World's Coldest City: Yakutsk | Extreme Cities | Free Documentary

foreign [Music] foreign [Music] for years he is one of Russia's most imminent climatologists and a world expert on siberius permafrost he was a great friend of her father after his visit to the newspaper she'd made up her mind in no time she packed her bags and left Moscow there was a story to be had in Siberia [Music] National Guard Mariana has not set foot in yakuts for eight years and yet she spent the first 25 years of her life in this strange city despite its reputation as the world's coldest city yakutz has a huge university

one of the positive legacies of the Communist era access to knowledge even in the farthest flunk corner of the Empire Mariana did most of her studies there town planning and foreign languages then she moved to Moscow to attend two dissertations before branching off into journalism she's called Mariana samsanova her name may be Russian but she's 100 yakut [Music] following the collapse of the Soviet Union yakutya became the autonomous Republic of Saka a tribute to the people of the cold of which she is a member here Winter's last nine to ten months yakutz lies close to

an area the geographers call the pole of cold the lowest temperatures of the northern hemisphere are recorded here as low as -70 degrees it's Antarctica and Eastern Siberia and this whole city is built on Ice a Marvel of engineering which could cost yakuts its future Mariana had no problem persuading her Editor to let her investigate the uncertain future of one of the most attractive cities in the Russian Federation yakutya was the mining Heartland of the former Soviet Union and it is not lost its position in the neoliberal system the climate may be warming and the

city shaking on its foundations of ice but the stakes have not changed vast reserves of oil gas and diamonds of unrivaled purity [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] thank you Mariana has not climbed these stairs for years she has come to visit octabrina even at the grand old age of 80 her former language professor and great friend still teaches at the local University folk tabrina came to yakutia with her parents as a small child these Russian intellectuals were exiled to deepest Siberia in the aftermath of the October Revolution they had named her OCTA Brina though go figure

foreign [Laughter] interesting foreign Solutions [Music] [Music] no one here really seems to believe in global warming even less so that the city has any reason to fear for its future it's even a popular subject of jokes [Music] and yet if you look in the Right Places You'll see suspicious cracks in the buildings the head office of a bank which is just split in two and a particular building at the end of La Nina Avenue yakuza's Main Street apparently the permafrost gave way under its piles Mariana simply had to see it she hasn't forgotten this shortcut

behind lanina Avenue she used to take it with her school friends when they went to play in the Wasteland in the shadow of the municipal heating plant nothing seems to have changed apart from Mariana's golden mink coat which she's desperate not to get stained was soot by the way on the streets of yakutz you'll see all the women dressed in Furs they provide maximum protection from the cold without compromising on Russian Elegance whether the anti-fur campaigners like it or not this is Siberia here [Music] remains that people weren't lying to her about this building site

construction has come to a halt a five-story block had to be demolished to go huge cracks appeared in the spring the time of year when the surface layer of permafrost thaws to form the active layer or Molly sole it's a normal phenomenon familiar to local Engineers except that the depth of the seasonal thaw layer which is only one to two meters in theory is definitely increasing every year thus threatening the city's very foundations construction industry big shots in their insurance companies give each other the run around some claim it's global warming others reply its failure

to respect building codes for permafrost constructions thank you right after visiting this Urban Wasteland Mariana finds herself an Anatoly anatoneev's car he's yakut's biggest property developer news travels fast in the world's coldest city he insists on giving her a guided tour [Music] s her how they drill through 12 to 50 Frost [Music] next massive reinforced concrete piles are sunk into the ground the permafrost refreezes around them and the foundations are gripped in the Ice's Jaws the buildings are erected on these giant piles ten thousand ton buildings there's just one snag if it ever thaws the

city will collapse like a house of cards [Music] foreign a shopping mall Winter Gardens the future of this city which aspires to be a world-class Capital rests on the gamble of the century climate stability this whole city is built on a Gamble it's a risky game no wonder there's growing concern among yakat insurers they will be the ones footing the bill as long as the scientific debate on global warming continues people in other cities in the far North are starting to wonder the same thing not just in Siberia but in Alaska and Canada yakutz is

the permafrost Capital the urban areas of the Arctic Circle have their eyes riveted on it here at the permafrost Institute a department of the prestigious Russian Academy of Sciences that the techniques for building on Ice were developed in Moscow Professor zimov warned Mariana the Old Guard at The Institute does not believe for a second in sustained global warming zimov puts this down to their communist culture something is compelling them to reject foreign scientific theories and also he concluded the Russians want stability they did not want another Revolution thank you [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] like all

Siberian school children Mariana learned that permafrost is 80 ice the rest consists of a mix of various minerals and organic matter [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] as long as the permafrost exists legitimate doubts have Arisen among the new generation of researchers there's no need to mention global warming Mariana can't help thinking about the damage caused by human activity on the surface hot water leaks and waste heat emissions of all kinds yakuts an ice cube in a teacup that's the image that Springs to mind as long as the permafrost exists [Music] good evening does that mean

the entire city it's 300 000 inhabitants its Industries and modes of Transport should stop breathing for a city that's going global that's totally unrealistic videos foreign [Music] assembly character Village images [Music] foreign [Music] zimoff warned Mariana the prize not believe in this phenomenon of global warming which is alarming the West it has to be said that no one here panics about shifts in nature everyone has a Pioneer mentality they have been bending nature to their will for over 400 years the capital of cold will never fall [Music] the first Russian settlers arrived in yakutya in

1632 the Czar of all Russia sent out 400 Cossacks with five priests in tow the tsar's records were very well kept they founded yakut's there established a makeshift Fortress an outpost for exploration within 20 years they had extended the frontiers of Mother Russia from Lake Baikal the source of the Lena which flows through yakuts to the Lena Delta well within the Arctic Circle but the fact remains that without the yakuts who they initially tried to enslave these Mad Men would have perished during their first Siberian winter until the coming of the Soviets the empire did

not interfere much in the yakut's Affairs it was too far away too complicated a part of course to Exile political dissidents there from The Decemberists to the Bolsheviks to Stalin's holiday makers a century later we have the gulag system to thank for the road from yakuts to magadhan on the Pacific nicknamed the road of Bones one million inmates died making it suddenly things gathered Pace in 1949 the year the first diamond was discovered Prospectors came in droves Russia controlled this El Dorado [Music] under Khrushchev Moscow switched from Forced settlement to blatant incentives migrants were offered

an extremely attractive package three to six times the average salary 42 days paid leave instead of 18 a free return trip every three years yakut's mushroomed and the region overtook South Africa to become the world's leading Diamond producer foreign with the collapse of the USSR everyone here entertained the hope that some of the new Republic of saka's riches would finally secure a bright future for its capital [Music] it's a fine afternoon on lenina Square minus 25 well above the seasonal average for this time of year a happy Omen no doubt for the Putin Medvedev Clan

which is holding a lighthearted pre-election party in the remotest region of the Federation they are Keen to keep yakutya under central government control they are keeping an attentive eye on its natural resources it's understandable especially as in Moscow some extremist factions in the Duma are bitterly critical of the subsidies given to remote republics yakutya is Rich they say why should we pay for it the answer here is that the bulk of mining revenue is now in the hand of private consortiums and the capital is bypassing yakuts at a time when the city's maintenance costs are

spiraling uh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] the question of diamonds is a delicate one I wasn't really surprised to be allowed to enter the holy of holies one of the city's largest diamond cutting factories especially as its federal election time no one wants the muscovites to be mistaken about the extent of saka's riches [Music] [Music] okay [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Applause] dictionary [Music] foreign s is talking about the possibility of a new Ice Age the temperature drops Suddenly at dusk the mercury has fallen 15 degrees in an hour or so on

the streets everyone speeds up and grits their teeth something must be Brewing further north polar air sweeps down in the city bringing bitterly cold and damp conditions thank you foreign security thank you foreign foreign foreign it must be about 11 pm as for the temperature it can't be far off the minus 50 Mark without adequate winter clothing the hardiest freeze within 10 to 15 minutes [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] except that leaving someone bare-headed in such freezing conditions is akin to holding a gun to his head and pulling the trigger [Music] [Applause] as for

this poor guy he hasn't done anything wrong he's just lucky to have been picked up by the militia given how wide his parka is he was probably on the verge of freezing to death he'll be thankful tomorrow [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] in the old quarters whose wooden houses are now home to the most disadvantaged the situation isn't any better with many communal Taps Frozen the inhabitants are forced to walk several blocks to get water [Applause] two blocks away a fire is even broken out it's reducing a corner of historic

yakuts to Cinders rumors are Rife apparently a local real estate Mafia is taking advantage of this sort of confusion to destroy old homes and fill the city with concrete buildings is it urgent to build before the great debate on the permafrost give the situation Anything is Possible when it comes to damage a visit to yakut's hospital specialist frostbite unit is a must it sees the damaging effects of the Region's violent climate and deals with the consequences of nights like last night apparently during the Golden Age of Soviet science people were literally brought back from the

dead thanks to Russian cryo medicine according to Professor Revo alexiev the senior physician the unit revived clinically dead patients whose body temperature was close to freezing it seems the secret is to warm them up incredibly slowly man [Music] um [Music] thank you very much myself [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] computer [Music] [Applause] okay yeah Mariana needs some fresh air frostbite victims resemble victims of war and the temperature has suddenly shot back up you don't need gloves it's completely baffling never in living memory has the weather been so erratic 30 degrees in one go it's minus 22.

maybe the winter is finally drawing to a close after bringing the city to its knees one last time on a drab soviet-style housing estate in East yakutz the children are out skating again under the pale Sun Mariana wants to see her friend Sergey and his baby who was born in January [Music] [Music] um [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] hold on a 347 [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] is here it has started to snow large snowflakes in Winter you only get freezing rain here it snows when it's warm and the warmer it is the larger

the snowflakes are on 18th of March that's still pretty early for a Siberian spring oh [Music] to celebrate Marianna is going to buy herself a nice frozen fish at the market on the banks of Elena a hake as stiff as a board that's how the locals like it they grate it and eat it frozen the Polar Diet it's the best way to adapt to the tundra next she wants to stroll around the port Where the River Lane languishes at yakutz two-thirds of the way along its 4 400 kilometer course foreign 's father used to work

on the boats that fly the river for the two or three months of the year when the water isn't Frozen she must have been six or seven when he brought cherries back from Lake Baikal she had never seen any then again there aren't exactly a lot of cherry trees here even in the summer the ice breakup on Elena has been occurring earlier and earlier these past few years the advantages ships can sail unhindered several weeks early bringing fresh fruit and vegetables back from the south without Elena yakutz is isolated entirely dependent on itself which explains

the explosion of prices in winter time the roads are impossible there is no Railway and there never will be the ground shifts too much that just leaves the airport subject to the vagaries of the weather the downside is the brutality of the breakups so much ice has to melt in a shorter and shorter space of time the emergency situations Ministry is now under great pressure every year when spring comes around an unprecedented tragedy has left painful memories [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] ER was frozen to such a depth that the ice prevented melt water from

Lake Baikal flowing along the river the ice Jam broke at its weakest point in the town [Music] [Music] this year in yakuz the Lena is frozen to adapt to 5 meters and an ice Jam is formed the pressure of the Melt water is building up under the river the calculations have been run if the jam breaks a five meter high wave will sweep through here carrying blocks of ice as big as buses Street around while the University students form voluntary snow removal brigades the authorities have decided to resort to drastic measures to force nature to

bend three is the difference is [Music] Mariana immediately thought of a family friend who lives in a wooden house in the middle of the flood risk Zone right now her heart must be in her boots especially as she has an 18 month old daughter [Music] [Music] um after the breakup yakutz will probably have a few days peace then the temperature will suddenly shoot up to 35 degrees above zero it'll be the Siberian summer think about it a temperature range of 100 degrees between winter and summer it's downright Bazaar there will be flowers on the tundra

and swarms of mosquitoes so thick and aggressive you'll have to jump in Elena to escape them the whole city will meet on the banks of the river yakuts will turn into a seaside resort it's hard to imagine this will last 20 days at most and then very quickly the weather will get cooler it will snow for the first time around the 15th of September and towards the end of October yakutz will be completely Frozen Once More that's how things have been until now at least [Music] foreign [Music] [Music]