Tynda (Biased Notes)

SOUL RELAXATION

There are holidays, however.The 25^th anniversary of BAM was celebrated in summer of 1999.I wish I could say that all of the country was celebrating.But I'm not going to lie - the country could care less.Of course, there were a few articles out there as well as congratulations from high officials, even from the Prime Minister Stepashin.

But Tynda was celebrating a jubilee of a former All-Union construction project.There were a lot of people and everyone celebrated the best they could.You've got to relieve stress once in a while.

Organizers of the jubilee celebration had came up with a following idea: send a train boarded with everyone who began the construction of the mainline.Part of the guests were veterans of the railroad troops who built the eastern part of the Komsomol'sk-on-Amur - Tynda railroad line.

The morning of the meeting in Komsomol'sk-on -Amur was sunny.Under the sounds of the solemn march and cheers of the hundreds residents the special jubilee train that had started its journey in Khabarovsk a night before arrived at the station.Here at the station's square took place a meeting.Nikolai Koshman, deputy of the Minister of the Railways, as well as the head of the city government Vladimir Mihalev and veteran BAM builders took part in the meeting.

"Mr. Koshman greeted everyone on behalf of the Prime Minister Sergey Stepashin.He mentioned that just recently Duma had passed a law on creating free economic zones in the Far Eastern part of the country.This would allow a full development of the regions adjacent to the Baikal-Amur railroad mainline.

All of the meeting's participants talked about how important the construction project is for every Russian Federation resident.In remembering those years, lieutenant general Victor Golubev talked about the difficulties that the builders had to deal with, about their courage and determination.He finished his speech with the words - "BAM will be called upon."

In Komsomol'sk-on-Amur more cars were hooked up to the jubilee train.They were to carry veteran builders to Tynda." (an excerpt from Novye Izvestiya)

Celebration in Tynda turned out pretty good.People drank and ate quite a bit (it took two days to clean up the empty bottles).It was fun. There were music, dancing and fireworks.There were some glitches, however.It rained at times and electricity was lost for some time so people had to dance to the sounds of the percussion.But that's nothing.

Besides the official part, there also was just entertainment.I already mentioned music and singing.Entertaining parties came from all over the place, even from Yakutia.

Officials put a huge rock in the middle of the square and told everyone that that’s the symbol of BAM heroism.I'm joking of course.The writing on the rock was done at the very beginning of BAM development.Retired colonel N. Ladynsky told the history of the cube and the writing:

There was a meeting of the railroad troops on the spot of the future Bestuzhevo station under slogans - "Let's build BAM!" "The first BAM cube!"After the ground was softened with explosives, the bucket of excavator EO-41-21 caught a huge block of rock that did not want to come out.The present at the meeting crowd witnessed all this.Here at the meeting it was decided to call this rock the first cubic meter of BAM dirt or the cube.It became a monument to the first railroad builders warriors.The rock was cleaned up and placed on the territory of the 10^th railroad battalion.In 1977 the monument was moved to the museum of BAM history where it stayed until 1999.When celebration of the 25^th BAM anniversary was being organized, it was decided to place this monument on the square of the 25^th anniversary of BAM.

By nighttime the festivities were going on in full force.There were so many people on the square that one had to hold hands while walking through the crowd.If you lost some one in that crowd, there was no way of finding your party unless you'd arranged for a place to meet up.

Then, there were fireworks!It was grand.People were cheering, whistling and expressing their happiness.Children screamed and jumped on the shoulders of their fathers.

Some pessimist lady, that happened to stand right next to me, tried to spoil the moment by saying that people are crazy to celebrate and that they are being fooled by this fireworks.Luckily, it was almost impossible to hear her because of the crowd.

Maybe it is so.Maybe we live in bad conditions.But to spoil this little celebration one has to be warped.Ah, forget about her!

Let me mention the 2000 New Year celebration!

If was freezing! Below 40.We don't even have to look at the thermometer to guess the temperature outside.If there is fog, then it's 40 below for sure.

That was the first time I did not go to the Christmas Tree in the center of the city with my children.It was too cold and windy.Maybe it wasn’t that windy but with the temperature of -45 I could not last more than ten minutes.

To be honest, there was nothing to do by the Christmas Tree.In the previous years, they constructed snow fortresses and slides.This year they only put up the tree.The snow-slides were setup in the children's park, but they were pretty pathetic and nobody went there.

The Christmas Tree was great though.It was tall, with plenty of lights.I watched the New Year's fireworks from my balcony.

MISS TYNDA

Tynda boasts a status of a civilized city and holds various pageants.

Pageant "Miss" was held in Tynda for the first time in 1994.The first pageant of this sort was held in the regional capital Blagoveschensk only in 1999."Miss Tynda" Anastasia Retslav won that pageant.Even here we are in the first place!

"Bam Fur" company has became the usual sponsor of the event.They came up with the main prize - a mink fur coat.Gifts of this sort made this event the most expensive and famous, even scandalous.When Anastasia became the first "Miss Tynda" in 1994, her name was associated with the name of the well-known local entrepreneur Alexander Beloborodov.But they are not even distant relatives.

We also did not avoid some nagging from certain individuals."It's immoral and degrading!Semi-naked girls ran around in a restaurant in front of drunken guys."What can one do?That was the place the sponsor wanted to hold the pageant.

The girls are selected based on their appearance, without any special criteria, but absolutely impartially.If the jury has an argument, they debate until consensus is reached.Later, trainers work with the candidates.Special attention is given to plastic movements and walking around in front of spectators.Mainly, girls between 14 and 16 want to participate in the pageant.Older girls do not participate for some reason.Maybe they are shy or afraid.

The event is constantly being improved.Here's what V. Kabalkin said: "We are looking for new forms, invite artists.There is professional dancing during intermission.Even though this is just an idea for now, but we want to show off lingerie as part of body art."These are the comments of Tynda TV station chief Pavel Bakin: "The pageant is held on a very high level.It contains elements of theater, demonstrates merit and beauty.I also would like to add that this is the most well-organized and beautiful show in Tynda."Too bad that there is no perspective for the girls.

The win in the pageant does not entail career success.Nobody offers multimillion contracts or invites to the model academies or sends to the international pageants.Maybe one of our "Misses" would win the All-Russian pageant or even the world one.