Extinct and abandoned villages. Abandoned houses of abandoned villages are a new trend of the season. Abandoned settlements of the Central Federal District

Recently, more and more often you can hear from young people that they would like to give up city life. They are interested in abandoned villages where you can cheaply buy a manor house, an old school or just a wooden hut: the Russian village has become an urban dream, and each has its own story, see photos and videos.

The number of endangered villages in Russia and Belarus is growing every year. For example, in the Zhdanovichi village council, on Parkovaya, there are about a dozen villages dying with its last resident: Dubrovsky, Khutorskoye, Borki, Ivanovka, Lukoshko, Old and New Isaevichs, Dubno, Ravan, Falichi patrols, Buddha. For several years, the old village of Beloe, which was located exactly on the river of the same name, disappeared from the face of the earth. There are about 7 village councils per district in Russia, which means about 70 endangered villages. Agro-towns are flourishing in Russia, and in parallel there are already about ten thousand such villages. Earlier we have already written about the rest in the village.

The fact that some houses are buying up for summer cottages is not making the village livelier. Indeed, it is unacceptable for the locals to walk down the street and not only ask about today's harvest, but not even say hello. Indeed, in the village they say about such people: “Oh, I woke up, and did not say“ hello ”! A pig is even more agile! "

Small Borki is an example of such a village. It is one street about 2 kilometers long, along which picturesque houses stretch all the way to the forest. Her name is Green, because one of the local residents, having moved here from the city, out of habit called her by her former place of residence. And so it stuck. But in reality there is no need for a street, because if letters come here, you can see that many simply do not indicate the street: “d. Borki, 7 ".

Once upon a time Soviet power in Borki there was a school with a library and a cinema, there was a stable, but now under capitalism the whole civilization is reduced to a car shop that comes three times a week. But she does not guarantee that the locals will leave her with bread and fresh food. And it seems that this is almost the only reason for the residents to get together.

Residential yards, as they used to say, there are about a dozen left. Now even the fact that someone else's dog will run through the garden is considered an event here. But before it was all different. For example, due to the fact that one of the few enterprises was located here, there was a high level of crime. A local district police officer used to joke: "If it weren't for Borki, there would be no work in the village council." One of the most high-profile cases took place here in 2011. A local resident from a neighboring village set fire to the workshops of a woodworking enterprise at night, leaving a note for the owner: “We have enough TNT for everyone. So bring $ 3,000 to the dump near the forest and leave it in the refrigerator. "

The entrepreneur tried to detain the criminal on his own by going to the trash can, but he provided for everything to the smallest detail. He wore a long green raincoat to increase his height and appear taller, and put on socks on his sneakers so as not to leave marks on the field if he ran away. Due to the fact that explosives appeared in the case, the FSB joined the investigation. The criminal was found, brought to justice, but the entrepreneur could not recover the material damage for the burnt material. In this situation, the executive bodies of Russia turned out to be another declarative instance.

There was also a period in the 2000s when houses burned here for five years. Someone calls it a coincidence, and someone calls it a pattern.

Russian village and conversations with its inhabitants (photo)

Having met with the locals, I suggested that they recall some bright event or story that happened to them in Borki. But, as it turned out later, the task was not the easiest for them, as it seemed at first glance.

Baba Nastya

"Wait! I remember dancing in school garden. Even under our dear Stalin. There was some kind of holiday, we sent out covers, someone brought a tape recorder and we jumped to the music right among the apple trees. This was the first time I danced. The second time was when we saw a guy off to the army. Here the party has already been! But then he was never taken into the army. And I also remember walking to the neighboring village in Kovalichi on the 8th of March to the club. There was a competition for the best dance, and then I received as many as 2 prizes: a washcloth and a hairbrush! That's how much I danced! Now what? I have planted a hectare of grain by hand, and on June 20th I will turn 80 years old. "

Andrey:

“Don't talk to me. I am a person in office, so I can’t be seen again. Well, I don’t know what was interesting in my village life - everything every day: home and work. Oh, I remember how they saw me off to the army. Then almost the girls were not raped. But this is not interesting to anyone. By the way, Olya, our neighbor, lived here. Imagine, they say that now she runs a billiard room in Moscow. Now it has risen! "

Andrei is a bachelor who lives with his mother, from time to time he is drunk and kicks her out of the house. For 15 years he has been working as a forester in a neighboring village. But he is the only worker in the whole village.

Yuzik:

“I was born here. I went to school here. From here he went to the army. Here I live now. So write that you just worked all my life. "

The interlocutor only a couple of days ago was discharged from the regional hospital. He was told there that his head disease could not be cured. But he didn't leave his smile for a minute, even when he talked about it. A villager's hobby is collecting empty bottles, metal, paper. Therefore, he can often be found on his bike, driving around other villages. Although he receives a large pension. Locals say: "Well, such a person!"

Vitya "Zayats":

“Everything is normal in my life. I remember when I was little, behind the village near the forest there was a large hill about 2 meters high. We called it the "golden well". They say that once there was a manor's estate. And my friends and I went there for a walk. Once I broke my skis there! This is my only adventure in Borki. "

In the village he has the nickname "Hare". He lived almost all his life in Borki with his mother. He is the absolute record holder for lowering his pension to vodka. For example, having received 7000 rubles on the 18th, on the 20th he has only a penny in his pocket. Always uses a bicycle, even on ice. But at the same time, his house is always clean, a vegetable garden is planted and in the summer he runs into the forest almost every day to pick mushrooms and raspberries.

Other residents, for various reasons, did not agree to be photographed, we publish only their interviews

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Continuing to talk about spring trips. I want to recall one of the trips to the very village, which I have already written about here, on my blog, twice. Photos and memories of 2007, 2015 were used, and this time it happened in the spring of 2017.

Pulls me here and that's it. Perhaps because of the fact that my ancestors lived here, or maybe because of something else. So I decided to come here again. Look at the house, or rather at what is left of it, and at the remains of a village that was once large and well-fed.

I drove into the village a little on the wrong side. At first I wanted to drive through a residential village, but ran into a plowed field. Wow, the road has been plowed! Yes, and I wandered through the territory of an abandoned collective farm. I forgot which side of the former collective farm buildings it was necessary to move off the road to the side.

I had to go along the former road. The road that people usually take to this village leads approximately to its middle. And I was led along an old abandoned road to its very beginning, I did not turn aside, but rushed straight ahead. Nobody has been driving here for a long time. There are no roads or ruts. Only thickets of young growth, but fallen branches from old poplars.

But I’m in the field and I don’t need such minor obstacles on the roads. Stop! Which road? She's not here! Only the former village street, overgrown and along the edges of which there are the remains of houses, and house pits are visible. Somewhere else are the remains of crowns. Locals dismantle houses for firewood and building materials.

Having overcome all the obstacles, I got to the part of the village, where people are already driving. This is evidenced by the rolling road that runs from the gardens and adjoins the village street.

People still live in this village. Among the abundance of abandoned houses, there are only three inhabited.

I drove along the street next to the foundations of the former store, where you can see the remains of a stove, namely bricks and an iron round shell. This foundation, by the way. Later in the summer I poked. You can read about it here and here.

Having driven home, I stopped and got out of the car. In the spring, it’s the very thing to walk in such places. After all, nettles, which reach a height of human growth, lie densely on the ground, crushed by the snow that has recently melted, especially after the April snowfalls.

You can walk around the yard, look under the ruins of outbuildings. Bypass the bathhouse and go down to the river. I remember how long ago, when I was still little, I went with my grandmother to this river for water. There was a small bridge in the form of a log with a board nailed to it and a small handrail so as not to fall off the yoke, where two buckets hang, into the icy water.

Strange, but the stove in the house has not yet collapsed, but it looked sideways at critical level that it is dangerous to enter the house.

Even the porch, which looks more like the mouth of a predatory creature, is tired. And from above the roof collapsed over the cages and the passage. If you go there, then this "mouth" can slam shut, literally eat a person alive, burying him under its wreckage.

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After that, I went into another abandoned house. There, too, ruin and desolation reigns. I also found a shelf with dishes there. Recently, I want to find dishes from the tsarist and early Soviet period. Because of this, when I see a plate or mug, I take it in my hands and turn it upside down in order to see the manufacturer's brand. But this time it didn't work and the dishes were late.

I drove to the other end of the village. Another street begins there, which at an angle adjoins the main street. There are several stone houses there. Some of them are both completely abandoned and some are still in use.

At the beginning of this village there is another road to leave the village. But to get out of here, you have to cross a small river. Which spills in the spring and it can be problematic to overcome it in a passenger car.

By the way, in this village there is also a new house, which was built by a beekeeper for life and beekeeping needs. Geese are walking about imposingly, which reluctantly parted in front of the car. Yet life glimmers in this place.

There I turned around and drove in the opposite direction. My father told me that there was a very devout old woman living here on the edge. I plan to find this foundation and try to polish it, because, according to the stories, she had a lot of metal-plastic: crosses, folds, icon cases, and so on.

But okay, turn around and head in the opposite direction. There I also looked into one abandoned house, which has been rather well preserved. Looking into the barn, I saw a large number of old rustic utensils. I don't even know the name of some items! But, unfortunately, all this is in an extremely deplorable state: everything has rotted, and the insects have tried. Nothing can be saved.

It was already getting dark, it was beginning to get dark and I headed home. On the way home, passing next to the road, I noticed a hare running away from the car in fright.

Well, sir. That's all. I got home safely, had a hearty supper and went to bed. Later I processed the photos, but for some reason I was too lazy to write a report.

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THE LIST OF ABANDONED VILLAGES IN RUSSIA - FOR THOSE WHO COULD NOT DECIDE TO LEAVE THE CITY. DECIDE NOW! Many people say that they don't know where to start, where to go, where to try, if there is not much money. So the best option is to gather several people to make it more fun (it is desirable that at least one be experienced, handy, from whom you can learn), and go to an abandoned village. There you can either buy a house for a penny (30-100 TR), or rent it, or just live for free, because often the owners cannot be found. Traveling to an abandoned village is the easiest first step when moving from city to land. This is almost a turnkey peasant farm, because in many places there are houses already with a povet for cattle and with various outbuildings. And this immediately saves on the entire infrastructure - 3-10 million, if you build everything from scratch in an open field. And here everything is and is here and now. All that remains is to come, buy cattle and start working. From our branch on abandoned villages, we have collected all the information and sorted it for your convenience by region. Here they are - SPECIFIC PLACES WHERE YOU CAN GO TOMORROW AND START ACTING! And you need to start now, so that by spring you have time to settle down and prepare for the sowing season. FINALLY DO THE FIRST STEP! PLAN YOUR RIDE AND DETERMINE DATE TODAY! God help you! HERE IS A LIST OF ABANDONED VILLAGES (and it is only a few dozen people who left the coordinates of villages, there are hundreds of thousands of such villages in the country!): SAMARA REGION Samara Region, Klyavlinsky District, s. Podgorka, living in my opinion, there are 4-5 houses left, around about 400 hectares, at home there in the village council or with the secretary, they were allocated there almost next to me under the OKRM program. Nearby is a pond and fields. Evgeny Solychev https://vk.com/barankin_140 KOSTROMA REGION 1. Kostroma region, Kologrivsky district. Located 600 km north-east of Moscow. its settlements stretches along the Unzha River. most of them are empty or sparsely populated. the city of Kologriv itself is located in the central part of the district. its population is just over three thousand people. buildings and houses are mostly wooden and mostly one or two storey. the city, like the entire region, has not yet been supplied with gas. the roads, as well as throughout the Zakostroma part of the region, are very bad, to put it mildly, and the communication is exclusively on the ground, that is, by road. the nearest railway station is 120 km away in the town of Manturovo. the area itself has no transit traffic. the road to it is a branch from the highway to Perm, Syktyvkar or Arkhangelsk. There is a train station, but no trains run. there is an airport, but planes do not fly. there is a pier, but steamers do not go .. This is true Kologriva. all this was, but disappeared into oblivion along with the union of Soviet republics. the reason for the migration of the local population is the lack of any jobs. Apart from logging, there are no enterprises. well, one and a half collective farm in the bargain. so the houses are empty. but over the past five years, more and more Moscow and St. Petersburg numbers on the killed roads of the district. strange, isn't it? the village runs to the city, and the city to the village .. this is how quietly the reclamation of villages by those who were once torn away from them in one generation or another is taking place ... What else is Kologrivsky Kray rich and poor in. probably the absence for many, many kilometers of all kinds of industries, factories, mines, military units, zones, dams, hydroelectric power plants, nuclear power plants, etc. ... the presence of one of the few places on the ball, near the city, where in the spring from different places of the planet, even from Japan , migrating swan geese flock and make a multi-day stop. "Kologrivsky forest" is a state natural reserve. the forest itself is very rich in everything that a real living forest should be rich in. even the reindeer runs here to throw off the antlers, not to mention the Bigfoot, who has chosen these places. The Unzha River is meandering, not very deep, with ripples. and not very wide, somewhere under 100 meters. originates from the Ripean mountains. and since it flows from the source through the Kologriv region between the forests and the semi-abandoned villages, the water in the river is exclusively potable. what, and the local ecology at a high altitude. which was recently confirmed by an expedition of ecologists visiting the village of Chermenino, saying that in the entire western part of Russia, up to the Urals, the Kostroma region is the cleanest, and in the Kostroma region the most eco-friendly, there is the Kologrivsky district and geese-swans are confirmation of this .. only the roads are not in suit. .. by the way, the ancient, that is, the original Kologriv, is located behind the extreme inhabited village of Chermenino. in ancient times, for obvious reasons, as well as many ancient Russian cities such as Ryazan, was moved. 30-40 km downstream, where it still stands. The locals are basically kind and helpful people. though they were knocked down by the Green Serpent and the habit of walking in formation. Well, in general, if there is a pleasant craving for country life in non-civilization, health, money, a bright and sober little head, then you are here, in the Kologriv region. in short everything. https://vk.com/id224648021 2. Kostroma region, Chukhlomsky, Soligalichsky district. Already on the way there (200 km from Kostroma) there are many abandoned villages right by the road. What is further from the road and no need to say. Around the forest, many small rivers. There are also many abandoned fields of former collective farms. It is better to ask the head of a particular settlement for exact information about hectares and their cost. Alexey Plotnikov https://vk.com/ariystokrat STAVROPOL REGION Stavropol Territory, Izobilnensky District, Kozlov farm. Living 4-6 houses. I don’t know how much land, but a lot is for sure. https://vk.com/daud_1 PERM REGION 1) Perm Territory, village Pozhva. 2) according to the data for 2010 - 3131 people, now even less. 3) Almost all lands are empty, excluding a small number of small farms with 1 cow each. 4) many houses have been abandoned, some more are on sale. More detailed information is available on the wikipedia "Pozhva Village, Perm Territory". Igor Demidov https://vk.com/id13765909 LENINGRAD REGION 1. Leningrad region, Volkhovsky district, Vyndinostrovskoe administrative settlement, village Khotovo 2. 3 people have a residence permit, 10-15 people live, in the summer with summer residents about 30. 3. there are empty land in the village itself and in the neighboring ones 4. there are abandoned houses In the village, a church is being restored at which it is planned to set up an Orthodox farm. Oleg Merkulov https://vk.com/merkulov_o KIROV REGION 1. Kirov region. Podosinovsky district, villages empty sea, not all list. Specifically, I know where the houses are sold - the village of Prichalino, the Utmanovsky village council (we have a house there ourselves, we use it as a summer residence), the places are beautiful, near a river, pine forest, mushrooms, berries, fish. I also know for sure about the village of Okulovo, Yakhrensky village council, also not a bad place, the river is a little further, but mushrooms and berries are nearby. Let people come !!! Alexander Vorobyov https://vk.com/id133994347 2. We have many abandoned villages in the Kirov region. Indescribable landscapes, clean air, no one cares everything is overgrown. Who is interested I can show. Sergey Zlobin https://vk.com/id63022118 TVER REGION 1. Tver region, village Borovskoye, there is no population, houses are already around the village, there is a forest, fields, next to a river. Nikita Soloviev https://vk.com/id226975029 2. Tver region. Sonkovsky district. There are many uninhabited villages, even more where 2-3 residential buildings are left! Sergey Pletnev https://vk.com/id156314601 3. Tver region, Torzhok district, Lunyakovo village. Abandoned. 1 summer resident in the summer. Around 80 hectares of land I own. Around the forest, a stream flows through the site, electricity along the border. Wholesale at cadastral value. They took the land for themselves, but while they brought everything to mind, they managed to settle in another area of ​​Tverskaya. More details with plans and photos on the website - http://www.agronavt.ru/zemli.htm Tatyana Lokshina https://vk.com/id108644159 UDMURT REPUBLIC Udmurtskaya r. Glazovsky district, v. Vasilyevka. The houses are still dilapidated, no one lives the status of the village as long as there is, the fields in the area are 400 hectares, a clean stream, a well filled with water, springs. Mikhail Pak https://vk.com/id168526518 PSKOV REGION 1. Pskov Region, Porkhovsky District, Ristsevo villages (about 30 houses), District (1 person lives, 10 houses are abandoned), Spassky District, Medveditsa. Last home bought there 7 years ago for 30,000, the villages are all one after another, 360 km. from St. Petersburg to Ristsevo there was a bus service from Pskov and Porkhov. Wild boars, I am silent about mushrooms and berries - they always took the preparations away in buckets, there is a lot of land, there is a small rivulet (through all the villages). Itself has not been there for 15 years. Irina Kalinkina https://vk.com/id1233040 2. We are from the Pskov region ... we lived in Opochka ... but it was crowded there ... we left for the Plyussky district of the village of Zayane ... Luxurious places ... maximum 70 houses and mostly summer residents ... to St. Petersburg 200 km. We have already acquired poultry, grown a crop of very good potatoes and everything else from the ridges ... Now we are also planning to breed rabbits for ourselves ... a goat or a cow in basting ... We bake bread ourselves ... there is a nunnery in the village .. they also have their own household ... Sergey Skomoroshkin

Hello again, dear readers. Firstly, I want to inform you that I have returned from vacation, which means that there will be new reports soon. By the way, I went to Lviv, so there will be many interesting views of the city. Secondly, yesterday we had a wonderful trip to the abandoned pioneer camps, which means that later there will be photographs too. But this is all in the future, but for now I propose to return to the beginning of the year. Then my company and I visited several abandoned and half-abandoned villages. In this regard, I present a new photo report. Here you will be told about the most memorable moments, abandoned houses, curious finds, rural household items and other interesting things. By the way, I don't write very often from places like this.

So, this reportage is dedicated to a couple of villages and village houses in the Moscow region. All of them are differently removed from the capital, but they have one thing in common - either the village is being actively demolished for construction, a couple of living houses remain. Or in the working village there are deaf abandoned houses, which no one has come to for a hundred years, the windows are partially broken, and the fence is missing. This is far from being everywhere, but since the capital is growing rapidly, many villages, falling within the boundaries of Moscow, are gradually degrading. Also, the villages near the highways are not lucky, as well as, on the contrary, the villages that are very far from the residential agglomerations. For the most part, such houses are empty, homeless residents often live, and nothing interesting is found. But sometimes quite interesting locations come across. You even wonder how so many old and rather rare things, interior items, old dishes and much more survived. So, I put the photos in a mix to make it proportionally interesting, otherwise some places are quite empty, and some, on the contrary. Go.

Typical house built before the revolution. No one lives inside, the door is wide open, the windows are broken. We arrived here in the cold winter. Not the most interesting, but still.

We move several tens of kilometers. We get into the house already more interesting. Shall we sit down for some tea? In the corner we find an old chest, at the table there are Viennese chairs. We raise the seats, we find a pre-revolutionary label, a trifle, but nice) There are many hours scattered on the table. By the way, there will be a lot of hours in the report too.

Another house is next in line. On the terrace we find a portrait of the great poet, which has clearly fallen under the scythe.

In one of the houses we find an old piano. The same firm, by the way, as the piano thrown by some freaks out the window of an abandoned school. This, thank God, is still alive, but the keys are already sticking. At the top of the piano we find a Soviet set of dominoes.

Another stopped clock. Ordinary plastic, Soviet.

Sometimes houses come across completely destroyed, for example, the roof collapsed after a fire. The sofa looks a little crazy.

And this is the house with Pushkin on the terrace. The ceilings are rotten, the floor is falling through. For example, here, the closet fell down.

A seasoned birdhouse next to one abandoned vegetable garden at the house.

You can often find various interesting things in the attic. In this house, for example, these are antique items of peasant life (spinning wheels, rakes, pitchforks, wooden shovel, sieve, etc.), notebooks of the 20s and 30s, textbooks of the same time, newspapers, Christmas tree decorations, porcelain dishes, etc. This frame still shows the radio in a very poor condition from the 1940s.

Typical cuisine in such houses. An old stove, a water heater, a nice but dusty mirror, and all sorts of junk.

Baby dolls always look especially creepy.

Another curious room. Here we find the pre-revolutionary Singer sewing machine, or rather a table from her and herself. The condition is very unimportant. Time and dampness do their job. There are a lot of old and half-rotten clothes in the closets.

I'll show you the base of the camp. Rusty letters "ZINGER" on the back.

Every country house should have a red corner.

On the way past residential buildings, local inhabitants often come across)

Rusty bikes were found on the terrace.

But in the room there is a curious clock lying on the floor.

A small house in the village a short distance from the rest. Strange, by the way. In one room the ceiling collapsed, in the second one is barely breathing, there is practically no fence, the windows are knocked out, and the light in one of the rooms was still working! traces of devastation are visible inside.

This sheet hooked me very strongly. Learning to write in the 1920s. "Get up, branded by a curse, the whole world of hungry and slaves!"

In the kitchen in an abandoned house. Letters come across underfoot, an old radio set on the wall.

All clocks show different times.

Nice wooden shelf.

Title photo. The rug looks especially sad. Russia-three, where are you rushing? And really, where ...

Soviet pinball. Curious thing, never seen before. Although I saw a lot of the Chinese 90s. The state is awful.

One hut, almost completely blown apart.

In the house from frame 18. Buffet in the kitchen. Surprisingly perfect save! As if no one has lived for two or three years, but no one has climbed or beaten. Although the dishes are late Soviet and not uncommon, so it is not surprising.

Notebooks of the 20s, 30s, this time closer. Decorated with portraits of Lunacharsky, Lenin, faces of peasants and pioneers. And of course "Workers of all countries, unite!"

In the house with 1 photo right on the doorstep we find such a wonderful chest

A little bit of May nature from village plots =)

And again we find the pinball. Not much better.

One kitchen. It is strange that everything is just so thrown. Despite the seeming order, the dishes are covered with dust, the ceiling behind has already collapsed.

Nice pre-revolutionary buffet in the piano room.

The quality of the frame did not come out very well, but I will post it anyway. Interesting content. Geometry notebook from 1929.

In this frame, I want to finish today's photo report.

Such abandoned houses make a very sad and painful impression. It seems that part of our culture is leaving. The metropolitan way of life is changing the old established way of life. Is it good or bad? How much progress is needed, and what are we striving for? But these are rather philosophical questions, and everyone will have their own answer. Enough reasoning for today. Until next reports!

22-year-old artist Vladimir Chernyshev travels through abandoned Russian villages and paints strange dark objects on the walls of houses and sheds with water-based paint, like an entrance, an arch, a shadow or stars. His project is called "The Abandoned Village", according to the results the artist plans to release a small-circulation book. Vladimir told The Village what attracts him to the death of the village, whether the locals understand art and whether it is necessary to save the houses from which people left.

The idea of ​​the project arose two or three years ago, then I clearly understood that as an artist I needed a format and a framework. I have been doing street art for the last five years, and during this period I experimented a lot with materials, work formats, participated in various projects and eventually came to a suburban painting format. How did it come about? Partly thanks to authors such as Thoreau, Hesse, Mishima, and, of course, thanks to the reaction and to some extent rejection of the popular culture of street art. Drawing on the street has never been just a hobby, entertainment or a way to earn money for me, it is rather a necessity, a desire to act in accordance with what I believe in.

To a lesser extent, I am interested in anthropological research, in the first place is artistic work, it is important not only to observe and record the moment of disintegration, but also to make a change in this process - sometimes to break this order, sometimes to supplement it, but, frankly, it is not easy for me to choose an object for work, there is always a high probability of doing something inappropriate, so I start drawing only when I understand and feel more or less clearly that work in this place is possible.

Preparing for travel

As a rule, I look for information on the Internet, in social networks, blogs and satellite maps, objects I put on a google map and then make a route. I am convinced that nothing makes it possible to understand and feel the spirit of the place, its history as the very appearance of this or that village house. Moss, cracks, wood color and shades, hammered forged nails, carvings, chaotic traces left by dried grass on a wooden surface - this is what conveys the history of the place, speaks the language of time. Turning to history as a field of knowledge concerning the past, I would say that I am least interested in dates, local history, surnames and outstanding historical facts, or, more correctly, historical facts - what I am observing in detail right now is important to me. The story lies in minor traces.

There are quite a lot of such places, for sure abandoned village houses were seen by everyone who at least once went out of town, visited the countryside. There are quite a few abandoned villages in the Arkhangelsk, Vologda and Voronezh regions. Feelings are always different. Kierkegaard wrote about spontaneous fear, the feeling of vulnerability as a life-giving source. Approximately such sensations arise at the sight of some abandoned village houses. And I say “life-giving” fear for a reason, because I see the fear of approaching the end and death as a good opportunity to feel currently, that is, life. And if we assume that such fear causes calm, then we are already close to Eastern traditions. And all this makes the process of destruction of a wooden house symbolic and ambiguous. If we talk about perception, then I am interested in watching how my own attitude to work in villages changes over time, there are places where I return at different times of the year, I see what happened to the work, how much the paint has faded, whether the house has become too lopsided.

Living and dead village

Sometimes you want to drop everything and go to the city, where people and traffic are, to forget these dead places. The situation in many villages is difficult, there are unpleasant objects: you enter, and there is chaos, everything is destroyed - in such places I do not linger. There are houses burning, breathing death. But maybe this is interesting: to overcome the fear of death in order to create a job.

When I was 18-19 years old, I had thoughts of moving away from the city, building a house, starting a subsistence economy: after all, this is complete independence from passports, money - all these pieces of paper. In some ways, this desire persists to this day. But on the other hand, I want to destroy this feeling - like the golden temple in the book of Yukio Mishima. I have no task to preserve these places, imbue their spirit and revive Russian folklore. On the contrary, I am pleased to watch them disappear and feel the value of this process. And of course, I am always drawn back to people. I am not a whole person. In the city, I can do paid work, and then go to the countryside for a non-profit project, spend my money on gasoline. This is the whole thrill - to live in contrasts.

Of course, there are many well-established and even prosperous villages. But hardly anyone would argue that the main trend in the development of such settlements is their transformation into wooden ruins. I often talked to the locals, found out the coordinates and just talked on various topics: how they live, what they do. They mostly drink, of course, but there are also people who lead a healthy lifestyle who are happy with everything and who would never agree to move to the city. Yes, however, and those who drink, too, hardly want to leave their home. In the village, a strong connection between a person and his own home is especially felt. It happens that people are still trying to preserve traditions, but, of course, everything is forgotten.

Sometimes you want to give up everything and go to the city, where people and traffic, forget these dead places

If we talk about funny stories, then, probably, you need to remember Uncle Tolya from the Yaroslavl region. Uncle Tolya kindly invited me and my friend the photographer Danila Tkachenko to stay overnight in his house, fed us with freshly caught pike and got drunk to the limit, so we had to put him to bed. About an hour later, when we were already asleep, the sound of a motor was heard. Uncle Tolya started a UAZ car (I don't know how he got there) and began to drive around the field in the mud, crash into bumps, after which he disappeared from sight. It turned out that a pig was slaughtered in a neighboring village and he broke off to eat a barbecue - this is how the old man's version sounded in the morning.

The fact of the extinction of the traditional village culture is obvious, it is an extremely understandable, natural process. But, on the other hand, you understand that in Russia the birth of capitalism was, to put it mildly, premature, and by and large the question is pertinent: have we really gone so far from the Middle Ages and traditional thinking? But that's another story altogether.

It seems to me that engaging in the revitalization of villages on a global scale is a utopian and obviously losing position, if not absurd. Personally, for my part, I see the beauty and uniqueness of this process of disappearance, without any admixture of regret or bitterness.

Photo: Derelictvillage.com