BEYOND BORDERS

By Elizaveta Manoshkina and Benedicte Braconnay

This book is the result of a unique collaboration with a French friend who, as a student, embarked on a transformative journey to Russia. Her experiences were pure, unaffected by preconceptions or external influences; she encountered Russia in its most pristine form.

Her journey, her emotions, and the places she passed through are all faithfully recorded on these pages. This book is not simply a travel narrative but a profoundly personal account of her encounters and impressions. Her experiences of Russia - the people she met, the places she visited - are captured with a rawness and immediacy that transcend the boundaries of language and culture.

We hope that as you turn these pages, you can share her journey, feel what she felt, and see Russia through her eyes as if it was for the first time.

“When I look back on those trips to Russia, I associate them with those animated films from the Soviet era by the great artist Yuri Norstein. During that time, I was discovering the country and its culture at the same time, with eagerness. Norstein’s cartoons particularly fascinated me. They use inventive visual and graphic techniques that produce a dreamlike dimension, and they tell little tales that seem childish but full of existential meanings. For example, I see my travels in Russia as akin to Norstein’s ‘Hedgehog in the Fog’. It’s the story of a little hedgehog who gets lost in a thick fog while trying to find a friend. He meets different characters who sometimes scare him; he discovers a magnificent tree, loses his belongings, falls into the water, and finally lets himself be guided on the back of a fish. He eventually finds his way and his friend. I was travelling at an age close to childhood; I was alone. It was sometimes impressive, sometimes worrying; I often felt like this little hedgehog, lost in an indecipherable and grandiose environment. And then there are life-saving encounters, and finally, you reach a familiar place from where you can count the stars around the samovar.

Memories remain that sometimes come back, like apparitions.”

-Benedicte Braconnay

Content

Acknowledgement

ForewordList to readArdatov 2006 -

Nizhny Novgorod 2006-2007 -

Udmurt Republic 2006-2007-2008

Altai 2008Armavir 2008