Sponsored in cooperation with the Earthwatch Institute

Folklore of Rural Russia

Southwestern Russia

To proof a child against tickling, says a woman healer from this rural area, roll dough over the child’s back, then bake a flat cake of that dough and feed it to the dog. Peasants here turn to healers to cure everything from crying and insomnia to childhood diseases and umbilical hernias. The Russian provinces of Smolenskaya, Kaluzhskaya, and Bryanskaya, particularly the areas between the Desna and Bolva rivers, are known as the country’s "well of folklore." You are here to help tap that centuries-deep well of indigenous beliefs and traditions before it runs dry.

In this region of farmland, lonely thickets, and vast stretches of deep, dark woods, Russians rubbed shoulders over the centuries with Byelorussians and Ukrainians. The result is a melting pot of colorful myths, folk songs, fairy tales, and lively superstitions with roots trailing back into the dim, dark past. Some rituals hark back to early pagan Slavic times. Every Ascension Day, for example, village girls fashion cuckoo dolls out of herbs or fabric and bury them in the forest. Other beliefs arose recently, such as the notion that Iisus Khristos (Jesus Christ in Russian) punished communists for destroying churches. Yet despite its rich heritage, this folklore is an endangered species. In some villages the only people who remember, much less follow, sacred traditions are in their 70s or 80s; the uninterested youth have fled to the cities.

Your leaders, Sergei and Dr. Yelena Minyonok, are tracking down and recording these endangered traditions before they disappear. With her doctorate in folklore from the Institute of World Literature at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, Yelena Minyonok serves as the Institute’s Curator of the Folklore Archive. Currently pursuing his doctorate at the Institute, Sergei Minyonok has a background in theater direction and video production. The Minyonoks have devoted their lives and considerable energies to recording the region’s rich folklore for scholars, the general public, and, perhaps most importantly, future generations of ethnic Russians.

Based in a small village, you will play a vital role in this cultural preservation. You will help construct film sets, set up lights, and otherwise prepare the site for segments of a video encyclopedia of Russian folklore the Minyonoks are putting together. During ritual performances, family celebrations, and staff-led interviews of knowledgeable elders, you’ll be making audio tapes and taking photographs of the villagers and their surroundings. You’ll photograph people making handicrafts, posing in traditional garb, or doing everyday tasks such as milking or gathering the harvest. Other members of your team of budding ethnographers will make sketches of peasant house floor plans and interiors, copy embroidery decorations, or fill in questionnaires about Russian costumes and other material items.

Past teams have already researched folk heritage in many of the villages of rural Kaluzhskaya and Bryanskaya. Your team will be continuing this worthy effort. This is the sort of project that requires patience, attention to detail, and humor as well as the ability to act quickly to catch some spontaneous gesture or action on film or tape. You are amply rewarded by the immersion in the rich culture of the region and the knowledge that your labors will preserve local folklore for generations to come.

• 1 9 9 9 .and .2 0 0 0 . T E A M S
Team III: Jul 15-26 • Year 2000, Team IV: Jan 30-Feb 10 • Other teams, call for details • Max team size: 8

• M E M B E R S ' . S H A R E . O F . C O S T S
US $1,795 • £990 • Aus $2,760 • Yen ¥210,700

• R E N D E Z V O U S . S I T E
Sheremetjevo 2 Airport, Moscow, Russia

• F I E L D . C O N D I T I O N S
Your team will stay in modest local houses or a boarding school, with rustic conditions varying from house to house. You’ll use pit toilets and Russian bath-houses—clean, sauna-like wooden buildings (bathe in daylight, though, for people who wash in bath-houses at night are likely to be visited by demons). Join the staff in preparing meals, including plentiful fresh bread, milk, and eggs.