The village of Bolbasovo in the Orsha district got a second life thanks to state support
Today, families from Orsha and neighboring countries are moving to this former military town.
"A magnificent place, you couldn't ask for better! Why shouldn't people live here?" Alexander Lukashenko wondered when visiting the urban settlement of Bolbasovo in the Orsha district in the summer of 2018. Just over two years have passed since then, and the former military town is unrecognizable: new social facilities, well-maintained streets, modern sports grounds... "The settlement of the future" or "the second Kopyś" – this is how Bolbasovo is sometimes called, which has been given a second life thanks to state support.
Gleb Gulenkov, the chairman of the Bolbasovo settlement executive committee (in the photo), knows everything about the changes there. According to him, much has already been done, and now the main thing is to maintain and multiply the achieved result:
— Bolbasovo was previously called military town No. 20, and in 1995 it was reclassified as civilian. The population is almost 4,000 people, the majority of whom are able-bodied. Therefore, the measures taken by the state to develop the settlement were necessary. The improvement plan, which began in 2018, included about 70 items related to housing and communal services, healthcare, education, construction, and tidying up. The issue with the iron removal station has been resolved: the water is now clean and odorless. Fiber-optic lines have been laid, and 1.5 kilometers of heating mains have been installed with partial pipe replacement. The local hospital, the House of Culture, the kindergarten, and the school, where about 300 children study, have been repaired and reconstructed. And here is the most pleasant result of the changes for me and visible to all of us: for the second year, we have been enrolling two first-grade classes of students instead of one, as it was before. Problems with roads and sidewalks have been solved one hundred percent: there is new asphalt everywhere, parking lots have been built, and lighting has been installed in park areas. Major repairs have been carried out in 17 apartment buildings out of 50; in all others, the facades have been tidied up – painted in a unified style. Two modern sports and play areas, with a total cost of about 100,000 rubles, have been installed for children in the settlement with the help of sponsors. A total of 7.5 million rubles have been spent on the improvement of Bolbasovo, of which 2 million are additional funds allocated by the President's order.
The reconstructed stadium will be commissioned in November. Its modernization was initiated by the Head of State himself, who, during a visit to Bolbasovo, drew attention to the poor condition of the sports facility. And now the stadium is unrecognizable: canopies over the stands, new professional running tracks, game zones...
Not only entire families are moving to Bolbasovo from Orsha and nearby settlements, but also from neighboring countries.
The Ilchenko family moved to Bolbasovo from Ukraine when the positive changes were just beginning. Oleg works as a workshop foreman at Orsha ARZ OJSC, and Marina is a cook at a kindergarten.
— Oleg worked at a similar plant in Ukraine, — says Marina. — When the enterprise was going through hard times and rumors of closure began to spread, we learned that there was Orsha ARZ in Belarus and that specialists were needed there. My husband went for an interview, and after his candidacy was approved, we moved to Bolbasovo. It was in 2018. We were immediately given a room, and after the construction of a new dormitory, we received an apartment-type dwelling with furniture and renovation. We are expecting a new addition to our family, and in connection with this, the plant management provided us with a spacious rental two-room apartment. The living and working conditions in Bolbasovo are very good! We are satisfied with both the salaries and the way the settlement has been transformed: many new shops, cafes, and playgrounds have appeared. We hope to stay here forever and obtain Belarusian citizenship.
The city-forming enterprise, where half of Bolbasovo's population works, is the Orsha Aircraft Repair Plant. The industrial giant for the overhaul and modernization of long-range aviation aircraft and helicopters got a new life only in 2018, when it returned to state ownership. Today, it is a competitive and high-tech enterprise operating in domestic and foreign markets, with a portfolio of orders for helicopter repairs for years to come.
The management also cares about the social sphere: 23 families of the enterprise's employees have already been accommodated in the plant's apartment-type dormitory. A sports and recreation complex has been built. The agenda includes the construction of an apartment building for employeesodchan.
— We have special hopes for the graduates of the Orsha College of Mechanics and Economics, who returned to the plant under targeted training programs, and the Belarusian State Academy of Aviation. Every fourth employee at the enterprise is no older than 31 years old, — notes Deputy General Director Vasily Chirkunov. — The young people are eager to join: they see career growth prospects, decent earnings, and a good social package. By the way, the average salary at the plant is the highest in the Orsha district. An important factor is the provision of housing with furniture and household appliances for all newcomers.
A graduate of the Aviation Academy, Ekaterina Matsulevich, is originally from Polotsk. She came here a year ago by assignment as a technician-technologist. She says that she has always been drawn to working with technology, but she could not even dream of dealing with helicopters and other aircraft:
— When I found out that I was assigned to the Orsha Aviation Plant, I was a little scared: acquaintances told me that there was nothing in the settlement, only forests all around, no civilization. But, arriving in Bolbasovo, I saw beautiful multi-story buildings, even roads, modern infrastructureur. In a word, there is everything you need for life here. At the factory, they also welcomed me warmly, provided a cozy room in the dormitory, and the workshop team helped me integrate into the process and supported me in the early stages. I plan to enroll in part-time studies and improve my qualifications. I have no intention of leaving Bolbasovo after completing my assignment: if the salary, living conditions are satisfactory, and there are prospects for career growth, why go anywhere else?
Another enterprise providing jobs for residents is Orsha airfield. Thanks to transport routes and the railway, the special economic zone will become a center for transit cargo, and Bolbasovo – a key provider of logistics services. The reconstruction of the runway, 60 meters wide and slightly over 3 kilometers long, has already been completed. A few days ago, Belavia Airlines performed a technical flight on a Boeing 737-500 aircraft at Orsha airfield. And just recently, based on its results and the decision of the certification commission, the airfield was issued an airworthiness certificate by the Department of Aviation. It is planned that the runway will be in demand: cargo flows from the National Airport will be redistributed to it. The runway in the settlement is a good support not only for Bolbasovo but also for the industrial logistics of the entire Orsha region.
"A magnificent place, you couldn't ask for better! Why shouldn't people live here?" Alexander Lukashenko wondered when visiting the urban settlement of Bolbasovo in the Orsha district in the summer of 2018. Just over two years have passed since then, and the former military town is unrecognizable: new social facilities, well-maintained streets, modern sports grounds... "The settlement of the future" or "the second Kopyś" – this is how Bolbasovo is sometimes called, which has been given a second life thanks to state support.
Gleb Gulenkov, the chairman of the Bolbasovo settlement executive committee (in the photo), knows everything about the changes there. According to him, much has already been done, and now the main thing is to maintain and multiply the achieved result:
— Bolbasovo was previously called military town No. 20, and in 1995 it was reclassified as civilian. The population is almost 4,000 people, the majority of whom are able-bodied. Therefore, the measures taken by the state to develop the settlement were necessary. The improvement plan, which began in 2018, included about 70 items related to housing and communal services, healthcare, education, construction, and tidying up. The issue with the iron removal station has been resolved: the water is now clean and odorless. Fiber-optic lines have been laid, and 1.5 kilometers of heating mains have been installed with partial pipe replacement. The local hospital, the House of Culture, the kindergarten, and the school, where about 300 children study, have been repaired and reconstructed. And here is the most pleasant result of the changes for me and visible to all of us: for the second year, we have been enrolling two first-grade classes of students instead of one, as it was before. Problems with roads and sidewalks have been solved one hundred percent: there is new asphalt everywhere, parking lots have been built, and lighting has been installed in park areas. Major repairs have been carried out in 17 apartment buildings out of 50; in all others, the facades have been tidied up – painted in a unified style. Two modern sports and play areas, with a total cost of about 100,000 rubles, have been installed for children in the settlement with the help of sponsors. A total of 7.5 million rubles have been spent on the improvement of Bolbasovo, of which 2 million are additional funds allocated by the President's order.
The reconstructed stadium will be commissioned in November. Its modernization was initiated by the Head of State himself, who, during a visit to Bolbasovo, drew attention to the poor condition of the sports facility. And now the stadium is unrecognizable: canopies over the stands, new professional running tracks, game zones...
Not only entire families are moving to Bolbasovo from Orsha and nearby settlements, but also from neighboring countries.
The Ilchenko family moved to Bolbasovo from Ukraine when the positive changes were just beginning. Oleg works as a workshop foreman at Orsha ARZ OJSC, and Marina is a cook at a kindergarten.
— Oleg worked at a similar plant in Ukraine, — says Marina. — When the enterprise was going through hard times and rumors of closure began to spread, we learned that there was Orsha ARZ in Belarus and that specialists were needed there. My husband went for an interview, and after his candidacy was approved, we moved to Bolbasovo. It was in 2018. We were immediately given a room, and after the construction of a new dormitory, we received an apartment-type dwelling with furniture and renovation. We are expecting a new addition to our family, and in connection with this, the plant management provided us with a spacious rental two-room apartment. The living and working conditions in Bolbasovo are very good! We are satisfied with both the salaries and the way the settlement has been transformed: many new shops, cafes, and playgrounds have appeared. We hope to stay here forever and obtain Belarusian citizenship.
The city-forming enterprise, where half of Bolbasovo's population works, is the Orsha Aircraft Repair Plant. The industrial giant for the overhaul and modernization of long-range aviation aircraft and helicopters got a new life only in 2018, when it returned to state ownership. Today, it is a competitive and high-tech enterprise operating in domestic and foreign markets, with a portfolio of orders for helicopter repairs for years to come.
The management also cares about the social sphere: 23 families of the enterprise's employees have already been accommodated in the plant's apartment-type dormitory. A sports and recreation complex has been built. The agenda includes the construction of an apartment building for employeesodchan.
— We have special hopes for the graduates of the Orsha College of Mechanics and Economics, who returned to the plant under targeted training programs, and the Belarusian State Academy of Aviation. Every fourth employee at the enterprise is no older than 31 years old, — notes Deputy General Director Vasily Chirkunov. — The young people are eager to join: they see career growth prospects, decent earnings, and a good social package. By the way, the average salary at the plant is the highest in the Orsha district. An important factor is the provision of housing with furniture and household appliances for all newcomers.
A graduate of the Aviation Academy, Ekaterina Matsulevich, is originally from Polotsk. She came here a year ago by assignment as a technician-technologist. She says that she has always been drawn to working with technology, but she could not even dream of dealing with helicopters and other aircraft:
— When I found out that I was assigned to the Orsha Aviation Plant, I was a little scared: acquaintances told me that there was nothing in the settlement, only forests all around, no civilization. But, arriving in Bolbasovo, I saw beautiful multi-story buildings, even roads, modern infrastructureur. In a word, there is everything you need for life here. At the factory, they also welcomed me warmly, provided a cozy room in the dormitory, and the workshop team helped me integrate into the process and supported me in the early stages. I plan to enroll in part-time studies and improve my qualifications. I have no intention of leaving Bolbasovo after completing my assignment: if the salary, living conditions are satisfactory, and there are prospects for career growth, why go anywhere else?
Another enterprise providing jobs for residents is Orsha airfield. Thanks to transport routes and the railway, the special economic zone will become a center for transit cargo, and Bolbasovo – a key provider of logistics services. The reconstruction of the runway, 60 meters wide and slightly over 3 kilometers long, has already been completed. A few days ago, Belavia Airlines performed a technical flight on a Boeing 737-500 aircraft at Orsha airfield. And just recently, based on its results and the decision of the certification commission, the airfield was issued an airworthiness certificate by the Department of Aviation. It is planned that the runway will be in demand: cargo flows from the National Airport will be redistributed to it. The runway in the settlement is a good support not only for Bolbasovo but also for the industrial logistics of the entire Orsha region.