There were reports that a group of Russian scientists denied the version of Italian colleagues about the origin of Lake Cheko in the Krasnoyarsk Territory as a result of the fall of the Tunguska meteorite in 1908. “Lake Cheko is older than the Tunguska meteorite. This conclusion was reached by a research team consisting of Krasnoyarsk and Novosibirsk scientists … Scientists have no doubt that the lake existed long before the Tunguska catastrophe, and its origin is not associated with this event,”concluded the experts.
We discussed somehow All versions of how the Tunguska meteorite fell. But let's also remember one person, without whom we would not know what we know now.
The discoverer of the Tunguska meteorite is rightfully Leonid Alekseevich Kulik (1883 - 1942). It is to him that science owes that this amazing phenomenon has not sunk into oblivion.
Scientific research of the Tunguska problem began with an insignificant and ordinary event. In 1921, tearing off a leaf of the calendar, 38-year-old
geophysicist L. Kulik, student and collaborator of V. I. Vernadsky at the Mineralogical Museum of the Academy of Sciences, read a message about the 1908 meteorite.
So the scientist, keen on the study of "heavenly stones", first learned about the flight of a large fireball observed in the Yenisei province and immediately fired up the desire to find the place of its fall, and make the meteorite the property of science.
By 1926, in the Meteorite Department of the Mineralogical Museum of the USSR Academy of Sciences, considerable material had accumulated on the fall of the Tunguska meteorite, supported by the published articles of S. V. Obruchev and A. V. Voznesensky, as well as the manuscript received by that time by I. M. 1927 All this urgently required the organization of a special expedition to survey the site of the fall of the meteorite, the location of which was already generally known.
In his explanatory note to the USSR Academy of Sciences, L. A. Kulik noted that the fall of the Tunguska meteorite occurred in the area of the Vanovara trading post, where the expedition should be sent. The latter, Kulik reported, should not be based on the calculation of the indispensable finding and delivery of a meteorite, but should be of a preliminary, reconnaissance nature.
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In addition to this note, Academician V. I. Vernadsky presented on March 27, 1926, to the USSR Academy of Sciences, his views on the study of the fall of the Tunguska meteorite. He wrote:
“On the basis of all these considerations, I consider it extremely important to be able to quickly find a meteorite in the Podkamennaya Tunguska area, to clarify its size, composition and structure. The sending of the expedition, proposed by the museum, may turn out to be a matter of very great scientific importance, and the results obtained can be a hundredfold worth the time and money spent on them. They can in no way be in vain at all."
The first Tunguska expedition led by L. A. Kulika was approved by the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and in February 1927 L. A. Kulik and his assistant Gulikh left Leningrad. On February 12, Kulik arrived at the Taishet station, replenished here and packed equipment, and on March 14 left by horse-drawn transport (still in the snow) along the road to the village of Palace, on the Angara River, and further along the Angara to the village of Kezhmy, where he arrived on March 19. Here he again replenished his equipment and food supplies, received more accurate and detailed information about the Vanovar trading post and on March 22, on three carts, left Kezhma.
Soon the taiga road turned into a well-worn path, along which it was difficult to move on a sleigh. On March 25, Kulik reached the Vanovara trading post, located about 200 km north of Kezhma and located on the high right bank of the Podkamennaya Tunguska. The base of the expedition was created here, and Kulik began to prepare for a campaign into the depths of the taiga, in the area of a fallen forest. The Vanovara factory was at that time a small village of several residential buildings and outbuildings. It housed two receiving points for furs from Evenk hunters, which belonged to Gostorg and the joint-stock company "Syrye". The entire population of the trading post consisted of the families of two heads of the posts, the family of a worker and the semi-sedentary Evenk, mentioned above, Lyuchetkan (Fig. 11). Kulik signed an agreement with Lyuchetkan on his participation in the expedition as a guide.
The next day after arriving at the trading post, Kulik, together with Lyuchetkan and one worker on horseback, tried to get to the border of the area of the fallen forest. However, the loaded horses could not move through the taiga, which was covered with deep snow. I had to go back to the trading post. After that, for several days, Kulik was preparing for a new campaign in the taiga. At that time, he met at the trading post with the Evenks who came from the taiga, who brought the furs they had gotten for delivery to the receiving point, in exchange for which they received food and manufactured goods.
From them, Kulik again heard the well-known stories about the fallen forest again. Kulik again entered into an agreement, but this time with the Evenk Okhchen, who lived near the mouth of the Chambe River, which flows into the Podkamennaya Tunguska. Okhchen undertook to deliver the expedition with all its equipment on reindeer from the Chambe River to the Lakuru ridge. Upon arrival at Lakura, he had to familiarize the expedition with individual places of the fallen forest for four days, then go hunting, and at the end of May again come on reindeer for the expedition and deliver it to the Chambe River, to his hut.
From here the expedition had to independently get out to the trading post. This was the plan developed by Kulik.
On April 8, the expedition consisting of Kulik, Gulikh, Lyuchetkan with one driver on horseback left the trading post along the banks of the Podkamennaya Tunguska River to the hut of the Evenk Okhchen, located 30-35 km from the trading post, where it arrived by night of the same day. The next day, having loaded all the equipment on the reindeer, the expedition along the reindeer trail went into the taiga. Two days later, the trail ended, an impenetrable virgin taiga appeared in front, we had to cut the path. A little over a dozen kilometers from the hut of the Evenk Okhchen, Kulik wrote in his diary, in the distance, in the northeast, the Burkan ridge appeared, located along the left bank of the Chambe River, at the confluence of the Makirta River. The direction of the expedition's route was constantly changing from north to north-west. On April 13, the expedition crossed the Makirtu River and here met the beginning of a continuous fall of the forest. The fallen trees lay with their tops facing south, that is, towards the path of the expedition. Kulik wrote in his diary: "The northern banks of the Makirta River are enlivened by the" Chuval "hills, which stand out picturesquely against the background of the sky and taiga with their almost treeless snow-white caps, exposed by the meteorite whirlwind of 1908"
The guide of the first expedition L. A. Kulika Evenok Pavel Aksenov (Okhchen) with reindeer before going out with an expedition to the taiga (Photo by L. Kulik, 1927)
From here the expedition headed northwest along the Makirta river bed. encountering fallen forest everywhere on the hills. Soon a mountain with two pointed peaks appeared in the distance - Shakrama, as the Evenki call her, which means in Russian "sugar loaf". By this time, the guide, the Evenk Okhchen, had a desire to turn back, abandoning his initial obligation to deliver the expedition to the Lakuru ridge and accompany it to certain places of the fallen forest. He cited the lack of food, the inability to replenish their stocks, and various other reasons. After negotiations with the Evenk, Kulik still managed to keep him from returning, at least for the next few days, and Kulik had to allocate part of the food supplies to supply the Evenk with his wife and brother.who also accompanied the expedition.
On April 15, Kulik climbed Mount Shakrama and examined the surroundings. From here he made an excursion to the Khladny ridge, located to the east of Mount Shakrama, and so named Kulik. Here he discovered the southern border of the spread of the burn caused by the explosion when the meteorite fell. From the Khladny ridge, one can gaze over a significant area in all directions. South of the Makirta River, bare places from the fallen forest were visible only along the slopes of individual peaks and hills; in the valleys and generally in protected areas the forest survived. To the west, at the tops of the Lakura ridge, the fallen forest is visible in separate spots. The same spots were observed on the Burkan ridge, to the southeast, and in the eastward direction the spots went at least 20-25 km. Since there was still a thick snow cover in the taiga,then the places with the fallen forest stood out sharply with snow-white spots against the general gray background of the taiga.
General view of Mount Shakrama, around which there is a continuous felling of the forest, first discovered by L. A. Kulik from the Khladny ridge in 1927. A young forest is seen in the picture from the felling of the forest. (Photo by L. A. Kulik, 1927)
Thus, the whole area to the west, south, and east of the Khladnoye Ridge is characterized by the fall of the forest in open places, with the fallen trees' lying with their tops to the south or southeast. Young forest growth is also found here, at the age of 20-30 years. To the north of the Khladny ridge, according to an eye estimate of 10-12 kilometers, almost the entire horizon is occupied by a group of snow-white mountains bare from the forest. This section of mountains, as it could be discerned from the Khladny ridge, is cut by the channel of the Churgim stream, flowing from the north and flowing into the Khushmo river. The Evenok Lyuchetkan, who was with Kulik, told him that in 1908 his relative, the Evenk Vasily Ilyich Ilyoshonok (Onkoul), occupied this area, that is, beyond the mountains in the north. In this area, there were also its storage facilities, destroyed by the fall of a meteorite, and deer grazed.
So, Kulik reached the area about which almost legends began to be formed - the area of the fallen forest, where the famous Tunguska meteorite fell. Now Kulik strove to penetrate to the north, beyond those snow-white mountains (from the continuous fall of the forest), which opened before him from the Khladny ridge. He had already left the original plan to penetrate the Lakuru Ridge. However, the Evenks Okhchen and Lyuchetkan flatly refused to accompany the expedition. A critical situation was created. Kulik could not take a risk, that is, remain alone in the taiga a hundred kilometers from the trading post, before the onset of the spring flood and without any means of moving and transporting expeditionary equipment. Therefore, for him there was no other way out but to return with the Evenks to the Vanovaru trading post, and then try, accompanied by new guides, local hunters,again make your way into the area of the fallen forest. However, on this second trip, he decided to use the raft to move along the flooded rivers Chambe and Hushmo. Having stayed in the area of the Khladnoye Ridge for a few more days to pinpoint notable points and mountain peaks using a mountain compass, on April 19, the expedition turned back to the Vanovare trading post, where it arrived safely on April 22. In his letter sent from the trading post to Academician V. I. Vernadsky, Kulik wrote:sent from the trading post to Academician V. I. Vernadsky, Kulik wrote:sent from the trading post to Academician V. I. Vernadsky, Kulik wrote:
“… We penetrated into the depths of the taiga, 100 versts from the Vanovara trading post, in a continuous windbreak (not a single adult tree!) We walked 20 versts in the direction from south to north. The impression from this windbreak is exceptional: throughout this space, the mature forest has been swept clean and parallelly laid by peaks in general to the south (the Evenks assured everyone: “peaks to the north-east”). This already corresponds to the radiant, for this place and hour, of the Pons-Winnekid stream, which did not coincide at all with the previously indicated direction to the north-east.
From the tops of the mountains, at the end of my route, I visually identified (approximately) the area of this whole windbreak, which apparently occupies a huge area of 30 versts across along the short axis of the ellipse; its long axis went out of sight to the north and was counted by the Evenks almost a hundred miles away; we passed this axis to the border of that central space of this ellipse, on which the forest was not only tumbled down, but also burned; this hitherto bare area in a continuous for hundreds of versts around the taiga was observed by me (orientation along the peaks of the mountains) for several tens of versts to the north; its eastern and western borders did not go out of sight …”.
In his diary L. A. Kulik wrote down his impressions after the first excursion to the area of the fallen forest:
“I still cannot understand the chaos of those impressions associated with this excursion. Moreover, I cannot really imagine the whole grandeur of the picture of this exceptional fall. Highly hilly, almost mountainous terrain, stretching for tens of miles there, into the distance, beyond the northern horizon … The distant mountains along the Khushmo River are covered with a white canopy of half-meter snow in the north. Not visible from here, from our observation post, and signs of the forest; everything was tumbled down and burned, and around a multi-verst border on this dead square a young, twenty-year-old shoot was advancing, violently making its way to the sun and life … peaks. This belt of overgrowth borders the burnt place for tens of miles around,at least - from the southern, south-eastern and south-western sides of the observation post. Further to the periphery, the growth gradually passes into the normal taiga, the number of windbreaks rapidly decreases and disappears; and only in places on the tops and hills of the mountains, which had a wall of the forest more or less normal to the direction of the air stream, now a platform with ripe plantings lying prostrate appears as a white spot. And then - the taiga, a solid mighty taiga, which is not afraid of either earthly fires or earthly winds, which hurt it no more than scratches on the hands and face of the taiga. Here is the general picture of the traces of the fall as it unfolded from the southern end of the burnt-out square …”.and only in places on the tops and hills of the mountains, which had a wall of the forest more or less normal to the direction of the air stream, now a platform with ripe plantings lying prostrate appears as a white spot. And then - the taiga, a solid mighty taiga, which is not afraid of either earthly fires or earthly winds, which hurt it no more than scratches on the hands and face of the taiga. Here is the general picture of the traces of the fall as it unfolded from the southern end of the burnt-out square …”.and only in places on the tops and hills of the mountains, which had a wall of the forest more or less normal to the direction of the air stream, now a platform with ripe plantings lying prostrate appears as a white spot. And then - the taiga, a solid mighty taiga, which is not afraid of either earthly fires or earthly winds, which hurt it no more than scratches on the hands and face of the taiga. Here is the general picture of the traces of the fall as it unfolded from the southern end of the burnt-out square …”.how it turned around from the southern end of the burnt-out square …”.how it turned around from the southern end of the burnt-out square …”.
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Noting the "burnt out area", Kulik did not yet imagine the actual nature of the burn caused by the meteorite fall. Observing the burn at the southern border of the burnt area and the solid, tree-covered, snow-covered mountains in the north, he did not assume that the fallen trees were covered with snow, but thought that all the trees were burned. He explained the outbreak of fire, as can be seen from the articles published by him and noted at the beginning of the book, by the action of a hot compressed air cushion in front of the meteorite, from which the meteorite, retaining the remnants of cosmic velocity, reached the earth's surface. At the time, he did not consider the role of the explosion.
Looking ahead, we note that the impression that Kulik had when he approached the southern border of the region of the fallen forest was also formed by the author, when he came up with the baggage of the third expedition, two years later, that is, in 1929. to the specified location. Then, 20 years ago and 20 years after the fall of the meteorite, in winter, with a thick snow cover, the area of the fallen forest made a particularly strong impression. Before that, we drove through the taiga for more than 500 kilometers, but did not meet such a powerful felling of the forest, which opened in front of us at the Makirta River, around the bend near the Khladny ridge. Here the road goes to an elevated place, and from here the surrounding places are especially clearly visible.
Lake Cheko - hypothetical crater of the Tunguska meteorite.
But back to Kulik's expedition. On April 30, even through the snow, the first party of the expedition, consisting of Kulik and three workers, left Vanovara and on four sledges headed to the Chambe River, on the road from the Vanovara trading post to the Strelka trading post, i.e. to the north. Following the first party, the rest of the party with Kulik's assistant Gulikh moved to the Chambe River. By the indicated time, the taiga rivers had already begun to be covered over the ice with water. Crossing the Nerungna River, the expedition was forced to unload sledges and carry things and food on themselves. On May 3, the expedition reached the Chambe River and stopped here in a temporary camp. The calculation was as follows: to build rafts and along the opened Chambe river to go downstream to the west, to the Khushmo river, which flows into Chambe. Then, along the Khushmo River, also on rafts, enter the area of the fallen forest.
On May 9, the rafts were ready and the expedition set off along the Chambe River on two rafts along the planned route. At first the rafts went without obstacles, but after the fourth kilometer the rafts were blocked by a pile of ice. Using each time the sections of the river that were freed from ice, the expedition gradually moved forward. One night one of the rafts, laden with expeditionary equipment and all the food supplies, was torn from the dock and carried away downstream of the river. Fortunately, the raft was soon discovered and everything on it was intact. Meanwhile, the advance became more difficult with every hour, the water was coming, flooding the surrounding shores; they had to fight both with the pressure of water and with the rushing ice floes.
Finally, on May 13, the expedition reached the mouth of the Khushmo River, walking along the Chambe River for a total of about 40 kilometers. The Khushmo River was already free of ice. Leaving here one raft for rafting down the Chambe River on the way back, the expedition built a new raft and again set off on two rafts along the Khushmo River, but this time upstream. The rafts had to be pulled with a string, using the available horse for this. On May 20, near the mouth of the Ukogitkona River, which flows into Hushmo, the first section of forest dumped on the top of the hill was encountered. The fallen trees lay tops to the southeast. The next hill was also covered with a fallen forest with peaks facing southeast.
A schematic map of the "hollow" - the supposed place of the fall of the Tunguska meteorite with an indication (arrows) of the directions of the fallen forest on the tops of the hills surrounding the hollow. (According to L. A. Kulik.) Some hills were named by L. A. Kulik, by the names of Russian and foreign meteoritologists.
On May 22, the expedition approached the mouth of the Ukhagitta River. Here, there was already a continuous felling of forests over a large area, but the tops of the trees still lay to the southeast. Fallen trees often blocked the way, and in some places it was necessary to cut through the solid deadwood that blocked the river and its banks.
On May 25, Kulik noted in his diary: “All day we walked past the bare mountains. Burned by a windbreak. From the tops of the hills, serifs were made of the peaks of individual mountains that appeared on the horizon. Rare growth grows through the fallen and burnt forest here. The direction of the felled forest is still oriented with its peaks to the southeast."
On May 30, the expedition reached the mouth of the Churgim brook, the deep valley of which was observed by Kulik from the Khladny ridge even on his first trip. Camp No. 13 was set up here, and from here Kulik began his exploration of the northern environs. Making daily excursions, he first of all established that to the north of the camp there is a hollow surrounded by an amphitheater of mountains. This is where the expedition camp was moved. Bypassing the peaks of these mountains, Kulik made with the help of a mountain compass marks their peaks and other noticeable points, and also measured the direction of the fallen trees. And at this time, quite unexpectedly for himself, he established the radial nature of the forest felling. Whichever peak of the mountain around the basin he came, everywhere he met trees with their tops outward, and with their roots toward the basin (Fig. 14). In his brochure “For the Tunguska Diva” [2] Kulik wrote in a poetic form: “At the pass I set up my second land camp and began to circle in the circus of mountains around the Great Basin; first - to the west, passing tens of kilometers along the bald ridges of the mountains; but with a windbreak on them lay already tops to the west. I went around the whole basin in a huge circle, mountains to the south; and like a windbreak, as if spellbound, the tops also bent to the south. I returned to the camp and again went east along the bald patches of the mountains, and with a windbreak I turned all my peaks there. I strained my strength and went out again to the south, almost to Hushmo: the lying bristles of the windbreak of the summit also turned to the south … There was no doubt: I went around the center of the fall! A fiery jet of hot gases and cold bodies struck the meteorite into the hollow with its hills, tundra and swamp, and like a jet of water hitting a flat surface,scatters spray on all four sides, just as a jet of hot gases with a swarm of bodies stuck into the ground and by direct impact, as well as explosive recoil, produced this whole powerful picture of destruction. And according to the laws of physics (wave interference) there should have been a place where the forest could remain on the vine, only losing the bark of foliage and branches from the heat."
On June 4, Kulik wrote in his diary: “During the daytime, especially in the first half, when the wind was getting stronger, it was very dangerous to walk in the old, dead forest: twenty-year-old giant dead rotting at the root fell from all sides. The fall sometimes occurred in our immediate vicinity, and we sighed with relief, descending into a hollow or valley protected from the wind, or getting out to a bare place or tundra. We walked, all the time looking around at the tops of the pillar trees, so that if they fell, we could have time to jump to the side. But this method of movement also had its unpleasant side: looking at the tops, we did not look at our feet and all the time came close to the vipers that swarmed this area."
Subsequently, Kulik characterized the investigated part of the fallen forest area - the depression as follows: “The central part of the fall is an area of several kilometers across on the watershed between the Chuni river basins and the Podkamennaya Tunguska plateau itself, which looks like a huge depression surrounded by an amphitheater of ridges and individual peaks. From the south, tangentially to this circus of mountains, the Khushmo River flows from west to east, the right tributary of the Chambe River, which flows into the Podsmennaya Tunguska on the right. In the mentioned basin, in turn, there are hills, ridges, individual peaks, plain tundra, swamps, lakes and streams. The taiga, both in the basin and outside it, was practically destroyed, being completely thrown to the ground, where it lies in parallel, in general, rows of naked (without branches and crown) trunks, facing their tops to the sides,opposite to the center of the fall. This peculiar "fan" of the fallen forest is especially clearly visible from the tops of ridges and individual heights that form the peripheral ring of the basin. However, in some places the taiga forest remained standing with standing trunks (usually without bark and branches). Likewise, insignificant strips and groves of green trees have been preserved in places. These exceptions are rare and are easily explained in each case. All the former vegetation of both the basin and the surrounding mountains, as well as in a zone of several kilometers around them, bears characteristic traces of a uniform continuous burn, not similar to the traces of an ordinary fire and, moreover, existing both on the fallen and standing forest, the remains of bushes and moss, both on the tops and slopes of mountains, so in the tundra and on isolated islands of land among water-covered swamps. The area with burn marks is several tens of kilometers across. The central area of this "burnt" area, which has several kilometers in diameter, in that part of it, which is covered with shrubs and forest tundra, bears, as it were, traces of lateral pressure that collected it in flat folds with depressions, a few meters deep, elongated in general perpendicular to the north-east direction. In addition, it is dotted with dozens of freshly formed flat "funnels" with different diameters - from several meters to tens of meters, with a depth of just a few meters. The sides of these "funnels" are usually steep, although they are also flat; the bottom of the "funnels" is flat, mossy-swampy, sometimes with traces of a central elevation. At the northeastern end of one of the tundra areas, the moss cover is, as it were, moved several meters from the foot of the mountain and is replaced by a swamp. On the other hand, in the southwestern corner of the basin, the swamp ends in a chaotic pile of moss cover."
In the above description, published in the Reports of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, the word funnels are in quotation marks. Meanwhile, in the brochure cited above, Kulik spoke more definitely about the meteoric nature of funnel swamps. He wrote: “… in the basin, at last, near its northeastern part, I discovered dozens of flat craters-craters, which are almost impossible to resemble lunar craters. They were most easily noticed in the tundra, which had been burnt and had not yet had time to properly restore its entire vegetation cover. The funnels had a wide variety of diameters, but more often from 10 to 50 meters; their depth did not exceed 4 meters in total, and the bottom was already covered with marsh moss. How deep the meteorites went into the tundra and rocks, to say. I can not: I was not able to go around the whole area plowed by them, nor to start digging: it was already about that, Kulik wrote in conclusion,- to get out of there safely. We had 3-4 days of food left, and the path was not close and far from triumphant: after all, it was an escape, in the full sense of the word. We already ate the leftovers of food (the calculation for game was not justified), cutting portions as much as possible, shaking the flour sacks … We shot ducks three or four times, but the fish got caught twice in the nets; but, as evil, there was so little of everything, except for the "bunches" (a plant from the umbrella family; a young trunk peeled from the skin is edible), that for nine days we walked day and night downstream along the Khushmo and along Chambe to Podkamennaya Tunguska, and only by eating kilograms of "bunch" and affectionately determining the weight of the last reserve - the horse; my detachment retained some remnants of vigor and, under a two-day summer rain, reached Podkamennaya Tunguska by the end of June. We had 3-4 days of food left, and the path was not close and far from triumphant: it was an escape, in the full sense of the word. We already ate the leftovers of food (the calculation for game was not justified), cutting portions as much as possible, shaking the flour sacks … We shot ducks three or four times, but the fish got caught twice in the nets; but, as evil, there was so little of everything, except for the "bunches" (a plant from the umbrella family; a young trunk peeled from the skin is edible), that for nine days we walked day and night downstream along the Khushmo and along Chambe to Podkamennaya Tunguska, and only by eating kilograms of "bunch" and affectionately determining the weight of the last reserve - the horse; my detachment retained some remnants of vigor and, under a two-day summer rain, reached Podkamennaya Tunguska by the end of June. We had 3-4 days of food left, and the path was not close and far from triumphant: it was an escape, in the full sense of the word. We already ate the leftovers of food (the calculation for game was not justified), cutting portions as much as possible, shaking the flour sacks … We shot ducks three or four times, but the fish got caught twice in the nets; but, as evil, there was so little of everything, except for the "bunches" (a plant from the umbrella family; a young trunk peeled from the skin is edible), that for nine days we walked day and night downstream along the Khushmo and along Chambe to Podkamennaya Tunguska, and only by eating kilograms of "bunch" and affectionately determining the weight of the last reserve - the horse; my detachment retained some remnants of vigor and, under a two-day summer rain, reached Podkamennaya Tunguska by the end of June.in the full sense of the word. We already ate the leftovers of food (the calculation for game was not justified), cutting portions as much as possible, shaking the flour sacks … We shot ducks three or four times, but the fish got caught twice in the nets; but, as evil, there was so little of everything, except for the "bunches" (a plant from the umbrella family; a young trunk peeled from the skin is edible), that for nine days we walked day and night downstream along Khushmo and along Chambe to Podkamennaya Tunguska, and only by eating kilograms of "bunch" and affectionately determining the weight of the last reserve - the horse; my detachment retained some remnants of vigor and, under a two-day summer rain, reached Podkamennaya Tunguska by the end of June.in the full sense of the word. We already ate the leftovers of food (the calculation for game was not justified), cutting portions as much as possible, shaking the flour sacks … We shot ducks three or four times, but the fish got caught twice in the nets; but, as evil, there was so little of everything, except for the "bunches" (a plant from the umbrella family; a young trunk peeled from the skin is edible), that for nine days we walked day and night downstream along Khushmo and along Chambe to Podkamennaya Tunguska, and only by eating kilograms of "bunch" and affectionately determining the weight of the last reserve - the horse; my detachment retained some remnants of vigor and, under a two-day summer rain, reached Podkamennaya Tunguska by the end of June.as evil, there were so few things, except for the "bunches" (a plant from the umbrella family; a young trunk peeled from the skin is edible), that for nine days we walked day and night downstream along Khushmo and along Chambe to Podkamennaya Tunguska, and only eating kilograms of "bunch" and affectionately determining the weight of the last reserve - a horse; my detachment retained some remnants of vigor and, under a two-day summer rain, reached Podkamennaya Tunguska by the end of June.as evil, there were so few things, except for the "bunches" (a plant from the umbrella family; a young trunk peeled from the skin is edible), that for nine days we walked day and night downstream along Khushmo and along Chambe to Podkamennaya Tunguska, and only eating kilograms of "bunch" and affectionately determining the weight of the last reserve - a horse; my detachment retained some remnants of vigor and, under a two-day summer rain, reached Podkamennaya Tunguska by the end of June.
These were the results of the first survey of the fallen forest area. As we have seen, Kulik was full of confidence that he had penetrated the very place of the meteorite fall, which was determined, first of all, by the direction of the radial fall of the forest. Moreover, he was convinced that the meteorite fell in swarms of separate masses in the northeastern and northwestern parts of the basin, where it formed a series of craters. In the future, we will dwell in detail on the description of the basin, but for now we will only note that Kulik's last conclusions turned out to be erroneous. At the same time, the Lakura ridge with its pits and "dry river", which the Evenks spoke about, as well as the distant environs of the basin to the north, northeast and in the entire western side, remained unexplored. The nature and range of distribution in these directions of the fallen forest remained unknown. Examined (fluently,along the routes of the expedition) turned out to be only the southern and southeastern, and also partially the eastern part of the region from the basin to the very border …
Returning on June 24 to the Vanovaru trading post and having built here a large boat "transport", on which all the equipment was loaded, the expedition on June 30 left the trading post and headed down the Podkamennaya Tunguska River. On the Yenisei River, the expedition embarked on a steamer and headed for Krasnoyarsk, from where it returned to Leningrad by train in September 1927.
Upon his return from the taiga, Kulik began to vigorously seek the organization of a new expedition to the site of the meteorite fall by the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in the next 1928, in order to carry out here, during the entire summer season of 1928, mainly preparatory work for the future systematic stationary study of "craters" magnetic measurements in them with the aim of detecting places of occurrence of meteorite masses and, finally, excavations to extract meteorites. It must be said that Kulik was not only sure of the meteorite nature of the craters, but even believed that it would be relatively easy for him to extract meteorites from them. At the same time, as one of the most important tasks, he also set aerial photography of the entire supposed area of the meteorite fall.
After Kulik's report in Krasnoyarsk on the results of examining the site of the fall of the Tunguska meteorite, the Siberian regional executive committee in December 1927 made a decision on all-round, including material, support for further work on the study of the fall of the Tunguska meteorite, recognizing their scientific significance. It must be said that the regional executive committee in its decision also proceeded from the possibility of using future aerial photography of the area of the meteorite fall in the interests of organizing the edge.
The Tunguska fall, Kulik wrote further, "happened 20 years ago. For seven years already, I have defended the point of view that since this fall took place on the territory of the Union, we, in the face of history, must study it. If until last year the matter was hampered under the pretext that it was all sheer fantasy, then in 1928 I dismissed this objection, since the positive results of my expedition are undeniable; their exceptional scientific significance, like the Tunguska fall itself, will be fully appreciated only by history, for which it is necessary to capture all the traces of this phenomenon that have survived."
Academician A. A. Grigoriev, on the basis of his acquaintance with the taiga, expressed the opinion that the windbreak described by L. A. Kulik has the usual picture of a fire. Unusual, as he noted, in this case is only the scope of the phenomenon. In the same way, DV Nikitin noted that according to the descriptions of Kulik and the photographs he showed of the windbreak, there was nothing unusual for taiga conditions. And only the totality of all the data, including the results of processing the materials collected by the Irkutsk Observatory, according to which coordinates for the center of the earthquake were obtained that coincided with the coordinates of the area of the fallen forest, allows us to admit the possibility of a meteorite falling exactly in the place that was surveyed by Kulik. On the contrary, N. N. Urvantsev noted the originality of the windbreak and the unusual for the taiga of a top fire. Multanovsky and Sumgin spoke out against aerial photography. Urvantsev considered aerial photography necessary. The expediency of organizing the expedition was pointed out by P. A. Zemyatchensky, however, he suggested expanding its tasks, including a mineralogical and geological study of this area, which is a white spot on the map. In the note attached to the minutes of the meeting, prof. D. D. Rudnev noted the need for a comprehensive study of the area with a detailed description of the meteorite fall situation, determination of astronomical points and aerial photography. In the note attached to the minutes of the meeting, prof. D. D. Rudnev noted the need for a comprehensive study of the area with a detailed description of the meteorite fall situation, determination of astronomical points and aerial photography. In the note attached to the minutes of the meeting, prof. D. D. Rudnev noted the need for a comprehensive study of the area with a detailed description of the meteorite fall situation, determination of astronomical points and aerial photography.
In his closing remarks, Academician V. I. Vernadsky noted that the meeting generally recognized the unusualness of the windbreak phenomenon in the area of the Vanovara trading post and considered it necessary to organize an expedition with the main task of detecting a meteorite.
It should be noted that the materials collected by Kulik, including his description of the area of the fallen forest, as well as the very low quality photographs of this area, did not make the desired impression on most of the participants in the meeting. On the contrary, they also raised certain doubts about the correctness of Kulik's determination of the place of the meteorite fall.
On February 22, 1928, L. A. Kulik made a report on the results of his studies of the fall of the Tunguska meteorite at the Geological Committee. According to the report, the following decision was made: “Recognizing the study of meteorites and their fall areas as a matter of paramount importance, not only purely scientific, but also practical, the Geological Committee considers it necessary to in-depth study of the site of the alleged fall of the Tunguska meteorite, based on the data obtained during the research of L. A. Kulik . After that, Kulik made reports at the Leningrad Society of Naturalists, the Russian Society of Amateurs of World Studies and in other scientific institutions and societies. Scientific institutions fully supported the need to organize the next expedition, while noting the need to involve various specialists in this.
On March 29, 1928, L. A. Kulik presented to the Council of People's Commissars a report on the equipment of the expedition to Podkamennaya Tunguska in 1928. As a result, the Department of Scientific Institutions under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR released L. A. Kulik the necessary funds for the expedition. Thus, for the second time, the Soviet government provided direct assistance and assistance to the study of the Tunguska meteorite.
A year later, Kulik returned with a new detachment. The expedition carried out a topographic survey, dug a series of craters and partially pumped out water from the lake. But not a single fragment of the meteorite was found. A year later, Leonid Alekseevich returned here with powerful pumps for draining swamps and drilling equipment.
Having opened the largest crater, scientists found a stump at its bottom, which was older than 1908. And other craters turned out to be ordinary sinkholes caused by the thawing of permafrost in the depths of the soil.
Kulik was not going to give up. In the area of the fall of the Tunguska meteorite, he organized three more expeditions. But he never managed to hold a piece of alien ore in his hands.
Already in the 1990s, the scientific world agreed with the hypothesis that the Tunguska meteorite mainly consisted of ice. Exploded at an altitude of 5-7 kilometers, it turned into water, steam and fine dust. Kulik could not know all this and hoped for good luck to the last. The scientist planned his last expedition for the summer of 1941, but the war prevented …
The 58-year-old scientist was not subject to conscription, but volunteered to join the people's militia. In September 1941, the Red Army soldier Kulik took the first battle, and a month later his unit was surrounded near the town of Spas-Demensky in the Kaluga region and taken prisoner. Leonid Alekseevich worked as an orderly in a hospital organized by the prisoners themselves.
As a result, he contracted typhus from a patient and on April 14, 1942, died suddenly. The researcher was buried by a local resident by the name of Goltsov, who not only looked after the grave, but also preserved the scientist's archive.