Our University and my studies
I finished high school and after the entrance examinations I entered M.Akmulla Bashkir State Pedagogical University (named after M.Akmulla). I am a first-year student. I study at the Faculty of Fine Arts and Design, the Fine Arts Department. There are thirty students in my group. My friend is the monitor of our group.
Our University is very large and has ten buildings. There are five institutes and seven faculties in it. There are six floors in the main building of our Institute. In front of this building there is a monument to the great poet and teacher Miftakheddin Akmulla.
There are a lot of classrooms and lecture-halls in our University. There is a dining-hall near the dean's office. We listen to lectures and have classes in Drawing, Painting, the Russian Language, the Bashkir Language, the English Language, Physical Culture and some other subjects. The reading-room and the library in our University are on the ground floor. First-year students prepare their homework, write, read and do their exercises. Final-year students work in the reading room at their graduation projects. The librarians help the students to choose the necessary books for their studies. There are fifteen desks and a blackboard in our classroom. On the walls of our classroom there are some portraits of great writers and scientists and artists. A lot of students from other towns and villages live in hostels (dormitories, halls of residence). By the end of the first term we take exams. I don`t want to fail my exams and credit tests. After we pass exams me have winter holidays (winter break) for two weeks.
*Institute of Professional Education and Information Technology
*Institute of Philological Education and Intercultural Communication
*Institute of History and Law
*Institute of Pedagogy
*Faculty of Natural Sciences and Geography
*Faculty of Bashkir Philology
*Faculty of Fine Arts and Design
*Faculty of Physical Culture
*Faculty of Physics and Mathematics
*Faculty of Psychology
*Faculty of Social and Humanitarian Work
RUSSIA
The Russian Federation, or Russia, is one of the largest countries in the world. It occupies a vast territory of Eastern Europe and part of Northern Asia which are separated by the longest mountain chain, the Urals. The total area of Russia is about 17 million square kilometers. Russia is washed by numerous seas and three oceans: the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Arctic. It borders on Norway and Finland in the north-west, Estonia, Latvia, Belarus and the Ukraine in the West, Georgia and Azerbaidzhan in the south-west and Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China in the south. Russia has also a sea-border with the United States of America.
Russia’s land is noted for a great variety of scenery. There are two plains, Great Russian Plain and West Siberian Lowland on which the country is located. Nowhere else in the world one can find so many forests situated mainly in the north and known as taiga. There are also deserts, valleys and quite a number of mountains in the Urals and the North Caucasus. The longest river is the Volga in Europe but such rivers as the Ob, the Yenisei and the Lena flowing in Asia are of great importance as well. Lake Baikal with the purest water on earth is a pearl of the country and is also the deepest lake in the world.
Due to the large territory of Russia there several types of climate in the country. In the north it’s arctic, in the south – subtropical and in the central part it’s temperate and continental.
The population of Russia is about 140 million people.
Russia’s industry is very well developed because the country is rich in such mineral resources as oil, natural gas, coal, iron, zinc, lead, nickel, aluminium, gold and other non-ferrous metals. A greater part of them is concentrated in Siberia and Far East. Russia’s agriculture is on a high level as well growing and exporting grain, meat and other products.
The capital of the Russian Federation is Moscow with the population of approximately 10 million people.
Russia is a federal republic where President is the Head of State. The legislative powers are exercised by the State Duma.
MOSCOW
Moscow is the capital of Russia and its political, industrial, scientific, financial and cultural centre. It is the seat of President of Russia and the Russian Federal Government. The city is situated on the banks of the Moskva River. Its total area is about 900 square km. The population of the city is over 8 million people.
Moscow was founded in 1147 by Prince Yury Dolgoruky. The heart of Moscow is Red Square where masterpieces of ancient Russian architecture, the Kremlin and St. Basil’s Cathedral are situated. The Kremlin was built as a fortress. Its main tower, the Spasskaya Tower, is the symbol of the country. Now the Kremlin is the seat of President of Russia. But a part of it is open for tourists. On the territory of the Kremlin one can see four cathedrals, the Bell Tower of Ivan the Great, the Palace of Congresses, the Tsar-Cannon and the Tsar-Bell, which are the biggest cannon and bell in the world.
St. Basil’s Cathedral in Red Square was built in the mid-16th century in memory of the victory over Kazan. There is a legend, that Ivan the Terrible blinded the architects Barma and Postnik, because he didn’t want them to create another masterpiece. In Red Square one can also see the Lenin Mausoleum and a monument to Minin and Pozharsky who led the army that liberated Moscow from Polish invaders in 1612.
Not far from the Kremlin there is the world`s tallest Orthodox Cathedral of Christ the Saviour built in memory of the 1812 victory over Napoleon.
Moscow is the main cultural centre of Russia. It’s the seat of the Academy of Sciences. Moscow is the city of students. There are over 80 higher educational institutions in it. Russia’s biggest University named after Mikhail Lomonosov is also situated in Moscow. Besides, there are numerous research institutions.
There are more than 80 museums in Moscow. The most widely-known are the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts and the State Tretyakov Gallery. Moscow is famous for its theatres. The most famous one is the Bolshoi Opera House.
Moscow is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Its metro is a real masterpiece of architecture. There are a lot of parks and boulevards in Moscow.
UFA-1
The city of Ufa is situated in the Ural Mountains. It is the capital of the Republic of Bashqortostan, an autonomous region of the Russian Federation. Ufa was founded in 1574 by Ivan IV the Terrible as the first Russian town in the area called Bashkiria. It was built as a fortress upon a mountain near the rivers Belaya and Ufa. The Ufa flows into the Belaya. In Bashkir these rivers are called Aghidel (White river) and Qaraidel (Black River). The Belaya is the longest river in Bashqortostan. Its length is over 1400 km.
Ufa occupies the area of about 500 square km. Its population is more than one million.
Ufa is an industrial city. There are many plants and factories. There is an important petrochemical complex consisting of three oil refineries and a chemical plant.
Ufa is a cultural centre. There are many research institutions and the Bashkir branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Thousands of students study at such higher educational institutions as the Bashkir State University, the M.Akmulla Bashkir State Pedagogical University, the Ufa Aviation State Technical University, the Bashkir State Medical University, The Ufa State Academy of Arts, the Bashkir State Agricultural University, the Ufa State Petroleum Technical University, and others.
There are such theatres as the Bashkir State Opera and Ballet Theatre, the Bashkir (Academic Drama) Theatre, the Republican (Academic) Russian Theatre, the Ufa State Tatar “Nur” Theatre, the National Youth Theatre of RB, the Bashkir State Puppet Theatre and some others. Many fine paintings are exhibited at the Nesterov Museum and Gallery. There is also the National Museum of Bashqortostan and a lot of libraries. There are also many sports facilities.
There are many monuments, and the most famous ones are the Monument of Friendship and the mounted statue of Salawat Yulayev, the national hero of Bashqortostan. The monument on the steep hill overlooks the Belaya embankment.
UFA-2
Ufa, city in southeastern European Russia, is located on the western slopes of the Southern Ural Mountains. It is the capital of the Republic of Bashqortostan, an autonomous region of the Russian Federation. From 1922 to 1991, Ufa was the capital of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) of Soviet Russia. In 1991 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) broke apart, and Bashkortostan became a constituent republic of Russia.
Ufa was founded in 1574 on the orders of Ivan IV the Terrible as the first Russian town in the area called Bashkiria in 1586. It was built as a fortress upon a mountain at the confluence of the rivers Belaya and Ufa.
In Bashkir these rivers are called Aghidel (White river) and Qaraidel (Black River). The Ufa is a right tributary of the Belaya. The Dyoma river is a left tributary flowing into the Belaya in the southern part of the city of Ufa. The Belaya is the longest river in Bashqortostan. Its length is 1430 km (889 miles). The river Belaya is one of most popular of the Ural's rivers for rafting. Ufa stretches from the south to the north for more than forty kilometres. It occupies the area of about 500 square km. Its population is more than one million of inhabitants (as of 2002 census: 1,042,437).
Ufa is an industrial city in which mining and electrical equipment, refined petroleum, forest products, chemicals, synthetic rubber, and processed foods are manufactured. There is an important petrochemical complex comprising three oil refineries, a plant producing synthetic spirit and a chemical plant. There is also a large engineering plant and a lot of factories.
Ufa is a cultural centre. There are many research institutions and the Bashkir branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Thousands of students study at such higher educational institutions as the Bashkir State University, the M.Akmulla Bashkir State Pedagogical University, the Ufa Aviation State Technical University, the Bashkir State Medical University, The Ufa State Academy of Arts, the Bashkir State Agricultural University, the Ufa State Petroleum Technical University, and others.
There are such theatres as the Bashkir State Opera and Ballet Theatre, the Bashkir (Academic Drama) Theatre, the Republican (Academic) Russian Theatre, the Ufa State Tatar “Nur” Theatre, the National Youth Theatre of RB, the Bashkir State Puppet Theatre and some others. Many fine paintings are exhibited at the Nesterov Museum and Gallery. There is also the National Museum of Bashqortostan and a lot of libraries. There are also many sports facilities.
There are many monuments, and the most famous ones are the Monument of Friendship commemorating Bashqortostan`s voluntary joining the Russian state in 1557 after the fall of the Khanate of Kazan, and the mounted statue of Salawat Yulayev, the national hero of Bashqortostan. Salawat Yulayev led the Bashkir rebels in the Pugachev Rebellion of 1773-1775. After the rebellion had been suppressed, the twenty-year old Salawat Yulayev was taken prisoner and brought to Ufa for interrogation and punishment. He was convicted to hard labour for life in a Baltic fortress where he died in 1800. The monument on the steep hill overlooks the Belaya embankment.