Cinema Club Meeting of the Presidential Library: People’s history of Arkhangelskoye village in Vyatka Region presented on the screen and in the book

The regular meeting of the Cinema Club was held in the Presidential Library with support of Vyatka communities of St. Petersburg and Moscow. The film “The Village of Arkhangelskoye on the Voya River. History, People, Fates” was shown and discussed as part of the meeting.  

The film directed by Valentina Oberniyenko is based on the book of the same name, which she had written about her native village. Both the book and the film may be called ‘popular’ in every sense of the word, for the creation of both excited all the inhabitants of a beautiful village, which stretches along the picturesque river Voya. People turned to the creators of the film to share their memories, photos and other family heirlooms. The film is based on materials from more than 50 family archives of villagers of Arkhangelskoye, Nemsky District, Kirov Region. One of the first photos of fellow villagers dates back to 1870.

“Love for the Motherland is not abstract, it cannot be imposed by politics or ideology — it has real earthly ‘roots’, basically childhood memories, the yellowed photographs of ancestors and fathers who went to war. The Memorial Book spotlights wartime experiences of 116 fellow villagers; this is the living, powerful love for homeland”, Valentina Oberniyenko said before the film show.  

The picturesque panorama at the beginning of the film portrays all the majestic beauty of Vyatka Region. Still, there are also dramatic pages in the history of the village. There used to be four churches in the village, and only one of them – the Savior’s Church - has survived. Church services resumed there in 2011.

During the very first days of the war broad-shouldered men from Vyatka were sent to the front, where they immediately gained a reputation of fearless fighters ready to perform any task. They were called “Vyatka robust fellows.” Many soldiers from Vyatka were killed at the Sinyavino swamps, the Luga Line ... Only 105 soldiers returned to their native village. 116 fellow villagers, who did not return from the war, are listed in the Memorial Book - so that the countrymen remember the defenders of our Motherland.

The orphanage No. 17 with three workshops (carpenter’s and shoemaker’s workshops) was opened for children of the village, who were orphaned. Large families in Arkhangelskoye began to take children of soldiers from orphanages. Children soon felt at home and became members of the family...

No less interesting and eventful is the life of Arkhangelskoye village and the surrounding villages nowadays. The book and the film highlights the life of Viktor Petrovich Savinykh, the 50th Soviet cosmonaut. Through the history of families, authors tried to collect and preserve valuable records about the inhabitants of the village from the pre-revolutionary time to the present day.

Both the film and the book have become a valuable documentary source, which gives future generations a true picture of historical events, interesting details from the everyday life of ordinary peasants, which explain their courage, vitality, and love for their Motherland.