Borovsk January 13, 2013

Several historical figures have something to do with Borovsk: matemathician Pafnuty Chebyshev was born near, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was living there for eleven years.

Alexander Pushkin in a letter to his friend mentioned Borovsk naming it a "hog town".

Lenin. Lenin!? He had nothing to do with Borovsk in particular, such monuments are just everywhere.

But none before has done anything so remarkable to make the town attractive as artist Ovchinnikov. Together with his wife he moved to Borovsk from Moscow and started in 2002 a project "Parallel town".

He was painting on the walls, she was writing poetry.

Together they created many frescoes around the town and a XXI century globe of Borovsk as a list of content.

Tea party.

Tsiolkovsky. A letter to Paris.

Etymology of Borovsk. Where the name came from. Two versions: humorous and official.

Сucumber.

Crying sky.

Old town.

Polezhaevy brothers with wives in 1908.

The team of firefighters.

Have a nice turn.

Unraveling the world.

Not everyone in the town appreciates the project. Some of the frescoes are getting lost.

Artist has a sarcastic point of view on that fact.

Without mural paintings it is just an ordinary provincial site.

Where nothing really happens.

But quite a nice one.

With its own charm.

With a relax spirit.

And cutesy.

Balabanovo

Two towns are right next to each other. Balabanovo is well know for a factory that is located there. PLITSPICHPROM (Russian: ПЛИТCПИЧПРОМ) has been producing matches for every home in Soviet Union and later Russia. Everyone knows it from the text on a matchbox.

With no surprise Balabanovo looks exactly as other industrial towns (except Crespi d'Adda) do — dull and sad.