The Far North is the northern territories of Russia located beyond the Arctic Circle. Its total area is about 5,500,000 square kilometers - this is 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 individual parts and cities of the Arkhangelsk, Tyumen, Irkutsk, Sakhalin Regions, the Komi Republic, 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 do these territories differ?
Due to the harsh conditions in the area, the people who work there traditionally receive from the government the right to higher wages than workers in other regions. As a result of the climate and the environment, the indigenous peoples of the area have received certain genetic differences that allow them to better cope with the environment of the region. The originality is different and their culture.
Murmansk, Yakutsk, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Norilsk, Novy Urengoy and Magadan are the largest cities in the Russian North. Located south of Arkhangelsk is the largest among cities and territories, "equated" to the Far North.
Chukotka and its features
The Chukotka Peninsula (Chukotka Autonomous Okrug) is a sparsely populated region with extensive 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 their extraction is expensive.
Most of the rural population survives through reindeer herding, whale hunting and fishing. The urban population is engaged in mining, administrative, construction, cultural work, education, medicine and other professions. Chukotka is mainly a non-road territory, 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 frozen rivers to connect the settlements of the region into a single network. The main airport is Coal, located next to Anadyr. Sea transport is also carried out, but the ice situation is too difficult for this, at least for six months.
Anadyr is the capital of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. It has a supermarket, a cinema and an indoor ice rink, as well as new housing built instead of Soviet apartment buildings. 10,500 residents are heated through a system of pipes through which hot water is supplied.
Unique Yakutsk
Yakutsk, located on the Lena River, in the northern territories of Russia, is a settlement with a population of 200,000 people, 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. The buildings in it are erected on stilts that stand vertically and go deeper into the ground by 10 meters. This is due to the fact that the concrete foundation makes permafrost melt, which causes its slope 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 informal 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 usually drops to -60 ° C at night. But even at these temperatures, reindeer herders in this area go out into the tundra and graze their animals.
It is so cold in Oymyakon, because it is 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, and it is surrounded by mountains that prevent the wind from blowing a thick layer of cold air.
North weather
The coldest arctic temperatures are recorded not around the North Pole, but in Siberia. This is due to the fact that 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 adverse as most people think. Within the Arctic Circle there is a slight wind. Snowstorms and storms usually happen only when large air masses are pushed 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 continental point of the territory of Russia 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. Most of the landscape is covered with treeless carpet of plants called the tundra, which often extends for many kilometers and does not interrupt, with the exception of streaks of snow, puddles of water and piles of rocks. Most tundra regions lie within the Arctic Circle.
The nature of the Russian north includes stunted heather, willows, saxophrages and poppies. During a short arctic summer there is enough sun, moisture and a warm wind so that all plants can be preserved. However, the minerals that plants need are inadequate because the stones usually do not erode into the soil. The richest source of nutrients are dead animals and plants. Often you can find large groups of plants growing from the remains of a dead deer or fox.
Permafrost can be observed up to several meters deep in the soil. It is an underground water, frozen to the state of stone.
Life and work in a cold climate
Cars in many Russian northern territories, especially in Oymyakon and Yakutsk, are often used for only a couple of years. Windscreens are usually double with air in between so that they do not become opaque from freezing ice. Sometimes car tires freeze so that they crack and fall apart, like glass. Therefore, people often travel in groups to help each other in the event of a car breakdown.
At -35 degrees, the strength of steel decreases, and structures made of it can become brittle and collapse. When the temperature reaches -62 degrees, the water freezes before touching the ground, wet clothes break like glass, and frostbite on your face can happen in a matter of 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, nothing is grown from food. The only locally produced meat is the animals that are hunted, such as deer, elk and rabbits. To heat each house in winter, seven trucks with firewood are required.
Features of local work
Construction work continues at low temperatures in the northern territories. The solution heats up, so the bricks can be laid at a temperature of -45 degrees Celsius. When the temperature drops to -51, the taps do not work properly. To build the house, hot water is used to melt permafrost so that the piles can go down seven meters. When the soil freezes, they are firmly fixed in the ground at a depth that does not melt in the summer.
Permafrost gold mining is a two-year operation. The first year the surface melts, after which it is poured with water, which freezes up to about two meters in depth. Isolated by this upper layer of ice, groundwater continues to thaw at the beginning of winter. Next spring, ice is blown up, and production begins.
The population of these regions
In Siberia, the Far East and the Arctic, there are about 40 indigenous ethnic groups. Most of them were traditionally shamanists and nomadic herders. 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 grazed sheep, horses and cattle. Those who lived north bred deer. Some of them were also fishermen, whale catchers and hunters. Few of them had written languages.
The peoples of the Russian North and the Arctic speak dozens of Urals, Turkic-Tatar, and Paleosiberian and many other dialects, and the Russian language serves as a language of communication.
Siberia has four main ecocultural areas:
- Western Siberia, a flat agricultural region and a place of residence for relatively Russified groups, such as the Nenets, Komi, Mansi and Khanty.
- South Siberia with its large industrial and mining facilities, the percentage of national minorities here is very small.
- The east-central region, where traditional horse breeders live, such as Buryats, Tuvans and Yakuts.
- The Far East with the northernmost peoples of Eurasia - the 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 mixed marriages between different national minorities among themselves and with Russians. Indigenous peoples most often live in rural areas and the tundra, while Russians and other Slavs predominate in large cities.
People living in the Arctic
The territories of the Arctic are known for their extremely harsh climate. Residents of the Far North who work there receive an additional payment called the “northern allowance”, as well as other benefits, including additional leave and housing benefits.
The Arctic is unsuitable for growing vegetables and crops, and there are few materials for building houses. Nevertheless, many ethnic groups, including the Nenets and Eskimos, live quite comfortably in these places. These people live off fishing, other marine animals, deer breeding and hunting. They traditionally build houses from ice, turf or animal skins.
Global warming and population
The disappearance of Arctic ice is a very unfavorable phenomenon for animals, such as seals, walruses and polar bears, who use summer ice for hunting and feeding, as well as for getting out of the water. Melting also affects northern populations such as Inuit, who depend on these animals to maintain their traditional way of life.
Global warming, thus, can 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 humans hunt. Some hunters drown, falling through the ice.
The indigenous peoples of these places need the ice to be thick enough to withstand sledges weighed down by caught walruses, seals or even carcasses of whales. If a hunter falls through the ice and there is nothing to warm him immediately, he may die from hypothermia or lose limbs from frostbite.
Cultural features
Popular sports that northern residents engage in include lasso throwing (using the style used to catch deer), triple jump from the spot, sledding, skiing, ax throwing. There are even competitions like decathlon for those who are good at sports. Common martial arts are generally not practiced.
Some peoples in the north also play ice-hockey, using frozen clumps of fat instead of the puck. In big games there are no judges. Players adhere to a tough position of 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.