Archeology pyramid of Spitsbergen. Pyramid village. Closing of a mine in the Russian village of Pyramida

The pyramid is located 120 km north of Longyearbyen, Norway, and was the world's northernmost coal mine. The prefix “the northernmost” here can be substituted for everything: “the northernmost monument to Lenin” or “the northernmost swimming pool in the world” and so on, whatever your imagination allows. In 1998, coal mining ended and the village was mothballed. In the 1980s, up to 1000 people lived in the village; when Lebedev visited this place in the 2000s, only a crazy German lived here. Due to the special status of Spitsbergen (any state could conduct economic activity there), the Soviet Union tried to make this village a real showcase of communism; the Norwegians were jealous of how luxuriously a citizen of the USSR lived. It was a real paradise, getting here was considered real luck.

The pyramid is located in a picturesque location at the foot of a mountain, similar in shape to a real pyramid overlooking the Nordenskiöld glacier. During the difficult crisis years of the conservation of the village, when no one remained in the Pyramid for the winter, vandals ruled here. The Norwegians came on snowmobiles and took away everything that could be taken away. For example, in the Kroa bar in Longyearbyen there is a bust of Lenin, it is just from the Pyramid. The city could have become another ghost town, like Pripyat in Ukraine, but we came to our senses in time and are now trying to breathe new life into the city through tourism.

And now a little history.
There is constant debate about who was the first to discover this polar archipelago. The Pomors of Spitsbergen have been known as "Grumant" since the 15th century; at the entrance to the harbors, the Russians left wooden crosses with the names of those who erected them. The Pomors left traces of settlements, there is no doubt - they were the first to engage in fishing on the distant island of Spitsbergen. Radiocarbon dating of the objects shows that they are much earlier in time than the Viking journeys to these lands. The Norwegians, of course, claim the opposite. Allegedly, the Pomors arrived much later and brought with them old utensils and used centuries-old logs in the construction of houses, so radiocarbon analysis does not count :) Ours claim that the Vikings only sailed to Bear Island, which they called “Svalbard,” i.e. cold earth in Norwegian. The question is quite political.

Officially, the island was discovered by the Dutch navigator Barents, who was looking for the shortest route from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The discovery of new islands led to the fact that whaling companies settled here; what’s more, the bowhead whale produced 1.5 tons of baleen and 30 tons of blubber!

The British and Danes were the first to declare their territorial claims to this land. Unlike Western Europeans, our people felt great on Spitsbergen, built camps and spent the winter in harsh conditions. Norwegians actively began to appear at the end of the 19th century, the land was officially recognized as “no man's land” just at this time. The issue of the legal status of the islands was supposed to be resolved in 1914 between Russia, Norway and Sweden, but due to the First World War the issue was returned to only in 1920, the Soviet Union was not invited to the Paris Conference, but the possibility of Russian rights to use natural and other resources before the USSR joined the treaty. The treaty itself recognized sovereignty over the islands for Norway, but the Norwegians pledged not to build military bases and fortifications on the islands, and now the most interesting thing: “citizens of all countries that signed the treaty, along with the Norwegians, have the right of free access to the archipelago for shipping, industrial, and commercial activities.” and commercial transactions on conditions of complete equality.

In other words, the islands actually belong to Norway, but any company or any citizen can live on the island and use its resources. A unique situation!

Ours in 1924, we joined the agreement, bought the land plots managed by the Arktikugol company, its task was simple - to provide the northern part of Russia with coal. Until 1941, two mines operated - in Barentsburg and Grumant, and a third village - Pyramid - was built. Every day the ships departed for Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. During the war, all the workers were evacuated to the north of England, and after the war, in 1946, the first miners and builders arrived, restored two villages in 3 years and completed the Pyramid in 1956.

So, it turns out that we had three settlements, the first is Grumant, which was mothballed in 1961, the miners say that when the coal runs out in other places, they can return here, the explored reserves will last for a long time. The second village is Barentsburg, an active village with the Russian Consulate, a swimming pool, a school and other infrastructure, I will write about it later. The most interesting is the third mine, Pyramid.

My first story will be about him.

And it all started with this issue of the Russian Reporter; in 2009, I read the article “The Archipelago NO WAY” about this place and got excited. I knew I'd get here. Necessarily

Our ship is in the port, the Russians call it the “polar girl”, the port of registration is Tromsø, in the winter it takes athletes to the fjord mountains, in the summer it takes tourists to the Pyramid and Barentsburg.

The most important thing is to be lucky with the weather, then 3 hours of sailing will seem like a pleasant walk. In total, two ships carry it to the Pyramid in the summer.

Barents, the discoverer of the island, wrote this: “The land along which we sailed was hilly and elevated, but they were not mountains, although the hills looked like sharp spiers, so the land was piled on Spitsbergen.”

Northern nature is gorgeous, of course

Guide Vadim talks in Norwegian and English about the animal world and the history of the island. Basically, half of the tourists are from mainland Norway, the rest are a complete hodgepodge of Germans, French, and Americans.

Approaching the Pyramid

Buildings, view from the water

We are greeted by the bus and the tour guide Sasha from St. Petersburg, a colorful character with a “moose” gun. You can’t go without a gun; polar bears are extremely dangerous animals. Interestingly, the killing of a polar bear is investigated by the police; shooting can only be done in self-defense, which still needs to be proven. The role of the police is performed by the governor from Norway or, as he is called here, the Susselman. The punishments and fines here are severe, they say that in times of famine, our people killed deer, and they were with chips, and the Norgs (that’s what the Norwegians are called) immediately flew in by helicopter and tied everyone up. The fines are scary!

Let's take a walk around the village

Today, several people spend the winter on the Pyramid and receive guests at the hotel. Surprisingly, on polar nights in winter there are more guests at the hotel. Traveling by snowmobile from Norwegian Longyearbyen through the archipelago is now very popular. Pyramid is a good transit and overnight point for travelers. In the summer, the staff returns, about 10 people, plus this year Tajiks arrived who are engaged in cutting and recycling scrap metal. Most of “ours” are Ukrainians; the salary in Svalbard will not greatly impress the average Russian.

Near the pier there is a magnificent view of the glacier

At one time they opened a farm here, the experiment was so successful that they exported meat and milk to Longyearbyen.

It is forbidden to die on the archipelago and this is not a joke. If this misfortune does happen to you, the body will be taken to the mainland. This is connected with polar bears that tear up graves. The guides joke that if you want to live forever, move to Spitsbergen, it is forbidden to die here :) The building in which the men lived was called “London”, the building with women was called “Paris”.

The main street of 60 Let October, which led to “Paris,” was called “Champs Elysees,” and besides, there are actually fields here, where from? Several ships with black soil arrived from the USSR to the Pyramid, so you can safely tell foreigners that you are standing on Russian soil :) Previously they were not allowed to walk on the grass, even if you were not a dog or a child

We went to the Palace of Culture, which is in a dilapidated state

Reminded me a bit of Pripyat

Dried plants in pots in the dining room

Mosaic there

Monument to the first lily of the valley that bloomed on the Pyramid

Soviet ghost town Pyramid on the island of Spitsbergen

Walking along the Pyramid, the feeling that “we could have, but again we screwed everything up” does not let go; this feeling always creeps in when you hear stories about some “Russian California” or about “the entry of Crimea into the Ukrainian SSR.”

And here is the northernmost grandfather Lenin, looking at the glacier

Elena Aleksandrovna from Donetsk treats you to candy and bakes buns for 3 euros, cheerfully speaks Russian and accepts any currency. Except for rubles, of course :)

Perhaps the most expensive sugar buns in the world :) But take two! Delicious!!! After a warm conversation, we return to the ship.

Tajiks are at work, they recently hired these guys because they can pay less. I work more, don’t drink.

There is a bar on the ship that serves waffles. After the Pyramid, lunch begins.

By the way, the food is handled by a hired chef, I hope that you will be as lucky as me and you will try a real whale steak! Only three countries refused to sign the agreement on whaling: Japan, Norway and Iceland. The quotas are getting smaller and smaller every year, so don’t miss the chance to try whale in Svalbard.

A count of the animals seen is kept on a special board, that is, in 2 months we saw 6 polar bears. We didn’t see a single one, which is understandable; in the summer they move to the north and northeast.

What else should I add? Norgs are cunning, almost all the land on Spitsbergen has been declared nature reserves, you can’t dig into them, it is forbidden to conduct economic activities in the reserves. They infringe on our people in the sky too, the contract does not say a word about the sky, they are allowed to fly only for work reasons, every flight is literally begged for. This greatly hinders the development of villages, because with the Mi-8 it would be possible to quickly transport tourists from the airport to the Pyramid, but the Norwegians don’t want competition and don’t want us to stay here for a long time. I was told how the locals put obstacles in the way of those who decided to open their own business here, for example, the Italian who built a museum with his enthusiasm, they did not help at all, although it was a useful business. But no, if I were Norwegian, otherwise...

HOW TO GET TO THE PYRAMID?
The most interesting thing is that a charter from Moscow flies to Longyearbyen from Moscow once a month from Arktikugol. Then you don't need any visa (remember, I wrote that this is part of Norway, but with a special status). The average cost of a one-way flight will be 15 thousand rubles.

The tourist option is the simplest: we fly to Longyearbyen and take a boat excursion to the Pyramid. You can stay at a local hotel and return back on the same ship a few days later. Norwegians also go to the pyramid on foot (trekking paths), kayaks, and snowmobiles in winter. If you are a researcher, then you have a chance to go there on a long scientific trip (biologists, glaciologists, etc. are welcome). On my flight from Oslo to Longyearbyen there were several Russian scientists from Murmansk; our Mi-8 helicopter transports them to the Pyramid. You can also get to Pyramid for work; on the Arktikugol website, in the vacancies section, someone is always needed, some kind of steam turbine operator or assistant captain of a small boat, however, they will most likely send you to Barentsburg and the contract is signed for 2 years, if you want to leave earlier, you do not receive vacation pay and pay for your return home yourself. The easiest way is to get a job as a guide for the season, they say there is a very good aura there, very quiet and calm. You can forget about the Internet and take a break from your mobile phone. Why not an ecological holiday?)

There are very few Russians here. Guide Vadim said that I was the third one on their ship this season. One day, two Russian girls from Tyumen pitched a tent right in the port, waiting for a morning excursion on a ship. Of course, the security forbade them to be in the port, they called the ship's workers, who had no choice but to invite the ladies onto the ship :) Most of our tourists, if there are any, are cruisers, or those who already like to climb mountains and ride snowmobiles.

I’ll post more glaciers in the next post so as not to overload this post.

Abandoned Soviet Pyramid December 6th, 2013

The settlement was founded by the Swedes in 1910. It deserves its name because of the pyramid-shaped mountains surrounding it. The main occupation of the population was coal mining.
In 1927, the territory on which the settlements were located, along with the coal mines, was sold to the Soviet Union. Between 1960 and 1980 the population reached 1,000 people, however, starting in 1988, people began to leave the settlement and by 2000 it was completely deserted.

Now you can only get to the Pyramid by boat or snowmobile.

In the vast far north there is a place that for many years symbolized the parity of world systems, socialist and capitalist. It was here that the northernmost frontier of the Cold War took place, and it was here, in this sterile, pacifying cold, that “potential opponents” got along for a very long time, worked and even fell in love. The country of sharp mountains, Spitsbergen, also known as Svalbard, was, as it were, no one’s. Moreover, the sons of the Soviet people on this land had almost more rights than the subjects of Norway, the legal owners of the archipelago. Here was the longest ruble.

It all started with the fact that in 1912 Russian polar explorers found more than 30 deposits of good coal on wild, useless Svalbard. The countries, weakened by the world war, began to divide the archipelago, and in 1920 they agreed: no wars, only work! Since then, not a single cruiser has the right to moor here (there are weapons on the islands to scare polar bears).
At the turn of 1920-30. Eighty square kilometers of land were purchased by the USSR from the Swedes, and mines and mining settlements began to be built here. The most famous of which is the village (and now “ghost town”) Pyramid, next to the mine of the same name and a kilometer-high mountain.

Over the 60 years of existence of the once mighty Arktikugol trust, Pyramid, the northernmost mine in the world, gave the country almost 8 million tons of coal - expensive, unprofitable, but “light”. It did not appear “on the mountain”, but rolled down the mountain. The money ran out and the last ton of black gold was mined on March 31, 1998. The last trolley is still waiting for something. But there’s nothing to wait for...

Since then, both the mine and the town at its foot are dead. To put it in clerical language, they are mothballed. Some of the workers returned to the mainland, abandoning everything except their savings; others got a job at a mine in Barentsburg. Instead of the previous 1,100 inhabitants, there are now usually thousands of noisy seagulls and five people: one “hermit” who has taken on the role of a tourist guide, and four workers who prevent the houses from falling apart.

In Soviet times, the Pyramid had everything a Soviet person needed: a good salary, scarce products, and even the world’s northernmost swimming pool. There are a lot of options for cultural leisure. A cultural center with a cinema, a library, a sports complex where dumbbells, exercise machines, balls remain...

It's 79 degrees north latitude here and it's always very cold. However, Soviet biologists acclimatized mainland lawn grass in the Pyramid to brighten up the tired looks of miners on a long polar day.

Sometimes in summer there are tourists here, who are usually brought by water from Longyearbyen. The trip takes two hours, exploring the town takes the same amount. For a dromomaniac photographer, this is a frozen polar paradise. It is officially prohibited to enter houses and touch anything inside, but, as they say, if you don’t get caught, you won’t…

That's why artifacts are often stolen - “as a souvenir.”

The future of the ghost village is uncertain. Norway is introducing strict environmental laws, so there is no talk of any revival of coal mining. In general, the Russian Federation is not up to the Pyramid now. Businessmen see this very well, and someone is planning to mine and dry sea medicinal algae here. And someone wants to build a tourist complex for lovers of skiing and dog sledding. There is somewhere to turn around.

In the meantime, perhaps the main attraction of the ghost town is the Pyramid, the world’s northernmost monument to Ilyich. The stone leader indifferently surveys the distances of unfinished communism.

Here's what you can learn from the report on the Accounts Chamber (2004)

The Pyramid mine is a structural production unit of the FSUE GT Arktikugol trust, located on state-owned land plots of 73.5 hectares, and is the world’s northernmost village and mine, commissioned in 1956.

At the time of liquidation, the mine’s balance sheet included a mine, a power plant, a seaport, a helipad, a water supply and communications system, including space communications. The total number of employees was almost 550 people.

Houses in the village with a total living area of 3931 sq. m. m, mainly made of brick, cinder blocks, using reinforced concrete, concrete and metal structures. They housed 486 apartments, 56 hotel rooms and a 26-bed dormitory. There was a hospital, a community center, a swimming pool, a kindergarten, and other industrial and socio-cultural facilities. At the time of the inspection, most of the buildings and structures were in satisfactory condition, and the existing deformation of the foundations in some of them was local in nature.

All of the above objects turned out to be virtually abandoned. The decision to develop a feasibility study for the liquidation of the Pyramid mine was made at an extended meeting with the First Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy of the Russian Federation with the participation of the Russian Ministry of Economy, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, JSC Rosugol Company and FSUE GT Arktikugol (minutes dated July 28 .97 No. E-5332 pr). The mine liquidation project was approved by order of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy of Russia dated March 23, 1998 No. 94 “On approval of the Pyramid mine liquidation project of the Arktikugol State Trust” and adjusted on September 3, 1998. Technical work to liquidate this mine began in August 1997, and shipping of commercial coal ceased on December 31 of the same year. Coal mining was completely stopped on April 1, 1998.

Considering that when developing a feasibility study for the liquidation of the Pyramid mine, the possibility of using all buildings and structures in the future was laid down, the decision to liquidate the Pyramid mine and mothball the residential village should be considered premature. This area remains very promising in terms of development of industrial and tourism activities.

As of 04/01/98, the remaining balance reserves of coal amounted to 3343.0 thousand tons, including industrial reserves - 1082.0 thousand tons. In 1990, an oil and gas field with predicted gas reserves of up to 4 billion cubic meters was discovered in the area where the Pyramid mine is located. m and oil - 25 million tons (Petunia Bay).
To this day, the issues of resuming the activities of the preserved infrastructure of a residential village remain relevant. There are also proposals from foreign businessmen on this issue, but they have not been considered by anyone.

August 14th, 2013