The most detailed guide around Circum-Baikal Railroad: Irkutsk, Listvyanka, Slyudyanka, Shelekhov. A. D. Katashevtsev
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Institute of the Earth’s Crust SB RAS
A little further, at the intersection with Favorskogo Street, we see the Institute of Energy Systems SB RAS named after Academician L.A. Melentiev (Lermontova Str., 130). Since 1960, they have been developing a strategy for the development of domestic and world energy, introducing new laws and methods for keeping the safety of resources, and ensuring the constant development of the fuel and energy complex.
Institute of Energy Systems SB RAS
Between these institutes, up the slope, there is the Irkutsk Institute of Chemistry named after A.E. Favorsky, founded in 1957, the building of which became the first scientific building built in Akademgorodok in 1963. The institution conducts research in the field of creating useful products from fossil fuels, mainly through acetylene and its derivatives containing various elements, based on which it is possible to synthesize almost everything that is produced today by the chemical industry (Favorskogo Str., 1).
Institute of Geochemistry SB RAS
On the same line on the hill, hiding its contemporary the Institute of Geochemistry named after A.P. Vinogradov. Over the years of its work, many features in the history of the evolution of the Siberian Platform have been identified, forecasts have been made about the development of the climate on the planet based on paleoclimatic studies, and the most major developments for electronics, medicine and ecology have been created (Favorskogo Str., 1A).
On the other side, near the larch alley, there is the Siberian Institute of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, founded in 1961. Research is being carried out in the field of bioengineering and biotechnology, new species of plants and fungi are being created, and rare and endangered ones are preserved in the regional seed bank. The organization operates the oldest phytotron in Russia, as well as a magnificent greenhouse available for visiting (Lermontova Str., 132).
Greenhouse in Siberian Institute of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry
On the right side of Lermontov Street, the Institute of System Dynamics and Control Theory named after Academician V.M. Matrosov. It was created in 1980 on the basis of the Department of Systems Theory and Cybernetics. Within the walls of the institute, fundamental research is carried out in the interests of designing space and aviation technology, and effective methods for managing complex systems are being created. It was here that in 1994, for the first time in Russia, an Internet network was launched for the needs of Akademgorodok (Lermontov Str., 134).
Energetikov Village
Having overcome the Malaya Kuzmikha river through a barely noticeable concrete tray, we find ourselves next to the intersectoral scientific and technical complex «Eye Microsurgery» named after the outstanding ophthalmologist of the 20th century academician S.N. Fedorov (Lermontova Str., 337). It appeared here in 1989, since then more than a million examinations have been carried out here, more than 700 thousand people have been operated on.
Eye Microsurgery Complex
Previously, in the floodplain of the Malaya Kuzmikha river, there was a cemetery of the village of the same name. Downstream, towards the Angara, there was a magnificent rotunda church in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. It was built in 1822 according to the project of Y.A. Kruglikov and at the expense of the son of the Yaroslavl landowner, lieutenant A.P. Shubin, who was demoted and exiled to Kuzmikha in 1814, where he fell in love with the young daughter of a poor Cossack. Having received forgiveness, he restored with the officer rank of cornet and filed a petition for the construction of a temple in Kuzmikha in 1819. In the 1970s, the building was demolished, and today the trade center «Capitel» is located in its place (Staro-Kuzmikhinskaya Str., 41/2). In addition, in 1884 a cemetery chapel was built in the village. Near the place where it was, today the building of «Eye Microsurgery» rises.
St. Nicholas Church-rotunda in Kuzmikha, early 20th century
Then we will drive along Lermontova Street to the intersection with Akademicheskaya (Akademicheskaya Str,. 1A). We will turn left at the trolley bus depot, which has been working here since 1970. During this time, almost half a billion passengers have been transported, 10 routes are in operation. Previously this part of Lermontova Street had been a dense forest.
We go down to the floodplain of the Bolshaya Kuzmikha River, which gave its name to a small village located in this part of the Angara. During the construction of seven villages of hydroelectric power station builders, this settlement merged with Irkutsk and today only Starokuzmikhinskaya Street reminds of it. In 1839 the Decembrist A.P. Yushnevsky was assigned to the settlement here, and later moved to his friends in Bolshaya Razvodnaya on the other side of the Angara River.
Decembrist A.P. Yushnevsky (1786—1844)
In the area of the modern car workshop «Kuzmikha» you can still see the remains of the old Trans-Siberian railway embankment (Staro-Kuzmikhinskaya Str., 81Б), built here in 1898. Moreover, 5.5 km of the odd track with 6 single-span stone bridges survived. Nowdays it goes from Irkutsk-Passenger station to the prefabricated concrete plant, which has been operating here since 1959 and was originally built for the needs of the construction of the Irkutsk hydroelectric power station (Staro-Kuzmikhinskaya Str., 91). Now the rails rest against the 45-meter embankment of the dam. The old line of the Trans-Siberian after the pound rests at a depth of more than 20 meters in the waters of the Angara River.
Armored train on the bridge over the river Kuzmikha, 1920
Primorsky Microdistrict
Further along the right side of Akademicheskaya Street, we pass the «Dom Kino» stop, where the East Siberian Newsreel Studio has been based since 1963 (Mukhinoy Str., 2A). Today it is the only venue in Irkutsk where you can see intellectual and auteur films on the screen, as well as meet directly with filmmakers. The storage funds contain more than 2 thousand film magazines «Eastern Siberia», about 400 documentaries, digitized and available to everyone.
East Siberian Newsreel Studio «Dom Kino»
Below us on the right hand remains the microdistrict Yubileiniy, founded in 1967 and named in honor of the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. Since 1986, the main attraction of this part of the city has been the Irkutsk Regional Clinical Hospital with a perinatal center and Orthodox parish in honor of the Nativity of John the Baptist (Yubileiniy mikrorayon, 100).
Church of John the Baptist in Yubileiny microdistrict
At the roundabout, we turn left onto Zakharova Street, which should lead us to the causer of the disappearance of the old Trans-Siberian Railway – the Irkutsk hydroelectric power station. In a small park on the right hand, one of the few churches on this bank of the Angara is hiding – the Church of Saint Alexander Nevsky, which was built in 2000 at the expense of the director and founder of the Folk Drama Theater M.G. Kornev (Yakobi Str., 3).
Church of Saint Alexander Nevsky
At the traffic light at the