1.
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
2.
Istanbul
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Istanbul, historically known as Constantinople and Byzantium, is the most populous city in Turkey and the countrys economic, cultural, and historic center. Istanbul is a city in Eurasia, straddling the Bosphorus strait between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. Its commercial and historical center lies on the European side and about a third of its population lives on the Asian side, the city is the administrative center of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, both hosting a population of around 14.7 million residents. Istanbul is one of the worlds most populous cities and ranks as the worlds 7th-largest city proper, founded under the name of Byzantion on the Sarayburnu promontory around 660 BCE, the city developed to become one of the most significant in history. After its reestablishment as Constantinople in 330 CE, it served as a capital for almost 16 centuries, during the Roman and Byzantine, the Latin. Overlooked for the new capital Ankara during the period, the city has since regained much of its prominence. The population of the city has increased tenfold since the 1950s, as migrants from across Anatolia have moved in, arts, music, film, and cultural festivals were established at the end of the 20th century and continue to be hosted by the city today. Infrastructure improvements have produced a complex transportation network, considered a global city, Istanbul has one of the fastest-growing metropolitan economies in the world. It hosts the headquarters of many Turkish companies and media outlets and accounts for more than a quarter of the gross domestic product. Hoping to capitalize on its revitalization and rapid expansion, Istanbul has bid for the Summer Olympics five times in twenty years, the first known name of the city is Byzantium, the name given to it at its foundation by Megarean colonists around 660 BCE. The name is thought to be derived from a personal name, ancient Greek tradition refers to a legendary king of that name as the leader of the Greek colonists. Modern scholars have hypothesized that the name of Byzas was of local Thracian or Illyrian origin. He also attempted to promote the name Nova Roma and its Greek version Νέα Ῥώμη Nea Romē, the use of Constantinople to refer to the city during the Ottoman period is now considered politically incorrect, even if not historically inaccurate, by Turks. By the 19th century, the city had acquired other names used by foreigners or Turks. Europeans used Constantinople to refer to the whole of the city, pera was used to describe the area between the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus, but Turks also used the name Beyoğlu. The name İstanbul is commonly held to derive from the Medieval Greek phrase εἰς τὴν Πόλιν and this reflected its status as the only major city in the vicinity. The importance of Constantinople in the Ottoman world was reflected by its Ottoman name Der Saadet meaning the gate to Prosperity in Ottoman. An alternative view is that the name evolved directly from the name Constantinople, with the first, a Turkish folk etymology traces the name to Islam bol plenty of Islam because the city was called Islambol or Islambul as the capital of the Islamic Ottoman Empire
3.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
4.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
5.
Alaska Purchase
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The Alaska Purchase was the United States acquisition of Alaska from the Russian Empire on March 30,1867, by a treaty ratified by the United States Senate, and signed by president Andrew Johnson. Russia wanted to sell its Alaskan territory, fearing that it might be seized if war broke out with the United Kingdom, Russias primary activities in the territory had been fur trade and missionary work among the Native Alaskans. The land added 586,412 square miles of new territory to the United States, the purchase threatened British control of its Pacific coast colony, giving added impetus to Canadian Confederation, which was realized just three months later, in July 1867. The Dominion of Canada would welcome British Columbia to confederation in 1871, ending US hopes of annexation and an uninterrupted connection of Alaska to the United States. Russia was in a financial position and feared losing Russian America without compensation in some future conflict, especially to the British. The Russians decided that in any war with Britain, their hard-to-defend colony might become a prime target. Therefore, the Russian emperor, Alexander II, decided to sell the territory, perhaps in the hope of starting a bidding war, both the British and the Americans were approached. However, the British expressed little interest in buying Alaska, in 1859 the Russians offered to sell the territory to the United States, hoping that its presence in the region would offset the plans of Russias greatest regional rival, Great Britain. However, no deal was reached, as the risk of an American Civil War was a pressing concern in Washington. Grand Duke Konstantin, a brother of the Tsar, began to press for the handover of Russian America to the United States in 1857. This proposal was a topic in the echelons of the Russian government throughout 1857 and 1858. Konstantins letter was shown to his brother, Tsar Alexander II, supporters of Konstantins proposal to immediately withdraw from North America included Admiral Yevfimy Putyatin and the Russian minister to the United States, Eduard de Stoeckl. Gorchakov agreed with the necessity of abandoning Russian America, but argued for a process leading to its sale. He found a supporter in the minister and former chief manager of the Russian-American Company. Wrangel pressed for some proceeds to be invested in the development of Kamchatka. The Emperor eventually sided with Gorchakov, deciding to postpone negotiations until the end of the RACs patent, over the winter of 1859–1860 de Stoeckl held meetings with American officials, though he had been instructed not to initiate discussions about the sale of the RAC assets. Communicating primarily with Assistant Secretary of State John Appleton and Senator William M. Gwin, while President James Buchanan kept these hearings informal, preparations were made for further negotiations. Senator Gwin tendered an offer of five million dollars for the Russian colony
6.
Dragoman
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A dragoman had to have a knowledge of Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and European languages. The office incorporated diplomatic as well as linguistic duties—namely, in the Portes relation with Christian countries—and some dragomans thus came to play roles in Ottoman politics. In Arabic the word is ترجمان, in Turkish tercüman, deriving from the Semitic quadriliteral root t-r-g-m, it appears in Akkadian as targumannu, in Geez as t-r-gw-m, and in Aramaic as targemana. Hebrew makes a distinction between מתרגם —referring to a translator of written texts—and מתורגמן referring to an interpreter of spoken conversation or speeches, the latter is obviously more closely related to the other languages mentioned, though both are derived from the same Semitic root. There has been speculation of a Hittite origin of the term, during the Middle Ages the word entered European languages, in Middle English as dragman, in Old French as drugeman, in Middle Latin as dragumannus, and in Middle Greek δραγομάνος. Websters Dictionary of 1828 lists dragoman as well as the variants drogman and truchman in English, consequently, the plural, in English, is dragomans. In Ottoman records, the first imperial dragoman recorded was Lutfi Bey or Lutfi Pasha who was sent to Venice in 1479 to deliver a treaty. These men were instrumental in spreading a wide ranging curiosity about Islamic culture throughout the Latin parts of Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries, the first French translation of the Quran was done by André du Ryer, in 1647. He was from the French consulate in Egypt, another, Cosmo of Carbognano, from the Naples embassy, published in Latin, The Principles of Turkish Grammar for The Use of Apostolic Missionaries in Constantinople. As a highly trained group of professionals, they were employed by embassies, consuls and travelled in diplomatic circles. There was huge success from the translation of Thousand And One Nights. Alte Substrat- und Kulturwörter im Arabsichen and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Dragoman. The Dragoman – Interpreter at the Crossroads of East & West
7.
William H. Seward
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William Henry Seward was United States Secretary of State from 1861 to 1869, and earlier served as Governor of New York and United States Senator. Seward was born in southeastern New York, where his father was a farmer and he was educated as a lawyer and moved to the Central New York town of Auburn. Seward was elected to the New York State Senate in 1830 as an Anti-Mason, four years later, he became the gubernatorial nominee of the Whig Party. Though he was not successful in that race, Seward was elected governor in 1838, during this period, he signed several laws that advanced the rights and opportunities for black residents, as well as guaranteeing fugitive slaves jury trials in the state. The legislation protected abolitionists, and he used his position to intervene in cases of freed black people who were enslaved in the South, after several years of practicing law in Auburn, he was elected by the state legislature to the U. S. Senate in 1849. Sewards strong stances and provocative words against slavery brought him hatred in the South and he was re-elected to the Senate in 1855, and soon joined the nascent Republican Party, becoming one of its leading figures. As the 1860 presidential election approached, he was regarded as the candidate for the Republican nomination. Although devastated by his loss, he campaigned for Lincoln, who was elected and appointed him Secretary of State, Seward did his best to stop the southern states from seceding, once that failed, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to the Union cause. His firm stance against foreign intervention in the Civil War helped deter Britain and France from entering the conflict and he was one of the targets of the 1865 assassination plot that killed Lincoln, and was seriously wounded by conspirator Lewis Powell. Seward remained loyally at his post through the presidency of Andrew Johnson, during which he negotiated the Alaska purchase in 1867 and his contemporary Carl Schurz described Seward as one of those spirits who sometimes will go ahead of public opinion instead of tamely following its footprints. Seward was born in on May 16,1801 in the community of Florida, New York. He was the son of Samuel Sweezy Seward and his wife Mary Seward. Samuel Seward was a landowner and slaveholder in New York State. Florida was located some 60 miles north of New York City, west of the Hudson River, Young Seward attended school there, and also in the nearby county seat of Goshen. He was a student who enjoyed his studies. In later years, one of the family slaves would relate that instead of running away from school to go home. At the age of 15, Henry—he was known by his name as a boy—was sent to Union College in Schenectady. Admitted to the class, Seward was an outstanding student and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa
8.
Charles Sumner
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Charles Sumner was an American politician and senator from Massachusetts. During Reconstruction, he fought to minimize the power of the ex-Confederates, in the speech, Sumner characterized the attackers cousin, South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler, a Democrat, as a pimp for slavery. The episode played a role in the coming of the Civil War. During the war Sumner was a leader of the Radical Republican faction that criticized President Abraham Lincoln for being too moderate on the South, Sumners expertise and energy made him a powerful chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Sumner, teaming with House leader Thaddeus Stevens, battled Andrew Johnsons reconstruction plans, although Sumner forcefully advocated the annexation of Alaska in the Senate, he was against the annexation of the Dominican Republic, then known by the name of its capital, Santo Domingo. After leading Senators to defeat President Ulysses S. Grants Santo Domingo Treaty in 1870, Sumner broke with Grant, and denounced him in such terms that reconciliation was impossible. In 1871, President Grant and his Secretary of State Hamilton Fish retaliated, through Grants supporters in the Senate, Sumner had become convinced that Grant was a corrupt despot and that the success of Reconstruction policies called for new national leadership. Sumner bitterly opposed Grants reelection by supporting the Liberal Republican candidate Horace Greeley in 1872, less than two years later, he died in office. Sumner was born on Irving Street in Boston on January 6,1811 and his father had been born in poverty and his mother shared a similar background and worked as a seamstress prior to her marriage. Sumners parents were described as formal and undemonstrative. In 1825 Charles P. Sumner became Sheriff of Suffolk County, the family attended Trinity Church, but after 1825, the family occupied a pew in Kings Chapel. Sumners father hated slavery and told Sumner that freeing the slaves would do us no good unless they were treated equally by society, Sumner was a close associate of William Ellery Channing, an influential Unitarian minister in Boston. Channing believed that human beings had a potential to improve themselves. Expanding on this argument, Sumner concluded that environment had an important, by creating a society where knowledge, virtue and religion took precedence, the most forlorn shall grow into forms of unimagined strength and beauty. Moral law, he believed, was as important for governments as it was for individuals, while Sumner often viewed contemporary society critically, his faith in reform was unshakable. When accused of utopianism, he replied The Utopias of one age have been the realities of the next, the increased income Charles P. Sumner enjoyed after becoming Sheriff enabled him to afford higher education for his children. Charles Sumner attended the Boston Latin School, where he counted Robert Charles Winthrop, James Freeman Clarke, Samuel Francis Smith, and Wendell Phillips, among his closest friends. He graduated in 1830 from Harvard College, where he lived in Hollis Hall, at Harvard, he was a member of the Porcellian Club
9.
Frederick W. Seward
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Frederick William Seward was an American politician and member of the Republican Party who twice served as the Assistant Secretary of State. He attended Union College and graduated in 1849 and was admitted to the bar in Rochester, after graduating from law school, Seward served as a secretary to his father from 1849 to 1857 along with working as the associate editor of the Albany Evening Journal from 1851 to 1861. On February 21,1861, Seward arrived at the Continental Hotel in Philadelphia carrying valuable information in the form of a letter from his father William Seward for President-elect Abraham Lincoln, the letter contained information gathered by Colonel Charles P. Stone and General Winfield Scott. Colonel Stone had stationed three detectives from the New York police department in Baltimore, Maryland, to any information regarding a possible plot to assassinate the president-elect. Lincoln, making his way from Illinois to Washington, D. C. for his inauguration, had intended to stop next at Baltimore, according to information gathered by Colonel Stones three detectives, secessionists were planning an attempt on Lincolns life during his stop in Baltimore. Although Allan Pinkerton also warned the President-elect of the dangers that awaited him in Baltimore, when his father was appointed Secretary of State in 1861, Seward became Assistant Secretary of State in charge of consular service under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. He served in this position until 1869, on April 14,1865, Frederick Seward was injured in an assassination attempt upon his father the same night Lincoln was murdered. Lewis Paine, an ex-Confederate co-conspirator of John Wilkes Booth attempted to kill William Seward and this was Powells part in the plot to put the government into chaos, Vice President Andrew Johnson and President Lincoln were also to be killed that same evening. After Frederick blocked Powell from gaining access to William Sewards bedroom, however, when the gun failed to fire, Powell quickly smashed the pistol over Sewards head, causing several skull injuries. Seward collapsed and fell to the floor at the top of the stairs, Powell then burst into William Sewards room and stabbed him several times in the face and neck. Sewards mother was sure that he was going to die, instead and his sister, Fanny, died soon after, in October,1866. Powell was hanged on July 7,1865, along with David Herold, George Atzerodt, and Mary Surratt, fredericks father died on October 10,1872. Seward was a member of the New York State Assembly in 1875, at the New York state election,1875, he ran on the Republican ticket for Secretary of State of New York, but was defeated by Democrat John Bigelow. He served again as Assistant Secretary of State under William M. Evarts from 1877 to 1879, Seward also edited and published his fathers autobiography and letters. He married Anna Wharton of Albany, New York and spent the part of his life in a house he built in Montrose. Mostly, his life after 1881 was devoted to the practice of his legal profession, Seward died at the age of 84. He was interred with his family in Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn, in 1916, a year after his death, his book Reminiscences of a War-Time Statesman and Diplomat, 1830-1915, a five-hundred page book about the Civil War and politics, was published by G. P
