Observational trip to Upper Balkaria
Ride to the place where the genocide happened.
Polyana Azau - Upper Balkaria
I reached my destination point in two stages. First, it was necessary to get from Moscow to the Caucasus. As a place of residence, I chose the Elbrus region, Polyana Azau. Since the whole area has a mountainous terrain and many locations are scattered quite far from each other, it is rather challenging to get around without a car. For this reason, together with my family, I traveled to the Caucasus by car. The distance was 1 740 km, the drive took about 20 hours. Otherwise, if we decided to travel by plane, we could get to Mineralnye Vody in 3 hours and take a transfer to Polyana Azau (+ 2-3 hours by car).
The place of our residence itself was very high above sea level - 2300 m. Much higher than Upper Balkaria (1120 m). We needed to have a good rest and acclimatize before making the second forced march (191 km).
From the photographs above, the difference in altitude and climate is clearly visible. We left the snowy zone (where at that time an avalanche danger was declared, and on the day of our second trip, the avalanche really came down on the road), we passed zones where there was already new grass, and ended up in an average temperature climate.
The place of our residence itself was very high above sea level - 2300 m. Much higher than Upper Balkaria (1120 m). We needed to have a good rest and acclimatize before making the second forced march (191 km).
From the photographs above, the difference in altitude and climate is clearly visible. We left the snowy zone (where at that time an avalanche danger was declared, and on the day of our second trip, the avalanche really came down on the road), we passed zones where there was already new grass, and ended up in an average temperature climate.
I came to Upper Balkaria for the third time. It was the previous trip that motivated me to tackle the topic of the Cherek Tragedy.
The place is gradually coming alive as people return and even build a tourism business. However, almost none of the locals have the opportunity to restore the destroyed buildings. All houses are named: representatives of the current generation can find the area of their family mansions. But their restoration is so expensive that from the whole village I managed to find only two buildings that are under reconstruction.
And with all this, despite the fact that the ruins are right in front of your eyes, for the entire tourist location, there are only one or two information stands telling about the events. Of course, the educational program of tourists is not very successful.
When they are just stones to you, nothing but a beautiful mountain view makes a big impression on you. But when you realize that this destruction happened in one night, that it was all burned and people were shot, you are horrified by the scale of these ruins. The surviving masonry is not just a random find, but part of someone’s house lost even less than a hundred years ago.
The place is gradually coming alive as people return and even build a tourism business. However, almost none of the locals have the opportunity to restore the destroyed buildings. All houses are named: representatives of the current generation can find the area of their family mansions. But their restoration is so expensive that from the whole village I managed to find only two buildings that are under reconstruction.
And with all this, despite the fact that the ruins are right in front of your eyes, for the entire tourist location, there are only one or two information stands telling about the events. Of course, the educational program of tourists is not very successful.
When they are just stones to you, nothing but a beautiful mountain view makes a big impression on you. But when you realize that this destruction happened in one night, that it was all burned and people were shot, you are horrified by the scale of these ruins. The surviving masonry is not just a random find, but part of someone’s house lost even less than a hundred years ago.
