TV REVIEWS : ‘Volga’ Examines Life on the River

The “National Geographic Explorer” series makes a fascinating return visit to the longest river in Europe in the two-part “Volga, the Soul of Russia” (airing Sunday and June 20 at 6 p.m. on the TBS cable channel).

Producers Peter and Cornelia Schnall first visited the Volga in 1976. Since then, as they say, much has changed. As related by narrator Morgan Freeman, life along the Volga, especially in the cities, is very different for most Russians. Even the mighty, 2,200-mile river itself is in jeopardy from decades of industrial pollution.

The city of Nizhniy Novgorod was once one of the secretive centers of the Soviet Union’s military-industrial complex. Today, it is an arms bazaar, with the now independent states as the leading customers. In the same city, sitting next to the river, is a huge, flashy fast-food restaurant--operated by two former Texans.

In Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tartarstan, a new phenomenon has reared its ugly head: The new freedoms have brought new lawlessness and the police are trying to cope with 63 well-armed gangs. But outside the cities, life seems little changed. As his forebears have for generations, a Tartar farmer near Kazan works the land to provide for his family. His young son wears a Ninja Turtles T-shirt.

In Part 2, we get an even more pessimistic look at life on the river. Particularly wrenching is a visit to a state hospital, one of many in the former Soviet Union, where children with birth defects caused by industrial pollution are cared for.

“Volga, the Soul of Russia” is an intriguing look at a changing world. Despite the political upheaval, economic collapse and pollution, the Russians persevere as they have for centuries. Says a Tartar father: “I know my son will have a better life than me. Without that certainty, I could not go on living.”