Each human life has its purpose. And whether this life can be realized as it was planned, depends only on the person himself. Going to a destination is always overcoming oneself.
Svetlana Pchelnikova is an artist, author and collector of dolls. President of the Russian Club of doll collectors. Member of the British Puppet Association. Honorary Member of the American Union of Puppet Clubs. Initiator of the creation in Russia of the International Association of Puppet Authors (MOAC). Publisher of the magazines World of Dolls and Talent - Man and Creativity. Organizer of the International Salon of Dolls on Tishinka. Organizer of the Estonian Doll House in Tallinn. Laureate of the State Prize in the field of culture for 2016. The initiator of many charity projects, including the project "Parade of star dolls."
They say about such people: “She was born with a golden spoon in her mouth.” It seemed that life gave her everything: beauty, money, her husband a successful businessman, children, an apartment on Rublevka. A luxurious life in which there was not only one - meaning. And only the terrible accident that divided this life into before and after allowed her to find her destiny ...
Svetlana
Almost everyone who deals with dolls in one way or another knows about it. Listing her official ranks takes quite a long time. It seems that something monumental is hiding behind them, but in fact Svetlana is a very charming open person. She is very beautiful - beautiful by some purely Russian beauty.
She can be safely called the main puppeteer not only of Russia, but also of many Western countries. Author's doll as art appeared in the world not so long ago. And a huge role in its popularization is played by Svetlana Pchelnikova. As a creator of dolls, she traveled to many countries. Her goal in these trips was to study the experience of organizing professional communities abroad. Based on this experience, she created the International Association of Doll Authors already in Russia. MOAC is an organization of puppeteers, as well as just lovers of this art form, designed to facilitate joint exhibitions, workshops, festivals.
Svetlana is the initiator of many international exhibitions and charity auctions. She is engaged in identifying and promoting novice authors, studying the traditions of making dolls in different countries, organizing training centers in many parts of the world.
And most importantly, she draws a huge number of different people into the orbit of her activity, infecting them with her passion. In an interview, Pchelnikova said:
It has long been noticed that when people begin to do what I do, they are transformed. All sorts of different miracles begin to happen to them. It really makes us better and kinder. Like circles on the water, good deeds begin to multiply, diverge. In my life this happens all the time.
Past
The beginning of the biography of Svetlana Pchelnikova is similar to many others. She was born in an ordinary Moscow family, grew up like many Soviet children. She studied at the Plekhanov Institute, where she met with Kirill Pchelnikov, her future husband. After the wedding, a daughter was born. In the country - the hungry 90s. They are a student. We must work, and study, and stand in wild lines. Then they just tried to survive.
But the husband and father of Svetlana quickly navigated the new reality and went into the computer business. She herself began working on the stock exchange. At that time, many people made fortunes, climbed to the very top of success, but then they all lost. The Svetlana family managed to earn and maintain their business. After the birth of her second child, she did not return to work. With the money taken from her husband, she opened a beauty salon, which brought good income and worked without her special involvement. Grandmothers were happy to deal with children, and Svetlana had a lot of free time that there was nothing to fill.
A new life began - rich, well-fed ... and empty. Beauty salons, many hours of discussion with friends of new collections of bags, expensive cars, restaurants, night clubs, trips abroad. It seemed to her then that this is exactly what real life is. For nightclubs went drugs ...
Now it’s hard for her to understand why this happened. Apparently, I did not want to get out of the "flock." It’s hard to look at yourself. She just did what everyone in her circle was doing. And it is not known where all this could lead her if life itself had not stopped.
Crash
Her husband bought her an expensive car - Chrysler. The first in Moscow. On this machine, she went for mushrooms, but on the way back she lost control. The car skidded. She flew into the ditch at breakneck speed. Turned over several times. Svetlana was saved by the fact that the door opened from another blow and she and the seat were thrown out of the passenger compartment.
She miraculously survived. Fracture of the spine in two places, fragmented collarbones and ribs, torn shoulder blade, numerous fractures of the arms and legs, disfigured face, brain contusion. The verdict of the doctors was terrible. She could have been confined to a wheelchair for life. On the operating table there was a clinical death, during which she flew to the light and heard a voice that said: "Children need you." Woke up with that phrase on her lips. She determined her whole future life.
Doctors advised to do the operation, but no one gave guarantees that it would not be paralyzed. Sveta refused, saying that she would try to recover herself. She began to study according to the Dikul system. She performed exercises, overcoming terrible pains. And she dreamed about how she would start a new life, filled with meaning and light, which appeared to her in a state of clinical death.
Recovery
The realization that she could be permanently immobilized made me think about how to fill such a life. Svetlana decided to fight. She decided: she would do everything in her power to stand up. But if it doesn’t work out, she will try to find what she can do even in such a helpless state. And once mother, having come to the hospital, brought her a tutorial on creating dolls. And from that moment on, Svetlana’s life changed dramatically. She remembered her childhood passion for needlework.
The husband brought her a computer. She found on the Internet training courses on the author's doll. Immediately I learned to do them myself. First, with the goal of developing fine motor skills, this helped restore the mobility of injured hands. Then I got carried away, began to invent my models.
Gradually, this occupation captured her. She realized that she had found something that would allow her to create, even if she remained in a wheelchair. It will bring light, goodness, beauty to the world. And a real miracle happened. She began to recover quickly. Now Svetlana considers this the beginning of her new life. She says:
This is the starting point that made me now, not afraid of the word, happy. Because my life has changed dramatically.
As soon as she left the hospital, in a corset, leaning on a cane, she went to the famous puppeteers of Moscow to study.
Svetlana Pchelnikova’s dolls turned out better and better, and once she sent their photos to a contest in Holland. The answer came that she liked her dolls and was invited to the exhibition. It was this trip that finally put Svetlana on her feet. And it was there that she found her destiny.
Charity
At that exhibition, Svetlana sold several of her dolls. She managed to earn 5 thousand dollars. She bought with this money a bag that she had long dreamed of before the accident.
And then in a casual conversation, she found out about children with a congenital heart disease who die before the operation, because their parents do not have money for a pacemaker. The cost of an imported pacemaker is 5 thousand dollars. The realization that the life of a little man costs as much as the cost of her new bag was shocking! Svetlana immediately decided that she would never again spend the money earned for dolls on luxury goods. And she also realized that the number of children whom she can help depends on the number of dolls sold. In her memory came the words that she had heard during a clinical death: "Children need you." Now she knew exactly what children were in question.
The idea was formed gradually. In the studio of Svetlana Pchelnikova there were meetings of masters, training, master classes were held. And in parallel with this, the idea of charity was discussed, which gradually took shape. A clear understanding of the fact that, relying only on her own strengths, she will be able to help a very limited number of sick children, prompted to search for opportunities to unite with other masters. This led to the creation of the International Association of Puppet Authors.
On May 30, 2006, a press conference was held, which launched the charity project “Parade of Star Dolls for Children”. And in 2007, the project itself appeared, which was supported by many famous people in our country. The idea of the project is simple: the stars of domestic show business, sports, other popular people come up with an image for the doll and make it themselves. They are given only a blank - naked, without hair, without a face, without history and soul. And then the finished work is sold at auction. All the money goes to pay for operations and expensive equipment for the treatment of sick children.
Svetlana says: “You can say we just sell dolls, but buy life.”
And that seems to be true. Each sold star doll costs from 3 thousand dollars and above. Collectors, fans of one or another famous person, are willing to buy these rarities.
All income, all proceeds from tickets, from the sale of dolls, from stories, from photographs - everything goes to support children who need surgery. Basically, this is the Bakulevsky Center, the Department of Emergency Surgery for children from 0 to 3 years old, Professor Shatalov, the Faina Zakharova Foundation "Life Line", "Give Life" Chulpan Khamatova.
Over the past ten years, more than a hundred little patients thanks to the project "Star Dolls Parade for Children" have been given life.
A family
She is confident that her success is largely due to the support of the family. The oldest children of Svetlana Pchelnikova from the very beginning helped her as much as they could. Daughter Anastasia completely took over the commercial component of the mother’s puppet business while she is engaged in dolls, exhibitions and charity. Son Ivan graduated from an economic institute, is seriously engaged in boxing. Svetlana Pchelnikova calls her husband her main sponsor. At the very beginning of her activity, Cyril and all his friends gave her all kinds of support. Even through dummies, they bought at auction her first dolls.
And although a few years ago, Kirill Pchelnikov was seriously ill - he had fourth-degree cancer - he coped with the disease and continued his business. And besides this, he began to engage in the restoration of the Church of St. Michael the Archangel in the Uryupinsky district of the Volgograd region.
Michelle
But the main pride of Svetlana Pchelnikova, the object of love and tenderness, is the youngest daughter, Michelle. The appearance of this child Svetlana and Cyril considered a miracle. After the accident, after a difficult recovery period, Svetlana no longer hoped for a third child. But really wanted to. And as she herself believes, God sent her a long-awaited child as a reward for her charity work. True, a little ahead of schedule. Michelle was born on the 29th week with a weight of 900 grams. And with a heart defect. Svetlana knew for sure that such children were being looked after, so she did not succumb to panic. My daughter spent two months in a hospital, in an incubator for newborns, then she was operated on. All this time, Svetlana was nearby. She had to go through everything that mothers of the children rescued by her dolls go through. And she considers this an invaluable experience.
Now Michelle, as she calls her daughter, goes to school, is fond of drawing and dreams of becoming an artist.