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      The Tunguska Event: Eyewitness Account


    Akulina Lyuchetkana, Dilyushmo River

*The widow of Ivan Potapovich Lyuchetkan, interviewed by I. M. Suslov,
March 1926.*

There were three of us in the /choum/[1 <#fn_1>] ? my husband Ivan, me,
and old man Vasilii, the son of Okhchen. Suddenly someone gave our
/choum/ a powerful shove. I got frightened, cried out, woke up Ivan, we
started to crawl out of the sleeping bag. We saw that Vasilii was
crawling out too. Ivan and I hadn?t even managed to crawl out all the
way and stand on our feet, when once again someone gave our /choum/ a
powerful shove, and we fell on the ground. Old man Vasilii fell on top
of us, as if someone had thrown him. All around a noise was heard,
someone was making a noise and banging on the /ellyun/[2 <#fn_2>].
Suddenly it got very bright, a bright sun shone on us, a strong wind
blew. Then someone fired a powerful shot, as if the ice were cracking on
the Katanga [river] in winter, and right away a dancing whirlwind
swooped down, grabbed hold of the /ellyun/, whirled it around, twirled
it, and dragged it off somewhere. Only the /dyukcha/[3 <#fn_3>] was
left. I got completely terrified and lost consciousness, I saw a
whirlwind dancing. I cried out and immediately came to life again.

The whirlwind knocked the /dyukcha/ down on me and a pole injured my
leg. I crawled out from under the poles and wept: the trunk with the
dishes had been thrown out of the /choum/, and it was dragged far and
opened, and many cups were broken. I look upon our forest and don?t see
it. Many of the trees are standing there without branches, without
leaves. Many, many trees are lying on the ground. On the ground the dry
tree-trunks, the twigs, the reindeer moss are all burning. I see some
sort of clothes burning, I come closer and see our rabbit-fur blanket
and our fur bag, in which Ivan and I were sleeping.

I went to look for Ivan and the old man. I see something hanging on the
naked branch of a larch. I came closer, reached out with a stick and
took it down. It was our fur, which used to hang tied to the poles of
the /choum/. The fox skin was scorched, the ermine had become yellowish
and dirty in the ashes. Many rolls of skins had wrinkled up and dried out.

I took the fur, wept and went to look for my men. And on the ground the
dried pine needles are burning and burning, the reindeer moss is
burning, smoke is all around.

Suddenly, I hear someone quietly moaning. I ran toward the voice and
caught sight of Ivan. He was lying on the ground between the branches of
a big tree. He had broken his arm on a log, the bone had torn his shirt
and was sticking out, blood had dried on it. Here I fell down and again
lost consciousness. But I soon came to life again. Ivan had ?slept it
off, ? began to moan louder and weep.

The whirlwind threw Ivan nearby. If you stood ten /choum/s in a row,
then where he fell would have been beyond to last /choum/, very near the
place where I took down the furs from the branch.[4 <#fn_4>]

Ivan clasped me around the neck with his good arm, I lifted him, and we
went toward the Dilyushmo [river] toward our /choum/, where in the
storehouse there were two skins, a sack of flour and some nets. The
/choum/ had stood on the shore of the Dilyushmo, the storehouse was
close to the /choum/ to the west [literally, ?toward the sunset ?]. All
of a sudden it sounded as if someone were yelling. And there we saw our
Vasilii. He lay beneath the root of an old fallen larch and had hidden
himself there. Vasilii crawled out of his ?den ? and went with us toward
our /choum/. I got tired, gave Ivan to the old man, and myself carried
only the scorched skins.

It got harder to walk, there were very many fallen trees. Suddenly we
saw logs on the ground, and skins lying under them. The hair on the
skins was scorched, the hide was wrinkled and singed. Instead of the
nets we saw a pile of pebbles ? the plummets. The horsehair nets had
burned up. The logs had burned up, become embers. Instead of the flour
sack, a black stone. I jabbed it with a finger and the coal-stone broke
into pieces. In the middle of it I found a little flour and wrapped it
up in Vasilii?s shirt. So perished our storehouse. We rested a bit and
went to look for our /choum/.

Here?s the place where our /choum/ had been. The poles lie on the
ground, a big tree fell on them, it was intensely scorched. I chopped it
to pieces with an axe and dragged it to one side. Underneath it we found
our copper pot, in which there was a lot of meat from the day before.

A bright summer night fell, the fire began to diminish. In place of the
heat, it grew cold. We decided to move toward the Katanga [river]. By
the time we got to the Chambe river, we were already totally weak, all
around we saw marvels, terrible marvels. It wasn?t our forest [any
more]. I never saw a forest like that. It was strange somehow. Where we
lived there had been dense forest, an old forest. But now in many places
there was no forest at all. On the mountains all the trees lay flat, and
it was bright, and everything was visible for a far distance. And below
the mountains in the swamps it was impossible to go at all: some trees
were standing, some were lying, some were leaning, some had fallen on
one another. Many trees were scorched, the needles and moss were still
burning and smoking. Reaching the Katanga, we met [Ivan?s brother, Ilya]
Lyuchetkan.


[1 <#text_1>] A ? /choum/? is an Evenki dwelling, not unlike a
tepee.*[Return to text.]* <#text_1>

[2 <#text_2>] An ?/ellyun/ ? is the leather roof of a /choum/.*[Return
to text.]* <#text_2>

[3 <#text_3>] A ?/dyukcha/ ? is the framework of a /choum/, consisting
of some thirty poles.*[Return to text.]* <#text_3>

[4 <#text_4>] I. M. Suslov notes: ?The diameter of a /choum/ is around 4
meters, consequently Ivan was thrown some 40 meters. ?*[Return to
text.]* <#text_4>