See photographs of the Even reindeer herders taken by anthropologist Florian Stammler in the northern part of the Verkhoyansk mountains in Yakutia, Siberia/Russia.

Florian Stammler is one of a few antropologists, who mainly studies the peoples of the Russian Arctic. He used to lecture in Cambridge. Now he teaches at the Rovaniemi University in the Finish Lapland. He has been to Yakutia many times. This time, a couple of weeks ago, he traveled to the Eveno-Bytantaisky region with Bruce Parry and his IndusFilms documentary team (wrote about them previously). Read the rest of this entry…

Proud to announce that today we start publishing the unique collection of the Czech photographer Pavel Kolínský’s stories about living in Yakutia’s Arctic, precisely in the Lena Delta. The first part is dedicated to the Yakutian sea port of Tiksi.

Pavel Kolínský’s photos taken in July of 2006, frankly saying, reveal the whole story. I could say, “No comments are required! Take a look and get the clue!” That’s absolutely true. However, I would like to say a few words. Read the rest of this entry…

See the first portion of old photos. 42 photographs. Scanned and presented by Misha Maltsev, a London-based Yakutian.

My comment: I think scanned old book pictures have their own aesthetics.

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Kids are ready to play outdoors, when it is even extremely cold

Today the temp in Yakutsk went down almost to -45C. Immediately the press center of the city hall reminded inhabitants about the mayor’s order dated Dec. 4, 2009, regarding schools’ work in cold weather.

According to this order, kids of the 1st – 5th grades may stay at home at -45C. When it is -48C, schools are closed for the 1st – 8th grades boys and girls. At -50C kids of all 11 grades are legally allowed not to study, they may enjoy free time. The listed restrictions, however, appeared to be obligatory for Yakutsk. Other regions and towns set its own not-to-go-school days. Read the rest of this entry…

This is relatively old news, but we would like to repeat it. So, here we go.

On November 19, 2009, the republic’s parliament approved in the first reading law on obligatory ethnological examination of the projects that can change the indigenous peoples’ of the North environment.

Members of parliament mean to protect the rights of the indigenous peoples in conditions of growing industrial development of their historical territories. The aim of the examination is to find out how such and such changes can affect the indigenous population’s life, culture and development in order to take timely adequate protective measures.

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