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"Glamping is great, but let's not do it here": that's roughly how one might sum up the collective opinion of residents of a village near Ufa, where a local entrepreneur is planning to move in. This story began quite recently, and the villagers believe that publicizing it will help them defend their rights to the surrounding area.

The village of Ibragimovo is located just fifty kilometers from Ufa, but the village is not accessible by road, located off the paved two-lane local road and, as a result, is quite secluded. 

On February 1, the head of the Karmaskalinsky district, Alfir Sabirov, announced plans to build a glamping site near the village.

"This proposal was made today by visitors from Ufa, individual entrepreneur Karina Grigoryan and her husband. The entrepreneurs note that the main feature of the tourist center will be its combination with agritourism," Sabirov wrote on his VKontakte page.

A few more details were provided on the Karmaskala municipality's public page. According to officials, Grigoryan has been working in the republic for over 10 years in the field of mass entertainment, cultural, and educational events and is ready to invest 30 million rubles in a glamping site on the shores of Lake Kyzylga.

REFERENCE: Karina Albertovna Grigoryan registered as an individual entrepreneur in the Ufa District of Bashkortostan on January 18, 2024, with her primary business being organizing recreation and entertainment. She also equally owns Polyana LLC with Guzel Mukhametyanova, registered in Ufa in April 2018 with a legal address in an apartment in a residential building on Sofya Perovskaya Street. From May 2011 to October 2012, Grigoryan operated as an individual entrepreneur in Sochi, Krasnodar Krai. According to RusProfile, the entrepreneur has no other businesses.

"The project's initiators also want to establish a mini-zoo here," officials added. "The project was supported by the head of the administration, Alfir Sabirov, at the latest 'entrepreneurial hour,' and will enter the implementation phase after a specific location is determined."

The Ibragimovites didn't immediately notice the news, but after delving into the details, they decided to act immediately. After all, they were sure, once the location was determined, it would be too late.

The settlement now called Ibragimovo village was founded by Bashkirs in the second half of the 17th century. Besides the picturesque rural landscapes, there are two attractions here: the Mukhametsalim Umetbaev Museum (a poet, educator, philologist, translator, and ethnographer who lived from 1841 to 1907). прим. ред.) and Lake Kyzylga itself. The body of water is narrow, but long and winding, stretching for a whopping 8 kilometers. In places, it's so narrow and shallow that you can drive through it by car.

"This lake is a recreational spot for all the villagers. We fish there, swim there in the summer, and there's a beach area," Laysan told NeMoskva. "We don't usually see strangers here. Everyone's ours, everyone knows each other. Outsiders always mean trash, noise, and cars by the water."

Laysan now lives with her family in Ufa, and Ibragimovo is her home village, where she visits her parents' house. Laysan understands that glamping is strictly ecotourism, and the responsibility for cleaning up any uncivilized tourists will fall to the entrepreneurs.

"Even if they clean up the trash from the shore, water pollution is inevitable. We only have one lake, the groundwater is high, and there's no central water supply here. People get their water from boreholes and wells," the woman explained. "We're used to the land around the village being ours. How can we agree to give it up to someone else?"

Villagers fear that the coastline will be fenced off, and they will lose their usual place of leisure, where their great-great-ancestors used to relax.

The first thing the Ibragimovites did to prevent the "privatization" of their land was to call a meeting. They didn't forget to invite the local administration, who, in turn, ensured the entrepreneurs' presence. The meeting took place on February 11.

"The backlash started when people assumed the glamping site would be set up right in the village," fellow villager Laysan Bulat told NeMoskva. "But at the meeting, it turned out that the option being considered was the shore of the Nazas River—a smaller lake on the other side of the village."

This fact, however, contradicts the statement on the municipality's website, which explicitly refers to the shore of Lake Kyzylga. Perhaps officials took into account the comments to their posts published in early February. 

"We're definitely against it; there's no space for people to relax there anyway <…> Open a first aid post, a pharmacy, an optician, and shops first <…> We don't need glamping; our lakes are drying up anyway, and there are fires every summer. Choose another place," the people protested, complaining about the lack of basic social infrastructure.

According to the 2010 census (more recent figures are unavailable in open sources), the population of Ibragimovo is 388. It's probably higher now. In 2014, the empty building of the disbanded village school was converted into a dormitory for refugees from the DPR. The population generally doesn't suffer the poverty of more remote villages, although, like everywhere else in the countryside, the residents there are mostly pensioners. Those who are able to work are saved by the proximity to Ufa—they don't hesitate to commute to the city. Some also work in neighboring villages where schools, medical facilities, or farms still exist.

Bulat is one of those Ibragimovo residents who isn't against glamping per se. He's only unhappy with the locations targeted by businessmen. He said a representative of Karina Grigoryan came to their village for a meeting.

"Whether it was my brother or my husband, I didn't bother to look into it, I don't remember his name," Bulat explained. "I'm not against businessmen, because glamping is supposed to be clean and tidy. After all, tourists simply won't go to a dirty place. But I don't understand the point of building a glamping site next to a village. All the glamping sites I've stayed at are several kilometers away from populated areas. That's the whole point of this type of vacation."

Bulat, according to him, intentionally followed the visitor out for a smoke break in order to talk to him face to face and discuss other glamping options.

"If we set up a base on the banks of the Nazas, they'll cut off our pasture and watering hole for the cattle. The tourists themselves won't be comfortable with herds wandering past them. Further along the lakeshore, there's forestry land there, and they won't allow it. I suggested the shore on the other side of the lake, but he [Grigoryan's representative] said there's already a tenant there, and we'll have to deal with the power supply, which means additional costs," Bulat told the publication.

In fact, no concrete decision was reached at the meeting. They dispersed by adding to the minutes their categorical objections to the construction of a glamping site in the immediate vicinity of the village.

"The entrepreneurs came up with a proposal, but the residents didn't like it. There's no final decision; the entrepreneurs will consider whether they're interested in building a glamping site on the other side of the river," commented Timur Galyautdinov, head of the rural settlement administration.

Furthermore, Bulat added, the villagers agreed to register the lease of the adjacent lands in the name of four trusted village residents—this encumbrance should protect them from encroachment by outsiders. 

If the businessmen decide to build a glamping site on the opposite shore of Lake Kyzylga, the Ibragimovites will meet again. And then, in addition to approval, they will also raise the issue of the village's welfare.

"We certainly won't ask for an asphalt road. Given their 30 million investment, such demands are simply unreasonable. But we will demand their help in repairing the bridge or clearing the drying creek bed that feeds the lake," Bulat concluded.

Unfortunately, it was impossible to contact the entrepreneurs—Karina Grigoryan's company has no website, it does not conduct public activities, and the only contact information is the legal address of Polyana LLC, located in an apartment building in Ufa.

The story of the glamping site in the village of Ibragimovo is indicative, according to Elsa Maulimshina, a member of the Council under the Head of the Republic of Bashkortostan for Human Rights and the Development of Civil Society Institutions.

"Remember, 15-20 years ago, no one cared about the public's opinion; local officials managed the land as they saw fit. Now, for example, we see that almost the entire shoreline of the Pavlovsk Reservoir has become someone's property. Or the bank of the Inzer River near the Abzanovsky Waterfall, where a so-called tourist center stands right next to a Muslim cemetery. Of course, local residents don't like this," Maulimshina noted. "But people have finally realized they have the right to express their opinions, and they've begun to exercise this right. And this speaks to the development of civil society, no matter how much skeptics scoff. I'm confident that it was the administration's contact with the village residents that defused the simmering conflict. The people were heard—this is a good example for the republic."