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

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. 
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. 
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.
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.
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.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
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.
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.

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