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...for eight years.
I.
Donskaya stanitsa (a) is submerged in deep, post-prandial dream. It is so hot that not a soul is wandering the streets. Even the chickens are hiding in the shade. I peer into fenced yards for quite awhile, trying to find someone who might be able to point me toward the missing church. I finally find a grey-haired old fellow sitting on a bench.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
"Excuse me sir, they say that a church is sometimes tied up around here. Have you not seen it?"
"Nah, what'm I gonna do there? I'm too old for such nonsense. Lived my whole life without priests, why start now ...? Why don'cha ask at the store? Maybe somebody there knows."
A handwritten notice hangs on the iron doors of the store: "The floating church has arrived. It is moored at the pumping station." I ask a young guy in an overstretched muscle shirt for directions.
"Somewhere over thattaway," he answers. "Haven't seen it myself. Nut'n for me there, I was baptized ages ago."
Circling around the brick buildings of the pumping station, I emerge near the shore of the Don and immediately spot the sparkling silver cross of St. Innokenty. It is an ordinary barge with an iron cupola on the roof; in the stem hangs a row of copper bells. Before the church stretches a small sandy beach, where the locals are relaxing. Young pioneer-aged girls are belting out a song: "Tonight will be so easy, I love you so sweetly." Nearby, three guys are boozing it up and I catch a fragment of their conversation.
"Tolya, don't you say nothing about my mama, that's sacred."
"Sacred is floating over there, and, as for your mama ..."
II.
I board the St. Innokenty by a wooden gangplank. A lock hangs on the doors of the church, with a note warning: "No smoking, swimming or fishing on board the church." Powerful snoring emanates from a round porthole. I knock on the window: "Is Father Gennady at home?" The snoring stops abruptly and a cry rings out: "Team, get up, guests have arrived!"
The sleep-heavy crew of the floating sanctuary appears through the rear doors of the barge: the priest (and captain) Gennady Khanykin,...
NOTE: All illustrations and photos
have been removed from this article.
More articles from Russian Life
Crossing Russia by boat., May 01, 2008
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