How does mail reach the isolated Siberian Taiga? | DW Documentary

In the Siberian Taiga, many small villages aren’t reachable by road. Forest fires have destroyed temporary pathways and left behind only boggy terrain. To deliver mail here in summer, the Russian postal service sends out a mounted postman. Beyond Siberia’s few urban areas lies the vast Taiga, a boreal forest stretching along the Trans-Siberian Railway. It’s a region mostly devoid of human inhabitants. Many of the tiny villages aren’t reachable by road. Every month, the 53-year-old Taiga postman Andrian Chromov makes the 150-kilometer trip on the long, dangerous route through the bogs to bring mail, news and other essentials to people in this far-flung corner of the world. In the summer, he does his rounds on horseback. But even if they haven’t been destroyed in forest fires, the paths can be marshy. The job is an adventure every time. And on this occasion, his horse has bolted. He can cover the first few kilometers in his old car, but that doesn’t always work, either. Then, he has to find another horse - or walk. The villages he visits on his week-long ride through the Taiga are totally isolated. Siberia is extremely sparsely populated. Most people who live here have been settled in collective farming communities. But these often no longer exist. There is, however, a weather station: Some of its data is passed on by Andrian. That’s because there’s no telephone here, no Internet and no power. TVs and radios are powered with batteries or a generator. This requires fuel that can only be transported in winter when the ground is frozen. The postman is a link to the outside world. One that’s proving difficult to maintain.