The Moscow Times, Saturday, August 9, 1997.

Nearby Ranch in the Country Offers Easy Escape From City

The lush greenery is overwhelming, the breadth of space limitless. With its endless rolling green fields, broad sweeping rivers and sleepy villages, the Russian countryside in summer beats anything else in Europe.

Whether you need a quiet break away in a rural idyll or an easy and fun place to take the kids on holiday, a week in the depths of the Russian countryside will bring you more joy than you could ever expect.

The village of Kozino, 300 kilometers south of Moscow, is just a single line of wooden houses curving round the side of a small valley, guarded by a stork nesting on top of the water tower. A grand view unfolds before it of wheat fields and meadows running down to the banks of the river Oka and beyond, the village of Nikolo-Gastun.

There is no sound of modern life here, neither overhead planes, nor road traffic, just a horse and cart and the occasional tractor. Only a few families live here permanently and no one even has a transistor radio.

Glossy horses, tails swishing against the fierce horse flies, graze in the long grass. A boy shepherd on horseback herds a small flock of sheep and a bunch of ponies and foals down to the river to drink. A couple of Borzois, the elegant Russian wolfhounds, lope effortlessly up the hill back home.

They all belong to Anya and Roman Suslov, a young couple who run a farm of 70 hectares here, raise horses and other livestock and rent out their cottages to visitors.

When in Moscow, Roman is a pop-star, lead singer of the band Vezhlivy Otkaz, or Polite Refusal. Anya is an art historian from the Pushkin Institute and master horsewoman. Together they applied for land in 1991 when Yeltsin was doling out free hectares to would-be private farmers.

They are wonderful hosts, relaxed and fun. They will take you out on rides, mushroom hunts, or outings to nearby villages and a ruined monastery. You can swim in the river off a sandy beach, stroll through the village or laze under the trees and read a book.

The more energetic can help Roman make hay in the upper fields, pitchforking great heaps of fragrant grass up onto his trailer. Or you can go mushrooming in the birch woods. Even in high summer, with the help of some heavy rain, hundreds of huge mushrooms emerge.

Pick them all, even the chunky browny green ones with thick white undersides, and tiny fluted yellow chanterelles. Anya and Roman will check them for inedible ones.

Another option is a visit to Polyana, a tiny forgotten village, so tucked away from any roads that it was the only village around to escape the invading Nazi forces during the war. They simply never found it.

These days Polyana is only peopled by half a dozen old folk -- all the young have left for the cities -- and the village is slowly dying. No street even runs between the quaint wooden houses, just grassy lawns, cropped short by the sheep.

The lawns are ringed by wooden fences and gates, decorated with the weather-worn skulls of goats and cows. The animal skulls evidently have no special significance. One old woman explained her teenage son had the idea and a couple of neighbors copied him.

But pagan beliefs and even witchcraft are ingrained here and as you walk along the paths on the edge of the village or along the river, you find neat little circles of burnt dry sticks. Sometimes they are still burning with a small pile of fresh grass on top that creates a thick column of white smoke. A peasant woman, dressed in thick wide skirts and kerchief, is often nearby watching in silence or perhaps weaving a spell.

Nikolo-Gastun, across the river from the Suslov's home, was a favored stopping point for Ivan the Terrible on his journeys south. The village has a tumble-down medieval feel and a handsome but ruined 16th century church.

The cupolas are caving in, the intricate Orthodox crosses tip drunkenly and trees are growing up through the brickwork. The villagers blame the neglect on Stalin. As one young villager says, «You know, under Stalin it was the same with every village.»

The ancient charm of the setting that Ivan the Terrible once enjoyed remains unchanged. The Oka, a broad strong river, flows by on its way to join the Volga and the lush meadows and fields dotted with woods run on and on to the horizon.

And it is the horses that are the kings of Kozino. Spirited and beautiful bays, they are a combination of a German saddle horse crossed with English thoroughbred and pure-bred Arabian.

Born and raised on the farm, they are beautifully schooled by Anya, and a joy to ride. The mares give a gentler ride for anyone not up to galloping a feisty stallion, but in any case the pace here is rarely less than a canter.

They swim the horses in the river in the heat of the day, sliding with the swift current off the horses' slippery backs. Olga, a silent girl from Chuvashia who looks after the horses, floats like a water nymph beside her gray mare the width of the river and emerges on the far bank, an earthly goddess pushing up through the foliage.

In the cool of the long summer evenings you can follow Olga and gallop the length of birch and fir forests, up through young crops of green wheat to the hay fields. Canter home through the deep meadows along the banks of the river, the flowers and grasses catching at your feet.

This is country where Turgenev spent winters hunting hare, foxes, boars and especially wolves. Ordinary hounds were used to flush the wolf from the woods and then Borzois, with their greyhound's speed and stature, would give chase over the open ground. The bravest Borzois would bring the wolf down and kill it or seize it so the huntsmen could tie up its muzzle and carry it home as a live trophy.

This, however, is a tradition that Russia has virtually lost. Under communism, hunting died out and the collective farm is still the major landlord around here.

Anya and Roman hope one day to create their own pack of hounds and build a hunting lodge in the isolated rusticity of Polyana. The villagers, whose chickens are constantly raided by foxes, are by no means opposed. So far the Suslovs only have two Borzois, mother and son, but the dream is there. Then visitors will be welcome in the depths of winter too, galloping across the frozen fields, through the deep powder.

It was here that Roman and Anya once lost their mounts as their horses dropped into a two-meter snow drift. «All we could see was the tips of their ears,» Roman recalls. The weight of the horses pulled them down but the humans stayed on top of the snow. It took them two hours with the whole village helping to dig them out.

For now the Suslovs are open to guests from May to October. They have several little cottages that sleep from three to six people and where you cook your own food. Pretty wooden houses, they have thick oak doors bearing huge locks and carved wooden devices running through the doorjamb that turn and bolt the door. Inside big brick stoves fill the kitchen and main room from floor to ceiling. Peasants traditionally sleep on top of the stove in the winter, but the houses also have electricity, fridges, and gas cookers.

There is running water in the mornings and evenings and a hot shower in one house. The others are more rustic with basins for water and a toilet out the back through the woodshed.

The cottages are decorated with rugs and the beds are covered in linen. Icons and lanterns hang in a corner and sun streams through the windows onto the scrubbed wooden floors. Fresh meadow flowers stand in front of an old mirror.

After a long day in the saddle you can enjoy a classic Russian banya in a private bathhouse built by Roman himself. Then sit by a bonfire under the stars and eat shashlik, listening to the horses shuffling in their stables.

Lost in the depths of the country you are guaranteed a long and dreamless sleep.


Travel details

Kozino is four hours drive from Moscow, 100 kilometers beyond Kaluga and 15 kilometers from Belyov, the nearest bus terminal.

Contact Anya and Roman Suslov at Kozino by telephone (08742) 34728 or by telegram (very effective) to: Tulskaya oblast, Belevsky raion, P/O Nikolo-Gastun, derevnya Kozino, Roman Suslov. They will call you back. Alternatively they are occasionally in Moscow: Moscow 119034, Yeropkinsky Pereulok 12, tel. 201-3229.

Prices are negotiable and depend on what you want. The cottages work out about $10 a night per person. The banya, shashlik and horse rides are extra -- all prices negotiable. Roman can drive you down from Moscow and back in his minibus. Bring your own food and drink; the nearest shop is 15 kilometers away, although Anya will bring you fresh milk, smetana, eggs and any fresh vegetables in season. Be good and take your rubbish home with you.

If you cannot make it there this summer the Suslovs are bringing their horses to Moscow for the winter. Those interested in riding in Moscow should contact them now.

By Carlotta Gall
The Moscow Times