As RIA Novosti reported, local authorities in Chukotka require up to 10 July 2018 to destroy the Orthodox worship cross, established by the Nizhny Novgorod traveler Valentin Efremov A. on the extreme Eastern edge of our country – Cape Dezhnev.
Russian Orthodox traveller V. A. Efremov on the background of the Church of the exaltation of the Holy cross in the village of Egvekinot
According to the news Agency “Interfax”, it all started with the fact that the famous Russian traveler V. Efremov, who was the first to reach the North pole in a balloon, went to conquer the vastness of Chukotka, taking the blessing in his diocese, and the Bishop of Anadyr and Chukotka, and even his Holiness Patriarch Kirill. In the framework of the expedition “Russia from East to West,” this Orthodox researcher went from Kaliningrad to Cape Dezhnev.
V. A. Efremov in the expedition to the North pole
Arriving after a long journey to Cape Dezhnev, the Chairman of the Nizhny Novgorod club of travelers have created a memorial in honor of Russian explorers of Chukotka and the victims of political and religious repression. The memorial consists of a memorial cross, bells and anchors that Efremov was brought from Nizhny Novgorod.
This expedition took place under the flag of the “Union of Cossack troops of Russia” and with the informational support of the “Association of victims of political repression”.
Anchor installed at Cape Dezhnev
However, the management of the national Park “Beringia” (Chukotka Autonomous region), the territory of which is the Cape, named after the Russian Cossack Semyon Dezhnev pioneer, were strongly against the installation of a memorial, probably on the initiative of the local pagan community shamans.
According to reports, NTA-Privolzhe, national environmental Park “Beringia” in 2017, and currently refuses to grant permission to install the cross, citing the fact that even a simple visit to the Cape Dezhnev, you must obtain special permission and the conduct of any economic activity on the territory of the Park is unacceptable.
The extreme Eastern borders of Russia
It is unclear on what basis the erection of a small memorial with a memorial cross, an anchor and a bell may be called “economic activity”. The management of the Park “Beringia” said that the actions of the Orthodox traveler’s illegal because “the cross was installed in the boundary of the object of cultural heritage “a multi-Layered settlement Naukan”” and this action “can cause harm to the monuments of archeology”, and both known and “not yet revealed”.
The argument of the supporters of preserving the integrity of the shamanic territories is that this ancient place, the occurrence of which allegedly belongs to the middle Ages is sacred to the Inuit (which, incidentally, completely left it in 1958) and other peoples of the North, preserving their traditional pagan beliefs.
In the end, the management of the national Park “Beringia” was sent by V. A. Efremov official mandate to dismantle and remove the set of signs until July 10, 2018 otherwise this memorial in honor of Russian Orthodox conquerors of Chukotka will be destroyed by the staff of the special state inspection.
V. Efremov memorial, memorial of Orthodox Russians who, having gone to Chukotka, or willingly, or by compulsion of the authorities, left forever to lie in those harsh lands
As it became known, the Orthodox traveler and support the initiative group from Nizhny Novgorod tried to contact the Department of education, culture and sports of Chukotka to reconcile the reverence of the memorial, but was refused, and on 10 July the Orthodox cross will be felled and together with the anchor and bell cast in the sea…