The Far North is the northern territories of Russia located beyond the Arctic Circle. Its total area is about 5,500,000 square kilometers - about one third of the total area of Russia. Formally, these northern territories include all of Yakutia, the Magadan Region, the Kamchatka Territory and the Murmansk Region, as well as certain parts and cities of the Arkhangelsk, Tyumen, Irkutsk, Sakhalin Regions, the Komi Republic, the Krasnoyarsk and Khabarovsk Territories, as well as all the islands of the Arctic Ocean, its seas, the Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk.
How are these territories different?
Because of the harsh conditions in the area, people who work there are traditionally en titled to higher wages from the government than workers in other regions. As a result of the climate and environment, the indigenous peoples of the area have developed certain genetic differences that allow them to better cope with the region's environment. Their culture is also unique.
Murmansk, Yakutsk, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Norilsk, Novy Urengoy and Magadan are the largestcities of the Russian North. Located to the south, Arkhangelsk is the largest among the cities and territories "equated" with the Far North.
Chukotka and its features
The Chukotka Peninsula (Chukotka Autonomous Okrug) is a sparsely populated region with vast territories. Most of the people in this place are reindeer herders, fishermen or miners. Chukotka is rich in minerals, but many of them lie deep under ice or permafrost and are expensive to extract.
Most of the rural population survives on reindeer herding, whale hunting and fishing. The urban population is employed in mining, administrative, construction, cultural work, education, medicine and other professions. Chukotka is a mostly roadless area, and air transportation is the main type of passenger traffic. Between some settlements, for example, Egvekinot-Yultin (200 km), there are local permanent roads. When it's cold enough, winter roads are built on the frozen rivers to connect the population centers of the region into a single network. The main airport is Coal, located near Anadyr. Sea transportation is also carried out, but the ice conditions are too difficult for this, at least for half a year.
Anadyr is the capital of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. It has a supermarket, a cinema and an indoor skating rink, as well as new housing built to replace Soviet apartment buildings. 10,500 residents are heated through a system of pipes that supply hot water.
UniqueYakutsk
Yakutsk, located on the Lena River in Russia's northern territories, is a population center of 200,000 built around the world's largest reserves of diamonds, gold and oil. It is the capital of the Republic of Sakha and the only major city in the world built in permafrost conditions. The buildings in it are erected on piles that stand vertically and go deep into the ground by 10 meters. This is because the concrete foundation causes the permafrost to melt, causing it to tilt and sag.
Pole: cold
Oymyakon (600 km northeast of Yakutsk) is the coldest settlement in the world. According to the Guinness Book of Records, an unofficial temperature of -72 degrees was recorded there. In 1933, -67 and -71 degrees were officially recorded. During the winter, the mercury column constantly reaches -45 … -50 degrees during the day, and at night it usually drops to -60 C. But even at such temperatures, reindeer herders in this area go out into the tundra and graze their animals.
It's so cold in Oymyakon because it's not even located beyond the Arctic Circle. The cities further north are not so cold because they are stretched out by the sea. Even the frozen Arctic Ocean has a warming effect on the earth. Oymyakon, on the other hand, is hundreds of kilometers from the ocean, surrounded by mountains that keep the wind from blowing away a thick layer of cold air.
Northern weather
The coldest Arctic temperatures are recorded not around the North Pole, but in Siberia. This is because the oceans around the North Pole absorb heat in summer and release it in winter, even through snow and ice. The coldest place in the northern hemisphere is Verkhoyansk and Oymyakon, where the average January temperature is about -50 degrees. These settlements are located far inland, so they are much colder than the area at the North Pole, because there is no ocean water near them to heat the air.
The Arctic is not as bad as most people think. Light winds are observed within the Arctic Circle. Blizzards and storms usually only happen when large air masses push through the local air. In winter, the air is very dry, and less snow falls at the North Pole than in Siberia. In the Arctic tundra, the average annual temperature is only about -5 degrees, but it can sometimes drop to -60 degrees. The northernmost mainland point of Russian territory is also located in Siberia. This is Cape Chelyuskin, which rises on the Taimyr Peninsula.
Vegetation of the north
Most of the northern territories and the Arctic are too cold for trees to grow. Much of the landscape is covered in a treeless carpet of plants called tundra, which often extends for miles and is uninterrupted except for strips of snow, pools of water, and heaps of rocks. Most of the tundra regions lie within the Arctic Circle.
The nature of the Russian north includes low-growing heather, willows, saxophrages and poppies. Within a shortIn the Arctic summer, there is enough sun, moisture and warm wind to keep all plants alive. However, the minerals that the plants need are in short supply because the rocks do not normally weather into the soil. The richest source of nutrients are dead animals and plants. Large groups of plants can often be found growing from the remains of a dead deer or fox.
Permafrost can be observed up to several meters deep in the soil. It represents underground water frozen to the state of stone.
Life and work in cold climates
Cars in many of Russia's northern territories, especially in Oymyakon and Yakutsk, are often used for only a couple of years. Windshields are usually double with air in between to keep them from becoming opaque from frozen ice. Sometimes car tires freeze so that they crack and break apart like glass. Therefore, people often travel in groups to help each other in case of a car breakdown.
At -35 degrees, the strength of steel decreases, and structures made of it can become brittle and collapse. When temperatures reach -62 degrees, water freezes before it hits the ground, wet clothes break like glass, and facial frostbite can happen in minutes.
The problem of supplying territories
Despite the constant development of the northern territories, everything here is expensive, because it is delivered from other regions. For example, from foodnothing is grown. The only locally produced meat comes from hunted animals such as deer, elk and rabbits. It takes seven truckloads of firewood to heat each house in winter.
Features of local work
Construction work continues at low temperatures in the northern territories. The mortar is heated, so the bricks can be laid at -45 degrees Celsius. When the temperature drops to -51, the faucets don't work properly. Hot water is used to build the house to melt the permafrost so that the piles can sink seven meters down. When the soil freezes, they are firmly anchored in the ground at a depth that does not melt in summer.
Gold mining in permafrost is a two-year operation. The first year the surface melts, after which it is filled with water, which freezes to approximately two meters in depth. Isolated by this top layer of ice, groundwater continues to thaw at the onset of winter. The following spring, the ice is blasted and mining begins.
Population of these regions
In Siberia, the Far East and the Arctic, there are about 40 indigenous ethnic groups. Most of them have traditionally been shamanists and pastoral nomads. For a long time they lived in groups with a small number of people and migrated over long distances. In the south of the northern territories they herded sheep, horses and cattle. Those who lived further north bred deer. Some of them were also fishermen, whalers andhunters. Few of them had written languages.
The peoples of the Russian North and the Arctic speak dozens of Uralic, Turko-Tatar and Paleo-Siberian and many other dialects, with Russian serving as the language of communication.
Siberia has four main eco-cultural regions:
- Western Siberia, flat agricultural region and residence of relatively Russified groups such as Nenets, Komi, Mansi and Khanty.
- Southern Siberia with its large industrial and mining facilities, the percentage of national minorities here is very small.
- East-central region, home to traditional horse breeders such as Buryats, Tuvans and Yakuts.
- The Far East with the northernmost peoples of Eurasia - Eskimos, Chukchi and Nivkhs.
The culture of the Siberian region is largely determined by the interaction of Russians and other Slavs with indigenous Siberian groups. Traditionally, there is a high degree of intermarriage between various ethnic minorities among themselves and with Russians. Indigenous peoples most often live in the countryside and tundra, while Russians and other Slavs predominate in the big cities.
People living in the Arctic
The Arctic is known for its extremely harsh climate. Residents of the Far North who work there receive an additional pay called the "northern allowance" as well as other benefits, including additional leave and housing benefits.
The Arctic is unsuitable for growing vegetables and grains, and materials for building houseslittle here. Nevertheless, many ethnic groups, including the Nenets and Eskimos, live quite comfortably in these places. These people live by catching fish, other marine animals, herding deer and hunting. They traditionally build houses out of ice, turf, or animal skins.
Global warming and population
The disappearance of the Arctic ice is a very unfortunate event for animals such as seals, walruses and polar bears, who use the summer ice for hunting and feeding, as well as to get out of the water. The melting is also affecting Northern peoples like the Inuit, who depend on these animals to support their traditional lifestyle.
Global warming could thus put an end to the traditional way of life of the indigenous inhabitants of the Arctic. Melting ice makes hunting difficult and also reduces the population of animals that people hunt. Some hunters drown when they fall through the ice.
Indigenous peoples here need ice thick enough to support sleds laden with captured walruses, seals or even whale carcasses. If the hunter falls through the ice and there is nothing to warm him immediately, he may die from hypothermia or lose limbs from frostbite.
Cultural Identity
Folk sports played in the northern territories include lasso throwing (using a style used to catch deer), triple jumping, sled jumping, skiing, ax throwing. Evencompetitions like the decathlon for those who are good at sports. Conventional martial arts are mostly not practiced.
Some peoples in the north also play ice hockey without skates, using frozen tallow instead of a puck. There are no referees in big games. Players take a tough stance on following the rules and resolving disputes among themselves.
Competitions are regularly held in which the Nenets, Khanty, Komi and other nationalities take part. Game dances are also practiced by some Siberian national minorities.
