Evenks at war

Evenki man Igor Ivanov from the village of Kharyyalakh in the Olenek district of Yakutia spent his entire life as a reindeer herder. At the age of 55, he decided to volunteer for the front. He never returned. Soon after, his son also went to war — and his fate remains unknown.

“He kept applying again and again. And then, suddenly, they took him. We were in shock — how could they take someone so old?” his widow and daughter recall. They would not have let either the father or the son go. But no one asked them.

We filmed the funeral of Igor Ivanov — another representative of Russia’s Indigenous minorities who died in the war. According to local residents, around 30 people from the Olenek district went to the front. Eight of them were killed, and six are missing.