Volga River

The Volga is the longest river in Europe. It belongs to the closed basin of the Caspian Sea. Rising in the Valdai Hills 225 meters (738 ft) above sea level . Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad, is located there.
The Volga has many tributaries, most importantly the Kama, the Oka, the Vetluga, and the Sura rivers. The Volga and its tributaries form the Volga river system, which drains an area of about 1.35 million square kilometres in the most heavily populated part of Russia. The Volga Delta has a length of about 160 kilometres and includes as many as 500 channels and smaller rivers. The largest estuary in Europe, it is the only place in Russia where pelicans, flamingoes, and lotuses may be found. The Volga freezes for most of its length during three months of each year.
The Volga drains most of Western Russia. Its many large reservoirs provide irrigation and hydroelectric power. Waterways connecting Moscow to the White Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. High levels of chemical pollution currently give cause for environmental concern.
The fertile river valley provides large quantities of wheat, and also has many mineral riches. A substantial petroleum industry centres on the Volga valley. Other minerals include natural gas, salt, and potash. The Volga Delta and the nearby Caspian Sea offer superb fishing grounds. Astrakhan, at the delta, is the centre of the caviar industry.
from:http://schools-wikipedia.org/wp/v/Volga_River.htm

Penny

Russia Questions

Here's your questions for this week, T2:

1) What is the Kremlin?

2) What is a Czar (Tsar)? What are some examples?

3) Who was Catherine the Great?

4) What is the significance of Lake Baikal?

5) What are Russia's five biggest cities?

6) What countries were part of the Soviet Union?

7) What is Russia's tallest mountain?

8) The River Volga flows into which seas?

Try to answer in your own words.
-Teacher Karl

Singers From Russia - t.A.T.u

Lena Katina (Elena Sergeevna Katina) Date of birth: October 4, 1984 Place of birth: Moscow Parents: Inessa Katina and Sergey Katin (a musician) Brothers and sisters: Lena has two younger siblings, her sister Katya, and a half brother From an early age, Lena was involved in sports and musical activities. When she was around 8 years old, she was enrolled in music school (in addition to "normal" school life) and studied playing the piano from 1992-1999. Lena likes ice-skating, gymnastics, tennis, swimming and horseback riding. She is also an avid reader of books. Career in music: Children's group "Avenue"; children's group "Neposedy" where she met Yulia and became friends with her. "Tatu" (casting in 1999, Yulia passed the casting as well). Lena is a student of psychology at Moscow University (2001-).

Yulia Volkova (Yulia Olegovna Volkova) Date of birth: February 20, 1985 Place of birth: Moscow Parents: Larissa Volkova and Oleg Volkov (a businessman) Brothers and sisters: Yulia is an only child. Additionally to "normal" school life, Yulia started to learn how to play the piano at a music school, when she was around 8 years old (1993-2000). When she was 11 years old, she changed schools - instead of the "normal" school life, the focus of her education was now on artistic expression (1996-2000). When she was around 15, she started vocal studies (jazz) at "Gnessin State Musical College" (ca. 2000). Yulia's sports activities included tennis, ice-skating, ballroom dancing and swimming. She played a few small TV roles ("Eralash") while in "Neposedy". Yulia is a natural blonde and dyes her hair black. Career in music: Children's group "Neposedy" where she met Lena who joined the group later. "Tatu" (casting in 1999, Lena had passed the casting shortly before her). On September 23, 2004, Yulia gave birth to a daughter: Viktoria (or Vika for short) Volkova. She is no longer with Vika's father, Pavel Sidorov. Her second child, a son, was born on December 27, 2007. The father is young Russian businessman Parviz Yasinov.

Imformations From:http://www.tatu.us/website/info.php

Photo Blog:http://blog.tatu.ru/Photo/

Media:http://www.tatugirls.com/

-Mika

Saint Basil's Cathedral

The Cathedral of Intercession of the Virgin on the Moat (Russian: Собор Покрова что на Рву - The Cathedral of the Protection of the Mother of God, or simply Pokrovskiy Cathedral - Russian: Покровский Собор; better known as the Cathedral of Saint Basil the Blessed , Saint Basil's Cathedral - Russian: Храм Василия Блаженного) is a multi-tented church on the Red Square in Moscow that also features distinctive onion domes. It is very often mistaken by Westerners for the Kremlin, whose buildings are in fact situated across the square from the cathedral. Arguably the most recognized building in Russia, it is an international symbol for the nation and for the city of Moscow.
The cathedral was commissioned by Ivan IV (also known as Ivan the Terrible) in Moscow to commemorate the capture of the Khanate of Kazan, and built from 1555 to 1561. In 1588 Tsar Fedor Ivanovich had a chapel added on the eastern side above the grave of Basil Fool for Christ (yurodivy Vassily Blazhenny), a Russian Orthodox saint after whom the cathedral was popularly named.
Saint Basil's is located at the southeast end of Red Square, just across from the Spasskaya Tower of the Kremlin. Not particularly large, it consists of nine chapels built on a single foundation. The cathedral's design follows that of contemporary tented churches, notably those of Ascension in Kolomenskoye (1530) and of St John the Baptist's Decapitation in Dyakovo (1547).
The interior of the cathedral is a collection of separate chapels, each filled with beautiful icons, medieval painted walls, and varying artwork on the top inside of the domes. The feeling is intimate and varied, in contrast to Western cathedrals which usually consist of a massive nave with one artistic style.

In a garden at the front of the cathedral stands a bronze statue commemorating Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin, who rallied Russia's volunteer army against the Polish invaders during the Time of Troubles in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
The initial concept was to build a cluster of chapels, one dedicated to each of the saints on whose feast day the tsar had won a battle, but the construction of a single central tower unifies these spaces into a single cathedral. A popular historical legend says that Ivan had the architect, Postnik Yakovlev, blinded to prevent him from building a more magnificent building for anyone else. In fact, Postnik Yakovlev built a number of churches after Saint Basil's, including one in Kazan'.

another information from useful wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Basil%27s_Cathedral

Penny

Russia Architecture

Moscow’s architecture is world-renowned. Moscow is also well known as the site of Saint Basil’s Cathedral, with its elegant onion domes, as well as the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and the Seven Sisters. The Patriarch of Moscow, whose residence is the Danilov Monastery, serves as the head of the Orthodox Church. Moscow also hosted the 1980 Summer Olympics.

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