The Pole of Cold is a place on planet Earth where the air temperature drops to record lows, i.e. it is the coldest place on earth.
On the territory of Russia, the Pole of Cold is located in the Republic of Sakha-Yakutia near the village of Oymyakon. The lowest temperature that was officially recorded here in February 1933 is -67.7 °C.
Oymyakon is located in a depression and is protected on all sides by mountains that prevent the release of heavy cold air. The same mountains prevent the penetration of moist air masses coming from the oceans. The average monthly temperature in January in Oymyakon is -61°C, but can reach -68°C. According to unofficial data, in the winter of 1916, the temperature in the village dropped to -82°C.
Oymyakon means “non-freezing spring” in the local language. In this area there are indeed streams, sections of rivers that do not freeze in such a severe frost. Oymyakon in translation means "non-freezing water". The nature surrounding the streams is striking in its unreality.
Since 1926, two settlements have been competing for the title of "Pole of Cold" in the Northern Hemisphere - the village of Oymyakon, and more specifically the village of Tomtor, 30 kilometers to the southeast, and the city of Verkhoyansk, in which the absolute minimum of the Northern Hemisphere was recorded -67.8 ° С in January 1885. After that, a meteorological station and the local history museum "Pole of Cold" were organized here.
If the geologist Sergei Obruchev had not begun to conduct research on the Indigirka River, then it is likely that Verkhoyansk would have remained the only contender for the role of the coldest city in the Northern Hemisphere. During the expedition, the scientist noticed a strange noise, which turned out to be his own breathing. According to him, this noise resembled the sound of spilling grain or snow falling from tree branches. This unusual sound occurs when the air temperature drops below -50°C, the locals call it the "whisper of the stars". Hearing this "whisper", Obruchev began to think that, due to its geographical location, this area could break the records of Verkhoyansk. The Yakut village of Oymyakon is located in a depression, surrounded on all sides by mountains, its geographical position interesting enough. In fact, Oymyakon is located higher above sea level than the competitor city, but because of the mountains surrounding it, it is located in a pit, because of this, cold air lingers here longer and heats up more slowly. Based on all this, Obruchev concluded that it was here that temperature records should be expected.
The length of the day in Oymyakon varies depending on the season, in summer it is almost 21 hours, and in December no more than 3. Summer in this severe cold pole is beautiful with its white nights, when the sun shines throughout the day. In addition to fluctuations in the length of the day, the largest fluctuations in air temperature for Eurasia per year are also observed here - almost 100 degrees, that is, from -67.7 ° C in winter and up to + 35 ° C in summer.
According to 2010 data, the population of the Oymyakon settlement is 462 people, at present the number of inhabitants has not changed significantly. Residents of Oymyakon do not wear clothes made of synthetic fabrics, because in the cold it falls apart, in winter even cows are dressed here so that they do not freeze the udder. There are no colds in Oymyakon, because viruses freeze, exhaled air freezes. There are many long-livers in this region.
Surprising in Oymyakon is not only the climate, but also the local fauna. Unusual horses are bred here, whose body is covered with thick hair 8-15 cm long. Thanks to this, the Yakut breed of horses is incredibly frost-resistant, even in winter they continue to live in the fresh air, no matter how much the temperature drops. Also, the Yakut horse finds an opportunity to search for vegetation that is under a deep snow cover.
Almost nothing grows here, so people eat the meat of deer and horses. At the Pole of Cold in Oymyakon, a single store is open, and local residents work as fishermen, shepherds or hunters.
For many years, the cold held back the flow of tourists to the region of permafrost. But recently, it is the cold that has contributed to the development of a new concept of tourism and has become a new brand in the tourism infrastructure of the region.
Those who want to test themselves for strength, to see what real winter looks like, go to Yakutia, the edge of permafrost. It is exceptionally cold here, but the region is very friendly. Routes have been created for tourists that will allow them to explore the local life, gastronomic preferences, see the algys ritual, the working days of reindeer herders, participate in horseback riding routes, sport fishing, hunting, sightseeing, visit the Pole of Cold festival.
Oymyakon is the famous Pole of Cold. It is considered the coldest point in the Northern Hemisphere and the coldest inhabited area on Earth.
Translated from the Yakut, Oymyakon means “mad cold”.
Oymyakon in Yakutia is called the whole area, which includes several settlements, including the village of the same name. Currently, a little more than 500 people live in the village of Oymyakon. Despite its remoteness, there is life in the city, though it’s not easy to live in such conditions, and people are slowly dispersing in all directions ...
Life at the Pole of Cold.
Temperature
The officially registered minimum temperature is -69.6 °C, but there are other, non-official data. So, in 1938, the temperature was -77.8 degrees, but these values \u200b\u200bare not included in the official chronicles.
In summer, the temperature stays around 10-15 degrees, but even here there are records. On July 28, 2010, a heat record was recorded in the village of Oymyakon - the air warmed up to +34.6 °C.
There is snow in Oymyakon from 213 to 229 days a year. The temperature difference between summer and winter reaches 104 °C Oymyakon occupies one of the first places in the world according to this indicator!
Life in the cold
Civilization in Oymyakon: there is the Internet, and cellular communications, and the airport, which was created during the Second World War. There are a school, a hospital, a club, a kindergarten, a music school, a library, a bakery, a gas station, a gym and shops.
The average salary here, of course, is not small, higher than even the average in Moscow, but prices are 5-10 times higher than in other regions, and life in Oymyakon is a real test.
Work on "fresh air".
main fear- problems with energy, because if there is no energy for at least a week, then the entire infrastructure in the village will simply freeze and it will have to be changed.
Cars are parked in heated garages; the engine is warmed up for 10–15 minutes before leaving. If there is no garage, then the engine is not turned off, but, as they say in Yakutia, they rumble. Additional stoves are installed in the cabs of the vehicles, arctic diesel fuel is used (diesel oil is mixed with kerosene).
Yakut truckers do not turn off their engines for months.
Gas station on the road to Oymyakon.
In Oymyakon, the most ordinary objects and things take on very unusual forms. For example, the police here never carry batons - in the cold they harden and burst on impact, like glass. Fish taken out of the water in the cold turns glassy in five minutes. Linens also need to be dried very carefully. In a couple of minutes in the cold, it becomes a stake, and after two hours, things already need to be brought back. If you do this carelessly, then the pillowcase or duvet cover can break in half.
There is a special attitude towards clothes: beautiful or ugly - it doesn’t matter, the main thing is to be warm. A real Oymyakon wears high fur boots made of camus, the skin of the lower part of the reindeer leg. The length of the fur coat must reach the boots. Otherwise, you can freeze your knees and lower leg. On the head is a fur hat made of arctic fox, mink or fox. You can't go out without a scarf. In severe frost, you can breathe on the street only through a scarf. Thus, at least some amount of warm air enters the lungs.
A woman sells a live hare and frozen fish in the market.
Children
Children in Oymyakon are not the same as on the mainland. From childhood, they are ready for frost and harsh Yakut weather. When it's cold outside, no heating helps.
Small children are dressed according to the principle of cabbage, leaving only their eyes open, you can only walk on a sled, since the baby is unlikely to be able to walk independently in such uniforms.
Schoolchildren sit in the classroom in coats and warm gel pens, which, in theory, do not freeze in the cold ...
Training in primary school canceled at -52 °C, and at -56 °C the whole school is not studying.
Animals
Despite the fact that the temperature here is extremely low, people first settled here precisely because they found food for livestock here. Mostly small tundra horses graze here, which even in winter perfectly find food for themselves, digging grass from under the snow.
A cow can only be let out of a warm barn at -30 ° C, putting on a special bra on the udder so that it does not freeze. Previously, in these parts there were “burenki” of the Yakut breed, in which the udder was covered with wool, and they did not suffer so much from the cold. But this breed has practically disappeared - in Soviet times it was no longer bred due to low milk yields.
Also, near Oymyakon, there used to be a large livestock farm and a farm where silver fox was bred. Her fur was the best. Probably not in vain they say that the stronger the frost, the better the fur. Now both the complex and the farm are closed.
Out of all domestic animals, only dogs, horses and, of course, reindeer can endure winter on the street ... There are also cats here. True, cats are not allowed out of the house in frost, because. they freeze immediately.
Livestock.
Nature and attractions
Oymyakon has a beautiful unique nature: there are streams that do not freeze in 50-degree frost, and ice that does not melt in 30-degree heat.
Natural landscapes of Oymyakon.
Recently, tourism has been very developed. Foreigners and Russian travelers come from all over the country.
Among the local attractions museums, Gulag camps, full of secrets and legends Moltan rock and Labynkyr lake and, of course, the bitter frost itself.
Held annually in the spring festival "Oymyakon - Pole of Cold", which attracts Santas from all over the world.
How to get there
Despite its location, regular excursions and tours are held here, and this is the only way to get to this region. It’s better not to risk it yourself, it’s too dangerous, except in the summer you can try to go on your own. A trip to Oymyakon in winter can be easily compared to a flight to Mars.
- 20 January, 2016
Oymyakon(Yakut. Өymөkөөn) - a village in the Oymyakonsky ulus of Yakutia, on the left bank of the Indigirka River.
Oymyakon - center rural settlement"Borogonsky 1st Nasleg", which also includes the villages of Bereg-Yurdya and Khara-Tumul.
Geography
Oymyakon is located in the east of Yakutia, the population of the village is 521 people. Oymyakon is located in high latitudes, the length of the day varies from 3 hours in December to 21 hours in summer, in summer there are white nights and light round the clock. The village is located at an altitude of about 750 m above sea level.
Climate
Oymyakon has a fairly complex type of climate. The climate is influenced by the high latitude of the village (subpolar latitudes), great distance from the ocean (sharply continental climate), being at an altitude of more than 700 m above sea level (altitude zonation affects). In winter, cold air flows into the village, as it is located in a hollow.
The average temperature in Oymyakon and some other regions of Yakutia in January is -47.0 ° C, and sometimes drops below -50 ° C, which makes it the coldest place in the Northern Hemisphere, along with Greenland. Disputes do not cease about which of the settlements of Yakutia, Oymyakon or Verkhoyansk, should be considered the Pole of Cold of the northern hemisphere. Officially, the lowest recorded temperature in Oymyakon was -67.7 °C, noted in 1933, and in Verkhoyansk -67.8 °C, noted in 1892 (no observations were made in Oymyakon at that time). However, unofficially, in 1924, Academician Sergei Obruchev recorded a temperature of -71.2 °C in Oymyakon. Also, according to the data of the Main Geophysical Observatory in Oymyakon, the absolute annual minimums are lower than in Verkhoyansk by an average of 3.5 °C. Thus, the officially recorded minimum in Verkhoyansk is 0.1 °C lower than in Oymyakon, but in those years no observations were made in the latter, and it is very likely that temperatures were lower there at that time.
At the moment, the authorities of Yakutia have resolved the dispute in favor of Verkhoyansk, but the question remains open.
Clarification should be made regarding the location of meteorological observations. Regular meteorological observations are carried out at the Oymyakon airport, which is located 40 km from the village of the same name and 2 km from the village of Tomtor. However, when talking about minimum temperatures, the name Oymyakon is always used.
In addition to the extreme cold in winter, the summer can be hot over 30 degrees. Oymyakon has a temperature of about one hundred degrees in terms of the difference between absolute maximums and minimums, ranking first in the world in this indicator.
There is also evidence that in 1938 a temperature of −77.8 °C was recorded in the village. Based on this, it is concluded that Oymyakon, when reduced to one height above sea level, is the coldest place on the planet.
On July 28, 2010, a heat record was recorded in the village of Oymyakon (as well as a monthly and absolute one). Then the air warmed up to +34.6 °C.
The lowest temperature was recorded at the Vostok Antarctic station, but the station is located at an altitude of 3488 m above sea level, and if both temperatures are brought to sea level, Oymyakon will be recognized as the absolute champion.
A photo
Hello! My name is Nikolay, I am 38 years old and I want to tell you my story. It just so happened that my mother gave birth to me at the Pole of Cold. Probably, dear readers, you are aware enough to know that the pole of cold does not coincide with either the north pole or the south pole, but is located in Yakutia, in the village of Oymyakon. In fact, residents of neighboring Verkhoyansk vehemently argue that it is colder here, but it has been documented that it is colder in Oymyakon, even if this is not the case, then everyone still believes.
My parents, being naive students, came here at the end of the 60s from Novosibirsk, by distribution after the institute. I don’t know what motivated them, this topic was never raised in the family, but it just so happened that my sister and I were born here. After school, Svetlana went to study in Vladivostok, got married there and stayed by the warm Sea of Japan for the rest of her life (for us, Vladivostok is a very warm city). I learned to be an electrician in Yakutsk and returned to my native village. From Yakutsk to Oymyakon about a thousand kilometers. There is no bus service all year round. In summer, you can still get there by public transport, and in winter you have to take an UAZ "loaf" and drive it through the snowy desert. The road takes an average of thirty hours, so only a wealthy person can afford to leave or come to Oymyakon in winter. Not winter here only from the second half of May to the first half of September. All the rest of the time - cold dog.
It's funny to read the news or watch stories on television, where they tell how Moscow froze at twenty degrees below zero, our children stop going to school only when the thermometer drops below sixty degrees. Twenty degrees with a minus sign - a fabulous warmth, minus thirty - a slight coolness. In January, in Oymyakon, the average temperature is 55 degrees below zero, in February it is even colder, under sixty. People endure such weather gifts. Even in summer, there is periodically a negative temperature, there is no need to talk about any sunburn in such a climate, you just need to survive.
My parents worked at a weather station. In theory, it was possible to retire after fifteen working years, but they worked for twenty-two years - and then left for the mainland, where they were seriously ill for several years. In Oymyakon due to the high temperature environment there are no viruses at all, they just die here. On the mainland, any cold, any flu, can be fatal to a northerner. Now, following the Parents to the south, to Novosibirsk, I left. So far I have been living here for only a year, but first things first. Let's start with what kind of village this Oymyakon is.
Oymyakon village
Who needs Oymyakon is unclear. The authorities have long ceased to pay attention to the problems of poor northerners. Before moving to Novosibirsk, I worked as an electrician at the Airport. Electrician - loudly said. At the pole of cold, it looks like an old building that looks like a barn, with broken windows, torn out doors and furniture collected from neighbors who abandoned their homes. No one finances the airport, so all its personnel - the dispatcher, the runway inspector, the electrician - survive as best they can. We were paid salaries, but we were not given money for repairs and other needs at all. After I quit, the inspector began to combine his work with the work of an electrician. There was nothing tricky in my work - I just had to organize the illumination of the runway. In the cold, the bulbs exploded, even when under a hood. Of course, there are special lamps that are not afraid of frost, but no one gave us money for them. You can, of course, not fly at night, but in winter we have only four hours of light, of which two hours are twilight. Like it or not, you need to turn on the light on the strip. If nothing changes, then soon the dispatcher will also leave the airport, then the inspector will probably have to combine three positions.
In a dilapidated log building, which we call the airport, there is a waiting room. It looks like a room with two old sofas. It is very cold in it, because the airport is old and it is slowly blowing from the cracks.
Near the airport there is a corral for cows and Kindergarten. Now he is only half working, there are still children in Oymyakon. A little further away - a huge field that even a very drunk person cannot call even, this is our runway.
The airport was organized back in the days of the Great Patriotic War. There was an air base here Pacific Fleet who carried out raids on Japan. After the end of the Second World War, the airport began to be used for peaceful purposes, for civilians. Only two aircraft models flew here - An-2 and An-24. Flights are prohibited at temperatures of minus six degrees Celsius and below. In Soviet times, planes flew all year round, then, during perestroika, flights were stopped, which almost killed the village, but a few years later they resumed again. True, now there is communication with Yakutsk only in the summer. Previously, there was also a flight to the village of Ust-Nera, but now it was closed as unnecessary. In winter, you can get to the big city only by UAZ.
In our frosts, the car is not jammed. Truckers in Yakutia have motors running for months without shutting down. In two hours of downtime, everything will freeze so much - that then you have to wait for the summer to start. On the mainland, cars are warmed up in warm boxes, in car washes. We don't have anything like that in Oymyakon. And in general, in all of Yakutia, probably, only in Yakutsk you can find warm boxes. If you leave the car with the engine running for four hours, it will also freeze, the wheels will turn into stones. Of course, you can drive such a car, but very carefully and slowly. Imagine riding on wheels that resemble the shape of an egg - is it convenient? And we had to drive like this every winter. You roll on the sly and think: “Damn this north, I’ll go to Sochi, I’ll buy a house.” And then you don't go anywhere. And not because you love this Oymyakon and these frosts so much, it’s just that everything is spinning again, it starts spinning and it’s not up to it. You have to survive here.
It is not uncommon for tires to burst in winter. The iron frames of cars regularly crack, plastic bumpers crumble to dust from frost. The most cruel thing that can happen to a car enthusiast is if the stove breaks in his car. Of course, here everyone glues both doors and vents, but the cold still enters the car, and it itself cools down due to outside air. If the stove is covered - put on everything that you find and how you want, pull to the nearest village. True, they are not the same with us as in the Central part of Russia, and two hundred, and three hundred kilometers can be driven until you find someone, but you can go all five hundred.
People on the mainland are afraid that the dollar will rise, the ruble will fall, tariffs will be raised, and so on. etc. in Oymyakon, the main fear is problems with energy. In conditions of such a frost, you begin to treat the ordinary joys of life with particular reverence. The entire village is heated by a diesel power plant. There is no need to talk about any boiler house in such a frost, there will be too big losses. Our diesel power plant, in my lifetime, failed several times in the most bitter cold. Moreover, in my memory, no one has ever done a major overhaul of the power plant. Fortunately, from Yakutsk they quickly responded to a breakdown and sent a team of workers. All the same, the male population, at this time, tried to prevent the water supply from freezing, which would have broken through later, after the power plant was repaired. Everyone who could, picked up a blowtorch and warmed the pipes.
Each house has its own heating element here, since transferring hot water at a sixty-degree frost is fraught - at best, it will simply cool down. But in order for even a cold one to reach a person, it is necessary to heat the pipes with electricity. To do this, special heating cables are placed on them, and a casing on top. If the power plant stops working, then the pipes stop heating, and the casing is able to keep heat only for a certain time - then it becomes not enough. You have to rip off the casing and heat the pipe with a blowtorch. If the pipe breaks, it is unrealistic to replace it before the summer. Can you imagine leaving a hospital, school or kindergarten without water?
Yes, there is a hospital, a school, and a store at the Pole of Cold. Work is not only for harsh men, but also for fragile women. Even children in Oymyakon are not the same as on the mainland. From childhood, she is ready for frost and harsh Yakut weather. When it's cold outside, no heating helps. Schoolchildren sit during lessons in a coat (the coat is specially kept at school, because it is not reasonable to carry it around with you) and warm gel pens, which, in theory, do not freeze in the cold.
The attitude to clothing in Oymyakon is not at all the same as on the mainland. Beautiful, ugly, it doesn't matter. The main thing is to be warm. If you jump out into the street in a thin jacket for a couple of minutes, then the sleeve may break off, or the collar. A real Oymyakon wears high fur boots made of camus, the skin of the lower part of the reindeer leg. For one pair of high fur boots, ten kamus are needed, that is, fur from ten deer legs. The length of the fur coat must reach the boots. Otherwise, you can freeze your knees and lower leg. On the head is a fur hat made of polar fox, mink or fox, for those who live more modestly. You can't go out without a scarf. In severe frost, you can breathe on the street only through a scarf. Thus, at least some amount of warm air enters the lungs. At low temperatures, the oxygen content in the air is very low, so the average person breathes twice as fast. If you exhale in the cold in silence, you can hear rustling, it freezes the exhaled air. Oymyakon frosts are not afraid of colds, but frostbite is easier to get here - you can also protect yourself from it only with a warm scarf.
The nature of women does not change in plus twenty or minus sixty. Even in such weather in Oymyakon you can meet a woman in stockings and a short skirt, however, there will be a long, long fur coat on top, but the essence of the matter does not change. It is enough to announce dances - and beauties from all the nearest villages will come together to show themselves and look at others. There are still women in the Yakut villages.
Children of the Pole of Cold
As it turns out, I don't have any children of my own. I had a wife, but God did not send children. Somewhere I read that children themselves choose their parents, apparently none of them wanted to live at the Pole of Cold. Reasonable guys, there is nothing to say. No matter how hard it is for adults in Oymyakon, it is doubly hard for children. When I was still quite a baby, before being taken out into the street, they dressed me for half an hour, and all this was very reminiscent of a mysterious ritual. First, warm underwear is put on, then woolen pants, and on top - a wadded jumpsuit. On the body - a flannelette shirt, on top - a warm sweater. And then, to complete the image of cabbage - a zigey coat. On the feet - ordinary socks, woolen socks and felt boots. There is a knitted hat on the head, and a zigey hat on top. On the palm - hare mittens. It was absolutely impossible to walk in such a knightly costume. Therefore, small children are not driven down the street here, but carried in sleds. You can’t just put a child in a sled - you need to heat the bedding on the stove, lay it down first, and put the child on top. Outside, the baby has only eyes and eyebrows, the rest of the body is not cold.
You are from the north, but why do you have all the walruses there or what?
Are you a singer? Come on, sleep! Are you from the north? Can you go without a hat in winter? When I first moved to Novosibirsk and told that I grew up on Oymyakon, everyone was very surprised. It was believed that we could walk there barefoot in the snow in a fifty-degree frost. On the contrary, the further north a person lives, the more carefully he treats heat and, accordingly, dresses warmer.
Until recently, nobody walrus in Yakutia. Now there are also few amateurs, but even accidents do not scare them away. For example, there is a bad tradition in Russia - to dive into the hole for baptism. It is surprising that the Orthodox Church repeats that this rite is not a church rite, and in general it is harmful, and every year the people dive more and more into the hole. In the middle of the 2000s, this fashion for false Orthodoxy also reached Yakutia. It cost dozens of people their health, and someone, probably, their lives. Imagine for yourself, outside the window minus fifty-five degrees, the water temperature is three degrees above zero. You undress - you go dry through the snow to the water - no problems, you dip - it's generally great, warm, but as soon as you get out, your feet will instantly freeze to the ice. I myself witnessed how the first desperate daredevils dived into the hole. Then we tore them off the ice by force. The Russian man is ready for a bad deed. No one finished experiments with winter swimming at the Pole of Cold - they began to dive, but having a bucket with hot water. A person gets out of the water and a hot path is poured in front of him so that he can run to the car, wipe himself off and put on dry clothes. Another way is to dive in shoes, shoes do not stick to ice. It is strictly forbidden to dive into the hole while intoxicated.
In general, if you have drunk, it is better not to go out. Alcohol doesn't protect you from the cold. He is more of an enemy than a friend. Falling asleep is not difficult. In the best case, frozen limbs are amputated. Although can such a case be called the best? There are a lot of troubles from alcohol in the north. Previously, there was dry law in Oymyakon. Nobody introduced it, it just was, and people observed it. The instinct of self-preservation told them that it is better not to keep even half a liter in the house away from sin. If you want to drink - drink a little at home. Now you can read, now about the bottom frozen to death, then about something else. Vodka generally freezes in the cold, like mercury thermometers, which do not work below forty-five degrees below zero. In the village, residents use alcohol thermometers, but rather not for good, but for fun. It’s clear, after all, that it’s cold outside the window, but what difference does it make - fifty degrees or fifty-five?
In Oymyakon, the most ordinary objects and things take on very unusual forms. For example, the police here never carry batons - in the cold they harden and burst on impact, like glass. Fish taken out of the water in the cold turns glassy in five minutes. Linens also need to be dried very carefully. In a couple of minutes in the cold, it becomes a stake, and after two hours, things already need to be brought back. If you do this carelessly, then the pillowcase or duvet cover can break in half.
Winter on the street, of all domestic animals, only dogs, horses and, of course, reindeer can endure. cows most Years are spent in warm bread. They can be let out on the street only when the thermometer rises above thirty degrees of frost, but even at such a temperature it is necessary to put on a special bra on the udder, otherwise the animal will freeze it. Refrigerators are not used here for most of the year, storing meat, fish and lingonberries on the veranda. It is impossible to chop meat with an ax - otherwise it will turn into a small chip, you have to saw it. locals suffer from avitaminosis. They try to fight it with onions, but it gives only a small fraction of vitamins.
People at the Pole of Cold look much older than their years, and only a few live more than fifty-five years. Separately, it is worth mentioning the funeral in our climate. There is even a saying here - God forbid you die in winter. Graves are being dug for a whole week. The earth is first heated with a stove, then the soil is hammered with crowbars by twenty centimeters, then it is heated again and again hammered, and so on until the depth reaches two meters. The work is terrible. There are no full-time diggers in Oymyakon, digging the grave falls entirely on the shoulders of relatives and friends.
Oymyakon now
There is still work to be done at the Pole of Cold. It will always be here as long as there are people, but every year there are fewer and fewer residents. Someone dies, someone leaves on big earth. Previously, near Oymyakon, there was a large livestock farm and a farm where silver fox was bred. Her fur was the best. Probably not in vain they say that the stronger the frost, the better the fur. Now both the complex and the farm are closed. A few people work at the airport, some work at the substation, and the meteorological station is still functioning. People from the mainland do not come here to work, except for very desperate brave men, but such people can be counted on the fingers of one hand over the past ten years. Salaries by northern standards are not the highest, but when I say in Novosibirsk that I received 72 thousand rubles in Oymyakon, everyone rolls their eyes dreamily. They just don't know that chocolate costs seven hundred rubles a bar there, and all other goods are also very expensive.
Away from the cold
After my divorce from my wife and the death of my parents, I got really depressed. Although my parents lived far away, but once a year I steadily got out to them, looked at the huge Novosibirsk and envied all the people living there. None of you understand how difficult it is to drag out your existence in conditions of inhuman cold. By the age of thirty-five, my body probably had the biological age of a fifty-year-old man. There are practically no teeth left. At thirty-seven, it was supposed to be fifteen years since I worked in Oymyakon, which means I was entitled to a pension. I haven't worked a day since I retired. I waited for the first UAZ to go to Yakutsk, collected things dear to my memory and drove away. Said goodbye to a few people, walked around for the last time native village and that's it.
Then there was paperwork with an extract from Oymyakon, a flight to Novosibirsk, a passport office, justice, etc. etc. My parents left a two-room apartment in the city on Serebryannikovskaya Street, so I live almost in the center. I don’t know any problems, every new day is really new for me. I had a computer for a long time, but only in Novosibirsk I discovered the Internet. At first, I felt awkward in the supermarket and in the subway, I was embarrassed by the crowds of people on the streets. Living in the north, you spend a huge amount of time with yourself or with your loved ones. Thus, even the most sociable person runs the risk of becoming an introvert. It's still hard for me to strike up a conversation with a stranger. Although I served in the army and lived in Yakutsk while I was studying at a technical school, I was still not used to huge masses of people. And yet, here, on the mainland, people are much more sociable than we have there, in the North. Recently, I found in my classmates all my friends who left Oymyakon earlier - no one yearns and does not want to go back.
The only thing that sometimes dreams is our warm stove. Where I, as a very young kid, slept in the long winter nights. I slept on the stove, and my mother got up very early and cooked food for us in this stove. This dream is so real that immediately after it I wake up and for a long time I cannot understand where I am, and then I go to the window and look at the big beautiful houses, sometimes I see people walking down the street and not wrapping themselves in a scarf and I understand that I am in a completely different, warm world. I heard more than once that Novosibirsk is considered a cold city. It depends what you compare it to.
There is a great infrastructure here. You can leave or fly anywhere. Thousands of northerners who find themselves in harsh nature not of their own free will, but because they were born there, dream of living in Novosibirsk or a similar big and warm city, where water runs from the tap all the time, and does not freeze for months, where you can not be afraid, that the car will stall - and you will freeze to death. By the way, I recently bought a car - Renault Logan. I started it without autostart in winter, in thirty-degree frost, when neighbor's cars stood at a stake. My new friend Shurik jokes that the engine understands that I am a northerner and cannot fool around like that in front of me, which is why it starts up like a clock.
Life begins at forty...
I was brought up in such a way that I always thought that after forty, sunset was already beginning. I’m looking at Siberians now, at the age of forty they walk with young girls, they look smart and generally don’t consider themselves old people. While this is new to me. When I asked a colleague at a new job: “How old do you think I am?”. She immediately replied, "Fifty?" On the one hand it was funny, but on the other awkward. I'm only thirty-eight, which means you can start new life and even have children. So far, however, on this basis, not everything is smooth.
I work as an electrician at a supply base. Not the most romantic profession, give women bosses or narrow specialists with a large salary, but I have no position, no salary, and even with health problems. As soon as some kind of epidemic begins in the city, I immediately begin to get sick. There is no immunity to sores from the mainland, but during the one winter that I lived here, I never got frostbite. Siberian weak frost leaves no traces on my skin. What will happen to me, an ordinary Oymyakon peasant, is unknown, but I am sure that nothing bad will happen. The past is forgotten, the future is closed, the present is granted.
Instead of an afterword
I hope that someday the authorities will be distracted from their PR, their money and their dirt and pay attention to problems ordinary people. There are many of us. Probably, we are not seven spans in the forehead that we cannot find a place for ourselves under the sun, but we are also people and also deserve a little, but happiness. If somewhere in a remote village of Yakutia a child starts to get sick in winter and the paramedic throws up his hands, then nothing can help the baby. No roads, no communication, no chance. Diamonds are mined in our region, we bring a lot of money to the treasury, where does it all go? Why do we need such small villages where it is impossible to live? So let Vladimir Putin save the Siberian Cranes or dive for amphoras, but come to Yakutia and see how people live there. I do not want to sound like a whiner, but with such an attitude of power towards the Russian north, we will soon completely lose control over this territory. There will be one big white desert. Better give Yakutia to the Japanese, enough to indulge your imperialist ambitions. It is not possible to manage - it is not necessary, why torture people? Northerners never complain about their lives, only when I was here in Novosibirsk, I realized how bad it is to live in Oymyakon.
P.S. In my memory, more foreigners (Japanese, Canadians, Americans, Norwegians) came to us in Oymyakon than Russians. Russian moneybags, who flew in on separate planes, looked at the coldest place on Earth just for fun, and citizens of other states were interested in how we live in such harsh conditions. They say that they even tried to help, but due to bureaucratic delays, nothing came of it. I think that says a lot...
Oymyakon appeared on the map of Russia not so long ago - in 1935. The settlement became a district center, uniting several nearby villages into a single territorial unit - Olchan, Sarylakh and others.
In 1954, the regional center moved to Ust-Nera. Today, the district (ulus), with an area of over 92 km², is part of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).
Nevertheless, the village retains the status of a socio-cultural center, which is not surprising given such a unique history.
In contact with
origins
The first mentions fall on the beginning of the XVII century. In the valley of the Indigirka, just above the mouth of the Kuente, the water of underground springs does not magically freeze in a fierce cold.
This phenomenon gave the name to the valley, and then to the village (Oymyakon - Warm Key from the Even language) where yurts stood in groups. The nomad camp was practically permanent, yurts were located at a distance of 80 km from Oymyakon to Tomtor.
A native of the village of Taryn-Yuryakh, Nikolai Osipovich Krivoshapka was the last successor of a merchant family and, like his ancestors, was engaged in the fur trade - an extremely successful trade in those days.
It's important to know: the name of the remarkable philanthropist and educator N.O. Krivoshapka, who gave strength and means to his native ulus, was assigned to one of the Yakut schools. Although some residents of the village believe that ascetic labor deserves more fame.
The childless philanthropist built churches and chapels, supported public education, and built schools. At his expense, the Sakha Omuk library was built, bridges were erected across the Aldan and Taatta.
Geographical position
For our contemporaries, there is a strong association: Oymyakon is the pole of cold. A clarification is needed here.
The Oymyakon Valley is rightfully considered one of the most severe places on Earth. The locals joke: “Even our vodka turns to ice,” but people live here all the time, as they always did.
The name Oymyakon often combines two settlements of the Russian Federation - Oymyakon and Tomtor. This is the so-called "Pole of Cold", they are located in the Oymyakon depression.
The depression itself, where cold air flows, is a unique geological phenomenon. The bowl formed by tectonic movements consists of an ice bottom (valley) with walls of hills. The realm of cold, frost are normal phenomena for the area, and where it is colder - in which place - no one knows.
Note: the expression "pole of cold" was invented rather by tourists. After all, serious meteorological surveys have never been carried out here. There is only one meteorological station at the Oymyakon airport at a distance of 40 km from the village, near Tomtor. And the cold pole is a triangle connecting Verkhoyansk and the Oymyakon valley.
The Pole is located on the continent of Eurasia. The location coordinates are 63°27`00` north latitude and 142°47`00` east longitude. The settlement is located in the subarctic continental climatic zone.\
Climate and weather
And yet, it is not for nothing that this area is called the pole, it is the coldest point on our planet. Let's see why.
Winter records are marked with commemorative obelisks. And the lowest, -77.8°C, was registered in the village itself in 1938. The average temperature in January is also extremely low here - January frosts stay at around 50 ° for weeks.
It is better not to turn off cars in winter
However, information about temperatures in different sources is very different. The average temperature during the day is -43°, the minimum is -65°. Oymyakon argues with Verkhoyansk, where the record was 68° in 1933, and which has the right to be called the coldest settlement. Yes, but is it worth it to start such disputes.
But even in these harsh places summer comes, and the temperature can rise to + 30 °! And at night the temperature can drop to +5°-10°. The absolute record of summer heat +32.6 was registered in July 1989. Summer is short, only 1.2-2 months, winter lasts endlessly.
According to Wikipedia, the village is located at an altitude of 750 m above sea level. In summer the day lasts 21 hours, in winter only 3 hours. The area occupies one of the first places in the world in terms of fluctuations in winter and summer temperatures.
The airport
The airport is an important component of the entire infrastructure of the ulus.
The villages of Oymyakon and Tomtor are located, as it were, at a dead end, the Kolyma highway once passed here, now it goes through the regional center of Ust-Nera, much north of Tomtor, to the side. The old road is now out of service, there are no bridges. Air communication is the only way to get to these places.
This is how the airport looks today
Today, the airport, 4 km from Tomtor, is just an airfield. And only 30 years ago it was a legend: the airport with two runways was part of the Alaska-Siberia air route, it accepted up to 100 aircraft, even Yakutsk did not accept such a number.
Northern pilots performed miracles, lifting and landing icy cars every day. Mitchell B-25 bombers landed here, Airacobra R-39 fighters landed here, belly-landed here.
When the landing gear froze to the hatches, the airport workers rolled barrels onto the runway into in large numbers and the plane rolled over them, landing safely without landing gear. Valor of the war and post-war period.
Today there is no elementary infrastructure, no waiting room, dispatchers in a small room freeze in the cold and get wet in the rain, the roof leaks. Old equipment and other problems. But even now the airport is working, the famous Cheburashkas, L-410 planes and other small aircraft fly.
Tourist comment: planes do not fly to Yakutsk in winter. You can get to Ust-Negra, from there further to Yakutsk from it to Moscow and many cities of the country. In summer, from May to September, a plane flies to the capital Sakha once a week.
In winter, to the district center and others settlements get on the car winter road.
The village with a population of 521 lives its own life, measured and silent. The locals are not talkative, but friendly and welcoming. The climate in many ways contributed to the formation of customs and traditions. Here are some features of this region:
- the equipment of local policemen is distinguished by the absence of batons. The material from which they are made does not withstand frost;
- the school is closed at a temperature of -60 °;
- cars in the village are not uncommon, but in winter they work constantly. If the car is turned off, then there is a risk of not starting again, especially if it stands in the cold for more than 2 hours;
- residents wear clothes made only from natural fabrics. Even cows wear warm clothes; special bags are sewn for them so as not to catch a cold in the udder. In Soviet times, cows of the Yakut breed were bred, in which the udder was covered with saving wool, but the milk yields of the northern cows did not suit the management. Attempts to replace the breed led to the death of the dairy herd;
This is interesting: a wonderful festival "Pole of Cold" is held here, where you can see alys, a ritual action from the life of reindeer herders, a spectacle of bewitching beauty and primitiveness, ride a dog sled, try national cuisine such as bighorn sheep meat.
- the village does not register colds, viral diseases, microbes do not survive in the cold;
- near the village, there is non-freezing water, a spring with surprisingly clear, like from a fairy tale water, living or dead. The source with the river can be seen in pictures in books and the Internet;
- there is a monument with a temperature record, the only shop with very high prices, a school, there is a gas station at the entrance to the village;
Interesting fact: The Kingdom of Permafrost is the main attraction. The space carved in the cave is subordinate to Chychkhaan, this is the name of the character of the Yakut epic - frost. He kindly greets visitors, shows his possessions, ice utensils, furniture, allows you to ride down the hill and relax in the ice bar.
- in Indigirka, a river with crystal clear water, you can see swimming fish, the famous vendace, omul, seal, whitefish and whitefish are found here. Fishing is good, any season is suitable for it, but hunting is allowed only in winter;
- near the village at the tourist base Chochur-Muran there is an ethnological museum, interesting stories will reveal the toponymy of the ulus. Here, man-made ice caves created by Yakut sculptors open their arms.
How people live
The regional center is located 900 kilometers from the village. A plane ticket costs about 27,000 rubles. In winter, they take a taxi to Yakutsk, the minibus is on the road for more than 16 hours. Oymyakon residents go to the capital on their own business.
The people here are resilient and strong. They eat the meat of deer, horses, hunt, fish. The Yakut horse is a unique animal: it lives on the street, it does not need a stable, it feeds by digging roots out of the frozen ground.
This is a free animal, lives next to the owners and helps them for feeding him. Its meat contains vitamins and microelements that allow a person to receive good nutrition without vegetables and fruits.
Houses with no amenities. Ordinary Russian huts are heated with coal and firewood. For heating 8 months of the winter season, 50,000 rubles are laid out. There is electricity.
We have long been accustomed to the fact that batteries quickly “sit down” in the cold, ink freezes, and cars are equipped with double windows. The dead are buried in permafrost. Before digging a grave, they burn fires for three days, warming the earth.
The Oymyakon valley of the Stalin era became a haven for 29 camps, which left its gloomy imprint on this beautiful land. The Tomtor School Gulag Museum can tell a lot. These dark times will never be forgotten.
But life goes on, children are born, tourists come. The Pole does not freeze because the Indigirka carries its waters, and warm springs beat.
For more information about the plus of cold, see the following interesting video: