Lvov [antikvár]

t is said that every town, like every person, has its own distinct character and appearance, its own life and destiny. Lvov, one of the -oldest towns in the Soviet Union, has had a stormy his- tory, but over the centuries it has retained its tra- ditions of hospitality, and sincere and warm cor- diality. The people of Lvov love their town, take pride in it and are always happy when visitors like it too. Lvov is very beautiful. Every year thou- sands of tourists come to visit it, to wander along its narrow streets, past its quaint old houses, to admire its avenues and parks, spacious residen- tial areas with their new blocks of flats, to feel the special atmosphere, unique to Lvov, in which the charm of the old mingles with the rhythms of a big modern city. Lvov is the largest city in the western regions of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, one of the 15 union republics of the USSR. In population, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic is second only to the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) and sup- plies about one fifth of the country's industrial and agricultural products. Situated in the south- west European part of the USSR, the Ukraine ex- tends from the east to the west, from the Don steppes to the Carpathian Mountains, and from the north to the south, from the forests of the Chernigov region to the coast of the Black Sea. The republic covers an area of 603,700 square ki- lometres and has a population of over 50 million. The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic borders on the Byelorussian SSR and the Russian Federa- tion in the north and east, and in the south-west with the Moldavian SSR. The Sea of Azov and, as we have already said, the Black Sea lie in the south of the Ukraine and the south-west and west of the republic borders on Rumania, Hun- gary, Czechoslovakia and Poland.