Sergey Vavilychev (Sergey Yevgenyevich Vavilychev, born March 15, 1958, in the selo of Chernyshevo, Kadyisky District, Kostroma Region) — a Nizhny Novgorod literary figure, author of stories about animals and nature, autobiographical poetry, traveler, combat veteran of Chechnya, retired lieutenant colonel of the internal troops, and deputy of the Zemstvo Assembly of Volodarsky Municipal District, Nizhny Novgorod Region, for the 2010–2015 term [1][2].
Home Country
The selo of Chernyshevo, where Vavilychev was born, stands in a forested corner of Kostroma Region, far from major roads: on three sides it is surrounded by forest stretching for dozens of kilometers, and it is cut off from "greater civilization" by the Volga, the Unzha, the Nyomda, and the Zhelvata rivers. Eight kilometers from the selo, on the Nyomda, stands a tourist camp frequented by Nizhny Novgorod residents, and another ten kilometers beyond, on the Volga bank, lies the selo of Zavrazhye, birthplace of film director Andrei Tarkovsky [1].
Chernyshevo itself has a long history: in the 19th century it was the center of its own Chernyshevskaya volost (rural administrative district) and bore the secondary name of Rameshki; a wooden Transfiguration Church had stood here since 1627, and a stone one was built in 1823. The estate was owned by P. I. Petrov, a veteran of the War of 1812 who later served in the Caucasus; his son Arkady Pavlovich in 1847 staged the first Russian production of Lermontov's "Masquerade" at the Galich theater, and in one of the estate's rooms hung a drawing entitled "View of the City of Tiflis" by Lermontov himself, given to Petrov by the poet's grandmother [5].
These forests became the setting for most of Vavilychev's stories [1].
What prompted me to take up the pen were the unusual stories that happened to me, my relatives, or my acquaintances. All the stories are true, and the epicenter of most events is the forests surrounding my homeland — the selo of Chernyshevo in Kadyisky District, Kostroma Region. On three sides, this selo is surrounded by forest stretching for dozens of kilometers, and it is also set apart from greater civilization by the Volga, Unzha, Nyomda, and Zhelvata rivers. This is perhaps one of the most deeply forested corners of European Russia, which is why the wildlife there is so diverse.
Education, Work, and Service
Vavilychev finished school at seventeen and was already giving friends his translations from German at that age. He received his higher education at the Gorky Polytechnic Institute, specializing in electrical engineering; he graduated at twenty-two, and shortly before that had married — in 1980. A son, Andrei, was born to the family soon after [1].
After university, he worked in state oversight bodies, then as a foreman at the Start plant. From there he went on to serve as an officer; the military unit in which he served was stationed in Sovetsky District of Nizhny Novgorod, near the Palace of Sport. He considered the district his own: his parents, brother, and friends all lived there, and it was from there that his family had moved to Verkhniye Pechyory [1].
His final years of service fell during the Chechen conflict: in total he spent around four years there and served as commandant of a federal checkpoint. He completed his service just before retirement with the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Internal Troops [1].
He had been involved in sport since youth: he ran long distances and, by his own account, had stood on the podium at all-Russian competitions, and was second in the region in sambo. He kept daily records of pages read and kilometers run, following the example of Rakhmetov from Chernyshevsky's novel What Is to Be Done?, which he had been captivated by as a teenager [1].
| Award | Type |
|---|---|
| Jubilee Medal "70 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" [1] | state award of the USSR |
| Medal of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia "For Distinguished Service" [1] | departmental award |
| Personalized Cold Steel Weapon [1] | honorary weapon, awarded for service by the post commandant |
| Badge "Combat Veteran" (Chechen campaign) [1] | departmental badge |
Who is Vavilychev Sergey? / I am one of the liveliest of men. / My family is respectable, / And my biography is excellent. / Born in 1958 / And I have seen much in my time. / After four years in Chechnya I did not break, / As I was pure in soul, so I remained.
Deputy of the Zemsky Sobraniye
In 2010, Vavilyчev was elected a deputy of the Zemsky Assembly of Volodarsky Municipal District on the list of the Nizhny Novgorod regional branch of the LDPR — he served as the branch's coordinator and head of campaigning, and his deputy questionnaire listed him as a retired military officer working on a non-permanent basis [1][2].
In the 2010–2015 assembly session, he chaired the standing commission on local self-government, inter-municipal cooperation, and the regulations of the Zemsky Assembly, and was a member of the commission on the district's economic development, entrepreneurship, transport, housing and utilities, and communications [3].
The Zemsky Assembly held its sessions in Volodarsk; his deputy reception office operated on Naberezhnaya Street [6]. In the assembly elected in September 2015, Vavіlychev was no longer among the deputies [4].
- 2010–2015 session: deputy by LDPR party list, working on a non-permanent basis [2]
- Chairman of the standing commission on local self-government, inter-municipal cooperation, and regulations [3]
- Member of the standing commission on the district's economic development, entrepreneurship, transport, housing and utilities, and communications [3]
"Tales of Animals"
The book Tales of Animals was published in 2010 at the Volodarsk printing house in a print run of 300 copies. Its publication was assisted by the head of local self-government — Chairman of the Zemsky Assembly of Volodarsky District V. A. Opolchentsev, the head of the district administration S. V. Bakhtin, and other residents of the district. The author himself described the book as "fragments of biography" revealed through his relationship with the surrounding natural world [1].
The stories draw on his Kostroma childhood and student holidays: "Tragedy by the Haystack," about a secondary-school boy who, in a night field, hoisted his girlfriend to the top of a haystack and was killed by a wolf pack while she lost her mind afterwards; "Tobik and the Bear," about a mongrel that hurled itself at a bear near Semechkovo Marsh while its owner was picking cranberries; "The Glade of Snakes," about a strawberry glade near Derbenyovsky Dol where five vipers were basking together under a single pine tree; and "The Boar," about a forest cleared of milk-cap mushrooms in the upper reaches of the Kondomka, and a beast that crashed into the thicket three paces from a man [1].
Vavіlychev carried his books with him wherever he went: in a 2011 photograph he is shown standing with them on Minin Square.
| Year | Title | Edition |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | "Stories About Animals" | printing house of sole proprietor Kurlykov V. N., Volodarsk, 300 copies [1] |
a huge brown bear, growling menacingly, swatted its powerful paw at a little dog that kept pressing in on it
Poetry
Vavilychev has been writing poetry since the age of fifteen. His poems are almost always narrative in character: biography, family, military service, blood donation, the history of the country — all rendered in rhyming lines. He has read them on television, and published his stories in the newspaper Nizhny Novgorod Pravda [1].
He became a blood donor in 1996 and donates blood and plasma without compensation; the "Hymn to the Donor" he wrote was displayed on a notice board at the regional blood transfusion station [1].
A separate cycle of poems, dated 2006, is devoted to his family: his father's arrest, after which the family home was confiscated and the family was left without a place to live, and his father's acquittal two years later; his father's professional path — a dissertation defense derailed after his academic supervisor fell from favor, work in the veterinary inspectorate, a posting to Somalia, the [1] Volga car purchased afterward, and the eventual defense of his candidate's degree already in Nizhny Novgorod, followed by the title of associate professor; and finally, the relatives who came to settle in Nizhny Novgorod. Another poem speaks of a late uncle who for many years served as first deputy chairman of the district executive committee of Sovetsky District.
In his 2005 poems about Russia, Vavilychev writes of it as a community of peoples with different languages and faiths, argues that small peoples are strong only when united, compares the structures of Russia and the United States, explains the dissolution of the Soviet Union by the right of republics to secede as enshrined in the union constitution, and concludes that the people will find a way forward and come to live happily.
Russia — a community of peoples / With different tongue and different faith. / And with a freedom unbridled, / Beyond the measure of any scale.
His father was acquitted two years on. / They ruled he bore no blame. / But they'd spat upon his very soul, / So no man was his brother again.
Chechnya in Verse and Notes
Vavilychev wrote about his service with restraint. One poem describes a nighttime shelling of a temporary deployment post in early autumn: a shell hit the sleeping quarters, one of the soldiers lost his arm, the shooter disappeared behind a residential building — and the unit, as the poem states, chose not to fire on civilian homes.
A separate entry concerns stray yard dogs that had attached themselves to the unit: they could scent strangers from two hundred meters away and would raise a bark, unfailingly telling friend from foe — for which they were fed scraps and kept close.
Everything boiled within us, / But the enemy's provocation came to nothing. / The unit merely clenched its teeth, / But would not fire on civilian homes.
I want to say something special about the dogs — ordinary yard mutts. At night, when our forces were most vulnerable, they more than once prevented possible surprise attacks, picking up the scent of strangers from as far as two hundred meters away and breaking into a furious bark. What was remarkable was that the dogs could clearly tell friend from foe, even if a person was appearing in the unit for the very first time.
Sources
- web.archive.org — "People of Nizhny Novgorod Region" — a local history website about Nizhny Novgorod residents (archive)
- web.archive.org — Official website of Volodarsky Municipal District — Deputies of the Zemsky Assembly, 2010–2015 (archive)
- web.archive.org — Official website of Volodarsky Municipal District — Standing Committees of the Zemsky Assembly, 2010–2015 (archive)
- web.archive.org — Official website of Volodarsky Municipal District — Deputies of the Zemsky Assembly from September 2015 (archive)
- kostromka.ru — D. F. Belorukov. "Villages, Selos, and Towns of the Kostroma Region" — Chernyshevsky Rural Council of Kadyisky District (archive)
- web.archive.org — Official website of Volodarsky Municipal District — Zemsky Assembly: structure and public reception of deputies (archive)