Once-cursed Gulag river now Siberian lifeline

By Dmitry Solovyov

MARKHAYANOVA, Russia (Reuters) - The Kolyma used to be a river of death for prisoners in some of the harshest camps of Josef Stalin's Gulag empire. Now the camps are long gone, but so too is the activity of a once-bustling Soviet Arctic outpost.

In the 1930s, barges plied the Kolyma river taking their cargo of scurvy-stricken prisoners to penal camps in Siberia's northernmost settlements or the nearby Magadan region, a trip along what inmates dubbed "the road of bones".

Once dubbed a "cursed black planet" in camp inmates' songs, the river is now a lifeline for a shrinking community.

Under Soviet rule, the authorities used to fly in fruit to make sure residents had a balanced diet. Now with no more state subsidies, local industries, or ships in the port -- infrastructure that made life possible in this remote corner -- those who still live here relish what the river offers: fish.

Just the names of the local species are enough to tantalize the tastebuds -- sturgeon, Siberian white salmon, broad whitefish, Arctic grayling, cisco and burbot with its butter-soft liver.

"For the neighborhood, this river is its daily bread," said Valery Gizatulin, a 45-year-old fisherman at the Markhayanova fishing concession which in Soviet days hosted a large fish factory.

"There used to be good infrastructure around this area. Now only fishing and hunting remain for locals."

Eight time zones east of Moscow, residents here call the rest of Russia "the mainland" -- it is so difficult to reach that this region might as well be an island.

Gizatulin gulps down a shot of vodka and forks up a generous chunk of steaming hot fried sturgeon: "The river provides us with a livelihood, it gives us fish, money, everything. Otherwise, we would not have survived here."

In the nearby regional centre of Chersky, bread costs three times more than in Moscow. Apples and onions cost $5 or more per kg. Local fish is sold at just $2 per kilo.

"Our staples, fish and (reindeer or moose) meat, are real life-savers," Gizatulin said.

The fisherman guides visitors into what looks like the eerie realm of the Snow Queen: a maze of ice-covered underground corridors cut in the Arctic permafrost.

The temperature down there is a steady minus 16 Celsius (3 degrees Fahrenheit). The tunnels used to be a huge fridge, big enough to accommodate 250 tonnes of fish for the factory.

Now the fishermen catch just a fraction of this amount, but still store it in the natural freezer.

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