"They saved me from inevitable death and gave me the opportunity to step onto the bed of the gods."
The traveler has made over 50 excursions to the most dangerous and unexplored corners of the globe, and one can get confused by the number of his world records. And although Fyodor Konyukhov spends more than 300 days a year at sea or in the mountains, he also manages to build settlements and see his family.
Fyodor Konyukhov was born on December 12, 1951, in the village of Chkalove in the Zaporizhia region. The boy's childhood was spent on the shores of the Azov Sea, so his father often took him fishing. Fyodor became a traveler not only thanks to his father, who showed him the water expanses, but also to his grandfather: Mikhail Konyukhov served in the same garrison as Georgy Sedov and often told his grandson about the famous polar explorer.
Having mastered sailing and the basics of rowing, the 15-year-old boy crossed the Azov Sea in a boat. Later, Konyukhov graduated from the Odessa Maritime School, the Bobruisk Technical School as a cutter-inlayer, and the Leningrad Arctic School as a ship mechanic.
By the time he made a sailing trip in the Pacific Ocean in 1977, retracing Vitus Bering's route, the navigator had sufficient knowledge. This was followed by routes to Kamchatka and Sakhalin, conquering the North and South Poles, bike rides, circumnavigations... Moreover, as early as 1983, Fyodor was accepted into the Union of Artists of the USSR, and later, thanks to writing more than 10 books, he also joined the Union of Writers of Russia.
One of Konyukhov's most unique routes was the expedition to the North Pole, which he had dreamed of since childhood. The journey through -40 degree frost lasted 72 days, and several times Fyodor nearly fell through the ice, but ultimately he reached his goal and his first record, entered in the Guinness Book of Records — as the person who made such a journey alone.
Konyukhov became the first person in the world to conquer five poles of the Earth and the first in the CIS to reach the seven highest points on the planet. Of course, the climber seriously risked his life while setting such a record. For instance, while climbing Elbrus, he narrowly escaped death due to avalanches and rockfalls.
"The height is 8500 meters. I am at the top of Everest! I am crying. The tears are so hot that they do not have time to freeze on my eyelashes and roll down under the oxygen mask," Konyukhov wrote in his book 'My Travels'. "In these tears are joy, gratitude, and sadness at the same time. I am sure: God helped me and those who tried to climb and perished in this struggle. They rose as an invisible army from the icy walls of Everest to block the path of death. 'No, don't touch this guy! Let him go to the summit! He is not yet ready to come to you, death! He loves life very much!' Thus, they saved me from inevitable death and gave me the opportunity to step onto the bed of the gods."
Alone, Fyodor crossed the Atlantic and then the Pacific Ocean in a rowing boat. In 2002, he organized an expedition tracing the famous Silk Road and traveled 1600 kilometers through steppes and deserts in two months. The writer's circumnavigation in 1990 was impressive, but even more astonishing to the public was his round-the-world flight in a hot air balloon in 2016. To avoid crashing, the artist did not sleep for 11 days — it seemed that Konyukhov's possibilities were limitless, just like his passion for travel.
"I was doing very well, thinking I would finish in 10 days, but a cold front in the Indian Ocean forced me to turn towards Antarctica. I had a choice — to go under this front and lose speed or to jump over it. In any case, I would not have enough fuel, and I would fall into the ocean. So we decided to go around this front and move towards Antarctica to overtake it. My navigator from the land was my son Oscar; he directed the flight. And just when there were less than a thousand kilometers to Antarctica, this front began to cover me. Storms, wind... I thought that perhaps I had committed so many sins that I would burn not in hell but here," Konyukhov confessed.
In 2019, Fyodor Filippovich became the first person in history to successfully make a solo crossing in a rowing boat across the Southern Ocean from New Zealand to the Drake Passage at latitudes 40 and 50 degrees. Thus, at the age of 67, Konyukhov also became the oldest solo rower and spent the most days in the Southern Ocean — 154 days. He did not stop there, as in February 2025, he earned the title of the first traveler to cross the South Atlantic in a rowing boat.
His unusual house is located in a quiet courtyard in Zamoskvorechye, so it is hard to see from the street. In fact, it is not just a house, but a picturesque mini-estate dedicated to travelers and explorers of different eras. There is much to explore not only inside but also outside — a significant part of the exhibition is placed directly on the walls and next to the building.
The picturesque mini-estate attracts the attention of passersby from afar. On its territory is a chapel dedicated to the patron saint of travelers, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, erected in memory of fallen sailors. The walls of the house itself are adorned with memorial plaques describing the achievements of Russian travelers. Here, the memory of explorers and pioneers from different eras is immortalized: Laptev, Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky, Miklouho-Maclay, Przhevalsky, Roerich, polar explorers Sedov and Morozov, and the legendary pilot Chkalov. There are also memorial plaques dedicated to the memory of fallen climbers and cosmonauts. The museum's sculpture exhibition is equally extensive. On both sides of the entrance to the main building are statues of the holy ascetic Sergius of Radonezh and Ivan III the Great. Around the perimeter, one can see a sculpture of Semyon Dezhnyov, busts of Yermak, Admiral Nakhimov, and other pioneering heroes. In the courtyard, there is a large exhibition of ship anchors of various shapes and sizes. Bells, anchor chains, steering wheels, and climbing ice axes give the courtyard a special romanticism. Inside the building is Fyodor Konyukhov's creative workshop, a gallery of his artistic works, and a collection of artifacts gathered during his expeditions. Here, one can also see the boat 'Turgoiak,' with which Konyukhov crossed the Pacific Ocean.
Leave a comment