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Shushenskoye
View on WikipediaShushenskoye (Russian: Шу́шенское, IPA: [ˈʂuʂɨnskəjɛ]) is an urban locality (an urban-type settlement) and the administrative center of Shushensky District of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located at the confluence of the Yenisei and Big Shush rivers. Population: 17,513 (2010 census);[1] 19,067 (2002 census);[4] 19,289 (1989 Soviet census).[5]
Key Information
History and culture
[edit]
Vladimir Lenin was in internal exile here from 1897 to 1900. In 1970, a museum dedicated to his time in Siberia was opened which became a prominent and popular local site. Russian and international visitors go there to see the history of Lenin's stay as well as to see the peasant way of life during the 19th century. The area is also known for its nature reserves.
During 2003 and 2004, an ethnic music festival called the Sayan Ring (Саянское кольцо) was started in Shushenskoye, which draws visitors from Russia and other countries. Different ethno-music styles are played during its 3–4 day duration.
Climate
[edit]The climate is very warm in summer: local people cultivate melons and watermelons. Winters are very cold with temperatures as low as −40 °C (−40 °F).
References
[edit]- ^ a b Russian Federal State Statistics Service (2011). Всероссийская перепись населения 2010 года. Том 1 [2010 All-Russian Population Census, vol. 1]. Всероссийская перепись населения 2010 года [2010 All-Russia Population Census] (in Russian). Federal State Statistics Service.
- ^ "Об исчислении времени". Официальный интернет-портал правовой информации (in Russian). June 3, 2011. Retrieved January 19, 2019.
- ^ Почта России. Информационно-вычислительный центр ОАСУ РПО. (Russian Post). Поиск объектов почтовой связи (Postal Objects Search) (in Russian)
- ^ Federal State Statistics Service (May 21, 2004). Численность населения России, субъектов Российской Федерации в составе федеральных округов, районов, городских поселений, сельских населённых пунктов – районных центров и сельских населённых пунктов с населением 3 тысячи и более человек [Population of Russia, Its Federal Districts, Federal Subjects, Districts, Urban Localities, Rural Localities—Administrative Centers, and Rural Localities with Population of Over 3,000] (XLS). Всероссийская перепись населения 2002 года [All-Russia Population Census of 2002] (in Russian).
- ^ Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 г. Численность наличного населения союзных и автономных республик, автономных областей и округов, краёв, областей, районов, городских поселений и сёл-райцентров [All Union Population Census of 1989: Present Population of Union and Autonomous Republics, Autonomous Oblasts and Okrugs, Krais, Oblasts, Districts, Urban Settlements, and Villages Serving as District Administrative Centers]. Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 года [All-Union Population Census of 1989] (in Russian). Институт демографии Национального исследовательского университета: Высшая школа экономики [Institute of Demography at the National Research University: Higher School of Economics]. 1989 – via Demoscope Weekly.
External links
[edit]Shushenskoye
View on GrokipediaGeography
Location and Physical Features
Shushenskoye is an urban-type settlement located in the southern portion of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, serving as the administrative center of Shushensky District. It lies on the right bank of the Yenisei River at approximately 53°20′N 91°56′E, within the Minusinsk Basin, a depression formed by surrounding mountain systems. The settlement is accessible via the M54 federal highway, which parallels the Yenisei and connects it to regional transport networks.[4][5] The elevation of Shushenskoye averages 278 meters above sea level, with terrain in the immediate vicinity featuring modest variations—typically no more than 39 meters of change within a 3-kilometer radius—indicative of a relatively level basin setting suited to settlement. The broader Shushensky District encompasses diverse physical features, with about 80% of its area classified as mountainous, including the western foothills of the Eastern Sayan Mountains and the Dzhebash-Borus spur; these rise sharply to the south and east, transitioning from steppe-like basin lowlands to rugged highlands. Siberian taiga forests dominate the uplands, primarily consisting of pine species, while nearer the Yenisei, mixed pine-deciduous woodlands prevail, supporting varied flora adapted to the transitional zone between continental steppe and montane ecosystems.[6][7][4] Hydrologically, the Yenisei River forms the district's northern boundary, with the nearby Sayano-Shushenskoye Reservoir—created by the Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam upstream—influencing local water dynamics and providing a significant impoundment that alters flow regimes and supports regional power generation. Protected natural areas, such as the Shushensky Bor National Park and portions of the Sayano-Shushensky Nature Reserve, preserve representative samples of the area's boreal forests, mountainous terrain, and riverine habitats, encompassing diverse elevations from basin flats to alpine zones.[4]Climate
Shushenskoye features a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb), marked by long, frigid winters with substantial snowfall and short, warm summers with moderate precipitation. Winters, spanning late November to early March, see average highs below -4°C (25°F), with January—the coldest month—recording a mean high of -11°C (13°F) and low of -21°C (-6°F). Summers, from mid-May to early September, bring comfortable conditions, peaking in July with average highs of 25°C (77°F) and lows of 14°C (58°F).[8][9] Annual precipitation averages around 320 mm (12.5 inches), concentrated during a rainy season from early April to early November, where monthly totals can exceed 13 mm (0.5 inches). Winter snowfall accumulates notably from late October to late March, peaking at about 9 cm (3.4 inches) in December, supporting a snowy cover that persists for much of the cold season. Humidity remains low year-round, with muggy conditions rare, occurring on fewer than one day annually, primarily in July.[8] Temperature extremes are pronounced but bounded: readings rarely fall below -33°C (-28°F) or rise above 31°C (88°F), reflecting the continental influence of Siberia's vast landmass, which amplifies seasonal contrasts while limiting oceanic moderation.[8]History
Founding and Pre-19th Century Development
Shushenskoye was established in 1744 by Russian Cossacks as a fortified ostrog at the confluence of the Shusha River and the Yenisei, initially serving as a rest stop and defensive outpost for patrols and travelers en route to Krasnoyarsk from southern frontiers.[10][11] The site's selection was influenced by its strategic position along trade and military routes, as well as the surrounding fertile chernozem soils suitable for agriculture in an otherwise challenging Siberian landscape.[3] Early development focused on basic settlement infrastructure, with Cossacks constructing wooden palisades and dwellings amid the need to secure Russia's expanding eastern borders against nomadic incursions. By the mid-18th century, the population had grown modestly through influxes of peasant settlers drawn by the region's comparatively mild climate and arable land, reaching approximately 300 residents by the latter half of the century.[12] Economic activities centered on subsistence farming, animal husbandry, hunting, and fishing, supplemented by rudimentary crafts such as pottery and cooperage.[3] In 1791, local residents funded the construction of the stone Peter and Paul Church, marking the hamlet's maturation into a more permanent village with religious and communal facilities, though it remained a modest rural outpost without significant administrative elevation until the following century.[3] By the close of the 18th century, the settlement comprised around 35 households, reflecting gradual consolidation amid the broader Russian colonization of Siberia.[13]19th-Century Exiles and Tsarist Administration
In the early 19th century, Shushenskoye emerged as an administrative hub within the newly formed Yenisei Governorate, established in 1822 from territories previously under Tomsk Governorate oversight. The settlement became the center of the expansive Shushenskaya volost, functioning as a local outpost for military garrisons, tax collection, and judicial administration under the Ministry of Internal Affairs.[3] This structure emphasized control over remote Siberian frontiers, with volost elders and police officials enforcing imperial decrees on land use, conscription, and peasant obligations.[3] The volost's economy centered on agriculture, leveraging fertile black earth soils for grain cultivation, alongside animal husbandry, hunting, and small-scale industries such as pottery and cooperage, which supported the governorate's grain exports. By mid-century, Shushenskoye's isolation—over 500 kilometers south of Krasnoyarsk, without rail access—reinforced its role in Tsarist penal policies, as the government selected such villages for dispersing threats without the infrastructure of urban centers.[3] Local administration involved quarterly reports from residents to the Minusinsk district police, ensuring compliance amid sparse oversight resources typical of Siberian peripheries.[14] Throughout the century, Shushenskoye served as a destination for administrative exile (ssylka), a form of punishment relocating political dissidents to supervised settlement rather than katorga hard labor. Exiles included Decembrists after the 1825 revolt, participants in the 1863 Polish uprising against Russian rule, Narodnik populists from the 1870s Going to the People movement, and other revolutionaries, reflecting the regime's strategy to neutralize opposition through geographic isolation.[14][3] These individuals, often from educated urban backgrounds, were required to register with authorities and barred from leaving the district, yet permitted to farm leased plots or tutor locally for income.[14] Conditions under Tsarist oversight allowed relative autonomy compared to later Soviet systems, with exiles integrating into village life—hunting, fishing, or corresponding discreetly—under a "liberal regime" that prioritized containment over deprivation, as evidenced in late-century social democrat accounts challenging harsher retrospective narratives.[14] Police searches and travel restrictions were enforced sporadically, but the settlement's 1,500–2,000 inhabitants by the 1890s provided a semblance of community, though memoirs note the psychological toll of enforced rustication amid harsh winters and limited intellectual stimulation.[14] This exile framework, rooted in 18th-century Siberian penal traditions, persisted until the empire's fall, underscoring the volost's dual role in governance and repression.[3]Vladimir Lenin's Exile (1897–1900)
Vladimir Lenin arrived in Shushenskoye, a remote village in the Minusinsk district of Yenisei Governorate, on May 8, 1897 (Old Style; May 20 New Style), following his arrest in December 1895 for organizing the St. Petersburg Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class and subsequent 15-month imprisonment.[15] His three-year sentence mandated internal exile under police supervision, but conditions permitted residence in a rented peasant cottage, freedom of movement within the district, and engagement in local agriculture to offset living costs of about 15-20 rubles monthly.[16] Lenin supplemented income through vegetable gardening, beekeeping, and providing legal assistance to illiterate peasants, earning local respect despite surveillance by a village constable.[17] Daily life combined physical labor with rigorous study; Lenin hunted waterfowl and hares using a shotgun and trained dog, fished in the Yenisei River, and chopped wood, activities that maintained health amid Siberia's harsh winters reaching -40°C.[17] Intellectually, he accessed books via correspondence networks, drafting key works including The Tasks of the Russian Social-Democrats (1897) and completing The Development of Capitalism in Russia (1899), a 500-page analysis critiquing Narodnik agrarian theories through statistical data on Russia's 1880s-1890s industrialization.[15][16] He translated Sidney and Beatrice Webb's The Theory and Practice of Trade Unionism, contributed articles to émigré journals, and corresponded with figures like Georgy Plekhanov on Social-Democratic strategy, while visiting fellow exiles in nearby Tesinskoye and navigating ideological tensions with Narodnaya Volya adherents.[15][17] In May 1898, Nadezhda Krupskaya joined Lenin with her mother, relocating to a four-ruble-monthly half-cottage with a garden; they married on July 10, 1898, in the local church to comply with residence permissions, forgoing civil ceremony due to tsarist restrictions.[17][16] Lenin's sister Anna Ulyanova also resided there periodically, aiding research. Exile concluded early on January 29, 1900 (Old Style; February 10 New Style), when Lenin departed for Minusinsk and then European Russia, permitted to settle in Pskov under loosened terms, having produced foundational Marxist texts amid isolation.[18]Soviet Era Transformations (1920s–1991)
In the 1920s and 1930s, Shushenskoye underwent initial Soviet modernization efforts, including the establishment of a secondary school, public library, hospital, kindergartens, and the region's first agricultural college, which supported rural education and healthcare amid broader collectivization drives across Siberian agriculture.[3] The opening of the V.I. Lenin house-museum in 1938 elevated the settlement's profile as a site linked to Lenin's pre-revolutionary exile, fostering ideological tourism under Stalinist cultural policy.[3] During World War II, the local population mobilized significantly, with over 5,000 residents serving in the Red Army and approximately 2,500 perishing; several were posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union for combat actions.[3] Post-war reconstruction emphasized agricultural recovery, yielding profitable collective farms that supplied food to the surrounding region and Krasnoyarsk Krai, alongside nascent light industry such as a poultry farm, furniture factory, bakery, brewery, and a pioneering dairy-canning plant producing powdered milk—the first beyond the Urals.[3] Administrative consolidation occurred in 1944 with the formation of Shushensky District encompassing its current boundaries, integrating the area into Krasnoyarsk Krai's Soviet framework.[3] A major infrastructural push came in 1968 when Shushenskoye was designated an All-Union Komsomol shock construction site, leading to its reclassification as an urban-type settlement by 1973; this included construction of five-story apartment blocks, a bus station, and an airport, marking a shift from rural village to modest urban center with improved housing and transport.[3] Cultural and economic diversification accelerated in the 1970s–1980s, with the establishment of the "Siberian Exile of V.I. Lenin" memorial museum-preserve between 1968 and 1973, drawing up to 300,000 visitors annually by 1981 via expanded all-Union tourist routes supported by bus and river services.[3] The Sayano-Shushensky Nature Reserve, created in 1976 and designated a UNESCO biosphere reserve in 1985, preserved local taiga ecosystems while enabling eco-tourism.[3] Industrial ventures included the late-1980s launch of Sayan marble extraction near Sizaya village, supplying materials for high-profile Moscow construction projects.[3] These developments reflected centralized Soviet planning prioritizing ideological heritage, resource utilization, and selective urbanization in peripheral regions, though local accounts from official district sources emphasize achievements over potential disruptions like forced relocations or inefficiencies in collective farming.[3]Post-Soviet Developments (1991–Present)
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Shushenskoye, like many rural settlements in Siberia, faced economic challenges during Russia's transition to a market economy, including the privatization of collective farms and reduced state subsidies for agriculture. Local production shifted toward private smallholder farming, dairy processing via milk complexes, poultry operations through battery farms, and light industry such as the "Shushenskaya marka" wine plant, which emerged as a key enterprise sustaining employment amid broader regional deindustrialization in the 1990s.[13] These adaptations reflected causal pressures from hyperinflation and supply chain disruptions, leading to temporary contraction before stabilization under later federal support programs for remote areas.[19] Population dynamics mirrored post-Soviet rural depopulation trends, driven by out-migration to urban centers like Krasnoyarsk for better opportunities, with the town's residents dropping from approximately 19,000 in the late Soviet period to around 17,500 by the 2010s.[20] This decline, part of a nationwide pattern where rural Siberia lost over 10% of its inhabitants in the 1990s due to economic hardship and collapsing social services, stabilized somewhat with tourism inflows, though the district as a whole saw its numbers fall to under 30,000 by 2025.[21] Ethnically, the area remains predominantly Russian, with minorities including Ukrainians and Tuvans, but no significant shifts in composition post-1991.[13] The Shushenskoye Museum-Reserve underwent transformation after 1991, broadening from a Lenin-centric memorial—emphasizing his exile—to a comprehensive historical-ethnographic complex showcasing Siberian peasant life, traditional crafts, and 19th-century architecture, aligning with reduced ideological mandates and rising demand for cultural heritage tourism.[22] Expansions included the "New Village" architectural-ethnographic sector and modern tourist facilities integrated into traditional designs, with recent additions like a northern complex enhancing visitor amenities.[23] Government investments, such as nearly 90 million rubles for restoring heritage buildings, supported this growth, positioning the site as a key draw for domestic tourists interested in revolutionary history and folk traditions.[24] By the 2020s, Shushenskoye had evolved into a vibrant cultural hub, hosting events like arts nights and craft demonstrations, bolstered by its proximity to the Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam and natural landscapes, though economic reliance on seasonal tourism exposes it to fluctuations in visitor numbers.[25]Demographics and Society
Population Dynamics
The population of Shushenskoye, an urban-type settlement in Krasnoyarsk Krai, grew modestly during the mid-to-late Soviet period due to agricultural collectivization and industrial development in the region, reaching 19,289 residents as recorded in the 1989 Soviet census.[26] Post-Soviet economic disruptions, including the collapse of state farms and limited local industry, initiated a sustained decline driven by net outmigration to larger urban centers like Krasnoyarsk. The 2002 Russian census reported 19,067 inhabitants, a slight drop, followed by sharper decreases to 17,513 in 2010 and 16,573 in 2021.| Census Year | Population |
|---|---|
| 1989 | 19,289 |
| 2002 | 19,067 |
| 2010 | 17,513 |
| 2021 | 16,573 |
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