Ree ADRIFT ON A RAFT OF SARGASSUM 188 Li SsuL mas ahd Bila TSS bee Tel eis) THOMAS JEFFERSON: ARCHITECT OF FREEDOM 231 THE AZORES, NINE ISLANDS IN SEARCH OF A FUTURE 261parts of the world that adorn my office and home is an enameled insignia from a Russian Army uniform. Some three years ago, while riding on a train from Irkutsk to Novosibirsk, deep in the vastness of Siberia, I met a happy young soldier returning from the Chinese border. He had been married more than a year before, ordered to duty after a brief honeymoon, and now was about Lo see, for the first time, his young son. As a gesture of our 24-hour friendship, he rave the insignia to my wife, ‘Donna, and we had our own small détente rolling through the endless Siberian night. ‘That vignette of memory helps to recall other im- pressions of a nation so vast it encompasses a sixth of the total landmass of the planet, stretches across eleven time zones, and numbers more than a hun- dred distinct ethnic groups. (See the double-sided map of the Soviet Union and Peoples of the Soviet Union enclosed with this issue.) T recall, for example, a fascinating interview with Dr. Pavel Melnikov, Director of the Permafrost Institute at Yakutsk—one of the world’s few large cities built on permanently frozen ground. “Nearly half of the Soviet Union is underlain with permafrost,” he told me, “but these cold regions are now being actively developed. Oil, gas, and ores are all present in quantity, but their production requires special techniques. The environmental conditions are both awesome and fragile, We have had helpful cooperation with Canadian arctic ex- perts. I believe that scientists must work together.” Quite often, however, the desire’ for intellectual communication runs afoul of other national interests. Melnikov himself said that he had once been denied permission by the United States to visit an Army-run cold regions research center in this country. (He has since been welcomed there.) The GroGRAPHIC team that this month reports on the River Ob could. not get permission to travel the river's final 400 miles. In any nation where the state has a direct interest in the activities of journalists, the experiences of covering a story can be frustrating and harrowing. ‘Yet, with persistence, patience, and fortitude, men like NarionaL Grocrapsic’s Dean Conger and Robert Paul Jordan have been able to bring us unique articles from places normally closed to Western journalists—parts of Siberia, the length of the Volga, and now, in this issue, the River Ob. Tn this era of détente, we believe the product worth the sometimes agonizing effort, but we co not delude ourselves that it will be entirely fulfilling, and we know that certain disquieting realities of Soviet life will be beyond our purview. billet Adige Arena odds and ends gathered from: various NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC Sorvason (974 my patonesaeoeaaric Serr February 1976 Siberia’s Empire Road, the River Ob 145 One of the world’s great river systems drains north to the Arctic on the Soviet Union's frontier between Europe and Axia, Rebert Paul Jordan and Dean Conger find energetic "Siberiaks” bringing their ‘oit-cich region into the technological age. Handclasp in Space 183 As historic finale to the Apollo era, U.S. astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts rendezvous 140 miles above the earth, Text by Thomas ¥, Canby. Adrift on a Raft of Sargassum ras Robert F. Sisson takes « naturalist’s camera into a realm of strange life amid a vast sea of fluating weed. Minnesota, Where Water Is the Magic Word 200 The American drean: seems attainable in a lake-spangled state with room enough for progressive cities, bountiful farmland, and wilderness guarded as a treasure. David S. Boyer atid David Brill report. Thomas Jefferson: Architect of Freedom 23 Designs for our basic liberties and a new nation, handiome buildings and ingenious gadgets flowed from the mind af our third Prevident, a universal man. Mike W. Edwards and Linda Bartlett offer @ Bicentennial salute. The Azores, Nine Islands in Search of a Future 26r Portugal's mid-Atlantic archipelago, still diving much inthe past, kears growing clamor for autonomy or full independence: Don Moser and O, Louis Mazzatenta look at the isolated work of the Azoreans. COVER: Along the River Ob (pages 144-181), Siberian winter adds high color ta a woman's cheeks. Photograph by Dean Conger 143ONG AGO, people living beside the River Ob, where the tumultuous metropolis of Novosibirsk now spreads, called the wide stream Babushka—Grandmother She was-slow and strong-and a great help, provider of food and transportatior ‘To me, the name stil fits, On her broad basom Grandmother carries civilization into Siberia’s wilderness T have journeyed twiee, er, along most of the Ob’s winding am the wild mountains of her bir inter and sum. ‘OUTS, fi h near Mongolia to the land of the midnight sun Airplanes, ships, and kidney wok me to places no other Westerners have seen. Along jarring jeeps contemporary e corridor of the Ob many doors were opened; others re- mained! closed, still others unknown In February the air was so cold and dry that it burned the face and tormented. the lungs. “Zep I rubbed my white-ti circulation. In July, the breezes were as gentle arm,” scoffed an escort as ped nose to restore and sweet as a caress, *The time is coming, 1 guide quipped, “wher tle this oxygen and se The story the Ob told me is th harc 4 determined mena of them young, who are building an industrial empire on Grandmother's banks. They like to quote ain old saying: “In Siberia, forty di ww zero isnot a frost, a hundred kilometers alf a liter of vodka is nota s is not a woman.” As we all do, the Ob begi: vigorous Her twin sources, the Biya and Katun, rise deep in the Altay Mountains of southwestern Siberia. Farther south, in China. ugs the Irtysh, the Ob's great tributary bel is not a distance, drink, and forty y life noisy and cy Row, nearly t The slim and dancing Katun, mill rock flour, a spring fload with pine lo am to the mills, meet at the city of Biysk le the world’s top. with nd the swift Biya, shingled in floating down: Wi the ers of old discoveted this union, so end goes, they cried “Ob for “both. From Biysk the river ortherly ever wider and more sluggish. AL Novosi birsk, Siberia’s largest city and its unofficial pital, T saw the Ob shouldering enormous shipments of supplies and equipment to feed the fast-developing oil country of Ty Oblast (Region), 600 and more mil Siberia’s Empire Road, the River Ob By ROBERT PAUL. JORDAN Photographs by DEAN CONGE Summer bursts forth in Siberia’s larg city, Novosibirsk, wher 1 to nod (al Ob riverfront. this nlowed and seldom visi murkable look a region richly cl by foreigners, uthot reparts how a fu iety is rising along the ban tionalThen she rolls in middle course across the lowland of western Siberia, spreading fur beyond her banks in high witer time, recharging mosquito-infested swamps and akes. In her Jo reach near Khanty Manstysk, where the Intysh marries the Ob, I sailed on a silt-colored stream two miles wide. Beyond Salekhard, 25 miles would not. span the river's mouth where she pours at last into an arm of the Arctic Ocean, By then the river has drained a basin of 1,300,000 square miles, not much smaller than that of the Mississippi and Missouri (map, page 151) From source to mouth, the Ob-Irtysh river system, fourth longest in the world, flows nearly 3,500 miles. But few in the Soviet Union ever travel its length, and to Westerners the Ob remains more mysterious than the Amazai Temperatures Vary by 160 Degrees Do not think that the Siberians along its banks are in- hospitable. ‘They mace photographer Dean Conger and me welcome a huncred times over. But Siberia és forbidding. Temperature extremes along the Ob range from nearly 60 than 100 above. Emptiness There are few highways and degrees below zero F_ ta mot lies from horizon to horizon, accommodations. Vet natural i ith abounds. Not only ail and gas, butalso wast reserves of coal and ores, forests, land, and water. Here lies the US-S.R.'s future for generations to come, a future only now being unlocked Dean and I prevailed upon Soviet officialdom to let us glimpse that future along the Ob’s course. The Novosti Press Agency arranged our travel from Moscow—with some difficulty: because the itinerary was. unprecedented—and sent journalists with us as interpreters. Often we became a small expedition, Local representatives met us at each stop, along with cars and drivers. Then, usually on a tight sched. ule, we headed out to farms, factories, and institutes, where ‘our entourage, and our interpreters’ woes, often doubled From Moscow our way led four time zones east to Novosibirsk. (See National Geographic's new map of the Soviet Union, distributed with this issue.) This city began asa huddle of wooden huts at the turn af the century, when the Trans-Siberian Railroad bridge across the Ob was com- pleted. VI. Lenin, the visionary who molded the Soviet Union and left his mark on the world, patrsed here in. 1897 en route to exile; he described the cruel country as a “bar- ren wilderticss... with no habitations, rio towins. ...” Today Novosibirsk reverberates as “Siberia’s Chicago,” and its face changes daily. With 1.3 million residents, it Hand-carved gingerbread woodwork, and the Les, Will soon give way te con- temporary-stvle new apartments and schools in ‘Tobolsk. Only dwellings considered historically valuable will be sparedranks as a leading Soviet producer of heavy machine tools, hydroelectric generators, and er electrical equipment. People thi wide sidewalks; taxis, private cars, truck: tandem trolleys, and motorcycles crowd the treets. New aj iz up by the Intourist hotel ubway for completion by 1980 1 project to which thousands of workers i city official casu rem iter Sa vital tras of trade routes, Grain tion dc from the south, furs from the north, lumber from forests, and travelers. from throw 1 pause here in ™ ip stoponthe Tr: ian Railroad's Mo: even train ride ow-¥ la of s it, some On mirror-culny Lake Teletskoye, a fire ashore. Dozens of stre The lake in turn gives 7 the Karun. d the dee Down on the waterfront heavy ship and bar plies the Ob, Dr tain the chann y eople 1 Grandm nger ships ¢a 's depth and pe villages, beaches, and her would astonish the who once r sanks, dhe Giant Port Could Be Even Bigger One summer afternoon I rode-along on the river past tilting cranes, shuttling cars, and bat ing on bulk cargoes. Piles abs, boilers, he stuff of raw the key tou of sand, brick, crates, conerete nil lined new wilderness cities anc uppec oceans of oil and Beside tor leaned ¢ the Port of Novosibirsk’s direc- in one af 1 Wyacheslay rt extends for many miles vut ten million metric of his white cz Minayew along th tons of ear He frowned Tyumen rm up by n the Altay Mount ian word obo clear lake, nestled lowing Biya, whichbickson The River Ob; ‘ Highway to frontier riches Arete Ocean Siberia UGS SR Moscow Novosibirsk MONSOUA 4Vindivostok CHINA: = Pacific Oewan ee ear ~ TYUMEN | OBLAST 5 ath Aten = 4 3.500 miles. At the Od's ae ; West Siberian Prain : b Maklakovo$= “RUSSIAN | sovier FEDERATED. ohpitine = 3 | SOCIALIST REPUBLIC } ’ ='s head waters provides material forsnug lag cabins While winter winds how! outside bi home at Nizhnyaya Sourm, Tanya Mikhay lov (below) cuddles the famil ram. via oil frontier is developing so fast we can't k with its demands. The Ok blood turns to ice ins April, In six must supply h for th are working at our extrem: As he spoke, shipping activity g serene long beaches Human covered the sand. Wor iii im with their arms outstretched ar palms open, UU Ue ATT TTT supplicants could understand th spe that im he year « and color an aved awash with he love natu nice weekends like th board nowhere our si x an eve ‘otion, Wi chro s treasure y wants to all try tomorning. T to go home at the ame time Sunda F best" Favored Deli acy an Acquired Taste immed alongside us and settled on its haunches; the driver hand. 1 up a bag of the fish called sterlet—a kind aken fram the Ob, In ort director deftly prepared He laid each fat inside with salt, A small hydro the River Ob d closed it Jumly eon taste treat placed before ved raw, My host took a thiek slice in tore meat from skin with flas mthusi. mplated teeth, and chomped he commanded. 1 did. It taste “Var sibi The direc Still, T did ¢nile, fror ewalle truck: Higher culture ls 1 joined dro of peor er of Opera and Balle we ballétomanes, more thar 4 richly appoint ning Av k turned the next ¢ Anna, and lost rm Apartment Can Be a Wedding Bonusyour parents: ‘Théir experience can help you." ‘Then it was over, and the groom receive the marriage papers, After member wedding party posed for photographs + husky clectrical-parts assembly scooped lovely Masha, a secretary, off het feet and carricé her out of the palace Rented cars waited to take the party toa celebration at a hotel, where champagne corks would fly. A three-day holiday would follow, gift of the state, Best of all, they were to re ceive the keys to-a flat of their own, a bonus from the factory whore they worked. Factory Is Hub of Daily Life In Siberia labor a premium. Many who move there find life too difficult, especially i the north. Housing also is in short supply enterprises must offer enticements to ct and keep work Visiting Novasibirsk’s 1 tool factory, Lexpected its sh tor to run out of super Plant of Pl is lik aere machine jatives. “We call it the declared: Igor Sidoroy."It a small kingdom. He pointed out a hos two kind al and polyclinic, cattens, five schoals—including a vocational and a tethnical-school—sports fa: cilities, greenhouse (sworkers receive bouquets on their birthdays), and a surround that houses the ph 200 employees town Each year the enterprise constructs 200 flats. Newlyweds like Masha and Boris woul move into a two-room unit. The rent? Four or 5 percent of their income L asked the director ahout recreation. “We have everything,” he said with pride. “Radio, television, cinema, athletics, and clubs. We have our own ship; it carries us down the Ob to our recreation camp. And we also have i camp for bunters and fishermen,” Walking through the factory, we watehed gigantic hydraulic presses and horizontal bor ng machines take shape. High ov powerful cranes clicked back anid forth on steel tracks. The operator of one, a striki young woman with a glory ef hennaed hai img ly set a five-ton iron casting dk beside me as if it were a slice of cake; it have weighed ten times more, and she ¢ Sunflower fences keep snow from blowing away from experimental. wi h center near Barnaul, tess would have parked it as gently Amir a constant hubbub, I talk Nikolai Gamarnik, an empl more 2 42,000 varieties nf wheat. some of them in the search fot that will ee for yas climate Atop-ranking (Continue National Geographic, February 1976machinery uct, the word Sibe sam forced My 1 nd Thaterial 175. rubles uite enough 4 rubles higher than the natic verage in the Soviet Union: better pat While wto about $8,000. And there will bea long wait. Not one person ina hundred now has a car; many are exported in search of foreign ex- change. In West Germany the same Zhiguli, called the Lada, costs only about $2,800_ Before departing, I thanked Director Sido- roy, A strong-voiced man of 40, he spoke warmly of the improving relations between his country and mine. Beside him stood an older man who beads the Communist Party organization at the plant, He added a thought. “Twas at the Elbe in World War IT when you Américans joined up with us" he said. “We have not forgotten the help you gave us, the food and clothing. T know mare than most how horrible war is, Nine men of my family went to war. Only two came back.” Hope for Amity Often Expressed Growing friendship, the need for peace the themes recurred many times. Though 1 am sure many of those I met were curious about day-to-day life in the United States, they asked few questions becaus of a reluctance to pry. After the disclosures resulted in President Nixon's res- ignation from office, various bureaucrats and journalists I spoke with all declined to com- ment, politely but firmly. “It is your internal affair,” they said. Not that my Russian associates were with- out reservations about life in the United States. “I do not think 1 could live as you do is too demanding,” remarked an engl- © “You are always under pressure, be- cause you must compete. You must make as much money as you can, because you pay for so many things that should be free—medical care, university education: He reflected a moment. lems too. We have no use for parasites. For example, an alcoholic worker or a shitker may be paid as much as the productive men and women alongside him. We are working on this problem. Some directors solve it by giv: ing bonuses, some ranging as high as 300 rubles. At the end of the year, good workers may alco receive the “13th wage,’ which usu- ally equals a month's pay, We honor our best workers—vou will see their photographs dis played in factories, on office walls, and in sidewalk galleries.” The word “problem” cropped up often as I followed the Ob. The complaint columns Siberia's Empire Roail, the River Ob of newspapers were popular features, letter writers sounded off about everything from street potholes to the need for more recrea- tional facilities. In this onward-and-upward land, their criticism was always constructive, ‘however indignant, ‘The thought often occurred that Siberians were at least a match for their extraordinary domain. Near Novosibirsk, Akademgorodok. (generally referred to as “Science Town") pro- vided me with a dramatic example (paies 148-9), Perhaps the world’s largest assemblage of scientists, more than 3,000, strives here at ‘numerous institutes for advanced study to further Siberia’s orderly growth Less than two decades ago the site of this bright, contemporary-style new town with its broad avenues, supermarkets, and depart- ment stores was an uninhabited pine and birch forest brushing against the Ob Sea, Novosibirsk's huge man-made reservoir. To- day some 30,000 people live and work under Academician Mikhail Lavrentyev in this woodland setting. Lavrentyey and his wife, both in their sev- enties, received me in their commodious log home. Twas surprised by a photograph on the mantel of novelist Emest Hemingway, Mrs. ‘Lavrentyeva spoke iti English, which she had perfected asa high-school and college student in New York State “I like Hemingway's writings very much,” she sid. “He is very popular in the Soviet Union. | arimire Navional GEOGRAPHIC as well; I have been a member of your Society for 30 years.” We tipped glasses of white wine. Mikhail Lavrentyev, a founder of Science ‘Town, ticked off some of the institutes in his charge: nuclear physics, chemistry, hydro- dynamics, thermophysics, geology and geo- Physics. .-. “We conduct not only theoretical but also practical research,” he said. “We mix old and young scientists, und our branches work together to cross-fertilize one another, ‘We dream dreams, and produce solutions.” Moder Ways Reach Into Siberia ‘That same evening I dined with two of his young dreamer-producers at their book-lined fourth-floor flat: Professor Leonid Korochkin, aan internationally known geneticist, and his attractive wife, Dr. Lyuba Korochkina, a cytologist, both under 40. He: investigates altering genes (Continued on page 167) 163