Ilya Zheltyakov

The inhabitants in the remote villages on the coast of the Barents and White Seas rely on the ship "Klavdia Elanskaya" to connect them to the mainland and bring them supplies. Some people leave in search of a better life, while others come to embrace the challenge.

From behind the trees comes the alarmed cry of a bird, moss rustles underfoot, and the sky, with the cosmos beyond, is reflected darkly in the black bogs. Scientist Konstantin Yakovlevich Kazakov is 87 years old, and he knows that there’s no better place on earth than the swamp.

Music, dance and art are not just components of human existence. It's something that can keep you alive when there's nothing else left. We know examples when only the strength of the spirit, backed by hope, helped people to survive in the most difficult conditions and resist cold, hunger and death itself.

Settled on earthen counters, lying under the endless steps of buyers and onlookers, the history of the country for the last 100 years in the stories of the inhabitants of the flea market on Udelnaya.