Useful Avenues out of Koryak Net


These links have more information on Kamchatka, from adventure travel to widgets to help you surf in cyrillic. As always, caveat emptor et lector. I have not tried all of the services listed here.


More Information on Kamchatka

Alexander Krivenyshev provides some statistics and factoids on Palana and the Koryak Autonomous Okrug.

The Smithsonian Institution has several pages on Koryaks and Siberia as part of their continuing Crossroads of the Continents project. They also have some pictures of Koryak stuff in their "Hall of Masks".

KamchatIntour is where I recommend people turn for travel assistance in Kamchatka, from the latest information to invitations and visa registration. Irina Shkhyan speaks fluent English and answers email in a timely manner. Fees are very reasonable in my opinion. They helped me get my visa in 1997 when the Russian Academy of Sciences dropped the ball.

The Summer Institute of Linguistics is a world missionary organization, working on translating the Bible into all the world's living languages. They have many useful fonts and computer programs for linguists. They also have a set of pages on the status of the Chukotko-Kamchatkan language family.

The Database on Minority Languages of Russia is a joint project between linguists at the University of Tokoyo and the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Linguistics. Their web-delivered database is still under construction, but they already have extensive bibliographies of Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages on line.

Esa Anttikoski has created a set of fonts for Koryak and other "Paleoasiatic" languages coded in Windows-1251 format. A Macintosh version of these fonts is also under development.These fonts were installed on computers at various organizations in Palana, including the okrug newspaper, the Peduchilishche, and the Institute for Teacher Advancement.

Erich Kasten is an anthropologist and independent consultant in Germany. Together with Michael Dürr, he has an extensive web site (siberian-studies.org) devoted to research in Siberia. It includes many electronic versions of books he has written and edited.

David Koester's homepage includes excellent information information connected to his research projects on Itelmen people.

The French label Buda Musique has several CDs of Siberian music, including one dedicated to Koryak music.

The Kamchatka Independent Ecological Group has a site describing their work preserving Kamchatka's natural beauty.

Lisa Singer has a tri-lingual site, Kamtschatka - Land der Vulkane, in German, English, and Russian on southern Kamchatka with many beautiful pictures and a tour opportunity.


Russia and Siberia in General

Soyuz is a semi-formal association of anthropologists and other scholars working in the former Soviet Union. It has recently attained "interest group" status in the American Anthropological Association, and regularly holds a reception at the AAA meetings. Soyuz also sponsors a "former Soviet Cultural Studies" symposium every spring.

Otto Haebek is coordinator of the Siberian Centre at the Max Plank Institute for Social Anthropology. Researchers their are working on a variety of projects around Siberia.

Friends and Partners is a great place to start for all kinds of information on Russia. They have many links to sites in the former Soviet Union and around the world.

Siberian Studies .org is dedicated to the presentation and dissemination of case studies about Siberia and the Russian North by leading social and cultural anthropologists. It has a special focus on Kamchatka


Arctic Cultures and Society

The Arctic Circle site based at University of Connecticut is an excellent place to find information about all the peoples and cultures, and their histories, living in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic.

The Society for the Study of Indigenous Languages of the Americas (SSILA) has an extensive site which includes information and links for many Native American languages.

The Alaskan Native Language Center has a nice site covering their work with the native languages of that state. They also have general information and links about the cultures of Alaska.


Technical Help

KamchatSvyazInform provides Internet Service on Kamchatka. They are based in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatksky with an on-ramp in Palana, providing email only access for a per-kilobyte fee, or an Internet connection via PPP on a monthly basis.

Friends and Partners has a great page listing several places that help you installCyrillic encoding on your Mac, PC, or UNIX machine. Some of the Koryak Language pages use cyrillic encoding for presentation of Koryak in cyrillic script.

Russification of Macintosh provides everything you need to get your Mac to read and write all the major Cyrillic font codes. This is one site I have used and recommend to install Cyrillic onto Macs.

Main Page

Page Date: June 23, 2004


Alexander King, WEBMASTER (at) KORYAKS (dot) NET, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK