История создания проект по английскому языку в 8 классе.

I would like to tell you about my project which is connected with the history of the place where I live. It`s very beautiful. How wonderful to walk along the streets of our town, parks and gardens. Nowadays, the Tsarskoye Selo Reserve-Museum is a World Heritage Site.  The museum has  rich history, it is famous for its amazing parks and beautiful palaces.  I like to visit the Catherine Palace and enjoy the talent, wisdom and taste of Russian emperors and empresses.

However, today's generation spends much more time in social networks and shows little interest in history and culture.    This year we are studying “The Catherine Palace and Catherine Park”  at school. I was shocked when I saw the photos of the Catherine Palace during the Great Patriotic War. I can`t pretend that such a delightful and brilliant palace was completely destroyed and restored heroically only after it. That`s why, I have taken such topic of my project: the Catherine Palace during the Nazi occupation, because I want to know more about this period of history.

While working on the topic I`ve chosen the informative type of a project because my searching were connected with collecting, analyzing, choosing the most important things and preparing them for the audience. 

Let me start. Before the Great Patriotic War, the Catherine Palace  was in a difficult condition. The palace needed a serious restoration.  By 1941, the facades were prepared for it but   the news of the war beginning changed the plans and the life. The preparations for the treasure evacuation  began quicker. The sculptures were buried deeply in the ground near the palace. In 1941, only women could do it , because all the men who worked in the palace were already in the army.  Three months after the beginning of the war, the Germans were already in the Catherine Palace.

In September 1941 the shelling of the town intensified, the palace suffered greatly from  the strongest shelling, which caused considerable destruction. The roof of the central part of the palace was destroyed, the windows and doors were broken, the sculptural figures were broken too. The palace church was destroyed and plundered .
In the spring of 1942, the palace was in a terrible state , in mud and disorder. The premises of the Catherine Palace were used as a garage of the Germans. The decoration of the Catherine Palace was also destroyed during the war. Something suffered from the war, something from looting. It is known that the parquet was used to stoke the furnace; all the icons were cut out. The palace burnt several times after the shells; the Great Hall in the middle of the palace suffered greatly; Large and Small enfilade came in complete disrepair.
Before their retreat, the fascists mined the building, laid 11 aerial bombs in the palace. Fortunately, our soldiers were able to neutralize them. The Germans could not completely destroy the palace, but they managed to take away lots of works of art. When Germans left the palace, they took  most of the prepared for the evacuation things with them, including even the Amber Room. After the war, only about 30% of the palace objects were remained. The rest are gone, and most of them have not been returned so far.
January 24, 1944 the Soviet army liberated the town of Pushkin from the Nazi invaders. February 1, 1944  horrible news... the Catherine Palace was on fire. Only on the third day the fire was stopped completely. The Great Hall of the palace didn`t suffer from the fire, but the Chinese, Silver and Mirror Studies, the unique Bedroom (Opochivalnya) and the “Snuffbox” were demolished. According to the documents, January 1944 was very cold. Our soldiers were warming themselves around the fires, probably the fire in the Palace happened because of their carelessness.

After the liberation of the city in January 1944, the palace keepers returned. In April 1944, it was decided to restore the appearance of the Catherine Palace in its former design. It was followed after the decision to preserve the affected architectural monuments.
In May 1944, the search and collection of missing works of art was organized. Some exhibits were found in dugouts, in houses, or simply on the roads of our town. Some of them were found in Narva and returned in August 1944. In autumn 1944, the museum works of art that had been evacuated into Novosibirsk were returned to Leningrad, and in December the collections from Sarapul arrived in Pushkin. In March 1945, some exhibits were found in Riga, the part of them in Berlin, Latvia, Estonia. The exhibits of the palace gradually returned to their places.

 In 1957, the Catherine Palace received the status of a museum. In 1959, the halls of it were solemnly opened for public. That was the hard and long period of repairing.

Today, the restoration of the palace is still going on, but  most of the lost treasures has already been restored. So it was restored 32 of the 58 rooms, as well as the famous Amber Room. In April 2019, not so long ago, a palace church was opened after the restoration work. The opening ceremony was attended by Russian President V.V.Putin
I would like to pay attention that the period from 1941 to 1945 was the most difficult of the entire period of  the Catherine Palace existence. I want to express my deep gratitude to all the people who helped to preserve and restore the palace after the war. They made a great feat. Due to their hard work, we can see the palace in all its glory and beauty.
We should be proud of our country, where there are such people who are not indifferent to history and treasures that had been created for ages. In memory of them and their work, the younger generation should be attentive to our history. It is also necessary for them to be interested, appreciative and careful to all the valuable things created in the past. As for me, I am curious about learning history not just in reading books, but also visiting museums, various exhibitions, meeting with eyewitnesses of historic events. The knowledge of history leads a person to wisdom, makes him an interesting interlocutor. I am always happy to share my knowledge with my family, friends and guests from another city.
At the end, I want to say that history develops interest, forms patriotism, respect for the experience of ancestors. Each of us can contribute to the story, which then can be remembered and proud.

Soon we`ll celebrate Victory Day. It`s a happy and sad holiday for our people. So I want to thank once again all those people who managed to protect and save everything for us during the war and later, sometimes risking their lives. 

To sum up,I want to say that my project is very useful and helpful because I have prepared it for public. So it can be presented to my classmates on the eve of Victory Day in order to understand how difficult was it to create the new old palace.

Shalina Anastasia, a student of grade 8-A.