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Hotels, motels and where to sleep
Kem is located in White Sea Karelia. The city is located at the mouth of the river of the same name in the Kem Bay of the White Sea. Kem is an old Pomeranian city. It is the administrative center of the Kem district of the republic. Kem is a good destination for visiting the Solovetsky Monastery, which lie 40 kilometers east of the city.
Despite the fact that Kem is one of the oldest cities
in Russia, very few historical buildings have been preserved here, since
wood has been the main building material for centuries, and the local
climate is not very favorable to wooden structures. In the Soviet years,
the city, which was the "capital" of the camp system, did not shine with
beautiful architecture, and in modern times it has become a typical
backwater, so no new monuments have appeared here either. A very
impressive number of historical wooden buildings of the 19th-20th
centuries are scattered on Lepostrov and on the outskirts of the city,
but due to their very poor design and utilitarian purpose, most of them
are of interest only to specialists.
1 Assumption Cathedral, st.
Vitsupa (opposite house 14). A wooden hipped-roof church built in
1711-1714 on the site of a farmstead of the Solovetsky Monastery that
burned down in a fire. Nearby stands a chapel built immediately after
the fire, in 1710. In general, the temple complex can be put on a par
with the exhibits of museums in Kizhi and Vitoslavlitsy.
2
Annunciation Cathedral, st. Lenina 14. Brick temple, built in 1903. In
1934 it was closed and by 1991 it had lost its completion. In 2000, a
monastery was founded on its territory, to which, as a fraternal
building, a neighboring pre-revolutionary building was attached, in the
courtyard of which members of the Kem district council were shot in
1918. After repairs, the monastery hung a sign on the building stating
that the building was built by prisoners of the camps in 1929.
3 City
Square, st. Lenin (on the coast, in the alignment of Kameneva street).
The main park of the city. The central element of the park is the mass
grave of members of the Kem district council, who were shot in 1918 in
the courtyard near the cathedral nearby. The dead in the Great Patriotic
War are also buried here. Both the memorials and the park itself are
rather unkempt, but a good view of the Kemskaya Bay opens from here.
4 Old Kemsky cemetery, Beregovaya street. Pomorsky cemetery with a high
proportion of Old Believer graves, where gravestones are installed
instead of the usual crosses. In addition, at the entrance to the
cemetery there is a mass grave from the times of the Great Patriotic
War.
5 The building of the administration of the Solovetsky camps,
st. Lenina 10. The building, built in 1930, which housed the
administration of the SLON - Solovetsky Special Purpose Camps. It is
interesting not only by this historical fact, but also by the
architecture: in addition to the fact that the building was built at the
junction of constructivism and the Stalinist Empire style, almost all of
its external design has survived to this day, including a freight
elevator in the courtyard, designed to deliver dishes from the
restaurant to the first floor to the head of the camps on the second.
6 Railway water tower, Vysotnaya st. 6. Water tower, built on a
mountain near the railway station in 1916. The lower part is made of
granite blocks, the upper part is made of brick, so despite painting it
in the corporate colors of Russian Railways, it looks quite monumental.
Rabocheostrovsk
Rabocheostrovsk is a suburb of Kem, which has
grown up around the seaport. In 1920-1939, there was a transit point for
prisoners on the way to the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp. Nowadays,
boats with pilgrims to Solovki depart from here, and here you can also
charter a ship for boat trips or visiting various attractions.
7 Settings for the film "The Island" , Rabocheostrovsk, Portovaya st.
(at the end, the street turns to the shore and goes to the cape, from
where the bridge leads to the island with decorations). In 2005, after
numerous unsuccessful expeditions to find a place to shoot the film,
Pavel Lungin stopped on the outskirts of Rabocheostrovsk, preferring it
to monasteries that were too grand, in his opinion. On the peninsula at
that time there was a hut left from the transit point for prisoners,
which was rebuilt by the film crew into a church - the inner walls were
sawn out, creating a single space, the roof was restored, installing a
dome on it. Fake bells were made of gypsum, turning the old navigation
sign into a bell tower, a worship cross was installed next to the
"church", and bridges were installed at the far end of the peninsula.
After the filming of the film, the site was bought into private hands,
but no one cared for the buildings, so they began to collapse. However,
the owner appears there from time to time and has a rather negative
attitude towards visitors, so it is better to inspect the scenery from
afar or from the water.
Church of the Life-Giving Trinity, Kem,
pos. Rabocheostrovsk, st. Portovaya, 8. ☎ 8 (921) 624-82-46. Temple of
the Life-Giving Trinity in the courtyard of the Solovetsky Monastery
Kemsky City Museum "Pomorye" , st. Vitsupa 12. ☎ +7 (81458) 7-25-71. Mon–Fri 10:00–17:00, Sun 11:00–16:00; summer 10:00–17:00. The local history and local history museum, located in the first stone building of the city, which once belonged to the county treasury. More than 6,000 exhibits of the museum are devoted to the history of the city and the ethnography of the Pomors.
The city was built on the banks of the Kem River, from which it got its name. It is assumed that the hydronym "Kem" comes from the ancient word whom or khem, meaning a large river, which is found in a large part of Eurasia. There is also a toponymic legend, according to which the name comes from the abbreviation of the swear expression K. E. M., allegedly written by Peter I in decrees on expulsion to the north.
The city is located on the Kemi River, near its confluence with the White Sea, at the top of the Kemskaya Bay, mainly on the left bank of the river and on the island of Lepostrov, between its branches. The Kem River is navigable from the sea to the city, but only for small ships. To the east of the Kemskaya Bay, in the White Sea, are the Kemsky skerries.
In the 15th century, Kem was the volost of Veliky Novgorod
posadnik Marfa Boretskaya, and in 1450 she presented it to the
Solovetsky Monastery. In 1579 and 1580. the Finns ("Kayan Germans")
made a devastating raid on Kem; the Solovetsky voivode Ozerov and
many archers were killed, but the voivode Anichkov defeated and
drove out the Kayanians. In 1590, the Swedes ravaged the Kem parish.
In 1591, the entire volost, with the Muezersky Sea, peasants,
varnitsa and crafts, was given to the Solovetsky Monastery, which in
1657 built a two-story prison here and armed it with squeakers and
cannons.
From 1704 to 1711, the Kemsky prison was
administered by the treasury, and then returned to the Solovetsky
Monastery.
Kemsky town with 29 affiliated villages
(Letneretskaya, Poduzhemskaya, Umangozerskaya, Pilsozerskaya,
Buldyrevskaya, Kizretskaya, Lagoeva Varaka, Maslozerskaya, Afonin
Navolok, Ushkov Navolok, Lezhaev Navolok, Pebozero, Pongomskaya,
Elmanga, Kletnoe Ozero, Kumozero, Shelopogye, Kilgozero, Vichana
Tanbala , Vingezero, Kondozero, Rogozerozhskaya, Vongozero, Big
Lake, Azla River, Tungozero, Kokkosalma, Lavoguba, Lanbash Guba) was
one of the patrimonies of the Solovetsky Monastery - they were
collecting quitrent and bobyl tribute.
In 1749 and 1763, the
Kemsky town suffered from floods.
In 1764, by decree of
Empress Catherine II, a secularization reform began, seizing church
possessions in favor of the state. In the same year, the Kemsky town
became part of the Onega district of the Arkhangelsk province.
In the course of the reform of the administrative-territorial
division of the Russian Empire on May 16, 1785, by the Decree of
Catherine II, the Kemsky district was formed, the Kemsky town was
renamed the city of Kem. The city became the county town of the Olonets
viceroy (the Olonets governor G. R. Derzhavin took part in the ceremony
of declaring Kem a city). The Kemsky uyezd was formed from the Pomor
settlements of the Onega uyezd of the Arkhangelsk province and part of
the Povenets uyezd.
On October 4, 1788, the coat of arms of the
city was approved.
In 1799 the city was added to the Arkhangelsk
province. In 1825 it was badly devastated by fire. In 1858, the Kemsky
uyezd was merged with the Kola uyezd, and Kem remained a county town;
then these counties were again divided.
Until the 20th century,
Kem was a district town of the Arkhangelsk province. As of January 1,
1894, there were 2150 inhabitants (men - 966, women - 1184), including
nobles - 56, clergy - 10, honorary citizens - 42, merchants - 19,
bourgeois - 1349, peasants - 504, troops - 77 people Churches, chapels
and monasteries - 7, houses - 326 (of which stone - 1), non-residential
buildings - 356. 2-class city school for boys (53 students), parish
school for girls (34 students) and skipper courses (30 people), a
hospital, a bakery, a sawmill (with 250 workers and a production of
405,000 rubles), 2 forges, a brick factory, a slaughterhouse. The income
of the city in 1893 - 5664 rubles, expenses - 6555 rubles. (for
management - 1480 rubles, for the medical unit - 1850 rubles, for public
education - 605 rubles). In 1897, 2447 people lived in the city, of
which they indicated as their native language: 2140 - Russian, 272 -
Karelian.
The main occupation of the inhabitants is fishing in
Murman, in the White Sea and on the Kem River. In 1893, 200 people went
to Murman, fish were caught for 13,700 rubles, profit - 7,700 rubles; 32
people were engaged in salmon fishing. (Produced for 9000 rubles, profit
- 7630 rubles), fishing of coastal sea fish - 24 people, lake and river
fish - 10 people. The fish is sold partly to Arkhangelsk and other
points in the north, partly to St. Petersburg. Part of the inhabitants
is engaged in logging, hunting, carting, transporting goods by water (in
1893 - 8 ships). Significant export of timber abroad (in 1893 - for
319,459 rubles). The inhabitants of Kem sow some barley, grow potatoes
and some garden plants; in 1893 they had 177 cattle, 43 horses, 236
sheep, 182 deer.
On March 21, 1918, Finnish detachments under the command of Karl
Wilhelm Malm crossed the new border of Finland and marched towards
Kemi. The Finns attacked Kem on April 10, the attack was repulsed.
In early July 1918, Anglo-French-Serb-American troops occupied
Kandalaksha, Kem and Soroka (now the city of Belomorsk).
On
February 16-18, 1919, in Kem, with the consent of the commander of
the interventionist troops on Murman, General C. Meinard, a congress
of representatives of 12 Karelian volosts of the Arkhangelsk
province was held. The participants sought to declare Karelia an
independent country in the form of a democratic republic, thereby
expressing their desire to get away from the guardianship of the
White Guard government of the Northern Region. Questions of the
organization of power and administration, as well as the
relationship of this republic to Russia and Finland, it was decided
to postpone until the upcoming Constituent Assembly. To reassure the
White government, General Price, commander of the 237th Brigade, who
was present at the congress as representative of the Allies, read
Maynard's telegram emphasizing that the Allied command would not
support any proposal to separate this territory from Russia. The
congress participants decided to send their representatives to the
Paris Peace Conference in order to achieve recognition by the great
powers of Karelia's right to independent and sovereign development.
Soviet period
In the first half of the 1920s, in Kem, the
authorities organized the first official concentration camp in the
USSR (originally intended for a criminal element), which in fact
became the first unofficial political concentration camp in the
USSR.
At the same time, this camp also served as a transit
point for the delivery of consignments of prisoners to Solovki, to
the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp. The historical building, which
housed the administration of the Solovetsky camps, has been
preserved. A Poklonny Cross was erected in the city in memory of
those who died in the camps.
In 1971, the Kemsky fish
hatchery was put into operation, specializing in the artificial
breeding of lake salmon, salmon, salmon, and pink salmon.
By train
The railway line Petrozavodsk-Murmansk passes through the
city. Previously, there was also a branch to Rabocheostrovsk, now almost
completely dismantled.
1 Railway station Kem, pl. Kirova, 2.
Railway station in Kem with a round-the-clock waiting room and ticket
offices. All platforms at the station are low. All passing trains stop
at the station, so from here you can go not only to St. Petersburg,
Moscow, Petrozavodsk or Murmansk, but also to Veliky Novgorod, Minsk or
Tver. Commuter trains run 3 times a week to the north (to Loukhi on
Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays) and south (to Malenga via Belomorsk on
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays).
By car
On the highway P21
"Kola" to the Kem River, then exit to the east and 20 km to the city.
The road from the highway to the city is asphalt, but for 2020 it is in
poor condition: despite the absence of potholes, the surface is
extremely uneven and practically repeats the relief of local rocks,
there is also no lighting on the highway outside the settlements, so it
is recommended to choose a low speed.
2 gas station "Rosneft",
sh. May 1, 84. Gas station at the entrance to the city, located a little
away from the road, in the back of the block.
3 Kem gas station, P21
Kola, 850 meters north of the intersection with the Kem-Kalevala road.
Refueling on the highway at the turn to Kem.
On the ship
Located on a large river near its confluence with the White Sea, Kem is
not just a fishing town - every third inhabitant here has its own boat.
Berths, mooring places and exits for launching small boats are equipped
everywhere. In addition, most of the surroundings are very conditionally
accessible by car (high ground clearance and four-wheel drive are highly
desirable, and the average speed on local roads does not exceed 40
kilometers per hour), so water transport is optimal for visiting them.
4 Port Kem, Rabocheostrovsk, Embankment st. Once a major timber and
passenger port, and until the end of the 1950s it was also a transit
point on the way to the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp. In the
post-Soviet period, the port fell into decay. For 2020, it serves on a
permanent basis only flights to Solovki during the navigation period,
the sawmill is practically abandoned, and the port station has been
dismantled.
5 City pier, st. Malysheva (in front of house 3). Pier
where local fishermen moor their boats. You can arrange with someone for
transportation by water or moor if you are traveling on your own ship.
There are 2 bus routes in the city: No. 1, following from the railway station to the port, and No. 4, following from the Assumption Cathedral up to 20 kilometers and crossing the P21 "Kola" highway. On the section from the ELEPHANT Department to the station, both follow the same track. Also, a suburban bus runs from the station to the village of Krivoy Porog, duplicating route 4. The schedule of all routes is published on the city portal.
Cheap
Canteen No. 1, pl. Kirova, 7 (150 meters southeast of
the station, entrance to the building from the side opposite the
station). daily, around the clock. Canteen for Russian Railways
employees, locomotive crews are served out of turn. The service is
very clumsy, but the quality of the food is quite good. It should
also be borne in mind that by the evening not everything from the
menu indicated remains. Yandex and Google stubbornly believe that
the canteen is closed, but it continues its work.
Причал, пос. Рабочеостровск,
ул. Набережная, д.1. prichal@onego.ru
Кузова, ул. Фрунзе, д.1
aista@onego.ru