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
14.
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
23.
Canonization
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Originally, persons were recognized as saints without any formal process. Later, different processes were developed, such as used today in the Eastern Orthodox Church. The first persons honored as saints were the martyrs, pious legends of their deaths were considered affirmations of the truth of their faith in Christ. The Roman Rites Canon of the Mass contains only the names of martyrs, along with that of the Blessed Virgin Mary and, since 1962, that of St. Joseph her spouse. By the fourth century, however, confessors—people who had confessed their faith not by dying but by word, examples of such people are Saint Hilarion and Saint Ephrem the Syrian in the East, and Saint Martin of Tours and Saint Hilary of Poitiers in the West. Their names were inserted in the diptychs, the lists of saints venerated in the liturgy. Since the witness of their lives was not as unequivocal as that of the martyrs and this process is often referred to as local canonization. This approval was required even for veneration of a reputed martyr, and Saint Cyprian recommended that the utmost diligence be observed in investigating the claims of those who were said to have died for the faith. Evidence was sought from the records of the trials or from people who had been present at the trials. Saint Augustine of Hippo tells of the procedure which was followed in his day for the recognition of a martyr, the bishop of the diocese in which the martyrdom took place set up a canonical process for conducting the inquiry with the utmost severity. Other churches still use the older practice, in the Catholic Church, canonization is a decree that allows universal veneration of the saint in the liturgy of the Roman Rite. For permission to venerate merely locally, only beatification is needed, only acceptance of the cultus by the Pope made the cultus universal, because he alone can rule the universal Catholic Church. In the Medieval West, the Apostolic See was asked to intervene in the question of canonizations so as to more authoritative decisions. Swibert by Pope Leo III in 804, thereafter, recourse to the judgment of the Pope was had more frequently. Pope Urban II, Pope Calixtus II, and Pope Eugene III conformed to this discipline, a decree of Pope Alexander III1170 gave the prerogative to the ope thenceforth, so far as the Western Church was concerned. However, the procedure initiated by the decretal of Pope Alexander III was confirmed by a bull of Pope Innocent III issued on the occasion of the canonization of St. Cunegunda in 1200. The bull of Pope Innocent III resulted in increasingly elaborate inquiries to the Apostolic See concerning canonizations and he further regulated both of these acts by issuing his Decreta servanda in beatificatione et canonizatione Sanctorum on 12 March 1642. His work published from 1734-8 governed the proceedings until 1917, the article Beatification and canonization process in 1914 describes the procedures followed until the promulgation of the Codex of 1917
24.
Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia
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Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia was the youngest son and fifth child of Emperor Alexander III of Russia and youngest brother of Nicholas II. At the time of his birth, his paternal grandfather Alexander II was still the reigning Emperor of All the Russias, Michael was fourth-in-line to the throne after his father and elder brothers Nicholas and George. After the assassination of his grandfather in 1881, he became third-in-line and, in 1894 after the death of his father, George died in 1899, leaving Michael as heir presumptive. The birth of Nicholass son Alexei in 1904 moved Michael back to second-in-line, Michael caused a commotion at the imperial court when he took Natalia Sergeyevna Wulfert, a married woman, as a lover. Nicholas sent Michael to Orel to avoid scandal but this did not deter Michael, after the couples only child, George, was born in 1910, Michael brought Natalia to St. Petersburg where she was shunned by society. In 1912, Michael shocked Nicholas by marrying Natalia in the hope that he would be removed from the line of succession, Michael and Natalia left Russia to exile abroad in France, Switzerland and England. After the outbreak of World War I, Michael returned to Russia, when Nicholas abdicated on 15 March 1917, Michael was named as his successor instead of Alexei. Michael, however, deferred acceptance of the throne until ratification by an elected assembly and he was never confirmed as Emperor and, following the Russian Revolution of 1917, he was imprisoned and murdered. Michael was born at Anichkov Palace on Nevsky Prospekt in Saint Petersburg as the youngest son and penultimate child of Tsarevitch Alexander of Russia and his wife and his maternal grandparents were King Christian IX of Denmark and Louise of Hesse-Kassel. His paternal grandmother Empress Maria Alexandrovna died before his second birthday and his paternal grandfather, Emperor Alexander II of Russia, was assassinated on 1 March 1881 and, as a result, Michaels parents became Emperor and Empress of All the Russias before his third birthday. Michael was raised in the company of his sister, Olga. Conditions in the nursery were modest, even spartan, the children slept on hard camp beds, rose at dawn, washed in cold water and ate a simple porridge for breakfast. Michael, like his siblings, was taught by tutors and was cared for by an English nanny. Michael and Olga frequently went on hikes in the forests around Gatchina with their father, physical activities such as equestrianism were also taught at an early age, as was religious observance. Though Christmas and Easter were times of celebration and extravagance, Lent was strictly observed—meat, dairy products, family holidays were taken in the summer at Peterhof Palace and with Michaels grandparents in Denmark. Michael was almost 16 when his father fell ill, the annual trip to Denmark was cancelled. On 1 November 1894, Alexander III died at the age of 49. Michaels eldest brother, Nicholas, became Tsar, and Michaels childhood was effectively over, Michaels mother, Dowager Empress Marie, moved back to Anichkov Palace with Michael and Olga
25.
Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia
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Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia was the eldest daughter of the last Tsar of the Russian Empire, Emperor Nicholas II, and of Empress Alexandra of Russia. During her lifetime, Olgas future marriage was the subject of great speculation within Russia. Matches were rumored with Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia, Crown Prince Carol of Romania, Edward, Prince of Wales, eldest son of Britains George V, Olga herself wanted to marry a Russian and remain in her home country. During World War I, Olga nursed wounded soldiers in a hospital until her own nerves gave out and, thereafter. Olgas murder following the Russian Revolution of 1917 resulted in her canonization as a passion bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church. In later years, when dozens of people made claims to be surviving members of the family, a woman named Marga Boodts claimed to be Grand Duchess Olga. Olga was assassinated along with her family at Yekaterinburg and her remains were identified through DNA testing and were buried during a funeral ceremony in 1998 at Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg along with those of her parents and two of her sisters. Olgas siblings were Grand Duchesses Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and her Russian title is most precisely translated as Grand Princess, meaning that Olga, as an imperial highness, was higher in rank than other princesses in Europe who were royal highnesses. However, Grand Duchess is the usual English translation, Olgas friends and family generally called her simply Olga Nikolaevna or nicknamed her Olishka, Olenka or Olya. Among her godparents was her great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, Olga was most often paired with her sister Tatiana. The two girls shared a room, dressed alike, and were known as The Big Pair, from her earliest years she was known for her compassionate heart and desire to help others, but also for her temper, blunt honesty and moodiness. As a small child, she once lost patience while posing for a painter and told the man, You are a very ugly man. The Tsars children were raised as simply as possible, sleeping on hard camp cots unless they were ill, servants called Olga and her siblings by their first names and patronyms rather than by their imperial titles. However, Olgas governess and tutors also noted some of the impulses of the daughter of the Tsar of All the Russias. On a visit to a museum where state carriages were on display and her wishes were not honored, much to the relief of her governess, Margaretta Eagar. She also felt the rights of eldest children should be protected, when she was told the Biblical story of Joseph and his coat of many colors, she sympathized with the eldest brothers rather than Joseph. She also sympathized with Goliath rather than David in the Biblical story of David, when her French tutor, Pierre Gilliard, was teaching her the formation of French verbs and the use of auxiliaries, ten-year-old Olga responded, I see, monsieur. The auxiliaries are the servants of the verbs and its only poor avoir which has to shift for itself
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Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia
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Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia was the second daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, the last monarch of Russia, and of Tsarina Alexandra. She was born at the Peterhof, Saint Petersburg and she was better known than her three sisters during her lifetime and headed Red Cross committees during World War I. Her murder by communist revolutionaries on 17 July 1918 resulted in her being named as a passion bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church, all sisters were falsely rumored to have survived the assassination and dozens of imposters claimed to be surviving Romanovs. Grand Duchess Tatianas siblings were Grand Duchesses Olga, Maria, Anastasia, all of the children were close to one another and to their parents up until the end of their lives. Tatiana was described as tall and slender, with auburn hair and dark blue-gray eyes, fine, chiseled features. She was considered the most beautiful of the four grand duchesses by many courtiers, of all her sisters, Tatiana most closely resembled their mother. Tatianas title is most precisely translated as Grand Princess, meaning that Tatiana, as an imperial highness, was higher in rank than other princesses in Europe, Grand Duchess became the most widely used translation of the title into English from Russian. However, her friends, family and the household servants generally called her by her first name and patronym, Tatiana Nikolaevna or by the Russian nicknames Tanya, Tatya, Tatianochka, like the other Romanov children, Tatiana was raised with some austerity. She and her sisters slept on beds without pillows, took cold baths in the morning. Their work was given as gifts or sold at charity bazaars, Tatiana and her older sister, Olga, were known in the household as The Big Pair. Her father liked the idea of having daughters named Olga and Tatiana, like their two younger sisters, the two older girls shared a bedroom and were very close to one another from early childhood. In the spring of 1901, Olga had typhoid fever and was confined to the nursery for several weeks away from her younger sisters, when she began to recover, Tatiana was permitted to see her older sister for five minutes but didnt recognize her. Eagar had difficulty persuading Tatiana that Olga would recover, French tutor Pierre Gilliard wrote that the two sisters were passionately devoted to one another. Tatiana was practical and had a talent for leadership. Her sisters gave her the nickname The Governess and sent her as their group representative when they wanted their parents to grant a favor, though she was eighteen months Tatianas senior, Olga had no objection when Tatiana decided to take charge of a situation. She was also closer to her mother than any of her sisters and was considered by many who knew her to be the Tsarinas favorite daughter, Tatiana was the conduit of all her mothers decisions. Alexandra wrote Nicholas on 13 March 1916 that Tatiana was the one of their four daughters who grasped it when she explained her way of looking at things. Gilliard wrote that Tatiana was reserved and well balanced but less open and she was also less talented than Olga, but worked harder and was more dedicated to seeing projects through to completion than her elder sister
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Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia
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Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia was the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, the last sovereign of Imperial Russia, and his wife, Tsarina Alexandra Fyodorovna. Anastasia was a sister of Grand Duchess Olga, Grand Duchess Tatiana, and Grand Duchess Maria. She was murdered with her family in a killing by members of the Cheka. Persistent rumors of her possible escape circulated after her death, fueled by the fact that the location of her burial was unknown during the decades of Communist rule and her possible survival has been conclusively disproved. Forensic analysis and DNA testing confirmed that the remains are those of the imperial family, several women falsely claimed to have been Anastasia, the best known impostor is Anna Anderson. Andersons body was cremated upon her death in 1984, but DNA testing in 1994 on available pieces of Andersons tissue, when Anastasia was born, her parents and extended family were disappointed that she was a girl. They hoped for a son who would be apparent to the throne. Tsar Nicholas II went for a walk to compose himself before going to visit Tsarina Alexandra. One meaning of her name is the breaker of chains or the prison opener, another meaning of the name is of the resurrection, a fact often alluded to later in stories about her rumored survival. Anastasias title is most precisely translated as Grand Princess, Grand Duchess became the most widely used translation of the title into English from Russian. The Tsars children were raised as simply as possible, most in the household, including the servants, generally called the Grand Duchess by her first name and patronym, Anastasia Nikolaevna, and did not use her title or style. She was occasionally called by the French version of her name, Anastasie, or by the Russian nicknames Nastya, Nastas, other family nicknames for Anastasia were Malenkaya, meaning little, or shvibzik, the Russian word for imp. Living up to her nicknames, young Anastasia grew into a vivacious and energetic child, described as short and inclined to be chubby, with blue eyes and strawberry-blonde hair. Margaretta Eagar, a governess to the four grand duchesses, said one person commented that the toddler Anastasia had the greatest personal charm of any child she had ever seen. While often described as gifted and bright, she was never interested in the restrictions of the room, according to her tutors Pierre Gilliard. Gibbes, Gilliard, and ladies-in-waiting Lili Dehn and Anna Vyrubova described Anastasia as lively, mischievous, and her sharp, witty remarks sometimes hit sensitive spots. Anastasias daring occasionally exceeded the limits of acceptable behavior, Anastasia sometimes tripped the servants and played pranks on her tutors. As a child, she would climb trees and refuse to come down, Once, during a snowball fight at the familys Polish estate, Anastasia rolled a rock into a snowball and threw it at her older sister Tatiana, knocking her to the ground
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Maria Feodorovna (Dagmar of Denmark)
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Maria Feodorovna, christened Dagmar, was a Danish princess and Empress of Russia as spouse of Tsar Alexander III. She was the daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark and Louise of Hesse-Cassel, her siblings included Alexandra, King Frederick VIII of Denmark. Her eldest son became the last Russian monarch, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, Princess Marie Sophie Frederikke Dagmar was born at the Yellow Palace in Copenhagen. Her father was Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, a member of a relatively impoverished princely cadet line and her mother was Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel. She was baptised into the Lutheran faith and named after her kinswoman Marie Sophie of Hesse-Kassel, Queen Dowager of Denmark as well as the medieval Danish queen, growing up, she was known by the name Dagmar. Most of her life, she was known as Maria Feodorovna and she was known within her family as Minnie. In 1852 Dagmars father became heir-presumptive to the throne of Denmark, in 1853, he was given the title Prince of Denmark and he and his family were given an official summer residence, Bernstorff Palace. Dagmars father became King of Denmark in 1863 upon the death of King Frederick VII, due to the brilliant marital alliances of his children, he became known as the Father-in-law of Europe. Dagmars eldest brother would succeed his father as King Frederick VIII of Denmark and her elder, and favourite, sister, Alexandra married Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales in March 1863. Within months of Alexandras marriage, Dagmars second older brother, Wilhelm, was elected as King George I of the Hellenes and her younger sister was Thyra, Duchess of Cumberland. She also had younger brother, Valdemar. In 1864, Nicholas, or Nixa as he was known in his family, on 22 April 1865 he died from meningitis. His last wish was that Dagmar would marry his younger brother, Dagmar was distraught after her young fiancés death. She was so heartbroken when she returned to her homeland that her relatives were seriously worried about her health and she had already become emotionally attached to Russia and often thought of the huge, remote country that was to have been her home. The disaster had brought her close to Nixas parents. He told Dagmar in very affectionate terms that he hoped she would still consider herself a member of their family, in June 1866, while on a visit to Copenhagen, the Tsarevich Alexander asked Dagmar for her hand. They had been in her room looking over photographs together, Dagmar left Copenhagen on 1 September 1866. Hans Christian Andersen, who had occasionally been invited to tell stories to Dagmar, the writer remarked in his diary, Yesterday, at the quay, while passing me by, she stopped and took me by the hand
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Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia
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Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia, was the fifth child and the fourth son of Alexander II of Russia and his first wife Maria Alexandrovna. Chosen for a career, Alexei Alexandrovich started his military training at the age of 7. By the age of 20 he had been appointed lieutenant of the Imperial Russian Navy, in 1871, he was sent as a goodwill ambassador to the United States and Japan. In 1883 he was appointed general-admiral and he had a significant contribution in the equipment of the Russian navy with new ships and in modernizing the naval ports. However, after the Russian defeat in the Battle of Tsushima in 1905 and he died in Paris in 1908. The Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich Romanov of Russia was born in Saint Petersburg on 14 January 1850 and he was the son of emperor Alexander II and empress Maria Alexandrovna. He was a brother of Grand Duchess Alexandra Alexandrovna, Tsarevich Nikolay Alexandrovich, Alexander III of Russia. He was a brother of Duchess Maria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. Alexei was chosen for a career since his childhood. At the age of 7 he received the rank of midshipman, the next year Konstantin Nikolayevich Posyet was appointed as his tutor. While the winters were dedicated to studies, during the summers he trained on Russian warships of the Baltic fleet stationed in Saint Petersburg harbour. On 18 September 1866 Alexei was promoted to lieutenant, in 1868 he went on a trip to southern Russia traveling by train from Saint Petersburg to Nikolayevsk, continuing by ship down the Volga to Astrakhan. He then boarded a ship for a cruise on the Caspian Sea to Baku, [Petrovsk. He then crossed the Caucasus and reached Poti where the Alexander Nevsky was moored, from there he sailed to Constantinople, Athens and the Azore Islands On the return voyage, the frigate was wrecked off the coast of Jutland during a storm on the North Sea. Though the ship was lost, the crew except five men was unhurt, in January 1870 Alexei Alexandrovich reached the age of majority according to Russian legislation. The event was marked by taking two oaths, the one and the oath of allegiance of the Grand Dukes of the Russian Imperial House. In June 1870 Alexei started the last part of his training and this included inland navigation on a cutter with a steam engine, on the route from Saint Petersburg to Arkhangelsk through the Mariinsk Canal system and the Northern Dvina River. After visiting the schools and industrial facilities of Arkhangelsk, he started his training in arctic conditions
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Christian IX of Denmark
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Christian IX was King of Denmark from 1863 to 1906. From 1863 to 1864, he was concurrently Duke of Schleswig, Holstein, however, in 1852, Christian was chosen as heir to the Danish monarchy in light of the expected extinction of the senior line of the House of Oldenburg. Upon the death of King Frederick VII of Denmark in 1863, Christian married his second cousin, Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel, in 1842. Their six children married into royal families across Europe, earning him the sobriquet the father-in-law of Europe. The British consort Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is also a descendant of Christian IX, as are Michael I of Romania and Constantine II of Greece. Also, the queens consort Anne of Romania, Anne-Marie of Greece and he was named after Prince Christian of Denmark, the later King Christian VIII, who was also his godfather. Christians father was the head of the house of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck. As such, Christian was eligible to succeed in the duchies of Schleswig-Holstein. Initially, Christian lived with his parents and many siblings at Gottorf Castle, however, on 6 June 1825, Duke Friedrich Wilhelm was appointed Duke of Glücksburg by his brother-in-law Frederick VI of Denmark, as the elder Glücksburg line had become extinct in 1779. He subsequently changed his title to Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and founded the younger Glücksburg line, subsequently, the family moved to Glücksburg Castle, where Christian was raised with his siblings under their fathers supervision. Following the early death of the father in 1831, Christian grew up in Denmark and was educated in the Military Academy of Copenhagen, as a young man, Christian unsuccessfully sought the hand of his third cousin, Queen Victoria, in marriage. At the Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen on 26 May 1842, he married his cousin, Louise of Hesse-Kassel. A justification for this choice was his marriage to Louise of Hesse-Kassel, Frederick VIIs childlessness had presented a thorny dilemma and the question of succession to the Danish throne proved problematic. Denmarks adherence to the Salic Law and a burgeoning nationalism within the German-speaking parts of Schleswig-Holstein hindered all hopes of a peaceful solution, proposed resolutions to keep the two Duchies together and part of Denmark proved unsatisfactory to both Danish and German interests. While Denmark had adopted the Salic Law, this affected the descendants of Frederick III of Denmark. Agnatic descent from Frederick III would end with the death of the childless King Frederick VII and his childless uncle. At that point, the law of succession promulgated by Frederick III provided for a Semi-Salic succession, as the nations of Europe looked on, the numerous descendants of Helvig of Schauenburg began to vie for the Danish throne. Frederick VII belonged to the branch of Helvigs descendants
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Edward VII
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Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, before his accession to the throne, he served as heir apparent and held the title of Prince of Wales for longer than any of his predecessors. During the long reign of his mother, he was excluded from political power. He travelled throughout Britain performing ceremonial duties, and represented Britain on visits abroad. His tours of North America in 1860 and the Indian subcontinent in 1875 were popular successes, as king, Edward played a role in the modernisation of the British Home Fleet and the reorganisation of the British Army after the Second Boer War. He reinstituted traditional ceremonies as public displays and broadened the range of people with whom royalty socialised and he died in 1910 in the midst of a constitutional crisis that was resolved the following year by the Parliament Act 1911, which restricted the power of the unelected House of Lords. Edward was born at 10,48 in the morning on 9 November 1841 in Buckingham Palace and he was the eldest son and second child of Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He was christened Albert Edward at St Georges Chapel, Windsor Castle and he was named Albert after his father and Edward after his maternal grandfather Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn. He was known as Bertie to the family throughout his life. As the eldest son of the British sovereign, he was automatically Duke of Cornwall, as a son of Prince Albert, he also held the titles of Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duke of Saxony. He was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester on 8 December 1841, Earl of Dublin on 17 January 1850, a Knight of the Garter on 9 November 1858, and a Knight of the Thistle on 24 May 1867. In 1863, he renounced his rights to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in favour of his younger brother. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were determined that their eldest son should have an education that would prepare him to be a constitutional monarch. At age seven, Edward embarked on an educational programme devised by Prince Albert. Unlike his elder sister Victoria, Edward did not excel in his studies and he tried to meet the expectations of his parents, but to no avail. Although Edward was not a diligent student—his true talents were those of charm, sociability and tact—Benjamin Disraeli described him as informed, intelligent, after the completion of his secondary-level studies, his tutor was replaced by a personal governor, Robert Bruce. After an educational trip to Rome, undertaken in the first few months of 1859, he spent the summer of that year studying at the University of Edinburgh under, among others, in October, he matriculated as an undergraduate at Christ Church, Oxford. Now released from the strictures imposed by his parents, he enjoyed studying for the first time
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George V
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George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. He was the son of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales. From the time of his birth, he was third in the line of succession behind his father and his own brother, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence. From 1877 to 1891, George served in the Royal Navy, on the death of his grandmother in 1901, Georges father became King-Emperor of the British Empire, and George was created Prince of Wales. He succeeded his father in 1910 and he was the only Emperor of India to be present at his own Delhi Durbar. His reign saw the rise of socialism, communism, fascism, Irish republicanism, the Parliament Act 1911 established the supremacy of the elected British House of Commons over the unelected House of Lords. In 1917, George became the first monarch of the House of Windsor, in 1924 he appointed the first Labour ministry and in 1931 the Statute of Westminster recognised the dominions of the Empire as separate, independent states within the Commonwealth of Nations. He had health problems throughout much of his reign and at his death was succeeded by his eldest son. George was born on 3 June 1865, in Marlborough House and he was the second son of the Prince and Princess of Wales, Albert Edward and Alexandra. His father was the eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and he was baptised at Windsor Castle on 7 July 1865 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Longley. As a younger son of the Prince of Wales, there was expectation that George would become king. He was third in line to the throne, after his father and elder brother, George was only 17 months younger than Albert Victor, and the two princes were educated together. John Neale Dalton was appointed as their tutor in 1871, neither Albert Victor nor George excelled intellectually. For three years from 1879, the brothers served on HMS Bacchante, accompanied by Dalton. They toured the colonies of the British Empire in the Caribbean, South Africa and Australia, and visited Norfolk, Virginia, as well as South America, the Mediterranean, Egypt, Dalton wrote an account of their journey entitled The Cruise of HMS Bacchante. Between Melbourne and Sydney, Dalton recorded a sighting of the Flying Dutchman, after Lausanne, the brothers were separated, Albert Victor attended Trinity College, Cambridge, while George continued in the Royal Navy. He travelled the world, visiting many areas of the British Empire, during his naval career he commanded Torpedo Boat 79 in home waters then HMS Thrush on the North America station, before his last active service in command of HMS Melampus in 1891–92. From then on, his rank was largely honorary
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Wilhelm II, German Emperor
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Wilhelm II or William II was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, ruling the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918. He was the eldest grandchild of the British Queen Victoria and related to many monarchs and his leading generals, Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, dictated policy during the First World War with little regard for the civilian government. An ineffective war-time leader, he lost the support of the army, abdicated in November 1918, and fled to exile in the Netherlands. Wilhelm was born on 27 January 1859 at the Crown Princes Palace, Berlin to Prince Frederick William of Prussia and his wife, Victoria, Princess Royal, the eldest daughter of Britains Queen Victoria. At the time of his birth, his great-uncle Frederick William IV was king of Prussia, a traumatic breech birth left him with a withered left arm due to Erbs palsy, which he tried with some success to conceal. His left arm was about 6 inches shorter than his right arm, historians have suggested that this disability affected his emotional development. In 1863, Wilhelm was taken to England to be present at the wedding of his Uncle Bertie, William attended the ceremony in a Highland costume, complete with a small toy dirk. During the ceremony the four-year-old became restless and his eighteen-year-old uncle Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, charged with keeping an eye on him, told him to be quiet, but Wilhelm drew his dirk and threatened Alfred. When Alfred attempted to subdue him by force, Wilhelm bit him on the leg and his grandmother, Queen Victoria, missed seeing the fracas, to her Wilhelm remained a clever, dear, good little child, the great favourite of my beloved Vicky. His mother, Vicky, was obsessed with his damaged arm and she blamed herself for the childs handicap and insisted that he become a good rider. The thought that he, as heir to the throne, should not be able to ride was intolerable to her, riding lessons began when Wilhelm was eight and were a matter of endurance for Wilhelm. Over and over, the prince was set on his horse. He fell off time after time but despite his tears was set on its back again, after weeks of this he finally got it right and was able to maintain his balance. Wilhelm, from six years of age, was tutored and heavily influenced by the 39-year-old teacher Georg Hinzpeter, Hinzpeter, he later wrote, was really a good fellow. Whether he was the tutor for me, I dare not decide. The torments inflicted on me, in this riding, must be attributed to my mother. As a teenager he was educated at Kassel at the Friedrichsgymnasium, in January 1877, Wilhelm finished high school and on his eighteenth birthday received as a present from his grandmother, Queen Victoria, the Order of the Garter. After Kassel he spent four terms at the University of Bonn, studying law and he became a member of the exclusive Corps Borussia Bonn
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Russo-Japanese War
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The Russo-Japanese War was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and Korea. The major theatres of operations were the Liaodong Peninsula and Mukden in Southern Manchuria and the seas around Korea, Japan, Russia sought a warm-water port on the Pacific Ocean for their navy and for maritime trade. Vladivostok was operational only during the summer, whereas Port Arthur, since the end of the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, Japan feared Russian encroachment on its sphere of influence. Russia had demonstrated an expansionist policy in the Siberian Far East from the reign of Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century, through threat of Russian expansion, Japan offered to recognize Russian dominance in Manchuria in exchange for recognition of Korea as being within the Japanese sphere of influence. Russia refused and demanded Korea north of the 39th parallel to be a buffer zone between Russia and Japan. The Japanese government perceived a Russian threat to its strategic interests, after negotiations broke down in 1904, the Japanese Navy opened hostilities by attacking the Russian Eastern Fleet at Port Arthur, China, in a surprise attack. The war concluded with the Treaty of Portsmouth, mediated by US President Theodore Roosevelt, the complete victory of the Japanese military surprised world observers. The consequences transformed the balance of power in East Asia, resulting in a reassessment of Japans recent entry onto the world stage and it was the first major military victory in the modern era of an Asian power over a European one. Scholars continue to debate the historical significance of the war, after the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the Meiji government endeavored to assimilate Western ideas, technological advances and ways of warfare. By the late 19th century, Japan had transformed itself into an industrial state. The Japanese wanted to be recognized as equal with the Western powers, the Meiji restoration had always been intended to make Japan a modernized state, not a Westernized one, and Japan was always an imperialist power, looking towards overseas expansionism. By the 1890s it had extended its realm across Central Asia to Afghanistan, the Russian Empire stretched from Poland in the west to the Kamchatka Peninsula in the east. With its construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway to the port of Vladivostok, in the Tsushima incident of 1861 Russia had directly assaulted Japanese territory. Between the Meiji Restoration and its participation in World War I, the first war Japan fought was the First Sino-Japanese War, fought in 1894 and 1895. The war revolved around the issue of control and influence over Korea under the rule of the Joseon dynasty, from the 1880s onward, there had been vigorous competition for influence in Korea between China and Japan. The Korean court was prone to factionalism, and was divided by a reformist faction that was pro-Japanese. In 1884, a coup attempt was put down by Chinese troops. A peasant rebellion led by the Tonghak religious movement led to a request by the Korean government for the Qing dynasty to send in troops to stabilize the country
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Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich of Russia
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Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich of Russia was a grandson of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, and a poet and playwright of some renown. He wrote under the pen name K. R. initials of his name and family name. The fourth child of the Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich of Russia and his wife Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg, KR was born in the Constantine Palace and his eldest sister Grand Duchess Olga married King George I of the Hellenes in 1867. From his early childhood KR was more interested in letters, art, nevertheless, the Grand Duke was sent to serve in the Imperial Russian Navy. KR was unsatisfied, and left the navy to join the elite Izmailovsky Regiment of the Imperial Guard, KR was both a patron of Russian art and an artist in his own right. A talented pianist, the Grand Duke was Chairman of the Russian Musical Society, but KR was first and foremost a man of letters. He founded several Russian literary societies and he translated foreign works into Russian, and was particularly proud of his Russian translation of Hamlet. An accomplished poet and playwright, KR also took great interest in the direction of his plays, the Grand Duke actually appeared in his last play, King of Judea, playing the role of Joseph of Arimathea. The Grand Dukes artistic slavophilism and devotion to duty endeared him to both Alexander III and Nicholas II, the former appointed KR as President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and later as Chief of All Military Colleges. He was also made a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1902. He was also a friend of the Grand Duchess Elizabeth. He was also one of the few members of the Imperial Family to go to Moscow to attend the funeral of Elizabeths husband, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, as exemplary and dedicated as KRs public life was, his private turmoil was intense. As mentioned, KRs first homosexual experiences occurred in the Imperial Guards, the Grand Duke made great efforts to repress his feelings. But despite his love for his wife, KR could not resist the temptations offered to a person of his exalted state, KR claimed in his diary that between 1893 and 1899 he remained away from the practice of what he called his main sin. Yet by the birth of his child, KR had become a steady visitor to several of the male brothels of St. Petersburg. In 1904 he wrote in his diary that he ordered my coachman. to go, I intended to walk straight on. But without reaching the Pevchesky Bridge, I turned back and went in, and so I have surrendered again, without much struggle, to my depraved inclinations. The cycle of resistance and capitulation to temptation is a theme of KRs diaries
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Princess Irina Alexandrovna of Russia
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Princess Irina Alexandrovna of Russia was the only daughter and eldest child of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia and Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia. Before her marriage on 22 February 1914, Irina, the eldest child and her family had spent long periods living in the south of France beginning in about 1906 because of her fathers political disagreements with the Tsar. Her father was also carrying on an affair with a woman in the south of France and often asked Xenia for a divorce, Xenia enjoyed extramarital affairs as well. Irinas parents tried to hide their marriage from their seven children, and Irina. Irina was often called Irène, the French version of her name, or Irene and her mother sometimes nicknamed her Baby Rina. The Romanovs, heavily influenced by the French and English, spoke French better than Russian, at one point, in a fit of enthusiasm, he planned to give all his riches to the poor in imitation of his mentor, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna. Felixs ideas are absolutely revolutionary, a disapproving Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna once said and he was persuaded not to do so by his mother, Zenaida, who said he had a duty to marry and continue the family line because he was her only surviving son. The future murderer of Rasputin also had a horror of the bloodshed, Felix, being bisexual, was not certain if he was fit for marriage. Still, he was drawn to Irina and her beauty when he first encountered her. One day when I was out riding I met a beautiful girl accompanied by an elderly lady. Our eyes met and she made such an impression on me that I reined in my horse to gaze at her as she walked on and this time I had plenty of time to admire the wondrous beauty of the girl who was eventually to become my wife and lifelong companion. She had beautiful features, clear-cut as a cameo, and looked very like her father and he renewed his acquaintance with Irina in 1913 and was even more drawn to her. She was very shy and reserved, which added a certain mystery to her charm, little by little, Irina became less timid. At first her eyes were more eloquent than her conversation but, as she became more expansive, I learned to admire the keenness of her intelligence and her sound judgment. I concealed nothing in my past life from her, and, far from being perturbed by what I told her, she showed great tolerance and comprehension. Yusupov wrote that Irina, perhaps because she had grown up with so many brothers, although Irina was understanding about Yusupovs wild past, her parents were not. When her parents and maternal grandmother Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna heard the rumours about Felix, Dmitri told Felix he was also interested in marrying Irina, but Irina said she preferred Felix. Felix was able to persuade Irinas reluctant family to relent and allow the ceremony to go forward, although Irina was very distant in the line of succession, she had to comply with this regulation before marrying me, but it did not seem to worry her very much
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Kokoshnik
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The kokoshnik is a traditional Russian headdress worn by women and girls to accompany the sarafan, primarily worn in the northern regions of Russia in the 16th to 19th centuries. Historically a kokoshnik is a worn by married women, though maidens wore a headdress very similar to a kokoshnik. The crest can be embroidered with pearls and goldwork or simple applique, usually using plant, the forehead area is frequently decorated with pearl netting. While wearing a kokoshnik the woman wears her hair in a plait. It resembles the French hood worn in Tudor England, but without the black veil, the word kokoshnik first appears in 16th-century documents, and comes from the Old Slavic kokosh, which means a hen or a cockerel. However, the earliest head-dress pieces of the type have been found in the 10th- to 12th-century burials in Veliky Novgorod. The kokoshnik gave its name to the decorative corbel arch that became an element of traditional Russian architecture from 16th century onwards. During the revival of Russian national culture in the early 19th century, diadem-shaped tiaras became part of the court dress for royalty. In this period both unmarried and married women wore the variety used traditionally by unmarried women, showing the front part of the hair, Russian peasant girls and women wore kokoshniks on special occasions until the Russian Revolution. After the Revolution Russian émigrés introduced the kokoshnik to the rest of European fashion, as of 2014 kokoshniks are worn chiefly by girls and women in Russian folk ensembles. A kokoshnik is also a part of the costume of Snegurochka. Queen Marie of Romania wore a Cartier tiara created to resemble the Russian kokoshnik for her 1924 portrait painted by Philip de László. The tiara was among the jewels on display in the “Cartier, Style, ochipok Fontange Media related to Kokoshnik at Wikimedia Commons Kokoshnik in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia
38.
John of Kronstadt
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Saint John of Kronstadt was a Russian Orthodox Christian presbyter and a member of the synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Wonder-Working Father John Sergiev is another of the great elders and he also reawakened the Russian Orthodox Church to the Apostolic tradition of receiving Holy Communion at every Divine Liturgy. This is why he is most commonly portrayed holding a Communion chalice and he was born as Ivan Ilyich Sergiyev on 19 October 1829 at Sura, near the White Sea, in Russia. From 1855 he worked as a priest in Saint Andrews Cathedral, Kronstadt, here he committed himself to charity, especially to those who were remote from the Church, and travelled extensively throughout the Russian empire. He was a member of the conservative Union of the Russian People, Father John became well known, and people from all over Russia came to him every day in thousands. Even the dying Tsar Alexander III, in 1894, summoned him to Livadia Palace so he could be given communion by St. John, in 1909 Nicholas II wrote an order to establish commemoration of St. John in the Church. Following it the Holy Synod issued an edict to commemorate St, Father John annually at the day of his death. He was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia in 1964, archbishop John Maximovitch of Shanghai and San Francisco played an active role in preparation of St. Johns canonization. His life and work are commemorated on the feast days of 20 December and October 19, many churches around the world and Ioannovsky Convent, the second largest monastic community in St Petersburg are dedicated to St. John of Kronstadt. Aus dem Tagebuch, Übers. v. S. H. Kurio, München 2008, ISBN 978-3-935217-33-0. By E. E. Goulaeff My Life in Christ at archive. org Sorrow and Joy, A Homily on the Day of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God at pravoslavie. ru Figes, a Peoples Tragedy, The Russian Revolution 1891–1924. «Из родословной семьи Сергиевых, Иоанн Ильич Сергиев и его семья», Наш храм,2002, №2, walter Laqueur, Der Schoß ist fruchtbar noch. Der militante Nationalismus der russischen Rechten, München 1995, S. 76–83, alla Selawry, Johannes von Kronstadt, Starez Rußlands, Dornach, Pforte,1989, ISBN 978-3-85636-064-1 Karl Christian Felmy, Predigt im orthodoxen Russland. Untersuchungen zu Inhalt und Eigenart der russischen Predigt in der 2, jahrhunderts, Göttingen 1972, Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, ISBN 3-525-56428-7 Aksenov, R. „Pasi ovzy Moja“. Utschenie o pastyrstwe swjatogo Ioanna Kronschtadtskogo, W pomoschtsch pastyrju, Klin 2002, Ioanna Kronschtadtskago o wospitatelnom snatschenii slowa Boschija, St. Petersburg 1909. Opisanie schisni i dejatelnosti otza Ioanna Kronschtadtskago, St. Petersburg 1910, La teologia eucaristica di Ioann di Kronstadt, trans. by E. Cosentino, in, La Grande Vigilia, ed. A. Mainardi, Spiritualità orientale, Bose 1998, 225-242. Po sotschinenijam swjatogo prawednogo Ioanna Kronschtadtskogo, Sergiew Posad 2007, ISBN 978-5-9900983-1-2, Father John of Kronstadt and the Russian People, Studies of the Harriman Institute, The Penn State Series in Lived Religious Experience, University Park 22003, ISBN 0-271-01976-X. Knechten, H. M. Licht in der Finsternis – Johannes von Kronstadt, Studien zur russischen Spiritualität VII, Kamen 2010, ornatski, I. N. Schitie i trudy prisnopamjatnogo protoiereja prawednika o
39.
Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden
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Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden, also known as Sophia Karlovna Buxhoeveden, was a lady in waiting to Tsarina Alexandra of Russia. She was the author of three memoirs about the family and about her own escape from Russia. In her book Before the Storm, Sophie describes a side of old Russia seldom seen elsewhere, a family in the old-fashioned provincial country life of the gentry in the years before the revolution. As a child, Sophie shared picnics and mushroom hunts with other players in the tragic story such as Anna Vyrubova, Felix Yussupov, Dmitri Pavlovich. According to her memoirs, Buxhoevedens father, Karlos Buxhoeveden, was the Russian minister in Copenhagen, in her youth, she was a part of the social life of St. Petersburg. Buxhoeveden was chosen as an honorary Lady in Waiting to the Tsarina in 1904 and she was nicknamed Isa by the Tsarina and her four daughters and, during World War I, was often chosen by the Tsarina to accompany the four grand duchesses to official duties. She had no time for Grigori Rasputin, but witnessed his miracles first-hand and was baffled by his powers, Alexandra would have liked her to accept Rasputin as a holy man, but knew Buxhoevedens opinion was not likely to be changed. The fact she kept her negative opinion to herself was appreciated by the Empress and she followed the family to exile in Siberia following the Russian Revolution of 1917. Sophie spent many months on the run across Siberia, with members of the royal household, including Gibbes. She was only allowed safe passage out of Russia when she made it to Omsk, which was then under the control of the Russian White Army and her harrowing experiences can be read in her book Left Behind. Amateur historians have accused her of betraying the family by taking money from them, such a proposition has been completely disproven since the Bolsheviks had no idea the jewels were in the clothes until after the execution. Yurovsky stated They shot the daughters but nothing happened, then Yermakov set the bayonet in motion, only in the forest did I discover what hampered the shooting of the daughters. According to King and Wilson, Yurovsky wrote in his 1922 memoirs about the valuables and jewels we knew they had concealed in their clothes when they arrived. This is why neither bullets nor bayonets yielded results during the shooting, the relic was identified by two former servants who had helped the Grand Duchesses sew the jewels into the clothing. King and Wilson allege that Buxhoeveden borrowed 1,300 rubles from the Romanov childrens tutor Charles Sydney Gibbes to escape Russia and it is claimed she told him shed return the money, but never did. I knew she was greedy, but I never knew shed go that far, Gibbes wrote to the French tutor Pierre Gilliard. Others said that Sophies apparent poverty, as described by Gilliard and Gibbes, is proof she never had any money, at her own admission, Sophies rooms had been searched, and nothing of value had been found. One source of the allegations blaming her with theft from the family was Boris Soloviev and he was the husband of Maria Rasputin, author of historically disproven books, having married her to gain the trust of Rasputin supporters who were financing a plot to rescue the Romanovs
40.
Rostov
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Rostov is a town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, one of the oldest in the country and a tourist center of the Golden Ring. It is located on the shores of Lake Nero,202 kilometers northeast of Moscow, while the official name of the town is Rostov, it is also known to Russians as Rostov Veliky, i. e. This name is used to distinguish it from Rostov-on-Don, which is now a larger city. Rostov Yaroslavsky is the name of its railway station. First mentioned in the year 862 as an important settlement. It was incorporated into Muscovy in 1474, even after it lost its independence, Rostov was still an ecclesiastic center of utmost importance. In the 14th Century, the bishops of Rostov became archbishops, one of those metropolitans, Iona Sysoyevich, commissioned the towns main landmark, the kremlin that many regard as the finest outside of Moscow. Ravaged by the Mongols in the 13th and 14th centuries and the Poles in 1608, the metropolitan see was transferred to Yaroslavl late in the 18th century. Apart from its history, Rostov is renowned for its enamels, within the framework of administrative divisions, Rostov serves as the administrative center of Rostovsky District, even though it is not a part of it. As an administrative division, it is incorporated separately as the town of oblast significance of Rostov—an administrative unit with the equal to that of the districts. As a municipal division, the town of oblast significance of Rostov is incorporated within Rostovsky Municipal District as Rostov Urban Settlement, the central square of Rostov is occupied by the Assumption Cathedral. It is unknown when the present building was erected, the century being the most likely date. Lower parts of the walls are dated to the 12th century. The ponderous bell-tower was constructed mostly in the 17th century and its bells are among the largest and most famous in Russia - each has its own name. The largest bell, cast in 1688, weighs 32,000 kilograms and it is named Sysoy to honor the citys founding father. An area situated between the square and the lake was chosen by Iona Sysoevich as a place for his fairy-tale residence. All the construction works were carried out between 1667 and 1694, major buildings include the ornate Savior Church-na-Senyakh, the sombre Church of St. Gregory, and the barbican churches of St. John the Apostle and of the Resurrection of Christ. The residence, often erroneously called kremlin, also includes eleven ornate tower bells, numerous palaces, several small belfries, all the churches are elaborately painted and decorated
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