Rural Russian towns lie in ruins, 20,000 of them abandoned and another 36,000 with fewer than ten residents.
Rural Russia is home to most of the 20 Million desperate Russians who live below the Russian Poverty-Level of less than $139 per month, which is poor indeed. Most rural towns have no public transportation and no paved roads.
More than a thousand of these poor rural towns are within a three hour drive of Moscow, when the dirt roads are not too muddy to be impassable. Most of the former large populations of these towns used to work on enormous collective farms which have fallen into ruin, with most residents having long ago left for the cities.
An American reporter in one town asked a resident about the impressive display of military equipment on the May Day Parade in Moscow, shown on his battery-powered television. He responded, "Russia is as much of a threat to the world as my pair of socks, just look around, everything here is in ruins."
Another resident, Nadezhda says, *It would be wonderful to live under communism again, there were plenty of jobs and plenty to eat." Today, she collects cranberries to sell by the side of the road - there are few customers and many hungry nights.
Sasha, the third resident in town says, "Putin could change things if he wanted to but doesn't because he doesn't know how." |
