Читать книгу The Most Detailed Travel Guide around Irkutsk. All the attractions with the route of movement & addresses - Alexander Dmitrievich Katashevtsev - Страница 21

On this we will say goodbye to the suburb of Marat and go to one of the poorest districts of Irkutsk – Rabocheye (Crafts district). This part of the city was formed in 1794, when all large and small factories of the city were moved beyond the right bank of Ushakovka River for the purpose of sanitary and fire safety, forming a Crafts Sloboda.

Crafts Sloboda

At the entrance to the district we are met with Barrikad Street, named after the defensive structures that were constructed by the revolutionary forces of workers and peasants squads during an attempt to storm the city on December 28, 1919. Right at the exit from the Marat Ring the road runs into a squat grey house (Barrikad Street, 27), where was located the hospital of the Bolshevik Red Cross in the Znamenskiy hospital during the battles in 1919. Next to it is an unremarkable house of doctor F.N. Petrov, who worked at this hospital. He took an active part in the revolutionary events in Irkutsk as a Bolshevik. Later, he will become the deputy editor of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia – one of the largest Russian-language handbooks.

House of doctor F.N. Petrov

Soon on the left we will meet the first stone construction on this street – this is a part of the complex of the house of the millionaire merchant and benefactor N.L. Rodionov, who was a native of local workers and co-owner of the well-known company “Rodionov, Khaminov and Kº”, which owned tea plantations in China, as well as various capital and real estate in Irkutsk.

Merchant and benefactor N.L. Rodionov

Immediately behind it are brick workshops of the first steam brewery in Irkutsk, built here in 1890. It belonged to the Perm bourgeoisie F.F. Dorenberg. The products of this company were highly valued, and its beer of the brand “Porter” was even served on cruise ships sailing from the Baltics to America. There were five breweries in Irkutsk, the oldest of which appeared also in this part of the city at the end of the 17th century.

Steam brewery of F.F. Dorenberg

Next along the street, among the faceless Soviet buildings attention is drawn to a four-story brick mansion built in 1911, in which the Central Workers’ Headquarters of Workers’ and Peasants’ squads was located for several days in December 1919.