Street life in Biisk

I had a long chat with this friendly old guy when I was wandering round Biisk. He was standing in his private cellar, in the space between his block of flats and the "pavement". Here he stored his potatoes over winter. There were dozens of similar cellars, all apparently in use. Like many Siberians, in the summer he grows all sorts of vegetables and fruit on his "ogorod" in the suburbs (if that's the right word). The fruit is eaten or made into conserves, the vegetables are eaten or pickled for winter and the potatoes are stored in cellars like his.

He told me how the town had suffered as a result of the opening up of the Russian economy to international competition. He used to work at Elektropech, which means "electric oven". It was an "enterprise" which made electric furnaces for industrial purposes and, as he told me, exported them all over the Soviet bloc. The building stood in ruins across Lenin Street from our smartly modernised hotel (comfortable double room with bathroom and breakfast: £30 a night for two).