Obninsk is a famous science city and the second largest city in the Kaluga region, which became famous in 1954 when the world's first nuclear power plant was launched here. However, in 2002 the power plant was shut down and now it operates only as a scientific and memorial complex, which can be visited as part of an excursion group. In addition to the inactive nuclear power plant, in Obninsk it is worth looking at a couple of pre-revolutionary dachas and the green quarters of the Old Town with its grandiose pine trees and houses in the spirit of Stalinist neoclassicism.
Obninsk stands on the left bank of the Protva, a
tributary of the Oka, and consists of several districts. The most
colorful of them is the Old Town, which grew up in the 1940s and 1950s
around a secret laboratory. Surrounded by parks of former estates, the
Old Town is concentrated around the initial section of Lenin Avenue.
This avenue in Obnisk is very peculiar: from Transfiguration Square (the
former 50th anniversary of the October Revolution) it diverges into
three rays running at approximately 120°. The western beam leads to the
Old Town, the south-eastern appendix goes to the railway, although it is
better to go to the railway station and bus station along Leypunsky
Street, and the northern beam quickly turns to the northwest and leads
to the younger areas of the city. The late Soviet and modern development
of new areas differs little from other cities in the country, but you
will inevitably see it if you go in search of modern monuments and
unique scientific objects scattered throughout the city. In 2018, the
borders of Obninsk reached the former Belkino estate, turning it into
one of the city parks.
✦ Tourist Information Center (TIC). City
tours, souvenirs and tourist information.
1 Ave. Lenina, 129. ☎ +7
(910) 705-02-02. Mon–Fri 10:00–19:00, Sat–Sun 10:00–18:00.
2 st.
Leypunsky, 4. ☎ +7 (48439) 9-99-99. Mon–Fri 9:00–19:00, Sat–Sun
10:00–18:00.
The main decoration of today's Obninsk is the rare
integrity of the ensemble of Stalinist buildings of the 1940-1950s:
residential buildings and public buildings stand here in the middle of
an old park and numerous green spaces. Arrays of three- and four-story
houses occupy several blocks located along the initial part of Lenin
Avenue; on Parkovaya Street, wooden barracks-style houses from the early
1950s have been preserved, and on Gorky Street there are one-story
Finnish houses from the late 1940s - early 1950s. . Among this
development are several notable buildings:
1 IPPE main building,
pl. Bondarenko, 1. The luxurious building in the Stalinist Empire style
was built in 1937 and was supposed to serve as a boarding school for
sick children. These plans were disrupted by the steamship Santay, which
arrived in Leningrad with the first group of Spanish refugee children,
and 500 people from this group were sent to the Obninskoye station in a
newly built building. It is said that the temperament of the Spanish
children became a difficult test for the building. However, the young
Spaniards also reached the railway station, staging a semaphore doomsday
there. During the war, the children were sent to Saratov, and the former
boarding school was used for the needs of the Western Front headquarters
located nearby. In 1946, after minimal repairs, the building was
transferred to the secret Laboratory "B", which later turned into IPPE,
where many eminent scientists worked. The building is located in a
closed area and is almost invisible from the street; you can see (but
not photograph) it only during an excursion to the former nuclear power
plant. And next to the entrance you can admire the houses with a
colonnade from the 1950s that are part of the ensemble of Bondarenko
Square.
2 House of orphanage teachers, Lenin Ave., 1/6. The
residential building for the teachers of the Spanish orphanage was built
in the 1930s, but was partially rebuilt in 1957. This feature of his
biography was reflected in the external appearance: the shape of the
house and the design of the entrances (view from the courtyard) bear
distinct signs of constructivism, and the facade is designed in the
spirit of Stalinist neoclassicism.
3 Former school, Lenin Ave., 10.
The first school, where the children of secret laboratory employees
studied, was built in 1949. In front of the building is the oldest
monument in Obninsk, which appeared in 1937, when there was no city here
yet. This is a bust of the founder of the Vigorous Life school colony,
Stanislav Shatsky (1878–1934).
4 House of Culture IPPE, Lenin Ave.,
15. The building with a colonnade was built in 1954 according to a
standard design by Leningrad architects; there are similar cultural
centers in other Russian science cities. Several halls of the cultural
center - columned, large and small - are used for holding various
cultural events.
5 Water Tower, st. Blokhintseva, 9/19. The tower
was built in the early 1950s and was used to supply water to the Old
Town. Now it is gradually being destroyed.
6 Restaurant “Obninsk”,
Lenina Ave., 21. The monumental building with columns was built in 1957
in the Stalinist Empire style and is popularly known as “Pillars”. A
variety of celebrities ate here, since apparently there was no other
decent public catering establishment in the city.
7 Church of
Vladimir and Olga , Lenin Ave., 21A. The house of prayer appeared in
1994 as a result of the reconstruction of a Soviet billiard room, which
at some point turned into a slot machine hall. Since 2016, a whole
church complex, stylized as Pskov architecture, has been built nearby.
8 School No. 1 , st. Pirogova, 17. The new school building on Pirogova
Street was built in 1950, but the school staff considers itself the heir
to the S.T. colony. Shatsky, which once stood about half a kilometer
from the current building.
9 Shatsky School “Cheerful Life”, st.
Shatsky. In the 1920s, on the lands allocated by the landowner Margarita
Morozova, one-story wooden houses of an elementary school (house No. 1),
two dormitories for girls (house No. 5) and boys (house No. 12) and two
houses for teachers (not preserved) grew up. . There are also other
similar houses here, probably related to the colony. In the 1950s, the
school moved to a new building on Pirogov Street, and part of the
territory was given over to the Trud stadium, the front pylons of which
are located nearby (house No. 1A). Next to the former school there is a
Shatsky square, and on its corner there is a memorial sign dedicated to
the famous school.
10 Morozovskaya dacha (Turliki Estate), st.
Pirogova, 1 (Lower Park). ☎ +7 (48439) 7-64-72. 150 rub. Soon after his
marriage, the owner of the local lands, V.P. Obninsky built a large,
intricate house in 1901, decorated with a grandiose tower (they say that
such were in fashion among the Masons). Already in 1909, the house was
bought by M.K. Morozova, widow M.A. Morozova and a relative of Savva
Mamontov. Under her rule, the manor house lost its original features of
the romantic “English” style and was rebuilt in the Art Nouveau style
(according to one version, according to the design of Lev Kekushev). At
the same time, two wooden houses were erected - a guest house (now
located behind the fence) and a manager’s house. Under Morozova, known
for her philanthropic activities, various celebrities often visited the
estate, including Andrei Bely, V.D. Polenov and V.A. Serova. In 1911,
part of the estate was given to Schatsky’s school-colony “Vigorous
Life”; after the revolution, the entire estate became the property of
the school. The Germans visited here during the war, and after their
expulsion, in 1942–1943, the former estate housed the headquarters of
the Western Front, which at one time was led by G.K. Zhukov. During this
period, for camouflage purposes, the main house was deprived of its
tower, and a network of underground passages was built under the estate
(they are now destroyed). After the war, the estate was rebuilt once
again, adding modern decor in the spirit of the Stalinist Empire style,
and turned into a hotel for the secret Laboratory, where, in particular,
Kurchatov stayed. Later, the hotel was given over to the IPPE
sanatorium, and now it is the property of the city and is under 24-hour
security.
Inside the main house, a mixture of lordly and Soviet
interiors has been preserved, and although the house is not in the best
shape, it can be visited on weekends on a guided tour. Tickets are sold
only at the Obninsk History Museum; excursions usually start at noon
(but it is better to check the time at the museum). The dacha itself is
located on the territory of the Lower Park (also known as the “old
park”) - a pleasant place for walking, even despite the lack of
infrastructure.
11 Leypunsky House, st. Pirogova, 2. The
two-story wooden house in the Art Nouveau style was built in 1909 for
the manager of the Morozov dacha and is located a couple of hundred
meters from it, at the entrance to the Lower Park. During the
construction of the nuclear power plant, physicists lived in the house,
and in 1949–1972, the scientific director of the IPPE, Alexander Ilyich
Leypunsky, lived in the house. Now it is a dilapidated apartment
building surrounded by a fence, an example of pre-revolutionary wooden
architecture with three extensions from the mid-20th century.
12 Konchalovsky’s dacha (Bugry Estate), SNT “Konchalovskie Gory”. The
wooden manor house of the Obninsky-Troyanovsky family was built in the
1880s. After the revolution, the Troyanovsky family managed to preserve
the estate, and in 1932 they sold it to P.P. Konchalovsky, who set up a
creative workshop here, creating many paintings in it. Now the house
does not look its best, besides, it is surrounded by a fence and it is
impossible to get inside. But you can walk around the huge park, where
there are paths, although there are no signs, so you can even get lost.
Across the road from the estate is the old Konchalovskoye cemetery,
where many famous military figures and scientists are buried, the most
famous of them being physicist A.I. Leypunsky and geneticist N.V.
Timofeev-Resovsky (Daniil Granin’s novel “Bison” is just about him).
13 House I.V. Kurchatova, Mendeleev street, 16A. A wooden country house
with a turret and Gothic windows was built in 1953 for nuclear power
plant construction scientists. Its most famous inhabitant was I.V.
Kurchatov, as reported by the memorial plaque. Other famous scientists
have also been here: S.P. Korolev, M.V. Keldysh, E.P. Slavsky. The bench
standing behind the house is also considered a relic - the inhabitants
of the house loved to relax on it.
14 Monument to the pioneers of nuclear energy,
Triangular Square. Opened on the square in July 2016, on the occasion of
the 60th anniversary of the city and the 70th anniversary of the IPPE. A
large silver ball, from the depths of which a daring nuclear scientist
emerges, symbolizes a split atomic nucleus, and on the back of the ball
there is a map of all nuclear power plants in Russia. The lampshades
seem to play the role of outer electrons, while the inner ones, as
expected, fly in orbits around the nucleus. Behind the monument stands a
ten-story residential building (1978), which received the nickname
“Brest Fortress” for its shape and huge size.
15 Monument to the
pioneers of the nuclear submarine fleet (Submarine K-14). Oddly enough,
land-based Obninsk is the homeland of the Russian nuclear submarine
fleet. The thing is that the nuclear reactors of Laboratory "B", as
planned, were intended for nuclear submarines (NPS), but the first
graphite-water reactors turned out to be too bulky for boats and were
only suitable for a power plant. The first Soviet and third nuclear
submarine in the world, K-3 Leninsky Komsomol (Project 627 Kit), was
launched in Severodvinsk in 1957. The first crews were trained at the
Obninsk Submariner Training Center, and the bust of the captain of the
boat “Leninsky Komsomol” L.G. Osipenko is installed opposite the
monument, on the other side of Kurchatov Street. The boat itself was
taken out of service in 1991 and sentenced to scrapping several times,
but it miraculously survived, and in 2013 they decided to transfer it to
the Kronstadt Museum. In Obninsk there is an authentic cabin of the
submarine K-14 (project 627A “Kit”), launched in 1959 and decommissioned
in 1992. K-14 is responsible for a grandiose passage under the ice of
the Arctic along the Northern Sea Route from the Arctic Ocean to the
Pacific Ocean with several ascents in the North Pole area, which
happened at the end of the summer of 1966.
16 Monument to I.V.
Kurchatov. They wanted to erect a monument to the head of the USSR
atomic project, the creator of the Soviet atomic bomb and the “father”
of Obninsk on Triangular Square back in Soviet times. However, the
monument appeared only in 1991, and the “home” Kurchatov, made in bronze
by the sculptor Oleg Komov, was not suitable for Triangular Square, so
the monument was placed on the fenced-off territory of the Rosatom
Technical Academy, which makes it possible to get a close acquaintance
with Kurchatov sitting in the chair only on weekdays, during opening
hours. There is a legend that at first there was a bronze book on the
academician’s lap, which was stolen by hunters for non-ferrous metals in
the heady 1990s, but this is unlikely to be true. But taking pictures on
Igor Vasilyevich’s lap is very common in Obninsk, and his knees are
already wiped to a shine, like the nose of the famous shepherd dog at
the Ploshchad Revolyutsii metro station in Moscow.
17 VNIIGMI-MCD,
Korolev Street, 6. Behind this set of letters hides the Institute of
Hydrometeorological Information - the World Data Center, which is the
memory of Roshydromet: it is here that data on the actual weather on the
planet has been stored since the middle of the 18th century. But, of
course, no one will show you the data themselves (or the media with
them), but the building of the institute is decorated with interesting
panels made in 1977 by artists A.F. Timofeev and Z.M. Timofeeva in a
rare sgraffito technique. Another similar panel by the same authors can
be seen on the officers’ house (Kurchatova St., 47A). Near the
institute, on the corner of Korolev and Aksenov streets, there is a real
geophysical rocket MR-1, created on the basis of the D-200
surface-to-surface combat missile and capable of flying along a
suborbital trajectory to an altitude of up to 180 kilometers.
18 Meteorological mast (ВММ-310). After nuclear scientists, the most
noticeable contributions to the local landscape were made by
geophysicists and meteorologists. The grandiose weather mast VMM-310,
315 meters high and only 2.3 meters wide, is visible far beyond the city
limits. It is a welded steel structure, supported by steel cables,
surrounded by work platforms with hundreds of instruments along its
entire height, and although there are elevators inside for employees,
tourists are not allowed onto the mast. VMM-310 was built at a specially
created academic research institute of applied geophysics in 1957–1958;
its tasks were to monitor the radiation situation around nuclear power
plants and predict the directions of spread of probable emissions.
Another of its tasks was global monitoring of radionuclide emissions
throughout the planet; the need for such control became obvious in 1957,
after a radiation accident at the Mayak chemical plant in the
Chelyabinsk region. There is a legend that it was originally planned to
build a mast a full kilometer high, but the curators of the project
considered this excessive. However, 315 meters was enough to temporarily
become the tallest structure in Europe (in 1967, the Ostankino TV tower
surpassed the mast in height). The VMM-310 mast project was used again
in 1961 during the construction of a television tower in Vinnitsa. Now
the Obninsk mast belongs to the NPO Typhoon.
19 Aerosol body.
Another unique object of NPO Typhoon is the aerosol building, which
until 1986 belonged to the Research Institute of Experimental
Meteorology, which, in turn, separated from the Research Institute of
Applied Geophysics in 1960. The unusual-looking building catches the eye
thanks to the 50-meter tower with a ball on the top, and the tower is
here not just for beauty, but to imitate meteorological processes; The
research institute itself deals, among other things, with the physics of
clouds and fogs. In the 1970s, a large clock was placed on the tower,
and local wits immediately dubbed the Aerosol Building the Obninsk Big
Ben.
20 House of Scientists , Prosp. Lenina, 129. The House of
Political Education with pylons made of white marble was built in 1979;
Leningrad architects took part in the creation of the building design;
local specialists, including V. I. Davtyan, were involved in the design
of the interior, decorated with pink marble. In the 1990s, the bronze
high relief with the trinity Marx-Engels-Lenin and similar excesses were
removed from the building and turned into the House of Scientists. Now
all kinds of lectures and symposia are held here, and the good acoustics
and equipment of the large concert hall have made the House of
Scientists one of the best concert venues in the city.
21 Sculpture
“Scientist Cat” (Granite of Science). To become a scientist, you just
need to put on a pince-nez, put an academic cap on your head, take a
thick book under your right hand, and a scroll under your left - and
voila! Somehow this is what the creators of the sculpture “Scientist
Cat” (2013) decided and placed a bronze cat cat on the corner of the
Scientists’ house, placing it in front of a block of stone with the
inscription “Granite of Science”. However, the idea of “Granite”
appeared later in order to save the nearby hundred-year-old oak tree
from anthropogenic impact: at first it was this tree that was planned to
be used in the installation, inspired by the specifics of the city and
the famous Pushkin cat from the poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila”. The
sculpture is considered one of the symbols of the city, although,
according to rumors, local scientists were seriously offended by it.
22 House “666”, Marx Avenue 6–38. Several nine-story buildings of the
improved series (1978) on Marx Avenue form a configuration that, when
viewed from above, resembles the numbers “666.” The view from the ground
will only be appreciated by lovers of late Soviet architecture.
23 Dam on Protva. The dam is located on the outskirts of the industrial
zone of the Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant - although this is not the most
aesthetic place in the city, it provides a good view of the high chimney
of the power plant. The dam was built in 1953 for the needs of a nuclear
power plant and regulation of water levels in Protva. For a long time it
was also used as a road bridge, but now a new bridge with good views of
the dam has been launched in parallel. The place is not safe, as it is
popular with those who like to drink with views of the spillway,
although wedding processions also come here, leaving their love locks on
the bridge fence.
24 Square named after A.F. Naumova, Pobeda street.
The square, which has the reputation of Hyde Park, is named after
General A.F. Naumov (1897–1992), a native of Akmolinsk, who settled in
Obninsk after the war. In the square there is a monument to the general
looking at the city fountain (opened in 2015, sculptor S.V. Lopukhov),
in the depths of the square there is a ZHBOT (reinforced concrete
armored cap), and on the road to the ZhBOT there is a memorial stone in
the shape of a truncated pentagondodecahedron, the inscriptions on it
say about the liberators of these lands during the Second World War.
25 Eternal Flame, Mira Street. The modest Eternal Flame (1972,
architect L.S. Aleksandrov) is flanked by tank hedgehogs and two other
monuments - prisoners of fascist concentration camps and liquidators of
radiation disasters. Behind the monument is Victory Park, in front is
Marshal Zhukov Street, leading to Naumov Square.
26 Belkino Estate. The estate was founded in the 15th
century by the boyar Ivan Fedorovich Otyaev, nicknamed Belka: he was the
ambassador of Ivan III in the Ryazan principality and, apparently, the
land of the future estate was granted to him by the sovereign himself.
Under Ivan the Terrible, the estate became the property of Malyuta
Skuratov; after the Time of Troubles, it belonged to several noble
families: the Dolgorukys, the Vorontsovs, the Buturlins. The last, less
well-known owners of the estate were the Obninskys, a noble family of
gentry origin that rose to prominence during the wars against Napoleonic
France. The estate complex consisting of a hunting palace, a pair of
outbuildings, a park with ponds and the Boris and Gleb Church was built
in the 1770s under Count I.I. Vorontsov. The luxurious main house in the
style of early classicism was once decorated with frescoes (their
remains can still be seen), but now it is a depressing sight. In better
times, the estate was visited by various celebrities, for example,
Chaliapin and Bryusov. A two-story outbuilding has been preserved from
the old buildings, and a one-story outbuilding was restored from ruins
in 2010. The old park with cascading ponds has also been put in order -
now it is a popular recreation spot for Obninsk residents with a boat
station, a wake park, a summer theater and a cafe.
27 Boris and Gleb
Church , st. Borisoglebskaya, 70. The stone church is part of the
Belkino estate and was built slightly outside the park in 1773 under the
same Count Vorontsov according to the design of Karl Blank. Externally,
it is a mixture of Baroque (octagonal on quadrangle) and early
classicism (high windows, pilasters). The original secular paintings
using the grisaille technique were replaced by gospel scenes at the end
of the 19th century. In 1930, the church was closed and given to a
collective farm, which rebuilt it into a warehouse for fuel and
lubricants. In 1988, the building was returned to the church and
restored with a two-tone red and white paint job, but was returned to
white in 2014. The interior design is quite unusual. Near the walls of
the church is the burial place of the Obninskys, and a hundred meters
southwest of it stands the restored outbuilding of the Riga estate.
1 Memorial complex “Obninsk NPP”, pl. Bondarenko, 1.
☎ +7 (48439) 9-51-11. The world's first nuclear power plant with a
capacity of 5 MW was launched on the territory of Laboratory B on June
27, 1954. Although the power of the station was very small, its creation
required the solution of many completely new engineering problems, so
the commissioning of the nuclear power plant was a serious technological
breakthrough. The station operated trouble-free for 48 years until it
was shut down in 2002 for economic reasons. Now there is a
scientific-memorial complex at the station, where excursion groups are
allowed (usually on Tuesdays and Thursdays), however, after observing
certain formalities.
The excursion must be arranged in advance by
telephone and the passport details of all participants (citizens of the
Russian Federation) must be provided two weeks in advance. Taking
photographs on the territory of the nuclear power plant is prohibited,
although there is an option to try to obtain permission to photograph
through the station’s press service. All electronic equipment is handed
over to a storage room at the checkpoint, and a group photo is taken as
a souvenir by the IPPE employees themselves. Paid group groups are also
formed through local travel agencies or the regional TIC (+7 (4842)
56-25-78), registration two weeks in advance.
The nuclear power
plant building is not visible from the street, but for good views of the
station’s pipe you will have to walk to the dam on Protva. For the 60th
anniversary of the nuclear power plant, the concrete fences of the IPPE
were decorated with nuclear-themed graffiti, and portraits of its
founders I.V. appeared next to the station entrance. Kurchatov and A.I.
Leypunsky.
2 Museum of the History of the City of Obninsk, prosp.
Lenina, 128. ☎ +7 (48439) 7-55-62. Tue, Fri, Sat: 10:00–18:00, Wed:
10:00–21:00, Thu: 13:00–21:00, Mon, Sun - closed. 100 rub. – historical
exposition, 100 rubles. - showroom. The museum opened on a voluntary
basis in 1965; its exhibition consists of historical and exhibition
sections. The first contains information about archeology and describes
significant milestones in local history, from pre-revolutionary estates
to the first nuclear power plant. The exhibition hall presents paintings
and graphics, mainly by local artists. At the museum you can pay for a
tour of the Morozov dacha.
3 City park. 7:00–23:00. A
well-maintained park appeared in the Old Town in 1958 on the site of the
ancient village of Gridnevo, which existed here in the 15th–16th
centuries, but now only an information board reminds of this past. The
park itself, which was heavily damaged by vandals in the 1990s, resumed
its full life in the 2010s: it has children's attractions, sports
grounds, cafes and walking alleys.
4 Guryanovsky forest. The remains
of an old, predominantly pine forest that once existed on the territory
of the city now occupy an area of 40 hectares and are equipped with
ecological trails, as well as children's and sports grounds. Local
residents insist that at night this is the most dangerous place in the
city, emphasizing not only crime, but also mysticism. On unlit forest
paths in the evening it can indeed be creepy, although asphalt paths are
laid along the perimeter of the forest, along which there are benches
and quite friendly wooden figurines of animals and fairy-tale
characters.
✦ FEI House of Culture , prosp. Lenina, 15. ☎ +7
(48439) 7-55-62. Mon–Fri 9:00–18:00. All kinds of events from chamber
and thematic concerts to performances for children.
By plane
Obninsk is located at the same distance -
80 km - from the capital's Vnukovo airport and Kaluga international
airport. There are no direct public transport flights from any of the
airports, but you can get to the nearest railway stations and then
travel to Obninsk by train.
By train
From Kievsky Station in
Moscow, express trains run 6 times a day to Kaluga or Maloyaroslavets,
on which you can get to Obninsk in 1.5 hours. Ordinary trains run twice
as often (with air conditioning and Wi-Fi), but you will have to travel
with all stops a little less than 2 h. You can get to Obninsk from
Kaluga on the same express trains and electric trains (1 hour 10 m -
express, 1 hour 25 m - regular train).
It is more convenient to
get from St. Petersburg through Moscow: a long-distance train to Bryansk
stops in Obninsk, but it does not run every day and arrives in Obninsk
late at night.
Also, trains from Moscow to the south (via Kaluga
to Tula and then to Kursk or Sochi), which depart from Kievsky station
due to overload at Kursky, may stop in Obninsk. They go rarely and
usually with an inconvenient schedule.
1 Obninskoye station,
Station Square. “Sideway No. 15” was opened in 1899 on the
Moscow-Kievo-Voronezh Railway, but in 1916 it was renamed Obninskoye,
from which the new city took its name in 1956, at which time the
crossing turned into a station. A memorial plaque on the station
building reports that “from here in 1908 a fourteen-year-old peasant
boy, the future Marshal of Victory Georgy Zhukov, who was born in the
village of Strelkovka, ten kilometers from here, left to work in Moscow.
The historic station building was demolished in 2008, inside the new
station there are ticket offices and a small waiting room, and outside
there is a station market and many food outlets. Next to the station is
the city's largest public transport stop, Vokzal, from where you can go
to any part of Obninsk.
By bus
From Moscow, buses and
minibuses run every half hour from the Novoyasenevskaya and Salaryevo
bus stations (the journey takes 1.5 hours), some of them continue on to
Bryansk or Roslavl. Obninsk is also connected by bus to many cities of
the Kaluga region: Borovsky, Maloyaroslavets, Zhukovo, Kaluga, Kozelsky,
Meshchovsky.
2 Bus station, st. Zheleznodorozhnaya, 6. ☎ +7
(48439) 6-34-46. It is located next to the Obninskoye railway station in
the same building as the Privokzalny shopping center, where you can have
a snack, buy clothes or household goods, and there is a toilet.
By car
From Moscow along the Kyiv highway M3 to Obninsk is about 90
km (from the Moscow Ring Road), the section to the city and further to
Maloyaroslavets is free. 10 km more will be possible along the Kaluga
Highway through Troitsk. The choice of these options depends on current
traffic jams.
Municipal buses and private minibuses run around the city; the fare is the same everywhere and equals 25 rubles. (2022). The municipal fleet consists of modern large and medium-sized buses, payment in cash or by bank cards. Private minibuses use minibuses, payment is only in cash. There are more than a dozen routes in the city; their diagram can be viewed/downloaded here.
Souvenirs can be bought at the City History Museum and
the TIC.
1 TRK “Triumph Plaza”, prosp. Marksa, 45. 10:00–22:00.
The largest shopping and entertainment complex in Obninsk with many
chain stores of clothing, shoes, electronics, food outlets, a Lenta
supermarket, a cinema and its own Triumph hotel.
Cheap
There are inexpensive eateries in the city,
but most of them are closed on weekends. Near the train station there
are 24-hour shawarma outlets.
1 Buffet E! Yes! , st. Krasnykh
Zori, 26. ☎ +7 (900) 572-65-72. Mon–Fri 9:00–15:30. Hot from 100 rub.
Inexpensive canteen near the Obninskoye railway station. Good lunches at
reasonable prices. It is better to arrive before 13:00, then there may
be problems with the assortment and seats.
2 Dining room “Protva”,
st. Mendeleeva, 14. ☎ +7 (910) 572-94-18. Mon–Fri 9:00–17:00. Hot from
100 rub. Spacious self-service dining room with a pleasant interior. It
is located near the entrance of the Obninsk nuclear power plant.
Average cost
Mid-price cafes and restaurants operate in most hotels
in the city.
3 Restaurant “Obninsk” (cafe “There is
Happiness”) , prosp. Lenina, 21. ☎ +7 (48439) 5-91-76. Sun–Thu
12:00–0:00, Fri–Sat 12:00–2:00. Hot from 300 rub. The monumental
building from 1957 with columns houses three banquet halls, the
“Happiness Is” cafe and a pastry shop. Yuri Gagarin and Vladimir
Vysotsky were once among the guests of the establishment. Banquet halls
are busy with events, and in the cafe you can eat at average prices;
business lunches are offered from 12 to 16 hours.
4 Cafe “Granat”,
st. Leypunsky, 3. 11:00–23:00. Hot from 300 rub. Cafe with oriental menu
in the city center.
Expensive
5 Restaurant “Tochka” , Prosp.
Lenina, 121. ☎ +7 (48439) 2-01-01. Sun–Thu 12:00–23:55, Fri–Sat
12:00–2:00. Hot from 500 rub. A restaurant with a designer interior and
a large selection of seafood, alcohol and pizza. From 12 to 16 o'clock
there are business lunches for 450 rubles.
6 Restaurant “Dikanka”,
ave. Lenina, 128A. ☎ +7 (48439) 4-05-05. 12:00–0:00. Hot from 450 rub.
Tavern-style restaurant with a wide selection of Russian and Ukrainian
cuisine. Large portions, polite staff.
1 Night club “Old Town” , st. Migunova, 9. ☎ +7
(920) 872-65-45. Fri–Sat 23:00–5:00. Bar and disco in the Old Town.
2 Bar “Bach” , st. Joliot-Curie, 5. ☎ +7 (953) 325-27-77. Mon–Fri
12:00–5:00, Sat–Sun 16:00–5:00. Rock bar with live music. You can have a
drink and a snack, from 12 to 16 o'clock they offer business lunches
from 150 rubles.
3 Bar “Barmaley”, st. Kurchatova, 18A. Around the
clock. A bar with a pirate interior in the center of the New Town. Beer,
cocktails at any time of the day, reasonable prices.
Cheap
1 Hostel “Obninsk”, st. Moskovskaya, 36. ☎
+7 (960) 514-99-00. From 400 rub. for a bed in a seven-bed room up to
1000 rubles. for a single room. Large hostel near the train station.
Rooms from 7-bed to single. There is a kitchen with the necessary
utensils and appliances.
Average cost
2 Hotel “Yubileinaya”,
prosp. Lenina, 57. ☎ +7 (48439) 6-37-65. From 2300 rub. for a double
room. The very first and closest hotel in the city to the station. Built
in Soviet times, but has been updated. The furniture in the rooms is not
the newest, and the sound insulation is also not very good, but there is
stable Wi-Fi and friendly staff. There is a cafe and a sauna. Breakfast
is paid separately - 300 rubles.
3 Hotel “Orbital” , st.
Kurchatova, 23. ☎ +7 (910) 916-21-61. From 2500 rub. for a double
economy room. The largest hotel in Obninsk with a capacity of 320 rooms
of various categories. The building itself is Soviet-built, but the
rooms have been recently renovated. The price includes a buffet
breakfast.
Expensive
4 Greenway Park Hotel, prosp. Lenina,
9/5. ☎ +7 (48439) 5-95-10. From 4400 rub. for a double standard. Located
in the old part of Obninsk, in a two-story building from the 1950s, the
interiors are decorated with paintings from the collection of a local
academician. There is its own restaurant and a park area for guests to
relax. The rooms are relatively small, but have stylish wooden
furniture, stable Wi-Fi and individual air conditioning. They provide
all hygiene items, a mini-bar instead of a refrigerator, and a cooler
with hot and cold water on the floor. The rooms are cleaned every day,
the staff is very nice and polite. Buffet breakfast costs an additional
400 rubles. per person.
5 Business hotel “Imperial” , Kyiv highway,
11A. ☎ +7 (910) 545-98-00. From 4500 rub. for a double standard. The
only negative of this hotel is its outlying location (next to the Kyiv
highway). Everything else here is at the highest level: comfortable
rooms with all the necessary equipment and hygiene items, polite and
quickly responding staff, buffet breakfast with a wide range of dishes
included in the price, secure parking. The biggest advantage of the
hotel is its infrastructure - residents can visit for free: a SPA center
with a swimming pool, a sauna and a salt cave, a gym, billiards, a
karaoke room, and a games area. For an additional fee, you can rent a
conference room, go for a massage and solarium, and dine at a local
restaurant.
All federal mobile operators work, Internet speed is 4G, but in some estate parks of the Old Town it can drop to EDGE. Almost all hotels and cafes have free Wi-Fi.
Obninsk is located 110 km southwest of Moscow - in fact, in its
distant suburban area. His official date of birth is 1956, but life was
here before. For example, the Belkino estate, which now lies at the
northern border of the city, was founded by the boyar I.F. Otyaev-Belka
back in the 15th century, and then, having changed several owners from
Malyuta Skuratov to the Buturlins, in the 19th century it fell into the
hands of the noble family of Obninsky, who by that time he owned several
more surrounding estates, including the Bugra and Turliki estates.
Having donated part of his possessions for the construction of the
railway, V.P. Obninsky immortalized itself: in 1916, grateful
descendants renamed crossing No. 15 of the Moscow-Kiev-Voronezh Railway
to Obninskoye, and later the name of this station gave the name to a new
city that became famous throughout the world.
In 1911 M.K.
Morozova (nee Mamontova) bought from V.P. Obnisky Turliki estate, now
known as Morozovskaya Dacha, and at the same time, together with the
teacher S.T. Shatskiy they founded the summer labor school-colony
“Beautiful Life”. The colony was used for recreation for the children of
Moscow workers, becoming the prototype of Soviet pioneer camps. After
the revolution, “Vigorous Life” became part of the First Experimental
Station of the People's Commissariat for Education (such stations were
conceived as exemplary schools where various forms of educating a new
person were tested). In 1937, not far from the Morozov dacha, a new
permanent building was built, where the children of Spanish
anti-fascists taken to the USSR were settled. In 1941, the students were
sent to the Saratov region, and the headquarters of the Western Front
was located at the former Morozov dacha and in adjacent buildings.
After the war, Morozova’s dacha and the former orphanage became the
property of the secret facility Laboratory “B”, where nuclear physicists
and Soviet scientists brought from Germany carried out research in the
field of nuclear physics. Unlike many others, the laboratory has never
been involved in the creation of nuclear weapons - its specialization
has been and remains the development of nuclear reactors. The first task
of the Laboratory was the AM-1 project: the creation of a reactor for
submarines, so that the letters AM coded not Atom Mirny, but Atom
Morskoy. But the first uranium-graphite reactor created in the
laboratory was not yet suitable for submarines (such reactors appeared
later), so its energy was used to produce electricity: the mediator in
this process is water steam heated from the reactor, which rotates the
turbine of an electric generator. And the phrase “Enjoy your steam!”,
said by Kurchatov on June 26, 1954, during the launch of the world’s
first nuclear power plant, for nuclear builders is the equivalent of
Gagarin’s “Let’s go!” To be fair, the first nuclear research reactor in
America, the Chicago Pile, appeared in 1942, and the X-10 graphite
reactor, created in 1943 to produce weapons-grade plutonium, first
powered the enterprise’s electrical grid back in 1948.
In 1956,
the village that grew up around Laboratory “B” received city status and
a new name – Obninsk. At the same time, the Old Town at the beginning of
Lenin Avenue grew during the period of the existence of Laboratory “B”,
at the turn of the 1940s and 1950s, and was built up by the forces of
prisoners in the spirit of the Stalinist Empire style according to the
designs of Leningrad architects.
Already in the 1960s, Obninsk
took shape as a science city, although it formally received this status
only in 2000 (before such a status simply did not exist), becoming the
first official science city in Russia, which the city is very proud of.
In 1960, the former secret laboratory turned into the Physics and Energy
Institute (PEI), which to this day is developing nuclear reactors for
peaceful and military purposes. Later, other scientific institutions
specializing in nuclear physics, materials science, radiology,
meteorology and geophysics were opened in Obninsk.
In 1966, the
main Obninsk institute, IPPE, became famous among Soviet scientists when
four of its employees published a satirical collection “Physicists Are
Joking.” It contained translations of humorous speeches and publications
by foreign physicists, reflecting the specifics of scientific work. The
book was a huge success and was republished in 1968 under the title
“Physicists Keep Joking.” However, this success cost the authors their
careers, and one of them, Valentin Turchin, was eventually expelled from
the USSR - the authorities saw sedition in the book, so the physicists
laughed it off.
In the 1970s, the city continued to grow north of
the IPPE: the development of this period is moderately interesting,
although connoisseurs of late Soviet architecture will have to be
content with only individual buildings and isolated blocks. However, you
will come across details that invariably please the eye.
The
nuclear power plant was closed in 2002 and turned into a museum, open to
everyone, but only as part of an organized group. Having survived the
difficult 1990s, in the 2000s Obninsk managed to use its proximity to
the capital, developing industry simultaneously with science. An
agglomeration of seven cities (including the historical Borovsk and
Maloyaroslavets) formed around it, which included the Vorsino industrial
park with factories of large international companies, a kind of
“advanced development zone.” Thanks to the industrial park, clean, cozy
and intelligent Obninsk has turned into one of the most prosperous
cities in the country, where there is good infrastructure, mainly aimed
at business travelers.
Obninsk is located in the temperate continental region, with cold and snowy winters and warm, humid summers. The average temperature in January is about -9 °C, and in July - about +18 °C. Spring is cool, the average temperature in March is approximately -3 °C, in April +5.5 °C, and in May +12.3 °C. Autumn is moderately cool, in September the average temperature is +11 °C, in October +5 °C, and in November -1.5 °C. The average annual relative humidity is about 76-78%.
Obninsk serves as the center of an entire agglomeration, which
includes seven cities in the north of the Kaluga region, easily
accessible by public transport. The most interesting among them is
Borovsk with its ensemble of pre-revolutionary architecture, the
historical Pafnutyevo-Borovsky Monastery and unique wall paintings by
local artist and local historian Vladimir Ovchinnikov. Even further in
the north-west direction, beyond Borovsk, there is the ethnographic
park-museum “Ethnomir”, which aims to cover the architecture, national
cuisine, crafts, traditions and life of almost all countries.
20
km southwest of Obninsk is Maloyaroslavets, which is entirely connected
with the events of military history: one of the most important battles
of the Patriotic War of 1812 took place here, and in 1941 the approach
to the city on the Ilyinsky lines was defended by the famous Podolsk
cadets. In the Vorobyovo estate near Maloyaroslavets, a mansion in the
Art Nouveau style has been preserved, showing what the Morozov dacha in
Obninsk might have looked like before its reconstruction.
Another
aspect of military history is revealed by the city of Zhukov,
neighboring Obninsk. The local museum is dedicated to the Soviet marshal
who was born nearby, and 20 km to the east is the military history
museum in Tarutino in honor of another battle in 1812. On the way to
Tarutino, you can stop by the Sparrows bird park or look into the MU MU
Garbage Art Museum.
1 Savior Transfiguration Church in
Spas-Zagorie , p. Spas-Zagorie, st. Central, 39. A two-story stone
church on the high bank of the Protva was built in 1614 by Prince B.M.
Lykov-Obolensky. Work on the church building lasted almost the entire
17th century, and by 1696 it acquired its current appearance,
characteristic of Russian pattern making, with tiered kokoshniks, carved
platbands and other required decorative elements. At the turn of the
17th and 18th centuries, a free-standing hipped bell tower appeared;
later it was connected to the church using a refectory. In 1937 the
temple was closed, but in 1947 it was returned to believers. After
restoration at the end of the 20th century, regular services are held in
the church. The easiest way to get here is by church bus, which picks up
believers from the Obninsk Yubileiny Hotel; the schedule is on the
church website. An alternative option is a 3 km walk from the Shemyakino
railway station.