Between the mainland and the island of Kildin. Kildin Island. Stories from the Kilda people. Where is it? What is it

Kildin Island is what remained after the departure of man. Let me remind you that in Soviet times, several military units were located on the island - border guards, air defense, artillerymen and missilemen. Now all these parts are closed, their territory is overgrown with moss and grass, from which the skeletons of houses and equipment rise.

Village of Verkhniy Kildin. The beginning of the settlement of the "upper" Kildin in the western part of the island can be considered the First World War, when in 1914-1916. the first observation posts were created on the Kola Peninsula. Until 1935, all residents of Upper Kildin were represented only by the staff of the Kildin West post and lighthouses. At the end of 1935, construction began on the coastal battery, which consisted of two MB-2-180 towers. Battery staff: 191 people. On the basis of the battery, the 2nd separate artillery division was formed, which formed the basis of the island's infrastructure, as well as the main population of Upper Kildin for the next 15 years. Before the start of the war, the newly formed 6th separate anti-aircraft artillery division was transferred to the island. The main houses at that time were dugouts for personnel. In 1955, the oad was disbanded, but in the same year the construction of the coastal missile complex and the creation of the 616 Separate Coastal Missile Regiment began. To protect the infrastructure of the island and the approaches to the Kola Peninsula, an air defense battalion was deployed on the Western Kildin. The presence of the Separate Coastal Missile Regiment on the island is the heyday of West Kildin. In 1995 the regiment was withdrawn from Kildin ... At the moment Verkhniy Kildin is completely abandoned.

The remains of abandoned equipment are scattered everywhere - various tracked vehicles, trucks, trailers

Boiler room equipment and range finder of artillery tower battery

The village of lower Kildin. The first settlement on West Kildin can be attributed to the end of the 16th century. It was then that Van Linshoten, a member of the Barents expedition, drew up a map of Kildin Island and depicted a camp in the west. In the 30s of the twentieth century. active construction of military facilities on the island began. The western coast of the island, which rises to a height of almost 300 meters above the Barents Sea and covers the entrance to the Kola Bay, is of particular importance. The newly formed settlement in the west was first called New Kildin. But with the appearance of buildings on the plateau, the villages in the west were divided and on some maps Nizhny Kildin and Upper Kildin appeared.

In the pre-war period, roads, barracks to accommodate builders and military personnel, warehouses, a rock shelter were built, the pier was strengthened. In 1938, construction began on a rock shelter directly opposite the pier.

The arrival of a separate coastal missile regiment to the island of 616 can be considered the real heyday of Nizhniy Kildin. For the delivery of equipment and weapons, the pier was rebuilt, and facilities of the regiment's support services and residential buildings were built near the pier. Small rocket ships could approach the berth to unload / load missiles.

The settlement of Nizhniy Kildin "died" after the 616th separate coastal missile regiment was withdrawn from the island.

This page, which is still very far from being completed, contains the memories of the Kildin residents and guests of the island (in alphabetical order). Send your impressions about the island, stories, stories about life, everyday life, service ... There is enough space for everyone !!!

AKSENTIEV SERGEY... Kildin Zapadny, 616 brigade, head of the propulsion engine department, deputy. to-ra of those. batteries, 1964-1970
Sergey Terentyevich Aksentyev has been writing about the island with love for a long time. In addition, there are so many memories that a separate page is devoted to the work of Sergei Aksentyev: it would be very crowded here for his books and stories. The books of the Kildin writer are published in such small editions that it is almost impossible to find them. Site visitors have a unique opportunity to get acquainted with some of the works from the author's Kildin cycle - the book "Hopes and Anxieties", stories and essays "Kildin Hermits", "Such a strange war", "Island and Ships", poems about Kildin - on the page of this section "S. T. Aksentyev". Other works, and the author writes on naval and historical themes, can be found on the personal page of Sergei Aksentyev on the site of the Victor Konetsky Foundation.

BERKIS ARMANDS. Kildin Zapadny, military unit 90555, radiotelegraph operator.
Armands promises to find time for a more detailed presentation of the peculiarities of service in a multinational collective on the island of Kildin ... Armands is the author of the largest Kildin photo gallery: more than 40 photos, the link to which can be found on the page "Maps, photos" /.../ Part 3 " .Brief memories of Armands about Kildin:

"For a year and a half, I learned all the harsh beauty of northern nature and, probably, that's why I still like the north more than warm countries. Sometimes, when I went to the northern coast to admire the sea, I wondered what makes people live in such places, and I thought to myself that someday I would definitely return to Kildin ...
In part, the bathhouse was one of the most important buildings. The wooden extension to the bathhouse was rebuilt every summer, as there was always a shortage of firewood: at the end of winter, the bathhouse was heated by an extension, first a bathhouse, and then a barracks ...
... In September 1985 there was such a strong hurricane that the roofs of the barracks and the pigsty were blown away. They said that the wind even carried away two pigs! It is not known what actually happened to the pigs, but the pigsty was left empty after that ... "

VOLOSCHUK TATIANA AND VLADIMIR... Vladimir Voloshchuk, Kildin West, military unit 81389, 1972-1979.
We are patiently awaiting Vladimir's memories of the service on the island, and his wife Tatyana, a beautiful woman and mother of three children (the middle one, Kostya, was born on Kildino), wrote her memoirs about seven years of life on the island ...

We came to Kildin in the direction in 1972, immediately after graduating from the SVVMIU school (Holland Bay), Sevastopol. Together with us, Anatoly Chentsov received a referral there, he also came with his young wife. We got to Kildin by motor ship "Vologda". This is a former timber truck. 2nd class cabin, metal bunks in two tiers separated by screens. Impressed great. But I was even more impressed by the disembarkation of passengers in the road, opposite Kildin. The Dora, a large motor boat, with two people on board, a coastal sailor and the head of the dora, the red-headed Vasya, approached the ship. "Dora" pressed against the side of the ship, a ladder was lowered onto it and waited for a calm interval until there was a wave. Passengers supported on the ship by a passenger assistant, not very sober ... (continued \u003e\u003e\u003e)

GERASIMOV ALEXEY... Kildin Vostochny, RTP "Romashka", the department of hydroacoustics, 1984-1986.
Alexey is one of the first visitors to the site who provided and is providing moral support to the author and helps in the design of the site. Alexey's Kildinsky photo archive can be found at the link on the page "Maps, photos" /.../ Part 1. Alexey Gerasimov wrote several short memoirs. Here is an excerpt from one story:

“It was at the beginning of the winter of 1985. The acoustics had a watch open since autumn. My turn to go to the night. I left at about half past four. The night was gorgeous. Absolute calm, which is rare for Kildin and quite cold, that also did not happen often.
The aurora borealis blazed from horizon to horizon so that if you look at it for a long time, your head will spin. The silence is complete. At that time, the sea was in full swing. Then capelin was great. There were two or three floating bases abeam, and RT, MRI, BMRT, etc. were scurrying around them. The number of fishermen was incredible. Looking at the sea from our top, one would think that you were looking at a large night city, flooded with lights! It was about one and a half kilometers from the team to the post to go. I go and enjoy all this beauty. And then something happened. On the right, out of the darkness, it seemed to me very slowly, on a low-level flight ... a ghost flew right at me ... "(continued \u003e\u003e\u003e)

KOLENCHUK DMITRY. Radio expedition to Kildin Island 1993-2004.

KOMAROV BORIS.Kildin Vostochny, 1978-1983: Deputy commander of a technical battery for political affairs (1978-1981), Deputy commander of the 6th ZRDn for political affairs (1981-1983).

"It was in the year 1981-82.
I, then a senior lieutenant, and this rank, who remembers, is the first in a large and successful (as anyone's) career as an officer, and a political officer of the division. That is, such a wild and very self-confident (in something even very) comrade. The road ahead was clear and open. And if it seemed to me to become a marshal all the same difficult, then the general on my forehead when shaving in the morning was very specific. Like any combat officer, I had enough work to do. It didn’t upset, but quite the opposite.
But there was one trick in my service. Who served in those years will understand. Her name is VISUAL AGITATION. And now, when I have become an adult, gray-haired and somewhere even a grandfather, these two words plunge me into a sad rage, and words are asking for words for which ... "(continued \u003e\u003e\u003e)

MASLOVSKY OLEG... Kildin Vostochny, military unit 70148, Technical battery No. 1, 1965-1968.
Oleg Vasilievich did military service on Kildin in the distant 60s and was one of the last soldiers of the Soviet Army who served for 3 years. Oleg Vasilyevich's photo archive, posted on the forum "Kildin Island", under the topic "Eastern Kildin 60s", contains more than 100 (!) Rare photographs of the 60s. Oleg Maslovsky's stories about his service on the island, everyday life and friendship will not leave anyone indifferent.

"... On the first night, standing at the post, I heard quiet voices from the side of the sea. Imagine: a dark night, on one side the tundra, on the other the sea, you are alone, and suddenly there were voices. I remember there was no fear, because I still have a weapon in my hands, one interest. ”I approached the line of a smooth cut to the water and saw two moving silhouettes against the background of the water, which, rustling with pebbles, walked along the coast, talking quietly. When the distance was reduced, I realized that they were border guards, They paid absolutely no attention to me, but I heard a snippet of the phrase that "now to the American and back."
So suddenly I became the owner of a terrible state secret ...... "

SELIN VLADIMIR. In 1956-1966 he served on the submarine of the Northern Fleet in different bases. During his service in the North, he repeatedly bypassed Fr. Kildin, both from the north and from the south through Kuvshinskaya salma, many times stood at anchor in the Mogilny roadstead ...
Vladimir Terentyevich has his own website "Soviet Submariner", where you can familiarize yourself with the author's biography in more detail, view materials about the submariners of the Northern Fleet.
Vladimir Selin wrote a short story about his visit to Kildin Island, which is offered to your attention.

"One day in the summer of 1957, I was sent to provide (as a navigator) torpedo firing of submarines of the 161st brigade of the Northern Fleet on a torpedo. The torpedo commander, Lieutenant" X "was on vacation. The torpedo commander was a warrant officer-extra-conscript. The TL team is small, 5-6 people. The navigational weapons are generally antediluvian, even at that time, and besides, they were also neglected. But the speed ... "(continued \u003e\u003e\u003e)

KHARIN IVAN. Kildin Island, 1982-1986. Senior Operative Officer of the Special Department of the KGB of the USSR - "Chairman of the KGB of the Kildin Island", all divisions of the glorious Kildin Island were in the operational department!
Kildin's photographs of Ivan can be found at the link on the page "Maps, photos /.../ Part 4".

In his short story "From the Life of an Opera", Ivan tells about only one episode of the unpredictable service of a KGB officer. How many more such episodes are hidden under the veil of secrecy and not subject to disclosure? I hopefully put "to be continued" at the end of the story and give the floor to the author ...

Kildin Island - this is also a part of my life ... After the nuclear-powered ships I was transferred to this "Devil's Stone" - a place even more exotic than Gremikha. This island, which became widely notorious only after the sinking of the K-159 submarine, used to be a strictly restricted area, it was not mentioned anywhere. Now only lighthouses and empty eye sockets of houses remain there, and earlier it was inhabited by cheerful people!
The whole island was in my operational service, and these were coastal missile and artillery troops, and missile bases, and naval aviation, and observation and communication posts, and much more ...
Kildin Island is replete with many anomalies, sights and mysteries. And the landscapes there are simply amazing, but words cannot describe them - you need to see! ...
The service on the island was also unique, since at the same time it was necessary to be both an opera and a priest (in the sense of a priest), to whom people came to confess, and a psychiatrist, relieving stress and depression, especially on a difficult polar night. My service was going well, the inspectors from the fleet were pleased. They planned to transfer to Severomorsk for an increase, since two years were running out, i.e. maximum service life on this island for operatives. But an opportunity happened ...
One of the spring days, she brought me the saddest news on my tail ... (continued \u003e\u003e\u003e)

DEAR KILDINS AND KILDINOCHKI!
ON THE SITE "KILDIN ISLAND" WILL FIND A PLACE FOR REMEMBRANCES OF EVERYONE WHO HAS BEEN ROADED KILDIN!

YOU CAN ALSO FIND LOTS OF INTERESTING STORIES ABOUT KILDIN AND ITS INHABITANTS

Kildin Island.

Kildin Island, located off the Murmansk coast, a few miles east of the exit from the Kola Bay, has interested me all my life. I have been here many times, working on the Western and Eastern passenger lines, which for many years served the ships of the Murmansk Shipping Company. At all times of my work, I bit by bit collected all kinds of information about this amazing island, which covered the entrance to the Kola Bay, both in peacetime and in wartime. It is not for nothing that the second name of this island has become popular among the people - the unsinkable aircraft carrier of the Kola Bay. In general, I conducted my long-term investigation of the history of this island and the Kildinskaya Salma Strait, along which we very often passed, following in an easterly direction. What came of this is for my readers to judge. After all, Kildin Island is also a part of my life.

This is the largest of the islands lying off the Murmansk coast! The length of the island is 17.6 km, width is up to 7 km. The surface is a hilly plateau, up to 281 m high, composed of sandstones and shales, abruptly ending in the north and west and descending in wide terraces to the south and east. Tundra vegetation. There are three settlements on the island - East Kildin, West Kildin and Upper Kildin. On the island there is a unique lake Mogilnoe, in which both marine and freshwater organisms live.

The island is a mystery! Everything is unusual in this island: name, geology, landscapes, lakes, history of development, inhabitants ...! It is not known, however, the meaning of the word - Kildin. Some researchers believe that it is untranslatable, others, which roughly corresponds to the Dutch "kilted" - "forbid" and, therefore, the name of the island can be interpreted as "Forbidden Place". But all this is just guesswork.

Kildin Island is replete with many anomalies, sights and mysteries. And the landscapes there are simply amazing. It is located near the mouth of the Kola Bay at the exit to the Barents Sea. The island has a special geological structure and landscapes, different from the mainland coast, similar to Novaya Zemlya. Nothing grows here, and there are no living creatures except fish and seagulls. In terms of its landscape, the island is a stratal elevated tundra plain. Trees do not grow here, and even man-planted trees do not take root. Only stones, hills overgrown with moss, and dwarf birches. Hurricane winds attack the coast from the Arctic Ocean.

Evidence of the anomalousness of Kildin is that even the auroras are the brightest above it and, surprisingly, surround it along the perimeter, at a time when the aurora is often not visible at all to the sides. I personally observed this many times, since at least once or twice a month I had to see Kildin from the outside during my visits to the Mainland in the village of Granitny to the leadership of the Special Department and back.

The island has long wet winters and damp cold summers. In the short polar summer, even on the "hottest" days, the temperature barely reaches fifteen degrees. Even when the sky is cloudless over the sea, you can always see a thick "cap" of clouds over the island.

The island differs sharply from the mainland in its geological structure. The island is mountainous; the slopes of the mountains are gentle, in places covered with mosses and grass. The western and northern shores of the island are high and steep. The height of the northern coast is constantly decreasing from west to east. In the northeastern part of the island there is a deep canyon through which a stream flows. In several places in the north and south of the island, there are small waterfalls on the steep slopes. In the southeastern part of Kildin Island there is a convenient bay for anchorage of small ships - Mogilnaya Bay, known since the 16th century. The bay was first mapped by the Barents expedition in 1594. In the XVII-XVIII centuries. Here were the crafts of the Solovetsky Monastery.

To the east of the bay is Lake Mogilnoe, a relict lake formed about 2000 years ago. A natural mystery is Lake Mogilnoe, located in the southeastern part of the island. It is small in size: 560 meters long and no more than 280 meters wide. The lake is separated from the strait by a narrow strip of land. On bright summer evenings, the lake is unforgettably beautiful - pinkish clouds are reflected in the dark blue pool of stagnant water, framed by low banks overgrown with lush grass. The Mogilnaya Bay of the Kildin Island on the southeastern tip of the island became famous in the Middle Ages, when the ships of seafarers who were looking for a northern route to China and India defended here. This is how the Map of Mogilnaya Bay and the environs of Jan Van Linschoten (1601) has been preserved. Shown lake Mogilnoe (with birds). The Kildin Vostochny frontier post is now located on the site of the Lapp settlement.

Lake Mogilnoye is the most unique one on the island of Kildin, it is a relict lake with the name “Mogilnoye” that chills the soul, it is also called five-storied. At a shallow depth of the lake, about seventeen meters, there are five different layers of water that do not mix. According to this structure of the lake, that is, also, as it were, floor by floor, the underwater world of flora and fauna is distributed here. The layer located at the very bottom is saturated with hydrogen sulfide and is practically not inhabited. Above it is the most beautiful layer. In July-August, its water is colored cherry. It owes such an unusual color to the purple bacteria that live here, which "bloom" at this time of the year. The bacteria serve as a kind of shield, blocking the path upward of hydrogen sulfide rising from the bottom. The third layer is like a fragment of the Barents Sea. Even the salinity of the water in it is the same as in the sea. It is home to cod, sea bass, seaweed and starfish. However, in Mogilnoye they are several times smaller than their counterparts in the Barents Sea. The fourth layer is sea brine diluted with fresh water. Here is the kingdom of jellyfish and some crustaceans. At the surface there is a 4-5-meter layer of excellent fresh water. An unusual marine aquarium with a depth of a little more than 16 meters, has no partitions, and yet its inhabitants do not violate invisible boundaries and never migrate from one layer to another. How was the lake formed, how has such a layered balance been maintained in it for centuries? - a riddle over which more than one generation of scientists around the world is struggling. The lake is unique and, as I wrote above, consists of several layers: the top is fresh, the bottom is all killing hydrogen sulphide, and in the middle part there is salt water with marine fauna !!! The lake is inhabited by the rarest endemic species - the Kildin cod, which is listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation, and the lake itself is a federal natural monument. This section of the island, bay, cape and lake are called Mogilnye. Scientists still cannot solve the mystery of the miracle lake of the Kildin Island.

The October Revolution of 1917 took place in Murman quickly and bloodlessly. Already on October 26, 1917, at a meeting of the heads of organizations in Murmansk, a decision was made to support all decisions of the II All-Russian Congress of Soviets. And the chief chief of the Murmansk fortified area and the detachment of ships of the Kola Bay, Rear Admiral K.F. Ketlinsky, telegraphed to Petersburg that, with all the persons and institutions subordinate to him, he fully recognizes the power established by the All-Russian Congress of Workers 'and Soldiers' Deputies. As in all the encampments of Murman, an executive committee was organized on Kildin, which took over the life of the islanders.

But soon a civil war began and the military intervention of the White Guard that followed. Already in March 1918, Anglo-French, and a little later American troops landed in Murmansk. The next two years were difficult years. Endless uprisings, strikes, arrests and executions made the life of an ordinary person dangerous, hungry and unpredictable. By the time the invaders left in August 1920, Murmansk, as its surviving inhabitants bitterly joked, represented "a city is not a city, a village is not a village." Life was no easier for the islanders at that time, however, unlike Murmansk residents, life there, although difficult, but quite peaceful. In March 1919, the head of the 1st stage Kildinsky school, teacher Dmitry Andreevich Kozyrev, reported to the Alexandrovsky district council that classes were going on as usual, “... on the island there are 20 school-age children, 130 people. The number of students of both sexes is 12 (boys - 4, girls - 8). Students are divided into two groups, as some can read and write a little, although they do not meet the requirements for admission to the secondary department. The school gives 28-29 lessons per week. " Among the students were also the grandchildren of the Norwegian pioneers (Eriksen Alvilda Karlovna, Eriksen Alfred Albertovich, Eriksen Eysten Yalmarovich and Mikueva (Eriksen) Karolina Ivanovna).

In the XIX century. there was a project for the construction of a "metropolis" on Kildin, but in the end, only a young pair of Norwegians, the Eriksen, moved to Kildin. Three generations of the Eriksen family lived on the island for about 60 years ... At the beginning of the 20th century, the regional authorities invested considerable sums in the island's infrastructure. At the same time, the Social Democrats settled on the island disguised as fishermen and organized a warehouse and a staging post for the illegal shipment of literature from Norway to Arkhangelsk. In the early years of Soviet power, there were very ambitious plans for the development of the island. In a short time, a fishing artel, an iodine plant, a polar fox fur farm were formed on the island ... By the beginning of the war, the civilian population was resettled to different districts of the Murmansk region. Many members of the Eriksen family were repressed ...

After the establishment of Soviet power in the Arctic, collectivization began. The Smychka fish farm was created on Kildino, which soon became one of the exemplary ones on the entire Murmansk coast. But the quiet life of the colonists did not last long. Already at the end of the 30s, all of them had to urgently leave the island that had become native ...

Then the military era of Kildin began, which lasted until the early 90s of the last century: observation and communication posts, the first in the USSR naval battery MB-2-180, air defense, first anti-aircraft guns, later missile systems, a coastal missile regiment, a frontier post and the necessary infrastructure to ensure all of the above ...

Today, there are practically no inhabitants on Kildin, as in the First World War. From military facilities - observation and communication posts ... But I still believe that someday the exhausted, forgotten and abandoned island will revive its former power!

The fauna of the island is represented by many species of birds, including those listed in the Red Book, and these are not only seagulls, but also birds of prey (buzzards, snowy owls). Of the rare plants, one can distinguish pink radiola - "golden root". This is general information about Kildin Island.

But my interest in Kildin lies in his connection with the GULAG. On Kildin I was struck first of all by the lower stone road on which I once walked in 1968. What is this road? I have been looking for an answer for a long time. I read the memoirs of the military, searched on the Internet ... Below, I want to report on some points connecting this unsinkable Russian aircraft carrier with the GULAG, namely, to show how the construction of an excellent stone road was started, which was supposed to connect two points - Kildin West and Kildin Vostochny, but they built only one "Golden kilometer" named after Konstantin Rokossovsky ...

This road is laid along the southern coast of Kildin Island, connecting the eastern and western parts of the island. The name "road of life" was stuck behind the road. A section of the road 1 km long from the Chernaya river towards the East Kildin is paved with smooth cobblestones, and the section is in the middle of the road. Some even compare it to Red Square ... But to lay out even a few tens of meters of road on the island with even stones is a hellish inhuman labor! This section of the "Kildinsky Autobahn" was named "Golden Kilometer" or "Rokossovsky Road" !!! It is strange that the "golden" kilometer begins with nothing and ends with nothing.

I saw a similar stretch of ideal cobblestone road again - in 1987. It is located on the right bank of the Yokanga River. Then, working as a captain on the ship "Alla Tarasova", I went with the crew on a boat to the mouth of the river for mushrooms. There I saw this road, which was very similar to the "golden kilometer of Rokossovsky". They said that this road was built during the war by captured Germans ... And this road led to the tundra, - from the pier to the military airfield.

The road on Kildin Island was built according to all the rules: a slight slope to the edges of the road, ditches on both sides, footpaths strewn with broken slate. After the "golden kilometer" the road is made of large slate stones, sprinkled with small bits of slate chips. Who built this road and when? And how did the name of the great Victory Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky become associated with the Kildin road?

And just recently, on the Internet, I found the following information: "Rokossovsky was sentenced to 10 years in the Gulag and sent to a camp in Norilsk" ??? So where did he actually serve his "sentence?" In Norilsk? Isn't it on Kildin?

I learned about the existence of the Kildin camp during a visit to the island in 1993. It is known that any historical event over time becomes overgrown with bearded rumors and legends. So the locals told me that there were two camps on Kildin: male and female. The men's camp consisted mainly of convicted generals ... I had heard about the construction of military installations on Kildin in the pre-war years with the participation of prisoners, and I myself guessed about it. I heard that the prisoners were building a battery, roads, an airfield ... and other military facilities. The idea of \u200b\u200bcreating a camp on Kildin arose back in the 20s.

In 1926, the Chubarovites' case - the case of the gang rape of a girl - was widely publicized. The trial of the "Chubarovites" in December 1926 became a show trial. Before that, a wide campaign was launched in the press, newspapers published frank testimonies of the detainees ... Collective letters were immediately printed to the editor: "Hooligans - with a hot iron!", "Only capital punishment can be for these criminals, bandits!", "Severe by measures we will tear out the nest of hooligan animals from our Red Leningrad! " The concept of hooliganism began to be interpreted in an expanded manner, now almost all committed crimes were attributed to it. The city authorities seemed to wake up from hibernation and also spoke in favor of the death penalty for especially vicious hooligans, and in general, there is no place for punks in Leningrad! " At a meeting of the executive committee head. the administrative department, comrade Yegorov indicated that the hooligans should be expelled. There was a project to refer them to the uninhabited island of Kildin, - wrote "Krasnaya Gazeta". But a few days later a letter came from an uninhabited island, where a resident of the island Kildin Kustov wrote: “The island is the center of fishing for the population of the Murmansk coast. There is also a permanent population - about 100 people. The island is a reserve of white and blue foxes, with unique natural conditions. People there live only with hope for the future, because we don't have the present, we don't need your hooligans on Kildin either! "

Twenty-seven defendants, aged 17 to 25, were brought to trial in December. Seven were sentenced to death, the rest were sentenced to different terms of imprisonment in the Solovetsky special purpose camp (SLON), two of the defendants were acquitted ... But, thank God, the Chubarovites never made it to Kildin Island.

The western end of the road has a clearly laid out border, it can be assumed that this is the beginning of construction. This place is located just a few meters from the Chernaya river, and the road ends not far from the old water pumping station. Thus, the first version that came to mind was the construction of a road to supply water to East Kildin. According to local residents (1993), the head of the camp wanted to distinguish himself by building an exemplary facility on Kildin, but for some reason he could not finish what he had begun ... Another version: the road had to go to the camp. But where was the camp? Not finding an opportunity to go to the archives of the NKVD-MVD, the search for the Kildin camp was continued by me in the military archives ... On one of the detailed maps of the island in 1941, all the buildings on Kildin were marked. During the war, the card was marked "TOP SECRET". The map shows everything, even the smallest buildings. Of the isolated buildings on East Kildin, only stoves for burning iodine along the coast, several separate huts in the northeast and 3 barracks near the Chernaya river, in the eastern part of the island, can be distinguished. Is it possible that these 3 barracks were the Kildin camp ...? In favor of the eastern version of the location of the camp, legends are also transmitted by the Kildin people from mouth to mouth. It is strange that the "golden" kilometer begins with nothing and ends with nothing.

In the cemetery in the eastern part of the island, there were many graves, which in appearance can be attributed to the burials of the camp prisoners: no stars, no crosses, dates of death 1939-1953, dates of birth 1900-1910 (approximately). The surnames were both male and female. It is known that in those years there were literally a few civilians on the island.

And yet I managed to find traces of the camp. In the Central Naval Archives (TsVMA) in the documents of the 2nd Separate Artillery Division (2nd ode) there is the following information: “2 OAD of the Murmansk Stronghold (MUR) SF was created on the basis of the 10th MUR battery on Kildin Island. Construction began in late 1935. Intensive construction of military facilities began on the island. It was mainly built by the prisoners of the Kildinsky camp of the 10th branch of the Belbaltlag. The history of this construction is still covered with a dense veil of secrecy. The main construction work was carried out by the Office of the Chief of Works No. 97 and 115 of the construction battalion. "

So, Chief of Work's Office # 97 is the typical official camp name! "In the spring of 1940, a 122-mm battery No. 191 on mechanical traction was formed, the place is East Kildin ... By this time, the construction of a dirt road for this battery along the southern coast of the island began." In May 1941, construction began on a concrete checkpoint (2 oad - DK). At the beginning of the war, the forced construction of a 130-mm open battery No. 827 began in the east of Kildin Island. They built at an accelerated rate l / s batteries and the construction of No.-97. It can also be assumed that the airfield on Kildin in 1942 was built by the forces of the Office of the Chief of Construction No. 97.

My assumptions that the Office of the Chief of Works No. 97 is the "Kildin camp" dispersed after one meeting with the veterans of the 97th construction - this was a division of the Engineering Service of the Federation Council. The Kilda veterans remembered well the "prisoner builders" who built the road: "... it seemed that they were all black: black clothes, black beards, black faces and eyes. They eagerly caught a glance of every person passing by, who, perhaps, reminded them of the distant life that they had before the camp ... "

I want to say a little about the village of Verkhniy Kildin. The beginning of the settlement of the "upper" Kildin in the western part of the island can be considered the First World War, when in 1914-1916. the first observation posts were created on the Kola Peninsula. Until 1935, all residents of Upper Kildin were represented only by the staff of the Kildin West post and lighthouses. At the end of 1935, construction began on the coastal battery, which consisted of two MB-2-180 towers. Battery staff: 191 people. On the basis of the battery, the 2nd separate artillery division was formed, which formed the basis of the infrastructure of the island, as well as the main population of Upper Kildin for the next 15 years. Before the start of the war, the newly formed 6th separate anti-aircraft artillery division was transferred to the island. The main houses at that time were dugouts for personnel. In 1955, the oad was disbanded, but in the same year the construction of the coastal missile complex and the creation of the 616 Separate Coastal Missile Regiment began. To protect the infrastructure of the island and the approaches to the Kola Peninsula, an air defense battalion was deployed on the Western Kildin. The presence of the Separate Coastal Missile Regiment on the island is the heyday of West Kildin. In 1995, the regiment was withdrawn from Kildin ... At the moment, Upper Kildin is completely abandoned.

I have been to Kildin many times, since during the Soviet times the passenger ships on which I worked visited the Western and Eastern Kildin regularly. Over time, somewhere in the mid-seventies, the call to East Kildin was canceled. And on West Kildin the MMP ships entered until the beginning of the nineties. Here, sometimes, the captain allowed some crew members to disembark to collect cloudberries, lingonberries, or pick mushrooms. I also remember those times when we moored to the pier. But mooring was possible only in full water and in good weather. Only V.I. Igaun was moored to this berth. on the "grandfather of the passenger fleet" - the steamer "Ilya Repin".

We moored to this pier only once in 1968 on my watch. It was necessary to urgently land the sick soldier ashore. In order not to wait for the boat, Captain V. Igaun, taking into account that the high tide had already come, moored the steamer "Ilya Repin" to this berth. The soldier was saved ...

I would like to cite here one more recollection of my good friend who served on the island: "And if you write about the service on the island, it was also unique. Everything went well for me, the inspectors from the fleet were happy. They planned to transfer me to Severomorsk for a raise, as it was two years, that is, the maximum service life on this island for operatives. But an opportunity happened ...

One of the spring days, the forty on the tail brought me the most disgusting news that the newly appointed head of the warehouses of artillery weapons, when accepting the emergency reserve warehouse ("NZ") with ammunition, by the piece counting of weapons and ammunition, which were stored there unmeasured (he poorly counted two weeks , as he was outrageously meticulous) discovered a shortage of 2 pistols "PM" ("Makarov pistol"). According to the canons existing at that time, such information belonged to the category of "special importance", was immediately reported to the higher management and taken under tight control (at that time there were already attempts on the life of both astronauts and Brezhnev). The authorities were afraid of terror even then.

Immediately after reporting to the management about the information received, a sea of \u200b\u200bbosses and inspectors flocked to my island. Some are really to provide help, who hoped to quickly reveal everything (where the weapons from the island, they say, will go) and earn medals, and who, to put me in the appropriate position (frames). In short, they began to "muck" me from all sides: our own, the prosecutor, the political department, representatives of the naval department, whose weapons were stolen by secret enemies. Many people know how supervising supervisors help us. And God forbid to be those whom they help. And the car spun ...

We started, as always, with the act of the last inspection of the NZ warehouse. Fortunately, the period was short - a couple of months. They searched everything: the guards, who visited the warehouses, sorted out all the "misunderstandings" such as records when handing over the guards about fuzzy seals, etc. Everything was under control: behavior, conversations, in general everything, everything. The mouse will not slip by unnoticed without our control. Everyone was under suspicion, some were already ready to confess ...

The curators stayed with me for about a month, which caused significant damage to my, though not modest (at that time) salary, since snacks and drinks were supposed to be from the culprit, that is, from me. But alas ... Neither supervising, nor intensive work, nor even evening summing up at the table and relieving stress - did not bring any results, they did not even trace the kidnappers. The curators realized that there was no way to earn orders and quietly everyone dissolved. At the same time, they made it clear that my promotion was covered, as well as transfer from the island in the near future, and if I don’t find pistols and they seriously surface somewhere, there may be more serious problems.

Having scratched the then still thick hair and honorably noted the departure of the high-ranking commission in the northern way, I rolled up my sleeves and began to look for intruders, already without the excitement that the curators created, but calmly, methodically - as we were taught. Based on the analysis of all the available information (which was really not enough in a month), I drew up a special grid plan, where I described, almost in seconds, the whole process from obtaining weapons from warehouses in Murmansk (and this was 8 years before my arrival to the island), deliver it on a barge to the island, unload it, etc., etc., and so on until the shortage is discovered. I found all the persons involved in all these operations. I was not too lazy to send requests to all the relevant territorial bodies of the KGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs with a request to question in detail everyone who, even in a small fraction, could come into contact with the ill-fated pistols, the NZ warehouse and our Island. I waited a long time for answers, sent reminders. And as in Pushkin's fairy tale "About the Fisherman and the Fish" he cast and cast the net, only not three times, but many, many times. I was looking forward to the answers, and they all brought only disappointment.

More than a year has passed since the discovery of a shortage of weapons. Hope melted ... And suddenly a response from St. Petersburg from the famous "Crosses", where one of the former sailors from the self-propelled Kildinskaya barge was safely steaming on prison bunks for committing some crime. In the course of a survey of this former sailor (maybe even with bias), it turned out that these pistols were stolen even during the delivery of weapons to the Island. And one of the kidnappers was this one who was serving a sentence for a crime (fortunately, without the participation of our "PMs"). The second kidnapper was also identified thanks to the testimony received. And everything turned out very simply. Before the departure of the barge, already loaded with weapons, the sea was stormy. What is not uncommon in these parts. The commander of the barge midshipman, taking advantage of the opportunity provided by nature to stay on the Big Land in Murmansk, quickly found a girlfriend in the city, and while it was storming, he did not waste time with her either. And two "demobels", mostly out of boredom and interest, neatly opened the hold, climbed in there and began to pretend to be Rimbaud, putting on machine guns, machine guns, pistols ... At the same time, they captured everything in photos that were later found in their demob albums. After playing enough and having fun, they decided to take a pistol with them to civilian life, as in the movie "The Diamond Arm" - so "... just in case of fire." In order not to risk, they hid the pistols in the hold, in case if a shortage of pistols was discovered when they were storing them in the NZ warehouse, they would have safely “found” them in the hold. There was no risk. However, the loss of weapons at that time was not noticed, and so she waited in the wings (8 years), until the meticulous chief of art equipment came to the unit. If he had not appeared on the island at that time, perhaps, until now, no one would have known about the missing pistols, and my fate would have turned out differently. Since then, I stopped believing the verification reports signed by many persons. And over 8 years of inspections of the NZ warehouse, more than a dozen of them were filed in the case. And in each, “… weapons and ammunition are fully available. There is no shortage. " Here's a story.
He reported the materials received on the search for weapons upstairs, and there they have long forgotten about this story. A mess was growing in the country, and there was no time for two pistols. Moreover, organizational measures against the “guilty of the loss” of the weapon (ie, me) have long been taken. "

With the beginning of Gorbachev's perestroika, Kildin began to languish in all respects. At this time, various cooperatives began to be created, and people began to put only money and their own profit in the first place. Warriors and soldiers also tried to snatch their own. They began to steal military equipment, weapons and ammunition and turn them into money ... The same thing happened throughout the Soviet Union, including on the Rybachy Peninsula, the Kola Peninsula and on our "unsinkable aircraft carrier".

In October 1989, I worked as a captain on the Kanin motor ship, which was on the Murmansk - Dalnie Zelentsy - Murmansk line with a call to Kildin Island. Also, we also went to the port of Kirkenes (Norway), where our tourists were delivered.

At the next approach to the Western Kildin, on the way to the anchorage, we heard shots from machine guns and other weapons. There was a real war in the area of \u200b\u200bthe pier! At the beginning I did not understand anything and thought that the soldiers were working out some of their next military mission. But soon everyone who was on the bridge and deck began to understand that this was not an exercise, but something more serious ...

The first settlement on the western part of Kildin can be attributed to the end of the 16th century. It was then that Van Lingshoten, a member of the Barents expedition, made a map of the Kildin Island and depicted a camp in the west of the island. Considering the difference between the upper plateau of the island (max. Point 286 m) and the coastal terraces in the west of Kildin, the buildings near the Kildin Strait were called "down". This is how the Lower (Western) Kildin appeared. The arrival of a separate coastal missile regiment (brigade) to the island of 616 can be considered the real years of the heyday of the Lower (Western) Kildin. For the delivery of equipment and weapons, the pier was rebuilt, and facilities of the regiment's support services and residential buildings were built near the pier. Small missile ships (MRK) could approach the berth to unload / load missiles and deliver the necessary cargo.
The village of Nizhniy (Zapadny) Kildin "died" after the 616 brigade was withdrawn from the island in 1995.

And it all started like that. A turning point in the life of the island was the decision to create the Northern Military Flotilla on June 1, 1933, according to the Circular of the Chief of Staff of the Red Army. This date is the birthday of the SF. On April 15, 1933, a Special Purpose Expedition EON-1 was sent to the North from the Baltic Sea via the White Sea-Baltic Canal, consisting of the destroyers Uritsky, Kuibyshev, the Uragan, Smerch, and Dekabrist submarine. "Narodovolets". The expedition arrives safely in Murmansk on August 5. The construction of a naval base in the city of Polyarny begins. In July 1933, a party and government commission headed by J.V. Stalin inspects the sites of the proposed base. The construction of bases and airfields, the creation of coastal defenses and a shipbuilding base began, a naval theater was mastered and equipped.

The strategic location of the island, where in 1933 there were only two Observation and Communication Posts (PNiS) and civilian enterprises, did not go unnoticed. By the way, the NIS post on Western Kildin was created during the First World War. For several years on Kildin, coastal defense batteries, air defense units, machine-gun and tank companies, a half-squadron of MBR-2 amphibious aircraft, an infirmary, an airfield, rear units have been created ... The main construction work on the island is carried out by the 97th Construction Department of the Engineering Service of the Northern Fleet ... In 1935, construction began on a 10 battery consisting of two MB-2-180 towers, which later formed the basis of the 2nd Separate Artillery Division.

Here - in the East and West Kildin, I regularly called on different ships, from 1966 to the mid-90s, when active life on the glorious island-aircraft carrier practically ceased ...

I remember well the Kildin 1970-1980. The soldiers at that time were taught not only military affairs, but also told them the history of this island. During his political studies, the commander told his soldiers not articles from the "Communist of the Armed Forces", but told the story of the development of the island. About how William Barents sailed from Kildin to search for the northern sea route to China. How then he wintered on Novaya Zemlya, and died there. How his comrades, having buried the commander, hardly got back to Kildin, where the local Lapps warmed them up, fed them and helped them get to Kola. How the monks of the Solovetsky Monastery founded the village of Monastyrskoye on the Eastern Cape, and the British plundered the churchyard, burned the buildings and killed the monks. Since then, the cape and the bay began to be called the Grave ...

The commander told many, many interesting things. He considered a model for himself the Norwegian Eriksen, who, not afraid of difficulties, settled at the end of the nineteenth century on this deserted island with a young wife and two small children. At first they huddled in a shack, which he made from driftwood. Over time, he built a solid two-story house on Mogilnoye, acquired livestock, fishing gear and motorboats. Became a wealthy, successful colonist. Raised eleven children on the island. All Moorman called him respectfully "King of Kildin". And these stories of the commander remained in the memory of his subordinates for life ...

And what did Kildin Island become after the military left it? What did they leave to future generations? What is the ecology of Kildin? Here is the answer of one serviceman from East Kildin, when I asked him about the ecology of the island after the start of the withdrawal of military units from the island: “WHAT IS YOUR ECOLOGY? Then, after all, the soldiers did not know such a word (or did not want to know). If some order and cleanliness were still visible on the territory of the garrisons, then they began to shit behind it, dumping military waste wherever possible. After us - the grass will not grow! At that time no one even thought about removing this garbage from the island. To my great shame in front of Kildin, and I was also one of those who did this, without even thinking about the consequences that are shown in modern photographs - essentially the ecological catastrophe of the island. The island is soiled with military debris for the very, very tomatoes, as they say: "Mom, do not spoil!"

With great interest I read a very interesting story about. Kildina. I learned a lot for the first time. Looked at a lot of pictures of the current island. And my attitude towards Kildin began to change dramatically. From pride and admiration for him, to pity and resentment for what the military did to him. And now, with regret, I would like to note. Since the 1930s, the Soviet government decided to make this Pearl of the Barents Sea, a peaceful and beautiful unique island, "an outpost for the defense and defense of the Kola Bay and the Kola Peninsula" from any enemy aggression.

Perhaps this was the only correct decision at the time. They began to arm him, biting into the holy ground. On the island, they installed modern, for those times, long-range guns, bunkers, built an airfield for aircraft, a road. Even some military "sage" drove tanks there, obviously believing that one of the largest tank battles in modern warfare will take place on Kildin.

And so, the island, armed to the teeth, met the war. History gave him a unique chance to prove to everyone that it was not for nothing that an immense amount of money from our poor hungry people was thrown into him. And also, at least somehow justify the hellish, hard labor for extinction, the prisoners of the Kildinsky camp who did not deservedly suffer (I am sure there were no criminals there), and what prisoners were in the 30s, you know without me. And this could happen when, in full view of Kildin, two German warships shot and sank an unarmed merchant ship. Kildin could, with his two or three shots from 180-millimeter guns, forever and proudly enter military history as a true stronghold, stronghold and real defender of the Motherland.

It was here that Kildin had to show all his might, RYAVKNUV with his guns so that there would be no wet place left of the nemchura. To smash them to pieces, having such a formidable weapon. But Kildin was ordered to turn away, and he shyly said nothing. And then throughout the war, for some reason, he kept his secret innocence. True, there was information in the press that he still "ukontrapupil" some submarine. But it may have been Stalinist propaganda. After all, they lied then in everything, without a twinge of conscience, to raise the fighting spirit. And we will trample everyone with boots and hats. And the trouble came, so with a sensitive Stalinist leadership, in six months the Germans came to Moscow, flooding the land with soldiers' blood and mass captures of entire armies. This is our story! But time, apparently, will put everything in its place. Maybe…

After the war, no matter how hard they tried to fill the island more and more with more and more modern weapons, it still remained something like - "like a bogeyman".
And then, at the present time, they did nothing worse to him. All invested funds, the fate and lives of people, everything went to dust. Leaving the island, all military property was thrown, and then, all that was left was ruthlessly plundered and destroyed. What was created here for tens of years, who served here as sailors and soldiers, was subsequently plundered. I believe that the barrel of the 180-millimeter gun that I saw was senselessly cut off by brainless monsters. The sailors who served on these cannons, with great pleasure and without any regret, would have sent him in their asses "for the same tomatoes."

And how much money, as a result of such a criminal mismanagement situation, settled in pants with stripes and at their assistants, one can only guess. Surely, our military red-blazers reported to the higher authorities that the funds allocated for the conservation of military equipment were spent as intended. And for all this mess, during the collapse of the USSR, we must "praise" our first alcoholic president. I slept there and fucked up there. Damn it! (Although it is not customary to speak badly about the dead). I beg your pardon, but my soul has accumulated! He didn’t give a damn about a hundred pounds of drunken snot. And the fact that we still cannot clean up the consequences of his kingdom is his main fault. And the fact that many normal men, such as Viktor Viktorovich Kudelya from Rybach, or Kilda's major, Nikolai Savitsky, suddenly found themselves "abroad" of their homeland, is the main fault of the alcoholic president. And the story with Kildin and all that has happened to him recently is just a tiny speck, against the background of a huge, abandoned, sovereign heap of crap.

And now on the island there is something that may have been and should have been in this peaceful place before: an operating radio post and two lighthouses. Although there is a stick about 2 ends. There would be no such past, there would not be these memories! And you don't know which is better. One thing now reassures me and consoles me that neither the air defense services, nor other naval services associated with saber rattling will never be on Kildin again, which means that all the bad things are in the past !!! ??? Nature takes a long time to heal the wounds inflicted on it by humans. The main thing is not to interfere and help her in this matter. And burn it, everything bad, with a blue flame, forever and ever. Amen!

P.S. 1. Here's something else about the construction of the golden road: “I was lucky to communicate in the late 80s with a man who was a naval artilleryman at that time and participated as a military expert in equipping the coastal battery on Kildin in 1938. He saw how everything was being built there, and what the order was ... The road is a punishment for the prisoners ... the one who did not fulfill the norm - went to this site, and instead of sleep - paved this path ... everything - exclusively with his hands ... That's why it starts out of nowhere and ends nowhere ... ". The exact length of the "golden" road is 837 meters.

2. On May 10, 1935, the construction of a powerful (caliber 180mm) artillery battery turret began on Kildin Island. At the same time, they were building open positions for artillery and anti-aircraft installations, a pier for warships on Western Kildin. In the rocks, metro builders punched adits for future repair shops. On the southern coast, in the area of \u200b\u200bCape Prigonny, a runway was erected for the aviation of the Northern Fleet. On the Kildin plateau (about 250 m above sea level), barracks, a residential town (New Kildin) for the military, a base hospital, a club, a bakery and a bath and laundry plant were set up.

For the uninterrupted delivery of heavy oversized cargo and equipment to construction sites, a paved road was needed. The nature took care of the building material - the drainage of the southern coast is completely strewn with granite cobblestones, and the GULAG authorities never had any problems with personnel. At their disposal were classy military experts, and skillful organizers of production, and skilled workers ... And they knew how to make slaves work in the NKVD. It is today that many thieves and murderers sit in prisons doing nothing. They sit and grin!

Realizing the responsibility of the task and the real threat (in case of the slightest mistake) to personal safety, the chief "master of shoulder affairs" actually used a hard whip, sometimes flavored with a soft carrot. In one of the directives of the NKVD, Beria demanded: “... personally monitor the quality selection of contingents ... Send only men - the best production workers, healthy, suitable for hard physical labor in the North, with the remainder of the term of imprisonment at least 6 months.
.... Announce to prisoners that all those who work well in construction will receive an increased bonus. The best percussionists and the most distinguished at the end of construction will be given benefits in the form of reduced terms. And the best record-breaking drummers will be released ahead of schedule and nominated for awards. And in relation to refuseniks, disorganizers of production and the camp regime, the most severe measures will be applied.
People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Commissar of State Security L. Beria.
... For many years, information about the presence of regular officers in the NKVD prisons and their use in the construction of military facilities in the North was a state secret.

3. ... In January 1961, an emergency happened in the Northern Fleet - a new S-80 missile submarine sank in the Barents Sea north of Kildin Island. The deep sea claimed 68 lives. To investigate the circumstances and reasons for the death of the boat, a government commission was appointed headed by the Chief Inspector of the USSR Ministry of Defense, Marshal of the Soviet Union Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovsky. In the midst of the debate, a respected retired admiral asked to speak after serving in the Northern Fleet for many years. And this is what he said: “When we, officers of the Northern Fleet headquarters, went out to sea to the place of the sinking of the S-80 submarine, Marshal Rokossovsky, who was on the navigating bridge, was looking at the gloomy bulk of Kildin passing by, without addressing anyone specifically, he said thoughtfully: "Here I built a road" ...!?

4. ... The post-war peaceful life on the island was getting better quickly. A fishing trading post was opened on the Eastern Kildin (Mogilnoye). They even tried to breed Arctic foxes. We opened the post office and school again. They built a club, a bathhouse. By the end of 1948, 117 people lived in the village, 38 of them were children. As in the old days, fishermen from all over Murman came to Mogilnaya Bay for summer fishing. The military units, left on the island, carried out daily service and, as best they could, equip their simple life. The alternate airfield occasionally met and saw off planes with inspectors.

Only now, until the end of the construction of the Rokossovsky road, hands did not reach again. Each commander, cursing her for what the light was on, considered the road not his "object", but during the occasional scattering of the inspecting authorities, he tried to direct the arrow to a neighbor. The road was dilapidated, and only the paving stones of the golden kilometer, as if in reproach to our eternal disorder, remained in first-class condition ...

... In the fifties, the ships and coastal units of the Soviet Navy received a new type of weaponry - cruise and anti-aircraft guided missiles. And again, Kildin became a secret object. The entire civilian population was again deported to the mainland. Now forever! The fishing trading post on Vostochny (Mogilny) Kildin suffered especially. The abandoned village looked like a deceased, which was forgotten to bury in a hurry of leaving relatives. It was at the end of 1966.

5. ... And then troubled times came: in Moscow they fired from tanks on the "White House". Grozny was bombed in Chechnya. The Black Sea Fleet was divided in Sevastopol. Soviet troops were urgently withdrawn from Germany, Poland and the Baltic states. On Kildin, they anxiously watched the rampant "democracy" and waited in the wings. We didn't have to wait long. In 1994, it was ordered to remove from the island all military units stationed on the southern coast. Then it was the turn of the missilemen. The directive came in early May 1995. It ordered to collapse the regiment by August 31, 1995. Take out the ammunition of missiles and fire control systems, and leave everything else for eternity in the Kildin hills. To send the conscripts to the Severomorsk crew. Officers and warrant officers who have the length of service necessary for retirement should be submitted for retirement, and the rest should be sent to the head of the personnel department of the Northern Fleet.

On the night of December 31, 1995, the last officers of the coastal missile regiment left Kildin Island. We left in a hurry, as in retreat. To destroy the capitally repaired and prepared for the long winter, a bath and laundry plant, a kindergarten, a basic sailor's club (the pride of the islanders), a boiler house and a power plant, no hand was raised. Barrels with solarium were laid in neat piles. The coal was bunkered and covered with old missile covers. All mechanisms of the recently upgraded multi-ton launchers were thoroughly lubricated. They were lowered into the mines and covered with reinforced concrete roofs - haulers. All doors were hung with locks and casts with seals, secretly hoping that the "perestroika" frenzy would soon pass and reason would prevail. ... But that didn't happen. In the spring, as soon as the snow melted, dashing guys poured into the secret island with ships, autogens, cranes and tractors. During the short polar summer, they cut, cut down, packed and took away the goods abandoned by the military. They did not forget about the solarium with coal, which was carefully stored up since autumn ...

They are leaving foreign lands of demobilization, demobilization, demobilization! And wherever you look on these May days, they go everywhere drunk.

(From the memoirs of my friend, who served on Kildin during the dispersal of the military in the mid-90s). - And we lodged on Mogilny. We had a sailor's barracks there, and a couple of houses for a permanent staff. In the early nineties, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a mass exodus of the military from the island began. They left as if they were retreating. They threw everything - equipment, property, towns. They forgot about us in this universal bedlam. And we remained on the island as a tribe of aborigines - by ourselves. It is high up to God, far from the authorities. And the bosses don't give a damn about us. He has his own problems ... Believe it or not, we barely survived the winter. There was no autumn delivery: - no diesel fuel, no coal, no food. They collected fin along the shore, dismantled empty houses for firewood. We ate what we had to. Thanks to the fishermen - they didn't let me die of hunger. Well, and there is nothing to say about military service. What the hell is service if the sailors are worse than homeless people - ragged, unwashed, hungry. On watch somehow went and then, thank God. The commander is diluted by a drop. I have already crossed the military rank for two terms. An outspoken "bolt" scored everything. We never saw him sober. In the spring he left for Severomorsk. And ends ...

And now on the island (for more than 15 years now) "metalworkers" disfigure military relics that should be proud of, plunder townships, destroy graves and monuments to the first settlers ... The torn island quietly and finally dies, no longer believing in its rebirth.

It is a pity that so many villages where I was in the north are no longer on the map, but only their ruins, desolation and devastation! And how many of these islands and islets, useless and forgotten, are scattered all over Russia !!! Yes, you just even today go into the outback and see how many collective farms and villages are plundered around and no longer needed by anyone ... Oh, RUSSIA !!!

It's sad to see such pictures around. It is sad for several reasons: 1. Our country has spent the same amount on the fact that in the end it all will be abandoned. The question immediately arises? Was it necessary to do all this? 2. Are the people who spent the best years of their lives there wasting their lives? Is it possible to live in peace after all this? And by and large, only two bastards from the party are to blame for this - the tagged Bear Humpbacked and the alcoholic Yeltsin! Beasts!

I do not know if it would be appropriate to place this story of mine about the tragedy that occurred in October 1989 on the island of Kildin, for you my readers to judge. But since he began to talk about the island, then this story cannot be kept silent. This little story of mine will be based on the memories of direct participants in those real events. Surnames and names, which are not fictitious, but slightly changed for aesthetic reasons. With the exception of one - Captain 3rd Rank Fost Dmitry Ivanovich, who bravely fulfilled his officer's duty. I will also omit the part numbers.

On the eve of the celebration of the Day of the Constitution of the USSR on October 7, 1989, a fire broke out at an armament depot of one of the military units of Kildin Island. After its liquidation, an audit was appointed at the warehouse, as a result of which a shortage of 4 assault rifles, bayonet knives for them, a box of F-1 grenades, two zinc cartridges (1800 pcs) was revealed. On the face of a clear theft. And with a careful study of the causes of the fire, traces of deliberate arson of the warehouse were revealed, as well as the intent to cover up the traces of the theft itself by an explosion of ammunition. Namely, a container from under a flammable liquid, the remains of a candle and a grenade with a ring pulled out and a check attached to the fuse with electrical tape. That is, as the candle burns out, the flame should have spread to the fuel, then burned the electrical tape at the ignition. And from the subsequent explosion, the grenades were supposed to detonate the ammunition stored in the warehouse, and there ... more ... more ... and more ... Nizhniy Gorodok could, in theory, not stay at all. If you do not assume more ... The alarm was also turned off, there were traces of sawing the lock shackle.

The incident was immediately reported to the authority, after which representatives of the KGB, military prosecutor's office, and command arrived on the island. The personnel of the garrison were put in a barracks position. Two BODs entered Kildinskaya Salma, the sailors and officers from whom they began systematic combing of the vicinity of the warehouse and the entire island. Shmon was serious, but it was all in vain. There were no traces of weapons. When inspecting the scene of the incident, pieces of electrical tape, a hacksaw for metal with special marks, a small piece of paper with traces of fresh blood were found near the warehouse.

On October 11, during the lunch break, when representatives of the KGB and the command left for lunch. Before leaving for lunch, the command announced to the crew that there would be a general formation after it for inspection for wounds or other injuries. And one of the employees of the prosecutor's office managed to obtain a confession statement from the signalman OA Andriyanov, who turned off the alarm at the time of the theft of the weapon. He also named the direct participants in the crime: foreman 1 of the article Pavlenko and senior sailor Nurutdinov.

Unfortunately, the information that Andrianov split up and surrendered his accomplices very quickly spread among the garrison. Realizing that they had been exposed, Pavlenko and Nurutdinov left the unit's location, took weapons and ammunition hidden in a dump near Cape Byk. After that we went to the side of the berth in order to get unnoticed on the passenger ship "Kanin" or any other vessel. However, their plans were not destined to come true. An armed officer's post was set up on the pier in advance. Then Pavlenko and Nurutdinov did not think of anything better than to seize the car and, against the background of the general turmoil, drive to the pier located on Vostochny Kildin.

Along the seashore, they went unnoticed to the Lower Residential Town, where at that time a ZIL-131 car with boxes of vegetables and barrels of pickles loaded in the back was parked at the house. Under the threat of weapons, they threw the young driver out of the car, after which they entered the entrance of a residential building, in order to take the wife of the Kilda special officer hostage. But she was not at home, and the wife of Lieutenant Mizin, Julia, came out of the next apartment to knock. Lieutenant Mizin himself was on vacation in Sevastopol at that time, and Yulia was not allowed to go with him, because she just got a job as a librarian in the unit. Many sailors and officers specially signed up for the library in order to just talk with Julia. The owner of the library was of some special beauty.

Having got into the cab of the car, together with the hostage they proceeded towards Kildin Vostochny past the pier with the floating craft standing on it. At this time, the search for Pavlenko and Nurutdinov had already begun in the unit. After the driver reported the car theft, an alarm was raised and all parts of the island were notified. All women and children were gathered in isolated rooms. An armed guard was assigned to them. Just as the road to Vostochny was also blocked by setting up an armed post, the criminals, along the old military road, through the hills, headed towards the combat positions of the OBRP. After some time, the car appeared in the area of \u200b\u200bthe car park, and from there the criminals headed towards the upper residential town.

Unfortunately, the delay in the notification due to the lack of mobile communication did not allow to notify the barrier set up in the Voenkora area. As a result, the car with the criminals and the hostage, having freely passed the upper town, came to the screen from an unexpected side. Having approached at low speed, we broke through the screen and headed down. Fire was opened after them. Hearing the shots, the commander ordered the armed groups to take positions in the area where the unit was located. The group commanders were ordered to use weapons only in a situation ensuring the safety of the hostage. Going down directly, bypassing the serpentine, the car at a slow speed drove through the economic territory of the unit and headed towards the lower town. At the turn of the road to the residential buildings, there was already a barrier, whose officers demanded to stop, get out of the car, lay down their arms and surrender.

Ignoring the demand to stop, the criminals increased their speed, and, firing at the open window from a machine gun, throwing grenades, broke into the side of the pier. After the car, machine-gun fire was opened. At the beginning of the descent of the road to the pier, there was a barrier of conscripts at the head. Trying to stop the car, warrant officer Gamko Boris jumped onto the car's step on the passenger side. Pavlenko, who was sitting at the door, put a machine gun through the open window and opened fire.

Falling from the running board, Warrant Officer Gamko returned pistol fire. Pavlenko was wounded by indirect shots through the rear wall of the cockpit. Under heavy fire from sailors and officers, Nurutdinov increased speed and directed the car to the pier. At that moment, a grenade without a pin fell out of the wounded Pavlenko's hand and exploded on the floor of the cabin. Nurutdinov lost control, and the car crashed into the concrete slabs laid by the builders at the checkpoint of the pier. Negotiations began with Nurutdinov. The negotiations were conducted by Captain 3rd Rank Fost Dmitry Ivanovich, remaining in one shirt, demonstrating the absence of weapons, settled down on the hood of the wrecked car. He managed to persuade Nurutdinov to allow him to take out the killed Pavlenko and Julia Mizina, who was wounded in the head, from the cab. Julia was immediately sent by car to the upper town in the 75th infirmary. On the way, she died of blood loss. Negotiations with Nurutdinov lasted for about an hour and a half. All this time he was holding in his hand a grenade without a pin.

Fost managed to convince Nurutdinov, in exchange for the Makarov pistol, to throw a grenade into the sea. However, even here Nurutdinov showed cunning, refused the proposed barrel, demanded another. When he received the required (PM) and threw a grenade, he was tied down. He wanted to shoot from the PM, since he was also a specially trained soldier.

At this time, due to the lack of normal communication and notification, the sentry, who was guarding the technical area on the tower by the road, fired at the water carrier heading to the residential building. The senior of the vehicle was wounded by a single automatic round.

Not without overlays. Information came from one of the posts that the fire was also fired back from the back of the car. And then a man in civilian clothes with a gun at the ready jumped from there and disappeared into the hills. The rumor about the presence of the fourth criminal arose after the participants of the barrier near the lower town thought that someone jumped out of the body of the car that had burst out and disappeared into the darkness. In the morning, a special group was delivered to the island by helicopter. The garrison servicemen “chased the shadow” for two more days. The unit commander, despite his short tenure, was removed by order of the USSR Ministry of Defense and appointed chief of artillery to another unit. The surviving criminals Nurutdinov and Andrianov were convicted.

All this was later told to me by my acquaintance, a special officer, who was directly involved in the above events. After the interrogations of Nurudinov and Andrianov, it became clear that these criminals planned to seize the Kanin motor ship in order to get to neighboring Norway on it. Knowing that we had already started going to Norway at this time, they were on pain of shooting the captain - i.e. me, they planned to require the ship to go to the port of Kirkenes, where they wanted to ask for political asylum. Thank God that the criminals did not get on our glorious ship! Otherwise, I might not have had to write these lines.

One military friend gave me this poem, written by him.

Kildin Island is just a point on the map, open to the wind.
The character was forged on it, as in Sparta, because the service was severe there.
We cannot forget your beauty. The cry of seagulls in bird markets,
Road "paving stones", polar night. And a day without end and beginning ...
Your "Chests", "Grave", fishing from the pier come to mind.
Fogs, snows and sailor friends ... What a pity, not to return everything from the beginning.
You feel the gaze of these Northern waters, the variability of the wild.
Danger, the severity of the polar latitudes, the treachery of the winds and weather.

At this point I already wanted to end my story about the unsinkable aircraft carrier of the USSR, but at the end of August 2010, when I was already living in Borovichi, they showed on TV information about the beginning of a major exercise in the Barents Sea. But what about Kildin? Is the unsinkable aircraft carrier really useless? After all, this is the best place for shooting at the "enemies" of the Barents Sea. I waited for the development of events and waited ...

P.S. P.S. September 2010. Kildin, have not forgotten! And even very much remembered! Two S-300 complexes were temporarily brought in and shot towards the Barents Sea. Still, from the North Kildin you can see everything very far away - perhaps to the very North Pole!

There has been a lot of talk lately about the revival of Russia. But society, corrupted and poisoned by Gorbachev's demagogy, Yeltsin's lack of principle and Chubais's privatization, is still inert and spiritless. Indifferently watching as greedy non-humans, devoid of conscience and civic duty, who have crossed the line of memory, shamelessly rob the graves of their fathers ... And until we understand that Great Russia cannot be created without methodological education in new generations of sincere patriotism, high spirituality, disinterested love for the Motherland, respectful the attitude to the graves of the fathers - the abuse of the memory and history of the country will continue ...

Longing and devastation is all that remains of Kildin today. Will there be a revival?

Now Kildin was covered with a dense cloud - a purple cloud of grave melancholy.
Only the whistle of the blizzard, but thorny frost, and torn pieces of dark thoughts ...

Kildin is an island in the Barents Sea, 1.5 km from the Murmansk coast of the Kola Peninsula. In Soviet times, several military units were located here - border guards, air defense, artillerymen and missilemen. Alas, now all parts are closed, and their territory has turned into a real cemetery of military equipment and houses. Let's see what was left on the island after a person left.

Settlement Verkhniy Kildin. The beginning of the settlement of the "upper" Kildin in the western part of the island can be considered the First World War, when in 1914-1916. the first observation posts were created on the Kola Peninsula. Until 1935, all residents of Upper Kildin were represented only by the staff of the Kildin West post and lighthouses. At the end of 1935, construction began on the coastal battery, which consisted of two MB-2-180 towers. Battery staff: 191 people. On the basis of the battery, the 2nd separate artillery division was formed, which formed the basis of the infrastructure of the island, as well as the main population of Upper Kildin for the next 15 years. Before the start of the war, the newly formed 6th separate anti-aircraft artillery division was transferred to the island. The main houses at that time were dugouts for personnel. In 1955, the oad was disbanded, but in the same year the construction of the coastal missile complex and the creation of the 616 Separate Coastal Missile Regiment began. To protect the infrastructure of the island and the approaches to the Kola Peninsula, an air defense battalion was deployed on the Western Kildin. The presence of the Separate Coastal Missile Regiment on the island is the heyday of West Kildin. In 1995, the regiment was withdrawn from Kildin ... At the moment, Upper Kildin is completely abandoned.

Boiler room equipment and range finder of artillery tower battery

The village of lower Kildin. The first settlement on West Kildin can be attributed to the end of the 16th century. It was then that Van Linshoten, a member of the Barents expedition, drew up a map of Kildin Island and depicted a camp in the west. In the 30s of the twentieth century. active construction of military facilities on the island began. The western coast of the island, which rises to a height of almost 300 meters above the Barents Sea and covers the entrance to the Kola Bay, is of particular importance. The newly formed settlement in the west was first called New Kildin. But with the appearance of buildings on the plateau, the villages in the west were divided and on some maps Nizhny Kildin and Upper Kildin appeared.

In the pre-war period, roads, barracks to accommodate builders and military personnel, warehouses, a rock shelter were built, the pier was strengthened. In 1938, construction began on a rock shelter directly opposite the pier.

The arrival of a separate coastal missile regiment to the island of 616 can be considered the real heyday of Nizhniy Kildin. For the delivery of equipment and weapons, the pier was rebuilt, and facilities of the regiment's support services and residential buildings were built near the pier. Small rocket ships could approach the berth to unload / load missiles.

The village of Nizhniy Kildin "died" after the 616th separate coastal missile regiment was withdrawn from the island.

100mm artillery battery at Cape Byk. There are no guns, the command post is empty.

Several ships have found their last shelter around the island, including the famous wooden tourist sailing yacht "Katarina"

On the eastern part of the island there was a frontier post, a part of the S-75 air defense system and launch sites for training missile targets, a storage for air regenerators for submarines. Now only ruins are left of all this.

Of the active military units on the island, only for a sea observation post - a midshipman and ten conscripts.

Zaporozhets unit commander.

Someone will say that all these ruins need to be demolished, the iron removed, and the territory cleared. But it seems to me that you don't need to touch anything. Let these ruins remain the memory of those who served in these harsh places, let the few tourists see not only the beauty of the wild, but also get to know this other side of the island, despite the fact that it has long been covered with rust of history.

A gigantic gloomy rock towering over the waters of the Barents Sea, Kildin Island is an incredible mystery of nature. In this place, everything is unusual, from the inhabitants, names, history of human development to geology, landscapes and Lake Mogilnoe.

Island location

Kildin is located in the northeastern part of the Barents Sea, a few miles from the exit. A gloomy stone mass is located at the intersection of the main sea routes leaving Murmansk. One of them goes through Scandinavia to Europe, the second - to This is the largest island, settled next to the Murmansk coast, bordering the Kola Peninsula.

Island history

In 1809, bloodthirsty English filibusters barbarously plundered the island of Kildin, or rather, a camp based on its hilly plateau. The devastated area turned into a wild, uninhabited corner for a long time. Since then, a piece of the island in the southeast, a bay, a cape and a lake bear the same name - Mogilnye. In the 19th century, an ambitious project of building a rugged rock was developed, the island was to turn into a metropolis. However, nothing of the kind happened.

A young Norwegian couple, Eriksen, settled on the island. Three generations of the Eriksen family have lived on the island for about 60 years. At the dawn of the 20th century, the regional authorities were engaged in the development of Kildin's infrastructure, making a decent amount of investment.

In the same period, the Social Democrats who pretended to be fishermen found refuge here. They used Kildin Island as a transit point. They brought here illegally political literature from Norway, intended to be sent to Arkhangelsk.

The young Soviet government zealously took up the development of the stony board. In a short time, enterprises were created on its lands. There was a place for a fishing artel, an iodine plant, a fox fur farm and other organizations. Before the start of the war, all residents were settled in the Murmansk region. The Eriksen family was repressed. The island was turned into a strategic military facility.

The military era of the island was destined to last until the 90s of the last century. Its territory was equipped with observation posts, communication points, air defense, missile systems, and a border post. A naval battery and a missile regiment were installed on it, and they took care of creating the appropriate infrastructure.

Today, a handful of residents and a small number of military installations occupy the island of Kildin. The photos show his harsh man-made landscapes, abandoned spaces with the pitiful remains of its former greatness - powerful military equipment, office buildings and residential buildings.

Description of the island

Geologically, Kildin Island is practically unlike the mainland. Its relief differs sharply from that on It is mountainous, with gentle slopes, which here and there are covered with moss and forbs. From the west and north, its high coasts are steep and steep. The northern coast increases in height from east to west.

A stream flows along the bottom of a deep canyon that occupies part of the northeastern territory. Waterfalls rush from the steep northern and southern peaks. A convenient bay cuts into the southeastern coast of the island. Sea-going vessels, having entered the Mogilnaya Bay, moor to the shore at the anchorage.

The Barents expedition, having discovered the Mogilnaya Bay in 1594, put it on a geographical map. The servants of the Solovetsky Monastery on the southeastern coast kept the trades for two centuries (in the 17-18 centuries). Slightly east of the bay is Lake Mogilnoe.

Flora and fauna

The island is home to many species of birds, among which there are those that are listed in the Red Book. Gulls, buzzards, geese, ducks and snowy owls inhabit Kildin Island. The Barents Sea is a habitat for dolphins, beluga whales and killer whales. It is home to shoals of herring, cod, halibut and catfish. On the coasts, seals and seals are rookery. In the waters of the rivers Zarubikha, Tipanovka and Klimovka, pink salmon, salmon and

On Kildin there are hares, foxes, and an endemic grows on its lands - the golden root (Rhodiola rosea). At first glance, it seems that the trees on the hilly plateau are missing. But it is worth taking a closer look - you can see how stubborn dwarf birches stretch in an endless line among the herbs, interspersed with blossoming willow bushes, barely reaching knee height.

Lake Mogilnoe

About two thousand years ago, an unusual relict lake was formed on the island. The unique lake on Kildin Island is formed by several water layers. The bottom layer is a dead zone with all destroying hydrogen sulfide. The upper one is a source of fresh water. The middle part of the reservoir is filled with salt water. The middle layer has become the abode for a rare endemic, mutated fish - the Kildin cod, which is protected by the Red Book of the Russian Federation.

Between the lower hydrogen sulfide and the middle salty "floor" there is an interlayer - cherry-colored water. It is home to purple bacteria - a living impenetrable barrier that can trap and absorb the deadly gas. If bacteria suddenly disappear from the lake, hydrogen sulfide will begin to rise to the upper layers, turning the reservoir into an unsuitable place for life.

A unique reservoir of world rank, which has no analogues, although it is ranked among the Federal Natural Monuments, the nature conservation activities for its protection leave much to be desired. According to scientists, the island of Kildin, Lake Mogilnoe, is a relict natural place that deserves more attention, care and further research.

Lake characteristics

In ancient times it was part of the Barents Sea. It was formed due to the fact that the sea shores rose. The reservoir spreads over an area of \u200b\u200b96,000 m 2. It is 560 meters long and 280 meters wide. The lake with transparent green water goes down 17 meters deep.

The hydrochemical balance between salt and freshwater is maintained by the fact that water from the Barents Sea oozes across the land bridge that separated the lake from the ocean. The shaft is 70 meters wide and 5.5 meters high. The upper water layer 5 meters deep is strongly desalinated by surface sediments.

There are four zones in the lake, differing in the degree of salinity. Aquatic inhabitants inhabit the first three layers. Rotifers and crustaceans are found in the fresh layer. Sea waters are inhabited by jellyfish, crustaceans and sea cod. In highly salted water, they intensively emit hydrogen sulfide into the lowest lifeless "floor" of the reservoir.