Фестиваль исторической реконструкции “Битва за Кавказ”. Фото: пресс-служба администрации Лермонтова.
“Isn’t it dreadful to see these legions of people who go through life ‘between tragedies’ – and don’t even realize it! It’s your will, and it’s such a tragedy, not in one, but in countless acts, thinking about which is difficult without shuddering!” M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. “Modern Idyll.”
It all started with a strong impression. At first, I didn’t even realize what captivated me, as there are many events like this now. Last spring, on the eve of Victory Day, I came across a video on Telegram: a reenactment of street battles in the town of Lermontov, Stavropol Krai. Shouts, gunfire. A tank (fake) drives down the street. Schoolchildren lie on the asphalt, portraying the wounded and killed. It sent shivers down my spine. I grew up in neighboring Pyatigorsk, and I remember Lermontov well too. Of course, it’s one of the central streets: familiar two-three story houses. Small, but definitely Stalin-era buildings: with high ceilings and large windows. I couldn’t resist searching online for information about this event. Here it is: the historical reenactment festival “Battle for the Caucasus” with the motto “Strength in unity, pride in history. Let’s create it together.” Regional media reminded that the Battle for the Caucasus took place simultaneously with the battles of Stalingrad and Kursk.
Why did it feel so unsettling? What was wrong there? Of course, Lermontov has its history. But during the war, this town did not exist yet. The schoolchildren, apparently, portray something under the music of some other time. Surely, excellent teachers must have spent a couple of weeks coaching the students, holding rehearsals to ensure they fell and lay on the asphalt correctly. I can imagine this very well, as I once worked at a school. Back then, reconstructions were not as popular. But now they have become popular, and it is important to reconstruct the right things. So that people feel proud of their history. At the same time, it’s crucial to ignore what doesn’t need to be reconstructed. Maybe that’s why it felt eerie? We all remain silent about incorrect memories, as one, in silent conspiracy, because our strength lies in unity. “We create history together.” In reality, these streets have never seen street battles, but we will depict them here, while the true inmates of the modest little Lysogorsk prison camp were there, but we won’t portray them.
I try to imagine another historical reconstruction in the center of Lermontov. “Here comes a column of inmates to that Stalin-era building that flashed in the frame. They are led by convoy guards. It was all here. After all, it was the prisoners who built both the house and the street. Who will tell these children now: ‘Our city – a memory not of war, not of Lermontov, but of the Gulag?’ Probably, some of the parents know and have spoken. This city emerged as a mining settlement because uranium was mined inside the neighboring Mount Beshtau. The prisoners also worked in these mines. What was here? A premonition arises of something chilling, frightening, and silenced. My heart was filled with a chilling cold, longing tormented, my thought froze, and in vain my imagination tried to enliven it – it was powerless to tune into a more exalted harmony. Why does this, I thought, oppress me so much, just at the sight of the House of Usher? I couldn’t find an explanation and couldn’t cope with the vague, incomprehensible images that besieged me while I watched and pondered.” Edgar Allan Poe. “The Fall of the House of Usher.”
To overcome the fear of the unknown, it is important to first understand what it is. This also applies to the past. So I begin the search. I find Lermontov on the internet, recalling. I look at the photos: what do I remember, what is new? Such a monument was not there before. A plaque with the inscription: “To the miners-founders of the city of Lermontov, who created the nuclear shield of the Motherland.” Of course, not a word about the prisoners. And only recently did I learn that not only free workers but also inmates from the local branch of the Gulag were mining uranium in Beshtau. It was all nearby. How could I not know at all? The five-headed Mount Beshtau, “five mountains” in Turkic languages, gave its name to Pyatigorsk. If you type in a search engine a question about Mount Beshtau and radiation, you’ll find plenty of links. You will read many times about a Soviet-era sign prohibiting mushroom picking (by the way, I remember such a sign) and many, many times that on this mountain, there allegedly grow some unbelievably large mutant mushrooms. (Well, the mushrooms there are of regular size.) And that the locals supposedly do not pick or eat them, realizing they grew “on uranium”, only selling them to naive holidaymakers. I remember how we collected them (not for sale), cooked and ate them. And drank water from the spring.
Beautiful nature. Good mountain. We never suspected how hollow it was inside. And that the water in the spring contains radon, probably should not be drunk. What kind of camp was this? I read Razgon and immediately had many questions. What was the name of the camp where it was located? Where and how did the prisoners live? Is it true that none of them ever returned from there? That thousands perished there? I look for information about the Gulag camps in the Stavropol Krai. (Of course, they were here too, just small and not well-known.) Found something about the area of Mount Beshtau. From May 4, 1951, to April 29, 1953, that is, for two years, there was “Construction 621 and ITL.” The management was in Pyatigorsk. The most prisoners were there in 1953 (4634). I wonder how many holidaymakers were there in the city at that time? People strolled through our lovely city with its resort charm, admired the beautiful views (yes, the forests and mountains), drank mineral water, unaware of the camp. What about the local residents? Our grandparents, parents – did they know? It seemed like a prosperous Soviet city lived a peaceful post-war life. The Gulag was always next to the daily life of “happy Soviet people” and “happy Soviet childhood.”
“Life behind the walls of Sukhanovka gushed like a stream. Through a small window in the cell, cheerful, fun pioneer songs, the sounds of a hornist and drumming flowed in. Playing the harmonica and singing Russian folk and revolutionary songs and ditties…” S.B. Prudovsky. “The Beautiful Lady of Spasskaya.” Of course, Soviet people knew about the existence of the camps. Did my parents know about the camps here, right nearby? I’m sure they didn’t know. It was my dad who first told me about Stalin’s camps. But nothing – about our family or our city. I think he would have said if he knew. How many years did Pyatigorsk residents live near the camp? And here’s a mystery: this camp existed from the spring of 1951 to the spring of 1953. What camp was there before when prisoners were mining uranium in 1949? And in ’50, when Razgon heard in a transit prison how everyone feared being sent there? Could he have confused the year he was on the transit? I search for Razgon on Wikipedia. Yes, he was re-arrested in 1950 in Stavropol. Of course, he remembered the year he was sent on the transit. How could he forget that? The labor of the camp inmates was used for the construction of the following objects: Ore Management No. 10 of the 2nd Main Directorate under the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Eshkakon water pipeline, ore processing plant, power lines 35 from the Beshtau substation to the Byk mountain deposit and 6 from Byk mountain to the exploration site in Verblud Mountain, heat and power plants, concrete plant, slag block plant, reinforced concrete structures workshop, roadway, railway branch, production and residential buildings. Also, ITL under Construction 612 was engaged in stone and sand mining and loading-unloading work. The inmates of the camp were used to service Construction 621, as well as to build objects of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, machine and tractor stations of the Ministry of Agriculture and the sanatorium of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the city of Zheleznovodsk. The camp administration was also in Pyatigorsk. In 1955, there were 2152 inmates, how many in 1954 – unknown. All in all, the camps where inmates mined ore officially existed here for less than two and a half years. There weren’t that many convicts, but did they do so much? Or did they not build it alone? And after 1975, when these mines closed, did no more inmates work here? I certainly do not understand uranium mining, but it seems that for this amount of work, such a number of workers is simply too negligible. And not all of them worked in the mines. The total length of the tunnels inside Beshtau is 150 km at a height of the mountain of almost one and a half km.
“Let them try to put chains on you, stern Beshta, Each thinks: he’d seize you now», So thought everyone; and Beshta Now understands their thoughts, Gazes at the Russians maliciously, Or with clouds clothes The wavy beauty of the tops… M.Y. Lermontov. “Izmail-Bey”.
The mountain inside is completely hollowed out, and in many passages, which have long not seen a human footprint. How many years did all this digging take? Beshtaugh uranium mines. Photo: social networks.
Who were the inmates here? Again and again on the internet, it is repeated that the “political” did not work in the uranium mines. Is this true? Why repeat it, who are they trying to convince? By the way, “non-political” – these are different people. Mention of a photographer sentenced to 20 years and sent to the Pyatigorsk camp for not turning his money into the fund is also found, hilariously.
“Well, to the bosses, whether it’s right or wrong, We’re the same old cons, you see. V.S. Vysotsky. ‘Cons Vasilyev and Petrov-Zeka’.”
It is often mentioned on the internet that most miners were free. People came to Lermontov and took on dangerous work, because the wages there were high by Soviet standards. And later, presumably, one could get an apartment there faster than in long-established Soviet cities. Was Lermontov a closed city? I don’t remember it being like one. In childhood, it seems, we all sometimes went there with our parents for groceries. There was good supply there. Who remembers this Soviet word?
“I remember how my mother and I were traveling home in a crowded intercity bus and placed heavy bags of flour at our feet because it disappeared at that time, and it was being sold in Lermontov.”
But this paradise will come later, and the first mine workers often perished in collapses, suffered from silicosis and cancer. From article to article on the internet, it is said that at the first signs of occupational diseases, miners were sent for treatment at the expense of the enterprise. It is also mentioned that the inmates worked without protective gear. Does anyone else remember and can tell about the first builders of Lermontov: free people lived in barracks, and inmates – “in dugouts.” An interesting moment. Many articles claim that “death row” prisoners did not work at Beshtau. There is a misconception that only “death row” convicts’ labor was used in the mines, but that is not the case: inmates participated only in the making of the 32nd shaft and the construction of the worker settlement Lermontovsky (now the city of Lermontov).
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From the conversation: – So this mountain is hollow inside. Imagine: a strong earthquake would happen, and she would collapse. – Yes, then a lot we don’t know about would be revealed! – Or, on the contrary: it would forever remain hidden. Of course, it’s only a fantasy. But we really have a lot to discover. What place will be next? There are mysteries here and there, not only in the depths of Beshtau. Comrade Stalin left behind a country full of surprises. We never know where the next Kolpashovo will be. Tatiana Litvinova.
