How they live in Oymyakon. Pole of cold, Oymyakon, Yakutia. Away from the cold

Updated 12/05/2019 Author Oleg Lazhechnikov Views 25307 Comments 29

The final post about the January trip of my friend Vitalik. This is how it happens, at first he didn’t want to write, and then he signed for several posts :) I read and understand that such people need to blog, it’s too fluent to write. But this is not surprising, they are all linguists.

During my two days at the Pole of Cold, I learned something remarkable from the life of ordinary Oymyakonians. As a result, the idea arose to arrange it in the form of a small selection of 33 facts. Here's what happened in the end.

1. Oymyakon in Yakutia is called the whole area, which includes several settlements, including the village of the same name. The center of the district is the village of Tomtor, where there is an airport and a meteorological station, where the minimum temperature of -71.2°C was recorded. Here you can have a look.

2. In Oymyakon itself (the village), which is located 40 km north of Tomtor, there has never been a weather station, but a memorial stele was installed there for decency.

3. Outwardly, the villages of the Oymyakon Valley differ little from those familiar to us somewhere in the Volga region. It turns out that the technology of a simple Russian hut can easily withstand extreme frosts.

4. Cars do drive with double glazing. Moreover, if a double package is immediately placed on the windshield, then this is impossible with the side ones, so the second glass is glued to ordinary adhesive tape. Otherwise, the person sitting next to him will have the risk of frostbite on half of his face.

5. Cars are turned off at night, but there are special heated garages for them, where the temperature does not drop much below zero, so starting is not a problem.

6. At temperatures below minus 56 (this is considered cold here), the equipment starts to behave strangely, and it is not recommended to travel far without unnecessary need.

7. If you still had to go in such a cold, then the consumption of gasoline is doubled. In addition, if you stop on the road, the tires begin to deform under the weight of the car, and at first you have to drive slowly and as if over bumps. You also have to carry a complete set of spare parts with you, enough to fix a motor that has stalled on the road.

8. Children of elementary grades stop going to school at temperatures below -52, older children - at minus 58. This is due to the same risk of equipment failure, because. many children get to school by bus.

9. In some houses, for example, in the village of Kuidusun, where I stayed, there is a central water supply. However, only hot water flows from the tap (cold water would simply freeze in the pipes), and taking a shower for those who had hot water turned off at home should be fun: you need to carry buckets of cold water and dilute it with hot water from the tap - the opposite is true.

10. By the way, many have a toilet in the yard. It has light, but no heating, and this is considered the norm. I probably won’t share my feelings from visiting such a place =) However, they try to build new houses in a familiar, not extreme format.

11. The cost of firewood for heating a 120 m2 house + sauna + garage per season (which lasts 8 months here) is about 50 tr. Taking into account the fact that this also provides hot water, it comes out even cheaper than in Moscow.

12. "Oymyakon" in Even language means "non-freezing water". Indeed, where is she still not to freeze. It's all about the warm springs that gush out of the ground and form streams on the surface. They completely freeze only by March. The nature around them is exceptionally beautiful.

13. People live by hunting (for themselves) and animal husbandry (for selling and getting cash). Horses are bred for meat, there is also a large reindeer farm. Pictured is a barn.

14. The Yakut horse is a unique beast. She does not need a barn, she grazes in the open air in any weather, she also gets her own food, picking the frozen ground with her hoof. It should be fed only so that it does not go far from the owners.

15. Farmers say that this horse is “programmed” to look for special nutritional herbs, so its meat contains such a complex of vitamins that allows a person to fully eat without eating vegetables and fruits.

16. Horse meat is considered coarse meat by the locals. Foal is held in high esteem, and in the Yakut restaurant you will be served exactly it, and not horse meat.

17. A foal at the age of 6-7 months is slaughtered, blindfolded and struck with a hammer.

18. I can’t check on vitamins, but a bottle of koumiss from this horse’s milk makes you forget about hunger for a long time. Its taste is exceptionally tart, and resembles a dense strong ale.

19. The height of the hunting season falls on the most severe frost, because. hunting is prohibited in spring - during this season, animals give birth, and in summer bears compete (which, however, does not really stop the locals, they only complain that it is forbidden to shoot bears, and if necessary, then they will have to prove it).

20. Despite the attachment to nature, the locals are very knowledgeable in information technology (although only MTS has mobile Internet). For example, the driver Max, who drove me from Ust-Nera to Tomtor, quit his job with his wife, they are now engaged in network marketing - they manage the sales of some Tibetan dietary supplements.

21. Everyone, including 70-year-old pensioners, has a WhatsApp account with photos.

22. WhatsApp allows you to help out the driver or hunter in case of problems: for example, if he did not return at the agreed time and did not get in touch, the wife makes an alert through the group, and everyone who is in touch helps organize a search and rescue operation.

23. Debt in the store can be paid by transfer from card to card.

24. In the village of Tomtor, there is a cafe for the whole region (at least they go there with family and friends, like in a cafe). You can’t eat foal meat there, but you can have French fries and nuggets - for the locals this is a delicacy. Upon learning that I was from Moscow, they persistently tried to find out if they had the right potato.

25. Of the power structures in the entire Oymyakon Valley, only in Tomtor there is a district police officer and an investigator. In the rest of the villages, according to the locals, anarchy, banditry and drunken showdowns reign.

26. There is one guy in Oymyakon, I don’t remember his name. Once, in a drunken fight, he was knocked out right on the street and left. He woke up 15 minutes later, came home, fell asleep. The result - amputation of almost all frostbitten fingers. Works now as a driver, by the way.

27. There is a local history museum in Tomtor. In it, you can twist almost all the exhibits in your hands, including the carbine of 1764. A visit to the museum is free, but for this you must first find its owner. .

28. Oymyakonye is famous for its Gulag camps, of which there were 29 in one area. They say that in order to counteract escapes, the NKVD officers promised local hunters for each fugitive hand brought a bag of sugar or flour (the brush was needed to verify fingerprints). The scheme worked. Moreover, the especially cunning first caught the fugitives, forced them to work for themselves for some time, and only then killed them: well, what, a bag of sugar is not superfluous.

29. In addition to local history, there is a museum of the Gulag, as the locals call it. It was assembled by a simple rural teacher and is located in the school building. I wrote a little more about it

Photos from open sources

This is the most severe place on our planet where people live permanently. There are about five hundred of them. The main occupation of the local population is cattle breeding, reindeer herding and fishing. In summer, people go to the so-called. flyers for haymaking. In Oymyakon, there are all signs of civilization: there is a cellular connection, the Internet and an airport built back in the war years. There are a hospital, schools - ordinary and musical, a kindergarten, a club, a library, a gym, a bakery, a gas station and a shop. By the way, food prices in Oymyakon are higher than in the Russian capital: a loaf of bread, for example, costs 50 rubles. (website)

The stagnant cold of Oymyakon penetrates to the bones

The village is located at an altitude of 741 meters above sea level. In winter, very cold air flows into the Oymyakon valley. And although there is no wind here, the stagnant cold, as the locals say, penetrates through and through.

The lowest temperature in the village was recorded in 1938: -77.8 degrees Celsius. Meteorologists and scientists have been arguing for a long time which of the settlements of Yakutia is more "cold" - Oymyakon or Verkhoyansk. The latest data favors Oymyakon, where absolute annual lows are 3.5 degrees lower.

Photos from open sources

The difference between winter and summer temperatures here reaches 104 degrees. By the way, the highest summer temperature was recorded in 2010: +34.6 degrees Celsius.

However, most of the year Oymyakon is covered in snow. The permafrost prevents people from properly digging graves, and everyone prays that their loved ones don't die in the winter.

The shortest day in December here lasts three hours; summer is the time of white nights, when it is light all day and night. This time of the year, in turn, is also characterized by a significant temperature drop: during the day it can reach +30 degrees, and at night it can drop below zero.

Photos from open sources

Kids in Oymyakon are dressed “like cabbage”, leaving only their eyes open. At the same time, they can only walk on sleds, since it is very difficult for children to walk in their “hundred clothes”. As for schoolchildren, primary school students stay at home at a temperature of -52 degrees, and at -56 degrees the whole school is no longer studying.

The adult population of Oymyakon dresses in down jackets and fur coats, fur hats and high boots made of deer skins. People are forced to put on two or three pairs of pants, socks, tights. A hat covering the forehead and a scarf raised to the bridge of the nose save the face from frostbite. However, there are cases when the local beauties wore nylon tights in 50-degree frost and managed not to freeze.

Photos from open sources

For cars, the villagers have heated garages; the driver warms up the engine for 10-15 minutes before leaving. If there is no garage, the engine is not turned off at all. Additional stoves are installed in the engine cabins, and they drive on arctic diesel fuel (diesel oil and kerosene are mixed). Many drivers make a pipe with their own hands, with the help of which they heat the fuel. Yakut truckers do not turn off the engines of their cars for months.

Nature and animals of Oymyakon

The nature of Oymyakon is beautiful and unique: there are streams that do not freeze in a 70-degree frost, and ice that does not melt in a 30-degree heat.

Of all the Oymyakon animals, only horses, dogs and, of course, reindeer are able to endure the winter cold. Cows are released from a warm barn at a temperature not lower than -30 degrees, while special warm bras are put on their udders. In winter, cats are not let out at all, and if some extreme girl jumps out of the house herself, she is guaranteed frostbite. As for dogs, they are taken home on especially cold days or allowed into the garage. The rest of the time these animals spend on the street.

Photos from open sources

Today, many tourists come to Oymyakon - Russian travelers and foreigners. Among the local attractions are the preserved buildings of the Gulag camps, the museum, Lake Labynkyr and Moltanskaya Rock, covered with secrets and legends, and, of course, the local frosts themselves. Every spring, the village hosts a festival called "Oymyakon - the Pole of Cold", and then you can see a lot of Santa Clauses, who have come together from different countries of the world.

Incredible Facts

Welcome to Oymyakon, the coldest village on Earth, where the average temperature in January is -50 C and the locals' eyelashes freeze as soon as they go outside.

Oymyakon is best known as one of the "Cold Poles" on Earth.

If we take into account some parameters, then we can say that the Oymyakon Valley is the most severe settlement on Earth.

Temperature in Oymyakon

Winter 2017-2018 turned out to be so severe that the new electronic thermometer broke as soon as it registered - 62 degrees Celsius.

The official weather station at the Pole of Cold recorded -59 degrees, but locals say their thermometers dropped to -67 C, 1 degree above the acceptable temperature for a place with a permanent population.

A digital thermometer in Oymyakon was installed in 2017 to help attract tourists, but a record low temperature caused it to fail.

Oymyakon on the map

1. Today, about 500 people live in the village. In the 1920s and 1930s, reindeer herders stopped here so that their herd could drink water from the thermal spring. Hence the name of the village, which is translated as "water that does not freeze."

2. In 1933, a temperature of -67.7 C was recorded, which is still the lowest temperature in the northern hemisphere. Below the temperature dropped only in Antarctica, but there is no permanent population.

3. Daily problems that locals face include the following: freezing paste in the pen, freezing glasses that then stick to the face, and fast draining of batteries and accumulators.

4. It is said that the locals do not even turn off their cars, as it will be impossible to bring them in. Truckers do work for several months without turning off the engine. However, sometimes even this does not save, because after a 4-hour parking, the car simply freezes, and its wheels become stone.

5. The average life expectancy in this village is 55 years, and people are most afraid of funerals. The fact is that the dead are very difficult to bury due to the fact that the earth is as hard as stone. To soften it, they first kindle a fire, after which the hot coals are pushed aside and a small hole is dug. This process is repeated for several days until a hole is deep enough for the coffin.

6. To get to Oymyakon from Moscow, you need to fly to Yakutsk for 6 hours, then drive another 1,000 km along a snowy highway. But in the summer you can try to fly to the village by plane, but you will have to land at your own peril and risk, since the airport is old, there is an abandoned kindergarten nearby, and all this is surrounded by a large unplowed field, on which planes land.

Oymyakon - the pole of cold

7. Children are wrapped up here so that they are not able to move independently. Here is one example:

* First they put on warm underwear, and woolen pants on top, after which they pull on wadded, thicker pants.

* Knitted socks and felt boots must be worn on the legs.

* After this, the child is wrapped in a fur coat, first one hat is put on the head, and another hat is put on top.

* Bunny mittens are put on the child’s hands, and his face is very tightly tied with a scarf so that only eyebrows and eyes remain visible.

* A fur coat is put on the stove, which is then laid on a sled, the child is carried out in their arms, put on a sled and taken to a kindergarten.

8. In winter, it is very dreary here, since the day lasts only 4 hours, while people still stay in their homes and warm themselves by the stove.

9. You can go to school until the temperature drops to -60 degrees. At the same time, schoolchildren sit in a coat, and all together warm pens with their breath so that they can write with them.

10. All clothes of local residents are made of natural fur, as everything artificial just breaks in the cold. High boots are put on the legs, which are made from the skin of the lower part of the deer leg. It is better that the fur coat reaches the shoes, because if it is shorter, then you can seriously freeze your lower leg and knees. Only a hat made of mink, fox or fox is put on the head.

Oymyakon, Russia

11. The most favorite holiday of all local residents is the holiday of the North. Specially on this day, three very important and long-awaited guests come to Oymyakon at once - Santa Claus from Veliky Ustyug, Santa Claus straight from Lapland, as well as the Yakut Santa Claus Chiskhan, who is considered the keeper of the cold.

12. All foreigners are shocked by what they see. Many do not know what felt boots are, and to help them, the locals hang signs "right" and "left" on each felt boot.

13. Women here, like all women in the world, want to look good. Therefore, even at a temperature of -60 C, some wear stockings, walk in stilettos and in a short skirt. In this case, of course, a very long fur coat is put on top.

14. Residents do not need refrigerators, as local residents simply keep fresh-frozen fish, butter, meat and berries on the veranda of their house.

15. All villagers know about the rules of living at very low temperatures. One of them says that a person is able to withstand low temperatures if he is not afraid of them, or rather, is not afraid to freeze. According to scientists, the panic fear of freezing speeds up the process of freezing, and if a person has given himself a clear setting "I'm not cold!", then such a psychological technique significantly increases the period of survival in the cold.

Hello! My name is Nikolay, I am 38 years old and I want to tell you my story. It just so happened that my mother gave birth to me at the Pole of Cold. Probably, dear readers, you are aware enough to know that the pole of cold does not coincide with either the north pole or the south pole, but is located in Yakutia, in the village of Oymyakon. In fact, residents of neighboring Verkhoyansk vehemently argue that it is colder here, but it has been documented that it is colder in Oymyakon, even if this is not the case, then everyone still believes.

My parents, being naive students, came here at the end of the 60s from Novosibirsk, by distribution after the institute. I don’t know what motivated them, this topic was never raised in the family, but it just so happened that my sister and I were born here. After school, Svetlana went to study in Vladivostok, got married there and stayed by the warm Sea of ​​Japan for the rest of her life (for us, Vladivostok is a very warm city). I learned to be an electrician in Yakutsk and returned to my native village. From Yakutsk to Oymyakon about a thousand kilometers. There is no bus service all year round. In summer, you can still get there by public transport, and in winter you have to take an UAZ "loaf" and drive it through the snowy desert. The road takes an average of thirty hours, so only a wealthy person can afford to leave or come to Oymyakon in winter. Not winter here only from the second half of May to the first half of September. All the rest of the time - cold dog.

It's funny to read the news or watch stories on television, where they tell how Moscow froze at twenty degrees below zero, our children stop going to school only when the thermometer drops below sixty degrees. Twenty degrees with a minus sign - a fabulous warmth, minus thirty - a slight coolness. In January, in Oymyakon, the average temperature is 55 degrees below zero, in February it is even colder, under sixty. People endure such weather gifts. Even in summer, there is periodically a negative temperature, there is no need to talk about any sunburn in such a climate, you just need to survive.

My parents worked at a weather station. In theory, it was possible to retire after fifteen working years, but they worked for twenty-two years - and then left for the mainland, where they were seriously ill for several years. In Oymyakon, due to the high ambient temperature, there are no viruses at all, they simply die here. On the mainland, any cold, any flu, can be fatal to a northerner. Now, following the Parents to the south, to Novosibirsk, I left. So far I have been living here for only a year, but first things first. Let's start with what kind of village this Oymyakon is.

Oymyakon village

Who needs Oymyakon is unclear. The authorities have long ceased to pay attention to the problems of poor northerners. Before moving to Novosibirsk, I worked as an electrician at the Airport. Electrician - loudly said. At the pole of cold, it looks like an old building that looks like a barn, with broken glass, torn doors and furniture collected from neighbors who abandoned their homes. No one finances the airport, so all its personnel - the dispatcher, the runway inspector, the electrician - survive as best they can. We were paid salaries, but we were not given money for repairs and other needs at all. After I quit, the inspector began to combine his work with the work of an electrician. There was nothing tricky in my work - I just had to organize the illumination of the runway. In the cold, the bulbs exploded, even when under a hood. Of course, there are special lamps that are not afraid of frost, but no one gave us money for them. You can, of course, not fly at night, but in winter we have only four hours of light, of which two hours are twilight. Like it or not, you need to turn on the light on the strip. If nothing changes, then soon the dispatcher will also leave the airport, then the inspector will probably have to combine three positions.

In a dilapidated log building, which we call the airport, there is a waiting room. It looks like a room with two old sofas. It is very cold in it, because the airport is old and it is slowly blowing from the cracks.

Near the airport there is a pen for cows and a kindergarten. Now he is only half working, there are still children in Oymyakon. A little further away - a huge field that even a very drunk person cannot call even, this is our runway.

The airport was organized during the Great Patriotic War. There was an air base of the Pacific Fleet, which made raids on Japan. After the end of the Second World War, the airport began to be used for peaceful purposes, for civilians. Only two aircraft models flew here - An-2 and An-24. Flights are prohibited at temperatures of minus six degrees Celsius and below. In Soviet times, planes flew all year round, then, during perestroika, flights were stopped, which almost killed the village, but a few years later they resumed again. True, now there is communication with Yakutsk only in the summer. Previously, there was also a flight to the village of Ust-Nera, but now it was closed as unnecessary. In winter, you can get to the big city only by UAZ.

In our frosts, the car is not jammed. Truckers in Yakutia have motors running for months without shutting down. In two hours of downtime, everything will freeze so much - that then you have to wait for the summer to start. On the mainland, cars are warmed up in warm boxes, in car washes. We don't have anything like that in Oymyakon. And in general, in all of Yakutia, probably, only in Yakutsk you can find warm boxes. If you leave the car with the engine running for four hours, it will also freeze, the wheels will turn into stones. Of course, you can drive such a car, but very carefully and slowly. Imagine riding on wheels that resemble the shape of an egg - is it convenient? And we had to drive like this every winter. You roll on the sly and think: “Damn this north, I’ll go to Sochi, I’ll buy a house.” And then you don't go anywhere. And not because you love this Oymyakon and these frosts so much, it’s just that everything is spinning again, it starts spinning and it’s not up to it. You have to survive here.

It is not uncommon for tires to burst in winter. The iron frames of cars regularly crack, plastic bumpers crumble to dust from frost. The most cruel thing that can happen to a car enthusiast is if the stove breaks in his car. Of course, here everyone glues both doors and vents, but the cold still enters the car, and it itself cools down due to outside air. If the stove is covered - put on everything that you find and how you want, pull to the nearest village. True, they are not the same with us as in the Central part of Russia, and two hundred, and three hundred kilometers can be driven until you find someone, but you can go all five hundred.

People on the mainland are afraid that the dollar will rise, the ruble will fall, tariffs will be raised, and so on. etc. in Oymyakon, the main fear is problems with energy. In conditions of such a frost, you begin to treat the ordinary joys of life with particular reverence. The entire village is heated by a diesel power station. There is no need to talk about any boiler house in such a frost, there will be too big losses. Our diesel power plant, in my lifetime, failed several times in the most bitter cold. Moreover, in my memory, no one has ever done a major overhaul of the power plant. Fortunately, from Yakutsk they quickly responded to a breakdown and sent a team of workers. All the same, the male population, at this time, tried to prevent the water supply from freezing, which would have broken through later, after the power plant was repaired. Everyone who could, picked up a blowtorch and warmed the pipes.

Each house has its own heating element here, since transferring hot water at a sixty-degree frost is fraught - at best, it will simply cool down. But in order for even a cold one to reach a person, it is necessary to heat the pipes with electricity. To do this, special heating cables are placed on them, and a casing on top. If the power plant stops working, then the pipes stop heating, and the casing is able to keep heat only for a certain time - then it becomes not enough. You have to rip off the casing and heat the pipe with a blowtorch. If the pipe breaks, it is unrealistic to replace it before the summer. Can you imagine leaving a hospital, school or kindergarten without water?

Yes, there is a hospital, a school, and a store at the Pole of Cold. Work is not only for harsh men, but also for fragile women. Even children in Oymyakon are not the same as on the mainland. From childhood, she is ready for frost and harsh Yakut weather. When it's cold outside, no heating helps. Schoolchildren sit during lessons in a coat (the coat is specially kept at school, because it is not reasonable to carry it around with you) and warm gel pens, which, in theory, do not freeze in the cold.

The attitude to clothing in Oymyakon is not at all the same as on the mainland. Beautiful, ugly, it doesn't matter. The main thing is to be warm. If you jump out into the street in a thin jacket for a couple of minutes, then the sleeve may break off, or the collar. A real Oymyakon wears high fur boots made of camus, the skin of the lower part of the reindeer leg. For one pair of high fur boots, ten kamus are needed, that is, fur from ten deer legs. The length of the fur coat must reach the boots. Otherwise, you can freeze your knees and lower leg. On the head is a fur hat made of polar fox, mink or fox, for those who live more modestly. You can't go out without a scarf. In severe frost, you can breathe on the street only through a scarf. Thus, at least some amount of warm air enters the lungs. At low temperatures, the oxygen content in the air is very low, so the average person breathes twice as fast. If you exhale in the cold in silence, you can hear rustling, it freezes the exhaled air. Oymyakon frosts are not afraid of colds, but frostbite is easier to get here - you can also protect yourself from it only with a warm scarf.

The nature of women does not change in plus twenty or minus sixty. Even in such weather in Oymyakon you can meet a woman in stockings and a short skirt, however, there will be a long, long fur coat on top, but the essence of the matter does not change. It is enough to announce dances - and beauties from all the nearest villages will come together to show themselves and look at others. There are still women in the Yakut villages.

Children of the Pole of Cold

As it turns out, I don't have any children of my own. I had a wife, but God did not send children. Somewhere I read that children themselves choose their parents, apparently none of them wanted to live at the Pole of Cold. Reasonable guys, there is nothing to say. No matter how hard it is for adults in Oymyakon, it is doubly hard for children. When I was still quite a baby, before being taken out into the street, they dressed me for half an hour, and all this was very reminiscent of a mysterious ritual. First, warm underwear is put on, then woolen pants, and on top - a wadded jumpsuit. On the body - a flannelette shirt, on top - a warm sweater. And then, to complete the image of cabbage - a zigey coat. On the feet - ordinary socks, woolen socks and felt boots. There is a knitted hat on the head, and a zigey hat on top. On the palm - hare mittens. It was absolutely impossible to walk in such a knightly costume. Therefore, small children are not driven down the street here, but carried in sleds. You can’t just put a child in a sled - you need to heat the bedding on the stove, lay it down first, and put the child on top. Outside, the baby has only eyes and eyebrows, the rest of the body is not cold.

You are from the north, but why do you have all the walruses there or what?

Are you a singer? Come on, sleep! Are you from the north? Can you go without a hat in winter? When I first moved to Novosibirsk and told that I grew up on Oymyakon, everyone was very surprised. It was believed that we could walk there barefoot in the snow in a fifty-degree frost. On the contrary, the further north a person lives, the more carefully he treats heat and, accordingly, dresses warmer.

Until recently, nobody walrus in Yakutia. Now there are also few amateurs, but even accidents do not scare them away. For example, there is a bad tradition in Russia - to dive into the hole for baptism. It is surprising that the Orthodox Church repeats that this rite is not a church one, and in general it is harmful, and every year the people dive more and more into the hole. In the middle of the 2000s, this fashion for false Orthodoxy also reached Yakutia. It cost dozens of people their health, and someone, probably, their lives. Imagine for yourself, outside the window minus fifty-five degrees, the water temperature is three degrees above zero. You undress - you go dry through the snow to the water - no problem, you dip - it's generally great, warm, but as soon as you get out, your feet will instantly freeze to the ice. I myself witnessed how the first desperate daredevils dived into the hole. Then we tore them off the ice by force. The Russian man is ready for a bad deed. No one finished experiments with winter swimming at the Pole of Cold - they began to dive, but having a bucket of hot water at hand. A person gets out of the water and a hot path is poured in front of him so that he can run to the car, wipe himself off and put on dry clothes. Another way is to dive in shoes, shoes do not stick to ice. It is strictly forbidden to dive into the hole while intoxicated.

In general, if you have drunk, it is better not to go out. Alcohol doesn't protect you from the cold. He is more of an enemy than a friend. Falling asleep is not difficult. In the best case, frozen limbs are amputated. Although can such a case be called the best? There are a lot of troubles from alcohol in the north. Previously, there was dry law in Oymyakon. Nobody introduced it, it just was, and people observed it. The instinct of self-preservation told them that it is better not to keep even half a liter in the house away from sin. If you want to drink - drink a little at home. Now you can read, now about the bottom frozen to death, then about something else. Vodka generally freezes in the cold, like mercury thermometers, which do not work below forty-five degrees below zero. In the village, residents use alcohol thermometers, but rather not for good, but for fun. It’s clear, after all, that it’s cold outside the window, but what difference does it make - fifty degrees or fifty-five?

In Oymyakon, the most ordinary objects and things take on very unusual forms. For example, the police here never carry batons - in the cold they harden and burst on impact, like glass. Fish taken out of the water in the cold turns glassy in five minutes. Linens also need to be dried very carefully. In a couple of minutes in the cold, it becomes a stake, and after two hours, things already need to be brought back. If you do this carelessly, then the pillowcase or duvet cover can break in half.

Winter on the street, of all domestic animals, only dogs, horses and, of course, reindeer can endure. Cows spend most of the year in warm bread. They can be let out on the street only when the thermometer rises above thirty degrees of frost, but even at such a temperature it is necessary to put on a special bra on the udder, otherwise the animal will freeze it. Refrigerators are not used here for most of the year, storing meat, fish and lingonberries on the veranda. It is impossible to chop meat with an ax - otherwise it will turn into a small chip, you have to saw it. Local residents suffer from beriberi indiscriminately. They try to fight it with onions, but it gives only a small fraction of vitamins.

People at the Pole of Cold look much older than their years, and only a few live more than fifty-five years. Separately, it is worth mentioning the funeral in our climate. There is even a saying here - God forbid you die in winter. Graves are being dug for a whole week. The earth is first heated with a stove, then the soil is hammered with crowbars by twenty centimeters, then it is heated again and again hammered, and so on until the depth reaches two meters. The work is terrible. There are no full-time diggers in Oymyakon, digging the grave falls entirely on the shoulders of relatives and friends.

Oymyakon now

There is still work to be done at the Pole of Cold. It will always be here as long as there are people, but every year there are fewer and fewer residents. Someone dies, someone leaves for the mainland. Previously, near Oymyakon, there was a large livestock farm and a farm where silver fox was bred. Her fur was the best. Probably not in vain they say that the stronger the frost, the better the fur. Now both the complex and the farm are closed. A few people work at the airport, some work at the substation, and the meteorological station is still functioning. People from the mainland do not come here to work, except for very desperate brave men, but such people can be counted on the fingers of one hand over the past ten years. Salaries by northern standards are not the highest, but when I say in Novosibirsk that I received 72 thousand rubles in Oymyakon, everyone rolls their eyes dreamily. They just don't know that chocolate costs seven hundred rubles a bar there, and all other goods are also very expensive.

Away from the cold

After my divorce from my wife and the death of my parents, I got really depressed. Although my parents lived far away, but once a year I steadily got out to them, looked at the huge Novosibirsk and envied all the people living there. None of you understand how difficult it is to drag out your existence in conditions of inhuman cold. By the age of thirty-five, my body probably had the biological age of a fifty-year-old man. There are practically no teeth left. At thirty-seven, it was supposed to be fifteen years since I worked in Oymyakon, which means I was entitled to a pension. I haven't worked a day since I retired. I waited for the first UAZ to go to Yakutsk, collected things dear to my memory and drove away. I said goodbye to several people, walked around my native village for the last time and that was it.

Then there was paperwork with an extract from Oymyakon, a flight to Novosibirsk, a passport office, justice, etc. etc. My parents left a two-room apartment in the city on Serebryannikovskaya Street, so I live almost in the center. I don’t know any problems, every new day is really new for me. I had a computer for a long time, but only in Novosibirsk I discovered the Internet. At first, I felt awkward in the supermarket and in the subway, I was embarrassed by the crowds of people on the streets. Living in the north, you spend a huge amount of time with yourself or with your loved ones. Thus, even the most sociable person runs the risk of becoming an introvert. It's still hard for me to strike up a conversation with a stranger. Although I served in the army and lived in Yakutsk while I was studying at a technical school, I was still not used to huge masses of people. And yet, here, on the mainland, people are much more sociable than we have there, in the North. Recently, I found in my classmates all my friends who left Oymyakon earlier - no one yearns and does not want to go back.

The only thing that sometimes dreams is our warm stove. Where I, as a very young kid, slept in the long winter nights. I slept on the stove, and my mother got up very early and cooked food for us in this stove. This dream is so real that immediately after it I wake up and for a long time I cannot understand where I am, and then I go to the window and look at the big beautiful houses, sometimes I see people walking down the street and not wrapping themselves in a scarf and I understand that I am in a completely different, warm world. I heard more than once that Novosibirsk is considered a cold city. It depends what you compare it to.

There is a great infrastructure here. You can leave or fly anywhere. Thousands of northerners who find themselves in harsh nature not of their own free will, but because they were born there, dream of living in Novosibirsk or a similar big and warm city, where water runs from the tap all the time, and does not freeze for months, where you can not be afraid, that the car will stall - and you will freeze to death. By the way, I recently bought a car - Renault Logan. I started it without autostart in winter, in thirty-degree frost, when neighbor's cars stood at a stake. My new friend Shurik jokes that the engine understands that I am a northerner and cannot fool around like that in front of me, which is why it starts up like a clock.

Life begins at forty...

I was brought up in such a way that I always thought that after forty, sunset was already beginning. I’m looking at Siberians now, at the age of forty they walk with young girls, they look smart and generally don’t consider themselves old people. While this is new to me. When I asked a colleague at a new job: “How old do you think I am?”. She immediately replied, "Fifty?" On the one hand it was funny, but on the other awkward. I'm only thirty-eight, which means you can start a new life and even have children. So far, however, on this basis, not everything is smooth.

I work as an electrician at a supply base. Not the most romantic profession, give women bosses or narrow specialists with a large salary, but I have no position, no salary, and even with health problems. As soon as some kind of epidemic begins in the city, I immediately begin to get sick. There is no immunity to sores from the mainland, but during the one winter that I lived here, I never got frostbite. Siberian weak frost leaves no traces on my skin. What will happen to me, an ordinary Oymyakon peasant, is unknown, but I am sure that nothing bad will happen. The past is forgotten, the future is closed, the present is granted.

Instead of an afterword

I hope that someday the authorities will turn their attention away from their PR, their money and their dirt and pay attention to the problems of ordinary people. There are many of us. Probably, we are not seven spans in the forehead that we cannot find a place for ourselves under the sun, but we are also people and also deserve a little, but happiness. If somewhere in a remote village of Yakutia a child starts to get sick in winter and the paramedic throws up his hands, then nothing can help the baby. No roads, no communication, no chance. Diamonds are mined in our region, we bring a lot of money to the treasury, where does it all go? Why do we need such small villages where it is impossible to live? So let Vladimir Putin save the Siberian Cranes or dive for amphoras, but come to Yakutia and see how people live there. I do not want to sound like a whiner, but with such an attitude of power towards the Russian north, we will soon completely lose control over this territory. There will be one big white desert. Better give Yakutia to the Japanese, enough to indulge your imperialist ambitions. It is not possible to manage - it is not necessary, why torture people? Northerners never complain about their lives, only when I was here in Novosibirsk, I realized how bad it is to live in Oymyakon.

P.S. In my memory, more foreigners (Japanese, Canadians, Americans, Norwegians) came to us in Oymyakon than Russians. Russian moneybags, who flew in on separate planes, looked at the coldest place on Earth just for fun, and citizens of other states were interested in how we live in such harsh conditions. They say that they even tried to help, but due to bureaucratic delays, nothing came of it. I think that says a lot...

Oymyakon is the pole of cold, one of the harshest places on earth where people constantly live and work. Children go to school at -50 °C, streams do not freeze even at -70 °C, and on the street you can meet women in nylon stockings. "My Planet" has collected facts and opinions of local residents about this unique Russian region, which is becoming increasingly popular with tourists.

Population

In the Yakut village of Oymyakon, 512 people live (according to 2012 data). Mostly people are engaged in cattle breeding, reindeer herding, fishing. In summer, residents go for haymaking in the so-called letniki. There is civilization in Oymyakon: there is the Internet, and cellular communications, and an airport that was created during the Second World War. There are a school, a hospital, a club, a kindergarten, a music school, a library, a bakery, a gas station, a gym and shops. Prices are higher than in Moscow: for example, a loaf of bread costs 50 rubles.

Days and nights

Photo: Amos Chapple

The shortest day in December is three hours long. But in the summer there are white nights - light around the clock. Summer is characterized by a large temperature difference: during the day it can be +30 ° C, and at night - below zero.

Education in elementary grades is canceled at -52 °C. At -56 ° C, the whole school does not study.

standing cold

Photo: Dmitry Chistoprudov

The village is located at an altitude of 741 m above sea level in a hollow where cold air flows in winter. There is no wind, but, according to the locals, the stagnant cold penetrates through and through.

The temperature minimum, according to various measurements, ranges from -77.8 to -82 ° C. Scientists and meteorologists are constantly arguing about which settlement in Yakutia should be considered the main north pole of cold: Oymyakon or Verkhoyansk. According to the latest data, the absolute annual minimums in Oymyakon are 3.5 °C lower than in Verkhoyansk.

The temperature difference in summer and winter reaches 104 ° C - according to this indicator, Oymyakon occupies one of the first places in the world. +34.6 °C is the highest temperature recorded in the summer of 2010.

There is snow in Oymyakon from 213 to 229 days a year.

Yakut truckers do not turn off their engines for months

Children

Photo: Reuters

Small children are dressed according to the principle of cabbage, leaving only their eyes open, you can only walk on a sled, since the baby is unlikely to be able to walk independently in such uniforms. Education in elementary grades is canceled at -52 °C. At -56 ° C, the whole school does not study. Children are looking forward to the frosts so that they can spend the whole short polar day outdoors, riding down the slides.

Cloth

Photo: Amos Chapple

Adults dress in fur coats, down jackets, fur hats, high boots made of reindeer skin, put on two or three pairs of tights, pants and socks. A hat to the forehead and a scarf to the bridge of the nose save from frostbite of the face and nose. But cases of frostbite still happen. However, nothing will change the female nature: there were cases when women at -50 ° C put on nylon tights under a fur coat and managed not to freeze.

Cars

Photo: Olga Vodopyanova

Cars are parked in heated garages, before leaving the driver warms up the engine for 10-15 minutes. If there is no garage, then the engine is not turned off, but, as they say in Yakutia, they rumble. Additional stoves are installed in the cabs of the vehicles, arctic diesel fuel is used (diesel oil is mixed with kerosene). Many drivers make a special home-made pipe for heating fuel. Yakut truckers do not turn off their engines for months.

A cow can only be let out of a warm barn at -30 ° C, putting on a special bra on the udder so that it does not freeze

Nature

Photo: Spiridon Sleptsov

Oymyakon has a beautiful unique nature: there are streams that do not freeze in 70-degree frost, and ice that does not melt in 30-degree heat. Recently, tourism has been very developed: foreigners and Russian travelers come from all over the country. Among the local attractions are museums, Gulag camps, full of secrets and legends Moltan rock and Labynkyr lake and, of course, the bitter frost itself. In the spring, the festival "Oymyakon - the Pole of Cold" is held annually, which attracts Santa Clauses from all over the world. Tourists are advised to dress very warmly: wadded pants, a pair of hats, fur sweaters, high boots made of deer wool and a scarf with which you can wrap your face will not interfere.

Animals

Photo: Author unknown

Of all animals, only dogs, horses and reindeer can endure the Oymyakon cold. A cow can only be let out of a warm barn at -30 ° C, putting on a special bra on the udder so that it does not freeze. Cats are not allowed outside in winter, but if the animal jumps out on its own, frostbite is guaranteed. On very cold days, the owners let the dogs into the house or in the garage, but the rest of the time they live on the street.

special effects

Photo: Reuters

The locals claim that:

- in severe frosts (-65 ° C), if metal hits metal hard, sparks are cut out, because of this it is very dangerous to use gas stations;

- vodka freezes in the cold, like mercury thermometers;

- the police do not have batons - in the cold they harden and burst on impact, like glass;

- a fish taken out of the water in the cold becomes glassy in five minutes;

Locals take washed clothes outside to freeze. In a minute it rises a stake. They are collected after two hours very carefully, otherwise you can break the pillowcase or tear off the collar of the shirt.

Because of the permafrost, it is very difficult to dig graves. People pray that loved ones do not die in winter.

Evgenia Zibinskaya, originally from the neighboring village of Nelkan, Oymyakonsky District, abolished in 2008 Until 1997, I lived in the village of Nelkan. Our village was surrounded by a ring of mountains, because of which we had no wind and the cold was tolerated quite easily. But in Yakutsk -30 ° C is a real torture because of the winds constantly blowing, as if from all directions at the same time. The polar day is very short. Walking, we captured a piece of the polar night - so children roaming around in pitch darkness were not uncommon. I still have no fear of night walks. The main northern device is deer fur. Reindeer fur is unique: each hair is a hollow tube filled with air. Thanks to such an air cushion, the fur retains heat very well. We had a gold mine, so the main activity of its inhabitants was focused on this, the rest provided the infrastructure. Gold, by the way, could be found right in the river (I'm not talking about a trifle, which is enough in the Urals, but about quite large nuggets), but it was of no interest to the inhabitants, because if someone decided to hand it over to the state, then paperwork would be more than enough, and taking it out, you know, was unrealistic.