Kristina Syrchikova documentary photographer

Extinction is off

Misha
Nastya, the Usachevs' (Misha's neighbours') horse. The Usachevs call her their “car”.
On the day he moved here Misha was puzzled about how to move his things to the house (there's no normal path to the house, its accessible only for a tractor), and an old man passed by on a horse. He offered help. He helped him move. That was the beginning of the neighbours' friendship.
An abandoned house in Dergunovka
The distance between Samara and Dergunovka is 90 km. Then you need to go through fields and gardens to the back street — Zarechnaya, where the “landlord Vlasov's estate” is. There are several inhabited houses nearby. All the rest are empty, abandoned by their gone or dead owners.
Misha is sitting on the porch of the guest house
When firing, he already knew, that he would move to a village. It was not only about the school. He had no one to forsake — his parents and close relatives died. He had nithing special to care for. “I just understood that we only live once. And my only life I'm living wrong. I knew it would be hard alone. but at least I could try”.

And Misha began to try: sold his flat, and began to look for a small house in a village. The requirements were tough: stove heating plus 3G. Found an ad: two houses in Big Dergunovka, on the river bank, 300 000rub, 9000 squre metres. He came to have a look and was shocked: a huge plot, two firm houses, 3G Internet and a stove — as he wished. He bought it and moved. And only then became afraid.
With the locals Misha painted the playground. The total budget was 1200 rubles (US$ 19)
There are 3 playgrounds in Dergunovka. Old, rusty, and imperceptible. They weren;t painted since hey were built. Vlasov claimed the gathering of volonteers and money for the paint and brushes.

Gradually money started to come on his card. 100, 300 rubles. District's head Deputy transfered 1000. Once on his way home from a shop Misha met a local dweller, an artist Lyuba Shargina. The woman claimed that she wanted to take part in his project and that she would buy the paint. “I gave an ad, wrote, when we were going to paint. People pushed ‘like’. On the arranged day and hour we came… in number of two”.

We felt upset, but began to paint. A guy were passing by on a bycicle. He saw Misha and Lyuba, and stopped. “Can I have a look?” “You can do it with us!” They began to paint, the three of them. On the horizon appeared one more guy. Slowed down, asked, got a brush. Then came two more guys. A woman joined. In a couple of hours the playground was painted in several layers. With the grass and the painters' clothes. On the whole it took only 1200 rubles.
Lyubov Shargina’s house
A lawyer Lyubov Shargina bought a house in Big Dergunovka in 2012. Since then her husband and she live in two houses: half the time they spend in the village, another half — in Samara.
Baba Raya, Misha’s neighbour
Baba Raya and uncle Lesha Usachevs, 80 years old couple, living over the next house, are amazed by the urban teacher.

The old man and woman live (they don't use this word anymore, they only say “drag on”) in Dergunovka all their lives, and remember their village much bigger. “There were houses instead of all those bushes. Many houses. Every family had children — two, three children. And now there are only old people left, and they die one by one”.
Baba Raya, Misha’s neighbour
Children and grand-children ask them to the city — why stagnate here? But they refuse. “We want to die on our motherland. Everything is made with our own hands here, it's unbearble to abandon. We'll cope, so-so”.

— It's creepy in here in winter, — tells Baba Raya. — We used to visit our neighbours, and now there's no one to visit… Nevermind us, we're sorry for Mishka. There's no people here… We help him as we can. We go for water on our “car”, Nastenka, with him. And he helps us.
Misha near his house
“Sometimes I'm scared. Dreams and reality are different things. It's especially hard in winter, when every day is a groundhog day. Sometimes I think: do I really need it?”
Disco at the Culture House
On holidays people somehow gather here, but in the evenings the disco ball lights up an empty dance floor: yougsters prefer to drink beer nearby.
Disco at the Culture House
On holidays people somehow gather here, but in the evenings the disco ball lights up an empty dance floor: yougsters prefer to drink beer nearby.
Dergunovka
The name Dergunovka came from the word “dergun” (the Russian for “jerker”) — the name of the first settlers, who didn't have time for make the land habitable, “jerked” bread and hay from the nearest villagers. Today there's nothing and no one to jerk. In 1907 the population of it was 10,000 people, now it's only 300−400. Nothing's left of their farming, flocks, and ploughed hectares.
Lyubov Petrovna Shargina, an amateur artist
A lawyer Lyubov Shargina bought a house in Big Dergunovka in 2012. Since then her husband and she live in two houses: half the time they spend in the village, another half — in Samara. Two years ago, retired, the woman suddenly began to draw: she paints pictures (mostly landscapes) and portraits. She was inspired by the countryside sceneries: just like Vlasov, she fell in love with the steppe, sunsets, and every little thing around. Lyuba is the main Misha's ally in all his undertakings. However, she's much less optimistic. Because she lives in the village longer and knows people better.
An abandoned house
There are many abandoned houses and buildings in Dergunovka.
There’s only one street lantern on Zarechnaya
Everything around is plunged into darkness. Misha likes the darkness, because the stars are well seen.
An abandoned wooden grain-elevator
Misha is planning to restore the abandoned wooden grain-elevator of the last century, and make it a museum.

There are only two such elevators an Samara region.
The Culture House
The museum and the school are closed, a few pupils go to the district centre by bus. There's a culture house, holidays and discos are held here. On holidays people somehow gather here, but in the evenings the disco ball lights up an empty dance floor: yougsters prefer to drink beer nearby.
Misha is going home from the concert
— In the countryside it is very important to think much and to try hard, — says Misha. — The most important thing is to throw the idealism away from your head. You know, some come to a village like: now we breed and cultivate everything, we show the locals, how to keep house, make warm vegetable beds, just so. We cook cheese, make furlala with lapis-dron, everyone will buy, everyone will be happy. Not at all! Well, let's not lie to ourselves. It's easier to go to “Auchan”, then here for cheese. No, it's not simple. We need to think.

After a silent while Misha tells about his main idea — the Hucleberry Finn School. “I will arrange something like a camp for a week. Teach children to work with their hands. We'll learn how to cook on the open fire, smelt lead, saw planks, build a raft. They'll get household knowledge and sharpen their skills through a game. And in the evening we can arrange interesting history lectures… Not like at school, with swotted dates, but interesting, so it would be kept in their heads”.

In spring 2016 an unbelievable thing happened in Big Dergunovka village: for the first time during a long period its population became one person more. A teacher from Kinel Mihail Vlasov came and registered here, in an old wooden house on Zarechnaya Street. Actually, in two houses.

Soon one more miracle happened: Dergunovka has got an article in Wikipedia. And after a little more while an old, rusty to the core playground in the centre og the village boasted with new shiny paint. And that miracle was not the last.

Mihail appeared in Dergunovka surprisingly and it seemed accidental. He just lived his life, teached children, washed in the bathroom, drank beer with his friends, and then he had enough of everything. What exactly made Vlasov go to the end of the world he cannot truly explain. “I had that feeling of not-freedom, sencelessness of everything. Many of my friends buy concrete walls on mortgage, and sleep in them for continuing to work, and work to pay the dwelling. This script is not for me. I wanted to build up my own world, act my own rules, live free. Freedom is not when you have loads of everything, but it is when you can turn down anything. To turn down more income for less, to turn down stuff, various things. In the countryside you don’t need much, you can be free there”.

Text by Evgeniya Volunkova