Russia World Cup Notebook - Day 10

Millions use city rail transport everyday

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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

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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

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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

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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.