His house is full of all sorts of different adventurous, interesting characters and their stories. There is those who for the first time in their life went out of their province of Russia to come to Istanbul, and those who have been several times around the world. There is those who hitchhiked here from a wedding in Afghanistan, and those who just flew in from neighbouring Ukraine.
A French traveller who stranded at the house after meeting one of the girls on the street described his find with gleaming eyes as a ''socièté sécrète de voyageurs'':
Every day grechka (buckwheat) is cooked for everyone (including those without money to contribute), black, cumin-spiked Borodinskiy bread is cut on the side, tea is brewed and different kinds of pechenie (cookies) offered for dessert. Universal delight arises when someone brings fruit, mayonaise, or a whole kilo of sugar. These are seen as luxury goods in the given situation.
In the evening the mountain of shoes piling up at the entrance can be impressive, and finding a place for 25 or 30 sleepers and their sleeping bags is a nightly puzzle to be solved.
In her book about Mongolia with 50 Roubles (1,50 Euro) in her pocket when crossing the border, his ex-girlfriend depicts Anton as a ''grown-up man hiding his face behind a wild beard, but whose eyes glow child-like''. Indeed, his shaggy, dark beard, which he first started growing as a teenager and has never completely shaven off for twenty years, just now begins to have streaks of grey in it. His blue eyes are of magnetic intensity.
Much like in his flat in Moscow (which I visited first seven years ago and which most of the time is also open to everyone), all over the walls there are pictures compiled of Anton's travels: Apart from the typical naked kids in rainforests,and the group shots of friends with folded arms outside of dessert castles, there is also more insolent things such as a still of the amazing expanse of the tundra, rosy in the protracted arctic sunset -at first sight of the photo you think it represents the sea!-, or huge insects as long as and thicker than an adult man's finger, and a collection of arbitraria such as a rainwater seller from Indonesia (the refreshing liquid packed in knotted plastic bags stacked next to him), ladies in burqas looking at lace underwear from Kabul, or the AVP flag flying from a burnt-out tank somewhere in the ex-Soviet Union.
Anton being the indefatigable and intrepid adventurist that he is, he recently went to Damscus, the capital of war-torn Syria. Coming back he commented people were just as friendly as usually in the country and you hardly noticed a thing of the war, however much an almost irresponsible thing to say this may be.
The books he authors and sells sport titles like ''Hitchhike to Sudan'', ''Hitchhike across India'' or ''From -50 to +50 -'' (including trips both from Siberia and from Africa). One book is titled ''Hitch-hiking around Socialism'' (from a friend who travelled around Cuba). Anton likes that sort of thing. From the amount of effort he puts into communal life I guess you can attest to the fact that he stayed a bit of a communist at heart.
To somehow organize as many people as pass in such a small space, Anton prints out clear rules and hung them up the wall: ''Take responsibility! If there is something wrong in the house - it is your fault! Buy more food, clean up the mess, take out the rubbish!
Every day grechka (buckwheat) is cooked for everyone (including those without money to contribute), black, cumin-spiked Borodinskiy bread is cut on the side, tea is brewed and different kinds of pechenie (cookies) offered for dessert. Universal delight arises when someone brings fruit, mayonaise, or a whole kilo of sugar. These are seen as luxury goods in the given situation.In the evening the mountain of shoes piling up at the entrance can be impressive, and finding a place for 25 or 30 sleepers and their sleeping bags is a nightly puzzle to be solved.
In her book about Mongolia with 50 Roubles (1,50 Euro) in her pocket when crossing the border, his ex-girlfriend depicts Anton as a ''grown-up man hiding his face behind a wild beard, but whose eyes glow child-like''. Indeed, his shaggy, dark beard, which he first started growing as a teenager and has never completely shaven off for twenty years, just now begins to have streaks of grey in it. His blue eyes are of magnetic intensity.
Much like in his flat in Moscow (which I visited first seven years ago and which most of the time is also open to everyone), all over the walls there are pictures compiled of Anton's travels: Apart from the typical naked kids in rainforests,and the group shots of friends with folded arms outside of dessert castles, there is also more insolent things such as a still of the amazing expanse of the tundra, rosy in the protracted arctic sunset -at first sight of the photo you think it represents the sea!-, or huge insects as long as and thicker than an adult man's finger, and a collection of arbitraria such as a rainwater seller from Indonesia (the refreshing liquid packed in knotted plastic bags stacked next to him), ladies in burqas looking at lace underwear from Kabul, or the AVP flag flying from a burnt-out tank somewhere in the ex-Soviet Union.
Anton being the indefatigable and intrepid adventurist that he is, he recently went to Damscus, the capital of war-torn Syria. Coming back he commented people were just as friendly as usually in the country and you hardly noticed a thing of the war, however much an almost irresponsible thing to say this may be.
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| One of Anton's flyers |
To somehow organize as many people as pass in such a small space, Anton prints out clear rules and hung them up the wall: ''Take responsibility! If there is something wrong in the house - it is your fault! Buy more food, clean up the mess, take out the rubbish!
The same is valid if there is anything wrong in the city, the country, or the world! ''
You may not find this kind of approach anarchistic enough, but at least the formula works, and I admire the project for that. There is no trouble makers, no parasites, hardly ever even any tensions between the transitory inhabitants of one of his houses. People share what they have, be it food or stories, no one goes hungry, people respect each other, and everyone has a great time. And it has been going on for 16 years!
You may not find this kind of approach anarchistic enough, but at least the formula works, and I admire the project for that. There is no trouble makers, no parasites, hardly ever even any tensions between the transitory inhabitants of one of his houses. People share what they have, be it food or stories, no one goes hungry, people respect each other, and everyone has a great time. And it has been going on for 16 years!
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