased in Kharkov. There was a confectionery store next to the “Drum”, my mother always bought a Kiev cake there, as well as Ukrainian Limona Zhivchik. And the brother had a bicycle from this market, which then inherited little to me.

Until 2014, the border could be crossed according to the internal Russian passport. From Belgorod to Kharkov, a direct train "Prince Vladimir" went to Kharkov. It is only an hour to go, and because of the change of hourly belt, we all joked that on this train “traveling in time”. Buses also went. But my mother said that it was inconvenient to ride them, and the border is longer.

It was possible to go by car, at the checkpoint then you were given a document in Ukrainian. There it was necessary to enter the date of entry, name and where you go. At the exit, it was necessary to hand over this piece of paper to the border guard.

Traveling to another country for us was then a piece of everyday life.

On the birthdays of someone from the family, we went to the Kharkov jungle water park. One of my early memories: my brother and I ask our parents to allow us to go to the trunk to sleep normally. Our car is clogged with other family members, and we do not fit on the seats lying down.

Another memory: little I first see the inscription in Ukrainian and amazed:

Mom, why are the letters like that? Mom replies that it is written in Ukrainian. And so I go and irritate my relatives with my shouts: oh, this is I - “and”.

In Belgorod, many, especially older people, say on Surzhik - a mixture of Russian and Ukrainian. So the Kharkovites who speak Ukrainian, we easily understand. Most Belgorodians, by the way, have this small Ukrainian accent. We are sometimes confused with Ukrainians even in Moscow.

Until 2014, all Belgorodians knew where exchangers with a good course: our family always specially went to an exchanger near the Kharkov zoo to exchange hryvnia rubles. A few hryvnias still lie at my house.

Other Russians also traveled through Belgorod to Ukraine. A direct bus went to Lugansk from Belgorod. There was a train from Moscow to Mariupol. In our area, even a route was equipped specifically for tourists. They built McDonald's in a sparsely populated suburb, hotels were built on the outskirts. Now some of them live refugees.

Before the first “Mack” was opened in Belgorod, residents went for outlandish fast food to Kharkov.

“I liked the big“ Mack ”near the South Station, there was a large children's corner,” says Alexei, who went to Kharkov as a child.

He also recalls Saltovka, where there were markets, he lists the metro stations and areas from memory. He says that this city was associated with the holiday, as well as with the road to Crimea through the M-2 highway. Now, if you just read the names of cities aloud on this route, it will not occur to the sea at all, but military reports: Donetsk, Melitopol, Zaporozhye, Mariupol, Berdyansk, Kherson.

Alexei recalls how he persuaded his father to call in Donetsk - the “city of roses” on one of the trips, as he was called then. In 2012, the European football championship was held in Ukraine, the stadiums were in Donetsk, Kharkov, Kyiv, Lviv. Foreigners from the former USSR often drove through Belgorod, on the streets you could find many cars with numbers of other countries.

“But we still went to the Sitroen service center, because it didn’t happen in Belgorod, but it was in Kharkov, and there was cheaper service,” recalls Belgorod Nastya. - We went to shopping in the “caravan”, and when I was small, I was taken to the zoo.

The Kharkov Zoo was the most popular place among Belgorodians, especially with children.

-I very fragmentedly remember the first trip, I was five or six years old, we went just to the zoo with family friends. I remember the elephant and the hippo in the Kharkov zoo, very impressed then. I also remember that they stood on the border for a long time, but it was always like this: they used to go at sea through Kharkov, so there were a lot of people, ”says Nastya.

Many residents of Belgorod went to neighbors to concerts of their favorite performers.

“It was quite normal when the musician’s concert tour went through Belgorod, then to start the Ukrainian part of the tour in Kharkov,” recalls Vladislav. - Now we are a dead end. They don’t even turn to us.

Belgorodets Anton was the last time in Kharkov when he was traveling to the concert. In transit, however, the performance of the Russian group "Alice" was in Kyiv.

-In Kharkov, since childhood, I had many friends, the connection with which I broke off after February 24, 2022 ... There were no problems or claims, with the exception of a couple of cases at the domestic level, especially on national grounds. Rather, there were always friendly jokes-podpols about Khokhlov and Katsapov. Once my friends dragged me to the match of the Kharkov football club with a Lviv team. We sat next to the fan sector, where the fans of the teams exchanged cobbles against opponents. But what struck: after the match there were no skirmishes or conflict situations, people simply thanked each other, drank, talked. Kharkov as a millionaire was still very international, and people were very calm about visitors, ”recalls Anton.

Kharkov is the closest city to Belgorod. Even the neighboring Kursk further, the distance to it is almost twice as much: if Kharkov is 70 kilometers, then 130 to Kursk, Alexey says that on the Belgorod Crade (industrial district, separated from the city) was less than once in his entire life than in Kharkov.

Many Belgorod graduates did not enter our BelGU, but to the neighboring Kharkov: what, an hour on an electric train is even less than some residents of the Moscow Region to Moscow. In Kharkov, they often fell in love, stayed there or lived in two cities. The mother of Belgorod Anastasia also studied in Kharkov, but married Belgorod and returned to her small homeland. In terms of distance, this is the same as if the wife was from Zelenograd, and her husband was from Domodedovo. Even to Kharkov from Belgorod is a little closer.

“And we are talking not only about higher education, as it seems to many, or just about the proximity of the region, but also about enterprises,” says Belgorod blogger Sergei. - Suppose to take the Kharkov Polytechnic Institute, KhPI. People from various regions, when earlier, in the Union, were released from the KhPI, they were also sent to the Shebekinsky chemical plant to work. This is both Kharkiv residents and people from other regions. And when there was the collapse of the Soviet Union, many people remained in the Belgorod region. There are a crazy number of such enterprises. Also Belgorod residents: when the Soviet Union broke up, someone remained in the Kharkov region and continued his life there.

So I have, for example: half of the family in Kharkov, and half in Belgorod, since one of my parents is a citizen of Ukraine, and one is a citizen of Russia.

On one line, grandfather with a grandmother - there, on the other - here.

The first time after the collapse of the USSR, the border was completely conditional. People on both sides often even crossed it illegally through the fields, bypassing the checkpoint: just as easier, without traffic jams you can drive. This Moscow immediately came up with an imaginary clear line of the border, and for the Belgorod and Kharkiv residents it remained only a line on the maps. At the checkpoint, even the inhabitants of Belgorod were passed out of turn, like the Kharkovites. Many Ukrainian businesses opened in the Belgorod region, they worked even after 2014, and now they have to choose: either a Russian passport or Ukrainian.

Belgorodians also loved Kharkov airport. Belgorod also has its own airport, but from there the choice of directions was smaller. It was often easier to get to Kharkov and sit on the plane there than to fly somewhere with transfers or through Moscow.

Even after 2014, the Belgorodians still went to the Kharkov airport, and some Belgorod travel agencies sold vouchers with a departure from Kharkov.

The Kharkovites, by the way, also came to the Belgorod region.

-Back in 2019, when there was a legendary visit by Blogger Varlamov to Belgorod, some kind of guy from Kharkov on a bicycle came to his lecture. Because well, what, not far, no matter what to come or listen. People from Volchansk and some other nearest places completely went to the same Shebekino to refuel, then to the store, then, as well as on business, ”recalls Sergey. -It seems that even my father a few years ago, before everything, it was on the border that he met with some of the relatives of the numerous whom I do not know.

"The usual neighboring city is connected with Belgorod with strong ties"

“There is a Belgorod region, and there is the rest of Russia,” said Mikhail Dobkin, a former governor of the Kharkov region in an interview with the Ukrainian channel “Visiting Gordon” in 2020.

Dobkin said that after the flight of Yanukovych from Ukraine in 2014, just in case, he also transported his family to Russia: Dobkin did not support the idea of ​​Euromaidan and was afraid for his relatives. The then mayor of Belgorod Vasily Ogrozaev helped the family. At the same time, Dobkin himself stayed in Russia for the only day: the Kharkov governor was not nowhere to spend the night, and he was sheltered by the governor of the Belgorod region, who was then Yevgeny Savchenko. Later, Dobkin took his family back to Ukraine, and after the beginning of a full -scale invasion opposed Russian aggression.

Kharkov and Belgorod officially became twin cities on October 18, 2001. But this was only a formal consolidation of the long -existing bonds.

For example, how the ordinary news sounded in the Belgorod media “Bel.ru” in 2007: “At the meeting of the Governor of the Belgorod Region E. S. Savchenko and the chairman of the Kharkov regional state administration A. B. Avakov, it was said that the development of relations between cities will be backed up by large -scale projects. One of them, according to the chairman of the Kharkov Regional State Administration, consists in building a highway of the first category, which will connect Ukraine and Russia and will increase the foreign trade balance of the two countries. Another project is the construction on the Russian-Ukrainian border of the international airport-an economically profitable facility for two countries. ”

In 2013, the Belgorod media ribbons were full of news about Kharkov: Belgorodtsev warned about the growth of the cost of travel in the neighboring city, about the overlap of roads, new trains that will be taken to the Crimea in seven hours, and also publish posts of events. The media also tell how Belgorod and Kharkov universities have concluded cooperation agreements, and on the initiative of Governor Yevgeny Savchenko, the textbooks on the history of Slobozhanshchina and the Belgorod Territory in Russian and Ukrainian languages ​​introduced the optional teaching of this subject.

In 2014, Yevgeny Savchenko, the then governor of the Belgorod region, decided to open the monument to Bogdan Khmelnitsky - the Ukrainian hetman.

“Today we are going through difficult times. Russian-Ukrainian relations are corroded by rust, on the one hand, anger and hatred, on the other-pain and compassion. It is during such periods of crises and tests that new Bogdans Khmelnitsky appear, which will rise on today's problems and call us all to stop bloodshed, ”said Yevgeny Savchenko then. He also proposed uniting the streets of Bogdan Khmelnitsky in Belgorod and Kharkov as a sign of friendship: to spend such a long street connecting two cities. At the opening of the monument, Metropolitan of Belgorod John at that time was present. In 2022, he would call to stop military operations in Ukraine.

“Such a familiar neighboring city is connected with Belgorod with strong ties that are not so easy to destroy as it seems at first glance,” Bel.ru will write in 2016 in a material dedicated to the exhibition about Kharkov.

Without an invitation

It was final to destroy the bonds in just one day, February 24, 2022.

The airport at the border was never built.

And no one else goes to Crimea in seven hours.

Already after the start of Russia's full -scale invasion of Ukraine, the former Belgorod governor said that back in 2014, the “Message of the Lord” was transferred to him, which reported that “you could not achieve peace” and should not cause the townspeople to participate in combat operations on any of the parties, as well as respect the choice of residents of Ukraine.

Savchenko is still a senator from the Belgorod region in the Federation Council.

My family stopped going to Ukraine after 2014. My relatives heard stories about evil Ukrainians who hit the cars of Russians, and decided not to risk it. But friends continued to ride, only now the invitation was already required for this.

Although some, if secretly, these invitations were drawn in Photoshop or gave bribes on the border. The invitations were rather a formality.

The flow of tourists who went to Ukraine is the turn of Belgorod was dried up at the same time. McDonald's on the highway was also closed, now in its place a bakery.

And there are many such little things that understand that life has changed a lot.

If earlier Ukrainian channels were calmly caught in Belgorod, then after 2014 it became difficult to catch them. But Ukrainian radio in some areas of Belgorod still works. Belgorodets Alexei even recalls: once, in a 43rd bus in Belgorod, he found a check from the Kharkov train. Such a "hello" from the second hometown. The last time he was in Kharkov with his father on February 22, 2014. We went to take a ticket to the Carpathians - it is already not clear whether they themselves decided to cancel the rest or travel agency.

- The city center was empty: at least cars, people too. We bought meat, layers with poppy seeds and went home, ”recalls Belgorod.

- The last time I was in Kharkov, when the Maidan was already standing, my mother and I went to an MRI and just take a walk. No negativity to the fact that we are Russians, in the hospital, we were normally accepted, they did everything they needed. Everyone spoke Russian, ”recalls Belgorod Anastasia.

- I have a friend who lived in Belgorod for many years, and then, due to life circumstances, moved to Kharkov and settled there. I found a job, a house, friends, traveled to some beautiful places in Ukraine ... It was perfectly accepted. She managed to live calmly and happily there until 2022 for about a year or one and a half in total. When it all started, she was not in Kharkov. And then there were pictures of her high -rise buildings with a protruding rocket. Her very emotional posts. Her sorrow for friends, says Vladislav.

Contrary to politics, many people still have contacts with relatives in Ukraine, says Belgorod Serge.

— В начале войны белгородские родственники переживали за харьковчан, теперь родственники из Харькова переживают за белгородцев.