St. Petersburg

St.Petersburg is the country's second industrial, cultural and research centre. The city's history is being kept alive in its streets, avenues, squares, architecture such as Bronze Horseman, the monument to Peter I, who founded the city, the memorial at the Piskaryovskoye Cemetery in honour of the heroic defenders of the city who barred the way to the nazy invaders, etc. Despite the 900-day siege and the tremendous damage, the Hero City was rebuilt quickly.

St.Petersburg is a city with great sport traditions. It is the cradle of sports, such as wrestling, weightlifting, swimming, boxing, athletics, speed-skating, figure-skating, football, tennis, etc. in Russia. The world championships in speed and figure-skating were held there in 1896. Nikolai Panin-Kolomenkin, Russian first Olympic champion, who won the figure-skating gold medals at the 1908 Olympic Games in London was from St. Petersburg. Today there is not a single sporting event which the city athletes do not go in for. Sport didn't die out in the city in the war years. Competitions were held at stadiums. Everyone remembers the soccer match in the besieged city. Wartime newspapers carried announcements of the traditional relay races in the city streets, rowing competitions on the Neva. Stadiums, rowing stations, tennis courts and other sports facilities were quickly rehabilitated after Victory Day. The first indoor stadium in the country was opened in St.Petersburg. The first stadium in the our country was also built in St.Petersburg.

The number of physical culture collectives in the city grows year by year. City athletes have at their disposal the huge 5,000-seat Sport Games Palace with a standard 100x62m football field with a synthetic covering and many sport grounds swimming-pools, indoor skating-rinks. St.Petersburg was the venue of the qualifying games of one of the groups in the 1980 Olympic football tournament. Many city athletes and coaches are famous in our country and abroad.

Smolensk

Smolensk is an ancient Russian city situated on the banks of the Dnieper. It was first mentioned in 863. Since the early ages Smolensk has played an important part in the history of Russia. It has always been the key to the heart of Russia to Moscow.

Smolensk is famous for its monuments of past and especially for its majestic cathedral. Smolensk survived several wars. The city obelisks and monuments commemorate the Heroes of 1812 and 1945. In the Heroes Memory Garden you will see the graves of the Soviet army men and among them the graves of the Heroes of the Soviet Union. There you will see one of the finest monuments with eag­les erected in 1912 to commemorate the victory over Napoleon. In Smolensk you will see the high towers of the fortress and the rampart erected by the talented Russian architect Fyodor Kon. One of the splendid monuments to the great composer M.Glinka, the founder of Russian classical music, stands in the city park. Every year early in June music festivals are held in his honor in the village of Novospasskoye not far from Smolensk. It is his birthplace. Smolensk was the birthplace of many other famous men, among them admiral Nakhimov, scientists Dokuchayev, Przhevalski, the world-known sculptor Konenkov, soviet poets Isakovsky and Tvardovsky, and the first in the world cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. Smolensk is the industrial and administrative centre of the region. It has already over 300,000 inhabitants. There are many plants and factories in Smolensk. The city's higher and secondary schools have more than 30,000 students. The city has several schools of music, a philharmonic society, the Drama theatre, many clubs, cinemas, the Picture Gallery. In the local museum you will find much interesting about the history of the city and its present-day achievements.