Island. Some had done time in the far north. They were a rugged, salty
bunch, and many of the women worked, hunted, drank, and occasionally
fought alongside the men. Markov and Borisova had met in the forest
when she was working as a log trimmer and he was sorting logs. She was
divorced, too, and she couldn’t believe her good fortune. “At first, when I
was with him,” she recalled, “I felt as if I were in heaven. I would ask
myself, ‘Could I be so lucky?’ He helped me with everything.”
They had a son together in 1982, raising the number of children under
their roof to four. Her new husband’s affection for young children
impressed Borisova deeply. “He was so unconditionally kind, it was
almost painful,” she explained. “If someone’s child got ill, he would heat
lynx fat and take it to him, even if it was the last drop. He would give you
the shirt off his back.”
Like many people who live in small communities, Markov seemed to
have a wide variety of jobs and skills. He was a competent welder, and
even fabricated a Soviet Hammer and Sickle for the local school. In
addition to this and forest work, he pulled shifts at the village generator
station with Danila Zaitsev, and moonlighted at the disco in the rec hall.
Markov had been trained as a log sorter, truck driver, and heavy
equipment operator, but these are common skills in the logging industry.
What set Markov apart was his personality: he was funny and
charismatic, and people liked being around him. He could always wring
the humor out of mundane situations, and there are a lot of those in a
place like Sobolonye.
Irina and Andrei Onofrecuk told the following story one winter
afternoon over a cup of gut-wrenching tea: “One time,” Andrei began,
“Markiz spent the night here in our house. Our youngest son, Ivan, was
very little—couldn’t walk yet—and Irina brought him into the room
where Markiz was sleeping ...”
“I put Ivan down in the chair,” continued Irina, “close to the bed, and
Markiz’s hand is hanging like this [palm up]. I gave Ivan a bit of food
and said, ‘Be careful, it’s hot.’ Well, he took a bite, and then he put the
rest into Markiz’s hand.”
The food was hot enough that it woke him up. Without missing a beat,
ron
(Ron)
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