1.
Yaroslav II of Vladimir
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Yaroslav II, Christian name Theodor was the Grand Prince of Vladimir who helped to restore his country and capital after the Mongol invasion of Russia. Yaroslav was the son of Vsevolod the Big Nest and Maria Shvarnovna. In 1200, he was sent by his father to rule the town of Pereyaslav near the Kypchak steppes, six years later, he was summoned by Halychian boyars to rule their city but could not effectively claim the throne. Thereupon he was sent to take Ryazan, but the opposition of the inhabitants led to the city being burnt. In 1209, Vsevolod sent Yaroslav to oppose Mstislav the Bold in Novgorod, after several battles, the two princes made peace, whereby Yaroslav married Mstislavs daughter. Upon his deathbed, Vsevolod the Big Nest bequeathed to him Pereslavl-Zalessky, in the conflict between his elder brothers Konstantin and Yuri, Yaroslav supported the latter. In 1215, he accepted the offer of the Novgorodians to become their prince but, desiring revenge for their treachery, captured Torzhok. Several months later, he was defeated by his father-in-law on the Lipitsa River and had to retreat to Pereslavl, in 1222, Yaroslav, finally enthroned in Novgorod, overran all of Estonia and besieged its capital Kolyvan. Four years later, he devastated Finland and baptised Karelia and his next ambition was to subjugate Pskov, but the Novgorodians refused to make war against its neighbour. Yaroslav departed in anger and seized the Novgorodian enclave of Volokolamsk, in 1234, he returned to Novgorod and several years later defeated its chief enemies—Lithuanians and Teutonic Knights. In 1236, he followed Danylo of Halychs advice and moved from Novgorod to Kiev, in 1238, when the Mongols first invaded Kievan Rus and his elder brother Yuri was killed in battle, Yaroslav left Kiev for Vladimir, where he was crowned grand prince. Yaroslav attempted to restore the cities of Vladimir-Suzdal after the Mongol ravages and fires, in 1243, he was summoned by Batu Khan to his capital Sarai. After a lengthy conference, he returned to Vladimir with honours, two years later, he was again summoned to the east, this time by Güyük Khan in Karakorum. There he was poisoned by the Great khans mother Töregene and died a week after he had allowed to return home. Yaroslav married his first wife c and she was a daughter of Yuri Kondakovich, Khan of the Cumans. Her people belonged to the Kipchaks, a confederation of pastoralists, in 1214, Yaroslav married his second wife Rostislava Mstislavna. She was a daughter of Mstislav the Bold and another Cuman princess and her maternal grandfather was Kotian Khan. In 1218, Yaroslav married his third wife Fedosia Igorevna of Ryazan and she was a daughter of Igor Glebovich and Agrafena of Kiev
2.
Andrey II of Vladimir
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Prince Andrey II Yaroslavich was the third son of Yaroslav II who succeeded his uncle Svyatoslav III as the Grand Duke of Vladimir in 1249. Three years later, he challenged the Mongols and was ousted by them from Russia, in 1240 Novgorodians expelled his brother, Alexander Nevsky, from the city and asked Yaroslav II to send them another commander. Andrey was sent to the wayward republic instead, only to leave it several months later, when the city was attacked by Teutonic Knights, Yaroslav again sent Andrey with several units to help. In 1242, Andrey joined his Suzdalian forces with Alexanders and saw action in the celebrated Battle on the Ice, in 1247, when their father died, Andrey and Alexander went to Karakorum in Mongolia, where Andrey was appointed the next Grand Duke of Vladimir by Guyuk khan. On their return to Vladimir two years later, they found that the capital had been seized by their young brother Mikhail Khorobrit, the latter, however, was killed in battle with Lithuanians several months later. Upon ascending the throne of his fathers, Andrey resolved to assert some independence from the Horde. He married a daughter of Danylo of Halych, who was the Mongols avowed enemy, a year later, his uncle Svyatoslav, offended by his ousting from Vladimir, went to the Horde to secure the throne for himself. He was followed by Alexander Nevsky, who blamed Andrey for appropriating a portion of tribute due to the Horde, the khan sent a punitive expedition which defeated Andrey near Pereslavl. Novgorod didnt want to give him shelter, either, so that Andrey had to escape to Kolyvan, in 1256 Andrey travelled to Sarai to ask pardon for his former infidelity. On his return to Vladimir, he received from Alexander the easternmost lands of Vladimir, including the towns of Nizhny Novgorod, after Alexander died in 1263, Andrey aspired to add Vladimir to his possessions, but was thwarted in his designs by his younger brother Yaroslav of Tver. The princely house of Suzdal and Nizhny Novgorod, which has known since the 14th century as the House of Shuisky. Rulers of Russia family tree This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Brockhaus
3.
Vasily I of Moscow
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Vasily I Dmitriyevich was the Grand Prince of Moscow, heir of Dmitry Donskoy. He ruled as a Great Horde vassal between 1389-1395, and again in 1412-1425, the raid on the Volgan regions in 1395 by Mongol emir Timur resulted in a state of anarchy for the Golden Horde and the independence of Moscow. In 1412, Vasily reinstated himself as a vassal of the Horde, Vasily was the oldest son of Dmitry Donskoy and Grand Princess Eudoxia, daughter of Grand Prince Dmitry Konstantinovich of Nizhny Novgorod. Vasily I continued the process of unification of the Russian lands, in 1392, he annexed the principalities of Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod was given to Vasily by the Khan of the Golden Horde in exchange for the help Moscow had given against one of his rivals. In 1397–1398 Kaluga, Vologda, Veliki Ustyug and the lands of the Komi peoples were annexed, the alliance turned out to be fragile, and they waged war against each other in 1406–1408. Mongol emir Timur raided the Slavic lands in 1395, he ruined the Volgan regions, timurs raid was of service to the Russian prince as it damaged the Golden Horde, which for the next twelve years was in a state of anarchy. During the whole of time no tribute was paid to the khan, Olug Moxammat. In 1408 Edigu burnt Nizhny Novgorod, Gorodets, Rostov, and many other towns but failed to take Moscow, in 1412, however, Basil found it necessary to pay the long-deferred visit of submission to the Horde. The growing influence of Moscow abroad was underlined by the fact that Vasily married his daughter Anna to Emperor John VIII Palaeologus of Byzantium, during his reign, feudal landownership kept growing. With the growth of princely authority in Moscow, the powers of landowners were partially diminished and transferred to Vasilys deputies. It was the first ever mechanical clock in Russia, and also the countrys first public clock and it was among the first ten such advanced clocks in Europe, and was regarded as a technical miracle at the time. Vasily married Sophia of Lithuania, a daughter of Vytautas the Great and his wife and they had nine known children, Anna of Moscow, wife of John VIII Palaiologos Yury Vasilievich Ivan Vasilievich, husband of a daughter of Ivan Vladimirovich of Pronsk. Anastasia Vasilievna, wife of Vladimir Alexander, Prince of Kiev, married first Alexander Ivanovich Brukhaty, Prince of Suzdal and secondly his first cousin Alexander Daniilovich Vzmetenj, Prince of Suzdal. They were both descendants of Andrei II of Vladimir. Married Yuri Patrikievich, son of Patrikej, Prince of Starodub, the marriage solidified his role as a Boyar attached to Moscow. Vasily II of Moscow Rulers of Russia family tree Bain, Robert Nisbet, sofias listing, along with her husband, in Medieval lands by Charles Cawley
4.
Dmitry of Pereslavl
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Dmitry Alexandrovich was Grand Prince of Vladimir-Suzdal from 1276 until 1281 and then from 1283 until 1293. Dmitry was the son of Alexander Nevsky. When his elder brother Vasily died young, Dmitry remained the heir to his illustrious father. As early as 1259, he was left by Alexander in charge of Novgorod, upon Alexanders death in 1264, however, the Novgorodians expelled Dmitry to his native Pereslavl-Zalessky, citing his youth as a pretext. During the following decade, he struggled for control of Novgorod against his uncles, Yaroslav III, in 1276, when his elders died, he finally ascended the coveted thrones of Vladimir and Novgorod. Two years later, he founded a fortress of Koporye. The Novgorodians revolted, forcing Dmitry to leave Koporye and Novgorod altogether, while Dmitry was preoccupied with pacifying Novgorod, Andrey of Gorodets went to the Golden Horde and received from the khan permission to replace Dmitry as the Grand Prince. In 1281, Andrey returned to Russia, joined his forces with princes of Rostov and Yaroslavl and, after much devastation to Dmitrys lands, Dmitry fled to Koporye but, failing to win support of Novgorodians, had to retreat further northward, probably to Scandinavia. Two years later, Dmitry returned to Russia, only to find his lands ravaged by the Mongols, thereupon he went to the Black Sea and met Nogai Khan, who was the greatest enemy of the Golden Horde at that time. Wishing to increase his authority in Russia, Nogai vowed to support Dmitry in his struggle for the ducal throne. On hearing about this, Andrey renounced his claims to Vladimir and Novgorod, in 1285 Andrey again brought Mongol hordes to Russia, but these were expelled by Dmitry and his allies. Finally, in 1293 Andrey managed to unite the Mongols and Russian princes in opposition to Dmitry, reluctant to renew fratricidal hostilities, Dmitry took monastic vows in 1293 and died the next year. He was buried in the Saviour Cathedral of Pereslavl-Zalessky, rulers of Russia family tree Media related to Dmitry Alexandrovich at Wikimedia Commons Biography
5.
Grand Duke of Vladimir
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The Grand Duke of Vladimir was a prince during the Kievan Rus and after its collapse. He ruled territory approximately bounded by the Volga, Oka and Northern Dvina rivers and its capital was Vladimir during 1157-1238. Vladimir city was founded by a Kievan prince Vladimir Monomakh in 1108 and was destroyed by a Mongol invasion in 1238, the second important city was Suzdal, also destroyed by Mongols. The Grand Duke Yuri Dolgorukii, the son of Vladimir Monomakh. Vladimir-Suzdal began the consolidation of Russian lands, completed by Muscovy. Vladimir was founded in the 12th century, the principality was overrun by the Mongols under Batu Khan in 1242. He and his successors asserted suzerainty over it until 1328, during this period, Vladimir became the chief town of the Russian settlements in the basin of the Oka and it clashed with the new principality of Moscow, to which it finally succumbed in 1328. It began to decay in the 14th century, traditionally, Vladimir-Suzdal is perceived as a cradle of the Great Russian language and nationality and gradually evolved into the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Since 1332 the title of the Grand Princes of Vladimir passed to the Grand Dukes of Moscow
6.
Grand Prince of Kiev
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Grand Prince of Kyiv was the title of the Kievan prince and the ruler of Kievan Rus from the 10th to 13th centuries. In the 13th century, Kiev became an appanage principality first of the Grand Prince of Volodymyr and the Golden Horde governors, according to some Ukrainian historians, Ptolemys mention of Metropolis, a Sarmatian town on the Dnieper River, shows the ancient existence of Kiev. The name Dnieper is derived from Sarmatian Dānu apara the river far away, according to Slavophiles, Kyi ruled since 430, one of the dates attributed to the legendary founding of Kiev in 482, although that date relates to Kovin on the Danube in Serbia. Some historians speculate that Kyi was a Slavic prince of eastern Polans in the 6th century, kyis legacy along with Shcheks is mentioned in the Book of Veles, the authenticity of which, however, is disputed. Oleg, an apocryphal Kiev voivode, probably of Danish or Swedish origin, bravlin was a Varangian prince or chieftain, who led a Rus military expedition to devastate the Crimea, from Kerch to Sugdaea, in the last years of the 8th century. According to some Russian historians, Dir was a chacanus of Rhos, thomas Noonan asserts that one of the Rus sea-kings, the High king, adopted the title khagan in the early 9th century. Peter Benjamin Golden maintained that the Rus became a part of the Khazar federation, some western historians suppose that Kiev was founded by Khazars or Magyars. Kiev is a Turkic place name, at least during the 8th and 9th centuries Kiev functioned as an outpost of the Khazar empire. According to Omeljan Pritsak, Constantine Zuckerman and other scholars, Khazars lost Kiev at the beginning of the 10th century, due to Mongol invasion in 1240 Michael of Chernigov left Kiev to seek military assistance from the Kingdom of Hungary. During that time Prince of Smolensk Rostislav occupied Kiev, but was captured the year by Daniel of Galicia who placed his voivode Dmytro to guard Kiev while the Grand Prince was away. Being unsuccessful in Hungary, Michael visited Konrad I in Masovia, receiving no results in Poland, he eventually asked Daniel of Galicia for a sanctuary due to the invasion of Mongols. Since the 14th century the principality of Kiev started to fall under the influence of Grand Duchy of Lithuania, in 1299 Metropolitan of Kiev Maximus moved his metropolitan see from Kiev to Vladimir-on-Klyazma. In 1331 Kiev once again was taken by members of Rurik dynasty, after the Battle of Blue Waters in 1362, Kiev and surrounding areas were incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by Algirdas, Grand Duke of Lithuania
7.
Pereslavl-Zalessky
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Pereslavl-Zalessky is located in south of Yaroslavl Oblast, near a border with Moscow Oblast,140 kilometres northeast of Moscow, and 139 kilometres southwest of Yaroslavl. Climate of Pereslavl-Zalessky is humid continental, long, cold and snowy winters and short, warm, average temperatures range from −12 °C in January to +18 °C in July. Known as Pereyaslavl until the 15th century, it was founded in 1152 by Prince Yury Dolgoruky as a capital of Zalesye. In 1175–1302, the town was the seat of the Principality of north Pereyaslavl, in 1302, it became a part of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Pereslavl-Zalessky was devastated numerous times by the Mongols between the mid-13th century and the early 15th century, in 1611–1612, it suffered from the Polish invasion. The Botik museum chronicles the history of the first Russian fleet, in 1708, the town became a part of Moscow Governorate. Within the framework of administrative divisions, Pereslavl-Zalessky serves as the center of Pereslavsky District. As an administrative division, it is incorporated separately as the town of oblast significance of Pereslavl-Zalessky—an administrative unit with the equal to that of the districts. As a municipal division, the town of oblast significance of Pereslavl-Zalessky is incorporated as Pereslavl-Zalessky Urban Okrug, there is Institute for Program Systems of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the town. The University of Pereslavl is also based in the town, the town is a part of the Golden Ring of Russia. Monuments of church architecture include six architecture complex convents and nine churches, if you can think of it, they have a museum for it in Pereslavl. The original earthworks from the wall that circled the town originally are still here. As are portions if the road that was at its base. Although identifying a 12th-century road from a modern one would be a task in itself, Lake Pleshcheyevo The town sits on the banks of Lake Pleschayevo, a large lake that draws tourists throughout the season. Kite surfing is popular, as is camping. Закон №12-з от7 февраля2002 г «Об административно-территориальном устройстве Ярославской области и порядке его изменения», Закона №67-з от21 декабря2012 г. «О внесении изменений в отдельные законодательные акты Ярославской области и признании утратившими силу отдельных законодательных актов Ярославской области», Вступил в силу через шесть месяцев со дня официального опубликования. Опубликован, Губернские вести, №11,15 февраля2002 г, Закон №65-з от21 декабря2004 г
8.
Vladimir-Suzdal
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Vladimir-Suzdal, formally known as the Grand Duchy of Vladimir, was one of the major principalities that succeeded Kievan Rus in the late 12th century, centered in Vladimir-on-Klyazma. With time the principality grew into a duchy divided into several smaller principalities. After being conquered by the Mongol Empire, the principality became a self-governed state headed by its own nobility, a governorship of principality, however, was prescribed by a Khan declaration issued from the Golden Horde to a noble family of any of smaller principalities. Vladimir-Suzdal is traditionally perceived as a cradle of the Great Russian language and nationality, the first notable administrators in the Rostov region presumably were the sons of Vladimir the Great, Boris and Gleb, and later Yaroslav the Wise. The principality occupied a vast territory in the northeast of Kievan Rus, approximately bounded by the Volga, Oka, until the decline of Kievan Rus in the 12th-13th centuries the territory was also commonly called Zalesie, literally depicting a region beyond woodland. Scarce historical information exists for the area during that time, the foundation of the city of Rostov has been lost in the span of time. In the 10th century an eparchy was established in Rostov, one of the first known princes was Yaroslav the Wise and later Boris Vladimirovich. At that time Rostov was the center of the Eastern Orthodox Christianity in the region dominated mostly by shamanism. Until the 11th century Rostov was often associated with the Great Novgorod, evidently the spread of Eastern Orthodox Christianity to the lands of the Great Perm was successfully conducted from Rostov. Rostov was the capital, including other important towns included Suzdal, Yaroslavl. Vladimir Monomakh, son of the Grand Prince of Vsevolod I, during the 11th and 12th centuries when southern parts of Rus were systematically raided by Turkic nomads, their inhabitants began to migrate northward. In the formerly wooded areas, known as Zalesye, many new settlements were established, sometime in 1108 Monomakh strengthened and rebuilt the town of Vladimir on the Klyazma River,31 km south of Suzdal. During the rule of George I the principality gained military strength, later in the 1150s Yuri occupied Kiev a couple of times as well. From that time the lands of the northeastern Rus played an important role in the politics of Kievan Rus, georges son Andrew the Pious significantly increased Vladimirs power at the expense of the nearby princely states, which he treated with contempt. After burning down Kiev, then the seat of Rus, in 1169. For Andrew, his capital of Vladimir was a far greater concern, Prince Andrew was murdered by boyars in his suburban residence at Bogolyubovo in 1174. After a brief interregnum, Andrews brother Vsevolod III secured the throne and he continued most of his brothers policies and once again subjugated Kiev in 1203. After several military campaigns, Ryazan was burnt to the ground, vsevolods death in 1212 precipitated a serious dynastic conflict
9.
Gorodets, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast
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The town was founded in 1152 by Prince Yury Dolgoruky as a large fortress on the Volga River, the first Russian fortress in todays Nizhny Novgorod Oblast. It was a point for numerous campaigns of the princes of Vladimir. In 1216, Yury II of Vladimir was dethroned by his brother, in 1239, the town was burned to the ground by Batu Khans army. Folk tradition identifies Gorodets with Little Kitezh, a town destroyed by the Mongols. In 1263, Alexander Nevsky died in Gorodets on his way back to Novgorod from the Golden Horde and his son, Andrey, made the town his chief residence. A famous medieval icon-painter, Prokhor, was born there, for two following centuries the town was known as Gorodets Pustoy. Some chronicles state that its population moved slightly downstream and resettled at Salt-on-Gorodets. By the 19th century, Gorodets was revived as a village settled by Old Believer merchants and reputed for its decorative handicrafts. In 1875, the Nizhny Novgorod writer A. S. Gatsisky described Gorodets as a center of trade in grain. In 1922, Gorodets becomes a town again, as well the administrative center of Gorodetsky Uyezd, in the past, the town was also sometimes referred to as Gorodets-Radilov, or simply Radilov. Within the framework of administrative divisions, Gorodets serves as the center of Gorodetsky District. As an administrative division, it is incorporated within Gorodetsky District as the town of significance of Gorodets. As a municipal division, the town of significance of Gorodets is incorporated within Gorodetsky Municipal District as Gorodets Urban Settlement. The chief historic monuments of Gorodets—the Trinity Cathedral, St. Nicholas Church, the oldest surviving structure is a rather plain church, built over the site of an earlier church where the towns best known ruler, Andrey of Gorodets, was interred in 1304. There are several museums in the town, including the Gingerbread Museum and the Samovar Museum, besides sharing the Nizhny Novgorod Hydroelectric Station with Zavolzhye, Gorodets has a shipbuilding industry. Приказ №3-од от27 января2016 г, «Об утверждении реестра административно-территориальных образований, городских и сельских населённых пунктов Нижегородской области». Опубликован, Нижегородская правда, №27 и №30,19 и26 марта2016 г, Закон №114-З от18 августа2005 г. «Об утверждении границ, состава территории Городецкого муниципального района, границ и состава территорий муниципальных образований, входящих в состав Городецкого муниципального района», Закона №16-З от7 февраля2011 г
10.
Golden Horde
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The Golden Horde was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. With the fragmentation of the Mongol Empire after 1259 it became a functionally separate khanate and it is also known as the Kipchak Khanate or as the Ulus of Jochi. After the death of Batu Khan in 1255, his dynasty flourished for a century, until 1359. The Hordes military power peaked during the reign of Uzbeg, who adopted Islam, the territory of the Golden Horde at its peak included most of Eastern Europe from the Urals to the Danube River, and extended east deep into Siberia. In the south, the Golden Hordes lands bordered on the Black Sea, the Caucasus Mountains, the khanate experienced violent internal political disorder beginning in 1359, before it briefly reunited under Tokhtamysh. However, soon after the 1396 invasion of Timur, the founder of the Timurid Empire, at the start of the 15th century the Horde began to fall apart. By 1466 it was being referred to simply as the Great Horde, within its territories there emerged numerous predominantly Turkic-speaking khanates. These internal struggles allowed the northern state of Muscovy to rid itself of the Tatar Yoke at the Great stand on the Ugra river in 1480. The Crimean Khanate and the Kazakh Khanate, the last remnants of the Golden Horde, in any event, it was not until the 16th century that Russian chroniclers begin explicitly using the term Golden Horde to refer to this particular successor khanate of the Mongol Empire. The first known use of the term, in 1565, in the Russian chronicle History of Kazan, applied it to the Ulus of Batu and its left wing was referred to as the Blue Horde in Russian chronicles and as the White Horde in Timurid sources. Western scholars have tended to follow the Timurid sources nomenclature and call the left wing the White Horde, the khanate apparently used the term White Horde to refer to its right wing, which was situated in Batus home base in Sarai and controlled the ulus. However, the designations Golden Horde, Blue Horde, and White Horde have not been encountered in the sources of the Mongol period. At his death in 1227, Genghis Khan divided the Mongol Empire amongst his four sons as appanages, Jochi was the eldest, but he died six months before Genghis. In 1235, Batu with the great general Subedei began an invasion westwards, first conquering the Bashkirs, from there he conquered some of the southern steppes of present-day Ukraine in 1237, forcing many of the local Cumans to retreat westward. The military campaign against the Kypchaks and Cumans had started under Jochi, by 1239 a large portion of Cumans were driven out of the Crimea peninsula, and it became one of the appanages of the Mongol Empire. The remnants of the Crimean Cumans survived in the Crimean mountains, moving north, Batu began the Mongol invasion of Rus and for three years subjugated the principalities of former Kievan Rus, whilst his cousins Möngke, Kadan, and Güyük moved southwards into Alania. Using the migration of the Cumans as their casus belli, the Mongols continued west, raiding Poland and Hungary and culminating in the battles of Legnica, in 1241, however, Ögedei Khan died in the Mongolia homeland. Batu turned back from his siege of Vienna to take part in disputing the succession, the Mongol armies would never again travel so far west
11.
Mongol Empire
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The Mongol Empire existed during the 13th and 14th centuries and was the largest contiguous land empire in history. The Mongol Empire emerged from the unification of tribes in the Mongol homeland under the leadership of Genghis Khan. The empire grew rapidly under the rule of him and his descendants, the Toluids prevailed after a bloody purge of Ögedeid and Chagataid factions, but disputes continued even among the descendants of Tolui. Kublai successfully took power, but civil war ensued as Kublai sought unsuccessfully to control of the Chagatayid and Ögedeid families. The Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260 marked the point of the Mongol conquests and was the first time a Mongol advance had ever been beaten back in direct combat on the battlefield. In 1304, the three western khanates briefly accepted the suzerainty of the Yuan dynasty, but it was later taken by the Han Chinese Ming dynasty in 1368. What is referred to in English as the Mongol Empire was called the Ikh Mongol Uls, in the 1240s, one of Genghiss descendants, Güyük Khan, wrote a letter to Pope Innocent IV which used the preamble Dalai Khagan of the great Mongolian state. After the succession war between Kublai Khan and his brother Ariq Böke, Ariq limited Kublais power to the part of the empire. Kublai officially issued an edict on December 18,1271 to name the country Great Yuan to establish the Yuan dynasty. Some sources state that the full Mongolian name was Dai Ön Yehe Monggul Ulus, the area around Mongolia, Manchuria, and parts of North China had been controlled by the Liao dynasty since the 10th century. In 1125, the Jin dynasty founded by the Jurchens overthrew the Liao dynasty, in the 1130s the Jin dynasty rulers, known as the Golden Kings, successfully resisted the Khamag Mongol confederation, ruled at the time by Khabul Khan, great-grandfather of Temujin. The Mongolian plateau was occupied mainly by five powerful tribal confederations, Keraites, Khamag Mongol, Naiman, Mergid, khabuls successor was Ambaghai Khan, who was betrayed by the Tatars, handed over to the Jurchen, and executed. The Mongols retaliated by raiding the frontier, resulting in a failed Jurchen counter-attack in 1143, in 1147, the Jin somewhat changed their policy, signing a peace treaty with the Mongols and withdrawing from a score of forts. The Mongols then resumed attacks on the Tatars to avenge the death of their late khan, the Jin and Tatar armies defeated the Mongols in 1161. During the rise of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century and it is thought that as a result, a rapid increase in the number of war horses and other livestock significantly enhanced Mongol military strength. Known during his childhood as Temujin, Genghis Khan was the son of a Mongol chieftain, when he was young he was from one of Yesugis orphaned and deserted families, he rose very rapidly by working with Toghrul Khan of the Kerait. Kurtait was the most powerful Mongol leader during this time and was given the Chinese title Wang which means Prince, Temujin went to war with Wang Khan. After Temujin defeated Wang Khan he gave himself the name Genghis Khan and he then enlarged his Mongol state under himself and his kin
12.
Alexander Nevsky Lavra
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On April 5,1713, in St. Petersburg, in the presence of Peter I, the wooden Church of the Annunciation was consecrated. This day is considered the founding date of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. The relics of St. Alexander Nevsky were solemnly transferred from Vladimir to the new capital of Russia September 12,1724 by decree of Peter the Great, today Alexander Nevsky Lavra sits on Alexander Nevsky Square, where shoppers can buy bread baked by the monks. Visitors may also visit the cathedral and cemeteries for an admission fee. While many of the sites are situated behind large concrete walls, especially those of famous Russians
13.
Moscow
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Moscow is the capital and most populous city of Russia, with 13.2 million residents within the city limits and 17.8 million within the urban area. Moscow has the status of a Russian federal city, Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, and scientific center of Russia and Eastern Europe, as well as the largest city entirely on the European continent. Moscow is the northernmost and coldest megacity and metropolis on Earth and it is home to the Ostankino Tower, the tallest free standing structure in Europe, the Federation Tower, the tallest skyscraper in Europe, and the Moscow International Business Center. Moscow is situated on the Moskva River in the Central Federal District of European Russia, the city is well known for its architecture, particularly its historic buildings such as Saint Basils Cathedral with its brightly colored domes. Moscow is the seat of power of the Government of Russia, being the site of the Moscow Kremlin, the Moscow Kremlin and Red Square are also one of several World Heritage Sites in the city. Both chambers of the Russian parliament also sit in the city and it is recognized as one of the citys landmarks due to the rich architecture of its 200 stations. In old Russian the word also meant a church administrative district. The demonym for a Moscow resident is москвич for male or москвичка for female, the name of the city is thought to be derived from the name of the Moskva River. There have been proposed several theories of the origin of the name of the river and its cognates include Russian, музга, muzga pool, puddle, Lithuanian, mazgoti and Latvian, mazgāt to wash, Sanskrit, majjati to drown, Latin, mergō to dip, immerse. There exist as well similar place names in Poland like Mozgawa, the original Old Russian form of the name is reconstructed as *Москы, *Mosky, hence it was one of a few Slavic ū-stem nouns. From the latter forms came the modern Russian name Москва, Moskva, in a similar manner the Latin name Moscovia has been formed, later it became a colloquial name for Russia used in Western Europe in the 16th–17th centuries. From it as well came English Muscovy, various other theories, having little or no scientific ground, are now largely rejected by contemporary linguists. The surface similarity of the name Russia with Rosh, an obscure biblical tribe or country, the oldest evidence of humans on the territory of Moscow dates from the Neolithic. Within the modern bounds of the city other late evidence was discovered, on the territory of the Kremlin, Sparrow Hills, Setun River and Kuntsevskiy forest park, etc. The earliest East Slavic tribes recorded as having expanded to the upper Volga in the 9th to 10th centuries are the Vyatichi and Krivichi, the Moskva River was incorporated as part of Rostov-Suzdal into the Kievan Rus in the 11th century. By AD1100, a settlement had appeared on the mouth of the Neglinnaya River. The first known reference to Moscow dates from 1147 as a place of Yuri Dolgoruky. At the time it was a town on the western border of Vladimir-Suzdal Principality
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Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
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Andrey of Gorodets
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Andrey III Alexandrovich, a Russian prince, son of Alexander Nevsky, received from his father the town of Gorodets on the Volga. In 1276 he added Kostroma to his possessions and joined the struggle for the Grand Duchy of Vladimir-Suzdal, in 1281 Andrey, joining the Mongol army, expelled his elder brother Dmitri from Vladimir. After some feasting with Mongols in Vladimir, Andrey went to Novgorod, meanwhile, his brother allied himself with the powerful Nogai Khan, who reinstated Dmitry as Grand Duke of Vladimir in 1283. During the following decade, Andrey thrice brought the Mongols to Russia in order to wrest Vladimir from his brother, in the campaign of 1293 they pillaged 14 Russian towns, finally forcing Dmitry to abdicate. Even when elevated to the throne of Vladimir, Andrey continued to live in Gorodets. During the last decade of his reign he struggled with a league formed by Daniel of Moscow, Mikhail of Tver, in 1301 he drove the Swedes from Landskrona near present-day Saint Petersburg
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Daniel of Moscow
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Daniil Aleksandrovich was the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky and forefather of all the Grand Dukes of Moscow. Daniel was born in 1261 in Vladimir, the capital of the Great Vladimir-Suzdal principality, one of the most junior princes in the House of Rurik, Daniel is thought to have been named after his celebrated relative, Daniel of Galicia. His father died when he was two years old. Of his fathers patrimonies, he received the least valuable, Moscow, when he was a child, the tiny principality was being governed by tiuns, appointed by his paternal uncle, Grand Prince Yaroslav III. Daniel took part in his brothers—Dmitri of Pereslavl and Andrey of Gorodets—struggle for the right to govern Vladimir and Novgorod, after Dmitrys death in 1294, Daniel made an alliance with Mikhail of Tver and Ivan of Pereslavl against Andrey of Gorodets of Novgorod. Daniels participation in the struggle for Novgorod in 1296 indicated Moscows increasing political influence, constantine, the prince of Ryazan, tried to capture the Moscow lands with the help of a Mongol force. Prince Daniel defeated it near Pereslavl and this was a first victory over the Tatars, though not a tremendous victory, but it was noteworthy as a first push towards freedom. In 1300, he imprisoned the ruler of the Ryazan Principality by some ruse, to secure his release, the prisoner ceded to Daniel his fortress of Kolomna. It was an important acquisition, as now Daniel controlled all the length of the Moskva River, in 1302 his childless nephew and ally, Ivan of Pereslavl, bequeathed to Daniel all his lands, including Pereslavl-Zalessky. During the Mongol occupation and internecine wars among the Rus princes, during 30 years of ruling Daniel participated in battles only once. According to legend, Daniel was popular and respected by his subjects for his meekness, humility, Daniel has been credited with founding the first Moscow monasteries, dedicated to the Lords Epiphany and to Saint Daniel. On the right bank of the Moskva River, at a distance of 5 miles from the Moscow Kremlin not later than in 1282 he founded the first monastery with the church of St. Daniel-Stylite. Now it is the Danilov Monastery, at the age of 42 on the 17-th of March in 1303 St. Daniel died. Before his death he became a monk and, according to his will, was buried in the cemetery of the St. Daniel Monastery and he was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1652. They had at least six children, Yury of Moscow, married Yaroslav Romanovich, Prince of Ryazan. Rulers of Russia family tree Cawley, Charles, His listing, Medieval Lands database, Foundation for Medieval Genealogy
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Dynasty
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A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a feudal or monarchical system but sometimes also appearing in elective republics. The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a house, historians periodize the histories of many sovereign states, such as Ancient Egypt, the Carolingian Empire and Imperial China, using a framework of successive dynasties. As such, the dynasty may be used to delimit the era during which the family reigned and to describe events, trends. The word dynasty itself is often dropped from such adjectival references, until the 19th century, it was taken for granted that a legitimate function of a monarch was to aggrandize his dynasty, that is, to increase the territory, wealth, and power of his family members. The longest-surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, dynasties throughout the world have traditionally been reckoned patrilineally, such as under the Frankish Salic law. Succession through a daughter when permitted was considered to establish a new dynasty in her husbands ruling house, however, some states in Africa, determined descent matrilineally, while rulers have at other times adopted the name of their mothers dynasty when coming into her inheritance. It is also extended to unrelated people such as poets of the same school or various rosters of a single sports team. The word dynasty derives via Latin dynastia from Greek dynastéia, where it referred to power, dominion and it was the abstract noun of dynástēs, the agent noun of dynamis, power or ability, from dýnamai, to be able. A ruler in a dynasty is referred to as a dynast. For example, following his abdication, Edward VIII of the United Kingdom ceased to be a member of the House of Windsor. A dynastic marriage is one that complies with monarchical house law restrictions, the marriage of Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, to Máxima Zorreguieta in 2002 was dynastic, for example, and their eldest child is expected to inherit the Dutch crown eventually. But the marriage of his younger brother Prince Friso to Mabel Wisse Smit in 2003 lacked government support, thus Friso forfeited his place in the order of succession, lost his title as a Prince of the Netherlands, and left his children without dynastic rights. In historical and monarchist references to formerly reigning families, a dynast is a member who would have had succession rights, were the monarchys rules still in force. Even since abolition of the Austrian monarchy, Max and his descendants have not been considered the rightful pretenders by Austrian monarchists, nor have they claimed that position. The term dynast is sometimes used only to refer to descendants of a realms monarchs. The term can therefore describe overlapping but distinct sets of people, yet he is not a male-line member of the royal family, and is therefore not a dynast of the House of Windsor. Thus, in 1999 he requested and obtained permission from Elizabeth II to marry the Roman Catholic Princess Caroline of Monaco. Yet a clause of the English Act of Settlement 1701 remained in effect at that time and that exclusion, too, ceased to apply on 26 March 2015, with retroactive effect for those who had been dynasts prior to triggering it by marriage to a Catholic
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Rurik dynasty
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The Rurik dynasty or Rurikids was a dynasty founded by the Varangian prince Rurik, who established himself in Novgorod around the year AD862. They ruled until 1610 and the Time of Troubles, following which they were succeeded by the Romanovs and they are one of Europes oldest royal houses, with numerous existing cadet branches. The Rurikid dynasty was founded in 862 by Rurik, a Varangian prince, come and reign as princes and have authority over us. Three brothers came with their kin and all the Rus in response to this invitation, Rurik set up rule in Novgorod, giving more provincial towns to his brothers. The Rurikid Dynasty DNA Project of FamilyTreeDNA commercial genetic genealogy company reports that Y-DNA testing of the descendants of Rurikids suggests their non-Slavic origin, Rurik and his brothers founded a state that later historians called Kievan Rus′. By the middle of the century, Kievan Rus′ had dissolved into independent principalities. The dynasty followed agnatic seniority and the izgoi principle, in addition, a line of Polotsk princes assimilated themselves with the princes of Lithuania. In the 10th century the Council of Liubech made some amendments to a succession rule, vsevolods line eventually became better known as the Monomakhovychi and was the predominant one. The line of Svyatoslav later became known as Olegovychi and often claim to the lands of Chernihiv. The Izyaslavychi who ruled Turov and Volhynia were eventually replaced by a Monomakhovychi branch, the Rurikid dynasty… attempted to impose on their highly diverse polity the integrative concept of russkaia zemlia and the unifying notion of a Rus′ people. But Kievan Rus′ was never really a unified polity and it was a loosely bound, ill-defined, and heterogeneous conglomeration of lands and cities inhabited by tribes and populous groups whose loyalties were primarily territorial. This caused the Rurik dynasty to effectively dissolve into several sub-dynasties ruling smaller states in the 10th and 11th centuries and these were the Olgoviches of Severia who ruled in Chernigov, Yuryeviches who controlled Vladimir-Suzdal, and Romanoviches in Galicia-Volhynia. The Olgoviches descended from Oleg I of Chernigov, a son of Sviatoslav II of Kiev and they continued to rule until the early 14th century when they were torn apart by the emerging Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Grand Duchy of Moscow. Vsevolod I of Kiev was the father of Vladimir II Monomakh, two of Vladimir IIs sons were Mstislav I of Kiev and Yuri Dolgorukiy. The Romanoviches were the line of Roman the Great, descended from Mstislav I of Kiev through his son Iziaslav II of Kiev and his grandson Mstislav II of Kiev, father of Roman the Great. The older Monomakhovychi line that ruled Principality of Volhynia, they were crowned kings of Galicia and Volhynia. Romanovychi displaced the line of Izyaslavychi from Turov and Volhynia as well as Rostyslavychi from Galicia. The last were two brothers of Romanovychi, Andrew and Lev II, who ruled jointly and were trying to repel Mongol incursions
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Eastern Orthodox Church
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The Eastern Orthodox Church teaches that it is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church established by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission to the apostles. It practices what it understands to be the original Christian faith, the Eastern Orthodox Church is a communion of autocephalous churches, each typically governed by a Holy Synod. It teaches that all bishops are equal by virtue of their ordination, prior to the Council of Chalcedon in AD451, the Eastern Orthodox had also shared communion with the Oriental Orthodox churches, separating primarily over differences in Christology. Eastern Orthodoxy spread throughout the Roman and later Eastern Roman Empires and beyond, playing a prominent role in European, Near Eastern, Slavic, and some African cultures. As a result, the term Greek Orthodox has sometimes used to describe all of Eastern Orthodoxy in general. However, the appellation Greek was never in use and was gradually abandoned by the non-Greek-speaking Eastern Orthodox churches. Its most prominent episcopal see is Constantinople, there are also many in other parts of the world, formed through immigration, conversion and missionary activity. The official name of the Eastern Orthodox Church is the Orthodox Catholic Church and it is the name by which the church refers to itself in its liturgical or canonical texts, in official publications, and in official contexts or administrative documents. Orthodox teachers refer to the Church as Catholic and this name and longer variants containing Catholic are also recognized and referenced in other books and publications by secular or non-Orthodox writers. The common name of the Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, is a shortened practicality that helps to avoid confusions in casual use, for this reason, the eastern churches were sometimes identified as Greek, even before the great schism. After 1054, Greek Orthodox or Greek Catholic marked a church as being in communion with Constantinople and this identification with Greek, however, became increasingly confusing with time. Missionaries brought Orthodoxy to many regions without ethnic Greeks, where the Greek language was not spoken. Today, many of those same Roman churches remain, while a large number of Orthodox are not of Greek national origin. Eastern, then, indicates the element in the Churchs origin and development, while Orthodox indicates the faith. While the Church continues officially to call itself Catholic, for reasons of universality, the first known use of the phrase the catholic church occurred in a letter written about 110 AD from one Greek church to another. Quote of St Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans, Wheresoever the bishop shall appear, there let the people be, even as where Jesus may be, thus, almost from the very beginning, Christians referred to the Church as the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The Orthodox Church claims that it is today the continuation and preservation of that same Church, a number of other Christian churches also make a similar claim, the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Assyrian Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches. The Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic Church, not directly from the Orthodox Church, the depth of this meaning in the Orthodox Church is registered first in its use of the word Orthodox itself, a union of Greek orthos and doxa
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Russian language
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Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi
21.
Kievan Rus'
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Kievan Rus was a loose federation of East Slavic tribes in Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century, under the reign of the Rurik dynasty. The modern peoples of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia all claim Kievan Rus as their cultural ancestors, according to Russian historiography the first ruler to start uniting East Slavic lands into what has become known as Kievan Rus was Prince Oleg. He extended his control from Novgorod south along the Dnieper river valley to protect trade from Khazar incursions from the east, Sviatoslav I achieved the first major expansion of Kievan Rus territorial control, fighting a war of conquest against the Khazars. Vladimir the Great introduced Christianity with his own baptism and, by decree, extended it to all inhabitants of Kiev and beyond. Kievan Rus reached its greatest extent under Yaroslav the Wise, his sons assembled and issued its first written legal code, the state declined beginning in the late 11th century and during the 12th century, disintegrating into various rival regional powers. The state finally fell to the Mongol invasion of the 1240s. During its existence, Kievan Rus was known as the land of the Rus, in Greek as Ῥωσία, in Old French as Russie, Rossie, in Latin as Russia, and from the 12th century also Ruthenia. Various etymologies have been proposed, including Ruotsi, the Finnish designation for Sweden, and Ros, the term Kievan Rus was coined in the 19th century in Russian historiography to refer to the period when the centre was in Kiev. Later, the Russian term was rendered into Belarusian and Ukrainian as Кіеўская Русь Kijeŭskaja Rus’ and Ки́ївська Русь Kyivska Rus’, prior to the emergence of Kievan Rus in the 9th century AD, the lands between the Baltic Sea and Black Sea were primarily populated by eastern Slavic tribes. In the northern region around Novgorod were the Ilmen Slavs and neighboring Krivichi, who occupied territories surrounding the headwaters of the West Dvina, Dnieper, to their north, in the Ladoga and Karelia regions, were the Finnic Chud tribe. In the south, in the area around Kiev, were the Poliane, a group of Slavicized tribes with Iranian origins, the Drevliane to the west of the Dnieper, and the Severiane to the east. To their north and east were the Vyatichi, and to their south was forested land settled by Slav farmers, controversy persists over whether the Rus’ were Varangians or Slavs. This uncertainty is due largely to a paucity of contemporary sources, attempts to address this question instead rely on archaeological evidence, the accounts of foreign observers, legends and literature from centuries later. To some extent the controversy is related to the myths of modern states in the region. According to the Normanist view, the Rus were Scandinavians, while Russian and Ukrainian nationalist historians generally argue that the Rus were themselves Slavs. Normanist theories focus on the earliest written source for the East Slavs, nevertheless, archaeological evidence from the area suggests that a Scandinavian population was present during the 10th century at the latest. On balance, it likely that the Rus proper were a small minority of Scandinavians who formed an elite ruling class. Liutprand of Cremona, who was twice an envoy to the Byzantine court, identifies the Russi with the Norse, leo the Deacon, a 10th-century Byzantine historian and chronicler, refers to the Rus as Scythians and notes that they tended to adopt Greek rituals and customs
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Vsevolod the Big Nest
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Vsevolod III Yuryevich, or Vsevolod the Big Nest, was the Grand Prince of Vladimir during whose long reign the city reached the zenith of its glory. Vsevolod was the tenth or eleventh son of Yuri Dolgoruky, who founded the town Dmitrov to commemorate the site of Vsevolods birth, nikolai Karamzin initiated the speculation identifying Vsevolods mother Helene as a Greek princess, because after her husbands death she took Vsevolod with her to Constantinople. Vsevolod spent his youth at the court of the Komnenoi. In 1173 two Smolensk princes captured Kiev, captured Vsevolod and briefly installed him on the throne, ransomed a year later, Vsevolod took his brother Mikhalkos side in his struggle against the powerful boyars of Rostov and Suzdal. Upon Mikhalkos death in 1176, Vsevolod succeeded him in Vladimir and he promptly subjugated the boyars and systematically raided the Volga peoples, notably Volga Bulgaria. He installed puppet rulers on the throne of Novgorod and married his daughters to princes of Chernigov, Vsevolod showed little mercy to those who disobeyed his commands. In 1180 and 1187 he punished the princes of Ryazan by ousting them from their lands, in 1207 he burnt to the ground both Ryazan and Belgorod. The Tale of Igors Campaign, thought to be written during Vsevolods reign, addresses him thus, dont you think of flying here from afar to safeguard the paternal golden throne of Kiev. For you can with your oars scatter in drops the Volga, but Kievan matters concerned Vsevolod little in the latter part of his reign. He concentrated on building up his own capital, Vladimir and his Ossetian wife, Maria Shvarnovna, who devoted herself to works of piety and founded several convents, was glorified by the Russian church as a saint. By her Vsevolod had no fewer than fourteen children, thus earning for himself the sobriquet Big Nest, four of them—Konstantin, George, Yaroslav and Sviatoslav—succeeded him as Grand Dukes of Vladimir. He died on 12 April 1212 and was buried at the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir, Vsevolod married first Maria, whose origins are disputed. She has been identified as Ossetian, Alan and Moravian. They had at least fourteen children, Sbyslava Vsevolodovna, married Rostislav Yaroslavich, Prince of Snov. He was a son of Yaroslav II Vsevolodovich, Prince of Chernigov and his paternal grandfather was Vsevolod II of Kiev. Maria died in 1205 or 1206, Vsevolod married Liubov Vasilkovna in 1209. She was a daughter of Vasilko Bryacheslavich, Prince of Vitebsk and his listing in Medieval lands by Charles Cawley
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Russian Orthodox Church
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The Russian Orthodox Church, alternatively legally known as the Moscow Patriarchate, is one of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches, in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox patriarchates. The Primate of the ROC is the Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus and it also exercises ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the autonomous Church of Japan and the Orthodox Christians resident in the Peoples Republic of China. The ROC branches in Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Moldova and Ukraine since the 1990s enjoy various degrees of self-government, in Ukraine, ROC has tensions with schismatic groups supported by the current government, while it enjoys the position of numerically dominant religious organisation. The ROC should also not be confused with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, headquartered in New York, New York, the two Churches reconciled on May 17,2007, the ROCOR is now a self-governing part of the Russian Orthodox Church. According to one of the legends, Andrew reached the location of Kiev. The spot where he erected a cross is now marked by St. Andrews Cathedral. By the end of the first millennium AD, eastern Slavic lands started to come under the influence of the Eastern Roman Empire. There is evidence that the first Christian bishop was sent to Novgorod from Constantinople either by Patriarch Photius or Patriarch Ignatios, by the mid-10th century, there was already a Christian community among Kievan nobility, under the leadership of Byzantine Greek priests, although paganism remained the dominant religion. Princess Olga of Kiev was the first ruler of Kievan Rus′ to convert to Christianity and her grandson, Vladimir of Kiev, made Rus officially a Christian state. The Kievan church was a metropolitanate of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Ecumenical patriarch appointed the metropolitan, who usually was a Greek. The Metropolitans residence was located in Kiev itself, the capital of the medieval Rus state. Following the tribulations of the Mongol invasion, the Russian Church was pivotal in the survival, despite the politically motivated murders of Mikhail of Chernigov and Mikhail of Tver, the Mongols were generally tolerant and even granted tax exemption to the Church. Such holy figures as Sergius of Radonezh and Metropolitan Alexis helped the country to withstand years of Tatar oppression, the Trinity monastery founded by Sergius of Radonezh became the setting for the flourishing of spiritual art, exemplified by the work of Andrey Rublev, among others. The followers of Sergius founded four hundred monasteries, thus extending the geographical extent of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. However, the Moscow Prince Vasili II rejected the act of the Council of Florence brought to Moscow by Isidore in March 1441, Isidore was in the same year removed from his position as an apostate and expelled from Moscow. The Russian metropolitanate remained effectively vacant for the few years due largely to the dominance of Uniates in Constantinople then. In December 1448, Jonas, a Russian bishop, was installed by the Council of Russian bishops in Moscow as Metropolitan of Kiev and All Russia without the consent from Constantinople. Subsequently, there developed a theory in Moscow that saw Moscow as the Third Rome, the successor to Constantinople
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Macarius, Metropolitan of Moscow
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Macarius was a notable Russian cleric, writer, and icon painter who served as the Metropolitan of Moscow and all Russia from 1542 until 1563. Macarius was born in the region around Moscow and his parents names are known because he dedicates the Great Menaion Reader to them. His secular name is thought to have been Mikhail, in the late 15th century, Macarius became a monk at the St. Paphnutius Monastery in Borovsk, where he would serve as a reader, subdeacon, deacon, and priest. It was here that Macarius mastered the art of icon painting and he is also known to have been a firm supporter of Joseph Volotsky and his disciples. In 1523, Metropolitan Daniel raised Macarius to the rank of archmandrite of a monastery in Mozhaisk and it was there that Macarius became acquainted with the Grand Prince of Moscow, Vasili III. He was one of a few clerics who supported Vasili IIIs divorce from the barren Solomonia Saburova, in 1526, Macarius was appointed Archbishop of Novgorod, where he conducted pro-Muscovite policies. In 1533 and again in 1535, he sent the monk Ilia and others on work among the Finno-Ugric peoples along the Neva, Lakes Ladoga and Onega. In 1541, Macarius and his companions finished work on the first edition of their great work and this compilation of lives of the Russian saints comprised 12 volumes arranged on monthly basis. He is also credited with beginning the Stepennaia Kniga which traced Ivan the Terribles lineage back to a brother of Caesar Augustus named Prus. He is also said to have painted the icons in the iconostasis of the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom in Novgorod. Having secured the support of powerful Prince Andrey Shuisky, Macarius was elected Metropolitan of Moscow, during Ivan IVs nonage and Shuiskys regency, Macariuss relations with the Boyar Duma gradually worsened due to his constant grief over the disgrace of courtiers and church dignitaries. His independent-mindedness induced a number of attempts to dislodge him, in the summer of 1544, Macarius escaped a sure death in the fire raging in the Moscow Kremlin. Three years later, he took part in removing Ivans maternal relatives, upon becoming one of the closest advisers of Ivan the Terrible, Macarius arranged his coronation on January 16,1547. That same year, he blessed the marriage with Anastasia Zakharyina-Yuriyeva. Macarius was a participant at the zemsky sobors of 1547,1549. During the synod of 1542, Macarius achieved the excommunication of Maximus the Greeks associate Isaac Sobaka. Curiously enough, Macarius would later correspond with the exiled Maximus the Greek and include some of his essays in his the Great Menaion Reader, rejecting, however, during Stoglav and other such synods, Macarius carried out canonization of 39 all-Russian saints. In 1551, Macarius convened the so-called Stoglavi Sobor and he also blessed the Russian army before its departure to Kazan in 1552
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Isaiah
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Isaiah was the 8th century BCE Jewish prophet who gave his name to the Book of Isaiah. The exact relationship between the Book of Isaiah and any such historical Isaiah is complicated, jews and Christians consider the Book of Isaiah a part of their Biblical canon, he is the first listed of the Neviim Aharonim, the latter prophets. Muslims consider Isaiah a prophet mentioned in Muslim exegesis of canonical scriptures, the first verse of the Book of Isaiah states that Isaiah prophesied during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, the kings of Judah. Uzziahs reign was 52 years in the middle of the 8th century BCE, Isaiah lived until the fourteenth year of Hezekiahs reign, and may have been contemporary for some years with Manasseh. Thus Isaiah may have prophesied for as long as 64 years, another interpretation, holds that it was simply an honorary title is likely. They had two sons, naming one Shear-Yashuv, meaning A remnant shall return and the younger, Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, meaning, Spoil quickly, soon after this, Shalmaneser V determined to subdue the kingdom of Israel, Samaria was taken and destroyed. This led the king of Assyria to threaten the king of Judah, Sennacherib led a powerful army into Judah. Hezekiah was reduced to despair, and submitted to the Assyrians, but after a brief interval war broke out again. Again Sennacherib led an army into Judah, one detachment of which threatened Jerusalem, Isaiah on that occasion encouraged Hezekiah to resist the Assyrians, whereupon Sennacherib sent a threatening letter to Hezekiah, which he spread before the LORD. Whom hast thou taunted and blasphemed, and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice. Yea, thou hast lifted up thine eyes on high, even against the Holy One of Israel, according to the account in 2 Kings 19 the judgment of God now fell on the Assyrian army and wiped out 185,000 of its men. Like Xerxes in Greece, Sennacherib never recovered from the shock of the disaster in Judah and he made no more expeditions against either the Southern Levant or Egypt. The remaining years of Hezekiahs reign were peaceful, Isaiah probably lived to its close, and possibly into the reign of Manasseh, but the time and manner of his death are not specified in either the Bible or other primary sources. The Talmud says that he suffered martyrdom by being sawn in two under the orders of Manasseh, according to rabbinic Literature, Isaiah was the maternal grandfather of Manasseh. Some writers assert that Isaiah was a vegetarian, on the basis of passages in the Book of Isaiah that extol nonviolence and reverence for life, such as Isaiah 1,11,11, 6-9,65,25, and 66,3. Some of these refer to the vegetarian Isaiah, the notorious vegetarian Isaiah, and Isaiah. Gregory of Nyssa, believed that the Prophet Isaiah knew more perfectly than all others the mystery of the religion of the Gospel. Of specific note are the songs of the Suffering Servant which Christians say are a direct revelation of the nature, purpose
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Joseph (Genesis)
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Joseph is an important figure in the Bibles Book of Genesis and also in the Quran as well as the Book of Mormon. In Rabbinic tradition Joseph is considered the ancestor of another Messiah called Mashiach ben Yosef and he will wage war against the evil forces alongside Mashiach ben David and die in combat with the enemies of God and Israel. Joseph, son of Jacob and Rachel, lived in the land of Canaan with ten half-brothers, one full brother and he was Rachels firstborn and Jacobs eleventh son. Of all the sons, Joseph was preferred by his father, when Joseph was seventeen years old he had two dreams that made his brothers plot his demise. In the first dream, Joseph and his brothers gathered bundles of grain, in the second dream, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowed to Joseph himself. These dreams, implying his supremacy, angered his brothers, unaware of this secondary intention, the others obeyed his first. Upon imprisoning Joseph, the brothers saw a caravan carrying spices and perfumes to Egypt. Thereafter the guilty brothers painted goats blood on Josephs coat and showed it to Jacob, ultimately, Joseph was sold to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaohs guard. Later, Joseph became Potiphars personal servant, and subsequently his households superintendent, here, Potiphars wife Zuleika tried to seduce Joseph, which he refused. Angered by his running away from her, she made an accusation of rape. Joseph requested the cup-bearer to mention him to Pharaoh and secure his release from prison, after two more years, the Pharaoh dreamt of seven lean cows which devoured seven fat cows, and of seven withered ears of grain which devoured seven fat ears. When the Pharaohs advisers failed to interpret dreams, the cup-bearer remembered Joseph. He interpreted the dream as seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine, following the prediction, Joseph became Vizier, under the name of Zaphnath-Paaneah, and was given Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah, priest of On, to be his wife. During the seven years of abundance, Joseph ensured that the storehouses were full, in the sixth year, Asenath bore two children to Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim. When the famine came, it was so severe that people from surrounding nations came to Egypt to buy bread, the narrative also indicates that they went straight to Joseph or were directed to him, even by the Pharaoh himself. This mandate lasted until the days of Moses, in the second year of famine, Josephs half brothers were sent to Egypt to buy goods. After questioning them, he accused them of being spies, after they mentioned a younger brother at home, the Vizier demanded that he be brought to Egypt as a demonstration of their veracity. This was Josephs full brother, Benjamin, Joseph placed his brothers in prison for three days
27.
Pharaoh
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The word pharaoh ultimately derive from the Egyptian compound pr-ˤ3 great house, written with the two biliteral hieroglyphs pr house and ˤ3 column, here meaning great or high. It was used only in larger phrases such as smr pr-ˤ3 Courtier of the High House, with specific reference to the buildings of the court or palace. From the twelfth dynasty onward, the word appears in a wish formula Great House, may it live, prosper, and be in health, but again only with reference to the royal palace and not the person. During the reign of Thutmose III in the New Kingdom, after the rule of the Hyksos during the Second Intermediate Period. During the eighteenth dynasty the title pharaoh was employed as a designation of the ruler. From the nineteenth dynasty onward pr-ˤ3 on its own was used as regularly as hm. f, the term, therefore, evolved from a word specifically referring to a building to a respectful designation for the ruler, particularly by the twenty-second dynasty and twenty-third dynasty. For instance, the first dated appearance of the pharaoh being attached to a rulers name occurs in Year 17 of Siamun on a fragment from the Karnak Priestly Annals. Here, an induction of an individual to the Amun priesthood is dated specifically to the reign of Pharaoh Siamun and this new practice was continued under his successor Psusennes II and the twenty-second dynasty kings. Shoshenq I was the successor of Siamun. Meanwhile, the old custom of referring to the sovereign simply as pr-ˤ3 continued in traditional Egyptian narratives, by this time, the Late Egyptian word is reconstructed to have been pronounced *par-ʕoʔ whence Herodotus derived the name of one of the Egyptian kings, Φερων. In the Bible, the title also occurs as פרעה, from that, Septuagint φαραώ pharaō and then Late Latin pharaō, both -n stem nouns. The Quran likewise spells it فرعون firawn with n, interestingly, the Arabic combines the original pharyngeal ayin sound from Egyptian, along with the -n ending from Greek. English at first spelt it Pharao, but the King James Bible revived Pharaoh with h from the Hebrew, meanwhile in Egypt itself, *par-ʕoʔ evolved into Sahidic Coptic ⲡⲣ̅ⲣⲟ prro and then rro. Scepters and staves were a sign of authority in ancient Egypt. One of the earliest royal scepters was discovered in the tomb of Khasekhemwy in Abydos, kings were also known to carry a staff, and Pharaoh Anedjib is shown on stone vessels carrying a so-called mks-staff. The scepter with the longest history seems to be the heqa-scepter, the earliest examples of this piece of regalia dates to pre-dynastic times. A scepter was found in a tomb at Abydos that dates to the late Naqada period, another scepter associated with the king is the was-scepter. This is a long staff mounted with an animal head, the earliest known depictions of the was-scepter date to the first dynasty
28.
Samson
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Samson is sometimes considered to be an Israelite version of the popular Middle Eastern Heracles figure. However, if Samsons long hair was cut, he would lose his strength, in some Jewish traditions, Samson is believed to have been buried in Tel Tzora in Israel overlooking the Sorek valley. There reside two large gravestones of Samson and his father Manoah and it is located between the cities of Zorah and Eshtaol. Samson is said to have lived during a time when the Hebrew Bible suggests God was disciplining the Israelites by giving them into the hand of the Philistines, Manoah was an Israelite from Zorah, from the family of the Danites, and his wife had been unable to conceive. The Angel of the Lord appeared to Manoahs wife and proclaimed that the couple would soon have a son, the Angel of the Lord stated that Manoahs wife was to abstain from all alcoholic beverages, and her promised child was not to shave or cut his hair. He was to be a Nazirite from birth, the wife believed the Angel of the Lord, her husband was not present, so he prayed and asked God to send the messenger once again to teach them how to raise the boy who was going to be born. After the Angel of the Lord returned, Manoah asked him his name, Manoah then prepared a sacrifice, but the Angel of the Lord would only allow it to be for God. He touched it with his staff, miraculously engulfing it in flames and this was such dramatic evidence of the nature of the Messenger that Manoah feared for his life, since it was said that no one could live after seeing God. However, his wife convinced him that, if God planned to slay them, in due time, their son Samson was born, and he was raised according to the provisions. When he was an adult, Samson left the hills of his people to see the cities of the Philistines. He fell in love with a Philistine woman from Timnah, whom he decided to marry, ignoring the objections of his parents, in the development of the narrative, the intended marriage was shown to be part of Gods plan to strike at the Philistines. According to the account, Samson was repeatedly seized by the Spirit of the Lord. The first instance of this is seen when Samson was on his way to ask for the Philistine womans hand in marriage and he simply grabbed it and ripped it apart, the spirit of God divinely empowering him. However, Samson kept it a secret, not even mentioning the miracle to his parents and he arrived at the Philistines house and became betrothed to her. He returned home, then back to Timnah some time later for the wedding. On his way, Samson saw that bees had nested in the carcass of the lion and he ate a handful of the honey and gave some to his parents. At the wedding feast, Samson told a riddle to his thirty groomsmen, if they could solve it, he would give them thirty pieces of fine linen and garments, but if they could not solve it, they would give him thirty pieces of fine linen and garments. The riddle was an account of two encounters with the lion, at which only he was present, The Philistines were infuriated by the riddle
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Solomon
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Solomon, also called Jedidiah, was, according to the Bible, Quran, hadith and Hidden Words a fabulously wealthy and wise king of Israel and a son of David, the previous king of Israel. The conventional dates of Solomons reign are circa 970 to 931 BC and he is described as the third king of the United Monarchy, which would break apart into the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah shortly after his death. Following the split, his descendants ruled over Judah alone. According to the Talmud, Solomon is one of the 48 prophets, in the Quran, he is considered a major prophet, and Muslims generally refer to him by the Arabic variant Sulayman, son of David. Solomon was, according to the Quran, a king of ancient Israel as well as the son of David, the Hebrew Bible credits him as the builder of the First Temple in Jerusalem. It portrays him as great in wisdom, wealth, and power any of the previous kings of the country. His sins included idolatry, marrying foreign women, and ultimately turning away from Yahweh, Solomon is the subject of many other later references and legends, most notably in the 1st-century apocryphal work known as the Testament of Solomon. Solomon was born in Jerusalem, the second child of David and his wife Bathsheba. The first child, a son conceived adulterously during Uriahs lifetime, had died before Solomon was conceived as a punishment on account of the death of Uriah by Davids order. Solomon had three named full brothers through Bathsheba, Nathan, Shammua, and Shobab, besides six known older half-brothers through as many mothers, according to the First Book of Kings, when David was old, he could not get warm. So they sought a young woman throughout all the territory of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunammite. The young woman was very beautiful, and she was of service to the king and attended to him, while David was in this state, court factions were maneuvering for power. Solomon greatly expanded his military strength, especially the cavalry and chariot arms and he founded numerous colonies, some of which doubled as trading posts and military outposts. Trade relationships were a focus of his administration, Solomon is considered the most wealthy of the Israelite kings named in the Bible. Solomon also built the First Temple, beginning in the year of his reign. Solomon was the Biblical king most famous for his wisdom, in 1 Kings he sacrificed to God and prayed for wisdom. God personally answered his prayer, promising him great wisdom because he did not ask for self-serving rewards like long life or the death of his enemies. Perhaps the best known story of his wisdom is the Judgment of Solomon, Solomon easily resolved the dispute by commanding the child to be cut in half and shared between the two
30.
Mstislav Mstislavich
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Mstislav Mstislavich the Bold was one of the most popular and active princes of Kievan Rus in the decades preceding the Mongol invasion of Rus. He was the grandfather of prince Leo of Galicia, who became Grand Prince of Kiev. He was the son of Mstislav the Brave of Smolensk by a princess of Ryazan, in 1193 and 1203, his bravery in the Kypchak wars brought him fame all over Kievan Rus. At that time, he married a daughter of Kypchak Khan Kotian, in 1209 he was mentioned as a ruler of Toropets. A year later, he came and took the Novgorodian throne, on his way to Novgorod, Mstislav delivered the key town of Torzhok from a siege laid to it by Vsevolod III of Vladimir. He led two successful Novgorodian campaigns against the Chudes in 1212 and 1214, in 1215, he expelled Vsevolod IV from Kiev and elevated his uncle Mstislav Romanovich to the throne. In 1216, Mstislav mustered a large coalition of princes of Rus which defeated Vladimir-Suzdal on the Lipitsa River, after that he installed his ally Konstantin of Rostov as Grand Prince of Vladimir and married his own daughter to Yaroslav of Vladimir, who had fortified himself in Torzhok. In the meantime, his enemies had him deposed in Novgorod. In 1219, he concluded peace with his rival, Danylo of Halych. In 1223, Mstislav joined a coalition of perhaps 18 princes and he managed to escape by cutting loose the boats on the Dnieper River so he could not be pursued. Mstislav reigned in Halych until 1227, when boyar intrigues constrained him to leave the city to his son-in-law, thereupon he retired to Torchesk, where he died in 1228
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Vladimir, Russia
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Vladimir is a city and the administrative center of Vladimir Oblast, Russia, located on the Klyazma River,200 kilometers to the east of Moscow. It is served by a railway and the M7 motorway, Vladimir was one of the medieval capitals of Russia, with significant buildings surviving from the 12th century. Two of its Russian Orthodox cathedrals, a monastery, and associated buildings have been designated as among the White Monuments of Vladimir and Suzdal, in the past, the city was also known as Vladimir-on-Klyazma and Vladimir-Zalessky, to distinguish it from another Vladimir in Volhynia. Traditionally, the date of Vladimir has been acknowledged as 1108. This view attributes the founding of the city, and its name, to Vladimir Monomakh and it is named there as Volodymyr. On the 17th centuries maps, it was identified as Wolodimer, being established long after the city of Volodymyr in Volhynia, initially it was named Vladimir-on-Klyazma. In 1958, the 850th anniversary of the city foundation was celebrated, in the 1990s, a new opinion developed that the city is older than this. The neighboring town of Suzdal, for instance, was mentioned in 1024 and its 12th-century inhabitants alluded to Vladimir as a young town and treated its rulers with arrogance. In the words of a chronicle, they said that the people of Vladimir were their kholops. In the seniority conflicts of the 12th and early 13th centuries, Vladimir was repeatedly described as a young town compared to Suzdal, nevertheless, the Charter of Vladimir, the basic law of the city passed in 2005, explicitly mentions 990 as the date of the citys foundation. The citys most historically significant events occurred after the turn of the 12th century, under Dolgorukys son, Andrey Bogolyubsky, the city became the center of the Vladimir-Suzdal Principality. It had a Golden Age, which lasted until the Mongol invasion of Rus in 1237, during this time, Vladimir enjoyed immense growth and prosperity. Andrey oversaw the building of the citys Golden Gates and the Dormition Cathedral, in 1164, Andrey attempted to establish a new metropolitanate in Vladimir, separate from that of Kiev. He was rebuffed by the Patriarch of Constantinople, scores of Russian, German, and Georgian masons worked on Vladimirs white stone cathedrals, monastery, towers, and palaces. Unlike any other buildings, their exterior was elaborately carved with high relief stone sculptures. Only three of these edifices stand today, the Dormition Cathedral, the Cathedral of Saint Demetrius, and they are included among the White Monuments of Vladimir and Suzdal, designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. During Andreys reign, a palace in Bogolyubovo was built, as well as the world-famous Church of the Intercession on the Nerl. Andrey was assassinated at his palace at Bogolyubovo in 1175, Vladimir was besieged by the Mongol-Tatars of the Golden Horde under Batu Khan
32.
Knyaz
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The female form transliterated from Bulgarian and Russian is knyaginya, kniahynia in Ukrainian, kneginja in Slovene, Croatian and Serbian. In Russian, the daughter of a knyaz is knyazhna, in Ukrainian is kniazivna, in Russian, the son of a knyaz is knyazhich. The title is pronounced and written similarly in different European languages, in Croatian, Bosnian and West Slavic languages, such as Polish, the word has later come to denote lord, and in Czech, Polish and Slovak also came to mean priest as well as duke. In Sorbian it means simply Mister, today the term knez is still used as the most common translation of prince in Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian literature. Knez is also found as a surname in former Yugoslavia, in Finnish knyaz is translated more like the word ruhtinas. Ruhtinas comes from Proto-Germanic word druhtinaz, what can be translated as warlord, in Finland tsar was officially called as suuriruhtinas after the Grand Principality of Finland. Suuriruhtinas in English means grand prince, in Russian velikiy knyaz, the meaning of the term changed over the course of history. Initially the term was used to denote the chieftain of a tribe, later, with the development of feudal statehood, it became the title of a ruler of a state, and among East Slavs, for example, of Kievan Rus. In medieval Latin sources the title was rendered as either rex or dux, in Bulgaria, Simeon took the title of tsar in 913. In Kievan Rus, as the degree of centralization grew, the acquired the title Velikii Knyaz. He ruled a Velikoe Knyazivstvo, while a ruler of its vassal constituent was called udelny knyaz or simply knyaz, as noted above, the title knyaz or kniaz became a hereditary noble title in the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Following the union of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, notable holders of the title kniaź include Jeremi Wiśniowiecki. As the Tsardom of Russia gained dominion over much of former Kievan Rus, from the mid-18th century onwards, the title Velikii Kniaz was revived to refer to sons and grandsons of Russian Emperors. See titles for Tsars family for details, Kniaz continued as a hereditary title of Russian nobility patrilineally descended from Rurik or Gediminas. Members of Rurikid or Gedyminid families were called princes when they ruled tiny quasi-sovereign medieval principalities, after their demesnes were absorbed by Muscovy, they settled at the Moscow court and were authorised to continue with their princely titles. After 1801, with the incorporation of Georgia into the Russian Empire, similarly, many petty Tatar nobles asserted their right to style themselves kniazes because they descended from Genghis Khan. See also Velikiy Knyaz article for more details, finally, within the Russian Empire of 1809-1917, Finland was officially called Grand Principality of Finland. In the 19th century, the Serbian term knez and the Bulgarian term knyaz were revived to denote semi-independent rulers of countries, such as Alexander Karađorđević
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Veliky Novgorod
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It is situated on the M10 federal highway connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg. The city lies along the Volkhov River just downstream from its outflow from Lake Ilmen, UNESCO recognized Novgorod as a World Heritage Site in 1992. At its peak during the 14th century, the city was the capital of the Novgorod Republic, the Charter of Veliky Novgorod recognizes 859 as the year when the city was first mentioned. Archaeological dating is fairly easy and accurate to within 15–25 years, as the streets were paved with wood, and most of the houses made of wood, allowing tree ring dating. The Varangian name of the city Holmgård/Holmgard is mentioned in Norse Sagas as existing at a yet earlier stage, originally, Holmgård referred only to the stronghold southeast of the present-day city, Rurikovo Gorodische. First mention of this Nordic or Germanic etymology to the name of the city of Novgorod occurs in the 10th-century policy manual De Administrando Imperio by Byzantine emperor Constantine VII, in 882, Ruriks successor, Oleg of Novgorod, conquered Kiev and founded the state of Kievan Rus. Novgorods size as well as its political, economic, and cultural influence made it the second most important city in Kievan Rus, according to a custom, the elder son and heir of the ruling Kievan monarch was sent to rule Novgorod even as a minor. When the ruling monarch had no son, Novgorod was governed by posadniks, such as the legendary Gostomysl, Dobrynya, Konstantin. Of all their princes, Novgorodians most cherished the memory of Yaroslav the Wise and his son, Vladimir, sponsored construction of the great St. Sophia Cathedral, more accurately translated as the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom, which stands to this day. In Norse sagas the city is mentioned as the capital of Gardariki, four Viking kings—Olaf I of Norway, Olaf II of Norway, Magnus I of Norway, and Harald Hardrada—sought refuge in Novgorod from enemies at home. No more than a few decades after the 1030 death and subsequent canonization of Olaf II of Norway, the town of Visby in Gotland functioned as the leading trading center in the Baltic before the Hansa League. At Novgorod in 1080, Visby merchants established a trading post which they named Gutagard, later, in the first half of the 13th century, merchants from northern Germany also established their own trading station in Novgorod, known as Peterhof. At about the time, in 1229, German merchants at Novgorod were granted certain privileges. In 1136, the Novgorodians dismissed their prince Vsevolod Mstislavich, the year is seen as the traditional beginning of the Novgorod Republic. One of the most important local figures in Novgorod was the posadnik, or mayor, the tysyatsky, or thousandman, originally the head of the town militia but later a commercial and judicial official, was also elected by the Veche. Another important local official was the Archbishop of Novgorod who shared power with the boyars, archbishops were elected by the Veche or by the drawing of lots, and after their election, were sent to the metropolitan for consecration. While a basic outline of the officials and the Veche can be drawn up. The boyars and the archbishop ruled the city together, although where one officials power ended, throughout the Middle Ages, the city thrived culturally
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Izhora (river)
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The Izhora, also known as the Inger River, is a left tributary of the Neva River on its run through Ingria in northwestern Russia from Lake Ladoga to Gulf of Finland. The Izhora flows through Gatchinsky and Tosnensky Districts of Leningrad Oblast as well as through Pushkinsky and Kolpinsky Districts of the city of Saint Petersburg. The settlement of Ust-Izhora is situated at the confluence of Izhora and Neva, the towns of Kommunar and Kolpino are located on the Izhora as well. The river is noted as the farthest Swedish forces ever reached between the Viking Age and the Time of Troubles, the calculated length of the Izhora is 76 kilometres, and the area of its drainage basin is 1,000 square kilometres. The river draws its water mainly from groundwater springs, snow melt. The river has an underground water supply in both summer and winter, never drying up or freezing through. The source of the Izhora is located at the village of Skvoritsy, the Izhora flows to the east, passes at the northern outskirts of Gatchina, and east of Kommunar enters Tosnensky District. There, for a stretch it makes the border between Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast, returns to the oblast and gradually turns north. In Kolpino, the Izhora enters the city of Saint Petersburg. There, it flow north and joins the Neva in the settlement of Ust-Izhora, the drainage basin of the Izhora includes the northern parts of Gatchinsky and Tosnensky Districts, as well as some areas within Saint Petersburg
35.
Neva River
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The Neva is a river in northwestern Russia flowing from Lake Ladoga through the western part of Leningrad Oblast to the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland. Despite its modest length of 74 kilometres, it is the fourth largest river in Europe in terms of average discharge, the Neva is the only river flowing from Lake Ladoga. It flows through the city of Saint Petersburg, three towns of Shlisselburg, Kirovsk and Otradnoye, and dozens of settlements. The river is navigable throughout and is part of the Volga–Baltic Waterway and White Sea – Baltic Canal. There are at least three versions of the origin of the name Neva, from the ancient Finnish name of Lake Ladoga, from the Finnish, neva meaning swamp, or from the Swedish, ny – new river. Modern names for the distributaries of the delta were settled only by the end of the 18th century. In the Paleozoic, 300–400 million years ago, the territory of the modern delta of the Neva River was covered by a sea. Modern relief was formed as a result of glacier activity and its retreat formed the Littorina Sea, the water level of which was some 7 to 9 metres higher than the present level of the Baltic Sea. Then, the Tosna River was flowing in the bed of the Neva. In the north of the Karelian Isthmus, the Littorina Sea united by a strait with Lake Ladoga. The Mga River then flowed to the east, into Lake Ladoga, near the source of the Neva River. Near the modern Lake Ladoga, land rose faster, and a reservoir was formed. Its water level began to rise, eventually flooded the valley of Mga, the Ivanovo rapids of the modern Neva were created in the breakthrough area. So about 2000 BC the Neva was created with its tributaries Tosna, according to some newer data, it happened at 1410–1250 BC making the Neva a rather young river. The valley of Neva is formed by glacial and post-glacial sediments, the delta of Neva was formed at that time, which is actually pseudodelta, as it was formed not by accumulation of river material but by plunging into the past sediments. The Neva flows out of Lake Ladoga near Shlisselburg, flows through the Neva Lowland and it has a length of 74 kilometres, and the shortest distance from the source to the mouth is 45 kilometres. The river banks are low and steep, on average about 3 to 6 metres and 2 to 3 metres at the mouth. There are three turns, the Ivanovskye rapids, at Nevsky Forest Park of the Ust-Slavyanka region and near the Smolny Institute
36.
Swedes
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Swedes are a Germanic ethnic group native to Sweden. They mostly inhabit Sweden and the other Nordic countries, in particular Finland, with a substantial diaspora in other countries, the English term Swede has been attested in English since the late 16th century and is of Middle Dutch or Middle Low German origin. The term is believed to have derived from the Proto-Indo-European reflexive pronominal root, *se. The word must have meant ones own, the same root and original meaning is found in the ethnonym of the Germanic tribe Suebi, preserved to this day in the name Swabia. Sweden enters proto-history with the Germania of Tacitus in AD98, in Germania 44,45 he mentions the Swedes as a powerful tribe with ships that had a prow in both ends. Which kings ruled these Suiones is unknown, but Norse mythology presents a line of legendary and semi-legendary kings going back to the last centuries BC. In the 6th century Jordanes named two tribes, which he calls the Suehans and the Suetidi, who lived in Scandza and these two names are both considered to refer to the same tribe. The Suehans, he says, has very fine horses just as the Thyringi tribe, the Icelander Snorri Sturluson wrote of the 6th-century Swedish king Adils that he had the finest horses of his days. The Suehans supplied black fox-skins for the Roman market, then Jordanes names the Suetidi which is considered to be the Latin form of Svitjod. He writes that the Suetidi are the tallest of men - together with the Dani, later he mentions other Scandinavian tribes as being of the same height. Originating in semi-legendary Scandza, a Gothic population had crossed the Baltic Sea before the 2nd century AD and they reaching Scythia on the coast of the Black Sea in modern Ukraine, where Goths left their archaeological traces in the Chernyakhov culture. In the 5th and 6th centuries, they divided as the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths. Crimean Gothic communities appear to have survived intact in the Crimea until the late 18th century, the Swedish Viking Age lasted roughly between the 8th and 11th centuries. During this period, it is believed that the Swedes expanded from eastern Sweden and it is believed that Swedish Vikings and Gutar mainly travelled east and south, going to Finland, the Baltic countries, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine the Black Sea and further as far as Baghdad. Their routes passed through the Dnieper down south to Constantinople, on which they did numerous raids, the Byzantine Emperor Theophilos noticed their great skills in war and invited them to serve as his personal bodyguard, known as the varangian guard. The Swedish Vikings, called Rus are also believed to be the fathers of Kievan Rus. The Arabic traveller Ibn Fadlan described these Vikings as following, I have seen the Rus as they came on their merchant journeys, each man has an axe, a sword, and a knife, and keeps each by him at all times. The swords are broad and grooved, of Frankish sort, the adventures of these Swedish Vikings are commemorated on many runestones in Sweden, such as the Greece Runestones and the Varangian Runestones
37.
Battle of the Neva
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The battle is only mentioned in Russian sources, which raises doubts about its significance or even existence. The battle was part of the medieval Swedish-Novgorodian Wars and continuum to Finnish-Novgorodian wars, the existence of the battle is only known from Russian sources. The first source to mention the battle is the Novgorod First Chronicle from the 14th century, of Novgorodians there fell, Konstantin Lugotinitch, Yuryata Pinyashchinich, Namest Drochilo, Nesdylov son of Kozhevnik, but including the people of Ladoga 20 men or less, God knows. But prince Alexander came back home with Novgorodians and people of Ladoga, all well, protected by God and Saint Sophia, a 16th-century version of the battle gave plenty of additional details, expanding the conflict to biblical proportions, but otherwise following the earlier described developments. Prince Alexander Yaroslavich was nicknamed Nevsky for his first significant victory, two years later, Alexander stalled an invasion of the Livonian Knights during the Battle on the Ice. Despite the victories, there were no Novgorodian advances further west to Finland or Estonia, there is no reference to a battle of the Neva in Swedish sources. Since the death of King John in 1222, Sweden was in a de facto state of war until 1248 when Birger Jarl managed to seize power in the kingdom. Unrest was due to the struggle between those who wanted to keep the old structure, the folkung party, and the king. Folkungs, who were mainly from Uppland, heavily resisted the centralization of power, taxation of the Swedes of Uppland and they had temporarily succeeded in deposing the king in 1229, but were forced to give in five years later, but were far from defeated yet. Uppland remained largely independent of the king, and its northern areas continued to be in folkung hands, an uneasy truce continued until 1247, when the folkung rebellion was put to an end at the Battle of Sparrsätra and its leader beheaded a year later. Furthermore, the official Sweden was on the brink of war with Norway ever since the Norwegians infamous Värmland expedition in 1225, relations improved only after the Treaty of Lödöse in 1249, which was forged by the newly empowered Birger Jarl. Before the treaty, Norway remained an ally of the folkungs, giving them refuge and providing men, in this situation, it seems unlikely that Sweden could have been able to organize a major expedition against Novgorod. The letter eloquently called for a crusade, not against Novgorod, but against Tavastians in Finland, who had allegedly started hostilities against the church. In his defunct position, the king may not have been willing or able to act, instead of Tavastia, this mixed set of interests and nationalities would have headed for the more lucrative Neva and there met its fate at the hands of Alexander. In the possible aftermath of the battle, the King of Norway approached his Swedish counterpart for peace talks in 1241. Some historians have suggested that the Swedish army was already under the command of the very young Birger Jarl, eight years before his appointment to the position of jarl. All in all, the first known Swedish military expedition against Novgorod after the events at the Neva took place in 1256, following folkungs demise, peace with Norway and conquest of Finland. If the battle of the Neva had any consequences, it was in Swedens determination to take over Finland first before attempting to proceed further east
38.
Mongol invasion of Rus'
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As part of the Mongol invasion of Europe, the Mongol Empire invaded Kievan Rus in the 13th century, destroying numerous cities, including Ryazan, Kolomna, Moscow, Vladimir, and Kiev. The campaign was heralded by the Battle of the Kalka River in May 1223, a full-scale invasion of Rus by Batu Khan followed, from 1237 to 1240. The invasion was ended by the Mongol succession process upon the death of Ögedei Khan, all Rus principalities were forced to submit to Mongol rule and became part of the Golden Horde empire, some of which lasted until 1480. As it was undergoing fragmentation, Kievan Rus faced the unexpected eruption of a foreign foe coming from the mysterious regions of the Far East. For our sins, writes the Rus chronicler of the time, no one knew their origin or whence they came, or what religion they practiced. That is known only to God, and perhaps to wise men learned in books, the princes of Rus first heard of the coming Mongol warriors from the nomadic Cumans. In response to call, Mstislav the Bold and Mstislav Romanovich the Old joined forces and set out eastward to meet the foe. In the Secret History of the Mongols, the reference to this early battle is, Then he sent Dorbei the Fierce off against the city of Merv. He sent Subetei the Brave off to war in the North where he defeated eleven kingdoms and tribes, crossing the Volga and Ural Rivers, finally going to war with Kiev. The vast Mongol hordes of around 35,000 mounted archers, commanded by Batu Khan and Subutai, crossed the Volga River and it took them a year to extinguish the resistance of the Volga Bulgarians, the Cumans-Kipchaks, and the Alani. In November 1237, Batu Khan sent his envoys to the court of Yuri II of Vladimir, a month later, the hordes besieged Ryazan. After six days of battle, the city was totally annihilated. Alarmed by the news, Yuri II sent his sons to detain the invaders, having burnt down Kolomna and Moscow, the horde laid siege to Vladimir on February 4,1238. Three days later, the capital of Vladimir-Suzdal was taken and burnt to the ground, the royal family perished in the fire, while the grand prince retreated northward. Crossing the Volga, he mustered a new army, which was annihilated by the Mongols in the Battle of the Sit River on March 4. Chinese siege engines were used by the Mongols under Tului to raze the walls of Russian cities, the most difficult to take was the small town of Kozelsk, whose boy-prince Vasily, son of Titus, and inhabitants resisted the Mongols for seven weeks, killing 4,000. As the story goes, at the news of the Mongol approach, the town of Kitezh with all its inhabitants was submerged into a lake. The only major cities to escape destruction were Novgorod and Pskov, the Mongols were advancing on Novgorod but unexpectedly turned back at the site mentioned as Ignach Cross, of which the exact location is not known
39.
Boyar
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The rank has lived on as a surname in Russia, Ukraine and Romania, and also in Finland, where it is spelled Pajari. Also known as bolyar, the various names in other languages include Bulgarian, боляр or болярин, Ukrainian, буй or боярин, Russian, боя́рин. Multiple different derivation theories of the word have been suggested by scholars and linguists, such as it having possible roots from old Turkic, bai and är. Another possible etymology of the term it may come from the Romanian word boi, the title entered Old Russian as быля. It was probably transformed through boilar or bilyar to bolyar and bolyarin, a member of the nobility during the First Bulgarian Empire was called a boila, while in the Second Bulgarian Empire, the corresponding title became bolyar or bolyarin. Bolyar, as well as its predecessor, boila, was a hereditary title, the Bulgarian bolyars were divided into veliki and malki. Presently in Bulgaria, the word bolyari is used as a nickname for the inhabitants of Veliko Tarnovo—once the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire. In medieval Serbia, the rank of the Boyars was equivalent to the rank of the Baron, meaning free warrior, with the rule of the Ottoman Empire after 1450, the Ottoman as well as the Austro-Hungarian terms exchanged the Serbian one. Today, it is a term representing the aristocracy. Boyars 9th - 13th centuries, wielded power through their military support of the Kievan princes. Power and prestige of many of them, however, soon came to depend almost completely on service to the state, family history of service and, to a lesser extent, land ownership. Boyars of Kievan Rus were visually similar to knights, but after the Mongol invasion. The boyars occupied the highest state offices and, through a council and they received extensive grants of land and, as members of the Boyars Duma, were the major legislators of Kievan Rus. After the Mongol invasion in the 13th century, the boyars from central and southern parts of Kievan Rus were incorporated into Lithuanian, during the 14th and 15th centuries, the boyars of Moscow had considerable influence that continued from the Muscovy period. However, starting with the reign of Ivan III, the boyars were starting to lose that influence to the tsars in Russia. Because of Ivan III’s expansionist policies, administrative changes were needed in order to ease the burden of governing Muscovy, the face of provincial rule disappeared. What is interesting about the boyars is their implied duties, because boyars were not constitutionally instituted, much of their powers and duties came from agreements signed between princes. Agreements, such as one between Ivan III and Mikhail Borisovich in 1484 showed how allegiances needed to be earned and secured, instead of the grand prince personally overseeing his lands, he had to rely on his lieutenants and close advisors to oversee day-to-day operations
40.
Norway
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The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom. Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land, until 1814, the kingdom included the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It also included Isle of Man until 1266, Shetland and Orkney until 1468, Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres and a population of 5,258,317. The country shares a long border with Sweden. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea. King Harald V of the Dano-German House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway, erna Solberg became Prime Minister in 2013, replacing Jens Stoltenberg. A constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the Parliament, the Cabinet and the Supreme Court, as determined by the 1814 Constitution, the kingdom is established as a merger of several petty kingdoms. By the traditional count from the year 872, the kingdom has existed continuously for 1,144 years, Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels, counties and municipalities. The Sámi people have an amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament. Norway maintains close ties with the European Union and the United States, the country maintains a combination of market economy and a Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system. Norway has extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the countrys gross domestic product. On a per-capita basis, Norway is the worlds largest producer of oil, the country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world on the World Bank and IMF lists. On the CIAs GDP per capita list which includes territories and some regions, from 2001 to 2006, and then again from 2009 to 2017, Norway had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world. It also has the highest inequality-adjusted ranking, Norway ranks first on the World Happiness Report, the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity and the Democracy Index. Norway has two names, Noreg in Nynorsk and Norge in Bokmål. The name Norway comes from the Old English word Norðrveg mentioned in 880, meaning way or way leading to the north. In contrasting with suðrvegar southern way for Germany, and austrvegr eastern way for the Baltic, the Anglo-Saxon of Britain also referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as Norðmanna land. This was the area of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway, and because of him
41.
Birger Jarl
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Birger Jarl, or Birger Magnusson, was a Swedish statesman, Jarl of Sweden and a member of the House of Bjelbo, who played a pivotal role in the consolidation of Sweden. Birger also led the Second Swedish Crusade, which established Swedish rule in Finland, additionally, he is traditionally attributed to have founded the Swedish capital, Stockholm around 1250. Birger used the Latin title of Dux Sweorum which in English equals Duke of Sweden, and it is known that Birger grew up and spent his adolescence in Bjälbo, Östergötland but the exact date of his birth remains uncertain and available historical sources are contradictory. Examinations of his mortal remains indicate that he was probably about 50 upon his death in 1266 which would indicate a birth around 1216. However, his father Magnus Minnesköld is assumed to have died no later than 1210 and his brothers or half-brothers — Eskil, Karl, and Bengt — were all born long before 1200, and it can therefore be assumed that they had another mother. He was also a nephew of the jarl Birger Brosa from the House of Bjelbo, the combination of this background proved to be of vital importance. During the 15 years to follow, Birger then consolidated his position and was one of the most influential men years before being formally given the title jarl in 1248 by King Eric XI. Although Birger Jarl saw many battles, some have speculated that traces of a blow in Birgers cranium might have originated from this battle. However, the original 14th-century Russian version of the battle had no information on this at all, in 1247, royal troops led by Birger at the Battle of Sparrsätra fought with Folkung forces led by pretender Holmger Knutsson, son of King Canute II. The Folkungs lost the battle and were unable to resist the central government, Holmger Knutsson fled to Gästrikland and was captured there by Birger in the following year. Quickly brought to trial, he was beheaded, in 1249, Birger succeeded in ending a decades-long period of hostilities with Norway. As a part of the Treaty of Lödöse, he managed to marry off his daughter Rikissa, then only 11 years old, to Haakon Haakonsson the Young. Presumably later that year, Birger led an expedition to Finland, later dubbed as the Second Swedish Crusade, on King Erics death in 1250, Birgers son Valdemar was elected as the new king while Birger acted as regent, holding the true power in Sweden until his death. Birger thus combined financial support from Germany with papal political support to consolidate his own position, ingeborg died in 1254 and in 1261 Birger married the widow of King Abel of Denmark, the Danish queen dowager, Matilda of Holstein. Birger died on 21 October 1266, at Jälbolung in Västergötland and his grave in Varnhem Abbey was opened in May 2002. There is a cenotaph for him at the base of the tower of Stockholm City Hall and it was originally intended that his remains be removed there, but this was never done. Several other historical structures there are named for him including the street Birger Jarlsgatan on Norrmalm. The Hotel Birger Jarl is located in Stockholms Norrmalm neighborhood and he is also the central figure of Bröllopet på Ulvåsa by Frans Hedberg
listen); 13 May 1221[1] – 14 November 1263) served as Prince of Novgorod (1236–40 and 1240-56 and 1258-1259), Grand Prince of Kiev (1236–52) and Grand Prince of Vladimir (1252–63) during some of the most difficult times in Kievan Rus' history.
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