The last week in Yakutsk was remarkable for Days of Olenek (located in North-Eastern Yakutia, Siberia; 3 days by car). Here you can see the set of photographs taken on Orzhanikidze Square, that was occupied by representatves of the Even people dressed in national costumes. They danced and sang folk songs. Besides, there were outdoor sales organized. One could buy unty (reindeer skin boots) at reasonable prices like 10,000-15,000 rubles.

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Found out that Stepanida Borisova and Sakha Theatre gave performance in Paris on Sept. 24th, 2010. A few friends’ status updates informed about that event. It was a small event arranged by Yakutsk University known currently as North-Eastern Federal University.

Emilie Maj noted that Stepanida Borisova’s concert was beautiful. A very uncommon version of Olonkho (Yakut heroic epos), she said.

Another news breaker was Bernard Grua, who kindly allowed to publish his photographs on the eYakutia blog. By the way, here is what he writes:

“Never travel without your camera… I was in Paris for a couple of days. During my last evening in this city, I was told there was a performance of actors from Sakha National Theater. Fortunately, I had a memory card in my wallet. I put it in Vera’s small camera. Sometimes in photos emotions are bigger than quality. That’s why I like these pics.”

Futher, please, see more photographs. Read the rest of this entry…

Maciej Besta is a Polish student, who spent one month, August 2010, with his friend on hiking from the Kolyma Highway to Sasyr through the Chersky Mountains in East Yakutia. Recently he sent me a bunch of landscape photographs. Publishing them. In the near future, he promised me to send more. Great! Thanks, Maciej!

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Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill. Photo: RIA Novosti

Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill’s visit to Yakutsk appeared to be a big event. He arrived on Thursday and departed in the Saturday morning. I didn’t expect anything special from his arrival.

I am a believer, but not Orthodox. I didn’t hide or ignore his presence in the city. I think it wasn’t even possible to do. You could see signs of his visit all around. Like a lot of church goers in the center as well as policemen. Like all-embracing sounds of noisy bells. Like long liturgy motets. Besides, I found out that many friends of mine believed in the Orthodox Christianity. My wife saw them in the church during Partiarch Kirill’s liturgy. She says all of them were extremely happy. Moreover, that generally-accepted Holy man shaked my wife’s hand after his long staring at her.

What’s that? At one moment, I started believing that I was living in the city of the 16th or 17th century. Totally Orthodox. Similiar feelings had the Patriarch. Here what he was thinking, as his public relations department reported: Read the rest of this entry…

Great news! Russia’s railways are set to break new ground on Friday, September 24, 2010, when the remote Siberian line linking Central Yakutia to the Amur opens a new station at Kerdyom (also written as Kardem or Kerdem) 150km south off Yakutsk. If to be more precise, on the opposite Lena River bank in front of Pokrovsk.

Vladimir Putin was expected to lay the final rail on the line during his visit to the region this week, but people say he is not coming. The first passenger service is due to arrive on Monday morning.

As news agencies report, hopes to complete the service into Yakutsk by 2013 seem somewhat faint.

The city of Yakutsk is currently only accessible by air, boat or car.

Roman Yarygin spent two months, April and May, in the Verkhoyank Range with Oymyakon reindeer herders. In the above video he is sitting on the mountain top, while his Siberian husky is sleeping. An amazing view! See some of his photographs. Read the rest of this entry…

Dog sledding to the Lena Pillars. Yakutia/Siberia. Photo by Anastacia Longinova.

I have friends, Ajar Varlamov and Lena Sidorova. They have a common friend, Anastacia Longinova. Last winter, actually in March, they travelled on dog sleds along the Lena River to the famous Yakutia’s Pillars (so-called stone trees south off Yakutsk). A sort of dog sledding holidays.

The winter travel with Yakut laikas (a type of Siberian huskies) took 4 days. They overcame nearly 300 miles. Yup, it was extremely cold and windy, but it didn’t affect them. Guess what memories they’ve got now. Unforgettable!

See more winter photographs. Read the rest of this entry…

Yup, it is possible to meet wolves in Siberia’s Yakutia, Russia. In this case you can see six of them. The video was recorded by a mobile from the car on an ice road along the Lena River in winter. Delivered by a guy nicknamed as SnuSmumr1k.

Aubry Francine

The last week was full of great Yakutia-related news. Here is another one, but this time from France.

Received a message from Aubry Francine. She is very remarkable, as she visited Yakutia many times. Frankly saying, it’s hard to count all your stays in our Siberian region. Aubry is an France-based educator, who helps a lot to a French-Sakha school in the village of Khamagatta, 1 hour ride north off Yakutsk.

Here is the news. Read the rest of this entry…

Clean diamonds come from Siberia's Yakutia (Sakha). Epl Diamond LLC's promotion photo. Yakutsk, Siberia/Russia

Diamonds, diamonds, diamonds! They are ladies’ best friends. They are clean and precious and beautiful. And, you know what, the land of Sakha (Yakutia) has a lot of them under the surface. There were even a joke. There are so many diamonds in Yakutia that locals tend to use them in football instead of balls. A pretty funny, but the funniest thing is that outside people believe in it

Whatever we, residents of Yakutia, may say about these crystals, diamonds are the first thing that comes in association with my land. So I decided to continue brilliant topic. I asked my friends in EPL Diamond LLC to provide me with a few photos of their product, and they sent me a few and promised to give more in the near future. Here they are … Read the rest of this entry…