1.
Parliament of Poland
–
The parliament of Poland has an upper house, the Senate, and a lower house, the Sejm. Both houses are accommodated by the Sejm complex in Warsaw, the parliament itself is without an official name, the Constitution of Poland refers only to the Sejm and the Senate. Members of both houses are elected by election, usually every four years. The Sejm has 460 members, while the Senate has 100 senators, to become law, a bill must first be approved by both houses, but the Sejm can override a Senate refusal to pass a bill. On certain occasions, the Marshal of the Sejm summons the National Assembly and its function is mostly ceremonial in nature, and it convenes only occasionally, such as to witness the inauguration of the President. Debating halls have designated seats for the deputies, senators and the Marshal, seats are also equipped in voting devices, used by deputies and senators to vote
Parliament of Poland
Parliament of Poland
2.
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
Russian Empire
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Peter the Great officially renamed the Tsardom of Russia the Russian Empire in 1721, and himself its first emperor. He instituted the
sweeping reforms and oversaw the transformation of Russia into a major European power.
Russian Empire
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Flag
Russian Empire
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Empress
Catherine the Great, who reigned from 1762 to 1796, continued the empire's expansion and modernization. Considering herself an
enlightened absolutist, she played a key role in the
Russian Enlightenment.
Russian Empire
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Catherine II Sestroretsk Rouble (1771) is made of solid copper measuring 77 millimetres (3 3 ⁄ 100 in) (diameter), 26 millimetres (1 1 ⁄ 50 in) (thickness), and weighs 1.022 kg (2.25 lb). It is the largest copper coin ever issued.
3.
Real union
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Real Unión Club de Irún, S. A. D. is a Spanish football club based in Irun, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country, in the province of Gipuzkoa, near the border with France. Founded in 1915 it currently plays in Segunda División B, holding home matches at the 5, the club was formed in 1915 following the merger of Irún Sporting Club and Racing Club de Irún. The former was founded in 1902 as Irún Foot-Ball Club, changing its name in 1907, the latter, formed in 1908, had already won the 1913 Copa del Rey, beating Athletic Bilbao 1–0 in a replayed final. The club was known as Unión Club Irún before Alfonso XIII gave the club royal approval. During the Second Spanish Republic the club reverted to this name, Real Unión subsequently won the Copa del Rey a further three times, beating Real Madrid in 1918 and again in 1924. In 1927 they defeated Arenas Getxo in the only final to date. In 1922 they were runners-up, losing 5–1 to FC Barcelona, the club were relegated from La Liga in 1932. In 1920, when Spain made their debut at the Olympic Games. Another Real Unión player, René Petit, took part in the same Olympic Games with France, in the 70s and 80s, Spanish internationals Javier Irureta and Roberto López Ufarte began their career with the club. It was the first time in history that Real Madrid were eliminated by a Segunda División B team at home, the club finally returned to the Segunda División after a 44-year absence, successively defeating CE Sabadell FC and AD Alcorcón in the 2008–09 promotion play-offs. However, it would be a return, as the team was immediately relegated. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality, Copa del Rey,1913,1918,1924,1927. Guipuzcoan Championship, 1919–20, 1920–21, 1921–22, 1923–24, 1925–26, 1927–28, 1929–30, note, this list includes players that have played at least 100 league games and/or have reached international status. Category, Real Unión footballers Steve Bloomer Javier Zubillaga Official website Futbolme team profile
Real union
4.
Vistula Land
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It also continued to be informally known as Russian Poland or the Russian partition. In 1831, in the aftermath of the November Uprising, the Polish Army, the constitution was replaced by the much less liberal and never fully implemented Organic Statute of the Kingdom of Poland. Also all universities were closed, only to be reopened several years later as purely Russian-language high schools, for a short time the territory maintained certain degree of autonomy. The former Kingdom of Poland continued to use the Polish currency, however, by 1832 the currency and the customs border were abolished, as was the metric system and the Polish penal code. Also the Catholic Church was persecuted and most monasteries were closed and nationalized, in 1839, following the Synod of Polotsk, the Greek-Catholic Church disbanded itself and united with the Russian Orthodox Church. After 1837 all voivodeships that constituted the Kingdom of Poland were turned into gubernias and became a part of Russian administrative division. The 1867 reform, initiated after the failure of the January Uprising, was designed to tie the Kingdom of Poland more tightly to the structure of the Russian Empire. It divided larger governorates into smaller ones and introduced a new lower-level entity, the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Poland was abolished at this time. Despite the abolition of the Kingdom of Poland, the tsars of Russia retained the title Tsar of Poland, the territory was a namestnichestvo until 1875 and later Governorate General, ruled by the Namestniks and Governor Generals of Poland. In the 1880s, the language was changed to Russian. The name Vistula Land first appeared in documents in 1888 although more recent scholarship traced it back to 1883. A minor reform of 1893 transferred some territory from the Płock, a more extensive 1912 reform created a new governorate—Chełm Governorate —from parts of the Siedlce and Lublin Governorates. However this was split off from the Privislinsky Krai and made part of the Southwestern Krai of the Russian Empire, in 1915 during World War I the retreating Russian army looted and abandoned the Kingdom of Poland, trying to emulate the scorched-earth policy adopted during the 1812 invasion. The Russians also evicted and deported hundreds of thousands of the areas inhabitants whom they suspected of collaborating with the enemy, as the Russians retreated, the Central Powers occupied the area, subsequently they proposed the establishment of the Kingdom of Poland. In the March 1918 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Russia, effectively ceded all Polish territories it had formerly possessed to the German Empire, kresy Western Krai a ^ Sources agree that after the fall of the January Uprising in 1864, the autonomy of Congress Poland was drastically reduced. Encyklopedia WIEM, Królestwo Polskie po powstaniu styczniowym, Nazwę Królestwa Polskiego zastąpiła, w urzędowej terminologii, po rewolucji 1905-1907 w Królestwie Polskim. W latach 1914-1916 Królestwo Polskie stało się, Kingdom of Poland after the January Uprising, the name Kingdom of Poland was replaced, in official documents, by the name of Vistula land. However the same article also states, After the revolution 1905-1907 in the Kingdom of Poland
Vistula Land
–
Russian map of Привислинский край (Vistula Land) from 1896
5.
Flag of Poland
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The flag of Poland consists of two horizontal stripes of equal width, the upper one white and the lower one red. The two colors are defined in the Polish constitution as the national colors, a variant of the flag with the national coat of arms in the middle of the white stripe is legally reserved for official use abroad and at sea. A similar flag with the addition of a swallow-tail is used as the ensign of Poland. White and red were adopted as national colors in 1831. Prior to that, Polish soldiers wore cockades of various color combinations, the national flag was officially adopted in 1919. Since 2004, Polish Flag Day is celebrated on May 2, the flag is flown continuously on the buildings of the highest national authorities, such as the parliament and the presidential palace. Other institutions and many Polish people fly the flag on national holidays. Current Polish law does not restrict the use of the flag without the coat of arms as long as the flag is not disrespected. Horizontal bicolors of white and red being a widespread design, there are several flags that are similar. There are two national flags with the red stripe above the one, those of Indonesia and Monaco. In Poland, many based on the national design also feature the national colors. Legislation concerning the symbols is far from perfect. The Coat of Arms Act has been amended several times and refers extensively to executive ordinances, moreover, the Act contains errors, omissions and inconsistencies which make the law confusing, open to various interpretations and often not followed in practice. According to Chapter I, Article 28, paragraph 2 of the Constitution, the national colors of Poland are white and red. The Coat of Arms Act, Article 4, further specifies that the colors are white and red in two horizontal, parallel stripes of width, of which the top one is white. If the colors are displayed vertically, the stripe is placed on the left from the onlookers viewpoint. The Constitution contains no mention of a national flag, both flags are defined in Article 6 of the act as follows, The state flag of the Republic of Poland is a rectangular piece of cloth in the colors of the Republic of Poland hoisted on a flagpole. The state flag of the Republic of Poland is also the flag specified in paragraph 1, the hoist to fly ratio for both flags is 5,8
Flag of Poland
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Flag without coat of arms
Flag of Poland
–
Poland
Flag of Poland
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Flag with coat of arms
Flag of Poland
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Polish (white and red), papal (yellow and white) and Marian or municipal (white and blue) flags in
Kraków 's
Grand Square during
Pope Benedict XVI 's visit to Poland on May 27, 2006.
6.
Coat of arms of Poland
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The coat of arms of Poland is a white, crowned eagle with a golden beak and talons, on a red background. Legislation concerning the symbols is far from perfect. The Coat of Arms Act has been amended several times and refers extensively to executive ordinances, moreover, the Act contains errors, omissions and inconsistencies which make the law confusing, open to various interpretations and often not followed in practice. According to Chapter I, Article 28, paragraph 1 of the Constitution, the Coat of Arms Act, Article 4, further specifies that the crown, as well as the eagles beak and talons, are golden. The eagles wings are outstretched and its head is turned to its right, in English heraldic terminology, the arms are blazoned as Gules an Eagle Argent crowned, beaked and armed Or. In contrast to classic heraldry, where the same blazon may be rendered into varying designs, the official design may be found in attachment no.1 to the Coat of Arms Act. The nearly circular charge, i. e. the image of the eagle, is highly stylized. The heraldic bird is depicted with its wings and legs outstretched, its head turned to the right, the eagles plumage, as well as its tongue and leg scales are white with gradient shading suggestive of a bas-relief. Each wing is adorned with a band extending from the birds torso to the upper edge of the wing, terminating in a heraldic cinquefoil. Note that a cinquefoil is a stylized five-leafed plant, not a star, three of its leaves are embossed like a trefoil. In heraldic terms, the eagle is armed, that is to say, its beak and talons are rendered in gold, the crown on the eagles head consists of a base and three fleurons extending from it. The base is adorned with three roughly rectangular gemstones, the fleurons – of which the two outer ones are only partly visible – have the shape of a fleur-de-lis. The entire crown, including the gems, as well as spaces between the fleurons, is rendered in gold, the charge is placed in an escutcheon of the Modern French type. It is a rectangular upright isosceles trapezoid, rounded at the bottom, whose upper base is slightly longer than the lower one. Although the shield is an part of the coat of arms, Polish law stipulates, in certain cases. The shades of the tinctures, white and red, which are the national colors of Poland, are specified as coordinates in the CIE1976 color space. According to legend, the White Eagle emblem originated when Polands legendary founder Lech saw a white eagles nest. When he looked at the bird, a ray of sunshine from the red setting sun fell on its wings, so they appeared tipped with gold and he was delighted and decided to settle there and placed the eagle on his emblem
Coat of arms of Poland
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Tapestry with the coats of arms of the
Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, ca. 1555
Coat of arms of Poland
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Coat of arms of Poland
Coat of arms of Poland
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A silver heraldic base for King
John Casimir 's
crown, ca. 1666
Coat of arms of Poland
–
King of Poland in tournamental attire
7.
Polish national songs
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This is a list of Polish national and patriotic songs. Bogurodzica A religious hymn to the Virgin Mary dating back to between 10th and 13th centuries and it was a de facto national anthem of medieval Poland, sung at royal coronations and on battlefields, including the Battle of Grunwald in 1410 and the Battle of Varna in 1444. Gaude Mater Polonia A hymn written in the 13th century by Wincenty of Kielcza and it was penned in Medieval Latin to the melody of a Gregorian chant, O salutaris Hostia. The hymn celebrates the canonization of Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów, bishop of Kraków, in the Middle Ages, it was chanted on special occasions and after victorious battles. Today, it is performed at university ceremonies, daj nam Boże doczekać tej pory, by do ataku nachylić propory Soldiers song which originated in Prince Józef Poniatowskis division and gained some popularity at the end of the 18th century. The lyrics convey the idea that love of Country gives meaning to poverty, wounds, mazurek Dąbrowskiego Soldiers song written in 1797 by Gen. Józef Wybicki in praise of Gen. Jan Henryk Dąbrowski, commander of the Polish Legions serving in Italy under Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1926 it became the national anthem of Poland. Boże, coś Polskę Originally written in 1816 by Alojzy Feliński as Pieśń narodowa na pomyślność Króla and it was the official anthem of the Congress Kingdom of Poland reigned over by Russian emperors who were ex officio kings of Poland. Initially unpopular, it evolved in the early 1860s into an important religious and patriotic hymn. The final verse, which originally begged Save, Oh Lord, our King, was substituted with Return us, Oh Lord, warszawianka Originally written in 1831 by Casimir Delavigne in French as La Varsovienne, with melody composed by Karol Kurpiński. The song praised the November Uprising of 1830 and, translated into Polish by Karol Sienkiewicz, gdy naród do boju A patriotic socialist song written in 1835 by Gustaw Ehrenberg to the melody of an aria from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts opera Don Juan. The lyrics denounce the loyalist attitude of Polish magnates, noblemen, the song was popular with members of Polish socialist and agrarian movements and became an anthem of the Polish Peoples Army during World War II. Warszawianka A revolutionary song written in 1879 by socialist Wacław Święcicki imprisoned in the Warsaw Citadel, First sung in the streets of Warsaw in 1885, it became particularly popular during the Revolution of 1905. Its popularity spread to Russia proper and from there to Germany, France and Spain, where it known as A las barricadas. Special modified version of Rota has been prepared against Soviet Union after WWII when Poland became dependent, Marsz Pierwszej Brygady Soldiers song written in 1917 by Andrzej Hałaciński and Tadeusz Biernacki to the melody of Marsz Kielecki composed by Andrzej Brzuchal-Sikorski in 1905. It was originally sung by soldiers of the First Brigade of the Polish Legions commanded by Józef Piłsudski during World War I, during Piłsudskis military dictatorship following the coup of May 1926, the song was an unofficial national anthem of Poland. In 2007, it became the anthem of the Polish Armed Forces. Morze, nasze morze Written at the turn of the 1930s by Adam Kowalski to praise the sailors of Polands nascent navy and to celebrate the construction of Gdynia and it is now the official anthem of the Polish Navy
Polish national songs
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Sheet music for Bogurodzica from 1407
8.
Warsaw
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Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It stands on the Vistula River in east-central Poland, roughly 260 kilometres from the Baltic Sea and 300 kilometres from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population is estimated at 1.750 million residents within a metropolitan area of 3.101 million residents. The city limits cover 516.9 square kilometres, while the area covers 6,100.43 square kilometres. In 2012 the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Warsaw as the 32nd most liveable city in the world and it was also ranked as one of the most liveable cities in Central Europe. Today Warsaw is considered an Alpha– global city, an international tourist destination. Warsaws economy, by a variety of industries, is characterised by FMCG manufacturing, metal processing, steel and electronic manufacturing. The city is a significant centre of research and development, BPO, ITO, the Warsaw Stock Exchange is one of the largest and most important in Central and Eastern Europe. Frontex, the European Union agency for external security, has its headquarters in Warsaw. It has been said that Warsaw, together with Frankfurt, London, Paris, the city is positioning itself as Eastern Europe’s chic cultural capital with thriving art and club scenes and serious restaurants. The first historical reference to Warsaw dates back to the year 1313, after the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, Warsaw was incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia. In 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars, the city became the capital of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. In accordance with the decisions of the Congress of Vienna, the Russian Empire annexed Warsaw in 1815, only in 1918 did it regain independence from the foreign rule and emerge as a new capital of the independent Republic of Poland. Warsaw gained the title of the Phoenix City because it has survived wars, conflicts. Most notably, the city required painstaking rebuilding after the damage it suffered in World War II. On 9 November 1940, the city was awarded Polands highest military decoration for heroism, the historic city-centre of Warsaw with its picturesque Old Town in 1980 was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Buildings represent examples of nearly every European architectural style and historical period, folk etymology attributes the city name to a fisherman, Wars, and his wife, Sawa. According to legend, Sawa was a living in the Vistula River with whom Wars fell in love
Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw
9.
Polish language
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Polish is a West Slavic language spoken primarily in Poland and is the native language of the Poles. It belongs to the Lechitic subgroup of the West Slavic languages, Polish is the official language of Poland, but it is also used throughout the world by Polish minorities in other countries. It is one of the languages of the European Union. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet, which has 9 additions to the letters of the basic Latin script, Polish is closely related to Kashubian, Silesian, Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian, Czech and Slovak. It is also the second most widely spoken Slavic language, after Russian, in history, Polish is known to be an important language, both diplomatically and academically in Central and Eastern Europe. Today, Polish is spoken by over 38.5 million people as their first language in Poland. It is also spoken as a language in western parts of Belarus and Ukraine, west and central Lithuania, as well as the northern parts of the Czech Republic. There are 55 million Polish language speakers around the world, Polish began to emerge as a distinct language around the 10th century, the process largely triggered by the establishment and development of the Polish state. With Christianity, Poland also adopted the Latin alphabet, which made it possible to write down Polish, the precursor to modern Polish is the Old Polish language. Ultimately, Polish is thought to descend from the unattested Proto-Slavic language, Poland is the most linguistically homogeneous European country, nearly 97% of Polands citizens declare Polish as their first language. Elsewhere, Poles constitute large minorities in Lithuania, Belarus, Polish is the most widely used minority language in Lithuanias Vilnius County and is found elsewhere in southeastern Lithuania. There are significant numbers of Polish speakers among Polish emigrants and their descendants in many other countries, in the United States, Polish Americans number more than 11 million but most of them cannot speak Polish fluently. The largest concentrations of Polish speakers reported in the census were found in three states, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey. Enough people in these areas speak Polish that PNC Financial Services offer services available in Polish at all of their machines in addition to English and Spanish. According to the 2011 census there are now over 500,000 people in England, in Canada, there is a significant Polish Canadian population, There are 242,885 speakers of Polish according to the 2006 census, with a particular concentration in Toronto and Montreal. The geographical distribution of the Polish language was affected by the territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II. Poles settled in the Recovered Territories in the west and north and this tendency toward a homogeneity also stems from the vertically integrated nature of the authoritarian Polish Peoples Republic. The inhabitants of different regions of Poland still speak standard Polish somewhat differently, first-language speakers of Polish have no trouble understanding each other, and non-native speakers may have difficulty distinguishing regional variations
Polish language
–
The oldest printed text in Polish – Statuta synodalia Episcoporum Wratislaviensis printed in 1475 in
Wrocław by Kasper Elyan.
Polish language
–
Polish
Polish language
–
The
Jakub Wujek Bible in Polish, 1599 print
10.
Russian language
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Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi
Russian language
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Russian language street sign in
Russia.
Russian language
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Russian minimarket in
Limassol, Cyprus; translation: "Teremok market. Russian goods. Phone number: 96 74 19 63"
Russian language
–
This page from an "ABC" book printed in Moscow in 1694 shows the letter
П.
Russian language
–
The
Ostromir Gospels of 1056 is the second oldest
East Slavic book known, one of many medieval
illuminated manuscripts preserved in the
Russian National Library.
11.
Roman Catholicism
–
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church or the Universal Church, is the largest Christian church, with more than 1.28 billion members worldwide. As one of the oldest religious institutions in the world, it has played a prominent role in the history, headed by the Bishop of Rome, known as the Pope, the churchs doctrines are summarised in the Nicene Creed and the Apostles Creed. Its central administration is located in Vatican City, enclaved within Rome, the Catholic Church is notable within Western Christianity for its sacred tradition and seven sacraments. It teaches that it is the one church founded by Jesus Christ, that its bishops are the successors of Christs apostles. The Catholic Church maintains that the doctrine on faith and morals that it declares as definitive is infallible. The Latin Church, the Eastern Catholic Churches, as well as such as mendicant orders and enclosed monastic orders. Among the sacraments, the one is the Eucharist, celebrated liturgically in the Mass. The church teaches that through consecration by a priest the sacrificial bread and wine become the body, the Catholic Church practises closed communion, with only baptised members in a state of grace ordinarily permitted to receive the Eucharist. The Virgin Mary is venerated in the Catholic Church as Queen of Heaven and is honoured in numerous Marian devotions. The Catholic Church has influenced Western philosophy, science, art and culture, Catholic spiritual teaching includes spreading the Gospel while Catholic social teaching emphasises support for the sick, the poor and the afflicted through the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. The Catholic Church is the largest non-government provider of education and medical services in the world, from the late 20th century, the Catholic Church has been criticised for its doctrines on sexuality, its refusal to ordain women and its handling of sexual abuse cases. Catholic was first used to describe the church in the early 2nd century, the first known use of the phrase the catholic church occurred in the letter from Saint Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans, written about 110 AD. In the Catechetical Discourses of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, the name Catholic Church was used to distinguish it from other groups that call themselves the church. The use of the adjective Roman to describe the Church as governed especially by the Bishop of Rome became more widespread after the Fall of the Western Roman Empire and into the Early Middle Ages. Catholic Church is the name used in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church follows an episcopal polity, led by bishops who have received the sacrament of Holy Orders who are given formal jurisdictions of governance within the church. Ultimately leading the entire Catholic Church is the Bishop of Rome, commonly called the pope, in parallel to the diocesan structure are a variety of religious institutes that function autonomously, often subject only to the authority of the pope, though sometimes subject to the local bishop. Most religious institutes only have male or female members but some have both, additionally, lay members aid many liturgical functions during worship services
Roman Catholicism
–
Saint Peter's Basilica,
Vatican City
Roman Catholicism
–
St. Peter's Basilica,
Vatican City
Roman Catholicism
–
Pope Francis, elected in the
papal conclave, 2013
Roman Catholicism
–
Traditional graphic representation of the Trinity: The earliest attested version of the diagram, from a manuscript of
Peter of Poitiers ' writings, c. 1210
12.
Polish Reformed Church
–
An internal census showed that in 2004 the Polish Reformed Church had about 3,500 members. In 2003 the Church ordained its first woman minister and two female students are in training. The Polish Reformed Church is a minority church in Poland, where roughly 90% of the people are Roman Catholics, one of Polands other religious minorities is the larger Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland, a Lutheran Protestant church with around 80,000 members. The church is administered by a consistory elected every three years, and chaired by a layperson, the official representative of the church is its Bishop, elected for a ten-year term. The highest ecclesiastical governing body is the synod, which every year and has lay. The Polish Reformed movement goes back to the half of the 16th century when the teachings of Swiss Reformers like Zwingli, earlier, Lutheranism had made way to Poland, especially in the cities. Though the king opposed new thought, humanists all across Poland, the first Reformed church service was held in 1550 in Pińczów, a little town nearby Kraków, where the local noble owner converted to the Reformed Faith, expelled the monks, ’purging’ the city church. Other nobles soon followed suit and the first Reformed synod in Lesser Poland was held in 1564 in Słomniki, thus the Lesser Poland Brethren was formed. In the meantime in the North of Poland another Reformed church was formed, the number of their congregations quickly swelled from 20 in 1555 to 64 in 1570. Their main centre was the city of Leszno, where they were settled under the patronage of the devotedly Reformed Leszczyński family, thus the Greater Poland Brethren also called the Czech Brethren, was formed. He was generally unpopular among the Catholic hierarchy because of his Lutheran beliefs, soon he was followed by his cousin Mikołaj the Red Radziwiłł and other aristocrats. The first synod was held in 1557, and two later the Lithuanians signed a Union agreement with the Lesser Poland Brethren. A huge number of converts were attracted from Orthodox nobility, thus the Lithuanian Brethren came into being. In 1556 John a Lasco returned from Western Europe to help with the organisation of the Polish Reformed church. Unfortunately, exhausted from overwork, he died in 1560, having achieved only the consolidation of the Lesser Reformed Brethren, in the same year, the Second Helvetic Confession was translated to Polish and was adopted by the Lithuanian and Lesser Poland Brethren. The strength of the Polish Protestants was shown when in 1573 a law was passed foreboding any persecution based on religion, the Protestants formed also over 65% members of the Lower and just about a half of the Upper Houses of Parliament. The Reformed opened excellent schools in Pińczów, Leszno, Kraków, Vilnius, Kėdainiai and Słuck, printed the first complete Bible in Polish, though grouping mainly nobles and aristocrats, it managed to have some following among the peasantry as well. At the same time the movement was rising in strength, there were signs of Catholic revival, jesuits were invited to Poland by the clergy in 1565, and these friars soon advocated more stringent methods of combating ‘heresy’
Polish Reformed Church
–
Mikolaj "the Black" Radziwiłł
Polish Reformed Church
–
Huguenot cross
13.
Russian Orthodox Church
–
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
Russian Orthodox Church
–
The
Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in
Moscow Russian: Храм Христа Спасителя [Khram Khrista Spasitelya]
Russian Orthodox Church
–
Russian Orthodox monks defended the
Trinity Lavra monastery against Polish-Lithuanian troops during the
Time of Troubles.
Russian Orthodox Church
–
An Old Believer Priest,
Nikita Pustosviat, Disputing with Patriarch Joachim the Matters of Faith. Painting by
Vasily Perov
14.
Polish Orthodox Church
–
The Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church, commonly known as the Polish Orthodox Church, or Church of Poland is one of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Churches in full communion. In total, it has approximately 600,000 adherents, the establishment of the church was undertaken after the Treaty of Riga left a large amount of territory previously under the control of the Russian Empire, as part of the Second Polish Republic. Eastern Orthodoxy was widespread in the Belarusian Western Belarus regions and the Ukrainian Volhynia, during the interwar period, however, the Polish authorities imposed severe restrictions on the church and its clergy. The most famous example, the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Warsaw was destroyed, in Volyhnia a total of 190 Orthodox Churches were destroyed and a further 150 converted to Roman Catholicism. Several court hearings against the Pochayiv Lavra also took place, the remaining parishes that were now on the territory of the Polish Peoples Republic were kept by the PAOC, including most of the mixed easternmost territories such as around Chełm and Białystok. In 1948, under pressure from the Russian Orthodox Church, the Ecumenical Patriarchate granted the PAOC autocephalous status, the European bishops, however, have left the jurisdiction on 2000, which eventually resulted on senior Bishop Chrysostom being raised to archepiscopal dignity. There are now parishes in the states of Rio de Janeiro, Pernambuco and Paraíba, in 2003, following the decision of the Holy Sobor of Bishops of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church, the New Martyrs of Chelm and Podlasie suffering persecution during the 1940s were canonized. The church is headed by the Archbishop of Warsaw and Metropolitan of All Poland, Sawa Hrycuniak
Polish Orthodox Church
–
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Łódź
Polish Orthodox Church
–
Orthodox church in
Białowieża
15.
Judaism
–
Judaism encompasses the religion, philosophy, culture and way of life of the Jewish people. Judaism is an ancient monotheistic Abrahamic religion, with the Torah as its text, and supplemental oral tradition represented by later texts such as the Midrash. Judaism is considered by religious Jews to be the expression of the relationship that God established with the Children of Israel. With between 14.5 and 17.4 million adherents worldwide, Judaism is the tenth-largest religion in the world, Judaism includes a wide corpus of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization. Modern branches of Judaism such as Humanistic Judaism may be nontheistic, today, the largest Jewish religious movements are Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism. Major sources of difference between groups are their approaches to Jewish law, the authority of the Rabbinic tradition. Orthodox Judaism maintains that the Torah and Jewish law are divine in origin, eternal and unalterable, Conservative and Reform Judaism are more liberal, with Conservative Judaism generally promoting a more traditional interpretation of Judaisms requirements than Reform Judaism. A typical Reform position is that Jewish law should be viewed as a set of guidelines rather than as a set of restrictions and obligations whose observance is required of all Jews. Historically, special courts enforced Jewish law, today, these still exist. Authority on theological and legal matters is not vested in any one person or organization, the history of Judaism spans more than 3,000 years. Judaism has its roots as a religion in the Middle East during the Bronze Age. Judaism is considered one of the oldest monotheistic religions, the Hebrews and Israelites were already referred to as Jews in later books of the Tanakh such as the Book of Esther, with the term Jews replacing the title Children of Israel. Judaisms texts, traditions and values strongly influenced later Abrahamic religions, including Christianity, Islam, many aspects of Judaism have also directly or indirectly influenced secular Western ethics and civil law. Jews are a group and include those born Jewish and converts to Judaism. In 2015, the world Jewish population was estimated at about 14.3 million, Judaism thus begins with ethical monotheism, the belief that God is one and is concerned with the actions of humankind. According to the Tanakh, God promised Abraham to make of his offspring a great nation, many generations later, he commanded the nation of Israel to love and worship only one God, that is, the Jewish nation is to reciprocate Gods concern for the world. He also commanded the Jewish people to one another, that is. These commandments are but two of a corpus of commandments and laws that constitute this covenant, which is the substance of Judaism
Judaism
–
Judaica (clockwise from top):
Shabbat candlesticks,
handwashing cup,
Chumash and
Tanakh,
Torah pointer,
shofar and
etrog box
Judaism
–
Silver case containing a handwritten
Torah (
Museum of Jewish Art and History, Paris)
Judaism
–
Glass platter inscribed with the Hebrew word zokhreinu – remember us
Judaism
–
A 19th-century silver
Macedonian Hanukkah menorah
16.
Constitutional monarchy
–
A constitutional monarchy is a form of monarchy in which the sovereign exercises their authorities in accordance with a written or unwritten constitution. A constitutional monarchy may refer to a system in which the acts as a non-party political head of state under the constitution. Political scientist Vernon Bogdanor, paraphrasing Thomas Macaulay, has defined a constitutional monarch as a sovereign who reigns, in addition to acting as a visible symbol of national unity, a constitutional monarch may hold formal powers such as dissolving parliament or giving royal assent to legislation. Many constitutional monarchies still retain significant authorities or political influence however, such as through certain reserve powers, the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms are all constitutional monarchies in the Westminster tradition of constitutional governance. Three states – Malaysia, Cambodia and the Holy See – are elective monarchies, the oldest constitutional monarchy dating back to ancient times was that of the Hittites. These were scattered noble families that worked as representatives of their subjects in an adjutant or subaltern federal-type landscape, the most recent country to move from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy was Bhutan, between 2007 and 2008. At the same time, in Scotland the Convention of Estates enacted the Claim of Right Act 1689, although Queen Anne was the last monarch to veto an Act of Parliament when in 1707 she blocked the Scottish Militia Bill, Hanoverian monarchs continued to selectively dictate government policies. For instance George III constantly blocked Catholic Emancipation, eventually precipitating the resignation of William Pitt the Younger as Prime Minister in 1801, Queen Victoria was the last monarch to exercise real personal power but this diminished over the course of her reign. In 1839 she became the last sovereign to keep a Prime Minister in power against the will of Parliament when the Bedchamber crisis resulted in the retention of Lord Melbournes administration, today, the role of the British monarch is by convention effectively ceremonial. No person may accept significant public office without swearing an oath of allegiance to the Queen, with few exceptions, the monarch is bound by constitutional convention to act on the advice of the Government. Constitutional monarchy also occurred briefly in the years of the French Revolution. As originally conceived, a monarch was head of the executive branch and quite a powerful figure even though his or her power was limited by the constitution. In many cases the monarchs, while still at the top of the political and social hierarchy, were given the status of servants of the people to reflect the new. In the course of Frances July Monarchy, Louis-Philippe I was styled King of the French rather than King of France, following the Unification of Germany, Otto von Bismarck rejected the British model. However this model of constitutional monarchy was discredited and abolished following Germanys defeat in the First World War. Later, Fascist Italy could also be considered as a constitutional monarchy and this eventually discredited the Italian monarchy and led to its abolition in 1946. After the Second World War, surviving European monarchies almost invariably adopted some variant of the constitutional monarchy model originally developed in Britain, nowadays a parliamentary democracy that is a constitutional monarchy is considered to differ from one that is a republic only in detail rather than in substance. However, three important factors distinguish monarchies such as the United Kingdom from systems where greater power might otherwise rest with Parliament, other privileges may be nominal or ceremonial
Constitutional monarchy
–
Constitutional monarchies with representative
parliamentary systems are shown in green. Other constitutional monarchies are shown in light green.
17.
List of Polish monarchs
–
This list concerns the historical monarchs of Poland, from the Middle Ages to 1795. For presidents and other heads of state of Poland during the 20th and 21st centuries, Poland was ruled at various times either by dukes or by kings. During the latter period, a tradition of election of monarchs made it a uniquely electable position in Europe. The birth of Poland as an independent nation coincides with the ascension of Duke Mieszko I and he was succeeded by his son, Bolesław I the Brave, who greatly expanded the boundaries of the Polish state and ruled as the first king in 1025. The following centuries gave rise to the mighty Piast dynasty, consisting of kings such as Mieszko II Lambert, Przemysł II or Władysław I the Elbow-high and dukes like Bolesław III Wrymouth. The dynasty ceased to exist with the death of Casimir III the Great in 1370, in the same year, the Capetian House of Anjou became the ruling house with Louis I as king of both Poland and Hungary. During the reign of Casimir IV Jagiellon and Sigismund I the Old culture flourished and this era of progress, also known as the Polish Renaissance, continued until the Union of Lublin under Sigismund II Augustus, which unofficially marked the end of the Polish Golden Age. The meaningful rule of the Vasa dynasty initially expanded the Commonwealth, developing the arts and crafts, as well as trade and commerce. King Sigismund III Vasa, a talented but somewhat despotic ruler, involved the country in many wars and his son, Władysław IV Vasa, fiercely defended the Commonwealths borders and continued the policy of his father until death, unlike John II Casimir whose tragic rule forced his abdication. The election of John III Sobieski to the Polish throne was a great success and his brilliant military tactics led to the victory at Vienna in 1683 and partial recapture of land from the Ottoman Empire. However, the years that followed werent as successful, the long and ineffective rule of the Wettin dynasty placed the Commonwealth under the influence of Saxony, additional feud with rebelled nobility and most notably Stanisław I Leszczyński and France diminished the influence of Poland-Lithuania in the region. This led to the partitions that occurred under King Stanisław II Augustus, yet another enlightened, the last sovereign was Frederick Augustus I as Duke of Warsaw, who throughout his political career attempted at rehabilitating the Polish state. After Poland declared independence in 1918, the monarchy was abolished, uwagi o godłach napieczętnych Piastów Histmag. org June 14,2009 Duczmal M. Jagiellonowie. Dybkowska A. Żaryn J. Żaryn M. Polskie dzieje, od czasów najdawniejszych po współczesność, wyd. Rzeczpospolita w dobie złotej wolności, Kraków 2001, ISBN 83-85719-56-3 Grodziski S. Polska w czasach przełomu, Kraków 2001. ISBN 83-85719-45-8 Grodziski S. Porównawcza historia ustrojów państwowych, Kraków 1998, ISBN 83-7052-840-6 Grzybowski S. Dzieje Polski i Litwy, Kraków 2000. ISBN 83-85719-48-2 Morby J. E. Dynastie świata, przewodnik chronologiczny i genealogiczny, Kraków 1995, s. ISBN 83-7006-263-6 Wyrozumski J. Dzieje Polski piastowskiej, Kraków 1999, henryk Brodaty i jego czasy, wyd
List of Polish monarchs
–
Krak
List of Polish monarchs
–
Royal coat of arms
List of Polish monarchs
–
Lech II
List of Polish monarchs
–
Wąda
18.
Alexander I of Russia
–
Alexander I reigned as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825. He was the son of Paul I and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg, Alexander was the first Russian King of Poland, reigning from 1815 to 1825, as well as the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland. He was sometimes called Alexander the Blessed and he was born in Saint Petersburg to Grand Duke Paul Petrovich, later Emperor Paul I, and succeeded to the throne after his father was murdered. He ruled Russia during the period of the Napoleonic Wars. As prince and emperor, Alexander often used liberal rhetoric, in the first years of his reign, he initiated some minor social reforms and major, liberal educational reforms, such as building more universities. He promised constitutional reforms and a desperately needed reform of serfdom in Russia, Alexander appointed Mikhail Speransky, the son of a village priest, as one of his closest advisors. The Collegia was abolished and replaced by the The State Council, plans were also made to set up a parliament and sign a constitution. In foreign policy, he changed Russias position relative to France four times between 1804 and 1812 among neutrality, opposition, and alliance and he fought a small-scale naval war against Britain between 1807 and 1812. He and Napoleon could never agree, especially about Poland, the tsars greatest triumph came in 1812 as Napoleons invasion of Russia proved a total disaster for the French. As part of the coalition against Napoleon he gained some spoils in Finland and Poland. He formed the Holy Alliance to suppress revolutionary movements in Europe that he saw as threats to legitimate Christian monarchs. He helped Austrias Klemens von Metternich in suppressing all national and liberal movements, in the second half of his reign he was increasingly arbitrary, reactionary and fearful of plots against him, he ended many earlier reforms. He purged schools of teachers, as education became more religiously oriented as well as politically conservative. Speransky was replaced as advisor with the artillery inspector Aleksey Arakcheyev. Alexander died of typhus in December 1825 while on a trip to southern Russia and he left no children as heirs and both of his brothers wanted the other to become emperor. After a period of confusion that included the failed Decembrist revolt of liberal army officers, he was succeeded by his younger brother. Alexander and his younger brother Constantine were raised by their grandmother, some sources allege that she planned to remove her son Paul I from the succession altogether. From the free-thinking atmosphere of the court of Catherine and his Swiss tutor, Frédéric-César de La Harpe, but from his military governor, Nikolay Saltykov, he imbibed the traditions of Russian autocracy
Alexander I of Russia
–
Equestrian Portrait by
Franz Krüger
Alexander I of Russia
–
Portrait of Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich, 1800
Alexander I of Russia
–
Alexander I of Russia
Alexander I of Russia
–
Portrait of Alexander I (1824) by
George Dawe
19.
Nicholas I of Russia
–
Nicholas I was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855. He was also the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland and his biographer Nicholas V. Riasanovsky says that Nicholas displayed determination, singleness of purpose, and an iron will, along with a powerful sense of duty and a dedication to very hard work. He saw himself as a junior officer totally consumed by spit. A handsome man, he was nervous and aggressive. Trained as an engineer, he was a stickler for minute detail, in his public persona, says Riasanovsky, Nicholas I came to represent autocracy personified, infinitely majestic, determined and powerful, hard as stone, and relentless as fate. His reign had an ideology called Official Nationality that was proclaimed officially in 1833 and it was a reactionary policy based on orthodoxy in religion, autocracy in government, and Russian nationalism. He was the brother of his predecessor, Alexander I. Nicholas inherited his brothers throne despite the failed Decembrist revolt against him and his aggressive foreign policy involved many expensive wars, having a disastrous effect on the empires finances. He was successful against Russias neighbouring southern rivals as he seized the last territories in the Caucasus held by Persia by successfully ending the Russo-Persian War and he ended the Russo-Turkish War successfully as well. Later on, however, he led Russia into the Crimean War with disastrous results, historians emphasize that his micromanagement of the armies hindered his generals, as did his misguided strategy. Fuller notes that historians have concluded that the reign of Nicholas I was a catastrophic failure in both domestic and foreign policy. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its zenith, spanning over 20 million square kilometers. Nicholas was born at Gatchina Palace in Gatchina to Grand Duke Paul, five months after his birth, his grandmother, Catherine the Great, died and his parents became emperor and empress of Russia. He was a brother of Emperor Alexander I of Russia, who succeeded to the throne in 1801. Riasanovsky says he was, the most handsome man in Europe, Nicholas was not brought up to become the Emperor of Russia, he had two elder brothers. However, as both of them failed to produce sons, Nicholas remained second in the line of succession, in 1825, when Alexander I died suddenly of typhus, Nicholas was caught between swearing allegiance to his second-eldest brother, Constantine Pavlovich, and accepting the throne for himself. The interregnum lasted until Constantine, who was in Warsaw at that time, additionally, on 25 December, Nicholas issued the manifesto proclaiming his accession to the throne. That manifesto retroactively named 1 December, the date of Alexander Is death, during this confusion, a plot was hatched by some members of the military to overthrow Nicholas and to seize power
Nicholas I of Russia
–
Portrait by
Franz Krüger
Nicholas I of Russia
–
Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich (ca. 1821).
Nicholas I of Russia
–
Nicholas I "Family Ruble" (1836) depicting the Tsar on the obverse and his family on the reverse:
Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna (center) surrounded by
Alexander II as
Tsarevich,
Maria,
Olga,
Nicholas,
Michael,
Konstantin, and
Alexandra [2]
Nicholas I of Russia
–
Monument to Nicholas I on
St. Isaac's Square
20.
Alexander II of Russia
–
Alexander II was the Emperor of Russia from 2 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881. He was also the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Finland, Alexanders most significant reform as emperor was emancipation of Russias serfs in 1861, for which he is known as Alexander the Liberator. In foreign policy, Alexander sold Alaska to the United States in 1867, despite his otherwise pacifist foreign policy, he fought a brief war with Turkey in 1877–78, pursued further expansion into Siberia and the Caucasus, and conquered Turkestan. Although disappointed by the results of the Congress of Berlin in 1878, among his greatest domestic challenges was an uprising in Poland in 1863, to which he responded by stripping that land of its separate constitution and incorporating it directly into Russia. Alexander was proposing additional parliamentary reforms to counter the rise of nascent revolutionary, born in Moscow, Alexander Nikolaevich was the eldest son of Nicholas I of Russia and of Charlotte of Prussia. Personal and official censorship was rife, criticism of the authorities was regarded as a serious offence, aleksandrs alleged lack of interest in military affairs resulted from his reaction to the effects of the unsavoury Crimean War of 1853-1856 on his own family and on the whole country. Unusually for the time, the young Alexander was taken on a tour of Russia. He also visited many prominent Western European countries in 1838 and 1839, as Tsesarevich, Alexander became the first Romanov heir to visit Siberia. Alexander II succeeded to the throne upon the death of his father in 1855, the first year of his reign was devoted to the prosecution of the Crimean War and, after the fall of Sevastopol, to negotiations for peace led by his trusted counsellor Prince Alexander Gorchakov. The country had exhausted and humiliated by the war. Bribe-taking, theft and corruption were everywhere, in 1867 he sold Alaska to the United States for $7.2 million after recognising the great difficulty of defending it against the United Kingdom or the former British colony of Canada. After Alexander became emperor in 1855, he maintained a generally liberal course, despite this, he was a target for numerous assassination attempts. On 13 March 1881, members of the Narodnaya Volya party killed him with a bomb and this step had been followed by one even more significant. The hint was taken, in all provinces where serfdom existed, the emancipation was not merely a humanitarian question capable of being solved instantaneously by imperial ukase. It contained very complicated problems, deeply affecting the economic, social and political future of the nation, the emperor gave his support to the latter project, and the Russian peasantry became one of the last groups of peasants in Europe to shake off serfdom. The architects of the manifesto were Alexanders brother Konstantin, Yakov Rostovtsev. On 3 March 1861, six years after his accession, the law was signed and published. The changes included universal military conscription, introduced for all classes on 1 January 1874
Alexander II of Russia
–
Alexander II
Alexander II of Russia
–
Signature
Alexander II of Russia
–
Alexander II as a boy. (
George Dawe, 1827)
Alexander II of Russia
–
Nicolas I, father of Alexander II, of Russia on an 1859 coin
21.
Alexander III of Russia
–
Alexander III was the Emperor of Russia, King of Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 13 March 1881 until his death on 1 November 1894. He was highly conservative and reversed some of the reforms of his father, Alexander II. During Alexanders reign Russia fought no wars, for which he was styled The Peacemaker. Although an enthusiastic amateur musician and patron of the ballet, Alexander was seen as lacking refinement, indeed, he rather relished the idea of being of the same rough texture as some of his subjects. His education was not such as to soften these peculiarities, more than six feet tall, he was also noted for his immense physical strength. A sebaceous cyst on the side of his nose caused him to be mocked by some of his contemporaries. I was struck by the size of the man, and although cumbersome and heavy, there was indeed something of the muzhik about him. The look of his eyes made quite an impression on me. As he passed where I was standing, he raised his head for a second and it was a look as cold as steel, in which there was something threatening, even frightening, and it struck me like a blow. The look of a man who stood above all others, but who carried a burden and who every minute had to fear for his life. In later years I came into contact with the Emperor on several occasions, in more ordinary cases Tsar Alexander III could be at once kind, simple, and even almost homely. Great solicitude was devoted to the education of Nicholas as tsesarevich and this included acquaintance with French, English and German, and military drill. Pobedonostsev instilled into the mans mind the belief that zeal for Russian Orthodox thought was an essential factor of Russian patriotism to be cultivated by every right-minded emperor. On his deathbed the previous tsesarevich was said to have expressed the wish that his fiancée, Princess Dagmar of Denmark, the union proved a happy one to the end, unlike his fathers, there was no adultery in his marriage. The couple spent their night at the Tsesarevichs private dacha known as My Property. To the scandal of many at court, including the Tsesarevich himself, on 1 March 1881 Alexanders father, Alexander II, was assassinated by members of the terrorist organization Narodnaya Volya. As a result, he ascended to the Russian imperial throne in Nennal on 13 March 1881 and he and Maria Feodorovna were officially crowned and anointed on 27 May 1883. On the day of his assassination Alexander II had signed an ukaz setting up commissions to advise the monarch
Alexander III of Russia
–
Alexander III
Alexander III of Russia
–
Signature
Alexander III of Russia
–
Alexander III as
Tsesarevich, by
Sergei Lvovich Levitsky, 1865
Alexander III of Russia
–
Portrait by the artist Georges Becker of the coronation of Tsar Alexander III and
Empress Maria Fyodorovna, which took place on 27 May [
O.S. 15 May] 1883 at the
Uspensky Sobor of the
Moscow Kremlin. On the left of the dais can be seen his young son and heir,
the Tsesarevich Nicolas, and behind Nicholas can be seen a young
Grand Duke George.
22.
Nicholas II of Russia
–
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
Nicholas II of Russia
–
Tsar Nicholas II, in the uniform of a
Royal Navy Admiral of the Fleet, c. 1909
Nicholas II of Russia
–
Tsar Nicholas II of Russia with his physically similar cousin,
King George V of the United Kingdom (right), in German military uniforms in Berlin before the war; 1913
Nicholas II of Russia
–
Tsarevich Nicholas in Japan (1891)
Nicholas II of Russia
–
Official engagement photograph of Nicholas II and Alexandra, April 1894
23.
Sejm of Congress Poland
–
The Sejm of Congress Poland was the parliament in the 19th century Kingdom of Poland, colloquially known as Congress Poland. It existed from 1815 to 1831, in the history of the Polish parliament, it succeeded the Sejm of the Duchy of Warsaw. After the Congress of Vienna, a small Kingdom of Poland, known as Congress Poland, was recreated, with its king being the Tsar of Russia, Alexander I. At that time many hoped that this experiment would be a success and pave way to a liberalization in Russia, Tsar Alexander left the administration to his younger brother, Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich of Russia, to serve as viceroy. Constantine, with the help of Nikolay Nikolayevich Novosiltsev, Russified Congress Poland, by 1825, Alexander I was sufficiently dissatisfied with the Sejm that he decided to bar some of the most vocal opposition deputies from it. With regards to the years the Sejm met, Bardach gives the dates of 1818,1820,1823 and 1830, Jędruch offers a similar list, Nicholas, an opponent of Alexanders liberalization efforts, acceded the throne as Tsar Nicholas I upon Alexanders death in December 1825. Idealistic Russian military officers resisted Nicholass takeover in the Decembrist revolt, some Polish liberals were accused of being connected to the Decembrist plot and were brought before the Sejm for trial in 1828. Despite heavy political pressure from Moscow, the Sejm Tribunal only found guilty of belonging to the National Patriotic Society formed by Walerian Łukasiński rather than treason. The decision was met with cheers in Poland but infuriated Tsar Nicholas, in the 1830 session, the Sejm refused to allocate funding for a statue in Warsaw to honor Tsar Alexander, further incensing Moscow. The Tsars tightening grip on Poland ran counter to the romantic nationalism sweeping Polands youth. These factors led to increasing discontent within Poland culminating in the failed November Uprising in 1830, an extraordinary Sejm was convened on 18 December 1830. On 25 January 1831, it passed an act introduced by Roman Sołtyk dethroning Tsar Nicholas I, senator Wincenty Krasiński, one of the few votes against the National Patriotic Society members, refused to join the revolt. The overthrow of Russian rule was planned badly and as the fortunes of war turned against the insurgents, the last session of the Sejm-in-exile was held in Płock in September that year. Member of the Sejm and noted historian Joachim Lelewel, as well as fellow deputy Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz and countless others, the Sejm was composed of the king, the upper house and the lower house. There were 128 members, including 77 deputies elected by the nobility at local sejmiks and they were chosen for 6 years, with one third of them chosen every 2 years. Sejms were called every 2 years for a period of 30 days, the king could also dissolve the Sejm before the 30 days elapsed. During the Uprising, on 19 February 1831, a new law declared the Sejm in constant session, the Marshal of the Sejm was appointed by the king. Candidates for all offices had to meet specific wealth requirements, suffrage was offered to property owners, lease holders, and teachers
Sejm of Congress Poland
–
Title page of the 1820 Journal of Debates of the Sejm of the Congress Kingdom of Poland
Sejm of Congress Poland
–
Dethronisation of Tsar
Nicholas I by the Sejm in 1831
24.
Senate of Poland
–
The Senate is the upper house of the Polish parliament, the lower house being the Sejm. The history of the Polish Senate is rich in tradition and stretches back over 500 years and it was one of the first constituent bodies of a bicameral parliament in Europe and existed without hiatus until the dismemberment of the Polish state in 1795. After a brief period of existence in the period the Senate was again abolished by the authorities of the Peoples Republic of Poland. It was not re-established until the collapse of communism and rebirth of democracy in Poland in 1989, the Senate is based in Warsaw and is located in a building which forms part of the Sejm Complex on Ul. Wiejska, close to Three Crosses Square and Ujazdow Castle and it consists of 100 senators elected by universal ballot and is headed by the Marshal of the Senate. The incumbent Marshal of the Senate is Senior Marshal Stanisław Karczewski, in line with Article 10, Paragraph 2, and Article 95 of the Polish Constitution of April 2,1997, the Senate and the Sejm exercises legislative power. The Senate is composed of 100 senators who are elected for a term of four years in general election in a vote by secret ballot. Alongside the Sejm, the President of the Polish Republic, the Council of Ministers and all citizens of Poland, the Senate is allowed 30 days to examine any piece of draft legislation passed by the Sejm,14 days if a bill is considered to be urgent. Any bill submitted by the Sejm to the Senate may be adopted by the latter without any amendments or amended or rejected. Any resolution of the Senate, as a result of which a bill is repealed or amended, is considered to be passed provided it has not been rejected by the Sejm, however, for the state budget, the Senate has 20 days to examine it. For amending the constitution, the Senate has 60 days for analysis, if the constitution is amended, identical wording of the amendment must be approved by both the Sejm and the Senate. The president cannot decide to stage a nationwide referendum on matters of importance unless he or she has been given explicit permission to do so by the Senate. The Senate is also empowered to examine any reports submitted by the Commissioner for the Protection of Citizens Rights, however, unlike the Sejm, the Senate has no role in providing for oversight of the executive. The Senate can be traced back approximately five hundred years to a council of royal advisors, in 1501 at Mielnik, senators attempted to force the soon to be crowned king Alexander I Jagiellon to devolve all royal powers relating to the governing of the state to them. However, whilst Alexander first agreed, after his coronation he refused to affirm this privilege, later the Nihil Novi act of 1505 affirmed the right of both the Chamber of Envoys and Senate to propagate common law for the kingdom. At this time the competences of the Senate were also laid down as pertaining to participation in legislation, foreign policy, in 1537 the Senate followed a course of action which would have seen it become the most important institution in protecting landowners’ rights and freedoms. However, this view was at odds with those of Sigismund I the Old who believed that the Senate was becoming far too powerful. Resultantly, over the period of 1562–69, the Senate lost many of its powers and influence, eventually becoming subordinate to its formerly-equal companion body, the Chamber of Envoys
Senate of Poland
–
Senate of the Republic of Poland Senat Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej
Senate of Poland
Senate of Poland
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A leaf from the Łaski Statute depicting the Polish Senate in 1503
Senate of Poland
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Unrealised (1765) plans for a new senate chamber at the Royal Castle in Warsaw
25.
Congress of Vienna
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The objective of the Congress was to provide a long-term peace plan for Europe by settling critical issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. The goal was not simply to restore old boundaries but to resize the main powers so they could balance each other off, the leaders were conservatives with little use for republicanism or revolution, both of which threatened to upset the status quo in Europe. France lost all its recent conquests, while Prussia, Austria and Russia made major territorial gains, Prussia added smaller German states in the west, Swedish Pomerania and 60% of the Kingdom of Saxony, Austria gained Venice and much of northern Italy. The new Kingdom of the Netherlands had been created just months before, the immediate background was Napoleonic Frances defeat and surrender in May 1814, which brought an end to twenty-five years of nearly continuous war. Negotiations continued despite the outbreak of fighting triggered by Napoleons dramatic return from exile, the Congresss Final Act was signed nine days before his final defeat at Waterloo on 18 June 1815. However, others praise it for having created relatively long-term stable, the Congress of Vienna settlement, despite later changes, formed the framework for European international politics until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. The Treaty of Chaumont in 1814 had reaffirmed decisions that had made already. The Treaty of Chaumont became the cornerstone of the European Alliance which formed the balance of power for decades, other partial settlements had already occurred at the Treaty of Paris between France and the Sixth Coalition, and the Treaty of Kiel which covered issues raised regarding Scandinavia. The Treaty of Paris had determined that a general congress should be held in Vienna, the opening was scheduled for July 1814. The Four Great Powers had previously formed the core of the Sixth Coalition, as the Congresss sessions were in Vienna, Emperor Francis was kept closely informed. Great Britain was represented first by its Foreign Secretary, Viscount Castlereagh, then by the Duke of Wellington, in the last weeks it was headed by the Earl of Clancarty, after Wellington left to face Napoleon during the Hundred Days. Tsar Alexander I controlled the Russian delegation which was led by the foreign minister. The tsar had two goals, to gain control of Poland and to promote the peaceful coexistence of European nations. He succeeded in forming the Holy Alliance, based on monarchism and anti-secularism, Prussia was represented by Prince Karl August von Hardenberg, the Chancellor, and the diplomat and scholar Wilhelm von Humboldt. King Frederick William III of Prussia was also in Vienna, playing his role behind the scenes, France, the fifth power, was represented by its foreign minister, Talleyrand as well as the Minister Plenipotentiary the Duke of Dalberg. Talleyrand had already negotiated the Treaty of Paris for Louis XVIII of France, Sweden – Count Carl Löwenhielm Denmark – Count Niels Rosenkrantz, foreign minister. King Frederick VI was also present in Vienna, the Netherlands – Earl of Clancarty, the British Ambassador at the Dutch court, and Baron Hans von Gagern Switzerland – Every canton had its own delegation. Charles Pictet de Rochemont from Geneva played a prominent role, mecklenburg-Schwerin – Leopold von Plessen Virtually every state in Europe had a delegation in Vienna – more than 200 states and princely houses were represented at the Congress
Congress of Vienna
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The national boundaries within Europe are set by the Congress of Vienna, 1815.
Congress of Vienna
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Frontispiece of the Acts of the Congress of Vienna.
Congress of Vienna
–
Talleyrand proved an able negotiator for the defeated French.
Congress of Vienna
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Alexander I of Russia (1812) considered himself a guarantor of European security.
26.
November Uprising
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The November Uprising, Polish–Russian War 1830–31, also known as the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in Warsaw when the young Polish officers from the local Army of the Congress Polands military academy revolted, led by lieutenant Piotr Wysocki and they were soon joined by large segments of societies of Lithuania, Belarus, and the Right-bank Ukraine. Despite local successes, the uprising was crushed by a numerically superior Imperial Russian Army under Ivan Paskevich. Tsar Nicholas I decreed that henceforth Poland was a part of Russia, with Warsaw little more than a military garrison. After the Partitions of Poland, Poland ceased to exist as an independent political entity at the end of 1795, however, the Napoleonic Wars and Polish participation in the wars against Russia and Austria resulted in the creation the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807. The Congress of Vienna brought that states existence to an end in 1815, and essentially solidified the long-term division of Poland among Russia, Prussia, United with Russia through a personal union with the Tsar as King of Poland, the province could elect its own parliament and government. The kingdom had its own courts, army and treasury, over time, however, the freedoms granted to the Kingdom were gradually taken back and the constitution was progressively ignored by the Russian authorities. Alexander I of Russia never formally crowned himself as King of Poland, instead, in 1815, he appointed Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich as de facto viceroy, disregarding the constitution. Soon after the Congress of Vienna resolutions were signed, Russia ceased to respect them, in 1819 Alexander I abandoned liberty of the press in Congress Kingdom and introduced censorship. As a result, after 1825 sessions of Polish Sejm were conducted in secret, Nicholas I of Russia formally crowned himself as King of Poland on 24 May 1829 in Warsaw. He abolished Polish social and patriotic organizations, the opposition of the Kaliszanie faction. Although married to a Pole, he was considered as an enemy of the Polish nation. Also, his command over the Polish Army led to conflicts within the officer corps. These frictions led to various conspiracies throughout the country, most notably within the army, the final spark that ignited Warsaw was a Russian plan to use the Polish Army to suppress Frances July Revolution and the Belgian Revolution, in clear violation of the Polish constitution. The rebels managed to enter the Belweder, but Grand Duke Constantine had escaped in womens clothing, the rebels then turned to the main city arsenal, capturing it after a brief struggle. The following day, armed Polish civilians forced the Russian troops to north of Warsaw. This incident is called the Warsaw Uprising or the November Night. Taken by surprise by the unfolding of events during the night of 29 November
November Uprising
–
Taking of the Warsaw Arsenal. Painting by
Marcin Zaleski.
November Uprising
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Battle of Olszynka Grochowska
November Uprising
–
Emilia Plater leading
scythemen 1831
November Uprising
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Seal of the Dictator of the uprising
27.
January Uprising
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The January Uprising was an uprising in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against the Russian Empire. It began on 22 January 1863 and lasted until the last insurgents were captured in 1864, the uprising began as a spontaneous protest by young Poles against conscription into the Imperial Russian Army. It was soon joined by high-ranking Polish-Lithuanian officers and various politicians, the insurrectionists, severely outnumbered and lacking serious outside support, were forced to resort to guerrilla warfare tactics. Public executions and deportations to Siberia led many Poles to abandon armed struggle and turn instead to the idea of work, economic. After the Russian Empire lost the Crimean war and was weakened economically and politically, in Vilna alone 116 demonstrations were held in 1861. In August 1861, protests in Vilna ended in clashes with the Imperial Russian Army, in spite of Russian police and Cossack interference, a symbolic meeting of hymn-singing Poles and Lithuanians took place on the bridge across the Niemen River. Another mass gathering took place in Horodło, where the Union of Horodło had been signed in 1413, the crowds sang Boże, broń Polskę in Lithuanian and Belarusian. In the autumn of 1861 Russians had introduced a state of emergency in Vilna Governorate, Kovno Governorate, after a series of patriotic riots, the Russian Namestnik of Tsar Alexander II, General Karl Lambert, introduced martial law in Poland on 14 October 1861. Public gatherings were banned and some leaders were declared outlaws. The future leaders of the uprising gathered secretly in St. Petersburg, Warsaw, Vilna, Paris, after this series of meetings two major factions emerged. The Reds represented united peasants, workers, and some clergy, while The Whites represented liberal minded landlords, in 1862 two initiative groups were formed for the two components of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. To deal with these units the Russian government had at its disposal an army of 90,000 men under General Ramsay in Poland. It looked as if the rebellion would be crushed quickly, the die was cast, however, the provisional government applied itself to this great task with fervor. It issued a manifesto in which it pronounced all sons of Poland are free and equal citizens without distinction of creed, condition and rank. The revolutionary government did its very best to supply with provisions the unarmed and scattered guerrillas who, during the month of February, met the Russians in eighty bloody encounters. Meanwhile, it issued an appeal to the nations of western Europe, pope Pius IX ordered a special prayer for the success of the Catholic Polish in their defence against the Orthodox Russians, and was very active in arousing sympathy for the Polish rebels. In Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, northern Ukraine and western Russia the uprising started on February 1,1863, a coalition government of the Reds and the Whites was formed. It was led by Zygmunt Sierakowski, Antanas Mackevičius and Konstanty Kalinowski and they fully supported their counterparts in Poland and adhered to the same policy
January Uprising
–
"
Polonia (Poland), 1863", by
Jan Matejko, 1864, oil on canvas, 156 × 232 cm,
National Museum,
Kraków. Pictured is the aftermath of the failed January 1863 Uprising. Captives await transportation to
Siberia. Russian officers and soldiers supervise a blacksmith placing
shackles on a woman (
Polonia). The blonde girl next to her represents
Lithuania.
January Uprising
–
Russian army in Warsaw during martial law 1861
January Uprising
–
"The Battle" from the cycle of paintings "Polonia" dedicated to January Uprising of 1863 -
Artur Grottger.
January Uprising
–
Battles of January Uprising in Congress
Poland 1863-1864
28.
List of countries by population
–
This is a list of countries and dependent territories by population. For instance, the United Kingdom is considered as a single entity while the constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands are considered separately, in addition, this list includes certain states with limited recognition not found in ISO 3166-1. The population figures do not reflect the practice of countries that report significantly different populations of citizens domestically, some countries, notably Thailand, do not report total population, exclusively counting citizens, for total populations an international agency must issue an estimate. Also given in percent is each countrys population compared to the population of the world, figures used in this chart are based on the most up to date estimate or projections by the national census authority where available, and are usually rounded off. Where updated national data are not available, figures are based on the projections for 2016 by the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Because the compiled figures are not collected at the time in every country, or at the same level of accuracy. Furthermore, the addition of figures from all countries may not equal the world total, a handful of nations have not conducted a census in over 30 years, providing high error margin estimates only. Areas that form parts of sovereign states, such as the countries of the United Kingdom, are counted as part of the sovereign states concerned. Note, All dependent territories or constituent countries that are parts of states are shown in italics
List of countries by population
–
A map of world population in 2014
29.
Duchy of Warsaw
–
The Duchy of Warsaw was a Polish state established by Napoleon I in 1807 from the Polish lands ceded by the Kingdom of Prussia under the terms of the Treaties of Tilsit. The duchy was held in personal union by one of Napoleons allies, following Napoleons failed invasion of Russia, the duchy was occupied by Prussian and Russian troops until 1815, when it was formally partitioned between the two countries at the Congress of Vienna. It covered central and eastern part of present Poland and minor parts of present Lithuania, the area of the duchy had already been liberated by a popular uprising that had escalated from anti-conscription rioting in 1806. One of the first tasks for the new government included providing food to the French army fighting the Russians in East Prussia, the Duchy of Warsaw was officially created by French Emperor Napoleon I, as part of the Treaty of Tilsit with Prussia. Although it was created as a state, it was commonly hoped and believed that with time the nation would be able to regain its former status. The newly created state was formally an independent duchy, allied to France, King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony was compelled by Napoleon to make his new realm a constitutional monarchy, with a parliament. The most important person in the duchy was in fact the French ambassador, based in the duchys capital, significantly, the duchy lacked its own diplomatic representation abroad. In 1809, a war with Austria started. During the war the German colonists settled by Prussia during Partitions openly rose up against Polish government. After the Battle of Wagram, the ensuing Treaty of Schönbrunn allowed for a significant expansion of the Duchys territory southwards with the regaining of once-Polish, however, Napoleon did not want to make a permanent decision that would tie his hands before his anticipated peace settlement with Russia. Nevertheless, he proclaimed the attack on Russia as a second Polish war and that peace settlement was not to be, however. The failed campaign against Russia proved to be a turning point in Napoleons fortunes. After Napoleons defeat in the east, most of the territory of the Duchy of Warsaw was retaken by Russia in January 1813 during their advance on France, the rest of the Duchy was restored to Prussia. Although several isolated fortresses held out for more than a year, Alexander I of Russia created a Provisional Highest Council of the Duchy of Warsaw to govern the area through his generals. Although many European states and ex-rulers were represented at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and it was perhaps inevitable, therefore, that both Prussia and Russia would effectively partition Poland between them, Austria was to more-or-less retain its gains of the First Partition of 1772. Russia demanded to gain all territories of Duchy of Warsaw and it kept all its gains from the three previous partitions, together with Białystok and the surrounding territory that it had obtained in 1807. Its demands for the whole Duchy of Warsaw were denied by other European powers, Prussia regained territory it had first gained in the First Partition, but had had to give up to the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807. It also regained as the Grand Duchy of Posen some of the territory it had conquered in the Second Partition and this territory formed an area approximately 29,000 km² in size. The citys territory measured some 1164 km², and had a population of about 88,000 people, the city was eventually annexed by Austria in 1846
Duchy of Warsaw
–
Prince
Józef Poniatowski Commander in Chief of forces of Duchy of Warsaw, by
Juliusz Kossak
Duchy of Warsaw
–
The Duchy of Warsaw in 1812.
Duchy of Warsaw
–
Polish uhlans from the Army of the Duchy of Warsaw 1807–1815
January Suchodolski painting
Duchy of Warsaw
–
Napoleon conferring
the Constitution in 1807
30.
Sovereign state
–
A sovereign state is, in international law, a nonphysical juridical entity that is represented by one centralized government that has sovereignty over a geographic area. International law defines sovereign states as having a permanent population, defined territory, one government, and it is also normally understood that a sovereign state is neither dependent on nor subjected to any other power or state. The existence or disappearance of a state is a question of fact, States came into existence as people gradually transferred their allegiance from an individual sovereign to an intangible but territorial political entity, of the state. States are but one of political orders that emerged from feudal Europe, others being city states, leagues. Westphalian sovereignty is the concept of sovereignty based on territoriality. It is a system of states, multinational corporations. Sovereignty is a term that is frequently misused and that position was reflected and constituted in the notion that their sovereignty was either completely lacking, or at least of an inferior character when compared to that of civilised people. Lassa Oppenheim said There exists perhaps no conception the meaning of which is more controversial than that of sovereignty. It is a fact that this conception, from the moment when it was introduced into political science until the present day, has never had a meaning which was universally agreed upon. In the opinion of H. V. Evatt of the High Court of Australia, sovereignty is neither a question of fact, nor a question of law, but a question that does not arise at all. The right of nations to determine their own status and exercise permanent sovereignty within the limits of their territorial jurisdictions is widely recognized. The Westphalian model of sovereignty has increasingly come under fire from the non-west as a system imposed solely by Western Colonialism. What this model did was make religion a subordinate to politics and this system does not fit in the Islamic world because concepts such as separation of church and state and individual conscience are not recognised in the Islamic religion as social systems. Nation denotes a people who are believed to or deemed to share common customs, religion, language, origins, however, the adjectives national and international are frequently used to refer to matters pertaining to what are strictly sovereign states, as in national capital, international law. State refers to the set of governing and supportive institutions that have sovereignty over a definite territory, State recognition signifies the decision of a sovereign state to treat another entity as also being a sovereign state. Recognition can be expressed or implied and is usually retroactive in its effects. It does not necessarily signify a desire to establish or maintain diplomatic relations, There is no definition that is binding on all the members of the community of nations on the criteria for statehood. In actual practice, the criteria are mainly political, not legal, in international law, however, there are several theories of when a state should be recognised as sovereign
Sovereign state
–
Member states of the
United Nations, all of which are sovereign states, though not all sovereign states are necessarily members
Media related to Congress Poland at Wikimedia Commons
