Vaigach is an island on the border of the Barents
and Kara seas, administratively belongs to the Nenets Autonomous
District of the Arkhangelsk Region of Russia. The island is
separated from the continent by a narrow strait Yugorsky Shar and
from Novaya Zemlya the Strait of
Kara Gate. Area - 3.4 thousand km ². The surface is flat, with two
parallel ridges, with a maximum height of up to 157 m (Mount
Bolvanskaya). It is composed of shale, sandstone and limestone.
Tundra vegetation. Vaigach Island is covered by numerous lakes and
swamps.
Vaigach island has the settlement of Varnek (as of
January 2012 there are 23 houses, 106 people), several Nenets
shrines have been preserved, a wooden cross-shaped idol of a
cruciform shape in the western part of the island, a stone-age site
(Voronova River, Yangoto Lake, Silyangoporny and others). The
territory of the island is part of the reserve Vaigach.
The island lies between the Barents and Kara Seas and
between the mainland and the islands of Novaya Zemlya. It is elongated
in the direction from southeast to northwest for 105 km with a maximum
width of 44 km. The area is 3380 km². The shores are relatively low,
steep in places, rocky and difficult to access, the hills are stretched
along the island by two ridges of Paleozoic limestone, shale, sandstone,
15–20 km apart, with a maximum height of up to 157 m (Mount
Bolvanskaya). There are many bays and bays on the western shores. The
dominant landscape of the island is tundra, with numerous swamps and
small lakes.
It is separated from the continent by the narrow
strait Yugorsky Shar and from Novaya Zemlya by the strait of the Kara
Gates.
There is a village Varnek on the island (as of January
2012, 23 houses, 106 people), several Nenets sanctuaries, a wooden
seven-faced cruciform idol in the western part of the island, Stone Age
sites (Voronova River, Yangoto Lake, Silyangoporney and etc.).
The territory of the island is part of the Vaigach nature reserve.
“Vai Khabts” translated from Nenets means “island of terrible death” or “land of death”. The Nenets considered the island sacred.
Of the plants, mosses and lichens are the most common.
In the southern regions of the island, vascular plants grow, most of
which are stunted or creeping. Dwarf birches and low annual grasses are
widespread.
The lakes and rivers of the island are dominated by
arctic char and nelma.
Quite often on the island there are polar
foxes, foxes, lemmings and reindeer. In summer, on coastal cliffs,
swamps and lakes - an abundance of birds, occasionally - polar bears. On
the coast there are huge colonies of seals, walruses and sea hares. Blue
whales and humpback whales often appear in coastal waters.
On the
northern coast of the island there are many bird colonies. Many birds
nest in the canyon of the Yunayaha River.
Novgorod merchants discovered Vaigach around the 10th
century, having seen the island from the mainland through the narrow
strait of Yugorsky Shar. Around that time, the island began to be used
for crafts.
Western Europeans discovered the island in the summer
of 1553, when a British expedition led by Hugh Willoughby discovered
Vaigach along with the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, considering them to be
one large peninsula protruding into the Arctic Ocean.
In 1862,
the schooner Yermak anchored for the last time near Vaigach Island,
making her second Kara expedition under the command of Lieutenant P.P.
Kruzenshtern. Shortly thereafter, she was crushed by ice in the Kara
Sea, but the commander managed to withdraw his crew and reach the
mainland.
At the beginning of the 20th century, two Russian
families constantly lived on the island in the Dolgaya Bay, which ran
into the island for almost 8 kilometers, holding a fur factory of two
houses. In summer, on the island, blown by winds from two seas, there
was much less midges, so the Nenets in the spring drove their herds
across the ice through the Yugorsky Shar Strait, and again migrated to
the mainland by winter.
Vaigach expedition of the OGPU
Discoveries of geologists
In 1921, the expedition of N. A. Kulik
discovered polymetallic ores in the southwestern part of the island.
With the beginning of industrialization, the country urgently needed
non-ferrous metals, and in 1930, analyzes of ore deposits at Vaigach
showed the presence of industrial quantities of gold, silver and
platinum.
In 1930, geological research was continued by the
Vaigach expedition of the OGPU under the command of F.I. Eichmans, the
former head of the SLON. Since the autumn of 1931, the scientific part
of the work was headed by the prisoner P. V. Wittenburg, a well-known
geologist and geographer, professor. Subsequently, he defended his
dissertation "Ore deposits of the island of Vaygach and Amderma" for the
degree of Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences.
First
wintering
In July 1930, the first group of 132 expedition members
landed in Warnek Bay, of which 125 were prisoners. They had to prepare
for wintering, for which a settlement was founded, named after the
Russian polar explorer captain and hydrograph A. I. Varnek.
At
that moment, on a low mound above the bay, the only Chum Nenets Vylka
and his family towered. Then the family of the Nenets Yakov Taybarey
from Khabarov, a long-abandoned Pomor gray settlement with the remains
of three huts and a tiny wooden church, came to meet the pioneers. From
the island of Kolguev on reindeer, the Nenets Michael reached Varnek,
and from the Dolgaya Bay, from the northern tip of the island, Roza
Okhimova.
The expedition was secret: the analyzes of the ore were
carried out in Moscow, where they went from Vaigach by steamer to
Arkhangelsk, and from there by plane to the capital. The living
conditions were very harsh: in winter the temperature was up to minus 40
degrees, winds, blizzards. To move between buildings, they pulled ropes
that they held on to. However, the term of imprisonment was read out at
an accelerated pace: a year in two.
For the second wintering on Vaigach, the log cabins of
six barracks made in Arkhangelsk, houses for the chief, for guards and
civilians (there were such) were delivered by steamer. An enrichment
plant was built and a diesel power plant was installed. The village was
named Varnek.
The supply of the expedition with food was
constantly improving: the diet of the workers included not only
potatoes, onions, carrots, but even cranberry extract against scurvy.
The store was used on equal terms by all members of the expedition,
including prisoners. Only alcohol was not sold last.
By September
1931, the Gleb Bokiy steamer delivered another batch of prisoners to the
island, and the number of expedition members grew to 334.
On
October 30, 1931, the third batch of prisoners arrived on the island,
increasing the total number of the expedition to 1,100 people. Among
them arrived a former military pilot and mechanic Ivan Alexandrovich
Loiko, who was to lead the arrangement of the runway for aircraft.
t the beginning of 1932, analyzes of ore
from Vaigach Island revealed that there were no precious metals here,
but there were high-quality lead-zinc ores and copper vein ores, as well
as fluorites on Amderma. Fedor Ivanovich Eichmans took the initiative to
create a permanent exhibition of exhibits and photographs of the wealth
of the Vaigach and Amderma deposits at the House of Culture being
designed. However, his idea was already implemented by the new leader of
the expedition: it was decided to recall F.I. Eichmans to Moscow,
especially since replenishment was expected in the family.
By
order No. 144 of March 15, 1932, another Latvian was appointed head of
the expedition - Alexander Fedorovich Dickaln.
The air route
Moscow - Arkhangelsk - Ust-Tsilma - Vaygach was opened in April 1932,
the flights were performed by the polar pilot Fabio Brunovich Farikh,
who almost died on the first flight. On April 13, he flew from
Ust-Tsilma to Vaigach with a mechanic and a radio operator, deciding not
to overload the plane with a monthly supply of food and warm clothes,
which is mandatory for polar routes, but to take more cargo. However, a
sudden blizzard forced him to land. For three days the bad weather did
not stop, during which time meager supplies of sausages and biscuits
were eaten, and fuel was used up for forced engine starts to warm up the
engine and warm the crew. On the fifth day, Farikh gave an SOS signal,
which reached the Krasin icebreaker, from where the coordinates of the
aircraft were transmitted to Vaigach. From there, I. A. Loiko set out on
a sled with two Nenets, covering a distance of 150 km in a day. On the
ninth day after departure from Ust-Tsilma, the plane was found, its crew
was fed and provided with warm clothes, and after clearing the runway,
the car headed for Varnek. However, the weather began to deteriorate
again, and a new forced landing followed near the village of Khabarovo,
in which the aircraft was damaged. The car reached Varnek only on the
20th day. However, having taken on board the Eichmans, the plane caught
fire over the Yugorsky Shar Strait and again made an emergency landing.
Only after two weeks of wandering in the tundra, the nomadic Nenets
found those in distress. The crew and Eichmans and his wife got to
Moscow only in June, and in August their daughter was born.
In
the meantime, industrial extraction of lead-zinc ores in five mines
began with the help of prisoners in Warnek Bay. Prisoner V. Ya.
Dvorzhetsky described the difficult working conditions in lead and zinc
mines in permafrost.
By the beginning of 1933, the expedition had grown to 2,000 people. To
secure qualified personnel, the decision of the Council of National
Economy allowed the families of prisoners to come to Vaigach. However,
there were only four of them, including the family of the chief
geologist P.V. Wittenburg. In 1934, convicted women began to be sent to
the island, who soon got married. New families received rooms for shared
living.
In the navigation of 1933, the first tractors were
delivered to Vaigach, which were first used in the conditions of the
polar tundra in winter to relocate technical equipment, inventory and
household equipment to the shores of Dolgaya Bay at the opposite end of
Vaigach, where signs of a copper deposit were found.
On September
30, 1933, fluorite mining began in Amderma, where the largest deposits
of fluorspar in the USSR were discovered with reserves of 3,000,000
tons.
In 1934, in Varnek Bay, by the forces of the Vaigach
Special Forces prisoners, industrial extraction of lead-zinc ores began
in five mines. Due to hard work and harsh climatic conditions, mortality
was high. In winter, the dead were not buried, but the bays were lowered
under the ice.
Mining at Vaigach began to be curtailed in 1938,
as deep mines began to flood with water. The surviving prisoners were
partially taken out, partially - in the winter they were sent on foot to
Vorkuta. Many of them died along the way.
In 1939, the
Vaigachsky Village Council of the Bolshezemelsky District of the Nenets
National Okrug included:
Gatehouse Warnek Bay. After the closure of
the mines, the village was abandoned for some time, but then it was
revived again by the Nenets families who arrived here.
Vaygachevskaya
radio station
camp Long Guba
chum Lyamchino Bay
hut Cape
Bolvansky
lodge Cape Sukhoi
In 1940, the Second Vaigach
Expedition was organized, but in 1941 its work was stopped.
Modernity
In 1950, the meteorological polar station MG-2 named after
E.K. Fedorov was opened on the island on Cape Bolvansky Nos.
On
September 13, 2009, a mechanic died at the station. In December, there
was an accident in the heating system, the station was mothballed, and
the staff was urgently evacuated. In January 2010, the station manager
was charged with the murder of his subordinate.
In 2012, the
station was mothballed, currently it operates as usual.
During the excavation of a pagan sacrificial site at Cape
Bolvansky Nos, a silver frame from a stone icon of a shape typical for
Belozersky stone icons was found - with rounded upper corners.
Vaigach in culture
The Vaigach Island is dedicated to the song of the
same name by Alexander Gorodnitsky.
Vaigach is the name of a
spaceship from the Soviet science fiction film Star Inspector.