1. Usinsk, Komi Republic. Usinsk is the town of oil workers (over 50 000 inhibitants), located in the northern part of Komi Republic, near the Arctic treeline. August 1998.
2. The first oil deposits near Usinsk were found in the 1960s, so Usinsk looks a town built rapidly the middle of northern taiga forests. There are no old buildings, only blocks of flats built in Soviet concrete style. August 1998.
3. The culture of "dacha" is quite new in Usinsk because in the Soviet time people used to travel south in the summertime, but now it is too expensive for most of dwellers. It is amazing how pricisely every centimeter is utilized for growing vegetables on these yards in the dacha. At present these gardens has a increasing significance for the households because of unstable socio-economical situation in Russia. August 1998.
1.- 2. Vorkuta, Komi Republic. Vorkuta is the coal mining town (over 170 000 inhibitants), located in the north-eastern part of Komi Republic, about 50 kilometres north from the Arctic Circle. September 1998.
3.- 4. Vorkuta is "the town of tundra", unique in the whole world. In the 1930s prisoners built city of Vorkuta and its first coal pits. The labor camps were dismantled in the late 1950 to be replaced by settlements around the mines. Now five of the thirteen mines that ring the city have closed down. The mining industry all over the world has been subsidized by goverments but here in the north the state support has been more essential because of the high costs of infrastucture and transport. After the collapse of Soviet Union and state support the mining industry of Vorkuta have had problems to be effective in market prices. Mines have operated at a loss while miners worked without pay. September 1998.
5. The city's main thorouhgfare, Lenin Street.
6. The old center of Vorkuta.
