Alexei Gromov sharpens his scythe as he prepares to cut hay.

August 2, 1995 It is Elijah's Day, the big summer festival. Alexei's sister arrived this morning along with her son, Volodya, and her grandson, Yuri. Women clean and cook and men go outside to work in the front yard. We will be sleeping seven people in the one-room house tonight. Yuri is 19 and got back in May from his year and a half of military service. He looks like such a boy. His dimpled face is plump and soft, without a hint of a beard. But now he has the mannerisms and speech of a man; he chain smokes, his eyes dart nervously and lately he has taken up drinking and can't find work. He had been wearing a simple blue work shirt, but for the party, he changed into a lively floral one and went out to fish with his father. Later in the day we sat and talked for a while. I asked about the army and he replied to my questions in a low voice, hinting that the goal of his year and a half was simply to survive. Apparently he spent a lot of time in the hospital while serving. His grandmother said he won't tell anyone why, but she heard that lots of the boys were hospitalized after having been badly beaten by other soldiers. Ludmila told me that the beatings are severe and that this hazing process can include rape. I am at a loss for what to write. These boys come out of a brutal rite of passage and then reinforce brutality onto each other. And if that weren't enough, they are then unleashed on Russian society at large or on "the enemy." Half the boys in Yuri's group were sent to Chechnya.

Children of the Rogov family gather raspberries.

August 28, 1995 So they've started digging up the potatoes! And it's only the end of August -- they usually don't start before mid-September. As far as I understand it, Alexander Gavrilovich was the first to get started -- his daughter was hereto help and the weather was good... Now the whole of Anufrievo seems to be in the fields, geared up and buzzing. I ask Igor, "What's going on? Why is everyone out there so soon?" "I don't know," he says. "Everyone just started." Later in the day, I put on my work clothes and head out to the fields with Ludmila to get started on the harvest. On my way to our plot, Yuri Mikhailovich sees me and smilingly invites me to help his family with their digging and I say, "Nope, I've already got somewhere to go." Then Valentina Mikhailovna says, "Here! Here! Come help us!" and I politely decline again. I feel a sort of coziness seeing everyone there working together. Later, I ask Ludmila if it used to be like this when they all worked on the collective farm and she says that it was. Alexei adds that the difference was that in the collective farm they were all working together on one field and here they each have their own. That doesn't seem to stop them from making ad hoc collective decisions about the crucial problem of when to harvest. If the potatoes are harvested too early, they can be small; too late and they can rot. It's a complex guessing game and apparently no one wants to guess alone. Today's weather was perfect for hard work -- misty and cool and dry enough for digging to be possible. Once again, Ludmila amazed me with her strength and persistence. She plows through the work like a person with a mission and no one can keep up with her.