At the end of the 20s, huge deposits of gold were discovered in Kolyma.
In November 1931, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks decided to create the Dalstroy trust for accelerated gold mining. Berzin, the former head of the Latvian Riflemen division, was appointed head of Dalstroy. Since 1921, Berzin was an employee of the special department of the Cheka and the OGPU. Berzin and his assistants arrived in Magadan at the beginning of 1932, and the first political prisoners arrived on the same ship. Until December 1937, when Berzin was removed from his post, intensive development of Kolyma took place under his leadership. Former Kolyma political prisoners describe this period as a kind of Kolyma paradise. All prisoners were released, many occupied responsible positions. Many prisoners had such earnings that they helped their families outside. Many dozens of gold mines were discovered, the production of which grew rapidly. In 1932, 500 kg were mined. gold, then in 1937, production increased to 30 tons.
But Stalin did not like the Kolyma freemen. In December 1937, Berzin was recalled to Moscow, arrested, accused of creating a counter-revolutionary organization and executed. In his place, a career security officer, Pavlov, was also appointed, who was tasked with bringing “order” to Kolyma. The deconvoy was cancelled, all prisoners were placed in camps. Production standards were raised significantly, and wages fell sharply. By order in June 1938, Pavlov ordered that prisoners working in gold mines be detained for up to 16 hours. Camp meals were tied to meeting standards. Hunger began. The exhausted prisoners could not fulfill the norms, their food was cut even further, and the mortality rate began to rise sharply. In many gold mines, up to half, and in some up to 70% of the prisoners died in a year.
The report on the activities of Dalstroy for 1938 stated: “...of the camp prisoners, more than 70% do not fulfill the norms, about half of this number fulfill the norms by no more than 30%.” The gold mining plan for 1938 was thwarted.
Stalin called Pavlov and asked why the plan had not been fulfilled. “Very high mortality rate,” said Pavlov. “Is it bad if the enemies of the people die? - asked Stalin - don’t worry, we will send you as much as you need.” Stalin kept his promise. During 1937, 1938 and 1939, from seven hundred to eight hundred thousand prisoners were transferred to Kolyma. Almost all of them died in the gold mines of Kolyma.

With the arrival of Pavlov, a repressive campaign began that lasted about a year, during which tens of thousands of prisoners were shot. At the end of 1937, the so-called “Moscow brigade” of four security officers arrived in Kolyma. It was led by Pavlov. The "Moscow Brigade" created a case of underground
Trotskyist organization headed by Berzin. Hundreds of freemen and prisoners who led the work in Kolyma were arrested. They were judged by a “troika”, which included Pavlov, the head of the NKVD department for Dalstroy Speransky and the head of the “Moscow Brigade” Kononovich. 10,000 cases were reviewed.
The overwhelming majority were death sentences, which were carried out in the NKVD prison in Magadan.
At the same time, the creation of cases about underground counter-revolutionary organizations in the camps began. Svyatoslav Timchenko, a correspondent for Nezavisimaya Gazeta, spent several years in Kolyma collecting materials about the camps. A former NKVD detective told Timchenko how things were done at the camps. A visiting tribunal came to the camp. Two or three NKVD officers locked themselves in an office
the detective officer (in the camp “godfather”), where the prisoner file was kept. They spent two or three days there, selecting candidates for execution. First of all, those who were accused of Trotskyism were selected. Then those in whose forms there were notes from the “godfather”, made based on denunciations of informers, that, for example, this prisoner was conducting anti-Soviet conversations. Those who systematically fulfilled the norms by less than 30% were also included in the list.
Having selected candidates, the tribunal handed down death sentences to them. The lists were handed over to the camp administration. The guards took those selected away and locked them in a special barracks. At night they were taken to the nearest ravine and, standing near pre-dug trenches, were shot with rifles or machine guns. In the morning, at the divorce, the verdict was read out to the participants of the underground counter-revolutionary organization operating in the camp, which was exposed, arrested and sentenced to death. The lists of those sentenced were read out and it was announced that the sentence had been carried out.
Former prisoner Alexander Chernov told Timchenko how he accidentally witnessed the execution of about 70 prisoners near the Nizhny Sturmovoy camp in the valley of the Svistoplyas stream. A column of prisoners was led into a narrow canyon and machine gunners positioned on the slope of the hill began to shoot them. When the machine-gun bursts ended, the guards who led the column began to finish off the wounded, throwing them into waste
pits. Chernov said that the water in the stream turned red with blood.
The execution campaign was led by Colonel Garanin, head of Sevvostlag.
That’s what the Kolyma camps were called back then. Garanin, according to numerous stories from those who saw him, was what the camp inmates call an “arbitrary.” He himself shot prisoners - for failure to comply with standards, for asking to be transferred to work in their specialty, for not standing well in the ranks or not pushing a wheelbarrow too energetically. He was always drunk, and when he came with an inspection to the camp point, the entire zone was trembling with fear, since, having found fault, he could shoot in front of everyone both a simple prisoner and a foreman, and even give an order for the immediate arrest of the camp commander for failure to comply plan. Garanin signed execution orders issued by the tribunals, and was thus responsible for the extermination of tens of thousands of Kolyma prisoners.
The bulk of the executions took place in a specially created extermination camp, which was called “Serpantinka”, since the road to it spiraled through the hills. Two testimonies have been preserved of those who were brought to Serpantinka and miraculously survived. One of them was Mikhail Vygon. He told Timchenko what he saw in this camp.
The barracks he ended up in were overcrowded. People lay under the bunks, sat on them, stood in the passage. When someone died, the body continued to stand among the living because it had nowhere to fall. The dead were taken away in the morning, when the barracks were “aired.” The prisoners were first taken to a plank pen where they could relieve themselves, then to another pen, where each was given a bowl of gruel directly from the field kitchen (this was the daily ration). After this, an ordinary day began: someone was summoned for a short interrogation, others were taken away in batches of 10-15 people to be shot. Through the cracks in the barracks the back courtyard was visible, into which the next group of condemned prisoners was being led. Shots were heard. At this moment, they added speed to two tractor engines, which began to roar, drowning out the shots.
Mikhail Vygon was terribly lucky. The day after he got to Serpantinka, the executions stopped. A few days later, a rumor spread throughout the camp that Colonel Garanin had been arrested. And soon it became known that the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Yezhov, on whose orders the execution campaign was carried out in the camps, was also arrested.
Preserved and more detailed story prisoner Ilya Taratin, who stayed on Serpantinka for several days awaiting execution and also lived to see the day when Garanin was arrested.
His memoirs were published in one of the issues of the Magadan Museum of Local Lore in 1992.
This is what Taratin said: “There were about a hundred people in the barracks where we were taken. And we, another forty people, were locked here too. I was struck by the dead silence. People were lying on their bunks in some strange thoughtfulness.
The reason soon became clear: there was no return from this cell; people were only taken from it to be shot. Living corpses lay on the couples. Somewhere in the distance the noise of a tractor was heard. The prisoners jumped off their bunks and clung to the cracks in the walls. I began to look through the crack, holding my breath. I see a caterpillar tractor with a sleigh on which stood a large box come down from the mountain. I drove up to the barracks. It seemed like there was nothing wrong with us. But the prisoners silently and incessantly continued to look into the prison yard. Night has come. The prison was brightly illuminated by floodlights. Five people came out of the tent and walked towards our cell. Three were in uniform, in red caps, with machine guns, two were in civilian clothes. My mouth immediately went dry, my legs became weak, I had no strength to move or speak.
The metal door opened with a grinding sound. Five people come in and call. All those summoned silently and slowly walk towards the exit, walking towards death. I look through the gap and see: the prisoners were taken into a tent, then from there, one by one, they began to be led into the chief’s office, next to the tent. The man has just crossed the threshold when a dull shot is heard. They shoot, apparently unexpectedly, in the back of the head.
A minute later, the executioners return back to the tent, take the second, third, fourth, fifth. The headman told us that in the tent they put handcuffs on, a gag is pushed into the mouth so that the person cannot scream, then the verdict is read out - the decision of the Kolyma “troika” of the NKVD - and they are taken to the chief’s office, specially
adapted for the execution of a sentence.
Soon the metal door of the barracks began to grind again. Five more were called. Those who could not walk were dragged along the ground to the tent. In that spooky night Seventy people said goodbye to their lives.
The tractor started working again, and the clanging of the tracks was heard. I fell back to the crack. I saw how the tractor climbed higher and higher onto the mountain illuminated by the dawn, taking away the corpses of the executed in its terrible box.
Where do they go now? - I asked, not addressing anyone. “There is a large hole on the side of the gorge,” someone answered dully. - They dump it in it.
Night. The tractor is again at the prison. The motor is running. I see them walking towards our cell.
Five people are called and taken away. First to the tent, and then to the chief’s office.
Exactly the same as last night. Thirty people were taken away.
Suddenly, in the middle of the night, the prison gates opened. Two trucks with prisoners drove into the courtyard illuminated by floodlights. Guarded by guards, they were quickly unloaded and forced to lie on the ground. The chief looked at the tower and raised his hand. Machine guns were pointed at them from the tower. They began to pick up five people at a time and take them to the tent. By morning everyone was shot.
The tractor engine works monotonously. Soon they will come for the next victims...
A black car drove up to the prison gates. The warden jumped out of the tent, followed by someone else. Both headed towards the gate. A couple of minutes later, two men and a woman entered the prison yard. One man is in NKVD uniform, the other is in civilian clothes. After staying with the warden for half an hour, they left.
We didn't sleep all night, looking through the cracks. But no one came for us.
They didn’t come on the fourth and fifth nights. They didn't shoot anymore. Something has changed. But what kind, no one knew about it.
A few days later, I and a group of prisoners were taken to a transit point. Here we heard amazing news: a member of the government came from Moscow with the task of arresting the head of USVITL Garanin, who led the executions in Kolyma. Garanin was arrested and taken to Magadan. People's Commissar of the NKVD Yezhov was also removed. So that’s why the executions stopped!”
In May 1945, the camp on Serpantinka was destroyed. The barracks were blown up and then bulldozed to the ground. And in June 1991, through the efforts of former prisoners, a monument was erected on the territory of the destroyed Serpantinka.
Those who have studied the history of the Kolyma camps agree that 30-35 thousand prisoners were killed on Serpantinka. In Magadan there are 10-15 thousand. Another 20 to 30 thousand were shot at approximately three hundred Kolyma camps.
Thus, during the executions, called “Garaninsky”, which lasted a year, from 60 to 80 thousand prisoners were killed in the Kolyma camps.

One of the youngest thieves in law Vakhtang Khatiskatsi, dissident Andrei Amalrik, the famous Ivankov “Yaponchik”. What unites these people? All of them at one time served their sentences in the general regime colony "Talaya", located in the Khasynsky district, 300 km from Magadan.

It was founded in 1958, but did not last long. In 1995, the only boiler room failed and about 300 prisoners, as well as the colony staff, were left without heat in the bitter cold. It was not possible to restore the broken pump on the diesel unit, there was no way to deliver new equipment to the colony, and the leadership of the Far Eastern Penitentiary Institution decided to transfer convicts from "Talaya" to similar institutions southern regions Far East, and close the object itself.

I suggest you take a walk around the territory of the colony and see
1. In the order of the Internal Affairs Directorate Magadan region dated 02/16/1959 No. 30 “On organizing a forestry mission at camp point No. 7 of the village. Talaya" it was prescribed: "In order to provide timber, organize our own carpentry workshops at camp point No. 7 of the village. Melting, which will significantly increase the employment of prisoners. Organize a forest camp trip in the area of ​​the Buyunda River with 20 light-duty people to harvest timber for the needs of the construction site of the Talaya resort.

2. This is what one of the harshest places in the colony looks like now - the punishment cell, where those especially guilty were sentenced to 15 days.

3. Door to the building. Apparently, there was once a fire here, so the already gloomy parts of the object are also charred.

4. Darkness and horror.

5. All that remains of the electrical wiring.

6. Cramped cells that cause an attack of claustrophobia, windows without glass, pimply walls. To say that the convicts here had a hard time is to say nothing.

7. Corridor.

8. On each door there is a sign with information about prisoners and terms of punishment.

9. Shared toilet.

10. According to the recollections of the deputy head of the production department of the department, N.F. Belyaev, in 1970, with the introduction of the positions of director, chief power engineers, mechanics, and technologists, an enterprise of its own production was created in the institution. For the period 1971-1979 Engineering and technical security structures were strengthened, a bathhouse-laundry was built for the construction of an industrial workshop, and a forest fund of 15 thousand cubic meters of wood was obtained. At the same time, a vocational school was created to train convicts in working professions.

11. This is what the “housing stock” looks like. The convicts lived in these barracks. But there were no beds left here, apparently they were distributed to other colonies.

12. One of the utility rooms.

13.

14. In their free time from work, the convicts participated in amateur performances and sports clubs; there was a tradition of “Clean Friday” for cleaning the territory and improving children’s playgrounds.

15. A washroom painted a cheerful blue. Apparently to start the day with Have a good mood. How is this even possible in places like this?

16. Manufacturing was widely developed in the colony: diesel engines, electric motors, and transformers were repaired. There was a bone-carving workshop, the products from which won prizes at various competitions in Moscow. They manufactured school and cabinet furniture, operated a mechanical repair shop, and operated a greenhouse complex, the products from which were distributed among employees. They even engaged in pig farming. The convicts also collected dirt for the Talaya sanatorium. Thus, the colony was a kind of “city-forming” enterprise.

17. Here, in fact, are the production buildings.

18.

19. Many interesting artifacts were discovered. It's like an open-air museum of forgotten things.

20. I wonder what a school mathematics textbook is doing here?

21.

22. Prisoners passed through this room to work. Sasha alkrylov , Hello!

23. In the distribution center, prisoners received their tasks for the day.

24. And these are garage premises.

25. Almost 20 years have passed, and the place still smells of diesel fuel and machine oil.

26. Boiler room.

27.

28. The same diesel power plant where everything went wrong.

29.

30. Stainless steel curtain at the entrance to the mechanical repair shop.

31.

32. The border that separated the colony from freedom.

33. But as a reward for their hard existence, those serving their sentences were provided with such a stunning landscape completely free of charge. They say that in the Swiss Alps, for such a view from the window of a hotel room, an additional and rather hefty fee is charged.

Like this. To be continued!

Paulina Stepanovna Myasnikova 95 years. Born she in G. Baku V 1909 year. After graduation schools went to study V Moscow, Where V end1933 of the year was first once arrested How "enemy people". WITH this time started long camp Paulina's odyssey Stepanovna. Kolyma she gave it away more 15 years.

Through 40 years after departure for "mainland" P. WITH. Myasnikova again visited places his youth. 12 June 1996 of the year V number others former prisoners Stalin's camps, now rehabilitated, Pauline Stepanovna came V Magadan on opening monument victims political repression.

After discoveries memorial We met With Paulina Stepanovna, And she shared their memories O years, carried out V link, prison And camp. Her story brought to your attention readers.

In the early thirties, I was a student at one of the Moscow universities. In the summer of 1933, my older brother was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in forced labor camps. And at the end of the same year I was arrested too. I was accused of being his sister. The punishment was determined as follows: exile to the city of Kazan for three years...

We were taken to the city of Yaroslavl, to the famous Yaroslavl Central, which, according to stories, was built under Catherine the Second. They put me in solitary confinement.

The main rule, the law if you like, in this prison was silence. Talking here was almost not allowed, and if you needed to ask the servants something, then only in a whisper.

Women's prison uniform - gray skirt and jacket with brown wide stripes. There is a number on the clothes. The prisoners were not identified by last name. We only responded to numbers.

I was alone in the cell for several months. And many girls also spent months alone.

1937 was the peak of repression, so there was a sharp increase in prisoners, and neighbors moved in with us. I was transferred to a cell where there was a Polish communist named Felya. Even before the revolution in Russia, she was a liaison between Russian, Polish, and German communists. An honest, decent and proud woman.

By this time, about five thousand women were already detained. There were, of course, men too.

As I already said, prisoners were not allowed to say anything unnecessary, much less ask or demand.

For about three years I sat in such a cell, without seeing white light, not communicating with anyone except Feli.

In 1939, the authorities probably realized that we were of no use, and we were eating bread for nothing, even if it was a little, but we were not dying of hunger. And an order was received to remove us from prison. They loaded 70-80 people into wagons and drove away.

Of course, none of us could know where they were taking us. It was incredibly stuffy in the carriage, and they only gave us a mug of water for the day. The food on the road was even worse than in prison.

At this stage there were mostly literate, intelligent women, former students, teachers, actresses, and artists. The people are good, so there were no scandals between us along the entire journey. On the contrary, they tried to help each other.

Zhenya Ginzburg was also traveling in the carriage with me. Before that, I did not know her personally, but I knew her from publications in Kazan newspapers when I was in exile in this city.

Zhenya worked as a teacher at Kazan University. And here, in the carriage, I met her.

Along the way we saw many camps. They could be identified by their guard towers. Only upon arriving in Birobidzhan did we realize that they were taking us to Vladivostok. It was July 1939.

Upon arrival in Vladivostok, many of our group, including me, fell ill with a strange disease - their eyes could not see anything. Then they explained to us that this is night blindness, which occurs after prolonged malnutrition and overwork of the body.

At the Vladivostok transit station I met my brother Vanya. As already said, he was arrested and convicted before me. All this time he was in a political detention center in Verkhneuralsk.

And Vanya and I met in the following way. During the transfer we were taken to some medical center to determine our fitness for work category. This procedure was, of course, formal. Almost all patients wrote “healthy” on the form.

And suddenly a male prisoner, about 35-40 years old, comes up and looks at me carefully. Of course, I was scared and felt uneasy. I think why does he need me? Is this an operative dressed in camp clothes? In general, all sorts of nonsense came into my head. And he turns to me: “What’s your last name, girl?”

I don’t want to talk to him, I’m trying to leave. He insists, wants an answer to his

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question. He comes very close: “I’m asking you, this is very important.”

I think: “What do you care about me, why do you need me? It’s my misfortune that he got attached.” He doesn’t let up and asks again:

“Are you not Ivan Samoilov’s sister?”

I was, of course, shocked. It turns out he knows my brother, but from where? Maybe he knew him while he was free, or maybe Vanya was nearby, during this transfer? My brother and I were very similar to each other. Without waiting for an answer (he realized that I was Vanya’s sister), he asked the question again: “Which transit section are you in?” I quickly answered him. He named the place and time where my brother should come.

The shipment was divided by a wooden fence: on one side there were men, and on the other, women.

At the agreed time I arrived at the fence. I came much earlier, and not alone, but with friends, so that there would be less suspicion. And then I see my brother on the other side of the fence on a hill. He waved his hand at me, and I responded the same way. Then we approached the fence. Female prisoners protected me from the guard's eyes. Vanya’s first question was: “Pavochka (that’s what they called me at home, and later in the camp), tell me, where have you been all this time?”

I told him about everything that I had to endure in the Yaroslavl Central. About how, for example, once, having received five days in a punishment cell, she almost froze to death. It was winter, and I was put in a punishment cell in only a jacket and a skirt without underwear. They fed us once a day, in the morning they gave us a piece of bread and a mug of ice water, which made our teeth ache. I couldn't drink more than two sips.

I was able to figure out how to count the days only by how the rations were brought in the morning. They brought it - it means a new day has begun.

Exhausted from hunger and cold, in despair, I sat down on a bench and decided to freeze.

The guards still checked if I was alive, they entered the cell and looked into my eyes - was I blinking?

When they brought me clothes after leaving the punishment cell, I could not get dressed. Then the guard took me into the shower and turned on hot water. For some time I did not feel that almost boiling water was pouring on me. Then the body moved away, warmed up, and I jumped out from under the streams of hot water. Two days later I got sick.

I told my brother about all this. We were in the transit zone for five days in total, then Vanya was sent to a prison camp, to the gold mines. But where, I still don’t know.

At parting, my brother threw me a small chintz sheet with some kind of small pattern over the fence. He gave me men's boots in size 38 (I had either size 41 or size 42). And another small pillow. I still have it.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t give my brother anything, since I had nothing except prison clothes.

Vanya and I parted forever. He was taken to Kolyma. No one knew the exact destination then, but everyone understood that from Vladivostok there was only one way by sea - to Kolyma.

About two weeks after the separation from my brother, I was also sent to the prison camp. First they loaded them into large boats, which took the prisoners to the huge ship.

In the hold there were bunks several stories high. There were a lot of people. Stuffiness, cramped conditions, thirst and sea motion brought people to the point of loss of consciousness. My cellmate in the Yaroslavl prison Felya (she and I were always in the same stage) again fell ill with night blindness. I didn't see anything. I looked after her all the way.

We arrived at the port of Nagaev early in the morning. Dul cold wind, drops of rain fell from the gray sky. Many were sent straight from the ship to the hospital. I still had strength, and I walked on my own.

In August 1939, almost our entire convoy was sent to El Gen. Zhenya Ginzburg arrived later, in October; she was in the hospital at that time.

When the snow fell and severe frosts began, we were scattered on forest business trips. They felled the forest. Closer to spring, almost everyone was urgently removed from logging. Special pots were made from manure and frozen. Cabbage seedlings were then planted in them. They stuck a plant into the frozen manure, and then it seemed to me that it should have died, but I was wrong. There were large boilers in the room with warm water, which was used to water stems shriveled from frost. And they came to life right before our eyes. I was very surprised by this at first, everything happened just like in a fairy tale.

Cabbage harvests during the war were very large. We had to water it during white nights, since summers in Kolyma were also very hot.

Cucumbers, tomatoes and greens were grown in greenhouses. Those who worked in the greenhouses were very happy - they could always eat vegetables. They also brought them to the camp, but it was very risky, since storing vegetables in the barracks was punishable by punishment in a punishment cell.

In 1941, after the start of the war, several people, including me, were sent to mine lime. This work was terrible and difficult, but there was nowhere to go.

Then we worked for some time in Mylga. Mostly Yakuts and Evens lived here at that time, and

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lived in yarangas. At the end of the 1930s, the national Yakut collective farm “Red Bogatyr” was created here. Several log houses were built for the Yakuts. But the local population did not want to move into these boxes. They settled in in the presence of the authorities, and then went back to the yarangas. We were forced to destroy the homes of the Yakuts so that they would not return to them, but would live in the houses.

In the summer I had to work in haymaking. At one time we were on a haymaking trip with Galina Voronskaya, the daughter of Alexander Voronsky, a well-known writer in the thirties, editor of the reputable magazine “Krasnaya Nov”, who was also illegally repressed. But we rarely trusted Galya with her scythe, and if she did mow, it was done away from everyone. Her eyesight was very poor, and we were all afraid that, working next to us, she would buckle our heels.

Each job had its own standards, which in most cases were not met.

It was especially difficult for me at the logging site in the first year of my Kolyma hard labor. And in winter, in the severe Kolyma frosts, and in early spring when I had to work almost knee-deep in water. And then one day I decided to quit work and came to the barracks at noon. And there is the foreman. He asks: “Why are you here?” “I can’t,” I say, “to suffer anymore, do with me what you want, but I can’t work like that.”

I was lucky that in the evening my temperature rose and I was considered sick.

It was very difficult to live in the camp. If I had the strength, I would have decided to escape.

But even after my liberation, I did not immediately leave this village. Suddenly I felt scared. It seems to be the will, but I don’t know what to do with it. Where to go in these severe frosts?

I got a job as a worker in a poultry house. Then they were transferred to an incubator. She quit only a year later. In parting, the foreman wished me good luck in life and said that the manager of the poultry farm was very pleased with my work, for which he allocated four chickens, fifty eggs and four hundred grams of alcohol.

All this wealth was used, including alcohol. Of course, I didn’t drink it myself - I never learned to drink it during my entire camp life. But I knew his worth. It came in handy when I was hitching a ride to Yagodny. When I offered the driver alcohol as payment, he was very happy.

In Yagodnoye, I was sheltered by my camp friend Zoya Maryina, who lived in a barracks that served as a hotel for drivers. After some time, I got a job as an assistant in the central mechanical repair workshops.

One day the lights went out in our room, and after a while a man came in. I asked why we were sitting without light. We shrugged our shoulders, and he promised to do it. And did.

A few days later the light went out again. Again the same man came, helped, repaired. We didn't have much money, so we paid him for his help with food. And this happened several times.

Occasionally another man came to see us. He worked as the chief mechanic at the Center for Mechanical Engineering, and I, of course, knew him. “Why is it so cold here?” he once asked. “We don’t have firewood, and we don’t use tiles. Because of it, a short circuit occurs, and in general the light often goes out.”

He helped with firewood and repaired the lights. It turns out that the “master” who adjusted the light for us also turned it off. This “master” turned out to be a subordinate of Nikolai Ippolitovich Myasnikov, my future husband.

In 1947, Nikolai and I got married. We spent the winter in Yagodnoye. My friend gave us a barn where she once kept pigs. We tidied it up, made it into a small shack and were glad to have our own corner.

In 1948 they left for Magadan in the hope of going to the “mainland”. But, alas, this did not work out for us.

Only in 1956 were they able to escape to their native places. But I was forbidden to live at thirty-nine major cities countries. My husband and I went to Nalchik. That same year, in Nalchik, I was summoned to the KGB and given a certificate of rehabilitation. A year later, Nikolai and I moved to live in Moscow.

IN last years At the Sovremennik Theater I was involved in the play “ Steep route"Based on the work of Evgenia Ginzburg, with whom we suffered together in Kolyma. And it was as if I was reliving everything that befell me in prison and the camp - I was playing out my life.

My life, as you understand, is coming to an end. How would it have developed if not for this terrible, inhumane Stalinist regime? It’s difficult for me to answer this question now. God grant that this never happens again in our country.

Recorded Ivan PANICAROV,

chairman Yagodinsky Society

"Search illegally repressed",

village. Yagodnoye, Magadan region.

What do we know about Kolyma, besides the phrase “... no, it’s better if you come to us,” Shalamov’s stories and the Kolyma camps? In recent years, many television series have been filmed about gold and the northern lands. But what happens to gold, and to Kolyma, and to the people who live there cannot occur to any of the scriptwriters. Fantasy is not enough. In terms of fantasies and their implementation, the state has surpassed all playwrights and writers combined.

462.5 thousand sq. km occupies the territory of the Magadan Region, formed on December 4, 1953. Kolyma is called the “golden heart of Russia” - there really is plenty of gold everywhere. But the paradox is that for all its wealth, today’s Kolyma is a terrible poverty, a constant struggle of people for survival and complete absence interest from the state.

The Kolyma residents themselves call the state’s policy towards themselves genocide. This is what the man who lived there all his life, Viktor Zozulya, told the joint venture about today’s Kolyma. The most Kolyma resident.

SP:- How many villages are left in Kolyma?

- Of the 32, 28 no longer exist. Although the map of the Magadan region still includes villages that have been gone for a long time. Every year, one after another, they are wiped off the face of the earth. I don't know who invented it. But a huge amount of money was allocated to the administration of the Magadan region, a lot of equipment, so that bulldozers would go along the highway and demolish villages. Along the highway now you will not only find not a single village, but there is not a single building there that reminds of their existence. Everything was broken and taken away. People were forced to leave. People survived.

We had commissions from Moscow, and some delegations came from America. They drove along the highway and saw devastation; in each dilapidated village there lived several families, sometimes several hundred people. " Big people"They were shocked. As soon as they left, it was ordered to liquidate these villages. They brought “beauty”. Along the route there is now only taiga and hills. Not a single living soul, not a single barracks. Everything is smooth. All the villages were destroyed.

But even before the villages, the authorities destroyed the factories. We had a mechanical repair plant in Yagodnoye that made equipment for geologists: drilling machines, bulldozers. The plant was closed. The Mayskaya company was opened on its basis, and it still exists today. (Private Moscow company engaged in gold mining). There was a building materials plant, a beer and soft drink plant, which included a meat and dairy plant and a bakery. All these factories provided a large number of population with work. Now there is nothing - at first the factories were “mothballed”, and then they were simply sold for scrap. All. There is nothing. That’s why there are no people in Kolyma: there is nowhere to work. Gold mining - we have nothing else.

SP:- What are mining cooperatives like today?

- Previously, every village had a so-called mining and processing plant. The artels worked for him, they were all subordinate to the mining and processing plant. Right now in Susuman (a town 100 km from Yagodnoye) there is still a mining and processing plant left, but in Yagodnoye it was destroyed. The system is like this: someone has start-up capital. This man buys land, buys equipment and begins to pan for gold. And this gold is supposedly sent to Magadan to a refinery. But in fact, fifty percent of the gold mined in Kolyma does not reach Magadan.

SP:-Where does it go?

- The rest of the gold goes to Ingushetia. Going for export.

SP:- Tell us about the “predators”. Who are they and how does a prospector work in Kolyma now?

- A predator is a person who mines gold without documents. If a “predator” washed gold, and you need to understand what it means to “wash” gold: this is - ice water, in which you sit all daylight hours. And if today you managed to wash at least a few grams, good. Sometimes you spend days in vain washing the rock with a tray, and there is nothing. So, the Ingush people usually come to the predator with a local policeman and take away the gold. The predator has no choice but to give away the gold he has mined. Or a bullet to the forehead. And the same story often happens to the foremen of mining artels: during the season, Caucasian guys come to the foreman. They say that he must release some of the gold to them so that the brigade “won’t be touched.” If the foreman refuses, he disappears, and in the spring the corpse is either found under the melted snow or not.

SP:- In the eighties, were there as many visitors from the Caucasus?

- No. After “perestroika”, gold mining became more accessible; the state no longer controlled anything here. Now we have four good artels in the entire region. Mayskaya, Polevaya, Rudnichenko artel on Sturmovoy, and Krivbas. These artels are led by locals who grew up on this land, worked as monitors themselves, and now they have become the leaders of these artels. They work directly with the Magadan refinery. All other artels are run by Ingush and work for themselves. They settled here in the nineties and still live here. The locals initially tried to get them out. Mainly because of them boorish behavior. Well, and then - they came with a lot of money, no police will help you if the Ingush want your gold. The Ingush hand over part of their gold to the state for refinery, but a very small percentage is used as a distraction. The rest of the gold goes to the mainland and Ingushetia.

SP:- How do they export so much gold?

- Just. The equipment at Sokol airport is old. And the detector works for metal, for weapons. It doesn't work for gold. If someone manages to be “captured,” it is either based on tattoos or behavior, if the person gives himself away. But basically, “I don’t want to take you,” as they say.

SP:- Is it more profitable for predators to hand over gold to the Ingush or to the state?

- Of course, to the state. But by definition, a “predator” cannot hand over gold to the state: he washed it without documents, they will simply tie him up and put him in prison. Therefore, he is forced to hand it over to the Ingush. The Ingush, taking advantage of this, give half the price per gram of gold.

SP:- So isn’t it easier for a person to get permission and not engage in “predation”, because in the end it is not beneficial for him in all respects?

- Easier. But in order to get a permit, you need to find a car, drive a hundred kilometers there and a hundred kilometers back to Susuman. And then go there once a month, return the gold and renew the permit. Not everyone has their own car for such travel. And by bus - how will you travel with gold? You might just get hit in the head.

SP:- That is, men are mainly engaged in washing gold?

- And women also mostly wash gold. Both in winter and in summer. In any weather. There is no work, no pension yet, but we have to live.

SP:- Let’s say a person panned a certain amount of gold in a day. How do the same Ingush who rob them know where to go?

- If you take Burkhala (a village near Yagodny-SP), there is one good training ground there. And everyone is panning for gold there, at this site. And the land plots have already been purchased by the Ingush. And then they let people into their own plots, bought for gold mining. And the miner hands over the gold to him, without any risk to his life. But it’s two times cheaper than if he rented it out to the state. There are many sites where the owner does not work at all: he simply buys gold from people. There are no costs: you don’t need to buy diesel fuel or equipment. It's more profitable. Do nothing and get gold. Then take it to the refinery at double the price. Direct gain.

SP:- What if a person pans for gold not on private territory, but simply on free land?

- If he is caught on “free” land, then his flippers will be “twisted” and he will be imprisoned. In undeveloped areas, gold mining is generally prohibited. According to the law, on such land they give 5 years for 3 grams.

SP:- And yet, for the most part, who owns the mines?

- For the most part, the developments belong to people from Ingushetia. We have two sites that are run by locals. But the fact is that everything very much depends on the leadership. Here in Krivbas the order is strict. No one just walks around the territory, everyone must run. To avoid raising dust, cars only drive at first speed. He has two football fields, the surface he brought from Belgium. On the one hand, this is good: a person improves sports. But the attitude towards the people who work in the artel is terrible. But people work, they have nowhere to go. They don't give free wages. This year, the Magadan Duma decided to give something free, as was the case in Soviet time. Free Prinos is a reception desk right in the village. You hand over gold, you are paid money. It’s good for you, and the state receives the gold directly. But in the end, no decision has been made on this issue so far. Apparently. this is not beneficial to someone who can make such a decision. Everything is in private hands, which means that someone has a lot of money from this, and can carry it past the state’s pocket. But here the miner will work directly with the state. Well, if free labor is legalized, then no one will work in the artel. A man is his own master. As much as I earned, I received as much. But this whole mess started in the nineties. They destroyed everything that was possible.

SP:- Okay, that time has passed now. Kolyma exists as a separate planet, separated from the “mainland” and the laws of the “mainland”. It is clear that gold cannot but be profitable. There is a lot of gold there. Why then is there such desolation? It doesn’t matter who is there: Ingush or Russian. Can production be established? What's the matter? Why hasn't anything changed since the nineties?

- Because with the beginning of the collapse a huge number of people left. Now they are importing Ukrainians, Moldovans, and Uzbeks. They come for the season, to pan for gold, to earn something. Last year, the Mayskaya company entered into an agreement with China and hired 36 Chinese specialists - the equipment was mainly Chinese. The company's management decided that the Chinese should service this equipment better than the Russians. But in reality, everything turned into just a joke. A Chinese specialist comes to the canteen, takes a double ration, eats and hides in the workshop - sleeps. He has no need to work: he is fed, he receives money according to the contract. A local technician works for him. And here is the whole experience of working with Chinese comrades...

Burkhala still survives next to Yagodny. It was the most beautiful Kolyma village. Large, with its own infrastructure. The Burkhalinsky mining and processing plant was located there. The Yagodninsky district is very rich in gold (Burkhala belongs to the Yagodninsky district - SP). There were seven artels on Burkhal. Since the early nineties they have disappeared. All the locals now carry trays. Women go to the training grounds. In winter and summer. There is no more income. Gold prices depend on the time of year. At the beginning of the year it was 480 rubles per gram, then the price rose to 560, now the price is even higher. Because it is harder to mine gold in winter. To do this, you need to burn the earth and heat the water. Hell of a job.

SP: That is, we can say that the whole of Kolyma lives on “pasture”. In winter - hunting and fishing, in summer picking berries, mushrooms, and gold mining?

- Yes, that’s the only way people survive. Prices in Kolyma are not even the same as in Magadan. Three to four times higher than on the mainland. For everything: for equipment, for clothes, for food. Here’s the situation with fish: it seems like we can’t overcatch them. But everywhere, in all areas, there are “their own teams.” Even if they let you go fishing, it will be in an area where you can probably catch five or six fish in a day. Crews remove tons of fish. They also work under the supervision of some private owner. They freeze her. Or I accept the same chum salmon from free fishermen for 20 rubles per kilogram, and in winter they sell it for 200 rubles per kilo of fish and 800-1000 rubles per kilogram of chum salmon caviar. Our entrepreneurs are not controlled by anyone. They will charge whatever price they want, that’s what they will charge. And people have nowhere to go: they have nowhere else to buy food. So they buy at these crazy prices. We have chicken legs for 300 rubles, eggs for 180 tens, milk – 70-80 rubles per liter. The majority of our population is middle-aged and elderly. Now, a pensioner who earns 8 thousand rubles a month cannot afford to buy a “golden” ham.

SP:- What is the average monthly income of a person who works in Kolyma?

- About 25 thousand a month if he washes gold every day.

SP:- What is actually changing in Kolyma?

- Nothing changes. Everything on TV is very beautiful. And we try not to even watch news programs - it turns our souls inside out, it’s insulting. For example, housing and communal services. We pay for electricity, for cold and hot water, for cleaning the entrances, which is not there, for heating - for everything per month with a pension of eight thousand rubles, 4 thousand is rent. Although we don’t have hot water, we have to pay for it. The same with heating and cleaning. And people who work in the housing and communal services sector themselves sit without wages for months. So, what kind of programs the government is implementing there, I don’t know.

SP:- What is the difference between Magadan and the “highway”?

- As I understand it, all the money flows there from Kolyma, and the money that comes down from above does not go further than Magadan. They call it the golden heart of Kolyma. The way it is.

SP:- Does the state somehow help those who survived the camps and remained to live in Kolyma?

- The state pays them 8 thousand rubles a month.

SP:-Kolyma occupies a vast territory of Russia. How many people are left in Kolyma?

– Previously, there was only one person living three kilometers away. Now it’s good if there’s one out of three hundred left. Or even less. On paper and on TV, the state is involved in our lives. But in reality, no one does anything here. Nobody needs anything. The mainland has its own life, we have ours. It would be better if Kolyma was given to someone. Maybe they could live like human beings. We survive as best we can. What can I say... They are turning Kolyma into a dead zone. It feels like this is being done on purpose. This is genocide of one's own people...

SP Help:

The USSR ranked second in the world, producing almost 300 tons of gold per year. To date, about 6 thousand gold deposits have been explored in the country. The largest production volumes are provided by Krasnoyarsk region- over 30 tons (84% is provided by Polyus CJSC). It is followed by the Magadan region (Omolon, Kubaka, Natalka deposits) with a production volume of 23 tons. A quarter of Russian gold (and 60% of silver) is traditionally mined here.

Victor Zazulya:

Victor's father was born and raised in Kalinin, a village in the Magadan region that still exists on the map, but twenty years ago it was razed to the ground. After the war, he ended up in a camp as an enemy of the people for stealing a bar of soap from a warehouse. Mom is from Chelyabinsk. During the war she worked at a tank factory. I sewed covers for tank seats. There were no shoes, so I collected scraps of “paneling” from the factory and made myself slippers. And also under Article 58, as an enemy of the people, she ended up in Kolyma. The parents sat in different areas, then met. Mom became pregnant, V. Zozulya was born in Ilgen (a village in the Magadan region - SP), in the women's zone. Afterwards, the mother was released “to settlement” in the village of Ust-Taskan.

- I was nine months old when my father was released and my parents moved to the village of Yagodnoye. And since then I have lived in Yagodnoye for 55 years (a village 520 km from Magadan along the Magadan-Yakutsk - SP highway). Almost everyone who lived in Kolyma was former prisoners or children of former prisoners. They settled down, found work and stayed in the Kolyma villages. They consider themselves Kolyma residents. Because then (after 1953) it was difficult to get from Kolyma to the mainland (Russia outside Kolyma, including Magadan is considered a “mainland” - SP). My parents also did not have the opportunity to leave. And I never wanted to leave, Kolyma is my homeland. If everyone survives from there, I will still stay.

Just as Moscow is not all of Russia, Magadan is not all of Kolyma. What is life like outside the special economic zone 100 km from the regional capital, participants in the Land Rover marathon “Discovering Russia” found out?

Thousands of kilometers between Chernobyl and Kolyma, but it feels like you’ve been transported to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant forbidden zone. Outside of Magadan, there are abandoned enterprises and entire villages everywhere, like Sporny, where the population of three thousand has been “reset to zero.” And in the mining town of Kadykchan, which we did not reach, there are more than ten thousand. The collapse of the Soviet infrastructure also spread to people's relationships.

“It would seem that Kolyma developed on the fragments of Dalstroy: continuous camps in which there were murderers and thieves, but when I arrived in 1979, there were no locks on the doors. Nobody stole anything! But here life was such that what if, God forbid, they saw that someone was hiding, stealing, then they brought up harshly, to put it mildly.

Here the car broke down on the highway - no one will ever remove the nut! Now leave the car on the highway and go get help. You'll be back in two hours - it's good if the body remains.

People have changed, the perception of everything has changed,” Vasily Sergeevich Serdyuk, director of the Chai-Urya Gold company, did not hide his bitterness.

They say that the village of Spornoye became Spornoe because its founders never agreed on a name. If the fate of the once populated area was known in advance, Spornoye, like many other extinct towns in Kolyma, could be christened Pripyat-N and only change the digital indices

Who dropped it on Kolyma" neutron bomb"? Viktor Anatolyevich Belozerov, acting chief engineer of the Susumanzoloto holding, recalls: "Gaidar came here in 1996, when the region, together with Chukotka, had half a million people, and said that the region was overpopulated, and it was easier to bring people in on a rotational basis . But for families to live here permanently, for there to be healthcare and schools, this, they say, is unprofitable.

In 1996 after school year on parent meeting They said: “Half of the teachers are being laid off. If you want your children to grow up ignorant, stay.” I packed the container and left. Two years later he returned, because there, on the “mainland,” everything is different.” Yes, Yegor Timurovich may have chopped down the monetarist truth, but along with it, definitely, an established life, the plans of many Kolyma residents.

In Moscow, quite like the Bolsheviks, they pressed the “Off” button at once. Such “outages” do not pass without leaving a trace. By the way, when we arrived in Susuman, there was no electricity in this extremely neglected gold mining center. By evening the light came on - a residue remained. Moreover, the region is not familiar with anything other than electricity shortages.

In Susuman, it seems, everyone has given up on the state of the city. The Soviet-era landmark relieves the heavy atmosphere. To the house where the Station is located young technicians, in 1986, the bow of the Il-18 airliner was docked

Kolyma residents also began to receive bills for major repairs. You have to be a very big optimist to imagine the resuscitation of the local housing stock

With an excess - yes, and the further you go, the denser it gets. Approximately 200 km from the Kolyma hydroelectric power station, where we visited, and at which, due to the consequences of “neutron bombardment,” 1-2 out of five hydroelectric units are operating, the Ust-Srednekanskaya hydroelectric power station, founded at the end of Soviet power, is being built. Today only God knows where 570 MW of its power will go if the Magadan energy system is isolated from the Unified Energy System of Russia.

The Kolyma HPP is a long-term construction project of two eras: Soviet and Novorossiysk. The construction of the facility in difficult conditions, accompanied by numerous difficulties, began in the first half of the 70s. The last hydraulic unit No. 5 was launched in 1994, and the act of accepting the station into permanent operation was signed only in October 2007

Apparently, with a long-range view, ex-State Duma deputy ("burned out" in 2013 on undeclared property in the United States) Vladimir Pekhtin, when he was the general director of Kolymaenergo in the 90s, found funds for the construction of a temple in Sinegorye, once an exemplary village for power engineers, where now more than two-thirds of the houses are abandoned, and the hospital and the only remaining school “seem to” exist.

Church of the Annunciation Holy Mother of God in Sinegorye, consecrated in 2000, went through the way of the cross of several Kolyma villages: it was thawed in severe cold (though not because of an accident - for debts to pay for heating supplies), and later restored

Yes, there was an idea floating around to unite the energy systems of Kolyma and Chukotka, where by 2021 they are going to decommission the Bilibino NPP (also mysterious project, but from the Brezhnev era), although this requires the laying and arrangement of a 1000-kilometer power line in remote places.

We intended in Magadan, together with Kawasaki Heavy Industries, to build an export-oriented plant for the production of liquefied hydrogen and thereby contribute to the expansion of the fleet of fuel cell electric vehicles in Japan. The enterprise, reaching full capacity by 2026, could consume almost all the energy produced at Ust-Srednekanskaya.

Even today, the settlement of power engineers Sinegorye stands out in better side against the backdrop of many settlements in Kolyma, but this is the light of a fading star. And in the 70-80s. among other things, there was even a ski slope with a lift and a yacht club...

But these plans were adopted until 2014, when a lot changed for Russia. Wouldn't the new hydroelectric power station turn out to be almost exclusively a backup for the Kolyma... "Insurance" is a bit expensive, especially in the presence of the mothballed Arkagalinskaya hydroelectric power station. However, our large-scale investment projects, including Ust-Srednekanskaya, are valuable in themselves...

The rockfill dam of the Kolyma Hydroelectric Power Station is the highest (134.5 m) earth dam in Russia. Due to the decline of industry in the region, the reservoir, which is replenished mainly due to snowmelt and rain, has not been fully filled for a long time.

Yes, in the huge Kolyma twilight zone The words of the famous song by Yuri Shevchuk, a native of the village of Yagodnoye in the Magadan Region, sound somehow special:

Homeland. I'm going home

Let them scream - ugly

And we like her

Sleeping Beauty,

Trusting in bastards

Well, come to us - tra-la-la -la-la-la...