Right. That’s it.
Forget Spain or Greece. Call me a madman, but Siberia is where I want to go. The bitter frost and vast distances will just add to the excitement! Not that I have enough money for a Aeroflot flight to Magadan or Magnitogorsk, but I really must go sometime.
Siberia seems kind of like the Wild West of Russia- though in Soviet times the Sheriffs were the Peoples’ Commissars and the Indians lived in Yurts. What with an area comprising one twelfth of the world’s land area, it must take ages to travel between. Mainly my interest was due to some strange banknotes I came across a-leafing in the albums of a Numismast’s shop I used to frequent in Istanbul. Far Eastern Republic, they said. Cheap, they were. Far Eastern Republic?
So I looked it up in good old wikipedia and there we have it. Huge nation, 1919-1925 or somesuch, and yet nobody has ever heard of it. Strange. Where a Civil War can cause dearth, famine, disease, and more vices among ill-paid troops than you can shake a Cossack’s hat at, for collectors of Paper Money and Stamps, it’s a positive boom. Must be like being an insurance salesman, I suppose. The worse the likelihood of disaster gets, the more money you’re likely to make. Though in my case, most of it hasn’t been legal tender for eighty years, of course 
Anyway, I began to read up on all things Siberian from Amur to Zhigansk, and I came across some really interesting things. As well as having the largest autonomous area on the planet (Sakha), Siberia has:
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A nation which was independent from 1922 to 1945, and is technically still at war with Germany (Tannu Tuva)- sorry it’s Wikipedia, but the best sites about Tuva are all in Russian or Tuvinian.
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The coldest city on the planet (Verkhoyansk)
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The site of a mysterious fireball which ravaged areas of forest larger than Wales (the Tunguska Fireball)
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A people whose system of writing is probably more complex that the Pictographic Script used by Chinese (the Yukagir)- Will scan in example of Yukagir script
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What could have become the homeland of the Jewish people if Stalin had had his way (the Jewish Autonomous Region at Birobidzhan)
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The ’second Ukraine’, set up by Ukranian Partisans during the Russian Civil War and attempted independence (Ukranian ‘Green’ Republic of the Far East)
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The remains of a Buddhist Monk whose interned body in 1927 appeared as if it had been dead for only 36 hours when exhumed in 2002. (Dashi-Dorzho Itilgov, from Buryatia)- Warning, freaky pictures.
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Some extremely unique, but strangely calming, throat singing. (Khöömei, from Tuva)
The Tuvan singing, I must admit, did cause a ringing sensation in my ears at first, but then I grew to like it. No, I don’t have tinnitus. The band Hun Huur Tu is probably the most famous of Tuvan throat singers- listen to their site for samples. Shame Rough Guide Music CDs don’t have an issue for Siberia out yet.
Anyway, catch you in Ulan-Ude!
And a jolly new year to all. Ho ho ho.
Мэхмет12
