The Stories

Translations of interviews are as literal as possible to keep the individual style of those interviewed. Each individual sat for up to 2 hours while they were interviewed and painted.

Click the small images to enlarge each one.

Anna Fiodorovna

"It has been a busy day today. I am the chairman of a WW2 veterans committee in our area - I organise meetings to discuss issues that we need to bring to attention of the authorities.

There are not so many of the true veterans left, those who took part in action during the War. I was a young nurse when it started. I was studying to become a midwife when we were conscripted to the Front, to tend the wounded. We were young and had no family to leave behind - so we were prime choice for being sent to the hot-spots.

We would work 18 hours straight, then as we were getting tired, the next shift would come along and we would work together for another 6 hours, take a nap for four hours and start a new 18 hour shift till the next person replaced us. After that we would have 10 hours sleep and it would all start over again. There were so many wounded to look after. We had to work really fast, make crucial decisions and operate right there and then in the middle of action in a tent with hundreds of wounded: some recovering, some waiting to be treated.

After the first immediate help, some of the more serious cases were sent back inland to stationary hospitals. I spent all of the war at the front line and we got as far as Berlin when the victory came.

I come from a village in Ukraine called Buturlinivka, now it is part of Russia. It had being given to Russia in exchange for some territories in the Crimea during the Hrushev time. My great grandfather was originally from Greece. He was an orthodox priest coming to Ukraine to preach. My mother was a very educated woman with a great heart and she was very religious. She had a talent for healing people and had people coming for help from all over the country. She specialised in Osteopathy. She would teach us this skill when we were little, she would put a jug in to a sack and smash it on the floor and we had to reconstruct it from outside, without putting our hands in to the sack. It was a simple but effective method.

We had a large family of twelve children but not many have survived. My father had a large farm, good land and horses to provide food for the family. When the Soviet Rule came the land and the horses were taken away to be added to “collective farms' that were imposed by the state all over the country. The government called wealthy peasants “Kulaks', and considered them enemies of Soviet state.

After my parents lost their means of providing food for the family we really struggled to survive. My father learned a cobbler's skill and earned some money making boots while my mother tended the children and earned money by sewing (clothes etc). I was too small to remember all that. I was the youngest of all the children and we were very poor already by the time I was born.

But I really enjoyed working with people, making difference to their lives. We had polar bears outside our hospital windows digging in the rubbish. My daughters both went to boarding school on the island when they were small and later to the boarding school on the mainland for the higher grades. I had a real scare once when my grandson was left to play in the hospital yard and a huge polar bear arrived to scavenge through the rubbish.

I worked mainly with children and in the local hospital and my husband worked as an emergency doctor. He and another doctor would go out in a helicopter or in an all-terrain vehicle to polar stations to help scientists that used to work there. It was a dangerous job. They had to go through shifting ice, and snow storms in temperatures ranging between -40C and -70C to get to the locations. One time he went out on call and their vehicle got caught in a storm. Because of the impossible weather conditions he waited for three days to be rescued - he was barely alive and was taken to hospital on the mainland with hypothermia. His partner didn't make it.

My husband never recovered from his experience and a year later when we returned to Ukraine, he died, leaving me with two daughters to look after. That's when we moved to Moscow, where I have lived ever since. I have a nice flat. My daughter and my grandson, and now also my great grandson, come and visit me here.

I enjoy doing work for our veteran community, and getting organised for Victory Day parades. I received another commemoration medal last year, and a personal letter from the President to greet me on the Victory Day parade, thanking us for our war achievements. After all there are very few of us left, one of my brothers went missing in Japanese war. I have just turned 80 this year.

"

The concept

Portrait Gallery

"Each individual sat for up to two hours while they were interviewed and painted"

Ivan Kuharenko - Painted on 25 August 2003

"I served in the army.

After about one year of service, we were told that those who would like to finish our service earlier we could volunteer to raise the virgin land. It was during the Khrushchev time, and everywhere all over the country, they were planting sweet corn and 'raising the virgin lands'. I volunteered and we were sent to Siberia.

It was -60C outside when we arrived, so we were placed in a hotel, given free food and received good treatment. In a few days the head of the village had given us new warm clothes and got us to unload a train of sand. It was frozen solid and we were working in temperatures of -40C to -60C.

We worked there for two three or years and earned an incredible amount of money.There were all kinds of nationalities coming to work there, earn money and leave. We were supplied with all kinds of materials and in no time we had tomato fields, cucumbers and were even growing corn.

Trucks would load up with corn take it half-way and get stuck in the mud, they would toss half of the load on the ground to get out of the mud, and then throw the rest away somewhere else on the way - it was such a waste when the there was hunger all over the rest of the country (7 million people died of starvation during this time). Eventually they built better roads and got better organised. At the time they had brought all the latest technology there to dry and process corn in no time at all in the toughest conditions.

I am originally from Byelorussia. I didn't qualify to be a war veteran although I was born in 1929 - it is unfair as those born in 1930 did. Everyone knows that my village was the centre of the Partisan resistance during the war. The Partisans were stationed there; they would live in the village and wouldn't even steal a chicken from the locals. When the German army entered the village, the Partisans would hide in the woods around the village and then as army left the village the Partisans would attack and destroy them.

All of my family lived there: sisters, brothers, aunts and uncles. However when the Chernobyl explosion happened, the entire village was evacuated. One of my Aunts was sent to Dnipropetrovs'k, my Uncle and his family to Novosibirsk, my Sister to Russia and brother to the other side of Ukraine.

"

Vasyl

"I am a farmer entrepreneur. I have got two daughters to look after. They are both in University, married with children. We have two houses, but they constantly fight over everything - it's a nightmare!!! I am looking after 16 pigs to provide cash for their education etc. It's all money, money, money!!!

I used to have four horses but the vet told me one was really sick. He never even looked at the thing; he just overheard a rumour that it was rolling on its back a lot. It was just a one meal of wet hay but it would have been ok soon - I had to kill it. My other horse has a young foal, so I cannot use it for work. I am working like a slave, truly like a slave.

I liked art a lot. I used to paint too but then, I tried carving on board and really got in to it. I have been doing it since. I carve pictures of deer, animals in the woods, flowers and all that stuff - all my family and friends have one of my pieces. I have none left at home - even got my son in laws hooked on it. It's a great present to give someone for their birthday, anniversary, house warming etc.

I really fancy you - although I'm not so young anymore.

(laughter…)

"

Maria Kuharenko

"Oh dear, Oh dear, Oh dear!!.

This year's tomatoes!!! I spent so much money on buying seedlings and they all went bad!!! And why have you no children yet?!! It's no good, no family, no children - that's out of order!! Get on with it, you shouldn't live like that, children are 'must' they are not 'maybe'…

We got a new cow recently and it's a young one. Now we are really struggling: we have 6 pigs, we bought 4 and were given 2 by the in-laws of my middle son. But how can I make money or live when to feed a pig costs 800gr (£80) but to sell it 600gr (£60)!

We are all share holders of 'Kolkhoz' (the former agricultural Government-run farm where all the villagers were employed). Now it's called an agricultural farm.

Based on the share that we hold, the owner gets 500,000Kgs of corn per-year while we only get 1,000Kg. How can I feed animals with that - and of course only 60gr (£6) of pension wouldn't buy me anything! And you work and you work and you work!! First planting potatoes and vegetables, then weeding them, then picking potatoes and beetroot, then its winter then its planting again (all the work is done by hand). I haven't been down to the river this summer, more then two times yet (it's a 20 minute walk).

My middle son, he is good. He lives in Harkiv, he works as a contractor builder, the same as the younger one - they go all over the country. He and his girlfriend got a car, a foreign make. No child though yet, they are not married yet although he and his wife have been together for 10 years. I told him 'why don't you get married, what are you waiting for, its no good' but he says 'what do you care, we are happy'. Unlike Genka (the youngest son) - his child, Diana, is six now.

His wife gave birth when she was 15, so they got together and married when she was 14. Now the child is going to be at school and she is going to be at work. It's easier that way.

We've got a lot to take care of: 20 geese, 15 turkeys, chicken, one ram, calf, one goat. A fox just killed 5 geese last night - it's so aggravating! You feed them, spend so much time, money effort on them and it all goes to waste!! Such hard work, so, so much hard work here!!

"

Diana Kuharenko

(Ivan and Maria's granddaughter, is 6 years old. She is named after Princess Diana. Zoya is 20 and Genka is 30. She asked 100,000+ questions)

"I think you painted my granddad too black.

My grandma's mouth is painted wrong here.

- Are you painting me in the scarf?

Ulyana:-Yes

- I don't like that, change it or I will not sit for you!

- Tell me more about the princess Diana and her car crash.

- I feel sorry for you family.

Ulyana;- Why?

- My grandma tells me to, so I listen.

My mom keeps lots of money in the jar by the window

My dad paints really good horses.

He is teaching me too. He used to be a horse trainer now he works as builder, its more money)

Have you got any more sweets?

"

Katerina

(helps her son to tend a newly established, mini supermarket and works at the collective farm)

"I have never been to any exiting places like London, unlike you. I have been to Chernigiv (Ukraine), Moscow, Kiev, Sochi, a lot around Soviet Union, Russia and Ukraine. That was during the Soviet times. Now it is too difficult to do that and I am too old, as well as all of my energy is taken up by running the household.

We got a new, young cow. It gives up to 27litres of milk a day! And what a good milk it is !! Our son's in-laws sold it to us - they got too week to look after it now. They were journalists in a local region, even got a distinction for their good work, but now they are too old and can't keep up with the housework.

My son, you know, married second time. He has got a son in Moscow from a previous marriage. He went to serve in the army there and got married. When he got back after his service, she didn't want to see him. He suffered so much. Then he returned here - he went around the village, asked around and got Olga's and her parent's agreement to marry. But the other girl said she wanted him back and she loves him but he said, 'you mistreated me once you will mistreat me again'.

My husband was so beautiful when he was young, not like now - old, fat and shabby. All the girls were after him. He really treats me well, but we had some rough times. He went off with some girl after ten years of our marriage. But I put him in his place, since then its all been good - except he got knocked down by a bike and now he cant hear too well.

(comment from the woman sitting next to the modelling one)

- Bullshit! I once saw you calling out to him several times and it's only after you yield 'Ivan you old git! come here' that he taken an ear plug out of his ear and asked what you wanted.

(laughter…)

"

Note: Modelling would usually attract a lot of attention from fellow villagers and lots of sharp, humorous, often rude comments towards the sitter, and lots of laughter.

Ruslan
(27 years old)

"As my father used to say 'we were born with swearwords and we will win with them'.

I often talk to him in my dreams.

I was born in Dnipropetrovs'k. My mother worked in the factory, so did my father. Both of them worked hard, believed in a better, happier future - but after the fall of Soviet Union they were made redundant. This caused a lot of problems in the family - like violence. I tried to protect my mother and fought with my father a lot, but now I can understand better what drove him to that violence, may his soul rest in peace.

By the age of 16 I had completed 9 years of school. I used to go to an evening art school as a kid but had to give it up as there was no future for me in the arts, and no finances to carry on with studies. When my parents lost their jobs at the factory, I had to leave school and look for work to help out the family. I worked as a loader, so by the time I was 18 - and due to go to the army - I was very exited about the conscription. I hoped it would give me a break from the financial pressure, offer a truly manly challenge and test my strengths and morals. I had a dream like every young boy to go to the army - to become a real man.

When I got to the army, my image of it had burst like a soap bubble.

There were no rules no laws: just sheer brutal force.

The stronger one is always right irrespective of title or rank.

The army was in such a state at the time, for every soldier there were 11 officers.

In total there were 1,014 officers, two battalions of 109 soldiers and seven people in a company.

Can you imagine what kind of life they made us live?!

I was made to follow any whim of the officers 'jackals' - who made life truly impossible.

They use to say to us; 'life is a book, but your life here is like pages torn out of it'.

So called 'dedi', which means 'elders', used to give us one ruble to go and by cigarettes for them, with the condition that we bring back 10 rubles change. We had to rob civilians as we had no money left of our own to give to them - all that was taken away.

I was framed.

They were jealous of my talent. It was a dictatorship, when they said jump you said how high, you had to become a chameleon to survive. I had pressure from the officers, pressure from 'blatnie'. [note: 'blatnie' describes a person with 'favourable-connections'. In the army the term was associated with people who abused this power].

They set me up. Our unit was disbanded, and everyone was looting the base. We were not issued with leave-passes, we were just told to go. Suddenly the commission arrived.

They locked me up for desertion. When my cousin spent months trying to appeal against it, the officer in charge told her that he would only review the case if she had sex with him. I was given a 3 year prison sentence, but I spent only 9 month there, as well as time in the disciplinary battalion and GABN shifts at Commandant's office (before prison). The appeal process took a year and a half.

The normal disciplinary measure was a so called “coffin'. It was a metal box-room just as wide and broad as your shoulders so you could only stand. It had heating pipes running along the back which were constantly boiling hot so you couldn't touch them. The room had a 40V bulb above your head.

If you were to yell when the heat would become unbearable the disciplinary officers would open the door and pour a bucketful of chlorine. This would make your mouth foam up and bile start coming out of it. Your eyes start to feel like they are about to pop out.

If you yell more, saying that your heart is about to stop, or that you have an unbearable headache, the officers would also have a cure for that – they would hit you with a wooden bat and call that 'Anadin' or 'dimerol' (painkillers). Then they would ask, 'is there anything else aching? Would you like some more medicine?'

The next time they tried to hit me I hit the guy back so he wouldn't pour chlorine on me, or hit me with the bat. So they transferred me as an extremely dangerous case. They escorted me with several armed guards, my hands cuffed behind my back. After spending 4-5 months in solitude at the “shift' I started to sense / forsee things, I sensed when my mother was about to visit me.

As I waited in the transit-stage we were told many scary stories - most of which came to be true. We were taken to the baths on the arrival. The requirement was that everything has to be clean and disinfected, clothes were to be ironed. You were meant to wash for inspection - but they would turn on the boiling water so you couldn't stand even a second under the shower. Then they would turn everybody back if they thought that at least one person didn't wash up properly. At times they would switch hot-cold-hot cold water consecutively. You would face disciplinary action for not having washed up properly. They would give us new uniforms but the boots would have no soles.

The blatnie would sit and wait in the baths - they beat me up so badly my mother struggled to recognize me when she came to see me.

There were many divisions of status:

- 'Blatnie' - corrupt, well-connected soldiers that called the shots - they didn't do much, they were in charge of the baths or cooking.

- 'Patcani' - 'boys' - they were right-hand men of the blaitnie, and oversaw the orders given by the blatnie.

- 'Mujiki' - the 'guys' - would do the work but wouldn't accept other people imposing their work on them.

- 'Cherti' - 'devils' - would get all the work, wash up pants and underpants, all the dirty work.

- 'Petuhi' - 'cockerels' - gays or those who were 'made gay through physical force'.

Blaitnie forced toothpicks under my big toe nails. Sometimes they would use an old wound up phone cable. They would put my feet in the water, wind the phone up (an old wind-up telephone discharges electrical current when it is wound) and discharge 14V in to the water.

They would hit me with an iron bar –aiming for the neck and the sensitive bits, and try and push my eyes out. It had gone on for month. All because I didn't say I was “Cherti', but if I wanted to be treated as “Mujiki' I was forced to earn that status.

We were all living in the barracks - 300 men in each one. In such a densely populated space a simple pimple turns in to abscess. After spending days in hot dusty boots peoples feet began to rot. Some had decayed so badly they had big areas of their body covered in pus and worms.

Imagine 300 men all with rotting flesh - the smell in the barracks was unbearable. It is terrifying when living flesh is rotting. At the field hospital the doctor would pull off the scab without anaesthetic, scoop out the pus and then disinfect it with 'Furacelin'. My mum sent me antibiotics but they were taken away and I never got them. We were only allowed a cold shower. If you asked for hot water, they would switch on boiling water only. The clothes were never washed properly and still had other peoples pus on them – they stank and infected the healthy areas of your body.

It is only thanks to my talent - drawing - I was appreciated and survived. There were 200 artists out of 300 men, I never thought I could make it. I got into a good group of people - we used to make rosaries, knives, designs for tattoos, design for glass and swords. The reason my work stood out was because I had imagination, others worked like Xerox copiers - simply copying previous successful designs. I redesigned a lot of old tattoo stencils there.

After I got out of the army I went to work as a builder and got a job as a guard for the different sites. Everything seemed to go OK until I had an incident with a drug addict. Everything went wrong from that point. I was at my duty guarding a café when a junky stormed in and knifed me in the stomach, demanding money. I treated the incident as an injury at work and took 100gr out of the till to get a taxi home to get treated. The owner was pleased with my work said 'well done, get better', but when I got my next month's salary it was 100gr short. I asked him why and he explained that he deducted the money that I took from the till to get a taxi after the incident. Despite the fact I nearly lost my life protecting little kids that were having a birthday party in his café!

I tried to insist it was not fair as it was a work injury, but he wouldn't listen. So I took a hi-fi and some other equipment from his café as a ransom. My boss sent 'krisha' (protection mafia) to retrieve his equipment. They were decent guys but had their side of the deal to keep to - they agreed that it was not fair and the owner was wrong. They took the equipment but didn't 'punish me' as they had been assigned. Then my boss reported me to police for 'stealing the equipment'. I got a 1-year provisional sentence. I lost loads of money in the courts and lost my job, but most importantly I lost my childhood friends over it - they just got scared and turned away from me. I was married at the time and had to provide food for family.

I was 23 and my wife was 17 when we married. I had met my mother-in-law-to-be at the market stall and I helped her to carry boxes with eggs - she introduced me to her daughter. Half a year later we marred, and in 1999 Danyil was born.

It was hard to get a job with a past like mine. I worked at a building site for a while, then again as a guard: we protected sensitive sites, factories and petrol stations. In one operation we seized bandits and militia (police) working together –they were stealing petrol at Koksohim chemical plant (the site that was under our protection).

It was accidental luck. We went out to check the patrol, six of us put on masks, got rid of any identifying items, and then stormed their cars. We fought from 2am till 4am and seized 26 people. We forced them into their own cars and then took out the accumulators. We pretended to speak on our portable radios to an imaginary group of support that was supposed to come out to help us - but our only real hope was the next patrol arriving to replace previous shift at 8 am.

However, when my employers found out I had a dark past, despite the good reputation I had earned, my employer transferred me, together with another eight people with shady records, to another division. We were always sent out to most dangerous and dodgy jobs, raids that involved military special-units. We were treated just like in the army, with no respect - after working there for six months I found out that my work-book record said it had only been one-and-a-half months.

Having spent time with people like that I understood that whether you are on the side of the police, or on the other side, brutal force is still brutal force, and it leads to the degrading of people's personality.

We were guarding Koxohim chemical plant. Though many of those who work there come out as invalids its so hard to get any job, people have to stay to provide food for their family. One day as I was walking on my patrol I stepped in a pool of what I thought was water on the ground - but my shoe sole nearly melted.

After all these experiences, I came to realise that time is flying by, and I would like to accomplish something in my lifetime for self-fulfilment ('samorealizacia'). I had always liked to work with wood. Some good people helped me to get a job at a firm doing inlay, decorating yachts, furniture, cabins, etc. Now we have got a carpenter shop and do our own designs. I hope to open my own family business.

"

Dubnevich Victor Ivanovich

(43 years old, his horse is 'Zirka', a 3 year-old half-bred racer and 'heavyweight')

"My son got me in to riding horses.

He works as a trainer, him and his mates go across the river, they pasture cows and horses there. You should really see it! It's like a dream scene in the early morning, just as the sun goes up the first rays just penetrate through the morning fog and the forest. The lads go out into the forest looking for the horses - they catch them and ride bear back to the pastures. The horses are let loose in the woods during the night, but they don't go away far.

The boys are incredible, the way they ride those horses - they just gallop through the forest in the fresh morning air, beating the fountains of shimmering droplets of dew under their hoofs, filling the morning forest with geeing and neighing and laughter. Then after a wild chase through the forest they take them to the river for bathing. Oh it's a stunning view. There's always about four or five guys out there, they camp there all summer. They have a boat so they come across the river for some provisions. In the evenings you must have noticed there is always a party going on, singing, dancing and all that.

I love it here. I couldn't live in the city. I tried. My wife really wanted to be in the city, you know - work, friends, places to go in the evening, shops. I tried living in the city for a while but I said I couldn't do that. I was born in Poltava region, Zilkivskii district but I grew up in Volinsk region in Novovolinsk - it's just on the Polish border.

My granddad comes from a very ancient family line of Cossaks. He originally came from the Lvivshina part of Ukraine. My mother's family is also from the Cossaks clan so I've got a great history in my family. I guess I could say I am an independent farmer now. I studied to be a forest ranger and worked for a while doing that. Before I moved here to Velikii Pereviz I tried my luck working in Siberea, and all those hard regions: Tiumen, Novii Urengoi, Noyabrsk. It was hard work, -60C or -70 C most of the time - my health now is very unstable.

I have a wife and two sons its great here. I'm trying to keep a good standard of life and improve it bit by bit. I guess I'm quite proud of myself. My son Igor is nineteen now in the army, he is missing the horses though, and the family but he likes it there. It's such a different story now-days comparing to the way the army used to be. It's ok to send your children to the army now. He looks so proud in his uniform with the beret, tassels and golden shoulder-straps: the full parade outfit!

He got me to buy this horse - she is such a beauty. We noticed her when she was a baby. They breed good Arab race horses, some for export in the village 20Km from here. My son used to train horses for them. They slay, or sell to peasants, the horses of mixed breed so we asked the guy to keep this one for us. We waited two-and-a-half years for her. Igor trained her himself. I am still a little weary of riding her, he says I spoil her while he is away. He tells me there couldn't be a better life than out here; with horses and the days when he and his mates take them across the river on to the pastures.

It's beautiful, truly beautiful.

"

Andrei Vorobiov

(In his thirties. Currently a member of President's Putin's party 'dinaia Rossia' or 'United Russia')

We first meet at his office at the party headquarters. It's a spacious room with a grand table in the middle and a desk to one side of the room. On the desk there was a crystal vase with a few fresh flowers, a portrait of his daughter to right of it, and an icon of Jesus Christ and a portrait of president Putin to left of it.

He met me at a desk topped with computer and papers, then led me to the big round table in the middle of the room. He looks curious but casual: 'confidence and faith in the right choice of the future of the country' would describe his entire appearance.

We agree for the modelling to take place in his cabinet in the Russia's Federal Council, where I meet him next. It's a busy office with deputies of different nationalities coming in and out, discussing the agendas, voicing their needs. An extremely warm and friendly secretary with luminous blond hair and prominent make up makes sure we all get our cookies and tea, and that the burning issues of far away regions of Russia find their way onto Mr A.Vorobiev's desk.

"I was born in Siberia on the banks of the Enisey River.

I've lived in Moscow now for 10 years. I studied at the Krasnoyarsk Institute of Economics and qualified to become an International Marketing Economist. My interest was to develop business ties of my region, the far east of Russia, and the international economy.

Thirty years of experience brought me into politics. I got involved with a lot of social work, and became the head of a support fund for “United Russia'. I travel a lot to various regions, all over Russia. I know how people live there, I have seen it for myself. Our fund provides help and support to children and older people. I know what is necessary to make Russia take its prominent position in the world.

Right now I represent Adegeya, which is in Krasnoyarsk region. Although I have never lived in that region, I do go there a lot - I understand the needs of these people. I like to live here in this country. I want Russia to become democratic, I want it to have social security. My motives are not materialistic, I want to make a true, real contribution to the processes of improvement in our country; to provide support and stability.

I want people to feel supported and socially protected by the state. 30% of our population are living below the poverty line in this country: our party aims to cut that down. Our whole agenda is to fight poverty!! We must also improve the fighting efficiency of our army. I wouldn't like to go back to Krasnoyarsk as I like the standard of living in Moscow and I have my friends here.

My daughter is 8 years old, she loves her motherland.

"

Kondratieva Valeria Yiurievna

"My passion is a love of reading, which was given to me by my grandmother.

She was a sensitive, noble human being, and became my constant companion: a source of hope and support in the days of dark thoughts and doubts. It was due to the love of books, and later on in life, to the love of theatre that I have experienced the brightest moments of joy of being. My grandmother had Moscow and Saint Petersburg roots, my grandfather was born in Orlov and was a first cousin of the writer, Leonid Andreev.

He had lost his parents in an early age. He possessed an exquisite artistic taste and a unique talent. He was an inventive craftsman, a wonderfully welcoming and generous host, and a warm family man. In the hard days of revolution and destruction, all the physical and mental efforts were directed at the preservation of the family. The ties with his cousin Leonid (a persecuted writer at the time) were cut off, and kept secret to avoid trouble.

To pay homage to my parents, I would like to say, my father had an administrative job and my mother brought up daughters. The best experiences of my life, experiences of the joy of life, came from my grandmother. Although the memories mix with a constant feeling of the loss of something piercingly close, something dear, something that was nouroshing to the heart and soul.

I blame the war years for unaccomplishments in my life, the very heavy post-war period and all the weight of the hardships of that time. High sensitivity to everything that was happening made it much harder to realise all my plans and aspirations. Everything ended as amateur activities and memberships in amateur drama clubs.

One of the brightest memories of my life was meeting with a person of an incredible modesty, a talented teacher, theatre producer and master of written word, Elizaveta Jakovlevna Errond. She was a sister of Cvetaevas husband. She led a reserved solitary life, secretly hiding her relation to Sergey Errond.

The War years we spent in Moscow. I studied at home under Elizaveta's supervision. I have fully experienced the captivating charm of this bright and wonderful individual. I studied with enthusiasm and inspiration. But my theatre career came to an end at that point.

I perceive openly and with excitement, everything that is related to true art. I enjoy it and it takes my mind of everything that is negative. Oh, those moments, those moments those moments...

Everything that was my joy, my love, my hope, my sanctuary, all sank in to darkness - I became blind.

"

Linda Anatoilij Georgievich

"

I would love to start the story of myself as a pasanger of a 'Red bus'.

My name is Linda Anatoilij Georgievich, I was born in Litvenian SSR on the 23rd July 1946 and then, together with my parents, we moved to Riga –the capital of Latvia. Everything went as normal, following the same pattern as all Soviet Academia. School-University-Job at the same place until the pension, children, grandchildren, and finally the lamentation of the relatives at your grave.

I was lucky to brake this chain of events.

After the University, as I started work, I also became involved in Komsomol ('Communist Union of Youth') activities which helped me to join the Communist Party. It was not easy being from academia to join the party as the proportional representation of academics and working class in the party was 1 in 10 - one engeneer to 10 labourers who were not even that interested in joining the party - you had to pay the membership fees and they did not see the point in that. So we academics were left to sit and wait for our turn. The membership in the party promised great opportunities of climing up the ladder.

As a member of KPSS (Communist Party) I got in to the Moscow Akademy of Foreign Trade of the USSR. They only took 25 people a year, of which 75% through personal connections - 'by the hand' - that meant children of ministers, party activists and so on. The rest of the 25% were kinds such as me who were accepted on the grounds of their intelligence - they did need some people who would actualy do some work and studying in the university. So that was how I boarded the 'Red bus of Fortune' (that's the way I named it)

Without having any outside help or personal connections I managed to get in to the environment where you could actually earn decent money and more importantly get to go abroad where at those days you were payed big money - $800 per month. For comparison as an engineer I used to earn approximately $90. That was enough for living as all the services in the country were practicaly free - however the quality was corresponding to that.

Everything basically depended on your attitude to work. After I completed academy in 1979, I began to work in the ministry of external trade of the USSR and reached the position of Head of Economic Collaborations between USSR, Laos and Vietnam. I worked four years in the consulate of USSR in Laos and five years in Soviet consulate in Vietnam. In Vietnam I was a head of the economic department and had 7 colleagues.

The knowledge of five languages (that I learned of my own accord while studying in the Akademy) helped me a lot in my work. At the same time I entered Postgraduate studies in the Academy of Diplomaticks of the USSR - the Ministry of International Affairs of the USSR and submitted my doctoral thesis in 1991.

In 1992 me my wife Natalia, daughter Anna (1977) and son Andrey (1983) returned from a foreign posting in Vietnam. At this very time a radical changes had occured in the country. The USSR had fallen apart and in its place appeared the Russian Federation. Completely new people came to power and they had no need for old employees because by the 'kormushka' (trough) you couldn't have strangers - you had to have your own people - your own people would steal off you but they wont sell out.

That was the way I was kicked out of the 'Red Bus of Fortune'. Because of depreciation and other government affairs I very quickly lost all my savings and was left with no job and a wife and two kids to look after. I was literally left on the street with all my highest education degrees and doctorates. The 'Russian Business Era' began. I didn't know the rules of the game any more, but I decided to try a new way of life.

First I got myself in to one shady enterprise where I was conned for $35,000, then in to another one where I was conned for $50,000 - which I originally borrowed from my friends. I barely managed to pay off my debts, I lost everything and in order to survive somehow I started to work as an unofficial, independent minicab driver in my Zjiguli [note: pre-Lada car]. I managed to earn $600-700 per month which was good money at thise times. It went on for two years.

But it was not a satisfactory life for me. Accidentally, via my friends, I managed to get a job in large Russian company, where I started to earn $1200 a month. I worked as a stock manager for floor coverings (linoleum, carpeting,etc) in Europe and the world. My knowledge of languages helped me a great deal. In one year of my work in this company I learned the basic rules of “Russian-Style Business' – it's a separate Academy of Business, and I am very grateful to the people who run the company for that knowledge.

But the most importantly is that while I was working at the company I understood that I also could find my place in this new world, even though I am 50 and I have to start everything from the scratch!!!

Just at that time-in 1996 I was offered to become a representative of a Czech company 'BRICOL' in Russia and I agreed, although I new nothing about glass. The conditions of business were offered rather strangely - 'here is our name, and the rest you do the way you like it - just sell our product on Russian market - and you take all the responsibilities and risks. If it works, good. If not well its your problems then'.

In 1996 you couldn't get loans, basically as it is still now. So me and my wife decided to sell our flat and invested the $30,000 that we got for it into this unfamiliar business of selling souvenir bottles. It really helped me having had experience of working in a Russian company - and literally in a year-and-a-half the turn-over of my company was $1.5 million. I was happily rubbing my hands and building big plans for the future. But in Russia nothing is that simple, and in 1998 I lost it all again, although, thank God I had no debts.

So I had to start it all over again. However, my business contacts remained, the Czech company offered me a commercial loan and slowly I started developing the same business again. Within three years the new economic conditions had ripened in Russia, the prices had stabilised and been regulated. Only then did the business start moving forward, and now the turn-over of my company has reached its former level. There are some good future growth prospects, that is, if our government will not come up with some new tricks to empty our pockets.

"

Marichka Sokulska

"I was born in a an interesting family. I was lucky, and I say this without irony. My father was a poet - during the Soviet era it was predictable what was to happen to him.

When I was 5 years old (in 1980) I remember police had arrived with a search warrant. For Ivan Sokulskii (my father), it meant the start of his second sentence - which was 10 years of strict regime and 5 years of exile. He was accused of anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda - gaining the title of 'extremely dangerous recidivist' which made him very respected in certain circles .

If there ever was a chance for a person to return to freedom after serving term with such title as his, that person had no chance of finding any work at all, let alone to befitting his skills. You would hardly stand a chance to get a job as a sweeper.

My father was even less lucky, they (the state) managed to give him sentences to serve all the way until Perestroika. He was released in the summer1988. Over all, the 13 years of camps took its toll on him and in 1992 Ivan Sokulski died and only on the 40th day after his death [note: the day of release and departure of the soul from the body in Christian religion] as a bad joke, the official statement revoking his status as a political prisoner arrived.

All this time we lived with my mother and communicated in a small circle of friends - those who was not afraid to run into 'problems' with the state, or those who already had them.

We lived in a large industrial city of Dnepropetrovsk. There is a factory there where sputniks (satellites) are designed and put together. So during Soviet times the city was closed to the foreigners. I grew up there then moved Kiev three years ago.

I managed to finish my studies in the History, and worked as a journalist for 'Radio Liberty'. Now I am a correspondent for the Opposition newspaper 'Without Censorship'

All-in-all I just get on with life, paint, read - everything is OK. Sometimes things do get much worse though. For example, Ulyana tells me 'Write me few words, just a couple of words about your self...'. Oh God what can I write about myself. To tell you the truth I know nothing about myself - that's why I find living so fascinating and exiting. But apart from that I am strong and happy, although I feel sometimes like I would like to have some milk to drink.

I like Paradjanov (actor). I hate the cold - my nose gets so cold! Recently I lost my mittins. Has anyone seen them? They are kind of grey, sad-looking, homeless? I have a feeling they may have run away and now travelling around the world. If you see them and they look happy don't catch them, let them travel on.
"

Oleg & Lena

"Me and a young boy that I know are going to open a new record shop together next month.

He is a nice guy – very young, 23, but the conditions for our partnership are very good. His father is giving him the money to invest into his “hobby'. At least it will mean that we wont worry too much about when and how are we going to pay our debt. He is just a boy but his dad got him a nice new Ford, and really spends good money on him. Oh well, I guess it's a good sign, better then him spending cash on a drug habit as so many young people do.

I'm going to buy some more records from London - I have few labels that we get on with really well and they will organise some great stuff for me. I regularly bring DJs from London - they are pretty good. Recently we had a bunch of Finnish DJs this autumn, it was some adventure! It was a mad time! They are great though.

We might have common friends in Berlin, do you know this couple in Berlin? He is also a DJ from Finland - his Girlfriend is from Germany. In fact there are two couples like that in Berlin that I know, all of them are great artists.

'Delay' is a guy I would definitely like to invite to DJ in my club. But there are so many difficulties involved when you are trying to bring high-quality music over to Russia. It is getting better though.

It's really difficult to run a good club in St Petersburg. I think Moscow is easier - there are more culturally diverse people, in St Petersburg the public is slow in responding to good quality sound and new things…..

I was born and grew up in Leningrad. I would say I had a pretty ordinary childhood: school, pioneer camps in the summer, all very similar to most Soviet children. I went to a specialised English-orientated school where I was introduced to English culture at a very early age.

Our class and school had Manchester as our “twin city'. We had photos of class-struggle in the UK: workers and coal-miner strikes on the walls of our classroom. From an early age we would read the “Morning Star' newspaper. I can say that my whole childhood was accompanied with that newspaper. It came out three times a week - we would by it once a week. We also studied Dickens and other classical English literature.

After school I entered the Eastern Studies faculty in the State University in Leningrad. I studied African philology - in particular Ethiopian. Here again my knowledge of English culture helped me a great deal, as Ethiopia and England had a very strong historical connections. Haile Selassie was in Britain during his exile and later, with the help of British army, he took over Adisabeba.

While at university I studied Abharsky, German, Italian and other languages. At school I had visited a 'Public Friendship Club'. After the University I started to travel to Moscow to The Party High School to work as a translator, and help students to deal with practical side of living in Russia. I worked maily with Ethiopian students who were seeking political refuge (in great numbers).

There were many other nationalities studying there and I had many opportunities to engage with people from different cultures. I started to work in a Komsomol School as a translator. It was very difficult job to begin with, as the language skills that were taught at school and university were not very good for practical use.

I lived in the Komsomol School's hall of residence at the time, where I met a girl from Sweden. Soon after, I left Russia to go and live with her in Sweden. That was it. It was meant to be only a short stay but I got involved in different projects of social studies, received grants to work on them and got into a school of sociological studies to study 'Subculture'. That's how I got in to music culture, met the first DJ in Russia and started to import records. I ended up staying in Sweden for eight years.

We set up our first shop in Russia selling records. My interest in Techno, Ambient and all Contemporary directions of music brought me to Germany and then I had an opportunity to go to London and build my contacts there. I work now as a promoter - organise seminars on Contemporary Music, clubs, and dance nights.

I bring DJs to St. Petersburg from all over the world. It reminds me of the first time when Tony Blair came to St. Petersburg for the first time in 1999 when Putin was elected. Tony Blair requested a meeting with the 'Russian Youth' - the British council phoned me. The meeting was due to take place in Hotel Astoria - one of the most expensive hotels in St Petersburg. I only had about two days to organise people to attend the meeting with him, but everyone I phoned bailed out - I guess they were too nervous to go, so I went on my own.

The guards in the hotel had a look at the way I was dressed and refused to let me in under any circumstances but eventually I got through. There also was a groop of teenagers and their tutor who were building some yacht who came to meet him.

So, as I got through the security I walked in to the room and yes, there was Tony Blair sitting there, drinking his tea. When I told him that I bring British DJs over to Russia he said he also DJs. However he couldn't answer what style he plays - Jungle or Ambient so the organisers hurried up to switch to another topic. I did tell him though that if he will brush up on his styles he is welcome to come and play a gig in St Petersburg. So please, do pass on a message to him in London that the invitation is still valid.

"

Lena

"

I was born in Gelendjik, a resort by the Black Sea. I lived there until I was nine then my mother took me to Vologda. After school I came to Saint Petersburg to study at a fashion design school.

"

Dasha Fursei

"Saint Petersburg is a very mysterious city. The actual city has been built on a bog. If you were to look at art as some form of bacteria then the environment here is perfect for its thriving.

Last year I finished my studies at The Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts (fortunately, the Classical Art training has been preserved there). It’s a very bizarre building with a round courtyard – like in a prison. The entire atmosphere of the building reminds me of Kafka’s Castle. It would be enough just to mention the fact that Kokorinov, the architect of the building, hung himself in the Academy on the day of its opening ceremony.

Despite the strict, suppressing atmosphere of our training, I think it was good to undergo such an experience, so one can truly appreciate freedom and vivid creativity. The city itself evokes creativity. Despite the imperialist splendor of palaces and canals it is the atmosphere of decadence that prevails in Saint Petersburg. It may be surprising but here the new phase in the development of art is being born. Recently a new union appeared here, an association of young creative people called “Art Machine”.

Amongst them there are artists, producers, musicians, designers, poets and actors. What united us was the genuine aspiration for creative search, real, flourishing interest in art. We did not want to exploit the old (albeit established) obsolete ideas in order to fit commercial and degraded interests, but strive to create brave and varied experiments in art.

As for myself, I am finishing shooting a film, Autadafe, about the burning of many beautiful women during the inquisition in the middle ages. It deals with issues of beauty, death and cruelty. The premier of the film will be at the club “Par” and will be followed by a fire show.

As a part of other experiments I’m having a show dedicated to Virgin in the Capella. It’s a painting surface of which is covered with a layer of ice. The idea behind it is of a straight-forward combination of a fragile, sublime romance, and hard, brutal, physiology. Well I wish you luck and let you creativity take a free flight, and ”Alles ist möglich” (everything is possible).

Viacheslav Mihailov

Born in 1945, Viacheslav graduated from the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts and was awarded the title of Honourary Artist of Russia. He has taken part in over 200 exhibitions, his works are held in over 40 museums, and in private collections in 16 countries around the world.

I am invited to his studio in the old part of Saint Petersburg. The peeling walls and graffiti'd entrance combine in surreal combinations with the beautiful building designs. Layers of life and age manifest in all shades and tones of fading, flaking paint, submerging the entire city into the magic mist of Dostoevsky novels.

Squeezing into the smallest lift I have ever seen, it squeaks and strains to Mihailov's studio. He is reserved but curious about modelling, and takes me into his world - where the outside beauty and bizarreness of Russia is distilled and concentrated into each work. Textured and moody colours absorb the omnipresent intellectual decadent gloom of Saint Petersburg, occasionally lit up by gold from the cathedral domes against a blue sky, reflected in the canals.

We get straight to work. He comments on the quality of museums in different countries; issues of dealing with gallery representatives; and cultural differences on how artists get to work with the gallery; the aims of an artist and their ambitions; and what issues are the most important in the art and life of an artist.

“With time you get to realise what is important and what is secondary in life.”

When I ask him what is the most important understanding he has come to, he smiles through his thick moustache.

“It is a notion everyone has to come to by themselves - you cannot explain it or pass it down to someone”.