, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, but Peru, like Paraguay, is landlocked. Bolivia is an amazing country of contrasts, here voodoo cults peacefully coexist, Christianity with a very devout local population. In Bolivia, there is a real cult of death, skulls can be found on every house, stuffed thieves and criminals hang on the streets of cities reminding local residents what will happen if they commit an offense, perhaps more recently, instead of stuffed animals, thieves really hung on poles. Every family in Bolivia has a skull, it is not clear where they come from, so every year on November 8 this skull must be taken to the church and given wine to drink. In the old days, the Maya cult flourished in Bolivia, which was based on various sacrifices, the more serious the sacrifice to the gods, the higher it is valued and the higher the gratitude of the gods, today sacrifices in their price have dropped to animals and various trinkets. However, the sacrifice is held every first Friday of the month. The symbol of life in Bolivia is the lama; Bolivians buy dried llama embryos in souvenir shops and put it in a wicker basket along with sugar, then burn the basket. Any major purchase needs to be covered in the church.

The locals in Bolivia are very specific, they are all descendants of the Maya Indians with a characteristic appearance, they are very knocked down and short, women wear dozens of skirts and English men's bowlers at the same time, however, they cannot be pulled over their heads, but only put them on their heads, surprisingly how they do not fly off while walking.

Living standards and poverty in Bolivia

All Bolivian cities are not expressive and more like slums, the local climate is sometimes harsh and cold, so they do not build villages or plywood houses here, as in Central America, houses are an unusual mixture of building materials made of bricks and clay, it can be assumed that houses first began to build from clay, then bricks began to appear on sale, and along with it, money from local citizens, so that clay buildings began to be completed with bricks, in general, few buildings in Bolivia have been completed and brought to mind, building a house is a very costly thing and in one generation the Bolivians cannot finish it, the house started by the grandfathers may be completed by the grandchildren. Bolivia has a low-developed infrastructure, the cities are very dirty, there are very few rich people among the locals, there are no oligarchs like in Ukraine, so only the poor live in the mountains and valleys, unlike neighboring countries, for example, Argentina, where you can see only the very rich in the mountains at home, and the poor live in the lowlands and in the center of the city. Mount La Paz in the capital strongly resembles similar mountains in Rio, built up with shacks. High fences and barbed wire remind that crime is very high in Bolivia, any badly welcomed things will be stolen

Work and salaries in Bolivia

Average salaries in Bolivia are about $ 375 per month, but not everyone can get that kind of money. The unemployment rate is officially 8.5%, but in fact this figure can be twice as high, 60% of the population is below the poverty level. Half of the population is employed in the service sector, it also brings half of GDP, agriculture is developed in rural regions, it brings 11% of GDP and 40% of the population is employed in it, industry 37% of GDP and 17% of workers, primarily oil and tin production , developed tobacco industry and food production.

Men and women in Bolivia

Bolivia has a pronounced gender inequality, since literacy among men is at the average level for South America, but for women this indicator is much lower, a woman has few chances to get a job, but the weight changes if you look at the average life expectancy of 64 years. men and 70 years for women, in this regard, Bolivia is very similar to Russia or Ukraine, where men do not live very well, they are exploited, they drink a lot, smoke and have a very low social culture.

For several centuries, Russian Old Believers could not find peace in their native land, and in the 20th century, many of them finally moved abroad, and therefore today Old Believers can also be found in a distant foreign land, for example, in Latin America

For several centuries, Russian Old Believers could not find peace in their native land, and in the 20th century, many of them finally moved abroad. It was far from always possible to settle somewhere close to the Motherland, and therefore today Old Believers can be found in a distant foreign land, for example, in Latin America. In this article, you will learn about the life of Russian farmers from the village of Toborochi, Bolivia.

Old Believers, or Old Believers - a common name for religious movements in Russia,resulting from the rejection of church reforms in 1605-1681. It all started after the Moscow PatriarchNikon undertook a number of innovations (correction of liturgical books, change of rituals).Those who were dissatisfied with the "anti-Christ" reforms were united by the archpriest Avvakum. Old Believers were severely persecutedon the part of 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 either. In Bolivia, three hours from the city of Santa Cruz,the first Russian Old Believers settled in Toborochi 40 years ago. Even now, this settlement cannot be found on the maps,and in the 1970s there were completely 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.

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.

Young people keep up with the times and master smartphones with might and main. Many electronic devices in the village are formally banned.but progress cannot be hidden even in such a wilderness. Almost all houses have air conditioners, washing machines,microwaves and TVs, adults communicate with distant relatives via the mobile Internet.

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.

On vast fields, the Old Believers grow beans, corn, wheat, 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 a village factory, the crop is 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.

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: Lukian, Cyprian, Zasim, Fedosya, Kuzma, Agripena,Pinarita, Abraham, Agapit, Palageya, Mamelfa, Stephen, Anin, Vasilisa, Marimia, Elizar, Inafa, Salamania, Selivester.

Villagers often encounter wildlife: monkeys, ostriches,poisonous snakes and even small crocodiles that love to feast on fish in the lagoons.

For such cases, the Old Believers always have a gun at the ready.

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

By the age of 16, boys have acquired the necessary field experience and can get married.

The Old Believers strictly forbid marriages between relatives up to the seventh generation, so they are looking for brides in other villages.South and North America. They rarely get to Russia.

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, Toborochins are used to mixing two languages, and some Spanish words andcompletely ousted by the Russians. So, gasoline in the village is called nothing else than "gasoline", the fair - "feria", the market - "mercado",garbage - "basura". Spanish words have long been Russified and are inclined according to the rules of the 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 wordswidely used in Toborochi, have long gone out of use in modern Russia. Instead of "very", Old Believers say "awfully"the tree is called "forest". The older generation mixes with all this variety the Portuguese words of the Brazilian spill.In general, the material for dialectologists in Toborochi is a whole book.

For several centuries, Russian Old Believers could not find peace in their native land, and in the 20th century, many of them finally moved abroad. It was far from always possible to settle somewhere close to the Motherland, and therefore today Old Believers can be found in a distant foreign land, for example, in Latin America. In this article, you will learn about the life of Russian farmers from the village of Toborochi, Bolivia. 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 1605-1681. 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 "anti-Christ" 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 either. In Bolivia, a three-hour drive from the city of Santa Cruz, in the town of Toborochi, the first Russian Old Believers settled 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. 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 there are family albums 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 the mobile Internet. 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. On vast fields, the Old Believers grow beans, corn, wheat, 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 a village factory, the crop is 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. 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. The villagers often encounter wildlife: monkeys, ostriches, poisonous snakes and even small crocodiles 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, and 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. 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 forbidden 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. 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, Toborochins are used 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 inclined according to the rules of the 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,” the Old Believers say “awfully”, the tree is called “wood”. The older generation mixes with all this variety 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: the military comes once a year, paying each student 200 boliviano (about $ 30). 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. Sunday is the only day off. Everyone goes to visit each other, men go fishing. It gets dark early in the village, go to bed by 10 pm.

Now I periodically take our tourists to the Old Believers, we have good relations with one of the main and respected people there. I'll tell you how I got there for the first time. I accompanied tourists, we rode by car in different cities of Argentina and Uruguay. And we decided to stop by the Old Believers. There is very little information about Old Believers on the Internet, there are no clear coordinates, it is not clear where to look for them, and it is generally not clear how relevant the information is. There was only information that the Old Believers' colony was located near the city of San Javier. We arrived in this city, and I began to find out from the locals where to find the Russians. "Aaaa, barbudos !?" - said in the first shop. "Barbudos" in Spanish means bearded men. "Yes, they live nearby. But they won't let you in, they are aggressive," the San Javierians told us. This statement was slightly alarming. But still, I figured out how to get there by dirt dirt roads. The Uruguayans said that the "barbudos" did not accept anyone and did not communicate with anyone. Fortunately, this was not the case. Surprisingly, many "Russian" San Javierians do not really know anything about their Russian neighbors. And as you know, a person is afraid of everything incomprehensible and different. Therefore, there is no special friendship between the former Russian Sanhaviers and Russian Old Believers.

We were about to set off to search for the village, but at that moment someone from San Javier called us, pointing to the ATM. “This is just one of them,” he said. A strange-looking man in a green shirt lined with a rope belt with a beard came out of the bank. A conversation ensued. In Russian. The man turned out to be not at all aggressive, but on the contrary, kind and open. The first thing that struck was his language, dialect. He spoke the language that I only heard in the movies. That is, this is our, Russian language, but many words there are pronounced differently, and there are many words that we no longer use at all, for example, they call the house izba, instead of strongly say "helluva lot". They say not "you know", but "you know", "like", "understand" ... Instead of "stronger" they say "more". They say not "happens" but "byvat", not "can" but "mogёt", not "start" but "conceive", not "others" but "others". How much, evoshny, tudy-syudy, near ... After talking for a bit, we asked if it was possible to see how they live there. Starover agreed, and we went to get the evoshny car. We were lucky that we met him, without him, according to the scheme drawn by the San Javierians, we would definitely not have found anything. And so we drove up to the village ...

Getting into the village of Old Believers for the first time, you experience a shock. A complete feeling that I got into the past in a time machine. This is exactly how Russia looked at that time ... We enter the village, a house, in the courtyard a woman in a sundress milks a cow, barefoot children in shirts and sundresses run around ... This is a piece of old Russia, which was taken out of it and transferred to another, alien world ... And since the Russians did not integrate in this foreign world, this allowed this piece of old Russia to survive to this day.

It is strictly forbidden to take pictures in this colony. And all those pictures that you will see below were taken with the permission of the Old Believers. That is, group, "official" photographs are possible. It is impossible to secretly photograph their lives without asking. When finding out why they do not like photographers so much, it turned out that journalists were making their way to them under the guise of tourists. Filmed them, and then exhibited in the form of laughing clowns. One of such stupid and meaningless reports was made by Uruguayan TV with a hidden camera.

Their technique is very serious. All owned. There are trucks, combines, and various irrigators, watering pans.

Arriving in the village, we met one of the elders, and he told us about the life of this piece of old Russia ... Just as we are interested in them, we are interesting for them. We are a part of that Russia, which they somehow imagine in their heads, with which they live for many generations, but which they have never seen.

Old Believers do not beat the thumbs up, but work like dads Carlo. They own about 60 hectares, and they rent another 500 hectares. Here, in this village, about 15 families live, about 200 people in total. That is, according to the simplest estimate, each family has an average of 13 people. So it is, seven big, a lot of kids.

Here are some "official", approved photos. Those without beards are not Old Believers - they are me and my tourists.

And here are some more photos taken with the permission of the Old Believers by a person who worked for them as a combine operator. His name is Slava. A simple Russian guy traveled for a long time to different Latin American countries and came to work for the Old Believers. They accepted him, and for 2 months he lived with them. After which he still preferred to quit. He is an artist, so the photos are so good.

Very atmospheric. like in Russia ... before. Today in Russia there are no harvesters and no tractors either. Everything has rotted and the villages are empty. Russia was so carried away by getting up from its knees by selling oil and gas to the Europeans that it did not notice how the Russian village died. But in Uruguay, the Russian village is alive! This is how it could be in Russia now! I am exaggerating, of course, somewhere in Russia, of course, there are harvesters, but I saw with my own eyes many dead villages along the main Russian highways. And this is impressive.

Let's look very delicately, with great respect, behind the curtain of the private life of Old Believers. The photos that I post here were taken by them themselves. That is, these are official photos that the Old Believers themselves have posted publicly on social networks. And I just collected from Facebook and re-posted these photos here for you, my dear reader. All photographs here are from different South American colonies of Old Believers.

In Brazil, Old Believers live in the state of Mato Grosso, 40 km from the city of Prmiavera do Leste. In the state of Amazonas near the town of Humaita. And also in the state of Parana, near Ponta Grossa.

In Bolivia, they live in the province of Santa Cruz, in the settlement of Toborochi.

And in Argentina, the settlement of the Old Believers is located near the town of Choele Choel.

And here I will tell you everything that I learned from the Old Believers about their way of life and traditions.

Strange sensations when you start communicating with them. At first it seems that they should be some kind of completely different, "out of this world", immersed in their religion, and nothing earthly can interest them. But when communicating, it turns out that they are the same as us, only a little from the past. But this does not mean that they are somehow detached, and they are not interested in anything!

These costumes are not some kind of masquerade. This is how they live, this is how they walk. Women in sundresses, men in shirts tied with a rope belt. The women make their own clothes. Yes, of course, these photos are mostly from the holidays, so the clothes are especially smart.

But as you can see, Old Believers dress in the Old Russian style in everyday life.

It is impossible to believe that all these people were born and raised outside of Russia. Moreover, their parents were also born here in South America ...

And pay attention to their faces, they are all smiling. Still, this is a strong difference between our Russian believers and South American Old Believers. For some reason, Russian Orthodox Christians have a mournful and tragic face with all the talk about God and religion. And the more a modern Russian believes in God, the sadder his face. For Old Believers, everything is positive, and so is religion. And I think in old Russia it was the same as in theirs. After all, the great Russian poet Pushkin joked and mocked the "pop-oat forehead", and that was then in the order of things.

Old Believers have been living in South America for almost 90 years. In the 30s, they fled from the USSR, as they sensed the danger from the new Soviet regime in time. And they did the right thing, they would not have survived. They fled first to Manchuria. But over time, the local communist authorities began to oppress them there, and then they moved to South-North America and Australia. The largest colony of Old Believers is located in Alaska. In the United States, they also live in the states of Oregon and Minnesota. The Old Believers I visit in Uruguay first lived in Brazil. But there they became uncomfortable, and in 1971 many families moved to Uruguay. For a long time they chose the land, and finally settled next to the "Russian" city of San Javier. The Uruguayan authorities themselves advised the Russians about this place. The logic is simple, those Russians - these Russians, maybe it's better together. But Russians do not always love Russians, this is our national peculiarity, therefore, the Russian San Jovierians did not develop a special friendship with the Old Believers.

We arrived at an empty place. They began to build everything, settle in an open field. Amazingly, the Uruguayan colony had no electricity until 1986! They lit everything with kerosene stoves. Well, we have adapted to live by the sun. Therefore, the Uruguayan colony is the most interesting, because only 30 years ago they were completely cut off from the rest of the world. And then life was really like in the century before last in Russia. Water was carried with rocker arms, the land was plowed on horses, the houses then were wooden. Different colonies lived in different ways, some are more integrated into the country where they are located, for example, the American colonies. Some colonies have no particular reason to integrate, for example, the Bolivian colony. After all, Bolivia is a rather wild and backward country. There, outside the colony, there is such poverty and devastation that well, this integration!

Old Believers often have Old Slavic names: Athanasius, Evlampeya, Kapitolina, Martha, Paraskoveya, Efrosinya, Ulyana, Kuzma, Vasilisa, Dionysius ...

In different colonies, Old Believers live in different ways. Someone is more civilized and even wealthy, someone is more modest. But the way of life is the same as in old Russia.

Elders are jealous of the observance of all the rules. Young people are sometimes not very motivated by faith. After all, there are so many interesting temptations around ...

Therefore, the old people have a difficult task, to answer the growing young to many questions. Why shouldn't they drink alcohol? Why can't they listen to music? Why is it not necessary to learn the language of the country in which you live? Why can't they use the internet and watch movies? Why can't you go and see some beautiful city? Why can't they communicate with the local population and enter into any bad relations with the locals? Why pray from three to six in the morning and from six to eight in the evening? Why Fast? Why be baptized? Why observe all other religious rituals? ... While the elders somehow manage to answer all these questions ...

Old Believers cannot drink. But if you pray and be baptized, then you can. Old Believers drink beer. They prepare it themselves. We were also treated to her. And quite persistently, according to the Russian tradition, practically pouring it inside, glass by glass. But the brew is good and the people are good, why not drink it!

The Old Believers love to work the land most of all. Without this, they cannot imagine themselves. And in general they are quite hard-working people. Well, who can argue that this is not Russia ?!

At first I did not understand why the Old Believers of Uruguay, to whom I go, call the Uruguayans "Spaniards." Then I realized: they themselves are also citizens of Uruguay, that is, Uruguayans. And Uruguayans are called Spaniards because they speak Spanish. In general, the distance between Uruguayans and Old Believers is enormous. These are completely different worlds, which is why the Uruguayans of San Javier told us about the "aggressiveness" of the Old Believers. The Old Believers, on the other hand, characterize the "Spaniards" as lazy loafers who do not want to work, suck their mate and always complain about the government and the state. The Old Believers have a different approach to the state: the main thing is not to interfere. The Old Believers also have a number of complaints about the Uruguayan government. For example, recently in Uruguay, a crazy law was passed, according to which, before sowing land, you need to ask the authorities what you can sow there. The bosses will send chemists, they will analyze the soil, and give a verdict: plant tomatoes! And with tomatoes, the Old Believer business will burn out. They need to plant beans (for example). Therefore, Old Believers are beginning to think about whether they should start searching for a new country? And they are keenly interested in how they treat the peasant there in Russia? Should you move to Russia? What advice would you give them?

The theme of harvesters, irrigation, plowing and sowing occupies one of the main places in the life of Old Believers. They can talk about this for hours!

Endless Brazilian Russia ...

Technique: combines, irrigators, seeders, etc., the Old Believers have their own. And each harvester (which, by the way, costs 200-500 thousand dollars), Old Believers know how to repair themselves. They can disassemble and reassemble each of their harvesters! The Old Believers own hundreds of hectares of land. And they rent even more land.

Old Believers have large families. For example, the head of the Uruguayan community to which I sometimes take tourists, as many as 15 children, and he is only 52 years old. There are many grandchildren, he does not remember exactly how many, he has to count, bending his fingers. His wife is also a young and quite earthly woman.

Children are not sent to official schools. Everything is very simple: if children learn the language of the country where they live, then there is a very high probability that they will be seduced by the bright surrounding life and will choose it. Then the colony will dissolve, and the Russians will dissolve in the same way as in 10 years the Russians from the city of San Javier turned into Uruguayans. And such an example has already been, in the Brazilian colony, children began to go to an ordinary Brazilian school, which was next door. And almost all of the kids, when they grew up, chose the Brazilian life instead of the Old Believer. I'm not even talking about the US Old Believers. There, in many families, Old Believers communicate with each other in English.

Senior Old Believers from all colonies are well aware of the risk of the dissolution of the colony in the country, and with all their might they resist this. Therefore, they do not send their children to public schools, but try to teach them themselves whenever possible.

Most often, children are taught at home. They learn to read in Church Slavonic. All religious books of the Old Believers are written in this language, and in this language they pray daily from 3 to 6 in the morning and from 18 to 21 in the evening. At 21 o'clock the Old Believers go to bed in order to get up at 3 o'clock, pray and go to work. The schedule of the day has not changed for centuries and is adjusted to the daylight hours. To work while it's light.

In the colonies of Brazil and Bolivia, local teachers are invited to school for children, who teach them Portuguese and Spanish, respectively. But Old Believers see language teaching as an extremely practical sense: it is necessary to do business with locals. Old Believer children play traditional Russian games, rounders, tag and many others, with purely Russian names.

Most of the photographs you see here are from Old Believer holidays, most often from weddings. Girls get married most often at the age of 14-15. Guys at 16-18. All traditions with matchmaking have been preserved. A wife to a son should be picked up by parents. They try to pick from another colony. That is, a bride from a Bolivian or Brazilian colony is brought to a groom from a Uruguayan colony and vice versa. Old Believers try very hard to avoid incest. Do not think that poor underage children are left with no choice. Formally, parents should choose, but in practice everything happens quite softly and naturally, and of course the teenager's opinion is taken into account. No one forcibly marries anyone. Yes, you yourself can see from these photographs that there is no smell of violence against a person here.

But of course you have a legitimate question - getting married at the age of 14 ??? Yes exactly. And yes, by doing so, they violate the laws of the countries in which they live. They celebrate their wedding noisily, after which they live together, and are considered husband and wife. And when they turn 18, they register their marriage with the official bodies.

By the way, Old Believers have a completely different chronology. They live according to the Israeli calendar. It is believed that it is he who is correct. But what a "worldly" year is now, they also know: they must understand all the documents on land lease, purchase of soybeans, payment of bills.

By the way, Old Believers call Jews Jews. At first I thought it was their anti-Semitism. But then I realized that they pronounce this word without any negative at all. After all, that was the name of the Jews in the old days ...

See, in the photo everything is as if on selection, in the same sundresses? The fact is that clothing and its color play a huge role in the life of Old Believers. Yellow pants - twice ku. For example, for a wedding, all guests from the side of the bride dress in one color, and from the side of the groom in another. When a society does not have a color differentiation of pants, then there is no goal, and when there is no goal ...

Old Believers have not log houses, but concrete houses, built in the tradition of building the place where they live. But our whole way of life, old Russian: canopy, heaps, sittings of women with children while the men are at work.

But inside the house there are still Russians! The Old Believers sheathe the house inside with wood. It's livelier. And they call the house a hut.

Women and girls (as the female individuals are called here) do not work on the land, but are busy with the household. They cook food, keep an eye on the kids ... The role of a woman is still slightly knocked down, somewhat reminiscent of the role of a woman in Arab countries, where a woman is a dumb animal. Here the men are sitting, eating, drinking beer. And Martha with a jug, at a distance. “Come on, Martha, bring some more mash, but let's get some tomatoes here!”, And the soundless Martha rushes to carry out the task ... It's somehow awkward even for her. But not everything is so harsh and tough. You see, the women over there are also sitting, resting and smartphones.

The men are also engaged in hunting and fishing. Quite a busy life. Yes, and nature is here with us, I'll tell you!

In addition to mash, they also drink beer. However, I have not heard of drunks. As it is, everything is in business. Alcohol does not replace their life

Here are collected photos from different colonies. And each of them has its own rules, somewhere tougher, and sometimes softer. For women, cosmetics are unacceptable. But if you really want to, then you can.

Old Believers tell interesting stories about mushroom picking. Naturally, they do not know about boletus, boletus and white. In this area, slightly different mushrooms grow, they are similar to our boletus. Picking mushrooms from Old Believers is not an obligatory attribute of life. Although they listed some names of mushrooms, and they are Russian, although they are not familiar to me. About mushrooms, they say something like this: "sometimes who wants to collect. But only sometimes they will gather up bad ones, then their stomachs ache ...". They also have trips to nature by jeeps, grilled meat, and all the other attributes of picnics that are so familiar to us.

And they even know how to joke. By the way, they also have a good sense of humor.

In general, you can see for yourself, the most ordinary people

Old Believers greet with the word "Healthy!" They do not use "hello", much less "hello". In general, Old Believers do not have the address "you". Everything on "you". By the way, they call me "leader". But the leader is not the main one. And in the sense that I drive people. Guide, therefore.

By the way, did you feel one striking discrepancy of Russianness? What's wrong with these smiles? Do you feel that when photographs with smiles, something subtle is not ours? They smile with teeth. Russians usually smile without showing their teeth. Americans and other foreigners are smiling with teeth. Such a detail appeared from somewhere in this parallel little Russia.

Although you probably noticed even in these photos, how many positive people have on their faces! And this joy is not feigned. Our people have more of a kind of melancholy and hopelessness.

Here is a Brazilian TV report about Brazilian Old Believers. Please note that many people know Portuguese, or, as the Old Believers say, "Brazilian".

Old Believers quite often use the Latin alphabet for writing. But the Cyrillic alphabet is not forgotten either.

Most of the Old Believers are wealthy people. Of course, as in any society, someone is richer, someone is poorer, but in general they live very well.

Here in these photos are mainly the life of the Brazilian, Argentine and Bolivian colonies. There is a whole report about the Bolivian colony of Old Believers, there the rules are not as strict as in the Uruguayan colony, and it is sometimes allowed to shoot there

Our usual wedding, our house in the background. Only two palm trunks make it clear that this is not Russia

Old Believer youth love football. Although they consider this game "not ours".

Do Old Believers live well or badly? They live well. In any case, the Uruguayan and Bolivian Old Believers live better than the average Uruguayans and Bolivians. Old Believers drive jeeps for 40-60 thousand dollars, they have smartphones of the latest models ...

The main writing of the Old Believers is in Latin and in Spanish. But many people know Russian too.

But there are many restrictions imposed on Old Believers. Televisions are banned, computers are also prohibited. And about telephones, Old Believers say that this is all from the devil. But okay, there is and is. Televisions would also appear, but they are not needed. The Old Believers are accustomed to living without them for many generations, and no longer understand what they are for. Computers are prohibited in some colonies, in others they are used secretly from the elders. Yes, and modern smartphones have mobile Internet ...

There are even self-made comics on Facebook of Old Believers. This one did not quite understand him: "I love her", "I want to hug him", "I want to sleep!" By the way, on Facebook, Old Believers often correspond in Portuguese and Spanish. Those who have received a local education in one way or another are rewritten. They were taught to write in Spanish-Portuguese. And they cannot speak Russian, only speak. And they don't have a Russian keyboard.

Old believers are very interested in present-day Russia. Many of them were told by their grandfathers who fled Soviet Russia in the 1930s to return to Russia when conditions were right there. So for almost a century, the Old Believers lived in foreign lands, expecting that a favorable moment would come for their return. But this moment did not come: Stalin began to drive the people into the camps, and the main thing that was important for the Old Believers was strangling the village with his insane collectivizations. Then Khrushchev came, who began to take cattle from the people, and forcibly introduce corn. Then the country began to engage in various arms races, and from abroad, especially from here, from South America, the USSR seemed a VERY strange and exotic country. Then perestroika began and poverty set in in Russia, and finally, Putin came ... And with his arrival, the Old Believers started up. It began to seem that maybe the right moment to return has come. Russia turned out to be a normal country, open to the rest of the world, without exotic communisms and socialisms. Russia really began to take steps towards Russians living in other countries. A "state program on returning home" appeared, the Russian ambassador to Uruguay came to the Old Believers and began to make friends with them. The Russian authorities also started talking with Brazilian and Bolivian Old Believers, and in the end, a small group of Old Believers moved to Russia and settled in the village of Dersu, Primorsky Krai. And about this the report of Russian TV:

Reporters in this report tell the official version regarding the traditions of the Old Believers. But one should not think that the Old Believers have so rigidly regulated everything, and such an iron order. Old Believers tell reporters and various newcomers, visitors, whose reports can be found on the Internet, how it SHOULD be. But for this to be so, people must not be people, but machines. They try to stick to their rules. But they are living people, and the American infection in the form of globalization and other dirty tricks is actively being introduced into their lives. Step by step, little by little. But it’s too hard to resist ...

Everything is ours! Selfie on a smartphone with a bow sponges ... Still, native roots! ..... Or maybe this American influence got here too?

No answer...

In general, it is customary to think that any orthodox believers are incomprehensible and very strange people. I do not know how strongly Old Believers believe, but they are absolutely normal, earthly people, their own in the board. With humor, and with all the same desires and wants that we have with you. They are no holier than us. Or we are no worse than them. All are good, in general.

And even though the guys grew up on another continent, but everything is ours: both plastic bags, and sit like a kid ...

Well, who can say that this is not a mid-Russian picnic?

Eh, Uruguayan Rus! ...

Want to see Uruguay with your own eyes? I can be your guide to Uruguay.

If you are going to Montevideo and want to stay in a good place, choose a hotel to your liking on the booking, and send me its address by e-mail. And I will tell you whether it is located in a good place, whether it is safe there, whether it is beautiful and whether it is far from there to get to interesting places.

“Here, in Bolivia, Old Believers perfectly preserve the Russian language”

This is just a photojournalist's dream: the jungle, "many, many wild monkeys" and against this outlandish background - she, a blue-eyed girl in a sundress and with a fair-haired braid to the waist.

And here is the village, where blond boys in embroidered shirts run through the streets, and women always wear their hair under shashmura - a special headdress. Unless the huts are not log cabins, but instead of birch trees, palm trees. Russia, which we have lost, has survived in South America.

There, after long wanderings, the Old Believers found refuge in their desire to preserve the faith and the foundations of their ancestors. As a result, they managed to preserve not only this, but also the Russian language of past centuries, for which, like a treasure, linguists go to South America. Senior Research Fellow, Institute of the Russian Language, Russian Academy of Sciences Olga Rovnova recently returned from another, already the ninth expedition to South America. This time she visited Bolivia, in Toborochi village founded by Old Believers in the 1980s. The linguist told the Russian Planet portal about the life of the Russian language on the other side of the earth.

How did Old Believers end up in South America in a nutshell?

Their ancestors fled from Russia in the late 1920s and early 1930s to China from the Soviet regime. They lived in China until the end of the 1950s, until they began to build communism there and drive everyone to collective farms.

The Old Believers took off again and moved to South America - to Brazil and Argentina.

Why did they move to Bolivia?

Not everyone was able to settle down in Brazil on the lands that the government allocated to them. It was a jungle that had to be uprooted by hand, plus the soil had a very thin fertile layer - hellish conditions awaited them. Therefore, after a few years, some of the Old Believers began to look for new territories. Someone went to Bolivia and Uruguay: here they were also offered jungle plots, but the soil in Bolivia is more fertile. Someone found out that the US, in the state of Oregon, is also selling land.

They sent a delegation for reconnaissance, they returned with the most favorable impressions, and some of the Old Believers moved to Oregon. But since the Old Believers' families are large and they need a lot of living space, then from Oregon they eventually went to Minnesota and further, to Alaska, where a certain amount of the Russian population has long lived. Some even went to Australia. The proverb “A fish seeks where it is deeper, and a man - where is better” is very suitable for our Old Believers.

What are they doing in new places?

In Bolivia and in Latin America in general - agriculture. In the village of Toborochi, where we were this year, they grow wheat, beans, corn, and in artificial ponds they breed Amazonian fish pacu. And you know, they are good at it. Working on the land gives them a good income. Of course, there are different situations, but mainly Latin American Old Believers are very wealthy people. In the United States, the situation is slightly different - there, some families work in factories and in the service sector.

What is the Russian language of Latin American Old Believers?

It is a living dialectal Russian language, which was spoken in Russia in the 19th century. Clean, without an accent, but this is precisely a dialect, not a literary language. This is a rare situation: linguists are well aware that in the event of emigration, people lose their native language already in the third generation. That is, the grandchildren of those who have left usually no longer speak the native language of their grandparents. We see this in the examples of both the first and second waves of emigration. And here, in Bolivia, Old Believers preserve their language perfectly: the fourth generation speaks pure Russian. This time we recorded a 10-year-old boy. His name is Diy, at school he studies in Spanish, but at home he speaks Russian dialect.

At the same time, it is important that the language of the Old Believers is not conserved. He is alive, he is developing. True, in isolation from Russia, it develops in a different way. In their speech there are a lot of words borrowed from Spanish. But they build them into the system of the Russian language - lexically, morphologically. For example, they call a gas station "gasoline" from the Spanish word gasolinera. They do not have the phrase "agriculture", so they say to themselves: "We are engaged in agriculture, we are agricultural cultivators." And these borrowings are mixed in their speech with outdated words that can no longer be found in our language. For example, their tree is a forest.

This situation is typical for all Old Believers living in South America. While in the USA or Australia, the situation is reversed. There, the second generation is completely switching over to English. For example, if a grandmother lives in Bolivia, and a grandson in Oregon or Alaska, then they can no longer communicate directly.

And why is the Russian language better preserved in South America than in North America?

There is a general tendency: the richer a country is, the more powerful influence it has on Old Believers - both economically and linguistically.

In the same Oregon, women are involved in economic activities. As a rule, they work - in the service sector or in manufacturing. And, of course, they themselves are actively learning the language of the host country. Children go to an English-speaking school, watch TV in English. The native language is gradually disappearing.

Not so in Latin America. The task of making money lies entirely with the man. Women are not required to work and, therefore, they communicate less with the local population. The task of a woman is to run a household and raise children. They are not only the keepers of the hearth, but also the keepers of the language.

The settlement where Old Believers live is also important. Here in Bolivia, Old Believers live in their village, completely in their own environment. Their children attend school where they are taught in Spanish, but what is typical: in both Bolivia and Brazil, Old Believers try to build a school in their village - often at their own expense - and arrange for teachers to visit them, instead of send children to someone else's village or city. Therefore, the children are constantly in the village, in which - with the exception of the school - they speak only Russian everywhere. By the way, in Russia, too, the keepers of dialects are rural women. Men lose their dialect much faster.

After all, what dialect of the area do the Old Believers speak?

Basically, they took with them the language of the area from which they fled abroad. For example, in Estonia, on the shores of Lake Peipsi, there are Old Believers who once came from the Pskov region. And the Pskov dialect can still be traced in their speech.

Bolivian Old Believers entered China through two corridors. One group came to Xinjiang province from Altai. The second group fled from Primorye. They crossed the Amur and settled in Harbin, and there are differences in their speech, which I will talk about a little later.

But what is interesting is that both Xinjiang and Harbin, as they call themselves, in their bulk are Kerzhaks, the descendants of Old Believers from the Nizhny Novgorod province. Under Peter I, they were forced to flee to Siberia, and the dialect of the Nizhny Novgorod province can be traced in their speech.

And what is this dialect?

I will have to tell you literally in a couple of words about Russian dialects. There are two large groups of dialects - Northern dialect and Southern dialect. The most famous differences in pronunciation are as follows: in the north “okayut”, and in the south - “akayut”, in the north the sound [r] is explosive, and in the south it is fricative, in a weak position it is pronounced as [x]. And between these two dialects there is a wide strip of Central Russian dialects. They are very colorful, but each took something from the Northern dialect, and something from the Southern. For example, the Moscow dialect, which formed the basis of the Russian literary language, is also a Central Russian dialect. It is characterized by the southern "akanya" and at the same time the northern explosive [g]. The dialect of the South American Old Believers is Central Russian, but it differs from the Moscow one.

They also "akayut", but from the northern dialect they took, for example, the so-called contraction of vowels, that is, they say "Such a beautiful girl", "Taka took a beautiful girl to wife."

Are there differences in language among different communities of American Old Believers?

There is. And these differences are not due to who in what area now lives, but from which part of China they left for America. Although their speech is very similar, there are features in the speech of the Xinjiang people that make the Harbin people laugh. For example, Xinjiang people say [s] instead of the sound [q]. Instead of a chicken, they have a "roll", "sar" instead of a tsar. And [h] they pronounce as [u]: son, son, shop. It really hurts your ears, especially at the beginning of communication. And the Harbinians, who do not have all this, consider their speech more correct, more similar to the Russian one. In general, it is very important for Old Believers to realize their closeness to Russia.

By the way, what do Old Believers think about our Russian language?

They are very worried about him. They do not understand many words that have appeared in Russia in recent years. A typical example, we were in the same house, and there relatives from Alaska came to the owners. One of them asks what language is now spoken in Russia. In Russian, I answer. "What kind of Russian is this if they call kufayka sweater!"

Old Believers have no respect for TV, but they still watch Russian films, and then they start asking me questions. Once they ask me: "What is a mistress?" I explain to them, and they say: “Ah! So this is our "boyfriend"! " Or a girl who loves to cook, having looked at our culinary forums, asks me what cakes are - “I know pies, and pies, but I don’t know cakes”.

Indeed, it would seem that Old Believers should avoid all these modern technologies, but do they even use the Internet?

This is discouraged, but not prohibited either. In their work, they use modern technology: in the fields they have tractors and John Deer combines. And at home - Skype, with the help of which they keep in touch with their families around the world, and also find brides and grooms for their children - in both the Americas and Australia.

I just wanted to ask about marriages, because closed communities are characterized by closely related unions and, as a result, an increase in genetic problems.

This is not about Old Believers. Not knowing genetics, their ancestors established the rule of the eighth generation: marriages between relatives up to the eighth generation are prohibited. They know very well their ancestry to such a depth, all their relatives. And the Internet is important to them in order to find new families in conditions when Old Believers have settled all over the world.

However, they also allow marriages with strangers, provided that they accept the faith and learn prayers. On this visit, we saw a young local man who was courting a girl from the village. He speaks very interestingly: in dialectal Russian with a Spanish accent.

And to what extent do Old Believers themselves speak Spanish?

Enough to live in the country. As a rule, men speak the language better. But when I went into the store with one of the women and realized that my Spanish was clearly not enough to talk to the saleswoman, my companion turned out to be a very lively translator.

What, in your opinion, is the future fate of the Russian dialect language in South America? Will he live on?

I would very much like to come to them in 20 years and see what their Russian language will be like. Of course it will be different. But you know, I have no concern for the Russian language in Bolivia. They speak without an accent. Their dialect is extremely tenacious. This is a completely unique combination of archaism and innovation. When they need to name a new phenomenon, they easily invent new words. For example, they call cartoons the word "skipping", garlands of light bulbs - "winks", a headband on the hair - "dressing up". They know the word "loan", but they themselves say "take for payment."

Old Believers use metaphors very widely to refer to new objects or concepts. For example, I show a boy a tree in their village - a large tree with large fragrant bright red bunches of flowers. I ask: what is it called? “I don’t know, my sister is calling lilac,” the boy answers me. Other flowers, another aroma, but a similar shape of bunches - and here's a lilac. And they call tangerines "mimosa". Apparently for their round shape and bright color. I ask the girl where her brother is. “Fadeyka? They will clean the mimosa. " Look, peels tangerines ...

Without knowing anything about such a science as sociolinguistics, the Old Believers in Bolivia do exactly what must be done to preserve the language. They live apart and demand that only Russian be spoken at home in the village. And I really hope that the Russian language will be heard in Bolivia for a long time.

Interviewed by Milena Bakhvalova