Welcome to Chistopol Done by Ann Efimova, 9 form “Kadetskaya school” Assisted by: O.G.Kulyasova, the teacher of English

We invite you to join us in our exciting cultural tour around our native town Chistopol. It’s lovely indeed.

Chistopol is an old, small and quite town. It is situated on the left bank of the Kama river. It was founded in The town has rich and unique history. The area of the town is about 23 square kilometers. The population is about sixty three thousand people. People of different nationalities live there.

The best place to begin our exploration of Chistopol is here - in the beginning of K.Marks Street. There are many architectural monuments of the 19-th century. One of them is the masterpiece - NIKOLSKY Cathedral.

Nickolsky Cathedral was built in 1838 for money of merchants G.A. and D. A. Polyakov by the famous Kazan architect Pyatnitsky, who built the main building of the Kazan University. This cathedral was built in a classical style. The gate and the fence were built by the famous Kazan architect Petondy.

It is interesting to note that our town is famous for its outstanding people, who were born, lived, studied or worked here: the great Russian chemist A.Butlerov, a well-known flier Nickolay Kostin, academician N.Lihachev, a Tatar writer Gayaz Ishaki.

A small settlement of the peasants appeared on the bank of the Kama river. Those peasants run from their landowners and were engaged in agriculture, hunting and fishery. But soon those peasants were arrested and sent back to their former landowners. Instead of that settlement only bare field Chistoe Pole was left. Because of the advantageous location, in 1781 Chistoe Pole became one of the main towns of Kazan Province. Gradually Chistopol became the centre of grain-trade of Kazan Province. Grain was exported to France, England, Germany. Let’s go on our excursion. Now we are near the building of our town Museum. It was built in the 19-th century and was the house of merchant Staheev. Here we can learn the history of our town.

Now, please, pay attention to the building of Teachers House. Chistopol was like a hospitable shelter for many writers and poets, actors and musicians during the Great Patriotic war. B.Pasternak, M.Isakovsky, S.Marshak, l.leonov and others were evacuated to Chistopol. They gathered in this house, read their works, performed their plays. Tvardovsky read there the first parts of his poem Vasily Tirckin, L.Leonov read his play « Invation».

Now we are going on with our excursion. To the left of you there is the architectural monument of the 19-th century - merchant Melnikov’s house.

Now we are making our way to the Alley of Heroes. 18 thousand citizens of Chistopol with weapons in their arms stood up to defend the Motherland and about 12 thousand were killed during that war. Such names of the heroes of the Soviet Union as Marinin, Valeev, Chekin, Kalashnikov, Mironov,Privalov are well-known to any man of our town. We have the Alley of Heroes and the Eternal Fire in the center of Chistopol.In honor of 15 Heroes of the Soviet Union basrelievs were installed.

A lot of factories and plants were evacuated in Chistopol at the beginning of the war, such as the Watch plant from Moscow, Kiev knitting factory, Gomel haberdashery factory, Stalingrad and Kalachinsk ship-repearing plants. All they issued products for the war front: warm woolen socks, mittens, sweaters, the products of strategic importance - torpedo, armored motor boats and other weapons. «Everything for the front, everything for victory!» This slogan was on everybody’s lips.

Now we are turning to the right. We are in former Tatar Street. This place is connected with a tatar writer Gayaz Ishaki.

Let’s have a rest now in our central park. This garden was founded in 1868 on the former bread square. The founder of this garden was the Governor of Kazan N.Skaryatin. Chistopol merchants Chelishev, Maklakov, Chukashov and others made money donations for this garden, which became the most popular place for rest.

Now we are crossed the central park and we are in Lenin Street. There is Pasternak’s Museum. In 1990 Pasternak’s museum was founded in our town. It was opened in the house where B.Pasternak lived in This house is situated in 81, Lenin Street (former Volodarsky Street).

The exposition is telling us about Pasternak’s difficult life in evacuation, about his friendly and creative contacts. There are a lot of letters, photos, manuscripts and books written by B.Pasternak.

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