In memory of the peacemaker Major Budarin
Vyacheslav in the 2nd row, 5th from the right
April 26 is the day of remembrance of the Russian peacekeeper Major Budarin, who died in the line of duty as part of the Russian contingent of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Congo (Kinshasa). Vyacheslav Yuryevich Budarin is the only Russian peacekeeper who died in this African country.
As a classmate of Vyacheslav, I wanted to tell the Russians about him so that they could find out how he lived and how the future peacemaker was formed, who gave his life for our Motherland before the eyes of the world community.
Vyacheslav and I met in the 4th "B" class of secondary school №2 in the city of Norilsk, where in September 1982 I arrived with my parents, and studied together until the prom. We were brought together by the fact that Slava was not a native Norilsk resident either: he was born in Chelyabinsk. His mother, Olga Ivanovna, raised her son alone.
Sometimes we went to visit each other, since we lived in the neighborhood until the 7th grade. Having moved in the 7th grade to another, very remote area of the city, Slava did not leave his school, but for four whole years went to classes from afar, despite the northern cold and winds. This commitment to his native school revealed Slavin's character.
Slava graduated from art school and during all his school years he painted wall newspapers for our class, although among his peers he was distinguished by his growth and strength. Being naturally very strong, Slava took up sports only in the 8th grade: it was skiing - the most suitable sport for the Far North, where the snow lies until the beginning of summer.
When in the 10th grade classmates began to share their plans for the future, I was surprised that Slava chose a military institute for further study, deciding to become a military translator: at school we studied German together, and Slava did not show much interest in him, counting the 10th grade, when, preparing for the entrance exams, he began to study with a tutor. This bore fruit, since Slava managed to enter the chosen university the first time, although our teachers dissuaded him: the graduates of our school in this university have already had failures. Here again Slavin's character manifested itself.
Photo from the Budarin family archive
Studying Khmer as a second language at the Faculty of Oriental Studies, and also from scratch, Vyacheslav learned French. In the future, it was with this language that he had to work, and with a variety of French-speaking groups.
In Yemen, where I was in 2003-2005. I happened to work at the Russian Embassy, I talked with the military translator of the Arabic language Vladimir Bykovtsev, who told me that he met with Vyacheslav when he gave him a group of French-speaking Algerians, who, as it turned out, found it more convenient to work with a translator from French rather than Arabic ...
Photo from the Budarin family archive
It is noteworthy that Vyacheslav's favorite writer during his school years was a French author, namely Jules Verne. I think that Slava in high school sometimes began to use French words and expressions under the influence of Jules Verne's work: no one studied French in our class. And at the military institute, French became its second language for an obvious reason: Cambodia, where Khmer is the state language, is a former French colony.
Photo from the Budarin family archive
Photo from the Budarin family archive
In January 2003, as a Russian military observer with knowledge of the French language, Vyacheslav was included in the UN stabilization mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Here he died on April 26, 2003 as a result of an anti-tank mine explosion. This happened near the settlement of Komanda, in the north-east of the country.
The place of death of Major Budarin is indicated on the map
In the summer of 2011, a memorial plaque in memory of the deceased peacekeeper was unveiled at the Russian Embassy in Kinshasa, and a memorial plaque was erected at the site of his death.
Photo from the Budarin family archive
I remember well the day of April 26, 2003, because on that day I arrived in Yemen on my first overseas business trip. But I learned that Vyacheslav died that day only years later from our Norilsk classmates.
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