The most detailed guide around Circum-Baikal Railroad: Irkutsk, Listvyanka, Slyudyanka, Shelekhov

The Educational Complex «Point of the Future»

Baikal Tract

We are moving out for the Baikal tract, which is the beginning of the old Zamorsky or Amur tract, built back in 1733. It went through three postal stations (Patronovskaya, Taltsinskaya, Listvenichnaya) to the shore of Lake Baikal, from where the path continued to Transbaikalia and further to the Far East. On June 11, 1890, it was this route that A.P. Chekhov, on the way to Sakhalin, sharing his impressions with his relatives, he wrote the following: «The shores are picturesque… I was rode and for some reason I felt that I was unusually healthy; I felt so good that it’s impossible to describe… because the shore of the Angara River looks like Switzerland». Most of the old road went under water during the construction of a hydroelectric power station. However, in the area of the villages of Molodezhny (allotment «Pribrezhny») and Novolisikha (allotments «Irkutyanin», Sosnovaya Street), you can still see the forest belts left from the old tract.

Old Baikal tract, first half of the 20th century

68 kilometers of the new and, probably, the shortest federal highway in Russia were built here in just four winter months from January to April 1960. The reason for the rush was the visit of the 34th US President D.D. Eisenhower, who chose Irkutsk as the first place to visit the USSR by old memory. Because, from March 1918 to November 1919 he worked in the capital of Eastern Siberia as a security guard at the US Consulate General, which was located in Perfilevsky lane, house No. 3 (now Pugacheva lane, the original building has been lost). Then in Irkutsk for 50 days, from November 14, 1919 to January 4, 1920, there was the last center of the Russian Empire, all its ministries and embassies of the countries participating in the intervention. On the eve of D.D. Eisenhower, rumors spread around the city about Vera (or Nastya) Baranova, who was the illegitimate daughter of the American president. Perhaps this was the main reason for his decision to revisit.

34th US President D.D. Eisenhower

By the arrival of the American leader, there was a real commotion. First Secretary of the Irkutsk City Executive Committee N.S. Patrov had to prepare everything for the visit of the distinguished guest in record time, and after all, just recently the city lost its only short road to Lake Baikal, which completely disappeared under water a year earlier. It was impossible to conduct a reconnaissance of the area so quickly, but the plans for the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway along the right bank of the Angara from Irkutsk to Listvenichny, created back in 1894, but never implemented due to a number of circumstances, came in handy.

Construction of the Baikal tract, 1960

In addition, the chief Irkutsk architect N.A. Rumyantseva went to the trick to bring to the city for the visit of the American president a beautiful fountain, which was cast by a resident of the city of Kursk especially for his fellows. She phoned the sculptor’s apartment, and, introducing herself as the secretary of the Central Committee, ordered to transfer the fountain to Irkutsk. On the same day, the documents were drawn up, and the fountain was sent by rail to the capital of Eastern Siberia – much to the surprise and delight of the regional authorities. Since then, it has been flaunting on the main plaza of Irkutsk – the S.M. Kirov Square. Also, a hostel for employees of the state university was resettled in the city and rebuilt for the needs of the high embassy. Several comfortable motor ships («Babushkin» and «Irkutsk») were brought to Baikal, as well as the fourth in the history of the USSR ultra-modern hydrofoil ship «Rocketa-4».

Fountain in the Kirov Square in Irkutsk, 1960s

But, despite all the preparations, the visit was never destined to come true. Since just a week before it, on May 1, 1960, an American Lockheed U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft took off over Afghanistan in Peshawar. It flew over the territory of half of the Soviet Union and was shot down by a rocket near Sverdlovsk (modern Ekaterinburg). On board was a spy named F.G. Powers, whom USSR exchanged years later in Berlin on the Glienicke bridge for the Soviet agent V.G. Fisher. After this incident, there could be no talk of a friendly visit. However, despite the failed trip, the gradual development of tourism began on Baikal. Ironically, the next world leader to visit these places was Eisenhower’s worst enemy – communist Cuban leader F.A. Castro (on May 11—12, 1963).

Fidel Castro on Dekabrskikh Sobytiy Street in Irkutsk, 1963

Moving further along the Baikal tract, we run into a village with the mysterious name «New Razvodnaya». In fact, below its present location there were two villages – Malaya and Bolshaya Razvodnaya, founded in 1674 by settlers from Moscow, Petrushka Grigoriev and Grishka Pavlov. During the construction of the Irkutsk hydroelectric power station, these villages were the first to disappear under water, already in 1957 at a depth of about 16 m. 130 km of auto-drawn roads and 58 km of the Trans-Siberian railway with Mikhalevo station and 6 passing loops. The water went deep into the coast in some places up to 150 meters, about 138.6 thousand hectares of land, 127 settlements, including 9 urban ones, fell into the flood zone. 3.3 thousand households were resettled, where more than 17 thousand people lived.

Peter and Paul Church in Bolshaya Razvodnaya, early 20th century

But once it was in these prosperous villages lived in the settlement many of the first Russian revolutioners (Decembrists from rebellion on 26 December, 1825). In 1839—1841 one of the initiators of the 1825 uprising was sent to Bolshaya Razvodnaya, the one who was originally among the 30 sentenced to death – A.I. Yakubovich. In a neighboring village, he founded a small school for children and opened a soap factory. In 1842—1848. one of the two officers who did not leave the Senate Square in Saint-Petersburg on a day of Rebellion, also initially sentenced to death, moved to Malaya Razvodnaya from Khomutovo near to Irkutsk – Lieutenant of the Life Guards A.N. Sutgof. Both of them then moved from Irkutsk land.

Decembrist A.I. Yakubovich (1792—1845)

At the end of the 17th century, a chapel in the name of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul appeared in Bolshaya Razvodnaya, which was rebuilt in 1740. In 1842, instead of a dilapidated church, a new church was constructed in 100 sazhens (a native system of measures in old Russia about 2.13 m) from its former place. But it was closed in the late 1920s. A children’s home, a radio center and a stable were placed inside, and in 1956 it was dismantled. Many of the Decembrists rested at the cemetery next to the church.

Decembrist A.N. Sutgof (1801—1872)

The first who arrived in the neighboring Malaya Razvodnaya in 1840 was the colonel of the Akhtyrsky hussar regiment and the hero of the war with Napoleon A.Z. Muravyov, who lived here until his death in 1846. In 1840, one of the six generals of the participants in the Decembrist uprising and a fighter for the freedom of Bessarabia A.P. Yushnevsky moved here from Kuzmikha. After his sudden death at the funeral of the Decembrist F.F. Vadkovsky in 1844, his wife M.K. Yushnevskaya had to wait until 1855 to leave Siberia.

The remains of officers with grave monuments in 1952 were transported to Irkutsk to the Lisikhinsky cemetery, although part of the churchyard was preserved in the area of the first enduro park for motorcyclists at Chertugeevsky Peninsula. Interestingly, inside the gravestone of A.Z. Muravyov found an immured bust of one of his sons who died early – N.A. Muravyov, which is now kept in the collection of the museum-estate of S.P. Trubetskoy in Irkutsk.

Decembrist A.Z. Muravyov (1793—1846)

Less fortunate were the Decembrist brothers A.I. and P.I. Borisov. Both of them stood at the origins of the Southern Society and were part of the «cohort of the doomed» (regicides), for which they were sentenced to the 1st category. The elder brother, Andrey, lost his mind in the Peter and Paul Fortress in Saint-Petersburg and remained in the arms of the youngest – Peter, who became a brilliant watercolor artist and scientist, leaving a heritage of more than 670 drawings. During their life in Malaya Razvodnaya in 1841—1854 they brought up many local merchant’s children, creating on the basis of the school of A.I. Yakubovich, a plant nursery and a school for young naturalists. Unfortunately, on the day of the death of his brother A.I. Borisov committed suicide, after which both according to ancient orthodox custom were buried behind the church fence and their graves were not preserved.

Decembrist P.I. Borisov (1800—1854)

Opposite Bolshaya Razvodnaya, which stretched for almost 3 versts (an obsolete Russian unit of length defined as 500 sazhen equal to 1.06 km) along the Angara, on the other side, bypassing the islands of Brodny and Ershovsky, there was the village of Ershi, founded no later than 1806. Previously, there was a train checkpoint of the same name with a passing loop (20 km from Innokentievskaya station). Today there is a bay here, where in 1965 the most famous boat station in the vicinity of Irkutsk was opened. Since 1976, one of the two water supply networks in Irkutsk has been operating here, a ski slope and a forest nursery, familiar to all Irkutsk residents, since it is from here that New Year trees are most often brought.

Yershi passing loop next to the construction Irkutsk HPP, 1950s

We will continue moving further along the Baikal tract. Behind the Dyachkovo Valley, we are met by the next village on our way – Molodyozhny. It was formed in 1956 on the basis of migrants from flooded settlements along the Angara River, and also due to the transfer of the Agricultural Academy from the center of Irkutsk. In 1964, students began to be moved here. In parallel, with the help of the latter, the town was being built up: houses for employees, dormitories, a boiler room, laboratories, vegetable stores and warehouses appeared. Since its establishment in 1934, the Agricultural Academy has trained more than 30,000 specialists who work in all countries of the former USSR. In 1992, on the basis of the village, an association of homeowners was formed, which soon turned into a kind of Moscow «Rublyovka». Today, more than 7 thousand people live in the formed cottage settlement.

Agricultural Academy in Molodyozhny

At the entrance to the village, on the right in front of the junction, a brand new school is visible, which appeared here in 2018. Down to the Angara, the road to the main building of the Irkutsk State Agrarian University named after A.A. Yezhevsky (ISAU), as well as to the ski track, known to all participants in the competition «Ski Run of Russia», which is held annually here.

«Ski Run of Russia» in Topka Bay of the village of Molodyozhny

Shopping and entertainment centers stretch along the road. Two restaurants especially stand out, stylized as old buildings: «Melnik» and «Rytsarskiy Dvor». Opposite the latter, on the other side of the road, at the very top of the Uskov Valley, in a lonely and completely unmarked glade, 6109 people from the nearby flooded villages along the Angara River were buried. These are not the only burials that are located in this forest, which is closely adjacent to the runway of the Irkutsk airport.

Restaurant «Rytsarskiy Dvor»

Among the people, this place received the ominous name «Cottage of the Moon King.» The fact is that in 1874—1890 until his death here lived the former agent of the Polish Central Committee in Saint Petersburg – Y.P. Ogryzko, who was sentenced to permanent settlement in Siberia. He almost completely lost his vision during the Vilyui exile and could only walk on moonlit nights, for what he received his nickname. Only the ruins near the runway at the edge of the forest remind of the place of his residence. Next to them in a small meadow in 1992, a memorial «Wall of Sorrow» was set, dedicated to the J.V. Stalin’s repressions of 1937—1938. In those terrible years, a special zone of the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs in the Irkutsk region was allocated in this forest area for the burial places of the executed, where, according to various data, from 7 to 23 thousand people were buried in storage ditches. Only from one of the burial grounds in 1989 were seized the remains of 304 people with traces of violent death. On the memorial you can find the name and photo of the great-grandfather of the author of this book, V.V. Zhuk, who perished in the dungeons of the North-Eastern Corrective Labor Camps («Sevvostlag») in 1942 on Magadan city.

Memorial «The Wall of Sorrow» in Pivovarikha

Then we cross the Krutoy Klyuch Valley and climb the hill, where the next village called Novolisikha is located (population 1098). The name is due to the fact that in the past there was a subsidiary farm of the Lisikhinsky brick factory from the city canteen trust, which was engaged in rabbit breeding and growing vegetables. Today, only the nursery of berry and vegetable crops, which has been operating here since 1947, reminds of this. During this time, more than 700 plant varieties have been studied. The fields for the garden were created by Japanese prisoners of war.

Siberian Garden of Leontiev in Novolisikha

In the past, as now, the Baikal tract climbed steeply uphill at this place and then descended directly to the Shchuchy Bay, which was named so not at all for the abundance of predatory fish (from the Russian «Shchuka» – pike) that dwells here to this day, but because in 1669 a certain Grigory Shchukin settled here. Before the construction of the hydroelectric power station, it was a vast village with a school, club, dairy, pig and poultry farms. Today, only the eponymous of local country gardening reminds of the village, which is closest to the flooded settlement.

Shchukino village on the map

Having passed the Volchya Valley with the stream of the same name, we find ourselves at the Uzkaya Valley, in which, since 1967, under the cover of the forest, the satellite antenna TNA-57 has been based (Baikal tract 20 km, 1). The same one with which the central television program was broadcast to the whole of Eastern Siberia via the Orbita-3 system from the Ostankino television center. Thanks to it the people of Irkutsk, ten years after the appearance of the television tower, were able to receive a signal from Moscow.

Satellite dish TNA-57 in Uzkaya valley

It is interesting that in the neighboring village of Patrony there is a receiving radio station No. 2 (Garazhnaya Str., 1), which used to be engaged in trunk communications from Moscow to Kamchatka, as well as a complex magnetic-ionospheric observatory of the Irkutsk Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics, which continues to work, started back in 1887 in Irkutsk by the first such laboratory. The choice fell on this place not by chance. They are far away from the rest of the radar stations of the capital of Eastern Siberia and thus are able to avoid interference from other signals. In Soviet times, this is where the secret «mailbox No. 194» was located.

Magnetic-ionospheric observatory in Patrony

Today, no one can remember what the name of the village is connected with. Someone is talking about robbers who robbed caravans with Chinese goods going along the Baikal Tract. Some remember the names of the old-timers – Patron. Others even argue that everything is connected with the barracks and the arsenal that were here. It is only known for certain that one of the three original postal stations on the way to Baikal was located here. Most likely, the village arose in the 1730s.

The settlement itself was quite small and was located exactly at the exit from the modern Eloviy Bay. Only two moved houses remained from it along Naberezhnaya Street, as well as the old barracks built in 1938, where many people were resettled after the flood. Today, along the shores of the bay, there are the camping hotels «Baikal-21» and «Yolochka», the children’s sanatorium «Elovaya Pad» and the former regional committee summer residences, where today the training center of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate for the Irkutsk Region is located. In addition, this is the widest place of the Irkutsk reservoir on the way to Baikal. The distance along the line from the extreme point of the Eloviy Bay to Kurminsky Bay is more than 18 km.

Icebreaker «Angara» in Eloviy Bay, 1970s

Once the postal station Patroninskaya was connected by a ferriage with the village of Grudinino, which was located on one of the three largest islands on the way to Baikal. Having appeared at the end of the 17th century as a place for fishing, it was considered the most picturesque of the villages on the upper Angara.

Subsequently, the first shipyards near Irkutsk appeared here, and in 1843 the oldest steamship in Siberia, the Emperor Nicholas I, was built. In 1884, a chapel with an altar was built in the village, later reconsecrated into a church in the name of Michael the Archangel. Despite the fact that the island was annually suffered from winter floods, and it actually had no connection with the railway passing by, people refused to leave their native place during the cleaning of the bed of the future reservoir. Perhaps it was Grudinino that became the prototype of the settlement in V.G. Rasputin «Farewell to Matyora» Many famous Irkutsk citizens were born here. Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences and Leading Researcher of the Institute of the Earth’s Crust SB RAS M.I. Grudinin dedicated two books to this village: «My Memoirs» and «The Island of My Childhood.»

The village of Grudinina on the map

Today, the island disappeared at a depth of 18 meters in the waters of the Angara River, and its inhabitants settled on housing in the villages of Melnichnaya Pad and Novogrudinina. The remains of the first settlers were reburied from the cemetery already in 1950 near the southern slope of the Kortokoi valley. As well as the bones of the inhabitants of the village of Mikhalevo, which was located at the end of this peninsula. The latter was founded by the Cossack chieftan and the first Siberian ore explorer Anisim Mikhalev back in 1681. He found the first mica, a «grass stone» (jade) and a «pure pencil» (graphite) on Baikal.

Mikhalevo and Parky villages on the map

Interestingly, this place has been inhabited since Paleolithic times. Since time immemorial, there has been access to the richest hunting grounds through the Dabat River (from the buryat language dabaan – «mountain pass») up to the upper reaches of the Olkha River, as well as logging facilities, where in Soviet times more than 300 thousand cubic meters of timber were harvested annually. Therefore, here were located the only railway station of the IV class on 7 tracks (Mikhalevo, 32 km from the Innokentievskaya station) and two brick factories on the way from Irkutsk to Baikal. Two iron bridges 21 and 43 m long, respectively, were thrown across the Kaley and Kurma rivers. The arrival of the Trans-Siberian Railway here led to a doubling of the population of the village and the creating of the neighboring village of Parky, where Kurminsky Bay is now located. By the way, on its shore in Ugolniy Bay today there are several houses transferred from the village of Mikhalevo.

Mikhalevo cemetery

Since 1903, summer military camps of the 7th East Siberian Rifle Division have also been located in the area of the village of Parky on the banks of the Kurma River. Under them, in 1911, the Peter and Paul Church was built, which in 1918 was dismantled and transported to Irkutsk to the Glazkovo market, in connection with the transfer of the barracks to a new location. The 28th East Siberian Rifle Regiment, which was part of the mentioned division, headed by the illustrious Lieutenant General R.I. Kondratenko, during the Russo-Japanese War carried the 159-day defense of Port Arthur. Only after the death of this commander, the fortress was surrendered. The Russians destroyed 112 thousand Japanese, while losing 27 thousand killed, and also fettered the advance of the enemy army of more than 200 thousand people. Despite unbroken resistance, the citadel was given to the enemy along with the soldiers, which became one of the greatest shames in the history of the Russian army and one of the reasons for the first Russian revolution of 1905.

28th East Siberian Rifle Regiment in Mikhalevo, 1916

We return to the Baikal tract and climb from the Eloviy Bay to Mount Dolganikha. At the top, turn left to the abandoned position of the S-75 air defense system of military unit No. 92712. These places have been inhabited for centuries. Shortly before the arrival of the «big water» in 1957, archaeological excavations were carried out here. The participants of the expedition were such prominent researchers as A.P. Okladnikov, N.A. Kozyrev and L.N. Gumilyov. They discovered a number of ancient sites from the Mesolithic to the Iron Age.

Climbing the next mountain Uladova, let’s not forget to stop at the source with the сiborium, consecrated in 2005 by the rector of the church in the village of Bolshaya Rechka, Priest Alexander in honor of the icon of the Kazan Mother of God. It is interesting that down the valley on the bank of the Angara River there is another outlet of medical sodium chloride water of the Minsk type with a mineralization of 6—7 g / l, on the territory of the abandoned sanatorium «Zeleny Mys», founded by the Russian geological exploration company «Sosnovgeologiya» in the late 1960s. Until 2008, it was a very popular holiday destination, which today is in disrepair.