CULTURE HUNT-

Read the information that blended historical events and geographical places.

1. The Moscow Kremlin and the Red Square is the historical centre of Moscow. Moscow Kremlin is also a symbol of Russia. The Kremlin is overlooking Red Square and the Moscow River and the Alexander garden. The Kremlin has been reconstructed many times. The present red brick walls and towers were raised at the end of the XV century. At present, the territory of the Kremlin is shared by four palaces, four cathedrals and the enclosing Kremlin Wall with Kremlin towers. The complex serves as the official residence of the President of Russia.

Question 1. How many towers does Moscow Kremlin have?

Question 2. Which is the highest tower in the Kremlin?

Question 3. Find out more information about two of the Kremlin's more curious monuments -- Tsar's Cannon and the Tsar's Bell.

2. The Winter Palace, the three-story building in down St. Petersburg, which is situated between the Palace Embankment and the Palace Square. It was the official residence of the Russian Tsars from 1732 to 1917. This is also where the Russian monarchs and members of their family led their private lives. It was designed by many architects, most notably Bartolomeo Rastrelli, and has been calculated to contain 1,786 doors, 1,945 windows, 1,500 rooms and 117 staircases. Today the Winter Palace, together with four more buildings arranged side by side along the river embankment, houses the extensive collections of the Hermitage. The Hermitage Museum is the largest art gallery in Russia and is among the largest and most respected art museums in the world. The Hermitage's collections include works by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian, a unique collection of Rembrandts and Rubens, many French Impressionist works by Renoir, Cezanne, Manet, Monet and Pissarro, numerous canvasses by Van Gogh, Matisse, Gaugin and several sculptures by Rodin.

Question 4. Find out more information about the most important events in Russian history that were connected with the Winter Palace.

3. GULAG is an acronym for the Russian bureaucratic name of the Soviet forced labor and concentration camp system -- a system of repression and punishment for murderers, thieves, and other common criminals--along with political and religious dissenters. The Soviet system of forced labor camps was first established in 1919, but it was not until the early 1930s that the camp population reached significant numbers. Russian prisons have reached the unimaginable level of humiliation of the human personality. This special spirit of Russian prisons was formed over centuries. Conditions in the camps were extremely harsh. Prisoners received inadequate food rations and insufficient clothing, which made it difficult to endure the severe weather and the long working hours; sometimes the inmates were physically abused by camp guards. The Gulag, whose camps were located mainly in remote regions of Siberia and the Far North, made significant contributions to the Soviet economy in the period of Joseph Stalin. Gulag prisoners constructed the White Sea-Baltic Canal, the Moscow-Volga Canal, the Baikal-Amur main railroad line, numerous hydroelectric stations, and strategic roads and industrial enterprises in remote regions. After Stalin died in 1953, the Gulag population was reduced significantly, and conditions for inmates somewhat improved. Forced labor camps continued to exist, although on a small scale, into the Gorbachev period, and the government even opened some camps to scrutiny by journalists and human rights activists.

Question 5. Find out the information on books about GULAG and those authors (Russian and Western) who published their research relying on eyewitness testimony and primary archival material.