Bratsk center, that is, the Central district of Bratsk, or as it is simply called “the city,” is really a city with wide beautiful avenues, theaters and stadiums, shopping centers and squares, hotels and restaurants. 143 thousand people live in the central district of Bratsk.
It has only one problem - the ecology of Bratsk, its proximity to the BLPC and BRAZ plants, and therefore it is often impossible to breathe due to emissions. When it was designed, the wind rose was directed in one direction; after the reservoir was flooded, it changed. So we are suffering.
In this article I will talk mainly about cultural and entertainment centers. I will start my description of Bratsk with the Bratsk Drama Theater.
BROTHERLAND DRAMA THEATER
The Bratsk Drama Theater was founded in 1986. This is the youngest theater in Siberia. At first it was located in Padun in a small wooden building. The auditorium was also small and the rows of seats were arranged like in a stadium, going steeply upward, and the stage was correspondingly below. But I still felt comfortable there. At the end of 1990, the theater moved to the Bratsk ART TCC, however, the artists were uncomfortable there, because The building is not its own, but together with amateur groups and a puppet theater.
And only in 2003 the theater received its own building in the city center on Mira Street 37. Previously, it was the Rossiya cinema, which was rebuilt, restored and given to the theater.
The repertoire of our theater is the most diverse. These are plays by Russian and foreign classics, and modern playwrights. The theater is not afraid to experiment, the artists are great, and I always watch its performances with pleasure. I especially remember the production of the play “Scarlet Sails” based on Alexander Greene. The new 34th theater season is planned to open with the premiere of Jean Baptiste Moliere’s play “The Miser.”
The square in front of the theater is the most beautiful, a green square with flower beds and a cascade of fountains. Opposite across the road, the majestic Church of the Nativity of Christ is being completed. The interior decoration is not yet finished, but services are already underway on the left side of the Temple. The landscaping of the temple grounds is being completed.
Where is the city of Bratsk, what region?
Bratsk is one of the cities in the Russian Federation; it is the administrative center of the Bratsk district, located in the Irkutsk region. It is located on large reservoirs of the Angara River. The original structure of the settlement does not correspond to the standard type of urban area. Considering how much population there is in Bratsk, we can talk about the densely populated settlement, however, residential areas are separated from each other by large areas of forests and water spaces. Each residential area was previously a village located near the central part of the city. By decision of the authorities, they were all united into a single state facility.
All neighborhoods have different areas and infrastructure. The region has a single administrative center - the city of Irkutsk. It is a thousand kilometers away from Bratsk. The area of Bratsk reaches 43 thousand hectares.
The question arises - what is the population in Bratsk? According to the latest data, the population of Bratsk is about two hundred and forty thousand people.
TRK BRATSK-ART, PUPPET THEATER TIRLYAMY
The theater and concert center Bratsk-Art is located at the address: Lenin Avenue 28, telephone, and has existed since 1982. Previously it was called the Metallurg Palace of Culture, but then the drama theater, puppet theater and Lesokhimik Palace of Culture, Metallurg Palace of Culture merged into one Bratsk Art shopping and entertainment complex. Amateur creative groups perform on its stage and famous artists of the country constantly tour. Every month they give more than one concert or performance. Various festivals and competitions, interesting festive events and exhibitions are held.
The Tirlyamy puppet theater currently operates in the building of the Bratsk-Art shopping and entertainment complex. The puppet theater in Bratsk was organized back in 1968. Then young puppeteers from all over the country came to our young city. In 1969, the Puppet Theater received its renovated building - a fairy-tale tower on Podbelsky Street. Many Bratchans grew up watching his performances and still remember them with delight. Thanks to the talents and hard work of the artists and directors, the puppets simply came to life on stage. The audience especially loved the performance of the fairy tale by the writer G.P. Mikhasenko. “The Tirlyams in the Underground Kingdom.” In 1998, on its 30th anniversary, the theater was named “Tirlyamy” in memory of the talented writer Gennady Pavlovich Mikhasenko.
The old theater building finally falls into disrepair and the Tirlyama Theater moves to the Metallurg Palace of Culture. Not only new exciting performances for children are staged there, but also for adults, such as “Romeo and Juliet”, “Catherine the Great”, “The Marriage of Balzaminov” in an original manner combining a live plan.
On the square near the Bratsk-Art shopping center, for the New Year they put up the main Christmas tree of Bratsk, which was presented to the city by the Rusal company in 2016. This Christmas tree is 23 meters high and decorated with 64 garlands.
You can look at her and at winter Bratsk from a bird’s eye view, and at the same time listen to Pakhmutova’s beautiful song on my YouTube channel by following this link: Farewell to Bratsk
Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Initially, on the site of the temple there was a residential building, which in 1980, with the assistance of parishioners, was converted into an Orthodox church. The consecration took place in 1982. Over time, as a result of several reconstructions, the building acquired a traditional appearance: a central dome, a new bell tower appeared, a metal frame was installed and the roof was completely replaced. At the end of the 90s, an Orthodox gymnasium opened here.
Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the city of Bratsk
Source
METALLURGIST PARK
Although I have lived in Bratsk since 1985, I somehow never had the opportunity to visit the park in central Bratsk. I even thought he wasn't there. And when I got ready to write about cultural and entertainment centers, I was surprised to read that they still exist. And I went in search of him. I took a trolleybus to the Baikal shopping center, walked forward a little and turned right. Then I had to walk half a kilometer along the street past individual houses and, finally, behind a small, unkempt public garden, I saw the iron lattice fence of a park with the proud name “Metallurgists’ Park.”
But this park didn't look like a park at all. For the most part, this is a long wide asphalt strip along which children rode scooters. Along this asphalt road there were carousels and similar private attractions for small children, as well as gazebos and kiosks. A park primarily implies trees, but there were almost none there.
True, there was one single alley along the fence, which attracted my attention: there were many sculptures of fairy-tale characters on it. The sculptures are made very well, with imagination and are very recognizable. There were Cheburashka with the crocodile Gena, and Pinocchio with Karabas Barabas, and the Little Mermaid, and Funtik, and Baba Yaga, and Bogatyr, and Kuzya the Brownie, and even the inseparable trinity Vitsin, Morgunov and Nikulin and many other characters. Here's everything you can see in the park.
Church Grace in Christ
The temple carries out charitable activities - it helps people with alcohol, drug, and toxicological addictions to adapt to social conditions. One course lasts a year and is completed on an inpatient basis. Help is provided to everyone, regardless of gender, age, religion, etc. The church has been working in this direction for 12 years, and during all this time about 2,000 thousand people have turned here for help. Each of them received consultation from church ministers, 170 people completed a “spiritual assistance” program, thanks to which they were all able to return to normal life in society. The church gives everyone the opportunity to free themselves from addiction, but the further success of treatment is determined by the person himself and his strength of desire to get rid of the problem.
Church Grace in Christ
MUSEUM OF THE HISTORY OF POLITICAL EXLINE
Near the entrance to the park there is a simple wooden house. Above the porch I read the sign “Museum of the History of Political Exile.” I walked in and was kindly greeted by a museum employee, Candidate of Historical Sciences Lyudmila Veniaminovna Teleshon, who led me to the exhibition room. As it turned out, at that time there was an exhibition on numismatics there. But I was interested in the history of political exile and she told me a little, but interestingly:
The first known political exile was Archpriest Avvakum, who was revered as a martyr in the Old Believers. He was distinguished by the severity of his convictions and asceticism and was an invincible and irreconcilable fighter against the new dogmas of the church. Because of this, he was repeatedly beaten, thrown into dungeons, into exile, then he was returned to Moscow twice and exiled again, kept in prison for 14 years and finally burned in 1681.
He ended up in the Bratsk prison in the winter of 1654, he was beaten for a long time and kept in a damp, cold dungeon, then he was sent under house arrest. He was released in the spring.
Another famous person was the Decembrist Pyotr Alekseevich Mukhanov, exiled to the village of Bratskoye in 1832 after 8 years of hard labor. He lived there for 10 years. Life there seemed hopeless to him. However, in Bratsk he was engaged in hydrogeological research, which later came in handy during the construction of the Bratsk hydroelectric power station. One of the streets of Bratsk is named after Mukhanov.
No less famous in our country was the exiled revolutionary Valentin Vladimirovich Ryabikov. He participated in the work of the Siberian group of Social Democrats. He was arrested several times and in 1910 he was exiled forever to Siberia. He arrived in the village of Bratskoye in 1911 to a colony of political exiles.
While in exile, Ryabikov was engaged in meteorological observations, wrote petitions to peasants, was a member of the society for the development of Siberia and founded a museum, collecting exhibits for it. A local priest allocated a church house for the museum, which is now a museum, transported from the flood zone. However, its exhibits and priceless documents were not preserved, as they were later transferred to the school, and the school burned down. I had to reassemble everything.
One of the streets in Bratsk is also named after Ryabikov.
During the years of Stalin's repressions there were no political exiles directly in the village of Bratsk. They were located on both sides from Bratsk to Taishet and to Ust-Kut, and were engaged in the construction of the railway. However, the repressions also affected many Bratchan and nearby villages and cities. So, for example, my guide’s grandfather was arrested and soon shot near Irkutsk.
Museum address: st. Parkovaya 3, phone 41-49-60.
Weather and natural features
The Angara brings the water that fills the Bratsk Sea from Lake Baikal, so it is clean and quite cold. Closer to the power plant dam, the level of water pollution in the reservoir increases. The sharply continental climate of the Irkutsk region in the area of Lake Baikal and the Angara reservoirs is becoming milder, the amplitude of annual and daily temperatures is smaller here, winters are warmer and summers are cooler.
Weather on the Bratsk Sea for 10 and 14 days (in Bratsk)
Only in the hottest summer months does the reservoir warm up to a depth of 1 m to +20°C, and in winter the ice thickness can reach 1.25 m. The ice on the reservoir melts only by the beginning of May. Warm summer weather sets in at the beginning of June, and by mid-summer thermometers often show temperatures above +30°C.
© Ksenia Usova
By this time, the water in the shallow sandy bays reaches temperatures comfortable for swimming. Unfortunately, in the second half of summer there is a lot of rain, and in September the first frosts begin and the beach season ends. The short summer is not a hindrance for fishermen - after summer fishing comes the time of autumn pike hunting in the bays of the Bratsk Sea, and in December the ice fishing season begins.
CINEMA “CHARLIE”
We have 2 cinemas in the whole city. One of them is in Energy “Hollywood” and the second is in Central Bratsk “Charlie”. It is located at the address: st. Ryabikova 47, phone. You can book tickets using this phone number, but usually they are always available and there is no queue. The cinema has two halls with 355 and 115 seats, two bars - adults and children, and a summer cafe. Films show both 3D and regular 2D.
There is a sculpture of Charlie Chaplin in front of the cinema. The cinema is located at the intersection of two new beautiful streets: Ryabikova and Krupskaya. On Krupskaya Street there are modern, bright shopping centers such as “Colosseum”, “Goodwin”, “Almaz”, “Arena”, “Prospekt”. On the other side of the street there are also various boutiques, and in the middle there is a wide square with flower beds and benches, but there are still not enough trees. This is the 24th microdistrict of the city of Bratsk, the most prosperous in the center in terms of ecology.
Roman Catholic Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius
It’s amazing how peacefully different faiths coexist within one Siberian city.
The church appeared in Bratsk in the late 90s. The building material was prefabricated panel structures brought from Germany. The work was carried out by a German company, which built the temple in just five days.
Priests from Poland serve in the Fraternal Roman Catholic Church. Moreover, services are conducted in Russian, with the exception of one day, when the majority of parishioners are native speakers of Polish.
Roman Catholic Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius in the city of Bratsk
Description
When you approach the memorial from the 30th Anniversary of Victory Boulevard, you see two majestic petals of flame frozen in concrete. On the sides, on the right and left, two concrete crescent-shaped steles almost adjoin them. Marble slabs are mounted on them. On each slab there is a surname and initials cast from copper: Pogodaevs, Moskovskys, Cheremnykhs, Khromovskys, Belomestnykhs, Vedernikovs, Oznobikhins, Khlystovs, Karnaukhovs, Bolsheshapovs, Rasputins, Parilovs, Terpugovs, Shamanskys - a total of 1585 surnames.
Bas-reliefs are carved inside the steles. On the outside we read the words: “We owe our life, our bright day to all of you who fell in battle with the enemy in 1941-1945. Glory to you, brave ones, glory to you, fearless ones, the memory of you among the people will not die.”
District "Padun"
The Padun district is the oldest district of the city. The area consists primarily of private residential housing plus two-story wooden “Barracks.” In some places there are also brick houses.
Separately, it is worth noting Padunsky Beach (the place itself is beautiful and loved by the townspeople), which annually (in summer) attracts many people to the “Sand Figures” exhibition.
In the same area there is an Employment Center, a Pension Fund, a social service, the administration of the Padunsky District and the oldest church in the city.
