All The Russias 1. The Little Birch Tree (6 of 13)

All The Russias

BALAKIREV Overture on Russian Themes VALENTIN VORONOVSKY Farmer I was born and raised on a collective farm.
Recently I retired.
I have three hectares of land.
I cultivate it and keep cattle.
I work with my wife and family.
Maybe life will get better, maybe worse.
He who's born on the land must die on the land.
If you don't work, you get nothing.
The type of Russian peasant formed by the country life, which was loved both by Dostoevsky and by Tolstoy, is based on idea of working hard, thinking about kids, dying and the kids will live by the same life.
It 's like a part of nature.

Probably this life formed the Russian political system which is based, as village life, on authority.
So the Russian history in 19th and specially in the 20th century is a life of authoritarian state.
The peasants, they have to be authoritarian.
I think we can see it not only in Russia but in a lot of rural countries.
'When I'm sad,' wrote Balakirev, 'I look at the silvery colour of the Volga,' 'and around the fires of the barge-haulers I listen to the Volga's songs.'
In 1860 he made a trip along the river and was the first major Russian composer to collect folk music in the field.
From three tunes he collected, he composed his symphonic poem, 'Rus'.
BALAKIREV Overture on Russian Themes When serfdom was abolished in 1861.
Artists became interested in folk motifs.
IRINA SHUVALOVA Russian Vuseum The life of ordinary people their suffering, their pride, their hopes.
Painters, composers and writers, Russian artists were united in their interest in the peasants.