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Global BusinessRebooting Rural RussiaFighting poverty with felt shoes?

Lucy Ash visits a social entrepreneur in the impoverished Russian countryside.

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Abandoned homes and empty villages in the Pskov region

It has lost 200,000 people since the end of the USSR. (Photo credit: Viktoria Zhgel)

  • Step one - processing the sheep wool
  • Tatiana Nikolaeva is in charge of production at the valenki workshop
  • Nadezhda Ivanova combines the wool and felt with a four pronged needle
  • The Soviet era Valenki factory in the nearby town of Sebezh
  • The Pskov region: 'The Land of Three Thousand Lakes'
  • Abandoned homes and empty villages in the Pskov region
  • The raw material – wool from Romanov sheep
  • Sveta Grigorenko packs the boots according to colours and sizes
  • Shaping the damp boots around a shoe tree.
  • All weather, longer lasting - Snegiri’s valenki have rubber soles
  • Kirill Vasiliev, owner of the Snegiri brand of Valenki
  • Wood fuelled energy powers the factory- steam is produced by burning logs
  • A family atmosphere - the staff share meals in the factory kitchen
  • Owner Kirill Vasiliev sees himself as a social entrepreneur and says...
  • Olga Kuznetsova sews the labels and piping onto the slipper boots
  • Russia’s answer to UGGS? Felt boots are healthy for feet...

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