TOP FLIGHT
“ On September 1 , a helicopter will come to take me to school ,” says a thirteen-year-old Nenets named Kristina in answer to the question , “ Isn ’ t the life of a nomad boring ?” Her energetic sister Vika , six years old , poses for the cameras , while at the same time selling antler crafts to tourists crowding around the tent . The girls are mature for their age and look older than their city counterparts . But despite their many adult responsibilities , they have lost none of their cheerfulness , childish zest and curiosity . All summer the sisters followed a herd of reindeer with their parents across the tundra .
With a population of 41,000 , the Nenets people are the most numerous of the indigenous peoples of the Far North . To compare , there are less than 7,500 Dolgans in Russia and only two hundred and seven Enets according to the latest population census . The first inhabitants of Taimyr — the Nganasans — began to settle here more than 1,000 years ago , and not much has changed since then .
Smoothed by the glaciers into a nearly perfect flat plane , the tundra stretches in all directions to the horizon . Innumerable lakes and small rivers like viens sparkle in the sun . I am on a helicopter bound for the Putorana Plateau , one of Russia ’ s most inaccessible natural attractions . The Putorana is enormous , the size of two and a half of Icelands , and so much more beautiful . Looking down through the window , the views are simply mesmerising . Waterfalls , steep cliffs , the gentle colours that carpet the landscape — there is so much beauty here that it is impossible to see it all .
The Mi-8 lands near the Bolshoy Irkindinckiy waterfall ( Kitabo-Oron ), one of the busiest ( relatively speaking !) locations on the Putorana plateau , not because it is a standout beauty spot or particularly big ( albeit still impressive ), but because several helicopters can land near it at once .
Returning to civilisation is like a punch in the gut . Black smoke bellows up in the distance . It is not a fire — we are approaching the industrial city of Norilsk . It ’ s as if it was built inside a coal mine — everything is black — the roads , the buildings , the ground , absolutely everything . The guide talks to us about acid rain , environmental horrors , and fines , which the main company in the city pays annually to Canada , due to the impact of pollution . Upon hearing the phrase “ The north-western wind smells of sulphur and the south-western wind of chlorine ” one ’ s hand reflexively reaches for a mask ( or better still , a respirator ), COVID or no COVID . The area code on the licence plates of cars is 66 , further complementing this hellish scene . Enough already — time to return to the Great Outdoors in Yenisei .
Our next stop is Igarka . There used to be 20,000 people living here , but today the population is only 4,000 . The entire old town burned down after the logging plant went bankrupt . An island by the town houses an airport where an Airbus A320 can land — it was built for oil workers , but they never came . Zaporozhets graveyard is housed on a rusty barge . A church , a billboard commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Victory Day , a memorial to the victims of the Great Patriotic War , and Soviet-era buildings backed by endless forest .
Igarka is an incredibly powerful place , while at the same time being practically dead . The most interesting things to see here are the abandoned buildings , especially the former fire station and Stalinist-era Palace of Culture . Nearby you can visit the only permafrost museum in the world . With exhibition rooms located underground , at a depth of fourteen meters , it never gets above -5 degrees here , so visitors have to put on thermosuits for the visit , even in the summer . The main exhibit is ice that is more than 50,000 years old , and a 36,000 year old frozen larch tree .
In the neighbouring building you can also visit an exposition that will chill your blood even more than the frost . It is dedicated to the construction of the Transpolar Mainline during the Great Repression . Stalinka , the Dead Road , Construction Project 503 , it has many names . Forty-two billion rubles and 300,000 human lives were buried here in the permafrost during the construction work . But most of our fellow citizens have no idea of the scale of what happened here . The road was never even used as designed , and later it collapsed .
The remains of Construction Project 503 are located in a nearby forest in Yermakovo . A gnat is attacking me remorselessly . Clovers the size of dandelion blooms , and dandelions the size of asters abound . The broken remains of a railway track , overgrown with moss , wind their way towards the former Gulag camp . A decayed goods wagon and run-down steam locomotive appears from among the thickets . In the barracks you can see antique shoes , newspapers from the 1940s , and various utensils from those times . There are inscriptions carved into the bunk beds , clearly made by someone who had experience writing with pen and ink . “ Over there was the laundry room , and in that building was a punishment cell , and this is the old boiler house ,” my guide explains . The ranger Alexander Kazantsev and his handful of enthusiastic assistants are the only people keeping the memory of the camp alive in the taiga .
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