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“Bread of Peace” is Good for the Merry Fair

A Russian word “ярмарка” (yarmarka) is known to originate from the German notion “a market of the year”, and the popular Russian dictionary by Ozhegov interprets this word as “a big bargain usually with entertainment and fun, held regularly in one time and in one place”.

It is clear that Karghin Fair on Intercession Days is by a calendar linked with this autumn holiday, which was important for the Don Army (Voisko Donskoye). The poet N.Turoverov wrote: “As long as free wind is blowing, and steppe herbs are swaying, again a miracle will come at dawn on the Cossack holiday of Intercession.”

The traditional place of the Fair is a mill yard and farmstead of the Karghin Cossack T.A.Karghin. G.Y.Sivovolov, a scholar of literary local history, wrote about the time of the early last century: “Soon, on the bank of the Chir River, Timofey Andreyevich bought two sites of land: on one of them he put up a big wooden mansion, tin roofed, with brick outbuildings, on the other, fertile earth, he laid out an orchard and a nursery… Near the house on the piled up ground, they decided to build a mill.”

Now the mill and its outbuildings have become famous again thanks to the Museum-Reserve of M.A.Sholokhov, which organized reconstruction of the houses and the farmstead outbuildings, and revived the traditions of the pre-revolutionary fair... Besides, this is a “cinematographic” place – one of the first cinemas in the Upper Don region, cinematograph “Ideal”, was reconstructed there. Some of the episodes of the serial film “The Quiet Don” by the film-director S.Ursulyak were made there.

…Sunday, the 8 of October. Autumn is in full swing, the crop has been harvested and taken to the storehouse, light webs are flying over the earth. The heart is light and bright. On the Fair day, villagers, guests and friends met to share the fun of the holiday.

High spirits and humour helped in swinging, letting colourful balloons fly high in the sky, making funny dolls of waste fabric, imitating circus actors walking on stilts, taking awards from the tall Fair pole and pleasure boating along the river.

The Fair shopping started from the early morning. There were souvenirs and toys, earthware and cookies, Cossack costumes and hats. The workshops of arts and crafts attracted the visitors. Little Cossacks took part in old Cossack games or

rode on ponies and horses. The guests were attracted by the lottery “Happy Feather” or by the competition of strongmen.

The competition “Miracle Pie” showed the best bakers. This time, the best pies were made by the masters from Stanitsa Karghinskaya.

The competition of singers and musicians entertained the guests of the Fair with their classical and country music.

A group of tourists followed the museum guide telling about the past history of the Karghin mill with its mystery and secrets.

Melodic bell ringing attracted the guests to the travelling exhibition “Bells of Russia” of the collector G.V.Shatalov from Voronezh. In the house of the mill granary there was an exhibition showing bells of different size, format and purpose. The visitors enjoyed the display of more than 500 bells of metal, wood, ceramics, crystal… and others.

Besides, there was an interesting collection comprising more than 80 kerosene lamps exhibited again by P.A.Soldatov, a resident of Stanitsa Vyoshenskaya, a lover of antiquity. It attracts with its diversity and skillful exposition design. The light and the bell-ringing merged together under a single soffit evoking special feelings in the people…

Another exhibition attracted with its originality – “History of Distilling in the Upper Don Area Late in the XIX – early in the XX Centuries”, which was placed in the interior of “a saloon”. That was an exhibition and tasting, full of humour and emotional commentaries, of the high-quality of the Cossack home-made hard drinks.

An old photo studio invited the guests to have their photos taken in the historical interior and costumes of the early last century.

In the cinema “Ideal: the guests could see an exhibition and fragments of the films based on Sholokhov’s works.

When the feast reached its apogee, the public was greeted by the members of the official delegation and guests of honour: A.M.Sholokhov, Deputy Head of the RF State Duma Cultural Committee, Y.A.Pyatikov, Head of the Bokovsky District Administration, O.A.Anistratenko, Director of the National M.A.Sholokhov Museum-Reserve. They wished merry holiday to the public.

Then, the artistic ethnographical performance “Eat Pies and Take Care of Bread” took the viewers into the history of the mill complex and brightly presented

the international project “Bread of Peace”. On the National Unity Day, November 4, in Volgograd Hero City, the organizers will make a great round loaf of bread from the grain harvested from the fields of Russian regions and foreign countries. A big delegation of Volgograd activists headed by the project initiator, a farmer A.P.Proshakov, came to Stanitsa Karghinskaya for the ceremony of transferring the Don grain to the organizers of the project “Bread of Peace”. It was A.M.Sholokhov, Deputy of the Russian Federation State Duma, who handed in to the organizers a bag of Don wheat for baking a collective round loaf of bread. A.P.Proshakov thanked the Don farmers and noted that about 400 regions from 23 countries of the world had responded and joined the action. In conclusion, A.M.Sholokhov said that it was a significant event: “Russia is always for Peace and Bread, this is its historical mission. As to the Rostov Region, it is going to gain a record of 13 mln tons of grain, that will account for one-fifth of the total crop of Russia!”

The holiday public enjoyed the performance of the folk groups from Vyoshenskaya and Bokovskaya. At the end, the actors and spectators performed together a big merry round dance to celebrate really great crop of the Don grain-growers.

Another attraction was a funny theatrical auction “Horse-the-Fire”, where a funny quick pony was put up for sale… The trade was brisk, and finally the restive horse looking like a little humpbacked horse went to a new master to leave for Belgorod.

Then, on the bank of the Chir River, young, but expert horsemen from the Museum Stables showed their bright equestrian performance – trick riding and acrobatic elements ahorseback. It was great, fantastic!

So the public was unanimous that the Karghin Fair was a great success!

Alexey Kochetov