NIKITA MIKHALKOV: ZORI BALAYAN ALWAYS ACHIEVES HIS GOAL
Azg/arm
10 Feb 05
Itâ~@~Ys rather easy to talk about Zori Balayan on one hand and very
difficult on the other as his versatility and the polarity of diverse
situations during his lifetime put him beyond comparison. My encounter
with him dates more than 30 years back to the wonderful time when I
was doing my army in the Far East, in Kamchatka, when Zori joined our
legendary 117-day long tour on dog and deer sleighs. Zori, I guess,
has been solely independent since his childhood with a unique way
of thinking, wit and sometimes outwardly strange decisions. In the
meantime he was very attentive to everyoneâ~@~Ys needs, even the
trivial ones. >>From this perspective Zori is a unique personality.
I am grateful to him for being a true friend during a rather tough
period in my life when I was far away from home. They will understand
me who know what it means to appear in a warm flat with a bathroom and
food after the barracks. My warm recollections of Kamchatka are linked
with Zoriâ~@~Ys personality who was a friend, a doctor and a defender
in some cases. He was in freedom, on the other side of the wall and I
was on the other, at the checkpoint. In such conditions people value
the simplest things that pass by your attention in daily life. I felt
that again years later when my elder son, Stepan, was also serving in
the seas of the Far East and was writing letters telling that a pair
of woolen socks are more important then a tape recorder of Sharp brand.
Zori has a very important human and a manly feature that amazes
me. He always achieves goals he sets. Hardly anyone will imagine
how difficult it was to go on an expedition with dogs and deer
from south Kamchatka to north Chukotka. Only he could talk us into
naming the expedition Karabakh. Why Karabakh? On dogs, in Kamchatka,
in winter. And Karabakh. It seemed inexplicable. But that was Zori
we dealt with. Karabakh was not simply a location or a geographical
spot for him. It is his life. I understood that years later when
events started there. I understood why he called the expedition
Karabakh. Zori used to apply words with deeper meaning from then on.
As I said, Zori was a versatile character and as I see that quality
did not leave him afterwards. I know that he went on a sea voyage
lately. By the way, I was also invited to join him. He is one of those
who say: “Yes, I am of the kind of adventurers who imperil their own
lives but not othersâ~@~Y”. I think he ran the risks at the sea this
time either. And hopefully he came out as winner.
It certainly didnâ~@~Yt surprise me. I remember Zori voyaging in the
bay of Avachinsky with his friend Vyacheslav Panteleyev, captain of
a small yacht Delphin, in summer of 1972. I was lucky to join them
aboard the ship few times. Zori wrote about our voyages in his “The
White Marathon”: “It took our breath away each time we approached the
3 brothers: the 3 huge rocks sticking out of the ocean. The width of
the place where the water was of other color â~@~S true blue â~@~S
waves mightier, foam bigger and whiter drew us to itself. Our Delphin
was too small; smaller of foam waves of the Pacific”.
We were getting ready for an expedition on dog sleighs into the
tundra. Once Zori told me on the yacht that he is going to surprise
me. He asked the captain of Delphin to steer out of the bay and
asked me to sing a verse “I am walking down Moscow but I can still
cross the salty Pacific, tundra and taiga” from “Iâ~@~Ym walking down
Moscow”. Then added with faith in his intonation: “Now we will cross
the Pacific but undoubtedly weâ~@~Yll cross the tundra and taiga too”.
Few months later we crossed both tundra and taiga. That was perhaps the
most invaluable gift in my life. The words from “Iâ~@~Ym walking down
Moscow” â~@~S song that whole my country sang â~@~S turned prophetic
for me thanks to Zori.
Now, I wish Zori the most important thing: never lose your harmony
which is for me an entire philosophy. It is a life where your desires
and your abilities correspond. All the troubles people face come from
thinking that they can if they want. I am sure that Zori could stand
back from such trend and hopefully will keep on that.
Dear Zori, I congratulate you on your jubilee. I remember every day
and every hour of our journey. I was reading our diaries lately,
and I think of publishing them some day. I wish you, my brother,
to want things you can achieve. That is the true manâ~@~Ys harmony
in the world. I wish you good health.
–Boundary_(ID_BCrqtu1wnsx5MD+K2O6w7g)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress