Village of harp tyumenskaya. Colony "Polar Owl"

A new raw material base for ferrous metallurgy is being formed in the Polar Urals

C.V. ROGACHEV

Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Priuralsky district. Kharp village. The symbolic sign of the railway. Above - "flashes", "northern lights", meaning the name of the village. Below them are images of an excavator (mining of mineral raw materials: in the past - mainly crushed stone, now also chromites) and a reinforced concrete slab (the Yamalzhelezobeton enterprise, which produced structures for gas workers in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug). On the left (on the shadow side) below - the earth's hemisphere and the inscription "67th parallel".

Was there Harp?

Was. Harp originated long before chromite was mined at Ryiz, and even before the discovery of chromite here. The settlement began in the 50s, when a railway line was laid from the Pechora Mainline to Labytnangi (it was to become the first section of the great transpolar route Salekhard-Igarka). Started from Podgornaya station. The name clearly conveys the geographical position: at the eastern slope, at the foot of the Ural Mountains, near Rayiz. Later, perhaps not wanting to humiliate the settlement with the prefix "pod-", the stations gave the opposite in vertical coordinates, high, name - Northern Lights, or, in Nenets, Kharp. After all, although Kharp is mainly a Russian settlement, it still lies in the Yamal-Nenets Okrug (then the autonomous ones were also called national).

The population of the village is 7 thousand people.

Harp in the "North" area

Despite the Yamal-Nenets and, accordingly, Tyumen affiliation, Kharp, hanging on an iron branch growing from the Komi ASSR, was essentially a continuation of the Komi. The continuation of the system of correctional labor institutions, which had been based in Komi for a long time, was also drawn here. In 1961, a correctional labor colony with number 3 (ITK-3) was founded at the Kharp station.

The main enterprises of the settlement were the crushed stone quarry, the crushing and sorting plant and the plant of nonmetallic materials, which were laid in 1969. Subsequently, they were merged into the Yamalneftegazzhelezobeton company. We made reinforced concrete sleepers for gas pipelines, piles for building houses on permafrost, slabs for roads. And all this - through Labytnangi - went beyond the Ob: to geologists and gas workers. They did what was needed to master the energy resources of the West Siberian North.

Harp. Church on the territory of a correctional labor colony.
Photo by O. Gusarov. 2007 Sobory.ru (People's catalog of Orthodox architecture)

Relying on the Pre-Ural North, Kharp served as one of the base points for the development of the gas-filled Trans-Urals. In the late 70s, when the activity of gas workers sharply intensified in the Yamalo-Nenets Okrug, the need for prefabricated reinforced concrete increased. The forces of ITK-3 became insufficient, and in 1981, another colony was placed in Kharp - ITK-18. She became the main reservoir of labor for production. The convicts were building the Northern microdistrict of Kharpa; they have erected a kindergarten "Smile".

18th - a very remarkable place in the penal system. This is one of five colonies designed to hold prisoners for life, or, as they are called, "death row".

The third colony of Kharp (ITK-3, or "troika") also received special fame recently: in 2005-2006. here the co-founder of Bank Menatep PL was imprisoned. Lebedev, convicted in the same case with the co-owner of the Yukos oil company, former Deputy Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation (in Yeltsin's times) MB Khodorkovsky. Then Harp became a salon celebrity - he was visited by correspondents of almost all the quirky Moscow publications.

This is how the Izvestia correspondent described these places in 2005: “Two mountains seem to hang over the zone. When Lebedev was taken to Kharp, one of them, the one that is now covered with snow, was still completely red, because of the autumn foliage on the trees, but the second, both then and now, was completely black. It is the chromites that come to the surface. There is so much ore in the mountain that for many years it has been mined here in industrial volumes and sent in railway cars for processing to Chelyabinsk. And also these spurs of the Polar Urals are rich in jasper, jade, serpentine, volcanic tuff. They are bread for the prisoners from the troika, OG colony No. 98/3, where Platon Lebedev is now sitting. Candlesticks, boxes, coffee table covers made of stone are a significant component of the colony's income. "

Change of milestones: Kharp in the "Ural" area

Indeed, stone boxes are like real ones. Ural tales of Bazhov. Since the 90s, Kharp has lost its significance as a “building gate” to the gas-fueled Yamal. The production of prefabricated reinforced concrete has become too expensive (the imported cement has risen in price, the railroad tariffs have skyrocketed), and the activity of Yamalzhelezobeton has almost collapsed. The colonies "closed in on themselves." Kharp lost its significance as a step on the spatial staircase Center-Komi-Polar Ural-North of Western Siberia.

And then the Ural industrialists drew attention to him. Indeed, the Urals, even the Polar ones, are not just a Stone, from which one can fill rubble - a building material for gas workers. It seems to be metal ores, coal, and gems. That, thanks to which the Middle and Southern Urals developed, and that which is already sorely lacking there. In the Kharpa region, a new wind of interests was drawn - not from the south-west, but directly from the south.

Hey, baton, UP-UP!

The potential riches of the Subpolar and Polar Urals have been talked about for a long time. However, the geological knowledge of these hard-to-reach and very unfavorable territories for life is low. Many deposits have been identified. But few of them have been studied to the extent that it is possible to speak with confidence about the volume and quality of reserves, their recoverability and suitability for use with existing processing technologies.

Nevertheless, the project for the construction of a meridional railway along the eastern slope of the Urals has already received government approval, and in 2009 it will begin to be implemented. This is part of the promoted Ural Industrial - Ural Polar project (it has even been announced as a party project by United Russia). The journalists immediately cleverly shortened the name of this project to "UP-UP", as if imitating something like "Wow!" or "Clap, clap!" - interjections, with which people who have started a difficult business in the heat of the moment, do not have the time or intellectual potential to cheer themselves up. After all, not a single really calculated, clearly economically justified and proven necessary supply from the Polar Urals to the south looms so far. However, not so. There is one connection, it is already quite material and we already know it. This is Kharp-Chelyabinsk.

Remember the goldsmith Khryukin from Chekhov's "Chameleon"? How did he stand in the middle of the marketplace, holding up a bloody finger, thereby testifying that he had really been bitten? The extraction of chromites for CHEMK in the uplifted Kharpe beyond the Arctic Circle serves in the justification of the project as expressive evidence, evidence of the need for UP-UP. Look, they say, how painfully the evil "Kazakhs" bit us economically, now, willy-nilly, we have to turn our eyes to the Pole.

However, as we remember, the warden Ochumelov, having listened to different versions of what happened, was not impressed in the end by the pictorial gesture of the bitten master. Whether Khryukin was right in demanding compensation for the damage caused to him, we never learn from the story, and this has nothing to do with our subject. But whether the owner of ChEMK was right when sending millions of rubles to the Polar Urals, and, accordingly, whether those who now intend to send billions there will be right - this is worth considering when studying geography: after all, it is in such thoughts that geographic thinking is formed.

About making placement decisions

The topic of correctional labor institutions is not accidentally included in the story about the Ural chrome. The fact is that the main owner of the Chelyabinsk electrometallurgical plant and the main figure in the development of rayiz chromites, a deputy of the last convocation of the State Duma from United Russia, one of the most influential people in the South Urals - a certain Aristov in his youth, in the 80s, went behind bars (was convicted of something like fraud in construction brigades or with the Komsomol "attracted funds" - there is no exact data). This should be mentioned not at all in order to denigrate the polar lame digger, but for purely scientific reasons - economic and geographical.

About twenty years ago, the prominent Soviet geographers A.P. Gorkin and L.V. Smirnyagin published an article in which they presented to their colleagues a new, then gaining momentum in Western economic and geographical thought - a study of the decision-making mechanism ( decision making) on the location of certain enterprises. School textbooks for the 9th grade explicitly and implicitly convey the belief that the choice of location of enterprises in the country is objective (only as it is justified, and not otherwise). In reality, even in a planned, centrally controlled economy, when deciding on a specific location, someone's personal choice played an important role. And already in private property ...

Business owners who have been tried and imprisoned in the past are no worse than other people. “Don’t renounce your wallet and prison,” says popular wisdom. Meanwhile, folk wisdom has long noticed that among people who broke the law and got caught up on this, the proportion of those who are inclined to impulsive decisions, who are not accustomed to calculate the development of events several moves ahead, in front of whom the desire to solve a momentary problem obscures thoughts of probable consequences.

If we recall the Kharpian chrome history, the style of making placement decisions on the development of poor Polar Ural chromites ("Geography",
No. 14/2008), an eloquent portrait will be drawn decision maker“a -“ the decision maker. ”“ Ah, the Kazakhstani Donskoy GOK does not want to give us chromite cheaply - we’ll go to the Polar Urals for raw materials. We will bury a lot of money ourselves, but we will also punish the “Kazakhs”. ” share for the fact that we are stationed in it - we will build a separate rotational village 500 m above sea level on the ridge - on Rayiz. will do without our money. ”“ Ah, the Yamal Okrug hopes to be present in the share capital of the chrome mine - we will re-register Kongor-Chrom from an independent enterprise to the ChEMK workshop (so what if the “workshop” is 1500 km away from the plant), we will close everyone and we will stop paying taxes to the local budget ”.

The slogan under which such decisions are submitted and under which state support is sought is the slogan about, neither more nor less, chrome security of Russia.

Chromium security of Russia

In Russia, there are few chromium ores - chromites. And all the known deposits are of low quality. Kazakhstani chromites are much better in all respects, they have only one drawback: after the gathering of three intellectuals in Belovezhskaya Pushcha in 1991, they are no longer ours. The only any large chromite deposit that was developed on the territory of the Russian Federation before the appearance of the mine on Rayiz is Saranovskoye in the east of the Perm Territory. But the local mine "Rudnaya" (in the village of Sarany between the Permian Gornozavodsk and the Sverdlovsk Kachkanar) is operetta small in comparison with Kazakhstani production and in comparison with the needs of ferrochrome plants in Russia. In any case, this mine is not an assistant to the Chelyabinsk Combine: it is controlled by the main competitor of ChEMK - the Serov Ferroalloy Plant (in the town of Serov in the north of the Sverdlovsk Region).

So, there are practically no high quality chrome raw materials in Russia. And the capacities for the processing of chromites into ferrochromium are large. Ferrochrome, on the other hand, is a necessary component of the production of stainless steels (without them, the production of many modern and strategically important mechanical engineering products is unthinkable). The conclusion that they draw from this (those who are profitable to draw such a conclusion) are that “they are trying to put Russia on a raw material needle, they are encroaching on the country's chrome independence.” Some very famous figures of the current ruling group in the Russian Federation made angry speeches in this vein.

However, what is this "chrome security"? Such declarations can have two aspects - economic (so that the rise in prices for imported raw materials does not make Russian ferrochromium plants uncompetitive) and strategic (so that Russia is provided with strategically important raw materials - chromites in case of war and external isolation).

The economic aspect of chrome safety

Do the developed capitalist countries of the world, which the current leaders of the Russian Federation want to be like, have chrome "independence"? No. Almost all developed countries import chromites (or finished ferrochrome) and do not see this as a particular threat to their security. The main global supplier is South Africa. World metallurgists have to buy chromites on the world market at market prices (sometimes they also buy at in-house prices if they have invested in the share capital of mines) in order to sell then ferrochrome or stainless steel at market prices. This is what normal market relations are based on.

What, it would seem, is common between the products in the photo
and Harp's chromites? Common owners

The owners of Russian ferrochromium enterprises, the same ChEMK, came to control over yesterday's national factories as champions of private property and the market. And indeed, very well, owning the Soviet combine that you inherited, sell produced by ferrochromium at world market prices. This pleasure was anticipated by Aristov and his companion when they decided to invest their initial capital, made in Chelyabinsk on the Ariant trade and vodka chain, in CHEMK. It is very good to sell at market prices if you take raw materials at a cheap price.

However, when Kazakhstani suppliers of chromite did not agree to give away raw materials cheaply in a completely marketable manner, then the rhetoric about the threat of national chromium independence began. In reality, of course, this is not about the interests of Russia, but about the fact that the Chelyabinsk Electrometallurgical Plant in the conditions of the free international market has shown itself not very competitive. Or, in any case, it did not bring such heady vodka profits that the owners were counting on.

What does China have to do with it?

Kazakhstani suppliers of chromite (already mentioned more than once by the Donskoy GOK in Khromtau), perhaps, would not have been able to significantly raise the price of their products: who, except Russia, would buy from them? The geographical position of the landlocked desert-steppe republic is too disadvantageous: the deposit is hidden too deep in the depths of Eurasia; Kazakhstan's southern neighbors are too underdeveloped to have any serious demand for chromium; Russia is a seemingly monopoly consumer and can dictate its purchase prices. But the "Kazakhs", unfortunately for the Russian metallurgists, were rescued by their eastern neighbor. The rapidly growing, albeit much more remote from Khromtau than the Urals, metallurgy of China has offered the owners of Donskoy GOK higher prices. And you had to be an enemy to yourself and the market idea to refuse. Kazakhstan has reoriented its supplies from the north to the south-east direction. Having now fully understood what a free market and an open economy are on an international scale, the owners of CHEMK rushed par de "pit 11 to Ryiz in order to somehow compensate for the southern loss. They rushed, instead of starting, as it should be in an open market economy, a competitive price struggle for Kazakhstani resources.

This is how the Chinese economic development responded over 5 thousand km, squeezing a noticeable segment of the Russian economy into the Polar Urals, into the godforsaken Kharp. Sometimes the paths of economic geography are surprising: where are the plants of Baotou and Anshan (now eating Kazakh chrome), and where are Labytnangi and Kharp, near which the Ural chromites are now hastily digging? What, it would seem, can one condition determine the other? But, come on.

Of course, it was possible to stop the "Chinese expansion" by offering the "Kazakhs" an equal or slightly higher price. But did the owners invest their vodka money in the restoration of CHEMK stoves behind this - perhaps in order to digest expensive chromites? With a fair price for raw materials, a completely different level of profits, if not completely unprofitable.

To this there is also a question: "Why can the Chinese pay dearly for Kazakh chromites, transport them over a long distance and at the same time be profitable, but a close CHEMK cannot?" Is it because, within the framework of open international market relations, the old bulky Chelyabinsk Combine is not competitive? At least with the current management and decision-making style. Is this plant necessary then at all, is it necessary to tear apart the Rayiz massif for the sake of it, and even more so to pull the UP-UP road there?

War and chrome

Of course, all market considerations about the economic efficiency or inefficiency of CHEMK could be canceled out at once if it was proved that Russia needs Chelyabinsk ferrochrome and, accordingly, Kharp chromites like air, that without them - come and take it with your bare hands.

Perhaps, when the owners of CHEMK, and after them the Russian politicians-honors repeat the formula about lame security, they mean an extreme case of war?

We remember how President Roosevelt 60 years ago persuaded Turkish President Inonu not to sell chromites to Hitler. After all, each ton of chromium oxide supplied then to Germany meant the production of several tons of alloy steel, meant the release of a new unit of military equipment, meant several new killed Soviet soldiers or soldiers of the second front. To be left without chromium in case of a future war is, to put it mildly, unpleasant for Russia. Each lost ton of chromium will mean an unmelted ton of steel of the required quality, an unbuilt tank or missile, so many unkilled enemies and so many extra dead us. In the films of the future Eisensteins, our sergeant will fall on the bottom of the damaged armored personnel carrier with the words “Not enough chrome in armor” or “Steel is not alloyed” (similar to the famous phrase from “Alexander Nevsky”: “Short chain mail”).

Of course, an excellent student with a tennis racket in Belovezhskaya Pushcha in 1991 and those who voted for this beacon of reason, an example of decency and a repository of geographical knowledge, had to think about such a possible turn in the fate of future victims of Russian limpness. But it had to be done then. What is it in modern conditions?

And in modern conditions, it is generally meaningless to conduct any conversation about the security of Russia (both chrome and in general), if we assume that in a future military conflict Kazakhstan will find itself on the hostile side. Between Russia and Kazakhstan is the longest border in the world, almost nowhere protected by natural boundaries. It is impossible to imagine that the current Russian Federation will be able to maintain such a front in its current state. Take a compass and a ruler - measure the length of the border with Kazakhstan and the length of the Soviet-German front in the Great Patriotic War. Compare the lengths. So, if the territory of Kazakhstan (and it is gradually moving towards this) becomes the base of hostile forces (it does not matter who - the Chinese, NATO, Genghis Khan, the Taliban), from the tricolor faded under the South Ural sun it will be necessary to immediately tear off the pink and blue stripes and wave the rest. Chromium from the Polar Urals will no longer help here.

Even if Kazakhstan does not become a direct opposing party, but only takes the position of "enemy neutrality", Russia will have to keep huge forces along the border, and then it is not realistic to think about any victory in a major armed conflict of the world level (remember the story with the same Turkey in the Second World War: it did not enter the war, but it diverted how many preventive forces it was. And that was only distant Turkey, which had a very long border with the USSR, fenced off by powerful natural borders). Not really - with or without chrome.

So if you really think about the security of Russia, then the first thing you should do is to bring Kazakhstan under the Russian hand. If we use market methods for this, then as closely as possible to tie this territory to ourselves with economic ties. And in any case - not to repulse in any way. The impulsive decision of the owner of ChEMK ("Oh, then we will go to another place") and the accompanying angry rhetoric of his party comrades contributed to only one thing - the further repulsion of the economy of Kazakhstan from the Russian one.

Offended by the “Kazakhs”, Russian politicians and businessmen who regularly celebrate Russia's independence in June and sing praises to the market in this situation resemble a spouse who insisted on a divorce, and the next day innocently surprised that his ex-wife does not serve lunch at the appointed hour. And it would be fine if she didn't cook, otherwise she cooks, but for some reason carries it to the next apartment.

What does Turkey have to do with it?

The Chelyabinsk Combine went to the Polar Urals for cheap raw materials. Its main competitor, the second ferrochrome producer in Russia, the Serov Ferroalloy Plant (SZF), did not do so. In a difficult situation, during the confusion with supplies from Kazakhstan, he partially switched to Turkish chromites (the very ones that Roosevelt asked the Turks not to sell to Hitler - see Geography, No. 14/2008, p. 32), partially used Perm chromites controlled by him Sarana, and after "settling" the crisis with supplies from Kazakhstan again returned to raw materials from the Donskoy GOK.

Roman Serov and Khromtau then received a further, albeit somewhat perverted, continuation (see in the following issues).

Space topsy-turvy

It is amazing: it turned out to be profitable to transport raw materials from Turkey to the North Ural Serov, but not from Kazakhstan to the South Ural Chelyabinsk!

The resulting configurations of ChEMK - "Kongor-Khrom" and NWF - Donskoy GOK are a living geographic paradox, or rather, a geographic absurdity. The Chelyabinsk Combine is the closest Russian consumer of chromite to Khromtau. From Chelyabinsk to Khromtau - only 600 km, but Chelyabinsk carries chromites from Kharp, to which 1300 km in a straight line and almost 2500 km along the existing railways. Serov, located much closer to Kharp (in a straight line to the deposits of the Polar Urals, a little more than 800 km if a road is built), does not pay any attention to the Rayiz chromites and carries ore from Kazakhstan, from which it is almost twice as far as Chelyabinsk ( from Khromtau to Serov - more than 1000 km).

Here they are, manifestations of different decision making"a. Rationality and objectivity cannot explain this. Rather, by the character and analytical abilities of the people who made the appropriate decisions.

After all, not Israel is Chelyabinsk, after all, not Arabs are Kazakhs

According to normal economic and geographical logic, any processing enterprise seeks and eventually finds the closest source of raw materials of satisfactory quality. There are deviations from this rule in the world, but they are always considered as temporary curiosities. They acquire a chronic character only in extraordinary circumstances associated with non-economic irreconcilable hatred. For example, the oil refineries of Israel, located next to the world's main oil production area, do not use a barrel of close and excellent Arabian raw materials, but import oil from God knows where - from Mexico, Norway, etc. But here the situation really breaks all norms - the parties are in a protracted insoluble conflict, the Arabian oil producers do not recognize the very "right of the State of Israel to exist. Therefore, in principle, there can be no talk of any cross-border supply of raw materials (whatever its quality and price). But does the Russian Federation not recognize Kazakhstan or Does Kazakhstan not recognize Russia? Yes, relations between the parties are not developing in the best way - in particular, due to the inability of Russian politicians to find the right tone in communicating with our recent subalterns, so mediocrely dismissed from service.

After the death of I.V. Stalin, the construction of the highway (and a lot had already been built) was stupidly abandoned. Nowadays more and more people are talking about the need to build this road again.

There are currently five such colonies in the Russian Federation:

1) on Ognenny Island, on Lake Novoe southwest of the city of Belozersk, Vologda Region. (where the Kirillov Novoyezersky monastery was once);

2) in the village. Lozvinsky, in the Ivdel district in the north of the Sverdlovsk region;

3) in the city of Sol-Iletsk, in the south of the Orenburg region. (the so-called "Black Dolphin"; it is called so because in the courtyard of the colony there is a sculpture of a dolphin made of black stone, made, as they say, by one of the former prisoners);

4) in the city of Solikamsk, Perm Territory (the so-called "White Swan");

5) in the village. Harp ("Harpy" ", as they call her in the prison language).

He recently transferred his shares to one of his relatives so that capital would not become an aggravating factor in the 2008 State Duma elections. This, however, did not help: after their party was headed by the former president, Ural political observers explain, to the Duma faction "United Russia "found it inconvenient to recruit former criminals.

The assumption of some evil-speaking observers that Aristov was sitting in Kharp, and now he was drawn to attend the old places - just not as a prisoner, but as a master, is not confirmed.

Therefore, among the well-known figures of the current Russian establishment, there is such a high proportion of people with a criminal past, present and future. Therefore, in particular, the ex-world chess champion G. Kasparov, professionally accustomed to calculate the development of combinations many moves ahead, cannot but demonstrate a strong rejection of the current Kindermat grandmasters.

We put the word "Kazakhs" in quotes in this context, because Kazakhs by nationality have only an indirect relationship to the Donskoy GOK in Khromtau. The enterprise was designed and built 70 years ago mainly by Russians (as well as Ukrainians, Jews, etc.). Even the area itself, in which Khromtau is located, is eloquently called Novorossiysk. Now DGOK is owned not by Kazakhs by nationality and not even by Kazakhs by citizenship. The Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC), which includes the Donskoy GOK, is registered in the UK. It belongs to a certain "trio" - Patokh (Fatah) Shodiev, Alexander Mashkevich, Alizhan Ibragimov. According to their place of birth, they are all from Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan); by nationality, apparently, Uzbek (Bukharian), Jew (of Ukrainian origin) and either Kyrgyz or Uzbek (Tashkent). By citizenship, one of them seems to be a citizen of Belgium, the other is of Israel, the third is possibly of Kyrgyzstan, but it is not really known whose. The case in all three was investigated by Belgian law enforcement agencies, but it seems that they have not been investigated.

It seems that they are trying to establish a small extraction of chromites in Bashkiria - on the border of the Beloretsk and Burzyansky districts, as well as in the Abzelilovsky district (near the village of Khamitovo). Some attempts are being made at the old, abandoned in the middle of the 20th century, the Alapaevskoye field in the Sverdlovsk region.

In the 90s, at the time of the most severe raw material crisis, chromites for CHEMK were mined in the Upper Ufaley region, but now it seems that mining has been stopped due to the smallness of reserves and the unprofitability of their development.

Some hopes were pinned on deposits in Karelia and in the Murmansk region. But the local chromites turned out to be unimportant and have not yet gone into business.

Recently, it was also reported about the future mining of chromite at the Zhizhinsko-Sharomskoye field, 40 km from Pervouralsk in the Sverdlovsk region. ("Geography", No. 8/2008, p. 47). This raw material, having undergone preliminary preparation at the Khrompik (chemical plant) in Pervouralsk, will then go to the Klyuchevskoy Ferroalloy Plant (KZF) in Dvurechensk in the south of the Sverdlovsk Region. KZF is rather small in comparison with the giant Chelyabinsk (CHEMK) and large Serov (SZF) plants. He, however, has one important property. KZF is the only one in Russia that produces not only ferrochrome alloy, but also pure metallic chromium. They say that this metallic chromium is used in the nuclear industry, but for what they do not say: classified information.

"Ariant" is a combination of the first three letters of the names of the two owners of the company (Aristov + Antipov), a popular vodka brand in the Chelyabinsk region.

On this - on the urgent purchase of raw materials within the territory of the USSR at domestic low, and sometimes waste (due to general confusion) prices and sale abroad at prices close to world ones (then - by an order of magnitude) - and the accumulation of many first capitals was built. in the 90s.

Kazakhstan's tendency to sell more and more raw materials to China at the expense of supplies to Russia extends not only to chromites, but also to other ores. In particular, the iron ore of the famous Sokolovsko-Sarbaisky deposit (the town of Rudny, Kustanai, or Kostanay region) is less and less available for the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works. Sokolovka, by the way, now belongs to the same "British" corporation "Eurasian Natural Resources" as the Donskoy GOK.

Out of vexation, out of spite ( franz.). - Approx. ed.

Sometimes, speaking about the potential of Chinese expansion to the northwest, they understand it too bluntly: here will come supposedly the Chinese. Maybe they won't come: what have they not seen in the taiga? Meanwhile, the expansion of this or that people does not necessarily manifest itself in the form of displacement. One nation can, without leaving the place, simply "eat away" the raw material base "from under" another. In the natural history of the Earth, this is how some species disappeared - not because they were eaten by another, predatory species, but because a very cute herbivorous competitor species simply consumed all the vegetation that the extinct species used to feed on.

Of course, we all hope that there will never be a war again. All generations who have lived on Earth so far have relied on this.

The village of Kharp is a secure settlement, formed in 1961 during the construction of the 501st Stalinist construction site.

It is located in the spurs of the Polar Urals mountains. The name translates as "Northern Lights". Sometimes these names are combined and pronounced together - Harp (Northern Lights).

To some extent, the village of Kharp can be called a prison. There are 2 prisons for especially dangerous criminals in it.

She is called the "Polar Owl". Now such criminals as Alexander Pichushkin (Bitsevsky maniac) and Nurpashi Kulaev, the only surviving terrorist from Beslan, are serving their sentences in it.

There is nothing criminal in the village - there are just 2 prisons and that's it.

Photo taken on the platform at the railway station.

Ordinary houses, ordinary people

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What I liked here was the mountains and very unusual clouds.

In the middle of the village there is a small mountain, which, as I understand it, I use as a helipad. Unfortunately, very few photos were obtained, because on that day a terrible wind was blowing and it was not possible to somehow fix the camera.

And here is the prison itself - "Polar Owl". I didn’t come close, so only zoom.

In general, people in the north are very friendly and talkative. I wanted to go to Kharp myself, but also a local resident whom I met in Salekhard offered me his help. He works in a chromite mine and offered to take me by trucks to the mountains, where they actually mine everything. I was already ready, but having sat down on a minibus, the locals dissuaded me from climbing the mountains, because these mines are quite dangerous for the respiratory system and they have been poisoning the health of local residents for many years, bringing them various diseases. Very often it was seen how loaded trucks pass by, after which the dust flies in a column.

Here is such a Harp. This is the only village so far, moving through which I experienced trembling in my body. It seems that there is nothing wrong with it, but psychologically it is not very comfortable.

Colony "Polar Owl" - it is a special regime correctional institution. Serial killers, state criminals, and dangerous repeat offenders are serving their sentences here. The colony is designed for 1,014 places, including a settlement area for 100 places and a maximum security zone for 450 people. The penitentiary institution is considered one of the most remote places of deprivation of liberty; it is surrounded by countless hills and the Sob River.

Colony "Polar Owl"

Where is the correctional facility located? The colony is located in the village of Kharp, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The correctional facility is located beyond the Arctic Circle on the border of the Northern Urals and the tundra, surrounded by hills, near the banks of the Sob River. The city closest to the colony is 1920 kilometers from Labytnangi.

The Kharp settlement was formed in 1961. It was originally a prison camp. The convicts were engaged in the construction of the railway. Later, the camp was transformed into a highly dangerous recidivist camp. Since the 70s of the twentieth century, it received the code name YATs-34/18. Since 1981, the institution has been renamed and since that time began to function as Correctional Colony No. 18. Convicts for grave crimes were still admitted here. Since 2005, the institution has been called "FKU IK-18 of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug". Now it is a special regime penal colony for the "Polar Owl" - this is the unofficial name that was given in honor of the bird monument located on the territory.

How to get to the correctional facility

Prisoners are transported from Moscow in two ways - by train and by plane. The first one is long and takes two days. By plane, you need to fly only three hours to the airport in Salekhard. Then, by passing vehicles, you need to get to the ferry across the Ferry will transport to the city of Labytnangi, from where you can get by transport to the village of Kharp.

Life within the walls of the institution

Colony "Polar Owl" is a unit that can function autonomously at the expense of its own communal facilities. The correctional facility has a boiler room, a bakery, a diesel power plant, a canteen, a car repair shop, production departments for software and rubble. There is also a marble, sewing, turning, carpentry workshop, a workshop for sewing boots. Prisoners working at these facilities not only provide themselves with the necessary items, but also fulfill orders from the population and enterprises. The institution breeds birds and pigs. There is a chapel on the territory, which was consecrated by the archbishop of the Tobolsk-Tyumen diocese, Dimitri.

Convicted persons are allowed to receive a parcel once a year. You can go for a walk once a day for 1.5 hours. Prisoners are walking in a small cage. Baths are limited to ten minutes of showering once a week. During the day, the colony has a radio. The cells contain a bed, a table, a bedside table, a closed shelf where food is stored, a shelf for toiletries, as well as a water tank and a hanger for outerwear, and a toilet.

Rules for staying in an institution

The special regime colony "Snowy Owl" includes single and double cells. The relatives of the inmates write that they are not allowed to go to bed during the day, and they can only talk to inmates in a whisper. When leaving the cell, the convicts are searched. To all teams of employees, prisoners must answer: "Yes, citizen boss." All movements on the territory of the institution are carried out only in handcuffs, in a bent position. Convicts are not allowed to communicate during walks, when visiting the bathhouse and toilet. Visits with relatives are allowed (no longer than 2 hours), but the possibility of personal meetings is excluded. Sports events, movie screenings are prohibited, as is the opportunity to improve their education.

General information about the institution

The Polar Owl Colony accepts prisoners who have committed especially grave crimes. In this institution, Alexander Pichushkin (Bitsevsky maniac), (former police major), who is guilty of the mass execution Pomazun Sergey, are serving time in this institution. There are many convicted Muslims in the penal colony who were accused of terrorism. For example, the Polar Owl colony welcomed Nikolai Korolev, the head of the neo-Nazi terrorist organization Spas, and the former terrorist Nur-Pasha Kulaev.

The correctional facility is located in the Arctic Circle, where the climate is harsh, a full summer lasts only one month. Colony "Polar Owl", a photo of which is rarely found in the media, is a hard-to-reach place of detention. The curator is the Federal Security Service of Russia. FSB officers often come to the correctional institution, carry out checks, study the life of convicts. Prisoners can write complaints about employee misconduct and requests for a reduction in their sentence.

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