About the city. Slyudyansk Mining Department Extraction of marble and building materials
The city, whose name was given by mica-phlogopite, inherited from the mining administration the purest, underground, and therefore strategically safe, source of fresh water. In 1956, two horizons of the fourth phlogopite mine were flooded with water from an underground river. There is no way to abandon the mine - the country needs strategically important raw materials. It was decided to divert water from the horizons. How? Geologists developed a project for an adit running through the entire city underground, through which water was supposed to go to Baikal. The length of this adit turned out to be 2800 meters. The water was caught and released into the lake, and the horizons were modified. And Slyudyanka is still fed with water from this adit, which has become the new bed of an underground spring.
By decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of March 20, 1936, the working village of Slyudyanka in the East Siberian Territory was transformed into a city of regional significance. Going back decades, Slyudyanka could be described as two cities: one on the surface, the other underground. The first stretched from the coastline of Lake Baikal to the south; 4-story comfortable houses were built here, sweeping away small wooden buildings townspeople The second city arose on the southern outskirts of the first, at the mouth of the valley in 1927. The underground city was built deep into the bowels of the earth until 1973. This invisible city remained as a monument to those who worked for the good of the fatherland.
1. Mine shaft. Below, 6 horizons and about 150 meters in depth await us.
More than three hundred years have passed since the discovery of the first mica plate in the Slyudyanka Mountains by Kultuk hunters until our time. For many millennia, the earth stored in the layers of its rocks a rare mineral that splits into the thinnest translucent plates. The first capital geologists climbed the slopes of local mountains at the beginning of the 20th century. So they returned to Moscow and St. Petersburg with small hexagonal crystals. When revolutionary perestroika began, in 1925 Moscow entered into a trade agreement with England for the supply of Baikal mica from a still truly unexplored, unexplored deposit. But knowledge and significant investments Money and hard work did their job - the earth opened its precious depths.
5. Horizon 130 meters, depth about 70 meters.
The first attempts to carry out mining operations by deepening each individual vein were complicated by the lack of lifting mechanisms. Therefore, we had to start digging adits. Given the existing terrain, this solution was the most reasonable. The situation in the country did not allow the use of mining equipment - drill hammers, compressors, metal trolleys, rails, pipes and much other equipment and devices. The country was in a difficult economic situation and it so happened that there were workers, but everything else was missing. But the work had to be done and with hard work the miners began to lay the foundation of the future underground city. Its construction lasted 47 years...
In 1927, Sibslyudtrest was formed - an industrial enterprise for the extraction and processing of mica. Omitting the details of the stagnation stage, we move on to the third stage. Beginning in the summer of 1939, after the crushing destruction of the engineering and development workers and the workers of the Slyudyansky mine in 1935-1938, the trust administration began a decisive attack in the construction of the foundation of the underground city - deep exploration. Funding for this type of work has also been increased. After approval of the mining plans at the First “Main” mine, the excavation of shafts No. 2, 3, 4 began.
10. Ore chamber.
13. Sixth horizon, 140-150 meters underground. The end of a mine shaft, an underground river flows here. View of the mine shaft from the horizon.
14. The phlogopite vein is clearly visible, zigzagging around the rock.
Mine No. 4 was located on the flank of the productive platform. Its depth then was 100 meters. work began on the mountain. 110 meters to the cross-cut with cross-cut No. 2 of the mountains. 11 meters of shaft No. 1. During the war, only clearing work was carried out on veins prepared for excavation, and dumps from previous years were moved through. Only in the late forties was it possible to begin deep exploration. Three crosscuts were laid from the shaft of mine No. 4 along the strike of pyroxene-amphibole gneisses at intervals of 20 meters with a horizon of 130 and 110 meters. The cross-cuts in the northwest direction were assigned numbers 2, 4 and 6, in the south-west - 1, 3, 5. From the forward cross-cuts, after 150-160 meters, field drifts were cut through, from which core drilling wells passed (a type of fast-rotary drilling in which rock destruction occurs along the ring, and not over the entire face area), as the cheapest type of work, were included in the scheme of heavy-type workings.
When the crosscuts crossed the calcite-phlogopite veins, they began driving drifts in the southwestern and northwestern directions. Samples were taken in the drifts at intervals of 5 meters. The sample included one explosion, and the rock was exposed to the surface, where mica was sampled. After processing the sample in the Quality Control Department (technical control department), the obtained data was entered into graphs by geologists. This was a voluminous work, since there were more than two thousand exposed veins in the deposit. Based on the samples received for each individual vein, reserves were calculated.
17. Crossroads with trolleys standing in a row. The chain consists of 24 trolleys in total.
18. Feet begin to get stuck in river silt, strewn with mica plates. The plates cast a glare, reflecting the light of the lantern and it seems that you noticed a shekel, but this is just an optical illusion.
In the spring of 1947, it was decided to change the methodology for calculating reserves. After two years of work, the Moscow State Reserves Commission (State Commission for Reserves) approved phlogopite reserves for the Slyudyanskoye deposit at 40 thousand tons. The State Bank has increased annual funding for the mining enterprise by 6-7 times. This contributed to successful work in the mines. The first mine began cutting horizons from the shaft of mine No. 4, mastering the depth and exploring the southeastern flank of the deposit.
If you look from the surface, where the underground city lies, you will not see anything except steep mountain slopes overgrown with forest. Your attention will be attracted only by narrow quarry cracks on the left slope of the valley at its mouth. In the dry riverbed there is a huge pit - a quarry for vein No. 6 and its neighbors. Further along the watershed, in the valley, through the thick brush of alder trees, one can see the Strelka quarry. And finally, behind the hill of the second mine is a quarry represented by brown biotite gneisses... Underground, everything looks different. The northwestern flank of the exploration workings adjoins the bed of the Slyudyanka River, and the southeastern flank borders the foot of the Stanovik ridge. The distance is 3 km, the width is 250-300 meters and the height at some points reaches 300-350 meters. The two components of the facility - Mine No. 1 and Mine No. 2 - are the basis for the entire underground city. The first mine was explored at 10 horizons, the second at 11. This entire combination of horizons and main connecting workings could previously be traced on a block diagram compiled by the mine department, which, unfortunately, is now lost.
On October 17, 1961, the Slyudyansky Mining Administration was awarded the title of “Communist Labor Collective.” In mine No. 4 on the mountain. 152 meters in vein No. 64 during the excavation of a sublevel drift by the team of V.V. Wilkoit uncovered a phlogopite crystal that reached a long axis of 2.2 meters in size. Preparatory work in the mountains. 89 meters of shaft No. 4 in one of the blind veins, M. Zhabin’s team uncovered barrel-shaped phlogopite crystals measuring from 40 to 60 cm in diameter.
22. Here the noise of the river reaches its climax. The dust stands in a column and the cry of a comrade will no longer be heard here.
23. Having passed along the drift, the source of the noise becomes visible. The river brought down hundreds of liters of groundwater from the upper horizon like a waterfall.
As the underground mining system developed to a depth, for the first time in 1939, at mine No. 1, groundwater was discovered in the shaft of mine No. 2 at a horizon of 42 meters. The organization of a drainage installation did not bring results. 17 years passed and on a horizon of 29 meters in the 4th shaft in the mine workings a “second” water appeared, the influx of which amounted to about 50-100 cubic meters. m/hour. Water also appeared in the shaft of the second mine.
25. Arrow.
26. The first deposits of the mineral adjacent to phlogopite - apatite. Its green splashes are visible in the huge calcite blocks.
It was necessary to take action. A drainage system was installed in shaft No. 4 to pump out water. Then they decided to go through drainage excavation for the mine workings of mine No. 2. When calculating the option of drainage through the shaft of mine No. 4, the annual cost of work was determined at 150 thousand rubles (excluding the increase in water inflow) as the mining system developed.
28. Drill hammer.
On September 20, 1956, a proposal was submitted to BRIZ to drain the field of the lower horizons of mines 1, 2, 4, 8 through a drainage adit planned from the eastern storm railway bridge to the crosscut No. 1 of the horizon + 4 meters of mine No. 4, with a total length of 2675 linear meters. in 1957, a comparative calculation was made of two options: organizing drainage along the shaft of mine No. 4 with a horizon of +4 meters and driving a drainage adit from Lake Baikal to the shaft of mine No. 4. The main disadvantages in carrying out such work were the difficult ventilation conditions for a very long mine and the duration of the work (5.4 years). It was decided to pump out the water anyway. On September 1, 1957, they began to drill chambers for the installation of drainage pumps, and on September 18, 1958, a breakthrough of fissure water occurred into the chambers being prepared. The option of pumping water through the mine shaft was no longer available.
Baikal adit... It took three years of going through all the authorities to prove the need for its passage. November 19, 1962 brigade A.M. For the first time, Pestova began to carry out excavation of such a significant length and complexity of a mine working. From the very beginning, the progress of the Baikalskaya adit was quite successful. The face reached a distance of 1200 meters in a year and a half. In some months the adit moved at a speed of 100-200 meters. Upon reaching 1200 meters, water poured out of the opened gaping crack. To avoid such incidents, core drilling wells were drilled, which greatly slowed down the process of passing the adit. The water level kept rising, which made it difficult for haulage trains loaded with rock to move. It seemed that the electric locomotive, sparkling with lights, was floating, and not rolling on its small wheels.
31. The train consists of already 25 trolleys.
32. Rock loading trolley.
Upon reaching a distance of 2850 meters, the influx of water at the face increased sharply. But in mine No. 4 the level dropped by 25 meters, thereby freeing the +29-meter horizon with all the flooded equipment from water. And immediately the opportunity arose to begin exploration and production work, which was stopped 5 years ago.
The last stage was the passage of an oncoming field drift 300 meters long from the fourth shaft at a horizon of +49 meters. It was connected by the shaft of a blind shaft to the Baikal adit. This urgent task was completed in 6 months. The Baikal adit was supplied with compressed air and electricity, and the rock mass was lifted through the shaft of mine No. 4. A natural draft of the air stream was formed along the mine workings knocked down from the adit. There are only 250 linear meters left before the breakdown with the mine yard of mine No. 4 at the horizon of +4 meters.
40. Electric locomotive.
43. Some trolleys can still be pushed along the rails.
44. We approached the shaft of another mine, the structure of the building is very reminiscent of the shaft of the Central mine. Perhaps this is it and they connect on this horizon.
47. From the blind trunk we return to the ore chamber.
48. Huge apatite vein. Apatite is one of the most common minerals in the Slyudyansky region. As a trace mineral, it is found in all rocks and mineral deposits. The most significant accumulations of apatite are associated with quartz-diopside rocks, in which it sometimes displaces diopside.
50. Traces of the last visitors.
51. We returned to the mine shaft and walked along the horizon towards Baikal, where the river goes. But to our surprise, the river sank into the ground, and the cross-cuts here were covered with ice.
56. A very narrow and damp drift of unknown purpose.
58. This concludes our underground journey.
59. And somewhere above, on the shore of Lake Baikal, behind the iron green door you can hear the sound of the river.
60. Outside the boundaries of a small town, she found the strength to break out from underground, through soil and stone.
61. The city, whose name was given by mica-phlogopite, inherited from the mining administration the purest, underground, and therefore strategically safe, source of fresh water. Two horizons of the fourth mine were flooded with water from an underground river. There is no way to abandon the mine - the country needs strategically important raw materials. How to drain water from horizons? Geologists developed a design for a 3,200-meter-long adit through which water would flow into Baikal. In reality, the length of the adit was 2800 meters, completed in 1970. The water was caught and released into the lake, and the horizons were modified. And Slyudyanka is still fed with water from this adit, which has become the new bed of an underground spring.
62. Through the horizons, through the sweat and blood of Slyudyansk miners, through years of work. And its name is the Baikal adit.
It is a well-known fact: the name Slyudyanka comes from the word “mica”. The once most powerful state enterprise in the Baikal town, Slyudyansk Mining Administration, founded in 1927, mined tens of thousands of tons of phlogopite mica, deposits of which are located deep in the mountains. The work went on in three shifts. There were one and a half thousand workers in the mine administration. Phlogopite has not been mined in Slyudyanka since 1973, and today only 40 people remain of the one and a half thousand miners. Alexey Sizykh began his career as a miner in the mining department, when mica was still being mined. It remained after 1973, when the mine management was halved and repurposed for the extraction of rare Slyudyansk marble. Today, more than one object in Irkutsk is decorated with marble and granite mined by the Slyudyansky Mining Department. And even in the Moscow metro, an entire station called Nogino is decorated with pink marble extracted from the Burovshchina quarry. The same pink marble was used in the decoration of the Irkutsk Musical Theatre...
It so happened that in the early 1970s, a deposit of phlogopite was discovered on the Kola Peninsula, near the city of Kovdor, says Alexey Innokentievich. — The party and the government did the math, and it turned out that Kola mica would be cheaper, because it was supposed to be mined open method. In our country, phlogopite was mined using the mine method.
At that time, before the invention and widespread use of semiconductors, mica was widely used in radio electronics as a thermal insulation material for lamps. After the widespread introduction of semiconductors into radio electronics, the need for mica decreased sharply. Now it is used only in heat-heating devices. By the way, such devices - using mica - are very economical: a 40-watt battery can heat a room of 20 square meters.
The mine management existed on mica until 1970. After this, they gradually began to switch to other types of production. The party decided (since we have marble everywhere here, and of all kinds) to repurpose mica production into marble production. Within three years, mica production was curtailed, and during this time four marble quarries were opened. And the trains went to different parts of the Soviet Union. Every day - by train. The last mica mine closed in 1974...
Alexey Innokentyevich and I are driving along the marble road. Marble in the literal sense. The two kilometers of road to the Dynamite quarry are lined with dazzling white stone. In "Dynamite" marble was mined for construction needs. But the most interesting thing is that the roads in Slyudyanka are also built with the addition of marble from this very quarry. They began to add it to bitumen when preparing asphalt. The asphalt was of the highest quality. According to Alexey Sizykh, this is why roads built on “dynamite” marble still stand. By the way, the roads in Slyudyanka, unlike those in Irkutsk, are really suitable for driving not only a tank, but also a car. It’s a pity that today “Dynamite” marble is not used for repairing and building roads in the capital of Eastern Siberia. However, they do not use it for road construction in the Irkutsk region.
And the proven reserves of marble in “Dynamite” will last for a hundred years. Provided that they extract it at 74 thousand cubic meters per year. Today, “Dynamite” produces barely 8-10 thousand cubic meters per mountain, and 47% of this mass still goes to the dump - special equipment is needed to process the “substandard” stone into smaller chips.
In the region, road enterprises are still rushing from side to side, where to find material for road surfaces, argues Alexey Sizykh, but here your raw materials are at hand, take them and build quality roads!
Following Dynamite, the Burovshchina quarry opens. The pink marble discovered here is not only an excellent finishing material, but also beautiful. Huge blocks of pink stone from Burovshchina are being transported to Slyudyanka, where a workshop has already been built in which marble is cut into pieces with diamond saws. The finished products of the sawing shop are named by analogy with products obtained from wood: thick slabs are marble boards, thin slabs are plywood. Then they are polished and shipped to customers.
An even more valuable stone began to be mined in a quarry near Buguldeika. This marble has a color range from white to red. And its fine-grained structure is very convenient for processing with sculptor’s tools. Buguldey marble is indispensable for monuments, statues, and crafts.
In the 80s of the last century, the Slyudyansk Mining Administration launched a quarry thirteen kilometers from Bolshoy Lug. Here miners began to extract granite - gray and pink.
The stone sawing shop of the mine administration has acquired special equipment. No diamond saw can cut granite. Strips - steel saws stretched parallel to each other - worked for days. The technology is as follows: water and cast iron shot were supplied to the place where the granite block was cut. During the shift, the cut deepened by 8-10 centimeters. So, to cut a block one meter high, it took about a week. The foundation of the “gray house” (administration of the Irkutsk region) is lined with this granite. The eternal flame at the Memorial of Glory illuminates the granite slabs of Bolshelugsky stone.
The mid-1980s saw the heyday of stone mining and stone processing in Slyudyanka. The mine management employs about five hundred people. The earnings of workers in quarries reach 500 rubles per month. Products made from rare Slyudyansk marble are in demand in various parts of the Soviet Union.
The decline of profitable and necessary production for the country begins with the collapse of the USSR. In 1993, widespread voucherization, as a form of global privatization, turned the Slyudyansk Mining Administration into OJSC Baikal Marble. “Baikal Marble” existed until 2004 and, after bankruptcy proceedings, died safely. Somehow it turned out that there was no demand for rare Slyudyanka marble. The collapsing country had no time for building stone - neither marble nor granite.
Today there is a great need for marble powder, says Alexey Sizykh, and not only in the production of paints and various putties. If powder is added to bitumen, which is used for asphalt production, then such asphalt will not be demolished.
It’s a pity that our marble is not used to build our roads.
Yes, it must be said that today all the quarries of the former Slyudyansky Mining Administration are working, with the exception of the granite one. Everyone has their own masters.
And the city, whose name was given by mica-phlogopite, inherited from the mining administration the purest, underground, and therefore strategically safe, source of fresh water. In 1960, two horizons of the fourth phlogopite mine were flooded with water from an underground river. There is no way to abandon the mine - the country needs strategically important raw materials. A decision was made to drain the water from the horizons. How? Geologists developed a design for a 3,200-meter-long adit through which water would flow into Baikal. In reality, the length of the adit was 2800 meters. The water was caught and released into the lake, and the horizons were modified. And Slyudyanka is still fed with water from this adit, which has become the new bed of an underground spring.
Silantiev V. P. Slyudyantsy in the rear and at the front
Slyudyanka, 2000
Chapter 1. Slyudyansky district on the eve of the Great Patriotic WarChapter 2. The first women's locomotive brigadeChapter 3. Enterprises of the Slyudyansky district (for 1941)Chapter 4. Master of high speedsChapter 5. The first days of the warChapter 6. Valiant LaborChapter 7. Slyudyansky hospitalChapter 8. Japanese prisoners of war in SlyudyankaChapter 9. Fought for the MotherlandChapter 10. Our Stars are GoldenChapter 11. Brothers in ArmsChapter 12. A reward awaits the heroChapter 13. Brest Red Banner...Chapter 14. War HeroesChapter 15. Road to VictoryChapter 16. The song was born in SlyudyankaChapter 17. In the war with JapanChapter 18. Alive, stand up!Chapter 1.
Slyudyansky district on the eve of the Great Patriotic War
What was the Slyudyansky district like on the eve of the Great Patriotic War? The Slyudyansky district was formed in 1930 according to the resolution of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. It included Kultukskaya, Listvenichnaya and Murinskaya volosts. Soon the volosts as administrative units were abolished and village councils and the Slyudyansky Village Council were formed. Slyudyanka owes its name to the richest reserves of mica-phlogopite, the deposit of which in the basin of the river of the same name was discovered by Russian explorers back in the 17th century. With the construction of the railway, it became not only a center for the extraction of unique mica, but also a large railway settlement, and then a city. In 1934 Listvenichnoye has been transformed into a workers' settlement. In 1935, B. Goloustinsky and M. Goloustinsky village councils were included from the Irkutsk region into the Slyudyansky district. In 1936, the working village of Slyudyanka was transformed into a city, and the village of Kultuk into a working village. This territorial and administrative division existed for more than thirty years, until 1963. The area cut through by the railway resembled a steel horseshoe, framed by green taiga and white mountain peaks, and embraced the coastal strip of the entire Southern Baikal from the Snezhnaya River to Peschanaya Bay, including, naturally, the source of the Angara, and along the Tunkinskaya Valley the Cossack village of Tibelti. According to official data, as of January 1, 1939, 25,343 people lived in the area, including in Slyudyanka - 12,231, in the territory of Listvenichny Village Council - 4814, Kultuksky - 5015, Marituysky Village Council - 1075, Utuliksky - 1316, Tibeltinsky - 564, B. Goloustinsky - 927, M. Goloustinsky - 401.
The 30s were the period of the Stakhanov movement. In railway transport, this movement was led by the driver of the Slavyansk locomotive depot, Petr Krivonos. In the summer of 1935, he carried out a heavy train at a record speed for that time. The methods of work of Pyotr Krivonos were widely introduced on the East Siberian Railway, including in the locomotive depot of the station. Slyudyanka. One of Krivonos’ followers among the Slyudyanites was driver Boris Nikolaevich Buivit. With his careful attitude to technology, he increased the mileage of the locomotive between lifting repairs, and in 1936 he brought this mileage to 100 thousand kilometers. At that time this was a record. In May 1936, Boris Nikolaevich was among a large group of railway workers on the East Siberian Railway at a meeting in Moscow. The Siberians were met in the Kremlin by Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin. One of the participants in this meeting, a resident of Slyudyanka Konstantin Antonovich Zimmerman (in Moscow he was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor) recalls that Kalinin asked with particular interest about the work of the Siberian railway workers, and at the end of the meeting he took a photo with them (photo not found). There, in the Kremlin, Buivit was awarded the Order of Lenin. He became the first holder of this honorary order among the Slyudyanites. In response to the highest award of the Motherland, Buivit undertook to increase the mileage of his locomotive between turning tires to 120 thousand kilometers. The standard for the road at that time was 40 thousand. Buivit and his fellow drivers Nikolai Avtsin and Nikolai Okhotin carefully looked after the locomotive, preventing unnecessary slipping, weakening of springs, etc. In December 1936, they drove an empty train from the Petrovsky Plant to Taishet, the locomotive's mileage reached 90 thousand km. But the locomotive was still in good condition, and then they decided to ride it along an unfamiliar profile. The car passed this test too. The machinists set the task of bringing the route to 120 thousand kilometers. On April 10, 1937, the obligations were fulfilled. The photograph that Buivit sent to the Museum of the History of the Slyudyansk Locomotive Depot shows the steam locomotive EM No. 740-47, which came out of lifting repairs after a 120-kilometer run without turning the tires. Near the locomotive is Buivit with the Order of Lenin on his chest, the head of the depot I.A. Vertyachikh, the teacher of the FZU A, I. Klimov, drivers N. Okhotin, N. Avtsin, assistant drivers Ershov and N. Sheiko. During the Great Patriotic War, Boris Nikolaevich Buivit headed the depot team. In subsequent years, before retiring, he worked in the Irkutsk department of the railway, was awarded the second Order of Lenin, the Order of the Badge of Honor, and was twice awarded the title of “Honorary Railway Worker.”
The years 1930-1940 are characterized by further growth in mica mining, the introduction of machinery into production, and the development of socialist competition. Teams of miners led by G.I. Blyumov, G.A. Filimonov, S.S. Tumanov and others have proven themselves well. In 1933, a power station was built (now one of the buildings of Khimreaktiv), and the exploitation of the famous vein No. 6 began (behind 50 thousand tons of mica were taken all the time). In 1937, mine No. 4 came into operation. During this period, the Stakhanov movement also developed among the miners. The followers of Alexei Stakhanov were miners S.I. Tumanov, F.I. Chupin, G.I. Blyumov, G.A. Tyumin. S. Nezameev, G. N. Filimonov, D. Ya. Pinigin, V. A. Dezhenkov and others. Driller Dezhenkov on January 11, 1940 drilled five instead of one face, fulfilling the production norm by 571 percent, bringing the productive work time to 87 percent . A noble Stakhanovite, he died heroically in one of the battles with the Nazi invaders during the Great Patriotic War. He was forever included in the lists of the staff of the Slyudyansk Mining Administration. In 1939, the company employed 533 people. Mica mining is characterized by the following data: in 1933, 2630 tons of mica were mined, 1934 - 2526, 1935 - 4843, 1936 - 6934, 1937 - 5873, 1938 - 6200 tons.
At the end of 1939, to supply rubble stone to enterprises and construction sites of the Eastern Railway in the Slyudyansky district, a quarry was opened, which employed 75 people. There were about 160 miners at the Baikalzoloto mines (B. Koty). For the Ulan-Ude PVRZ and the Irkutsk plant named after. Kuibyshev carried out the extraction of quartz sand in Khargino. Here in the summer there was a quarry, which employed from 46 to 85 people. In the fall and winter, the slaughterhouse of the Irkutsk meat processing plant operated in Kultuk. The number of workers at the plant ranged from 156 to 408 people. About 600 workers worked at the Listvenichnaya Shipyard named after. Yaroslavsky. The construction of new ships was carried out, as well as capital, medium and Maintenance vessels of the port of Baikal. 330 people worked directly at the port of Baikal. In Kultuk there was “Sovmongtuvtorg”, which employed 320 people. This enterprise was engaged in the transportation of import-export cargo. In 1939 there were 40 cars here. In January 1940, the Slyudyansky regional food processing plant was organized. Initially, confectionery production (gingerbread, drying) was established. In addition, fish was processed (smoked, salted), fruits and wild berries. In 1940, it was planned to produce 72 tons of confectionery products, process 27.5 tons of fish and 50 tons of berries and fruits.
There was also agriculture in the area. The first two communes, with 424 people, appeared in the Slyudyansky district in 1931. Soon six more agricultural associations were organized, uniting 822 people. However, the number of individual farms, in which there were 10,295 peasants, was even greater by the end of 1931 - 1,465. Individual farms had 44.9 percent of horses in the region, 94.7 of bulls, 64 of cows, 67 of sheep and goats, 15.1 – pigs. In addition, individual farms had significant land for sowing oats, wheat, winter rye and planting potatoes. On May 1, 1939, there were 6 collective farms in the Slyudyansky district. Collectivization covered 84.7 percent of farms. Land cultivation was carried out only by horse traction. If in 1938 there were 141 traction horses on the collective farms of the region, then in 1939 - 216. In 1937, the collective farms had 442 hectares of sown areas for grain and legumes, in 1938 - 507, 1939 - 573. Winter rye and wheat in 1937, 30 hectares were sown, in 1938 - 55 and in 1939 - 93 hectares. On January 1, 1940, in the Slyudyansky district, across all categories of farms, there were 977 horses, 2829 heads of cattle, of which 1543 were cows.
Chapter 2.
The first women's locomotive brigade
Remember the song of the 30s “If tomorrow there is war, if tomorrow there is a campaign...”. Indeed, people felt the approach of a military thunderstorm. The country's leadership took large-scale measures to prepare labor reserves. Technical schools and technical training schools were opened throughout the country, and women mastered male professions.
In Slyudyanka, FZO and schools were also opened at the railway junction and at the mine. The first female locomotive brigade on the East Siberian Railway appeared in the Slyudyanka locomotive depot. Valentina Petrovna Grigorieva recalls:
“I was invited to the political department for a conversation with Anna Nikitichna Klimets. She started the conversation about my license to drive a steam locomotive. I found myself on the East Siberian as the only woman with a driver’s license. I was in my fourth year when we girls heard the call from Muscovite Zinaida Troitskaya for women and girls to go work on steam locomotives. Six volunteers were found from our graduating class. During production practice, we asked to be appointed as assistant drivers. At the Liski locomotive depot of the South-Eastern Railway, I got on the heavy steam locomotive “FD”. During my internship, I managed to travel the required number of kilometers—twelve thousand—to obtain the license to drive a steam locomotive. I also took a test ride. The exams had to be taken at the road department, and I prepared for them alone. She left the institute as an engineer and locomotive driver. Now Anna Nikitichna Klimets offered me to lead the women’s brigade at the Slyudyanka depot. “We need to prove that men’s work can also be done by us women,” she urged. I didn’t mind, I wanted to repeat the feat of Zinaida Troitskaya. In February 1940, I applied to the head of the service to second me to the Slyudyanka locomotive depot as a driver to organize a women's locomotive brigade. In the same month we accepted the EM series locomotive. Lida Maltseva, a young girl who already had experience working on a steam locomotive, was appointed assistant driver. Lida stood out among us for her tall stature and physical endurance. Shura Lyapchenko, plump and short, took over as fireman. Our first train was a freight train. We had to deliver it from Slyudyanka to Mysovaya station. We were on the road for more than ten hours. In general, trips at that time lasted from eight to eighteen hours. During this time, it was necessary to shovel from twenty to twenty-eight tons of coal from the tender to the firebox. How much more slag can you unload from the furnace! It was especially difficult for Shura Lyapchenko. It was difficult for her to move the firebox. In addition, she was obliged to provide the locomotive with lubricants and cleaning materials. Lida Maltseva, in addition to heating, had to promptly lubricate rubbing parts and clean the locomotive. The driver was responsible for monitoring the condition of the locomotive and the fastening of all its components. And of course, locomotive control, traffic safety, crew leadership. And we conducted the first train safely, and the second, and the third... On the performance board, which reflected the results of each trip, out of 20-25 locomotive crews, ours always ended up in the top five. For high results we were awarded cash prizes, valuable gifts and certificates of honor... The Irkutsk newsreel studio captured the work of our team on film, and this documentary was shown in various parts of our country...”
Chapter 3.
Enterprises of the Slyudyansky district (for 1941)
1. Slyudyansk Mining Administration 2. Artel of Disabled People. 3. Raizdrav 4. District 5. Transport Workers' Club 6. Promartel "Zabaikalets" 7. Artel "Avangard" 8. Irobltorg 9. Raipishchekombinat 10. Raitranstorgpit 11. Raisvyaz 12. People's Court and Prosecutor's Office 13. City Council 14. Rail Forestry 15. State Forestry 16. Slyudyanka station 17. Carriage repair point 18. Conductor reserve 19. Depot st. Slyudyanka 20. Material warehouse 21. Coal warehouse 22. Timber warehouse 23. Stone quarry 24. 10th travel distance 25. 4th communication distance 26. “Sovmongguvtorg” (Kultuk) 27. Livestock import 28. Meat processing plant 29. 9 -th distance of the journey (Marituy) 30. Port Baikal (Baikal station) 31. Shipyard named after. Yaroslavsky (Listvyanka) 32. Vodtorgpit 33. Academy of Sciences
One warm autumn day I decided to go in search of a quarry. I expected to find a couple of small adits when I came across a small turnoff from the path that went into the thicket. What I saw was a big surprise for me...
1. The mountains under a cloudless sky were covered with multi-colored spruce trees that decorated these places during this season. The morning turns into lunch and the sun begins to get hot, it becomes a little hot in work clothes. Dumps of old workings are scattered along the road, worn by huge cars.
2. Along the road there are old bunkers for loading cars, which are not currently in use.
3. An inconspicuous path takes us away from the main path. There must be something there, I thought. And he turned out to be right. An entrance made by stone diggers just above the concreted entrance. Here you need to get flashlights and other essential equipment, let's go inside.
4. A cart at the entrance, slightly rooted to the ground, was used to transport ore or simply bags of stones, which can still be mined here. Judging by its appearance, it has not been used for a long time, and not surprisingly, there is a collapse two hundred meters ahead.
5. As it turns out later, we are in mine No. 1. It received the local name "Main". As stated in the book about the local deposits: the distance between its outer workings reaches 500 meters, with an average width of the production strip of 60 meters, expanding in places to 120 meters. The veins, exposed by erosion, lie within a horizon from 130 (toe of the slope) to 200 meters.
6. The first branches from the adit are of short length, connecting diagonally to form a triangle. One side of it resembles a hangar; apparently there was a generator in it, as evidenced by the surviving sign; there was also a utility room here and apparently some equipment and boxes of sand were stored. There are iron rectangular grooves in the floor.
7. The paths of the adit begin to diverge, forming a complex of passages. For now we are sticking to the direct direction, while I am drawing up a map along the way. We don’t yet know that we will be heading back from other directions. Wandering around the mine, we trampled many circles in fresh, non-drying clay. And so as not to forget where each turn is, I give them working names - alpha, beta, gamma...
8. Let's go back to history: The first development of mica on the Slyudyanka River dates back to the second half of the 18th century, and to be precise - 1726, which is considered the year when these developments began. In 1785, Eric Laxman (geologist, mineralogist, zoologist, paleontologist, chemist, public figure, academician of the St. Petersburg Academy and member of the Stockholm Academy) described powerful veins with black mica, feldspar and green schorl in crystals up to 5 feet long and 15 inches in diameter .
9. Officially, the peasant M.I. Yakunin is considered to be the first to open mine No. 1; this was in 1912. From 1912 to 1915, Yakunin produced about 20 tons of purified mica. In 1917, due to the outbreak of the civil war, mica mining on the southern shore of Lake Baikal was stopped - the miners left their mines. During this period, all mines, including the first one, were mothballed, and the mined mica was taken away by the Japanese occupiers.
10. And here is the rubble, the most inconvenient place to pass through; you have to crawl over it and drag things one by one. If it weren’t for him, it would be possible to walk around here in full growth without dirtying your clothes, but most likely it was this hole that influenced the safety of the remains metal structures and equipment for which ferrous metal hunters come here.
14. Central chamber. Here the paths diverge in four directions, if we assume that we came from below, then on the left there will be two seventy and eighty-meter crosscuts connected to each other, in front the adit will end after 37 meters, and to the right we have to go further.
15. If we jump ahead a little - to 2013, then we met geologists in the mine. They, in turn, shared with us a well-drawn map, which I used as a basis for drawing up previous maps. The adit of the main entrance to the mine reaches a length of 475 meters, from which the crosscuts go in different directions. The vaults in the “Tsentralnaya” blind shaft section are reinforced with concrete, not wooden supports; in this block there is a motor room, where the winch is located that lowers the elevator into the shaft, about 150 meters deep.
16. In the summer of 1923, geological research in the Slyudyanka area, on behalf of the Geological Committee (city of Petrograd), was carried out by S.S. Smirnov, and work was resumed in 1924 by Andrievsky. Then in 1926 part of the mine was transferred to the Institute of Applied Mineralogy. With the organization of Sibslyudtrest in 1927, all deposits were transferred to its jurisdiction. In 1928, by order of the Siberian Regional Council National economy"Sibslyudtrest" is transferred to the city of Irkutsk. And from April 1, 1929, a separate independent enterprise for the extraction of phlogopite was formed in Slyudyanka - the Slyudyansk Mining Administration.
17. Turning in the right direction we immediately see a small ore pass.
18. There are two more large crevices ahead, crossing our horizon up and down, apparently this is a mined-out ore chamber.
19. Second camera. There is a clear tendency for the deposit to sink to deeper horizons. The subsidence has a slightly stepped nature, which is obviously due to the tectonic features of this area.
20. And ahead, the support is already beginning to break and collapse, moreover, ditches are beginning to pass under them, so walking on slippery rotten logs is not very comfortable.
21. Having reached the metal doors, we find ourselves in a narrow corridor. There are the remains of some equipment. The walls and ceiling here are covered with concrete; we enter the central complex of premises.
23. Concrete vaults appear and disappear, but have their own clear boundaries.
First Five-Year Plan (1929-1930): Consistently implementing Lenin's plan for building socialism, the Communist Party is working to prepare for the “offensive of socialism along the entire front.” An important step This was the XVI All-Union Party Conference, held in April 1929, which discussed and approved the first five-year plan. After the formation of the Slyudyansk Mining Administration on April 1, significant changes took place in the team of mica miners over the course of these two years: mechanization of drilling began through the installation of a compressor fleet and the introduction of pneumatic drilling machines, production standards were introduced, and planned production was ensured.
24. Blind mine. I wasn't ready for this. The old elevator is still in place. The bottom of the mine is not visible.
The miners descended to a depth of 129 meters, 4 meters remained to the level of Lake Baikal. We worked 8 hours a day. During the shift, rock was cut down, which was calculated by the meters traveled. The ore was lifted up by winches, and later by electric lifts. At the ore sorting site, mica was selected for 8 hours at a time, that is, the entire shift. We went down into the mine along a ladder of 500 steps. The workers were transported by flatbed to mine No. 2, and walked to mine No. 1. There were also women among the workers: “We didn’t lose heart, we didn’t whine, but in difficult times we helped each other and sang songs.”
25. The light falls from the side of the elevator, and on the right is the entrance to the engine room.
27. Here it is, perhaps the most monumental place here - Motornaya.
28. A huge rickety winch, a control panel, an electrical panel room.
29. The diameter of the winch is 2 meters.
30. And here the cable ran to the pulleys of the elevator installation.
31. We are right above the mine. It is interesting that the passages here were not made parallel and at right angles, the corners of the forks are sharp and the branches are directed diagonally towards each other with an “arrow >”. Therefore, the room where these two wheels are located goes in a diamond shape in relation to the elevator, this can be seen both when drawing up the map and through the hole for the cable in the floor. The diameter of the pulleys is also 2 meters.
32. Moving away from this area, you can stumble upon an area with preserved trolleys.
35. To date, over 50 phlogopite veins have been identified within mine No. 1, most of them have been mined out, many, especially the old ones, are abandoned and littered. The most common and permanent components of the veins are diopside, scapolite, phlogopite, calcite and apatite. There is a lot of secondary calcite, completely transparent, in the form of brushes and individual crystals of scalenohedral shape. It creates cracks and voids among yellow calcite of an earlier generation. Crystals of diopside and scapolite reach sizes of 15-20 centimeters. Phlogopite sometimes concentrates in the expanded parts of the veins, forming powerful accumulations, completely displacing other components. It is most concentrated along diopside-scapolite salbands, usually in large barrel-shaped crystals.
36. The central part of the veins is usually made of coarse-crystalline calcite of pink and yellow color. Calcite fills the free areas between the crystals and often contains large (up to 10 cm, and sometimes up to 50 cm or more) blue and sky-colored apatite crystals. Apatite seems to float among calcite. Crystals of diopside (baicalite) sometimes reach 10-15 cm along the long axis, growing into each other. There are broken scapolite crystals cemented along fracture cracks with calcite.
37. Further crosscuts go in rings with a large number of small drifts. Two directions are flooded with water and their study is not yet possible, so we will continue further study of the mine later. The Mining Administration closed in 1973, after which the mines were abandoned, and most of the miners went to work at the Baikal Marble enterprise, organized on the site of the Mining Administration. However, the mines are still visited by collectors, geologists and simply stone hunters - hitniks.
It took me three days and one night to explore the Mine. Some areas have not yet been studied, and the mine has not yet been studied, in which another similar set of passages may be hidden, and perhaps even more. Therefore, the study continues. For this I take my leave. Thank you all for your attention!
Slyudyanka- a city in the Irkutsk region of the Russian Federation, the administrative center of the Slyudyansky district. Located at the western tip of Lake Baikal, 110 km from Irkutsk. Population - 18,241 people. (2017).
A large railway junction on the Trans-Siberian Railway. The Circum-Baikal Railway begins from Slyudyanka II station. The federal highway passes through the city M55"Baikal". Tourist center of the Irkutsk region. Marble and cement raw materials are mined nearby. In the past, Slyudyanka was famous for the mining of mica-phlogopite and lapis lazuli.
On the site of the city in 1647, the Kultuk fort was created, which was subsequently moved to the place where the village of Kultuk is now located. After this, only in 1802 the settlement of Slyudyanskoe winter quarters on the Circum-Baikal Tract appeared in this place. In 1899, the railway settlement of Slyudyanka was founded, which received the status of a workers' settlement in 1928, and the status of a city in 1936.
Toponymy
The name Slyudyanka is of Russian origin. The basis is the appellative “mica” - the name of a mineral mined for 350 years in the vicinity of a populated area. Slyudyanka did not change its name, being a fort, a winter hut, a village and a city. The river that flows within the city and in the middle reaches of which mica deposits were discovered is also called Slyudyanka.
Story
Ancient history
The first people appeared on the territory of Slyudyanka in the Eneolithic era. This can be judged by the burials of an ancient man found in 1962 at Shamansky Cape. These burials were attributed by archaeologists to the Kitoi Eneolithic era. Drawings and rock paintings of ancient people were found in caves on the Shamansky Cape, but after the level of Lake Baikal rose due to the start of operation of the Irkutsk hydroelectric power station, they found themselves under water.
The territory of Slyudyanka before the arrival of the Russians
Little is known about this stage in the history of Slyudyanka. Historians suggest that in the 1st century BC. e. The Huns lived on the territory of the Southern Baikal region. Then they were replaced by the Kurykans, a people of Turkic origin. According to historians, they are the ancestors of the Yakuts. Based on the found burials of the Kurykans, it can be judged that they were cattle breeders, knew how to smelt iron, were rich relative to the tribes around them, and had developed art. In the 11th century they were supplanted by Mongol tribes, including the Buryats. They settled on the southern, southeastern, eastern and southwestern coasts of Lake Baikal, including the territory of Slyudyanka. In addition to the Buryats, Evenks lived in the southern Baikal region. When the Russians arrived, their camp was located on the site of Slyudyanka. As the Decembrist Lorer noted, by the time of his arrival in 1813, Kultuk, the nearest settlement to the territory of Slyudyanka, was still a village inhabited mainly by Evenks.
Slyudyanka from 1647 to the 1890s.
At the beginning of the colonization of Siberia, mica was one of the most valuable goods for explorers, in addition to furs and salt. The Cossacks who arrived in southern Baikal began searching for this particular mineral and found it in the middle reaches of one of the small mountain rivers, later called Slyudyanka. At the mouth of the river next to it there was an Evenki camp. In its place, it was decided to organize a small fort in order to mine mica and protect the ore miners and miners from the Evenks. Its founder was the explorer Ivan Pokhabov, a Yenisei Cossack, a boyar’s son. The creation of the fort was reported to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. The fort at this place did not last long and was moved a few years later by the Russians to the place where Kultuk now stands, but the river at the mouth of which the fort stood was named after its founder.
After the transfer of the prison, there were no settlements on the territory of Slyudyanka until 1802. In 1766 and 1780s. Traveler Eric Laxman visited the territory of Slyudyanka. He became interested in the minerals in its vicinity and discovered deposits of jade, lapis lazuli and rediscovered mica deposits, which by that time had been forgotten and not developed.
After the appearance of the decree of Paul I “On the population of the Siberian region...” in 1802, settlers from the central provinces of the Russian Empire set up the Slyudyansk winter hut on the site of modern Slyudyanka and revived mica mining. The next important step for the development of the Southern Baikal region was the decision to build a wheeled road from Irkutsk to Kyakhta. A postal station was organized at the Slyudyansky winter quarters. In the 50s In the 19th century, Muravyov-Amursky approved the idea of building the Circum-Baikal Highway along the shore of Lake Baikal. By that time, Kyakhta began to lose its former significance. Verkhneudinsk became its competitor, and it was decided to build a road along the very shore of Lake Baikal, first to Posolsk, and then to Verkhneudinsk. Construction was carried out through the efforts of exiled Poles who rebelled in 1866. Wheel and postal service along the road was opened in 1864.
Slyudyanka since the 1890s. before 1917
In 1899, land was allocated from the lands belonging to the Kultuk rural assembly for the construction of a railway village. This is how the village of Slyudyanka was founded. It housed the First and Second sections of the Construction Administration of the Circum-Baikal Railway. There are different versions about why it was necessary to create the Slyudyanka railway junction, and not make it in the then largest settlement in the south of Baikal, Kultuk. There is an assumption that the construction of Slyudyanka was the personal wish of the then Minister of Railways Khilkov. According to another version, the village council of Kultuk refused to allocate land on its territory for a railway station, since in this case there are already small areas suitable for Agriculture the land would be occupied by a station and locomotive depot. The Circum-Baikal Road was a strategically important and at the same time very expensive link of the Trans-Siberian Railway. The locomotive depot, as well as the world famous Slyudyansky station made of white marble, were commissioned in 1904, and train traffic was opened in 1905. In 1912, an initiative was put forward to transform the village into
« ...the city of Slyudyanka, because in terms of the number (4072 souls of both sexes), class composition and occupation of the population, this village, which currently has the character of an urban settlement, in the future, due to natural geographical conditions: the proximity of many useful minerals (mica, white clay, alabaster, marble) and the convenience of selling them along the railway and waterways must inevitably expand and develop».
By 1916, 5,109 people lived in Slyudyanka, there was a church, 6 schools, 4 inns, a tavern and about 60 shops.
Revolutionary events
At the beginning of the 20th century, revolutionary organizations began to develop in Slyudyanka. In 1903-1904 A social democratic group appeared in the city. With the beginning of the revolutionary movement of 1905 in Irkutsk, unrest began along the entire railway. In December 1905, the Council of Deputies of Railway Workers and Employees was created in Slyudyanka. To support the rebels in Irkutsk, the Bolsheviks, led by I.V. Babushkin, captured a train with weapons in Chita, but at the Slyudyanka station Babushkin was captured by a punitive expedition, taken to Mysovsk and executed there with his comrades. In memory of this event, a memorial plaque by sculptor G.V. Neroda was installed on the pediment of the Slyudyansky station.
The famous revolutionary figure Sergei Kirov conducted propaganda work in Slyudyanka.
The October Revolution of 1917 took place in Slyudyanka in the form of spontaneous strikes. Soviet power was established almost in the first days after the revolution. By July 1918, units of the rebel Czechoslovak Gaida Corps approached Slyudyanka, and the Slyudyansky Revolutionary Committee announced the introduction of martial law. On July 17, the train of the commander of Centrosiberia arrived in Slyudyanka, and on July 19, military clashes began. The White Guards met desperate resistance from a detachment of Slyudyansk Red Guards, troops from Nestor Kalandarishvili and the icebreaker Angara, specially brought to help the Red Army, but on July 23 the city was abandoned by Bolshevik forces. The front rolled back to Verkhneudinsk. Despite the success in the general battle near Posolsk, Kolchak power was established in Slyudyanka. An underground was immediately organized. It took an active part in party affairs. They rescued 27 Slyudyansk Red Guards who were hiding in the surrounding forests, and carried out sabotage at the shipyard in Listvennichny. On January 8, 1920, it was decided to organize an armed uprising against the Kolchakites, who were already collapsing. The Slyudyansk Bolsheviks, led by Georgy Rzhanov, came out of the forest and entered the battle. Soviet power was finally established in Slyudyanka.
Slyudyanka before the Great Patriotic WarWater tower
Immediately after the establishment of Soviet power, disputes arose between Kultuk and Slyudyanka regarding volost administration. As a result, until 1930, the administration of the volost committee was carried out from Kultuk, which caused dissatisfaction with the Slyudyansk village committee. By a resolution of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the USSR on November 13, 1930, the Slyudyansky district was separated from the East Siberian Territory, and it was decided to make Slyudyanka its center. In 1928, Slyudyanka was granted the status of a workers' settlement, and in 1936 - the status of a city.
The class struggle intensified. Immediately after the Civil War, confiscation of property from the wealthy segments of the population began in Slyudyanka. Also, under the pretext of storing weapons, the Slyudyanskaya St. Nicholas Church was closed. It was transformed into a club named after May 1.
The industry of Slyudyanka at that time was represented by railway enterprises, mainly a locomotive depot, a brick factory and mica mining (the Slyudyansk mine was opened in 1927). Local crafts were also developed in the city - fishing, collecting berries and pine nuts. Due to the insufficient food supply for workers and railway workers, forest products made up a significant part of the diet of local residents.
In Slyudyanka in 1924 there was only one school and one club. The only cultural and entertainment center was the propaganda train “Blue Blouse”, which traveled with concerts for residents of railway villages. In 1936, funds were allocated from the regional budget for the construction of an orphanage for street children in Slyudyanka.
In the 30s, repressions began in Slyudyanka. About 500 people were repressed in the city. On the mountains near Slyudyanka there were logging sites where exiles and repressed people worked.
Slyudyanka during the Great Patriotic War
During the Great Patriotic War, 3,461 people were mobilized from Slyudyanka.
Slyudyanka was a deep rear area during the war. Mining mica and maintaining stable operation of the railway was carried out with hard work. "East-Siberian Truth" has repeatedly written about workers on the labor front, Slyudyansk workers - the head of the Slyudyansky mining department Berteneva, mica factory worker Anastasia Stupa, Stakhanovite miners, machinists who achieved significant savings in coal by caring for their machines, fishermen of the fishing collective farm "Baikal" who received the All-Union award for impact work, about the women of Slyudyanka who cleared the paths. At the same time, financial assistance was provided to the army. The locomotives of the depot alone collected about 23 thousand rubles. The Slyudyanka military hospital was also opened in Slyudyanka. V.P. Snedkov became the head physician. Many fighters here were cured and returned to duty. Local enterprises and the pioneer organization took patronage over them. The famous Baikal scientist Gleb Vereshchagin gave lectures at the hospital. In September 1945, a train accident occurred near Slyudyanka. A train carrying soldiers returning from the Japanese front derailed. 15 people died. In memory of them and the wounded who died in the hospital, on June 22, 1989, a Memorial was opened in Uluntui Pad.
In memory of the Slyudyanites who did not return from the front, another memorial was created in the city - a memorial in Pereval Park. The sculptural composition consists of a monument to the soldier-liberator and plates with the names of the dead. On one of them are the names of Heroes of the Soviet Union I.V. Tonkonoga and G.E. Beresnev. Every year a local Victory Parade is held near the memorial.
Slyudyanka after the Great Patriotic War
During the war and in the post-war years, geological exploration of the territory was carried out. Samples of about 200 minerals were found, and new mica veins were explored. The main event was the discovery of a deposit of marbled limestone. The thickness of the productive horizon here reached 350 m, and its length was about 10 kilometers. The possibility of using it as a raw material for cement production was considered. Raw material reserves at that time were estimated at 200 million tons. In 1955, construction began on the largest construction materials quarry in the Irkutsk region at that time. By 1957, it was completed, and the Pereval quarry, named after the deposit, produced the first tons of raw materials. Along with the quarry, a residential area for 1,500 people was built, consisting of panel apartment buildings.
Mica mining developed. It was used in various industries, including radio engineering and the aerospace industry. To process mica, a mica factory was organized in Slyudyanka. Mining in the post-war period was in full swing. Nine mines were in operation. The mined out adits were abandoned and mining began. In 1958, one of the mines was flooded. Unprecedented engineering studies were carried out to drain the water. A five-kilometer-long mine was created to drain groundwater into Baikal. However, mica mining was suddenly stopped in 1973. It was necessary to ensure sales of Aldan mica-phlogopite in order to justify the investment in this project.
After the war, Slyudyanka became a major railway junction. It was decided to build a section of the Slyudyanka - Bolshoy Lug - Irkutsk railway. Construction was completed by 1949. In the same year, the Slyudyanka II and Rybzavod stations (near the fish canning plant) were built. By 1960, the section of the Trans-Siberian Railway from Mariinsk to Slyudyanka was electrified. In 1961, the city's locomotive depot was converted into a locomotive depot. In 1980, the depot was transferred from the Irkutsk branch of the Eastern Railway to Ulan-Udenskoe.
In 1975, mica mining was completely stopped. It was necessary to repurpose the mine management to save jobs. It was decided to extract building materials. The Slyudyansk Mining Administration became part of the Rosmramorgranit industrial association of the Ministry of Construction Materials Industry of the RSFSR and began mining marble, gneiss and granodiorites at the Burovshchina (in the village of the same name), Dynamite and Orlyonok deposits. During mining, a stone processing workshop and a mosaic slab workshop were organized. 30% of the products were exported from the region, mainly to Moscow and other cities of the Soviet Union, where work was carried out on lining metro stations. In 1985, the mine administration produced 45 thousand m² of facing slabs and 50 thousand m² of mosaic slabs.
Modern period
Since the early 1990s, the decline of industry in the city began. As a result of privatization, the Slyudyansk Mining Administration was transformed into JSC Baikal Marble in 1993, and then it split into various JSCs, such as JSC Baikalpromkamen, JSC Baikal Stone Processing Plant, and JSC Burovshchina Quarry. In the same year, the South Baikal Fish Canning Plant was privatized and named JSC South Baikal Fish Factory and Co.
In 1994-1995 The residents of Slyudyanka were terrorized by the serial killer Boris Bogdanov. Being a forester and a professional hunter, he lay in wait for his victims in the forest, usually these were people collecting wild garlic or mushrooms in the forest. According to official data, the criminal had fifteen victims, according to unofficial data (taking into account the homeless people living in the forest) - 20 people. The police were unable to detain the sadist, since he professionally confused his tracks in the forest and had phenomenal instincts, each time escaping from pursuit at the last moment. On May 22, 1995, the house where he was hiding was surrounded. One of the operatives, Alexander Kutelev, was shot dead by a maniac during the storming of the house. When Bogdanov realized that he could not escape, he shot himself. One of the city streets was named after Kutelev.
In 1998, the South Baikal Fish Canning Plant ceased to exist. Its closure was associated with the general crisis of the fishing industry in the Irkutsk region. A strict tax policy, as well as serious competition from Far Eastern producers of canned fish, undermined the development of the fish processing industry in Slyudyanka. An attempt to revive the plant by transferring the enterprise's capacity to process chicken and pork meat in semi-finished products failed.
In 2005, as part of the celebration of the centenary of the Circum-Baikal Railway, the Slyudyanka I station was reconstructed. A new landing platform was built (on the city side). Repairs were also made to the station building. It was changed appearance, it itself has an exhibition exposition telling passengers about the Circum-Baikal Railway.
In 2011, Slyudyanka celebrated the 75th anniversary of receiving city status. For this anniversary, housing construction for Slyudyanka residents has resumed. For veterans of the Great Patriotic War within the framework Federal program A residential complex is being built to provide them with housing. A sports and fitness complex is being completed. Work was carried out to equip the city's outdoor sports facilities.
Geography
Geographical position
Slyudyanka is located in Eastern Siberia, in the south of the Irkutsk region, on the southern shore of Lake Baikal, 110 kilometers along the M-55 highway and 126 kilometers along the Trans-Siberian Railway from Irkutsk. The Circum-Baikal Railway starts from the city. The city stands on two rivers, in the foothills of the Khamar-Daban mountain system. The area of the city is 38.7 km² (without the Slyudyansky municipal formation); 436 km² (together with it).
Distance from Slyudyanka to the nearest cities (in a straight line) Kultuk ~ 3 km. Usolye-Sibirskoye ~ 121 km. Irkutsk ~ 80 km. Kyren
~ 103 km.
Tankhoy ~ 94 km. Chersky peak ~ 20 km. Zakamensk ~ 149 km. Baikalsk ~ 32 km.
Relief
The city is located on a foothill plateau (pediment) at the foot of the Khamar-Daban mountain system. The lowest point of the city is the edge of Lake Baikal, which is 456 meters above sea level. The plateau is formed by estuarine valleys and is filled with alluvial deposits of the Slyudyanka and Pokhabikha rivers. The plateau is inclined towards the water surface of Lake Baikal. Its length from west to east is about 5 kilometers, from north to south - from 2 to 4 kilometers. The plateau is surrounded by the Komarinsky ridge and one of its spurs, jutting into Baikal - the Shamansky Cape. Shamansky Cape is one of the most recognizable elements of the Slyudyansk relief, as well as a popular vacation spot.
Earthquakes
Slyudyanka is located in the Baikal rift zone, and therefore earthquakes of up to 11 magnitude are possible there. Large earthquakes (magnitude up to 6 points) occurred in Slyudyanka in 1862, 1959, 1995, 1999. The earthquake in February 1999 damaged the Slyudyansk wastewater treatment plant. But the most powerful earthquake occurred on August 27, 2008.
On August 27, 2008, at 10.35 local time, the strongest earthquake in its history, with a magnitude of 7-9, occurred in the Slyudyansky district. The epicenter was located 50 kilometers north of Baikalsk. In Slyudyanka the tremors reached magnitude 8. By a happy coincidence, not a single residential building collapse occurred in the city and no one died. In houses built in 1940-1950. Numerous cracks appeared (along 40 Let Oktyabrya and Perevalskaya streets). There was a displacement of the railway track and a break in the electrical wiring, so long-distance trains and commuter trains on the Mysovaya - Angarsk section were delayed for several hours. The district administration allocated funds to help those affected by the earthquake. The damage was estimated at 80 million rubles. Holidays for schoolchildren have been extended until September 8. Some houses were declared uninhabitable, demolished, and new ones were built in their place. The building of the former kindergarten, in which primary classes of Municipal Educational Institution Secondary School No. 4 were taught, became unusable. It was demolished and built in its place kindergarten No. 213 JSC Russian Railways.
Geology
Slyudyanka is located in the foothills of the Khamar-Daban mountain system, consisting of rocks of the age of the Baikal and Early Caledonian folding; therefore, the main rocks found in the vicinity of Slyudyanka are granites, marbles, crystalline schists, diopsides, feldspars, etc. The city's four most famous minerals are phlogopite mica, marble, lapis lazuli (lapis lazuli) and marbled limestone.
Mica crystal. Mineralogical Museum named after V. Zhigalov
The first attempts to start industrial mining of mica were made in 1902, when local ore miner Yakunin discovered mica veins 3 kilometers from the railway station and staked them out. Industrial mining of mica began in Slyudyanka only in 1924. The Slyudasoyuz trust was created, and then, in 1929, the Slyudyansk Mining Administration was organized. Mica mining was carried out at a rapid pace due to the high demand for mica in electrical engineering and military engineering. By 1975, mica mining ceased. Now the mica mines may be of interest only to tourists.
Currently, the most used mineral is marbled limestone. Its extraction is carried out by OJSC Quarry Pereval. For the construction of the dams of the Angarsk cascade of hydroelectric power stations, cement was needed, and in 1958, in the vicinity of Slyudyanka, a quarry was opened to extract raw materials for the production of cement, which was extracted from limestone and sent to the Angarsk cement plant. In 2008-2010, the quarry worked intermittently.
An equally valuable mineral is marble of different colors, from white to pink. It was mined in the Burovshchina quarry. After the cessation of mica mining, the Slyudyansk mine was repurposed for the extraction and processing of marble. Marble from Slyudyanka was used for the production of tombstones and as facing stone. They line the Novosibirsk metro station "Krasny Prospekt", the Kharkov metro station "Proletarskaya", the Moscow metro stations "Barrikadnaya", "Ulitsa 1905 Goda".
Lapis lazuli began to be mined in the vicinity of Slyudyanka immediately after the discovery of its deposit by Laxman, already mentioned above. The first batch was sent to St. Petersburg for cladding the walls of Peterhof. Azure stone was also used for cladding the walls of St. Isaac's Cathedral and as a raw material for producing ultramarine paint. From 1851 to 1863, its mining in the Malobystrinsky quarry was carried out by the craftsman of the Yekaterinburg lapidary factory Permikin. After 1863, its production ceased for almost 100 years. Obruchev, who visited Slyudyanka in 1889, noted the abandonment of these places. In 1967, the Baikalquartz Gems organization again organized lapis lazuli mining, but in 1995 the company went bankrupt.
Academician Fersman in one of his works called Slyudyanka a mineralogical paradise. In addition to the above minerals, about 400 more minerals were found in the mountains near Slyudyanka, such as apatite, diopside, wollastonite, glavcolite, uranothorite, mendeleyevite, goldmanite, azurite, andalusite, Afghanite, bystrite, vermiculite, graphite, dolomite, hydrogoethite, quartz, corundum , laurelite, molybdenite, orthoclase, plagioclase, rhodonite, sphalerite, florensovite, schorl, etc.
Hydrography
RiversTwo rivers flow within the city: Slyudyanka and Pokhabikha. The Slyudyanka is a temporary watercourse. This is due to the fact that the main tributary went underground, and its waters were then artificially diverted to Baikal, and rainfall is not constant. In the past, major floods occurred on the Slyudyanka River. The largest of these occurred in 1971. To protect the population, dams were built along the river. Another river, Pokhabikha, has a constant flow into Baikal. This is due to the presence of underground nutrition near this river. Also in 1971, Pohabiha experienced a major flood by local standards. The problem of local rivers is the formation of ice in winter, especially on Pokhabikha.
Lakes of Slyudyanka
There are several lakes on the northwestern outskirts of Slyudyanka. These lakes were part of the Baikal waters, but during the construction of the Circum-Baikal Road, an embankment was created, and the lakes were separated from Baikal. They are used as fishing spots, and after freezing, winter car races are held on their ice. Muskrats live on these lakes. Some birds use these bodies of water as habitat and nesting sites.
In the mountains, near Chersky Peak, there are several very picturesque lakes, such as Lake Heart and Lake Devil, which apparently are of glacial origin. They are very attractive to tourists and local residents who make one-day treks to them.
Southern Baikal
But still, the main water body for the city is Baikal, specifically its southern part. The waters of Southern Baikal began to be studied in the middle of the 19th century. Benedikt Dybowski, a Polish exile-scientist, studied, together with his assistant Viktor Godlewski, the hydrodynamics and hydrobiology of the waters of Lake Baikal near Slyudyanka, determined the exact timing of the freezing of the lake, and measured the depth of Lake Baikal near Slyudyanka. Scientists have found that near Slyudyanka the depth increases sharply, and 15 kilometers from the coast it is already 1320 meters. On average, Baikal freezes on January 9 and opens on May 4. The ice thickness in the southern basin is about 1-1.5 meters.
Soils, vegetation and fauna
There are several types of soils in the city. The first type is swamp soils. They are represented in the western and northwestern parts of the city, in the sector of low-rise buildings on the site of drained swamps. In addition to Slyudyanka, they are found in other coastal parts of the Slyudyansky district, the Baikal region and the northern regions of the region. Another type of soil is alluvial soil. They are found in the Slyudyanka and Pokhabikha valleys when their channels exit the mountain valleys onto the plateau. They occupy a small area. Throughout the city, the soil contains a large amount of mica, and thanks to it, they began to look for and found deposits of phlogopite. Also in the vicinity of the city there are podburs and podzols.
In terms of vegetation cover, Slyudyanka and its surroundings belong to the East Siberian subregion of light coniferous forests and its southern taiga zone. Siberian pine trees predominate. Cedar, or Siberian pine, is the main tree of the Khamar-Daban ridge. Larch and Scots pine are mixed with it. Near the city there are forests with a predominance of birch and aspen. This is due to the fact that in the mountains nearby the city in the 50s. In the 20th century, logging was carried out. To the southeast of Slyudyanka there are endemic fir forests. The undergrowth is dominated by juniper and raspberries, with bergenia, kashkara, and berry bushes growing.
The Slyudyanka area is home to several species of game animals: sable, squirrel, bear; upland game - wood grouse, black grouse, hazel grouse. Bears began to appear more and more often near populated areas in the Slyudyansky district; their number in the area is approximately 1,200 individuals. Due to the lack of food in the forest, bears are looking for food sources near numerous tourist centers.
Ecological state
Due to the fact that the main fuel for boiler houses and heating of private houses in winter is coal, smog is observed in the city at this time. During the establishment of an anticyclone, the smoke does not dissipate in the basin, and a haze constantly hangs over the city. The smog problem was partially resolved with the construction of a central city boiler house, which, according to the resolution of the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers on the protection of Lake Baikal dated April 13, 1987, was supposed to replace a large number of departmental ones. However, the smog remained. As part of the target program “Environmental Protection in the Irkutsk Region”, funds are allocated for the construction of the Rudnaya electric boiler house.
Many mineral deposits located near Slyudyanka, such as the Baikal iron ore deposit, the Andreevskoye wollastonite deposit, and the apatite deposit, are not developed due to the fact that they are located in the water protection zone of Lake Baikal.
Religion
The main part of the population of Slyudyanka has long been Orthodox Christians. In the city there is a representative office of the Irkutsk diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church - the parish of St. Nicholas Church.
Nowadays there are not many Catholics left in the city, but in the past they played a significant role in the life of the city. In the city there is a Catholic chapel of St. George the Victorious, where services are regularly held. The city also has representatives of such religious movements as Seventh-day Adventists, Pentecostals, Baptists and Jehovah's Witnesses. A common occurrence among Protestants in the city is having many children.
The Muslim diaspora of the city is represented by immigrants from Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. There are no religious buildings for adherents of Islam in the city. Buddhists and shamanists in the area are represented by Buryats from the Tunka Valley and the rest of the Irkutsk region. Buryat shamanists in the past worshiped Baikal and its elements; the Shamansky Cape was the place of rituals and worship.
