Residents of Yakutia told how they survive with “minus 60”: “Tourists come to swim”

– How do we survive at minus 60? We are not accustomed! – smiles the President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Yakutia Marina Bogoslovskaya. – But such low temperatures as this year are, of course, not typical for Yakutsk. Usually we have minus 45, rarely minus 50. Now it is very frosty even for our capital. But we go to work as usual. Fixed days have been introduced for schoolchildren and preschoolers, that is, when every day is announced and it becomes known what the temperature will be. If it is below the norm, then the so-called active days are announced. Schoolchildren study remotely, while kids stay at home. Transport is operating normally, of course, there are some problems with housing and communal services, but we have them every winter. Our communal services valiantly liquidate accidents. In principle, everything is fine.

– I can’t even imagine how you have to wrap yourself up before you go out.

– If earlier the picture was – fur coats, fur hats, high boots, now basically everyone is in down jackets for the season, with hoods. Well, shoes – who in what, in warm boots, etc. But still high fur boots are in fashion with us. These are boots made of deer skin. Embroider them with beads, and it looks very beautiful! Even here, men and women have adapted this year to wear warm ski pants under a jacket, under a fur coat. The girls come to work, they took off these panties, and there they have tights, put on shoes and beauty!

– What is the ice fog that has been lingering in Yakutsk for several days now?

– Usual fog for us. When the temperature drops below 40 degrees, we have almost zero visibility. This fog is like milk, you can’t even see the opposite house from your apartment. In addition, Yakutsk itself is located in a lowland (if you climb a mountain, there is sun even at minus 60), plus there is a lot of transport, exhaust gases, and everything accumulates like a pillow. Here is the fog. And it is not at all icy, as they say.

– What are the most global problems now at such a low temperature?

– Of course, this is the life support system itself. To keep the house warm, the light was on, water came out of the tap, simple life things. Of course, we have failures from time to time, we start to get nervous, because there are very severe frosts, but there are mobile brigades, housing and communal services, they instantly rush to the accident sites and eliminate all this in a matter of hours.

– And yet, how does a typical working day of a Yakutian develop?

– Dressed warmly, went out, got on the bus and drove off. Everything is individual. We do not make a tragedy out of this. Don’t panic, that’s for sure! We are discussing at work with colleagues – well, it would rather be at least minus 40, at least it will get warmer! Now, rules have also been introduced that parents in such severe frosts can decide for themselves how their child will study today – whether he will go to school or online. It is allowed. We are promised that by the end of the week it will be below fifty. But with us it always starts in December and ends in February.

Yes, and in remote areas of the republic, in villages and towns, people are accustomed to such a climate. Moreover, they admire him and even manage to do their “Yakut-frosty” business at this time.

“I am a native Yakut,” Rosalia Kondakova, a resident of the Oymyakon village, which is considered the pole of cold, told MK. – I live in this village all my life with my family. By profession I am a mathematics teacher, and then I was the head of our village. Now retired, but I lead an active lifestyle!

– Do you often have such cold weather?

– Yes, sometimes. But they come precisely during Epiphany frosts, as well as throughout the republic. Last weekend we had up to minus 65! How are we experiencing? Yes OK! We dress as usual: women mostly wear fur coats and high fur boots. Of course, we mainly wear fur hats – fox, sable, so that the face and ears cover. And the young have moved away from this, they wear angorka.

– Houses now do not freeze through?

– It is a bit difficult with heating, energy, because all our houses, private, we heat them with stoves, firewood, coal. There is no central heating, we prepare everything ourselves. The biggest problem is water. The river Indigirka flows near our village. A very powerful river. She is fast paced and very dangerous. And even with our frosts, it does not always freeze. Men prepare ice in advance, when only the river begins to freeze. This water is very clean because the river is clean. We store ice near the house, in special wooden devices. Small pieces so that it was not too heavy to carry. And then we put it in a barrel at home, the ice melts, and here we have clean drinking water! And so we have a water carrier, of course, goes, brings water.

But the most interesting thing I want to tell you is how horses and cows survive the frost. Every family has its own livestock, its own household. And cows in the cold go to the river, to the watering hole and drink calmly. We have flocks of cows, not just one… Each individual keeps at least ten. We feed hay, which we harvest in the summer. There are also many deer, whole herds. I also want to tell you about horses – they calmly endure such a frost. At 65 degrees they are outside, they are not hidden anywhere, and the horses sleep standing up all winter, they are adapted to us!

And the kids don’t care either! Our villages are far from each other, the school is seven kilometers away. So at 70 degrees minus outside, just let them run out. They even wear it without a hat! But while studying remotely. But communication over the Internet is often interrupted, because the cables are covered with frost, damp then.

As for food, shops, according to Rosalia, they bring everything they need to the village. True, the prices bite.

– We have several shops in the village, – the woman continues. – Fruits are rarely brought in in winter, but we ourselves stock up on potatoes, we buy bags in autumn, we also plant different vegetables in greenhouses in summer, we grow them ourselves. Nothing! Everything is fine!

When asked if the Yakuts have their own special recipe for food, hot dishes in such terrible frosts, Rosalia smiled:

– We, on the contrary, so that there is not a big difference in contrast in the temperature of the body, do not eat very hot. We eat frozen foal meat, liver, venison, fish. Stroganin is different, in general. This is the most important food. For reindeer herders, there is deer fat, lard to keep warm, because their life is completely different, wild. I remember once an Italian came to us, I fed him stroganina like that (laughs). He looked at me, looked and how now I remember his face. And this guide tells him – nothing, he must try everything!

But again, the biggest problem in such wild frosts, according to local residents, is heating and firewood.

“Now we mostly heat our houses with coal,” says Rozalia Kondakova. – Here, we are waiting for January 18th. It will start to warm up. As always! In the meantime, the locals have something to do – to entertain tourists, and a lot of them come.

– Who is coming to you in such deep frosts and why?

– When I was still the head of the village, people often came from the Urals. The cars were tested in extreme cold. And a lot of tourists come. They come specially to celebrate the New Year and … to swim!

Test yourself in the cold. Frozen bananas want to burst! Watch the champagne freeze. The flow of tourists usually begins in December. Last years there were foreign tourists from Germany, Austria, Japan, Switzerland, India. These days Muscovites were 14 people and from Perm. He was from India, he tried to reach us for the second year and arrived. What are they ordering? National dishes are mainly stroganina, stews, ice cream made from our local cream, which is only with berry dye. Venison, foal, fish in any form. Fried, frozen. The Japanese, for example, brought their own rice. And, of course, many of these tourists swim. We have special houses built near the river, where it does not freeze. And our locals rarely swim. Mostly men. And we wash and warm ourselves in our personal baths. In recent years, at least some business has started. Everyone makes reservations in advance and wants to come to us in a severe frost, because for them it is exotic.