Russia Tentative List Nominations [Last 5 Years]
- The Oglakhty Range (2016)
- Centre historique de la ville de Gorokhovets (2017)
- Treasures of the Pazyryk Culture (2018)
- Rock Painting of Shulgan-Tash Cave (2018)
- Petroglyphs of Lake Onega and the White Sea (2018) *Official Nomination for 2021
- Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior & Medieval Rampart City Wall of Pereslavl-Zalessky (2019)
- Heritage of Chukotka Arctic Marine Hunters (2019)
- Vyatskoe Village (2019)
- Divnogorye Historical and Cultural Complex (2020)
- Astronomical Observatories of Kazan Federal University (2020)

Criterion
9 Cultural
1 Mixed
0 Natural

Location
3 of 10 Nominations located in Siberia and the Russian Far East (East of Ural Mountains)

Nearly unvisited by any of our travel community, what nominations from this group stand out?

Everyone who has visited the Kazan Kremlin WHS will also have passed by 1 of the 2 locations of this new TWHS, as the university building lies within the Kremlin. It will be a double entry if it is inscribed. I did not enter, don't know if you can.

I think it is not a double entry (if inscribed). At least it is not within the core zone of Kazan WHS. University area where the observatory is located, is two blocks away from the protected area. I hope I understood it correctly because the maps on the nomination file are not very clear.

Yes you are right, it lies outside the already protected area (which is just the tip of the Kazan Kremlin). But you will certainly pass it on your way to it, it's just 400m or so.

In my view, only Shulgan-Tash (Kapova) and Lake Onega/White Sea stand out and Unesco usually loves such sites. Kapova cave has amazing prehistoric paintings (inc first human painting of camel) but its closed for tourist visits.
Gorokhovets is just lovely provincial town.
Pazyryk culture should added within Altai (with several more sites and making it mixed).
Pereslavl matches perfectly white monuments of Suzdal/Vladimir.
Vyatskoe us believed to be most beautiful village of Russia, but again its located 30 km away from Yaroslvavl and is historically part of its heritage.
Divnogorye monastery carved in white rocks and looks very oddly-wordly, but has local importance.
Kazan site seems to be new lobbying project of ex-president of Tatarstan, who loves WHS like we do, and his fund also has good financing.
Chukotka site doesnt look attractive but unique nature, focus on super distant ethnic community culture aspects in fierce weather conditions could be enough for inscription

I have just finished going through all Russia TWHS for the TWHS project. Here are some findings:
· The list of 27 is not as great as it could have been. It has 2 renominations for technical reasons (boundary modifications), the TWHS of Shulgan-Tash is also covered by the TWHS of Bashkir Ural and the best part of the Treasures of the Pazyryk Culture TWHS (with horse & human burials in permafrost) is already technically inscribed as part of the Golden Mountains of Altai WHS.
· There are more Golden Ring sites, one must be a specialist in the history of Russian Architecture to enjoy those.
· There's quite a lot of rock art. Petroglyphs of Lake Onega and the White Sea seems the most exceptional in terms of numbers, themes and purity.
· There are a lot of flowery titles - The Great Vasyugan Mire turned out to be an enormous peat bog (and not a Russian-Orthdox cathedral spire).
· A lot of the descriptions seem to be written by and towards scientists (and translated directly into English). Which often makes it difficult to grasp what the OUV is. Ilmensky mountains is one of those – known for its mineral variety it could be interesting enough.
· There's even a Greek ancient city (Tanais) on it!
· The Russian colonization of the East could have a WHS: choice is between Yeniseysk and Irkutsk.
· I liked the Chukotka Arctic Marine Hunters Heritage (a real frontier site between Russia and the USA, and a cultural site from the far north of which we do not have many), Divnogorye seems like quite a spectacle, there's the group of Soviet WWII memorials around 'The Motherland Calls!' and possibly the Jeyrakh-Assa Reservation in Ingushetia (Vainakh towers, similar to Upper Svaneti in Georgia).