🚪 Off the Grid. Off the Map.

Deep in the Siberian taiga, where there are no roads, no electricity, and no signal—just snow, silence, and faith—lies a forgotten village called Burny.

Here, a handful of Old Believers live the way their ancestors did centuries ago.

🔥 Wood stoves. 🪵 Hand-built homes. 🙏 Daily prayers.

Visit this remote corner of Russia to witness a life that’s as hard as it is beautiful—and discover something the modern world desperately needs.

📖 Read the full story on Substack:
https://offgridinrussia.substack.com/p/off-grid-and-unbroken-life-among

#offgrid #russia #siberia #homestead #faith #tradition

Just picked up the keys to my new place — a 100+ year-old Russian log cabin, complete with a banya, a well, and a composting toilet that I’ll have to empty myself. All of it, land included, cost just 600,000 rubles (about $6,000).

It’s off-grid living in the truest sense — electricity for lights, no plumbing, and a Minsk fridge from the Soviet era that might still work. This place is equal parts museum and survival challenge, and I can’t wait to see how long I can last when winter comes.

Find the full article and Hi-Res Video on Substack: OffGridInRussia.com

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🥂 New Drop!

Our “Off Grid on Vodka” Mug is here — bold, rustic, and perfect for those mornings when coffee just doesn’t cut it. Distressed lettering, vintage-style vodka bottle & shot glass illustration, and the official Off Grid in Russia brand stamp.

👉 Available now in our shop: shop.offgridinrussia.com

💡 Perfect gift for cabin dwellers, off-grid dreamers, and vodka lovers alike.

I decided to take a level to the interior of my Picasso Painting house....

My gym subnoscription = $0

How's your work day? 😁

Who's that trip trapping on MY roof?!

Frosts will be observed in the coming days throughout the entire European part of Russia.

Temperatures may drop to minus 3-4 degrees, said the scientific director of the Hydrometeorological Center

The first week in the dacha has been a mix of hard graft and small joys.
I’ve been testing saws, splitting birch, firing up the rocket stove, and even discovering mink and foxes making themselves at home. Upstairs in the loft, I stumbled upon Soviet relics, skis, and even Grandpa’s secret vodka stash.

It’s been a week of sweat, laughter, and quiet reflection about what it means to invest your heart into a home.

👉 Watch the hi rez version of Episode 3: First Week and read the full story here: offgridinrussia.com

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🚐 Rust, Fuel, and Sheared Bolts – Life with a Buhanka

The Buhanka may be just three years old, but it carries every quirk of its Soviet design. This week I set out to change a fuel filter and ended up knee-deep in rusted bolts, snapped fittings, and a replacement pump that wouldn’t even fit.

That’s the reality of off-grid life in Russia. Even a new van fights you at every turn. Every job takes three times longer than expected, and the fix is always messier than the problem.

But that’s the point: you improvise, adapt, and overcome.

👉 Watch the video and read the full story here: offgridinrussia.com

💳 Support the project:

Revolut: revolut.me/michae0li

T-Bank: 2200700885021005

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🚐 Missing Nipples and Rusted Nuts – The Buhanka Saga Continues

Another chapter in the Buhanka story: 56 litres of fuel to drain, missing straps, and one critical part that didn’t exist — a right-angle nipple.

A day spent knee-deep in jerry cans, fuel pumps, and Russian hardware stores. Nothing simple ever stays simple out here.

👉 Watch the Hi-Rez video and read the story: offgridinrussia.com

💳 Support the project:

Revolut: revolut.me/MikeJonesRU

T-Bank: 2200700885021005

t.me/OffGridInRussia

Over the past two videos, I’ve shown the process of repairing my 2022 UAZ Buhanka myself — every step, every setback, and every small victory. It’s not strictly “off-grid life,” but I felt it was important to share. Because doing things for yourself — learning, adapting, and solving problems with your own hands — is at the heart of what living off-grid really means.

In Russia, vehicles like the Buhanka are still the backbone of rural life. There have been proposals to ban them over poor safety ratings, but those efforts never succeed. The reality of life here — the roads, the distances, the climate — demands something simple, rugged, and fixable.

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Tonight’s masterpiece: me versus Velcro.

Some sadist once decided braces needed Velcro straps — so every time you bend down, they spring loose and smack you on the back of the head. I’ve declared war on that design flaw and spent the evening sewing them the proper way.

It’s been a busy few days: a run to Moscow, wiring up the new security system, fixing the Buhanka’s exhaust, setting up routers and cameras, and finally watching the place light up at dusk with fairy lights and solar lamps. The little touches that make a rural place feel alive.

The expenses have stacked up — mower, strimmer, generator, filters, ladders — easily over a million rubles in by now. But that’s part of building a life here: steady, hands-on work, quiet evenings, and fixing what no one else will.

Sometimes it’s not about grand projects. It’s about the small victories — like sewing Velcro that doesn’t whip you in the skull.

Hi rez video and article on Substack

Support the project:
💳 revolut.me/mikejonesru
🏦 T-Bank card: 2200700885021005
🌐 offgridinrussia.com


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What is this?!

Whilst I was installing the security cameras I discovered these markings chiseled into the wood on the top right of the front of the house.

In older houses in England, it's fairly common to find the date of construction carved somewhere in Roman numerals. So my first thought was this was 1914.

And yet, others disagree arguing Russian peasants at that time had no idea about Roman numerals.
14 in Roman numerals is usually XIV not XIIII (though a forgivable mistake for a well read peasant of the era)

What do you think?

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