Wodookhranniiye Zona

Written by Mike Maholchic:

Thursday, May 7

Kravchitsa, Ivanovo Region, Russia

For four days in early May the commuters into Ivanovo saw an unusual sight: a bald middle aged man with a beard and glasses jogging along the rutted road between Kravchitsa and Pesechovo. The two villages are only a kilometer apart, two groups of divergent style houses set closely together surrounded by fire-blackened fields and forests of birch and fir.

Running is the best way to discover an area in detail. The first day the runner surprised the bescarved babushkas walking to work and the knot of schoolchildren waiting for the bus. Every house seemed to have a big dog in its fenced in yard, and in no time the quiet little village was converted into a cacophonous cluster of concerned canines.

The following day the runnere brought a camera along and stayed away from houses and farms. He took a fork in the road that headed for a cluster of birch. Just out of sight of the roadway from Kravchitso he saw a sign “BODOOXPAUHAIA ZONA” which seemed to mean “Water Preservation Zone”. There followed a long list of rules, which I could not decipher but must have included “No Littering”.

Taking another fork in the road, the road less traveled by as it were, since it had a big red circular sign with a minus on it, what to the runner’s wondering eyes should appear but a dam and a reservoir. Across the dam stood two men and two barking dogs. The runner stopped to take a few pictures and then jogged over to the men. The dogs were barking louder than ever, but they got quiet as the runner neared the two men. One was an elderly fellow in a beret, plaid shirt and green sweater, and the other was dressed in a blue uniform with three letters on the shirt front pocket “MDC” it looked like. He asked me a lot of questions that I didn’t understand, and I told him I was an “Amerkanets” looking for Kravchitso. He pointed me back the way I came and said “ne fotografuyet”. I think he was concerned about me filling up my memory card. Anyhow, I am glad to share my pictures of the Kravchitsa Reservoir with all my friends on the Internet.