7 November 2015. Our Great Russian Motherland: Dalmatovo Assumption Monastery (Dalmatovo Raion. Kurgan Oblast. Ural Federal District)

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In 1644, Monk St Dalmat Ivanovich Mokrinsky founded this monastery when he built his cell in an isolated region to the east of the Ural Mountains (he came from Beryozovo in the Ural region). It endured until 1922, when the atheist authorities closed it. The property saw several uses… a theatre, commanders’ school in the VOV, factory. In 1989, the Church started to take over the property, a process complete in 1994. At present, there’s a small community of monks here, and the run-down buildings and property are under renovation.

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17 July 2015. Our Great Russian Motherland. The Yenisei River in the Sayano-Shushenskaya State Nature Biosphere Reserve

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The Sayano-Shushenskaya State Nature Biosphere Reserve is in a remote area of the West Sayan in the southern Krasnoyarsk Krai on the left bank of the Yenisei River in the area of influence of the Sayano-Shushenskoye Hydroelectric Dam Reservoir. At present, the Reserve is 3,904 square kilometres (1,507 square miles) in area, about 25 percent is Siberian Cedar forest. The Russian state has set aside another 6,904 square kilometres (2,666 square miles) as an addition to the Reserve in future; it’s banned all development in this region. That’d give it 10,808 square kilometres (4,173 square miles)… Yellowstone National Park is 8,983 square kilometres (3,463 square miles), thus, you could throw Yellowstone into this Reserve, with room to spare. In comparison, Long Island (including Brooklyn and Queens) is 3,629 square kilometres (1,401 square miles), roughly the size of the present preserve… the planned preserve area is a little under three times the size of Long Island. No small park by any measure, is it?

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19 June 2015. Our Great Russian Motherland… Lake Teletskoe in the High Altai

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Lake Teletskoe in the Altai Mountains is in Siberia near to China. It’s the largest lake in the mountains and in the Altai Republic. It’s a centrepiece of the Altaisky Nature Reserve, which is part of the Golden Mountains of Altai UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site. It’s one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Republic. There are hotels, hostels, and campgrounds, with facilities for hiking, water sports, biking, helicopter tours, and fishing. In Soviet times, it was very popular. there are waterfalls and caves accessible to the public. In short, its one of the most visitor-friendly natural sites in Siberia.

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2 March 2015. Our Great Russian Motherland… It’s an Old School Siberian Winter

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Oksana Shirshova carries a shoulder yoke with two buckets after drawing water from the Teryol River in Verkhnyaya Biryusa, in the taiga near Krasnoyarsk (Emelyanovo Raion. Krasnoyarsk Krai. Siberian Federal District).

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