Masha and the Taxi drivers: the story of where the dog-sized irradiated jerboas live

The materials she has now are enough to publish a whole book. The taxi drivers themselves promise: if the book under the pilot title "Masha and the Taxi Drivers" is published, it will certainly become a bestseller.

Maria Dubinskaya (Story "I argued with the men - I will walk on foot from Magadan to Yakutsk and meet good people!")

“- In Magadan I had my own small hotel, but I left everything to my ex-wife and son. She confessed once that she loved another and we parted, kindly. Whatever it is, a woman must be respected, a woman is life itself.

And then I decided, since it happened, I need to take a break, look around, come to my senses. I had money, I could afford not to work for a while.

In general, I somehow gathered my friends, normal men, who fought in Afghanistan, who in Chechnya. By the way, I myself am one of the survivors of the Maikop division, if you have heard anything about it. Well, okay, this is all normal, this is life ...

In short, this and that, we got into conversation over a glass and a strong argument came out of us. No, they tell me, people more than normal have died out. Man is a wolf to man today.

And I didn’t agree, I don’t think so. People are always the same, at all times.

And there are definitely more good people, this is how the world works!

And I decided to prove to my peasants that they are wrong.

I will walk, I said, on foot from Magadan to Yakutsk - and I will not perish, everyone will help me along the way. And we bet on a box of champagne, what else was there to invent?..

The next morning I went out. Honestly, I took only a towel, socks and underpants, some food of some kind, purely symbolic - I knew for sure that I would not starve to death - and that's all.

It was November 6, 2006. And on January 2, 2007, I entered the Khandyga ulus, our villages are called ulus. From there it was already very close to Yakutsk, several hours, in fact. On the same day, I sat down with the driver of the truck, and got there. In general, I have trampled about 2,100 kilometers.

True, I know these places quite well, but I grew up here. The frosts, while walking, were very strong, this is normal. And once it came right up to - 62, already an anomaly. But you never need to whine, that's not the point. I decided that - so do it, and everything will work out.

During all this time, I have never slept under a bush, only with people, as I was going to. Now I will look to the miners in the artel, then somewhere else. And everywhere everyone immediately let me in, warmed me up, fed me. Nobody refused, nobody! Here, after all, this is simply not allowed, for nothing they will not let a person disappear. I've always known that.

And mine doubted! But I say: as you - so to you.

Sometimes I stayed in the artel for several days, worked as a mechanic, helped the peasants with the housework. I'm not afraid of work, am I a man or who?

What can I say: we have steep places, steep ... Deposits of gold, for example. There, under the village of Omchak 11 thousand tons lie, Prokhorov has been digging there for so many years.

Cool, yes ... But - as deep scars ... Here everything is on the bones! All these Stalinist camps ... I counted 14 of them along the way. I looked into everything.

I don't even know how to describe it all. Powerful experiences. It was strange, scary, interesting ... It sank strongly, sometimes to goose bumps.

Abandoned ruined barracks, aluminum mugs dangling underfoot ... And not a soul around. Only the wind walks, whistles ...

Yes, then I went around many different places, when will it happen again? I was in the Tenkinsky region at the Podumai pass. The name was invented because the terrain is so difficult to pass that you need to think 150 times before going up!

One of the creepiest places is Butugychag, of course. I also wandered around and looked ... There was a forced labor camp here. Uranium mines, tin mines, everything.

By the way, I remembered a funny thing. About jerboas. Once, in my youth, I somehow ended up in this Butugychag. So I was almost a bit short when a jellyfish jumped out of the mine right out of the mine!

The size of a hefty dog, I swear! He hung his cheeks, sits, looks at me with his eyes. He is not afraid of anyone, he is not afraid of a person. I was just dumbfounded, and then it came to pass: they are all irradiated with uranium! Then I saw many more of these giant jerboas here, they will not show you such anywhere, but they are - over there, jumping across the Magadan Region.

On the road, you can hear yourself especially clearly, you are here alone with your thoughts. Around nature, peace, no extraneous background ...

On the way, of course, I looked into churches, they meet here. There is a God, that's for sure. I will never forget this journey ... "