Учебное пособие по профессионально-ориентированному чтению для студентов I-II курсов по специальности «Социально-культурный сервис и туризм»

РОСЖЕЛДОР

Государственное образовательное учреждение

высшего профессионального образования

«Ростовский государственный университет путей сообщения»

(РГУПС)


ЗОЛОТОЕ КОЛЬЦО РОССИИ
Учебное пособие по профессионально-ориентированному чтению

для студентов I–II курсов по специальности «Социально-культурный сервис и туризм»

Pостов -на- Дону

2008



УДК 42(07) + 06

Барашян, В.К.

Золотое кольцо России : учеб. пособие для профессионально-ориен-тированного чтения студентов I–II курсов специальности «Социально-куль-турный сервис и туризм» / В.К. Барашян, Ю.Ю. Котляренко, Н.Б. Гребенщикова, О.Б. Симонова; Рост. гос. ун-т путей сообщения. – Ростов н/Д, 2008. – 32 с.

Учебное пособие содержит материал, необходимый для приобретения навыков чтения, перевода и устной речи на английском языке в виде аутентичных текстов с развернутой системой упражнений. Данное пособие может быть использовано на занятиях английского языка I–II курсов Гуманитарного факультета РГУПС, а также в качестве материала для домашнего чтения студентами технических специальностей.

Рецензенты: канд. фил. наук, доц. Л.Н. Черкасова (РГУПС); канд. фил. наук, доц. М.Н. Черкасова (РГУПС)

Учебное издание

Барашян Валентина Карапетовна

Гребенщикова Наталья Борисовна

Котляренко Юлия Юрьевна

Симонова Оксана Борисовна

ЗОЛОТОЕ КОЛЬЦО РОССИИ

Учебное пособие по профессионально-ориентированному чтения для студентов I–II курсов по специальности «Социально-культурный сервис и туризм»

Редактор А.И. Гончаров

Техническое редактирование и корректура А.И. Гончаров

Подписано к печати 21.11.2008. Формат 60×84/16.

Бумага офсетная. Ризография. Усл. печ. л. 1,86.

Уч.-изд. л. 3,17. Тираж 100 экз. Изд. № 232. Заказ №

Ростовский государственный университет путей сообщения.

Ризография РГУПС.

Адрес университета: 344038, г. Ростов н/Д, пл. им. Ростовского Стрелкового Полка Народного Ополчения, 2.
© Ростовский государственный университет путей сообщения, 2008

СОДЕРЖАНИЕ

Golden Ring

Moscow

Vladimir

Suzdal

Plyos

Kostroma

Yaroslavl

Uglich

Rostov the Great

Pereslavl

Sergiev Posad

Read some more information about towns of the Golden Ring

Some Helpful Hints if You Decide to Visit the Golden Ring Towns

Golden Ring

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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.

The Golden Ring represents a graphic encyclopedia of ancient Russian life. It comprises several cities to the northeast of Moscow that have preserved the historical and architectural monuments of the Russia of ancient times and subsequent ages. The Golden Ring’s best-known and most frequently visited cities are Vladimir, Suzdal, Kostroma, Yaroslavl, Rostov the Great, Pereslavl-Zalessky, Sergiev Posad, Uglich and some other small provincial towns. This group of cities forms a curved line that begins and ends in Moscow and covers the lands where some of the main events of Russian history took place. This explains why you can see so many interesting and varied architectural monuments here and trace the history of Russian art from the earliest archeological remains to medieval masterpieces, from magnificent classical works to the avant-garde structures of the twentieth century.

Each city of the Golden Ring is magnificent and unique in its own way. Urbanized and industrialized cities like Vladimir 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.

Many people believe that the best way to travel around the ring is in an anti-clockwise direction. As you are preparing for the journey you may picture the itinerary as a string of architectural monuments alternating with museums. Yet the wonderful scenery is just as impressive. The picturesque banks of the Volga have lots of delightful spots for picnic, sandy beaches, fishing – and a soul for miles around.

However Golden Ring does not just mean historical and cultural monuments and wonderful scenery but also immersing yourself in the very special atmosphere of the provincial Russian town with its quite and leisurely way of life. Throughout the journey you are sure to meet lots of friendly, welcoming people.

Depending on how much time you have we can offer you two day to seven day tours on the Golden Ring and its parts. You can also integrate a part of a Golden Ring into you Russia tour. Enjoy the virtual exploration of the Golden Ring towns!
Moscow
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Moscow is the capital and the largest city of Russia. It is also the largest city in Europe, with its metropolitan area ranking among the largest urban areas in the world. Moscow is the country's political, economic, religious, financial, educational and transportation centre. It is located on the Moskva River in the Central Federal District, in the European part of Russia. Historically, it was the capital of the former Soviet Union and the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the pre-Imperial Russian state. It is the site of the Moscow Kremlin, which serves as the ceremonial residence of the President of Russia. Moscow is a major economic centre and is home to the largest number of billionaires in the world; in 2007 Moscow was named the world's most expensive city for the second year in a row. It is a home of many scientific and educational institutions, as well as numerous sport facilities. It possesses a complex transport system, that includes one of the world’s busiest metro system which is famous for its architecture and artwork.

In 1998, it hosted the first World Youth Games. Moscow is the seat of power for the Russian Federation. In the centre of the city, in Central Administrative Okrug, is the Moscow Kremlin, which is the home of the President of Russia as well as many of the facilities for the national government. This includes numerous military headquarters and the headquarters of the Moscow Military District.

Moscow, like any national capital, is also the host of all the foreign embassies and diplomats representing a multitude of nations in Russia. Moscow is designated as one of only two Federal cities of Russia (the other one being Saint Petersburg). Among the 85 Federal subjects of Russia, Moscow represents the most populated one and the smallest one in terms of area. Lastly, Moscow is located within the central economic region, one of twelve regions within Russia with similar economic goals.

The entire city of Moscow is headed by one mayor (Yuriy Luzhkov). It is divided into ten administrative okrugs and 123 districts. Nine of the ten administrative districts, except the City of Zelenograd (number 1 on the map), are located within City of Moscow main boundaries. All administrative okrugs and districts have their own coats of arms, flags, and elected head officials. Additionally, most districts have their own cable television, computer network, and official newspaper. In addition to the districts, there are Territorial Units with Special Status, or territories. These usually include areas with small or no permanent populations, such as the case with the All-Russia Exhibition Centre, the Botanical Garden, large parks, and industrial zones.

In recent years, some territories have been merged with different districts. There are no ethnic-specific regions in Moscow, as in the Chinatowns that exist in some North American and East Asian cities. And although districts are not designated by income, as with most cities, those areas that are closer to the city centre, metro stations or green zones are considered more prestigious.

From the history of Moscow
Read the text and speak about key moments of Moscow history

As with most medieval settlements, early Moscow required fortresses to defend it from invaders such as the Mongols. In 1156, the city's first fortress was built (its foundations were rediscovered in 1960). A trading settlement, or posad, grew up to the east of the Kremlin, in the area known as Zaradye (Зарядье). In the time of Ivan III, the Red Square, originally named the Hollow Field (Полое поле) appeared. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the three circular defences were built: Kitay-gorod (Китай-город), the White City (Белый город) and the Earthen City (Земляной город). However, in 1547, two fires destroyed much of the town, and in 1571 the Crimean Tatars captured Moscow, burning everything except the Kremlin. The annals record that only 30,000 of 200,000 inhabitants survived. The Crimean Tatars attacked again in 1591, but this time were held back by new defense walls, built between 1584 and 1591 by a craftsman named Fyodor Kon. In 1592, an outer earth rampart with 50 towers was erected around the city, including an area on the right bank of the Moscow River. As an outermost line of defense, a chain of strongly fortified monasteries was established beyond the ramparts to the south and east, principally the Novodevichy Convent and Donskoy, Danilov, Simonov, Novospasskiy, and Andronikov monasteries, most of which now house museums.

By 1700, the building of cobbled roads had begun. In November of 1730, the permanent street light was introduced, and by 1867 many streets had a gaslight. In 1883, near the Prechistinskiye Gates, arc lamps were installed. In 1741 Moscow was surrounded by a barricade 25 miles long, the Kamer-Kollezhskiy barrier, with 16 gates at which customs tolls were collected. Its line is traced today by a number of streets called val (“ramparts”). Between 1781 – 1804 the Mytischinskiy water-pipe (the first in Russia) was built. In 1813 a Commission for the Construction of the City of Moscow was established. It launched a great program of rebuilding, including a partial replanning of the city-center. Among many buildings constructed or reconstructed at this time were the Grand Kremlin Palace and the Kremlin Armoury, the Moscow University, the Moscow Manege (Riding School), and the Bolshoi Theatre. In 1903 the Moskvoretskaya water-supply had appeared.

The postwar years saw a serious housing crisis, solved by the invention of commieblocks. There are about 13,000 of these standardized and prefabricated apartment blocks, housing the majority of Moscow's population. Apartments were built and partly furnished in the factory before being raised and stacked into tall columns. The city is named after the river (old Russian: гра́д Моско́в, literally "the city by the Moskva River"). The origin of the name is unknown, although several theories exist. One theory suggests that the source of the name is an ancient Finnic language, in which it means “dark” and “turbid”. The first Russian reference to Moscow dates from 1147 when Yuri Dolgoruki called upon the prince of the Novgorod Republic to “come to me, brother, to Moscow.”

Nine years later, in 1156, Prince Yuri Dolgoruki of Rostov ordered the construction of a wooden wall, which had to be rebuilt multiple times, to surround the emerging city. After the sacking of 1237 – 1238, when the Mongols burned the city to the ground and killed its inhabitants, Moscow recovered and became the capital of an independent principality in 1327. Its favourable position on the headwaters of the Volga River contributed to steady expansion. Moscow developed into a stable and prosperous principality for many years and attracted a large number of refugees from across Russia.

Under Ivan I the city replaced Tver as a political centre of Vladimir-Suzdal and became the sole collector of taxes for the Mongol-Tatar rulers. By paying high tribute, Ivan won an important concession from the Khan. Unlike other principalities, Moscow was not divided among his sons but was passed intact to his eldest. However, Moscow's opposition against foreign domination grew. In 1380, prince Dmitri Donskoi of Moscow led a united Russian army to an important victory over the Tatars in the Battle of Kulikovo which was not decisive, though. Only two years later Moscow was sacked by khan Tokhtamysh. In 1480, Ivan III had finally broken the Russians free from Tatar control, allowing Moscow to become the centre of power in Russia. Under Ivan III the city became the capital of an empire that would eventually encompass all of present-day Russia and other lands.

In 1571, the Crimean Tatars attacked and sacked Moscow, burning everything but the Kremlin.

The 17th century was rich in popular risings, such as the liberation of Moscow from the Polish-Lithuanian invaders (1612), the Salt Riot (1648), the Copper Riot (1662), and the Moscow Uprising of 1682.

The plague of 1654 – 1656 had killed half the population of Moscow. The city ceased to be Russia’s capital in 1712, after the founding of Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great on the Baltic coast in 1703. When Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812, the Muscovites burned the city and evacuated, as Napoleon’s forces were approaching on 14 September. Napoleon’s army, plagued by hunger, cold and poor supply lines, was forced to retreat and was nearly annihilated by the devastating Russian winter and sporadic attacks by Russian military forces.

In January 1905, the institution of the City Governor, or Mayor, was officially introduced in Moscow, and Alexander Adrianov became Moscow’s first official mayor. Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, on March 12, 1918, Moscow became the capital of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Soviet Union less than five years later. During the Great Patriotic War (a part of World War II and the official Russian name for the conflict, after German invasion of the USSR), the Soviet State Committee of Defence and the General Staff of the Red Army was located in Moscow.

In 1941, sixteen divisions of the national volunteers (more than 160,000 people), twenty-five battalions (18,500 people) and four engineering regiments were formed among the Muscovites. That November, the German Army Group Centre was stopped at the outskirts of the city and then driven off in the course of the Battle of Moscow. Many factories were evacuated, together with much of the government, and from October 20 the city was declared to be under siege. Its remaining inhabitants built and manned antitank defences, while the city was bombarded from the air. It is of some note that Stalin refused to leave the city, meaning the general staff and the council of people's commissars remained in the city as well. Despite the siege and the bombings, the construction of Moscow's metro system, continued through the war and by the end of the war several new metro lines were opened.

The emergence of a market economy in Moscow has produced an explosion of Western-style retailing, services, architecture, and lifestyles.

Moscow’s architecture
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Moscow’s architecture is world – renowned. Moscow is also well known as the site of Saint Basil’s Cathedral, with its elegant onion domes, as well as the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and the Seven Sisters. The Patriarch of Moscow, whose residence is the Danilov Monastery, serves as the head of the Orthodox Church. Moscow also hosted the 1980 Summer Olympics. For a long time, the view of the city was dominated by numerous Orthodox churches. The look of the city changed drastically during Soviet times, mostly due to Joseph Stalin, who oversaw a large-scale effort to modernise the city. He introduced broad avenues and roadways, some of them over ten lanes wide, but he also destroyed a great number of historically significant architectural works. The Sukharev Tower, as well as numerous mansions and stores lining the major streets, and various works of religious architecture, such as the Kazan Cathedral and the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, were all destroyed during Stalin’s rule. During the 1990s, however, both the latter were rebuilt amid criticism due to the high costs and lack of historical perspective.

Ostankino Tower, the tallest free-standing structure in Eurasia. It remains the third-tallest free-standing structure in the world.

In recent years, the city administration has been widely criticized for heavy destruction that has affected many historical buildings. As much as a third of historic Moscow has been destroyed in the past few years to make space for luxury apartments and hotels. Other historical buildings, including such landmarks as the 1930 Moskva hotel and the 1913 department store Voyentorg, have been razed and reconstructed anew, with the inevitable loss of every historical value.Critics also blame the government for not applying the conservation laws: in the last 12 years more than 50 buildings with monument status were torn down, several of those dating back to the seventeenth century. Some critics also wonder if the money used for the reconstruction of razed buildings could not be used for the renovation of decaying structures, that include many works by architect Konstantin Melnikov and Mayakovskaya metro station. Some organisations, such as Moscow Architecture Preservation Society and Save Europe's Heritage, are trying to draw the international public attention to these problems.

Cultural life of Moscow
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Moscow's museums, galleries and collections are some of the largest, most well-known and most important in the world.

One of the most notable art museums in Moscow is the Tretyakov Gallery, which was founded by Pavel Tretyakov, a wealthy patron of the arts who donated a large private collection to the city. The Tretyakov Gallery is split into two buildings. The Old Tretyakov gallery, the original gallery in the Tretyakovskaya area on the south bank of the Moskva River, houses the works of the classic Russian tradition. The works of famous pre-Revolutionary painters, such as Ilya Repin, as well as the works of early Russian icon painters can be found in the Old Tretyakov Gallery. Visitors can even see rare originals by early-fifteenth century iconographer Andrei Rublev. The New Tretyakov gallery, created in Soviet times, mainly contains the works of Soviet artists, as well as of a few contemporary artists, but there is some overlap with the Old Tretyakov Gallery for early twentieth century art. The new gallery includes a small reconstruction of Vladimir Tatlin's famous Monument to the Third International and a mixture of other avant-garde works by artists like Kazimir Malevich and Wassily Kandinsky. Socialist realism features can also be found within the halls of the New Tretyakov Gallery.

Another art museum in the city of Moscow is the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, which was founded by, among others, Marina Tsvetaeva's father. The Pushkin Museum is similar to the British Museum in London in that its halls are a cross-section of world civilisations, with many plaster casts of ancient sculptures. However, it also hosts famous paintings from every major Western era of art; works by Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, and Pablo Picasso are all sampled there.

The State Historical Museum of Russia (Государственный Исторический музей) is a museum of Russian history wedged between Red Square and Manege Square in Moscow. Its exhibitions range from relics of the prehistoric tribes inhabiting present-day Russia, through priceless artworks acquired by members of the Romanov dynasty. The total number of objects in the museum's collection numbers in the millions. The Polytechnical Museum, founded in 1872 is the largest technical museum in Russia, offering a wide array of historical inventions and technological achievements, including humanoid automata of the 18th century and the first Soviet computers. Its collection contains more than 160,000 items. The Borodino Panorama museum located on Kutuzov Avenue provides an opportunity for visitors to experience being on a battlefield with a 360° diorama. It is a part of the large historical memorial commemorating the victory in the Patriotic War of 1812 over Napoleon’s army, that includes also the Triumphal arch erected in 1827. There is also a military history museum not to be missed, it includes statues, military hardware, along with powerful tales of that time.

Moscow is also the heart of Russian performing arts, including ballet and film. There are ninety-three theatres, 132 cinemas and twenty-four concert-halls in Moscow. Among Moscow’s many theatres and ballet studios is the Bolshoi Theatre and the Malyi Theatre as well as Vakhtangov Theatre and Moscow Art Theatre. The repertories in a typical Moscow season are exhaustive and modern interpretations of classic works, whether operatic or theatrical, are quite common. State Central Concert Hall Rossia, famous for ballet and estrade performances, is the place of frequent concerts of pop-stars such as Alla Pugacheva and is situated in the soon to be demolished building of Hotel Rossiya, the largest hotel in Europe.

There are 96 parks and 18 gardens in Moscow, Including 4 botanical gardens. There are also 450 square kilometers (174 sq mi) of green zones besides 100 square kilometers (39 sq mi) of forests. Moscow is a very green city if compared to other cities of comparable size in Western Europe and America. There are average 27 square meters (290 sq ft) of parks per person in Moscow compared with 6 for Paris, 7.5 in London and 8.6 in New York.
Education in Moscow