Moldovan woman who received a Belarusian passport: our President defended the independence of the country in difficult times

When the owner of the apartment in the national Moldavian costume - a hand-embroidered blouse and sleeveless jacket, a smart skirt - opened the door, the living room was already full of women, young and older. Everyone is beautifully dressed, busy with needlework and talking. it was obvious - close people gathered. "Dear friends, you are invited to Moldavian gatherings!" - the reason for the celebration was the chairman of the republican public organization "Community of Moldovans" Antonina Valko.

- We, the Moldovans living in Belarus, honor the national traditions that we brought here with our culture and language, - said Antonina Valko. - The work of Moldovans has always been hard: from dawn to dusk, our ancestors plowed the land, sowed it, looked after it and gardens all summer. And in the fall, after all the work, they gathered for gatherings, where women, like us today, knitted and embroidered. For example, I wove carpets with my mother. Being engaged in needlework, they always sang.

After these words, the guests of the Valko family filled the house with singing, and in such a way that anyone would hear it! It is not surprising: as it turned out, two groups perform in unison - the vocal and dance group "Play" and the vocal group "Zorile". They were joined by the hostess, who greeted the guests with glasses of grapes. It is not considered ALCOHOL in Moldova, a glass is allowed both for lunch and dinner.

- My father, who was a non-drinker, did not have enough prepared 500 liters of wine until the next harvest. When he walked with a jug to the cellar, to his mother's question: "Kolya, where?" - answered: "The guys came to visit, they want to drink - it's so hot."

As Valko's guests and spouses later admitted, Belarusian Moldovans grow their usual grapes in their new homeland.

- I was born in the north of Moldova, in our village everyone is Orthodox, but Christmas was celebrated on December 25th. So that people would not come to church that day, the priest locked it up, but they went in a stream and just prayed at the door. Then the rector gave in and began to hold Christmas services - on December 25 and January 7, - says Antonina Nikolaevna, whose childhood was spent in the large Moldavian village of Drepkautsy, in a good and warm parental home.

After school, she entered the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Chisinau Medical School. When she received her diploma, she was appointed to the position of inspector - pharmacist of the Main Pharmacy Department of Moldova. At the improvement courses in MINSK, she met her future husband, got married. Two daughters, the eldest Olesya and the youngest Yulia, spent their summer holidays with their grandmother in Moldova as children and learned the Moldovan language. Both have a higher education: the University of Linguistics and the Academy of Management under the President of the Republic of Belarus. Daughters live abroad. Antonina Nikolaevna has four granddaughters and one grandson. The eldest granddaughter is studying in France.

- My father kept waiting for our family to return to Moldova, but after 10 years he realized that we had chosen Belarus. He often came to Minsk. He liked to go to performances at the Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theater - he also had a beautiful voice, - Antonina recalls.

The father was proud of his daughter, her irrepressible energy. She managed to work, it happened, in several places at the same time: in her pharmacy - 7 hours five days a week and in another one - part-time. And on maternity leave, she took orders at a home-based work plant - weaving men's scarves.

- Moldovans cannot live without work - they need to be busy from morning to evening. I am proud that I worked hard and earned a lot, - says our heroine.

Born in Moldova, Antonina Valko is now a citizen of the Republic of Belarus. She devoted 40 years to her profession, 24 years she has been the HEAD of the NGO "Community of Moldovans".

Every worthy person is proud of his roots. So the mistress of the house told us about her parents - Lydia and Nikolai Boychu - and even about grandfathers and great-grandfathers. Maternal grandfather Vasily Mynzu reached Berlin in an infantry regiment. And he even signed the Reichstag: "Vasily Mynzu was here." After the war, he guarded the board of the collective farm and was known as very modest: he spent his whole life in a sheepskin coat and a sheepskin kushma (headdress).

By the way, my grandfather got to the front after the Soviet troops liberated Moldova, which was under the Romanians before the war. Some of the locals, when it was time to mobilize for the Romanian army, crossed the front line to fight on the side of the USSR. So Mikhail Boitsu, brother of Antonina Valko's father, fled to the front and fought in the Soviet army, proudly spoke about his service in the protection of Marshal Zhukov.

The heirs of the Boycu and Mynzu clans know the value of peace and independence, honor their roots and the orders of their elders.

- Coming home, grandfather rolled a cigarette from the tobacco that my grandmother grew, and asked us grandchildren: "What to tell today: about Berlin or Budapest?" - recalls Antonina Nikolaevna, who loved these stories. - Today, listening to news about how monuments to Soviet soldiers-liberators are being demolished in the EU countries, I also remember about the memorial complex in Treptow Park. The last battles were fought in this place, in which my grandfather also took part. He told stories that will never be forgotten.

... But one of the great-great-grandfathers of Antonina Nikolaevna's father, by the name of Boytsov, was Russian. He liberated Bessarabia from Turkish rule and stayed there to live. When the Romanians came, they rewrote the name of the Fighters in a new way: Fighter.

- Mom recalled how Romanian teachers beat them, Moldovan children, with the edge of a ruler in the palm of their hand - for the slightest offense. Now is another time. Moldova is free and independent, just like Belarus, the country that has become my new home. We are friends with all nationalities and have been meeting for 24 years at the Festival of National Cultures in Grodno, - says our heroine.

The XIII Republican Festival of National Cultures, which took place this summer on June 3-5 in Grodno, turned out to be special for the head of the Moldovan community, Antonina Valko.

- I was lucky to take part in the Dialogue of National Cultures of the festival, which was attended by the Chairman of the Council of the Republic Natalia Kochanova. On behalf of the Moldovan community, I asked her to convey many thanks to the President of Belarus. And today I want to repeat those words of gratitude. Many thanks to Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko for defending the independence of his country in difficult times. We, the Moldovans of Belarus, admire and are proud of him.

Then in Grodno, taking the floor, Antonina Nikolaevna gave interesting statistics. Representatives of the Moldovan community and she herself took part in all 13 festivals, starting from the very first one. During these 24 years, their community prepared 7,000 cabbage rolls for the festival, sang 360 songs there, and more than a ton of wine was drunk at the festive farmsteads! By the way, in Moldova, on October 14, at the end of rural work, they celebrate the Day of Wine (and also the Day of the City in Chisinau). That is, winemaking in the homeland of Moldovans has a state status.

Antonina Nikolaevna left the pharmacy business, but she still works a lot. Now - on 12 acres of a summer cottage, where even grapes grow - Moldavian. Her husband became a noble winegrower and winemaker. By the way, Belarusian Vladimir Valko is also a member of the Moldovan community, which also includes Gagauz, Ukrainians, Russians, and Bulgarians. Basically, these are the second halves of couples of mixed, international marriages.

If you follow the "love story" of the guests of two amateur groups participating in gatherings in the house of Antonina and Vladimir Valko, then those who represent the "Play" group have husbands - ethnic Belarusians, for whom the singers came to Sineokuyu.

“I met my Belarusian husband in Africa, at a Kobzon concert,” says confectioner Maria Krentik, who went to work to process fish on one of the fish factory ships drifting for schools of fish across the Atlantic. - When our plane was refueling in Minsk, I kept thinking: what is this city like? A few years later, having married, she began to live here.

Each of those who came to the gatherings in one way or another confessed their love for Belarus. Here is one such confession - from Maria Krentik.

- When someone from the diaspora leaves for Moldova and they ask him: "Where are you going?", he answers: "Home!". And when he comes back and he is asked a similar question: "Where are you going?" - "Home, to Belarus!".

But the youth part of the gatherings - the Zorile group - have different stories of their arrival in Belarus. The girls were also born in Moldova, but their husbands are Moldovans who came to our country with their wives.

- Belarus is a very beautiful country where everything is done for the people! - answered Yana Ivanchoglu, who has been living in Belarus for a long time, having moved with her parents. Here she graduated from school, university, and her husband, who also liked Belarus, was found in his homeland - in Moldova.

At gatherings, friends from Zorila did an important job - they prepared an album for the traditional holiday of Martisor, which is celebrated on the first day of spring, March 1.

- The symbol of Martisor, most often, is two flowers connected to each other (white and red), - Natalia Munteanu opens the album and tells the legend: - When Spring, protecting the snowdrop from Winter, got hurt, her blood dripped onto the white snow. An interesting ritual is connected with the martisors that we give each other. Each of them is worn throughout March, and then tied to a fruit tree. The wish made at the same time will surely come true!

- Our diaspora is very active, also due to the fact that we work in close tandem with Victor Sorochanu. For the last 4 years he has been an ambassador to the Republic of Belarus, and now he is the chairman of the Belarusian-Moldovan Friendship Society, - notes Antonina Valko and clarifies: - We ourselves would not sit on the sidelines, because we love people, we value friendship, we invite you to visit us and we ourselves are happy to perform at various holidays when invited. Public organizations of Belarusian diasporas are united by the Republican Center of National Cultures. The artistic DIRECTOR of the center, Natalia Vysotskaya, is aware of all the events that would be of interest to us.

In addition to concerts, the community is involved in charity work. Among the recent ones was a visit to a boarding school for children with special needs, who were treated to Moldovan sweets and grapes by the guests. In the area of ​​attention of the community and the children of ethnic Moldovans. Not so long ago, a children's dance group was organized.

The culmination of the gatherings was a feast, and the main dish was hominy, which is made from cornmeal.

- It is for Moldovans as bulba for Belarusians. Hominy is eaten in the morning, afternoon and evening - with cottage cheese with sour cream, cracklings, - says the head of the community and puts an impressive chogun on the stove, measuring two bowls of water and one bowl of corn FLOUR into it. - When I moved to Minsk, the first thing I brought from Moldova was a chogun for hominy. Today I have three. All different sizes - for a different number of guests.

...After a couple of songs, the hominy is ready. The hostess solemnly brings the dish to the table - to the songs of the participants in the gatherings. Yana skillfully turns the chogun over - and the hominy, repeating the shape of the dishes, obediently fits on the table. Next comes the time of a professional confectioner. With a special thread, Maria cuts the hominy into portions. The action is accompanied by a mischievous Moldavian song with an almost battle cry "YU-YU-YU!". We don't know what that means, but it's definitely fun!

And the table is bursting with food. It is filled with traditional Moldovan pastries with sheep cheese and cinnamon, pumpkin, prunes stuffed with nuts, cabbage rolls with MEAT in grape and cabbage leaves and other goodies. And above all this splendor rises hominy and a cake with cherries "Gugutsy's Hat".

By the way, some of the pastries and dishes were brought by the participants of the gatherings. In Moldova, it is customary to take some kind of pickle, a pie or something special, national, prepared with one's own hands. This tradition is a symbol of unity.

Singing and toasting succeed each other. We are escorted to the Moldavian variation "Be healthy, live rich! ..". Thank you, our hospitable, hospitable and cheerful Belarusian Moldovans!

The project was created at the expense of targeted collection for the production of national content.

Tamara MARKINA,

Pavel ORLOVSKY,

newspaper "7 days".