Who among us in childhood has not read folk tales about the heroes of the Russian land? And, of course, in the first place was Ilya Muromets, who had the strength of a hero.
In childhood, we think a little about fairy-tale miracles - we just believe in them, and with age we begin to understand Pushkin's "A fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it!" After all, fairy tales could not be born from scratch. There were real heroes in the Russian land!
They don't do this to their own father
As a boy, I heard legends about Timosh Silinsky. It turned out that this was a real person, and my fellow countryman. In the postwar years, few people were interested in such phenomena; the country was rebuilding after the war devastation.
The rich local history museum named after I. N. Kramskoy in the city of Ostrogozhsk was plundered during the occupation, many exhibits disappeared. In the revived museum, there was one photograph that amazed everyone. There were Bakulin's father and son, about whom they told amazing stories. Everyone called their son Timosha Silinsky. He possessed remarkable strength and was the pride of the entire area.
Timofey was born in the village of Ternovoye, which was located near the county town of Ostrogozhsky and was popularly called the "exile". His parents were peasants. Until the age of ten, Timosha was no different from his peers, and then suddenly began to grow by leaps and bounds.
Promotional video:
Father always took Timosha to the fair in Ostrogozhsk, but once noticed that if you put his son on a cart, then nothing can be put there - there is no place. And the horse is not easy. Next. when it was time to go to the fair, his father told Timosha to stay at home. The latter, offended, said: “Then you, dad, will not go anywhere!” - he clung to the loaded cart with both hands, and the horse could not budge. It was agreed that Timofey will sit in the cart when the road is down the hill, when the hill - to help the horse, and out of the blue to walk alongside.”The boy honestly fulfilled the agreement.
When Timofey had already matured, many asked him about this case: is it really true that he can keep the cart with the horse in place? And Timofey always answered: -I was then a foolish boy. I wouldn't do that to my own father today.
The case on the Maidan
During the NEP years, Bakulin took up the fact that he spoke to the public, showed his strength. At first he worked in the district, and then entered the touring circus. Everything would be fine, but here's one misfortune: the cabbies, barely seeing the giant, immediately left - they feared that the carriages would not bear the huge weight of the rider. Then Timofey's friend, sedentary gypsy Ivan Verbitsky, nicknamed Ivan Sereda, made a special chaise for him, and a couple of horses drove the strong man around the county …
It was in those years that Timofey received the nickname Silinsky. Grigory Kravtsov, a resident of Ostrogozhsk at that time, recalled how this happened:
- Then Timofey lived on the Maidan - in an urban settlement, not far from his friend, the gypsy Sereda. We boys ran after him in a crowd as he walked down the street. We tried to run closer and. with their heads up, look him in the face. When we raised our heads, caps fell off us - he was such a huge growth. Once passers-by began to ask Timothy to show his strength, and he agreed. Ivan Sereda harnessed the horses to the cart and sat down at the coachman's place. Timosha grabbed the springs with both hands, and Ivan began to whip up the horses. The horses could not move the cart in any way. In order not to break the lines, I had to stop this experiment. Since then, Timofey has been called Silinsky.
Even today, on the Maidan and in Peski (districts of the city of Ostrogozhsk), there is a good wish for newborn boys: "Grow up, baby, kind, strong and healthy, like Timosha Silinsky!" With a height of 2 meters 45 centimeters, Timofey weighed about 190 kilograms and, possessing really remarkable strength, was a real athlete.
Skeleton for the good of science
Having entered the circus, Timofey traveled with him around the Union. At first, on all his trips, he was accompanied by his wife - Maria Platonov-na, a woman who was in no way outstanding. After the children were born, two daughters and a son, the wife had to stay at home. Timosha hardly knew literacy, and friends wrote letters to his wife under his dictation …
His circus numbers included wrestling with a bear and other wrestlers and lifting weights. They also smashed pound stones with hammers on his chest.
In that ill-fated summer of 1937, the circus toured Georgia. First, a bear fell ill, then one of the circus attendants, and then Timosha himself. The hero was taken to Moscow and placed in the infectious diseases department of the Botkin hospital. The relatives were informed about Timofey's illness only when his condition became very serious. This is how his daughter, a rural paramedic Larisa, recalled it in 1982 (when her father fell ill, she was sixteen years old):
- We found my father alive when he was lying in the isolation ward, not dressed for his height. The blanket was made of two, and the backs of the bed were removed. My father was delighted with us, he was in a big offense at the doctors who had not informed us about his illness for so long. He told his mother: “I will die soon, and I was afraid that I would not see you. I will not be given to you for a funeral, I heard from the doctors that I am now a "statesman" ". Mom and I didn't believe it, but it turned out to be true.
A week after our departure from Moscow, dad died, and we were informed of his death much later. The father was dissected and turned into a skeleton, and then the bones were put on hooks. Here is our giant father and has been standing in a glass case in a clinical infectious diseases hospital in Moscow for 45 years for the benefit of science …
Our heritage
In the early 80s of the last century, the Ostrogozh Museum decided to restore the life story of Timofey Bakulin. Unfortunately, time was lost, and many facts of the biography of the Russian hero were forgotten. But we managed to find out something.
After the death of her husband, Maria Platonovna achieved an appointment with the All-Union headman Mikhail Kalinin, asked to give the body. He listened to her and promised monetary compensation. The widow was paid a small amount of money, but the pension for two still underage children was not assigned, and she raised them herself.
After the Great Patriotic War, the widow of Timofey Bakulin settled in Vladimir. Her eldest daughter Larisa found her father's skeleton in Moscow, on display. Since then, Maria Platonovna, until her death in 1971, traveled to the capital to the remains of her husband - she would come, bow and stand next to him for a long time.
All members of the Bakulin family are of normal height. Only one of Timofey's grandchildren, Volodya, is very tall: 1 meter 98 centimeters.
… Strange feelings arise when you look at a photograph of Timosha Silinsky and at a stand in the local history museum of the city of Ostrogozhsk with a 54th size shoe! The author of these lines tried to find the skeleton of his fellow countryman in the anatomical museums of Moscow, but in vain. Perhaps he is gathering dust somewhere in the storerooms, and his descendants, scattered on the ground, have probably already forgotten about their giant ancestor.
But the phenomenon of Timofey Bakulin is not just a regional phenomenon. This hero was a real treasure of Russia … Unfortunately, we are often inattentive to our history, and to ourselves.
Vadim KULINCHENKO