Now on air
20:30
The Farm of The Valaam Monastery
The chronicles don't tell us when the first cows appeared on the island of Valaam. We do know when the monastery's farm was built, however - 1881. Today, instead of kerosene lamps there is electricity, and the cows are milked by machines, rather than by hand. Prayers can be heard in the sheds, playing through loud speakers. Only one thing hasn't changed - the cows are cleaned, fed and milked by the monks and novices of the Valaam Monastery. In the 21st century, a cheesemaker also appeared here. How the Valaam Monastery's farm operates, in a film by RTG TV.
The View From Up On High. Legends of the Russian North
The Russian North is a term used to describe the lands in the north of the European part of Russia. It’s a historical and cultural, rather than geographical, designation, however. A cold climate, a territory that’s far from the state centers, a land that avoided the Tartar-Mongol Yoke and serfdom – all of this created a unique community of people, bold and freedom-loving. The nature here is so beautiful that the native inhabitants of these lands believed that everything surrounding them was animated with spirits. The mountains became shrines. The pines were idols. The forests, rivers and waterfalls were homes to mythological creatures. The poetry of this northern region to this day lives on in the ancient Karelian and Finnish runes and in Russian
Now on air
20:30
The View From Up On High. Legends of the Russian North
Patchwork embroidery in Yuryevets
The city of Yuravets on the Upper Volga is almost 800 years old. People in the area have always cultivated flax and local seamstresses were known all over for their skills. In the 21st century seamstresses don’t weave, but make multi-coloured patchwork quilts from scraps of material. Although quilting is a craft done all over the world, different peoples began doing it at different points in time and for varying reasons. In Russia, for example, there is manual of rules, advice and instructions from the 16th century called “Domostroy,” which includes detailed descriptions of different cuts of dresses, how to best sort and save scraps of fabric and how to repair ready-made clothing. In the 20th century, patchwork became a kind of art – it served as a type of welcome for avant-garde and futuristic artists and has nowadays become a popular hobby.
Now on air
21:00