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Like other small towns, Pereslavl walks the razorblade between being abandoned and becoming a generic tourist town

Some forty years ago, the Soviet authorities made a serious attempt to set up a travel industry in the USSR. As a result, the Golden Ring route was established and opened for travelers from abroad. Even today this is the most visited route in Russia. Urbanized and industrialized cities like Nizhny Novgorod and Yaroslavl did not suffer any difficulties as a result of the influx of countless crowds of travelers, but minor places like Rostov and Suzdal became totally dependent on tourists. Are these towns now anything more than the embalmed corpses of what were once living places, each one with its own distinctive personality? The answer is, that at least some of them are.

Pereslavl is small, but it is still a living town on the road from Moscow to Yaroslavl (M8). As one of the oldest Russian towns, in which many architectural relics are preserved, Pereslavl is obviously a must-see town on the Golden Ring route. The federal historical and architectural museum-reserve has its premises in the ancient Goritsky Monastery (see the Must-see box). It is responsible for almost every historical or cultural relic in the town. The 'Peter's Boat' museum, which contains a collection devoted to Peter the Great, is located nearby (Veskovo village). This Russian reformer tsar lived in Pereslavl during his boyhood, and it is there that he established his 'toy fleet' on the large and beautiful Pleshcheevo lake (the town stands on its bank). Despite its "reserve" status, some industrial concerns continued to work in Pereslavl - the monopoly manufacturer of photographic paper ('Slavich') was located here, among others. Despite this, by the end of the Soviet era the town was in danger of losing its economic independence and looked to be facing hard days.

During the early 1990s, Pereslavl suffered the same problems as all other Russian towns - except maybe, for Moscow. There was simply no money to maintain the everyday life of the town. In 1992 and 1993, getting fuel for heating was quite a problem - luckily, it was not too hard to establish business links between Pereslavl and the authorities of the nearby peat mines. Later, the normal rhythms of the town's life was gradually resumed . 'Slavich,' the town's largest company, managed to change its activity and started producing packaging material - today, packaging is 'Slavich's' main trade. Other companies were gradually driven out of crisis or peacefully closed. However, as the 21st century came in, another threat emerged for Pereslavl - that is, the threat of losing the town's vividness and becoming purely a tourist destination like the neighboring town of Rostov, where life stops when the coaches leave.

This was when some people here said, 'Why don't we have something unusual to make sightseeing more amusing?' That was in 2002 when a private museum of irons was launched by the enthusiast collector Andrei Vorobiev. Much like an antique shop, not to say a flee market, this museum is not a professional institution - still, it is far more amusing to visit than serious state-owned museums. The house where the irons museum is located is painted a jolly green, and there is a nice little souvenir shop on the ground floor. Although the museum can be entered for free, visitors are advised to make donations - and, last but not least, there is a successful trade in souvenirs and antiques. That's how this distinctive place has managed to become one of the town's most famous peculiarities and to make money at the same time. In 2003, the museum of teapots was established near the Peter's Boat house - also by Vorobiev. The museum is much like the museum of irons - except for the fact that the exhibits differ slightly.

The third private museum - and the oldest of them - is 11 kilometers from Pereslavl. Some years ago, a narrow-gauge railway existed near Pereslavl; today, because the peat pits are nearly closed, the railroad has come out of usage. Thanks to some railroad enthusiasts the remains of the road, including the station Talitsa with its depot facilities, locomotives and cars, were turned into the Pereslavl Railroad Museum. It is undoubtedly worth a visit. Unlike in many other places, restoration works are being carried out here to make the museum a really brilliant destination one day.

Today, Pereslavl has several problems to solve - but the overall condition of the town remains far from disastrous. There is no danger of Pereslavl turning into a typical tourist town after all - and perhaps, this is mostly due to the town's inhabitants - who are both industrious and truly ingenious.

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