The famous traveler of the Soviet era

50 years Walkways USSR Y. Volkolupov, a traveler with a 50-year veteran, professor, academician of the Academy of Sciences, Applied Radio Electronics, Kharkov, Ukraine today for those who love to travel, open enormous opportunities. Growing speed of aircraft and cars, new, electronic "toys", and our planet over the years as it becomes less and less. In the second half of the twentieth century, it seemed to go round it's not that the planet, but at least the territory of the Soviet Union - a task difficult. Nevertheless, the author of these lines to perform such a task to a significant extent, and in spite of an elderly age, the task it continues to successfully address. I must say that in Soviet times it was easy to travel. First, the cost is very inexpensive transportation, particularly air travel. For example, a plane ticket from Kharkov to Moscow cost only 18 rubles, while on the train - about 15 "rubles". Secondly, I personally have been much easier, as remuneration for teachers in the Soviet era was much more decent than that, alas, now. I tried not to miss any of the summer season, and participated in the marches by the most reserved places in our big, now, alas, defunct, the country. For the entire half century I have had only two breaks in travel related to the birth of my two daughters who were born with an interval of 9 years. Arctic fox on the background of the surf, the Commander Islands In this article I would like to list the most significant from the standpoint of the traveler, a place where I visited over the years. I do not consider it necessary to be a complete list of trips, to observe history and try to list all your travel needs. First of all, because this list would be quite voluminous, and the purpose of this article other. Nevertheless, do not exclude that publish those stories about his travels, which will not be listed below. So, it all started with the fact that I went to Kharkov University of Gorky in 1953. After studying for two years, it dawned on me that I must leave to pursue actively and at the same time explore the diverse nature of the USSR. The first significant tourist trip for me was the third year in 1956, the Western Caucasus. I, then a young student, had the good fortune to observe amazing panoramas of the Main Caucasian ridge, enjoy views of sky-high peaks, scenic mountains. We visited the very popular nowadays ski resort Dombay, but, alas, have not got to the foot of Mount Elbrus, which is located very close. We went through Marukhi Pass, crossed the pass Alibek, near the apex of the same name, and went to the lake Rizza. We traveled to parts of the Caucasus Mountains during the war of fierce fighting, and I am very encouraged by the fact that I was fighting the soldiers of the Great Patriotic trails. My next trip was to the South Urals in 1957, this area is interesting not only mountains and minerals, but also beautiful lakes are a lot of them. One of the most remarkable - Lake Ilmen on the bank is known in the former Soviet Union with the same name campsite. In addition, one of the first positions "rating" is the local beauty lake Turgayak. This is a unique body of water stretching for tens of kilometers, it is very clear water, many fish, crabs and other animals. Rocks on the shores of the lake contain a lot of mica, so when you look at the water surface, creating a distinct impression, as if only that there was little rain and some rain drops remained on the surface of the water without mixing with it. Around the lake - thick coniferous forests, so beautiful that it may seem as though the lake is in a certain frame of Malachite. Solovetsky monastery on the island of the same name, near Moscow, along with the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, the most famous spiritual landmark in the territory of Russia in the same trip I was fortunate enough to visit the hill country, formed by the ridges Taganay, Jurmala and Itsyl. It is difficult to find words to adequately describe the unearthly beauty of these places. It is a pity that we did not have time to climb the mountain Far Taganay, whose height is 1,112 m. In 1958, I happened to visit the Altai Mountains. It was one of the most difficult hikes, which the author of these lines have ever been able to pass. We were at the heart of the Altai - on the shores of Lake Teletskoye. Geometrically, it resembles a woman's Sapozhok, 6 ... 8 km wide and 70 km in length. To get to this wonderful reserve pond, we had some way to go on horseback, then on foot, about 200 miles through the snow-capped mountains. In general, the whole trip, we were "on foot" of about 250 km. "Water" part of our hike we started at the mouth of the river Chulyshman, which flows into the lake. From there we sail and periodically strain at the oars, went on a big schooner along the entire length of the lake to the village Teletskoje Artybash. There we were transferred to the schooner (actually it was a wooden boat without a motor) the smaller sizes, and the oars went down the river Biya, to the tourist center in the city of Biisk. The boat had about 30 people. The first third of the way down the river we crossed with difficulty, as there were many steep rapids, and we had to make a great effort not to turn over. We ruled the course of the oars, and always repelled from the stones around us. Fortunately, the rest part of the path is not created for us the problems within the river was much more calm. In general, travel was difficult and very busy, most importantly, - impressions from the constant change of natural areas through which we had to go through. Taiga landscapes alternated views of mountain peaks, but very soon you could be in the tundra, and get back into the forest. In 1959 our team went through the high mountains of Tien Shan. Starting point of our trek was a hostel in the village Ananyevo, on the shores of Lake Issyk-Kul. Hence, through mountain ranges, we have arrived in Alma-Ata, and came back. It is difficult to convey even the great and mighty Russian language, the beauty of what we had the good fortune to see in this campaign. Impressions is not spoiled or severe frosts, or mountain sickness. Conditions were difficult to traverse, to be sure. Suffice it to recall the fact that one of us traversed the passes at a high altitude than the top of Mount Elbrus. In 1961 he took my trip to Wrangel Island, which, as everyone knows from the school course in geography, is located between the East Siberian and Chukchi seas in the Arctic Ocean. To get there, it took me two years since the first attempt failed because of unfavorable ice conditions. In a review article it is difficult to describe all the splendor that awaits a traveler on the island: walrus rookeries, bird rookeries, beautiful ocean and the tacit celebration of northern nature. Wrangel Island was truly an oasis in the white desert. The local soft on polar concepts, the climate is easily explained. Amazingly beautiful mountain ranges close to the cold winds fairly spacious valley in the northern part of the island. In addition to the tremendous abundance of polar fauna, there grows a very untypical of tundra vegetation. On Wrangel Island and Chukotka I have many places to observe walrus rookeries, where they spend their mating season. Moreover, these seats - a real "hospital" for polar bears. Today, about 70 percent of white bears Russian Arctic born on Wrangel Island. The fact that the October 30, 1961 in Novaya Zemlya tested a thermonuclear bomb at 50 megatons, the explosion was so strong that the shock wave rounded the globe several times. As a result, the vast waters of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent to the site of the explosion, killing a great many birds, seals and polar bears. Since then, their population is recovering, but alas, the process is very slow. Today get polar bears is prohibited, however, for the indigenous people of Chukotka, the Inuit and Chukchi make an exception to this rule. If in the early 60's asked me what I wanted to achieve, as a traveler, I would not hesitate to reply to what I want to visit all the islands of the Arctic Ocean. With rare exception, I do, in general, succeeded. For example, I was on the island and the island Ratmanova Kruzenstern - these are small plots of land in the frozen Bering Strait, the distance between them is about 6 kilometers. Today it is hard to remember all the impressions from that trip, but the main thing that struck me then - it is very powerful within the strait. Rookery of sea lions. To the nearest animal - about 4 meters. Bering Island. Incidentally, one of these islands, I found myself accidentally. We were aboard a small hydrographic boat that came from Anadyr to light the lamps of coastal lighthouses. Began a violent storm, and our boat, he rescued the weather, had gone to the island Ratmanova. Here we were very warmly greeted guards, whose presence we are particularly inspired then, given the fact that the U.S. Air Force plane made constant overflights of its territory, occasionally a little "scratching" the planes of Soviet airspace. I had to go and New Siberian Islands, which are located between the Laptev Sea and East Siberian Sea, near the mouth of the Lena River. On the territory of these islands are many of the remains of mammoths. In the permafrost can be found the bones and tusks, and even sometimes find the carcass. Incidentally, the entire mammoth carcasses have three museums in the world - in Vladivostok, in the Arctic Museum in St. Petersburg and in the Zoological Museum of Moscow. This writer holds in his Kharkov apartment, as the memory of these trips, scrap mammoth ivory weighing about 8 kg. New Siberian Islands - plain. The archipelago consists of three large islands: Bolshevik, Komsomolets and Pioneer are already on the title you can guess that these islands were discovered in Soviet times. In the period since 1930 and four polar explorers, headed by Ushakov had been delivered an icebreaker to the islands. Heroes held here two years offline, studying the arctic nature and wildlife. This first expedition was able to produce reasonably accurate mapping of the archipelago. In a series of islands that had taken me, not to mention small island Dixon in the Yenisei Gulf of the Kara Sea and the archipelago of many islands of Franz Josef Land, which is located the Barents Sea. In these areas are large Russian polar research observatories, in particular, on the island Hayes (Franz Josef Land) and on the island of Dixon. At a time when we visited these islands, the territory of the polar station to launch a very expensive meteorological rocket, which has raised scientific equipment to an altitude of several hundred kilometers, after which the instrument returns by parachute. Holy Lake in the background Solovetsky monastery With these devices were measured parameters of all layers of the atmosphere, which gave invaluable information for researchers. The launches of these missiles performed regularly once a week, and the list of items the launch was very large. In addition to the northern territories, missile launch was carried out on many launching sites throughout the Soviet Union, with research ships in the ocean, until the Soviet Antarctic observatories. Run all the missiles were strictly synchronized and performed strictly at 0 hours 6 minutes, Moscow time. Now, a little stop on the Pacific. I have repeatedly had occasion to visit the three islands of the Kuril chain - Shikotan, Etorofu and Kunashiri. They are roughly at the latitude of Sochi, but the climate there is more severe. The Kuril Islands are located about 7 active volcanoes, the most beautiful of them - Volcano Daddy. At one time it was considered extinct, and that's when one of the famous volcanologists inadvertently suggesting that the volcano will never work, ironically, on the following day the eruption began. Daddy began to throw into the stratosphere of huge volumes of ash and gas. From the crater of flying volcanic bombs, pieces of rock weighing several tons to a height of about five kilometers. Particularly impressive is the view of this eruption in the night when the red-orange lava chunks feverish describe the trajectory in the dark sky. Volcanic bombs repeatedly landed in the vicinity of the place where our observation point, so we had to hide behind a rock to avoid falling victim to the bombing. Kamchatka volcano eruption Karymsky, photos from the neighboring mountains Small Semlyachek Completing the theme of islands, can not remember the Seal Island, which is located in the southwestern part of the Okhotsk Sea. Affects the abundance of the Commander Island fur seals. In a large part of the territory can be observed bird colonies breed here many birds such as guillemots, cormorants, tufted puffins. Karymsky volcano eruption, far away - Small Semlyachek Kamchatka Peninsula - my favorite place for hiking, only the Valley of Geysers, I have visited three times. There are about 30 active geysers. And not to be confused with a geyser of hot spring, which gives a continuous flow of water, while a geyser erupting at regular intervals Navy SEALs (foreground) and sea lions (on shore), the Commander Islands, Bering Kamchatka Besides, I was to observe the geysers in Yellowstone National Park, USA. I can say with full responsibility that, in comparison with their American Kamchatka geysers to collect, to put it mildly, is not impressive. For example, the nozzle of the Kamchatka geysers giant area just something about six square feet spewed a column of boiling water on tridtsatimetrovuyu height, with superheated steam hits the height of 250 meters. At this point, under the feet of earth trembles, as if in underground tunnels at the same time going a few dozen subway trains. Giant Geyser has an unstable period of the eruption, it varies from 2,5 to 4,5 hours. The duration of the active phase of the eruption - about 5 minutes. Accordingly, in order to witness the eruption, requires a certain patience, so we had a few hours walking the neighborhood geyser to wait until the active phase of the process. Much easier to see in "working" state Small geyser, which erupts at regular intervals 40 minutes, with the active phase of the eruption lasted 25 minutes. Giant Geyser, the largest in Kamchatka are a few more words on the continental travels. One of the most attractive tourist destinations in the east of Russia is the Ussuri taiga. It is no exaggeration to now reserved place. And in Soviet times and is now in the Primorsky Territory there is a whole system of nature reserves. I've always been a dream - to see the wild tiger. And this dream was realized, however, to achieve this I had to spend a lot of time and effort, since this animal is very, very rare. I had to attend and the famous Lake Hanka, where there were military operations during the Sino-Soviet conflict in 1929 Much of the lake surface waterlogged and covered with thickets of the lotus. In the waters of the lake is very rich fauna - a great variety of fish, aquatic invertebrates and birds. From Lake Hanka Sungach follows the river, which flows into the Ussuri River - a large tributary of the Amur. In the vicinity of Lake Hanka is the large number of rice paddies. Lake is the border, part of his Russian coast and the other part - the Chinese. About three-quarters of the lake belongs to Russia. Concluding the review article about my travels in the former Soviet Union, I must mention the Pamirs, where I had to visit more than once. Extremely interesting tourist route is Route Osh-Khorog, it connects the regional center of Kyrgyzstan (Osh) from Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (Khorog). A 4-seventhousander former Soviet Union, three are in the Pamirs - Communism Peak (formerly Stalin Peak), Lenin Peak, Peak Korjenevskaya. It is also the world's largest glacier, southern and temperate latitudes - Fedchenko. This icy river stretches for 70 km and has an average width of 6-7 km. The glacier feeds the largest river in Central Asia - the Amu Darya. In conclusion, that the above list is not complete, and I hope that I have not time to share with readers my impressions that I have received over many years of travel through the territory of the Soviet Union. See also: Brave traveler Isabella Bird