Discovering Kamchatka - Russia

November 1998
Throughout the cold-war the Kamchatka peninsula was home to the Soviet empire's nuclear powered fleet.

Even Soviet citizens needed special permits to visit here. But today the military enclave is largely redundant. And for the people that used to work there, there's not much left to do. The grey concrete town is now a desolate Place full of deserted flats. Yet the Soviet secrecy surrounding Kamchatka could now be its salvation. With its 29 active volcanoes the land steams and belches super-heated water and mud. It's a landscape that's a veritable eco-tourism paradise. And it's this vision that cheers Vice Governor Vladmir Balakayev. He wants to see wealthy tourists sampling 'The Valley of the Geysers' and the Laval Lake. With them could be a new lease of life for this desolate peninsula. Like everywhere in Russia, Kamchatka's future is precarious. But here at least economics is guiding it towards a post-Soviet rarity -- preservation of wilderness.

Produced by ABC Australia
Distributed by Journeyman Pictures

Category:

Travel & Events

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• Russia
• cold
• war
• redundant
• volvanoes
• eco-tourism
• paradise
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[jackinla8]

What kind of a limp-dicked sicko would pay $5,000. to kill a bear?

[crossbow121]

I thank the Russian government for the enviromental laws in Kamchatka .I hope there will be much beauty remaining when I go and Im willing to pay so keep up with conservation, its so beautiful .

[DontPublicMe]

@jackinla8

A limp-dicked sicko, I guess.

[JTMondal]

@jackinla8 Me!

[kasteman1]

What an incredibly pristine, desolate land. I'd love to spend a month there in a complete solitude with barely enough food and supplies to last throughout. No medical would make it fairly dangerous, but that's part of the appeal.

[TheStaticage01]

@jackinla8 I know..you could always shoot one for free if you really wanted too? Am I right, or what?

[geokrilov]

@jackinla8 there are some, but locals kill bears without any payments. Nothing is done legally there.

[NorthCitySider]

@WeirdoWithABeirdo84

Are there are lot of moose there?

[WeirdoWithABeirdo84]

My parents used to live there. My father still talks about Kamchatka as the best place on earth.

[hateyall]

@MiracleKD18 That's the point ._.'

[LuxuryBarrage]

@MiracleKD18 The Koryak people are a tribal people incapable of governing themselves. They have no real connection to each other. The Japanese had small colonies on the peninsula for centuries, and the Chinese (or more accurately Manchus) likely knew about it.