Severobaikalsk (Bur. Hoyto Baigalai Khoto) is a city in the Republic of Buryatia, Russia. The city of republican significance (since 1980), forms the urban district of the city of Severobaikalsk as the only settlement in its composition. Population - 23 183 people. (2020). The city is the largest settlement located on the shore of Lake Baikal. The second most populous city after Ulan-Ude in Buryatia.
It arose in the 1970s as a working settlement of Severobaikalsk, located on the northern tip of Lake Baikal. Since 1980 - the city with the same name.
Kazan Cathedral
Kazan Cathedral (until 2016 - Kazan Church) is
an Orthodox church, consecrated in honor of the Kazan Icon of the
Mother of God, belongs to the Severobaikal Diocese of the Buryat
Metropolitanate of the Russian Orthodox Church.
In 1994 the
Mother of God-Kazan parish of the Russian Orthodox Church was
registered in the city. In 1995, the believers were provided with
premises for worship. In 2009, a church in honor of the Kazan Icon
of the Mother of God was rebuilt and consecrated. On May 5, 2015,
with the formation of the Buryat Metropolis, an independent North
Baikal diocese was separated from the Ulan-Ude diocese. The Kazan
Church of the city of Severobaikalsk became the cathedral of the new
diocese.
Severobaikal art gallery
The Severobaikalsk Art Gallery is
located in the city of Severobaikalsk, on Druzhba Street. The
gallery was founded in April 1979 by the decision of the Union of
Artists of Russia. At present, the museum contains over 2 thousand
works of various genres.
Among the paintings, the works of
many famous artists are presented, including the works of the
People's Russian artist A. Kamanin, as well as the Honored Masters
of Russia S. Lanza, A. Sokolov, V. Nechitailo, P. Rozin, N.
Krapivin, etc. artists of Buryatia, who reflected the construction
of the Baikal-Amur Mainline.
As for decorative and applied
art, in the Severobaikalsk art gallery it is represented by
porcelain, ceramics, stone carvings and Dymkovo folk toys. An
amazing collection of Dymkovo folk toys from the city of Kirov are
the works of E.Z. Koshkina and other artists. Particularly valuable
is the unique decorative glass composition donated to the museum by
the American gold miner E. Lamb. The author of this work is the
outstanding American artist D. Labini.
In recent years, the
collection of the Severobaikal Art Gallery has been replenished with
paintings donated by artists from this region. One of them is V.
Kondakov, a member of the Union of Artists of Russia, whose works
are also in museums in the city of Novosibirsk, Ulan-Ude and even in
private collections in Switzerland and Germany.
Every year
the museum is visited by a huge number of people, so it is almost
never empty.
The history of Severobaikalsk is closely connected with the
Baikal-Amur Mainline - the city was founded as one of the main
points of the railway project. It was decided to build a new city 20
km southwest of Nizhneangarsk, which made it possible to develop it
in the future. The original plan was to increase the population to
140,000.
The first Komsomol settlers arrived on July 23, 1974
and established a labor camp that originally consisted of tents and
railroad cars. The camp quickly grew in connection with the
construction of the railway and on September 29, 1975, the working
village of Severobaikalsk was formed.
In 1978, the first
capital house was built in the village (now - Leningradsky prospect,
4), as evidenced by a memorial plaque. Series 122 was designed by
the LenZNIIEP Institute (Leningrad Zonal Research and Design
Institute for Typical and Experimental Design of Residential and
Public Buildings of the State Committee for Architecture and Urban
Planning under the USSR State Construction Committee, now SPbZNIIiPI
St. Petersburg Zonal Research and Design Institute for Housing -
civil buildings) specially for Severobaikalsk. Due to the extremely
difficult conditions of the construction area (seismicity of 9
points and permafrost soils of the base, thawing during operation),
the buildings of the series are distinguished by a broken facade
shape, which provides increased seismic resistance. Two houses form
an open ring, inside which there is a courtyard, protected from
blowing through by winds. The unusual appearance of the five-story
buildings makes a certain impression on the guests of the city.
On November 5, 1980, the working village of Severobaikalsk was
transformed into a city of republican (ASSR) subordination. Until
the completion of the construction of the railway, he remained a
partner of Leningrad.
On February 18, 1981, the Goudzhekit
council was transferred to the administrative subordination of the
Severobaikal City Council (the Goudzhekit settlement that
constituted it was formed on April 22, 1976, and on May 12, 1978 it
was classified as a workers' settlements). On September 25, 1981,
the newly formed settlement of Solnechny was registered under the
administrative subordination of the Goudzhekit council. On July 12,
1991, the working village of Goudzhekit was abolished together with
the council. On February 28, 2001, the Sunny Village Council was
abolished, the settlement of Solnechny was excluded from the
registration data, which became a microdistrict of the city of
Severobaikalsk.
The city has the 5th separate maritime
training center (military unit 7628), which trains divers and
mechanics for the naval units of the Interior Ministry of the
Russian Federation.
In everyday life, townspeople call their
city Severny, SBK.
In July 2016, the residents of
Severobaikalsk came up with an initiative to withdraw the city and
the Severo-Baikalsk region from the republic, with the subsequent
entry into the Irkutsk region. A petition with a corresponding
appeal appeared on the website of the Russian Public Initiative. The
authors of the petition believe that the current state of the city
and the region impedes economic development, leads to degradation of
the area and the outflow of the population, and note that
Severobaikalsk and the Severo-Baikalsk region have closer economic
ties with the Irkutsk region than with the rest of Buryatia.
Located on the northern shore of Lake Baikal, 440 km from Ulan-Ude and 500 km from Irkutsk (in a straight line), on the left bank of the mouth of the Tyya River, on the Baikal-Amur Mainline, 24 km south-west of the center of the North-Baikal region - the village of Nizhneangarsk. In the city there is a large station Severobaikalsk of the East Siberian railway.
Severobaikalsk is located on the same parallel with Moscow (55 ° 37 'N). The climate is sharply continental, however, due to the proximity of Lake Baikal, it is much milder than at a distance. It is characterized by a predominance of sunny, windy weather and low relative humidity. The Baikal region in the Republic of Buryatia is distinguished by a large total duration of sunshine, it reaches 2524 hours, which is more than in the Black Sea resorts, and is the second highest for the subjects of Russia, higher only in the Trans-Baikal Territory (in the south up to 2797 hours). There are no more than 37 days without the sun in a year, mainly in summer and early autumn. The average temperature in winter is -20 ... -25 ° С, in summer + 20 ... + 25 ° С. In winter, the thermometer can drop to -42 ° C, but this happens quite rarely and does not last long, moreover, the absence of wind, bright sun and dry air makes it easy to endure the cold with appropriate clothing, in contrast to the humid climate of the European part of Russia, where frost feels much stronger. Transitional seasons are short and fleeting. In summer, the heat can reach +32 ° С, but it is softened by a fresh breeze from Lake Baikal. The average atmospheric pressure is 720 mm Hg. Art.