Map of coastal depths near the fishing peninsula. The end of the earth is a fishing peninsula. Murmansk region Rybachy Peninsula: fishing for outdoor enthusiasts
I am sure that all of you, or almost all of you, have heard about this place at least once, but perhaps did not attach any importance to it. Remember the line from the song “Rybachy has melted into the distant fog...”? So this is what they say about him - about Rybachy, fanned eternal glory peninsula located in the very north of the European part of Russia
I have been to the Kola Peninsula many times. But all these trips took place in autumn, winter or spring. It was impossible to go there in the summer. But I wanted to. And not just in the summer, but always on a polar day, when the sun does not go below the horizon. And now the trip planned several months ago seems to be taking shape - and trusted friends are ready to keep company, and there is a suitable car, and the boss doesn’t mind. Let's go! Our goal is the Rybachy Peninsula.
The Rybachy Peninsula is the most Northern part European Russia. This is a border area, so to visit it you need to apply for passes at the Murmansk border detachment or at the FSB Directorate for the Murmansk Region - the procedure is simple, but can take up to a month of waiting.
TITOVKA
We left Murmansk only in the late afternoon - purchasing food, fuel, packing luggage and canisters took almost half a day. We flew about a hundred kilometers on asphalt and behind the post border control Having crossed the Titovka River over the bridge, we turned right off the highway - the journey has begun! There are four of us - Murmansk residents Vladimir Kondratyev, Alexander and Evgeny Zarodov (father and son), as well as the author of these notes. Transport units - a UAZ prepared for the trophy on “collective farm” bridges and a 500 cc Polaris ATV.
We are moving along Titovka. The history of the name of this river and the bay of the same name in Motovsky Bay dates back to the 16th century, however, then it was called Kitovka due to the massive strandings of whales on land. In ancient times, Sredny and Rybachy were islands and there was a “whale passage” between them and the mainland. Over time, the land rose, but the age-old instincts of the animals remained.
The exact purpose of these seid stones in Sami culture is still not clear. Either they served as landmarks in the desert tundra, or were used as religious attributes
Soon we stopped on the shore for a parking lot. We had a snack, admired the completely shameless ducks stealing our bread, and moved on - there was no point in wasting precious time on sleep. It's light, polar day!
PASS
The only road with Mainland The monks of the Pechenga monastery also built on Rybachy for their horse-drawn carts. Then, after Soviet sappers, in 1940, the first tank passed through it. During the war it was occupied by the Germans - there are still fortifications and barbed wire all around. And left and right under the slopes lie the remains of equipment, serving as a sobering factor for any driver. The road is tricky - it twists and turns, then rises and then descends from hill to hill. I can imagine how difficult it is here in winter when there is ice or a snowstorm. It’s probably not for nothing that since the war, the stream has been called Drunken before the ascent - here it was supposed to drink a glass for good luck, and on the descent Sober - in order to drink cold water and rest, wiping the sweat from your forehead... All around you are the amazingly beautiful northern landscapes with saucer lakes looking into the sky between the hills covered with soft moss and reflected in the water in some unrealistically green color. True, as soon as we descended from the pass, we found ourselves under low, dense clouds and light, sluggish rain, which subsequently accompanied us throughout the trip.
HISTORY LESSONS
We go around Motovsky Bay. To the east goes the legendary Musta-Tunturi - a four-kilometer ridge, the only section where German troops were unable to cross our land border. From June 29, 1941 until the end of the war, the front line here remained unchanged! But the names of all the dead defenders of Musta-Tunturi are still unknown. Every year, searchers raise and rebury their remains. But to the right of the road is the camp of one of these teams. Despite the early morning, the guards on duty are on their feet, and the water in the cauldron is gurgling on the fire. They invite you to sit down, treat you to tea, and show you what they found yesterday - a military-style flask with the soldier’s name scrawled on it. We meet the group leaders - Alexander and Ksenia. They are from Nikel and have been working with schoolchildren here for several years now. The city administration supports - provides tents and equipment. Yes, such history lessons will be remembered by the children for the rest of their lives!
STRICTLY NORTH
We pass Bolshoye Ozerko - a former garrison of anti-aircraft gunners, almost a city. In 1959, an air defense regiment with a missile system was transferred here from Tallinn, the same one from which a U-2 spy plane was shot down near Sverdlovsk a year later. And in the fall of 1994, the last residents left the village.
The vector of our further route points strictly north along Bolshaya Volokovaya Bay. We drive along the coast, breathing in the real Arctic wind at stops. Even inclement weather does not spoil the joyful mood in anticipation of meeting the peak point of the hike. And that's it, we've arrived! Vaydagaba, Cape German - further only the Arctic Ocean and the North Pole! Historians believe that people have lived here since the Stone Age. In the 16th century, merchant ships moored on Vaida (translated from Finnish as “to change”) and trade was carried out. German is usually interpreted as “foreign”. It seems that in this small piece everything is mixed up: the ruins of an ancient pier and a monument to the defenders of the Fatherland, a Sami well and a completely modern weather station, stones with mysterious signs and... a payphone operating autonomously on solar batteries.
DESERT SHORE
We fill a bottle with water from an ancient well and head to Cape Skorbeevsky. Another legacy of the Cold War, another abandoned garrison. An eerie sight...
We spend the night near the waterfall on Zubovka. I can’t even believe that these lands were previously so populated that to the Dutch traveler rounding Rybachy by the sea in 1594, it seemed like one big city- there were so many buildings on the shore.
SECRET PLANS
It's time to reveal a little secret here. In addition to the usual desire to visit Rybachy, I had one more goal. Now that the “classification of secrecy has been removed” and the system for issuing passes to the border zone has been worked out, there is a real pilgrimage here in the summer. Jeepers, motorcyclists, cyclists, pedestrians... But almost everyone travels along the same route in the central and northwestern parts of the peninsula. There are even companies specializing in off-road tourism, taking clients to pre-determined points, almost like the Golden Ring, only with planned adventures in the form of fords and destroyed bridges. But nowhere did I find any mention of their visiting the eastern part of Rybachy. Even in Google Earth For some reason this area is hidden behind a veil of “unreadability”. So let it be “our little edge of the Earth”!
Roads in the tundra are unpredictable. It's unlikely vehicle will ever drive - his destiny is to become the prey of “metal hunters”
VRM
Having left Zubovskaya Bay, we head east, towards Tsyp-Navolok, along the rocky seashore. After a couple of kilometers we see smooth sandy surfaces and the remains of many fortifications - during the war there was a reserve airfield here. And soon we find ourselves at the VRM. This abbreviation is deciphered as “Let’s drink, guys, “Moskovskaya””, and as “Fiefdom of fishermen-meteorologists”, and as “Here are the ruins of the lighthouse”. The latest version is now the most correct - since 1953 there has been a fan radio beacon (BRM) here. Warships and cargo ships were guided by the signals they sent. A kind of analogue of a modern GPS system. In 1979, the outdated lighthouse design was replaced by a new one, but soon no one needed it. From the former genius of human thought, in addition to the ruins of a two-story building, auxiliary and outbuildings, what remains are several 75-meter towers, located for almost five kilometers along the sea.
CHICK-PILLOWLOCK
We entered Tsyp-Navolok after midnight. As expected at this time of day, normal people were already asleep. We stopped in the center of the village near the lighthouse and looked around. No one. Only a couple of dogs run around the car and beg, barking softly. We notice that in a house nearby the door opens and the figure of a young guy in a shirt and camouflage pants appears on the threshold. The building is located behind a low fence and a gate with a star. Let's go and say hello. It is difficult to talk, because the cold, almost icy wind almost knocks you off your feet. Visiting guests are rare here, so the conversation is quite formal: “Who are they, where are they from, why, are there any passes to the restricted area?” We are at a military facility where civilians are not supposed to be. Zhenya jokingly asks if there is a store or stall in the village, which immediately defuses the tense situation - we are invited into the house to drink tea. I have never eaten such delicious bread that the sailors bake in Tsyp-Navolok! Better than any croissants! Andrey is a contract midshipman and has been serving here for several years. He grumbles that they don’t pay enough, but he has no plans to leave yet: “I feel at home here, and who will teach these young people? It all depends on the midshipmen.” Although he himself is at most 27 years old, no more. And the philosopher: “What is there to do here in winter besides work? I’m writing poetry out of boredom - last year I filled up my entire notebook!” And after tea he gives us real apartments for the night, with six soldiers’ beds almost adjacent to each other and a stove.
VISITING MIKHALYCH
The usual drizzle is falling from the sky, and sleeping under a warm roof, and not in a wet tent, is the height of bliss. Therefore, the morning begins closer to lunch and... with another check - the midshipman looked in and said that we should show up at the outpost with documents. Border guards in these parts have all the functions of the authorities - from the primary functions of border protection to the police and “fish control”. While we were washing and getting ready, the head of the garrison himself visited us. The serious, mustachioed officer meticulously studied the papers, but after looking “ business card" - a magazine with material about our March trip to Cape Svyatoy Nos, his eyes became kinder and the tips of his mustache crawled up - everything is fine, his own! It's time to sit down at the table together, because besides getting to know each other, there is one more reason - perhaps the most important in this situation - today is Navy Day! After a small buffet table, Andrei Mikhailovich proudly showed off his farm. Behind the shabby facade of an outwardly unprepossessing barracks, it turns out that there is a completely modern building with all the amenities and a European-quality renovation. There is a sauna and a la swimming pool outside. It’s hard to imagine how difficult it was to build all this and transport it along the “roads” on which the military “Ural” “takes off” three wheels per trip, and in winter the same VRM masts serve as reference points. But nevertheless, people live and work. On the territory of the village there is a weather station founded in 1921, a working lighthouse, from which we had an amazing view of the stormy Barents Sea, Anikievsky Island (oh, if the weather were better!) and the deserted shores for many, many kilometers around. But even at the beginning of the last century, there was a fishing trading post of the Savin brothers, the largest fish buyers on Murman, there were houses of colonists, a church and even a Red Cross hospital.
STONE CHRONICLE
Weather conditions did not allow us to get to Anikievsky Island. Here is what is written about it in the “Guide to the Russian North,” published in 1898: “When the ship stops in Tsyp-Navolok, it is interesting to visit the nearby island of Anikeev, one of the slabs of which represents the stone chronicle of Murman. It is all carefully and beautifully covered... with carved names of Danish, German and Dutch skippers who came to Murman for fish in the 16th, 17th and XVIII centuries. The inscriptions are especially beautiful: Berent Gundersen 1595, 1596, 1597, 1610, 1611, 1615 blef jeg frataget skif (“the ship was taken from me”). Below, under the inscription, there is a picture of a warrior...” And even further: “The Russian inscription carved in curly writing is beautiful and interesting: In the summer of 7158 (according to the new chronology this is 1650 - Ed.) Grishka Dudin grieved.” And the expedition of M. Oresheta in 1995 discovered an even earlier Pomeranian autograph: “Standing Shurechanin Vasily Malashov 1630.”
ON THE WAY BACK
Almost a day spent in Tsyp-Navolok flew by unnoticed. In two days we definitely had to return to Murmansk. We say goodbye to our hospitable hosts and, as usual on the night, we start. Although what kind of night it is, more like light twilight.
If you look at the map, several roads lead to Ozerk - the key “crossroads” of Rybachy. We choose the shortest, but, as it turns out later, the heaviest - “Zubovsky Tract”. He goes through the mountains among tundra swamps flooded by days of rain. Puddles, often as deep as the hood of a lifted UAZ on 35 wheels, come across every 50-100 meters. And stones, stones, stones! The speed of movement is about 3-5 km/h. Driving on a quad is sometimes even easier, since you can go around obstacles along the edge, but the wind and rain make it a very difficult walk.
STONE GIANTS
After 12 hours of non-stop travel, the loop along Rybachy closed, and we descended to Sredniy. Now the direction of movement is counterclockwise. From Cape Zemlyanoy we drive along the western coast along a long 30-meter cliff made of the thinnest slate plates, through which many small springs break through. The famous “Two Brothers” are gigantic remnants. There is some kind of mysticism here - it is not without reason that the Sami from ancient times considered Mount Pummanki the habitat of sorcerers (noids). According to legend, two of them - the brothers Noid-Ukko and Noid-Akka - were punished for their atrocities and turned into these stone statues.
38 STARS
A little further on the high bank we come across a practically untouched coastal battery from the 1950s (judging by the nameplate on the gun, manufactured in 1946). Multi-level travel system, lubricated mechanisms. During the war, the 221st battery was based here, which destroyed a German minesweeper on June 22, 1941, thereby opening the combat account of the USSR Navy. The barrel of one of her guns with 38 stars (according to the number of enemy ships sunk) now lies in a ship cemetery about four kilometers from this place.
GLORY TO THE HEROES!
We will spend the last night of this trip at the exit from Sredny, on the river bank under the Musta-Tunturi ridge. Sanya Zarodov tells how, while still a schoolboy, he participated in the installation of the first obelisk on it. I carried sand upstairs in my backpack for the foundation of the monument. Suddenly, our camp is illuminated by the sun peeking out from the clouds - after a week we have already become unaccustomed to it. We look at the brightened mountains and somehow automatically begin to discuss the route of our next trip to the North. Harsh beauty, the pull of the North, the edge of the Earth - seemingly banal phrases, but... oddly enough, very honest and appropriate here.
“Two brothers”, whom the Sami worshiped and feared, considering them petrified evil sorcerers. Nowadays a geocaching cache is hidden at the base of the northern outcrop
MMP-1966 – 2008 Heroic Fisherman. (Part 1).
I was practically connected with the Rybachy Peninsula most of of my life. I first came to Rybachy in July 1966 on the ship “Ilya Repin”, when I arrived in Murmansk as a cadet at the LMU for a year’s internship. Later, I went to the Rybachy Peninsula as a navigator and captain on the passenger ships of the MMP: mph "Ilya Repin", mph "Petrodvorets", mph "Akop Akopyan", mph "Vologda", mph "Klavdiya Elanskaya", mph "Kanin" and tx "Polaris". My last visit to Rybachy was on the Polaris ship in the summer of 2007, when Rybachy was being developed by specialists from the Murmansk Shipping Company, who were looking for oil on the peninsula. I then told N.V. Kulikov that he would not produce oil in these places. And so it happened...
I have the best memories of this land, sacred to all Murmansk residents. Many of my years were devoted to the peninsula, when the ships of the shipping company stood on the regular passenger line Murmansk - Ozerko, providing residents living throughout the peninsula with everything they needed. Communication with the mainland was carried out in those days mainly through passenger ships MMP. Some years I visited Ozerko up to a hundred times a year, walked around and traveled the length and breadth of the peninsula. I have special and best memories for the period 1988-2003, when the brigade in Ozerko was commanded by Colonel Viktor Viktorovich Kudelya, my good comrade and the last commander of the entire peninsula. Despite the fact that a lot has been written in literature about the Rybachy Peninsula and, especially, about its heroic pages during the Great Patriotic War, I want to pay attention to my beloved land in terms of my memories. I also want to make a short historical excursion into the past of the Rybachy Peninsula.
Rybachy Peninsula (Sami. Giehkirnjrga, Finnish Kalastajasaarento, Norwegian Fiskerhalvya) - a peninsula in the north Kola Peninsula. Administratively, Rybachy is part of the Pechenga district of the Murmansk region. It is washed by the Barents Sea and Motovsky Bay. It is a plateau that drops steeply to the sea. The plateau is composed of clayey shales, sandstones and limestones. Height up to 300 m. Tundra vegetation. There is sea off the coast of the peninsula thanks to the warm North Cape Current all year round doesn't freeze. Coastal waters are rich in fish (herring, cod, capelin, etc.). To the south of the peninsula is the Sredny Peninsula. From the north, a relatively large bay, Zubovskaya Bay, juts out into the peninsula for 3.5 kilometers.
Since ancient times, Pomors have been fishing in the coastal waters of Rybachy. In the 17th century there were 16 fishing camps with 109 fishing huts. Since the 16th century the name has already been mentioned Fisherman's Peninsula. The Dutch traveler Guyen van Linschoten, a member of the 1594 expedition, mentions that he saw "the land of Kegot, called the Fisherman's Peninsula." Stephen Barrow (English) June 23, 1576, after traveling to northern shores Russia, during interrogation he claims that he was in the village of Kigor, and in his diaries for 1555 he mentions the Kegorsky Cape (now German). At this place there was a lively trade, through which the Russian state traded with Europe. In 1826, when drawing the border between the Russian Empire and Norway, the peninsula was assigned to Russia, despite the fact that Norwegian settlers lived on the peninsula. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were 9 colonies of Norwegians and Finns on the peninsula, in which 500 people lived. After Finnish independence, the western part of the peninsula was ceded to the Finns, which was returned to the Soviet Union after the Soviet-Finnish War.
During the Great Patriotic War, fierce battles took place between Soviet and German troops on the peninsula and coastal waters. In Murmansk, a street was named in honor of the soldiers who defended the strategic peninsula. After the end of the war, the peninsula was heavily militarized, as it was in close proximity to a NATO member country, Norway. Currently, most military garrisons here are completely closed. More recently, the territory of the Rybachy Peninsula was finally open to the public. And immediately dozens of jeeps, all-terrain vehicles and hundreds of northern extreme sports enthusiasts poured here...
The Rybachy Peninsula is truly the end of the earth. The northernmost point of the European part of Russia is located here. You feel this especially acutely when standing on a rocky cliff, at the edge of the ocean, squinting from the strong north wind. Behind you are the “space balls” of the radar station and the pointing finger of the lighthouse, and in front, as far as the eye can see, is the expanse of water. Naturally, Rybachy - closed area. But it was possible to get here absolutely legally by requesting appropriate permission from the border guards in advance. The only people who are still barred from entering here are foreigners. Previously, this small bare piece of land, surrounded on all sides by water, was literally filled with military units. Norway, a NATO member, is just a stone's throw away, and all the waterways are within our reach. northern ports are passing by. Now everything has changed.
The troops were withdrawn, the remaining small units look frightening: gloomy, shabby barracks, the remains of equipment scattered everywhere, dirty conscripts looking wolfishly from under their brows. I don’t want to look at all this at all.
From Murmansk to Rybachy, if you travel by car, it’s only a few hours’ journey. But this path is extremely interesting. The landscape changes literally every ten kilometers. Still dense forests give way to open forests, they are replaced by “northern dwarfs”, and even further north they disappear from view. Sparse shrubs can only be found in the lowlands between the rocks, and mosses, lichens and some strangely established herbs dominate everywhere, which still manage to bloom here. This is the real tundra. Only the tundra is not low and swampy, but rocky. Small mountain ranges run across the entire peninsula, forming a fantastic, unique topography. In the valleys, if you can call them that, there are a great many clear lakes, swamps, streams and rivulets. Following the usual clichés, I would like to call all this a cosmic landscape, but in reality, of course, the landscape is the most earthly, it’s just difficult to find the appropriate epithets to describe it. It is much easier to talk about the tropics, where there is a riot of colors and a constant celebration of life. And here there seems to be nothing but wind, rocks, stones, water and moss, but all this is so fascinating that sometimes you want to look at this picture without stopping for hours.
But back in the thirties it was crowded here, Russians, Finns, Sami lived here, there was even a whole Norwegian village with the “bird” name Tsyp-Navolok. Here is what is written about the former population of Rybachy in the “Guide to the North of Russia” (St. Petersburg, 1898. P. 78):
- “On the eastern shore of the Rybachy Peninsula, near Tsip Navolok, there is Korabelnaya Bay, which for a long time was enlivened by the activity of the trading post founded here by the St. Petersburg merchant Pallizen, which then passed to the merchant Zebek and from him to the company “Rybak”. The ship’s factor left a noticeable trace of its activity in our Murmansk and White Sea fisheries by using the American purse seine to catch herring and capelin and introducing the use of hellebores to preserve the bait.” I borrowed this quote from the book of my friend, a great expert on the Kola land, the Murmansk writer Mikhail. Oreshets "Orphaned Shores", published online on his own website. The photograph posted there shows Mikhail Oresheta with a beard and a megaphone in his hands, together with an unnamed border guard, as well as our former enemy, and now a German friend, Gerhard Dag, and the leader of the North Sea schoolchildren, Galina Penkova. Misha is a local historian and historian who dedicated his life to our northern region.
Walking on the tundra is a pleasure - everything is visible for many kilometers ahead and at almost every step you come across something unusual and different, either an exotic animal or an unexploded mine that has lain since the war. A mottled partridge hen literally jumps out from under your feet and, diligently pretending that her health is not all right, begins to lead you away from her brood. I, usually, pretending to believe it, follow her, keeping her distance, not moving away, but not letting her get close either. Then I turn around and see how she, having made sure that I am at a safe distance for her family, squeaking loudly, hurries back to the children with both her paws.
Fish, of course, is also found here - where would the name come from then - Fisherman's Peninsula? And this fish is truly royal: brown trout, trout, delicious salmon.
Throughout Rybachye there are hundreds of streams, rivers and lakes with this beautiful fish. I constantly fished on Rybachy in all seasons and with great success.
And sometime, in the middle XIX century, on Rybachy and the whales they “swinged” not without success. The last time, in my memory, a real whale washed up on a sandbank in the Zubovka area was in 1993. I saw this whale east of Kildin Island when I was sailing on the “Kanin” to Gremikha, and I even came very close to it to film it surfacing and fantasizing on a video camera.
In the 80s and 90s you didn’t have to go far to get fish. I caught it in Korabelny Brook, and in Poltyna, and in Ein with their crystal and cold waters. The fish could be seen right from the shore. If tropical islands called coconut or banana-lemon paradise, then Rybachy is undoubtedly a cloudberry-blueberry-mushroom paradise. To pick mushrooms for roast or berries for jam, we didn’t have to go further than 200-250 meters from the pier where the ship was moored - there were a great variety of mushrooms and berries. And if Viktor Viktorovich allocated me a car, then there were so many mushrooms that it was simply impossible to carry them on my own. People paid attention to russula only at the very beginning of the mushroom season, until the boletus mushrooms began to appear, but they, too, ceased to be of interest when they crawled out into the light of day and immediately in such numbers that “you could even mow them with a scythe,” the strong redhead boletus mushrooms.
I knew places where porcini mushrooms grew in abundance, but, of course, I tried not to give them out to anyone. Who knows about northern ginseng? Along the valleys of streams, among stones, sometimes right on steep cliffs, our northern “ginseng” grows - radiola rosea, or, in simple terms, “golden root”. I had to meet him more than once - my nearest plantations were about a quarter of an hour's leisurely walk from the pier. For golden root, rhizomes and roots are used for medicinal purposes, harvested in the second half of July-first half of August only from large specimens with at least 2 stems. The rhizomes and roots of the plant contain tyrosol, radioloside glycoside, essential oils, tannins, anthraglycosides, malic, gallic, citric, succinic, oxalic acids, lactones, sterols, flavonols (hyperazide, quercetin, isoquercetin, kaempferol), sugars (mainly glucose and sucrose), lipids.
Pharmacological studies have established that an extract from rhizomes in 40% alcohol has not only a stimulating and adaptogenic effect, similar to ginseng and eleutherococcus preparations, but also increases blood pressure.
Autumn on Rybachy comes quickly, hastily, without fuss, but in a businesslike manner. The tundra becomes somehow dark and inhospitable, as it was in the summer, and before you have time to look back, the sun is almost gone. Darkness comes quickly. It is clear that there will be no return: it has been said, and that’s it – this is serious. She won’t rush back and forth like in St. Petersburg, but will do her autumn work and immediately hand over things to winter. Gloomy and unfriendly, it reminds of seriousness with its winds, bringing down its power on Rybachy. In 1968 I saw when a hurricane demolished and destroyed half of the buildings along the shore of Ozerko Bay.
All seasons in the North are quite clearly defined. They don’t rush around or shy away from one thing to another. Winter immediately grabs you with a death grip and won’t let go until the end. Here winter doesn't rush anywhere. Apply and you will receive it immediately. Severe frosts, dense and some kind of hard snowstorms immediately show who is boss here. If you are not in the right spirit, he can spin his devilish dance in such a way that you involuntarily start to respect him.
The forest on Rybachy and Sredny - alder and birch - grows only in the valleys of streams, where the winds are not so strong, but even here they make the trees bend bizarrely. In August, the slopes are covered with lilac-purple fireweed. Autumn begins in September, the tundra turns burgundy-red, lingonberries ripen, replacing blueberries and blueberries, cloudberries leave even earlier, in mid-August. In October, the lingonberries will go under the snow, so that the partridges will have something to profit from in the spring - almighty Nature has thought out everything about this.
Eina Bay is a kind of oasis on Rybachy. In contrast to the central and northern regions of the peninsula, there is even lush grass here, where cattle were once grazed. Guba is surrounded by high hills with steep cliffs that are worth standing here overnight. During the war, the lip was the main source of supply for the garrison on Rybachy - for this purpose a pier was built, the remains of which are still visible. Another attraction of the bay is the sunken research vessel Perseus. A two-masted sailing-steam schooner with ice contours was built in the city of Onega in 1918 as a commercial hunting ship, but in 1922 in Arkhangelsk the unfinished ship was modernized and became a research vessel. For its intended purpose, the vessel operated in the seas of the North Arctic Ocean from 1923 to 1941. It was a real floating marine scientific institute. I even managed to find some technical data of the ship: displacement - 550 tons, length - 41.5 meters, width - 8 meters, draft - 3.2 meters. There were 7 laboratories on this ship, including 1 meteorological one. It was on this ship that echo sounders were first used to detect schools of fish (1939)! From the beginning of the war (since 1941), the Perseus was handed over to the military, and in the same year it was sunk by German aircraft. So the ship and scientific laboratory became the basis for the pier mentioned above. At low tide his remains are still visible...
“Bolshoye Ozerko” - ... arose as a colony in 1860 on the southwestern coast of Rybachye ... In the 1920s it was the center of the Novoozerkovskaya volost. The population in 1926 was 247 people, in 1938 - 127 people. In 1930, the collective farm “Border Fisherman” was organized... In 1960, the village of Ozerko was marked by a row of prefabricated panel houses, popularly called “Finnish”... Over the years of existence, the anti-aircraft missile systems located on Sredny and Rybachye have become morally and tactically obsolete. In the late eighties and early nineties they began to be cut back... In the fall of 1994, the last group of soldiers and officers left the village of Ozerko. The period of pogrom began for everything that had been created with such difficulty over the years. At this time, the worst traits of our national character appeared - to take everything that is bad, to beat what cannot be carried away.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, we inherited a dubious inheritance: missile silos, barracks, and submarine bases scattered here and there. The construction of these sensitive facilities cost the state many billions, and now they are being destroyed under the prickly winds of the Arctic. It’s painful that incredibly complex, expensive mechanisms that could still be restored were completely abandoned, as if it were a barn that no one needed. But I myself took Soviet time participation in the construction of many military installations on Rybachy, transporting thousands of tons building materials on the MT “Hakop Hakobyan”, as well as on other cargo-passenger ships of the shipping company. Therefore, it was doubly painful for me to look at what happened to the peninsula after 1995.
I want to walk along Rybachy in 2007, when I was there for the last time, having traveled more than a hundred kilometers on an ATV, through my once native places.
From the abandoned buildings of the Sredny and Rybachy peninsulas, you can study the history of the rise and fall of Soviet Union, a story of unfulfilled hopes and unrealized plans. An abandoned village is like a lonely sick person: he seems to be alive, but there is no joy. We have always been extravagant. It is felt especially acutely here, on the Rybachy and Sredny peninsulas, on our strategic maritime border. This is a frozen museum of the Soviet era. Abandoned garrisons and defensive fortifications are like scars on the body of the tundra. Alien. There are many of them, but each of them is lonely in its own way and each has its own story of escape.
Garrisons, in which, at first glance, there is everything necessary for life - multi-storey buildings, clubs, gyms, but there is not a single living soul. Ghost villages, lost on the map, orphaned overnight, which are only occasionally visited by lonely travelers. Moreover, there are monuments with the bowed heads of the fishing heroes. They are shadows of the past, warlike, saturated with glory, which has become useless to anyone. Nothing to say. Now the village looks like an abandoned battlefield. And it will collapse and deteriorate until there is at least one more gram of metal left that can be handed over, or one more brick that can be taken with you. The process of theft was carried out on a grand scale... But even if there were no robbers, I do not believe that life could ever return to these houses. Our reality is such that even a good house that loses one owner does not always find a new one. This is especially true for structures owned by the armed forces.
Rybachy is very advantageously located, alas, not only from the point of view of fishing: the peninsula overlooking Norway is an excellent springboard for our troops. It is unlikely that he, or at least part of him, will become civilian in the near future.
The villages on the Rybachy Peninsula, almost all destroyed. Several metal workers now live in Bolshoye Ozerko and collect the remains of metal. It's beautiful and creepy there, like a cemetery.
Here I began my last journey along Rybachy in the summer of 2007 on an ATV, driving to the geologists’ camp and back. Practically, starting from the village. Bolshoye Ozerko, there is a road built during the Second World War, and it is radically different from all the other “roads” on the peninsula. Compared to them, this is a full-fledged dirt highway; it is through it that cars enter the peninsula (well, of course, only those that were able to drive through the pass)!
The village of Zemlyanoye (Pummanki), located in the very center of Sredny, was generally surrounded by something that vaguely resembled a real forest. I heard somewhere that Zemlyanoye is still a residential village... but as soon as I entered the outskirts, there was no doubt: there had been no one there for a long time. Abandoned houses, equipment left right in the middle of the road... If I didn’t know the history of these places, I would have assumed that 15-20 years ago a war started here and the residents fled, leaving behind everything they had. But the reality is sadder - such a well-located village with permanent buildings was simply abandoned due to the redeployment of military units. But I’ve been here so many times with my border guard friends. Here we washed in a wonderful sauna, fished, hunted, picked mushrooms and berries. There was an excellent shooting range here, where I fired at almost all types of weapons, from TTs to machine guns and grenade launchers. I set up nets on the Vykat stream and caught salmon. Naturally, now the bridge over Vykat was destroyed, but nearby cars had already “trampled” a quite acceptable ford and I was able to drive on...
After a few hours of travel, I reached the former geologists’ camp, turned back to Sredniy to return to Ozerko again.
But for now I’m driving from Cape Zemlyanoy along the western coast along a long 30-meter cliff made of the thinnest slate plates, through which many small springs break through. The famous "Two Brothers". There is some kind of mysticism here - it is not without reason that the Sami from ancient times considered Mount Pummanki the habitat of sorcerers (noids). According to legend, two of them - the brothers Noid-Ukko and Noid-Akka - were punished for their atrocities and turned into these stone statues. The most beautiful places! Declaring the Rybachy Peninsula a national park with the obligatory transfer of it from the Ministry of Defense, as a mismanaged and inept owner, to the jurisdiction of the relevant structures involved in the preservation of natural and other heritage, could contribute to the development of tourism on the coast of the Barents Sea, which in turn would have a positive effect on the safety and objects of military heritage. Tourists still enjoy visiting these places, but only in a wild way.
Traces of the presence of hydrocarbons, characteristic of gas and oil fields, were discovered in Sredny several decades ago. In the 70s, the USSR Ministry of Geology recommended starting drilling there, but not even sufficient geophysical research was carried out on the peninsula.
In 1994, the regional administration, with the support of several oil companies, registered the Severshelf company, which carried out seismic surveys at Rybachye. They gave encouraging results to oil workers. Apparently, the oil field stretches from the peninsula into the sea - to the Rybachinskoye oil field. As experts note, in principle, if all standards are observed, drilling and oil production on land is an order of magnitude safer than drilling at sea.
In 2002, one of the co-owners of the Murmansk Shipping Company Nikolai Kulikov, former CEO"Lukoil-Arctic-Tanker", founded new company- Murmanskneftegaz, which received a license to operate on the peninsula a year later. The company was even registered and located in a building owned by the shipping company. Having issued only a license (MUR series number 11451 NP) in March 2003 to begin activities and organize work according to the profile in the fall of the same year, Murmanskneftegaz began prospecting work on the Sredniy peninsula, actually on the isthmus between Sredniy and Rybachy. Equipment began to be imported to the peninsula - a disassembled drilling rig, tractors and other equipment. At the same time, the work project and Required documents, defined by the terms of the license to conduct geological exploration drilling, has not been developed. The administration of the Pechenga district of the Murmansk region was not informed about the timing of the start of work, which did not prevent the destruction of part of the tundra and a conflict situation in this regard. The opinions of local reindeer herders were also not taken into account.
And all this - despite the fact that, for example, the following clause was included in the terms of the license: “3.1.4. Start field geophysical work and well construction only after developing... projects for the relevant types of work. Organize and conduct a procedure for assessing the environmental impact of the proposed activity (EIA). Include EIA materials as part of the state environmental impact assessment facility. “Apparently, the managers of the limited liability company did not even look at the document,” comments the head of the environmental organization Bellona-Murmansk, Sergei Zhavoronkin.
As it turned out, the land on which Murmanskneftegaz began to develop vigorous activity has been leased since 1991 from the Rangifer reindeer herding farm, which has more than 500 deer. Having learned about the expansion of the oil industry, the reindeer herders turned to the regional land committee. “The reindeer herders could not have done otherwise - since they, the tenants, are primarily responsible for the outrages on the territory they rent,” says Sergei Zhavoronkin. In December 2003, the land committee of the Murmansk region established that oil workers had seized land plot illegal, and imposed a fine on Murmanskneftegaz with an obligation to eliminate the detected deficiencies within three months. In addition, as the inspectors of the regional department established natural resources, as a result of the activities of Murmanskneftegaz on the peninsula, about 4 hectares of soil cover with moss, which is the main food of reindeer, were destroyed. The Department of Natural Resources issued an order to suspend preparatory work and provide the department with all the necessary documents.
However, work, as I know, is carried out on the Middle, to this day. There are no guns and tanks for the new capitalists, and those that exist have not fired for a long time.
I still have a map of the places where, over many years of visits to Rybachy, I walked and examined almost every square, every stream, every swamp with berries and every lake with fish. All these are native places. All this is the heroic Rybachy. All this is our common memory - for those who want to remember and to whom it is all dear. I hope that Rybachy will one day be reborn. But that will happen later.
Where is it happy today? Maybe this “happy today” was seen by the last commander of Rybachy - Viktor Viktorovich Kudel? Or thousands of other Rybachin residents? Why did millions of our fathers and grandfathers die in 1941 - 1945? In order to be winners or, in the end, defeated? There is no clear answer to these questions. But still! Glory to the heroes of the Rybachy Peninsula! And eternal memory to them!
I returned to Ozerko, having traveled more than a hundred kilometers, with bitterness in my soul...
It consists of two parts, the Rybachy Peninsula itself and the Middle Peninsula. They are connected by an isthmus, the length of which reaches approximately 1 km. These peninsulas are connected to the mainland by another isthmus, which is about 2 km long. The length of the Rybachy Peninsula from Cape Gordeev to Cape Nemetsky is about 60 km, the width at the northwestern end reaches 10 km, and at the southeastern end up to 25 km.
The shores of the peninsula consist of black slate rocks, above which, inside the peninsula, there are low hills and mountains, covered and partly with grass. Along the banks of rivers and in the valleys between the hills there are partly dry areas with good grass. There are also small forests of birch, willow and other shrubs.
There are many lakes in the northern part of the peninsula. Of the latter, the most significant is Bezymyanny Lake, whose length reaches up to 10 kilometers and width up to 1 kilometer. The Mainavolok River, whose length is up to 10 km, flows out of it. Other rivers on the Rybachy Peninsula include the Zubova River (length about 13 km), Olenka (about 12 km), the source of Lake Olenka and other water bodies.
The peninsula has a large number of various bays and bays. Although few of them can serve as reliable shelters for ships. Starting from the southwest there are bays: Malaya Volokovaya, Bolshaya Volokovaya, on the northwestern coast - Vaida Bay. In the northeastern part of the peninsula there are bays: Skarbeeva, Zubova, Mainavolotskaya, on east coast lips: Tsyp-Navolok, Korabelnaya, Anikieva and Sergeeva.
On south coast On the Rybachy Peninsula there is the vast Mitavsky Bay with the bays of Eina, Mocha, Motka and the harbor of Novozemelskaya; on the southwestern coast there is Kutovaya Bay. The most famous of the capes are: Cape Gordeev, located on the southeastern tip of the peninsula, capes Sharapov, Bashenka and Sergeev, located on the eastern shore. In the northeastern part of the peninsula there are capes Tsyp-Navolok and Lavysh, Lok, Lazar, Mainavolok, Skorbeev; in the northwestern region - capes Kekur and Nemetsky; on the western part of the peninsula there is Zemlyanoy Cape and some others.
The highest points of the peninsula are located on the capes: Gordeev, Kekur and Gremyashchinskaya pakhta (its height reaches about 1450 m above sea level). Other capes have heights from 900 to 1800 m. The northeastern coast of the peninsula is low. The northwestern coast is elevated and in some places reaches 6000 m. Beyond the Bolshaya Volokovaya Bay, the banks again become sloping. The middle peninsula approaches the fiord with tundra shallows.
The fishing peninsula was formerly inhabited by Lapps (a population of the Finnish tribe). Since 1865, colonies of free migrants began to be established here, mainly Finns and from the western shore of Varangerfjord and Norwegian Finnmarken. These peoples became Russian subjects, but economically they gravitated towards their former homeland. The Fisherman's and Middle Peninsulas constituted the Fisherman's Rural Society. Almost all Lapps migrated from the peninsula to the mainland. Russians (up to 600 people) came here only in the summer, for fishing, in some fishing camps, for example: Vaida-guba, Zubovo and Tsyp-Navolok.
Both the Norwegian and Finnish colonies then settled down well. Many of them prospered thanks to fishing, cattle breeding, trade and other crafts. In total, there were about 9 colonies on the Rybachy Peninsula. They had about 500 inhabitants. On the Rybachy Peninsula in the Vaida Guba colony, considered one of the main places in Murmansk for the abundance of cod fishing, from 400 to 500 thousand kg were caught per year. The colonists had up to 100 fishing vessels, on which they caught up to 1,130 thousand kg of marine fish and up to 80 thousand kg of fish oil. On the same ships they carried out trade with the Norwegian towns of Varangerfjord.
In the second half of the 19th century, the famous thinker Nikolai Fedorovich (he was Tsiolkovsky’s teacher) proposed establishing the capitals of Russia on the territory of the Rybachy Peninsula. After the revolution at the beginning of the 20th century, the territories of the western zone of the Rybachy Peninsula and the Middle Peninsula began to belong. In 1940, after the Soviet-Finnish war, these territories were again returned to our country.
On the territory of the Rybachy Peninsula there are deposits of hydrocarbons, oil and. In the 70s of the last century, searches were carried out here, but as a result of insufficient research, these searches were unsuccessful. In 1994, seismic surveys were made on the peninsula, which revealed oil deposits. Oil deposits are located from the peninsula into the sea. The expanses of Rybachy and Sredny are used for reindeer grazing.
A special feature of the waters washed by the shores of the Rybachy Peninsula is that they do not freeze even in winter. The rise in water here is influenced by the North Cape. Currently, based on the results of the expedition of scientists to the territory of the Rybachy Peninsula, a decision has been made to create protected areas here to preserve the fauna of these places.
Song of the war years "Farewell" Rocky Mountains“Many people have heard, and some may even remember the words of this song, which mentions the Rybachy Peninsula, disappearing in the distant fog. But at the same time, few people thought: where is this land located? It is located in the very north of the Arctic Circle, 150 km from regional center Murmansk. And Cape German, located on the peninsula, is the northernmost geographical point mainland European territory.
History of the peninsula
People began to settle in this harsh but beautiful place, located on the shore and Motovsky Bay, a long time ago. The Rybachy Peninsula, according to surviving documents, received its name back in the 16th century. Indeed, in the waters surrounding the peninsula, which do not freeze all year round thanks to the North Cape Current, the Pomors have been fishing (herring, capelin, cod, etc.) since ancient times. Russian Empire the peninsula began to belong to 1826, when the state border with Norway was finally established. After the revolution of 1917, the western part of the island went to Finland, which was subsequently annexed to the USSR after
During the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet Arctic became the scene of fierce battles between Soviet troops and Wehrmacht troops. The German command attached great importance to the capture of the Kola Peninsula, rich in nickel deposits, and planned to capture Murmansk, the main base of the Northern Fleet, as soon as possible, but these plans were not destined to come true. Standing in the way of the invaders was the Rybachy Peninsula, which was the most important strategic point from which the entrance to the Pechenga, Kola and Motovsky bays was controlled. Rybachy remained for them an unsinkable battleship, which played a decisive role in protecting the northern borders of our Motherland.
At the end of the war, Soviet military garrisons were located on the Rybachy Peninsula, located almost on the very border with Norway, and entry into its territory was limited. Currently, most garrisons are closed, and almost anyone can get there.
Peninsula today
The Rybachy Peninsula, the map of which is replete with bays and coves, rivers and lakes, has become a place of pilgrimage for ecotourism lovers. Fans of off-road racing and fans of extreme diving come here not only from Russia, but also from other countries.
Also on the Rybachy Peninsula summer season Many representatives of youth patriotic clubs arrive to visit the sites of the bloody battles of the Second World War and maintain the monuments to the fallen soldiers in proper condition.
This is truly the real End of the Earth - beyond that there are only the boundless expanses of the Arctic Ocean, against the backdrop of which everyone who arrives here is sure to take memorable photos. The Rybachy Peninsula and the adjacent Sredny Peninsula are also attractive because they can most often be observed here. It is not for nothing that the longest polar night on the mainland is here (42 days) and (59 days).
The Rybachy Peninsula is located in the very north of the Murmansk region. He greets tourists with the depressing sight of the abandoned village of Bolshie Ozerki. Abandoned, destroyed houses immediately make you want to move on. There are only two residential settlements on the peninsula, and less than 150 people live there permanently.
Rybachy Peninsula. Coast.
The peninsula itself is a low plateau, indented by small rivers, streams and lakes. The most high point- 334 m.
During the Second World War, fierce battles were fought for the peninsula, and the remains of guns and military fortifications can still be seen throughout its territory. In the post-war years there were military bases, a large port, a collective farm, several settlements, but gradually all this was abandoned and fell into disrepair. Across the entire peninsula, only dilapidated houses, Soviet and German pillboxes, and abandoned and rusting equipment remained. Until 2009, the peninsula was a border zone, and to visit it you had to get a pass; now you can travel here freely.
There is only one active one left here military base, in the village of Vaida-Guba, near the bay of the same name. Not far from the village there is a lighthouse and a monument to soldiers who died in the battles of the Great Patriotic War. One of the first weather stations in Russia is located here; it was built here more than a century ago.
Most popular route lies to the very northern point Rybachy Peninsula- Cape German.
Formally, the peninsula is washed by the Barents Sea, but when you look at the huge turquoise waves, you get the feeling that you are standing on the shore of the harsh and boundless northern ocean. By the way, you can almost always admire these waves here, regardless of the season. Even in summer, the wind blows very often on the coast, and in winter the sea does not freeze. Although going here in winter just to admire the views is not the best good idea. In summer, temperatures rarely rise above 20 degrees. Summer is very short, it is relatively warm here only in July-August, and night frosts begin already in September.
Rybachy Peninsula - how to get there?
Abandoned village on the peninsula You can only get to the Rybachy Peninsula by car. The border zone has been abolished; a Russian passport is enough to travel. Since the peninsula is a natural park, formally you need to fill out an electronic approval for visiting it, but in fact, there is no one on the peninsula who could check whether the visit has been approved or not.
The easiest option is to book an excursion with some tour company that deals with this. I can recommend the company Nordextream, they deliver to the Rybachy and Sredniy peninsulas and do it well. Here is a detailed report with photos about the trip with them.
But if you decide to risk your car, know that you need a well-prepared SUV, and preferably more than one. The second SUV will be very useful in order to pull out the first one.
From Murmansk you need to take the A-138 highway, about 100 km away. there will be the Titovka River. We cross it and turn right. We drive about 50 km to the village of Bolshoye Ozerko, located on the peninsula.
This is where the road ends; it’s very difficult to call what comes next as a road. But along the rivers and rocks you can try to get to the northernmost part of the European territory of Russia - the German Peninsula.