Yermakovo (Krasnoyarsk)

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Former settlement
Yermakovo
Ермаково
Federal district Siberia
region Krasnoyarsk
Rajon Turuchanski
Founded 1949
Former settlement since 1964 and 1978
Height of the center 30  m
Time zone UTC + 7
Geographical location
Coordinates 66 ° 35 '  N , 86 ° 11'  E Coordinates: 66 ° 35 '0 "  N , 86 ° 11' 0"  E
Yermakovo (Krasnoyarsk) (Russia)
Red pog.svg
Situation in Russia
Yermakovo (Krasnoyarsk) (Krasnoyarsk Territory)
Red pog.svg
Location in the Krasnoyarsk Territory
City map Yermakovo 2015-02-11 comp.png
Overgrown house in Yermakovo. The three entrance bay windows at every house are typical. Two can be seen in the foreground and background. The third bay disappears behind the yellow leaves (left in the picture).

Yermakovo ( Russian Ермаково ) is a former settlement on the west bank of the Yenisei River at the height of the Arctic Circle . The place is located on the territory of the Krasnoyarsk region and developed into a larger town between 1949 and 1953, when the Arctic Circle Railway , later also known as the "Stalin Railway", was built following the Arctic Circle by order of Josef Stalin . Yermakowo was of central importance for this railway project. Tens of thousands of GULag forced laborers arrived here across the Yenisei River and were distributed to the labor camps that were set up in the immediate vicinity of the railway line to be built.

Yermakovo currently has no permanent residents (as of September 2013) and is not an official town.

Location and strategic importance

On the west bank of the Yenisei, on the border between the West Siberian lowlands and the central Siberian mountains, the settlement of Yermakowo lies almost exactly on the Arctic Circle . Administratively, the place belongs to the Krasnoyarsk region in the central part of Siberia. Yermakovo became important because of the construction of the Arctic Circle Railway from 1949 to 1953, the so-called Stalin Railway. The place was the center of the eastern part of the Stalin Railway, which was called “No. 503 "is known. The administrative center of the western section of the route, named “No. 501 “, was in Salekhard . Salekhard is now a functioning city and the Stalin Railway was only a small episode in the city's 400-year-old history. It is different with Yermakovo: Yermakovo was built because of the Stalin Railway and Yermakovo went under after the work on the Stalin Railway was stopped.

The strategic and logistical location of Yermakowo was excellent for the construction of the route: the settlement is located on an elevated, exposed location exactly where the Yenisei makes a distinctive loop. The meltwater and rainwater can easily drain from this location; therefore there is no marshy soil , which is otherwise disadvantageous for settlement, which is typical for this permafrost region . This natural condition offers favorable conditions for building houses for a settlement. The place was also the ideal transshipment point for the goods and building materials delivered from the south of Siberia in order to build the line from here to the west. Without the construction of the route (after all, there was a lot to do for at least five steam locomotives that were put on the rails here) the settlement would not have achieved notoriety, because there was and is no other economic asset apart from fish.

Beginning of settlement

In the first days of March 1949 a pioneer group arrived in Yermakovo. Shortly before, the decision had been made to stop the construction of a railway line on the Yamal Peninsula ("No. 502") and to favor a railway in the direction of Igarka . At that time there were only eight houses that belonged to the local fishing kolkhoz (some sources speak of a completely new, previously uninhabited place, "where there was not a single building").

After the ice on the Yenisei in the spring of 1949, the first prisoners arrived on June 17th on cargo ships. There were 1,488 people, including 593 women. The accommodation was initially only in tents. Many of the prisoners also had to spend the next winter in tents.

The first job was to unload the barges, provide accommodation, secure food, build infrastructure and take in other people who - according to their abilities - were assigned work. These were all very complex tasks. The difficulty was to arrange the continuous flow of new goods in a meaningful way. Soon the entire stretch of the narrow strip of shore for a length of 6 km was heaped with goods. That is, from Yermakovo to the mouth of the Barabanicha River in the Yenisei, the goods were brought to appropriate storage locations or storage rooms. This work initially occupied almost all the residents of the village.

The influx grew steadily. In the summer of 1949 around 4,000 people had arrived in Yermakowo and by the end of October around 5,000. A jetty, a cable car for unloading the goods, a central transshipment point for incoming goods, central repair workshops, a sawmill, a coal-fired power station, office buildings, a village administration, a prison, a theater "The House of Culture", a meteorological one were quickly built Permafrost station, a hospital, several schools, kindergartens, an orphanage, a restaurant, a hotel, six shops, such as B. bakeries and numerous houses of the type BZD (buildings for civil permanent use). Even an airport was built on the eastern side of the Yenisei. During the eight long winter months, aircraft were able to land on the hard-frozen tundra floor. Crossing the Yenisei was not a problem as it was frozen over at the same time.

A high-voltage cable has even been laid on the eastern bank, as it was planned to start building the coastal infrastructure on this side in 1953; after all , the rail connection to Igarka still had to be built.

The connection across the Yenisei should initially be made by ferry. The three ferries were ordered in Finland , but the necessary landing stages (5 km apart) were no longer built.

Yermakovo will be the logistic center of the eastern construction section of the Stalin Railway

All of these infrastructure measures were accelerated again when those responsible decided with effect from January 1, 1950 to relocate the administrative center of the eastern section of the railway (that of the "503") from Igarka to Yermakowo. Now the construction management also settled here, which increased the number of “free” people (also called civilians). This meant that even more goods were delivered. Even luxury items, if only to a small extent, were part of it, but above all: sufficient food. Most prisoner reports confirm that there was basically enough to eat in Yermakovo and that life was not as hard as on the railway line.

During the construction work on the "503", the population of Yermakowo grew to 15,000 people. Some sources report that in 1953 around 20,000 “free” and 10,000 “convicted” lived here. The civilians and the prisoners did not live together. The latter were housed in three large, immediately adjacent storage areas.

There were two categories of the “free”. One consisted of people who often - because of the money - came here voluntarily; the other category were ex-prisoners. The rights of the groups differed considerably. The former prisoners were not given responsible leadership positions and were often not allowed to travel outside of a 40 km zone around Yermakovo.

After work on the route was stopped shortly after Stalin's death, many prisoners left the settlement as part of an amnesty in September 1953, shortly before the Yenisei frozen over. Many people also stayed because they were not given amnesty (this was especially true for political prisoners) or because they did not know where to go. “Free” people who could continue to earn good money here in the north stayed until there was no more work.

The time after the construction work on the Stalin Railway was stopped

For the period from 1953 to 1971 there is no reliable information about the exact number of people living in Yermakowo. In addition, from 1956, people from geological and geophysical institutes joined the group, because from the end of 1959 to the mid-1960s, oil was drilled in the area - but without great success. So this boom also came to an end. In 1964 there was another great exodus. That year the rails from Yermakowo to Janow Stan were also dismantled. Only stray dogs and cats are said to have stayed behind. But after 1964 people found themselves again who wanted to move to the completely deserted village. It's hard to imagine, but more than a hundred people - mostly returnees - settled there. From 1972 it is reported that only a few people lived here.

Nuclear tests

As is common in many remote, but basically easily accessible places in the Soviet Union, an underground nuclear explosion was carried out in Yermakowo. The preparations for this (especially the drilling) took place in 1977. The explosion itself (called Kraton 2) with an explosive force of 20 kilotons took place on September 21, 1978 at 3:00 pm at a depth of 880 meters. Before that, all residents of Yermakovo were evacuated. The end of the transmission of information over the telegraph connection (also discontinued in 1978) probably coincides with this event. The area was then exposed to radiation (the radiation levels only fell below the permitted maximum levels in 1992), which meant that the maintenance of the telegraph line was not without risk. Nevertheless, some people - ignoring the warning about the radiation - returned to Yermakovo. But they didn't stay long. In 1981 an expedition reported that there was only one man left in Yermakovo and in 1982 none could be found. In 1985 only one “conditionally permanent residence” was reported.

Removing the scrap metal

At the beginning of the 1990s there were “scrap pilgrimages” to Yermakowo. Everything that was needed was taken away. Therefore, in 1992 (with confirmation in 1996) the administration declared the entire area around Yermakovo as a "Monument to History and Cultural Heritage". The Permafrost Museum in Igarka has been trying to achieve “museum status” for Yermakowo since 1994, but so far (as of 2012) without success.

Until 1995 or 1996, fuels and explosives (TNT blocks, detonators, detonating cords) were stored in Yermakovo. Negligence resulted in house burnings in 1995 or 1996. No remains have been preserved from a previously preserved two-story house.

The highlight of the search for usable was the transport of two steam locomotives of the О в series to Svetlogorsk in 2005 . First there was talk of theft; but supposedly the locomotives are to be restored and exhibited there.

Yermakovo today

Today the taiga has largely swallowed up the remains of Yermakowo. Alexander Gorodnitski describes this in his poem "Ермаково". The ruins of the houses are mostly dilapidated and overgrown with trees and bushes. The former streets can hardly be recognized as such.

The fisherman Alexander Kazantsev and his helpers live only near the banks of the Yenisei in summer. Although he only goes about his business, he seems like the last guardian of the ruins of Yermakowo.

literature

  • Михаил Ю. Афанасьев: Полярная магистраль . ВЕЧЕ, Москва 2007, ISBN 978-5-9533-1688-0 ( The Polar Highway. Russian).
  • Norbert Mausolf: The Stalin Railway Trilogy. In search of traces in the Arctic Circle . Books on Demand GmbH, Norderstedt 2011, ISBN 978-3-8423-5398-5 .

Web links

Commons : Yermakowo  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ OKATO
  2. ↑ a b http://www.memorial.krsk.ru/Articles/503/03.htm
  3. ↑ a b http://www.memorial.krsk.ru/deu/Dokument/Ariicles/199850303.htm
  4. ↑ http://www.memorial.krsk.ru/Articles/503/06.htm
  5. ↑ http://www.memorial.krsk.ru/Articles/503/16.htm
  6. ↑ http://www.memorial.krsk.ru/Articles/503/2/10.htm
  7. ↑ http://www.memorial.krsk.ru/Articles/503/02.htm
  8. ↑ http://www.memorial.krsk.ru/deu/Dokument/Memuar/Ruge.htm
  9. ^ Letters from the former GULag prisoner Walter Ruge to cvjn@friendsontour.de
  10. ↑ http://www.memorial.krsk.ru/Articles/503/10.htm
  11. ↑ http://www.skitalets.ru/books/2010/polar_berezov/
  12. ↑ http://www.memorial.krsk.ru/Articles/503/2/08.htm
  13. ↑ http://crab.chem.nyu.edu/~deadroad/Road.htm ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  14. ↑ http://www.memorial.krsk.ru/Articles/503/2/27.htm
  15. ↑ Накаряков Василий Дмитриевич (1930-2007) ( Memento from October 21, 2014 in the web archive archive.today )
  16. ↑ http://www.narodsevera.ru/companies/perspektivy/hronologia/
  17. ↑ http://old.ti.ru/article/18281/
  18. ↑ http://www.memorial.krsk.ru/Articles/503/2/13.htm
  19. ↑ http://www.memorial.krsk.ru/Articles/503/08.htm
  20. ↑ http://www.memorial.krsk.ru/Work/Konkurs/4/Putes/4/03.htm
  21. ↑ http://www.memorial.krsk.ru/Public/00/20041105.htm
  22. ↑ http://www.krasrab.com/archive/2012/04/25/03/view_article
  23. ↑ http://www.memorial.krsk.ru/eng/Dokument/Public/200508052.htm
  24. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of February 13, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  25. ↑ Lessons learned of the group with Charly1234 during a fieldwork in Jermakowo in September 2013