Family farming in Polesia (Pripet Marshes). Tsjerablichy 2019. A reporter for one of Belarus’ rural-oriented newspapers once condescendingly asked me, “What do you think of our peasants?” I responded that I think of Belarusian villagers as family farmers rather than “peasants”. Recalling that exchange, I would ask here why anyone accepts collectives (kalkhozy) as a… Continue reading Photos of the Day for March 12, 2020
Tag: mechanization
Photo of the Day for May 31, 2019
Eastertide portraits of Polesia: newly-planted potato patch, Tsjerablichy 2019. The slow but steady spread of small-scale mechanized farm machinery produces new patterns at planting season. Веоікодныя партрэты Палесься: нядаўна пасаджаная бульба ў агародзе, Цераблічы 2019 г.
Photos of the Day for June 14, 2018
Cycle of the year: plowing the potato patch. Varsyn’ 2018. The potato is central to the Belarusian diet and, with periods of war, deprivation and destruction seared into the nation’s memory, to maintaining village household reserves of food. Many household plots and plots arbitrarily allocated by the local collective farm are too small to make… Continue reading Photos of the Day for June 14, 2018
Photos of the Day for September 29, 2017
Potato harvest from the family allotment, Tsjerablichy 2017. First cultivated in the Belarusian lands in the mid-18th century, the potato is now one of the most important elements in the Belarusian diet. Families anxiously await the harvest, the quantity and quality of which to a huge degree will determine both how well a homestead makes… Continue reading Photos of the Day for September 29, 2017