The director covers hundreds of kilometers a day. How could it be otherwise? The farm is large, and she is used to keeping everything under control. «As they say, it’s better to see once than to hear a hundred times... Although all my employees are independent and responsible, and I can trust them with any task, a little extra oversight never hurts,» the heroine smiled.
By the way, at school she never even thought about agriculture. She loved math and saw herself in trade. «For some reason, I wanted to become a merchandise expert. But I quickly changed my mind and entered an agricultural college, which I successfully graduated from,» Tamara Kudan said.
After being assigned to her first job, Tamara Litvinko (her maiden name) planned to work for the required time and return to her hometown in Khoiniki District. But fate, as they say, had other plans... April 1986 struck, and the familiar world shattered into zones. The wave of resettlement literally swept many specialists out of the farm.
«The director came to me and said, ‘You’re going to be the chief accountant.’ And just like that, at only 20 years old, this massive financial liability fell on my shoulders!» she recalled. «But I didn’t back down. In the end, the little Toma with a heart of steel, the one who wasn’t afraid of hardships, won out. It was a terrifying year for our country, 1986, the year of the Chernobyl disaster. And I just had to step up and support the director, the team, and the entire nation.»
In 2001, she was offered the position of head of the Parizhskaya Kommuna collective farm (now Braginka). «The chairman of the district executive committee called me into his office and said, ‘You’re going to be the director!’ I refused immediately: it was October, we had to wrap up the agricultural year and prepare for the wintering of the livestock. And times were so incredibly tough back then,» Tamara Kudan said. «We agreed that I would manage the farm for just two weeks while they looked for a proper candidate. But the two weeks passed, and nobody was planning to replace me. And that’s how it all took off: planting, harvesting, storing feed, getting through the winter... And just like that, 25 years went by.»
Speaking today with the head of the Braginka enterprise, we notice how, even after 25 years of her directorship, her eyes light up whenever she talks about her team, the farm’s successes, future plans, and her dreams. We cannot help but ask: what is it like to be a female manager of an agricultural enterprise and still manage to be everywhere and do everything?
«There’s no perfect playbook. You just need to truly love what you do, treat people with respect, and never forget the sense of duty and the huge responsibility that rests on both your shoulders and theirs,» the heroine stated firmly.
Tamara Kudan is the featured guest of our project Belarusians in Focus. We sat down with her to discuss her core principles as a leader and the immense responsibility resting on the shoulders of farmers.
