The guide Anastasia Kozhevina guarantees.
Anastasia Kozhevina, a participant in the “Pro!” competition, has a special property: you talk to her on the phone — and there is a desire to go to Omsk, on an excursion. There is a stereotype that there is nothing to see there. But those who were in this city with Anastasia, they warmly recommend him to friends and acquaintances. She discovered her talent as a tour guide while still a first-grader, but revealed it much later, decades later. Read what came of it for Omsk and the surrounding area.
To tourism — via the railway
At the age of 7, Anastasia Kozhevina came with her parents to see Moscow, found herself on an excursion to the Kremlin and found her talent. “I was so hooked that I studied all the books on the Kremlin. I could easily have led groups of tourists even then,” she says. — And since then, I have clearly understood who I want to be. Of course, a guide.”
But at the time of graduation, and it was the harsh 90s, there was no talk of tourism, and Anastasia chose a “more reliable” profession. She graduated from the Economics Department of Omsk State University with a degree in Organization Management. She worked in the field of railway transport, then in a construction company — she was engaged in keeping an archive.
In general, the guide’s talent lay dormant in her for thirty years and three years, and then began to express himself. When Anastasia was in her late forties, she took advanced training courses in the specialties “Tourism Manager” and “Organization of hiking trips and excursions.” And she began to combine that very archive with work at the travel company “Passionate and I” (since 2021 it is called “Omigo”).
In 2019, the owner of this company decided to retire from tourism and transferred his business to Anastasia Kozhevina. By the way, the business is small: there are three people on staff. But this team has launched an active activity.
At first, the residents of Omsk themselves were offered tours of their hometown and for many they rediscovered it. It’s in It’s a common situation in Russia — people don’t know much about their region and wonder how many interesting things they have. At that time, the skill of working with archives was very important in studying historical documents, which provided rich material for creating new excursions.
“At some point, tour operators from other cities became interested in our programs. This is how inbound sightseeing flows went to Omsk, which did not happen before,” Anastasia says. — They are going to Moscow and Petersburg, Tyumen and Novosibirsk (the easiest way for people to get from there is by train overnight — and they are in Omsk). There has been a good flow from Yekaterinburg lately.”
Now the question is: what is so special about Anastasia and her colleagues showing people in their city?
Fortress. Tobolsk Gate. Photo: Alexander Isaev
Omsk historical
“Tourists here discover what they expect from Novosibirsk, but they don’t find it there,” Anastasia Kozhevina says mysteriously. And he explains that Novosibirsk is perceived as the capital of Siberia, but the city is actually young, Soviet. And if you want to get acquainted with the rich history of the region, then you need to go to Omsk.
It was from here that the governors-general ruled Western Siberia. From here came the detachment that founded the Verny fortress, the current city of Almaty. And for a long time Omsk was the capital of a huge territory — from Yamal to Uzbekistan.
During the Civil War, from 1918 to 1919, the capital of the Russian state was located here, the supreme ruler of which was Alexander Kolchak. Many people have refreshed this plot in their memory from the film “Admiral” (although it is full of inaccuracies — in particular, Kolchak took the oath not in the middle of the field, but in Assumption Cathedral of the city of Omsk).
The Admiral’s personal residence now houses a Center for the Study of the civil war, which was very stormy in the city and the surrounding area. Both red and white — all have left their mark on the history of Omsk. Omigo guides tell a lot about this by tourists on excursions.
Kolchak’s house. Photo: Alexander Isaev
Omsk is creative and mystical
“Not only our history, but also our culture is rich,— Anastasia Kozhevina continues the theme. — The largest collection of paintings beyond the Urals: Repin, Shishkin, Vasnetsov, Vrubel, Kuindzhi, Aivazovsky. There are 10 theaters in the city, among which the Omsk Academic Drama Theater is the most famous — one of the best in Russia. Such masters of the stage played with us! Guests of the city almost always go to the Drama after excursions.”
A separate area of sightseeing tourism is Omsk mystical. “The village of Okunevo is located nearby, which Mikhail Zadornov also told about. Physicists have discovered electromagnetic disturbances here, and esotericists say that this is a place of power, a real “navel of the Earth”. Psychics are rushing here. And also representatives of the most diverse religions: from Babajists and Krishnas to our pagan Slavs.”
The capercaillie is a symbol of the Muromtsevsky district of the Omsk region — the land of five lakes. Photo: Alexander Isaev
Does Anastasia Kozhevina observe in Is Okunevo something unusual when it organizes excursions there? She answers this question evasively. But it leads to the following fact. The “Navel of the Earth” was studied by archaeologists, and objects of religious worship were found in all layers of soil belonging to different eras. “Conclusion: since the Iron Age, people have considered it necessary to pray here.”
Farther. The village of Petropavlovsk with an ancient distillery in the famous Land of five lakes (do you know the vodka of the same name?). “And this, by the way, is our local legend…” They say the lakes are craters from the debris of a huge meteorite, and they are connected by an underground river. If you swim in these lakes in a certain sequence, you can rejuvenate and heal from any disease.
Then the zoo. Outstanding.
The ethnic park “Starina Sibirskaya”.
The Siberian possessions of Santa Claus…
Are we going? If anything, we know who will organize the program for us.
About the competition
The “Pro!” contest is held within the framework of the “Know our PRO” project. Its purpose is to introduce those who create domestic tourism today. You can find the stories of all the participants who announced themselves before October 31 on the project, as well as on the Profi pages.Travel.
At the end of December, the organizers of the Know Our PRO project will choose three people who will receive additional prizes: the opportunity to present their project/company at the online exhibition “Know Our: Summer 2024” (2 invitations). One of the participants will receive the main prize — 5 days of rest for two at the Sochi Park Hotel from the tour operator Anex.
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