No matter how long the road, it has a beginning and an end. In many cities of the world and in Russia, fixed points have been established from which the counting of outgoing roads begins. This determines the distance between points. Somewhere it’s just a working landmark, and somewhere a monument and a city landmark. The designation of zero kilometer in Ufa has become a holiday worthy of attention.
According to the old tradition, at the General Post Office
At noon on September 14, 2007, on a Lenin street in Ufa, a beautifully decorated in traditional Bashkir patterns, bronze disk with the number "0" in the center was solemnly laid on the paving stones .
Now every Ufa citizen and guest of the city knows that the length of the roads of Bashkortostan is considered, according to the old Russian tradition, from the building of the General Post Office of Ufa.
A commemorative plaque was hung on the facade, indicating how far away from the “Zero Kilometer” in Ufa are four large cities of Russia: Murmansk in the north, Sochi in the south, Kaliningrad in the west and Vladivostok in the east. The fifth distance to the capital is Moscow.
The initiative to install the sign came from the Bashkir service of the Russian Post. It is known that in the old days mail was delivered by the “Yamskaya chase”, and zero versts participated in the calculation of the coachmen's run. Who, if not the Russian Post, should support the old tradition?
New urban traditions
The installation of the “Zero kilometer” sign in Ufa at the address : Lenin Street, Main Post Office, immediately generated a lot of signs that over the years have become new traditions.
At the celebration of the opening of the memorial sign, the postal workers expressed the wish that from today on this place of the city the newlyweds would take their first steps in family life, so that athletes would take their victorious starts from here. And that is exactly what is happening today.
Moreover, from here businessmen also prefer to start new projects - it is believed that they will be successful. Yes, there are many who still begin their journey from Zero, hoping for a happy conclusion.
All tourist routes of the city are designed with a visit to this place, so beloved by the townspeople. No wonder that over the years the bronze disk has been polished to a shine by millions of feet wishing to trample on it in front of the road.
The history of "zero kilometers" in Ufa
When the townspeople got used to a new place in the center, bringing good luck to everyone, and fell in love with it, an article appeared in the newspaper “Evening Ufa” that told them that this was not the first, or even the second “Zero” in the history of the city.
The previous one existed since 1925, and the beginning of the “zero verst” was a monument to Lenin by I. Mendelevich, erected by the leader a year after his death. And where else should all the roads start from? By a decision of the Council of People's Commissars of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, they decided: "The monument to Lenin is a reference point for miles along the tracts of Bashkiria from Ufa."
The authors of the article suggest that in tsarist Russia there was probably a reference point for Bashkir versts, because the distances on old maps and in some provincial publications are indicated with great accuracy. But where could she be? Documents about this, unfortunately, have not been preserved. But there are speculations.
According to the Yaman tradition, this could be the Ufa post office on Pushkin Street. But maybe the countdown was from the Ufa Kremlin or the Governor’s House. So how many “zero kilometers” are in Ufa ?
Like in Moscow ...
The Moscow “zero kilometer” also haunts Muscovites who want to get to the bottom of the matter. He also repeatedly changed his location, causing at first controversy and perplexity. But then people got used to the new sign, and it became a landmark of the city. These last signs are even similar. Just look at the “Zero kilometer” of Ufa, whose photo adorns booklets and postcards with views of the central streets, and the sign of Moscow to notice the similarity. And they are installed in disputed places.
The Moscow count of versts was once carried out from the bell tower of Ivan the Great, because the pit orders were located in the Kremlin. And then from the Postal Court on Sretenka, and later from the German Sloboda. Only at the beginning of the 20th century, the Main Post Office moved to Myasnitskaya Street.
After the revolution, a new countdown of Russian roads began. From the Central Telegraph on Tverskaya, from the Mausoleum of V.I. Lenin and I.V. Stalin.
During the years of perestroika, they became completely confused. The Moscow mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, voted on the place to install the sign, they were offered as many as 14. Finally, the disk was mounted in the paving stones in the passage of the Resurrection Gate, where it is today. Till.
So the residents of Bashkiria should not be embarrassed by the journey of their "Zero kilometer" in Ufa . He is not the only one so restless.