Driving Across Eastern Siberia

My good friend Artiom Solveychick thought that our trip to the end of Tierra Del Fuego was such a good idea he is now driving across Russia from Moscow to Vladivostock in two week trips as we did down North and South America. I had the good fortune to join him in the Spring of 2000 for part of his little excursion.

I arrived in Moscow only to be rushed to the Moscow River to work on Artiom's sail boat. He needed to get it ready for a regatta in three weeks. Snow and icy winds does not make it easy to raise the mast but with much hard work and a little vodka we arranged things before we departed the next morning by plane to Krasnoyark. This town is five time-zones to the east of Moscow deep in Siberia.

Artiom's mission is to visit school systems for his newspaper across this vast nation. By accompanying him I really had an opportunity to join in with the local people and understand how life is in the new Siberia. Before leaving I had dreams of vast frozen wasteland with cities that offered bleak outlooks on life. We would need to keep the engine running all night not to freeze and roads the stretched into the horizon full of potholes that could swallow the car at almost any term of the road. My dreams of adventure were dashed to the ground for what we found, for the most part, was a thriving and dynamic society with wonderful people striving in a new changing economic environment. The city has an huge and powerful river the Yenisey, which empties above the Arctic Circlc into the ocean . You can take a cruise ship the eight hundred miles north in the summer. Elena our assigned guide by the local schools system escorted us around Krasnoyarks schools and found us willing to go at night to the best restaurants and nightclubs in town. We spent the evening trying to convince her to move to the west and work on the Sea Cloud were Jean Nemerzitski and his father are officers. Sailing on a square-rigger is far more fun then working in the cold winter of Siberia we suggested to her.

We then traveled to Taishet and dropped in on the high school run by Evgeniy. The town was the center of the Gulag prison camps made infamous by Stalin. Evgeniy has written five books and has done extensive research on that dismal period of history. It is a very poor town but he built a fine new school with strong community contributions of labor and material. That night we stayed at Evgeniy home and were treated to Siberia hospitality with lots of vodka.

Next to Irkutsk on the Angara River were we attempted to find a new front bumper for the one we lost. It seems the hundred or so miles of gravel road were a little too much for the VW Golf and it shed its bumper. Every policeman stopped us for to drive without a bumper and front license plate is a big deal. I drove and when they asked for my license and passport it was a really suprising for them to find an American driving in the area. They were all really kind and always let us go with the suggestion to get it repaired at the next town. Irkutsk has a nightclub that rivals any in Manhattan. The star high school took us on a two-day tour of the area including Lake Baikal.

Lake Baikal is one of the wonders of the world for it is the largest body of fresh water on earth and the deepest lake as well. It even has fresh water seal, which are very cute. Along the southern shore we stopped at the pulp factor town of Slyudyanka. The school system wined and dined us and has a very well financed plan thanks to the wood pulp factory on Lake Baikal. We did not say that the International Community is in an uproar over the pollution caused by the pulp mill.

It is about seven hours drive along the East Coast of Lake Baikal and south to arrive at Ulan-Ude Buryatia. We have passed another time zone and are now in the truly Asian part of Russia. To the southwest is Mongolia and its capital Ulan-Bortar. The town of Unan-Ude is a through back to old Soviet days with a somewhat Mongolian twist. Our guide Svetlana took us to the Buddhist monastery and introduced us to the local clubs in the evening. By day we visited the government offices of the school system. Margarita another guide introduced us to Shamanism and the Steppes of Asia. You arrive on the south side of town and drive toward the airport and the entire landscape change. The Steppes are majestic to behold and to think that the go for a thousand miles to the south and east is amazing.

The exploring was all accomplished two hundred and fifty years ago by the Czars troops and early explorers of the west, but the people of the area are the spark of life that makes you want to return again and just enjoy the simple pleasures of living. The roads in all of Siberia are great with excellent markings and signs and distances every few miles. Gas stations were very available and the price of gas was very low by US standards. So far Artiom is a little more then half way across Russia let us hope the remainder of his trips offers some adventure. Perhaps he needs another rider to join him. I heard that the hunting of tigers for sport near the Amur River to the north of China is very interesting.

- Roy F. Halvorsen

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