MOSCOW, October 10. /TASS/. The Doing Together project has been working in the Arctic for 12 years. The volunteers have saved from ruining a few hundred Russian architecture monuments - ancient wooden churches and village houses.
The project activists have organized 320 expeditions, inspected 360 cathedrals, in 146 of which they completed preservation works. The project’s participants patch roofs, enforce walls, and replace rotten logs. Doing Together currently participates in reconstruction of the burned down church in Karelia’s Kondopoga.
How the project began
Like many other projects, the idea occurred unexpectedly. A certain time ago, Alexander Slepinin and his wife Isabella saved from ruining a church and its steeple in the Arkhangelsk Region’s Vorzogory village. Thus, they in fact began a big job. Tatiana Yushmanova, and later on her husband Alexei Yakovlev, decided to restore wooden monuments in the Russian North. When Tatiana was a student, she came to the Vorzogory village to draw sketches there. During that trip, she met the Slepinins.
"In all the villages nearby, along the Onega, I had a feeling they were abandoned, everything is dying, gets missing, nobody cares much, people live as they can, or go away for good," Tatiana said. "And then I come to Vorzogory and see how things were changing there - I could hear axes on the bell tower, clearly, something was happening in the village."
Later on, Tatiana married a future priest, Alexei Yakovlev, and they were visiting the village together. "We used to go there in summer, in autumn, in winter, in spring, and on those occasions we did some work, later on we ordered for the church doors, frames, windows, and once we decided to fix the ruined roof on the local cemetery’s church," she said. "A local, Uncle Sasha, and several more people managed to lift the church, which had been in ruins, all covered with trees - the locals even used to say it is not seen any longer. With very little money they managed to do much more than we had expected."
After work on that church, the couple thought: we have managed it here, then why can’t we do anything similar elsewhere in the North - at least to "preserve" the ruining churches and steeples. "It was frightening - those are hundreds and hundreds of churches, empty villages - how to manage it all?" Tatiana said. "Anyway, the idea remained and we began looking for those who would support us, we used to tell everyone that it would be great to help the ruining cathedrals, the steeples."
The Russian North still has amazingly beautiful ages-old wooden churches and bell towers. As Tatiana says, first of all they require emergency works - to fix roofs, close windows, replace the rotten basement logs.
How the project was launched
At first, Father Alexei and his wife would go across the neighborhood to see what churches need emergency help. Then, they told friends, they - to their friends, and thus the movement began growing.
"We are not searching for volunteers, we simply tell people about the project, and they join us; as a rule, those who joined us once, remain with us," Father Alexei said. "The same is about sponsors: we are not searching for them - those who want - participate. In fact, the project exists despite common sense. Look, saving cathedrals in the Russian North… well, who may care for it? But the project exists, it develops."
Interestingly, the Orthodox Church’s position was voiced by Metropolitan Illarion, who said "all abandoned churches need revival - if people do not live there now, it does not mean they will not live there if the church is restored."
The works, which the volunteers are doing, allow the monuments to survive for another 10-20 years till a regular restoration may begin.
"Right now, three or four expeditions continue working in the North," Father Alexei said. "Each of them continues for about a week, everyone is working hard: people realize that the church is not receiving anything else from anywhere else. Volunteers come mostly from Moscow; there are also people from St. Petersburg and other Russian cities. Some volunteers come from Australia, Canada and the U.S. This year, we have entered an agreement with France’s Rempart volunteer organization, involved in keeping the cultural heritage objects, and their volunteers have participated in our expeditions already."
How expeditions work
Doing Together organizes expeditions of two kinds - searching and labor. These speak for themselves.
"At first, we find cathedrals and steeples - come, describe them, take pictures, see what’s to be done first of all, find where to buy materials, which of the locals could help us, learn the logistics, find where to stay and where to buy food, get in contact with local officials," Father Alexei explained. Later on, professional architects and restoration experts make projects and estimates, which culture authorities should approve.
Parallel to that, the volunteers learn a monument’s history. "We ask the local elderly - as a rule, memories are strong, and people can remember what their grandparents used to tell them," Tatiana said. "Right now, the project’s website offers information on each of the cathedrals: pictures, sizes, data from archives, and the history we have managed to learn."
All works on the site are managed by experienced specialists. Some monuments require initial cleaning, and quite often this work looks like a quest - it is quite a puzzle to guess which part used to be on the roof or how the missing logs used to be fixed.
On some occasions, volunteers are lucky to find missing masterpieces - under a church in the Vorzogory village they found hidden ancient icons.
Not only cathedrals
It would not be correct to say that all churches in villages may be compared with houses in sizes. "For example, one of the churches, built in 1757, is more than 30 meters high," Father Alexei said.
The volunteers repair not only wooden architecture monuments. "Every year, we organize international scientific-practical conferences, where we focus not on preserving churches, but on preserving village houses," he continued. "We repair those houses, replace roofs, and replace logs - it is important for us to keep what is called the cultural landscape: we care for traditional villages."
Interestingly, sometimes, Doing Together fills villages with new life: tourists begin visiting those places, new jobs appear, and, most importantly, the locals come to see reasons to stay in their native villages.
Father Alexei told us about how a local man on the expedition’s first year was taking volunteers to the church and could not stop grumbling: "Why would you do it? Funny you are!" "On the second year, he participated in the works and then in winter continued to repair the church at his own expense," he said. "On the third year, the man became a team leader at the site."
Many monuments need permanent attention: dozens, or even hundreds, of unique buildings are in far-away villages, or even in settlements which do not exist any longer. The group is doing everything it can to give to old architecture objects at least hopes for new life.