LINE STREET

Lenin Street, formerly Zamorskaya, is one of the oldest and most important streets in the city, extending from Nizhnyaya Naberezhnaya Quay to the 130th district. After the fire of 1879, it was rebuilt in stone and, at the beginning of the 20th century, became the main artery with its new commercial, administrative and school buildings. The Russian-Asian Bank, one of the most important in the pre-revolutionary period, was located in the domed building, now a polyclinic. In 1920, the first Soviet of Deputies was established in its premises. On the other side of the street, at No. 22, are the Trade Union Palace and the Young Spectators' Theatre. After 1917, the Central Hotel, a former hotel of the early 20th century, was used to publish newspapers in Russian, Buryat (the local language) and, for soldiers taken prisoner during the war, in Hungarian, Serbian and Czech. The left-hand side of the street is the busiest, with shops, cinemas, offices and late 19th-century baroque houses. Along the neighbouring, quieter streets, there are old wooden houses with painted shutters and a lace-edged wooden canopy supported by twisted pillars above the door. Moving away from the monument along Karl-Marx Street, you will find, on your right, Urikskogo Street, a pedestrian and shopping street at the end of which there is a two-storey shopping centre and, on the left, the city market. A visit not to be missed.