# Komi Republic

Komi Republic is a region in Northwestern Russia, which borders Kirov Oblast to the southwest, Arkhangelsk Oblast to the west, Nenetsia to the north, Yamalia to the northeast, Khantia-Mansia to the east, Sverdlovsk Oblast to the southeast, and Perm Krai to the south.

## Cities

* 61.66666750.8166671 Syktyvkar — the capital and the only city in the region that qualifies as a tourist destination for its own sake
* 66.03981460.1315192 Inta — a small city which housed one of the region's many gulags
* 65.00916753.9169443 Izhma — an old Komi village on the Izhma river, with wooden architecture and rich folk traditions
* 62.3550.0666674 Mikun
* 65.14415457.2196895 Pechora — a small city on the Pechora river; likely your base for exploring Yugyd Va
* 63.58333353.9333336 Sosnogorsk
* 63.56666753.77 Ukhta — a big industrial city centered around the nearby oilfields
* 65.99977257.5414228 Usinsk — another oil city
* 65.43388952.1508339 Ust-Tsilma — an ancient village on the Pechora River, populated mainly by Russian Old Believers with numerous well-preserved examples of wooden architecture and rich folk traditions
* 67.564.03333310 Vorkuta — a coal mining city in the tundra, which hosted one of the USSR's most notorious Stalin-era gulags, and has one of the closest airports to the beautiful but inhospitable polar Ural mountains
* 61.26916750.58111111 Yb — an old Komi village near Syktyvkar comprising of seven small villages on seven hills along 15 km of the Sysola River. Tourists and pilgrims go to see unique natural and Orthodox objects. A tourist complex “Finno-Ugric Ethnocultural Park” is being created on the basis of the village.

## Other destinations

* Virgin Komi Forests — UNESCO World Heritage Site and largest virgin forest in Europe. The site corresponds to Russia's Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve and Yugyd Va National Park:
** 64.463159.01231 Yugyd Va National Park — Europe's largest national park, as well as Russia's second largest after Beringia National Park in Chukotka, is also one of its most beautiful and remote. The place to go in the Urals for nature lovers.
** 61.4856.792 Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve — The core of the World Heritage Site Virgin Komi Forests, on the western slopes of the Urals, and home to Manpupuner rock formations

## Understand

The Komi Republic is named for the Komi People, a Finno-Ugric group, who comprise a quarter of the region's population (ethnic Russians are the majority).
The region is of interest for two main reasons: its extensive and brutal gulag history and the beautiful Ural mountain and forest areas in its east, especially Yugyd Va National Park.

## Talk

Most of the Komi People who live in the region speak Komi, a Finno-Ugric language closely related to Udmurt, but virtually all inhabitants of the Komi Republic are fluent in Russian.

## Get in

Flights arrive to Syktyvkar from Moscow and Ufa. Trains arrive to Syktyvkar via Kotlas, Arkhangelsk Oblast.

## Get around

Rossiya/Aeroflot Airlines operate flights from Syktyvkar to other far-flung cities in the region.

## Do

* 65.0360.11661 Mt.Narodnaya. Climbing the highest top of the Ural Mountains

## Go next

In the late summer, boats head north from Pechora to Naryan-Mar, the capital of Nenetsia. Year round, trains pass through the Urals to connect with Salekhard in Yamalia, Siberia.