Аннотация: I avoided a crash during a visit to Kamchatka. An autobiographical story.
I avoided a crash during a visit to Kamchatka. An autobiographical story.
Why did I go (why did I fly) to Kamchatka?
At that time, there was an active public struggle against the Rostov (Volgodonsk) NPP, and one of the most active, persecuted and repressed environmental figures recommended my candidacy to be included in the participants of a some public event in Kamchatka.
For a long time I doubted whether it was worth me to fly to Kamchatka? I had a lot of professional tasks in front of me, and behind these tasks were clients.
But my curiosity won, and I decided to visit the Far East.
It was necessary to fly through Moscow. I promised some environmentalist a bottle of champagne if he did some thing in my favor in Moscow. He did something at my request, but I never got to him. The debt - a bottle of champagne - is still hanging on me. And this debt now can not be to paid. I take this opportunity to sincerely apologize.
The troubles did not end there.
It was the era of the 90s. There was not enough fuel. The plane was landing at some airfields, passengers breathed fresh air, looked at the gray sky. The aviation authorities were discovering fuel, the plane was flying on.
Despite my hopes, no one met me at the airport in Kamchatka. It was a kind of surprise.
What to do? The afternoon (second part of day) began. Stay overnight at the airport? And what to do in the morning? Or not to stay at the airport and to head into somewhere unknown?
I had some coordinates of the place (a suburban recreation center) where the event was to be held.
I rented a some private car (the ownership of some driver) and set off on my way.
Suddenly, another passenger sat down into that car on the way. A conversation on general topics began. The conversation was about where I came from, who I was and why I came.
I said that I was very concerned about environmental problems. And I'm going to participate in a public environmental meeting, discussion. We need to save nature!
There was an imperceptible pause in the conversation. The new passenger soon got out of the car.
The driver showed a kind of heroism. He was looking for a recreation center in complete darkness, which was located somewhere outside the city, and then drove from one closed gate to another. And he signaled, beeped, honked. Finally, someone showed up, and I was, like, saved.
One of the participants of the public event, a Muscovite, who arrived on another flight and somehow got to his destination (I think he was met with a car), hearing my story about an evening (night) trip from the airport in a rented car, silently looked at me with an incomprehensible expression on his face.
I will not describe the details of the public event here.
The recreation center had a swimming pool filled with hot water from underground springs. After ten minutes of being in such water, it was unbearable.
After the hot water, I was heading to a natural cold lake, where there was cold water, and the summer temperature of which allowed me to swim. I swam, although I heard warnings that radioactive waste was poured, in past, into this lake.
One day we at a bus headed to the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Beautiful beach. The water, however, was cold for bathing.
People from the administration had persuaded me to visit the Valley of Geysers.
I hesitated for a long time. It was possible only to reach this place by helicopter, and it was a very expensive event.
At last, I made a decision. My fellow traveleresses had a video camera with them, and they asked me to shoot them.
I was filming.
Together with us, about ten people in uniform were flying in the helicopter, who seemed to be connected with a submarine shipping.
One of them began to comment on my services of a photographer-operator in an offensive form.
What was I to be done?
To be in an altercation with people whose difficult work may have required new impressions?
Or to eat insults?
I had to eat this. It were unpleasant events and memories, as if for no reason, my shoe suddenly got into some a bad-smelling story.
At last, everything was over, and I returned to my small Homeland.
My fellow, a noticeable figure (he gave me a recommendation for a trip to Kamchatka), who opposed the entire bureaucratic system, protecting a native nature (environment), who was surrounded by a dense ring of high-ranked influential enemies (they hated him and sent hired assassins to him), often went on business trips abroad and he became a doctor of sciences.
I did not go on business trips abroad. I stayed with the degree of Candidate of Sciences.
My thoughts periodically returned to this trip.
The flight to Kamchatka allowed me to feel the vastness of the country's territory.
Walkings around the territory of suburban recreation center and around it, swimmings, did not give me any pleasure.
The sight of the Pacific Ocean was impressive. But if you look at the Sea of Azov and imagine that this is the Pacific Ocean, then you can find something in common.
The trip to the Valley of Geysers disappointed me. This visit seemed to be interesting, but if it was for free, and without insult...
During my absence, one of legal situation has managed to change significantly for the worse.
A few days ago, already in 2021, I read a story by Yaroslav Golovanov about Newton. It turns out that Newton has never been abroad and has lived all his life on an area of several hundred square kilometers. "Newton was an amazing stay-at-home person and in his entire life he never drove further than 180 kilometers from his native home. He never crossed the English Channel and never left England for a single day."
In general, everyone lives in their own style.
I will not hide it, somewhere inside I am pleased that I have visited the Far East. What happened, it happened...
My father once said that he had been to Khabarovsk. So when I visited the Far East, I probably followed the family tradition without realizing such line...
August 12, 2021 12:58
Translation from Russian into English: August 13, 2021 03:00.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский "Как я избежал крушения при визите на Камчатку. Автобиографический рассказ".