One in four Belarusians lives in the countryside, where life expectancy is around four years lower than in cities. Belarusian photographer Siarhiej Leskiec has documented village life for years. This collection was published by BelarusDigest
Siarhiej Leskiec for BelarusDigest, part of the New East network
Thu 13 Nov 2014 00.00 EST
Photographs of family ancestors on display inside an old village house in Palestime in Astravyets district of Belarus.
Pig slaughter is a winter tradition in Belarusian villages. Since the African swine fever epidemic in 2013, scenes like this one from Zaskavichy village in Maladechna district are now more rare.
A woman sits in her farmstead in Lakcianiaty, near the Lithuanian border. Life expectancy for women exceeds that of men in Belarus’s rural areas. Children and grandchildren commonly move to the cities for work and schooling, leaving some villages entirely populated by older women.
