The Institute of Contemporary Films Studio
as part of the project "Gorai Manor Park... 200 Years Later"
presents
THE RIGHT TO LIFE
This is where the center was.
Now men have cut all they could.
Tree-lined alleys used to spread out like rays from the center.
The first alley of trees goes to the road.
Two years ago we cleared everything here, but it's overgrown again.
One alley goes to the pond.
This alley is one of the main ones.
I learned from new sources that it was lined with spruce trees,
a few of remain to this day.
If the linden trees in this alley had been preserved, (we're going to walk there now),
only a few spruces remain, they don't live long.
They die after 200 years.
One alley was sort of like that, there's a path there.
It went out to the other side of the park.
Probably the first thing to be done
is to restore this alley
because there aren't any precious trees here
and it can be fixed nicely.
These days no one is interested in anything.
The only ones who care
are our teachers who work here.
School students have little interest in this.
–Why?
– I don't know. Maybe they're just not interested.
Why should they care?
Some of them even asked me, 'Why does this matter?
It's not like we go there or anything.'
I tell them, 'Well, you live here!'
It would be wonderful if the park
looked beautiful.
Then you'd want to go there.'
They say, 'We're not going to stay here until we die anyway.'
After high school, they want to go to big cities for more education.
They don't want to return.
I don't know why.
[Gorai]
This is the community center.
It was obviously the cultural center of the Gorai Collective Farm.
All holidays and events
were held at this community center.
There were a lot of young people and locals in the collective farm.
At one time, a very good manager ran this community center,
Inna Nikolaevna Nikitina.
She was very neat and everything was always in order here,
it was in absolutely tip-top shape and squeaky clean.
We can go in here.
Here you see...
We can go further into the hall.
Here in this alley
almost all of the linden trees still remain
from those planted.
Some of the trees have already fallen.
I don't even know how to bring them back to life.
A part is bent over, but at least
it's evident that this was an alley.
If we go down this alley, we'll come out onto another one
and we'll see a pond and an islet.
There are only three such islets of solitude in Ostrov,
but two of them can be reached only by water;
but you could reach ours by crossing a bridge,
which unfortunately no longer exists.
In what way is this park unique?
It's different from other parks here in the Pskov Region
because many parks began to be built here at the beginning of the 19th century.
English landscape gardens were all the rage then
and 95–99% of manor parks
were designed in that style.
This park was designed with Italian elements.
Much hard work went into designing the terraces here.
For example, here is a very complicated hydraulic engineering system.
In this pond, for instance,
lime slabs cover the bottom of it and
this is why the water was very clean.
A system of culverts was built there.
But we must realize
that we are the last generation to see all of this.
Our children won't see it anymore when they grow up
and reach our age; they'll see something completely different.
If they're lucky, they'll see a restored park,
but if not, I don't know, anything could be here —
this area could be all built up or just be a forest.
In fact, previously in this spot,
more than 200 years ago
there was a huge estate and a manor house.
There were quite a lot of
famous people who would come here.
It's our history. It happened right here.
We should remember that and strive to preserve this place.
This is a cultural heritage and people think about this
because they live in a historic place.
This place, it's...
at one time probably all of Russia knew about it,
but now it's just a regular remote village.
It was built so beautifully! What architectural style! Only arches!
There was a stairway here to the second floor that led to the clubroom.
This is where the merchants' warehouses were.
There used to be a gate there, but it's gone and everything is destroyed.
There was a stairway here for people to go upstairs.
And there were these — I didn't know before what "lyasy" is,
people say, "to sharpen lyasy" (to chatter idly),
and here's a railing with carved posts.
That's exactly what "lyasy" are. There were carved balusters here.
The kindergarten was closed, I guess,
probably in 1995–1996.
We had a nice kindergarten.
A teacher came to teach at our school.
She taught foreign languages before Marina Viktorovna. Her name was Marina L'vovna.
So, we bought a piano for our kindergarten and
she was the music teacher at our school. The children sang at holiday events
and performed on Agricultural Workers' Day,
as well as on Victory Day.
All of the little children were singing
and the parents were so pleased
because their children were dressed up and beautiful
and they sang little songs.
My biggest dream
is to be an editor in a publishing house.
I enjoy analyzing texts and finding mistakes. It's interesting.
And I want to be a writer myself,
so it really appeals to me, but it's also
quite fascinating to learn the origin of archaic words
and maybe I could seriously get into that in the future.
– What needs to happen for you to stay here?
– Hmm, that's a good question.
If this school is still around
by the time that I graduate from college,
maybe I could work there as a teacher.
It's possible, I don't know.
I'd really like to stay here, but
to stay here you have to think of something.
Maybe even become a farmer.
And then staying here is conceivable
because there's no other work here
and a person can't survive without a job.
People need to work.
Otherwise, if people don't work,
they themselves will start to die off.
They will just be lazy
and lie around and do nothing or drink themselves to death.
That's not for me.
They say that in this park
especially down this alley
Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin really loved to stroll.
Several sources claim that he was often here
because the Lorer-Rosen estate was often visited by those
who later became Decembrists
and they were friends with him.
So, they say that Aleksandr Sergeevich was here too
and lindens are considered to have a calming
effect on people and if you hug them and
make a wish, it will definitely come true.
As a matter of fact, linden trees symbolize love, faith, and hope.
I honestly don't know for sure why we need this park,
but we just don't want it to disappear.
I, for one, just want it to exist.
Because before it... We still have the original layout of this park,
with pictures that show what it looked like.
It was obviously very beautiful.
Many people were here then, but now there are none.
Everything is overgrown.
The district and our Pskov Region
generally have many such places that at one time
looked very different... 100 or 200 years ago,
but unfortunately today they are run down.
And money and machines at the municipal level
are quite difficult to find to restore these sites.
To apply for federal assistance,
one needs to put together a plan
of design solutions.
Naturally, this should come from the administration of the Pskov Region
since I guess the municipality on its own
can't apply through the Ministry of Culture.
We're considering all possibilities.
There are various funds, for example,
to which a municipality can submit an application,
but one still needs to find
some investment so as not to show up and say that
we have a manor house. Instead, we should prepare a full range of options,
which also require funding, decisions about landscaping,
historical and cultural assessments and everything else
and unfortunately money is needed for all that too.
– So, you're asking for money now.
– For all intents and purposes, yes. – To put it simply.
And this doesn't bother you?
– You know, it bothers me a lot, but, on the other hand,
there aren't any other options.
Because other sources don't exist.
So, we have to ask for help.
The second thing is that money can easily be returned to the government later
because I think the park can make money
when it becomes an attractive tourist destination.
It will earn that money back for the government.
And it's not just about the money;
it's about the people who live here.
They want their village to be preserved.
They want to walk in a lovely park in their village,
where everything will look beautiful and not like a forest.
I'd basically like the park to be restored.
Maybe then more people would start coming here.
Then they'd get the word out about this area and its people
and talk to everyone.
People would see how gorgeous it is here.
I think a lot of folks would start coming here.
Everyone would be interested. Well...
And besides, I myself would be pleased.
I'd walk around in this park every day.
Most likely, at one time there were even boats here
and people could go for rides.
There was a small berth and a pier.
We'd like to build a beautiful Italian-style gazebo here
because it was originally done in Italian style
and put out a few benches.
That way people can come and feel
the ambiance of past centuries.
Obviously, after we clear the growth
we'll need to plant some new trees here;
the kinds that were here originally or
similar ones as substitutes
in appearance, shall we say.
Some of our local high school graduates join us,
our relatives, so to speak,
and young people from Ostrov.
A group from the tourism industry came here —
they're students at the Pskov International Tourism Academy —
and also helped us however they could.
I've probably been living here in Gorai longer than everyone else.
The others... It's safe to say that the young people are gone.
– Do you have children and grandchildren?
– My son lives in Ostrov.
My daughter lives there too.
My grandson is supposed to come here and cut my grass.
– Is there anywhere to work here? – No, absolutely nowhere! There's only a meat producer.
And there aren't any workers left. There's no one here to work.
– Do you live off your garden? – Yes.
All of our food comes from our garden.
We used to have a ton of young people, but now?
They've all left and are gone. There's no work here.
The main thing is there's nowhere here to work. Simple as that!
They often threatened to close our school
and we hear about that all of the time.
Things are tense and it seems
that the clock is ticking
and any minute now the school will be empty.
It's scary.
To be honest, we're not sure anymore
if it will still be here in 5–10 years.
Sure, on the one hand, it's expensive,
but, on the other, we know that if the school is gone,
two years from now there'll be an empty space there,
it won't even be an empty space, but it will simply be dilapidated and ugly.
And all the other young people and families who live here
will most definitely leave
because taking their children to another school
is dangerous and inconvenient.
I wouldn't say that our government doesn't care.
Maybe it doesn't want to help us or maybe it can't.
We can find out only by asking the authorities themselves.
Before the adults arrive today,
the kids with rakes should work with Ivan
and who here likes using pitchforks? Do you?
OK, we have Danechka with us...
I guess you are used to each other.
From those swaths and piles of grass the girls will rake
and the grass that has already been cut,
make small piles closer to the road
so that we can haul them away.
Evgeniy Igorevich will arrive with a trailer
and we'll load everything and haul it away.
To be honest,
it sometimes feels like there's no hope
and we're busting our behinds for nothing.
But then we have a change of heart and
put our best foot forward and actually we've already
done quite a bit ourselves for this park.
– Watch your step, kids!
When the word got out that Baron Rosen's treasure
ended up in this park,
many came to dig here, so it's best to keep quiet.
Car after car come here day and night with shovels.
If only people were that enthusiastic to restore the alleys and everything else.
We get sidetracked and stop, but we have to keep making progress.
Otherwise, future generations won't have anything left.
We have a common problem —
collective farms were closed
and now they have fallen to pieces.
Our common problem is that after losing their jobs,
people left and went their separate ways.
That's the long and the short of it!
And it's really too bad when... and even shameful
when those who had been here
and seen everything before when things were
much better, come back.
They ask, 'Why did you let it all get so run-down? What's wrong with you?'
So, whose fault is it?
We may be partly to blame.
♪ Someday, it's scary to think when, ♪
♪ Another day will unfold, ♪
♪ Then, buddy, we'll go back to the place ♪
♪ That we left long ago, ♪
♪ Then we'll make our way through the multitude of clouds we see ♪
♪ And through all of the gusting winds, ♪
♪ And in the lock of the old house turn our key ♪
♪ That has been to other worlds. ♪
♪ When we return to that place ♪
♪ After ridding ourselves of that rift, ♪
♪ We'll have a smile for you on our face, ♪
♪ We'll say that all is over and done with, ♪
♪ But perhaps we once again can ♪
♪ Reach the edge of the world, ♪
♪ Which was a goal we could easily secure ♪
♪ Way back in our younger years, ♪
♪ Way back in our younger years. ♪
Gorai Manor Park is a historical and cultural site of Russia.