Climate change and the degradation of permafrost prove to be severe challenges for humanity. At present, the northern communities and those living in rural areas are already facing the consequences. This article is based on field research conducted in the Yunkyur, Olyokminsky, and Amginsky Districts of Sakha Republic (Yakutia) during 2018–2020. These settlements have one of the richest agricultural traditions in the region; however, the inhabitants of these villages now face serious consequences of permafrost degradation. The authors rely on a mixed set of methods and approaches, including sociological surveys, expert and in-depth interviewing, and appropriate archival and museum materials. Methodology of remote sensing and landscape–geocryological research was integrated. The resulting studies made it possible to demonstrate increasingly widespread thermokarst processes in the key areas studied. The authors determined that the degradation of permafrost has led to problems with the safety and development of the housing stock, especially deformation of houses and outbuildings, and reduction of areas suitable for construction. Territories affected by thermokarst also drop out of agricultural use. Finally, the authors identify some adaptation mechanisms to mitigate the effects of changes in permafrost landscapes.

Goals. The study aims to determine the influence of a complex of cryogenic factors (snow, ice, permafrost, cold in general) on traditional household and sociocultural practices of the Yakuts including benefits that some representatives of this ethnic group have learned to derive from winter climatological conditions. Materials and Methods. The work analyzes archival materials, scientific literature and the author’s field data. The most important elements of the methodological toolkit are sociocultural analysis and basic principles of cryosophy that suggest analysis of the phenomena of the ‘cold world’ in terms of their resource potential. Results. The paper shows positions (impacts) of low temperatures and accompanying phenomena when it comes to choose a place of location for a winter settlement and layout a farmstead (availability of a reservoir that does not freeze over the winter to its bottom, relative remoteness of permafrost soils from the surface, creation of open spaces for a better view, etc.), and the former’s influence on the architecture and functionality of residential and household buildings. The work introduces certain characteristics of deep freeze practices used for storing and cooking food, employment of cryogenic phenomena and processes for sanitary and hygienic purposes. Special insight is made into the significance of ‘cold’ practices in household activities. Specifically, the study shows that in farming and cattle breeding cryogenic phenomena were used for irrigation of agriculturally used areas, livestock feeding and threshing arrangements. Moreover, the specific climatic regime made it possible to apply quite a range of unique approaches to fishing and hunting. However, one of the most important results obtained during this study is the conclusion — confirmed by definite examples — that the Yakuts practiced conscious control over cryogenic processes in household activities. Conclusions. Based on the above, the paper concludes it is largely due to cold that a big complex of elements of the traditional life sustenance system of the Yakuts had emerged — to further essentially shape the latter’s most representative ethnocultural features.

A historical analysis of the development of automobile winter roads in Yakutia, i.e. roads laid on frozen soil and surface ice of reservoirs, is presented. The chronological framework of the study covers the period from the moment the first of the winter roads appeared in the region in the early 1930s until the collapse of the Soviet Union. The study was carried out within the framework of the anthropology of cold, a direction of scientific research developed by the author and his colleagues, focused on identifying the significance of cryogenic processes and phenomena in the life of the population of the northern territories. Based on the involvement of a complex of archival materials, including those introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, the dynamics of the development of a network of automobile winter roads is traced. It has been established that the most important driver for the development of the transport system of Yakutia, including winter roads, in the period considered in the article was the interest in the development of deposits of various minerals — gold, tin, diamonds, etc. The place and role of automobile winter roads in the transport system of the region are revealed. The presented material indicates that winter roads were an important way to ensure the connectivity of the territory of Yakutia and one of the key tools to sustain the life support systems that have developed in the region.

Goals. The study attempts a historical and anthropological reconstruction of how cryogenic resources — material objects and forces of nature arising from the realm of cold (ambient temperature below 0 degrees Celsius) — were used in economies and everyday life of rural Yakutia’s communities in the 1920s–1980s. Materials and methods. The work analyzes archival materials, scientific literature and author’s field observations made in settlements of Khangalassky, Megino-Kangalassky, Amginsky, Olyokminsky, Srednekolymsky Districts, and the urban locality of Zhatay (Yakutia, Russia) between 2017 and 2022. The most important elements of the methodological toolkit are basic principles of cryosophy implying analyses of phenomena inherent to the ‘cold world’ from perspectives of their resource potentials. Results. The most important outcome of Soviet modernization — along with collectivization and construction of settlements — proved the emergence of a new force in the process of human interaction with a complex of cryogenic factors — state. While before the 1920s rural dwellers were actually left to themselves, the Soviet era witnessed an extensive involvement of the government in the former’s relationship with cold. This resulted in the parallel existence of two oppositely directed trends. On the one hand, a number of once popular cryogenic practices either faded away or experienced a minimized demand. On the other hand, significance of others not only persisted but increased dramatically. Furthermore, some of the latter evolved to better meet actual needs of Yakutia’s rural communities, new techniques were created and developed to gain preferences from natural and geographic properties of the region. Unification and standardization are important characteristics of the then changes too. During that period, economic practices widespread in central regions of the country were actively introduced and, thus, diminished the diversity of ethnic ‘man-cold’ interaction practices. Supply improvement programs for large settlements led to decreased dependence of life sustenance systems on local resources and accordingly increased roles of communication routes, including winter roads and ice crossings. The emergence of large collective farms in Yakutia — as well as their extensive activities — gave rise to accelerated scales of icehouse construction. The extended areas of the former demanded farmland irrigation systems be as broadened, including with th use of cryogenic resources. Conclusions. Despite all the changes experienced by rural life patterns during the Soviet period of Yakutia’s history, cryogenic resources retained their significance both in the regional economy and everyday life.