Ivan Stankevich: Capital of Kolyma

Initially, we planned to fly to Pevek, Chukotka, where we were going to get on cars and go to Yakutsk on the winter roads “Arktika”. Unfortunately, this year turned out to be too snowy and the winter season was not opened yet, so our new Discovery 5s couldn’t get to Pevek and were stuck in Srednekolymsk, where our whole group arrived by plane from Yakutsk and where our trip began.

Srednekolymsk is a city on the Kolyma River. The civilization here has reached quite conditionally, despite the fact that the city is more than 300 years old. There is a sewerage system in just a few houses. The majority of the population runs in 60-degree frost on the street. Mobile communication seems to be available, but the mobile Internet is not working. There is a cafe in the village, but he has a toilet on the street, just like everyone else.

The only way to get here is by plane, either in the summer by the Kolyma River or in spring by the winter roads, which are cleared through frozen bogs for a month before the snow melts. Solarka costs 60 rubles per liter.

The story with the tank monument is interesting. In the 80s, a female worker of the Housing and Energy Complex asked a question at a party meeting: “Why do we not have a World War II monument in the city? Next year a tank was brought here on a barge along the Kolyma River. This is the only tank on Kolyma.

For us from the neighboring village Andryushkino came a band and a concert. They drove to us for 10 hours. Such distances here…

In the next installation, I will tell you where the local people take the water in the 60-degree frosty conditions, as it freezes in the pipes. Don’t switch!

Ivan Stankevich: Capital of Kolyma

Ivan Stankevich: Capital of Kolyma

Ivan Stankevich: Capital of Kolyma