это лето This is Summer
A journey through a Siberian summer
Lydia Bigley Это Лето - This is Summer By Lydia Bigley
First published 2007
Photographs and text © Lydia Bigley www.lydiabigley.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, record or other- wise, without the prior permission of the photographer.
Designed by Lydia Bigley Printed in London
Maps: http://www.whrc.org/russia/images/russiamap.jpg http://www.search.com/reference/Category:Federal_districts_of_Russia
Front Cover: Viktor Shargaev and Oksana Tabitseva, Ulan Ude Back Cover: Motorised Raft, Yarki Island, northern Lake Baikal For the young people of Siberia
Introduction
Freezing temperatures and Stalin’s gulags. Mention Siberia to someone and these are likely to be their first thoughts. Although contemporary Russia remains a firm part of the news agenda, the focus is always on Moscow, and the politics and cul- ture of European Russia. Very little is written or documented about contemporary Siberia and it still maintains an exotic ring to it. While the Trans-Siberian Railway has gained cult status among travellers, people tend to stick to well worn paths, usually using the train as an alternative method to travel to, what are considered the more ‘exciting’ destinations of Mongolia and China and therefore missing out on Eastern Siberia completely.
Opened up by Cossack armies in the 17th century, Siberia became a place of exile for everybody from political dissenters to criminals. During the Soviet regime ‘undesirable elements’ were shipped off to gulags, labour camps set up to provide the workforce needed to harvest the sparsely populated region’s vast natural resources. The conditions in these camps were horrendous and most of the ‘work- ers’ died. However not all of Siberia’s population expansion came through exile. The building of the Trans-Siberian railway line, linking European and Asian Russia, saw over 8 million people pour into the region between 1886 and 1911.
Aside from the Slavic Russians that migrated, Siberia is also home to over 30 indigenous peoples from the arctic Nenet reindeer herders in the far north to the Mongol Buryats in the south. Despite being incredibly isolated in some parts, Sibe- ria also contains Russia’s third biggest city, the thoroughly westernised Novosi- birsk, known as ‘the capital of Siberia’.
Siberia is regarded as ‘Russia’s great outdoors’. Vast taiga (Siberian forest), riv- ers and hills make it the perfect spot for outdoor activities such as rafting, hiking, horse riding and fishing in summer and skiing and sledging in winter. It is a popu- lar tourist destination for Russians, but still rarely visited by Westerners.
Often mistaken for Siberia, the Russian Far East is even more remote, colder and home to ‘some of the most isolated towns in the world’. Bigger than Europe it stretches from the frozen tundra of the Arctic Circle in the north, to the semi-tropi- cal forests that run along the Sea of Japan in the South. The Russian Far East also contains the country’s biggest republic, ‘Sakha’ home to the Yakut people.
Although Siberia and the Russian Far East do experience long freezing winters with temperatures dropping as low as -50C in some places, they also enjoy very hot (if somewhat short) summers.
Contemporary Siberian Life
Many of Russia’s new billionaires, such as Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich, have grown rich from Siberia’s and the Russian Far East’s abundant natural resources that include gold, diamonds, coal, oil and gas. These industries have also caused mass pollution in the region.
Today young Siberians listen to Western music, wear Western branded clothes, like to use the Internet and play computer games, text their friends on their mo- bile phones, and watch Russian MTV on their satellite TVs. In other words they are just like any other Western teenagers. You could easily pluck a teenager from
the streets of Vladivostok or Ulan-Ude, put them on the streets of London or New York and not notice any difference. Whether this homogenisation of youth culture is something to be celebrated or regretted, most young Russians seem happy with what they see as their chance to be ‘as good as’ their Western counterparts. Although most Siberian towns are gloriously free of McDonalds, and Starbucks style chains, commercialism is definitely in full swing. From the Fendi handbags on display in a boutique window and new Adidas store in Ulan Ude to branches of clothing store Mango in Vladivostok.
All of the young people featured in this book were born either shortly before, or after, the fall of communism. Unencumbered by restrictive communist thinking, these young Russians have a much more positive attitude to life and are optimistic about the future. Although it sounds clichéd, it really is the young people that are driving the new Russia forward.
This book is a photographic journey through a Siberian summer. Travelling mainly by train I journey through Eastern Siberian and the Russian Far East. I have docu- mented the essence of contemporary Siberian life through a series of landscapes, portraits, and moments. By concentrating on youth culture, and the glorious sum- mer weather, this book aims to dispel the myths and stereotypes that surround this misunderstood part of Russia often referred to as the ‘wild wild East’.
Lydia Bigley, August 2007
Russian Federal Districts Journey Map
1. Central Irkutsk ИРКУТСК 2. Southern Ulan-Ude УЛАН-УДЕ 3. Northwestern Severobaikalsk СЕВЕРОБАЙКАЛЬСК 4. Far Eastern Baikalskoe БАЙКАЛЬСКОЕ 5. Siberian Nizhneangarsk НИЖНЕАНГАРСК 6. Urals Tynda ТЫНДА 7. Volga Khabarovsk ХАБАРОВСК Vladivostok ВЛАДИВОСТОК
10 11 12 Previous spread right Novosibirsk-Anapa train, Omsk station
<<Российские железные дороги>> ‘Russian Railways’ is the state owned monopoly that controls the country’s 87,000km rail network. The Trans-Siberian line is one of the busiest in the world. The company has recently started to promote the route to Western tourists with an English language website featuring a slick multi-media presentation of a journey on one of the Trans-Siberian trains. It celebrates its 170th Anniversary in 2007.
The ‘Trans-Siberian’ is a route not a train. Many different trains travel up and down the route and they are used on a daily basis by ordinary Russians visiting relatives, going on business trips, or on holidays. There is also no Interail style hop-on hop-off train ticket, you need to purchase a new onward ticket every time you get off the train.
Left Irkutsk train station
Irkutsk, often referred to as ‘the Jewel of Siberia’ is located 70km up the Angara river from Lake Baikal.
Right Luba, a provodnitsa (carriage attendent) on the 340 Moscow-Chita (a five day train journey), Omsk station
All Russian long distance trains have a pair of provodnitsas in every carriage, whose job it is to check passengers’ tickets and passports before boarding, keep the carriage clean and orderly, hand out bedding and check the samovar always has hot water. Despite the stereotype of the provodnitsa being a dour older woman with a ‘drag queen’ style hairdo, during the summer months young male and female Russian students, earning money for their studies, fill most of these jobs.
13 Left Vidir from Ulan Ude on the 340 Moscow-Chita train
Right The Nekrasov family, Novosibirsk station Left to Right: Sergei, Mikhail, and Yekaterina from Krasnoyarsk, western Siberia. Father, Sergei, is an Electrical Engineer and earns just over $1300 a month. 16-year-old Yekaterina is keen to practice her English on foreign tourists and would like to be a teacher when she leaves school. 10-year-old Mikhail is an Abramovich inspired Chelsea Football Club supporter.
14 15 Right Fish sellers, Slyudyanka station
Slyudyanka is located on the southern shore of Lake Baikal. Fishing is the major in- dustry. The most popular fish is omul, a cousin of salmon, which is considered a local delicacy. Lake Baikal’s vast distances from other cities makes exporting the fish outside the region uneconomical. Instead the locals rely on selling the fish to train passengers to make money.
16 17 18 Ulan-Ude, Eastern Siberia
Right Viktor Shargaev 16, and Oksana Tabitseva 17, on the bank of the Uda River
Left Izby - Traditional wooden houses
Following spread right Yulia Shemina, aqua park near the Uda River
19 20 21 Right Buryatiya Teenagers on the bank of the Uda River
Ulan-Ude, located 75km from the eastern shores of Lake Baikal, is the capital of the Buryatiya Republic. 30% of the population are Buryat. Descended from the Mongols, they number around 400,000, and are the biggest indigenous group in Russia. They have their own language Turkic Buryat, although it is dying out fast, nearly all of the younger Buryats only speak Russian. The main Buryat religion is Tibetan-style Bud- dhism and there are several Datsuns (Buddhist temples) located in and around Ulan Ude.
Left Shooting range, near the Uda River
Considering the long winters, its no wonder summer is a big deal in Russia. The locals make the most of the short hot summers with outdoor activities, such as swimming in the rivers. Outdoor terraces suddenly appear and the Kvas (a fermented bread drink) carts do a roaring trade. Oddly enough for a country that experiences such cold weath- er, ice cream is a hugely popular snack all year round.
22 23 Right Emilia Erdiniyeva, Sovetov Square, Ulan-Ude
15-year-old Emilia already speaks good English; her mother is an English teacher. She enjoys playing computer games and using the Internet, and dreams of travelling. She would like to spend some time living in an English speaking country so she can im- prove her language skills and recently took part in a local American summer school.
24 25 Left Platform Seller, Obluchye station, Russian Far East
Right View from inside a Kupe (2nd Class) compartment on the 207 Novokyznetsk-Vladivostok train
26 27 Vladivostok, Russian Far East
Left Obelisk commemorating the end of the 9882km long Trans Siberian Railway, Vladivostok train station.
Vladivostok, which translates as Lord of the East, is located on the Sea of Japan near the borders of China and North Korea. Due to its strategic importance, it was a closed city between 1958 and 1992. No foreigners and few Russians were allowed in. Con- temporary Vladivostok has returned to its cosmopolitan roots and has a youthful and laidback vibe.
Right Young Sailors practice drills in front of a World War II memorial near the S-56 submarine museum
All young Russian men must still complete two years of national service. They can be sent anywhere during this time, which given the size of Russia may mean they don’t see their family or friends for months on end. Vladivostok is home to the Russian Pacific Fleet.
28 29 30 31 Previous spread right Boys on the Russky Island Ferry
The Islands of Russky and Popov are located off the coast of Vladivostok on an archipelago that stretches south towards North Korea. They are popular summer destinations and many locals have Dachas (summer houses) on them.
Right Marina Lomkina in her bedroom
Marina is in her sixth year and final year of an Architecture degree at the Far Eastern State Technical University (DVGTU). She lives in a spacious central apartment with her mother who is a lawyer. Having spent a high school year in the US she speaks ex- cellent English and is understandably keen to keep it up. After graduating she would like to do postgraduate studies in the US or London. Marina also dreams of visiting Italy to see the architecture. The paintings hanging above her bed are her own and she also enjoys photography.
32 33 Left Chinese Tourists, Sportivnaya Harbour
Vladivostok was built by mainly Chinese and Korean labour, but during the Soviet regime Stalin had most of them either deported or shot. Since 1992 they are once again returning to city.
Right Young women drinking beer, Sportivnaya Harbour
Sportivnaya Harbour on the Amursky Gulf, is one of the main summer hang for young locals. Beer has largely replaced vodka as the drink of choice in Russia, especially among young people. It is readily available and cheap. A good quality bottle of Russian beer costs around $0.50c.
34 35 Right Dima and Edvard, dressed up as sailors, working on the S-56 Submarine Museum, Vladivostok
Following spread left Anna Gracheva, Providnitsa on the No.6 Okean train, Khabarovsk station
The Okean is one of Russian Railways premium train services. It runs between Khabarovsk and Vladivostok on a daily basis. The lower the number of the trains the higher the quality. The best trains have proper names, cleaner and more comfortable carriages and more attentive providnitsas. The no. 2 Moscow-Vladivostok train is the countries top Trans-Siberian service. It runs non-stop, every second day on its seven- day journey.
Following spread right Skovorodino train station, Eastern Siberia
36 37 38 39 40 41 Tynda, Russian Far East
Previous spread right Soviet workers statue, Tynda
Every Russian town has a statue of Lenin and various other Soviet era communist me- morials. Although these statues no longer have any real significance for the locals they are generally left standing for historical reasons.
Right The main hall, Tynda train station
Tynda is a major transport hub on the BAM line between Severobaikalsk and Komso- molsk-na-Amure. The Baikalo-Amurskaya Magistral (Baikal-Amur Mainline) BAM, which runs from Tayshet past the northern tip of Lake Baikal on to Sovetskaya Gavan on the Tatar Strait is an alternative route east to the Trans-Siberian. It took 60 years to build and cost over $500 million, with the Severomuysk tunnel, near Lake Baikal, only being completed in 2004. Many of the isolated towns on this route were built purely to house the railway workers.
42 43 44 45 Previous spread left Wedding car
The number plate reads wedding. The short summer months see a wedding frenzy across Russia. There is still a lot of social pressure for Russian women to get married in their early twenties.
Despite the fact the whole of Russia drives on the right hand side, nearly all the foreign made cars, usually imported from Japan and Korea, in Siberia and the Russian Far East are right hand drive.
Previous spread right Tynda train station
This ‘futuristic’ style station is by far the town’s most impressive building. The clock, which reads 5.15am, is on Moscow time, the actual local time being six hours ahead. In order to avoid confusion, in a country that spans 11 time zones, the entire Russian rail network runs on Moscow time.
Right The bar in the Midina Restaurant, Tynda
This large restaurant, serving Chinese and Russian dishes, has a bar, dance floor and nightly karaoke. On Saturday night it’s the place to be seen, with the locals turning up in their finest (well the young women anyway) to show off on the dance floor while the DJ plays the latest Western and Russian pop music.
46 47 Left Sasha and Ira from Yakutsk on the No.75 Neryungri – Moscow train
Thisplatskartny , a 3rd class open carriage with 58 beds, is the cheapest option for travel on long distance trains. On this trip my carriage was occupied almost exclusively by a group of women (with a few children and husbands in tow) from Yakutsk. They were en route to Moscow for a ‘business seminar’ run by the American cosmetics company they work for. The journey takes six days. Yakutsk is the capital of the Sakha Republic in the northern Far East, where over half the population are native Yakut.
Right Olga Kotova, Provodnitsa on the 75 Neryungri – Moscow train Each train carriage has a small office-cum-kitchen used by the Provodnitsas. The room also contains the controls for the lights in the carriage and the piped radio, which can be switched on and off in each compartment.
48 49 50 51 52 Northern Lake Baikal
Previous spread right Sunrise over northern Lake Baikal, at Nizhneangarsk
Lake Baikal is the lake of superlatives. The deepest and oldest lake in the world (at least 20 million years old), it holds one-fifth of the world’s fresh water. It is home to over a thousand endemic species, including the nerpa seal, the only fresh water seal in the world. Its pristine waters and wildlife are under threat from industrial pollution. The lake freezes over completely during the winter months, turning it into an ice road. It is really only possible to swim in it during July and August. Even then the water tem- perature rarely rises above 15c. At 636km in length, it is difficult to comprehend the lake’s vastness; a hydrofoil journey from Severobaikalsk down the lake to Irkutsk takes 12 hours. It is breathtakingly beautiful.
Left Campsite, Yarki Island
Yarki Island is a small strip of beach in northern Lake Baikal. During the summer months Russian campers make use of the makeshift facilities. Despite its idyllic lo- cation it is still wonderfully quiet and uncrowded. It is also home to some Siberian chipmunks.
Right Young Russian campers cooking in a makeshift kitchen, Yarki Island
53 54 55 Previous spread left Motorised Raft, Yarki Island
Previous spread right Handwash station, campsite, Yarki Island
Left Village shop, Baikalskoe
In this local shop traditional bags of grain and pasta compete with Western brand chewing gum and cigarettes. A pack of 20 branded cigarettes retails for around a $1 and smoking is still extremely popular.
Right A Lada taxi and a rusting fishing boat, Baikalskoe
The fishing village of Baikalskoe is located 45km south of the BAM town Severobaikalsk. People live in traditional wooden houses and fishing is still the main industry. Nowa- days most young people leave the village and the traditional fishing industry is dying out. It has a distinctly jaded feel to it with cows wandering the gravel streets, rusting fishing boats, and the few remaining young men tearing up and down the roads on old motorbikes. It does however have spectacular views over the northern shores of Lake Baikal.
56 57 Right Sibir Siberian Airways flight 0779 to Moscow, Irkutsk Airport
Travel by aeroplane remains a luxury that most ordinary Russians can’t afford. Internal Russian flights still have a questionable safety record, although things are improving.
58 59 60 Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the following people who helped to make this book possible:
Tanja Malnar, for all her support over the last year and for helping me out with my frequent last minute panics at the end of this project. Marina Lomakina, for being my personal guide and great company in Vladivostok. Manuela Kay, for her valuable advice and for putting me in contact with Sasha in Moscow. Sasha Rymkevich, for helping get things sorted out in Moscow before I set off. My father, John Bigley for his financial support. Photographer Simon Roberts for his helpful advice and inspiration. Fiona Halliday, for helping me with my editing and proof reading. Max Houghton, for her continued support with my writing. Ben Edwards, for his enthusiasm and support for this project from the outside. Colin Jacobson, for his ruthless editing skills.
I have to give a special mention to the women from Yakutsk in carriage 16 on the No.75 Neryungri – Moscow train, thank you for your hospitality and for providing me with the most interesting train journey on the trip. I hope to be able to visit you in Yakutsk in the near future.
Above all I’d like to thank my mother, Ruth Bigley for her constant support. I would never have gotten through this year without you. Я тебя люблю.
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