Druzhnoe

Our settlement is located in the Vladimir oblast, 30 km south of Vladimir city. About 50 families are engaged in the development of their plots in “Druzhnoe” today. Almost every family has children, some have several. We started in 2010, when we received the first property of 42 hectares (now 187 hectares). This event took place on 17 July; this date has become our birthday.

For a long time we had been greatly impressed by the books of Vladimir Megre. In April 2009, we decided to act.

The first step was to try to collaborate with another community. We went to Kovrov (a city in Vladimir Oblast), to get acquainted with the guys who started a similar project a few years ago. Our first impression was good: a warm welcome, guitar songs, and a willingness to accept new members without money and without any additional condition.

The next visit was to the Molchanov family in Konyayevo. Well, naturally, we were flabbergasted. Five settlements, about three hundred homesteads, roads, almost all areas had been dealt with, according to a strict contract and principles of clarity and certainty.

By this point we had already established an initiative group of three people: Alexey Sedov, Mostovoy Vladislav and Semenov Andrey.

Then, we decided to act independently as everyone had their own idea of what would be the perfect settlement. We give a big thanks to Tatsiana and Anatoly Molchanov for their support, suggestions, and shared experiences.

We were in for hard work. One year of working, collecting information, solution finding, error correction. It was hard, but we did it! We had about 40 hectares of land! Later we decided that our birthday would be the date of our Association – 17 July 2010 – the date we received the property documents.

"Druzhnoe" ("Friendly") is our title and the only filter for those who want to be with us. Ready to be friendly? – We are waiting you! We don't divide people into meat-eaters and vegetarians, into "good" and "bad". The desire to create a family homestead is enough. On this basis we reworked the contract with newcomers in the most open form with no strict obligations.

While the access road and bridge were being built, we had already been joined by several people. We needed to get to know each other and begin to form a team. To this end we held our first general meeting. 2010 was the year of the birth of our Declaration. We wanted to tell our story, declare our intentions, and to form our vision for the future.

2012 inspired us to do some major repairs of the roads. In previous years we believed that we only needed to flatten the terrain. But by mid-summer 2012 it was still impossible to drive on the field due to the incredible moisture. Even the meeting had to be a kilometer from the field.

It became clear – we need to remove the water! In the same year, the first enthusiasts began to live in their homesteads. Margarita Alekseyeva lived in a tent for a month. Chernyshev Aleksey built temporary housing. Borovikov Vyacheslav and Fedorov Igor built a straw guest house. There are very significant events for us!

Plus, this year we have completed what we had long wanted. The arable land size of 132 hectares was transferred to our ownership free of charge!

In 2013 documents like the “Borovikov” offer, the “Chernyshev” initiative and “Our approach to the acquisition of equipment” appeared. Another year – another growth-spurt. East Trypillia came into being. Four of us even stayed during winter.

2014 was year we began to hold joint celebrations. Nadia Safonkina took the initiative and organized a Maslenitsa (Easter Week), Zhivin day and “Druzhnoe” birthday.

In the same year, we received permission for the construction of the transmission line (we had worked on it for 2 years), we installed poles to the first transformer, and we completed renovation of the 16-metre roads in the First field.

The summer of 2014 was very busy: about 40 people are actively living at their homesteads! Slava Borovikov launched the public pond. He gathered people and hired an excavator. By the end of the year there were more than 25 plots with buildings suitable for permanent or temporary accommodation.

Settlement “Druzhnoe”, Vladimir Oblast, Russia