Belarusian contributes to baby boom in Siberia

Gateway to Russia ^ | 16 April 2004

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[Presenter] A loving heart is not a crime. The members of the most famous family in Evenki Autonomous Area are sure of that. A married quartet has been established there instead of a married couple. The modern Siberian harem raises grounds for gossips for some and wins respect among others. Our special correspondent Ayrat Shevaliyev reports from Evenki Autonomous Area.

[Correspondent] The Evenki village of Nidym is the end of the world on its own and the house of Ivan Divonis is the end of the end. The house is at the end of the village and the endless taiga starts behind the fence. Such a hermit's life of the owner is understandable - no gossips reach here.

[Divonis, speaking out his kids' names] Andrey, Timofey, Vasya - I often count my kids. All of them are here now.

[Correspondent] Seven kids: aren't there many fathers with so many kids? However, Ivan does also have to count his wives - what he calls a family the others call a harem.

[Divonis, speaking of his wives] Here are Liliya and Olya. Tanya is at work.

[Correspondent] Had I been an Evenki, I would have had three wives, local newspapers say of him. However, Ivan is not an Evenki: the corner of hot East in cold Siberia has been set up by the Belarusian of Polish origin. The passion for women has taken him that far.

[Divonis] My friend told me, look, Ivan, I made friends with girls so go there instead of me, otherwise they will tear my hair out. He asked me to come here for two months to help him.

[Correspondent] Two months have stretched to 15 years. The Evenki type of beauty had struck him to the very heart.

[Liliya Kombager, speaking in the kitchen] We all cook here, everyone who wishes.

[Correspondent] The duties are distributed by Liliya in this harem. She is Ivan's first and senior wife. Until she was 17, she had been living in a tent covered with reindeer hides

[Russian: chum] among reindeers. She speaks of her most romantic moments with northern reserve.

[Liliya Kombager] I had been living with my parents and he used to drive a four-wheel drive vehicle and we met and got married and that's it.

[Correspondent] Liliya felt herself the only and unique not for long.

[Olya Kaplina] I look after cows.

[Correspondent] Now Olya is the mistress of the house, but first she was paying short visits to her distant relative for tea.

[Olya Kaplina] She [Liliya] used to be alone here and it was boring, as Ivan was always at work in the village.

[Correspondent] When Liliya's another sister started to visit her, fellow villagers did not even get surprised. People had not finished gossiping about the big family as it became even bigger. The love story of young Tanya can be given in one phrase.

[Tanya Kombager] It was fate. We used to come to visit Liliya and we met him and we became friends.

[Correspondent] The young wife should please the husband, but she is feeding a furnace with coal from dawn to dusk to support her family. There is no other job in the village. Her husband Ivan used his connections to get this job for her. In Nidym it is minus 35 even in the beginning of March, that is why the head of a boiler house is the most important person here. However, it turned out that for Ivan a stoker is not a profession but his life's vocation - he does not only warms up the entire village, but the certain female residents of this village as well. There are only three such women, but Ivan has a big heart. Nothing but his big heart, not depravity, made him polygamist, Ivan said. He married every time over pity for his women.

[Divonis] What can one do? I believe it would have been the very same.

[Correspondent] Liliya, Olya and Tanya are not married with Ivan officially - there is no such law in Russia [that allows polygamy]. Neither Ivan, nor his women are suffering from this - such a nice husband for all of them.

[Tanya Kombager] He is strict with us, but does not beat us up.

[Correspondent] The entire Divonis family gathers to watch a video of Ivan's native Belarusian village in the evening. A woman with a son has once came from that world and introduced herself as Ivan's first wife and begged him to come back [to her].

[Divonis] When they were here they realized that I would not go anywhere. I do not need their Volkswagen car or Jawa-350 motorbike. I need nothing.

[Correspondent] Liliya, Olya and Tanya saw the woman off home and made a sigh of relieve. Another sister of Liliya - Nadya - has come to stay with them recently. They will apparently have to revamp their house. [Video shows, a village, women, kids, interviews, a car, a furnace]