Two Villages

Photography by The New Tab
Text by Danila Istomin

A group of people moved to a Arkhangelsk Oblast village to learn to live in harmony with nature. Here’s why – and what has come of their endeavor.

Tarasovskaya is a tiny village in Russia’s far-northern Arkhangelsk Oblast. Only two of its long-term residents stick around for the winter. But since 2014 some of the houses have been occupied by members of a community that calls itself “Living Village.” They are learning to live in harmony with nature as they operate a cooperative farm. At one point, it seemed the project was getting off the ground: in 2020 and 2021, Living Village had as many as 15 residents. As of February 2022, however, only two women remain, along with the children of one of them. They’re not opposed to joining forces with locals, but they haven’t found common ground with many of their fellow villagers. This is the story of how the remaining newcomers are doing and what the other village residents think about Living Village.