“Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian   Empire,   Full Councillor of State, Count of Illyria, Sava Vladislavich, and Councillor and General of the Middle Kingdom, Governor of State, Khan's Son-in-law Tzyren Van, agreed on dividing the lands of the two Empires, and set the borderline. On the northern side, on the Kyakhta River, there is a sentry-house of the Russian Empire; on the southern side, on mount Orogoite, there is a sentry mark of the Middle Kingdom." Strictly in accordance with those lines of the Treaty of Kyakhta, signed between Russia and China in 1727, the Russian border guards have been on duty at the outpost in Kyakhta for 275 years. At present, the outpost is named after Hero of the Soviet Union Garmazhap Garmayev. From the platform of the lookout tower one can see in detail Kyakhta on the Russian side as well as the Aktan-Bulak in Mongolia. An international border crossing links the towns of the two states like the two retorts of a sandglass.

There is plenty of sand in the place indeed: apart from its own sand, Kyakhta has more of it blown by wind from the Gobi Desert, which lies behind the steppes and blue mountains visible in the distance from the platform. In the legendary epoch of its tea-trade heyday, when there were more millionaires in the locality than in St. Petersburg, the place was referred to as Sandy Venice.

The huge and beautiful building of the Resurrection Cathedral, rising high near the border crossing, is reminiscent of the past grandeur of the place. On the mount, a few metres away from the footstep-controlling zone, is a memorial. The white obelisk stands at the tomb of 1,600 Red-Guards killed during the Civil War of 1918-21 in the barracks of the Cossack regiment by the butchers of 'black baron' von Ungern, who dreamed of restoring the great Mongol Empire.

Another obelisk is situated in the middle of the footstep-controlling zone. The plaque attached to it reads that this 'border beacon' was set on October 21, 1727, in accordance with the treaty between Russia and China. There are only two such 'beacons' left on the Russian border: both are located within the zone of operation of the Garmayev outpost. Near the 'beacon', one can see modern border poles, one Russian, the other one Mongolian. The life of those who serve at the border outpost is closed like life in a compartment of a submarine: patrol duty, sleep, training, maintenance jobs.

In the Kyakhta zone of the border, which is 1,300 km long, they detained 130 frontier intruders and 360 transgressors of border regulations last year. All the border guards, 81 men, were recommended for state rewards. At the Russian-Mongolian border they have begun an unprecedented experiment: an agreement has been reached on "the joint protection of the border". The Russian and Mongolian border guards are now working together.

A special border guard service has been set up in the republic. The local people enlisted for the service and volunteer Cossack patrols are going to help the border guards in those impassable mountains and taiga forests where they know the ways better than anybody else.

The true dream of the border guards, however, is to see the day when there will not be any borders whatsoever.

by Vladimir Kinshchak,

(“Moscow today & tomorrow” July / 2002)