Amguema

The most recent census figures show a population of 531,[3] of which 279 are men and 252 women.[4] The village is a traditional Chukchi settlement,[10] in which most of the citizens are reindeer herders,[11] taking advantage of the pasture present around the river Amguema (Chukchi: O'mvaam[12]). It is the only native settlement in the district to have a stable economy, thanks in part to the available land.[12] The population as of 2006 was 570,[11] up slightly on the 2003 estimate of 548,[12] of whom 387 were indigenous peoples and of those 379 of them were Chukchi.[12]

In August, the village is the host of the Vylgynkoranymat festival (lit. young reindeer festival), during which time, a slaughter occurs so that the residents may have sufficient skins for clothing for the forthcoming winter.[11] At the end of the festival, the women of the village produce a dish called kivlet, boiled reindeer stomachs, complete with their undigested final meal to which venison, blood and onions are added and is said to resemble goulash when cooked.[11]

As with many of the settlements in Chukotka, there are neolithic remains to be found in the area surrounding the village.[11]

The inhabitants of Amguema survive almost entirely through reindeer husbandry[13] and the Sovkhoz, with 11,166 head, is thought to have the second-largest number of reindeer in the whole Okrug, looked after by six brigades, the structure a remnant of the Soviet era.[14] Each brigade is responsible for between 760 and 3710 reindeer.[14]

In an area where land-based transport is scarce, the village is fortunate to be connected to one of the few roads, being situated about halfway along the paved road that runs from Egvekinot in the south, to the former mining village of Iultin, on the 91st kilometer.[12] The majority of the population are reindeer herders,[12] with 84 people working on the tundra in 2003.[12]

Beyond the comparative ease with which inhabitants of Amguema can reach the outside world, the village has also been a major beneficiary of the money spent on the region by the former governor, Roman Abramovich. The village has a boarding school for all ages, which is a rarity in the region, and the village serves as an educational hub for the surrounding villages whose schools do not cover all age groups.[15] As well as the school, Abramovich funded the construction of 46 new homes, at a cost of nearly $2.5 million, with hot water and indoor facilities, as well as a guesthouse, barbers and banya.[16] There is also a food store, a post-office, a daycare center and a bakery.[12] The school in Amguema is a boarding school and is used to educate not only the children from village but also other children from Nutepelmen and Vankarem, who are sent there when they are seven or eight.[13]

A class of polar cargo ships was first developed in 1962 and named Anguema after the village.[18] This was the first new class of ULA (the Russian abbreviation for "strengthened for arctic ice"[19]) a continuation of the Lena class of icebreaker to all intents and purposes, and was felt to have a hull shape far superior to any type of ice breaker constructed to that date.[19]

The first of this class of ship named after the village, a polar cargo ship, was among a number of Russian cargo ships and ice-breakers stuck in ice at Kosa Dvukh Pilotov in 1983 on a journey from Magadan to Mys Shmidta, when the winter sea ice formed significantly earlier than usual.[20]

Amguema has a Tundra climate (ET)[21] because the warmest month has an average temperature between 0 °C (32 °F) and 10 °C (50 °F).

• List of inhabited localities in Iultinsky District

• Amguema photo gallery