"We have two brands: condensed milk and Masalov."
A report on the difficult life in Tyazhin
In Kuzbass, they decided to "revive" Nikolai Masalov, a hero of the Great Patriotic War, for May 9th. He is believed to have inspired the sculpture of the Liberator Soldier in Treptower Park in Berlin.
With the help of artificial intelligence have created A video in which the legend talks about his life in Siberia, the war, and his heroic deed. To "resurrect" the Soviet soldier, the project's creators found an actor resembling Masalov, applied prosthetic makeup, and then digitally reconstructed his face, revealing a spitting image of Nikolai on screen. Using video interviews preserved by local journalists, they were able to recreate not only the timbre of his voice but also his intonation and even his gestures. Those who knew Masalov personally and have already seen the finished video swear by the believability. The clip is scheduled to be shown today in Moscow at the "Russia" exhibition, and was shown yesterday at the opening of the Masalov House Museum in the Kemerovo Region.
The day before, journalists from "NotMoscow Speaking" visited the hero's homeland.
"It's easier to sit on welfare and get drunk from early morning."
Tyazhin station is located precisely at the midpoint of the Moscow-Vladivostok railway line. The village is located 4500 kilometers from these cities.
Most trains in Tyazhin stop for just a couple of minutes. All passengers have time to see is the neat station building and a monument to the late traveler.
One of Tyazhin's first brick structures, the water tower, is also visible here. It's still operational, supplying water to part of the village. Previously, it was serviced by the railroad; now, it's used by municipal services.
"It's livable. We have three schools and an agricultural technical college. And there are jobs, basically: the railway and the dairy factory. It closed not long ago, but is now open again. True, some people find it easier to live on welfare and get drunk early in the morning," Tamara Ukhanova, a vendor at a mobile kiosk that apparently hasn't changed location in several years, told a NeMoskva correspondent. The selection of goods is impressive – from brooms to meat.
Across from her "shop" is a market. Even though it's already midday, no one is selling anything. Men sit behind the counters, pouring glasses of a yellow liquid with a strong alcoholic aroma.
There are barracks and peeling buildings all around. This is the northern part of the region, and spring hasn't really arrived yet.
Today, Tyazhinsky has a population of less than ten thousand. The town's mainstay was once a dairy canning plant that produced Tyazhinskaya condensed milk.
"They started making it back in the early 1950s. Our condensed milk mostly went to the state reserve. And you know, only the best goes there. And only after a few years did it make it from the state reserve to the shelves. Well, of course, they could always spare a box or two for their own. I have relatives in Kemerovo. So, in the 1990s, I'd bring them a box, they'd sell it, and they'd be well-fed for about a month. Condensed milk was also exported to China and a few other countries. And in the 1990s, the factory became a joint-stock company. The owners live in Moscow. But the factory is constantly closing down, then reopening for short periods. There are maybe 200 workers left," says local resident Mikhail Nekrasov.
Over the past ten years, the plant has been repeatedly accused of counterfeiting and selling substandard goods. The Kemerovo Region Arbitration Court ruled against the plant for violating technical regulations. attracted The director was subject to administrative liability and a fine of 2 rubles. In 2015, the plant's management was fined 5 million rubles: Kuzbass residents complained about the poor quality of Tyazhinsky condensed milk, and Rosselkhoznadzor conducted an inspection of the plant.
But this hasn't changed anything. Following inspections by Rosselkhoznadzor, the declaration of conformity for dairy products from Kuzbasskonservmoloko LLC is regularly suspended—most recently in October 2023.
"Everything is in decline and rests on the shoulders of enthusiasts."
Locals in Tyazhin haven't bought condensed milk in a long time and practically don't eat it. But they're considering erecting a monument to it. There's no money for a monument yet, nor for renovations to the local museum, which is located next to the train station. A couple of months ago, photos of the museum caused quite a stir online. The building is old, over a hundred years old. To make it look less depressing from the outside, they draped a banner over the walls. Social media immediately sparked conversations about Potemkin villages. And some people learned about the museum thanks to these photos.
– My family and I recently visited Tyazhin. My husband was on a business trip, and my daughter and I asked to come along. While he was busy, we decided to visit the local history museum. There's nowhere else to go, you know. We were given a wonderful welcome. The staff were warm. <…> They showed us all the exhibits. I actually wanted to give my daughter an introduction to our war hero, Masalov. The tour was excellent. A sea of exhibits related to Masalov. Photos, awards… The museum itself is located in an old house. It made a pleasant impression on us, too. It was as if we'd been transported to a completely different historical era. Quiet, neat, and clean. High ceilings, windows. One thing. It's the 21st century, and the museum's visitor restroom is also in the courtyard. And this is in our Siberian winters, which can reach -40°C. "They erected a monument to Masalov in Kemerovo, and Zhukov Park received a first-class renovation, but are local authorities investing in preserving the region's history? I saw with my own eyes that they are not. As always, the capital's facades are painted, but a little further inland, everything is in disrepair and, at best, held together by the efforts of enthusiasts, who aren't present everywhere," said Olga Shchukina, who visited the museum.
The museum itself is small but quite intimate. It features paintings by local artists, biographies, and photographs of heroes of the Great Patriotic War. There are also folk art pieces. Currently, an exhibition is on display, "The Torgashov Family Tradition: Tea from a Samovar." A local resident has allowed the exhibition to feature his personal collection of samovars, which he collected from all over the country.
"This building is actually historic, over 100 years old. It's a departmental building, built on the railroad. It used to be a maternity hospital. Many residents of Tyazhin were born here. During the war, from 1941 to 1943, there was a hospital here. It was located in several places. But it was here that the surgical wards were located, where the wounded were treated and then sent back to the front. Later, a kindergarten was established in this building. And the kindergarten remained here until February 1998," explains museum employee Tatyana Makarova during the tour. "I'd like to point out that Nikolai Ivanovich Masalov worked as a caretaker and groom in the building we're in now, from 1963 to 1965. There was a kindergarten here."
The kindergarten had a horse that carried water and groceries to the children. Nikolai Ivanovich did this, and even gave the children rides in his free time. Many of those who attended the kindergarten at the time remember Nikolai Ivanovich.
"I have never seen such tension in the entire war."
In Tyazhin, they say, "We have two brands—condensed milk and Masalov." According to the official version, it was Tyazhin soldier Nikolai Masalov who inspired the monument to the Liberator Soldier in Berlin's Treptower Park. The Tyazhin Museum has a separate exhibit dedicated to Masalov: orders, medals, photographs, and a vast number of letters from around the world expressing gratitude for his heroism.
"The monument was unveiled on May 8, 1949. Masalov learned about it by chance, many years later. He bought some matches in a store, saw an image of the monument to the liberator soldier on the label, and remembered that the sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich had visited his regiment and sketched it. When the USSR began preparing for the 20th anniversary of Victory Day in 1965, first German journalists, and then our own, decided to find the man who inspired the monument to the liberator soldier in Treptower Park," says Tatyana Makarova.
The memories of those who took part in those events helped to establish the hero’s identity.
"The last days of the war were underway. April 30, 1945. The division was stationed near Berlin's Tiergarten park. Ahead lay the Landwehr Canal, along which ran the German defensive line.
"There were about 50 minutes left before the attack. A silence fell, like before a storm—unsettling, tense. And suddenly, in this silence, broken only by the crackling of the fires, a child's cry was heard. As if from somewhere underground, the child's voice sounded dull and inviting. As he cried, he repeated one word, understood by all: 'Mutter, mutter...'" wrote Marshal Vasily Chuikov in his memoirs, "From Stalingrad to Berlin." "The standard-bearer of the 220th Guards Rifle Regiment of the 79th Guards Rifle Division, Sergeant Nikolai Masalov, turned to the commander: 'Allow me to save the child.' Having received permission, he rushed to help. We had to make our way slowly, crawling."
"Under the bridge, I saw a three-year-old girl sitting next to her murdered mother. The little girl had light, slightly curly hair at her forehead. She kept tugging at her mother's belt and calling, 'Mutter, mutter!'" recalled Masalov, years later. "I grabbed the girl and ran back. And she started screaming! I kept trying to coax her along the way: 'Shut up, or you'll open the door.' And then the fascists really did start shooting."
As Ivan Paderin, former commissar of the 220th Regiment of the 79th Guards Division, later recounted: "And then our Nikolai Ivanovich disappeared. He enjoyed great authority in the regiment, and I was afraid of a spontaneous attack. And a spontaneous attack, as a rule, is unnecessary bloodshed, especially at the very end of the war. And then Masalov seemed to sense our anxiety. Suddenly, he spoke up: 'I'm with the child. There's a machine gun on the right, a house with balconies, shut him up.' And the regiment, without any command, opened fire so furiously that I don't think I ever witnessed such tension in the entire war. Under cover of this fire, Nikolai Ivanovich emerged with the girl."
"I crossed the neutral zone. I peered into one building after another—meant to hand the child over to the Germans, the civilians. But it was empty—not a soul. So I headed straight to my headquarters. My comrades surrounded me and laughed: 'Show me this 'tongue' you got.' And they themselves were shoving biscuits and sugar at the girl, trying to calm her down. I handed her over to the captain, wearing a raincoat, who gave her water from a flask. And then I returned to the flag," Nikolai recounted years later.
Bags of letters addressed to “Hero” and “Savior” arrived in Tyazhin.
Chuikov told the sculptor Evgeny Vuchetich about Masalov's actions, who was then working on a Victory Day poster for a front-line newspaper.
"When the war ended, two comrades came to the regiment and asked where to find Private Masalov. We went into the Lenin room, sat me down on a chair, and made a sketch. One of them was Vuchetich. He made the sketch and asked, 'Does it look like him?' I said, 'Yes, it does!' And that was the end of the conversation," Masalov himself recounted in his last video interview with a Tyazhinsky journalist in May 2001.
Initially, the soldier on the monument was supposed to be armed with a machine gun. But, as legend has it, Stalin personally insisted that the weapon be replaced with a lowered sword slashing at the Nazi swastika. It took Yevgeny Vuchetich nearly three years to create the sculpture. Weighing approximately 70 tons, the monument was cast in Leningrad and transported to Berlin in sections. The grand unveiling took place on May 8, 1949, in Treptower Park.
"'60 meters of immortality' refers to the distance Masalov traveled to save the child. The girl's fate is unknown. There were legends that she supposedly came here and met with Masalov. Nothing of the sort. He never saw her again. And what became of her remains unknown," says Tatyana Makarova.
During the Great Patriotic War, Masalov was wounded three times and shell-shocked twice; after the war, he was unable to return to work as a tractor driver.
Masalov was born in the village of Voznesenka in the Tisulsky District. There's a house there where Nikolai Ivanovich was born. But it's already dilapidated. They haven't done anything with it. We last visited there last year; before that, in 2019. Old-timers told us that this is the very house where Masalov was born. He returned from the front in 1946. He initially returned to his native Voznesenka and lived there. In the 1950s, when his father died and his mother left for Khabarovsk, Nikolai Ivanovich moved to Tyazhin with his family. The house where he lived is at 3 Oktyabrskaya Street.
Several months ago, the local administration purchased the house, and the day before, a house museum was opened there. The regional governor even attended the opening.
Inside, the furnishings of the village house where the soldier lived were recreated. This was accomplished using photographs preserved in the villagers' archives and video recordings. The house-museum's exhibit includes Nikolai Masalov's personal belongings: a dressing table, a coffee table, a wall clock, a shaving set, a butter churn, a motorcycle helmet, awards, documents, and a formal suit.
But the numerous letters that were written to Nicholas from all over the world will remain in the museum, where the kindergarten once stood.
In the spring of 1964, Marshal Vasily Chuikov's memoirs, "The End of the Third Reich," were published in the magazine "Oktyabr," in which he recounted the heroic deeds of Nikolai Masalov, a soldier from Siberia. And on June 1 of that year, a radio essay, "Soldier and Child," was broadcast repeatedly on all-Union radio. Journalists flocked to Tyazhin at that time, and sacks of letters arrived at the post office. Some weren't even addressed: simply "Tyazhin, to the hero."
Postmen already knew who the recipient was. Masalov tried to reply to everyone whenever possible. To this end, he enlisted the help of school foreign language teachers and students.
There were letters, including from German children: "Come to the middle-school group in Loibsdorf. Frak Kretschmar, 5 years old." The envelope also contained a photograph of the child and a child's drawing.
In 2022, on the centenary of Masalov's birth, a memorial was unveiled in the capital of Kuzbass on the banks of the Tom River near the Kemerovo Presidential Cadet School. It is a burial mound with a memorial slab. Inside the pedestal is a mosaic panel, the composition of which symbolizes the labor heroism of Kuzbass residents during the war. A 12-meter-tall replica of the "Soldier-Liberator" monument, weighing 27 tons, is erected on the pedestal.
The Soviet sculptor's grandson and namesake, Yevgeny Vuchetich, gave his consent. Another eternal flame was lit here, making Kemerovo now home to two.
And in the Tyazhin Museum, a memorial plaque now stands opposite Masalov's exhibit. It currently features photographs of 12 young men who died in Ukraine. Judging by social media posts, many of them were mobilized.
Photo by the author