I found the embodiment of the age-old aspirations of the people. An exemplary village in a broken and dull Russian province. With the sweet name of Sofiyivka, she was lost in the Orenburg steppes, among the liquidated collective farms and failed joint-stock companies. A wealthy village of one and a half thousand inhabitants, where men do not drink, but work, where women, despite the demographic crisis, give birth to their third and fourth children, and the next generation chooses not the city, but their village. Fantastic? Please make sure.
At the entrance to Sofiyivka, a self-made road sign, prohibiting exceeding the speed above forty. Who guards law and order behind this sign becomes clear immediately after crossing the border. ?Lubo, Cossacks!? - shouts a slogan lined with white stone at the very top of a sloping mountain. “Did the Cossacks do their best?”, - the centurion, and at the same time the driver Alexander Sergeevich, says somehow casually. Behind him, a tunic dangles on a hook in the car. Ataman orders to walk in uniform.
Sofiyivka turned from an ordinary impoverished and drinking (it is not known what was primary) village into a Cossack village about six years ago, when a successful businessman Ivan Ivanovich Zhabin returned here from Orenburg. The then chairman of the collective farm had to go to the district center, where he now occupies a post in management Agriculture. And Ivan Ivanovich wrote down all the inhabitants in the Cossacks (warning that first of all, service people would receive work and allowances), issued a uniform. He proclaimed himself an ataman, and the village - a village. Eliminated the public herd as unprofitable, and further life in Sofiyivka declared communal, as well as agriculture.
And let's go reforms. Yes, live. The first one almost crushed Peter Neretin, a young man and too cheerful. The milkmaids complained to the chieftain, whom the drunken Peter was taking from the shift. After that, five lashes were poured into him in public, in the square near the government. Since that time, the whip has become the main tool in the fight against village alcoholism, brawls and even divorces. The shameful procedure, however, was performed not by their own, but by visiting guys. And also the Cossacks.
The truth, tarnished by age-old dust, that our people are gullible, patient and longs for a strong hand, or even a strong fist, sparkled with new colors in Sofiyivka. On the circle, the newly minted Cossacks and Cossacks shouted? to the ataman in response to the proposal ... to flog. As if they voted unanimously at the party meeting.
And the wives of alcoholics ran to Ivan Ivanych for protection, the mothers of bitter drunkards with the same tears. Ivan Ivanovich does not touch the elderly, children and women, - they gossip respectfully in the district. He pays thousands for a newborn, - they discussed the population explosion in Sofiyivka. Ivan Ivanych is the owner of the land, the local press was enthusiastic. Yes, there is the press.
Matryona Dmitrievna, an ancient old woman, grew up on this land for her entire life, fed on its juices, and there was probably enough worldly wisdom for all the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. But: "Ivan Ivanovich fenced off the cemetery with red bricks, said - this is our house?" - she conveys to me as something secret and immutable. Right, not even funny. About the toilet is much more original.
Above the ataman's chair is a portrait of the last emperor. It turns out that Zhabin cannot find a good portrait of Putin in any way, otherwise he would have decorated his office with him. But from Ivan Ivanovich himself, at least sit down and paint a portrait. ?Master of the earth?! Here he is, a handsome and strong man in a tunic, riding breeches and with a whip. Here he is sorting through the grain of the new crop. Here he goes around the construction sites of new granaries. Not on a horse, but in a jeep. The main thing is something else, intangible: “And for that I created the Cossack community in order to rally this society and so that it would have a goal. After all, a Cossack is a wealthy person. And then, the Cossacks are a tradition.
Ivan Ivanovich is a successful myth-maker. According to the code of the Orenburg province, Sofiyivka has never been a Cossack village. Even if the Cossacks stopped somewhere, then on the border, for example, in the village of Zheltoye, where the wives of the servicemen, due to the nomadic way of life, did not keep livestock, but, having no household, knitted downy shawls. Old Believers lived in Sofiyivka and its surroundings, who already in Soviet times traded in such scarves. According to the law of time, they were called speculators.
“You see, I try to instill in these people my own consciousness. Should society revive the owner of the land? - Ivan Ivanovich tells me, who made his capital selling cars and building cottages, and shows his possessions. A meat processing plant, a bakery, a mill - it has created more than five hundred jobs, and even residents from nearby unemployed villages work here. Earnings are 2-3 times higher than in the region. But he complains: they say, he made a mistake - the peasant should only work on the land, keep livestock and feed on this.
Pyotr Neretin and his wife Tatyana have a yard full of living creatures. If you count in the fall, the net profit comes out to about thirty thousand rubles. It was possible to attach two more rooms to the shack. And their five-year-old daughter Irinka reveals her dream to me: “I want the same house as my neighbors. Just even higher? In her neighbors is the mother of a famous? Kremlin contractor? Victor Stolpovsky. Lighted up in a scandal with the company? Mabetex? along with Pal Palych Borodin, Viktor Stepanovich built a church in his homeland two years ago (to which the road has never been trodden) and a house of amazing beauty from the same ship timber. In Sofiyivka, there are not so few rich mansions like this one, in whose yards they do not keep cattle. “When you see a cottage, it means that the Old Believers live?” Those same peasants spit. But past. The roads of those and these? Hosts? never intersect.
Zhabin talks about the "cohesion of society", and the artificial ideology divided him again. The chieftain wants to install a board with the words "monument to socialism" on a thin house in the future. But why, if the peasants in the village understand perfectly well -? There used to be the CPSU, now the Cossacks? The men, who really quit drinking, think - "We can't be dismissed". And only old people dissent on the bench on good summer days. When the Great Patriotic War is behind you, the Order of the Red Star is on your chest, and the ninth decade looks into your eyes, nothing is scary anymore.
- It's not bad to put things in order, - says the old order-bearer Fyodor Borisovich. - But it is necessary gradually, through the police, and they are on their own. They took the same fools into the Cossacks, and then they chased other fools.
Here Ivan Ivanovich would surely have laughed at this naivety of the old man - what kind of police?! And not because there is one district police officer for three villages. “Sofiyivka is a small state with its own laws,” says Zhabin. - Am I raising a new breed of people here? And no one bothers him. ?Small state? lost in the steppes of the Orenburg region not only for the police, but also for the executive power. On the same day, Deputy Governor M.F. Konnov spoke about the whip: “The main thing is the inevitability of punishment, the very fact of punishment? ... As if he personally liquidated the police as a law enforcement agency.
“You can’t flog people,” Ivan Semenovich, who lost his teeth in his declining years, but not his mind, explained to his wife Matryona Dmitrievna. - Have you thought about who flogs people? These are executioners!
But Matrena Dmitrievna is fascinated by Ivan Ivanych, like an elderly actress Vladimir Vladimirovich: “Yes, they should drive nails into them, into these drunks!?
The drunks nod in agreement.
Sofiyivka village, Orenburg region
Orenburg biographical encyclopedia
ZHABIN Ivan Ivanovich
(20 III 1954, the village of Sofiyivka (stan. Sofievskaya) of the Ponomarevsky district of the Orenburg region)
entrepreneur, organizer of agricultural production and rural life. A descendant of the riding Cossacks of the Don army, he continued the work of his father, a front-line soldier (1907-1993). After graduating from a rural school (1971), he was a driver on rural roads, served in the ranks Soviet army(1972-1974), was a driver at construction sites in Orenburg, and from the beginning of the 90s, upon returning to his "small homeland", he took up entrepreneurial activities (construction, production of building materials, field farming, animal husbandry, meat processing and production of products from it). At the same time, he prepared and defended a university degree in automotive engineering. In Sofiyivka (Sofievskaya) he was elected stanitsa ataman of the Orenburg Cossack army, is the head of the village administration. With his active participation, the temple was restored, great construction and improvement work was carried out, many cultural events are being carried out.
ZHABIN Ivan Ivanovich (March 20, 1954, the village of Sofievka (village of Sofievskaya), Ponomarevsky district, Orenburg region) - entrepreneur, organizer of agricultural production and rural life.A descendant of the riding Cossacks of the Don army, he continued the work of his father, a front-line soldier (1907-1993). After graduating from a rural school (1971), he was a driver on rural roads, served in the Soviet Army (1972-1974), was a driver at construction sites in Orenburg, and from the beginning of the 90s, upon returning to his "small homeland", he took up entrepreneurial activities (construction, production of building materials, field farming, animal husbandry, meat processing and production of products from it). At the same time, he prepared and defended a university degree in automotive engineering. In Sofiyivka (Sofievskaya) he was elected stanitsa ataman of the Orenburg Cossack army, he is the head of the village administration. With his active participation, the temple was restored, great construction and improvement work was carried out, many cultural events are being carried out.
ZHANTUAROV Sultan Baiturovich (1900, village of Chilekta, now Novoorsky district) - Kazakh writer and historian.
Doctor of historical sciences, professor. In Orenburg, from 1913, he studied at the Russian-Kyrgyz school; immediately joined the active political life. He was a delegate to the All-Kazakh Congress of Soviets, which proclaimed the formation of the Kirghiz (Kazakh) ASSR. He held responsible positions in the Soviet and party bodies of the republic. After studying in Moscow, he took up scientific and literary activities. Author of the books "Zhigits Chilekty" (Chkalov, 1952), "With Weapons in Hands" (Orenburg, 1960), "Dawn over the Steppe" (Frunze, 1958), "Extraordinary Commissar" - about A. Dzhangildin (Alma-Ata, 1970).
ZHAPPAROV Shamil Abdulaevich (7 VIII 1924, Aktyubinsk) - lawyer, veteran of the prosecutor's office.
After graduating from the Tashkent Law Institute in 1950, he was sent to work in the Orenburg region. Almost half a century he worked in Orsk and Orenburg (many years prosecutor of districts, the regional center and departments of the regional prosecutor's office). Active promoter of legality in central and regional publications. Member of the Union of Journalists of Russia.
ZHAROKOV Tair (1908 - 1965) - Kazakh poet and translator.
In 1923 he entered the Kazakh Institute of Public Education (Orenburg). Here he began to write. The first poem "And the sun smiled with silver" was published in the collection of young poets "Gift of Poets" (1927, Orenburg). Zharokov wrote poems and poems that compiled books: "Airplane", "Shine of a Star", "Neftestan", "Stream", "Naryn", "Song of Zoya", "The Forest in the Desert Noisy", "Steel Born in the Steppe" and others. Zharokov translated A. Pushkin, Shota Rustaveli, T. Shevchenko, M. Lermontov, N. Nekrasov, V. Mayakovsky.
ZHEGOTA William (1814 - ?) - a political exile, an employee of the county court.
Convicted in Minsk of "keeping insulting poems for the supreme power," in 1847 he was exiled to Orenburg with the establishment of public supervision over him. His exile ended in 1856.
ZHEDENOV Vladimir Nikolaevich (1908 - 1962) - a scientist in the field of animal anatomy.
Educated at the North Caucasian Veterinary and Zootechnical Institute. He defended his Ph.D. thesis in 1936, his doctoral thesis in 1940. For thirteen years (1931-1944) he worked at the Orenburg Agricultural Institute, where he rose from assistant to professor, head. department of anatomy. Subsequently, he continued his activities in Odessa.
ZhELEZNOV Ioasaf Ignatievich (1824 - 1863) - Russian writer, folklorist, ethnographer.
Born in the city of Guryev (now Atyrau), in the family of a Ural Cossack. He studied at the Ural military school, which he graduated in 1841. He served in various military positions, received an officer's rank. In 1853-1862 he lived in Moscow, where he became close to A.N. Ostrovsky. The first essay, “Pictures of Ahan Fishing,” was published in 1854 and was approved by N.G. Chernyshevsky. In 1858 he publishes a book of essays, The Urals. Recordings of epics, historical songs, legends were collected in the collections Traditions and Songs of the Ural Cossacks (1859), Tales of the Ural Cossacks (1861), Traditions about Pugachev (published posthumously, in 1888). Persecution by the authorities led Zheleznov to suicide.
ZHELEZNYAK Grigory Karpovich (1928, Adamovka, Orenburg region) - Hero of Socialist Labor, organizer of agriculture.
After graduating from the Orenburg Agricultural Institute (1955), he was appointed to the newly created Komsomolsky state farm, where he worked as chief veterinarian for ten years. In 1965 he was appointed director of the new Maisky state farm, which soon became one of the best virgin farms in the Orenburg region. In 1971 he received the title of Hero. In the future - at the leading party and administrative work in the districts of the region.
ZHELIGOVSKY Edvard-Witold (VIII 20, 1816, Maryanpol, Vilna province - XII 28, 1864, Geneva) - Polish poet.
Literary pseudonym - Anthony Owl. At the age of nineteen, he became a student at Dorpat University, where he joined a secret student organization. Widespread fame brought him a dramatic fantasy "Jordan", soon banned by the censors. The author of the seditious poem was expelled from Vilna under police supervision to Petrozavodsk, and then to the Orenburg province. He arrived in Orenburg on July 24, 1853. Here he was left for the duration of a serious illness. In January 1854, the exile was transferred to Ufa, where he served for more than four years in the office of the Orenburg civil governor. He was released from supervision at the beginning of 1857. He continued to study poetry until the end of his life (he wrote the poem "Zorsky", many poems). Lived in St. Petersburg, Italy, Switzerland (he died there).
ZHEMCHUZHNIKOV Alexander Mikhailovich (13 (25) VI 1826, Pavlovka, Oryol province - 30 IV (12 V) 1896, Lyubesh, Vitebsk province) - writer-humorist.
After graduating from the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University (1850), he served in 1851-1857 in the office of the Orenburg and Samara Governor-General V.A. Perovsky, who was his uncle. According to the recollections of acquaintances and friends, he was distinguished by "inexhaustible gaiety, rare resourcefulness." Together with brothers Alexei and Vladimir, cousin A.K. Tolstoy created a collective image and type of Kozma Prutkov, became one of the co-authors of his witty writings. He was also known as a talented actor in home performances. Zhemchuzhnikov's service career continued until the mid-1980s, and his last post was as a civil governor of Vilna.
ZHEMCHUZHNIKOV Anton Apollonovich - lieutenant of the quartermaster unit.
Dismissed from service after the Decembrist uprising, he went to Orenburg, to his father, who commanded an infantry division; here he was under secret supervision.
ZHERENOV Fedor Nikolaevich (1941, Salazgor village, Mordovia) - Hero of Socialist Labor, machine operator.
For many years the best combine harvester in the Sol-Iletsk region; the initiator of the creation of family combine crews and units. He was awarded the title of Hero in 1976.
ZHIGALOVA Alexandra Pavlovna (15 IX 1929, Belgorod) - actress.
Honored artist of Kabardino-Balkaria (1954), RSFSR (1967), People's Artist of the Russian Federation (1999). From 1946 she worked in theaters in Belgorod, Sortavala, Nalchik, and from 1960 in Orenburg (Desdemona in Othello, Valka in Irkutsk History, Joy in the Hot Summer in Berlin, etc.).
ZHINKIN Fedor Petrovich (c. 1774, Suzdal - after 1854, Orenburg) - Orenburg merchant.
Particularly distinguished himself in the fight against cholera. From the very beginning (1829) he bought in a state pharmacy a large number of drugs, which he handed over to the police for free distribution to the poor. Poor residents were supplied with flour free of charge. He himself learned bloodletting and performed it on the sick. Thanks to Zhinkin for his “human feat,” Governor Sukhtelen declared that “he will not be left without due attention and retribution.” In 1830-1833 the merchant was the head of the town.
ZHOGOLEV Nikolai Fedorovich (1895, Orenburg province - 1970, Samara) - poet.
He made his debut in 1916. Author of many books of poetry ("Zhigulevskaya birch", "Looking for simple words", etc.).
ZHOLDINOV Zhantas (1977, Krasny Chaban village, Dombarovsky district, Orenburg region - August 1996, Grozny) - Hero of the Russian Federation.
Participant of hostilities in Chechnya; died a heroic death while performing a difficult military task by the consolidated Novosibirsk regiment, in which he was. He was the first to receive a high rank in the Orenburg region. The Gold Star of the Hero was awarded to the father of a deceased soldier in Orsk on May 27, 1998.
ZHUKOV Alexander Alexandrovich (1938, Mordovskaya Bokla village, Northern region, Orenburg region) - Hero of Socialist Labor, oilman.
After graduating from the Buguruslan vocational school, he worked as an assistant. driller, and since 1964 drilling foreman. On the job he graduated from the oil technical school. His team achieved the highest rate of deep exploration drilling in the Orenburg region. Laureate of the State Prize of the USSR (1975). He was awarded the title of Hero in 1974.
ZHUKOV Alexander Yakovlevich (1906, Bryansk region - 1986, Orenburg) - public figure.
In 1932 he graduated from the Academy of Communist Education (Institute of Red Professors), worked in the ideological bodies of Moscow. From 1941 he lived and worked in the Orenburg region: early. political department of the Chebenkovsky grain state farm, secretary of the Ponomarev district party committee, secretary of the regional committee of the CPSU (b) for ideology, and from 1952 before. executive committee of the regional Soviet of Working People's Deputies. In 1960, a severe illness forced him to retire.
ZHUKOV Mikhail Fedorovich (1928, Ayderlinsky settlement, Adamovsky district, Orenburg region) - Hero of Socialist Labor, machine operator.
From the age of fourteen he has been working on tractors and combines, increasing the pace from year to year. His sons followed in his footsteps. Honored Mechanic Operator of the Russian Federation (since 1975). In 1981 he was awarded the title of Hero.
ZHUKOVSKAYA Glafira Vyacheslavovna (25 IV 1898, Orenburg - 2 III 1991, Moscow) - singer (lyric-coloratura soprano), Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1937).
From 1925 to 1948 she was a soloist of the Bolshoi Theater, was one of the best performers of the part of Iolanta in the opera by P.I. Tchaikovsky.
ZHUKOVSKY Vasily Andreevich (29 I (9 II) 1783, village of Mishenskoye, Tula province - 12 (24) IV 1852, Baden-Baden) - poet, translator.
One of the founders of Russian romanticism. His poetry was full of melancholy dreams and romantically rethought images (ballads "Lyudmila", "Svetlana", etc.). He translated "Odyssey" by Homer, works by F. Schiller and J. Byron. In June 1837 he visited the Orenburg region as an educator of the future Tsar Alexander II on his trip to Russia. He was among the compilers of the "way sign" of this journey, which began on May 2, and reached the borders of the Orenburg region on June 9. Zhukovsky visited the Syrtinskaya, Tanalykskaya, Ilinskaya, Orskaya, Guberlinskaya, Verkhneozernaya and other fortresses, spent three days in Orenburg, visited Buzuluk and other places.
ZHUKOVSKY Vasily Grigorievich (1766, Ukraine - 1840, Chelyabinsk) - a figure in medicine in the Orenburg region.
Born in the family of a village priest, studied at the Kyiv Theological Academy; leaving her, he moved as a student to the Medical and Surgical School at the St. Petersburg Land Hospital. For almost half a century, he served in the cities and districts of the Orenburg region, treated the population of all classes, and carried out epidemiological surveillance. He did a lot to prevent and treat anthrax.
ZHUKOVSKY Grigory Vasilyevich (1800, Orenburg - 15 II 1880, St. Petersburg) - a military figure, later a senator.
After graduation from the capital cadet corps served in Omsk, Vyatka and other places, participated in the suppression of the Polish uprising of 1830 and a number of other hostilities. Promoted to colonel, in 1846 he was appointed commander of the Orenburg Bashkir-Meshcheryak army, was awarded the rank of major general, commanded a campaign on the river. Syr Darya, and in 1849 he became the chief ataman of the Orenburg Cossack army. Later he served as military governor in Simferopol, Taurida civil governor, Novorossiysk and Bessarabsk governor-general, held a high position in the Governing Senate. He was awarded the highest awards of the Russian Empire.
ZHULIEV Alexander Fedorovich (1919, village of Mikhailovka, Bashkiria - ?) - Hero of Socialist Labor, excavator driver.
Participant Patriotic War, holder of military orders. During the years of the post-war five-year plans, he distinguished himself at the construction sites of Novotroitsk, Orsk, Mednogorsk, initiated the development of soil without the use of manual labor, which made it possible to increase output by one and a half to two times. He was awarded the title of Hero in 1971.
ZHUMATAYEV Shakir Baktybaevich (15 V 1925, Orsk) - Hero of Socialist Labor, turner-borer.
Member of the Patriotic War, holder of many military awards. From 1950 he worked at Yuzhuralmashzavod, where he worked his way up from an apprentice turner to a senior foreman. A well-known production innovator, youth mentor, public figure. Founder of a labor dynasty. He was awarded the title of Hero in 1971. Honorary citizen of Orsk (since 1981).
ZHUREVSKY Petr Borisovich (1894 - 1963) - public figure.
Member of the Bolshevik Party since 1912, participant in the February and October revolutions. In February 1920 he was elected the first chairman of the Gubernia Council of Trade Unions (he worked in this capacity until 1924). Further - in the Kyrgyz (Kazakh) bureau of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, deputy. prev. Kirtsika, in responsible positions in Moscow. Since 1943 he has been teaching.
These are not Mormons, or Learn to Live September 17th, 2015
Information on the Internet about Russian Mormons is a little bewildering. First, the very name: Mormons is incorrect. We are talking about Kulugurs, one of the direction of the Old Believers. I do not know who and for what christened the Kulugurs Mormons, but there is a mistake. Secondly, the little information that caught my eye on the network introduced some shock. It turns out that this is a sect, a gang, a mafia. And there they flog with whips, and in general, complete arbitrariness in the settlements of the Kulugurs, dictate in the person of Zhabin Ivan Ivanovich.
In August of this year, my son and husband and I were visiting a Kulugur family. On the moon. In general, there are several settlements there: Luna, Sofievka, Dema, Dubrovka - all this is in the Sharlyksky district of the Orenburg region. I have known these people for a long time (distant relationship), but we communicate very rarely - to my regret.
In all the time I have had the honor of knowing these people, I have not had a single disappointment with them. These are amazing people. First, they don't really have bad habits- do not drink, do not smoke (this is strictly and by default), do not swear and DO NOT whine. In general, and never, I have never heard any of them complain, bore, whine, envy, gossip. Can you name at least one person in your circle of acquaintances who would not give vent to complaints about life at least once?
They work like horses in the arable season, they do not shy away from any work. And all this without whining, without looking at others, with a smile. Yes, they are wealthy. But this is all FOR WORK THAT BUT with their own work (and not stolen by a fake company that stuck to Gazprom or Lukoil, as is customary with us)!
They are super friendly and hospitable. And not with a strained American smile, but sincerely.
The houses (oh, what houses they are! - any interior magazine would envy the situation) are perfectly clean. Believe me, a perfectionist sick in the head, there really is PERFECT CLEANITY. Everywhere. Always. For a period of my life, I even lived with their family, and throughout my stay, I never saw dirty dishes or dust. And no one runs around with rags every minute. I don't know what the trick is, but the fact remains.
They don't pout. They never boast, do not flaunt their achievements. They are not on social media. They don't take selfies. By the way, there are practically no mirrors in houses (and I understand this - mirrors, like the Internet, are very distracting from business).
All women work. And they work just as much as men. An accountant, a teacher, they make homework, they breed bees ... constantly at work. An interesting detail: if you come to visit, the hostess of the house will never sit down at the table with the guests. She is always in the kitchen, taking and bringing different dishes from the table and onto the table, treats to glory, but (!) does not sit down. I don't know about anyone, but I like it. I'll try to implement it at home :)
Cosmetics, neckline to the navel and a skirt above the waist are excluded from true culugurs. These people have the right attitude. Being slapped with the eyes of strange men is no better than being slapped with hands. The more a woman is dressed, the more you want to undress her. Is not it?
They never bring up the topic of faith, they don’t impose their view of life on you, they don’t teach you how and what is right... They treat everyone with respect, accepting other people as OTHER people, and not as wrong.
And now for the division. Now I wrote about pure, real, since birth Kulugurs, their orders, their rules, their life. Among those who get from I.I. Frog with whips, few Kulugurs, mostly newcomers, or people left from the old villages. Because culugurs don't waste time drinking alcohol. Of course, there are those who break the rules among them. But these are exceptions for which it is not correct to draw a general picture.
A few "lunar" photos.
Clean manicured yard 
Virgin pure nature - a path to the pond. You go and enjoy - not a single sign of garbage, no spitting, no cigarette butts, no pieces of paper. It’s a pleasure to walk with a child (mothers who are hoarse from “don’t touch the jar”, “throw it away, it’s a cigarette butt” and other sorrowful exclamations when walking on our playgrounds will understand me). 
And here is the pond itself. 
Hand-carved wooden huts and even a windmill. Real! 
The well is also real. 
Clean wooden beams. Have you seen a wooden structure in the yards for a long time, on which something obscene was not scrawled? Here it is in the photo. 
Marie and me. Marie - 45 years old, bakes insanely delicious, melt-in-your-mouth nuts from natural local butter and correct (again) local milk, is fluent in Adobe Photoshop, can tell all the differences between one version of the program from another, breeds bees and collects amazingly delicious honey, knows all the secret berry places in the nearby forests. And that's not it. 
Feeling of peace - silence, sounds of nature, water. To meditate and live up to 150 years in these places is not a fantasy. 
Road from a walk. And the sun in the flower garden. 
If my husband and I make the final decision in favor of downshifting, then we will go only here. 70% not because of nature, but because of people. They are truly amazing.