Icebreaker--Family Life In The Soviet Union: The Farmers

The Icebreaker series examines the daily lives of six different Soviet families chosen across a wide social and geographical range. In this episode, "The Farmers," we meet the Petrenko family, workers on a collective farm in a country town of 8,000 residents in the agricultural plains of Russia's southern Kuban region. Sergi and Zena, are 50 and 45, respectively, have three boys, and enjoy a moderately well off life which includes hard work, but also vacations to the ocean. Sergi is a combine operator; his son Sergi Jr., aged 23, is an agronomist who helps determine the crop rotation for various farms including the one on which the Petrenko's work. As the program opens, Sergi Jr. and his wife Natasha are registering their infant daughter Lena in a ceremony which, like many in Russia, includes a good deal of brass and fanfare. In fact, it is the ceremonial and strong community cohesiveness aspects of agricultural life that make the strongest impression on viewers as being distinctly different from western traditions. Full-time entertainers who dance, act, play the accordion, etc. roam the villages and fields providing impromptu entertainment for the workers. Sports days, in which the local youth engage in competitive sports such as racing or ping pong, are frequent, and always accompanied by lots of food, cheering, and prizes. In many ways, these Cossack descendants seem to be living an idyllic life--albeit without many of the modern conveniences we take for granted here, but also with much stronger family ties than is characteristic of Americans. While the program addresses problems of food distribution across the vast landscape of the Soviet Union, and how these problems affect farmers, including the Petrenko's, it is the people who are the real focus of this absorbing documentary. Highly recommended for those libraries who can afford it. (Available from: Landmark Films, 3450 Slade Run Drive, Falls Church, VA 22042.)