Greetings, friends.
There are 16 cities in Russia with populations exceeding 1 million people.
There are 20 cities with a population of 500,000 to 1 million people.
31 cities with a population of 300,000 to 500,000 people.
I live in a city with a population of about 30 thousand people.
Last weekend, my wife and I went back to my mother-in-law's house in the city of Makaryev, and our granddaughter was with us. She thought we had come to the village. What is the city of Makaryev? This is an old Russian city that has stopped developing for a number of reasons. It's simple: trade routes have changed, there is no railway in the city, and there are no large industrial enterprises; there are only a few small wood processing enterprises.
How do people live in this city? How many people are there in the city? When I met him in 1989, I was told that 10,000 people lived here. Now the Internet says that the population has decreased by 2 times. Indeed, it can be said that "it's good to die in this city."
But I really love this city. In my younger years, in the 90s of the last century, I even thought that it would be nice to come here to live. I like its geographical location and the excellent fishing in these places, because the Volga River is relatively close. And this thought came to me again twice this year, when I was walking along these quiet streets with my wife.
This time, I saw that the roads in the city were even being repaired, which had not been observed before. And that made me happy.
Peace and quiet. It seems that time has stopped in this place, and people don't even know that the first quarter of the 21st century ends on the calendar.
Oh, yes, and the benefits of civilization will soon come to this place! I saw that active work is underway on laying a water pipeline!
Yes, there is no natural gas in this city; people use firewood to heat their homes. But soon there will be water in the houses. Of course, there is running water in the city center, but not everywhere.
Asphalt is being laid on the next street, and pipes are being laid on this one. It's good that now you don't have to dig a ditch to lay a pipe underground.
Apples. Yes, I have seen apple trees, plums, and blackthorn trees on the streets of this city. I've never seen this in my city.
My wife's mom lives in this city; unfortunately, her dad has already left for the clouds. But my wife only knows the city center and the streets where her parents' house stands. Why is that? Because she lived here for only 3 years, and then she left to go to college. In recent years, we have not come to this city together, and it seems to me that I have studied it better than my wife. During this walk, she walked and was surprised that she had never been on these streets.
There are many abandoned old houses on the streets of the city. Many of them have already collapsed, but some are still standing, surrounded by bushes and trees.
My wife was surprised by this ravine. There were 4 old wooden baths in it. It means that once a small river flowed through this ravine. In Russia, baths were always located near the water. But now there is no water in the ravine, and therefore baths are not needed here.
We reached the end of the street and went out onto the federal highway, which runs along the edge of the city.
I usually drive my car here and don't look around. But now I see that there are also old houses here that are growing into the soil.
We left the noisy freeway for a quiet street. We still need to walk about one and a half kilometers to return home and complete the circle.
Wow, the house is being rebuilt. Cool! I don't think I've seen it in May yet.
I learned to drive such a tractor in my school years. We had special lessons where we qualified as tractor drivers. It was 1984-1986. It's been 40 years. In what year was this tractor released?
This truck has been here for at least 10 years. It seems to me that he has already become a part of the interior of the street.
Well, another 200 meters and we'll be home.
I hope, friends, that you were interested in looking at the streets of the old little Russian town.
By the way, the location of the city can be seen by clicking on the link to the map in the comments to the article by 
Thanks for reading...
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