The event, which took place on December 2 in the hall of the Presidential Library of the regional "science", was attended not only by guests from Moscow and St. Petersburg - editor-in-chief of the magazine "Diletant" Vitaly Dymarsky and candidate of historical sciences, professor Vladimir Ryzhkov, but also MASU historians - students, and also teachers, ethnographers, representatives of the Kovdor region. The topic of the roundtable turned out to be equally interesting for everyone: will Kovdor take place as the capital of ancient Hyperborea and how will this affect the development of tourism in the region?
It looks like the legendary northern country of Hyperborea is about to glorify the modest city of miners Kovdor. Disputes about the location of the ancient civilization do not subside until now, but now many Kovdor residents are sure: it was in their area that real confirmation of the hypothesis appeared - valuable artifacts were found, mysterious places whose origin scientists cannot explain, altars, maps laid out with stones, and much more.
All this already attracts numerous exotic lovers, and the city has readily responded to becoming a tourist brand in the Arctic. In August, the summer ethnofestwal "Hyperborea" was held for the first time as part of EuroChem's birthday, and a new project was launched there. Recently a restaurant "Hyperborea" was opened in Kovdor, with dishes of the northern peoples, where so far, however, not tourists, but local residents have poured with interest. The new corporate calendar of EuroChem for 2019 will be dedicated to the same topic, it will contain photos and information about the traces of ancient Hyperborea. A new park has already been laid with the same name, which has no analogues in the region. There will be collected copies of the oldest artifacts found on the territory of the Kovdor region. On the site of the future park, a forest was cut, the locations of the artifacts were marked, the first stone boulders were brought in. The first stone will be installed in the park one of these days.
For some time now, the humble Kovdor has become a real Mecca for numerous researchers, bloggers, journalists, sociologists, scientists. Recently, the journalist of "Komsomolskaya Pravda" Nikolai Varsegov, editor-in-chief of "Echo of Moscow" Alexei Venediktov, who decided to see for themselves whether there are traces of the legendary ancient country in the Kovdorsky district, have been here recently. The well-known political scientist and sociologist, head of VTsIOM Valery Fedorov also became interested in this idea. And now Vitaly Dymarsky and Vladimir Ryzhkov have arrived in the Murmansk region for the same purpose. And famous journalists and researchers began their journey into the mysterious world of the Kola Peninsula with an acquaintance with the theory. And to begin with, a round table was held, at which they expressed their attitude to the project "Kovdor - the capital of Hyperborea", which is aimed at promoting the historical and cultural heritage,support of tourism and development of the territory of the region.
“Let's not persuade each other whether Hyperborea was here many centuries ago or not,” Vitaly Dymarsky suggested at the beginning of the conversation. - Let's focus on the fact that this cultural project: “Kovdor is the capital of Hyperborea”, believe it or not, it has a right to exist. If we talk about historical science, then no science can do without a hypothesis. This cultural project is a search. We do not know where we will come, but for science a negative result is also a result. However, it seems to me that the very process of movement, search, digging - whether in the ground, in books or other sources - is very interesting and exciting. In my opinion, nothing could be more interesting.
And if we talk about myths, then in history we already use many of them as indisputable facts.
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- Let's not talk about already promoted brands, - Vladimir Ryzhkov entered the conversation. - About Jerusalem, for example, or St. Petersburg. But there are not famous cities at all that find their own image, brand and are promoted to everyone's envy. I recently became interested in this phenomenon and read about the Spanish city of Bilbao. A small industrial city with a port. On the transition from industrialization to a post-industrial economy, it began to buckle. Unemployment, poverty and more. And then the initiative citizens applied for the competition and won the tender for the construction of the Guggenheim Museum of Contemporary Art in the city. And now the city is flourishing around this museum. It became the largest tourist destination in Spain, which pulled the entire hotel and restaurant business with it. The formerly depressed city is now flourishing. And there are many such examples. I myself am from Altai, and there today everyone feeds on the name of Vasily Makarovich Shukshin. Theaters named after him, schools, libraries, museums, festivals, Shukshin readings, finally. Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the country flock to these events. Vladimir Ryzhkov admitted: he likes the idea of Hyperborea, and why shouldn't Kovdor be its capital? This does not mean that Hyperborea was based exactly here, perhaps the entire vast Far North was the place of its location, but take the initiative and say that yes, a cultural project associated with this legend will be implemented here, that it is here, we have the capital of a mysterious civilization - why not? Great idea!Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the country flock to these events. Vladimir Ryzhkov admitted: he likes the idea of Hyperborea, and why shouldn't Kovdor be its capital? This does not mean that Hyperborea was based exactly here, perhaps the entire vast Far North was the place of its location, but take the initiative and say that yes, a cultural project associated with this legend will be implemented here, that it is here, we have the capital of a mysterious civilization - why not? Great idea!Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the country flock to these events. Vladimir Ryzhkov admitted: he likes the idea of Hyperborea, and why shouldn't Kovdor be its capital? This does not mean that Hyperborea was based exactly here, perhaps the entire vast Far North was the place of its location, but take the initiative and say that yes, a cultural project associated with this legend will be implemented here, that it is here, we have the capital of a mysterious civilization - why not? Great idea!here a cultural project associated with this legend will be implemented, that it is here, we have the capital of a mysterious civilization - why not? Great idea!here a cultural project associated with this legend will be implemented, that it is here, we have the capital of a mysterious civilization - why not? Great idea!
However, a great idea, like any innovation, caused a variety of opinions.
- Do you have an evidence base that Hypreborrhea existed in general? - asked a sophomore student of MASU. - And even more so that it was based in our place in the Arctic?
“The evidence base here is that there are more than 50 references to the northern country in ancient sources and all descriptions are roughly similar,” Vladimir Ryzhkov answered. - The Far North, cold, wind, polar night, snow falling in flakes, people picking plants in the forest for food - the description is very plausible. Localization is also quite accurate. There are many indications of mountains and rivers.
I will answer you, as a historian to a historian: the evidence base here is complex, but more or less confident hypotheses can be built.
- But won't the very idea of the project's implementation spill over into a kind of pseudoscientific Disneyland? - one of the students was concerned.
“Even if a beautiful historical myth is born as a result of investigations and searches, it also has a right to exist,” retorted Vitaly Dymarsky.
During the round table, the thought was expressed: the purpose of the city is the happiness of its inhabitants. The head of the Kovdor region, Sergei Somov, spoke on this very topic.
“In the Kovdorsky district of the Kola geological expedition, excavations are being actively carried out, which confirm that people lived here not for the last three hundred years, but thousands of years earlier,” he said. - By the way, we have already found many artifacts, runes with ancient inscriptions, a stone map of the starry sky, the Warrior's Head rock in the Ruby Canyon. As for the project itself. For those who do not know, I will say that our area is a small forest corner, lost near the border with Finland, about which, except for Kovdor-hole, no one has spoken about over the past 30 years. It is believed that living with us is bad, boring, and uninteresting. We, the indigenous people of Kovdor, fundamentally disagree with this. We want people to come to visit us, look at our nature, get acquainted with the sights, so that they can visit our plant with a unique quarry. And when we, together with EuroChem, thought about how to attract guests, how to change the situation in the area, we realized that it is very important for us to decide how we will move on.
Sergey Somov honestly admitted: in Kovdor they understand how much the implementation of a new project will require. And they realize that it will take more than one or two years for its successful implementation. And yet it's worth getting involved in it.
- We work with educational and scientific institutes, with the government of the Murmansk region, with businesses located in the Murmansk region and beyond, and the financing of this project is certainly thought out, - said the head of the district. - So far, the district budget has not invested a dime in it. The financial background of the case is decided by those who are interested in the development of the Kovdor region. And in parallel with this cultural project, several more promising areas are being implemented that will help to raise it.
The head of the Kovdor region understands that the influx of tourists will require the construction of hotels, the development of a logistics concept and much more. But isn't the fact that Kovdor will acquire a new and serious impulse for development worth the considerable effort?
So, Hyperborea. Will this legendary country help change the life of Kovdor residents today? It seems that most of all at the round table of students-historians was tormented by the question: how to prove that this is a myth that has nothing to do with reality. And therefore, there is nothing to fence in a garden: there was no such country as the fictional Atlantis, and that's all. And there is no need to fence any projects.
And then what to say about the homeland of Father Frost in Veliky Ustyug? Is there a certificate certified by seals that Santa Claus was born there on a specific day and month? And the residence of Santa Claus in Lapland? Where is the official document that it is the real Santa Claus who lives there, and not the Finnish actor in his fur coat, red cap and beard? But tourists - so strange - flock to Veliky Ustyug and Rovaniemi in thousands! And what about the mythical land of Shambhala, glorified by the great Nicholas Roerich, attracting millions of tourists around the world to search for the entrance to it?
All in all, let's get into this project. Perhaps we will indeed find evidence that Kovdor is the capital of Hyperborea. In the meantime, we are looking for, we will attract crowds of tourists who can not help but love our unique nature, the northern lights, the harsh and mysterious land of the ancient seids.
A round table in the "nauk" was held on Sunday, and on Monday, December 3, Vitaly Dymarsky and Vdadimir Ryzhkov went to Kovdor, where they visited the seid recently found by the Kovdor residents, examined runic drawings on stones and stone rubble very similar to the remains of an ancient city. They also held classes at the school of historical journalism and summed up the results of two photo contests at once - the newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda" - "The Greatness and Secrets of the North of Russia" and the geolocation competition - "Riddles of Hyperborea". Residents of Murmansk, Severomorsk, Monchegorsk, Apatitov, Kovdor, as well as St. Petersburg, Moscow, Perm, Tver, Kirov, and other Russian cities became winners, prize-winners and laureates. All of them will receive prizes and diplomas from the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.
