Odintsovo is a city in Moscow Oblast

Moscow Oblast

Moscow Oblast , or Podmoskovye , is a federal subject of Russia . Its area, at , is relatively small compared to other federal subjects, but it is one of the most densely populated regions in the country and, with the 2010 population of 7,092,941, is the second most populous federal subject...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

. Population: Town status was granted to it in 1957.

History

The village of Odintsovo was formed in the late 14th century. The famous story among the Odintsovians is about the noble named Andrey Odinets.(Odinets is a nickname he had, real name Andrey Ivanovitch Domotkanov, rus. Андрей Иванович Домотканов)
For the great service to the Moscovian leader of the time, Dmitry Donskoy, Odinets was granted land to the south west of Moscow.

Andrey Odinets founded Odintsovo as a way of thanking Donskoy, and so the land does not remain empty. Odinets' name is now forever in history, with the village, and in 1957, town of Odintsovo named after him. Odintsovo literally means in Russian as "belonging to Odinets".

Landmarks

Odintsovo is home to the Church of Grebnevskaya, Icon of the Mother of God, which was built in 1802.

Sports

• Odintsovo volleyball clubs "ISKRA" (men) and "Zarechye-Odintsovo"(women) have each become champions of Russia in the past and they are very strong in the present. "Zarechye-Odintsovo" have won in the final in April 2008 against Dinamo Moscow to become champions of Russia. Many male and female players in Russian national volleyball teams have either grown up, or played/trained in Odintsovo.
• "The Ice Palace", or the Odintsovo ice skating and hockey ring, was named to have "the best ice ever played on" by North American and former Soviet ice hockey veterans during the Stanley Cup visit in 2004.
• The multiple Olympic, Russian and World Cross-country skiing champion Larisa Lazutina
  Larisa Lazutina
  Larisa Evgenevna Lazutina is a former professional cross country skier who competed for Russia during several Winter Olympic Games. In the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, she won five medals in skiing events: three gold, a silver and a bronze...
  
  is from Odintsovo.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms of Odintsovo shows a white deer, representing cleanness and purity. The deer lies facing the West, though looks at the East, and most people believe that the deer looks at the East (where Moscow is situated) with pity. Interestingly enough, although Odintsovo is only few miles away from Moscow, the environment of Odintsovo is not even nearly as polluted as Moscow's. This is mostly explained by the large numbers of parks and relief areas.