Get down to business - do it conscientiously!
At 80 years old, Timofey Solonovich looks vigorous and fit. He explains this not by genetics: “There were no slackers in our family. My father worked on the land all his life, and so did I...”
The Solonovich family is amazing: the son, grandson, great-grandson and nephew of Timofey Timofeevich are also called Timofeys. And they are all related to agriculture.
– I was born into a peasant family. Father Timofey Naumovich, a driver on the local collective farm Rodina, was in charge of a horse, cart, sleigh and plow. Mother Tatyana Viktorovna worked as a field farmer. They faced many trials, but they retained the main thing in themselves - humanity,” Timofey Timofeevich recalls his parents with warmth. — At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Old Man was taken to a concentration camp. After his release, he briefly returned to the village to see his family, and then went to the front. When I was born in 1943, grandmother Pelageya, who knew nothing about the fate of her son, asked to name me in his honor.
According to tradition, the Solonovichs began to name their sons with this name. And Timofey Sr. came back from the war with medals “For Courage”, “For Victory over Germany”, “For the Capture of Koenigsberg”. True, he did not live long, 49 years.
“I received the news of my father’s death while working in the Krasnoturansky district, where I went after graduating from the Omsk Agricultural Institute to raise virgin soil,” recalls Timofey Solonovich. “When I said goodbye to him at the coffin, I promised that I would help my mother raise my brothers.” They were quite young: one was a schoolboy, the other a kindergartener.
Loyalty is in the Solonovichs' blood. And they are also monogamous. Timofey Timofeevich met his future wife... in first grade. Arriving home, he told his parents that he was marrying Katya. I didn’t deceive you: 16 years later the wedding took place. Although fate tried to separate them: the young teacher Ekaterina Trofimovna, after graduating from university, went to Novgorod as part of her assignment.
As you already understand, Timofey Timofeevich’s son, his full namesake, works as deputy general director of the agro-industrial group Servolux CJSC. He met his love while a student at the Belarusian State Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Irina waited for him from the army; two sons were born in the marriage. The eldest, Timofey, also works in the agricultural sector. All men in the family inherit the main thing - love for the land, interest in agriculture.
Our hero, Timofey Sr., reached career heights. I started small. He worked as a veterinarian on the farm of the Kirov region, and there, at the age of 31, he headed the collective farm named after Dzerzhinsky. Later he became the director of a breeding farm in the Bykhovsky district, for ten years he was chairman of the district executive committee - he raised agriculture and the social sphere. Many remember him with gratitude.
— Roads were built, villages were improved, milk yield and productivity increased. This is the merit of the people who worked in the Bykhov region in those years,” Timofey Solonovich is convinced. — Together we tried to contribute to the socio-economic development of the Dnieper region, to do everything to make it comfortable to live and work on the land. My parents also taught me: if you undertake something, do it conscientiously.
Judging by how many people congratulated him on his 80th birthday, which he recently celebrated, Solonovich was convincing in his role as a leader.
“And I had enough adventurism,” the interlocutor admits with a smile. — When PMK built a dormitory for its workers, I decided to take it for the district hospital. So the Central District Hospital added a new building.
Today Timofey Timofeevich, awarded the title “Honorary Citizen of the Bykhov District,” lives in the village of Cheryomushki, Mogilev District. Here he headed the Mogilev state breeding enterprise for several years before his retirement, where his nephew Timofey now works.
Solonovich Sr.’s morning begins with exercise. And during the day he exercises in the greenhouse and in the beds, where he grows everything that a villager should: from potatoes to watermelons. Next on the schedule is Nordic walking.
“This year I walked 70 kilometers,” rejoices Timofey Timofeevich. — My wife, with whom I lived for 64 years, is no longer in this world; I take care of the household myself. I devote my free time to studying the history of Belarus. Previously I didn’t have enough time, but now I’m carried away. I try to enjoy every day. By the way, a great joy happened recently: my great-grandson was born. He was also named Timothy. Life goes on!
