Glad to see this information posted regarding this pear Russian pears for zone 2 - some info I found by @hungryfrozencanuck4b . In 2015 I contacted the usda to find out if the pear was available in the United States yet but it was not at that time. In 2003 Bernie Nikolai a member of NAFEX was working on getting the Russian pear brought into Canada http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/nafex/2003-October/012429.html. According to the most recent post it sounds like progress is underway to bring additional cold hardy pears into the United States. Good quality pears in Alaska will be impressive! The Russians did decades of breeding with harbin pears to develop hardy pear crosses. Sounds like Krazulya is not the best of the new pears. Several of the other varieties may prove to be much better! I am very interested in seeing these pears for other reasons than their cold tolerance. They are said to be highly Fireblight resistant. Fireblight is a big problem on the Canadian prairies according to the articles. It would be nice to have a few pears with additional FB resistance. It would be wonderful if people in colder climates in the US could grow their own backyard pears! Harbin pears are susceptible to pear decline so it is difficult to say if these new hybrids are resistant or not.