Past Expeditions
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Glubokovskii district, East Kazakhstan June 21-July 2 2024
Russian Cossacks of Kazakhstan
At the foot of the mountains
Centuries ago, this was a Cossack military outpost, part of Imperial Russia’s project to expand its influence in east Asia. The Russian border eventually shifted 60 miles to the north.... Read More
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Pavlodar province, Republic of Kazakhstan August 18-30
Settlers of the Steppe
The Immigrant Experience - Ukrainians in Kazakhstan
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The village of Uspenka, on the Kulundinskaja steppe, was settled by Ukrainian migrants who came here in search of land and a better life during the Russian Empire’s Stolypin land... Read More
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Ust-Kamenogorsk province, Kazakhstan July 5-17
Old Russian Ways in East Kazakhstan
Russian song and tradition in the rugged Altai mountains
Since the days of Imperial Russia, remote river valleys of the Altai mountains have sheltered runaway serfs, escaped prisoners and Old Believer religious dissidents. On the banks of the... Read More
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Katon-Karagai district August 10-23, 2022
Refuge in a land of honey
Russian settlers in East Kazakhstan
In the days of Imperial Russia, in these borderlands, villages along the Bukhtarma river sheltered runaway serfs, escaped prisoners, Old Believer religious dissidents and other refugees from the Russian government.... Read More
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Smolensk Province, Russia February 19 - March 3, 2020
Maslenitsa– songs, stories and Butter Week
The season of Maslenitsa (aka Butter Week, Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, Shrovetide) is a great time to be in Russia. Everywhere people celebrate the end of winter and the promise... Read More
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Altai Republic, Russia July 2019
Russians in the Heart of Asia
Songs, Stories, Beliefs
The remote village of Shebalino is populated by both indigenous Altains and descendants of Russian settlers who arrived in the 1800s. These very different cultures have lived side by side... Read More
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Chelyabinsk province, Russia July 2019
Places of Power
in the Ural Mountains
Soon after archaeologists uncovered the the Bronze Age city of Arkaim in 1987, an array of prophets, mystics and pilgrims heralded the site as the Aryan homeland, a model of the universe, an astronomical instrument, ... Read More
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Altai Republic, Russia July 2019
Russian Settlers of the Altai Mountains
The city of Gorno Altaisk is your jumping off point for Uimon Valley in the Altai mountains. Here your team will visit the descendants of popovtsy and bezpopovtsy Orthodox Christian... Read More
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Suceava County, Romania July - August 2019
Magic and Modernity
in Rural Romania
Travel to the borderlands of Romania to study how modernization and traditional belief intertwine in 21st-century rural life. During your three-week stay, cultural anthropologists Professor James M. Nyce and Alexandra... Read More
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Irkutsk province, Siberia August 2019
Belarusian Traditions
in the Land of Baikal
Meet your team in lovely Irkutsk, then travel by bus to the village of Blagodatnaya, founded over 100 years ago by Belarusian settlers seeking land and a new life. Interview... Read More