Russia: Hidden Memory

<v Narrator>Signs of the times. You could find them in any city in the world, but this is Moscow, a city emerging from 70 years of communist domination. Until this decade, only Soviet leaders were allowed to put up these kinds of signs. <v Narrator>[music plays] Songs like this one, expressing hope for a life without oppression were forbidden. <v Narrator>[music plays] Now, anyone can sing them and often they do. On Old Arbat Street, the commercial and artistic part of Moscow. We've become accustomed to seeing images of the new Russia. What we rarely see is the struggle in the villages and towns to save the old Russia, whose traditions have existed for more than a thousand years. The Communists tried to kill it and replace its folklore and customs with Soviet style pseudo folklore. Now, nearly all the people who remember the authentic Russian traditions are dead. The few who remain must be found, or Russia's hidden memory will be lost forever. [singing] <v Galina Sysoeva>I'm sending you an official invitation from the Institute of Art to join me and my students on an expedition to collect folklore. This is very close to my heart and I want to get all these cultural traditions recorded on film. I fear these people will pass away before I'm able to get everything. Then all these beautiful traditions will be lost. I look forward to seeing you. I embrace and kiss you. Galina.

<v Deirdre Paulsen>Thank you. Oh, thank you. You gave me white ones last time, thank you. Oh, what should I do? I take some? I taste it, oh it is beautiful. [Singing traditional song] <v Narrator>For the next 21 days, this rundown bus will travel through the Voronezh region of southern Russia. On board, a Russian folklorist, Galina Sysoeva, her students and American folklorist Deirdre Paulsen, they are beginning a race against time to record vanishing Russian traditions before they are gone forever. It's a mission Galina has dedicated her life to making enormous personal sacrifices. Her dream is to resurrect authentic Russian culture. This time, she'll be guiding a team of American filmmakers into the Russian backcountry. Together, they will travel over rustic roads to remote villages along the Don River villages, even most urban Russians have not visited. The people have never met Americans. Most have never even met foreginers. There are 14 villages in all in each one. The team will be introduced to the very Russian tradition of genuine hospitality.

<v Deirdre Paulsen>They were absolutely darling. In every village we went to, we were greeted with bread, which was set on a towel and a representative for the group. I was asked to tear off a piece of the bread, dip it into the salt, which was situated on top of the bread, and they would just sing these wonderful, wonderful songs to us. The bread ceremony is very significant in Russian culture. It ties in with the values of welcoming foreigners to their country and offering hospitality.

<v Galina Sysoeva>We have a scene. First, you bring a person to your home, you feed him, you give him something to drink, you give him a bath. Then you ask why he has come to see you. It is offensive that some people don't attentively preserve this wonderful tradition. <v Guest>Thank you for coming to see us.

<v Guest>We're so glad to see you. <v Guest>We were preparing to die and you have revived us. <v Guest>Finally, something to celebrate. We are already old. Some will be 100 years old. Film us, and when we come to America, you'll recognize us. <v Galina Sysoeva>They understand that in sharing something about themselves and about the traditions with foreigners, they need to show the very best that which they are proud of. <v Guest>[Our entire world] waited for you. The Americans are coming, they said. And just as they said you came, we wondered what Americans would be like and it turns out you are just like us. <v Guest>We are all the same. We have the same bodies, the same soul, you have a soul, I have a soul, we are the same. We understand each other. <v Narrator>Just as it is and any other Russian village, the arrival of visitors in Aznakayevo means this day is a holiday food, drink and song are very much a part of the celebration.

<v Vladmir Glushkov>The tradition is to first treat your guests and only after that will the mariment begin after their dinner and their satisfaction. This shows openness and hospitality. <v Narrator>[Singing] Nicholai Sapolkin lived his entire life in Aznakayevo because of his great love for folklore. He began his own folk ensemble. [Singing] like many other folk performers, he often encountered problems during the communist regime. He sang songs taught to him by his mother about life and the past. Those in power wanted him only to sing about the future and about the Soviet Union, the victory of communism. Sapolkin says a government official who lived in Aznakayevo set out to make sure that was all he sang. <v Nicholai Sapolkin>One man finished a cultural degree at an ordinary cultural college and decided to turn our little village around. He began to look at our culture. He would say enough of this holy, holy sound. I asked why. He said, why do we need them. I said why do we need you? Forget the old songs and the sorrows and the joy? [Singing Traditional song]

<v Nicholai Sapolkin>When I see my group in full costume, I'm very happy. I'm glad because it's ancient. Our grandparents did this dance [Singing] We have preserved it. There is only one built like this in the world, you can't find one like this anywhere else in the world. It's handmade. <v Galina Sysoeva>This group is interesting for musical folklorists and for science. They have the best authentic selves in Russian traditions.

<v Nicholai Sapolkin>See the side with the broken handle and I beat on it and that [unclear] everyone knows how to beat it this way. <v Narrator>Sapolkin taught himself how to use the ?zyph? musically, <v Narrator>This is the chastuska a sort of improvised Russian rap song that's usually accompanied by the balalaika or the accordion. <v Galina Sysoeva>They're are simply wonderful. It is just a pity that they are growing old, Symbolists surviving a crisis, but you see, they have already recorded a lot of youth. <v Vasily Chertov>The younger generation has little interest in the song, but there are young people maybe not here, in Aznakayevo, but in Voronezh, in Moscow. They come here and learn from some folkmen and these songs will be preserved, if not through us, through others. <v Nicholai Sapolkin>Singing is part of the Russian soul Russian songs keep you from being bored to their songs about men and women, Lonely women, lonely men. [Singing traditional song]

<v Narrator>Friends and music now help to soothe Sapolkin's pain. He recently buried his wife and younger brother. <v Nicholai Sapolkin>My wife was a very modest woman. I told her she'd have to hit my thick head to get me to stop singing. She said, Oh, Gramps, no matter where you go to sing, I'm happy to my dying day to be with you. And when we get home, I will fall to your feet trying to please you. [Singing] <v Galina Sysoeva>Respect for their own traditions is so great that these people come together to sing no matter what the personal trials, when they sing together, they strengthen one another. They are an amazing example of how to live beautifully, even under difficult conditions like the experience in our Russian villages. They don't wait for someone to make the world beautiful, giving them some sort of materialistic joy. They do it themselves. It is too hard to talk about.

<v Narrator>For Russians, nature is a source of beauty, vividly portrayed in folk songs, arts and rituals, many of which centered around the life-affirmingpowers of birch trees and moist Mother Earth. These nature themes are embroidered on the sleeves of their costumes. They believe that wearing the symbols of nature will protect them from evil. In this region, not far from Ukraine, villagers delight in using bright colors from nature to paint and decorate their wooden houses, making every home a unique and bright example of folk art. Folk art gives beauty and meaning to an otherwise difficult existence. Peasants work hard in the fields, and they survive on the food they grow. These villagers had not received their pensions from the government for at least nine months. Their way of life has existed for more than a thousand years. Not much has changed, except on two evenings a week when Russian villagers rush home to watch the American television series Santa Barbara. They have learned from this series to view Americans as rich and glamorous, so some were surprised when they met Galina's visitors. You are not as tall nor as beautiful as we expected. One woman told Diedre. Other than the presence of television, there is very little evidence of technology or modern conveniences, and there's not much money to go around either. <v Galina Sysoeva>We're ashamed of the poverty. They know that every day living conditions are poor. They know how it should be, but they don't have the means to make things the way they would like them. And therefore, they were shy it wasn't comfortable for them to accommodate foreigners who are accustomed to a better standard of living.

<v Narrator>The residents of Rostov were so uncomfortable with the prospect of receiving foreign visitors, they sent a letter to Galina asking that she not bring the Americans to their village. Our village is not ready for the reception of such guests, they wrote. We cannot get the village to look good in such a short period of time. Our village is overgrown with weeds that nobody has time to cut. Rostov received the visitors anyway, feeding them and giving up their beds for them. <v Deirdre Paulsen>Their homes were beautiful and one of them asked me, how do you think we live? And I said, I really admire your traditions and culture. And they said, no. Do we have as much power, our homes, as nice as yours? And I said, you have paintings and you have towels that are decorated that Americans would envy because we don't have that kind of handicraft anymore. I was terrifically impressed by the beauty of their homes and the care they took in decorating their pillows and decorating their tablecloth. And, you know, maybe they didn't have indoor plumbing, but everything was very clean and very beautiful. <v Narrator>Russian villages are isolated from the larger cities economically, culturally and politically. Because of this isolation, the villages have been largely unaffected by social change experienced in Russia's larger cities.

<v Deirdre Paulsen>There are there are some traditional values that have existed for hundreds, maybe thousands of years here. And some of those traditional values are the importance of family, the importance of children, the sense of community. Another way that we can determine how untouched the villages were by much of what happened anyway during the Soviet period is by looking at their cemeteries. They're very, very different from the urban cemeteries. Urban cemeteries have lots of fences around the graves. They'll have a picture of the person. They often have a red star if that person was a communist. And they're sort of geometric shapes in the villages. In contrast, they are large wooden crosses on the graves with mounds of dirt underneath, usually no fences, and they're painted colors of the earth. <v Guest>It is not necessary to show the person's name because the village people remember who their relatives were where they were buried. The Lord knows who and where too.

<v Narrator>Because so much tradition remains in the villages. The folklore Galina wants to preserve is still here, but not for long. Those who carried the traditions are approaching 100 years old. Galina must find them before they die, taking Russian folklore with them to the grave [Singing traditional song]. Her race against time is not an easy one. Normally, Galina and her students walk into the villages as far as 20 miles. Sometimes they use public transportation, but bus schedules are erratic. Frequently they don't run at all. And when she gets there, she's not even sure if there will be someone still alive to teach her the songs or the rituals or if they'll be a place for her and her students to sleep. There are no phones in the smaller villages, so calling ahead is not an option. If it rains, travel is impossible. Dirt roads of the black earth region turn to thick, gooey mud. <v Deirdre Paulsen>The mud was absolutely unbelievable. In fact, if there is distant thunder, we heard and packed up wherever we were and got back into villages because they knew the bus just couldn't get through. Well, the kinds of roads that we were going through.

<v Narrator>On this expedition, the team has rented a bus which prove to be reliable most of the time. <v Deirdre Paulsen>It was difficult to turn around on the roads and at one point we were just about to cross over, so so by our standards, the travel was difficult. [Loud noise] <v Narrator>Until recently, Galina transcribed songs on paper, note by note, she collected 500 songs this way because her old equipment frequently refused to cooperate. <v Deirdre Paulsen>She doesn't have a tape recorder that works until I was able to send her one. She has no video camera, which is her dream is to have a video camera. She has limited slide film of not very good quality. And I mean, just the technical things are appalling. <v Camera man>Mark it. [Music plays]

<v Narrator>Galina's glad to have the Americans along to videotape this time, but arranging the expedition was so difficult it almost didn't happen. <v Galina Sysoeva>It is not possible to count the number of problems. I don't have a telephone. I don't speak English. And it was hard to get in touch with the Americans. If I were to send a letter. It would give them a year if it gets there at all, almost to the very last minute. I wasn't sure if they were coming and how many people would come <v Nina Frmolenko>When some women in the villages were worried and did not want to accommodate the expedition, it was necessary to talk to them right away. Galina's sold gold jewelry given to her by her relatives so she could rent the car and travel from village to village to get everything in place. [Music plays] She was worried because you were supposed to [unclear] a very valuable aspects of our culture for future generations. She worries a lot about the future of Russia. <v Narrator>Galina faced the challenges of organizing the expedition alone. Her institute did not have the money to help, and she could not go to the government for assistance.

<v Galina Sysoeva>If I had gone to the government for help. They would have arranged our schedule and determined where we went and not necessarily where we needed to go. I wanted to go where we needed to go and not where it is more beautiful and wealthy. <v Narrator>Well. Such challenges are not new Galina Sysoeva, nearly single-handedlyshe started a new department at the Voronezh State Institute of Art and the Department of Russian Folk Music. It's the only one of its kind in southern Russia. Her academic focus is folk music. But Galina also spent much of her life collecting traditional costumes, buying some, receiving others as gifts. <v Galina Sysoeva>It is one thing to wear some old thing. It is different thing to wear something with centuries of history. I wear this and I'm connected with the past. I continue the tradition. You feel the past on your shoulders, your grandmothers, your parents. You're proud that you continue your family in their lives. These have enormous value, these costumes need to be saved for history so you won't see them at all.

<v Narrator>Enormous value, enormous expense to her family has made many sacrifices to enable her to collect costumes, including the time she used money set aside for a family television set to buy an available costume instead,. <v Galina Sysoeva>A TV is a TV. It's a diversion. Costumes are much more valuable. <v Narrator>Before becoming a folklore researcher and collector, Galina was a folk performer and later the conductor of a performing group. <v Galina Sysoeva>When I started to work, I understood that I needed to go to the villages to understand the roots of this art. That's when I found out that what they sang in the villages and what they sang on the stage are completely different art forms. I was confused. One thing one the stage another in life, where was the truth? A conflict arose within me.

<v Galina Sysoeva>[Singing traditional song] I came to real folklore and authentic culture very slowly. <v Narrator>In 1930, the communists branded folklore ideologically backward, a harmful reminder of the past. The party called on writers to collaborate with performers of traditional folklore to produce what academics called pseudo folklore songs and poems which promoted communist ideals. From then on, folk performers and collectors were under the constant supervision of the government. <v Deirdre Paulsen>Galina was a part of all of that and thought that it was authentic, she was told where to stand, what costumes to wear and thought that it was authentic. [Singing] It wasn't until much later that she was allowed to go into the villages to find out how they were done. And she was amazed at the difference. And it became her life's dedication at that point to find out what folklore really was, because so much of it had been distorted or submerged during the communist regin.

<v Narrator>[Singing] Near the village of Gulaga, Galina displays a passion for accurately recording folk songs. She chastises the singers for conversing during the song. <v Galina Sysoeva>I came here for this song. It is a very old song about how a woman, sadly parts with a sweetheart, escorting him to the road where they once walked together, which he will now travel to exile in Siberia [Singing].

<v Narrator>Galina says that by studying the song, one can sense the beauty of the Russian soul, its suffering, loving and deeply sensitive nature. But recording the singers is no easy matter. <v Galina Sysoeva>Well, we recorded it, but in order to make a scientific publication of this song, it is not good enough. We need to record each voice through separate microphones so researchers can understand how each singer sings musically. We have many people who carry on the folklore traditions, I can be very close to them. I can sing the songs, I can act like they do, and I can incorporate myself into the environment. I am completely liberated. I can live this life complete union is not possible unless you live in this village. Their experience passes through me, not only through my thoughts, but my behavior. <v Narrator>Such passion does not allow Galina to simply observe as an American folklorist might. Not only does she participate in the performances, Galina finds herself initiating them too.

<v Guest>Just as the bride would begin to lament, everyone would begin to cry. <v Galina Sysoeva>It is hard to believe everyone would begin to cry. Do it again. So everyone cries. [Singing traditionally song] <v Narrator>Russian brides lament the first day of a traditional three day wedding. It's a complicated ritual. The religious aspects were forbidden by Soviet authorities in the 1930s. It starts, sadly, as the young bride bids farewell to her home, her friends, family and a carefree youth to her parents. She cries for forgiveness and for their blessing. [Singing] <v Narrator>Weddings songs are Galina's speciality. She says a traditional wedding in southern Russia is different from one in the north, which more closely resembles a funeral. There, peasants sing at least 40 sad songs. In the southern village of [unclear] where residents stage this reenactment of parts of a traditional peasant wedding. The bridal party sings only a couple of farewell songs before the mood turns upbeat. Finally, the bridegroom arrives with a couple of friends who will negotiate to buy the bride. They give money and gifts to the bride's family.

<v Narrator>Another wedding tradition that survives in the villagers, friends and family get together to build a new home for the young engaged couple. It will be their wedding gift. <v Interviewer>How old is this tradition? <v Guest>I don't remember. You'll have to ask someone older. Centuries older, <v Narrator>weddings in Russian cities are typically simpler affairs. In a few hours later, Deana Sinkovi will be married in a Soviet style civil service in Voronezh. [Honking] But even in the city, one piece of village tradition survivs. Before claiming his bride, Rigori Bokha, must first buy her. Just as in the village wedding, the groom's best man must negotiate the price.

<v Narrator>Most civil weddings are performed on Saturdays in wedding palaces. It's not uncommon for such palaces to perform 30 or more marriages on a Saturday inside Deana and Rigori pay a fee to then wait to officially register as husband and wife. [Music plays] <v Narrator>A woman representing the state marriage them and gives a few words of advice before the couple exchanges rings, I congratulate you and wish you a happy life. The woman typically tells newlyweds. After the ceremony, newlyweds visit a war memorial. Ever since the end of the Second World War, most newlyweds have come to such memorials where they leave a bouquet of their wedding flowers. Nearly every village and every city has such a war memorial. Evidence of deep scars left by the conflict. It touched every facet of Russian life, including folklore. Twenty seven million Soviet citizens died fighting what they still call the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet Union suffered more casualties than any other country.

<v News Report>Next, they started to drive further north and drove through to the Don River in the area of Voronezh then spread south and east until they occupied the whole area from the Don River south to Rostov. <v Narrator>Today, there are reminders everywhere.

<v Guest>The Don River so full of dead that one could walk from one side to the other in dead soldiers. The water was red from blood. A lot of soldiers were carried away in the current of the river. <v Narrator>Giorgi Prosverarin is a veteran of the Second World War. He recalls defending Boenish from the Nazis. <v Georgi Prosvearin>In 1942, the [inaudible] extended to the age of Voronezh, acted as a barrier for the Germans, two hundred eighteen days and nights fighting continued and the city was destroyed. Ninety five percent of residential areas were destroyed, whole factories and plants, too. It was at that city and the fascist [inaudible]. We would never restore the city, but we gave a note that from these fragments and ashes. We would bring back our beloved Voronezh And you can see how beautiful Voronezh is today. <v Narrator>The Soviet government came to rely on folk performers during the war to raise morale. Some visited the front to perform for the soldiers. Others wrote songs to encourage the people to defeat the Nazis and rebuild their broken cities. In April 1945, American and Soviet soldiers met at the Elbe River. Although, Nikolai Torbinov remembers performing for American soldiers.

<v Nicholai Torbinov>I found a [unclear] that they had broken and beat up. Well, I glued it together and started to play. When they heard me, the American soldiers called me. I played for them and they treated me so well We ate and drank, it was fun. <v Galina Sysoeva>[Crash] War breaks everything, it brings poverty and sorrow, but on the other hand, it became a theme for new folklore like soldier songs, those songs became more legitimate during the war. <v Narrator>The biggest casualty of the war was the Russian family. Many women were left without husbands or fathers for their children. As a result, women today administered many aspects of Russian society. [Singing] They are the leaders in the home and in the community. And if Russian culture is to survive, it will be up to the women to pass on the traditions.

<v Speaker>[Singing traditional song] <v Narrator>Every spring, the women of Rosseh teach their daughters and granddaughters about a woman's religious holiday, the Troitsa. The Troitsa is a very significant holiday, its' songs and dances focus on the big screen, which, according to pagan beliefs, is believed to bring virgins into contact with supernatural forces. It used to be practiced every year until it was banned by the Soviets. <v Galina Sysoeva>People practicing traditional rituals were persecuted. Communist leaders despised rituals because in their opinion, they didn't lead to the future, but needlessly linking people with the past. The past was something to escape from, a burden to overcome in order to build a new society.

<v Narrator>Just before the holiday, women take the linen they have woven over the winter and bleach it in the sun. While the linen is drying, young girls play games, sing lighthearted songs and weave garlands of Birchley for their hair. <v Narrator>This isn't playing. <v Narrator>By covering themselves with water, they believe they are inviting rain to this agricultural area. Religion and folklore are the very essence of being Russian.

<v Narrator>After a millennium of coexistence. The two are so intertwined it would be impossible to study folk traditions without encountering the Russian Orthodox Church in the process of recovering their country's cultural heritage. More and more Russians are working to restore churches in Rossosh, the rebuilding effort is far from complete, but part of the church is already in use. <v Guest>We don't know when we will next gather money or when we will build more because now everything is also so expensive there are no materials to build with and no money. <v Narrator>The church was vandalized in 1956, according to villagers. Two local men were paid by the Communist Party to remove the church's icons and its bell. Villagers continued to attend until 1963 when the church was finally turned into a warehouse for the village collective. <v Guest>The inside dome was made of gold, very beautiful, but now everything is destroyed. [Singing]

<v Narrator>Not far away, another woman was instrumental in rebuilding a church. Only recently, religious services resumed in the village [unclear] For years, the church lay in ruins until a villager had a dream. It would be restored Ana Suhelina united the villagers to fulfill the dream. <v Ana Suhelina>I collected money from the villages. The government gave us one drop. Bit by bit, people contributed. I gather up the money bought the place. <v Narrator>Ana is 85 years old. She lives alone in this home. It is in bad repair. But on his first priority is rebuilding the church for her village. <v Ana Suhelina>The church [supported me and] people from the newspaper came. We built the church in eight months. <v Narrator>Since the fall of the Communist Party, many Russians have returned to religion, to their groups. Once again, they are allowed to be baptized, married and buried by the church. Several years ago, it would have been difficult even to imagine this. Church bells ringing in Red Square today, they chime from a brand new Russian Orthodox Church built right where communists destroyed a church building more than 50 years ago

<v Galina Sysoeva>in order to conquer faith. Churches were destroyed because they couldn't fight with people. It would have been necessary to kill all people because almost everyone believed at the time they took a different approach. They destroyed churches which were at the center of our culture. In this way, they destroyed the people's traditions. <v Narrator>As early as 1918, the communist sent soldiers to seize gold icons and other valuables from churches. The churches were then shut down and converted to other uses, such as social clubs. Between February and May 1918, 687 people died in such raids. At first, party leaders hope to weaken the church by imprisoning its leaders and depriving it of its wealth. They were confident religious faith would then die on its own. But in many villages, people continued to worship in secret. In [unclear] residents would, on religious holidays, climb a steep cliff to a 16th century church carved out of a [unclear] then under the cover of darkness. Others would sneak up too and participate in the mass. The church was recently rebuilt and is now open for services and tours. Priests hid in these underground tunnels in 1924, communists destroyed a nearby monastery, killed its monks, then vandalized the church, <v Marina Deelova>The icons were taken from the walls and ripped, destroyed the walls where the icons hung. People wrote on the wall with torches. There is no faith. There is no God. This took place the same day the monastery was destroyed.

<v Narrator>It's believed the Communists killed more than 1200 hundred priests in their campaign to stamp out religion. <v Guest>Our church was destroyed. No, there is nothing to do. Where would you go to a club? I'm an old woman. I'm like some sort of orphan, like a ship without a harbor when there is a church, all people go. <v Guest>It was a horrible time. They would say, you are communist, you are a communist, and I am a communist who needs the church? Sign here to destroy it. <v Narrator>At the time of the revolution, Russia had some 40000 perished churches by the end of the communist era, most of them ended up like this, stripped and abandoned <v Guest>During the war. People used this building as as a store, as a hidden place for them to hide from the German soldiers or for German soldiers to hide from the Russian soldiers. And then they used some materials that they could use in the war.

<v Narrator>Stalin recognized the unifying power of the church. And so during the war, he allowed it greater freedom. But after the war, the repression returned and intensified. Believers hid their devotion to the church and to their traditions. <v Guest>Even Communist gave their children to grandparents to baptize, sometimes even under different names. I have a sister and she was a communist. I baptized her daughter secretly and we changed her name. <v Narrator>Believers in folk rituals also had to practice in secret. In the village of ?Asconov? A folk ritual has survived despite having been banned. It's called Rusalka. [Singing traditional song] Traditionally, this ceremony is held every year so that villagers can worship the water spirits who they believe control the Earth's moisture. Pagans believe that man can affect nature through such rituals. Villagers hope this ceremony would ensure the newly planted crop will get a good start. Four men play the part of a water spirit or Rusalka for reasons no one is able to explain, this village's Rusalka takes the form of a horse. To win the favor of the gods, something must be sacrificed to the man leading to the [unclear] Everyone must give as much as he or she can, eggs, sausage, money or moonshine.

<v Narrator>Come out, bring what you can. We won't steal anything. The villagers are told don't hoard your money and you have enough to spare.

<v Narrator>In 1935, a state ethnographer pronounced the ritual a ?game?, and she took the village's Rusalka costume to a government museum. The communists were confident they had succeeded in killing the ritual, not so says Galina. In 1990, she found evidence villagers had over the years secretly preformed it in the fields. [Singing] While visiting ?Asconov? she coaxed villagers to perform the Rusalka for her when she returned two years later. She was prepared to ask the villagers for a repeat performance. But as she arrived, the villagers were already performing. <v Deirdre Paulsen>It's a tradition that has a lot of meaning to Galina, because she was finally able to be herself as maybe being part of the process of this resurgence of culture. . <v Narrator>In St. Petersburg, genealogist Igor Sakharov sees the damage done to Russian culture during the communist era. He says the country now suffers from something he calls historical amnesia. He's now president of the Russian Genealogical Society. But for many years, he had to do his work in secret. The communists deemed geneaology ideologically defective

<v Igor Sakharov>Genealogy was a branch of science which was neglected in Russia and suppressed because genealogy leads you to the real first. But during communism, the authorities tried to eliminate real memory, so it was both dangerous for regime and for the people who had a good memory, because to have a good memory was very dangerous, because if you have if you had fathers or grandfathers, rich pearsons or police officers of the SA Army. A just educated person. It was a reason for discrimination and sometimes with repression. <v Narrator>The question Deidre Paulson brought to Russia is, can the authentic traditions ever be restored and the Russian soul being resurrected?

<v Speaker>[Singing folklore song] <v Narrator>Galina uses the metaphor of a tree which was cut down, its roots covered by asphalt, the Russian soul was never killed. She insists. The roots were simply covered by the asphalt of communism. <v Galina Sysoeva>I think that a rebirth is not possible, only a continuation is possible. Our assignment is to protect the roots. And those roots give sprouts. The tree will not grow like it was, but the roots are there and from them are born young sprouts, we need to resurrect the spirit and the soul and traditions help with this. <v Narrator>The traditions, are carried on in towns like [unclear] where museum workers teach the younger generation how to produce Russian handicrafts. [Singing traditional song] and in [unclear] babushkas teach their granddaughters traditional songs.

<v Narrator>[Singing traditional song] In Volgodnsk, Doll Master Mikhail Travalovs hopes to perpetuate his country's culture through dolls and each doll is individually handcrafted to portray an elderly Russian peasant, <v Mikhail Travalov>I really love all the people. I believe they are the protectors of traditions. There is never enough knowledge about that. I believe that he, who knows his roots, knows his own faith, and he faith, has everything. <v Narrator>Galina also makes dolls, they wear costumes similar to those she collects. Her dream is to put the dolls and costumes on display for her fellow Russians to see.

<v Galina Sysoeva>Not everyone has the chance to visit the villages. Not everyone has a chance to become acquainted with Russian culture. For a long time, Russian culture was only known selectively. <v Narrator>Several years ago, Galina and her two sisters decided to use their childhood home in [unclear] house the museum. Setting up a private museum was unheard of. Almost instantly, they ran into financial and legal difficulties as they attempted to buy the home from the government. At one point, Galina threw herself in front of a bulldozer sent to destroy the old house to make way for a new apartment building. <v Galina Sysoeva>One of the problems we have is that people don't understand and the local government doesn't understand why we are here. The majority of people agree with what we're doing, but in their hearts they think we are eccentric. Maybe because right now there is a shortage of housing they think it is silly that we have a private museum, but I think it is just as important to preserve our culture as it is to give people something to eat and a place to live. [Singing] <v Narrator>But much of Galina's hopes for the future lie with her students. They are inheriting Galina's passion as they travel with her to collect Russian folklore.

<v Mariya Krasnobayeva>Young people need to experience our culture because in our country, the government doesn't teach these things. <v Alexandra Samotyagina>We are young ourselves and we want to teach what we know to others. It's painful for us that the youth now cannot socialize in the way that was typical of Russian culture. <v Deirdre Paulsen>We have been really fortunate in being able to document the traditions that still exist in the villages [Sining traditional song] My perception was that with 70 years of Soviet domination, that most of the questions have been lost except for a few informants who Galina has been able to find who remember these things, and these are women in their 70s and 80s. We found something entirely different. We found whole villages that practiced rituals and customs that were pre-soviet era, where these customs had been passed on to the children. [Singing] <v Deirdre Paulsen>We've been able to document that the tradition still exists.

<v Narrator>Galina says every time she meets with these carriers of Russian folklore, she realizes they are dying in another five years or so. She fears they will all be gone. Galina wishes they could be sealed up and protected. [Singing] <v Narrator>Since they can't, she worked tirelessly to preserve what she can to show the Russians soul never really died, its memory was simply hidden.