At last, we made it to Rozdolinsk (locally called “Rozdolnaya”, which is more apropos of a town than the “-sk” ending used for cities). Indeed, there are 5-story buildings here, but they’re not exactly the lap of luxury. Some of the older residents have apartments in these buildings but prefer to live in their old-style homes with wood-burning Russian stoves. Many houses are in complete ruins, many look like they have been maintained but not updated since they were built 80 years ago, and then a few new ones scattered among them, but built in the old style.
We quickly find some people to talk to, including the former mayor, Vassilli Ivanovich, who was kind enough to try to help us. We went from one elder townsperson to the next, picking up Valentina Dmitrivna along the way — a lovely “babushka” who was very gracious with her time and desire to help us, and even invited us in for some tea. It’s interesting. When the old people see cameras, they’re curious; they ask us what we’re filming and try to help out. When the young people see the cameras they try to avoid them, ask us not to film them, even rudely. It seems counter-intuitive to me, so I ask the older people why that is; they tell me it’s because they’re embarrassed that the live like this and they don’t want everyone else to know.
We find two elderly gentlemen who somewhat remembered my grandfather, particularly after seeing the photo I had on my computer, but not to any degree they could comment on. I wish I knew the address they lived at. All my father seems to remember is that it was a split house (one house for two families), the name of the neighbors in that house (which my grandmother told me), that across the street lived a man with two daughters, and that at the time, theirs was the second house away from the Taiga on their street.
That’s not enough today. Most of the people who were alive at the time have passed. Over and over we’re told “if you’d been here two/three/one year ago… so-and-so was still alive and he/she would have known for sure.” We leave having a good sense of the people and the place — of life then and now — but without any real discoveries or traces.
Back in Motygino, we cobble together some dinner and some of us go to someone’s house nearby to bathe in their sauna (banya). Tomorrow we’ll go to the regional cultural museum and civic hall (culture center), then back to Krasnoyarsk.