Сердцу милый край / Altai is in my heart

Hi! My name is Marina and I`d like to tell you about my native place. It`s a wonderful place, though there are a lot of people who think that there are more interesting lands anywhere. But, of course, it`s there point of view.

As for me, I prefer to live here. I say about Altai territory, if you know where it is situated. It consists of Altai region and Mountain Altai. It`s not the same. There are two different areas not only in nature, landscape, but in many other features But there are not borders between them, so Altai and Kazakh chabans can move with their cattle from one place to another without any problems.

I live in Altai krai. It has lots fine countrysides with thick woods, fast rivers, lakes and large steppes. Thanks to a lot of fertile lands Altai region is one of the general wheat supplying districts in Siberia. In Altai krai there are some big cities such as Barnaul, Rubtsovsk, Biysk, Zmeinogorsk and a great number of villages.

What about climate? It`s various from place to place. There are areas where the winters are rather warm and summers are not too hot. But in the place where I live the climate is not mild. Let`s take this year, for example. The temperature was forty degrees below zero during all the winter. And what strong winds, huge rugs of snow! The most exiting activity is to sit in a warm house near the hot fire.

People of many nationalities live in Altai. They are Russians, Germans, Ukrainians and others. All of them are proud to be the citizens of this country. I was born in Vladivostok, married and bore my children in Kazakhstan and during more than twelve years my family and I live in a small Altai village on the border with Kazakhstan.

The name of this village is Samarka and it has a very interesting history. First, it was founded in 1898 and in the beginning of the twentieth century it was a place where Germans from the Central Russia were sent without their wish only because of their nationality. The

name of the first family, who found this place as their future Motherland were the Shtromberger. they began to settle here from the foundation of the village. Lots of Germans died due to severe frosty winters and loss of food. But those who survived could build the typical German village with special traditions and customs. Up to 1993 there were only German-speaking people in this place. They had there own administration and didn`t like “foreigners”. Everything changed when they took the right to live in their historical Motherland – Germany. Now there are only some German families in Samarka. All of them are rather old people.

Nowadays the population of the village is mostly Russian. But the memory about the first inhabitants is fresh, because they did a lot to make the village a better place. Another reason to live here is a lot of free land and a nice river Zolotushka. Many years ago it was rather deep, but now you can cross without any problems.

You can ask: why did I tell you the story? To my mind it`s easy – I like this place and want you to like it too.


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Сердцу милый край / Altai is in my heart