Like thousands of villages dotted across Russia, the remote Siberian village of Sibilyakovo emptied after the closure of its state-run collective farm following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet planned economy. Jobs dried up and people left in droves.

In its heyday in the 1970s, Sibilyakovo's primary school had four classes, each of around 18 children, and a population of 550. Kuchukova has taught at the school for 42 years.