“TWICE TWELVE is TWENTY FOUR. MAGIC POWER of DIGITS!”, a new book by VALENTINA FILINA-PATTISON, 2021

CHAPTER 8 POCHEP
POCHEP is a native land of the family of MARIA. It is a very interesting town historically. It is situated to the South-West from BRYANSK, its population is more than 17.000 people.
The prominent Russian composer Matvey Isaakovich Blunter was born here, and this is his famous song “KATYUSHA”:

When I was a teenager I traveled by train to POCHEP many times. I remember this song and many others as, for example: “I am looking and looking into the window, and could not stop admiring the landscapes…”

Walking around POCHEP, I found out the history of it which was started in 1489. For a long time the town was attacked from both sides: Poland and Lithuania. According to the Samovidetz’s recordings, in 1662 POCHEP was liberated from the Polish regiments, and after the Pereyaslavsky Rada in 1664 it joined RUSSIA as a new-formed Starodubsky regiment.
The Empress Elizabeth Petrovna in 1750 granted the town POCHEP to Getman K.G. Razumovsky, by request of whom there was built the Palace with the Park in about 1770. And the Resurrection Cathedral.
Those two buildings are the main landmarks of POCHEP.
I spent hours and hours, hanging around this town, adoring the monuments of the Russian architecture, architect of Palace was Zh. B. Vallen-Delamot, the Cathedral – Antonio Rinaldi.
The other churches and cathedrals are worth mentioning here: St. Nicholas, Vvedensky, Savour of Transfiguration, Flor and Faun’s, Antonievsky and Sretensky.
In 1887 the Polesskaya Railways GOMEL-BRYANSK was laid out , which ran via POCHEP. This resulted in advantadous economic development of POCHEP compared tp the district centre MGLIN. Since July 5, 1944 POCHEP is included into the BRYANSK region.
I am walking along the Yusievich Street, and see the memorial plaque which reads:”Here was born on February 10, 1903 M/I/ BLUNTER, the Hero of the Socialist Labor, a Russian composer.
Then I saw a memorial plaque dedicated to the other very prominent Russian Revolutionary, who was born here, PAVEL BORISOVICH AXELROD (1850-1928) who was a great opponent to LENIN.
Watch a Russian movie about that period of time: