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

Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.
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. 
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
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.
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
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.
Fearful Majesty

Fearful Majesty

This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.
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...
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.

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