August 28, 2020

Kamchatka or Bust


Kamchatka or Bust
What our Alaskan readers see off their front porches. Козинцев, Wikimedia Commons

Now's your chance to check out a part of Russia you might only know from a game of Risk.

Kamchatka, a peninsula in the Pacific ocean, is set to become the next big ecotourism hotspot. Russian authorities are making plans to revamp roads, ports, and other infrastructure to draw tourists to this area, along with stringent environmental protections for tourist-magnet natural wonders.

Reportedly, ecotourism currently makes up only 2 percent of Russia's tourism sector. Kamchatka, and its Alaska-like scenery, could be Russia's ticket to environmental fame. Sights like Three Volcanoes Park and Avacha Bay have already seen some development.

Somehow, though, we just don't see ziplines, nighttime jungle tours, and rural hostels taking off.

You Might Also Like

The Battle for Kamchatka
  • December 01, 1995

The Battle for Kamchatka

Alaska Airlines has been serving the Russian Far East for 20 years, but lately it has faced some new difficulties.
Kamchatka: Where the River Runs Hot
  • August 01, 1996

Kamchatka: Where the River Runs Hot

The wilderness of Kamchatka provided Andrew Tarica with stunning volcanic scenery and a lifetime best day of fishing. In this issue's Travel Journal, he tells the story.
Kayaking Kamchatka
  • March 01, 2001

Kayaking Kamchatka

Remote, wild and pristine, the Kamchatka peninsula is an adventure traveler's dream. We join Christine Seashore and her husband while they kayak the coast of this amazing region.
Duck Devil and Little Wolf
  • January 01, 2002

Duck Devil and Little Wolf

It's not every day one is invited on a pilgrimage by a Siberian shaman. Which is how Christine Seashore and John Turk ended up roaming Kamchatka's frozen tundra in search of an elusive pack of reindeer. Oh, and then there is the interesting bit about the mountain bikes...
The Lure of Kunashir
  • July 01, 2003

The Lure of Kunashir

Off limits for eight decades, the Kurile islands are a treasure trove of natural history and geological wonders. We travel to the southernmost island, which is just a stone's throw from Japan.
The Wonders of Kamchatka
  • July 01, 2006

The Wonders of Kamchatka

In the first of a two-part series, we explore the villages, geysers, volcanoes, flora and fauna of Russia’s wildest peninsula.
Bears in the Mist
  • November 01, 2006

Bears in the Mist

Exploring the wilds of Kamchatka, home to an amazing concentration of bears, geysers and natural beauty.
Realm of the Sacred Raven
  • November 01, 2003

Realm of the Sacred Raven

In the second installment of Ilya Stogoff's travels in the Russian Far East, the author explores the steamy side of Kamchatka.
Koryak Cultural Loss
  • March 01, 2013

Koryak Cultural Loss

At the furthest edge of the Russian Far East, in a quiet bay near the very top of the Kamchatka Peninsula, a tiny community of Koryaks struggles with the loss of its traditional culture.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

How Russia Got That Way

How Russia Got That Way

A fast-paced crash course in Russian history, from Norsemen to Navalny, that explores the ways the Kremlin uses history to achieve its ends.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
Survival Russian

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
Okudzhava Bilingual

Okudzhava Bilingual

Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 
Murder and the Muse

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955