Mass exodus from Arctic Russia

People walk by an empty boarding house in Vorkuta. The city’s population has fallen by a third since the break-up of the Soviet Union, when subsidies for the Far North were slashed.
Vorkuta is a coal mining and former Gulag town 1,200 miles north east of Moscow, beyond the Arctic Circle, where temperatures in winter drop to -50C.
Here, whole villages are being slowly deserted and reclaimed by snow, while the financial crisis is squeezing coal mining companies that already struggle to find workers.

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Copyright: Copyright 2009 by Justin Jin. All rights reserved.
Image Size: 4800x3248 / 6.0MB; 35mm abandoned arctic block boarded camp closed coal cold color colour dark darkness documentary empty exterior freeze freezing gulag house ice issue issues jin journalism justin komi mine mining mono monogorod monotown moscow murmansk news north northern pedestrian people person photo photograph photographs photography photojournalism poverty problems reportage russia russian shut shuttered siberia siberian snow social stalin street suffer wind suffering tundra unemployed unemployment vorkuta walk walking winter

People walk by an empty boarding house in Vorkuta. The city’s population has fallen by a third since the break-up of the Soviet Union, when subsidies for the Far North were slashed.<br />
Vorkuta is a coal mining and former Gulag town 1,200 miles north east of Moscow, beyond the Arctic Circle, where temperatures in winter drop to -50C. <br />
Here, whole villages are being slowly deserted and reclaimed by snow, while the financial crisis is squeezing coal mining companies that already struggle to find workers.