There is a beautiful town on the bank of one of the longest and the deepest rivers of Russia. Its name is Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Many people all over the world know our town as a large industrial and cultural centre. But not everybody knows its exciting and at the same time tragic history.
Komsomolsk–on–Amur started as an industrial center, the biggest industrial center in the Far East. In 1932 young boys and girls came to the wild forest and worked side by side with many civilians, recruited, migrators and imprisoners of Stalin's camps. They began to build a beautiful town on the bank of the river Amur on the site of the old village of Permskoye and the neighboring Nanai village of Dzyomgy. They worked under difficult conditions but didn't give up and soon the first settlement appeared on the bank. On the 10th of December 1932 this place was named Komsomolsk–on–Amur.
Kirov Street was the first one that crossed the first square known as the Round. Later, when the monument to Kirov was established in it, this square got a new name – Kirov Square.
In 1935 the first park was set up in front of the club "Udarnik". And at the same time two schools opened their doors to boys and girls. Their parents worked at the first Industrial Enterprises – Timber Mill (1932) and the ship-building plant named after Lenin Komsomol. In 1935-36 the aircraft-building plant appeared. In the war period the machine-building plant and the metallurgical plant were put into operation. "Komsomolets", the first cinema of our town, was built in1946.
Since the time Komsomolsk continued to grow in size and prosperity. It is a modern and beautiful town with many-storeyed houses and wide straight streets. Today it is the third largest town of the Russian Far East, the prominent industrial and cultural centre of the territory. More than 270 thousand people live here. The town stretches for 20 kilometers along the bank of the Amur and occupies the territory more than 30.000 hectares.
Today Komsomolsk is one of the biggest industrial towns not only in the Far East but also in the whole Russia. More than 40 enterprises produce planes and ships, different equipment and furniture. The biggest of them are: "Amurstal", "Amurmetal", “Amur Ship-building Plant”, “Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association named after Yury Gagarin”, the Petroleum Refinery. There are also chemical, food, wood-working, light and construction industries.
Our town establishes and develops international relations with many foreign countries, such as China, Great Britain, Australia, Japan and others. That’s why many joint ventures appeared here.
Komsomolsk is also a great transport center in the Far East. There are a lot of bus routs and tram lines, two river ports, an airport and a railway station.
Komsomolsk is a beautiful town. There are many trees in the streets, especially in the old parts of the town. There are five big parks and a lot of small ones here. The biggest park is on the river Silenka.
Silenka divides the town into two districts: the Central district and the Lenin district. The streets of our town are designed in the form of a fan and almost each of them has a hill at the end.
Komsomolsk is a big cultural centre. There are two Higher Educational Establishments in it – the Amur Humanitarian and Pedagogical State University and the Technical University. Komsomolsk has many secondary schools, secondary technical schools and vocational schools. The graduates of these educational establishments work in all parts of Russia and abroad.
There are many Palaces of Culture and Clubs, more than 100 small and big libraries for grown up people and for children in Komsomolsk. The library named after N.Ostrovsky is the centre library. It is situated in a new building and in front of it we can see a grand monument to N. Ostrovsky, established in 1990.
Also the professional Drama Theatre, the youth theatre "KnAM", and other youth theatre studios, the Museum of Local Studies, and the Fine Arts Museum, 4 cinema halls work in the town. One can also see a beautiful House of Youth on the bank of the Amur.
As a result of its long and exciting history Komsomolsk has a rich store of fascinating historical monuments and buildings. One of them is the Memorial complex to the heroes of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.
On the 9th of June 1982 the monument to the first-builders was inveigled to commemorate the 50th anniversary of our town. There are also the Memorial stone on the place of first-builders’ landing, the sculptural group “To the Komsomol members of the 30th”, the monuments to Kalinin, Ryumin, Gagarin and others in our town.
Our citizens will always remember the names of the people who contributed to the history of Komsomolsk. We know them as the People of Honour of our town. They are I.P.Selutina, V.L.Pendrije, G.V.Andrianov, S.I.Smirnov, M.F.Lyakishev (the first-builders): E.A.Dikopoltsev, A.P.Maresjev, I.S.Homenko, A.A.Pavlovsky (the heroes of the Great Patriotic War) and others. Gagarin, Ryumin and many other famous people visited our town and they are the People of Honour of it.
We are proud of our town, we like it. It is growing fast and is becoming more and more beautiful.
Study the vocabulary.
Active Vocabulary
a bank - берег
exciting - волнующий
to create a base – создавать базу (основу)
to speed up - ускорять
to strengthen the defensive capacity – укрепить оборонительную способность
to put into operation – приводить в действие
to appear – появляться, возникать
enterprise - предприятие
food industry - пищевая промышленность
light industry - легкая промышленность
wood-working industry - деревообрабатывающая промышленность
Petroleum Refinery (oil-refining industry) - нефтеперерабатывающая промышленность
construction industry- строительная промышленность
machine-building industry - машиностроительная промышленность
the aircraft-building plant - авиастроительный завод
the ship-building plant – судостроительный завод
to grow in size - расти
to grow in prosperity - процветать
to establish international relations with - установить международные отношения с
joint venture - совместное пpедпpиятие
a fan – веер
a secondary school – средняя школа
a vocational school - профтехучилище
the museum of Fine Arts – художественный музей
the museum of Local Studies – краеведческий музей
the memorial complex to the heroes of the Great Patriotic War – мемориальный
комплекс героям Великой Отечественной войны
the sculptural group “To the Komsomol members of the 30th” – скульптурная группа “Комсомольцам тридцатых”
to commemorate – почтить чью-либо память
to contribute – сделать вклад
the People of Honour – почетные граждане
to be proud - гордиться
3. Answer the following questions:
1. Where is Komsomolsk situated?
2. What centre is it?
3. What was the reason of its foundation?
4. What street was the first one in our town?
5. On the place of what settlement did our town appear?
6. What were the first plants in it?
7. What is the population of our town?
8. How many industrial enterprises are there in Komsomolsk?
9. What products of these enterprises do you know?
10. What can you tell about the relations of our town with foreign counties?
11. What kind of buildings do the town blocks of flats abound in?
12. What cultural places do you know in our town?
13. What are the historical monuments and places of Komsomolsk?
14. Name the People of Honour of Komsomolsk.
15. What can you say about the future of our town?
VI. Рекомендуемая литература
1. Агабекян И.П. «Английский язык для бакалавров»
2. Восковская А.С., Карпова Т.А. «Английский язык для вузов»
3. Голубничая Б.А., Косицина И.Б. «Развитие навыков устной речи при обучении английскому языку»
4. Голицынский Ю. «Английский язык. Грамматика. Сборник упражнений»
