CONTENTS

   Introduction
   Chapter 1. My dad: Fomenko Timofey Grigorievich (1910-1992). Fragments of his memoirs "At the Foothills". The history of my family.
   Chapter 2. My mother: Fomenko (Markova) Valentina Polikarpovna (1918-2009). Fragments of her “Memoirs”.
   Chapter 3. And now Anatoly Fomenko tells.
   Appendix 1. BRIEF HISTORY OF THE MUSIC CLUB "VEAF-TOPAZ" MEHMAT MSU.
   Appendix 2. Personnel of the RAS commission on combating pseudoscience.

Chapter 1.
MY DAD: FOMENKO TIMOFEY GRIGORIEVICH (1910-1992).
FRAGMENTS OF HIS MEMORIES “AT THE FOOTSTEEN”. HISTORY OF MY FAMILY.

1. MY ANCESTORS ON MY FATHER'S OWN ARE COSSACKS FROM ZAPORIZHIE SECH.

My father's memoirs are written in good and clear language, which generally corresponds to his style of thinking. Talking about his family and his life, the father communicates a lot of valuable and unique things about those distant times. My father lived an exceptionally rich and difficult life, being caught up in the turbulence of the main Russian events of the 20th century. The volume of his book is large - 490 pages.

I’ll start by giving a diagram of our family on our father’s side: a short diagram in Fig. 1.1 and a complete diagram in Fig. 1.2. In this first chapter, I will use brief information from the Memoirs of Timofey Grigorievich.

Fig.1.1. Rod T.G. Fomenko, brief diagram. Compiled by T.G. Fomenko.

Fig. 1.2. Rod T.G. Fomenko, complete diagram. Compiled by T.G. Fomenko and supplemented by me.

Our family descended from the Zaporozhye Cossacks, believed to be direct descendants of the warlike Scythians, Fig. 1.3. In the 18th century, Zaporozhye Cossacks controlled a significant part of the southern borders of Russia. Cossack fighting traditions have always been preserved, in particular, by the Zaporozhye Sich. They were a brave, resourceful and very cheerful people.

Fig. 1.3. Images of Scythians on a ritual bowl found in the Zaporozhye region.

The Zaporozhye Cossacks of Little Russia were defeated and liquidated in 1775 by Empress Catherine II, who deprived them of all liberties and resettled this former compact and warlike mass in various outlying steppe regions, in particular, around the city of Chuguev and Kharkov, as well as in the Kursk and Voronezh provinces. These Cossack settlers performed military service, but very limited, and they were given the right to engage in agriculture, but without any special benefits. Many Zaporozhye Cossacks went to Kuban, and Catherine II took some of them to St. Petersburg to perform palace guard duty “on schedule.” Even at that time, Catherine II distributed a large number of families from the Zaporozhye freemen into serfs to her close nobles.

After the fall of the Zaporozhye Sich, part of the Cossacks moved across the Danube and formed the Transdanubian Sich there, but in 1828 the Cossacks, led by their Koshevoy ataman O. Gladky, returned to Russia.

At the beginning of the 19th century, under Emperor Alexander I, Count Arakcheev brutally dealt with Cossack settlements. The colonization of the steppes of Ukraine by Catherine II, which began in the 18th century, ruthlessly continued under Alexander I in the first half of the 19th century.

Ukraine was turning into a breadbasket not only for Russia, but also for Europe. Bread was needed in large quantities, and the protection of the southern borders of Russia after the conquest of Crimea lost its urgency. In this regard, all military Cossack settlers began to be brutally exploited and as grain growers.

With the increase in demand for Ukrainian bread, corvée began to develop. Emperor Alexander I and the Minister of War Count Arakcheev intended not only to strengthen and militarize the Cossack settlements in southern Russia, but also to force them to intensively sow grain and hand it over for export.

These enslaving conditions led to uprisings breaking out among the settlers, which were brutally suppressed.

The history of our family, the Fomenko family, is as follows.

2. MY GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GRANDFATHER FOMENKO.

The first representative of the Fomenko family, about whom my father received any information, was my great-great-great-grandfather Fomenko. Most likely, he was a strong man, a typical Zaporozhye Cossack, ataman of the Cossack military settlements in the area of ​​​​the city of Chuguev, resettled by Catherine II in 1775.

Together with other rebels, after the suppression of the uprising by Count Arakcheev, the great-great-great-grandfather was demoted and transferred to serfdom to Count Sumarokov-Elston, and in 1820-1822 assigned to the Rakitnoye estate in the Kursk province.

We do not know how old my great-great-great-grandfather was and what his name was. But it is reliably known that on the lands of Count Sumarokov-Elston a new settlement was organized from several dozen households (families), which was given the name Svyatoslavka. Among these families was the family of my great-great-great-grandfather Fomenko, who is the ancestor of our family in this settlement.

The name of the village of Svyatoslavka was formed from the words “Svyatoslavia”, since the former rebel settlers considered their new location as the result of a holy revelation, because other such rebels received a much worse share than them.

It was not possible to establish whether the Svyatoslavich family, relatives of my great-great-great-grandfather, were among the settlers, but apparently they were, since the surname Fomenko is not a rare occurrence among the Svyatoslavichs. It was also not possible to establish how many children he had in total. But it is absolutely known that when his resettlement took place, his son Kuzma, born in 1815, who was then only 6-7 years old, came with him to Svyatoslavka.

From this period (1820-1822) my great-great-great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather Kuzma, while still a boy, became serfs of Count Sumarokov-Elston. It was also established that Kuzma’s great-grandfather had a brother.

Count Sumarokov-Elston had no direct male heirs. He married his daughter to a descendant of the Tatar Murza from the Tugai-Beg-Ordynsky family, the already Russified Prince Yusupov. Most of the count's estates, including Rakitnoye, which included the settlement of Svyatoslavka, passed to the new owner Yusupov, who was later called Prince Felix Yusupov, Count Sumarokov-Elston.

Despite the fact that the great-great-great-grandfather was deprived of the ataman title and transferred to serfdom, he still retained some privileges, since he had the right to enter the count, and he received him when he was on the Rakitnoye estate, while other settlers, up to the headman, did not enjoy such a right.

3. MY GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GRANDFATHER KUZMA.

When my great-great-grandfather Kuzma Fomenko got married, what his wife’s name was and how many children they had is not known exactly, but in the male line they had four sons (Fig. 1.1, Fig. 1.2): Mikhail, born in 1844, Zakhar - in 1846, Demid - unknown year of birth, and Nikifor - in 1854.

Great-great-grandfather Kuzma was a very strong man. Because of his strength, he was often granted the title of count. The great-great-grandmother was an energetic woman, a Cossack, she held the house in her hands and was a sovereign mistress. When she was dissatisfied with her husband Kuzma, her great-great-grandmother always took the lead. Kuzma lived 73 years and died in 1888. His great-great-grandmother survived him by many years.

Kuzma’s eldest son, Mikhail, and the youngest, Nikifor, lived separately with their families, and Zakhar (my great-grandfather) lived with his parents.

Whether Kuzma had brothers and sisters is unknown, but probably they were, and our ancestor probably had them too, since there were so many Fomenko families in Svyatoslavka that they were distinguished only by nicknames. For example, “Myshkins”, “Zakhartsevs”, “Petrenkovs”, “Naryvonovs”, etc. And all were “Fomenko”. Our surname is found, quite often, not only in Svyatoslavka, but also far beyond its borders.

Demid Kuzmich served in the imperial cavalry regiment for more than twenty years, and upon retirement he lived with his brother Zakhar, although he remained unmarried. Many interesting stories were told about him: how he carried out guard duty at the court of Emperors Alexander II and Alexander III, what kind of nobles he saw, which of them drank how much, how he then seated them in carriages, etc.

What rank he rose to remains unknown, but his long service at court and close communication with the court nobility indicate that he was not an ordinary man.

Nikifor Kuzmich, the youngest of my great-great-grandfather’s brothers, lived a long life equal to a whole century. He did not suffer from senile diseases, had a good memory and, despite his age, a sound mind. He was a rather dense, strong and tall man with a drooping Cossack mustache. In his youth, he served for quite a long time, about ten years, in the cavalry of the Kursk Imperial Regiment. He began serving under Alexander II, and ended during the reign of Alexander III.

Nikifor Kuzmich and his wife Ulita had only daughters (Nyunya and Tonya), whom he outlived and died in 1854.

4. MY GREAT-GREAT-GRANDFATHER ZAKHAR KUZMICH.

Zakhar Kuzmich, my great-grandfather, died in 1918. He was a good and strong owner, very homely, had extraordinary health, a sober head and a kind heart. He was flexible and knew how to run his farm. The fact that he decided to teach his middle son (my grandfather) to read and write, for which he sent him to school in another village (at that time there was no school in Svyatoslavka yet), says a lot about his understanding of the meaning of knowledge.

Great-grandfather Zakhar Kuzmich did not drink alcohol or smoke. He was slender, thin, tall, had gray hair, a drooping mustache and large facial features. He wore a long shirt made of white linen with a belt and rather wide trousers. He always wore boots with high tops.

He was still very strong and probably would have lived for many more years, but after the murder of his youngest son Nikita by the whites, he painfully experienced this tragedy and immediately lost his health.

Grandmother Ulyana was short, slightly bent. She didn’t look that old, but she died before her grandfather, in 1914. They had four daughters and three sons, the middle of whom was my grandfather, Fig. 1.1, Fig. 1.2.

The eldest daughter Anna Zakharovna (1868-1947) was married very early to a police officer who lived in the village of Koshary. At that time, the stanovoi was a significant figure and had a certain weight in the life of the camp (district).

Whether they had children and how many is unknown.

The second daughter, Ulyana Zakharovna, (1872-?) got married and lived all the time in Svyatoslavka. She and her husband lived not so richly, but not poorly either. They had three sons and one daughter. Two sons died during the Patriotic War.

The eldest son Pavel Zakharovich (1874-1957) lived all his life in Svyatoslavka. His wife was from the Nedosekov family, known for their active activities. Pavel had two daughters, one of whom, Ulyana, married Alexey Sechny, a well-known beekeeper in the village. The second daughter Tatyana was married to the clerk of the village council of the village of Svyatoslavki. After giving birth, she died, leaving a daughter, Nastenka, who lived with my father’s family, and then with her aunt Ulyana, and died in 1930.

Pavel Zakharovich served in the army at the beginning of the reign of Nicholas II.

He served in the city of Kremenchug in infantry units. He often recalled his military service in all its details. Although he had no education, he was not stupid by nature, and he always spoke about his service in the army with peasant simplicity and humor. During the Russian-Japanese War he was drafted into the army, but on the occasion of the birth of the heir, Tsarevich Alexei, he was exempted from military service for a year, and instead of Manchuria he returned home, where he ran his household quite successfully. He knew agriculture well and coped with it successfully. After the death of his wife Maria (in 1939), he remarried and worked on the collective farm until the last days of his life.

5. MY GRANDFATHER GRIGORY ZAKHAROVICH

Fig. 1.4. Fomenko Grigory Zakharovich (1880-1954), father of T.G. Fomenko, my grandfather.

The second teacher was a priest from the local church, who explained to them the Law of God and prayers. Be that as it may, my grandfather (Gregory) graduated from school very successfully, with praise.

After graduation, he worked in some department in Rakitnoye. He was not involved in agriculture. I got married at 19, and my grandmother was 18 at the time. He was drafted into the army in 1902 and sent to a military paramedic school in Saratov. After graduating from school, he was assigned to serve as a military paramedic in a regiment located in Saratov.

During his studies in Saratov, the Tsar's minister Sakharov was killed. My grandfather saw the girl who shot the minister. They led her in, all beaten up and missing one eye, and at that time her grandfather stood on the sidewalk and watched this picture with great curiosity. Since he was not dressed in uniform and showed interest in the detained girl, he was also suspected of complicity and was detained. Only due to the fact that there were his classmates among the patrols, he was released, but was asked not to go out without a uniform.

Apparently, my grandfather loved to show off, because according to his stories, he did not like military uniform and tried to be in civilian clothes, and often had his uniform tailored to his figure at a tailor.

In 1904, he took part in the Persian campaign, so he was not at the front in Manchuria. After Persia (now Iran) he continued to serve in the city of Novorossiysk, where their unit was being prepared to be sent either to Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) or to the Middle East. For some reason this expedition did not take place.

After five years of service in Novorossiysk, he was demobilized and was sent to a hospital in Rakitnoye. Then he was transferred by the zemstvo to Borisovka, and then to the head of the paramedic station in Striguny, where he worked until the start of the First World War. At the beginning of the war, in 1914, he was mobilized into the army, and the family went to live with his great-grandfather Zakhar in Svyatoslavka.

Grandfather served in the 12th Army, commanded by General Kosich. The army initially operated in the Lvov direction, and then it was transferred to the Romanian Front, when Romania entered the war on the side of the allies. My grandfather worked both in field posts and in large army hospitals. He was awarded the Cross of St. George with a moiré ribbon and several medals.

After returning from the army, my grandfather for a long time headed the medical and obstetric station in the village of Koshary, where he had once attended school as a child. Then he worked in hospitals in the city of Stalino (now Donetsk), then in the 5/6 Kalinovka mine and, finally, in Avdeevka, where he died at the age of 76. Portrait of Grigory Zakharovich, my paternal grandfather, see Fig. 1.4.

6. TIMOFEY GRIGORIEVICH FOMENKO, MY FATHER.

My grandfather had three sons, or rather four (the eldest son Vasya died as an infant) and two daughters. Both daughters were older than the three surviving sons. The eldest daughter Martha, who later bore the surname Vince, had two sons, was born in 1900, and died in 1967. The second daughter, Neonila, later Galitskaya, was born in 1904. She had two daughters from her first marriage, and a son and a daughter from her second.

The eldest son Vanya, born in 1908, died in 1944 during the Great Patriotic War, leaving behind a daughter and two sons.

In 1910, my father Timofey was born in the village of Borisovka, where he was baptized in the Trinity parish.

In 1917, his younger brother Vasya was born. Vasya has two daughters, and Timofey and his wife Valya have one son, Tolya, born in 1945 (that is, me).

Marta, Nila and Vasya were born in Svyatoslavka, Vanya - in Rakitnoye, and Timofey in Borisovka.

My father's aunt, Evdokia Zakharovna, the youngest daughter of my great-grandfather, was born in 1882. She was married and lived on the Boryspilye farm. She had three sons.

My father's uncle, Nikita Zakharovich (1884-1918), in 1904 worked in the Donbass at the Ivan mine, where he was long remembered as a wrestling champion. After that, he served in the army, and after the revolution, he inspired the masses to expropriate Yusupov’s estates, for which he was brutally killed by the White Guards in front of the entire gathering of villagers. His wife, Vera Yakovlevna, is a very good woman; she escaped from the massacre by fleeing from her home to her relatives. They had a son, Fyodor, born in 1912, and three daughters - Anna, born in 1908, Maria, born in 1914, and Elena, born in 1916.

Fyodor died, and Maria and Elena worked for a long time. One of them is the chairman of the collective farm, and the second is the director of the state farm. Both are Honored Workers. One of them in the 50s was the award of Hero of Socialist Labor.

My father's aunt, Varvara Zakharovna (1889-1946) - the youngest daughter of my great-grandfather, married Nikita Nedosekov, a very intelligent man. They had two sons and a daughter.

Apparently, fate wished that, starting with our great-great-grandfather Kuzma, our race developed mainly along the line of middle brothers and that all the men, except those who died in wars, lived long lives.

The pedigree of my father’s mother, that is, Pelageya Mikhailovna, is known only starting with her father Mikhail Tomarovshchenko, who was born in 1840 and lived in the large Khokhlyatsky ancient village of Krasnaya Yaruga volost, located seven kilometers from the village of Svyatoslavka.

Mikhail Tomarovshchenko and his wife had two sons and three daughters, Fig. 1.2, the youngest of whom was my grandmother, born in 1881, Fig. 1.5, Fig. 1.6. She married my grandfather in 1899.

Figure 1.5. Pelageya Mikhailovna Tomarovshchenko (1881-1962), mother of T.G. Fomenko, my grandmother.	Fig. 1.6. P.M. Tovarovshchenko, mother T.G. Fomenko, my grandmother.

Whether the Tomarovshchenkov family was a continuation of the descendants of the Zaporozhye Cossacks or not, this remains unknown, but Akim Kuzmich Krysanenko, who was married to Anisya (the elder sister of his father’s mother), born in 1870 and died in 1941, served for four years under Alexander III in the Kursk Cavalry Regiment. He was even paid a silver ruble, given to him by Alexander III himself. This indicates that he belonged to the Cossack freemen, for this regiment was staffed only by Cossacks.

As my father notes, if you look closely at the life of our family, you will notice that the Fomenko family was active and, perhaps, very restless, not always convenient for government authorities. This is easy to see if we recall such facts as the liquidation of the Zaporozhye freemen by Catherine II, as a result of which my great-great-great-grandfather Fomenko ended up as a military settler in the area of ​​​​the city of Chuguev. Then the suppression by Count Arakcheev of the uprising of military settlers, led by my great-great-great-grandfather Ataman Fomenko, his demotion and transfer to serfdom. Next, the brutal execution by the White Guards of Nikita Fomenko, the leader of the destruction of Yusupov’s estates and expropriation of lands. Then - the confiscation of our entire farm during the Stalin era and the deportation of my father’s family members to the northern regions. And finally, my father fell from grace after the Patriotic War and he was deported to Magadan. From this we can conclude that our genus was active. It is impossible to blame him for inactivity.

Figure 1.7 shows some of the resettlement routes of my ancestors.

Fig. 1.7. Settlement routes across Russia: ancestors of T.G. Fomenko, T.G. himself Fomenko and A.T. Fomenko. Drawn by T.G. Fomenko.

7. MY FATHER'S CHILDHOOD.

The village of Svyatoslavka, where the Fomenko family finally settled down, is located on a hill cut by three beams connecting with a large valley and a small river. The settlement grew into a large village stretching along the river. The houses were located in two rows, forming one main street. In many places along the banks and generally in the lowlands there were spreading willows and here and there reeds. On the other side of the river there is a hill on which arable land is located.

This hill is cut by another valley. On one side of it there was at that time a brick production facility, consisting of three-kilns and several sheds for drying raw bricks.

There were very few gardens in the village; all the land was occupied by garden crops. The houses vary, but the vast majority of them are small huts with clay floors and thatched roofs. There were very few houses with wooden floors and iron roofs. More prosperous families lived in them.

In my grandfather’s family, unlike others, there were newspapers and even Niva magazines with supplements. As enclosures, in addition to books with works of art, reproductions of such paintings as Suvorov’s crossing of the Alps, burning Moscow during the Napoleonic invasion, etc. were sent. All the books were in excellent bindings, and the paintings were on thick paper with a fabric lining. They were preserved in this form for a long time.

The peasants turned to their grandfather not only for medical help, but often for advice. Despite the fact that my grandfather lived in a village and had a very modest education (although in pre-revolutionary times it was already quite a lot to graduate from medical school and receive the title of paramedic), but in character he was the complete opposite of his brothers. He was to some extent a gifted person, inclined to indulge in thought and reading books.

I don’t know how my great-grandfather Zakhar felt about religion, he was probably a believer, but my grandfather did not believe in God. As I know from my dad, if as a child my grandfather often cried out to God, especially when, according to his understanding, he was being unfairly punished, then later, as an adult, he communicated with God less and less. My grandfather was at first ashamed of his apostasy from God, and then stopped praying altogether.

True, my grandfather loved Jesus Christ, but not as a saint, but as a person.

However, he felt hostility towards religion and even took pleasure in his hostility.

Despite her advanced age, my grandmother retained her liveliness and ability to listen to her interlocutor. Although she was from a peasant family, she was not a peasant in the full sense of the word, just as she was not a city dweller. Just a nice and kind woman. Grandmother was simple-minded and sensible. She was not at all one of those who fervently believed in God. She was a simple believer, but not a fanatic at all.

My father, Timofey, was born without any special incidents, but ten days later his mother became seriously ill, and the baby was transferred to artificial nutrition. Then my father was never in good health, but he was never seriously ill.

Our family occupied an intermediate position in its social status at that time. She could not be classified as an intellectual, but in no case could she be classified as a peasant family. This was a healthy, productive family whose children studied. In preschool age, my father already knew all the letters of the Russian alphabet and could count to one hundred.

When he was taken to school, he was superior to all the children, since none of them knew the letters and could not count. The school was located in a peasant hut, without wooden floors.

Inside there were several rough desks, a small table for the teacher and the school. The windows in the hut were small and only on two sides. There were a lot of school-age children in the village. Most families had 5-10, or even 15 children, but few studied.

My father's name - Timothy - he received in honor of Saint Timothy, a disciple of the holy Apostle Paul, which, according to the calendar, fell on his birthday, that is, January 22 according to the old style or February 4 according to the new style.

True, the teaching was soon interrupted along with the collapse of royal power. The front approached the village of Svyatoslavka. The school was closed.

The government in the village changed several times. First, the “reds” replaced the “whites,” then the “whites” replaced the “reds,” and then the Germans appeared. During this unstable time, my father, while still a boy, guarded the melon plant with my grandfather as a neighbor. Suddenly an open car appeared on the road. Having reached the kuren, the car stopped. There were five of us. They went out and asked for watermelons. Timofey went, picked two watermelons and brought them back. While eating, one of them asked his grandfather: “Who are you for: the whites or the reds?” Grandfather smiled slyly and replied: “Where the needle goes, so goes the thread! So do we, where you go, so do we.” Everyone laughed. "Cunning old man!" - one of them said through laughter.

When he left, the grandfather said to Timofey: “Whites! It’s immediately obvious that they are civilians. You can’t fool me!”.

My father did not remember my maternal grandparents. His mother was brought by his father from another village, and her parents did not live with his father’s family.

During the civil war, my father's younger brother, Vasya, was born. It wasn't easy for him. Times were hard. Military units confiscated the peasants' horses, livestock, poultry and food. The White Guard units were especially distinguished by this, in particular the so-called “White-Liners,” which included mainly cadets. The peasants slowly buried their grain, and drove horses, cows and other livestock into nearby forests.

The appearance of the German occupiers further worsened the situation of the peasants. The Germans confiscated everything not only for their military units, which were located in Ukraine at that time, but also sent a lot to Germany.

The adult population hated them. In the end, under pressure from the Soviets, the Germans were forced to leave Ukraine. Gradually everything returned to normal, and the lean years passed. Each family prepared for itself not only food, but clothes and shoes. There was only a need for kerosene and sugar. But not all peasant families consumed sugar. In the village where Timofey lived, sugar was given to children as a gift. For adults, a sugar substitute was malt, a drink made from beets. It tastes sweet, but has an unpleasant aftertaste. The main peasant food at that time was meat, lard, poultry, eggs, dairy products, various cereals, dumplings, pies, pickles and, of course, the famous Ukrainian pancakes. Only Ukrainian meat and lean borscht were prepared from liquid. In general, the food was healthy, hearty and always fresh. The leftover food was given to livestock. This was a kind of guarantee of health, which cannot be said about these days.

Finally, everything stabilized. In the village of Svyatoslavka, a school opened again, but not in the old hut, but in a large, bright room that previously belonged to a very wealthy family.

Timofey no longer studied in an elementary village school, but in a nine-year regional center in Krasnaya Yaruga. Teaching came easily to him. He was overgrown due to a long break in his studies and had to catch up. He completed the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades in two years and a year later he graduated from the nine-year school, Fig. 1.8. There were no junior high schools then.

Fig. 1.8. Certificate of 1926 on completion of T.G. Fomenko from the Krasno-Yaruzhskaya school.

As a high school student, Timofey took an active part in the social life of the school. Komsomol organizations of that time paid special attention to the fight against the remnants of Nicholas times.

Among the students, many children were from intelligent and semi-intelligent families. Some of them, especially in the first years of Soviet power, behaved somewhat dismissively towards the children of workers and peasants. As the father writes, “they really stood out among us both for their knowledge, I would say, even for their erudition, and especially for their appearance. They were dressed more neatly and richly. Some even wore ties.

At our meetings, we often criticized our “intellectuals” for their self-importance and even for wearing ties. But by the end of school, the line between the students had almost disappeared, and the class as a whole was very friendly with good knowledge.” (End quote).

8. THE FATHER WORKS AND THEN BECOMES A STUDENT. AND THEN HIS FAMILY IS “DISTRIBUTED”.

After graduating from high school in 1926, Timofey decided to study further. It was quite difficult to enter college, especially if the applicant had no work experience. My father had to go to work and earn experience. First, he did field work processing beets on one of the state farms, and then moved to a sugar factory as an apprentice mechanic.

During the two years of work, my father was constantly preparing to enter a university. At that time, there was a large influx into technical universities - from 8 to 10 people per place. Therefore, increased requirements were imposed on the entrance exams. Timofey prepared very carefully. The difficulty of admission was also explained by the fact that a significant part of the places were allocated to those who graduated from workers' faculties (workers' faculties) and the so-called "Party-thousanders" - party members who trained in special courses.

To enter the institute, Timofey arrived in the former Yuzovka (now the city of Donetsk), where one of the country's mining institutes was located, which was later renamed industrial, and then - at the Polytechnic. This is what my father wrote.

“It was late, and it was not possible to arrange housing. I spent the night on a bench in a public garden, in the very center of the city. I woke up at dawn, very chilled and even more tired. A small tumor was discovered on my left cheek. There was dust everywhere. It rose in large clouds, mixed with mine and factory dust, making the blue sky dead-cloudy.

With a swollen cheek, having had breakfast in one of the canteens, I headed to the Winnipeg Institute. There were no more free places in the hostel, but they gave me directions to a peasant’s house. When I entered the room where there were four iron beds, the smell of stuffy, stagnant air heated by the sun’s rays hit my face. But this was already housing, much better than the time I spent in the park, on the bench." (End of quote).

The competition was quite large - 8 people per place. After the exams, two people competed for one place based on the points they scored: the father’s pair - he and another newcomer. All their data was the same, but Timofey was given preference because he had work experience, but there was no competitor. So my dad became a student at the Mining Institute.

And then misfortune befell him. Stalin began a campaign of dispossession. And since Timofey’s family lived in the village and had a good farm, they were also classified as kulaks. In the village, no one classified this family as a kulak family. Even the Village Council did not consider the decision to dispossess them to be correct, but the representative from the center was inexorable.

My grandfather was in Donbass at that time, away, Timofey (my father) was studying, his two sisters were married and lived separately from their relatives. And at that time, quickly, the mother of his father, the eldest and youngest of his brothers, was sent to the Far North, to the Arkhangelsk forests. A healthy, productive family has essentially disintegrated.

Years have passed. My grandmother and her sons returned from exile, but the family was no longer there. During this time, my grandfather married another woman, and all the other members of his family, already adults, lived in different places. As my father writes: “It is difficult to blame or justify my father, especially for me. The unexpected grief that fell had a strong influence on his behavior. He began to drink, and it all ended with his remarriage.”

Timofey studied at an institute in a provincial town, but the institute had talented teaching staff. These were not local personnel, but expelled from Moscow and other large cities for various political “offenses.” At that time, Yuzovka (later Stalino, and now Donetsk) was considered as a place of exile for people who had committed not particularly dangerous crimes against the policies of the party leaders of that time.

For example, among those exiled there was a famous philosopher, Professor Algasov. He was accused of an incorrect political assessment of the December events of 1925, which he gave in his book. No less famous are professor of physics Lemley and professor of mechanics and mathematics Zeiliger - for disagreement with some of the events carried out by Stalin in universities. The personal acquaintance of Professor Lemley and Professor Zeiliger with Lenin and their joint work (Lemley worked at one of the academic institutes in Moscow, and Zeiliger for forty years taught mechanics at Kazan University, where Lenin studied), only aggravated their situation.

There were other disgraced individuals - professor of geology Vlasov, a former count, Professor Dorrer, professors Nekoz, Belyavsky, Tulparov, Puzoshchatov and Crimea. All of them were highly qualified specialists and perfectly knew the disciplines they were reading.

Professor Meller was an equally interesting figure. His father considered him his teacher, since he received a lot of knowledge in his specialty from him. Meller himself, a baron by birth, studied at the St. Petersburg Mining Institute together with Baron Wrangel and Kamenev, later a good friend of his father. They all graduated from the institute in 1902.

During the period of the raging Yezhovshchina, Meller was arrested. Already an engineer, Timofey had to participate in the commission to evaluate Meller’s activities. The commission came to the conclusion that the programs and their use in students’ studies were correct. Based on this examination and other commissions that examined other aspects of his activities, Meller was acquitted. But, unfortunately, all this was already a belated pardon. He was so old and so worried about this injustice that he could not bear the shock and died already rehabilitated, but not yet free. While the exculpatory documents circulated through the authorities and were eventually approved, he died without ever learning of the recognition of his innocence.

At that time, the government established one-year state scholarships for particularly distinguished students. Its amount was 90 rubles per month. It should be noted that this was a fairly large amount for those times. Student scholarships at that time in universities that trained engineers for heavy industry were only 40 rubles, and in other universities even less, only 25 rubles. My father was also awarded such a high annual scholarship.

Quite unexpectedly, he turned from a poor student into a rich one. While documents were being drawn up for him, four months passed, and he immediately received 360 rubles. To imagine how much or little this is for a student, it is enough to give the following example. Students of that time rented a room for three people. Each of them paid 20 rubles a month to the hostess for housing, a master’s bed, washing clothes, food and cleaning the premises. If students paid a little more, then the hostess served a glass of wine at the table.

A month's three meals a day in the student canteen cost 12 rubles 75 kopecks. Therefore, the money Timofey received in the amount of 360 rubles embarrassed not only him, but also all his comrades. The father invited them all to a restaurant, where they widely celebrated this event.

As already mentioned, Timofey’s studies at the institute coincided with the period of dispossession carried out by order of Stalin. Dispossession caused hunger among the population. The students did not escape this fate either. If in 1929 and even at the beginning of 1930 in the student canteen they were fed, according to their father, excellently, then during the famine they ate mainly pearl barley porridge, without fat.

My father wrote: “But we had days when we feasted on horse jellied meat. At that time there were still a lot of horses, and once a week, or even twice, horse jellied meat was sold in a special stall for the population. To get it, we gathered in a group of about ten people, took down large lampshades hanging in the student dormitory, attached wire handles to them, and Toporkov, as the tallest and healthiest among us, raised them above his head, and the rest of us pushed the crowd with force and They squeezed Toporkov up to the counter. He filled the lampshades with this delicacy, paid, lifted the precious load above his head and, with our help, got out to freedom. Now it’s even difficult to remember what happened when we pushed away half-starved and hungry people and got ourselves this unfortunate jellied meat. Screams, indignation, and utter swearing came from all sides. But what could you do if you wanted to eat? We weren't the only ones doing this. We bought strong ones, or, like us, using the group method. Otherwise there was no way to get jellied meat. When a person is hungry, he goes wild, instincts of the distant past appear.

When I was a student, lectures on international and other topics were often held. One day Bukharin himself came to us in Stalino. After disgrace, he was the editor-in-chief of either the newspaper Pravda or Izvestia. The assembly hall was full of people. We even sat on the steps. I was also present.

Bukharin spoke freely, very infectiously, without any cheat sheets. His performance made a huge impression on us students. This was a speech by a real tribune, excellent not only in oratory, but also in knowledge of politics and philosophy.” (End quote).

My father completed his pre-graduation internship at an apatite plant on the Kola Peninsula in the Khibiny Mountains. My father wrote: “Three students of us went there (via Moscow). At the Bolshoi Theater branch we listened to Tchaikovsky's opera "Eugene Onegin". The role of Lensky was played by the famous Sobinov. This was two years before his death, but his voice was still fresh and young. My comrades and I were captivated by the singing, we were so captivated by Sobinovad that we jumped up from our seats, applauded furiously and, driven to extreme excitement, left, forgetting our camera in the box...

Since students of all times belonged to the most needy category of people, we were to some extent glad to earn something. In Khibiny we succeeded. They paid significantly more there, given the location of these enterprises beyond the Arctic Circle. Leaving Leningrad for Moscow, on the way back we felt so wealthy that we allowed ourselves to buy tickets for the Red Arrow.

Upon arrival in Moscow, in the morning, without any hope of being able to get our camera back, we went to the branch of the Bolshoi Theater. We talked to the management and it turned out that our camera had been preserved and was immediately given to us.” (End quote).

9. WORKING AS A PRODUCTION ENGINEER.

After graduating from college, Timofey was sent to work at the Makeyevsky Coke and Chemical Plant in Donbass, in the coal preparation shop. At first, he was used as a shift engineer or, as they called it then, a shift assistant to the shop manager.

At that time, clashes often occurred at enterprises between major practitioners and young certified engineers. The fact is that in the first years of Soviet power, engineers of some specialties were not trained at all in institutes. The appearance of young, still “green” engineers in production somewhat alarmed practitioners and sometimes gave rise to incidents between them.

It should be noted that all practitioners, or at least most of them, very carefully protected their knowledge from prying eyes and ears, and especially from certified engineers. It got to the point that the regulation of mine steam hoisting machines by practitioners was carried out under a tarpaulin. And this is not fiction! When it was necessary to set up a steam lifting machine, they brought in a professional craftsman like this. He covered the whole car with a tarpaulin, climbed under the tarpaulin with a lamp and did his magic there. After that, he was paid a certain amount of money, and he left for home without revealing the secret of the regulation.

Something similar happened at coal preparation factories. My father wrote: “I remember well the great pre-revolutionary practitioner Eliseev. This consultant came to the factory... did not consult with anyone and gave instructions on changing operating modes, without any explanation.

Once I ordered the water to be opened to wash the sediment on the slurry screens. This helped remove silt. After some time, the water was closed by order of Eliseev. When I discovered this, I immediately ordered the water to be opened again. On this basis, a somewhat tense conversation took place between us. It turned out that before I arrived at the factory, the water had never been opened by tradition, and my intervention in the technology affected Eliseev’s pride and prestige. In the end, I insisted on my own. Moreover, I justified my actions by improving the quality of products, while Eliseev referred only to excessive water consumption.

When I was on vacation, a very interesting incident occurred at the factory. The jigging machine suddenly began to produce not rock, but raw coal, and the elevator intended for the intermediate product - rock. Consultant Eliseev was immediately called. After examining the car, he stated: “A hole has formed in the sieve.” The car was stopped, but what a surprise everyone was when it was cleaned, and the sieve turned out to be working. Eliseev, frantically clenching his hands, looked with confused eyes for confirmation that he was right. Obeying some instinct to preserve his prestige, he suddenly focused all his attention on the proposal to direct the product of the rock elevator into an intermediate product, and the industrial product elevator into rock. It was a temporary solution, but no one could offer anything else.

A few days later I showed up at the plant. Interest in this machine arose again at the factory. Still, it worked abnormally. Everyone wanted my opinion. As you might expect, I assumed it was a fluke. Everyone smiled and left disappointed. The unusualness of the case touched me. I walked around the car for a long time and finally, somehow mechanically, I looked into the hatch of the supply chute. Everything immediately became clear. The sieve in the gutter had worn out due to long-term use and its remains were carried away by the flow. When everyone left, and I and the separator operator remained near the machine, we immediately put in a new sieve and after a minute and a half, normal operation was restored. I exclaimed: “Call the authorities.”

The “recovery” of the machine interested many, but Eliseev showed particular interest. He looked sideways at me, but joyful gratitude was clearly reflected on his face. At first, the separator operator and I didn’t say what was going on, but then we revealed the secret. Everyone laughed heartily, especially Eliseev. The resourcefulness I showed aroused some admiration in him. Since then, I have had the best relationship with Eliseev. I was admitted to all his secrets, which he had accumulated all his life.

After my leave, I was sent by the trust to the Mospinsky factory that produces briquettes.” (End quote).

10. WORK IN THE MANAGEMENT STAFF OF THE DONBASSUGOL MILL.

After five years of work in production, my father was invited to work in the organizational apparatus of the Donbassugol plant. This largest organization in Donbass subsequently underwent disaggregation, as they said then, (that is, fragmentation) into smaller plants. Here he worked before the start of World War II and dealt with issues of the quality of mined coal and its enrichment. Industry management was especially clear during the tenure of People's Commissar Ordzhonikidze. At that time, the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry united all heavy industry, including coal.

My father was also present at one of the meetings where Ordzhonikidze spoke. One of the leaders of the trust objected to the strict deadline set for completing some urgent work. Ordzhonikidze waved his fist in the air and replied: “Try not to do it!” Everyone laughed, and the argument ended there.

There was such a case. When Ordzhonikidze, accompanied by the director, appeared in the neglected and waste-littered yard of the Rutchenkovsky Machine-Building Plant, he said, turning to him: “You are no longer a director!” After he visited the workshops, he added: “You are no longer a party member!” Ordzhonikidze was not only feared, but also respected.

However, one cannot fail to note the shadow sides of work in the organizational apparatus. Additional staff, departments, departments, plants, forms of accounting and reporting grew, numerous certificates for management, calls, meetings... And, finally, all this was crowned with night vigils. Moreover, the wildness of this “progressive” method was that the management had the opportunity to sleep in the morning until 10 o’clock and even until 11 am, but small bosses and ordinary workers had to arrive early in the morning (sometimes significantly). It was absurd, but such a system existed.

The new head of the Donbassugol plant, Alexander Fedorovich Zasyadko, had an appearance that was not in his favor. Zasyadko was a very gloomy person by nature. Not only did he laugh, he barely even knew how to smile. With his arrival at the plant, the Donetsk basin, after a long break, finally began to implement the coal production plan. Zasyadko was asked to make a report at a meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of our party. He prepared very carefully for this trip to Moscow. My father also took part in the preparation of the report. In particular, dad prepared various reports and detailed documents for higher authorities.

Due to a sharp decline in coal production, the Politburo of the Central Committee removed Kaganovich from the management of the coal industry, and Vakhrushev was appointed instead, who was given greater powers (by the way, he immediately removed Izotov).

A few words should be said about Kaganovich. At meetings where my father had to attend more than once both in the People's Commissariat in Moscow and in the Donbass, Kaganovich often complained in person. He, like no other leader of such a high rank, was subject to some kind of fear of losing his authority in the eyes of his subordinates. In his speeches, he considered it necessary, in some form, but certainly, to emphasize his high position, to highlight himself, his greatness. This has always caught my eye. Here is one example. After the Patriotic War, the Ministry of Construction Materials was organized. Kaganovich was appointed minister. While in Donbass, he convened a meeting of active builders and in his speech tried to emphasize the importance of this event for the country. To be convincing, he added: “The fact that the party appointed me, a member of the Politburo, as Minister of this Ministry, already speaks of the exceptional importance of this decision.”

And such a small, but characteristic touch. When Kaganovich spoke, or simply sat in the Presidium of the meeting, he would take out a large snow-white handkerchief several times, wave it slightly so that it would unfurl, and then carefully wipe his face. His handkerchiefs were always heavily scented with rose oil, the pleasant and persistent smell of which quickly spread throughout the room. This was done emphatically, as if demonstrating what was inaccessible to those sitting in the hall. All this was noticed by people, but no one dared to say anything. Timofey Grigorievich also did not discuss the “Kaganovich scarf” with anyone then, although it greatly irritated him. That time was not for conversations, even such innocent ones. Trust in each other was undermined, since gullibility was sometimes very costly.

Frequent reorganizations of the management of the coal industry contributed to numerous movements of managers. One day a difficult question arose - which of the three vacated ministers would receive a new appointment? The issue was decided by Stalin himself. All three former Ministers were summoned in turn - Zademidko, Onika and Zasyadko. In response to Stalin’s question - how each of them imagines the future of the mine, Zademidko and Onika spoke about the prospects for the development of mining, mechanization of labor-intensive processes, etc. Zasyadko was the last to visit Stalin. He uttered only one phrase: “The mine must be turned into a factory, then people will not be afraid to go down there.”

Stalin liked this idea, and he immediately appointed Zasyadko Minister of the Coal Industry of the USSR.

The period of “Yezhovshchina” left a large and unpleasant mark on people’s consciousness. It did not last that long, but in terms of its capacity of horror and significance for many destinies, it was an entire era. The massive number of arrests among economic and party leaders took on such a scale that many specialists were afraid to occupy high positions. Incredible tension spread. They were afraid of each other, since every day there were denunciations about people’s statements in intimate conversations. For the population in the cities, huge posters were hung on which were depicted iron fists squeezing the enemies of the people with incredible force.

They looked for political meaning in everything, even in coal enrichment. At one time, the largest heating engineer in our country, Ramzin, famously said: “There are no bad coals, but only bad fireboxes.” He believed that there was no need to enrich coal for energy purposes. This went against official technical policy. Now harsh, even very harsh, articles against it followed in the press. Here is the title of one of them: “Facts that shatter destructive concepts in the field of coal enrichment.” Subsequently, Ramzin, as one of the leaders of the Industrial Party, was arrested and worked in one of the design bureaus specially organized for repressed specialists. While serving his sentence, he created a new, very effective direct-flow boiler. It was such a major invention that Ramzin was not only rehabilitated, but also awarded the Order of Lenin. Subsequently, all members of the "Industrial Party" were rehabilitated, especially when their numerous developments were widely recognized in our industry.

People's Commissar Yezhov lived a short but terrible life.

11. BEFORE THE WAR.

Along with his civilian profession, my father also had a military one. He began his military studies while still a student. After graduating from the institute and retraining in summer military camps, he was awarded the rank of military engineer of the third rank, and then of the second rank. This gave the right to wear two sleepers. There were no stars then. The rapid advancement of Timofey Grigorievich in obtaining military ranks was explained by his abilities, the spirit of the time and his successful completion of summer camp training. He managed to transport a regiment of Red Army soldiers across the river faster than other trainees. According to the program in the engineering units, everyone had to be able to quickly build a float bridge across the river and transport the regiment to the other side.

To speed up the crossing, my father never adhered to the established norms. Polyansky's floats, which at that time were in service with the engineering troops, had to be installed under the bridge deck at a certain distance from each other. His father enlarged it somewhat, which made it possible to reduce the number of floats. However, such a reduction led to the subsidence of the bridge under the weight of the soldiers, and it was somewhat flooded with water. But my father first checked and found that the distance between the floats could be increased without risk for the Red Army soldiers. The soldiers could cross the river quickly, but with slight flooding of the deck. The water should not be higher than the tops of the boots. The idea was accepted. At discussions of the teachings, my father was set as an example to others for his intelligence.

Timofey Grigorievich succeeded quite well in the military field, although he was not in love with military affairs. He received the rank of senior commanding officer, while those graduating from military academies at that time had the right to wear no more than one sleeper. His military career would not have been limited to this if he had agreed to continue his studies (he was persistently offered this). The fact is that, according to the signed agreement between Molotov and Ribbentrop, Poland was to be occupied on the one hand by Hitler’s troops, and on the other by ours. During this period, my father was called up for military service and appointed head of the engineering service of the 137th Infantry Division. It was formed from reserves at a military base in the city of Lubny, where before there was only one regiment. A division was to be formed at its base, and within 2-3 weeks it was to be armed and prepared to go to the front. But when opening the warehouses with uniforms, it turned out that there was enough to form three divisions, but there were not enough shoes even for one division. By the time the shoes were delivered, the Polish campaign was essentially over. So the division where my father was did not have to take part in this action, since the fate of Poland was decided within two weeks.

Then came an insidious lull. The division where Timofey Grigorievich was, like many others, was disbanded. Everyone was sent home, but my father was called to the political department and a certain Golubev again invited him to continue his military education at a six-month course at the Academy of Military Engineering Troops. Completion of the course would give the father the right to receive the rank of brigade commander of the engineering troops and wear one diamond, i.e. he would move into the category of senior management. The brigade commander of that time corresponded to the current major general.

But, despite the urgent offer and even some pressure, Timofey Grigorievich categorically refused this seemingly tempting offer. And I never regretted it. Coming from a Cossack background, he had great respect for the military profession, but he was much more drawn to engineering.

12. 1941 - WAR.

So, having abandoned the improvement of his military qualifications, my father returned to peaceful activities. However, then the war began. The largest iron ore basin, Krivoy Rog, was cut off, and along with it, the adjacent manganese basin, the main suppliers of metallurgical raw materials for factories in the South. The heavy industry of Donbass and other regions of the country found itself in a critical situation. It was necessary to look for a way out and, as a temporary measure, it was found.

In the Donbass, since the start of operation of the Yuzovsky blast furnaces, hundreds of millions of tons of flue dust with a high iron content have accumulated in landfills. Actually, it was the same iron ore, but in the form of dust. The task was given to use the reserves of flue dust for blast furnaces. My father was also involved in solving this problem. He and his employees developed two directions for using blast furnace dust as a raw material for blast furnace. The first direction was carried out at the Mospin briquette factory in Donbass. Melting metal using these briquettes gave satisfactory results.

However, the front approached. Everything was abandoned, and the city of Stalino (Donetsk) was surrendered to the Germans without a fight. At such a critical moment, some leaders, because of their cowardice, were the first to abandon everything and flee to the East. Despite the rapid advance of the enemy, some enterprises and organizations still managed to leave the city in a more or less organized manner. But the plant's managers only cared about themselves.

Dad told me in detail what was going on in those days in Stalino. Employees of the plant where my father worked were told to report to the station early in the morning for evacuation. Carry only the essentials with you and only in one duffel bag. At the appointed time everyone arrived at the station. However, there was no train on the railway tracks. People rushed about and began to find out what was going on. The railway workers said that the train was really here, but had already left for the East three hours ago. Only the management of the plant and their families loaded into it, filling the carriages to capacity with furniture, belongings, and a large number of suitcases. They even loaded the piano. As a result, it turned out that the remaining employees were simply abandoned to their fate. At the same time, they shamelessly deceived us by ordering all the uninitiated to appear at the station after the train had left. The crowd stood in confusion. Loud artillery cannonade could be heard in the distance. People were divided into two groups. A significant part decided to leave on foot along the rails to the East, behind our retreating army. The other part, noticeably smaller, decided to stay in the city. Among the latter was my dad. He returned home. As it became known later, almost everyone who then left the empty station for the East died, coming under attack from a German tank division that had already bypassed the city from the flanks. This is how my father was saved.

So, Timofey Grigorievich found himself in territory occupied by the Germans. What to do? What to live with? For the first six months he somehow found food. The main source of food was the village. But he ran out of things that could be used in exchange for food, especially since even earlier the best part of his things (like those of other residents) had been confiscated for the German army. Instead of the selected items and furniture, the Germans issued handwritten receipts that were not certified by anyone. Then my father entered the Rutchenkovsky Coke Plant in the city of Stalino. Got the cards. It became possible to at least somehow eat.

It should be noted that the Rutchenkovsky plant had to be blown up during the retreat. But this was done only partially. In addition, a significant amount of fuel and materials were left in the workshops, which the Germans quickly processed into fuel for vehicles.

Despite minor damage and significant efforts by the Germans, it was not possible to restore the plant. All the workers and site supervisors were very passive. They went to work just to get rations. Moreover, there were many cases of damage to equipment and sabotage. In general, the population in the occupied territory of Donbass greeted the Germans with hostility.

13. THE FIRST YEARS AFTER THE WAR.

Finally, Donbass was liberated. With the arrival of our troops, a massive check began on those people who, finding themselves in the occupied territory, contributed to the Germans in one way or another. Those who showed noticeable activity and participated in the occupation authorities, the police and played a significant role there were immediately repressed.

All engineering and technical workers were also checked by the security authorities. Those who worked at the plant as the head of a workshop, section or in the management of the plant, and if their workshop or section was restored under the Germans, were also repressed or sent to penal companies at the front. My father was also tested. After all, he was the head of the coal preparation shop and, naturally, expected severe punishment. However, it didn't work out that way. The security authorities interrogated my father for a long time and were especially interested in the workers who were under his command. Their father gave them the best description and explained why the workshop was not restored under the Germans. And, oddly enough, he was released. This was unexpected for him. Everything became clear when the father, upon leaving the office where he was interrogated, met with security officer Danilenko, a former student at the institute where his father studied. He finished later, but knew his father well. Danilenko said that his father owed his freedom to his behavior during the occupation and to the workers whom he provided assistance and did not interfere with them, if possible, to slow down the restoration of the workshop.

Indeed, the coal preparation shop was not restored, and not because the workers could not do it, but because, at the first opportunity, the parts needed for restoration were sent to a landfill. In addition, the fuel that was at the plant and used by the Germans for transport, the father allowed the workers to take out of the plant secretly, in order to exchange it for products on state and collective farms. All this was done before his eyes, and the workers did not hide anything from him. Moreover, when our troops were approaching, the workers turned to their father with a request to lead their group and try to prevent the Germans from blowing up the thermal power plant. During the retreat, the Germans were especially cruel. The slightest suspicion was immediately punishable by death. The power plant was guarded very carefully by them. Father knew all this well, and therefore he advised the workers to hide and wait for the arrival of our troops. Most of the workers did so, but a small group still decided to take a risky step. But the power station was still blown up by the Germans, and two people from this group were captured and shot.

After interrogation, the father was called to the plant and offered to become the chief engineer of the Rutchenkovsky coking plant, gather workers and engineering personnel and immediately begin restoring the destroyed plant. The father happily set to work. There was no electricity yet, and drilling machines were rotated manually. Metal structures were also riveted by hand. The work was very hard, but all the damage to the two bridges was quickly repaired.

But then the former management of the plant began to arrive from the East (including the people who competently sent the evacuation train from the station ahead of time). Some of those who returned began to be loudly indignant: we there, in evacuation, risked everything and did not spare our lives to win the war, and here you are under occupation, “helping the Germans.” Despite the successful restoration of the enterprise, Timofey Grigorievich had to give up his post to chief engineer Gutman, who returned from evacuation. My father was appointed head of the capital construction department of the plant, and by position he was considered deputy director of the plant. His appointment to such a post was unusual. This surprised many, and some even outraged. The fact is that this position was purely party, like all leadership positions at that time. And suddenly there was a non-party member on it, and even from the former occupied territory.

For successful restoration work, the plant was awarded the banner of the USSR State Defense Committee eight times. All this was some kind of support for my father. Therefore, the statement of one of the founders of the workshops, a certain Denisenko, a party member, that his father was not worthy of this position, did not affect his position.

Despite the “dark spots” in his biography, Timofey Grigorievich was awarded a government award for the successful completion of the restoration of the plant. While restoring the plant, they simultaneously built residential buildings and cultural institutions. They began to build a good and comfortable village.

After some time, N.S. Khrushchev himself came to the plant. He was then the first secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine and the chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR. He arrived with a large retinue, among which was the first secretary of the regional committee of the Stalin region, Melnikov.

As my father writes, Khrushchev was dressed in a unique way. Well-cleaned boots, riding breeches, a Muscovite jacket, and a felt hat on his head. He spoke a lot and he was the only one. The rest, absorbed in his famous expression “Kuzka’s mother,” watched his every move and only agreed and obediently nodded their heads. During the entire time there was not a single question, request or objection. His words were perceived as a gift from God sent from above.

Khrushchev entered one of the houses under construction. The houses were built from cinder blocks, which were prepared here. But at that time, Khrushchev had already signed a decree on the use of raw bricks for internal walls in houses. And in the village under construction, the internal walls were made of cinder blocks. Khrushchev immediately drew attention to this: “Didn’t you read our resolution on the use of raw brick in these cases?”

Everyone froze. The director of the plant, Balanov, turned pale, confused and could not say anything. His father had to help him out. Timofey Grigoryevich answered Khrushchev like this: “Nikita Sergeevich, we have been working on the resolution, but in our conditions there are large reserves of slag, which we use for cinder blocks, but we don’t have enough bricks even for industrial construction.”

Addressing Melnikov, Khrushchev said: “They are doing, perhaps, the right thing. Don’t bother them with this.”

Melnikov, being the first secretary of the regional committee, had never been to the plant before or after this incident and did not have the slightest idea about its affairs and needs. However, with a businesslike air, he answered Khrushchev: “Okay, Nikita Sergeevich.” My father knew Melnikov well from the institute. Later, when he was secretary of the regional committee, Timofey Grigorievich more than once had to not only see him at meetings, but also meet him in person. Despite his high position, he was always friendly and showed a keen interest in his student acquaintances.

14. DADDY’S MARRIAGE TO MY MOTHER.

While his father was working at the factory, back during the war, an important event occurred in his life. In 1943, he was already 33 years old, but he was not yet married. And so, Valentina Polikarpovna Markova (later Fomenko) became his wife. She was born in Yuzovka (now Donetsk), in the family of an employee. She was the youngest. Older than her were two sisters, Fig. 1.9, Fig. 1.10, and two brothers, Fig. 1.11, Fig. 1.12, Fig. 1.13. Parents are Russian. The father is from the Oryol province, and the mother is from the Smolensk province, but they settled in the Donbass. In Fig. 1.14 are the relatives of Valentina Markova, my mother. Old photograph from approximately 1922-1923, Yuzovka (later Stalino, Donetsk). On the left are my mother’s young parents (Romanova Efrosinya Andreevna and Markov Polikarp Fedoseevich), and she herself, a little girl of 4-5 years old, sits in the foreground. On the right is Klava, my mother’s sister. Sitting on the right are most likely my mother’s grandparents. I don't know their names. I also don’t know what kind of man is sitting on the left. Unfortunately, there is no one to ask anymore.

Fig. 1.9. My grandmother - Romanova (Markova) Efrosinya Andreevna (right) and her three daughters (from left to right): Claudia, Valentina and Anna (Rutchenkovo).

Fig. 1.10. Sister of Valentina Markova (Fomenko) - Anyuta with her son Anatoly and husband Georgy Fridrikhovich Berzin.

	Fig. 1.11. My grandmother is Efrosinya Andreevna Romanova (Markova) and the family of her son Nikolai, that is, my uncle. Nikolai Ippolitovich Markov, his wife Vera Alekseevna (Zorina) and son Alexey. My mother said that she herself was surprised that her middle name was Polikarpovna, her brother Georgy had the same name, and her brother Nikolai had the middle name Ippolitovich. Although they all have the same father. Apparently, there was some confusion in the documents.
Fig. 1.12. Markov Georgy Polikarpovich is the brother of Valentina Markova. 1977.	Fig. 1.13. Markov Georgy Polikarpovich is the brother of Valentina Markova. 1939.

Fig. 1.14. On the left are my mother’s young parents (Romanova Efrosinya Andreevna and Markov Polikarp Fedoseevich), and she herself, a little girl of 4-5 years old, sits in the foreground. On the right is Klava, my mother’s sister. Standing on the right are most likely my mother’s grandparents. Photo from approximately 1922-1923.

Fig. 1.14a shows the view of the Yuzovka miners in 1912, and Fig. 1.14b shows the central Yuzovka mine in 1911.

Fig. 1.14a. Yuzovka - a mining village in 1912. Taken from the Internet.

Fig. 1.14b. View of Yuzovka at the beginning of the 20th century. The central mine of Yuzovka in 1911. Taken from the Internet.

Valya studied very successfully, first in high school, and then at the Pedagogical Institute (now Donetsk University), receiving a degree in philology. But she didn’t have time to get used to the profession of teaching Russian language and literature. The war began.

During the German occupation, she had to endure a lot, exposing herself to danger. The Germans, due to a shortage of labor, forcibly took the girls to Germany and thereby tried to solve the problem with cheap labor. Among these slaves was Valya, the future wife of Timofey Grigorievich. She was sent under escort to Germany. In Germany, she had to work, although not for long, at a military plant in the city of Güstrow (located in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern). She and other captured Soviet girls were forced to do dangerous work - stuffing shells, under the supervision of the Germans. But, despite strict control and great risk, the girls still sometimes managed to fill the shells with earth and other substances instead of explosives.

It was almost impossible to escape from there. An exception was made only for patients. Valya managed to buy for her dresses, which she brought with her from home, a false certificate about illness and the undesirability of her stay among healthy girls. The Germans immediately isolated her and sent her home. Only in this way did she finally manage to get home, through great hardship and torture. My mother recalled this difficult time with great reluctance.

Upon returning home, her former friends approached her and invited her to take part in helping Soviet prisoners of war who were located nearby in a German concentration camp. At first everything went well. But then one day at home she began to collect some old clothes for prisoners of war. Her father unexpectedly found her doing this work, and when he found out what was going on, he categorically forbade her to go there, knowing how dangerous it was. And he was right. The same girls who once again appeared at the appointed place, this time were noticed by German guards. They were immediately arrested and then shot.

So, quite by accident, Valya survived. These were terrible days for her. She was very worried about the loss of her close friends.

Timofey and Valentina met after her return from Germany, when the city of Stalino was liberated from occupation. They got married on December 31, 1943.

On March 13, 1945, their son Tolya was born, that is, me, fig. 1.15, fig. 1.16, fig. 1.17, Fig.1.18.

Figure 1.15. Family of T.G. Fomenko (March 16, 1946, Rutchenkovo).

Fig. 1.16. Family of T.G. Fomenko. The city of Rutchenkovo, 1947

Fig. 1.17. T.G. Fomenko with his son Tolya. 1949, the village of Rutchenkovo ​​- a suburb of Stalino, then Donetsk.	Fig. 1.18. T.G. Fomenko with his son. 1948

15. PROHIBITION TO DEFEND A CANDIDATE DISSERTATION. THE FATHER IS DECLARED UNRELIABLE.
THE RESULT IS A “VOLUNTARY” EXILITY TO THE DISTANT AND LEGENDARY CITY OF MAGADAN.

My father began working at a research institute as the head of one of the laboratories. His deputy was Vitrenko, his father’s fellow student at the institute. When applying for a job at the Donetsk Coal Institute, it turned out that it was impossible to use the documents my father had on exemption from taking candidate exams.

Even before the war, when Timofey Grigorievich worked at the Donbassugol plant, he was engaged in scientific work. Many of his works have been published. Naturally, the idea of ​​defending a dissertation arose. My father once spoke to Zasyadko and asked for leave to prepare for the candidate exams. Zasyadko said: “You don’t need to take exams and I won’t give you leave. You are needed here now. Write a letter to the Chairman of the Higher School Committee, Kaftanov, asking for an exemption from exams. Justify this with your busy production work... I will gladly sign.”

Soon, from the Higher Attestation Commission, my father received a certificate of exemption from taking exams. But then the war began, and all plans were disrupted.

When, after the war, Timofey Grigorievich presented his certificate to the deputy director, he read it and said that it had already lost its force and was invalid. It was very unexpected and unpleasant. My father was advised: “Roll up your sleeves, prepare and pass the exams. This is a more reliable path.” So he did.

This conversation took place in March 1947, and in May my father had already passed the exam in German, in June - in Isthmata (historical materialism) and Diamat (dialectical materialism), and in October - two special disciplines. I immediately started writing my dissertation. He had a lot of materials. The dissertation was quickly completed. Timofey Grigorievich sent his dissertation to the Dnepropetrovsk Mining Institute for admission to defense.

But then a tub of cold water was suddenly poured on him. Defense was denied. Motive? The answer, rather strange, was the following: “Your dissertation is too theoretical, and it cannot be evaluated by our specialists.”

In reality, something completely different happened. The head of the department, a certain Kopychev, unofficially, in a private conversation, feeling somewhat embarrassed, told his father how the matter stood. Kopychev was summoned by the director of the institute and refused to accept the dissertation, citing instructions from party bodies. According to him, dissertations from people who were in the occupied territory cannot be accepted. It was necessary to refuse under some pretext. We thought and thought and finally came up with an idea. Submit your dissertation to unofficial opponents for review. If there is even one negative review, then do not accept the job. Well, if the reviews are positive, then refuse, citing the lack of specialists. And since all the reviews turned out to be positive (!), they had to resort to the second crafty option.

Timofey Grigorievich turned to another institute - the Leningrad Mining Institute. But they refused there too. They came up with another reason. They say that the exams my father passed did not correspond to the profile of the dissertation. Then it turned out that this was also a far-fetched motive. As Professors Andreev and Korolkov informed him, at the request of the director of the institute, they had to refuse, and they could not come up with anything smarter.

This was the end of my father’s first attempts to become a candidate of sciences. Many advised him to leave this matter until more suitable times. So he did.

My father did not work very much at the institute. After the war, a special resolution approved the 14th procedural article, according to which a certain category of people was prohibited from working in most large administrative and industrial cities of the Union. Among these “some” was my father, since the large and strategically important city of Stalino was certainly among the forbidden. Since all this was not done openly, some kind of pretext was needed to expel Timofey Grigorievich and others like him from the “special” cities. And soon such an opportunity presented itself.

Since his father was the head of the laboratory, as a first step he was offered to move “in an amicable way” to a lower position as a deputy, displacing Vitrenko. And Malakhovsky was appointed instead of his father. Timofey Grigorievich was not upset. On the contrary, he was even pleased, considering the position of deputy less noticeable. But, however, they did not leave him alone. His deputy Vitrenko, also, by the way, one of the “disgraced few,” was pushed to a lower position. He was a hot-tempered and intemperate man. The path of struggle he chose turned out to be not only ineffective, but also dishonest. Vitrenko secretly typed a memo to the Ministry on his father’s typewriter, in which he declared the demotion of Timofey Grigorievich to be wrong, but did not say a word about himself. Vitrenko's main mistake and dishonesty lay in the signature. The report was not his, but supposedly his father’s signature, that is, a forgery.

After some time, the director of the institute, Bobrov, unexpectedly calls his father, shows this report and asks: “Did you write this paper?” The father was taken aback. He didn’t know anything, but under the report there was a signature quite similar to his. Timofey Grigorievich flatly refused the fake. Then the director ordered to compare the font of the report with the font of the typewriter that always stood on my father’s desk. It turned out that the report was typed on this typewriter. In general, they didn’t believe their father.

Under the guise of staff reduction, my father was immediately fired from the institute and, at the direction of the Ministry, was sent to the disposal of the plant for use as the chief engineer of the mine. But Timofey Grigorievich wisely refused this high position, since at that time it was too unreliable, and even more so with his “tarnished political reputation.” So he ended up out of work altogether.

The laboratory staff learned about Vitrenko’s action and treated the cat very well. This news excited the entire team. Everyone looked at Vitrenko as a low person. The fact is that the employees conducted their own investigation and proved his guilt. He wrote a fake. He was forced to give up and confessed. In the end, he was also fired and sent as the chief engineer of one of the factories of the Cheremkhovo basin in Siberia.

Timofey Grigorievich refused the post of chief engineer of the mine, but no one in the city hired him. Even a friend like Dugin, being the director of a large design institute, refused to give his father a job and openly admitted that he had no right to do this.

Former good and ordinary acquaintances were divided into three categories. Some began to be vigilant and write all kinds of denunciations and libels against their father. Others turned away so as not to bring trouble upon themselves. Still others, most likely, only one acquaintance, I.S. Blagov, on the contrary, advertised his good attitude towards his father.

Soloviev and Marusev, engineers who knew Timofey Grigorievich well, showed particular hostility. So, without any reason, they attributed to him sympathy for fascism.

The attitude of the trust manager Blagov at that time made an indelible impression on my father. My parents were touched by such generosity. But they had no idea how they would have to pay for it in the future. For example, my father then had to create and write many of Blagov’s scientific works for Blagov, and then write his dissertation entirely for Blagov. This is described in detail in the Memoirs of a Father.

So, in 1949, our family found ourselves overboard. There were no monetary savings, but we had to exist somehow. And at that moment, fate sent “manna from heaven” to my father. A colonel from the Ministry of Internal Affairs suddenly wanted to meet with him.

He invited his father to go to work for them, with a trip to the Far North-East, to the city of Magadan, where a specialist was needed to organize a special department at the Research Institute of Gold and Rare Metals to study the processes of enrichment of alluvial deposits of this rich region. The colonel said: “I will be frank with you. Although you have no record of wrongdoing, it will be difficult for you to work here. You may find yourself in an even worse situation. But if you agree to our proposal and work in our system, then all your political and economic problems will be solved immediately. We guarantee this to you.”

The father replied: “It’s better for me to go there myself than if you take me under escort.”

Having received the appropriate documents and a fairly large amount of money, dad and mom began to get ready for distant and completely unknown lands. They were very happy with this outcome, since the new residence seemed much safer than where we were. They sold some things, gave some furniture to relatives, tied clothes and linens into bales, put them in luggage and set off. We made a stop in Moscow, then set off by courier train "Moscow-Vladivostok".

The terms of the agreement were generally quite good. My father was given a fairly high salary, which increased by ten percent every six months until it doubled. It was 1950.

16. IN 1950 WE WERE SENT TO KOLYMA, TO MAGADAN.

From Moscow to Vladivostok we traveled by train for eight days. We drove past Lake Baikal. A huge portrait of Stalin carved on a rock. Impressive nature. Finally, we arrived in Vladivostok. While dad went to the Dalstroy representative office, mom and I (I was five years old) settled down in a public garden. It turned out that steamships from Vladivostok to Magadan no longer sailed due to the transfer of the trade and passenger port to Nakhodka. We swam in the warm water of the Sea of ​​Japan, took the train and went in the opposite direction to Ugolnaya station. There we managed to board a carriage and go to Nakhodka at night.

The city of Nakhodka was not particularly welcoming. It turned out that there were no steamships to Magadan. A large number of recruits gathered here, also eager to get to Magadan by any means. A hotel was out of the question. We were placed in camp-type barracks. These are long wooden sheds, in which two-tier bunks are installed on the right and left, without any partitions between them. They accommodated both bachelors and married people, men and women, with children. Everything flourished: drinking, singing, playing cards, fighting and much more. It was incredibly hot and stuffy in the barracks; they were not ventilated.

Finally, it was announced that engineering and technical workers and their families would be transported to Magadan by plane. But since they fly from Khabarovsk, we were offered to immediately leave Nakhodka and travel by train to Khabarovsk.

In Khabarovsk we were placed in a decent hotel, but absolutely overcrowded with recruited people. People slept in the halls and corridors, but, nevertheless, it was much more pleasant than in the barracks. Against the backdrop of barracks life, these conditions seemed simply wonderful.

But our wandering did not end. We spent a week in Khabarovsk waiting for planes. But they were not there and were not there. Finally, they reported that there were no planes, and that we would all have to go again to the ill-fated Nakhodka, where a large steamer would soon arrive for us.

We were shocked. And here we go again - Nakhodka. Again cramped barracks, again experiences. Finally, the long-awaited motor ship "Ilyich" arrived. This is a comfortable ship, previously owned by Germany. It was given to Hitler by Mussolini and, of course, was intended for other passengers. It was captured during the war. The ship was equipped with a swimming pool, volleyball court, restaurant and beautiful cabins, including "suites". Landing has begun. The stewards had a hard time. They had to fight a terrible crush. The frenzied crowd stormed the steamer's gangway. Everything was swept out of the way. Everyone was afraid to stay in Nakhodka for an indefinite period of time. We still managed to climb up with our belongings. Not only the luxurious cabins were filled, but also all the pleasure and other decks and platforms. They settled in as best they could. Sitting and lying human bodies could be seen everywhere.

Using the right of the contract, where it was agreed upon for my father to be provided with a soft ride on the train and a separate cabin on the ship, we eventually received a luxury cabin and were more than satisfied.

The motor ship "Ilyich" left the bay and headed into the open Sea of ​​Japan. Two days later we approached the La Perouse Strait, separating Sakhalin Island and the Japanese Islands. All the time while we were sailing along the shores of Sakhalin, we were constantly accompanied by a military boat coming from the starboard side, from the direction of Japan. We entered the deep and harsh Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Everything was shrouded in a damp haze under leaden clouds. Huge waves were constantly rushing towards the ship; schools of fish swimming along the ship in search of something edible in the sewage waste; water fountains created by whales...

The cheerful mood and curiosity of many passengers gradually gave way to lethargy, indifference, then nausea and, finally, continuous vomiting. For two days, when the rocking continued, the entire ship was vomited, and the atmosphere in enclosed spaces, stagnant and stuffy, was filled with unpleasant fumes.

On the last, fifth day of the voyage, the sea calmed down and we were able to come to our senses.

Having thus sailed 2,700 kilometers, we reached Nagaevo Bay, named in honor of Admiral A.I. Nagaev, who compiled the first map of the Far East in 1767. Nagaevo Bay is surrounded by hills on three sides and cuts deep into the mainland. At the entrance to the bay, near the freshwater spring, on the rocks of the cape, sailors from ships that had previously visited here, according to an old tradition, left inscriptions that have survived to this day. Near Nagaevo Bay there is Vesyolaya Bay, so named because of the loud voices of numerous birds nesting on the rocks of the bay.

17. NINE YEARS IN MAGADAN.

On a large hill destroyed by time, the gentle slopes of which run down to the shores of Nagaevo and Veselaya bays, the city of Magadan is located. It has never been a provincial town. It was immediately built as the capital of Dalstroy, or rather, as the capital of areas of special subordination. Magadan was in a special position and was directly subordinate to Moscow. There was a kind of Soviet governorship, headed by the all-powerful chief of Dalstroy - a general from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He had everything in his power: lands, waters, subsoil, sea, airspace, forests, mountains, transport, people and everything else. They had their own laws - strict laws of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. This was explained by the presence in this region of a large number of prisoners used as labor.

The city greeted us unfriendly. Wet snow and sharp damp wind. Silence. As my father wrote, in addition to everything there was an unpleasant feeling from the first acquaintance with some very popular expressions of these places. For example: “Magadan is like an airplane: if you get sick, you won’t jump out.” The fact is that there was an extremely strict regime for entry and exit from the city. Or this: “Kolyma, Kolyma, a wonderful planet. Twelve months are winter, the rest is summer.” Even funnier: “One hundred rubles is not money, a woman of sixty is not an old woman.” There were very few women and many men there then. Women were worth their weight in gold.

If we add to all this the subscription taken from my father, which listed several points, failure to comply with which was punishable by twenty-five years in prison, or even more convincingly - by execution, then the mood of my parents was not cheerful.

In the personnel department of Dalstroi, Timofey Grigorievich was sent to the scientific research institute number 1 of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, Fig.1.19. (Note: Number One Institute - enrichment research was highly valued at the time). The father was received by the director N.A. Shilo, then an academician of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. When he found out that our family was living in a barracks, he immediately offered to move into the vacant room of an employee who had previously arrived in Magadan for recruitment.

Fig.1.19. All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Gold and Rare Metals: VNII-1 of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. Magadan. T.G. worked here. Fomenko.

Somewhat later, my father was given a vacant apartment in Nagaevo Bay, on the slope of a hill. The wooden house had two apartments that were heated with wood. Every Sunday my parents sawed wood, then my father chopped it, and I carried and stacked it. I remember all this well. This supply was enough for us for a week. We lived in this house for quite a long time. The distance from it to the institute was considerable, and there was no public transport there. Walking alone in the evening is not so pleasant. In those days, there were cases when in the evenings former criminals met lonely passers-by and demanded money. If the stopped person did not have money or anything valuable, he usually received a solid kick with the words: “You must always have something with you. Don’t come across us like this again.” My father knew this circumstance and always carried 150 rubles with him as a ransom. This is exactly the amount that was then enough, at Magadan prices, for one liter of alcohol and an unpretentious snack.

After some time, my father was given a room in a comfortable house almost next to the institute. There is no longer a need to constantly carry 150 rubles with you.

Fig.1.20, ..., Fig.1.44 show some photographs of our Magadan period.

Fig. 1.20. V.P. Fomenko with his son, 1954, Magadan.	Fig. 1.21. V.P.Fomenko. Near our first house in Magadan.

Fig.1.22. New Year in Magadan. 1955

Fig. 1.23. Magadan. Central street. 1950s

Fig. 1.24. Magadan. Residential areas. 1950s

Fig. 1.25. Grocery store near our house in Magadan. Drawing from life by Tolya Fomenko.

Fig. 1.26. Our room in a communal apartment in Magadan. Drawing from life by Tolya Fomenko.	Fig. 1.27. Portrait of T.G. Fomenko. Drawing by Tolya Fomenko. Magadan.

Fig. 1.28. The Sea of ​​Okhotsk, on the shores of which the city of Magadan stands. 1950s

Fig. 1.29. Kolyma. Dredge. This is how gold is washed. 1950s

Fig. 1.30. Magadan region. Herds of deer. 1950s

Fig. 1.31. T.G.Fomenko. Magadan, March 1958

Fig. 1.32. A huge polar bear nicknamed Yulka in the Magadan Zoo, not far from our house. The children fed her constantly. Next to her cage was a wide and very tall cage where large eagles lived, see the next photo. It was the bear Yulka that I depicted on my model.

Fig. 1.33. Huge eagles living in a large and high cage in a city park in Magadan. Photo taken around 1956.

Fig. 1.34. Structures and sculptures in the Central City Park of Magadan. We lived right next to the park. Photo from 1956.

Fig.1.35. A huge head of a knight, from a fairy tale by A.S. Pushkin, made of ice at the New Godokolo Magadan stadium. Photo taken around 1956, Magadan.

Fig. 1.36. T.G. Fomenko, V.P. Fomenko with their son Tolya. Magadan, 1958.

Fig. 1.37. Tolya Fomenko (right) on a school walk in Magadan along the surrounding hills. Teachers sometimes organized short trips for their classes around the outskirts of Magadan. 1958

Fig. 1.38. Tolya Fomenko in a Santa Claus costume at the home Christmas tree. Going to a school New Year's party. Magadan, 1958.

Fig. 1.39. Near our first house in Magadan. 1953

Fig. 1.40. Watercolor drawing by Tolya Fomenko. 1st grade. 1951

Fig. 1.41. V.P.Fomenko.	Fig. 1.42. T.G.Fomenko.

Fig.1.43. T.G.Fomenko, A.T. Fomenko, V.P.Fomenko.

Fig. 1.44. V.P.Fomenko. 1956, August 12, Magadan. Veselaya Bay, Dukcha River.

At the institute, Timofey Grigorievich was offered to head the newly organized Department for the study of processes of enrichment of alluvial deposits of gold and tin. They warned that no one at the institute had dealt with placer issues before, and my father would have to draw up a plan and select personnel himself.

The Far Northeast is located between the Lena and Aldan rivers in the west and the Bering Sea in the east. The harsh and majestic region is spread out in the basins of the Yana, Indigirka and Kolyma rivers. This is one of the largest mining regions in our country. The beginning of the development of placers dates back to the 19th century. Before this, only ore deposits were developed. In 1812, the entire population of Russia was allowed to search for gold and silver ores. In 1814, gold placers were rediscovered in the punished Berezovsky mines in the Urals. At the same time, placers were also rediscovered on the Neiva River. In 1823, gold placers began to be developed in the Bogoslovsky and Gornobladatsky districts, and a year later in the Zolotoust district.

The search for gold in the Siberian provinces contributed to the development of placer mining in old Russia. The Urals again became the center of mining of ore gold, and Eastern Siberia - of placer gold. Only at the beginning of the 20th century did separate groups of Russian and foreign entrepreneurs, captured by the whirlwind of the “gold rush” that arose at that time in Alaska and the Klondike, rush to the Far Northeast. The invasion of gold miners ended with the organization of the private “North-Eastern Society” in Chukotka. The systematic development of this inaccessible region began only under Soviet power. The first major expedition was led by geologist S.V. Obruchev (1926). The second was organized in 1928 under the leadership of geologists A.A. Bilibin and V.A. Tsaregradsky. In 1931, a trust was created for industrial and road construction in the Upper Kolyma region, which was then reorganized in 1938 into the Main Directorate for Construction of the Far North - Dalstroy. Many gold, coal, tin and placer deposits were discovered.

The employees of the institute's enrichment department, and there were over 80 of them, greeted my father well, but somewhat warily. This was caused by his appointment immediately to a leadership position. In addition, at one of the meetings, Director Shilo frightened him with the arrival of his father and his experience as a famous researcher.

My father began by getting acquainted with the works, and carefully, in a calm manner, talked with the performers. Quite quickly it was possible to find a common language even with those who at first reacted most emotionally to his comments.

When my father arrived in Magadan, Shilo was the director of the institute, and then unexpectedly Professor Alexandrov was sent from Moscow to this position. Shiloh became his deputy. At the same time, Kuznetsov was appointed chief engineer of Dalstroy. As it later turned out, both Alexandrov and Kuznetsov were advisers on atomic energy at the USSR Mission to the United Nations in New York, which at that time was headed by Gromyko.

It turned out that their appointment to Magadan was the result of a scandal between the United States and our country. Aleksandrov, Kuznetsov and another employee of our UN Representative Office bought materials related to the development of the atomic bomb from the Americans, the Rosenbergs, for gold. As is known, the Rosenbergs were executed in the electric chair, and Alexandrov and Kuznetsov with these materials went to the USSR the same way, and the third participant without the materials had to leave through Canada, and thereby distract American intelligence. And so it happened. Alexandrov and Kuznetsov safely reached their homeland, and the third employee was captured in Canada. But he didn’t have any materials. He was subsequently exchanged for an American intelligence officer.

The American government demanded that our government punish Alexandrov and Kuznetsov. So they were punished by deportation to Magadan. Soon they were awarded the titles of Heroes of the Soviet Union, Stalin Prize Laureates and Colonels. Their stay in Magadan was short-lived. A year and a half later, they both left for Moscow, where their families lived. At the institute, after Alexandrov’s departure, Shilo again became the director.

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My father witnessed such misfortunes twice. At the Dneprovsky mine, where he and his team were testing washing devices, it began to rain heavily. Streams of water poured down the valley from all the gullies. The stream was so strong that it carried uprooted trees and rolled over huge stones and boulders. A mine mobile compressor, weighing tens of tons, was even overturned and carried 80 meters away.

My father observed an equally tragic situation in Tenka. The equipment there was carried away and washed away a number of prepared sites. These are the conditions in which my father had to work for a long time. True, the climatic conditions of Magadan itself are less severe, but my father often had to travel deep into the taiga, especially in the summer, when the washing of gold-bearing sands begins. The work was complicated by greedy and annoying mosquitoes. Their numerous bites are very painful. In general, there were a lot of all kinds of midges.

The long highway (it is called here “the route”), connecting Magadan with mines, villages, and the upper reaches of the Kolyma and Indigirka rivers, was built from cone pheline sands. During the heaviest and longest rains, the surface of such a road is covered with soaked slurry, no more than 10 mm thick. The adhesion of such coatings to car tires is much better than with asphalt. There are several very impressive passes on the highway. It is enough to point out that the ascent and descent often reach 27-30 kilometers. Given the small width of the route, its tortuosity and enormous height above the abyss, movement is always associated with great danger. Sometimes road trains fell into the abyss.

At a distance of 200 kilometers from Magadan, away from the highway, the Talaya resort is located. The source of healing water has a temperature of over 90 degrees and high mineralization - 0.45 g/l. The spring discharges 18 cubic meters of water per hour. Grass grows around all winter and beautiful wild flowers bloom.

Every hundred kilometers, and sometimes every fifty, there are gas stations, canteens and hotels along the highway. American Diamond cars were initially used along the entire track. With the trailer they had 32 wheels. After the war, when relations with the United States deteriorated, the supply of such vehicles ceased, and 37-ton Tatras were purchased from Czechoslovakia.

At that time, only prisoners worked in the mines and mines. And if these were not political, but criminal, then there were certainly leaders among them. They were always appointed by the camp authorities to the position of brigadier. If you appoint someone else (that is, not an “authority”), then, as a rule, the team did not work. And if a civilian acts in this capacity, then in general nothing could be done with such a brigade. The brigade always works as the respected leader says. His orders are law. They were carried out accurately and in a timely manner. Everyone working in the mines was given a portion of alcohol. If it was not there, the production of gold and cassiterite fell sharply.

When alcohol is given to prisoners, an order is established among them, in which everyone must pour a little into a common mug for the leader. This unwritten law was observed very strictly. Violation could result in severe reprisals. One of the mine managers decided to put an end to this. He set up a stall, and the prisoners had to take turns approaching it and immediately drink their portion of alcohol from the stall mug. But the existing order was not violated in this case either! Each prisoner drank a mug of alcohol, but the last sip remained in his mouth and, moving away from the stall, he spat it into the mug for the leader. The humiliated head of the mine canceled his innovation.

There were also women's camps in Kolyma. They have always had a bad reputation; they were many times superior to men's in this regard. It was impossible for one man to appear on the territory of the women’s camps without security. After all, a man cannot satisfy all the women in the camp. With sexual dissatisfaction, women become embittered, their desire turns into a feeling of revenge. A man who accidentally finds himself in such a situation has to pay with his genitals. This has happened more than once.

The narcotic drink “chifir” or “chifir” is widespread throughout the Northeast. It is prepared from tea as follows. A whole pack of tea is poured into a mug or an empty tin can, filled with water and put on fire. As soon as the water boils, the mug is removed from the heat, cools, and then the tar-black liquid is squeezed out of the tea. This is chifir. A couple of sips lift your spirits and keep you awake for a long time. Chifir was readily used by many, and especially by drivers, in order to avoid accidents on the difficult roads of Kolyma. Serpentine roads in many places pass through mountainous terrain, through dangerous passes, past cliffs, which requires drivers to be alert and especially attentive. You can't sleep. This can only be achieved by consuming chifir. When the effect of the drink wears off, the person becomes lethargic and indifferent. Arriving at the final destination, the driver falls asleep for a long time. Having woken up, he prepares for the return journey. He takes a mug, pours in a whole pack of tea... And so on.

Frequent use of chifir makes a person a kind of alcoholic, or rather a drug addict. It is very difficult to get rid of this.

There have been cases of gold theft at gold mines. For example, at one of the dredges, its boss, a certain Loparev, bought gold from gold miners at 50 rubles per gram (prices of that time, pre-reform), which is significantly higher than the state price - 12 rubles 50 kopecks. Then he resold the gold to another person for 150 rubles per gram, and this “other person” in Odessa resold it to an agent in Turkey for 300 rubles per gram. So 120 kilograms of gold went to Turkey. Loparev was tracked down. He was arrested as he boarded a plane with 11.5 kilograms of alluvial gold in a specially tailored belt. Soon he was shot.

We ate relatively well in Magadan. Fruits were delivered from North Korea and China. Mainly tangerines and apples. In stores, fruit was sold, as a rule, in boxes and almost all year round. Fruits were delivered to Magadan based on the total number of residents in the entire region, and their further transportation to mines, mines and villages located in the taiga was very difficult, especially in winter. Therefore, the lion's share of the fruit ended up in Magadan, and we ate several rations, since out of 240 thousand residents of the Magadan region, only 62 thousand lived in Magadan itself at that time.

After working in Magadan for 25 months, according to the contract, my father received a six-month vacation. At the beginning of summer we flew by plane to Moscow. We visited Moscow, Donbass, Sochi, Leningrad and Tallinn. We returned to Magadan a little earlier so that I could continue my studies at school.

My father wrote: “My wife is somewhat timid by nature, sometimes she has indecision, but her greatness lies in a different, non-romantic area. She sacrificed her desires a thousand times for the sake of her family, for the sake of her son. Considering that Tolik drew well, read a lot, and made crafts, then the amount of work he performed could surprise anyone. Draw He began to be short-sighted when he was still in Magadan. In addition, he began to get sick often because of his tonsils. He had to put on glasses and have his tonsils cut out. (End of quotation).

I willingly visited the Palace of Pioneers, Fig. 1.45, Fig. 1.46, and took an active part in the nature circle. He painted birds, animals, butterflies, and insects on fairly large sheets of whatman paper glued to cardboard. I made two models of the flora and fauna of the North-East, Fig. 1.47, Fig. 1.48, Fig. 1.49, Fig. 1.50, Fig. 1.51, Fig. 1.52. My drawings (collected in the form of a collection-gallery) and models were exhibited in the Yunnatov pavilion in Moscow, at the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (VSKhV, then VDNKh, Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy). I was awarded three bronze exhibition participant medals (in 1956, 1957, 1958).

Fig. 1.45. Palace of Pioneers in Magadan. 1956

Fig. 1.46. Palace of Pioneers in Magadan. 1957

Fig. 1.47. The first model made by Tolya Fomenko and representing the flora and fauna of Kolyma. Magadan, 1957. It was exhibited at the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition of the USSR and awarded a bronze medal.

Fig. 1.48. Images of ancient animals made by Tolya Fomenko for the second large model representing ancient flora and fauna. Magadan, 1958. The model was exhibited in Moscow, at the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition of the USSR and was awarded a bronze medal.

Fig.1.49. Tolya Fomenko making the second model for the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition of the USSR. 1958

Fig. 1.50. One of the wall newspapers of the Young Naturalists circle of the Magadan Pioneer House, drawn by Tolya Fomenko. I made a lot of such wall newspapers.

Fig. 1.51. Tolya Fomenko draws visual aids for the Magadan House of Pioneers.

Fig. 1.52. Posters drawn by Tolya Fomenko for the Young Naturalists circle of the Magadan House of Pioneers.

When I was in sixth grade, I wrote a rather lengthy story, “The Secret of the Milky Way.” The fact is that the newspaper “Pionerskaya Pravda” announced a competition for the best work about space exploration. The story was reviewed by the famous science fiction writer Efremov. Unexpectedly for me, it was published in several issues of the newspaper "Pionerskaya Pravda", Fig. 1.53, Fig. 1.53a. The editors received a lot of feedback from the guys. Some of them were published. I was literally inundated with letters from schoolchildren. For several months I received a huge amount of them every week. The newspaper "Pionerskaya Pravda" instead of a fee (it was not paid to minor authors) sent me a darkroom and a large supply of photographic materials. The camera with the monogram “Tole Fomenko from Pionerskaya Pravda” is still kept in our family. For more details, see Chapter 3 of this book.

Fig.1.53. Tolya Fomenko's story "The Mystery of the Milky Way", published in several issues of the newspaper "Pionerskaya Pravda". Publication began on Tuesday, December 30, 1958. Top of page.

Fig. 1.53a. Bottom of the page of the newspaper "Pionerskaya Pravda".

After everything that happened with his father, his new job, good attitude towards him, caused a creative upsurge, and his father took on a new business with great energy. During his nine-year stay at the Magadan Research Institute No. 1 of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, he developed operating modes for sluice devices and dredges, created a theory of material delamination and developed a method for calculating sluices. The properties of gold particles, their granulometric composition were studied and, in particular, the buoyancy of gold particles was established and the properties of cassiterite were studied. A method for calculating the final velocities of falling solids in a free and constrained aquatic environment was developed, the basics of ore enrichment processes by jigging and on concentration tables, the properties of loose deposits were studied, and their classification was made. A method has been developed for determining the optimal indicators of ore enrichment.

These and other works were published both in scientific periodicals and in separate publications, in the form of books. This was one of the most creative periods in the life of Timofey Grigorievich. If over the 18 years of his engineering and scientific activity before moving to Magadan, he published 24 scientific works, then over the 9 years of work at the Magadan Institute, 46 works were published, of which 13 were published in separate editions. More details about these studies are written in my father’s “Memoirs”.

There were also funny cases. One day, Timofey Grigorievich and his team went to one of the mines to study the processes of sand washing in dredges. When I first got acquainted with dredges, my father discovered that the workers did not remove the concentrates from the dredges, believing that there was a complete absence of gold there. In reality, the concentrates were rich in gold. Somehow this had never occurred to anyone before. Without thinking twice, the father, without telling anyone, with his team carried out the first harvest of concentrates. And oh, miracle! I immediately washed about a kilogram of gold. When he handed it over to the mine's cash desk, the entire mine, and not only the mine - the Administration and even the management of Dalstroi - immediately learned about the successful work of his father's team.

They began to praise him in every possible way, but every day he handed over a significant amount of gold to the cashier, essentially doing nothing special. This work had nothing in common with his main task, and suddenly such success and so much noise. My father was never allowed to complete work on his scientific topic. He received orders to remove concentrates from all dredges. After all, it was the last ten days of the month, and the mine was not fulfilling the plan. And suddenly, manna from heaven. There were four dredges at the mine and, naturally, my father’s addition to the plan was very significant. My father was considered a hero by the brigade. The management of the mine and the Department wrote a laudatory petition to Dalstroy. The management of Dalstroi raised this even higher and immediately the Technical Council presented a report from the father on the team’s achievements and additional gold mining reserves.

The Technical Council highly appreciated the work, calling it a new method, and gave instructions to extend Timofey Grigorievich’s method to all dredges. Father and the members of his team were given a fairly decent reward. As it turned out later, the gold they deposited into the mine’s cash register was worth more than one million rubles at the prices of that time. His other works, carried out at the same institute, were much more interesting from a scientific point of view, and even from a practical point of view, but did not give millions today, now, of course, were appreciated, but without any fuss and big prizes.

Several times my father took me with him on short short trips along the Magadan highway to show me the surroundings of Magadan. Some pictures are etched in my memory. For example, when we were driving along the edge of a high cliff, the driver of the car pointed out to me a huge tractor lying far below, in the bushes upside down, and next to it several chaotically piled-up trailers that the tractor was dragging behind it. Probably, the unfortunate driver fell asleep for a moment and did not have time to turn the steering wheel.

And here is another scene. To the left of the route floats a large hill, all bluish from the huge number of blueberries that completely cover the hill. And against this blue background, a dark winding stripe is clearly visible, rising from bottom to top. Our car drives a little closer and it becomes clear that at the end of this strip there is a large bear, crawling upward, raking berries with its paws and chewing them with appetite. And behind it stretches a bright trail of disturbed vegetation and crushed berries.

18. FATHER'S DEFENSE OF THE DISSERTATION.

In the forties and fifties of the 20th century, a rather intense, in some cases even harsh, struggle against cosmopolitanism was waged in the Soviet Union. In principle, this company was correct, since some of the engineers and scientists excessively bowed to the West, and many discoveries made in the past by our scientists were appropriated by foreigners. But, as sometimes happens, the campaign was overzealous. Some exaggerated the idea, bringing it to the point of absurdity, and in our scientific and technical literature, priority was assigned to our specialists for a number of discoveries actually made by Western scientists.

Naturally, refutations and poisonous comments appeared in the foreign press. And after Stalin’s death, the following year, 1954, a special meeting of leading scientists of our country was held in Moscow, where Molotov gave a speech. He explained the significance of the fight against cosmopolitanism in science and condemned unfounded claims to someone else's priority. At the same meeting, Molotov announced the lifting of the ban on accepting dissertations for defense from those scientists who were considered unreliable, according to Article 14, introduced by Stalin. There, an explanation was given about strengthening the fight against persons engaged in slander.

While in Moscow, my father, as always, went to see Professor Verkhovsky, who told him this news and offered to submit his dissertation for the defense. The father appealed to the Higher Attestation Commission of the Ministry of Higher Education with a request to restore his rights to defense and to the candidate exams he had previously passed. And suddenly his request was granted. The father was pleasantly surprised and, of course, delighted. But since he was already working not in the coal industry, but in the ore industry, he had to re-write his dissertation on the beneficiation of rare metal ores, in particular, on the ores of tin deposits. The work was quickly written and accepted for defense by the famous Moscow Mining Institute.

The official opponents were professors Verkhovsky and Kuzkin. The reviews were the most positive. The defense of the candidate's thesis on the topic "Determination of the most advantageous degree of ore enrichment" took place on June 21, 1956 in Moscow, at a meeting of the Academic Council of the Mining and Mechanical Faculty of the Moscow Mining Institute named after I.V. Stalin. So my father became a candidate of technical sciences.

True, it was not without further troubles. My father defended his dissertation at the Faculty Council. After this, the Academic Council of the Institute had to approve the defense by secret vote. And so, a few days before the meeting of the Grand Council, the scientific secretary, a certain Shamakhanov, met my father, casually greeted him and arrogantly declared that he could not submit the dissertation for approval by the Grand Council, since an application had been received against his father. To his father’s surprised question, he replied: “You were repressed, and this says a lot.”

The father was so upset and outraged that he immediately sent a rather extensive telegram to Magadan addressed to director Shilo, asking him to confirm his non-involvement in the repressed. A telegram of huge size and devastating content came to the director of the Mining Institute and the secretary of the party organization. It sharply rejected all speculation about my father, gave him the most flattering characterization, and in addition, the leadership of the Magadan Institute and the party organization demanded that an investigation be carried out and the slanderer punished.

The sharpness and boldness of the tone of the telegram were explained by the changed situation after Molotov’s speech and the beginning of a campaign to eradicate slander that had become firmly established in everyday life. Shamakhanov, due to his shortsightedness, apparently did not know new trends, and found himself in an unpleasant position. Since the Magadan telegram corresponded to the spirit of the times, it was immediately put into action. The artificially created case against the father was quickly considered at a meeting of the party committee of the institute. The scientific secretary was forced to name the person who told him this slander. It turned out to be the dean of the faculty, associate professor Rudenko. At a meeting of the party committee, Rudenko was puffing from exertion and sweating profusely. He squeezed out words of confession drop by drop. Levin, associate professor of the Dnepropetrovsk Mining Institute, allegedly told him about this. At that time, Levin was in doctoral studies at the Moscow Mining Institute. In the prime of his powers, he then barely defended a very mediocre job for a candidate of technical sciences. He knew his father well and, apparently, jealous, wanted to interfere with the defense without being noticed.

In general, there was a lot of talk around this matter and it ended with the father being unanimously approved by the Academic Council of the institute. Later Levin was expelled from doctoral studies as an incapable person who could not cope with the program.

19. WE ARE MOVING FROM MAGADAN TO UKRAINE, TO VOROSHILOVGRAD (LUGANSK).

When I was finishing the 7th grade of high school, my parents decided to leave Magadan. In September 1959, the contract expired, according to which my father was supposed to work in Magadan. As a result of the correspondence, my father received an invitation to three places: to Alma-Ata, the Institute of Mineral Resources of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR; to the Simferopol Institute of Mineral Raw Materials of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR and to the Donbass, to the Voroshilovgrad Research Institute for Coal Enrichment.

At the end of 1959, our family decided to return to the European part of the USSR, to Ukraine. My father chose Voroshilovgrad (Lugansk). Here the work was carried out on a broader scale, affecting all processes of coal enrichment. The Specialized Institute of UkrniiCoal Enrichment set the goal not only of in-depth scientific research, but also the development of new equipment and processes to increase the efficiency of coal enrichment. For my father, as a prominent scientist and specialist in this field, who had been dealing with various coals of the Donetsk basin for a long time, there was a much larger field of activity here than in the institutes of mineral raw materials. It should be noted that my father was not mistaken in choosing an institute. Overall, the work turned out to be interesting and exciting.

Timofey Grigorievich was offered to organize a new laboratory aimed at current problems that are required by production. Already on the second day (all this was in 1959), my father presented a draft order and the rationale for organizing a new laboratory. The order was signed, and from that day on, the laboratory for water-sludge management of coal processing plants began to function, the leadership of which was entrusted to my father.

My father received a good three-room apartment for those times (Lugansk, Chelyuskintsev St., 10, apt. 35), in which our new life began. Since we arrived from Magadan with only suitcases with clothes, we had to urgently acquire furniture, dishes, etc. Before getting an apartment, my mother and I lived with her parents, in Rutchenkovo, a suburb of Donetsk. Fortunately, a significant part of our library has been preserved, which our parents left with their elders when they left for Magadan. And so, all the residents arrived at the new Luhansk house with furniture and various household belongings, but we arrived only with a large pile of books and several small suitcases. The new neighbors asked us in surprise: “How did you live that you didn’t even bring a broken chair with you?” Compared to everyone who moved, we really looked like careless eccentrics.

So, my father was appointed head of the sludge dehydration laboratory at the famous Ukrainian Design Institute for Coal Enrichment and Briquetting "Ukrniugleobogashchenie", Fig. 1.54, Fig. 1.55. In October 1972, he was appointed head of the laboratory of water-sludge management and waste management, and in April 1976 - head of the laboratory of water-sludge management, Fig. 1.56. My father held this position until October 1979, when he retired at the age of 70. The Institute celebrated this event with a large ceremonial meeting, Fig. 1.57, Fig. 1.58, Fig. 1.59.

Fig. 1.54. Institute "Ukrniiugleobogashchenie", where T.G. Fomenko worked for many years (Lugansk).

Fig. 1.55. T.G.Fomenko. 1970

Fig.1.56. T.G. Fomenko speaks at the International Congress on Enrichment (Donetsk).

Fig.1.57. A ceremonial meeting in 1980 at the Institute of Ukrainian Coal Enrichment on the occasion of the anniversary of T.G. Fomenko.

Fig. 1.58. T.G. Fomenko at the ceremonial meeting in 1980, dedicated to his 70th anniversary (Ukrniyugleobogashchenie).

Fig. 1.59. T.G.Fomenko (left) and V.P. Fomenko (center) at a ceremonial meeting dedicated to his 70th anniversary T.G. Fomenko at the Institute of Ukrainian Coal Processing, Lugansk, Ukraine. 1980

Figure 1.60 shows a portrait of my father, drawn by my wife Tanya in 1990. In Fig. 1.61, dad and mom are visiting us in Moscow. In Fig. 1.62 and Fig. 1.63 - Vasily Grigorievich Fomenko - dad's brother, and our two families in 1954. Figure 1.64, Figure 1.65, Figure 1.66, Figure 1.67, Figure 1.68 show some photographs of the Lugansk and Moscow periods.

Fig. 1.60. Portrait of T.G. Fomenko, drawn by T.N. Fomenko on July 27, 1990.

Fig. 1.61. V.P. Fomenko, T.N. Fomenko and T.G. Fomenko in Moscow, in the apartment of A.T. Fomenko and T.N. Fomenko, in Karacharovo.

Fig. 1.62. Vasily Grigorievich Fomenko, brother of T.G. Fomenko.

Fig.1.63. The family of Timofey Grigorievich Fomenko and the family of Vasily Grigorievich Fomenko - his wife and two daughters. In the first row are V.P. Fomenko, Tolya Fomenko, Elvira Fomenko, Ellekh Tamara Karlovna; in the second row: T.G. Fomenko, Nina Fomenko and V.G. Fomenko. Estonia, Tallinn, 1954

Fig. 1.64. V.P.Fomenko and T.G.Fomenko.

Fig. 1.65. V.P. Fomenko and T.G. Fomenko on a walk. Marfino. 1964

Fig. 1.66. T.N.Fomenko (Shchelokova) and V.P. Fomenko. Moscow, Karacharovo.

Fig. 1.67. T.N.Fomenko (Shchelokova), V.P. Fomenko, T.G. Fomenko. 1980 Moscow, Kuskovo park.

Fig.1.68. N.A. Shchelokov (father of T.N. Fomenko), T.N. Fomenko, A.T. Fomenko, V.P. Fomenko and T.G. Fomenko.

In Lugansk, as in Magadan, my father enjoyed great respect from his colleagues. Winner of many awards. A wonderful team of employees arose around him, with many of whom he developed very friendly, close relationships. The details are described in his “Memoirs”.

For many years, dad collected old Russian coins. As a result, he created a large collection, which included very rare specimens. On Sundays, he regularly went to the center of Lugansk, where a large club of numismatists gathered, exchanged and bought coins. He created his own catalog of coins, compared it with the famous catalogs of I.G. Spassky: “Russian coin system” and “Russian coins. Research and catalogue”. This collection then significantly helped us in our research on the new chronology. Dad left the collection to Tanya and me. But we were no longer involved in collecting, and the rich collection of coins was simply kept in our home. Sometimes we showed it to our friends.

Tanya and I often came from Moscow to visit my parents. We found ourselves in our home, in the warmth of love. Mom was busy and couldn’t see enough. Dad took us on long walks around Lugansk, showing us the sights and new buildings. It was no longer easy for him, he was very tired, but he did not admit it and enthusiastically talked about it.

On the last pages of his Memoirs, dad wrote: “I am the one who is now 75 years old. I haven’t seen, heard, suffered, or survived everything. There was everything - good and a lot of bad. I was born on February 4, new style, in the alarming year of 1910, the year of the death of Leo Tolstoy and the dangerous approach of Halley’s comet to the Earth, and so close that its tail should have touched the Earth. In newspapers and various In magazines, many fears were expressed that the tail of Comet Halley consists of harmful gases and all life on Earth would die. Comet Halley really touched the Earth with its tail, but if the scientists’ assumption had come true, I would have died in infancy. And now, 75 years later, that is, in 1986, when I turned 75, this comet again approached the Earth, but no longer. as close as in 1910.

As you can see, I witnessed the meeting of Halley's Comet with the Earth twice. The next meeting of these two celestial bodies will take place in 76 years, without me. I survived three wars - Imperialist, Civil and Great Patriotic War, two hunger strikes, more than one inflation, terror. He was occupied twice - during the Civil and Patriotic Wars. And both times in territory occupied by the Germans. I saw the camps, the bombings. I lived under Emperor Nicholas II, the temporary worker Kerensky, the leaders of the Soviet state - Lenin, Stalin, Malenkov, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko and now I live under Gorbachev. It’s not hard to guess which of us will outlive whom. Gorbachev is much younger than me. Fate threw me from one end of our country to the other. I was in the south, in the Crimea and Transcaucasia, beyond the Arctic Circle and on the shores of the Barents Sea, in the west of our country and in the Far East and Northeast, on the shores of the Sea of ​​Japan and the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Wherever I’ve been.” (End of quote).

My dad died on October 13, 1992. This happened very quickly, within a few minutes, in the arms of my mother (Tanya and I were not there - we lived in Moscow). This morning he was cheerful and cheerful. He was 82 years old. He had a hard time with the coup in our country in 1991, which was aimed at splitting it and, unfortunately, was successful. I considered all these events to be an insidious betrayal of the then leaders of the country and a conspiracy (primarily Gorbachev and Yeltsin), which our military was unable to unravel and prevent in time at the very beginning and during “perestroika”. He dreamed that the Russian State would sooner or later be restored to its full extent and power.

INCENTIVES AND AWARDS TO T. G. FOMENKO
during his work in the Donbass, in the cities of Magadan and Lugansk.

1. 1944.IX.8. Badge "Excellence in socialist competition in ferrous metallurgy" (People's Commissariat of Ferrous Metallurgy of the USSR). (Stalino).
2. 1945.V.31. Certificate of Honor from the Rutchenkovsky Coke and Chemical Plant named after S.M. Kirov for achieving high production indicators in socialist competition during the Great Patriotic War against the Nazi invaders (Stalino).
3. 1947.II.21. Medal "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945." in accordance with the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (Stalino).
4. 1951.XI.3. Gratitude from VNII-1 of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs (Magadan) for excellent production performance and active participation in the public life of the Institute.
5. 1951.XI.24. Gratitude from VNII-1 of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs for active participation and assistance in conducting a review of labor organization and rationalization work.
6. 1952.IV.26. Included on the Board of Honor with the presentation of a Certificate of Honor for exceeding the plan (VNII-1 of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs).
7. 1952.VI.5. Included on the Honor Board of the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute-1 of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs with the presentation of a Certificate of Honor.
8. 1952.XI.5. Certificate of Honor from the Main Directorate (VNII-1 of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs) for high achievements and active public work.
9. 1953.IV.22. Badge "Excellence in socialist competition in the gold-platinum industry" for fulfilling the 1952 production plan (VNII-1 of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs).
10. 1953.VII.20. Inscribed on the Board of Honor for exceeding the six-year plan (VNII-1 of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs).
11. Gratitude and bonus (monthly salary) for work well done at the mine and providing direct assistance to production (VNII-1 of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs).
12. 1954.II.23. Inscribed on the Board of Honor for excellent work (VNII-1 of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs).
13. 1960.I.23. Badge of "Excellence in the Socialist Competition of the Ukrainian SSR" for long-term work in the coal industry and the development of regimes for the use of a new coagulant (Ukrniyugleobogashchenie, Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR).
14. 1961.IV.18. Badge "Miner's Glory III degree" for the development of a water-sludge scheme, regime and use of polyacrylamide for clarification of contaminated waters and their implementation at coal processing plants (Ukrniyugleobogashchenie, Decree of the Council of National Economy (Council of National Economy)).
15. 1962. Certificate of Honor (third prize) of the Exhibition of the National Economy of Ukraine (Ukrainian SSR) for the development of a water-sludge scheme, regime and use of polyacrylamide for clarification of polluted waters.
16. 1963.IV.19. Bronze medal "Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy" for successes in the national economy of the USSR (Resolution of the Main Committee of VDNKh).
17. 1963.III.16. Certificate of honor for active participation in the institute’s development of new equipment and technology for coal enrichment (Ukrniugleobogashchenie, Decree of the Council of Economic Development).
18. 1966. XI.3. Certificate of Honor for the achieved labor success in implementing the research work plan (Ukrniiugleobogashchenie).
19. 1968.III.27. Badge "Excellence in Socialist Competition of the Ukrainian SSR" (Ukrniiugleobogashchenie, Order of the Ministry of Coal Industry of the Ukrainian SSR).
20. 1969.VIII.15. Diploma of the Lugansk Regional Office of the Scientific and Technical Organization "Mining" for the development of technical progress in coal preparation in connection with Miner's Day.
21. 1970.IV.3. Anniversary medal "For valiant work in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" (on behalf of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR).
22. 1972. Participant of VDNKh of the USSR (Main Committee of VDNKh. Certificate 44949).
23. 1973.X.30. Bronze medal "Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy" for the achievements in the development of the national economy of the USSR (Resolution of the Main Committee of VDNKh).
24. 1973.XII.25. Badge "Winner of the socialist competition of 1973" (Ukrniugleobogashchenie, Order of the Ministry of Coal Industry of the Ukrainian SSR).
25. 1974.IV.29. Placed on the Board of Honor for achieved labor successes, in honor of May 1 (Ukrniyugleobogashchenie).
26. 1975.VIII.28. Certificate of Honor for labor achievements in honor of Miner's Day (Ukrniiugloobogashchenie).
27. 1975.IV.25. Jubilee medal "Thirty years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945." in accordance with the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
28. 1975.XII.30. Badge "Drummer of the 9th Five-Year Plan" and a memorable gift for success in work (Ukrniyugleobogashchenie, Order of the Ministry of Coal Industry of the Ukrainian SSR).
29. 1977.VII.30. Medal "Veteran of Labor" (Ukrniugleobogashchie, on behalf of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR).
30. Gratitude in honor of May 1 for the successes achieved and the fulfillment of socialist obligations (Ukrniiugleobogashchie).
31. 1978.IV.17. Certificate from the Ministry of Coal Industry of the Ukrainian SSR for success in fulfilling accepted socialist obligations.
32. 1978.VIII.26. Certificate from the Ministry of Coal Industry of the Ukrainian SSR for achievements in fulfilling social obligations (Ukrniugleobogashchenie).
33. 1979.II.6. Badge “Winner of the 1979 Socialist Competition” for fulfilling social obligations (Ukrniiugleobogashchie, on behalf of the Ministry and the Central Committee of the trade union).
34. 1980.II.4. Badge "Winner of the Socialist Competition 1979" (on behalf of the Ministry and the Central Committee of the trade union).
35. 1985.IV.30. Jubilee medal "Forty years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945." in accordance with the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

The entire Memoirs of T.G. Fomenko can be read on the Internet at chronologia.org. Tanya and I gave several dozen copies of the book to relatives and close friends.

And now I will turn to the Memories of my mother. They take up about 140 pages. Here are some brief information from them.

Chapter 2. MY MOTHER: FOMENKO (MARKOVA) VALENTINA POLIKARPOVNA