Russia World Cup Notebook - Day 10

Millions use city rail transport everyday

*****

Residents of Russia’s capital city are called

Muscovites. Moscow is a cosmopolitan city with a

population of 15 million people, nearly four times

that of Nairobi. According to official records, eight

million people use Moscow’s metro system every

day and at any one time, one million people use

the close to 300 metro stations to connect to

various destinations in the city and to other places

in the country. At the heart of Moscow’s history is

the Kremlin, a fortified complex that is home to

the president and national treasures. Outside the

Kremlin’s walls is Red Square, a city square in

Moscow.

Statues erected to honour heroes

*****

Russian statesmen and key figures, both living and

dead, have been immortalized in statues and public

squares in Russian cities. There is a statue of Yuri

Gagarin, the first man to go to space, a monument

to Marshal Zhukov (Soviet Red Army officer who

became Chief of General Staff, Deputy

Commander-in-Chief, Minister of Defence and a

member of the Politburo, the executive committee

of the communist party), Pushinskaya Square

named after Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, a

Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the

Romantic era.

Astronaut Gagarin name revered here

*****

Russia was the first country to send man to space,

and Russians are very proud of this fact.

Astronauts in Russia’s space programme are

called cosmonauts and Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin

is the best known of them. Gagarin was the first

man to journey into space when his Vostok

spacecraft completed an orbit of the earth on

April 12, 1961.

Vostok was assembled at Progress Factory at

Samara State Aerospace University, a leading

institution for engineering training. One of the

Kenyan engineers to have trained in aeronautical

engineering is Otieno Ongowo who currently works

with Qatar Airways.

Samara city packs pliantly of history

*****

Samara City, located in Southwestern Russia, is the

country’s sixth largest city. Samara, which is

hosting some of the 2018 Fifa World Cup matches,

is home to Stalin’s Bunker, a subterranean bunker

built in 1942 during World War II to protect the

Soviet leader from air raids. At the height of

World War II, Russia sought to conceal its aviation

technology from the country’s enemies and

transferred its aviation headquarters to Samara.

Samara is also home to Gagarin Park named after

Yuri Gagarin, the first man to travel to space. Life

in Samara revolves around the Volga River, the

longest river in Europe.

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