On the Land of Herders | English Russia

It’s the herders’ camp in Krasnoselkup village in the Yamalo-Nents Autonomous District of Russia. This place is often called “the region of untold fur wealth”. We are going to see now how real herders live and work.

Mi-8T is loaded with necessary stuff for the camp.

There are no usual roads here, only winter roads which can be used only in winter.

These are abandoned heliports.

The girl is ready to meet mosquitoes.

This YAK-40 has been working in the region since 2011.

The village appeared in 1933. In the 90s it was undergoing hard times but today it experiences its reborn. It is being widely reconstructed and restored.

A new school has been built, a new pipeline is being pulled.

Here’s a local shaman.

They still have a lot of work to do.

“Krasnoselkup airport”.

Now we are flying to the camp of herders.

Here we are.

It’s time to meet the locals.

The Krasnoselkupsky district has a bit more than six thousand people. 1300 of them are nomads.

Mosquito nets are necessary as you may see.

Dogs help the people to survive.

Did you know that deer can purr like cats? And they have hairy horns.

Severe nature influences the mode of life of these people.

Children live with parents till they start to study. Then they go to Krasnoselkup village, to the local boarding school where they get education.

The dogs guard the deer. They usually stay outside, in bad weather they come to tents.

If you enter a tent you are always treated to something and offered to drink tea.

Several families live in this place and look after the herds. In summer they nomadize each two or three days, in winter they may stay at one place for a week. Deer eat moss that grows very slowly so nomads often have to move from one place to another.

Deer means very much to them: food, transport, housing. And what may shock Europeans is typical for these people.

Dressing is a work for women only. Men never do it.

The little boy has fallen but refused to get help from strangers.

This family has a little baby.

Yamal has an unofficial status of the world centre of herding. The number of domestic reindeer on Yamal peninsular amounts to 600 thousand of heads – it’s the largest herd in the world.