Captain Teriberk

Photographer Oleg Klimov tells the amazing story of the former head of the village, where Leviathan was shot

In Russia, the discussion continues around Andrei Zvyagintsev’s film “Leviathan” - on weekends his pirate copy appeared on the network, and at the beginning of the week the tape took the Golden Globe as the best foreign film. Medusa publishes the memoirs of the photographer Oleg Klimov about the former head of the administration of the village of Teriberk in the Murmansk region (Leviathan was removed there), whose fate suddenly resonates with the story told in the film.

The film "Leviathan" caused me completely different sensations and associations than those about which everyone talks on both one and the other.

The fact is that Teriberka (Kola District of the Murmansk Region), where the film was partially starred - one of my favorite places that I visited twice, shooting the photo project “Safeed by the Sea”; And there I was happy for various reasons. In addition, this is the closest place from Murmansk (about 100 km through the tundra), where a free person, and not a military or a Chekist, can be seen in all the glory of the Barents Sea (Murmansk is in a deep bay). And I really needed to see the open sea and a clear horizon. In other places, it was not possible to get to the sea because of the numerous military bases and cordons.

When I was there, the former captain of Yarantsev worked the head of the local administration, the sailor, known for the fact that during fishing near Spitsbergen did not obey the requirements of the Norwegian Navy and under fire (in the literal sense) managed to get to Murmansk, detaining him on board the Norwegian military inspectors, which was incriminated later as “capture of the hostages”.

During the shelling, Captain Valery Yarantsev several times tried to call the Russian Navy to the rescue, but each time he was refused due to the “storm atmosphere at sea”, which, however, did not prevent Navy from shelling the Russian fishing vessel from the sea and from the air.

In the port of Murmansk, Yarans were immediately arrested by the FSB officers, later deprived of all the rights of the captain, but he managed to win the International Court - because Spitsbergen’s waters were formally “neutral waters”, where he could freely fish. The Norwegian Admiral, by order of which the Russian ship was fired, apologized to Captain Yarantsev.

Then the captain filed a lawsuit against the state of Norway demanding several million dollars, joined the Communist Party (he was never a party before) and was chosen by the head of the Teriberian administration, a fishing village, where he often brought fish from the sea, while still a captain.

Then I visited this village. I have not met anything more gloomy and hopeless on the shores of the Barents Sea, except that the places for the waste of nuclear reactors of Russian submarines. But this is another story.

Honestly, I liked the captain of Yarans at once: "The muzzle is red, the wife of a beauty means a sailor." We talked in his office, his wife prepared tea and treated us with cookies, and I jokingly called him “Captain Teriberk” (he was an elected head of the administration).

A very long interview, including because of personal sympathies. The captain had a special plan for the restoration of Teriberka: Yarantsev was sure that Norway would win the international court and invested millions in the restoration of the fishing village. It was his real program, and many residents - sailors and fishermen - of course, sacredly believed in it, but the fate of the village and captain turned out differently.

None other than President Medvedev was supposed to be in Teriberka in order to personally make sure that this is a suitable place for the new oil and gas terminal of Gazprom. The retired captain and the head of the administration, of course, did not seem to be a person who could meet the president; In addition, he had completely different plans for the arrangement of Teriberka. The captain was removed from his post in a matter of days according to the usual “Burning scheme”. When I learned this news from the Internet, I called Yarantsev. He was almost in despair, as it seemed to me, but in a joke and seriously said that he would continue the “struggle for the survivability of the vessel during the storm”.

The "ship" drowned. As the “Kursk” submarine drowned before before.

Surprisingly, when I watched the film, I often recalled the “rebellious captain” and his last vessel Teriberk, “fighting for vitality”. The symbolic coincidence of the location of the film “Leviathan” and the real story of Captain Yarantsev does not give me rest. But in order to calm down yourself, it is always better to tell the story to another.