On the 1st of April tactical exercises of the prison guards took place in an old hangar not far away from the Nijniy Chov prison. The Department of Punishment (DoP) ruled the event. The legend was: a group of prisoners who escaped from the prison capture the hangar and request some things >>from the prison management. A member of the DoP arrives to the place of incident and starts negotiating with the criminals.

At this time firemen, an assault group and doctors arrive. An assault operation is being planned. The special forces team tries to find out how to neutralize the zeks (who are actually the guards changed clothes). When it turns out that the group of rebels isn’t going to give up, it’s decided to attack the hangar.

The most part of the prisoners is neutralized and sent to the “filtrational spot”, from where they’re sent back to the jail. At the same moment soldiers receive information that a hostage was captured, and the aggressors request a car, cell phones and money.

While management of the prison looks for the necessary stuff, the special forces team is mining the entrance. When aggressors get what they want, they leave the building. When they exit, the mine is exploded, and soldiers start to free the hostage and grasping the prisoners.

The organization of this event was very professional. The special commission from Moscow controlled and estimated the process of the operation. Besides, the situation was simulated very plausibly, so I even started thinking that the special forces were dealing with some real prisoners, not the faked ones.

But at last the prisoners were captured, put into the military cars and then they were made free to celebrate the end of the operation with the other guards.

Komi Republic is a Russian region famous for it's wide variety of mineral resources, woods and wild animals. Unfortunatelly, it's also famous for prisons, so called "zona", thanks the communistic leaders.

Apart different exiles who were sent to Komi, lots of people >>were coming there at the USSR times. Somebody was sent by the government, others came there by themselves to make their dreams come true and to help the country build communism. Lots of villages were founded all over the republic. People stored woods, others ran their housekeepings and grew children there...

Everything changed when the USSR collapsed. Villages began dying away, because the government stopped providing countryside with anything necessary and lots of wood factories were closed. The residents started leaving their houseepings and went to cities. Not so many people stayed there in some villages or collective farms.

It's not difficult to find a dying village nowadays. Lots of houses left can be found both along the roads and deep in the woods. Less than 10 people live in some settlements, in another there are from 12 to 30-40 residents.


The village of Kuliga. It's situated not far from the board of Komi Republic and Kirov region. It's said that only about 12 people live there. They don't leave that place for various reasons: some of them like living in countryside, some cannot leave their relatives, the others just don't have an opportunity to go away.

Street photography and singles from reports