Manganese silence

Under the wheels, fragments of stones are crunching, we are trying not to fall on the side of the road. The road uphill, the ears are laid a little. We are on Kuznetsk Alatau, not far from the border of Khakassia and Kuzbass. We are trying to drive to the famous Usinsky deposit of manganese ore, which was discovered at the beginning of the 20th century by the geologist Konstantin Radugin. People here are waiting for how the story of the “check-to” will end.

The question is in my head: how did this madman get here? In the car of that, and look turn over or stuck, and he went skiing. According to the impassable taiga, where thickets are worse than in the jungle. How? It remains only to believe that the great power and thirst for discoveries moved this person.

Snow gathering. The Niva, doomedly pushing the ice with the wheels, stood up: for no reason, the engine boiled. It is necessary to jam the motor and wait with an open hood. I breathe, listen to the taiga and mountains, touch the snow ... In early July! From afar, the engine roar is heard, and after a minute the old Ural with a cradle enters the glacier calmly. Locals gathered in Cherems: men - on a motorcycle, and a thin woman with a knitting more she herself - nearby, on foot. We talked, learned about the road - it will be easier, it will be the most difficult site, we will reach the village of miners, and then we are lucky: collapses. They rarely go to the deposit now, it seems like they froze it. Well, at least get to the village.

The engine calmed down, the steam stopped to blame, we are going. Further, it’s really easier, there are no more snowy gatherings, and with the pits the brave driver Rustam has already learned to cope. Then, returning to the place of our deployment, I will understand that I did not hear such silence as in the mountains anywhere else. Deaf silence.

After about an hour of shaking along the road, in which, according to our guide, a radical resident and expert on these places, 5 million rubles were invested, we reach the settlement of the miners. Conditional settlement. Because the new buildings are empty, the paths are overgrown with fine weed grass, road signs have long burned out in the sun, the barrier creaks, only some kind of aroused bird screams, and a couple of shirts on the rope dry. We leave the car and move towards a middle -aged person who is perplexed in our direction. I am ahead of the events, Masha with my red crust and almost scream: “Hello! We are journalists from Novosibirsk, can I go to you? " - "You can, - smiles, - come in."

I smile in response: "I am Oksana Mamlina, Special Corps Taiga.info, and these are my assistants!" I represent the driver of Rustam, Katya - a novice blogger and an experienced scout, and Gennady - our guide. “Valery,” the man replies, “the guard here with his son Valka is already since March.”

“Everything is worth it,” he says, “the technique is all, everything is frozen. What they were able to, they overtook the headquarters, the bags with ore were transported, Urals, “Belazes” ”.

"What are you waiting for?" - I ask. “Minor decisions,” Valery replies. - We have been waiting for months already. The workers left, we are standing last year. Yes, you are going, let's have lunch. ” We go to a new, beautiful and completely empty dining room, where the voice is surrendered in a deep echo. Valery warms tea, and we lay out the provisions captured with us: eggs, tomatoes, lard and bread.

Valery explains: “I worked for many years with a watchman, I have not left the taiga seasons, I have not seen my family. Got used to it and they are used to it. The son is with me now. Together we carry the watch. One thing is bored here, and dangerous, bears stuck in the spring. Once a drunken company of Zaletnaya arrived, I don’t know how they made their way here. Valka put them to sleep, and the next morning they got out of the way, thanked for a long time for the night, otherwise the taiga around. And before that, the watchman lived here, so during the winter he almost touched with his mind. Six months alone with the taiga, no wonder. "

After lunch, gently compiling the washed dishes, I ask you to shoot the housings. There are no people, however, you can take off the void.

The steps of the iron groaning under my legs, everything is solid, tightly done, smells of paint and new housing. I enter the case. Large bright rooms seemed to be frozen in bewilderment: "Where did the people go?" The floorboards grumble: they are unhappy that they were disturbed by their accidental, unplanned peace. Somewhere in the rooms there were still checkers, the packaging of the cologne "Zhirinovsky" and the figurine of a naked girl-a modest, male, prospective life. A training room with a map on the wall, a drawing ruler, an old wooden box with medicines - already a museum rarity practically. Everything is clean, attached and empty. In large light windows-the tops of fir trees and mountains, for such a landscape another city resident would have paid a fortune, and then some kind of vacuum. I touch the gray dust on the TV left by someone. Why did everyone leave here? Some kind of enchanted kingdom. Terrible.

I want to be alive! Below in the gatehouse is warmer, on the street fog and damp. The red-haired cat on the floor stretched out, the son of the watchman Valentine silently and quietly sits at the computer, everything here is somehow at home. "Not scary in the taiga alone?" -“And who is it to be afraid? Who will go here by goodwill? Besides us a mile away! Wives only get a month, and then if you are lucky and the road will not make it! Satellite connection, there is no Internet. ”

The technique is as if waiting for the labor march. Remember the children's game "The sea is worried once"? When, on command, everyone froze in the poses in which they walked, fled, lived. The impression that the cars seemed to freeze suddenly, without having left the gates of the settlement. A bunch of manganese ore, overgrown with a loom and weed grass. What awaits us on the mine itself? The abomination of desolation. But Radugin forgot the prosperity to the field and considerable income for many years. Since 1936, production has been going on, nothing foreshadowed the stop. A lot of questions and oddities.

This is the largest manganese deposit in Russia and one of the four largest CIS. For several years in a row, Khakassia rattled rallies demanding to close the “deadly” mine. Even to me, a person very far from geology and chemistry, it is clear that the manganese does not harm himself, and the demonstrators most likely have been counted with a purple substance, which is popularly called "potassium permanganate". In fact, according to the chemistry textbook, potassium permanganate with manganese in the form in which it is mined at the Usinsky deposit, has little in common. A strange phenomenon is demonstrators. The crowd, in a word.

We say goodbye to amazing taiga people Valka and Valery, they, hugging the shoulders, look after us. “You are unlikely to go to the mine, the road was blurred, the Urals had recently stuck there, where you are on your own,” they will part in parting. “Thank you, it’s happy to stay, and we will try to drive!” - I scream back. And before his eyes-the virgin taiga and a modest scientist, who takes the first blue-black, mother-of-pearl stones to the sample.
Stubbornly we are going on. Stones pour out from under the wheels. The conductor says: “There is no one there! No, understand? Just a huge pit, without technology, people, without life! And if we fall or stuck now, no one will pull us out of here! Because, I will reveal the secret, we are alone here! "

I understand. I do not like it when something does not work, only stones from the sky can stop me. And, yes, here are the stones. And they are from the sky. We turn back. We stop by the glacier, we all need to recover: a heavy road, shaking, mountains. The conductor is leaving for the taiga, he is no longer an hour. We begin to worry, all sorts of thoughts: a bear, a stormy mountain river, a heart attack. An hour later, a peaceful and pleased Gennady appears with a complete armful of Cheremshi. Apparently, he rested from us, crazy and restless.

At the headquarters of the branch of the company Chek-Su, which is located near the village of TUIU in Khakassia, there is a new technique covered with dust, people come to work day after day and sit quietly in the back room in anticipation of a decision of their future fate (Bankruptcy “Chek-Su” requires VEB-approx. Taiga.info) . A lonely bunch of bags with ore samples and the inscription “Usinsky manganese field”, dusty cold and huge cars - is it all that remains of a place whose resources are designed for a hundred years and which contains 55% of the total Russian manganese?

My steps are echoing echoing at a completely empty garage. Too many questions that have no answer. Like many others that arise when you travel through the endless and ownerless expanses of the country, which is proudly called Russia. Manganese mine, you are the same Russia.

PS While the material was preparing, one Chinese company was inquired at the mine. The issue is under consideration. Empty garages and people are waiting.

Oksana Mamlina, especially for Taiga.info

The point of view of the author may not coincide with the opinion of the editorial office