Leviathan is eternal. The famous Teriberka still lives in poverty and devastation

In 2014, the screens released another picture of the famous film director Andrei Zvyagintsev, Leviathan, which tells about the incredibly miserable life of the Russian provinces. The impression made by this film on the viewer, both in our country and abroad, was so strong that it became a kind of metaphor for Russia. Since then, sacramental eight years have passed.

Moscow teacher Mikhail Pavlovets went on a road trip through the Russian north and stopped on the way to the village of Teriberka, where Zvyagintsev shot his film - thanks to him, over the years it has become so popular that not only Russian, but also foreign tourists come here, including including Chinese. It would seem that this popularity could at least slightly brighten up the depressing realities of local life. Nothing like that: Teriberka, as it was a symbol of eternal Russian devastation, remains so. Here is what Pavlovets writes in his blog about this:

“Tomorrow we leave Teriberka with the feeling that we have been beyond the Bipolar Circle ... Here is luxurious nature - and the depressing poverty of everyday life, especially noticeable in contrast to what the tourism industry brings to local lands (including prices, almost for everything - four-digit and higher ). Aborigines are not too kind to those who come in large numbers - they are either indifferent or hardly hide their disdain: the service mainly involves students from Murmansk, but in most cases it is unobtrusive in the best Soviet traditions per hour - and agreed to throw up to 6999 R., but did not admit that he would ride for at least 2 hours - and then try not to pay: this is the general rule here).

In August, the eponymous festival under the patronage of the Arctic Council will be held in Teriberka for the 3rd time - it attracts thousands of guests - but it seems to irritate the locals - and it is not held for them: some official ryakhs with retinues walk around the village, the village was blocked and dug up, there was no electricity in it for half a day - for the festival, water supply was established and a bundle of electric cable was turned out of the ground with a bucket ...

I was impressed by how infinitely vulnerable the tundra was trampled in places of tourist pilgrimages - and there are a legion of tourists here, but the only platform in the surrounding tundra leads to a weather station - and a prohibition sign flaunts on it, so everything is rushed for 100 m around ... Another story - the amount of broken glass everywhere : on the seashore - and in the sea itself, on the paths, in the tundra ... However, right now, under the windows of our shelter, in a rusty longboat thrown ashore, a lonely child of an indefinite affiliation of 8-10 years old is swaggering - and the sound of breaking glass is heard ...

They say that Teriberka wanted to move to the other side of the river of the same name, to the place of the village of Lodeynoye, Gazprom - and build an LNG plant in its place. We managed to fight back, now a road is being paved in the rocks to the new site of the plant, but it seems that by the end of the last decade this project was either blown away or burst ... At the same time, Gazprom did not build a gas station in Teriberka to accustom local residents I bothered: the nearest gas station is 80 km away, of which more than half is the fiercest rocky primer (I drove for gasoline - a third of the tank is empty).

I am familiar with the criticism of the concept of "internal colonization", but here, more than anywhere else, it seems convincing and fair. What, against the backdrop of luxurious local nature, is perceived especially bitterly ... however, apparently, only renegades like us - "all-bad guys" who do not want to believe that "in four years there will be a garden city here", and timidly whispering: at what cost? - when it is known that "we will not stand up for the price" ...