About 80 people live in yurts in the Nefteyugansk region. At the camps, their way of life remains traditional.
The Khanty engage in fishing, hunting, and collecting mushrooms, berries, and pine cones. The inhabitants of the camps and the authorities do not forget - they fly over the yurts almost every month. Medical workers and municipal specialists are flying to the indigenous peoples of the North.
As a rule, the Khanty live far from villages and do not always have the opportunity to get out on their own, but the necessary things are brought to them: medicines, food, baby food, basic necessities. Or, for example, special devices to scare away uninvited clubfoot. IN Lately they often come to visit.
Most often, bears walk to the side, and we don’t touch them,” shares Yefim Kogonchin, a resident of the Fedosin yurts, “but sometimes they come to the camp, and we try to catch them if they attack a person. For us, this means that the animal is sick. We have to kill it, despite the fact that the bear is a sacred animal, and dispose of it.
The Khanty use modern means to scare away predators. Specialists from the Committee for the Affairs of the Peoples of the North bring hunter's kits and special flares, like police ones, to the camps. When going fishing or hunting, such things will protect a person when meeting a bear or other predator. Not only men who go into the forest can use deterrents, but also their wives who stay on the farm in the camps.
In addition, during the visit, specialists inspect fire shields and other equipment: safety comes first here.
There are three families in the Fedosin yurts, the head of which is Fedosya Kayukova. She lives at the camp with the family of her son Efim, brothers Nikolai and Vladimir. Each of them has their own farm, house and bathhouse. Two families are currently expecting a new addition. Mothers do not worry about the health of their future babies.
Khanty children who live in camps rarely get sick, apparently due to the fresh taiga air and the fact that they live in harmony with nature.
The Salym Khanty observe centuries-old traditions. Residents of the Fedosin yurts do not embroider their dresses and robes with patterns; they are usually girded with bright cloth belts. Leather shoes, diving shoes, decorated with colored stripes or painted natural paint. Both adults and children wear such clothes and shoes at the camp.
Khanty families usually have many children, a tradition that continues today. For example, the head of the Fedosin yurt, Fedosya Kayukova, has four children.
“Undoubtedly, a large family is necessary,” Fedosya Kayukova expresses her opinion. – Because it is the family that helps, and over time, the children who grow up will provide support.
The Khanty instill in them not only a sense of duty and mutual assistance, but also the need to observe the age-old traditions of a people rich in customs. After all, preserving the individual and national is especially important in our constantly changing world.
On a frosty Sunday afternoon at the end of January, we, journalists from the Impulse press center of Fedorovskaya school No. 5 and school No. 1, arrived at the Khanty camp of Luk-Yaun, located 10 kilometers from our village.
Our guide Svetlana Yuryevna Tokareva already met us at the very gate. We went through a cleansing ritual with smoke, ate fresh cloudberries for the first time, and followed the hostess along a narrow path.
Cloudberries are our first northern berry; they ripen at the very beginning of July. Bright yellow in color, shaped like a blackberry. We really liked it, we took a pack of frozen berries with us to the hut and feasted on it constantly.
We came here at the invitation of the owner of the camp, Alexander Anatolyevich Prodan, in order to write an article about this wonderful place. Unfortunately, the bear Masha, whom we fed with sugar on our last (autumn) visit, has long been put into hibernation (see you in the spring, Masha!), and the husky was sent temporarily to another camp. It’s also a shame that we weren’t able to see the reindeer. As Svetlana Yuryevna told us, they had already bought the herd three times, but all the deer died - either bears killed them, or feral dogs. We were encouraged that very soon the deer would be brought here again. And we will be able to ride on a huge sleigh harnessed to a real reindeer or dog sled.
The hostess invited us to a real Khanty tent, in which there is an exhibition with handicrafts of the Khanty people. Svetlana Yuryevna is a real craftswoman. The tent itself and all the crafts located in it were made by her personally. She is a regular participant in various competitions, exhibitions and master classes. We also saw her wonderful drawings. Believe me, this is the hand of a real artist!
Translated from the Khanty language in the Kazym dialect, Luk-Yaun is translated as “grouse river.” There really is a river here, and a very beautiful one.
The next stop is near the Khanty adobe oven - nyan ker (bread in Khanty “nyan”). They bake bread in it, and then they also have time to cook fish. By the way, collecting firewood and walking on water are considered women's work. Poor Khanty women, the girls and I decided together!
Not far from the tent there is a storehouse. It turns out that this is not a store in our village, but a warehouse, a shed for storing food, very cleverly designed - not a mouse can climb into it to feast on supplies, nor a bear.
Svetlana Yuryevna invited us to the Khanty winter house. We warmed ourselves near the stove and rolled around on real bear skins. The hostess treated us to pike prepared according to the Khanty recipe. Liked! Then she gave us a master class on making a Khanty doll. Each of us made such a doll and took it with us as a souvenir of today. We also shot a lot with the Khanty weapon - the bow.
We said goodbye to the hospitable hostess at the sacred tree, on which we tied colored ribbons and made wishes. This is also a Khanty custom.
We thank our leaders Natalya Yuryevna and Evgeniy Nikolaevich Gorlov for giving us, their students, such an interesting and educational meeting. And we advise all residents of the Surgut region to make a trip to the Luk-Yaun camp. Here you will get acquainted with the life and way of life of the Khanty people, become participants in national rituals and simply take a break from the bustle of the city. You can stay here overnight, cook barbecue, play different games, ride snowstorms and reindeer sleds.
Angela Murzaeva, Natalya Yakovleva, Victoria Kruk (Impulse press center, Federal secondary school No. 5) and Veronika Degtyarenko (Federal secondary school No. 1).
“Then there was talk that the oil people were also largely to blame. After all, they pave their paths through the best lands - priceless white-moss forests and black urmans. Yagelniks where they were plowed up with machines, where they were burned with fire. The deer, having lost the remnants of their conscience, where they were poisoned with dogs, where they were beaten with guns, where they were driven in by helicopters and tortured. Wouldn't the oil people understand that in the North everything depends on the reindeer? The oil people would understand, they would understand. After all, their main prey, as Demyan understands, is not deer, not animals and birds, but the flammable fat of the earth, which deer have no use for at all. Let the oil people dig, as long as they don’t interfere. And there’s so much land, if it’s related, it’s enough for everyone. Yes, there would be enough Sacred Land for everyone!.. But now things haven’t gone their way.”
Eremey Aipin, Khanty, or the Star of the Dawn (1990)
Oh, how great it is in a world into which there is no way to the common man. Last year I visited a real Khanty camp in the Nizhnevartovsk region of Ugra. I saw deer, saw absolutely wonderful people and understood what it means to live like animals - in wildlife and according to her rules. There is a lot in their life that is incomprehensible to us, supposedly civilized people, but the Khanty and I have the most important difference - they always smile.
It took a very long time to get there. About 8 hours by car, then overnight in a hotel, in the morning about an hour in a UAZ-loaf, and then another half hour on a Buran snowmobile to the taiga island, where civilization has not yet set its paws, although it is getting closer every day.
You can get to the camp through the oil bush. When you arrive at the place, on one side you can see the pristine taiga - the home of the Khanty,
and on the other, an infernal machine sucking life out of the earth.
The relationship between locals and oil workers is a separate issue. The Khanty blame oil workers for the disappearance of fish, berries, moss and furs. Moreover, this is controversial and endless. One thing is clear, the unique people must be preserved and allowed to live as they are used to. They don’t need much - peace and freedom, because their lifestyle is exactly like that of forest animals. Life in the zoo of civilization, albeit in good conditions- this is the end for their people.
And then the owner of the forest appeared. I couldn't help but smile. Funny in in a good way and plush, or something like a toy. Happy. It felt like a fairytale bear had come for me and decided to take me to its den.
I first wrapped myself in a scarf so as not to freeze my face. She herself became a little like the Khanty. Although, they are not big people :)
There were sleds attached to the snowstorm, and I had to cover 20 kilometers on them. I’m driving, holding on to the ropes, looking at the sky and absolutely happy - I want this road to never end.
We arrived at the camp. It looks simple. Among the pines and cedars there are huts in which one cannot discern a residential building.
Inside there is a stove-stove and a room with a podium. The podium is bunks - they are covered with reindeer skins, on which the entire large family sleeps. How they manage to reproduce despite all this remains a mystery to me.
The life of the Khanty is not very sophisticated. If there were firewood and water, there would be tea, but if there was tea, it would be generally good.
The Khanty are very leisurely and, as it seemed to me, they live for today, they are not inclined to even the slightest analysis. Smile and live, everything will be okay.
I got the impression that the main thing in their life is peace of mind. That is, no matter what, don’t worry. They go to the store no more than once a month; they buy a lot at once and from the heart. They provide themselves with meat - fortunately the deer are nearby. There is no need to feed the deer - they will dig up moss for themselves.
They do not keep a vegetable garden, chickens or other headaches for the joy of an ordinary peasant. The Khanty can go to visit numerous relatives for half a month, meanwhile the deer walk in the forest, no one looks after them. Of course they disappear. But here it’s either poachers or bears. And among the Khanty, the bear is the owner of the forest; if he takes a deer, then it is destined to be so.
Khanty are pagans. They are superstitious. For example, if snakes come to the camp (there are swamps around) - then this bad sign and the machinations of evil spirits - you need to move to another place. They are ready to see mysticism in every event. Lost the ax - that means it went to a parallel world and if destined, the ax will return. Their hierarchy of gods is similar to an earthly government. The governor and deputies, roughly speaking, each deal with their own areas. If a person dies at a camp, he is taken on a snowmobile to the city for a medical report and returned back - each camp has an individual family graveyard. This is, of course, surprising.
Khanty women do needlework as needed. They don't do too much. They sew kitties, robes, malitsas, embroider clothes with beads - the desire for beauty is ineradicable.
But it should not only be beautiful - it should also be strong.
They wear clothes with the fur inside - in their opinion it is not as beautiful as beads.
Civilization has not escaped even the most conservative camps - there is a TV, VCR, audio recorder, light bulbs, cell phones, but no constant electricity. The Khanty spend the day drinking a cup of tea, and in the evening they turn on the gas generator, which consumes up to 5 liters per evening. All equipment runs from a generator - there are no refrigerators. The main evening entertainment is television and news from the mainland.
On the street, in addition to the residential building, there is a bathhouse - which the Khanty heat every 2-3 days, a storehouse (a warehouse for flour and grain on legs to protect it from rodents), a toilet, a garage and a fish shed. There are impudent foxes running around who are ready to eat out of hand if only the arctic foxes can profit from the fish.
Only dogs and deer eat such small fish.
The most important impression for me is, of course, the deer. This was the first time I saw this fabulous animal in reality. How beautiful and graceful they are, but shy.
I was never able to come up and pet one on my own. They are curious, but do not approach.
“Deer, deer are not shaved and not shins - the wonderful creatures in them are erased from the brains of the root”
The hostess of the camp caught one for me and I managed to touch it a little. Now these are my favorite animals. I can’t convey all the emotions - it’s a miracle. What horns they have, what legs! With their wide paws they dig up snow and eat moss. They, it turns out, can kick, unlike cows. Just don’t kick, but come up and “nnaaa” with your feet!
They lose their horns and then gnaw them themselves. The deer are fed a little mixed feed and crackers.
And this is poop.
And this is almost a family portrait. I recently found out that the owner passed away in the summer.
The Khanty children are reluctantly sent to study in civilized schools. It seems that education is needed, but at school they will not teach you how to fish and may discourage the child from returning. And if a person goes into civilization, then the chance to preserve the culture and identity of the people, of whom there are less than 30 thousand people in the world, becomes one less. IN last years The Khanty population is increasing artificially. Russians or Tatars marry Khanty, ascribe themselves to the Khanty and enjoy the benefits provided by the state and oil workers. Previously, the Khanty were embarrassed by their nationality, but now it is in fashion; any freeloader is ready to sign up for the Khanty. Meanwhile, the real Khanty themselves continue to destroy themselves through drunkenness. Not all of them, of course, but the scale is catastrophic.
It was time to return to civilization. We need to make it before dark. It also took a long time to get back, but a few hours in an unreal world are worth spending a lot of time on the road. I have a huge amount of information in my head that needs to be thought through and digested. I know one thing for sure, these vivid impressions still need to try to get it. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get to the camp at least once more, but if the opportunity arises, I won’t hesitate.
Representatives of government agencies, doctors, law enforcement officers, clergy, and ethnographers are participating in the planned flight over the Khanty camps of the Nefteyugansk region.
The helicopter followed the usual route: yurts Pavlovs - Punsi - Vladimirskys - Stepanovs - Alekseevs - Vaglik - Filippovskys.
Along the route, schemes for the placement of objects on the territory of traditional environmental management are agreed upon. Food, fuel and lubricants are delivered to the ancestral lands, and doctors conduct medical examinations of children and adults.
13 boarding school students flew home by helicopter to the taiga for the holidays.
Residents of the area were given food packages and basic necessities by District Duma deputy Vladimir Semenov:
It is only from the outside that life in the taiga may seem filled with romance to a city dweller. Traditional way of life usually means hard labour and the need to deal with life support issues on a daily basis. The onset of cold weather further complicates life on the ancestral lands. But indigenous peoples have exceptional survival experience, an extraordinary culture, “inscribed” in unique picture peace. In order to preserve this heritage, very little is needed - not to interfere and a little help.
“Then there was talk that the oil people were also largely to blame. After all, they pave their paths through the best lands - priceless white-moss forests and black urmans. Yagelniks where they were plowed up with machines, where they were burned with fire. The deer, having lost the remnants of their conscience, where they were poisoned with dogs, where they were beaten with guns, where they were driven in by helicopters and tortured. Wouldn't the oil people understand that in the North everything depends on the reindeer? The oil people would understand, they would understand. After all, their main prey, as Demyan understands, is not deer, not animals and birds, but the flammable fat of the earth, which deer have no use for at all. Let the oil people dig, as long as they don’t interfere. And there’s so much land, if it’s related, it’s enough for everyone. Yes, there would be enough Sacred Land for everyone!.. But now things haven’t gone their way.”
Eremey Aipin, Khanty, or the Star of the Dawn (1990)
Oh, how great it is in a world that the common man has no access to. Last year I visited a real Khanty camp in the Nizhnevartovsk region of Ugra. I saw deer, saw absolutely wonderful people and understood what it means to live like animals - in the wild and according to its rules. There is a lot in their life that is incomprehensible to us, supposedly civilized people, but we have the most important difference with the Khanty - they always smile.
It took a very long time to get there. About 8 hours by car, then overnight in a hotel, in the morning about an hour in a UAZ-loaf, and then another half hour on a Buran snowmobile to the taiga island, where civilization has not yet set its paws, although it is getting closer every day.
You can get to the camp through the oil bush. When you arrive at the place, on one side you can see the pristine taiga - the home of the Khanty,
and on the other, an infernal machine sucking life out of the earth.
The relationship between locals and oil workers is a separate issue. The Khanty blame oil workers for the disappearance of fish, berries, moss and furs. The topic is controversial and endless. One thing is clear, the unique people must be preserved and allowed to live as they are used to. They don’t need much - peace and freedom, because their lifestyle is exactly like that of forest animals. Life in the zoo of civilization, even in good conditions, is the end for their people.
And then the owner of the forest appeared. I couldn't help but smile. Funny in a good way and plush, or something like a toy. Happy. It felt like a fairytale bear had come for me and decided to take me to its den.
I first wrapped myself in a scarf so as not to freeze my face. She herself became a little like the Khanty. Although, they are not big people :)
There were sleds attached to the snowstorm, and I had to cover 20 kilometers on them. I’m driving, holding on to the ropes, looking at the sky and absolutely happy - I want this road to never end.
We arrived at the camp. It looks simple. Among the pines and cedars there are huts in which one cannot discern a residential building.
Inside there is a stove-stove and a room with a podium. The podium is bunks - they are covered with reindeer skins, on which the entire large family sleeps. How they manage to reproduce despite all this remains a mystery to me.
The life of the Khanty is not very sophisticated. If there were firewood and water, there would be tea, but if there was tea, it would be generally good.
The Khanty are very leisurely and, as it seemed to me, they live for today, they are not inclined to even the slightest analysis. Smile and live, everything will be okay.
I got the impression that the main thing in their life is peace of mind. That is, no matter what, don’t worry. They go to the store no more than once a month; they buy a lot at once and from the heart. They provide themselves with meat - fortunately the deer are nearby. There is no need to feed the deer - they will dig up moss for themselves.
They do not keep a vegetable garden, chickens or other headaches for the joy of an ordinary peasant. The Khanty can go to visit numerous relatives for half a month, meanwhile the deer walk in the forest, no one looks after them. Of course they disappear. But here it’s either poachers or bears. And among the Khanty, the bear is the owner of the forest; if he takes a deer, then it is destined to be so.
Khanty are pagans. They are superstitious. For example, if snakes come to the camp (there are swamps around) - then this is a bad sign and the machinations of evil spirits - you need to move to another place. They are ready to see mysticism in every event. If you lost the ax, it means it went to a parallel world and if it’s destined, the ax will return. Their hierarchy of gods is similar to an earthly government. The governor and deputies, roughly speaking, each deal with their own areas. If a person dies at a camp, he is taken on a snowmobile to the city for a medical report and returned back - each camp has an individual family graveyard. This is, of course, surprising.
Khanty women do needlework as needed. They don't do too much. They sew kitties, robes, malitsas, embroider clothes with beads - the desire for beauty is ineradicable.
But it should not only be beautiful - it should also be strong.
They wear clothes with the fur inside - in their opinion it is not as beautiful as beads.
Civilization has not escaped even the most conservative camps - there is a TV, VCR, audio recorder, light bulbs, cell phones, but no constant electricity. The Khanty spend the day drinking a cup of tea, and in the evening they turn on the gas generator, which consumes up to 5 liters per evening. All equipment runs from a generator - there are no refrigerators. The main evening entertainment is television and news from the mainland.
On the street, in addition to the residential building, there is a bathhouse - which the Khanty heat every 2-3 days, a storehouse (a warehouse for flour and grain on legs to protect it from rodents), a toilet, a garage and a fish shed. There are impudent foxes running around who are ready to eat out of hand if only the arctic foxes can profit from the fish.
Only dogs and deer eat such small fish.
The most important impression for me is, of course, the deer. This was the first time I saw this fabulous animal in reality. How beautiful and graceful they are, but shy.
I was never able to come up and pet one on my own. They are curious, but do not approach.
“Deer, deer are not shaved and not shins - the wonderful creatures in them are erased from the brains of the root”
The hostess of the camp caught one for me and I managed to touch it a little. Now these are my favorite animals. I can’t convey all the emotions - it’s a miracle. What horns they have, what legs! With their wide paws they dig up snow and eat moss. They, it turns out, can kick, unlike cows. Just don’t kick, but come up and “nnaaa” with your feet!
They lose their horns and then gnaw them themselves. The deer are fed a little mixed feed and crackers.
And this is poop.
And this is almost a family portrait. I recently found out that the owner passed away in the summer.
Khanty children are reluctantly sent to study in civilized schools. It seems that education is needed, but at school they will not teach you how to fish and may discourage the child from returning. And if a person goes into civilization, then the chance to preserve the culture and identity of the people, of whom there are less than 30 thousand people in the world, becomes one less. In recent years, the Khanty population has been increasing artificially. Russians or Tatars marry Khanty, ascribe themselves to the Khanty and enjoy the benefits provided by the state and oil workers. Previously, the Khanty were embarrassed by their nationality, but now it is in fashion; any freeloader is ready to sign up for the Khanty. Meanwhile, the real Khanty themselves continue to destroy themselves through drunkenness. Not all of them, of course, but the scale is catastrophic.
It was time to return to civilization. We need to make it before dark. It also took a long time to get back, but a few hours in an unreal world are worth spending a lot of time on the road. I have a huge amount of information in my head that needs to be thought through and digested. One thing I know for sure is that you still need to try to get such vivid impressions. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get to the camp at least once more, but if the opportunity arises, I won’t hesitate.
