Edge of bizarre rocks

The place to which my life turned out to be inextricably linked is located a couple of hours' walk from Krasnoyarsk. Perhaps it is precisely this proximity that accounts for the great popularity of the “Pillars, ” which have been attracting different people to their syenite cliffs for two centuries. On this small piece of taiga, a space for alternative cultural life of an entire city was born, where the unique experience of the harmonious coexistence of man with nature, other people, and oneself is still embodied. The city where the pressure of social functions enslaves and limits, is pushing people to the edge. They go into the forest, to the edge of bizarre rocks, disappear from radar, and become marginalia — notes in the margins (from Latin marginalis “located on the edge”). 

At different times, the pillars were a symbol of nonconformism, a magnet for marginalized people of all kinds — from scientists and artists to revolutionaries and criminals. People did not live on the “Pillars” permanently but came for days or weeks, built huts, gathered in company, made friends, loved, fought, sang songs, literally flew over the rocks without any insurance, and greeted the sun from their tops. What is unique about Stolby is not the stones and forest but the fusion of landscape and culture, which creates a special attitude and philosophy of leisure, where the main values are freedom and equality, strength of spirit and body, bonds of friendship, and care for nature.

Once I became part of this world, I began exploring its structure and my own utopianistic feelings. Like any world, it has its own language, clothes, rules, folklore, and way of life. But its main strength is that a person can truly be free here. They can live their second life, leaving behind their social status, job, home, and even name (stolbists prefer nicknames) each time they leave the city. They have the opportunity to rebuild themselves and be only themselves. This opportunity is not imposed as a necessity — it is given freely to everyone, and let no one leave offended. Perhaps this is why the main artifact and unspoken motto of the stolbists is considered to be the inscription “FREEDOM” in meter-long letters on the top of the rock — as a reflection of the unconditional inner freedom of everyone.