Can ordinary citizens solve problems that the state cannot cope with - for example, bring life back to a dying village? Entrepreneur Oleg Zharov it was successful, and he is confident that half the country can be raised this way.
This year, Yaroslavl economist and businessman Zharov was awarded the State Prize in the field of art for the revival of the village of Vyatskoye. Once the richest, 5 years ago it was practically in ruins. Zharov settled here with his family, began buying destroyed merchant houses, restoring them and selling them. He installed sewerage and water supply, opened a hotel, a restaurant, and 7 museums. Tourists are now brought here by bus.
Millionaire collective farmer
“AiF”: - Oleg Alekseevich, you opened a museum of entrepreneurship in Vyatskoye. Do you think this quality has degenerated in our people and it’s time to demonstrate it as a curiosity?
O.Zh.:- No, it’s too early to take entrepreneurship to the museum. Everything that still works in Russia today is based precisely on entrepreneurship. Before the revolution, the residents of Vyatka were so successful in this capacity that they fed the whole of Russia with pickles, sold them abroad, and delivered them to the imperial court. The village was famous far beyond its borders - for its master tinsmiths, roofers, masons, and plasterers. Vyatskoe was built up with stone two-story houses. And in Soviet times, the locals lived well - they worked on a millionaire collective farm. But I always say this: here there was not a millionaire collective farm, but millionaire collective farmers. Each family earned enough money to buy a car over the summer using cucumbers from their garden. It is known that one of the residents kept a million rubles in a savings book.
“AiF”: - What happened then? Where did that business acumen go?
O.Zh.:- Over the past 20 years, there has been some kind of change in consciousness... I think this is a general degradation of all foundations, primarily psychological. People received wages on the collective farm, and in their free time they farmed cucumbers. And when it turned out that they were no longer paying salaries and they had to take responsibility for their well-being, many broke down. But an entrepreneur is someone who bears full responsibility for the business, for those who work with it, for their families. We need to awaken people to self-awareness and shout about it.
“AiF”: - So you moved here and immediately invited the villagers to a community cleanup. But they didn't come. Have you managed to reach them since then?
O.Zh.:- People are still gradually changing - primarily from a psychological point of view. It’s very nice when people come to ask for advice, for example, what color to paint the roof. After all, when I arrived here, the fences were crooked, the grass was not mowed - they didn’t even think about it. Garbage was thrown into the street and is now put into containers. Yards are cleaned, architraves are restored, flowers are placed in front of the gates.
“AiF”: - So, in order for people to change, they first had to install sewerage and give them work?
O.Zh.:- They had to be given hope - that not everything is so bad, that better times are coming. Understand that until now their whole life was on TV. So they turned it on and, like a TV series, watched how they lived somewhere in Moscow or abroad. And they didn’t think that all this could happen in their village. Yes, at first they perceived me as an eccentric and an outsider. But when they saw that a tourist flow was coming to Vyatskoye, they believed in their prospects, in their future. People have a feeling of belonging to a big life. And many actually got jobs: there are 80 employees in the tourist complex, 50 of them are local.
“AiF”: - But now they often say that Russians don’t want to work, they become drunkards, so our economy cannot do without visitors. Do you agree?
O.Zh.:- On the one hand, we employ local guys 18-25 years old, they don’t drink, they’re always on the move, I’m pleased with them. On the other hand, we, of course, have lost qualified personnel. Those craftsman traditions that I spoke about have not been preserved in Vyatskoye. There is one elderly carpenter, one blacksmith. Unfortunately, these professions are completely out of fashion. Everyone strives to become programmers, lawyers, and economists. But I would like to tell young people that today the most promising and highly paid professions are blue-collar workers. The stove maker's assistant, whom we invite from the city, receives 100,000 rubles a month! Can you imagine? And this master is still ready to hire people, but cannot find them - this work is not considered prestigious.
About 100 people, let’s say, of Slavic origin passed through my hands here. Of these, about 10 people remained at work. And the same number of Uzbeks and Tajiks passed through - only 10% of them dropped out. They say that it is profitable for businessmen to do business with visitors, because they can be paid less. But that's not the point! They are trainable, hardworking, respectful, and don’t drink. Of course, they all work for me legally. If someone behaves aggressively, we break up immediately.
Rich inheritance
“AiF”: - I would like to read you a letter that was sent to “AiF” by the head of a village council. He advocates the restoration of collective farms. He writes that in villages it is now possible to make films about war without scenery: the impression is that battles were fought there using artillery. You found the same picture in Vyatskoye, but you managed to restore normal life here without the help of the state.
O.Zh.:- I am against this position: the state will come and fix everything. It won't improve anything! It has already shown its inconsistency. The state form of government is a thing of the past. I believe in people, in self-organization. I am convinced that private business and farmers will come to the village and put everything in its place. It just takes time, and not that long. My hope for changing Russia lies primarily in entrepreneurship.
“AiF”: - But we have more and more millionaires every year, but what’s the point? They only take money out of the country.
O.Zh.:- You are wrong. We have many billionaires, but, unfortunately, there are much fewer millionaires. Entrepreneurs are different. If a middle class is formed, if small businesses are given space, the situation will change.
“AiF”: - You single-handedly dealt with one of our main problems - the collapse of the housing and communal services sector. They took over and installed a sewer system in Vyatskoye. And you don’t take money from residents for it.
O.Zh.:- I don’t take it, because I think: I’d rather lose on the penny fees, but I’ll create a comfortable infrastructure for life and business. In general, the housing and communal services problem can be solved. Today, tariffs are set every year. And the head of the utility company is not interested in modernization. He employs, say, 100 people, but he understands that only 20 are needed. As soon as he fires the extra 80, the wage fund will be reduced and the tariff will be reduced by the same amount. There is no benefit for him, but this way he will at least save 80 people’s jobs. If the tariff is set once every 5 years, he will be able to fire extra people and spend the freed money on pipes.
“AiF”: - He’ll rather put them in his pocket.
O.Zh.:- That's what officials do. But a businessman is interested in cutting costs and ensuring that everything in the enterprise works - that’s the modernization of housing and communal services.
“AiF”: - Do you think other villages can be revived, like Vyatskoye?
O.Zh.:- I am an economist and I set a specific goal - to create mechanisms for the socio-economic development of territories based on the revival of cultural and historical heritage. Without oil, without gas, without gigantic investments in industrial infrastructure. I proved that a historical and cultural complex can well be a profitable business. In other words, the revival of cultural heritage is financially viable. There are many small towns in our country, they all have a historical heritage. There are 53 architectural monuments in Vyatskoye alone!
Half the country could be raised in this way. This does not require that much money, and this is where the state can participate - in the development of infrastructure, in the construction of roads. But the most important thing is to mobilize the creative potential of the people. It exists, it cannot be destroyed, it cannot be eradicated.
PROJECTS IN THE REGIONS. REVIVAL OF THE VILLAGE
The main emphasis should be placed on the revival of peasant (farm) farms. To restore local (municipal) government.
It is necessary to use the experience of peasant farms and local authorities - zemstvos.
It is necessary to restore the economic model in the regions.
It is necessary to return taxes from the center to the localities and purposefully (regional and federal investment programs) invest in the rural economy.
Tax deduction at the location of production, and not the location of the office or legal address..
Village reconstruction (infrastructure, forms of ownership, peasant self-government - peace)
To restore justice - to return land, livestock, and tools of production to the descendants of those robbed and destroyed by the Bolsheviks.
It is necessary to return the land to the residents of villages and villages; they will have more rights to return the land and experience working on it. Return (increase) of land and property to village residents, taken away N. Khrushchev from personal farms.
It's time to revive the territories communal (municipal) lands to solve problems for residents of the entire village: land for grazing livestock, forest land for picking mushrooms, berries, hunting, and providing fuel, or a damless mini-hydroelectric power station on a neighboring river (land for public (municipal) enterprises).
Return of lands of regional and federal significance to municipal (public) ownership to ensure basic needs (lands taken by the Bolsheviks from people, from villages).
Projects in the village. Increasing the volumes and areas cultivated by peasant farms
Allocation and redistribution of resources from regional and federal funds to municipal ones (finance, land, equipment and livestock) for villages and regions showing positive dynamics.
Implementation of successful economic schemes and projects in the village.
Formation (financial (interest-free mutual funds), purchasing) for personal and peasant farms.
Also the formation of successful forms of socially oriented municipal enterprises (energy plants, resource enterprises (according to the most common local resource).
Assistance in training and formation of local personnel.
Creation of information and investment development centers in the village
Such centers can be formed on the basis of new village information and community clubs (centers). .
Such centers (provided at the expense of the village zemstvo), first of all, will include:
- Internet access;
- room for meetings, events, training;
- information boards with news, offers and projects.
Personnel. Peasant farms and private farms
Human potential must first of all be sought on earth, i.e. among those who know how and work on the land (peasants, private farms, dachas).
First of all, you need to decide on those who want and those who can feed themselves on earth.
Therefore, those interested should be divided into those who will live there permanently and those who will come to relax and work on the land.
First category These are villagers who work at nearby enterprises and live off of, among other things, personal farming. These are also those who have experience living in rural areas and are ready to move if there is an opportunity to feed themselves on the land.
Second category These are summer residents who also have houses with land plots and come to places to relax and grow vegetables and fruit and berry crops. From the second group it is possible to transfer to the second group under favorable conditions.
The development of the village should be based on the first category.
There is also a small category of farmers , farm workers (peasant farming). They can act as an example of an effective project and share their experience.
All those wishing to move Constantly on land, you should try yourself in the 1st category: run a private farm (chickens, sheep, rabbits, goats, etc.) or work in the garden. Let's see if they can cope with a 10-12 hour working day in the countryside.
HISTORICAL PARALLELS
It is necessary to take into account the negative experiences of the past. Those pathological changes in power, tragic pages of history that affected the village and the country as a whole.
There are 2 main layers here: and the capture by the Dutch from the Muscovite kingdom.
The Bolsheviks with their destruction of the peasantry and driving those who remained into serfs (into collective farms).
Creation of a repressive over-centralized state with a developed system of punishing disobedient people. The countdown here can begin from the February and November revolutions. - the Bolshevik project was controlled from England, where the owners of the colonizing East India Company, before that the Republic of Genoa, were located (Holland and England, Crimea were previously colonies of this trading corporation).
This is the seizure of the Moscow kingdom by the false Tsar Peter 1, the transfer of the capital to the Baltic coast in the Varangian (Baltic Slavs) city. The infection occurred by the Genoese Republic from Holland, which placed its own man on the throne of Muscovy.
Subsequently, the Genoese moved to England, renaming their organization the East Indian. They have retained the flag, symbols, and charter; their flag is now flying over England. Having carried out the project of the Great British Empire, capturing more than half of the globe.
Now the owners of this project have moved to Europe and are recreating the Holy Roman Empire in the form of the European Union.
Power reform. Decentralization
Therefore, the system of power should be reformed. The current colonization structure is clumsy and convenient only for siphoning funds from the regions. We need to return the right to distribute our resources to the regions and to the municipal level.
You can take the (Varangian) model with its competent distribution of financial and information flows.
This is the revival and strengthening of municipal (zemstvo) and regional authorities. This is a reduction in levels of management in government, expansion of horizontal connections.
Gradual reduction of part of the current federal power to the implementation of projects, the election of government representatives only for the duration of the project, and then their return to regional power.
Gleb Tyurin's experience in reviving villages.
Innovative revival of the province: social technologies, NEO-economics and applied psychology.
Former currency dealer Gleb Tyurin decided to take on the task of saving the “bleeded” northern villages.
What Tyurin did in the Arkhangelsk outback over 4 years has no precedents. The expert community cannot understand how he succeeds: Tyurin’s social model is applicable in an absolutely marginal environment and is not expensive. In Western countries, similar projects would cost orders of magnitude more. Amazed foreigners vying with each other to invite the Arkhangelsk resident to share his experience in all kinds of forums - in Germany, Luxembourg, Finland, Austria, the USA. Tyurin spoke in Lyon at the World Summit of Local Communities, and the World Bank is actively interested in his experience. How did this all happen?
After university, Gleb went to teach in a rural school in the most remote area of the Arkhangelsk region. I devoted seven years of my life to teaching. In the early 90s, he returned to the city, regained his decent English, mastered at an elite English school, worked as a manager and translator in various joint ventures and Western companies, at an American business school, interned in the West, studied banking in Germany and became a senior currency dealer at Arkhangelskpromstroybank.
“It was very interesting in its own way. But I felt like such a ticking mechanism: all day I sat in front of a bunch of monitors and clicked money. Sometimes 100 million rubles a day,” recalls Gleb. What does it feel like for a former teacher who sells millions of dollars when the exchange rate fluctuates? Wild stress.
And when he left the bank, he saw poor teachers staging demonstrations, grandmothers screaming in front of the mayor’s office, who were not paid their pensions. “One and a half billion dollars a year passed through our bank. The country did not need any Western investment; we could completely modernize our economy ourselves. And everything was falling down around us,” Gleb says bitterly.
The Yeltsin decade ruined the Russian North worse than the civil war. You can easily hide France in the Arkhangelsk region. The region is rich, but today it is mostly wilderness, impassable roads, and unemployment. Under the Soviets, almost the entire population was employed in the forestry industry and agriculture. In 1990, the planned economy was abolished and the switch was turned off. They stopped buying milk and meat from villages. Over the course of 10 years, residents of Pomeranian villages, left to their own devices, have, as they say, reached their limits: they live almost exclusively on vegetable gardens and mushrooms. Those who can leave, the majority drink bitter.
During a trip to Scandinavia, Gleb somehow found himself in a small workers’ village and saw a “circle of the future” there. Sober workers sit and think what they will do when their factory closes in a few years. At first he thought that they were completely stunned by their developed capitalism. And then I realized that this is the same socialism that we built and did not build. And I decided to try to do the same in Russia. He came up with and created the Institute of Civil and Social Initiatives, a non-profit non-governmental organization that took on the revival of the Arkhangelsk province. “The local authorities there live on subsidies from above, they divide them between regional centers. But there is no longer enough money for the periphery. They close the school, then the medical and midwifery station - that’s it, the village is doomed. Out of 4 thousand villages, in 20 years it will be good if only a thousand remain,” predicts Tyurin.
But before the revolution, the inhabitants of Pomerania managed well, lived soberly and prosperously. In the Russian North, many trades and crafts were developed, a variety of agricultural crops were cultivated, and there was brisk trade with other regions. The peasants themselves maintained roads and villages. Almost in the Arctic region they received rye - 40 centners per hectare, kept herds of bulls, built spacious wooden fortress houses that did not wear out - and all this in the absence of equipment, fertilizers, and herbicides. This was a well-established system of peasant self-government for centuries. It was the democratic traditions of the Russian North that made the region prosperous. And the Russian North in the 16th century was half the country.
Gleb Tyurin reproduced the traditions of the Russian zemstvo in modern conditions.
With like-minded people, he began to travel around villages and gather people for meetings, organize clubs, seminars, and business games. They tried to stir up people who were depressed, believing that everyone had forgotten about them, that no one needed them, and that nothing could work out for them. There are proven technologies that sometimes make it possible to quickly inspire people and help them look at themselves and their situation differently.
The Pomeranians begin to think, and it turns out that they have a lot of things: forest, land, real estate, and other resources. Many of which are ownerless and dying. For example, a closed school or kindergarten is immediately plundered. Who? Yes, the local population itself. Because everyone is for themselves and strives to snatch at least something for themselves. But they destroy a valuable asset that can be preserved and made the basis for the survival of a given territory. We tried to explain at peasant gatherings: the territory can only be preserved together.
Tyurin found within this disillusioned rural community a group of people charged with positivity. I created a kind of creative bureau out of them, taught them to work with ideas and projects. This can be called a social consulting system: they trained people in development technologies. As a result, over 4 years, the population of local villages implemented 54 projects worth 1 million 750 thousand rubles, which gave an economic effect of almost 30 million rubles. This is a level of capitalization that neither the Japanese nor the Americans have, given their advanced technologies.
Principle of efficiency
“What makes up a multiple increase in assets? Through synergy, through the transformation of isolated and helpless individuals into a self-organizing system.
Society represents a set of vectors. If some of them were combined into one, then this vector is stronger and larger than the arithmetic sum of the vectors from which it is composed.”
The villagers receive a small investment, write the project themselves and become the subject of the action. Previously, a person from the regional center pointed his finger at the map: this is where we will build a cowshed. Now they themselves are discussing where and what they will do, and they are looking for the cheapest solution, because they have very little money. The coach is next to them. His task is to lead them to a clear understanding of what they are doing and why, how to create that project, which in turn will lead to the next one. And so that each new project makes them economically more and more self-sufficient.
In most cases, these are not business projects in a competitive environment, but a stage of acquiring resource management skills. To begin with, very modest. But those who have passed through this stage can already move on.
In general, this is some form of change in consciousness. The population, which begins to become aware of itself, creates within itself a certain capable body and gives it a mandate of trust. What is called a body of territorial public self-government (TPS). Essentially, this is the same zemstvo, although somewhat different than it was in the 19th century. But the meaning is the same: a self-organizing system that is tied to the territory and is responsible for its development.
People are beginning to understand that they are not just solving the problem of water or heat supply, roads or lighting: they are creating the future of their village. The main products of their activities are a new community and new relationships, a development prospect. TOS in its village creates and tries to expand the zone of well-being. A certain number of successful projects in one locality build up a critical mass of positive things, which changes the whole picture in the area as a whole. So the streams merge into one big full-flowing river.
Here are real examples of what Gleb and his team managed to do:
In the Konosha region, since the time of Soviet land reclamation, there has been no water in the summer. They began to look for a way out. We remembered: there is an artesian well, but we need to build a water tower. If you go the usual administrative route, the construction will cost a million rubles; the municipality does not have that kind of money. But people have nothing to water their livestock or water their gardens with. What to do? We came up with an idea: to assemble a water tower from three old ones. We developed a project. The district helped with engineering support. The villagers worked for free. We only purchased new pipes and adjustable wrenches - the entire construction cost 50 thousand rubles. And now there is water here!
* * *
The neighboring village of Fominskaya has the same problem with water. TOS members decided to clean up the springs under the village. At the same time, they were also made into a local landmark. We cleaned out the garbage around the springs, installed concrete rings for water intake, log houses, a gazebo in the traditional Russian style, and a decorative fence. And they began to lure tourists. How? Very original. The springs were called springs of love and kisses. An advertisement was left at the local registry office. And the newlyweds set off. A tradition was born. Now there is a wedding there every Sunday. They are coming from the regional center. Each wedding leaves 500 rubles. For the village this is money. New Russians are already coming there to relax - they have begun to decorate a barbecue area there. And the local TOS also defended the forest from deforestation, achieved benefits for its veterans, took upon itself the exchange of passports and many, many other things that they could not even think about before. Now even young people have begun to join the TOS - they believed it.
* * *
In the village of Khozmino, Velsky district, the idea was different - to improve two houses for war veterans. At first this seemed doubtful. Why these two? And what is the development here? Their argument: “We will make the village more beautiful.” The effect of the project was incredible. For $250 in grant money, they clapboarded two houses, painted them, and decorated them with carved cornices and trim. Those living nearby looked and thought: they need to make their houses no worse. This is how a whole “museum” street of houses arose, decorated with incredible imagination. The idea for the next project was more practical: plow up all public hayfields and plant them with grass, which will provide much more green mass. After this, the Tosovites undertook to modernize the village’s old, worn-out heating system, which was mercilessly freezing in the winter, and there was always a threat of the system completely defrosting. Stoves or mini-boiler rooms were installed in 16 houses, and the freed-up heating system capacity was used for a school, club, and hospital. Project effect: 80,000 rubles per year in budget savings. Upon completion of the project, savings will amount to 600 thousand rubles per year. And the Khozmin residents also began to restore their unique church of the 18th century.
In the village of Leushinskaya near Khozmino, a group of women, having created a TOS, took on the building of a neglected boiler house. It was a terrible, dead industrial box made of brick, filled with huge rusty boilers and pipes, in which the wind howled and drunks got drunk. The Tosovkas came up with the idea of making a shaping room there. They raised the men, pulled out the boilers, insulated the building, tidied up the roofs and walls, laid the floors, painted everything, installed a stove. Now there is a modern gym, around which young people and teenagers have begun to swarm, those who previously hung around idle - they are already tired of “fighting” with them. And the district gave a half-time head of sports sections for the new sports center.
* * *
In the neighboring village of Bereg, in the same Velsky district, there are a lot of unemployed women. They decided to grow cabbage. A production cooperative was created. They were given a non-refundable grant. They grew cabbage, sold it, and used the money they received to improve the first-aid post, furnishings, and sports ground for children. And they changed the situation in the village in principle. Now they have renovated the club and are creating an information center for crafts there.
* * *
In the ancient village of Oshevensk, 40 kilometers from Kargopol, TOS also turned to the revival of culture and the development of tourism. The places here are most picturesque, there is a lot of antiquity, but everything is in a ruined state, there is no work, everyone drinks. The Tosovites took an abandoned merchant's house of the 19th century and completely restored it in two years, recreating the interior of the century before last. It turned out to be a wonderful little hotel-museum. When the enthusiasts started, the village did not believe: “What kind of tourism do we have?!” But when the project was successfully completed, the villagers began to ask: “Well, if you have anything else, you’ll take us!” The Archangel Bishop, tourists from Moscow and even America have already come here.
* * *
But in the village of Zaozerye, Mezensky district, in the very north of the region, on the border with the tundra, the situation may seem an order of magnitude more complicated than in other Arkhangelsk villages. There were only two children left in the village - the school was about to be closed. No production, everything was closed. This is almost completely isolated from the center of the regional center! There is a broken road only in winter - 550 kilometers of death torment. What is there to do here? They began to think and argue. And that's what they came up with. There are many lonely old people in the area who need help. They are taken to an almshouse in the regional center. What if we opened a nursing home for them? No room? Move the huge building of a closed kindergarten from a neighboring village!
They took it on and did it in three years! In January 2004, a nursing home with 14 beds was opened. Many locals now have jobs and places to sell agricultural products.
To attract a nurse here (a headache for many even more prosperous villages!), Tosovites renovated an abandoned dorm apartment and advertised in newspapers throughout Russia: “Nurse wanted. Preferably with children. A comfortable apartment is provided.” It turned out that the country is full of women who dream of leaving their drinking husbands, but there is nowhere to go. And one of them came to them - with two schoolchildren. This means that the nursing home is provided with medical care, and more schoolchildren have been added. This means the school will not be closed.
* * *
Development is not about transferring money, as some officials think. Development is the transfer of skills, the transfer of skills, the transfer of knowledge that shapes the innovative behavior of residents and communities. Therefore, it is quite obvious that this requires the emergence of people who know how to work with this professionally - such professional “developers”, people who help create development. Innovation must be brought, adapted, shown, taught, helped to implement, accompanied until it takes root, until one of the villagers is able to implement something innovative in practice. And then you need to show it to others, explain it, explain it. And then this innovation gains followers and becomes a reality.
* * *
At the initiative of Tyurin and his Institute, about 40 TOSs were created in the Arkhangelsk region - registered groups of people who care about their own lives. Real authorities in rural areas. These projects, to put it simply, are built from several elements:
1.
Local people came together to develop their area. To begin with, these were small groups that became the structure for the development of their village, their village - in fact, they acted in partnership with each other and in partnership with the authorities.
2. These people themselves changed significantly: they took responsibility for their destiny. Within a short time, they were thinking and interacting in new ways, gaining certain skills and knowledge.
3. With some support, residents of dozens of northern villages found smart and original solutions to their problems, turned these solutions into projects, found and received the necessary resources, began implementing projects and, in the vast majority of cases, brought them to effective results - successfully completing the first projects and starting new ones.
This method of development leads to a powerful increase in the assets of the territory, to its real capitalization - to the fact that poverty and hopelessness give way to new opportunities, a new local economy. And you don't need a lot of money for this. Rather, we need will, desire and certain technologies of social consulting. Gleb Tyurin and his colleagues were able to show that real changes can be launched anywhere, in almost any place, even in the most seemingly hopeless places.
The developed mechanisms and technologies are beginning to be widely used in the regions of Russia. Today, city residents are increasingly thinking about the development of territories - they are becoming the main audience, the main engine of change. This is a sign of our times. Previously, the city was a vacuum cleaner, “devouring” the human resources of the territory. Now the “urban people” are ready to repay debts to their small homeland, their villages and churchyards, their past. And to your future. It is the current city residents, their talents and capabilities that will serve to revive the Russian hinterland.
Now it is possible and necessary to build a completely new outback - our villages and small towns. A new economy, a new settlement system - a modern, micro-urbanized environment in which we can live without thinking about megacities as the only source of convenience and prosperity, because “on earth” it will be better than in megacities.
It is impossible to imagine a decent life in modern Russia without effective self-government in the provinces. The main factor in the development of self-government is the responsible attitude of the residents themselves towards their natural, technical and, most importantly, human resources.
To learn more about Gleb Tyurin’s experience and approach to the revival of villages and small settlements, see the videos, articles and book attached to the post, links below.
Gleb Tyurin’s book “The Experience of Reviving Russian Villages” can be downloaded from
Additional articles about the activities of Gleb Tyurin:
Fake people - real money - http://www.stringer.ru/publication.mhtml?Part=47&PubID=5051
From Los Angelsk to New Yorkino - http://ogoniok.com/4946/22/
Article by Gleb Tyurin “Corporations, social capital and modernization of the country” - http://magazines.russ.ru/nz/2006/48/tu19.html
Russia and the next long wave, or why rural areas are so important - http://www.regnum.ru/news/1181953.html
The road home. A film about resettlement from big cities and the revival of the hinterland:
Gleb Tyurin. Revival of the village. Arkhangelsk experience:
Gleb Tyurin — Innovative development of territories through the involvement of the population:
Gleb Tyurin. How to change a small town. New Pikalyovo project:
HOW TO REVIVE A VILLAGE? The other day, an article by the famous journalist Dmitry Steshin appeared in the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, dedicated to the problem of the gradual disappearance of Russian villages. The problem is common to all of Central Russia, and does not concern only the Tver region, where a Komsomolskaya Pravda special correspondent visited, deeply affected by this topic. The ranking of dead villages, compiled based on the results of the population census, can be found on the Internet by anyone. Judging by the published data, in Russia today there are 20 thousand villages in which there is not a single inhabitant left, and another 36 thousand where only one person lives... WE NEED TO GIVE PEOPLE LANDS AS ESTATES. His comment on this topic, in particular, was given by the Bishop Tikhon (Shevkunov), Metropolitan of Pskov and Porkhov: – At one time I had a farm in the Ryazan region, and people returned to the village and received decent salaries. But I have another job - swinging a censer, and for twenty years I rushed around these fields, collecting alcoholics and bringing them to their senses. But in the Non-Black Earth Region... A tragedy occurred when these regions were declared unpromising, and they began to invest money in virgin lands. Although you should invest in them. And not only in agriculture - it was necessary to raise large production. I fought like crazy to get 25 centners per hectare, then 45, now 47... I come to the Krasnodar region, and they have 80 centners! And the cost of grain is absolutely ridiculous - compared to the Ryazan region. And they tell me: Krasnodar region, Stavropol region, Volga region and Altai will not only feed the whole country - there will be surpluses. I now see the only way out is to connect roads, gas, and electricity to the beautiful lakes. And give these lands as estates to ordinary people. How much do you need - 10 hectares? And here’s a non-refundable subsidy for your house. There is no need to suffer with commercial agricultural production. Just live, keep the beds, goats, rabbits! A small farm on a family estate, a guest house... I told the president this too - give the land to the landowners for safekeeping! In the same Pskov region they lived traditionally - on farmsteads. THE EXODUS FROM THE CITIES WILL INCREASE The readers of Komsomolskaya Pravda did not remain indifferent to this publication. They left hundreds of responses and letters under the article on the website and sent hundreds of responses and letters to the editor. Here are fragments of some of them. – Here, they say, in the Russian Federation, agriculture north of the 55th parallel (Ryazan) is unprofitable. They say it will remain only in the Krasnodar Territory, in the Belgorod and Voronezh regions, in Altai. But this is not true! A number of agricultural crops grow better in the middle zone. This is flax, rye, almost all vegetables plus various herbs (mowing up to three times during the summer season), milk is not as fatty as southern milk, but only from it excellent Vologda oil is obtained... And this is like beluga among fish! And these products are much tastier than those from the south. Even southerners admit it! Moreover, all of them can be passed as “eco”, which means that at least they can and should be given to children. – I think that the extinction of villages will continue. But it's not all bad. A thin trickle of immigrants is already oozing out of the swelling megacities, settling in abandoned villages. I think the exodus from the cities will increase. So all is not lost yet. – 150 years ago – this is the middle of the 19th century. At this time, there was a rapid growth of the population of Russia and, above all, the rural population. To this day, in the villages there are houses built at that time, including stone ones. The buildings of zemstvo hospitals with carved platbands, iron roofs and bronze door handles have been preserved! After the Great Patriotic War, the village also quickly recovered: from 1945 to 1955, the population grew by 28 million people! The Russian countryside began to degrade under Khrushchev, when peasants were taken away from their personal plots, crushed with taxes, and collective farms were forced to buy back old equipment from MTS at inflated prices, and new ones were sent to virgin lands. That's when the people fled the village. Brezhnev also made his contribution to the state of affairs in the countryside: it was under him that Central Russia became an “unpromising Non-Black Earth Region.” Now all national republics, especially in the North Caucasus, receive increased subsidies. Invest a small fraction of this money in a Russian village, and it will pay off a hundredfold! – The only way out, as Bishop Tikhon (Shevkunov) says, is to distribute the land. There are a lot of people who want to come, those same Muscovites and summer residents. He himself has a house in the Tver region. Summer residents come and work appears for the locals (from those who don’t drink, of course). I would take several hectares in addition to my 40 acres. I’m unlikely to grow anything myself, but I won’t let the land become overgrown with weeds, which is also not bad. WE CAN'T DO WITHOUT THE FEDERAL PROGRAM Our newspaper also decided to join the discussion of the problem, since it concerns everyone, including residents of the Rzhevsky district. By the way, our region also appears in the Komsomolskaya Pravda article, albeit as a positive example. However, this does not alleviate the acute problem of villages disappearing from the map of rural areas. The Komsomolskaya Pravda journalist raised a very large and complex problem in this conversation about the Russian village. This is not about whether it is worth developing agriculture. Everything is clear and understandable here - you need to invest money, issue targeted subsidies, preferential loans, etc. By and large, the conversation is about what our country will be like in the near and more distant future. For example, Alexey Kudrin, one of the leaders of public opinion in Russia, who was the Minister of Finance and even Deputy Prime Minister for many years, believes that the entire country should turn into several agglomerations. People there will be provided with employment and cultural recreation, but the fact that they will communicate with nature when going somewhere to Turkey or Thailand is normal. It’s clear that this man doesn’t know or understand the Russian village, and he doesn’t need it for nothing. Moreover, he does not understand the Russian soul, as they say now, the Russian mentality, but this, in the end, is his problem. A much more important issue than the ideas of a single official is the main path of development of Russia. Is it connected with the rise of the Russian village, or is its fate to remain on the sidelines and eventually disappear completely? But then the Russian code may disappear along with it - what makes us a special people, with our own customs, traditions, and views. In megacities, preserving your individuality is extremely difficult, if not impossible - they unify everything and everyone, “brushing” them with the same brush. I don’t really want to become a neuter person. This means we need a Russian village. But then the question arises: what should it be? While discussing this topic, we will not talk about the Oleninsky district, where the Komsomolskaya Pravda special correspondent visited - it would not be entirely correct. But, for example, the Rzhev village of Zvyagino, which for a long time did not live, but survived. Now a pig farm is being built next to it, and the residents don’t know whether to be happy or sad about it. They don’t trust the authorities, they are afraid of environmental damage; There are also enough people who have simply forgotten how to work and do not want to work. In the neighboring village of Zaitsevo, there was also disintegration for many years and nothing was created. But then active, energetic people appeared who wanted to breathe new life into the village, which was once the center of a large estate. True, they turned out to be outsiders. Even so, the village suddenly felt the pulse of life, and its inhabitants had hope. The hope is that with the help of tourism, the mossy stone of a stagnant atmosphere can be moved, and then something that has not been there for many years will appear - prospects for a better life. Or the Kolembets, who are discussed in the newspaper article, the owners and creators of the guest complex “Chertolino Estate” - who are they trying for? For yourself? Yes, probably. But they can give jobs to ten, and in the future, many more people. Not to mention the fact that their labors and efforts improve not only the natural landscape, but also human relationships. By their example, they show that it is possible to live differently - more beautiful, more honest, more noble. All of these are islands of new life, it’s a pity that they are just islands. And we need a whole continent called “The Revival of the Russian Village.” And here we cannot do without a federal target program, because no local authorities can solve this immense problem alone - even if they are smart. The creation of such a program should start from the bottom, when the regions themselves would determine where it is more promising to engage in agricultural production, where to place processing and storage of products, and where to focus on the development of tourism. Then it will be possible to combine all these areas and create a single federal target program. Regarding the distribution of land, there is something to think about. The idea is not uncontroversial, but if a number of conditions are met, it can work. You can use different approaches. There should be only one thing - an indifferent look at the disappearance of Russian villages from the map of the country. Perhaps our descendants may not forgive us for this. In the pictures: there is still hope for dying villages - for people who are ready to revive them. One of the most striking examples in the Rzhevsky district is the Kolembet couple, restoring the Chertolino estate (in the second photo). P.S. We invite concerned readers to also speak out on the stated topic.
Meet Guzel Sanzhapova, a social entrepreneur from the Russian outback, about the implementation of her idea of reviving the village.
SUCCESS STORY, or how to raise 4.5 million rubles for a social business by honestly telling about your family apiary?
Guzel Sanzhapova, information:
City: Moscow
Age: 28 years old
Education: Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov, Faculty of World Politics
In business: since 2012
Business: production of cream honey and caramel in the Ural village of Maly Turysh
Business details:
– Turnover per month: 1 million rubles
– Employees: 9 employees permanently + up to 100 attracted people per season
GUZEL SANZHAPOVA:
It all started in 2013, when I left SAP (a German corporation producing software for organizations). I began to think about what cool things we could do to make business more enjoyable. At that time, my dad had an apiary, which he inherited. There was a big problem with that
there was a lot of surplus honey. An ordinary beekeeper in the market is not competitive, because people usually go to buy honey where there are 15 types of it. And the average beekeeper has two or three. So I got the idea to think about my dad’s apiary.
But since I don’t eat honey, naturally, I was not interested in developing ordinary honey as a product. I thought that I could come up with some more “smart” product.
I started thinking about what I don’t like about honey: it’s too sweet and it’s candied. It turned out that the technology of whipping honey has existed for about a hundred years - it was invented in Canada - and it helps to get rid of the sugaring process in honey. Then I thought what should be done to make the honey not so sweet. This is how I came up with the idea of adding berries.
So we asked the first grandmothers to pick berries for us. This is how the first product line was born - cream honey with berries. We made the first batch and tried to sell it at the market (fair) to see the demand.
It turned out that there are many such “perverts”: there are many people who do not eat honey. And in November 2012, we decided to go and shoot a video at the apiary and tell who produces honey and how. While we were driving, I accidentally Googled the word “crowdfunding.”
When we arrived in the village (we traveled 20 hours by train, we had time to think), we were already filming a video specifically for the crowdfunding campaign, which we then launched.
How did such a successful campaign come about? What unique and original did we manage to show?
In fact, we didn't show anything original. We simply showed what reality exists in the Russian village, and that if we start production and employ people, then, for sure, hope will appear in the village. And, in fact, the most important emphasis in the crowdfunding campaign was not “look how poor we are,” but “look, we came up with a solution, let’s check together how much it will help change reality.”
That's why people supported us. Because we said, in general, we live and don’t bother, but we want to make such a product. We need 150 thousand rubles for drying equipment for berries. We offer you honey in return.
And society paid attention to this problem. The problem of dying villages is still common to all of Russia.
And somehow, surprisingly, 3-4 days before the end of the project, the newspaper “Big City” was published, which contained an article about us. People paid attention to us. And at some point during the campaign we began to understand that the most important thing in crowdfunding is not the money, but the opportunity to tell your story to the widest possible audience of people.
Then the question arises - how to tell your story correctly?
First of all, the story needs to be uncontrived and absolutely honest. Our story only touches people because we didn’t write it in the first place, we just started talking about how we live. This is what captivates people. But “how to tell a story correctly” is different for everyone. And here no one except the author of the project will say what is correct. In my case, it was simply honesty without embellishment and the ability to solve the problem that was posed.
How did we start working after receiving this money?