Irkutsk Oblast



Irkutsk Oblast

Name: Elena Anosova

Age: 32

Profession: Graphic Designer, Photographer

City/Region: Irkutsk and Irkutsk oblast

How long have you been doing photography? What style or genre most interests you? About three years. Visual stories. Documentary.

Can you give us a short description of your city? Where is it located? What is it famous for? The region lives in the shadow of its main attraction: Lake Baikal. Aside from the traditional omul fish and the tender nerpa seals, we have plenty to see: excellent wooden houses and the Taltsy Open Air Ethnographic Museum, which is so good it is often compared with Sweden's Skansen Museum.

Irkutsk oblast is a large region. Part of it is located in the North: people live very isolated lives there, in small villages. In the winter, the temperature can drop to minus 50 Celcius. The people lere live off hunting and fishing.

There are loads of excellent places on Baikal that even locals have never seen. Olkhon Island is a mecca for tourists from all over the world. It is nice at any time of year, but especially magical in winter. Baikal freezes, or, as the locals put it, it “rises” [встает] only in February-March. At this time of year, the universe’s largest ice rink forms around Olkhon Island…

Irkutsk is the capital of the region. It has 600,000 residents and they all live together peacefully. In 1661 the Cossacks landed on Buryat soil and built an outpost. To this day the native Buryats and the Russians live together peacefully. Such things as nationalism are a great rarity here.

If you ask an Irkutyanin about the city’s main features, they will name the homes of the exiled Decembrists, historical objects and some other historical facts. For example that the Czech writer Yaroslav Gashek lived in Irkutsk and in 1905 founded the first Buryat newspaper (still publishing). Or that the White Guard Admiral Kolchak lived out his final days here and was executed in this city.

Irkutsk has traditions: city carnival in summer, Christmas concerts by the world famous pianist Denis Matsuyev (a native son). And other events fill up the city and region, and guests arrive here from all over the world: ethnic festivals and large ecological actions on Olkhon Island, the Baikal Cup Ice Regatta, free-ride on Mamai Mountain and others.

What is something about your city that only locals would know? 

Buuzy and pozy [буузы и позы] are two different types of dumplings. Byyzy are made with mince meat, pozy with ground meat.

The nerpa seal is a surprising animal. For example if it is pregnant and under great stress, its fetus may simply disappear of its own accord.

During his trip through Siberia, Anton Chekhov wrote that “Irkutsk is an entirely intelligent city.” To this day, we take pride in this.

Which places or sites are a must for someone to see if they visit your city?

The Circumbaikal Railway is an amazing architectural wonder.

Bratsk Hydroelectric Station – it contains all of the power of Soviet builders of the past century.

Taltsy Museum for Wooden Architecture.

Irkutsk Planetarium – the first private planetarium in Russia. It is in the historic 130 section.

Olkhon Island.

Anything else you would like to add? My website is anosova.com

 



Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Okudzhava Bilingual

Okudzhava Bilingual

Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 
Murder and the Muse

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.
Jews in Service to the Tsar

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955