There are many abandoned villages in Russia. Our story is about the villages of the Kostroma region, which were mostly empty in the mid-seventies of the last century. There are still settlements among them, where 2-3 families remained, and after all, only some 20 years ago, life in these parts trembled more vividly.
But old age does not spare even the village. And once they used to say: "Ah, Kostroma, your coziness is tender: green - in the summer, in winter - snowy ..."
"Kostroma-town of Moscow - a corner"
So says an old saying. Because it was built by Prince Yuri Dolgoruky together with Moscow. The distance from the capital to Kostroma is 302 kilometers. Perhaps this proximity played a cruel joke with the local settlements: people from the villages went for a better share, first to Kostroma, and there it was a stone's throw away.
Driving along the broken roads leading to the most remote corners of the Kostroma region, you do not believe that life in these abandoned villages once flourished, unhurried, measured, with its own traditions and rites.
For example, in mid-June in these places it was customary to say goodbye to spring. The rite was called the "Funeral of Kostroma", like a winter farewell to Shrovetide. The effigy of Kostroma was made, ritual chants were sung, songs: "Kostromushka played out, danced ... Suddenly Kostromka fell: Kostromushka died ..."
The old “blind” mirror with a damaged amalgam (pictured below) no longer sees the guests of the empty house, although it meets them as before.
Abandoned villages of Kostroma region
In Buisky district, abandoned villages:
Big fix, Kharlamovo, Limonovo, Krutikovo, Tikhaya, Derevenitsino, Korovnovo, Khoroshevo.
From the information of Rosstat:
Khoroshevo village is located in the Buisky district of the Kostroma region. The number of the tax inspectorate (UFMS) in the village of Khoroshevo is 4437, the postcode is 157065, and the KLADR code is 4400300020600.
There are numbers, there is even a tax office, but there are no people.
But the abandoned villages of the Kostroma region of the Soligalichsky district according to statistics:
Akulovo, Borodavitsino, Gorbovo, Ignatovo, Klepikovo, Kolopatino, Kolosovo, Levashovo, Mityanino, Noskovo, Pershino, Petrovo, Ploskovo, Pochinik, Spitsino, Terentyevo, Khoroshevo, Shunino, Yuksino, Yagodino, Yaytsovo, Yakovlevo; the village of Baza Zhilino.
So there are a lot of them, who are not guilty of anything, with empty eye sockets, windows that have grown into the ground, but stubbornly waiting for the owners to return.
About Faith and Supplications
Speaking of the abandoned villages of the Kostroma region, one cannot but touch on the theme of previous beliefs and rituals. The fact is that once in the Kostroma region there were many Old Believer villages, differing not only in other religious and cultural, but also in everyday life. Here they built their churches, households and households with a fortress based on community life.
There were several groups of believers in these places: Orthodox and Old Believers. So, in the village of Ovintsy, Kostroma region, a village was formed from a monastery during the split. There was a house of worship here.
And, for example, in the center of the village of Vederki was the Old Believer community of Cherepnin and also with his house of worship. Her life was supported by a merchant from St. Petersburg.
You can see in the photo the abandoned village of the Kostroma region Falileevo with its environs.
In the village of Kunikovo, Kostroma region, in the center of the village there was a brick Old Believer church, and the Orthodox church in the settlement. And, for example, the famous philanthropist Tretyakov and his family came to pray in the village of Zharki.
Birthdays were not celebrated, but on the day of the Angel, the mother spoke the following words, referring to her son:
Dear son
Congratulations on your angel day.
Thy crown is your angel
And to you - good health and happiness.
Bad statistics
The demographic situation in the region remains alarming. So, for example, according to the statistical services for the period from 2008 to 2014, more than two hundred different settlements received the status of abandoned villages in the Kostroma region.
The largest losses are Antropovsky (the central region of the region), Soligalichsky, Susaninsky, Mezhevsky, Vohomsky districts (in the north-west).
The decline in population can be attributed to natural factors: a decrease in the number of marriages, low birth rates, and natural mortality. Although in some areas there is still a slight increase in population. The maximum growth was noted in the village of Nazherovo of the Kostroma region - twice; in Igolkino of the Nerekht district from 131 to 173 people.
What will be able to return people to their native places is unknown. And that means, what new people will come to the abandoned villages of the Kostroma region, we learn only with time.
Unfortunately, the times have passed when one village, which was collecting record harvests of bread, could dictate the prices of the London Stock Exchange. Empty villages now attract tourists and antiquity hunters more. How can one not recall the verses of G. Zavolokin, which became a folk song:
Well, remember the past,
How walked the whole village!
I’ll break my hat again
I do not cry, I love!
In recent years, new rich people have appeared who are drawn to villages. These are entrepreneurs - they redeem the lands of entire villages, call them their homeland, trying to revive in a new way. For example, to lay a route in the style of "ecotourism". Then the villages create conditions for the opportunity not only to admire the beauties of nature, but also to live in real village houses instead of hotels and beaches. A traveler or a guest of the village receives a master class on making something worthwhile with his own hands: bread, kvass, pies, clay toys, bast shoes. It seems that a lot of entertainment can be invented ...
But how would you like to wish the Russian village a real, full-blooded, bright and joyful life; prosperity and freedom. After all, the village is the root of government.