Novokuznetsk, Kemerovo Oblast, May 7, 2011
Rempert and Darya, standing on the forecastle, looked in dismay at the landscape. The barge had just passed under the first motorway bridge in Novokuznetsk. No more wild beauty of the taiga: here, trees and mountains had been defeated by man on each bank. On the left, the first mining complex stretched for kilometres; on the right, the second, installed at the edge of the city, shamelessly rubbed shoulders with the houses. Tall chimneys spewed their poison into the atmosphere in the middle of large buildings where loud noises emanated. Even from their distant observation post, they could see the blackened ground for hundreds of meters. In the distance, they distinguished another motorway bridge even more imposing than the previous one. The girl k
