Tampere is the second largest city in Finland after the capital. It is located in the southern part of Finland. Today the population of the city together with its suburbs comes to about 300 thousand people. The city is situated on the isthmus between two lakes Näsijärvi ja Pyhäjärvi.

According to the chronicles the first Finnish tribes started to found villages in this area already in the 7th century. The town of Tampere was founded by the Swedish king Gustav III in 1775. It was a small settlement, and the citizens were involved mostly in trade. Later the settlement received the status of a town. In the 19th century Tampere became an important industrial center of the country. The biggest cottonmill in Finland "Finlayson" was opened in 1820. And by the end of the 19th century 50% of all Finnish industry was in Tampere. Due to this fact some people called it "Northern Manchester". For many years Tampere had played an important role in the industrial life of Finland. Nowadays the town is one of the centers of telecommunication and information technologies.

Orthodox Cathedral of Tampere
The Orthodox Cathedral is located in the center of the city. The official name of the cathedral is the Cathedral of St. Alexander and St. German. The church was built in 1896-1899 by the architect T. Yazykov. The city authorities gave a plot of island for the construction, the local factories provided construction materials; the Russian authorities and the Holy Synod of Russia donated money for the cathedral. During the civil war of 1918 the cathedral suffered a lot. Plenty of churchware was lost. Only in 1919 the cathedral was returned to the Orthodox community of Tampere.

Museum of V. Lenin
The museum of V. Lenin (Lenin-museo) which is located in Tampere is the only permanently active museum of V. Lenin in the world. It is situated in the House of Workers in the hall where Lenin and Stalin first met in 1905 at the conference of the Russian Social and Democratic Labour Party. In 1906 on more conference was held at the same building. During that conference V. Lenin promised to support independence of Finland after the bolsheviks came to power. The first museum was opened in 1946. It did not belong to the Communist party, but to the society Finland - Soviet Union. Nowadays the museum collects materials connected with V. Lenin and the museum staff is involved in research work.