For the overwhelming majority of foreign nationals, Russia is first of all known for Moscow and St. Petersburg, or at best, for the Volga and Siberia. However, the geographical name Engels has for some time been known, at least for art lovers. The name of the place is associated with the figure of Friedrich Engels, one of the most outstanding representatives of Marxism.
The town has gained its growing popularity due to the composer Alfred Schnittke. Who would have thought that the person, who was born in a very small Volga town and spent the first twelve years of his life there, would become a world-famous musician and a recognized leader of global music of the second half of the XX century? Who knows what his creative life would have become if he had been born not on the Volga shores, but in another place. As they say “All of us are from childhood”.
The town of Engels in the Saratov region can be proud of the fact that it is the place of birth of the composer famous world-wide.
