“Dear residents of Vanavara village!
We ask you to restore cleanliness and order near your houses and estates by 01.06.2008, repair fences, paint the front gardens, give an architectural and aesthetic look … For violation - 3000 rubles of an administrative fine …"
Further in the text: all dogs on a leash (otherwise either their capture and subsequent "disposal", or a fine of 5,000 rubles), do not let cattle from the yards (otherwise you will have to pay 3,000 rubles), do not throw beer cans and bottles (you can get to five thousand rubles).
The threatening announcement ends with a completely peaceful appeal to the villagers: "Let's hold an event of world and scientific importance in our clean, beautiful and hospitable village!"
Leaflets with this content are posted all over Vanavara - the settlement closest to the supposed area of the Tunguska meteorite fall. From now on, all week long there will be festivities dedicated to the 100th anniversary of this event.
Vanavara is a village of hunters and fishermen. The population is about three thousand people. Wooden one-, two-storey houses, wooden sidewalks. But near the village there is an oil field of a regional scale and an oil refinery. Therefore, there are no problems with heating and hot water in Vanavar.
And it is from this place that all expeditions must start, going, as they say here, "to the meteorite" - the taiga region, where a terrible and mysterious explosion happened in the distant 1908.
The appearance of the god Ogda
Promotional video:
What it was is still not really known. At about seven o'clock in the morning on Tuesday, June 30, 1908, the inhabitants of Central Siberia were woken up by an incomprehensible noise coming from heaven. And those who were on the street watched a fireball rush overhead (some witnesses said that there were several balls, others saw "a burning log in the sky"). The subject was incredibly bright ("so my eyes were blind"). He emitted a terrible roar ("the dishes on the tables were shaking, the glasses were breaking"). And then a powerful explosion was heard somewhere over the taiga. Seismic stations in Siberia, Europe and America recorded that the shock wave circled the globe twice. The next night, throughout the northern hemisphere, people observed an unusual glow from the sky. White nights, for example, were recorded even in Tashkent. This went on for several days in a row. Sure,newspapers at that time wrote a lot about these mysterious phenomena. But to recreate the complete picture of what happened
June 30th was very difficult. No one knew exactly where the explosion took place. The Russian Academy of Sciences even sent a request to the Yenisei governor, but he was powerless. Because those who could shed light on the riddle kept quiet.
Valentina BYKOVA, inspector of the Tungusky reserve, says:
- On the day of the disaster, there was a camp of Evenks a few tens of kilometers from Vanavara. They also observed the flight of "something" across the sky. After the explosion on the horizon, everything was clouded with smoke. And the nomadic Evenks have a clear rule: if a forest fire starts, you have to drop everything and try to extinguish it. The men from the camp went to meet the fire. But they did not go far. Their path passed two hills, where the Evenks always took a stone to sharpen their knives. But this time it turned out that the top of one of them was completely cut off, and in place of the second a lake was formed at all. The water in it hissed and went in a circle.
Soon the local merchant Karp Suzdalev, who was almost the owner of the Vanavara trading post, came to inspect the lake. They say that it was he who advised the Evenks to keep silent about this incident. They say that the event will attract many expeditions that will scare the beast, burn the taiga, in general, all hunting grounds will be lost. The Evenks were already frightened by the descent of the Evenk evil fire god Ogda from heaven, as they imagined this phenomenon, and therefore a taboo was declared to visit the area of the explosion.
The lake has survived to this day. Now it is called Suzdalevo. It is believed that the explosion was an earthquake with a movement of layers. Therefore, one of the hills and went under the water.
And the real research of the Tunguska meteorite began only 13 years later, in 1921, when naturalist and naturalist Leonid Kulik came across a journal description of those ancient events. But he was able to get to the epicenter of the explosion only six years later.
Along the "Kulik path"
Leonid Kulik, the most famous researcher of the Tunguska phenomenon, visited Vanavar several times. But there are no sights associated with it in the village itself. Real "tungusatniks" go far into the taiga to touch the relics. Wooden huts, baths, storage sheds built by the brave explorer and his fellow travelers have been preserved there since the 1920s.
However, it will not be possible to get to the explosion site of the Tunguska meteorite just like that. Now this area is the Tunguska State Nature Reserve. And you can enter this territory only with the permission of the administration of the reserve. Berry, mushroom picking, hunting and fishing are prohibited even for the natives.
Directly from Vanavara to the epicenter of the explosion, only 66 kilometers. This is by helicopter. And we, the inspector of the reserve Valentina Bykova and the Evenk guide Andrey, went to "touch the shrines" along the river. The waterway to the cult habitat for all "tungusa", the habitat of Professor Kulik, called "Pier", goes along the rivers Podkamennaya Tunguska, Chamba and Khushma. Its total length is about 200 kilometers, and it takes two days.
Abandoned mine Khrustalny
Leonid Kulik organized six serious expeditions to the area of the meteorite explosion. He had grandiose plans. He dreamed of equipping an airfield and delivering several Junkers aircraft to the Vanavara area. I wanted to build a narrow-gauge railway to the swamp, which, as he assumed, formed at the site of a meteorite fall - it had to be drained and the fragments of the "heavenly guest" filled with precious metals, such as nickel, should be taken out. And in the place that is now called "Pier" (in the deep taiga. - Ed.), Kulik dreamed of building a huge palace of science, where researchers of the Tunguska meteorite would work all year round. And the scientist constantly demanded money, money, money from the Council of People's Commissars, from the Academy of Sciences … Kulik gave out scandalous interviews, swore with the authorities in Moscow, knocked on the largest offices. Sometimes they met him halfway (his work was once patronized by Academician Vladimir Vernadsky). But all the same, there were not enough funds, there were few Russian workers, and the Evenki did not always agree to go to a forbidden place even for a decent remuneration. Kulik did not even do a tenth of what he planned. Because many of the country's leading scientists still doubted the value of the meteorite, even if it could be found, and the authorities listened to them.
But the researcher would certainly have gritted his teeth enviously, having learned what funds the state invested in this area after the Great Patriotic War. But, alas, without even trying to look for the Tunguska meteorite.
About half of the waterway from Vanavara to the epicenter of the explosion, right on the banks of the Chamba River, the abandoned village of Priisk Khrustalny is now rotting. It was founded in 1957 near the deposit of Icelandic spar, which is very rare for our country. One of the features of this transparent mineral is birefringence. Therefore, it is indispensable in optical instruments. The work at the mine was supervised by the military, and there was no shortage of people (up to 300 people worked here at the same time) and equipment. In summer, thousands of tons of cargo were delivered here by helicopters, and in winter by tractors across the ice of frozen rivers. There were two mines with a total length of passages of several kilometers, there was a narrow-gauge railway - ay, Leonid Alekseevich Kulik! - a power plant, a boiler room, a club, two helipads and several dozen residential barracks. By 1983 she had gone under the riverand production became unprofitable. The people were taken away, but the equipment was abandoned. The scrap remaining here in the form of tractors, trucks, trolleys and equipment from the mines could be loaded with several trains. In Vanavar, one of the old residents of the village told me that scientists from Tomsk and Krasnoyarsk went to the military with a request to organize a permanent base for the Tunguska researchers here. Alas, the soldiers refused. For several years after the closure of the village, it was guarded so that the aborigines from Vanavara did not plunder the state property. And when everything fell into disrepair, the watchmen also left. Now only the staff of the reserve visit here, spending the night on the way to the "Pristan".trolleys and equipment from the mines could load several trains. In Vanavar, one of the old residents of the village told me that scientists from Tomsk and Krasnoyarsk went to the military with a request to organize a permanent base for the Tunguska researchers here. Alas, the soldiers refused. For several years after the closure of the village, it was guarded so that the aborigines from Vanavara did not plunder the state property. And when everything fell into disrepair, the watchmen also left. Now only the staff of the reserve visit here, spending the night on the way to the "Pristan".trolleys and equipment from the mines could load several trains. In Vanavar, one of the old residents of the village told me that scientists from Tomsk and Krasnoyarsk went to the military with a request to organize a permanent base for the Tunguska researchers here. Alas, the soldiers refused. For several years after the closure of the village, it was guarded so that the aborigines from Vanavara did not plunder the state property. And when everything fell into disrepair, the watchmen also left. Now only the staff of the reserve visit here, spending the night on the way to the "Pristan".so that the aborigines from Vanavara did not plunder the state property. And when everything fell into disrepair, the watchmen also left. Now only the staff of the reserve visit here, spending the night on the way to the "Pristan".so that the aborigines from Vanavara did not plunder the state property. And when everything fell into disrepair, the watchmen also left. Now only the staff of the reserve visit here, spending the night on the way to the "Pristan".
A whole city was built for tourists
I would not have recognized Kulik now and his beloved "Pier", or, as it was called in his documents, "13th capture". Since 1929, a hut, a bathhouse and a storage shed built by the first researchers have survived here. Here was the headquarters of the expedition, the reconnaissance detachments left here, all the collected information flowed here. The "pier" stands on the border of a continuous fall of the forest, discovered by Kulik during his first expedition. The inspectors of the reserve live here constantly, in several shifts, guarding the attractions from animals and wild tourists, if they still get here through all the security cordons. From here they lead excursions to the alleged epicenter of the explosion. Taiga people who know all the trails in the area. And the first words that they met me with: “Why did you come here? Kulik was wrong: if the meteorite did fall, it was not here at all.
FROM THE DOSSIER "KP"
Leonid Kulik is sycophant, but with God's spark
The future explorer of Tunguska was born in 1883. In 1903 he entered the St. Petersburg Forestry Institute. A year later he was expelled for communication with the Social Democrats. Two more years later, he was imprisoned, and then exiled to Miass.
1911 - meets Vladimir Vernadsky, returns to St. Petersburg and becomes an employee of the Mineralogical Museum.
In the First World War he was called up to the front. I met the revolution with the rank of lieutenant. He was forcibly drafted into the white army. Almost immediately surrendered red.
1924 - graduated from Leningrad University with a degree in mineralogy.
1927 - 1939 organizes six expeditions to the area of the explosion of the Tunguska meteorite.
At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he went to the front and in the winter of 1941/42. in captivity dies of typhus.
“Leonid Alekseevich was a strong spirit and a very stubborn person, - says one of the modern researchers of the problem of the Tunguska meteorite, candidate of physical and mathematical sciences Andrey OLKHOVATOV. - If it were not for him, then now we would not know anything about the Tunguska meteorite at all. But still, many treated him with distrust because of the "Tungus campaign" launched by him in society.
Several quotes from the diary of Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences Vladimir VERNADSKY:
September 6, 1928
All the time the thought of Kulik: alone in the taiga without the possibility of going out for 3 months [eggs]. The academy cannot help, (Sytin) - he turned to the Council of People's Commissars. Kulik was released 8000 r. contrary to A [cademia] n [auk]. And you need 25-60,000.
Still, there is beauty and good in Kulik's energy.
March 12, 1932
Kulik is disorderly, sometimes immoral, thanks to cowardice and the struggle for existence: as a public figure he was a disaster - he crushed people with a conscientious investigation. And at the same time, he has the spark of God in his quest with the meteorite. And here it connects: great creativity (unconscious) and coverage, and understanding by flair.
January 26, 1941
Since 1900, Kulik, as an assistant to the forester, was invited by me to compile a monograph of the mines of the Ilmen mountains - (he) became interested in mineralogy and meteorites. In a time of famine, he organized a "meteorite expedition" - a form of food hunting in a time of famine. The report published in the Academy in Izvestiya - like all of Kulik's works - is inaccurate, but there is also something interesting. His success with the Tung [Us] meteor [it] made his head spin.
Received worldwide fame. Formalist worker. Knows a lot, but more an amateur. Forged to power, acts as an atheist.
