A Real Hero of Our Time: Outstanding Russian Journalist and Musician Andrei Polunin Died Last Year
By Stephen Wilson, one of our reporters abroad
“It's a great idea. I think it will be a real challenge and it seems interesting. Go for it,” said Andrei Polunin, a late journalist and close friend when he heard about the launch of StreetSense.
He had also even heard about the director of the Brotherhood which helped the homeless, Namrud Negashi, and was well informed about social issues.
Whenever some friends doubted some of my new reports about the passage of a new law, I would tell them “If you don't believe me, you can check it out with Andrei.” After they checked things up with Andrei, they conceded that I was correct; Andrei vindicated me! It is a testament to how much trust he inspired that they would accept his words while doubting others.
I remember the last time I spoke to him. He was struggling with lung cancer. At that time, it was not easy for him to speak. If he spoke too long, he could experience excruciating pain. So now his words were well chosen to the point of being laconic. But his moral and spiritual support for StreetSense was more than welcome. It contrasted sharply with people who were running down the homeless and asking, “Why do you help those people?”
However, it was no surprise to find Andrei firmly supported the idea of the StreetSense project. He was a very open-minded person who had a rare flare for not only assiduously getting to the bottom of things but attentively listening to people. Tragically, Andrei died last winter at the age of only 53.
Andrei's funeral left an indelible impression on me. The custom is for the gravediggers to dig a hole, to lower the coffin into the grave and ask all the mourners to say farewell by picking up clumps of earth and throwing them over the coffin. After the gravediggers level the top, they straighten up the cross and position the bouquets and cards in a smooth order. In a sense, everyone literally takes part in the burying of the deceased. Usually no speeches and prayers are uttered when the dead are buried. This tends to come before in the church, and after, while mourners partake in a farewell feast.
What struck me was the deep silence which filled the air. This haunting silence was made more forlorn and solemn by the cold chilly air. The silence means you can distinctly hear the loud clattering and hacking of the spades the diggers used to break the harsh frozen soil. The diggers were so strong and diligent they did not even use a pick. It was around minus 20 when we buried Andrei. This was not the end of remembering the dead. After 40 days another Orthodox church service will be held and on the anniversary of the birthday or death the relatives and friends gather to give homage to the dead. I myself have been visiting a deceased friend for years in Russia along with his relatives. It is the custom here. And the dead and the living are said to go on assisting each other in often imperceptive ways. An Orthodox priest once told me “We not only pray for the dead but with them.”'
It was striking how frank and forthright people can be about death. Just after the funeral, Andrei's 20-year-old daughter Natasha told me “At first after hearing of his death I was very upset and crying all week. But when I noticed how his face in the coffin in the church looked so at peace and at ease, I understood that he must have been relieved that all this agonizing pain had gone when death came. Then I saw things differently.”
Her younger sister-in-law who made a speech in the café told us bluntly that “It is just terrible watching your father fall ill and waste away in such pain. It is just horrible.” I considered these comments. However, I noticed something else, also. At that funeral I met people I had not seen for 20 years or more.
But how well did I know Andrei? It is impossible to know someone completely. There is always a mystery surrounding a person. From what I heard of Andrei he was a prolific author. The Russian newspaper 'Free Press' stated he had published a staggering 4,286 articles. This represented a record. And this is to only mention one journal! He worked for some of the most popular newspapers such as Moscovski Komsomol, Truda, and the Evening News as well as many others. An ex-wife Oksana Cheboratova stated, “I would find him working simultaneously on 2 or 3 articles. He also won a reputation for being one of the first journalists to turn up in hot spots such as Beslen school attack {September ,2004},” What is striking is how many different topics Andrei could cover. He might cover a car show, corruption, and even economic reports!
Andrei was born in 1970 in Tambol. He attended the Institute of Literature in Moscow where he soon became a full-time journalist. But Andrei's initial aim was to become a musician. He went to Music school and could play many musical instruments. One day I was astounded when he dropped in to see his daughter struggling to play some composition on the piano. He simply strode up to her and immediately explained how it was done with his one hand.
But Andrei did not become a full-time musician because he had an accident where he lost one arm. He had a terrible accident where he fell from the 5th balcony and broke an arm. He lost his arm due to a botched medical operation. However, he did not express bitterness or anger toward the doctor. Instead, he shrugged it off in a fatalist way that “Accidents do happen.” But he still carried on playing music despite having one arm.
Andrei was a remarkably calm and confident person. He was also very charismatic and could make a moving and poignant speech on the spur of the moment. Though he had witnessed many appalling scenes as a journalist, he retained optimism about the future. He did not like to complain or lose his composure.
He was one of the first reporters to arrive during the appalling Beslan school taking of hostages in September 2004. In this horrific incident, Chechen terrorists raided a school and took as many as 1200 hostages which included many school children and teachers. As many as 300 hostages were killed and around 500 to 700 wounded.
There are still many unanswered questions surrounding this siege. For instance, it was claimed that after an explosion and shooting all the terrorists were killed and only one captured. But Andrei doubted this. He explained that there was so much chaos and confusion that some terrorists could easily have escaped. Andrei became an authoritative source on those grim events by people who later consulted him. According to one report, he was said to have helped the authorities to rescue some child hostages or at least assist them. His ex-wife Oksana Chebotareva stated, “That could well be. He was very calm and confident even in highly stressful situations. He also liked to help people in trouble. “
In regard to helping people, Andrei was generous enough to share sources with me while I reported on the conflict in Ukraine for Second City Teachers. He greatly assisted me to cover a terrible incident where a crowd of 800 Ukrainian Fascists attacked and killed many Russian activists who had taken shelter in a Trade Union house in Odessa, in May, 2014. Among the 100- 200 victims were women and children. It was a terrible time for Andrei. Andrei told me a colleague, a journalist called Andrei Brazhevski, was beaten to death by fascists when he leapt from the burning building { See Second City Teachers , “What Actually Happened in Odessa: Odessa Horror, 10th May 2014.]
While speaking to Andrei about literature it was refreshing to hear he had also read the Japanese writer Yukio Mishima. He understood this writer to be an incurable romantic but could see he had a sense of humor. We joked about some of the amusing incidents in Mishima's novel, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, especially the ending where the monk, after setting fire to the Pavilion, casually sits down to enjoy puffing on a cigarette to watch the pavilion going up in flames after he has set fire to it. The behavior of the monk struck us as so ludicrous. Oksana told me how Andrei was always quoting Mishimi for some reason. The fact Mishima was both one of our favorite writers helped to establish a rapport between us.
Andrei Polunin was special. He was an exceptional person bursting with sheer talent. His living legacy is to remain as a witness to the tragic times in Russia. It is no overstatement or exaggeration to state he was a real hero of our times. We greatly miss him.
The world won't be the same without him!