Russians in Bolivia. Old Believers in Latin America. "Oh, frost, frost" under the palm trees

Three women with perfectly different fates... Nana, Sveta and Natasha.

RTW 2006-07: 18-19.04 sucre

Uyuni with a salt lake - Potosi with dynamite - and we arrived in Sucre, a city with a Russian hairdresser.

It's warm here. The height is only 2000 m. Above sea level.

In the whole city I remember most of all central market... A huge indoor space filled to overflowing with trays of fresh fruit, fruit cocktails, salads, juices and cakes. A mug of fruit cocktail with juice costs 4.5 rubles, a cup of fruit salad - 3.5 rubles. Lunch - $ 2 for two, with meat and soup.

But our acquaintances became much more significant. In Sucre, we met three Russian women who had been living in Bolivia for a long time.

Three women with completely different fates.

Natashin the phone was given to us by our friends from Moscow. She met us in her own car, with two children. Natasha is married to a Bolivian. He works in La Paz, but she does not like the noisy and dirty city, and they live in a pleasant and clean Sucre with her husband's parents. She just opened her furniture showroom. She dreams of creating a Russian settlement (Russian region). She also publishes a newspaper in Russian and sends it to the Russian embassy.

We sat first in the ice cream park, then in Natasha's salon. Sveta looks great, she has enough money to implement a wide variety of ideas. Yet she did not come across as a happy woman. Maybe it just seemed to us, but everything in her stories looked "seemingly not bad." I don't even know how to describe it. No, she wasn't trying to look very successful and unnaturally content. Rather, on the contrary, she seemed to be quite honest about everything. And some kind of slight dissatisfaction showed through in all the stories.

Asking Natasha for advice on where to get a haircut, we immediately found the next friend. Light... Sveta is studying to be a hairdresser and working in a salon. Rather, there is only one real salon in Sucre. But the one where Sveta works will soon be equipped with equipment, and there will be a second salon in the city.

On the way, the taxi driver asked us what to see in Russia, if he ever gets there, whether he can work there, and whether it is necessary to speak Russian (is Russian and Spanish so different? They won't understand me there? speak Spanish?).

Sveta is Natasha's friend. She is also married to a Bolivian. He studied in Ukraine, so he brought his wife with him. It was very difficult for Sveta there and it was not clear how to be and what to do next. So she actually ran away. It's not easy here either. Not much money. If Natasha can afford to open a furniture salon that is not yet profitable, she has to study and work about Sveta. In the words of Sveta, uncertainty shines through. Perhaps something would have worked out at home? Or maybe it would be worse. She doesn't look very happy either. Not unhappy - no. But not entirely happy either. The most difficult thing in Sveta's life is her relationship with her husband's parents. Natasha is also not perfect in this regard, although she completely voluntarily lives in Sucre with her husband's parents.

We spent the evening with new friends at the Joyride cafe in the very center of the city. Cool place. Good and not cheap. Or rather, not cheap by local standards. For us, $ 1.50 for an alcoholic cocktail ... well, you get the idea.

In general, in Bolivia, we feel very strange. We look like hippie bums in our clothes worn out during the journey, in old shoes, with backpacks torn apart by travels. And yet we can easily afford to pay for well-dressed local girls. We are even uncomfortable with the realization that here we can afford everything. Land and apartments in Bolivia cost almost nothing. But this is nothing very difficult to earn here. We honestly told Natasha and Sveta that in 8 months we had saved up $ 20,000 for a trip at home, and over 6 months on the way we spent $ 12,000. And they were the first to marvel at these amounts. Rather, until now everyone was also amazed, but in the spirit of "you spent so little." Now the situation was reversed.

We go to the hotel again by taxi. Bargaining is easy here.
You sit in a taxi and start a dialogue on the way:
-How much will you take?
-4 boliviano per person ($ 0.5).
-Can it be for 3? Oh please!
-Maybe for 3.

Here I will also tell you about Nane, owner of a Georgian cafe in the town of Oruro... Nana is from Tbilisi, but has been living in Bolivia for 11 years. I came here for my daughter after the death of her husband. The daughter is married to a Bolivian. Nana has a good relationship with her daughter's husband's family. But, of course, she misses Tbilisi - you can even see it in her eyes. It's hard to get used to the new rules. But he does what he can. So, she opened a cafe, from 5 to 9 pm she bakes cakes and eclairs, pancakes and khachapuri here.

Nana, Sveta and Natasha. Very pleasant and not very happy. I would like to believe that they simply do not know how to settle in life very well, and that it would be a good way out for them to be in Bolivia, and it would be harder at home.

But back to the city of Sucre. Sucre is the official capital of Bolivia.

Its real capital is business, noisy and dirty La Paz. Sucre is more like the village seat of government. Historic, sophisticated, green, with wooden balconies and light houses. With one supermarket for the whole city back in 2007.

The main attraction of the area is dinosaur footprints.

Sometime not far from Sucre, cement began to be mined and a seam with dinosaur footprints was dug up. 68 million years ago it was the bottom of the lake. But then, due to tectonic processes, the lake reared up, and now its bottom has turned into a wall of a quarry.

The workers were driven away and the tourists were caught up. Made something like a park. Very weak park. With a couple of dinosaur figures, a 15-minute excursion and ice cream.

The first Russian settlers in Latin America appeared in the 18th century; today, the number of the Russian diaspora in this region, according to official data alone, is more than 150 thousand people and is dispersed mainly in the countries of South America: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile and Venezuela.

Over the past century, immigrants from Russia have made a significant contribution to the development of Latin American states. The names of General I.P. Belyaev, sculptor Esteban Erzya (S.D. Nefedov), poetess Marianna Kolosova (R.I.Pokrovskaya), painter Nikolai Ferdinandov, singer and composer Anna Marly (A.Yu. and the culture of South American countries.

Of course, the Russian diaspora in Latin America did not form immediately; this happened in the course of several migration waves, qualitatively and quantitatively different from each other. Before the 1917 revolution, for example, migration from Russia to the New World was of a peasant labor character. After the revolution and the subsequent civil war, it was the White Guard emigration. After the end of World War II, by the will of fate, many refugees of Russian nationality from devastated Europe turned out to be in Latin America. Finally, in the course of the modern migration wave, Russian spouses of Latin Americans or their relatives settled in the New World. Migration within the framework of the Old Believer movement should be singled out separately.

Of course, such different waves of immigration could not lead to the formation of a centralized Russian diaspora in Latin America. The only exceptions are, perhaps, the Russian community in Paraguay, as well as small, as if conserved in time and space, islets of Russian life in the villages of Old Believers scattered throughout South America. In this regard, the situation in Bolivia is especially indicative, where the share of Old Believers in the total number of the Russian diaspora is almost the majority.

Bolivia is an extremely interesting country, famous for ancient Indian civilizations, conquistadors, liberators, revolutionaries and the first Indian president and ardent coca advocate Evo Morales in the history of Latin America.

The number of the Russian diaspora in this country is extremely small. As of 2005, almost nine million people lived in Bolivia, while the number of Russian speakers was only about three thousand people. Russian diaspora in Bolivia includes diplomatic workers, Russian wives of graduates of Soviet and Russian universities, ordinary immigrants from Russia and the CIS countries. But the most numerous (and most interesting for research) component of the Russian diaspora in Bolivia is the communities of Russian Old Believers, who live mainly in the tropical departments of Bolivia and number about two thousand people.

In Bolivia, Russian Old Believers appeared in the second half of the 19th century. Later the path of the Old Believers to Bolivia was thorny and ran along the route Russia-Manchuria-Hong Kong-Brazil-Bolivia. During the 1917 revolution and the subsequent civil war in Russia, the Old Believers found refuge in Manchuria; at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s, their colony was significantly replenished by Russian Old Believer families who fled from Soviet collectivization. However, after the victory of Mao Zedong's supporters in civil war in China, in 1949, official Beijing began to persecute Russian refugees, and the situation of the Old Believers again became complicated. As a result, in the late 1950s they began to leave China in whole communities, moving first to Hong Kong, which was under British control, and from there to Australia and New Zealand, as well as to Brazil. From there, some of them moved to other Latin American countries, including Bolivia (many of the Old Believers still have Brazilian passports and only a residence permit in Bolivia). In turn, the Bolivian government, interested in new workers, met the Old Believers halfway and allocated land for their families on its territory, and also made it possible to obtain soft loans.

Today, at the beginning of the 21st century, Old Believer villages are scattered across the Bolivian departments of La Paz, Santa Cruz, Cochabamba and Beni and are usually located far from the big cities. The main occupation of the Old Believers is agriculture and animal husbandry: they grow rice, corn, wheat, bananas, pineapples, sunflowers, soybeans. The current position of the "Bolivian" Old Believers can be assessed as very favorable, given their propensity for hard work and the fertility of the tropical soil - according to the Old Believers themselves, in the Bolivian land "only that which cannot be planted does not grow!" ... Despite the fact that the Old Believers strictly preserve Russian customs and rituals, habits and traditions of a century ago (some of which, by the way, are almost impossible to meet even in Russia itself), there are no problems with local authorities they hardly experience it.

The Russian Old Believer village in Bolivia today is something unimaginable. It is enough to give just a number of colorful examples: dogs in booths in a tropical landscape (which, by the way, causes genuine shock among the indigenous people, who stubbornly do not understand why a dog needs a separate house); cows grazing in the shade of banana palms; bearded men with old Russian names in bast shoes and embroidered shirts, belted with sashes; girls in sundresses weeding pineapples in the garden with the song "Oh frost, frost."

Bolivian Old Believers cherish their traditions. As you know, their distinctive feature is rigid patriarchal canons, one of which is strict adherence to the religious calendar. That is why every Bolivian Old Believer village has its own prayer house, where they pray several times a day; on Sundays and holidays, prayer takes several hours, and adults, despite the 40-degree heat, stand it on their feet.

The extreme patriarchal nature of the Old Believers is also expressed in everyday canons. All products used for food are grown by the Old Believers themselves; however, they never eat food either in Bolivian cafes and restaurants, or in someone else's house, taking food and even water with them. Old Believers in Bolivia do not smoke, they only drink homemade mash from alcoholic beverages. Watching TV, visiting cinemas, reading secular literature, using the Internet is strictly prohibited.

Unlike other Old Believer colonies in America, where children almost do not speak Russian and many of them went to the cities and disappeared among the local residents, in Bolivia the Old Believers have preserved the Russian language and the Orthodox faith. Surprisingly, modern Old Believers, who have never been to Russia, and many of their fathers and grandfathers were born either in China or in South America, communicate in Russian - the language of a Siberian village - just like their ancestors a hundred years ago. The speech of the Russian inhabitants of the Bolivian village is replete with words that in Russia itself have long gone out of use: the Old Believers say "you want" instead of "want", "wonderful" instead of "amazing", "helluva lot" instead of "very", they do not know the words "five-year plan" and "industrialization" do not understand modern Russian slang.

The unique Russian language is preserved through the efforts of the community members themselves. Up to the age of seven, children are brought up only in the countryside, and only then they start going to a regular Spanish-speaking rural school. Old Believer teachers teach children to read and write; mothers tell them stories that have been passed down from generation to generation. At the same time, of course, the settlers in the Bolivian wilderness practically do not have modern Russian books.

Finally, the Old Believers strictly observe family ties. Considering that marriages even with distant relatives are strictly prohibited, young Old Believers already at the age of 13-15 have to look for life companions in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay, as well as in Canada and the USA (especially Oregon and Alaska, where there are large communities of Old Believers). There are practically no mixed marriages; in the case when Russian girls marry locals, the Bolivian is obliged to accept the Orthodox faith, dress, read and speak Russian and fully observe the traditions of the Old Believers, including reading holy books in the Old Church Slavonic language. Unsurprisingly, such international weddings are extremely rare; that is why the blue-eyed and fair-haired Bolivian Old Believers so strongly resemble the characters of Russian fairy tales and paintings by Konstantin Vasiliev.

It is characteristic that none of the Old Believers who were born in Bolivia, Brazil or Uruguay, who have the national passports of these states, consider these Latin American states as their homeland. For them, their homeland is Russia, which they have never seen and about which they know practically nothing. On the other hand, a modern Russian, who ended up in a colony of Old Believers in Bolivia, has the impression that with the help of a time machine he returned several centuries ago, where in the Bolivian tropics there pre-revolutionary Russia, which practically no one remembers in Russia itself.

Against this background, Russian-Bolivian bilateral relations are developing very actively. For example, in 1999 in the political capital of Bolivia, La Paz, a street named after A.S. Pushkin - thus the city authorities decided to contribute to the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of the great Russian poet. There is a growing interest in Bolivia in the study of the Russian language and study in Russia (the main incentive here is the possibility of using it when entering Russian universities). The Russian (non-religious) diaspora is slowly but surely growing; vivid evidence is the opening in March 2002 in La Paz of a private Russian kindergarten "Matryoshka". The embassy plays a huge role in supporting the Russian diaspora Russian Federation in Bolivia.

Finally, in February 2008, a truly epochal event took place for the life of Russians in this distant South American country: less than a year after the reunification of the Russian Orthodox Church, and on February 24, 2008, the head of the Argentine and South American Diocese of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Platon, consecrated the Church of the Most Holy Trinity - the first Orthodox church in Bolivia.

Whether the Bolivian Old Believers will reach this temple is a big question, resting as a religious schism with the official orthodox Church, and in the reluctance of the Old Believers themselves to visit big citiesfull of temptations. One way or another, it seems that the sacred duty of the official authorities of Russia and non-governmental organizations dealing with the problems of compatriots is to convey to every, even completely forgotten corner of the vast Russian world, information about the Motherland and, most importantly, about its unshakable desire to support everyone who consider themselves a part of this world.

See T. Nechaeva. Adaptation of Russian emigrants in Latin America // Compatriots Portal //

In the twentieth century, the Russian Old Believers, who reached the eastern borders of Russia for 400 years of persecution, had to finally become emigrants. Circumstances scattered them across the continents, forcing them to establish their life in an exotic foreign land. Photographer Maria Plotnikova visited one of these settlements - the Bolivian village of Toborochi.

Old Believers, or Old Believers, is a common name for religious movements in Russia that arose as a result of rejection of church reforms in the 17th century. It all began after the Moscow Patriarch Nikon undertook a number of innovations (correction of service books, change of rituals). Those who were dissatisfied with the "antichrist" reforms were united by the archpriest Avvakum. The Old Believers were severely persecuted by both ecclesiastical and secular authorities. Already in the 18th century, many fled outside Russia, fleeing persecution. Nicholas II and, subsequently, the Bolsheviks did not like the stubborn ones. The first Russian Old Believers settled in Bolivia, a three-hour drive from the city of Santa Cruz, in the town of Toborochi 40 years ago. Even now, this settlement cannot be found on maps, and in the 1970s there were absolutely uninhabited lands surrounded by dense jungle.

Fedor and Tatiana Anufrievs were born in China, and went to Bolivia among the first immigrants from Brazil. In addition to the Anufrievs, the Revtovs, Murachevs, Kaluginovs, Kulikovs, Anfilofievs, Zaitsevs live in Toborochi.

The village of Toborochi consists of two dozen courtyards located at a decent distance from each other. Most of the houses are brick-built.

There are thousands of hectares of agricultural land around the settlement. The roads are only unpaved.

Santa Cruz has a very hot and humid climate, and mosquitoes pester all year round. Mosquito nets, so familiar and familiar in Russia, are placed on windows and in the Bolivian wilderness.

Old Believers cherish their traditions. Men wear shirts with belts. They sew them themselves, but they buy trousers in the city.

Women prefer sundresses and floor-length dresses. Hair is grown from birth and is braided.

Most Old Believers do not allow strangers to photograph themselves, but family albums are in every home.

Young people keep up with the times and master smartphones with might and main. Many electronic devices in the village are formally prohibited, but progress cannot be hidden even in such a wilderness. Almost all houses have air conditioners, washing machines, microwave ovens and TVs, adults communicate with distant relatives via mobile Internet (in the video below, Martyan says that the Internet is not used).

The main occupation in Toborochi is agriculture, as well as breeding of Amazonian pacu fish in artificial reservoirs. Fish are fed twice a day - at dawn and in the evening. The feed is produced right there in the mini-factory.

Old Believers grow beans, corn, wheat in vast fields, and eucalyptus in the forests. It was in Toborochi that the only Bolivian bean variety that is now popular throughout the country was bred. The rest of the legumes are imported from Brazil.

In the village factory, the crops are processed, bagged and sold to wholesalers. Bolivian soil bears fruit up to three times a year, and fertilization began only a couple of years ago.

Several varieties of coconut are grown on coconut plantations.

Women are engaged in needlework and housekeeping, raising children and grandchildren. Most of the Old Believer families have many children. The names of the children are chosen according to the Psalter, according to the birthday. A newborn is named on the eighth day of his life. The names of Toborochins are unusual not only for the Bolivian ear: Lukiyan, Cyprian, Zasim, Fedosya, Kuzma, Agripena, Pinarita, Abraham, Agapit, Palageya, Mamelfa, Stefan, Anin, Vasilisa, Marimia, Elizar, Inafa Sestralamania, Salamania.

Watermelons, mangoes, papaya, pineapples grow all year round. Kvass, mash, jam are made from fruits.

Residents of the village often encounter representatives of the wild: rhea, poisonous snakes and even small alligators who love to feast on fish in the lagoons. For such cases, the Old Believers always have a gun at the ready.

Once a week, women go to the nearest city fair, where they sell cheese, milk, pastries. Cottage cheese and sour cream never caught on in Bolivia.

To work in the fields, the Russians employ Bolivian peasants called Kolya.

There is no language barrier, since the Old Believers, in addition to Russian, speak Spanish, and the older generation has not yet forgotten Portuguese and Chinese.

Residents move around the village on mopeds and motorcycles. During the rainy season, roads become very limp and a pedestrian can get bogged down in mud.

By the age of 16, boys have acquired the necessary field experience and can get married. Marriages between relatives up to the seventh generation are strictly prohibited among the Old Believers, so they are looking for brides in other villages of South and North America. They rarely get to Russia.

Girls can get married at the age of 13.

The first "adult" gift for a girl is a collection of Russian songs, from which the mother makes another copy and gives her daughter for her birthday.

All girls are big women of fashion. They come up with a style and sew their own dresses. Fabrics are purchased in large cities - Santa Cruz or La Paz. The average wardrobe has 20-30 dresses and sundresses. The girls change their outfits almost every day.

Ten years ago, the Bolivian authorities financed the construction of the school. It consists of two buildings and is divided into three classes: children 5-8 years old, 8-11 and 12-14 years old. Boys and girls study together.

The school is taught by two Bolivian teachers. The main subjects are Spanish, reading, mathematics, biology, drawing. Russian is taught at home. IN oral speech Toborochin people are accustomed to mixing two languages, and some Spanish words have completely supplanted Russian ones. So, gasoline in the village is called nothing but "gasoline", the fair - "feria", the market - "mercado", garbage - "basura". Spanish words have long been Russified and are inflected according to the rules native language... There are also neologisms: for example, instead of the expression "download from the Internet", the word "descargarit" is used from the Spanish descargar. Some Russian words that are ubiquitous in Toborochi have long gone out of use in modern Russia... Instead of “very”, Old Believers say “awfully”, the tree is called “wood”. Older generation all this variety is mixed with the Portuguese words of the Brazilian spill. In general, the material for dialectologists in Toborochi is a whole book.

Primary education is not compulsory, but the Bolivian government encourages all students in public schools: once a year, the military comes, paying each student 200 boliviano (about $ 30).

It is not clear what to do with the money: there is not a single store in Toborochi, and no one will let the children go to the city. You have to give your honestly earned money to your parents.

Old Believers attend church twice a week, not counting orthodox holidays: services are held on Saturday from 17 to 19 hours and on Sunday from 4 to 7 in the morning.

Men and women come to church in everything clean, wearing dark clothes over them. The black cape symbolizes the equality of all before God.

Most of the South American Old Believers have never been to Russia, but they remember their history, reflecting its main moments in artistic creation.

Old Believers cherish the memories of their ancestors who also lived far from their historical homeland.

Sunday is the only day off. Everyone goes to visit each other, men go fishing.

The boys play football and volleyball. Football is the most popular game in Toborochi. The local team won more than once amateur school tournaments.

It gets dark early in the village, go to bed by 10 pm.

The Bolivian selva became a small homeland for the Russian Old Believers, the fertile land provided everything necessary, and if not for the heat, better place for life they could not have wished for.

(Copy-paste from lenta.ru)

Article in "AiF"
(Unique in that it grows from year to year without external influx)

Sundresses under coconuts

The columnist for "Arguments and Facts" ended up in Russia, where jaguars are found in the forests, pineapples are planted in the gardens, and the indigenous Siberians do not know what snow looks like. And he didn't dream about it!
-Oh, why are you going to our village, good sir? But in vain. It's hot, and so dusty, such dusty is on the path - you will swallow enough! - a woman in a blue sarafan spoke quickly with a clear Siberian accent, and I barely had time to understand her melodious words. Having shown how best to get to the village, Stepanida turned and walked on, towards the coconut grove rustling with leaves. A boy standing next to her, wearing a shirt outside and a cap, plucked a mango from a nearby tree and followed his mother, brushing off the mosquitoes.
“Chrysanthus! - I heard a stern voice. - How many times have I told you, you fool, - don't eat manga, they are too green, then raid at night! "

"You won't go to the forest for mushrooms - and there are no mushrooms, and they will eat themselves"

… THE FIRST Russian villages in the small South American state of Bolivia appeared a long time ago. When exactly - the locals do not even remember. It seems that the very first settlers arrived already in 1865 (the authorities then distributed arable land to the colonists for free), and seventy years later, a whole crowd of Siberian and Ural peasant families arrived from China, who after the Bolshevik revolution had to flee Russia. Now, two hundred kilometers from the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz, three large villages of Russian settlers are located at once, where about two thousand people live. In one of these villages - Taboroche - we drove along a dusty road along the endless Bolivian fields overgrown with Russian sunflowers.

... The door of the village headman Martyan Onufriev's house was opened by his daughter, a gray-eyed shy beauty in a sarafan. “Tyatinki are not present. They went to the city on business. Don't stand on the doorstep, go into the hut. " "Izboy" is the name of a sturdy stone house with a tiled roof, in the manner of those that are being built in Germany. At first, Russian peasants in Bolivia sawed elephant palms and made houses from logs, but they quickly abandoned this venture: in conditions of tropical humidity and ubiquitous termites, the dwelling immediately began to rot and soon turned into dust. It is impossible to describe a Russian village in Bolivia in words - it is simply a must see. Dogs in the booths (which shocks the Bolivians - why does a dog need a separate house ?!) and mooing cows grazing in the shade of banana palms. People in the gardens with the song "Oh frost, frost!" weeds pineapples. Bearded men in embroidered shirts, belted with sashes, famously drive Japanese jeeps, talking on cell phones, and girls in sundresses and kokoshniks rush to the field and back on Honda motorcycles. The impressions in the first five minutes were enough for my mouth to close with difficulty.

Now they have begun to live well, thank God, ”notes the 37-year-old peasant Natalya, who also invited me to the“ hut ”. - And the first time, when people arrived, they didn’t have tractors, they didn’t have horses - they plowed the land on the broads. Some have become rich, and some have not, but we all live together. Mamma said that in Russia the poor are envious of the rich. Why so? After all, God created people unequal. It is useless to envy someone else's wealth, especially if people are at work. Who's stopping you? Take it yourself and make money!

Natalia was born in one of the Russian Old Believer villages, deep in the jungle of Brazil. She moved here when she got married - at the age of 17: she got used to living, but she doesn't speak Spanish: “I can't even count in their own way. Why should I? So, a little, if I go to the market. " Her father, at the age of five, was taken out of the Khabarovsk province, now he is more than eighty. Natalya has never been to her father's homeland, although she really wants to go. “Tyatya is talking about Russia very beautifully - my heart aches with excitement. Oh, he says, nature is so beautiful. And you will go to the forest, tama mushrooms, they say, so many - you will collect full baskets. And then don't go - nooo, yes, God forbid, and the jaguar narvessi - accustomed, accursed, to go to the watering place.
Cats in homes are bred specifically to catch lizards

I will tell you honestly - I simply did not expect to hear Russian speech in Taboroche. At work, I had to communicate a lot with the children of the White Guards who had grown old in France and the United States - they all spoke Russian well, but they noticeably distorted the words. But here a surprise awaited me. These people, who have never been to Russia, and many have fathers and grandfathers were born on the land of South America, communicate in Russian in the same way as their ancestors a hundred years ago. This is the language of a Siberian village, without the slightest accent, melodious and affectionate, replete with words that in Russia itself have long gone out of use. In Taboroche they say “want” instead of “want”, “wonderful” instead of “amazing”, “helluva lot” instead of “very,” they don't know the words “five-year plan” and “industrialization”, they don't understand Russian slang in the form of “well, damn it” and "Not a fig for myself." Here, near a tropical forest entwined with lianas, pre-revolutionary Russia, which we no longer remember, has somehow been incredibly preserved. And the thought arises: maybe this is exactly what now (of course, with the exception of pineapples in the garden) and the Russian village would have been if October had not happened?

Six-year-old Evdokia, sitting on the doorstep, plays with a grown-up kitten. - Unlike Russia, a cat, for lack of mice, catches lizards in the house. A red parrot flies by, but the girl accustomed to them does not pay attention to the bird. Evdokia speaks only Russian: up to the age of seven, children are brought up in the village, in their home world, so that they memorize the language, and then they are allowed to go to school to learn Spanish. Mothers tell their children fairy tales that they pass from generation to generation: about Ivanushka the Fool, Emelya and the pike, the Humpbacked Horse. The settlers have practically no books, and where in the Bolivian wilderness you can get a collection of Russian fairy tales. Men speak Spanish without exception, but women do not. “Does the girl know how to speak the Spaniard language? - says Natalia's neighbor, burly Feodosia. "She will marry, the children will go there - you have to manage the housework and bake pies, and let the peasant plow himself in the field."
"You say it wrong, you wear a kokoshnik crookedly, you cook bad cabbage soup!"

In the afternoon, the inhabitants of Taboroche can be easily found in the field. They grow everything they can: corn, wheat, sunflowers. "Only that which you cannot plant does not grow in this land!" - jokes one of the bearded men, sitting astride a tractor. One of the Old Believers even last year was honored with an article in a local newspaper - he gathered the largest harvest of soybeans and ... pineapples. “There were those who saved up some money and went to see Russia,” Terenty says. They returned so wonderful - all with their eyes clap-clap. They say: in the villages of Siberia, people are starving and drinking vodka, but for some reason they cannot plow the land. I say: how can it be - how much earth is there, take it and grow bread, or is it INTO! Yes, they are too lazy, they say. What a misfortune, Lord - what did the Bolsheviks do with poor Russia! And it was also wonderful to him that everyone around him spoke Russian - he just couldn't believe it. We are accustomed here that if you ask a person what is on the street, he will answer in Spanish. I listened to him and I am also saving money for the trip - if God willing, I will definitely come in a couple of years ”.

Russian peasants go to Santa Cruz to sell what they have grown. Arriving, they settle in such hotels, so that there is no TV and radio (this is a sin), they take dishes with them - "their shtob does not become defiled." But no one leaves the village to live in the city. “I myself have six children,” says 40-year-old Terenty. - And in Santa Cruz there are many demonic temptations: nothing good will come of life there. Sons marry Bolivians, girls will marry Bolivians, but ethno in vain - they don't even know how to cross their foreheads like we do. ”

Bolivians, as well as other men and women, can, in principle, marry the inhabitants of Russian villages, but on one condition - they should be baptized in the "Russian faith", dress, read and speak Russian. There were two such marriages in total, and both fell apart. The Bolivian girl who "went" for a Russian guy could not stand the constant clashes with her mother-in-law: you wear a kokoshnik crookedly, and you speak Russian incorrectly, you cook bad cabbage soup, and you pray to God without zeal. As a result, the young wife fled, and the husband, to the delight of his mother, went to Uruguay for the Russian bride. Another citizen of Bolivia (by the way, an Indian of the Aymara tribe), who married a Russian girl, was received in Taboroche with caution - “all black, like a Negro, as if the girl could not find a lighter one,” but later the whole village condemned his divorce from his wife: “ Avon, they already have five children - they are sitting on the benches, wiping snot. If you've made a drain, be patient, don't leave the woman with them. " But such "international" weddings are rare, which is why almost all the villagers of Taboroche have blue eyes, noses - potatoes, freckles all over their faces, and their hairs are light brown or wheat. Alcohol (even harmless beer) is strictly prohibited, and smoking is also prohibited: but for all the time in the village, not a single person drank or died of lung cancer. But the craving for civilization takes its toll - some peasants secretly keep small portable TVs under their beds, which, muffling the sound, watch at night. However, no one openly admits this. On Sunday, everyone must go to church and read the Bible with the children at home.

“Why be afraid of a black cobra? He kicked him in the head with a heel - and a skiff.

ABOUT twenty families have recently moved to Bolivia from the USA. “It’s difficult for the Americans for the Russians,” explains former Alaska resident Eleutheriy, stroking his beard. - They have all the tacos built so that all the Americans are, they erode us. Many of our children no longer speak Russian, although all baptized people wear embroidered shirts - it's just grief. So the syuds came so that the children would not start speaking American and would not forget God. ”

None of the residents of Taboroche, who were born in Bolivia, Brazil and Uruguay and hold national passports, consider these countries as their homeland. For them, their homeland is Russia, which they have never seen. “Well, I was born in Bolivia, well, I've lived here all my life, so what am I from this Bolivian? - Ivan is surprised. - I am a Russian person, a believer in Christ, and so will remain. The settlers were not used to the stunning heat (in January in the Santa Cruz area plus 40 degrees): “What a horror! Standing in church for Christmas, praying - the floor is so wet, sweat from everyone is dripping. " But they ask with interest about snow: what does it look like? How does it feel? You can't convey what you feel when you explain to hereditary Siberians about snow and frost, and they look at you with round eyes and repeat: "Yes, it can't be!" Russian peasants no longer take any tropical diseases - among the very first settlers who drained the swamps in the jungles of Bolivia and Brazil, there were many deaths from yellow fever, and now, as residents phlegmatically say, "we don't see the fever." Only mosquitoes irritate, but they are fought with in the old fashioned way - they drive them away, fumigating them with smoke. Dangerous snakes, including the black cobra spitting venom, also crawl from the jungle to the village rubble. But Old Believers are easy to manage with them. “What about a snake? - Chrysanth, chewing mango, is bragging again secretly from his mother. - He gave a heel in the head - she and a skiff. Ivan's wife, 18-year-old freckled beauty Zoya (her native village is in the state of Goias in Brazil), also speaks of poisonous reptiles with Olympic calmness: “The window in our hut was broken, and my aunt was too lazy to plug him up with a pillow - and so they say, it's hot ... So through that hole the cobra will jump to the floor at night! I slapped her on the head with the handle of a broom and killed her.

The settlers know little about modern political life in Russia (you can't watch TV, you won't get on the Internet - it's also a sin), but they heard about Beslan and served in the church a prayer service for the repose of the souls of "children killed by the boors." They feel their homeland with their souls. The owner of the optical salon in the center of Santa Cruz, a former resident of the Kuban, Lyuba, told me how the settler Ignat came to her and she showed him a photo album about Russian nature published in Moscow. Not at all surprised, Ignat shrugged his shoulders and said: “Strange, but I've already seen it all. I dream of churches and fields all the time at night. And I also see my grandfather's village in my dreams.

... Recently, Russian colonists began to leave Taboroche - land rent increased. “We are like gypsies,” laughs Theodosia. - Just a little, we are filming and going. " New land is rented to the south, across the river - it is cheaper there, and the grown corn is transported to Brazil. Forced to leave Russia for various reasons, these peasants built for themselves a new island of their old, familiar life in exotic Bolivia, creating here their own Russia with coconut palms and jaguars in the forest. They do not harbor any resentment or anger at their homeland, do not wish her any troubles, thereby radically differing from many modern Russian emigrants. Having preserved their identity, language and culture in the depths of the Bolivian jungle, these people remained truly Russian - both in character, and in language and in style of thinking. And there is no doubt that these small islands of old Russia in Latin America will exist in a hundred and two hundred years. Because people live there who are proud to be Russian.

MOST of all Russian villages in Brazil: about ten, about 7 thousand people live there. For the first time in South America, Russian settlers appeared in 1757, founding a Cossack village in Argentina. In addition to the above countries, there are now Russian Old Believer settlements in Uruguay, Chile and Paraguay. Some of the settlers also left for Africa, creating Russian colonies in the Union of South Africa and Rhodesia. But the "white emigration" of 1917-1920 almost completely "eroded" - very few of the descendants of the 5 million (!) Noblemen who settled in Paris then bear Russian names and speak Russian: according to experts, this happened due to for the fact that the Russians lived in Paris "non-compact".

George ZOTOV, Taboroche - Santa Cruz
"Arguments and Facts" original with pictures here.

One of the ethnic communities of the Republic of Bolivia. In addition to the employees of the Russian embassy and their family members living in the country, it includes, according to various sources, from 400 to 2,000 descendants of Russian Old Believers. In total, according to data for 2005, about 3,000 residents of Bolivia spoke Russian, although this number includes foreign studentseducated in Russia.

Russian Old Believers began to move to Bolivia in separate groups as early as the second half of the 19th century, but their massive influx fell on the period of the 1920s and 1930s, during the years of post-revolutionary collectivization. Like among the representatives of the Far Eastern white emigration, the long and difficult path of the Old Believers to Bolivia after the 1917 revolution ran along the route Manchuria-Hong Kong-Brazil-Bolivia.

Notes (edit)

Population - 9.8 million (as of July 2009).

Annual growth - 1.8% (fertility - 3.2 births per woman).

Average life expectancy is 64 years for men, 70 years for women.

Ethno-racial composition - Indians 55% (mainly Quechua and Aymara), mestizo 30%, white 15%.

Languages \u200b\u200b- 3 official languages, Spanish 60.7%, Quechua 21.2%, Aymara 14.6%, other languages \u200b\u200b3.6% (2001 census).

Religions - Catholics 95%, Protestants (Evangelical Methodists) 5%.

Literacy - 93% men, 80% women (2001 census).

Russian diaspora (" Russian abroad", Russian emigration) - a composite definition of the Russian national community outside of Russia. As of the first decade of the 21st century, about 30 million Russians and their descendants live outside of Russia.

The Russian diaspora, the majority of which is Russian, is considered the third or fourth largest in the world.

The term has both "narrow", specific, and "broad" or broad interpretation. In many countries, the Russian diaspora is considered to be everyone who speaks Russian or knows Russian, regardless of ethnic origin - Ukrainians, Tatars, Jews, Chechens, Kalmyks and others.

The first historically noticeable waves of mass external emigration from Russian Empire appeared in the second half - late XIX century. But there was no talk of the emergence or creation of a Russian diaspora as such. Only occasionally was a small and temporary “colony” of nobles and aristocrats in Paris mentioned.