Translated material
The boundary that is not
The Swiss photographer Beat Schwizer and writer Urs Mannhart visited the northern port port of Russia - in the village of Dixon. The result of the trip was the Mannhart report, as well as the joint photo exhibition of Urs and Beat Dixon. Ice Borders ", which takes place at the Brothers Lumiere photography center with the support of the Embassy of Switzerland
Dixon is the northernmost point of Russia, and in the old days this village was called the capital of the Arctic. In 1985, almost 5,000 people lived here, and now seven hundred will not be set. There are 700 km to the nearest village, but you can’t go there by train or by car - permafrost. Therefore, from the "Great Earth" you must first fly to Norilsk, and from there on a propeller aircraft - in Dixon. True, it flies only once a week.
What do people do in these latitudes (the average temperature in winter is –30 ° C, in the summer - +9 ° C), who now and then have to fight off the white bears walking along the streets? This perplexed question is two Swiss, who penetrated the territory almost inaccessible to foreigners, now and then asked local residents, 93 % of which work for the state. For example, what the head of the village Irina Dudina answered Ursu Mannhart to this question. "They often ask me:" How did you bring you into these latitudes? " - says Irina, sitting in her office, where beautifully decorated portraits of President Putin and Prime Minister Medvedev help her from the walls. - To which I answer: "I help to protect the borders of our homeland." And he looks out the window, as if pointing to these boundaries. But there is only snow, ice and several unpaved panel buildings. ”
From whom you can protect the borders here, it is difficult to imagine: to Moscow - 2700 km, to Kazakhstan - 2200 km, to Norway - 1800 km, to Greenland and Canada - 2000 km. “There is neither industry nor minerals,” the URS Mannhart is surprised, “and state money is mainly on mainly maintaining alcoholism. <...> Russia just wants to show everyone that this ice belongs to the giant empire. But how to protect the border that is not? <...> Why do thirty soldiers guard a non -existent border, never crossed by anyone and located beyond the distant land from the civilized world? The answer to this question, apparently, will forever remain a state secret. ”
Lonely, 2013. In this three -room apartment there are more than 20 geologists who carry out exploration work near Dixon 
