Rubizhne Off The Beaten Path

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Rudenko Street was called after Nickolay Rudenko (1907-1983), the Hero of the Soviet Union, a native of Rubizhne.
He used to live in the house number 2 in this street that was called Budyonny Street before.
The street connects Pushkin Street and Academician Pomeranchuke Street. It is only 545 meters long. The street runs parallel to Kirov Street. In fact, it is the first parallel street to the west of Kirov Street.
The street consists mainly of private houses that were refurbished and look cool now.
There are a couple of apartment houses belonging to the Stalin era here.
As you start a stroll along this street from Pushkin Street, you will notice a wall damaged by shell splinters and bullets. I call that wall Traces of War. I remember stories about the war at school and our teacher mentioning that wall in Rudenko Street. After the war the wall was left unrefurbished intentionally to remind us about the horrors of war now.
Ice Beer bikers’ pub is located at 3 Rudenko Street.
Now the City Registry and the City Social Services Administration are located here. These two city services occupy the building of the former Soviet kindergarten – the kids’ paradise – built before the Second World War. Dozens of kids spent their days at that kindergarten in the thirties and forties.
By the way, the City Registry is the place where my wife and I got married and officially registered in 1985.
The old city hotel and Donets restaurant were located in this street in the fifties and sixties too.

Nickolay Rudenko was a political commissar in frontier troops in Karelia at the Soviet-Finnish border. On August 26, 1941 he was awarded with the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union for his heroic deed during the attacks of the Finnish troops at the border. Nickolay Rudenko was wounded eleven times within the years of the last war.
Now there is a memorial plaque at 2 Rudenko Street at the house where he lived from 1946 until 1983.

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One day when we hired a cab our cab driver took us to the architectural gem of Rubizhne as he said - to so-called Teacher's House in Kalinin Street.
Teachers' House is located in the Old Town at the intersection of Kalinin Street and Academician Pomeranchuke Street.
It was built some eighty years ago - in 1928.
It was one of the first Soviet apartment houses.
It looks like the repairmen's hands have not touched the building for decades.
I am sorry to say the apartment house seems to be in complete decay.
I keep my finger crossed and hope it will be preserved for the city residents and future generations.

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Several streets in Rubizhne were named in honor of famous fellow countrymen.
Chernopashchenko Street runs parallel to Embankment Street in the area of the railway station.
It was called in honor of Air Force Captain Vassily Yevgrafovich Chernopashchenko who was born in Rubizhne in 1914.
His childhood dream came true and he became an Air Force officer.
He was a courageous officer who shot down several enemy aircrafts.
He died in an air battle above the Black Sea for the liberation of Crimea on April 2, 1942.
His fellow countrymen remember heroic deed.
A street was called after him and a monument was erected in his honor.
The momument was dedicated on November 6, 1977.
The memorial plaque at the monument reads,
The street is called after the resident of Rubizhne
V.E. Chernopashchenko, a military pilot,
who perished at the front in 1942
the death of a hero.

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The Resolution of the Communist Party Central Committee and the USSR Cabinet of Ministers "On elimination of excesses in designing and construction" dated November 5, 1955 was the start of building faceless boxes as we used to call them, instead of the awe-inspiring architectural gems in the Empire style that were built before and after the war and afterwards were banned by Khrushchov's government.
You can see samples of Khrushchov era apartment houses all over the city.

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If you walk down Kirov Street from Bohdan Khmelnitsky Street towards the main entrance to the city park, you can see samples of the Empire style apartment houses on both sides of the street.
They are mostly three-storeyed apartment houses made of local bricks.
I am sorry our main entrance to the city park has long been scavanged, then fixed and then savagely scavanged again.
You have to walk past this scavanged entrance if your aim is Caesar Cafe or St.George's Cathedral.
Also I am sorry the local authorities do not find any means to restore the Old Glory in the city park.

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You can see a number of Stalin era apartment houses in Lenin Street
opposite School #6 in the area of Lenin monument.
This part of the city was built in the fifties.
In 1955 Khrushchov's government adopted a decree on struggle against “architectural excesses”.
Stalin era designing and architecture were declared as wasteful and extravagant.
The Resolution No.1871 of the Communist Party Central Committee and the USSR Cabinet of Ministers “On elimination of excesses in designing and construction” dated November 4, 1955 declared all architectural masterpieces of Stalin era as extravagant and wasteful and blamed the architects for their approach.
The afterwar Empire Style was banned and the architects started building "boxes" instead of original and inimitable houses.
"Democratic" Nikita Khrushchov regarded Stalin era construction extravagance as out of place and lacking economic discipline.

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Students' Street also starts in the Old Town and leads to the new districts with nine-storey apartment houses.
This three-storey apartment house at 4 Students Street has a Stalin era inscription 5 B 4, which means 5 in 4, that is,
"We will fulfil the five-year plan in four years!
It was a very popular Communist slogan of the first Stalin era five-year plans.
Like no other apartment house in Rubizhne, this one has a unique design. The room height is 2.85 meters, which is a typical Stalin era room height. Those apartments are called Stalinka now and are considered to be very valuable owing to their height.
The apartment house has eighteen apartments, among them many four-room apartments designed for leading industrical specialists who were among the first lucky residents who moved into this apartment house in the thirties.

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I am sorry our old Leisure Center that was called Kirov Palace of Culture lies in ruins now.
You can't miss it if you walk down Kirov Street and then farther to Smirnov Street.
But, please, now it's too late to explore it: the building is falling apart after local bums have "processed it".
This huge building dates back to 1934.
It must have been a great site for its time.
Its wall reach the height of a modern nine-storey apartment house or even higher.
It was built of local bricks manufactured in Rubizhne and represented the Triumph of the Stalin Era.
I remember going there when a schoolboy. I went to the movies, to the library or to see a new play or listen to a new concert.
Its Big Hall was a masterpiece of Soviet architecture.