Nyaklyaeu: I was first taken to a police department as a "hipster" in 1961!

11/07/2011 - 09:27

There are complete paradoxes around Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu's birth in his biography. He was born in Kreva, while it is stated that it was Smarhon, because his mother was delivered to a hospital there. He was born on July 9, while his passport says - July 11. Why is it so?

Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu: “When a father gets drunk of happiness, it would be weird if he remembered the exact date of his son's birthday. This happened to my father as well. I was born on July 9, as my mother says, and she never used alcohol and never lied. As for my father, he regained consciousness a bit, came to the rural council where he worked as a head at that moment, looked at the calendar, and recorded my birthday on a day when he realized he really had a son”.

Besides, our ancestors used to conceal a child's real birth date on purpose - they thought that someone could use it and hex a child. Did this substitution help Nyaklyaeu?

Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu: “There were cases in my not very short life when it seemed to me it was the end. However, some wonders of wonders happened and my life went on. Something like this waited for me last year, I mean the December 19 events. When they took me almost naked from the hospital, I thought they were taking me naked as they knew I would not need clothes anymore. I prayed and thought - if they drove me to the city there was a chance, but if they drove me out of the city, to the belt road - there was no chance. Suddenly, I felt they turned to life as I prayed”.

Surprise - the poet's fans brought him blackberries picked in Biarezinsky reserved area.

It came out during the conversation that the current poet and politician used to be one of Minsk "hipsters" 40 years ago!

Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu: “I was a hipster, too, at a time. It was when I just arrived to Minsk from a village and looked around a bit, in 1961. Policemen took me to the police department for the first time as a hipster - there was a police department in the Yakub Kolas Square, later there was a restaurant "At the Cross-Roads" there. So they took me to that very police department, when I tried to invent something that no one ever did before”.

Everyone who saw the Russian movie "Hipsters», which was partly shot in Minsk by the way, knows that hipsters should have their own Broadway. Where was this Broadway in Minsk?

Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu: “Our Minsk Broadway started near the cafe "Viasna" and ended near the cafe "Biarozka". "Viasna" is a... What is there now? I mean, there was a cafe called "Krynitsa" in Minsk once, but it is called "Grand Cafe" now... You see, I am letting this out of my head step by step!”

Did devoted Komsomol members fight with hipster Nyaklyaeu as shown in the movie?

Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu: “They caught us here the way they did in Moscow, cut our narrow trousers and hair... They behaved like today's bandits at the silent actions, not so brutally, however...”.

Cat Magda has the same character as her owner - she only endured 3 shots in the arms

Nyaklyaeu says that many things got forgotten during all these years, only some details, unexpected and interesting moments remained in the memory.

Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu: “Coffee appeared first in "Lakamka" in Minsk. They delivered it in a special can and spilled with a bailer to cups. We sat on the window sills drinking this coffee”.

Nyaklyaeu visits his native Kreva often. His aunt Alena lives there, he likes to get together with his brothers in their native house. Is there anything left from Nyaklyaeu's parents, apart from memories, which is dear to him?

Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu: “It used to be in Kreva but now it is here in my house. It's a painting, a scenery painting, there's nothing really special about it. A forest, and a small figure of a woman with a rake, on the background of the sundown. It is obvious that she is going to collect this hay in a heap before the night falls so that it won't get spoiled by dew. My father told me that I was "made" under this painting, so this painting is close to me in some sacral meaning, it is also a sort of an icon to me…”