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.
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.
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…
Received a request from Jenanne, a Scotland University of Aberdeen PhD Student. Her major is Social Anthropology, so all her questions sounded accordingly. Mainly she wondered how popular the Sakha (Yakut) language was on the Internet. I said I had a friend of mine, who’s hobby was to write in his native language everything and everywhere in every corner of the worldwide net.
The person I recommended to torture with those questions was Halan (that’s how he prefers to call himself online), who stands behind Sakha Wikipedia. I reforwarded Jenanne’s questions to him. He answered and then Jenanne (currently she studies Russian, but speaks Ukrainian pretty good, cause her mother is originated from Ukraine) translated his text into English. Find Halan’s replies further: Read more…
This is a good question asked by a friend of mine from Fairbanks, Alaska. He is a big fan of photography and off-roading. His Flickr nick is rpiereck. Wonderful pictures he has. So… Frankly saying, it was me who first asked him “How do you prepare your Jeep for the winter in Alaska?” In his reply he gave me the detailed description, afterwards he returned my question back :)
The above picture was taken in Yakutsk on Dec. 11, 2008, when it was much below -50C.
Further, please, find info on how cars are prepared in the world’s cold regions, Alaska and the coolest Siberian region, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Read more…
Another portion of questions regarding Oymyakon, the Pole of Cold, I received from a Hungarian journalist, who was also wondering how people could live in such extreme weather conditions. Read more…
We, I and other Yakutians, are often asked about Oymyakon. The last time we forwarded received questions to a local resident. His name is Nikolay N. Krivoshapkin, 50-year-old driver, who was born, grew up and live the whole life in Oymyakon. Nikolay tried to describe what life in the coldest place on Earth looks like. He says: Read more…
Last December Shaun Walker, The Independent’s Moscow-based correspondent, wrote a great feature story about Yakutsk. He depicted how locals managed to live in the city that reminded more as a Siberian freezer. I gave him some support while he was in Yakutsk. Then he sent me his photographs attached to the mentioned story and gave me permission to post them on my weblog. Read more…
