The ravages of decades of Soviet communism: corruption, failure, and hopelessness, except for the politically connected. Several years ago a billion dollars, booked fraudulently as loans, was embezzled from a local bank. The funds were never recovered, and the perpetrators, whose names are known even by taxi drivers, continue to hold political office and manage their businesses.
28
Lush photography but incomplete story.
Patrick Kingsley is a beautiful writer but I feel he discounted the "sins of the fathers" for their murderous role during the Holocaust for the sickness that has befallen modern day Dubrusa, as well as Bessarabia, Bukovina, Moldavia, Muntenia, Oltenia and Transylvania, where the total numbers of Romanian and Ukrainian Jews who perished in territories alternately under Romanian and Soviet administration prior to, during and after World War II ranged between 280,000 and 380,000, according to the Final Report of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania. When a population kills that many of its own citizens, the sad effects linger for generations as we now see in this part of the world.
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Basically agrarian life in every country is vanishing. There has never been a great number of people who yearn to be farmers. Most will jump at any opportunity to go somewhere else, do some other work. The passing triumph of industrial agriculture has made this possible. When it is over, everything else will be too.
21
Have the murderers been arrested and convicted? How tragic that theses people in their early 40s have been killed.
I would like to financially support this lonely man to migrate or to rejoin his wife and children.
Please help me get his email address or the email address from some one nearby who knows English.
Harikumar
Mumbai
India
Email. [email protected]
35
A moving story ... with great photos.
I know it’s very complex but:
How about giving groups of homeless, stateless people with relevant skills the chance for a new start in areas like this?
An end to loneliness and isolation for some, and the beginning of hope and purpose for others.
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My mother-in-law's village in Moldova is going through a similar transformation.
16
Lovely article and pictures.
I took exception to one sentence: "He grows his own vegetables and makes his own honey."
The bees make the honey - he harvests it.
34
Stories and photos like these are why I subscribe to The Times. Thanks!
32
I don't know anything about photography but I feel like these photos deserve an award.
44
The sad part there are many villages like this in former Soviet Union satellite countries..dead or dying. Yet, they refuse to let refugees to enter their countries. If they were smart, these same refugees could play a huge role in revitalizing these areas and help them to prosper instead of dying. Such is the shortsightedness of bigotry.
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@KaneSugar Yes I was thinking exactly the same thing. Looks like a beautiful part of the world, there must opportunity there for a thriving community.
16
@KaneSugar
Whereas I am sure many refugees are basically good people who are just looking for another chance, it would be madness to simply dump hundreds or thousands of people into places completely unsupervised, without any policing or monitoring of any kind, and expect that everything will be just fine. What could go wrong? First, they may not follow the laws of the land, is that something anyone wants? Second, whereas most immigrants just want to find a way to get by and mean no harm of any kind to anyone, we cannot say this is true of every immigrant.
Just as a few rotten people produced 9/11 and ruined things for many good, honest, hardworking people, it only takes one wingnut to ruin it for everyone. No nation can agree to take that kind of risk (unsupervised large scale settlements), even in principle. The first priority of any nation is that the nation, its laws, and its people will be respected.
Nevertheless, much like Japan really needs to be more open to allowing foreigners to come in and do many of the jobs where there are severe shortages (like caring for the aging), I agree with you to the extent of saying that some sort of balance between asserting sovereignty and maximizing productivity (by a liberal hiring of immigrants) would be a far better use of Moldovia's land and resources. I also agree that some of this, at least at some level, is motivated partially by prejudice; though Russia has set a bitter example that may have helped make them that way.
11
Some people needs company and they move to city or populated area for work and better life. Some feel better alone or are not skilled enough or too old to adapt for life in cities, for them becoming too 'complicated', they need courage to depend on their own resources like in this village in Moldova. The story of the couple in their 40, murdered is really sad. Perhaps some planing by States could help managing their population better accepting immigrants... I'm sure many families in India or China would be happy moving to those areas to make their living from the local resources, not at the expenses of the State.
8
I understand that these Eastern Bloc countries have very corrupt governments and systems in place, which is why anyone with an ounce of get-up-and-go moves westward as soon as they can.
11
I love to read articles like this and the photography is excellent. You really feel like you are there if only for a few minutes.
I do wonder about that elderly lady sitting on her bed looking up and watching her TV. Her one leg looks as if she needs medical attention. How is she even still alive?
Is she able to get any help?
10
What a brutal end to the couple. Is there no escaping violence against women? Is there no escaping men who seem to think they have a right over women's bodies and who turn violent when women and the ones who love them stand up for their dignity?
What a contrast to the beauty of the place. What a shame that the collective lifestyle gave way to industrial agriculture, destroying a community.
The emptying out of the countryside reminds me of a little S. Stoll's Ramp Hollow about the forces that deliberately undermined Appalachian communities and turned the former independent-minded villagers into faceless cogs in the machine --trading a life of drudgery for a scrap of bread.
May beauty, goodness and honest work prevail. Somewhere, anywhere, everywhere on earth.
36
@ehr I had the opposite impression, namely that collective agriculture had given way not to industrial agriculture but to small farms that were not economically viable in the modern world. The end of the collective farm was more likely a political decision than an economic one.
10
Stunning photographs and interesting story.
23
I am so impressed by the photos with this piece - many reaffirm the story's thread of one man in a wilderness alone. They are stunning. I envy this gentleman his solitary existence.
35
@A. Ballard
Photos are stunning, well done Laetitia!
10
Even here in the U.S., you can find isolated home that, as in Mr. Muntean's situation, are at least 22 miles away from any other civilization. A friend from Vermont grew up like this. Her parents were "off the grid" kind of people who built their own log cabin in the middle of nowhere. But there are many other such places here in America, and I've occasionally seen examples while driving cross country. I know that technically in this country these people are part of a town, but it really does take them at least 45 minutes to reach it.
19
We have a Serbian friend, who many years He would go back to Serbia to visit his grandmother in the countryside. The grandmother was living happily in much the same conditions as Mr. Muntean. She loved living as she always had and did not want to be in the city or be a burden. She also made some crazy potent rakia. He also talked about visiting the empty, dusty, leaking family house. The grandmother is gone now. I’m not sure if more people are moving back to the Serbian countryside yet.
18
Moldova is more or less a failed state. Many countries in Central & Eastern Europe have grown their economies by hundreds of % since 1989 whilst some like Ukraine or Moldova, where Russia has a substantial influence, are in free fall. Some, like Poland have brought in substantial benefits and lower tax rates for the young to increase birth rates. However, a falling population is not unique to Eastern Europe. It is going to happen in all of Europe, particularly in southern countries like Spain, Italy and Greece. Germany has one of the lowest birth rates in the world. The birth rate of the USA is in free fall too, dropping to 1.7 and still dropping. The only reason the populations are growing in the USA, UK or France is because of mass immigration from Africa, South America and Asia. South East Asia in another area where populations are falling. In 2018 there were 2 million fewer births in China then there were in 2017. Japans population is falling by 500 000 people a year. South Korea has the lowest birth rate in the world, at 0.93 per woman, and falling. Falling native populations are common in the whole northern hemisphere and south east Asia.
31
Mr. Muntean still has a clock and calendar in his room.
13
You see similar stories in Japan as well. Still way better than overpopulation. At least this amazing man can keep his decency while suffering from loneliness. In the rat race that is the urban America, all of the good manners are gone. You have to fight to get a room. Homelessness is normal for anyone making less than 100k in LA, in large part due to illegal immigration.
I think I know why this, by all means wonderful, article was published - to push towards more population. Yeah, no.
16
@natan Any chance homelessness is being caused by the high cost of housing brought on by the tech boom?
19
how awful.
When humans leave, nature moves back in.
22
These photos are works of art...
53
What an interesting slice of human life. Thank you for telling this story, and supplying the lovely pictures to go along with it. More of this please!
46
Laetitia Vancon's photography is extraordinary.
The problem of depopulation is always around us. Towns and villages in so many parts of the world have lost population, as cities have grown to extraordinary size.
As commenter KMEC points out, why couldn't places like this absorb the millions looking to live in peace and plenty?
39
It's a sad, but beautifully written and interesting story.
Most people in Moldova, like those in neighboring Romania, speak a version of the Romanian language - a direct descendant of the language of the Roman empire. Some linguists in fact consider Romanian to be the closest to the Classical Latin of all the Romance languages still spoken.
In other words, this is not the first collapse of an empire these people are witnessing. Their ancestors have survived quite a few by now. I am sure their beautiful country and its culture will survive and carry on. Even if some villages won't.
52
The demise of small communities is occurring everywhere as their residents move to cities and other countries that can provide jobs. A good outcome possibly of the global migration to cities is a gradual re-creation of cities as clean, safe, beautiful and sustainable places for large numbers of people to live. It will be necessary. Cities may experience a renaissance as vigorous centers of cultural life as well as for the development of sustainable systems for energy, transportation, waste management, etc., and the natural ecosystems of the countryside could be largely preserved. Successful urban design and management is the new frontier.
17
I think the issue is not just that there are 10,000, 1 million or even 100 million people living like Mr. Muntean. I think the issue is that we have gotten to know one of their, his, story better. And that's changed a little bit of some of us.
75
I look at this -clearly- fertile and hospitable environment and wonder why displaced persons are not urged to relocate here. The land is begging to be utilized and at such little cost to - well, anyone. It would seem that the Moldovan government should be advertising for new settlers. Why not?
142
As someone with Moldovan origins, I would like to thank you for such an unexpected article on my country of origin and for the great photography. Moldovans are a warm and hardworking people, yet a lot lost faith in the system and society starting from the 90's, leaving the beautiful land and loved ones behind with the dreams of creating better opportunities for their children elsewhere.
144
@Roman
Yes, great photography. Great of you to point that out.
10
The photographs are beautiful, makes it seem like a fairytale of idyllic life.
50
@Bill
Perhaps too beautiful?
13
@Bear... yes, perhaps...
2
@Bill
There is no question that the pictures are beautiful. However, this life is anything but idyllic. With their feet, billions of people have chosen to leave the countryside for urban environments. You see many decrying "horrid factory conditions" but the fact is that they are better than the constant toil and drudgery of country life. Yet the Jeffersonian farming ideal persists ... just not among farmers.
17
Mr. Muntean’s circumstances are sad but not unique. There are 5000 Russian villages that have a population of ten people or less as a result of the exodus of people away from villages following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Probably hundreds of those Russian villages have just one person living in them. I’ve wondered about why such people remain in their village and don’t try to move to another nearby village, assuming that one exists. It takes a special kind of person to stick it out even after everyone else has left.
80
Yes, so many have lost track of heaven on this Earth. I look forward to its rediscovery, and nature as the One "machine" that prospers and heals.
33
The photography is fantastic. Mr. Muntean is living a life, for better or worse, I would think impossible in this modern world.
105
As a retired travel writer, I know of villages in the Caribbean islands that have been depopulated as residents moved from the rural places to the cities and places abroad. As genealogy becomes more popular, more of us will trace our ancestors to farming villages and similar places as the one described in the article. I can name several. When I traced my ancestors to 17th-century Ghana, I read in a slave trader's journal that their original village had been depopulated and there were no more settlers left. I traced them to a coastal village and from there to colonial villages in the Caribbean, Virginia and New York.
70