The most detailed guide around Circum-Baikal Railroad: Irkutsk, Listvyanka, Slyudyanka, Shelekhov. A. D. Katashevtsev
Nicholas and Innocent Church, 1900
At the tram ring, we turn sharply to the right – onto the street named after the world’s first female cosmonaut V.V. Tereshkova. In the past, this street was called Krugobaikalskaya, and since 1801 the main route from Irkutsk to China called «Circum-Baikal» began from here. It started right from Troitsky ferry on the site of the modern station and went up to the Kaya mountain. Since then, the width of the street has remained the same.
Krugobaikalskaya Street in the begining of XX century
Up the street on the right side of the road, the last wooden house attracts attention, where the famous Siberian writer I.I. Molchanov-Sibirsky (Tereshkova Str., 20) lived. Opposite, at the turn of the tram rails, once happened the worst disaster on public transport in the history of Irkutsk. On May 1, 1953, during the opening of a branch line of route No. 1 to Studgorodok, the brakes failed on a crowded tram. At full speed on the turn, it rolled over and hit the wall. The tragedy was hushed up by the authorities, and the number of dead is still unknown. After this event, the branch was launched in 1961, and only when the slope of the road was minimized.
Writer I.I. Molchanov-Sibirsky (1903—1958)
At the intersection with Gogolya Street, a children’s clinic No. 5 construction is underway. In 1971, the cinema «Chaika» was built on this site, named after the space call sign of V.V. Tereshkova. Opposite across the road is a small Peter and Paul Church, which appeared on the site of a magnificent wooden church, transferred here from the village of Mikhalevo in 1918. It was originally built in 1911 by the architect F.F. Koshtyal in the Art Nouveau style on the territory of the Mikhalevo’s military camps 26 km south of Irkutsk, where the 7th East Siberian Rifle Division took summer training. Today, at that place is Kurminsky Bay – the largest on the Irkutsk reservoir. In 1990, the temple was dismantled for restoration, and burned down. Today, funds are being raised for the restoration of the monument (Gogolya Str., 42).
Peter and Paul Church in Mikhalevo, 1911
We turn right and find ourselves on Gogolya Street. On the right hand, a large complex of buildings attracts attention. From 1935 to 2002 it belonged to the main pasta factory in Irkutsk. Every day, about 50 tons of products were produced here, almost 300 people worked. Today the fate of buildings is being decided (Gogolya Str., 35).
On the other side of the road is another old trading platform of Irkutsk – the Sverdlovsk market or the Glazkovsky shopping arcade, which opened on this site in 1903. As before, in more than 200 pavilions you can buy any food and goods (Gogolya Str., 44).
Behind the market on the right, you can see the building of another old school (Gogolya Str., 33), built in 1902 according to the project of V.A. Rassushin for the needs of the Saint Vladimir School, which previously occupied a room near the railway. Initially, it was based on the funds of V.P. Sukachev in 1888 in honor of the 900th anniversary of the Christening of Russia. Nowadays, an educational institution is still located here – children’s music school No. 3.
Saint Vladimir school
At the crossroads we turn left onto Kaiskaya Street to the intersection with 2nd Zheleznodorozhnaya, where you can see one of the most beautiful wooden houses in Glazkovo belonged to F.S. Shachkov, built in 1910 (Kaiskaya Str., 24). Directly opposite it, across the road until 2019, you could see the house of the Irkutsk Baptist Church, which appeared here back in 1944, but only at the beginning of the 21st century moved to a nearby modern stone building (Kaiskaya Str., 5). Today there are four Evangelical churches in the Irkutsk.
Evangelical Church
At this point we will turn left onto the street named after the great Russian poet M.Y. Lermontov. On the right hand, we will definitely visit the Irkutsk nerpinarium (2nd Zheleznodorozhnaya Str., 66), where since 2004 the Baikal seals (nerpa) have been demonstrating their unusual abilities to visitors. At the same time, the cost of tickets for the performance is lower than in Listvyanka.
Having passed the Cosmonauts Square, where a monument to V.V. Tereshkova appeared in 2022, at the next intersection we will find ourselves at the Gorky House of Culture (Klara Zetkin Str., 13A). It was built in 1967 on the site of the old Glazkovsky cemetery, which previously occupied the territory of the modern Griboyedovskaya grove. During its existence, about 10 thousand Irkutsk people were buried here, as well as 25 Czech legionnaires, mostly killed during combat skirmishes with the Red Army in May 1918. In fact, no grave monuments have been preserved, apart from rare fragments that can be found throughout the area of the grove. Contrary to the general delusion, the student hostel, the children’s polyclinic and the garden that follows the House of Culture are not «built on bones.»
Czechoslovak burials at the Staro-Glazkovskoye cemetery
Having reached the tram tracks, we will turn left down Schmidt Street towards the Angara. On the descent you can see many magnificent wooden houses. Unfortunately, among all this beauty, only one house of Rublev (Shmidt Str., 9) is recognized as a monument.
Having passed the temporary detention center (Gogolya Str., 53Б), as well as the student hostel (Pushkina Str., 62A), we will turn onto Profsoyuznaya Street, already familiar to us, formerly known as Aleksandrovskaya, named after Emperor Alexander II, who was killed in 1881. In the past, many celebrities in Irkutsk had summer houses («dacha») along this street, such as mayors V.P. Sukachev, V.V. Zharnikov and B.P. Shostakovich. On the land of the latter in 1910 the therapeutic department of the railway hospital was built, which is one of the most striking wooden modernist buildings in the city. It meets us second on the left side of the road (Profsoyuznaya Str., 87Д).
Old railroad hospital
We rest against one of the entrances to the grove «Zvesdochka». This park got its name back in 1861 after the «zvesdochka» of fireworks, which were so loved by the first owner of this suburban area Governor-General of Eastern Siberia M.S. Korsakov. In 1925, during archaeological excavations in the territory of the garden L.N. Ivaniev discovered many Paleolithic ceramic adornments and utensils, as well as bronze cauldrons, swords and knives.
Moving along the grove up by Zvezdinskaya Street, we pass on the right hand the modern school No. 80 (Pushkina Str., 64), the project of which, created in 2001 by architects E.I. Grigorieva and S.V. Mullayarov, received many gold diplomas and several state awards. Previously, the school was located in the neighboring building of the music department of the college of teacher education, built in 1936. Here studied L.I. Gaidai before was expelled for behavior, and during the WWII, an evacuation hospital was located here (Zvezdinskaya Str., 12).
On the opposite side of the road, behind a wooden building, you can see an old stone building, which was built in 1916 according to a typical design by engineer K.V. Mital for Lomonosov School (Gogolya Str., 55). It is still used for educational purposes as Irkutsk Regional College of Pedagogical Education. It has repeatedly been awarded the gold medal «European Quality of Education» and included in the list of «100 best colleges» in Russia.
Lomonosov School and the monument to K.K. Rokossovsky
Opposite it you can see the bust of K.K. Rokossovsky, which was installed in 2015 on the closed