Losing Russians
ALONE: Antonina Makarova is the last resident of the village of Kstinovo, 130 miles north of Moscow. Everyone else has died, she said. God has taken care of them, and hes still making me suffer. (Sergei L. Loiko / LAT)
A DAY IN THE LIFE: People drink, and they drink a lot, and they drink for a long time, because they cant help but drink, said Yuliya Kovgan, left, with her brother Yuri in a potato field near the Siberian village of Ryazanovshchina. The village was once a thriving collective farm center with about twice its current population. (Sergei L. Loiko / LAT)
STRESSED: Alexei Chaika, 27, is treated at a Moscow clinic after having a heart attack. He said he worked every day until 11 p.m., and every weekend for months on end, all for a salary of $525 a month. (Sergei L. Loiko / LAT)
STAYING PUT: Olga Krytsina, 41, a mother of seven, in her kitchen in Ryazanovshchina. Without the support of the Soviet government, the villages successful farms failed one by one. (Sergei L. Loiko / LAT)
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BUSINESS IS BRISK: Grave diggers work at the Mitinskoye cemetery outside Moscow. Oleg, left, said that at least half of the people he buried were younger than 50. People die young these days, he said. And we bury them young. The dead are disproportionately male. (Sergei L. Loiko / LAT)
Children make mud pies in the middle of the road in the village of Ryazanovshchina. Many parents in more prosperous urban areas say they cant afford homes large enough for the number of children theyd like to have. (Sergei L. Loiko / LAT)
SEEKING SOLACE: Archpriest Vyacheslav Pushkarev in the church in the town of Khomutovo. (Sergei L. Loiko / LAT)
ABANDONED: An unused well in front of an abandoned house in the village of Kstinovo. (Sergei L. Loiko / LAT)
