The problem of the abandoned villages of the Yaroslavl region, as well as other Russian regions, can be considered from different angles, which is done on a social network. This is where this question comes up most often. But all points of view are united and worried by one thing: the statistics of the disappearance of “living” villages are dangerously high. It is estimated that three thousand settlements die every year in Russia. Not individual yards, but entire villages. True, according to the latest All-Russian census, up to 10 people lived in 36% of villages, and this is one step to complete disappearance.
Why do abandoned villages appear in the Yaroslavl region?
The ruin of Russian villages has deep historical roots. From the moment of collectivization, the peasants did not feel like free people, but there was hope for a brighter future and still primordially Russian “where it was born, it came in handy.”
Of course, the experienced war, which mowed the male population, and the program of the 60s of the last century to create the "largest agricultural enterprises in the world" contributed to the weakening of living standards. People moved to enlarged state farms, leaving inhabited small villages and farms. But today, the desolation of the villages is due to several other reasons.
Youth prefers urban life
In the villages of the Yaroslavl region, where life is still warm, mostly people over 50 remained. Their everyday life is a struggle for survival. The weakest point is the road. They are in such a condition - as a rule, in hard-to-reach settlements - which are practically beyond repair. And if there is a ravine or river on the way, then it’s completely a disaster. Hence the problems with medical care, education (if there are still children in the village), food (after all, it is impossible to produce everything on your own farm). There are no jobs, and if you are lucky with employment, then the salary is cheap.
Young people, full of strength and plans for the future, do not want to put up with a monstrous inadequacy at the household and social level. She moves, if not to cities, then to larger settlements with jobs, developed infrastructure, the opportunity to get an education and give it to her children. Children who left a sparsely populated village during their studies, as a rule, no longer return to their homes.
It remains the older generation to live out their lives in the old village. It is good if grandchildren are brought on vacation, but there are villages that have not heard children's voices for a long time.
Aged villages, sow thistles, mugs,
There are no flowers in the palisades, rowan trees are sad,
And on a foggy morning roosters are silent
Dusty at noon on the streets no guys.
Tatyana Bondarenko
Expeditionary research - a new type of tourism
In order to study their native land and their historical roots, in search of adventures, events or new acquaintances, in the hope of finding interesting information, ancient objects or entire treasures, young people, alone or in a team, visit abandoned villages. In the Yaroslavl region there are many of them.
When they reach the end point of the route by an SUV (an ordinary car will not pass), which adds adrenaline, or on foot, they upload expedition trip reports on the Internet, share their impressions and information in special forums, and communicate with like-minded people. Their articles and photographs are interesting even to people far from the topic. But before you go "for intelligence", you need to decide where to go.
How to search for abandoned villages?
The theoretical basis of the trip can be prepared by visiting and studying, as mentioned above, special sites and forums.
Experienced researchers of the abandoned villages of the Yaroslavl region find such objects by reading schematic and satellite maps of the area. Abandoned roads, lack of power lines, broken roofs or overgrown fields and gardens are signs that researchers are guided by. There is such information on maps of the General Staff, where marked tracts and non-residential villages. In this case, in order to distinguish the tract from the former settlement, it is more reliable to put a topographic map on the map of the General Staff. The tract is a terrain different from the surrounding.
And finally, experienced trackers use local sources of information: the media, local history museums, and conversations with local residents.
Research in the Yaroslavl region
Expedition trips conducted by enthusiasts give an idea of the situation in the Yaroslavl region. There are reports of visits to the abandoned villages of the Yaroslavl region of the Yaroslavl region, as well as Myshkinsky, Uglechesky, Poshekhonsky, Bolsheselsky and other areas. These settlements are still in the documents, the land plots have owners, but these are already uninhabited places.
Of the ten houses in the village of Peremoshie, two are preserved, but no one lives in them anymore. Researchers found in one of the houses a letter to the mother from her son.
A narrow gauge railway, built immediately after the war, once led to the village of Dor. Now she only has a mound and a meter-long piece of rail. In 2007, 20 people lived here, now there are no residents. A couple of houses in a collapsing village are quite suitable for spending the night, there are even glasses on the windows. But you can get here only on foot "or on the tank."
The villages of the Rostov district of the Yaroslavl region, abandoned and not needed by anyone, are in approximately the same condition.
The Kamchatka village, which has Far Eastern roots in its name, appeared on the map in the 40s of the last century. The same October narrow gauge railway was built here, intended for the export of forest. After the abolition of the railway line due to a decrease in the volume of work and the preference for road transport, life in a number of local villages froze. It is difficult to get the houses out of here, they are collapsing. But hunters and fishers in these places expanse.
Ghost towns of the Yaroslavl region
In 1935, the decision of the USSR government to create the Rybinsk Reservoir and flood hundreds of thousands of hectares of land determined the future of the city of Mologa and surrounding villages.
April 13, 1941 blocked the last opening of the dam, and the waters of three rivers - the Volga, Sheksna and Mologi - overflowed. But the ghost town did not become Russian Atlantis. The depths at which the buildings are located are not so great, experts call them "vanishingly small." About once every two years, when the reservoir becomes shallow, the city ruins are exposed: foundations, gravestones, surviving fragments of walls.
Memory of flooded settlements
There is a museum in Rybinsk that keeps the memory of Molog and 700 villages of the Yaroslavl region of the Yaroslavl region. In the ancient village of Breitovo, on the banks of the reservoir, a penitent chapel was built. It recalls the temples and cathedrals that remained at the bottom. The village, which also fell into the flooding zone, was moved to another place, and the solid structures, including religious ones, remained standing still.
The importance of the Rybinsk reservoir can hardly be overestimated in the national economy, in the development of energy, and in the country's defense potential in the 40s. But the "exit" from the water of once flooded structures is perceived by locals as a reproach.