A Nizhny Novgorod resident survived in the forest: “A wolf walked near us and it was very scary to sleep.” Survive in the forest. Kemerovo resident took part in the extreme reality show Alexey gray-haired survival

About Me

Childhood

“And my main dream then was to become a military man in order to protect all, all people from evil.”

I was born in the Soviet Union in the early 80s into an ordinary family. Dad received 120 rubles, mother, after maternity leave, the same. An ordinary life with mom's hot scones for breakfast on Sunday, fishing trips with dad, grandma's pies for the holidays, and trips to the park with grandpa. In 1989, I came to the martial arts section for the first time.

Then there was the collapse of the union and a lot changed for my parents, things that seemed unshakable went into oblivion, the money that all my relatives had been saving for years for the Soviet dream - a car - turned into nothing, it became more difficult with food and the beginning of the nineties I remember my mother’s croutons made from black bread and tiny pieces of cheese , which she gave me to school in a yellow paper bag instead of money for lunch in the cafeteria.

And my main dream then was to become a military man in order to protect all, all people from evil.

Student years

“It was something new for me - explosive, hard, fast and... ...kind. Good must be done with fists!”

I met the beginning of the third millennium as a student at one of the capital’s universities. And I remember this time as a conversation in my family: “Son, you are already an adult and it’s time to learn how to earn money yourself. Think about what you can do and can you make money from it?”

At that time I knew only one thing - to fight well. There was not much choice - I received the approval of my coach to conduct classes for beginners and for the first time embarked on the path of a martial arts trainer-instructor. My first student paid me 300 rubles a month. This is very little. The monthly payment for studies was about 7,000 rubles. And I tried very hard to meet the expectations of my student in order to have at least some money and relieve the burden of paying for education on the family.

The student liked it and enthusiastically shared his new hobby with his friends. After a month, I was able to pay my tuition in full.

Then the students had their first successes: someone defended a girl, someone fought off a rapist, someone stood up for a grandmother in a store. My group was growing. There were those who wanted to study individually.

At the time of graduating from university, I considered myself a good hand-to-hand fighter, who had competitions, street fights and commercial fights behind me. I was confident that I could fight at least on an equal footing with anyone. I was wrong!

While still at the university, I had the opportunity to participate in applied hand-to-hand combat training. It was something new for me - explosive, hard, fast and... ...kind. Good must come with fists!)))

Service. Start.

“Why don’t I have time to do anything?” The answer puzzled me: “You are trying to win, but I want to live. That's the whole difference."

After graduating from university, I put on lieutenant's shoulder straps and began my service in Moscow. At this time, the Second Chechen Company was underway. And I rushed there, asked the authorities, convinced, proved. They recommended that you first undergo special training. I agreed, which I still don’t regret.

The instructor turned out to be a short, dry man, a little over 30 years old. The first thing he suggested was a fight. Not sparring, but fighting without weapons. I didn't see any difference. And I felt confident, so I agreed... ...The fight ended in 4 seconds. I sat on the floor and blinked. I asked again. 3 seconds. More. More. And further. I was angry. I didn’t understand why I was losing and I got even angrier. I asked the instructor: “Why don’t I have time to do anything?” The answer puzzled me: “You are trying to win, but I want to live. That's the whole difference." From that moment on, I practically took up residence in the hall. My first call sign was “Fan”.

Time passed and I became a full-fledged and certified specialist in sports and applied sections of hand-to-hand combat. I trained myself, trained my colleagues in the applied section and civilians in the adapted version. And at the same time he served, that is, he fulfilled his direct duties as a specialist in small arms.

Combat missions. Special Forces. My best school.

“How much time do I have to prepare the guys?” The answer sounded sharp: “Three months. Not during the day anymore.”

Service is preparation for life, and therefore I fell into the ranks of those who cannot imagine themselves without combat missions. This is how the Caucasus began. This became my best school. After all, it was there that I was able to test the worth of what I had been doing since 1989: hand-to-hand combat, shooting, and so on.

Over time, I became the commander of a small but proud special forces unit. I started from scratch: I selected the fighters myself, trained them myself, and went on business trips with them.

I remember that time as a conversation with my commander: “How much time do I have to train the guys?” The answer sounded sharp: “Three months. Not during the day anymore.” He turned out to be right: three months later I went on a combat mission for the first time as the commander of an independent unit. The guys were ready. They were waiting for this and still consider that business trip to be the best. I led them and was the first in battle formations. Because he considered it unworthy to hide behind the guys’ backs.

Then there was an endless time of business trips with short breaks. There wasn't a month in which we didn't go on business trips. He rarely appeared at home. I lied to my parents that I was going to exercises and training camps.

Hospital. Point of no return.

"I'm back. To this big city. To the ordinary life of an ordinary person."

They found out about my business trips by chance. I ended up in the hospital with a wound. Mom was informed. I don’t know who and how, they are still hiding it. The whole family came. I was sincerely happy.

The hospital became a point of no return. I could no longer return to work. Although he was declared healthy, the doctor said that the injuries would take their toll and he should quit. I didn't really believe it. He was brave. In vain. At first, I didn’t attach any importance. Then I realized that I was wrong. Thus my childhood dream of being a military man came true and ended.

I'm back. To this big city. To the ordinary life of an ordinary person, I searched for myself for a long time, not noticing that my path was before my eyes: 22 years of hand-to-hand combat and martial arts - a certified specialist, weapons expert, personal security expert, technical security expert and several other disciplines.

I began to analyze everything I knew and decided to take up coaching again. And life in the person of my students, many of whom have long become friends, has proven that this is mine. I know how and I can.

Instructor activities

“ALL my fighters came home safe and sound, without a single scratch.”

I started by analyzing the state of the situation regarding teaching self-defense and self-defense skills in the country and was horrified. There are many names unknown to me, many deceivers and thirsty for profit. You can dissolve in this sea. And do I really need it?

Decided. Need to. I live for it. I know and can pass on my knowledge to others. I called my former students and said that I was starting to teach again. They came. And so it began.
I'm back!

And I consider my main achievement in my teaching career to be that ALL my fighters came home alive and healthy, without a single scratch. Guys, if you're reading, you're welcome!

Everything I wrote is honest. And I am responsible for my words. If you liked it, share it with your friends. If you have any questions, write. I will be glad to answer.)))

About training - I don’t force anyone to come. But if you decide, stick with it. Exactly three months. I will take the soul out of you, wash it and return it back. It will be painful and scary. You'll want to quit 200 times. But if you start, hold on! This is not an advertisement. I just warned you what my training is. I'm being honest with you.

class words: tactics, hand-to-hand combat, stalker, Gray-haired, security, elevator

How often do you think about hand-to-hand combat skills in confined spaces when entering an elevator?

But it’s worth devoting just a few hours of your free time to practicing not only the simplest skills of hand-to-hand combat in a cramped room, but also the simplest principles of safety, and the result may be saving a life in the event of an attack on you or your loved ones.

Let's look at a simple everyday situation: You enter the entrance, go up the stairs and call the elevator. When it arrives and the doors open, you boldly enter it and press the button for the floor you need and calmly stand deep into the elevator, especially if someone enters the elevator after you. You reach the desired floor, get out of the elevator, approach the apartment and, after opening the door with your key or ringing the doorbell, after a while you enter the apartment. All. You can relax. You are at home. The TV started talking as usual, creating background noise and pouring another stream of information into you. Dinner hissed happily on the stove, crackling slightly. Hot tea or refreshing ice-cold tonic. What more do you need after a long day at work?

Like that? Well, congratulations, you are lucky. You were not one of the 1,182,000 people who were victims of robbery or assault last year, and you did not benefit from hand-to-hand combat skills that you may not possess. And why, because life goes on as usual. The status is growing day by day. There is a family or will appear soon. Success comes at your fingertips.

It would be a pity if your life ended in a dimly lit elevator somewhere in a residential area where you found yourself, perhaps once in your life, and even then by accident.

Hand-to-hand combat? Self-defense? Martial arts? Why waste time on this? Really, why? Because when studying applied hand-to-hand combat, you gain not only the skills to resolve conflicts by force, but also knowledge of a number of rules of conduct in various situations, including the rules of action in an elevator. So:

1. When calling the elevator, do not stand in front of the elevator doors, because When the elevator doors open, one or more people may exit the elevator. In certain circumstances (for example, the company is “tipsy” and looking for adventure), you can provoke an attack simply by the fact of your presence in front of the elevator doors and acting as a suddenly arising obstacle.
2. When entering the elevator, make sure that someone unfamiliar is not going to follow your example and take advantage of this benefit of civilization. This fact is especially relevant, since you are not always able to assess the intentions of a “fellow traveler,” and they are not always peaceful in nature (for example, it is in the elevator “without noise and dust” that an attacker can take possession of the keys to your apartment and freely enter it, leaving Your body in the elevator or dragged with you into the apartment). If you see someone boldly walking into the elevator with you, leave it under a plausible pretext (for example, saying the phrase: “Oh, I forgot to check the mailbox”).
3. Do not enter the elevator facing forward, as this will make you an easy target for attack from behind. Enter semi-sideways, also because it will be easier and faster for you to turn around and face the doors.
4. If you nevertheless entered the elevator together with a stranger (or acquaintance), give him (or her) the opportunity to be the first to press the button for the desired floor, since in this case you will be able to avoid an attack with your hand (including an armed one) along an upward trajectory. In addition, do not stand next to the floor call panel, since if you do not comply with this point, you expose yourself to the danger of an attack by pressing the button to call the floor the attacker needs (for example, the highest).
5. When going deeper into the elevator, do not stand facing the doors, as in this case you become an excellent target for both a kicking attack and an armed attack. The best position in the elevator is the second third of the side wall of the elevator opposite the floor call panel, also because in this case you have an equal chance of both maneuvering inside the elevator and getting out of it as quickly as possible.
6. When leaving the elevator, remember that someone may be on the pre-lift area. And let it be a harmless grandmother with a cart, whose day was not going well in the morning, and here you are, jumping out of the elevator like a young person and rushing to attack the front door of the apartment. Even this fact will not play into your hands, since you may then hear a heated tirade addressed to you, and a few days later the door of your apartment “suddenly” “for some reason” will be scratched. But this problem could have been avoided simply by slowly exiting the elevator and making sure of the presence or absence of potential sources of danger.

Take care of yourself and your loved ones. And may luck be with you.

Ed Khalilov, graduate of American Survival Academy, And Oleg Gegelsky, wilderness survival expert, founder of extreme tourism - vestigating, Reserve officer military intelligence special forces.

Oleg Gegelsky: from the film it is impossible to understand how long this or that event took. Let's say there is nothing surprising in the fact that a person buried himself in the snow and came out alive. There are known cases when a person spent a day or two in the snow. But it’s impossible to be in the snow for three weeks, you know? The film does not tell us how long the main character spent in the snow. Therefore, the only thing that could raise questions for me, as a professional, is this timing.

For obvious reasons, he is not in the film. This means there is no opportunity to analyze the material, assess physiology, human reserves, body capabilities... Or, for example, the hero’s leg is in an unnatural position. If he has an open fracture, then, naturally, this is not true, because with an open fracture, irreversible processes immediately begin and the simple fact of this fracture can kill a person. But we are not told whether it is a fracture or a dislocation or something else...

But wait, the movie is not initially a hospital card indicating a dislocation or fracture. It's not even a reality show. This the film is a parable about a lonely man in outer space, it's just inspired by a true story. Therefore, it is strange to make such claims against her.

In fact of the matter. Therefore, you obviously put me in a slightly vulnerable position. Yes, the film does not contain any clarifying points that are important for specialists in survival issues, to which I consider myself. There are moments that can be interpreted in two ways, but I simply skip them without attaching much importance to them. In general, I think that this film is distinguished by a serious approach to the events depicted - it is clear that the consultant was a professional and experienced person.

For those who have not seen this film: the film is based on the true story of an American named Hugh Glass. He was born in 1773 in Philadelphia. In 1823 he went with the expedition Captain Andrew Henry explore the river Missouri. On the territory of the modern state South Dakota on Hugh a grizzly bear attacked and severely maimed him. Several members of the expedition stayed with the wounded man, but soon abandoned him, deciding that he would soon die anyway. When Glass turned up alive, having traveled hundreds of kilometers, this news spread throughout America. The traveler himself did not leave any records, except for a letter addressed to the parents of a companion killed by the Arikara Indians, but several biographies and novels were devoted to him.

In 2002, the writer Michael Pahnke published a novel The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge in which I made Glass a hunter working for a fur company. It was this novel that became the basis for the script for the director’s epic film Iñárritu with Leonardo DiCaprio, which is now harvesting the most prestigious prizes.

Such incredible cases survival well known. And this film is based on one of them. People can survive in a situation when it's impossible to survive, is a proven fact. Even today, human capabilities have not been fully studied - despite all the development of science and technology. And I think a person will surprise himself more than once.

I watched the movie carefully "Survivor", and did not see anything impossible or implausible in him. We should not forget that in times when people lived in wildlife, their skill and survival experience were many orders of magnitude higher than those of our contemporaries - therefore, things that seemed completely impossible to us were quite normal for the people of that time. And even now, what Muscovites consider pure fantasy is, for example, absolutely normal for the Yakuts.

What do you say to viewers who laugh at the very possibility that a seriously injured person can travel 200 kilometers?

First of all, this is a true story. And secondly, let them respect "The Tale of a Real Man" about our pilot Alexey Maresyev. This plot may cause skepticism among people living in a wonderful triangle “refrigerator - TV - toilet”. Of course, they couldn't go through this. And I actually saw a man in the Far East who received fractures incompatible with life and nevertheless survived. Yes, he remained disabled, but, in theory, he should not have survived at all.

The film demonstrates one of the techniques with which it kills its victim. And not only the grizzly bear does this, but also any bear- when some volume cannot be dismembered, he breaks it and tramples it. That is, with its entire mass, with its front paws, it applies surgical strikes- He opens garbage cans this way. Special vandal-proof garbage cans that are made in America - where they are found the Bears, - he hacks them this way. Therefore, if bear did this to a person, he would have been left with a wet spot - as if his spine or chest would have been broken. This is on the one hand.

On the other hand, there are cases where a person falls out of the ninth floor and ends up with wet pants. Therefore, yes, on the one hand, this cannot happen. On the other hand, for any specific case, you can give examples when things weren’t like that!

Let's take the standards of survival in ice water. If an unprepared person finds himself in ice water- he dies through 4-12 minutes. Trained man before two hours maybe in ice water to be, and one polar pilot spent 17 hours floundering in ice water, got out onto the ice floe and only 48 hours later his plane picked him up. How is that?

Amazing! Just about the fact that the hero DiCaprio constantly finds himself in ice water, there are also complaints from people who did not get up from the couch all holidays.

Well, people ride on alpine skiing- and no one says that going down the mountain at a speed of 70 kilometers per hour on two planks is mortally dangerous! It’s dangerous for someone who doesn’t get up from the couch, but those who do, they jump from a springboard and perform other miracles. I do a lot of what I’m talking about myself quite often in training. I have three-day, seven-day outings into nature, in real conditions, where I swim in an ice hole and show the cadets how it’s done. If an ordinary person is thrown into tundra at a temperature of minus 30 and force him to walk 10-20 kilometers - he will die, but I do this for my own pleasure... There is nothing to worry about - if you know what you are doing.

It’s one thing when we go into the water or on a long journey through the winter cold after eating well. and it’s another thing when the body is weakened after illness and malnutrition for several days - it all depends on timing: swimming for so long and often, as DiCaprio did, and not drying immediately - he didn’t even take off his wet clothes - will not work.

How important is the issue of motivation? We don't know what really happened to this Hugh Glass- history has not preserved this, but the director and screenwriter understand exactly what they are filming dramatic work and so they come up with a story for him in which he survives for a reason, but because he has a goal - avenge the murder of his son. And this, in my opinion, looks very convincing. How important is motivation in such cases?

Motivation is incredibly important. She can reset mortal danger. All these threats simply cease to exist for a person who is highly motivated. I know of a similar case where a man, who was also obsessed with revenge and also abandoned by his partners, was able to survive in the desert in conditions in which even desert animals cannot survive. Motivation is a powerful factor that can polarize the most hopeless situations.

How convincing is it to you? Leonardo DiCaprio? On the one hand, he is now getting a lot of flak, but on the other, he, not being aware of all this, collects prestigious awards and, I am sure, will still receive his "Oscar".

- DiCaprio- a most talented artist. I don’t remember his passing roles. I have an extremely positive assessment of everything that he showed us, conveying all the nuances of this story. For me "Survivor"- a powerful feature film that cannot be separated by a comma with other films. He, as they say, stands alone, apart.

And here is our other expert - a rescuer and specialist in survival in extreme conditions Ed Khalilov, by the way, is the only graduate of the American Survival Academy world famous British traveler Bear Grylls, immediately criticized Hollywood filmmakers.

Naked Hero Sleepover DiCaprio in a dead horse - that’s impressive, but the next morning he simply wouldn’t get out of it, I’m sure Khalilov.- Yes, at first this makes a certain sense - the hero takes off his wet clothes and tries to warm up in the horse’s carcass that has not yet cooled down. But very soon it will begin to cool and in a few hours will inevitably turn into a real freezer! Yes, Bear Grylls Once, indeed, he did something similar, but it was in the desert, and he was hiding not from the cold, but from a sandstorm. And instead of a horse there was a camel, which had to be freed from its internal organs just like in the film.

And the scene with bear? Very cool shot! But after such wounds that the beast inflicted on the hero DiCaprio, the unfortunate man would definitely not have woken up, I’m sure Ed. - In reality, the bear was shot by friends Hugh Glass, and here he managed it himself. This is nonsense. The beast - and even more so, a bear with children - will never let go of the victim so easily, and the hero’s chances of survival were zero. One hit with a claw - and he's gone! And she tortured him for several minutes.

And if he had survived, he should have simply bled to death or died of gangrene in just a few days. There were a lot of wounds - there was no living space on him. Plus they sewed it in unsanitary conditions- this is a sentence. Perhaps the wounds of the real prototype were not so serious. But what is shown in the movies is definitely not believable.

Another "fairy" moment - she-bear at the end of the scene she fell on the hero from a height. She looks like she weighs 300 kilograms, or even more. After this, a person will definitely not survive. In any case, there’s no way to get rid of it with just a broken leg.

In the film, the hero cauterizes a wound on his neck - in a stalemate this might work, but again - he has too many wounds. By the way, cope with necrosis in such conditions it was possible only with the help of fly larvae and maggots. This method has been used in military field medicine since the Napoleonic wars. The larvae eat only dead tissue, perfectly cleaning the wound. It is known that when the real Glass reached the fort, his back was simply swarming with maggots. But, apparently, the creators of the film did not dare to scare the audience. Naked DiCaprio Inside the dead horse was enough for the eyes.

In the film, the characters constantly strive to climb knee-deep into ice water, even when you just need to draw water from a stream into a flask. - This is contrary to common sense! People who have experience of living in the forest for a long time cannot behave like that,” says Khalilov. “It was almost impossible to dry out in those conditions.” If you try to walk around all day with wet feet, especially at such low temperatures, you won’t last long.

Above the stage where I'm barely alive Hugh Glass swims down the river in heavy fur clothes, overcomes the rapids and even manages to grab a log that came from nowhere, I, of course, laughed. With this he would definitely go to the bottom. And in the film he swims out, and even manages to start a fire.

By the way, for some reason, heroes don’t light a fire often. There is logic - attention Indians It wasn't worth attracting. And even when they do light the fire, they sit very far from it. The wounded man was lying in the cold somewhere on the outskirts of their country; first of all, he had to be warmed up and given a warm drink!

In this situation, the best solution would be "Dakota Hearth" This type of fire has several undeniable advantages:

• The secrecy of fire due to its underground nature.
• Concealment of fire due to less smoke: heat from the fire does not spread to the sides, but is kept inside by the walls: and the higher the combustion temperature, the less smoke,
• Food cooks faster due to the walls retaining the heat inside,
• It is convenient to place the dishes on the fire:

- Pay attention to how the hero catches fish. Backwater the one he built is incorrect - it doesn’t have a funnel, wicker trap which is usually done "Robinsons", without it you are unlikely to catch anything with your bare hands. In general, I don’t believe that the hero was able to cover a distance of 320 km in such a deplorable state.

And history "real" Glass also raises doubts. About what's going on with Hugh Glass what actually happened is known only from his words. It is unclear from the film how long his journey to the fort took, but in reality (that is, according to the legend that is common among Americans) it took almost two months. It is quite possible that someone was nursing him all this time. For example, the same Indians, because it is known that he lived with them and knew the language. He could also learn survival skills from them.

By the way, when the first Americans founded their settlements, they discovered that their crops produced almost no harvest. and without food - starvation. then the Indians showed that they buried fish next to the seeds - it served as fertilizer. also showed that barley grows best among cereals on their soils.

Of course, most of the hero's misadventures Leo invented by the scriptwriters "Survivor", but still real Hugh Glass, which DiCaprio played in the film, truly lived an amazing life. And she hung by a thread many times.

By the way, Hugh was an experienced sailor captain of the ship who was once captured by a French pirate Jean Lafitte. Glass spent two years with sea robbers. Then he ran swimming - it was about two miles to the shore (more than three kilometers). And again our hero is captured - this time by the Pawnee Indians. They wanted to sacrifice him as a ritual sacrifice, but for some reason they changed their mind. Here he lived happily for several years and even took an Indian girl as his wife.

In 1822 Hugh joined the squad William Ashley, who founded St. Louis "Rocky Mountain Fur Company". The tragic events described in the film took place in late August 1823. They say from the bear Hugh Glass and it really hit him hard - the grizzly almost tore off his scalp, the unfortunate man had a broken leg, and a deep wound on his neck. His comrades abandoned him in the forest without equipment, but he still survived and reached the fort two months later. He died at the age of 50 in a skirmish with Indians.

34-year-old Alexey Sidorov from Kemerovo, even as a child, never went hiking (he only rafted down the river once). And who would have thought that he would become a participant in the reality show “Survive in the Forest,” in which he would have to live in the wild for five days with almost no outside help.

Island outside civilization

The Kemerovo resident gave most of his life to aviation - he was both a driver and an engineer at the airport. A. A. Leonov and the airline. But, realizing that the work would not bring career growth, he quit. Despite this ending, the man still communicates with the airline employees and with old friends, of whom there are many left. In August, Alexey saw on social networks that the “Che” TV channel was recruiting people for the “Survive in the Forest” project, and decided to test himself, prove to himself and his wife that he could live outside of civilization.

According to the terms of the project, it was necessary to live in the taiga for five days without all the usual means of subsistence. Literally two weeks later, Alexey and his two partners (Stanislav from Barnaul and Roman from Sevastopol) were approved to participate in one of the seasons. The daredevil did not tell anyone about this - only his wife (he did not want to worry his parents in vain). “Of course, I assumed that the show would be serious, but I didn’t think it would be this serious. I expected that we would at least sleep in tents, but we slept near a fire on bare ground (it was colder to sleep in a hut). Roman even burned his shoe - it was in the forest of the Pskov region,” Alexei laughs at his recent trials. When the Siberian went to the show, of course, like everyone else, he packed a whole bag of medicines, took a knife, matches, a flashlight, a compass... He understood that they could take it away. And so it happened: they took everything, and in return they offered three things to choose from that they could take with them into the forest.

The Kemerovo resident chose a tablet for purifying water, cotton wool for starting a fire and a rope. On the very first day, the participants received several difficult tasks from the presenters: haul firewood, make fire and build a hut. It was not possible to light the fire right away: it was necessary to cut two flat logs and rub them against each other to strike a spark. Having fiddled with a not very sharp cleaver, the men were unable to properly insulate their temporary home (they covered it inside and out with dry tall grass growing along the shore) and froze all night. But I must say that sometimes the participants were helped FSB survival trainer Alexey Sedoy, which spends half of its life in the wild. However, the mentor did not live or spend the night with them, and only occasionally checked how his students were coping with tasks.

You won't be full of the caterpillar

“On the second day we made a raft. They felled dry trees, dragged them down to the lake and tied up their vehicle on the water. It was lucky that there were several abandoned logs lying near the shore, otherwise more would have had to be felled. We rafted along the river bed, the film crew couldn’t even keep up with us,” recalls Alexey. They took the fire with them - they dragged it onto the raft so that, God forbid, it would not go out. And on the third night, in the morning it began to rain and did not stop for a day. They took turns guarding the fire - they were soaked through. The easiest thing for Alexey was simply not to eat. It was easier to drink water - you won’t be full of forest gifts: participants tried to fry russula, catch lake mussels, and even eat smelly caterpillars from rotten stumps of a walnut tree.

For four nights the boys slept on the bare ground. Photo: press service of the Che TV channel A Kemerovo resident says: “We all had one flask, into which we threw wild currants and raspberries, filled them with water and boiled them. Let it cool, drink it right away and “charge” a new flask. On the fourth day we caught a duck and had a feast. They stuffed it with juniper and ranetki and fried it over the fire. It turned out to be baked meat, although unsalted.” The last night was a shock, when everyone was separated and given separate tasks. The men shared coals, water, ropes and axes and built themselves new huts. On the last day, the winner was determined who would reach the finals the fastest and complete all the tasks (for example, make a letter from the word “SOS” out of stones).

Alexey liked participating in a reality show and testing himself so much that he is seriously considering testing himself in other living conditions: “I would like to participate in similar projects, but in a different area - in the tropics, mountains, on the water, in the north. The process of survival and the filming process itself turned out to be very interesting. In addition, we saw the trenches in which soldiers hid during tank battles during the Great Patriotic War. The field is still strewn with mines, which sometimes blow people up.” Now Alexey hopes that when his five-year-old son grows up, they will go on hikes together, where dad can show off what he learned on the show.