History
of the organisation

The future founders of BRATVA did not create a large organisation at once. First, small groups of people formed around them, cooperating in different lines: some took part in construction work, some dealt in trade, others helped with transport, materials and equipment.

Some were entrepreneurs, some specialists, and others simply looked for a chance to learn a trade and begin a normal life. Gradually these groups began to intersect. Not everyone joined for the same ends: some wanted to earn, some — to help, others — to gain access to new opportunities.

The reason for trust was simple: at a time when many promised people work and did not keep the promises, a system of real projects formed around the future founders. A person could arrive without a trade, receive training, then get a job. A crew could find a contract. A family — help with housing.

By 1998 an association had formed around the future founders numbering, according to the accepted fictional chronology, about 200 people. It became clear precisely then that the old format no longer fitted. So in 1999 BRATVA appeared.

Anar Naziriv proposed to take the leadership upon himself. Formally this was explained by the need to maintain order, but Anar himself had his own ambitions as well. The other founders agreed — each was occupied with his own lines.

But the appointment of the head did not mean that the remaining four had ceased to have influence. It was this contradiction that later became one of the central problems of the organisation: BRATVA acquired a leader, but the people who considered themselves equal creators of the structure did not disappear.

In the first years the founders dreamed of creating an organisation in which no one would feel helpless. But the more people a single structure unites, the more it produces those wishing to lead.

In BRATVA an unwritten tradition appeared: if two people argued over who was more important, they were reminded that the organisation was created to help people. True, after that another argument usually began — over who exactly had helped the greater number of people.

So the first calm epoch of BRATVA ended. After that everything became much more complicated.

Great history is written in dates, while an organisation lives in episodes. Below are five records the archivist thought worthy of the binding, although none of them has documentary confirmation. The reader decides which of this is true. The archivist decides which of this annoyed him personally.

The envelope. Material assistance was issued in an envelope, and the amount was never named in front of outsiders. One recipient asked how much was inside. The next day he was transferred to another department — not as a punishment, but “for a surplus of educational effect”. In front of colleagues he no longer opened the envelope.

The second course. A cadet who did not pass the exam remained for a second course: free of charge, without explanations and without humiliation. Three years later the same cadet took exams from newcomers and was the strictest master at the college. The organisation knew how to turn another person’s defeat into a position.

The second chair. In the head’s office a second chair always stood. No one was invited to sit on it. According to one version it was a memory of the five; according to another, a warning. The founders argued about this exactly once, and the argument ended when someone noticed that the chair was still being moved closer.

The key to the shop. Parviz Aghayev kept the shop where the meeting had taken place for many more years: trade there had long ended, and the lock was not changed. The key is listed in the fonds, but there is no inventory for it. Some things are kept not because they are needed, but because they remember.

The archivist. The only position in BRATVA over which no one ever fought. It was not divided, not bought over and not handed down by inheritance. Everyone understood: the one who reads everything and keeps silent is more dangerous than any of the five.