3,000 kilometers of freedom Bashny.Net

Wheelchair Novosibirsk Michael Koval alone reached by car to Moscow to find out whether it is possible in principle. The correspondent of "PP" done with him way back to see how he did it.

Letters + 20 photos via rusrep.ru

Three thousand kilometers. Four days' journey. A motel with a ramp. One cafe where agreed to make a meal, and another where one would call if it was possible to get from the trunk of the carriage. Here is the route Moscow - Novosibirsk eyes of the driver, who outside of the machine uses a wheelchair. Actually, it and was only interested in the facts and figures. He put the experiment on himself not to change the world, and to share the experience with the same, as he himself - people with disabilities, but still possible.

"In life in general, everything is possible" - written in his "ICQ" in the "About Me."

Moscow - Saransk. "You - the first!»

Learn something else from the "About Me" is not easy. "Do not write about me, I'm not a hero - like a mantra repeated by our driver. - Here is a man who drove from Barnaul to Moscow on the "Oka" to take part in the competition "wheelchair" - he is a hero. And I that, look what my car ».

Michael Koval headed the Russian Federation of car owners. This organization was spun off from the famous "Freedom of Choice". The main objective of the federation - the fight for the availability of the vehicle, which includes the fight against the duties on foreign cars and extortion on the roads, price controls on gasoline and other. For people with disabilities car - a pass into the world of active people. Therefore, about cars and motorists Michael talk far more interesting than about invalid life.

- I read somewhere that the best machine for travel - it's a three-liter sedan - he says. - Sedan - because all things in the trunk, interior remains clean. A three-liter - because such a machine behave nicely.

Sedan with an engine capacity of three liters - is, for example, "Toyota Avalon" analogue "Camry" for the US market. In it we are going. In the trunk - a wheelchair, and in the cabin - crutches and food supply (water and biscuits), driving on the right side - Michael. Management of the car the most common, but the pedals are not Misha shakes legs, and "extension arms" - an ordinary stick. The left hand turns the steering wheel. His hands were strong.

Somewhere beyond the Kolomna first refueling - "TNK Express". Petrol inserts "gun" in the tank. Mike gives him a thousandth bill:

- Pay yourself. I can not get out.

I ask Misha, he did not deserve a tip.

- I never give a tip - so as not to corrupt. If tomorrow there will go to the people "Oka", it is unlikely that it will be extra money for a tip.

- But to go to the cashier not the responsibility of the tanker, he did you a favor.

- I do not care, it's part of his job or not. By the way, can be improved.

It turns out that no instructions to that effect from the tanker and there never was. If there is a gas station customer who can not get out of the car, the man must be guided solely by their own conscience. I ask him if he came across before such clients. "You first!" - Meets a guy wishes us a happy journey and waved goodbye.

Ask Misha, he leaves a tip waiters. He mutters something unintelligible, and includes music.

On the drive "accident", "Secret", Aguzarova, Celentano. Mike shares his impressions about the road to Moscow: "If you do not look at the signs, for anything you do not understand where you are. What the Volga region, the Urals that that Siberia - the same landscape, the same field and same houses. And somewhere there will soon be a village Vasya. Imagine, when I saw the pointer, I thought - "Vasya is, and Petino no", passing five kilometers, and there pointer - Petino ».

Mike always says, "Look to the left - a beautiful lake!" "Look to the right - which Birch," "here for the sake of it and should go from Novosibirsk to Moscow!" He is offended when we politely refuse to stop to take a picture of another landscape .

Every two to three hours for a few minutes, we leave the car and turn away. Misha, unlike us, can not go to the toilet at one of the beautiful birch trees.

Dinner in the cafe "Samsung" in the famous to be able to - a village on the border of the Ryazan region and Mordovia, where more than a hundred eateries along the route. The mistress, Louise Korean from Uzbekistan, in the car carries Misha mantle and pilaf.

- What is your strong face of the driver, - she said, coming back. - Strong man.

For four days the road to Moscow Misha ate half a pack of biscuits and packaging raw sausage. Lodged at the pump, and when once asked to leave a gas station - right on the roadside.

We sleep in a motel "Yuldash" under Saransk. There if you want, you can call in a wheelchair, but the effort is hardly worth the result. Toilets in the room not only on the floor, and - on the second. Misha is to sleep in the car in the parking lot.

Saransk - Ufa. "I'm not disabled»

Thousands of kilometers behind him was not in vain: we switched to "you" and progress in completing the section "About Me". Misha became disabled at age one - after a failed back surgery. Up to 10 years attended school - lessons were his parents, and then went home. Wanted to go to law school, but a teacher friend of the University said: "Lawyers on crutches does not happen." Then he completed a correspondence course translators. Earning a tutor, met his future wife - she studied at the Pedagogical. Now he works in a social security. Daughter 15 years old, wants to enroll in a theater. Therefore Misha thinks like to move to Moscow - to my daughter was in the capital of the "base". He does not call it either "daughter" or by name, and said - "a child».

Decided to dine in Ulyanovsk - all together. We set up on the long search for a suitable location, but the very first vending facility, a cafe-bar "Magnolia" is almost perfect: it is a porch without steps, wide door and plenty of space between tables. We extract the stroller from the trunk - together with difficulty, Misha - too hard - out of the car and sits in it. In an empty room, select a window seat, but the waitress offers VIP-hall - fenced room with leather sofas and a large table with shaped neckline, which fits perfectly into the carriage, "you will be comfortable there."

By Misha did not say that. He lost his smile, quickly closes the menu and asks us to choose him something. I'm starting to read the menu out loud, he winces again: "Too much choice. Solve itself, well, please. " This adult confident man, a fighter for the rights of car owners, now looks like a shy child who turned out for the first time in a large company. When the waitress, writing order goes, he sighs with obvious relief.

He does not tip the waiter, it can not be any cafes or restaurants.

Before leaving Misha tried to get to the toilet, but a wheelchair prevented fridge with "Coca-Cola". We moved it to a different angle. The waitresses were watching us with calm interest. The door to the bathroom, however, was still too narrow. Misha turns around and goes to the door. During the second day of the trip is the first toilet in which a person has had a chance to get there.

Departed from cafes, Misha famously unfolds through solid line.

- SDA - it is not a dogma, as well as any instructions - without turning his head, he replies to my sniff. - Life is richer rules.

Philosophizing breaks it unexpectedly. Talk about instructions turns into almost a confession.

- I used to almost specifically run up, broke the rules. But I never, never had nothing. Because I mean. I always find a clue to prove that I am right. And when I realized that I could break the all you want, I became much more accurate. It's like the boys are riding on the broken "six", and then buy a "Mercedes" - and drive it quietly. Because it is not necessary to prove anything. And most importantly - themselves.

- You yourself have proved everything?

Silent.

- If all proved, would you now with me in Novosibirsk riding.

- Why did you this journey?

- Yes, just like me to drive. It's cool - to pass half the country man who goes out of the apartment. I wanted to check - you can or not. Incited friends, too wheelchairs - one for prosthetic factory works, the other directs the organization "Phoenix", which is fighting for the rights of people with disabilities. But all were busy in all things ... So I had one. I told you, I'm not a hero.

- You just have to overcome more difficulties ...

- Overcome the difficulties ... Well, we have, yes. You know what expression I was most annoying? "Painful to overcome the difficulties." In my opinion, the difficulties to be overcome, or with the Chinese calm, or not at all to overcome.

- You have reached the Chinese calm?

Again nothing.

- Has already reached, yes. My physical imperfection took me years to 25. Then I just got to take it for granted. Well, I have such a form of existence. There are cats there are dogs, there are people on two legs, but there are people in wheelchairs. Something like that.

"Something like that" - it was his favorite expression. Knocks pathos.

I have no hesitation to utter the word "disabled", though at first each time painfully gleaned synonyms, fearing to hurt Misha. British disabled - bad help: it is translated into Russian heavy phrase "persons with disabilities" and smells of red tape.

But at some point, quantity turns into quality, and after a "disabled" Misha nearly explodes:

- You know, I - not disabled. People with disabilities - people who can only complain about life and expect that they will help. And these cause me severe irritation, and even contempt. I'm a normal person, I just have limited capabilities. And can not limited at all, but just different. Someone does not know how to write poetry, and someone can not walk. Feel the difference?

Feel.

Ufa - Barrow. Pulse 140 220

Misha again spends the night in the car, we - in a motel. At 7 am we leave. Weather improved - you can arrange a breakfast on the grass. Photographer encourages road fairies conjure "romantic place to the field on both sides, dandelions, our car, and no one." Misha support treatment: "And, please, fruit juice and croissants».

But witchcraft - not our horse: for more than a hundred kilometers or dandelions or juice. But it began to rain. As a result, we have breakfast in town with a tempting name Sim in a disgusting cafe "Cascade" with the evil waitresses. Misha remains in the car, drink tea salad "Men's dreams».

More is not better. We inspect dozen motels, not counting the few dozen past which we pass at once - with a high porch. But the door flush with the road, and even the presence of the ramp does not guarantee success. Somewhere facilities are located on the second floor. Somewhere on the second floor there is a convenience. Somewhere between the halls and corridors with rooms, there are several steps insurmountable. Somewhere narrow door to the toilet. Somewhere narrow door to the room ... These are the things which people moved on two legs, never paying attention. More specifically, the hosts dozens and dozens of motels do not pay any attention to Misha - in their view it does not exist.

Perhaps he even went so this trip - to tell the owners of motels, hotels, restaurants and gas stations that it still exists.

- If we do not move, nothing will change - he said after yet another failed attempt to become a guest of the motel. - Because life is beautiful in theory. But in practice it is what we are doing it yourself. If you've got more will pass at least five people with disabilities, people will begin to think. After all, to make the country convenient for people like us - it's not worth almost nothing. How much concrete is necessary on the ramp? Of all cases - ten thousand, no more.

Beyond the Urals fill the car becomes more difficult. Gas station with tankers are becoming increasingly rare, and cashiers to leave the workplace prohibit instruction. Woman on the "lukoylovskoy" refueling first explains Misha, but then still goes out and puts a gun into the tank, takes the money, brings change. Requests in any case it did not take pictures, "I will be deprived of bonuses!»

Dine in the "Avtolanche" thirty kilometers from Chelyabinsk. This paradise wheelchair Misha was noticed on the way to Moscow. Login flush with the road, space, wide doors. On the TV news - the story about a girl with a disability, who have learned to work on the stock exchange "Forex" and now earns, without leaving home.

- I also went - says Misha. - However, I realized that none of my. It must be from morning till evening to watch the quotes, just woke up - right to your computer. I did not get.

- What are some in non-ambulant person to earn more or less decent life?

- Yes, there are different possibilities. Even a lawyer can already be. Still, life has changed. 20 years ago, if you are disabled, you had to sit at home. Now this is not quite true. Everything is very slow, but it's still going on. Because among us there were people who argued that they have the same rights as everyone else. As this friend of mine from the organization "Phoenix", who punched the possibility of flying disabled ... I do anything to anyone not specifically argued. But the house is not sitting. I even worked for a time as a taxi driver. And you know what I'm thinking? Good thing I did not become a lawyer. Now would be sitting in the office with papers. And so - freedom!

The speedometer has long exceeded the allowed 90 km / h and dangles somewhere between 130 and 140.

- Pulse of the driver should be 220, - says Michael. - Otherwise, you cease to feel the speed.

Mike talks about his younger brother, who spent many years overtake cars.

- It's - I say - you have a family - a passion for cars?

- It's not a passion for cars - meets Misha. - For vehicles as such I'm pretty indifferent. This love of freedom. And that's what I think: if tomorrow every inhabitant of Russia will have a car, it will be a different country. Because the car - it is a tool of freedom.

We do not check any motels or refueling - the picture is clear. Nowhere to sleep, nowhere to go to the toilet and difficult to eat. But at the same time have the feeling that it's pretty easy to fix, because the main thing - attitude - probably really changed. An active desire to help, we met in every motel or hotel, Michael became much more often just an object of curiosity moderate. Still, we never heard - and not even read in the eyes - that "people with disabilities should stay at home».

We spend the night in a hotel in Kurgan "cozy house" on Constitution Avenue, where the elevator are four steep steps. Misha again stayed in the car - a free man in a free country, is not quite where outside the village Petino be sure to village Vasya.

Barrow - Novosibirsk. Total

The restaurant menu hotel "cozy house" and have croissants and fresh juice. At breakfast we ask pour juice with you, the waitress said there was no packaging, and explains about vitamins that are destroyed in ten minutes. We explain about a man in a wheelchair. The girl goes to the kitchen and returned a few minutes later with a plastic bottle of mineral water, which is poured orange juice, "So good?»

It is easy to be a fairy, if you have two legs.

Vitamins, however, does not save anyone. Be four days on the road hard. I want to have only one thing - to get there. It is us who slept in hotels, take a shower and dinner in the restaurant. The man next to us the fourth day almost does not move, eat at the same place goes to the toilet, and sleeping in cramped quarters with his feet when they absolutely numb on the steering wheel.

However, all these untold difficulties Michael Koval forced to experience just because unlike 90 percent of the Russian people with disabilities it has a three-liter sedan "Toyota Avalon" which makes such trips possible in principle. Other Russian wheelchair at home sleeping and eating in the same place - a lifetime.

I think about it, when, reseeding in the back seat, in rear-view mirror eye contact with Misha. "Again is an endless expanse of sleep-and-tion" - singing in the radio Nikolai Fomenko times beat quartet "The Secret". Misha drumming his fingers of his left hand on the steering wheel to the beat of the music. The speedometer 140. In the rearview mirror I see something that is worth to sleep in the car for four days: happy eyes.