Bike trip – July 15 – Bolotnoye town

Pastor Alexander in the ECB church in Bolotnoye did not have much time to make all preparations for our visit. Though Alexander had only a few hours before our arrival he succeeded to cope with the task – to meet, feed and accommodate the Expedition. There are 20 members in this church. Before there were 40 members. The church house is about 40-years-old. No one of us has ever heard about this town before. Thanks to the Internet we found some things about the history of the town. But we failed to find any information about this church’s background.

In 1805 along the highway Moscow-Irkutsk there was founded a post station. In 1895-1986 there was build a Tran Siberian railroad. The railroad station was built and called Bolotnaya. The guidebook mentions about this place in 1900: “The station Bolotnaya, 3^rd class. There is a buffet. There is a near-by village Bolotnitskoye. 590 people live there. There is a church named after St. Nikolay, and a school. They ship oats and flour”. In 1939 the population in Bolotnoye was 19 thousand people. On the 12^th of November 1943 Bolotnoye became a town. Presently the population of the town is less than it was in 1939 but more than in 1900.