Impression of Omsk (50 photos)

The famous blogger zyalt visited Omsk and shared his impressions about this city. Any other city in Russia could be in the place of Omsk; the situation is approximately the same everywhere.

Further words from the author:

The first thing I saw was the view from the window of the Komsomolskaya Pravda editorial office, where we had a press conference. I would like to take this opportunity to say hello to the wonderful Omsk journalists.

I took this shot last year. If you look at Omsk from an airplane, then probably half of the area is occupied by ordinary one-story village buildings, or, as such neighborhoods are sometimes called, the “private sector.”

Omsk looks like this from below. Not the very center of the city, of course, but not the outskirts either.

Modern architecture of Omsk.

Not exactly modern architecture.

Historical monuments... People also live in this crumbling house. People would be happy for their barn to be demolished and for them to be relocated, but unfortunately, this barn was the headquarters of the uprising almost 100 years ago. Now this barn has become a monument and cannot be demolished. There is no running water or sewerage here, but there is historical memory.

Well, the people who live here are very friendly.

Local residents.

Omsk is very dirty.

That's really...

The city in some places resembles one big landfill.

This picture can be found in many poor African countries.

Burkina Faso sends greetings to Omsk:

In fact, the problem with garbage in the city is very serious.

They simply stopped cleaning it in many areas.

If previously garbage trucks ran every other day, now they are gone for weeks. People write letters to the president and complain, while the wind blows packages around the city, and rats and stray dogs breed in landfills.

This is an ordinary street on the outskirts. People take their trash to the curb where it stays. Nobody cleans anything.

This is what one poorer district looks like...

This is what another richer area looks like.

When I posted a photo from here on Saturday, many Omsk residents began to tell me that the snow had recently melted, so there was a lot of garbage. Friends, a question for you, are your garbage bags, bottles and boxes falling from the sky onto the side of the road? What does snow have to do with it?

Playground.

A corner of civilization.

One of the yards had a promising sign.

The courtyard made by United Russia was not much different from other courtyards, well, maybe a little cleaner. The main attraction of the yard is a huge puddle in which the boys played with the corpse of a cat.

- Look, it's Murzik! - a cheerful boy ran up to me and pointed to some black rag, - this is my cat! She disappeared a week ago, and today we found her!

- Look, uncle, it's Murzik! - another boy cheerfully picked up, - Take pictures of her! Take photos quickly before he runs away again!

Murzik, or rather what was left of him, definitely had no intention of running away anywhere. About ten meters from the guys, strange bodies were sitting and drinking beer from two-liter cylinders.

- Vitya! Vitya, fuck! I'll fuck you now! “I asked you not to yell so loudly,” one of the bodies began to wheeze displeasedly in Vita’s direction. As I understand it, it was Vitina’s mother or older sister. It was impossible to understand the age of the body. The guys calmed down a little and continued playing with the cat's corpse.

- What kind of cat is this? “This is a rag,” the girls who were playing nearby approached the guys...
- Yeah, rag! Can a rag have legs?! - Vitya was indignant,
“And teeth!” added Vitin’s friend.

It really was Murzik, or rather what was left of him. And this large puddle in the yard was indeed the most important entertainment for the local children. United Russia has built comfortable benches for parents.

However, it may seem to you that I deliberately chose some terrible outskirts, but in the city center everything is much better. It’s really a little better in the center, that’s why it’s the center of the city. There are no landfills here, there are no bags hanging on the trees, but even in the center it is still unacceptably dirty. Along any roadside there are dumps of earth and mud. Now it is dry and there is such a light fog of dust over the roads that residents breathe. The roads are dirty not because it was winter in Omsk, but because the mayor of the city is a “strong business executive.”

This is a crossing on Lenin Street. Now someone is probably going to write to me about the bad timing of the visit, and about the fact that everything will be removed soon.

I took this shot last year on May 30, when everything was blooming and smelling. As you can see, they won't remove it. And the time of year has nothing to do with it.

Central Street.

Cozy shop on the main street.

The transition is in the very center. A wooden pallet is placed here so that when it rains you can cross over the mud. Do you seriously think that one of the central streets of the city could look like this?

City center.

This is probably the cleanest place in the city - Medvedev's reception room. But even here there are some old cups and bags lying around.

The only advantage of the fact that there are no public utilities in the city is that residents can calmly express their opinions and no one will disrupt them.

A year ago, then still a candidate for the post of mayor of Omsk from United Russia, Dvorakovsky said that: “In recent years, the main purpose of the mayor and the city administration has been forgotten - to make the city convenient for the life of Omsk residents. The position of mayor is not political, but managerial and economic. It is on this postulate that my program is based.” Almost nothing has changed in the city in a year. In the pedestrian areas in the center there were no trash cans and benches, and there are none. And where there were still benches, the mayor demolished them for some reason.

Remember the famous Omsk embankment?

Godzilla ran across it and left huge holes in the tiles.

A normal mayor would first of all repair the embankment, put lanterns, benches and trash cans here, plant bushes and trees, create a normal resting place for residents.... What do you think Dvorakovsky did? He simply blocked the embankment with a fence. All. Now residents not only risk falling into huge holes, they are also forced to climb over fences in order to take a walk somewhere.

Unfortunately, walking here is really dangerous. There are broken glass in many holes. It's scary to think what would happen if a child accidentally fell in there. And why are there such holes on the embankment? Because it's winter? Or maybe there is some special mentality in Omsk? Or maybe it’s Varlamov, such a scoundrel, who is specifically looking for dirt? No, it’s just that the city didn’t have an owner, and still doesn’t.

Omsk is a very depressing city.

Unfortunately it is so. I talked a lot with young people and almost everyone plans to leave here at the first opportunity. No, everyone loves the city, it is, of course, dear to everyone... But if the opportunity arises to go to St. Petersburg, Moscow or Europe, 9 out of 10 will leave without hesitation. There is absolutely nothing to do in the city. When I met with Dvorakovsky’s adviser a year ago, we talked a lot about the importance of keeping young people occupied. There is absolutely nothing to do in the city. What if young people in the city go to relax in shopping centers, this is a very dangerous syndrome. Then Dvorakovsky’s adviser nodded approvingly and agreed with everything. A year has passed and the guys are now talking about the fact that some religious fanatics banned the farewell to winter, and the pests at the city hall banned the zombie parade. And I understand that all these young, ambitious and active guys, at the first opportunity, will get out of here somewhere where there will be fewer assholes.

Recently the whole world learned that in Omsk there is a cafe "Everest", where several years ago some drunk people danced naked and allegedly committed sexual acts. There was nothing unusual about this for any normal person. Moreover, I am sure that 90% of you have photographs in your home archives where you are drunk, in a completely unsightly form, doing something indecent. But Omsk journalists made a sensation out of this banal story, and what do you think the authorities did? They began to press the blogger who wrote about it. That is, neither the city’s chief police officer, nor the mayor, nor other officials were to blame, but the blogger who simply posted the photos was to blame.

This time I met with the governor of the Omsk region, Nazarov, and his deputies, Hamburg. Just like a year ago, with Dvorakovsky’s assistant, we discussed the problems of young people, that the city is depressive, that people are fleeing from here, that “there is no movement here.” We talked about the need to develop courtyards, public areas and support young and talented children. What we need to do is create new modern libraries, sports grounds and give people an alternative to drinking beer. That we need to somehow solve the problem of the old senile people who have occupied power (the director of the department of youth policy and sports in Omsk is a dense pensioner). Well, of course, we also talked about garbage. Mr. Hamburg very understandingly agreed with everything, even said that he was not against a zombie parade if that was necessary. But I’m sure another year will pass and nothing will change. Because no one needs anything.

In Omsk there is a tradition of enclosing courtyards with fences.

Stop.

Some strange decisions. For example, manhole covers near the Omsk government are painted light green. For what?

New building. Why couldn't they have central air conditioning? Now a normal house looks like a pimply teenager.

Opposite the fountain hangs a huge sign “Swimming is prohibited”

With this post I did not want to “disgrace Omsk once again,” as my favorite Omsk journalists like to write. I just want to attract the attention of those 750,000 Omsk residents who have given up, who do not go to the polls and do not believe in change. There is garbage on the streets and potholes on the central embankment not because you have had winter recently, but because your mayor is a pest, a “strong business executive” and he is in power only thanks to your indifference.