MOSCOW — “Wonderful, wonderful!” exclaimed Alexander Prakov, punching the air in delight after student Margarita Krupka performed a rhythmically perfect ringing of Russian Orthodox church bells.
Krupka, a 25-year-old psychologist, stood before a head- high wooden frame from which nine bells and a bilo, a piece of flat metal, were hung. She held short ropes connected to the bell tongues and began to pull.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, thousands of Orthodox churches have been built or refurbished, but only a few have ringers, according to Viktor Sharikov, head of the Moscow Bell Center, which turns out about 800 graduates a year.
During Communist times, he said, “we lost many things, and our task is to revive our traditions.”
The Washington Post
