Khabarovsk, Khabarovsk Krai (Russia)

Khabarovsk is located in the Far East on the right bank of the Amur River not far from the place where the Ussuri River flows into it. The city is located 30 km from the Chinese border and is the administrative center of the Khabarovsk Territory.

Khabarovsk was founded in 1858 after the signing of an agreement on new borders between Russia and China as a military post. Later, a village formed around it, which was named Khabarovka in honor of the Russian explorer Yerofei Pavlovich Khabarov, who discovered these places back in the 17th century. It received the status of a city in 1880, and since 1893 the city began to be called Khabarovsk. Khabarovsk was an important transport and trade center – fur trade went from here, in 1872 a port was founded here, and in 1897 from Khabarovsk A railroad was laid to Vladivostok. Since 1938, the city has been the center of the Khabarovsk Territory, and in 2002 it received the status of the administrative center of the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia.

According to fun-wiki.com, Khabarovsk stretches for 50 km along the Amur River. One of the most beautiful places in the city is the Amur embankment. This is a great place to relax and walk. On the slope near the embankment there is a picturesque park, and on the other side of the embankment there is a sandy beach. The central place here is occupied by a stone cliff. It was on it that a military post was founded in the second half of the 19th century. There is an observation platform on the cliff, from where a beautiful view of the Amur and the surroundings of the city opens. Not far from here rises monument to N.N. Muravyov-Amursky – Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, who played an important role in the development of the region.

The main street of the city is named after Count Muravyov-Amursky – Muravyov-Amursky Street. Buildings of the 19th – early 20th centuries have been preserved on it, and here you can also see the Far Eastern State Scientific Library. The book fund of the library has more than 3 million copies. It was founded at the end of the 19th century and is located in one of the most beautiful old buildings in the city.

Muravyov-Amursky Street connects Lenin Square and Komsomolskaya Square. Lenin Square is the main one in the city. 9 fountains were installed on it, which operate in the summer, and many flower beds were arranged. Komsomolskaya Square is the second largest in Khabarovsk. In 1956, a 22-meter granite monument “To the Heroes of the Civil War in the Far East of 1918-1922” was erected here. Previously, a cathedral stood in the center of the square, which was destroyed at the beginning of the 20th century. In 2002, the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Mother of God was built in its place.

The youngest square in the city is Glory Square. The Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior rises on the square which can be seen far outside the city. The first stone in the cathedral was laid in 2001, and the first service was held in 2004. This is the third tallest church among the Orthodox churches in Russia, its height is 95 m. It is second only to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow and St. Isaac’s Cathedral in St. Petersburg. Near the cathedral on the Square of Glory there is a memorial “Wall of Memory”. It is an obelisk of three pylons surrounded by the Memorial Wall. The names of Khabarovsk residents are carved on the pylons – Heroes of the Soviet Union, Heroes of Socialist Labor and full holders of the Order of Glory. The names of the inhabitants of the Khabarovsk Territory who fell in battle during the Great Patriotic War are carved on the Memorial Wall. The Eternal Flame is lit in front of the complex. Also on Glory Square, the building of the Theological Seminary and the Black Tulip monument, dedicated to the soldiers who participated in the battles in Afghanistan, are interesting.

Other sights of the city include the Innokentievskaya Church of 1868, built in honor of St. Innokenty (the patron saint of Siberia and the Far East), the oldest theater in Khabarovsk – regional theater of musical comedy (1926), and a long railway bridge (1916) across the Amur River, which became the final link of the Trans-Siberian Railway. The museums of Khabarovsk are of great interest. On Shevchenko Street is the Khabarovsk Regional Museum named after Nikolai Ivanovich Grodekov. This museum is the oldest museum in the city and the region, it was founded in 1894 with the assistance of the Amur Department of the Russian Geographical Society. Collections of flora and fauna of the Khabarovsk Territory, as well as materials on its history, are stored here. Khabarovsk Regional Museum named after N.I. Grodekova has several branches, as in Khabarovsk, and in other cities: Khabarovsk Museum of Archeology named after A.P. Okladnikova, the Sovetsko-Gavansky Regional Museum of Local Lore, the Trinity Regional Museum of Local Lore, the Chegdomynsky Regional Museum of Local Lore, the Bikinsky Museum of Local Lore, the Vyazemsky Museum of Local Lore, the Nikolaevsky-on-Amur Municipal Museum of Local Lore, the Polina Osipenko Museum of Local Lore and the Local Lore Museum of the Lazo District.