Hello dear friends,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Participants from gymnasia #7, Sevastopol,
Ukraine, are going to speak about Mark Twain's staying in the Crimea, in general,
and our native city Sevastopol, in particular. So the country we are going to choose
is Ukraine. In your project it is shown as former Russia. We have already prepared
some material about his meeting with the Russian tzar and some outstanding people,
his first letters from Europe and some interesting facts about his arriving to
Sevastopol. Warm regards,
Larisa Stepanenko and Andry Tarasenko.
MARK TWAIN'S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS IN SEVASTOPOL, UKRAINE.
On November 30, 2000 we had an interesting party, devoted to the 135-th anniversary of Mark
Twain, one of children's favorite writers. There was a lot of preparation and hard work before it.
Each grade has prepared an issue of wall newspaper, performed a favorite episode from his
books, sung his favorite songs. We also had a competition of the best essays on the topic " Mark
Twain in my life." Our students have done many illustrations to Twain's stories and their favorite
episodes from his books. We organized a competition of English and American poetry devoted to
the great satirist's anniversary and are very happy to say that all these events were a success.
Everyone in our gymnasia loves reading Twain's books . We have some of them in English at our
school library.
Victor Shkarlat, gymnasia #7, Sevastopol, Ukraine.

The First Travel Letter from Europe

Everybody knows that in 1867 Mark Twain, a young journalist, took a long voyage to Europe
and the Middle East countries on board the steamer "Quarker City".
During this voyage he sent series of travel letters to the "Alta
California" newspaper from different sea ports. There were 53 letters,
but it's very remarkable that his first travel letter was sent to Philadelphia from the Crimea 133 years ago.
It was devoted to the description of the Crimea in general and
Sevastopol in particular. He also told about their staying "in a small
settlement Yalta" (it should be mentioned that now Yalta is a large
famous health-resort on the South Coast of the Crimea).
All the other 52 newspaper articles contained information about habits,
traditions and ways of life of different peoples. The author used bitter
satire describing them, but speaking about Sevastopol he seriously
showed heroic deeds of the inhabitans of the first defence (1854-1855)
in the Crimean campaign.
Mark Twain said that probably there was no other city not only in
Russia but in the whole world that had been destroyed as much as Sevastopol.
Nastya Kapuza,
Irina Antipina,
Ukraine,
Sevastopol,
Gymnasia #7

Twain's Arrival to Sevastopol

Here are some interesting facts about Twain's staying in our city. Turkish authorities had warned
Americans about strict customs rules in Sevastopol. So Mark Twain was brave enough when he
left the steamer with the passport of his neighbor as he had lost his own one. And what happened
next? Nothing special. Though the great satirist didn't look like his neighbor, there wasn't
anything to worry about. Customs officers didn't ask any papers at all. So the writer and his 10
American friends were allowed to see Sevastopol ruins. They visited Malakhov Mount,
Inkerman, Balaklava, Navy Hospital. Here Mark Twain picked up a cannonball which is now
exhibited in his museum in the town of Hannibal on the banks of the Mississippi River.
Irina Kostenko.
15.01.2001

Valeria Bogdanova,
Grade 8-b
Gymnasia No7
evastopol
Ukraine

I HAVE NEVER READ MORE CHEERFUL BOOKS.

I have read a few works by Mark Twain. But I liked them
all very much. "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" was the most
favourite one. This work has struck me with its cheerful fun and
ironic tone. I enjoy its rapid and intensive life, cheerful and
sometimes defiant laughter.
I think, that for Mark Twain this returning to childhood
was so-mething more significant than concession to the spirit of
his time.
It seems to me his treasured desires and aspirations were
embodied in his characters of children's books.
I have read many cheerful books, but I have never read
books more funny than Twain's ones.
Sergey Dorofeyev, Ukraine, Sevastopol,
Gymnasia #7
Mark Twain and Famous Russians
Russian tzar, Alexander n, agreed to accept a greeting letter from American representatives.
Mark Twain wrote the letter himself.
In his greeting letter to the Russian tzar the great humorist wrote they were quite sure that
Americans would be always grateful to Russia and Russian tzar.
You can read about Twain's staying in Sevastopol in his book "Innocents Abroad".
Twain admited that Alexander II was a kind sympathetic person. His eyes could be hardly
compared with Napoleon ones as Twain's eyes were not sly.
American visitors were lucky enough and enjoyed the meeting with Prince Dolgoruky, General
Totleben, the hero of the defence of Sevastopol, Grand Duke Mikhail.


Dear I*EARN members,
We are happy to report that paticipating in "Mark Twain from
the Mississippi to the Dnipro" project is a great pleasure to
us. The 8-graders of Gymnasia#7, Sevastopol, Ukraine,
supported enthusiastically the idea of joining this project as
"The Prince and the Pauper" by Mark Twain was the first
book they have read in English. Besides,they've read a lot of
Twain's books in Russian and know his characters quite well.
We were rather eager to participate in the project because of
another very important reason: Mark Twain visited
Sevastopol in 1867 as a newspaper correspondent. He described
this event in his book "Innocents Abroad". Unfortunately, we
couldn't find the book in the original in Sevastopol, but we
enjoyed reading it in Russian translation.
We organized
a
coordinating group of Andry Tarasenko,
Serhiy Mishchenko, Nasty Kapusa, Iryna Kostenko, Iryna
Antipina, Victor Shkarlat. They worked in the library
finding some materials in the city newspapers, translated
newspaper ar- ticles into English and sent them to the project.
To know about the writer's staying in our region better, we
decided to see some places in the neighborhood which Mark
Twain visited in 1867. So we made an excursion to the
Malakhov Mount and took some pictures there.
Our English teachers Valentina Moskovaya, Alla Shishova,
Maria Kutsova, Nataly Guingina and I organized a festival in
honor of Twain's 165-th anniversary. It was held in our
Assembly Hall for the students of the 6-th, 7-th and 8-th forms.
Students from the coordinating group told about the most
important events in the life of the great humorist and his
staying in Sevastopol, others played some scenes from his
child- ren's books. There was a lot of humour and jokes. Each
grade made a wall newspaper about the author of Tom Sawyer.
It was very difficult for the jury to choose the best
one. Lovers of poetry competed reci- ting English and American
poems, the competition was devoted to Mark Twain's birthday.
Our librarian, Vera Chernomasova, prepared a quiz on his life,
works and literary characters. Every winner got a diploma.
Each student of the 8th grades wrote a short essay "Mark Twain
in My Life." The best works were included to the project and
to Gymnasia student' English almanac "Enjoy English". In the
almanac we also published information about Twain's staying in
Crimea.
Students prepared a great number of illustrations to their
favorite books by Mark Twain and we organized their exhibition.
Olga Shevchenko together with her teacher Valentina Moskovaya
got a diploma for her research work "Idioms in M.Twain's
novel "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer".
We are sure that the goal of the project is achieved: all
participants got to know a lot of new facts about their favorite

writer, made new friends , improved their language skills and

understood that telecommunication's the best means of
communication.
Our warm regards to all participants and the authors of the
project,
Larysa Stepanenko,
a teacher of Gymnasia#7
Sevastopol
Ukraine.