Russian Turkmen
On the territory of the Klinsky district of the Moscow Oblast, there is a tiny village with an unusual name – Turkmen.
The settlement, founded in 1926, was inhabited by workers laboring at a peat-producing enterprise that provided with peat for the Reutov Textile Factory. “Turkmenpagta” Factory refers to the Turkmen SSR, and hence the name of the village.
In those early years, the factory in the village of Reutovo was the only enterprise, and young trainees from Turkmenistan came here to master the production of textile products.
The guests were accommodated in a specially constructed residential building that looked like a cotton box opened from the top. After all, the income from the textile enterprise went to the construction of the largest cotton spinning factory in Ashgabat.
The construction of the Ashgabat factory was completed in 1929 and young specialists returned to their homeland. The teams of two companies became so close that they always remembered the years of joint work with great warmth, and in 1972, Vokzalnaya Street in the city of Reutov was renamed to Ashkhabadskaya Street.
Unfortunately, the historical building with a memorial tablet where natives of Turkmenistan lived was demolished in 2005, but Ashkhabadskaya Street has retained its name to this day.
Well, the village of Turkmen is now an ideal place for amateurs of nature. Around here is the forest, silence, berries and mushrooms. Mushroom pickers from nearby villages often go to Turkmen and “share” their rich harvest on social networks. Most of the territory is occupied by ponds and marshes near Moscow.
Who are you? Ore, or just a placer,
Or a gold nugget,
Stuck in a stone slope,
In the swamp, found a shelter?
These lines belong to the poet and writer Varlam Shalamov. He lived in the village of Turkmen for two years, worked as a technical supply agent in the peat processing and was engaged in literature. Here the poet finished working on a collection of poems and began the main work of his life – “Kolyma stories”.
Shalamov often recalled Turkmen and its inhabitants, “In the village, I’ve found the most cordial, friendliest reception, which I had not either on the Kolyma or in Moscow.”
Today, the population of the village of Turkmen is about 200 people who live a leisurely and self-sufficient rural life.
