Today in the Russian North live both the descendants of the original inhabitants of the region and the descendants of those ethnic groups that settled together with the Russian settlers. The vast majority of residents of the region are Russian. Anthropologically, Russians of the North are distinguished by their above average height, blond hair and eye color.
Basically, local Russian residents are distinguished by all the characteristic features inherent in this ethnic group, which is largely explained by the predominance of urban residents among them (more than ¾ of the entire Russian population of the North), a high level of education, and the elimination of the region’s isolation from the main territory of Russia during the 20th century. However, the Russian North is also a place where a unique Russian sub-ethnic group - the Pomors - as well as sub-ethnic groups - the Pustozers and the Ust-Tsilemas - emerged.
Russian Pomors
The descendants of the Novgorod Ushkuiniks, who settled on the shores of the White and Barents Seas, formed a unique subethnic group of the Russian ethnos, known as Pomors. The word “Pomors” (more precisely, “Pomeranians”) was first mentioned in 1526, but already as an established self-name, so this concept was born several centuries earlier.
Pomors can be considered the most ancient subethnic group in Russia. The word “Pomor” is sometimes mistakenly used to refer to all the inhabitants of the Russian North, although it actually does not even mean the inhabitants of the sea coast, but only “marine prospectors” - fishermen, sea animal hunters, sailors who live in sea trades. In a word, Pomors “live not from the field, but from the sea,” as the Pomor proverb says. This is the definition of Pomors given by the writer from Arkhangelsk, Nikolai Vasilyevich Latkin (1832-1904), in his article published in the famous Encyclopedic Dictionary of F. A. Brockhaus and I. A. Efron. He wrote: “Pomors is a local term that has now become universal for the industrialists of the Arkhangelsk, Mezen, Onega, Kem and Kola districts of the Arkhangelsk province, engaged in fishing (mainly cod), halibut, partly shark and seal fisheries in Murman... and in the northern part of Norway , in places permitted to our industrialists. The word “Pomor” came from Pomorie..., and from “Pomors” it was transferred to their ships, on which they deliver the products of their fishing to Arkhangelsk and St. Petersburg.” So, the Pomors as a subethnic group differed from the bulk of the Russian ethnos, including the northern Russians, by their traditional economic activities - fishing and maritime crafts.
It was truly impossible to separate the life of a Pomor from fishing. Wheat in the North has always been imported. It is no coincidence that the Pomors had a custom of cutting bread only while standing. Their own rye and barley barely germinate and are only suitable for livestock feed. Therefore, fishing here is a way of life, a method of survival that has developed over centuries.
The very way of life of the Pomors required initiative, ingenuity, a combination of patience and endurance with instant reaction, independence in business and judgment. So the Pomors became people of a special kind. It is significant that the very first Novgorod settlers on the shores of the Icy Sea in a surprisingly short time independently created a perfect system of maritime farming in the conditions of the polar north, since they could not borrow production maritime skills from the aboriginal population, since they were not engaged in marine fishing. These successes of the Russians look especially impressive if we remember that they were the first and for several centuries the only polar explorers. The famous polar sailors, the Vikings, sailed mainly in those latitudes where, thanks to the Gulf Stream, the polar ice did not reach. Among the main reasons for the cessation of long-distance Viking voyages from the end of the 11th century, and then the complete loss of all connections with Scandinavian settlements in Greenland, scientists name climate deterioration in high latitudes, which led to the “sliding” of the lower limit of floating ice to the south. Novgorodians, just during the period of the final “fading” of the Viking voyages, turn into masters of Arctic navigation.
The stages of Russian exploration of the polar seas look impressive: in the 12th century, the Novgorodians completely mastered the White Sea and made voyages far beyond its borders; in particular, they discovered the islands of Vaygach, Kolguev, and the Novaya Zemlya archipelago; in 1264, the polar Kola was founded, which gave its name to the Kola Peninsula; in the 14th century, Novgorodians constantly sailed to Norway, with which in 1326 Mister Veliky Novgorod signed a border agreement (this border still exists today, although there were plenty of conflicts with Norway); In the 15th century, and perhaps earlier, Pomors regularly went to Grumant (Spitsbergen); in the 16th century, trade between Rus' and Western Europe began across the Cold Sea, trading cities, forts and monasteries were built, including Arkhangelsk, Kola, Pechenga, etc.; in the 17th century, Pomors actively participated in the development of Siberia. In particular, they, moving by sea along the coast of the Arctic Ocean, reach Kolyma and the future Bering Strait. Most of the Siberian explorers, whose biographies are more or less known, were natives of the Russian North.
The ships of the Pomors were very advanced sea vessels. The main type of fishing and transport vessel on the White Sea in the 13th-16th centuries. became karbas, or rather, its many varieties. As transport ships, large seagoing hulks with a length of up to 12 m or even more, a width of 2-2.5 m, with a side height of about 1.5 m were used. With a draft of 0.7-0.8 m, they could take on board more than 8 tons of cargo. Such carbass apparently had one mast (later - two) with a straight sail. The most common fishing vessels for coastal fishing were, apparently, small “karbasa” 6-9 m long and 1.2-2.1 m wide.
Another Pomeranian ship of the 11th-16th centuries was the soyma. The length of the soyma was 5-12 m, the carrying capacity was up to 15 tons, the crew was 2-3 people.
The most famous Pomeranian ship was the lodya (in literature it is often referred to as “ladya”). “...In the XIII-XVI centuries. The length of the boats reached 18-25 m, width 5-8 m, side height 2.5-3.5 m, draft 1.2-2.7 m, load capacity 130-200 tons. The hull was divided by bulkheads into 3 compartments with hatches in deck. In the bow compartment there was a crew (25-30 people) and a brick oven..., in the aft compartment there was a helmsman or captain (feeder), in the middle there was a cargo hold. It had... three masts... The area of the sails reached 460 m2, which made it possible to sail up to 300 km per day with a fair wind.... The cracks were caulked with moss and tarred. Two anchors were raised using a regular collar. In the 16th century The carrying capacity of Pomeranian boats reached 300 tons...”
Other Pomeranian ships include Osinovka and Ranshina. Osinovka is a small Pomor boat, hollowed out from an aspen trunk with rammings along the sides. The length was 5-7; side height - 0.5-0.8; draft - 0.3 m. It could take on board a load of up to 350 kg. It had from 2 to 4 pairs of oars, sometimes equipped with a mast. Ranshina (ranshina, ronchina, ronshina) is a sailing and rowing fishing vessel. Had 2-3 masts. Loading capacity - 20-70 tons. Used during the period XI-XIX centuries. for the purpose of fishing for fish and sea animals in difficult ice conditions. The ship had an egg-shaped underwater hull. When the ice compressed, it was squeezed out to the surface.
For long sea voyages in the 16th-17th centuries, a new type of vessel was created - the koch. On Kochi, Semyon Dezhnev discovered the strait between Asia and America. Koch length - 14, width - 5, draft - 1.75 m. Load capacity up to 30 tons. The crew size is 20 people, the speed is up to 6 knots.
Kochi is the main type of vessel designed for navigation in the Arctic Ocean. Some of them reached 25 meters in length. According to their design, the kochas were divided into flat-bottomed and keeled. They were distinguished by the strength of their construction. The ships were specially adapted to the ice conditions of the Arctic: they had double wooden lining and round contours that gave them the appearance of a nut shell. Thanks to such a body, the koch, when compressed by the ice, was pushed upward.
1 Fig. Pomor ships
The sea vessels of the Pomors were distinguished by high seaworthiness. Barrow, an English navigator who visited the north of Russia in 1555-1556, noted with professional envy not only the great development of Russian northern navigation in quantitative terms, but also pointed out the high seaworthiness of Russian boats. Standing at the mouth of the Kuloya River, Barrow “daily saw many Russian boats going down it, the crew of which consisted of a minimum of 24 people, reaching up to 30 on larger ones.” Coming out with the Russian boats from the mouth of the Kuloi into the sea, Barrow could note that all the “boats were ahead of us,” as a result of which “the Russians often lowered their sails and waited for us.”
Russian navigation in the polar seas was of a grandiose nature. Only at the end of the 16th century, and only on the Murmansk coast, 7,426 Pomeranian ships were simultaneously fishing, the crews of which in total exceeded 30 thousand people. The sons of Pomors from early childhood, from about 8 years old, took part in marine fishing. Pomeranian women were also quite significant in the maritime, usually purely male, trade. Pomeranians participated in coastal fishing with small seines and in ice fishing. But mostly women participated in fish processing, especially salmon, on the Murmansk coast.
In the “Murmansk” (i.e. modern Barents) Sea in the second half of the 16th century, Russian Pomors fished cod on a fairly significant scale, which they dried and sold to the Norwegians and Dutch. By the end of the 16th century, they procured up to 100-120 thousand pounds of dry and salted cod per year, and about 10 thousand pounds of fat were rendered from cod liver. In addition to Murmansk cod, Belomorka herring was traditionally caught off the coast of the White Sea. It was actively used by the Pomors on their own farms, including for livestock feed.
On Grumant (Spitsbergen), the Pomors hunted arctic fox, deer, polar bear and various sea animals, especially walrus and seal. Among the Pomors, there was even a kind of “specialization” of Grumanlan, that is, those who did not catch fish, but went to Grumant to fish for the winter. There were quite a lot of Grumanlan. At the end of the 18th century, up to 270 Pomeranian ships with a total crew of up to 2,200 people were constantly in the waters surrounding Spibergen. There were approximately 25 Russian fishing camps constantly located on the archipelago. Wintering on Spitsbergen for several years in a row was not uncommon. The famous Grumman Starostin wintered on Spitsbergen 32 times. There he died in 1826.
2 Rice. Arctic navigation area of the Pomors
The Pomors also made long voyages to Matka (Novaya Zemlya archipelago), as well as the large islands of Kolguev, Vaygach, etc. It is interesting that the name of the straits on Novaya Zemlya contains the purely Pomeranian word “ball” (probably because the first sailors had to “ groping" in the mists among the rocks of the Arctic islands in search of a passage).
The Russian regular fleet was born in the north. In 1548, on the Solovetsky Islands, at the monastery, a shipbuilding shipyard appeared. In 1570, by order of Ivan the Terrible, the construction of ships began near Vologda for sailing in the north and the Baltic. In 1693, the construction of warships began at the Solombala shipyard in Arkhangelsk (three years earlier than the date considered the official date of birth of the Russian fleet). Due to lack of space, we will not talk about further studies of the polar seas. But, I think, the sailors Bering, Chirikov, Wrangel, Sedov, the Soviet winterers and pilots had worthy predecessors.
In the polar seas, long before Peter I created a regular fleet, the Pomors often had to fight the “Murmans” - the Norwegians, as well as the Swedes. The chronicles of the 15th century tell about this in some detail. Chronicles report battles with the Norwegians, dating these events to 1396, 1411, 1419. In 1419, the Norwegians appeared at the mouth of the Northern Dvina with a detachment of 500 people, “in beads and augers,” and destroyed Nenoksa and several other churchyards, as well as the St. Michael the Archangel Monastery, and all the monks of the monastery were killed. The Pomors attacked the robbers and destroyed two augers, after which the surviving Norwegian ships went to sea. In 1445, the Norwegians reappeared at the mouth of the Dvina, causing great damage to the local residents. Like the first time, the Norwegian campaign ended in complete failure. Suddenly attacking the enemy, the Dvinians killed a large number of Norwegians, killed three of their commanders and took prisoners, who were sent to Novgorod. The rest of the Norwegians “ran into the ships as runners.” In 1496, the Russians, under the command of Prince Peter Ushaty, also won a brilliant victory in a naval battle over the Swedes in the White Sea near what is now Knyazhya Guba.
Not only the navigation technique of the Pomors or their economic system is of particular interest. Northern Great Russians, including Pomors, due to their distance from invasions from the Wild Field and the absence of serfdom, had a higher level of education, were distinguished by self-esteem, hard work and business acumen. It is no coincidence that M.V. Lomonosov came from the Pomors. In the Russian North, many ancient customs, traditions, and morals, dating back to pagan antiquity, were preserved longer than anywhere else in Russia. It is no coincidence that it was in the North that ancient epics about the Kyiv princes and heroes, long forgotten near Kiev, were written down. Many architectural monuments have been preserved in the North, and we are not just talking about ancient Russian architecture, but specifically about a special northern Russian architectural school.
Pomors were also distinguished by some qualities of their character. For example, Pomors have been famous for their endurance from time immemorial. A simple example would be Mikhailo Lomonosov, who walked on foot with a convoy in winter for many hundreds of miles from Arkhangelsk to Moscow. But neither he himself nor any of the Pomors considered this something unusual. Many Pomors went fishing in Murman this way, on foot.
Noticing that in the spring months, starting from March, more fish accumulate in the Barents Sea than in the summer, Pomors began to go fishing “overland”, with the expectation of arriving at the camps on the eve of the fish run. Many Pomors, without waiting for navigation to open while the White Sea was still covered with ice, moved on foot through Karelia and the Kola Peninsula to the coast of the Barents Sea. This is how the spring (or, as they used to say in the old days, “spring”) cod fishery arose on Murman. Fishermen who went on spring fishing were called “veshnyaks”. Every year they went to fish for cod in Murman, on the coast of the Kola Peninsula. They had to go more than 500 miles from Kemi alone. At the same time, the veshnyaks walked or skied for two months - they left in March, arrived there in May, and returned home in late autumn. And in March it is still winter in those parts. There is nowhere to stay overnight along most of the route. And the fishermen spent the night right on the road - they made a fire and lay down on it, wrapped tightly in a fur jacket with a hood. It is interesting that in 1944, the famous Norwegian traveler Thor Heyerdahl, participating together with Soviet troops in the liberation of Norway, watched with surprise as Russian soldiers, from among the Pomors, slept right in the snow.
In 1608, a census of fishing huts was carried out on the Murmansk coast. To the west of the Kola Bay, in the “Murmansk End”, 20 camps were taken into account, in which there were 121 huts, to the east of the Kola Bay, in the “Russian Side” - 30 camps with 75 huts.
For centuries, Pomors made long voyages to the polar seas. At the same time, they felt at home at sea. For example, in 1743, a group of Pomors crashed on Grumant (now Spitsbergen). For six years, until 1749, these Pomeranian Robinsons lived on a rocky island. For 6 years, only one out of 6 Pomors died of scurvy. Let us note that this was all perceived as an ordinary, even routine, problem, and not a feat.
In the 18th century, the Pomor culture reached maturity. But already from the end of this century, however, the life and way of life of the Pomors seemed to be mothballed. Arkhangelsk lost its role as a “window to Europe”, and there was also a “bleeding out” of the Pomors as a result of their migrations to Siberia and St. Petersburg, when the most determined and educated people left the North. All this led to stagnation of the Pomors' economy. The long-distance Arctic voyages of the Pomors gradually decreased, and at the end of the 19th century, already in the polar seas of Russia, the fishing of the Pomors began to sharply lose importance due to competition with the Norwegians. When steamships sailed the seas, the overwhelming majority of Pomors continued to sail on karbas. Voyages to Spitsbergen stopped, and the number of visits by Pomors to Novaya Zemlya sharply decreased.
Moreover, even in the White Sea, foreign ships began to dominate. Thus, in 1894, fishing was carried out by 13 Russian and 232 foreign ships.
3 Fig. Pomor
4 Fig. Pomorka
During the Soviet era, the Pomors lost many features of their culture. Industrialization transformed the traditional way of life of the Pomors. It is clear that Pomor wooden shipbuilding disappeared, and the Pomors themselves turned from unique “marine prospectors” into ordinary Soviet collective farmers. Pomeranian navigation as a cultural and social phenomenon disappeared, giving way to a professional one. The importance of religion has almost disappeared. In many places of residence, Pomors became a minority compared to the large newcomer population. Many Pomeranian villages were declared “unpromising” and abolished, and their former inhabitants moved to the cities, losing their traditional cultural identity.
And yet the Pomors did not disappear. The very word “Pomor” continues to sound proud and honorable, and it is not surprising that many northerners, even those who are not Pomors by origin, proudly identify themselves as Pomors. Unfortunately, the “Pomeranian revival” of the period of “perestroika” and Yeltsinism became a separatist movement. It is significant that its leaders were not Pomors at all.
The “Pomeranian Revival” quickly turned towards the path of independence, although, however, without openly declaring it. But the movement’s leaders (more precisely, their foreign sponsors) have done a lot. Thus, a certain urban Pomeranian subculture is created, which, however, relates to real Pomors in the same way as modern urban “Goths” relate to the ancient Germans. Dictionaries of the “Pomeranian dialect” - an artificially created “language” of the Pomors - began to be published, the publication of which was financed by the American Ford Foundation and the Norwegian Barents Secretariat. For children, again, with Norwegian money, they released the freely distributed “Pomeranian Skasks” (that’s right, with the letter “s”). The fact that all the fairy tales were recorded by scientists of the early 20th century in Pinega and in places where the inhabitants were not engaged in marine crafts and, therefore, were not classified as Pomors, did not bother the publishers. To make it clear what this “speaking” represents, we will give an example of the translation of one official name: National Educational Center “Pomeranian Institute of Original (Home-born) Peoples Polunótsi” Polunoshny (Northern) Federal University named after. M. V. Lomonosov. In the original, this text looks like this - scientific and educational center "Pomeranian Institute of Indigenous and Minority Peoples of the North of the Northern (Arctic) Federal University."
One could laugh at this, but it's really not funny at all. After all, this is exactly how the Ukrainian movement began a hundred and fifty years ago.
In this Pomor movement, the good goal of reviving the culture and traditional art of a unique part of the Russian ethnic group was quickly drowned in the desire to achieve the status of a “small people” for the Pomors, which automatically meant receiving certain economic benefits from the federal authorities, as well as inciting a split within Russia towards Great joy for foreign Russophobes. Thus, the coordinator of the so-called Pomors, who visited the IV interregional congress of Pomors. Vitaly Trofimov of the “International Movement for the Protection of Peoples’ Rights” summed up this event as follows: “I am not a supporter of either genetic or historical research. For me, the people are of interest as a political given. If there is a group with a stable identity and this is not a role-playing game during daylight hours, then the people exist.” Complete constructivism. There is a community striving for politicization. You can work... It’s a long way from the Caucasian self-determiners, but there is something to learn and, most importantly, there is also something to teach. We will create a new ethnic group."
In 2002, in the All-Russian Population Census, 6,571 people called themselves Pomors. Considering that at that time a total of 42 thousand Russian citizens called themselves hobbits, Scythians, Martians, the newly-minted “Pomors” found themselves in a specific company.
Russian territorial groups of Karelia
In addition to the Pomors, a number of small territorial groups of the Russian population formed in the vast expanses of the Russian North, differing both from the Pomors and from the bulk of the Russians. These groups had names depending on where they lived.
Vygozers. This was the name of a small group of Russians who lived in the area of the large Vygozero. Their life and culture resembled the life and culture of their Karelian neighbors. In the 30s of the 20th century, especially after the construction of the White Sea-Baltic Canal and a number of industrial enterprises, this group practically disappeared into the multiplying population of Karelia.
Zaonezhans. Another, more numerous and surviving territorial group of Russians to this day was the Zaonezhians, who live, as one might guess from the name, beyond Lake Onega, on the territory of the Zaonezhsky Peninsula with the adjacent inhabited islands.
Vodlozery- another group of Russians living in the area of the 4th largest lake in Karelia. This group was formed on the basis of a predominantly ancient Vepsian ethnic component, diluted by Russian immigrants from the Novgorod lands and representatives of the Nizovsky (“Moscow”) colonization.
All of these Russian groups were engaged in agriculture, and lake fishing played a prominent role in their economy. Finally, hunting for fur-bearing animals was typical for all residents of the Olonets province, famous for its dense forests. The Olonchans became famous as shooters in 1812, when, at a review in the presence of Emperor Alexander I, one shooter put a bullet in an apple, another shot a bullet in a bullet, and a third split them in half.
Pechora Pustozers
In the extreme northeast of the European part of Russia flows the Pechora River, one of the largest rivers in Europe (1809 km long). Although the Novgorodians penetrated Pechora back in the 11th century (as the Novgorod chronicles mention this), due to its remoteness, this land remained unoccupied by the Russians. The inhabitants of the region by this time were the Nenets and Entsy, who belonged to the Samoyed group of the Finno-Ugric language family, who were previously together called Samoyeds, probably from the name of one of the ethnic groups of the Entsy. “Samoyeds” lived from the Mezen to the lower reaches of the Yenisei. However, the Samoyeds were not at all the indigenous inhabitants of the Pechora region. The Russians, having arrived here, often found traces of the habitation of an earlier people: fortifications, cave-like stoves, abandoned dwellings, etc. Previously, the mysterious “Pechora” tribe lived here, which probably gave its name to the river. "Pechora" is mentioned in the "Tale of Bygone Years". Under 1133, the chronicle mentions “Pechora tributes,” from which we can conclude that “Pechora” paid tribute to Veliky Novgorod. The fact that this tribe subsequently disappears from written records means that it was conquered and assimilated by the Nenets. Under 1187 in the “Sofia Vremennik” the word “Pechora” tribute was replaced by the word “Perm”.
At the end of the 12th century, Novgorodians began to penetrate into the Pechora River basin, into the lands that were called Ugra. The Ugric peoples lived here (who at that time received the nickname “Ugra” from the Russians, which in Europe, when written in the Latin alphabet, became known as “ugra”, due to which the concept of Ugrians arose to designate a separate branch of the Ural language community). The direct descendants of the ancient Ugra people are the modern Khanty. Historical Yugra extended in the north from the Arctic Ocean (the peninsula on the border of the Barents and Kara seas is still called Yugorsky, and the strait between the mainland and the island of Vaygach is called Yugorsky Shar), its western and eastern parts were the lands along the northern slopes of the Ural Mountains.
Ugra was ruled by its own princes, there were fortified towns, and the Novgorodians encountered serious resistance. In 1187, Novgorod tribute collectors were killed in the Yugra land. In 1193, the Novgorod governor Yadrey suffered a heavy defeat from Ugra. However, by the beginning of the 13th century, Ugra was still annexed to Novgorod. However, subordination to Novgorod was reduced only to the payment of tribute. The weakness of the Novgorod government was also explained by the fact that the “Ponizovites,” especially the Ustyugans, in every possible way prevented the direct connection of the Ugra lands with Novgorod. Thus, in 1323 and 1329, the Ustyug residents intercepted and robbed the Novgorod tribute collectors. In the 14th century, Ugra began to gradually migrate beyond the Urals, where the Khanty and Mansi, two Ugric ethnic groups, still live. But the Nenets (Samoyeds) began advancing into the tundra.
In fact, the lands of Pechora under Moscow rule began to be developed by Russians in the last years of the 15th century. At the very end of the 15th century, a small Russian population already existed on Pechora, along with equally few aborigines. In the charter of Ivan III in 1485, it is noted that the Perm-Vychegda land has 1,716 “luks”, that is, adult men. The entire population was about 7 thousand people.
In 1499, beyond the Arctic Circle, on one of the peninsulas of Pustozersk, connected by a branch with Pechora, 25 kilometers from modern Naryan-Mar, the fort Pustozersk was built, which became the center of Pechora. In 1611, there were more than 200 households of permanent residents in Pustozersk. In 1663, the fort was burned by the Samoyeds, but was rebuilt. Samoyed attacks were repeated in 1688, 1712, 1714, 1720-23, 1730-31, when Tundra Samoyed uprisings broke out, but the town continued to exist and prosper. Despite its turbulent history, Pustozersk was a center of trade with the Samoyeds of the tundra. At the same time, Pustozersk became a place of exile. It was here that the leader of the Old Believers, Archpriest Avvakum, was imprisoned and burned in 1682 with three like-minded people “for great blasphemy against the royal house.” Artamon Matveev and Prince Vasily Golitsyn, the “galant” of Princess Sophia, were also exiled here.
At that time, the town lay on the way from Russia to Siberia. In the 18th century, a more convenient southern route to Siberia was opened through the Ural Mountains, and the town on Pechora gradually fell into decay. Added to this was the shallowing of the Pechora branch, on which the city stood.
With the founding of the city of Mezen in 1780, Pustozersk lost its significance as an administrative center and became an ordinary village in the Pechora district of the Arkhangelsk province. It had no commercial or industrial significance; its population was constantly declining. If in 1843 there were four churches in Pustozersk, then by the end of the century only two remained, with a population of 130 people.
Its inhabitants formed an interesting ethnographic group - Pustozers. The Pustozers differed from other Russian northerners in that they did not come from the descendants of the Novgorodians or the “lower” “rostovshchina”, but were descendants of Moscow service people, as well as a number of exiles (as evidenced by the “acing” dialect of the Pustozers), who had completely adapted to life in tundra Pustozery became proof that Russian people are able to survive in any conditions, including the tundra.
Russians settled along the banks of the Pechora, living by fishing and sea fishing, partridge and wild game fishing, as well as cattle breeding. These same activities became the basis of the life of the Komi-Permyaks who settled at the beginning of the 16th century. lower reaches of Pechora. The Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III granted them fish tones for their participation in Russian mining expeditions of 1491-92. on the river Tsilma, as well as in the military campaign “to Ugra” in 1499-1500. Ore miners found copper and silver ores, founded mines and smelting furnaces. Here, for the first time in the Moscow state, copper smelting began, as well as silver and even gold, from which coins and medals were minted at the Moscow mint.
In 1574, Permians and Russian peasants lived in the “tax-free, uncultivated yards” of Pustozersky Posad - 52 households, 89 people. There were also 92 quitrent peasant households in the volost. By the end of the 16th century, about 2 thousand people already lived in Pustozersk.
Over time, the Pustozers began to buy reindeer from Samoyeds and breed reindeer themselves. Reindeer herds belonging to wealthy Russian owners - several tens of thousands of heads - grazed on Kolguev Island, in the Bolshezemelskaya tundra, near Yugorsky Shar and on Vaigach. The total population in the 1910s was approximately 500 thousand. Fishing grounds (fish ponds, deer pastures, places for hunting sea animals) were considered family lands and were passed on by inheritance. In the 16th - 17th centuries, the pustozers went to Grumant (Spitsbergen) - the area of their economic activity extended so far. By the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, it covered the entire Bolshezemelskaya tundra - from Pechora to the Urals, and also included the islands of Kolguev, Matveev, Dolgiy, Vaigach and Novaya Zemlya.
Each of the peoples who settled on this vast territory - Russians, Komi and Nenets - had their own habitat: the nomadic routes of the Nenets ran in the tundra, Russians and Komi settled along the banks of the Lower Pechora and other rivers, on the sea coast. The basis of life for the nomads was reindeer herding, for Russians and sedentary Komi - fishing and sea fishing. For several centuries there was a “grinding in” and interpenetration of different types of economic structures, material and spiritual culture. Gradually, a humanitarian community was formed in this territory, whose members, while maintaining national characteristics, borrowed from each other skills, customs, and elements of their way of life, which greatly contributed to their survival in harsh natural conditions.
At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. The main occupations of the Russian population continued to be fishing, sea fishing, hunting, and in winter also transportation. The main income came from fishing. Thus, in 1914, residents of the Pustozersk volost received about 90% of their income from it. Livestock farming and gardening were exclusively of an auxiliary nature, and their products were used for personal consumption. On average, peasant farms had 2 cows and 2-4 sheep.
In the 20-30s. In the 20th century, the Pustozers largely lost their cultural and economic features, and subsequently their identity. Putozersk in 1924 Pustozersk lost its city status. In 1928, 183 people lived in Pustozersk and there were 24 residential buildings and 37 non-residential buildings. In 1930, a collective farm was created in the village of Ustye, 5 km from Pustozersk. For many Pustozers, the Mikoyan collective farm was the main place of work. The construction of the city of Naryan-Mar, not far from Pustozersk, finally “finished off” old Pustozersk. The last residents left Pustozersk in 1962. But as a subenic group, the Pustozers disappeared much earlier, after the specific features of their economic life disappeared.
Pechora Ust-Tsilema
Another subethnic group of Russians in Pechora are the Ust-Tsilemas, who live in the region of the same name in the Komi Republic, whose ancestors, however, arrived here earlier than the Komi themselves.
Already in 1213, chroniclers reported the presence of silver and copper ores on the Tsilma River (a tributary of the Pechora). However, the remoteness from the main centers of Rus', as well as the events caused by the Mongol-Tatar invasion, led to the fact that only in the 16th century in Rus' they again remembered the mineral wealth of Tsilma, and their economic development began.
In 1542, Ust-Tsilma was founded by Novgorodian Ivashka Dmitriev Lastka. This small fort also became one of the most interesting centers of one of the Russian northern subethnic groups. The main occupation of Sloboda residents was fishing and hunting. At the first stage of settlement of this harsh region, agriculture and cattle breeding played a minor role in the life of the Ust-Tsilema people. Rich lands and river fisheries soon became the cause of discord between Ust-Tsilma and Pustozersk. In the future, this served as a serious obstacle to the rapprochement of two groups, isolated from each other, Russian by origin.
The population of the settlement grew very slowly, and after a century there were 38 households. But at the end of the 17th century, persecuted Old Believers began to move to Pechora, who founded a number of monasteries in the region. Residents of Ust-Tsilma did not accept Nikon’s “new products”. The persecution of Old Believers continued until the 50s. XIX century. Subsequently, the Ust-Tsilema, who differed sharply from their neighbors in their religion and economic management, turned into an original sub-ethnic group of Russians that has survived to this day.
In 1782, Ust-Tsilma already had 127 households and more than a thousand inhabitants. By this time, other small Russian villages had appeared in the neighborhood, founded by settlers from Ust-Tsilma. The inhabitants of the settlement were mainly engaged in hunting and fishing, and there were also artisans among them. Many plowed the land and grew barley. Livestock farming played an important role in the economy (horses, cows, sheep, and later deer began to be raised), on the basis of which the commercial production of cow meat and butter arose. Fairs were held annually in July and November. One cannot help but be amazed that in such harsh natural conditions the Ust-Tsilema people created effective agriculture. The village grew rich, as evidenced by the stone church.
At the end of the 19th century, there was a school, a hospital, several libraries, and a telegraph in Ust-Tsilma. The district authorities were also located here. In 1911, the first circumpolar scientific institution opened in the village - the Pechora Agricultural Experimental Station.
The Ust-Tsilema, like most Old Believers, tried to minimize contacts with people of other faiths, and practically did not marry “worldly” people, which included the rest of the Russians, as well as the Komi and Nenets. It is interesting that on the doors of the Ust-Tsilom houses there were two handles: one for the “true”, the other for the “worldly”.
Voluntary self-isolation contributed to the fact that the Ust-Tsilema people retained many features of the culture and way of life of pre-Petrine Russia. The main types of settlements of the Ust-Tsilems were villages, villages and repairs. The traditional dwelling consisted of five or six walls made of larch. The women's costume was of the Northern Russian type, that is, multi-colored clothing with a sundress. The folk calendar of the Ust-Tsilema people was formed on a fishing basis; the most developed in it were two cycles: winter (especially Christmastide) and spring-summer. The celebration of the “slides” was distinguished by its originality, one of which was dedicated to Midsummer’s Day, and the other to Petrov’s Day. On these days, mass celebrations took place in traditional costumes, which were accompanied by round dances, games, and songs. On the night of July 11-12, the so-called “Petrovshchina,” mutual treats of millet porridge and lighting of fires took place on the banks of the Pechora. In the traditional beliefs of the Ust-Tsilom people, a special place was occupied by the veneration of larch, which was considered a “pure tree” with protective and healing properties. (This was the legacy of pagan Rus').
The cultural heritage of the inhabitants of the Ust-Tsilemsky region is great. The most important discovery of the first half of the 20th century is the discovery here of the richest ancient Russian traditions - epic and bookish, dating back to the largest center of the non-priestly sense - the Pomeranian Concord. The cultural significance of the Ust-Tsilem area of folk poetry and fairy-tale tradition is evidenced by the publication in 2001 of two volumes of “Bylina Pechora”, which opened the fundamental 25-volume collection of works “Code of Russian Folklore”. The Pushkin House in St. Petersburg houses more than a thousand monuments of Old Believer literature from Ust-Tsilma.
During the Soviet era, the Ust-Tsilema people were forced to abandon their isolation. True, their business acumen benefited the Soviet government. So, in 1932, a suede factory was opened in the village. The village was the center of Pechora shipping.
In the 30s In the 20th century, Ust-Tsilema again experienced a wave of persecution, during which all churches were closed. The main blow to the traditional culture of the Ust-Tsilom people was urbanization and industrial construction. By the end of the twentieth century, there were 262 industrial enterprises in the area, which employed the majority of local residents. The traditional crafts of the Ust-Tsilom people, especially fishing, have turned into just a form of leisure. At the same time, many Ust-Tsilema left their small homeland in order to obtain an education or career opportunities. In turn, hundreds of thousands of immigrants from all over the Soviet Union arrived in the Komi Republic. All this led to a crisis in the traditional culture of the Ust-Tsilem people.
But the persistence of the Ust-Tsilems, who did not bend in the face of difficulties, was also manifested in the fact that they did not disappear as an ethno-confessional group. They created the organization “Rus Pechora”. Its branches are active in many cities of the Komi Republic and in Naryan-Mar.
Ust-Tsilma still attracts people with the unique traditions preserved here, old church service, original dialect, lyrical and epic singing, ancient costumes, ancient icons and books demonstrating the highest level of Russian folk culture.
The Ust-Tsilema people still have pronounced cultural specificity. It is clearly understood by the majority of the population of the district of the same name. In addition to the creation of “Rus of Pechora”, on a local initiative, in recent years a number of measures have been taken to preserve the historical heritage of the Ust-Tsilema people and their own anthem has been created, which is performed during all official events and which the Ust-Tsilema people certainly sing during home feasts:
We are Russians
We are Ust-Tsilema.
We are on our own land
We're home!
In recent years, Ust-Tsilma and its unique Gorki holiday, widely celebrated by the local population, have become the object of close attention in the media, including central television. This also contributed to the strengthening of the local self-awareness of the Ust-Tsilema people, the reclamation of their cultural values, including the traditions of the Old Believers. And, therefore, the history of Ust-Tsilem continues.
Sami (formerly Lapps).
The most ancient inhabitants of the region were, apparently, the Sami, whom the Russians called Lapps, or Lop. Nowadays in Russia, the Sami inhabit several villages in the Lovozero district of the Murmansk region. Most of the Sami live in northern Finland, Norway and Sweden. The lands inhabited by the Sami are called Lapland in Scandinavia, since the Sami were previously called “Paws”.
Previously, Lapps lived over a vast territory right up to the southern shore of Lake Ladoga. It is no coincidence that Novgorod chroniclers called the area in the lower reaches of the Volkhov River “Lop churchyards,” and opposite Staraya Ladoga, on the opposite bank of the Volkhov, is the village of Lopino. But, as mentioned above, the Lapps were gradually pushed back by the Karelians and Russians far to the north. As a result, by the 16th century the Lapps remained in the interior regions of the Kola Peninsula. The Russians clearly distinguished the “goblin,” that is, the forest lop, from the sea one.
By language, the Sami are part of the Finno-Ugric group of Uralic languages. As is often the case with unwritten languages of ethnic groups that do not have statehood and are scattered over long distances, the Sami language has a huge number of different dialects. In the Sami language, 55 (!) dialects have been identified, which are combined into three groups.
In racial and anthropological terms, the Sami constitute a special laponoid small race, which is transitional between Mongoloids and Caucasians. However, it is possible that the racial type of the Sami arose during the period of formation of the races. The Sami often have fair skin and whitish eyes, while retaining many of the features characteristic of the Mongoloids.
In the Mesolithic era (X-V millennium BC), the Laponoids lived in the area between the Ob and Pechora. The Sami people most likely descend from the Finno-Ugric population that came to the lands of Scandinavia in the early Neolithic era (after the retreat of the ice cover at the end of the last ice age), penetrating into Eastern Karelia, Finland and the Baltic states starting in the 4th millennium BC. e. Presumably in the 1500-1000s. before i. e. The separation of the proto-Sami from the single community of native language speakers begins, when the ancestors of the Baltic Finns, under Baltic and later German influence, began to switch to a sedentary lifestyle as farmers and cattle breeders.
From Southern Finland and Karelia, the Sami migrated further and further north, fleeing the spreading colonization of the Suomi Finns and Karelians. Following the migrating herds of wild reindeer, the ancestors of the Sami during the 1st millennium AD. e., gradually reached the coast of the Arctic Ocean and reached the territories of their current residence. At the same time, they began to move to breeding domesticated reindeer, turning into a people of reindeer herders.
The Kola Lapps already paid tribute to the Novgorodians in 1216. In the 11th century, several Russian settlements already existed on the Tersky Coast (the southern, White Sea part of the Kola Peninsula), and in 1264, the Russian settlement of Kola arose on the Kola coast of the Barents Sea, which gave its name to the peninsula, which contributed to the strong cultural Russification of the Lapps. In 1550, the Trifon-Pechenga monastery was created in their lands, and the Christianization of the Lapps began. However, the Sami still have remnants of paganism in their everyday life. At the end of the 18th century, Lapps, subjects of the Russian Empire, numbered 1,359 people.
In the Russian Empire, the Sami belonged to the peasant class. Mostly the Lapps were engaged in reindeer herding, having almost no contact with the outside world. True, many Lapps were hired for fishing by the Solovetsky monks. Some Lapps worked as auxiliary workers in the shipyards of the Pomors. In the XIX - early XX centuries. The Sami led a semi-nomadic lifestyle, making short seasonal migrations. For some of the Kola Sami, lake and river fishing played a leading role, for others - sea fishing. At the end of the 18th - beginning of the 20th centuries. About 70% of the adult Sami population was engaged in cod fishing. Among the Eastern Sami, reindeer herding played a significant role, supplemented by salmon fishing. All Sami hunted large (elk, wolf) and small animals and birds. By the end of the 19th century. their economic situation worsened due to the loss of traditional lands, which were appropriated by clever adventurers who poured into the North. Alcoholism and various infectious diseases became widespread among the Lapps. By 1914, all the Lapps submitted to the Russian Empire numbered only 1,700 people.
Under Soviet rule, 9 national village councils were formed on the Kola Peninsula. According to the 1926 census, the Sami numbered 1,706 people, that is, the size of the ethnic group has remained virtually unchanged since 1914. All of them led a semi-nomadic lifestyle; only 12% were literate. In the 1920s the transition of the Sami to sedentary life and the creation of collective farms begins. Since the early 1930s. In the Soviet Union, Sami writing was created, first on a Latin basis, later translated into Cyrillic. However, the large-scale industrialization of the Kola Peninsula, the construction of roads, ports, and military facilities, led to the destruction of the traditional habitat of the Sami and the undermining of their traditional culture. Drunkenness has become widespread again among the Sami, and the suicide rate has increased incredibly. The natural increase in Sami became insignificant, and children from mixed marriages usually did not consider themselves Sami. Many Sami, having lost their native language, began to consider themselves Russians or Karelians. As a result, if according to the 1979 census, out of 1,565 Sami in the Murmansk region, 933 people (59.6%) spoke their native language, then according to the 1989 census, out of 1,615 Sami, 814 people (50.4%). The number of Sami city dwellers is increasing. According to the 1989 census, they made up 39.1% of the Sami population of the RSFSR.
Karelians
Karelians live in their republic of Karelia, inhabiting mainly the western part of the republic. Interestingly, Karelians are not the original inhabitants of Karelia. They settled in the North at the same time and together with the Russians.
In anthropological terms, Karelians belong to the northern Caucasians, who are characterized by the world's maximum degree of depigmentation (whiteness) of hair, eyes and skin. Their features - a very high frequency of blond hair (along with light brown up to 50-60%), and especially light eyes (up to 55-75% gray and blue) - are also characteristic of a significant part of the modern population. True, among the Karelians there stands out a group of Lapps assimilated by them, living in the Segozero region, having some features of the laponoid group of the Ural type.
Ancestors of the Karelians in the 1st millennium AD. occupied the territory north and northwest of Lake Ladoga, including the Saimaa Lakes region. By the beginning of the 2nd millennium AD. Here the tribal association “Korela” was formed with its center in the city of Korela (now the city of Priozersk, Leningrad region). The Karelians were first mentioned in Russian chronicles in 1143, although the Russians had known them for several centuries by that time.
From the 11th century Part of the Korela begins to move along with the Novgorodians to the Olonets Isthmus (between Lakes Onega and Lake Ladoga), where they interact with individual groups of Ves. As a result of this interaction, the South Karelian ethnographic groups of Livviks and Ludics are formed. From the same time, the development of the territories of modern middle and northern Karelia began, where the ancestors of the Karelians met the Sami. Some of the Sami were assimilated, the rest were pushed back to the 18th century. to the Kola Peninsula.
In the 12th century. Karelians are drawn into the orbit of influence of the Novgorod state. In the 13th century (around 1227, according to the chronicles) they converted to Orthodoxy. A birch bark letter with text in Karelian written in Cyrillic, found in Veliky Novgorod, dates back to the turn of the 12th-13th centuries. In 1478, after the annexation of the Novgorod land to Moscow, the Karelian territory became part of the Russian state. The fact that Karelians lived for many centuries as part of Rus' and professed Orthodoxy led to the strongest Russian cultural influence on Karelians.
However, until the 17th century, the bulk of Karelians lived on the Karelian Isthmus. When in 1617, according to the Stolbovo Treaty, the Karelian lands went to Sweden, a significant part of the Karelians left their historical homeland, moving to Russia of the same faith. According to Swedish sources, 1,524 families, or 10 thousand people, left Korelsky district alone in 1627-35. However, an even more massive exodus of Karelians to Russia occurred in the second half of the 17th century. The resettlement process continued until 1697.
Karelians mainly settled near Tver, in the Ryazan region (near Medyn). In general, the Karelians are a rare example of a people who have almost completely abandoned their historical homeland. In their historical homeland, the Karelian Isthmus, only 5% of the Karelians remained, gradually assimilated by the Suomi Finns.
Some Karelians settled in the lands around Tver devastated by the Time of Troubles, forming a group of Tver Karelians, some settled along the Chagoda River, forming the Tikhvin Karelians (now the Boksitogorsky and Podporozhye districts of the Leningrad region). The Karelians who settled in the Ryazan region were completely assimilated by the end of the 19th century. The bulk of the Karelians moved to the nearby lands, already partly inhabited by fellow tribesmen, between Lakes Ladoga and Onega and the White Sea. Since then and forever this region has become Karelia. Strictly speaking, the majority of Karelians did not move to Karelia, but, being already completely Russified, Karelians outside Karelia quickly lost their ethnic identity, joining the Russian ethnos, which was close in life, culture and religion.
During the era of Peter the Great's reforms, Karelia also experienced rapid development. Olonetsky and Petrovsky factories appeared, the sawmill industry developed, granite mining began, and resorts appeared. During the reign of Catherine II, the Alexander Cannon Factory and about two dozen state-owned and private metallurgical and sawmills were built in Karelia. An indicator of the importance of Karelia was the creation of a special Olonets province, which occupies most of the lands of modern Karelia.
However, Karelia developed in less favorable conditions than many regions of Russia. In the 19th and early 20th centuries. Karelia was “sub-capital Siberia” and “the land of unafraid birds.”
During the revolution, the Bolsheviks created the Karelian Labor Commune in 1920, which three years later became the Karelian Soviet Autonomous Republic. It should be noted that the republic included areas with a predominance of Russian and Vepsian populations. The Karelians themselves were an ethnic minority. In general, in 1939, all Finnish ethnic groups in Karelia (Karelians, Vepsians, Suomi Finns) together made up 27% of the population. In 1933, the Karelians of Karelia numbered 109 thousand people. At the same time, the Tver Karelians, who numbered approximately 155 thousand people at that time, outnumbered the Karelians of Karelia.
During the Soviet era, large-scale construction of industrial enterprises began in Karelia. The population of the republic has grown significantly due to visitors from all over the Soviet Union.
In 1940, after the Soviet-Finnish war, when part of the territories separated from Finland was annexed to Karelia (despite the fact that the Finnish population of these lands was evacuated by the Finnish authorities before the war, so the USSR received empty territories), Karelia was created. Finnish Federal Republic. The word “Finnish” in this case was explained not only by the generally accepted fact of the kinship of the Karelians with the Finns - Suomi, but also by such a circumstance as the arrival in the 20s. approximately 2 thousand “Red Finns” - political emigrants from Finland, where the 1918 revolution ended in defeat, came to Karelia. Hoping that the Finnish proletarians would once again rebel against the power of the bourgeoisie, the Bolsheviks created “Red Finland” on the lands of the former Olonets province, in which the Karelians themselves, not to mention the Finnish emigrants, were an ethnic minority. In the early 30s, the years of the great economic crisis, several thousand more Finnish emigrants arrived in Karelia from Finland, forming the ruling elite of the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1939, there were 8 thousand Finnish emigrants (a little more than 1.5% of the republic’s population), which did not stop the Kremlin from making these emigrants a “titular nation.” In 1940, the union “Karelo-Finnish” republic was proclaimed, practically without Finns. In this regard, at that time there was a joke that “in the Karelo-Finnish Republic there are only two Finns: the Financial Inspector and FINkelstein, but in general they are one and the same person.”
A chimerical pseudo-state formation was created when the main local population (Russian and Karelian peasants) were removed from power and self-government, and emigrant revolutionaries began to lead them. Finnish and Russian were adopted as the official languages. In 1933, more than half of the 500 secondary schools in Karelia taught in Finnish. In educational institutions for Russians, compulsory study of the Finnish language was introduced. The Karelian language was recognized as “wrong,” the Karelians themselves were called “a people who do not have their own written language,” and they were also forced to study and communicate with each other in Finnish. True, this was partly explained by the fact that the Karelians themselves do not have a single literary language, since they speak three mutually incomprehensible dialects. In the early 30s, there was even an official term “Karelian-Finnish language,” which still meant the language of the Finnish-Suomi, related, but different from the language of the Karelians.
During the Great Patriotic War, part of Karelia was occupied by Finnish troops. Much to the surprise of the Finns, who expected that their kindred Karelians would greet the “Finnish brothers” as liberators, a guerrilla war against the invaders broke out in Karelia. In 1944, Finnish troops were driven out of the territory of the republic.
After the Great Patriotic War, local authorities became concerned about the almost complete absence of Finns in “their” republic, and Ingrian Finns deported from the Leningrad region began to be sent to Karelia. A curious, but generally typical for the USSR, situation arose when, in their homeland in the vicinity of the northern capital of Russia, the remaining Finns were forbidden to speak their native language, while at the same time imposing the Finnish language on Russians and Karelians in neighboring Karelia. However, the number of Finns in Karelia, the majority of whom were Ingrians, was still small - by 1959 there were 27 thousand of them, or 4% of the republic’s inhabitants. Subsequently, the number of Finns is steadily declining as a result of assimilation and return to their historical small homeland in the Leningrad region. In 2002, there were 14 thousand Finns in Karelia (2% of the population).
The KFSSR was clearly an artificial formation, and was abolished in 1956.
As part of the USSR, Karelia occupied a prominent place in forestry and the extraction of certain types of minerals. The population of the republic has increased sharply due to immigrants from all over the country. In 1959, the republic had 651 thousand inhabitants, that is, three times more than in 1920. Subsequently, population growth continued, and by 1989 there were already 790 thousand inhabitants living in Karelia.
But the number of Karelians continued to decline during the Soviet era. From 109 thousand inhabitants of the republic in 1933 to 78 thousand in 1989 - this is the reduction of the Karelian ethnic group. In the post-Soviet era, the process of reduction of Karelians continued, and the 2002 census stated that there were 65 thousand Karelians left in Karelia (9% of the total population). This is explained by urbanization (in 1989, 62% of Karelians lived in cities), which contributed to their assimilation of urban Russian-speaking culture, the assimilation of some Karelians by Russians, as well as depopulation. ¾ of all marriages in the city, and half in the village, concluded by a groom or bride of Karelian nationality, were interethnic. In the capital of Karelia, the city of Petrozavodsk, the Karelian population is only 5.3%. More than half of Russian Karelians (51.1%) consider Russian their native language; only 62.2% are fluent in Karelian. The age structure of the Karelian population is unfavorable. According to the 1989 census, more than 20% of Karelians were over 60 years old. Thus, for the Karelian ethnic group, the demographic situation remains the most important problem.
Vepsians
Modern Vepsians are the descendants of the already repeatedly mentioned “all” nationality. It once occupied the vast territory of the Russian North. Under the name “you” this people is mentioned in the 6th century by the Gothic historian Jordan. The 10th century Arab scholar Ibn Fadlan called them “visu”. The Russians called them Chud (by the way, this is what the Vepsians were called until 1917), Chukhars, or, distinguishing them from other Finnish tribes, simply the whole.
Historically, the Vepsians have been associated with the Russian state since its formation. In Russian chronicles, “all” is mentioned in connection with the events of 859 and 862, the time of the calling of the Varangians to Rus'. Later (882 AD) in the “Tale of Bygone Years” there is another mention of the ethnonym “all”. Together with the Varangians, Chud, Slovenes, Merya and Krivichi, she all took part in the campaign of Prince Oleg, who conquered Smolensk and Lyubech and took the Kiev throne. She all lived in the Obonezhskaya Pyatina of Veliky Novgorod, later - as part of the Moscow state. Together with the Slavs, they all accepted Christianity, although, however, remnants of paganism persisted in these parts for several centuries, as evidenced by the numerous lives of local saints who fought against the pagans. But one of the most respected saints of ancient Rus', Alexander Svirsky (1448-1533), was apparently a Vepsian. In church tradition, Alexander Svirsky is considered the only Russian saint who saw the Trinity. Socially, Vepsians were classified as state peasants, like almost all residents of the North. Many Vepsians worked at the Olonets factories and the Lodeynopol shipyard. Veps were also among the very first builders of St. Petersburg.
By the time the Slavs came into contact with the whole over a millennium ago, the ancestors of the Vepsians occupied the territory between Lakes Ladoga, Onega and White. Subsequently, everyone settled in different directions, often merging with other ethnic groups. For example, in the 12th-15th centuries, some Vepsians who penetrated into areas north of the Svir River merged with the Karelians. The easternmost of the Vepsians joined the Komi. However, most of the people who lived along the Sheksna River and White Lake became Russified. As a result, the ethnic territory of the Vepsians was significantly reduced. Nowadays, Vepsians live in the south of Karelia, in the northeast of the Leningrad region and a small territory in the west of the Vologda region.
The number of Vepsians itself is also decreasing. According to the calculations of Academician Köppen, in 1835 there were 15,617 Vepsians living in Russia at that time, including 8,550 in the Olonets province and 7,067 in the Novgorod province. According to the 1897 census, the number of Vepsians was 25.6 thousand people. , including 7.3 thousand living in Eastern Karelia, north of the Svir River. In 1897, Vepsians made up 7.2% of the population of the Tikhvin district and 2.3% of the population of the Belozersky district of the Novgorod province.
After the October Revolution, Vepsian national districts, as well as Vepsian councils and collective farms, were created in places where people lived compactly. In the early 1930s, the introduction of teaching the Vepsian language and a number of academic subjects in this language in primary schools began, and textbooks of the Vepsian language appeared. The total number of Vepsians in the 20-30s. numbered 32 thousand people. At the end of the 30s, due to the deterioration of relations with Finland, all forms of Vepsian national self-government were abolished. Some of the Vepsian public figures were repressed, the autonomous Vepsian region was transformed into a regular administrative region. Subsequently, Vepsians migrated to Leningrad and other large cities of the country, which only strengthened the gradual assimilation of the ethnic group. In 1959, according to the census, there were 16 thousand Vepsians, in 1979 - 8 thousand. True, there are actually more Vepsians, since many Vepsians living in cities consider themselves Russians. In 2002, there were 8,240 Vepsians.
One of the reasons for the assimilation of the Vepsians is that this small ethnic group lives scattered, interspersed with others. Finally, the Veps themselves from different regions speak differently. The Vepsian language belongs to the northern group of the Baltic-Finnish branch of the Finno-Ugric language family; it is closest to the Karelian, Izhorian, and Finnish languages. The Vepsian language is relatively homogeneous in its structure, although dialectal differences exist. Scientists distinguish three dialects. The Vepsian language was included in 2009 by UNESCO in the Atlas of Endangered Languages of the World as “severely endangered”.
Komi (Zyryans)
The Komi are also among the indigenous ethnic groups of the Russian North (previously the name Zyryans was adopted). The self-name of the ethnic group is Komi-Mort (Komi people) and Komi-Voityr (Komi people). Komi live mainly in their republic (in which in 1989 they made up 26% of the total population), as well as in the Russian regions of the Russian North (Arkhangelsk and Murmansk). Komi belongs to the Permian group of the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic language family. The relatives of the Komi are the Udmurts and the Permian Komi, who in ancient times constituted one ethnic group.
In anthropological terms, the Komi (like other Perm ethnic groups) belong to the sublaponoid racial type. It is characterized by brachycephaly (short head), mixed pigmentation of hair and eyes (that is, black hair, gray and brown eyes predominate), a wide nose bridge, weak beard growth and a medium-wide face with a tendency to flattening. In general, the Komi are representatives of a race transitional from Caucasoids and Mongoloids.
The ancestors of the Komi (at that time they were also the ancestors of all Perm ethnic groups) took shape in the 2nd millennium BC. e. in the upper Volga region. Later, the ancestors of this ethnic group spread to the north, to the Kama region. In the 1st millennium BC n. e. future Komi ended up on the territory of the modern Komi Republic.
In the IV-VIII centuries. AD In the territory of modern settlement of the Komi, the Vanvizda culture is known, whose speakers spoke Finno-Permian languages. Subsequently, in the basins of the Vym and Vychegda rivers, as a result of the continuing influx of Finnish tribes from Trans-Kama, an ethnic group was formed, which Russian chroniclers called Vychegda Perm. The region of settlement of the Komi-Permyaks was called Perm the Great by ancient chroniclers.
In the Vychegda valley, the right tributary of the Northern Dvina, the archaeological Vym culture (IX-XIV centuries), correlated with the chronicle Permian Vychegda, developed.
The population of Vychegda Perm had stable trade and cultural ties with Volga Bulgaria and Russia.
Since the 12th century, Perm Vychegda came under the rule of Veliky Novgorod and the Rostov-Suzdal princes. Fortified settlements appeared, which became important administrative, political and craft and trade centers. One of these centers was the Pozhegsky settlement on the Vym River, which arose at the end of the 12th century and existed until the 14th century. The settlement was located in a naturally fortified place; on three sides it had additional timber-earth fortifications in the form of ramparts and ditches. Above-ground dwellings and half-dugouts, industrial and outbuildings have been identified in the settlement. During the excavations, numerous data were obtained about the population's occupations in agriculture and animal husbandry, blacksmithing, jewelry, woodworking, bone-carving crafts, and trade. To repel attacks, the inhabitants of the settlement had a large supply of weapons.
The Pozheg settlement arose as a stronghold of tribute collectors and warriors. Gradually the settlement turns into an important trade, craft and military-administrative center. His death was probably a consequence of the struggle between Veliky Novgorod and Moscow.
In 1366, as the Vychegda-Vym Chronicle reported, Prince Dmitry Ivanovich of Moscow (the future Donskoy) forced Novgorod to give him Perm and Pechora, as well as part of the Dvina land. But we are not talking about the annexation of these lands to the Moscow principality, but, most likely, about the transfer to the Moscow prince of the right to collect part of the tribute. The lands of the present Komi Republic finally became part of the Muscovite kingdom only during the reign of Ivan III, when the power of local princes was eliminated and Russian administration was extended to the entire region.
As a result of Russian colonization, there is a powerful impact of the culture of the Eastern Slavs. However, there were also borrowings by the Slavs from the Zyryans. Probably, the word “dumplings” was borrowed by the Russians precisely from the Zyryan words “pelnyan” (“bread ear”).
In 1379-1380 The missionary activity of Stephen of Perm began in the region, whose mother was a Zyryanka, thanks to which the future saint spoke the Komi language from childhood. He baptized the Chud pagans who lived along the Northern Dvina and Vychegda, and founded the first churches and monasteries in the region. For the success of his sermons, Stefan created the Permian (that is, ancient Komi) alphabet of 24 letters. As a model, Stefan used the letters of the Greek and Slavic alphabets, as well as the Chud “passes” (signs depicted on various objects). Parts of Perm, however, greeted the spread of Christianity with hostility. Not wanting to be baptized, some of the pagans from Vychegda migrated further to the northeast. Already in the “Life of Stefan of Perm” the baptized Chud were called “Zyryans”. Since the 16th century, the exonym “Zyryans” was assigned to the ethnic group, displacing the earlier term “Perm,” although the self-name “Komi” was still in use, but only among the Zyryans themselves.
However, despite the fact that most of the Zyryans were baptized, pagan rituals existed among them for a long time. “Pure” pagans survived for a long time. At the beginning of the 16th century, Sigismund Herberstein noted that “even to this day, throughout the forests, very many of them remain idolaters.” In the 17th century, the Komi were involved in a church schism, and from that time Old Believers spread among some of their groups (especially among the Komi-Zyryans living along the Vashka, Mezen and Pechora rivers).
In the XV-XVI centuries. under the pressure of the ongoing Russian colonization of the North, the Komi ethnic massif moved eastward. The Komi population disappeared in the lower reaches of Vashka, Pinega, lower Vychegda, Viledi, Yarenga, lower Luza. This disappearance is explained both by the migration to the east of the main part of the Komi, and by the Russification of the remaining ones. But from that time until the beginning of the twentieth century. There was a continuous expansion of the Komi ethnic territory. In the XVI-XVII centuries. The Komi settled in the upper Vychegda, and in the 18th-19th centuries. - Pechora and Izhma. Thus, the Komi-Zyryans mainly occupied the territory of the current Komi Republic, leaving the lands of the Northern Dvina basin.
Many Zyryans took an active part in the development of Siberia. Komi hunters and traders have long known the roads leading beyond the “Stone Belt”. They were guides in Ermak’s detachment, with whose campaign the annexation of Siberia began, and in a number of other detachments of Russian servicemen heading at the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th centuries. on the Ob and Irtysh, along the coast of the Arctic Ocean (towards Mangazeya), were among the first inhabitants of many Siberian cities that arose at the end of the 16th-17th centuries. (Tyumen, Tobolsk, Pelym, Surgut, Berezov, Verkhoturye, etc.), participated in the development of the Lena, Amur, Kamchatka, New Siberian and Aleutian Islands basins, in the famous campaign of S.I. Dezhnev and F.A. Popov around Chukotka. Immigrants from the Komi region F.A. Chukichev and D.M. Zyryan (judging by their surname, they are definitely a Komi-Zyryan) led the development of Indigirka, Kolyma and Penzhina.
In the process of interaction with surrounding ethnic groups, the Komi included assimilated groups of Ves (Vepsians), Russians, Samoyeds (Nenets) and Voguls (Mansi). This affected the anthropological appearance and individual components of the Komi culture and led to the formation of 10 separate ethno-local groups within the Komi, as well as the mestizo ethnic group of the Izhemtsy.
In the harsh northern conditions, the economy of the Komi-Zyryans had its own characteristics. Until the 18th century, the basis of the Zyryan economy was hunting and fishing. The Zyryans actively hunted for sable. Fishing along the Vychegda, Vym, especially on Pechora, has become large-scale. Pechora salmon and other valuable varieties of fish were sent to Kholmogory, Mezen and Arkhangelsk, and from there some of them went abroad.
But by the 18th century, when the number of fur-bearing animals had significantly thinned out (which led to the resettlement of many Zyryan hunters to Siberia), and fish from the Caspian Sea began to successfully compete with fish from the northern seas, the Zyryans began to finally switch to agriculture and cattle breeding, which had previously had auxiliary significance. In the northernmost areas of settlement, the Zyryans switched to reindeer herding, in which they were very successful. At the end of the 19th century, as the pulp and paper industry developed, many Zyryans became lumberjacks and timber raftsmen.
The Zyryans lived in small villages. Although cities gradually developed in the region, there were few city dwellers among the Zyryans. The only city in which the Zyryans made up the absolute majority of the population was Ust-Sysolsk, which arose back in the 16th century, and only received city status in 1780. However, until the Soviet era, Ust-Sysolsk was just a large village, numbering just over 5 thousand inhabitants in 1910.
Demographics testify to the development of the region. In the middle of the 16th century, 10-12 thousand Komi lived in the European Northeast. In 1678 - 1679 there were approximately 19.3 thousand inhabitants in the region, of which 17.3 - 17.6 thousand were Komi and 1.7 - 2 thousand Russians.
In 1725, there were approximately 40 thousand inhabitants in the region (38-39 thousand Komi and 2.5 thousand Russians), in 1745 - 42-42.5 thousand, in 1763 - 48.5-49 thousand, and by 1782 the population increased to 58.0 - 59.0 thousand (51.5-52 thousand Komi and 3.5-4 thousand Russians). In 1795, 58-59 thousand people lived in the region, of which (54.0 - 54.5 thousand Komi and 4.0 - 4.5 thousand Russians. Russians lived in Ust-Tsilma and arose in the neighborhood of villages in the 18th century, in Ust-Vym, Loyma, settlements near Seregovsky and those that appeared in the 18th century at the Sysol Nyuvchimsky, Kazhimsky and Nyuchpasssky factories.In 1811, there were 59.3 - 60.5 thousand in the region, in 1835 - 83-84 thousand people, and by 1858-1860 the population increased to 97-100 thousand Komi and 10-13 thousand Russians.In 1897, within the current Komi Republic there were about 142 thousand Komi and 14-16 thousand Russians. Approximately 12 thousand Komi lived in other regions, more than 9 thousand of them in Siberia. In 1917-1918, about 190 thousand Komi and approximately 20 thousand Russians lived in the Komi region.
The region was poor and backward, often used by the authorities of the Russian Empire as a place of exile. But the development of the region, although slow, still continued. By 1913, 2 power plants were built, coal deposits and oil sources were explored.
The Komi-Zyrians demonstrated a desire for education, which made them one of the most educated peoples of the Russian Empire. As the prominent sociologist Pitirim Sorokin, himself half Komi, noted in his book “The Zyryans” in 1911, “the Zyryans are the third most literate people in Russia: the Germans come first, the Jews second, and then the Zyryans.” Although the alphabet of Stephen of Perm was forgotten over time, in the 18th-19th centuries there were various Cyrillic-based graphic systems for the Zyryan language. In the 19th century, more than 100 translations and original books were published in the Zyryan language. Only in 1918, V. A. Molodtsov developed a standard alphabet based on Russian graphics.
During the years of the revolution and the Civil War, the territory of the region was the scene of military operations. On August 22, 1921, the Autonomous Soviet Republic of Komi was proclaimed. It should be noted that, as in the case of Karelia and many other Soviet autonomies, the republic initially, in addition to the ethnic Komi regions, also included regions with a predominance of the Russian population. However, the Komi constituted the majority in the republic. So, in 1929 there were 234.7 thousand inhabitants, about 10% of whom were Russians.
In 1930, Ust-Sysolsk was renamed Syktyvkar, which, in fact, means “city on Sysol” in the Komi language. A university and a number of other universities were opened in Syktyvkar.
Since that time, the “old regime” name of the ethnic group “Zyryans” has disappeared, replaced by the ethnonym “Komi”. In Soviet times, industry was rapidly developing in the republic, in particular, oil, coal, pulp and paper, and furniture. Significant urbanization of the region has occurred. The population of Syktyvkar in 1939 numbered 25 thousand inhabitants, and in 1989 - 232 thousand. During the Soviet era, cities such as Vorkuta, Ukhta, Inta, Sosnogorsk, and Pechora emerged. The urban population significantly outnumbered the villagers. Thus, in 1993, the city dwellers in the republic amounted to 933.7 thousand people, the rural population - 312 thousand people.
The population of the republic grew significantly due to the arrival of the population, among whom there were many prisoners. As a result, the Komi themselves became a national minority in their own republic. However, unlike many other Finnish peoples, the Komi population continued to grow. In 1926, there were 195 thousand Komi on the territory of the autonomy, in 1959 - 245 thousand, in 1970 - 276 thousand, in 1979 - 281 thousand, in 1989 - 291 thousand people. Taking into account the Komi who lived outside the republic, the total number of the ethnic group in 1989 was 336.3 thousand people.
The collapse of the USSR and crisis phenomena in the political, economic, social and cultural life of Russia led the republic and its indigenous ethnic group to a difficult situation. The population of the republic, numbering 1,248.9 thousand inhabitants in 1990, decreased to 974.6 thousand in 2007, and in 2010 the republic was home to 901 thousand 600 people, of which almost 694 thousand are urban residents. The population as of January 1, 2011 was 899.7 thousand people, of which 693.2 thousand people (77%) were city residents and 206.5 thousand people (23%) were rural residents. In 2010, the population of the republic decreased by 8.8 thousand people, or 1%
The Komi ethnic group is also experiencing a demographic crisis, decreasing in both absolute and relative numbers. Only for 1989-2002. the number of the ethnic group decreased from 336 to 293 thousand people. Of the 293 thousand Komi in Russia, 256 thousand live in the republic itself.
Thus, although the Komi are more numerous than the majority of Finno-Ugric ethnic groups in historical Russia, their future fate as an ethnic group remains problematic.
Izhemtsy
Interesting people live in the Izhemsky district of the Komi Republic. Actually, officially no Izhem ethnic group exists, and all Izhem people are classified as Komi, whose language is spoken, but this is precisely the case when the actual existence of the ethnic group, due to political and bureaucratic reasons, is not reflected in official statistics. Izhma people have a strong ethnic identity. During the 2002 census, more than 16 thousand people called themselves Komi-Izhemtsy.
As an ethnic group, the Izhemtsy appeared right before the eyes of researchers. The ethnic group of Izhma people (Izvatas) began to take shape at the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th centuries at the junction of the territories inhabited by three peoples: the Komi-Zyryans, the Russian Ust-Tsilema Old Believers and the Samoyeds (Nenets). Between 1568 and 1575, the Izhemskaya Sloboda was founded on the Izhma River, a tributary of the Pechora. According to legend, its founders were Komi settlers from the villages on the Upper Mezen of the Glotovaya Sloboda and the Russians of the Ust-Tsilemskaya Sloboda. For a long time, Izhemskaya Sloboda remained the only Komi settlement on Nizhnyaya Pechora; only at the end of the 18th century new settlements appeared around it. Samoyed neighbors began to join the local population. The mixture of these three peoples led to the emergence of this ethnic group. But the Komi people played a predominant role, which is why the Izhemtsy language has more Komi words than Russian and Nenets ones. As the famous traveler Lepekhin wrote in the 18th century, “Izhma is inhabited by three tribes of people. The first villagers were Zyryans. The Izhemtsy lived near the Izhma River and in other places in the Yarensky district. Then they were joined by many Russian families, and some of the Samoyeds who received holy baptism. All these residents speak Zyrian.” As a result of long-term interethnic mixing and ethnocultural mutual influence, the Izhma people developed unique features in the anthropological type, a special Izhma dialect of the Komi language arose with significant borrowings from the Russian and Nenets languages, and changes occurred in the traditional economic complex.
Initially, the leading economic activities of the Izhma people were hunting and fishing, with cattle breeding and farming as auxiliary industries. In the 18th-19th centuries, while maintaining previous occupations, reindeer husbandry became the leading sector of the economy. Reindeer husbandry was the main factor in the intensive expansion of the ethnic territory of the Izhma people.
By the beginning of the 19th century, the Izhma people had mastered the entire middle Pechora, the Kolva and Usa basins, and founded settlements in the Bolshezemelskaya tundra, on the Kola Peninsula and in the lower reaches of the Ob River. According to the 1897 census, the Komi population of the Pechora region (that is, the Izhemtsy) numbered 22 thousand people, about 10 thousand people lived outside the region.
The Izhma people always treated the southern Komi with a certain sense of superiority. This was understandable: on Izhma people lived richer because they were distinguished by their entrepreneurial spirit and business acumen. But not only these qualities allowed them to deploy throughout the north of the European part of Russia and beyond the Ural ridge. A craving for literacy, a constant thirst to “be no worse than others,” knowledge of the surrounding nature, independence, perseverance, natural cunning, in the end - these qualities are characteristic of an Izhemtsian. Having adopted reindeer husbandry from the Nenets, the Izhma people turned it into commercial production in a relatively short period. They mastered and developed a completely unique model of reindeer husbandry, combining in their culture the nomadic skills of the Nenets, the everyday culture of the Russians, while preserving the ethnic culture of the Komi-Zyryans. The basis for this was given by the experience of the Izhma people, who abandoned permanent nomadic life and learned to drive herds to their villages for the winter.
The constantly growing number of reindeer herds drove the Izhemets to the east and west of the North in search of new pastures. Reindeer husbandry played a huge, if not decisive, role in the formation of the ethnic group, but fishing and hunting, and cattle breeding in their ethnic homeland also remained the occupation of the Izhma people.
The final formation of the Izhem ethnic group can be attributed to the middle of the 19th century. Izhem merchants build schools and temples in their villages, which still amaze with their simple sophistication and grandeur, power plants and suede factories, because it is suede that comes into fashion and brings huge profits.
The fact that the population strives for education deserves attention. The first school in rural areas in the Komi region opened in Izhma in 1828 at the expense of ordinary peasants.
The revolution and civil war caused enormous damage to the Izhma people. The Izhma reindeer herding system was virtually destroyed by measures taken by the state in the 1920s. The Izhemtsy themselves were declared to belong to the Komi. However, the cultural and economic development of the region continued. In the 20-30s. In the Izhemsky region, there were three secondary educational institutions. The organizers of all these educational institutions were representatives of the local population.
In general, the Izhemsky region has retained some features that sharply distinguish it from other regions of the Russian North, where the newcomer population has significantly outnumbered the local natives. More than 80% of the indigenous population lives in the current territory of the Izhemsky district. This fact contributes to the preservation of the traditional way of life, traditional culture and attitude of people living in close relationship with nature. For example, the local population spoke out for the protection of their rights to a clean environment and against illegal oil refining in areas where the population traditionally uses natural resources. The case went to court with the leadership of the Komi Republic and the Izhemtsy won. In addition, demographically, the Izhma people find themselves in a more advantageous position than many small ethnic groups of the North. According to the 1989 census, 27.8 thousand Komi lived in the Izhemsky and Usinsky regions of the Komi ASSR, and about 18 thousand more descendants of people from Izhma live in Western Siberia and the European North. Nowadays, there are a number of public organizations of Izhemtsy whose goal is, firstly, to achieve recognition of the Izhmatsy as an independent ethnic group, and secondly, to develop the culture and economy of this people.
Nenets (Samoyeds)
In the northeast of the region live the Nenets, who were previously called Samoyeds.
It is interesting that the Nenets are the “titular” nationality of three subjects of the Russian Federation - the Nenets Autonomous Okrug of the Arkhangelsk Region, the Yamalo-Nenets Okrug of the Tyumen Region and the Taimyr Dolgano-Nenets Autonomous Okrug of the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
The total number in 2002 was 41 thousand people. Most Nenets live in Siberia. In the European part of Russia, the Nenets live in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug of the Arkhangelsk Region. However, in this autonomy in 2002, the Nenets numbering 7,754 people made up only 18.7% of the district’s population
Nevertheless, taking into account the historical circumstance that the ancestors of the Nenets came into contact with the Russians back in the era of the Novgorodians’ exploration of Pomerania, an essay about the Nenets is necessary precisely in the section on the Russian North.
The Nenets belong to the Samoyed group of the Uralic language family. It is interesting that the name of the group is actually derived from their old name “Samoyeds”.
In anthropological terms, the Nenets belong to the Ural contact small race, whose representatives are characterized by a combination of anthropological characteristics inherent in both Caucasians and Mongoloids. Due to their widespread settlement, the Nenets are anthropologically divided into a number of groups demonstrating a main tendency towards a decrease in the proportion of Mongoloidity from east to west.
According to the 1926 census, there were 16.4 thousand Samoyeds, in 1959 - 23.0 thousand, in 1970 - 28.7 thousand, in 1979 - 29.4 thousand, 1989 - 34.4 thousand, and finally, in 2002, their number exceeded 40 thousand people. But, let us repeat, most Nenets live in the north of Western Siberia. In the Russian North, the Nenets live between the eastern shore of the White Sea and the Ural Mountains. In the European part of Russia, the Nenets have 3 main habitats, which are usually called “tundras” - Bolshezemelskaya (from the Pechora River to the spurs of the Urals), Malozemelskaya (between the Timan Ridge and Pechora), and Kanino-Timanskaya tundra (on the Kanin Peninsula and further east to the Timan Ridge).
If in Siberia some of the Nenets live in the taiga, then among the Nenets of the Russian North tundra reindeer herders absolutely predominate. The Nenets lead a nomadic lifestyle, carrying out annual migrations with reindeer herds according to the system: summer - northern tundra, winter - forest-tundra. The material culture of the Nenets is adapted to the nomadic way of life. All human needs are provided by domestic reindeer herding products. Fishing, waterfowl hunting, and fur trade are of seasonal economic importance.
As already mentioned, the Nenets were not the first inhabitants of the tundra of northern Europe. Russian chroniclers mentioned the Pechora tribe, which gave its name to the river. Nenets legends mention a certain “Sirtya” people, who previously lived in the lands of the Pechora basin and the Subpolar Urals, engaged in marine fishing. The Sirtya, according to Nenets legends, were nomadic hunters of the tundra and the sea coast, hunted wild deer, fish and sea animals, spoke a language different from Nenets, and were very short in stature. But the Sirtya did not know reindeer husbandry. It is interesting that in the end the sirtya disappeared forever underground (striking similarity with Russian legends about the self-buried miracle).
The Samoyed ethnic groups, which include the Nenets (Samoyeds), developed in the Sayan Highlands of Siberia. Under pressure from nomadic Turkic tribes, the ancestors of the Samoyeds began to move into the tundra zone. Around the 13th century, after almost a thousand years of migration, the Samoyeds occupied modern ethnic territory. Probably, the aborigines of the European tundra, who did not engage in reindeer herding, and therefore were significantly inferior to the newcomers in numbers, were assimilated by the Nenets.
The Russians called the Nenets Samoyeds, and only in the 30s. In the 20th century, they were politically correct called Nenets (from the ethnonym Nenets, which meant “man”). At the same time, the Nenets alphabet was created.
Religiously, the majority of the Nenets remained pagan animists, although as early as the 1820s. Attempts were made to baptize the Samoyeds, accompanied by the destruction of their pagan idols. However, the Samoyeds adopted Christianity very superficially, remaining, in essence, pagans.
Today, a number of Nenets continue to lead a nomadic lifestyle, moving with their herds of reindeer through traditional nomadic areas. Some Nenets live sedentarily on reindeer herding and fishing collective farms. Finally, an increasing number of Nenets are settling in cities, where they work in the service sector, gradually losing their ethnic specificity.
These are the people of the Russian North. Isn’t it true that a country that has such people, modest in appearance, not inclined to show off themselves, but preserving the truly Lomonosov thirst for knowledge, the endurance and perseverance of the Pomor, the strength of faith of the Solovetsky brethren, will always be invincible. Descendants of ancient aboriginal ethnic groups, great-great-grandchildren of the Novgorod ushkuiniks, grandchildren of Soviet engineers and Soviet prisoners, modern northerners possess the qualities that created Russia. And, I think, the Russian North and its people will still show the country and the world new great achievements.
Baltic-Finnish peoples of Russia. M., Nauka, 2003, p. 218
Bylykh S.K. History of the peoples of the Volga-Ural region. Izhevsk, 2006, P.47
www.komiinform.ru/news/77338/#
Ancient legends and chronicles told people that the path to the Far North was paved by sailors for hundreds of years. Probably, light ships of the Normans visited the waters of the “Icy Sea” about 1000 years ago. But no reliable information about this has survived. Russian chronicles say that hundreds of years ago the Pomors, settlers on the shores of the White Sea and the Kola Peninsula from Novgorod, walked along the harsh waters of this sea. Brave, free from the yoke of serfdom, Novgorod peasants united into squads and went to unknown lands for precious furs, to fish for fish and sea animals.
The tenacious hands of the boyars and sovereign servants did not reach the distant shores of the White Sea. The common people left for the North not only from the lands of Veliky Novgorod. Peasants from the central and northwestern regions of the country fled here to get rid of the master's oppression, unbearable exactions and debt bondage.
In the XII-XV centuries. Novgorodians explored and developed the coast of the Kola Peninsula and the shores of the White Sea. They built strong ships and sailed far from their villages along the Arctic seas.
The Pomors discovered the islands of Novaya Zemlya, Kolguev, Medvezhiy, Spitsbergen (then this archipelago was called Grumant Land).
Often, brave Pomors had to stand up to defend the lands they had developed, which foreigners began to covet.
The Russian North has long been a vibrant trading place where foreign merchants from Western European countries flocked. Here they bought precious furs, fat and skins of sea animals, walrus tusks and other goods that were delivered from Western Siberia by land, through the polar Urals, and by sea.
When sailing east along the “Arctic Sea,” Western European travelers, as a rule, used the help of Russian sailors. The first Russian pilots appeared on the Neva and Volkhov during the time of Veliky Novgorod.
They were then called ship leaders (“leaders”). In the North in Pomerania there was even a special fishing industry and artels of ship leaders.
Russian sailors went far into the depths of the seas. On the Arctic islands, researchers have many times found the remains of Russian Pomeranian wintering grounds and their fishing equipment. Pomeranian Ivan Starostin is known to researchers of the Russian North; he lived for many years as a sedentary on Grumant (Spitsbergen). Bear Island was developed by the Russians. Foreigners even called its northern coast the “Russian coast.”
The Russian Pomors laid the foundation for a new type of navigation - ice navigation. They managed to explore not only the European North, but also a significant part of the Asian coast.
The study of the ships of the ancient Novgorodians and Pomors who settled in the North showed what abilities and ingenuity the first Russian Arctic sailors possessed.
Russian sea boat of the 16th century. could take on board 200 tons of cargo. It was a three-masted deck ship with straight sails. Smaller boats, with a deck and two masts, were usually intended for sailing on the White Sea. Pomors sailed on other types of ships. The oldest ship is the kochmara, or koch, a three-masted deck ship. The design of the koch is very similar to a lodya, only it is smaller in size. Pomors also built simpler types of ships: ranshins, augers and karbass.
On some types of ships, the Pomors attached the hull to the ship's hull using vicita—juniper roots. In some cases, northern shipbuilders preferred vitsa to iron nails, as they were convinced from experience that it was more reliable than iron. Sheathing sewn with wire was more waterproof than sheathing fastened with iron nails. When sailing in ice, the ship's hull became loose and leaked in places where there were nails. In addition, the nails quickly rusted and destroyed the sheathing. With a wooden fastening, the vista, swelling, almost did not allow water to pass through. The cladding boards, sewn in a special way to the frame of the ship, held tightly.
In addition to juniper, the material for the wooden “threads” was young thin spruce up to one and a half meters high. The trunks of such Christmas trees were cleared of branches, twisted and dried. They were steamed before use. The boat was sewn with such “threads”. The master's set of tools usually consisted of an axe, a saw, a drill, a level and a fathom, divided into arshins and tops. The ships were built on the river bank, near the customer’s house. Here, with a pole on the sand or in a hut, the master made a drawing with chalk on the floor and made the necessary calculations. First, the frame of the ship was built, which was then sheathed with boards outside and inside. Then they erected and secured tall straight masts and laid the deck.
A large ship - a boat - was built by a team of carpenters in one winter.
By decree of Ivan the Terrible, the first large shipyards and even a dry dock were built at the Solovetsky Monastery for the construction of ships on the White Sea.
In ancient times, sails on Pomeranian ships were sometimes made of suede - deer skin treated with the fat of sea animals. Sea hare skin was used for harness.
The boats had a flat, wide bottom and a shallow draft, so when sailing in the ice to “unseen lands” they did not need special harbors in order to hide from a storm or spend the winter. Sometimes the Pomors had to pull their boats onto the ice or onto the shore. With all these advantages, Pomeranian ships also had their drawbacks: they obeyed the rudder worse than keel ships, especially in rough weather.
Sailing on the Arctic Ocean with its harsh climate, piles of ice and unknown currents was a good school for sailors. Hardy and brave, not afraid of severe frosts and strong winds, the Pomors boldly set off on long voyages along the stormy waves of the ocean on their small wooden ships.
In their daily struggle with the elements, the Pomors studied the “Icy Sea” well. They knew that the magnitude of the ebb and flow of the tide was related to the position of the Moon in the sky, and they figuratively called the tidal phenomena “the sighs of the sea-ocean.”
“His chest is wide, powerful,” they said, “when he sighs, he lifts his chest, then the water has arrived: the tide, that means. When he exhales, the water leaves: the tide is coming. The ocean-father does not breathe often: he inhales twice, exhales twice, and the day will pass.”
The Pomors knew a compass, which they called a little mother. They have long recognized time by the sun and stars.
They also called the winds in their own way, depending on the direction. The “midnight owl,” for example, was the name given to the northeast wind; “sholonnikom” - wind blowing from the southwest; “coastal” - north-west wind; “dinner” - southeastern. Russian sailors studied not only winds, but also currents, tides, and the state of ice.
They knew well and used local remedies against scurvy: cloudberry, spoon grass, raw meat and warm animal blood. Since ancient times, northern sailors had handwritten maps, drawings and handwritten sailing directions, which briefly described the seashores, indicated profitable and safe routes and the best time for ships to sail.
The oldest handwritten sailing directions had the following headings: “Charter on how to navigate a ship”, “Ship progress of the Russian Ocean-Sea”, “Ship progress of the Grumanlandskaya”.
Sailing in the White Sea and the Arctic Ocean developed dexterity and unique techniques for controlling the ship. The Pomors improved their experience and passed it on from generation to generation. If, for example, the wind heeled the boat strongly, threatening to capsize it instantly, the Pomor would throw a sharp ax or knife at the sail, and then the wind would tear the sail to shreds, and the boat would straighten out.
Northern sailors have long used blubber as a remedy to calm unrest. Pomor ships always had several barrels of seal or seal oil in stock.
In 1771, the famous Russian academician I.I. Lepekhin wrote about it this way: “This remedy consists of blubber, which is poured into the sea when the ship is splashing, or bags filled with it are placed near the ship. This remedy has been known to our Pomeranians since ancient times and was used by them for many years before the European departments published about this remedy as some kind of important discovery.” Northern Pomor sailors were explorers of the Arctic Ocean. Fearlessly setting sail across unknown, harsh seas, they made valuable geographical discoveries.
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Grumant- Russian (Pomeranian) name for the Spitsbergen archipelago. The earliest settlements of Russian hunters on Spitsbergen date back to the 16th century.
Spitsbergen is an Arctic archipelago in the western part of the Arctic Ocean. It includes more than a thousand islands and the waters of the Greenland and Barents Seas. The area of the archipelago is 63 thousand km2. According to the Treaty of Paris, from August 14, the Svalbard archipelago is under the limited sovereignty of the Kingdom of Norway and is separated into a separate administrative unit under the control of the governor. Natural resources - oil, gas, coal, polymetallic ores, barites, gold, quartz, marble, gypsum, jasper. The surrounding waters contain large reserves of valuable fish, shrimp, algae and seafood. The basis of the economy is coal mining (1.5 million tons per year), geological exploration and scientific activities, as well as tourism. The archipelago includes the seaports of Barentsburg, Pyramid (Russia), Longyearbyen, Sveagruva, Ny-Ålesund (Norway), and Longyearbyen International Airport. The archipelago is permanently inhabited by 1,600 people (Russian and Norwegian miners, as well as several dozen scientists from different countries).
The beginning of economic development of the Spitsbergen archipelago, according to modern archaeological research, dates back to the middle of the 16th century. It was the result of the activities of the inhabitants of the Russian North - the Pomors, who developed a variety of fisheries on its shores, mainly walrus hunting.
In a house on the shore of the lagoon, about fifteen kilometers from Stubbelva, they found a text carved on a wooden object: “Resigned from the city” (“A resident of the city has died”). This five-wall structure was built by the Pomors even earlier, in 1552. In Belsund Bay they read an inscription scratched on a whale vertebra and the name “Ondrej”. Much success awaited researchers in Russekaila Bay, where the “patriarch” of Spitsbergen Ivan Starostin lived for about forty years: nineteen inscriptions were found during excavations, and a third of them are dated to the 16th century, the rest are later.
In total, Soviet archaeological expeditions identified about a hundred Pomeranian settlements between 78 and 80 degrees north latitude. The villages were located along the entire coast, ten to fourteen kilometers from one another, and included residential, utility and utility buildings, places of worship, and navigational signs in the form of crosses.
According to V. Yu. Wiese, compiled on the basis of various historical sources, there were a total of 39 ancient Russian settlements on Spitsbergen.
From now on, an expedition of the USSR Academy of Sciences worked on the archipelago, which discovered many Russian settlements, burials and large Pomeranian crosses, household items and inscriptions in Russian. Thus, on the shore of the island of Western Spitsbergen, the remains of a Russian house were found near the Stubbalva River, cut down in the city. 6 of the 19 found inscriptions date back to the 16th century.
There is a known list of Pomors-Grumantlans and Novaya Zemlya, called up for naval service in 1714 by personal decree of Peter I, who later formed the backbone of the Baltic sailors and won more than one battle.
In the 17th century, Russian crafts on Spitsbergen expanded. This was facilitated by the abundance of fish and animals, the development of the sea route, and, to some extent, an established way of life. Although the icy desert was reluctant to let aliens into its possessions.
In 1743, Alexey Khimkov, a feedman from Mezen, came to Edge Island (the Pomors called it Maly Berun) on a regular voyage with his twelve-year-old son Ivan and comrades Stepan Sharapov and Fedor Verigin. They did not save their boat; it was torn away from the shore and destroyed by the raging sea. The path home was cut off. But the Pomors did not lose heart. They adapted to getting food and heating shelter without any special equipment, and when, after six years and three months of forced captivity, they were taken off by another ship, they loaded on board a large amount of furs they had caught, and a lot of meat.
Since 1747, the capital's commercial board regularly requested information from its Arkhangelsk office about fishing on Grumant and its intensity.
Vasily Dorofeev Lomonosov, the father of the outstanding figure of Russian science M.V. Lomonosov, spent the winter on Spitsbergen several times. The great Russian scientist subsequently organized a expedition to Spitsbergen in 1765-1766. two marine scientific expeditions under the leadership of V. Ya. Chichagov. The “Patriarch” of Spitsbergen is the industrialist Ivan Starostin, who spent a total of about 36 years on the island.
Mikhail Lomonosov, however, never learned the results of the first Russian scientific expedition, which was headed by Vasily Yakovlevich Chichagov, since it went to sea a few days after Lomonosov’s death. Chichagov conducted serious research on Grumant, where a special base had been created a year before, and even tried to go further - he reached 80 degrees 26 minutes north latitude. The following year it went even higher by four minutes.
The Spitsbergen problem forced the Russian government to take measures to protect its interests in the archipelago. The Russians believed that Grumant was discovered by Russian Pomors long before Barents. Sidorov's activities in the 1870s. contributed to the strengthening of this point of view in public opinion, and although the government accepted the status of Spitsbergen as “terra nulius”, that is, “no man's land”, in the Russian press of the first decade of the 20th century. the archipelago was considered a “lost Russian possession” that needed to be returned.
Russian authorities begin to register ships that sailed to Grumant and issue “pass tickets.” Thanks to these statistics, we know today that at the end of the last century, seven to ten ships with 120-150 industrialists were sent annually from Arkhangelsk alone to Grumant. Camps arose on Bear Island, and on Grumant the number of Russian winterers reaches two thousand.
Russia's priority for Grumant was never in doubt. But more far-sighted Russian people, in order to avoid complications with rights in the future, proposed that the tsarist government populate the archipelago with a permanent population. The archives have preserved the petitions of Pomor Chumakov (g.), merchant Antonov (g.), and ensign Frolov (g.). Starostin made such requests many times. However, no one in the capital was seriously worried about their concerns.
At the end of the 50s of the 19th century, Russian crafts on the archipelago gradually fell into disrepair. In 1854, during the Crimean War (-), the English corvette Miranda destroyed the city of Kola, one of the most important Pomeranian centers.
In the city, Russia founded a meteorological observatory on Spitsbergen, and a year later the icebreaker Ermak set out for that area.
As a result of the indecisiveness and laziness of the kings, the archipelago, rich in marine resources and coal, went to Norway, although they began to develop the archipelago later than the Russians: only in 1793 did the first Norwegian fishing vessel sail from Tromso to Spitsbergen, and even then half with a Russian crew, and it only reached Bear Island.
In fact, in the last third of the 19th century, the Norwegians almost exclusively dominated the “eastern ice”. The growth of Norwegian expansion was also facilitated by the lack of means of protecting and defending the northern coast of Russia from the encroachments of foreigners, caused by the abolition of the Arkhangelsk military port and the White Sea flotilla in the city.
In 1871, the Swedish-Norwegian envoy to Russia, Biorstiern, addressed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of our country with a note in which he announced that Sweden and Norway, united by a union at that time, intended to annex Spitsbergen to their possessions. But this time the tsarist government did not take a serious step to consolidate Russia’s rights over Spitsbergen. On the contrary, it offered the status of “no man's land” and thereby effectively opened the way to the archipelago for other countries.
Since the 10th century, Russian Slavs who came here have settled on the coast of the North and Barents Seas. They mix with the local Finno-Ugric population and begin to live on the cold and inhospitable northern shores. Pomors, that’s what the descendants of these people call themselves. They played a key role in the development of the northern coast of Russia, the development of the islands of the Arctic Ocean, and were the first to come to the north of Siberia. The life of this people was inextricably linked with the sea. They fed on the sea, mined furs on the islands and on the coast, and mastered salt production. The Pomors ventured into the ice-clogged Kara Sea and reached the mouth of the Yenisei. On their sailing ships they visited the islands of Novaya Zemlya, reached the Spitsbergen archipelago, and founded the city of Mangazeya in the north of eastern Siberia. The harsh living conditions also shaped the character of these “plowmen” of the northern seas - they are trusting, hospitable, friendly and try to live in harmony with nature.
Modern replicas of ancient Pomeranian sailing ships (koches) made several outstanding voyages in the North, following in the footsteps of ancient sailors
Sailing ships of the Pomors
The first vessels of the Pomors were boats. On these sailing ships they sailed along rivers and carried out coastal voyages. The boats had sails, but mostly they used oars. The boats reached twenty meters in length and three meters in width. The type of ancient Russian boat underwent changes over time and was adapted for northern conditions. “Overseas” boats were built for long voyages in the Baltic and North Seas, while “ordinary” boats were built for sailing in the White Sea. The vessels had a shallow draft and varied in size. “Overseas” boats in the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries reached a length of 25 and a width of 8 meters.
The sailing armament of the Pomeranian nomads differed from the armament of the boats
The boats had a solid deck, so water did not get inside the ship. The difficult conditions of northern navigation also formed a unique type of ship - the Pomeranian koch. These ships were a further development of the boat design. They were egg-shaped, and when they hit the ice, the Pomor ships were simply squeezed upward without damaging the hull. The design of the koches was more complex than that of the boats, and the sailing armament also differed. Researchers had to collect information about Kochs bit by bit, but many fragments of ships were found this decade. And now we can reliably say that the Kochi had a second skin in the area of the waterline made of oak or larch. This helped when swimming in broken ice. The ship had large, heavy anchors. They were used for portage, including on ice. The anchors were strengthened in the ice and then, choosing ropes, they pulled the ship up, looking for clean water. The stern of the koch was almost vertical. The nose was very slanted. The vessel's draft was small, one and a half meters, which made it easier for the vessel to enter river mouths and shallow waters. The bottom was reinforced with overhead boards. The sides were covered with boards using staples; a huge number of them were required - several thousand. The carrying capacity of the ships reached 40 tons.
Nansen's "Fram", built similar to the Pomeranian Kochis, drifted in the ice for a long time
It was on the kochas that the Cossack Semyon Dezhnev walked in 1648 across the Arctic Ocean to the extreme point of the continent, passed the “Big Stone Nose” (now Cape Dezhnev), where several kochas were defeated, and the sailors entered the mouth of the Anadyr River.
DURING the search for the northeastern passage from the Atlantic Ocean to China and India on June 19, 1596, the Dutch navigator W. Barents unexpectedly saw on the horizon a thin strip of unknown land stretching to the north. After some time, the teeth of a fragmented mountain range and snow-white ribbons of glacial streams appeared. Barents designated the unknown country with pointed peaks in the ship's log as Spitsbergen (Sharp Mountains).
No one disputes the right of Barents to be considered the official discoverer of Spitsbergen. However, the Spitsbergen expedition of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences under the leadership of V.F. Starkov clearly proved that already in the middle of the 16th century. On Spitsbergen there were settlements of Russian Pomors, who were then called the Grumant archipelago.
Spitsbergen Islands, Grumant 
The history of the development of the archipelago is full of countless exciting events and facts. It owes this to long-standing attempts to populate it, hunting and whaling, mineral exploration, coal mining, and famous polar expeditions. The comparative proximity to the mainland and the relatively easy accessibility of Spitsbergen attracted hundreds of brave, inquisitive and enterprising people to it.
An indisputable confirmation of the role of Russia and its sons in the history of the exploration and development of Spitsbergen is the fact that today on its geographical map we see many Russian names. However, the word “Russian” itself is very popular when denoting various geographical objects - it is present in the name of a bay, river, valley, islands, etc.
Until the First World War, Spitsbergen remained a no-man's land. But on February 9, 1920, at the Paris Peace Conference, representatives of the USA, Great Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Norway signed the Spitsbergen Treaty, according to which sovereignty over the archipelago was transferred to Norway. Citizens of the countries that signed the treaty were given the right of free access to the waters of Spitsbergen, and were allowed to engage in fishing and hunting, shipping, industrial and trade operations on equal terms with Norway. The Norwegians were obliged not to create naval bases and fortifications on the archipelago.
In 1925, Norway included the archipelago as part of its possessions. Spitsbergen itself and the surrounding islands of Bely, King Charles Land, Nadezhda, which lies much to the south of Bear, as well as a number of smaller islands, the Norwegians called the Svalbard archipelago (translated from the ancient Norwegian language - Cold Land, or Country with Cold Shores). Svalbard is a special administrative unit, 95% of its territory belongs to the state, and the rest to the so-called treaty land owners. The USSR joined the Paris Treaty on Spitsbergen in 1935, and in accordance with it and the Mining Charter, we conduct economic and scientific activities on the archipelago. In Russia, as well as in many other countries of the world, the new name of Spitsbergen did not take root.
Raudfjord Spitsbergen Islands, Grumant 
The islands of the archipelago are limited in the north by 81 degrees north latitude, in the south by 74 degrees north latitude, in the west by 10 degrees north latitude, and in the east by 35 degrees east latitude. The area of the archipelago is about 63 thousand km2. And although it has thousands of islands, islets and just rocks, there are only five large islands - Western Spitsbergen, North-East Land, Edge, Barents and Prince Charles Land. The archipelago is washed by the waters of the Arctic Ocean, Greenland, Norwegian and Barents Seas.
One of the northernmost archipelagos on Earth, Spitsbergen is a classic country of polar research. Nowadays, this archipelago is a convenient scientific testing ground for the development of new methods and approaches of many sciences, primarily geology, geophysics, glaciology, paleogeography, ecology, biology, and archeology. Spitsbergen is the only visa-free natural site in our time where diverse international scientific cooperation has long been established and is developing fruitfully.
walrus, Magdalena fjord Spitsbergen Islands, Grumant 
GEOGRAPHY OF THE ARCHIPELAGO
Spitsbergen (German: Spitzbergen), also Svalbard (Norwegian: Svalbard), Spitsbergen (Dutch: Spitsbergen), Grumant - a vast polar archipelago located in the Arctic Ocean, between 76°26" and 80°50" north latitude and 10° and 32°E longitude. The northernmost part of the kingdom of Norway. The administrative center is the city of Longyearbyen. The archipelago and coastal waters are a demilitarized zone.
Significant, by Arctic standards, economic activity on the archipelago, in addition to Norway, according to the special status of the archipelago, is carried out only by Russia, which has a Russian settlement on the island of Western Spitsbergen - the village of Barentsburg, as well as the mothballed villages of Pyramid and Grumant.
The archipelago consists of three large islands - Western Spitsbergen, Northeast Land and Edge Island; seven smaller islands - Barents Island, Bely Island, Prince Charles Land, Kongsøya (Royal Island), Bear, Svenskøya (Swedish Island), Wilhelm Island; as well as groups of islands, small islets and skerries (total area 621 km²).
Largest islands:
Island Area (km²)
Western Spitsbergen 37,673
Northeast Land 14,443
Edge 5074
Barents 1288
White 682
Prince Charles Land 615
Kongsøya 191
Bear 178
Svenskøya 137
Wilhelma 120
Others (total area) 621
Total 61,022
Three Crowns mountain range Spitsbergen Islands, Grumant 
Natural conditions
Mountainous terrain.
The highest point of the islands is Mount Newton (1712 m) in Western Spitsbergen. Glaciers occupy 35.1 thousand km² - more than half the area of the archipelago. The shores are indented by fjords. Permafrost - layer thickness up to 200 m. Natural thawing of soils in summer ranges from 0.5 to 2.5 m.
Tundra vegetation includes dwarf birch (lat. Bétula nána), polar willow (lat. Salix polaris), mosses, mushrooms, lichens and more than 170 species of vascular plants.
The only mammals on the islands are the polar bear, the Svalbard reindeer (the smallest of the reindeer species), and the Arctic fox. Attempts to move other land mammals to the archipelago, in particular polar hares and musk oxen from Greenland, were unsuccessful. The archipelago has an abundance of marine animals - seals, harp seals, bearded seals, walruses, beluga whales, and whales. All of the listed animals (except for polar bears) are quite often found in close proximity to populated areas.
About 90 species of birds are recorded on Svalbard, of which 36 constantly nest in the archipelago. The only species that lives on Svalbard all year round is the arctic partridge (lat. Lagopus mutus hyperboreus). The remaining birds fly to southern countries for the winter, and return to the archipelago only in the spring for nesting and breeding.
About half of the territory is occupied by environmental protection zones: 3 reserves and 3 sanctuaries.
Large deposits of high-calorie coal are estimated at 10 billion tons. A unique feature of Svalbard is also the significant number of rocks with fossilized remains of plants and animals. In 2007, a Norwegian group of paleontologists managed to discover the remains of the largest pliosaur, Pliosaurus funkei, on the archipelago. The high diversity of geological rocks of the archipelago is explained by its long migration through the Earth's mantle, during which Spitsbergen visited different climatic zones.
The current climate is Arctic, significantly softened in the west by the warm Spitsbergen Current (part of the Gulf Stream). The average air temperature on the coast is from +4.4 °C (July) to −10…−14 °C (January). Due to the influence of the Gulf Stream, winter temperatures on Spitsbergen are on average 20 degrees higher than in other places of comparable latitude. The maximum recorded temperature is +24.5 °C (July 1978), the minimum is −46.3 °C (March 1986).
The archipelago is located in a seismically active zone, earthquakes measuring 4-5 on the Richter scale have been recorded, and the possibility of earthquakes up to 6-7 is expected.
Glacier Monaco Spitsbergen Islands, Grumant 
Nature
National parks of Spitsbergen
The climate is harsh, the vegetation is not rich, the plants are short and cold-resistant. At the beginning of summer, the tundra is very swampy due to melting snow, and the rivers have high water levels. Basically, the southern part of Spitsbergen (zero zone) is free of snow in summer, although glaciers are found close to all populated areas. Red algae is often found on glaciers, giving the snow and ice a pinkish tint. Despite the 24-hour polar day, the temperature difference between day and night in summer is noticeable and can reach 5-10 degrees Celsius. The first snowfalls occur in September, although snow is not uncommon at the end of August. Due to its relatively mild climate, Svalbard is also popular with tourists during the polar night, when stable snow and ice coverage makes snowmobile travel possible.
Geological structure
As a rule, the Caledonides participate in the structure of the archipelago. But they are more similar to the Caledonides of Greenland than of Scandinavia. However, both of them are the product of the Early Paleozoic Iapetus Ocean, which opened around the beginning of the Cambrian about 550 million years ago. This ancient ocean was located in near-equatorial latitudes in the submeridional direction from 30° S. w. (ancient coordinates) to the north, between the ancient continents of Baltic and Canada-Greenland. Spitsbergen also includes more ancient rocks (Baikal folding). Apparently, this is part of the Barents Sea plate, which is Proterozoic-Early Cambrian in age. Much of Svalbard's basement formed somewhere on the active margin of the ancient Iapetus Ocean about 500 million years ago in the Early Ordovician and represents island-arc igneous formations that were severely crushed during continental collisions in the Silurian. By the beginning of the Silurian, the Iapetus Ocean began to shrink, carrying Baltica towards Canada-Greenland, (450-440 million years ago) the British Isles, Newfoundland and Spitsbergen, which experienced strong uplift and volcanic eruptions by the mid-to-late Silurian. Then came the final collision of the Baltic (Scandinavia), the British Isles, Greenland, Newfoundland and North America (Laurentia). The remains of ancient island arcs, limestones, and clastic oceanic rocks of the Iapetus Ocean were crushed and raised up to 9-11 thousand meters. At the site of the collision of these parts of the world, a mountain range rose higher than today's Himalayas. 400 million years ago, Scandinavia was already connected to Greenland and Spitsbergen was located somewhere between them. The British Isles, Newfoundland and North America were also joined together. In the Late Paleozoic, granitoids were intruded in places. The current deposits of copper, chromium, nickel, titanium, iron, zinc, uranium and other metals, which are now located on the Kola Peninsula, Scandinavia, Greenland, Spitsbergen, the British Isles and the east coast of North America, were formed during that era.
seagulls on the Lillehoek glacier 
Story
Presumably, it was first discovered by the Vikings or Pomors in the 12th century. It was known to the Pomors under the name Grumant; now this is the name of one of the mothballed Russian villages on the islands. Since 1194, a certain Svalbard has been mentioned in Norwegian chronicles. However, it is not certain that today's Svalbard was meant. It could be Greenland or Jan Mayen.
In 1596, the islands were "indisputably" discovered and documented by the Dutchman Willem Barents, who gave the main island the name "Spitsbergen", which means "sharp mountains". Barents discovered a large number of walruses and whales on the island and in its adjacent waters, which gave rise to numerous fishing expeditions. Around the same time, the archipelago appeared on Russian maps under the name “Holy Russian Islands”. A few years later, England and Denmark declared their claims to these lands.
blue whale Spitsbergen Islands, Grumant 
Whaling
In the 17th and 18th centuries it was used by various countries as a whaling base until whales were almost completely exterminated from the region. The center of Dutch whaling since 1614 was the village of Smeerenburg. Norway, along with Iceland and Japan, continues this fishery today, despite the moratorium of the International Commission for the Regulation of Whaling and the ban on the export of whale meat.
In 1765-1766, Mikhail Lomonosov organized two marine scientific expeditions to Spitsbergen under the leadership of V. Ya. Chichagov, but the harsh climate did not allow the organization of permanent settlements on the archipelago and until the beginning of the 20th century Spitsbergen did not have an official Russian presence. Nevertheless, Pomors maintained a seasonal hunting presence on the archipelago, and the most desperate of them regularly remained for the winter.
After the decline of the whaling and fur trades at the end of the 18th century, over the next hundred years Svalbard was virtually abandoned and was considered terra nullius - no man's territory, that is, despite the nominal claims to it by various countries, it was actually not governed by anyone. A new wave of interest began only at the end of the 19th century, when year-round access to ports and a relatively mild climate made Spitsbergen the main base for polar expeditions and Arctic tourism.
The archipelago has been visited by many famous explorers, including Fridtjof Nansen, Roald Amundsen and Ernst Shackleton. The northern part of the island of Western Spitsbergen is named Andre's Land, in honor of Solomon Andre, who attempted to reach the North Pole in a hot air balloon in 1897. In 1912, Western Spitsbergen was also described and mapped in detail as part of the last expedition of the famous Russian Arctic explorer and pioneer of the Northern Sea Route V.A. Rusanova. The first Arctic tourists, wealthy Europeans, including the representative of the royal family of Monaco, Prince Albert, also visited Spitsbergen.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, the economic situation on the islands began to gradually change. Coal mining by American, English, Norwegian, Russian and Swedish enterprises led to the organization of permanent settlements. Norway's sovereignty over the archipelago was recognized in 1920, when the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Norway, the Netherlands and Sweden signed the Spitsbergen Treaty in Paris. The Norwegians were in a hurry to secure the disputed lands in the absence of their main rival, the Russian Empire, which determined the unprecedented terms of the treaty. According to the agreement, all countries participating in the treaty retained the right to extract and develop mineral resources in the archipelago. On May 7, 1935, the USSR also joined it, which by that time already had several workers’ settlements on Spitsbergen.
Since the mid-1920s, Spitsbergen has become world famous as a base for polar aviation - for example, Roald Amundsen's seaplane flights with the money of the American millionaire Lincoln Ellsworth. On May 21, 1925, Amundsen sets off from Spitsbergen to Alaska via the North Pole, but does not make it and returns to Spitsbergen. On May 11, 1926, the Amundsen-Ellsworth-Nobile expedition departed from Spitsbergen on an airship designed by Umberto Nobile. Having flown over the pole (piloted by the airship Nobile), the expedition landed in Alaska. Under Mussolini, Umberto Nobile, already a general and an honorary member of the ruling fascist party, decided on May 23, 1928 to repeat the flight to the North Pole. Starting from Spitsbergen, he reached the Pole, but on the way back the airship crashed. Amundsen, who flew out in search of Nobile, died, and the surviving members of the airship crew were rescued on July 12 by the Soviet icebreaker Krasin.
During the Second World War, Spitsbergen could not act as a full-fledged military base, so its population was evacuated, and the presence of German troops on the archipelago was limited to weather stations dropped from airplanes and submarines, correcting the work of German aviation in the Arctic. To eliminate them, in 1942, a small Norwegian detachment on two ships Isbjørn and Selis was sent to the Longyearbyen area from Scotland. Despite the fact that both ships were destroyed, the Norwegians managed to gain a foothold on the shore. In 1943, to destroy this detachment, the Germans sent a detachment of ships from the battleships Tirpitz, Scharnhorst and nine destroyers to Spitsbergen, which destroyed most of Longyearbyen and Barentsburg with artillery fire (one of the coal mines that were set on fire was only extinguished in 1960). The German landing on the shore was less successful. The Norwegians in the Barentsburg area resisted with coastal artillery fire and retreated into the mountains to the village of Grumant.
In the post-war years, coal mining on the archipelago was resumed by Norwegian companies and Arktikugol, which also acted as the main representative of the Soviet Union in the Arctic. The gradual depletion of proven reserves in the mines of the archipelago has led to a reduction in production everywhere except the Norwegian Sveagruva. As a result, the Norwegian government began to orient Spitsbergen towards the development of tourism and an expeditionary scientific base. Arktikugol could not cope with the task of diversifying economic activity and in the post-Soviet period is subsidized from the state budget. Costs for maintaining the activities of former Soviet concessions in Spitsbergen in 2006 alone amounted to 395.6 million rubles.
Woodfjord Spitsbergen Islands, Grumant 
Current state
Although the Svalbard archipelago is controlled by the Kingdom of Norway and has been officially part of it since 1925, there are differences related to taxation (tax-free zone), environmental protection, protection of local rights and military activities (demilitarized zone).
There are two official languages on the islands - Norwegian and Russian; Russian citizens do not need a visa to visit the archipelago.
Coal production in the mines is carried out by the Norwegian company Store Norske, as well as under a concession by the Russian state trust Arktikugol (formerly a Soviet trust). Here (the Barentsburg mine) is the world's northernmost operating railway, which is almost entirely underground. Previously, there were several railways and they ran along the surface. All mined coal is used to heat Barentsburg itself, that is, the Russian enterprise is a planned loss-making and partly an image project.
Currently, Spitsbergen is one of the centers of polar and subpolar tourism; both large cruise ships from northern Europe and specialized ice-class tourist ships for excursions in the Arctic regularly stop at the port of Longyearbyen. The city has several hotels (including SAS Radisson), bars and good restaurants with Arctic cuisine (for example, the Kroa restaurant “At the End of the Earth”). There is a very interesting polar museum and the Svalbard International University, and significant scientific work is being carried out on the study of climate, geology and glaciology. In summer and winter, walking, water (kayak and boat), snowmobile excursions and expeditions depart from the city daily.
In the 2000s, with money from the Norwegian government, the World Seed Vault, the so-called “Doomsday Vault,” was built on the island. This storage facility contains a seed bank of both cultivated and wild plants, designed to survive even in a nuclear war. In addition, on the Berget plateau there are antennas for the SvalSAT satellite station, the EISCAT incoherent scatter radar, and the KHO aurora observatory. Svalbard is connected to the mainland by an underwater fiber optic cable; within Barentsburg, Colesbukhta and Longyearbyen there are cellular communications from both Russian (MegaFon) and Norwegian operators.
Longyearbyen city Spitsbergen Islands, Grumant 
Population
The population of the archipelago is about 2,600 people (as of January 1, 2009). Of these, 69.9% are Norwegians, 18.3% are Russians, 0.4% are Poles. The island has a completely visa-free regime, that is, representatives of all nations that signed the Spitsbergen Treaty of 1920 have the right to live and work. In practical terms, despite the lack of immigration and customs controls, Longyearbyen's harsh climate and high cost of living effectively limit labor migration among service and tourism workers. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a number of former Arktikugol employees moved permanently to Longyearbyen, while the population of Russian mining towns continued to decline in proportion to the decline in coal production.
The largest settlement is Longyearbyen, about 2000 people, the majority are Norwegians. It is also the administrative center of the archipelago.
Other settlements:
Russian mining villages: Barentsburg (470 people), Pyramid (3-4 people in winter, about 15 in summer, mostly mothballed) and Grumant (mothballed)
Norwegian international research center Ny-Ålesund (about 30 people, in summer more than 100)
Norwegian mining village of Sveagruva (90 people, with workers from Longyearbyen more than 300)
Polish research station Hornsund (10 people).
There is also a preserved port village of Kolesbukhta, which was previously connected to Grumant by railway along the coast. Currently, the road has fallen into disrepair, and the tunnel near the village of Grumant is filled in as a result of soil movements. Spitsbergen Islands, Grumant
Religion
Longyearbyen has the only functioning Lutheran church with its own clergyman. There is an Orthodox chapel in Barentsburg. In the village of Hornsund there is a Polish research station consisting of 10 people. In agreement with the Russian Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church in Norway, the Lutheran pastor ministers to the believers of these churches.
Economy
Since the beginning of the 20th century, coal mining has become the basis of the economy on Spitsbergen. At the same time, local coal seams, as a rule, have access directly from the mountain slope and many places where coal occurs are visible to the naked eye. This geological formation resulted in numerous small mines and coal mines along the coastline, which opened and closed as the seams were exhausted and explored. The size of settlements on Svalbard generally corresponded to the thickness of nearby coal mines.
Norway
The depletion of the main easily accessible coal deposits by the mid-1970s raised the question of the economic feasibility of the existence of Longyearbyen, which by that time had already been subsidized by the Norwegian government. The Norwegian state-owned company Kings Bay, which owned the settlement of Ny-Ålesund, found itself in a similar position. For this reason, the Norwegian government began actively diversifying the Svalbard economy and providing tax benefits to residents of the archipelago. Additionally, in 1993, the mining town of Longyearbyen was sold to the national government, which concentrated on developing a university center and tourism.
Currently, the only large profitable mine in the archipelago is Sveagruva, which is the main source of income for Svalbard (NOK 2,008 million in 2007). Coal is also mined at Mine No. 7 in Longyearbyen, supplying coal to the local power station. The second most important source of income is tourism (317 million crowns), the third is the provision of scientific activities (142 million crowns). In particular, Kings Bay provides logistical support for about 200 scientists working in the village of Ny-Ålesund during the summer season, and is also responsible for supplying other research stations. The tourism industry is concentrated around Longyearbyen, where tourists fly in from mainland Norway (two flights a day), as well as cruise ships. All types of businesses within Norwegian settlements are showing steady growth. In particular, the surge in hydrocarbon prices in the late 2000s ensured record production in Sveagruva (over 4 million tons per year), and the number of cruise ship passengers increased from 20 thousand in 2005 to 30 thousand in 2008.
Thus, despite significant initial investment by the Norwegian government in airport, seaport and scientific infrastructure, Svalbard is now completely self-sufficient, with an average annual income of residents 23% higher than the Norwegian average.
Russia
The depletion of the coal-bearing layer at the Pyramid mine in the 1990s put an end to the profitability of Arktikugol, which quickly turned into a subsidized resource. At the same time, the planned government expenditures for the maintenance of the trust amount to 870, 820 and 806 million rubles in 2008, 2009 and 2010, and the activity is reduced to maintaining the life of Barentsburg, which has been mining coal only for its own consumption since 2006. Despite this, Arktikugol management regularly announces the imminent resumption of mining at Pyramid or Grumant - a position partially supported by Norwegian miners. From a political point of view, an open coal mining license for a Russian enterprise facilitates the functioning of Sveagruva, which is often criticized by the Norwegian Green Party, which has already achieved a ban on the extraction of petroleum products in the Svalbard region.
The village of Barentsburg itself is not of long-term tourist interest - despite frequent summer ship voyages from Longyearbyen, most tourists visit the Russian settlement for no more than a couple of hours. The development of an independent tour operator infrastructure in Barentsburg and a scientific and logistics base in Pyramid is hampered by both the lack of land connections to the airport and the state monopoly on the use of buildings and structures in the villages of FSUE GT Arktikugol. In addition, Barentsburg does not have a repair and logistics base for basing the most popular (small) ice-class cruise fleet, and suitable vessels of the former Soviet scientific fleet are leased (“Akademik Multanovsky”, “Professor Molchanov”) from foreign companies, or sold to foreign companies tour operators: Polar Pioneer - former "Akademik Shuleikin", "Akademik Shokalsky", Spirit of Enderby - former "Professor Khromov".
In the long term, the ice-free port of Barentsburg can be used as a base for servicing the Northern Sea Route, increasing the likelihood of timely provision of icebreaker support and reducing the risks associated with ice damage to ships. The development of Barentsburg in this direction is hampered by both the lack of a road to Longyearbyen and the outdated format of Russian economic activity in the region.
polar bear, Kongsfjord Spitsbergen Islands, Grumant 
Tourism
The archipelago of Spitsbergen (Svalbard) is a territory of Norway and is governed by a Norwegian governor (Norwegian Sysselmannen), who determines fairly strict rules for tourism. In particular, tourist helicopter excursions are prohibited on Svalbard. In addition, wild animals (including polar bears) must not be disturbed, and all incidents of lethal force are investigated by the police. Also under protection are traces of human activity before 1946.
To ensure the safety of independent travel in the archipelago, tourists are required to obtain permission to leave the zero zone (which includes Longyearbyen, Barentsburg, Grumant and Pyramid), as well as have insurance and maintain communications using satellite phones or radio stations. The standard zero zone hiking route is from Longyearbyen through the Adventdalen valley to Kolesbuchta, then to Grumant and returning through the Bjoerndalen valley. There are also hiking routes around the glaciers of Isfjord and Pyramid, the transfer is carried out by “zodiacs” with passing tourist ships on the Barentsburg - Longyearbyen - Pyramid line.
Most polar tourists arrive in Svalbard during the polar day, from March to August. Snowmobile trails and ski trails are the most popular in the spring, followed by hiking expeditions in July and August. During the polar day, temperatures on Svalbard average around five degrees Celsius, although snowfall is also not uncommon. In May-June, the tundra is very swampy and the main tourist routes pass along glaciers and fjords (by kayak).
The development of Arctic cruises has given a good boost to Longyearbyen's hotel industry, which registered 93 thousand guests in 2008 at a fairly high cost of hotel rooms (from 120 US dollars). Despite the fact that there are no economy class hotels in the city, tourists can stay in a hostel or at a campsite directly opposite the airport. There is also a hotel in Barentsburg, but it is of low popularity due to the underdevelopment of the tourism industry in the village.
Weapons and hunting
Svalbard (including Longyearbyen) is on the seasonal migration path of polar bears to the pack ice. Despite the fact that the likelihood of encountering a bear on a polar day at the 78th parallel is small, it is customary in the archipelago to carry large-caliber weapons (rifled or smooth-bore) when leaving Longyearbyen. It is also recommended to have a signal pistol with you and to protect overnight sites with signal mines. There are several sporting goods stores in the city that rent weapons and ammunition to tourists. In 2009, the Governor of Svalbard introduced a new rule for renting weapons, for which it is necessary to provide a certificate from the police of the country of permanent residence.
The archipelago is home to a large number of animals (including Svalbard reindeer), but hunting requires obtaining a license from the governor in advance. Spitsbergen Islands, Grumant 
Russian projects and prospects
Despite the complete openness of the archipelago to everyone who wants to live and work, there is virtually no private Russian business on Spitsbergen. At the same time, Russian state property is used extremely inefficiently and requires costs both to maintain and to maintain jurisdiction (Norwegian law sets a maximum period for abandonment of objects). To justify permanent subsidies, the management of Arktikugol brought up various projects for discussion: including the resumption of coal mining in Grumant and Pyramid, the development of Barentsburg as a fishing base, etc. At the same time, serious elaboration of the projects was not carried out and public estimates of the cost of building the necessary infrastructure (to for example, the Barentsburg-Longyearbyen land road, or the restoration of the Grumant-Kolesbukhta railway) are unknown.
In addition, exotic projects were periodically voiced in the Russian media: the construction of ophthalmological and balneological centers in Barentsburg (a powerful source of mineral water was discovered near the village), the extraction of semi-precious stones, the processing of fish in a factory staffed by migrant workers, the regular extraction and primary processing of algae for needs of poultry farming as a food additive in poultry feed and so on. Spitsbergen Islands, Grumant 
COUNTRY OF MOUNTAINS AND GLACIERS
VISA-FREE NATURAL SITE
Due to the structural features and the wide variety of geological formations on Spitsbergen, rocks of different ages coexist, from Precambrian to Quaternary, and, what is especially valuable for researchers, they are not hidden from view.
In the first half of the Tertiary period, the archipelago was covered by the sea. Sedimentary rocks several hundred meters thick accumulated in the basins. They contain remains of fossilized marine animals and plants. At the end of the Tertiary period, the land rose and the islands were covered with broad-leaved forests, where, along with oaks, maples, ash trees, lindens and beeches, such heat-loving trees as magnolia, swampy cypress, plane tree and gigantic sequoia grew. The remains of this vegetation in the rocks indicate that the climate on Spitsbergen was then much warmer and wetter than it is now.
About 3 million years ago, air and water temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere dropped noticeably and the forest landscape was replaced by tundra. But glaciation spread especially widely several hundred thousand years ago. Giant ice sheets formed and reached the temperate latitudes of Europe and North America. At that time, most of Spitsbergen was covered with glaciers... Millennia passed - they either retreated or advanced again. Their area varied greatly, shrinking to modern and even smaller sizes.
Norwegian geologists approximately estimate the reserves of high-calorie coal in the bowels of the archipelago at 10 billion tons. The main coal region is located in the central part of Western Spitsbergen, where all four currently operating mines are concentrated. Since the 60s, geologists in a number of countries have been actively searching for oil on the islands of the archipelago and especially on its shelf - according to some data, they are very promising in terms of oil and gas potential. The results of several exploratory drilling wells are also convincing of this.
Earthquakes of magnitude 4-5 have been recorded in Spitsbergen. Seismologists admit the possibility of maximum earthquakes of up to 6 - 7 points. The archipelago is experiencing vertical uplift of the earth's crust at a rate of about 5 mm per year. Thanks to this, sea terraces up to 100 meters or more high were formed. Spitsbergen was once the scene of strong volcanic activity. In the north there are two extinct volcanoes, in the area of which there are hot springs and fumaroles. The archipelago is located in a zone of stable permafrost, interrupted only under the bottom of bays and in river valleys. The permafrost thickness reaches approximately 200 m. In summer, only a small top layer thaws - from 0.5 to 2.5 m.
Compared to Franz Josef Land, Novaya Zemlya and Severnaya Zemlya to the east, Svalbard is located closer to the Icelandic center of persistent low pressure. In the area of the archipelago there is a boundary between the warm waters of the North Atlantic Current and the cold waters of the Arctic Basin. Most of the atmospheric precipitation falls in the western, southern and eastern parts of Spitsbergen, while mainly the coastal strip several tens of kilometers wide is moistened. While the amount of precipitation towards the center of the archipelago decreases sharply, the average air temperature in the same direction increases.
The harsh climate of the high latitudes of the Arctic is softened by a branch of the warm Norwegian Current, one of the branches of the Gulf Stream, running along the western coast of Spitsbergen. Thanks to its influence, the sea off the western shores of Spitsbergen is often ice-free even in winter, while the eastern straits are usually clogged with ice in summer. In the western part of the archipelago, in the depths of winter, thaws and rain occur. The highest air temperature (24.5o) was recorded in July 1978, and the lowest (-46.3o) in March 1986. It is worth mentioning that Spitsbergen is characterized by frequent magnetic storms, sharp changes in atmospheric pressure and air temperature , strong snow storms.
Like any region of the Arctic, Spitsbergen is characterized by long polar nights and days. From October 28 to February 14, i.e. more than 100 days, the sun does not appear above the horizon. But from April 20 to August 20 - about 130 days - it does not leave the sky.
The largest island of the archipelago is Western Spitsbergen, its area is 39 thousand km2. It is a typical mountainous country with numerous pointed mountains and ridges. Although the mountains are low (the highest point of the island and the archipelago, Mount Newton reaches 1717 m), they are strongly dissected. In the east, the mountains turn into a plateau up to 800 m high. The western and northwestern shores of the island are cut by bays that protrude far into the land. The largest of them - Isfjord and Veidefjord - wedge respectively from the west and north into the very center of the island, cutting it into two parts. The peculiarity of the western bays is that they often do not freeze until January-February and are free of ice in May-June. To a large extent, this contributes to the establishment of long-term sea communication between the mainland and the main villages of the archipelago.
Lillehoek fjord Spitsbergen Islands, Grumant 
GLACIALIZATION OF THE ARCHIPELAGO
An integral and characteristic feature of Spitsbergen is extensive glaciation, the area of which exceeds 35 thousand km2. About 60% of the surface of Spitsbergen is encased in many meters of ice armor, which gives its nature a special beauty and attractiveness. The total ice reserve in the glaciers of the archipelago is about 7.5 thousand km3. The reserve of “solid” water, concentrated in glaciers, is 30 times greater than the annual flow of the Volga.
Spitsbergen, Franz Josef Land, Novaya Zemlya and Severnaya Zemlya are part of the same glaciological province. But Spitsbergen is the first among them to receive heavy precipitation brought by cyclones from the North Atlantic to the Eurasian Arctic. Thus, the glaciation of the three Russian archipelagos and Spitsbergen are interconnected. In addition, elucidating the conditions for the existence and development of active glaciers on Spitsbergen is important for understanding the patterns and features of the evolution of glaciation throughout the Eurasian Arctic. Fluctuations in polar ice caps are well known to serve as a sensitive natural indicator of global climate change.
The glaciation of Spitsbergen, which is extremely diverse in morphology, regime and dynamics, makes it a unique glaciological object in the entire Arctic. Here, as if in a miraculous fantastic open-air museum, almost all the different types of glaciers existing on the globe are concentrated. This diversity is due to differences in the relief and climate of the archipelago.
The bulk of glaciers cover mountain valleys and plateaus, and the height of the surface of glaciers rarely exceeds 1000 m. In winter, many glaciers have internal and subglacial runoff and periglacial ice. The presence of water lubricant stimulates the sliding of ice masses, which contributes to their mechanical instability. Ultimately, this causes a sharp regular movement (pulsation) of the glacier - surge. There are over 50 pulsating surge glaciers on Svalbard. The most unstable of them have a two-layer structure of “cold” and “warm” water-containing ice.
Reticulated (or Svalbard) glaciation is of particular interest to glaciologists. From the air, it may seem like a giant chessboard, where the white fields are glacial streams that have filled more than half the system of valleys in the region and connect with each other in the upper reaches, and the black fields are individual sharp peaks and mountain ridges sticking out of the ice.
According to the nature of glaciation, the entire territory of Spitsbergen is divided into three large areas. The first, cover glaciation, includes the island of North-Eastern Earth. Most (80%) of this second largest island of the archipelago is occupied by three significant glacial domes (Austfonna, Vestfonna and Sørfonna) with a total area of about 11 thousand km2. The volume of ice concentrated in them is 44% of the total volume of ice on the archipelago. Mountain-cover glaciation occurs on the islands of Western Spitsbergen, Prince Charles Land, Barents and Edge. The bulk of the glaciers of the archipelago (more than 60%) are located on the island of Western Spitsbergen. The area of mountain glaciation occupies the middle central part of this island, stretching from south to north.
The practical study of the glaciers of the archipelago is caused by the need to know the features of their regime and structure when designing villages, mines, roads, bridges, transmission lines... This is also required to take into account the valuable reserves of “solid” water, since most of the populated areas of Spitsbergen are used for drinking and economic activities melted snow and glacial waters. Finally, the glaciers can also be considered a recreational area of the archipelago, since they are a favorite place for islanders to ride high-speed snowmobiles - snow scooters and skis.
The Second World War interrupted the study of Spitsbergen. A new milestone in research began after the work of the International Geophysical Year (1957/58). At this time, Swedish and Polish scientific stations were operating in the North-Eastern Land and in the south of Western Spitsbergen. However, it must be admitted that until the mid-60s, the glaciation of Spitsbergen remained clearly insufficiently studied. There was not even a general summary of its glaciers. Comprehensive and systematic glaciological studies carried out by expeditions of the Institute of Geography of the USSR Academy of Sciences on Franz Josef Land, Novaya Zemlya and the Polar Urals suggested the need for a detailed study of the glaciation of Spitsbergen. The first Glaciological expedition to the Norwegian archipelago was organized by the Institute of Geography in 1965. Since then, 27 expeditions have been carried out. For several field seasons, glaciologists from the Institute of Geography conducted joint research on the glaciers of Spitsbergen with colleagues from the University of Silesia (Poland) and the Norwegian Polar Institute.
EXPEDITIONS OF THE INSTITUTE OF GEOGRAPHY
Over many years of field work, expedition members made hundreds of many kilometers of routes throughout the archipelago on foot, on skis, by boat and helicopter. A huge series of studies was carried out on the internal structure, hydrodynamic regime and evolution of glaciers in connection with climate change. For the first time in the history of Spitsbergen, radar sounding and deep thermal drilling of wells with ice core sampling for various analyzes were successfully used on glaciers.
Based on the delay time and the nature of the reflected radio signals, it is possible to determine the profiles of ice thickness and subglacial relief, as well as study the internal structure of the glacier. Radar studies of about 150 glaciers of various types and shapes were carried out from a helicopter. The greatest ice thickness was found on the Austfonna dome (North-Eastern Earth) and the Holtedal glacial plateau (northwest of Western Spitsbergen) - about 600 m. 60 wells were drilled in different ice formation zones, including 25 core wells.
The deepest wells that reached the bedrock were those drilled on the Amundsen glacial plateau (southern part of the island of Western Spitsbergen) and in the center of the Austfonna dome - 586 and 566 m, respectively. As a result of drilling, repeated changes in nutrition during the formation of the glacial strata were established, due to changes in climatic conditions over the last millennium2. It was possible to identify climate warming in the 16th century and cooling in the 17th - first half of the 19th centuries. (“Little Ice Age”) and warming since the end of the 19th century. More than a century after the end of the “Little Ice Age,” the Svalbard glaciation has experienced relatively warm climatic conditions. Over the past few decades, Svalbard has experienced a slow cooling and, as a consequence, a slowdown in the retreat of glaciers...
One of the main features of the expeditions of the Institute of Geography was the study of glacial processes throughout the archipelago in combination with stationary observations on several reference glaciers located in different areas. In 1995, together with the National Institute of Polar Research (Japan) on the Austfonna ice dome at 79° latitude. Electromechanical cable core drilling was carried out and a continuous core was taken to a depth of 210 m for subsequent comprehensive isotope geochemical analysis. At the same time, a structural and stratigraphic description of the core, measurements of pH values and electrical conductivity of the upper horizons, well thermometry, excavation work, meteorological observations and other studies were carried out.
Currently, the Spitsbergen Glaciological Expedition is participating in the project “Mechanisms of interaction of polar glaciers with the atmosphere and ocean and the evolution of glaciation” (headed by V.M. Kotlyakov). The goal of the project is to study the patterns and mechanisms of global and regional changes in climate and the natural environment of the Arctic, the regime and evolution of glaciers and ice sheets, the reconstruction of glaciation and climate fluctuations over the past 20 thousand years and their forecast to identify the role of glaciation in changes in the level of the World Ocean. This work will be carried out based on ice core analysis and numerical modeling in Svalbard, Franz Josef Land and Severnaya Zemlya. The summarized results should be included in the collective final monograph “Modern and Ancient Glaciation of the Arctic.”
LIFE IN SPITSBERGEN
Despite the fact that more than half of Svalbard's area is occupied by glaciers, the land areas located next to them support quite diverse life. Botanists have counted more than 160 species of flowering plants here. During the short, cool summer, the surface of the rocky and swampy tundra is transformed in some areas beyond recognition. It is rare, but you can see Lilliputian trees. These are dwarf birches and willows, the height of which does not exceed ... 30, and the thickness is 2 - 3 cm. And their round leaves are no larger in size than lingonberries.
The fauna of Svalbard is not very rich. The most popular animal here, of course, is the polar bear - a powerful predator, a kind of living emblem of the archipelago. Indeed, its image can be found everywhere: on souvenirs, badges, calendars, pennants, clothes, bags, postcards, stamps... It is interesting that the former owner of the Arctic was first described as an independent species on Spitsbergen more than 200 years ago by the English scientific expedition of Captain K .Phipps. The long-term polar station of the Polish Academy of Sciences, located in the south of the island of Western Spitsbergen, is annually “visited” by 200 - 300 polar bears, which is associated with the migration route they have long developed. In the archipelago, many cases of animals entering villages and base areas of expeditions and tourists have been recorded. Insidious attacks on people usually ended tragically. This danger should always be kept in mind in the Arctic.
The reindeer population in Svalbard is impressive. Until recently, hunting him, like bears, was prohibited. However, the governor now issues licenses for large-scale deer shooting. Until recently, musk oxen were found on the islands, which were brought from Greenland in 1929. They acclimatized and multiplied on the archipelago. However, due to thick ice crusts on the surface, which arose as a result of alternating thaws and frosts in the 70s and 80s, it became extremely difficult for musk oxen to obtain pasture, and mass mortality of animals began. Near the villages you can see arctic foxes, and on the sea ice - pinnipeds, mainly seals. Here and there there are rookeries of huge walruses. Cetaceans, including herds of beluga whales, enter the bays. The coastal waters are home to cod, haddock, halibut and other commercial fish. In addition to fishing, shrimp fishing has also been developed. Char, also known as Spitsbergen salmon, is found in lakes and rivers.
The bird world of Svalbard is rich. Most of them are connected with the sea. There are several dozen species of birds living on steep cliffs. Different types of gulls nest in the noisy bird colonies: guillemots, loons, waders. The most common birds are guillemots, puffins or sea parrots. The eider is the most numerous species of duck and lives outside the markets, like loons and geese. Only the ptarmigan and snowy owl remain to spend the winter on the archipelago. Nesting areas of aggressive long-tailed Arctic terns are found in open areas and near villages. There are also very small birds from the order of passerines - buntings, they are the first to bring the desired news from the distant continent to the archipelago about the imminent approach of spring... In order to preserve the easily vulnerable polar nature on Spitsbergen, national parks, reserves and nature reserves were created in the early 70s reserves. They occupy half the area of the archipelago.
Svalbard is the country with the longest history of organized tourism in the Arctic. It first appeared at the end of the 19th century, when the Norwegian shipping company Vesterålen opened regular traffic on comfortable ships from Norway to the archipelago. The captain of the first of them was the famous sailor and associate of Nansen and Amundsen - Otto Sverdrup. Enterprising people immediately built a hotel with forty rooms and a post office on the shore of the Adventfjord, where it meets Isfjord. For lovers of polar exoticism, they began to issue a special postage stamp with an image of a polar bear. But due to the high cost of rooms, tourists stayed less and less often. In the end, the world's northernmost hotel had to close.
On September 2, 1975, King Olav V of Norway inaugurated the airport at Cape Hotel (the name remained from the old hotel). Nowadays, powerful airliners fly here from the mainland almost every day. With the advent of maritime navigation, tens of thousands of organized and hundreds of “wild” tourists from all over the world flock to Spitsbergen.
There is no permanent population on the archipelago; people come here to work for one or two years under a contract. Many of them come back again. There is a belief that a polar “bacillus” settles in a person once in the Arctic, infecting him with an incurable “disease” - love for nature and the exotic nature of the North.
In the administrative center there are the offices of the coal company "Sture Noshke" and the Svalbard Travel Bureau, the Norwegian Polar Institute, a seaport, radio and television and weather stations, hotels, a post office, a bank, a museum, a hospital, shops, restaurants, cafes, a school with a swimming pool... Svalbard International University opened in 1994! Dozens of cars of different brands (including taxis) scurry along the asphalt roads, schoolchildren race on motorcycles, mopeds and bicycles, and young mothers carry their polar babies in strollers. During the weekend, many Norwegians, being big nature lovers, go hiking - in the summer on boats and motor boats, and in the winter on snowmobiles and skis. Very popular are small cozy dacha houses scattered throughout the nearby valleys and bay coasts...
At the northwestern tip of Spitsbergen, on the 79th parallel, there is one of the most beautiful bays of the archipelago - Kongsfjord. On the flat coast of the bay, near pyramidal mountains and glaciers, there is a small village. Ny-Ålesund. From here in 1925, 1926 and 1928. The famous expeditions of R. Amundsen, R. Baird and W. Nobile started to the North Pole on airplanes and airships. One of the northernmost settlements on Earth, formerly better known as Kingsbay, owes its origins to the construction here in 1917 of the world's northernmost coal mine. Due to frequent collapses and explosions of methane gas, which led to accidents, the mine was closed in 1963. This is today reminded by a monument to the memory of the dead miners, a mining museum, an old waste heap and a small locomotive that once carried trolleys with coal to the port.
Currently, Ny-Ålesund has become a tourist and research center for Svalbard. There are scientific stations in Norway, France, Germany, England and Japan. Tourist and fishing boats often moor at the pier, and a small airstrip near the village receives local single- and twin-engine planes and helicopters making regular flights from Longyearbyen. On the eastern outskirts there is a 34-meter triangular openwork metal mast, to which the airships "Norway" and "Italy" moored 70 and 68 years ago. Not far from this place, on a low hill, grateful descendants erected monuments to the brave R. Amundsen and the members of the U. Nobile expedition, who died off the northern shores of Spitsbergen after returning from the North Pole. All these buildings, as well as the village of Ny-Ålesund itself, are silent witnesses to the heroic history of the exploration of the Arctic and Spitsbergen.
The third Norwegian village is located in the upper reaches of the Van Meyenfjord, a little south of Logierbyen. In 1917, the Swedes built a mine here and called it Sveagruva - "Swedish Mine". Subsequently, the mine with the coal deposit was acquired by the Norwegians. Currently, they are mining here on a rotational basis, delivering miners from Longyearbyen by plane and helicopter. The mined coal is exported mainly to the “capital”, where after enrichment it is sent further to the mainland.
On Cape Linnea, at the southernmost entrance to the largest bay of the Isfjord archipelago, the Norwegian weather station Isfjord Radio is located. It was built after a powerful lighthouse was installed here. The large station, now saturated with modern technology and automation, is served by only three specialists and a cook!
Very close to here, on the eastern shore of Grönfjord, perched on several mountain terraces is the village of Barentsburg, the largest Russian coal mine in Spitsbergen. In 1932, the Arktikugol trust acquired the Barentsburg land plot along with the mine from the Dutch Spitsbergen company Nespiko. Already in 1936, it surpassed all other Svalbard mines in coal production.
The supply of Svalbard coal to the northern regions of the USSR and its maritime fleet in the Arctic becomes very significant before the Second World War. But the Barentsburg and Grumant mines, which were then operating, as well as the Pyramid mine under construction, had to be closed at the beginning of the war. People were taken to the mainland. The Norwegians were also evacuated. After this, control of Spitsbergen temporarily passed to the Germans. In 1942, a group of Norwegian patriots landed in Barentsburg in order to prevent them from using the archipelago. Until the fall of 1942, the Soviet mine served as the main base for paratroopers. From here, radio operators transmitted weather reports to England. German bombers regularly attacked Barentsburg. In November 1942, ship guns were brought from England. One of them was installed five kilometers from the village on the eastern entrance cape in Grönfjord. On September 8, 1943, this gun took part in an unequal battle with the fascist squadron led by the battleships Tirpitz and Scharnhorst. As a result of the attack, Barentsburg and Grumant were completely destroyed and burned. Longyearbyen and Sveagruva. After the war, they all rose from the ruins and began producing coal again. However, the Grumant mine was closed in 1961.
Currently, Russia, represented by the Arktikugol State Trust, owns 26 land plots on Spitsbergen with a total area of more than 250 km2. Modern Barentsburg and Pyramid are highly mechanized, autonomous mines. In addition to mines, they also include villages, seaports, helicopter stations, electromechanical workshops, heating plants, car parks, television stations, subsidiary farms... Sea vessels deliver coal mined here to the Kola Peninsula, Arkhangelsk, as well as to Western Europe . In recent years, many of the post-war wooden buildings at the mines have given way to three- and four-story stone houses with all the amenities, and the streets and roads have received a normal surface. Life has also been noticeably improved by such new buildings as large beautiful Palaces of Culture with cinema halls and libraries, sports complexes with swimming pools and stadiums, local history museums, hotels, cafes...
Good neighborly relations have long been established between residents of Norwegian and Russian villages. Miners regularly exchange various professional and tourist delegations and groups. Every year in winter and summer, international sports competitions and amateur art concerts are held at the mines. Such meetings have become a pleasant tradition. This is always a noticeable event in the harsh life of the islanders, temporarily cut off from their home and loved ones.
At the very beginning of the 80s, a scientific town came into operation on the southern outskirts of Barentsburg. In addition to the hydrometeorological observatory, it included expeditionary bases of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Geologists "Sevmorgeo" from St. Petersburg. All this contributed not only to the improvement of the lives of northerners, but also to the intensification of scientific activity. It remains to be regretted that recently the situation with the financing of scientific research, including in Spitsbergen, has sharply worsened. It is enough to note that the glaciological expedition of the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1996 included, in addition to the author of the article, only one more glaciologist. I really want to believe that this is not forever. After all, Spitsbergen remains a unique natural laboratory for solving many pressing scientific problems.
THE TOP OF EUROPE - MYSTERIES OF THE ARCTIC
This mountainous archipelago, lost in the icy expanses of the Arctic, is often called the “Top of Europe.” Some of its islands are located beyond the eightieth degree of northern latitude. Only northern Greenland and the Canadian island of Ellesmere are located even closer to the North Pole.
In the morning fog, sailors approaching the archipelago from the south seem to see the outlines of the towers of medieval castles emerge from the haze. The mountain peaks of Spitsbergen, reaching 1700 meters in height, darken through the gray veil.
But then the ship comes closer, the fog dissipates, and a panorama of intricately rugged black rocky shores, crowned with white glaciers, opens before your eyes. In some places, ice tongues descend straight to the sea, ending in ledges of transparent blue ice. Narrow winding bays are lined with foamy stripes of waterfalls. And in the depths of the largest bay - Isfjord - the houses of the capital of Spitsbergen - the village of Longyearbyen - glow welcomingly with bright red, green and blue cubes.
More than a thousand islands are part of the archipelago. True, almost all of them are small, only five of them deserve the epithet “large”. These are Western Spitsbergen, Northeast Land, Edge Island, Barents Island and Prince Charles Land. Spitsbergen is larger in area than Switzerland and could accommodate two Belgiums on its islands.
Since ancient times, the archipelago has had several names. The Dutch called it Spitsbergen, the Russians - Grumant, the Norwegians - Svalbard. Modern journalists often call this region the “Isles of Fogs.” Indeed, Spitsbergen is one of the foggiest places on Earth. Even the famous African Skeleton Coast - the Namib Desert and the Bering Sea, notorious for its rain and fog, cannot compare with it in this regard. More than 90 days a year (a quarter of the year!) there are fogs over the islands. And in June-October there are 12 to 20 days of fog every month.
The fogs on Spitsbergen are so dense that you can’t see anything even five steps away. Sounds are muffled, the outlines of objects are distorted, so that it is impossible to recognize even familiar terrain. All buildings and large stones are covered with a fluffy brush of frost.
In the spring, during fog, you can observe an unusual optical phenomenon, which in the language of scientists is called “gloria”. The low polar sun casts long shadows of objects surrounded by a rainbow outline onto the veil of fog and low clouds. The famous polar explorer Amundsen, who made an emergency landing on a plane in the ice north of Spitsbergen, describes Gloria as follows:
“Away from us, in the fog, I saw a complete reflection of our car, surrounded by a halo of all the colors of the rainbow. The spectacle is amazing, beautiful and unique.”
From afar, from aboard a motor ship heading to Spitsbergen, you can see the intricately jagged peaks of the mountains, for which it was given its name (Spitsbergen - “Sharp Mountains” in Dutch). This name was given to the archipelago by the Dutch navigator Willem Barents, who discovered it in 1596. True, in fairness, it must be said that Russian Pomors, two centuries before the Dutchman, sailed their boats to the cold Grumant (as they called the archipelago).
One day, four Russian hunters, having landed here to hunt, did not find their ship crushed by ice the next morning. The Russian Robinsons lived on Spitsbergen for six whole years before they were rescued by another Russian ship that accidentally visited the islands.
After Barents, many famous navigators and explorers visited the archipelago. Hudson and Chichagov, Nordenskiöld and Nansen, Amundsen and Rusanov laid out their routes here. But the main contribution to the study of Spitsbergen, undoubtedly, was made by the brave Pomors, who mastered the harsh islands for five centuries. To this day, on the map of the archipelago you can find the Russian Islands and Russkaya Bay, Admiral Makarov Mountain and Cape Ermak, the Rusanov Valley and Solovetskaya Bay.
The unique nature of Spitsbergen is determined by the fact that one of the branches of the warm North Atlantic Current, a continuation of the Gulf Stream, approaches its western coast. Heated waters through the fjords penetrate deep into the islands and warm them. In February, the frost here does not exceed fifteen degrees, and the average annual temperature on the islands is six degrees above zero. (And this is at eightieth latitude!)
Therefore, in summer the coast of the islands is covered with a green carpet of tundra, full of bright colors. Purple saxifrage, yellow polar poppies, blue forget-me-nots and purple carnations delight the eyes of the residents of Logier and other Svalbard villages: Barentsburg, Pyramiden, Ny-Ålesund, Longyearbyen and Sveagruva during the long polar day. And the snow fields on the slopes at this time in some places turn pink - due to the appearance of microscopic algae on them.
Wide valleys going high into the mountains are filled with glaciers. Their silent, dirty-white rivers slowly (usually at a speed of a meter per day, no more) move towards the sea. Where glaciers flow into fjords, the ice slides into the water and breaks off. This is how icebergs form. In some Valleys, where the glaciers end before reaching the shore, short but turbulent rivers flow from under them, the longest of which is only 48 kilometers. In winter they all freeze to the bottom.
The mountain peaks of the islands, carved by glaciers, take on the most fantastic shapes. Thus, Mount Skansen resembles an ancient fortress, Mount Tempel is an ancient Indian temple, and Mount Pyramid looks like a stack of giant neatly stacked bales of hay. The most famous mountain, Tre Kruner, has three peaks. Their names: Svea, Nora and Dana symbolize the brotherhood of the three Scandinavian countries - Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The truncated pyramidal contours of the three peaks are colored with clear horizontal stripes of yellow limestone and red sandstone.
Ancient Scandinavian legends imagined Spitsbergen as a gloomy land of cold, darkness, snow and ice. The Vikings believed that this was the most inhospitable region in the world. But it's not fair. Compared to other Arctic islands, such as Ellesmere or Severnaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land, Svalbard looks like a real oasis in the icy polar desert. It is inhabited by three thousand people, mostly northern researchers and, oddly enough, miners. Coal deposits were formed here hundreds of millions of years ago, when Spitsbergen was one with Europe and its climate was incomparably warmer than now. Now Russian miners, in agreement with the Norwegians, are mining coal here.
But life on the islands can be found not only in human settlements. Here you can find reindeer and arctic foxes, nimble rodents - lemmings and white partridges. A polar owl silently circles over the valleys, and in the summer thousands of migratory birds fly here: ducks, geese and swans.
Most of the noise and splashing is on the coast. With the warm current, flocks of cod and herring, halibut and haddock come to the island, and behind them come seals: harp and bearded seal. On pebble beaches under the rocks, fanged walruses make their rookeries, and in the open sea you can often see fountains of whales. There are still a lot of the latter in the waters of Spitsbergen, although whaling fleets have hunted in these places since the times of the Barents and Hudson. Most of them are beluga whales and killer whales, but the famous narwhal unicorn is also found.
The head of this whale ends with a sharp two-meter bone growth, similar to a horn. They say that Ivan the Terrible had a staff made of a beautiful, twisted narwhal horn (apparently brought by Russian Pomors from Grumant). The main seal hunter, the polar bear, also comes to the islands. The largest predator in the polar basin is now protected by law and is not at all afraid of humans. Sometimes meetings with him end sadly for polar explorers, especially on distant islands.
And it happens that desperate radiograms like the following fly to Barentsburg or Longyearbyen from researchers working somewhere on the Prince Charles Islands: “Urgently send a helicopter for evacuation. Surrounded by nine hungry bears. We don’t risk leaving the house.”
The musk ox, brought here from Greenland in the 1920s, has also taken root on the archipelago. The herd of these powerful squat ungulates, covered with thick and long hair reaching to the ground, has grown noticeably in recent years, fortunately, their main enemies, wolves, are not on Spitsbergen. In harsh winters, female musk oxen hide small cubs under their bellies, where, in any snowstorm, it is warm and cozy in a canopy of wool. Now there are more than a hundred musk oxen on Spitsbergen, but at the beginning there were only 17.
The highlight of Spitsbergen is its wonderful bird colonies. On the tiny ledges of steep cliffs that drop down to the sea, tens of thousands of kittiwakes, guillemots, guillemots, fulmars, puffins and cormorants buzz and fuss. And predatory glaucous gulls hover over the rocks, looking for prey.
There is plenty of fish in the sea for both seals and seagulls, especially since off the western coast, even in winter, under the influence of a warm current, the border of floating ice forms a deep bend, like a bay with icy shores, facing north. In the old days it was called Whaler Bay, since it was here that the whaling center was located. In other winters there is no ice at all on the western coast, and Isfjord is covered with ice only for a month and a half.
However, the North is the North, and from October to February the polar night reigns over Spitsbergen. Nevertheless, the archipelago does not become a “land of eternal darkness” at this time. In clear weather it is illuminated by the moon.
As the great polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen wrote, “instead of the sun, what remains is the most delightful radiance of the moon: it circles the sky day and night...”. Moonlight is reflected by myriads of snow and ice crystals and allows you not only to move freely without a flashlight, but also to distinguish distant mountains. It is especially bright during the full moon.
And in December-January, in frosty weather, auroras blaze in the sky. Against the background of the flaming sky, light patterns of the most fantastic kind appear, continuously changing their shape and color. You can stand for hours, forgetting to put on a hat, in the bitter cold, unable to take your eyes off the amazing play of colors in the cold sky. Words are powerless to describe this truly grandiose spectacle. What a pity that there are no tourists on the islands at this time! Just the opportunity to admire the sky's sparkles would make it worth coming to Spitsbergen in winter.
I have had the opportunity to communicate more than once with people who have visited this distant archipelago. And they all could not forget its harsh beauty, the dazzling white mountain peaks and the blue surface of the fjords, the deafening hubbub of bird colonies and the modest charm of tundra flowers, the greenish-transparent walls of coastal glacial cliffs and the colors of the northern lights...
And when the winterers, returning to their native land, sail from the shore, they traditionally throw old boots into the water from board the ship - as a sign that they will someday return to this cold but beautiful land.
Northeast Land
Northeast Land is an uninhabited island in the Spitsbergen archipelago, in the Arctic Ocean. Belongs to the territory of Norway. It occupies an area of 14.5 thousand square kilometers.
The surface of the island is a plateau, up to 637 meters high. Of the entire surface of the island, 11,135 square kilometers are occupied by glaciers. Mosses and lichens grow in ice-free areas. There are a significant number of fjords on the northern coast of Northeastland.
On one of the islands of the Spitsbergen archipelago in the village of Longyearbyen, a grain storage facility was built, which was called the second “Noah’s Ark”.
The storage facility is a huge structure in the form of an underground one hundred and twenty-meter tunnel. All types of grain are stored in it. Every country in the world has its own section. An unusual grain bank was created to keep seeds safe in the event of a global catastrophe (nuclear war, global warming, asteroid impact, etc.).
The island was not chosen by chance for the construction of the “ark”: its distance from the mainland, geological stability, rocks and low ambient temperature (minus 18⁰ C) can serve as a natural refrigerator. Under such conditions, seeds of cereals and legumes will be stored for millennia.
Norway, o. Spitsbergen, Longyearbyen
Mount Pyramid
The mountain is located near the village of the same name in the former USSR, and later Russia, and for quite a long time served as one of the richest coal mines. In 1998, the mine was closed and the village was evicted to the mainland. Today this village resembles an abandoned lunar station, and in the period from 1956 to 1996. it was a fairly advanced mining village, with a developed infrastructure and capital buildings quite suitable for northern conditions, suitable for housing and leisure.
Now the territory of the village of Pyramid belongs to Norway. The Norwegians quickly adapted it into a tourist attraction and today they bring tourists here for quite a lot of money. But despite this, much more restoration work is required in the village. Today only 17 people live here.
The tourist season here lasts throughout daylight hours from March to August, but even in summer the air temperature does not exceed 4-5°C. It is especially interesting and beautiful here in the spring, when there is still snow and you can move around on skis. The movement of tourists is controlled by local authorities with a mandatory entry in the log and regular contact via satellite phone.
The mountain and the village are located in the southeastern part of the island of Spitsbergen, Norway
Arctic Ocean
The Arctic Ocean is one of the smallest oceans on Earth. It is located in the northern hemisphere of the earth between North America and Eurasia. The ocean covers an area of 14.75 million square kilometers. The average ocean depth is 1,225 meters, and the greatest is 5,527 meters in the Grenada Sea. The volume of water in the ocean is 18.07 million square kilometers.
Visually, the ocean can be divided into three natural waters: the Arctic Basin, the North European Basin and the Canadian Basin. Due to its favorable geographical location in the central part of the ocean, the ice cover remains intact throughout the year, while being in a mobile state. Considering that the water in the ocean is very cold, only marine inhabitants that are resistant to cold temperatures can live here - such as whales, penguins, fur seals and many others.
Eastfjord
Indre Vijdefjorden is a Norwegian national park located in the central-northern part of the island of Western Spitsbergen. It covers the southern end of Vijdefjord, of which Austfjorden is the eastern branch.
Its peculiarity is that it literally crashes into the island. It is a narrow, winding sea bay with rocky shores. Rising cliffs covered with dense vegetation and snow-capped mountain peaks are all part of Austfjorden. Its dimensions are 32 kilometers long and 4-6 kilometers wide. Geographically, the Eastfjord begins on the western side of Cape Peter Mann.
Simple tourist routes often pass through it, the goal of which is to climb one of the peaks of the island. Both professionals and beginners who do not have any special climbing skills take part in them.
The fjord is located in the Indre-Vijdefjorden National Park in Spitsbergen
Abandoned mining village Pyramid
Pyramid is an abandoned Soviet mining village located on the island of Spitsbergen in Norway. The village was built in the second half of the twentieth century near the world's northernmost coal mine. Its population reached a thousand people. But in the nineties, coal production fell sharply and the village was mothballed.
Now the Pyramid is a ghost village, which has preserved not only the buildings, but also many personal belongings of its inhabitants, left here as if in a hurry. The territory of the village is open to visitors, but it is not recommended to enter its buildings without an escort - in order to avoid accidents. The pyramid still holds the record for many of the most northern things in the world - among such records are a monument to Lenin, a swimming pool and even a piano.
The unusual disturbing and sad atmosphere of the abandoned city, as well as the unusually beautiful nature surrounding the village, attracts tourists here in the summer. A small hotel has been set up in the village especially for them and there is a tour guide.
Prince Charles Island
Prince Charles Island is a picturesque natural attraction in Norway, which is part of the Forlande National Park. The island is home to a large number of polar bears.
The island has a chain of peaked Grampian mountains from north to south. The highest point on the island is Mount Monaco with a height of 1,084 meters. Among the mountains you can also find plains - the Forlannelletta plain. At the foot of the mountains there are several freshwater lakes and other salt water bodies. 17 percent of the island's area is covered by glaciers, most of which flow down into the Forlannsundnet Strait.
The land of King Charles was found by a Moscow expedition from the highest point on Barents Island.
Forlandet National Park, Spitsbergen
Barentsburg ***
Barentsburg is a mining town on the Norwegian island of West Spitsbergen, in the Spitsbergen archipelago. It was named after the Dutch navigator V. Barents. Now more than 300 Russians and Ukrainians live and work in this settlement.
The village is isolated, with autonomous life support. The industrial and social complex of Barentsburg includes a mine, a thermal power plant, a hospital, a kindergarten and other facilities. The residential village, housing and communal services and subsidiary farming are maintained by the Arktikugol company. The coal mined in the mine is used for the village’s own needs and is also exported. A hotel with a bar and a souvenir shop is open for tourists in the village.
Here you can visit the Pomor Museum, founded in 1995. The museum, which tells the history of the Svalbard archipelago from ancient times to the present day, contains a geological exhibition containing more than 33 types of minerals and rocks, the age of which ranges from 1-2 billion years to 5-6 thousand years.
Western Spitsbergen, Barentsburg
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SOURCE OF INFORMATION AND PHOTO:
Team Nomads
“Country of Mountains and Glaciers” E. M. Singer.
http://vivovoco.astronet.ru/
Shokalsky Yu. M., - Spitsbergen // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg, 1890-1907.
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Zinger E.M. Country of mountains and glaciers // Nature: magazine. - 1997. - No. 8.
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Spitsbergen - article from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (3rd edition)
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The story of one city: Longyearbyen (Spitsbergen) on the “Echo of Moscow”
Russian-language website - Spitsbergen.Ru
http://www.photosight.ru/
photo I. Mikhailov, V. Balyakin, A. Vedernikov, A. Nasyrov, Mike Raifman, I. Litvak
