Sverdlovs'k Things to Do

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The city has a rich and interesting museum.
It was dedicated in 1972.
In 1991 it moved to its present building at 2 Pirogov Street.
The museum is not far from the bus terminal and the central market.
I visited the museum each time I was in Sverdlovsk.
You can see an interesting monument at the entrance: a miner and a farmer symbolizing the unity of the population.
There are also several ancient figures of the Polovtsy women. The Polovtsy were a nomadic tribe that used to inhabit these areas in the first century A.D.
The museum exhibits over 2,000 exhibits. The most famous of them is Eneolithic Stone, nicknamed Snakes of Sverdlovsk dating back to 2500 B.C.
I was very impressed by the rich design and the exhibits of the museum.
The museum is open daily except Monday from 8 a.m. till 4 p.m.
The museum director is Ms.Tatiana Kuznetsova.
The museum has two floors and several exhibitions:
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Nature and ecology;
Archeology;
Our county as a part of the Don Cossacks Area;
Development of the coalmining in the area;
Sverdlovsk County in the first half of the 20th century;
Sverdlovsk County in the second half of the 20th century.
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You can see this monument to Jacob Sverdlov whose real name was Yankel Miraimovich Schwarzbaum.
The monument stands in the central street between the City Central Telephone Exchange and Vegas nightclub.

Sverdlov was born in a Jewish family on June 3, 1885 in Nizhni Novgorod, Russia, and died on March 16, 1919 in Moscow.
He became an ardent Bolshevik and made an enviable career.

Jacob became a great friend of Lenin and the first Prime Minister of the Bolshevik Russia. He had several party nicknames (pseudonyms), among them "Comrade Andrey" and "Max".
Sverdlov was known to be the brain center of the Communist party.

In January 1919, fulfilling the will of the Communist Party, Jacob Sverdlov signed the notorious decree on de-Cossackization of the Don Area, the massacre decree, that led to the mass genocide and deportation of the Russian Don Cossacks. The entire families were massacred or deported to Siberia at that time. This was not the only decree where Sverdlov showed himself as a pathological maniac and a serial murderer.

Now this Bolshevik leader is often referred to as "the bloody butcher of the Bolshevik revolution" who inspired and encouraged the mass purges against the Russian people.
Sverdlov died on March 16, 1919 and was the first Communist leader (and a human in general) to be buried in Red Square (opposite the present central department store) in Moscow at the Kremlin Wall.

Now, when more information is open for us, more and more people believe that Sverdlov's sudden death was not so sudden as it had seemed, but was carefully planned by some of his loyal comrades-in-arms who believed that it was high time Jacob the butcher was done away with.

Nobody knows what relation Sverdlov had to this city, but his name is in the city name and the monument stands proudly in the central street.

Sverdlov virtually became the first Soviet "saint", as it were.

This is what Lenin’s successor Joseph Stalin thought about Sverdlov and wrote in the Communist newspaper "Proletariat Revolution" #11 (34), in November 1924.

About Yakov M.Sverdlov

There are people, leaders of the proletariat, about which no fuss is made in the press, maybe because they themselves do not like to make a fuss about themselves; but who are, nevertheless, the vital sources and true leaders of the revolutionary movement. Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov belongs to the number of such leaders.
Organizer to the core, organizer by nature, by his skills, by his revolutionary education, by his flair, organizer by all his tireless activities, - such is the figure of Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov.
Joseph Stalin,
November 1924
www.hrono.ru
(my translation)

Vladimir Lenin valued his work highly.
This is what he wrote about Sverdlov’s activities after Jacob's death:

“The work that he did himself in the sphere of organization, selection of people, appointing them to responsible posts in all diverse directions, - this work will now be possible for us only in case if you move entire groups of people to each of the large branches that Sverdlov directed on his own and if those people, following his ways, manage to approach what a single man did”.

(V.I.Lenin, Full collection of works, Fifth edition, vol.38, p.79).
(my translation)

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The city's main Orthodox cathedral is called
St.Nickolas and St.Vladimir's Cathedral
and it is located in the South End not far from near the railway station.
It has an inner yard with a well and several service buildings.
I was also impressed by the church entrance that I saw there: the icon of St.Nickolas over the massive door with bas reliefs of the saints and the belfry.
Isn't it marvelous to observe the church altar of the Orthodox church, especially when there is no worship and you are alone to stand and meditate?
If you want to take a picture, you only have to ask for the blessing of the church dean by all means. I asked for the blessing of Father Peter who is the dean of this cathedral and he kindly allowed me to take a picture. My little camera does not cease to wonder me, especially in this case when the picture was very good.
And, of course, why not donate a little to the church? You can see donation boxes to your left.
Prepare some change for the beggars who always stand at the church entrance. I always have some change in my pocket when I go to the church.

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If you are there at lunch time, why not go to "Fortuna" Ukrainian tavern and then have a stroll in that square.
Unlike many other Ukrainian cities, the central square in Sverdlovsk is not Lenin Square, but Peace Square ("ploshchad meera" in Russian).
This square is the biggest one in the city. It is often crowded for the city marriage office is located in this square in Engels Street. Still, I did not see any flowers at the foot of Lenin monument.
Maybe there are other monuments where the newlyweds traditionally lay their flowers during their wedding day city tour.

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This pavilion was dedicated in 2003.
As the city mayor Mr.Schmalz said the pavilion had been intended for those who had quarreled. Those people can come and sit in the pavilion and talk to forget all about the quarrel they had.
That is why it was called Conciliation Pavilion
It stands opposite Absolute supermarket in Engels Street, the central street of the city.

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Provalye Oak is one of the oldest oaks in Luhansk region.
It is located in Provalye Steppe state reserve 25 km to the northeast of Sverdlovsk.
This oak is a botanic site not only of that state reserve, but also of the whole Luhansk region. It is about 300 years old and is about 20 meters high.
They say no other oak in Luhansk region is older than this one.
So it's worth while visiting that State Reserve called Provalye Steppe just to see this old giant oak.

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The city council is also located in Engels Street.
It's a typical Soviet era administrative building.
You might think it looks attractive from inside with its spruces.
You can always apply to the officials there in case you need some help.

Visiting the museum of local lore you will see some of the pictures of Kateryna Litovchenko, a local painter, who is disabled and paints in dots with markers in her mouth.
her fame has already spread all over the world.
There are several of her pictures on display in one of the halls.
There are also pictures of other local painters in the entrance hall.
Here is the web site of another local painter Tatiana Konoval who paints traditional Easter eggs.