Abakan (Khak. Aғban) is a city in Russia, the capital of the Republic of Khakassia. Forms the urban district of the city of Abakan. The city is located on the left bank of the Abakan River at its confluence with the Yenisei. On the opposite bank of the Yenisei is Minusinsk.
The Transfiguration
Cathedral in Abakan is the cathedral of the Abakan and Khakass
diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church. The project of the temple
was made by the architect Aleksey Vladimirovich Krylov and the
Abakangrazhdanproekt Institute under the supervision of the
project’s chief engineer A. Usov. Construction of the cathedral
began in 1994, but soon the construction work was suspended due to
lack of financial support.
The construction of the cathedral
was resumed in 1999 with the help of the Sayanogorsk Aluminum Plant.
On May 27, 1999, the ruling Bishop Vincent (Morar) consecrated and
laid the first stone in the foundation of the cathedral under
construction.
On August 19, 2001, on the feast of the
Transfiguration, the consecration of the lower church in honor of
the new martyrs and confessors of Russia took place. On December 23,
2001, a small consecration of the upper church of the cathedral in
honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord took place. On August 19,
2005, the Cathedral of the Four Bishops accomplished the great
consecration of the upper main church of the Cathedral. On August
19, 2006 the main iconostasis was consecrated.
Transfiguration Cathedral is a seven-domed church, whitened outside.
The lower temple is used for infant baptism. The total area of the
cathedral is about 1637 square meters. m, which can accommodate up
to 1000 people. The height of the cathedral from the ground to the
top of the bell tower is 49.2 m. The upper church has a classic
five-tiered iconostasis and two side aisles. There are 12 bells in
the church. The weight of the largest bell is 5670 kg.
Relics
The ark with the shrines: part of the Cross of the Lord, part of the
oak of Mamvri, the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Mark, Rev. Herman of
Alaska, Schmch. Vladimir, Met. Kiev, St. Filaret, Met. Moscow,
reverend. Gerasim of Jordan, St. Luke, Archbishop. Krasnoyarsk, St.
John Hosevita, Bishop Caesarea Euthymius the Great, Rev. Savva of
Storozhevsky, Rev. Moses Ugrin, Saint Apostle Andrew the
First-Called, Saint Nicholas, Archbishop. Myrlician, St. Joasaph of
Belgorod, St. Blvd. Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky, St. Philip, Met.
Moscow, St. VMCh. Anastasia the Solvers, St. Innocent, Metropolitan
of Moscow, St. Tikhon, Patriarch of All Russia, Holy Martyr
Thaddeus, Archbishop. Tver.
Icons of Siberian saints with
particles of relics: St. Innocent, Metropolitan of Moscow, St. John,
Metropolitan of Tobolsk, Holy Martyr Hermogenes, Bishop of Tobolsk,
Martyr Basil of Mangazey, Holy Rights. Theodore, the elder of Tomsk,
St. Blessed Matrona of Moscow.
Stone from Mount Tabor, Israel,
places of the Transfiguration
Icons of the Mother of God “The
Horny” and “Joy and Consolation”, consecrated in the prototypes on
Mount Athos (Greece)
Icon of the Apocalypse, with a particle from
the cave of the Apocalypse on the island of Patmos (Greece)
Icon
of St. Nicholas, Archbishop. Myrtle, consecrated at his Holy relics
in the city of Bari (Italy).
Khakassian National Museum of Local Lore named after L.
R. Kyzlasov is a state autonomous cultural institution of the
Republic of Khakassia. Since 2014 is a member of the Union of
Museums of Russia. The territory of the Republic of Khakassia, where
the museum is located, is one of the oldest cultural centers of
mankind. The beginning of the study was laid by the first scientific
expedition of D. G. Messerschmidt, who was in the region in
1721-1722. Almost all archaeological systematization is based on
discoveries somehow connected with southern Siberia, Khakassia - the
only territory in Asia entirely consisting of archaeological
landscapes (more than 40 thousand visible monuments of archeology,
mainly barrow hills and stone sculptures), presented in the museum's
exposition.
On December 17, 1928, the Khakass Society of
Local History was founded. In February 1929, a volunteer museum was
opened in the village of Ust-Abakansky. The first director was the
biologist V. A. Ryumin. On July 29, 1931, at a meeting of the
Presidium of the Khakass Regional Executive Committee, Resolution
No. 19 was adopted on the organization of a regional museum in
Abakan. Significant help in organizing and replenishing the museum
was provided by employees of the famous Siberian Museum, founded by
N. M. Martyanov. The first expositions were presented by three
departments: the nature of the region, history and socialist
construction.
To date, the museum’s fund has about 120
thousand storage units. These are archaeological and ethnographic
objects, various documents, art objects, rare books, numismatics,
natural science collections and much more. Museum visitors have the
opportunity to see a large-scale exposition of the main natural
complexes, a variety of flora and fauna of Khakassia.
The Russian Republican Drama Theater named after M. Yu.
Lermontov is a drama theater in the city of Abakan (Republic of
Khakassia), founded in 1939. According to archival data, the
backbone of the Russian drama in Abakan was made up of employees of
the Votkinsk Drama Theater, founded in 1931. An interesting fact:
for several years this theater lived in the building of the
Annunciation Cathedral, in which Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was once
baptized.
The first director of the Regional Drama Theater of
Russian Drama was Nikolai Stepanovich Pozdnyakov. A part of the
House of Culture was handed over to the institution; an order to
create a theater was published on June 10, 1939. October 10, 1939 -
the opening of the first creative season in the city of Abakan with
the performance "Optimistic Tragedy" by Vsevolod Vishnevsky, stage
director and first artistic director of the Russian Drama Theater -
Mikhail Borzunov. July 26, 1941 - in the year of the centenary of
the death of a famous Russian classic, the drama theater receives
the name of M. Yu. Lermontov. The play “Two Brothers”, directed by
Sergey Rakhmanov. March 1, 1954 Russian and Khakass Drama Theaters
merged into one institution - the Khakass Regional Drama Theater
named after M. Yu. Lermontov. Since 1991, the Russian Republican
Drama Theater named after M. Yu. Lermontov exists as an independent
creative collective. In October 2014, the theater celebrates the
75th anniversary of creative activity and the 200th anniversary of
the birth of M. Yu. Lermontov.
Transfiguration Park is one of the most beautiful and beloved
residents among local residents. The park is located immediately
behind the Transfiguration Cathedral. The local fountain in
combination with the golden domes of the cathedral in the background
is of course captured by most visitors to this natural corner.
There is also a Topiary Art Park called “Gardens of Dreams”. The
total area of which is 14 hectares. It contains rare trees, plants
and exotic flowers. Children’s enclosures with various animals enjoy
special delight. There is also a swing for children with
disabilities. One of the attractions of the park is a small copy of
the Eiffel Tower.
In 2006, a statue of the “Good Angel of the
World” was unveiled in the park. The height of the statue is 2.5 m.
On the commemorative tablets you can see the carved names of 60
great benefactors from the history of Abakan: Count Sheremetev,
merchant Tretyakov, representatives of the Morozov and Mamontov
dynasties.
st. Pushkin, 61 (intersection of Pushkin St. and Zhukov St.)
st. Pushkin, 180
The
church, built in 1997 in a brick one-story building of a former
kindergarten. In the 2000s, the building was reconstructed, the main
building was built with a quad with a small cupola and a bell tower
under a small tent.
st. Mostovaya, 9
st. Lenin
Near the train station sits Lenin. is free
Railway
The South Siberian Railway passes through the city.
There are a number of stations on the territory of the city (the
main one is Abakan, as well as Mostootryad, Gorodok MPS, Pitomnik).
By rail (Krasnoyarsk railway) Abakan is connected with
Moscow,
Krasnoyarsk, Novokuznetsk,
Barnaul. There is also suburban
communication with Biskamzha and Koshurnikovo. Until 2010, there was
an electric train with the message Krasnoyarsk - Abakan, the travel
time of which was 9.5 hours, but it was canceled. As of June 2022,
there are three long-distance trains in operation: daily to
Krasnoyarsk (journey time 11 hours 40 minutes), as well as to Perm
and Moscow (running every other day).
Automotive
The
distance from Krasnoyarsk to Abakan by highway is 410 km (Travel
time: 6:53). The federal highway P257 "Yenisei" runs through Abakan
from Krasnoyarsk to Tuva, to the state border with Mongolia. In
addition, the regional highway 95K-002 Abakan - Ak-Dovurak
originates in Abakan.
Air Transport
Its squadron appeared
in Abakan in 1938. Until 1955, the aircraft fleet consisted of Po-2
plywood biplanes, which easily took off from the unpaved runway. In
1957, the first civilian Mi-1 and Mi-4 helicopters appeared at the
airfield. In the 1970s, the runway and air fleet were technically
updated, the geography of flights was expanded: Krasnoyarsk,
Novosibirsk, Alma-Ata, Tashkent. On December 30, 1980, regular
communication with Moscow began on Tu-154 airliners. At present,
planes fly from Abakan to Moscow (daily), Norilsk, Novosibirsk,
Kemerovo, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk (daily), Antalya (Turkey).
Toponym from the hydronym of the Abakan River, at the mouth of which the settlement is located. There are two components in the hydronym: -aba and -kan. The -aba component is usually explained from the Turkic "aba" - father, which could have a taboo meaning bear. Sometimes the -aba component is interpreted as an ancient Khakass ethnonym. It has also been suggested that there may be a connection with the Iranian "ab" - water. The -kan component is a common term in the toponymy of South and Central Asia "kan" (-kang) - a river. According to E. M. Pospelov, it is wrong to identify the element -kan with the Evenki diminutive suffix -kan, which is also widely represented in the hydronymy of Siberia.
Settlements near the mouth of the Abakan River have been known
since the Bronze Age. The locals called this hill Akh-Tigei (the
white crown, because there were numerous birch bark yurts of nomads
in this place). At the foot of Mount Samokhval there was a Hun stone
fortress. In the 1st century BC e. 8 km up the river, the so-called
Li Ling Palace was built for the captured Chinese commander.
In 1675, on Pine Island, at the mouth of the Abakan River, at its
confluence with the Yenisei, the first Russian fortress in
Khakassia, the prison of Abakansky, was founded. It was the first
major military engineering structure on the territory of the future
city, recorded in historical documents. Abakan jail from the day of
its foundation became the administrative center on the lands
inhabited by "foreigners". The prison housed the Abakan
administrative office - an institution of administration of the
Khakass who lived in the Minusinsk basin.
The biography of
modern Abakan begins with this fortress. Here, in this fortress, the
name Abakan sounded for the first time: the Cossack post Abakan, the
jail Abakan.
Ostrog laid the foundation for the development
of the Minusinsk Basin by the Russians, followed by a number of
Russian settlements. In 1706-1707, Peter I issued three nominal
decrees on the construction of a new prison on the Abakan River, and
in 1707, the Abakan prison was erected on the Yenisei, 20 miles from
the mouth of the Abakan River. 1707 is the year of entry of
Khakassia into Russia.
The birth of the city is inextricably
linked with the process of joining Khakassia to Russia.
An
ancient Khakass aul has long been located on the Akh-Tigei upland;
with the advent of Russian auls, they gave the name Ust-Abakansky.
Indigenous people gradually moved from nomadic life to sedentary
life, began to engage in agriculture, plowed up nearby lands, and
sowed grain crops. The ulus began to grow, and in 1823 it was
already listed on the maps of the Russian Empire as the village of
Ust-Abakanskoye.
In 1822, in accordance with the Siberian
administrative state reform of the management of "foreigners", the
Khakass lands were transformed into 4 steppe dumas: Kyzyl, Kachin,
Koibal and Sagay, which were included in the Minusinsk district of
the Yenisei province. The village of Ust-Abakanskoye became the
administrative center of the Kachinsky steppe duma (foreign
council). It included 11 clans with a total number of "cattle
breeders and industrialists" 8820 souls. The Duma united tribes
living on a large territory between the Abakan and Iyus rivers. In
1855, the Kachin Steppe Duma was divided into 2 foreign councils:
Abakan with a center in the village of Ust-Abakan and Iyus with a
center in an ulus near Lake Fyrkal. In the course of this division,
65 uluses were assigned to the Abakan government, in which 5788
souls lived.
In 1912, the Abakan foreign council was
transformed into the Abakan volost, the village of Ust-Abakanskoye
became the center of the Abakan volost.
On November 4, 1923,
the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted
a decree on the formation of the Khakass district of the Yenisei
province. The county stood out as an independent administrative unit
and united the territories of the former foreign administrations.
Uyezd center was determined by the village of Ust-Abakanskoye.
On May 25, 1925, a decree was adopted on the formation of the
Siberian Territory, the Khakassky district was transformed into a
district, which included Askizsky, Bogradsky, Tashtypsky, Charkovsky
and Chebakovsky districts. The village of Ust-Abakanskoye became the
administrative center of the Khakass region. An attempt was made to
rename the village to the city of Khakassk, but there was no
official decision. In the documents of those years, the village is
listed as the city of Khakassk, the village of Ust-Abakanskoye, the
station Abakan.
In 1930, the Siberian Territory was divided
into two regions: the West Siberian with the center in Novosibirsk
and the East Siberian with the center in Irkutsk. On October 20,
1930, the Khakass Okrug was transformed into the Khakass Autonomous
Region, which is part of the West Siberian Territory. The village of
Ust-Abakanskoye became the regional center; on April 30, 1931, it
was renamed the city of Abakan. The population at the date of the
formation of the city was 10.7 thousand people.
After the
reorganization of the West Siberian Territory, on December 7, 1934,
the Khakass Autonomous Region became part of the Krasnoyarsk
Territory.
On April 29, 1981, the city of Abakan was awarded
the Order of the Badge of Honor.
Until 1991, Abakan was the
administrative center of the Khakass Autonomous Region within the
Krasnoyarsk Territory. In July 1991, after the transformation of the
region into a republic, the city of Abakan received the status of
the capital of the Republic of Khakassia.
Currently, Abakan
has the status of an urban district, is the administrative center of
the Republic of Khakassia. The area of the city is 112.4 km² (0.2%
of the territory of the republic).
Population as of January
1, 2020: 186827 people (35% of the population of the republic). City
population density: 1662 people/km².
The city is located at the mouth of the Abakan River, which flows into the Yenisei, 3390 km east of Moscow. The distance to Krasnoyarsk is 271 km in a straight line Krasnoyarsk - Abakan, to Minusinsk 17 km in a straight line, to Chernogorsk 15 km in a straight line, to Kyzyl 301 km in a straight line. Abakan is located in the south of Siberia, in the very center of the Asian continent, approximately on the same parallel with Magnitogorsk, Minsk and Hamburg. The city is located in the center of the Minusinsk basin, and the basin itself is a huge bowl, the edges of which are the mountains of the Kuznetsk Alatau in the west, the rock formations of the Western Sayan in the south and east, and the ridges of the Eastern Sayan in the north. From south to north, the basin is crossed by the mighty Yenisei water artery. In the very center of the basin, from the southwestern side, the Abakan River flows into the Yenisei. At the place of their confluence, the city is located.
It is located in the central part of the Minusinsk Basin, at an altitude of 250 m above sea level.
Abakan is in the MSK+4 time zone. The offset of the applicable time from UTC is +7:00. In accordance with the applied time and geographic longitude, the average solar noon in Abakan occurs at 12:54.
Sharply continental climate. Winter is long and moderately severe.
Summers are warm, with rare periods of hot weather. Spring comes in the
second decade of April, and winter comes in the last decade of October.
The air temperature also softens thanks to the waters of the Abakan,
Tasheba and Yenisei rivers. In some years, snow is possible in June and
August, in the mountains in July, frosts can be in almost any month.
Off-seasons are short and cold. Large diurnal fluctuations.
Average annual air temperature: +1.4°C.
Relative humidity: 69%.
Average wind speed: 2.2 m/s.
There is a production of building materials, a plant for large-panel
housing construction, etc.
Enterprises of light industry (shoe
factory of PJSC "Sayan-obuv") and food industry (beer factory of PJSC
"Ayan", Abakan meat processing plant of LLC "Mavr", production of
semi-finished products).
The city's Abakan CHPP provides hot water and technical steam to the
city's consumers.
On December 21, 2015, the largest solar power
plant in Siberia was opened. The Abakan SPP produces a capacity of 5.2
MW, which covers 1/30 of the city's electricity needs. More than 20,000
solar modules have been installed at the station, and its area is 18
hectares. More than 55% of the station was built on Russian-made
equipment.
Abakan is the center of the Abakan diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church. The city is home to the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior (1999-2005). In addition to it, other churches of the diocese operate in Abakan: the Cathedral of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (built in 1859), the Church of the Intercession of the Virgin (1990s), Constantine and Elena (1998-2007), Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir (early 2000s), Saints of Moscow ( 1997), Seraphim of Sarov (2000s), Crucified Golgotha (2015), Sergius of Radonezh (1990s), the chapel of the Icon of the Mother of God "The Sign" (2003-2004).
The local Muslim religious organization Mahalla has existed since the mid-1990s. The construction of the Al-Quddus mosque was started in 2011, however, in 2015 it was suspended. This decision was made by the administration due to the fact that the Mahalla religious organization provided project documentation containing a significant number of shortcomings.
Local religious organization Buddhist community "Zambala" in Abakan. It is part of the centralized religious organization "Buddhist Traditional Sangha of Russia".
Although the first Catholics
appeared in Abakan already in the 19th century, there was no parish
community in the city until the early 1990s. In 1956, after the release
of political prisoners of the Gulag, Abakan was visited by several
priests of Lithuanian origin. In the early 1960s, the Jesuit Walter
Chishek, who was serving a sentence in 1946-1955 in Norillag, lived in
the city for some time and worked at one of the factories.
In
1992, Bishop Joseph Werth visited Abakan at the invitation of the local
German society. Since 1993, monks from the Claretin congregation have
been pastoral in the Catholic community of Abakan. The Catholic
community of the city, registered in July 1994 and numbering several
dozen believers, most of them descendants of exiled Ukrainians,
Belarusians, Poles and Germans, held services until 2013 in the
apartment. From 1998 to 2012, rectors from Achinsk served in the
Catholic parish. In 2012, the priest Father Radoslav Kvarczyński was
appointed rector, and already in 2013 the first Catholic church was
opened in Abakan.
In April 1994, Abakan was included in the
Krasnoyarsk deanery, uniting the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Khakassia and
Tyva[69]. From 1999 to 2002, the Catholic parish belonged to the
Apostolic Administration of Eastern Siberia, which in 2002 was
transformed into the diocese of St. Joseph with its center in Irkutsk.
Parishes of the German Lutheran Church.
Church
of Evangelical Christian Baptists (MSC ECB).
Local religious
organization "Church of Glorification" of Evangelical Christians
(Pentecostals).
The community has been active since the early 1980s.
Since 1926, one of the oldest in Russia, the Khakass
Republican Hippodrome, has been operating in Abakan, where republican,
all-Russian and international competitions in various equestrian sports
are held.
Student sports are widespread in the city, especially
athletics, volleyball, basketball, and table tennis. In addition, the
professional bandy club Sayany-Khakassia and the amateur ice hockey club
Kristall are based in Abakan. Today, the city has an aikido-aikikai club
"Samurai", has its own kick-boxing and freestyle wrestling teams. The
Sports Complex named after N. G. Bulakina "with a swimming pool and an
athletic arena. It rightfully bears the title of the best sports complex
on the territory of Khakassia, holds all-Russian and interregional
competitions, and is the main place for training city teams in various
sports. In 2019, the sports complex at the II National Arena
Competition, held by the Russian Association of Sports Facilities, was
recognized as the best in Russia among the country's multifunctional
sports facilities.
On April 8, 2015, the Minister of Defense of
the Russian Federation, Sergei Shoigu, opened the only CSKA children's
and youth sports school in Siberia in Abakan. At school, children will
be involved in six sports: boxing, judo, volleyball, cross-country
skiing, freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling.