REPORTAGE: The attraction of the potter's wheel: how the craft of ancestors is preserved in the Stolin region

They say that you can endlessly look at three things: how fire burns, how water flows, and... But there are different opinions about the third thing. Our option is the rotation of the potter's wheel. Well, isn't it magic when an ordinary piece of clay before your eyes (or even better - in your hands) turns into a useful or simply beautiful product? In the village of Gorodnaya, Stolin District, this ancient craft has been engaged in this ancient craft for more than one century: earlier - purely for everyday life and earnings, but now more and more for the soul - out of interest in their history and the life of their ancestors. Created almost two decades ago at the local House of Culture, the Pottery Center did not let the already fading fire in the furnace die out and is now helping to give birth to a new galaxy of Gorodnya craftsmen. For a significant personal contribution to the preservation of the traditions of pottery, the HEAD of the center, Vasily Kozachok, was awarded a special award of the President of Belarus to workers of culture and art. BelTA correspondents visited this Polissya village, talked to the laureate and got acquainted with his students.

The center of pottery expectedly met with children's voices, surprisingly - girls'. It turned out that even girls love to work with clay in Gorodnaya. On this day, a group of junior schoolgirls was engaged in circles "Young potter" and "Clay whistle". “Slow down a little, Dasha,” Vasily Kozachok remarks to one of the students.

Under his guidance, the girls - some for the potter's wheel, some for hand modeling - comprehend the basics of the craft. Clay angels, fish, birds dry up on tables and window sills. Some are already painted by children's hands. "I give them the opportunity to fantasize, because the monotony bothers children, it gets boring. Especially for the lower grades, the main thing is to develop the motor skills of the hands. While they are learning to sculpt the simplest things, master the process of centering around the circle. I help them, because this is the most difficult thing for a beginner potter "If he learns to do this, then the product will turn out. If the clay walks, it will tear, skew, and be ugly," the DIRECTOR of the center explains the nuances of pottery.

A hereditary potter and poet (just before the New Year he was accepted into the writers' union), he himself sat down at the age of 54 - rather late for the profession. Having worked for four decades as a teacher of literature at a local school, Vasily Kozachok unexpectedly discovered a craving for the business that his father had been doing all his life. "He was a potter, and he made very good products. Volom took pots to Pinsk: he would get up at night, get ready and by ten o'clock already at the market. I helped dad all the time, I even went to the villages with him to sell pots. Probably, this is I was dozing in my soul," he recalls, kneading a piece of clay in his hands, not yet deciding what exactly he will make of it.

In principle, this half-kilogram gray ball can make a pot of 2-2.5 liters or a jug (locally, kukhlik, glechik, in which MILK is well stored , sour cream is infused). Pots can be of different shapes and sizes: mamzelik, zlivach, makotra, odinets, pododinets (about 10 liters). The largest pot - a Pole - is designed for a pood of grain. Not every modern master can repeat his seemingly simple forms. In addition, as it turned out, you need strength in your hands. That is why, notes Vasily Kozachok, all potters have a strong handshake.

In the center are five electric potter's wheels. Two self-made ones, received the same amount under an international project, one more was purchased for budgetary funds. “We still don’t have enough stoves. One of us has long been out of order, and now the second one has broken down. The electric stove is convenient for us: children’s work is small - they fit a lot. Now we are trying to repair it ourselves. In general, I want to buy a new one for the center. Maybe the presidential award will go for this," Vasily Kozachok reflects.

The Pottery Center in Gorodnaya was created at the initiative of the Department of Culture of the Stolin District Executive Committee with a grant from the President's Special Fund. Its first director, Olimpiada Dmitrievna Leonovets, is now the owner of the nearby Potter's Estate. Here, not only the surroundings of a typical village hut of the last century, but also the atmosphere of the dwelling are recreated with love and authenticity: dishes, which are traditional Gorodnya white-clay ceramics, various household utensils, clothes, homespun rugs and towels, embroideries. The owner of the estate emphasizes: here we hear the voices of the ancestors.

“For me, the Pottery Center is like a child for a mother: so much work and effort has been invested in it. "We learned this. They finished school - and they have a craft in their hands. And we have such graduates: these are the brothers Ivan and Sergey Shelesty - as they say, potters from God, Alexei Senko. Let them go their own way, but pottery is already in their blood And, if necessary, they will come, sit around the circle and continue this business, "Olimpiada Leonovets expresses the opinion.

She draws our attention to a mountain of tar writhing near a makeshift forge. Once upon a time, such a picture was typical for Gorodnaya: in almost every courtyard there were heaps of stumps uprooted in the forest and in the swamp - free and excellent fuel for the kiln for firing ceramics. At one time, every second person was engaged in pottery here. Now the current masters can be listed on the fingers of one hand. Among them are Adam Shelest, Alexander Ovchinnikov. Matvey Pechonko, who masterfully made pots with one left hand, Arseniy Shelest, the best potter of Belarus according to the results of the "Potter's Wheel - 2004" competition, Avram Basovets, the winner of the Presidential Prize "For Spiritual Revival", Avram Basovets, the authors of pottery expositions in the museums of Pinsk and Kyiv, Pavel and Alexander Vechorko, Ivan Lichevsky. Their names and works, presented in the Pottery Center,

"Now the state pays more attention to people's sources, roots. Here is the Year of Historical Memory declared in the country. In principle, this memory has not been lost in our country; the younger generation, it is necessary that they know their ancestors: what they did, what they became famous for. People managed to preserve traditional pottery from ancient times to the present day. I hope that in the future our Gorodnaya will not disappear as a settlement from the map of Belarus, and will live this is art, this folk craft," summed up Vasily Kozachok.

Svetlana VECHORKO,

Photo by Vadim YAKUBENKO,

BELTA.