Verkhoshizhemye is served by five "Pechkin" at once.

      Let us remind you that on October 28, a large lock and a notice about changes in the working hours appeared on the doors of the Upper Shizhem postal office. As explained by the main post office in Sovetsk, all employees resigned, and there is no one to work... But for the time being — purely out of enthusiasm — a specialist will come for a couple of hours. And in the long run, perhaps in a month, the branch may close altogether.

      Interestingly, the administration of the Upper Shizhem district, as well as the local prosecutor's office, "didn't bat an eye" over the fact that more than three thousand people were left without a socially significant facility, which constitutes a violation of the Federal Law on Consumer Rights Protection. This law stipulates the mandatory presence of a postal branch in municipal entities based on one for every 300 residents.

      The response from the regional government to the Upper Shizhem complaint was more mocking than constructive: they suggested that there was no reason to be outraged if everything was delivered on time and... according to the street schedule. This likely prompted the local management of Russian Post to absurdly, but with great fervor, wave fictitious documents in court to prove that the post office in Upper Shizhem operated without interruption. Moreover, the paid delivery of subscribed publications, correspondence, pensions, and marketplace parcels was carried out by... five male employees. This is documented in the court materials.

      However, the empty government responses and possibly falsified postal documents were refuted in court by lawyer Tatyana Bazhina, who was awarded 12,000 rubles in moral damages from Russian Post on March 11. The amount is laughable, as Tatyana Sergeevna believes, but it is principled.

      "By going to court, I stood up for my family, which subscribes to 15 periodicals every year: not counting magazines, we received two daily 'Komsomolskaya Pravda' newspapers — 'Moscow Komsomolets' and 'Komsomolskaya Pravda', the weekly 'Reporter' and 'Kirov Truth', as well as the local newspaper 'Verkhovye Shizhmy'. For three months, we were forced to go to the post office ourselves every week, even though home delivery was paid for, as it only operated two days a week from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM. And we had to drag a bag of periodicals home... I felt sorry for my parents, who had gotten used to receiving news every day for decades," Bazhina noted.

      During the court proceedings, the lawyer spoke about a neighbor whose pension was "forgotten" to be delivered, and the grandmother is almost a hundred years old (born in 1927). She talked about undelivered registered letters (which arrived three weeks late), which disrupted business negotiations with a client in a correctional facility. She also mentioned the impossibility of urgently receiving or sending work correspondence (one has to travel from Upper Shizhem to Kirov to the main post office). So, the 12,000 ruble compensation is indeed "laughable," but there is hope that the appeal will change the decision of the Sovetsk District Court.

      "I am also preparing a statement regarding 'fictitious employment', as all the postmen are known to us by face and name. And if the court is ready to accept as truth the 'Filkin certificate' that five men are working as postmen in Upper Shizhem, then for me, this is 'forgery' and 'falsification of evidence'," explains Tatyana Bazhina.