Chernozemye Voyage Tips and guide

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Chernozem is the exceptionally fertile "Black Earth" belt in European Russia along the border with Ukraine, famous for its rich, deep, black soil. Its cities are best known to the English-speaking world for the vital importance they played as the principal battleground around the turning point of World War II, home to the massive tank battle of Kursk. Despite its enormous importance throughout Russian history, and its central location in the heart of European Russia, there is relatively little to sightsee, as most of the region's architectural heritage was destroyed during the war. Consequently, this is an off-the-beaten path destination in Russia, for independent travelers looking to travel deep into the "real" Russia.

• 51.67166739.2105561 Voronezh – home to Annunciation Cathedral, the fourth-tallest Orthodox church in the world
• 52.61666739.62 Lipetsk
• 52.96861136.0694443 Oryol
• 52.72305641.4538894 Tambov
• 50.636.65 Belgorod
• 53.242534.3666676 Bryansk
• 51.73722236.1872227 Kursk

• 53.21111134.6611111 Belye Berega - an important partisan war location during World War II in Bryansk Oblast, home to a large Partisan Movement museum
• 50.96850939.3131592 Divnogorye - a rocky lowland area with breathtaking scenery, medieval cavate churches, ancient settlement remains, and a mineral water spring. To the south from Voronezh.
• Ivanovka - the estate and museum of a world-known Russian composer and pianist Sergey Rakhmaninov in Tambov Oblast, south-east from Tambov.
• 52.33333335.3666673 Mikhailovsky iron open cut - a very impressive gigantic open-air site, where iron ore has been mined, near Zheleznogorsk town of Kursk Oblast
• 53.283335.34 Orlovskoye Polesye National Park
• 51.03333336.7333335 Prokhorovka - the epicenter of The Battle of Kursk (1943), the largest tank battle in the world history.
• 53.37316736.6318036 Spasskoye-Lutovinovo - the estate and museum of Ivan Turgenev, a famous Russian writer of 19th century. Located in Oryol Oblast, near Mtsensk.
• 5136.47 Tsentralno-Chernozemny Biosphere Reserve
• 51.941939.60778 Voronezh Nature Reserve