Belarus villagers prefer hard work to city smoke – in pictures
Vasily Fedosenko, Reuters / The Guardian
12 December 2017, 11:07
![Belarus villagers prefer hard work to city smoke – in pictures]( "Belarus villagers prefer hard work to city smoke – in pictures")
Ekaterina Panchenya, 75, walks in the snow to her neighbour’s house, in the village of Pogost. “I do everything myself: feed the animals in the barn, the chickens in the yard. The river is nearby, the forest, mushrooms and berries in the summer. No, I’ll never in my life move to town,” she said.
Photograph: Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
![Belarus villagers prefer hard work to city smoke – in pictures]( "Belarus villagers prefer hard work to city smoke – in pictures")
Panchenya is also skilled in local folk traditions such as floral embroidery, acappella choral singing and ancient pagan ceremonies, which survived the ideological whitewashing of the Soviet era.
Photograph: Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
![Belarus villagers prefer hard work to city smoke – in pictures]( "Belarus villagers prefer hard work to city smoke – in pictures")
Yulia Panchenya, 82, makes Easter cakes on the eve of Orthodox Easter in Pogost.
Photograph: Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
![Belarus villagers prefer hard work to city smoke – in pictures]( "Belarus villagers prefer hard work to city smoke – in pictures")
Villagers take part in a ritual celebrating the pagan god Yurya, a time when they don national dress and make offerings out of colourful ribbons and paper in the hope of plentiful harvests in the future.
Photograph: Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
![Belarus villagers prefer hard work to city smoke – in pictures]( "Belarus villagers prefer hard work to city smoke – in pictures")
Family photos in wooden frames on display in Yulia Panchenya’s home.
Photograph: Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
![Belarus villagers prefer hard work to city smoke – in pictures]( "Belarus villagers prefer hard work to city smoke – in pictures")
Women gather for the May-time ritual in honour of the pagan god Yurya.
Photograph: Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
![Belarus villagers prefer hard work to city smoke – in pictures]( "Belarus villagers prefer hard work to city smoke – in pictures")
Ekaterina Panchenya visits her relatives’ graves during Orthodox Easter.
Photograph: Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
![Belarus villagers prefer hard work to city smoke – in pictures]( "Belarus villagers prefer hard work to city smoke – in pictures")
Villagers in national dress participate in the spring festival.
![Belarus villagers prefer hard work to city smoke – in pictures]( "Belarus villagers prefer hard work to city smoke – in pictures")
An icon on display in Yulia Panchenya’s house.
Photograph: Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
![Belarus villagers prefer hard work to city smoke – in pictures]( "Belarus villagers prefer hard work to city smoke – in pictures")
Villagers buy food at the local grocery store.
Photograph: Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
![Belarus villagers prefer hard work to city smoke – in pictures]( "Belarus villagers prefer hard work to city smoke – in pictures")
Ekaterina, granddaughter of 75-year old Ekaterina Panchenya, bathes her daughter Dasha in a basin on a hot summer day. It was “cars, noise and dirt” and the sight of city dwellers standing in line to buy groceries that dissuaded her from leaving Pogost.
Photograph: Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
![Belarus villagers prefer hard work to city smoke – in pictures]( "Belarus villagers prefer hard work to city smoke – in pictures")
Boys cool off on a hot day playing in the river of Stviga near the village.
Photograph: Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
12 December 2017, 11:07
Just a few hours’ drive from the Belarus capital of Minsk, many villagers still live off the land. Nearly 80% of the country’s 9.5 million citizens live in urban areas, but for the rest, being close to nature can outweigh the hardships of country life
Ekaterina Panchenya, 75, walks in the snow to her neighbour’s house, in the village of Pogost. “I do everything myself: feed the animals in the barn, the chickens in the yard. The river is nearby, the forest, mushrooms and berries in the summer. No, I’ll never in my life move to town,” she said.
Photograph: Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
Panchenya is also skilled in local folk traditions such as floral embroidery, acappella choral singing and ancient pagan ceremonies, which survived the ideological whitewashing of the Soviet era.
Photograph: Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
Yulia Panchenya, 82, makes Easter cakes on the eve of Orthodox Easter in Pogost.
Photograph: Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
Villagers take part in a ritual celebrating the pagan god Yurya, a time when they don national dress and make offerings out of colourful ribbons and paper in the hope of plentiful harvests in the future.
Photograph: Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
Family photos in wooden frames on display in Yulia Panchenya’s home.
Photograph: Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
Women gather for the May-time ritual in honour of the pagan god Yurya.
Photograph: Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
Ekaterina Panchenya visits her relatives’ graves during Orthodox Easter.
Photograph: Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
Villagers in national dress participate in the spring festival.
An icon on display in Yulia Panchenya’s house.
Photograph: Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
Villagers buy food at the local grocery store.
Photograph: Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
Ekaterina, granddaughter of 75-year old Ekaterina Panchenya, bathes her daughter Dasha in a basin on a hot summer day. It was “cars, noise and dirt” and the sight of city dwellers standing in line to buy groceries that dissuaded her from leaving Pogost.
Photograph: Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
Boys cool off on a hot day playing in the river of Stviga near the village.
Photograph: Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
