"Stitch" the country again Part 1

How Royal rocks, an underground monastery, the town of Makhno, and poet Zhadan will return Luhansk region to Ukraine

 
Flowering steppe. Photo by Denis Dimov

Luhansk region has been considered everything in our country: granary, smithy, and even health resort in some places. However, it has not almost never considered as a place of tourist interest. Meanwhile, tourism could help to remove at least two of the preconditions of "Russian Spring" in 2014. Unfortunately, no one made corrections of those mistakes.

By Alexander Belokobylsky

Many of the refugees from Luhansk regret today that had traveled in their region a little, and a little had admired its beauty. "Hit Parades" of natural and cultural sites lost due to the occupation appear on the websites of our colleagues, and in social networks.

Top 6 amazing places of Luhansk region

"- Our nature is very beautiful. Steppes are indescribably beautiful near the town of Sverdlovsk: they are wave-shaped... There is a gazebo on the steep bank of the Donets river near the Maliy Sukhodol settlement... A section of the Rostov - Kharkiv route from Rovenky to Antratsit - if not pay attention to lousy asphalt - is almost alpine foothills there" - recalls the famous Luhansk photographer Denis Dimov.

 
Royal rocks, Sverdlovsk district, Luhansk region, Ukraine. Photo by Denis Dimov

We have asked well-informed people to call three places in the Luhansk region each where you certainly would have to go. Denis called the Royal rocks (reserve "Provalskaya steppe" in the Sverdlovsk region), the Mstsihovsky's ex-manor (settlement Seleznevka in Perevalsk district) and the Aviation Museum of Luhansk Aircraft Repair Plant, one of the largest and best in Ukraine. All three locations are now under control of "LPR".

Luhansk Aviation Technical Museum is one of the best in Ukraine. Photo from site Fishki.Net

- Personally, I really like the neighborhood of Ivanovka (Antratsit district, there is a very interesting terrain, with caves of horse thieves, the rock "Eagle's Nest", synagogue ruins, waterfall, etc.). Then ex-manor of Mstsihovsky with unique park is also a very cool place. And I've always liked Stone faces valley in Perevalsk district, too, - editor of three collections of "Luhansk region Routes", Ilya Esin, also calls the places on the non-controlled territory of Ukraine.
 
"Luhansk region Routes" have been published three times constantly increasing in volume - in 2010, 2011, and 2013. The first issue has been sold like hotcakes, and the publisher, Luhansk branch of "Ukrainian Media Holding" printed additional copies. Ilya, being a travel fan, says he has watched many times that people during travels checked with his guide.

The author of the program "Mandrіvnyk" (The Traveller) went on air in the TV channel IRTA, Denis Kirkach has also included in his personal rating the places in the liberated territories in Svatovo and Starobelsk which also could not be visited now by tourists:

- I would drove a non-native person into an underground monastery in Svatovo district, then at burial mounds in order to feel steppe exotic. Then to the Tomb Mechetnaya, into a cave of horse thieves, in the same place in the village of Ivanovka there are ruins of the synagogue and the remains of the old Jewish cemetery (large Jewish community in the nineteenth century was there). Well, then to the town of Starobelsk, described under the name of Stargorod in the famous book "12 chairs", the city of Nestor Makhno and Serhiy Zhadan.
 
Fragment of the program "Mandrіvnyk" that was dedicated by Denis Kirkach to outlying area of the village Ivanovka in Antratsitovsky district.
 
For non-natives I should say that Ippolit Matveyevich Vorobyaninov was the leader of local nobility in the fabulous town that Ilf and Petrov actually copied to pages of their book from the town of Starobelsk. Ostap Bender went into the town in the beginning of the novel. Makhno based in Starobelsk one time, there is even a legend that here his gold was stashed somewhere. And probably no need to explain too much about Zhadan. Cult Ukrainian writer, he was born and raised here. In the novel "Voroshilovgrad" features of Starobelsk are so recognizable that Denis Kirkach says it is possible to arrange quests in the city for tourists based on the book.

Please follow the link to read the 2nd part of the story

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