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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