Life in the Siberian Winter Indigenous people advise to talk less, drink less and go out less
In Siberia in winter, remember: "Speak less, drink less, eat more meat." ”
I was surprised by the comments of Ivan Babushkin in the original Yakutia book, because I, like most southerners, always felt that it made no difference between -30 degrees and -50 degrees, just a few more clothes. However, Ivan's reminder is not unreasonable, only those who have experienced this temperature will understand that in the temperature of minus 50 degrees Celsius, let alone doing anything else, even if you speak, you will feel as if your lungs are about to be frozen.
Siberia is the "sleeping place" in the Yakut language, and the Tungusic people, the indigenous people of Siberia, call the Ural Mountains, which stretch all the way to the Pacific Ocean, the "Forbidden Zone of Death", and Yakutsk, located on the banks of the Lerna River on the eastern border of Siberia, is the largest city in the "Forbidden Zone".
Yakutsk, Russia, is only 450 kilometers away from the Arctic Circle, covers an area of 122 square kilometers, has more than 300,000 residents, and is the coldest city in the world, and the coldest one except Norilsk, with an average annual temperature of -88 degrees Celsius.
Yakutsk was founded in 1632, in order to prevent the Mongol invasion, the Grand Duke of Tsarist Russia Pyotr Bektov went deep into Siberia, spent three years, in Yakutsk to establish a port with timber as the main means of transportation, but the Russian soldiers at that time objected to this, because Yakutsk was snowy all year round, food was short, and it was difficult to grow food.
As a result, His Majesty the Emperor relocated the indigenous people of thousands of miles nearby to Yakutsk, but after hundreds of years, only hundreds of thousands of Soviets remained, and the "greatest credit" was the inmates of the Gulag prison, who accounted for more than 90% of the entire prison.
Köppen Climatology classifies Yakutsk as a "DFD", or "extreme subpolar climate", which is even more extreme than the temperatures between November and March, with the lowest known temperature to date being -657 degrees Celsius, but this summer, it can be as high as 384 degrees Celsius (only once), the maximum temperature difference in a year can reach 1041 degree Celsius, a record that no city in the world has been able to break so far.
-30 degrees Celsius is a common phenomenon in Yakutsk, compared to -30 degrees Celsius on Lake Baikal, and the outdoor temperature gauge often freezes.
Winter in Yakutsk is not only cold, waking up to find that there is a thick layer of snow on the door of your house, but even more terrifying, because it is located in the middle of the Yakut Basin, the wind in Yakutsk even reaches 4 to 7 degrees. Imagine, the temperature is below -40 degrees Celsius, more than 20 meters away, there are thick snowflakes, not even a shadow can be seen, and there is a strong wind blowing from time to time
Therefore, when Ivan learned that I was leaving Lake Baikal for Yakutsk by train, he sternly admonished me: don't talk too much, don't drink, don't go out, eat as much raw food as possible.
The Russian tour guide Nisalyn told me that Yakutsk is a place where it is easy to get lost.
The first "lost" is because the local residents get lost in the heavy snow, taking the wrong bus, finding the wrong person, and getting lost are common things, followed by "getting lost", although there are few attractions here, there are still thousands of people who come here during the coldest season of winter.
In the harbor of the Lena River, we met a female tourist from Canada, perhaps growing up in a cold place, she didn't have much clothes, she just "lost" under the pergola, while admiring the river view, while leisurely telling us: I have never seen such a thrilling "frozen river", the frozen river is shattered at the touch of a touch, it is thicker than French fries, but it is crispier than French fries.
The winter, which lasts for more than ten months a year, is a very painful thing for the people of Yakutsk, and going to the street to "buy vegetables" is the most difficult thing.
After visiting the Yakutsk market several times, I found that the locals must use a trolley to "buy vegetables", which is also a helpless thing, there is no money to buy a car, there is no car for those who do not have a car, there is no car for those who do not have a car, there is no car for those who do not have a car, and you have to die of exhaustion when you go back and forth, you have to buy more cars, and you have no way to squeeze the bus, so you can only rely on your own car to "buy vegetables" to save time and energy.
Why don't you even dare to drive the car?In the face of the severe cold of Yakutsk, no matter what brand of car, no matter what **, you must "lie down", as long as you stop for more than 5 minutes, no matter gasoline or diesel, all of them will turn into "frozen oil".
During my seven-day stay in Yakutsk, I saw no less than 20 scenes of truck drivers lying under the trucks "burning the chassis", large trucks, pickup trucks and small cars, most of the trucks carried small gasoline tanks, which could heat the engine when necessary, but private vehicles were not allowed to make fires, so Ivan asked me not to go out as much as possible, because accidents with broken cars also often happen.
An aunt in the Yakutia folk village told me that if the electricity was cut off for five days, it would not endanger their lives, but if it were cut off for another five days, I am afraid that the entire population of the city would be reduced by more than half.
I tried to push open the window, only to find that there was a thick layer of frost on the window, and the moisture in the room seemed to be sucked away, and the cup was "frozen" on the windowsill. I advise future generations not to do this, after all, it is much more difficult to open a window than to close it, and don't forget to leave your clothes and shoes outside, and in case it freezes, take them back to your room to melt, and if you accidentally touch them, throw them away.
According to the data released by Russia, Yakutsk, as the first Siberia to complete the city's heating, its heating time even exceeded that of the Soviet Union, and was once called the "heating star" by the Soviet Union, calling on hundreds of cities and towns to learn Xi Yakutsk's heating methods.
In fact, in the earliest days, the heating pipes in Yakutsk were also exposed to the ground, but within a few years, the pipes began to leak, and finally a pipeline had to be laid in the air, but more than ten years later, because it overestimated the temperature of the air, causing it to not work properly. As a result, the current underground heating system appeared, and the pipelines in the sky were not removed, but were tested several times in a year to prevent accidents on the underground pipelines.
The biggest concern of the people of Yakutsk who live in the city is the heating problem, wood and coal in the city are difficult to buy, and the villagers in the village can buy a lot of wood, but this is not an easy thing, just like after a heavy snowfall, the house will be closed, unless it is a fire truck sent by ** to help. In addition to these, he also has to shovel the snow, the snow on his home and roof has accumulated more than a foot deep in the past few days, if he does not clear it, then he can only be "buried in the snow", and every year people are buried by the snow.
From the point of view of tourists, there are two kinds of food in Yakutsk, one is the indigenous people of Yakutia, the other is the Slavs, the indigenous people survive the cold winter by eating meat, especially horse meat, venison, fish, with some rough pancakes, this practice of eating more raw food is not a scientific practice, but the experience of the Yakuts people over the centuries, in the absence of any resources, it is not a simple thing to want to cook by yourself, raw meat is convenient to preserve, and can be preserved intact.
The food Xi of the Slavs were more refined, and after integrating into the indigenous people of Yakutia, there was an additional kind of pickled lettuce, the so-called lettuce, which is a variety of vegetables and fruits rich in vitamins and fiber, radish, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, apples, bananas, etc., can be pickled.
Yakutsks rarely drink alcohol in winter, and generally only drink in small sips during celebrations, and in general, it is difficult for them to get a full bottle of vodka except for important guests, and even if they do, they can only drink with low-alcohol juices.
In 2009, the Russian Federation ordered a "ban" on alcohol in some regions of Siberia, stipulating that alcohol should not be sold between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. in shops except for underage drinking, and violators would be fined 100-5,000 times. Talking about the "alcohol ban" at the 2018 World Cup, a Russian friend joked: Moscow bans alcohol out of consideration for tourists, Siberia bans alcohol out of consideration for local residents, and there are hundreds of cases of freezing to death on the spot after being drunk.
Originally, I thought that the cold in Yakutsk was enough to scare me, but the trip to Oymyakon gave me a new understanding of Siberia, this journey, seven of us, seven of us, encountered five dangers, any one of them was unlucky, we would be trapped in Siberia.