Now, the Dolgan number only a few thousand people. I used to sell white fox fur, and won two medals for hunting. He is a pure hunter, he never attended school, has no writing or reading skills, although Olga took part in a Soviet literacy course when she was 18. He and his wife live in a wooden wagon covered with old tarpaulin and only one tiny window under the roof. There is no heating, no electricity, no facilities, no proper furniture.
Meat is cooked on a paraffin stove.
They bake no bread in Novorybnoye, because flour is expensive - 1,200 roubles per sack. And sugar costs 1,500 per sack. Their combined income doesn't even cover the cost of even the most basic food products in the Russian north. The harsh polar climate, poor living conditions and meagre diet often provoke health problems and basic medication is unavailable. But more important to these northern people than relief assistance, they want the development and return of their traditional coping mechanisms and handicrafts.