#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. This year, collections of ten Norilsk authors have been published. All of them were published by the Taimyr representative office of the Russian Writers Union in Krasnoyarsk region, chaired by Tatyana Shaybulatova. Financial support for the publication of the books was provided by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.
It is pleasant to note that one of the authors is the editor-in-chief of the online publication Taimyr Telegraph, Polina Lyubimaya. Poetry has accompanied her throughout her life. Even as a child, Polina realized that she was best able to express her thoughts and feelings on paper.
She thanks her mother for her love of rhyme and reading since childhood. Her mother, who was passionate about poetry herself, often read her daughter the works of her favorite authors, and she also wrote poetry herself. Soon Polina herself had such a homemade collection of her own notes, poems and drawings for them.
“She was born an adult”, Polina’s mother Galina shares. “She was interested in literature, astronomy, studied languages, and attended a theater club. Polina wrote her first poem at the age of seven, and even then we were amazed by such adult and life-like lines. I still carefully keep the notebook with her first works and am very proud of my daughter.”
At school, the young poetess often performed at poets’ competitions and always recited her works with feeling and emotion, conveying the mood of the poem to the audience. The years passed, but her passion remained; Polina expressed any experiences, pain, emotion, joy, delight in rhyme.
“My family has always loved reading. Every Sunday my dad brought books and magazines from the library, and my mother read to me before going to bed until I learned to read myself. At 13 I discovered Ilf and Petrov, at about the same age my dad got me acquainted with the world of fantasy: Jules Verne, Belyaev, Zelazny. And once, for winning another literary competition, I was given the works of Alexander Blok, who later became one of my favorite authors”, said Polina.
At 19, she joined the ranks of creative people in Norilsk. The local literary club chairperson Tatyana Shaybulatova immediately saw talent in young Polina.
In 2007, Polina played in Tatyana’s production of The Poem of the End based on the work of the same name by Marina Tsvetayeva. The work attracted a lot of attention from the townspeople, and that same evening the director and the aspiring actors were invited to record an interview at the Channel 7 TV studio.
“I went into the studio and was fascinated by television, and it was fascinated by me. The next day I called the editorial office and they hired me. For two years I filmed stories for the TV channel and anchored the news, my daughter Katya grew up in the studio, which is probably why the choice of profession was obvious to her”, said Polina.
After TV, Polina worked for many years at Taimyrsky Telegraph, was a radio news anchor for several years, worked in a newspaper and the university press service. But fate brought her back to her favorite site.
“I love Taimyrsky Telegraph, we have become very close over the years. For me, it is like a child, I am always happy with interesting news, city projects, bright photos and the successes of our employees. It is a great happiness when work captivates you completely. Journalism has also helped me a lot in writing. Working as a correspondent and editor enriches my vocabulary, opens up different facets of life, introduces me to new people from whom I have something to learn, something to admire, all of this is reflected in my poems, because they convey what is in my soul now”, the Norilsk resident noted.
Quite recently, a significant event took place in the life of our heroine – her first book Applause was published, where Polina carefully collected the works that she most wanted to show to readers.
“When I received the box of books, I had the feeling that I flew into space, won a million, and gave birth to a child at the same time”, Polina shares. “And my mother was waiting for this moment most of all. My father would have certainly been proud of me, but, unfortunately, he passed away four years ago. My parents have always supported my creativity, and now my mother is eagerly waiting for me to bring her the book. I am also very grateful to Tatyana Shaybulatova, who not only helped me put together my brainchild, but was always there as a good friend and mentor,” Polina shared.
Polina is also a mother herself, she has a school-age son Maxim and an adult daughter Ekaterina, who works as a journalist at the Severny Gorod TV company. The daughter also had a hand in creating her mother’s collection: she was the one who designed it with illustrations.
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Text: Polina Bardik, Photos: Olga Zaderyaka, Natalya Cherkashina, Sergey Sevryugin, from Polina Lyubimaya’s personal archive
