Ternisky District is the blue coastal strip occupying the upper half of the Primorsky Region as shown in the map below. The City of Terney is situated close to the southern border of the district just north of Plastun, a loggers' town where there is a Russo-Japanese joint venture lumber company's main plant and a small-scale seaport and an ocean dock.

Terney City is an hour's drive away north, and the home of the District Administration (the white building in the picture) and a satellite telecommunications outpost. But, this is as far north as the modern material civilization can reach. And, it suddenly brought this fact home to all of us when we took off from the city's heliport in a giant Russian troop carrier-converted Vladivostok Air's passenger/cargo helicopter serving most of the remote outposts in that part of the district.

For, during the next hour and a half of a surprisingly pleasant low-altitude flight, all that we saw of the signs of human habitation was a small coastal village of perhaps 20 to 30 dwelling units. But, all this notwithstanding, local politics went on as usual, and the District Administrator Vladimir A. Usoltsev flew with our group to Agzu Village to deliver a "town hall" speech to villagers on market economy and new life style without government aids.

He later hosted us graciously in his office in Terney (see the picture above) as Lenin still had his watchful eyes on all of us from the wall behind his desk. It seemed all too obvious to us that Russian Far East was in an inextricable process of not only political, but also economic, social and cultural changes of profound significance, and that the changes are beginning to directly impact the remote rural communities such as the Agzu village.