Krasnoe and Dobroe

I was born and live in the city of Vladimir. This is not a very big city, but very beautiful. Ancient Vladimir is located in the picturesque countryside. It is situated on the left bank of the Klyazma. To the north and east of the Lybed and Irpenvalley there is a breathtaking relief: its heights are now almost accreted with the city of the ancient villagesof Krasnoe and Dobroe, with their impressive set by distance and prominent churches and bell towers.

Kurlovo town is a town in Gus-Crystal area of the Vladimir region of Russia. Thepopulation attheendof 2011 is actually seven thousandpeople.Itislocated 18 km southof Gus-Crystal. Thetownhas a woodenchurch ofSt. Seraphim ofSarov (builtin 1990), a musicschool, and a hotel.

What is birthplace? The answer is simple. A lot of people think that it is just a place where you were born, where you live or where your family is. Other people believe that birthplace is all those things which surround us. For example, our town, the trees, the animals and the buildings, one’s friends and colleagues and everything what you could see. Experts, however, consider that birthplace is a whole planet or even the Universe. What is the birthplace for me? Let me tell you about it.

 The word "birthplace” has several meanings. Everybody, who hears it, imagines his own thing, but for all people it is, of course, the most meaningful and closest thing. For most people it is a country, where they were born, for others it is their family and relatives, school and friends. And what does a birthplace really mean?

My town is not very big, but it is very nice. It stands on the river Seraya, surrounded by forests, fields and small villages. In the forest you can see a lot of animals and birds such as hares, foxes, wolves, and wild pigs. In autumn our forests are rich in mushrooms, nuts, and berries. There are no high mountains near my town, but there are some hills and lakes around it. The vegetation of my town is rich. There are many ditterent trees, flowers and bushes here. My town is raether beautiful in summer, because it is very green.

There is a long river Oka. It is very nice. It is good to swim in the river in summer with my family and friends. There are many new and old houses in Murom. There are a lot of cars in the streets. You can see many interesting places in my town. We have churches, monuments and squares. There are a lot of gardens with red, blue and yellow flowers, green parks.  I love to walk in the park with my granny. She tells me stories about her childhood, about our town and people. They are very interesting.

 "I love that land, where there are white birches ..." I'd like to start my story with some historical facts of my small Motherland. Its name is "Zolotkovo." It is located to the south of Vladimir, where between the Oka and the Klyazma stretched the krai of forests and swamps. Geographers name it the Mescherskaya lowlands, after the first settlers who had come to this unknown place at the beginning of the I-st century. The old river Zolotkovka had been known thanks to its pure spring water. Unfortunately, nowadays there is no river at all, and instead of it there is only the spring "Key", which is protected as natural area.

Everybody has their native town. So do I.

I was born in Kovrov. It is a small town which is situated on the right bank of the river Klyazma. The town was founded in 1778. For many years it has been an industrial town. There are some plants producing military tools and devices. Later Kovrov was a green little town with a lot of wooden bungalows. Nowadays Kovrov is a modern town with multi-storeyed houses.

I live in the suburb. The name of my district makes it clear just what kind of people live there: good, fair and respectful to each other. Everybody calls it "Zarya."

Russia is a very big country.  There are many natural zones. It stretches from cold islands of the Arctic Ocean to sunny beaches of the Black sea and from the west of Kaliningrad to the east of Vladivostok. Russia is a country with history of more than 1000 years. Russia as other many countries has its own flag. It looks as a big flag with three colors: white, blue and red. And Russia has its own coat of arms. It looks as a big eagle with two heads. The eagle keeps the coat of arms of Moscow. Moscow is a capital of Russia. The population of Moscow is more than 10 million people. There is a lot of blood in the history of Russia. There were many wars in our country. Also there were a lot of kings and queens in our country. Some of the rulers of Russia were good as Peter the first and some of them were bad as I. Stalin or Ivan the Terrible. There are a lot of cities in Russia. Russia has a lot of gas and oil. Now our country is very strong. It has its own army and much money. I love Russia very much and I think that our country is good.

We are happy to live in Vladimir. It is an ancient town having a long history full of great events. Many years ago our native town was a capital of Russia. It was in the twelfth century and we are proud of this fact. Now Vladimir is the town with the population of about 350000 people. Our town is rich in old monuments, ancient churches and cathedrals. We often go to look at them. Best of all we like St. Dmitrius cathedral built by the Great Prince Vsevolod. You will be surprised to know that there are more then 1000 reliefs on the outside walls of St. Dmitrius cathedral. Our native town is the best place to live in. When we are far from it we understand how right the proverb is "There is no place like home”.