Wickerworker

So there you go—my mother kept saying, "Why don’t you use your blog to advertise the family business?" Well, now I have. As I understand it, as part of the ongoing "let’s dig up everything on Navalny" project, with support from Rosneft (or Transneft, or VTB, or Gazprom—you can’t even tell anymore), the online outlet Marker published an article: Navalny’s Business: How a Fighter Against Corporations Makes a Living from Folk Crafts and Small Trade. Well, they published it, and they published it. If they’re interested, let them be interested. What I didn’t like was that various clowns, layabouts, and other employees of "small think tanks" from the pro-Kremlin youth riffraff started spreading the link with all sorts of idiotic comments. So let me tell it like it is. Yes, my parents own a small business called the "Kobyakovo Willow Weaving Factory." The factory makes all sorts of things—from furniture to baskets—out of willow wicker.

Willow weaving is a traditional folk craft that is unfortunately dying out in Russia, and the factory is one of the very few enterprises—possibly the only one left by now—producing authentic goods. By the way, if you see a character sitting in a wicker chair in a movie or on a theater stage, you can be pretty sure it was made by the Kobyakovo factory. Theaters and film studios are regular clients. Willow weaving has existed in this part of the Moscow region since time immemorial (literally, "since Tsar Gorokh," a Russian expression meaning ages ago). The factory itself dates back to the 1930s. During perestroika, it naturally collapsed. Back then, nobody had time for willow weaving. And if not for my parents, who somehow managed to essentially rebuild it from scratch and keep the skilled weavers from leaving, this part of Russian history would have been lost. They bought an abandoned village community hall, renovated it, and opened production there.

So, anyway: the business belongs to the family, and I’m one of its founders. Like any normal person, I try to help my parents however I can—legal matters, this and that. As you can see from the photos in that same Marker piece, this business is very far from oligarchic. But it works, it benefits society, creates jobs, preserves our history, and supports my parents. And I’m very proud that they managed to work honestly and decently all these years and preserve the factory—and even develop it. Anyone running a real small manufacturing business in Russia is a hero, fighting every day against an endless army of extortionist bureaucrats. My parents are exactly that kind of people. As for the Young Guard activists (the youth wing of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party) and other petty crooks, I’d suggest they do at least 3 honest rubles’ worth of good for this country before getting clever. The reason I was inclined to keep all this quiet is obvious. For our state-employed parasites, whose lives I make very difficult, it would be nothing to turn the factory’s life into HELL. A new inspection every day, and so on. I myself am much less vulnerable in that sense. A desk, a chair, a laptop—that’s all my tools of the trade. They can inspect me all they want. With a manufacturing business, it’s more complicated. But I had this conversation with my parents several years ago. They understand what I do. They understand that at any moment, because of me, every kind of cop imaginable could come after them, wreck everything, trample it, and destroy it. They’re ready for that. But let’s not get too dramatic—on to the promotional part of the post. The Kobyakovo Willow Weaving Factory is located in the Odintsovo district, in the village of Kobyakovo (paradoxical as that may sound). It has a website: http://kobiakovo.ru/ It makes a lot of wonderful things. Including horses:

I think for an extra fee they could probably weave you a coat, too. And bulls:

and other forest creatures:

I loaded up the post with animals because I had their photos on my laptop. But of course the main specialty is furniture and things like that. Everyone’s welcome. You can come by, take a look, place an order, buy something. And yes, to answer the question people asked on Twitter: Can you weave something yourself? My answer: Nope. It’s hard, and it takes talent. The only thing I weave is conspiracies aimed at overthrowing the current government. When I was about 13 to 15, I sometimes worked at the factory in the summer, but at the very bottom rung of production. Willow rods are soaked in huge vats, and then the bark is stripped off them. Tedious work, by the way. But you could earn 6 rubles for half a day. The job was called a "bark stripper." Apparently that’s where I developed my tendency to skin certain comrades alive. So there it is. Now I have no secrets left at all. Well, almost. Mom and Dad, sending you my love. I hope this post brings you new customers rather than an unscheduled tax inspection. At the same time, we’ll test how advertising on LiveJournal works.