Between Yekaterinburg and Nizhny Tagil lies the cozy little town of Kushva, known for its unique development of iron ore deposits. In addition to industrial victories in the city, one can come across amazing sights with a rich history.
General information
Those who travel to Russia and choose an industrial city to visit will have to keep their way to the Urals. After all, the city of Kushva is the Sverdlovsk region, and this is the Ural Federal District with the administrative center in Yekaterinburg. This is a small city with a population of about 28 thousand people. It is noteworthy that the name Kushva is translated from the Komi-Permyak dialect as "rotten water".
Kushva begins its history in 1735, when huge deposits of iron were discovered in the bowels of its land.
When forming all the details of the trip, you need to take into account that the clock in Kushva is translated two hours ahead.
Mineral deposits
The city of Kushva in the Sverdlovsk region arose due to the discovery of rich deposits of magnetic iron ore in the bowels of Mount Grace. In 1735, this discovery was made by the local hunter Stepan Chumpin. He brought some ore samples to one of the chiefs. A commission was assembled, which after a while confirmed the presence of iron, and of very good quality. In the autumn of the same year, the head of the plants Vasily Tatishchev gave the mountain where the ore was mined the name Grace in honor of Empress Anna Ioannovna. From the Hebrew language, the name Anna is translated as "grace."
The construction of mining plants has begun. To work in the mines, peasants from many regions of the Russian Empire were driven to Grace, as well as Tatars, who were recruited and delivered to Kushva.
The development of the field was carried out until 2003. In the same year, all work was stopped due to the full development of the field. The shutdown of all enterprises hit the economy and population of Kushva severely. Ore mining was the main occupation here.
The role of Kushva during the wars
The history of Kushva during the Soviet period is full of sad events. The great damage was first caused by the Civil War of 1918-1919. The city was an important strategic point in the Urals.
After fierce fighting, the city was taken by whites. In 1919, units of the Red Army were nevertheless able to drive the invaders out of the territory. However, along with the liberation of the Reds from the enemies of the people, destruction and vandalism came to Kushva.
One of the most difficult periods in the history of the city is the time when the country was in the power of Nikolai Yezhov, the head of the NKVD. Kushva was a place where they not only took their lives for political crimes, they brought here exiles and prisoners, convicts.
The hardships of the Great Patriotic War were carried out with honor by a small industrial city. All day and night, in several shifts in a row, people worked in mines and stood by smelters. Women, children, disabled people were brought to Kushva from all over the country.
Architectural Attractions
Sights of the city of Kushva are not diverse. These are mainly residential buildings, concentrated on several streets.
The architectural sights of the city of Kushva in the Sverdlovsk region include various types of wooden houses. Most of them were built before 1917. The abolition of serfdom had a great influence on the construction of private housing. Workers of the city were forced to build their homes. However, not everyone had the opportunity and means to build private housing. People who came to work under a contract or for a season preferred to live in barracks.
The first thing that catches your eye when you get acquainted with architectural sights is a mixture of styles. At first glance, the wooden houses looked like a village. However, the differences were very significant. For example, the material from which the housing was worth. In the village used logs. City houses were built from timber - inaccessible luxury for the village.
You rarely see a stone house in Kushva. Those few buildings that are can be called typical. The thing is that in those days a lot of attention was paid to the standardization of development. Dozens of samples were sent to the factories for which it was necessary to carry out construction. The same rule applied to state-owned industrial enterprises.
Of particular beauty are the houses of merchants who decorated windows, doors and roofs with wooden tiles. In the creation of jewelry, the joiners used mainly Russian folk motifs.
Mount Grace
Perhaps the main attraction of the city of Kushva is Mount Grace. Several centuries of daily development have turned a powerful mountain with three peaks into a deep quarry with a diameter of about a kilometer. Today, one of the three peaks remains. After the closure of the mine, the city administration turned the remaining mountain peak into an observation deck.
Most administrative and city buildings are located on the slope of Grace. During the formation of the city, it was an elevated place that was not flooded during the flood. Workers built their huts in the lowlands. Photos of the city of Kushva of that time, unfortunately, were not preserved.
Monument to Stepan Chumpin
The pioneer of the huge deposits of iron ore in Kushva erected a monument. There is a legend among the locals that the hunter Stepan Chumpin was burned alive by his fellow tribesmen for revealing the holy secret of Mount Grace.
The monument is a cast-iron pedestal with a bowl from which fire breaks out. The inscription on the medallion says that the Vogul Stepan Chumpin was burned here in 1730. The monument itself was erected in 1826.
However, reliable information on the burning was not found. Historians and local historians agree that Chumpin was unscrupulously killed by the clerks of industrialist Demidov, who were trying to capture a rich deposit. Opinions differ, but there is no doubt that Stepan Chumpin is a real historical character.
The monument is located in a convenient location next to the equipped observation deck, from where a magnificent panorama of the whole city and the developed ore quarry opens.
In the city of Kushva, Sverdlovsk region, there is a good tradition to come to the monument on the wedding day. The newlyweds make wishes and hang a lock on his fence, and throw the key into the quarry.
