Russia

Russia, which is in the main in frozen northlands, will be pleasantly surprised to find itself in a warmer climate. In the center of a plate, the earthquakes will not be as long lasting as along faults, and the aftershocks minimal. Thereafter, the real threat for Russia will creep up upon the survivors. Siberia is low land, and the melting poles will swallow this land within months.

Russia, in the main, is lowland which will shortly be flooded after the shift. Those hapless Russians who have not heard of the pending pole shift, and the melting of the poles to shortly follow the shift, will find themselves getting soggy, then flooded, with rain waters and overflowing rivers and streams that simply do not drain any longer.

At first, in the lowlands, residents will move to hill tops, then tree tops, and then fashion boats out of anything that can float. However, given the broad expanse that will be inundated, there will be nowhere to go! Survivors will step away from the rising water into higher and higher ground, but find themselves eventually stranded on a diminishing island, with no land in sight! Without a sense of direction, and with north and south now west and east, compasses will be no guide, and the stars will not be visible in the main due to volcanic dust.

Those who would survive for the long term are advised to position themselves near high land. We would advise those who are not near mountains or highland, such as the Urals, to fashion boats early and plot a course, sighting familiar landmarks as the move on houseboat or whatever they have devised prior to a full flooding of the lowlands.

Being afloat, they can move from community to community, if compatibility is not established, until they arrive at a site where they are welcome and the land is clearly going to remain above ground. The waters can be expected to rise for 2 years after the shift, but during this time, a floating group can fish or harvest from the sea.
 

Moscow
The heart of Russia, Moscow, will not fare well during the coming Earth changes. A city of old structures, massive stone and old brick, it will be subject to easy destruction during any earthquake beyond the trivial that strikes during the shift, and strike they will.

The broken link effect will apply block by block, as old plumbing will burst, old walls collapse, and old wires will snap. Every resident of Moscow can expect to be isolated, no ability to communicate, no assurance that one will be rescued from a collapsed wall or building, and certainly no hope the infrastructure will be repaired, ever. Thus on foot and confused, undirected, these residents of a city long the heart of a directive government, will find they have a greater problem.

At the headlands of rivers, Moscow will itself find water rising to its doors. At first, this news will come to them by the desperate homeless, arriving at the headlands with reports that the waters are rising in the rivers, coming inland from the all directions.

Ultimately, the waters will swallow Moscow, drowning any who have remained there. Survival requires moving to the Urals, to Finland, or to the south to mountains well above the 650 foot above sea level required to stay above the rise of the oceans when the existing poles have melted.

An ignominious end to the great land of the former Russia!
 

Ukraine

The climate in the Ukraine will be far milder, after the shift, due to the land being situated much closer to the equator, with Sweden just south of the equator. The Ukraine’s primary problem will prove to be its low altitude. Within 2 years after the shift, the melting poles will eat away all the land, driving survivors to the mountains of the former Europe or into Sweden, if they can make the passage by boat.

Those who wish to survive should plan on such migrations, as moving inland toward India will be moving into inhospitable cold and arid lands. The shift itself will prove less disastrous than in many parts of the world, as the Ukraine is not peppered with volcanoes and is situated in the center of a large plate, not near fault lines.
 

St. Petersburg

On the waters edge, St. Petersburg, Russia, will find itself subject to a series of disasters during the pole shift. First, there will be high tides during the shift, as though they are at the end of a long bay, this is where the water sloshing in will find itself seeking an outlet, and will run inland through the city and pool in low lying areas, unable to drain.

When the shift has passed, St. Petersburg will find itself inundated by the rising seas, the residents running repeatedly toward the highlands of Finland and Scandinavia, to escape the inundation. Residents of St. Petersburg hoping to survive should make plans, ahead of time, to move to high ground, relocating days ahead of the shift so they are not in reaction mode, but pro-active.

They carry with them the soul of Russia, the brains, the insights of the Russian people, not a thing to be lost during the coming changes, when courage and insight will be needed in the communities of survivors.
 

Belarus

As with Estonia, the lands of Belarus will find water sloshing in from the Atlantic during the hour of the shift, with a need to be on high ground, especially if situated along rivers which will carry the slosh inland as a backwash. A steady inundation over the next two years as the existing poles melt will force survivors to the mountains or to Sweden, their homeland lost to the rising seas. Thus survivors should prepare and plan to move, either before the shift or afterwards.

Chernobyl will not poison the area further during the shift, unless, as with all active nuclear installations and power plants, it is not properly shut down and disabled by human hands prior to the shift. This matter is in human hands. The contaminated soil around Chernobyl will remain local, and slowly set aright over the millennia following the shift. In the far future on Earth, it is not likely to be a settlement site, as with any area carrying disseminated pollution, difficult to clean up.
 

Kola Peninsula

Lands facing the Arctic Ocean will have a unique and confusing experience during the shift. During the week of rotation stoppage, water that has pooled at the Equator, due to the centrifugal pull outward during the Earth’s steady rotation, will drift toward the poles, equalizing pressure as the water seeks its level. Thus, lands facing the Arctic Ocean will find the tides higher during these days.

At the hour of the shift, the waters that had been lapping higher and higher on the shores of the Kola Peninsula will be pulled toward the Atlantic, as it rips open, creating larger rifts for the water to gush into. Simultaneously, however, the lands of Russia will be moving rapidly up and over the North Pole, and this will cause the high water that has pooled in the Arctic Ocean to drive inland, carried by the hurricane force winds that will occur and the lands of Russia facing the Arctic Ocean are forced under the atmosphere.

Thus, high water, driven by hurricane force winds over low lying lands, will results in immense inland flood tides, carried for hundreds of miles inland in some cases. Survivors seeking high ground during these times will be facing high winds, which will scream over them at levels potentially approaching the hurricane force of 150 mph. Thus, survivors are advised to plan carefully, finding secure niches on high ground where they can hunker down out of the winds, and will not be washed away by the inland flood tides.

After this shift, as with all lands of low elevation, migration to higher ground in Sweden or the Urals if immigration is denied, is advised. Boats capable of ocean going will be of great assist to survivors, as during the times of relocation, fishing for food will be good, and the boats affording access to lands at a distance.
 

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan will become immensely important to the Russian people after the shift, as it is high country, and well connected to parts both north and south by culture, commerce, and tradition. Drowning Russians from the north will arrive at what will be the new shorelines, when the low-lands of Siberia go under water.

They will bring with them few possessions, but humility will not be among them. Kazakhstan is not considered the home of the elite in Russia, but any elite not scrambling to the Urals will try to set up shop in Kazakhstan. Where else where they go, to the Alps, or to Sweden?

Thus, in preparation for this arrival, either just before or some months after the shift, residents of Kazakhstan should mentally prepare their stance toward such a take-over attempt. Guests are welcome but are expected to work alongside their hosts, and no new leadership is desired.

Kazakhstan today has both summer and winter, and is agricultural. After the shift, it will find itself closer to the new South Pole, and colder. This will change the culture into one of fishing in the ocean to what will become the new south, over former Siberian lands, where fish and all they feed upon will migrate to eat the rotting material that has gone under the waves.

There will be other outlets to the oceans, as the continent will rip and create a rift above the Himalayas, but being centered in the new Polar Circle, this will freeze and not allow ready access to ocean fishing. Inland lakes without an outlet may temporarily rise, due to the continuous drizzle that follows the shift, so residents along the shorelines of such lakes should anticipate moving up into the hills if need be.

The jolts from the shift, which will drive the Himalayas higher, will shatter any housing not flexible, so that structures of brick or stone or mortar will fall upon the hapless residents huddled there. Best to weather the hour of the shift outdoors, in ravines, and remake housing afterwards.
 

Omsk

As an example of how Siberia will be inundated steadily, leading into and after the shift, is the city of Omsk. Nestled in the lowlands along a river draining inland mountains, and surrounded by swamps already inundated by the sea to the extent that they are somewhat salty, Omsk will be beset by water problems from the start. Torrential rains that will descend on all parts of the globe, erratically, will cause the river to flood, and where will the water go?

The swamps will absorb a great deal of water, and be slow to release it to the sea hundreds of miles away. Already afloat, Omsk will then find during the week of rotation that water that has drained away from the equator and toward the poles is creating a backwash. Even less drainage, and more standing water in the swamps.

Now comes the shift, and where Omsk is protected from ocean sloshing, it will soon find itself with water rising all around, without a chimney standing above the rising water. Those who would survive are advised to move inland to the mountains, or secure a good boat is take them there, as they will be afloat in any case unless they move well prior to the week of rotation stop-page.
 

Novosibirsk

Standing on the edge of the great marshlands of Siberian, Novosibirsk will be the scene of drama during the hour of the shift and the months following. Far enough inland to avoid the sloshing water of the north seas, and placed in the center of an earthquake plate, this city on a river will find itself dealing with nothing more than flooding from upriver and the jolting that will bring all structures that cannot withstand Richter 9 quakes down into rubble.

The real drama will begin in the weeks and months following the shift, as Siberia will be inundated by rising water, steadily, over the two years following the shift, until these water cover even Novosibirsk in all but high ground. The flooded populace will have no recourse but to travel toward high ground, dragging carts or on foot, and in many cases afloat in make-shift boats, in particular traveling the river which will bring them to Novosibirsk.

Thus, Novosibirsk will be in the heavy traffic lane, and should prepare to be asked by the desperate and confused to explain what has happened, where they should go, and what is to be done. In that the remains of Novosibirsk will be ocean frontage, with much warmer weather, in the Aftertime, there are bright spots on the horizon.

Ocean fishing, where the lush regrowth in the oceans can be shared by all due to ocean currents, will be good, and the deserts of Mongolia no longer a desert. Plan accordingly.
 

Barnaul

Snugly within the mountains bordering the great steppes of Siberia, Barnaul will be in an area inundated with half drown survivors after the shift. They will come up river, if they survive the tidal flooding that will occur within two years after the shift, as they have survived by being on a boat, of sorts, and will press upriver seeking, in their fatigue, a place where the waters might stop rising at long last. Barnaul is close to the headwaters where they will rest, and settle.

Unaccustomed to any but local folks, the residents of Barnaul will find they have Russians they hardly recognize as neighbors, but keeping a good heart in hard times will make life merrier and far more interesting as the new neighbors will bring news, skills, and will invariably be hardy and resourceful folk, the type how make good teammates.

During the shift itself, Barnaul should guard against a rushing river rising over its banks, and jolts that will bring structures not designed for earthquakes down upon them. The Aftertime will find their climate no worse off, in that they will be in a warmer climate, and close enough to fishing in the new oceans brought to their door to feed their new neighbors.
 

Irkusk

In the mountains north of Mongolia, on Lake Baikal, Irkusk will be a survivor of the shift from many standpoints.

1. They will retain their temperate latitude, so the native and commercial plants life will be instantly acclimated.
    

2. They are far from volcanic activity, although the prevailing westerlies will bring some ash to their land.
    

3. They will have access to inland fresh water fishing, and due to the high carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere after the shift and for some time from volcanic burping, algae and water plants will grow lush.
    

4. They are isolated from heavily populated areas, so that survivors reaching their area after
   the shift are hardy, not demanding, and will be contributors to the community.

The largest worry during the shift will be from potential lake sloshing, in that jolting quakes as well as tipping plates can create this situation.

Survivors are advised to move away from shore to high ground, and out of any buildings that can collapse during the shift or the aftershocks that will certainly occur.
 

Vladivostok

Protected from the assaults of Pacific tidal flooding by the islands of Japan, Vladivostok will nonetheless find itself awash. Survivors should scramble to the mountains of China or, if there is time, to the mountains north in Russian territory. Both will become islands within two years from the polar melt, so some forethought in this regard might be wise.

The lands of China bordering North Korea will be awash with refugees from Korea, so ethnic tensions will be aplenty. Vladivostok survivors will find themselves in familiar territory in that the Aftertime will present them with ocean fishing, and be pleasantly surprised to find the climate much warmer as they stretch out along the new Equator at a very temperate latitude.

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