"Non-tourist" /Mariinsk/

The open-air city-museum dates back to 1698. It is located 178 km from the regional center # Kemerovo and 4000 km from # Moscow gold-domed. For 2020, he had 37 912 people and seemed to have preserved 74 architectural monuments. The development of private gold mining in Siberia and the need to keep it under control led to the fact that the village of Kiyskoye in 1856 became the city of Kiisk, and a year later the district town of the Tomsk province of Mariinsky by order of Alexander II in honor of his wife Maria Alexandrovna. https://clck.ru/SqbNQ

Adhering to the proverb that a theater begins with a coat rack, I insisted to start exploring the city of #Mariinsk from its outskirts. Immediately I hasten to disappoint those who hope to see tourist pictures and a story about the historical Mariinsky museums in my report. All this you can easily find on the Internet. I am more interested in how ordinary people actually live in our country.

A saleswoman in one of the local shops immediately warned that the population of the city is divided into two categories: those who sit and those who guard them. And the longer we walked around Mariinsk, the more that feeling of despair and hopelessness that she hinted at grew in me. Perhaps this perception was facilitated by the grayness of the frosty morning, or maybe the convict's present and past of the city.

But it was not only the air of taiga freedom and the shining of gold bars that attracted the population here. Since 1829, since the very time when the first wooden transit-transit prison for 130 people appeared here, many were still taken to Mariinsk and taken by force. After the revolution, the city became the center of Siblag, where the repressed prisoners were massively exiled https://clck.ru/SqbZK

Since then, little has changed in Mariinsk. SIZO No. 3 is a former execution prison and the largest death factory in the Novosibirsk region of 1937-1938 https://karagodin.org/?p=18809 and today it does not get tired of accepting more and more new guests into its hospitable walls. The one-storey administrative building of the former prison warden is now an architectural monument of regional importance. A wooden barrack for the guards of the prison castle has also survived, in the courtyard of which in the morning someone has already hung out the cheerful bedclothes with poppies to dry. Since 1965, the general regime women's correctional colony No. 35 has been working properly. More than 900 women who have stumbled are serving their sentences here. Many give birth to children and raise them up to three years old in prison walls. There is also a "youngster" in Mariinsk - an educational colony designed for 210 male convicted juveniles. Unlucky boys, often to no avail, try to take the path of correction and start a new life from scratch. A certain percentage of the released prisoners of the Mariinsky prisons and colonies remain in this city for permanent residence.

In addition to motley prisoners who while away years of life behind high barbed fences, there are a lot of stray dogs in Mariinsk. I have never met such a large number of dogs freely walking the streets anywhere. Mostly they are peaceful and willingly make contact, and some, after the presents in the form of a fresh poppy seed roll, do not want to part at all

After visiting Mariinsk, many tourists leave admiring reviews on the Internet:

“A city of extraordinary purity. It is small in fact and the houses are often old, wooden or two-story brick, still old buildings. But painted multi-colored platbands and carved shutters near wooden houses, tiled roofs - everything is so bright and elegant. A lot of carved figures on the streets of the city. And no trash in sight. It was early morning when we drove through this town. People were still asleep, cars were not driving.

Crystal silence and amazing cleanliness in the streets. It seemed that everything was cleaned up for our arrival. Greenery, gardens - a city from which I did not want to leave. No, of course, there is also a new trend of capitalism: shops, small markets, SPA salons. But this did not violate the general style of the old Ural town. I don’t think we will have a chance to visit such a wonderful place. But if you have to drive through the Kemerovo region, drop by and look at the wonderful island of purity. May God grant them to keep this treasure! "

There are indeed a lot of colored shutters, fences and drawings on the walls in the city. It seems that its inhabitants are trying to decorate their gray everyday life somehow ...

For some reason, my walk around the city did not bring much pleasure. Despite the fact that the city seems to have where to work: numerous colonies, the structure of the Russian Railways, the residual workshops of a distillery that once thundered all over the country, a wood-processing industry ... the city seemed to me to be a large Potemkin village. Well, or a huge prison, where I definitely would not want to be a permanent resident.

The wretchedness and mossiness of the outskirts here, as if deliberately emphasizes the former splendor of that surviving sample of the Siberian district town of the late 19th - early 20th centuries, where peasants from all over the empire came along the Moscow highway before the revolution in search of free land and a free life

The feeling that the city was dead did not leave me throughout the whole day. The reality of general dilapidation and the absence of any visible efforts on the part of local and federal authorities to preserve and restore the rich historical heritage inherited from the ancestors was not saved even by the beautifully decorated paper carvings of the New Year's windows of the tourist zone and that small island of civilization that is arranged around railway and bus stations ...

In this harsh city, even a barbecue under barbecue is inflated with a hairdryer! Hairdryer, Karl !!!

“All around is nonsense, lies and window dressing, nothing is being built. what was built is destroyed. The city was turned into a trash heap, everyone is fleeing from here who can. There are no prospects. They made up a story that Mariinsk is almost the cultural center of the region and play on the gullibility of tourists. And tourists come and spit. Many "cultural heritage", which are included in the register "from the lantern", in general, are no longer in sight, but they are listed. No one is watching them - they just fall apart.
Look, for example, at the building of the former synagogue (post office) - it stands opposite the administration without windows and doors - it was simply closed with a banner (which is a violation of the Administrative Code) and that's it. In some order, there is still the central street - there the bosses drive around, and turn to the side - there is horror, completely rotten houses. At best, this rot is covered with siding on top, who has the money for it. Lips will be painted and ass is dirty. And everyone is silent and pretends that this is the way it should be ”- this is how residents themselves say about their city in social networks.
The pain can be understood. It's hard to live with the understanding that your favorite childhood city is slowly turning into an endangered village.

It is even difficult to argue with this fact. In addition to several supermarkets, private cottages, usually equipped for some kind of business and the insanely kitsch building of the former registry office, and now it seems to be some kind of elite restaurant, I did not notice a single residential new building in the city. Faded Khrushchevs, wooden and brick barracks, built, as it seems even under Tsar Pea, and shacks half-grown into the ground - this is the very Mariinsk where tourists are unlikely to be taken.

Only the girls who cheerfully walk along the aviaduch in the colorful pajama suits of some animals pleased us at parting. Despite all the hopelessness around them, they laughed cheerfully and waving their tails, discussing some of their teenage events

Leaving Mariinsk, I caught myself thinking that this famous city of Kuzbass is no longer for life, but still for cinema. Perfect scenery for historical films or films in the style of Zvyagintsev. A lot is intertwined here: the historical memory of times with an extreme degree of irresponsibility, the merchant