Mirnoye: the past, the present and a little bit of the future
The history of the Yenisei ecological station began in 1969, when the General Directorate for Hunting and Nature Reserves of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Glavokhota of the RSFSR) made the decision to establish a Turukhansk biological station, to be based in the village of Verkhne-Imbatskoye, the capital of the South Turukhansk State Industrial Farm. In 1970 the Mirnoye Taiga Research Station was established at the Turukhansk biological station, in the half-abandoned Mirnoye village, which marked the birth of the Yenisei ecological station. The research was supervised by the Central Research Laboratory of Gravokhota, and organized by its initiators - E.E.Syroechkovsky (professor) and E.V.Rogacheva (PhD in biology).
A brief history of the Turukhansk region (now the Turukhansk district of Krasnoyarsk Krai), the area of which is comparable to the area of Italy
It is the station's 55th anniversary. Which begs the question, "what was here before it was established?". A long time ago, before the Russians, the Kets lived here, or as the Russian settlers called them - Yeniseian Ostyaks. The Kets and related tribes of the Kotts, Arins, and Asans once inhabited the valley of the Middle Yenisei River and several of its tributaries. These peoples are usually classified as belonging to the Tibetan linguistic group, and the Kets - the northernmost of them - are the only ones to survive to this day. Russian settlers arrived in these areas in the early 17th century, primarily former residents of Mangazeya on the Taz River, who, after fires and other problems in their hometown, migrated to the Yenisei. On the left bank at the mouth of the Turukhan river, they founded the settlement of Novaya Mangazeya (New Mangazeya), which later became known as Staroturukhansk, since the settlement of Turukhansk arose on the right bank at the mouth of the Nizhnyaya Tunguska. At that time these langs were rich in sable, and hunters and fur traders headed up the Yenisei and its tributaries, building multiple winter lodges along the way. Settlements later formed around or in place of these lodges.
However, the actual system of settlements along the Yenisei banks only formed closer to the middle of the XVIII century. It is to this period that the establishment of the Mirnoye village should apparently be attributed. Most of the population of Mirnoye, like other villages along the Middle Yenisei, were descendants of the former inhabitants of Mangazeya, many of whom had Pomor roots.These people subsequently became known as Seldyuki, a name derived from the Turukhan herring (smelt), which used to migrate up the Yenisei River in large numbers every autumn to spawn. The herring were salted for the winter, and it played a big part of the winter diet of the residents. The spawning migration of smelt continues, but the numbers of the species have declined significantly.
The local population grew steadily mostly thanks to the influx of the settlers from the European part of Russia, many of whom were former convicts released after hard labor, as well as religious dissidents such as the Molokans. The teachings of the Molokans were considered harmful, and they were migrating from the center to the periphery of the Russian empire en masse. Exiles were often transported by sleigh over the frozen Yenisei river, so the distance between settlements approximated 20 km - the distance a horse-drawn sleigh covers in a day. Furthermore, in winter it was the only mode of communication between the Yenisei settlements and the "mainland," as the locals refer to the rest of Russia. The villages along the Yenisei River were called "stanki," likely derived from the word "station." In the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the proportion of people arrested for political reasons increased among the exiled settlers. Among the exiles who made this journey from Krasnoyarsk to Turukhansk were figures who would later play key roles in Russian history. For example, in February-March 1913, I.V. Dzhugashvili (Stalin) and Ya.M. Sverdlov were exiled to Turukhansk. In the village of Mirnoye, part of a log cabin remains from a former inn, now a residential building where exiled Bolsheviks likely spent the night, as there was simply no other accommodation for such a contingent in the village. In September 1913, the great Norwegian explorer and public figure Fridtjof Nansen visited Mirnoye. He traveled from Dikson to Yeniseisk on the steamship "Omul," stopping off in several Yenisei villages along the way, including Mirnoye. A brief description of his visit to Mirnoye can be found in his book "To the Land of the Future." It was first published in 1915 and subsequently reprinted numerous times. While in Mirnoye, Nansen noticed a wide clearing along which ran a telegraph line connecting Turukhansk and Krasnoyarsk.
After the revolution political exiles kept being added to the number of the residents, joined during the Great Patriotic War by representatives of the deported peoples - Volga Germans of residents of the Baltic republics. By the late 1940s and early 1950s, according to local residents, Mirnoye had somewhere between 40 and 50 households. The program of erasing the borders between cities and villages was implemented in the 60s, effectively absorbing most small villages across the country. Nobody moved the villagers by force, but the ships, the post, the school and hospital in Mirnoye were all closed, so the villagers scattered on their own - some to the neighouring Bakhta villager, but most of them - to more remote settlements.
Only A.I. Denisenko (Aunt Shura) remained, caring for her paralyzed father, who flatly refused to leave his native village. Some time later, M.P. Maksimov, a retired senior mate of one of the cargo ships sailing the Yenisei River, moved in with Aunt Shura from Yeniseisk. Maksim Pavlovich and Aunt Shura were the only residents of Mirnoye when, in 1970, Yevgeny Yevgenyevich Syroechkovsky and Energiya Vasilyevna Rogacheva decided to establish a research station there.
The main scientific objectives of the Yenisei Station's initial phase were:
- Studying the state of biological resources and identifying ways to rationalize their use and protection to support local hunting and fishing, which plays a leading role in the region's economy and is the basis of life for the indigenous peoples of the North, the Kets.
- Inventorying flora and fauna as components of biocenoses, knowledge of which is essential for organizing environmental monitoring and developing measures to protect wildlife.
- Further development of in-depth environmental research, studying the long-term and seasonal dynamics of animal populations and vegetation, and biocenoses as a whole.
At this time, research was being conducted at the station by both full-time employees of the Central Scientific Research Laboratory of Glavokhota (Yu.N. Nikerov, E.A. Kudusov, B.L. Samoilov, I.N. Pogodin), and representatives of other scientific institutions: geobotanist L.N. Sobolev (Institute of Geography of RAS), mycologist E.L. Nezdoiminogo (Komarov Botanical Institute), as well as students of Academician M.S. Gilyarov – soil zoologists Yu.I. Chernov and B.R. Striganova. Students from a number of Moscow universities were involved in the research work: K.B. Klokov, L.B. Rybalov, T.E. Rossolimo, B.I. Sheftel, A.V. Sapogov, O.V. Bursky, N.Yu. Burskaya.
Since 1976, the station was transferred to the Central Laboratory of Nature Conservation of the USSR Ministry of Agriculture and received the status of a biological station. However, the main issues of scientific research remain the same. In the 1970s, a young research team of the biological station was formed: N.V. Anzigitova, N.Yu. This group also included a representative of the older generation, prof. V.B. Kuvaev. The scientific management of the biological station, as before, was carried out by Corresponding Member of VASKhNIL (Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences) E.E. Syroechkovsky and E.V. Rogacheva. At this time, students from the Biology and Geography Faculties of Moscow State University, as well as from Moscow State Pedagogical Institute, were undergoing field practice in Mirnoye: E.M. Grigoriev, K.Yu. Yeskov, M.A. Zhukov, T.S. Zatsepin, A.A. Karkhu, A.I. Kozlenko, N.V. Moraleva, O.V. Romanenko, M.A. Tarkovsky, I.V. Travinsky, A.A. Tsesarsky. Many of them later joined the research team of the biological station or became renowned biologists at other research institutions, and some gained fame as writers.
In Mirnoye, research into the ecology of small mammals and birds continues, with the first Gay-Golland traps for capturing and ringing birds being built. K. Yu. Eskov is studying the fauna of spiders of the subfamily Erigoninae.
With the transfer to the Central Laboratory of Plant Protection of the USSR Ministry of Agriculture, a position was created in Mirnoye for the head of the biological station, which was filled in 1976 by I. M. Skarzov, a former geologist who had worked for many years in Yakutia and the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
Yenisei Ecological Station as part of the Institute of Evolutionary Morphology and Ecology of Animals of the USSR Academy of Sciences
In 1981, the Yenisei Ecological Station became a division of the Institute of Evolutionary Morphology and Ecology of Animals of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Most of the researchers continued their work at the biological station, and in the mid-1980s, Mirnoye received its current name – the Yenisei Ecological Station Mirnoye. After joining the Academy of Sciences, the station's focus changed somewhat. The volume of resource-focused research decreased, and ecological research, primarily work related to environmental monitoring, took center stage. According to the station regulations, Mirnoye received a position of a scientific director (curator). E.E. Syroechkovsky became the director, and B.I. Sheftel was appointed deputy scientific director (deputy curator).
In 1981, the area surrounding the biological station became part of the Turukhansky Nature Reserve, which was under regional jurisdiction. Around the same time, researchers from the Yenisei station were actively involved in surveying the area and preparing the design for the Central Siberian State Nature Reserve. The reserve was established in early 1985, and the Turukhansky Nature Reserve became part of the reserve's protected zone, while the 11-hectare area on which the station itself was located became the property of the Academy of Sciences. P.E. Kopytov, a local resident and native of Kuban who later became an active participant in the life of Mirnoye, served as ranger for the reserve, and later as ranger for the protected zone.
In the first half of the 1980s, a new generation of students and volunteers arrived to Mirnoye: V.A. Akimov, A.Yu. Aleksandrova, D.Yu. Aleksandrov, Yu.A. Andreev, A.V. Anisimov, A.V. Bryukhanov, I.Yu. Gubenko, V.A. Kashina, E.V. Modenova, A.A. Moroz, L.A. Novikova, A.I. Panaiotidi, O.Yu. Pronkova (Anisimova), M.E. Rykhlikova, A.B. Ryvkin, and E.V. Semiokhina.
Scientific research was conducted at the station by staff from various laboratories of the IEE RAS, including M.A. Serbenyuk, T.M. Galanina, V.V. Nikiforov, and I.Yu. Popov, as well as staff from other scientific institutions, P.M. Baranovsky (NII EM named after N.F. Gamaleya AMS), V.M. Zakharov (IBR AS USSR), E.A. Schwartz (IG AS USSR).
In the early 1980s, G.I. Platonov arrived at the station, volunteering to assist with maintenance work, such as minor building repairs. G.I. Platonov had a difficult history, having spent over 10 years in prison. He was soon arrested again following an investigation into certain early episodes of his life. However, three years after completing his prison term, Platonov wrote a letter to E.E. Syroechkovsky requesting permission to return to Mirnoye and work at the biological station. The decision was positive, and Gennady Ivanovich was soon officially hired by the Yenisei Ecological Station of the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences as an employee responsible for building repairs and construction. G.I. Platonov worked at Mirnoye almost until his death in the early 2000s. Overall, his work has made a significant contribution to the station's development.
In the mid-1980s, the head of the biological station, I.M. Skarzov, resigned after nearly 10 years in this position and having done a great deal to establish Mirnoye's resources. He was succeeded in this position in 1985 by V.V. Dolzhenko, a game warden from the Smolensk region. However, in 1987, he was replaced by V.N. Lunevsky, a native of the Altai region who had recently moved to Bakhta and worked there as the head of a club. V.N. Lunevsky and his wife A.N. Lunevskaya (a native Bakhtin) still work at the biological station; it is to them that the Yenisei Ecological Station owes its continued existence.
In the second half of the 1980s, the biological station received a new impetus for its development: it began receiving regular visits from foreign scientists. This first occurred in 1987, when Finnish ecologist Ilkka Hanski visited the station. He later became one of the world's leading ecologists after developing the theory of metapopulations. Hanski visited Mirnoye three times. Also working at the station during this period were Polish ornithologist Bogumila Oleh and German theriologist Dieter Köhler. In 1988, the station was visited by Wilfried Gerke, head of the scientific department of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment (Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und nukleare Sicherheit). As a result of the negotiations held with him in Mirnoye, the Taimyr Ornithological Expedition was organized, and field training for students from a number of German universities began at the Yenisei Ecological Station.
At the turn of the 80-90s MIrnoye was visited by renowned scientists representing IEE RAS (Yu.Yu. Dgebuadze) and other scientific institutions (ornithologist L.G. Vatapetov - ISEE SB USSR Academy of Sciences, a group of virologists from the Institute of Carcinogenesis of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences under the leadership of M.V. and O.V. Chernov and T.V. Golovkina). That period was also marked by an influx of students and volunteers at the station: V.Yu. Arkhipov, O.N. Batova, M.G. Vasilyeva, I.P. Voschanova, Yu.V. Gorelova, S.A. Grigoriev, T.B. Demidova, O.L. Zeldich, M.N. Ivanova (Rubtsova), M.I. Krasinskaya, E.A. Koblik, D.V. Konstantinov, P.V. Kulybin, G.N. Nemkova, I.V. Rebrova, E.K. Chistyakova, A.V. Sharikov. Many of them have become famous scientists, writers, photographers, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists.
Another important event occured in Mirnoye at the same time. In-depth studies of passerine ecology began in the floodplain on the left bank of the Yenisei. New stilt houses were built and the autonomy of the left-bank expeditionary detachment under the direction of O.V.Busky grew.
In the early 1990s, groups of scientists from renowned international scientific centers arrived in Mirnoye. Theriologists included Dr. Sara Churchfield from King's College London, England, and Dr. Joseff F. Merritt from the Powdermill Biological Station, Carnegie Center, Pennsylvania, USA. Ornithologists included scientists from the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, USA, under the direction of Prof. Russell Greenberg, and from the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany, under the direction of Prof. Hans Oelke. Spanish ichthyologists included scientists under the direction of Prof. Javier Lobon-Cervia from the National Museum of Natural Sciences (CSIC), Madrid. In addition, in 1992, representatives of the German Ministry of the Environment, led by Heinrich Schmauder, visited Mirnoye. It was Heinrich Schmauder, a collaborator of Wilfried Goerke, who initiated fieldwork for German university students at the Yenisei Ecological Station.
The first to visit Mirnoye in 1992 were students from Warsaw University. Then, in 1993 and 1994, four more groups of German students visited the station – two groups from the University of Bonn, and one group each from the University of Würzburg and the University of Münster. The group from the University of Würzburg was led by Professor Michael Mühlenberg and Dr. Jolanta Slowic, and the group from the University of Münster was led by two professors, ornithologist Hermann Mattes and ethnographer Cay Linnau. Mattes and Linnau subsequently visited Mirnoye many times, but alone, without student groups.
The beginning of the 90s marked the beginning of the station's golden age. The work was carried out on both banks of the Yenisei river. Six Rybachy-type traps were installed on the right bank, and on the left birds were caught with mist traps and subsequently ringed, including with coloured rings. Small mammals were caught with the use of 30 drift fences with pitfall traps, and marking platforms were active on both banks of the river. Studies of soil invertebrates were carried out, as well as ichthyological and geobotanical studies. In winter, the undersnow lives of small mammals were studied. During that period, the scientific population of the station approximated from 40 to 50 people.
After 1994, considerable changes occurred in the life of Mirnoye - due to a number of reasons, external as well as internal, the volume of scientific studies sharply declined. The only practical work that was carried out in that period were the ornithologic studies on the left bank of Yenisei under the direction of O.V.Bursky. B.I. Sheftel was removed from his duties as deputy scientific curator of the station, and D.A. Shakhin was appointed in his place.
In 1995, the Mirny area was removed from the protected zone of the Central Siberian Biosphere Reserve, a federally administered nature reserve, and the Turukhansky Regional Nature Reserve was reestablished on this territory. In 1996, the Turukhansky District Administration, represented by its head, S.G. Yurchenko, attempted to take control of the Yenisei Ecological Station. The rationale for this move was that Mirnoye attracted a large number of foreign scientists, students, and nature enthusiasts. This meant that the area possessed certain attractive properties, which the administration decided to exploit. However, shortly before this, a federal law had been passed prohibiting the privatization and transfer of Academy of Sciences property to third parties. As a result, the Yenisei Ecological Station remained within the Academy of Sciences, and scientific research continued. After all, it was precisely this research and the specialists conducting it that possessed the attractive properties S.G. Yurchenko had attributed to the area.
Scientific research continued throughout the second half of the 1990s and into the 2000s. Geobotanical and floristic studies were conducted under the direction of V.B. Kuvaev. In the second half of the 1990s, A.V. Kuvaev studied the fauna of the club-winged lepidoptera (diurnal butterflies) of Mirnoye.
Among the diverse range of ornithological studies, comparative ecology studies of closely related bird species are particularly noteworthy. These studies focused on warblers and thrushes. Among warblers, differences in foraging behavior were studied in seven species (O.N. Batova, O.V. Bursky), while among thrushes, the specific life strategies of five species were examined (E.Yu. Demidova, O.V. Bursky). These studies culminated in the defense of candidate dissertations by O.N. Batova and E.Yu. Demidova.
During this period, the Yenisei Ecological Station was visited by a small number of Russian scientists: A.V. Tiunov, D.Yu. Aleksandrov, and S.E. Cherenkov (IEE RAS), mycologist A.V. Aleksandrova (Biology Department of Moscow State University), K.E. Mikhailov (Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences), and P.M. Glazov (Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences).
In addition to the aforementioned O.N. Batova and E.Yu. Demidova, Russian students and volunteers A.A. Morkovin, M.D. Rakhimberdyeva (Monakhova), and T.A. Obozova also participated in the research.
Foreign scientists also continued their scientific work in Mirnoye. For example, Münster professors Hermann Matthes and Kai Linnau made four trips to Mirnoye in the late 1990s and 2000s. Foreign students also visited the Yenisei Station, but these were small groups of no more than three people. During this period, Mirnoye was visited by 13 students, 12 Germans representing the universities of Würzburg, Münster, Berlin, and Bielefeld, and one Pole (from the University of Wrocław). Some of them became renowned scientists, including Wolfgang Forstmeier, a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology; André Kessler, a professor at Cornell University (USA); and Kai Pagenkopf, a doctoral student at the University of Münster.
Thus, the number of students completing internships in Mirnoye decreased, but student and ecotourism groups (primarily birdwatchers) emerged, for whom excursions were organized to visit various natural areas located along the Yenisei River from Taimyr to Tuva. These groups typically spent 3-4 days in Mirny, during which they became acquainted with the nature of the middle Yenisei taiga. They included German students from the Universities of Marburg and Munich, as well as nature enthusiasts from Finland, Canada, and Belgium. These excursions were organized and led primarily by specialists who had previously worked in Mirnoye (A. Yu. Aleksandrova, V. Yu. Arkhipov, S. A. Grigoriev, T. I. Kalishevskaya, A. A. Moroz, I. V. Travinsky, B. I. Sheftel).
Contemporary history of the Yenisei ecological station Mirnoye in the 21st century (IEE RAS)
In the early 2000s, based on a memorandum by E.E. Syroechkovsky, B.I. Sheftel was again appointed deputy scientific curator of the ecological station, jointly with D.A. Shakhin. After the latter's dismissal from the institute due to a transfer to another position, the former remained the sole deputy scientific curator. Following the death of E.E. Syroechkovsky, the scientific curator of the Yenisei Ecological Station, in November 2004, this position was transferred to B.I. Sheftel.
Mirnoye, located 20 km south from the neighbouring village of Bakhta, was affected by another significant event that occurred in Bakhta during this period. Under the direction of D.D. Vasyukov, the film "Happy People" was shot, dedicated to the nature of the Yenisei taiga and the people whose lives are directly connected to the river and taiga. The film was a resounding success, introducing millions to this previously little-known corner of Russia. Following this, a never-ending stream of tourists flocked to Bakhta. It should be noted that the film's creators, along with D.D. Vasyukov, included A.A. Tsarsky and M.A. Tarkovsky, who had worked for many years at the Yenisei Ecological Station. They also edited the film, along with I.V. Travinsky.
At the end of 2007, V.I. Melnikov was appointed senior ranger, i.e., head of the Turukhansk Regional Nature Reserve. Following this, contacts between the station and the reserve staff became closer, and mutual assistance became a more common practice.
In 2007-2008, small mammal censuses using drift fences with pitfall traps were resumed in Mirnoye. Much of the credit for this was due to V.O. Burskaya, who decided to prepare a term paper and a thesis on the dynamics of small mammals in the Yenisei taiga. Since then, research has gradually resumed on the right bank of the Yenisei River. Of course, this work did not reach the scale it had in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and was initially limited to monitoring small mammal numbers.
In the early 2010s, the volume of research on the right bank increased significantly, and the lives of scientists working on the right bank became virtually independent from those on the left.
During these years, research on the right bank of the Yenisei River was conducted by A.A. Kalinin and B.D. Efeikin, staff members of the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, E. Voronezhskaya and A.I. Kurtova, staff members of the Institute of Biological Research, and F.A. Tumasyan, staff members of the Moscow Zoo. The research also included volunteers and students A.V. and O.Yu. Anisimov, and V.D. Yakushov.
Foreign scientists also conducted research in Mirnoye during these years. Hermann Matthes and Kai Linnau continued to visit the biological station. Among them were Ludwik Tomiałojć, a Polish ornithologist from the University of Wrocław; Lars Edenius and Adriaan de Jong, ornithologists from Uppsala University (Sweden); Wieland Heim, an ornithologist from the University of Münster (Germany); and Leszek Rychlik, a theriologist from the University of Poznan, Poland.
At the same time, the station began conducting fundamentally new research with the assistance of modern technologies. For example, GLS loggers were installed on model bird species (rufous-throated nightingale and Siberian thrush) to study their migration routes. During bird migrations, this equipment records sunrise and sunset times on flash memory. These times can be used to calculate latitude and longitude (with an accuracy of up to 100 km), allowing for daily location of the bird during long-distance migrations. The stable isotope method ("isotopic signature") was used to determine the location of the species in the ecosystem (trophic levels and place in food chains).
In addition, studies of the personal behavior of individuals of the same species in small mammals were conducted, compared with that of closely related species. An attempt was made to identify physiological, biochemical, and genetic differences between migratory and resident small mammals. A study of coevolutionary processes in the genomes of nematodes parasitizing closely related shrew species has begun.
However, in the current situation, research into the impact of global warming on the populations and communities of small mammals and birds is of primary importance. In the future, we plan to study the negative consequences of climate change for human existence, for example, the emergence of natural foci of a number of diseases associated with a significant expansion of the range of the taiga tick Ixodes persulcatus. Studying the impact of global warming on ecosystems at the Yenisei Ecological Station is very promising for two main reasons: firstly, the duration of systematic monitoring studies at the station is approaching 50 years, and secondly, the northern part of Central Siberia has experienced the greatest climate change.
In 2025, V.D. Yakushov defended his PhD dissertation, in which he demonstrated the mechanisms by which cyclical fluctuations in small mammal populations transition to acyclical ones and back again under the influence of global climate change.
Currently, the station occupies an area of 11 hectares (10 hectares on the right bank of the Yenisei River and 1 hectare on the left). On the right bank, the station owns eight permanent buildings, including a dining hall and a bathhouse. A museum has been established in the house where Academician E.E. Syroechkovsky of the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences lived during his stay in Mirnoye. The museum preserves the very furnishings that were there during the founder's last visit in 1998.
During the station's operation, at least 12 dissertations have been defended using the scientific material collected here, and over 200 scientific articles have been published, including in leading international journals. Over 20 married couples have formed during the course of cooperative long-term field research.
The station staff consists of four people: V.N. Lunevsky, the station director; A.N. Lunevskaya and M.V. Mikhailova, both full-time workers; and V.I. Melnikov, half-time worker.
The entire biological station staff is optimistic about the future, understanding the need for monitoring research during a period of global climate change. Fridtjof Nansen was right when he titled his book "Into the Land of the Future." In the future, humanity, by analyzing the accumulated knowledge gained through careful monitoring of natural processes, will be able to adequately respond to all the unexpected that our planet presents. In other words, we are on Fridtjof Nansen's ship!
Scientific Director of the Yenisei Ecological Station
Leading Researcher, PhD B.I. Sheftel