Stanislav Dyachina, a participant in the “Pro!” contest, helps everyone who wants to immerse themselves in history — to feel like a Viking or a Rus, fighting with combat swords, sailing on dragonboats and learning ancient crafts.
Many of us would like to go back in time: to see how our distant ancestors lived, how they arranged their way of life, what they ate and drank, how they went hiking and fought with enemies. The people who are most passionate about this idea enter historical reconstruction clubs, where they carefully restore the details of everyday life of bygone eras, hold festivals for which authentic weapons are prepared and historical costumes are sewn. Today, reconstruction has ceased to be a closed circle “for its own”, and where it integrates with tourism, exciting event projects are born.
The historical and tourist cluster “Drive Park Ladoga”, whose museum complex has been headed by Stanislav Dyachina since April 2023, is located on the shore of Lake Ladoga, near the village of Berezovo in the Priozersky district. Viking Island, Streletsky Ostrog and a museum dedicated to the Soviet-Finnish war are waiting for tourists here. Guests have the opportunity to fully immerse themselves in the historical era of Rurik or Ivan the Terrible: change into old clothes and armor, work in a forge and pottery workshops, visit a typical dwelling of those times and get acquainted with the life of the chosen time.
If this is the Viking age (IX — XI centuries), then the route begins with a visit to the “longhouse”, built according to a typical layout for that time. Here you can see how people lived, slept and ate in those days, try on armor and a helmet, pick up real Viking weapons and take part in craft workshops (pottery, weaving, making amulets, etc.).
Then the participants change into historical costumes created according to the samples that archaeologists found, and go out on boats to Lake Ladoga. During the campaign, they land on the islands, where they take part in the reconstruction of battles, the installation of a historical hiking camp, fish exactly as it was done in the early Middle Ages, and cook over a campfire according to the canons of the era. “Of the modern items, our “time travelers” have only phones left,” says Stanislav Dyachina.
According to him, the organizers of the cluster tried to recreate not only the life of the Vikings, but also how our Rus ancestors lived and fought in the same era. “They had a lot in common in everyday life, similar weapons and shipbuilding methods. In general, initially we even wanted to name the project “Rus Island”, but after studying the statistics of search engines, we saw that there were only a couple of hundred requests about Russians per month, and thousands about Vikings, and this predetermined the choice of the name,” Stanislav recalls.
He has been interested in military history since childhood. “All my school notebooks were painted with battle scenes. In the first grade, they were just schematic little men with arms and legs in the form of sticks, then they slowly acquired armor and weapons from different eras, played out real battle scenes like storming a city… Therefore, when I came across the reenactment movement, combining a love of history with physical fitness, I immediately realized that I had found my place,” says Stanislav.
The Viking Age and the visit to the Streletsky prison are of particular interest to children and teenagers, so the Ladoga Drive Park perfectly fit into the My Native Land project, the purpose of which is to introduce secondary school students (grades 5-9) with the historical, cultural and ethnographic diversity of the Leningrad region.
“In fact, these are history lessons that we try to make interactive and not boring,” says Stanislav Dyachina. — There are few dates, more historical details, and most importantly, the opportunity to see everything with your own eyes and touch it with your hands. For example, when I describe the era of Ivan the Terrible and talk about the Streltsy, we visit the prison, completely recreated in accordance with the technologies of building Russian wooden fortresses of the XVI century, and the guys can get acquainted with the equipment of the Streltsy, touch weapons — sabers, squeaks, berdyshs — visit the forge and forge a souvenir for themselves, mint coins or place put the cast iron in the oven with a grabber.”
Stanislav is sure that such events help to learn and love the history of his native land more deeply. “Patriotism is not just a word for us, and if we look back at 2023, I am very glad that we took part in the competition “The Best in Tourism”, which was held in the Leningrad region, and with the route “The Way of Rurik” took third place in the nomination “The best project for patriotic tourism”. This route allows you to get acquainted with the anti-Norman theory of the origin of the ancient Russian state, put forward by M. V. Lomonosov, and try on the role of our ancestors by the method of full immersion.”
About the “Pros!” contest
The “Pro!” contest is organized within the framework of the “Know our PRO” project. Its purpose is to introduce those who create domestic tourism today. You can find the stories of all the participants who announced themselves before October 31 on the project, as well as on the Profi pages.Travel.
At the end of December, the organizers of the Know Our PRO project will choose three people who will receive additional prizes — the opportunity to present their project/company at the online exhibition “Know Our: Summer 2024” (2 invitations). One of the participants will receive the main prize — 5 days of rest for two at the Sochi Park Hotel from the tour operator Anex.
Photo from the archive of Stanislav Dyachin
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