Tourists Drive to Isolated Russkoye Ustye in Yakutia
Blogger Alexei Zhirukhin and his friend Mirian Turkmenov reached the most remote villages of Yakutia, concluding their journey in Russkoye Ustye. He shared this on his channel in «Dzen.»
«Before this trip, I was sure: such things are only possible in sci-fi movies. But reality turned out to be more impressive,» he wrote.
On the way to Russkoye Ustye, the bloggers passed through the village of Belaya Gora, learned that supplies are delivered only by plane, they couldn«t eat at a cafe—there simply aren»t any, but local fishermen gifted them freshly caught whitefish.
Driving along the Indigirka River, the travelers encountered divers who set up a tent and at minus 50 degrees Celsius (minus 58°F) searched for mammoth tusks at the river bottom—in winter, the river is less murky, giving prospectors a better chance. The blogger was also gifted a piece of tusk.
After that, Alexei and Mirian reached Chokurdakh, where a little over two thousand people live. Their final destination was Russkoye Ustye.
«You drive for one, two, ten hours—and you can feel it in your skin: familiar civilization is ending. We were driving when the outside temperature dropped to minus fifty degrees Celsius (minus 58°F). It became clear how the road here cuts off casual people and shapes a completely different way of life, which deserves separate discussion,» says Alexei.
Alexei Zhirukhin has been actively traveling the world for 20 years, has visited 55 countries and all of Russia, and for 15 years has run the popular blog «Travels with Meaning,» showcasing affordable tourism. On «Dzen,» he has over 142,000 subscribers.
After crossing the Indigirka and overcoming hundreds of kilometers of snowy desert, the bloggers finally saw the roofs of Russkoye Ustye village. Alexei admitted that a few years ago he read about this village and would never have believed he could reach so far in just an ordinary jeep.
People greeted them warily but not hostilely, and, to the travelers« surprise, without curiosity. Here flowed its own peaceful life.
Locals said that their ancestors came here in 1638, fleeing from the oprichnina (a state policy under Ivan the Terrible) of Ivan the Terrible; the locals have mixed genes of Novgorod settlers and northern indigenous peoples—Yukaghirs and Evens. The Russian language here is used completely differently—fast, melodious, and with a soft clicking sound. The bloggers immersed themselves in a completely different Russian culture, recording dozens of words—«basko» (beautiful), «veretya» (hill), «lyva» (puddle), «guy» (flag), and others.
«The longer you communicate with the locals, the more you understand: the word »Russian« here has a completely different meaning than what we are used to. We»ve only seen such people on the yellowed pages of history textbooks. They call themselves «Indigirshchiki»,« wrote Alexei in his blog.
The daily life of Russkoye Ustye residents is harsh, and the store is the river and tundra. Supplies are delivered, «but the prices are astronomical, as if the products were delivered to the ISS (International Space Station).» So they have to rely only on themselves.
The bloggers learned that there is no central heating or sewage system here, so one has to relieve oneself outside or in a bucket in the entrance hall at minus 50 degrees Celsius (minus 58°F). If they catch fish—it means they won«t go hungry, and they can drink tea from prepared ice.
Russkoye Ustye showed Alexei Zhirukhin that somewhere else, one can live without iPhones, shopping malls, mortgages, and even without «ambitions,» calmly and in a Russian way.
«I don»t want to leave here,« he concluded.
Now Alexei Zhirukhin and Mirian Turkmenov are returning back. The main thing is not to get stuck somewhere in a snowdrift along the way—there are no cars nearby, locals only travel on snowmobiles.
