FRUNZE STREET IS THE CENTRE OF CULTERAL LIFE OF OUR CITY
FAMOUS PEOPLE
MONUMENTS TO THE WOR EVENTS
АBOUT AUTHOR

It is impossible to count how many times you walk along the strees, bordering upon your house, glance at the facades of the houses which are stamped in your memory. But sometimes it seems that we know our streets perfectly. Especially those pages of their history, which coincide with the years of our life. Of course, we can walk along the streets of our childhood with closed eyes. Everything is familiar. But in the life of every person there are moments when something new opens. As for me such discovery is the well-known Frunze street ( former Saratovskaya) in Samara. Everything began the following way. Once I decided to write an essay about the history of the Samara theatre. At the beginning of the work I realized that I know very little about my city. So from the first steps I felt a great desire to know more about other events which took place in that street and of course about people who are closely associated with it.

Now a few words about the history of this street. The first graphic picture of Saratovskaya-Frunze street appeared on the ‘’Geometrical plan’’ which was made by A.Sakharov in 1782.
The street was called Saratovskaya in 1853. 
At that time the street was lined generally with wooden buildings. At the beginning of 1890 Saratovskaya street was paved with coble-stones and then it was asphalted. In1886 houses with running water appeared. The light was switched on the 1914. In the street there could be seen the first trams. Till 1852 there were 13 stone buildings, but in 1874 there were already 32.

Frunze-Saratovskaya street is one of the oldest streets in our city and has a rich history.
The writer A. Tolstoy spent his childhood and youth in that street, M.Gorky, a writer was a cub- editor at Samarskaya Newspaper.
The famous merchant Khardin lived and worked in Samarskaya street in 1867. He helped to build schools, hospitals, organized the First Congress of doctors in Samara.
There is another interesting house of the merchant Vaschakin. F.V.Vaschakin also made a valuable contribution to the development of our city. Some years ago there was the first gymnasium for boys in his house.
There you can see Frunze museum. The great communist leader M.V.Frunze lived in this little house.Under the guidance of Frunze the Kolchak army was defeated during the Civil War.
At the end of 1851 on the bank of the Volga river a professional theatre appeared in the house of Lebedev. But on the 12 th of May, 1854 the fire destroyed a wooden building of the theatre. Then it was decided to build a special temporary theatre building in Politzeiskaya square (now Khlebnaya square). The building was wooden and little but there were a lot of talented actresses and actor, who acted on the little stage of that theatre.
The great talent of the great actress P.A.Strepetova was opened on the stage of that theatre.
The new stone building of the Drama Theatre was set between the women monastry and Strukovsky garden. Look at it.
It is a remarkable piece if classical architecture-the Russian baroque.This theatre was built by the architect Chichagin in 1888.

Nowadays the Drama Theatre you can see the monument to Chapaev, which was designed and built by a famous Russian sculptor Manizer in order to honour the memory of the heroes of the Civil War. Manizer was sure that it is impossible to create the image of Chapaev without the members of his detachment. The monument was opened in November 1932.

Behind the Drama Theatre in 1888 there was a waste plot of land. But there was a splendid view of the Volga and Zhiguly Hills. Later when people celebrate the 100 th anniversary of Pushkin’ s birthday, local authorities paid attention to that place. Young trees were planted and the bust to Pushkin, a great Russian poet, was set there. Now it is a wonderful garden where annual Literature Festivals take place.

Not far from the Drama Theatre there is Stalin’s bunker, it is very deep, it has 12 floors and is much deeper than Hitler’s bunker, which has only 5 floors.
When the Great Patriotic War began, Russian government was moved from Moscow and the bunker was built during 18 months.

And now a few words about the history of ‘’Olimp’’. After the revolution it was named Karl Marx Theatre. It was the place of the performances of different theatre companies, famous musicians, singers and so on. For some time the Opera and Ballet Theatre housed in this building. But it was not only a theatre it was also a circus. Now it is a Filarmonic Society. At the beginning of 1987 it was reconstructed. The new building is much bigger. When Shalyapin, a famous singer, came to Samara, he was singing in that building. Shalyapin gave concerts in Samara twice.

Our travelling along the street Sarstovskaya-Frunze did not cover all the historical events. It did not tell us about all the buildings with memorial plaques. I can write about my city endlessly, but I do not have an opportunity. To my mind Frunze street is the center of our cultural life and of course it is very nice and it is so pleasant to walk along it!

АBOUT MYSELF:

Hello, my name is Kate Bondarenko.

I was born in Samara. And I’m still living in my native city. I can’t affirm that Samara is the best city in Russia. But I just want to say that it’s no matter what interests do you have, what you like or don’t like to do. You will find everything that you need here. In summer, for example, you can lay on the yellow golden sand on the bank of the river Volga. And in winter you can visit the skiing centre. There are a lot of rest centres where you can spend your free time.
All teenagers can get the necessary education and to choose a profession they want. As for me I want to be a doctor. I’m studying at the medical class and I want to enter the medical university.
I would like to thank my teacher of English Nechaeva Marina Nikolaevna for oll the help.