Life on the edge of the world

Day after day in the polar village of Teriberk

The main street Teriberki

The village of Teriberka is located a hundred kilometers from Murmansk, but even in the summer the road here takes at least four hours. You can get either by sea or by car-barely on a bumpy road. Deprived of trees, the settlement is surrounded by hills and in winter almost completely goes under the snow. On the polar night, Teriberchan’s path to the regional center takes three days at all - cars are weaving after a tractor that cleanse the road.

Once in the village, life was in full swing: at the end of the 19th century, two temples were erected here, in Soviet times cod fishing was actively developing-for which the locals were awarded awards at VDNH. Only skeletons of factory buildings scattered around the village are now reminiscent of the past victories. Only half of the buildings have been populated today; According to official figures, the population of Teriberka is about a thousand people. Some residents provide the needs of the village - they work in the boiler room and in the bakery. The rest are hunting fishing and collecting berries. Cloudberry is especially appreciated - it is accepted at 400 rubles per kilogram at assembly points, and only 100 grams will be sold to you in the market in Murmansk for the same money.

As part of the work on the development of the Shtokmanovskoye field, Gazprom is building a liquefied gas production plant near Teriberka. According to the initial plans, the construction was supposed to affect the territory of the village, and a considerable part of the local residents threatened to relocate. But then the construction zone was pushed away, and Teriberchan now see the plans of Gazprom hope for a bright future in the form of new roads and hospitals. It would only have something to breathe: in the project, as Murmansk environmentalists say, environmental risks are poorly spelled out. That's why the Teribercians are also scary, whose life primarily depends on the state of the environment.

In winter, it is not very cold here: up to –20, but the snowdrifts are in some places until August

In the state farm administration, not only the name remains from the USSR

Nadezhda Zaporova is the head of the Selpo. There are three stores in the village. With the exception of bread, all products are imported

The time stopped in the state farm workshop

Vladimir Paltyshev in the boiler room - the main strategic enterprise of the village

Polar Night: 40 days of darkness

Photo: Beat Schweizer/Anzenberger/Fotodom.ru