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Pyramid: a Soviet ghost town at the very edge of the earth. Village pyramid Pyramid soviet ghost town

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 life into the city new life due to 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 Pacific Ocean. The discovery of new islands led to whaling companies settling here, and 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 these 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. I wonder what murder polar bear is being 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, who receive guests at the hotel, surprisingly, on a polar night in winter time There are more hotel guests. 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 doesn’t say a word about the sky, they allow us 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 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. The 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 will post more glaciers in the next post so as not to overload this post

The Soviet ghost town is located above the Arctic Circle. This place seems frozen by time itself and surrounding nature does everything possible to accept artificial buildings into itself. Deer, seals and foxes are so far the only inhabitants of the place that in the Soviet Union was called the new frontier.

Name

You should not look for mystical implications in the name of the village. The town was founded at the foot of a pyramid-shaped mountain, that’s the whole secret. To Barentsburg, the nearest settlement, from here as much as 120 kilometers, so people rarely wander into these ruins.

Buffet

Actually, the first settlement was founded here by the Swedes. The Spetsbergens Svenska Kolfalt company equipped the mine back in 1911, and in 1931 it sold the entire mine to the Soviet trust Arktikugol. Before the outbreak of World War II, the USSR managed to rebuild a small village and its own mine here, but then the residents had to be evacuated.

A thorough approach

After the war, in March 1947, the first street ran from the port to the Pyramid. The village grew, geologists found more and more new mining workings. Over the course of several years, approximately 70 thousand tons of coal were mined here, and by 1980 more than a thousand people lived in the Pyramid.

Fairytale city

The plans were to turn the small village into a new regional center, around which new settlements would already grow. The pyramid acquired large high-rise buildings, its own swimming pool, libraries and even a winter garden. People themselves sought to improve their lives, realizing that maintaining high morale in the Far North could become a vital issue.

Royal word

Until 1998, Pyramid remained the northernmost operating mine in the entire world. In 1995, the village was visited by the Norwegian king Harald V himself, who for some reason was delighted with the local architecture and for this gave the Pyramid the title of “pearl” of the archipelago.

Northern Ghost

The decision to close the mine was made at the end of 1997. At the time of closure, the annual coal production plan was 135 thousand tons, or 57 percent of the mine's design capacity. The decrease in the level of coal production was mainly due to the impossibility of timely replenishment of the mining front due to difficult geological conditions. The main reasons for the decision to liquidate the mine were limited reserves and high costs of coal mining associated with the need to carry out a large volume of preparatory mining, as well as the constantly growing costs of localizing an endogenous fire in the mine, which arose in 1970 and is still active today.

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 whaling companies settling here, and the bowhead whale produced 1.5 tons of baleen and 30 tons of blubber!

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!

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

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.

Northern nature is gorgeous, of course

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 being 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.

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

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.

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?)

I will post more glaciers in the next post so as not to overload this post

Good afternoon my name is Vladimir, I'm 33 years old and I'm a guide (which allows me to travel a lot). In the spring of 2013, I worked in the village of Pyramid, which is located on the Spitsbergen archipelago (Arctic).

Since this is the 78th degree north latitude, then from here to north pole close at hand - about 1300 km. There are only 2 cities in the entire archipelago where people live, but I went to work in the officially evicted village of Pyramid, in which no one officially lives today...

Here, look at what one spring day is like at the edge of the Earth (to be absolutely precise, it’s March 26, when it’s already very close to the onset of the polar day)

under the cut there are 68 photos

The pyramid was mothballed in 1998 and stood as an absolute ghost town for almost a dozen years. Now it is an increasingly popular destination on Norwegian tourist routes. For a long time The pyramid remained the northernmost settlement in the world, and here many things have a prefix in the form of the words “northernmost”: the world’s northernmost coal mine, the world’s northernmost swimming pool, a monument to Lenin, a working hotel, the world’s northernmost piano (more precisely even two) - in a word, a piece of the Arctic, where by some miracle people managed to live and work.

The mine closed as unprofitable in 1998, the people were taken out, and the outpost of socialism, which, to the surprise of many foreigners, was so close to them, gradually turned into a refuge for Arctic foxes and polar bears.

After a decade of oblivion, it was decided to revive the Pyramid, inviting tourists to take a look at how a simple Soviet miner lived and worked. Tourists didn’t believe it at first, but then stood in long lines for tours.
There are six of us here. “If you think that the pyramid is still a ghost town, then in front of you stands one of them, and the only one who speaks English,” I often say to tourists, who in response give me wide smiles.

Here is one of my working days in the Arctic.
1. I wake up at about 7:30. Please note that there is no cellular network signal on the phone, there is no radio, no TV, no Internet at all, you can try to catch Norwegian cellular communication only in one place, at the so-called reiki (also known as emotional spot or spot of hope) - the usual geodetic rod, stuck by an unknown person on the outskirts of the village, but very attentive, for which he bows to the ground.

2.I live in the Tulip Hotel - a Soviet hotel built 9 years before it was closed, this is my room, which, by the way, I have to pay for from my salary *))

3. Brushing your teeth and washing your face - everything is like ordinary people

4. During breakfast I have time to fill out the tables on accommodation and excursion tours for the previous day. I have breakfast, to be honest, whatever I have, recently I found some cereal left by someone. With condensed milk and coffee - an excellent option.

5. Further, the Arctic, nevertheless, makes itself felt; To go outside you have to put all this on yourself, this kind of arctic cabbage comes out. The carbine is not here for beauty - there are bear trails around the village, in addition, while I guide guests through the village, I am responsible for their safety. So, we put on two pants, all kinds of thermal clothes, a windproof anorak and take a carbine with a knife.

That's it, it's almost 8 am. The sun has been shining since 4:30, and soon it will stop setting altogether. Let's go out!

On the street I am already met by my friends - arctic foxes. Saigon - that's what I called one of them. He is the bravest of all and takes treats straight from his hands, and in addition, he often gets into fights with another fox named Sid. By the way, Sid is the youngest and extremely handsome, I will show him to you in a separate photoset someday. You can't just walk past them.

6.Today I feed Saigon half a potato and a chicken bone.

7. This is what a real arctic fox looks like (and this is what the translation of “arctic fox” sounds like in Russian) at breakfast.

8. View of Mount Pyramid (the village is named after it). Under the mountain is a machine shop, which is still full of equipment, and on the left is the so-called “madhouse”, a house for couples with children.

While the trial is going on, in the morning I can have time to work out in the rocking chair, where, in fact, I’m heading.

9. This wooden building was called “London” because single unmarried men lived there. A sort of Arctic Soviet humor. By the way, not far from it there is the same 4-story brick house named “Paris”, once inhabited by single women. And how best traditions genre, between the houses there is a dining room, apparently for social meetings.

10. The thermometer at the garage shows minus 10 in the sun. But it just seems so simple to him, in the shade it’s about 20 degrees below zero, and every meter per second of wind cools you down by another 2 degrees. This thermometer is the biggest optimist this morning.

11. The garage is spacious. All the life support of the village is located there - a coal boiler house and all the cars, including everyone’s favorite 22-year-old Toyota, which some Norwegian guests called nothing less than a Limousine

12. Yesterday in the garage they found 4 signs, something like slogans. I like this one the most

13. Here she is - a rocking chair. In fact, it would be difficult without her, since in terms of sports there is little choice: running through snowdrifts or racing after arctic foxes

14. C good morning, Pyramid!

You need to do it in a hat and gloves and quickly. The room is not heated. Here, in general, you do everything quite quickly, although time sometimes seems to freeze at one point altogether...

15. The dips on the uneven bars were a success, which can’t be said about the photo, sorry.*)))

16. That's it, it's time to go back to the hotel.

17. By the way, in passing: who wants the keys to Paris?

18. You can take a short road, or you can take a long one, I always choose the long one - there I always look at the tiny wooden airport building. Surrounded by mountains, the building looks like David against Goliath

19. Meanwhile, I approach the Tulip Hotel. A metal flower of the same name was installed during the ceremony to commemorate the day when a tulip suddenly bloomed on the lawn, which was brought here on a barge. By the way, Pyramid is the only place on the archipelago where in summer you can find tall grass, just the same kind of grass. In winter, a local species of Arctic deer tries to dig it out from under the snow.

20. Near the entrance - short biography hotel

I have time to have a little snack. Basically, there is a carbohydrate “diet” here - the helicopter brought several bags of rice, flour, and potatoes. But with protein foods it’s more complicated. True, there is cod, and if when you hear the word cod, people on the continent usually turn their noses up suspiciously, but here it is real, northern, delicious *))

21. Now you need to go out and stomp to the staff for the communication session. You can walk - it’s about 20 minutes one way, but today we’ll take advantage of the benefits of civilization - a Toyota Helux. Along the way there is a sign like this:

22. The Pyramid’s coal past ended in 1998...

23. I change SIM cards in the car. The Moscow card accepts Net Com and is insanely expensive, the Norwegian Telenor is much cheaper and should seem to be better able to catch this weak signal coming from across the fjord. It's almost 10 am

24. Behind me is the same rail. Photo taken from the roof of a pickup truck

Then the phone makes a plaintive squeak in the cold, and, having said goodbye, thus turns off... okay, this often happens here: you always wonder who can stand it longer - fingers in the cold typing messages or the battery. Today the battery failed. I’m going to make a copy of that photo that I saw once on the Internet.

25. These are boxes with communications laid inside, and you can walk on top. It turned out pretty similar.

I’m going to the port, I need to check the houses for tourists there. Today we are waiting for three managers of the largest travel company in Spitsbergen. But I don’t know yet that they will actually stay at the hotel...

26. In the port there is a huge belt along which coal was loaded onto ships heading to the continent. Now it is just an openwork structure made of metal and wood, when viewed from a respectful distance

27. Nearby is an abandoned building of a former thermal power plant. It probably made the most painful impression on me when I was there: everything inside seemed to be exploded. A movie about the war was filmed here, and then people from the crowd said that they felt uneasy inside. In addition, there is constant noise from half-torn metal sheets; personally, for the first time I took the carbine off the safety lock there, when because of these sounds it seemed to me that someone was following me.. *))

I have about an hour and a half before the group of tourists arrives (based on the experience of previous days), so it’s time to look at a couple more barns, which always contain something interesting. Let's move on!

28. This picture is found in one of the barns

29. At first I thought it was paint or chemical reagents, but then, opening one of the drawers, I find the contents inside

30. I don’t know about you, but for me it’s incredible: all these metal barrels and six discs packed in each of them - all these are films that were shown at the Pyramid!

31. It’s as if the film factory was planning a move, but was never able to take away all its footage

32. We also came across two twin aliens, marked as “RNI 2.5”. If they came to life, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised; There are generally unusual things happening all around here.

33. Okay, let's move on. Not far from the beginning of the galleries along which the miners climbed and descended from the mountain there is coal training center. Everything is covered with the same snow. There is some kind of beep.

34. ...and also a fuse. "Check the circuit before you explode!" and check only from cover! It's good that you don't have to check anything. In addition, the shelters are all dark or covered with snow.

35. I go further to the barn, in which, according to stories, sports equipment was stored. This is what I really want to see. The contents inside speak for themselves. Judge for yourself.

36. And here’s the hit of the season, as they say: a bunch of bamboo ski poles! At 78 degrees north latitude, bamboo was actively used. Imagining Arctic skiers with poles like these, I couldn’t help but laugh, remembering the phrase “he combined the incongruous...”

I left there feeling like I had taken a ride in a time machine, and as a free option it also had a button to “make the surrounding atmosphere unreal.” I return to Tulip, where a group of guests have already arrived. All Norwegians. After a brief greeting, I take them first to see the dining room.

37. Actually inside, in the dining room

38. Meanwhile, guests are scurrying back and forth, photographing everything in their path *))

In front of the main staircase is the only mosaic in the entire archipelago. There was not a single tourist who did not freeze for a couple of seconds in front of her and then diligently began to take photographs.

39. Generally speaking, the dining room is so beautiful that I will give here a photograph in which there are no Norwegians. Judge for yourself:

Having said that, among other things, she also worked 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and all the food was free, I lead dumbfounded tourists along the main and only street named after the 60th anniversary of the Great October Revolution.

40. Traditional photo of the world’s northernmost Ilyich

41. Even though Ilyich is the most northern in the world, and has been standing here alone for many years, there is something slightly crazy in his facial expression (I photographed a lot of different images of Lenin, but this one is definitely a little crazy)

We come from KSK - a cultural and sports complex. Everything inside was preserved almost perfectly. On the walls are photographs of the latest performances of amateur ensembles. The stunned Norwegians seem to be gradually becoming envious of such luxury. There are no such permanent buildings in neighboring Norwegian Longyearbyen. A little later, when they find out about the existence of the pool, this will finally finish them off.

42. KSK (main foyer)

43. Gym

44. I show the Norwegians a small hall, something like a rocking chair. The first week I arrived, I trained here. At the words “and now I’ll show you a rocking chair in the style of Rocky Balboa,” everyone smiles broadly and agrees with what they see. By the way, the weights on the bar are made of lead, cast in some intricate shape.

45. On the second floor there is a library, from which only cards remained that could be used to order books, and a room with musical instruments. A tourist, having recognized the national Russian instrument, “gives jazz” *))

46. View from the second floor of KSK

47. Let's go to the pool now. The semi-Olympic standard is 25 meters. While the guys are in shock and confusion wandering around the perimeter, looking at the wooden decorative grilles, as well as the commentator’s booth somewhere under the ceiling, I manage to take a photo without them *))

48. This concludes the substantive, or rather spiritual, part of the excursion. Let's move on to our daily food. Today I have lunch with tourists.

49. Usually they serve borscht, main course and salad. All Scandinavians love borscht, although it is practically impossible for them to pronounce this word.

50. After this, the group leaves, and everyone waves goodbye to me. There are generally few people here and it is not customary to just leave without saying goodbye.

51. After their departure, there is a period of relatively free time during which you can drink coffee or read an e-book.

52. Then the thought overtakes me that in Moscow, for example, even in winter, my jacket is not so heavy, and all because I usually don’t carry in my pockets what I have to wear here. I empty the contents from my pockets, leaving only my hat and balaclava.

Around three in the afternoon I get dressed and go out again. One Norwegian guide from one of the local travel companies arrived. Good man, communicative. Once served on the Soviet-Norwegian border (his phrase in complicated Russian: “stop! Throw your hands away! This is the border Soviet Union"I remembered for a long time with a laugh.) I promised to show him the mechanical shop, which we don’t usually take tourists to.

53.Actually Casper

54. Came with my brother and sister. We climb into the machine shop. They are genuinely surprised at the sight of everything that remains there.

55. technicians dream

Then we see that another group is going to Tulip. So it's time to go back. In parting, I ask Kasper to bring wine from Longyearbyen to celebrate the birthday of Alexandrovna, our cook. He promises to convey it with one of the guides, and he himself says that he will go with a group of skiers to the continent for 2 weeks. Well, I hope our courier service (as I call these transmissions from Longyearbyen behind my back) will work. And of course, good luck to you Casper, come back!
He takes me to the hotel, a group is already sitting in the hall.

56. No one here needs to be warned about taking off their outerwear and shoes. Everyone knows this themselves.

57. Meanwhile it's almost 4 o'clock

Here, at first, you are very surprised by the sight of a person with a huge knife and a carbine behind his back, especially if it is a girl. But then you quickly get used to it - everyone walks like that here. Arctic life dictates its own standards of behavior.

58. Journalist for a local Norwegian newspaper

If you thought that why I don’t show other residents of our commune here, it’s because everyone is busy with their own business and we don’t cross paths very often.

59. A rare shot that we manage to capture: Petrovich (who is in charge here and is often jokingly called the “governor of the Pyramid”) and our cook Alexandrovna.

60. Petrovich and I are going to the port to check out the houses, that’s what they call three trailers here, converted into something like a hostel. The houses are ok. I go out to photograph the Nordenskiöld glacier. It seems to be no more than 4 kilometers away, but in fact this is an optical illusion. 17 kilometers - that's how far it is.

But still, I want to show you the rest of the residents of our village. We return to the garage. I'm looking for Vitalik and Oleg.

61. Finally I find Vitalik. He, too, like me, is from Russia. In fact, they say about him that he is closed, but this is not so. I photograph him fixing some equipment while he tells me a story about how last year a crew from National Geographic did a photo shoot with him for several hours in a row...

62. Then I look for Oleg. Here everything is more complicated, you have to ask permission to take a picture of him. He ends up posing in front of a coal boiler.

63. I’m leaving the garage. Guests are about to arrive.

64. Then Petrovich arrives on a scooter and says that some group has already arrived. These are the guys we are waiting for. Now he will call me to the hotel on this device by nameViking

These were the same managers from the company who turned out to be surprisingly sociable and pleasant guys. If you didn’t know that they work for the largest travel company on the archipelago, you could easily mistake them for ordinary tourists. We came on a visit to see the hotel and decide on the possibility of accommodating guests there for the night. As a result, we talked until 23-00, during which time they bought 3 bottles of vodka and a myriad of beer, asked to play “Russian artist Vychotsky” (which meant Vysotsky) and show all the rooms of the hotel. Moreover, no one looked drunk.

65. At the end of the evening, they bought vests and proudly flaunted them:

66. That's it, time to go to bed.

67. At the end of the day, I have time to run out to photograph the night, which in a week will completely disappear as a class, giving way to the polar day, but the frost of about 30 degrees does not allow me to concentrate on the camera. In the end it turns out somehow, but nevertheless:

That's all, the day is over!

Instead of an afterword: I almost forgot to show you my best friend Sid! Always remain as optimistic and always smile as he does *)))

68. Sid

The Pyramid mine is a structural production subdivision of the FSUE GT Arktikugol trust, located on land plots with an area of 73.5 hectares, state-owned, 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, seaport, a helipad, a water supply and communications system, including space communications. Total number the workforce 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, kindergarten, 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 Russian Federation with the participation of the Ministry of Economy of Russia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, JSC Rosugol Company and FSUE GT Arktikugol (protocol dated July 28, 1997, 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.

(from the report of the Accounts Chamber 2004)

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