Diamonds are also wonderful if they are larger than the eyes of a mosquito. "Mosquito eyes" are what the Russians have called in the past but not anymore Canadian stones.
The huge Russian diamond fields were found by a very talented women. A movie was made about her early expeditions called "Diamond Hunters". Epstein also wrote about her in his book "Death of Diamonds".
edwardjayepstein.com
Who discovered the secret of the Yakut diamonds?
by Marina Alexeeva
"Life proves that any discovery is bound to bear some secret. When it comes to precious stones, it is impossible to do without detective stories and dramatic collisions.
The proof is the story of the Yakut diamonds, which were first found in the USSR about half a century ago. At that time this blue ground pipe called "Zarnitsa" made a young Leningrad geologist Larissa Popugayeva famous throughout the country. It was only in the 1990-ies when it was disclosed that she was not at all the main and the only character in the story. The discovery was impossible without Natalia Sarsadskikh who was the head of the geological party # 26 of the Central expedition. However, she was recognized as the discoverer only about forty years later…
We are talking with Natalia Nikolayevna in her apartment not far from the Smolny. I can't hold myself and not ask her what was more difficult for her under the circumstances - to turn up the entire taiga in order to find diamonds or to suffer from the unjust oblivion all these long years? Apparently, it was very painful to watch how all the honours and the glory fell to the lot of another person?
--You know, even my thirteen year old son, when he had heard the name of Larissa Popugayeva on the radio, reproached me: "Do you hear that? And you said it was you who had discovered the diamonds…" How could I explain to him and to all the others that I was there, I worked there, too. At that time I was in a real blockade, and, considering the situation, I could neither do nor write anything. It was very painful for our entire expedition because the results of its many years' work were simply stolen.
--Especially so, when so many efforts were put into the discovery? Can you tell me, what were the conditions in which you were looking for the diamonds?
--As a rule, field works were carried out by a light mobile team of two to five people. We had to work in hard-to reach, scarcely populated or desolate taiga territories, where the rivers abounded in riffles, therefore we had to travel either in rubber boats or by reindeers.
For example, once we were late to come back on time and we had to finish our expedition along the Vidiy river already in winter. In order to save our rubber boats, we had to break the ice ahead of us with the oars and push it aside. We were freezing to death! When we walked with the reindeers, hungry wolves treaded on our heels. That is why, during the night stops, neither we nor the reindeer guides didn't get a wink of sleep, trying to keep the beasts away by shouting and rattling. When I returned home, they met me with flowers. In Leningrad they were sure that I had risen from the dead!
--Was is at that time that you made your discovery?
--No, that was just one of the episodes of my nomadic life. In general, many people were trying to disclose the mystery of the Yakut diamonds. The active prospecting began after the special government decision of 1938. It was carried out throughout the entire country, but nobody knew where and how to look for them. Being a field mineralogist, I joined the prospecting, too. Since 1950 I headed the research studies on the drawing up a schlich map of the Siberian platform, which would help us to find minerals that could be natural satellites of the diamonds, as well as other perspective ores.
During the first three years of work I knew every mineral "in the face" and I came to the conclusion that trap, which had always been considered the indispensable satellite of the diamonds, was not its satellite at all. However, my presumption was in conflict with the then dominating theory of Grigory Fainstein, an experienced finder and the Lenin Prize recipient. Local geologists didn't believe us as well. They thought we were chance-comers and laymen and didn't take us seriously.
--How did you start justifying your supposition?
--There was only one way - to find my own satellites of the diamonds, since I was merely rejecting what was generally recognized suggesting nothing in return.
However, the question was, where to look for them? After I had collected and analyzed all known information, I chose the upper reaches of the Markha river which was situated right in the zone of tectonic rifts where the kimberlite emergence was possible.
It was just at that time that I met a new assistant, mineralogist Larissa Popugayeva and we went on the field works together. The prospecting resulted in finding large granules of dark red and black minerals, which had never been found in any of the local ores of the Siberian platform. Later we found a tiny diamond. In Leningrad our scientific mentor Alexander Kukharenko confirmed that the minerals we had found were reliable satellites of the diamonds. This meant we had found them!
--In this way, you were on the threshold of a discovery: you had both the diamond and its satellites in your hands.
--There was still a long way to the discovery. I left for my annual holiday, then I had my maternity leave. Larissa Popugayeva refused to go on her own. She was afraid she wouldn't succeed because other experienced geologists had been to the area and found nothing. She wasn't sure of herself.
Finally, I persuaded her to go. I told her to wash the schlichs and look for diamonds among the pyropes, to examine the schlichs right in the field, either visually or through a magnifying glass, to watch the concentration of the pyrope, count the granules and move forward in the direction where such concentration was becoming denser. This is how the method of the pyrope field work was born. Like the thread of Ariadne, it brought her to the goal within less than a month. On 21 August, 1954 on the left bank of the Dyakha river Larissa Popugayeva and worker Feodor Belikov stroke a pipe and found a trail of kimberlites. It was the first in the USSR local deposit of diamonds. It was the beginning of the diamond mining industry in Yakutia.
Soon afterwards pipe "Mir" was discovered, two seasons later - pipes "Udachnaya", "Aikhal" and others; altogether - over thirty, that is practically all industrial deposits of diamonds known today.
--How could it happen that your name was practically crossed out of the list of first discoverers?
--Under the pretext that all the materials concerning the prospecting of diamonds were secret, they took them away from Larissa and she was transferred to the local Amakinsk expedition. When correspondents flooded Nurba, they were told that the first local diamond deposit in the country was discovered by a young Leningrad geologist Larissa Popugayeva from … the Amakinsk expedition. Later, Larissa just wept and confessed that she had been forced to say so.
--What happened next?
--At first, they couldn't just wipe away my surname and I was mentioned as a clever scientific mentor of a young geologist. They thanked me and other members of the expedition and remunerated us with a second monthly salary. Moreover, we were nominated for the Lenin Prize for 1957. However, on the last stage, the Minister of Geology had our names crossed out of the list. Apparently, as a compensation, the same year Larissa was awarded the Order of Lenin and I - the Order of the Red Banner of Labour. When the highest award "First Discoverer" given to geologist was introduced, Popugayeva received it right away, but not me. It was only 36 years later on the Day of Geologist at the All Russia Geological Institute where I had been working all these years as a senior scientific worker, that I received the award. Late flowers…
--What about your life afterwards?
--My "rehabilitation" began in the early 1980-ies. Thanks to M. Konobulova, a teacher from village Krestyakh on the Vilui river, V. Vendelovsky, a "Lennauchfilm" director, T. Vecherina, the head of the Yakut museum of the development of the diamond mining industry and other equitable and honest people, the truth was determined and my role in the discovery of the "Zarnitsa" pipe was officially admitted. In 1994 a large diamond of 73 carats was given my name.
In Natalia Nikolayevna Sarsadskikh's home there is a diamond which is valuable for the fact that it is "sitting" in its natural ore. Although in reality it is very little. But does it matter? What does matter is that she was at the dawn of the entire diamond mining industry of the country."
Who discovered the secret of the Yakut diamonds?
Marina Alexeeva
Life proves that any discovery is bound to bear some secret. When it comes to precious stones, it is impossible to do without detective stories and dramatic collisions.
The proof is the story of the Yakut diamonds, which were first found in the USSR about half a century ago. At that time this blue ground pipe called "Zarnitsa" made a young Leningrad geologist Larissa Popugayeva famous throughout the country. It was only in the 1990-ies when it was disclosed that she was not at all the main and the only character in the story. The discovery was impossible without Natalia Sarsadskikh who was the head of the geological party # 26 of the Central expedition. However, she was recognized as the discoverer only about forty years later…
We are talking with Natalia Nikolayevna in her apartment not far from the Smolny. I can't hold myself and not ask her what was more difficult for her under the circumstances - to turn up the entire taiga in order to find diamonds or to suffer from the unjust oblivion all these long years? Apparently, it was very painful to watch how all the honours and the glory fell to the lot of another person?
--You know, even my thirteen year old son, when he had heard the name of Larissa Popugayeva on the radio, reproached me: "Do you hear that? And you said it was you who had discovered the diamonds…" How could I explain to him and to all the others that I was there, I worked there, too. At that time I was in a real blockade, and, considering the situation, I could neither do nor write anything. It was very painful for our entire expedition because the results of its many years' work were simply stolen.
--Especially so, when so many efforts were put into the discovery? Can you tell me, what were the conditions in which you were looking for the diamonds?
--As a rule, field works were carried out by a light mobile team of two to five people. We had to work in hard-to reach, scarcely populated or desolate taiga territories, where the rivers abounded in riffles, therefore we had to travel either in rubber boats or by reindeers.
For example, once we were late to come back on time and we had to finish our expedition along the Vidiy river already in winter. In order to save our rubber boats, we had to break the ice ahead of us with the oars and push it aside. We were freezing to death! When we walked with the reindeers, hungry wolves treaded on our heels. That is why, during the night stops, neither we nor the reindeer guides didn't get a wink of sleep, trying to keep the beasts away by shouting and rattling. When I returned home, they met me with flowers. In Leningrad they were sure that I had risen from the dead!
--Was is at that time that you made your discovery?
--No, that was just one of the episodes of my nomadic life. In general, many people were trying to disclose the mystery of the Yakut diamonds. The active prospecting began after the special government decision of 1938. It was carried out throughout the entire country, but nobody knew where and how to look for them. Being a field mineralogist, I joined the prospecting, too. Since 1950 I headed the research studies on the drawing up a schlich map of the Siberian platform, which would help us to find minerals that could be natural satellites of the diamonds, as well as other perspective ores.
During the first three years of work I knew every mineral "in the face" and I came to the conclusion that trap, which had always been considered the indispensable satellite of the diamonds, was not its satellite at all. However, my presumption was in conflict with the then dominating theory of Grigory Fainstein, an experienced finder and the Lenin Prize recipient. Local geologists didn't believe us as well. They thought we were chance-comers and laymen and didn't take us seriously.
--How did you start justifying your supposition?
--There was only one way - to find my own satellites of the diamonds, since I was merely rejecting what was generally recognized suggesting nothing in return.
However, the question was, where to look for them? After I had collected and analyzed all known information, I chose the upper reaches of the Markha river which was situated right in the zone of tectonic rifts where the kimberlite emergence was possible.
It was just at that time that I met a new assistant, mineralogist Larissa Popugayeva and we went on the field works together. The prospecting resulted in finding large granules of dark red and black minerals, which had never been found in any of the local ores of the Siberian platform. Later we found a tiny diamond. In Leningrad our scientific mentor Alexander Kukharenko confirmed that the minerals we had found were reliable satellites of the diamonds. This meant we had found them!
--In this way, you were on the threshold of a discovery: you had both the diamond and its satellites in your hands.
--There was still a long way to the discovery. I left for my annual holiday, then I had my maternity leave. Larissa Popugayeva refused to go on her own. She was afraid she wouldn't succeed because other experienced geologists had been to the area and found nothing. She wasn't sure of herself.
Finally, I persuaded her to go. I told her to wash the schlichs and look for diamonds among the pyropes, to examine the schlichs right in the field, either visually or through a magnifying glass, to watch the concentration of the pyrope, count the granules and move forward in the direction where such concentration was becoming denser. This is how the method of the pyrope field work was born. Like the thread of Ariadne, it brought her to the goal within less than a month. On 21 August, 1954 on the left bank of the Dyakha river Larissa Popugayeva and worker Feodor Belikov stroke a pipe and found a trail of kimberlites. It was the first in the USSR local deposit of diamonds. It was the beginning of the diamond mining industry in Yakutia.
Soon afterwards pipe "Mir" was discovered, two seasons later - pipes "Udachnaya", "Aikhal" and others; altogether - over thirty, that is practically all industrial deposits of diamonds known today.
--How could it happen that your name was practically crossed out of the list of first discoverers?
--Under the pretext that all the materials concerning the prospecting of diamonds were secret, they took them away from Larissa and she was transferred to the local Amakinsk expedition. When correspondents flooded Nurba, they were told that the first local diamond deposit in the country was discovered by a young Leningrad geologist Larissa Popugayeva from … the Amakinsk expedition. Later, Larissa just wept and confessed that she had been forced to say so.
--What happened next?
--At first, they couldn't just wipe away my surname and I was mentioned as a clever scientific mentor of a young geologist. They thanked me and other members of the expedition and remunerated us with a second monthly salary. Moreover, we were nominated for the Lenin Prize for 1957. However, on the last stage, the Minister of Geology had our names crossed out of the list. Apparently, as a compensation, the same year Larissa was awarded the Order of Lenin and I - the Order of the Red Banner of Labour. When the highest award "First Discoverer" given to geologist was introduced, Popugayeva received it right away, but not me. It was only 36 years later on the Day of Geologist at the All Russia Geological Institute where I had been working all these years as a senior scientific worker, that I received the award. Late flowers…
--What about your life afterwards?
--My "rehabilitation" began in the early 1980-ies. Thanks to M. Konobulova, a teacher from village Krestyakh on the Vilui river, V. Vendelovsky, a "Lennauchfilm" director, T. Vecherina, the head of the Yakut museum of the development of the diamond mining industry and other equitable and honest people, the truth was determined and my role in the discovery of the "Zarnitsa" pipe was officially admitted. In 1994 a large diamond of 73 carats was given my name.
In Natalia Nikolayevna Sarsadskikh's home there is a diamond which is valuable for the fact that it is "sitting" in its natural ore. Although in reality it is very little. But does it matter? What does matter is that she was at the dawn of the entire diamond mining industry of the country."
segodnya.spb.rus.net |
