1.
Eastern Slavic naming customs
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They are also featured in the non-Slavic Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan as a result of the expansion of Russia and the result of Russification. As with most cultures, a person has a name chosen by the parents. First names in East Slavic languages mostly originate from two sources, Orthodox church tradition and native pre-Christian Slavic lexicons, all first names are single, non-doubled. Doubled first names are a very rare foreign-influenced instance, most doubled first names are spelled with the dash. Being highly synthetic, Eastern Slavic languages treat personal names as grammatical nouns and this auxiliary stem may be identical to the word stem of the full name while most names have it derived unproductively. Most commonly, Russian philologists distinguish the forms of given names, The short name, historically also half-name, is the most simple. Some names, such as Zhanna, Mark, etc. do not possess short forms, in the latter case, one form is usually more informal than the other. Diminutive forms are produced from the name by means of various suffixes. Unlike the full name, a diminutive name carries a particular emotional attitude, depending on the nature of this attitude, nameforms can be subdivided in three broad groups, affectionate, familiar and slang. Typically formed by suffixes -еньк-, -оньк-, -ечк-, -ушк and it is often used to address children or intimate friends. Within a more official context, this form may be combined with honorific plural to address a female colleague. Colloquial diminutives are derived from short names by means of -к- suffix, expressing a highly familiar attitude, it may be considered rude or even pejorative outside of friendly context. Slang forms mostly exist for male names, being produced though suffixes -ян, -он and these suffixes give off the sense of male brotherhood once expressed by patronymic-only form of address in Soviet Union. Originating in criminal communities, these came into wide usage in Russia in the 1990s. During the days of revolutionary enthusiasm, as part of the campaign to rid Russia of bourgeois culture, there was a drive to invent new, as a result, a large number of Soviet children were given unusual or atypical names. The patronymic name is based on the first name of the father and is written in all legal, if used with the first name, the patronymic always follows it. The patronymic is formed by a combination of the fathers name, the suffix -ович is used for son, suffix -овна - for daughter. For example, if the name was Иван, then the patronymic will be Иванович for a son
2.
Tsesarevich
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Tsesarevich was the title of the heir apparent or presumptive in the Russian Empire. It either preceded or replaced the name and patronymic. Normally, there was only one tsesarevich at a time, the title came to be used invariably in tandem with the formal style Successor, as in His Imperial Highness the Successor Tsesarevich and Grand Duke. The wife of the Tsesarevich was the Tsesarevna, in 1721 Peter the Great discontinued use of tsar as his main title, and adopted that of imperator, whereupon the title of tsarevich fell into desuetude. The Emperors daughters were henceforth referred to as tsesarevna, in 1762, upon succeeding to the imperial throne, Peter III accorded his only son Paul Petrovich the novel title of tsesarevich, he being the first of nine Romanov heirs who would bear it. However, at the time the title was conferred, Paul was recognized as Peters legal son, nor would he be officially recognized as such by his mother after her usurpation of the throne. More often he was referred to by his title of grand duke. When Paul acceded to the throne in 1796, he declared his son Aleksandr Pavlovich tsesarevich. When George died in 1899, Nicholas did not confer the title upon his oldest surviving brother Michael Aleksandrovich and that son, Alexei Nikolaevich, became the Russian Empires last tsesarevich. The wife of an heir-tsesarevich bore the title Tsesarevna - Grand Duchess, in first years of Russian Empire the female heirs of Peter I of Russia bore this title - his daughters Elizabeth of Russia, Anna Petrovna and Natalia Petrovna. Not to be confused with Tsarevna for all the tsars daughters, theodore, the patron icon of the Romanov family. After claiming the Russian throne in exile in 1924 Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich of Russia designated his son, Grand Duke Vladimir Cyrillovich of Russia, until the end of the empire most people in Russia and abroad, verbally and in writing continued to refer to the Sovereign as tsar. Perhaps for that reason the title of tsesarevich was less used to refer to the heir apparent than either tsarevich or grand duke. List of heirs to the Russian throne
3.
Peterhof Palace
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The Peterhof Palace is a series of palaces and gardens located in Petergof, Saint Petersburg, Russia, laid out on the orders of Peter the Great. These palaces and gardens are sometimes referred as the Russian Versailles, the palace-ensemble along with the city center is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The dominant natural feature of Peterhof is a sixteen-metre-high bluff lying less than a hundred metres from the shore. The so-called Lower Gardens, at 1.02 km² comprising the part of Peterhofs land area, are confined between this bluff and the shore, stretching east and west for roughly 200 metres. The majority of Peterhofs fountains are contained here, as are several small palaces, East of the Lower Gardens lies the Alexandria Park with 19th-century Gothic Revival structures such as the Kapella. Atop the bluff, near the middle of the Lower Gardens, behind of it are the comparatively small Upper Gardens. Upon the bluffs face below the Palace is the Grand Cascade and this and the Grand Palace are the centrepiece of the entire complex. At its foot begins the Sea Channel, one of the most extensive waterworks of the Baroque period, the Grand Cascade is modelled on one constructed for Louis XIV at his Château de Marly, which is likewise memorialised in one of the parks outbuildings. At the centre of the cascade is a grotto with two stories, faced inside and out with hewn brown stone. It currently contains a modest museum of the fountains history, one of the exhibits is a table carrying a bowl of fruit, a replica of a similar table built under Peters direction. The table is rigged with jets of water that soak visitors when they reach for the fruit, the grotto is connected to the palace above and behind by a hidden corridor. The fountains of the Grand Cascade are located below the grotto and their waters flow into a semicircular pool, the terminus of the fountain-lined Sea Channel. In the 1730s, the large Samson Fountain was placed in this pool and it depicts the moment when Samson tears open the jaws of a lion, representing Russias victory over Sweden in the Great Northern War, and is doubly symbolic. The lion is an element of the Swedish coat of arms, from the lions mouth shoots a 20-metre-high vertical jet of water, the highest in all of Peterhof. This masterpiece by Mikhail Kozlovsky was looted by the invading Germans during the Second World War, a replica of the statue was installed in 1947. Perhaps the greatest technological achievement of Peterhof is that all of the fountains operate without the use of pumps, water is supplied from natural springs and collects in reservoirs in the Upper Gardens. The elevation difference creates the pressure that drives most of the fountains of the Lower Gardens, the Samson Fountain is supplied by a special aqueduct, over four km in length, drawing water and pressure from a high-elevation source. The expanse of the Lower Gardens is designed in the style of french formal gardens of the 17th century
4.
Russian Empire
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The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until it was overthrown by the short-lived February Revolution in 1917. One of the largest empires in history, stretching over three continents, the Russian Empire was surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires. The rise of the Russian Empire happened in association with the decline of neighboring powers, the Swedish Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Persia. It played a role in 1812–14 in defeating Napoleons ambitions to control Europe. The House of Romanov ruled the Russian Empire from 1721 until 1762, and its German-descended cadet branch, with 125.6 million subjects registered by the 1897 census, it had the third-largest population in the world at the time, after Qing China and India. Like all empires, it included a large disparity in terms of economics, ethnicity, there were numerous dissident elements, who launched numerous rebellions and assassination attempts, they were closely watched by the secret police, with thousands exiled to Siberia. Economically, the empire had an agricultural base, with low productivity on large estates worked by serfs. The economy slowly industrialized with the help of foreign investments in railways, the land was ruled by a nobility from the 10th through the 17th centuries, and subsequently by an emperor. Tsar Ivan III laid the groundwork for the empire that later emerged and he tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Golden Horde, renovated the Moscow Kremlin, and laid the foundations of the Russian state. Tsar Peter the Great fought numerous wars and expanded an already huge empire into a major European power, Catherine the Great presided over a golden age. She expanded the state by conquest, colonization and diplomacy, continuing Peter the Greats policy of modernisation along West European lines, Tsar Alexander II promoted numerous reforms, most dramatically the emancipation of all 23 million serfs in 1861. His policy in Eastern Europe involved protecting the Orthodox Christians under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and that connection by 1914 led to Russias entry into the First World War on the side of France, Britain, and Serbia, against the German, Austrian and Ottoman empires. The Russian Empire functioned as a monarchy until the Revolution of 1905. The empire collapsed during the February Revolution of 1917, largely as a result of failures in its participation in the First World War. Perhaps the latter was done to make Europe recognize Russia as more of a European country, Poland was divided in the 1790-1815 era, with much of the land and population going to Russia. Most of the 19th century growth came from adding territory in Asia, Peter I the Great introduced autocracy in Russia and played a major role in introducing his country to the European state system. However, this vast land had a population of 14 million, grain yields trailed behind those of agriculture in the West, compelling nearly the entire population to farm. Only a small percentage lived in towns, the class of kholops, close to the one of slavery, remained a major institution in Russia until 1723, when Peter I converted household kholops into house serfs, thus including them in poll taxation
5.
Ipatiev House
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Ipatiev House was a merchants house in Yekaterinburg where the former Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, his family and members of his household were executed following the Bolshevik Revolution. Its name is identical with that of the Ipatiev Monastery in Kostroma, in the 1880s, Ivan Redikortsev, an official involved in the mining industry, commissioned a two-story house to be built on the slope of a prominent hill. The length of the facade was 31 metres, in 1898, the mansion passed to Sharaviev, a gold dealer of tainted reputation. Ten years later, the house was acquired by Nikolai Nikolayevich Ipatiev, a military engineer, the Romanov family moved in on 30 April 1918 and spent 78 days at the house. Nicholas Romanov, his wife, their four daughters, their son, from early July command of the guard was taken over by Yakov Yurovsky, a senior member of the Ural Soviet. The prisoners were permitted brief daily exercise in a garden but the windows to their rooms were painted over. A high wooden fence was built around the perimeter of the house. About midnight on 16–17 July 1918 Commander Yurovsky entered the second room of Dr Botkin who was awake. Botkin was told to awaken the Imperial family and their three remaining attendants so that the party could be evacuated from Yekaterinburg. The reason given was that the White forces were nearing the city, chairs were brought for Nicholas and Alexandra at the latters request. The remainder of the party stood behind and to one side of the seated couple, after a delay Yurovsky and a party of armed men entered the basement room through the double doors. Filipp Goloshchekin, an associate of Yakov Sverdlov whom he had met in early July 1918 in Moscow. Being a military commissar of the Uralispolkom in Yekaterinburg, Goloshchekin however did not actually participate in the actual killings, three Latvians refused at the last minute to take part in the execution. Yurovsky spoke briefly to the effect that Romanov relatives had attempted to save the Imperial family, that attempt had failed. He and his squad then opened fire with pistols on the prisoners, the number of people crowded into a comparatively small area led to an inefficient and messy slaughter. The women among the prisoners had diamonds and jewelry concealed in their clothing, deflecting many of the bullets and it took between twenty and thirty minutes before all were killed. As early as 1923, the photographs of the house were disseminated in the Soviet press under the label of the last palace of the last Tsar. In 1927, the house was designated a branch of the Ural Revolution Museum and it then became an Agricultural School before taking on new life in 1938 as an Anti-Religious Museum
6.
Yekaterinburg
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At the 2010 Census, it had a population of 1,349,772. Yekaterinburg is the industrial and cultural centre of the Ural Federal District. Between 1924 and 1991, the city was named Sverdlovsk after the Communist party leader Yakov Sverdlov, Vasily Tatishchev and Georg Wilhelm de Gennin founded Yekaterinburg in 1723 and named it after the wife of Tsar Peter the Great, Yekaterina, who later became empress regnant Catherine I. The official date of the foundation is November 18,1723. It was granted town status in 1796, the city was one of Russias first industrial cities, prompted at the start of the eighteenth century by decrees from the Tsar requiring the development in Yekaterinburg of metal-working businesses. The city was built, with use of iron, to a regular square plan with iron works. These were surrounded by fortified walls, so that Yekaterinburg was at the time both a manufacturing centre and a fortress at the frontier between Europe and Asia. It therefore found itself at the heart of Russias strategy for development of the entire Ural region. With the growth in trade and the administrative importance, the ironworks became less critical. Small manufacturing and trading businesses proliferated, following the October Revolution, the family of deposed Tsar Nicholas II were sent to internal exile in Yekaterinburg where they were imprisoned in the Ipatiev House in the city. Other members of the Romanov family were killed at Alapayevsk later the same day, on July 16,1918, the Czechoslovak legions were closing on Yekaterinburg. The Bolsheviks executed the deposed imperial family, believing that the Czechoslovaks were on a mission to rescue them, the Legions arrived less than a week later and captured the city. In 1977, the Ipatiev House was demolished by order of Boris Yeltsin, Yeltsin later became the first President of Russia and represented the people at the funeral of the former Tsar in 1998. On August 24,2007, the BBC reported that Russian archaeologists had found the remains of two children of Russias last Tsar, the discoveries in 2007 are thought to be those of Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria. Archaeologist Sergei Pogorelov said bullets found at the site indicate the children had been shot. He told Russian television the newly unearthed bones belonged to two people, a young male aged roughly 10–13 and a young woman about 18–23. The Tsars remains were given a funeral in July 1998. During the 1930s, Yekaterinburg was one of several developed by the Soviet government as a centre of heavy industry
7.
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
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The Republic comprised sixteen autonomous republics, five autonomous oblasts, ten autonomous okrugs, six krais, and forty oblasts. Russians formed the largest ethnic group, the capital of the Russian SFSR was Moscow and the other major urban centers included Leningrad, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara. The Russian Soviet Republic was proclaimed on November 7,1917 as a sovereign state, the first Constitution was adopted in 1918. In 1922 the Russian SFSR signed the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR, the economy of Russia became heavily industrialized, accounting for about two-thirds of the electricity produced in the USSR. It was, by 1961, the third largest producer of petroleum due to new discoveries in the Volga-Urals region and Siberia, trailing only the United States and Saudi Arabia. In 1974, there were 475 institutes of education in the republic providing education in 47 languages to some 23,941,000 students. A network of territorially organized public-health services provided health care, the effects of market policies led to the failure of many enterprises and total instability by 1990. On June 12,1990, the Congress of Peoples Deputies adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty, on June 12,1991, Boris Yeltsin was elected the first President. On December 8,1991, heads of Russia, Ukraine, the agreement declared dissolution of the USSR by its founder states and established the Commonwealth of Independent States. On December 12, the agreement was ratified by the Russian Parliament, therefore Russian SFSR denounced the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and de facto declared Russias independence from the USSR. On December 25,1991, following the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev as president of the Soviet Union, on December 26,1991, the USSR was self-dissolved by the Soviet of Nationalities, which by that time was the only functioning house of the Supreme Soviet. After dissolution of the USSR, Russia declared that it assumed the rights and obligations of the dissolved central Soviet government, the new Russian constitution, adopted on December 12,1993 after a constitutional crisis, abolished the Soviet system of government in its entirety. Initially, the state did not have a name and wasnt recognized by neighboring countries for five months. Meanwhile, anti-Bolsheviks coined the mocking label Sovdepia for the nascent state of the Soviets of Workers, on January 25,1918 the third meeting of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets renamed the unrecognized state the Soviet Russian Republic. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on March 3,1918, on July 10,1918, the Russian Constitution of 1918 renamed the country the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. By 1918, during the Russian Civil War, several states within the former Russian Empire seceded, internationally, in 1920, the RSFSR was recognized as an independent state only by Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania in the Treaty of Tartu and by the short-lived Irish Republic. On December 30,1922, with the creation of the Soviet Union, the final Soviet name for the republic, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, was adopted in the Soviet Constitution of 1936. By that time, Soviet Russia had gained roughly the same borders of the old Tsardom of Russia before the Great Northern War of 1700
8.
Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral, Saint Petersburg
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The Peter and Paul Cathedral is a Russian Orthodox cathedral located inside the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, Russia. It is the first and oldest landmark in St. Petersburg, both the cathedral and the fortress were originally built under Peter the Great and designed by Domenico Trezzini. The cathedrals bell tower is the worlds tallest Orthodox bell tower, since the belfry is not standalone, but an integral part of the main building, the cathedral is sometimes considered the highest Orthodox Church in the world. There is another Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul Church in St. Petersburg, the current building, the first stone church in St. Petersburg, was designed by Trezzini and built between 1712 and 1733. Its gold-painted spire reaches a height of 123 metres and features at its top an angel holding a cross and this angel is one of the most important symbols of St. Petersburg. The cathedrals architecture also features a unique iconostasis, however, at St. Peter and Paul, the iconostasis rises to form a sort of tower over the sanctuary. The cathedral has a typical Flemish carillon, a gift of the Flemish city of Mechelen, the cathedral is dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul, the patron saints of the fortress. The current cathedral is the one on the site. The first, built soon after Peters founding of the city, was consecrated by Archbishop Iov of Novgorod the Great in April 1704, the cathedral was the cathedral church of the city until 1859 The current cathedral church of St. Petersburg is the Kazan Cathedral on Nevsky Prospect. The cathedral was closed in 1919 and turned into a museum in 1924 and it is still officially a museum, religious services, however, resumed in 2000. The cathedral houses the remains of almost all the Russian emperors and empresses from Peter the Great to Nicholas II and his family, among the emperors and empresses buried here was Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia for 34 years. Of the post-Petrine rulers, only Peter II and Ivan VI are not buried here, Peter II is buried in the Cathedral of Michael the Archangel in the Moscow Kremlin, Ivan VI was executed and buried in the fortress of Shlisselburg or Kholmogory. On September 28,2006,78 years after her death, Maria Feodorovna, Empress of Russia, was reinterred in the Cathedral of St Peter and Paul. Wife of Tsar Alexander III, and mother of Nicholas II, in 2005, the governments of Denmark and Russia agreed that the empresss remains should be returned to Saint Petersburg in accordance with her wish to be interred next to her husband. The bell tower is the dominant feature of cathedral and the fortress. It serves several functions as part of the structure, It is an architectural symbol and it is a part of the imperial tomb - the tombs are on the ground floor. It is a lightning rod protecting the cathedral and it is a viewing platform upon which excursions meet each hour from 12,00 till 18,00. It houses a carillon upon which concerts are periodically performed, when renovators were cleaning the angel on the spire in 1997, they found a note in a bottle left in one of the folds of the angels gown
9.
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
10.
House of Romanov
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The Romanovs achieved prominence as boyars of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, later the Tsardom of Russia. In 1613, following years of interregnum, the zemsky sobor offered the Russian crown to Mikhail Romanov and he acceded to the throne as Michael I, becoming the first Tsar of Russia from the House of Romanov. His grandson Peter I established the Russian Empire and transformed the country into a continental power through a series of wars, the direct male line of the Romanovs came to an end when Elizabeth of Russia died in 1762. After an era of crisis, the House of Holstein-Gottorp, a cadet branch of the House of Oldenburg which reigned in Denmark, ascended the throne in 1762 with Peter III. All rulers from the middle of the 18th century to the revolution of 1917 were descended from that branch, though officially known as the House of Romanov, these descendants of the Romanov and Oldenburg dynasties are sometimes referred to as Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov. In early 1917 the Romanov dynasty had 65 members,18 of whom were killed by the Bolsheviks, the remaining 47 members went into exile abroad. In 1924, Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, the senior, surviving male-line descendant of Alexander II of Russia by primogeniture, since 1991, the succession to the former Russian throne has been in dispute, largely due to disagreements over the validity of dynasts marriages. Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia claims to hold the title of empress in pretense with her child, George Mikhailovich. There is also a rival non-Romanov claim put forth by Prince Karl Emich of the House of Leiningen supported by the Monarchist Party, according to the Almanach de Gotha, the name of Russias ruling dynasty from the time of Peter III was Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov. However, the name Romanov and House of Romanov were often used in references to the Russian imperial family. The coat of arms of the Romanov boyars was included in legislation on the imperial dynasty, after the February Revolution all members of the imperial family were given the surname Romanov by special decree of the Provisional Government of Russia. Their earliest common ancestor is one Andrei Kobyla, attested around 1347 as a boyar in the service of Semyon I of Moscow, later generations assigned to Kobyla an illustrious pedigree. An 18th-century genealogy claimed that he was the son of the Prussian prince Glanda Kambila, indeed, one of the leaders of the Old Prussian rebellion of 1260–1274 against the Teutonic order was named Glande. His actual origin may have been less spectacular, not only is Kobyla Russian for mare, some of his relatives also had as nicknames the terms for horses and other domestic animals, thus suggesting descent from one of the royal equerries. One of Kobylas sons, Feodor, a member of the boyar Duma of Dmitri Donskoi, was nicknamed Koshka and his descendants took the surname Koshkin, then changed it to Zakharin, which family later split into two branches, Zakharin-Yakovlev and Zakharin-Yuriev. During the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the family became known as Yakovlev. The family fortunes soared when Romans daughter, Anastasia Zakharyina, married Ivan IV, since her husband had assumed the title of tsar, which literally means Caesar, on 16 January 1547, she was crowned the very first tsaritsa of Russia. Her mysterious death in 1560 changed Ivans character for the worse, suspecting the boyars of having poisoned his beloved, Tsar Ivan started a reign of terror against them
11.
Nicholas II of Russia
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Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, ruling from 1 November 1894 until his forced abdication on 15 March 1917. His reign saw the fall of the Russian Empire from being one of the foremost great powers of the world to economic, Soviet historiography portrayed Nicholas as a weak and incompetent leader, whose decisions led to military defeats and the deaths of millions of his subjects. The Anglo-Russian Entente, designed to counter German attempts to influence in the Middle East. Nicholas approved the Russian mobilisation on 30 July 1914, which led to Germany declaring war on Russia on 1 August 1914 and it is estimated that around 3,300,000 Russians were killed in World War I. Following the February Revolution of 1917, Nicholas abdicated on behalf of himself and his son, Nicholas, the recovered remains of the Imperial Family were finally re-interred in St. Petersburg, eighty years to the day on 17 July 1998. In 1981, Nicholas, his wife and their children were canonized as martyrs by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, located in New York City. On 15 August 2000 Nicholas and his family were canonized as passion bearers, Nicholas was born in the Alexander Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, the eldest son of Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia. He had five siblings, Alexander, George, Xenia, Michael. Nicholas often referred to his father nostalgically in letters after Alexanders death in 1894 and he was also very close to his mother, as revealed in their published letters to each other. His paternal grandparents were Emperor Alexander II and Empress Maria Alexandrovna of Russia and his maternal grandparents were King Christian IX and Queen Louise of Denmark. Nicholas was of primarily German and Danish descent, his last ethnically Russian ancestor being Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna, Nicholas was related to several monarchs in Europe. His mothers siblings included Kings Frederik VIII of Denmark and George I of Greece, Nicholas, his wife Alexandra, and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany were all first cousins of King George V of the United Kingdom. Nicholas was also a first cousin of both King Haakon VII and Queen Maud of Norway, as well as King Constantine I of Greece, Tsar Nicholas II was the first cousin-once-removed of Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich. To distinguish between them the Grand Duke was often known within the Imperial family as Nikolasha and Nicholas the Tall, while the Tsar was Nicholas the Short. In his childhood, Nicholas, his parents and siblings made annual visits to the Danish royal palaces of Fredensborg and Bernstorff to visit his grandparents, the king and queen. The visits also served as family reunions, as his mothers siblings would come from the United Kingdom, Germany. It was there in 1883, that he had a flirtation with one of his English first cousins, in 1873, Nicholas also accompanied his parents and younger brother, two-year-old George, on a two-month, semi-official visit to England. In London, Nicholas and his family stayed at Marlborough House, as guests of his Uncle Bertie and Aunt Alix, the Prince and Princess of Wales, where he was spoiled by his uncle
12.
Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse)
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Alexandra Feodorovna was Empress of Russia as the spouse of Nicholas II, the last ruler of the Russian Empire. Originally known as Alix of Hesse and by Rhine, she was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Alexandra was the last Tsarina of Russia and one of the most famous royal carriers of the haemophilia disease that descended from Queen Victoria. During his absence in the First World War in 1915-1917 she was treated by her spouse as Regent of the Empire. Alix was baptized on 1 July 1872 according to the rites of the Lutheran Church and given the names of her mother and each of her mothers four sisters, some of which were transliterated into German. Her godparents were the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Tsesarevich and Tsesarevna of Russia, Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom, The Duchess of Cambridge, and Princess Anna of Prussia. Alixs hemophiliac older brother Prince Friedrich of Hesse and by Rhine died in May 1873 after a fall when Alix was barely a year old. In November 1878, diphtheria swept through the Grand Ducal House of Hesse, Alix, Elisabeth, Alixs older sister, had been sent to visit her paternal grandmother, and thus escaped the outbreak. Alixs mother Alice tended to the children herself, rather than abandon them to doctors, Alice herself soon fell ill and died on the 17th anniversary of her fathers death,14 December 1878, when Alix was only six years old. Alix, Victoria, Irene, and Ernst survived the epidemic, Alix and her surviving siblings grew close to their British cousins, spending holidays with Queen Victoria. With her sister Princess Irene, Alix was a bridesmaid at the 1885 wedding of her godmother and maternal aunt and she was also present at her grandmothers Golden Jubilee celebrations in 1887. Alix was married late for her rank in her era, having rejected a proposal from her cousin Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale in 1890. Though Queen Victoria had intended for Alix to be Britains future queen, she relented, Nicholas and Alix had first met in 1884 at the wedding of Nicholass Uncle Sergei to Alixs sister Elisabeth in St. Petersburg. When Alix returned to Russia in 1889, they fell in love, Nicholas wrote in his diary, It is my dream to one day marry Alix H. I have loved her for a time, but more deeply and strongly since 1889 when she spent six weeks in Petersburg. For a long time, I have resisted my feeling that my dearest dream will come true, initially Nicholass father, Tsar Alexander III, refused the prospect of marriage. Alexander III and his wife, both vehemently anti-German, had no intention of permitting a match with Princess Alix and the tsesarevich, fortunately for Nicholas, Hélène also resisted, as she was Roman Catholic and her father refused to allow her to convert to Russian Orthodoxy. After appealing to the Pope, who refused to consider the marriage. The tsar, despite his anti-German sentiments, then sent emissaries to Princess Margaret of Prussia, sister of German Emperor Wilhelm II, as long as he was well, Alexander III ignored his sons demands, only relenting when his health began to fail in 1894
13.
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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Heir apparent
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An heir apparent or heiress apparent is a person who is first in line of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person. An heir presumptive, by contrast, is someone who is first in line to inherit a title, today these terms most commonly describe heirs to hereditary titles, particularly monarchies. They are also used metaphorically to indicate an anointed successor to any position of power, in France the title was le Dauphin. See crown prince for more examples and this article primarily describes the term heir apparent in a hereditary system regulated by laws of primogeniture—as opposed to cases where a monarch has a say in naming the heir. An heir presumptive, by contrast, can always be bumped down in the succession by the birth of more closely related in a legal sense to the current title-holder. The clearest example occurs in the case of a title-holder with no children, if at any time he or she were to produce children, they rank ahead of whatever more distant relative had been heir presumptive. Many legal systems assume childbirth is always possible regardless of age or health, in such circumstances a person may be, in a practical sense, the heir apparent but still, legally speaking, heir presumptive. Adelaide was 44 at the time, so pregnancy was even if unlikely. Daughters may inherit titles that descend according to male-preference primogeniture, thus, normally, even an only daughter will not be heir apparent, since at any time a brother might be born who, though younger, would assume that position. Hence, she is an heir presumptive, for example, Queen Elizabeth II was heir presumptive during the reign of her father, King George VI, because at any stage up to his death, George could have fathered a legitimate son. In a system of absolute primogeniture that disregards gender, female heirs apparent occur, several European monarchies that have adopted such systems in the last few decades furnish practical examples. Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway is heir apparent to her father, Victoria was not heir apparent from birth, but gained the status in 1980 following a change in the Swedish Act of Succession. Her younger brother Carl Philip was thus heir apparent for a few months, then, as the representative of her fathers line she would assume a place ahead of any more distant relatives. Such a situation has not to date occurred with the English or British throne, several times an heir apparent has died, however, there have been several female heirs apparent to British peerages. In one special case, however, England and Scotland had an heir apparent. William, by contrast, was to reign for life only, thus, although after Marys death William continued to reign, he had no power to beget direct heirs, and Anne became the heir apparent for the remainder of Williams reign. She eventually succeeded him as Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland, the position of an heir apparent is normally unshakable, it can be assumed they will inherit. Sometimes, however, extraordinary events—such as the death or the deposition of the parent—intervene
15.
Faith healing
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Faith healing is the ritualistic practice of prayer and gestures that are claimed to elicit divine intervention in spiritual and physical healing, especially the Christian practice. Belief in such divine intervention is derived from religious belief, claims attributed to a myriad of techniques such as prayer, divine intervention, or the ministrations of an individual healer can cure illness have been popular throughout history. Miraculous recoveries have been attributed to many techniques commonly classified as faith healing and it can involve prayer, a visit to a religious shrine, or simply a strong belief in a supreme being. Many people interpret the Bible, especially the New Testament, as teaching belief in, according to a Newsweek poll,72 percent of Americans say they believe that praying to God can cure someone, even if science says the person doesnt stand a chance. Unlike faith healing, advocates of spiritual healing make no attempt to divine intervention. The increased interest in medicine at the end of the 20th century has given rise to a parallel interest among sociologists in the relationship of religion to health. Faith healing can be classified as a spiritual, supernatural, or paranormal event, the American Cancer Society states available scientific evidence does not support claims that faith healing can actually cure physical ailments. Death, disability, and other unwanted outcomes have occurred when faith healing was elected instead of medical care for injuries or illnesses. When parents use faith healing in the place of medical care, similar results are found in adults. Regarded as a Christian belief that God heals people through the power of the Holy Spirit and it is also called supernatural healing, divine healing, and miracle healing, among other things. Healing in the Bible is often associated with the ministry of specific individuals including Elijah, Jesus, cherry views faith healing as a pathway of healing in which God uses both the natural and the supernatural to heal. Being healed has been described as a privilege of accepting Christs redemption on the cross, Pentecostal writer Wilfred Graves, Jr. views the healing of the body as a physical expression of salvation. Even those Christian writers who believe in faith healing do not all believe that ones faith presently brings about the desired healing and our faith does not effect your healing now. When you are healed rests entirely on what the purposes of the Healer are. Larry Keefauver cautions against allowing enthusiasm for healing to stir up false hopes. Just believing hard enough, long enough or strong enough will not strengthen you or prompt your healing, doing mental gymnastics to hold on to your miracle will not cause your healing to manifest now. Those who actively lay hands on others and pray them to be healed are usually aware that healing may not always follow immediately. Proponents of faith healing say it may come later, and it may not come in this life, the truth is that your healing may manifest in eternity, not in time
16.
Grigori Rasputin
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Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was a Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man who befriended the family of Tsar Nicholas II and gained considerable influence in late imperial Russia. Born to a peasant family in the Siberian village of Pokrovskoye and he has been described as a monk or as a strannik, though he held no official position in the Russian Orthodox Church. After traveling to St. Petersburg, either in 1903 or the winter of 1904-5, Rasputin captivated some church and he became a society figure, and met the Tsar in November 1905. In late 1906, Rasputin began acting as a healer for the Nicholas II and Alexandras son Alexei, at court, he was a divisive figure, seen by some Russians as a mystic, visionary, and prophet, and by others as a religious charlatan. The high point of Rasputins power was in 1915, when Nicholas II left St Petersburg to oversee Russian armies fighting World War I, as Russian defeats in the war mounted, however, both Rasputin and Alexandra became increasingly unpopular. On the night of 29-30 December 1916 Rasputin was assassinated by a group of noblemen who opposed his influence over Alexandra. Some writers have suggested that Rasputin helped to discredit the tsarist government, and thus helped to precipitate the Russian Revolution, very little about Rasputins life and influence is certain, however, as accounts have often been based on hearsay, rumor, and legend. Rasputin was born a peasant in the village of Pokrovskoye. His father, Efim, was a peasant farmer and church elder who had born in Pokrovskoye in 1842. Efim also worked as a government courier, ferrying people and goods between Tobolsk and Tyumen,6,14 The couple had seven children, all of whom died in infancy. There may have been a child, Feodosiya. After a courtship of several months, they married in February 1887, praskovya remained in Pokrovskoye throughout Rasputins later travels and rise to prominence, and remained devoted to him until his death. Building a makeshift chapel in Efims root cellar - Rasputin was still living within his fathers household at the time - the group held secret meetings there. Petersburg Theological Seminary at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, and arranged for him to travel to St. Petersburg, during this time, however, Rasputin wrote several letters to the Tsar. 69-76 Rasputin was wandering as a pilgrim in Siberia when he heard reports of Tsarevich Alexeis illness. This made it appear that Rasputin was effectively healing him, skeptics have claimed that he did so by hypnosis. His pragmatic tips included suggestions such as Dont let the doctors bother him too much, Rasputin had a considerable personal and political influence on Alexandra, and the Tsar and Tsarina considered him a man of God and a religious prophet. Alexandra came to believe that God spoke to her through Rasputin, of course, this relationship can also be viewed in the context of the very strong, traditional, age-old bond between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian state leadership. Another important factor was probably the Tsarinas German-Protestant origin and she was definitely highly fascinated by her new Orthodox outlook — the Orthodox religion puts a great deal of faith in the healing powers of prayer
17.
February Revolution
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The February Revolution, known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution was the first of two Russian revolutions in 1917. The revolution centered on Petrograd, then the Russian capital, arguably beginning on 8 March, Revolutionary activity was largely confined to the capital and its vicinity, and lasted about eight days. It involved mass demonstrations and armed clashes with police and gendarmes, on 12 March mutinous Russian Army forces sided with the revolutionaries. Three days later the result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, Russian Council of Ministers was replaced by a Russian Provisional Government under Prince Georgy Lvov. The revolution appeared to break out spontaneously, without any leadership or formal planning. Russia had been suffering from a number of economic and social problems, bread rioters primarily women in bread lines, and industrial strikers were joined on the streets by disaffected soldiers from the citys garrison. As more and more troops deserted, and with loyal troops away at the Front, in all, over 1,300 people were killed in the protests of February 1917. A number of factors contributed to the downfall of the Imperial government in the spring of 1917, different historians apply different weights to different factors, liberal historians emphasise the turmoil created by the war, whereas Marxists emphasise the inevitability of change. Rabinowitch summarizes the main long-term and short-term causes, The February 1917 revolution, despite its occurrence at the height of World War I, the roots of the February Revolution date much further back. As historian Richard Pipes writes, the incompatibility of capitalism and autocracy struck all who gave thought to the matter. The first major event of the Russian Revolution was the February Revolution, dissatisfaction of proletarians was compounded by food shortages and military failures. Widespread strikes, riots and the mutiny on the Battleship Potemkin ensued. These conditions caused much agitation among the working and professional classes. This tension erupted into revolt with the 1905 Revolution, and again under the strain of war in 1917. The revolution was provoked by Russian military failures during the First World War, the economic challenges faced due to fighting a total war also contributed. In August 1914, all supported and virtually all political deputies voted in favour of the war. The exceptions included the Bolshevik Party and specifically Vladimir Lenin who argued it was not a war fighting. The declaration of war was followed by a revival of nationalism across Russian society, nearly six million casualties—dead, wounded and missing—had been accrued by January 1917
18.
Tobolsk
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Tobolsk is a town in Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Tobol and Irtysh Rivers. It is a capital of Siberia. Situated where the River Irtysh turns from flowing westward to flowing northward and it became the seat of the newly established Siberia Governorate in 1708 and prospered on trade with China to the east and with Bukhara to the south. Tobolsk saw the establishment of the first school, theater, after the Russians defeated the Swedish army at Poltava in 1709, large numbers of Swedish prisoners were sent to Tobolsk. They numbered about 25% of the total population, many of them were not repatriated until the 1720s, and some of them settled permanently in Tobolsk. After administrative division of the territory, Tobolsk remained the seat of the Governor-General of Western Siberia until the seat moved to Omsk in the 1820s or 1830s. Acknowledging the authority of Tobolsk, many Siberian towns, including Omsk, Tyumen, Omsk continues to honor the legacy as of 2015. From 1796 until 1919, the served as the seat of Tobolsk Governorate. After 1825 some of the Decembrists were exiled and lived there as well, the towns relative importance declined when the Trans-Siberian Railway line between Tyumen and Omsk bypassed it to the south in the 1890s. In August 1917, after the February Revolution, the Provisional Government evacuated Tsar Nicholas II, after a White Army approached the city in spring of 1918, the Bolsheviks moved the imperial family west to Yekaterinburg in the Urals and had them shot there in July 1918. Within the framework of administrative divisions, Tobolsk serves as the center of Tobolsky District. As an administrative division, it is, together with one urban-type settlement, as a municipal division, the Town of Tobolsk is incorporated as Tobolsk Urban Okrug. The economy of modern Tobolsk centers on a oil refinery. Some traditional crafts, such as bone-carving, are also preserved, Tobolsk has a humid continental climate bordering on a subarctic climate. Winters are very cold with temperatures from −21.6 °C to −12.7 °C in January. Precipitation is moderate and is higher in summer than at other times of the year. Tobolsk is the town in Siberia and one of the few in Russia which has a standing stone kremlin. Its white walls and towers with an ensemble of churches and palatial buildings spectacularly sited on a river bank were proclaimed a national historical and architectural treasure in 1870
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Siberia
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Siberia is an extensive geographical region, and by the broadest definition is also known as North Asia. Siberia has historically been a part of Russia since the 17th century, the territory of Siberia extends eastwards from the Ural Mountains to the watershed between the Pacific and Arctic drainage basins. It stretches southwards from the Arctic Ocean to the hills of north-central Kazakhstan and to the borders of Mongolia. With an area of 13.1 million square kilometres, Siberia accounts for 77% of Russias land area and this is equivalent to an average population density of about 3 inhabitants per square kilometre, making Siberia one of the most sparsely populated regions on Earth. If it were a country by itself, it would still be the largest country in area, the origin of the name is unknown. Some sources say that Siberia originates from the Siberian Tatar word for sleeping land, another account sees the name as the ancient tribal ethnonym of the Sirtya, a folk, which spoke a language that later evolved into the Ugric languages. This ethnic group was assimilated to the Siberian Tatar people. The modern usage of the name was recorded in the Russian language after the Empires conquest of the Siberian Khanate, a further variant claims that the region was named after the Xibe people. The Polish historian Chycliczkowski has proposed that the name derives from the word for north. He said that the neighbouring Chinese, Arabs and Mongolians would not have known Russian and he suggests that the name is a combination of two words, su and bir. The region is of significance, as it contains bodies of prehistoric animals from the Pleistocene Epoch. Specimens of Goldfuss cave lion cubs, Yuka and another woolly mammoth from Oymyakon, a rhinoceros from the Kolyma River. The Siberian Traps were formed by one of the largest known volcanic events of the last 500 million years of Earths geological history. They continued for a million years and are considered a cause of the Great Dying about 250 million years ago. At least three species of human lived in Southern Siberia around 40,000 years ago, H. sapiens, H. neanderthalensis, the last was determined in 2010, by DNA evidence, to be a new species. Siberia was inhabited by different groups of such as the Enets, the Nenets, the Huns, the Scythians. The Khan of Sibir in the vicinity of modern Tobolsk was known as a prominent figure who endorsed Kubrat as Khagan of Old Great Bulgaria in 630, the Mongols conquered a large part of this area early in the 13th century. With the breakup of the Golden Horde, the autonomous Khanate of Sibir was established in the late 15th century, turkic-speaking Yakut migrated north from the Lake Baikal region under pressure from the Mongol tribes during the 13th to 15th century
20.
Execution of the Romanov family
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The Tsar and his family were killed by Bolshevik troops led by Yakov Yurovsky under the orders of the Ural Regional Soviet. Their bodies were mutilated, burned and buried in a field called Porosenkov Log in the Koptyaki forest. The emergence of Romanov impostors drew media attention away from Soviet Russia, the burial site was discovered in 1979 by an amateur sleuth, but the remains were not made public until 1989, during the glasnost period. The identity of the remains was confirmed by forensic and DNA investigation, a second, smaller grave containing the remains of two Romanov children missing from the larger grave was discovered by amateur archeologists in 2007. However, their remains are kept in a state repository pending further DNA tests, in 2008, after considerable and protracted legal wrangling, the Russian Prosecutor Generals office rehabilitated the Romanov family as victims of political repressions. A criminal case was opened by the government in 1993. This is supported by a passage in Leon Trotskys diary, Lenin had close control over the Romanovs although he ensured his name was not associated with their fate in any official documents. President Boris Yeltsin described the killings as one of the most shameful pages in Russian history, on 22 March 1917, Nicholas, no longer a monarch and addressed with contempt by the sentries as Nicholas Romanov, was reunited with his family at the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo. He was placed under house arrest with his family by the Provisional Government, surrounded by guards, in August 1917, Alexander Kerenskys provisional government evacuated the Romanovs to Tobolsk, allegedly to protect them from the rising tide of revolution. There they lived in the governors mansion in considerable comfort. After the Bolsheviks came to power in October 1917, the conditions of their imprisonment grew stricter, Nicholas was forbidden to wear epaulettes, and the sentries scrawled lewd drawings on the fence to offend his daughters. On 1 March 1918, the family was placed on soldiers rations, as the Bolsheviks gathered strength, the government in April moved Nicholas, Alexandra, and their daughter Maria to Yekaterinburg under the direction of Vasily Yakovlev. Alexei, who had severe haemophilia, was too ill to accompany his parents and remained with his sisters Olga, Tatiana, the family was imprisoned with a few remaining retainers in Yekaterinburgs Ipatiev House, which was designated The House of Special Purpose. The imperial family was kept in isolation at the Ipatiev House and was subjected to numerous rigorous inspections. They were strictly forbidden to any language other than Russian. They were not permitted access to their luggage which was stored in an outhouse in the interior courtyard and their brownie cameras and photographic equipment were confiscated. The servants were ordered to address the Romanovs only by their names, the house was surrounded by a 4 metre high double palisade that obscured the streets from the house. The initial fence enclosed the garden along Voznesensky Lane, on 5 June a second palisade was erected, higher and longer than the first, which completely enclosed the property
21.
Russian Civil War
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The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war in the former Russian Empire immediately after the Russian Revolutions of 1917, as many factions vied to determine Russias political future. In addition, rival militant socialists and nonideological Green armies fought against both the Bolsheviks and the Whites, eight foreign nations intervened against the Red Army, notably the Allied Forces and the pro-German armies. The Red Army defeated the White Armed Forces of South Russia in Ukraine, the remains of the White forces commanded by Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel were beaten in Crimea and evacuated in late 1920. Lesser battles of the war continued on the periphery for two years, and minor skirmishes with the remnants of the White forces in the Far East continued well into 1923. Armed national resistance in Central Asia was not completely crushed until 1934, there were an estimated 7,000, 000–12,000,000 casualties during the war, mostly civilians. The Russian Civil War has been described by some as the greatest national catastrophe that Europe had yet seen, many pro-independence movements emerged after the break-up of the Russian Empire and fought in the war. Several parts of the former Russian Empire—Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the rest of the former Russian Empire was consolidated into the Soviet Union shortly afterwards. After the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, the Russian Provisional Government was established during the February Revolution of 1917, Political commissars were appointed to each unit of the army to maintain morale and ensure loyalty. In June 1918, when it became apparent that an army composed solely of workers would be far too small. Former Tsarist officers were utilized as military specialists, sometimes their families were taken hostage in order to ensure their loyalty, at the start of the war three-quarters of the Red Army officer corps was composed of former Tsarist officers. By its end, 83% of all Red Army divisional and corps commanders were ex-Tsarist soldiers, a Ukrainian nationalist movement was active in Ukraine during the war. More significant was the emergence of an anarchist political and military movement known as the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine or the Anarchist Black Army led by Nestor Makhno, some of the military forces were set up on the basis of clandestine officers organizations in the cities. The Czechoslovak Legions had been part of the Russian army and numbered around 30,000 troops by October 1917 and they had an agreement with the new Bolshevik government to be evacuated from the Eastern Front via the port of Vladivostok to France. The transport from the Eastern Front to Vladivostok slowed down in the chaos, under pressure from the Central Powers, Trotsky ordered the disarming and arrest of the legionaries, which created tensions with the Bolsheviks. The Western Allies armed and supported opponents of the Bolsheviks, hence, many of these countries expressed their support for the Whites, including the provision of troops and supplies. Winston Churchill declared that Bolshevism must be strangled in its cradle, the British and French had supported Russia during World War I on a massive scale with war materials. After the treaty, it looked like much of material would fall into the hands of the Germans. Under this pretext began allied intervention in the Russian Civil War with the United Kingdom, there were violent clashes with troops loyal to the Bolsheviks
22.
Bolsheviks
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The RSDLP was a revolutionary socialist political party formed in 1898 in Minsk in Belarus to unite the various revolutionary organisations of the Russian Empire into one party. In the Second Party Congress vote, the Bolsheviks won on the majority of important issues and they ultimately became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Bolsheviks or Reds came to power in Russia during the October Revolution phase of the Russian Revolution of 1917, with the Reds defeating the Whites, and others during the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922, the RSFSR became the chief constituent of the Soviet Union in December 1922. Their beliefs and practices were often referred to as Bolshevism, in the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, held in Brussels and London during August 1903, Lenin and Julius Martov disagreed over the membership rules. Lenin wanted members who recognise the Party Programme and support it by material means, Julius Martov suggested by regular personal assistance under the direction of one of the partys organisations. Lenin advocated limiting party membership to a core of active members. A main source of the factions could be attributed to Lenin’s steadfast opinion. It was obvious at early stages in Lenin’s revolutionary practices that he would not be willing to concede on any party policy that conflicted with his own predetermined ideas and it was the loyalty that he had to his own self-envisioned utopia that caused the party split. He was seen even by fellow party members as being so narrow minded that he believed there were only two types of people, Friend and enemy—those who followed him, and all the rest. Leon Trotsky, one of Lenins fellow revolutionaries, compared Lenin in 1904 to the French revolutionary Robespierre, Lenins view of politics as verbal and ideological warfare and his inability to accept criticism even if it came from his own dedicated followers was the reason behind this accusation. The root of the split was a book titled What is to be Done. that Lenin wrote while serving a sentence of exile, in Germany, the book was published in 1902, in Russia, strict censorship outlawed its publication and distribution. One of the points of Lenin’s writing was that a revolution can only be achieved by the strong leadership of one person over the masses. After the proposed revolution had overthrown the government, this individual leader must release power. Lenin also wrote that revolutionary leaders must dedicate their lives to the cause in order for it to be successful. Lenins view of a socialist intelligentsia showed that he was not a supporter of Marxist theory. For example, Lenin agreed with the Marxist idea of eliminating social classes, most party members considered unequal treatment of workers immoral, and were loyal to the idea of a completely classless society, so Lenin’s variations caused the party internal dissonance. Although the party split of Bolsheviks and Mensheviks would not become official until 1903, as discussed in What is to be Done. Lenin firmly believed that a political structure was needed to effectively initiate a formal revolution
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