Belarus villagers prefer hard work to city smoke

Belarus villagers prefer hard work to city smoke

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Just a few hours drive from the Belarussian capital of Minsk, many villagers still live off the land - planting, harvesting and pickling crops according to the season and ancient folk traditions.

. Khrapkovo, BELARUS. Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

Nearly 80 percent of the former Soviet nation's 9.5 million citizens live in towns and cities, but for the remainder, being close to nature can outweigh the hardships of country life.

. Khrapkovo, BELARUS. Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

"We're far from civilisation - and that's a good thing. I feel comfortable here," said 41-year-old Vladimir Krivenchik, who is raising a young family in his native village of Khrapkovo, close to Belarus's southern border with Ukraine.

. Khrapkovo, BELARUS. Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

"We survive thanks to this scrap of land," Krivenchik said. "You go to Minsk for half a day and your head starts to hurt and you want to go home."

Krivenchik supplements his income as a watchman at a granary by raising pigs for slaughter and hunting.

. Khrapkovo, BELARUS. Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

Most villagers also grow crops close to their one-storey homes - on vegetable patches and fields that are often ploughed by horse and sown laboriously by hand.

. Pogost, BELARUS. Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

For 75-year old Ekaterina Panchenya, the biggest change in daily life is that young people have become more lazy.

. Pogost, BELARUS. Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

"In the past, children didn't go out partying. They worked in the field or carried sheaves to the threshing mill," she said.

But it was "cars, noise and dirt" and the sight of city-dwellers standing in line to buy groceries that dissuaded Panchenya from leaving her smallholding in the village of Pogost.

"I do everything myself: feed the animals in the barn, the chickens in the yard, and I pickle and preserve all the vegetables. The river is nearby, the forest, mushrooms and berries in the summer. No, I'll never in my life move to town," she said.

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Panchenya is also skilled in local folk traditions such as floral embroidery, a cappella choral singing and ancient pagan ceremonies, which survived the ideological white-washing of the Soviet era.

. Pogost, BELARUS. Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

These include a May-time ritual in honour of the pagan god Yurya, when villagers don national dress and make offerings out of colourful ribbons and paper in the hope of plentiful harvests in the future.

. Pogost, BELARUS. Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

"I give all my strength to preserve these ceremonies and songs that make everyone cry, to give them to the young," Panchenya said.

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Slideshow

Weaving threads are seen in the house of Ekaterina Panchenya.
. Pogost, BELARUS. Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

Weaving threads are seen in the house of Ekaterina Panchenya.

Ekaterina Panchenya works on an old loom.
. Pogost, BELARUS. Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

Ekaterina Panchenya works on an old loom.

A window of a house in the village of Pogost.
. Pogost, BELARUS. Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

A window of a house in the village of Pogost.

Valentina Zhih, 77, hangs linen on the washing line.
. Danilovichi, BELARUS. Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

Valentina Zhih, 77, hangs linen on the washing line.

Mikhail, a grandson of Ekaterina Panchenya, fishes in the river of Stviga.
. Pogost, BELARUS. Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

Mikhail, a grandson of Ekaterina Panchenya, fishes in the river of Stviga.

Ekaterina, a granddaughter of Ekaterina Panchenya, bathes her daughter Dasha on a hot summer day.
. Pogost, BELARUS. Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

Ekaterina, a granddaughter of Ekaterina Panchenya, bathes her daughter Dasha on a hot summer day.

Boys play in the river of Stviga on a hot summer day near the village of Pogost.
. Pogost, BELARUS. Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

Boys play in the river of Stviga on a hot summer day near the village of Pogost.

Pupils walk to school on the first day of school in the village of Khrapkovo.
. Khrapkovo, BELARUS. Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

Pupils walk to school on the first day of school in the village of Khrapkovo.

Pupils sit in class on the first day of school in the village of Sudkovo.
. Sudkovo, BELARUS. Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

Pupils sit in class on the first day of school in the village of Sudkovo.

Painting are seen over washbasins outside a school cafeteria.
. Sudkovo, BELARUS. Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

Painting are seen over washbasins outside a school cafeteria.

Family photos in wooden frames are seen at a house of 82-year-old Yulia Panchenya.
. Pogost, BELARUS. Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

Family photos in wooden frames are seen at a house of 82-year-old Yulia Panchenya.

Women gather for a May-time ritual in honour of the pagan god Yurya.
. Pogost, BELARUS. Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

Women gather for a May-time ritual in honour of the pagan god Yurya.

Yulia Panchenya, 82, makes Easter cakes on the eve of Orthodox Easter.
. Pogost, BELARUS. Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

Yulia Panchenya, 82, makes Easter cakes on the eve of Orthodox Easter.

Ekaterina Panchenya visits her relatives' graves during Orthodox Easter.
. Pogost, BELARUS. Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

Ekaterina Panchenya visits her relatives' graves during Orthodox Easter.

People with their Easter cakes and other food gather at an Orthodox church yard on the eve of Orthodox Easter.
. Turov, BELARUS. Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

People with their Easter cakes and other food gather at an Orthodox church yard on the eve of Orthodox Easter.

Orthodox priest conducts a wedding ceremony in the village of David-Gorodok.
. David-Gorodok, BELARUS. Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

Orthodox priest conducts a wedding ceremony in the village of David-Gorodok.

People gather for a wedding.
. David-Gorodok, BELARUS. Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

People gather for a wedding.

Women dance during a wedding party.
. David-Gorodok, BELARUS. Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

Women dance during a wedding party.

Bride Tatyana Pashkovets waits for the groom in her wedding dress.
. David-Gorodok, BELARUS. Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

Bride Tatyana Pashkovets waits for the groom in her wedding dress.

An Orthodox church is seen at night in the village of Khrapkovo.
. Khrapkovo, BELARUS. Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko

An Orthodox church is seen at night in the village of Khrapkovo.