Vaigach Island, or Hebidya-Ya, was considered sacred territory by the Nenets for thousands of years, home to the hehe—celestial protectors. Every year, people from across the Bolshezemelskaya tundra came to Cape Bolvansky Nos, where wooden images of ancestral spirits once stood, to make sacrifices. It was there, in isolation, that traditional customs, belief in the heavenly protection of the god Numa, and the ancient art of oral transmission of legends and tales about shamans and heroes of the past were preserved until the mid-20th century.
The photo album contains materials from the 1930s and 1940s, collected by polar explorer M.S. Sinitsyn tells the story of the island's last storyteller, Nyolyoko Vylko, whose legacy—a collection of epic texts, 'Spirits of the Tundra'—was published only 70 years after it was written down.
The photographs depict the vanishing way of life of traditional reindeer herders and hunters, Nenets and Russian camps, as well as the daily life of the workers at the first polar station. Legends and stories about shamans and spirits collected on Vaigach are presented for the first time.