Lipovaya Gora (Perm)
On the north of Perm in front of Cape Strelka, that tower over the junction of the Kama River and the Chusovaya River, the station Bannaya Gora is located. Almost all the permians have heard a phrase “It's a high time for him to get to Bannaya gora” that equals an idiom “rats in the attic”. But practically nobody thinks about a meaning of this phrase…
At the other edge of Perm (on the south) is situated another station – Lipovaya Gora. In former times Lipovaya Gora was a forest massif of the same name. It was famous for its microclimatic factor and variety of animals and plants species. There is also stretches a natural boundary of taiga and Kungurian forest steppe that is rich in relicts. This is the place where rare species of plants grow, Anemonoides Reflexa is among them. A famous botanist Khrebtov called Lipovaya Gora as a marvelous botanical garden of great scientific and pedagogical value.
But Lipovaya Gora was not fated to be a natural reserve. On its territory was founded the instructional farm of the Perm State Agricultural Academy, which was flourish in 50ths - 70ths and which sits and rots now. Before the war a professor of the Agricultural Academy Yudkin tried to turn this place into a paradise place and set up an awesome park, and the pictures of it still make me suffer from depression when I compare them with the modern state of affairs.
Also, in 1923 by the enthusiasts of horseback riding there was created one of the first Perm hippodromes – a race track. From 1923 to 1939 560 breeding horses were tried on this track.
Still earlier on Lipovaya Gora (in the intersection point of the two strategic roads of Trans-Siberian Railway and Siberian Route) the officers secret agency, that headed by staff captain Alexander Marseyev hid in one of the gate-houses. On the night of December 24 he took part in White Guard mutiny which led to the defeat of the Bolshevist Perm. Somewhere here on the seventh milestone of Siberian Route (at the crossroads of Vasilyev street and Battle of Lake Khasan Heroes street) in terrible 1918 Cheka servicemen shot away arrested people and hostages.
Nowadays you can hear about projects considered with building a great microdistrict after the fashion of Sadovy microdistrict (since 1958 Lipovaya Gora is a part of Perm administrative territory. But it is hard to believe in them. Reading Perm message boards, I admire of teenager’s naivety, who discusses creating a trolleybus service in this place. In 1980 when my family moved to Lipovaya Gora from Krokhalevka, they were assured that trolleybus would be going to the brewery in that autumn. But 29 years passed already and it is still does not exist as well as mysterious Perm metro’s station “Lipovaya Gora”. At the same time flying saucers appear over the confectionery works “Kamskaya”. UFOs always liked this nice place. Being the children sometimes we watched them when they appeared at the open spaces, that were here before the works was built.
The main secret of Lipovaya Gora lay under the dead-weight of archival documents. The case is that before the revolution a lunatic asylum was located in this wonderful place outside the city limits. Herefrom comes the expression “Are you from Lipovaya Gora?”. When the asylum was eliminated, “Lipovaya Gora” was changed to “Bannaya Gora” in the expression.
