Chapter 1722 Heading to Yarsale Village
Xiao Peng and Kasim drove away from Noyabrsk. Xiao Peng really couldn't stay here anymore. This time he was so embarrassed!
The village of Yarsale they were going to was a Nenets village, where the annual "Reindeer Festival" was about to be held. Going there to watch the reindeer festival was both to broaden their horizons and to seek refuge.
Although the Nenets migrate with their reindeer herds, they maintain their own permanent villages. Clan members, primarily patrilineal, share the same clan and ancestry, living together. These villages have clan cemeteries, altars, and other artifacts.
This also shows that they have Eastern customs and habits. The traditional Nenets belief is shamanism, which believes that all things have spirits. In Bactria, it is called "dancing with the gods." During their festivals, they will gather around the "sacred altar" in the village to perform various shamanic dances to dedicate themselves to their ancestors and pray for the gods' blessings.
However, since intermarriage within their clan is prohibited, they came up with a plan: to hold a "Reindeer Festival" and invite people from other Nenets villages to celebrate the festival. It's essentially a festival for marrying off daughters; then they go to other villages' "Reindeer Festivals" to marry daughters from other villages...
The status of women among the Nenets is not that high, which is why some Nenets people leave their traditions to live in cities and convert to Orthodoxy.
Some clever Nenets have settled close to cities, allowing them to maintain their traditional lifestyle while enjoying the conveniences of the city. This is the case with the village of Yarsare, located approximately 200 kilometers northwest of Noyabrsk. For these Nenets villages near cities, the Reindeer Festival serves not only as a place for brides to marry but also as a tourist attraction and foreign exchange earner.
Who says the Nenets people don’t want money?
Isn't this just self-deception? If you really want to experience authentic Nenets life, you should go herding reindeer with them!
Besides, the name of the village of Arsaleh tells us that it is a standard Russian village. It turns out that it is not a Nenets village at all, but was "occupied" by the Nenets.
According to Zhenya, this place dates back to the Tsarist era, when it was a Russian outpost. Later, during the Soviet era, it became a Soviet outpost. After the Soviet Union collapsed and the deformed Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was established, it became a military trading facility. At that time, the military engaged in business here, selling military supplies for cash.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, a large group of "state-owned assets" porters emerged here, most of whom came from the military at the time.
From an objective point of view, they do this because they want to survive.
At that time, the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union collapsed, and a large number of Soviet soldiers returned to their homeland from Eastern Europe. In addition, military spending dropped sharply in 1992, and a large number of troops could not pay their salaries. At that time, the generals of those troops began to "rely on themselves" and mobilized their officers and soldiers to sell military equipment and supplies. The disrespectful behavior of the First Chechen War was actually a manifestation of their lack of equipment at the time.
During that period, the Pacific Fleet simply stopped training, and all the ships' fuel and military uniforms were sold to private enterprises in exchange for money. The warships became tour boats carrying tourists on sightseeing tours.
At the time, the Luhang Commander directly sold military helicopters to private companies and fighter jets to foreign countries. In 1994 alone, Russian customs seized enough smuggled weapons at the border to equip two anti-tank regiments! This was only the tip of the iceberg, likely the total number.
While officials could sell planes and tanks, what about the lower-level officers and soldiers? This led to the emergence of so-called "military trade organizations" like those in the village of Yalzale. These organizations, relying on the resale of small arms, established farms and trading companies, along with cigarettes, alcohol, cars, and food. The Yalzale "military trade organization" traded with the local Nenets, providing them with daily necessities in exchange for high-quality animal hides, which they profited from.
After the Great came to power, he launched an anti-corruption campaign in the military, particularly the "New Look" project launched in 2008. It was during this period that the military trade structure in Yarsare was abandoned and subsequently occupied by the Nenets, who then formed a settlement. Russia's minority policies, especially towards the Nenets, were extremely favorable, and their behavior was tolerated with a pinch of salt. The Nenets clan that occupied the area quickly became one of the largest Nenets clans in the autonomous region, leveraging the favorable conditions.
After all, this village of Yalsare is the best gathering place for Nenets people in the entire Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region. As for the reason...
This gathering place has water, electricity and buildings!
After all, it used to be a military outpost! So the living conditions were much better. When the village came into the hands of the Nenets, it had eight small buildings and two bathhouses. Now, more than a decade later, it has become... eight small buildings and one bathhouse!
Well, even this is good enough, because other Nenets gathering places are basically tents!
Some people may say: More than 200 kilometers is not far?
It’s really not far from here!
The Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug stretches nearly 2,000 kilometers from south to north. Within this vast area, there are only seven cities, eight towns, and 41 rural administrative offices. The largest city, Noyabrsk, has a population of just over 50,000.
The phrase "vast land and sparse population" is fully reflected here!
The closest Nenets villages are dozens of kilometers apart!
But the village of Yarsale also has its advantages!
After all, it was originally a military stronghold, so it occupied a major transportation route.
There's a road running directly from Noyabrsk to Salekhard, the capital of the Yamalo-Nenets region, and the village of Yarsarek is located not far from this road. This makes it easy for them to attract tourists. (P.S.: Although Noyabrsk is the largest city in the Yamalo-Nenets Oblast, it's not the region's capital. Salekhard, to the northwest, is the only city in the world built on the Arctic Circle. Noyabrsk is the most prosperous city in the region because it's located along the Trans-Siberian oil and gas railway. It's also on the border between the Noyabrsk Autonomous Okrug and the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug.)
Of course, the so-called "attracting tourists" is not as big as imagined. They are very satisfied if each "Reindeer Festival" can attract a hundred tourists.
They can't accommodate so many tourists. Only two of the four small buildings are used to receive guests at this time, and one of them also accommodates Nenets people from other villages who come to participate in the festival.
Xiao Peng and Kaxin drove to Yarsale Village. Just as Kaxin said, it is very dangerous to travel at night here. There is not a single car on the whole road.
What they didn't know was that there were people ahead of them who were also traveling under the cover of darkness, and had the same destination as them.
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