1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
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
3.
Estonian language
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Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken natively by about 922,000 people in Estonia and 160,000 outside Estonia. It belongs to the Finnic branch of the Uralic language family, Estonian belongs to the Finnic branch of the Uralic languages, along with Finnish, Karelian, and other nearby languages. The Uralic languages do not belong to the Indo-European languages, Estonian is distantly related to Hungarian and to the Sami languages. Estonian has been influenced by Swedish, German, and Russian, furthermore, the apocope of word-final sounds is extensive and has contributed to a shift from a purely agglutinative to a fusional language. The basic word order is subject–verb–object, modern standard Estonian has evolved on the basis of the dialects of Northern Estonia. The domination of Estonia after the Northern Crusades, from the 13th century to 1918 by Denmark, Germany, Sweden, the oldest written records of the Finnic languages of Estonia date from the 13th century. Originates Livoniae in Chronicle of Henry of Livonia contains Estonian place names, words, the earliest extant samples of connected Estonian are the so-called Kullamaa prayers dating from 1524 and 1528. In 1525 the first book published in the Estonian language was printed, the book was a Lutheran manuscript, which never reached the reader and was destroyed immediately after publication. The first extant Estonian book is a bilingual German-Estonian translation of the Lutheran catechism by S. Wanradt and J. Koell dating to 1535, an Estonian grammar book to be used by priests was printed in German in 1637. The New Testament was translated into southern Estonian in 1686, the two languages were united based on northern Estonian by Anton thor Helle. Writings in Estonian became more significant in the 19th century during the Estophile Enlightenment Period, the birth of native Estonian literature was in 1810 to 1820 when the patriotic and philosophical poems by Kristjan Jaak Peterson were published. His birthday on March 14 is celebrated in Estonia as the Mother Tongue Day, a fragment from Petersons poem Kuu expresses the claim reestablishing the birthright of the Estonian language, Kas siis selle maa keel Laulutuules ei või Taevani tõustes üles Igavikku omale otsida. In English, Can the language of this land In the wind of incantation Rising up to the heavens Not seek for eternity. Kristjan Jaak Peterson From 1525 to 191714,503 titles were published in Estonian, in modern times Jaan Kross and Jaan Kaplinski remain as two of Estonias best known and most translated writers. Writings in Estonian became significant only in the 19th century with the spread of the ideas of the Age of Enlightenment, after the Estonian War of Independence in 1919, the Estonian language became the state language of the newly independent country. In 1945,97. 3% of Estonia considered itself ethnic Estonian, when Estonia was invaded and occupied by the Soviet Union in World War II, the status of the Estonian language changed to the first of two official languages. As with Latvia many immigrants entered Estonia under Soviet encouragement, in the second half of the 1970s, the pressure of bilingualism intensified, resulting in widespread knowledge of Russian throughout the country. The Russian language was termed as ‘the language of friendship of nations’ and was taught to Estonian children, although teaching Estonian to non-Estonians in schools was compulsory, in practice learning the language was often considered unnecessary
4.
Seto dialect
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Seto is a dialect of the South Estonian or Võro language, spoken by 12,549 people. It is sometimes considered as a language, the speakers, Seto people, mostly inhabit the area near Estonias southeastern border with Russia, in the county of Setomaa. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Seto, näile om annõt mudsu ja süämetunstus ja nä piät ütstõõsõga vele muudu läbi kjauma. Võro, Kõik inemiseq sünnüseq avvo ja õiguisi poolõst ütesugumaidsis, näile om annõt mudsu ja süämetunnistus ja nä piät ütstõõsõga vele muudu läbi käümä. Estonian, Kõik inimesed sünnivad vabadena ja võrdsetena oma väärikuselt ja õigustelt, neile on antud mõistus ja südametunnistus ja nende suhtumist üksteisesse peab kandma vendluse vaim. Finnish, Kaikki ihmiset syntyvät vapaina ja tasavertaisina arvoltaan ja oikeuksiltaan, heille on annettu järki ja omatunto, ja heidän on toimittava toisiaan kohtaan veljeyden hengessä. English, All human beings are free and equal in dignity. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood, eichenbaum, K. Pajusalu, K. Setode ja võrokeste keelehoiakutest ja identiteedist. – Keel ja Kirjandus nr 7, lk
5.
Village
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A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town, with a population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Though often located in areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods. Villages are normally permanent, with fixed dwellings, however, transient villages can occur, further, the dwellings of a village are fairly close to one another, not scattered broadly over the landscape, as a dispersed settlement. In the past, villages were a form of community for societies that practise subsistence agriculture. In Great Britain, a hamlet earned the right to be called a village when it built a church, in many cultures, towns and cities were few, with only a small proportion of the population living in them. The Industrial Revolution attracted people in numbers to work in mills and factories. This also enabled specialization of labor and crafts, and development of many trades, the trend of urbanization continues, though not always in connection with industrialization. Although many patterns of life have existed, the typical village was small. Homes were situated together for sociability and defence, and land surrounding the living quarters was farmed, Traditional fishing villages were based on artisan fishing and located adjacent to fishing grounds. The soul of India lives in its villages, declared M. K. Gandhi at the beginning of 20th century, according to the 2011 census of India,68. 84% of Indians live in 640,867 different villages. The size of these villages varies considerably,236,004 Indian villages have a population of fewer than 500, while 3,976 villages have a population of 10, 000+. Most of the villages have their own temple, mosque, or church, auyl is a Kazakh word meaning village in Kazakhstan. According to the 2009 census of Kazakhstan,42. 7% of Kazakhs live in 8172 different villages, to refer to this concept along with the word auyl often used the slavic word selo in Northern Kazakhstan. Peoples Republic of China In mainland China, villages 村 are divisions under township Zh, 乡 or town Zh, Republic of China In the Republic of China, villages are divisions under townships or county-controlled cities. The village is called a tsuen or cūn under a rural township, japan South Korea In Indonesia, depending on the principles they are administered, villages are called Kampung or Desa. A Desa is administered according to traditions and customary law, while a kelurahan is administered along more modern principles, Desa are generally located in rural areas while kelurahan are generally urban subdivisions. A village head is respectively called kepala desa or lurah, both are elected by the local community. A desa or kelurahan is the subdivision of a kecamatan, in turn the subdivision of a kabupaten or kota, the same general concept applies all over Indonesia
6.
Pechorsky District
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Pechorsky District is an administrative and municipal district, one of the twenty-four in Pskov Oblast, Russia. Lake Peipus limits the district from the north, the area of the district is 1,251 square kilometers. Its administrative center is the town of Pechory, the population of Pechory accounts for 50. 6% of the districts total population. Almost the whole of the lies in the basin of Lake Peipus. The rivers in the east flow into the Velikaya River, whereas the rivers in the northwest, including the Piusa River, minor areas in the southwest of the district belong to the basin of the Pededze River and thus to the basin of the Daugava. A number of islands on Lake Peipus are also under the districts jurisdiction, in particular, the Kolpina Island, the largest island of Lake Peipus, with an area of 11.02 square kilometers, is a part of Pechorsky District. The westernmost point of the Russian Federations coterminous territory lies on the border with Estonia southwest of Pechory. Historically, the area was first mentioned in the Primary Chronicle, which describes that in 862 Truvor, a brother of Rurik. The current scholarly interpretation denies the existence of Truvor, but in any case the area was already a part of the Russian Lands in the 9th century. Later, it was dependent on Pskov, and in 1510 together with Pskov it was included into the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the Pskov Cave Monastery was founded in the 15th century. In the course of the administrative reform carried out in 1708 by Peter the Great, in 1727, separate Novgorod Governorate was split off, and in 1772, Pskov Governorate was established. In 1776, Pechory was granted town status and Pechorsky Uyezd was established, but in 1797, Pechorsky Uyezd was abolished, during the last year of World War I, from February to December 1918, the town of Pechory was occupied by German forces. The town was captured by Estonian forces on March 29,1919. The Treaty of Tartu, signed on February 2,1920, assigned Pechory and its surrounding territory, Pechory was renamed Petseri and the area became Petseri County. In 1940, Estonia became a part of the Soviet Union, between August 1941 and August 1944, the area was occupied by German troops. On January 16,1945, the part of Petserimaa was transferred from the Estonian SSR to Pskov Oblast. On January 14,1958, Kachanovsky District was abolished and split between Pechorsky and Palkinsky Districts, in November 1995, Estonia reportedly dropped this claim. In 2013, about 1000 of inhabitants of the district were ethnic Estonians, about 300 were Setos, a Finnic minority
7.
Pskov Oblast
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Pskov Oblast is a federal subject of Russia, located in the west of the country. Its administrative center is the city of Pskov, as of the 2010 Census, its population was 673,423. Pskov Oblast is the westernmost federal subject of contiguous Russia, in the northwest, Pskov Oblast is limited by Lake Peipus, which makes up most of the state border with Estonia. The oblast is located in the Baltic Sea drainage basin, mostly in the basin of the Narva River, the biggest river of this basin is the Velikaya, which flows across the whole oblast from south to north and drains into Lake Peipus. The drainage basin of the Velikaya covers the territory of the oblast, with the exception of relatively minor areas in its southern, eastern. The rivers in the southeast drain into the Lovat, which has its source in Belarus and crosses Pskov Oblast from south to north, the Lovat is a major tributary of Lake Ilmen and is itself in the Neva Rivers basin. Another tributary of Lake Ilmen is the Shelon River, which flows in the part of the oblast. Finally, minor areas in the lie in the basin of the Western Dvina. A short stretch of the Western Dvina makes up the border between Pskov and Tver Oblasts, the north of the oblast is flat and swampy, whereas the central and the southern parts are formed by glacial landscapes. There are many lakes, especially in the south, the biggest one, after Lake Peipus, is Lake Zhizhitskoye, with an area of 51.3 square kilometers. It is located in the southeast of the oblast, in the basin of the Western Dvina, wood is one of the most important natural resources in the oblast, with forests taking up to one third of the territory. Total wood reserves as of January 1,2005 were estimated to be at 331,200,000 cubic meters, Pskov lands had significant importance in Russian history. Until the 1230s Pskov was a principality, and subsequently was subordinated to Novgorod and became a republic, in Pskov Republic the highest authority belonged to the assembly of citizens. In 1348, the Treaty of Bolotovo was concluded, recognizing independence of Pskov, however, Pskov quickly run into dependence from the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the emerging regional superpower, and after 1399 Moscow appointed vice-roys to Pskov. The formal independence ended in 1510, when Pskov was occupied by the troops of Vasili III of Russia, throughout the history, Pskov Lands were always located in the west of Russian Lands and were almost constantly at war. In particular, in 1242 the Battle of the Ice on Lake Peipus stopped the expansion of the Teutonic Knights to the East, during the Livonian War in 1581, the Polish troops laid siege to Pskov. The southeastern part of the oblast was a part of the Principality of Toropets before it was appended to Moscow in the 15th century, december 29,1708 Tsar Peter the Great issued an edict which established seven governorates. The north of the present area of Pskov Oblast, which at the time belonged to Russia, was a part of Ingermanland Governorate, in 1727, a separate Novgorod Governorate was established, and the area was transferred there
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.
Fortification
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Fortifications are military constructions or buildings designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and also used to solidify rule in a region during peace time. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs, the term is derived from the Latin fortis and facere. From very early history to modern times, walls have been a necessity for cities to survive in a changing world of invasion. Some settlements in the Indus Valley Civilization were the first small cities to be fortified, in ancient Greece, large stone walls had been built in Mycenaean Greece, such as the ancient site of Mycenae. A Greek Phrourion was a collection of buildings used as a military garrison. These construction mainly served the purpose of a tower, to guard certain roads, passes. Though smaller than a fortress, they acted as a border guard rather than a real strongpoint to watch. The art of setting out a camp or constructing a fortification traditionally has been called castramentation since the time of the Roman legions. Fortification is usually divided into two branches, permanent fortification and field fortification, there is also an intermediate branch known as semi-permanent fortification. Castles are fortifications which are regarded as being distinct from the fort or fortress in that they are a residence of a monarch or noble. Roman forts and hill forts were the antecedents of castles in Europe. The Early Middle Ages saw the creation of towns built around castles. Medieval-style fortifications were made obsolete by the arrival of cannons in the 14th century. Fortifications in the age of black powder evolved into much lower structures with greater use of ditches and earth ramparts that would absorb, Walls exposed to direct cannon fire were very vulnerable, so were sunk into ditches fronted by earth slopes. The arrival of explosive shells in the 19th century led to yet another stage in the evolution of fortification, steel-and-concrete fortifications were common during the 19th and early 20th centuries. However the advances in warfare since World War I have made large-scale fortifications obsolete in most situations. Demilitarized zones along borders are arguably another type of fortification, although a passive kind, many military installations are known as forts, although they are not always fortified. Larger forts may be called fortresses, smaller ones were known as fortalices
10.
Pskov
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Pskov is a city and the administrative center of Pskov Oblast, Russia, located about 20 kilometers east from the Estonian border, on the Velikaya River. Pskov is one of the oldest cities in Russia, the name of the city, originally spelled Pleskov, may be loosely translated as of purling waters. Its earliest mention comes in 903, which records that Igor of Kiev married a local lady, Pskovians sometimes take this year as the citys foundation date, and in 2003 a great jubilee took place to celebrate Pskovs 1, 100th anniversary. The first prince of Pskov was Vladimir the Greats youngest son Sudislav, once imprisoned by his brother Yaroslav, he was not released until the latters death several decades later. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the town adhered politically to the Novgorod Republic, in 1241, it was taken by the Teutonic Knights, but Alexander Nevsky recaptured it several months later during a legendary campaign dramatized in Sergei Eisensteins 1938 movie Alexander Nevsky. Having fortified the town, Daumantas routed the Teutonic Knights at Rakvere and his remains and sword are preserved in the local kremlin, and the core of the citadel, erected by him, still bears the name of Dovmonts town. By the 14th century, the town functioned as the capital of a de facto sovereign republic and its most powerful force was the merchants who brought the town into the Hanseatic League. Pskovs independence was recognized by Novgorod in 1348. Several years later, the veche promulgated a law code, which was one of the sources of the all-Russian law code issued in 1497. For Russia, the Pskov Republic was a bridge towards Europe, for Europe, the importance of the city made it the subject of numerous sieges throughout its history. The Pskov Krom withstood twenty-six sieges in the 15th century alone, at one point, five stone walls ringed it, making the city practically impregnable. A local school of icon-painting flourished, and the masons were considered the best in Russia. Many peculiar features of Russian architecture were first introduced in Pskov, finally, in 1510, the city fell to Muscovite forces. The deportation of families to Moscow is a subject of Rimsky-Korsakovs opera Pskovityanka. As the second largest city of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, most famously, it withstood a prolonged siege by a 50, 000-strong Polish army during the final stage of the Livonian War. The king of Poland Stephen Báthory undertook some thirty-one attacks to storm the city, even after one of the city walls was broken, the Pskovians managed to fill the gap and repel the attack. Its amazing how the city reminds me of Paris, wrote one of the Frenchmen present at Báthorys siege, as a consequence, the citys importance and well-being declined dramatically, although it has served as a seat of separate Pskov Governorate since 1777. During World War I, Pskov became the center of much activity behind the lines, Pskov was also occupied by the Estonian army between 25 May 1919 and 28 August 1919 during the Estonian War of Independence when Bułak-Bałachowicz became the military administrator of Pskov
11.
Primary Chronicle
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The Tale of Past Years or Primary Chronicle is a history of Kievan Rus from about 850 to 1110, originally compiled in Kiev about 1113. The work is considered to be a source in the interpretation of the history of the Eastern Slavs. Tradition long regarded the original compilation as the work of a monk named Nestor, Nestor worked at the court of Sviatopolk II of Kiev and probably shared Sviatopolks pro-Scandinavian policies. The early part of the Chronicle features many anecdotal stories, among them those of the arrival of the three Varangian brothers, the founding of Kiev, the murder of Askold and Dir, ca. 882, the death of Oleg in 912, the cause of which was reported forseen by him, and the thorough vengeance taken by Olga, the wife of Igor, on the Drevlians, who had murdered her husband. Her actions secured Kievan Rus from the Drevlians, preventing her from having to marry a Drevlian prince, in the year 1116, Nestors text was extensively edited by the hegumen Sylvester who appended his name at the end of the chronicle. As Vladimir Monomakh was the patron of the village of Vydubychi where Sylvesters monastery was situated and this second version of Nestors work is preserved in the Laurentian codex. A third edition followed two years later and centered on the person of Vladimirs son and heir, Mstislav the Great, the author of this revision could have been Greek, for he corrected and updated much data on Byzantine affairs. This latest revision of Nestors work is preserved in the Hypatian codex, because the original of the chronicle as well as the earliest known copies are lost, it is difficult to establish the original content of the chronicle. The two main sources for the text as it is known presently are the Laurentian Codex. The Laurentian Codex was compiled in what are today Russian lands by the Nizhegorod monk Laurentius for the Prince Dmitry Konstantinovich in 1377, the original text he used was a lost codex compiled for the Grand Duke Mikhail of Tver in 1305. The account continues until 1305, but the years 898–922, 1263–83, the manuscript was acquired by the famous Count Musin-Pushkin in 1792 and subsequently presented to the National Library of Russia in Saint Petersburg. The Hypatian Codex dates to the 15th century and it was written in what are today Ukrainian lands and incorporates much information from the lost 12th-century Kievan and 13th-century Halychian chronicles. The language of work is the East Slavic version of Church Slavonic language with many additional irregular east-slavisms. Whereas the Laurentian text traces the Kievan legacy through to the Muscovite princes, the Hypatian codex was rediscovered in Kiev in the 1620s and copy was made for Prince Kostiantyn Ostrozhsky. A copy was found in Russia in the 18th century at the Ipatiev Monastery of Kostroma by the Russian historian Nikolai Karamzin, numerous monographs and published versions of the chronicle have been made, the earliest known being in 1767. Aleksey Shakhmatov published a pioneering textological analysis of the narrative in 1908, Dmitry Likhachev and other Soviet scholars partly revisited his findings. Their versions attempted to reconstruct the pre-Nestorian chronicle, compiled at the court of Yaroslav the Wise in the mid-11th century
12.
Rurik
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There is a debate over how Rurik came to control Ladoga and Novgorod. Afterwards the tribes started fighting each other and decided to invite the Varangians, led by Rurik, according to the Primary Chronicle, Rurik was one of the Rus, a Varangian tribe likened by the chronicler to Danes, Swedes, Angles, and Gotlanders. Rurik remained in power until his death in 879 and his successors, however, moved the capital to Kiev and founded the state of Kievan Rus, which persisted until the Mongol invasion in 1240. A number of extant princely families are descended from Rurik, although the last Rurikid to rule Russia, Vasily IV. According to the entries in the Radzivil and Hypatian Chronicles under the years 862–864 and it is only later that he moved his seat of power to Novgorod, a fort built not far from the source of the Volkhov River. The meaning of place name in medieval Russian is new fortification. The only similarly named figure described in Western chronicles was Rorik of Dorestad, since the 19th century, there have been attempts to identify him with the Rurik of Russian chronicles. Rorik of Dorestad was born about ca, 810–820 to Ali Anulo, 9th king of Haithabu. Frankish chroniclers mention that he received lands in Friesland from Emperor Louis I and this was not enough for him, and he started to plunder neighbouring lands, he took Dorestad in 850, captured Haithabu in 857, and looted Bremen in 859. The Emperor was enraged and stripped him of all his possessions in 860, Rorik of Dorestad reappeared in Frankish chronicles in 870, when his Friesland demesne was returned to him by Charles the Bald, in 882 Rorik of Dorestad is mentioned as dead. The Russian chronicle places the death of Rurik of Novgorod at 879, according to Western sources, the ruler of Friesland was converted to Christianity by the Franks. This may have parallels with the Christianization of the Rus, as reported by Patriarch Photius in 867, the hypothesis of their identity currently lacks support among scholars, though support for a Normanic origin of the Rus has increased. The Rurikid dynasty went on to rule the Kievan Rus, and ultimately the Tsardom of Muscovy, until 1598. Vasily Tatishchev claimed that Rurik was of Wendish extraction and went so far as to name Ruriks wife, Ufanda of Norway, mother, Umila, his grandfather, Gostomysl. According to the FamilyTreeDNA Rurikid Dynasty DNA Project, Rurik appears to have belonged to Y-DNA haplogroup N1c1, N1c1 is not widely found in Scandinavian countries, but is overwhelmingly found among Baltic and Finnish ethnicities. The N1c1 haplotype possess the distinctive value DYS390=23, also found in Scandinavia
13.
Long barrow
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A long barrow is a prehistoric monument usually dating to the early Neolithic period. They are generally about 5,500 years old and among the oldest architectural structures ever built and they are traditionally interpreted as a collective tomb. They are rectangular or trapezoidal tumuli or earth mounds, Long barrows are also typical of several Celtic, Slavic, and Baltic cultures of northern Europe of the 1st millennium AD. In recent years the construction of barrows seems to have undergone a revival, the totality of the function of long barrows is not known, and perhaps can never be known. It is clear they were used as monuments at the time they were built. It is also understood that this use continued more or less formally for many thousands of years after and they contain bones of many individuals, which often show evidence of regular moving around or sorting. This is known to have happened at West Kennet Long Barrow in Wiltshire and it appears the structures were accessed regularly, not just to inter newly deceased bodies but also to make use of the old bones there. It is possible that bones were taken out of the barrow for some purpose, some authors speculate that this was part of an ancestor veneration practice. In the present-day there is a custom observed in the Famadihana tradition found in Madagasgar. Modern tillage techniques have done damage to barrows. According to English Heritage, in the last six decades as much as traditional tilling did in six centuries. Specifically, it is thought, 50% of the barrows in Gloucestershire, 66% in Hampshire, 80% in Lincolnshire. It is also thought that barrows have been re-purposed and otherwise incorporated into subsequent structures which has masked their existence, the distribution of these structures across the British Isles is not understood to be uniform. For example the record in the West Midlands is thought to under-record the presence of these structures, various early cultures globally seem to have raised barrows over time. In 2015 the first long barrow in thousands of years, inspired by those built in the Neolithic Period, was built on land just outside the village of All Cannings, the project was instigated by Tim Daw, a local farmer and steward of Stonehenge. The barrow was designed to have a number of private niches within the stone. It was fully subscribed within eighteen months and this was followed soon after by a new barrow near St Neots. Further plans to revive barrows are in development in Herefordshire and at Soulton in Shropshire, beowulf battles a dragon at the end of the poem and a barrow is raised over his ashes
14.
Varangians
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According to the 12th century Kievan Primary Chronicle, a group of Varangians known as the Rus settled in Novgorod in 862 under the leadership of Rurik. Before Rurik, the Rus might have ruled an earlier hypothetical polity, Ruriks relative Oleg conquered Kiev in 882 and established the state of Kievan Rus, which was later ruled by Ruriks descendants. Engaging in trade, piracy, and mercenary activities, Varangians roamed the river systems and portages of Gardariki and they controlled the Volga trade route, connecting the Baltic to the Caspian Sea, and the Dnieper and Dniester trade route leading to the Black Sea and Constantinople. Attracted by the riches of Constantinople, the Varangian Rus initiated a number of Rus-Byzantine Wars, at least from the early 10th century many Varangians served as mercenaries in the Byzantine Army, constituting the elite Varangian Guard. Eventually most of them, both in Byzantium and in Eastern Europe, were converted from paganism to Orthodox Christianity, culminating in the Christianization of Kievan Rus in 988. Coinciding with the decline of the Viking Age, the influx of Scandinavians to Rus stopped. Some scholars seem to assume a derivation from vár with the common suffix -ing, the reduction of the second part of the word could be parallel to that seen in Old Norse foringi leader, correspondent to Old English foregenga and Gothic
15.
Livonian Brothers of the Sword
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The Livonian Brothers of the Sword was a military order established by the third bishop of Riga, Bishop Albert of Riga, in 1202. Pope Innocent III sanctioned the establishment in 1204 for the second time, the membership of the order comprised German warrior monks who fought Baltic pagans in the area of modern-day Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Alternative names of the Order include Christ Knights, Sword Brethren, from its foundation, the undisciplined Order tended to ignore its supposed vassalage to the bishops. In 1218, Albert asked King Valdemar II of Denmark for assistance, the Brotherhood had its headquarters at Fellin in present-day Estonia, where the walls of the Masters castle still stand. Other strongholds included Wenden, Segewold and Ascheraden, the commanders of Fellin, Goldingen, Marienburg, Reval, and the bailiff of Weißenstein belonged to the five-member entourage of the Orders Master. Pope Gregory IX asked the Brothers to defend Finland from the Novgorodian attacks in his letter of November 24,1232, however, no known information regarding the knights possible activities in Finland has survived. The Order was decimated in the Battle of Schaulen in 1236 against Lithuanians and Semigallians and this disaster led the surviving Brothers to become incorporated into the Order of Teutonic Knights in the following year, and from that point on they became known as the Livonian Order. They continued, however, to function in all respects as a branch of the Teutonic Order. It also appears prominently in The Mongoliad, where they appear as one of the antagonists of the fictional order to which the main characters belong. The Sword Brothers by Peter Darman is an account of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword set in the 13th century. The order is featured in Medieval II, Total War, available as an unit of the Teutonic Order. Teutonic Order Battle of Saule Livonian Crusade Northern Crusades Order of Dobrin
16.
Pskov Feudal Republic
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Pskov, known at various times as the Principality of Pskov or the Pskov Republic, was a medieval state on the south shore of Lake Pskov. It was originally known as Pleskov, and is now roughly equivalent geographically to the Pskov Oblast of Russia, 862–1230, after which it was joined to the Novgorod Republic. From 1348, Pleskov became again independent from Novgorod and established an aristocratic oligarchy, each exiled prince that went to Pleskov could be proclaimed prince there. In any case, he could at least get an honorary reception and it kept its special autonomous rights, including the right for independent construction of suburbs. Due to Pskovs leading role in the struggle against the Livonian Order, the long reign of Daumantas and especially his victory in the Battle of Rakvere ushered in the period of Pskovs actual independence. The Novgorod boyars formally recognized Pskovs independence in the Treaty of Bolotovo, the Pskov Republic had well-developed farming, fishing, blacksmithing, jewelery-making and construction industries. As opposed to the Novgorod Republic, Pskov never had big feudal landowners, estates were smaller, the estates of Pskovian monasteries and churches were much smaller as well. The social relations that had taken shape in the Pskov Republic were reflected in the Legal Code of Pskov, peculiarities of the economy, centuries-old ties with Novgorod, frontier status, and military threats led to the development of the veche system in the Pskov Republic. The princes played a subordinate role, the veche elected posadniks and sotskiys and regulated the relations between feudals, posad people, izborniks, and smerds. The boyar council had a influence on the decisions of the veche. The latter also held the archives of the veche and important private papers, the elective offices became a privilege of several noble families. During the most dramatic moments in the history of Pskov, however, since 1399 Pskov with its adjacent lands became a viceroyalty of Moscow with their own namestnik knyaz appointed by the Moscows royalty. Since the 15th century, several princes of the Gediminid line were prominent there too and their surnames included Golitsin, Kurakin and Khovansky. In 1501, armies of Pskov and Moscow were defeated in the Battle of the Siritsa River by the Livonian Order, but the city withstood the subsequent siege. In 1510, Grand Prince of Moscow Vasili III arrived in Pskov and pronounced it his votchina, thus putting an end to the Pskov Republic, the citys ruling body, the veche, was dissolved and some 300 families of rich Pskovians were deported from the city. Their estates were distributed among the Muscovite service class people, from that time on, the city of Pskov and the lands around it continued to develop as a part of the centralized Russian state, preserving some of its economic and cultural traditions. The downfall of Pskov is recounted in the Muscovite Story of the Taking of Pskov, the history of the Muscovites leisurely perseverance is told with admirable simplicity and art. An atmosphere of descending gloom pervades the narrative, all is useless, and whatever the Pskovites can do
17.
Novgorod Republic
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Citizens referred to their city-state as His Majesty Lord Novgorod the Great, or more often as Lord Novgorod the Great. The Republic prospered as the easternmost port of the Hanseatic League, in the middle of the 9th century Novgorod was only a name used to describe a staging post on the trade route from the Baltic Sea to the Byzantine Empire. It was populated by various Finnic and Slavic tribes that were constantly at war with one another for supremacy. However, these tribes came together during the beginning of the 9th century to try, Novgorod functioned as the original capital of the Rus people until 882 when Oleg transferred his administration to Kiev. From that time until 1019-1020 Novgorod was a part of Kievan Rus, Novgorod Princes were appointed by the Grand Prince of Kiev. Novgorod was sort of a center as by legend it was the first city of Rus. Novgorod still possesses relics of the beliefs that preceded Christianity and are now part of their pre-Christian Pagan/Norse/Slavic history. Novgorod continuously played a key role in the politics of Rus by assisting Vladimir the Great of Kiev, one of his first actions as Grand Prince was to grant loyal Novgorodians numerous freedoms and privileges. Thus the foundation for the Novgorod Republic was laid, while still a part of Kievan Rus, Novgorod eventually evolved into a powerful regional center that was largely independent. The Novgorod boyars began to dominate the offices of posadnik and tysyatsky, in 1136, the Novgorodians dismissed Prince Vsevolod Mstislavich and over the next century and a half were able to invite in and dismiss a number of princes. However, these invitations or dismissals were often based on who the dominant prince in Rus or Appanage Russia was at the time, cities such as Staraya Russa, Staraya Ladoga, Torzhok, and Oreshek were part of the Novgorodian Land. According to some accounts, a vicar of the archbishop ran the city of Staraya Ladoga in the 13th century, the city of Pskov, initially part of the Novgorodian Land, had de facto independence from at least the 13th century after joining the Hanseatic League. Several princes such as Dovmont and Vsevolod Mstislavich reigned in Pskov without any deference to or consultation with the prince or other officials in Novgorod, pskovs independence was acknowledged by the Treaty of Bolotovo in 1348. Even after this, however, the Archbishop of Novgorod headed the church in Pskov and kept the title Archbishop of Novgorod the Great, in the 12th–15th century, the Novgorodian Republic expanded east and northeast. The Novgorodians explored the areas around Lake Onega, along the Northern Dvina, in the beginning of the 14th century the Novgorodians explored the Arctic Ocean, the Barents Sea, the Kara Sea, and the West-Siberian river Ob. The Ugric tribes that inhabited the Northern Urals had to pay tribute to Novgorod the Great, losing them meant economic and cultural decline for the city and its inhabitants. Indeed, the failure of the Novgorodians to win these wars led to the downfall of the Republic. Soviet-era Marxist scholarship frequently described the system of Novgorod as a feudal republic
18.
Viceroy
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A viceroy /ˈvaɪs. rɔɪ/ is a regal official who runs a country, colony, city, province, or sub-national state, in the name of and as the representative of the monarch of the territory. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning in the place of, a viceroys territory may be called a viceroyalty, though this term is not always applied. The adjectival form is viceregal, less often viceroyal, the term vicereine is sometimes used to indicate a female viceroy suo jure, although viceroy can serve as a gender-neutral term. Vicereine is more used to indicate a viceroys wife. The title was used by the Crown of Aragon, where beginning in the 14th century, it referred to the Spanish governors of Sardinia. In Europe, until the 18th century, the Habsburg crown appointed viceroys of Aragon, Valencia, Catalonia, Navarre, Portugal, Sardinia, Sicily, with the ascension of the House of Bourbon to the Spanish throne, the historic Aragonese viceroyalties were replaced by new captaincies general. At the end of War of the Spanish Succession, the Spanish monarchy was shorn of its Italian possessions and these Italian territories, however, continued to have viceroys under their new rulers for some time, Sardinia would have a viceroy until 1848. These large administrative territories became known as Viceroyalties, New viceroyalties were created for New Granada in 1717 and the Río de la Plata in 1776. These units gathered the local provinces which could be governed by either a crown official, audiencias primarily functioned as superior judicial tribunals, but unlike their European counterparts, the New World audiencias were granted by law both administrative and legislative powers. The Bourbon Reforms introduced the new office of the intendant, which was appointed directly by the crown and had broad fiscal and administrative powers in political and military issues. The government started six years after the discovery of sea route to India by Vasco da Gama, in 1505, however the post was centered by governor Afonso de Albuquerque, who became plenipotentiary, and remained so. The duration in office was three years, possibly longer, given the power represented, of the thirty-four governors of India in the 16th century. After the end of the Iberian Union in 1640, the governors of Brazil that were members of the Portuguese high nobility started to use the title of Viceroy. Brazil became a permanent Viceroyalty in 1763, when the capital of the State of Brazil was transferred from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro, the designation Viceroy, although it was most frequently used in ordinary parlance, had no statutory authority, and was never employed by Parliament. The Governor-General continued to be the representative of the Crown. The viceroys reported directly to the Secretary of State for India in London and were advised by the Council of India, alongside the Commander-in-Chief, India, the viceroy was the public face of the British presence in India, attending to many ceremonial functions as well as political affairs. During the offices history, the Governors-General of India were based in two cities, Calcutta during the 19th century and New Delhi during the 20th century, additionally, whilst Calcutta was the capital of British India, the viceroys spent the summer months at Simla. The two historic residences of the viceroys still stand, the Viceroys House in New Delhi and Government House in Calcutta and they are used today as the official residences of the President of India and the Governor of West Bengal, respectively
19.
Grand Duchy of Moscow
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The Grand Duchy of Moscow, or Grand Principality of Moscow, was a late medieval Rus principality centered on Moscow and the predecessor state of the early modern Tsardom of Russia. The state originated with Daniel I, who inherited Moscow in 1283, eclipsing and it later annexed the Novgorod Republic in 1478 and the Grand Duchy of Tver in 1485. After the Mongol invasion of Rus, Muscovy was a vassal to the Mongol ruled Golden Horde until 1480. By his marriage to the niece of the last Byzantine emperor, he established Muscovy as the state of the Roman Empire. Ivans successor Vasili III also enjoyed success, gaining Smolensk from Lithuania in 1512. Vasilis son Ivan IV was an infant at his fathers death in 1533 and he was crowned in 1547, assuming the title of tsar together with the proclamation of Tsardom of Russia. As with many states the country had no particular official name. The Duke of Moscow or the Sovereign of Moscow were common short titles, in rivalry with other duchies Moscow dukes also designated themselves as the Grand Dukes, claiming a higher position in the hierarchy of Russian dukes. During the territorial growth and later acquisitions, the title became rather lengthy. Since the 14th century various Moscow dukes added of all Rus to their titles, after the title of Russian metropolitans, Dmitry Shemyaka was the first Moscow duke who minted coins with the title the Sovereign of all Rus. Under the Polish-Lithuanian influence the country began to be called Muscovy in Western Europe, the first appearances of the term were in an Italian document of 1500. Initially Moscovia was the Latinized name of the city of Moscow itself, not of the state, later it acquired its meaning and has been used alongside of the older name. The term Muscovy persisted in the West until the beginning of the 18th century and is used in historical contexts. When the Mongols invaded the lands of Kievan Rus in the 13th century, the first ruler of the principality of Moscow, Daniel I, was the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky of Vladimir-Suzdal. He started to expand his principality by seizing Kolomna and securing the bequest of Pereslavl-Zalessky to his family, daniels son Yuriy controlled the entire basin of the Moskva River and expanded westward by conquering Mozhaisk. He then forged an alliance with the overlord of the Rus principalities, Uzbeg Khan of the Golden Horde, the Khan allowed Yuriy to claim the title of Grand Duke of Vladimir-Suzdal, a position which allowed him to interfere in the affairs of the Novgorod Republic to the north-west. Yuriys successor, Ivan I, managed to retain the title of Grand Duke by cooperating closely with the Mongols and by collecting tribute and taxes from other Rus principalities on their behalf. This relationship enabled Ivan to gain regional ascendancy, particularly over Moscows chief rival, the city of Tver
20.
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
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The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state from the 13th century until 1795. The state was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the polytheistic Baltic tribes from Aukštaitija, the Grand Duchy later expanded to include large portions of the former Kievan Rus and other Slavic lands, including territory of present-day Belarus, parts of Ukraine, Poland and Russia. At its greatest extent in the 15th century, it was the largest state in Europe and it was a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional state with great diversity in languages, religion, and cultural heritage. Consolidation of the Lithuanian lands began in the late 12th century, Mindaugas, the first ruler of the Grand Duchy, was crowned as Catholic King of Lithuania in 1253. The pagan state was targeted in the crusade by the Teutonic Knights. The multi-ethnic and multi-confessional state emerged only at the reign of Gediminas. The reign of Vytautas the Great marked both the greatest territorial expansion of the Grand Duchy and the defeat of the Teutonic Knights in the Battle of Grunwald in 1410 and it also marked the rise of the Lithuanian nobility. After Vytautass death, Lithuanias relationship with the Kingdom of Poland greatly deteriorated, Lithuanian noblemen, including the Radvila family, attempted to break the personal union with Poland. However, the unsuccessful Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars with the Grand Duchy of Moscow forced the union to remain intact, eventually, the Union of Lublin of 1569 created a new state, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In this federation, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania maintained its political distinctiveness and had separate government, laws, army, shortly after, the unitary character of the state was confirmed by adopting the Reciprocal Guarantee of Two Nations. The newly reformed Commonwealth was invaded by Russia in 1792 and partitioned between the neighbours, with a truncated state remaining only nominally independent, after the Kościuszko Uprising, the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and Austria in 1795. The Statutes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania name the name of the state as Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Ruthenia and Samogitia. The title of Grand Duchy was consistently applied to Lithuania from the 14th century onward, in the 12th century, Slavic chronicles refer to Lithuania as one of the areas attacked by the Rus. Pagan Lithuanians initially paid tribute to Polotsk, but they grew in strength. The sudden spark of military raids marked consolidation of the Lithuanian lands in Aukštaitija, the Livonian Order and Teutonic Knights, crusading military orders, were established in Riga in 1202 and in Prussia in 1226. The Christian orders posed a significant threat to pagan Baltic tribes, the peace treaty with Galicia–Volhynia of 1219 provides evidence of cooperation between Lithuanians and Samogitians. This treaty lists 21 Lithuanian dukes, including five senior Lithuanian dukes from Aukštaitija, although they had battled in the past, the Lithuanians and the Žemaičiai now faced a common enemy. Likely Živinbudas had the most authority and at least several dukes were from the same families, the formal acknowledgment of common interests and the establishment of a hierarchy among the signatories of the treaty foreshadowed the emergence of the state
21.
Ivan the Terrible
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Ivan IV Vasilyevich, commonly known as Ivan the Terrible or Ivan the Fearsome, was the Grand Prince of Moscow from 1533 to 1547, then Tsar of All the Russias until his death in 1584. The last title was used by all his successors, during his reign, Russia conquered the Khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan and Sibir, becoming a multiethnic and multicontinental state spanning approximately 4,050,000 km2. Ivan exercised autocratic control over Russias hereditary nobility and developed a bureaucracy to administer his new territories and he transformed Russia from a medieval state into an empire, though at immense cost to its people, and its broader, long-term economy. In one such outburst, he killed his son and heir Ivan Ivanovich and this left his younger son, the pious but politically ineffectual Feodor Ivanovich, to inherit the throne. Ivan was a diplomat, a patron of arts and trade. He was popular among Russias commoners, except possibly the people of Novgorod and surrounding areas, the English word terrible is usually used to translate the Russian word grozny in Ivans nickname, but this is a somewhat archaic translation. The Russian word grozny reflects the older English usage of terrible as in inspiring fear or terror, dangerous, powerful and it does not convey the more modern connotations of English terrible, such as defective or evil. Vladimir Dal defines grozny specifically in archaic usage and as an epithet for tsars, courageous, magnificent, magisterial and keeping enemies in fear, other translations have also been suggested by modern scholars. Ivan was the first son of Vasili III and his wife, Elena Glinskaya. When Ivan was three years old, his father died from an abscess and inflammation on his leg that developed into blood poisoning, Ivan was proclaimed the Grand Prince of Moscow at the request of his father. His mother Elena Glinskaya initially acted as regent, but she died of what many believe to be assassination by poison, the regency then alternated between several feuding boyar families fighting for control. According to his own letters, Ivan, along with his younger brother Yuri, on 16 January 1547, at age sixteen, Ivan was crowned with Monomakhs Cap at the Cathedral of the Dormition. He was the first to be crowned as Tsar of All the Russias, prior to that, rulers of Muscovy were crowned as Grand Princes, although Ivan III the Great, his grandfather, styled himself tsar in his correspondence. Two weeks after his coronation, Ivan married his first wife Anastasia Romanovna, a member of the Romanov family, who became the first Russian tsaritsa. By being crowned Tsar, Ivan was sending a message to the world and to Russia, he was now the one and only ruler of the country. The new title symbolized an assumption of powers equivalent and parallel to those held by former Byzantine Emperor, the political effect was to elevate Ivans position. The new title not only secured the throne, but it also granted Ivan a new dimension of power and he was now a divine leader appointed to enact Gods will, as church texts described Old Testament kings as Tsars and Christ as the Heavenly Tsar. The newly appointed title was passed on from generation to generation
22.
Oprichnik
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Oprichnik was the term given to a member of the Oprichnina, an organization established by Tsar Ivan the Terrible to govern a division of Russia from 1565 to 1572. Some scholars believe that Ivans second wife, the Circassian Maria Temryukovna and this theory comes from Heinrich von Staden, a German oprichnik. Maria Temryukovnas brother also became a leading oprichnik, I swear also not to eat or drink with the zemschina, and not to have anything in common with them. On this I kiss the cross, modern theories suggest that the motivating purpose for the organization and existence of the Oprichniki was to suppress people or groups opposed to the Tsar. Known to ride horses and led by Ivan himself, the group was known to terrorize civilian populations. Sometimes called the Tsars Dogs because of their actions and blind loyalty, they dressed in garb, similar to a monastic habit, bearing the insignia of a severed dogs head. The dogs head was also symbolic of nipping at the heels of the Tsars enemies, when Ivan declared himself the Hand of God, he selected 300 of the Oprichniki to be his personal brotherhood and live in his castle at Aleksandrovskaia Sloboda near Vladimir. At 4 a. m. these select Oprichniki attended a sermon given by Ivan, the Oprichniki sought to lead an externally ascetic lifestyle, like the monks they emulated, but it was punctuated by acts of cruelty and debauchery. Ivan sang while his Oprichniki ate, eating only when they had finished, at 9 p. m. he went to bed, listening to stories told by three blind men. In the Novgorod incident, the Oprichniks killed an estimated 1500 big people, by 1572, the Oprichnik had become a destabilizing force and were disbanded by Ivan. It became an offense to say or discuss Oprichnina. The Oprichnik is an opera by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, based on the drama The Oprichniks written by Ivan Lazhechnikov, Oprichniki Malyuta Skuratov, Alexei Basmanov and his son Fyodor Basmanov are main characters in Ivan the Terrible, a classic historical epic film directed by Sergei Eisenstein. The Oprichniki appear as a unique Russian unit in Ensemble Studios Age of Empires III, the song Dog and Broom on Arghoslents Hornets of the Pogrom album focuses specifically on the Oprichniki, and makes reference to their actions during the 1570 Novgorod Massacre. The Twelve Wallachian mercenaries in the 2009 novel Twelve by Jasper Kent are named after the original Oprichniki, griffins novel Black Ops claims as a plot point that all subsequent Russian secret police agencies such as the SVR are descendants of the Oprichniki. The novel Day of the Oprichnik by Vladimir Sorokin imagines the return of the Oprichniki in a futuristic-theocratic Russia, the Oprichniki appear in Tsar, a 2009 Russian drama film directed by Pavel Lungin. Latter-day Oprichniki appear in Eric Flints 1636, The Kremlin Games
23.
Oprichnina
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The oprichnina was a state policy implemented by Tsar Ivan the Terrible in Russia between 1565 and 1572. The policy included institution of secret police, mass repressions, public executions, the term oprichnina, which Ivan coined for this policy, derives from the Russian word oprich. In 1558, Tsar Ivan IV started the Livonian war after the Livonian Confederation refused to pay tribute to Russia, a broad coalition, which included Poland, Lithuania and Sweden, were drawn into the war against Russia. The war became drawn-out and expensive, raids by Crimean Tatars, Polish and Lithuanian invasions, famines, a trading blockade and escalating costs of war ravaged Russia. In 1564, Prince Andrei Kurbsky, who had defected to the Lithuanians, led the Lithuanian army against Russia, Tsar Ivan began to suspect that other aristocrats were also ready to betray him. Veselovskii explained the oprichnina in terms of Ivan’s paranoia and denied larger social aims for the oprichnina, however, historian Sergey Platonov argued that Ivan IV intended the oprichnina as a suppression of the rising boyar aristocracy. Professor Isabel de Madariaga has expanded this idea to explain the oprichnina as Ivan’s attempt to subordinate all independent social classes to the autocracy, on December 3,1564, Ivan IV departed Moscow on pilgrimage. While such journeys were routine for the throne, Ivan neglected to set the arrangements for rule in his absence. Moreover, a large personal guard, a significant number of boyars. After a month of silence, Ivan finally issued two letters from his fortifications at Aleksandrova Sloboda on January 3, the first addressed the elite of the city and accused them of embezzlement and treason. Further accusations concerned the clergy and their protection of denounced boyars, in conclusion, Ivan announced his abdication. The second letter addressed the population of Moscow and claimed “he had no anger against” its citizenry, divided between Sloboda and Moscow, the boyar court was unable to rule in absence of Ivan and feared the wrath of the Muscovite citizenry. A boyar envoy departed for Aleksandrova Sloboda to beg Ivan to return to the throne, Ivan IV agreed to return on condition that he may prosecute people for treason outside legal limitations. He demanded that he execute and confiscate the land of traitors without interference from the council or church. To pursue his investigations, Ivan decreed the creation of the oprichnina and this region included many of the financial centers of the state, including the salt region of Staraia Russa and prominent merchant towns. Ivan held exclusive power over the oprichnina territory, the Boyar Council ruled the zemshchina, the second division of the state. Until 1568, the oprichnina relied upon many administrative institutions under zemshchina jurisdiction, only when conflict between the zemshchina and oprichnina reached its peak did Ivan create independent institutions within the oprichnina. Ivan also stipulated the creation of a personal guard known as the oprichniki, originally it was a thousand strong
24.
Veliky Novgorod
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It is situated on the M10 federal highway connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg. The city lies along the Volkhov River just downstream from its outflow from Lake Ilmen, UNESCO recognized Novgorod as a World Heritage Site in 1992. At its peak during the 14th century, the city was the capital of the Novgorod Republic, the Charter of Veliky Novgorod recognizes 859 as the year when the city was first mentioned. Archaeological dating is fairly easy and accurate to within 15–25 years, as the streets were paved with wood, and most of the houses made of wood, allowing tree ring dating. The Varangian name of the city Holmgård/Holmgard is mentioned in Norse Sagas as existing at a yet earlier stage, originally, Holmgård referred only to the stronghold southeast of the present-day city, Rurikovo Gorodische. First mention of this Nordic or Germanic etymology to the name of the city of Novgorod occurs in the 10th-century policy manual De Administrando Imperio by Byzantine emperor Constantine VII, in 882, Ruriks successor, Oleg of Novgorod, conquered Kiev and founded the state of Kievan Rus. Novgorods size as well as its political, economic, and cultural influence made it the second most important city in Kievan Rus, according to a custom, the elder son and heir of the ruling Kievan monarch was sent to rule Novgorod even as a minor. When the ruling monarch had no son, Novgorod was governed by posadniks, such as the legendary Gostomysl, Dobrynya, Konstantin. Of all their princes, Novgorodians most cherished the memory of Yaroslav the Wise and his son, Vladimir, sponsored construction of the great St. Sophia Cathedral, more accurately translated as the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom, which stands to this day. In Norse sagas the city is mentioned as the capital of Gardariki, four Viking kings—Olaf I of Norway, Olaf II of Norway, Magnus I of Norway, and Harald Hardrada—sought refuge in Novgorod from enemies at home. No more than a few decades after the 1030 death and subsequent canonization of Olaf II of Norway, the town of Visby in Gotland functioned as the leading trading center in the Baltic before the Hansa League. At Novgorod in 1080, Visby merchants established a trading post which they named Gutagard, later, in the first half of the 13th century, merchants from northern Germany also established their own trading station in Novgorod, known as Peterhof. At about the time, in 1229, German merchants at Novgorod were granted certain privileges. In 1136, the Novgorodians dismissed their prince Vsevolod Mstislavich, the year is seen as the traditional beginning of the Novgorod Republic. One of the most important local figures in Novgorod was the posadnik, or mayor, the tysyatsky, or thousandman, originally the head of the town militia but later a commercial and judicial official, was also elected by the Veche. Another important local official was the Archbishop of Novgorod who shared power with the boyars, archbishops were elected by the Veche or by the drawing of lots, and after their election, were sent to the metropolitan for consecration. While a basic outline of the officials and the Veche can be drawn up. The boyars and the archbishop ruled the city together, although where one officials power ended, throughout the Middle Ages, the city thrived culturally
25.
Massacre of Novgorod
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The Massacre of Novgorod was an attack launched by Tsar Ivan IV s oprichniki on the city of Novgorod, Russia in 1570. The sheer number of casualties combined with the level of violent cruelty makes this campaign possibly the most vicious in the brutal legacy of the oprichnina. The late 1560s under Ivan the Terrible were rife with conspiracies, Ivan’s mental state was continually deteriorating and was exacerbated by his wars with Sweden, Lithuania, and Poland. Ivan’s deep distrust of the boyars, a sentiment held from childhood, coupled with his paranoia and need for control, Ivan proceeded to exercise this right liberally, as he attempted to purge all those whom he deemed a threat. One year before the carnage, in 1569, the Tsar evicted several thousands from Novgorod, shortly after the executions of Prince Vladimir and most of his family, Ivan launched an attack on Novgorod claiming treason and treachery. It is probably not a coincidence that Novgorod still housed a number of the late Vladimir’s supporters and retainers, there is much speculation about the authenticity of this evidence considering that relations between Pimen and Ivan were relatively amicable. It is also possible that Polish agents planted the documents in an attempt to unseat or at least destabilize Ivan, there is little to no concrete evidence to suggest that Novgorod actually planned to defect to Poland-Lithuania. In the summer of 1569 Ivan and the council decided to march on Novgorod that December to exact revenge for the alleged treasonous behavior. Ivan’s force started out from Alexandrov Village, where he resided and ruled from Dec 1564 to Feb 1565, on 2 Jan 1570, the advance regiment of the Tsar’s armies arrived on the outskirts of the city, four days before the Tsar himself. They were to construct a barrier around the city, trapping the inhabitants, the regiment also attacked the monasteries surrounding the city, looting the treasuries and beating and/or imprisoning the clergy. On January 6 the Tsar arrived with his son, Ivan, his court, Ivan stopped just before entering the city, in the trading quarter of Gorodische, to set up his camp and royal court, issuing his initial orders from there. On January 8 Ivan proceeded into Novgorod and was met on the bridge over the Volkhov River, as was customary, by the Archbishop Pimen. In line with tradition and ceremony, the Archbishop attempted to bless the Tsar, afterwards, Ivan’s company dined with Pimen, though that too was interrupted by chaos. Shortly after the meal began, Ivan shouted orders to his guard to arrest Pimen and to plunder his residence, treasury. The prelate was publicly insulted and mocked by the Tsar, who paraded him around the city on a mare while facing backwards and he was then arrested and imprisoned while Ivan sacked the city. Ivan’s first commands from Gorodishche concerned the immediate subjugation and humiliation of the church and he ordered that his regiment confiscate the treasuries of the outlying monasteries, as well as begin the brutality of the trials at Gorodishche. Initially, around 500 father superiors and monks from the churches, were rounded up, taken into Novgorod. Following the arrest of the Archbishop and his subsequent imprisonment, Ivan’s soldiers set about stripping the cathedrals and they stripped the St. Sophia cathedral, making off with valuable ornaments and icons as well as the ancient Korsun gate from the altar
26.
Great Northern War
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The Great Northern War was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Central, Northern, and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the alliance were Peter I of Russia, Frederick IV of Denmark–Norway. George I of Great Britain and of Brunswick-Lüneburg joined the coalition in 1714 for and for Hanover in 1717, Charles XII led the Swedish army. Swedish allies included Holstein-Gottorp, several Polish magnates under Stanisław I Leszczyński, the Ottoman Empire temporarily hosted Charles XII of Sweden and intervened against Peter I. The treaty also secured the extradition and execution of Johann Reinhold Patkul, the Ottoman Empire defeated the Russian-Moldavian army in the Pruth River Campaign, but that peace treaty was in the end without great consequence to Russias position. After Poltava, the anti-Swedish coalition revived and subsequently Hanover and Prussia joined it, the remaining Swedish forces in plague-stricken areas south and east of the Baltic Sea were evicted, with the last city, Riga, falling in 1710. The coalition members partitioned most of the Swedish dominions among themselves, Sweden proper was invaded from the west by Denmark–Norway and from the east by Russia, which had occupied Finland by 1714. Sweden defeated the Danish invaders at the Battle of Helsingborg, Charles XII opened up a Norwegian front, but was killed in Fredriksten in 1718. The war ended with Swedens defeat, leaving Russia as the new dominant power in the Baltic region, by these treaties Sweden ceded her exemption from the Sound Dues, and lost the Baltic provinces and the southern part of Swedish Pomerania. The peace treaties also ended her alliance with Holstein-Gottorp, Hanover gained Bremen-Verden, Brandenburg-Prussia incorporated the Oder estuary, Russia secured the Baltic Provinces, and Denmark strengthened her position in Schleswig-Holstein. In Sweden, the monarchy had come to an end with the death of Charles XII. Between the years of 1560 and 1658, Sweden created a Baltic empire centred on the Gulf of Finland and comprising the provinces of Karelia, Ingria, Estonia, and Livonia. During the Thirty Years War Sweden gained tracts in Germany as well, including Western Pomerania, Wismar, the Duchy of Bremen, during the same period Sweden conquered Danish and Norwegian provinces north of the Sound. However, the Swedish state ultimately proved unable to support and maintain its army in a prolonged war. The cost of the proved to be much higher than the occupied countries could fund, and Swedens coffers. The foreign interventions in Russia during the Time of Troubles resulted in Swedish gains in the Treaty of Stolbovo, the treaty deprived Russia of direct access to the Baltic Sea. In the late 1690s, the adventurer Johann Patkul managed to ally Russia with Denmark and Saxony by the secret Treaty of Preobrazhenskoye, Charles XII of Sweden succeeded Charles XI of Sweden in 1697, aged 14. From his predecessor, he took over the Swedish Empire as an absolute monarch, Charles XI had tried to keep the empire out of wars, and concentrated on inner reforms such as reduction and allotment, which had strengthened the monarchs status and the empires military abilities
27.
Novgorod Governorate
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Novgorod Governorate, was an administrative division of the Russian Empire, which existed from 1727 to 1776 and from 1796 to 1927. Its administrative center was in the city of Novgorod, the governorate was located in the northwest of the Russian Empire. The governorate was established in 1727 from Belozersk, Novgorod, Pskov, Tver and it was abolished by a decree of Catherine II on September 5,1776, which established Novgorod and Tver Viceroyalties instead. Novgorod Viceroyalty included Novgorod and Olonets Oblast, whereas Tver Viceroyalty was made of the former Tver Province, after 1796, Novgorod Viceroyalty was mentioned in official documents only as Novgorod Governorate. This second Novgorod Governorate existed until 1927, when its territory was included into Leningrad Oblast, in 1927, it only comprised a larger part of current Novgorod Oblast and a small part of Tver Oblast. In 1727, the description of Novgorod Governorates borders was not given, instead, the territory was defined as a set of cities and the lands adjacent to those cities. In 1764, Jacob Sievers was appointed governor of Novgorod and he suggested that Vyshny Volochyok, Valday, Borovichi, and Ostashkov would be chartered instead. In 1770, these towns were indeed chartered, Novgorod Governorate bordered Poland in the west until 1772. In 1772, as a result of the First Partition of Poland, parts of Livonia, in order to accommodate these areas, Pskov Governorate was created, and Velikiye Luki and Pskov Provinces were transferred to this governorate. In 1773, Olonetsky Uyezd was incorporated as Olonets Province but still remained in Novgorod Governorate, the province consisted of three uyezds with the centers in Olonets, Vytegra, and Padansky Pogost. In the same year, Porkhovsky, Gdovsky, Ladozhsky, Starorussky, in 1802, Olonets Governorate was restored in pre-1796 borders. It included Petrozavodsky, Olonetsky, Kargopolsky, Vytegorsky, and Lodeynopolsky Uyezds, simultaneously, Krestetsky Uyezd, Kirillovsky Uyezd, and Cherepovetsky Uyezd were re-established. In 1816, Novgorod Governorate became the area where military settlements were deployed, in accordance with the project designed by Aleksey Arakcheyev and it was inconvenient to have both civial and military administration in Staraya Russa, and therefore Starorussky Uyezd was abolished in 1824. The town of Staraya Russa and some adjacent territories were subordinated to the Defense Ministry. Simultaneously, Demyansk was chartered, and Demyansky Uyezd was established, military settlements were established in Novgorodsky, Demyansky, and Krestetsky Uyezds. The military settlements were proven inefficient, in particular, in 1831, in 1857, Starorussky Uyezd was re-established. In 1917, two towns of the governorate were chartered but did not become uyezd centers, Bologoye and Lyuban, in 1920, Malovishersky Uyezd was established, however, Malaya Vishera was not chartered until 1921. In 1922, Krestetsky District was abolished, in June 1918, five uyezds of the Novgorod Governorate were split off to create Cherepovets Governorate, with the administrative center located in Cherepovets
28.
Pskov Governorate
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Pskov Governorate was an administrative division of the Russian Empire, which existed from 1772 until 1777 and from 1796 until 1927. Its seat was located in Opochka between 1772 and 1776, and in Pskov after 1776, in terms of modern administrative division of Russia, the area of the governorate is currently split between Pskov, Tver, and Novgorod Oblasts. The former border between Pskov Governorate and the Governorate of Livonia still largely corresponds to the border between Russia in the east and Estonia and Latvia in the west. In 1772, as a result of the First Partition of Poland, Inflanty Voivodeship, in order to accommodate these areas, Pskov Governorate was created, and Velikiye Luki and Pskov Provinces of Novgorod Governorate were transferred to this governorate. In addition, Vitebsk, Polotsk, and Dvina, taken over from Poland, were included into the governorate, the town of Opochka was made the administrative center of the governorate. Pskov Governorate has proven to be too big to be administered properly, and in 1776 and it divided the governorate into Pskov and Polotsk Governorates. Pskov was made the center of Pskov Governorate. Gdov and Porkhov were transferred from Novgorod to Pskov Governorate, in 1777, Pskov Governorate was transformed into Pskov Viceroyalty, which was administered from Novgorod by Jacob Sievers, who at the same time administered Novgorod and Tver Viceroyalties. In 1796, the viceroyalty was abolished, and on 31 December 1796 the emperor Paul I issued a decree restoring Pskov Governorate. At this point, the governorate consisted of the following six uyezds, Pskovsky Uyezd, Opochetsky Uyezd, Ostrovsky Uyezd, Porkhovsky Uyezd, Toropetsky Uyezd, izborsk was a town but not an uyezd center. In 1802, Novorzhevsky Uyezd and Kholmsky Uyezd were established, in 1920, the westernmost part of Pskovsky Uyezd were transferred to Estonia, and the southwesternmost part of Pskovsky Uyezd and 3 volosts of Ostrovsky Uyezd went to Latvia. In 1924, Velizhsky, Nevelsky, and Sebezhsky Uyezds of Vitebsk Governorate were transferred into Pskov Governorate, on August 1,1927 Pskov Governorate was abolished and transferred to Leningrad Oblast. The administration of the governorate was performed by a governor, the governors of Pskov Governorate were 1772–1775 Mikhail Nikolayevich Krechetnikov, governor, 1775–1776 Alexey Vasilyevich Naryshkin, governor, 1776–1777 Khristophor Romanovich Nolken, governor. 1797 Ivan Alexeyevich Molchanov, governor, 1797–1798 Larion Spiridonovich Alexeyev, governor, 1798–1800 Alexey A
29.
Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic
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The Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as Soviet Estonia or Estonia was a republic of the Soviet Union, administered by a subordinate of the Government of the Soviet Union. The Estonian SSR was subsequently incorporated into the USSR on August 9,1940, the territory was occupied by Nazi Germany from 1941 to 1944. Most countries did not recognise the incorporation of Estonia de jure, a number of these countries continued to recognize Estonian diplomats and consuls who still functioned in the name of their former government. This policy of non-recognition gave rise to the principle of legal continuity, on 16 November 1988, the Estonian SSR became the first republic within the Soviet sphere of influence to declare state sovereignty from Moscow. On 30 March 1990, the Estonian SSR declared that Estonia had been occupied since 1940, the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic was renamed as the Republic of Estonia on May 8,1990. As part of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Estonia came within the Soviet sphere of interest and was incorporated into the Soviet Union as a Soviet Socialist Republic, the history of Soviet Estonia formally begins with the establishment of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1941. The Secret Additional Protocol of the German–Soviet Nonaggression Pact signed on August 23,1939, on September 24,1939, warships of the Soviet Navy appeared off Estonian ports and Soviet bombers began patrolling over the area around Tallinn. Moscow demanded that Estonia allow the USSR to establish Soviet military bases, the government of Estonia accepted the ultimatum, signing the corresponding mutual assistance agreement on September 28,1939. On June 12,1940, according to the director of the Russian State Archive of the Naval Department Pavel Petrov, on June 14, the Soviet military blockade of Estonia went into effect while the world’s attention was focused on the fall of Paris to Nazi Germany. Two Soviet bombers downed a Finnish passenger airplane Kaleva flying from Tallinn to Helsinki carrying three diplomatic pouches from the U. S. legations in Tallinn, Riga and Helsinki, on June 16, Soviet NKVD troops raided border posts in Estonia. The Estonian government decided, according to the Kellogg–Briand Pact, to not respond to the Soviet ultimatums by military means, given the overwhelming Soviet force both on the borders and inside the country, the order was given not to resist in order to avoid bloodshed and open war. Most of the Estonian Defence Forces and the Estonian Defence League surrendered according to the orders and were disarmed by the Red Army, only the Estonian Independent Signal Battalion stationed at Raua Street in Tallinn showed resistance. As the Red Army brought in additional reinforcements supported by six armoured fighting vehicles, there was one dead, several wounded on the Estonian side and about 10 killed and more wounded on the Soviet side. Finally the military resistance was ended with negotiations and the Independent Signal Battalion surrendered and was disarmed, by June 18, military operations of the occupation of the Baltic States were complete. Thereafter, state administrations were liquidated and replaced by Soviet cadres, time magazine reported on June 24, that Half a million men and countless tanks of the Soviet Red Army moved to safeguard frontier against conquest-drunk Germany, one week before the Fall of France. On June 21,1940, the Soviet occupation of the Republic of Estonia was complete, the Flag of Estonia was replaced with a Red flag on Pikk Hermann tower. On July 14–15, rigged, extraordinary, single-party parliamentary elections were held, only peoples enemies stay at home on election day. Each ballot carried only the Soviet-assigned candidates name, with the way to register opposition being to strike out that name on the ballot
30.
Reichskommissariat Ostland
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It was also known initially as Reichskommissariat Baltenland. These policies applied not only to the Reichskommissariat Ostland but also to other German-occupied Soviet territories, through the use of Einsatzgruppen A and B with active participation of local auxiliary forces over a million Jews were killed in the Reichskommissariat Ostland. Throughout 1943 and 1944 the Red Army gradually recaptured most of the territory in their advance on Germany, with the end of the war in Europe and the defeat of Germany in 1945, the Reichskommissariat ceased to exist completely. Ostland should not be confused with Ober Ost, which had a role as an occupation authority for Baltic territories conquered by the German Empire in World War I. Otto Bräutigam, a colleague of Rosenberg at the time. A more important additional colleague of Rosenberg, Georg Leibbrandt, spoke out against this and he argued that the sympathy of the Baltic peoples, who would naturally want the use of their own terminology, could be lost entirely. They would therefore not be won over either as supporters of the German war effort, after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, vast areas were conquered to Germanys east. A Führer Decree of 17 July 1941 provided for this move and it established Reichskommissariats in the east, as administrative units of the Greater German Reich. The structure of the Reichskommissariats was defined by the same decree, each of these territories would be led by a German civil governor known as a Reichskommissar appointed by Hitler and answerable only to him. The official appointed for the Ostland was Hinrich Lohse, the Oberpräsident, an instruction for the administrators of the territories was prepared by Reichsleiter Alfred Rosenberg. Local government in the Reichskommissariat was to be organized under a National Director in Estonia, a General Director in Latvia, rosenbergs ministerial authority was, in practice, severely limited. These German central government interventions in the affairs of Ostland overriding the appropriate ministries were known as special administrations, later, from September 1941, the civil administration that had been decreed in the previous July was actually set up. Lohse and Koch objected to these breaches of their supposed responsibilities, seeking to administer their territories with the independence, in July 1941, the civil administration was declared in much of the occupied Soviet territories before one had materialised in the field. This partly explains the strained relations between the SS and the civil administration, the short-term political objectives for Ostland differed from those for the Ukraine, the Caucasus or the Moscow regions. The Baltic lands, which were to be joined together with Belarus, Rosenberg suggested that Belarus will be in the future an appropriate reception area of various undesirable population elements from the Baltic part of Ostland and German-occupied Poland. He also toyed with the idea of turning the country into a nature reserve. The regime planned to encourage the settlement of Germans to the region. During the war itself in Pskov province ethnic Germans were resettled from Romania with some Dutch, the settlement of Dutch settlers was encouraged by the Nederlandsche Oost-Compagnie, a Dutch-German organisation
31.
Territorial changes of the Baltic states
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Territorial changes of the Baltic states refers to the redrawing of borders of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia after 1940. After a two-front independence war fought against both Bolshevist Russian and Baltic German nationalist forces, the countries concluded peace and border treaties with Soviet Russia in 1920 and this has been the source of political tensions after they regained their independence with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Some of the disputes remain unresolved, in addition, some territories that were not controlled by the independent Baltic republics were also annexed during the Soviet era. Most notable case is Vilnius taken from Poland by the USSR to become the capital of Lithuania, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union the issue of these territories was raised by the Estonian and Latvian governments. Lithuania has never raised the question of its borders and has border treaties with all its neighbors. Only marginal political groups use the issue of borders in their political rhetoric and this is a list of actual territorial changes that happened when Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were incorporated into the Soviet Union and became the Baltic Soviet Socialist Republics. All the boundaries established by these changes exist up to modern days, the Russian-Estonian boundary that used to run in the middle of Lake Peipus did not change, while the boundary south of Lake Peipus was also moved westwards. Overall, about 2000 km² of land changed hands, including Ivangorod, the town of Pechory, and areas in and around Izborsk, Lavry, and Rotovo, and the Kolpina Island in southern Lake Peipus. In the late 1944, a territory in northeastern Latvian SSR of about 1,300 square kilometers was ceded to Russian SFSR and this area includes towns of Pytalovo and four rural districts. All these areas during the interwar constituted the eastern part of the Abrene district of Latvia and they were added to Pskov Oblast of Russian SFSR. Russian-Latvian boundary in the southeastern Latvia did not change, after the annexation of Lithuania into the Soviet Union in 1940, a new eastern boundary of Lithuania was delimited. Lithuania, however, continued to claim the 1920 border as official, in 1940, when Lithuania was incorporated into the Soviet Union, a new boundary was drawn, enlarging the de facto Lithuanian territory, though not to the full extent of the republics claim. The notable gain was the city of Vilnius, which again became Lithuanias capital, the control of the Vilnius region was partitioned between the Lithuanian SSR, the Belarusian SSR and Nazi Germany. Main cities that were recognised by Soviets as a part of Lithuania by the 1920 treaty but were not added to Lithuanian SSR include Hrodna, Lida, Smarhon, Pastavy, Ašmiany, Brasłaŭ, Suwałki. In Latvia and Estonia, territories which had not belonged to the Governorate of Estonia, unlike Soviet Socialist Republics, however, imperial gubernyas were not based on ethnicity, so this historical reasoning is not accepted by Latvians and Estonians. In Lithuanias case, the detaching did not have any historical foundation and they saw a significant migration of Russian-speaking people. In some of the territories became part of Poland Lithuanian language schools existed. The territories were not returned to the Baltic states after they gained independence and remain parts of Russia, Belarus and it was assumed that the Russian-Latvian border treaty would be signed in year 2005
32.
Governorate of Livonia
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The Governorate of Livonia, was one of the Baltic governorates of the Russian Empire, now divided between the Republic of Latvia and the Republic of Estonia. Sweden formally ceded Swedish Livonia to Russia in 1721 with the Treaty of Nystad, in 1722 Tartu County was added to Riga Governorate. In 1726 Smolensk Governorate was separated from Governorate, which now had five provinces - Rīga, Cēsis, Tartu, Pärnu, in 1783 the Sloka County was added. On July 3,1783 Catherine the Great reorganized Governorate into Riga Lieutenancy, only in 1796, after the Third Partition of Poland this territory was renamed as the Governorate of Livonia. Until late 19th century the governorate was not ruled by Russian laws but was administered autonomously by the local German Baltic nobility through feudal Landtag, German nobles insisted on preserving their privileges and use of German language. After the Russian February Revolution in 1917, the part of the Governorate of Livonia was combined with the Governorate of Estonia to form a new Autonomous Governorate of Estonia. The Autonomous Governorate of Estonia issued the Estonian Declaration of Independence on 24 February 1918, the Governorate of Livonia was divided into 9 counties. However the new border between the Governments of Estonia and Livland was never properly demarcated, by the Imperial census of 1897. In bold are languages spoken by more people than the state language, administrative divisions of Russia in 1713-1714 Baltic governorates Courland Governorate Estonia Governorate Livonian Confederation
33.
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
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The Republic comprised sixteen autonomous republics, five autonomous oblasts, ten autonomous okrugs, six krais, and forty oblasts. Russians formed the largest ethnic group, the capital of the Russian SFSR was Moscow and the other major urban centers included Leningrad, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara. The Russian Soviet Republic was proclaimed on November 7,1917 as a sovereign state, the first Constitution was adopted in 1918. In 1922 the Russian SFSR signed the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR, the economy of Russia became heavily industrialized, accounting for about two-thirds of the electricity produced in the USSR. It was, by 1961, the third largest producer of petroleum due to new discoveries in the Volga-Urals region and Siberia, trailing only the United States and Saudi Arabia. In 1974, there were 475 institutes of education in the republic providing education in 47 languages to some 23,941,000 students. A network of territorially organized public-health services provided health care, the effects of market policies led to the failure of many enterprises and total instability by 1990. On June 12,1990, the Congress of Peoples Deputies adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty, on June 12,1991, Boris Yeltsin was elected the first President. On December 8,1991, heads of Russia, Ukraine, the agreement declared dissolution of the USSR by its founder states and established the Commonwealth of Independent States. On December 12, the agreement was ratified by the Russian Parliament, therefore Russian SFSR denounced the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and de facto declared Russias independence from the USSR. On December 25,1991, following the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev as president of the Soviet Union, on December 26,1991, the USSR was self-dissolved by the Soviet of Nationalities, which by that time was the only functioning house of the Supreme Soviet. After dissolution of the USSR, Russia declared that it assumed the rights and obligations of the dissolved central Soviet government, the new Russian constitution, adopted on December 12,1993 after a constitutional crisis, abolished the Soviet system of government in its entirety. Initially, the state did not have a name and wasnt recognized by neighboring countries for five months. Meanwhile, anti-Bolsheviks coined the mocking label Sovdepia for the nascent state of the Soviets of Workers, on January 25,1918 the third meeting of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets renamed the unrecognized state the Soviet Russian Republic. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on March 3,1918, on July 10,1918, the Russian Constitution of 1918 renamed the country the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. By 1918, during the Russian Civil War, several states within the former Russian Empire seceded, internationally, in 1920, the RSFSR was recognized as an independent state only by Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania in the Treaty of Tartu and by the short-lived Irish Republic. On December 30,1922, with the creation of the Soviet Union, the final Soviet name for the republic, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, was adopted in the Soviet Constitution of 1936. By that time, Soviet Russia had gained roughly the same borders of the old Tsardom of Russia before the Great Northern War of 1700
34.
Nicholas I of Russia
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Nicholas I was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855. He was also the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland and his biographer Nicholas V. Riasanovsky says that Nicholas displayed determination, singleness of purpose, and an iron will, along with a powerful sense of duty and a dedication to very hard work. He saw himself as a junior officer totally consumed by spit. A handsome man, he was nervous and aggressive. Trained as an engineer, he was a stickler for minute detail, in his public persona, says Riasanovsky, Nicholas I came to represent autocracy personified, infinitely majestic, determined and powerful, hard as stone, and relentless as fate. His reign had an ideology called Official Nationality that was proclaimed officially in 1833 and it was a reactionary policy based on orthodoxy in religion, autocracy in government, and Russian nationalism. He was the brother of his predecessor, Alexander I. Nicholas inherited his brothers throne despite the failed Decembrist revolt against him and his aggressive foreign policy involved many expensive wars, having a disastrous effect on the empires finances. He was successful against Russias neighbouring southern rivals as he seized the last territories in the Caucasus held by Persia by successfully ending the Russo-Persian War and he ended the Russo-Turkish War successfully as well. Later on, however, he led Russia into the Crimean War with disastrous results, historians emphasize that his micromanagement of the armies hindered his generals, as did his misguided strategy. Fuller notes that historians have concluded that the reign of Nicholas I was a catastrophic failure in both domestic and foreign policy. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its zenith, spanning over 20 million square kilometers. Nicholas was born at Gatchina Palace in Gatchina to Grand Duke Paul, five months after his birth, his grandmother, Catherine the Great, died and his parents became emperor and empress of Russia. He was a brother of Emperor Alexander I of Russia, who succeeded to the throne in 1801. Riasanovsky says he was, the most handsome man in Europe, Nicholas was not brought up to become the Emperor of Russia, he had two elder brothers. However, as both of them failed to produce sons, Nicholas remained second in the line of succession, in 1825, when Alexander I died suddenly of typhus, Nicholas was caught between swearing allegiance to his second-eldest brother, Constantine Pavlovich, and accepting the throne for himself. The interregnum lasted until Constantine, who was in Warsaw at that time, additionally, on 25 December, Nicholas issued the manifesto proclaiming his accession to the throne. That manifesto retroactively named 1 December, the date of Alexander Is death, during this confusion, a plot was hatched by some members of the military to overthrow Nicholas and to seize power
35.
Alexander Prokhanov
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He is the editor-in-chief of Russias extreme-right newspaper Zavtra, that combines ultranationalist and communist views. Alexander Prokhanov was born in Tbilisi, Georgia where his ancestors, members of the Russian Christian Molokan sect, had been deported to by Catherine the Great, in 1955, Prokhanov enrolled into the Moscow Aviation Institute where for the first time he started to write poetry and prose. After the graduation he worked as an engineer at a Ministry of Defense factory, then, in 1962–1964, as a forester in Karelia, in the late 1960s he started writing essays and reports for numerous magazines, later citing Andrey Platonov and Vladimir Nabokov as major influences. Prokhanovs 1967 short story The Wedding garnered some praise and is considered his breakthrough. Two years later he was working for two high-profile Soviet newspapers, Pravda and Literaturnaya Gazeta. As a foreign correspondent Prokhanov visited Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Cambodia, Angola, and Ethiopia, Prokhanov was the first to report on the March 1969 events on Damansky Island during the Sino-Soviet border conflict. In 1971, his first book I Am Going My Way came out and his literary mentor Yuri Trifonov provided a foreword for it. Prokhanov later remembered, He liked the expressiveness, experiments with language, but my first social-oriented novellas made him skeptical, his tone became tougher and he entrusted me with another patron, Vladimir Makanin, who was my good friend at the time. In 1972, Prokhanov became a member of the Soviet Union of Writers, in the mid-1980s he was an active contributor to Molodaya Gvardiya, Nash Sovremennik, and the newspaper Literaturnaya Rossiya. In 1990, Prokhanov emerged as a candidate for the post of Literaturnaya Gazetas editor-in-chief, in 1989–1991, Prokhanov worked as the editor-in-chief of Sovetskaya Literatura, a magazine published in nine languages in more than one hundred countries. Enjoying his reputation of a hard-line Communist, hes never joined the Communist Party, in December 1990, Prokhanov founded Den, and became its editor-in-chief. Initially an organ of the Union of Soviet Writers, in the summer of 1991, sporting the subheading Organ of the spiritual opposition, it became arguably the most radical Russian newspaper continually challenging Boris Yeltsin and his team of liberal reformers. Among them were ultra-nationalists, whose publications caused outrage, several Jewish organizations condemning Den as anti-Semitic, the document calling for the formation of a united patriotic front was seen, in retrospect, as an ideological platform for the failed August coup detat attempt. The publication of the manifest brought about the rift between Prokhanov and General Alexander Rutskoy, the latter, speaking on Russian TV, promised his former friend ten years in jail. During the failed August 1991 coup, Prokhanov supported the junta calling itself the State Emergency Committee, in 1992 he joined the National Salvation Fronts leadership, alongside Gennady Zyuganov, Nikolai Pavlov, Mikhail Astafyev and Igor Shafarevich, among others. The same year he created the Day Movement in an attempt to turn his newspapers readership into a political force, during the September 1993 Russian constitutional crisis, Den became a mouthpiece for the radical opposition and Prokhanov got notoriety as a harsh critic of Yeltsin. After the Russian Parliaments demise in October that year Den was banned by the Russian Ministry of Justice, the newspaper re-emerged as Zavtra on 5 November 1993. For the rest of the 1990s, Prokhanov felt persecuted and marginalized, even in Soviet times I had the reputation of an ode-singer to the State, they called me the Army Headquarters Nightingale
36.
Moskovskij Komsomolets
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Moskovskij Komsomolets is a Moscow-based daily newspaper with a circulation approaching one million, covering general news. Founded in 1919, it is now regarded as publishing sensational or provocative items on Russian politics, the newspaper was first published by the Moscow Committee of the Komsomol on 11 December 1919 as Yuny Kommunar. Over the next years it changed its name several time, starting a few months after the first issue when it became the Yunosheskaya Pravda, in 1924, after Lenin’s death, it was renamed to Molodoy Leninets. It took its name in September 1929. Between 1931 and 1939 the paper ceased publication and it was revived in 1940 but not for long, the war interrupted publishing again in August 1941. Publishing resumed only on 2 October 1945, until 1990 it served as the organ of the Moscow Committee and the Moscow City Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League. In 1991 it was taken over by its editorial staff, since 1983 Pavel Gusev serves as MK’s editor-in-chief. The paper specialises in social and political material, economic surveys, city news, urban chronicles. MK is also known as the host of Russias oldest hit parade - the Zvukovaya Dorozhka and it was founded in autumn 1975 by Artur Gasparyan and has been published monthly in the paper since 1977. Also called the ZD Awards, it features both Russian and international acts, since 2003 it is presented in a ceremony in concert halls. It’s considered one of the major Russian music awards, according to a poll conducted in May 2004 by the Levada Center, 9% of the Russians and 33% of the Moscovites who responded, read the paper more or less regularly. For the year 2000 the poll reports 11% and 40%, respectively and it has a printed circulation of between 700,000 and 930,000 copies. Moskovskaya Komsomolka Moskovskaya Pravda Official website
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Timothy D. Snyder
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Timothy David Snyder is an American historian, author, and academic specializing in the history of Central and Eastern Europe, and the Holocaust. He is a professor at Yale University and is affiliated with the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, Snyder is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Snyder was born in southwestern Ohio, the son of Christine, Snyder graduated from Centerville High School,10 miles south of Dayton, where his father, a veterinarian and his mother reside. He received his BA from Brown University and his doctorate in 1997 from the University of Oxford and he has held fellowships in Paris, Vienna, Warsaw, and as an Academy Scholar at Harvard University. Since 2005, Snyder has been married to Marci Shore, a professor of European cultural and intellectual history at Yale University, Snyder and Shore have two children together. Snyder has written five books and co-edited two, one of them, Thinking the Twentieth Century, with the late historian Tony Judt, was written while the latter was dying of ALS disease. Snyder says that he has a reading and/or speaking knowledge of eleven European languages and this enabled him to use primary and archival sources in Germany and Central Europe in researching his book, Bloodlands, Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, which was published in 2010. Reviewer Igor Lukes noted, A word about sources, Snyder introduces his Bibliography with an impressive list of seventeen archival collections located in six countries. Yet a closer look at the text and endnotes reveals that evidence drawn from archives represents and this is a project built on secondary sources. Bloodlands takes nuggets from each source, then assembles them into an original mosaic, almost every paragraph of the books eleven chapters is supported by one or several previously underutilized secondary sources. Snyder says that other languages is very important, If you dont know Russian. We can only see as much, and we can go as far as our languages take us. I wrote this book in English, but there are very important conversations that are happening in German, Russian, Polish and so on among those historians, Bloodlands has been translated into 20 languages. For the academic year 2013–2014, he held the Philippe Roman Chair of International History at the London School of Economics, asked about how the agenda of the Trump administration compared with the Machtergreifung, Snyder said that, istory does not repeat. But it does offer us examples and patterns, and thereby enlarges our imaginations and creates more possibilities for anticipation, several writers, including Jacques Sémelin, have criticised Bloodlands, and Black Earth. Snyder teaches a two-part lecture course at Yale covering the history of Eastern Europe pre- and post-1914, in the past he has also taught an undergraduate seminar on communism in Eastern Europe. Wall Around the West, State Power and Immigration Controls in Europe and North America
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International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
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Global Heritage Network
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Global Heritage Network, established by Global Heritage Fund, was created in response to the damage and destruction facing culutral heritage sites throughout the developing world. GHN is a multimedia platform that uses Google Earth and social networking for threat monitoring. GHN consists of a database of approximately 650 globally significant sites in the developing world color-coded by threat level, Destroyed, Rescue Needed, At Risk. Each site contains a profile with information, photos, documentation, maps, videos. GHNs partnership with DigitalGlobe ensures that these sites are updated frequently with recent satellite imagery, lastly, the GHN library houses a collection of heritage preservation-related electronic documents including bibliographies, management plans, guidelines, case studies held in the GHN Library
