Читать книгу The most detailed guide around Circum-Baikal Railroad: Irkutsk, Listvyanka, Slyudyanka, Shelekhov - - Страница 5

Next, we will go along the Novo-Lenino bypass road to the junction, near which the plant of reinforced concrete structures of the East Siberian Railroad (hereinafter ESR) has been operating since the 1980s. Here we turn left at the junction under the bridge, towards the Irkutsk II district by the Leninsky Trakt, which appeared as a permanent connection with the city center only in 1935.

Having passed the street food market «Parus», as well as the «Bazar» and «Priboy» shopping centers (Traktovaya St., 35), we will see on the right hand behind the fence the far drive beacon of the «Irkutsk II» military airport. Behind it, we have to overcome three railway crossings, leading in in the following sequence: the first – to the Irkutsk mill, meat processing plant and woodworking enterprises; the second – to the branch of the Buryat meat processing company, the warehouses of the Federal Reserve Agency and the Irkutsk vegetable warehouse; and the third – to the blanking and stamping production of the Irkutsk aircraft factory. The latter produces up to 70% of the details of future aircraft in three workshops. The personnel of the plant have been forged here since 1934 in the technical school of aircraft construction and metalworking (Mira str., 14). It was here in 1939—1940 was studied the future Hero of the Soviet Union A.D. Evstigneev.

Hero of the Soviet Union A.D. Evstigneev, 1940s

From Mira Street (former Monastyrskaya) we will turn right onto Maria Ulyanova Street (previously known as Detskoy Radosty and Krestovsky Lane), walking round the territory of the blanking and stamping plant, we will drive to the Siberian Partizans Street (formerly 9th or Tverskaya). The latter is named in memory of the liberation of Irkutsk from the admiral Kolchak squads in February 1920. Once it was the very outskirts of the Innokentievskaya settlement, but since the 1930s, it has become the arterial road of this area.

Fire Department of Aircraft factory

The first thing that attracts attention is the beautiful building with a tower standing to the right of the road (Sibirskih Partizan Str., 2) – this is a fire station built in 1936 according to the project of architect B.M. Kerbel. Opposite it is the M. Gorky Park, which in 2018 was renamed to the Peace Square. It is symbolic that at the very end of this territory there is a monument «Woman with a Child» – in memory of a brave lady out of this district, who saved a baby from a fire in 1935. Now the sculpture has been restored, and in 2000 the participants of the Great Patriotic War planted the «Veterans’ Alley» here. And this is not accidental, since a street passes along the park, named in memory of the Hero of the Soviet Union V.F. Zhukov, who worked in the lumber industry of Irkutsk and died in 1944 during the liberation of Sevastopol. His portrait can be seen in the form of a monumental panel (artist Y.N. Kvasova) on one of the houses (Mira Str., 62).

Panel with a portrait of the Hero of the Soviet Union V.F. Zhukov

Right behind the crossroads rise the walls of the oldest residential building on Siberian Partizans Street, built back in 1939 by architect V.N. Volkov (Sibirskih Partizan Str, 4). From the moment the house was commissioned and until his death in 1997, the Hero of Socialist Labor and an honorary citizen of the city, the milling operator of the aircraft factory M.D. Parkhomenko lived here. On the other side of the street, behind a typical building, there is a brick house No. 3A, in which from 1963 to 1996 lived the writer and artist V.P. Starodumov.

Writer and artist V.P. Starodumov, 1990s

We continue our way to Muravyov Street, formerly known as Upravskaya Lane, named after the village administration located here. Once this street led straight to the Innokentievskaya station, from where the formation of this area began. At the intersection on the right side there are two residential buildings (Sibirskih Partizan Str., 16 and 18), in which the documentary film director B.P. Rakin and poetess N.K. Sidorova were lived.

In the common courtyard of these buildings until 1955 there was an old Tatar cemetery. From the side of the quarter, bounded by the streets of Prosveshcheniya (previously Bazarny Lane), Aviastroiteley (Zhdanova), Zhukova and Sibirskih Partizan, the Innokentievsky graveyard adjoined it. Today, on the place of these necropolis, there are many social facilities, such as the maternity hospital and the medical department of the Irkutsk aircraft plant, school No. 12 and kindergarten No. 34. During their construction, many remains were found and burned right there on the spot in 1950’s.

Aircraft factory polyclinic, 1935

In the meantime, we will turn right onto Muravyov Street. Here we see an area of two-story cozy houses that were built in the early 1950s for the factory elite. In one of these (Ukrainskaya Str., 13) in 1958—1963. lived one of the most famous Heroes of the Soviet Union in Irkutsk – ace pilot I.V. Kuznetsov. He made more than 350 sorties, personally shot down 9 aircraft and twice made an aerial ramming. Despite this, he was awarded the Star of the Hero only in 1991, shortly before his death.

Hero of the Soviet Union I.V. Kuznetsov, 1940s

The street ends at the Irkut-Zenit stadium, built in August 1945, where the factory football club of the same name existed until April 2021. Apropos this site was once called among the contenders for the world bandy championship. We will turn left twice and drive along the territory of the Komsomolskiy park, which appeared thanks to the youth of the aircraft factory, who built a wonderful place to relax with their own hands during labor Sundays in 1948 on the site of a swampy and unsuitable for construction area.

In 2010, for unknown reasons, the Tu-124 aircraft and the Mi-4 helicopter exhibited here in 1984 were removed from southern part of park. In their place in 2016, the children’s town «Chipollino» was transferred from the center of Irkutsk and then almost immediately closed. Today, the fate of the only well-equipped park in this part of the city is being decided.

Tu-124 in Komsomolsky park, 1980s

Moving further along Pulkovsky Lane (formerly Popovsky), we turn right and again find ourselves on the street of Sibirskih Partizan. On the right, the walls of the building rise, where since 1958 the oldest in the district library No. 5 (Sibirskikh Partizan St., 22) has been located, in which the Museum of History and Culture of the Leninsky District operates. Writers V.M. Rudykh, V.V. Ginkulov, L.I. Sukharevskaya, D.M. Tsvetkov, S.V. Korbut and many others assisted in gathering the collection and information.

Innokentievskaya Library No. 5

On the other side of the road there is the first aircraft factory secondary educational institution – school No. 37 (Sibirskih Partizan Str., 19). It accepted first students back in 1932, but than moved to this building after WWII. On a Saturday afternoon, December 6, 1997, the worst plane crash in the history of Irkutsk took place right behind the school.

Tail of An-124-100 «Ruslan» on the house on the Mira Str., 120, 1997

At 14:42, during takeoff from the airfield of the aircraft plant, due to the failure of three engines, the An-124-100 «Ruslan» aircraft crashed onto residential building No. 45 along Grazhdanskaya Street, hitting with a wing the building of orphanage No. 1 and leaning with its tail against house No. 120. 8 crew members and 15 passengers died on board, as well as 49 people on the ground, including 14 children. More than 70 families were left homeless.

In 1999, a church in the name of the Nativity of Christ appeared on the site of the destroyed house. Installed a memorial with 72 chrome candlesticks, according to the number of victims. An orphanage was also restored and a part of the house along Mira Street, where the tail of the plane hit, was repaired.

Church in the name of the Nativity of Christ, 2000s

Having paid tribute to the memory of those who died in a terrible plane crash, we will continue our journey along the street of the Sibirskikh Partizan, where in the house No. 30 in 1969—1979 lived O.I. Lapa – the first Hero of Socialist Labor of the Irkutsk Aviation Plant.

Yak-28 bomber at the entrance of the Irkutsk Aviation Plant

The street ends at the entrance of the Irkutsk Aviation Plant, where the first large-scale supersonic bomber in the USSR Yak-28 majestically soared into the sky – the same aircraft that brought the company to the ranks of the industry leaders and brought it well-deserved fame. In front of the machine, in the same square, there is a memorial made in 1968 with 338 names of aircraft factory workers who did not return from the front of WWII.

Among the famous workers of the enterprise there are four Heroes of the Soviet Union. From February to June 1942, before being sent to the front, here worked among the detachment of «naval twenty-five thousandths» M.N. Tsukanova – the only woman who received this high rank during the Soviet-Japanese war. And in 1934—1936 already familiar to us V.F. Zhukov worked on the construction of the plant. In 1936—1939 infantry captain N.K. Romanenkov worked here as a gas welder, who distinguished himself in battles in Poland, but was killed near Berlin. The famous ace pilot I.V. Kuznetsov also gave many years of his life to the enterprise, being worked here in 1934—1938, 1946—1951 and 1954—1963, but later moved with his family to Yeysk, and after to Gelendzhik, where he is buried.

Hero of the Soviet Union M.N. Tsukanova

Let’s turn right onto Makarenko street. The first house on the right side is special (Sibirskih Partizan St., 32), and not only because here lived Hero of Socialist Labor aircraft factory mechanic A.I. Temnikov in 1985—2008. On the evening of June 20, 1976, one of the most famous Russian bards in the 20th century V.S. Vysotsky gave an impromptu concert from the balcony of this house, performing seven songs for passers-by. The next day he left Irkutsk and never returned. The purpose of his visit was to work on the book «Black Candle», which he wrote in collaboration with the Irkutsk writer L.V. Monchinsky, to whom the bard came to visit. During the week they visited Listvyanka, Bodaibo, Homolkho, Aprelsk, Nizhneudinsk, Zima, Moty and Chistye Klyuchi.

V.S. Vysotsky and L.V. Monchinsky in Irkutsk, June 14, 1976

Behind the house hiding the building of school-evacuation hospital No. 34, which since 2012 bears the name of M.N. Tsu-kanova. Here in 1952—1955. studied the future Vice-Admiral of the Black Sea Fleet V.N. Sergeev which is one of thirteen people awarded the Order «For Service to the Motherland in the USSR Armed Forces» I degree – the rarest award of the USSR. Next to the school is one of the most beautiful buildings in Irkutsk II – the Palace of Culture named after Y.A. Gagarin (Makarenko Str, 6), created in 1936 according to the project of the civil engineer of the Irkutsk aircraft plant N.A. Chetverikov. Under his direct leadership, all the main modern buildings of the enterprise were built.

Palace of Culture named after Y.A. Gagarin, 1937

At the bus stop «Banya» we turn left onto Aviastroiteley Street. Before us is one of the oldest districts in this part of the city, it was built up in the late 1930s. In Soviet times, there really was the main bathhouse in the area (Aviastroiteley Str., 24), built according to the project of B.M. Kerbel in 1935. The poet and laureate of many state prizes V.D. Fedorov lived in house No. 28. He worked in 1938—1940 as foreman at an aircraft factory. Further down the street is the building of school No. 43, which today bears the name of the youngest marshal in the history of the USSR – A.E. Golovanov, who worked in Irkutsk in 1935—1937. Exactly in his era this educational institution appeared.

Marshal A.E. Golovanov (1904—1975)