The most detailed guide around Circum-Baikal Railroad: Irkutsk, Listvyanka, Slyudyanka, Shelekhov. A. D. Katashevtsev
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,