As in the name of Abaza, antiquity and modernity are intertwined, so in the life of this settlement it is sometimes impossible to separate truth from fiction. Taiga is nearby, you just have to go beyond the outskirts. And the settlement was formed due to the fact that people climbed into the bowels, began to extract ore.
Abakan grace
“Abakan in translation from Khakass means bear's blood. Abaza is a bear factory. Its history begins in 1768, when the Cossack settlement Bolshoy Lug was created. After the ore reserves were discovered, the Abakan ironworks was formed. There is a village next to him,”says Nina ANDRIYASHEVA, director of the local history museum.
The first information about the local ores dates back to 1856. The deposit was named Abakan grace. The name comes from the Grace Mountain, in which iron was found.
Moscow merchant Aleksey Kolchugin in 1859-1865 was engaged in the construction of iron and iron smelting plants. Workers from the Ural factories were recruited here, and the exiled settlers of the Minusinsk district, participants in the Polish uprising of 1863, as well as landless peasants of the Siberian provinces were taken. So a whole village was formed, called Abakan-Zavodskaya (abbreviated as Abaza). But the plant did not bring the expected wealth to its owner. Plunging into promissory notes, Kolchugin fired a bullet in his forehead.
The merchant's house of the owner of the plant became a museum. Photo: AiF / Marina Alekhina
The second owner of the ironworks was a St. Petersburg official of the mining department, a large capitalist Grigory Permikin. But the plant did not bring him wealth either.
Promotional video:
“Permikina's daughter-in-law was in charge of the production. Despite the fact that the workers worked for 12 hours for a penny, the mistress was treated well. She was fair, - says Nina Ivanovna. - But a tragedy happened in the family. The Permikins had two sons. Playing as a hunter and a bear, one of them took a gun off the wall. Who knew it was charged! One of the sons died. Then Permikina and the plant owner's sister fell ill. Medicine was powerless."
By that time, the debt to workers was about 14 thousand, and to employees - 4.7 thousand rubles of salary. Permikin's heirs were recognized as insolvent debtors, and in 1889 the Abakan plant passed into the hands of a workers' artel.
How did production begin in Abaza? Photo: AiF / Marina Alekhina
The products of the factory workers were presented at an exhibition held in Krasnoyarsk in honor of the arrival of the Tsarevich, the future Emperor Nicholas II, in 1891. And in 1900, samples of ore and products of the Abakan plant, executed by masters of artistic casting, took up an exposition at the world exhibition in Paris. Representatives of British cooperatives came to the plant to see how the workers run it.
Despite the external well-being, the old equipment was wearing out. The artel did not have the funds either to expand production or to purchase new equipment. Production has stopped since 1911.
Natural resources. Photo: AiF / Marina Alekhina
In 1943, signed by J. V. Stalin, an order was issued to organize the Abakan iron mine. Only on July 18, 1957, the first echelon with iron ore concentrate was sent.
Why is there so much attention to the mine? If it were not for this production, there would be no Abaza. In Soviet times, working at the mine was considered prestigious. During the years of perestroika, the sad fate of bankruptcy did not escape the city-forming enterprise. A year ago, it was on the verge of liquidation. Today, the miners have begun driving towards a new deposit rich in iron.
Lost paradise
The old manor of the merchant Kipreev is the only remaining historical monument of the past in Abaza. Now it houses the city museum of local lore. Powerful fence with several layers of brick. We go into the arched door and stumble upon the inscription "Paradise Lost". This is the idea of the organizer Vilenin Andriyashev - a true master of museum work. In total, he created thirteen museums in Khakassia.
It's cozy and green here. A high fence, as it were, separates you from everything vain. But the stone, according to legend, must be bypassed three times and make a wish. And it will definitely come true.
The estate was built for the merchant Kipreev in 1895. A stone building with a basement, spacious barns, a stable remained from the buildings. And the large wooden house with a veranda where the merchant lived, alas, was dismantled.
Distance to the place where there is gold placer. Photo: AiF / Marina Alekhina
Kipreev's main trade was with gold mines, supplying hydraulic equipment, clothing, food, and household goods there. The revolutionary events affected the fate of the merchant. He went bankrupt, left his homes, under unknown circumstances was killed in one of the Khakass uluses.
The rich estate did not have time to change owners. In 1919, the headquarters of the people's squad of the Abakan iron-making plant was located here. Then the headquarters of the Reds and the frontier detachment of the outpost, the first workers' club with a library collected on voluntary donations from residents. He was considered one of the best in the Yenisei province. Then in the former house of the merchant a police station was located. When the building of the village council burned down in Abaza, the administration was settled in a mansion for some time. The manor was also captured by filmmakers. In 1977, the film studio. Gorky shot the film "Do not put a trap for the devil." The house itself with an address plate: Naberezhnaya, 24, was often captured in the frame.
During the artel period at the plant, at the request of V. I. Ulyanov (Lenin), who lived in exile in the village of Shushenskoye, a cast-iron plate was cast on the grave of his colleague A. A. Vaneeva. Photo: AiF / Marina Alekhina
And only in 2003 a museum was opened in the estate. There are expositions here that clearly prove that ancient people organized parking here, starting from the 4th-3rd centuries. BC. You can get acquainted with the life and culture of the Khakass: housing, dishes, tools, items related to trade and craft activities. The most significant exposition is dedicated to the history of the ironworks. This is a collection of hydraulic equipment, the inventor of which is A. E. Cherkasov, a native of Abaza, and artistic casting products.
The owner of the estate
And in the museum there is an invisible ghost - the image of a woman in long clothes. According to legend, the founder of the museum, Vilenin Andriyashev, met with her, and she slowly walked past him. And also - builders repairing the building.
According to the old-timers, a ghost lives in the museum. Photo: AiF
“One evening one stayed in the room, the other left. The one who remained sees that a woman in white clothes is standing near the second. After this incident, they worked at night, and slept during the day. They counted when it was light, she would not go out. In vain they thought, - says Nina Ivanovna. And shows an amateur shot. - It was during the spring break for the children held an event. Someone took a picture, and only in the picture found that there were strangers in the frame. Or the owners?"
By the way, according to the assurances of old-timers, this is not the only photo in which a ghost got into the frame. Who is it? The fate of the merchant Anfia Kipreeva is unknown. Or is it the housekeeper Maria Salova? The estate-museum keeps a secret. Maybe that's why the restless soul walks in anticipation of a solution, sometimes playing on an old piano or moving and changing things.
The museum keepers assure that the ghost does no harm. It just lives and, apparently, guards the mansion. And in the basement under the brick building there is an underground passage, which, as they say, runs to the bank of the Abakan River. But the place where this move begins is now concreted.
Expert opinion
The head of the municipal formation Nikolay BAYBORODOV: “Today more than 15 thousand people live in Abaza. If the mine reaches the capacity of the Soviet era, the city will flourish. According to rough estimates, there are about 100 million tons more in the bowels of Grace Mountain. Enough for more than one generation. Abaza, as it is now fashionable to say, is an ecologically clean city. Taiga is all around, the Abakan river is on the outskirts. There is no better place for tourism. We have rafting, caves, and taiga paths leading to lakes of glacial origin. There is everything: comfortable accommodation, delicious cuisine, but there is no influx of people who want to visit our places. We know better abroad than our own Russia. I invite you: come to Abaza."
