About gypsy law, magic and male infidelity…. About gypsy law, magic and male infidelity ...

Vitamin "C": church, circus, gypsies - Zinovy ​​Yakovlevich, there are numerous pedagogical tests, which in my past backwardness I deeply, miserably and arrogantly despise. They claim to be able to determine intellectual potential

Chapter 15 The Last Hundred Meters At the South Summit, which is only a hundred meters vertically from Everest, Adams met a dejected Beidleman. “I don’t know why, but he was extremely taciturn, seemingly in a bad mood. I sat down, took off my backpack and took out a flask. Highly

Chapter 7 THE LAST GYPS

There were also gypsies in Kholodnogorsk. Fifteen people from different camps. Two old men of them once sang in the gypsy choir of the famous restaurant "Yar".

The Kholodnogorsk gypsies told me a lot about why and why their fellow tribesmen were arrested in the USSR; talked about their investigative "affairs". In most cases these were politically humorous "crimes" and in the stories about them the facts were mixed and intertwined with the Gypsy prison folklore ...

- Look! Why is the gypsy tearing his hair out?

- And he is in a hurry to go bald. He is afraid that the Soviet government might take away his last hairs. "

Such a comic saying was put down by the Russian people about the Gypsies in the Soviet Union.

And here is another saying:

"The Gypsy camp was liquidated, his horses were collectivized, his guitar was nationalized, and his skin was isolated in prison."

I talked about such folk art with the leader of a gypsy camp who was sitting in Kholodnogorsk.

- Are these sayings about you correct? I asked him.

He grinned and replied:

- They are correct, but not quite.

- Why?

- The Soviet government did not take everything away from us.

- What did she leave you?

- And three letters.

- What letters ?!

- From the Russian alphabet ... C, O and B. It is now a gypsy brand. Like a horse. Only horses put him on their skins, and gypsies on investigative cases ...

Gypsies are dangerous people for the Soviet regime. They wander, they do not recognize state borders and do not want to go to collective farms. Therefore, the Bolsheviks organized a complete liquidation of the gypsy camps. Gypsies are arrested and sent to concentration camps without trial, and on folders with their very short investigative files they write: "S. V." or "S. O." - initial letters of words: sociallydangerous and socialharmful. Sometimes Roma go to prison for specific, albeit very outlandish, crimes.

Every year there are fewer gypsies in the Soviet Union. They are dying out in prisons and concentration camps, guilty without guilt before communism.

“We are the very last people for the Bolsheviks,” the cold mountain gypsies told me.

And in their new songs, which I heard in Kholodnogorsk, hopelessness and doom sounded:

From a young age I disappear in prison

And there is no way out for me ... "

... In the last camp

The last gypsy

Sings his last song ...

Cyril's gypsies wandered around the North Caucasus, dodging the persecution of the Soviet regime in every possible way. Finally, the authorities groped for him. The commissioners came to the tabor by subscription to the Industrialization Loan and began to agitate:

- Comrades gypsies! Let's fulfill our duty! Everyone, as one, will sign up for a loan! 300 rubles each.

- What kind of loan? - asks Kirila.

The plenipotentiaries explained to him. He listened, and then hit the tops of his boots with his palms and shouted to the whole camp:

- And what kind of state is this beggar! Even a poor gypsy can borrow money!

The Roma refused to sign up for the loan. On the same evening, the entire camp was arrested and later sent to concentration camps. Kirila, as the instigator of the "anti-loan riot", was shot.

Two gypsies stole horses at night from state farm No. 25 near Pyatigorsk. The judge who examined their case issued the following verdict:

"The defendants Stepan Glotov and Yakov Chaly, taking the horses out of the state farm's stables at night, threw their harness and forgot to take the bridles with them. Therefore, they were found guilty of mismanagement and negligence ..."

The leader of the camp, Nikita Tsygankov, was summoned to the NKVD department for the specific purpose of putting him in jail. And Tsygankov did not want to sit there. Therefore, he consulted with experienced people and they taught him how to answer the questions of the NKVD.

The gypsy came to the department of the NKVD. One of the investigators asks him:

- Who is your father?

Tsygankov grits his teeth in anger at the Soviet regime, but answers, as if written:

- Our dear leader and teacher, Comrade Stalin.

- Who is your mother?

- Our beloved Soviet power.

- Who would you like to be?

- An orphan! - the gypsies could not resist ... He did not return to the camp.

In the spring of a famine in 1932, in the village of Shelkovskaya in the Kizlyar District, a beggar gypsy woman stole several baked potatoes from a collective farmer. She pulled them out of the stove hot and stuffed them in the bosom of her 8-year-old son. The collective farmer noticed the theft and raised a cry.

Neighbors ran up and took the gypsy woman, along with her son, to a police station nearby. There, the police officer on duty began to interrogate them, but to no avail. The arrested do not answer his questions. A large portrait of the "father of nations" with a mustache and a pipe hangs over the head of the policeman. The gypsy looks at him frightened and grabs his bosom with both hands.

Hot potatoes bake his chest. The boy cries and says:

- Oh, mummy, goof… goup. The gypsy woman with fear looks sideways at the portrait, then at the policeman and mutters quickly to her son:

- And I told you, Run to the shatyryl Yes, put it on tarilo And there will be no guporyla ...

Listening to their conversation, the policeman shouted:

- Aha! Are you breeding counterrevolution here? Well, it will come out sideways for you ...

A short time later, in the Kizlyar department of the NKVD, the gypsy woman and her son were interrogated "with partiality." The indictment in their "case" read:

"The accused, standing in front of the portrait of Comrade Stalin, conducted anti-Soviet agitation against him and made counter-revolutionary allusions to his brilliant historical personality, that is, they loudly repeated:" Stupid snout ... stupid snout ... "

It was in vain that the gypsy swore that neither she nor her son even thought of insulting Stalin, and the word guporylo in the local gypsy dialect means - hot ...

Two weeks later, she died during interrogation "from a heart attack," and her son was sent to a colony for street children.

In the editorial office of the Pyatigorsk newspaper "Terek" worked a girl-gypsy Liza Bezrodnaya. She wrote city chronicles and poems from gypsy life. The poems were good, but they weren’t good for a newspaper. The editor called them ideologically unrestrained and inconsistent with the era, and therefore threw them into the trash.

One day he told Lisa:

- Comrade Bezrodnaya! You must be reforged. Throw your gypsy and go as a special correspondent to the collective farms.

- But I have never been to collective farms and I don’t know agriculture. And I don't know how to write on collective farm topics, - the girl objected.

- Learn as you work. And in general, I ask you to turn your face to the village, - demanded the editor.

Bezrodnaya went to collective farms, deciding to prove to the editor that she knew nothing about agriculture. In the very first letter from the collective farm she sent the following verses to the editors of Terek:

The entire editorial staff laughed at these verses, but the editor did not like them. For three days he frowned and got angry, and a few days later Liza was summoned to the city department of the GPU.

Soon after this, the editorial board became aware that Bezrodnaya was sentenced to five years in prison "for a mocking anti-Soviet sortie in the direction of a party press organ." However, her humorous poems about the collective farm became widely known, first in the North Caucasus, and then throughout the country. They were even recorded on a gramophone record, adding to them an "ideologically consistent" propaganda eight-line.

In 1936, the Soviet film "The Last Camp" appeared on the screens of the country. He was filmed in the Gypsy collective farm "Trud Romen", Mineralovodsky region (in the North Caucasus). The main role was played by the famous artist of the Moscow theater "Romen" Lyalya Chorna.

The film showed how Gypsies leave their camps, voluntarily join collective farms and work post-Akhanovka there. But in reality it was different. Two years before the filming of the film, several camps were forced into the Mineralnye Vody collective farm and, under the threat of concentration camps, tried to make them work. The freedom-loving nomads who never engaged in agriculture worked poorly. There were frequent cases of sabotage on the collective farm.

I had to visit the fields of the Trud Romen collective farm in the spring of 1937. Arriving there as a special correspondent for the regional newspaper, I was very surprised that in the midst of spring sowing the collective farmers did not work. Gypsies with whips in their hands ran through the fields, shouting and swearing.

- What's the matter? Why don't you sow? - I asked the chairman of the collective farm.

He waved his hand hopelessly.

- On the third day, the first brigade changes with the second horses. Pozygan. Which gypsies are collective farmers if they have never plowed or sowed?

When the war with the Germans began, the regional administration of the NKVD, by order from Moscow, liquidated the Trud Romen collective farm, and sent all the gypsies in it to the northern concentration camps.

One of the singers of the Gypsy choir of the Yar restaurant, who was sitting in Kholodnogorsk, composed a song, which he called "Gypsy Prison". It was often sung by cold mountain gypsies with tears in their eyes.

Here is this song:

Dances squatting every day

How hard it is for us and how it hurts

With a five-seated log.

How high is the prison fence.

In a human trap

We envy the beast:

Roma prisoners

In the Bolshevik yes in paradise ...

"Sokolovsky choir at" Yar "

Was whenthen famous ...

And now the gypsy guitar

It won't ring for us.

Our Yarovski gypsies

Scattered across the country

So that in the concentration camp fog

Remember the old days

Behind the iron behind bars

Curse your fate,

Between a bullet and a whip

In the Bolshevik yes in paradise.

After "Yar", after the chorus

Our leader did not live long:

Under interrogation very soon

I got a heartbreak.

Our dancer Yasha is far away.

He's in a concentration camp alone

Guitarist dashing Danilo

I went to the collective farm as a shepherd;

Sitting behind a man is a national gypsy tradition. The modern Carmen are imprisoned mainly for drugs. It turns out that if heroin is found in a gypsy's house, a woman should take the blame. From the women's colony near Vladimir - a report by NTV special correspondent Roman Sobol.

This camp will never go to heaven - barbed wire does not give. Women's colony near Vladimir - mainly, representatives of the nomadic people are serving their sentences here. And even the woman from the poster "To freedom - with a clear conscience" has gypsy facial features. Until freedom to sit for a long time: almost all of them have one article - 208th of the Criminal Code.

Prisoner: “Drugs. Drugs ".

The Roma heroin trade is a family business. But, as a rule, women sit - this is a tradition. If drugs are found in the house during a search, the wife will take the blame. If there is no wife, a sister, aunt or grandmother will sit down. The logic is obvious: a woman, especially a woman with many children, will be awarded less. And the regime in the women's zones is softer. A stay is the responsibility of a housewife.

Prisoner: "Probably, we just feel sorry for men."

Husbands, however, regularly come on dates. The heroine of Prosper's novel Merimee rolled cigars, modern Carmen sew camouflage suits. The administration of the colony admits: there are fewer problems with gypsies than one might have expected. They stick to the group, try not to conflict with others.

High security school. 30-year-old students, sparkling with golden-toothed smiles, diligently go through the seventh grade program. Irina Stotskaya was at large the leader of the gang. I learned to read and write only here, in the colony. There was no time before.

Irina Stotskaya, prisoner: “Family circumstances. Well, the nation itself speaks about everything. "

Gypsies have very strict morals in their own way. The scourge of all colonies - same-sex love - is prohibited in the gypsy detachment. The so-called "mothers" are sitting in this barrack. Being pregnant at the time of their arrest, they gave birth already in the colony. This happens often. Here, for two "imprisonment", one of the recidivists gave birth to two. Another “mommy” was born in the colony herself. It is very difficult to break out of such a circle.

Glafira Martsinkevich, prisoner: “It cost a lot for me. These drugs are the loss of my children, because I have two more at large. "

Here everyone lives with the thought of amnesty or early release and is really trying to earn it. There are many things to do in the wild. Resignation to fate is one of the main gypsy traditions. While in prison, Roma women accept the local rules of the game relatively easily: they work well, as the saying goes, "take the path of correction." However, completely different traditions await them in the wild. According to statistics, up to 20 percent of Roma women return to prison again.

About the life of gypsies on post-Soviet space we most often judge by films and examples from life. In the first case, this is the story of Budulai, performed by Mihai Volontir, or the "tabor passions" of the Carmelita series. Songs, music, fiery dances and fatal love - a touch to the mysterious, unfamiliar white man the world. The reality, alas, is much more prosaic. This fall, the criminal investigation department again records the traditional surge in crimes with a characteristic "gypsy handwriting". Begging and theft, fraud and even murder - these are the reasons for the recent mention of gypsies in the media (the massacres of old women in the Drogichin region have not yet been forgotten, and the Supreme Court of Belarus left the sentence unchanged to the criminals). The latter, in turn, blame the society for everything, which turned against them. What will help instruct the "horse thieves" of the XXI century to be true: a carrot or a carrot?

Theft with minimal risk

At about 10 am, four women came to a pensioner from the village of Mochul, Stolin district, and introduced themselves as social workers. A 79-year-old lonely old woman happily admitted attentive guests into the house. Two of them walked with the hostess into the room, closed the door and for about fifteen minutes talked with her about her health, life, and everyday life. At parting, they promised to look after the pensioner. Delighted with such attention from the state, the old woman happily accompanied the ladies to the doorstep, repeatedly inviting them to visit. She took back her words only when she returned to the kitchen, where she saw on the floor near the stove a black cloth ribbon with which she wrapped her savings for old age - under the pillow on the stove, grandmother kept fifteen hundred euros, 400 dollars and six million rubles.

If you believe the encyclopedias, in the gypsy culture, the cult of age is expressed by respect not just for the elderly, but respect for those who are older in general. The opinion of older people is perceived as authoritative, except in special cases (for example, if a person is considered narrow-minded). It is considered a terrible crime to raise a hand against an old person, even if he is physically strong. Reference to the opinion of an elderly person is one of the most powerful arguments in any dispute. Obviously, this only applies to "their" old people.

According to the Criminal Investigation Department of the Brest Regional Department of Internal Affairs, this year the Roma have committed more than 30 similar crimes. Posing as social security workers, doctors, gas workers, insurance agents and other representatives of government agencies, Gypsies, carefully disguising themselves with wigs, large sunglasses and makeup, come to the homes of the elderly. Old people are defenseless, gullible, many have problems with vision, hearing and memory. Such sacrifices not only have a hard time describing thieves. Many do not immediately detect the loss at all, and if after a month or two they notice the disappearance, they sin on their own absent-mindedness. So, in reality, there are several times more "gypsy thefts" than the official statistics say.

In the Brest region, Romani criminals have become more active in the Kobrin, Pruzhany and Kamenets districts. They include both theft and robbery. Still fresh in my memory is a series of murders of elderly women in Drogichin region, which were strangled by two Roma and then robbed of their homes. As a rule, Roma do not steal where they live. In the Brest region, for example, "stray" from the Gomel region are operating, the Brest ones go to the Grodno region and the Gomel region. The handwriting is the same everywhere. They drive up to the village in a pre-hired car with a driver, an illegal cab driver, popularly called "bombila", choose huts with elderly owners on the outskirts of the village and "go into battle." Often, as already mentioned, they present themselves as civil servants, or secretly enter the house while the owners are not there. That is why spring-autumn, when residents work in their gardens all day, is the best time to steal ...

Why did people who have an ancient, rather interesting culture, who live in our entire diasporas, choose this way of earning money? Only they themselves and those who live with the gypsies on the same land can answer.

Between home and prison

In the Brest region, most Roma live in David-Gorodok, Stolin district. In the region where they live, Roma, as a rule, do not operate, however, their surnames often come up in crimes recorded by the police in neighboring regions.

In order to stop this crime, a whole department is probably needed that would deal only with Roma, - says the chairman of the city council of David-Gorodok, Vladimir Golovach. - Alas, it's not that the department - ordinary police officers will not be enough. Today 345 Roma live in our city. Many begin to steal from an early age. So judge what the crime situation is. Yes, we put the Roma under special control, we have lists of families, but keeping track of everyone is impossible.

In order to seriously deal with the gypsy issue, one must at least be imbued with their life and customs. And not by what is written in the "learned books", but by reality. For example, it is not men who are involved in stealing and begging, but women. Traditionally, local Gypsies have the main function of a man - "procreation". A woman should be the earner in the family. Even if a gypsy committed a crime, his wife should be sent to prison for him, taking the blame on herself. Recently, stereotypes have begun to break down, but degenerated age-old traditions leave an imprint on the current state of affairs. It is really difficult for illiterate families with many children to be fed by a woman to survive in a vegetable garden or on a local collective farm with a rather low salary. This year, however, in the summer, for the first time in the history of private farmers, over forty gypsies went to work in David-Gorodok. However, alas, the figure is not that significant. There are gypsy families living a normal life, but there are very few of them.

Of those Roma women who have turned to us, not one has yet accepted the job offered to her, ”says Sergei Shilo, head of the Stolin employment center. - They come to us to receive targeted social assistance, mostly women. Men have never applied at all. One obliged under Decree # 18 from David-Gorodok is literally forced to work.

Since the time of their settlement, Roma have not really worked with us, ”says Vitaly Savitsky, the head of the David-City city police department. - 20-30 years ago they were engaged in speculation. Then, when it became unprofitable to resell vodka, they sold drugs from Ukraine. Now they just steal, and in their free time they mostly drink, walk. According to the principle, he stole - drank - in jail. Although recently the punishment has become milder. They are condemned, but they are not imprisoned in prisons, which are already overcrowded. Here's an example. In one of the villages, two gypsies lured four million rubles from an old woman. We found them, made them return the money. One was detained. And what do you think? A week or two later, the remaining gypsy woman again lured out the money already returned from the same grandmother! As a result, neither one nor the other is in prison.

In addition, with peculiar national characteristics, they remain citizens of Belarus, with all rights and social benefits. This does not force them to work at all. So, although most gypsies live with their husbands, they are not officially registered. They will play a gypsy wedding - that's all. Moreover, most of these families have many children, therefore, according to our laws, formally, they are single mothers who are entitled to all state subsidies. First of all, a loan for housing, with almost one hundred percent repayment. Such, here, is a solid platform for parasitism.

Past the schoolyard

If you can't force Roma to work, you can't put all criminals in jail, is there a solution to the problem at all?

Everything comes from family and education, - continues Vladimir Golovach. - The child, of course, adopts the lifestyle of the parents. It is necessary to somehow break the vicious circle, but not to take the child away from the parents because they do not force him to go to school!

According to local residents Roma are indeed reluctant to learn. But, most interestingly, the state does not seem to care much about this.

If a Belarusian schoolchild does not go to school, there is a lot of noise, - Nikolai Berezovsky is indignant in the presence of the mayor, honorable Sir David-Gorodok, - parents are called to school, they are reprimanded, threatened with legislation. All this can go all the way to the district. And from a gypsy, it seems like, and there is nothing to take! As a result, if he graduated from four classes, he is already considered an academician.

Roma parents are also called to school, - says Vladimir Golovach, - they nod their heads, promise to send their children to school, but that's all.

As a result, even if they want to work, there are no prospects for illiterate Roma adults. Today it is quite difficult to get a job even on a farm without education. As a result, when life compels, of all sciences one has to comprehend the thieves' one.

Can't you not steal?

And yet I wanted to hear about the problem firsthand. We decided to walk through the gypsy huts of David-Gorodok together with the senior district inspector Vladimir Tukin. Vladimir has been working on the ground for a long time, he knows the fate of each ward. We go to visit the gypsy Matvey Fedorovich,

whose son is now in prison.

Matvey's hut stands in a small courtyard, next to it, a horse grazes by the shed. There is a small vegetable garden behind the apple tree. In a word, there is a small farm. When asked why people have a stereotype of a gypsy-thief, and whether it is possible to live without theft, Matvey laughs.

How to live here! Not enough food. When there are 5-6 children in a family, how to feed them? What prices!

Go to work, for example.

Where to work there! On a collective farm, you won't get more than 50 thousand a month. There is no work in other places. You can't feed on a vegetable garden alone, so you have to steal. In general, I'll tell you honestly: if a gypsy does not steal, he is not a man!

Trust me people!

We look into another house. This is a small hut, inside of which two guys and three women are having dinner. They are dressed more or less decently, but the atmosphere in the hut is more than poor. A woman who introduced herself as Efrosinya Nesterova answered the question about the stereotype.

Gypsies are not all like that. There are many literate gypsies with a rich inner world. For example, I spent my whole life in Orthodox monasteries and even wrote a spiritual book about the life of Jesus Christ. Now your colleague from Brest is processing it. It's just that thieving people from our tribe cast a shadow over the whole nation. But there are many decent, deeply religious people among us. How can all gypsies be branded? My grandfather, for example, Vladimir Yanovsky, twice a hero Soviet Union... He fought against the Nazis. Shall we attribute him to the criminals too?

Indeed, - the district police officer explained a little later, - Efrosinya speaks sincerely, and if all the gypsies were like her, there would be no problems with them. True, her son has already been convicted.

And the neighbors of Efrosinya, the Voloshin brothers, complained that, having rights, they could not get a job as a taxi driver. They say they would drive cars, but they do not take them precisely because of their ethnicity. Difficulties arise with the driver's commission. The certificate is not issued, according to the brothers, due to the fact that they did not serve in the army. Many young Roma, who legally formalize early marriage and have children under three years old, do not really pay their honorable debt to the Motherland. However, as the district police officer says, Voloshin has already been seen in thefts. Or, maybe, believe them, give them the opportunity to work as taxi drivers?

Another David-City gypsy, Nadezhda Malinovskaya, asks for trust. She is truly a single mother with many children. The house in which she lives with children can hardly be called even a crumbling hut.

The floor is rotten to such an extent that holes have formed in it underground. The roof has collapsed - huge holes are gaping in it, and the dilapidated walls, it seems, are about to collapse and the family will simply die under the rubble of their own home.

The woman is in the employment center, but there is no job yet. In the summer I worked part-time in a farm, but this money is not even enough for a living. Children do not study at school - it is simply a shame to send them to school, because today studying at school requires funds, ranging from school uniform ending with installments for the renovation of the class.

Here, of course, there is a problem, - says Vladimir Golovach. - Even a large family in the city, a loan is issued only for the value of the house, which is assessed by the BTI. In fact, only for the hut. But a person sells it, of course, taking into account the vegetable garden, outbuildings, so that market price housing is much higher. The way out is to move to the village. There, the entire yard will be included in the loan amount.

The only question is, will there be work in the countryside?

Understand and ... Help

On September 17, Tatiana Vishnevskaya, a gypsy woman who had served a sentence for drug trafficking, returned to David-Gorodok from the colony. During this time, her debt to the state for custody of three children amounted to about 20 million rubles. She has already tried three times to get a job, but was refused three times. Tatiana herself says that she dreams of returning to a normal life. She no longer wants to go to prison and realizes that the gypsy life is over. To live, you need to work and teach children. So far, alas, she is still on the sidelines.

On the sidelines there are more than three hundred Gypsies of David-Gorodok and hundreds of representatives of this people throughout the republic. Perhaps it is worth taking a closer look at them, and those who really want to get out of the social bottom, lend a helping hand. Then, perhaps, many of them will take a worthy place in our society.

photo by Valery KOROL (

We continue to acquaint our readers with the life, traditions and customs of different peoples of Crimea. Today it will be about the gypsies. There are many stereotypes about this freedom-loving people. They say that gypsies wander around the cities and villages, guess, dance and steal ... To separate truth from fiction and find out how Roma live in Crimea, Gazeta met with a gypsy baron, and concurrently the head of the public organization Roma Cultural and Educational Union German Filippov.

- German Petrovich, who is the gypsy baron? What are your responsibilities?

The Baron is the leader of a group of people or a tribe (as it used to be). This title came to me from my father, to him from his father. The Baron is sort of like a supreme judge. I can punish violators according to our laws. There are Russian laws, and there are our internal laws - the laws of ancestors, the laws of the Roma. The most terrible punishment is the expulsion of a person from gypsy society. But there are others. For example, it used to be like this: a man was guilty, stole something - they beat him with a whip. Yes, and now it is practiced, just very rarely. They have already stopped stealing, robbing, doing bad deeds. And before, I remember how my grandfather took a whip and beat a person with it until he lost consciousness, and he never did this again in his life.

Everyone should unquestioningly fulfill the word of the baron. If someone disobeys, then other gypsies will look askance at him and stop communicating with him, to the point that we will expel him from our community. Well, if I pass a sentence to expel a person, it will spread throughout the world - not only in Russia, but also in America, France, Italy, Yugoslavia ... This is a very cruel punishment. A gypsy would rather agree to serve 10 years in prison than to this sentence.

- Is it true that there are “non-Roma” professions that are banned for Roma?

No, there is no such thing. There are just professions that are historically familiar to most Roma people. This is blacksmithing, for example. They were, one might say, born blacksmiths - they forged horses, made horseshoes, swords ... But modern people do anything: someone scrap metal, someone equipment, there are journalists, doctors of sciences, and writers ... Even the president was alone. Nicolas Sarkozy. He is a purebred gypsy, although he has long been in exile. That is why he took revenge on the gypsies up to their deportation from France. There were many famous gypsies, take at least the actor Charlie Chaplin.

- Is there any special tradition that unites all Gypsies?

If a gypsy, whom I am not familiar with, comes from, say, Romania or Moscow and he is poor - he will have no money, no food, no roof over his head - we are obliged to help him. Both morally and materially - with money, food, and housing.

- And often such "guests" come?

Lately, often. As the war began in Ukraine, refugees from the Donetsk region left. We help them as much as possible - we collect money, food, clothes. Our public organization has been doing this for over a year. And we collect money for apartments for them, someone provides them with housing, if he leaves where. We help everyone - not only the Gypsies, but also the Russians. For us, there is not much difference in nationality. If a person feels bad, if he is poor and asked for help, we are simply obliged to help him.

- Everyone has heard about "gypsy magic" - is it just a way to earn money or some special gift?

This is by no means a way to make money. It really is in the genes. But some dishonest people use their magic for profit. This cannot be done, after some time such a person will lose his gift. Trust only those people who can predict the future or help you without money, who will not name prices. If you yourself decide to thank, then, of course, you can bring food or give two or three rubles. And if you are given a specific cost - do not believe it, these are charlatans, scammers and swindlers.

I'll tell you more, there is also gypsy hypnosis. People who possess magic also possess hypnosis. Sometimes a person of a bad soul possesses hypnosis. There are many of them among our nation. She will meet you on the street, look into your eyes and say: "Take off the chain, take off the ring!" And you will do it. This is a scammer. If we see such people, we immediately expel them. If they do not obey, we turn to the police. We have been living in Crimea for 52 years, they know us from the good side, as a respectable family. They knew my father, my grandfather. We don't do anything illegal, we live our own life, we do a little business ... But we don't have such a thing to steal.

- I heard that the gypsies are loyal to theft and even believe that God himself allowed them to steal ...

This is just a beautiful legend. They say that when Jesus Christ was executed, the gypsy stole the fifth nail and hid it in her hair. Therefore, Jesus was not beaten, and God, as a reward for this, allowed the gypsies to steal. I do not believe in it and I condemn theft. But after all, in every nation - not only among the gypsies - there are thieves and crooks.

- And how are responsibilities distributed in a Gypsy family?

A woman should be the keeper of the hearth, and a man should earn money. Of course, a woman should not be left out if she is young. You have probably seen that gypsy girls are standing in the Central Market, selling shoes, clothes ... This is their business, this is how they make money. Someone works as a saleswoman, someone as a hairdresser, someone picks apples.

A woman, of course, must listen to a man. She cannot go somewhere without the permission of her husband, even to her friend. Even if the husband cheats, and the woman finds out about it, she should be silent and not contradict. That is, men can do anything, but women can do nothing.

- Doesn't this seem unfair to your women?

They believe that this is very fair, and they condemn those who do what they want. Our women reason like this: I have a husband, I have a family. So why should anyone be looking at me? Why should I be in such a place or in such a society where someone will be looking at me? Our women feel uncomfortable with such thoughts. They are very loyal and do not cheat on us. And we change.

- And you talk about it so calmly?

Yes, what's wrong with that? I can tell the press and anyone, even my wife. It's normal with us, you can even have two wives. But this is only with my permission. I don't know much about such cases. Maybe one or two were allowed. But only those who are able to provide for a family, to give knowledge to children ... Not everyone will go for it. In our time, it is difficult to feed one wife, let alone two.

- And how many children are there in an ordinary gypsy family?

In different ways, there are one-two-two, but more often five-seven-eight ... There are even twelve. But it is not enough to produce children. We need to give them knowledge, culture, education, a lesson in life ... There are families who cannot cope with this. We are fighting this. Our public organization (and myself) travels across the Crimea. Sometimes we go to a family in which there are many children, and they are all illiterate - they can neither read nor write. Sometimes there is no money to get a child to school, sometimes their classmates offend. If there is no money, we dress these children, buy them notebooks, textbooks. We communicate with school principals so that they will give such a class, where they will not call names and offend ... It happens that parents themselves do not want to send their children to school. We used to live our nomadic life, so we got used to the fact that it is possible for an illiterate to live in the world. Like, a child will grow up - he will go to sell potatoes, and he does not need to know anything, except for this potato and money ... But this is nonsense! We have to explain to people that now is a different time, that children need to be educated.

■ About 17 thousand Roma live on the territory of Crimea.

■ In the XVIII-XIX centuries. from the Czech region of Bohemia, many Roma migrated to France. The French began to call them Bohemians. Since the creative part of high society in France led the same noisy, eccentric and riotous lifestyle as the gypsies, she was dubbed bohemian.

■ It is believed that it was the gypsies who invented the belly dance and spread it in Arab countries. Scientists still cannot confirm or deny this theory.

■ Unexplained, but very interesting fact: Gypsies never get leprosy. Modern medicine has not yet established the reason for this mysterious phenomenon.

Photo: oldro.me; personal archive of German Filippov