The starting point for this article is The Living North project conducted by the non-governmental organization Arctic Art Institute in Arkhangelsk, Russia, in 2019–21. The project team digitized archives of the crafts factory, Belomorskie Uzory (‘The White Sea patterns’), for the first time and through art-based participatory research revealed the existing challenges of the industry, communicating marginalized knowledge and creating new social choreographies. The case of reviving tacit knowledge and re-creating narratives in the context of the hypercentralized knowledge production of Euro-Arctic Russia is discussed in the article. The rapid modernization of the first half of the twentieth century led to radical changes of everyday life, including the disappearance of tacit knowledge, erosion of memory and cultural identity of northerners. In 1968, during Khrushchev’s ‘ottepel’, a crafts factory Belomorskie Uzory opened in Arkhangelsk with the goal to document and restore decaying crafts and fashion design from Euro-Arctic Russia. In the article, I discuss the case of the factory in light of decolonial and ecofeminist theory with a particular focus on fashion. The project shows that art-based participatory research strategies stimulate dialogical relations between the factory and young fashion designers and artists, leading to the revitalization of communities in the North.

A scientific consensus acknowledges that climate change has increased wildfire activity in the Russian Arctic, a trend projected to continue in response to further warming. Regional governments across Russia have started to design and develop adaptation policies and plans (i.e. outputs) to this end. Our comprehensive understanding on the state of wildfire adaptation in policy is limited. In this article we systematically review policies and plans developed to adapt to wildfires in the Russian Arctic. Using systematic approaches, we identify 12 wildfire adaptation outputs adopted between 2008 and 2020. Our findings indicate that wildfire adaptation outputs are aimed at reducing the risk of wildfires and improve wildland fire response, implemented through legislative and regulatory mechanisms, developed at the regional level, adopted in response to national mandates, and mainstreamed into existing forest management policies. Although there is evidence of wildfire adaptation planning occurring in the Russian Arctic, we find that the nature and extent of wildfire adaptation outputs are not sufficient to address the seriousness and severity of climate change, with key shortcomings found in relation to the scientific, human, and management characteristics. We argue that expanding the profile of climate change research in the Russian Arctic and improving the dialogue among researchers, local and Indigenous peoples, and decision-makers are critical for providing useful recommendations for policy makers to accelerate wildfire adaptation in the Russian Arctic.

The article discusses the materials of the Nganasan shamanic folklore recorded by the author in the village of Volochanka in 1990 from the expert of musical-folklore tradition Salira Mydovich Porbin. These are the tunes of Nobobtie Ngamtusuo and Munsaku Turdagin, who were well-known shamans in Avam tundra. These materials have not yet become the subject of scientific discussion. The musicological analysis of shamanic tunes performed by S.M. Porbin shows how a change in the context of performance (the absence of a ritual situation) affects the musical and stylistic design of the shamanic chant. The contribution of E.A. Helimsky to the study of the poetics of the genres of Nganasan musical folklore (shamanic rituals, allegorical songs) is emphasized.

In this Personal View, we explain the ways that climatic risks affect the transmission, perception, response, and lived experience of COVID-19. First, temperature, wind, and humidity influence the transmission of COVID-19 in ways not fully understood, although non-climatic factors appear more important than climatic factors in explaining disease transmission. Second, climatic extremes coinciding with COVID-19 have affected disease exposure, increased susceptibility of people to COVID-19, compromised emergency responses, and reduced health system resilience to multiple stresses. Third, long-term climate change and prepandemic vulnerabilities have increased COVID-19 risk for some populations (eg, marginalised communities). The ways climate and COVID-19 interact vary considerably between and within populations and regions, and are affected by dynamic and complex interactions with underlying socioeconomic, political, demographic, and cultural conditions. These conditions can lead to vulnerability, resilience, transformation, or collapse of health systems, communities, and livelihoods throughout varying timescales. It is important that COVID-19 response and recovery measures consider climatic risks, particularly in locations that are susceptible to climate extremes, through integrated planning that includes public health, disaster preparedness, emergency management, sustainable development, and humanitarian response.

The cold winter is a challenge not only for us, but also for our smartphones. To prevent this, we concluded that the best solution in such a situation is to sew cases to protect our smartphones from the cold. We took into account the practicality of creating a product and usability. For the basis, we chose penofol as the most frost-resistant material in the conditions of our Yakut winter. Penofol now is used everywhere: to insulate clothes, houses, etc. For the shape of our covers, we chose a book for the convenience of use outside the home.
 As the experiment progressed, it show how each participant's phone reacted. IPHONE 6/6S and REDMI 4A brand phones were used in the experiment. During the study, we noticed that the phone lasted much longer with our cases than without them. In Yakutsk weather between -33 ºC and -40 ºC the phones went through a series of tests, namely, we compared how the gadget behaves and what happens when it shuts down.
 The main results of our experiment showed that with our covers the devices last on the street for a long time, which is necessary in conditions of extremely low temperatures in winter in Yakutia.

The purpose of this research is to study the sounding pendants on the shamanic costume of the Evenks, Sakha and Nganasans in the unity of the shamanic ritual complex and ritual musical traditions. Shamanic pendants are interpreted as a special text of culture, a reflection of the geocultural ideas of the peoples of the Arctic. The paper is based on the materials of field research carried out by the authors in Taimyr in 1989-1990, in the Olenek Evenk national region of Yakutia in 2014 and scientific publications. The sound world of shamanic ritual is a complex phonic picture, which is formed when using vocal, verbal, vocal-speech, signal, instrumental types of intonation. The movements of shaman are accompanied by the sound of colliding pendants on the costume of shamans and its components (headband, shoes, mittens). The sounding pendants were described by ethnographers and musicologists, but they were not considered in connection with geocultural studies. Metal pendants on a shaman costume mark sacred spatial models of the Universe (images of heavenly bodies - the sun, the moon, stars), mythological spaces of the Upper, Middle and Lower worlds inhabited by the shaman's helper spirits - birds, animals, anthropomorphic creatures, they symbolize parts of the human body, etc. The prospects for the study of shaman costume pendants as a symbolic embodiment of the landscape are contained in a more complete description and generalization of all known materials, including the analysis of shaman costumes from ethnographic museum collections.

This article reviews the Yakut ritual dance called “Pattern” which is connected to archaic funeral rite and to the concepts of life and death intrinsic to Yakut culture. The purpose of this article is to find in this dance symbolic and image-bearing elements indicating major concepts in the Yakut consciousness — concepts of life and death; to show the exceptional value and significance of “life” constant in ethnos consciousness; to address the Yakut ritual dance “Pattern” as one of the ways to display life in dance images; and, analysing the meaning of dance structure and choreography, to demonstrate transformation of “death” into a new quality, a symbol of “life”. The present study reveals the meaning of ritual movements by which death “changes into” life. The methodological basis of the article consists of the analysis of bibliographic sources on Yakut ritual dance. The content and meaning of the dance movements are identical to the worldviews of the ancient Turkish people and their concepts of life and death.

This article presents the organization of remote distance learning in Arctic State Institute of Culture and Art (ASICA) of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). It shows features of remote distance learning in ASICA based on the use of Moodle distance learning management system. The important thing for the functioning of the digital learning environment is the availability of resources: material and technical, human resources of teachers with formed multimedia competencies in software and modern technologies used. The survey result was shown regarding the availability of information within Moodle environment, which provides all types of classes and procedures for assessing learning outcomes whose implementation envisages the use of e-learning and distance learning technologies. The practical significance of the study lies in the specifics of training students – future professionals of culture and art in the transition to remote distance learning.

The manuscript presents the organization of online distance learning for students of the three universities by means of digital education technologies at worldwide quarantine period due to COVID-19. The purpose of the study is to increase the level of subject competence among students in the context of organizing distance online education during a pandemic, considering the specifics of regional education. A study involved the survey method considering the specifics of the organization of online learning in the regional education system with statistical processing of data from the research results. The results allowed for increasing the efficiency of work with students in conducting classes in the disciplines of the information block during a pandemic using the Moodle platform, which reasonably indicates the need to consider the peculiarities of the educational environment in the development of subject competence among students of three universities of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).