The Journey so far!
Hi this is Evgeny Kutuzov. I’m 30. Born and raised in St. Petersburg. Served in Russian army for 2 years.
An honorary donor of Russia (donated blood 56 times), an Ambassador of peace from the Federation for Universal Peace (have a number of public awards: the winner of the award of the World 2018, the Winner of competition “St. Petersburg citizen 2017”, “Hero of the year” by the Prize “proFwave”, etc.)
Report on activities over the past year: https://vk.com/wall-60993553_41927 and over the past years: vk.cc/8ViFRA
Since 2008 I have been engaged in various socially useful activities. At first i worked in the Red cross, helped in the organization of donor activities. After the army I joined the ranks of the social movement “Energy of Life”, in which I organised many city, Federal, all-Russian and international events. Coordinated and organized events at the Central venues of St. Petersburg.
Since 2015, I began to organize events independently, in parallel, led the author’s program “About all the good” on the radio. Many times the events were covered by the main TV channels of Russia. I participated in many charity events.
In 2013, via St. Petersburg ran an amazing person – Lithuanian fireman Aidas Ardzijauskas https://www.aidasardzijauskas.com/ . He made a unique run around the Baltic sea-3500 km. I was lucky to run with Aidas from the border of St. Petersburg to the Lithuanian Embassy. This day turned my life around. Seemingly ordinary and very modest Aidas has done the unthinkable – he travelled on foot huge distances and did not just for travel. His goal was to draw public attention to fundraising for the families of fellow firefighters who were injured in the line of duty.
In 2018, I decided to repeat the act of Aidas. But in my own way. I went on foot from my home in St. Petersburg to the highest point of Russia and Europe – Mount Elbrus. I liked to compare myself to the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, who had walked from his home to mount Erebor. On the road I also met elves, dwarves and goblins, there were many adventures and dangers. And, the main thing – this walking marathon was charitable – the action I wanted to draw public attention to fundraising for three children – Nastya, Vadim and Timur. How is Hiking and charity connected, you ask? Very simple! I was wearing a t-shirt of the Foundation that was raising funds for these three children and a link to the details. Besides, on my page in social networks the first fixed post was devoted to information on children with requests to help them.
That is, every person who met me on the way, right on my chest saw the right information, every person who came to my page-saw the right information. In addition, I used any media opportunity to tell not only about my campaign, but also about charity. 50 TV stories and a lot of newspaper articles came out with information about our children. I managed to walk from St. Petersburg to Mineralnye Vody – about 2000 km, climb to a height of 4800 Elbrus and on the way back to walk the distance from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Only 3000 km on foot.
Thanks to the enormous support of residents of all Russia (and abroad – 600 thousand came from abroad), we have collected 2 million rubles. 120 thousand went to Timur for rehabilitation in Russia, 800 thousand went to Nastya on a two-month rehabilitation in China and 1 million was collected for Vadim.
Of course, the whole trip was at my expense. I had no sponsors, so I had to go into debt for 200 thousand rubles. But we raised 2 million rubles for charity. It was worth it.
In addition, on the way I managed to save the life of one kitten. A small ball of happiness someone threw near the gas station. At first I passed by, but then I came back and decided to feed the kitten a sausage. Kitty snuggled up to me and purred… In the end, two thousand kilometers from St. Petersburg to the Caucasus and back – half I went along with Purring iof the cat yo never left me, and now the cat lives at my house in St. Petersburg.
Returning in the autumn to Petersburg for a long time I was thinking what to do next… some suggested I go into politics. Just next year municipal elections were planned…By this point, I had a lot of experience in public work, a good reputation and recognition – a great chance of winning the election…
But that wasn’t it… my soul was on the road again… there were big debts, so I decided to postpone the trip to 2020. But, as it always happens – fate knocked on the door unexpectedly.
In June of this year I knew that Vadim does not have enough funds for the operation, which was to take place in a month and a half. Of the required 5 million was only 3. I made up my mind… If we managed to raise 2 million last year, why not try it now. Yes, I have debts, no equipment needed (just what was left from last year), but so what….
This time I decided to dedicate my journey to Afanasy Nikitin, whose anniversary trip (550 years) all of Russia celebrated in 2018, and in 2019 is fulfilled 530 years his book-autobiography, “Journey beyond three seas”. This man was the first European (27 years earlier than Vasco de Gamma) to visit India. I saw a story about how Indian bikers has arrived to Tver on motorcycles and brought the land (mud) from Revdanda – the place where Afanasy Nikitin, stepped on the Indian land. I liked this idea so much that I decided to repeat the entire route from Tver to India on foot, caring the land from Tver, the homeland of Athanasiy Nikitin and symbolically scatter it in India.. The bolder the idea, the more chances to attract media attention, and through this-to raise funds for Vadim.
So I went. On July 4 I took a train from St. Petersburg to Tver and from the early morning of July 5 I went on the most adventurous adventure of my life. I have to walk along the Volga, past the cities where Athanasiy Nikitin stayed, then through Dagestan, Azerbaijan, Iran and by sea on ferry (possibly by air) to India through Dubai. Total walking distance is about 6000 km one-way. I want to spend some time walking in India. The way back is not fully planned yet, but most likely by air I will get to the Crimea, and try to reach Smolensk.
Looking ahead, I will say that for Vadim we have collected the necessary amount within the 30 day trip. So many organizations have joined our gathering! Moreover, at the moment, Vadim has successfully undergone surgery and is now undergoing rehabilitation.
Vadim, the boy for whom I went on a risky journey, we helped at the very beginning of the road…. And I decided to open the collection for the second child – Timur. And, at the moment, we have already collected more than half.
On the 50-th day of the trip the guys found me from the India – Russian Information Center in Mumbai (RIC), which for several years in memory of Afanasy Nikitin, this great man, doing activities – Indian motorcycle tours for bikers in Russia. They do a lot of public work on a volunteer basis: promote Russia as a tourist destination in India and vice versa. After all, the more people go to visit each other, the stronger Russian-Indian relations, the welfare of ordinary people living in the regions of our countries increases! In India, everyone knows the beautiful cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg, and in Russia, the route of the Golden triangle and the state of Goa is known… But our countries are so big and how many interesting things there are still! I will tell about my journey on my blog, on the website www.russinfo.in which in the future will be the main electronic resource, with useful information about the regions of Russia and India. Hopefully this will help attract more tourists from India to Russia and Vice versa!
So now, I have one more goal of my journey and now I have a “base” and a team-a Russian Information Centre in Mumbai-waiting for me in India. They became my media and coordination partner, and provided me with equipment for high-quality shooting and everything necessary for the hike and safety on the road, including GPS tracker.
My journey continues. India Ahead. Dreams can come true if you are ready to risk it.
It will be great if you can join me along my walk to India!