Our first protagonist Grigory Tashchi is Gagauz by origin. He was born and raised in Gagauzia in the south of the Republic of Moldova. For the first time he came to Russia in May of 1988 with his friends. Adventurous and romantic spirit of the youth inspired them for traveling. At that time Grigory Tashchi had no idea that this trip would fundamentally change his life.

In 80-s and 90-s Kazaklia was a flourishing village with over 8 000 people and high performance Iskra collective farm, where every citizen had a well-paid job. Despite all that, Grigory took the decision to move to a remote Russian village and his parents did not resist.

After talking to Grigory you understand that with his devotion to nature he could not but fall in love with Lipki village in the Smolensk region, where his destiny took him. The village is in the middle of the forest and deep breathing can cause dizziness to someone unaccustomed to fresh air. The Khmar river flowing along the village is crystal clear. No metaphors or epithets are enough to describe the beauty of this place.

The Budzhak steppe

In distant 1988 Grigory Tashchin was offered a job in "The Right Way" collective farm. First he was an assistant to combine driver and later in 1991 he started to operate the combine harvester himself.

Lidia, Grigory's spouse, also comes from Kazaklia. She studied in the Shantalov College on Agriculture located 20 km away from Lipki. In the 90-s there were 25 Gagauz students there. Upon graduation, Lidia was also distributed to "The Right Way" collective farm, which made Grigory very happy. Back at home in Gagauzia he did everything to win her. In 1992 they traveled to their home village of Kazaklia, where Grigory asked for Lidia's hand in marriage according to the Gagauz traditions.

Today Grigory and Lidia live in the house provided to them by the collective farm in 1992. The adjacent land plot of 3 000 sq.m. always gives a rich crop. Together with his friend Pyotr Danch, another Gagauz from Kazaklia, they cultivate the total area of 280 hectares. "It is hard to cultivate land, but this is where my heart is", says Grigory.


Growing perennial grass crops allows Grigory to be a successful farmer.

In 2015 the citizens of four adjacent villages – Dankovo, Khitsovka, Zimnitsi and Lipki – gave him confidence and elected him a deputy of Dankovsk settlement. Now he also works in this position, although the range of duties occurs to be very broad including cutting wild grass from the road brim in summer and cleaning the roads from snow in winter.

Grigory's last name Tashchi can be translated from the Gagauz language as "stone worker", which is not related to his current activity at all. However, his character and spirit are as hard as stone. For a Russian-speaking person the name Tashchi literally means "Drag!". Thus, Grigory Nikolaevich is dragging everything on his shoulders: personal household and farm as well as problems and needs of the village. For the time being Grigory copes with everything quite well!

If you walk around the Russian village, it is easy to tell what houses belong to Gagauz people. In the yards and land plots they have trees and bushes not very typical of this region.

The inflow of Gagauz people to Russia increased in early 2000-s, when Moldova went through the hard time of countrywide economic crisis that lasted for years. Tired of living in two countries, more and more Gagauz people decided in favor of permanent relocation to Russia. The Kuyuzhuklu family from Kazaklia have been living in Lipki for more than 10 years. In the beginning of 2000-s they had plenty of reasons to move, but most importantly they got tired of waiting for a better future.

Only in 2003 Nikolai and Svetlana took their son to Russia. They decided to move to Lipki, because they had some relatives there.

Svetlana and Nikolai understood that Russian citizenship would allow them to work legally and stay together as a family.

Peter, the son of Nikolai and Svetlana, studies in the fourth year of the Roslavl Railroad College. He plans to become a locomotive driver and get university education. Peter has no doubt as to the future of his professional choice. However, his plans for further education will be interrupted by military service soon.

During the last three years already three Gagauz guys from Lipki did their military service. Peter and his friend Ivan are in their draft age now trying to guess what troops they are going to serve in. "I hope I will be drafted to railroad troops, because it will help me to apply theoretical knowledge received at college", says Peter.

Nikolai and Svetlana think that their children have good future prospects in Russia, which made them move here in the first place.

The Uzun family is another Gagauz family that relocated from Kazaklia to Lipki village in Russian rural area. Anatoly and Anna understood that due to the lack of decently paid jobs, Anatoly would have to constantly travel to Russia as a work migrant.

Anna and Anatoly have two children: son Dima, 12 y.o., and daughter Kristina, 7 y.o. With the help of the maternity capital allowance and mortgage loan, they have bought an apartment in Smolensk. However, they are not going to move from the countryside to the city.

Dima and Kristina are growing up in a picturesque Russian village with Gagauz flavor. In the Uzun family house homespun carpets from Kazaklia immediately catch the eye creating a cozy atmosphere. In the family everyone mostly speaks in the Gagauz language.

However, most of all you can feel the Gagauz spirit in the kitchen. In every Gagauz house in Lipki they will treat you to some dishes from the local cuisine: "gyozlemya", "katlama" and "kyyrma", "suanny", "saarma", Gagauz pickles "turshu".

Russian Gagauz have not lost their national identity and unique character. They carefully preserve cultural values and traditions of the Gagauz. They speak pure Gagauz. Nobody has told them to do so. They felt a need to do it themselves. Over the years of living in one village, old-time inhabitants of Lipki also learned Gagauz customs and traditions.

The Romanenko and the Ivanov families have been friends for more than 20 years. Liudmila Romanenko admits that it is more interesting to have friends of a different nationality. "You always learn something new", she says.

All holidays the Gagauz and the Russians celebrate together following and combining traditions of both peoples. If the heart wants to dance, Gagauz and Russians are equally good at "kadunzhu" and "kiratsa avasy" as well as at "kalinka" and "Russian dance".

Locals say that it is good not only to play, but also to do serious things with the Gagauz people.

Maria Korsakova lives in the neighborhood with three Gagauz families. Maria Dmitrievna is retired and if she needs help, she turns to her neighbors.

Ruslan Myrza is another Gagauz from the Komrat region, Budzhak station. In 1989 when he turned 21, he decided to move to his mother's homeland in the Smolensk region in Russia. Ruslan Myrza worked with the internal affairs authorities, but he did not find himself in it and decided to quit law enforcement.

Several years ago Ruslan decided to create a recreation area in Sloboda village. Here by the lake he constructed two houses and a Russian sauna. People from all adjacent villages come here for recreation.

Recently Ruslan has brought camels from Kalmykia to the Smolensk region.

The recreation area of Ruslan Ivanovich is very popular among Russians and Gagauz to some extent due to the Kalmyk camels.

Upon moving to Russia, tempered by hardships and financial tribulations, Gagauz people reach success in any chosen field working with dedication and passion.

As for Smolenshchina, it only wins from the large amount of migrants from Gagauzia, because they take up the work overlooked by locals: restoring agriculture and farming like Grigory Tashchi and Pyotr Danch or establishing recreation areas like Ruslan Myrza.

During 25 years of independence, Moldova has not become independent in any way. Social and economic situation has not significantly improved since 1990-s. According to the data from the Department of economic development of the ATU of Gagauz Yeri, medium wages in 2016 was 3 700 leus (about 11 500 rubles), which is by 29% less than average wages in the country. Thus, the number of labor workers from Moldova and families that have decided to permanently relocate to Russia has been dramatically increasing.

Around 700 000 citizens of the Republic of Moldova temporarily work in Russia. It should be noted, that the amount of monetary transfers by labor workers from Russia to Moldova amounted to 50 million USD in the first quarter of 2016, according to the data from the Central Banks of Russia and Moldova.

Such dismal state of affairs forces citizens of the ATU of Gagauzia to leave their homeland in search of better life. If about ten years ago Gagauz people went to Russia just to earn money, now they relocate there with their whole families for permanent residency. The migrants often choose large cities. However, the majority prefers rural areas. Only in the countryside they can lead the lifestyle inherent to the people from the Gagauz autonomy. Homeland is where you feel free and confident in your future!