St.Pertesburg (Leningrad) – a City Hero.

Now I want to speak about St.Petersburg. This city was besieged by the enemies and all inhabitants of the city starved. People died one after another. At the height of the siege the whole country came to the help of the inhabitants. Columns of transport with provision came from all parts of our country. But it was due to the famous ice-road of Lake Ladoga – later referred to as “The Road of Life” – that the inhabitants of the besieged city kept on working and fighting. The story of the road is truly unusual.

The fascists hoped that the ice would close the ring of the blockade and the city would be starved into surrender. In spite of hard weather conditions a motor road was laid along the ice. Of course, people had to face many difficulties. Every day the enemy shelled the ice road and new ice was crushed. And very often the drivers plunged into the icy water to save the loads. But nothing could crush persistence of our people. In December 1941 the bread ration was increased. In any weather night and day the trucks moved in an endless stream along the icy road. Never will our country and this city forget those who worked on the Road of Life during the heroic defense of the city.

Text 3

Exercise 1.Read the text.

Kaliningrad (Königsberg) was the first city which suffered from fascism. In 1933 here the period of fascism began. In 1938 they burnt down the synagogue and the city was fully administered by the leaders of Nazi party.

But already in July 1941 the Soviet aviation made its first bombarding of this city. The most terrible time for the city was April of 1945. As a result of the fights for the liberation of the city only approximately 7-9% of buildings were not destroyed. German general Lyash signed the agreement on surrender on the 9^th of April. After the war a special military area was formed on the territory of Eastern Prussia. In 1946 this region was included into Russia and in the same year it was renamed Kaliningrad.

Exercise 2.Agree or disagree with the following statements according to the contents of the text. If necessary use your own knowledge of some facts. Begin your sentence with some phrase showing agreement/disagreement.

1. Königsberg was situated in Poland.

2. The period of fascism in this city began on the first day of the Second World war.

3. Since the first day of occupation the city was administered by Nazi.

4. The first bombarding of the city by the Soviet aviation in order to make damage to fascists was in 1942.

5. A lot of buildings survived after the battle for the liberation of the city.

6. The city was completely liberated by the Soviet army on the day which is celebrated now as the Victory Day.

7. The city was renamed soon after the end of the Second World war.

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Exercise 1.Read the text and get ready to answer the questions.

Fascists occupied Kursk region in autumn of 1941. The occupation lasted for 15 months. 10 000 people died from starvation and illnesses, 3 000 were killed, 10 000, mainly young people, were driven to Germany.

As a result of the advance of Soviet troops nearly all territory of Kursk region was liberated. The front line resembled the curve and was called Kurskaya Duga. The battle lasted here 50 days during the summer of 1943. The battle on Prokhorovskoye Pole is called the Great Tank Battle. In Oryol, Belgorod and Kursk regions there are a lot of monuments and memorials devoted to heroic deeds of soldiers, tankmen, pilots, artillerists, partisans.

Exercise 2.Answer the following questions.

1) How did the population of Kursk suffer during the occupation?

2) Why was the front line called Kurskaya Duga?

3) Why can one see monument and memorials to soldiers of different kinds of armed forces in Oryol, Kursk and Belgorod regions?

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Exercise.Look through the short text and explain the origin of the name Malaya Zemlya.

Novorossiysk is a city-hero in Krasnodarsky area on the Black Sea coast. In the city we can see memorials to seamen, who heroically defended Novorossiysk. Near the city there is famous Malaya Zemlya, a small strip of land which was strategically important for the defense. Here we can also visit the memorial to soldiers who liberated Novorossiysk.

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Exercise.Look through the text and prove that Pskov region is the land of heroic traditions.

Pskov land is one of the ancient Russian lands which often defended our Motherland from enemy invasions. The names of the fortresses of Pskov, Pechory, Izborsk, Porkhov, Ostrov, Opochka, Sebezha, Velikiye Luki remind us of the heroic traditions of this land. The village of Chernushki is the place of the heroic dead of Alexander Matrosov. During the fascist occupation Matvei Kuzmin repeated the heroic deed of Ivan Susanin. The village of Krasnukha had the same fate as Khatyn in Byelorussia. Pskov land is a well-known partisan area. In every city and village of this land we can find a lot of monuments and memorials.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 945