Around Russia

[tolich]

Hello! My name is Anatoly Chernyavskiy, I live in Russia and I want to talk about my adventures in this country

[tolich]

Russian Asia. Adventure movie about the journey in the eastern part of Russia

[Kyler]

nicely done!

[Grant Johnson]

Welcome to HU Anatoly! Great videos!

We'd love to have you do a presentation on your travels at the HU Russia Travellers Meeting!

Location is:
Valday Eco Club, Valday National Park
Zelenaya Ulitsa 1, Korotsko, Russia
ул.Зеленая, 1, д.Короцко,
Novgorodskaya oblast'
See all about it on the event page here.

[tolich]

The story of a trip to Magadan

The more you travel the world, the smaller it seems. The more you travel around Russia, the more it seems more and more. She's so huge!



A few days later on the road number Р504 (in the old Kolyma tract) restored the bridge. We can go to Magadan, to a highway of federal significance, named after the northern Kolyma River, which flows through Yakutia and the Magadan Region. The road is still one of the symbols of the era of forced labor camps.




On the diagonals of the Motherland - an expression from the novel "The Gulag Archipelago" (the Gulag system consisted of over 30,000 camps). Red echelons along the diagonals of the Motherland and the Archipelago brought a new contingent - this is how the original sounds. It would be wrong to consider the geography of Russia on such a large-scale journey without resorting to "guidebooks" for the development of vast territories by exiles and prisoners. Works by the classics: Sakhalin Island, Notes from the Dead House, The Gulag Archipelago and the Black Stones acted as informational sponsors of this stage of the journey.



The dominant company in Kolyma at the time was Dalstroy. Trust for industrial and road construction and mining of mineral resources of the region. Not only the famous Road of Bones was built by prisoners, Dalstroy's activities covered the territory from the Bering Sea in the east and up to the Lena River in the west. In the fall of 1941, barges began to arrive in Khandyga with prisoners who were to build the Khandyga-Kadykchan road.

[tolich]

In the fall of 1941, barges began to arrive in Khandyga with prisoners who were to build the Khandyga-Kadykchan road.

The camps were located every 10-15 km. Along the entire road from the hills to the road were laid boardwalk along which were moving thousands of wheelbarrows: to the road - loaded with sand and gravel, back to the hills, empty. A killing anthill working in a muscular way. First they built a "prologue" for one car. Then they moved on. The construction was simultaneously along the entire road. The construction of a 733 km long road was completed in August 1943.



Kolyma Highway begins in Yakutsk. Modern Kolyma in good condition: from start to finish served, there are bridges, serious repairs are underway.





Between Yakutsk and Khandyga there will be two ferry crossings. Both are paid. The first in Yakutsk itself through Lena and the second through Aldan before Khandyga. Having passed to Aldan in one sitting, they were hanging in anticipation of the ferry. Many cars have accumulated. After a couple of hours, two barges approached and took everyone away on their steel stomachs. We sailed for about an hour.

[tolich]

To the shore stuck second, which in another situation and should not pay attention, here the second means that jumping off the first ferry, will go ahead, lifting a large amount of dust, greatly impeding traffic and overtaking. Dust is the most difficult on this road. Creeping up to a cloud of dust and trying to see its source, and at least somehow see the oncoming lane, which becomes visible only when you level off during the overtaking with the rear wheels in front of the car.

After crossing to the village of Khandyga there is 50 km. In the village there is a gas station, traffic light, asphalt, hotel and cafe. They settled in the hostel of the mining and geological college. The cost of living 600 rubles per person, there is parking with a fence, video surveillance and hot water in the shower. Have washed, went to a cafe, had supper and went to bed early.

If you divide the entire Kolyma into segments for the passage from Yakutsk to Magadan with overnight stays in the civilization, the route is generally accepted: Yakutsk-Khandyga-UstNera-Sumuman-Magadan.





Having a good sleep, they rolled towards Ust-Nera. From Khandyga to the Warm key, where there is a gas station and a good cafe, 70 km. The mountains begin. Often in such a change of landscape there is a border between regions, this does not happen here, the boundless Yakutia is still going on.

[tolich]

Refueling and having lunch at the cafe, in the place of the abandoned village of Kyubum, we went to Ust-Nera, where the gasoline filled all the tanks to the outset, and stood up for the night. In the village itself there is a hotel, but there is nowhere to hide the motorcycles, camped 20 km on a creek.

The next stage of Ust-Nera is Susuman, with a length of 400 km. The road is beautiful, with passes and clamps along the rivers. Before Susuman, for 40 km, you can turn to the Tenkinskaya route, which is 150 km to Magadan less than the federal Kolyma. This road is more beautiful. many beautiful passes, it seems, they are 7 on this road.



After the pass of Gavryusha, we finally understand, we will not have enough gasoline to the village of Omchak. We pass one of the gold ore artels. I went to ask about fuel. It turned out that these are road workers serving one of the sections of the route. The worker came up, said that there were no elders, they left for Susuman, and without them they could not sell anything. They invited me to wait and drink tea.

A couple of hours later the workers arrived. gave us 20 liters of gasoline, refused money, instead they fed them, flooded the bathhouse, took them for fishing, and left for the night.

Having a good sleep, we roll on. Stopping in the village of Omchak to refuel and purchase food. In the area of ​​the Omchak River, one of the world's largest gold deposit is located, which is developing the Matrosov mine, one of the first mines in Kolyma. Thanks to him, the Tenkinskaya road now lives.

[tolich]

Actually, here I am because of another factory. Butugychag is one of the largest campsforced labor camps of the Gulag in Kolyma. He is like a beacon for me, present in every direction of the journey, which became so after reading the book "Black Stones" by Anatoly Zhigulin and the documentary descriptions of Inna Gribanova in the book "Tenka - a spiral turn". Here, tin and uranium were mined on an industrial scale.
This is a very beautiful and terrible place

For a small ford after the congress, a warning sign is posted on the road from the road about the increased radiation background and the prohibition to drink water from the stream. Water can be dialed in a nearby stream.

The history of this place is connected with the discovery of the uranium deposit. In this place there was a power station and garages for maintenance of equipment. The hydrometallurgical ore processing plant itself is located in the upper camp, on a straight line to which only 5 km, but, as is known, only birds fly straight. Need to bypass the hills. All the same to the factory, where the road ends about 10 kilometers, which took us about 2 hours because of the large number of participants on heavy motorcycles, which had to heavily chuck off aluminum basins of protection over the stones of the overgrown road.







Arriving at the factory, we set up camp. Further, where barracks and mines have been preserved, you can only walk.



What is Upper Butugychag? Once there was a road to the upper reaches of the stream. It connected "microdistricts" of Upper Butugychag and led to the production zone in the mines. Two kilometers, on the left side of the stream, are a number of buildings with barracks and a prison, followed by a climb to a steep hill. At the end of the narrow-gauge road along this hillock, the Gorniak camp site was located. Many mines start here. In each mine, ice, despite the summer time.

[tolich]

Stone buildings on the hills remind me of the ancient cities of the Incas in the mountains of Peru. Only the Incas were more than 500 years ago, and these cities were built by modern civilization, and grown here on the terraces are not corn. Inside the barracks, many instruments and assemblies have been preserved, but there is nothing touching, reminiscent of normal human life.





Meters in four hundred meters from the Miner, on the very top, the camp "Sopka". Here, in addition to the production facilities and mine workings, the weather station Butugychag was located. According to long-term observations of the meteorological station, it is revealed that this is one of the most windy places in the Magadan region. Now it is warm sunny weather, but on Sopka, with complete tranquility below, a very strong cold wind blows.



This place is called the Black Stones



Even the devil would not have found a place better for hard labor than Sopka. Lifelessly bare summits, as on the moon. Severe frosts and wind burned all life. In the summer there was not enough water. And in winter, when all the brooks froze, they used snow. The gang sawed it with a saw and, putting the cube on a stick, carried it to the kitchen.





By sunset we return to the camp. We have supper, we share our impressions of what we saw. At me this place has caused terrible oppressive feeling of cruelty against a background of rare bright beauty

The next day we drove to Magadan, arranging a beach holiday on the Sea of ​​Okhotsk for the cries of sea gulls and summer.

[Lovetheworld]

Very nice stories and photos!

[tolich]

Kola Peninsula. Journey to the Arctic Ocean. Northern part of the country beyond the Arctic Circle.

[maria41]

Beautiful photos and fascinating stories! Thank you.

[tolich]

Around Lake Onega. The Republic of Karelia



The lake, into which more than a thousand rivers flow.
A lake with more than a thousand islands.

I am going along secondary roads to the eastern part of the lake, where there is a cape with the name "Nose of the demon", on which animals, painted several thousand years ago, sit.









Belozersk is one of the oldest cities in Russia

[Boudicca]

Beautiful pictures and nice story! Thank you for sharing!