This is an article that ran in the Moscow times early this month on the history of Irkutsk.
03/04/2008
"Irkutsk is an excellent city. Quite intelligent. Theater, museum, city park with music, good hotels." Such was the impression of the city written by Anton Chekhov, famous Russian writer at the end of the 19th century. The western gateway to Lake Baikal, and one of the most important cities of Siberia, Irkutsk remains a great cultural and historical landmark.
Eastern Siberia's history is quite similar to the well-known history of American Wild West. Tens of thousands Cossacks, runaway serfs and other dashing individuals striving for a better life fought their way eastwards while engaging into numerous battles with indigenous people like Yakuts, Buryats, Tuvans and countless minor tribes. They were followed by merchants, gold diggers, mobsters and burdensome bureaucrats.
In 1652, in order to collect fur taxes from Buryats and trade gold, Cossack chieftain Yakov Pokhabov ordered the building of a fortress (or an ostrog as it was called then) at the location where the small Irkut River joins the Angara. Irkutsk's economy soared after the Siberian Road (or Trakt) reached Irkutsk in 1790. All goods heading to central Russia from Eastern Siberia and China - including furs, timber, gold, diamonds, tea etc. - traveled first through Irkutsk.
At the same time, as one of the largest trading hubs in Siberia, the distant city on the border of empire became a common place for exile. In the late 19th century, it was reported that there was one exiled person per every two native citizens. Many noble participants of Decembrist revolt of 1825 were sent there. In addition to revolutionary views, they brought much to the city's culture and architecture.
The best time to visit Irkutsk is certainly summer. As the saying goes, in Siberia it is cold for only three months out of the year, and very cold for the other nine. The central square is a strange blend of traditional Soviet-style city administration and Duma buildings, orthodox churches, a Roman Catholic Church and eternal flame.
Spasskaya and Bogoyavleniya churches standing at the corners of a small park fortunately survived the Soviet years. Today, they are interesting examples of Siberian clerical architecture. Meanwhile, an old gothic Polish Roman Catholic Church is not something one would expect to find in Siberia's heartland. The church was built mainly due to funds raised by Polish community of exiled living in Irkutsk at the end of the 19th century. Now the Catholic Church hosts Philharmonic Hall and provides services for Catholics.
The city center fascinates with its old dilapidated wooden architecture. Many run-down former houses of merchants, exiled noblemen, and revolutionaries are now populated by the city's marginalized and illegal Chinese migrants.
However, the other districts still preserve their cozy and warm feeling of an old, well-off city of tradesmen, where every rich merchant tried to show off his premises to the fullest. Despite their poor condition, the cost of these dwellings back then is obvious.
Visitors should make an effort to see two spectacular houses that were owned by the Decembrists Volkonsky and Trubetskoy (on Volkonsky and Dzerzhinsky streets, respectively). Both are open as museums.
After visiting the city center you can take a walk along Gagarina Boulevard to enjoy a magnificent view of the Angara and see a newly erected monument to Alexander III, the emperor who ordered the Trans-Siberian Railway to be constructed. The original monument stood at the same place before the revolution of 1917, but was demolished afterwards.
Take a walk to Karl Marx Street where you will soon find the Trud stadium, built in the 1950s by prison labor. The stadium hosts up to 20,000 spectatos and is said to have a vast cloud of vapors hovering from people's breath during major competitions in winter. Severe frosts do their job pretty well. Stop by the NEP (New Economic Policy) restaurant on Krasnogo Vosstaniya Street to get an impression of what life was like in the Soviet Union in the 1920s.
A large island in the Angara nearby provides another tourist attraction: a children's railroad. Even adults can enjoy a round trip of the island in a miniature but real train that is driven, controlled and supervised by children themselves.
Afterwards, take a stroll down the quay to the Irkutsk dam. Get to the middle of it and you will understand why even exiled Volkonsky's wife wrote to St. Petersburg that she found the city beautiful, the scenery picturesque and the river magnificent - although it was covered with ice. Make sure you do not miss the icebreaker Angara seen from the dam. Ordered in England and brought to Baikal in the last years of the 19th century, the Angara served well for several decades, sank twice and was completely abandoned to become later a museum and city's pride.
One more place of interest is Znamensky Monastery (on Angara Street) with a controversial newly erected monument to Admiral Alexander Kolchak, the ruler of Siberian part of Russia during the Civil War of 1918-1924. Killed by Bolsheviks and thrown into the Angara just a dozen meters from the spot Admiral Kolchak now stands in a uniform jacket, his head uncovered, wrapped deep into his thought.
Visiting Irkutsk is a worthy trip in itself, but it is much better to take another two or three days to see one of nature's miracles, Lake Baikal. It is about a one hour drive away.
TO GET THERE
Regular and frequent S7 and Aeroflot flights, lasting five hours are definitely the best choice. But more passionate travelers who can spare the time can take a train, which will give them an impression of the vast Trans-Siberian railway. It reaches Irkutsk in approximately three and a half days.
By Alexander Usoltsev RELATED ARTICLES17/01/2008 Siberia Braces For Cold13/09/2007 `Shroom Boom in West Siberia10/05/2007 Maiden Trip for Golden Eagle Trans-Siberian Express© 2007 Moscow News
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