Life at Russian Village
This is one day from the random Russian village. The school, the household routine and the fun of some random Russian countrymen.
photos by Vladimir Grigoryev
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The father is probably lying dead drunk under the house.
The father is probably lying dead, becaus of hard work. Don’t judge by yourself
I guess you don’t live in Russia
Wrong. I live in Russia.
Whose father? Yours? O.o It’s terrible, you know… That «under the house» place isn’t appropriate for father’s sleep.
nothing ever really changes, does it?
and thats good. i remember living in a russian village and it was the best time of my life. peaceful and healthy, good for the body and soul.
i am definetely gonna move back.
KEEP IT REAL
When you have change, you have hope, and when you have hope, you have change, lets all hope for change… and hope!
Last chance.
OMG you made me think of a favorite song by Donna Summer and I would like to send it out to my girl Hillary, since my boy Obama and his crew at “DNC” is about to shut her out.
So here it is, Hillary girl–just imagine a nice dance floor with soft lights flashing in the background, you relaxed in Obama’s manly arms as you whisper these words in his ear . . .
(slowly, as you build your courage to confess your love in hopes he will ask you to be his VP running mate)
Last dance
Last dance for love
Yes, its my last change
For romance tonight
I need you, by me,
Beside me, to guide me,
To hold me, to scold me,
cause when Im bad
Im so, so bad
(Now pick it up and go with it girl–pour out your love for B onto the dance floor)
So lets dance, the last dance
Lets dance, the last dance
Lets dance, this last dance tonight
Really nice series of pictures!
Sweet pictures!
“Beautiful girl in the horrible village”…
In my America, it is horrible girls in a beautiful village. Sorry Аграфена, but it is true, you are a horrible person.
Great pictures!
They are happy and thats the point !
Exactly, in the West, we’d think it’s almost third world because of the lack of modern amenities but that’s not the point. The point is, these people are perfectly happy. Money does not equal happiness.
Quite typical russian village. Nice, truthful shots. Good peoples.
such a nice child in a horrible surrounding
There’s nothing too bad about that village. It looks like it’s been through some hard winters and it’s facilities are pretty basic, but the people look happy, they’re getting at least a basic education if not better, and they look well fed and clean. I don’t see what’s so horrible.
why do you think it’s horrible?
i have no idea about their circumstances, but they look happy and healthy. life might just be a bit harder for them than for us lazy bums with internet, luxury apartments, readily available food, tap water and central heating.
people have been living like this for 100s of years, and we’re still there. so what?
I agree, my mother grew up on a farm very with very similiar amenaties to this village, and that was the 40’s and 50’s in the U.S.. They shared a single telephone line with a dozen other farmers and that was about it for there electricity. They all grew up happy and they all seem to live about 100 years.
Horrible? I am willing to bet that child will have a better character than most city people will. I’ve met these people, self sufficient, uncomplaining, kind and upstanding individuals. There is something to be said for this kind of life.
I agree.
ditto
I can’t believe the condition of the homes. If the homes in my area were in that condition they would be condemned.
The village is here:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=cs&geocode=&q=Rusko,+Tversk%C3%A1+oblast,+%D0%9A%D0%B8%D0%BC%D1%80%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9+%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BE%D0%BD,+%D0%B4%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%BD%D1%8F+%D0%94%D1%83%D0%B1%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE&ie=UTF8&ll=57.164453,37.092419&spn=0.012659,0.039139&t=p&z=14&iwloc=addr
Find a remote spot offering no opportunities for employment, in any country, and the general picture will be very similar…
God… I live in one of those homes, so watch youreselves. They arent as bad as it looks, its far better when you feel at home. The bottom thing is: They are healthy, happy, getting good school education(if one does very good, you might get into the best schools, and become something great! Free of charge ofcourse. It doesnt matter about the money, it matters about youre grades..), and they have more than sufficient shelter. I dont see why everyone are so disgusted, just because theire homes arent as good as theire own.
It seemes to me that some photos, like #22, #23, #26, are made not in “main” house but in a “summer kitchen” — a small standalone building (typically two small rooms, a kitchen and a sauna, the oven is a part of wall between rooms). It’s separated from main house to keep main house calm when cooking at warm days. Kitchen in main house might look better.
If they could only find a way to sell that radio in photo #14 on eBay, they could probably make enough money to afford a non-freezing water system which would use a cistern and an electric pump, as well as a septic tank. That’s an amazing piece of equipment and would fetch beaucoup dollars from collectors.
That is Zvezda-54 (”star” 54), most likely made in Kharkov in 1954. Unfortunately for the girl, it’s neither a rare nor a high-quality radio (nothing like the ones from e.g. Sarapul radio works). This example is probably not worth more than 50 $ at most, but nevertheless a beautiful piece of antiques to have!
Just google for zvezda-54 and you’ll find lots of info.
The houses obviously need a lot of maintenance work, but I do not think this is the problem.
I checked the website of the photographer and it seems the problem of the village is unemployment and its remoteness.
Similar problems appear everywhere you go, they are not specific to Russia.
Anyway, what is life ?
I always wonder what we live for, and it’s sure that people live in better houses than others … (including me).
And i believe what matters is to feel good with people you live with. Travel if you want. Get fool if you want. Study a lot if you want.
What is good in life is happyness.
I like your comments guys, it makes me feel good to see that not everybody is fool on the net.
Some of them looks like they are semigypsies.
It is so usual. Someone just pops up here, trying to insult everyone. To tell bad thing, to judge. Of course Russia is not the ideal country (somewhere). But this blog is not about regular life in Russia. It is about strange unusual things authors meet in Russia. And you know, to waste time looking the information about country you hate on this blog just to post comments insulting Russians and to confesse ‘I am from the better place and, therefore I am better and can judge all the Russians’ is such a ridiculous thing to do and insults only the author of such post. And (I do not have anything bad to say about Polish people), sometime one or another particular Polish loser posts such comment, though, Poland is a Great country.
great documentary.
Has there ever been a rural electrification program in the old USSR? The home and school are obviously electrified. The most striking part for me, however, was the need to fetch water in buckets. While indoor plumbing was not almost universal in the the United States until the 1990s, approximately 75% of the country did have it. How do such isolated places get water and sewage infrastructure developed in these sorts of former-Soviet areas?
In some places, it’s damn costly to make water infrastructure, ’cause it requires heat-insulated pipelines 2 meters below ground and proper filtering of very small volumes of water costs almost as much as filtering of tons of water for big village. So in many places there are pipelines above the ground that work when it’s warm enough but no all-year-round water supply.
A decent sewer system is more rare than one would expect: even in Zjukovka, a small suburb / village on the edge of Moscow, where the really rich are living and where real estate is the most pricey in Russia there is no decent infrastructure.
The sewer system has not changed since the times when the village was just a row of dacha’s, and the electricity supply is also really outdated. Most inhabitants are forced to buy electrical generators so the pumps leading to the main sewer system will work and they have electricity. If the generators fail: no airco, no toilet flushing, no TV, etc… Apartments are 1,5 million and up…
Heh, just like Iran…
Persian engineers were masters of public waterworks for cities when Europeans were only bathing twice a year and pooping in the same stream from where they drank their water.
Wishing you good hygiene and poop-free drinking water,
M. Ahmadinejad
With all due respect, bullcrap. Shallow well, cheap with local labor. Submersible pump, starts at $100. Plastic piping - cheap. On-demand heater - starts at $250. Septic tank and leaching field - constructed in situ with local labor, cheap. For about a grand, you can refit one of those houses for cold/hot water and a sewer. Trust me, I priced that: considered converting my grandma’s house in Russia into vacation home. The only problem would be septic tank cleaning, but I imagine one can involve the same people that empty pit toilets.
The problem is, it is tough to save a grand in the middle of nowhere in Russia. Even worse, the feudal land ownership system means that your house can be taken away from you at any time (cf. Sochi). Even worse than that is the mentality of the locals: “if we have to live in shit, so will you, and if you try to improve your lot, we’ll drag you down, you filthy capitalist pig!” Not really surprising, as this breed of humans was carefully cultivated by the commies for the last 90 years, but still depressing.
“The problem is, it is tough to save a grand in the middle of nowhere in Russia.”
That’s just it. These people make a grand PER YEAR and they don’t get to keep it all.
Oh, and wonderful pictures. But do we all have to live in such small and bucolic surroundings to get along so well with each other? I hope not, because I want to believe that all people can achieve this no matter where they are born and grow up, or who their parents are.
By the way, lady in last picture is smoking crack.
note that Nike and Disney even conquered this part of the World … it might not be as isolated as being said on comments, does it ?
no it is not isolated, all Russians know about America even more, that American people do. Yep, we know a lot about Disney and Nike and all that stuff, we know about Barack Obama and John McCain, while lots of Americans don’t know their national anthem. And American stereotypes about Russia just drive me nuts - the mass media in the USA always gave (and still gives) an inaccurate presentation of Russia just because they think that Americans are better. Anyways, I’m so proud of being Russian, and all Russian people have the same mind.
That is a “Zvezda 54″ (red star 54) radioset from the Mospribor factories in central Moscow.
Unfortunately for the girl, it is neither rare nor expensive as it was mass produced at the time (1954) and is of rather poor quality; nothing like the radio sets of the sarapul radio works of the time.
classroom dry and warmed by natural fire which smells of burned pine woods… yes, it’s wonderful and very friendly school
[...] Life In Russian Village Jump to Comments Interesting photo set from a Russian village.Link [...]
I used to live in places like that in rural Canada with my children when I was young, strong and idealistic. Of course those old farmhouses out in the country have long been turned into acreage developments with modern conveniences. It was a lot of work, but we all had a pretty good idea of the difference between needs and wants.
I live in a house like that on the outskirts of Moskow, Town “Opaliha” in the Krasnagorsk region. (it used to be a town now its part of the city of krasnagorsk) There is also an old summercamp there “Serebryanka” if that rings the bell for anyone
Its a wonderful house and probably the only house like that in the area since everyone is building 3 story red brick houses with big shiny stainless steel roofs with brick walls all over the place. And now They built a small church on the edge of a lake which ruined a good place of my childhood. Then they built an entire big church in the field in front of my house, ruining even more of my childhood. Now because that church was built on a swamp, all the water there now floods our yard (its very terrible during the spring)
I would really hate to sell the place but its 50 years old and completely choked (in 5 years the region of Krasnagorsk where this is located will be absorbed into moscow). I hope that someday i will be able to build myself a dacha somewhere far away from the metropolis
Dude don’t sell now. When it’ll be part of moscow you’ll sell it for 10 or 20 times what you’d get now
This is very lovely. Reminds me of life before I move to Moscow for schooling
I guess Vladimir Grigoryev is very famous now, it’s interesting - did anybody phone him, or not?
In my country (Greece), such remote villages don’t have children any more…
Were they eaten by Greek mythological creatures?
Gerry, that is the saddest comment of all. Once all the old people in your village die, the village is over. The inheritors will sell the property, or not, but never return. And how long has that spot been inhabited?
Aw, sounds like something from the short movie my favorite director Kaurismaki shot in the Portuguese village…
most of this kids don’t look russian. i would say middle-east or something about it
Possibly many women from the village came to Middle East for work and were unable to resist the romantic charms and poetic soul of local men (especially the Persians), became pregnant, and returned to their village in Russia to bear their love child. We have done the same thing with many American and English girls, so why not Russians?
Is it St.Petersburg? Wow!
I can only imagine how it is like in countryside…
Stop lying mahmoud. You’re still a virgin.
There is def something about a simple life like this, I think everyone should experience it at some point.
how about posting a russian luxurious living series of photo, am sure americas will drop their jaw…
Nah. Since luxury living in Russia entails 1000 square foot apartment (smaller than my fairly modest house) in a concrete chicken coop with neighbours on all sides and no soundproofing (not to mention the fact that hot water gets cut off yearly for 3 weeks), Americans are not likely to get impressed. New Yorkers might be, though, especially those living in subsidized municipal housing.
Oh, and… it’s the certain underclass here that is inclined towards big luxury cars, like Mercedes, so popular in Russia, so spare me that.
Totally forgot something.
The current clown/puppet president of Russia (preved, medved!) was swearing his ass off back in 2007 that ALL schools in Russia would have Internet access by the end of that year (see, e.g., here). Presumably including this one. So, as someone a lot more cynical than I am suggested, since those kiddies would have internet but no indoor plumbing, they would have to go shit in blog comments (Russian “срать в каментах”).
that’s not russian village, it more looks like moldovanian (romanian) village, look at the color of their skin
?
Moldavians are whiter than computer programmers.
Hey, that one girl has a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shirt!
Is this photographer, Vladimir Grigoriev, a pedophile?
Look at the photo on his home page: http://www.spb-foto.ru/
This is depressing for me. I got my internet, hot water, big queen size bed, air conditioner, car,TV and xbox etc, i walk outside go around corner to lovely beach off in the distance the lights of the city. What they got a cow? Fun
And they happy. What about you?
I lived in such viilage, graduated my fist class and spent every summer holiday. Hope sometimes I could feel this again - freedom, nature, calmness.
[...] Talán az 1800-as évek vége fele már ilyen volt az élet falun, mint most egyes helyeken Oroszországban. [...]
As usual, most of the comments here are stupid and selfish. I would like to say many thanks for the pictures. I appreciate them so much and more would be nice!! Thank you.
id hit it
This is Munesh from India. I am looking for any russian girl. I want to know more about this country . this is very beatiful country.
I go often to Russian villages. We have a house in one of them. Well, most of them don’t have sewege system at all, and no running water you have to fetch the water from the river or from the well which almost every houyse has in the yard and the water there can be fetched all year round even in winter. they don’t have gas and they cook in the oven or on electrical ovens. what is strange is that the girls washes her hair in the house, normally everyone has a washing house - banya where you can warm plenty of water and not do it like this. we do it like this in the cities when there is no hot water for some reason)) and the house inside is some messy and not clean enough. there are houses which are much more clean and cosy in the villages but there are also much more horrible houses..depends on the family.
I’ve recently read “And quiet flows the Don” and “Dead Souls”. Since then Russian countryside has been looking fascinating. This pictures bring me a sensation of peace.
o happy days….for this young girl. Nice pics and happy childhood, thats all! Thanks!
Srečni dnevi….za to mlado deklico. Lepi posnetki in srečno otroštvo, to je vse! Hvala!
that’s an awesome teenage mutant ninja shirt :p
don’t look down on some “lesser” areas of the world.
This sort of life worked for the most of humanity for like ten thousand years
a happy childhood no doubt
Another great series. Thanks!
They look like gypsies
we indians we loves you (russians) by heart……………………………….