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NEWS
02/08 2010
Hello from our Russian language school Enjoy Russian! We got plenty of news last week! Here they are! First of all we said goodbye to Silvia and Claes, they left us on Friday. We miss them both very much as it was great fun for us to get to know these people. It was so nice to see Claes trying his best to learn Russian!!! And we’ll always remember Silvia as a life and the soul of the company.
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Petrozavodsk Students say about Petrozavodsk
Caithrin Holly Porteus, UK
“I really enjoyed staying in Petrozavodsk. I’ve never experienced such great hospitality anywhere else! I’d like to come back again”
David Salas, Spain
"Petrozavodsk is a nice place to visit. The people are kind and I'd got a great time here."
Gianluka Polini, Italy
"In Petrozavodsk I felt at home from the first minute. I'm sad that I have to leave. I spent a great time here and I really liked people I met in Karelia."
Aleksandra Luksza, Poland
“Petrozavodsk - fantastic city, especially prospect Lenina - I met a lot of great people”.
Ural Ünsur, Turkey
“I didn't get bored and have so much fun in Petrozavodsk. It is ideal city for students who want to study Russian”
Kevin Duddy, UK
“Petrozavodsk is a nice friendly city, ideal for practicing your language in. The city is on the shores of Europe's second biggest lake, Lake Onega. It is so big that it looks like the ocean - there is no visible other side”.
Petrozavodsk today
Petrozavodsk is a small cozy town. It is situated on a picturesque shore of the Onego Lake (the second largest lake in Europe). The town stretches for 21.7 km. Nowadays, it is an important scientific, industry and education centre in the North-West of Russia. The distance between Petrozavodsk and St.-Petersburg is 460 km, between Petrozavodsk and Moscow – 1000 km. The town’s population is about 270 000 (that is about 35 % of the whole population of the republic). There are 28 districts in Petrozavodsk, 13 of them are pretty big with lots of citizens live in. All the areas’ names are connected with Petrozavodsk history (Zareka – on the other bank of river, Drevlyanka – built in the forest area, etc.)
 The climate here is quite mild. As the town is situated of the Onega Lake shore it is usually humid in the summer and freezes in the winter. The difference in temperature is huge: it can fall down till -35 in winter and still rise 35 above zero. Be also ready for fast weather changes – it is so unpredictable! (still you can try to relay on official data - http://rp5.ru/town.php?id=6601 ).
Petrozavodsk has a lot of tradition holidays that are celebrated annually. Last June weekend is Petrozavodsk “Birthday”. Actually there is no definite date of city birth; still this date is connected with liberation of Finnish occupation on the 29th of June in 1944. Annually on this weekend Petrozavodsk turns to a great celebrating area. Lots of little performances are held all over the city. In the evening Petrozavodsk citizens and guests enjoy a great firework.
The main event in winter period is Hiperborea festival which is usually in the beginning of February. During one week creative teams from different countries work at ice sculptures. Then on weekend special jury decide which one is the best. Besides watching the sculptures you can enjoy a local folk bands concerts, local craft souvenirs market, and take part in various joking competitions.
Furthermore there are different sport events all year long (skiing and skating in the winter, football and volleyball in summer). You can also visit different rock-music festivals which are very popular here (the most well-known is Vozduh - http://www.vozduh.info/ ).
Today Petrozavodsk lives its own life. At first sight the speed of life here is pretty low, it’s quite and peaceful. At the same time Petrozavodsk is ready to offer its visitors any sort of entertainment.
Petrozavodsk was found in 1703 (the same as St.-Petersburg) by the Peter the Great. In the time of the North war (between Russia and Sweden) Russian army was in great need of armament. All army factories wee too far from the theatre of war. Then Peter the Great ordered to organize army industry in Karelia that was much closer. Special expedition was sent to Karelia and they found a suitable place for the factory. It was Lossosinka river’s outfall. In the beginning of the XVIII century the factory was built on the Onego lake shore. That was a birth of the Petrozavodsk town. At first it was a small village Petrovskay sloboda for the factory workers. Little by little it grew up and eventually became a region centre.
  In the XIX century Petrozavodsk became a Northern Siberia, that means poets, writers, critics and publishers were sent out of Moscow and St.-Petersburg and forced to live here. Still the factory worked well and the city grew up. It was silent and peaceful, rich citizens participated in charity, others were enjoying the quite atmosphere. After the revolution of 1917 Petrozavodsk life changed a little bit. At first there was a struggle for the power in the city. Then Petrozavodsk became a part of war theatre in the Winter War (against Finland) and the Second World War. The city was destroyed and they needed about 5 years to reconstruct it. Today Petrozavodsk is a modern but still quite and safe to stay in city.
For more detailed and precise information visit these web-sites - www.ptz.ru/history.html , www.gov.karelia.ru/Different/300/history.shtml, http://history.ptz.ru/
Citizens and government of Petrozavodsk try to preserve the heritage of the past. There are several museums and exhibition areas in the city nowadays.
The local history museum presents several exhibitions of Petrozavodsk and Karelia history and nature (official site is http://kgkm.karelia.ru)
Karelian Fine Arts Museum offers you collections of painting, applied arts, icon-painting, and folk art. (official site is http://artmuseum.karelia.ru)
You can see traditional and modern works of Karelian doll-creators in the Doll’s Museum. That is a family gallery which is worth visiting. http://kukla.karelia.ru
If you come to Petrozavodsk in winter season you won’t have an opportunity to visit open-air museum on the Kizhi island. Still you can go the Kizhi museum exhibition hall (http://kizhi.karelia.ru/information/2_Petrozavodsk/address_pvc.htm). It presents full information about the museum, besides that different subject exhibitions are held there.
If you are interested in local craft traditions visit a Petrozavodsk Craft Centre. There you can watch a local traditional souvenirs exhibition and may buy some of them. If you wish you can also visit a master-class and try to create a souvenir yourself!
Various exhibitions are also held in Petrozavodsk Exhibition hall. You can see not only professional artists’ paintings here, but children art as well. Usually there are about 12-14 different exhibitions of paintings, pictures, sculptures, drawing, posters, etc held here annually (http://www.museum.ru/M2782).
  Petrozavodsk cultural life is full of different events. You can enjoy hanging around the town watching monuments (most of them are concentrated on the Onego lake embankment) or fountains.
If you want to do shopping go to the town’s centre where a lot of small stores are situated or visit a big mall. You surely will find everything you need in all sort shops on the Lenina street. The biggest and the most popular mall in the downtown is Karelia-market (Karla Marksa Street, 14). Still there lots of little shops all over the downtown where you can find clothes, shoes, cell-phones, etc. In some of them you can pay by credit card (usually that shops have a Visa or MasterCard stickers on the door). If you want to purchase some souvenirs for your relatives and friends go to the Karelia market, Podarki shop (Lenina prospect, 17) or Khudozestveny salon (Gertsena Street, 41).
You can find many cafés, bars, and restaurants in the town. Be sure you always can choose something suitable your tastes and your means. You can taste traditional Karelian food and listen to the folk music in traditional interior in Karelskaya gornitsa (Engelsa Street,13). There are several restaurants with traditional and European cuisine. Petrovsky restaurant (Lenina square, 2) is one of the oldest in the city. If you want to have a snack or you prefer simple and cheap food you can go to any of cafés on Lenina prospect or anywhere in Petrozavodsk centre. For example you can taste Russian blini (pancakes) in Chaynaya lozka (Lenina prospect, 31), have a cup of coffee in Coffee house (Lenina prospect, 23), have a nice chat with Petrozavodsk students in Kivach (Lenina prospect, 28) or Deja vu (Lenina prospect, 20). There also are several pubs in the city such us Neubrandenbur (Lenina prospect, 23), football bar Spartacus (Dzerzhinsky Street, 9) and many others. Several bars have also dance floors so you can not only eat there, so if you want to have fun go to XXXX bar (Karla Markse street, 3), Peshkov bar (Gorky Street, 25), Camelot (Berezovaya lane, 31), Karelia (Lenina prospect, 27) and many others.
In the evening you can visit theatre or cinema – all of them are reconstructed and provided with all modern facilities. There are two popular cinemas in the downtown. Pobeda (Lenina st., 27) has a big modern hall, and there are a dance floor and a cafeteria in the same building. The second is Kalevala (Pervomaysky prospect, 2), which has two cinema halls and a nice family café on the first floor. Here are several links that might be helpful for you.
Petrozavodsk government consists of three main parts. Officially the head of the town is a mayor elected every four years. Today former chief manager of local enterprises Nikolay Levin occupies this post. Consultative body Petrosovet consists of the head and elected deputies. The third part is administration. It includes five committees that deal with public health, economy and finances, municipal economy, education, sport, etc.
You can get more information about Petrozavodsk government here - http://www.petrozavodsk-mo.ru/petrozavodsk/index.htm
There are about 70 thousands of young people in Petrozavodsk. All of them of course are so different! Some are fond of night-clubs and are ready to spend all their free time on the dance floor (http://nights.ptz.ru/index.htm). Others try to find their place in politics (http://youthnet.karelia.ru/ru). Extreme youth enjoys night-quest games (http://night.dzzzr.ru/ptz).Be sure if you are an active person you won’t get bored here!
 The most active youth in Petrozavodsk study at one of the local universities. Petrozavodsk state university is the biggest of them (http://petrsu.karelia.ru). There are about 6,000 students who study on 16 different departments in PetrSU. PetrSU has also a great students organization Profcom that deals with students problems and organize their free time (http://profcom.karelia.ru/ru ). Karelian State Pedagogic University (http://kspu.ptz.ru/index.html ) has 9 departments. It offers lots of students exchange programs and communicate with many foreign universities. There are also several branches of St.-Petersburg universities in Petrozavodsk. Petrozavodsk State conservatory is also a very popular institute as in the city as all over the country.
The official religion in Karelia is Orthodox. Nowadays there are 15 churches and chapels in Petrozavodsk (http://eparhia.onego.ru/xram.htm ). The ruling bishop of the diocese is archbishop Manuil of Petrozavodsk and Karelia. Still the population of the republic includes different nationalities thus other confessions do exist. There are Lutheran (http://heninen.net/luter/petroskoi.htm ) and Muslim confessions in the town. |
ANNOUNCEMENT
 March 1 – March 12;
April 5 – April 16;
May 10 – May 21
E-mail: Additional e-mail:
Skype:
enjoyrussian (info@enjoyrussian.com)
Postal address:
Studencheskiy pereulok 13-a, office 119 185007 Petrozavodsk, Russia Phone + 7 8142 78 11 30
Fax + 7 8142 78 11 30 |
