were many reasons for this, especially during the Chechen wars, when blood was shed, sometimes I heard emotional reproaches from people who survived this hell. However, my position has always remained unchanged – I serve, but I do not humiliate myself. I did not try to learn the Chechen language, because in this way I left communication free for their native speakers. From time to time it was necessary to defend the right to historical, not «national» truth. Any national tragedies are terrible, but I also had irrefutable arguments – my relatives survived the blockade… Later I talked with Chechens of different ages, status and beliefs, and once again I was convinced that the more ardent nationalism (not to be confused with national pride) and hatred of the Russian world in a person, the lower his intelligence, no matter how many academic degrees were indicated on his business card. On the other hand, their national characteristics and traditions have always created an undeniable advantage when uniting in the fight against an external enemy, since their fighting qualities are honed in the family since childhood, boys become men capable of standing up for themselves, and for their family, and for their kind (teip), and for their land.
Nevertheless, the difference in age and mentality still affected. There were times when I did not understand someone from the authorities, and they did not understand me. A typical example from life. The president calls to me, and there are five people in relaxed poses.
– Do you sell diesel fuel for Russian supplies. And how?
I answer that buyers are interested in the product quality passport.
– And why do you need a passport if there is GOST (Russian standard)? – someone from the audience asks rather sharply with a slight accent.
I calmly explain that GOST 305—82 «Diesel fuel» specifies ranges of values of controlled parameters – cetane number, water content, flash point and so on. The buyer is usually interested in specific quantities: sulfur, mechanical impurities and other characteristics. After the explanation, silence reigned in the office. And this is not the main argument. Well, I won’t tell them directly that this is how those who are far from the supplier sell most often, in fact it is «air», and I earned my reputation with blood and everyone takes my word for it. You’re suggesting that I become Baron Munchausen and undermine the reputation of the firm. But sometime it’s been tougher:
– Call London and tell them that we will have twenty thousand tons of something soon…
The Englishman, stunned by the news, asks me a hundred questions in his native language, to which I have no answer – both in fact and because of the limited vocabulary. What should I do?
– Be patient, Cossack, you will be ataman!
But I also have a personal limit, my own border, which I cannot cross. Once we signed a contract with Gazprom, and the boss asked me to sign a contract on the terms of deferred payment. This meant that it was good for our company, but for me it was a personal responsibility worth millions of non-Russian rubles. I had a choice – to accept the offer and agree, show loyalty, and then suffer for a long time, bearing the burden of moral responsibility (there were examples), or refuse and have a loss of perspective and trust of the leadership, but sleep peacefully. I chose the latter, had a tough one-on-one conversation and disappointed the president with my «no» and «I can’t». But I did not overstep himself, my experience and my beliefs. But I did not become rich either – I say for those to whom I seemed a proud hero in the description of my actions. I think a more accurate term is Don Juan’s definition of «controlled stupidity,» which Carlos Castaneda wrote about.
And here is the first trump card in favor of our selectivity and strength. Actually, many of our compatriots could find out about our valiant team on December thirtieth, 1993 at ten p.m, after watching an hour-long program called «Evening Concert» on the channel «Russia». As the notorious Fantomas used to say:
– Even a great man is nothing without the press.
Following this principle, the financial association «Holding» announced its existence to the whole country: this is evidence of the high ambitions of his leadership, inherent in truly powerful structures.
Chapter eight. Melpomene in our service
When a person has a specific case, he is passionate and responsible for the result, he does not have time for trifles, distraction from the process is annoying. It is difficult to push into yourself something extraneous, unrelated to the work being done, it is like a creator in the process of composing a symphony to answer a telephone survey. This is not his purpose, not his nature. I practically turned into a person sitting at my desk, solving urgent tasks throughout the working day with a lunch break. Sergey Nikolaevich always responded to my requests, but he was less loaded, and for this reason, as well as due to his sanguine nature and penchant for self-promotion, he communicated with other departments and was the first to find out all the news of our floor – who was fired, who was hired, in which country the leadership is staying this time and what is the name of the new secretary Amir. By the way, oh-h-h-pretty. In the women’s issue, we were in solidarity – we appreciated female beauty and a good attitude towards us, we did not suffer from jealousy and greed. Sergey, for a reason almost unknown to me, sometimes called us «foster brothers», probably because of Tanya, our mutual friend.
And here is fantastic news from Sergey: a television program is being prepared about our financial association, famous personalities are involved, who – oh, a miracle! – they are literally located behind our wall, the creative troops landed in the next office! Among the creators are an experienced film director Sergeyeva, a popular St. Petersburg composer and singer Igor Azarov and, attention, an actress, singer and TV presenter – the incomparable Anna Samokhina! That’s cool!
Where is the wind blowing from? Here it is necessary to make a really lyrical digression. Our vice-president Oleg Borisovich has two brothers – Mikhail and Evgeny. Bright personalities – Evgeny, a top manager of Holding-Invest, a master of sports of international class, tall and powerful, practically did not appear in our department. There were legends about him from the mouth of his older brother:
– Evgeny at the wedding in a police cap and a traffic policeman’s baton blocked traffic in St. Petersburg for the wedding motorcade of Oleg and his bride. – Or:
– Evgeny hit a bailiff in a hotel in Moscow so hard that he drove several meters across the floor.
The eldest, Mikhail Borisovich, immediately inspired the sympathy of others with his friendliness and creative abilities. A gambler by nature, he wrote poetry and, thanks to his irrepressible positive aura, was on close terms with people of creative professions. Lyudmila Gurchenko sang in our office, I listened with interest to his stories about Irina Ponarovskaya, the guys from the Adam’s Apple TV show often came. In general, it has always been a pleasure for me to deal with him – creative or business. By the way, he traded me a magnificent Hungarian sheepskin coat for four hundred dollars. I am not a slave to things, but I have never seen such things again, and in the subway passengers at that difficult time looked at me like an alien. Mikhail Borisovich was very dynamic, easily rebuilt from one type of business to another, but the scale of his activities for objective reasons was not comparable to ours.
One day, at the moment of another delay in the urgent study of a letter of credit from a western bank, dear Mikhail came to me «to talk.» After a couple of minutes of polite communication, I pointed to a thick folder of documents lying on the table and asked quietly:
– How much do you think this folder costs? – Mikhail
