1.
Stepan Alexandrovsky
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Stepan Fyodorovich Alexandrovsky (Russian, Степан Фёдорович Александровский, was a Russian portrait painter and watercolorist. He attended a grammar school and was originally planning for a career in medicine. In pursuit of that, he moved to saint Petersburg and began auditing classes at the Imperial Academy of Arts, one of his portraits was awarded a small silver medal in 1861. He was a participant in the Academys exhibitions and was named an Artist in 1864. Later he became a First-Class Artist and he was named an Academician in 1874 for his portrait of War Minister, Dmitry Milyutin. By 1884, he was a Free Artist and honorary member of the Academy and he was one of the founding members of the Society of Russian Watercolorists. He also provided illustrations for periodicals and participated in exhibitions held by the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. Media related to Stepan Alexandrovsky at Wikimedia Commons
2.
Bryansk
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Bryansk is a city and the administrative center of Bryansk Oblast, Russia, located 379 kilometers southwest of Moscow. The first written mention of Bryansk was in 1146, in the Hypatian Codex and its name is derived from дъбръ, a Slavic word for ditch, lowland, or dense woodland, the area was known for its dense woods, of which very little remains today. Local authorities and archaeologists, however, believe that the town had existed as early as 985 as a settlement on the right bank of the Desna River. Bryansk remained poorly attested until the Mongol invasion of Rus and it was the northernmost of the Severian cities in the possession of the Chernigov Rurikids. After Mikhail of Chernigov was murdered by the Mongols and his capital was destroyed, in 1310, when the Mongols sacked the town again, it belonged to the Principality of Smolensk. Algirdas of Lithuania acquired Bryansk through inheritance in 1356 and gave it to his son, until the end of the century, the town was contested between Jogaila, Vytautas, Švitrigaila, and Yury of Smolensk. The Grand Duchy of Moscow conquered Bryansk following the Battle of Vedrosha in 1503, the town was turned into a fortress which played a major role during the Time of Troubles. During the Time of Troubles, it was occupied by Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1610, peter the Great incorporated Bryansk into Kiev Governorate, but Catherine the Great deemed it wise to transfer the town to Oryol Governorate in 1779. She also promulgated the towns coat of arms, in the 17th and 18th centuries, the economy of Bryansk, which had become a regional trading center, was based on the Svenskaya fair, the largest in European Russia. The fair was held annually under the auspices of the Svensky Monastery, the citys population exceeded 30,000 by 1917. In 1918, the Belarusian Peoples Republic claimed Bryansk, but the town was taken by Bolshevik forces in 1919, during World War II, Bryansk was occupied by the Germans and the city was heavily damaged by fighting. About 60,000 Soviet partisans were active in and around Bryansk, in 1944, soon after its liberation, Bryansk became the administrative center of Bryansk Oblast. Bryansk is the center of the oblast. As a municipal division, Bryansky Urban Administrative Okrug is incorporated as Bryansk Urban Okrug, todays Bryansk is an important center for steel and machinery manufacturing, and is home to many large factories. Since 1868, there is a connection between Bryansk and Moscow. The city has railway stations, Bryansk Orlovsky and Bryansk-Lgovskiy, Ordzhonikidzegrad, Street Bus Station, fourteen kilometres west of the city lies the Bryansk International Airport. Passenger traffic carried by bus, trolley on 10 regular routes, uses, as well as commuter trains, the cost of public transport is 14 rubles, and buses,18 rubles. Russian cosmonaut Viktor Afanasyev, shot put athlete Svetlana Krivelyova, sculptor and architect Naum Gabo, bulgarian communist leader Stanke Dimitrov died in an aviation accident near the city
3.
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
4.
Saint Petersburg
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Saint Petersburg is Russias second-largest city after Moscow, with five million inhabitants in 2012, and an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea. It is politically incorporated as a federal subject, situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, it was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 271703. In 1914, the name was changed from Saint Petersburg to Petrograd, in 1924 to Leningrad, between 1713 and 1728 and 1732–1918, Saint Petersburg was the capital of imperial Russia. In 1918, the government bodies moved to Moscow. Saint Petersburg is one of the cities of Russia, as well as its cultural capital. The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Saint Petersburg is home to The Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world. A large number of consulates, international corporations, banks. Swedish colonists built Nyenskans, a fortress, at the mouth of the Neva River in 1611, in a then called Ingermanland. A small town called Nyen grew up around it, Peter the Great was interested in seafaring and maritime affairs, and he intended to have Russia gain a seaport in order to be able to trade with other maritime nations. He needed a better seaport than Arkhangelsk, which was on the White Sea to the north, on May 1703121703, during the Great Northern War, Peter the Great captured Nyenskans, and soon replaced the fortress. On May 271703, closer to the estuary 5 km inland from the gulf), on Zayachy Island, he laid down the Peter and Paul Fortress, which became the first brick and stone building of the new city. The city was built by conscripted peasants from all over Russia, tens of thousands of serfs died building the city. Later, the city became the centre of the Saint Petersburg Governorate, Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712,9 years before the Treaty of Nystad of 1721 ended the war, he referred to Saint Petersburg as the capital as early as 1704. During its first few years, the city developed around Trinity Square on the bank of the Neva, near the Peter. However, Saint Petersburg soon started to be built out according to a plan, by 1716 the Swiss Italian Domenico Trezzini had elaborated a project whereby the city centre would be located on Vasilyevsky Island and shaped by a rectangular grid of canals. The project was not completed, but is evident in the layout of the streets, in 1716, Peter the Great appointed French Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond as the chief architect of Saint Petersburg. In 1724 the Academy of Sciences, University and Academic Gymnasium were established in Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great, in 1725, Peter died at the age of fifty-two. His endeavours to modernize Russia had met opposition from the Russian nobility—resulting in several attempts on his life
5.
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
6.
Russian nobility
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The Russian nobility arose in the 14th century. Its members staffed most of the Russian government apparatus until the February Revolution of 1917, the Russian word for nobility, dvoryanstvo, derives from the Polish word dwor, meaning the court of a prince or duke and later, the court of the tsar or emperor. A nobleman is called a dvoryanin, pre-Soviet Russia shared with other countries the concept that nobility connotes a status or a social category rather than a title. The nobility arose in the 12th and 13th centuries as the lowest part of the military class. From the 14th century land ownership by nobles increased, and by the 17th century the bulk of feudal lords and they made up the Landed army —the basic military force of Russia. Peter the Great finalized the status of the nobility, while abolishing the boyar title, however, Russia’s existing economic system, which lacked a sizable middle class and which relied on forced labor, was an impassable obstacle to the development of a free market. Furthermore, the lower classes – the overwhelming majority of the Russian population – lived virtually isolated from the upper classes, thus, most of the nobility’s “western” tendencies were largely superficial and confined to a tiny portion of the populace. Ironically, by introducing the nobility to political literature from Western Europe, Catherine exposed Russia’s autocracy to them as archaic and illiberal. Although Peter the Great is considered by many to be the first westernizer of Russia, there were, in fact, ivan III, starting in 1472, sent numerous agents to Italy to study architecture. Both Michael Romanov and his son Alexis invited and sponsored European visitors – mostly military, medical, Peter the Great was, first and foremost, eager to do away with Russia’s reputation as an Asiatic land and to propel his new empire onto the political stage of Western Europe. In 1697, he began to send nobles on compulsory trips abroad to England, Holland, while the tsar primarily designed these expeditions for naval training, he also encouraged the noblemen to learn about the arts of the west. When the travelers returned to Moscow, Peter tested them on their training, insisting on further education for those whose accumulated knowledge was unsatisfactory. By 1724, he had established – for the purpose of study and discovery – the Academy of Sciences. Peter’s westernizing efforts became quite radical after 1698, when he returned from his expedition through Europe, upon arriving, Peter summoned the nobility to his court and personally shaved almost every beard in the room. In 1705 he decreed a beard tax on all ranked men in Moscow and he also reformed the clothing of the nobility, abandoning the long-sleeved, traditional Muscovite robes for European fashion. Beginning in 1699 the tsar decreed strict dress requirements borrowing from German, Hungarian, French, Peter himself, usually sporting German dress and a trimmed mustache, acted as a prime example. While the nobility universally followed Peter’s fashion preferences at court, they greatly resented these styles, away from St. Petersburg, very few noblemen followed Peter’s guidelines and enforcement was lax. Peter also demanded changes in mannerisms and language among nobles, in order to supply Russians with a basic set of “proper” morals and habits, he ordered publication of manuals on Western etiquette
7.
Zhukovsky District, Bryansk Oblast
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Zhukovsky District is an administrative and municipal district, one of the twenty-seven in Bryansk Oblast, Russia. It is located in the north of the oblast, the area of the district is 1,115 square kilometers. Its administrative center is the town of Zhukovka, the population of Zhukovka accounts for 49. 4% of the districts total population. Закон №13-З от5 июня1997 г, «Об административно-территориальном устройстве Брянской области», в ред. Закона №4-З от5 февраля2014 г, «О внесении изменений в отдельные законодательные акты Брянской области». Опубликован, Брянский рабочий, №119,24 июня1997 г, Закон №69-З от2 ноября2012 г. Вступил в силу1 января2013 г, Опубликован, Информационный бюллетень Официальная Брянщина, №16,6 ноября2012 г. Закон №3-З от9 марта2005 г, Закона №75-З от28 сентября2015 г. «Об изменении статуса населённого пункта посёлок Красный Ятвиж Клетнянского района Брянской области», Вступил в силу через10 дней после официального опубликования. Опубликован, Брянская неделя, №13,8 апреля2005 г
8.
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
9.
Table of Ranks
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The Table of Ranks was a formal list of positions and ranks in the military, government, and court of Imperial Russia. Peter the Great introduced the system in 1722 while engaged in a struggle with the hereditary nobility. The Table of Ranks was formally abolished on 11 November 1917 by the newly established Bolshevik government, the table divided ranks in 14 grades, with all nobles regardless of birth or wealth beginning at the bottom of the table and rising through their service to the tsar. While all grades were open by merit, promotion required qualification for the next rank, peters intentions for a class of nobles bound to the tsar by their personal service to him were watered down by subsequent tsars. In 1762 Peter III abolished the compulsory 25-year military or civilian service for nobles, in 1767 Catherine the Great bought the support of the bureaucracy by making promotion up the 14 ranks automatic after seven years regardless of position or merit. Thus the bureaucracy became populated with time servers, achieving a certain level in the table automatically granted a certain level of nobility. A civil servant promoted to the 14th grade gained personal nobility, nicholas I raised this threshold to the 5th grade in 1845. In 1856 the grades required for hereditary nobility were raised to the 4th grade for the civil service, the father of Vladimir Lenin progressed in the management of education, reaching the 4th rank and becoming an active state councillor, which gave him the privilege of hereditary nobility. With occasional revisions, the Table of Ranks remained in effect until the Russian Revolution of 1917 and he laid down that fines of two months salary should be assessed against those falsely claiming a higher rank or gaining a rank without qualification. The first complete translation into English of the original Table of Ranks promulgated by Peter the Great in 1722 was presented by Brazilian historian Angelo Segrillo in 2016 and it is available online at http, //lea. vitis. uspnet. usp. br/arquivos/arttableofrankslea. pdf. The Social Reform — The Table of Ranks, Peter the Great, his life and work. Table of Ranks Peter Is originalTable of Ranks
10.
Hegumen
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Hegumen, hegumenos, or igumen is the title for the head of a monastery in the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, similar to the title of abbot. The head of a convent of nuns is called a hegumenia or ihumenia, the term means the one who is in charge, the leader in Greek. Initially the title was applied to the head of any monastery, after 1874, when the Russian monasteries were secularized and classified into three classes, the title of hegumen was reserved only for the lowest, third class. The head of a monastery of the second or first class holds the rank of archimandrite, in the Greek Catholic Church, the head of all monasteries in a certain territory is called the protohegumen. The duties of both hegumen and archimandrite are the same, archimandrite being considered the senior dignity of the two, in the Russian Orthodox Church the title of Hegumen may be granted as an honorary title to any hieromonk, even one who does not head a monastery. A ruling hegumen is formally installed in a ceremony by the bishop, among the Russians, the pastoral staff for a Hegumen tends to be of wood, rather than metal. The hegumen is awarded the gold pectoral cross by the bishop, during divine services the hegumen wears a simple black monastic mantle, while the higher ranking archimandrite wears a mantle similar to one worn by a bishop. An archimandrite also wears a similar to one worn by a bishop. A hegumen may carry his pastoral staff in processions and when giving blessings in the church, when outside the church, a hegumen may use a wooden walking stick similar to that used by a bishop or archimandrite, only not adorned with a silver knob. In the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria the rank is used in the capacity of an archpriest, on the other hand, the rank of archimandrite fell into disuse in the Church of Alexandria from the late 16th century. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Brockhaus
11.
Battle of Kulikovo
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The battle took place on 8 September 1380, at the Kulikovo Field near the Don River and was won by Dmitri, who became known as Donskoy after the battle. Although the victory did not end the Mongol domination over Russia, it is regarded by Russian historians as the turning point when Mongol influence began to wane. This process eventually led to Muscovite independence and formation of the modern Russian state, according to the Russian historian Lev Gumilev, Russians went to the Kulikovo field as citizens of various principalities and returned as a united Russian nation. After the Mongol-Tatar conquest, the territories of the disintegrating Kievan Rus became part of the region of the Mongol Empire. The numerous Russian principalities became the Hordes tributaries, during this period, the small regional principality of Moscow was growing in power and was often challenging its neighbors over territory, including clashing with the Grand Duchy of Ryazan. The intrigues between Moscow and Ryazan pre-date the Mongol-Tartar conquest, having arisen during the ascent of regional powers within the Kievan Rus. A civil war had arisen in the falling Golden Horde and new powers were appearing, such as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Grand Duchy of Moscow. After the mysterious death of Khan Abdulla the Tartar in 1370, Mamai was not a Genghisid, and as such his grip on power was tenuous, as there were blood-descendants of Genghis Khan with potential claims to the rulership of the Horde. In 1362, the Prince of Moscow, Dmitri Donskoi, came into possession of the Grand Duchy of Vladimir. He sought a jarliq from Mamai granting him formal possession of the Duchy, instead, in 1371, Mamai passed its title to the Prince of Tver. Prince Dmitri refused to accept Mamais decision, conflict ensued in 1377, when a friend of Mamai Arpash defeated the united armies of Suzdal and Moscow, led by Prince Dmitri, at the Battle of Pyana River. The victors then began to raid Nizhniy Novgorod and Ryazan, after the victory, Mamai sought to re-affirm his control over the tributary lands of the Golden Horde. In 1378, he sent forces led by the warlord Murza Begich to ensure Prince Dmitris obedience, the Hordes army was defeated at the Battle of the Vozha River and Murza Begich was killed. Meanwhile, another khan, Tokhtamysh, arose in Middle Asia to challenge Mamai for the throne of the Golden Horde, although initially unsuccessful, khan Tokhtamysh slowly began to solidfy support for his challenge to the rulership of the Horde. In 1380, against this backdrop, Mamai chose to lead the Hordes forces against the forces of Moscow. In preparation for the invasion, he negotiated with both Prince Jogaila of Lithuania and a Russian prince Oleg II of Ryazan, who struggled against Dmitry. The armies of Lithuania and Ryazan marched to join the Hordes army, while Mamai camped, Prince Dmitry mobilized his troops and allies in Kolomna to resist the invasion. The army of Moscow was joined there by armies from most of other Russian principalities, including Tver, Suzdal, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Polotsk, Murom and Beloozero
12.
Dmitry Donskoy
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He was the first prince of Moscow to openly challenge Mongol authority in Russia. His nickname, Donskoy, alludes to his victory against the Tatars in the Battle of Kulikovo. He is venerated as a Saint in the Orthodox Church with his feast day on 19 May, Dmitry ascended the throne of the Principality of Moscow at the age of 9. During his minority, Russias Metropolitan Aleksey ran the government, in 1360 Khizr-khan, Khan of the Golden Horde, transferred the title most prized among Russian princes, that of Grand Prince of Vladimir, to Dmitry Konstantinovich of Nizhniy Novgorod. In 1363, after that prince was deposed, Dmitry Ivanovich was crowned at Vladimir, three years later, he made peace with Dmitriy Konstantinovich and married his daughter Eudoxia. In 1376 their joint armies ravaged Volga Bulgaria, the most important event during Dmitrys early reign was start of building the Moscow Kremlin, it was completed in 1367. Thanks to the new fortress, the city withstood two sieges by Algirdas of Lithuania during the Lithuanian–Muscovite War, the war ended with the Treaty of Lyubutsk. In 1375, Dmitry settled, in his own favor, a conflict with Mikhail II of Tver over Vladimir, other princes of Northern Russia acknowledged his authority and contributed troops to the impending struggle against the Horde. By the end of his reign, Dmitry had more than doubled the territory of the Principality of Moscow, Mongol domination of parts of what is now Russia began to crumble during Dmitrys thirty-year reign. The Golden Horde was severely weakened by war and dynastic rivalries. Dmitry took advantage of this lapse in Mongol authority to challenge the Tatars. While he kept the Khans patent to collect taxes for all of Russia, Mamai, a Mongol general and claimant to the throne, tried to punish Dmitry for attempting to increase his power. In 1378 Mamai sent a Mongol army, but it was defeated by Dmitrys forces in the Battle of Vozha River, two years later Mamai personally led a large force against Moscow. Dmitry met and defeated it at the Battle of Kulikovo, the defeated Mamai was presently dethroned by a rival Mongol general, Tokhtamysh. That khan reasserted Mongol rule over parts of now is Russia. Dimitry, however, pledged his loyalty to Tokhtamysh and to the Golden Horde and was reinstated as Mongol principal tax collector, upon his death in 1389, Dimitry was the first Grand Duke to bequeath his titles to his son Vasiliy without consulting the Khan. He was married to Eudoxia of Nizhniy Novgorod and she was a daughter of Dmitry of Suzdal and Vasilisa of Rostov. They had at least twelve children, Daniil Dmitriyevich, married Fyodor Olegovich, Prince of Ryazan
13.
Mamai
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Mamai, of Kiyat descent, was a powerful military commander of the Golden Horde in the 1370s. The Horde controlled the lands in what is now the southern Ukrainian/southern Russia, Mamai became governor, sometime in the second half of the 1350s, of a territory that later would become the Crimean Khanate. During the rule of Berdi Beg Mamai was appointed as beqlar beg, a position simultaneously combining the duties of general of the army, minister of foreign affairs, and the head of the supreme court. Upon the assassination of Berdi Beg by Qulpa in 1359, Mamai associated himself with one of the coalitions formed to depose Qulpa, during that period of time the Golden Horde was in relative chaos, numerous regional governors were striving to become the Khan. Qulpa eventually was killed by Nawruz Beg who was assassinated less than six months later. Mamai, who was not a descendant of Genghis Khan. In 1361 he supported Ğabdullah, son of Uzbeg Khan, who became Khan in Crimea, upon the death of Ğabdullah in 1370, Mamai supported Bulak under regency of Tulun Beg Khanum, who only briefly enjoyed power before being replaced by his main opponent Urus in 1372. After being badly defeated by Russians under Dmitri Donskoi first in 1378 at the Battle of the Vozha River and then at the Battle of Kulikovo, Mamai began to assemble a large force to punish Dmitri. But he was defeated by Tokhtamysh on the banks of the Kalka River and was executed by Tokhtamysh or assassinated by the Genoese after fleeing to Caffa. The death of Mamai paved the way for the khan to reunify the Golden Horde. The memory of Mamai has endured for centuries, contemporary Russian language has an expression как Мамай прошел, which translates roughly to its as if Mamai came through here, used to describe an utter mess. The burial of Mamai was found by the native Crimean and famous Russian painter Ivan Aivazovsky, Mamai was buried in a village of Şeyh Mamay. Khan Mamatsios or Mamatzios, Mamatsou, Mamatsu Macedonie was a son of Mamai. These legendary events could have taken place in the 15th century and his niece Elena Glinskaya was married to Vasily III, Grand Prince of Moscow, and Ivan the Terrible was her son
14.
Tolstoy family
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Tolstoy, or Tolstoi, is a prominent family of Russian nobility, descending from Andrey Kharitonovich Tolstoy, who served under Vasily II of Moscow. The wild Tolstoys, as they were known in the society of Imperial Russia, have left a lasting legacy in Russian politics, military history, literature. The family first reached prominence in the late 17th century, on account of its connections with the Miloslavsky clan to which Tsar Alexis first wife belonged and it was Okolnichi Peter Andreevich Tolstoy who decided the family fortune by casting his lot with the party of Peter the Great. He gradually gained in Peters confidence serving first as the Russian ambassador to Constantinople, although detested by contemporaries, Tolstoy was made a count for his part in securing the throne for Catherine I. He later clashed with the mighty Prince Menshikov, who stripped him of his titles, the titles and estates were restored to his grandchildren 30 years later. The most famous of 19th-century Tolstoy politicians was Count Dmitri Andreevich, successively the Minister of Education, Minister of Interior, during his term in office, he put into effect a vigorous Russification program in Poland and Ukraine, for which he is chiefly remembered. Two members of the family were active during the Napoleonic wars and he served as the governor of St Petersburg and Kronstadt from 1828 until his death. Alexander Ivanovich Tolstoy, stemming from a branch of the family, inherited the committal title and estates of his childless uncle. He first distinguished himself in the battle of Charnova where his regiment held out for 15 hours against the army commanded by Napoleon. One of the most admired generals of the coalition, he was rewarded for his courage in the battles at Pultusk. At Guttstadt he was wounded so seriously that they feared for his life, in the great battle of Borodino he brilliantly commanded the key positions until he was shell-shocked and taken away from the battlefield. Ostermann-Tolstoy was once again wounded in the battle of Bautzen but didnt give up command of his force and his crowning achievement was the victory at Kulm, which cost him amputation of the left arm. When the war was over, he quarreled with the Emperor, resigned, Count Feodor Petrovich Tolstoy, sympathetically mentioned by Pushkin in Eugene Onegin, was one of the most fashionable Russian drawers and painters of the 1820s. Although he prepared illustrations for Bogdanovichs Dushenka, his genuine vocation was wax modeling. As he gradually went blind he had to give up drawing and started writing ballets and he was appointed Vice-President of the Academy of Arts in 1828. Many of his works may be seen in the Russian Museum, Count Feodor Ivanovich Tolstoy was a notorious drunkard, gastronome, and duellist. It is said that he killed 11 people in duels, in 1803 he participated in the first Russian circumnavigation of the Earth. After he had his body tattooed at the Marquesas and debauched all the crew, when he returned to St Petersburg, Count Fedor was nicknamed Amerikanets
15.
Alexander Korsakov
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Alexander Mikhailovich Rimsky-Korsakov was a Russian general remembered as an unlucky assistant to Alexander Suvorov during his Swiss expedition of 1799–1800. Korsakov entered military service as a cadet in the Preobrazhinski Guard Regiment and he fought in the Russo-Turkish War in 1788 and 1789, and in the Russo-Swedish War. He subsequently became a major-general of the Semenovsky Regiment of the Leib Guard and was assigned to accompany the Count of Artois to England, from there he went to Flanders as Russian observer to the army commanded by Prince Josias of Coburg. In 1797, Korsakov was elevated to general of Infantry. In 1798, Paul I gave Korsakov command of a force of 30,000 men sent to Germany to join Austria in the fight against the French Republic. At the beginning of 1799, the force was diverted to drive the French out of Switzerland, leaving Russia in May, Korsakov reached Stockach in 90 days. With 29,463 men, his command then marched to Zürich to join up with the 25 and it was expected that Alexander Suvorovs army would join them from Italy after marching through the Alps, but terrain and enemy action held up Suvorovs advance. In the meantime, Korsakov waited near Zurich in a state of over-confidence. Korsakov then took up a position on the east of the Rhine in the Dorflingen Camp between Schaffhausen and Constance, remaining there while Masséna was left free to deal with Suvorov and he joined Suvorov’s survivors at Lindau on 18 October, and was shortly after relieved of command. Soon after he was dismissed as colonel-in-chief of the Rostov Musketeer Regiment in disgrace, the combined army turned towards Bohemia, from where Paul I recalled the army back to Russia for the winter. With the accession of Emperor Alexander I in 1801, Korsakov was re-appointed as a GvC cavalry general and he was Governor of Lithuania from 1806 to 1809, based at Vilna, and again from April to June,1812. On the approach of the French he was ordered to withdraw by Barclay de Tolly on 28 June, during this time he ordered the reconstruction of the Tuskulėnai Manor in Vilnius, where he lived. Recalled to St. Petersberg after the Polish insurrection of 1830-31, Korsakov was made member of the State Council of Imperial Russia
16.
Horace
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Quintus Horatius Flaccus, known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus. Horace also crafted elegant hexameter verses and caustic iambic poetry and his career coincided with Romes momentous change from a republic to an empire. An officer in the army defeated at the Battle of Philippi in 42 BC, he was befriended by Octavians right-hand man in civil affairs, Maecenas. Some of the writings contained in his writings can be supplemented from the short. He was born on 8 December 65 BC in the Samnite south of Italy and his home town, Venusia, lay on a trade route in the border region between Apulia and Lucania. Various Italic dialects were spoken in the area and this perhaps enriched his feeling for language and he could have been familiar with Greek words even as a young boy and later he poked fun at the jargon of mixed Greek and Oscan spoken in neighbouring Canusium. Literary Latin must have sounded to him like a semi-foreign language, one of the works he probably studied in school was the Odyssia of Livius Andronicus, crammed into Italian boys with threats and floggings by teachers like the Orbilius mentioned in one of his poems. School was made particularly irksome by a number of his fellow pupils, the army veterans could have been settled there at the expense of local families uprooted by Rome as punishment for their part in the Social War. Such state-sponsored migration must have added still more variety to the area. According to a tradition reported by Horace, a colony of Romans or Latins had been installed in Venusia after the Samnites had been driven out early in the third century. In that case, young Horace could have felt himself to be a Roman though there are indications that he regarded himself as a Samnite or Sabellus by birth. Italians in modern and ancient times have always been devoted to their towns, even after success in the wider world. Images of his setting and references to it are found throughout his poems. Horaces father was probably a Venutian taken captive by Romans in the Social War, either way, he was a slave for at least part of his life. He was evidently a man of strong abilities however and managed to gain his freedom, thus Horace claimed to be the free-born son of a prosperous coactor. The father spent a fortune on his sons education, eventually accompanying him to Rome to oversee his schooling. The poet later paid tribute to him in a poem that one scholar considers the best memorial by any son to his father. As it is now, he deserves from me unstinting gratitude, I could never be ashamed of such a father, nor do I feel any need, as many people do, to apologize for being a freedmans son
17.
Gaius Maecenas
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Gaius Cilnius Maecenas was an ally, friend and political advisor to Octavian as well as an important patron for the new generation of Augustan poets, including both Horace and Virgil. During the reign of Augustus, Maecenas served as a minister to the Emperor but in spite of his wealth and power he chose not to enter the Senate. His name has become a byword for a wealthy, generous, expressions in Propertius seem to imply that Maecenas had taken some part in the campaigns of Mutina, Philippi and Perugia. Horace makes reference to this in his address to Maecenas at the opening of his first books of Odes with the expression atavis edite regibus. Tacitus refers to him as Cilnius Maecenas, it is possible that Cilnius was his mothers nomen - or that Maecenas was in fact a cognomen. The Gaius Maecenas mentioned in Cicero as a member of the equestrian order in 91 BC may have been his grandfather. The testimony of Horace and Maecenass own literary tastes imply that he had profited from the highest education of his time and his great wealth may have been in part hereditary, but he owed his position and influence to his close connection with the Emperor Augustus. As a close friend and advisor he had acted as deputy for Augustus when he was abroad. It was in 39 BC that Horace was introduced to Maecenas, during the Sicilian war against Sextus Pompeius in 36, Maecenas was sent back to Rome, and was entrusted with supreme administrative control in the city and in Italy. During the latter years of his life he fell out of favour with his master. Maecenas died in 8 BC, leaving the sole heir to his wealth. Opinions were much divided in ancient times as to his personal character and he enjoyed the credit of sharing largely in the establishment of the new order of things, of reconciling parties, and of carrying the new empire safely through many dangers. To his influence especially was attributed the more humane policy of Octavian after his first alliance with Antony, expressions in the Odes of Horace seem to imply that Maecenas was deficient in the robustness of fibre which Romans liked to imagine was characteristic of their city. Maecenas is most famous for his support of poets, hence his name has become the eponym for a patron of arts. He supported Virgil who wrote the Georgics in his honour and it was Virgil, impressed with examples of Horaces poetry, who introduced Horace to Maecenas. Indeed, Horace begins the first poem of his Odes by addressing his new patron, Maecenas gave him full financial support as well as an estate in the Sabine mountains. Propertius and the minor poets Varius Rufus, Plotius Tucca, Valgius Rufus and Domitius Marsus also were his protégés and his patronage was exercised, not from vanity or a mere dilettante love of letters, but with a view to the higher interest of the state. The change in seriousness of purpose between the Eclogues and the Georgics of Virgil was in a measure the result of the direction given by the statesman to the poets genius
18.
Moscow State University
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Lomonosov Moscow State University is a coeducational and public research university located in Moscow, Russia. It was founded on January 25,1755 by Mikhail Lomonosov, MSU was renamed after Lomonosov in 1940 and was then known as Lomonosov University. It also claims to house the tallest educational building in the world and it is rated among the universities with the best reputation in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy, ivan Shuvalov and Mikhail Lomonosov promoted the idea of a university in Moscow, and Russian Empress Elizabeth decreed its establishment on January 251755. The first lectures were given on April 26th, russians still celebrate January 25th as Students Day. Saint Petersburg State University and Moscow State University engage in rivalry over the title of Russias oldest university. The present Moscow State University originally occupied the Principal Medicine Store on Red Square from 1755 to 1787, in the 18th century, the University had three departments, philosophy, medicine, and law. A preparatory college was affiliated with the University until its abolition in 1812, in 1779, Mikhail Kheraskov founded a boarding school for noblemen which in 1830 became a gymnasium for the Russian nobility. The university press, run by Nikolay Novikov in the 1780s, published the most popular newspaper in Imperial Russia, in 1804, medical education split into clinical, surgical, and obstetrics faculties. During 1884–1897, the Department of Medicine -- supported by donations. The campus, and medical education in general, were separated from the University in 1918, as of 2015, Devichye Pole was operated by the independent I. M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University and by various other state and private institutions. The roots of student unrest in the University reach deep into the nineteenth century, in 1905, a social-democratic organization emerged at the University and called for the overthrow of the Czarist government and the establishment of a republic in Russia. The imperial government repeatedly threatened to close the University, after the October Revolution of 1917, the institution began to admit the children of the proletariat and peasantry. In 1919, the University abolished fees for tuition and established a facility to help working-class children prepare for entrance examinations. During the implementation of Joseph Stalins First Five-Year Plan, prisoners from the Gulag were forced to construct parts of the newly expanded University, after 1991, nine new faculties were established. The following year, the University gained a status, it is funded directly from the state budget. On March 19,2008, Russias most powerful supercomputer to date and its peak performance of 60 TFLOPS makes it the fastest supercomputer in the Commonwealth of Independent States. Since 1953, most of the faculties have been situated on Sparrow Hills, the main building was designed by architect Lev Vladimirovich Rudnev
19.
Alexander Ivanovich Ostermann-Tolstoy
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Alexander Ivanovich Count Osterman-Tolstoy was a Russian nobleman and soldier in the era of the French Revolutionary Wars. He belonged to the famous Tolstoy family, Count Alexander Ivanovich Osterman-Tolstoy was the son of the Lieutenant-General Ivan Matveevich Tolstoy and his wife Agrafena Ilyinichna, nee Bibikova. He began his service during the Turkish-Russian war of 1787-1791. In 1796 his two childless great-uncles, Fedor and Ivan Osterman, brothers of his grandmother, gave him their family name, the title of count. Count Osterman-Tolstoy did not leave the military service, in 1798 he was already a major-general, and became Lieutenant General in 1805. He participated in all major Russian battles of the Napoleonic Wars in 1805-1814, upon his return from the campaign in northern Germany in 1805, he was named Governor of St. Petersburg. In 1811, he inherited the title of Count Osterman from his childless uncle, Ivan Osterman, during 1812-1814 commanded a corps, and distinguished himself in the battle at Kulm 17–18 August 1813. He participated in the 1812 campaigns as a Commander of the 4th Army Corps, Osterman-Tolstoy was wounded in the Battle of Bautzen, before fighting at Dresden and at the Battle of Leipzig. His corps defended the gorges in the mountains of Bohemia and captured General Vandamme, during the battle the count lost his left hand, as Emperor Alexander I put it, “by sacrificing his hand he bought us victory”. In 1815, Osterman-Tolstoy briefly had an assignment to Paris. In 1817, he was appointed General of the Infantry, in 1831, he was a military consultant to Ibrahim-pasha in Egypt and participated in actions against the Turks. He never returned to Russia and shared his time between Italy and Switzerland and he loved practical jokes and hoaxes. According to his contemporaries he was “a remarkable and original person, distinguished by his frankness, even among his famous contemporaries he could be singled out. Fearlessness, courage, and endurance in battle were his characteristics as a military officer. ”Count Osterman-Tolstoy was married to Princess Elisabeth Alexeevna Galitzine from 1799 and he had foreign mistresses and a lot of illegitimate children. A55 ans il est temps de faire la clôture. ’, Osterman-Tolstoy finally settled in Le Petit-Saconnex in Geneva in 1837, where he died in 1857
20.
Munich
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Munich is the capital and largest city of the German state of Bavaria, on the banks of River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg, the Munich Metropolitan Region is home to 5.8 million people. According to the Globalization and World Rankings Research Institute Munich is considered an alpha-world city, the name of the city is derived from the Old/Middle High German term Munichen, meaning by the monks. It derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who ran a monastery at the place that was later to become the Old Town of Munich, Munich was first mentioned in 1158. From 1255 the city was seat of the Bavarian Dukes, black and gold—the colours of the Holy Roman Empire—have been the citys official colours since the time of Ludwig the Bavarian, when it was an imperial residence. Following a final reunification of the Wittelsbachian Duchy of Bavaria, previously divided and sub-divided for more than 200 years, like wide parts of the Holy Roman Empire, the area recovered slowly economically. In 1918, during the German Revolution, the house of Wittelsbach, which governed Bavaria since 1180, was forced to abdicate in Munich. In the 1920s, Munich became home to political factions, among them the NSDAP. During World War II, Munich was heavily bombed and more than 50% of the entire city, the postwar period was characterised by American occupation until 1949 and a strong increase of population and economic power during the years of the Wirtschaftswunder after 1949. The city is home to corporations like BMW, Siemens, MAN, Linde, Allianz and MunichRE as well as many small. Munich is home to national and international authorities, major universities, major museums. Its numerous architectural attractions, international events, exhibitions and conferences. Munich is one of the most prosperous and fastest growing cities in Germany and it is a top-ranked destination for migration and expatriate location, despite being the municipality with the highest density of population in Germany. Munich nowadays hosts more than 530,000 people of foreign background, the year 1158 is assumed to be the foundation date, which is the earliest date the city is mentioned in a document. The document was signed in Augsburg, by that time the Guelph Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, had built a bridge over the river Isar next to a settlement of Benedictine monks—this was on the Old Salt Route and a toll bridge. In 1175, Munich was officially granted city status and received fortification, in 1180, with the trial of Henry the Lion, Otto I Wittelsbach became Duke of Bavaria and Munich was handed over to the Bishop of Freising. In 1240, Munich was transferred to Otto II Wittelsbach and in 1255, Duke Louis IV, a native of Munich, was elected German king in 1314 and crowned as Holy Roman Emperor in 1328. He strengthened the position by granting it the salt monopoly
21.
Amalie Adlerberg
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Amalies mother was an aunt of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, wife of Tsar Nicholas I. Her mothers husband, Karl Alexander Fürst von Thurn und Taxis, was invited by Napoleon for his new projects, in his absence, Princess Therese had a passionate affair with Count Maximilian-Emmanuel von Lerchenfeld. Amalie von Sternfeld was later brought to Regensburg, closer to Princess Therese and she was finally taken care of by the Lerchenfeld family and lived in their palace in Munich or at the family castle in Köfering near Regensburg. In 1822, the fifteen-year-old beauty Amalie Stargard met young Fyodor Tyutchev, young nineteen-year-old Tyutchev fell in love and the two young people shared tender romantic feelings. Tyutchevs poem Tears or Slezy coincides with one of their dates, the old diplomat was of German Baltic descent, and the young but pragmatic princess opted for a barons noble title rather than the untitled young poet Tyutchev. On 31 August 1825 the seventeen-year-old Amalie von Lerchenfeld wed Baron Krüdener in Köfering and her first child, Nikolai-Arthur, was born on 2 July 1826. Fyodor Tyutchev continued to see Amalie, but in families, Prince Karl, brother of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, and the king himself were spellbound by the beautiful Amalie. Ludwig I ordered an oil portrait of Amalie to the artist Joseph Stieler for his Gallery of Beauties and it was completed in 1828 and today can be viewed at Nymphenburg Palace in Munich. In April 1836, Fyodor Tyutchev dedicated to Amalie his poem Ia pomniu vremia zolotoe… and this poem is not about love, but a reminiscence of love, of their past meetings on the hills of Regensburg. The poem was later interpreted by Mieczysław Weinberg, in Opus 25, Six Romances after F. Tutchev for singer, in April 1836, Baron von Krüdener received a promotion and left for Russia. Amalie brought to Saint Petersburg a bunch of Tyutchevs poems and she gave dozens more of them to the poets former colleague, Prince Ivan Gagarin. Gagarin wrote down several poems and gave them to read to Alexander Pushkin, publisher of Sovremennik, Pushkin was very excited and published them immediately. Thus, Amalie helped Tyutchev gain recognition in his home country, bibliographers of Pushkin like Alexander Shik state that Alexander Pushkin felt for Amalie and tried to court her at one of the balls. Her influence was so great that he even converted to Catholicism. In Imperial Russia, where Orthodoxy was the religion, this action would be punished by years of katorga. He also helped to reinstate Fyodor Tyutchev at the Ministry after he was fired in 1843, and arranged the meeting of Tyutchev with Nicholas I of Russia and Minister Karl Nesselrode. His Majesty Nicholas I of Russia himself was not indifferent to Amalie,25 November 1836 she received a luxurious fur coat as a gift from the Tsar that she received on the rights of his cousine. In 1848, the 40-year-old Amalie von Krüdener gave birth to a child out-of-wedlock on 17 March, the father of her newborn son Nikolo was the 29-year-old Count Nikolay Adlerberg
22.
Frustration
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In psychology, frustration is a common emotional response to opposition. There are two types of frustration, internal and external, conflict, such as when one has competing goals that interfere with one another, can also be an internal source of frustration and can create cognitive dissonance. External causes of frustration involve conditions outside of a control, such as a physical roadblock. There are multiple ways individuals cope with such as passive–aggressive behavior, anger. This makes it difficult to identify the cause of their frustration. However, a direct and common response is a propensity towards aggression. Frustration originates from feelings of uncertainty and insecurity which stems from a sense of inability to fulfill needs, if the needs of an individual are blocked, uneasiness and frustration are more likely to occur. When these needs are ignored or unsatisfied, anger, depression, loss of self-confidence, aggression. Needs can be blocked two different ways, internally and externally, internal blocking happens within an individual’s mind, either through lack of ability, confidence, conflicting goals and desires, and/or fears. External blocking happens to an individual outside of their control such as physical roadblocks, difficult tasks, some people are predisposed towards feelings of frustration, indexed in terms of temperament, in adolescence and neuroticism in adulthood. Temperamental frustration is associated with alterations including changes in perceived relationship affection. Frustration can be considered a behavior and can have a number of effects. Stubborn refusal to respond to new conditions affecting the goal, such as removal or modification of the barrier and it follows that punishment is a dangerous tool, since it often has effects which are entirely the opposite of those desired. Frustration tolerance is ones ability to resist becoming frustrated when facing difficult tasks, having a low frustration tolerance is related to trait anger and a higher level of frustration tolerance is related to lower levels of anger and longer persistence on difficult tasks. For example, a child with a high frustration tolerance may be able to deal with repeated challenges and failures without experiencing significant frustration, the child with a low frustration tolerance can be quick to experience frustration when asked to perform tasks of moderate difficulty. Frustration–aggression hypothesis Anger Aggression Disappointment Depression Frustration
23.
Heinrich Heine
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Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was a German poet, journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his lyric poetry. Heines later verse and prose are distinguished by their satirical wit and he is considered part of the Young Germany movement. His radical political views led to many of his works being banned by German authorities, Heine spent the last 25 years of his life as an expatriate in Paris. Heine was born at Düsseldorf in what was then the Duchy of Berg and he was called Harry in childhood but became known as Heinrich after his conversion to Lutheranism in 1825. Heines father, Samson Heine, was a textile merchant and his mother Peira, née van Geldern, was the daughter of a physician. Heinrich was the eldest of four children, Heine was also a third cousin once removed of philosopher and economist Karl Marx, also born to a German Jewish family in the Rhineland, with whom he became a frequent correspondent in later life. Düsseldorf was then a town with a population of around 16,000. The French Revolution and subsequent Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars involving Germany complicated Düsseldorfs political history during Heines childhood and it had been the capital of the Duchy of Jülich-Berg, but was under French occupation at the time of his birth. It then went to the Elector of Bavaria before being ceded to Napoleon in 1806 and it was first ruled by Joachim Murat, then by Napoleon himself. Upon Napoleons downfall in 1815 it became part of Prussia, thus Heines formative years were spent under French influence. The adult Heine would always be devoted to the French for introduction of the Napoleonic Code and he glossed over the negative aspects of French rule in Berg, heavy taxation, conscription, and economic depression brought about by the Continental Blockade. Heines parents were not particularly devout, as a young child they sent him to a Jewish school where he learned a smattering of Hebrew, but thereafter he attended Catholic schools. Here he learned French, which would be his second language - although he spoke it with a German accent. He also acquired a love for Rhineland folklore. In 1814 Heine went to a school in Düsseldorf where he learned to read English. The most successful member of the Heine family was his uncle Salomon Heine, in 1816 Heine moved to Hamburg to become an apprentice at Heckscher & Co, his uncles bank, but displayed little aptitude for business. He learned to hate Hamburg with its ethos, but it would become one of the poles of his life alongside Paris
24.
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling
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Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, later von Schelling, was a German philosopher. Interpreting Schellings philosophy is regarded as difficult because of its apparently ever-changing nature, Schellings thought in the large has been neglected, especially in the English-speaking world, as has been his later work on mythology and revelation, much of which remains untranslated. An important factor was the ascendancy of Hegel, whose works portray Schelling as a mere footnote in the development of idealism. Schellings Naturphilosophie also has been attacked by scientists for its analogizing tendency, however, some later philosophers such as Martin Heidegger and Slavoj Žižek have shown interest in re-examining Schellings body of work. Schelling was born in the town of Leonberg in the Duchy of Württemberg and he attended the monastic school at Bebenhausen, near Tübingen, where his father was chaplain and an Orientalist professor. From 1783 to 1784 Schelling attended a Latin school in Nürtingen and knew Friedrich Hölderlin, on 18 October 1790, at the age of 15, he then was granted permission to enroll at the Tübinger Stift, despite not having yet reached the normal enrollment age of 20. At the Stift, he shared a room with Hegel as well as Hölderlin, Schelling studied the Church fathers and ancient Greek philosophers. His interest gradually shifted from Lutheran theology to philosophy, in 1792 he graduated with his masters thesis, titled Antiquissimi de prima malorum humanorum origine philosophematis Genes. Explicandi tentamen criticum et philosophicum, and in 1795 he finished his doctoral thesis, meanwhile, he had begun to study Kant and Fichte, who greatly influenced him. At this time he also visited Dresden, where he saw collections of the Elector of Saxony, to which he referred later in his thinking on art. On a personal level, this Dresden visit of six weeks from August 1797 saw Schelling meet the brothers August Wilhelm Schlegel and Karl Friedrich Schlegel and his future wife Caroline, and Novalis. After two years tutoring, in October 1798, at the age of only 23, Schelling was called to University of Jena as a professor of philosophy. His time at Jena put Schelling at the center of the ferment of Romanticism. He was on terms with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who appreciated the poetic quality of the Naturphilosophie. As the prime minister of the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar, Goethe invited Schelling to Jena, on the other hand, Schelling was unsympathetic to the ethical idealism that animated the work of Friedrich Schiller, the other pillar of Weimar Classicism. Later, in Schellings Vorlesung über die Philosophie der Kunst, Schillers theory on the sublime was closely reviewed, in Jena, Schelling was on good terms with Fichte at first, but their different conceptions, about nature in particular, led to increasing divergence in their thought. Fichte advised him to focus on philosophy in its original meaning, but Schelling, who was becoming the acknowledged leader of the Romantic school, had begun to reject Fichtes thought as cold and abstract. Schelling was especially close to August Wilhelm Schlegel and his wife, a marriage between Schelling and Carolines young daughter, Auguste Böhmer, was contemplated by both
25.
Bavaria
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Bavaria is a free state and one of 16 federal states of Germany. Located in the German southeast with an area of 70,548 square kilometres and its territory comprises roughly a fifth of the total land area of Germany, and, with 12.9 million inhabitants, it is Germanys second most populous state. Munich, Bavarias capital and largest city, is the third largest city in Germany, the Duchy of Bavaria dates back to the year 555. In the 17th century CE, the Duke of Bavaria became a Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Bavaria existed from 1806 to 1918, when Bavaria became a republic. In 1946, the Free State of Bavaria re-organised itself on democratic lines after the Second World War, Bavaria has a unique culture, largely because of the states Catholic majority and conservative traditions. Bavarians have traditionally been proud of their culture, which includes such as Oktoberfest. The state also has the second largest economy among the German states by GDP figures, modern Bavaria also includes parts of the historical regions of Franconia, Upper Palatinate and Swabia. The Bavarians emerged in a north of the Alps, previously inhabited by Celts. The Bavarians spoke Old High German but, unlike other Germanic groups, rather, they seem to have coalesced out of other groups left behind by Roman withdrawal late in the 5th century. These peoples may have included the Celtic Boii, some remaining Romans, Marcomanni, Allemanni, Quadi, Thuringians, Goths, Scirians, Rugians, the name Bavarian means Men of Baia which may indicate Bohemia, the homeland of the Celtic Boii and later of the Marcomanni. They first appear in written sources circa 520, a 17th century Jewish chronicler David Solomon Ganz, citing Cyriacus Spangenberg, claimed that the diocese was named after an ancient Bohemian king, Boiia, in the 14th century BCE. From about 554 to 788, the house of Agilolfing ruled the Duchy of Bavaria and their daughter, Theodelinde, became Queen of the Lombards in northern Italy and Garibald was forced to flee to her when he fell out with his Frankish overlords. Garibalds successor, Tassilo I, tried unsuccessfully to hold the frontier against the expansion of Slavs. Tassilos son Garibald II seems to have achieved a balance of power between 610 and 616, after Garibald II little is known of the Bavarians until Duke Theodo I, whose reign may have begun as early as 680. From 696 onwards he invited churchmen from the west to organize churches and his son, Theudebert, led a decisive Bavarian campaign to intervene in a succession dispute in the Lombard Kingdom in 714, and married his sister Guntrud to the Lombard King Liutprand. At Theodos death the duchy was divided among his sons, at Hugberts death the duchy passed to a distant relative named Odilo, from neighbouring Alemannia. He was defeated near Augsburg in 743 but continued to rule until his death in 748, saint Boniface completed the peoples conversion to Christianity in the early 8th century. Bavaria was in ways affected by the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century
26.
Bryansk Oblast
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Bryansk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia. Its administrative center is the city of Bryansk, as of the 2010 Census, its population was 1,278,217. Bryansk Oblast lies in western European Russia in the central to western parts of the East European Plain, the relief is a typical East European Plain landscape, with alternating rolling hills and shallow lowlands, although lowlands dominate in the western and central parts. A total of 125 rivers flow through Bryansk Oblast, with the longest one, at 1,187 kilometers, other major rivers include the Bolva, Navlya, Nerussa, Sudost, Besed, and Iput. There are forty-nine major lakes, with Lake Kozhany being the largest, the average temperature in January is −7 to −9 °C. The average July temperature is +18 to +19 °C, average annual precipitation varies from 560 to 600 millimeters. Natural resources include deposits of peat, sand, clay, chalk, marl, about a quarter of the total area of the oblast is covered by forests, mainly coniferous, mixed, and deciduous, as well as forest-steppe. Bryansky Les Nature Reserve is a reserve which protects, among other things. As a result of the Chernobyl disaster on April 26,1986, in 1999, some 226,000 people lived in areas with the contamination level above 5 Curie/km2, representing approximately 16% of the oblasts population. The Venus of Eliseevichi is a piece of Paleolithic art dated 14,000 YBP found in the region, the Eliseevichi site is also associated with the earliest recognized dog remains dating to 15,000 YBP. In the 9th to 11th centuries, Slavic tribes lived along the banks of the Desna River, the city of Bryansk was established in 985. Bryansk remained poorly attested until the Mongol invasion of Russia and it was the northernmost of the Severian cities in the possession of the Chernigov Rurikids and the principality of Novgorod-Seversky. After Mikhail of Chernigov was murdered by the Mongols and his capital was destroyed, in 1310, when the Mongols sacked the town again, it belonged to the principality of Smolensk. After the demise of Chernigov by the Mongols, the Principality of Bryansk was formed, in 1356 Bryansk territory was under the authority of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Great Duchy of Moscow conquered Bryansk following the Battle of Vedrosha in 1503, the town was turned into a fortress which played a major role during the Time of Troubles. In 1618 the Deulino Armistice saw the southern and western area of the Bryansk region temporarily ceded to Poland, Peter the Great incorporated Bryansk into Kiev Governorate, but Catherine the Great deemed it wise to transfer the town to the Oryol Governorate in 1779. She also promulgated the towns coat of arms, Bryansk became the duchys south-western outpost in the fight against Lithuania, Poland and Crimean Khanate. One of the largest was Starodubaka, in 1781, these regiments merged into districts and several territories
27.
Sovremennik
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Sovremennik was a Russian literary, social and political magazine, published in Saint Petersburg in 1836-1866. It came out four times a year in 1836-1843 and once a month after that, the magazine published poetry, prose, critical, historical, ethnographic and other material. Sovremennik originated as an enterprise of Alexander Pushkin who was running out of money to support his growing family. To assist him with the magazine, the poet asked Nikolai Gogol, Pyotr Vyazemsky and it was there that the first substantial assortment of Fyodor Tyutchevs poems was published. Soon it became clear that Pushkins establishment could not compete with Faddey Bulgarins journal, Sovremennik was out of date and could not command a paying audience. When Pushkin died, his friend Pyotr Pletnyov took over the editorship in 1838, a few years later the magazine fell into decline, and Pletnyov handed it over to Nikolay Nekrasov and Ivan Panaev in 1847. It was Nekrasov who really made the magazine profitable and he enlisted the services of Ivan Turgenev, Ivan Goncharov, Alexander Herzen and Nikolai Ogaryov. Sovremennik was the first to publish translated works by Charles Dickens, George Sand, although the magazine was owned and run by Nekrasov, its official editor-in-chief was Alexander Nikitenko. The virulent realist critic Vissarion Belinsky was responsible for its ideology and his criticism of present-day reality and propaganda of democratic ideas made the journal very popular among the Russian intelligentsia. Sovremenniks circulation was 3,100 copies in 1848, during the reactionary reign of Nicholas I, the journal had to struggle against censorship and complaints of disgruntled aristocracy. Its position grew more complicated after Herzens emigration and Belinskys death, despite these hardships, Sovremennik published works by best Russian authors of the day, Leo Tolstoy, Turgenev and Nekrasov. Timofey Granovsky, Sergey Solovyov and other leading historians were published as well, the period between 1852 and 1862 is considered to be the most brilliant in the history of the journal. Nekrasov managed to strike a deal with its contributors, whereby their new works were to be published exclusively by him. As regards ideology, Sovremennik grew more radical together with its audience, Belinsky was succeeded by Nikolai Chernyshevsky in 1853 and by Nikolai Dobrolyubov. All their principal articles were published in Sovremennik, in 1861, it published materials, dedicated to the emancipation of the serfs and advocated the interests of serfs in the strongest terms possible. In 1859-1861, Sovremennik argued with Herzens Kolokol about the aims of the Russian democracy, such a radical stance alienated those writers who were indifferent to politics or personally disliked revolutionary intelligentsia. Although Tolstoy, Turgenev, and Dmitry Grigorovich eventually left the magazine, the death of Dobrolyubov in 1861, an 8-month suspension of publishing activities, and Chernyshevskys arrest caused irreparable damage to the magazine. Its ideological stance became less clear and consistent, in 1863, Nekrasov managed to resume publishing Sovremennik
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Revue des deux Mondes
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The Revue des deux Mondes is a French language monthly literary and cultural affairs magazine that has been published in Paris since 1829. According to its website, it is today the place for debates and dialogues between nations, disciplines and cultures, about the subjects of our societies. The main shareholder is Marc Ladreit de Lacharrières FIMALAC Group, the Revue des deux Mondes was founded by Prosper Mauroy and Pierre de Ségur-Dupeyron, first appearing on 1 August 1829. It was purchased in 1831 by Charles Buloz, who was its editor until 1877, another influential editor in its history was Ferdinand Brunetière. Revue des Deux Mondes Revue des Deux Mondes on Wikisource La Revue des deux mondes online in Gallica, the digital library of the BnF
29.
Turin
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Turin is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region and was the first capital city of Italy. The city is located mainly on the bank of the Po River, in front of Susa Valley and surrounded by the western Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 892,649 while the population of the area is estimated by Eurostat to be 1.7 million inhabitants. The Turin metropolitan area is estimated by the OECD to have a population of 2.2 million, in 1997 a part of the historical center of Torino was inscribed in the World Heritage List under the name Residences of the Royal House of Savoy. Turin is well known for its Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neo-classical, many of Turins public squares, castles, gardens and elegant palazzi such as Palazzo Madama, were built between the 16th and 18th centuries. This was after the capital of the Duchy of Savoy was moved to Turin from Chambery as part of the urban expansion, the city used to be a major European political center. Turin was Italys first capital city in 1861 and home to the House of Savoy, from 1563, it was the capital of the Duchy of Savoy, then of the Kingdom of Sardinia ruled by the Royal House of Savoy and finally the first capital of the unified Italy. Turin is sometimes called the cradle of Italian liberty for having been the birthplace and home of notable politicians and people who contributed to the Risorgimento, such as Cavour. The city currently hosts some of Italys best universities, colleges, academies, lycea and gymnasia, such as the University of Turin, founded in the 15th century, in addition, the city is home to museums such as the Museo Egizio and the Mole Antonelliana. Turins attractions make it one of the worlds top 250 tourist destinations, Turin is ranked third in Italy, after Milan and Rome, for economic strength. With a GDP of $58 billion, Turin is the worlds 78th richest city by purchasing power, as of 2010, the city has been ranked by GaWC as a Gamma World city. Turin is also home to much of the Italian automotive industry, the Taurini were an ancient Celto-Ligurian Alpine people, who occupied the upper valley of the Po River, in the center of modern Piedmont. In 218 BC, they were attacked by Hannibal as he was allied with their long-standing enemies, the Taurini chief town was captured by Hannibals forces after a three-day siege. As a people they are mentioned in history. It is believed that a Roman colony was established in 27 BC under the name of Castra Taurinorum, both Livy and Strabo mention the Taurinis country as including one of the passes of the Alps, which points to a wider use of the name in earlier times. In the 1st century BC, the Romans created a military camp, the typical Roman street grid can still be seen in the modern city, especially in the neighborhood known as the Quadrilatero Romano. Via Garibaldi traces the path of the Roman citys decumanus which began at the Porta Decumani. The Porta Palatina, on the side of the current city centre, is still preserved in a park near the Cathedral
30.
Leo Tolstoy
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Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time. Born to an aristocratic Russian family in 1828, he is best known for the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, often cited as pinnacles of realist fiction. He first achieved acclaim in his twenties with his semi-autobiographical trilogy, Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth. Tolstoys fiction includes dozens of stories and several novellas such as The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Family Happiness. He also wrote plays and numerous philosophical essays, in the 1870s Tolstoy experienced a profound moral crisis, followed by what he regarded as an equally profound spiritual awakening, as outlined in his non-fiction work A Confession. His literal interpretation of the teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him to become a fervent Christian anarchist and pacifist. Tolstoy also became an advocate of Georgism, the economic philosophy of Henry George. Tolstoy was born at Yasnaya Polyana, a family estate 12 kilometres southwest of Tula, the Tolstoys were a well-known family of old Russian nobility, tracing their ancestry to a mythical Lithuanian noble Indris. He was the fourth of five children of Count Nikolai Ilyich Tolstoy, a veteran of the Patriotic War of 1812, Tolstoys parents died when he was young, so he and his siblings were brought up by relatives. In 1844, he began studying law and oriental languages at Kazan University and his teachers described him as both unable and unwilling to learn. Tolstoy left the university in the middle of his studies, returned to Yasnaya Polyana and then spent much of his time in Moscow, in 1851, after running up heavy gambling debts, he went with his older brother to the Caucasus and joined the army. It was about time that he started writing. Others who followed the path were Alexander Herzen, Mikhail Bakunin. During his 1857 visit, Tolstoy witnessed an execution in Paris. Writing in a letter to his friend Vasily Botkin, The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, henceforth, I shall never serve any government anywhere. Tolstoys concept of non-violence or Ahimsa was bolstered when he read a German version of the Tirukkural and he later instilled the concept in Mahatma Gandhi through his A Letter to a Hindu when young Gandhi corresponded with him seeking his advice. His European trip in 1860–61 shaped both his political and literary development when he met Victor Hugo, whose literary talents Tolstoy praised after reading Hugos newly finished Les Misérables, the similar evocation of battle scenes in Hugos novel and Tolstoys War and Peace indicates this influence. Tolstoys political philosophy was influenced by a March 1861 visit to French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
31.
Konstantin Pobedonostsev
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Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev was a Russian jurist, statesman, and adviser to three Tsars. He was the spokesman for reactionary positions. His writings on politics, law, art, and culture emphasized the positive element of the spiritual and he warned of the negative element in Russia, portraying democratic and liberal movements as enemies to the national and religious unity of Russian people. Pobedonostsevs father Pyotr Vasilyevich Pobedonostsev was a Professor of literature at Moscow State University, in 1841 he placed his son, then aged 14, in the St. Petersburg School of Jurisprudence, which had been established to prepare young men for civil service. After graduation Konstantin Pobedonostsev entered the service as an official in the eighth Moscow department of the Senate. The task of the department was to resolve civil cases from guberniyas surrounding Moscow and he was promoted rapidly within the eighth department. From 1860 to 1865 he was professor civil law at Moscow State University, in 1861 Tsar Alexander II invited him to instruct his son and heir Nicholas in the theory of law and administration. In 1865 young Nicholas died, and Pobedonostsev was invited to teach Nicholass brother Alexander, in 1866 Pobedonostsev moved to a permanent residence in St. Petersburg. Pobedonostsev and Tsarevich Alexander remained very close for almost thirty years and he became a member of the Council of the Empire, and in 1880 – chief procurator of the Holy Synod. In the latter office Pobedonostsev was operating head of the Russian Orthodox Church, during the reign of Alexander III he was one of the most influential men in the empire. He was the mastermind of Alexanders Manifesto of April 29,1881, the Manifesto on Unshakeable Autocracy proclaimed that the absolute power of the Tsar unshakable thus putting an end to Loris-Melikovs endeavours to establish a representative body in the empire. Actually, Pobedonostsevs ascension in the first days after the assassination of Alexander II resulted in subsequent resignation of Loris-Melikov and he always was an uncompromising conservative and never shrank from boldly expressing his staunch opinions. Consequently, in the circles he was always denounced as an obscurantist, pedant. After the death of Alexander III, he lost much of his influence, in 1901, Nikolai Lagovski, a supporter of socialist ideas, tried to kill Pobedonostsev, shooting through the window of Pobedonostsevs office, but missing. Lagovski was sentenced to 6 years of katorga, during the revolutionary tumult, which followed the disastrous war with Japan, Pobedonostsev, being nearly 80 years of age, retired from public affairs. He died on March 23,1907 and he was fictionalized as old senator Ableukhov in Andrey Belys novel Petersburg. Arguably he was depicted in Leo Tolstoys Anna Karenina as Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin. He ordered Tolstoys excommunication in 1901, though Pobedonostsev is mostly known as statesman and thinker, his contribution to Russian civil law is significant
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Nikolay Nekrasov
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He is credited with introducing into Russian poetry ternary meters and the technique of dramatic monologue. As the editor of literary journals, notably Sovremennik, Nekrasov was also singularly successful. Nikolay Alexeyevich Nekrasov was born in Nemyriv, Podolia Governorate and his father Alexey Sergeyevich Nekrasov was a descendant from Russian landed gentry, and an officer in the Imperial Russian Army. There is some uncertainty as to his mothers origins, according to Brokhaus & Efron, Alexandra Zakrzewska was a Polish noblewoman, daughter of a wealthy landlord who belonged to szlachta. The church metrics tell a different story, and modern Russian scholars have her name as Yelena Andreyevna, up until recently the poets biographers had it that his mother belonged to the Polish family. In fact she was a daughter of an Ukrainian state official Alexander Semyonovich Zakrevsky, the owner of Yuzvino, Pyotr Yakubovich argued that the metrics might have been tempered with so as to conceal the fact that the girl had been indeed taken from Poland without her parents consent. This early retirement from the army, as well as his job as a provincial inspector, such experiences traumatized Nikolai and later determined the subject matter of his major poems that portrayed the plight of the Russian peasants and women. His was a heart, and this wound that never healed served as a source for his passionate, suffering verse for the rest of his life. In September 1832 Nekrasov joined the Yaroslavl Gymnasium but quit it prematurely, the reasons for this might have been the alleged trouble with tutors whom he wrote satires on as well as Alexey Sergeyevichs insistence that his son should join the military academy. The quality of education in the gymnasium was poor, but it was there that Nekrasovs interest in poetry grew, he admired Byron and Pushkin, notably the latters Ode to Freedom. By the age of fifteen the whole notebook has taken shape, outraged by his sons refusal to join the Cadet Corps, the father stopped supporting him financially. The three-year period of his Petersburg tribulations followed when the man had to live in extreme conditions. In October 1838 Nekrasov debuted as a poet, his Thought appeared in Syn Otechestva. In 1839 he took exams at the Saint Petersburg Universitys Eastern languages faculty, failed and joined the faculty as a part-time student where he studied, irregularly. Years later detractors accused Nekrasov of mercantilism, but, for eight years this man lived on the verge of starvation. Should he have backstepped, made peace with his father, hed found himself again in total comfort, the book, reviewed favourably by Pyotr Pletnyov and Ksenofont Polevoy, was dismissed by Alexey Galakhov and Vissarion Belinsky. Several months later Nekrasov retrieved and destroyed the bulk of his first collection. Dreams and Sounds was indeed a patchy collection, but not such a disaster as it was purported to be and featured, albeit in embryonic state, Nekrasovs first literary mentor Fyodor Koni who edited theatre magazines, helped him debut as literary critic
33.
Ivan Turgenev
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Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was born into a family of Russian land-owners in Oryol, Russia and his father, Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev, a colonel in the Russian cavalry, was a chronic philanderer. Ivans mother, Varvara Petrovna Lutovinova, was a wealthy heiress, ivans father died when Ivan was sixteen, leaving him and his brother Nicolas to be brought up by their abusive mother. Ivans childhood was a one, in constant fear of his mother who beat him often. From 1838 until 1841 he studied philosophy, particularly Hegel, and he returned to Saint Petersburg to complete his masters examination. Turgenev was impressed with German society and returned believing that Russia could best improve itself by incorporating ideas from the Age of Enlightenment. Like many of his contemporaries, he was particularly opposed to serfdom. In 1841, Turgenev started his career in Russian civil service, when Turgenev was a child, a family serf had read to him verses from the Rossiad of Mikhail Kheraskov, a celebrated poet of the 18th century. Turgenevs early attempts in literature, poems, and sketches gave indications of genius and were spoken of by Vissarion Belinsky. Turgenev never married, but he had affairs with his familys serfs, one of which resulted in the birth of his illegitimate daughter. He was tall and broad-shouldered, but was timid, restrained, when Turgenev was 19, while traveling on a steamboat in Germany, the boat caught fire and Turgenev reacted in a cowardly manner. Rumors circulated in Russia and followed him for his entire career and his closest literary friend was Gustave Flaubert, with whom he shared similar social and aesthetic ideas. Both rejected extremist right and left views, and carried a nonjudgmental, although rather pessimistic. His relations with Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky were often strained, Turgenev, unlike Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, lacked religious motives in his writings, representing the more social aspect to the reform movement. He was considered to be an agnostic, Tolstoy, more than Dostoyevsky, at first anyway, rather despised Turgenev. While traveling together in Paris, Tolstoy wrote in his diary and his rocky friendship with Tolstoy in 1861 wrought such animosity that Tolstoy challenged Turgenev to a duel, afterwards apologizing. The two did not speak for 17 years, but never broke family ties, Dostoyevsky parodies Turgenev in his novel The Devils through the character of the vain novelist Karmazinov, who is anxious to ingratiate himself with the radical youth. Turgenev occasionally visited England, and in 1879 the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law was conferred upon him by the University of Oxford, Turgenev died from spinal tumor at Bougival, near Paris, on September 3,1883
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Tsarskoye Selo
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Tsarskoye Selo was the town containing a former Russian residence of the imperial family and visiting nobility, located 24 kilometers south from the center of Saint Petersburg. It is now part of the town of Pushkin, Tsarskoye Selo forms one of the World Heritage Site Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments. During the Soviet times it was known as Detskoye Selo, in the 17th century, the estate belonged to a Swedish noble. Its original Finnish name is translated as a higher ground. Max Vasmer, on the hand, derives this toponym from the Finnish word for island, saari. By the 18th-century at the latest, it was called Tsarskoye Selo, in 1708, Peter the Great gave the estate to his wife, the future Empress Catherine I, as a present. She founded the Blagoveschensky church there in 1724, and changed the name of the settlement to Blagoveschenskoye and it was Catherine I who started to develop the place as a royal country residence. Her daughter, Empress Elizabeth and her architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli were largely responsible for the building of the Catherine Palace, later Empress Catherine II of Russia and her architect Charles Cameron extended the palace building that is now known as the Cameron Gallery. Currently, there are two palaces, the baroque Catherine Palace with the adjacent Catherine Park and the neoclassical Alexander Palace with the adjacent Alexander Park. The landscape Alexander Park has several Chinoiserie structures, notably the Chinese Village, by the end of the 18th century, Tsarskoye Selo became a popular place of summer residence among the nobility. The guards regiments were stationed to the south of Tsarskoye Selo, the five-domed neoclassical Ascension Cathedral, designed by Cameron, is the chief monument of that area. The Royal Forestry School, perhaps the first such school in Russia, was founded in Tsarskoye Selo in 1803, it was moved to Saint Petersburg in 1811, in 1808, Sophia and Tsarskoye Selo merged and became one town. In 1811, Alexander I opened the celebrated Lyceum next door to the Catherine Palace, among the first students of the Lyceum who graduated in 1817 were Aleksandr Pushkin and Alexander Gorchakov. Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin also graduated from the Lyceum, the literary traditions of Tsarskoye Selo were continued in the 20th century by such notable poets as Anna Akhmatova and Innokenty Annensky. The town escaped the 19th century industrialization, although it was between Tsarskoye Selo and St. Petersburg that the first Russian railway was built in 1837 and it was also known for its powerful government radio station that was set up here in 1917. In the spring of 1917, Emperor Nicholas II was held under arrest in his favourite residence, the Alexander Palace. In 1918, Tsarskoye Selo was renamed by the Bolsheviks into Detskoye Selo and in 1937 it was renamed again to the town of Pushkin, thus commemorating the centenary of the poets death. On September 17,1941, the Germans occupied the town of Pushkin, destroying and plundering many historical monuments, buildings and other cultural artifacts, the Red Army liberated the town on January 24,1944
35.
Novodevichy Cemetery (Saint Petersburg)
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Novodevichy Cemetery in Saint Petersburg is a historic cemetery in the south-west part of the city near the Moscow Triumphal Gate. The cemetery is named after the historical Resurrection Convent, in the 19th century it was the second most prestigious cemetery after the Tikhvin Cemetery in the Alexander Nevsky Monastery. The cemetery started in 1845 when the Smolny Convent was moved to this location, the first burials date to 1849. In the 1920s and 1930s, the church was demolished by the Soviet authorities and many tombs were destroyed. In 1989, major work was carried out at the cemetery. F. Marx, the chess-player Mikhail Chigorin, the politician Vyacheslav Pleve, many people confuse the cemetery with the Novodevichy Cemetery at the Novodevichy Convent in Moscow. Media related to Novodevichy cemetery at Wikimedia Commons History of the cemetery
36.
Pan-Slavism
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Pan-Slavism, a movement which crystallized in the mid-19th century, is the political ideology concerned with the advancement of integrity and unity for the Slavic peoples. Its main impact occurred in the Balkans, where non-Slavic empires—the Byzantine Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, Pan-Slavism also co-existed with the Southern Slavic independence. Commonly used symbols of the Pan-Slavic movement were the Pan-Slavic colours, the first pan-Slavists were the 16th-century Croatian writer Vinko Pribojević and the 17th-century Aleksandar Komulović, Bartol Kašić, Gundulić and Croatian Catholic missionary Juraj Križanić. Some of the earliest manifestations of Pan-Slavic thought within the Habsburg Monarchy have been attributed to Adam Franz Kollár, the movement began following the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. In the aftermath, the leaders of Europe sought to restore the status quo. At the Congress of Vienna, Austrias representative, Prince von Metternich, while their subjects were composed of numerous ethnic groups, most of the subjects were Slavs. The First Pan-Slav congress was held in Prague, Bohemia in June,1848, the Czechs had refused to send representatives to the Frankfurt Assembly feeling that Slavs had a distinct interest from the Germans. The Austroslav, František Palacký, presided over the event, most of the delegates were Czech. Palacký called for the co-operation of the Habsburgs and had endorsed the Habsburg monarchy as the political formation most likely to protect the peoples of central Europe. ”The Pan-Slav congress met during the revolutionary turmoil of 1848. Enraged, Windischgrätz seized the city, disbanded the congress, the first Pan-Slavic convention was held in Prague on June 2 through 16,1848. The delegates at the Congress were specifically both anti-Austrian and anti-Russian, a national rebirth in Hungarian Upper Land awoken in a completely new light, both before the Slovak Uprising in 1848 and after. The driving force of this movement were Slovak writers and politicians who called themselves Štúrovci. As the Slovak nobility was Magyarized and most of Slovaks were merely farmers or priests, nonetheless, the campaign was successful as a brotherly cooperation between the Croats and the Slovaks brought its fruit throughout the war. Most of the battles between Slovaks and Hungarians however, did not turn out in favor for the Slovaks who were supported by the Austrians. The shortage of manpower proved to be decisive as well, however the moment the revolution was over, Slovak demands were forgotten. These demands included a land within the Austrian Empire called Slovenský kraj which would be eventually led by a Serbian prince. This act of ignorance from the Emperor convinced the Slovak and the Czech elite who proclaimed the concept of Austroslavism as dead. Disgusted by the Emperors policy, in the year of 1849, Ľudovít Štúr, the person who codified the first official Slovak language, wrote a book he would name Slavdom and the World of the Future
37.
Holy See
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The Holy See, also referred to as the See of Rome, is the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, the episcopal see of the Pope, and an independent sovereign entity. It serves as the point of reference for the Catholic Church everywhere. Today, it is responsible for the governance of all Catholics, organised in their Particular Churches, Patriarchates, as an independent sovereign entity, holding the Vatican City enclave in Rome as sovereign territory, it maintains diplomatic relations with other states. Diplomatically, the Holy See acts and speaks for the whole church and it is also recognised by other subjects of international law as a sovereign entity, headed by the Pope, with which diplomatic relations can be maintained. The creation of the Vatican City state was meant to ensure the diplomatic, in Greek, the adjective holy or sacred is constantly applied to all such sees as a matter of course. The word see comes from the Latin word sedes, meaning seat, while Saint Peters basilica in Vatican City is perhaps the church most associated with the Papacy, the actual cathedral of the Holy See is the church of Saint John Lateran within the city of Rome. The Pope governs the Catholic Church through the Roman Curia, the Secretariat of State, under the Cardinal Secretary of State, directs and coordinates the Curia. The incumbent, Archbishop Pietro Parolin, is the Sees equivalent of a prime minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Secretary of the Section for Relations with States of the Secretariat of State, acts as the Holy Sees minister of foreign affairs. Parolin was named in his role by Pope Francis On 31 August 2013, mamberti was named in his role by Pope Benedict XVI in September 2006. The Secretariat of State is the body of the Curia that is situated within Vatican City. The others are in buildings in different parts of Rome that have rights similar to those of embassies. The Roman Rota handles normal judicial appeals, the most numerous being those that concern alleged nullity of marriage and it also oversees the work of other ecclesiastical tribunals at all levels. The most important of these is the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, the Prefecture of the Papal Household is responsible for the organization of the papal household, audiences, and ceremonies. The Holy See does not dissolve upon a Popes death or resignation and it instead operates under a different set of laws sede vacante. The government of the See, and therefore of the Catholic Church, canon law prohibits the College and the Camerlengo from introducing any innovations or novelties in the government of the Church during this period. In 2001, the Holy See had a revenue of 422.098 billion Italian lire, the Guardian newspaper described Mennini and his role in the following manner. Paolo Mennini, who is in effect the popes merchant banker, Mennini heads a special unit inside the Vatican called the extraordinary division of APSA – Amministrazione del Patrimonio della Sede Apostolica – which handles the patrimony of the Holy See. The Holy See has been recognized, both in practice and in the writing of modern legal scholars, as a subject of public international law, with rights
38.
Ottoman Empire
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After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror, at the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries. With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, while the empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, this view is no longer supported by the majority of academic historians. The empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society, however, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian Empires. While the Empire was able to hold its own during the conflict, it was struggling with internal dissent. Starting before World War I, but growing increasingly common and violent during it, major atrocities were committed by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. The word Ottoman is an anglicisation of the name of Osman I. Osmans name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic name ʿUthmān, in Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye, or alternatively ʿOsmānlı Devleti. In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı İmparatorluğu or Osmanlı Devleti, the Turkish word for Ottoman originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century, and subsequently came to be used to refer to the empires military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term Turk was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population, the term Rūmī was also used to refer to Turkish-speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond. In Western Europe, the two names Ottoman Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favored both in formal and informal situations and this dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–23, when the newly established Ankara-based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. Most scholarly historians avoid the terms Turkey, Turks, and Turkish when referring to the Ottomans, as the power of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman, osmans early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River and it is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbours, due to the scarcity of the sources which survive from this period. One school of thought which was popular during the twentieth century argued that the Ottomans achieved success by rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam, in the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans. Osmans son, Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326 and this conquest meant the loss of Byzantine control over northwestern Anatolia. The important city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387, the Ottoman victory at Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe
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Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
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Crimean War
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The Crimean War was a military conflict fought from October 1853 to March 1856 in which the Russian Empire lost to an alliance of France, Britain, the Ottoman Empire, and Sardinia. The immediate cause involved the rights of Christian minorities in the Holy Land, the French promoted the rights of Roman Catholics, while Russia promoted those of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The longer-term causes involved the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the unwillingness of Britain and France to allow Russia to gain territory and power at Ottoman expense. While the churches eventually worked out their differences and came to an agreement, Nicholas I of Russia, Nicholas issued an ultimatum that the Orthodox subjects of the Empire be placed under his protection. Britain attempted to mediate and arranged a compromise that Nicholas agreed to, when the Ottomans demanded changes, Nicholas refused and prepared for war. Having obtained promises of support from France and Britain, the Ottomans declared war on Russia in October 1853. The war started in the Balkans, when Russian troops occupied the Danubian Principalities, until then under Ottoman suzerainty and now part of modern Romania, led by Omar Pasha, the Ottomans fought a strong defensive campaign and stopped the advance at Silistra. A separate action on the town of Kars in eastern Anatolia led to a siege. Fearing an Ottoman collapse, France and Britain rushed forces to Gallipoli and they then moved north to Varna in June, arriving just in time for the Russians to abandon Silistra. Aside from a skirmish at Köstence, there was little for the allies to do. Karl Marx quipped that there they are, the French doing nothing, after extended preparations, the forces landed on the peninsula in September 1854 and fought their way to a point south of Sevastopol after a series of successful battles. The Russians counterattacked on 25 October in what became the Battle of Balaclava and were repulsed, a second counterattack, ordered personally by Nicholas, was defeated by Omar Pasha. The front settled into a siege and led to conditions for troops on both sides. Smaller actions were carried out in the Baltic, the Caucasus, Sevastopol fell after eleven months, and neutral countries began to join the Allied cause. Isolated and facing a bleak prospect of invasion from the west if the war continued and this was welcomed by France and Britain, as their subjects were beginning to turn against their governments as the war dragged on. The war was ended by the Treaty of Paris, signed on 30 March 1856, Russia was forbidden from hosting warships in the Black Sea. The Ottoman vassal states of Wallachia and Moldavia became largely independent, Christians there were granted a degree of official equality, and the Orthodox Church regained control of the Christian churches in dispute. The Crimean War was one of the first conflicts to use technologies such as explosive naval shells, railways
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Alexander II of Russia
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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
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Emancipation reform of 1861
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The Emancipation Reform of 1861 in Russia was the first and most important of liberal reforms effected during the reign of Emperor Alexander II of Russia. The reform effectively abolished serfdom throughout the Russian Empire, the 1861 Emancipation Manifesto proclaimed the emancipation of the serfs on private estates and of the domestic serfs. By this edict more than 23 million people received their liberty, serfs gained the full rights of free citizens, including rights to marry without having to gain consent, to own property and to own a business. The Manifesto prescribed that peasants would be able to buy the land from the landlords, household serfs were the least affected, they gained only their freedom and no land. In Georgia the emancipation took place later, in 1864, the serfs were emancipated in 1861, following a speech given by Tsar Alexander II on 30 March 1856. State owned serfs, i. e. the serfs living on Imperial lands, were emancipated later in 1866 and they comprised an estimated 38% of the population. As well as having obligations to the state, they also were obliged to the landowner, by the mid-nineteenth century, less than half of Russian peasants were serfs. The rural population lived in households, gathered as villages, run by a mir —isolated, conservative, largely self-sufficient, Imperial Russia had around 20 million dvory, forty percent of them containing six to ten people. Intensely insular, the mir assembly, the skhod, appointed an elder, peasants within a mir shared land and resources. The fields were divided among the families as nadel —a complex of strip plots, the strips were periodically redistributed within the villages to produce level economic conditions. The peasants were duty-bound to make payments in labor and goods. It has been estimated that landowners took at least one third of income, the need for urgent reform was well understood in 19th-century Russia. Much support for it emanated from universities, authors and other intellectual circles, various projects of emancipation reforms were prepared by Mikhail Speransky, Nikolay Mordvinov, and Pavel Kiselyov. However, conservative or reactionary nobility thwarted their efforts, in Western guberniyas serfdom was abolished early in the century. In Congress Poland, serfdom had been abolished before it became Russian, Serfdom was abolished in the Governorate of Estonia in 1816, in Courland in 1817, and in Livonia in 1819. In 1797, Paul I of Russia decreed that corvee labor was limited to 3 days a week, but his law was not enforced. Beginning in 1801, Alexander I of Russia appointed a committee to study possible emancipation and my intention is to abolish serfdom. You can yourself understand that the present order of owning souls cannot remain unchanged and it is better to abolish serfdom from above, than to wait for that time when it starts to abolish itself from below
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Occasional poetry
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Occasional poetry is poetry composed for a particular occasion. In the history of literature, it is studied in connection with orality, performance. As a term of literary criticism, occasional poetry describes the works purpose and it is not a genre, but several genres originate as occasional poetry, including epithalamia, dirges or funerary poems, paeans, and victory odes. Occasional poems may also be composed exclusive of or within any set of genre conventions to commemorate single events or anniversaries, such as birthdays, foundings. Poets whose body of work features occasional poetry that stands among their highest literary achievements include Pindar, Horace, Ronsard, Jonson, Dryden, Milton, Goethe, Yeats, and Mallarmé. In the 18th century, particularly in Germany, occasional poems were written by women. The Poetics of the Occasion, Mallarmé and the Poetry of Circumstance
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Russian symbolism
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Russian symbolism was an intellectual and artistic movement predominant at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. It represented the Russian branch of the symbolist movement in European art, the movement was inaugurated by Nikolai Minskys article The Ancient Debate and Dmitry Merezhkovskys book On the Causes of the Decline and on the New Trends in Contemporary Russian Literature. Both writers promoted extreme individualism and deified the act of creation, merezhkovsky was known for his poetry as well as a series of novels on god-men, among whom he counted Jesus, Joan of Arc, Dante Alighieri, Leonardo da Vinci, Napoleon and Hitler. His wife, Zinaida Gippius, also a poet in the early days of the symbolist movement, opened a salon in Saint Petersburg. By the mid-1890s, Russian symbolism was still mainly a set of theories and had few notable practitioners, Alexander Dobrolyubov published a book of verse in 1895, just before renouncing lay poetry in favour of wanderings from one monastery to another. Another talented author, Ivan Konevskoy, died at the age of 24 and it was not until the new talent of Valery Bryusov emerged that symbolist poetry became a major movement in Russian literature. In order to represent symbolism as a movement of formidable following, Bryusov adopted numerous pen-names, Bryusovs mystification proved successful — several young poets were attracted to symbolism as the latest fashion in Russian letters. Though the reputations of many of these writers had faded by the mid-20th century and this was especially true in the case of Innokenty Annensky, whose definitive collection of verse, Cypress Box, was published posthumously. His influence on the acmeist school of Russian poetry was paramount, Russian symbolism really flourished in the first decade of the 20th century. Many new talents began to publish verse written in the symbolist vein and these writers were especially indebted to the philosopher Vladimir Solovyov. The scholar Vyacheslav Ivanov, whose interests lay in ancient poetry and his self-proclaimed principle was to engraft archaic Miltonic diction to Russian poetry. Maximilian Voloshin, known best for his poetry about the Russian revolution, jurgis Baltrušaitis, a close friend of Alexander Scriabin and whose poetry is characterized by mystical philosophy and mesmerizing sounds, was active in Lithuania. Of the new generation, two poets, Alexander Blok and Andrei Bely, became the most renowned of the entire Russian symbolist movement. Alexander Blok is widely considered to be one of the leading Russian poets of the twentieth century and he was often compared with Alexander Pushkin, and the whole Silver Age of Russian Poetry was sometimes styled the Age of Blok. His early verse is musical and rich in sound. Later, he sought to introduce daring rhythmic patterns and uneven beats into his poetry and his mature poems are often based on the conflict between the Platonic vision of ideal beauty and the disappointing reality of foul industrial outskirts. They are often characterized by a use of color and spelling to express meaning. One of Bloks most famous and controversial poems was The Twelve, Andrei Bely strove to forge a unity of prose, poetry, and music in much of his literature, as evidenced by the title of one of his early works, Symphonies in Prose
