The amazing city of Lipki, Tula region (Kireevsky district): photos and impressions

Have you ever wanted to go back in time?
I, for one, am very... And not in order to influence the course of future events, but in order to gawk at the world around us. On people and cities, on streets and buildings, and so on. My dream came true: I found myself in the past, in a small town, on the streets of which time stood still. Meet Lipki. In general, when I mentioned my desire to visit Lipki, one acquaintance told me that I would simply waste time, because there was nothing to do there: the city is boring, there is no cinema, no cafe, in short, there is nothing. Well...weak arguments. So, we chose a nice day and hit the road. At the same time, we visited Milenino, but that’s a completely different story.

So, about Lipki. This city captivated us immediately (I’m speaking seriously now, there is no sarcasm here) with its silence. You know, it was as if he was sleeping... it was a day off, and on the streets there were “three plagues and two cripples.” (Well, in principle, this is not so surprising; according to the 2010 census, almost 9,000 people live there.) The silence that I love so much. And... a lot of trees... cozy shady streets. In a word, we arrived, parked and walked...wherever our eyes looked. But...first, information about the city.

Coat of arms of the city of Lipki and some facts

The shield is half-cut and crossed. In the upper right part of the shield is the coat of arms of the Tula region, in the left - in an azure field there are two golden hands holding a black piece of coal, in the lower - in a scarlet field there is a linden branch with three green leaves and golden flowers

Well, it’s clear what the coat of arms of the Tula region does there. Further. Linden trees, coal...here it’s worth paying attention a little.

Not far from the city there is a village called Lipki, and it has been known since the 17th century. And in the 40s of the 20th century, the development of brown coal began in these places (this, by the way, explains the piece of coal on the coat of arms). And since development began, it meant that miners had to live somewhere. And so, over the years, a settlement arose, which in 1955 received the status of a city. This is how Lipki began.

Now, of course, no coal mining is being carried out, but the city continues to exist. Moreover, in its (almost) original Soviet form. By the way, Wikipedia even compared Lipki with Suzdal, due to the uniform style of the city - mining settlements of the post-war era. A style that has hardly been touched by alterations, but, of course, has been terribly battered by time.

Notes

1. ↑ 123
   www.gks.ru/free_doc/doc_2016/bul_dr/mun_obr2016.rar Population of the Russian Federation by municipalities as of January 1, 2016
2. THE USSR. Administrative-territorial division of the union republics on January 1, 1980 / Compiled by V. A. Dudarev, N. A. Evseeva. - M.: Publishing house "Izvestia of the Soviets of People's Deputies of the USSR", 1980. - 702 p. — P. 231.
3. History of the Russian State (Karamzin)/Volume VIII/Chapter IV
4. Book for the Big Drawing. edited by K. N. Serbina / Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences. — 1950
5. [guides.rusarchives.ru/browse/guidebook.html?bid=311&sid=1119907 Administrative-territorial division of the Tula region for 1917-1989]. [www.webcitation.org/61BMe0AfC Archived from the original on August 24, 2011].
6. Changes in the administrative-territorial division of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in 2009
7. [demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus59_reg2.php All-Union Population Census of 1959. The size of the urban population of the RSFSR, its territorial units, urban settlements and urban areas by gender] (Russian). Demoscope Weekly. Retrieved September 25, 2013. [www.webcitation.org/6GDOghWC9 Archived from the original on April 28, 2013].
8. ↑ 123456789101112
   www.MojGorod.ru/tuljsk_obl/lipki/index.html People's encyclopedia “My City”. Lipki
9. [demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus70_reg2.php All-Union Population Census of 1970 The size of the urban population of the RSFSR, its territorial units, urban settlements and urban areas by gender.] (Russian). Demoscope Weekly. Retrieved September 25, 2013. [www.webcitation.org/6GDOiMstp Archived from the original on April 28, 2013].
10. [demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus79_reg2.php All-Union Population Census of 1979 The size of the urban population of the RSFSR, its territorial units, urban settlements and urban areas by gender.] (Russian). Demoscope Weekly. Retrieved September 25, 2013. [www.webcitation.org/6GDOjhZ5L Archived from the original on April 28, 2013].
11. [demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus89_reg2.php All-Union Population Census of 1989. Urban population]. [www.webcitation.org/617x0o0Pa Archived from the original on August 22, 2011].
12. [www.perepis2002.ru/ct/doc/1_TOM_01_04.xls All-Russian Population Census 2002. Volume. 1, table 4. Population of Russia, federal districts, constituent entities of the Russian Federation, districts, urban settlements, rural settlements - regional centers and rural settlements with a population of 3 thousand or more]. [www.webcitation.org/65AdCU0q3 Archived from the original on February 3, 2012].
13. [www.gks.ru/bgd/regl/B09_109/IssWWW.exe/Stg/d01/tabl-21-09.xls Number of permanent population of the Russian Federation by cities, urban-type settlements and districts as of January 1, 2009]. Retrieved January 2, 2014. [www.webcitation.org/6MJmu0z1u Archived from the original on January 2, 2014].
14. [tulastat.gks.ru/wps/wcm/connect/rosstat_ts/tulastat/resources/32a53b80412060b2ac62ef367ccd0f13/Number+and+location+of+%28Volume+1%29.pdf All-Russian Population Census 2010. Number and distribution of the population of the Tula region]. Retrieved May 18, 2014. [www.webcitation.org/6PfOFQt4l Archived from the original on May 18, 2014].
15. [www.gks.ru/free_doc/doc_2012/bul_dr/mun_obr2012.rar Population of the Russian Federation by municipalities. Table 35. Estimated resident population as of January 1, 2012]. Retrieved May 31, 2014. [www.webcitation.org/6PyOWbdMc Archived from the original on May 31, 2014].
16. [www.gks.ru/free_doc/doc_2013/bul_dr/mun_obr2013.rar Population of the Russian Federation by municipalities as of January 1, 2013. - M.: Federal State Statistics Service Rosstat, 2013. - 528 p. (Table 33. Population of urban districts, municipal districts, urban and rural settlements, urban settlements, rural settlements)]. Retrieved November 16, 2013. [www.webcitation.org/6LAdCWSxH Archived from the original on November 16, 2013].
17. [www.gks.ru/free_doc/doc_2014/bul_dr/mun_obr2014.rar Table 33. Population of the Russian Federation by municipalities as of January 1, 2014]. Retrieved August 2, 2014. [www.webcitation.org/6RWqP50QK Archived from the original on August 2, 2014].
18. [www.gks.ru/free_doc/doc_2015/bul_dr/mun_obr2015.rar Population of the Russian Federation by municipalities as of January 1, 2015]. Retrieved August 6, 2015. [www.webcitation.org/6aaNzOlFO Archived from the original on August 6, 2015].
19. zabyg17.livejournal.com/121472.html Lipki - Soviet Suzdal
20. abris.tv/lungin.htm Autumn is wedding time

City of Lipki, Tula region photos and impressions

But okay, let's go for a walk around Lipki. So, we stopped near a remarkable house (I liked it), and went wherever we looked, and... almost immediately we came across a sculpture of Vladimir Vladimirovich... Eh, no, another VV - Mayakovsky.

Yep, the same one who pulls out of his wide trousers... and again there is no... “hammer-faced, sickle-faced Soviet passport.” I don't like his poetry, to be honest.

Then we turned left. The street, apparently the central one, if I’m not mistaken, is Sovetskaya (as well as everything around). And very soon we met two serious-looking miners. They stand on both sides of the road, as if at the entrance to this street. Impressive, actually.

Imagine a shady street (there wasn’t much of a smell of cars there), tall trees... and on both sides of the road two miners. One is so serious (he clenched his fist sternly), and the second is pitiful, his hand fell off. However, apparently, the first aggressive one had something in his hand... maybe a pickaxe? Shovel? Jackhammer? Or what else do the miners have?

We took pictures of them and went back to Mayakovsky, this street beckoned. It was not in vain that we went. There we came across buildings with the inscriptions “Cooking” and “Lipki Restaurant”. It's not even about the buildings, but about the inscriptions, look for yourself, they are so... from another era

On the contrary, if my memory serves me correctly, the administration. Somehow, though, she’s quite scary. But... in front of the building there is an elegant flowerbed, or rather a flowerpot in which flowers grow, and, well, a fence. Again, Soviet era.

In front of the fence we see a soldier with a child. And everything seems to be with him. A majestic appearance, a child pressed close to his body, an overcoat, a trampled swastika underfoot, but... there’s something missing in his hand . I don’t know what it is that soldiers have: a gun? bayonet?

We go a little further and see a very beautiful building. And it’s painted, and decorated, and there are all sorts of flowers on it. So cozy. This is the Lipkovo Children's Art House. Opposite DTU there is again a sculpture - a father with a child. In general, there are a lot of children’s images in Lipki, and they are all so happy, although they have not been preserved in full. This one is missing an arm, but that doesn’t stop them from looking joyful.

We move on and meet Maxim Gorky. He sat down on a pebble in the shade of the trees. To my shame, I haven’t read much by Gorky, but for some reason I don’t like him either.

Almost opposite is the House of Culture. Quite a decent building, on the front side =) all the interesting things will be behind the cultural center, but for now let’s look around.

And there are benches around, on them, again in the shade of trees, there are vacationers (there are not many of them), it is not noisy. And the most notable thing here... are the lampposts. Very richly decorated, all with trinkets and Soviet stars. True, there are no lampshades left there anymore, so these lamps are of no use, but they are beautiful.

We go around the cultural center on the left, go around it... and... ta-dam! The back of the building is gorgeous... it would be if it were painted and patched up. But it’s beautiful...we called it the Colosseum. But it’s not even about the cultural center itself.

There... behind the building, apparently, a small public garden was planned, in front of which, apparently, there once was a fountain. It’s an amazing place, and how beautiful it was...about 50 years ago. Now there are only peeling facades of the cultural center, broken steps, old asphalt, and the remains of a fountain, which has been carefully covered with garbage. But again, how handsome he is... We were very surprised to meet such beauty... we didn’t expect it, to be honest.

Further from the fountain there are alleys. Narrow. The trees are tall again. Under your feet there is a semblance of asphalt, in some places its complete absence, but you can see the tiles with which these alleys were once paved. And at the end, the entrance to this little park awaited us, also an interesting looking “gate”.

Eh...I wish I could put my hands into all this, and money! That would be great! For now, let's move on.

We left the park and turned right (our attention was drawn to a fence sticking out among the greenery).

It’s very good that you attracted me. Thanks to him, we came to...um...a landscape worthy of the Stalker universe. In a word, we came to the hospital and the surrounding areas and buildings. In fact, it is difficult for me to judge what was there or should have been, or anything else, since I am not a local creature and can only guess. But judging by the appearance of the first building that we came across, then... something was being rebuilt there, but, apparently, it was not completely rebuilt, and, in fact, it exists in this form to this day. But it could be useful. Although... maybe it’s not a matter of perestroika at all. The facades of the building just look very decent, but the lack of glass in the windows is somewhat confusing. God be with him, let's move on =)

And then again some hospital buildings, we didn’t go into too much detail. We looked at them, became sad and moved forward to where new statues loomed.

There are already two of them there at once: a pilot and a lady with a child. On the pedestal with the pilot there is an inscription: “Here in 1941, the crew of the Soviet pilots died in battles with the Nazi invaders. Eternal glory to the Heroes!

And again all sorts of elegant flowerpots with flowers. I really like them. In general, yes, Lipki is a nice town. They even say that filmmakers have fallen in love with this city. Like, Pavel Lungin filmed his Wedding here (and also From Love to Kohannya, The Last Confession and After the War - Peace). To be honest, I haven’t seen a single film, and I’m unlikely to watch them; I have a special relationship with our cinema.

Yes, the building is shabby, ugly, all that remains of the fence are brick pillars, everything else (metal) has disappeared somewhere.

A little further down the street there is a kindergarten, and there are also sculptures on its territory. Komsomol pioneers, and something else or someone else. Through the bars of the fence I managed to see what was there =) Here is a disguised scarecrow-statue, or... well, I don’t even know what to call it, it... didn’t exactly scare me, but something unpleasant stirred inside =)

Then, to be honest, I don’t remember which paths we took, we went to the stadium. There we were met by the Fingerless Football Player, who was doing some kind of feint with the ball. By the way, at the entrance, besides the football player, there was someone else - the pedestal remained, but the sculpture... alas and ah. They say that a hockey player was standing there, well... quite logical.

One look at the stadium and we're heading back. Down the street. Along the way I look at the houses and enjoy the trees

Very soon we meet Anton Palych Chekhov, he, like Gorky, sat down on a pebble. And a little further on is the building of the Palace of Culture, opposite which the leader of the world proletariat stands in the bushes. I don’t like him very much, so I don’t even take pictures, but this time I made an exception.

That's it, the walk is over. It turns out that a circle has been cut. It seems like everyone has climbed around here (as it seemed to us). But we also know that in Lipki there is a Mass Grave - a memorial in memory of Soviet soldiers of the Great Patriotic War, but this is another separate story.

Now, I will probably say goodbye to you on such an optimistic note. Goodbye