Like many young people in Magadan, Dinat Yur is fed up with life in the city for 6 months of winter and temperatures down to -50 degrees Celsius.

"I dream of leaving. I can't stand it anymore," Yur, a 29-year-old cook, said of the cold city of Magadan in northern Russia, more than 5,700 km from Moscow, where the average temperature is always. below 0 degrees Celsius.

Born and raised in the famously cold city with temperatures that can drop to -50 degrees Celsius, Yur finds a passion for a challenging job: ice cream making. Temperatures below the freezing level made it difficult for Yur to mix the mixture of imported milk, sugar, and raspberry to make an Italian-style cone ice cream dish.

Yur admits eating ice cream outdoors in the frigid winter of Magadan is not a good idea, because the ice cream will quickly solidify like a cold ice cubes, but "everyone here likes to sit indoors, watch TV. and enjoy this ice cream ".

Russian love for ice cream demonstrates how the country seeks to overcome extreme weather and other difficult conditions. It is often spread the story that when British leader Winston Churchill visited Moscow in 1944 and saw many people eating ice cream on the streets covered with white snow, he declared that "this people will never be defeated".

Winter temperatures in Moscow are often around -6 degrees Celsius, still "much warmer" than those in Magadan, a city on the icy bay overlooking the Sea of Okhotsk, in northern Japan, once famous for gulag labor camps under Stalin.

In 1991, Magadan had 155,000 people, many of whom were descendants of prisoners, guards or former administration officials and immigrants from other countries who came here under the "new economic" entitlement regime of the Soviet period. . But when the Soviet Union disintegrated, subsidies were cut, factories closed, many people left Magadan, and even had ideas about closing the city.

However, Russian President Vladimir Putin did the opposite. Instead of closing the door, he sought to keep the outlying north outposts at all costs. Apart from security and territorial integrity, economics is what Putin counts, because most of Russia's natural resources lie deep in the snow and ice in places like Magadan and nearby wilderness.

The federal government supports daily flights to and from Moscow and funds the construction of new roads, sports complexes and high-speed Internet access. Government subsidies also make mortgage rates much lower than warmer regions in Russia.

Since 2016, Moscow has provided free land in Magadan and many other sparsely populated areas in the Far East. 400 people were given land in Magadan, but mostly locals, with no settlers from outside as expected by the Kremlin.

The city is now trying to rebuild with a more playful image like "Russia's golden heart", with a gold mine under the nearby mountain range. But instead of rushing to Magadan, Russians just want to stay away from here. The only hustle that can be seen is the "escape" from this icy city.

After many years of Magadan population decline by more than 40%, Mayor Yuri Grishin said the number of residents is currently relatively stable at 91,000 people. Most of the people leaving were young people, including the three children of Mayor Grishin who lived in Moscow. Grishin does not understand why many people always abandon Magadan to choose the capital, where they "have to live in tiny apartments or suffer three hours of traffic jam a day".

Except for the extreme weather, life in Magadan is not inferior to many other cities and towns in Russia, even better. The city has three movie theaters, an indoor public swimming pool, a large Orthodox church with a glittering dome, typical of urban design under President Putin. In addition, climate change is starting to make winter here more pleasant. Now, snow in Magadan only starts to fall heavily from the end of November.

However, the thought of "fleeing" appears so much that many local sociologists believe that the people of Magadan have "delayed life syndrome". This is a psychological state when people lose hope or ambition in the present life and have to bet on the future.

"People always think they are only temporarily here and will have a full life when they leave," said Andrei Grishan, 31, founder and editor of online portal Vesma Today. Grishan and his new wife are no exception, when they want to leave at some point.

While Magadan is blessed with large reserves of gold and silver and natural resources, the conditions here are so severe that many economists still question whether to keep it a city or turn it into a transit center for the public. contract to mining.

Without an urban role, Magadan will return to its original role when it was founded in 1929, which is a seaport, where geologists and reeducated labor inmates pass through to the Kolyma gold mine. Today, residents of Magadan still refer to the rest of Russia as "mainland", because the city is like an isolated island.

Many young people leave, leaving Magadan in a shortage of skilled labor. The mayor said the city needs more than 20,000 people in the construction industry and many other occupations. Magadan is now overcoming this situation by hiring short-term contract workers.

"It is sad that many people still hold the prejudice that Magadan is a large prison camp. The city is gradually becoming a bright and happy place," Grishin said.

However, Yur didn't feel that way. Every summer, he tries to travel to somewhere in Asia, which is closer to Magadan than Europe or the rest of Russia. And every time he came home, it was always a difficult challenge for him.

"When I returned, I was depressed again," Yur said.