In the Guards Missile Division, Major S. Nelyubov is known to almost everyone. This is not because he is the head of the capital construction department, which means that all issues related to the repair of either the office building or his own apartment must be resolved through him. Nor is it because he is an excellent officer. There are many well-trained professionals in the RVSN unit.

The fact is that Sergei Ivanovich is famous throughout the division, and even more so, throughout the Strategic Missile Forces, for at least two of his hobbies.

First of all, he is a marathon athlete, but not the usual one who runs 42,195 meters, although such athletes are rare. The missile officer's athletic achievements include multi-day marathons from Moscow to Warsaw and back, and from Moscow to Odessa and back. In the year of the 850th anniversary of our capital, Sergei Nelyubov conquered the two-thousand-kilometer Moscow-Berlin-Moscow route. For this, he was awarded an honorary certificate and a medal by Mayor Yuri Mikhailovich Luzhkov in honor of the capital's anniversary.

However, the marathon is not Major Nelyubov's main passion.

Sergei Ivanovich is best known in his native unit as an avid collector. However, Major Nelyubov does not recognize this word.

"What does it mean to be a collector?" says Sergey Nelyubov. "A collector buys something, puts it under their pillow, and goes to sleep. No, I try to learn everything about the object. If I had to choose between a piece of jewelry for my collection and a book about it, I'd choose the book. There's not much information available. I don't collect things to store them, but to study them. That's why I created this exhibition..."

There is a special conversation about the exhibition.

He collects local history (this is the old Russian term he uses to describe himself) not just any old thing, but stamps, beer labels, or car models, although there is nothing wrong with that. The officer's passion is Russian bells. And anything related to them, such as botala, which are bells hung around the necks of large and small cattle, as well as buznets and buzanchiki, which are essential for a Russian troika.

Sergey Ivanovich can talk about them for hours. He does it so enthusiastically that he infects the listener with his passion.

For example, do you know, dear reader, that bells appeared in Russia as early as the 18th century and were associated with the emergence of the postal service? The familiar "yamsky" bell (as well as the Valdai, Nizhny Novgorod, and other bells) served as a "flasher" on the "official troika." However, this is the corridor and the kitchen. The children, Natasha and Maxim, took a liking to it. For Sergei Ivanovich, the bell became a source of comfort. When the officer came home tired and with frayed nerves, he took out a chisel, a chiscomb, and a hammer, and step by step, blow by blow, he cleaned his find of concrete and dirt. Six months later, the cleaned and gleaming bronze bell became a decoration in the Nslyubov apartment. Sergei Ivanovich couldn't stop bragging to his friends and acquaintances. But then his wife raised the issue:

"Either you stay in the apartment, or the bell..."

And then the officer went to the monastery. No, he didn't intend to become a monk. Sergei Ivanovich offered a bell as a gift to the Optina Hermitage. The abbot of the monastery, Hieromonk Evlogy, appreciated the offer. In the year of the millennium of the Baptism of Russia, this was the perfect gift. In Russia, it's always the case that a debt is repaid. Therefore, our Russian people tend to add a "special signal" to their "private" three-wheeled vehicles. Therefore, when the tsarist government banned the use of bells for other purposes, bells were invented - hollow balls with a rattle inside. When combined with a bell, they created an incomparable sound called "Yamskaya harmony".

Or take the same botala, the history of which has not yet been fully studied. It turns out that these rectangular bells with a dull, irritating sound were used not only as indicators of the location of cattle or small animals. In Sergei Nelyubov's collection, there is an unusual botalo with nine pearls, which is the number of times the master recited the Lord's Prayer during the casting process to protect the animal wearing the botalo from various troubles and diseases.

It all started with a chance encounter. One day, an officer was conducting a trench digging exercise with his troops. It's worth noting that the location of the RVSN division is quite unique. The deciduous and coniferous forests, nestled among the среднерусских ravines along the banks of the swiftly flowing Zhizdra River, seem to still hold the spirit of the Rus, who refused to surrender Kozelsk to Batu Khan. The atmosphere of ancient Russian antiquity is enhanced by the holy sites of Orthodox churches, monastic cells, and hermitages of the Optina Pustyn monastery. It is a pleasure to conduct field exercises with military personnel here.

And so, when the trench was half-finished, the warrior's shovel struck something metallic. Its blade revealed a yellow metal.

"Comrade Major," the soldier said in awe, "I think I've found a treasure!"

When the missile men unearthed the find, they realized that it was a huge bell, a meter high, with a glass and a surface completely covered in concrete. But through the frozen gray mud, they could see the ancient Slavic script...

"What should we do, Comrade Major?" the soldiers asked. "Should we bury him deep enough so that he doesn't interfere?"

"No," said Nelyubov. "We'll take you to my house." So in the one-room apartment of the Nelyubovs, another tenant appeared. My wife, of course, did not like it right away - it was cluttered the next day, monks appeared in the apartment of the Unloved ones with gifts. So Sergey Ivanovich became the owner of the rarest 12-volume Bible of the 1000th anniversary of the baptism of Russia from the Institute of Bible Translations in Stockholm. And the bell has since been an ornament of the belfry of the Predtechensky skete of Optina Pustyn.

If earlier Sergei Ivanovich was interested in art as an ordinary citizen, then over time there was a need for deeper knowledge about the region where he happened to serve, the objects that surrounded the people of Kaluga in the 18th and 19th centuries. There was an insatiable desire to influence the consciousness of his comrades in some way, to introduce them to the beauty and richness of folk art, the original traditions of their native land.

Following the bells, Nelyubov's collection was expanded with botals and bells. How he found them is a separate story. It took him a paycheck, and sometimes more than one, as well as sports prizes, and even a collection of ancient Russian coins, to purchase these items.

His collection already included more than 100 bells. On August 17 last year, the local historian had to part with some of them.

By this time, Sergei Ivanovich, a member of the Moscow and Kaluga Collector's Clubs, had developed his own philosophy of collecting, a unique ideology of a local historian, which allowed him to define the theme of his collection and significantly expand and enrich it.

He was helped by a former military officer, a reserve major, who is now the director of the Kaluga Museum of Handicrafts, Architecture, and Everyday Life, Vladimir Alexandrovich Tkachenko. It was Tkachenko who encouraged Nelyubov to study the everyday life and culture of the people of Kozelsk. As a result, the officer's collection now includes Kaluga scales and icon frames. By studying the history of these objects, he gained insights into the time period, the people, their customs, and their way of life. It became necessary for him to share this information with his fellow citizens. When Nadezhda Alekseevna Semenova, the head of the Kozelsk Local History Museum, approached Nelyubov with a proposal to organize an exhibition, he gladly accepted.

Before the exhibition opened, the organizers deliberately did not disclose what would be on display in the museum's windows. Therefore, those who came to the museum were pleasantly surprised (private collections had not been exhibited at the museum for more than 20 years) when they saw how broad and diverse the collector's interests were: horse bells, church bells, household bells, jingles, bronze scales in the form of battle clubs - unique works of art made exclusively in the Kaluga region, ancient Russian measures of weight and volume, icon frames, and rare editions of postcards depicting the early 20th-century Optina Pustyn.

Sergey Ivanovich gave his exhibition a general name; "The works of man's hands will not be overgrown with the grass of oblivion." "The city of Kozelsk is famous for its history, masters have made it famous with their work, and the exhibition is organized so that you can feel the warmth of the soul that Russian craftsmen have put into their works," Sergey Nelyubov said at the opening of the exhibition.

It should be emphasized that the officer himself took an active part in the exhibition's design. He was both the artist and the author of the information boards with explanatory materials and the booklet describing the items on display.

... And now the exhibition is over. Kozelsk is still discussing the interesting exhibits, which embody not only the unique craftsmanship of their time, but also the individual style of the masters of the 18th and 19th centuries. Meanwhile, Sergey Nelyubov has a new idea in mind.

- I want to publish a large-format wall calendar called "Kaluga Antiquities". It's a calendar for the year 2000. This calendar should feature exclusively Kaluga-related items. I don't have enough exhibits for this purpose. However, I have already consulted with local history enthusiasts. They have supported me and are willing to provide whatever is needed. I can already envision the calendar's design. January, for example, represents Christmas. This page will feature an icon depicting Christmas."Kaluga master. I'll find it. We had very famous icon painters in Kaluga, Maxim Zolotaryov and Grigory Okhotchikov.

I'm willing to invest my own money in the publication. There's no talk of profit. At least I won't lose too much. But this calendar is a must-have...

I believe that this will happen. It can't be otherwise when a career officer takes on the task, for whom preserving and enhancing the history of their homeland has become another important aspect of their life.

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