The Yakutsk Arcology

As part of the creation of the Okhotsk Techno Union in 1876, Tsar Paul II granted them a 100-year lease over the small Siberian city of Yakutsk and all territory within 300 kilometers. It was thought at the time, that this distant location, 15,000 kilometers from St. Petersburg but only 450 kilometers from the Arctic Circle, would serve to shield the OTU from prying eyes as they constructed the world’s second Jump Gate. The city rapidly grew as the necessary men and materials were transferred to the work site, these new occupants quickly overtook the original population. The Nikolovsk Gate was fully assembled in December of 1879. It was originally intended for the gate to be transferred west upon completion, with a number of sites in mind. Arguments were put forward by various political groups for Moscow, Tsaritsyn, Yekaterinburg, or St. Petersburg itself to be the host city. However, during the preliminary testing of the ignition device, an accident occurred, causing it to go off and opening the gate for the first time. Due to the gate being lower than intended at this time, the event shattered windows and eardrums for 20 kilometers in all directions.

A great deal of speculation has arisen from this event. Dmitri Sakharov, the president of the OTU, insisted that it was simply the result of the fissile materials used for the device being of a lower quality than was desired. Nevertheless, moving a gate long distances after activation was deemed extremely risky, so the Nikolovsk Gate stayed in Yakutsk. This was of great benefit to the OTU, as the eyes of the entire nation fixed upon their city. Overnight it became the city of the future, and the Aether Race gripped it fully. A number of utopian planners saw this as their opportunity to build the city of the future.

The first of these ideas to meet with success was the construction of Tsiolkovsky’s Ladder in 1895. A massive construction of cables, rails, and engine housings that stretched into low orbit, the project took five years to build, but could barely be operated before the opening of a new, purpose-built power plant. Once it did though, it became the jewel of the city, a glinting spire that dominated the skyline. This sight was what gripped Ivan Fomin when he visited the city in 1896.

Ivan Aleksandrovich Fomin was a member of a generation of architects and urban planners in the late 18-early 1900s who began experimenting with the concept of megastructures. Unburdened by the restrictions imposed upon previous generations by gravity and materials, Fomin dreamt of grand scale. In 1900 he was commissioned by the board of the OTU to draw up a new plan for their headquarters as well as a new city district. Due to the city’s random and uncontrolled growth, it sprawled haphazardly around the ladder, causing immense difficulties in the flow of traffic and people. The board hoped that their new district would at least insulate company personnel from the randomness of the rest of the city. Instead, Fomin presented plans for something entirely new.

The designs presented called for nearly two-thirds of the city to be demolished and replaced by a self-contained ecosystem that he dubbed an “Arcology”. The structure was massive, thirty stories tall at the shortest, with seven wings spreading out like petals from the ladder, anchored in the center along with a massive tower housing the OTU headquarters. Large windows would let natural light into the wide interior streets, but citizens would live, work, and raise their families inside the structure, with no reason to ever leave. An interior heating system would mean that the number of excess deaths from the cold would decline sharply (after all, Yakutsk is the coldest city on Earth) and orderly streets would facilitate rapid transit to anywhere in the structure.

Fomin’s overall plan was denied. Such a massive undertaking was ludicrous, incredibly costly, and would require massive social upheaval to displace all of the people settled already. The board agreed to the construction of only the central part of the plan, and even then, only a reduced version.

In 1917 the Russian Civil War broke out. Yakutsk suffered greatly from this event, being a battleground between the Red and White armies multiple times over. In the aftermath, with the death of the Tsar, the ruination visited upon the city, and the urgent need to rebuild, Fomin’s plans were resurrected. The coffers of the OTU, who now controlled almost the entirety of Siberia, were opened to the project, though Fomin himself had been executed on suspicion of Bolshevik sympathy during the war.

Vladimir Tatlin took the lead on the new project, redesigning certain aspects of the original design. The structure became a fortress in addition to being a city. Corridors were designed to be locked down in case of attack, exterior walls were thickened, and a staged approach to the floors meant that those coming deeper into the city were always ascending, and therefore more vulnerable to fire from the defenders. The large windows were shrunk in size, and metal coverings were devised to lock over them. Gradually, as the walls rose, the inhabitants of Yakutsk found themselves entombed in concrete, steel, and darkness.

Almost immediately after the completion of construction in 1924 problems began to arise. The promise of safety and warmth in the arcology spurred another round of immigration, and so the population was immediately higher than that planned for. The increased density problem was never alleviated, and so has compounded multiple times in the years since. However, the more well-off citizens in the higher rungs of the arcology rarely are forced to interact with this side of their home city. Organized crime has taken root, despite the best attempts of the city government to quell it. Overall, life in the Yakutsk Arcology has not lived up to the utopian dreams of its original designer.