Leningradsky, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug | abandoned / shut down, ghost town, rotation/shift/base camp

 abandoned / shut down, ghost town, rotation/shift/base camp

In St. Petersburg there are sister cities, and know it all. But he had, and stepson, who was born and died in complete obscurity.

Leningrad - the so-called My geologists from the mining town of Leningrad, which opened in the early sixties in Chukotka, one of the most significant gold deposits in the country. Soviet Union had been at an opportune moment, but when it comes to the yellow metal, even the Communists to forget about ideology. Kolyma sprouts of capitalism bloom in our full flower, and the development of civilization in Chukotka in the Spirit is not much different from the development of the Wild West.

Terms were repugnant: vegetation - up the driveway in winter needle thermometer rarely rises above - 5oS, snow melts by mid-June snowstorm in the village go roaming polar bears, and the first years had to live in barracks and tents. Television was not in the помине, as well as roads. But whether this is important if the salary LEAST three times higher than on the mainland, and the order of decrease is directly proportional to the distance from Moscow? Chukotka was a paradise for lovers of the long ruble, and adventurers. Everyone got what they wanted.

Yesterday's collective farmer without a passport or a plodder, who lived from pay to pay, and take the money used by hundreds and thousands. The State has spurred a long career in the North, people are gradually acquires apartments, Japanese audio (popular dvuhkassetnik Sharp pulled one and a half thousand), the machine is regularly added to savings, rested "on yugah" and walked in good restaurants. Everyone knew that after 15 years of pension benefits will receive serious and will live there, where it and the way he wanted. A more rapid method for enrichment - artisanal team that is fed into the same "Magadan, home, unforgettable whips." PEs worked and no matter showed decent results for the good fields. Remains erase artisanal artisanal, which were essentially just cooperatives. Soviet labor law, they do not act, people have set rules and through the inhuman strain and literate labor organization seeking an excellent production. Stick twelve twelve without holidays and weekends, but for half a year of work could get 6 or even 12 thousand! The next six months - Rest of know how! Those who were poraschetlivee for several seasons together decent condition, and fly away in the warm region. But many got into "denzhischi - huge tyschi, as for drugs and turn his salary faster than the end of vacation. We have nice job and nice rest. I remember this story.

Landing on the flight Moscow - Pevek was nearly finished, all to settle for places and waited for the last passenger. Suddenly, rolled up to a stairwell, one of the vehicles servicing the airport, it went muzhichok and from the machine before entering the plane unroll the red track. And then from the car appeared normal Chuukese Beach - in izmyatoy clothes and badly shaven face - otstegnul man at tea, and slowly entered the aircraft. In that he was spared this extravagant prank, no one knew. But it is not important. He was famous for the whole district and to write Shmidtovsky original page in the book "How to Russian fun. "New Russians" still has not been, and such acts were only smile with an easy touch of delight and envy.

The boundaries of the world adventurers and romantics under the onslaught of civilization quickly roll away to the north-east. And it was Chukot Brest fortress. Decent wages gave the feeling of success and lack of order - of freedom, a sense of unfamiliar and heady. Chukotka crowded travel lovers, adventure tourism, hunting and those who simply "something very much like this." Persistent attribute of adventure and cool life "- the danger - more than enough. In the best years in the town was 3000 people, along with the whips and the babies, but not retirees. And every year we have someone buried. During the forced and cheap exploitation of gold deposits have to pay. For example, these heroes of the North were truck drivers, cross-country vehicles, which in the early years of the tens of тонули in rivers, killed in the passes and froze on the tundra with their dead "Uralov. But strangely enough, a constant feeling of not quite clear of danger only increased the taste for life. Go for the seal on the motor boat among the ice floes - so special, I tell you, fun. When I will go out on a pension, a "fetch" his otsivilizovannyh completely refined and grandchildren with stories about that, "I am your age ...".

They say that once in Leningrad was a very special atmosphere of relations between people. I have not caught this, but it was something like Leningrad, but sleplennoe other recipes - pronounced isolation from the world, the limitation of "leftist" people that will guarantee the status pogranzony and whimsical blend solid plodder with a reckless adventurer. To entertain themselves, northerners have to stretch imagination and make some effort - and this is the most difficult, which makes life rich and interesting. At least in the TV is not utkneshsya. And harden our little community that among the northerners was unusually long held and self-confidence of people. Fat savings, freedom of movement, involvement in something special and difficult, but not only. As a child I loved to stagger production and remember this scene. Raging snowstorm, all work stopped, and the dispatcher a few drivers "clog the goat." Is Head Automobile and requests (in this situation he could not tell): "Kostya, the coal mine" Coastal "were the people going?". Weak and of little people - my father - took his preposterous fur hat and walked to the car. If you say that it is trivial, then we speak with you in different languages.

Even the offense we had some special, in its own way pretty. By-Union official record, the engineer stole sixty kilograms of golden sand, two obalduya-turner what a vytochili valid copy of the American automatic rifle M-16, rage whips broke all the furniture in the hostel, my drunken classmates under the guise of stopping snowstorm zasunuli heinous police badge in his nose Adolescents in the disco "wholesale" otrihtovali face the guests from a neighboring village - this is "sacred." But the first attempt of rape dating from 87 th year, robbing the apartment - 92 th.

This world has died as rapidly as it was born. In formulating the situation "tag", began to leave the old North. Began to appear more and more people who are interested in only the long ruble - by mid eighties we have already built a civilized life with TV, telephone, sotskultbytom and even the barn. And with the beginning of the privatization of local bosses, and do realize that the cheapest way of production - is bringing the poor workers from Ukraine, who are ready to stick for peanuts. But schools and kindergartens - this is clearly unnecessary. When in 1993 I went on vacation in Chukotka, the settlement rapidly extinct, but expansion has reached such proportions that it was possible to conduct full-scale survey of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Summer ... I, in general, held as wanted. Hunted and traveled, drank "to complete" with the few remaining classmates. And after successfully settled in the artisanal and the gang for 22 days on wear was one thousand one hundred thirty-seven dollars - not bad for those days. And yet, fly away, I felt like after the funeral. The mood was otvratnym. But suddenly, when the "carcass" of Pevek have gained altitude and hills of Chukotka disappeared from view at the beginning of the cabin stood up guy: "Земляки, the case - I have a birthday today. And I want you to drink with me. Treat all! .
Alexei Volynets