We'd better go to them: why would a tourist go to Kogalym
Where beyond the Urals can you go to the real St. Petersburg Russian Museum, attend a performance at the Moscow Maly Theater, look at the inhabitants of the ocean, and then go to the deer camp? In Kogalym! A very small but very ambitious city can offer tourists a surprisingly diverse leisure time. The Izvestia correspondent, together with the Media Ambassadors project, came here for the annual Reindeer Herder's Day holiday, and at the same time studied the fifth largest, but first in cultural life, city of Ugra.
Why Kogalym is not a lost place
If you Google Kogalym, one of the first queries is: "Why is Kogalym a lost place?". This is not true, says Maria Tijani, an employee of the Kogalym Leisure and Recreation Center. Neither etymologically nor humanly.
From the Khanty language, "kogalym" means "swamp", "swamp". Indeed, if you look at the map, you can't see anything but swamps around. The lost place, Maria says, was taken from a legend: supposedly a certain hunt, an experienced hunter, went to these parts and died. When the church of the Holy Martyr Tatiana was being built in the mid-2010s, the remains of an ancient man were found — nails and teeth. Could that be the hunter? Unlikely.
The Russian Museum
Kogalym is also not a lost place, that is, a "God-forsaken" place. In 1975, it was founded for the sake of oil production, and in 1985 Kogalym became a city. This year, it turns out, two anniversaries are being celebrated at once.
For 60-70 thousand inhabitants (this is the fifth most populous city in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra), there are branches of the Russian Museum, the Maly Theater, a large aquarium, a university with a modern campus, two three-star hotels, a tennis center, a water park will open soon after renovation, and they are also building the Spartak football academy and much more. They are being built very quickly: 2-4 facilities are opened annually in September, on the Day of the Oilman.
Khantysky Borzakovsky
In summer, Kogalym turns into a garden city - it is a very green and clean settlement. In winter, you can experience the delights of the Western Siberian climate and admire the dazzling white snow. But in April there is the most muddy weather, all the snow that has fallen during the winter is actively melting. But at this time, the Reindeer Herder's Day is held here.
The main feature of this holiday, which fell on April 12 this year, is reindeer sledding. Hunts compete with excitement, and emotions sometimes overwhelm.
It's a real drama in the men's final mass start - five drivers will start at once. One of the five hunters hesitated at the start — the deer ran the wrong way because they fell through the loose snow. But then they gave chase so fast that on the second lap they overtook almost all the rivals. As a result, the two teams finished literally neck and neck. A race worthy of the Olympic Games — do you remember how runner Yuri Borzakovsky raced to the finish line in Athens 2004? That's exactly how Hunt, who had fallen behind at the start, raced to victory. He crossed the finish line, let out a triumphant yell, tipped over on his back in the sled, victoriously threw a poleax (a pole used to drive deer) into the air... The men ran up, picked him up, and began to rock him in their arms.
There were two teams in the finish line. The judges gave the victory to Borzakovsky. But the other Khanty did not agree.: The first place was earned by the one who was in the lead for most of the race. What to do? There is no photo finish. All the photographers and drone guides were interviewed — well, there is no objective picture, and that's it. It would seem that Numi-Torum is with him, but the Khanty people are not just fighting for the first place — the winner will get the snowmobile "Buran".
I had to make a decision at the general council. This makes sense, because it is now Reindeer Herder's Day, a city holiday in Kogalym, and earlier in the off—season, families from different camps in Ugra met with each other to discuss joint business, bargain and agree on something. So now I had to find a common language. The judges from the stage declared "Borzakovsky" the winner, and "Buran" went to the family of the one who officially took second place. It is not for us to judge justice, especially since everyone recognized the collegial decision.
How do the Khanty people live
A reindeer team is not at all the same as a team of horses and even husky dogs. On the surface, everything looks much more complicated. The deer constantly disobey — they huddle together, start fighting among themselves, lead them away, or suddenly turn in circles in one place.
—Yeah, that's not a car," a guy and a girl in the crowd discuss what they saw. — But basically I figured out the management.
The girl doesn't really like it — the actions of the hunter-chasers sometimes look cruel. A polecat is a long wooden pole used by a reindeer herder, sitting in a sled, to hit the animal in the side so that the team turns in the right direction. But it's an exciting sight, especially if you find the right vantage point.
Women's races are just as interesting as women's tennis: slightly less masterly control of the projectile (sleds in this case), but much louder screams. First, in support: "Fiya, come on!" — and then on the highway, the driver herself pushes the animals with a steady squeal. The viewers around unwittingly turn on the video on their smartphones — this must be stored in memory.
Lyudmila, the owner of the Yuta Kapiyakh camp, has already swept by on her sled. She drove "normally", but she doesn't qualify for the finals. Ludmila's funny daughter is hovering nearby. Her name is Daria. It turns out that now almost always the Khanty are called by Russian names — this has been the case for a long time, and it doesn't matter if there is someone else's blood in the family or not.
Lyudmila is half Khanty, half forest Nenets. Lyudmila's husband is Russian. He liked the Khanty life so much that he gave up everything, learned the business of this people and went to live with his new family in the camp. That's why little Daria is now half Russian, a quarter Khanty and a quarter Nenets.
Lyudmila Aivaseda with her daughter Daria
But Lyudmila's surname is quite authentic, Nenets: Aivaseda. The Khanty woman laughs: it translates to "headless," whatever that means.
Lyudmila, like all Khanty reindeer herders, lives a so-called traditional way of life, although, of course, it is difficult to fully call it that. A lot of people have brand—new iPhones. Lyudmila Aivaseda has a social media page with more than 2,000 subscribers. There is an Internet connection in the camps, children go to the camp school. The need to keep an eye on the deer remains unchanged, moving from place to place several times a year so that the animals have something to eat. Sometimes there are 300 individuals per family.
If you are unlucky and couldn't get to the Reindeer Herder's Day, you can come to the camp specifically. Such trips can be organized in two hotels "Kogalym" and "Cosmos", which also serve as tour operators here.
Where to eat in Kogalym
The main restaurants of the city are located in the same hotels. There was a flair of provinciality: the Zanzibar cafe was for children during the day, and in the evening it was a karaoke bar with drinks. But even here you can find interesting items on the menu, for example, delicious dumplings with muksun or dessert "Taiga" made from lingonberries, pine nuts and condensed milk.
Dessert "Taiga"
The restaurant "By the fireplace" in the "Cosmos" looks more fashionable. The service is good and the menu is interesting. You will be pleasantly surprised by the warm salad with fern and deer heart, you will be pleased with the stroganina from muksun, and as an exotic main dish you can try dumplings with bear meat. Bear meat is difficult to digest, so it is mixed in a 60 to 40 ratio with beef. It may not be possible to recognize the unique taste of this meat, but check the box: I ate a bear.
Bear meat dumplings
What to see in Kogalym
Daniil Smirnov, general manager of Cosmos Smart Kogalym, is from Moscow, but he really loved this northern city, although the first reaction to the offer to go here was "where is Kogalym?"
— There is a Moscow infrastructure here, but there is no fuss and so many people. Great retreat! — He says.
In the warmer months, he suggests rafting on the Ingu-Yagun River. There are two dozen saps — and swim at least to Surgut. In summer, for example, there will be a student regatta.
Deputy Mayor of Kogalym Anatoly Zgonnikov also praises life in Ugra. He says: The North is something completely different. Everyone is friendly here. And there was no banditry even in the 90s.
The city is small and low: the townspeople call a nine-story house a candle. You can find a video online of the then mayor of Kogalym, Sergei Sobyanin, standing on its roof in 1995 and showing: mushrooms were picked here, capercaillies flew here — it was a wild place!
You should definitely visit the branch of the Russian Museum. It was opened in 2020, and once a year, one thematic exhibition is brought directly from St. Petersburg. It's "The Seasons" now. The selection is small, but very pleasant: Korovin, Grabar, Serebryakova, Savrasov, Kustodiev, Serov, Myasoedov... In September, the exposition will be changed, and it is still unknown who will be brought. The caretakers believe that Repin will finally arrive, but the city will not remain offended without him.
Plan your trip so that you can go to the Maly Theater. The performances come straight from Moscow once a month and run for four days in a row. However, it is better to buy tickets in advance: sales are very frequent.
Opening of a branch of the Maly Theater in Kogalym.
A branch of the Maly Theater was opened in 2019, but it took several years to educate the audience. At first, questions arose: is the Maly Theater probably a branch of the Bolshoi? And the actors probably won't be real?
"But they showed everyone: Muravyov and Afanasyev," says Margarita Gichai, director of the branch. — Now our actors are recognized on the streets, they take autographs. I call them the People's Artists of Kogalym. Of course, they had to get used to constant business trips to Ugra. But now they like it, they joke: "Let's go to the cottage."
The staff also had difficulties. Once, the curtain, closed for a change of scenery, was perceived as an intermission, the lights were turned on everywhere, and the audience flocked to the buffet. The actors had to comply and make the intermission earlier than planned.
But the aquarium is open daily. It's not bad even by the standards of a big city. The marine aquarium has a 60-meter tunnel in which sharks swim. To make the fish feel good in the aquarium, the staff prepares seawater on their own — there are huge bags of salt in the back rooms. You need to spend 6 tons per month.
You can also dive in ordinary gear or even in the legendary "three—bolt", which has been used since the 19th century. Just keep in mind — this diving equipment is very heavy, about 120 kg.
And before visiting the aquarium, be sure to feed the fish from the nipple — a surprisingly exciting activity.
Industrial tourism in Kogalym
In Kogalym, you can get to the core storage. This is the name of the "library" for the core, a rock that is pulled out of the ground to determine exactly where the oil is. The core storage facility knows everything about the subsurface and can show how oil glows under ultraviolet rays, explain where black gold is actually extracted from, etc.
Separately, the Kogalym core storage facility is inferior to the same place in Khanty-Mansiysk, where they made a full-fledged museum facility with interactive content. However, Kogalym can offer a more comprehensive immersion into the topic of mining (with emphasis on the "o", of course): after the storage, you can go to the Core Research Center, where they will show, for example, an electronic vacuum microscope that allows you to view the rock in magnification of 15 thousand times. Sometimes stunning images are obtained: if there is something fibrous in the photo, similar to a shrimp, it is a clay rock, round elements are always organic.
The core research Center, photos from a microscope.
So far, both the core Storage Facility and the Core Research Center are just getting used to tourists: after all, these are production facilities, and outsiders are treated with extreme caution. But the mayor of the city, Timur Agadullin, believes that this is temporary, and hopes to soon establish a comprehensive product for the industrial tourist. There is even a preliminary agreement that visitors to the city will be allowed to visit one of the "bushes" of Lukoil's oil production, where there is a spectacular rocking chair, even if it is already out of operational fashion.
Core storage
Where, if not in this city, to show how oil is extracted? Even the unofficial anthem of the city is sung: "Let trains rush through the world, planes fly by, but we always remember with you — they are driven by oil from Kogalym."
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
