Smolensk Oblast.

History

Smolensk is first recorded in 863 and is among Russia's oldest cities. From the 11th to the 15th centuries it was the capital of the Principality of Smolensk, later changing hands several times between Lithuania, Poland and Russia. In 1597–1602 the architect Fyodor Kon ringed the city with a stone fortress of thick walls and many towers. In August 1812 huge armies clashed at Smolensk, and in the Second World War more than 93% of the city was destroyed before its liberation in September 1943; it was later named a Hero City. The oblast in its present form was created on 27 September 1937.

Culture & traditions

Mikhail Glinka, born in 1804 in the village of Novospasskoye on the Desna, is regarded as the fountainhead of Russian classical music and wrote the operas A Life for the Tsar and Ruslan and Lyudmila. At Talashkino near Smolensk, Princess Maria Tenisheva founded an artists' colony from 1893, with a studio overseen by Ilya Repin, ceramics and woodcarving workshops, visits from Korovin and Vrubel, and a Church of the Holy Spirit decorated with Nicholas Roerich's mosaic. Smolensk Oblast is the birthplace of the first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, and of the science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov. Talashkino's surviving buildings are now part of the Smolensk Museum.

Nature

The main river is the Dnieper with its tributaries; in Smolensk it divides the city into northern and southern halves, and the city itself is built on seven hills. In the north-west, near the Belarusian border, lies Smolenskoye Poozerye National Park, created in 1992: 35 lakes, the largest being Lake Sapsho, with forest covering about three quarters of its area. Since 2002 the park has been a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, with 232 bird species and 54 mammal species recorded. Summers are short, warm and rainy, and winters long and snowy.

Food & drink

Smolensk Oblast is farming country, and wheat ranks among its main exports alongside fertilisers and timber. Local cooking is simple central Russian fare, and a visit to the Talashkino or Novospasskoye estates pairs well with an unhurried country lunch.

Practical information

Smolensk is 360 km south-west of Moscow and most visitors come by train or car from the capital. Talashkino is about 18 km from Smolensk, and Poozerye about 65 km to the north. The region keeps Moscow time (UTC+3). January averages around −9 °C and July around +17 °C; the best time to visit is late spring to early autumn.

What to see

• Smolensk Fortress — walls and towers built by Fyodor Kon in 1597–1602
• Talashkino — Princess Tenisheva's estate, with Roerich's mosaic on the Church of the Holy Spirit
• Novospasskoye — Mikhail Glinka's birthplace on the Desna
• Smolenskoye Poozerye National Park — 35 lakes and a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve
• The Dnieper in Smolensk — a city of seven hills on both banks of the river

Cities on the map

• Smolensk 310,645