Travel Guide Kouragino ())

The village of Kouraguino (13 000!) is located 100 km north of Minoussinsk, at the very heart of the famous depression of the same name. An administrative and cultural centre, Kouraguino has a large library, a culture house, a telecommunications centre, a swimming pool, a leisure park, with a monument to the Moukhanov Moukhanov that was exiled to this city, as well as a monument to the death of the Second World War.Situated on the banks of the river Touba, which flows into the Yenisey, the village blends harmoniously into a magnificent landscape of steppes and forests. In 1994, the city paid the column by becoming the centre of a new religion. Proclaiming the new Christ, a certain father Valentin called all those who wanted him to join him in Kouraguino, in a new religion where nationality and origin would not play any role, whether one be Russian, Greek, Tatar… The appeal was heard by a large number of pilgrims. They came to occupy the houses abandoned by the Germans of the Volga who, deported to Kouraguino before the Second world war, returned to Germany in the years 1970-1980. Father Valentin also proposed houses in the surrounding villages, deserted homes by former timber industry workers in decline. The pilgrims claim that they will be the only ones surviving on the day of the end of the world, gathered on the mountain Tcheremchanca, "chosen" for this purpose by God. Curious, most of these converted are intellectuals, musicians, poets… They include among them a famous blacksmith of Suzdal who keeps the secret of a special metal compound to melt the church bells and forge knives, as well as a well-known singer of the public. Dressed in their long handcrafted cotton and lace dresses, these pilgrims add to the picturesque Siberian landscape.