Pashka

Pashka is Sergeyich’s neighbor, self-described survivor, and affectionate adversary: a “frenemy” whose complaints and teasing coexist with loyalty. His attachment becomes clearest when Sergeyich leaves Little Starhorodivka with the bees. Pashka cannot bring himself to say goodbye, later confesses that he hates being alone, and ultimately gives Sergeyich someone waiting at home. Their friendship is not made sentimental by war; it is built from practical help, habitual argument, and the persistence of ordinary contact across distance.

Identity and Place in the Village

Pashka lives in Little Starhorodivka, where he has accumulated belongings he thinks might “use around the house,” kept behind a kitchen door he never leaves open. The detail captures his resourcefulness and his way of turning even a postal sack into a possible household asset. When the mail arrives, he helps deal with the delivery and takes the empty bag away; at the same time, he and Sergeyich joke over what to do with packages addressed to villagers who have died. Their banter places death inside the routines of village life without removing its gravity.

Pashka describes survival as mutual: his buddies help him, and he helps them. He is not isolated from everyone, but the people around him and the village’s circumstances change. Later, he tells Sergeyich that men from Karuselino have begun visiting again after their Russian commander was killed and they got a local one. Pashka sometimes goes to see them for bread and a bottle; without those visits, he says, he would go out of his mind. His social world is therefore made up of uneasy, practical connections rather than stable security.

The Neighbor Who Stays Behind

When Sergeyich tells Pashka he plans to leave with the bees, probably until August, Pashka first asks whether he is going to Vinnytsia. The question registers the uncertainty of departure: Sergeyich has not yet made his destination part of a settled plan. On the day he sets out, he stops at Pashka’s house to hand over the key to his front door. Pashka invites him in for tea and urges him to toast the journey with something stronger, but Sergeyich refuses.

Pashka then asks to be driven as far as the end of his street, before the turn toward Karuselino, so that he can see Sergeyich off. Wearing his red jacket with a white cross on the back, he goes farther than they had agreed. At the roadside he cannot bring himself to say goodbye, and Sergeyich continues carefully, repeatedly looking back at the trailer carrying the hives. The parting is expressed through hesitation and small acts rather than a declaration: a key entrusted to a neighbor, an escort extended down the road, and a farewell neither man readily completes.

Contact Across Distance

After reaching a new apiary site, Sergeyich is surprised to get through to Pashka by phone. The call begins with Pashka’s startled question about who is speaking, then restores their familiar ease. Their contact matters precisely because Sergeyich had expected not to reach the village from outside the zone. Distance has not ended their connection, but it has made the simple fact of hearing one another uncertain.

On a later call, Sergeyich admits that he misses home and asks how things are. Pashka reports that the village has been quiet for two weeks, after a period of repeated shelling. He also relays news of material support: a priest has visited him, given him an icon, and promised that the church will be rebuilt; Baptists have offered free coal for the winter to those who stayed. He makes clear that the coal would be for Sergeyich too if he returns by the end of August. The offer turns the prospect of coming back into a practical possibility as well as an emotional hope.

Pashka also checks on Sergeyich’s house. He says he visits it sometimes and has tried on the soft moccasins Sergeyich left in a box, prompting another familiar exchange in which Sergeyich tells him to be careful with them. Pashka asks whether Sergeyich has been to the beach; Sergeyich explains that he is far from the coast but has been promised a ride. Their conversation moves between homesickness, local news, borrowed possessions, and travel plans, keeping their friendship anchored in the commonplace while war determines the conditions under which they speak.

Return, Waiting, and the Meaning of Home

As Sergeyich drives back, he travels at thirty kilometres an hour with the trailer, both because the bees are fragile cargo and because checkpoints can interrupt the journey. He knows there is no one waiting for him in the village except Pashka, who has spent the summer alone. The thought does not initially make him feel responsible for hurrying: Pashka has had visits from his associates in Karuselino and has gone to see them himself. Still, the long road and its uncertain checks make the return feel like a choice between routes toward war and toward quiet.

Pashka calls while Sergeyich is already on the way back and asks him to buy about thirty packs of Primas cigarettes, which have run out in Karuselino. He warns that they should be hidden because soldiers at checkpoints might seize them. Sergeyich proposes concealing them among the bees, where checkpoint staff will not put their hands. Pashka agrees and tells him to keep driving; he will be waiting. For Sergeyich, that assurance changes the emotional weight of the journey. He presses the accelerator, thinking that at least one person is waiting for him.

Narrative Role

Pashka’s importance lies in the counterpoint he provides to Sergeyich’s displacement. He is rooted in the village while Sergeyich moves with the apiary, yet their relationship survives through the front-door key, the phone, and errands carried along a checkpoint-crossed road. Their joking hostility does not cancel dependence: Pashka’s loneliness is openly admitted, while Sergeyich’s return becomes more urgent once Pashka says he will be there. In a landscape where familiar places are divided by danger and uncertainty, Pashka makes home less an abstract location than a person who calls, asks for cigarettes, and waits.