UNIT 4 SAMARA

Pre-Reading task: Do you like the City of Samara? Where do you live? What is your favourite place here?

Where do you go if you're looking for some of the best beaches – and the most beautiful girls (and boys) – in Russia? Surprisingly, the answer is not the Black Sea coast but Samara. Samara, with its population of more than a million people, is Russia's sixth largest city. It is situated on the bank of the Volga, the longest river in Europe.

There are several versions of the origin of Samara’s name. According to one version, the name Samara comes from the Greek words samar (a merchant) and rha (an ancient name for the Volga). Samara means a steppe river in the languages of the nomadic tribes. The fortress of Samara was founded in 1568. It was situated on the Great Trade Route along the Volga, where a lot of caravans passed.

By the beginning of the 19th century Samara has grown into a large city for that time. One of the most outstanding figures in the history of the city is Petr Alabin, the Mayor of Samara from 1885 up to 1891. He encouraged the building of the Drama Theatre, the opening of the Public Museum, the expansion of the fund of the Public Library.

The history of our city is inseparable from that of Russia. During the 2nd World War Samara (Kuibyshev then) became the 2nd capital of the USSR for nearly 3 years. Government institutions, diplomatic embassies and industrial plants were evacuated here.

Today the products of many enterprises in Samara are widely known abroad, including those of the Aviacor Company, the Tarasov Factory, the Samara Bearing Plant and other enterprises. The Samara Region exports automobiles, machine tools, and building materials. The food and drink industries are also well developed in Samara. The products of the Chocolate Factory Rossiya, as well as Rodnik vodka and Zhiguli beer are famous far outside Samara. The Samara Region is a unique complex for the extracting, processing and transporting of oil and oil products.

Samara is also important as a large educational and scientific centre. The Samara State University was set up in 1918, then closed in 1920’s and opened again in 1969. Today 11 higher state and a number of alternative educational establishments train specialists in all branches of the national industry, economy and culture.

If you are staying in Samara for a few days, you’ll have no difficulty in finding where to go and what to see.

Samara is located on the broad waters of the River Volga. There is a long fringe of sandy beaches there. Samara has made the most of these beaches, backed by pleasant parks and embankment gardens, and with temperatures in the summer months averaging over 26°C - as warm as southern Spain. It is not surprising that this has become a popular tourist destination. Young people come here from all over Russia to sunbathe on the beaches, take a dip in the cool waters of the Volga, hang out by summer cafes or go for a wild night out in one of the city's many night-clubs.

In summer, too, there is host of activities going on in this lively, vibrant city, with a string of carnivals and festivals. If you come here on the first Saturday of July, you will catch the famous Grushinsky Festival, with its lively mix of mainly acoustic music. As many as 200,000 people come here to sit on the 'spectators' hill' above the stage by the main lake. The Grushinsky Festival began in the 1960s and is named after the Samara tourist Valery Grushin, who tragically drowned in 1967 trying to rescue children in a river.

If all this activity proves too much, you can always catch the hydrofoil up the river to the pleasant, atmospheric village of Shiryaevo where Russia's greatest painter Ilya Repin painted his famous Barge Haulers on the Volga. Or maybe cross the river to go hiking in the woods of the beautiful Samara Bend National Park. Or you could even take one of Samara's famous raft trips zhigulyovskaya krugosvetka (around the world) which take you on an exciting 10-day camping trip through the park's backwaters.

Samara has always been a theatrical city. We have a Drama Theatre, Opera and Ballet Theatre, the Puppet Theatre, the Philarmonic Society and a fine Museum of Local History. The architecture of old Samara reflects practically the entire history of the development of the architectural styles in Russia.