It smells like a riverbed here

Photo: ITAR-TASS

The concept of “live fish” in Astrakhan exists only for those fish that swim in the Volga. Everything else is stale

Moscow - Uryupinsk - Volgograd - Astrakhan
Fishermen move to the lower reaches of the Volga in early April in order to have time to enjoy their first catch before the spring flood. But the seasonal boom of wild recreation in the Astrakhan region occurs in August-September, when caravans of SUVs with trailers head there. In addition to fabulous fishing and bloodthirsty mosquitoes, these regions greet tourists with a rich harvest of watermelons and tomatoes, dried Don saberfish, black caviar and an endless stream of trucks. Despite the popularity of this route among motorists and cargo carriers, no one is in a hurry to turn the M6 Caspian federal highway into a decent highway. The road to the generous riches of the south of Russia is a miserable two-lane road, which took last place in the subjective ranking of “Money”.

The end of civilization
The M6 "Caspian" highway begins behind Kashira, after the bridge over the Oka River and a traffic police post 118 km from Moscow, branching off from the M4 "Don" highway. At this point the road ends and the direction begins. Throughout its entire length, with the exception of short sections near large cities, the M6 is an indecently broken two-lane road, with almost no markings, loaded with trucks and agricultural machinery. Accompanied by traffic police vehicles, lines of barely crawling harvesters collect queues of cars. For the entire 15 hours you have to drive in a ragged “braking-accelerating-overtaking” mode; in desperate cases you have to overtake on the right along intermittent gravel roadsides, risking your life and your car. Stops for a snack, gas station, picnic or excursion inevitably lead to a new meeting with a line of trucks that you have already driven around once. And yet, we decided to look for pleasant objects on this route that could turn a trip along it into a journey.
The start, however, turned out to be unsuccessful. We left in the late afternoon, deciding to spend the night in the first settlement where there was a hotel. It turned out to be the city of Mikhailov, Ryazan region, at km 208. The rooms at the Pervomaiskaya Hotel turned out to be disgusting - no hot water and wet linen. It was suspiciously reminiscent of a Soviet-era railway service, when enterprising conductors would “hatch” piles of dirty bedding, sprinkling it with water in order to “rent it out” again. The cost of an overnight stay is 300-500 rubles. per room. For another 60 rubles. We parked the car in an underground garage with a tight entrance. Our car was the only one there. It turned out to be impossible to have dinner in Mikhailov - all cafes and shops were closed. We had to return 20 kilometers along the highway, where roadside cafes kindly offered us cutlets and pancakes. In the morning, having driven 35 km along the highway, we realized our mistake: not far from the road there was a parking lot guarded by the police and a more comfortable hotel.

Gasoline edge

Photo: DMITRY ROGULIN

You can come to Astrakhan not only by asphalt, but also by water

The Ryazan region pleasantly surprises with the abundance of gas stations. Gas stations are found every 10 km, or even more often. Mainly under the Tyumen Oil Company (TNK) brand, which is explained by the ownership of the Ryazan oil refinery by the TNK-BP holding. A liter of gasoline AI-92 costs 13.9 rubles, AI-95 - 15.2 rubles, AI-98 - absent. On the Caspian highway, 98-grade gasoline can only be purchased near large cities and directly in them. That is, if your car does not accept any other fuel, you should expect that the tank filled in Moscow will be enough almost to Tambov, then to Volgograd and then to Astrakhan.
After crossing the border of the Tambov region, there are significantly fewer gas stations and prices are higher. We refuel for the first time at km 407. The YUKOS gas station in front of the bridge over the Polnoy River Voronezh turned out to be the most expensive in the area (Ai-92 - 14.7 rubles, Ai-95 - 16.1 rubles), but differed from others in additional services: a paid clean toilet, a store with a wide selection automobile and other goods, cafes, where we had a cheap, but tasty and hearty breakfast.
Refueling allowed us to estimate fuel consumption. The gas tank was replenished with 61 liters, therefore, our three-liter Audi A6 “ate” about 15 liters per 100 km. Not bad for permanent quattro all-wheel drive, an automatic transmission, working air conditioning and an exhausting “ragged” driving mode. The on-board computer showed approximately the same numbers.

Kozlov city

Photo: DMITRY ROGULIN

The bridge across the Volga across the dam of the Volzhskaya Hydroelectric Power Station can only be crossed by car: there is no access for pedestrians

The first large settlement in the Tambov region is the city of Michurinsk. It was founded in 1635 on the Lesnaya Voronezh River by decree of Tsar Mikhail as an earthen fortress of Kozlov to protect the southern borders of the country from attacks by the Crimean Tatars and Nogais. The fortress received city status in 1779 thanks to agricultural product traders who established a large wholesale sales center in it. In 1932, the city was renamed Michurinsk during the lifetime of the breeder who lived and worked there.
In the center of Kozlov-Michurinsk, architectural monuments of the 18th-19th centuries have been preserved, including the Bogolyubsky Cathedral, built in 1873, which is a smaller and somewhat simplified copy of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The author of both churches was St. Petersburg architect Konstantin Ton, the founder of the so-called Russian-Byzantine style.

Tambov zigzags

Photo: ITAR-TASS

The Uryupinsk Goat is revered not only by local knitters, but also by the capital’s fashion designer Slava Zaitsev: he even created his own wool collection from Uryupinsk fluff

At the approach to Tambov (435 km), the highway becomes four-lane. But after 12 km the good road goes to Tambov, and the bypass road again turns into a two-lane road, and even with rather steep descents and ascents. 20 km after the Tambov-Volgograd-Astrakhan fork, the route enters a fabulously beautiful pine forest. Along the roadsides every now and then there are numerous cafes, hotels, a motel and several gas stations. The fairy tale, however, ends quite quickly, and the landscape outside the window is replaced by the endless fields of the Black Earth Region.
At the 550th kilometer, our attention was drawn to a sign informing us about the turn to the museum-estate of Sergei Rachmaninov. The estate, where the composer loved to work and relax, is located in the village of Ivanovka, 30 km from the Caspian highway. The house belonged to the Satin family, from which Rachmaninov’s wife comes. The estate was restored in the 1980s thanks to the efforts of the composer’s great-nephew, businessman Yuri Rachmaninov. Music festivals named after the great composer are held annually in Ivanovka. The museum is not used to casual visitors, so we were not allowed to see the interior of the house, and we limited ourselves to a walk through the vast, deserted park.
Having left the Tambov region and jumped a short 30-kilometer section along Voronezhskaya, we entered Volgogradskaya. After another 23 km, a turn to the legendary Uryupinsk opened.

City of Goats and Kids
Uryupinsk deserves a separate trip. If not for the lack of decent tourist infrastructure, it could well compete in popularity with some Karelia. Local authorities are making money as best they can from the brand of the symbol of the Russian province, but so far they have moved beyond T-shirts with the words “I’ll give up everything and go to Uryupinsk!” the local knitting factory did not help. The city, as it should be, is provincial, but in terms of the number of residents and industrial enterprises it ranks either second or third among the regional centers of the Volgograd region. It’s worth going to the center of Uryupinsk just for the monument to the Goat - the only one of its kind. Uryupinsk residents claim that their down scarves are softer and fluffier than those from Orenburg, because only here do goats grow completely unique hair. Physical evidence can be purchased at the market or railway station.
The monument has a beautiful story telling about the love of police officers for animal husbandry. Allegedly, on the eve of the opening of the sculptural composition, unknown vandals sawed off one of the goat’s two kids. Fearing that by the time of the solemn ceremony the goat would be left without any children or, even worse, without horns, local police officers organized a round-the-clock vigil at the monument. They also say that the district authorities wanted to ban the passage of trucks in the immediate vicinity of Koza: they say, trucks don’t drive on Red Square.
Uryupinsk stands on the Khoper River, which, since the time of the famous financial pyramid organized by Volgograd State University student Lev Konstantinov (now an emigrant) with the support of his mother, has also been a brand. Despite everything, the Khoper is one of the most beautiful Russian rivers, quite worthy of spending a vacation on it at least once in your life, rafting or catamaraning. It is unlikely that you will be able to find a decent permanent recreation center: most of them are plywood houses preserved from Soviet times with amenities on the street.

From Transkanal to "Rassvet"
The next 300 km of the road were remembered for five warnings about emergency areas, numerous points of sale of last year’s honey and the same prices at gas stations: 14 rubles. for AI-92 and 14.7 rubles. for AI-95. Despite the different names of the gas stations, all gasoline comes from the Lukoil Volgograd oil refinery.
At km 886, from the bridge over the Ilovlya River, you can see the sign “Museum of Folk Architecture and Life.” The museum is located in the village of Krapivin and tells about the life and everyday life of the local Cossacks. It was already closed, but for 30 rubles. the caretaker agreed to take us around this open-air museum, which he did quite well.
At km 933 our attention was drawn to the turn to Samofalovka. While we were thinking about the origin of the name of this village, glorified in the battles of the Great Patriotic War, we drove onto a four-lane road with a traffic police post at its very beginning. It became clear that we were approaching Volgograd and it was time to think about where to spend the night. Food for thought was provided by billboards offering the services of two- and three-star Volgograd hotels.
However, we did not use the recorded telephone numbers, since a motel was discovered a kilometer from the entrance to the city. They offered us houses with hot water and a double bed for 500 rubles. Another 20 rubles. There was parking on the motel grounds. The local cafe's menu was quite limited. After dinner and a soak in the sauna (300 rubles per hour), we went to bed, intending to explore the world-famous sights of Volgograd in the morning.
If you don’t turn anywhere when entering Volgograd, the M6 highway will imperceptibly turn into Marshal Zhukov Avenue, which will take you straight to the banks of the Volga, to the embankment. And beyond the Volga, as you know, there is no land in Volgograd. Thus, traveling through the entire city will take you no more than fifteen minutes. But this is a misleading impression. If you drive not across, but along, you will have to describe an 87-kilometer arc along the bend of the Volga bed - from Transkanalye (the name has no etymological connection with the Italian curse, it means the other bank of the Volga-Don Canal) to Volzhsky, where the largest in Europe is located Hydroelectric power station. Volgograd residents are proud in front of tourists that their city is the longest in the world, cursing “this gut” among themselves when they get to work in the morning.
However, if your goal is not historical tourism, but fishing, then it is better to avoid Volgograd. The M6 highway runs along the outskirts, going to Astrakhan along the right bank of the Volga.
In general, from Volgograd to Astrakhan you can travel along the left bank of the Volga, where you get through the dam of the Volzhskaya Hydroelectric Power Station (a sight worth seeing!). This road, passing by the famous salt lake Baskunchak and through Akhtuba, known to all fishermen in Russia, is less crowded. And if you haven’t chosen your final destination for a wild holiday in advance, then it makes sense to pitch your tents right here: at the height of summer, Akhtuba has not only good fishing, but also excellent beaches with truly seaside sand dunes. Here you can meet poachers - suppliers of black caviar. It is best to do this at a gas station near populated areas. The people you need come to the gas station on motorcycles and with cans into which they fill fuel for motor boats. And if after the city of Volzhsky you take a right into the floodplain, then you can easily get to the Rassvet state farm - in Soviet times it was famous for its amazing tomato fields, where the entire local intelligentsia worked, including schoolchildren and students.

Fish certificate
At the beginning of May, the endless Astrakhan steppe is covered with an even layer of green grass. But already in early June it burns out, and the steppe turns into a lifeless semi-desert. Periodically, the route is pressed close to the Volga. One of these places is Tsagan-Aman - several kilometers of Kalmykia in the middle of the Astrakhan region. This settlement has the sad reputation of being the largest poacher’s nest in the Volga region: they say that during the spawning season not a single sturgeon escapes the local nets, but the Kalmyk authorities, of course, do not believe this. Local traffic police officers are considered very angry and picky, but they did not stop us either on the way to Astrakhan or back.
Almost all the attractions of Astrakhan are concentrated in the city center. First of all, it is a stone Kremlin built in 1582-1589 with two cathedrals. In addition, in Astrakhan there is an art gallery named after Boris Kustodiev, a local native. There are also hotels in the city center (there are several of them, so choosing the right one in terms of comfort and cost will not be difficult). We stayed at the three-star Lotus Hotel. A double room cost 1600 rubles.
The lotus is the same symbol of Astrakhan as the Motherland statue is a symbol of Volgograd. At the end of July you can enjoy an unforgettable sight - fields of blooming lotus. They are located on the territory of the Astrakhan nature reserve, in the Volga delta, 100 km from the city. To visit the reserve, it is best to purchase a guided tour. The cost of the program (8-10 hours) is 700-1200 rubles. per person.
Fish and other gifts from the Astrakhan region can be purchased at any of the local markets. If you buy sturgeon fish and black caviar, be sure to keep the receipt from the store - you will need it in case of inspection at checkpoints located when leaving Astrakhan and near populated areas of the region along the entire route. However, they stopped us only once, but they didn’t even inquire about the contents of the trunk, limiting themselves to checking our documents.
DENIS SKOROBOGATKO

Route sheet

1. 118th km of the Don highway. The junction after which the Caspian highway begins.
2. 160-170 km, road repairs. The main difficulty of this section of the route is the 165th km, where the bridge over the Sturgeon River has been under repair since October 2004. Traffic on the bridge is regulated by a traffic light, which allows traffic alternately in one direction or the other, which periodically causes significant traffic jams. But even in this case, regulation of traffic on the bridge with the help of traffic police officers is not practiced.

3. 335 km, Church of the Bogolyubskaya Mother of God (before turning to the village of Zimarovo on the left side). Built in 1756. It is located on the territory of the former estate of the princes Lopukhins and then the Volkonskys. The main shrine of the temple is the icon of the Bogolyubskaya Mother of God (XIII century), which is a copy of the icon of the Vladimir Mother of God, painted, according to legend, after Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky’s vision of the Mother of God in 1155. During Soviet times, the temple in Zimarov was looted, closed and used as a storage facility for agricultural products. Now the temple is working for its intended purpose, but restoration work continues.
4. 615 km, bridge over the Khoper River, which is very popular with kayakers. Here, however, there are none, since the Khopersky Nature Reserve is located just downstream - its border runs along the river to the city of Novokhopersk. The reserve, established in 1935, is home to muskrats, moose, roe deer, wild boars, sika deer, bison and beavers. This place is not only very beautiful, but is also considered the most mysterious in the Voronezh region; it has long been chosen by ufologists. According to legend, since the Great Patriotic War, a herd of horses has lived in the local wilderness, which now live a free life.

5. 664 km. Don't miss the turn to Uryupinsk, the capital of the Russian hinterland. Mandatory places to visit are the Goat monument in the city center and the local market, where you can buy T-shirts with the inscription “I’ll give up everything and go to Uryupinsk!” (for yourself and friends), as well as a down scarf.
6. 695-705 km. After the turn to the village of Serp and Molot, there is the worst quality section of the route. At the beginning of the section there is a sign “Cattle Driving” - apparently, it is preventing the road from being repaired.
7. 839 km. Interchange Volgograd-Don-Frolovo with a bridge under repair. The entrance to the bridge is blocked by stones. Detour routes are marked with signs.
8. Volgograd. To continue driving along the Caspian highway towards Astrakhan, you need to turn right before the bridge, which is part of the interchange, and exit onto Zemlyachki Street. The main Volgograd hypermarket "Park House" will remain on the right. It’s worth a visit - there won’t be any more such objects of commercial civilization on the M6.
9. The Volzhskaya Hydroelectric Power Station dam is worth driving through for at least two reasons. Firstly, there is no other bridge connecting the right and left banks in the Volgograd area. Secondly, the view from the largest hydroelectric power station in Europe is impressive: on the left, almost flush with the road-spilled to the sea sizes of the Volga, on the right, far below-a view of Volgograd and a picturesque understanding.
10. 1373 km. Entrance to Astrakhan (immediately after the DPS post in the village of Streletskoye). This place can be considered the end of the Caspian highway. The historical center of Astrakhan is located on the other side of the Volga. You can drive there along two bridges - old or new.

Expenses on the highway Moscow-Astrakhan-Moscow

Expense item Amount (rub.)

Petrol	6037
Hotel "Pervomaiskaya" (city of Mikhailov Ryazan region)	360
Parking in the underground garage	60
Motel near Volgograd	500
Car parking	20
Sauna	300
Hotel "Lotus"	1600
Underground garage	100
Car washing in Astrakhan	300
Hotel in the city of Mikhailovka (Volgograd region)	700
Parking in the private yard	100
Nutrition	1650
Energetic drinks	150
Total	11,877

Magazine "Kommersant Money" No. 22 dated 06.06.2005, p. 112

Themes:

Architecture