There is a town in Russia
The main aim of my publication is to set the information about my native town and make people be interested in history of my town, it’s past and present. I would like to tell everybody about my Kurovskoye.
Get off the train and you can see a small but neat and cozy building of the railway station. Behind it there is a large square with a lot of buses and taxis. The traffic is very heavy here as many bus routes connect Kurovskoye with many villages and towns of Orekhovo-Zuevskey region.
Go straight ahead along Vogzalnaya street and you can see a monument to the Unknown Soldier. Here on the monument there is a list of people’s sernames who lost their lives during the Great Patriotic War fighting for the freedom and independence of our country. Citizens of Kurovskoye are proud of their heroes. There are a lot of flowers at the foot of the monument, especially on Victory Day. <Рисунок 1>.
People will always remember the victims of Stalin regime. In 1999 the monument to the repressed was erected in our town. <Рисунок 2>. It is surrounded with fir-trees and chestnuts. Pupils of our gymnasium take care of the plants, water them in hot weather. People always put flowers at the foot of the monument. It is a place of parades, meetings and demonstrations.
It is too early to speak of a new golden age of monasticism, but dozens of Russian monasteries are reopening and rediscovering the great traditions of Orthodox spirituality. Some years ago there were no functioning churches in our town. Now there two Orthodox churches here.
Before the revolution Guslitsky monastery had 50 monks. <Рисунок 3>. Now there are only three monks and seven novices. The bell tower was completely devastated. When work started, there were no doors or windows either. Here, as elsewhere, work consists of more than restoring the monastery to its former glory before decades of neglect and vandalism. A lack of funds means much of the work is carried out by the monks or novices. Carpentry and masonry are skills in as much demand as econ-painting. On the territory of this monastery you can see Spaso-Preobrazhenskey Cathedral. <Рисунок 4>. . In Sovetskay street there is a church for oldbelievers (starovery). <Рисунок 5>.
Kurovskoye is located on the Nerskaya river. It divides Kurovskoye into several parts. The residents name them Gorod, Zarechka, Proletarka, Shankhay, Invalidniy and Sovkhoz. There is a large bridge across the river. From this bridge you can get a picturesque view of our town.
The first mention of Kurovskoye can be found in Russian Chronicles dated back to the 14th century. The village Kurovskoye was founded on the left bank of the river and consisted of three houses. By the end of the 19th century Kurovskoye had developed into densely populated factory settlement where in 1930 a large group of weave enterprises was established and Kurovskoye became the centre of the region. Then they all were combined in a highly developed enterprise called Kurovskoye textile, where different kind of cloths and threads were produced. After 1990 the enterprise survived a lot of difficulties. .
There are some educational institutions in my town. Among them there are 3 secondary schools, a gymnasia, where more capable students get knowledge of different subjects, a lyceum, Moscow psychological institute, some kindergartens and the House of Children Creativity. For most children between 3 to 6 formal schooling begins in Kindergarten. Here professionally qualified teachers look after the youngsters while giving them some educational experiences during the day.
An increasingly popular facility for the preschool children is the House of Children creativity in which play is given more emphasis than teaching. It prepares children for first grade by helping them develop basic skills and social behavior through games, exercises, music, simple handicrafts and the like. But not only the preschoolers can find here something for themselves. There is a library for school children and adults and a reading room, where you can find any book you like. There is also a wide range of hobby clubs for schoolchildren. Those who like to play the guitar can choose the guitar club. Many boys and girls are fond of dancing and drawing clubs. This is the place where boys and girls can gather together and discuss the problems of today’s youth.
At the age of 6 or 7 children can go to one of the three schools, where they get knowledge of basic subjects as reading, writing, arithmetic, history, and science. After finishing the elementary school they can stay in their school or enter the gymnasium to get secondary education.
Our gymnasium is situated in the centre of our town in Sovetskaya street. It was organized in 1992. It is a three-storeyed building of a typical design. The building is very old. During the World War П brave soldiers went away from here to the front to defend our Motherland. Later there was a hospital for wounded soldiers and then it was a vocational school. Now it is a gymnasium, where the best pupils continue their study. Our gymnasium is famous for its high-quality education and strict discipline. <Рисунок 6>.
There is a lack of entertainment in my town, but we have the Palace of Culture, where people prefer to spend their free time. Every great holiday in our town is celebrated here. Almost the whole town gathers in the square near the Palace of Culture. Our local music group performs and everybody dances in the open air. If you are a cinema-goer you can see a film. On weekends young people go to discos here. If you are a theatre-goer you can see the performance of our local theatre.
One cannot but forget to mention the nature of my town. <Рисунок 7>. The citizens of Kurovskoye enjoy spending their weekends in parks, forests and gardens. They enjoy visiting the suburbs of Kurovskoye as it is surrounded by forest where you can see many beautiful flowers, plants and trees. Our citizens are fond of going in for sports. Thus there is a stadium, sports grounds and courts here where a lot of sport competitions are held: football and hockey matches, weight lifting, track-and-field events and other sports.
Hiking is becoming very popular in our town. People like to spend their days off in the country, closer to nature. There are picturesque places with forests, lakes and rivers. It is pleasant to spend a day bathing and suntanning oneself on a river bank or at a lakeshore, to chat and joke with your friends round a campfire
The development of our town doesn’t stand at one place. We watch into the future but don’t forget about the past. There was one of the most important events of our town on May 6th 2006. Historical museum of regional studies was opened. A great number of people were presented at the opening. Among them were war-veterans of our town, the deputy of Moscow regional State Duma V.А. Егерев. The red ribbon was cut by the oldest habitant of our town P.P. Eminet and A.P. Filippov.
The main person who did his best to create the museum is a great historian and regional ethnographer Buligin V.E. He is also a teacher of history in our gymnasium. With the help of this man now we can visit the museum and know more about the past and present of our town. The oldest exhibits of the historical museum date back to the 12th century. Among numerous exhibits there are different weapons, tools, household articles, clothes and so on.
We can also see things which were used during the19th century. For example, old lanterns, accordion, kettles, teapots, telephones, sewing machines and even gramophone.
A great part of the museum is devoted to the Second World War and its participants, the heroes of the Soviet Union. Different personal things of these people are situated here. For example: medals, photos and letters of Golosov L.N.- a participant and hero of the Second World War.
My town is not very large but it is not very small either. There are some high houses and green streets in it. Sovjetskaya street is the central street of my town. Walking along the street you will notice that the old buildings which were once dark and gloomy have been cleared and now glisten in the sun.
Now Kurovskoye is being reconstructed and we all hope that in a few years the town will become even more beautiful. <Рисунок 8>.