Russian village marks 555 years with costumes, concerts

The village of Zaostrovye in the Vinogradovsky district of Arkhangelsk Region has celebrated a milestone — its 555th anniversary. The holiday falls on 28 July and is not postponed, even if it lands on a weekday as it does this year. Despite that, hundreds of people came to mark the jubilee. We visited the festival in Zaostrovye to find out what life in this place is like.

Restoring houses and folk costumes

Around 150 people live in Zaostrovye permanently, but many come for the summer — dacha dwellers and children. The village stretches about five kilometres in length. Nearby flows the Nyuma River, which feeds into the Northern Dvina.

The celebration drew not only locals but also guests from neighbouring villages and settlements. The main part of the programme was set for the evening at the House of Culture, but it began a few hours earlier with a display of folk costumes by an old house.

The show was organised by designer Yulia Yeremeyeva, founder of the berega brand, who also sewed some of the costumes. She invited us to the festival and hosted us in one of the houses where her family lives. Yulia was born in Moscow, but Zaostrovye is not foreign to her: her parents Yulia and Dmitry come from here, her grandmothers live here, and the family visits several times a year.

The costumes are replicas of those worn by residents in Kargopol and the Arkhangelsk district of Arkhangelsk Province; there is also a Vologda costume. Their study on site is carried out by the studio for the revival and development of national traditions «Russkiye Nachala» («Russian Beginnings»), a non-profit organisation from Moscow.

Studio head Tatyana Valkova first visited Pomorye in 1984 and has been going on expeditions ever since, studying the traditions and everyday life of the North. Today she is also here with two colleagues. When we arrived, they were still at work, cataloguing items found among local residents. The costumes were sewn by eight craftswomen from the «Russkiye Nachala» studio.

Twenty models were found for the show, two of them — Yulia and her sister Olga, the rest were local women and girls. One of them is Olesya Grishanova, who is restoring her ancestral home in Zaostrovye.

— I live here half the year and in Severodvinsk the other half. I organised my work to be free and devote more time to the village. Since I was a child I have spent every summer here, — says Olesya. — I love the North, village life, everything Russian. It is genuine, not pompous, it is human. There is much more real, live communication here than in the city.

Olesya knows her family history well: the lineage has been traced back to the time of the tsars.

— I supplement it by studying materials in the archives. On the land where I live now, five generations of our family alone have lived. They have been here since 1400. I am continuing.

Not everyone around her shares Olesya«s desire to stay in the village. But in Zaostrovye there are many who love their small homeland.

— Every year there are more and more such people in my circle, — says Olesya.

Despite the locals« love for Zaostrovye, living in the village is becoming harder each year.

— The kindergarten, the post office and the bakery have closed, — says Olesya. — But there are potato fields, the only thing you could call production. Mowing the meadows stopped because there is no livestock. Sawmills remain in neighbouring villages, and men go on rotation work. Handicrafts are well developed. Fairs are one way to earn a little. Everyone lives off their own household and vegetable garden. It is heartening that there are still those who do not leave, who study history deeply and promote this way of life.

The show was due to start at 4 p.m., with preparations beginning earlier. Fittings and preparations were organised in a house now owned by Yulia: she bought it to restore and turn into a workshop for her brand. They named it the same way — «Berega».

Architect-restorer Nikolai Smirnov is helping restore the house — he too is a Muscovite who regularly works in the North. With the charity fund «Verenitsa», he is, for example, restoring the Osip Burakov House in the village of Kochigino in Velsky district.

Musicians from Bereznik, the district centre, were specially invited to the festival. Vasily Vodovozov and Alexander Maltsev are members of the collective «Zdarie».

— We came to take part; we love this good village of Zaostrovye, this festival, this weather, — says Alexander.

The man graduated from the Arkhangelsk College of Culture and could have lived in Zaostrovye:

— I was even assigned to work here, but never made it. I consider myself one of the locals, — says Alexander. — We try to come here often.

«Zdarie» is an ethnographic collective that works on local folklore. Knowledge here is passed down from older to younger generations.

— We have grandmothers, the oldest is 96, they remember the dances and songs. They don«t know notation, but they sing what was sung in their youth. Children also take part with us, but the lineup changes: they finish their studies — they leave, and new ones come.

Closer to 4 p.m., guests gather by the house: both Zaostrovye residents and neighbours from nearby villages. Yulia Skornyakova, Yulia«s mother, invites people on a tour of the house; the girls in costumes are already outside taking photos and getting ready for the procession; accordion players strike up tunes; women begin singing songs familiar to many, ones that have become folk in their own right.

Half an hour later the procession begins: girls in costumes, accordion players and guests walk the length of the village with songs and ditties. By the houses along the way, spectators who have not joined in the festivities gather, filming the marchers on their phones, waving — someone even sings along as they pass.

We stop on a small field by the chapel. Many of the guests have stayed by the House of Culture along the way: some are preparing for performances, others are saving seats or browsing the goods on sale at the fair there. The girls in costumes start a dance to the accordion. A little boy runs nearby, watching with great interest. When his mother tries to lead him away so he is not underfoot, he starts to fuss. He especially took a liking to Yulia, who happened to be short a partner for the dance, so she invites the boy to dance with her.

They sing, dance and go to fairs

We regroup and head to the House of Culture — the final stop. Here the girls prepare for another appearance, this time on stage, to present the costumes to those gathered. There are still a few minutes before it begins, time to see what the fair has to offer.

In addition to the vendors of crafts, there is a tent with shashlik and shawarma, a table with pies and compote, popcorn and cotton candy, two photo zones were set up, a large inflatable slide for children, and you can get face painting and buy toys — though these are clearly shop-bought, such as cars in boxes and stuffed animals.

One of the tables sells crafts by artisans from the village of Puchugi in Verkhnetoyemsky district. On the other side, a woman is signing books. This is Lilia Sintsova from Kholmogory. As written on the back of one of the collections available here, she writes poetry and prose about her small homeland.

At another stall we meet Nina Kuznetsova. Together with her colleague, she sells items by local craftswomen from Zaostrovye.

— We hold fairs for Maslenitsa and for Zaostrovye holidays; in Bereznik there are the Semyonov festivities, where artisans also bring their works, — says Nina. — Our village is alive, all on one bank: there is no ferry crossing, easy to reach. You can come by bus: a route runs twice a week between Bereznik and Zaostrovye. And we have many passing buses. The main thing is to know the contacts so someone can tell you how to get here from Bereznik.

In summer the population, according to the woman, grows two to three times.

— In winter we live a dreary life, — Nina admits.

Yet even in the cold season there is plenty to do. The village has a House of Culture.

— We have theatre and dance clubs, a choir, and we put on travelling holiday concerts. For children there are clubs and sports events.

Nina told us about a master known in Zaostrovye whose works were displayed at the next table. Vladimir Kolosov weaves birch bark. He also plays the accordion — we met him on the way to the House of Culture during the procession. Vladimir comes from Vologda Region and has lived here since 2016. His wife«s roots are here.

— I used to live in Severodvinsk; I came here for retirement, — says Vladimir.

The man began making his items in retirement. He is known not only in Zaostrovye.

— I go to the Margaritinskaya Fair and the Semyonovskaya Fair in Bereznik. My items have already reached abroad and have been sent to Siberia.

Weaving birch bark is not as simple as it might seem: even the material itself requires care.

— First you collect the bark, not just any will do, you have to search. You peel off a piece, look at it, bend it. If it behaves well — you take it. Then, so the bark doesn«t take offence at you, you treat it with copper sulphate so it doesn»t catch anything.

The master creates his works over several days, up to a week:

— Depending on perseverance and the state of my back, — Vladimir explains with a smile.

The pensioner really likes Zaostrovye. The place reminds him of his native village:

— The nature, the people are kind and good. Just like at home. Only in my village, where I was born, there is not a single resident left. And there are thousands like that across the country, — Vladimir notes with sadness.

From grandmother to daughter and granddaughter

The concert lasts two hours. Local groups perform, songs are sung, and skits are acted out with KVN-style cues. Local officials arrived too, wishing the village prosperity. From the stage, letters of gratitude were handed to residents who keep the village alive. One of them went to Nina Mikhailovna Anisimova, Yulia Yeremeyeva«s grandmother.

It was at Nina Mikhailovna«s house that we had lunch and gathered after the concert together with Yulia, her large family, the researchers of the »Russkiye Nachala« project and two museum staff from Bereznik. Later Alexei joined us — a master from Shenkursk who also works with birch bark — and architect-restorer Nikolai Smirnov returned from the forest.

While the household had supper, drank tea, talked and wove birch-bark hearts (Alexei decided to run a masterclass), Nina Mikhailovna went outside to close the greenhouses. She lives in the house year-round. She is already 85, with three daughters and six grandchildren. Her husband passed away 20 years ago. The house we gathered in belonged to him.

We are sitting on the veranda when Nina Mikhailovna returns home.

— In the old days, how much was carried out of the village! — the grandmother recalls. — We raised it, we delivered it. The village fed the city, but now it is the other way around. We wait for the city to bring us bread. It is funny, really. I hired a tractor, mowed the grass, and now it is of no use to anyone.

Now, as Nina Mikhailovna tells it, only one cow remains in the neighbouring village, and in Zaostrovye they keep only goats and chickens.

— People have grown lazy. In the past everyone burned their rubbish, but now a truck comes and takes it away. They say: «I pay money.» And what is that — 50 roubles. Everyone has banyas, stoves — burn it! Everything goes to the dump. The planet will soon not withstand it.

Living in the village has become harder, according to Nina Mikhailovna. But she stays here. Her children and their families try to visit when they can: two daughters live in Moscow, one in Arkhangelsk.

— There is a road here, in winter it is cleared well, we don«t worry, — says Nina Mikhailovna. — In the morning you wake up, look at the thermometer, see how much snow has fallen. You heat the Russian stove. Shovel in hand — and out you go. You have to clear the way to the road. The weather has changed this year, such thaws — you sink into the snow, you have to clear it down to the ground.

In winter, only one house of Nina Mikhailovna«s closest neighbours remains occupied; the rest leave.

— Now so many people have come, but that is in summer. There are nine children in the school now, from first to eighth grade. Whether it will survive — no one knows. In the kindergarten there are two children; it was closed on 1 January. The post office is closed, but a postman still comes. They bring the district newspaper, «Dvinovazhie». Once a week, on Fridays.

The newspaper congratulated Nina Mikhailovna on her jubilee.

— I think I deserved that congratulations. 33 years of service as chief accountant at the village consumer society, — Nina Mikhailovna shares. — In 1996 the consumer society was closed, 30 years ago.

There are almost no young people left in Zaostrovye, according to the pensioner. Many are registered here, but few actually live.

— In the past the sovkhoz was developing, everyone toiled, worked, everything was ploughed. And the livestock — over a thousand head!

But those who remain help each other, including their neighbours. Nina Mikhailovna is very glad that there is still a medical worker in the village — Natalya Vasilyevna.

— I tell her: «Once you leave — we will all be healthy,» — Nina Mikhailovna jokes. She laughs a lot in general, even when speaking of sad things.

The pensioner keeps the village«s history not only in her memory but also in her family archive. She has a bound file of »Dvinovazhie« newspapers, as well as papers from her years working as an accountant. And she is glad that her daughter followed in her footsteps: Yulia Skornyakova collects information about her family and the village — photos, records from archives and books.

Zaostrovye is one of the many villages in Arkhangelsk Region that could have sunk into oblivion, leaving behind ruins of wooden houses. But Zaostrovye lives. In the memory of people who, by weaving family stories, piece together the history of the place, passing what they have gathered from generation to generation. It lives in the labours of researchers, artisans and architects from Moscow who value the uniqueness of northern culture and strive to preserve it. Villages live because someone cares about them. Yulia Yeremeyeva, her sister Olga, parents, aunts, grandmothers, the people she has brought together through her enthusiasm, local residents preserving their ancestral homes — these are the ones thanks to whom Zaostrovye lives.

Many villages in Arkhangelsk Region live thanks to the efforts of local residents and the interest of tourists. See what attracts visitors to one such place — Piyala.

A video of a village birthday in Arkhangelsk Region has already garnered over a million views. It was shot by Daniil Cheremny. The young man celebrated his 25th birthday in Yedoma in Pinezhsky district, inviting all his neighbours to the jubilee. He comes here in summer and spends most of the year in St Petersburg, where he works and studies. 29.ru spoke with Daniil about village life, local residents and the desire of young people to live away from the city.