The book by the Ural writer Olga Koshmanova "A Look in the Back", which contains testimonies of taiga people about the Bigfoot, prompted our author, the journalist "KP", to go with his wife Natalya to the habitats of this individual
From the stories about Bigfoot it follows that he is able to appear out of nowhere and disappear into nowhere. Sometimes it can be felt, but not seen. Experienced hunters have repeatedly admitted to the writer that even the invisible presence of Bigfoot causes such an inexplicable fear that "the soul wants to fly out."
Finally, the fog cleared. We will go to Salekhard.
Mansi call him a composer, which means "man-spirit". That is, a spirit that turns into a man, and vice versa.
Unfortunately, the writer Olga Koshmanova recently died. But her follower Vladimir Anishchenko, a local historian and a member of the Russian Geographical Society, lives in Yekaterinburg. He also collects and analyzes everything related to compole. He told us that the composer does not like interference in his compolens affairs and arranges intrigues for researchers. Once he and a colleague arrived in the Subpolar region, on the Tykotlova river, in a remote place where the composer lives - local hunters bypass him. We spent the night on the shore of a dead lake, in which there are no living creatures. And in the morning, not far from the tent, we saw traces of two pairs of bare feet on the sand. One footprint is approximately 43rd size, the second is 47th. There was also a bizarre tree with a twisted trunk. When a friend climbed a tree, he received such a prick in the neck that he immediately jumped off. At the same time, not a woundthere was no redness on the neck.
Remember how in 2011 near Serov the An-2 plane disappeared in the taiga. They were looking for him for 11 months, until random hunters stumbled upon the plane.
The most amazing case of meeting with a composer, which shocked Vladimir Anishchenko, was told by Semyon Togachev from the village of Azov on the Ob.
For the Khanty, a meeting with the spirits of the forest is a very difficult situation, it must be treated with care.
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In the autumn, when the hunting season was over, he and his family were going to sail by boat from the family hunting hut. Loaded the boat with luggage. And when he began to start the engine, he suddenly saw a family of compolen on the high bank, watching him. For the Khanty, meeting these with the spirits of the forest is a very difficult situation, it must be treated with care. And with difficulty and fear for about 20 minutes he started the boat. And these individuals did not leave. There were four to six of them, covered with wool. One female held a child in her hand. People were shocked. They barely floated down the river. Semyon said that he could not come to his senses until home. After that, he was ill for a long time.
The hunters tried not to react to the aliens, so as not to provoke them to aggression. The dog behaved the same way.
Impenetrable taiga
Vladimir Anischenko pointed out that Bigfoot now lives near the village of Mezhdurechensky in the Khanty-Mansiysk National District.
It was to go there by a local night train. And this, as we know from experience, are drunk shift workers, lumberjacks and other noisy people who, if not having fun, then snoring. The train was filled to capacity. But, to our surprise, in the whole car there was not a single one who was even slightly tipsy! According to the conductor, the people have become much more cultured.
Two kilometers away, a bright light suddenly appeared in the wilds. But no equipment, as it turned out later, went here.
The head of Mezhdurechensky, Andrei Koshmanov, the son of that very writer, does not consider Bigfoot to be something out of the ordinary. The fact that it has never been officially discovered is due to its small number in the vast taiga expanses.
“Remember how in 2011 near Serov the An-2 plane with 12 passengers and a pilot disappeared in the taiga,” says Andrey. - So for 11 months the rescue teams were looking for him. And the aviation flew around the area many times. Then random hunters stumbled upon the plane. And, in fact, no one is looking for a composer. In addition, the composer himself tries not to meet people.
Although sometimes the composes can be shown. About 70 kilometers from Mezhdurechenskoye on the bank of a tributary of the Konda River, a husband and wife lived in a summer hunting lodge. Somehow in the early 2000s, they were doing business in the yard and suddenly, at the edge of the forest, about 50 meters away, they saw two composes: an adult female and her child. They sat on the ground and watched people.
The hunters tried not to react to the aliens, so as not to provoke them to aggression. The dog behaved the same way. Then these individuals appeared more than once and sat nearby for hours. Once the hunters left for the village, and when they returned, they saw that everything in the house was turned upside down, but nothing was stolen. The unattached dog whined guiltily. Now these owners are gone, but the hut still remains. We decided to get there. Andrey agreed to take us there by boat for the weekend.
In the meantime, we went to the village of Polovinka - 150 km from Mezhdurechensky. Anatoly Khomyakov has been living there for 89 years. The road to that village is a straight autobahn of some kind: smooth, not a single pothole. With curbs trimmed, no debris. We have never seen anything like this in the Russian wilderness. Oncoming cars are also rare. Our driver Nikolay greets all his colleagues, as they do him. Almost everyone is familiar here.
- Our roads are excellent, - Nikolay agrees, - but nature is in trouble from them. In winter, a reagent is brought in to clean them. Then it all flows into the rivers. There used to be so many fish here! And now it’s far from it.
Country passions
Anatoly Nikolaevich, despite his considerable age, is vigorous, mobile and in good memory.
- My father Nikolai Vlasovich went in winter to set pike traps on Lake Luptur. And there is a hut on the shore. He drives up and sees smoke coming out of the chimney, the stove is burning. I was glad that someone was inside. He got off the sleigh, looked, but the hut was closed on the outside on the turntable. And how was the stove heated? He enters, it's cold in the hut. I felt the stove - it is like ice. But he definitely saw the smoke pouring from the chimney. The old people say it seemed to him. It so happens that someone looms in the forest.
And here's another story. There is Lake Okunevo beyond the Konda River. My grandfather Ivan, my mother's father, and my grandmother Marya, both Mansi, went there to weave damask. These are fish traps. The Mansi wove them from larch and cedar root. Here behind the root they went to Lake Okunevo. We settled down on the shore. The fish is caught, the roots are cleaned. And this lake is very strange. Round and deep. Three kilometers in diameter. The men measured it, so the depth of the cord with the sinker was not enough 26 meters.
The grandfather and grandmother are sitting, the root is crumpled. And suddenly the lake hissed, in the middle the water was a mound. It rose like a huge hat. Then something came out black. And suddenly this black thing turns around and floats straight to the old people. Grandfather behind the gun. And the grandmother on his hands: "Don't you dare shoot, it will be worse for us!" They sit. Mansi pagan faith. But then, out of fear, they began to be baptized. And this thing swam almost to them and went under the water. It must have been an underwater UFO.
On Friday evening, Andrei Koshmanov and I went along the Conde River on his motorboat to the village of Tap, to the Mansi hut, where the compoles visited. Soon a dense forest began along the banks, over which hawks soared. And in front of the boat a big fish splashed here and there. Gloomy and fabulous place. They arrived in the village after dark and settled in Andrei's house. There is no electricity in Tapa. The village is almost abandoned. But in the summer there are fishermen here. Two pensioners Anatoly and Nikolay live here permanently. Anatoly settled in Tapa during Soviet times. He had heard a lot about composes, had not met yet. And three years ago, not far from here, the three of them together with a colonel from Yekaterinburg were fishing at night. Two kilometers away in the wilds, a bright light suddenly appeared, as if from a snowmobile. But no equipment, as it turned out later, went here. The light stayed on for 12 minutes, then disappeared. Then he appeared again. In the morning, there were no traces in the place of light. Because Anatoly believes that it was a UFO.
Anatoly is a non-drinker and does not suffer from visions. He does not toil with boredom, because he loves nature very much and silence. In addition, there are so many gifts from the taiga. Anatoly surrenders berries alone for the season for 200 thousand. And he catches tons of fish.
In the morning we sailed by motorboat to the Mansi hut. It is in a picturesque place on the banks of the tributaries. The hut was privatized by visiting fishermen. There were no new owners for our arrival. There were no composes either. But there are so many aspen mushrooms here, as the people say - oblique mow.
- From recent cases, - says Andrey, - I was like that. Two of my acquaintances went to the swamp for cranberries. Dispersed in different directions, picking berries. And suddenly a half-meter stick flew into one of them. He decided that this friend was joking. He swore. And then bang, a huge stump arrives. Falling nearby. A person understands that a comrade could not throw such a burden. They got scared with a friend and ran away immediately.
In the city of Menshikov
Further our path lay far to the north: 500 km from Mezhdurechenskoye to the Ob region.
The same Nikolay took us literally in five hours. Fortunately, the autobahns, as we have already noted, are wonderful here. But there is no further way. And we need to go along the Ob River to Berezovo on the Meteor. And tomorrow from the same place "Meteor" will take us to the village of Muzhi to witnesses of the composer.
Spouses Sergei and Anna do not want to change their husbands even to the Crimea.
The hotel in Berezovo bears the proud name "Grad Berezov". And, according to the advertisement, only here "comfortable rooms and the cheerful attitude of the staff are waiting for you." So it is written - rainbow. We were told by phone that a double room would cost 3350 rubles. No breakfast included. Well, an acceptable price for the historical center of Ugra, where the closest ally of Peter I, Alexander Menshikov, was exiled. Remember Vasily Surikov's painting "Menshikov in Berezovo"?
The hotel room turned out to be small and cold, without hot water, with a non-working telecom. The bed is more of a lorry than a double bed. We grumbled, not knowing that tomorrow in Muzhi we would remember the Grad Berezov hotel as a luxury class.
But in general, Berezovo is a wonderful village, full of birches and all kinds of places for selfies. Menshikov built a church here, near which he was buried. Now there is a square near the church, the main decoration of which is a monument to the prince.
In the Berezovsky store, we choose bread. There are no production dates on the packages. Feel the loaves that bricks.
- Why is your bread stale? - Natalya asked the saleswoman sternly.
- Yes, it cannot be! - she exclaimed. - Only today the car came. Today's bread.
It turns out that the freshness of the bread is counted from the day the truck with the products arrives at Berezovo. And the car is coming from Tyumen! Several days by land and by water - on a barge. Transportation by barges of one car costs the owner 25 thousand rubles, cars are cheaper - from 7 to 12 thousand. In winter, the winter tract saves. Therefore, prices for food in Berezovo are almost one and a half times higher than in Moscow. "Doctor's" sausage over 500 rubles, ham - about 700.
The Lumberjack Case
Anna Brusnitsyna, the scientific secretary of the museum in the village, introduced us to the cameraman Viktor Sozonov, who told the following story. Eight years ago, on a sunny winter day, a team of lumberjacks saw three footmen moving in their direction. Probably, those walking technicians broke down? The lumberjacks drove to them. But for some reason the figures turned around and began to move away. There and then a blizzard suddenly rose, in which the unknown and disappeared. The snowstorm subsided immediately. Out of curiosity, the lumberjacks drove to the place where the aliens were, and there were no tracks! Okay, they continue to cut trees further. And suddenly someone from behind grabbed one lumberjack and raised him high. The man was very frightened, but saw that it was a huge hairy female creature, since he managed to make out her breasts. Then this "woman" casually threw him to the ground,so that the lumberjack scratched his face on a branch of a lying spruce. The whole brigade was so scared that they did not leave the hut for several days. And then the lumberjacks left these places.
The head of the district, Andrei Golovin, treated the subject of our interest wisely and judiciously. In his opinion, snow people move from another dimension to ours through some kind of portal. Or they live in distant caves, where the hunter practically does not step.
- What brought harsh ordinary people to these places? - we asked the head of the district.
- Initially, the Khanty lived here. After that, the Komi-Zyryans began to move from beyond the Urals. They were attracted to fish. The Komi introduced agriculture. In the 30s, they began to bring the repressed here. They were simply unloaded ashore - whoever survives will survive. This is how Russians, Germans and Finns appeared here. My grandfather, for example, a former tsarist naval officer, served in Kronstadt. He came voluntarily. I think, away from the attention of the authorities. But in 1937 he was shot …
We ask Anna Brusnitsyna and her husband Sergei:
- For example, you are not reindeer herders and you are not connected with this land by age-old traditions. If you were now offered a choice of a free apartment anywhere in the country: Moscow, Crimea, Tyumen - would you move?
- No, - they answer. And they explain: how wonderful everything is here - both life and people, but especially - the northern nature, still untainted. Therefore, composes live here.
For local reindeer herders, alcohol is a big problem. Many drink too much.
Sergei runs a shop for hunters and fishermen. He is sad that his employees receive 30 thousand each. But he cannot pay more. For buyers have the same small salaries. Our interlocutors speak of the Khanty with enthusiasm: they are hardworking and honest people. Hunt will never do mean things. Will not steal. If the hunt dislikes you, he will tell you to your face and will not greet you. They do not know how to lie and fantasize at all. If he saw a composer, he would tell without any exaggeration. Only alcohol is a big trouble for them. Get drunk. But not all of them. There are teetotalers since childhood.
In the morning, on the street, a hunt guy came up to us, apparently not more than twenty years old. Sweat on his forehead, trembling in his body from deep drinking. He said that at home he had two boxes of fresh poaching muksun fish. And the guy is ready to sell what we need at 160 rubles per kilo. Only right now he needs vodka.
We didn’t make a deal, but we were puzzled: at such a young age and so suffer from alcoholism? This is a disaster, of course.
Intrigues of composes
Anna Khudaley was born and lives in Muzhi. He speaks carefully about composes, afraid of causing trouble. She said that recently two journalists from Tyumen were also looking for Bigfoot. And soon both died in a car accident. According to Anna, the composer eliminate those who are trying to earn something from them. These creatures easily read our thoughts, know about our intentions. Therefore, many hunters, including Anna's relatives, try to get along with a composer, to appease him. They leave him food and drink.
The lumberjack was grabbed and lifted high by a huge furry female creature …
One year in 2003, two hunters were walking on a boat along the channel and saw eleven compoins very close at once on the shore. All of them are huge, shaggy. They were so scared that one of the hunters immediately turned gray. But the composes did nothing wrong to them. But the strangest story, which especially impressed Anna, happened in the summer of 2000. A family from Ovgort arrived at a fishing camp on the Synya River. And there their three-year-old daughter disappeared. She was found a few days later unharmed, hungry and not even bitten by mosquitoes. The girl said that all this time she was carried in her arms by a certain shaggy aunt.
But adult people disappear in these places often and without a trace. In the courtyard of the police department, stands with photographs of missing people. A lot of them. Most of them are young.
Idols of Torum Maa in Khanty-Mansiysk. Translated from Mansi - "Sacred Land". Khanty and Mansi worshiped such idols from time immemorial.
Unfortunately, because of our bureaucratic press system, the head of the department has no right to talk to journalists without a bunch of approvals. And for the capital's media, as his press secretary explained, permits from the Glavka are needed.
But we don't have time to write petitions. And the river to Ovgort is more than 100 kilometers. Tomorrow at daybreak we are going to Salekhard with the Meteor.
Red city
We liked Salekhard right away, as did the former northern shelters. With the help of guest workers, he is well-groomed and clean. Nice architecturally. The end of August, and the heat. People are almost naked. Enjoy ice cream.
In the local museum, we met with the writer Lyudmila Fedorovna Lipatova.
“Many stories are told here about Bigfoot,” says Lyudmila Fedorovna. - Hunters anticipate that it is generally forbidden to enter other taiga places. And if someone wanders, then invisible but terrible creatures will certainly pursue him. All these places are usually in impassable wilderness.
In the Salekhard Museum, Natasha confidently entered the image of a local resident. And she liked it.
In a dark room, a black mummy with a half-open mouth, with a flattened black nose. This is a local deceased from the 13th century. He is also the chief night keeper of the Salekhard Museum. Olesya Varkentin, a senior museum researcher, introduces us to this. The spectacle, frankly, is not for aesthetes. Along the way, we ask Olesya about those who are still living. He says that it is possible to live in Salekhard, even though the city is located on the Arctic Circle. But to have a normal income, like hers, for example, you need a polar experience. Let's say the salary of a librarian, well, 15 thousand. However, with all the northern allowances, it turns into 50 thousand or more. True, an apartment-"odnushka" in 35 meters costs here, as in Moscow, - about 4 million. Every working person can go and fly free of charge with their children to anywhere in Russia every two years. Summer vacations are two months.
The Salekhard market is full of muksun at prices ranging from 1,000 to 1,400 rubles.
The Salekhard market is full of muksun at prices ranging from 1,000 to 1,400 rubles. It is, as it were, non-local, but according to the papers it is Yakut and even Canadian. But which Yakut and on what roads will bring fish here, which is easier to send to Moscow? We are not even talking about Canadians. But the alcoholic Hunt offered us that fish for only 160 rubles.
There are many Azerbaijanis in the market. They work here on shifts. They come for four months. During this time, you can earn enough to provide a family in Baku for a year. Salekhard is called the "red city". This means that the authorities here are held by official structures, not the mafia. And Azerbaijanis do not pay the bandits. The product is brought by rail not only from Azerbaijan, but also from all over Russia. The train from Moscow goes here for three days. Therefore, in Salekhard, food is not as expensive as in Berezovo, for example.
The ancient Khanty amulet reliably protects against the intrigues of komplens. Natalia was convinced of this herself.
How the child was changed
Dmitry Zamyatin, a scientist from Salekhard, works in the Science Department of the Yamal-Nenets District Administration. Biologist by education.
“When my father was 11 years old,” says Dmitry, “he lived in the village of Azov, Shuryshkarsky district. One day in 1952, he and his father, my grandfather, went fishing in the village of Poslovo. We went to the house of the Khanty to ask for an overnight stay and saw there a man sitting on a chain, thickly overgrown with hair. Grandfather knew the Khanty language well. They began to ask about the hairy man. And the owners said that eight years ago they went to pick mushrooms, took their baby with them. They left him in a clearing in a basket, while they themselves walk nearby. When they returned, they saw that the child had been replaced by forest spirits. There was a hairy baby in the basket. The parents were upset, of course, but decided that this was their punishment for some sins. So they took this substitution with them. The child grew up and became aggressive towards the village children. So I had to put him on a chain. And after that, according to rumors, this child seemed to be taken to Leningrad by scientists.
- Do you have any explanation for this?
- As a biologist, I can say that these rare creatures can only survive thanks to their exceptional abilities. Hypnosis protects them from humans. With a special whistle, they catch fear even on the most desperate hunters. They become invisible to humans. And they winter, most likely, in the basin of the Synya river. There are the most impenetrable jungles and a special microclimate. Even during the Ice Age, ancient people survived there. Their sites have been preserved. I can assume that they have a very long life span. And this solves the issue of their reproduction with a small number.
Author: Nikolay Varsegov