Stary OskolMapMay 4–5, 2014 The 21st century is already here.  21st century Stary Oskol resembles Naberezhnye Chelny, where all the life is concentrated in the city’s residential microdistricts.  Zhukov Microdistrict The city is one big suburb.  Even the monuments here stand surrounded by panel buildings, because there’s no other kind.  The nine-story-tall trees are the only nice thing about the city.  It’s no wonder that when people grow up looking at stairs like this, their ideas about architecture are set in reinforced concrete.  The market.  Downtown.  The welcoming entrance to someone’s home sweet home.  But at least the city has spiritual riches.  Stary Oskol: City of Rich Spiritual Traditions There’s one old neighborhood that used to be the center of the city.  Whatever wasn’t demolished is being used top to bottom as retail space. No sentimentality here.  The few buildings that somehow managed to escape destruction indicate that people were once familiar with beauty here.  Other than that, the city is completely hopeless. Red October still stands in the background, but a priest with a cross has already been put up out front. Bowing to one regime, then to another without ever pausing to think of the city’s inhabitants.  October Cinema Archaeologists aren’t going to be interested in this place anytime soon, in other words.  |
