things to see in Urals: Kolpaki, Verkhoturye
Recently documentary series “the Ridge of Russia” appeared on russian TV. They tell russian history related to the Urals region and show its wonderful places. One of them is the mountain Kolpaki – natural reserve and the favourite point for people looking for wild nature of Urals.
After we saw this mountain on TV, we decided to go there and without “putting it in the cooler” for the time, on early Saturday morning we set out.
The mountain Kolpaki is situated not far from the border between the Sverlovskaya area and the Perm region. Additionally an idea arose to add one more point to our travel route – the ancient rural town Verkhoturye, founded in the end of 16th century, an orthodox center of Urals.
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the GULAG museum Perm-36
We all know that the history is cyclic and is used to repeat. People should know where some events will lead us to, based on a huge experience of mankind.
One of the most terrible pages of newest history of Russia is the repression period, the time of GULAG. We decided that for better understanding of this period we have to merge into the atmosphere of that time. That’s why we went to the unique GULAG museum, which was founded by people who were convicted in political crime and exonerated after the USSR destruction.
The museum was founded on remains of the prison camp Perm-36 for political prisoners. This prison camp was founded in 1940 during the GULAG period and was closed in 1988, when “perestroika” started in USSR. The camp was designed to hold 1000 prisoners and contained few barracks, auto repair shops, depots and administrative buildings. Prisoners worked on logging and small technical works which didn’t require professional skills.
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the Church on the Blood
We’d like to tell you about the most famous and historically significant place in Yekaterinburg –
the Church on the Blood. This place is a shrine where the pilgrims from all over Russia gather.
The Church was built on the site of the house of engineer Ipatieff, where the royal family Nikolai II, his wife, sun and four daughters were assassinated and the 300 year old monarchy of the Romanov dynasty came to an end.
In April 1918 because of the onset of white army the Ural Regional Council (Urals Bolsheviks – Russian Social-Democratic Workers’ Party) decided to confiscate the house to carry out a hasty assassination over the royal family in it.
Yakov Yurowski was appointed a commandant of the house. He offered to invite the royal family into the basement in pretence of giving them a shelter, then he told them that «their friends» (the white army) were coming up and therefore they are sentenced to death, the shootings followed.
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Shrovetide train
Today, in one of sunny spring days we want to tell you how russian people greet spring.
Since earliest times the Shrovetide is celebrated in Russia in honour of spring coming – a holiday week with pancakes baking and street festivities.
The tradition to bake pancakes came to us from slavs. They took spring as a source of new life and hallowed the sun which gives light and warm for everything alive on the earth. First they baked unleavened cakes in honor of the sun, and when they learnt how to make a batter they baked pancakes. Pancakes were considered as a symbol of the sun, because they are also yellow, round and hot. Slavs believed they ate a piece of the sun, its heat and power.
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Nevyansk
On the 30th of January we went to Nevyansk – the oldest city-plant in the Urals. The weather forecast was good enough for that day, so early in the morning we began the journey. Our goal was to see how the Demidov’s empire began, and to hear one of the most interesting pages in the history of the Urals.
Nevyansk was founded by a decree of Peter I in 1701 in connection with the foundation of ironworks. This was the first city-plant in the world. One year later Peter I granted the plant to Nikita Demidovich Antufiev together with new surname “Demidov”. That’s how the Demidov’s dynasty appeared.
Nevyansk is located in 80km from Yekaterinburg and it took us about an hour to get there. The road to Nevyansk comes through the foothills of the Middle Urals and is like russian roller coaster.
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If you decided to go to Yekaterinburg, information about annual events of the city can help you to choose when to go or what to do. Here are the events i remember.
annual events in Yekaterinburg
Ice Town opens
when: 29th of December or earlier, where: the square of 1905 year (Ploshchad 1905 goda)
January: Epiphany with swimming in ice hole – extremely popular activity for brave people
when: 19th of January, where: city lake Shartash
February: Shrovetide with street festivities
when: 13th and 14th of February, where: Central park of culture and rest (CPKIO Park)
May: the Military Parade of World War II
when: 9th of May, where: the square of 1905 year (Ploshchad 1905 goda)
May: Museums’ night – all main museums open at night and several city shows are available
when: 16th of May (but date may vary each year), where: in the city centre (the square of 1905 year), in most of museums
May: “May walking” – all fans of cycling and walking moves over several routes (26km, 46km)
when: day may vary, where: starting point may vary
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If you arrived in Yekaterinburg the best thing to start with is an acquaintance with the city. Currently I’m preparing this excursion and would like to share this info.
Yekaterinburg, city pond at night
The historical centre of the city is the dam situated on Lenina avenue. The route I suggest starts near it – from central subway station called the square of 1905 (Ploshchad 1905 goda), on the picture attached it is the point number one. The route finishes in the point number 18 – here is the house of officers and a restaurant with traditional russian cooking, named USSR (CCCP).
So let me describe other points and directions briefly.
1 – you are standing near central subway station and the street you are at is called “8 marta”. In google maps it’s “ulitsa 8 marta” cause ulitsa means a street. Let’s go to the parallel street called “Vaynera”.
2 – you are on Vaynera street, it’s the favourite place of walk for many citizens. This street is an analog of Moscow’s arbad. Let’s cross Lenina avenue (“prospekt Lenina”) and go to the embankment of the city pond.
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Attention! This is the old version of the article. New version is available here.
Urals (also called Ural) is a common geographical name of the area of Russia around the Ural Mountains (between Volga region and Siberia). It is a vast territory which includes major cities like Yekaterinburg, Tyumen, Chelyabinsk and Perm, as well as parts of the polar areas. The main part of this region is the Ural Mountains dividing two parts of the world – Europe and Asia different in natural and economic conditions.
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Last week we decided to go to Ganina Yama – that particular place where the Bolsheviks tried to hide dead bodies of Tsar Nicholai II and his family, leaving them in an abandoned mine. These events gave ill fame to new soviet authority and are related with one of the most frightening pages of russian history.
Map of the Ganina Yama complex
The mine is located in a pine forest and is now called Ganina Yama (in translation Ganya’s Pit). «Ganya» - is the short name for Gavriel. In the era of the Urals “Gold Rush” (the middle of XIX century) a contractor Gavriel bought this plot of land hoping to find a gold in it. Soon it became clear that the mine doesn’t contain gold, but it contains iron ore. By the beginning of 20th century the mine got abandoned and became overgrown with a forest.
Early on the morning of July 17, 1918, Ganina Yama met remains of the Tsar, his family and their faithful servants. The bodies were thrown into the mine, after a while got dismembered, and then within two days destroyed by fire and sulfuric acid.
As we arrived at the place, we were amazed – how many people came here from different parts of Urals and Russia, despite the inclement weather. We left the car, took a breathe of the fresh crisp forest air and went to the very complex.
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The second place visited that weekend (see the previous post) was the village Nizhnaya Sinyachiha famous for the outdoor museum of wooden architecture located in Urals.
The village Nizhnaya Sinyachiha
The museum is a result of hard work of Russian engineer and collector Ivan Samoylov devoted his life to recreation of historical treasures. During his trips over Russia Samoylov often saw old historical buildings which went to waste in economically unviable villages. His idea was to create a culture preserve with all these architectural sights. For the preserve he chose a wonderful russian village fouded in 1680 year.
In this place Samoylov and his team of restorers revived Spaso-Preobrazhenskiy Cathedral – nine-domed, 64 meters high monument in “Tobolsk’ baroque” style. Inside of the cathedral there is a museum of folk art. Right here we started our acquaintance with the preserve.
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