A music director from a kindergarten in Karma, along with his wife, has become a social media star. He has even surpassed "Drunken Igor"

Valery Aŭsyankoŭ with his wife Iryna. Here and further photos are from his Threads page

Perhaps people are so tired of influencers with their ideal lives on social media that they want to see an ordinary person in their feed. Not another Insta-diva relaxing in the Maldives and suffering because the fried octopus in her favorite restaurant was tasteless today, but an ordinary man from an agrotown.

Павялічыць

There is nothing in Valery's life that even hints at overwhelming success. He himself is from the village of Lopatyn, Gomel region, and goes there every year to carol.

He is 43 years old — and for 23 of them, he has been working in a kindergarten in the agrotown of Khizaŭ. He came after his placement and decided to stay. Valery is a music director of the highest category.

He now lives in the agrotown of Karma, walking to work from there four times a week — sometimes on foot, sometimes getting a ride. He earns 500-600 rubles monthly — because he works half-time.

Also, for nine years, the Belarusian has served as a sexton in the local church.

Павялічыць

Valery once met his wife through a newspaper: he placed an ad there saying he was looking for a girl and left his phone number. In 2013, he married Iryna.

The man tried posting things on Instagram and TikTok, but had no success. In December, the success of "Drunken Igor" reached Karma — that's when Valery thought about starting a Threads account.

And the very first post went viral. Last January, Valery published a video celebrating his 43rd birthday. Again, no luxurious extravagance or a car as a gift.

In the video, the man holds a simple cake with candles, while his wife sings 'Happy birthday to you' off-screen. And after the birthday boy blew out the candles, she says: 'Happy birthday, Valerochka! Happiness, health, all the very best to you… Everything you wish for yourself. All the best.'

Павялічыць

The post garnered more than 585,000 views, 47,000 likes, and 2,200 comments. Of course, someone tried to self-affirm at Valery's expense and even attached their photo to a comment — claiming, 'I look better at that age.'

But the Belarusian himself claims he saw no negativity — instead, he was shocked by how many people from all over the world congratulated him. Kind words came from America, Brazil, Australia, Thailand, Japan… Valery says that at one point he even had to turn off his phone because it was constantly buzzing with endless messages.

After 'Onliner' wrote about the man, strangers began transferring money to him — a total of 5,400 rubles. For the family, this was simply a cosmic sum.

Now, almost 64,000 people are subscribed to Valery's account. He shows the simplest things: playing with Iryna in winter (almost 41,000 likes), holding a morning celebration for March 8 (27,700 likes), showing his favorite spot on the way home — an abandoned village (17,400 likes), buying a refrigerator in installments (5,700 likes).

And his first million views came from photos of him congratulating his wife on a holiday — he bought sushi instead of cake (81,300 likes).

People write: 'Have you noticed that even Threads is tired of fake people and AI-generated posts? And it promotes real life.'

It's telling that when the artists of the Kupalaŭski Theater came to Karma with a performance, they went to take photos with Valery and Iryna.

Павялічыць

The first gifts from brands have already started coming in. For example, Tramp.by gifted Valery and Iryna a two-person tent — though the blogger honestly admitted he couldn't assemble it.

Павялічыць

The company 'Marozprodukt' presented a box of 'Kapryz' ice cream. Café 'Harazh' treated them to pizzas. Soon, the family will go to Georgia for 16 days — one of the tourist companies gifted them a seaside vacation.

By the way, Valery admitted that he was at the sea last in the 90s, and Iryna has never been at all.

And 'Drunken Igor' is already falling behind the sober Threads star — he has about 50,000 subscribers.

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