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1. Kaluga is before us, an old Russian town on the Oka River. Kaluga is over 600 years old. It was first mentioned in the historical documents in 1371. In the past Kaluga was a provintial town in which merchants and craftsmen lived. At present Kaluga is a regional center with the population of 350,000 people, the town of workers, engineers, builders and students. The wide panorama of the town, old and young, opens out from the new bridge across the Oka River built in 1965.

2. The town grows from day to day. Intensive construction is carried on in Kaluga. Many comfortable dwelling houses, administrative buildings, shopping centers and cultural establishments have been built in Kaluga. A new district will be built on the right bank of the Oka River.

3. Today Kaluga is a modern industrial city. It produces diesel locomotives and tracklayers, turbines and pianoes. The products of the Kaluga plants are exported to 80 countries of the world. Kaluga was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Order of Labour Red Banner.

4. A special feature of Kaluga is intermixture of time and style. The Church of the 18^th-century architecture stands side by side with modern glass-and-concrete buildings.

5. Kaluga is rich in architectural monuments of the past. The most important of them are protected by the state. Korobovs’ Mansion built in the 17^th century is the oldest stone dwelling house in the town.

6. The stone Bridge is the unique hydrotechnical structure of the 18^th century. It was built in 1870 from design by famous Russian architect P.R.Nikitin. It is 112 meters long, 14 meters wide and 25 meters high.

7. The Gostiny Dvor built in the 18^th century is the old trading center of Kaluga. It consists of 14 stone buildings-shops. Its construction of this architectural ensemble.

8. There are many places of interest connected with the names of great people of our motherland in Kaluga. Not far from the Oka River there is No.78, Tsiolkovsky Street – the K. Tsiolkovsky House-Museum. The pioneer of space travel lived and worked in Kaluga for 40 years. In this small wooden house Tsiolkovsky worked out the problem of cosmic flights.

9. Kaluga is famous for the Tsiolkovsky State Museum of Cosmonautics. It was built in 1967. The Cosmos Palace was built from the designs by a group of Moscow and Kaluga architects. The first foundation stone of the museum was laid by the first space pilot Y.Gagarin. This museum illustrates the achievements of the Soviet science of astronautics.

10. K.E.Tsiokovsky died in Kaluga in 1935. He was buried in the park which is now named after K.E.Tsiolkovsky. On the grave of the founder of space navigation there stands a memorial obelisk. It was erected in 1936 from the design by the architect B.Dmitriev.

11. On the occasion of the centenary of K.Tsiolkovsky’s birth yhe Monument to the scientist was erected in Peace Square. The designer of this monument was the Soviet sculptor A.Faidish-Krandievsky. This monument has has become the symbol of Kaluga – the cradle of Cosmonautics.

12. The citizens of the town of Cosmonautics are proud of their age-old and at the same time ever youthful city.