Happiness is when you enjoy life!

The incredible story of Fiodor Feshchenko 

No offense to Andrey Arshavin and Aleksandr Hleb, but in the recent legends match of Belarus and Russia, which gathered more than ten thousand spectators at the Dinamo Minsk Stadium, it was not they who were the main stars on the field but Fiodor Feshchenko, to whom the organisers entrusted the right to make the first honourable shot at goal. A 98-year-old veteran, who is about to turn 99, a participant in the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War and the liberation of Byelorussia, who reached Berlin, fulfilled his mission so clearly and smartly that all viewers had the same thought in their heads — this man might as well play at least one half, he would definitely not spoil the game. Fiodor Feshchenko was jokingly annoyed after the match, “Oh, it is a pity they did not let me shoot the post-match penalty, I would have shown them class. I am pretty sure that Ruslan Nigmatullin would not have coped with my shot.” 

They say that the most common and trivial question to ask an elderly person, whose age surprises and delights while their physical condition, as well as the state of health fill you with almost sacred awe, sounds like this: What is the secret of your longevity? It was with this question that we began our conversation. 
“Sports and physical culture,” Fiodor Feshchenko replied cheerfully without a moment’s hesitation. “Before the war, I was very fond of playing sports and was quite good at them. Of course, I liked football the most. I played it for a long time afterwards, in the midfield position. I was like a little round bun — thanks to a small height and speed, I could easily break from all rivals, and scored a lot. I played in Germany for the GSOFG [Group of Soviet Occupation Forces in Germany] Championship, where I served for several years after the war. I can say that the level was quite high there. Then I played in Minsk, for the team of the Belarusian State University.” 
Fiodor Feshchenko has an amazing mental sharpness and a fresh memory for someone who is almost a centenarian. Talking to him is like flipping through a book of time. One page features Ukraine of the late 1920s, where he was born and grew up. The next page takes you to the beginning of the Great Patriotic War and Nizhny Tagil, where 15-year-old Fedya [short for Fiodor] worked at a tank-building plant being promptly evacuated there from Kharkov at the very beginning of the war. Next, he volunteered for the front at the age of 17 and took part in Operation Bagration, which liberated Byelorussia and Minsk. This was followed by an eventful peaceful life, family, studies, the Belarusian State University (BSU), where he worked for four decades, holding the positions of senior lecturer, associate professor and later professor at the Department of Economic Geography of Foreign Countries in the Faculty of Geography at the BSU. An amazing biography!
“I remember very well how Spartak Minsk played and won the bronze medal in the USSR Football Championship for the first time in 1954, I remember Dinamo of 1963 and 1982 when it became the USSR champion,” Fiodor Feshchenko seemed to be turning the film of an invisible movie projector and the words flying from his mouth came to life, acquiring clear outlines. “Those teams were wonderful, the audience really liked their game, and there were always a lot of fans at the stadium. Now the stands are empty… Why? Because there is nothing to look at. Mikhail Mustygin and Eduard Malofeyev used to play in Minsk. Bobrov and Streltsov, Yashin and Netto — football geniuses — came here. Also Prokopenko, who was a football player with a God-given talent! Now, however, football has turned into philistinism, where players and coaches are more focused on higher earnings than on the game itself.”

— What advice could you give to our players? After all, they have not been at their best lately, you know… 
— What sort of advice can be there? Train hard! If you lose, it means that you did not work well — there are no other explanations. 

— It is said that movement is life!
— Exactly. I get up very early every day and do morning exercises, including stretching and breathing exercises. In the evening, I always go out for a walk. Up to the age of 80, I regularly jogged for long distances and went skiing.  

Fiodor Feshchenko’s life has given him a lot of experiences. Listening to his captivating stories, you find yourself thinking that you are reading Ian Fleming’s Bondiana collection.
“In the late 1970s, the Motherland sent me to Cuba,” the veteran recalled enthusiastically. “Initially, I was to create a department at the new university on the friendly Island of Freedom. Soon I was retrained as the head of education group in order to be able to move around the country without suspicion. The thing is that my military speciality is the commander of a military sabotage group. Just at that time the revolution was maturing in Nicaragua, and I received a task to help, so I collected information, communicated with Cuban counterparts. As you know, the revolution in Nicaragua eventually took place and won — the Somoza regime was overthrown, after which José Daniel Ortega was elected president. By the way, he is still in power, and the country under his leadership is pursuing an independent policy, not yielding to the US pressure.” 
Here is some unexpected twist — a military sabotage group! Fiodor Feshchenko turned out to be a real commando!

— Where did you get prepared for that? 
— In the late 1950s, I completed special military training marked as ‘Strictly Confidential’. Those were the years of colossal political tension and the height of the Cold War, which later resulted in the notorious Caribbean Crisis. The USSR was preparing for possible conflicts. Candidates were selected from across the country, military enlistment offices conducted medical examinations on the ground, followed by a strict check of all parameters and directions, and the most suitable candidates who had passed the war were taken for training. There were guys of diverse specialities, including journalists — some of them were involved in partisan activities, others engaged in underground combat, while many of them served at the front line, too. We were trained at assault training bases near Tula and Pskov in Russia to be engaged in special operations.

— Have you ever been scared in your life?  
— I have always controlled my state, being able to overcome fear. When I did sky jumping, I used to take a newspaper on the plane and seemed to be reading it so as not to show excitement. Everyone thought: wow, he has nerves of steel! At the front, everything was simple and no questions arose — if it had to be done, it had to be done. I saw everything there: victims, death, agony… 

— Veterans do not like talking about the war. My granddad never talked about his combat experience in detail. Why is that?
— It is a grim topic, which you do not want to recall once again. Once you revisit those past events, the images come back before your eyes, and — believe me — they are such that it is better to forget about them forever. 

We remained silent for a while, thinking about the same thing. About how beautiful our native Belarus has become now, how joyful it is to live in a fragrant, peaceful country, how Minsk has brightened up and become even prettier. And how important it is to preserve and multiply all we have achieved. Fiodor Feshchenko was the first to break the silence.  
“The guiding star of our development is love for our people and Homeland, readiness to defend its territory, the chosen path of development and sovereignty. I saw Minsk in July 1944. It actually did not exist as the city was razed to the ground. I remember a huge building of the Opera House on a hill, all smashed up, with ruins and ashes around. Then I returned here in 1950. I got out of the heated freight car at the Tovarnaya station wearing a greatcoat, with one suitcase, and went along the sleepers to check into the BSU dormitory. The city was being rebuilt before my eyes, it was rising out of the ashes anew and has become a graceful beauty with its own unique image and personality. Today I am very pleased and glad to see our capital and our Belarus getting prettier every day, happy people living here, a lot of smiles and children’s laughter. In my opinion, Minsk is generally one of the most modern, beautiful and convenient cities in the world. Our President has been developing the country for 30 years and may he lead it for as long! I am sure he will not allow Belarus to fight again.” 
Saying goodbye to each other, we still talked for a long time standing in the hallway. I shook Fiodor Feshchenko’s very strong hand. As I was leaving, I could not resist asking, “What is happiness, in your opinion?” 
The veteran smiled broadly and replied, “I am often asked about this. Happiness is when you enjoy life!”  

By Sergei Kanashits