Dear English speaking friends, specially for you a short story about Krasnoyarsk! =)

Krasnoyarsk is the third largest city in Siberia.

(View from the Kommunalniy bridge)

(Local history museum and on the background you can see the nowadays symbol of Krasnoyarsk - small version of Big Ben.)

(There're grass figures of different animals all around the city in summer: these giraffes, hen, elephants, turtles and so on.)

Krasnoyarsk lies on the Yenisei River and is an important junction on the Trans-Siberian Railway.

(Left channel of the Yenisey. We call the river "Yenisey-batyuschka" - the Yenisey-Father. =) )

Its population achieves almost 1 mln people.

(Morning in Krasnoyarsk)

The city was founded in July of 1628 as a Russian border fort by cossacks.

(Our city began from this place. Nowadays you can see the symbol of this chapel of Paraskeva Pyatniza on 10 rubles bank-note of Russian Federation as well as b.m. the Kommunalniy bridge. This chapel is situated on the top of Karaulnaya Mountain near the river Kacha. In the past a heathen temple of Kacha's Tatar was situated there. Then Cossacks placed the watchtower and began to notify citizens about hostile raids.)

(The Communal (kommunalniy in Russian) Bridge. Its length is about 2500 m and it was the longest bridge in Asia till 2007, now the longest bridge in Asia is built in China)


(On the right bank of the Yenisey river)

(Sunset in Krasnoyarsk)

Its name derives from 2 Russian words: "Krasniy" - Red or Beautiful and "Yar" which means steep bank or cliff.

(Krasniy Yar)

(Krasnoyarsk in autumn)

In the Russian Empire, Krasnoyarsk was one of the places to which political exiles were banished. For example, eight Decembrists were deported from St. Petersburg to Krasnoyarsk after the failure of the revolt.

(Its centre lookes like a typical provincial Russian town from the 18th - 19th century. But in comparison with other siberian cities Krasnoyarsk has its soul.)

Later Lenin was in exile in the south of Krasnoyarsk region and Stalin was in exile in its north. Maybe that's why during the epoch of Stalinism, Krasnoyarsk was a major center of the Gulag system. The most important labor camp was the Kraslag or Krasnoyarsky ITL (1938-c.1960) with the two units located in Kansk and Reshyoty. In the city of Krasnoyarsk itself, the Yeniseylag or Yeniseysky ITL labor camp was prominent as well during World War II (1940-1941). So, for many years it was a closed city.

(Monument to Lenin still stays on the central square of Krasnoyarsk - square of Gorkova (who was another famous political and artistic personality in the Soviet times). )

Krasnoyarsk is an important industrial city. There's about 40 large-scale plants and factories.

There is Sibtyazhmash plant (heavy engineering construction), aluminium plant, Krasmash (main Russian plant specialized on production of ballistic rockets for submarines and upper-stage rockets of launch vehicles ZENIT and PROTON), the metallurgic plant, the plant of base metals, the plant of nonferrous metals and gold, the pharmacy factory, the dock yard, the paper factory, the hydroelectric power station (which is now the fifth largest in the world and the second in Russia), the river port.

(Hydropower station (I'm with my colleagues from Europe))

(The station in summer)

(Krasnoyarsk port)

Krasnoyarsk is situated in the eastern part of Siberia. Of course, nature around the city is fascinating. Taiga: pine-trees, fir-trees, birches.

(Taiga in winter)

(Taiga in summer)

Temperatures vary from -46 degrees C (according to statistics the lowest temperature equal -52 C was registered in 1931) till +30 (maximum is +36). Air humidity is in average 67. Snow usually lays on the ground from October till April but it depends.

(I'm with my parents)

Though Krasnoyarsk is situated in Siberia, please, believe it's a rather developped city. It has a number of local television companies and the highly-developed telecommunications, many districts of the city have LAN-based broadband Internet access. There're lots of supermarkets, shops, night clubs, restaurants, cafes, cinemas, theatres, and sport facilities.

(In a popular night club Che Gevara)
Krasnoyarsk is a very prominent scientific and educational center of Siberia, with over 30 higher education facilities, many of which are the branches of the Russian Academy of Science, and about 200 high schools. There are several museums in the city. There's also a zoo which is called Roev Ruchey (ruchey means "stream").

(With friends near a zoo)

(Russian brown bear is very typical for Siberia, but I've seen them only in a zoo. Please, don't believe there're bears walking just in the streets of Siberian towns and cities!! )

(In Roev ruchey there're very funny ostriches .)

(Wíth my nephew Andrey in a zoo)

Krasnoyarsk airport is very small for the moment but they have great plans to rebuild it and to organise a usual hub for flights from China and Japan to Europe and in future even transpolar flights.

(In Russian Krasnoyarsk is КРАСНОЯРСК. Before the passenger terminal you can see a plane of KrasAir (new name of the company is AirUnion) where I got acquainted with aviation. =) )
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 equipment and call their extreme sport "stolbizm", which is known around the world as solo climbing.

(Rock called Takmak can be seen from any part of Krasnoyarsk)

(Rock "Ded" that means Grandfather. This head is naturally´created, nobody made it)

(View on the city from Stolby ropeway)

Some more pictures:

(Usual Russian wedding. My cousin with his already wife in Krasnoyarsk central registry office. )


(Yearly carnaval devoted to the City Day)


(Just a funny monument of a drunk)


(Colours of sky are unbelievably beautiful.)


I hope my story was not dull or too long and you liked it. At least now you have some idea about the city I come from. ;)