Natalia Tsvirko is among the few who are happy with their life in Vorkuta – she owns a beauty salon that enjoys high interest from clients, there is enough work.
“Visiting the gym cheers up women whose lives are very difficult,” she said. And life in Vorkuta is really not easy – the city is located beyond the Arctic Circle, 180 km from the Arctic Ocean. The usual temperature in winter is minus 35 degrees, and even in summer it can suddenly snow.
When only two families live in the block
Vorkuta is from the so-called monocities – relies entirely on underground coal mining. But according to the regional ministry of industry, the deposits will only reach 2037. The whole city is surrounded by shafts, but of the 13 today only four are working. Since Soviet times, about 60 percent of the then population has left Vorkuta. Every year, 2,000 people turn their backs on the city.
“There are no jobs, schools and kindergartens are closing,” said one local resident. Others believe that there is a vicious circle. “Social institutions are closing because people are leaving, and people who are leaving are becoming more and more because they can’t rely on social services,” said a Vorkuta man.
Authorities have tried to curb the city’s depopulation, but have failed. The official list of requests to leave for another Russian region includes more than 14,000 people – almost a third of the population. Empty blocks in the suburbs are now a financial problem. “In some of the blocks there are only 2-3 families left, but the building cannot be disconnected from the district heating and sewerage network – the costs must be borne by the city authorities, which is a huge problem,” said Irina Baranova of the Municipal Council.
Miners everywhere in Vorkuta are still revered. “More coal for the homeland,” various posters read here. Meanwhile, however, demand for coal is declining more and more – especially in Europe.
What is Russia’s plan for the Arctic?
Russia’s strategy for the Arctic brings some hope to locals, although it is challenged internationally. Russia wants to stop population migration and invest in infrastructure projects – mainly for gas and oil production. Even climate change is being taken into account, as warming in the Arctic opens up new transport routes and Vorkuta could become a “dry” port, including for coal, through the construction of a railway to the Arctic Ocean. The region is betting on the expensive project, although it is currently only on paper. “In this way, our northern regions in the Arctic could be connected to large global logistics networks. This is our hope,” said Irina Bakhtina, deputy prime minister of the Komi Republic.
And Natalia Tsvirko has hopes for the future – she is investing in the modernization of her beauty salon, which will move to a new building. But it also looks further than Vorkuta, even though it is her hometown. Her son is soon finishing his education and she plans to open a salon in Moscow one day. “Arctic projects can’t be relied on yet,” she said. “It’s still hard to say anything about them, because it’s all in the beginning. We really want to believe that we’ll soon feel a breath of fresh air here. And then maybe people won’t want to leave town.”
Arctic projects may also be successful. But most people don’t want to wait – whoever can leaves Vorkuta.
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Vorkuta is known for its grim history. From 1938 to 1962 there was a labor camp here – one of the largest and most horrible labor camps in the Gulag network. At the same time, there were up to 73,000 prisoners. In total, more than one million men and women of various nationalities have been detained in the camp over the years. 250,000 of them died in the labor camp – in various ways.
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