When most of us think of Russian winters Siberia or Napoleon's retreat from Moscow come to mind. Actually the climate in Crimea is a few degrees warmer than in northeast Kansas [en.climate-data.org]

I don't remember if the article mentioned how cold it was when they were 'dancing around the wood stove' but the coldest I have seen in my lifetime was -27F in December of 1988.

"The Stone Age did not end for lack of stone, and the Oil Age will end long before the world runs out of oil"

-- Sheikh Zaki Yamani