Riabukhin: "We need to revive the idea of ​​a 'world tour' in the Volga region"

The guest of the Tribune Program, the Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Budget and Financial Markets, senator from the Ulyanovsk region, Sergey Riabukhin.

The continuation of Sergei Riabukhin: “Economy needs long-term, available, low-price loans”

- Sergey Nikolayvich, we have such a part of our program called "From Kamchatka Territory to the Kaliningrad region." How is the Ulyanovsk region, as represented in the upper house of the Russian parliament, attractive for tourists?

- Each region has its own peculiarities, its own national territorial and cultural traditions. Now I am dreaming of travelling to the Altai region, where I learned to ski 14 years ago, as well as to North Ossetia, where I travelled on business trips. There are great health resorts, beautiful mountainous areas. The air is fresh and there are medical complexes and such services.

As for the Ulyanovsk region, I love the Volga region: starting from the Saratov region, where I was brought up, to Ulyanovsk, where I built an aviation complex. There are a lot of historical sites there, including those associated with Lenin. Tourists from China travel there now. A significant Russian-Chinese project – Beijing-Moscow-Ulyanovsk-St. Petersburg-Kazan – is developing now.

- Speaking of the revolutionary period, it should be noted that Kerensky's native region was Ulyanovsk.

- Kerensky's father was a director of a lycée. Lenin and Kerensky lived at the same time, they are people of the same age and contemporaries. The most interesting part is everything about the founders of our country. Firstly, the Lenin Memorial became a historical museum of the USSR. There's a lot of things you will never read and see. Enthusiasts have been working there for 20 to 30 years since 1970.

- What else is there besides the revolutionary history?

- The 250th anniversary of Nikolay Karamzin is to be marked in 2016. Now we are preparing a package. The regional leadership and the Ulyanovsk association are preparing a series of books associated with the correspondence and Karamzin's works.

Few people know that after 1812 Denis Davydov lived for some time in this region. A friend of Pushkin, Nikolai Mikhailovich Yazikov, also lived there and they studied together. Pushkin often visited Simbirsk when collecting materials on the history of the Pugachev rebellion. By the way, the canvas of "The Captain's Daughter" was told Pushkin by Yazikov. Then he travelled to Orenburg and Ufa in order to collect materials. On the way back, Pushkin wrote to Nikolay Mikhailovich: "You infected me with this idea. I will surely write about it." Then he travelled to his friend in Boldino, remained there for the whole autumn and wrote 163 works there, being inspired by Simbirsk.

The Turgenev brothers made a very important contribution to the Enlightenment and charity associated with children who became orphans after the War of 1812. They are the grandparents of the cadet and the Suvorov schools.

One of the first Ministers of Justice, Ivan Dmitriev, was an outstanding poet and writer. Those who love the Fatherland and history travel there with great pleasure and immerse themselves in the history.

The history of the defense constructions located on the south-eastern border of the Russian state in the XVII century is also very interesting. Simbirsk was a frontier town. The length of the defense constructions was 1100 km from Alatyr, Karsun, Simbirsk, Sengiley to Stary Oskol, Voronezh, Belgorod. These are grand constructions. The width is 12 yards, the height is 8 yards with obstacles. Fragments of the impregnable defense constructions are still preserved.

When I was the chairman of the Legislative Assembly 20 years ago, a competition for the best scientific work was announced for the History Department at the Pedagogical University.

Students even flew with the help of hanggliders. These fragments were photographed and described. This excited young people. Some of the guys who are fond of Student Research became professors 20 years ago. Some are engaged in teaching, some in science.

There is everything in the Ulyanovsk region, and we can talk about it endlessly. I won't even mention the virtues and the beauty of the Volga. There is a reservoir a little further up from Ulyanovsk. Its width is 34 km from shore to shore.

- I confirm your words. There is a bridge. If you stop in the middle of the bridge you have the feeling that you are in the middle of a small sea.

- A "world tour'' was popular in Simbirsk in the XVIII-XIX centuries." There are two rivers on the territory of Simbirsk. The first river is the Volga. As the city of Simbirsk is located on a tectonic fault, that is why the Sviyaga, the second river, flows strictly in the opposite direction and flows into the Volga in Kazan. It was possible to make a "world tour", i.e. first leave the city of Simbirsk from the Sviyaga pier in famous Sviyazhsk near the island of Buyan, mentioned in Pushkin's works, and then reach the Volga River and return the next day to Simbirsk.

It was possible to make a "world tour" in two days. It was such an exciting and famous way of travelling, not only for the rich, but also common people who wanted to travel. Unfortunately, the strong Penza reservoir appeared there in the 1960's. There was a very energetic first secretary of the Penza regional party committee, who decided to make a reservoir in Penza and blocked the Sviyaga.

There is an idea now to renew this fascinating activity that was popular in the XVIII-XIX centuries, which can help people to travel to four conatituent parts of the Russian Federation immediately. It's not just a trip, it is history. The difference in the levels of the rivers is about 40 meters. The Volga is about 40 meters lower than the Sviyaga. You go down from the tectonic fault along the river to Kazan and then come back. It is the only such place in Russia.

We have such a dream to create shipping on the Sviyaga. It requires agreed measures with our Water Agency, as well as with subjects of the Russian Federation located in the basins of the two rivers.

The industrialization of the XX century violated the ecological balance, and the attractiveness of these areas was lost a little bit. A lot of things are being done in Ulyanovsk to restore its attractiveness. The River Baris and the Sviyaga were cleaned fragmentarily on the territory of our federation subject. If a set of agreed measures is taken at all border regions of the Russian Federation, then it will be interesting not only for the Ulyanovsk region in terms of tourism, but also for Tatarstan and Mordovia, because the Sviyaga runs through both Mordovia, Tatarstan and the Ulyanovsk region. It will be interesting for everyone.

The industrial kind of tourism, as well as historical and political tourism, eco-tourism, are also developed in the Ulyanovsk region. They attract tens of thousands of travellers and tourists to our Simbirsky region.