mobanmarketPikhtovoyep, Russia: Only five other people live in Galina Yermolova’s tiny Siberian village Pikhtovoye, isolated from the world by the dense taiga – swampy coniferous forest – and a swamp. One of the other people is her husband.
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Every week, she travels 16 kilometres (10 miles) through the forest to the nearest post office in a larger village to collect the post, supplies and pensions for her neighbours.
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“We used to go by tractor. It would take us three hours,” the 56-year-old said.
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But recently, the couple’s son gave them a life-changing gift: a huge-wheeled monster truck built by a friend that can plough through the muddy tracks much faster.
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With her husband at the wheel, Yermolova can now reach the post office in an hour.
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It’s still a bumpy ride and in the summer she holds onto the open roof, laughing, while her husband is refreshed by the breeze of a fan attached to the side of the vehicle.
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Once in the bigger village of Imshegal, home to around 100 people, she climbs down from the machine using a makeshift cloth step hanging from the back.
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Cows roam outside the post office, one of the largely wooden village’s few brick buildings.
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There, Yermolova loads basic goods such as sugar, washing-up liquid and shampoo, which have already come from a town some 100 kilometres away, onto her truck.
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Back in Pikhtovoye, she distributes them to her neighbours.
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More than a postwoman
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Being a postwoman has given Yermolova the opportunity to socialise.
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“There are only six of us here,” she said. “For me, this job is about being able to talk to people.”
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But Yermolova remembers different times.
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In the late 1980s, around 450 people lived in Pikhtovoye. By the mid-1990s, the local school closed down and mainly elderly villagers remained.
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In busier times, Yermolova worked as a teacher, then as a librarian and a shop assistant.
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“When all those professions ceased to exist (in the village), I had to join the post office,” she said.
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Yermolova and her husband, who works in forestry, are the only villagers with a job.
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For her neighbours, Yermolova – who they call “Galya”, the affectionate version of her name – is much more than a postwoman.
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In an isolated community 400 kilometres from the southern Siberian regional hub of Omsk – three time zones away from Moscow – Yermolova also brings something valuable with her: the news.
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“Galya finds out what’s going on in neighbouring villages, if something has happened,” said 58-year-old villager Vladimir Negoyev, perched on a haystack while smoking.
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“Otherwise what would we do? We have TVs with 120 channels, but how would we know what happens here?”
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