What are Buranovsky grandmothers famous for? “Grandmothers from Buranovo” about the new line-up of the team: “Let everything work out for the second line-up, we don’t wish anything bad for them

About 30 kilometers from Izhevsk, hidden between the hills is the small village of Buranovo, where 670 people live.

8 of them will perform in Baku at the Eurovision final on Saturday. They will have to defend the honor of Russia in this prestigious competition.

The “Buranovsky grandmothers” lived their entire lives, and some for most of it, in Buranov. They sang, as they say, for as long as they can remember. The composition under the star name was formed relatively recently, in 2000. They sang Tsoi and Grebenshchikov in Udmurt, then they sang songs from the repertoire of the Beatles and Eagles and received recognition throughout the country.

Actually, the main secret of the success of "Buranovsky Babushki" - their originality, sincerity and purity of images - is visible, as they say, to the naked eye. What artists are on stage is like they are in life - simple, kind and real.

On the eve of the most important performances in the career of the Buranovsky Babushki, RG correspondents visited the singers, asked them about their life, families and hobbies.

Hospitable grandmothers (RG-Nedelya spoke about some of them in the issue dated March 22 of this year) willingly acted as interviewees and told all their secrets about themselves.

A mother of many children sings, embroiders and knits

Granya Ivanovna Baysarova was born on June 12, 1949. By profession - plasterer, painter, tiler. After graduating from college, she worked for some time at the Izhevsk Machine Plant.

We have always loved to sing. When we worked as painters, songs were blared throughout the entire entrance where they were doing renovations! - recalls Granya Ivanovna and adds: “They probably don’t sing like that now.”

In 1976, she moved with her family to Buranovo, where she worked as a milkmaid for 20 years. Granya Ivanovna had a long break in her work when two sons, one after another, went to serve in the army in Chechnya. They returned safe and sound, and mother began to sing again.

A jack of all trades - knitting, embroidering, weaving. She always has yarn and knitting needles with her. Almost all grandmothers knit colored stockings for performances.

She raised six children, eight grandchildren and a great-granddaughter are growing up.

Bast shoes from the Begishevs

All her life she worked as an accountant at the Buranovsky state farm. After leaving the state farm, she created a museum in the local House of Culture. Although the museum is unofficial, Alevtina Gennadievna keeps records of all the exhibits that she collects herself and with the help of fellow villagers. This is the nature - there must be order in everything.

“One boy brought an old iron,” says Alevtina Begisheva, “he thought we would give him money, but when he found out that the recreation center had no money, he was very upset, but did not take the iron back. And one man brought a three-kilogram mammoth tooth. Although it has nothing to do with ancient life, I assigned a number to it and show it to everyone.

And Alevtina Gennadievna’s husband weaves bast shoes for the whole team. The Begishevs raised three children.

Chef for the whole team

Zoya Sergeevna Dorodova was born on April 15, 1940 in Buranovo. She worked as a baker in the Buranovskaya bakery. She got married and moved to the village of Babino (also in Udmurtia). There she worked as a cook and head of the school canteen. After the death of her husband, she returned to Buranovo and worked as a cook in the geologists' canteen until retirement.

The most sedate and taciturn member of the team. When traveling, he always prepares lunch for everyone. He lives in Buranovo with his daughter and two grandchildren.

Idea's generator

Galina Nikolaevna Koneva was born on October 15, 1938. Graduated from Sarapul Preschool Pedagogical College. She worked in an orphanage for several years. I returned to my native village and could no longer leave - kindergarten was delayed. She worked as a teacher until she was 60 years old. Then she reluctantly retired and found new hobbies: she began sewing outfits for dolls, and took on the role of “elder” in the village. He remembers how a couple of years ago a “night club” was almost opened in the village. Having a clear educational idea and fortitude, Galina Nikolaevna achieved a ban on the opening of a cafe.

We better build a temple, this is important for educating the younger generation. We don’t need any cafes to get people drunk! Let young people pray to God,” says Koneva. Galina Nikolaevna is the core of the team and a generator of ideas. She raised three children, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren have grown up.

The oldest one is breeding "locksmiths"

Natalya Yakovlevna Pugacheva, the oldest of the “Buranovsky grandmothers,” will turn 77 years old this year. She was born on November 28, 1935, not far from Buranov, in the village of Chutozhmon (literally translated from Udmurt as “I came from the war lame”). I only managed to finish the first grade of school when the war began. Then there was no time for studying anymore. She worked all her life on the Buranovsky collective farm. Natalya-apai (translated from Udmurt - grandmother Natalya), as her team calls her, is very fond of pets and flowers. Now she and her husband keep a cow and raise chickens with guinea fowl, which Natalya Yakovlevna calls “my mechanics.”

Natalya Pugacheva cooks well. There are always amazing pies, baked goods and cookies on her table. She has an amazing sense of humor, is always smiling and active.

Four children, three grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Tuning fork for ensemble

Ekaterina Semenovna Shklyaeva was born on November 2, 1937, not far from Buranov in a village that no longer exists. I only made it to the 4th grade, as I had to become the eldest for my brothers and sisters when my mother became seriously ill and my father was taken to the front.

Then she worked at the Izhevsk Mechanical Plant, as a plasterer-painter at a construction site in the Perm region. 6 years later, when her husband died, she came back to Buranovo.

In the team they check the tonality using it.

She raised three children, five grandchildren and one great-grandson are growing up.

One left

Valentina Semenovna Pyatchenko was born on October 21, 1937 in Buranovo. She graduated from eight-year school and went to Sarapul to study as a seamstress. After graduating from college, she continued her studies at the Udmurt Pedagogical Institute. She received a philological education, got married and went to Krasnovodsk, where her military husband was assigned.

After the divorce, she returned to Buranovo with two sons, one of whom died at the age of 17.

Valentina Semyonovna lost her right arm while working on a circular saw (she goes on stage with a prosthesis). Nevertheless, she copes well with housework even with one hand: she digs up the garden, picks berries, makes delicious jam and even sews on a sewing machine. Previously, she was the one who sewed dresses for the team.

Valentina Pyatchenko’s special pride is her strawberry “plantation”: there are enough berries for sale and for jam, which she makes in huge quantities and distributes to all city friends, colleagues, and relatives.

Valentina Semyonovna has a son and two grandchildren.

Director of success

Olga Nikolaevna Tuktareva is the artistic director of the Buranovsky Babushki, director of the Buranovsky House of Culture, author of translations of songs into the Udmurt language.

She was born on April 26, 1968 in the village of Puro-Mozhga near Buranov. Graduated from the Perm Institute of Culture. Moreover, when I arrived to enroll, I spoke Russian very poorly. I decided to study to become a director, without even knowing what this word means.

I was offered to become a methodologist, librarian and director. I chose the latter - I really liked the word! - said Olga Tuktareva.

Her main hobby, besides the Buranovskie Babushki ensemble, is the children's theater studio, which Olga Nikolaevna organized at the local House of Culture. In the cultural center, the artistic director practically spends his days and nights. Meanwhile, my husband is working on greenhouses and already in April treats the whole family with fresh cucumbers. The couple has two children.

The group "Buranovskie Babushki" appeared more than 40 years ago. Pensioners from an Udmurt village first sang ancient songs in the national language. Then they began to sing the hits of Tsoi and Grebenshchikov in Udmurt. But the ensemble gained worldwide fame thanks to its participation in the Eurovision Song Contest in Baku, where the grandmothers took second place.

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The old women, whose average age was 70 years old, agreed to this adventure with a good goal - to raise money for the restoration of the destroyed temple in their native village. “We almost succeeded, although its reconstruction will continue for at least another year, so during this time we will definitely continue to go on stage. But with a free schedule: wherever we want, we go there, without long-term commitments,” said Olga Tuktareva , director of the Buranovsky House of Culture, which at one time united pensioners under its wing.

But grandmothers now perform mainly in Udmurtia - it is difficult for them to travel long distances. And the group is now called differently - “Grandmothers from Buranovo”. “The fact is that our contract with the Buranovskie Babushki ensemble and producer Evgenia Rubtsova has ended. It was a very busy schedule, but we all have families, children, grandchildren, a vegetable garden. Where can we work like that!” – portal Eg.Ru quotes Tuktareva.

Indeed, now the members of the group "Buranovskie Babushki", who perform in all the capital's national concerts, are not at all the same ones who sang about Party For Everybody four years ago. And the vocal old women look much younger, as if time has gone back. “They are no longer from Buranovo and are not grandmothers at all. We are an ordinary village group and now we sing our own songs, and not those that are imposed on us. And we didn’t particularly like the previous repertoire and places of performances. It’s a pity that we all lack wisdom It was enough to end this story beautifully. But I don’t want to quarrel with anyone, so as not to waste the health of our grandmothers on this. People will listen to both groups and decide for themselves whether they like it or not,” Tuktareva said.

The group called “Buranovskie Babushki”, which performed at the 57th Eurovision Song Contest, became a real phenomenon. After all, where has it been seen that seventy-year-old artists are representatives of the country’s music sphere? However, they not only successfully performed the prepared composition, but also conquered half the world, winning an honorable second place.

Oddly enough, the folk song ensemble called “Buranovskie Babushki” is not a project specially created to surprise the audience and the Eurovision jury. It is already more than forty years old, and all this time a group of active singers, who are now about eighty years old, have been performing songs from ancient folklore in the Udmurt language.

Popular fame came to the grandmothers at the end of the 2000s, when they began to appear with performances at various concert venues and perform covers of songs that were popular at different times in Udmurt. So, as part of a concert dedicated to Mother Language Day, on the stage of the State Philharmonic of Udmurtia, they sang hits by V. Tsoi and B. Grebenshchikov, and thereby attracted the attention of television channels and journalists.

As the singers themselves admit, their work is not associated with a thirst for fame and wealth. All the money they planned to earn from performances and other projects, they directed towards the construction of a temple in Buranovo. The same motive motivated them when two members of the group - Olga Nikolaevna and Galina Nikolaevna - played on the show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” The winnings of 800,000 rubles also went to a charity.

The fruitful creativity of the cheerful grandmothers, which became a great contribution to the development of national art, brought them the title of People's Artists of the Udmurt Republic, which was awarded to eight members of the group by the President of Udmurtia.

Despite their advanced age, the artists enjoy performing at various concert venues in the country (guests of the Ybitsa festival in 2013 and Laula kanssain in 2016), recording musical compositions with other musicians (the song “But I won’t marry” with singer Varvara). They appear in commercials (a commercial for Sprite in 2012) and are also involved in social activities. So, in the same 2012, they received a certificate of official, albeit freelance, employees of the traffic police department in their hometown, responsible for promoting safe road traffic.

As part of the opening of the Olympic Games, held in 2014 in the Russian city of Sochi, Buranovskaya's grandmother Galina Koneva, who was 75 years old at the time, acted as one of the torchbearers at the universal relay.

Members of the group "Buranovskie Babushki"

The main goal of the musical project called “Buranovskie Babushki” is the preservation of national traditions, behind which there is a huge layer of values passed on from generation to generation. Each of the members of the group approaches creativity with the simplicity that was characteristic of their ancestors, who also performed familiar melodies with soul and selflessly.

The director and artistic director of the grandmothers, who on a voluntary basis united talented women under one roof, is Olga Nikolaevna Tuktareva. She also holds the post of director of the House of Culture in the village of Buranovo. Olga is a graduate of the Institute of Culture in Perm, a translator of famous compositions into the Udmurt language, and also a talented housewife.

During the existence of the team, it included several people. We will talk about some of them in a little more detail, since each of them is distinguished by its own special character traits.

Ekaterina Semenovna Shklyaeva

In the group, Ekaterina Semyonovna is called a tuning fork, since thanks to her perfect pitch it is possible to check the tonality of a melody. Those who know her even better praise her for her excellent fermented cabbage.

There is always a piece of bread in Ekaterina Semyonovna’s pocket to feed the birds. On tour you can always recognize her precisely by the fact that she feeds the winged ones everywhere.

She has only four years of schooling, since she lost her mother early and took over the family and household. This was followed by work at a mechanical factory, at a construction site as a painter, and on the Buranov collective farm.

Valentina Semenovna Pyatchenko

For her meek character, the grandmother received the nickname “shyrpi”, which translated into Russian means little mouse. Valentina Semyonovna has two educations: the first is a seamstress, the second is a teacher. She worked as a teacher when she lived with her husband in Turkmenistan, but the woman’s family life did not work out, and at the age of forty-seven she returned to Buranovo, where she taught at school until retirement.

The singer does not have a right hand - she lost it while working on a circular saw. She wears a prosthesis to the Buranovsky Babushki’s performances. By the way, this disadvantage does not in the least prevent her from running the household: she sews beautifully, bakes fragrant pies and makes delicious jam.

Natalya Yakovlevna Pugacheva

In the entire history of Eurovision, this singer of the group Buranovsky Babushki became the oldest participant. In her life there was only one school class, then - the war and work on the Buranovsky collective farm.

This woman is almost ninety, but she is the kind of person about whom they say “small, but brave.”

The team also included:

Granya Ivanovna Baysarova is a painter-plasterer, a milkmaid with twenty years of experience, and an excellent knitter.
Zoya Sergeevna Dorodova is a baker and cook, which she still is. Among other grandmothers, she is considered the most silent.
Galina Nikolaevna Koneva is the person who is responsible for new ideas for the team. They even came up with an unusual nickname for her - “mush mumy”, which means “queen bee”. By the way, Galina Nikolaevna is a real athlete, she has the first adult category in ski racing.
Alevtina Gennadievna Begisheva is a former accountant who retrained as a museum manager. She is the one responsible for the bright folk costumes.
Elizaveta Filippovna Zarbatova left not only the ensemble, but also our world in 2014, and today everyone remembers her as the author of the triumphant song with which the women performed at the national Eurovision selection in Russia, and simply a good person.

There is also a man in the team - Nikolai Grigorievich Zarbatov. It is he who is responsible for the musical part of the ensemble’s creativity. It’s impossible to count all his talents: he is both a guitarist and an accordionist, in a word, a one-man orchestra.

Participation in Eurovision

Buranovsky grandmothers tried out for participation in the competition back in 2010, and in the national-level selection they sang a composition called “Long, Long Birch Bark.” However, this time they were not yet ready to become representatives of the country.

Having participated in the national selection again two years later, in 2012 they passed the qualifying round and represented Russia at Eurovision 2012 with the catchy song Party for Everybody, performed in broken English in a colorful folk style.

The very appearance of the grandmothers on stage caused unprecedented delight and tenderness among the large audience of the competition. But this was not enough to take home the crystal microphone, so Russia had to settle for second place.

The performance in Baku made the Buranovsky Babushki very popular not only in our country, but also in Europe. Their simplicity and charming folk vocals, with which they perform both well-known compositions in arrangements and folk songs, leave no one indifferent. Now they also travel around cities with concert programs, giving people smiles and warmth.

The director of Lyudmila Zykina's House LLC and the producer of the famous group "Buranovskie Babushki" Ksenia Rubtsova invited professional artists to join her, after which the former grandmothers who performed at Eurovision 2012 with the song Party for Everybody refused to go on stage.

The group's press secretary, Svetlana Syrygina, told RG that the updated composition of the Buranovskie Babushki included former soloists of the State Academic Song and Dance Ensemble of Udmurtia "Italmas" and the Republican Theater of Folklore Song "Aikai" Anna Prokopyeva and Valentina Serebrennikova, as well as Ekaterina Antonova , former director of the ensemble of harmonica players of the Malopurginsky district of Udmurtia "Arganchi".

According to Syrygina, one of the reasons for the renewal of the group was the age of its main members; most of the “Buranovsky Babushki” are over 70; it is difficult for them to maintain a tour schedule and live the nomadic life of an artist in constant travel on planes and trains.

Constant concerts, filming on TV, traveling take a lot of energy even from young people. After the group gained worldwide fame, there were many requests from younger artists to take them into the group, and it was decided to give them the opportunity to perform under the Buranovskie Babushki brand,” said Syrygina.

According to Rubtsova, it is generally impossible to talk about the “old” and “new” composition of the group, because its members were initially more numerous than those who appeared on stage and on television. The ensemble "Buranovskie Babushki" was created in the village of the same name 40 years ago, and some of its members, such as songwriter Elizaveta Zarbatova, who died in January, have never been seen by the general public.

The group, which took part in tours after Eurovision, consisted of 8 people. The artists did not always perform in exactly this composition; sometimes it changed depending on their state of health or the workload of household chores. Let me emphasize once again that “Buranovskie Babushki” is a project, and not a separate team of a rural club,” Rubtsova explained.

In recent months, artists from Buranov have been preparing to perform on the stage of the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow, where a festival of Russian folk artistic groups will be held on December 7. After the news about the renewal of the group’s composition, the performance of “Buranovskie Babushki”, as the audience was accustomed to seeing them, was in question. The artistic director of the group, Olga Tuktareva, told RG that the grandmothers, who won second place at Eurovision 2012 in Baku, will not go on stage with the new participants.

We always said that we would perform until the temple was completed, after which we would stop touring, because it’s hard for grandmothers to travel so much to concerts. We are not against someone after us performing under the Buranovskiye Babushki brand, but please give us the opportunity to complete the construction,” said Tuktareva.

In their interviews, grandmothers have repeatedly stated that all the money earned on stage will be spent on restoring the Church of the Holy Trinity, built in the village of Buranovo in 1895 and destroyed in the 1930s. The grandmothers began her restoration immediately after they became famous. Today the temple building itself is ready, the opening of which is scheduled for October 12, but another 2 million rubles are needed for interior decoration. According to Tuktareva, this year the grandmothers performed for 8 months, but “not a penny for the temple” was given to them. Now the pensioners plan to earn the money that needs to be given to contractors on their own.

Ksenia Rubtsova told an RG correspondent that the House of Lyudmila Zykina actually allocated money for the construction of the church. Since 2009, 12 million rubles have been spent on construction, but this was a voluntary desire of the production center team to help the grandmothers.

Builders are ready to open the temple in October and continue work on the interior decoration. Another 5.3 million rubles are needed to complete all work. You need to ask them how much the artists invested, since they received fees for every concert, every filming trip. I gave them to Olga Tuktareva. And investing money in the construction of a church or somewhere else is their right,” Rubtsova said.

She also said that the concert in the Kremlin will take place in any case, even if the grandmothers who participated in Eurovision do not come to Moscow.

We respect the great work that the grandmothers did, but we must not forget about those people who stand behind the scenes. We did not have the goal of making “stars” out of a single team of a rural club. The initial goal of the project is to show the value of grandmothers for residents of different countries, to unite people who are called by the warm word “grandmother” and, of course, to tell all of Russia and the world about the small Udmurt people, their culture and traditions. The Buranovskie Babushki project should continue to grow, this is normal. It’s not normal, from our point of view, to destroy an idea and creativity that is in demand by society, the viewer,” the producer believes.

Valentina Pyatchenko, member of the first cast of "Buranovskie Babushki"

We're not moping. It's not good to swear or be offended by someone. We travel, perform, and earn a little money. Under your own name. Let them perform under our name, just let them not sing with our voices, we asked them to do so. As for the fees, I’ll say: for the first three years we didn’t receive anything at all. Then for two years we were given 5,000 rubles per concert. We did not leave anything for ourselves - how can we if our church is not completed.

And now we feel good. We have no time to be sick and offended, we need to earn money for the church, we still need so much money! We must complete the construction of the temple - this is our common decision. And even if in the end it turned out to be a not very pleasant story with the producer, but thanks to it we ourselves became so famous and glorified our native village, we saw the whole world. Many thanks to her for this.

Singers from Udmurtia, after being forced to go on “well-deserved rest,” want to sing at least in their native republic

At the end of August this year, information appeared that the producer of the group “Buranovskie Babushki” Ksenia Rubtsova decided to update the composition of the famous folk ensemble. She sent to a “well-deserved rest” those grandmothers who won second place at the Eurovision 2012 music competition in Baku. And instead of them, she recruited a completely new team.

MK found out the details of this story.

New composition of the team. Photo: courtesy of the press service

“We learned about our replacement from the Internet”

The message that a replacement had been found for the grandmothers from Buranov came like a bolt from the blue. And not only for fans of singers, but also for older artists themselves. Although the former artistic director of the group and the youngest of the grandmothers, Olga Tuktareva, confirmed that conversations about updating the composition of the group had been going on for a long time:

— Ksenia Rubtsova told me that it would be necessary to update the composition a little, because the workload on our soloists was very heavy. Constant concerts and tours, of course, took a lot of energy. At first, she wanted to take at least a few new grandmothers from the village of Buranovo, so that they could replace the “old” participants at any time in case of illness or other unforeseen situations. But after a while I realized that our ensemble “Buranovskie Babushki” is a unique group, you can’t just take someone out of it. That's why I was against updating it.

Olga Tuktareva herself learned about the change in the composition of “Buranovskie Babushki” from the Internet.

At least they called and said that they were hiring others instead of us. Perhaps then we would not be so offended. After all, we live in the same republic and know these new “grandmothers”. Among them is even my good friend, whom we have known for many years.

It is clear that we live in an age of speed, but we need to sit down, talk and discuss the situation. After all, our grandmothers are no longer young women; they are well over 70 years old. Therefore, it was necessary to talk to them humanly and move on,” Olga Nikolaevna shares her thoughts.

Former composition of the team

She admits that she tried to talk with producer Ksenia Rubtsova, who decided to update the lineup. But Ksenia simply didn’t pick up the phone for a whole month. However, later the conversation took place.

— I said that we are not against the new lineup traveling and performing as “Buranovskie Babushki.” But at that time they performed our songs, accompanied by our soundtracks, and it was not very pleasant. Therefore, we asked them to at least perform their songs,” continues Olga Tuktareva.

Back to normal life

We can say that after active tours, concerts and filming on television, the same “Buranovsky Babushki” who became silver medalists at the Eurovision 2012 contest have returned to their ordinary rural life. As before, they do housework. In September, they harvested the crops, dug up potatoes and carrots, dug up the soil, tidied up the gardens and even planted new seedlings...

The youngest of the “Buranovsky Babushki”, the artistic director of the group, Olga Tuktareva (now 46 years old), continues to work at the Buranovsky House of Culture. She is the director of the children's theater group "Kuzylikar". Local children enjoy inventing fairy tales and preparing theatrical performances. Now they are writing a script for a new play in the Udmurt language, “The Magic Chest.”

Despite what happened, the “Buranovskie Babushki”, as before, often gather together in the village House of Culture. They sing their favorite songs and learn new ones.

“Now schoolchildren from neighboring villages constantly come to us,” says Olga Tuktareva. “The children want to see our grandmothers, see where they live and what they do. Grandmothers do a great job: they give their warmth and care to our Udmurt children.

Of course, age makes itself felt. After all, they are already over 70 years old, so it happens that the pressure fluctuates, headaches or heaviness in the legs. But when guests arrive, the illness disappears as if by hand.

“Despite everything that happened, our grandmothers want to perform and sing their songs. We asked Ksenia Rubtsova to at least allow us to travel around Udmurtia and perform in village clubs. The fact is that all copyrights are reserved to her. Therefore, we do not have the right to speak on our own, without her permission,” says Olga Tuktareva.

Indeed, according to the contract, which was signed five years ago, all copyrights belong to the House of Lyudmila Zykina, which is headed by Rubtsova. So the grandmothers from the village of Buranovo have no rights to their songs and recordings. And even the name “Buranovskie Babushki” does not belong to them. This is confirmed by the press secretary of the creative team, Svetlana Syrygina:

— According to the terms of the contract, which the grandmothers signed five years ago, the producer has the right to make decisions about replenishing and expanding the composition. It is clear that older people either get sick or have some urgent household chores. And Ksenia suggested several times that they should take someone else into the team. But the grandmothers refused: “We don’t need anyone!” And in principle, if they had agreed to take at least a few people, then there would not have been any revolutionary changes that are happening now.

According to Svetlana Syrygina, grandmothers from Buranov can perform their songs without using phonograms, that is, sing “live” with a button accordion or guitar, or record new “backing tracks.”

New team

So, a new team came to replace the grandmothers from the village of Buranovo. It included former soloists of the State Academic Song and Dance Ensemble of Udmurtia “Italmas” Anna Prokopyeva, the Republican Theater of Folklore Song “Aikai” Valentina Serebrennikova, as well as the former director of the ensemble of harmonica players of the Malopurginsky district “Arganchi” Ekaterina Antonova. Amateur singers from the village of Ludorvay, which is located near Izhevsk, were also invited to the new lineup. From the old lineup, only Natalya Pugacheva remained, who underwent a serious operation this year.

According to press secretary Svetlana Syrygina, during this time the new artists managed to learn new songs, make several recordings and perform in several large concerts. The last month has been very busy. The grandmothers performed on the stage of the Kremlin Palace three times: at the anniversaries of Nadezhda Kadysheva and Alexandra Pakhmutova, as well as at a concert dedicated to National Unity Day. In addition, they traveled to Austria, where they performed at a folk festival.

According to Svetlana, the renewed band now performs completely different songs. From the repertoire of the old composition, the song “Veterok” and the famous hit “Party for everyone dance” remained, which we can no longer do without. But it also sounds in a new version.

Fees - for the church

From the very beginning, the grandmothers from Buranovo said that they performed not for money and fame, but to earn money to build a church in their native village. And, indeed, they invested all the money they received in this business, so they had little left for themselves. True, according to rumors, grandmothers were paid quite modestly. As the former administrator of the group, Maria Tolstukhina, told MK in Izhevsk, they were paid for travel, accommodation, and a small daily allowance, but the fees for performances were very small:

— For a concert, we sometimes received 30 thousand rubles for everyone. But since there were 9 of us, we each had 3 thousand rubles, and we saved the remaining 3 thousand separately - for the church. Since the fees were small, we tried to save on everything. They even took bread, potatoes and canned meat with them on the road. And during the tour, the grandmothers cooked themselves soup and porridge.

Maria Tolstukhina admits that during this time her grandmothers became like family to her:

“In four years they have ceased to be a “project” for me. They became close people to me, one might say, relatives. But last year I left the team and started my own projects.

Perhaps the most important thing is that a church was built in Buranovo. True, the village residents hoped that all the work could be completed in the fall and the temple would be opened in November. But not everything in life works out as planned.

“It’s still difficult to say when the temple will open,” says Olga Tuktareva. — We need to pay the debt to the builders for the exterior decoration of the church - one and a half million rubles. In addition, about three million more need to be found for the builders to do the interior finishing and install the fence. We are confident that the temple will definitely be open.

Photo: courtesy of the band’s press service

For the sake of objectivity, we will add that the “House of Lyudmila Zykina” also allocated money for the construction of a church in Buranovo. As the producer told the MK in Izhevsk journalist, since 2009, 12 million rubles have been spent on construction.

Of course, Ksenia Rubtsova, as a producer, did a lot to ensure that the whole world recognized “Buranovskie Babushki” and Udmurtia. She negotiated with the organizers of various concerts and festivals, paid for travel, accommodation and participation in filming. Thanks to her efforts and enthusiasm, the grandmothers traveled half the country and visited many countries of the world.

According to Svetlana Smirnova, Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of the Ural Republic, today we need to work together to find a way out of this conflict situation:

- Grandmothers, of course, are great. They have done a lot for our republic. And I love them very much. Today we need to increase the recognition of Udmurtia and improve its image. But I am sure that the Buranovskie Babushki brand does not work for Ksenia Rubtsova, but for the Udmurt Republic as a whole. Of course, Ksenia invested a lot of effort, energy and money so that the grandmothers from Buranovo would be recognized not only in Russia, but also in many countries around the world. Therefore, this situation cannot be viewed from only one side.

— It is clear that the Buranovskie Babushki brand brings in a lot of money. And Ksenia’s desire to promote it further is understandable. And let her succeed. But we cannot imagine our life without songs. Therefore, now it is very important for us that the producer allows us to perform in our native Udmurtia,” Olga Tuktareva says frankly.

She honestly admits that the old cast of “Buranovskie Babushki” is not yet ready to meet with those who are now performing in their place:

“You have to forgive and let go of the situation.” It's still not working out well. I think it will take some time for the grandmothers to calm down. Then we can meet the new lineup and talk normally.

We can say that the elderly songbirds from the village of Buranovo have gone through fire, water and copper pipes. But life presented them with a new test.

“This is a good lesson for us,” says Olga Tuktareva. “Apparently, in show business you can’t do anything humanely.” But it’s okay, we can handle this too. God grant that we come out of this situation with dignity. We are always at work, and we have no time for bad thoughts.

They already had the idea to hold a national children's festival in Buranovo with the participation of children's groups from different regions of Udmurtia.