A city dweller who decides to escape from the metropolis to the countryside is not a new story. Some seek peace, others seek self-discovery, and others are simply tired of the hustle and bustle and the busy rhythm of life. However, not everyone is ready to stay there for a long time: many return without finding themselves. And some, on the contrary, realize that urban comfort is not their way.
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From the office center to the Russian countryside
Ilya Rezkov is a former successful IT specialist from Moscow. His life followed a standard scenario: career, rented apartment, plans for a mortgage. It seemed to be a predictable future ahead - a small apartment in the Moscow suburbs, family life, trips to shopping malls on weekends, a vacation in Turkey once a year. But at some point he realized he didn't want to follow that path.
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"We live like in a matrix," says Ilya. The usual urban routine stopped bringing him joy, and he made a radical decision: to go to the Tambov countryside and start baking bread according to ancient recipes.
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Bread without chemicals and modern technology is not his way
The main business of his new life is bread. And not simple bread, but bread made the way it was baked in Russia five hundred years ago: without sugar, soda, yeast and preservatives. In the dough he adds leaven from hop cones, natural honey and water from the spring, which is located five kilometers from the village.
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"Such bread doesn't go stale for a week or even a year," claims Ilya.
For him, baking is not just a craft, but a philosophy of life. He refuses store-bought yeast, preferring live sourdough. The flour is milled by hand from organic grain, which he specially orders from trusted farmers.
A kin’s settlement that has survived the desolation
Ilya has settled in the kin’s settlement Luchka, a once large village that has gradually fallen into disrepair. There used to be a sawmill and about 1,500 people living here, but after the closure of production, people moved away. Now there are only village dwellers who come here for the summer and a few permanent residents.
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Ilya came here last fall, when the season was far from the best for starting village life. The friends who had promised to share the journey with him soon returned to town. But he stayed, even in spite of the difficulties: he had to master the furnace, buy firewood, and find ways to store food for the winter.
Free life or the hard way?
One day, while going to a spring to fetch water, a guest of the village lost his car keys. It turned out that now he couldn't get out to the city - unless someone gave him a ride in a hitchhiker.
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"And you know what the most amazing thing is? - he says. - This thought doesn't scare me."
This is how Ilya Rezkov lives - between the past and the future, between the Russian stove and the modern world, choosing his path.
