Defense islands in Lake Ladoga on the map. Testing of nuclear weapons on Lake Ladoga. Karelian officials remain silent

In November 2014, the foundation stone of a new monastery dedicated to the holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called was performed by the abbot of the Valaam Transfiguration Monastery, Bishop Pankraty of the Trinity. On December 13, 2015, Metropolitan Barsanuphius of St. Petersburg and Ladoga, who visited the Valaam archipelago, placed a capsule with a letter in a hole in the wall of the altar part of the church under construction, the website of the St. Petersburg Metropolis reports.

“It is a great honor for us to build here a monastery and a temple of St. Andrew the First-Called Apostle, where people could come for spiritual support. Breaking away from the bustle of the world, they will be able to offer prayers here, gather their thoughts, and be strengthened spiritually, so that later they can solve the problems that the Lord has put us all on,” the diocesan website quotes Metropolitan Barsanuphius as saying.

The construction of St. Andrew's Skete was undertaken as part of the implementation of the program for the development of skete and hermit life at the Valaam Monastery, which received the approval of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill.

The construction of the monastery is carried out jointly with the St. Petersburg Metropolis and with the support of the regional public organization “Russian Athonite Society”, the Board of Trustees of which is headed by the Governor of St. Petersburg G.S. Poltavchenko.

Hermitages of the Valaam Monastery

St. Andrew's monastery will become the 14th monastery located on the Valaam archipelago. Today there are 12 monastic hermitages here:

Skete of All Saints. The very first and largest of the monastic hermitages. In 1789–1796, a stone church and six cell buildings for the brethren were built. Women are allowed to visit the monastery only once a year - on the first Sunday after the Holy Trinity.

Nikolsky skete. Includes the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (built in 1853) and the Church of St. John of Damascus (built in 1856). Architect A. M. Gornostaev.

Skete of St. John the Baptist on Predtechensky Island. The rules of the monastery are particularly strict; outsiders are not allowed to visit the monastery.

Konevsky skete. Consecrated in 1870, dismantled in the 50s of the 20th century, restored in 2004 and re-consecrated in the name of the Konevskaya Icon of the Mother of God.

Resurrection Skete (New Jerusalem Skete, Red Skete). Located on Mount Zion, where, according to legend, St. Apostle Andrew the First-Called erected a stone cross.

Gethsemane skete. Consecrated in 1911, it includes the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Ascension Chapel on Mount Eleon, a house for the brethren, and a chapel in honor of the “Prayer of the Chalice” icon.

Smolensk skete. Built in 1917 according to the design of Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich, restored in 2005.

St. Vladimir's monastery. Built in 2007.

Alexander-Svirsky monastery (Alexander Svirsky monastery, Holy Island monastery). Located on Holy Island, where in the 15th century St. St. Petersburg lived in a cave for about seven years. Alexander Svirsky. Rebuilt in 2001 after a fire in 1999.

Elias Monastery on the island of Lembos. In 1867, a wooden chapel in the name of the Prophet Elijah with a bell tower and cells was erected, destroyed in the 50s of the 20th century, rebuilt in 2006.

Skete in honor of St. Herman of Alaska on Bayonne Island. Founded in 2010.

Sergius Monastery on the island of Putsaari. Founded in the second half of the 19th century. Located on o. Putsaari is 18 kilometers north of the central islands of the archipelago. Includes the church of St. Sergius of Valaam, built according to the design of the architect Barankeev, monastery cells and outbuildings.

Another one, the Avraamievsky monastery (monastery in honor of St. Abraham of Rostov), ​​located on Emelyanovsky (Abraamiyevsky) island and destroyed in Soviet times, has been restored since 2014.

The Germanovsky monastery, located on the Ladoga shore, in the Pitkyaranta region of Karelia, remains in a dilapidated state.

The Tikhvin monastery on the island of Vossinansaari has not survived to this day.

Oboronny Island

Oborony (Sukhoi, Kelisaari, Finnish Kelisaari - “way island”) - an island in Lake Ladoga; one of the Defense (Emelyanov) islands of the Valaam archipelago. Located south of the island of Valaam. Administratively it belongs to the Sortavala region of Karelia.

Sukhoi Island is separated from the neighboring Emelyanovsky Island by a narrow passage, the depth of which is 2.4 m.

After Finland gained independence in 1917, the first military personnel arrived in the archipelago. On the islands, called Defense Islands, and in the buildings of the fishing village, a patrol fleet and a sea patrol station were located.

During the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939–1940, coastal artillery was stationed here, but there were no military operations on Oboronny. During the interwar period, Finnish military builders built a large number of different defense-related buildings on Ladoga, but the fortifications on Oboronny Island are highly concentrated and diverse.

All of them were part of the Mannerheim Line - a complex of defensive structures between the Gulf of Finland and Ladoga, created in 1920–1930 on the Finnish part of the Karelian Isthmus to deter a possible offensive attack from the USSR. The total length of the complex was 132–135 km.

The fortifications include two-tiered underground casemates, gun positions, a secret descent to Ladoga cut through the rock, and an artillery tower.

On September 4, 1944, the USSR and Finland concluded a truce, and on September 19 - a temporary peace, the border was established along the lines of 1940. The Finns evacuated first the local population and then the troops. On October 1, the border was closed.

In recent decades, well-preserved defense structures have attracted large numbers of tourists to the island.

Shallowing of Ladoga and problems of organizing pilgrimages

Today, at a meeting with the first vice-president of the Russian Geographical Society, Artur Chilingarov, the abbot of the Valaam Monastery, Bishop Pankratiy, noted that, according to observations that are constantly being carried out in the monastery, the water level in Ladoga has dropped. This was reported by Interfax with reference to the press service of the monastery.

“We had to make a new, lowest mark on the foot rod. We are very concerned, because if the water drops even lower, there will be serious problems for navigation, and not only on Valaam,” the bishop said.

According to preliminary data, the water level in Ladoga has dropped by more than one and a half meters. According to the hierarch, a decrease in water level is also observed in Lake Onega, Lake Ilmen and the Saima Lakes in Finland.

For the monastery, the shallowing of Ladoga can become a serious problem, since the monastery’s communication with the mainland is carried out mainly by water. Construction materials, fuel and some types of products are delivered to the island by motor ships.

The pilgrimage to Valaam is also almost entirely provided by water transport: cruise ships sail along the route St. Petersburg - Valaam, and hydrofoil ships of the Meteor type deliver pilgrims to the island from the port of Sortavala.

A small percentage of the total volume is occupied by helicopter transportation.

Heinäsenmaa, Verkkosaari, Vossinoisari, Mykkerikke, Rahmansari and several more small islands - this is Western Archipelago . People call them Defense because during the Winter War of 39-40, all kinds of Finnish fortifications related to Mannerheim lines . Also, on O. Rahmansari in September 1941, very heavy battles were fought - the Finns successfully drove our people out of there.

Heinäsenmaa Archipelago

Heinäsenma

Heinäsenma

Art position

Art position

Radiation

Radiation

Bunker on Heinäsenma

Bunker on Heinäsenma

Since the 50s on islands of the Western Archipelago there were Soviet testing grounds where weapons of mass destruction were tested. In particular, on Heinäsenmaa There are several contaminated areas, fenced with barbed wire and radiation signs.

Heinäsenma

Heinäsenma

Heinäsenma

Heinäsenma

Art positions

Art positions

In fact, Heinäsenmaa - this is a whole archipelago. It consists of three large islands, and several smaller ones. The largest of them, in fact, Heinäsenmaa , to the north of it there is a small island Makarinsari , even further north - Kugrisari . On Makarinsari there is a radioactive burial ground, about contamination Kugrisari There is no exact information. South part Heinäsenmaa- not infected.

Heinäsenma

Heinäsenma

Remains of equipment

Remains of equipment

Rusty remains

Rusty remains

According to locals, up to the age of 53, Heinäsenmaa was a testing ground for weapons of mass destruction. Special shells and bombs were tested there, spraying a radioactive aerosol over the enemy. To visually evaluate the destructive weapons of weapons, all kinds of rats and other small animals were planted on the island. Actually, these creatures were destroyed there, and no work was carried out to clean up the area.

Peter

The same captured German minesweeper, renamed by ours as "Whale" was near Heinäsenmaa islands as a floating laboratory. But one day there was an accident, as a result of which the ship was heavily contaminated with radiation. The local military leadership decided to scuttle the ship, towing it to depth. The staff, in order not to waste time, opened the kingstons right at the start site, between Heinäsenmaa And Kugrisari . But the Germans, as the locals told us, “even then they did everything conscientiously, and the minesweeper immediately sank to the bottom as soon as the seacocks were opened.” Thus, he remained in the shallow strait between the islands right up to the 90s.

concrete tower

concrete tower

Iron

Iron

After 53 years on the islands Heinäsenmaa , as well as on Burneve a testing ground was organized to test the strength of various military equipment. Driving and flying cars were beaten and burned, exploded and drowned, having previously been covered with a bunch of various sensors. “They’ll put the Product in the chamber, and let’s heat it up to one thousand to two thousand degrees. They warm it up and see what happens. They’ll burn the Toy like that, take all the readings, and then the scientists will write a report on the tests for a whole year.”. By the way, one of the gun yards on Heinäsenmaa , which we wrote about, was nothing more than a large test "burner". Well, the industry was doing well then. They’ll make a prototype, and let’s test it, and improve it based on the results, so that neither an air bomb, nor a bullet, nor an atomic explosion can hit it.

Rust

Rust

Explore the island

Explore the island

Heinäsenma

Heinäsenma

At the same time, everyone Ladoga There have always been a lot of fishermen who, at odd times, when nothing was happening at the test sites, fished in radioactive waters near Heinäsenmaa , stopped there for the night, smoked and dried their catch there. In the 80s-90s, as you know, the industry declined, but at the same time the state suddenly realized - yomai - there is radiation there!

Observation post

Observation post

Bunker on Heinäsenma

Bunker on Heinäsenma

Pile of iron

Pile of iron

“Then they suddenly remembered about this disgrace and began to clean it up. We removed half a meter of soil there, then loaded it into containers and took it to Sosnovy Bor, to the burial ground. The guys from the Russian Chemistry and Chemical Plant, who worked in Chernobyl, came to us and said that in some places the radiation was, before the cleanup, stronger than at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant immediately after the accident.

Military at Heinäsenma

Military at Heinäsenma

Yes, I remember, before that there was always silence there - no birds, no one. But when the soil had already been removed, everything had been collected, we were sitting one day with Sergeant Vasechkin on a rock, smoking, and then one day - a seagull screamed, somewhere I heard a bird chirping, yes... And the minesweeper in 93 on Novaya They dragged away the earth and flooded it somewhere.”, one driver from Priozersk told us.

The locals did not specifically specify where exactly the soil was removed and intensive cleaning was carried out. Perhaps they meant Makarinsari, Kugrisari , and other small islands belonging to Heinäsenmaa . Actually Heinäsenmaa (there are many islands of Heinäsenmaa - one large and several small ones in a cluster), obviously nothing was removed, and it’s good - all this iron is of considerable interest to the traveler.

Also, we were told that testing of equipment is still carried out to this day, but rarely. By the way, this is exactly what the military men warned us about, whom we met last year at Heinäsenmaa . They said that this year certain events would be held there, and that if we wanted to come there again during these events, they would not let us in.

Verkkosaari Island

On Verkkrsaari there is no training ground or burial ground, only old Finnish positions, a couple of rifle cells and a dugout inhabited by fishermen.

Dugout

Lighthouse

Cabinet

Dugout

In general, it must be said that there are people on the island, but very rarely - this was evident from the occasional garbage. In addition, fishing vessels often pass by the island, heading northeast between Verkkosaari And Heinäsenmaa .

Remains of a ship on Verkkosaari

Remains of a ship on Verkkosaari

Ship to Verkkosaari

Ship to Verkkosaari

Remains of the ship

Remains of the ship

Remains of the ship

Remains of the ship

The island consists of rocky shores three to four meters high, as if made of black and gray stone blocks, and on top there is a forest. According to my feelings, the island is very old and looks like a solid monolith. All the stones at the corners are round, ground with water and air.

Firing point

Firing point

At the eastern end of the island, the height of the shores decreases, and the shore turns into a gentle slope of solid stone, gently protruding into the lake as a cape. At regular intervals on the high banks, convenient shooting holes made of wild stone are visible.

Original taken from Terranovez to Oboronny Island.

In September 2011, I was able to visit Oboronny Island, part of the Valaam archipelago. From the pier in Nikonovskaya Bay, where our ship remained, we took a private boat with a local guide to the wonderful island.
Along barely noticeable paths, we crossed the lines of fortifications in the form of coils of barbed wire and trench trenches dug by the Finns in the rocky ground, trying to see the remains of the defense structures of 1939.

In addition to natural barriers in the form of steep and steep stones and boulders covered with moss and lichens, the invaders would have been met by rows of thorns and trenches. However, we have overcome these obstacles.Trenches and trenches overgrown with ferns. A little history: Defense (Dry, Kelisaari) - an island in Lake Ladoga. Included in Valaam archipelago. Located south of the island of Valaam. After Finland gained independence, the first military and builders arrived on the archipelago. On the islands called Defense and in the buildings of the fishing village, a patrol fleet and a sea patrol station were located. During the 1939-40 war, the coastal artillery was stationed here. On September 19, 1944, after the armistice, the last Finnish units left the Defense Islands. All the structures shown in the photo were made by Finns in rocky soil.

Former Finnish barracks, now a fisherman's hut. We visited the hut.

From there you could hear the sound of waves rolling on the coastal rocks.

A structure for an artillery installation combined with an underground bunker.

While the men stood above the entrance to the bunker and decided on a rhetorical question: who should go first and shine a flashlight, two girls from our group went down and left the tunnel to the gun mount location. Checked - no ghouls or mines! Come down!

View of the lake from a place above the underground bunker.

In the bunker, which was a long tunnel with branches to various utility rooms and connecting two artillery mounts, we moved carefully one after another. I took a photo of the drainage pit, because you could get your foot into it - the only danger on our route.

I was amazed by the quality of the structure and the quality of the work performed. No large cracks in the concrete, no efflorescence, no chips or sinkholes. Then the guide will ask us about the brand of cement that was used in construction. I strained my brains and gave out what I remembered from the course “Building materials” - M500 - hydraulic engineering. The brand turned out to be M600.
We reached the spotlight shed - a storage place for a large (5-6 meters in diameter) spotlight.

And this is the embankment of the rail track along which the searchlight was taken to the shore for work. The rails and sleepers disappeared under the influence of time, but the embankment remained. Small depressions in the ground under the sleepers are visible.

An electrical cabinet with remains of an electrical cable.

Looking at such structures, you begin to imagine pictures of the past about how it all worked and existed. You can just imagine how cold autumn rain pours from low gray northern clouds, a strong wind disperses the Ladoga waves and throws them with force onto the stones, breaking them and crumbling them into white droplets, filling the surroundings with noise. The night is coming. From the floodlight warehouse, a slender and tall Finnish youth and his comrades roll out a chrome spotlight to the edge of the shore in order to illuminate the approaches to the fortifications. His face is concentrated, he firmly holds the handrail of the cart and confidently pushes it, not paying attention to the light rain and the increasing wind. Or maybe everything was different? Exhausted, small, bandy-legged, wrapped headlong in raincoats, sick and unhappy schmucks, looking like factory workers, hatefully pushing a cart with a spotlight and dreaming of home? Such trips awaken dormant imagination, turn on thoughts and give rise to pleasant hallucinations. And only nature remains itself and lives according to its own laws, trying not to bend to the changing world.

With the tacit consent of the ministries responsible for the safety of the population and environmentalists who cannot see beyond the barbed wire, the military training ground on Lake Ladoga becomes a favorite vacation spot for St. Petersburg residents. The site’s own expedition took place in places where the radioactive background is 1300 times higher than the nominal values, and the historical truth is generously mixed with Soviet myths.

Chance meeting

On one of the sunny August evenings, your humble servant was walking on the pier in the Ladoga village of Vladimirovka, where pilgrims of the Konevetsky Monastery begin their journey, waiting for the sunset light. And quite by accident I became an involuntary listener to the dialogue between tourists returning from the holy island and a seller of freshly smoked fish.

- Don't feel seasick?, - the merchant politely asked, demonstrating the gifts of Ladoga.

We’re already used to it, we’ve been to Solovki, but there it will be more difficult to walk. But you also saw enough beauty: you visited the monastery and went to the Horse-Stone. We just didn’t make it to Vargosy, where there were some ships, but it’s a pity,” the travelers complained.

- And thank God they didn’t make it. Radiation is there.

A gust of wind from the lake raised dust in the air and muffled the fragments of conversation that were heard, but what was heard was enough. “Ships”, “radiation” - just another “naval story”, invented to scare tourists away from places undeveloped by the Konevetsky Monastery, or is there really a story behind the myth?

A quick search online confirmed that at least one part of what was said was true. The elongated silhouettes of ships in the bay at Cape Vargosy were visible on any satellite image. Captions to them in different sequences were replete with the phrases “DANGER”, “Radiation”, “Direction-15”. It is not surprising that a week later, along the roads of Konevets, trampled by thousands of pilgrims, armed with dosimetric equipment, a group of journalists, who had temporarily retrained as ecologists, was briskly moving.

Part of the journey had to be made along the picturesque coast, jumping from one stone hewn by the wind and waves to another, part of the journey had to be sailed on an inflatable boat, scaring away the distrustful Baltic seals. Mooring to the crumpled sides of the ships found in the bay was exciting, to say the least. The sharp edges of the old metal tried to find a weak spot in the sides of the boat, tossed by the winds. Finally, the first landing and the first measurements.

Norm. 0.22 μSv/h - was displayed on the dosimeter screen. On deck, in the wheelhouse, at the entrance to the hold. Everywhere the values ​​do not exceed the norm. Overcoming the seething Ladoga, the rower takes his fragile little boat away from the side of the previously formidable ship and leads to the next one. Normal, normal, shore, dry change of clothes and way back. The myth about radiation at Konevets has been dispelled.

But there is no smoke without fire, right? What is this mysterious “Direction-15” that is associated with the Vargos? The answer was found in the archives of the print media - they wrote about the secret developments of the Navy back in 2002. This is how scientific sailors simply called the work on the production of radioactive warfare substances (RAW), in common parlance - a “dirty bomb”. True, they were not held at Konevets, but on Vasilyevsky Island in Leningrad.

One of the research institutes, which owned territory in the Shkipersky Channel area, was engaged in the creation of cheap weapons of mass destruction from spent fuel from nuclear power plants. In fact, it was planned to spray radioactive isotopes dissolved in acid in the form of an aerosol over enemy personnel. Subsequently, such weapons were considered ineffective and their development was curtailed, concentrating on more classic, but much faster missiles and bombs. Scientists have found that “dirty” radionuclides cannot instantly stop the advancing hordes of the enemy; they turn the affected territories into desert for a long time and, spreading through water and soil, can strike at their own citizens many, many years later.

But then, in the 50s, ideas of powerful weapons hovered over the powerful country of the Soviets. And in an atmosphere of the strictest secrecy, caravans with a load of deadly ampoules pulled out from Leningrad.

Tracing their path half a century later has proven difficult. The answer, as usual, was prompted by chance. Information contained in numbers and names like “military unit 99795”, “Object 230 of the Navy” and “Ladoga training ground” was accidentally discovered in a rare collection of memoirs “The Man from the Epicenter”, which tells about the service of outstanding people who laid down their lives in units of the Special Forces. risk. According to the military, the brief information about the ongoing tests of radioactive military substances immediately provided food for thought and indicated the direction of action. For details we had to go to eyewitnesses of the events half a century ago.

Despite the many years that have passed since the work of the testers and the atmosphere of military secrecy in which the contamination of the territories of the Leningrad region and Karelia was carried out, there are still people in whose outstanding memory the names and details of the activities of the military on the islands of Lake Ladoga have been preserved. Through an extensive network of contacts in veteran organizations, accumulated over the years of journalistic work, we managed to contact one of the employees of that very “Object 230 Navy”, captain 1st rank in the reserve Anatoly Kutskov.

Three years of testing

“The confusion most likely comes from the fact that Colonel Dvorovoy was in charge at Konevets - later the first commander of Object 230 of the Navy, which worked with radiation,” Kutskov explained.

The radioactive history of “Object 230 of the Navy” at that time was taking place in completely different places. It turned out that the tests of the ballistic missiles created in Leningrad were entrusted to military unit 99795, founded in 1953. Geographically, it was located on the shores of Lake Ladoga, literally a few kilometers from the densely populated Priozersk. For the sake of safety and secrecy of the work being carried out, it was decided to conduct experiments with radioactive warfare substances on the islands of the so-called Western Archipelago - Heinäsenmaa, Makarinsaari and Mökerikke, several tens of kilometers from the coast. To scare away those with particularly curious eyes, a separate division of ships and vessels of the Navy was assigned to guard the test site.

On the islands themselves, rapid construction began: barracks, laboratory buildings, vivariums for experimental animals, blasting sites, and observation towers were erected. As a test bed for firing, the captured German destroyer "Kit" was brought to the Heinäsenmaa group of islands, which was immediately reclassified by researchers into an experimental vessel.

They tested weapons of mass destruction on dogs, rabbits and mice. Scientists poured radioactive substances near the cages with animals and observed from a distance how soon the death of the subjects would occur. There they also studied ways to counteract radiation and tested medicines in case of future nuclear disasters.

In parallel, the military was working on means of delivering ballistic missiles to the target. Charges with radioactive aerosols were exploded on board the Whale, on the islands of the Heinäsenmaa archipelago and in the water area near Mökerikke.

In just three summer seasons from 1953 to 1955, the Soviet military exposed the nature of Lake Ladoga to contamination, the elimination of the consequences of which fell on the shoulders of hundreds of followers and required the participation of the largest defense enterprises and the adoption of non-trivial decisions.

Walk through a radioactive test site

Since then, endless trips to the islands began in pursuit of radioactive secrets that were hidden behind the raging expanses of Ladoga, kilometers of roads and inaccessible rocky shores.

To view the expedition route, click on the arrow or select events on the map.

A group of St. Petersburg journalists, united by common interests in the mysteries left by the military and the desire to see the consequences of dangerous research with their own eyes, greeted a foggy and full of uncertainty Saturday morning in the Ladoga skerries. Behind are almost 250 kilometers of asphalt and dirt roads winding with serpentine grace, ahead are 150-meter depths under the keel of a rented boat and long-awaited exploration.

On Heinäsenmaa? We’ll take you there, but it will be difficult to get back - the winds are getting stronger,” warns the friendly owner of the pier, from where the ecological expedition is supposed to set off at the first rays of the sun.

- Do you often take tourists there?- We are carefully interested in knowledge about the history of the islands.

In the summer, of course, there is demand. The places there are beautiful, but on the small islands there were some tests, they say radiation, cesium, which is not clear how to determine with instruments. But this is nonsense; even when the military was there, poachers were hunting and fishing. And nothing. Then they dragged the metal from there and handed it over; there was a lot of abandoned metal. Are you afraid to go? - recalls Anna, handing out life jackets.

With assurances that we are no strangers to danger, we set off. After two hours of maneuvering the boat in dense fog between stones suddenly emerging from the water, the outlines of a target appear before your eyes. With you are two dosimeters capable of measuring gamma and beta radiation, two inflatable boats for moving between small rocky islands and a week's supply of provisions in case of a sharp deterioration in the weather.

Dawn on the largest island of the archipelago, Heinäsenmaa, is filled with the noise of tourist camps. From the southern shore, hidden by the forest, the sounds of axes and working chainsaws can be heard. A longboat, large by Ladoga standards, with the inscription “Nord” on board, is moored to the neighboring bay. Half an hour later, a polyphonic tent camp grows there, guitar chords and snatches of choruses of popular songs fly over the awakening Ladoga. I wonder if the guests know that they came to relax at a former radioactive test site?

However, the dosimeters on Heinäsenmaa are indeed silent. The alarming, growing squeak of the device was heard for the first time only on Makarinsaari, a rocky island covered with storm-broken trees and dense bushes. As soon as the bows of the two inflatable boats touched the coast, the echo of the events of half a century ago made itself felt. Among the thickets, a few meters from the water's edge, rusty barbed wire curls in the moss, and in places there are faded warning boards lying around. If you don’t know that they are supposed to scare away the curious with the image of a radiation trefoil with the inscription “Radioactive,” you can pass by without even a fleeting glance at the rotted metal.

In nature, traces of human presence always attract attention. On Makarinsaari, every now and then you come across shell casings from 12-gauge smoothbore hunting cartridges under your feet. This means that the poachers that were talked about on the mainland are still visiting contaminated areas. As if to confirm these conclusions, rabbit ears flash between two roots uprooted from the ground. The gray beast, not feeling any danger, watches the group of expeditioners with interest and only after hearing the alarming squeak of the dosimeter does it take off.

At the place where the long-eared one just ran, the dosimeter records the first spot of infection. Without significant revelations - up to 1 µSv/h, only three times the norm. According to environmentalists with whom we managed to talk before the start, such indicators do not pose a danger during a short visit to the contaminated territory, but it is definitely not worth living there.

There were many such local spots on Makarinsaari. But the expedition was led to the source of real danger, not for the first time during the investigation, by chance. Having combed the island up and down, making their way with backpacks filled with photographic equipment along the picturesque but difficult terrain, a group of travelers reached its northeastern tip. Here, contemplating the landscape of Kugrisaari Island opening up opposite with the adit hole blackening in the middle of the rock wall, it was decided to take a break. Attention was drawn to another radiation hazard sign lying on the ground, adjacent to a pair of cute mushrooms of the type that zealous owners salt for the winter in three-liter jars.

An attempt to photograph such a contrasting still life was interrupted by the hysterical screech of the dosimeter. Strong fungi, as if straight from the pages of a mycological textbook, grew at a good 51.5 µSv/h. The infection spot spread over an area of ​​about four square meters and gravitated towards a crevice between stones filled with soil. This is how, trying to find the consequences of deadly military tests in the depths of the island, you can miss the radiation literally a few steps from the water's edge.

The first discovery turned out to be fateful, indicating which places should be paid attention to when walking with a dosimeter in hand. After a few minutes spent moving through a narrow channel separating Makarinsaari from two nameless rock islands, the participants of the ecological expedition scattered in search of characteristic cracks in which radioactive soil could be preserved from being washed away. The results were not long in coming. Several local spots, where the background reached values ​​from 2 to 37.9 μSv/h, were detected instantly.

Doubts about the need to publish research results, which arose every now and then at the stage of preparation for the expedition, disappeared after what was seen on the Nameless Islands. Even on the approach to the archipelago, this land beckoned to choose it as a base location. A quiet channel for mooring, landscapes of wave-licked stones reminiscent of Lake Onega, cozy clearings under the canopy of trees and privacy among islands popular with tourists. But the areas with soil contaminated half a century ago were scattered so generously that it would have been impossible to choose a safe site. One of the fire pits left by careless visitors was a few steps away from an invisible danger. People came here, caught fish, fried it on a fire made from trees grown in radioactive soil, and picked berries and mushrooms, which were outwardly indistinguishable from those found in any other forest. Maybe they didn’t know about the testing ground that existed here, or maybe they simply considered the stories about it one of the many Karelian legends.

The treacherous Ladoga weather did not allow us to get to the next mystery of the archipelago, the man-made adit of Kugrisaari Island, on the same day. A hurricane wind blew in, bringing with it large drops of rain and meter-high waves, forcing us to urgently retreat back to the camp on Heinäsenmaa. The recently calm lake gave two small boats a jolt that made the rowers leaning on their oars remember the nautical work of Ernest Hemingway.

The darkness of the man-made tunnel, made in the Kugrisaari rock mass, was illuminated by the expedition's lanterns only the next day. The night passed to the music of the howling wind and the songs of carefree tourists from the neighboring camp. The adit turned out to be “clean”. The slight excess of the norm, which was helpfully pointed out by the dosimeter working without rest, could be associated with the natural indicators of the rock, even on the Neva embankments in St. Petersburg demonstrating an increased background radiation.

What distinguishes Kugrisaari from other islands of the archipelago are the preserved triangles with threatening inscriptions in some places. On every second plate there were marks from the shot of hunters training accuracy, but several wooden tripods still stood on the “legs” dried out by the winds. Scraps of barbed wire hanging in the air, rather than hiding in the moss, completed the picture. Inside such conditionally fenced zones, however, it was not possible to detect significant excesses; another danger lurked there. From the crevices of the stones, snakes threw themselves at the dosimeter being brought, leaving traces of fangs and a poisonous coating on the plastic case. The activity of reptiles that emerged under the warm rays of the sun significantly slowed down the already slow survey of contaminated areas.

Despite the danger of feeling the effects of a deadly poison five hours away from the nearest medical facility, the study of the island continued. The result was unexpected even for the wildest expectations. At the border of the forest and a cliff gently sloping down to the water, in an unremarkable place, silent instruments suddenly howled with an incessant squeak.

Here, on a slight slope of the surface, flowing rainwater washed away the soil between the stones and opened up an area that, in terms of danger, more than covers everything seen so far. A warning sign, faded to yellow, lay lonely nearby. And on the dosimeter screen the numbers grew with terrifying immediacy.

The contaminated area occupied a space five meters in diameter, the center of which was an overgrown boulder surrounded by patches of eroded soil.

- 22 µSv/h, 34, 55. It seems really dangerous here. What do you have?- one of the trip participants stated enthusiastically.

Here, near the stone, it’s already more than 80 μSv/h! “I’ll try to put it on the ground,” responded the owner of the second dosimeter, placing the device on the wet ground.

- How many?

It’s strange, on the ground it’s 17.4, although it’s chirping louder than ever,” the experimenter responded.

- Where did the comma go? Take a closer look, it’s not 17.4, but all 174 μSv/h!- the author of these lines, who was observing the measurements, exclaimed emotionally.

The numbers on the small screen grew inexorably. Indeed, there was no talk about values ​​​​less than a hundred μSv/h, when the device could still show the fractional part of the number, for a long time. A dosimeter moved along the ground gave values ​​from 300 to 400 μSv/h, that is, the background radiation norm was exceeded 1300 times! Our devices did not record this even on contaminated metal in the ghost town of Pripyat.

Invisible danger

The answers were given by Vladimir Chuprov, head of the energy program of the world's most famous environmental organization, Greenpeace.

- What are the normal background radiation levels?- the first question was to provide a starting point for using the data obtained at Kugrisaari.

Typically, the natural background, which is considered safe and under which life on land formed, is up to 30 microroentgens per hour or up to 0.3 microsieverts per hour. - the specialist responded in correspondence.

- How long does it take to stay near a source of infection with a radiation level of 350 µSv/h to cause harm to health?- your humble servant addressed the ecologist, remembering the expeditioners’ concerns after 20 minutes of measurements in the midst of an invisible danger.

If you are in a source with an exposure level of 350 microsieverts per hour, then obtaining a threshold value of 1 millisievert (1000 microsieverts) during the year, which constitutes the effective dose limit for the population in accordance with radiation safety standards, will occur in approximately three hours.

- How can this danger worsen?

If internal exposure is added to external exposure (for example, by inhaling a particle with an increased level of radiation), then the calculations will be different. Next, you need to evaluate what kind of radionuclides they are, how quickly they are eliminated, and what the resulting internal radiation dose was. It must be remembered that internal exposure in this situation is more dangerous than external exposure.

- What happens when the annual norm is exceeded?

Exceeding the anthropogenic dose limit of 1000 microsieverts per year does not automatically lead to any health consequences. It is generally accepted that upon receipt of this value a person enters the risk zone. In accordance with the standards, after exceeding this dose, so-called deterministic effects begin, that is, harmful effects are not random, but occur 100% and their scale depends linearly on the power of the dose received. With a slight excess of 1000 microsieverts per year, cancer or, let alone, a lethal effect are hardly possible. But little by little, something unnoticeable at first glance will begin to happen.

What dose did the Soviet military receive when they worked at arm's length with radioactive weapons? How many of them did not live to see their well-deserved retirement?

The chronicler of unit No. 99795, Anatoly Kutskov, assures that during the tests and in the near future after them, only one person died. This was the commander of the sea tug MB-81, Lieutenant Brusov. The tragic death of the officer occurred as a result of the accident. During the transfer of a heavy lead container with a radioactive substance from a tugboat to the experimental vessel "Kit", a worn-out steel sling broke. The impact on the tug's deck caused the lead cap covering the transport container to fly out, the glass ampoule containing the ballistic missile in it broke, and the deadly liquid splashed onto the officer's hand.

He died after a year and a half of treatment in hospitals. Most of the testers passed away at the age of about sixty or over sixty, and some are still alive today.

“I won’t hide it - in a number of cases, the cause of death of test participants was lung cancer, and if they had not had close contacts with radioactive substances in their lives, they might have lived in this world longer. But those doses of radiation that even a non-human could have received A person who has protective equipment in contact with explosive explosives sprayed in the air during this work is much less than the dose that causes acute radiation sickness, requiring hospitalization. And the testers worked in gas masks and rubberized chemical kits or disposable protective clothing - padded jackets, cotton pants, boots,” he emphasized. in his answer Kutskov.

Military cleaning

The famous expression says: “until the thunder strikes, a man will not cross himself.” This is what happened with the Ladoga test site. After the completion of the active phase of research, the islands were simply surrounded with barbed wire, generously diluted with radiation hazard signs. Moreover, the island of Heinäsenmaa for a long time served not only as a place for conducting experiments, but also as a hunting and fishing place for non-radiophobic test site employees - members of the military hunters collective No. 175. Outsiders were driven away from the contaminated areas of the archipelago by boats belonging to the military unit. Only the island farthest from the coast, Mökerikke, stood unguarded, protected from unwanted visitors only by the stormy waters of the lake.

Everything changed after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. The panicky fear of an invisible radioactive danger that spread in Soviet society forced us to take a new look at the lands abandoned in the middle of Lake Ladoga.

The greatest danger was posed by the motionless destroyer "Kit", whose hold was filled to capacity with poisoned water. In the process of destroying the already middle-aged hull of the ship, tons of radioactive substances could end up in the lake - the main source of drinking water for the huge Leningrad.

The impetus for the decision to decontaminate abandoned areas was a letter written by one of the testers to the CPSU Central Committee. In a short time, an expedition of employees from the medical and radiobiological department of the test site was sent to the islands, who stated that a background remained on the islands that exceeded the norms for gamma radiation by 5-10 times and for beta radiation by hundreds and thousands of times.

To view the chronology, click on the arrow or select events in the calendar.

When the report with the results reached the country's leadership, a decision was made at the highest level - to entrust the work on raising and evacuating the "Whale" to the Navy, and the reclamation of the contaminated islands to the Ministry of Defense.

The main burden on the ground part of the program fell on the shoulders of the employees of the 195th separate Special Forces Detachment, which was created in 1988 as a unit of the professional emergency rescue service of the 12th Main Directorate of the Ministry of Defense to eliminate the consequences of possible accidents with nuclear weapons.

To strengthen the operational group, two crews of the Reconnaissance and Assessment of the Scale of the Accident (GROM) Groups from military units of the same 12th Main Directorate of the Moscow Region were sent to the training ground. Through their efforts, radiation reconnaissance and dosimetric monitoring crews were organized, and collection points for radioactive materials were created. They also organized logistical support for the work being carried out and made requests for missing materials and equipment.

The tasks of the first stage also included coordinating the timing and routes for transporting personnel and equipment to and between the islands, and clarifying the results of the radiation reconnaissance boat carried out by the chemical service of the Leningrad Naval Base.

The liquidators were based on the island of Heinäsenmaa in specially equipped car trailers. On Makarinsaari, where the military was delivered by boat, a sanitary treatment point was erected, divided into two zones, which was a frame made of wooden blocks covered with plastic film. A deck was built from the same materials on the island, on which metal containers were filled with collected radioactive materials and then loaded onto landing ships.

In parallel with this, the military tried to understand whether the infection had spread to the islands neighboring the archipelago: Rahmansaari, Verkkosaari, Vossinansaari, Yalayansaari. The survey confirmed that despite the dangerous proximity of the landfill, the land there is clean.

The situation on the islands, where the military worked with radioactive weapons, was not so rosy. One of the stories recorded by Anatoly Kutskov from the words of a direct participant in the events clearly demonstrates why spots of severe soil contamination still remain here.

It turned out that heavy—several hundred kilograms—lead containers with ballistic missiles were transported from the point where boats were unloaded with cargo booms onto the shore to the work site by horse-drawn sleighs. One day, such a sled ran over a boulder and overturned. The container opened, the glass ampoule with dangerous cargo inside broke and its entire contents spilled onto the ground.

For ordinary military personnel, eliminating the consequences of the tests was hellish work. In an unequipped area with uneven terrain, strewn with granite boulders, the military worked virtually manually. The main tools were crowbars, picks, shovels and stretchers.

The brick foundations of the laboratory building and water tower, inaccessible for manual dismantling, as well as the vivarium cages on the island of Makarinsaari were destroyed by explosions. The uncontaminated remains of wooden buildings were burned.

Elements of building structures, fragments of blown up foundations, and surface layers of soil were loaded onto stretchers with shovels, delivered to the collection site and loaded into metal containers. Delivered to the island by a truck crane, they were loaded on board a landing ship and transported to a temporary storage site, and then to radioactive material repositories.

Areas of local contamination were not completely cleaned up; they were fenced off with barbed wire and marked with a radiation hazard sign.

The liquidators encountered difficulties on the island of Mökerikke. During the tests, an old Finnish bunker on the hill of the island was literally turned into a radioactive cemetery - all contaminated waste was stored in it: used protective equipment, containers, fragments preserved after explosions. When leaving the island, the entrance to the bunker was blocked with brickwork, which was later destroyed by fishermen.

After completely clearing the underground fortification and surrounding area from dangerous debris, the liquidators were faced with the question - what to do next? The radiation from the concrete walls and ceiling went off scale, and according to the roughest estimates, in order to reduce its intensity to acceptable values, it was necessary to remove a layer of concrete at least 10 centimeters thick from the walls of the bunker. It was almost impossible to chop off such a layer of Finnish concrete on a huge - about 200 square meters - area, from which “the chisel bounced off with a ringing sound.” It was decided to wall up the entrance on site. It was covered with a wall more than a meter thick made of granite boulders held together with cement mortar.

If working with the contaminated soil of the islands required only the coherence of liquidation fighters and control of personal safety, then in 1990 a special expedition had to be created to save Ladoga from the experimental vessel "Kit" lying on the ground.

It consisted of 19 ships, boats, vessels and watercraft - tugs, diving vessels, torpedo boats, tankers, a tank barge, a garbage collector, pontoons, and a transport floating dock. The work involved specialists from eight organizations, the production facilities of the Kronstadt Marine Plant and the Baltic Shipyard, and the number of liquidators at certain stages reached up to 500 people.

A year later, an expedition base was equipped near the western coast of Heinäsenmaa - two floating berths, to which sets of raid equipment, pontoons and 600 meters of boom were delivered. At the same time, military hydrographers found an area in the vicinity of the island with a depth of 10 meters and a flat bottom surface for carrying out a docking operation.

The floating transport dock, in which the "Whale" was to depart on its last voyage, was equipped with a gigantic pallet welded from steel sheets to collect liquid radioactive waste. At the same time, slings connected to the pontoons were placed under the hull of the experimental vessel, and the upper deck and superstructures of the “Whale” were covered with several layers of a self-hardening polymer composition in air, which reduced the level of beta radiation from the vessel by almost two orders of magnitude (100 times).

Eyewitnesses recall that the dirty and rusty “Whale”, which previously made a gloomy impression, became cheerful and elegant - the hardened composition was bright orange. The walls of the floating dock were also coated with the same composition for preventive purposes.

The liquidators spent a lot of effort pumping water from the holds of the former destroyer. Despite all efforts, the water level in the aft and engine rooms did not decrease for a long time. A remote-controlled underwater vehicle and a group of divers were sent under water. An examination showed that the hull was riddled with cracks and holes. It took a week of work to seal them using underwater electric welding, as well as using tow and wooden wedges.

Dirty water from the holds of the Kita was pumped into the tanks of two tankers, where it was passed through an ion exchange unit manufactured at the Baltic Plant. The purified water was received by a specially arrived water barge. The deadly mixture from the hold of the "Whale" was reduced to the state of almost tap water, which the performers of the work liked to demonstrate, drinking several glasses of purified liquid in front of unbelievers. After a week in a water tanker and repeated testing, the water was drained into Ladoga.

In July 1991, "Kit" began to be docked. From that moment on, the countdown of incidents began, each of which could nullify all previous work. As soon as the ship's hull touched the wall of the dock, the steel rope with which it was pulled inside by a winch broke. The winch was re-equipped, and a towing boat was used to hold the vessel along the axis of the dock.

After being freed from the pontoons, the "Whale" began to slowly sink and received a list of 10 degrees to starboard. They still managed to drag the ship inside the dock, but it was impossible to surface it with such a list. The situation became critical. To reduce the roll, it was decided to flood the tanks on the left side, and deploy the floating crane standing at the side of the dock behind the mast of the "Whale".

To view the key coordinates of the ship-raising expedition, move the cursor over the marked points.

To top off all the troubles, a storm warning came. A rising wave could have a detrimental effect on a submerged dock with an open ramp. As luck would have it, one of the pontoons could not be pulled away from the dock, and it was impossible to close the ramp due to the threat of its breakage if the pontoon sling got into the gap between the dock body and the ramp. To find out the real state of affairs, a diver was lowered under the water, who reported that the ramp was free and could be closed. Doc surfaced.

To continue his work, he was transferred around the island of Heinäsenmaa to the expedition’s base. After the water level dropped in the dock, a large water leak was discovered in the rusted hull of the ship - they raised it in time. A little more and the hull of the "Whale" would have collapsed. Water oozed over the entire surface of the bottom, which was affected by pitting, and drained into the pan.

The next stage of work was the sealing of the vessel's hull in order to prepare it for removal from the dock on Novaya Zemlya. Attempts to seal the holes were unsuccessful - the rusted metal could not withstand electric welding. Then the corrosion damage and holes began to be repaired using fiberglass and epoxy glue. The work that began on Ladoga continued during the passage along inland waterways until reaching the White Sea.

Upon arrival at Novaya Zemlya, it was planned to withdraw and scuttle the ship along with the pallet on which it stood. But then “Kit” again showed his obstinate disposition. As soon as the pan was filled with water and the dock began to submerge, the former destroyer suddenly tilted to port. In this case, 14 rods securing the pallet to the ship’s hull came off. The pallet with the keel track shifted relative to the dock bath and it became impossible to return the “Whale” to its original place.

It was decided to cut off the remaining 26 rods and remove the ship from the dock without a pallet. Thanks to the efforts of the marine engineering service of the Northern Fleet, the "Whale" found its rest in Chernaya Bay on Novaya Zemlya. Without incident, its hull filled with water and lay on the ground at a depth of 4.4 meters with a list on the same left side. As before on Ladoga, superstructures, part of the upper deck and starboard side protruded from the water. The epic of the former German destroyer, and subsequently the experimental vessel "Kit", has come to an end, marking the end of work on the decontamination of the islands of Lake Ladoga.

Visitors with dosimeters

It turned out that there were, and not just one. In the summer of 2012, researchers from the Institute of Applied Ecology went to the places of military glory of Object 230 of the Navy. According to them, the islands of Makarinsari and Bezymyanny No. 1 pose the greatest danger - there instruments recorded radiation levels of 250 and 650 μR/h, respectively (which approximately corresponds to 2.5 and 6.5 μSv/h).

But if the details of this campaign were preserved only in rare mentions of regional media, then the expedition of Green Cross ecologists organized a year later, despite the lack of sensational results, thundered throughout Russia. As journalists covering the events of July 2013 later wrote, no serious excesses of background radiation were detected on the islands. In their statements, environmentalists drew attention to the time-wasted warning signs, and demanded that the Ministry of Defense conduct further thorough radiation studies on Ladoga. That was the end of the matter.

To figure out how the testimony of professional dosimetrists and the journalist of the 2015 expedition could differ so much, I had to get in touch with several participants in that expedition. It turned out that in two years the landscape of the islands had changed a lot. During the visit of environmentalists, the signs depicting the radiation danger sign were still in place, and barbed wire stretched between them, fencing off most of the islands. But the expedition never went after her.

“We didn’t sneak behind the signs, we didn’t have such a task - to examine the fenced area. We didn’t measure what was inside,” explained one of the participants in the hike, Sergei Averyanov.

But even two years later, in 2015, the results of their measurements are taken as a basis for inaction even by government agencies responsible for ensuring the safety of the population. As soon as we returned from the islands, the site’s editors sent official requests to all departments capable of clarifying who will be responsible for the military ecology of the largest freshwater lake in Europe?

While the bureaucratic machine was digesting thorny questions about the safety of visits to the group of islands near Heinäsenmaa, the editorial staff’s own environmental expeditions did not stop. To fully reveal the radiation maps of Ladoga, a trip to Mökerikka, which was the second main testing site after the already visited archipelago, was supposed to be done. But it was not possible to get to him right away.

The long road to Mökerikka

Ironically, just during the story about past White Sea adventures on a longboat with a stalled diesel engine, the engine of the expedition boat, which had been snorting suspiciously for a long time, finally stopped. Half an hour of working with the oars, resuscitating the engine, and the expedition found itself washed ashore on Verkkosaari. This island is located near the Heinäsenmaa archipelago and is no less popular with tourists, and the found pieces of barbed wire prove that the military also did not bypass its rocky coastline. But two days of crawling with a dosimeter and examining concrete underground shelters on the island confirmed the military data from 1990 - it is clean. The destructive power of radiation did not affect him.

Möckerikke, meanwhile, remained a distant and unattainable goal. The captains of the boats in the Ladoga ports, who had not set foot on the shore all summer, unanimously refused to go to the distant island in the conditions of bad September weather. My acquaintance with one of the St. Petersburg manufacturers of frame-inflatable boats allowed me to put an end to my own investigation. Despite the raging storms, the captain of the 4.5-meter boat agreed to go on a risky journey to a remote island.

The usually hospitable lake this time intended to resist the expedition with all its might. As soon as we left the skerries hiding from the winds, the boat, designed for high-speed excursions, seemed to find itself in the middle of a boiling cauldron. Either taking off on the crest of a wave, or falling into deep crevices between the rolling shafts, the boat seemed to find itself inside one of the canvases of the marine painter Aivazovsky. Despite the skill of the captain, one of the waves nevertheless covered the ship, with its entire mass pressing the crew members into the seats and filling the internal space to the brim...

The expedition, which had been pretty much chewed up by Ladoga, was met on the shores of Mökerikke by fishermen who did not expect anyone to arrive from the open water in such weather.

We don’t leave the island in such winds; it’s even dangerous to check the nets. They promise another week of storms! - the travelers were greeted from aboard the old Kazanka.

- How are you going to leave?- the author of these lines responded, hastily unloading photographic equipment and dosimeters from a sealed container.

We don't need to go anywhere. We live in a trailer here all season. We have a stove, a generator, and we bring food in advance,” the fishermen said.

I didn’t want to talk about the purpose of the expedition ahead of time, and even more so I didn’t want to scare the population of the island with radiation without first taking my own measurements. Having ended the conversation, the expeditioners as usual scattered along the coast, examining every piece of land. The fishermen's settlement on Mökerikk was adjacent to an area fenced with traditional menacing signs. Here, the yellow radiation hazard signs were installed more thoroughly - on two metal supports, firmly dug between the stones. In the middle of the fenced area, on a high rocky mountain, lie the remains of Finnish fortification - concrete artillery platforms, rusty carts for feeding shells and bunkers buried in the ground.

To view the dosimeter readings, move the cursor over the circle.

Near the entrance to one of the dungeons, the dosimeter, which had been silent since the landing on Mökerikk, finally came to life. 1 µSv/h. A survey of the island indicated several more of the same spots, but no more. The most inaccessible island, the territory of which was touched by the secrets of Object 230, turned out to be the safest. The radioactive maps of Ladoga have been revealed, but many questions still remain.

So who is responsible for military ecology?

Archival data suggested that the work on ballistic missiles on Ladoga was supervised by the 12th Main Directorate of the RF Ministry of Defense, in charge of issues of “nuclear technical support and security.” But, obviously, even in the 21st century they keep their secrets no worse than during the operation of the Ladoga test site. An editorial request sent to the department addressed to its chief, Colonel Sych Yuri Grigorievich, remained unanswered a month later.

But, if it’s too late to look for the culprits, can there be employees of regulatory authorities who are not indifferent to the environmental problems of popular tourist destinations? It turned out not. The answer came from the Karelian "Gidromet", responsible for air radiation monitoring: "measurements are carried out only at the Valaam weather station, there are no exceedances of standards."

The republic's Rospotrebnadzor, one of the key areas of its work is monitoring the radiation safety of the population, was only able to provide data on the content of radionuclides in the water of Lake Ladoga. All three sampling sites, located much to the north of the contaminated islands, do not record dangerous values. But, as the department admitted, its employees are not involved in “land” radiation problems of the Western Archipelago.

One of the shortest answers came to the editor from the regional department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Karelian rescuers, whose responsibilities include “overcoming the consequences of radiation accidents,” referred to the results of research by the same Green Cross expedition, on the basis of which they concluded that the islands were safe. With the same words, the press service of the head of Karelia, Alexander Khudilainen, disowned the problems of the military training ground.

The only government agency that remembers the radioactive danger is the Rosatom corporation.

“In accordance with the State contract with the State Corporation Rosatom, FSUE RADON conducts a radiation survey of the islands of the Western archipelago of Lake Ladoga (Kugrisaari Island, Makarinsaari Island, Heinäsenmaa Island, Roveluoto Island, Mekerikke Island, Bezymyanny Island 1, Bezymyanny Island 2).

The results of the radiation survey are planned to be used to develop technology for the rehabilitation of contaminated areas. The radiation survey of the islands will be completed on November 31, 2015."

“Based on the results of a preliminary survey (2001-2003), 25 areas of radioactive contamination with a total area of ​​about 30,000 sq.m. were identified on the territory of seven islands. The maximum identified values ​​characterizing the levels of contamination in 2002 were: exposure dose rate - 2500 μR/ hour".

The results of the site’s own expedition show more impressive figures, however, the competition documentation also found an answer to this. It is noted that the configuration of contaminated areas could change over time “under the influence of natural processes of migration of radionuclides,” which could lead to the spread of radioactive contamination to adjacent areas. Nuclear scientists consider forest fires to be an additional factor in the transfer of radioactive contamination. Thus, the document concludes, “the previously conducted preliminary radioecological survey does not allow us to identify the real scale of the current radioactive contamination of natural ecosystems.”

How did the new survey of the islands end and when will their reclamation begin? Rosatom was able to answer these questions only in March 2016.

Unlike military dosimetrists and members of the site’s own expedition, who carried out all measurements “on the spot,” RADON specialists took the radioactive soil of the former military test site to the laboratory. “In the field, soil and vegetation samples had to be packed in plastic bags, with a code number attached, and transported by boat to the mainland (to Priozersk), and from there on special transport to the Moscow RADON laboratories, where radiometric and spectrometric analysis of the samples was carried out.” , says Rosatom’s response to a journalist’s request from the site.

Experts classified the studied samples as class 4 of disposed radioactive waste, that is, intended for placement at near-surface disposal sites. RADON employees, like the participants of the journalistic expedition, did not detect any “area” soil contamination, stating a clearly defined localization of radioactive stains. “The specific distribution of radionuclides is characterized by their concentration in mosses and lichens, as well as in the soil layer in certain areas no more than 20 cm deep,” Rosatom explained, adding that the level of contamination was considered “low.”

Federal problem

It turns out that colossal funds aimed at solving the problems of the Ladoga test site bypassed it for almost seven years. And today, when it would be time to make statements about the final “cleaning up” of the islands, having carried out work using the maps of military dosimetrists drawn up after the “big cleanup”, only their next survey has been completed. Nuclear scientists put an end to it already in the stormy Karelian November.

How many more tourists will reach their annual exposure limit in one overnight stay before specialists move on from analyzing the results to real action? Both the Ministry of Emergency Situations and Rospotrebnadzor, whose employees are required to monitor the radiation situation in the controlled territory, should take an interest in this. Their hands, like the government of Karelia, are completely untied by the Law of the Russian Federation “On State Secrets,” which prohibits classifying environmental information, but even this has not budged the clumsy departments. Moreover, Rosatom shifted responsibility for the future of the Western archipelago to government officials. “Currently, the report prepared by specialists from the Federal State Unitary Enterprise RADON (based on the results of a 2015 survey - ed.) allows state and municipal authorities to obtain a complete picture of the radioecological situation on the islands and, based on it, make an appropriate decision on further actions,” they reported to the author of these lines in atomic science.

2016 has arrived, and with it the billion-dollar budgets of the new federal program. When it was discussed in the Government, the head of Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko, spoke a lot about the need to finally deal with the Soviet legacy.

“The key issue is that the subject of this federal target program is the accumulated deferred liabilities over the 70 years of the existence of the nuclear industry, primarily the Soviet Union. The bulk of these deferred liabilities are, of course, waste, the legacy left over from the implementation of the Soviet nuclear project Union, primarily the military nuclear project, because the largest deferred obligations were formed in the early years (late 1940s - early 1950s, 1960s), when, naturally, the question was about the country's security and deferred obligations were openly shifted for future periods."

Sergey Severin

P.S.: The editors would like to thank their Danish and Swedish colleagues and the Scoop Russia investigative journalist project for their comprehensive assistance in preparing this material.

Have you worked on the islands of Lake Ladoga? Do you know anything about the radioactive sites of the Soviet Union? Are you a participant in history? Call or write to us with the note "Sergei Severin", leaving coordinates for quick communication, or use the anonymous form. Guarantees Art. No. 41 of the Law on Mass Media.

A giant camouflage network covered the forty-meter concrete tower of the artillery spotters in the central positions, and the smaller ones covered the gun caponiers.

The southern shores of the islands, on the Russian side, were entangled with barbed wire and anti-landing nets.