Vorkuta, a declining coal-mining town, lies on ‘the edge of human habitation,’^[1] rose from one of Stalin’s infamous Gulag labour camps where over two million prisoners excavated the vast coal reserves of the Pechora Basin between 1931 and 1957.^[2] After Stalin’s death, some of the former prisoners settled in the area following the dismantling of the Gulag system. During the 1960s-1980s, a new influx of people arrived, lured to Vorkuta by promises of high wages, secure work, and large apartments, expanding the city’s population to its peak of over 200,000.^[3] However, following the USSR’s collapse and the 1990s’ economic crisis, state subsidies disappeared. The state mining company Vorkutaugol streamlined its operations, and by the mid-2000s, only six of the original thirteen mines active in 1991 remained operational.^[4] Today, that number has shrunk to five, with only 4,000 people employed.^[5]

[1] Ridgewell, H. (2018) ‘In Russia’s Dying Arctic City, Residents Plea for Putin to Offer Lifeline,’ VOA, 22 March.
Available at: https://www.voanews.com/episode/russias-dying-arctic-city-residents-plea-putin-offer-lifeline-3774751
Accessed: 11 May 2021.

[2] Balmforth, T. (2013) ‘Vorkuta: Gulag is Gone, but a Virtual Prison Has Taken Its Place,’ Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 4 March.
Available at: https://www.rferl.org/a/stalin-gulag-vorkuta/24918538.html
Accessed: 19 March 2021.

[3] Suter, Luis, J. (2019) ‘A Tale of Two Arctic Cities: Vorkuta and Salekhard,’ Focus on Geography.
Available at: http://www.focusongeography.org/publications/articles/suter/index.html
Accessed: 16 March 2021.

[4] Suter.

[5] Luhn, A. (2020) ‘“I am a hostage of the north”: Trapped in a post-Gulag Arctic city,’ The World, 11 March.
Available at: https://www.pri.org/stories/2020-03-11/i-am-hostage-north-trapped-post-gulag-arctic-city
Accessed: 19 March 2021.