RUSSIAN MIKULINO, VILLAGE OF PAINTERS

Shannon News, 3 December 1929, Page 4

RUSSIAN MIKULINO, VILLAGE OF PAINTERS

New Work in Cities in Summer

LIFE OF RUSSIAN PEASANT WOMEN

Leaving Vladimir, tlie old city of 40 old churches, and driving across the frozen river Jvlyaznm and through miles of snow-cove red Russian country side, one comes to Mikulino, the 'Village of Painters (writes a correspondent of 1 the ‘Christian Science Monitor’). Not that a colony of artists has settled here. The men folk of Mikulino for generations have been house painters. Every summer they leave their farms in charge of thenwives and go to Vladimir, to 'Moscow, more than 100 miles away, or even farther afield, to seek employment and earn enough to support their households during the lean winter. Externally Mikulino. with its row:of log huts on each side of the road, was not unlike tens of thousands of little villages scattered all Russia. But one' house stood out in striking contrast to the grey monotony of the others. It was covered with decorations and paintings-of rura* scenes in bright coJouis. And v hen one knocked at the door and entered the house one found the walls and ceilings of the - interior decorated in the same

way. The paintings were all of countrv scenes ; a forest, swans on a lake, a hunter -with his dog. The owner was absent, but ..his wife, .a warm-hearted peasant woman, who began complaining of the shortage of bread and ended by insisting chat my companion and myself partake of everything she had in . the house, cheese hakes and milk and eggs of a freshness seldom encountered in the Russian cities, explained the origin of the unusual decorations. “My husband is a painter by trade, out he loves to paint at home, too,” she said. “Wherever there is a bare spot, he-thinks of a new picture. ” Thc> absent husband was evidently what the Russians call an “obshestvennik,” or active social worker; he contributed items to the little hand-

written-. “wall paper” which was O’Daro case: “This signature was the

poster up in the village reading room; on the table lay a few books about Leninism and about tlio best methods of writing ■ peasant correspondence. But' his wife was outspoken in complaining of economic difficulties. , “There are twenty-eight peasant families here,” she said, “and we all. live on very much the same level. The men go out in the summer to work as painters; we all keep a horse and . a cow and a few chickens, but we don’t raise enough grain to feed ourselves, because we have little land, and it doesn’t yield much. We have to live through the winters on the summer’s earnings. This winter there was a bread shortage, and the authorities divided us into two classes—' scred-

niaks’, or mitltlleclass peasants, and ‘byedniaks’ or poor. The ‘ byeduiaks can buy grain at more or loss reason ably fixed prices, but vve have to pay an unheard-of price, eight or ten rubles a pood (361 b) for rye flour in the open market. And last summer was not a good one for the painters; -there was a shortage of paint, ar.d work was hard to gct. J ' 1 called on one of the “byedynak'' households, and immediately gained the impression that *f a choice had to be made the. authorities were correct in singling out at least this family for special favour in bread distribution. There was evident stark poverty here. “I know the other peasants envy us for the so-called favours we receive •from the Government, but what do we really ' get? 5 ’ the head of the family asked with some bitterness. “We can buv a limited amount, a pood and a

half of rye flour, every month for * about two rubles a pood. But witli a family like mine that goes in about a week, anfl wo have very 'little eke to eat. Here is our regular diet, ” and he showed a can filled with dried crusts of rye bread. In mine wavs Miknlino was belter olf than’in pre-war times. The m-igii-bouving forest, from winch the pens ants formerly got wood with groat difficulty was at their disposal to a much greater degree. The village, had a reading-room, which was certainly r.ot there in- pre-war times, and a school, which may or may not hare been there.

But the bread .question took precedence over every thing else. These peasants handicraftsmen seem harder hit by the bread shortage than the city and town population, which is guaranteed a much -'larger ration of bread at fixed prices.