Читать книгу The most detailed guide around Circum-Baikal Railroad: Irkutsk, Listvyanka, Slyudyanka, Shelekhov - - Страница 4

Frankly, I thought for a long time how and where to start our journey along the old Circum-Baikal Railroad (hereinafter CBR). I would like to go as accurately as possible along the old route of the Trans-Siberian Railway, as it used to pass through Irkutsk, in order to fully reflect all its features and details. Therefore, we will start our journey from the old Innokentyevskaya station (nowdays Irkutsk-Sortirovochny, Vokzalnaya st., 9A) in Novo-Lenino microdistrict of the city of Irkutsk, from where the CBR is historically counted.

Meeting of the first train at Innokentievskaya station, 1898

The first rails came here back in 1896 and helped to appear on this site a new working settlement on the lands of Irkutsk Ascension Monastery, the very one that is inextricably linked with the name of the first Irkutsk Saint – Innocent Kulchitsky. This is how the name of this initial station of the Circum-Baikal Railway came from. On July 27, 1898, the first train was met here in Irkutsk. Only three weeks later it will reach the main passenger station of the city.

The population of the village grew very quickly, and in five years more than a thousand people lived here. At the same time, people who were completely unrelated to the railway moved here. For example, in 1905, some of the soldiers who returned from the Russian-Japanese war settled here in dugouts, who immediately entitled the northern part of this settlement «Port Arthur» in memory of the fortress lost in the Far East. The city government fought against unauthorized constructioning for a long time, but in the end it simply renamed the area into Novo-Innokentievskaya Sloboda.

Innokentyevskaya station, early 20th century

During the Russian Revolution, from Decem-ber 14, 1917 to July 9, 1918, the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies was based at the station, until it was driven out by a detachment of Czech legionnaires. On February 14, 1920, this place became the scene of bloody battles with the units of the White General V.O. Kappel, retreating from Irkutsk to Baikal. Just a few months later, in April 1920, the district received its new name – Novo-Lenino.

Innokentievskaya station, early 20th century

On March 28, 1932, the construction of the largest aviation plant in Eastern Siberia began, opposite the railway lines, which launched the production of several dozen aircraft from almost all the russian leading design bureaus. During the World War II (hereinafter WWII), it handed over 2174 combat aircraft to the front. After the Great Victory, already in 1951, it gave the country the world’s first torpedo bombers Tu-14 with three turbojet engines. And in 1973, it was the first to start assembling the MiG-27 supersonic fighter-bomber, the first carrier of a new generation of high-precision weapons in the USSR. It was the only plant in the country where the design bureau of A.I. Mikoyan did not create a branch at the plant contrary to established practice. Today, in the best traditions of the past, the plant assembles the Yak-130, SU-30SM, as well as the long-awaited family of medium-range aircraft MS-21.

MS-21 taking off from Irkutsk-2 airport, 2017

In the area of the modern station, today there is a museum of the locomotive depot, which occupies a building from the tsarist era (Obraztsova St., 30). Near the station there is a memorial in memory of those who died in the WWII and an exposition of railway equipment. In the post-war years, Hero of the Soviet Union D.V. Zhilkin worked here as the head of the technical office. Nearby you can see the locomotive-monument L-3228, similar to those that today drive tourist trains along the СBR. There is also a track measuring trolley, an isolating removable tower, a universal sleeper changer machine MSHU-5, a single-winged semaphore and a hydrocolumn. Opposite, by the railroad tracks, a few years ago you could find an old water tower and a water-lifting building, but in 2010 they were dismantled.

Monument locomotive L-3228

On the other side of the road is Molodezhnaya Grove, which hides the buildings of an old medical town that appeared here in 1908. Among them, the building of the railway hospital (Obraztsova St., 27 K1), made according to the project of I.P. Mikhailovsky back in 1904. Today in this park you can find many sculptures, a sports ground for volleyball and tennis, and three children’s play areas. Here you can also see the monument to the engineer and revolutionary E.K. Špaček, recently moved here from the locomotive depot, who gave his life for the power of the Soviets. Being a Czech by nationality, he was hanged by his fellow tribesmen on a lonely pine tree on July 19, 1918, with a large gathering of people at the place where the Lokomotiv stadium is now.

Monument to the revolutionary E.K. Spachek

Among the dense vegetation from Rosa Luxembourg Street (Akademika Obraztsova Street, 27A) hides one of the most forgotten temples of Irkutsk – the chapel in the name of Panteleimon the Healer. It was built in 1906 and was originally intended for the funeral of the dead in the medical town. After the revolution, it was converted into a city morgue, as which it existed until 1980, when a tuberculosis laboratory was placed here. Today it is one of the most dynamically developing spiritual centers of Irkutsk. Since 2010, it is planned to build a full-fledged church.

Chapel in the name of Panteleimon the Healer

In addition to the hospital and the church, a one-class school was opened in this grove back in 1900 at the expense of the Ministry of Railways. In 1935, it became school number 38 in Irkutsk, and half a century later it received a modern building and a new number (Obraztsova St., 23). Here in the 1940s worked as the teacher of the Russian language the creator of the novel «Far in the country of Irkutsk» A.V. Zverev.

If you walk along Vokzalnaya Street, you can still see many residential buildings built according to standard designs of the Ministry of Railways at the beginning of the 20th century. In one of them, in 1898, the future writer, naval officer and member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR L.S. Sobolev was born into the family of a retired officer of the Russian army. In 1906, among these houses, a wooden church of St. Innocent of Irkutsk appeared, which was converted from a fire station building according to the project of P. Alkanov. It was planned to build a more solid temple, but the revolution interfered with the plans, and in 1934 it was closed. Its location and forms are reminiscent of a house in the style of the MPS (Vokzalnaya St., 9A).

Saint Innocent Church with a fire wagon, 1906

Well, we will continue to move along the street named after the twice winner of the Stalin Prize in the field of transport, Academician V.N. Obraztsov. At its beginning, in the Sarafanovka terrain, another amazing church lurked. This is the oldest wooden temple preserved in Irkutsk – the St. Michael the Archangel Zhilkino’s Skete (Obraztsova St., 1), built in 1874 at the place where the first Bishop of Irkutsk, St. Innocent, liked to stop on his way to Malaya Elan. Two springs are also named in his honor, which formed a small lake with time here. In addition, this temple was one of the first after the revolution to open its doors to parishioners. Already in June 1945, services began to be held here, and since 1987, the oldest parish school in the city in the name of Saint Sophrony of Irkutsk with an extensive library has been operating at the church.

Michael the Archangel Zhilkinsky Skete

On the other side of the lake, the remains of an ancient cemetery at the St. Innocent Skete are visible. It was closed in 1937, but about a dozen tombstones and fences have survived today. According to one of the urban legends, it was here in the spring of 1920 that the body of the Supreme Ruler of Russia A.V. Kolchak was secretly buried. However, Ust-Kuda, Meget and even the Monastery of Icon of Our Lady of the Sign are named among the possible places of burial, and it is virtually impossible to verify the authenticity of these versions.

Old cemetery at Innokentievsky Skete

Not far from the cemetery, behind Rosa Luxemburg Street, on the Novo-Innokentievsky outskirt, there is a garden of the Latvian breeder A.K. Thomson (St. Thomson, 3), which since 1914 began to supply the whole of Irkutsk with rich harvests of ranet. Thanks to this talented botanist, 230 varieties of apple trees, 77 species of fruit and berry plants, 47 spe-cies of ornamental trees (in particular, elm, oak, maple, linden and hazel, rare for Siberia) grew here by the 1930s. Today, there are more than 150 species of relic plants on the territory of the garden, and since 1996 Sovetsky Lane has been named after Thomson.

The garden of breeder A.K. Thomson

Right behind its green spaces rise the walls of the Irkutsk ceramic factory, which since 1929 has been the main supplier of bricks in Irkutsk. It is interesting that the first such enterprise appeared here back in 1872. Along the Trans-Siberian Railway stretch Novoleninsky swamps, which since 2010 have been included in the special nature protected area called «Bird’s Harbor». And this is not surprising, since more than 200 species of birds nest on this lake and swamp complex, right in the center of the city, besides factories and the railway. Among them there are also the Red Book black stork, gyrfalcon, peregrine falcon, saker falcon and steppe eagle.

Novoleninsky Swamps