Saratov and the Saratov region.

The Saratov region is situated in the European part of Russia. The longest European river Volga in its down steam divides the area from the North to the South into 2 nearly equal parts: the right and the left banks. There is no other town as Saratov. It is situated on the bank of the wide Volga river and is circled by the small green hills (100 — 300 m high) all around. Here you can always feel that the water is close. Not far from the town districts there are thousands of islands and channels which are the part of the great Russian river.

The birthday of Saratov is July 5 (15), 1590 when the waywodes — the prince Gregory Osipovich Zasekin and the boyar Fedor Mihailovich Turov have built the first fortress of Saratov on the left bank of Volga, opposite to the Tatar town of Uvek. The main aim of the town was to secure the Volga way. At the beginning Saratov — the town with the fortress walls had the area of 4—5 ha, turning to the Volga direction. The wooden fortress walls with towers circled the small town and secured it from the enemies. The historians think that the word Saratov comes from the Tatar Mongolian words «Sara» — yellow and «Tay» — town. The town's name may come from the Sokolovaja Hill which goes high from the place, at the ancient times the hill was the nice orienting point for all the people traveling along Volga.

The Volga part of the modern Zavodskoy district of Saratov is called Uvek. There was the third largest town of the Golden Horde there, with its palaces, mint and water support line. According to one of the historical versions, Uvek was ruined by Timur in the war against Toktamish in 1395, by the other version — the main part of the town went into the Volga waters because of the landslides. People hope that there are historical treasures on the bottom of the river under the silt and sand.

In the first half of the VII c. Saratov was quiet a large fortress on the Volga river with 300—400 riflemen there. The town was situated on the cape between the rivers of Saratovka and Volzskaja (near the modern town of Engels).

In the spring of 1674 by the order of the Tsar Alexi Mihailovitch «to build the new Saratov on the hills» the fortress was moved to the right bank. The colonel Alexander Shel chose the place to the south from the Sokolovaja Hill — the place where there used to be a fishing town of Moscow Novospassky Monastery.

The development of the town went on. The population was occupied by fishing, bread and salt trading.

In June 1722 ãîäà Peter the First visited Saratov on his way to Persia.

Academician  I. Lepehin, who visited Saratov in 1769, called Saratov to be one of the best province towns with straight streets and trading places.

The salt, manufacture, fish and bread trading processes went on and on. You could find brick sheds, hemp storehouses, ceramic plant at those times in Saratov. You can also see the occupation of the population according to the names of the streets: Salt str., Smith str., Sheepskin str., Brick str. The modern Sakko&Vancetti str. and Pushkin str. used to be Bolshaja and Malaja Kostriznaja str. (from the word "kostrica" — the wastes of flax and cannabis). The plant owned by the Frenchman Verdje manufactured atlas, stockings, taffety — a thin silk material.

On August 6, 1774 the main troops of Emeljan Pugachev came up to Saratov. Pushkin in his book «the Pugachev Story» wrote the following words: «at that time Pugachev took place on the Sokolovaja Hill, put the troop battery there and started fighting the town».

In 1781 there was established the emblem of Saratov: on the light blue area 3 silver starlet fish are swimming to each other. The emblem symbolizes the fishing and water treasures of the place.

In the first years of XIX c. there was established out-of-town German settlement near Saratov. By the town's plan of 1812 the German colonists were to settle in the first residential quarter from Nikolskaja (Radisheva) str… Soon there was established German str. (modern Kirov prospect).

Out of the poor place which became totally empty, after the Pugachev battles Saratov soon became a rich merchant town. As Saratov was developing, its center moved from the Volga bank to the south-west. ‘«Saratov trade people occupied by their houses and shops all the area in the direction to Moskovskaja str. up to Aleksandrovskaja str.(modern Gorky str.) and even up to Volskaja str.» — these are the words of I. Slavin, the lawer of the merchant society of that times.

On the bank of Volga, not far from the place of the establishment of the right-bank Saratov settlement, you can really feel the link between the past, the modern and the future of Saratov. Here, on the Museum Square, you can find the memorial of St. Troitsk Cathedral built in the end of XVII c. — the beginning of the XVIII c. Next to Sokolovaja Hill with its memories of Peter the first and E. Pugachev there is the Saratov airport with its Jak-type airplanes which are famous to have been constructed here. The town and the river are both in the constant flow — the town builds the new buildings, develops the production sphere, science and culture.

You can find the words about Saratov in the memories of the famous biologist Nikolai Vavilov, the paintist Michael Vrubel, aircraft designer Oleg Antonov, the writer Michael Bulgakov, architect Fedor Shehtel, chemist Nikolai Zinin, poet Gavrila Derzavin, academician Gury Marchuk, writer Lev Kassil, space radiotelephone connections constructor Jury Bykov, etc.

The Victory Park

The Victory Park is one of the places of interest of Saratov, it is a lovely nature piece of land, a green scent oasis of the town, which was established on Sokolovaja Hill in 1975. On May 9, 1982 the official opening ceremony of the monument in the memory of the heroes — native town people took place here. «Cranes» — this is how the people tenderly name the monument which is the live memory of the fire pages of the history of their native area as well as the Victory memories. The main part of the memorial complex is the Fame Hall which was established on May 9, 1982. Here you can find a unique for the Volga region exposition of armor in the open air with 90 pieces of fighting equipment (tanks, guns, missile launching sites, airplanes and space ships).

The brightest exhibit of the museum and its rarest pride is a fighter jet Jak-1 — the only world remaining type of this jet. Each day, at noon sharp, you can hear the gun shot to memorize the eternity of the dead people and the live memory to the modern society.

«The Hermitage of the Volga area» — the first open museum for all the people.

The Radishev Museum established in 1885 by the grand son of A. N. Radishev, a professor o the Imperator Arts Academy Aleksey Petrovitch Bogolubov (1824—1896) belongs to the number of the oldest and definite arts collections in Russia. The main fund of the museum collection consists of the paintings of Bogolubov himself as well as the paintings of the Russian and West-European painters of his time.

Especially for the museum in the years of 1883—1885 there was constructed a beautiful building on the Theater square by the project of the Petersburg architect I. V. Shtrom, the place where the first exposition of the museum was situated. During the existence of the museum the collection became more than 10 times larger and the historical building has become the visit card of Saratov.

In the museum you can fin the masterpieces of the Russian and the West-European painters of XVII c. — the beginning of the XX c. such as: F. Rokotov, D. Levitsky, K. Brullov, V. Tropinin, I. Aivazovsky, A. Savrasov, I. Repine, V. Surikov, V. Serov, K. Korovin, I. Grabar, V. Borisov-Musatov, M. Stomer, D. Tenirs Junior, F. Deport, K. Koro, Sh. Dobinji and O. Roden.

The Saratov regional museum of local lore, history and economy.

The Saratov regional museum of local lore, history and economy is one of the oldest museums of the Volga region. It was established on December 12(24), 1886 in the times when the Saratov scientific archive committee was established and the museum started its work being the part of the mentioned committee.

The Museum obtains the only in Russia collection of the pieces of the Stolypin's life and activity, here you can also see the only in the country and may be in the whole world the «Hunger Museum» exhibits, organized in Saratov in 1922. The pride of the museum is the collation related to the memory of the first planet's cosmonaut Jury Gagarin — on the exhibition named «The Way to the Space». The rarest exhibit is the fighting jet Jak-18 which was gifted to the museum by the Saratov Air club with the following epigraphs on the jet: «This is the jet Jury Gagarin was training on in 1955» and «To the Saratov regional museum of local lore, history and economy from the Saratov Air club for the eternal stock».

The Opera and Ballet Theater named after N.G. Chernyshevsky.

In the summer of 1875 the Saratov Informational List newspaper announced of the coming plays of the opera company under the leadership of the famous person of P. M. Medvedev. It was Glinka «Life for the Tsar» («Ivan Susanin») opera that started the history of the first stationary professional province Russian theater.

Especially for the theater in 1865 there was built a 3-circled building in the central square of the town, thereafter named as Gorodskoj («Town»). The theater is built on the basis of «the Mariinsky Theater» and is considered to be «the most beautiful of all the province theaters».

The theater is open as a stationary theater in 1933. Opera non-repertory companies were held in Saratov since 1875. In the years of 1918—20 there was an opera company here — named as Saratov opera after N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, then in 1928—33 — opera and ballet company. The main part of the repertoire belong to the pays of the Russian composers such as «The Quite Don river» opera by Dzerzhinsky (1936), «Daisi» by Paliashvili (1937, first time in Russian), «To the storm» by Hrennikov (1939), «From all the heart» by Zukovsky (1950, State prize of the USSR, 1951), «Tanya» by Kreitner (1955), «Engaging in the monastery» by Prokofiev (1971); the ballets «The Bahchisaraj Fountain» by Astafiev (1936), «The Copper Knight» by Gluier (1952), «The Girl and the Death by Kovalev (1961, the second edition in 1973), «Zoluska» by Prokofiev (1965), «Spartak» (1967) and «Gajane» (1972) by Khachaturian. The theater was the first in Russia to stage the «Svjatopluk» opera by E. Suhon and «The Scarf» ballet by Keneshi (1956), «A Tale of the Lake» ballet by Vladigerov (1969). You can also find the world famous classical masterpieces, such as «Boris Godunov» opera by Mussorgsky (1935), «Ivan Susanin» opera by Glinka (1939), «The Golden Cockrel» by Rimsky-Korsakov (1946, State prize of the USSR, 1947), «Othello» (1951) and «Don Carlos» (1964) by Verdi, «Manon» by Massine (1960); the ballets «The Sleeping Beauty» (1941) and «The Nutcracker» (1959) by Tchaikovsky, «Zizel» by Adan (1960). Within the repertoire of the 60-th — the beginning of the 70-th years you can find the following operas: «Evgeny Onegin», «The Dame of hearts»,»The Magician «by Tchaikovsky, «The Tsar s bride» by Rimsky-Korsakov, «The Mermaid» by Dargomizsky, «The Troubadour», «Rigoletto», «LaTraviata» by Verdi,» Faust«by Guano, the ballets of» The Swan Lake«by Tchaikovsky and «Don Kihot» by Minkus. The following famous people such as conductors A. V. Pavlov-Arbenin, V. A. Shefer, N. A. Shkarovsky; stage directors I. A. Varfolomeev, J. A. Grechnev, B. A. Mordvinov; ballet-masters V. T. Adashevsky, V. I. Vronsky and many others were working at the theater at different time periods.

The Saratov Theater of Drama

K. S. Stanislavsky called the Saratov Theater of Drama «the nursery of the national culture». And it is really true.

The Saratov Theater of Drama is one of the oldest prominent and famous theaters of our country. The theater was open on October 22, 1803, and it belonged to the merchant G. V. Gladkov.

The Saratov conservatory named after L.V. Sobinov.

On October 21, 1912 there was open the first province conservatory while the first two famous conservatories at that time were the Petersburg and the Moscow conservatories.

The founder of the conservatory is Stanislav Kasparovich Eksper. The unique building of the conservatory has become some kind of a symbol of Saratov. There is a special piano in the Oktjabrsky hall — the greatest Russian composer S. Rahmaninov played this piano and left his autograph there «for the Saratov conservatory, S. Rahmaninov, Petersburg, 1913». The conservatory was established in 1912 on the base of the musician college open in 1895, it is one of the oldest musician colleges in the country. The following famous musicians worked here: I. I. Slivinsky, M. L… Presman (piano), G. E. Konus (music theory), S. M. Kozolupov (violoncello), M. E. Medvedev and N. I. Speransky (vocal), J. V. Kochurov, K.. J. Listov, D. M. Tziganov, S. N. Knushevitsky, M. J. Aleksandrov, A. N. Dmitriev. In the period of 1924—35 the conservatory was functioning as the music college. In 1935 the conservatory was named after L. V. Sobinov. After the October revolution of 1917 the following famous musicians were conducting lessons here: B. K. Radugin, N. M. Tziganova (piano), L. V. Rostropovich and B. A. Struve (violoncello), V. V. Zaitz (violin), A. M. Pashalova (vocal), K. S. Saradzev, N. A. Shkarovsky (conducting department), O. A. Moralev, B. A. Sosnovtsev, I. A. Tutmanov (composer and music science department).

Since 1975 there are the following departments in the conservatory: theoretical-composing (music science and composer's departments) and performing (piano, orchestra, conductor's — chorus and choirmaster, vocal, folk instruments); doctoral degree studies, assistantship — traineeship, 13 departments, a sound record room and a library.

During the years of 1974—75 more than 800 students, assistant trainees and postgraduates as well as 126 teachers worked there. More than 3 thousand music specialists graduated from the conservatory, many of them have become prize and diploma winners of the international and all-country music competitions.

How to get to Saratov

By airplane: