"And what to live on?!": the story of a postman from the Tula region with a salary of 6100 rubles

The woman showed the correspondent of "Novye Izvestia" bank SMS notifications about the receipt of wages: on August 12, 2263 rubles 41 kopecks came to her account, and on August 27 - 3600 rubles. According to her, in 2018, before the presidential elections, “the salary was raised” for several months and “paid like that” - 10,200 rubles each, and then transferred to part-time. "Write about it, write, let at least one of the authorities finally pay attention to us".

Maria Dubinskaya

In Aksinyino, where the Davydovs' estate was once located, from which, unfortunately, as they say, there is no stone unturned, I managed to visit as part of a press tour held by the White Iris Charitable Foundation for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage. Recently, the foundation won presidential grants for the project " Revival of Rural Pearls" and closely, at a very serious level, began work on the restoration of a number of unique temples in the regions.

The "pearl" of the Aksinyino village is in a depressing state. The Church of the Savior Not Made by Hands was built between 1790 and 1863. The church is crowned with a sculpture of the kneeling Archangel Michael with a cross in his hands. Of the cross, however, only a vertical crossbar remained, and the Archangel's wings were long broken off, but still, the view of this temple, once shining with beauty, of course, is impressive to this day.

It is important to understand that behind the phrase "restoration of temples" there is also the prospect of reviving life in the outback as such, since this means the possibility of developing tourist routes, opening cafes, hotels, and so on. In a word, new jobs may appear. This is what the residents of Aksinyino hope for.

However, Novye Izvestia will tell about this wonderful project of devotees from the White Iris Foundation a little later, in a separate article, and now we bring to your attention the story of a resident of Aksinyino, postman Lyudmila.

The woman asked her not to take pictures, "all the same everyone here knows me."

“I moved to Aksinino 28 years ago, from Kazakhstan. Now and then are two different realities.

At that time, for example, there was a luxurious first-aid post here, now it is destroyed, of course. If something happens, God forbid, help can only be expected from Mordves, this is a village like that, it is not very far away. Well, the ambulance will probably be there in an hour.

At that time Aksinino had a full-fledged post office, and not what you see in front of you, there was no such terrible devastation in sight, of course ... This building is not heated in winter. Look, there are my boots.

Now we have two grocery stores, but before there were different ones, including a construction one - just excellent, whole teams came to it from all over the region.

There were many farms, the inhabitants kept a lot of livestock. Music was thundering in the village club, holidays were celebrated cheerfully and noisily ... Now it looks like it was after a bombing, closed.

In winter, I don’t think that even a hundred people will be in Aksinyino now. All young people are in the capital, in Tula ... In connection with the coronavirus, Muscovites began to bring more children and grandchildren. But all this, so to speak, is a one-time action, this is understandable ... The nearest school is located in the village of Dyakonovo.

We live some hundred kilometers from Moscow, but we have no gas, nothing, do you understand? How long can you mock people like that ...

We are constantly fed with promises to supply gas, but every year everything is transferred and transferred, things are still there. At the same time, there is a wonderful gas pipeline in Krasnoe Selo, which is only 3-4 km from us!

What is balloon gas? After all, you need to find someone, go somewhere, fill this cylinder ...

I work as a postman for OPS Mordves three days a week: Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday.

A car comes, brings newspapers, pension, receipts for electricity, garbage and water. All this I distribute, as well as letters, parcels. Sometimes people come to me, sometimes I go and carry them around myself.

Before the presidential elections, our salary was raised to - 10,200 rubles, this was in 2018, in the summer.

For several months we were paid like this, and then transferred to 0.5 rates.

Then there was the so-called supplement, that is, now, respectively, I get a net salary of 6100 rubles.

The last time, on August 27, the payment came over 3000 rubles.

Now, wait, I will even show you SMS notifications from Post Bank with my last salary. Replenishment, see for yourself: 3600 rubles.

And on August 12, 2263 rubles 41 kopecks were received.

Look, here are the previous receipts from the employer: 2600, 2800, 3100, 2200 rubles ...

And now I have only one question: what to live on?

My husband died and so far my son is still receiving a pension due to the loss of a breadwinner, which is just over 10,000 rubles.

The son keeps part of this money for himself, part of it he throws over to me on the farm. He is 19 years old, he is in college, in Tula, there is no scholarship, there is no hostel either, he comes home for the weekend.

Soon my son will finish his studies, go to the army, and then I don’t understand how to survive at all. I do not understand!

Thank God that I have my own house, I don’t pay the rent, but, for example, I pay for electricity monthly in the region of 1000 rubles.

Plus food is needed, as you understand, plus various household expenses - firewood, coal, and so on.

And, by the way, last year I took two and a half tons of coal - you take it for the whole winter, and immediately I had to pay more than 18,000 rubles.

In addition, the son, of course, needs to be helped somehow, after all, he is a student, a young man, he has a life ahead of him ...

There are no jobs in Aksinyino. I would love to go to work somewhere else, but I have to stay at the post office.

My friends work on the track, in a cafe - some as a maid, some on dishes. In general, someone gets a job, but in shifts. And I can't leave the house. I need to heat it.

Fair? I myself do not understand how we manage to survive and what will happen next".

P.S. From the author of the article: local residents told me that according to one person who works in the Tula branch of Gazprom, they know that, according to official documents, gas has long been supplied to Aksinino. And that "all the money is spent." I would very much like the representatives of the company, as well as the administration of Mordves and the Venevsky district of the Tula region, to respond to this publication and comment on the situation. In general, Novye Izvestia wrote about how Russia's gasification promises are being fulfilled in the materials "Gasification of Russia is postponed because there is not enough money for it" and "Mission is impracticable: what will be the result of Putin's order to gasify the country in 10 years". However, even if they supply gas to an almost beggar - let's call things by their proper names - a postman, there is still nothing to live on - with salaries of three dollars a day, it is just right to compete with the poorest African countries...