How in Transcarpathia wood was floated: unique video of rafters’ hard work in 1950s (VIDEO)

A unique video of wood floating down the Tisa river in 1950s has been posted online.

Wood floating on Carpathian rivers was considered an important sector of the local economy and rafters or bokorashs were respected people. Hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of wood were floated 60-80 km to the nearest railway station.

In the postwar years, when wood was needed everywhere, rafters were in demand. There was plenty of forests and work as well. In addition, it paid well, so people were coming here from everywhere. 

Wood floating would begin already in early spring and until the river would become frozen.

With the expansion of the railway network and wider use of heavy machinery in the mountains would floating down the rivers has become obsolete. In Boikivshchyna, wood floating stopped in 1940s. In Hutsulshchyna, the last raft floated down the Cheremosh in August 1979.