The village of Urengoy is located near the Arctic Circle in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug on the banks of the Pur River, 15 kilometers from the Korotchaevo railway station. More recently, there was a closed area with a checkpoint. It was from here in Soviet times that the history of Russian gas began. The lion's share of this fuel is mined here and today.
A resident of the village of Urengoy Vitaly Zolotarev believes that the free entry to the north has changed the local way and traditions.
“While the North was not opened until there was a gap zone, people were very responsive, they didn’t close the houses, they went to each other for the holidays. And now people have closed, many have come from the [large] land, they are not like that mentality. People are going here to rush money, but vulgar the nature,” says Vitaliy.
Zolotarev arrived in Urengoy as a young specialist in the midst of Soviet five -year -olds. He dreamed of building a new life in the north. He worked as a gas -electric welder, an electric carrier.
"All city-forming enterprises left here. In general, they sewed us specifically. I forgot about us the Motherland. Thank you, homeland. It is beneficial for someone to poke the village. People stayed: someone has grown, someone has nowhere to go," Vitaly says.
After the bankruptcy of his native enterprise, he himself took up commerce in the early 90s: he traded products, opened a recording studio, but all this did not take root for a long time. Then Vitaly took up fish.
The edge rich in natural resources, like a hundred years ago, feeds the northern inhabitants. Smoked northern fish is a delicacy. Fresh muksun, Nelm and Omul can only be tried here. Vitaly made a smokehouse in the garage, studied technology. They go around the fish from afar, and even a paid crossing is not a hindrance.
The son of Vitaly Bogdan received a programmer’s diploma, returned to the north and began to help his father conduct a small family business.
“In our country, it is very difficult to advance to small enterprises. Even register an individual entrepreneur is a dreary thing. A bunch of certificates, payments. Now difficult times, people need jobs worthy of payment. Now is a difficult time, it is not better,” says Bogdan.
A resident of the village of Urengoy Elizaveta Dregun arrived north 50 years ago, in 1968. Like thousands of Soviet citizens, a graduate of the college of communication hit Urengoy on distribution from Arkhangelsk. Today she is 70, she is a veteran of labor, a drummer of all five -year -olds.
“Many have left, now you’ll go to the cemetery - the whole Urengoy there, moved to the churchyard, as they say. Many died. Mine also died in 1990 from life. Health has glanced,” says Elizabeth. “In the village of Urengoy, as far as I know, only 59 deposits opened. Here people worked, they did not consider them at all.”
Elizabeth still lives in the hut of 50 years ago. “They promise us a bridge, I have been living here for 50 years, but there is still no bridge. The river is freeing, then it opens, here during this period nothing goes with us,” she complains.
Elizabeth assures that despite the fact that here the taiga, tundra, swamps and lack of oxygen, these places have an invisible magnet that does not let its inhabitants back to the large land. Here, although everyone lives near Gazprom, but their dreams come to life on their own.
