russia: chelyabinsk

Chelyabinsk ended up on my mini tour de Siberia for two reasons. One, it was listed in my guidebook, and two, because a former student of mine is from the oblast. I've been lucky enough to see enough of Russia that I can choose to visit a city simply because I know someone originally from there.

Chelyabinsk is the 7^th largest city in Russia, with over a million residents.

Wikipedia says archaeologists have discovered ruins of the ancient town of Arkaim in the vicinity of the city of Chelyabinsk. 

Ruins and artifacts in Arkaim and other sites in the region indicate a relatively advanced civilization existing in the area since the 2nd millennium BCE. Apparently there are 23 archaeological sites in an area called the Sintasha-Petrovka cultural area, this original settlement is one of them.

The modern history of Chelyabinsk started with a fortress called Chelyaba, which was founded in 1736, built to protect trade routes through the area. Though it remained a 'provincial' town for the next century, Chelyabinsk was given official town status in 1787.

Chelyabinsk finally started growing because of the railroad. The connection of the city to Yekaterinburg in 1896 essentially made Chelyabinsk a gateway to Siberia, so heaps of people moved through the city, and some ended up staying.

During WW2 some military and industrial companies were moved to Chelyabinsk by the government, keeping them well away from the reach of the advancing Germany army. There were so many tanks produced in Chelyabinsk that the city was nicknamed Tankograd (Tank City,) for a while.

The most interesting point in recent history took place in 2013. A meteor moving at over 55,000 kilometers per hour exploded in the sky, around 25-30 kilometers up. The shock wave created by the explosion injured more than 1000 people. Some of the fragments landed in and near Chelyabinsk.

Chelyabinsk is a major educational center of the Ural region. Wikipedia tells me there are more than a dozen universities in the city, the oldest of which was founded in 1930.

The economy of Chelyabinsk is mostly industrial.

There are metallurgy and military production companies, a massive tractor company, companies producing construction machinery, and pipe plants. There are agricultural firms, watch producers, insurance firms, and more. Wikipedia mentions tourism as part of the economy, but I don't think that's a huge part of what makes the city run.

My train from Kurgan arrived in Chelyabinsk was only around four hours long, arriving at 0430. Since it was so short, and started after midnight,

I didn't get much sleep; I was too afraid of sleeping through my stop. The train station in Chelybinsk is quite big, and very modern. There are a few big rooms, but they don't feel as grand because of the modern architecture.

I dozed off and on in the train station for the next four hours, killing time until it was daylight, or at least close to it. Just as I was getting ready to walk out of the station I got a message telling me the address of my accomodation had moved, which irritated me to no end. I'm glad I got the message before I went in the wrong direction, but they could've sent it at least the night before.

The hostel in which I stayed was quite nice. Though it was in an old wood building, the rooms were warm, had windows letting in natural light, and a couple big kitchens. After warming up and relaxing for a couple hours, I went back out, ready to explore.

I chose a Lenin statue as the first sight I wanted to see. Along the way I discovered that Chelyabinsk had had more snow than Kurgan, as well as colder temperatures, so the snow hadn't melted. Many of the pavements weren't cleared, making walking more of a challenge than I wanted. 

I love walking in winter, but at the same time I prefer walking on pavements, not in the middle of streets.

I stopped into a church, enjoying the warmth for a couple minutes, then kept walking. Further along this first walk I passed a wooden house, one of the original homes of Chelyabinsk. (That is, the style is of the original homes, I'm not sure it has actually been around for over 250 years.)

Unfortunately, when I got to where the Lenin statue was supposed to be, I discovered it was on a military property of some kind, behind closed gates. Argh. 

The River Miass snakes through Chelyabinsk, so when I turned around to head back into the city center I crossed a bridge to get there. This was just one of several bridges I walked over while I was in the city.

Another thing I noticed while walking around Chelyabinsk was the number of small lots selling Christmas trees. Although it was after western Christmas, Orthodox Christmas was still more than a week away, so there was plenty of time to buy one. They seemed to be pretty cheap, but I don't know if the prices I saw were by size, or per tree, or by another measurement.

My next sight was a park. Park Aloye Pole had two things I wanted to see. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, and a monument mausoleum of Lenin. The church was brick on the outside, so I didn't love it. The insdie was really small, and didn't seem very welcoming, so I wasn't a fan of that either. Darnit, I usually like at least one thing about any church I visit.

I'm not sure what the monument mausoleum of Lenin was, or was supposed to be. There is a bust of the man on a small structure of sorts, but I know Lenin himself isn't there, as his embalmed body is on display in Moscow.

At that point I connected to Lenin street, walking to Revolution Square to see the main Lenin statue of the city. I was thrilled when I got to the square to find another ice sculpture festival. Lenin was along one side of the square, the rest of the area was filled with a small ice labyrinth, a couple really big ice slides, and quite a few ice sculptures. Great fun to walk around, and I really wished I had a plastic sled of sorts to use on one of the ice slides.

One of the sculptures was a throne, so naturally I took a photo of me on my throne, hee hee. So nice to find the appropriate chairs for me all over the country.

After taking photos of many of the sculptures, I followed a street that branched off the square. There were two reasons for going this way. One, I'd found a water tower marked on the map further down that street; two, I could see sunset happening as I walked. The way the sun spread light was quite photogenic for a while.

The water tower wasn't particularly exciting, but I'm glad I found it. Are these things ever used anymore? I also found a really really big sculpture of sorts in a small park across the street. 

The top of it had two 'statues' leaning toward each other in love, so it makes sense that it is regularly used as a place to stage wedding photos.

By the time I got back to Revolution Square, it was dark. All the ice sculptures were lit up with different coloured lights, so the dark didn't matter. More fun to wander around and watch people. In a slightly different area I found sculptures made of holiday lights: a carriage like that of Cinderella, and picture frames, and a giant ornament. Very pretty.

Even though it was fairly early in the evening, I walked home from there, stopping in a couple grocery stores along the way to warm up and to get food for dinner. I slept early and hard that night, as I usually do my first night in a new city.

The next morning I packed up and checked out, leaving my pack at the front desk of the hostel. It was slightly out of the way for me to come back and get later in the day, but the train station was even more out of the way, so I didn't want to put the bag in luggage storage at the station.

My first sight of the day was the Alley of Glory, which was a park like pedestrian area with several war memorials along the way. I'm pretty sure it's a lot more interesting to see in summer. As I walked through it just felt like everything was white and snow covered. War memorials aren't as interesting when the name plaques are completely covered.

I got back to Revolution Square, then followed another street to get to a park, where I got to see a bright red locomotive on display. I was wearing a red coat that day, so when I took my photo with the locomotive I almost blended in. 

Also in this park was a wooden sculpture of the head of what looked like Pushkin. I really liked it, though I'm not sure why such a thing was in a random park in Chelyabinsk.

From there I got back to Lenin street, and followed it all the way to the end. It's a long street, so I saw a few things along the way. At least two universities, both of which were in buildings that made me think of the Seven Sisters in Moscow. I wonder how many students attend each of those universities, and how many students in general are in Chelyabinsk?

I also passed a tiny cafe, where I stopped to have carrot cake and hot chocolate. At the very end of the street was a huge monument to Ivan Kurchatov, the father of nuclear engineering in the Soviet Union. He was in charge of the Soviet equivalent of the Manhattan project. (Which was a few years after the US did the research and building.)

Then I walked all the way back to the city center, to get to one of the main museums in Chelyabinsk. 

The State History Museum of the Southern Urals does not have a fun name, and the building isn't particularly exciting, but I ended up quite enjoying my visit. I got to pay the local fee for entry, there wasn't even a question of me being a foreigner, woo hoo!

When I first walked in, I went through what I thought was the enire museum, and was quite disappointed. There were a number of paintings and photos on display, but that was it as far as I could see. When I got back to coat check to pick up my coat the lady asked if I'd really seen everything, I said I thought so.

I was wrong. She took me up to a closed door, which led me into the rest of the museum, which was a much bigger section. I never figured out how I was supposed to know to open a closed door that didn't have a label, but I'm glad she did it for me. The rest of the museum was far more interesting, and far more informational.

I got to see one of the big chunks of the meteorrite that fell in 2013. I got to see photos and items from daily life in the region going back a while. I got to see the history of flora and fauna in the area going back a really long way. I got to see the traditional clothing worn in this part of Russia, as well as how it has changed over time. All in all it was a great museum.

From there I walked quickly back to my hostel to pick up my bag, stopping at a supermarket to pick up snacks along the way. I hadn't left myself enough time to walk back to the train station, so I hopped on a tram to do so, watching my watch the entire way. 

I got to the station in plenty of time to board my train without any stress, and get comfortable for the long ride I had coming.

I'd like to go back to Chelyabinsk when the grass is green, just to see the differences in how the city looks. There are also a couple museums I want to see, as well as big parks.