Old postcards Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve

The Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve was established in 1930 on the western slopes of the Urals, chiefly to protect the sable and its habitat. The Pechora and Ilych rivers bound it on three sides and the Poyasovy Kamen ridge on the east; the reserve is run from the settlement of Yaksha.

All the Soviet postcards in this section come from a single 1982 set that tells the reserve’s story through the seasons: “Spring”, “Winter”, “Flowers of the Pechora-Ilych Reserve”, “A taiga stream” and “The upper reaches of the Ilych”. Other cards show typical landscapes — a Siberian pine, a lichen pine forest, the “Upper bog” — and named places such as “Bear Cave”, “Kidus” and “Lek-Iz”.

The best-known subject is “The Small Mountain of Idols”. That is the meaning of the Mansi name of the plateau between the Ilych and the Pechora where seven weathered stone pillars, 30 to 42 metres high, stand: six in a row and one apart. The working side of the reserve is here too, with “The experimental moose farm”, “Reserve transport” and “Winged visitors to the reserve”.

The set shows this remote corner of the Northern Urals as it was photographed for mass-market cards in the early 1980s.