Krasnoyarsk

From Freepedia

Image:Krasnoyarsk coa 2004.gif Krasnoyarsk (Russian: Красноя́рск), administrative center of the Krasnoyarsk Krai, is the third largest city in Siberia. It lies on the Yenisei River and is an important station on the Trans-Siberian railway.

Contents

Coat of Arms

Image:Krasnoyarsk coa 1804.gif

Image:Krasnoyarsk coa 1851.gif The first version of the Krasnoyarsk coat of arms had been approved on March 12, 1804. The coat of arms had been divided horizontally into two parts, the upper part contained the coat of arms of the Tomsk Guberniya, the lower part had the picture of the Krasnyy Yar cliff on the silver background.

The coat of arms approved on November 23, 1851 had the golden figure of a lion placed on the red heraldic shield with a spade in the right fore paw and a sickle in the left fore paw, both made of the same metal. The shield was topped with the golden crown of the Russian Empire.

The current coat of arms (see above) approved on November 28, 2004 contains the same red shield with the slightly changed figure of the lion topped with the golden five-tower status crown of a federal subject center.

In 2005 the 16 meters (52.5 ft) tall pillar with the bronze statue of the Krasnoyarsk heraldic lion upon its top had been erected at the Krasnoyarsk Railway Station square.

Geography

Image:Yenisei basin 7.png

Geographical location of the city is 56°01′ N 93°04′ E. The total area of the city including suburbs and the river is 172 square kilometres (66 mile²). Average temperature of January is -20 °C (-4.0 °F), July is 18 °C (64 °F), minimum ever recorded temperature is -56 °C (-68.8 °F), maximum is 36 °C (96.8 °F). Due to the hydroelectric power station water reservoir located in 32 km (20 miles) upstream the river never freezes in winter and its temperature never exceeds 14 °C (57.2 °F) in summer. The Yenisei water level near the city center is 136 meters (446 ft) from the Sea level.

The city is situated on the both banks of the Yenisei River, in the city area it flows from west to east. There are several isles on the river, the largest of which are Tatyshev and Otdyha used mainly for recreation purposes.

At south and west Krasnoyarsk is surrounded by the forest-covered hills with an average height of 410 meters (1345 ft) from the Yenisei River level. The hills located on the right (southern) bank of Yenisei are steeper than the western hills of the left (northern) bank.

The right bank of Yenisei is notable for the gigantic rock cliffs of the national nature reserve Stolby raising from the surrounding hills. The western hills form the Gremyachinskaya Griva crest starting from the Nikolayevskaya Sopka hill notable for the ski-jumping tracks and extending westwards up to the Sobakina River. The relief of the northern part of the neighborhood is rather plain with forests to the north-west and agricultural fields to the north-east and east.

The most prominent hills in the Krasnoyarsk area are:

The major rivers located in the Krasnoyarsk area are:

Due to the specifics of the relief there are few natural lakes exist in the Krasnoyarsk neighborhood.

The nearby towns are (with distances from Krasnoyarsk and directions):

Urban structure

Krasnoyarsk is divided into seven administrative districts:

Each district includes several quarters or micro-districts. Many of these quarters are relatively new while the others are former villages that were situated beyond the city line in past.

Demographics

The population count dynamic by years:

1897 26,600 1962 465,000 1982 833,000 2000 875,500
1923 60,400 1967 576,000 1986 885,000 2001 875,900
1926 72,200 1970 648,000 1989 912,600 2002 911,700
1939 190,000 1973 707,000 1992 925,000    
1956 328,000 1976 758,000 1996 871,100    
1959 412,000 1979 796,300 1998 875,300    


Population count by districts (2001):

The population of Krasnoyarsk includes a number of peoples, the most numerous are Russians, Ukrainians, Tatars, Germans and Belarusians. Of the late years the number of Tajiks, Uzbeks and other Central Asian and Caucasian peoples has extensively grown because of the vast, often illegal immigration in search for work.

Another multitudinous immigrants are Chinese who, in opposite to other foreign workers, are employed in much more lucrative areas and often doing co-operative business with local companies. Many Chinese are busy in trading at bazaars, there even exists a special large Chinese bazaar named Sodruzhestvo (Russian for fellowship) and the Chinese Trading Town (Russian: Китайский торговый город) or colloquially Kitai-gorod situated at Strelka.

History

The city was founded in the midst of July 1628 as a fort. The sluzhylyye lyudi led by the Cossack Andrey Dubenskoy arrived to the influx of the Kacha River and quickly began to build up the fortifications intended to protect the frontier from attacks of Tatars who lived along Yenisei and its tributaries. In the letter to Tsar the Cossacks reported:

... The town of trunks we have constructed and around the place of fort, we the servants of lord ye, posts have bedded in and the double bindings have laid so and the place of fort have strengthened mightily ...

The fort have been named "Krasnyy Yar" (Russian: Кра́сный Яр) after the local Turkic name of the place it was built by: "Kyzyl Dzhar", meaning "Red Cliff" or "Krasnyy Yar" in old Russian. The name "Krasnoyarsk" was given later when the village of Krasnyy Yar has received the town status.

The intensive growth of Krasnoyarsk began with the arrival of the Moscow Postroad (the road M53 nowadays) in 1735 to 1741 which connected the nearby towns of Achinsk and Kansk with Krasnoyarsk and with the rest of Russia, and later by the discovery of gold and by the arrival of the railroad in 1895.

In the 19th century Krasnoyarsk was the center of the Siberian Cossack movement. In 1822 it had gained the status of town and had become the capital of the Yenisei Guberniya. In the end of the 19th century Krasnoyarsk had several manufactures, railroad workshops and an engine-house.

In Imperial Russia Krasnoyarsk was the one of the places of political exile. Eight Decembrists have been deported there after the failure of the revolt.

After the Russian Revolution of 1917 during the Pyatiletkas the large plants and factories have been built in Krasnoyarsk: Sibtyazhmash, the dock yard, the paper factory, the hydroelectric power station (now the fifth largest in the world and the second in Russia), the river port.

In 1934 the Krasnoyarsk Krai had been formed with the center in Krasnoyarsk.

During the epoch of Stalinism Krasnoyarsk was the major Gulag center. The most important labor camp was the Kraslag or Krasnoyarskiy ITL (1938-ca.1960) with the two units located in Kansk and Reshyoty. In Krasnoyarsk itself the Yeniseylag or Yeniseiskiy ITL labor camp existed in 1940-41(?).

During the World War II the dozens of factories have been evacuated from the western Russia to Krasnoyarsk and the nearby towns which stimulated the industrial growth of the city. After the war more of the gigantic plants have been built: the aluminum plant, the metallurgic plant, the plant of base metals and many others.

In the end of 1970s the Soviet Union began constructing the radar station near Krasnoyarsk that violated the ABM Treaty. After the insistent demands of the United States the construction had been ceased.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union and beginning of the privatization many large plants and factories, such as the Krasnoyarsk Aluminum Plant, have become owned by criminal authorities and oligarchs while others were declared bankrupt, this begot the dramatic raise of unemployment and numerous strikes.

Certain problems with ownership of Krasnoyarsk plants continue nowadays since nearly all of them are owned either by monopolistic financial groups or by oligarchs. The most known financial scandal of the second half of 1990's had happened when ownership of the Krasnoyarsk Aluminum Plant by a known Krasnoyarsk businessman Anatoliy Bykov had been cancelled after accusation him of the murder of this partner Vilor Struganov. The murder eventually turned out to be fictional.

Since the election of Pyotr Pimashkov as the mayor of Krasnoyarsk in 1996 the look of the city began to slowly improve: old historical buildings were restored, asphalt walkways have been replaced with paving-stone, numerous squares with fountains have been constructed. Now the major part of the city bears only a few traces of its poor Soviet look.

Architecture

There is a number of historical buildings in Krasnoyarsk, the oldest of them is the Svyato-Pokrovskiy Cathedral (1785 to 1795, restored in 1977 to 1978). Other significant samples of Russian Orthodox architecture are the Svyato-Blagoveschenskiy Cathedral (1802-12), the Svyato-Troitskiy Cathedral (1802-12), the Ioanna Predtechi Church (1899, former archbishop's house), the Arkhistratiga Mikhaila Church (1998 to 2003).

On the top of the Karaulnaya Gora hill, at the plot of the ancient Tatar place of sacrifice and later the Krasnoyarsk fort watchtower, the Paraskeva Pyatnitsa's Chapel (1804, rebuilt in 1854 to 1855) is located. The chapel, displayed on the 10-ruble note, is one of the most well-known city symbols. The chapel was abandoned and decayed during the Soviet era and only when Perestroyka came it had been regained by the Yenisei eparchy.

Another unofficial symbol of Krasnoyarsk is the incomplete 24 storey tower located at Strelka. Construction of the tower had been started just before Perestroyka and then frozen due to the administrative crisis. The silouette of the tower is clearly seen from many places in the city.

Among the other well-known buildings: the mansions of the merchant Nikolay Gadalov (beginning of the 20th century), the Roman-Catholic Preobrazheniya Gospodnya Chapel (1911), the Krasnoyarsk Krai Museum stylized as an Ancient Egyptian temple, the Krasnoyarsk Cultural/Historical Center and the triumphal arch at Strelka (2003), the Krasnoyarsk Krai administration building with the two towers behind it known as the "Donkey Ears".

There is a number of 2-storey wooden houses in the city built mostly in the middle of the 20th century as temporary habitations. Many urbanized villages located inside the city keep the remnants of typical Russian village architecture: wooden houses with backyards, many somewhat decayed now but still inhabited.

Culture

Krasnoyarsk is the hometown of many famous people, some of whom are well-known throughout the world. The most prominent culture figures are the world-famous historic painter Vasily Surikov, the classic writer Viktor Astafiev, the world-class opera singers Pyotr Slovtsov and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. The other honourable artists are the painters Andrey Pozdeev, Valeriy Kudrinskiy and Toivo Rännel, sculptors Boris Musat and Yuriy Zlotya, writers Roman Solntsev and Nikolay Gayduk.

There is a number of local holidays celebrated annually in Krasnoyarsk. The most significant holiday is the Day of the City (Russian: День города) hilariously celebrated in June, usually with the carnival. Other holidays and cultural events are: the Mana Festival (Russian: Манский фестиваль) usually held on last weekend of June with the traditional bard contest, the International Museum Biennale traditionally held in the Krasnoyarsk Cultural/Historical Center, the avant-garde Museum Night (Russian: Музейная ночь) festival dedicated to the International Museum Day (May 18), the Jazz on Yenisey (Russian: Джаз на Енисее) festival, the Stolbist Day (Russian: День столбиста) held many times a year celebrating the traditions of mountain climbing in the Stolby national reserve, the Bikers' Rally (Russian: Слёт байкеров).

Krasnoyarsk has a number of local television companies and the highly-developed telecommunications, many disctricts of the city have LAN-based broadband Internet access.

Education

Next to Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk is a very prominent scientific and eductational center of Siberia with more than 30 higher education facilities, many of which are the branches of the Russian Academy of Science, and about 200 high schools. The most notable higher education institutes are:

Similarly to Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk has the special city district called Akademgorodok (Academic Town in Russian) where many of the institues are located. There, in the Institute of Biophysics, the experiment on ecological isolation of human beings called "Bios", similar to the US experiment Biosphere 2, has been sucessfully held in 1973-1985.

Tourism

The most popular place of attraction for tourists visiting Krasnoyarsk is the huge national nature reserve Stolby (Pillars in Russian) or the Rock Pillars. Stolby covers an area of 470 km² (181 mile²) with numerous giant granite rocks formations up to 100 meters high, many of very extraordinary shapes. Stolby is also a major rock climbing location, many local climbers intentionally do not use any belaying and call their extremal sport stolbizm.

Other popular showplaces include the Krasnoyarsk Hydroelectric Power Station dam, the Karaulnaya Gora hill with the Paraskeva Pyatnitsa's Chapel, museums, theaters, etc.

External links

Retrieved from "http://en.freepedia.org/Krasnoyarsk.html"


Views
Personal tools
In other languages
Similar Links