Delyankir

Delyankir lies in the mountains of the upper Indigirka basin in northeastern Siberia, on a plateau of larch forest and frozen ground close to the divide with the Kolyma country. Its setting is one of the coldest in the northern hemisphere, shared with famous cold poles such as Oymyakon and Verkhoyansk. Winters are long, dry and exceptionally severe, with temperatures that can fall below minus 50 degrees Celsius; summers are short and generally mild despite very white nights, though short bursts of heat can push temperatures surprisingly high.

The land was the range of Even reindeer herders and hunters and of Yakut horse and cattle breeders, who moved between winter camps and summer pastures along the mountain rivers. Larch forest supplied wood, sable and other fur animals supplied the main trade goods, and permafrost kept the ground frozen below a thin summer thaw. From the 1630s Cossack parties reached the Indigirka and the Kolyma and collected fur tribute from the local peoples, but the upland valleys near the headwaters stayed thinly peopled, a region of sparse camps and long winter distances.