10 video stories from Tyumen: forests, Zabolotye, and a dead sea
Throughout 2025, the friendly team of the 72.RU editorial office searched for interesting characters for you and went on business trips. We visited workshops where the famous «Rosomakha» all-terrain vehicles are assembled, peeked into glowing greenhouses visible from airplanes, flew to Zabolotye, cut off from the mainland, and met many interesting Tyumen residents.
And we tried to capture all the most interesting things not only with photos but also on video. Summing up the past year, we invite you to watch 10 of the most vivid videos that surely stuck in our minds, and probably yours too.
Large family cramped in a rented apartment
In June, we told you the challenging story of Yekaterina Lagunova. The Tyumen mother of many children is raising seven children alone, aged from two to 16 years. The main problem for this large and friendly family is the lack of their own housing. The woman is on another maternity leave, lives on benefits, and is cramped together with her children in a small rented apartment.
«I have seven children, and I am happy,» begins the story of 35-year-old Tyumen resident Yekaterina. She seems strong, unafraid of difficulties, and truly bears everything on her shoulders. Despite her smile and optimism, not everything in her life has gone well. Over the past years, she has had to endure a lot. The death of her first husband, separations from her second and third, wandering from rented apartment to apartment. The woman has had to seek help from compassionate people. She went to court over land and a house bought with maternity capital.
Getting to know the «Rosomakha» all-terrain vehicles
At the end of summer, the 72.RU team visited the workshops where the «Rosomakha» all-terrain vehicle is assembled, talked with its creators, and even tested it in action. Watch how the all-terrain vehicles are assembled by hand, what «goodies» are installed to order (from sleeping berths to optics costing hundreds of thousands), and what this beast can do on rough terrain.
The «Rosomakha» is not just an all-terrain vehicle, but a real predator on wheels. The machine is designed to go where ordinary equipment gives up: through swamps, ravines, snowdrifts, and off-road. Initially, it was assembled as utilitarian transport for hunters and fishermen, but then rescuers and the Ministry of Emergency Situations (EMERCOM) paid attention to it. Now these all-terrain vehicles help search for missing people, travel from Kamchatka to Kaliningrad, and also to Belarus, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, and even the Emirates.
Trip to Tyumen«s »dead sea«
In Tyumen Oblast, there is its own «dead sea». This is Salt Lake, located near the village of Okunevo in Berdyuzhsky District. At the bottom of the reservoir is blue mud used for treatment. Because of this, tourists come to the lake every year—villagers say they have met guests from Moscow, Astana, and St. Petersburg. However, for now, the tourist spot looks no different than a simple village beach.
Glowing greenhouses
When you fly by plane to Tyumen or depart from it, do you see how a whole city of lights glows brightly to the side? It seems like something cosmic: greenhouses, visible even from altitude, shine year-round. This is «TyumenAgro». Just open the door to the complex, and it«s as if you step onto the equator: instead of grayness and cold—warm, humid air, the scent of fresh greenery, and blinding light. Bright orange tomatoes hang in clusters like grapes, and cucumber vines stretch high up. Here it»s summer all year round, and harvest is taken every day—no matter if it«s January or July on the calendar.
Life in hard-to-reach Zabolotye
In autumn, our journalists visited Laytamak in Tobolsk District. We tell how the village lives and harvests cranberries, cut off from the whole world and existing by the customs of the past.
«Where else to go? You have to live somehow,» says Ilnur about cranberry harvesting, pouring berries from a bucket. With one motion, the elderly man throws a sack over his shoulders and, hunched, strides through the swamp. His feet sink in, he pulls them out and quickens his pace. There«s no time to lose on talk, because every liter of cranberries gathered is food and fuel for the entire next year.
Flight with the aerial forest protection crew
Together with pilots from Tobolsk, our journalists this year patrolled the forests.
When Sergey Matytsyn talks about work, his big blue eyes fill with tears. For 30 years, he has been flying over the forests of Tyumen Oblast—ensuring every square of land is safe. From the height of the plane, Sergey notices how spruce trees have grown in one area, while in another, black charred trunks remain—he knows all the places where fires once were. And he always remarks with bitterness: «If people were more careful, there would be fewer tragedies.»
Chicken coop among high-rises in a residential district
The brick nine-story building on Shirotnaya Street is almost no different from other houses in the MZhK microdistrict—a typical house built in the early 1990s, with a simple but well-kept yard. The only and main difference from the other houses is the two-story annex located on the roadside. The annex contains commercial premises: a veterinary clinic, shops, a pizzeria, and the «Bukhara» cafe.
On the end side, there used to be a cafe where shawarma was prepared. Outside, the sign «Shawarma BAR» and menu are still there. But now the establishment«s doors are closed, and the glass is covered with foil from the inside. Passing by, you can smell the sharp odor of droppings and hear the clucking of chickens. As it turned out, in the premises of the closed cafe, a chicken coop has been set up. And this has become a real problem for residents of nearby houses.
History of a Tyumen ceramics brand
Yekaterina Dushko, who graduated from art school, planned to enter the design faculty, but it didn«t work out. After studying at university, she started working in her specialty—in the oil sector. First in her native Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug (KhMAO), after moving to Tyumen—already here. It was in the best city on earth that Yekaterina realized she wanted to radically change her field. She quit, bought a special kiln, and immersed herself in the world of ceramics. What came of it—watch in the video.
Village of sled dogs
Where can you relax from city noise, feed nimble rabbits, meet the Samoyed named Muzyka, and hug the Irish Wolfhound Gelei to your heart«s content? For you—to the only one in Tyumen and even the entire oblast, the sled dog village »Bystrye Lapy« (Fast Paws). It appeared just a few years ago, but as if it has always been there. About this amazing place, 72.RU was told by its founder Maria Afonina, so we could share her story with you. Watch and plan your visit.
Optimist in a wheelchair
Yevgeny Mosikeyev is a blogger, amateur programmer, and self-employed. He works remotely because he cannot leave the house without assistance: at age 23, the man experienced clinical death and a coma due to appendicitis complications. When he woke up, he could only blink.
Since then, 17 years have passed. Yevgeny relearned how to speak, move his arms, and even walk a little. We visited this cheerful Tyumen resident to show you how he lives and what he dreams of.
You can watch more video stories in our special section.
