Dmitrii Shilov: from bankput to millionaire. Eks Aleksey

acrobats”. But one day they even went with a concert to the orphanage of a nearby village Berezovka. In humorous battles with the neighbouring schools there were even bright wins, and only one – absolutely unfair! – defeat. Mitya went to school with pleasure and only sport distracted him from communication with his friends – hockey with a ball, where he was a field player first and then, like his father, he became a goalkeeper. To be honest, the school years were.

      #2011

      Mitya was always surprised that many people are afraid of each other – they don’t want to go to the stage, to speak in public or consider jokes something unworthy. And the same people, sitting in the hall, laughed and they applauded everything that Mitya and his friends showed on the stage! The same things happened later – at the University, at work, in the hockey team… Everybody wanted joy and fun, but few people were joyful and merry. From the early childhood Mitya heard from his parents: “Do not shame us!”, “Do not ask for trouble!” Looking around, he understood that he was not the only who was brought up in the Soviet style but most of his friends were too. The main thing in the life of a Soviet man was not to stand out, to be like everyone else, not to draw too much attention to yourself. The same clothes, the same salaries, the same words about socialism, but nobody believed them by the end of the 80’s…

      Mitya loved and respected his parents but their “trainers’ aims” were not suitable for him. There were no standard ways out from that situation. When you owe six million roubles, it’s not possible just to make jokes… You had to be absorbed in thought and find what can help. Or vice versa – to look around and to understand something? Or may be to do both?.. Past life and past experience didn’t prepare him for this situation.

      Game console #1993

      One day dad brought Mitya the dream of millions of Russian children —game console “Dandy”. A little bit later, these game consoles appeared in each house but the first computer battles in “Tanks” and “Duck hunting” among Mitya’s friends happened while visiting the Shilovs. Since the console had only two joysticks, Mitya often called Max to play. It was impossible to stop paying and then the most reliable mechanism – the strict voice of mother switched on:

      – Guys, stop playing! You’ll discharge the tube! And you will spoil your eyesight!

      – Well, mum!

      – Without any “mum”! Maxim also has to go home, his parents are waiting for him!

      I wonder where all mums in the world have the invisible way to connect with other mums? At that time there was no chat in WhatsApp, even not everybody had telephones but somehow mothers felt each other. All right, we’ll have to stop playing. Having connected the antenna wire to the TV-set instead of the console cord, Mitya saw a report about the firing of the White House in Moscow on the screen. It was October 1993. In Moscow Studio, Vlad Listiev, Leonid Yarmolnik, Lia Akhedzhakova and Garik Sukachyov and some other famous people appeared one after another. They all looked into the camera with anxiety and called for peace.

      But in Krasnoyarsk it was so peaceful, so Mitya responded childishly:

      – Max, look, what a goat! – “goat” in Krasnoyarsk is called something funny – they play “Tanks” in Moscow too!

      “Well, I don’t know how it will end, Mitya.

      “Whatever they do but not to burn power unit.”

      – They’ve burned down the White House, haven’t you seen?” And they have enough power in Moscow for a hundred years. They take everything from us – Yeltsin, Gaidar and Chubais. My parents said we were so poor here because of Moscow.

      Mother didn’t support political conversations. First of all the child must learn.

      – Come on, Maxim, do your homework! You’ll discuss about politics after all. You are not Vlad Listiev! Program “Theme”, “Spotlight of perestroika”!

      – Mum!

      – And you also, do your homework! Nobody will do Algebra for you! Whoever shoots somebody, it is necessary to learn well! If you become an engineer, you’ll stay at the rear of the armor, no matter what happens in the country.

      Max said goodbye and left, and Mitya, despite of growing maximalism, listened to his parents again. And very soon from another trip dad brought him “Sega Mega Drive 16 bits”, after which he didn’t want to return to simple “Tanks”. But the country did like to play “Tanks” – the war in Chechnya began in 1994. Thousands of recruits from all over Russia were sent there and parents of guys – school leavers realized that their sons had to enter the university but not to get into the army…

      Pressure and influence #1997

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

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

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

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

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

      “Every lector has in ass one vector”, “the button to switch off the lecturer” – and the button was drawn there. “If you have no mind-go to Tsvetmet”, " no Mind-go to the Teacher Training University”, “No mind-go to medical university” … If to believe the inscriptions, the absence of mind opened a wide prospects for life