Hi! My name is Bolot. I am a journalist. Based in Yakutsk. Ask me a question about the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Siberia / Russia, and get the answer.
-50C in Yakutsk, Yakutia / Russia. Photo by Egor Fedorov.
Received a message from India. A lady wrote that she had always been VERY fascinated by Siberia and the cold! She noted that it was unfortunate that in India they only reach just about 0° deg Celcius barely on cold winter nights!
Her question was “What kind of special thermometers do you have yo measure that kind of extreme temperature? I have a Timex expedition watch with a range from 60°C to -10°C. So i guess that is just useless there! So where do you measure it and where do you buy that?”
Received a very nice request from a 12-year-old lady from Stochholm, Sweden.
She wrote:
Hi!.. I am 12 years old. I am working on a school project about Yakutsk and Yakutia. There are some things I want to ask about. – What type of clothes do you use during wintertime? -What abot the wildlife in Yakutia, what type of animals live there? – Children who don’t live close to their school, how do they get to school during the coldest periods?
This is so cool! I was extremely glad to hear kids’ interest in Yakutia.
What are the people of Yakutsk called in English? Yakuts? I’m an editor working on a novel with a Russian character who mentions Yakutsk.
Even in Russian, no special name exists for the people living in Russia’s Siberian city of Yakutsk.
Usually, when we are away and want to identify ourselves, we prefer to say that we are Yakutians. This is the name for all people living in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).
Often I was asked, if I have the updated information on business and investment opportunities. Yes, I have one, but in the form of the official Republic of Sakha-Yakutia investment guidebook.
Follow the link “Read more” to find the updated region economy information with infographs and photographs taken by Yakutia-Sakha News Agency and, certainly, download the English version of the investment guidebook with the full list of available regional investment projects.
A week or two ago, I received a message from Nikolay Pavlov (he is also known as Halan and Cyber Sakha). He is a very popular person on the Yakutian Internet. It’s him, who works hard together with his like-minded friends on Sakha Wikipedia.
He asked me about a favour. In his email, he said that in the early summer there was one of UNESCO conferences held in Yakutsk (Yakutia / Russia), and there were Japanese speakers Mikami Yoshiki and Tanaka Nakahira, who monitor the Internet in search of websites done in rare languages.
So, according to Nikolay, Mikami Yoshiki and Tanaka Nakahira said an interesting statement. They said that there were websites even in the Yukagir language, but the Sakha language was not represented online…
Nikolay and all other people, who do their best in promoting the Sakha language on the web, were confused a little. How come? There are many of such Internet resources. Maybe, they got words in a wrong way.
When they talked to Japanese speakers, the latter said that they monitored mainly websites in .com domain zone!
So, to render justice, Nikolay asked me to publish the list of the well-known Sakha language web resources. Proceed reading to check the top.
The flag of Yakutia in a bookstore in the 2nd House of the Republic of Sakha-Yakutia
Yesterday, Doug Wothke sent me a text with a quick question, “Where to buy the flag of Yakutia?” Gosh, it appeared to be a hard question.
I don’t know why, but Yakutia flags are something that tend to be ordered specially at local advertising & publishing houses. It is something used mostly and ordered in a bulk by governmental and municipal organizations, NGOs, various parties or companies.
So, the flag of Yakutia must be ordered. I mean, if you wish a flag, you need to contact a company that produces flags, and place the order.
One of the most common question I come across is… right…
What is the current population of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the biggest Russian region, with around 3 million sq km?
According to the preliminary results of the 2010 Russian population census, announced officially on Oct. 14, 2010, the population of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is 958.3 thousand people.
In terms of population, Yakutia is the 3rd largest Far Eastern region in Russia. The first position belongs to the Primorsky Kray (1956.4 K) and the Khabarovsk Territory (1344.2 K).
A never-frozen brook in the Verkhoyansk Range, East Yakutia, Siberia
One day I received two inquiries regarding drinking water in Yakutsk. The first one arrived from India saying, “What about your food habits (including drinking water)during winter?” The second request was asked by an American teacher, who was writing a paper on the use of drinking water in the Siberian city of Yakutsk. The latter contained more questions that the first one had.
So happy that it became possible to help Russia Today TV Channel with meeting a shaman in Yakutia. How did it happen?
A few weeks before the New Year celebration, a Russia Today producer called me and asked how to meet a shaman in Yakutia, Siberia/Russia. I started to explain and tell exactly what I wrote in the previous post “How to meet shamans in Yakutia?“. Said that it was a bit hard task, if they wanted to make a story with a real one. Not so many of them left in the region… and all of them prefer to live at remote places, far from people.
They would need to travel to a shaman’s place in taiga. The nearest one, Fedot P. Ivanov, is located near the village of Vilyuisk, minimum 5 hours by a car from Yakutsk. Find him and ask him for letting them to do the interview with him, and it’s not guaranteed that he would express his wish to show up on TV, as he is tired of journalists’ attention and consider them pretty annoying.
Recommended to get in touch with Galina E. Shadrina (see her contact), who are considered as shamans’ assistant and eye in mordern civilization. Russia Today appeared to be really lucky. Galina managed to invite one of shamans to Yakutsk. It was Leonid Savin, who is based in the village of Zhigansk, North Yakutia. His flight from Zhigansk to Yakutsk was possible to one good person, who agreed to pay his flight.
Russia Today made a story. Watch the video above. Currently, Leonid Savin is stuck in Yakutsk. He is doing clarification rituals at people’s requests and this way he is trying to earn money for getting back to Zhigansk. Don’t know, if he would agree to come the next time for another TV crew… but who knows :)
Meanwhile, read RussiaToday’s story ofYakutian shamans. I like it much. Read more…
An American Ian was asking me recently, “I am wondering how the lack of sunlight effects people in the long winter months. How many hours of daylight do you have, and it is dreadful? In summer, are the days extremely long? I am fascinated by your home.”
