audio, stills, text and or video: Go to http://www.zReportage.com to see more - If you told a citizen of Stalin's Russia they were being sent to Siberia, their response would have been abject terror. The poor souls unfortunate enough to suffer this fate faced months of backbreaking labor in freezing conditions. A journey to Oymyakon, considered by many to be the coldest permanently inhabited settlement in the world, you travel along the 'Road of Bones', so called for Stalin's political prisoners forced to dig during his gulag labor camps. Many died, their bodies were simply buried beneath the 2,031 km road. With temperatures regularly reaching -58 F, life in Oymyakon isn't easy. As winter sets in, it isn't uncommon to see trucks with small fires beneath them keeping the diesel defrosted, or seeing men using a blowtorch to loosen up axel grease. The village was originally a stopover for reindeer herders who would water their flocks from a thermal spring at the location. Known as the 'Pole of Cold' the town of 500 once recorded a temperature of -95.8' F. The ground here is permanently frozen.
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Welcome to The Coldest City on Earth, going down to -71C or -96F... Jan. 14, 2013 - Yakutia, Russia - The central square of Yakutsk on a minus 59.8 Fahrenheit day.
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Welcome to The Coldest City on Earth, going down to -71C or -96F... Jan. 10, 2013 - Yakutia, Russia - ALEXANDER PLATONOV, 52, is a retired teacher, dressed for a quick dash to the toilet. Most toilets in the town are long drops out on the street due to the difficulty of digging plumbing through the permanently frozen soil.
© Amos Chapple/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
Welcome to The Coldest City on Earth, going down to -71C or -96F... Jan. 7, 2013 - Yakutia, Russia - A toilet on the tundra at a gas station stop on the road to Oymyakon.
© Amos Chapple/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
Welcome to The Coldest City on Earth, going down to -71C or -96F... Jan. 4, 2013 - Yakutsk, Yakutia, Russia - A young female student at a bus station waiting for the bus to Oymyakon. Oymyakon lies a two day drive from the city of Yakutsk, the regional capital. Oymyakon, is the coldest permanently inhabited settlement in the world.
© Amos Chapple/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
Welcome to The Coldest City on Earth, going down to -71C or -96F... Jan. 4, 2013 - Yakutia, Russia - Cows walk back to their sheds after watering in the thermal spring which gives the town its name. Cows spend all winter in sheds, walking outside once or twice a day to have a drink.
© Amos Chapple/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
Welcome to The Coldest City on Earth, going down to -71C or -96F... Jan. 13, 2013 - Yakutia, Russia - A gas station and Christmas tree on the road to Oymyakon. Cars must be run continuously when making the journey to Oymyakon; 24-hour gas stations are essential to winter transport. Workers in the isolated petrol stations of the region work two weeks on and two weeks off.
© Amos Chapple/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
Welcome to The Coldest City on Earth, going down to -71C or -96F... Jan. 10, 2013 - Yakutia, Russia - The communist-era monument marking the record-breaking temperature of minus 96.16 Fahrenheit recorded in the village in 1924. The sign reads 'Oymyakon, the Pole of Cold.'
© Amos Chapple/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
Welcome to The Coldest City on Earth, going down to -71C or -96F... Jan. 4, 2013 - Yakutia, Russia - The 'Road of Bones' leading to Oymyakon. The road was built during the Stalin era with the forced labour of gulag prisoners.
© Amos Chapple/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
Welcome to The Coldest City on Earth, going down to -71C or -96F... Jan. 7, 2013 - Yakutia, Russia - A young East Siberian Laika in the town. The breed are adapted to the Siberian winters and can sleep without shelter in temperatures of minus 76 Fahrenheit.
© Amos Chapple/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
Welcome to The Coldest City on Earth, going down to -71C or -96F... Jan. 11, 2013 - Yakutia, Russia - Farmer NIKOLAI PETROVICH closes the door to his cows' heavily-insulated stable after putting the flock to bed for the night.
© Amos Chapple/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
Welcome to The Coldest City on Earth, going down to -71C or -96F... Jan. 13, 2013 - Yakutia, Russia - An East Siberian Laika puppy. The breed are adapted to the Siberian winters and can sleep without shelter in temperatures of minus 76 Fahrenheit.
© Amos Chapple/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
Welcome to The Coldest City on Earth, going down to -71C or -96F... Jan. 5, 2013 - Yakutia, Russia - A view of Stalin's 'Road of Bones' the route to Oymyakon, on a minus 58 Fahrenheit evening.
© Amos Chapple/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
Welcome to The Coldest City on Earth, going down to -71C or -96F... Jan. 12, 2013 - Oymakon, Russia - The heating plant and its constant plume of coal smoke burns in Oymakon village at dawn. The village was originally a stopover for reindeer herders who would water their flocks from a thermal spring at the location.
© Amos Chapple/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
Welcome to The Coldest City on Earth, going down to -71C or -96F... Jan. 11, 2013 - Yakutia, Russia - Heating for the town is provided by a coal-fired water heating plant. Every morning this digger delivers fresh coal to the plant and carries away the burnt cinder. Known as the 'Pole of Cold' the town of 500 people once recorded a temperature of minus 96.16 Fahrenheit.
© Amos Chapple/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
Welcome to The Coldest City on Earth, going down to -71C or -96F... Jan. 9, 2013 - Yakutia, Russia - Farmer NIKOLAI PETROVICH waters his cows in the patch of thermal water at the edge of the town. Average temperatures in January are minus 58 Fahrenheit.
© Amos Chapple/zReportage.com/ZUMA Press
