Monument to the famous film director L.I. Gaidai
Sverdlov Street
Well, and we continue to move along Sverdlov Street, in the past it bore the name of an outstanding merchant, philanthropist and mayor V.N. Basnin. Today only the library wing, where the “Museum of Communications” is located, and also a small house facing the main street, remained from his family estate. The latter is one of the oldest stone residential buildings in the city and was built in 1801, but lost its second floor after the Great Fire.
V.N. Basnin’s estate
Since 1834, almost a third of this quarter was occupied by the Basnin’s Garden with greenhouses, the collection of which was formed by the best expert of Asian plants among his contemporaries N.S. Turchaninov. However, the fire element did not spare it either. Today in its place is the school No. 11, built in 1915 according to the project of K.W. Mital. The graduates of this institution were the Hero of the Soviet Union A.S. Bogdanov, cosmonaut A.A. Ivanishin, pianist D.L. Matsuev and many other famous scientists and public figures.
Basnin’s Garden
Right behind the school is the building of the former hotel “Commercial Courtyard”, which opened here in 1902. After the revolution and up to the 1970s, it housed a dormitory for Irkutsk theatre workers, and during the WWII the actors of Moscow Satire Theater and Kiev Opera Theater lived here. Today it occupied by various departments and committees of the Irkutsk administration.
Hotel “Commercial Courtyard”
Opposite there is a one-storey house where lived the famous explorer of the Eastern Sayan Mountains and the merchant S.P. Peretolchin. Immediately behind it is the small building of the poorhouse of the Tikhvin Church, adjoining against the walls of the “Vostsibugol” building – the only construction that has survived from that magnificent temple.
2nd Khaminov’s gymnasium for girls
On the opposite side of the road, the department of humanitarian and aesthetic education of the Pedagogical Institute of Irkutsk State University, which is located in the building of the former 2nd Khaminov’s gymnasium for girls, which opened here in 1912. Here at the school of red commanders for four months in 1920 studied the future founder of Mongolia D. Sukhe-Bator, after whom named this street. In 1935, according to the project of K.W. Mital, a “party activist house” was added to the gymnasium building, which today also occupied by ISU.
Zhelyabov Quarter
We turn right to the main merchant street of Irkutsk, named today in honour of A.I. Zhelyabov who was one of the organizers of the assassination of Emperor Alexander II. In the past, it bore the name of famous merchant of the 1st guild, twice elected mayor and patron of the arts K.N. Trapeznikov. There are many beautiful merchant mansions along the street.
Merchant of the 1st guild K.N. Trapeznikov
First on the left is the magnificent house of A.F. Vtorov with openwork monograms “AB”, meaning the initials of the owner, built in the neo-russian style according to the project of the famous theatre architect V.A. Schroeter in 1897. The owners moved out of the mansion back in 1913, and already on October 29, 1917, the first All-Siberian Congress of Soviets took place there, and a committee of Central Siberia was elected. Since 1937, the building has housed the “Palace of Children and Youth Creativity”, which has brought up a whole galaxy of talents from the poet M.D. Sergeev to pianist D.L. Matsuev.
House of A.F. Vtorov
The magnificent mansion is adjoined by a shopping building, which was built for the merchant N.S. Chupalov back in 1801, according to A.I. Losev, but it was bought by the family of Vtorov. After it is a house of the Soviet era, built in 1951, overlooks Labour Square. It adjoins the mansion of the 1st guild merchant I.S. Dubnikov, whose estate occupied almost the entire block in the past.
1st guild merchant A.F. Vtorov
We dive to the left into a short lane and freeze in front of the walls of a magnificent castle with towers and “Stars of David” in the frieze. It is easy to guess that this is the house of the head of the Jewish community of Irkutsk I.M. Feinberg. The mansion was built according to the project of the city architect A.I. Kuznetsov in 1902. Since then, the house has been occupied by many organizations from the construction management of the Circum-Baikal Railway to the art museum and college, which is now located there. During the civil war in Russia, the units of the Red Army were formed here and also worked famous commanders S.G. Lazo and A.A. Taube.
On the right, through the branches of the trees, you can see the sculpture “Muse”, which was installed on the 300th anniversary of the assignment of the status of the city to Irkutsk in 1986 opposite the building of the Irkutsk Regional Children’s School of Arts. By the way, here studied until 1990 the People’s Artist of the Russian Federation, virtuoso pianist D.L. Matsuev. Thanks to this man, since 2004, every September in Irkutsk, the festival of classical music “Stars on Baikal” has been held. The repertoire of the musical theatre in the capital of Eastern Siberia at this time resembles the posters of the best concert halls in the world.
Virtuoso pianist D.L. Matsuev
Directly behind the school of arts placed a small wooden house of mechanics Karasev, where in 1909 illegally lived the frustrated head of the Soviet Union S.M. Kirov. He spent six months in Irkutsk and during this time changed 12 addresses. His underground work led to numerous strikes by railroad workers in 1910.
S.M. Kirov
Opposite is the exhibition center named after the Irkutsk artist V.S. Rogal, which opened here in 1999 and is often used for various thematic exhibitions, so this is one of the most dynamically developing art museums in Irkutsk. In the past at this place was a small wooden house, where in 1901 was born one of the greatest documentary filmmakers of the XX century – M.I. Romm.
Exhibition center named after the Irkutsk artist V.S. Rogal
At the next crossroads, we turn right onto the street named after the founder of the squadron of anarchists and partisan movement in Eastern Siberia during the civil war, N.A. Kalandarishvili. At the corner of the street (Khalturina, 8/1) you can still see the house where he lived. He was visited several times by such people as one of the founders of Mongolia and the head of the guerrilla movement in Western Siberia B.Z. Shumyatsky, as well as the commander