RUSSIA SOMEWHERE IN THE TUNDRA…
[VO] The way of life of reindeer herders
leading a traditionally nomadic lifestyle in the tundra
is similar to a parallel reality,
which sharply contrasts with the usual realities of megacities.
[VO] While the men drive the herds,
women carry the weight of the household work on their shoulders.
[VO] But no one would ever put “housewife” on their CV.
[VO] It’s not considered a profession or an occupation that you’d get a salary or a pension for.
[VO] However, in the vast expanse of Russia,
there is a spot where a housewife could secure regular employment status.
[VO] It’s in the Far North.
[VO] But there’s just one tricky bit:
unlike any other housewife, such a woman would have to live in a chum —
a tent covered with reindeer hides —
that moves location several times a week.
TUNDRA WONDER MUMS
[Pavla Ledkova]
[Pavla] I'm Pavla Ledkova
[Pavla] I'm 48 years old
[Pavla] I became a chum-worker at the age of 17
[Pavla] I don't regret it even after 30 years
[Pavla] Give it to the small ones now too
[Pavla] My husband and I have been together 30 years and have 7 children
[Pavla] 19 years ago, we built our own chum,
and we still feel joy in having our own home, as if we'd bought some expensive flat
[Pavla] A chumwife must be able to do everything
[Pavla] A woman in this profession can't be squeamish. She must be nimble, hardy, and strong
[Pavla] All the cosiness and warmth comes from us
[Pavla] You need to quickly wash the dishes
[Pavla] You need to go out 10 times to fetch snow so there'll be enough water
[Pavla] Cook, clean, do the laundry…
and there are little ones like this that need attending to
[VO] While the men are watching the herd,
Lasso him! Lasso him!
[VO]…women are doing their best to make the 8-metre dwelling as comfortable as can be
in the middle of the frozen wasteland.
[Pavla] The chum easily turns into a kitchen
[Pavla] You put a table here, set it, eat, and it's a dining room
[Pavla] If someone needs to wash,
I remove all these mattresses and tarpaulins, lower the canopy, give them a bucket of water,
and the chum is a bathhouse
[Pavla] Put a washing machine here, and it's a laundry room
[Pavla] Remove it, and it's a kids playroom
[Pavla] In the evening, you lower the bed curtains, make up the beds,
and it's a bedroom
[Pavla] All this happens in the same space
[Pavla] We make it all work here, as there's no place else
[Pavla] Our work is our life, there are no days off
[Pavla] If I took a Saturday off and didn't stoke the stove, I'd freeze
[Pavla] Who would make the water?
[Pavla] So every day's a workday for me
[Pavla] Come here, sweetie! Take it
[Pavla] He was found in the autumn, a small tortured fawn
[Pavla] Either he lost his herd or took a beating there and stayed
[Pavla] He's been living with us 4 years now, he knows my voice
[Pavla] He comes to me
[Pavla] He's always by my side
[Pavla] In the morning, if I'm awake and turn in bed,
he hears and immediately comes up and starts grunting and running around the chum
[Pavla] What a loyal little reindeer!
[Pavla] I don't know, maybe it's some kind of reward for loving him
[Pavla] I love my Ashes very much, he's so kind and affectionate
[Pavla] Some people work only for money – these are unhappy people
[Pavla] When you don't work for money, but for animals like these,
then it becomes more interesting, and you want to work and work
[Pavla] We officially took early retirement, but there's not much to do in the city
[VO] It’s getting harder to work in the tundra with each passing year.
[VO] And Pavla Nikolayevna really considers taking a well-deserved rest and moving to the city.
[VO] But the tundra is not letting her go so far…
[Pavla] I can't leave him
[Pavla] I can't take him to town to live with me
[Pavla] Even when I take my children to the city for a short time,
[Pavla] I'm sorry to leave him
[Pavla] My daughter says: 'Mum, he's running around the camp looking for you'
[VO] Reindeer herding is the family business.
[VO] One of Pavla’s elder daughters
still roams somewhere beyond the horizon.
[VO] Now she has her own family, own chum, and her own herd.
[VO] Another daughter — Liza — has decided to stay with her mother.
[Pavla] Liza didn't finish school, she really yearned for the tundra
and came back to live with us
[Pavla] The kids really missed us, they were eager to join us
[Liza] I'd constantly go to bed and cry
[Liza] I was bored
[Liza] I'd open the closet where my mum's and dad's clothes were hanging and smell them and cry
[Liza] I really missed them
[Liza] I must have annoyed my mother so much with my letters and tears
that she took me back
[Liza] I'd never noticed how hard life was here
[Liza] Just soaking, soaking wet
[Liza] Walking into a blizzard wind,
my eyes water, my face hurts, my eyes hurt, but it's okay
[Liza] Carrying heavy things like water or cooking, no big deal!
[Liza] But when I got married and already had a child,
I realised that it's very, very hard
[Pavla] He's run off again
[Pavla] One runs away and the whole herd follows
[Pavla] Nasty stuff
[Pavla] Vasya, take the rope! Come here, you old snake!
[Pavla] These are still new and untrained, so they're afraid of getting close to people
[Liza] There was a time when I wanted to stay in the city
[Liza] I wanted to become a hairdresser or an actress
[Liza] I got a job there at the market
[Liza] I worked as a saleswoman for probably a month and a half
[Liza] I felt like I was in a cage, like in a prison
[Liza] I need nature
[Liza] I want the sun, and the land, and to see all this!
[Liza] I can't sit in an enclosed place
[Liza] I need freedom
[Pavla] They've run away again, sometimes we spend hours chasing them
[Pavla] A 9-year-old girl is babysitting her 1-year-old nephew in the chum
[Pavla] You fear the children might start a fire, as there's a stove burning in there
[Pavla] Lyosha's crying, I don't know if Faiya's coping
[Fiana] He got mustard in his eye
[Liza] I have a baby crying in a cradle on a sleigh
[Liza] I can't open it because the wind's blowing, but I need to feed him
[Liza] It's really hard
[Liza] Or there's heavy rain, and everything's soaked
[Liza] Then I wonder why I stayed here...
and even got married here
[Filipp] We've corralled all the young ones…
but just barely
[Filipp] They're getting totally spoiled
[Filipp] We need to herd them more often
[Filipp] Then they'll behave
[Pavla] We own a flat, but we work and live most of our lives in the tundra
[Pavla] I only need my flat during vacations
[Pavla] It's just temporary housing for a residence permit
[Pavla] Our real life happens here
[Pavla] Our children grow up here
[Pavla] It's very difficult to raise kids in the tundra, but children are still needed
[Pavla] We had seven but we've managed, so our children will too
[VO] Reindeer herders don’t stick around longer than two or three days.
[VO] Meanwhile, the herd has eaten and trampled all the moss in the area,
so they need to get going - despite the weather.
[VO] The animals need food.
[VO] The family changes camps as often as a hundred times a year,
covering distances of up to 1,500 kilometres.
[Pavla] When the weather's bad, when it's wet and nasty outside,
of course, no one wants to get soaked to the bone,
but you still have to reach the new camp, set up the chum, and light the stove,
and only then can you warm up
[Pavla] Or when the temps fall to minus 40-50°C,
[Pavla] It'd be an outright lie to say it's easy: it's all very hard
[Pavla] Sometimes you cry and think, 'When will this all end?'
[Pavla] Well, no big deal, we grew up, so did our children,
and our grandchildren will too
[Pavla] It's OK, you'll live
[VO] It takes about an hour to set up a chum in the tundra.
[VO] What’s more, setting up a chum is solely the women’s job.
[VO] Each member of the family knows exactly what to do,
even if their job is… not to get in the way.
[Pavla] When you're already sitting near a warm stove drinking hot tea, all is forgotten,
and you think, 'I can handle this'
[Pavla] Then you're up in the morning cooking again, doing the same old routine, day in, day out
[Pavla] Son, we're approaching the checkpoint
[Pavla] Come here, please
[VO] Pavla’s elder son was conscripted into the army.
[Pavla] OK, we're waiting
[VO] It’s been only a few months since they last saw each other…
[Pavla] Just a little longer
[VO] …but being apart isn’t easy.
[VO] The parents left their herd for a few days to visit their son.
KOLYA
[Filipp] You've become a man
[Kolya] Why are you crying? [Pavla] I've missed you
[Kolya] It'll be OK, all right?
[Pavla] He kept saying, 'Raising reindeer isn't for me! I'm more into technology, I'll probably leave'
[Pavla] I said, 'At least warn your dad'
[Pavla] Of course, we were sad
[Pavla] I told my husband Kolya wanted to go work in the city
[Pavla] We'd hoped he'd stay, as he's the eldest son
[Pavla] My husband wasn't angry, he said it was his choice,
and we might have someplace to retire now, or he might return
[Pavla] Kolya…
[Pavla] It's so sad when I go out and he's not there
[Pavla] This is his deer
[Pavla] I'm very attached to him, I miss him very much
[Pavla] I know all kids are the same, but you really miss them when they're far away
[Pavla] I know how my children miss each other, they've never been far from the family
[Pavla] It always seemed we had a strong, close-knit, inseparable family
[Pavla] Then they gradually began to leave… the girls got married
[Pavla] Thankfully Liza's still with me, that's a godsend
[Pavla] Our youngest child is 5 years old
[Pavla] So, it seems we're old folks with small kids
[Pavla] Some may ask, 'Why would you give birth at 43?'
[Pavla] Our peers already have adult children, grandchildren, and quiet lives
[Pavla] But when a little child comes up, hugs you, and says, 'My dear mum, you're the best,'
you think, 'How can you think like that! Why not give birth at 43, or even 50!'
[Pavla] You'll be good, won't you, Timmy? - Can I?
[Pavla] Yes, of course you can, take it
[Pavla] We're upset, of course, that children…
[Pavla] They know all about these new gadgets that are appearing and the Internet
[Pavla] They can sit with their phones all day. If it dies, they don't know what to do
[Pavla] These children are something new: zombified by these phones
[Pavla] This is very bad, but I don't know how to fight it
[Pavla] Civilisation is slowly seeping in, and things are changing
[Pavla] Some have begun using snowmobiles instead of deer to move camp
[Pavla] That's tragic
[Pavla] This is our real life, things should be as they should be,
but it's slowly fading away
[Kids] Pull, pull, pull
[Kids] What a fast team Alyosha has
[Pavla] There's pretty much no news, life is normal. Summer's past
[Pavla] My son will return from the army in 3 months. This makes me very happy
[Pavla] I don't like winter, but I'm looking forward to this one,
as it means he'll be home
[Pavla] One, two, three. Again
[Man] Hell yeah!
[Kolya] Of course, I miss them, but what can you do?
[Kolya] You just try to forget yourself and not wait for time to pass
[Kolya] When you wait, time drags, don't show boredom, just get on with it
[Kolya] But there's still sadness in the soul
[Kolya] I was drawn to mechanical work as a kid
[Kolya] I have thoughts to change jobs. Leave reindeer herding
[Kolya] Reindeer are hard work, but I also don't want to leave Dad
[Kolya] He's old, tired. I know he's tired
[Filipp Ledkov, Pavla’s Husband]
[Filipp] I've been working here 38 years. 14 years old
[Filipp] Up to 4th grade. If we'd gone further, maybe there'd have been no reindeer husbandry
[Filipp] That generation's dying, of course
[Filipp] Been tired the last 2 years - getting harder
[Filipp] Waiting for my son, of course. He'll return and we'll see
[Voice] Does your son plan to stay?
[Filipp] He was planning. Now I don't know if he's changed his mind
[Pavla] Faechka, don't go inside. Follow the rope
[Pavla] Well, his dad and I decided not to interfere with his decision. It's up to him
[Pavla] If he wants to stay in the city, we won't protest
[Pavla] He dropped out of school early, came with us to the tundra
[Pavla] From childhood - such hard work!
[Pavla] I feel a bit sick
[Pavla] We regret letting him come home from school early
[Pavla] He started working at 13
[Kolya] It's not how much you worked by the hour, but how long you didn't do it
[Kolya] It depends on the deer, and often we shift at night
[Kolya] Rain there? Well, the weather no longer matters
[VO] Year after year, while drifting around the tundra,
the herders travel by the same route.
[Pavla] I've been travelling for 30 years. I can't see my nose any more
[Pavla] I'm driving along this road, I know every bump
[Pavla] And over this hill to see what else is there. I go to very few places
[Pavla] As I work non-stop, we go back and forth
[Pavla] It happens, for example, if all the men go to the herd and say,
[Pavla] 'This afternoon, you'll look at the riding bulls,'
then I run over to the deer, drive them there, see if I can drive them
[Pavla] I'll see some places, but you're always near the chum
[Pavla] I really like to walk the tundra, but I don't have time
[Pavla] It's beautiful, the nature - so beautiful. I really don't want to go to the city now
[Pavla] There are a lot of people there, we have a team of a few people here,
and we all know each other. We're not afraid for our kids
[Pavla] In the city, say, in the evening, if the kids go for a walk, I really worry
[Pavla] It's very hard to get used to that society
[VO] A helicopter flies to the tundra at the end of August.
[VO] After searching for the nomads’ chum for quite some time,
it takes the children away so they can start the new school year.
[VO] They’ll have to be away from their parents until winter.
[Pavla] The teams are scattered, in many places
[Pavla] Of course it's easier to collect children by helicopter than by ATV
[Pavla] And if by ATV, you'd need 3 days to gather them
[Pavla] Then go to Vorkuta shivering - it's cold. Spend the night somewhere…
[Pavla] So we settled on a helicopter. Convenient and good
[Pavla] 2 students fly with our team: Veronika will fly, Faina too. My boys just fly with me
[Pavla] The girls will stay with relatives and we'll come back
[Pavla] Of course, I'll miss it. My husband stays. My daughter, my grandson and my job
I don't know why, but I really miss my work
[Pavla] Maybe it's somehow wrong, but I really miss it
[Pavla] It turns out that autumn tears a mother in two
[Pavla] You miss the kids as you don't know their lives, how they go to school… no connection
[Pavla] And you miss work, and you don't know. Seems you're needed both there and here
[Pavla] Next year Danil will go to school. I have to go
[Pavla] I'll leave my job and take care of his schooling, then Timofey will go
[Pavla] I'll be near them, and back to the chum for summer
[Pavla] So, I was constantly ripping my older ones away from me
[Pavla] Now I say, 'Girls, it's better not to remember, Mum feels bad'
[Pavla] When the ATV left - they were taken away - they were so sad,
they only corresponded with letters, and the girls just stayed home
[Pavla] Such a sad time for so long, I don't want to recall it
[Pavla] They say, 'Mum, our dream is for you to be with us'
[Pavla] I always thought our family was such an unbreakable chain
[Pavla] We should never be far from each other, should always be together
[VO] The helicopter arrives tomorrow.
[VO] The girls are spending their last evening with the family.
[Voice] Do your classmates respect your lifestyle?
[Fiana] Not all of them. Some think they're too cool
[Voice] What do you say to them?
[Fiana] I say, 'We're much warmer than you are by the sea'
[Fiana] I'm not sitting by the same seaside
[Fiana] I ride a team, but they only drive a car
[Fiana] They sit at the window, look at the same road, drive and that's it
[Voice] Will you look forward to returning?
[Fiana] Yes - Why?
[Fiana] Because it'll be summer again, it'll be good, it'll be warm, and the chum nearby
[VO] Ashes is having a hard time being apart as well.
[VO] This time, he’ll only be apart from his owner for a few days,
but just in a year or two, they’ll have to bid farewell forever.
[Pavla] My sister says… I say, 'Look at the photos, my hand-reared ones'
[Pavla] She says, 'They're your parasites.' I say, 'Parasites?'
[Pavla] She says, 'Pash, they all work, but for some reason they don't work for you
[Pavla] You turn one into meat, and feel sorry for another'
[Pavla] I don't understand this. I don't think he's a freeloader
[Pavla] He's my living toy, my pet
[Pavla] We're at exactly the place we left. The chopper landed here
[Pavla] He came over, sniffed me, I talked to him last night
[Pavla] It seems like he understands. I tell him, 'Go to the herd
[Pavla] Don't look for Mum. Mum will be back.' I felt sorry for him, and he left
[Pavla] The chopper arrived, I saw he was running towards the chum -
[Pavla] I'd already gone. He stayed
[Pavla] My daughter says he ran, looked for me, grunted
[Pavla] He misses me. How to leave him is a big problem
[Pavla] I seem to be butchering meat, but talking about my love for a deer
[Pavla] This is certainly not understood by people. But he's like a child
[Pavla] He seems like an adult already, it seems high time to go to the herd
[Pavla] Yet he's still with me
[Pavla] Others grow and live in the herd - it's OK. Fed and cared for
[Pavla] Forgotten me completely. Not him. This one's faithful
[Pavla] Ashes! Here's how it is. There are no mosquitoes, go graze in the herd
[Pavla] And he still eats near me
[Filipp] Pasha, did you call the principal?
[Pavla] Where is it better to catch it? Don't bother…
[Pavla] Ashes! Ashes, dear!
[Pavla] The connection's bad
[Pavla] Hello, Sergey Georgievich. This is the fifth brigade
[Pavla] OK, Sergey Georgievich, we're at Khovraty. Where we were last year
[Pavla] OK... and tell me…
[Pavla] We've already slaughtered our meat. I see...the day after tomorrow
[Pavla] In the morning or what?
[Pavla] Hello?
[Pavla] The chopper won't come tomorrow, but the day after
[Pavla] The chopper's in some kind of trouble
[Pavla] Great, right? Yes.. We'll stay an extra day
VERONIKA
[Pavla] Veronika… she's more… she's stronger
[Pavla] While Fainka, is still… just like her age
[Pavla] She is very emotional like that. Starts to yearn, immediately cry
[Pavla] Veronika can be more modern or something
[Pavla] Well, when she leaves, she'll cry too. Yes, I don't think I'll go for long
[Pavla] I'll start crying anyway
[Pavla] I don't know… We must be very sentimental
[VO] It’s not that easy to locate the chum
as there are no exact coordinates.
[Pavla] They flew past us
[Pavla] Faina, stop celebrating. We'll be so late
[Radio] Five, do you see us?
[Maksim] Spun around, saw you, saw you
[Pavla] Go back!
[Maksim] Go back along the highway. Yes, yes. Behind, behind you
[Pavla] Has Ashes gone?
[Filipp] Gone again. Probably eating
[Pavla] Ashes!
[Pavla] Ashes, here's bread
[Pavla] Ashes! Come here, sweetie, come here! Mum is leaving
[Pavla] Ashes! Come here, sweetie, come here! Mum is leaving. Come here
[Pavla] Ashes!
[Pavla] Here they say, you reap what you sow
[Pavla] I think we probably put it into children, we invest love in them,
so that in our old age, this love will return to us
[Pavla] And they'll say, 'Hey, Mum and Dad came!'
[Pavla] Never, for example, 'Gosh, these old people are too much!'
[Pavla] God forbid the kids say that! I think if you sow love, you'll reap love
[VO] Another winter has come.
[VO] Kolya has decided not to follow his parents’ trade and to find his own path in the city.
[VO] He’s never returned to the tundra.
[VO] But Ashes is still by his owner’s side every step of the way.
[Pavla] Everything changes
[Pavla] Deer don't change. They're still the same, beautiful, cute, kind
[Pavla] Again, we'll face blue expanses ahead. Again we'll defeat them and push on