A day in the life of the village, 1960s–1980s

Let us walk through an ordinary summer day in a village of the Bliznyuky region in the 1960s–1980s. The day usually began very early and was built around daily physical work. The sun was only rising, yet most yards already rang with familiar sounds: roosters crowing, men hurrying to the tractor brigade, women busy about the household. Although most villagers worked at the collective farm, it was the household plot that often provided food better than the village shops with their endless queues. The vegetable garden, the orchard and the livestock helped offset shortages and top up the family budget. Almost every family kept cows and pigs in the barn and hens, ducks or geese in the yard. The gardens grew potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, cabbage, onions and beets, and beside every house stood apple, apricot or cherry trees.

While the hosts tended the animals and the orchard, a simple breakfast cooked on the stove or in the oven — fried eggs, porridge, homemade cheese or bread with milk. After the morning chores most adults set off to work at the collective farm. Men worked as combine operators, drivers, fitters or builders. Women tended livestock or worked as milkmaids on the farms, in the field teams or on the vegetable plantations. Though the mechanisation of agriculture grew considerably in those years — tractors and combines were being introduced — much of the work remained manual. Wheat, sunflower and maize were the main crops, so at harvest time the working day could stretch from dawn till late evening.

While the adults worked, the children had plenty of duties of their own, so the summer holidays were not only a time of rest but also a season of helping the family. The younger ones herded livestock, picked fruit in the orchard and carried water; the older ones worked in the garden, helped make hay or bring in the harvest. Senior pupils often worked in school production brigades that cooperated with the collective farms. Such work from an early age was considered a natural part of a village upbringing and a preparation for adult life. Only once the chores were done could children rest — spend time with friends, swim in the pond, fish, play football or wander in the woods.

Back from work, the family gathered at the table over a simple but nourishing menu: borshch, potatoes, vegetables, home-raised meat and sausages. Much of the food was preserved for later: cabbage was fermented, cucumbers salted, fruit dried. Despite the day’s fatigue, the evening was a time for leisure and company. In summer villagers gathered by their yards or on the benches, discussing the news, family affairs and the harvest. The young hurried to the village club for dances, film screenings or amateur performances. From the 1970s more and more families had television sets, and watching the evening news or popular programmes became a new family tradition.

The morning bustle in the streets, work in the fields alongside neighbours, tending the animals, queues at the village shop, adventures with friends by the river and evening gatherings at the club — it is from such unremarkable details that the true history of the village was made.