Koryazhma

I travel to Koryazhma Russia for work fairly frequently.  It's a very Russian town, centered around a plant (a paper mill in this case).  The town has around 40,000 residents, and the paper mill  employs over 1/2 of the local population.  Once you subtract the children & seniors, you realize that almost everyone works for the mill.  You see a lot of that in Russia.  During Soviet times, towns were developed around new industry as the country worked to develop their economy independent of the rest of the world.  Entire villages were then relocated from their homes to live & work at the plants.  

Like anywhere in Russia, Koryazhma is not easy to get to.  It's a big country, but also the roads & infrastructure are just not well developed.  Koryazhma is approximately 1000 km east of St. Petersburg.  So you can take a very slow train (24 hour trip), or you can fly to a nearby city & drive on mud roads for 4+ hours. 

But luckily, I am usually able to time my trips & use a company charter, making it a 2 1/2 hour flight.  But before you think this is "luxury travel", think again!  We travel on a old Yak-40.  Are you familiar with this marvel of aerodynamics?  It's an old Russian regional jet, produced between the late 1960's until 1981.   On Wikipedia, I see that there are around 70 old Yak's still in service throughout the world.  Here's a picture of one of them.  It's like flying a brick - not exactly a smooth ride.  As Pat reminds me every time we fly on the Yak together, it's a great example of Bernoulli's Principle:  if you put enough force (thrust & lift) into anything, it can fly.  And yes, we do talk about things like Bernoulli........

We land in a town called Kotlas.  I got a good aerial shot as we landed.  You can see that this part of the river is still frozen

Kotlas airport....definitely minimal service!



The terminal




The runway


I took some pictures as we drove through the town.  A lot of people ask me what "Real Russia" looks like (vs. the big cities).  I think this is a good example. 

Some of the pictures are a little blurry, because I was in a car with tinted windows.  The next 5 pictures are in the town.  Apartment buildings, a hotel, and a few local shops.  I took these pictures during the day, but there weren't many people out & about. 

There are rows & rows of these Soviet-era apartments



центральный or "central" store




мясо or "meat" store



THE hotel in town, Hotel Vikonda, with a disco on the main floor (open until 5am!) 

We then drove outside the city.  It was difficult to get many good pictures, but I was able to take a few photos of the dachas & countryside
 

Dachas are small, seasonal homes in the Russian countryside.  Originally, they were owned by the government & it was considered a privilege to have access to one - mostly politicians, scientists, etc.  But your rights to the dacha could be revoked at any time if you did something considered "against the state".  By the 1960's, anyone could have a dacha.  All you needed to do was apply for a free plot of land, and then be responsible for everything else.  So people started to build these small cottages all throughout the countryside.  They often do not have electricity or running water, and they are tiny.  But the huge benefit was that you could legally grow your own fruits & vegetables for your family's consumption.  This was a big deal, and kept many families from starving during some tough years.

Many Russians still own dachas today.  On this trip, we were lucky to be able to stay at a dacha owned by our JV business partner. As I mentioned, most dachas are very small, so this one is a mansion in comparision. 10 bedrooms, located on the river, with a sauna & billiards room.

It was a quick trip, and we were home by Friday evening.  I'll be back in July, just in time for the monster black fly season!

As we were landing, I took these pictures of the outskirts of St. Petersburg.  Far from the palaces and museums of the city, and a great example of ugly urban sprawl.