Samara is a city with the population of 1.3 million people situated 1,000 km south-east of Moscow. It stretches 60 km (37.3 miles) along the largest European River, the Volga. More than 100 nationalities live together peacefully in Samara. A number of cultural-educational Centres, including American Council, Alliance Francaise, British Council, Goethe Institute have their branches in this large multinational city.

Samara has a rich and various history. It was built as a fortress to protect Russian borders from invasions from the East. The place was traditionally rich in wheat and was famous as the main granary of Russia, the most important exporter of wheat, meat and leather. The rich city attracted many a talented and creative people. Boris Pasternak wrote about Samara in 1916: “Samara is the best, most sinful, elegant and well-organized piece of Moscow snatched out and transplanted to the Volga bank”.

Nowadays Samara is a one of the ten leading cities in Russia and is rated fifth by the purchasing capacity and the income of its population. It is the capital of Russian air and space industry being the home of one of the world’s largest companies designing and producing space crafts and satellites. In Samara there are large companies producing machinery (VBM), cars (Samara LADA), chemicals, metal-roll, etc. Samara is famous as the home of the popular in Russia beer “Zhigulevskoye“.

Samara is proud of its uncommon nature. The National Park “Samaraskaya Luka” is a unique place formed by the curve of the largest European river Volga. The ancient Zhiguli mountains form a kind of island inside the curve. Samarskaya Luka is the shelter for many relict and endemic plants and animals. The plants whose habitats are separated by many hundreds and even thousands kilometers in the rest of Russia grow here side by side. The same singularity and variety are characteristic of the fauna.The national park is also the place of a number of archaeological findings dating back as early as 4th and 5th cent AD.