Kovdor - the capital of Hyperborea begins to build in Russia

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

In the coming years, another attraction may appear in the north of Russia - much more exotic than the residence of Father Frost in Veliky Ustyug. In the Kovdor district of the Murmansk region - in a bear's corner, as the residents themselves admit, - they took up the project "Kovdor - the capital of Hyperborea". The goal is to establish tourism in order to stop walking with an outstretched hand for money for the development of the area.

“After conducting counts of upland (game) with the game manager V. Danchenko, I found interesting stone slabs. The height of the upper and lower slabs is about one meter. The upper one is held by three stones arranged in a triangle. It is impossible to drive up by equipment. Helicopter lift such plates too. To lift such plates, people need so many people that they simply cannot be approached. I informed Danchenko about this, he turned a deaf ear."

The current history of the self-proclaimed capital of Hyperborea began more than 20 years ago - in 1997, when the huntsman Vyacheslav Ternov discovered a 30-meter stone structure near the town of Kovdor, in the Murmansk region. I found it, entered it into the forester's diary - next to the working notes like "from the 1st to the 10th, the okushka and the medium-sized sizhok in the Fadeev Bay bite well," for 13 years. In 2010 Ternov decided to return to the search for interesting slabs. But I didn’t find it - moreover, as he himself admits, in the “like the devil takes away” mode: the car broke down, then the leg, then blisters all over the body right before the hike.

By the beginning of last year, the huntsman was convinced that he had discovered - neither more nor less - the entrance to Shambhala.

It is difficult to say what prompted Vyacheslav Vladimirovich to this conclusion. Maybe the materials of the expedition of the occultist Alexander Barchenko, who explored the Kola Peninsula in search of artifacts for the special department of the OGPU. Or maybe the programs of the Ren TV channel, dedicated to the secrets of Tibet and the Russian North, where Adolf Hitler was eager for the same esotericism. Both are mentioned in Ternov's diaries, and there are much more truths from TV there.

Well, there is more legend - less legend. A common story for Hyperborea, somewhere "beyond Boreas" - that is, with the north wind. That is, far to the north of ancient Greece, where the mysterious lands were not only given a name, but also an Olympic "curator" - Apollo himself. Since then, they have been looking for her. The options are different: Greenland, Ural, Taimyr, here is the Kola Peninsula. Or a continent like Atlantis sunken in the Arctic Ocean. The story is beautiful and rich in possible sequels. It seems like a possible northern entrance to Shambhala is a completely different myth, but why not.

For Kovdor, something else is more important: 30-meter slabs with three stones were found. Compared with other stone structures, here and there, scattered across the Kovdor district and the region as a whole. And they decided that all this should work for Kovdor and its environs - at least as tourist attractions. And the diary of the huntsman Ternov - it is quite possible that it will be published. As one of the souvenirs of Kovdor, the capital of Hyperborea.

But then the country ended

The local population is aging rapidly. Young people leave to work in Murmansk and other large cities

To Kovdor - 200 kilometers from Murmansk. Almost equally - along the federal highway, and then to the right along the so-called lapel. In winter, go - God forbid, if it's four hours. Not because the road is bad - it is a normal road, and in winter it is just better than in summer. But here any car in winter gives a suspension of snow - a veil that is not penetrated by the high beam. There is no time for speed: it would be in time to dodge the strayed oncoming.

There is a railway to Kovdor. There is no railway connection with the "mainland". The rails are used only for the transportation of goods of the Kovdorsky GOK - iron ore, apatite: the guarantee of the prosperity of a classic monocity. And the history of passenger trains here ended in the 2000s, when the planned losses turned into a deep minus. Thirty years ago - at its peak - there were 37 thousand inhabitants in the Kovdor region. Now there are half of them.

Kovdor in winter is light, squat, snowy. The stones, however, cannot be reached: the routes are already difficult, and in winter they are completely inaccessible. Even Lenin in front of the district administration is completely covered with snow. Only by the characteristic gesture and understand who that is.

“The city was supposed to develop, but the country ended here,” explains Sergey Somov, head of the Kovdor region. - Today the subsidy and the district's own earnings are fifty to fifty. The Combine is our everything, it is developing, but it will not become three or five times bigger. So, we have to think about what else to do.

The Hyperborean capital was invented about nine months ago - at one of the regular meetings with the management of the Eurochem company, which owns the GOK. The question arose: what is there in and around the city for a possible brand? They remembered about the stones. We went, looked, compared with artifacts nearby - near the village of Lovozero, for example.

- From the point of view of the unknown that we have - there was such a land of Hyperborea, - Somov argues. - Where was she? Old maps show that somewhere here. In the north. Why is Hyperborea not a myth? Traces are found. There are megaliths - both in our Kola Peninsula and in neighboring countries. We placed flags - and it turns out that everything is concentrated around Kovdor. Lovozero, Scandinavia, our own megaliths.

- You have a group of stones that exactly resemble several constellations of the Northern Hemisphere as they were seen 5 thousand years ago. And our search engines found this group a long time ago, - reflects the regional head. - You have a slab on stones - weighing huge tons - and this slab is exactly like the one that stands somewhere in Tibet … At least a reason to think about the capital of Hyperborea, no? In order not to walk around and complain about something that did not come true under the USSR.

Running from the good life

Of course, a lot did not come true. But a lot also came true. To begin with, the city itself, as such, is of post-war construction. A breadwinner factory, an excellent house of culture, not new, but decent housing stock and other infrastructure is not the worst memory of the USSR. Unlike a huge unfinished nine-story building at the entrance to the city. It has been standing since the late 80s, when the work stopped. What to do with it, they decided quite recently - to demolish it.

At the same time, one cannot say “Kovdor is a depressing place”. The point is not only that there is a GOK with salaries ranging from thirty thousand for workers to over a hundred thousand if you are a driver of a career BelAZ. There is simply something to compare with. At least at the other end of the geography of the Russian North.

In Magadan, for example, only last summer they thought that the planned (not yet built!) New pool is too small for the city - 25 by 8.5 meters. “A village pool,” the governor Sergei Nosov, who had just arrived to rule Kolyma, was indignant. - Offensive to the residents of the regional center.

Traditional Sami dwellings can also be a tourist attraction

In the 16-thousandth Kovdor - where there are an order of magnitude less people than in the Magadan region - the pool was built a long time ago: the same 25 meters, but eight lanes, even now to compete. They both compete and just swim. Both the court is normal, and the stadium is normal in winter, now it is ice. And the ski slope near the city is excellent, in perfect order. The variety of slopes and services that are nearby in the Murmansk region - on the Khibiny - are not yet available. But they claim less: lifts - 25 rubles at a time, while in Kirovsk and the surrounding area you will have to pay 300 for the lift.

- There is a cinema. There is a museum. There is a palace of culture. There are grocery stores. Manufactured goods stores, - here the regional head Sergei Somov pauses. - Well, in the age of internet services, there are many delivery options. There are no problems with getting to kindergartens, there are no queues for schools. Safety is on top: children go to school themselves, no problems, pah-pah-pah, at any time you can walk around the town. Small, compact, everything before our eyes.

With all this, there are more than 40% of pensioners in the region. And the percentage is growing because young people are leaving. Working at the GOK is a reliable business, but hardly for everyone. For those who want to work somewhere else - Murmansk, Moscow, St. Petersburg.

“It's more interesting there,” Somov admits. - Although after a few years, everyone who left realizes that he dreamed of a fulfilled life - to go to theaters, museums, exhibitions … But in fact, he left for work at seven in the morning. And returned at nine in the evening at best. Therefore, we need Hyperborea - so that people are interested in living here.

From Hyperborea to Santa Claus

“It is difficult to explain to people that such projects have been developing for years, if not decades,” admits Sergei Somov. - But it's all for the best. It is the denial of your proposal that makes you work it out more carefully.

What is true is true: a project from the series “to come up with a chip and raise the city” is being promoted from four to six years. Veliky Ustyug is like the capital of Father Frost - and even more so. But then they feed them - for decades, if everything works out. The five-thousandth Myshkin in the Yaroslavl region pulled himself out back in the mid-90s, through the Mouse Museum. Now they receive 150 thousand tourists annually. The Old Believer "Semeyskie" villages in Buryatia - Tarbagatai and its environs - sell colors and traditions. As soon as a bus with the Japanese departs, another one arrives immediately, already with the Germans. Although where is Buryatia, and where is Germany …

It is here that the new history of the self-proclaimed capital of Hyperborea begins

These places, of course, are closer to the homeland of Santa Claus in the Finnish Rovaniemi. It also started there with a wooden house, and now there are ice caves, dozens of hotels, cafes and other industries. From Rovaniemi to Kovdor - less than 250 kilometers in a straight line. True, there is no straight line. There are a couple of tens of kilometers to the Finnish border, but there is no road. There is no border crossing either. Therefore, in the long-term plans - to do everything so that all this appears. So that the same Chinese tourists - lovers of the northern lights, arriving in Murmansk, come to Kovdor, spend time in Hyperborea, and then go to Santa.

“And any European tourist will be able to do the same, only the other way around - come to us from Finland, and then to Murmansk to fly to other Russian cities,” says Sergei Somov. - Finnish municipalities are also interested in transit, we actively communicate.

The level of the issue is, of course, not a municipal one. Therefore, the immediate task is a little more modest: TASED. The idea of a priority development area was tested at the investment forum in Sochi, the reviews are positive. There are nine applications - tourism, services, IT, metalworking, mining.

- We have mica, a huge deposit. Russia buys mica derivatives from China, which receives raw materials from the island of Madagascar. And here - buy a license, develop. There are quartz. There is a stone for the production of crushed stone. But all this lies in the ground, because logistics eats up possible competitive advantages, - states the head of the Kovdor region. - Therefore - tourism. There is land, there are buildings, there are people. Jobs and taxes are what matters to us. We want to walk less with outstretched hands.

Under the Hyperborean project, they are planning to equip a recreation center by the Tolva River. “According to the guests of the capital, this is reasonable,” writes the regional newspaper “Kovdorchanin”. - People want a comfortable stay on the banks of a beautiful reservoir. And the top of the dreams of tourists will serve as a fairy tale about ancient Hyperborea, which either existed or not. Let scientists, historians, archaeologists prove the truth …"

In the meantime - magnets, calendars and other souvenirs with the word "Kovdor" stylized as runes. And in the restaurant "Hyperborea" - the former cafe "Uyut" - there is a lot of venison and fish, in particular, Scandinavian fish soup with cream. As well as pizza, khinkali and, for some reason, Lugansk-style beef. On the other hand, what will prevent such a dish from being on the menu of the self-proclaimed capital of Hyperborea? In addition, it is tasty and so far inexpensive, like everything else here.

Kovdor Sami Center

Aleftina Denisovna made a tambourine for herself a few years ago - in Norway

“The boots are good, the material is new, the snow is good,” shows Aleftina Sergin (“You can Alevtina, they’re all confused anyway”) shoes that she just brought for herself from abroad. The hook to it is 250 kilometers, but the boots are two and a half times cheaper than here.

Aleftina Denisovna is sixty. A pine tree grows in front of her house - “she is the same age as me, only she can see how tall and I am small”. At the age of 19, Aleftina was a Komsomol organizer in the house of culture. Then - at construction sites throughout the country: the Urengoy - Pomary - Uzhgorod pipeline and beyond. Crane operator, driver.

Aleftina Sergina has become a shaman - in the Sami language it will be "noyd" - already in this millennium.

“I just heard them talking to me one day,” she explains.

Noyd is a shaman, seid is the ancestral stone of the Sami. Sergina and her family call the seid "Deer Head". By local standards - not far from the house where the pine tree grows. Dress in a full overalls, ride a snowmobile for ten minutes on the ice of the Yona River, try not to get into the wormwood near the shore. And another ten minutes - deep into the forest, waist-deep in snow. At the same time, Aleftina Denisovna will try new boots.

“It’s better not to sit under your Head: it will take you away,” the noyd warns, taking out a shaman tambourine wrapped in a flannel from an ordinary grocery bag.

The ritual is short: the sound of a tambourine, a quiet song. In the summer at the Head, the noyd explains, you can sit, light a fire, remember your ancestors, appease those who speak. Now - just a sound, a song, white snow up to the waist and golden tops of Christmas trees. Hyperborea, which is unlikely to need proof here. And even indisputable artifacts.

Aleftina Denisovna made a tambourine for herself a few years ago - in Norway, at a congress of the Sami of all countries. Saami - not at the congress, but in general - 80 thousand. Half in Sweden. A quarter in Norway. Eight thousand are in Finland. There are only two thousand Sami in Russia, and about a hundred in the Kovdor region. The center of the Kovdor Sami is the village of Yona, where Aleftina Sergina lives.

- Deer, partridge, fish. And a bear, - shows noyd drawings on a tambourine. - Because we have a bearish corner.

I arrived in Kovdor - there is no further way. Maybe they will go here for Hyperborea.

“The Sami protect the cultural heritage carefully, they don't show it to everyone,” says Sergei Somov. “But they understand that the implementation of their knowledge and heritage in our project is quite possible. How - we will think together what is allowed, what is not … So far, in this regard, we are all just learning to walk. Therefore, we tell everyone about the project. So that people know, think, and decide to come and see us. And someone suddenly wants to organize a business.

On the last page of "Kovdorchanin" - like everywhere else: advertisements. Half - transport to nearby cities, taxis and private buses. Taxi to Murmansk - five thousand, a seat in a minibus is about a thousand. The traditional departure time from Kovdor is half past five in the morning. In a shroud just before the morning you can get there.

It's good if people find out, think about it, go and see. It's even better if nothing is spoiled here.