One of the most beautiful and touching moments of the Dazhynki 2024 harvest festival, which was hosted by Mosty, Grodno Oblast on 2 November, was the loaf presenting ceremony. According to the old Belarusian tradition, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko was presented with a huge loaf of bread as a symbol of hospitality. The fragrant fresh bread was handed over to the head of state by resident from Bolshaya Rogoznitsa agro-town Irina Sosnovskaya. She worked in agriculture for almost 50 years, managing livestock farms, which showed great results with her at the helm. She has raised four children together with her husband and has always been a social activist. For services to her homeland, Irina Sosnovskaya was chosen to greet the president with a loaf of bread baked from grain from the new harvest. One historical detail made this moment particularly touching: Irina Sosnovskaya presented a loaf of bread to Aleksandr Lukashenko at the Dazhynki back in 1997.
To be given such an honor twice is a rare thing. Irina Sosnovskaya detailed these two events, her many years of labor and rural life in an interview to BelTA.
The preparations for the country’s second Dazhynki harvest festival in Mosty 27 years ago included not only the town’s refurbishment but also the development of the festival script. The idea was to deliver a high-quality ceremony and to celebrate the best farmers of Mosty District.
Back then, Irina Sosnovskaya, a resident from the village of Malaya Rogoznitsa (later it was made part of the agro-town of Bolshaya Rogoznitsa), was offered to present a festive round loaf of bread to the distinguished guest – Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko - on behalf of the residents of the district and the whole Grodno Oblast. Irina Sosnovskaya was not a random choice. By that time Irina Sosnovskaya had already been working in the Adam Mickiewicz farm for about forty years. She started out in the accounting department, and soon was appointed head of the cattle fattening farm. At that time, she was studying at Grodno State Agricultural Institute (now - Grodno State Agricultural University) on extramural basis. The management entrusted the young woman with the farm as she had already shown her responsible attitude, willingness to learn and move forward. They knew she would help the farm grow. And that was the case.
“It only looks simple and fast,” Irina Sosnovskaya said. “In fact everything was not that easy, but we are well used to hard work. I came to Malaya Rogoznitsa in 1957 from a neighboring village, and married a local guy. At first, I worked as a switchboard operator. In 1961 I came to the farm where I worked until my retirement and 16 more years past my retirement. I really wanted to get a good education. I made up my mind to enter Grodno State Agricultural Institute to get a scientist-zootechnician major. At that time, I was already married, had a child and was building a house together with my husband. My time at university is a separate story. I can only say that I had to take my little child with me when I went to university to have my exam session. My mother accompanied me in Grodno then. We rented a room closer to the university, and I came to feed the baby during breaks.”
Irina finally got her long-desired diploma. Although she had to spent a few years working as a laboratory assistant in another dairy farm, which was closer to her home. Very soon, however, she was offered the position of the head of the farm which she accepted.
Thus, year after year, she was masterfully combining her responsible post with care for her family which gradually expanded to include three daughters and a son. She was also taking care of her large household and social activities as she also headed the primary women's council at the farm.
She supported her beloved husband in his desire to learn the profession of a driver: while he studied for several months in the regional center, she took on all household chores. Everything was not in vain, she said. He spent 37 years driving a GAZ truck and then a large ZIL-130 truck, and his total length of service in the farm was almost 50 years. It was never easy, he would leave the house in the dark, at 4 in the morning and be back by nightfall. Children, sometimes, asked when they would see their daddy. But we had time for everything. We even spent our vacations in sanatoriums. I have been to Sochi, Yalta, and Palanga. My husband has been to Alushta, the Berestye sanatorium in Brest Oblast. Today we say that we have a century of service for two,” Irina said.
For the last 16 years, before finally retiring, Irina Sosnovskaya worked in the Adam Mickiewicz farm as a milk collector. They asked her to pick up the slack for a couple of months until they hired an employee. But this turned into many years. "At that time, my husband was still working. So I would get up at 4 in the morning to feed and milk my livestock. Then I would go to the pasture, harness a horse, load flasks into a cart and drive around three villages. I would collect 1.2 tonnes of milk on one trip. Can you imagine how many buckets those were? After bringing the milk to the farm I would wash all the containers and prepare them for the new day." Irina Sosnovskaya considered her work as very interesting, calling herself "the earliest bird". She said that she was the first to learn the village news, and thus she felt the pulse of the village life.
With joy and pride, the woman talks about her children and grandchildren. Although there was little time for kids back in the day they grew up decent people. Apparently, the example of their parents was a good guidance for them. All four received higher education. The son is an economist, worked at the Neman glass factory. For eight years he headed the Bereza city executive committee. The daughters have diplomas of a librarian, a doctor and a teacher. The two eldest are already retired, the other two still work, one as the director of the school and the other as the head of the children's clinic in Mosty District. Eight grandchildren, most of whom spent every summer in the village with their grandmother, also received higher education in prestigious Belarusian universities, only the youngest is still studying at the Grodno Medical University.
The family house in the agro-town is well-maintained. It is convenient and comfortable to live in it. Moreover, after the commissioning of the Belarusian nuclear power plant, the Sosnovskys were the first among their fellow villagers to install electric heating in their homes.
Therefore, when they were preparing for Dazhynki 2024 in Mosty, the organizers had no doubts who to ask to present a loaf of bread to the president. "The joy was huge," Irina Sosnovskaya recalled. “I still remember everything to the second from the past Dazhynki when I approached the president and said that I was handing him a loaf "with the thought of the people's happiness and may God grant health for many years”. I remember the president hugging me and thanking me. Now such opportunity again: to present the president with Mosty-made bread 27 years later. She said she walked as if she was flying, and handed it over with the words: "Please accept the result of the work of the Mosty grain growers." It was cold outside, and the president hugged me and said: "Dress warmly!" And I answered: "You warm us with your presence." And this is true.
Of course, Irina Sosnovskaya has already shared this happy moment with family and friends. She believes that Belarusians are very lucky with the head of state, because he does everything to protect the land. The president sincerely cares about people, worries about them.
Her entire large family lives a proper life, as it is expected in a stable, confidently growing state. In her senior years, Irina Sosnovskaya is deservedly proud of the life she has lived and its results.
Talking about this simple villager, I would like to say: it is a worthy life of a worthy Belarusian woman, who did well in professional and social life, who has a large traditional family and who lived through difficult times in the first post-war decades.
Needless to say, she is a representative of that generation hardened by trials. While working on this article I often remembered another large Andyk family from Ivye District I met at the recent holiday dedicated to the Week of Parental Love in Grodno. Five small children, seven dairy cows, nine hectares of land. Optimism and joy in the eyes.
It is about people like them (and there are thousands and thousands of them in Belarus) that the president said at another regional Dazhynki festival in Mogilev Oblast on 16 November: "The main thing is you. That's for sure. This is without flattery. That’s the truth. The country would not exist without you."
Lilia NOVITSKAYA,
BelTA
Photos from the personal archive of Irina Sosnovskaya and from the archive of BelTA
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