But sitting behind an old table in a bare office, Kislov said he was pessimistic about his chances of success, despite talk in the national media that the ruble devaluation, by making imported food more expensive, will help domestic farmers like himself. But even the demise of the store was seen mostly as a mere inconvenience. Sugar is also a crucial ingredient used to distill moonshine from potatoes or apples, something Piskunov said every villager does. Those rubles come almost entirely from the meager government pensions of elderly women who comprise the majority of the population of roughly two dozen. But pensions have not been paid since June.
Residents have no gas or running water.
They drink well water, use outhouses and cook on old stoves fueled by wood gathered in the nearby forest. Vinokurova and her husband eke out a living by raising goats and chickens, pickling cucumbers and planting potatoes, cabbages, and beets. But canned food is no help in time of injury or illness, and there is virtually no health care system in rural Russia. Some medicines are available, but medicines cost money, and Ovcharova of the Institute of Social-Economic Problems of the Population said medicine would grow prohibitively expensive and rare in the villages.