August 29, 2017

The Last Hero


The Last Hero
A Bashirian sunflower field {Photo: Paul E. Richardson}

We take a day train from Samara to Ufa and revel in the changing landscape from the Volga basin to the wide horizons of the steppe. We are nearing the foothills of the Urals, and as we enter Bashkiria, there are rolling hills and mesa-like formations with light sprinklings of vegetation.

Ufa, our destination and the capital of Bashkortostan, is an oil-rich city that, when compared to gritty Samara, is very clean and well-kept. There are not many old, wooden buildings, but plenty of gleaming new skyscrapers and broad avenues. This is a town that west-Siberian oil and gas has rebuilt.

Sunset from the last car on the train to Ufa. {Photo: Paul E. Richardson}

Our Bashkir “hero”, Sabiryan Asfandiyarov, lives about 50 kilometers south of the capital, in the village of Sakhayevo. To get there, we drive over well-paved roads through rolling hills under active cultivation. In several places wide sunflower fields stretch to an aquamarine horizon. Every few kilometers there are pull outs for cars that offer covered picnic tables and views of fertile hills and fields.

A retired local journalist, Rashid, is driving us to Sakhayevo. Rashid’s presence is vital. This, our first male centenarian on this leg of the expedition, is not only completely deaf, but, we are told, speaks no Russian, only Tatar. So we have printed out our questions in Russian for Rashid to translate on the fly into Tatar.

Nadya, Paul and Rashid (second from right), work through some Tatar language source materials about Sabiryan with his daughter, Guzel, center. {Photo: Mikhail Mordasov}

But the first obstacle we must overcome is not linguistic but gastronomic. We are greeted by a table groaning with food. A bowl of homemade pelmeni is set down in front of each of us. “That’s how we do it here, 15 per person,” says Rishat, Sabiryan’s son-in-law. The pelmeni are incredible, but clearly we should not have eaten breakfast.

* * *

It turns out that Sabiryan can read Russian just fine with his one good eye, and even speak it, though in a very thick Tatar accent. So Rashid shows him the printed questions on an iPad and he offers long, fascinating stories in reply.

Sabiryan Asfandiyarov. {Photo: Mikhail Mordasov}

Wounded three times in the war, Sabiryan served eight years in the military, having been called up to serve in 1938, and ready to be mustered out when the war began. He drove tanks, including an American-made one, and lost his right eye under fire in Hungary in 1945. He at first refused to have the eye removed, thinking a one-eyed man would never find a wife, but eventually was convinced by a doctor it was the only way to save his other eye. Three days after finally mustering out, he was at work as a cashier on the kolkhoz.

A neighbor comes by and recounts how 360 men left the village for the war and only 120 came back, and now Sabiryan is the last one alive.

“He is our last hero,” the friend says.

That may be, but Sabiryan can’t seem to understand what all this fuss is about.

When we are done with all our questions, he says we are here asking him all these things about 100 years ago, but he has a question for us. All these journalists come around visiting, he says, but none of them can tell him what is going on in Loch Ness, and what it is that lives there.

We try to convince him it is just a myth, but none of us have any real facts to offer in our defense, and so it seems that Loch Ness will continue to bother Sakhayevo’s last hero for the foreseeable future.

Sabiryan and his immediate family, in the garden where he likes to sit in his greenhouse. {Photo: Mikhail Mordasov}
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Russian Rules

Russian Rules

From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
Survival Russian

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.
Faith & Humor
December 01, 2011

Faith & Humor

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.

Life Stories
September 01, 2009

Life Stories

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.

At the Circus
January 01, 2013

At the Circus

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices
May 01, 2013

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.

Bears in the Caviar
May 01, 2015

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.

Marooned in Moscow
May 01, 2011

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.

Woe From Wit (bilingual)
June 20, 2017

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.

Russian Rules
November 16, 2011

Russian Rules

From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955