Life in a Ukrainian Village : video

[Slumba]

A woman from Ukraine talks about Ukrainian villages, both modern and in older days.

[Boethius]

That is not an "average" village. Villages close to cities are like the village depicted.  Villages far from cities are not at all like that village.

[alex330]

From what I understand the term"village" is used pretty loosely in Ukraine. It can be anything from a planned development with cookie cutter homes on the outskirts of Odessa to a middle of nowhere farm.


There is a show where wealthy Ukrainian city girls trade places with village girls for a week. You can see the more poverty stricken villages and how every day people in them live life. Interesting.

[BillyB]

That is not an "average" village. Villages close to cities are like the village depicted.  Villages far from cities are not at all like that village.

Agree. Villages close to cities have nicer homes due to the owners having higher income working in the city and access to large home improvement stores.

[Boethius]

From what I understand the term"village" is used pretty loosely in Ukraine. It can be anything from a planned development with cookie cutter homes on the outskirts of Odessa to a middle of nowhere farm.

I'd say that is inaccurate.  Unlike English, Slavic languages are quite precise.

Generally, developments outside cities were actual villages, usually absorbed by the city on development.  The way agriculture was conducted both in pre Revolution times, and in the USSR, there were no independent "farms" in the way they exist in North America.  Now of course, there are, but the homes are usually in areas where villages existed.

The closer a village is to a city, the wealthier, generally, it will be because produce is brought into the city and sold.

I've been to villages in Central Ukraine and Western Ukraine, away from the city, and they are generally pretty destitute.  Some to this day don't have indoor plumbing.  My husband tells me the most destitute village he ever saw was in the Chernobyl region.

[alex330]

I'd say that is inaccurate.  Unlike English, Slavic languages are quite precise.

Generally, developments outside cities were actual villages, usually absorbed by the city on development.  The way agriculture was conducted both in pre Revolution times, and in the USSR, there were no independent "farms" in the way they exist in North America.  Now of course, there are, but the homes are usually in areas where villages existed.

The closer a village is to a city, the wealthier, generally, it will be because produce is brought into the city and sold.

Along the sea outside Odessa all the new home developments are called villages. These are built where there was nothing previously. Nothing to do with farming or agriculture.

Example http://realty-odessa.com/objects/4444/

Leaving Odessa into the interior are true villages more in tune to what you describe.

Maybe the term is used in Southern Ukraine differently? But wife and everyone there uses it both ways.

[Gator]

Generally, developments outside cities were actual villages, usually absorbed by the city on development.  The way agriculture was conducted both in pre Revolution times, and in the USSR, there were no independent "farms" in the way they exist in North America. 

I read some about this in my many travels, and of course received many lectures from FSUW interested in history.  I know just enough to be dangerous.

The land in European Russia and Ukraine is very fertile, and agriculture has been an important part of the economy.   Agriculture  historically went through stages. 

For a long time dating from the Middle Ages agriculture followed the feudal system, with serfs residing in the center of the "lord's" domain and spreading out each morning to work the fields.  In the mid-19th C, Czar Alexander II emancipated the serfs.   A number of land reforms were enacted over time.  Through it all, the farmers resided in villages in the center of the land. I assume this period is when a number of houses were constructed in the villages, with the more productive farms building better houses.  I am not sure who owned the land in the FSU.  Suffice it to say the royal family remained a major landowner, giving rise to discontent and the 1917 Revolution.

Under the USSR agriculture, the farmers followed a communal system referred to as a collective.    Living and work patterns were similar to the pre-revolutionary system.   

Through it all, the village was the center of life for those working in agriculture.

The closer a village is to a city, the wealthier, generally, it will be because produce is brought into the city and sold.

Also, it seems to me that some homes in the villages near the city became dachas for the wealthy residing in those cities. 

I drove through the farmlands of eastern Siberia.  As Bo said, the remote villages are basic.  Geese and other animals walked freely, schools were simple, etc.  In contrast, the  villages near the city had homes with constructed banyas, greenhouses, etc. 

[Anotherkiwi]

I drove through the farmlands of eastern Siberia.  As Bo said, the remote villages are basic.  Geese and other animals walked freely, schools were simple, etc.  In contrast, the  villages near the city had homes with constructed banyas, greenhouses, etc.

I had the same experience in Tatarstan and the area immediately to the north.  Villages reasonably close to the cities (Kazan, Naberezhnye Chelny, Elabuga, Izhevsk, etc) looked in far better shape than those in the middle of nowhere.

[JayH]

That is not an "average" village. Villages close to cities are like the village depicted.  Villages far from cities are not at all like that village.

Did someone say it was average?
She is showing an EXAMPLE of a village.
Facts are it is very typical of a TYPE of village that I have seen - from Crimea to Kiev . I have seen literally hundreds very similar to the one street she shows in that video.

There are of course ,villages quite different  in character-both "worse" and much better.It ought to be obvious  that it is only an example.
For anyone venturing out of the city centres in Ukraine-they will see streets just like what is shown in the video.
I loved it  and her presentation !!

[AkMike]

My step son lives in a new cookie cutter preplanned 'village', just outside of Kyiv. It's not an old village, just a couple of years old with no older homes in the area. Just tract homes.

 My place is in a village outside Cherkasy. And it's also a newer one dating back to 1960 or so with the formation of the Kremenchuk Reservoir. The original ag and fishing villages were flooded at that time. 

 The western word for many developments near cities would be the 'Burbs'. But villages is still used for most of these.

[Boethius]

Did someone say it was average?
She is showing an EXAMPLE of a village.
Facts are it is very typical of a TYPE of village that I have seen - from Crimea to Kiev . I have seen literally hundreds very similar to the one street she shows in that video.

There are of course ,villages quite different  in character-both "worse" and much better.It ought to be obvious  that it is only an example.
For anyone venturing out of the city centres in Ukraine-they will see streets just like what is shown in the video.
I loved it  and her presentation !!

She presented it in a manner that these are "typical", but they are not (plus, she mispronounced the name of a village close to Kyiv).  But these are not typical villages.  I would hazard a guess I've been to far more villages than have you.


In Central Ukraine, villages tend to be wealthier than, say, around the Romanian border, in Ivano Frankivsk, Ternopil region, in the traditional Hutsul areas, or in northern Ukraine.

[Boethius]

For a long time dating from the Middle Ages agriculture followed the feudal system, with serfs residing in the center of the "lord's" domain and spreading out each morning to work the fields.  In the mid-19th C, Czar Alexander II emancipated the serfs.   A number of land reforms were enacted over time.  Through it all, the farmers resided in villages in the center of the land. I assume this period is when a number of houses were constructed in the villages, with the more productive farms building better houses.  I am not sure who owned the land in the FSU.  Suffice it to say the royal family remained a major landowner, giving rise to discontent and the 1917 Revolution.

This is not quite accurate.  In the Middle Ages, peasants owned their own land and paid tributes to princes/boyars.  Princes/boyars also owned slaves.

Later, serfs owned plots of land, and their work was based on the size of their plot of land, as well as the number of males in the family.  They were owned by the landholder, usually the nobility.  They had few rights, but they did have the right, one day a year, to leave their owner and become a serf for another landholder.

Serfs' freedom could also be purchased.  Taras Shevchenko, for example, was a serf whose freedom was purchased by the auction of a painting by Karl Briullov.


Also, vast tracts of lands were owned and farmed by Cossacks, who were always free, and my foreigners, mostly Germans, but through the centuries, by many Europeans.  Irish and Scots settlers arrived in the 18th century, settling in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine (the Irish mostly in Belarus, the Scots, mostly in Russia).  Germans and the Dutch were granted rights to settle lands by Catherine the Great, and up until the Revolution, they had their own school systems and churches, mostly in the steppes of Ukraine.


In those parts of Ukrainian under Polish rule, serfs fared much worse.  Their rights to land were decreased over time, until they had almost no land, and their obligations to landlords increased.  Each nobleman could decide the amount of work required by the serfs, which was often six days a week.  The brutality of the Polish landlords is what lead to the infamous Khmelnytsky revolt, although there were no real changes.  Even after the abolition of serfdom, peasants had to pay to pick berries, or harvest wood, or cross a landlord's lands. 

Under the USSR agriculture, the farmers followed a communal system referred to as a collective.    Living and work patterns were similar to the pre-revolutionary system.   

No, not at all.

The land was owned by the state.  All the successful farmers had been killed.  That is why communal agriculture didn't work in the USSR.

The work pattern was similar in that those on the collective were tied to the land.  They were 20th century serfs.  They didn't even have passports until the 1970's, and, the head of the collective retained all passports thereafter.  That is a reason why the ranks of the military in the USSR was made up largely of peasants.  It was one of the few avenues of escape from the kolhosp.

[JayH]

She presented it in a manner that these are "typical", but they are not (plus, she mispronounced the name of a village close to Kyiv).  But these are not typical villages.  I would hazard a guess I've been to far more villages than have you.


In Central Ukraine, villages tend to be wealthier than, say, around the Romanian border, in Ivano Frankivsk, Ternopil region, in the traditional Hutsul areas, or in northern Ukraine.

I am not sure that you have been to far more villages than me-- I have been all over Ukraine(including the Crimea) with  the exception of western Ukraine.  I also drive and have had access to a car everyday I have ever been in Ukraine.I have seen so many I could not put a number on it-- but it is certainly enough to know what I am talking about.I have pointed out to others previously-- knowledge is not exclusive--others can have it too!!
I am quite happy to accept you have seen a lot-- but so have I-- and I am certain over a more diverse area than you.
My exposure is also far more current than yours -more recent.

As to mispronunciation-- she is from Sumy -maybe that has something to do with it?

I love her video-- not only for her lovely presentation-but the attempt to show a little of how Ykraine  is.

[Boethius]

What makes you think I didn't have access to cars in Ukraine?

I have not spent much time in the Crimea, but I have spent a lot of time in Central Ukraine, south western, and of course, Western Ukraine, where all my relatives live in villages.

With respect to descriptions, this comes from "silrada", which is a non urban municipality.

[krimster2]

JayH,
   you have just made yourself sound like a complete and utter fool, comparing your meager knowledge of Ukraine to Beothius’s is like comparing a cup of water to the ocean, seriously - just - stop - it!

[Muzh]

I am not sure that you have been to far more villages than me-- I have been all over Ukraine(including the Crimea)

You don't say. Really?

[jone]

It does make sense that Jay would have been driving through, where Boe would have been traveling to a destination and staying there.  Just sayin.

[Slumba]

I am glad that people are discussing the video, at least!

In English we have a lot of different terms, not just "village" - there is "hamlet" , town, etc. most of which have fallen out of use because examples of those places no longer exist.

One thing I would add to Boethius' comment is that some or many of the Polish nobility did not run their own serfs. 

Instead they would determine a price for 2 or more years' rental and do a lease to some other person who had money but no land. 

To rent the land was to rent the buildings and farm equipment along with it - and the serfs too of course.

Pay (e.g.) $50K to rent for 2 years, and gain $100K - you did OK for yourself.  Pay $50K and only earn $55K - you basically broke even.  That is why conditions were so much worse - the person renting had no reason to care over the long term for the people or the land.

[mendeleyev]

Slumba, I enjoyed the video.

While it is not a village, that really doesn't matter so much. My guess is that given her limited English, the term "village" was the closest that she could come to describe her tour.

In the end however, it is informative and enjoyable. Thanks for sharing it.