From Blagoveshchensk to Velikoknyazevka it is a little more than 100 kilometers, but in the village with the princely name it is 10 degrees colder than in the regional center. The frost is thirty degrees and the piercing breeze chills to the bones, and three-year-old Nadya Likhovets cheerfully stomps on the ice of the local bay. Rosy-cheeked, black-eyed, independent.
– Nadyushka is not cold, she’s doing great. My husband and I came and filled our favorite slide with her, we’re getting ready for the holiday,” explains Ekaterina Likhovets, the girl’s mother.
The slide in Velikoknyazevka turned out to be simply beautiful. Its basis was a high hillock separating the bay of the Zeya River from Embankment Street. The height of winter joy turned out to be 9 meters, and the length was as much as 97 meters. This year, the villagers made it two lanes, each lane more than a meter wide. Smooth as glass, with comfortable steps and neat sides. Nearby is a large, immaculate ice skating rink. In the middle of which a Christmas tree awaits its festive attire.
Photo: Alexander Yaroshenko/RG
“Today we will fill the hill until the evening, tomorrow we will hang garlands and decorate the Christmas tree,” Nikolai Gavrilenko shares his holiday plans.
In Velikoknyazevka, many people call Nikolai Alexandrovich “the good wizard.” He started filling the winter hill twenty years ago.
– I live nearby, and in Soviet times we rode from this hill in the winter as boys. I decided to refine it a little, and that’s how the story of our slide began,” explains the rural wizard.
He will turn 60 next year, his whole life has been Velikoknyazevka. His mother gave birth to him here – in a rural hospital, he finished school, served his military service, and returned to his native village. He got married and worked as a carpenter on a collective farm; when the collective farm sank into oblivion, he went to work as a labor teacher at a school. For fifteen years he sowed good and eternal things, taught children skills.
Nikolai Gavrilenko spent 15 long years building a house – he built it with his own hands. The house turned out like something out of a fairy tale: with a half-hipped roof, an attic, carved platbands, bright, painted, cheerful.
Photo: Alexander Yaroshenko/RG
“I’m like my father, more in carpentry,” Nikolai says in a bass voice.
His slide quickly became a favorite place of joy and fun. People began to offer their help in construction, pouring and arrangement. Today, the whole world is pouring pressure on the construction of a winter attraction.
The villagers created a special group on social networks: they called out and collected money for the people’s entertainment. We bought 100 meters of multi-colored garland, buckets, shovels, and festive tinsel.
Over the course of 20 years, the slide in Velikoknyazevka became known throughout the Amur region. People from all over the region come to enjoy a ride on its icy side, often the queue of people stretching all the way to the outskirts.
– One day, at about three in the morning, people arrived in cars from Blagoveshchensk. I saw the headlights, left the house, and turned on the garlands for them. It warmed my soul when I looked at their joy,” Nikolai Alexandrovich smiles.
Several years ago they tried to close the popular slide. The entire village came to her defense. Today this slide is officially called an attraction; it has passed state certification and meets all safety standards.
In twenty years of her winter life there was not a single emergency. People behave in a disciplined manner, do not litter, destroy or break anything.
“There are also people who are drunk, but there is always only fun and laughter here,” the villagers note.
Photo: Alexander Yaroshenko/RG
Natalya Savelyeva came to Velikoknyazevka from Ulan-Ude especially for the New Year holidays.
– This is my homeland, my mother lives here, my sister will come from Vladivostok soon. After the chime, we will all go for a ride on the hill. This is already a tradition. We are all going to see our mother and our favorite hill for the New Year,” says Natalya.
The locals were not lazy – they measured the speed of skating on a hundred-meter miracle: people on ice skates rush at speeds of up to 42 kilometers per hour. Faster than driving on a rural road.
Its main creator, Nikolai Aleksandrovich Gavrilenko, also rides down the slide.
– I have a wooden sled, I lie down on it, my granddaughter sits on me and off we go. It’s already whistling in my ears!” my interlocutor laughs.
In a few days, the people’s hill in the village of Velikoknyazevka will become crowded, fun, funny and free. People from surrounding villages and towns will come here. Russian national entertainment will live here until spring.
Happy New Year! Have an easy descent everyone.
Photo: Alexander Yaroshenko/RG
Source: rg.ru
