A Drummer-Shepherd Calls the Herd at Dawn in a Photograph of 1910-11

A drummer-shepherd calls the herd at dawn in a photograph of 1910-11 by Zakhar Vinogradov, from the series “In the Lands Beyond the Volga and Along the Vetluga”.

The historic photograph captures a shepherd summoning the herd at dawn with the help of traditional Russian wooden instruments, the barabanka and its beaters. The barabanka is a trapezoidal board on which the beaters drummed out rhythmic signals; at the sound the cattle came out of the farmyards and followed their shepherd.

How little we know of the real village life of old Russia!

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At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

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A Drummer-Shepherd Calls the Herd at Dawn in a Photograph of 1910-11

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At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

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