Archeology pyramid of Spitsbergen. Pyramid. Closing of a mine in the Russian village of Pyramida

August 14th, 2013

The pyramid is located 120 km north of Longyearbyen, Norway, and was the world's northernmost coal mine. The prefix “the northernmost” here can be substituted for everything: “the most northern monument Lenin" or "the northernmost basin in the world" and so on, as much as your imagination can handle. In 1998, coal mining ended, the village was mothballed. In the 1980s, up to 1000 people lived in the village, when Lebedev visited this place in the 2000s, here only a crazy German lived. Due to the special status of Spitsbergen (any state could conduct economic activity there), the Soviet Union tried to make this village a real showcase of communism, the Norwegians were jealous of how luxuriously a citizen of the USSR lived. real paradise, getting here was considered real luck.

The pyramid is located in picturesque place at the foot of a mountain whose shape resembles a real pyramid overlooking the Nordenskiöld glacier. During the difficult crisis years of the conservation of the village, when no one remained in the Pyramid for the winter, vandals ruled here. The Norwegians came on snowmobiles and took away everything that could be taken away. For example, in the Kroa bar in Longyearbyen there is a bust of Lenin, it is just from the Pyramid. The city could have become another ghost town, like Pripyat in Ukraine, but we came to our senses in time and are now trying to breathe life into the city new life due to tourism.

And now a little history.
There is constant debate about who was the first to discover this polar archipelago. The Pomors of Spitsbergen have been known as "Grumant" since the 15th century; at the entrance to the harbors, the Russians left wooden crosses with the names of those who erected them. The Pomors left traces of settlements, there is no doubt - they were the first to engage in fishing on the distant island of Spitsbergen. Radiocarbon dating of the objects shows that they are much earlier in time than the Viking journeys to these lands. The Norwegians, of course, claim the opposite. Allegedly, the Pomors arrived much later and brought with them old utensils and used centuries-old logs in the construction of houses, so radiocarbon analysis does not count :) Ours claim that the Vikings only sailed to Bear Island, which they called “Svalbard,” i.e. cold ground in Norwegian. The question is quite political.

Officially, the island was discovered by the Dutch navigator Barents, who was looking for the shortest route from the Atlantic to Pacific Ocean. The discovery of new islands led to whaling companies settling here, and the bowhead whale produced 1.5 tons of baleen and 30 tons of blubber!

The British and Danes were the first to declare their territorial claims to this land. Unlike Western Europeans, our people felt great on Spitsbergen, built camps and spent the winter in harsh conditions. Norwegians actively began to appear at the end of the 19th century, the land was officially recognized as “no man's land” just at this time. Question about legal status islands was supposed to be resolved in 1914 between Russia, Norway and Sweden, but due to the First World War the issue was returned only in 1920, the Soviet Union was not invited to the Paris Conference, but the possibility of Russian rights to use natural and other resources was spelled out in the agreement before the USSR joined the treaty. The treaty itself recognized Norway’s sovereignty over the islands, but the Norwegians pledged not to build military bases and fortifications on the islands, and now the most interesting thing: “citizens of all countries that signed the treaty, on an equal basis with Norwegians, have the right free access to the archipelago to engage in shipping, industrial, commercial and commercial activities on conditions of complete equality.

In other words, the islands actually belong to Norway, but any company or any citizen can live on the island and use its resources. A unique situation!

Ours in 1924, we joined the agreement, bought land plots, managed by the Arktikugol company, its task was simple - to provide coal to the northern part of Russia. Until 1941, two mines operated - in Barentsburg and Grumant, and a third village - Pyramid - was built. Every day the ships departed for Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. During the war, all workers were evacuated to the north of England, and after the war, in 1946, the first miners and builders arrived, restored two villages in 3 years and completed the Pyramid in 1956.

So, it turns out that we had three settlements, the first was Grumant, which was mothballed in 1961, the miners say that when the coal runs out in other places, they can return here, the explored reserves will last for a long time. The second village is Barentsburg, an active village with the Russian Consulate, a swimming pool, a school and other infrastructure, I will write about it later. The most interesting is the third mine, Pyramid.

My first story will be about him.

And it all started with this issue of the Russian Reporter; in 2009, I read the article “The Archipelago NO WAY” about this place and got excited. I knew I'd get here. Necessarily

Our ship is in the port, the Russians call it the “polar girl”, the port of registration is Tromsø, in the winter it takes athletes to the fjord mountains, in the summer it takes tourists to the Pyramid and Barentsburg.

The most important thing is to be lucky with the weather, then 3 hours of sailing will seem like a pleasant walk. In total, two ships carry it to the Pyramid in the summer.

Barents, the discoverer of the island, wrote this: “The land along which we sailed was hilly and elevated, but these were not mountains, although the hills looked like sharp spiers, so the land was piled on Spitsbergen.”

Northern nature is gorgeous, of course

Guide Vadim talks in Norwegian and English about the animal world and the history of the island. Basically, half of the tourists are from mainland Norway, the rest are a complete hodgepodge of Germans, French, and Americans.

Approaching the Pyramid

Buildings, view from the water

We are greeted by the bus and the tour guide Sasha from St. Petersburg, a colorful character with a “moose” gun. You can’t go without a gun; polar bears are extremely dangerous animals. I wonder what murder polar bear is being investigated by the police, shooting can only be done in self-defense, which still needs to be proven. The role of the police is performed by the governor from Norway or, as he is called here, the Susselman. The punishments and fines here are severe, they say that in times of famine, our people killed deer, and they were with chips, and the Norgs (that’s what the Norwegians are called) immediately flew in by helicopter and tied everyone up. The fines are scary!

Let's take a walk around the village

Today, several people spend the winter on the Pyramid, who receive guests at the hotel, surprisingly, on a polar night in winter time There are more hotel guests. Traveling by snowmobile from Norwegian Longyearbyen through the archipelago is now very popular. Pyramid is a good transit and overnight point for travelers. In the summer, the staff returns, about 10 people, plus this year Tajiks arrived who are engaged in cutting and recycling scrap metal. Most of “ours” are Ukrainians; the salary in Svalbard will not greatly impress the average Russian.

Near the pier there is a magnificent view of the glacier

At one time they opened a farm here, the experiment was so successful that they exported meat and milk to Longyearbyen.

It is forbidden to die on the archipelago and this is not a joke. If this misfortune does happen to you, the body will be taken to the mainland. This is connected with polar bears that tear up graves. The guides joke that if you want to live forever, move to Spitsbergen, it is forbidden to die here :) The building in which the men lived was called “London”, the building with women was called “Paris”.

The main street of 60 Let October, which led to “Paris,” was called “Champs Elysees,” and besides, there are actually fields here, where from? Several ships with black soil arrived from the USSR to the Pyramid, so you can safely tell foreigners that you are standing on Russian soil :) Previously they were not allowed to walk on the grass, even if you were not a dog or a child

We went to the Palace of Culture, which is in a dilapidated state

Reminded me a bit of Pripyat

Dried plants in pots in the dining room

Mosaic there

Monument to the first lily of the valley that bloomed on the Pyramid

Soviet ghost town Pyramid on the island of Spitsbergen

Walking along the Pyramid, the feeling that “we could have, but again we screwed everything up” does not let go; this feeling always creeps in when you hear stories about some “Russian California” or about “the entry of Crimea into the Ukrainian SSR.”

And here is the northernmost grandfather Lenin, looking at the glacier

Elena Aleksandrovna from Donetsk treats you to candy and bakes buns for 3 euros, cheerfully speaks Russian and accepts any currency. Except for rubles, of course :)

Perhaps the most expensive sugar buns in the world :) But take two! Delicious!!! After a warm conversation, we return to the ship.

Tajiks are at work, they recently hired these guys because they can pay less. I work more, don’t drink.

There is a bar on the ship that serves waffles. After the Pyramid, lunch begins.

By the way, the food is handled by a hired chef, I hope that you will be as lucky as me and you will try a real whale steak! Only three countries refused to sign the agreement on whaling: Japan, Norway and Iceland. The quotas are getting smaller and smaller every year, so don’t miss the chance to try whale in Svalbard.

A count of the animals seen is kept on a special board, that is, in 2 months we saw 6 polar bears. We didn’t see a single one, which is understandable; in the summer they move to the north and northeast.

What else should I add? Norgs are cunning, almost all the land on Spitsbergen has been declared nature reserves, you can’t undermine them economic activity prohibited. They infringe on our people in the sky too, the contract doesn’t say a word about the sky, they allow us to fly only for work reasons, every flight is literally begged for. This greatly hinders the development of villages, because with the Mi-8 it would be possible to quickly transport tourists from the airport to the Pyramid, but the Norwegians don’t want competition and don’t want us to stay here for a long time. I was told how the locals put obstacles in the way of those who decided to open their own business here, for example, the Italian who built a museum with his enthusiasm, they did not help at all, although it was a useful business. But no, if I were Norwegian, otherwise...

HOW TO GET TO THE PYRAMID?
The most interesting thing is that a charter from Moscow flies to Longyearbyen from Moscow once a month from Arktikugol. Then you don't need any visa (remember, I wrote that this is part of Norway, but with a special status). The average cost of a one-way flight will be 15 thousand rubles.

The tourist option is the simplest: we fly to Longyearbyen and take a boat excursion to the Pyramid. You can stay at a local hotel and return back on the same ship a few days later. Norwegians also go to the pyramid on foot (trekking paths), kayaks, and snowmobiles in winter. If you are a researcher, then you have a chance to go there on a long scientific trip (biologists, glaciologists, etc. are welcome). On my flight from Oslo to Longyearbyen there were several Russian scientists from Murmansk; our Mi-8 helicopter transports them to the Pyramid. You can also get to Pyramid for work; on the Arktikugol website, in the vacancies section, someone is always needed, some kind of steam turbine operator or assistant captain of a small boat, however, they will most likely send you to Barentsburg and the contract is signed for 2 years, if you want to leave earlier, you do not receive vacation pay and pay for your return home yourself. The easiest way is to get a job as a guide for the season, they say there is a very good aura there, very quiet and calm. You can forget about the Internet and take a break from your mobile phone. Why not an ecological holiday?)

There are very few Russians here. Guide Vadim said that I was the third one on their ship this season. One day, two Russian girls from Tyumen pitched a tent right in the port, waiting for a morning excursion on a ship. Of course, the security forbade them to be in the port, they called the ship's workers, who had no choice but to invite the ladies onto the ship :) Most of our tourists, if there are any, are cruisers, or those who already like to climb mountains and ride snowmobiles.

I’ll post more glaciers in the next post so as not to overload this post.

The Pyramid mine is a structural production unit of the FSUE GT Arktikugol trust, located on state-owned land plots of 73.5 hectares, and is the world’s northernmost village and mine, commissioned in 1956.

At the time of liquidation, the mine’s balance sheet included a mine, a power plant, seaport, helipad, water supply and communications system, including space communications. The total number of employees was almost 550 people.

Houses in the village with a total living area of 3931 sq. m. m, mainly made of brick, cinder blocks, using reinforced concrete, concrete and metal structures. They housed 486 apartments, 56 hotel rooms and a 26-bed dormitory. There was a hospital, a community center, a swimming pool, kindergarten, other industrial and socio-cultural facilities. At the time of the inspection, most of the buildings and structures were in satisfactory condition, and the existing deformation of the foundations in some of them was local in nature.

All of the above objects were actually abandoned. The decision to develop a feasibility study for the liquidation of the Pyramid mine was made at an extended meeting with the First Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy Russian Federation with the participation of the Ministry of Economy of Russia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, JSC Rosugol Company and FSUE GT Arktikugol (protocol dated July 28, 1997, No. E-5332 pr). The mine liquidation project was approved by order of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy of Russia dated March 23, 1998 No. 94 “On approval of the Pyramid mine liquidation project of the Arktikugol State Trust” and adjusted on September 3, 1998. Technical work to liquidate this mine began in August 1997, and shipping of commercial coal ceased on December 31 of the same year. Coal mining was completely stopped on April 1, 1998.

Considering that when developing a feasibility study for the liquidation of the Pyramid mine, the possibility of using all buildings and structures in the future was laid down, the decision to liquidate the Pyramid mine and mothball the residential village should be considered premature. This area remains very promising in terms of development of industrial and tourism activities.

As of 04/01/98, the remaining balance reserves of coal amounted to 3343.0 thousand tons, including industrial reserves - 1082.0 thousand tons. In 1990, an oil and gas field with predicted gas reserves of up to 4 billion cubic meters was discovered in the area where the Pyramid mine is located. m and oil - 25 million tons (Petunia Bay).

To this day, the issues of resuming the activities of the preserved infrastructure of a residential village remain relevant. There are also proposals from foreign businessmen for this issue, but they were not considered by anyone.

(from the report of the Accounts Chamber 2004)

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Pyramid is an abandoned Soviet mining village located on the island of Spitsbergen in Norway. The village was built in the second half of the twentieth century near the world's northernmost coal mine. Its population reached a thousand people. But in the nineties, coal production fell sharply and the village was mothballed.

Now the Pyramid is a ghost village, which has preserved not only the buildings, but also many personal belongings of its inhabitants, left here as if in a hurry. The territory of the village is open to visitors, but it is not recommended to enter its buildings without an escort - in order to avoid accidents. The pyramid still holds the record for many of the most northern things in the world - among such records are a monument to Lenin, a swimming pool and even a piano.

The unusual disturbing and sad atmosphere of the abandoned city, as well as the unusually beautiful nature surrounding the village, attracts tourists here in the summer. A small hotel has been set up in the village especially for them and there is a tour guide.

Mothballed in 1998. Since 2007, 3 people constantly live and work in the village in winter and up to 20 people in summer.


Village
Pyramiden

78°39′22″ n. w. 16°19′30″ E. d. HGIOL
Country	Norway Norway
Region	Spitsbergen
Island	Western Spitsbergen
History and geography
Founded	1910
Climate type	arctic
Time zone	UTC+1 , in summer UTC+2
Population
Population	3-16 people (2014)

Audio, photo and video on Wikimedia Commons

Basics

The village received its name because of the pyramidal shape of the mountain, at the foot of which it was founded on the shores of Petunia and Mimer bays. The village is located about 120 km from Barentsburg. The distance to the capital of the archipelago, Longyearbyen, is about 50 km to the south as the crow flies. Until 1998, Pyramid was the world's northernmost operating mine. The village was built taking into account the experience gained during the construction of Barentsburg, Grumant and Colsbay and became, according to the Norwegian King Harald V, who visited the village in 1995, one of the “pearls” of the archipelago.

IN summer time Norwegian tourist boats from Longyearbyen sail daily to the Pyramid. In winter you can get there by snowmobile.

Attractions

The terrain in the Pyramid area is mountains, valleys, glaciers. Opposite the Pyramid there is a large Nordenskiöld glacier, large blocks of which, hovering above the water, break off from time to time with a roar to begin their journey in the form of icebergs.

The emblem of the Pyramid is the stele at the entrance to the village. The stele was installed in 1984, but it acquired its finished form in 1998, when, by order of the director of the Pyramid V.I. Chistyakov, it was decided to install one of the trolleys near it in memory of the labor exploits of the miners of the Arctic. The inscription was written on the trolley: “On March 31, 1998, this last ton of coal was issued from the Pyramid mine.”

In the village you can visit the dining room, where a magnificent mosaic panel is still preserved, a kindergarten and a school, a cultural and sports complex and a swimming pool, as well as a cinema where you can look into the projection control room.

On a one-day hike, you can see Blue Lakes, and waterfalls, and the bottle house, which has become a popular attraction. Those who wish can also climb Mount Pyramid or go to the fabulously beautiful Skanskaya Bay.

Story

In 1910, Swede Bertil Högbom received permission to mine coal 120 kilometers from the Barentsburg mine in the depths of the mountains at half a kilometer above sea level. In 1911, construction and equipment of the mine began. The settlement was located on the shores of Petunia and Mimer bays, the land plots belonged to the company " Spetsbergens Svenska Kolfalt", from which they were acquired by the Anglo-Russian Grumant society; then, in 1927, the Severoles trust became the owner of the Pyramid, and since 1931 - the Arktikugol trust. Thus, the village became Soviet.

Construction of the mine in the Mount Pyramid area began in July 1939 and continued until August 1941, when all residents of the archipelago were evacuated. At the time of evacuation, there were 99 people at the mine. Before the start of the war, premises for a diesel station and a technical warehouse, a dormitory and a bathhouse were built at the foot of Mount Pyramid, the construction of a residential building, a canteen, a radio station, a boiler room and the passage of ventilation and haulage adits began. The work was carried out mainly on the surface of the mine. The first wintering was organized in the winter of 1940-1941. During World War II, in 1941, the coal warehouse and all equipment were destroyed by the employees themselves during the evacuation.

August 1946, when 609 polar explorers arrived at Pyramid, is considered the beginning of construction of the mine.

The first street in Pyramid appeared in March 1947. It began at the port under construction and led to the village. On both sides there were little houses called “fincas”.

In 1947-1950, a large volume of geological exploration work was carried out, mining exploration was carried out, from which coal was mined - about 70 thousand tons of coal were mined.

The population in the 1960s to 1980s was over 1,000; In those years, multi-storey capital buildings, a swimming pool, a library, a winter garden and a shallow port for loading coal were built.

During the operation of the mine, a thermal power plant, a port, a garage, and three artificial lakes with drinking water, livestock farm, greenhouse, other production and social facilities. Up to a thousand people lived in the well-maintained village, for whom a spacious sports complex with a swimming pool was built sea water and a dining room with 200 seats.

Mine closure

The decision to close the mine was made at the end of 1997. At the time of closure, the annual coal production plan was 135 thousand tons, or 57 percent of the mine's design capacity. The decrease in the level of coal production was mainly due to the inability to timely replenish the mining front due to difficult geological conditions. The main reasons for the decision to liquidate the mine were limited reserves and high costs of coal mining associated with the need to carry out a large volume of preparatory mining, as well as the constantly growing costs of localizing an endogenous fire in the mine, which arose in 1970 and is still active today.

The last tons of coal from the mine were released on March 31, 1998. During its operation, Mine No. 2 “Severnaya” produced about 8.8 million tons of coal.

Mine liquidation work was carried out mainly in the mine workings and mine surface objects technologically related to it. The work performed made it possible to close the mine and ensured in subsequent years that people would not be allowed into the mine workings. During the liquidation of a mine, the housing stock (except dilapidated) total area 3931 m², social and cultural facilities and industrial buildings were mothballed.

Projects to resume mining at the open-pit mine were considered, but coal mining in Pyramid is unprofitable. The pyramid, despite its favorable location within the archipelago, did not become a research station like Ny-Ålesund, but it turned into a real art object, a museum under open air, and attracts tourists from different countries peace. Since 2007, the Arktikugol trust has been developing tourism activities in Pyramid.

The difficulties of the Arktikugol concern with the formation of a development policy were fully reflected in the Pyramid.

Despite repeated statements of interest in resuming production at the open-pit mine, no active actions have been taken in this direction and independent estimates of the profitability of Pyramid are unknown. In addition, capital buildings of the Soviet era were not in demand in the 21st century.

The pyramid is located 120 km north of Longyearbyen, Norway, and was the world's northernmost coal mine. The prefix “the northernmost” here can be substituted for everything: “the northernmost monument to Lenin” or “the northernmost swimming pool in the world” and so on, whatever your imagination allows. In 1998, coal mining ended and the village was mothballed. In the 1980s, up to 1000 people lived in the village; when Lebedev visited this place in the 2000s, only a crazy German lived here. Due to the special status of Spitsbergen (any state could conduct economic activity there), the Soviet Union tried to make this village a real showcase of communism; the Norwegians were jealous of how luxuriously a citizen of the USSR lived. It was a real paradise, getting here was considered real luck.

The pyramid is located in a picturesque location at the foot of a mountain, similar in shape to a real pyramid overlooking the Nordenskiöld glacier. During the difficult crisis years of the conservation of the village, when no one remained in the Pyramid for the winter, vandals ruled here. The Norwegians came on snowmobiles and took away everything that could be taken away. For example, in the Kroa bar in Longyearbyen there is a bust of Lenin, it is just from the Pyramid. The city could have become another ghost town, like Pripyat in Ukraine, but we came to our senses in time and are now trying to breathe new life into the city through tourism.

And now a little history.
There is constant debate about who was the first to discover this polar archipelago. The Pomors of Spitsbergen have been known as "Grumant" since the 15th century; at the entrance to the harbors, the Russians left wooden crosses with the names of those who erected them. The Pomors left traces of settlements, there is no doubt - they were the first to engage in fishing on the distant island of Spitsbergen. Radiocarbon dating of the objects shows that they are much earlier in time than the Viking journeys to these lands. The Norwegians, of course, claim the opposite. Allegedly, the Pomors arrived much later and brought with them old utensils and used centuries-old logs in the construction of houses, so radiocarbon analysis does not count :) Ours claim that the Vikings only sailed to Bear Island, which they called “Svalbard,” i.e. cold earth in Norwegian. The question is quite political.

Officially, the island was discovered by the Dutch navigator Barents, who was looking for the shortest route from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The discovery of new islands led to whaling companies settling here, and the bowhead whale produced 1.5 tons of baleen and 30 tons of blubber!

The British and Danes were the first to declare their territorial claims to this land. Unlike Western Europeans, our people felt great on Spitsbergen, built camps and spent the winter in harsh conditions. Norwegians actively began to appear at the end of the 19th century, the land was officially recognized as “no man's land” just at this time. The issue of the legal status of the islands was supposed to be resolved in 1914 between Russia, Norway and Sweden, but due to the First World War the issue was returned to only in 1920. The Soviet Union was not invited to the Paris Conference, but the possibility of Russian rights to use natural and other resources before the USSR joined the treaty. The treaty itself recognized sovereignty over the islands for Norway, but the Norwegians pledged not to build military bases and fortifications on the islands, and now the most interesting thing: “citizens of all countries that signed the treaty, along with the Norwegians, have the right of free access to the archipelago for shipping, industrial, and commercial activities.” and commercial transactions on conditions of complete equality.

In other words, the islands actually belong to Norway, but any company or any citizen can live on the island and use its resources. A unique situation!

Ours in 1924, we joined the agreement, bought the land plots managed by the Arktikugol company, its task was simple - to provide the northern part of Russia with coal. Until 1941, two mines operated - in Barentsburg and Grumant, and a third village - Pyramid - was built. Every day the ships departed for Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. During the war, all workers were evacuated to the north of England, and after the war, in 1946, the first miners and builders arrived, restored two villages in 3 years and completed the Pyramid in 1956.

My first story will be about him.

And it all started with this issue of the Russian Reporter; in 2009, I read the article “The Archipelago NO WAY” about this place and got excited. I knew I'd get here. Necessarily

The most important thing is to be lucky with the weather, then 3 hours of sailing will seem like a pleasant walk. In total, two ships carry it to the Pyramid in the summer.

Northern nature is gorgeous, of course

Approaching the Pyramid

Buildings, view from the water

We are greeted by the bus and the tour guide Sasha from St. Petersburg, a colorful character with a “moose” gun. You can’t go without a gun; polar bears are extremely dangerous animals. Interestingly, the killing of a polar bear is investigated by the police; shooting can only be done in self-defense, which still needs to be proven. The role of the police is performed by the governor from Norway or, as he is called here, the Susselman. The punishments and fines here are severe, they say that in times of famine, our people killed deer, and they were with chips, and the Norgs (that’s what the Norwegians are called) immediately flew in by helicopter and tied everyone up. The fines are scary!

Let's take a walk around the village

Today, several people spend the winter on the Pyramid and receive guests at the hotel. Surprisingly, on polar nights in winter there are more guests at the hotel. Traveling by snowmobile from Norwegian Longyearbyen through the archipelago is now very popular. Pyramid is a good transit and overnight point for travelers. In the summer, the staff returns, about 10 people, plus this year Tajiks arrived who are engaged in cutting and recycling scrap metal. Most of “ours” are Ukrainians; the salary in Svalbard will not greatly impress the average Russian.

Near the pier there is a magnificent view of the glacier

At one time they opened a farm here, the experiment was so successful that they exported meat and milk to Longyearbyen.

We went to the Palace of Culture, which is in a dilapidated state

Reminded me a bit of Pripyat

Dried plants in pots in the dining room

Mosaic there

Monument to the first lily of the valley that bloomed on the Pyramid

Soviet ghost town Pyramid on the island of Spitsbergen

And here is the northernmost grandfather Lenin, looking at the glacier

Elena Aleksandrovna from Donetsk treats you to candy and bakes buns for 3 euros, cheerfully speaks Russian and accepts any currency. Except for rubles, of course :)

Perhaps the most expensive sugar buns in the world :) But take two! Delicious!!! After a warm conversation, we return to the ship.

Tajiks are at work, they recently hired these guys because they can pay less. I work more, don’t drink.

There is a bar on the ship that serves waffles. After the Pyramid, lunch begins.

What else should I add? Norgs are cunning, almost all the land on Spitsbergen has been declared nature reserves, you can’t dig into them, it is forbidden to conduct economic activities in the reserves. They infringe on our people in the sky too, the contract doesn’t say a word about the sky, they allow us to fly only for work reasons, every flight is literally begged for. This greatly hinders the development of villages, because with the Mi-8 it would be possible to quickly transport tourists from the airport to the Pyramid, but the Norwegians don’t want competition and don’t want us to stay here for a long time. I was told how the locals put obstacles in the way of those who decided to open their own business here, for example, the Italian who built a museum with his enthusiasm, they did not help at all, although it was a useful business. But no, if I were Norwegian, otherwise...

I’ll post more glaciers in the next post so as not to overload this post.