Dymkovo toy and Vyatka alphabet. Dymkovo toy and Vyatka alphabet "Here the ship is sailing ..."

". It seems to me that we were not really expected, everyone was busy with work. I can’t say that communication has developed ...

The club itself promotes the history of the region, holds various meetings, events, and annual local history expeditions.

From trips to abandoned villages is brought great amount exhibits, literally all the walls are hung with artifacts.

We didn't know everything. For example, this is to the loom parts.

There are many children and youth in the club, the guys also go on expeditions, learn to weave, craft, sew, get acquainted with history, one might say, on "live" examples. Still completely different attitude to things when you just listened to a guide, or when you found it yourself, repaired it, learned how to use it ...

Some awkwardness from the meeting was compensated by the second hall dedicated to the project " Vyatka alphabet". Here I hung for a long time! Very interesting!

"Vyatka Alphabet" - represents the letters of the Slavic alphabet 1.5 by 1.3 meters in size, made in different techniques. Each letter uses the work of craftsmen from Vyatka.
The letter "G" is a Glagolitic alphabet with tiles and the coat of arms of Vyatka.

Here, for example, from the description about the letter "B". "V" is Byzantium. This initial letter is found most often in the Gospel. Taken from the Ostromirov Gospel, it shows the face of Vyatka and reminds us of the attitude of our ancestors to the living power of the letter, especially the written one. The first letter points us to the origins of Russian Christian culture. Image suns and moons speak of Time and Eternity. The symbolism of the Glagolitic alphabet best conveys these words.

For each letter there is a description of why these particular materials were used, what this letter is associated with. Unfortunately, we were already very tired, I more than a letter filmed, but did not remove the description, but something is clear and so.

Angels

He reminds me a little of Jacques Paganel, the geographer in Jules Verne's Children of Captain Grant. Enthusiastic, absent-minded, kind and disinterested, Paganel became the image of a saint from science. Our hero, however, has one important advantage: he is not fictional, but actually exists.

So, Andrei Pavlovich Drachenkov is a Vyatka calligrapher, book designer, teacher, etc., etc. I got a little confused in his hobbies - not knowing idleness, you can afford a lot.

Andrey Pavlovich Drachenkov

I remember the morning at the summer camp of the Vyatka club Mir. Its founder and long-term leader, Lyudmila Georgievna Krylova, treats us to strawberries, and Andrey Pavlovich shares his new discoveries. For example, on the windowsill he found a roll of rare paper. And he also liked some unique nails or something from a heap of garbage that appeared when the Mirovites cleared their housing - an old wooden mansion. But most importantly, in front of St. Nicholas Cathedral in the center of the village, a stunning tombstone was discovered - a work of art created by an unnamed stone carver.

Andrei Pavlovich came running in the evening, shortly before dinner, very agitated:

- Masterpiece! There, in front of the temple, a masterpiece!

Father Ioann Shapoval, rector of the Istobene church, was skeptical about his words, but at the same time he was alarmed. Skeptical - because he could not remember any masterpieces in front of St. Nicholas Church. Here is the church itself - yes, it is considered the best creation of the architect of the XVIII century Nikita Goryntsev. What else could be there? Alarmed, because priceless icons were stolen from another church in Isobensk, the Trinity Church, where the priest serves, a few years ago. What if Drachenkov really found something rare? - now think about how to save.

Together with the father and the artist from Kirov, Vasily Kononov, we set off in the approaching twilight after Andrei Pavlovich. They were distrustful, but not without hope: after all, Drachenkov is not an unfortunate enthusiast - his husband is enthusiastic, but very learned.

What we saw exceeded our expectations. A lot of things were carved on the tombstone, but the main thing was angels with pipes, as if they had descended here, to Istobensk, from the cartoons of Aldashin or Norshtein. Father John's anxiety reached highest point voltage. If it were not for the weight of the find - two centners, the priest would immediately grab it and go to hide it. And all that remained was to look around anxiously. We walked around the gravestone more than once, looking at the details. We began to disassemble the inscriptions. One: "Life is an endless sigh, but Christ ...", "Holy God, Holy Crepe ...".

Angels with a pipe carved on a tombstone

“Not finished,” Father John stated.

“It is not clear why it was cut off in the middle of a sentence,” Andrey Pavlovich agreed in bewilderment.

- Maybe something happened to the master, did not complete the work? I suggested.

“Romanesque style,” Drachenkov continued. - Not Vyatka, not Russia, but the Romanesque style! Flask and carving on it. Masters were able to turn stone into lace.

At the word "flask" he looked meaningfully at me. I nodded, because Andrey Pavlovich and I managed to talk a lot about the flask - he works with it himself.

- It seems that he is not 150 years old, but one and a half thousand!

Andrei Pavlovich:

- Yes, yes, look how the fingers are cut out. Even the letters themselves...

– I would not be surprised to see this in the Hermitage. Even the smallest hairs are visible. There is some joy in them. From this tombstone there is no feeling of longing, from it - a feeling of a future life.

Andrei Pavlovich:

– Optimistic angels!

All together we stared at Father John: they say, where did this come from, why didn’t they notice it before?

“They are from the field,” he correctly understood us. - They were thrown out, overgrown with mud. They brought it two years ago, but nothing was visible. And now the rain washed, opened.

We look again, we rejoice, we talk. Andrei Pavlovich is in seventh heaven. I don't think I've ever met someone more attentive to things in my life. They probably love him too and want to catch his eye.

Time to go home

The day before, in Kirov. I went down to the basement, where the publishing house of Emma Leonidovna Pavlova "Bukvitsa" and the studio of Drachenkov's handwritten and printed books were located. They were both there. Then we actually got to know each other. Joined the tea party, talked.

Do you share this basement? I asked.

- It belongs to the Mir club, - they answer. - Lyudmila Georgievna Krylova gave it to us.

– Do you have common projects?

“We met,” Drachenkov answers, “when Emma Leonidovna spoke about her dream, which coincided with mine: to open a printing house where you can recreate old letters, print with them, create books, as in previous centuries. It builds up gradually. Machines appear. From the plant named after Lepse, they gave me thousands of wooden letter-letters - from large, almost the size of a palm, to small ones. They were carved from beech and boxwood in the middle of the 20th century. With their help, posters were printed when the circulation was small and light letters were needed. Let's show.

Looking at the small carved letters, I could not help but pay attention to the large, some very intricate, artistically executed ones - they are everywhere here, including in the form of large photographs.

- What is it? I ask him.

“Vyatka alphabet,” Drachenkov explains proudly.

We'll get to that, but for now...

“Andrey,” I say, “I noticed a long time ago that each of the people who try to live meaningfully has their own story and a starting point from which it all began. What did you start with?

- After the art school, I graduated from the Moscow Polygraphic Institute and lived in the capital for eight years. I thought about staying there, but I was drawn to my homeland ...

It was a story about gaining faith. He was not indifferent to faith even before, something was left of his grandmother, sometimes he went to church - like everyone else. But somehow, when he was sitting at a table in a rented dwelling, God, as it were, entered his heart and, turning to Andrei Pavlovich, called for Him. And he couldn't say yes. And "no" couldn't either. What hindered? There were some ambitions, plans, for the implementation of which Moscow is the most suitable place. And it held tight.

“Just don’t laugh,” says Andrey. - Before that, the biggest project that I gave four years to was the publication “Beer Russian Empire". He was both a designer and a photographer. I collected materials, I even had a collection of unique bottles and labels.”

And suddenly the Lord came and called. “Lord, I cannot answer You, but do with me as You see fit.” After that it was released. The shock was that we know that the Lord is somewhere, but we are not ready for a personal meeting. However, when He visits, it's quite different.

Andrew realized that it was time to go home. Flashed: "We need to go to Vyatka, to make a book about St. Tryphon." It was his thought, but at the same time not his. I collected my things, which accumulated four hundred kilograms (some photographic enlargers were worth something), and boarded the train.

Live icons

“After that, miracles began to happen through people,” says Drachenkov. – I’ll tell you how we met Father Sergiy Gomayunov, confessor of an Orthodox gymnasium.

Even at the institute, I began to collect material on St. Tryphon of Vyatka. I arrived, I'm sitting in the same company, I shared with a friend a dream about a book. He supported me: “Listen, you need to talk to someone who knows about this.” And I decided in search of such a person to go to the Trifonov Monastery. I go to the temple and look around. I see that everyone comes and goes to one priest, they talk about something. He endured it with difficulty, approached: “You know, I am an artist, a book designer by education, I would like to make a book about St. Tryphon of Vyatka.” He looked at me in surprise: “Come tomorrow. The text is already ready. Let's start doing it." After that, I found out his name. Father Sergei Gomayunov. Indeed, it turned out that the book had just been finished and he began to look for an artist who could culturally prepare everything. And we were taught this, and taught well.

The book about Saint Tryphon was called “Living Icons. Saints and Righteous of the Vyatka Land”, and the story there was not only about the Monk Tryphon, but also about the new martyrs. She came out in 1999. And after some time, Father Sergius invited Andrei to work at the gymnasium. There Drachenkov met future wife Olga - she still works at the gymnasium as a social teacher, plus she teaches the basics Orthodox culture. Drachenkov approached the teaching business with caution - as you understand, he is not one of the strict mentors who hear a fly flying in class. But not one of those who do not understand what he is doing at school. Children like him, if they obey, then, firstly, because it is interesting, and secondly, because the person is fabulous. It seems that he is not a magician, but on the other hand, who, if not him?

With what to start with them, at first I did not know. The idea was suggested by Father Sergius.

“Many peoples,” he said, “had a knot writing, and in our language, traces of this, perhaps, are preserved, say, in the form of the expression “Weaved from three boxes.” What do you think of it?"

This was an unexpected approach to written culture, and Andrei Pavlovich began to think. Indeed, there are many expressions that point to ancient writing, say: “Knots for memory”, “A tangle of songs”, “The thread of the story”. “A powerful layer of traces of this letter remained not only in the language,” he explains, “but also in the ornament of clothes, towels, and so on. Or take a stele of the sixth century, where the braid is carved on the stone. In the Baltics, where the culture is related to the Slavs, women, until recently, before universal literacy, kept something like a home chronicle or diary with the help of knots. He planted a carrot - such and such a bundle, a cow calved - another. That's how they structured their lives."

Here you can, by the way, recall from Kalevala:

Here I untie the knot.
Here I dissolve the ball.
I will sing a song from the best
Of the finest I will perform.

So Drachenkov came to the conclusion that the nodular form of knowledge transfer existed among different peoples, including the Slavic ones. And they began to recreate the nodular writing with their children, they even wove the first quatrain of the anthem of the Vyatka Orthodox gymnasium. This is how the studio was born. handwritten book"Letter letter".

“When I now take them into my hands,” says Andrey Pavlovich, “I think that as it was once in the life of peoples, so it happened in my life. My children and I followed in the footsteps of the birth of writing, and whole layers of culture became clear and close to us. In hieroglyphs, we have already written the entire anthem of the gymnasium. They also wrote on wax tablets. You know, you buy colored wax, pour molds. For children, this is a holiday. We studied styles of writing - charter, semi-charter, cursive, ligature, and so on. I am a member of the Union of Calligraphers of Russia. For three years he studied the Ostromir Gospel. And suddenly I discovered that all this is very interesting to share with children. Today, designers are struggling with the search for new ideas, but the past remains huge material which we can use as a source of inspiration. You can stand all day in front of the cuneiform tablets - they are fascinating.

Write correctly

Special mention should be made of calligraphy - too great place it occupies in the life of Andrei Pavlovich. She currently teaches at four locations. They are also preparing to create a corner in the Mir club where they could study with the guys, write not with a ballpoint pen, but with goose pens or metal ones.

“Calligraphers say,” he assures me, “that their art began to die when the ballpoint pen appeared. Forty years ago, a schoolboy came to the first grade and unwittingly became a beginner calligrapher. How important is this almost lost skill? Now there is such a problem when a person, having received a medical education, becomes a surgeon, but there is not enough motor skills to make precise movements with a scalpel in his hand. Before, people had really golden hands. I have a small collection of boxwood cuts. It was made about half a century ago, and now, most likely, no one will make such ones. People's hands are different. Therefore, classes in calligraphy have not only cultural significance. Although culturally significant, a person does not just learn to write, but plunges into the Church Slavonic language, and pre-revolutionary spelling, absorbs the entire Russian written culture. In Dostoevsky's novel "The Idiot" in his "word on calligraphy" Prince Myshkin reflects on little letters, flourishes, what a wonderful heritage of ours.

I show the children an 1898 primer. “Look,” I say, “how interesting: schoolchildren had four more letters then.” And here you can show these letters, think about them. And the textbook begins with a calligraphy lesson, where they learn how to write correctly. It is useful to learn to write with both the right and left hand, which improves thinking.

Several times I have observed how a person's genetic or spiritual memory awakens, I don't know what to call it. There was a time when we made the Chronicle in the Orthodox gymnasium - we led the thread from the creation of the world through various written sources and vaults to St. Tryphon. And one girl - Anfisa, such a temperamental person - took a feather and began to write in cursive, as if she had been born and raised several centuries ago. Another case was in art school. There, in the second lesson, my student began to write in a semi-charter. There are two such cases. And this is unthinkable. I don't know how to explain these awakened gifts.

– When did you become interested in this art?

- Studied calligraphy the best craftsmen in Moscow. Then here's what happened. I went to Moldova, where my uncle fell mortally ill. Completely cut off from my world, I lived for several months in a foreign country, caring for a loved one, and realized that I was starting to go crazy. I slept with the lights on, but as soon as I closed my eyes, black birds began to fly over me and someone kept leafing through a huge book, turning over parchment sheets. And so all night. I could not leave, leaving my uncle. Salvation came from where I did not expect: I found feathers, paper, and I had with me a prayer book with an akathist to St. Nicholas in Church Slavonic. And I began to rewrite it, two or three pages a day. So there was a pivot in my life. Calligraphy saved my mental health, and maybe even my life. If only people knew what it is! Calligraphy has its own ritual. It happens that you take a pen ... and you get a design, everything immediately falls down. A connection with the world of God arises, and your soul receives a solid foundation.

I then made this little book, and then they asked me to sell it. But I could not take money for this - it appeared in too miraculous a way. Gave her. In calligraphy there is also an acquaintance with own culture, and even such unobtrusive churching. When a person is told that he must go to the temple, this is not always very effective - you need paths along which he can go there. This and needlework related to Orthodox life, and acquaintance with the unique Church Slavonic writing. Not a single writing system in the world has such that the names of the letters line up in a whole story. Here listen:

Az beeches ingo
The verb good is
Aliveѣthezѣlozѣmlya
I like some people
Thoughtѣtenashyon peace
Rtsy word firmly
UkFertHѣr…

In modern Russian, this could be translated as follows:

I know letters.
The letter is a treasure.
Work hard earthlings
As befits reasonable people.
Comprehend the universe.
Carry the word with confidence!
Knowledge is a gift from God...

"I know letters"

Well, here we come to the project, which last years occupies Andrei Pavlovich most of all - "Vyatka alphabet." The idea of ​​creating letters in the form of works of art, monuments of Russian writing, was suggested by the same father Sergiy Gomayunov. But hands reached this point after Drachenkov began to cooperate with the Mir club.

- Once, when I was already closer to forty and it was time to sum up some results, I realized that although I do a lot of things, but I, by and large, am nobody. And suddenly a dream. A wise man appears: “Don't worry, Andrei, in fact, even those people who think that they have achieved something are often mistaken. Their achievements are like bags like this.” He shows leather pouches and invites me to pick one up. I take. There are some rocks inside. "See?" the old man asks. "Yes". “In this earthly life, many people think that their deeds are worth a lot,” says the sage, “but in fact…”

After this dream, I calmed down somewhat, but began to look for some kind of project. Emma Leonidovna Pavlova and Lyudmila Georgievna Krylova and I have a dream of creating a Russian center of culture and writing. There are many artefacts of culture in Mir, if you add classes in Church Slavonic writing, calligraphy, familiarity with crafts - this structures everything. It was then that the first letters appeared.

- How did you meet Lyudmila Georgievna?

- About fifteen years ago, my wife and I went to Easter in our Trifonov monastery. We approached the cordon, which let people into the church by invitation, and realized that we simply couldn’t get into the church. Then the figure of Lyudmila Georgievna appeared ahead. She is a prominent person, and it is very pleasant to see her every time. She walked like an icebreaker, I don’t know what she said, but they let her through almost with curtseys. Here in the train of those who rushed after her, we entered the temple. It was a sign that I realized that the Lord had given this amazing woman the gift to go, making her way to where the most important things happen.

Once in Moscow, where we came to a tourist exhibition in the Crocus Center - there were presented different countries- Lyudmila Georgievna managed to create a round dance, where on one hand from her were the Turks, and on the other - the Bulgarians. As you know, these peoples do not like each other very much. And here they danced together, and when it was all over, a dark-haired Bulgarian approached Lyudmila Georgievna and asked in confusion: “How are we going to live now?” You see, the time has come to say goodbye, and this woman did not know how to live on without the sudden discovery of love, kinship, the image of which became Lyudmila Georgievna.

- Why did you call your "Azbuka" Vyatka?

- Each letter is a symbol not only of Slavic and Russian writing, but also of the Vyatka land, its traditional crafts. In the "ABC" we have collected all the crafts. There are also forged letters, and woven from straw, birch bark, woven with tapestry, using carpentry. One of them has forged arrowheads, elements of chain mail. There was a connection of the invisible world, aspiration to mountain heights with skills, labor.

Andrei Pavlovich is working on the letter "firmly" of the "Vyatka alphabet"

The letters have brought together many people who help me. Here is the letter "YUS SMALL", the 35th in the Glagolitic and the 36th in Cyrillic, it is heard as "I". We have a master Larisa Smetanina, she is engaged in straw. I made a sketch, she wove very quickly.

YUS SMALL. Rye straw in the hands of craftsmen turns into gold. The grapheme of the Slavic letter resembles the dome of a temple, and seven hills are spread under it. The city of Vyatka, according to legend, stands on seven hills. 2012

And this is "V" - Vyatka. She is made of genuine leather. We took it out in the spring, in the ice drift, when the sun was playing, on the river bank to take a picture. An exact copy of this letter from the Ostromir Gospel - the Book, which is 950 years old, one might say, the Main Book of our country. It gravitates towards the Byzantine tradition.

"B" is an exact copy of the letter from the Ostromir Gospel.

"H" is dedicated to St. Nicholas Velikoretsky. It is carved on it: “The country of Mirlikia boasts of you, Father Nicholas…” – a troparion to the Velikoretsky icon of the saint.

What is the wooden top made of?

– Authentic architraves with ancient carvings. He is over a hundred years old.

NASH. The letter is carved on a tree with a ligature of a prayer appeal to the Velikoretsk image of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. The window casing is an image of the heavenly, spiritual, the legs of the furniture stand firmly on the ground, and this is also important in a person's life. 2012

The letter "A" is reminiscent of Adam, it is made of clay - in Hebrew the name Adam is translated as "red clay". When you look, you can see the structure of the first days of creation.

And the letter “O”, such an autumn one, is bobbin, Vyatka Kukar lace. From it they made amazingly beautiful things, no worse than Vologda. When I approached the craftswoman with a proposal to weave a letter, she was skeptical about it. "What letter do you want to make?" she asked. "Oh," I answer. She was delighted and said that this was the most suitable, because lace always surrounds something. "O" is shaped like an eye, as you can see, and it's probably no coincidence that the word "eye" begins with it.

HE. The letter is made in the traditions of Vyatka bobbin lace. The craftswoman used various techniques and types of ornament.

I can talk about every letter. The letter "C". This is the grapheme of the Glagolitic letter "C", the full letter is called the "Word". At the base is the lid of an old chest, on it are solar, solar signs. On the scroll, half-tied, is an excerpt from the Gospel of John about the light. The cross - "stavros" in Greek - is made from shelves from under the icons found in a peasant's hut.

WORD. The letter contained many spiritual concepts. A fragment of the text on the scroll is the beginning of the Gospel of John.

"T", of course, is dedicated to the Monk Tryphon. There is a whole story connected with this upper element of it. It is made of cypress, sent from Abkhazia. We cut out an element of a weaving mill from it. When I worked with this tree, a fragrance spread in the workshop. Cypress smells amazing, it is something unearthly, unlike anything else. On the sides, on oak planks, a troparion to St. Tryphon is carved with Slavic script, which turns the letters into an intricate beautiful ornament.

PHOTO: HARD. The letter is dedicated to St. Tryphon of Vyatka. It is carved according to the pattern of signs of Luka Grebnev, a typographer who worked on the Vyatka land a hundred years ago.

YAT. The word "fur" in the old orthography was written through "yat". The composition of traditional Vyatka furs - lynx, beaver, rabbit - is sewn in the form of a labyrinth, at each crosshair of which a person faces a choice. 2015

FERT. Created from panels collected by the local history club "Mir" on expeditions to the northern regions of the Kirov region. General idea associated with the interior of a peasant house. Old photographs are reminiscent of a bygone era. And even a trace of a lost photograph is a story in which "blank spots" remain. On the right is a 1909 lithograph depicting St. Stefan Fileisky. 2014

WHAT. Weaved from calligraphic cursive, which is used to write an excerpt from the "Tale of the land of Vyatka". The text tells about the beginning of the land of Vyatka, which the Lord always kept, long-sufferingly holding a forged bow with an arrow (top right). The texture of the capo-root symbolizes the Heavenly World, and the Glagolitic “K” turns into a doorknob. 2012

BUKI. Created from birch bark in the image of the letters of Russian handwritten books of the 15th century. Names are carved on the top and bottom of the beech wood composition Slavic letters(“beeches” in Old Slavonic are “letters”), recalling that the basis of a book block was made of beech back in antiquity. 2013

- Is it made of stone?

The stone work was completed a few days ago. I dreamed about this letter for ten years. It is made of flask - soft limestone, which is mined in Kukarka. The basis is the stones left from the ruined temple of Alexander Nevsky. Once I saw a mountain of garbage near the fountain. Looked closely - opoka.

I also want to talk about "I". So the Lord arranged that my wife and I visited the Holy Land, where I bought a simple blue cross woven by a monk. And in one workshop, an Arab gave me a handful of olive tree cuts. I attached this cross to them and found a place for them on the letter "I", with which the word "History" began in the old spelling. And also Jesus, Jerusalem, an icon. Maybe that's why the theomachists excluded it from the alphabet. Around it is the wheel of history - a sphere with eight spokes against the backdrop of space. When I inserted the cross there, the wheel came to life for me, began to move. And it became clear that while the monks pray and weave crosses, this wheel will not stop, the world will exist.

Letter "I". In pre-revolutionary spelling, the word "mir" meant "universe". This image formed the basis of the composition.

"The ship is sailing..."

The Lord created man from the dust of the earth, which means that matter is only temporarily immovable and is actually waiting for attention to be paid to it in order to begin to come to life.

- I love pebbles, pieces of wood, - Andrey Pavlovich lovingly sorts out the letters of his future printing house. - Once, during the procession, I picked up a pebble on the road, similar to a piece of bread. And there was a story about how, in ancient times, a crosswalker dropped a piece of bread. But since many unusual things happen on the way to the Velikaya River, the bread did not disappear, the animals did not eat it, but it turned into a pebble - a small monument that reminds us that the journey continues from century to century. Just introduced all this, I meet my student Anfisa. I begin to share these thoughts with her, and she looks at me in surprise and says that she knows this stone - she carried it in her hands for a long time before leaving it on the road, and she also thought about it. There is nothing in God's world just like that. Looking even at the most ordinary details, we spiritualize them and spiritualize ourselves.

The letter G (verb) was made in 2015 by Andrey Drachenkov and Ekaterina Kraeva from clay plaquettes covered with colored glazes and depicting 38 characters of the Glagolitic alphabet.

At the heart of the letter L (Ludium) is the idea of ​​a ladder-ascension, similar to a stepladder. The thirty characters in the composition are numerical value letters. Two of them are angels, the rest are people climbing the stairs and standing in a round dance.

I have always been attracted by the mystery of the transformation of the inanimate into something that is no longer dead. Once, Father Sergius blessed me to paint icons. I wouldn't have dared to do it myself, but I really liked it. I learned how minerals are ground into paints. And how different it is from what artists do when they buy tubes. Here it is important to be able to feel the material, grind thinner-rougher. But not only that... With each icon, this work becomes more and more difficult for me. Usually the opposite is true: a person learns, and everything turns out faster for him - skills, techniques appear. I don't. You make each icon and think: isn’t it the last one in your life? You feel your weakness, hard, hard work. But on the other hand, thanks to icon painting, I understood the idea of ​​Father Pavel Florensky that the images used by the artist are very often taken from the mountain world, this is a projection of that world to us - the blind. In the icon, it is expressed as clearly as possible.

Do you want me to show you something?

Andrei Pavlovich brings me to an old image, where in the center - where God should be - there is only blackness.

“The image of the Transfiguration,” he says. - Once they gave me a completely black board. I covered it with a cleanser, and in one of church holidays I came home and… I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the golden assist on the robes of the apostles. These are such strokes on images - on clothes, wings of angels, domes of churches. I discovered the amazingly delicate work of the icon painter, as if he painted with one hair. But the Savior did not recover. The image is dead. Maybe there is some sense in this, and the Lord will one day bless me to make up for the lost. I don't know if I'll go for it.

I stand bewildered, shifting my eyes from the icon to Andrey and realizing that something important about him seems to have been revealed to me, perhaps God's plan for this man. We leave the basement to meet Father John Shapoval. He must drive up to take us to Istobensk, where Andrei Pavlovich will find marvelous angels on an old tombstone this evening. We are going to meet them, not knowing it yet. But Vyatka is Vyatka: a country where miracles never stop happening.

And besides this, Andrey Drachenkov conducts calligraphy classes for both beginners and those who would like to learn the secrets of traditional Russian writing in more depth. The author works on handwritten books in the well-known publishing house "Bukvitsa" and arranges exhibitions.

We met with the master in the theater lobby. And they began to talk about the most important thing, at least in my opinion, about the power of the written word and why modern children do not like it so much. And also about the fact that now there are practically no places where everyone could learn about almost forgotten traditions.

Andrey, you, your students, colleagues, like-minded people have been dreaming of the Vyatka ABC Museum for a long time. And in it, according to your idea, the Center of Written Culture should be opened. Please tell us what you still want to do in the Center and in the museum?

All of our works are a bit old-fashioned... If we have a center, I would call it "Center for non-contemporary art" to emphasize that to contemporary art we have no relationship. We want to create a museum of Vyatka culture so that children, schoolchildren, students learn to write with their hands.

It is said that we live in the time of perhaps the last generation that will have a handwriting. Perhaps soon it will no longer be necessary to write something by hand - there are computers. But as a highlight, as art for the elite, for those who love calligraphy, love to write, this culture of writing should be preserved. This is how the theatre, the handwritten book has been preserved... It's just that they have already moved into the realm of art. So in our case, who knows, in a few decades a person who writes with his hands, and even with a feather, will a priori become a master.

Many teachers now argue that children do not like and do not know how to write by hand. Do you agree?

Calligraphy died when the ballpoint pen appeared... Previously, when writing with a sharp feather, the hand was first fixed, "set". And it turned out that if you hold the pen incorrectly, it will come out clumsily. BUT ballpoint pen no matter how you hold it, you will still write something. So the children first appeared correct installation hands, and this has already persisted for life.

If we look at the handwriting of the older generation, their handwriting is both beautiful and pleasant.

It turns out that calligraphy classes are needed in order to "put a hand"?

Of course, calligraphy classes are gaining popularity today. In St. Petersburg, for example, there are even 6,000 registered people who regularly study at the calligraphy center. In our city, classes are also in demand, but not so popular yet.

The goal of the master classes, of course, is not only to teach everyone who wants to write beautifully. In fact, calligraphy is not for everyone. She demands slowness.

Petr Petrovich Chobitko (this is the founder and artistic director School of Calligraphy of Russia) says that calligraphy is practically the only occupation of a person that still retains a ritual within itself. It requires some kind of internal theme for everyone - what would you like to write by hand? Maybe put your thoughts on paper? Or maybe write a handwritten letter to dear person...

Calligraphy is an occasion for inner work and not everyone is ready for it. It is clear that we are all very often placed in the framework of an accelerated rhythm of life. Writing helps to stop and freeze... You become a connoisseur of culture... However, at the same time, calligraphy classes are very democratic. To draw, you need paints, a lot of other things. And here only a feather, desire and knowledge.

How much does it take to master calligraphy as an art?

My classes begin with master classes. Children come, in whole classes, I show the movements, the basics, and then I see that someone would like to continue to learn further, to train. Every Wednesday we work out with these guys at the Mir club.

In fact, calligraphy is history. If you just write beautifully, it will not necessarily be true. The real essence time is projected into our age from some sources, from somewhere deep. I'll give an example. When I taught at an art school, a girl came to class. She sat down and literally in the second lesson she began to write in a semi-charter. I was amazed that the person immediately grasped the dynamics characteristic of this type of writing. For me, this is not an indicator that a person quickly understood how it should be, but that he remembered something inherent in us! And it has been projected through the generations!

Maybe some ancestors of this girl knew how to write and loved to do it... But she just "remembered"... Such mysterious things often happen... After all, each letter has a huge potential! Take, for example, the 17th century, when people wrote in script. Each letter was different from the previous one. The letters standing in a row could be completely different, each word became a discovery for the one who wrote. We thought about the words ... We have now lost it, and it would be nice to remember it.

What and for whom is your project "Vyatskaya ABC"?

Throughout the 20th century, we stubbornly forgot our Russian alphabet. In 1918, 4 letters were immediately thrown out of it, the names of the letters were completely forgotten. But each of them has its own face and its own meaning laid down by the ancestors ... For example, the letter "Peace". What is peace? Here the children and I very often think about the names of the letters, and I understand that it is possible whole year build a lesson only on reasoning over these archetypes: "Az", "Beeches", "Lead", "Verb", "Good", "Yes" ("I know the alphabet, but it says: there is good...")

And with the help of letters you can draw, depict, tell. And it has always been used by our ancestors. And we decided to use it, or rather, with the help of these opportunities to talk about letters. It seems to me that thanks to these compositions of ours it is easier to talk about them, because the visual range is always stronger.

Tell me about Peace...

Here you can touch everything with your hands... This plank is made of rosewood. Highly beautiful tree on the letter "P", and these are printed gingerbread (there was such a tradition in Vyatka), on top - the symbol of the "Easter Feast". And this is mother of pearl. We try to use materials related to the letter in sound and meaning.

It so happened that I was in one holy place and saw how the doors of the temple were decorated with mother-of-pearl. Pearls are a symbol of heaven, the Kingdom of Heaven. A little later, a friend came to me and gave me mother-of-pearl fragments. They, of course, fell on our letter. And the ornament itself in the middle of our letter was created from pre-revolutionary brass clichés, from letters. If you read them from the center, it says here: "Peace is the letter of the Slavic alphabet." And everything in the composition is connected with the word "peace". Not in the utilitarian sense, when we lie on the couch, but in the projection of life, the meaning of life.

You say that letters find you by themselves... How does this happen?

Brass badges on "Peace" came unexpectedly. At the Lepse plant they were once used, but now they have gone out of technology, they are no longer needed. And we, with students, schoolchildren, print with their help. And in this letter they came in handy. It seems to me that this is always the case: when a person is fond of something, the material begins to unfold on him, you begin to meet people who can do something. We work on each letter as a team, even if it consists of two people.

How many letters are in the collection now? And how many were there Slavic alphabet?

We have now done 27. The first was "V" ("Lead"), and we donated one to Herzen's library - "Verb". Each composition carries some kind of bunch of ideas, thoughts about the name, sometimes some kind of biography. Each letter once appeared, once arose, entered the alphabet. Found my place.

There is a letter "Yus big" in the collection. It denoted a light vowel sound, which has not existed for 800 years. The letter is gone along with the sound. In the "Life of Cyril and Methodius" there were 38 letters. Yes, they came and went - not a single alphabet of the world can boast of such a "turnover of personnel".

What letters are you currently working on?

We are now engaged in the design of the exhibition of the artist Yuri Vasnetsov. We can say that our entire generation was brought up on his illustrations for fairy tales. We make a letter dedicated to him - the letter "U". We make the letter "B", but we already have it, so we will give it as a gift.

Andrew, what is your dream?

Create a center of written culture in Vyatka. It would be great if we could hold calligraphy classes there. And our exhibits could become the basis for a museum. We could tell schoolchildren about letters through the letters of our project. This is a method that I would like not to miss. It would be a pity if the letters simply remain in the basement, when with their help it would be possible to work with children, talking about the Vyatka culture. This is what we would like to do in the center.

Where will the museum and the Center be?

We started the Vyatka Zastava project. We made a chapel near the walls of Preobrazhensky convent where birches grow. We would like to open a museum there. But culture is now going through hard times... our topic has stalled a bit... We really need support. We very much hope that if not in this place, then in another place, it will still be possible to open a museum.

Andrey, you are a member of the Union of Calligraphers of Russia. This is another side of you creative life... You participate in exhibitions, you could design and print books in the capital. Why didn't they stay there?

I lived for 8 years in Moscow and thought that I would stay there, I would make books. But now, when time has passed, I understand: it's good that I didn't stay! I love Moscow, but to stay.

And in Vyatka you can create, walk everywhere on foot - to Gerzenka, from the workshop to the house, to the theater. This walk around the native places is worth a lot!

Thank you Andrew for the great conversation!

Everyone knows the Dymkovo toy, everyone in their Soviet childhood had these bright whistles and horns. But few people know that at the beginning of the last century, the 400-year-old Vyatka fishery was destroyed. The tradition of clay toys was preserved only thanks to one person and experienced a renaissance in the USSR.

The toy was born along with the Whistling holiday, which took place in the Dymkovo settlement near Vyatka every spring. Women sculpted clay whistles in the form of horses, rams, ducks and painted them for beauty. Soon, toys began to be made not only on holidays, a real craft was formed. But at the end of the 19th century, plaster figurines began to crowd out the clay toy. the easy way production (and hence their quantity and cheapness), they seriously competed with the stucco painted Dymkovo toy. Having filled the markets, they almost eliminated the folk craft. By 1917, the only craftswoman who sculpted a toy remained in Dymkovo - Anna Afanasyevna Mezrina. In 1933, having interested her daughters and neighbors, Anna Afanasyevna created an artel and began to revive the craft. After 80 years, on the basis of Dymkovo motifs, which Mezrina preserved, they will make fashionable clothes.

Microdistrict Dymkovo in Kirov:

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The largest collection of Dymkovo toys is presented in the exposition of Kirovsky art museum them. Victor and Apollinary Vasnetsov. Another large collection has the Kirov Regional Museum of Local Lore:

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Old toys of the last century:

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Dymkovo masters:

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However, Kirov is famous not only for the Dymkovo toy. Another interesting craft is the Vyatka alphabet. The idea belongs to Andrey Drachenkov, head of the printed and handwritten book studio. He managed to gather masters around him and begin the revival of the written culture of Vyatka:

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To create each element of the Vyatka alphabet, authentic things are used - samples of Russian folk culture late nineteenth - early twentieth century:

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The design of the letters has its own symbolism and meaning:

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For example, the letter Ѫ (big yus). From the middle of the 12th century, the big yus disappeared from Russian writing, temporarily appeared under the influence of the Bulgarian-Romanian literacy in the 15th century, and disappeared completely in the 17th century. It was laid out in the form of a stone skeleton:

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Andrei claims that he refused to sell the Vyatka alphabet to a wealthy Arab rich man at an exhibition in Moscow. Like, he wants to collect and save this project at home. This is certainly commendable and worthy of respect!

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