Photos of old Russa look into the past. Winter old russa

From the name of this city already breathes antiquity. Associations with it are quite natural - Russia, Russians ... Even the adjective from the name of the city - "Old Russian"; such a funny, from a philological point of view, situation: when you say "old Russian", you can mean both Russia and separately taken Russian city. Staraya Russa, according to a number of assumptions, is almost the same age as Veliky Novgorod, excavations directly indicate that the city already existed and lived a full life in the XII century. And in general, Staraya Russa seemed to me such a "reduced Novgorod"; now it is small town with a population of 30 thousand people (in better times was 40 thousand), but after the Hill even it seems huge. The first time I looked at this city a little in the evening from the bus window on the way to Kholm, and the next day I left Kholm back and arrived in Staraya Russa by the middle of the day.

2. The bus station in Staraya Russa is located, like the railway station, on the northern exit from the city, that is, from Novgorod. Therefore, I did not drive to it and got off in the city center, at the intersection of Mineralnaya and Karla Marx streets. This place is dominated by Soviet buildings.

3. School number 1. I could not immediately identify the gun visible in the frame, but it looks like a 37-mm anti-tank gun of the 1930 model.

5. Mineralnaya - one of the main streets of the city. From the place where I got off the bus, I walked along this street in a northerly direction. Khrushchev and in Staraya Russa are painted in bright hues, which emphasizes the similarity of the city with Novgorod.

6. Crossroads with Volodarsky street. The cultural center building looks like it was built in the 1930s.

8. Opposite the Central Committee "Rusich" is the museum of the North-Western Front and the partisan region. I visited this museum, and there will be a separate post about it.

9. There is a small exhibition next to the museum military equipment times of the Great Patriotic War. Special attention the T-26 tank, which is extremely rare on monuments, draws upon itself.

10. Here, at the intersection of Mineralnaya and Volodarsky, there is such a kind of "Finnish trace" in Staraya Russa - a monument to the soldiers of the 86th infantry Vilmanstrand regiment who died in the Russian-Japanese war of 1904-1905, who quartered in Staraya Russa. Wilmanstrand is now the Finnish city of Lappeenranta.

12. Having passed the factory, I turned left and went out to the ensemble of the former Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery:

13. The former monastery is now located local history museum. This is one of the most ancient buildings of Staraya Russa, not inferior to many buildings in Novgorod. The monastery was founded in 1192, rebuilt several times, and the oldest surviving building is the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior (1432).

15. But the Church of the Nativity of Christ standing next door is a later building. First half of the 17th century.

16. The wooden porch is, of course, already a reconstruction. But persuasive.

17. That's all the same, it seems to many that, as a Petersburger, few architecture can surprise me. But this is not the case - my eye is not accustomed to ancient Russian architecture.

18. This is one of the former monastery buildings (and now, it seems, a residential building), built in the 19th century, and therefore does not fit into the general ensemble of buildings.

19. On one of the neighboring houses I saw just such a Soviet sign. In the summer I saw the same in Krasnoyarsk.

20. From the monastery, I again returned to Volodarsky Street, along which I went to the bank of the Polist River.

21. And here she is. A quiet river in the rays of the low November sun.

22. The flooring of the bridge across the Polist is, oddly enough, wooden.

23. This bridge offers a very picturesque view of the Resurrection Cathedral. The same angle appears on the title frame, but here I decided to show it with a zoom. The cathedral stands on an arrow at the confluence of the Porusya River with Polist.

25. In the northwestern part of the city, across the river, there is St. Petersburgskaya Street and a fairly complete pre-revolutionary building. Staraya Russa in the era Russian Empire was a county town of the Novgorod province.

26. Stalin's cinema building. Polist and the Resurrection Cathedral in the distance are visible in the background.

The rest of the riverside part of the city I will examine the next morning, on the way to the bus station. In the meantime, I return to the right bank of Polisti.

27. County building. During the war, Staraya Russa did not suffer as much as it could, if compared with the scale of the battles that took place here.

28. And the post-war stalins are inscribed in the image of the city so well that at first glance, sometimes you can’t distinguish it from the old buildings.

30. Revolution Square with an almost completely preserved architectural ensemble of the county town. Even the water pump is old.

32. Marx Street, leaving the Revolution Square. The frame shows an old fire station with a watchtower and a red brick building that now houses the Polytechnic College. I suspect that it was originally a county school.

33. The same building from the other side (the sky is overcast because the photo was taken on a different day in the morning):

Porusya (by the way, this name is presumably the same root as the name of the city) is a swampy river, and therefore its water is brown in color. It starts in the huge Rdeysky swamp already mentioned in the post about the Hill. However, Polist originates in the same place (after all, the swamp system is called Rdeysko- Polistovskaya).

36. On the Cathedral Bridge across Porus, I went to the Resurrection Cathedral, which I had already seen from the Living Bridge across Polist. The cathedral was built in 1692-1696, although it was periodically reconstructed in subsequent years. For example, the bell tower is clearly of a much later date.

37. Then I returned from the Strelka to the right bank of the Porus and continued moving south along the coast, along the Dostoevsky embankment, which was muddy in the autumn thaw, towards the writer's house-museum.

38. On foreground- the building of the county noble assembly built in the 19th century (and now - the scientific and cultural center of the Dostoevsky Museum), and a little further - the old Russian military registration and enlistment office; by the way, the total for as many as five districts - in addition to Starorussky, also Volotovsky, Parfinsky, Poddorsky and Kholmsky (the military registration and enlistment office was closed in Kholm).

39. A little to the south, that is, upstream, on Porus'e there are the remains of another dam:

40. Autumn evening on Porusie and the bell tower of the Resurrection Cathedral:

41. The old pavement has been preserved on the embankment. In general, the atmosphere here is somehow special. It seems that little has changed here since the time of Skotoprigonyevsk from Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov"...

42. And here is Dostoevsky's house-museum, which looks rather simple and unobtrusive, but that's what makes it pleasing to the eye. The writer lived here for six years - from 1872 to 1878, and it was at this time that "The Brothers Karamazov" was written (as already mentioned, it was Staraya Russa that served as the prototype for the county town of Skotoprigonyevsk) and "Demons".

I did not go to the museum itself, because the plans included a military museum, and from this place I went back in a northerly direction, but along a different street.

44. These places are mainly built up with wooden houses:

45. Nearby stands the red-brick Church of the Great Martyr Mina, built in the 14th century in a typical Novgorod style, which is as simple as it is beautiful. Not so long ago valuable monument architecture was actually in an abandoned form, but in the 2000s it was transferred to the Church, and now restoration is underway.

46. School number two - a building that looks like a pre-war building:

47. Church of St. George the Victorious, built in 1410. The vestibule, I suspect, is much later.

48. From St. George's Church, I went through some slum lane to the parallel street of the Red Commanders, on which another old Orthodox church attracts attention - the church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker of 1371 (bell tower of the 18th century) - it seems to be the oldest surviving building in the city.

49. And nearby is the pensive Fyodor Mikhailovich:

50. And this street has a very non-trivial name - Svarog Street. Naturally, thanks to the ancient history of the city, the already emerging association with Slavic pagan mythology intensifies even more. Only then is disappointment when you find out that this is only the name of one local artist. But why "only"? Lucky because the artist with the last name, and even in such a city...

From Svarog Street, I went out again to Mineralnaya. Thus, closing the circular route, I gradually return to the same place where I left the bus during the day.

51. Resort "Staraya Russa" - one of the symbols of the city. Over the course of several centuries, the city developed thanks to the salt industry, and in early XIX century, the healing properties of local mineral waters containing salts were discovered, and in 1828 a spa was opened, which operates to this day.

52. Mineral Street:

53. An original way to deal with unauthorized posting of ads is to put posters behind bars. And rightly so, otherwise they would have sealed Dostoevsky's face with pieces of paper ...

54. Victory Park next to the resort. In the center is the Monument of Glory with an eternal flame.

55. Khrushchev and the hotel "Polist", where I spent the night:

56. Nearby here stands the Holy Trinity Church. It was originally built in 1676 mid-nineteenth centuries, it was very dilapidated, after which it was restored by the architect K. A. Ton (the same one who built the Cathedral of Christ the Savior).

57. View of Engels street towards the bank of Polisti. This photo (as well as subsequent ones) was taken the next morning, when the weather was overcast, and I was walking from the hotel to the bus station.

58. Wow, what is the name of the store. Some of the Siberians in Staraya Russa noted.

60. View from the Living Bridge across Polist to the arrow and the Resurrection Cathedral. In sunny weather, it looks better :)

61. St. Petersburg street behind Polista. I walked along it towards the northern exit from the city.

62. Red stars, it seems, still Soviet times:

63. Soviet architecture:

65. So I finally came to the crossing over the railway tracks. This is the western mouth of the Staraya Russa station.

66. The railway station in Staraya Russa was opened in 1897 as part of the Bologoye-Pskovskaya railway. The current station building is Stalinist (the old one was destroyed during the war), the chapel next door is a remake. And the movement along railway very weak here. Every night there is a fast Moscow-Pskov train, and twice a week a suburban train runs to the Edrovo station (not far from Valdai).

I took a photo of the station, standing at the bus station, waiting for the bus, on which I left for Shimsk, that is, in the direction of Veliky Novgorod. But more on that later.

Staraya Russa - one of the oldest cities in Russia - became the main goal of our recent trip to the Novgorod region. I had to be here before - and also in winter. Unfortunately, that trip took place back in the "pre-digital" era, so in my LiveJournal about it, if there was anything, it was not enough and uninformative. Now we have come here by car and quite systematically traveled around almost all the main attractions.
Staraya Russa has been known since 1167, salt has always been mined here, and the city from these crafts paid very decent taxes to the treasury - first of the Novgorod Republic, then of the Moscow kingdom. Now the salt factory of the 1770s, of course, does not operate, although it has been partially preserved - we, unfortunately, did not get to it, it is better there in summer.
One of the oldest surviving buildings of Russa is the Spassky Cathedral of the Transfiguration Monastery, which now houses the exposition of the local museum of local lore. Thus, you can not only get acquainted with the exhibits (quite interesting, I must say), but also visit the inside of the temple of the XII-XVII centuries. From the 12th century, however, only the foundations remained, the main volume belongs to the 15th century (from this time there are also fresco fragments inside - very indistinct, however), and the end is already the 17th century (there are also frescoes of the 17th century). There are a couple more interesting buildings nearby - a hexagonal bell tower and the Church of the Nativity of Christ from the 1630s with a refectory. In the church is art Gallery with the works of local artists, but for the sake of saving time, we did not go there.
Nearby on Krestetskaya Street there is another monument - the recently restored Church of the Life-Giving Trinity. It is based on the 17th century, but in the 19th century it was heavily rebuilt according to the design of the controversial architect Ton, fragments of the murals inside the temple have been preserved from the same time.

Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery. Spassky Cathedral (1198, rebuilt in 1442), bell tower (XVII century), Church of the Nativity of Christ (1630s), Church of the Presentation of the Lord (1630s).

And from a different angle: the Spassky Cathedral (1198, rebuilt in 1442) and the bell tower (XVII century). A fragment of the masonry of the 15th century has been uncovered.

This church houses expositions of the local history museum, which contains artifacts from excavations on the territory of Ciara Russa. Here are some of them:

Spoons of the XII century and fabrics of the XII-XIV centuries.

Leather shoes XII-XIV centuries.

Cornices of a residential building of the 11th century.

Fragments of the salt pipeline of the XII-XIV centuries.

Counting tags of the 11th-14th centuries were used for counting, possibly fixing some debts, mutual settlements, etc.

Wooden decorations of the 14th century

Well, birch bark letters - where without them in the Novgorod region.

The frescoes inside are poorly preserved. XVII century still back and forth, but from the XV century only small fragments remained.

But fragments of paintings of the XIX century.

Trinity Church (1684), rebuilt in the 19th century according to the design of the architect Ton.

Inside the church there are paintings from the 19th century.

From here, it is within easy reach of the central Cathedral Square, where there is no cathedral, but you can see the red-brick water tower built in 1908-1909, several buildings of the 19th century (Real School, Women's Gymnasium, the former Belgrade Hotel, etc.), and also walk along the pedestrian Voskresenskaya street leading to the bridge. At the bridge stands the oldest civil building of Russa - Popov's house built early. XVIII century (in my opinion, the building is still inhabited!). The embankment of the Polist River is good, probably in summer time, in winter it is only suitable for viewing from the opposite bank of the Resurrection Cathedral built in 1692-1696. The cathedral was recently restored and very brightly painted, the interiors didn’t seem to be preserved there, so we limited ourselves to a review from the opposite bank.

Fire station (1887) and Alekseevsky real school (late XIX - early XX centuries).

House of N.P. Belyaeva - the mansion of the beginning. 19th century

Cathedral Square. Women's gymnasium (XIX century) and water tower (1908-1909).

Historical building of Voskresenskaya street.

House I.I. Popov (beginning of the 18th century) - the oldest civil building in Staraya Russa.

Resurrection Cathedral (1692-1696) at the confluence of the frozen rivers Polist and Porus.

Resurrection Cathedral in some approximation.

Then we went to Georgievskaya street, where one of the interesting monuments city - St. George's Cathedral of the XV century, rebuilt in the XVIII century. Looks like this temple didn't close in Soviet time, therefore, there and now you can see the gilded baroque iconostasis of the 19th century and even older icons, as well as murals from the beginning. 20th century At the end of the street there is another ancient temple (the most authentic, despite the recently erected dome) - the church of St. Mines. And a stone's throw from her in the house, which was acquired by the Dostoevsky family in 1876, the museum of the writer was opened. I visited the museum on my last visit to Russa, not that it is uninteresting, but now, in order to save time, we did not go there.
In general, Staraya Russa is closely connected with the best, in my opinion, Dostoevsky's work "The Brothers Karamazov" - by all accounts, this is the city of Skotoprigonievsk depicted in the novel. On the opposite bank of the river there is a so-called. "Grushenka's house", and in the building of the hotel "Belgrade" in the tavern located there, Ivan Karamazov delivered his speech about the Grand Inquisitor.
However, ancient churches are no less (and most likely more) interesting here: in addition to those shown earlier, there is another ancient temple here - the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker built in 1391. It has also been restored, but this time we did not manage to get inside.

St. George's Cathedral of the 15th century (rebuilt in the 18th century).

St. Gergius Cathedral from the side of the apse.

Masonry of the 15th century was uncovered near the foundation (these old churches are still being plastered in vain!).

The iconostasis of the Gergievskaya church (XVIII-XIX c) and its fragment.

Royal Doors of the 19th century

House of A.K. Gribbe (mid-19th century) was acquired by the Dostoevsky family in the 1870s. Now there is a museum of the writer, where this time we did not go. There are many places associated with Dostoevsky in Russa, but due to lack of time, they did not fall into the field of our attention.

The most authentic in Staraya Russa, the ancient church of St. Great Martyr Mina was built of shell rock and Ilmen limestone (beginning of the 15th century, restored after the Swedish devastation in the 1650s). All the churches of the city of that time were the same, but now they are all plastered. I hope that in view of the restoration that has begun, Mina's church will not suffer the same fate.

Like this church, for example, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (1371, rebuilding and bell tower 1710).

From this side, the church seems more like the 14th century, but the 17th century still prevails.

Finally, we went to the resort "Staraya Russa", founded in the beginning. XVIII century (remember that the city has long been famous for its salt and mineral springs) and survived its heyday in the end. XIX - beginning. XX centuries However, the resort is quite alive and well today - there are a lot of buildings for accommodating patients, a drinking gallery, a mud bath - unfortunately, the old wooden buildings of the 19th century did not survive the upheavals of the 20th century - and all this is mostly post-war. The territory is publicly accessible to everyone - for a small bribe in the amount of 50 rubles per person, you can go through the checkpoint, drink and take water from the springs in the drinking gallery, admire the self-flowing mineral Muravyov fountain (which has been continuously beating here since the middle of the 19th century), and feed the ducks , which gather in abundance around the non-freezing mineral Lower Pond, from where they scoop brown mud for the nearby mud bath.
Near the resort, you can visit the reconstruction of the estate of a medieval Rushanin (I can’t judge the quality of the exposition, we didn’t go here), as well as see the Pyatnitsky excavation with the remains of bridges and foundations of buildings of the 11th-12th centuries, but you can see them only in summer, because in winter everything is covered in snow.

The symbol of the resort "Srara Russa" - Muravyovskiy fountain. This is one of the most powerful self-flowing mineral fountains in Europe. The well, drilled in 1859, is still operating! Previously, there was a beautiful tent above it, but it has not been preserved. However, the fountain is so beautiful at any time of the year.

Unfortunately, other historical buildings (most of which were wooden) have not been preserved in the resort.

Central entrance to the resort.

Drinking gallery where you can drink water and collect with you.

Sulfide-silt brown mud is scooped from this non-freezing mineral lake.

for a nearby mud bath.

The non-freezing pond is a great place for ducks, which, moreover, are fed here by holidaymakers.

In the resort theater of Staraya Russa, V.F. began her career in 1895. Komissarzhevskaya. The current building of the theater looks like this.

The Pyatnitsky excavation is certainly very interesting, but you can be sure of this only in the summer, when the snow melts :)

Near the resort there is a restored manor of a medieval Rushan with several museum expositions. We didn’t go inside, so I can’t say how spreading cranberries are.

On this walk along Staraya Russa had to end, because on this day we still had a long way to the city of Porkhov, where we really wanted to be in time before dark.

On September 4, 2015, an exhibition was opened in the Starorussky branch of the Novgorod Museum-Reserve "A look into the past. A thousand-year history of Staraya Russa in archaeological finds» . I was busy that day in Novgorod, but thanks to Anton Kamensky, who kindly shared photos, I can present a photo report from the opening.

At the exhibition you can see not only the finds of the 2015 field season, but also items from archaeological collections of different years, incl. stored in the funds of the Novgorod Museum-Reserve and its Old Russian branch and not presented in permanent exhibitions.

The opening began with greetings and a lecture with slides of a story about the finds and discoveries of this season.

The exposition of the exhibition consists of seven main sections. First - "The history of the archaeological study of Staraya Russa". It is dedicated to archaeological research and archaeologists who have contributed to the study of the cultural layer of Staraya Russa.

Next - "Russa to Russa". This part of the exhibition is dedicated to the Late Neolithic and Early Metal Age (3rd-2nd millennium BC) e.

Most of the exposition is devoted to medieval Ruse. These are the sections "Becoming a City"(tells about ancient stage life of the city at the turn of the X - XI and in the XI century) and "Middle Ages - the heyday"(tells about the daily life of Rushans in the medieval period).

Here is presented the whole variety of finds, reflecting the most different sides life of medieval townspeople.

Finds from the early layers -

Leather shoes -

Various household items -

Whistles and brunchalki -

Jewelry -

Board for playing "Mill" -

Toys: balls, balls, bones, etc. -

Fabric Collection -

A selection of interesting birch bark letters from Staraya Russa and a collection of hanging lead seals are presented separately.

Part of the exhibition - "Time of Troubles", tells about the XVI - XVII centuries. in the history of Staraya Russa and material culture this time.

"Resort City"- this is the name of the part of the exhibition dedicated to the everyday life of Rushans in the 18th - 19th centuries.

The exhibition ends with a section "Staraya Russa during the Great Patriotic War through the eyes of archaeologists", which reflects some moments of life during this difficult time.

The exhibition will be available to visitors during September-October 2015. We invite everyone.

Research at the Pyatnitsky-II excavation site in 2015 was carried out with the support of the Russian Humanitarian Science Foundation (RGHF), project No. 15-01-18034е.

This ancient city in the Novgorod region keeps the memory of the great writer who once lived in it and created his masterpieces here.*

About the author. Galina Evgenievna Lebedinalives in Saint Petersburg. She graduated from the Orthodox St. Tikhon University for the Humanities with a degree in social pedagogy. Currently - the head of the art studio.

A small, cozy county town seems to be hidden in the Novgorod lands, modestly, like some old prayer book hiding from people's eyes.

... We fell in love with Staraya Russa by reading the diaries of the wife of the great writer Anna Grigoryevna Dostoevskaya. "... We fell in love with Staraya Russa very much ... But besides the city itself, we also fell in love with the Gribbe dacha ... Fyodor Mikhailovich an excellent Russian bath, located in the garden, which he often used without taking baths, ”- writes Anna Grigorievna.

The dacha stood on the bank of a river planted with huge elms planted in Arakcheev times.

For several years in a row we went to Russa thanks to Fyodor Mikhailovich.

They liked to walk along the old cobblestone pavement, preserved by a miracle. They liked to walk along the river on the ground: either along the paths descending to the river, or among the coastal bushes hiding in the thickets. And they knew: wandered here great writer. This pristine embankment was preserved in its untouched beauty, such as Dostoevsky knew it. Protected places! Georgy Ivanovich Smirnov, inspired by the literary feat of Dostoevsky, did a lot to preserve this reserved Russia. He fought, one might say, to a patch, to an inch of land, for what belonged to the memory of the writer. But we did not know Smirnov, we simply restore his image from the memories of other people who knew him closely. He died. We were lucky to meet the successor of his work, Vera Ivanovna Bogdanova. We met her on our very first visit. We visited her and were touched by her warm welcome, and also received an unforgettable delicious jam from oranges.

When I asked how she came to faith, Vera Ivanovna answered simply:

I have been a believer since my early childhood. Our whole village was a believer.

Vera Ivanovna was born in a village, in the very outback of the Batetsky district of the Novgorod region, eighteen kilometers from Luga.

Holy Trinity Church in Staraya Russa.

There were two churches in our village. The village was divided into two parts and belonged to two landlords, and each of them built a temple for his peasants. One temple was Nikolsky, and the other was in honor of St. Demetrius of Thessalonica, where we went with the whole family, there, in the cemetery near the temple, all our relatives are buried.

Have you heard about hidden Russia? - in turn, Vera Ivanovna asked a question and answered herself: - Russia, which has preserved the faith, preserved the rites, preserved fidelity to God.

When in 1962 they came to close the cathedral in the village of Gorodnya, it was under Khrushchev, they collected all the icons and took them to the bathhouse for burning. Mom came home and cried.

And for a long time we thought that the icons had been burned, and we grieved because of this, but several decades later, when services were resumed in the church, in 1993 the icons returned.

We looked at Vera Ivanovna in surprise. She smiled.

We also thought they were burned, but the stoker who was instructed to burn them distributed them to people instead. And these people began to bring them back to the temple.

We came to Russa with my husband, both teachers - he is a mathematician, and I am literature, got a job at the local history museum, - Vera Ivanovna began to tell, - at that time Georgy Ivanovich Smirnov was restoring the Dostoevsky Museum.

Scientific work should be carried out in the museum, otherwise it is not a real museum, Vera Ivanovna believes. - The heart should tremble with authenticity, even if the exhibits did not belong to the one to whom the museum is dedicated, but they must belong to his era. Each exhibit must have its own “dossier”.

A graceful black cat came out of the next room, he looked at us searchingly - is everything all right? - and then peacefully rubbed himself against his legs, never taking his devoted eyes off his mistress.

Well, have you come to check? Vera Ivanovna laughed.

Handsome, - I said in approval to the cat.

We found a cat in the garbage and at first we fed it from a syringe, - the hostess revealed to us the story of his appearance with them.

The cat delicately left, and we continued the conversation.

How did your life change when you came into such close contact with the life of Dostoevsky?

Vera Ivanovna did not immediately answer this question. After thinking for a bit, she said:

How did Dostoevsky influence? I have become more sensitive to my children. (Vera Ivanovna has three children.) I began to understand them more, to feel their pain more acutely, when I read about Ilyushenka in The Brothers Karamazov. “Children heal the soul”, “Children are given to us for tenderness,” she quoted her favorite writer.

All children are like God, they smile at everyone, they love everyone and look at the world and at people trustingly, but why do some of them grow into tyrants so soon? - asked my husband Gennady.

We are to blame for this, we, - Vera Ivanovna sighed. - Do you know Dostoevsky's favorite prayer? “I put all my hope in You, Mother of God, keep me under Your shelter.” Every evening he came to his children, read this prayer over them and blessed them at night.

What was Staraya Russa for Dostoevsky?

Staraya Russa is his home, - Vera Ivanovna almost exclaimed. - In the deepest sense, the house, and the garden, and the soil, and the earth. This is the only place he owned, the place where he had his. The house in which he was loved was expected. House with a garden. Dostoevsky gave the garden great value. He believed that if a person has land, then he participates in government. He was worried that his children would not grow up as "stryutsy". "Stryutsky", according to Dostoevsky, is a man without land, without roots, who has nothing to cherish. And he wrote in his diary: "Humanity will be renewed in the garden, the garden will straighten out."

Communication with the earth ennobles, work on the earth is revitalizing work, - added Vera Ivanovna

“My husband liked our shady garden, and the large paved yard, along which he took walks necessary for health on rainy days, when the whole city was buried in mud and it was impossible to walk along the unpaved streets. But we both especially liked the small, but conveniently located summer cottage rooms, with their old, heavy, mahogany furniture and furnishings, in which we lived so warmly and comfortably. In addition, the thought that our dear Alyosha was born here made us consider the house as something native, ”- Anna Grigorievna wrote.

Anna Grigorievna and Fedor Mikhailovich were afraid of losing their "favorite corner". And it so happened that the heiress of the estate decided to sell the house and asked for a thousand rubles for it. At that time, it was a large amount, and the couple did not have that kind of money. Then Anna Grigoryevna asked her brother, Ivan Grigoryevich Snitkin, to buy the house in her own name in order to resell it to them when the money appeared.

“My brother fulfilled my request and bought a house, and after the death of my husband I bought a house from my brother in my name. Thanks to this purchase, according to my husband, we “formed our own nest”, where we happily went early spring and where we did not want to leave late in the autumn. Fyodor Mikhailovich considered our old Russian dacha a place of his physical and moral rest and, I remember, reading his favorite and interesting books always postponed until his arrival in Russa, where the solitude he desired was relatively rarely violated by idle visitors, ”- Anna Dostoevskaya writes in her memoirs.

We, looking at Vera Ivanovna "for a minute", talked with her for two hours. Therefore, we still had to say goodbye to her in order to give her peace.

Peace, - said Vera Ivanovna, - is when you live in harmony with God. The more I live, the more I am convinced that God alone is perfect, therefore nothing perfect can be built on earth without God. God's main thing is love.

Dostoevsky is a Christian writer, more than that - Orthodox.

... Until now, I have before my eyes the image of a beautiful Russian woman with kind wrinkles near her eyes and blond hair hidden under a scarf. The image of Vera Ivanovna for me became the image of that hidden Russia, rich in talents, rich in faith, and her fearless confessor.

We walked around Rousse for a long time, we wanted to “digest”, to comprehend the new that we heard. I must say that Russa is a city of gardens: I went into the courtyard, and there was an apple orchard. Once we were walking along the outskirts of the city, and the street led us to a dead end. It turned out that it was a garden. It can be said that this garden was popular, they said that there used to be a boarding school for children at this place. Who owned it before, I do not know. In August, you could see grandmothers with baskets, boys knocking apples with sticks. Arriving in Russa, we always visited this garden first of all. Rejoiced at its accessibility and beauty. It grew apple trees different types. We wandered around the garden and tasted apples of all varieties.

We reached the Polist River, crossed the Living Bridge and from there admired the banks of the river, the Resurrection Cathedral, reflected, as in a mirror, in a leisurely and serene river. Everything is as before - a bewitching sunset, the charm of antiquity, but the territory of "our garden" has been bought out, the garden itself is half cut down and a brick road has been laid along the coast leading to the writer's house.

Would Fyodor Mikhailovich like to walk along the road, clad in asphalt? - the husband asked thoughtfully, seeing this creation of human hands.

Ambrose Optinsky once said wise words: “We must live on earth as the wheel turns, touches the earth with just one point, and tends upward with the rest; and as soon as we lie down, we can’t get up ”.

How could we learn to live like this, so that, even touching the earth, we would not harm it, would not spoil its beauty ...

Old Russian Icon of the Mother of God

It is not surprising that F.M. Dostoevsky. St. George's Church, in which this shrine is located - the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, called the "Starorusskaya", rises not far from the house, which was rented by the Dostoevsky family. On their very first visit to Staraya Russa, in 1872, they stayed at the house of the priest Rumyantsev, who served in this church. Here is how Anna Grigoryevna writes: “ Finally, at three o'clock in the afternoon, the steamer approached the pier. We took our belongings, sat down on the rulers and went to look for the dacha hired for us ... the cottage of the priest Rumyantsev. However, we didn’t have to look for a long time: we had just turned from the embankment of the Pererytitsa River into Pyatnitskaya Street, when the cab driver said to me: “And there the priest is standing at the gate, apparently waiting for you.” Indeed, knowing that we would arrive around May 15, the priest and his family had been waiting for us and were now sitting and standing at the gate. They all greeted us joyfully, and we immediately felt that we had come to good people. Batiushka, having greeted my husband, who was riding in the first cab, went up to the second one, in which I was sitting with Fedya in my arms, and now my little boy, quite wild and not going to anyone’s hands, very friendly reached out to the priest, tore off his wide-brimmed hat and threw it on the ground. We all laughed, and from that moment began the friendship of Fyodor Mikhailovich and mine with Father John Rumyantsev and his venerable wife, Ekaterina Petrovna, which lasted for decades and ended only with the death of these worthy people.

Old Russian icon Mother of God.

St. George's Church stands on the street of the same name. Georgievskaya street is located near the cathedral square of the city. And if you go from the center of the square, the route will run past low-rise city houses that look like white marshmallows. And if you go from the house of Dostoevsky, then on the right and on the left you will be surrounded by cozy wooden village houses, closely pressed against each other by fences. Viburnum bushes are planted along the street. It was along this street that Dmitry Karamazov walked: " Kalina, the berries are so red!" he whispered, not knowing why.

We stopped at the gates of the church where the locals were sitting. poor people, residents of the city. This is the only temple in the city where we saw people with outstretched hands. I thought that it was probably Providence that kept them here. " When my husband didn’t have a change, but asked him near our entrance, he brought the beggars to our apartment and gave out money here ”. (A. Dostoevskaya, "Memoirs")

Dostoevsky's daughter, Lyubov Fedorovna, recalls that Dostoevsky " gave to all the poor who met on his way, and could never refuse money if someone told him about his misfortune and asked for help.

Having passed the beggars, stuffing sweets into their outstretched hands, we entered the temple. Now I am writing and thinking that if the beggars, the wretched sick, the poor are standing in front of the doors of paradise ... - will we get to paradise bypassing them?

The church was preparing for the Feast of the Assumption. A path of grass and flowers was laid on the wooden floor to the altar and near the Old Russian icon. The Old Russian icon impresses not only with its size (278 cm high and 202 cm wide), but also with its unique history. The icon was once brought to Staraya Russa from Greece, from the city of Olviopol.

Tradition says that when a pestilence happened in Tikhvin in 1570, the inhabitants of the city asked to borrow a miraculous icon. The people of Tikhvin walked around the city in a procession and carried it in their arms to the Assumption Church of the Tikhvin Monastery. The sea has stopped.

... The Tikhvinites were in no hurry to return the icon, and soon they completely refused to return it. And only in 1787 was it possible to obtain only a list of the miraculous icon. The headman of the Resurrection Cathedral, Ilya Petrovich Krasilnikov, himself went to Tikhvin, and when the icon was once again refused to be returned, then, on his order, the Tikhvin painters copied the Old Russian icon “measure in measure”. In 1788, the Russians met the image, which became the main shrine of the Resurrection Cathedral in the city of Staraya Russa. Despite the fact that this list repeatedly showed miraculous power, healing physical and mental illnesses, the inhabitants did not give up hope of returning the ancient Icon. A joyful event happened in the reign of the Emperor Alexander III, who ordered to positively approve the petition of Rushan. Wanting to worthily say goodbye to the shrine that kept their city for three hundred years, the people of Tikhvin surrounded the miraculous icon with procession around Tikhvin. And Staraya Russa was preparing to meet her with dignity! The day of September 18 became a significant event for Staraya Russa. Staraya Russa had not seen such a gathering of clergy and pilgrims for a long time. Bell ringing, which merged with the voices of many singers, met the icon. The service ended at three o'clock in the afternoon. And the ringing of bells did not subside in the monastery all day long. Rejoice, opening of heavenly doors! (from the Akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary)

The shrine returned to its native land, and the exact list remained in Tikhvin. The long-awaited return happened to the general joy of the townspeople. But it turned out that the holy faces on the icons are located differently. The face of the Mother of God meekly turns to everyone who comes to Her image. Her Divine Child is depicted on her left hand, but His face is turned away from Her. In the monastery, on the icon, the Infant also rests on the left hand of the Mother of God, but His face on this image is turned towards Her.

So far, this difference has not been explained. Many interpret differently about what caused the Baby to “turn away”. One of the versions was this: The baby mourns for the sins of people. Others believed that He turned away at the sight of the vicious life of the inhabitants of the city. It is also possible that, while restoring the Icon, which had darkened from time to time, the icon painters changed the position of the face. But they did not exclude the miraculous transformation of the icon.

After the revolution, church valuables are confiscated. A museum is being opened in the city cathedral, where the Old Russian icon was transferred and where the copy of the icon made by I.P. Krasilnikov. In 1941, during the occupation, the icon disappeared, and the silver riza encrusted with precious stones, which adorned the Old Russian Icon of the Mother of God, miraculously survived. Now in St. George's Church, a list of the miraculous icon is honored. This is Short story miraculous Icon, which is the most revered in the city. The great writer bowed before Him when he came to the Liturgy.

When you first enter the temple, you are surprised not so much by the painted vaults and the abundance of ancient images, but by the atmosphere itself. It seems that this ancient temple stopped at that time of the last century. The wooden flooring creaks underfoot, candles are burning on an old massive candlestick near the Old Russian icon. The eyes of the Virgin look impassively. Her silence is a prayer. She is prayer! And She is present not somewhere in another dimension, but here! This makes it both scary and calm at the same time. The grandmothers who served in the temple were notable for their unhurriedness. Everything was done slowly and calmly. In general, it seemed to us that the city had another time dimension. They willingly showed us the place where Dostoevsky prayed. Throughout the Liturgy, he usually stood before the icon of All Who Sorrow Joy. I must say that the image of the Virgin of All Who Sorrow Joy was his favorite icon. According to his wife, he liked to pray "in silence, without witnesses." “I did not follow him, and only half an hour later I found him in a corner of the cathedral, so immersed in a prayerful and tender mood that at first he did not recognize me,” writes Anna Dostoevskaya. The writer's doctor, Stepan Dmitrievich Yanovsky, wrote that "he always had prayer as the surest medicine."

And this icon was presented by St. John of Kronstadt himself, - said an elderly parishioner sitting in a corner on a chair. I went to a dark corner under a low vault and, lighting the candles, I read the inscription on the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God.

Our Old Russian icon - miraculous - continued to speak, slowly pronouncing each word, the old woman. - She is our Intercessor, she educates us and heals us, - then my grandmother sighed. Everyone has their own illnesses.

You see, the Baby, as it were, turned away from the Mother of God, - she said just as quietly and slowly. - Everyone thinks that He turned away, and it was He who turned to us, turned to us.

We looked at the icon - and it seemed to us that the whole movement of the Mother of God on the icon was directed towards people. She seems to be saying, “Whatever He tells you, do it” (John 2:5).

The festive service began, and we no longer dared to distract the old woman with questions.

* November 11 (NS) is the birthday of the great writer Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, he was born on October 30 (November 11), 1821. We dedicate this publication to this memorable day.

We visited here one day, arriving in the morning train and leaving in the evening.

Staraya Russa - a city in the Novgorod region (not to be confused with Nizhny Novgorod) with almost thousand years of history and 30,000 people.
The inhabitants of the city are called Rushans.
Here Dostoevsky wrote "Demons" and "The Brothers Karamazov", during the Second World War the city was almost completely destroyed, and the SS cemetery was arranged on the site of the old Russian park.

Currently, Staraya Russa is known for its city-forming enterprise - the 123rd Aircraft Repair Plant, as well as a health resort that has at its disposal several sources of mineral drinking water and a whole network of salt lakes, from the bottom of which biologically active sulphide-silt mud is extracted.

The Resurrection Cathedral of the 17th century in Soviet times was used as a club, cinema and warehouse, and during the wars the Germans set up a stable there.
Since 1992, the temple has been used for its intended purpose again, and has recently been restored.

The parking of the train going to Pskov lasts 10 minutes.

The train arrives at 3:38 and someone is already unbearable to smoke.

The first guests of the city are met by the station.

The blue building of Stalinist architecture appeared to have been recently painted and refurbished.

Inside is clean and beautiful, the cafe is open until 18:00, the rest of the time (schedule below) provides buffet services.
Passengers in the old fashioned way buy tickets at the box office, they watch.
At the entrance there is a board with suspects.

By the way, a great name to replace "business lunches" - a set lunch!

Of the minuses of the station - a terrible smell in the toilet. It feels like the "aroma" of several generations has gathered here. It is impossible to breathe, although it looks quite clean.

Taxi drivers near the bus station are waiting for customers. By the way, a trip around the city center costs 50 rubles.
In the morning we were taken to the hotel for 150.

There are several hotels in Staraya Russa, and the largest is Polist, named after the local river.
At the entrance, a piece of paper from the booking is alarming, where, according to reviews, the rating is 8.3 points out of 10.
Well, let's check if that's the case.

No... what?

In the morning, cats graze on the steps, which is a plus.

Mostly cute and shy.

Room for 1400 rubles (check-in at 4 am, check-out at 10).
Well, what can I say ... Apparently, compared to other bedbugs, this is a super-number. And for me, it's the usual 1-2-star, and not 3 *, as indicated on the site.

The curtains are light, you can't sleep without an eyecup.
There is only one socket, God knows where - on the wall near the TV, next to the bed there is only a bedside table.
The bed is short, the mattress is too soft and collapses when you sit down.
The walls are cardboard. I could hear through the earplugs (!) the coughing neighbor, and the noise from the parking lot under the windows didn’t deliver either.
In the morning, the children began to run and squeal along the corridor, respectively, no sleep.

On the plus side, nice underwear. White, like the towels.

Outside, there is a cozy-looking summer terrace, a fountain, and a barbecue grill.

Quite a rich breakfast, including even fried cod and five types of salads with mayanesic.
But at the same time, there is dirt on the tables from the previous breakfasters, and three canteen workers stand and beat their thumbs or talk about their own. For half an hour no one changed napkins anywhere. Some intrusive music coming from the speakers. Thank you for not TV to its fullest with Malysheva.
By the way, another indicator of Soviet service - at the entrance to hello or good morning! followed by a sullen look and deathly silence.
Is it really difficult to train staff in elementary courtesy?

My score is 3.

From morning to evening we were on excursions at the 123rd aircraft repair plant, where Il-76, L-410 and D-30KP engines are being repaired.
The plant has a large well-groomed territory, a wonderful museum and a park. This will be a separate report.

Ride a little with a taxi driver to memorable places.
Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich, our dear.

In the city there is a house-museum of Dostoevsky that has survived to this day.
It was the first real estate bought by Fyodor Mikhailovich in 1876 and here he wrote his "Karamazovs", "Idiot", "Demons"...

The house miraculously survived after the revolution and two wars, and 1909 is considered the date of foundation of the museum.

Literally five meters away is the embankment of the Porusya River - by the way, it is fortified from our bank with large boulders, on which it is pleasant to sit in the evening.

Before buying a house, Dostoevsky came here to rent a dacha, but it has not been preserved.

There are many temples in the city, I don’t remember the names, we just admire from the window.

post-war architecture.
Dixie, houses on Velikaya Street, bottom right Dostoevsky Scientific and Cultural Center.

15th century, Church of Mina the Martyr. Restoring slowly.

In the south of the city, on an area of 92 hectares, there is the Staraya Russa resort, which is intended for the treatment of the digestive system, musculoskeletal system, peripheral nervous system and gynecological, there is a children's rehabilitation center, a therapeutic swimming pool with mineral water and a beach by the lake.

Muravyovskiy Fountain, for example, and a pavilion with two mineral springs. The recommended time for taking water is 9-11 am.

In the spring, the president visited the city, and a little later he awarded Staraya Russa the title of "City of Military Glory".
By his arrival, much had been put in order, including a couple of exhibits near the military museum.

Everywhere you can climb and you can touch everything.

There was a coin in the barrel.

Lenon and the Resurrection Cathedral.

The tile is no longer a cake.

I put the most beautiful, in my opinion, photo on the title photo, or maybe it was worth another? Here are the options:

A variant with srach, which is left by pigs on the embankment.

Reflection option.

With green flowers.

We went to the restaurant "Ants" with plastic chairs and tables outside.
Here is a beggar. Try to guess in which of the photos he is hungry and in which he is full (after having scammed almost half of the chicken breast).