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Julia Smorodova
In winter, for example, the road — their only connection with civilization — remains permanently snowed up.
Julia Smorodova
Then you realize that it is in fact our own time, and these people, our contemporaries at world’s end, live in a village with no electricity, but are able to be happy.
Julia Smorodova
Another curious detail is that for the last 11 years he crafts wooden musical instruments, like gusli, and paints them in the style of lacquer miniatures.
Julia Smorodova
In his free time he writes stories about the coexistence of humans and animals, and draws a lot.
Julia Smorodova
They cultivate some vegetables and even have got an apiary.
Julia Smorodova
With a little help of his wife Natalia Nikolai Ivanov runs his household.
Julia Smorodova
Nikolai was born in Tokarikha. He returned to the village after serving in the Navy and has been living here for eleven years.
Julia Smorodova
But even then, you know the feeling is temporary, that you will return to the city, and everything will be as before. And here these people will remain.
Julia Smorodova
It is a different kind of existence that can, perhaps, be perceived on the third day, falling asleep to the crackle of opera on the radio.
Julia Smorodova
In the evenings, Tokarikhans light a kerosene lamp and drink tea from a samovar, not to treat guests, but because that’s the way they know. The ebb and flow of life is elusive to visitors here for just one day.
Julia Smorodova
Away from the bustle of the city, the village, which once numbered 300 houses, is now home to only four. Local authorities must seek an answer to the question: do these people live or survive?
Julia Smorodova
In the village of Tokarikha, there has been no electricity for a long time and it seems there never will be.
Julia Smorodova
The feeling arises of being somewhere outside of time, in a complex mixture of details, objects, and contradictions.
Julia Smorodova
As the pace of life increased, they were forgotten and left to live out their days, but no other existence would suit them. Here you cannot help but see things through very different eyes.
Julia Smorodova
Nikolai and other rare villagers today are people who live on the edge of society.
Julia Smorodova
When you arrived in Tokarikha, you realize that you would be coming there again and again. Something got you hooked. It's as if you had been looking for the living depiction of the modern village and had now found it.
Julia Smorodova
Nikolai Ivanov is one of the few residents of the village of Tokarikha in the Tver region, which is in about 350 km from Moscow (on the route Moscow – Saint-Petersburg).
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