Samara is
the city, which is situated on the Great Russian River Volga. It was founded in
1586 by merchants as a fortress. Samara is situated on the left bank of the
Volga and occupies both sides of the mouth of the Samara River.
The early history of Samara dates back to Bulgarian people who appeared in the
5th century. Our native city witnessed great fires of 1848. 1850
when it was almost ruined.
At present
more than 1,2 mln. people live here. I am proud of my hometown, its places of
interest and its traditions.
Any
resident of Samara will tell you that the city's main street is the Volga. This is true in winter when the river is frozen
and in summer when hundreds of ships come to the city like snow-white swans
over the sparkling waves.
Large
cities, as a rule, are divided into the old" and "new" parts.
Samara's old downtown section is like a book of the history of architecture. A
cocktail of styles prevails in the old city, as everybody in merchant Samara
didn't want to make his own bank or mansion look like any other building. That
led to the variety of styles.
Our country
has quite a few industrial giants. Samara stands out among them for its overall
standards of engineering industry. Samara has seen a lot during these years,
both loud fame and quite spills. Now it is a great industrial giant with a
great number of plants, factories and a developed transport system, including
metro lines. There is a great range of industrial production: food and textile,
watches and air-planes, tractors and clothes. The goods are exported to
different places of our country and abroad.
Samara is
one of the most important railway intersections. Railroads of different
direction cross here. A new modern and technically equipped railway station
appeared in Samara. It is said to be one of the biggest and imposing in Europe. Samara is on route to Asia.
The city has a regular communication with all the ports of the Volga basin with an exit to five seas.
Samara is a
great cultural center with universities, academies, a great amount of schools,
colleges, professional schools, lyceums and so on.
There are a
lot of museums in Samara: the museum
of Local Lore, the Art
museum, the A. Tolstoy museum. Many outstanding people visited and lived in
Samara. Among them: L. Tolstoy, P. Tchaikovsky, A. Gorky etc. Stalin's bunker
is the museum which is most frequently visited by the guests of our city. This
unique museum which is a 12 storied building under the level contains documents
and photos about the Great Patriotic War when Samara served as the "second
capital" of the country.
P. Alabin
lived and worked in Samara He did a lot to make Samara a prosperous city. He
started a railway through Samara, built a stone theatre, set up a plumbing, opened
History museum, created the city Public Library. There is a museum named after
him in Samara.
Samara enjoys the reputation of being a
theatre city. There are a lot of theatres in Samara. They are: the Drama
Theatre, the Opera and Ballet Theatre, the Puppet-Theatre and the theatre of
Young Spectator.
When a new play is
on, it is almost impossible to get tickets. There are also a number of Amateur
theatres in Samara which make the theatrical life of the city richer.
All our citizens
are proud of the embankment of the Volga with
trees, flowers and sandy beaches. We like to have a rest on the bank of the Volga.
It's a real pleasure to take a river voyage and to admire the beautiful
surroundings of the Zhiguly
Mountains. You may
breathe the fresh river air and travel to many parts of our country.
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