Travel Guide Koktebel (Коктебель)

5,000 inhabitants. In addition to the famous big cities of Crimea, Yalta and Sevastopol, which make the peninsula's international reputation, there are a multitude of small seaside resorts along the Black Sea coast that offer Ukrainians and Russians a secret charm, often steeped in history. This is the case of Koktebel, whose name means "the city of the blue hills" in tatar, symbol of festive holidays, bohemian and naturist. It was the Russian symbolist poet Maximilian Voloshin who made it famous. He settled there in 1907 and made it a landmark for artists and writers from the Bohemian region of Petersburg. He welcomed among others the poetess Marina Tsvetayeva, the writer Andrei Biély and the poet Mandelstam. In his novel translated into French, Ce bon Staline, Viktor Erofeev evokes the journey he made to this house in Koktebel in the company of the Abkhazia-born writer Fazil Iskander with whom he developed the publication of a magazine that was later banned by the Soviet authorities. Voloshin then donated his house to the USSR writers. The house then served as a rest home for writers from all over the USSR. Then the city, marked by the seal of the intelligentsia who had visited it, became a symbol of artists and intellectuals. Today the city is a popular seaside resort. Crowds of holidaymakers go there every year to enjoy its various beaches, its bay lined with cafés and restaurants and the highly developed nightlife atmosphere. A renowned jazz festival is held there every year in mid-September (www.koktebel.info). Finally, Koktebel is known for the cognac to which the city has given its name, renowned as one of the best in Russia and whose factory, close to the city, offers tastings. For film lovers, the name Koktebel was featured in Boris Khlebnikov and Alexei Popogrebsky's film Koktebel, released in 2005, which tells the story of a father and son as far as the "promised land" of Koktebel.