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11 largest cities of Russia
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Krasnodar
Gorno-Altaisk is the capital of the Republic of
Altai, one of the smallest “regional centers” in Russia, which
nevertheless accommodates a third of all the inhabitants of its
region. Travelers will be interested in the city with its own
airport, a curious national museum and a very extensive
infrastructure for such a remote place. Gorno-Altaisk is located
next to the Chuisky tract near the Katun and the border of the Altai
Republic with the neighboring Altai Territory.
Gorno-Altaisk
grew out of the village of Ulala, founded in 1824 by Russian
settlers. The strategic location at the entrance to Gorny Altai made
the village one of the largest in its area, so that in 1922 it
became the capital of the newly formed Oirot Autonomous Region - the
prototype of the modern Altai Republic. In 1928, Ulala received city
status, in 1932 the new name was Oirot-Tura (city of Oirots), and in
1948 the final name was Gorno-Altaisk. Since 1990, when the
autonomous region separated from the Altai Territory, it has been
the capital of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation with
all the attributes that are due to it, such as the parliament
building (kurultai) and its own university.
There is
desperately little historical in Gorno-Altaisk. Several merchant
houses of pre-revolutionary Ulala have survived, rare stone
buildings of the 1930s have undergone significant alterations, and
Gorno-Altaisk was mainly built up in the late Soviet and post-Soviet
period without the slightest attempt to add beauty to individual
buildings or the city as a whole. Of course, you didn’t go to Altai
for architecture, but if you happen to get into the city in search
of hotels (and they are quite affordable here even in the high
season), it’s worth staying for a couple of hours to see the
national museum and beautiful, overgrown with grass and forested
hills. The best view of the city is from above.
Gorno-Altaisk
stands on the Maima River, the right tributary of the Katun, to
which the city does not reach, giving way to a village also called
Maima (accent on the last syllable), in fact one of the districts of
Gorno-Altaisk, its outpost on the Chuisky tract. The axis of the
city begins from the tract - Altaiskaya Street, which soon turns
into Communist Avenue. Moving along it, you will find hotels, cafes,
and everything else you might need. From Mayma to the city center
(Lenin Square) about 9 km. Locals like to tell that their Communist
Avenue is longer than Nevsky.
Gorno-Altaisk is a small city,
but with a steadily positive population dynamics: migration from the
Altai villages is affecting, from where they go to the city to study
or simply move for a more comfortable life. The share of Altaians is
only about 20%, so in Gorno-Altaisk you will not find anything
expressly national except, perhaps, the duplication of all official
inscriptions in the Altai language.
By plane
In terms of the number and variety of
flights, Gorno-Altaisk Airport is almost ahead of neighboring Barnaul.
During the season, flights to Moscow are operated several times a day,
flights to St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk 3-4 times a week.
If
you didn't manage to fly to Gorno-Altaysk, try Barnaul or Novosibirsk,
where you can get there by bus. There are firms specializing in
transfers, and just private traders waiting for potential passengers at
key points like the forecourt of Novosibirsk and the Barnaul bus
station.
1 Airport (IATA:RGK). ☎ +7 (38822) 4-75-12. A modern,
but very cramped terminal, which in a comfortable mode can serve only
small aircraft flights to Kosh-Agach and Ust-Koksa. With the
simultaneous departure of two aircraft to Moscow, the journey from the
entrance to the terminal to the gate will take almost an hour. In the
registration area there is a souvenir shop, as well as a cafe-dining
room with distribution, city prices and single tables. In a clean area,
reproductions of Roerich hang, there is another souvenir shop and a
vending machine with drinks; the number of seats is designed, again, for
small aircraft flights, so an innovative solution was applied - an
additional waiting room in the hangar right on the airfield. Free WiFi.
The terminal's opening hours depend on the flight schedule, the airport
is closed at night.
How to get there: the airport is located near
the Chuisky tract to the south of the village of Maima, 11 km from the
center of Gorno-Altaisk. A taxi to the city costs about 400 ₽ (2021), it
takes 15 minutes to go if there are no traffic jams. Bus number 103 also
goes to the airport, but it does it so rarely, and it takes so long that
it does not make the slightest sense.
By car
The main and
practically the only road is the Chuisky tract from Barnaul (260 km)
through Biysk (110 km), it takes 3.5-4 hours to drive from Barnaul. The
tract itself passes through the village of Maima a little west of
Gorno-Altaisk. You can get into the city along Altaiskaya Street, which
turns into Communist Avenue, but you can also drive along the other side
of the river (Biyskaya Street), bypassing traffic lights.
By bus
Buses from Biysk (journey time 2 hours) and Barnaul (5 hours), on
average every 1-2 hours, and sometimes these are different buses: Biysk
buses leave the city, and Barnaul ones pass Biysk along the bypass. Some
buses go straight from Novosibirsk (8 hours). Inside the Altai Republic,
bus service is very rare, but you can only hitchhike to Mongolia.
2 Bus station, Kommunistichesky pr. 55 (1.5 km from the centre).
6:00–19:00. A ruined building with traces of Soviet decor, made in an
unexpectedly lush national style: in addition to a large panel with
horns on the outside, pay attention to the wooden clock inside. Also
inside there is a left-luggage office and non-food stalls. Food stalls
are outside, along with a Zaytuna cafe of unknown quality, although it's
best to go to the Igman Hotel across the road or go straight to the
center.
By train
The nearest railway station is in Biysk, the
distance is about 100 kilometers
Urban transport is represented by PAZs running on gas.
There are quite a few routes: two-digit routes in the city, three-digit
routes in the suburbs. Timetables and route maps are collected on a
special website, but in fact it is enough to know that almost all buses
follow Kommunistichesky Prospekt from Lenina Square towards the bus
station and Mayma: you can take the first bus that comes across, at peak
times they come to a stop every couple of minutes. The fare is 20
rubles. (2021), payment to the conductor in cash or with a contactless
bank card.
Taxi: locals recommend using taxi Maxim (order in the
application or by phone +7 (38822) 2-44-44). Formally, Yandex-taxi
operates in Gorno-Altaisk, but they have few cars, and it’s not a fact
that someone will take your order.
Gorno-Altaisk grew from a village that suddenly became
a city. As for what, after the war, little was built here, and in the
post-Soviet period there was no boom, so the city looks dull against the
background of the capitals of other national republics: even the wild
and hard-to-reach Tuvan Kyzyl seems to be a very advanced place against
its background. If you still want to find something unusual in
Gorno-Altaisk, pay attention to wooden houses - for example, a one-story
children's art house (16 Choros-Gurkina Street) looks like the
embodiment of pre-war Soviet architecture in a tree. These, however, are
few, and around them are unsystematic and ugly buildings without the
slightest sign of the national style.
1 Intercession Church, at the
beginning of Socialist Street. A nice wooden church (1998-2004) gives an
idea of how all Altai churches look like: mostly wooden, remodeled, but
standing on the site of pre-revolutionary churches destroyed in Soviet
times. Across the road, the no less elegant DK building (1950) is the
best example of Stalinist architecture for hundreds of kilometers
around, and walking a little further along the same Socialist Street,
you will find a few surviving buildings of pre-revolutionary Ulala and,
in combination, the oldest buildings in Gorno-Altaisk: the estate of the
merchant Bodunov (house 26), the shop of the merchant Tobokov (house 34)
and the store of the merchant Khakin (house 19), which was built on in
Soviet times (house 19), which for some reason is considered by local
authorities to have “lost its historical appearance”, although by the
standards of Gorno-Altaisk it is almost a masterpiece .
2 Monument
to Choros-Gurkin, square between st. Socialist and Erkemen Palkin.
Artist Grigory Gurkin (1870-1937) is probably the most famous native of
Altai. He managed to be an ideologue of the local religion of
Burkhanism, an illustrator of the Altai primer and the head of the
Karakoram-Altai district council - the first Altai autonomy that arose
in 1917 in the wake of the revolution and was soon liquidated by
Kolchak's army. However, Choros-Gurkin is best known for his paintings,
one of which introduced the expression "Khan Altai", which has now
become a popular brand in the republic. The monument to the artist was
made very officially, “in Soviet style”, although it was installed only
in 2006: Gurkin was repressed, so they began to perpetuate his name only
after Perestroika.
3 Alyonushka and Yrystu spring, 38
Kommunistichesky Ave. The spring in the very center of the city was
awarded its own bus stop not by chance: the folk trail of lovers of
spring water does not overgrow to it, and its design symbolizes the
indestructible friendship of the Russian and Altai peoples. On the left
is the epic hero Yrystu, playing the Altai national instrument, the
komus, and on the right, Alyonushka, dressed in a sundress, whose
brother Ivanushka has already drunk water and turned into a kid.
4 Ak-Burkhan , st. Choros-Gurkina, 113. A small Buddhist temple -
perhaps the only one in the entire republic. Unlike Buryatia and Tuva,
Buddhism is decidedly unpopular in Altai, and the Altaians most often
deny even the connection between the local religion of Burkhanism and
Tibetan-Mongolian Buddhism, and the first datsan in the republic has
been built since 2012 and still cannot be completed.
5 Mount Komsomolskaya. Of the two hills hanging over
the center of Gorno-Altaisk, this one is lower (428 m) and physically
easier to climb. However, there are many paths to the mountain, not one
of the maps knows them all, but you still need to be able to choose the
one on which there is the least dirt and the least overgrown
(apparently, the climbs from Furmanov Street are best monitored). An
observation deck is equipped at the top, and on the slope in front of it
there is a ski slope with a drag lift in winter.
6 Mount Tugaya.
Tugaya is the opposite of Komsomolskaya: it is noticeably higher (641 m)
and with steeper slopes, but a road and a pedestrian staircase lead to
the top. Climbing the stairs, however, requires noticeable physical
effort: I want to take the name of the mountain literally, although it,
apparently, is of Altai origin and the emphasis is on the last syllable.
At the top of this mountain there is also an observation deck (and there
is a second one, down the pedestrian stairs), and on the slope there is
a ski lift (the slopes are more difficult than on Komsomolskaya, but the
season is shorter).
7 Macarius Altaisky Cathedral, 146
Kommunistichesky Ave. (toward Maima). This wooden church is 2004-2006.
The building, though called a cathedral, is small in size. Unlike other
Altai churches, decorated, in general, “as it should”, it is a neat
stylization of the Klet temples of the Russian North. Around the church
there are other wooden buildings for religious purposes, forming a nice
architectural ensemble.
8 Victory Park, 184 Communist Ave (toward
Mayma). An unexpectedly large war memorial for such a small town was
built in 1977. It consists of massive concrete slabs that form a
corridor in front of the central stele: something pagan emanates from
this composition.
9 Church of the Transfiguration, Matrosova street,
5 (south of the center). The church, located in the depths of low-rise
buildings, is interesting as the first post-Soviet church in Altai
(1988-91), and it was also built of brick, which is also rare for these
places. Over the years that have passed since its construction, the
church has acquired new buildings - a nondescript one-story church of
Seraphim of Sarov, a simple wooden chapel and a pretty wooden Sunday
school building.
1 National Museum. A.V. Anokhin, st. Choros-Gurkina,
46. 10:00–18:30 except Mon and Tue. 250 rubles, photography 100 rubles.
(permission does not apply to Princess Ukok). A large modern building
housed expositions on the nature, history and ethnography of Altai, as
well as three halls of the art collection with the works of
Choros-Gurkin (several dozen paintings), N.I. Chevalkov and other Altai
masters, including contemporary artists. It should, however, be borne in
mind that for all the outward gloss, the most interesting thing in the
museum is not there: the most valuable archaeological finds, such as
monuments of the Pazyryk culture, are exhibited in the Hermitage.
Gorno-Altaisk managed to "recapture" only the Princess of Ukok, whom the
Altai elders generally demand to be buried back and not disturbed. As a
result, a shaky compromise has been reached between the museum and the
local community: the mummy is shown only in the morning hours and only
on certain days chosen according to the lunar calendar - check the exact
schedule before your trip on the museum’s website and keep in mind that
the Princess enjoys increased attention. The exposition is rich and with
its full inspection in the museum you can spend at least three hours.
2 National Theatre. P.V. Kuchiyaka , 16 Kommunistichesky Ave. Perhaps
the only theater in the world where performances are staged in the Altai
language, but even those with simultaneous translation into Russian.
They, however, make up only a small part of the repertoire; On the
poster there are both Gogol's "Inspector General", and "The Little
Prince", and performances based on the works of Chingiz Aitmatov, very
appropriate in this cradle of the Turkic world.
3 Ulalinsky site of
ancient people, st. Soviet (next to the old cemetery). Traces of the
presence of an ancient man and more than 600 tools were discovered in
the southeastern outskirts of Gorno-Altaisk in 1961. It was not possible
to determine the exact age of the finds: from 200 thousand years to 1.5
million years. There is a museum at the parking lot, which presents the
tools found there.
4 Embankment of the Maima River. The newly tiled
embankment is a good place for sports and walking along the river bank
between the Buddhist temple and Communist Avenue.
For tourists, gifts of local nature may be of interest
- from “raw” like cedar cones to, for example, ready-made herbal teas -
as well as wood crafts, maral products, cosmetics, fur, leather and wool
products. The theme of shamanism is actively used in souvenirs. It is
worth paying attention to printing products with the bewitching natural
beauties of the Altai Mountains.
1 Shopping center "Panorama",
Kommunistichesky pr. 11 (Lenin square). 8:00–22:00. A medium-sized
shopping center with a grocery supermarket "Maria-Ra" (open until
23:00), "Sportmaster", boutiques, electronics stores and a food court.
2 Shopping center "Western", Kommunistichesky pr. 119 (opposite the
Victory Park). 9:00–21:00. This shopping center is simpler, although you
can also find clothes, household goods and the ubiquitous "Maria-Ra"
(8:00 - 23:00)
Throughout the city, and especially along
Kommunistichesky Prospekt, there are shops with the sign "Forne" - a
Biysk confectionery factory that produces a wide range of cakes,
pastries and pastries.
Cheap
Skovorodovna. Altai network of pancakes with
a simple but satisfying assortment. In addition to pancakes, they offer
several types of buckwheat porridge, and if you're lucky, they also
offer salads and soups.
1 st. Choros-Gurkina, 39/1 (center).
10:00–21:00.
2 Communist Avenue 192 (toward Mayma). 10:00–21:00.
3 Dining room "Goryanka" (Pelmennaya), Kommunistichesky pr. 178 (toward
Mayma). 8:00–19:00. Dining room with distribution, where the menu is
written on a large board on the wall like a schedule at the bus station.
Visitors praise, noting that they serve not only dumplings here, and
they do it very well.
4 Cheyne dining room , 78 Kommunistichesky
Ave. (center). 8:00–20:00. The usual dining room with distribution, a
lot of pastries of our own production.
Average cost
5 Cafe
"Natalie", st. Choros-Gurkina, 32 (center). 11:00–24:00, Fri and Sat:
until 1:00. Hot: 300-400 rubles. The cafe is convenient because it is
open until late. In terms of food, here is the usual menu with a slight
provincial sophistication; local cuisine is represented by kupat with
deer meat and dumplings from it.
6 Cafe Trufel, st. Choros-Gurkina,
12 (center). 10:00–23:00. Dinner: from 500 rubles. Russian cuisine with
a touch of French: on the menu, borscht coexists with Toulon fish soup,
pancakes with boiled pork complement bruschetta with roast beef, and
beef medallions ... no, just deer steak with couscous for garnish. Cozy
and reasonably priced for a pretentious kitchen.
7 Cafe "Fortune",
Socialist street. 50 (center). 10:00–24:00. The only cafe in the city
that makes a serious claim to the Altai cuisine, although the slogan “we
cook from farm products” does not imply anything at first glance. The
menu contains many ordinary European dishes, a large selection of
dumplings and dumplings, and only at the end - a page of Altai cuisine,
where talkan, kazy, and much more are presented, and how each dish is
prepared is explained.
Expensive
8 Restaurant Typography ,
35 Communist Ave. (center). Hot: from 400 rubles. The restaurant is not
of Altai, but of Siberian cuisine, so, of course, there will be
maralatin on the menu, but the emphasis is on salads with pine nuts and
ferns, baked and fried fish (muksun, peled, grayling), as well as roasts
- hot pans with potatoes and meat .
El'Gran, Communist Ave. 35. 12:00–1:00. A suitable place for those who are not interested in hookahs and discos, but a good wine list and a decent selection of cocktails. The menu is varied, with a generalized European cuisine, although there are also dishes with a local touch.
There are quite a lot of hotels, almost all of them
can be booked via the Internet. At the same time, prices are moderate
and do not jump as much as in the resorts of Chemal and Turquoise Katun.
1 Hotel "Igman", st. Choros-Gurkina, 71 (next to the bus station). ☎
+7 (38822) 4-71-00, +7 (923) 664-08-77. Single in a hostel / with
amenities: from 1000/2050 rubles. The hotel is in three parts in three
different buildings: "Hostel" with rooms for 1-4 people without
amenities, "Standard" with well-equipped medium-sized rooms (with
amenities) and "Comfort", where there is a lot of space, and in every
room own kitchen. Everything is new and tidy, besides the buffet
breakfast in the morning with a great selection.
2 Hotel "Avtoreys",
Kommunistichesky pr. 83/1. ☎ +7 (38822) 4-91-82, +7 (903) 919-11-19.
2000-2500 rub. for the number. Large rooms with everything you need,
down to a bathrobe and a water filter. Breakfast is brought directly to
the room, for a fee (about 300 rubles) it must be ordered in the
evening, and in terms of the choice of dishes, it looks more like a
hearty dinner. You can also have a bite to eat 24/7 at a nearby gas
station with the usual assortment for such establishments.
The city is very safe, after nine in the evening it usually dies out, but the police are on duty, and you can move around without any problems.
The city arose as a village at the mouth of the
Ulalushka River (alt. Ulula, where -ulu is “big”, -la is the suffix of
possession), which received the name “Ulala” from this hydronym. With
the formation of the Oirot Autonomous Region in 1922, the village of
Ulala became its center, in 1928 it received the status of a city.
In the next two decades, the city of Ulala changed its name twice.
By the Decree of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive
Committee of the USSR dated June 17 (July 4), 1932, the city was renamed
"Oirot-Tura" - "city of Oirots" (Oirots - ethnonym, Tura - "city"). In
1948, in connection with the clarification of the ethnic name of the
main population of the region (Altaians instead of Oirots), the
autonomous region was renamed Gorno-Altai, and the city of Oirot-Tura,
respectively, Gorno-Altaisk. After 1948, the name of the city did not
change.
The history of the city dates back to the beginning of the 19th
century, when there was a small settlement of Teleuts on the site of
modern Gorno-Altaisk.
In 1824, the first Russian settlers
moved here from Biysk and founded the village of Ulala. Its further
development was closely connected with the work of the Altai
Spiritual Mission. In 1831, the main camp began to work in Ulal,
missionaries and clergy gathered here. Later, some Biysk merchants
moved to the village. For several decades, it has become a major
shopping center in the Biysk district of the Tomsk province.
In February 1918, a council of peasant and soldier deputies was
elected in Ulal. I. I. Nekoryakov became the first chairman of the
council.
On July 14, the village was occupied by the White
Guard detachment of Captain Satunin. On December 30, 1918, the
Karakorum district was formed with the center in Ulal.
Soviet
power was restored on December 18, 1919, when the partisan
detachment of F. I. Usoltsev occupied the village.
After the
Civil War, the Oirot Autonomous Region was formed. By a decree of
the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of June 2, 1922, the
village of Ulala was proclaimed the administrative center of the new
region. After 6 years, by the decision of the Presidium of the
All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the XIII convocation
(protocol No. 45) dated February 27, 1928, the settlement of Ulala
was transformed into a city.
On July 5, 1961, on the left
bank of the Ulalushka River, on the slopes of the mountains
surrounding the city, archaeologist A.P. Okladnikov found several
stones (pebbles) in the old cemetery on the Ulalinsky ridge, after
which he began to insist that they belonged to human tools. After
excavations in 1976 and 1981, he stated that the age of Ulalinka
ranged from 1.5 million to 150 thousand years. Here is what he wrote
about this discovery: “Judging by the primitiveness of the
stone-working technique and the rudeness of the tools, they were
made in a truly primitive time, when the Javanese Pithecanthropus,
the “monkey-man erectus,” lived on earth, as well as our other
ancestors close to him. Those who are commonly called
"archanthropes". In a word, our Gorno-Altai finds are at least
150-200 thousand years old, somewhere in the interval between two
glaciations. Siberian historians have something to be excited about:
the earliest known remnants of human activity in Siberia are 21,000
years old.” However, none of the archaeologists, except for his
student A. Derevyanko, could find a single object, the processing of
which would be undeniably done by a person. According to the
scientist, the so-called artifacts from sites such as "Ulalinka",
"Filimoshki" and "Kumara I" are products of natural forces
(geofacts), and not man-made tools.
Until 2010, Gorno-Altaisk
had the status of a historical settlement, however, in accordance
with the order of the Ministry of Culture of Russia and the Ministry
of Regional Development of Russia dated July 29, 2010 No. 418/339,
the city was excluded from the corresponding list.
It is located in the northwestern part of the Altai
Mountains, in an intermountain basin surrounded by low peaks at an
altitude of 270-305 m above sea level, at the confluence of the
Ulalushka and Maima rivers, which flow into the Katun River about 250
kilometers north of Mount Belukha, the highest points of Altai and
Siberia.
The distance from Gorno-Altaisk to Moscow is 3641 km, to
the nearest railway station Biysk of the West Siberian Railway 100 km.
The climate is sharply continental. In summer, the
temperature can vary from +13…+20 to +30…+35 °C, large daily temperature
amplitudes also occur. The peak of thunderstorms is in July, in August
it drops sharply.
Absolute maximum temperature: +40.3 °С
Absolute minimum temperature: -48.6 ° C
Gorno-Altaysk is located in the MSK+4 time zone. The offset of the applicable time from UTC is +7:00. According to the applied time and geographic longitude, the average solar noon in Gorno-Altaisk occurs at 13:16.
Since 1935, transformations and changes in urban
planning began in Oirot-Tour: the construction of the House of Soviets,
the Spartak stadium, and the House of Specialists (the first comfortable
house in Oirot-Tour, commissioned in 1936) began. The town-planning plan
provided for laying out a public garden on the square in front of the
regional committee, a boulevard along Oirotskaya street, landscaping the
territory of the regional hospital and the banks of the Ulalushka river.
In 1936, the foundation was laid for school No. 6 and a cinema, a
building for a new building of a teacher training school (now the old
building of the state university) and a cinema named after. M. Gorky,
buildings of a meat-packing plant and a furniture factory are being
built. In different years, new buildings appear one after another: the
city administration (1969), the State Assembly - El Kurultai of the
Altai Republic and the election commission of the Altai Republic (April
1985, the former regional committee of the CPSU). Palace of Justice,
Arbitration Court Building, Cadastral Chamber of the Republic of Altai,
City House of Culture, Blue Altai Cinema. Shopping centers "Baiterek",
"Panorama", "Spring", "Tkatsky", "Mountain". Another stadium, Dynamo,
was built.
The longest street in the city was Communist Avenue,
which is two kilometers longer than Nevsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg
(until 1961 it was called Stalin Avenue).
Lenin Square is located
between Communist Avenue and Choros-Gurkin Street (the central and
largest square in the city (5283 m²), in addition to it, there are
squares near the monument to G.I. Gurkin and near the city house of
culture near the monument to the fallen fighters). On the square on
November 7, 1958, a monument to V.I. Lenin was erected in bronze (cast
in Leningrad). Authors: sculptors T. Mammadov and O. Eldarov. The height
of the monument with a pedestal is 11 meters. The same monument was
erected in Riga, but it was dismantled after 1991, so the artistic
performance of the monument to V.I. Lenin is the only one in Russia
today.
m years, only the plant of reinforced concrete
products remained in operation in the city.
As of the beginning
of 2010, 60% of the city's revenues are formed mainly from personal
income tax. Among the priority sectors for investment, the city
administration singles out tourism (construction of hotel, restaurant,
health, entertainment facilities, consumer services and trade) and
related enterprises (production of souvenirs, production of tourist
equipment). As part of this activity, the development of a municipal
tourist and recreational zone with a center in the Yelanda tract has
begun, a reservoir with a surface area of 2 hectares has been built, it
is planned to develop the infrastructure for recreation and tourism,
skiing, hotels, campsites, and a base for equestrian tourism. It is
planned to create a year-round tourist and sports center with a
developed infrastructure: it is planned to build a network of lifts,
trails for equestrian sports and mountain bikes. On the tops of the
mountains surrounding the city, it is planned to build observation
platforms with places for recreation. In the future, it is planned to
build a cable car from Mount Tugai to Mount Komsomolskaya, equip ski
slopes with special equipment for artificial snowmaking. After the
completion of the construction of objects of the tourist and
recreational zone, their capacity will be at least 10 thousand people at
a time. In 2011, the number of tourists and vacationers increased by 20%
compared to 2010, the potential for increasing the tourist flow
increased by 2.5 times - up to 2.4 million people a year, which is more
than 10 times more than the entire population of the Altai Republic.
In November 2011, after a long reconstruction, the Gorno-Altaisk
airport was opened, which made the city more accessible for tourists and
vacationers. For many years, the issue of building a railway line
Biysk-Gorno-Altaisk has been discussed.
In 2012, 38.3 thousand m²
of housing was commissioned in the city (seven multi-storey buildings
and 531 individual residential buildings). In 2010-2011, two ten-story
residential buildings were erected; in 2009-2012, several kindergartens
for 500 children were opened.
Since 2008, intensive gasification
has been carried out, more than 70 km of high, medium and low pressure
networks have been built. 36 boiler houses have been converted to
natural gas. In 2012, four municipal boiler houses with a total capacity
of 32.4 MW were put into operation. The cost of the work amounted to
more than 138 million rubles.
There are 30 hotels and 14 tourism
enterprises in the city.
In 2011, Gorno-Altaisk received the gold
medal of the All-Russian competition "Clean City-2011", in 2012 - the
Global Brando Award from international ecologists and the first place
among medium-sized municipalities in the All-Russian competition "The
Cleanest City of Russia".
n 1935, a small airfield was built in Mayma, from
which the first passenger plane "AIR-6" took off, on board of which
there were 2 passengers. The first passenger airline operated on the
route Oirot-Tura - Barnaul - Novosibirsk. Air communication today is
carried out through the airport Gorno-Altaisk. In 2011, the airport was
reconstructed and opened after a long break[52]. As of 2020, the airport
almost exclusively serves domestic flights, in particular to Moscow.
Buses are the main passenger transport in Gorno-Altaisk. The
existing network of regular passenger transportation includes 36 urban
and suburban routes. The city is mainly served by buses manufactured by
the Pavlovsk Bus Plant.
The nearest railway station is located in
the city of Biysk, 100 km from Gorno-Altaisk.
Gorno-Altai State University operates in the city. It
includes 7 faculties and a college. Among the professional educational
organizations are the Agricultural College at the Gorno-Altai State
University, the Polytechnic College, the Pedagogical College, the
Medical College, the College of Culture and Art, etc.
In the
field of science, the Gorno-Altai State University and the Institute of
Altaistics named after A.I. S. S. Surazakova. There are organizations
representing the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences: the
Gorno-Altai branch of the IVEP SB RAS, the Gorno-Altai Research
Institute of Agriculture, the Gorno-Altai Botanical Garden (a branch of
the Central Siberian Botanical Garden of the Siberian Branch of the
Russian Academy of Sciences).
In April 1936, the Decree of the Oirot regional
executive committee was signed on the creation of a national theater
studio, which later grew into the "National Drama Theater named after P.
V. Kuchiyak." After numerous reorganizations, he received the name of
the Regional Drama National Theater of the Republic of Altai named
after. P. V. Kuchiyaka (opened August 17, 1971). In 1977 the troupe
moved to a new building. In 2008, the theater was named after the first
Altai playwright, Pavel Vasilyevich Kuchiyak. For 32 years, more than
182 productions have been played, among them performances based on the
works of Russian and foreign classics. The main feature of the theater
is its originality. Trying to preserve the language and customs of the
peoples inhabiting Altai, the performances are based on the work of
Altai authors. This theater plays a special role in preserving the
traditions and language of the Altai people. Dramatic works, which form
the basis for performances, take into account the national identity of
the Altaians. A significant role in the theater productions is given to
fairy tales, many of them are based on the Oirot epic.
State National
Theater of Dance and Song "Altam"
The National Museum of the Republic
of Altai named after A. V. Anokhin, which houses the mummy of the Altai
Princess from the Ukok Plateau].
The State Philharmonic has been
operating since 1986. The beginning of the work of the Philharmonic is
considered the concert activity of creative groups. It has been working
since 1962, when the Gorno-Altai regional executive committee decided to
create a regional national concert group.
State Orchestra of the
Republic of Altai
National Library of the Republic of Altai named
after M. V. Chevalkov.
City House of Culture, where the creative
teams "Sinegorye", "Oyoyym", "Razdolie", "Decadence", "Gloria",
"Belovodie", "Radunitsa", "Nauryz" work. National holidays Maslenitsa,
Nauryz, Chaga-Bayram are regularly held. The last holiday "El-Oiyn"
received the status of a republican celebration since February 2013[.
House of Culture
M. V. Chevalkov National Library
Republican
Children's Library
City Library System
Folk Art Center