Pyramid village on Spitsbergen: photos, characteristics. Pyramid: a Soviet ghost town on the very edge of the earth Reasons for the conservation of the town

A terrible monument to the past!

The Soviet ghost town is located above the Arctic Circle. This place seems to be frozen by time itself and the surrounding nature is doing everything possible to accept artificial buildings into itself. Deer, seals and foxes are so far the only inhabitants of the place that in the Soviet Union was called the new frontier.

Name

You should not look for mystical implications in the name of the village. The town was founded at the foot of a pyramid-shaped mountain, that’s the whole secret. To Barentsburg, the nearest settlement, from here as much as 120 kilometers, so people rarely wander into these ruins.

Buffet

Actually, the first settlement was founded here by the Swedes. The Spetsbergens Svenska Kolfalt company equipped the mine back in 1911, and in 1931 it sold the entire mine to the Soviet trust Arktikugol. Before the outbreak of World War II, the USSR managed to rebuild a small village and its own mine here, but then the residents had to be evacuated.

A thorough approach

After the war, in March 1947, the first street ran from the port to the Pyramid. The village grew, geologists found more and more new mining workings. Over the course of several years, approximately 70 thousand tons of coal were mined here, and by 1980 more than a thousand people lived in the Pyramid.

Fairytale city

The plans were to turn the small village into a new regional center, around which new settlements would have grown. The pyramid acquired large high-rise buildings, its own swimming pool, libraries and even a winter garden. People themselves sought to improve their lives, realizing that maintaining high morale in the Far North could become a vital issue.

Royal word

Until 1998, Pyramid remained the northernmost operating mine in the entire world. In 1995, the village was visited by the Norwegian king Harald V himself, who for some reason was delighted with the local architecture and for this gave the Pyramid the title of “pearl” of the archipelago.

Northern Ghost

The decision to close the mine was made at the end of 1997. At the time of closure, the annual coal production plan was 135 thousand tons, or 57 percent of the mine's design capacity. The decrease in the level of coal production was mainly due to the impossibility of timely replenishment of the mining front due to difficult geological conditions. The main reasons for the decision to liquidate the mine were limited reserves and high costs of coal mining associated with the need to carry out a large volume of preparatory mining, as well as the constantly growing costs of localizing an endogenous fire in the mine, which arose in 1970 and is still active today.

What to see

The city is surrounded by an unfriendly northern terrain. Mountains, glaciers and desert valleys - such a situation can unsettle even the most ardent optimist. Directly opposite the Pyramid is a huge glacier, Nordenskiöld. Sometimes giant blocks of ice break off and fall into the sea, turning into icebergs.

The pyramid is located 120 km north of Longyearbyen, Norway, and was the world's northernmost coal mine. The prefix “the northernmost” here can be substituted for everything: “the northernmost monument to Lenin” or “the northernmost swimming pool in the world” and so on, whatever your imagination allows. In 1998, coal mining ended and the village was mothballed. In the 1980s, up to 1000 people lived in the village; when Lebedev visited this place in the 2000s, only a crazy German lived here. Due to the special status of Spitsbergen (any state could conduct economic activity on it) Soviet Union tried to make this village a real showcase of communism, the Norwegians were jealous of how luxuriously a citizen of the USSR lived. It was a real paradise, getting here was considered real luck.

The pyramid is located in a picturesque location at the foot of a mountain, similar in shape to a real pyramid overlooking the Nordenskiöld glacier. During the difficult crisis years of the conservation of the village, when no one remained in the Pyramid for the winter, vandals ruled here. The Norwegians came on snowmobiles and took away everything that could be taken away. For example, in the Kroa bar in Longyearbyen there is a bust of Lenin, it is just from the Pyramid. The city could have become another ghost town, like Pripyat in Ukraine, but we came to our senses in time and are now trying to breathe life into the city new life due to tourism.

And now a little history.
There is constant debate about who was the first to discover this polar archipelago. The Pomors of Spitsbergen have been known as "Grumant" since the 15th century; at the entrance to the harbors, the Russians left wooden crosses with the names of those who erected them. The Pomors left traces of settlements, there is no doubt - they were the first to engage in fishing on the distant island of Spitsbergen. Radiocarbon dating of the objects shows that they are much earlier in time than the Viking journeys to these lands. The Norwegians, of course, claim the opposite. Allegedly, the Pomors arrived much later and brought with them old utensils and used centuries-old logs in the construction of houses, so radiocarbon analysis does not count :) Ours claim that the Vikings only sailed to Bear Island, which they called “Svalbard,” i.e. cold ground in Norwegian. The question is quite political.

Officially, the island was discovered by the Dutch navigator Barents, who was looking for shortest way from Atlantic to Pacific Ocean. The discovery of new islands led to the fact that whaling companies settled here; what’s more, the bowhead whale produced 1.5 tons of baleen and 30 tons of blubber!

The British and Danes were the first to declare their territorial claims to this land. Unlike Western Europeans, our people felt great on Spitsbergen, built camps and spent the winter in harsh conditions. Norwegians actively began to appear at the end of the 19th century, the land was officially recognized as “no man's land” just at this time. The issue of the legal status of the islands was supposed to be resolved in 1914 between Russia, Norway and Sweden, but due to the First World War the issue was returned to only in 1920, the Soviet Union was not invited to the Paris Conference, but the possibility of Russian rights to use natural and other resources before the USSR joined the treaty. The treaty itself recognized sovereignty over the islands for Norway, but the Norwegians pledged not to build military bases and fortifications on the islands, and now the most interesting thing: “citizens of all countries that signed the treaty, along with the Norwegians, have the right of free access to the archipelago for shipping, industrial, and commercial activities.” and commercial transactions on conditions of complete equality.

In other words, the islands actually belong to Norway, but any company or any citizen can live on the island and use its resources. A unique situation!

Ours in 1924, we joined the agreement, bought the land plots managed by the Arktikugol company, its task was simple - to provide the northern part of Russia with coal. Until 1941, two mines operated - in Barentsburg and Grumant, and a third village - Pyramid - was built. Every day the ships departed for Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. During the war, all the workers were evacuated to the north of England, and after the war, in 1946, the first miners and builders arrived, restored two villages in 3 years and completed the Pyramid in 1956.

So, it turns out that we had three settlements, the first is Grumant, which was mothballed in 1961, the miners say that when the coal runs out in other places, they can return here, the proven reserves will last for a long time. The second village is Barentsburg, an active village with the Russian Consulate, a swimming pool, a school and other infrastructure, I will write about it later. The most interesting is the third mine, Pyramid.

My first story will be about him.

And it all started with this issue of the Russian Reporter; in 2009, I read the article “The Archipelago NO WAY” about this place and got excited. I knew I'd get here. Necessarily

Our ship is in the port, the Russians call it the “polar girl”, the port of registration is Tromsø, in the winter it takes athletes to the fjord mountains, in the summer it takes tourists to the Pyramid and Barentsburg.

The most important thing is to be lucky with the weather, then 3 hours of sailing will seem like a pleasant walk. In total, two ships carry it to the Pyramid in the summer.

Barents, the discoverer of the island, wrote this: “The land along which we sailed was hilly and elevated, but they were not mountains, although the hills looked like sharp spiers, so the land was piled on Spitsbergen.”

Northern nature is gorgeous, of course

Guide Vadim talks in Norwegian and English about the animal world and the history of the island. Basically, half of the tourists are from mainland Norway, the rest are a complete hodgepodge of Germans, French, and Americans.

Approaching the Pyramid

Buildings, view from the water

We are greeted by the bus and the tour guide Sasha from St. Petersburg, a colorful character with a “moose” gun. You can’t go without a gun; polar bears are extremely dangerous animals. I wonder what murder polar bear is being investigated by the police, shooting can only be done in self-defense, which still needs to be proven. The role of the police is performed by the governor from Norway or, as he is called here, the Susselman. The punishments and fines here are severe, they say that in times of famine, our people killed deer, and they were with chips, and the Norgs (that’s what the Norwegians are called) immediately flew in by helicopter and tied everyone up. The fines are scary!

Let's take a walk around the village

Today, several people spend the winter on the Pyramid and receive guests at the hotel. Surprisingly, on polar nights in winter there are more guests at the hotel. Traveling by snowmobile from Norwegian Longyearbyen through the archipelago is now very popular. Pyramid is a good transit and overnight point for travelers. In the summer, the staff returns, about 10 people, plus this year Tajiks arrived who are engaged in cutting and recycling scrap metal. Most of “ours” are Ukrainians; the salary in Svalbard will not greatly impress the average Russian.

Near the pier there is a magnificent view of the glacier

At one time they opened a farm here, the experiment was so successful that they exported meat and milk to Longyearbyen.

It is forbidden to die on the archipelago and this is not a joke. If this misfortune does happen to you, the body will be taken to the mainland. This is connected with polar bears that tear up graves. The guides joke that if you want to live forever, move to Spitsbergen, it is forbidden to die here :) The building in which the men lived was called “London”, the building with women was called “Paris”.

The main street of 60 Let October, which led to “Paris,” was called “Champs Elysees,” and besides, there are actually fields here, where from? Several ships with black soil arrived from the USSR to the Pyramid, so you can safely tell foreigners that you are standing on Russian soil :) Previously they were not allowed to walk on the grass, even if you were not a dog or a child

We went to the Palace of Culture, which is in a dilapidated state

Reminded me a bit of Pripyat

Dried plants in pots in the dining room

Mosaic there

Monument to the first lily of the valley that bloomed on the Pyramid

Soviet ghost town Pyramid on the island of Spitsbergen

Walking along the Pyramid, the feeling that “we could have, but again we screwed everything up” does not let go; this feeling always creeps in when you hear stories about some “Russian California” or about “the entry of Crimea into the Ukrainian SSR.”

And here is the northernmost grandfather Lenin, looking at the glacier

Elena Aleksandrovna from Donetsk treats you to candy and bakes buns for 3 euros, cheerfully speaks Russian and accepts any currency. Except for rubles, of course :)

Perhaps the most expensive sugar buns in the world :) But take two! Delicious!!! After a warm conversation, we return to the ship.

Tajiks are at work, they recently hired these guys because they can pay less. I work more, don’t drink.

There is a bar on the ship that serves waffles. After the Pyramid, lunch begins.

By the way, the food is handled by a hired chef, I hope that you will be as lucky as me and you will try a real whale steak! Only three countries refused to sign the agreement on whaling: Japan, Norway and Iceland. The quotas are getting smaller and smaller every year, so don’t miss the chance to try whale in Svalbard.

A count of the animals seen is kept on a special board, that is, in 2 months we saw 6 polar bears. We didn’t see a single one, which is understandable; in the summer they move to the north and northeast.

What else should I add? Norgs are cunning, almost all the land on Spitsbergen has been declared nature reserves, you can’t dig into them, it is forbidden to conduct economic activities in the reserves. They infringe on our people in the sky too, the contract does not say a word about the sky, they are allowed to fly only for work reasons, every flight is literally begged for. This greatly hinders the development of villages, because with the Mi-8 it would be possible to quickly transport tourists from the airport to the Pyramid, but the Norwegians don’t want competition and don’t want us to stay here for a long time. I was told how the locals put obstacles in the way of those who decided to open their own business here, for example, the Italian who built a museum with his enthusiasm, they did not help at all, although it was a useful business. But no, if I were Norwegian, otherwise...

HOW TO GET TO THE PYRAMID?
The most interesting thing is that a charter from Moscow flies to Longyearbyen from Moscow once a month from Arktikugol. Then you don't need any visa (remember, I wrote that this is part of Norway, but with a special status). The average cost of a one-way flight will be 15 thousand rubles.

The tourist option is the simplest: we fly to Longyearbyen and take a boat excursion to the Pyramid. You can stay at a local hotel and return back on the same ship a few days later. Norwegians also go to the pyramid on foot (trekking paths), kayaks, and snowmobiles in winter. If you are a researcher, then you have a chance to go there on a long scientific trip (biologists, glaciologists, etc. are welcome). On my flight from Oslo to Longyearbyen there were several Russian scientists from Murmansk; our Mi-8 helicopter transports them to the Pyramid. You can also get to Pyramid for work; on the Arktikugol website, in the vacancies section, someone is always needed, some kind of steam turbine operator or assistant captain of a small boat, however, they will most likely send you to Barentsburg and the contract is signed for 2 years, if you want to leave earlier, you do not receive vacation pay and pay for your return home yourself. The easiest way is to get a job as a guide for the season, they say there is a very good aura there, very quiet and calm. You can forget about the Internet and take a break from your mobile phone. Why not an ecological holiday?)

There are very few Russians here. Guide Vadim said that I was the third one on their ship this season. One day, two Russian girls from Tyumen pitched a tent right in the port, waiting for a morning excursion on a ship. Of course, the security forbade them to be in the port, they called the ship's workers, who had no choice but to invite the ladies onto the ship :) Most of our tourists, if there are any, are cruisers, or those who already like to climb mountains and ride snowmobiles.

I’ll post more glaciers in the next post so as not to overload this post.

Name

You should not look for mystical implications in the name of the village. The town was founded at the foot of a pyramid-shaped mountain, that’s the whole secret. Barentsburg, the nearest settlement, is a full 120 kilometers from here, so people rarely wander into these ruins.