The presentation of the book titled the Dream of Taiga took place at the SSU History Museum. The event was dedicated to the Day of Russian Student Brigades.
‘The student brigades are strong due to their traditions, memory, and history,’ said Vice-Rector for Youth Policy and Organisational Work Anton Golovchenko.
The initiative group of the book authors included graduates of Saratov University, participants in large-scale construction projects in Siberia as members of the Eureka student construction brigade Nikolai Kuzmin, Victor Polyak, and Zinaida Novoseltseva.
The introduction to the book was written by SSU Rector Aleksei Chumachenko. He commented on the importance of student brigades for the university. The rector noted that ‘energetic dreamers’ both then and now took an active part in construction brigades. Saratov University students are the heirs of the All-Union Student Brigades that began to develop in 1959.
‘First of all, this book is important to those of our students who today are a part of the Russian Student Brigade movement and choose this exciting, difficult, but very honest path for themselves. And not only for them – also for all who are as pure in thoughts, inspired by dreams and are not afraid to breathe deeply, as you did, students of the Saratov State University in the 1967s-1970s,’ wrote Rector Aleksei Chumachenko.
The staff of Saratov University prepared the book for its publication: Professor of the Department of Dynamic Modelling and Biomedical Engineering Boris Bezruchko, Associate Professor of the Department of Computer Physics and Metamaterials on the basis of the Siberian Branch of the IRE of RAS Vladimir Nayanov, who shared their memories. The book is also based on the memoirs of other participants in the legendary construction projects as part of the SSU student brigades, including: Yurii Basharov, Sergei Bogomolov, Yurii Masyukov, Victoria Mikhailova, and others. A photographer of the Mass-Media Centre Gennadii Savkin helped take photos for the book cover. Literary processing and proofreading was done by Svetlana Kalyaeva.
Victor Polyak, who was the commissar of the Eureka and Kvant brigades, and Zinaida Novoseltseva, a member of the Eureka brigade, attended the presentation of the book. They told the construction brigades of Saratov University about the emergence of ‘virgin land brigades’ and everyday work in the 1960s.
The Eureka and Impulse student brigades from Saratov University worked in Siberia, built houses for resettlement of people from the flooded zone of the Ust-Ilimsk Hydroelectric Power Station. The candidate for site visits were chosen in 1967. Not everyone could get into construction brigades. There was a tough selection, and among the senior students only. The candidacy of freshmen was practically not considered. However, the desire of young people to go to Siberia to a construction site was so great that some went for tricks. Tamara Chinaryova, at that time a first-year student of the Faculty of Philology, wrote a poem titled Conscript Me to Ust-Ilim, I do not want to be in Saratov... and left it as a statement at the headquarters. She was accepted into the brigade.
When the students came to the taiga for a construction site, they mastered chainsaws, learned how to build houses, vegetable stores, and railways. The working day of the construction brigade lasted 12 hours, and, most importantly, the young people had practically no days off. However, they did rest, but spent the time productively. The authors of the book told us about an excursion to the Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Station and a trip to Lake Baikal. In the first year, the Eureka bridage built 14 houses and a school. According to Victor Polyak, all the villages that were built by the Saratov students still exist, and people live in them.
The co-authors recall the days of their youth and work in construction brigades with warm feelings. ‘We were definitely dreamers. We really idealised everything that was happening. We treated everything very emotionally and sublimely, even mosquitoes, large and unusual flowers, mushrooms ...’, shared her memories Zinaida Novoseltseva.
The idea to write a book about student construction brigades came up by chance, in 2017, when former Eureka members gathered in Saratov to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their first trip to the taiga. ‘In 2017, the idea arose that it was necessary to collect the memories of those who had been in Siberia in those years. It was necessary to remember how great it had been, how we had worked, what had been left after us. And so we started our work. Of course, it was rather difficult to gather everyone, although many responded with pleasure to our initiative. And now such a thick book came out,’ said Victor Polyak.
The title for the book was the film called the Dream of Taiga ..., which was filmed for the 50th anniversary of the Komsomol (the Young Communist League). The authors of the book expressed their hope that their chronicle will inspire young people to join student groups.
