Dmitrii Shilov: from bankput to millionaire

Pressure and influence #1997

The Avenue named after the newspaper “Krasnoyarskiy rabochiy” (or just “Krasrab”) stretches along the right bank of the Yenisei putting all surrounding space on itself. It starts at the man-made volcanoes – always smoking pipes of Krasnoyarsk thermo electric power station, goes through the plant “Krastsvetmet”, school No. 15, Krasmash plant and Siberian aerospace Academy to the University of non-ferrous metals and gold. After the university, you can see the Theatre of a Young Spectator, the circus, the cinema “Epicentre” (former “Jubilee”) and the end of the Avenue is Predmostnaya Square. According to the builders’ project, a resident of the right Bank of Krasnoyarsk could be born, learn, work and have a rest in this one single street. The Registry office, the Art Gallery, the cinema ‘Rodina (Motherland)” and the shopping centre “Krasnoyarie” were a successful addition to “Krasrab”. There was not only a cemetery but if you looked for it thoroughly, you’d find one. (Schools change their numbers, universities change their names, I left those ones that relate to my and Mitya’s times).

In the nineties and even in the early 2000s hookers were standing along the Avenue in the evenings, who did not know the expression “girls with low social responsibility.” So “Krasrab” not only worked but also rested. Then the times changed, girls gave up the oldest profession of a prostitute, became reasonable and everybody got married to princes. But that’s not certain.

The famous” Tsvetmet – the Krasnoyarsk university of non-ferrous metals and gold is traditionally considered the main University, preparing geologists, metallurgists and economists for production. The results of school examinations of school No. 15 students could be taken as entrance exams, and therefore in September 1997 the future specialist in the field of metal processing by pressure Dmitry Shilov was standing at the entrance to Tsvetmet and holding his student’s card in his hands.

On the one hand, this piece of paper in a blue cover protected him from service in the army and was necessary for any school leavers who respected themselves, but on the other hand, -metal processing by pressure was a product of Mitya’s parents influence and the first-year student wasn’t interested in it at all. But Mitya didn’t want to give up his studies, after all, according to a famous joke, it’s better to dream for five years to pass the exam at the Siberian University, than to admire the Caucasus for two years in the company of the same young tourists in the same clothes…

First of all, Mitya was impressed by people from the university. All informal youth of the working quarters of Krasnoyarsk was hanging out in the corridors and classrooms The desks were decorated with inscriptions like “If you’re not a homosexual, draw railcar another on” – there was a picture of a steam locomotive to this inscription.

“Every lector has in ass one vector”, “the button to switch off the lecturer” – and the button was drawn there. “If you have no mind-go to Tsvetmet”, " no Mind-go to the Teacher Training University”, “No mind-go to medical university” … If to believe the inscriptions, the absence of mind opened a wide prospects for life for a future student. There were also the lines about love on the desks: “Better fuck the gnome in booty then a girl from ec. faculty” Reading these lines, Mitya, for some reason, felt sorry for the gnomes because they were not in a better position.” After the kind and creative atmosphere of the school, it seemed to Mitya that he had appeared in a prison for difficult teenagers. Many students came to Krasnoyarsk from other towns of the region, and finally getting rid of parental supervision, behaved as they could. Mitya didn’t really want to go to studies but there was nowhere to go.

There was a peeling off bench not far from the main entrance to the university building. Looking at the layer of husks, cigarette butts and broken glass around benches, one could say that a lot of students study all day long exactly here. Mitya wanted to pass by the informal guy sitting alone, but the guy said:

– Hey, guy, are you a fresher?

– Yes!

“What’s your name?”

– Mitya.

I’m Spider. Mitya, do you have cigarettes?

“No, I don’t smoke.”

“And what about beer?”

– No.

Well, at least one and half thousand roubles for a bus?

– I have.

“Well, get away from here, Mitya!

“Why?”

– Well, I don’t need you – no cigarettes, no beer. My head hurts, I do want to smoke…

Spider laughed a little bit strangely and Mitya suddenly smiled back. He was dressed from head to toe in black – a biker jacket, jeans, heavy boots, and a faded t-shirt with a silly inscription, but Mitya liked him for some reason. Spider with his jokes was better than a pack of pals from Cheryomushki and Pashenniy, and the majority of them were the first year students. In five years these guys will occupy the checkpoints of Krasnoyarsk plants every morning, and now the children of the working quarters are on their duty at the studies which they don’t like. Almost every student had a plastic bottle of beer Koupecheskoe in the bag between books. This beer from the legendary brewery “PiKra” was cheap and that’s why it was drunk in enormous amounts. It got to the point where beer was allowed to be sold in a cafe inside the University, and not only in Tsvetmet, but also in the Polytechnic and even in the State University. It was not just banal greed, but also a subtle understanding of the psychology of the student —the ability to hangover quickly and effectively increased attendance of morning lectures. Vicious practice of making students drunkards at the place of study was stopped in Krasnoyarsk only in the twenty-first century. (I hope so.) There must be some advantages of a bright future, such as the lack of light beer…

Meanwhile, his friend sat down next to Spider -an informal guy from the youth hostel Cabbage, with red hair and eternally swollen after yesterday’s guy who came from far away district center to study environmental engineering. His nickname Cabbage got because of the jars of sauerkraut that his mum sent to her son every week from the village. The son would prefer vodka or money, but the mother believed that the cabbage was good, and the whole hostel believed that sauerkraut was quite good even with illegal “Moskovskaya” vodka at 18 thousand roubles for half a litre. Cabbage wore an earring in his ear, a t – shirt with a portrait of Kurt Cobain on his fat body and knew how to play the old guitar the songs of Tsoi and Egor Letov. Sometimes he was beaten for his earring and t-shirt and sometimes he was not beaten for Tsoi and Letov. Cabbage had a difficult but interesting life.

The boys – looking at a couple of “excellent students’– are you going to pass your exams? asked Mitya,

– Exams? —grinned Spider – well, mother will send money to Cabbage and I will unload wagons, if you don’t lend me a million roubles…

A million?! – Mitya was surprised,

– “Of course! Do you think that I will buy satisfactory marks for myself? I’m a smart intelligent young man, I want to be an excellent student!

– How will you work with such a diploma?

– Work? smiled the Spider sadly, – to sell the jackets at the market, you don’t need a diploma. We’re all getting the same profession here, a legal deviationist from the army.

– We are going to be officers after the University —said Cabbage. – I saw the guys in the yard behind the building were sudying to turn the cannon.

– Which way?”

“Over there, towards the theater of a young spectator.”

– Well, “Motherland” is not a good idea to shoot! – meaning the cinema, Spider joked.

And what about you, Mitya, which troops are you going to?

No, I’m not going to the army, – said Mitya, – I am an athlete, hockey player, I play in “Yenisey”.

– You will be taken anyway – continued Cabbage, to Sport company! We will

turn a cannon towards you, and you will run away zigzags.

“And jokes are not your strong side, Cabbage,” – thought Mitya. But he said aloud:

– OK, you are interesting guys, but I have to go, I need to come into Dean’s office.

“Do you know what they call the Dean’s office?”

– How?

– Alco-deanery. So much cognac was brought there to get a credit, it’s equal to Alco-deanery for one session!

– I’ll kick the door open and tell them the joke.”

– Come on, but from the University you will have to go to military registration and enlistment office. The Dean’s office doesn’t like to joke.

– Listen, Mitya, – Spider became excited, – let’s go to “Glass” with us today? It’s fun and port “Golden” is always there. We will sit and play the guitar “All goes according to plan”, and then take a leak with port hospitable corners and entrances of our favourite city. Cultural rest, I promise you!

“Glass” was called the square in the center of Krasnoyarsk, opposite the store “Detsky Mir”. For many years it has been the most” informal” place of the city with guitars, cigarettes and those glasses with vodka and port. And nowadays there you can meet fans to remember the good old days, but they are not so young. And the square rooted with monuments of 2000s and benches of 2010th. Comfort – Letov and port will be not actual.

– No, guys, if I start with a glass, I won’t even have a bottle! Mitya joked and went to the entrance of the University where the student cards were checked by strict old women… And Spider and Cabbage turned out to be normal guys, though informal. All people are good if you get to know them better.

#2011

Many years later, Mitya learned from a casual conversation that Spider gradually switched from alcohol to drugs and died in intensive care somewhere in the middle of 2000s, and Cabbage came back to his Ust-Zapinda, took out his earring, changed his vest with Cobain into the T-shirt with Putin and became someone like the Head of the district. Alcohol – in fact, is the same as casino, it is necessary to play, but not flirting… On the other hand, the ability to drink hard with someone helped to make not the only career, including in Krasnoyarsk. You just need to know who to drink with and how much. In this case, Dmitrii Shilov was no longer an applicant, but a Professor.

#1997

There was no Dean in the office, so Mitya switched on his natural charm which could be taken for arrogance by mistake, and broke into the Dean’s assistance office. He was an ordinary middle-aged man whose baldness and belly participated in the competition “who will grow faster.” And in this fundamental dispute there was a tendency of double championship.

Hello Evgeny Yurievich, I am Mitya Shilov, a first year student.

– Hello. What’s your question?

– I play sports, I play hockey with a ball in “Yenisei”.

– Congratulations!

– Thank you. I’d like to say that because of my hard trainings I don’t have time to attend classes at the University.

Here Mitya coloured the truth, because the training schedule did not allow him to attend any classes at all.

– What can I do for you?”

– Maybe you have some individual training programs for athletes or correspondence tuition?

– Dmitrii…

– Mitya.

– Mitya. It isn’t the national hockey League, this is the nonferrous metals University.

– So I’m also fighting for gold, “Yenisei” is the champion…

– Our students are taught to fight for gold in the factory, carrying out the plan.

– Are there any options?”

“Of course there are! If you do not get into “Krastsvetmet”, you will go to KrAZ and,

instead of fighting for gold, you will fight for aluminum.

– Oh.…

– Yes, so choose-either to study and in five years to get a good job, or sport. There’s no other way.

“Thank you, good-bye.”

– Goodbye!

If Mitya’s studies began with a student card, they ended with another document- a credit card. In September all students got credit cards, where the scholarship was transferred. A month later Mitya stopped going to classes, and three months later the scholarship stopped coming to the card. The former student Dmitrii Shilov realized that his absence at the lectures was noticed. He did not appear at the University of non-ferrous metals any more. Hockey with a ball became a matter of life for Mitya at that time.

#2011

Mitya always easily communicated not only with people of his age, but also with people much older than himself. From the age of 18, as soon as it became possible to drink, he easily communicated with adult men as with his friends. It was possible thanks to joint training of the young with the elderly and thanks to quite simple customs of Siberian sport. And Dmitrii Shilov had been doing sports since he was 5 years old, and at first it was… figure skating. In the end, he didn’t become the Siberian Evgeny Plushenko, at the age of 7 Mitya began to play hockey with a ball which was loved by most people in Krasnoyarsk, and had been playing for 14 years.

Stadium “Yenisei” #1998

Evening training on the ice of the stadium “Yenisei” ended, and the field players one by one skated to the cloak room. This element was always carried out quickly and accurately without additional commands of the head coach. By that time Mitya had moved from the outfield players into goalkeepers —the guys with the best skating ran to attack, and Dmitrii Shilov continued his father’s work, being the only player of the team without a stick. And there was no discrimination – in hockey a goalkeeper was not supposed to have a stick. Against high-speed forwards, a goalkeeper of Russian hockey has only sleight of hand, reaction and task to hit the ball with any part of the body.

– Hey, guy! – Mitya was called by a hockey player of a medium height in his mid twenties, – do not run into the cloak room, stand up at the gates gates, I want to work through my strikes.

– “Well, come on,” Mmitya agreed, “practice will never harm.”

– “Learn, lad, while I am alive!” – an experienced striker said and with careless movements of his stick he lined up a straight row of balls on the ice, —

come on, catch, don’t shame the name!

“We’ll see who shames himself here,” Mitya chuckled to himself. In “two-way” where fast movement is very important, Mitya didn’t remember that guy. But while training he hit hard and as the gates in hockey are small, orange “cannonballs” flew from this “gun” mostly into a goalkeeper. Shoulders, arms, legs were hurt, a couple of times they flew into the stomach. Finally, the bombardier got tired and waved to Mitya, saying, “let’s go!”, moved into the cloak room. And then, feeling under the sweater several fresh bruises, Mitya could not keep silence:

– Why are you hitting so hard?

– Hard? the sniper took off his helmet, his red hair was wet. – It was I who pitied you!

– OK, next time you will stand at the gate, and I’ll hit.

– All right. Hey, how old are you?

– — Eighteen.

– Hey, a grown man! Let’s go there and drink with the guys after a long and hard training.

– Come on. What’s your name?”

– — Vladilen.

– — Vladimir?

– “Not Vladimir, but Vladilen. From Vladimir Lenin.

– I’m Mitya.

– I know! You’re the son of Sergey Ivanovich, I remember when you were young. I could burst into tears from emotion, but it’s cold, and all the tears have gone out through sweat.

– Well, let’s restore the water balance!

– — Well, vodka is 60 percent of water!

Never before the players have changed their clothes after training so quickly and purposefully… After all, sport is a big school of life. And the evening continued exactly the same way, as many years later many joint evenings will be held with the participation of Dmitrii Shilov and Vladilen Vyazhevich.

Mitya, are you sure that you will be a goalkeeper?

– Sure.

– That’s a boy! Now look, don’t switch!

– “For what?”

– The forward. I don’t want any competition.

Big sport #2001

People leave big sport in different ways. Mitya honestly played several seasons in Krasnoyarsk, Chita and Bratsk, but sports career was not long. He left for Chita as the third goalkeeper, eventually he became the first one, and the team moved from the first League into the highest. It would seem to be a success, but a new coach came and Mitya had to move to Bratsk. And again endless trips around Siberian towns, games, again exit from the first League into the highest… A full feeling of deja vu without much development. And he would like to play in “Yenisei”, in his hometown, in the native district, at the native stadium. But dreams still didn’t come true, and then there were injuries and eternal companion of provincial athletes – alcohol Sport season is an endless sequence of repeated events which were boring for Mitya by the beginning of the third year. There was a chance to meet a legendary coach of “Yenisei” Sergei LOMANOV and instead of March, Mitya appeared at the stadium by May, but nobody forgives such delays… Why was it delayed until May? Because the young athlete had many friends. While he was drinking with friends, two months passed.

So, Mitya became a veteran of the sport only at the age of 21. On the one hand, it was a great failure, but many years later Mitya said that it was better to finish sport career when you were young when you could change your life and get another profession. Retired from the sport men at the age of 35 men, as a rule, do not know how to do anything else, and they work as children’s coaches for a pittance. The great country pays great athletes in the past not great money. Or do you consider that they go to different deputies from big prospects?

Dmitrii Shilov went away from hockey but by his own admission, he had dreams about the great Sergey LOMANOV for another two years. He looked skeptically and said directly: “I don’t need you in May. I needed you in March, Mitya!” Did Sergey Lomanov dream of Mitya? The history doesn’t say about it.

But professional sport gave Mitya the opportunity to pay military duty to the Motherland in the sports company. He served not as “a clerk in the staff” of course, but not in dangerous places. A soldier-athlete in Chita was given 2600 roubles a month, it’s about $ 100 at the exchange rate of that time. But liter of local beer cost 18 roubles… so you can calculate how many vitamins and minerals the body of a young soldier athlete could get from popular beverage. And in sport Mitya gained priceless experience of communication in the men’s team, experience that one can get only in the barracks, in the bath, at hard work and in the sports cloak room. There, as in the song of Ivan Dorn, you shouldn’t be shy. There where all things are called by their names and to say nothing in response to a verbal attack is the same as a shame. A schoolchild, as they say, does not understand.

#2011

Most people sink to the financial bottom because they do not want to work and believe that the cherished money should fall into their pocket suddenly and immediately. Especially, there was an example of their parents and grandparents in front of children of 1990s. People who gave their lives to the country retired almost beggars, and their capital consisted mainly of pleasant memories about Soviet youth and all sorts of sores.

The relationship of a Man and Work in Russia can be a subject for a long and careful study. “Wherever you work, but not to work”, “Work loves fools” – our people in their attitude to work decided long ago. Now almost everybody dreams to be top managers, oligarches or deputies, it means that young people are interested, first of all, in participation in the process of distribution of wealth, rather than participation in the process of making it. But all in vain. Work, of course, loves fools but it gives these fools very much with love. The knowledge of life, understanding of what you can do, the ability to take the burden on yourself not to fall down while walking. That is what you can learn only in practice. Mitya had a lot of working practice in his life. And it did not stop – who has been making ice rinks for children with his own hands for many years in the morning? (Here about “poured” the audience of the video blog will joke, but with a sense of humor.)