Tomsk



Tomsk

Name: Vladimir Dudarev

Age: 32

Profession: Photographer

City: Tomsk

How long have you been doing photography? What style or genre most interests you? I have een taking photos for about 12 years. My favourite genre is photojournalism

Can you give us a short description of your city? Where is it located? What is it famous for? Tomsk is a Siberian city, about a four-hour plane journey east of Moscow. It was founded in 1604. It's famous for its architecture and universities. Wooden architecture is the hallmark and highlight of the city. Truly, it's a treasure on a global scale. The six universities are crucial city landmarks, and Tomsk is has one of Russia's highest student populations.

What is something about your city that only locals would know? Up until 1925 Tomsk was the capital of a very large region that included Altai Krai, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk and Tomsk Oblasts and a part of Krasnoyarsk Krai. In 1903 the Transsiberian Railway came into operation, but it did not go directly through Tomsk, which turned it into a provincial city. One legend has it that the reason Tomsk was bypassed was because local transport workers bribed railway planners to exclude Tomsk, but the reality was far simpler: if the railway had included Tomsk, it would have been 100 kilometers longer.

Lenin Avenue is the main promenade of the city and something of a vanity fair. It's the street of first meetings, meetings with friends, first kisses and weddings. It's also the street where you grab a bite to eat between classes or worry before exams. It's a street of bicycles, prams and motorcycles. It's a street of old women selling flowers and of street musicians. It's a street of churches, monuments, cold feet and cafes to go to after the theatre. It is the Nevsky Prospekt, Broadway and the Champs-Elysees of Tomsk.

Which places or sites are a must for someone to see if they visit your city? You must see Shishkova Street, Kuznetsova Street, Tatarskaya Street, which have the highest concentrations of wooden architecture. Also, there are very beautiful university buildings. Lagerny Garden is a favourite place to walk with children and one of the main wedding cortege targets.

Instagram: @vovadudarev



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

Some of Our Books

Fish: A History of One Migration

Fish: A History of One Migration

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
Survival Russian

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.
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.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
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.
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.
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. 
The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.
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...

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