Habibullo-Eugene Kiselev
A Synopsis of my Life
August 16th, 2017, Wednesday, 11:34:45 p.m.
Yekaterinburg, Russia. GMT 05:00
The day of catharsis. Not of the perfect catharsis, but this is better than nothing. This afternoon, at 03:00 I met with Olga Bazhenova, “the best friend of my wonderful youthful student years”, as I wrote in a dedicatory inscription in #27 of the “Voskresenye” (English: “Sunday”) almanac, which I gave her as a present. A selection of my Russian poems was published there. Also, I gave her “I’d like to stop the Earth…” and “A White Raven”, the two books of mine, as presents. We met up in “Pizza Mia”, which is in Karl Liebknecht Street, 16. We talked our lives through for about three hours; we discussed nearly everything concerning our past, present and future. Here, I would like to get onto a detailed account of our past days. To be honest, I hark back to that time with admiration and joy. Okay. Our acquaintance began in 2004, when we first met at the English Conversation Club in the Verkh-Isetsky and Shartashsky branches of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. These branches were located in Rosa Luxembourg Street, 15, 3rd floor. To tell the truth, these two branches do not exist anymore, instead, there is a meetinghouse in Gagarina Street, 53Б, with the Branch #1 there. Also, there is Branch #2 in the Botanichesky subdivision of the Chkalovsky District of Yekaterinburg.
Okay. In those days of yore, I was an active visitor of this Mormon English Club; I was young, youthful, ambitious and strong. Among my “colleagues” were Olga Bazhenova (née Pavlova) (Russian: Ольга Баженова (урождённая Павлова)), Paul Checherin (Russian: Павел Чечерин), Maxim Yudin (Russian: Максим Юдин), Lubov Chuprakova (Russian: Любовь Чупракова), Julia Philippova (née Levina) (Russian: Юлия Филиппова (урождённая Левина)), Natalia Kuchumova (Russian: Наталья Кучумова), Svetlana Babayeva (Russian: Светлана Бабаева),Albina Maximova (Russian: Альбина Максимова), “silent” Alexander Meshchenko (Russian: Александр Мещенко), Alexei Grigoryev (Russian: Алексей Григорьев), Andrew Domber (Russian: Андрей Домбер), Luba Yamskaya (Russian: Люба Ямская), Arcady Oberyukhtin (Russian: Аркадий Оберюхтин), Yuri Presnyakov (Russian: Юрий Пресняков), Raïsa (Russian: Раиса) (last name not known), Tatyana Vakhrusheva (Russian: Татьяна Вахрушева), and of course some others, for I cannot remember all of them. In 2006, this Club has factually ceased to exist. However, this bout of 2004 – 2006 was very emotional and I would even say romantic. Paul, Max, Olga and yours truly were the most active interlocutors during the Club meetings. We talked most of the time, and some “personæ” got cross and literally raged with envy. This, of course, begot conflicts even within our “group”: Arcasha (Arcady Oberyukhtin) got mad with Paul. Paul was mocking and laughing at him and his empty ambitions a great deal. Finally, this resulted in a fight between Arcady and Paul. Following this incident, the English Club was shut down by the decision of the Yekaterinburg Mission President, Gregory Schwitzer in 2006. There was also a second “subgroup” of those, who literally hated Paul, Max and me. Alexei Voytyuk (“Talking Bottom”) and Alexander Kovalenko (“Teletubby” or “Little Toad”) were among them. They caused us a great deal of troubles and disturbances. In particular, Alexander Kovalenko, who was a devout member of the Russian Orthodox Church, was bugging us and the Mormons with his Russian Orthodox stories; he even once turned up with a church candle and offered the LDS members to smell it! In “our” group we were primarily friends, however, like in any coeducational group (if this can be called “education”); some minor or even major infatuations took place. For example, Lubov Chuprakova, Svetlana Babayeva and, later, Albina vied with each other for the love of “silent” Alex. To be honest, I am not very well aware of this love affair. I can also say that the two of Alexander Kovalenko and Svetlana Babayeva had a “sad” love story. Frankly speaking, I have never heard any details of this affair; I just saw Alexander and Svetlana sitting together on the porch of the building, where our Conversation Club meetings were taking place. It was just once, as far as I remember. As I was young at that time, I was full of emotions, not like now. I, too, was infatuated with Luba Yamskaya, a young singer, composer and poetess, who was a 4th year student of the Ural State Mussorgsky Conservatoire in those days. She studied to become a conductor. Along with all her depravity and immorality, it was she, yea; it was she, who inspired me to start writing poetry and doing literary translations seriously. Poems like “To my Muse”, “Your Love” or “A Farewell” were dedicated or addressed to Luba Yamskaya.
She loves men. I even suppose, she collects them like pictures, season tickets, matchboxes or stamps. So, Luba was flirting with and making eyes at nearly all unmarried men in our Club, including Alexander Kovalenko, Yuri Presnyakov, Andrew Domber and Arcady Oberyukhtin. The latter even imagined her to be his future wife. She was just playing. Apropos: aforementioned Yuri Presnyakov was a “genius of mystification”, as I have called him. Olga Bazhenova gave him a sobriquet “Yura-ya-takaya-dura” (English: “Yura, I’m such a foolish girl”). That is a line from the lyrics of one famous Russian pop-song. The name Yura is a diminutive of Yuri. He lisped slightly when speaking. Yuri was a student of the Ural State Pedagogical University, Department of Studies of Culture and Art History and was of the same age as I. He would often walk around the campus accompanied by three or four girls, his suite. Really, it is difficult to not be a lady-killer in a Russian teachers’ training college. The most exciting thing was that he himself spread a false report, that he was a postgraduate student of the Institute of Foreign Languages and was 24 years old! He was just 20 in those days.
Okay. Luba and I went to cafés and coffee shops together; we also walked in the moonlight between the two bridges, along the Iset River, part of which is situated between the Yekaterinburg circus in Kuybysheva Street and a monument to Malyshev in the street of the same name. Apart from that, we composed and sent to each other rhymed SMS-messages, for example, she wrote to me one frosty evening:
I just want to say ‘hello’ in this wintry night,
Through the dust of soft snowflakes I send a glowing smile.
Yet another one:
We walked slowly hand in hand,
Through the gloves I felt your warmth,
Hardly knowing who you were,
I did let you in my thoughts.
In that first October frost
This short poem we composed.
Here I put a friendly smile
And left you just for a while.
I wrote to her on the 2006 New Year’s night:
New Year is coming, and everyone
Is celebrating and having fun!
Garlands are shining and fireworks
Are so exciting: New Year rocks!
Amid this noisy shouting crew
“Happy New Year!” – I write to you
And wish you always be smart and good,
And no troubles and brightest mood!
Of course, this can hardly be called poetry: no fixed meter, awkward rhymes, poor imagery etc., however, this was emotional and sincere, at least on my part. All of that looked sort of romantic, but she never wanted romance. She coquetted with other men freely and with ease. I learned this lesson from her.
Once, at the regular meeting of our English Club I was sitting like a sultan surrounded by Albina on the right, Tatyana Vakhrusheva on the left and Raïsa somewhere behind me. Luba was with her friend, the only female friend of hers, whose name was Maria. Luba stared at me with her alluring, almost hypnotic glance, with which started our acquaintance. However, I was little interested in her at that time. Regardless of all that, I am more than convinced that “I’d Like to Stop the Earth…”or “A White Raven” would never have come into existence but for Luba.
As to our friendship with Olga Bazhenova, it has always been, remains and I am sure will remain to be pure friendship. A friendship between a man and a woman, which many people believe does not exist.
Okay. During our friendly conversation at “Pizza Mia”, Olga told me about the present-day life of some heroes of our youth, which flew away, leaving pure snow traces, raising transparent snow fog, like a Russian troika.
Max Yudin got married. He has a daughter named Milena, who has turned 1 this February. Paul Cheherin found a job in the USA and moved there. Arcady Oberyukhtin moved to Saint Petersburg, where he is currently working, got married, changed his last name to Zburzinski became a father of a daughter named Greta and got divorced. Lubov Chuprakova and Natalia Kuchumova are still single. “Silent” Alexander Meshchenko got married and now he has a little son. Julia Philippova lives with her husband as before. Tatyana Vakhrusheva got married, changed her last name to Shcheklehina (Russian: Щеклеина), gave birth to a son and got divorced, too. Yuri Presnyakov is said to have moved abroad. This may certainly be a canard, for Yuri likes spreading false rumors about himself. Alexei Grigoryev is currently working in Moscow. I am not sure about his current marital status. Olga Bazhenova gave birth to a second child, a boy whose name is Paul.
I told Olga about my depressions and concerns. She said, “You just have to try, try, and all will come about”. She definitely has a rare gift of consolation, and I am grateful to her.
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