English-speaking country (the USA)

The United States of America, Australia, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand are large English speaking countries. They are located in various parts of the Globe and differ in many ways. Each country has its own history, customs and traditions, national holidays etc. But they have a common language. From the British Isles the English language spread all over the world.

I’d like to tell about The United States of America (also referred to as the UnitedStates, the U.S., the USA, or America). It is situated mostly in central North America between the Atlantic Ocean in the East and the Pacific Ocean in the West. Canada in the North and Mexico in the South are the only countries that have borders with the USA. It also has a sea border with Russia. It is washed by the Arctic Ocean in the North, and by the Caribbean Sea in the Southeast. There are many rivers in the country: the Mississippi (the longest one), the Missouri, the Columbia, and others. The U.S. also has many lakes. I am sure everybody knows the Great Lakes.

The highest mountains are the Rocky Mountains, the Cordillera, the Appalachians, and the Sierra Nevada. The USA is a big country and the climate conditions are very different in different places.

The USA consists of three parts. They are the continental (the main) part in the centre of the North American continent; Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean, and Alaska. The total area of The USA is over 3 million square miles (over 9 million km²). The United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by population. The USA population is now over 300 million. The U.S. is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, due to immigration from many countries. There are many big cities in the United States: New York, Philadelphia, Houston, Chicago, San-Francisco, Detroit, and Los Angeles.

There are fifty states in the USA. They are different in size, population and economic development. The smallest state is Rhode Island and the biggest is Alaska. Each state has its own capital. The capital of the USA is Washington. It is located in the federal district of Columbia. The forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C. (District of Columbia) lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Caribbean sea and Pacific.

The United States was founded on July 4, 1776. Thirteen colonies of Great Britain located along the Atlantic seaboard issued the Declaration of Independence (a document declaring the US to be independent of the British Crown). The Declaration of Independence proclaimed their right to self-determination and their establishment of a cooperative union. The document was signed by the Congressional representatives of thirteen states, including Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams.

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic headed by the President who is the Head of state, Chief Executive and Commander-in-Chief. The head of state and other officials are representatives of the people and must govern according to existing constitutional law. The current United States Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787. The Bill of Rights, comprising ten constitutional amendments guaranteeing many fundamental civil rights and freedoms, was ratified in 1791.

According to the US constitution, the powers of the Government are divided into three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. The legislative power belongs to the Congress (the elected group of politicians that is responsible for making the law) consisting of two chambers. The Congress consists of the House of Representatives and a smaller upper house Senate. The president of the Senate is the Vice-President of the U.S. There are 435 members in the House of Representative and 100 senators (two senators from each state). The executive power is headed by the President. The seat of the U.S. federal government is in Washington. The judicial branch is made up of federal district courts and the Supreme Court. The President appoints federal judges for life. Federal courts decide cases involving federal law, conflicts between citizens of different states. States are free to organize their individual governments any way they like, so long as they conform to the sole requirement of the U.S. Constitution. States can also organize their judicial systems differently from the federal judiciary, as long as they protect the constitutional right of their citizens.

The Pomors

What is Pomorye? By reading books and listening to my history and geography teachers I have learned much about Pomors. The land of the Pomors is the European part of the Russian North, washed by cold seas. Scientists believe that the term “Pomory” used towards those who lived near the sea. The Pomors or Pomory are Russian settlers and their descendants on the White Sea coast. Pomory (coast-dwellers) – is the native name of an ethnic group of an indigenous population of Pomorye. According to the general opinion of Russian researchers, the term can be dated back to the 12-th century. In the 12th century, explorers from Novgorod came by the White Sea through the Northern Dvina and Onega estuaries, settling along the sea coasts. Kholmogory was their chief town. They explored the Barents Region and the Kola Peninsula, Spitsbergen, and Novaya Zemlya. Russian settlers were opening up the Kola Peninsula during the 12th century because they needed fishing and hunting areas.

In the 12-15th centuries Pomorye formed an extensive colony of Great (Veliki) Novgorod - the then possessor of the lands. In the 12th century, the Novgorodians established the Archangel Michael Monastery in the estuary of the Northern Dvina. In 13^th century on the establishment of better government in Moscow, the struggle for predominance over the Dvina lands started between (Veliki) Novgorod and the Moscow princes. It was a hard-won victory of the Moscow princes and ended the joining of Northern lands of the centralized Russian state in the late 15^th century.

In 1584 Arkhangelsk settlement was founded on cape Purnavolok. Till the end of 17th century Arkhangelsk remained the main port of Moscow state. About 80 per cent of foreign trade turnover was made via Arkhangelsk, bread, hemp, timber, resin, furs and other products were exported from here.

In the 16th century the Pomors discovered the Northern Sea Route between Arkhangelsk and Siberia. With their ships (koches), the Pomors penetrated to the trans-Ural areas of Northern Siberia, where they founded the settlement of Mangazeya east of the Yamal Peninsula.

Pomor culture gradually resulted from the assimilation of the local Ugrian-Finn culture with that of the first Old-Russian (not the Great Russian) population. In ancient times the land had been inhabited by Finno-Ugric tribes.

The 2010 population census in Russia gave renewed impetus to acquisition the official status of indigenous people by the Pomors. According to the opinion of eminent encyclopedists, the Pomors were classified as Great Russians (I mean former term for Russian people as distinguished from other peoples of the Russian Empire) or referred to them as Russian traders and trappers of the North.

Nowadays encyclopedias or encyclopedic dictionaries consider the Pomors as an independent ethnic group with their ethnic self-identity. And a lot of people now identify themselves as "Pomor" or of "Pomor origin". I know from newspapers that having official status of indigenous people they are provided for certain economic advantages within natural resources exploitation.

The Russian Far North is known for its extremely severe climate. The traditional occupations of the Pomors included animal hunting, whaling and fishing. They were fishermen and ship builders. They went to sea in huge rowing boats. The Pomors used to build one-mast boats and two-masters. The population of Pomorye was engaged in mica and salt production. They construct their houses using logs, in a style unique to them. Sea corn trade and fish trade with Northern Norway became very intensive.

I’d like to say a few words about a Northern village. There was usually a church in the centre of the village. Like most other Great Russians, the Pomors are traditionally Orthodox Christians but a large percentage of the Pomors were Old Believers. The Pomors should not be confused with the Pomortsy - members of an Old Believer group which arose in the late 17th century in the northern Russia, and have since been represented by small communities throughout Russia and adjacent countries.

Not far from Arkhangelsk there is a picturesque place of Malye Karely. An outdoor museum of wooden architecture was opened at the beginning of the ‘70s. More than 100 monuments have been brought here from the banks of the Pinega, Mezen, Dvina and Onega rivers. Valuable remnants of folk culture have been collected and arranged into an original open-air exhibition. The museum gives us an idea of what a regular Northern village looked like.

All the area of the museum is divided into several zones representing different parts of the Region. A collection of farm yards with wells, bath-houses, barns, haylofts and threshing floor shows us the authentic lifestyle of Pomors.

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