Exercises

1. Translate into Russian:

the second largest city in Russia, one of the most beautiful cities, to be in a hurry, a city of great beauty, to lay out the city in harmonious squares, to be constructed of granite, to be equal to any in Europe, the german–sounding name, the next year and a half, to be cut off from the rest of the country, destroyed parts of the city, attract thousands of tourists, a world^’s famous art collection.

2. Answer the questions:

1. When was St. Petersburg founded and by whom?

2. How was St. Petersburg built?

3. When and how was the city renamed?

4. What happened to the city during the Great Patriotic War?

5. What kind of city is St. Petersburg?

6. What museums and other sights is St. Petersburg noted for?

7. What museum has the richest collection of painting and sculpture? How many exhibits does it number?

8. How long did St. Petersburg remain the capital of Russia?

3. Translate into English:

1. Санкт-Петербург, второй по величине город России, был основан в 1703 году.

2. Тысячи рабочих, привезенных изо всех частей России, построили великолепный город.

3. По красоте Санкт-Петербург не уступает любому из европейских городов.

4. Санкт-Петербург переименовывался несколько раз: в 1914 году звучащее на немецкий манер название сменили на Петроград; после Великой Октябрьской революции город переименовали в Ленинград, в 90-е годы ему вернули его первоначальное название.

5. Город пострадал во время блокады, от бомбежек и налетов.

6. После войны город был восстановлен.

7. Великолепные дворцы, соборы и музеи Санкт-Петербурга привлекают тысячи туристов из разных стран.

8. Санкт-Петербург знаменит своими белыми ночами и всемирно известными музеями, которые содержат богатейшие художественные коллекции.

Novosibirsk

Novosibirsk is called the centre of Siberian land. It is also called “the Cross-Roads” between the west and east of Russia. The name “Siberia” is originated from a combination of two Tatar words: “sib” – to “sleep” and “ir” “land” (a sleeping land). Siberia is a country with a great future. M. V. Lomonosov said: “The might (могущество) of Russia will grow through Siberia”.

History. Novosibirsk is an administrative centre of the Novosibirsk province (oblast). It was formerly a settlement lost in the taiga wilderness¹ and later has become one of the largest centres in the country.

Novosibirsk lies along the great Siberian Ob river and is divided by it into two parts. The small river-side village Krivoshekovo (it was variously called Gusevka and Alexandrovsky), situated on the left bank was chosen as the crossing point of the Ob for the building of the railway bridge, that’s why the city’s history is connected with the construction of the great, unique Trans-Siberian Railway. The founder of Novosibirsk is Nikolai Garin-Mikhailovsky, the well-known Russian writer of the 19^th century and talented railway engineer. Engineering was his second profession. It was he who in 1893 headed a survey party and chose the site for a railway bridge to cross the river, that’s why he is considered to be the founder of the town and the year 1893 is the year of the foundation of Novosibirsk. The bridge was completed in 1897. The Trans-Siberian railway thoroughfare has become one of the most powerful and advanced trunk² in the country; the length of the West-Siberian Railroad is 6061 km (7% of the entire railway network³).

The continued development⁴ of the town was based chiefly on its proximity to the Kuznetsk (Kusbass) coal basin, the neighbourhood of the grain-raising Altai⁵ and the advantage of being situated at the crossroads of two important transport ways Trans – Siberian Railroad and the Ob waterway; all that had largely contributed to the rapid growth of the settlement and it was already by 1903 that it had been granted to the town status⁶ and renamed Novonikolayevsk in honour of Tsar Nikolai II, in 1925 Novonikolayevsk was renamed Novosibirsk.

Transport. Nowadays Novosibirsk is the most powerful vital transportation hub⁷ in the country. In addition to the trunk railway services, Ob waterway that provides communications with the other areas of Western Siberia, there are two airports – a smaller one serving local air connections and a large main airport with direct flights not only to practically all the major cities of Russia, but abroad.

Novosibirsk is a huge city (about 500 sq. km.), it is the third largest town after Moscow and Leningrad. It goes on growing and is one of the most dynamic cities in Russia; its population is more than 1,5 million. Everyone is particularly amazed⁸ by the fast rate of its growth. To become a city with a million residents, Moscow for example, needed 750 years, Kiev 700, New York 200. Novosibirsk has traversed this road in 60 odd years. The more the city grows, the more acute the transportation problem becomes. To solve this problem the construction of an underground railway (Metro), the first in Siberia and Far East was started in 1979 and the first section that linked the two parts of the city was opened in January 1986. Besides the Metro, transportation within the city is by buses, trolleybuses, route taxes and even local electric commuter trains (электричка).

Novosibirsk is an important centre of industry, culture, education and science.

Industry. Novosibirsk is a major industrial centre not only, because nature itself pre-ordained this role for Novosibirsk, but thanks to the fact that during World War II many plants and factories were evacuated to Novosibirsk from the western areas of the country.

Before the revolution the town had a semi-domestic (полукустарный) type industry. Only small-scale enterprises had been run in the town with a personnel of 3-4 men. Those were flour-mills, saw-mills, oil-mills, creameries, soap-works and iron foundry and several scores (несколько десятков) of small workshops.

Today’s Novosibirsk has a wide range of industries, but metallurgy and engineering predominate. Industrial enterprises produce unique heavy machinery and equipment, farm machines, hydraulic presses, giant machine tools, automatic looms, powerful generators and various types of instruments and devices. There are also ship and locomotive repair shops. Power is provided by a dam and hydraulic station and several thermal stations in the town itself.

Culture. Novosibirsk is the biggest cultural centre not only in Siberia but in the east of Russia with local branches of the all Russia’s organizations of writers, poets, journalists, painters, architects, composers, art and cinema workers, each of them being engaged in an active creative work. There are documentary film studio, a broadcasting station and TV centre in the city.

Novosibirsk is a comparatively young town, that’s why there are not very many old beautiful buildings from the architectural point of view⁹, but the town has some interesting museums and impressive monuments, botanical gardens, the Zoo, an art gallery, a circus and some theatres.

Opera and Ballet theatre is the Novosiberians pride. It had been built in the hard war-time. The first performance was given in May 1945. It was a national patriotic opera “Ivan Susanin” by M.Glinka, to celebrate the victory over the nazi Germany.

Education has always been very important in the life of Russian people. In Novosibirsk there are a lot of educational institutions: secondary schools, secondary technical and vocational schools¹⁰, colleges, academies and universities. Higher educational establishments (institutions) train specialists for practically every branch of the country’s national economy. The city has various educational facilities¹¹ for training good specialists in the field of art and culture – Conservatoire, a ballet theatrical and special art schools, some music schools. There is a wide system of public libraries with the State Scientific and Technical Library, one of the biggest in the country.

Science. Novosibirsk has gained the reputation as one of the leading scientific centres not only in Russia but throughout the world thanks to the fact that in 25 km from the town Presidium of the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences of Russia was established in 1957. The founder was academician M. Lavrentiev. Besides the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences the Siberian Division of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Medical Sciences have been established not far from this science centre.

The main aim of the Siberian Science centre is to solve the large- scale long-term programme “Siberia” of effective use of natural resources. Alongside with the development of fundamental problems of a world-wide response (мирового значения), the scientists are busy at solving practical tasks to meet the requirements of the national economy.

The Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences is constantly selecting gifted, talented young people through school olympiads, the specialized school for Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, the Technology Club for children, the Novosibirsk State university, postgraduate and re-qualification courses.

The success of the rapid establishment of powerful scientific basis in Siberia has been recognized worldwide.