1.
Tsardom of Russia
–
From 1551 to 1700, Russia grew 35,000 km2 per year. After a military victory over Sweden and Poland, he implemented substantial reforms and proclaimed the Russian Empire in 1721. While the oldest endonyms of the Grand Duchy of Moscow used in its documents were Rus and the Russian land, in the 1480s Russian state scribes Ivan Cherny and Mikhail Medovartsev mention Russia under the name Росиа, Medovartsev also mentions the sceptre of Russian lordship. In England of the 16th century, it was both as Russia and Muscovy. In Northern Europe and at the court of the Holy Roman Empire, however, muscovites refute this, saying that their country was originally called Russia. When they are asked what nation they are, they respond Russac, which means Russians, and when they are asked what place they are from, by the 16th century, the Russian ruler had emerged as a powerful, autocratic figure, a Tsar. By assuming that title, the sovereign of Moscow tried to emphasize that he was a ruler or emperor on par with the Byzantine emperor or the Mongol khan. At first, the Byzantine term autokrator expressed only the meaning of an independent ruler. Ivan IV was crowned Tsar and thus was recognized, at least by the Russian Orthodox Church and that concept was to resonate in the self-image of Russians in future centuries. The development of the Tsars autocratic powers reached a peak during the reign of Ivan IV, Ivan strengthened the position of the Tsar to an exceptional degree, demonstrating the risks of unrestrained power in the hands of a mentally unstable individual. Although apparently intelligent and energetic, Ivan suffered from breakdowns of paranoia and depression, Ivan IV became Grand Prince of Moscow in 1533 at the age of three. The Shuysky and Belsky factions of the boyars competed for control of the regency until Ivan assumed the throne in 1547, reflecting Moscows new imperial claims, Ivans coronation as Tsar was a ritual modeled after those of the Byzantine emperors. With the continuing assistance of a group of boyars, Ivan began his reign with a series of useful reforms, in the 1550s, he declared a new law code, revamped the military, and reorganized local government. These reforms undoubtedly were intended to strengthen the state in the face of continuous warfare, the key documents prepared by the so-called Select Council of advisors and promulgated during this period are as follows. Muscovy remained a fairly unknown society in Western Europe until Baron Sigismund von Herberstein published his Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii in 1549 and this provided a broad view of what had been a rarely visited and poorly reported state. In the 1630s, the Russian Tsardom was visited by Adam Olearius, whose lively, further information about Russia was circulated by English and Dutch merchants. One of them, Richard Chancellor, sailed to the White Sea in 1553, upon his return to England, the Muscovy Company was formed by himself, Sebastian Cabot, Sir Hugh Willoughby, and several London merchants. Ivan the Terrible used these merchants to exchange letters with Elizabeth I, despite the domestic turmoil of the 1530s and 1540s, Russia continued to wage wars and to expand
2.
Old East Slavic
–
Old East Slavic, Old Ruthenian, Old Rusian was a language used in the 10th–15th centuries by East Slavs in Kievan Rus and states which evolved after the collapse of Kievan Rus. Dialects of it were spoken, though not exclusively, in the area occupied by Belarus, central and northern Ukraine. Linguists from each of the three East Slavic countries tend to treat Old East Slavic as the predecessor of their own language. The Russian drevnerusskij jazyk means Old Rus’ian as well, Rusian is similarly used by some western scholars such as Horace Lunt. The language was a descendant of the Proto-Slavic language and faithfully retained many of its features, a striking innovation in the evolution of this language was the development of so-called pleophony, which came to differentiate the newly evolving East Slavic from other Slavic dialects. For instance, Common Slavic *gordъ settlement, town was reflected as OESl. gorodъ, Common Slavic *melko milk > OESl. moloko, other Slavic dialects are differed by resolving the closed-syllable clusters *eRC and *aRC as liquid metathesis, or by no change at all. Since extant written records of the language are sparse, it is difficult to assess the level of its unity, in consideration of the number of tribes and clans that constituted Kievan Rus, it is probable that there were many dialects of Old East Slavonic. Nonetheless, by 1150 it had more unity than any other branch of Slavic, with time, it evolved into several more diversified forms, which were the predecessors of the modern Belarusian, Russian, Rusyn and Ukrainian languages. The Ukrainian branch split away first, between 1200 and 1500, whereas Russian later separated from Belarusian by 1700, each of these languages preserves much of the Old East Slavic grammar and vocabulary. The Old Church Slavonic language was introduced, documentation of the language of this period is scanty, making it difficult at best fully to determine the relationship between the literary language and its spoken dialects. There are references in Arab and Byzantine sources to pre-Christian Slavs in European Russia using some form of writing, although the Glagolitic alphabet was briefly introduced, as witnessed by church inscriptions in Novgorod, it was soon entirely superseded by the Cyrillic. The following excerpts illustrate two of the most famous literary monuments, the spelling of the original excerpt has been partly modernized. The translations are best attempts at being literal, not literary,1110, from the Laurentian Codex,1377, Early language, fall of the yers in progress or arguably complete. South Slavic features include времѧньнъıх bygone, modern R прошлых, modern Ukr минулих, correct use of perfect and aorist, єсть пошла is/has come, нача began Note the style of punctuation. 1200, from the Pskov manuscript, fifteenth cent, illustrates the sung epics, with typical use of metaphor and simile. The Old East Slavic language developed a certain literature of its own, though much of it was influenced as regards style, the earliest dated specimen of Old East Slavic must be considered the written Slovo o zakone i blagodati, by Hilarion, metropolitan of Kiev. In this work there is a panegyric on Prince Vladimir of Kiev and this subtle and graceful oration admirably conforms to the precepts of the Byzantine eloquence. It is rivalled by another panegyric on Vladimir, written a decade later by Yakov the Monk, from the writings of Theodosius we see that many pagan habits were still in vogue among the people
3.
Golden Horde
–
The Golden Horde was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. With the fragmentation of the Mongol Empire after 1259 it became a functionally separate khanate and it is also known as the Kipchak Khanate or as the Ulus of Jochi. After the death of Batu Khan in 1255, his dynasty flourished for a century, until 1359. The Hordes military power peaked during the reign of Uzbeg, who adopted Islam, the territory of the Golden Horde at its peak included most of Eastern Europe from the Urals to the Danube River, and extended east deep into Siberia. In the south, the Golden Hordes lands bordered on the Black Sea, the Caucasus Mountains, the khanate experienced violent internal political disorder beginning in 1359, before it briefly reunited under Tokhtamysh. However, soon after the 1396 invasion of Timur, the founder of the Timurid Empire, at the start of the 15th century the Horde began to fall apart. By 1466 it was being referred to simply as the Great Horde, within its territories there emerged numerous predominantly Turkic-speaking khanates. These internal struggles allowed the northern state of Muscovy to rid itself of the Tatar Yoke at the Great stand on the Ugra river in 1480. The Crimean Khanate and the Kazakh Khanate, the last remnants of the Golden Horde, in any event, it was not until the 16th century that Russian chroniclers begin explicitly using the term Golden Horde to refer to this particular successor khanate of the Mongol Empire. The first known use of the term, in 1565, in the Russian chronicle History of Kazan, applied it to the Ulus of Batu and its left wing was referred to as the Blue Horde in Russian chronicles and as the White Horde in Timurid sources. Western scholars have tended to follow the Timurid sources nomenclature and call the left wing the White Horde, the khanate apparently used the term White Horde to refer to its right wing, which was situated in Batus home base in Sarai and controlled the ulus. However, the designations Golden Horde, Blue Horde, and White Horde have not been encountered in the sources of the Mongol period. At his death in 1227, Genghis Khan divided the Mongol Empire amongst his four sons as appanages, Jochi was the eldest, but he died six months before Genghis. In 1235, Batu with the great general Subedei began an invasion westwards, first conquering the Bashkirs, from there he conquered some of the southern steppes of present-day Ukraine in 1237, forcing many of the local Cumans to retreat westward. The military campaign against the Kypchaks and Cumans had started under Jochi, by 1239 a large portion of Cumans were driven out of the Crimea peninsula, and it became one of the appanages of the Mongol Empire. The remnants of the Crimean Cumans survived in the Crimean mountains, moving north, Batu began the Mongol invasion of Rus and for three years subjugated the principalities of former Kievan Rus, whilst his cousins Möngke, Kadan, and Güyük moved southwards into Alania. Using the migration of the Cumans as their casus belli, the Mongols continued west, raiding Poland and Hungary and culminating in the battles of Legnica, in 1241, however, Ögedei Khan died in the Mongolia homeland. Batu turned back from his siege of Vienna to take part in disputing the succession, the Mongol armies would never again travel so far west
4.
Volodymyr-Volynsky
–
Volodymyr-Volynsky is a small city located in Volyn Oblast, in north-western Ukraine. Serving as the centre of the Volodymyr-Volynskyi Raion, the city itself is also designated as a separate municipality within the oblast as the city of regional significance. The city is the centre of the region of Volhynia. Population,39, 074 The mediaeval Latin name of the town became the namesake of the 19th century Austro-Hungarian Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria,5 kilometres south from Volodymyr is Zymne, where the oldest Orthodox Monastery in Volynia is located. It took its name after Prince Volodymyr the Great, who founded a stronghold on the lands taken from the Polish Lendians around 981, in 988 the city became the capital of Volodymyr Principality and the seat of an Orthodox bishopric, as mentioned in the Primary Chronicle. In 1160 the building of Sobor of Dormition of The Holy Mother of God was completed, by the 13th century the city became part of Galicia–Volhynia as one of the most important trading towns in the region. Upon the conquest of Batu Khan in 1240, the city was subordinated to the Mongol Empire together with other Ruthenian principalities, in the 14th century, Metropolitan Theognostus of all Rus resided in the city for several years before moving to Moscow. In 1349 King Casimir the Great captured the city, and subsequently it became part of the Kingdom of Poland, in 1370 it was taken by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and it was not until the Union of Lublin of 1569 that it returned to the Crown of Poland. In the meantime the city was given Magdeburg rights in 1431, from 1566 to 1795 it was part of the Volhynian Voivodeship. It was a city of Poland. On July 17,1792, the Battle of Włodzimierz took place in the vicinity of the town, the city remained a part of Poland until the Third Partition of Poland of 1795, when the Russian Empire annexed it. That year the Russian authorities changed the name of cities in Volhynia including Novohrad-Volynskyi. Volodymyr-Volynsky stayed within Russian Partition till 1917, in 18th and 19th centuries the town started to grow rapidly, mostly thanks to large numbers of Jews settling there. By the second half of the 19th century they made up the majority of local inhabitants, according to the Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland, in the late 19th century the city had 8336 inhabitants,6122 of them Jews. In the interbellum the city was a seat of a powiat within the Volhynian Voivodeship, following the Nazi-Soviet Pact the city was seized by Soviet forces on 19 September 1939. On 23 June 1941 the city was occupied by Germany, during World War II, a German concentration camp was located near the city. The city was recaptured by the Red Army on 20 July 1944, a Cold War air base was located north-east of the town at Zhovtnevy. Since 1991 the city has been part of Ukraine, a series of mass graves were discovered in 1997, with exhumations completed by 2013
5.
Halych
–
Halych is a historic city on the Dniester River in western Ukraine. Today Halych is a town located only on one spot of the territory of former Halycian capital although it preserved its former name. It is also the center of Halych Raion of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. It lies 26 km north of the oblast capital, Ivano-Frankivsk, the citys name, though spelled identically in modern East Slavic languages, is pronounced Halych in Ukrainian and Galich in Russian. The Russian transliteration should not be confused with the Russian town of Galich, in Polish the name is rendered Halicz, in the Yiddish language Helitsh or Heylitsh, in Latin, Galic, in Hungarian, Halics, in Romanian, Halici. Local folk legend would have it that the name Halych comes from a legendary Prince Halychyna, the first ruler of these lands. In fact, a referred to by locals as Halychynas tomb, excavated in 1996, contained a ritual cremation site. Another version of the Slavic toponym Halych is after the Khwalis/Kaliz/Khalisioi who occupied the area from the time of the Magyars, the Russian toponym/ethnonym Khvalis may also be related. Historians formerly believed it was Celtic, related to many place names found across Europe such as Galaţi, Galatia, Gaul. Also Halych postulates from hals, salt, as the trade was a substantial economic factor in the medieval history of Halych. Max Vasmer and modern Slavists generally agree that Halych is a derived from the East Slavic word for jackdaw. This bird featured in the coat of arms when it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The oldest archaeological artifacts from the territory of Halych are classified to Paleolithic period 40,000 years ago. More systematic findings from a number of archaeological cultures dated from 5500 BC till nowadays indicate that population of local terrains was virtually perpetual for some past 7,000 years. According to excavated finds, the population of Halych became especially significant from 8-9 c, written mention of Halych by Slavic chronicles dates back to 1138. The most comprehensive records about Halych are found in the Hypatian Codex of the Primary Chronicle, interestingly, local officials attribute the first written mention of Halych to the year 896. The opinion is supported by a record found in the Gesta Hungarorum, the chronicles describe a stay of Hungarian tribes led by Prince Álmos in Halych on their way through Slavic land to Pannonia. The claim is not supported by serious scholars, similarly, another curious date for the first written mention,290 AD is not accepted by majority
6.
Lviv
–
Lviv, the largest city in western Ukraine and the seventh largest city in the country overall, is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine. Named in honor of the Leo, the eldest son of Rus King Daniel of Galicia. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia from 1272 to 1349, from 1434, it was the regional capital of the Ruthenian Voivodeship in the Kingdom of Poland and was known as Lwów. In 1772, after the First partition of Poland, the city became the capital of the Habsburg Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria and was renamed to Lemberg, in 1918 in a short time was the capital of the West Ukrainian Peoples Republic. Between the wars, the city was again as Lwów and was the centre of the Lwów Voivodeship in the Second Polish Republic. After World War II, it part of the Soviet Union. Administratively, Lviv serves as the center of Lviv Oblast and has the status of city of oblast significance. Lviv was the centre of the region of Galicia. The historical heart of the city, with its old buildings and cobblestone streets, survived Soviet, the city has many industries and institutions of higher education such as Lviv University and Lviv Polytechnic. Lviv is also the home of many cultural institutions, including a philharmonic orchestra. The historic city centre is on the UNESCO World Heritage List, Lviv celebrated its 750th anniversary with a son et lumière in the center of the city in September 2006. Lviv is located on the edge of the Roztochia Upland, approximately 70 kilometers from the Polish border and 160 kilometers from the eastern Carpathian Mountains, the average altitude of Lviv is 296 meters above sea level. Its highest point is the Vysokyi Zamok,409 meters above sea level and this castle has a commanding view of the historic city centre with its distinctive green-domed churches and intricate architecture. The old walled city was at the foothills of the High Castle on the banks of the River Poltva, in the 13th century, the river was used to transport goods. Lvivs climate is continental with cold winters and mild summers. The average temperatures are −3.1 °C in January and 18.3 °C in July, the average annual rainfall is 745 mm with the maximum being in summer. Lviv approximately receives 1,804 hours of sunshine annually, archaeologists have demonstrated that the Lviv area was settled by the 5th century. The area between the Castle Hill and the river Poltva was continuously settled since the 9th century, in 1977 it was discovered that the Orthodox church of St. Nicholas had been built on a previously functioning cemetery
7.
Eastern Orthodox Church
–
The Eastern Orthodox Church teaches that it is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church established by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission to the apostles. It practices what it understands to be the original Christian faith, the Eastern Orthodox Church is a communion of autocephalous churches, each typically governed by a Holy Synod. It teaches that all bishops are equal by virtue of their ordination, prior to the Council of Chalcedon in AD451, the Eastern Orthodox had also shared communion with the Oriental Orthodox churches, separating primarily over differences in Christology. Eastern Orthodoxy spread throughout the Roman and later Eastern Roman Empires and beyond, playing a prominent role in European, Near Eastern, Slavic, and some African cultures. As a result, the term Greek Orthodox has sometimes used to describe all of Eastern Orthodoxy in general. However, the appellation Greek was never in use and was gradually abandoned by the non-Greek-speaking Eastern Orthodox churches. Its most prominent episcopal see is Constantinople, there are also many in other parts of the world, formed through immigration, conversion and missionary activity. The official name of the Eastern Orthodox Church is the Orthodox Catholic Church and it is the name by which the church refers to itself in its liturgical or canonical texts, in official publications, and in official contexts or administrative documents. Orthodox teachers refer to the Church as Catholic and this name and longer variants containing Catholic are also recognized and referenced in other books and publications by secular or non-Orthodox writers. The common name of the Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, is a shortened practicality that helps to avoid confusions in casual use, for this reason, the eastern churches were sometimes identified as Greek, even before the great schism. After 1054, Greek Orthodox or Greek Catholic marked a church as being in communion with Constantinople and this identification with Greek, however, became increasingly confusing with time. Missionaries brought Orthodoxy to many regions without ethnic Greeks, where the Greek language was not spoken. Today, many of those same Roman churches remain, while a large number of Orthodox are not of Greek national origin. Eastern, then, indicates the element in the Churchs origin and development, while Orthodox indicates the faith. While the Church continues officially to call itself Catholic, for reasons of universality, the first known use of the phrase the catholic church occurred in a letter written about 110 AD from one Greek church to another. Quote of St Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans, Wheresoever the bishop shall appear, there let the people be, even as where Jesus may be, thus, almost from the very beginning, Christians referred to the Church as the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The Orthodox Church claims that it is today the continuation and preservation of that same Church, a number of other Christian churches also make a similar claim, the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Assyrian Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches. The Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic Church, not directly from the Orthodox Church, the depth of this meaning in the Orthodox Church is registered first in its use of the word Orthodox itself, a union of Greek orthos and doxa
8.
Monarchy
–
The actual power of the monarch may vary from purely symbolic, to partial and restricted, to completely autocratic. Traditionally and in most cases, the monarchs post is inherited and lasts until death or abdication, occasionally this might create a situation of rival claimants whose legitimacy is subject to effective election. Finally, there have been cases where the term of a reign is either fixed in years or continues until certain goals are achieved. Thus there are widely divergent structures and traditions defining monarchy, Monarchy was the most common form of government until the 19th century, but it is no longer prevalent. Currently,47 sovereign nations in the world have monarchs acting as heads of state,19 of which are Commonwealth realms that recognise Queen Elizabeth II as their head of state. The monarchs of Cambodia, Japan, and Malaysia reign, the word monarch comes from the Greek language word μονάρχης, monárkhēs which referred to a single, at least nominally absolute ruler. In current usage the word usually refers to a traditional system of hereditary rule. Depending on the held by the monarch, a monarchy may be known as a kingdom, principality, duchy, grand duchy, empire, tsardom, emirate, sultanate, khaganate. The form of societal hierarchy known as chiefdom or tribal kingship is prehistoric, the Greek term monarchia is classical, used by Herodotus. The monarch in classical antiquity is often identified as king, the Chinese, Japanese and Nepalese monarchs continued to be considered living Gods into the modern period. Since antiquity, monarchy has contrasted with forms of democracy, where power is wielded by assemblies of free citizens. In antiquity, monarchies were abolished in favour of such assemblies in Rome, much of 19th century politics was characterised by the division between anti-monarchist Radicalism and monarchist Conservativism. Many countries abolished the monarchy in the 20th century and became republics, advocacy of republics is called republicanism, while advocacy of monarchies is called monarchism. In the modern era, monarchies are more prevalent in small states than in large ones, most monarchs, both historically and in the modern day, have been born and brought up within a royal family, the centre of the royal household and court. Growing up in a family, future monarchs are often trained for the responsibilities of expected future rule. Different systems of succession have been used, such as proximity of blood, primogeniture, and agnatic seniority. While most monarchs have been male, many female monarchs also have reigned in history, rule may be hereditary in practice without being considered a monarchy, such as that of family dictatorships or political families in many democracies. The principal advantage of hereditary monarchy is the continuity of leadership
9.
Roman the Great
–
Roman Mstislavich, known as Roman the Great was a Rus’ prince, Grand Prince of Kiev. He was prince of Novgorod, of Vladimir-in-Volhynia, and of Halych, by seizing the throne of Halych, he became the master of all western Rus’. In the early 13th century, the Byzantine imperial title, autocrate was applied by the chroniclers to him and he waged two successful campaigns against the Cumans, from which he returned with many rescued captives. The effect of Roman’s victory was, however, undermined by new dissensions among the princes of Rus’. Roman died in a battle with the Poles at the Battle of Zawichost and he founded the Romanovich dynasty that would rule Vladimir-in-Volhynia and Halych until 1340. He was the eldest son of Mstislav Izyaslavich, and Agnes, after the Novgorodians had expelled their prince, Svyatoslav IV Rostislavich, Roman was sent to Novgorod on April 14,1168 by his father. However, the princes of Smolensk and Prince Andrey Yuryevich of Vladimir spent the rest of the year conspiring and forming alliances against Mstislav Izyaslavich. Following the death of Mstislav Iziaslavich in August,1170, the Novgorodians expelled Roman and invited Andrey Yuryevich to be prince, when his father died, Roman was bequeathed the Principality of Vladimir-in-Volhynia. He subdued the Yatvingians, and harnessed the captives instead of oxen to drag the plows on his estates, Roman married Predslava Ryurikovna, a daughter of Ryurik Rostislavich. Their eldest daughter was married to Vasilko Vladimirovich, a grandson of Prince Yaroslav Volodimerovich Osmomysl of Halych, but later she was repudiated. Following the death of Yaroslav Osmomysl on October 1,1187, trouble began in the Principality of Halych, Roman urged the Galicians to evict Vladimir Yaroslavich and make him their prince. But they failed either to expel Vladimir Yaroslavich or to kill him, when, however, the Galicians threatened to kill his wife, Vladimir Yaroslavich took her and fled to King Béla III of Hungary. According to a chronicle, Oleg Yaroslavich was appointed by Duke Casimir II of Poland to rule in Halych. When accepting their offer, Roman gave his patrimony of Vladimir-in-Volhynia to his brother, but King Béla III marched against Roman intending to reinstate Vladimir Yaroslavich, and the Hungarians seized the principality. But King Béla III, instead of returning Halych to Vladimir Yaroslavich, proclaimed his own son, Roman was obliged to flee to Vladimir-in-Volhynia, but his brother, Vsevolod Mstislavich refused him entry. He therefore went to the Poles, but when refused to help him, Roman rode to his father-in-law. Roman solicited military aid from his father-in-law, but the Hungarian troops repelled his attack, Ryurik Rostislavich, therefore, helped Roman to drive out Vsevolod Mstislavich from Vladimir-in-Volhynia and return to his patrimony. Meanwhile, Vladimir Yaroslavich succeeded in escaping from his dungeon in Hungary, at the approach of the expedition, the townspeople rose against the Hungarians and expelled Andrew in 1190. Vladimir Yaroslavich requested his uncle Prince Vsevolod III Yuryevich of Vladimir to support his rule, Vsevolod Yuryevich demanded that all the Rus’ princes, among them Roman, pledge not to challenge Vladimir Yaroslavich in Halych and they agreed
10.
Daniel of Galicia
–
Daniel of Galicia was a King of Ruthenia, Prince of Galicia, Peremyshl, and Volodymyr. He was crowned by an archbishop in Dorohochyn 1253 as the first King of Ruthenia. He was also known as Daniel Romanovych, in 1219 he renounced his claims to Galicia in favor of his father-in-law Mstislav the Bold. In 1221 Daniel re-established his rule over Volhynia, where the boyars, in 1234 he defeated Alexander Vsevolodovich, taking the Duchy of Belz. By 1238, he had defeated the Dobrzyń Knights, and regained most of Galicia, while the Prussians were under pressure from the Teutonic Order, Daniel attempted to conquer the related Yatvingians. The following year, Daniel acquired Kiev, the capital of the defunct state of Kievan Rus. Faced with the Mongol menace, he sent his commander Dmytro to defend the city, however, after a long siege its walls were breached and despite fierce fighting within the city, Kiev fell on December 6,1240 and was largely destroyed. A year later, the Mongols passed through Galicia and Volhynia while campaigning against the Poles and Hungarians and he made his brother Vasylko ruler of Volhynia and retained the Galician title for himself, though he continued to exercise real powers in both places. Daniels domestic policies focused on stability and economic growth, during his rule, German, Polish, and Rus merchants and artisans were invited into Galicia, and numbers of Armenians and Jews established themselves in the towns and cities. Daniel founded the towns of Lviv and Kholm, and fortified many others and he appointed officials to protect the peasantry from aristocratic exploitation and formed peasant-based heavy infantry units. Yet Daniels successes and his defense of Kiev attracted the further attention of the Mongols. In 1246, he was summoned to the capital of the Golden Horde at Sarai on the Volga River and was forced to accept Mongol overlordship. According to the Ukrainian historian Orest Subtelny, Daniel was handed a cup of fermented mares milk by the Mongol khan Batu and told to get used to it and they exchanged hostages whereby 100 families of Keraites were re-settled in Carpathian Galicia. While formally accepting the Mongols as overlords, and supplying them with soldiers as required and he established cordial relations with the rulers of Kingdom of Poland and Kingdom of Hungary, and requested aid from Pope Innocent IV in the form of a crusade. In return for assistance, Daniel offered to place his lands under the ecclesiastical authority of Rome. Danylo wanted more than recognition, however, and commented bitterly that he expected an army when he received the crown, the following year, Daniel repelled Mongol assaults led by Ordas son, Kuremsa, on Ponyzia and Volhynia and dispatched an expedition with the aim of taking Kiev. Daniel complied and pulled down the city walls, another daughter of his, Ustynia, was married to Prince Andrey Yaroslavich of Vladimir-Suzdal. He also arranged for the marriage of his son Roman to Gertrude, the Babenberg heiress and he was succeeded in Galicia by his son Lev
11.
Leo I of Galicia
–
Leo I of Galicia was a Knyaz of Belz, Peremyshl, Halych, Grand Prince of Kiev and King of Galicia-Volhynia. He was a son of King Daniel of Galicia and his first wife, as his father, Lev was a member of the senior branch of Vladimir II Monomakh descendents. He was a first cousin of Alexander Nevsky, as their mothers were sisters, Lev moved his fathers capital from Halych to the newly founded city of Lviv. This city was named after him by its founder, Levs father, in 1247 Lev married Constance, daughter of Béla IV of Hungary. Unlike his father, who pursued a Western political course, Lev worked closely with the Mongols and together with them invaded Poland. However, although his troops plundered territory as far west as Racibórz in Silesia, sending many captives and much booty back to Galicia, Lev cultivated a particularly close alliance with the Tatar Nogai Khan. He also attempted, unsuccessfully, to establish his familys rule over Lithuania, soon after his younger brother Shvarn ascended to the Lithuanian throne in 1267, Lev organized the murder of Grand Duke of Lithuania Vaišvilkas. Following Shvarns loss of the throne in 1269, Lev entered into conflict with Lithuania, in 1274–1276 he fought a war with the new Lithuanian ruler Traidenis but was defeated, and Lithuania annexed the territory of Black Ruthenia with its city of Navahrudak. In 1279, Lev allied himself with King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia and invaded Poland and that same year, however, Lev defeated the Kingdom of Hungary and temporarily annexed part of Transcarpathia, including the town of Mukachevo. In 1292, he defeated Poland and added Lublin with surrounding areas to the territory of Galicia-Volhynia, at the time of Levs death in 1301, the state of Galicia-Volhynia was at the height of its power. Lev I married Constance of Hungary, daughter of Béla IV of Hungary and they had three children, Yuri I of Galicia. Svyatoslava Lvovna of Halych, a nun Anastasia Lvovna of Galicia, List of rulers of Galicia and Volhynia List of Ukrainian rulers Marek, Miroslav. Lev Danylovych at the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol
12.
Yuri I of Galicia
–
Yuri I of Galicia was a King of Rus, Prince of Volhynia. His full title was Yuri I, King of Ruthenia, Grand Prince of Kiev, Volydymyr-Volhynia, Halych, Lutsk, in 1264-1301 he was a prince of the Duchy of Belz. He was a son of Lev Danylovych and Constance of Hungary and his first wife was Yaroslavna of Tver. His second wife was Euphemia of Kuyavia, daughter of Casimir I of Kuyavia, sons Mykhailo Andrew of Galicia, Prince of Ruthenia Lev II, Prince of Ruthenia Dmytro, Lord of Ruthenia Daughters Maria, Princess of Ruthenia. Married Trojden I of Masovia Anastasia, married Alexander I of Tver List of Ukrainian rulers Bilynsky, V. Ukraine-Ruthenia
13.
Andrew of Galicia
–
Andriy II Yuriyevych or Andrew of Galicia was the last Rus king of Galicia-Volhynia in 1308–1323. He was the son of Yuriy I whom he succeeded on the throne of Galicia. His mother was Euphemia of Kuyavia, after the death of his father, he ruled the kingdom together with his brother Lev II. Though the kingdom was one being managed together, there are sources informing that Andrew was seated in Volodymyr-Volynskyi and it is known that in the second decade of 14th century, the Lithuanians strengthened its pressure upon Galicia-Volhynia taking Dorohychyn and Berestia lands away. The years of rule of brothers were in constant fight with Gediminas of Lithuania and he had established firm relations with Polish king Władysław I the Elbow-high and Teutonic order and attempted to weaken dependence from the Golden Horde. For some time king Andrew had been fighting the Mongol-Tatars and Lithuania and they were also in union with the allies of Władysław I the Elbow-high - Scandinavian and Pomeranian rulers against Margraves of Brandenburg. According to some historians he died together with his brother Lev II battling the Mongol-Tatars or Lithuanians while defending Berestia, both king Andrew and his brother Lev II were much respected on the west. After their death the line of descendants of Roman Mstyslavych broke. Galician boyars attempted to rule the state themselves and that perhaps was the reason that they sought the protection of the Tatars, which Władysław I the Elbow-high became afraid of. Boleslaw Treojdenowicz was married to Andrews sister Maria who ruled along with the husband and her niece, Eufemia, heiress of Volhynia ruled in Lutsk. List of Ukrainian rulers Worldroots Great history of Ukraine, Galician-Volhynian state
14.
Leo II of Galicia
–
Leo II of Galicia, also known as Lev Yurevich was Prince of Lutsk and Galicia, one of the last two Rurikid kings of Galicia-Volhynia. He was a member of the branch of Monomakhovichi. He was the son of King Yuri I, whom he succeeded on the throne of Galicia-Volhynia. After the death of his father, he ruled the kingdom together with his brother Andrey and his mother was Euphemia of Kuyavia. It is reported that in the decade of 14th century. They were also in union with the allies of King Władysław I - the Scandinavian Kings, both King Lev and his brother King Andrew were apparently much respected in the west. In 1321, Levs son, Prince George of Lutsk, the last of the line, had died in a battle with the forces of Grand Duke Gediminas of Lithuania while defending the castle in Lutsk. After the deaths of Lev II and his two years later, the line of the direct descendants of Roman Mstislavich ended, and the Galician state was left without a ruling dynasty. The Galician boyars subsequently attempted to rule the state themselves, fearing subjugation by Władysław I, they apparently sought the protection of the Tatars. But soon more conservative elements amongst the boyars gained the hand. List of Ukrainian rulers Worldroots Great history of Ukraine, Galician-Volhynian state
15.
Liubartas
–
Demetrius of Liubar or Liubartas was Prince of Lutsk and Liubar, Prince of Zhytomyr, Grand Prince of Volhynia, Grand Prince of Galicia and Volhynia. The origin of Liubartas is uncertain and it is known that he was the youngest son of Gediminas, Grand Duke of Lithuania. In the early 1320s he married a daughter of Andrew of Galicia, after Andrew and his brother Lev II died around 1322, Galicia–Volhynia did not have a male successor. Instead of promoting Liubartas and causing a war with Poland, Gediminas compromised with Władysław I of Poland, both parties agreed to install Boleslaw-Yuri II, nephew of Leo and Andrew. Boleslaw-Yuri was a son of Trojden I of Masovia from the Piast dynasty, a cousin of Władysław I, at the time Boleslaw was fourteen years old and was betrothed to Eufemija, daughter of Gediminas. Liubartas continued to rule Lutsk and Volodymyr-Volynskyi and that way the Galicia–Volhynia Wars were postponed until after Boleslaws poisoning in 1340. He was poisoned by rebellious nobles, who invited Liubartas to become the ruler for both Galicia and Volhynia, sources are too scarce to fully reconstruct events between 1341–1349. Despite the support from his brothers Algirdas and Kęstutis, Liubartas lost all territories except for eastern Volhynia with Lutsk to Casimir III of Poland in 1349, in 1351 he was even taken prisoner during a battle, and Kęstutis had to rescue him. In 1366 a treaty was signed, Liubartas retained eastern Volhynia with Lutsk, however the matter was settled only in 1370, Liubartas took advantage of Casimirs death and captured all of Volhynia. The territories changed again only in 1569, when Volhynia, including Lutsk, was transferred to Poland by the Union of Lublin, in 1382, after death of Louis I of Hungary, Liubartas captured Kremenets, Przemyshl, and other cities from Hungary. He supported his brother Kęstutis against nephew Jogaila during the succession fights and he built a castle in Lutsk, known as the Lubarts Castle, that survives to this day. 1385, having ruled Volhynia for roughly sixty years and he married for the second time ca.1350 to an unnamed daughter of Konstantin of Rostov, a relative of Simeon of Moscow. He had three sons, Fëdor, Symeon, and Lazar, Fëdor inherited Volhynia, and died in 1431
16.
Middle Ages
–
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
17.
Principality of Halych
–
Principality of Halych was a Kievan Rus principality established by members of the oldest line of Yaroslav the Wise descendants. A characteristic feature of Halych principality was an important role of the nobility and citizens in political life, Halych as the capital mentioned in around 1124 as a seat of Ivan Vasylkovych the grandson of Rostislav of Tmutarakan. According to Mykhailo Hrushevsky the realm of Halych was passed to Rostyslav upon the death of his father Vladimir Yaroslavich, the realm was then passed to Yaropolk Izyaslavich who was a son of the ruling Grand Prince of Kiev Izyaslav I of Kiev. First Slavic tribes living in Galicia were Croats and Dulebs, there are some claims of temporarily belonging of this territory to the Great Moravian state and later probably Duchy of Bohemia. In year 907 Galician Croats and Dulebs were involved in campaign against Constantinople led by Rus Prince Oleg of Novgorod. This is the first significant evidence of political affiliation of tribes of Galicia. According to Nestor the Chronicler some strongholds in West Part of Galicia were conquered by Vladimir the Great in 981, around that time the city of Volodymyr was established in honor of him which became the main center of political power in the region. In the 11th century western border citys including Peremyshl, were annexed by the Kingdom of Poland. In the meantime, Yaroslav the Wise established a solid foot in the founding the city of Jarosław. Their lands were organized into three principalities of Peremyshl, Zvenyhorod and Terebovlia. In 1097 the Terebovlia Principality was secured after Vasylko Rostyslavych by the Council of Liubech after several years of a civil war, in 1124 the Halych Principality as minor principality was given to Ihor Vasylkovich by his father Vasylko, the Prince of Terebovlia out of the Terebovlia Principality. Rostislavich Brothers managed not only separate from Volodymyr, but also to defend themselves from external enemies. In 1099, in the battle on Rozhne field halycians defeated army of the Grand Prince Sviatopolk II of Kiev and this two significant victories brought nearly one hundred years of relative peaceful development of Halycian principality. Four sons of Rostystlavych Brothers divided the area into four parts with centers in Peremyshl, Zvenyhorod, Halych, after the death of three of them Volodimyrko took Peremyshl and Halych and Zvenyhorod gave to Ivan - son of his older brother Rostyslav. In 1141 Volodymyrko moved his residence from Peremyshl to more geographically advantageous Halych giving birth to a united Halycian Principality, in 1145 citizens of Halych, taking advantage of the absence of Volodymyrko, called to reign Ivan of Zvenyhorod. After the defeat of Ivan under the walls of Halych, also Zvenygorod principality was incorporated into the Halycian, in 1152, after the death of Volodymyrko, Halycian throne was succeeded by his only son Yaroslav Osmomysl. Yaroslav begins his reign with the Battle on the river Siret in 1153 with Grand Prince Iziaslav, which resulted a heavy losses for the Halycians but retreat of Izyaslav, who died shortly thereafter. Thus the danger from the east had passed and Jaroslav via diplomacy reached peace with his other neighbors - Hungary, subsequently, thanks to negotiations Jaroslav neutralized his only rival - the eldest descendant of Rostislavich Brothers Ivan, former Prince of Zvenyhorod
18.
Principality of Volhynia
–
The Principality of Volhynia was a western Kievan Rus principality founded by the Rurik dynasty in 987 centered in the region of Volhynia in modern-day Ukraine. From 1069 to 1118 it belong to Izyaslavychi who primarily ruled from Turov, after losing Turov to Monomakhovychi in 1105, the descendents of Izyaslav Yaroslavovych for few years continued to rule in Volhynia. From 1154 to 1199 the principality was named Principality of Volodymyr when the Principality of Lutsk was separated, the principality held the lands of the historic region of Volhynia from where it acquired its name. The capital of the principality as well as the largest and most important city of the region was Volodymyr, other notable cities in the principality include Kremenets, Lutsk, Busk, Dorogobuzh, Brest, Belz and Shumsk. The Principality of Volhynia along with her state, the Principality of Halych were formed by lesser sons of the ruling Rurik dynasty in Kiev. Following the fragmentation of the Kievan Rus, the principality achieved autonomy in 1154
19.
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
–
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
20.
Ukraine
–
Ukraine is currently in territorial dispute with Russia over the Crimean Peninsula which Russia annexed in 2014 but which Ukraine and most of the international community recognise as Ukrainian. Including Crimea, Ukraine has an area of 603,628 km2, making it the largest country entirely within Europe and it has a population of about 42.5 million, making it the 32nd most populous country in the world. The territory of modern Ukraine has been inhabited since 32,000 BC, during the Middle Ages, the area was a key centre of East Slavic culture, with the powerful state of Kievan Rus forming the basis of Ukrainian identity. Following its fragmentation in the 13th century, the territory was contested, ruled and divided by a variety of powers, including Lithuania, Poland, the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. A Cossack republic emerged and prospered during the 17th and 18th centuries, two brief periods of independence occurred during the 20th century, once near the end of World War I and another during World War II. Before its independence, Ukraine was typically referred to in English as The Ukraine, following independence, Ukraine declared itself a neutral state. Nonetheless it formed a limited partnership with the Russian Federation and other CIS countries. In the 2000s, the government began leaning towards NATO, and it was later agreed that the question of joining NATO should be answered by a national referendum at some point in the future. Former President Viktor Yanukovych considered the current level of co-operation between Ukraine and NATO sufficient, and was against Ukraine joining NATO and these events formed the background for the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014, and the War in Donbass in April 2014. On 1 January 2016, Ukraine applied the economic part of the Deep, Ukraine has long been a global breadbasket because of its extensive, fertile farmlands and is one of the worlds largest grain exporters. The diversified economy of Ukraine includes a heavy industry sector, particularly in aerospace. Ukraine is a republic under a semi-presidential system with separate powers, legislative, executive. Its capital and largest city is Kiev, taking into account reserves and paramilitary personnel, Ukraine maintains the second-largest military in Europe after that of Russia. Ukrainian is the language and its alphabet is Cyrillic. The dominant religion in the country is Eastern Orthodoxy, which has strongly influenced Ukrainian architecture, literature, there are different hypotheses as to the etymology of the name Ukraine. According to the older and most widespread hypothesis, it means borderland, while more recently some studies claim a different meaning, homeland or region. The Ukraine now implies disregard for the sovereignty, according to U. S. ambassador William Taylor. Neanderthal settlement in Ukraine is seen in the Molodova archaeological sites include a mammoth bone dwelling
21.
Poland
–
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
22.
Belarus
–
Its capital and most populous city is Minsk. Over 40% of its 207,600 square kilometres is forested and its strongest economic sectors are service industries and manufacturing. In the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution, Belarus declared independence as the Belarusian Peoples Republic, the Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia became a founding constituent republic of the Soviet Union in 1922 and was renamed as the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. Belarus lost almost half of its territory to Poland after the Polish–Soviet War of 1919–1921, during WWII, military operations devastated Belarus, which lost about a third of its population and more than half of its economic resources. The republic was redeveloped in the post-war years, in 1945 the Byelorussian SSR became a founding member of the United Nations, along with the Soviet Union and the Ukrainian SSR. The parliament of the declared the sovereignty of Belarus on 27 July 1990. Alexander Lukashenko has served as the president since 1994. Belarus has been labeled Europes last dictatorship by some Western journalists, Lukashenko continued a number of Soviet-era policies, such as state ownership of large sections of the economy. Though not directly espousing communism like the five remaining communist countries of China, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam and North Korea, in 2000 Belarus and Russia signed a treaty for greater cooperation, with some hints of forming a Union State. Over 70% of Belaruss population of 9.49 million resides in urban areas, more than 80% of the population is ethnic Belarusian, with sizable minorities of Russians, Poles and Ukrainians. Since a referendum in 1995, the country has had two official languages, Belarusian and Russian, the Constitution of Belarus does not declare any official religion, although the primary religion in the country is Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Belarus is the only European country to retain capital punishment in both law and practice, the name Belarus is closely related with the term Belaya Rus, i. e. White Rus. There are several claims to the origin of the name White Rus, an alternate explanation for the name comments on the white clothing worn by the local Slavic population. A third theory suggests that the old Rus lands that were not conquered by the Tatars had been referred to as white, other sources claim that, before 1267, the land not conquered by the Mongols was considered White Rus. The name Rus is often conflated with its Latin forms Russia and Ruthenia, in some languages, including German and Dutch, the country is generally called White Russia to this day. The Latin term Alba Russia was used again by Pope Pius VI in 1783 to recognize the Society of Jesus there, exclaiming Approbo Societatem Jesu in Alba Russia degentem, approbo, approbo. The first known use of White Russia to refer to Belarus was in the century by Englishman Sir Jerome Horsey. During the 17th century, the Russian tsars used White Rus to describe the lands added from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
23.
Romania
–
Romania is a sovereign state located in Southeastern Europe. It borders the Black Sea, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia and it has an area of 238,391 square kilometres and a temperate-continental climate. With over 19 million inhabitants, the country is the member state of the European Union. Its capital and largest city, Bucharest, is the sixth-largest city in the EU, the River Danube, Europes second-longest river, rises in Germany and flows in a general southeast direction for 2,857 km, coursing through ten countries before emptying into Romanias Danube Delta. The Carpathian Mountains, which cross Romania from the north to the southwest are marked by one of their tallest peaks, Moldoveanu, modern Romania was formed in 1859 through a personal union of the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. The new state, officially named Romania since 1866, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877, at the end of World War I, Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia united with the sovereign Kingdom of Romania. Romania lost several territories, of which Northern Transylvania was regained after the war, following the war, Romania became a socialist republic and member of the Warsaw Pact. After the 1989 Revolution, Romania began a transition back towards democracy and it has been a member of NATO since 2004, and part of the European Union since 2007. A strong majority of the population identify themselves as Eastern Orthodox Christians and are speakers of Romanian. The cultural history of Romania is often referred to when dealing with artists, musicians, inventors. For similar reasons, Romania has been the subject of notable tourist attractions, Romania derives from the Latin romanus, meaning citizen of Rome. The first known use of the appellation was attested in the 16th century by Italian humanists travelling in Transylvania, Moldavia, after the abolition of serfdom in 1746, the word rumân gradually fell out of use and the spelling stabilised to the form român. Tudor Vladimirescu, a leader of the early 19th century. The use of the name Romania to refer to the homeland of all Romanians—its modern-day meaning—was first documented in the early 19th century. The name has been officially in use since 11 December 1861, in English, the name of the country was formerly spelt Rumania or Roumania. Romania became the predominant spelling around 1975, Romania is also the official English-language spelling used by the Romanian government. The Neolithic-Age Cucuteni area in northeastern Romania was the region of the earliest European civilization. Evidence from this and other sites indicates that the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture extracted salt from salt-laden spring water through the process of briquetage
24.
Slovakia
–
Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Slovakias territory spans about 49,000 square kilometres and is mostly mountainous. The population is over 5 million and comprises mostly ethnic Slovaks, the capital and largest city is Bratislava. The Slavs arrived in the territory of present-day Slovakia in the 5th and 6th centuries, in the 7th century, they played a significant role in the creation of Samos Empire and in the 9th century established the Principality of Nitra. In the 10th century, the territory was integrated into the Kingdom of Hungary, which became part of the Habsburg Empire. After World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a separate Slovak Republic existed in World War II as a client state of Nazi Germany. In 1945, Czechoslovakia was reëstablished under Communist rule as a Soviet satellite, in 1989 the Velvet Revolution ended authoritarian Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. Slovakia became an independent state on 1 January 1993 after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. The country maintains a combination of economy with universal health care. The country joined the European Union in 2004 and the Eurozone on 1 January 2009, Slovakia is also a member of the Schengen Area, NATO, the United Nations, the OECD, the WTO, CERN, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the Visegrád Group. The Slovak economy is one of the fastest growing economies in Europe and its legal tender, the Euro, is the worlds 2nd most traded currency. Although regional income inequality is high, 90% of citizens own their homes, in 2016, Slovak citizens had visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 165 countries and territories, ranking the Slovak passport 11th in the world. Slovakia is the world’s biggest per-capita car producer with a total of 1,040,000 cars manufactured in the country in 2016 alone, the car industry represents 43 percent of Slovakia’s industrial output, and a quarter of its exports. Radiocarbon datingputs the oldest surviving archaeological artefacts from Slovakia – found near Nové Mesto nad Váhom – at 270,000 BC and these ancient tools, made by the Clactonian technique, bear witness to the ancient habitation of Slovakia. Other stone tools from the Middle Paleolithic era come from the Prévôt cave near Bojnice, the most important discovery from that era is a Neanderthal cranium, discovered near Gánovce, a village in northern Slovakia. The most well-known finds include the oldest female statue made of mammoth-bone, the statue was found in the 1940s in Moravany nad Váhom near Piešťany. Numerous necklaces made of shells from Cypraca thermophile gastropods of the Tertiary period have come from the sites of Zákovská, Podkovice, Hubina and these findings provide the most ancient evidence of commercial exchanges carried out between the Mediterranean and Central Europe. The Bronze Age in the territory of modern-day Slovakia went through three stages of development, stretching from 2000 to 800 BC
25.
Moldova
–
Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova (Romanian, Republica Moldova, listen, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. In 1856, southern Bessarabia was returned to Moldavia, but Russian rule was restored over the whole of the region in 1878, Bessarabia remained a province of the Russian Empire until 1917, when during the Russian Revolution it became an autonomous and then nominally independent Moldavian Democratic Republic. In 1918, following a vote of its assembly, Bessarabia united with the Kingdom of Romania, the decision was disputed by Soviet Russia, which in 1924, created within the Ukrainian SSR, on a territory east of Bessarabia, a so-called Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1940, as a consequence of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Romania was compelled to cede Bessarabia to the Soviet Union, the Soviets decided to split the region between a newly established Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Ukrainian SSR. The Moldavian SSR included two-thirds of the territory of Bessarabia, on 27 August 1991, as part of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Moldavian SSR declared independence and took the name Moldova. The current Constitution of Moldova was adopted in 1994, the strip of the Moldovan territory on the east bank of the Dniester river has been under the de facto control of the breakaway government of Transnistria since 1990. Its economy is the poorest in Europe in per capita terms, Moldova is a parliamentary republic with a president as head of state and a prime minister as head of government. The name Moldova derives from the Moldova River, the valley of this served as a political centre at the time of the foundation of the Principality of Moldavia in 1359. The origin of the name of the river remains unclear, the dogs name, given to the river, extended to the Principality. For a short time in the 1990s, at the founding of the Commonwealth of Independent States, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country began to use the Romanian name, Moldova. Officially, the name Republic of Moldova is designated by the United Nations, in 2010, Oldowan flint tools were discovered at Bayraki that are 800, 000–1.2 million years old. This demonstrates that humans were present in Moldova during the early Paleolithic era. The inhabitants of this civilization, which lasted roughly from 5500 to 2750 BC, practiced agriculture, raised livestock, hunted, in antiquity, Moldovas territory was inhabited by Dacian tribes. Between the 1st and 7th centuries AD, the south was intermittently under the Roman, and then Byzantine Empires. The Principality of Moldavia, established in 1359, was bounded by the Carpathian Mountains in the west, the Dniester River in the east, and the Danube River and Black Sea to the south. Its territory comprised the territory of the Republic of Moldova, the eastern eight counties of Romania. Like the present-day republic and Romanias north-eastern region, it was known to the locals as Moldova, Moldavia was invaded repeatedly by Crimean Tatars and, beginning in the 15th century, by the Turks. In 1538, the principality became a tributary to the Ottoman Empire, the title used in the document of 6 July 1600 was The King of the country of Romania, Ardeal and of all of Moldavia
26.
Ukrainian language
–
Ukrainian /juːˈkreɪniən/ is an East Slavic language. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic script, historical linguists trace the origin of the Ukrainian language to the Old East Slavic of the early medieval state of Kievan Rus. After the fall of the Kievan Rus as well as the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, the Modern Ukrainian language has been in common use since the late 17th century, associated with the establishment of the Cossack Hetmanate. From 1804 until the Russian Revolution, the Ukrainian language was banned from schools in the Russian Empire and it has always maintained a sufficient base in Western Ukraine, where the language was never banned, in its folklore songs, itinerant musicians, and prominent authors. The Ukrainian language retains a degree of intelligibility with Belarusian and Russian. The first theory of the origin of Ukrainian language was suggested in Imperial Russia in the middle of the 18th century by Mikhail Lomonosov and this theory posits the existence of a common language spoken by all East Slavic people in the time of the Rus. Another point of view developed during the 19th and 20th centuries by linguists of Imperial Russia, like Lomonosov, they assumed the existence of a common language spoken by East Slavs in the past. This general point of view is the most accepted amongst academics worldwide, the supporters of this theory disagree, however, about the time when the different languages were formed. Soviet scholars set the divergence between Ukrainian and Russian only at time periods. During the time of the incorporation of Ruthenia into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and this point of view is, however, at variance with some historical data. In fact, several East Slavic tribes, such as Polans, Drevlyans, Severians, Dulebes, White Croats, Tiverians, notably, some Ukrainian features were recognizable in the southern dialects of Old East Slavic as far back as the language can be documented. In contrast, Ahatanhel Krymsky and Alexei Shakhmatov assumed the existence of the spoken language of Eastern Slavs only in prehistoric times. According to their point of view, the diversification of the Old East Slavic language took place in the 8th or early 9th century, Ukrainian linguist Stepan Smal-Stotsky went even further, denying the existence of a common Old East Slavic language at any time in the past. Similar points of view were shared by Yevhen Tymchenko, Vsevolod Hantsov, Olena Kurylo, Ivan Ohienko, according to this theory, the dialects of East Slavic tribes evolved gradually from the common Proto-Slavic language without any intermediate stages during the 6th through 9th centuries. The Ukrainian language was formed by convergence of tribal dialects, mostly due to a migration of the population within the territory of todays Ukraine in later historical periods. This point of view was supported by George Shevelovs phonological studies. During the 13th century, when German settlers were invited to Ukraine by the princes of Galicia-Vollhynia and their influence would continue under Poland not only through German colonists but also through the Yiddish-speaking Jews. Often such words involve trade or handicrafts, examples of words of German or Yiddish origin spoken in Ukraine include dakh, rura, rynok, kushnir, and majster
27.
Galicia (Eastern Europe)
–
Galicia is a historical and geographic region in Central-Eastern Europe, once a small Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria that straddled the modern-day border between Poland and Ukraine. The area, which is named after the city of Halych, was first mentioned in Hungarian historical chronicles in the year 1206 as Galiciæ. The nucleus of historic Galicia lies within the regions of western Ukraine, Lviv, Ternopil. In the 18th century, territories that became part of the modern Polish regions of Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Subcarpathian Voivodeship. There is considerable overlap between Galicia and south-west Ruthenia, especially a cross-border region that is inhabited by various nationalities, Halych-Volhynia cut a swathe as a mighty principality under the reign of Roman the Great in 1170–1205. After the expulsion of the Hungarians in 1221, Ruthenians took back rule of the area, Romans son Daniel of Galicia was crowned king of Halych-Volhynia. He founded Lviv, named in honour of his son Leo I, the Ukrainian name Halych comes from the Khwalis or Kaliz who occupied the area from the time of the Magyars. They were also called Khalisioi in Greek, and Khvalis in Ukrainian, the Lypytsia culture supposedly replaced the existing Thracian Hallstatt and Vysotske cultures. Others assert that the name has Slavic origins – from halytsa, meaning a naked hill, the jackdaw was used as a charge in the citys coat of arms and later also in the coat of arms of Galicia. The name, however, predates the coat of arms, which may represent canting or simply folk etymology, although the Hungarians were driven out from Halych-Volhynia by 1221, Hungarian kings continued to add Galicia et Lodomeria to their official titles. In 1527, the Habsburgs inherited those titles, together with the Hungarian crown, in 1772, Empress Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary, decided to use those historical claims to justify her participation in the first partition of Poland. In fact, the territories acquired by Austria did not correspond exactly to those of former Halych-Volhynia, Volhynia, including the city of Volodymyr-Volynskyi – after which Lodomeria was named – was taken by Russia, not Austria. On the other hand, much of Lesser Poland – Nowy Sącz and Przemyśl, Zamość, Lublin, the full official name of the new Austrian province was Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria with the Duchies of Auschwitz and Zator. After the incorporation of the Free City of Kraków in 1846, it was extended to Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, each of those entities was formally separate, they were listed as such in the Austrian emperors titles, each had its distinct coat-of-arms and flag. For administrative purposes, however, they formed a single province, the duchies of Auschwitz and Zator were small historical principalities west of Kraków, on the border with Prussian Silesia. Lodomeria, under the name Volhynia, was not ruled by Austria, dale Dwellers, Krakowiacy, Mazury, Grębowiacy, Głuchoniemcy, Bełżanie, Bużanie, Opolanie, Wołyniacy, Pobereżcy or Nistrowianie. During the Great Migration period of Europe, a variety of nomadic groups invaded the area, overall, Slavs came to dominate the Celtic-German population. In the 12th century, a Rurikid Principality of Halych formed there, Galicia and Volhynia had originally been two separate Rurikid principalities, assigned on a rotating basis to younger members of the Kievan dynasty
28.
Volhynia
–
Volhynia or Volyn is a historic region in Central and Eastern Europe straddling Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus. The borders of the region are not clearly defined, while the territory that still carries the name is Volyn Oblast, Volhynia has changed hands numerous times throughout history and been divided among competing powers. Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, it has been part of the independent nation of Ukraine, among important cities are Lutsk, Rivne, Volodymyr-Volynskyi, Iziaslav, Novohrad-Volynskyi. In other versions, the city was located over 20 km to the west of Volodymyr-Volynskyi near the mouth of Huczwa River, before the partitions of Poland, eastern edge stretched a little west along the right-banks of Sluch River or just east of it. Volhynia is located in basins of Western Bug and Prypyat, therefore most of its rivers flow either in northern or western directions, relative to other historical regions, it is northeast of Galicia, east of Lesser Poland, and northwest of Podolia. The borders of the region are not clearly defined, and it is considered to overlap a number of other regions, among which are Polesia. Territories of historical Volhynia are now part of the Volyn, Rivne, major cities include Lutsk, Rivne, Kovel, Volodymyr-Volynskyi, Kremenets, and Starokostiantyniv. Before World War II, many Jewish shtetls, such as Trochenbrod, at one time all of Volhynia was part of the Pale of Settlement designated by Imperial Russia on its southwesternmost border. The land was mentioned in works of the Arabian scholar Al-Masudi who denoted the local tribe as people of Valin, in his work of 947-948 Al-Masudi mentions that Valinians as an intertribal union were ruled by their leader Madjak. In the opinion of Ukrainian historian Yuriy Dyba, the chronicle phrase «и оустави по мьстѣ, и по лузѣ погосты и дань и ѡброкы» reflects the actual route of the Olgas raid against Drevlians further to the west up to the Western Bugs right tributary Luha River. As early as 983, Vladimir the Great appointed his son Vsevolod the ruler of the Volhynian Principality and in 988 established the city of Volodymer. The first records can be traced to the Ruthenian chronicles, such as the Primary Chronicle, which mentions tribes of the Dulebe, Buzhan, volhynias early history coincides with that of the duchies or principalities of Halych and Volhynia. These two successor states of the Kievan Rus formed Halych-Volhynia between the 12th and the 14th centuries, after 1569 Volhynia formed a province of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. During this period many Poles and Jews settled in the area, the Roman and Greek Catholic churches became established in the province. In 1375 was established a Roman Catholic Diocese of Lodomeria but it was suppressed in 1425, many Orthodox churches joined the latter organization in order to benefit from a more attractive legal status. Records of the first agricultural colonies of Mennonites date from 1783, after the Third partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, Volhynia was annexed as the Volhynian Governorate of the Russian Empire. It covered an area of 71,852.7 square kilometers, many Roman Catholic church buildings were also given to the Russian Church, and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lutsk was suppressed on orders of Empress Catherine II. In 1897, the population amounted to 2,989,482 people and it consisted of 73.7 percent East Slavs,13.2 percent Jews,6.2 percent Poles, and 5.7 percent Germans
29.
Leszek the White
–
Leszek the White was Prince of Sandomierz and High Duke of Poland during 1194–1198,1199, 1206–1210 and 1211–1227. Leszek was the third or fourth but eldest surviving son of Casimir II the Just, when Casimir II died on 5 May 1194, Leszek was only nine or ten years old. K. Jasiński, writing in 2001, puts his birthyear in 1184–85, the regency was exercised by his mother Helen, who counted with the help of Mikołaj Gryfita, wojewoda of Kraków and Fulko, Bishop of Kraków. On the side of Leszek and his youngest brother Konrad fought the nobility of Kraków, Sandomierz, an extremely bloody battle took place on 13 September 1195 at Mozgawa near Jędrzejów. In the first phase of the battle was inconclusive and ended with the withdrawal of Mieszko III, the supporters of Leszek and Konrad decided not to organize the persecution and returned to Kraków, because the casualties were great and among the injured was Prince Roman. The withdrawal of Mieszko III the Old during the Battle of Mozgawą allowed Leszek to maintain power during the next years, the formal resignation of Leszek over Kraków took place in 1198, when Mieszko III finally regained power over the Seniorate Province through an agreement with Helen of Znojmo. On behalf of her eldest son, the Dowager Duchess and Regent obtained the recognition of his rights over Lesser Poland and this time, Mieszko III remained in control over Kraków until his death on 13 March 1202. Probably some time earlier Leszek and Konrad, who had reached their majority and began to rule personally, Konrad received Masovia and Kuyavia, while Leszek retained only Sandomierz, probably with the hope to reconquer the Seniorate with the adjacent land of Sieradz-Łęczyca. After the death of Mieszko III, the reinstallment of Leszek was proposed and his former ally Mikołaj Gryfita, fearing the loss of political influence, demanded the dismissal of Leszeks closest collaborator, Goworek. The wojewoda of Sandomierz, ready to step down in order to obtain Kraków for his master, agreed, in view of this impasse, Mikołaj Gryfita invited the youngest and only surviving son of Mieszko III, Władysław III Spindleshanks to be the new ruler of Kraków. It is unknown how long was the rule of Władysław III over Kraków, according to some historians, it ended a few months after the death of his father, in autumn 1202, according to others it lasted until 1206 or even 1210. In any case, after the death of Mikołaj Gryfita, the Kraków nobility invited Leszek to reassume the government, in the early years of his rule, Leszeks policy focused mainly in Kievan Rus. In 1199 he helped Prince Roman of Vladimir-in-Volhynia with troops to reconquer the Principality of Halych and this alliance ended unexpectedly in 1205, when Roman decided to support Władysław III Spindleshanks to recover the Seniorate. In addition, for unknown reasons Roman invaded the domains of Leszek and Konrad, both forces clashed in the Battle of Zawichost, where Roman was defeated and killed. In 1206 Leszek had a meeting with Andrew II at Volhynia, and since then, in 1207, Leszek placed his domains under the vassalage of the Pope, at that point Innocent III. This put Poland clearly in the camp of pro-Papal territories in opposition to the power of the Holy Roman Emperor, after that, Leszek cooperated closely with Archbishop Henry Kietlicz in implementing the reforms of Innocent III. Despite the agreement with the Hungarian King, the conflict continued, shortly after, Romans widow and younger son Vasilko, displeased with the Hungarian rule, decided to escape to Poland, where they found refuge at Leszeks court. During their exile in Poland, they received the land of Belz, a further confirmation of an active policy in Kievan Rus were the marriages of Leszek and Konrad with Rurikid princesses
30.
Novgorod Republic
–
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
31.
Vladimir-Suzdal
–
Vladimir-Suzdal, formally known as the Grand Duchy of Vladimir, was one of the major principalities that succeeded Kievan Rus in the late 12th century, centered in Vladimir-on-Klyazma. With time the principality grew into a duchy divided into several smaller principalities. After being conquered by the Mongol Empire, the principality became a self-governed state headed by its own nobility, a governorship of principality, however, was prescribed by a Khan declaration issued from the Golden Horde to a noble family of any of smaller principalities. Vladimir-Suzdal is traditionally perceived as a cradle of the Great Russian language and nationality, the first notable administrators in the Rostov region presumably were the sons of Vladimir the Great, Boris and Gleb, and later Yaroslav the Wise. The principality occupied a vast territory in the northeast of Kievan Rus, approximately bounded by the Volga, Oka, until the decline of Kievan Rus in the 12th-13th centuries the territory was also commonly called Zalesie, literally depicting a region beyond woodland. Scarce historical information exists for the area during that time, the foundation of the city of Rostov has been lost in the span of time. In the 10th century an eparchy was established in Rostov, one of the first known princes was Yaroslav the Wise and later Boris Vladimirovich. At that time Rostov was the center of the Eastern Orthodox Christianity in the region dominated mostly by shamanism. Until the 11th century Rostov was often associated with the Great Novgorod, evidently the spread of Eastern Orthodox Christianity to the lands of the Great Perm was successfully conducted from Rostov. Rostov was the capital, including other important towns included Suzdal, Yaroslavl. Vladimir Monomakh, son of the Grand Prince of Vsevolod I, during the 11th and 12th centuries when southern parts of Rus were systematically raided by Turkic nomads, their inhabitants began to migrate northward. In the formerly wooded areas, known as Zalesye, many new settlements were established, sometime in 1108 Monomakh strengthened and rebuilt the town of Vladimir on the Klyazma River,31 km south of Suzdal. During the rule of George I the principality gained military strength, later in the 1150s Yuri occupied Kiev a couple of times as well. From that time the lands of the northeastern Rus played an important role in the politics of Kievan Rus, georges son Andrew the Pious significantly increased Vladimirs power at the expense of the nearby princely states, which he treated with contempt. After burning down Kiev, then the seat of Rus, in 1169. For Andrew, his capital of Vladimir was a far greater concern, Prince Andrew was murdered by boyars in his suburban residence at Bogolyubovo in 1174. After a brief interregnum, Andrews brother Vsevolod III secured the throne and he continued most of his brothers policies and once again subjugated Kiev in 1203. After several military campaigns, Ryazan was burnt to the ground, vsevolods death in 1212 precipitated a serious dynastic conflict
32.
Kievan Rus'
–
Kievan Rus was a loose federation of East Slavic tribes in Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century, under the reign of the Rurik dynasty. The modern peoples of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia all claim Kievan Rus as their cultural ancestors, according to Russian historiography the first ruler to start uniting East Slavic lands into what has become known as Kievan Rus was Prince Oleg. He extended his control from Novgorod south along the Dnieper river valley to protect trade from Khazar incursions from the east, Sviatoslav I achieved the first major expansion of Kievan Rus territorial control, fighting a war of conquest against the Khazars. Vladimir the Great introduced Christianity with his own baptism and, by decree, extended it to all inhabitants of Kiev and beyond. Kievan Rus reached its greatest extent under Yaroslav the Wise, his sons assembled and issued its first written legal code, the state declined beginning in the late 11th century and during the 12th century, disintegrating into various rival regional powers. The state finally fell to the Mongol invasion of the 1240s. During its existence, Kievan Rus was known as the land of the Rus, in Greek as Ῥωσία, in Old French as Russie, Rossie, in Latin as Russia, and from the 12th century also Ruthenia. Various etymologies have been proposed, including Ruotsi, the Finnish designation for Sweden, and Ros, the term Kievan Rus was coined in the 19th century in Russian historiography to refer to the period when the centre was in Kiev. Later, the Russian term was rendered into Belarusian and Ukrainian as Кіеўская Русь Kijeŭskaja Rus’ and Ки́ївська Русь Kyivska Rus’, prior to the emergence of Kievan Rus in the 9th century AD, the lands between the Baltic Sea and Black Sea were primarily populated by eastern Slavic tribes. In the northern region around Novgorod were the Ilmen Slavs and neighboring Krivichi, who occupied territories surrounding the headwaters of the West Dvina, Dnieper, to their north, in the Ladoga and Karelia regions, were the Finnic Chud tribe. In the south, in the area around Kiev, were the Poliane, a group of Slavicized tribes with Iranian origins, the Drevliane to the west of the Dnieper, and the Severiane to the east. To their north and east were the Vyatichi, and to their south was forested land settled by Slav farmers, controversy persists over whether the Rus’ were Varangians or Slavs. This uncertainty is due largely to a paucity of contemporary sources, attempts to address this question instead rely on archaeological evidence, the accounts of foreign observers, legends and literature from centuries later. To some extent the controversy is related to the myths of modern states in the region. According to the Normanist view, the Rus were Scandinavians, while Russian and Ukrainian nationalist historians generally argue that the Rus were themselves Slavs. Normanist theories focus on the earliest written source for the East Slavs, nevertheless, archaeological evidence from the area suggests that a Scandinavian population was present during the 10th century at the latest. On balance, it likely that the Rus proper were a small minority of Scandinavians who formed an elite ruling class. Liutprand of Cremona, who was twice an envoy to the Byzantine court, identifies the Russi with the Norse, leo the Deacon, a 10th-century Byzantine historian and chronicler, refers to the Rus as Scythians and notes that they tended to adopt Greek rituals and customs
33.
Mongol invasion of Rus'
–
As part of the Mongol invasion of Europe, the Mongol Empire invaded Kievan Rus in the 13th century, destroying numerous cities, including Ryazan, Kolomna, Moscow, Vladimir, and Kiev. The campaign was heralded by the Battle of the Kalka River in May 1223, a full-scale invasion of Rus by Batu Khan followed, from 1237 to 1240. The invasion was ended by the Mongol succession process upon the death of Ögedei Khan, all Rus principalities were forced to submit to Mongol rule and became part of the Golden Horde empire, some of which lasted until 1480. As it was undergoing fragmentation, Kievan Rus faced the unexpected eruption of a foreign foe coming from the mysterious regions of the Far East. For our sins, writes the Rus chronicler of the time, no one knew their origin or whence they came, or what religion they practiced. That is known only to God, and perhaps to wise men learned in books, the princes of Rus first heard of the coming Mongol warriors from the nomadic Cumans. In response to call, Mstislav the Bold and Mstislav Romanovich the Old joined forces and set out eastward to meet the foe. In the Secret History of the Mongols, the reference to this early battle is, Then he sent Dorbei the Fierce off against the city of Merv. He sent Subetei the Brave off to war in the North where he defeated eleven kingdoms and tribes, crossing the Volga and Ural Rivers, finally going to war with Kiev. The vast Mongol hordes of around 35,000 mounted archers, commanded by Batu Khan and Subutai, crossed the Volga River and it took them a year to extinguish the resistance of the Volga Bulgarians, the Cumans-Kipchaks, and the Alani. In November 1237, Batu Khan sent his envoys to the court of Yuri II of Vladimir, a month later, the hordes besieged Ryazan. After six days of battle, the city was totally annihilated. Alarmed by the news, Yuri II sent his sons to detain the invaders, having burnt down Kolomna and Moscow, the horde laid siege to Vladimir on February 4,1238. Three days later, the capital of Vladimir-Suzdal was taken and burnt to the ground, the royal family perished in the fire, while the grand prince retreated northward. Crossing the Volga, he mustered a new army, which was annihilated by the Mongols in the Battle of the Sit River on March 4. Chinese siege engines were used by the Mongols under Tului to raze the walls of Russian cities, the most difficult to take was the small town of Kozelsk, whose boy-prince Vasily, son of Titus, and inhabitants resisted the Mongols for seven weeks, killing 4,000. As the story goes, at the news of the Mongol approach, the town of Kitezh with all its inhabitants was submerged into a lake. The only major cities to escape destruction were Novgorod and Pskov, the Mongols were advancing on Novgorod but unexpectedly turned back at the site mentioned as Ignach Cross, of which the exact location is not known
34.
Western Europe
–
Western Europe, or West Europe, is the region comprising the western part of Europe. Below, some different geographic and geopolitical definitions of the term are outlined, prior to the Roman conquest, a large part of Western Europe had adopted the newly developed La Tène culture. This cultural and linguistic division was reinforced by the later political east-west division of the Roman Empire. The division between these two was enhanced during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages by a number of events, the Western Roman Empire collapsed, starting the Early Middle Ages. By contrast, the Eastern Roman Empire, mostly known as the Greek or Byzantine Empire, survived, in East Asia, Western Europe was historically known as taixi in China and taisei in Japan, which literally translates as the Far West. The term Far West became synonymous with Western Europe in China during the Ming dynasty, the Italian Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci was one of the first writers in China to use the Far West as an Asian counterpart to the European concept of the Far East. In his writings, Ricci referred to himself as Matteo of the Far West, the term was still in use in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Post-war Europe would be divided into two spheres, the West, influenced by the United States, and the Eastern Bloc. With the onset of the Cold War, Europe was divided by the Iron Curtain, behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Although some countries were neutral, they were classified according to the nature of their political. This division largely defined the popular perception and understanding of Western Europe, the world changed dramatically with the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. The Federal Republic of Germany peacefully absorbed the German Democratic Republic, COMECON and the Warsaw Pact were dissolved, and in 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist. Several countries which had part of the Soviet Union regained full independence. Although the term Western Europe was more prominent during the Cold War, it remains much in use, in 1948 the Treaty of Brussels was signed between Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. It was further revisited in 1954 at the Paris Conference, when the Western European Union was established and it was declared defunct in 2011, after the Treaty of Lisbon, and the Treaty of Brussels was terminated. When the Western European Union was dissolved, it had 10 member countries, six member countries, five observer countries. The CIA divides Western Europe into two smaller subregions, regional voting blocs were formed in 1961 to encourage voting to various UN bodies from different regional groups. The European Union is an economic and political union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe, some Western and Northern European countries of Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein are members of EFTA, though cooperating to varying degree with the European Union
35.
Papal legate
–
A papal legate or Apostolic legate is a personal representative of the pope to foreign nations, or to some part of the Catholic Church. He is empowered on matters of Catholic Faith and for the settlement of ecclesiastical matters, the legate is appointed directly by the pope. The term legation is applied both to a mandate and to the territory concerned. In the High Middle Ages, papal legates were often used to strengthen the links between Rome and the parts of Christendom. More often than not, legates were learned men and skilled diplomats who were not from the country they were accredited to. The Italian-born Guala Bicchieri served as legate to England in the early 13th century. Papal legates often summoned legatine councils, which dealt with church government, during the Middle Ages, a legatine council was the usual means that a papal legate imposed his directives. There are several ranks of papal legates in diplomacy, some of which are no longer used, a nuncio performs the same functions as an ambassador and has the same diplomatic privileges. Under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, to which the Holy See is a party and this highest rank is normally awarded to a priest of cardinal rank. It is an investiture and can either be focused or broad in scope. The legate a latere is the ego of the Pope. The legatus natus would act as the representative in his province. Although limited in their jurisdiction compared to legati a latere, a legatus natus were not subordinate to them, literally sent legate, possessing limited powers for the purpose of completing a specific mission. This commission is normally focused in scope and of short duration, some administrative provinces of the Papal states in Italy were governed by a Papal Legate. This has been the case in Benevento, in Pontecorvo and in Viterbo, in four cases, including Bologna, this post was awarded exclusively to Cardinals, the Velletri post was created for Bartolommeo Pacca. The title could be changed to Apostolic Delegate, as happened in Frosinone in 1827, Papal diplomacy Nuncio – an envoy whose diplomatic status is recognized by the receiving state – usually a titular archbishop. Papal apocrisiarius List of papal legates to England Other Pontifical legate Catholic Encyclopedia, Legate WorldStatesmen - Italy to 1860 - Papal State Maseri, de Legatis et Nunciis Apostolicis Iudiciis Ecclesiasticis Civilibus et Criminalibus Oneribusque Civitatum Cameralibus et Communitativis. Commentatio Canoncia de Legatis et Nuntiis Pontificum, die englische Legation des Cardinals Guido Fulcodi, des spaeteren P. Clemens IV
36.
San (river)
–
The San is a river in southeastern Poland and western Ukraine, a tributary of the Vistula River, with a length of 443 km and a basin area of 16,861 km2. San, in languages, means speed or rapid stream. In Celtic languages, San means river, polands largest artificial lake, Lake Solina, was created by a dam on the San River near Lesko. Historical records first mention the river in 1097 as Sanъ, reku Sanъ, k Sanovi, then as nad Sanomъ, on the old maps of the Ruthenian Voivodeship, Poland 1339–1772, San, San, Szan, Sanok, Saan, Sayn, San, Szan, Schan. Humans had first settled the region of present-day Poland in prehistoric times. In the pre-Roman era various tribes, including the Celts, Goths, after the fall of the Roman Empire, Hungarians and Slavs invaded the area. The San valley must have become an important trade-route and axis of settlement as early as the 9th or 10th century. The region subsequently became part of the Great Moravian state, upon the invasion of the Hungarian tribes into the heart of the Great Moravian Empire around 899, the Lendians of the area declared their allegiance to the Hungarian Empire. The region then became a site of contention between Poland, Kievan Rus and Hungary starting in around the 9th century and this area was mentioned for the first time in 981, when Volodymyr the Great of Kievan Rus took the area over on his way into Poland. In 1018 it returned to Poland, in 1031 reverted to Rus, during the years 966–1018, 1340–1772 and 1918–1939, the region was part of Poland. Between 1772 and 1918 it belonged to the Austrian empire, which became the Austro-Hungarian empire when the monarchy was introduced. This region, including the area west and east of the Subcarpathian Voivodship, was controlled by Austria for almost 120 years, during that time it was known as Galicia. The San River, which saw battles in its history, was a battle site during the start of World War II in Europe
37.
Wieprz
–
The Wieprz is a river in central-eastern Poland, a tributary of the Vistula. It is the ninth longest river, with a total length of 303 km. Its course near the town of Łęczna includes the area known as Wieprz Landscape Park. The river has its sources in Lake Wieprz, near Tomaszow Lubelski, the Wieprz is connected to another river, the Krzna, through the 140-kilometer Wieprz-Krzna Canal, built in 1954 -1961. Because the Wieprz with its valley has not been regulated. The meandering river with its oxbow lakes is inhabited by birds, European otters. During the Polish-Soviet War, units of the Polish 4th Army concentrated along the Wieprz, in September 1939, during the Invasion of Poland, the Battle of Tomaszow Lubelski took place by the Wieprz. Krasnobród Zwierzyniec Szczebrzeszyn Krasnystaw Łęczna Lubartów Dęblin List of rivers in Poland
38.
Southern Bug
–
The Southern Bug, also called Southern Buh, and sometimes Boh River, is a river located in Ukraine. It is the second-longest river in Ukraine and it is 806 kilometres long and drains 63,700 square kilometres. Major cities on the Southern Bug are Khmelnytskyi, Vinnytsia, Pervomaisk, between 1941 and 1944 during World War II the Southern Bug formed the border between the German-occupied Ukraine and the Romanian-occupied part of Ukraine, called Transnistria. Herodotus refers to the river using its ancient Greek name, Hypanis, during the Migration Period of the 5th to the 8th centuries CE the Southern Bug represented a major obstacle to all the migrating peoples in the area. The long-standing local Slavic name of the river, Boh, may derive from a root meaning rich, the famous 17th-century French military engineer and geographer Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan recorded the name of the river as Boh Ruthenian. From the 16th to the 18th centuries most of the Southern Ukraine formed part of the Crimean Khanate and/or of the Ottoman Empire, Bug, a Russian name, became established during the colonial period in Ukraine and known internationally. It was a given by a Russian geologist Vladimir Laskaryev at the beginning of 20th century. On March 6,1918 the Central Council of Ukraine adopted the law For the administrative-territorial division of Ukraine, one of those lands in the upper stream of the river was named Boh land. Previously in the 18th century there had existed the Bohogard phalanx as part of the Zaporizhian Sich centered in the city of Gard, the Varvarivskyi Bridge over Southern Bug in Mykolayiv is a swing bridge with Europes largest span. It is also the southernmost bridge over the river, the river is technically navigable for dozens of kilometers up from its mouth, several riverports exist. In 2011, plans are announced to revitalize commercial freight navigation on the Southern Bug as part of the grain export from Ukraine. They were cancelled because of the crisis following the 2014 Ukrainian revolution. Southern Buh rafting Boh in the Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland Photos of the Southern Buh coasts Southern Buh rafting, photo
39.
Principality of Turov
–
Princes of Turov often served as the Grand Princes of Rus early in 10th-11th centuries. The principalitys capital was Turov and other important cities were Pinsk, Mazyr, Slutsk, Lutsk, Berestia, until the 12th century the principality was very closely associated with the principalities of Kiev and Volhynia. Later for a period time until the Mongol invasion it enjoyed a wide degree of autonomy when it was annexed to the Kingdom of Rus. In the 14th century it became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Ruthenia and Samogitia, the duchy originated mainly from the Dregovich tribe and partially the Drevlyans. While circumstances of its creation are not clearly known, the duchy as mentioned in the Primary Chronicle existed in 980, according to the legend, the town of Turaŭ was founded around 950 by Varangian Prince Tur, a brother of Rogvolod. During the times of Vladimir the Great, the city of Turov, around 988, Vladimir appointed his eight-year-old son, Svyatopolk, to be knyaz of Turov. Later, Vladimir jailed Svyatopolk for plotting to rebel, shortly before Vladimir died, Svyatopolk was freed and, upon Vladimirs death, seized the mantle of Grand Prince of Rus. In a series of three battles during 1016-1018, Yaroslav the Wise overthrew his brother, Svyatopolk, and became Grand Prince of Kievan Rus. About 1042 or 1043, Yaroslav married his eldest son, Izyaslav, to the sister of King Casimir I of Poland and appointed Izyaslav to be knyaz of Turov, in 1054, Izyaslav became Grand Prince of Rus, with a volatile reign. In 1078 after Izyaslavs death, Isyaslavs brother and new Grand Prince, Vsevolod, appointed Izyaslavs eldest son, in 1084, the Rostislavichi, rulers of neighboring Galicia, attempted to seize part of Yaropolks realm, but Yaropolk and Vsevolods son, Vladimir Monomakh, defeated the invaders. Yaropolk revolted briefly against Grand Prince Vsevolod, was reinstated, and was murdered in 1087, the Turov principality was passed to his younger brother Sviatopolk II who administered the land of Novgorod. When Svyatopolk became the Grand Prince of Rus, he passed the principality of Turov to his nephew, later Svyatopolk gave Volodymyr-Volynskyi and Brest to his sons Yaroslav and Mstislav respectively. As the Grand Prince Svyatopolk also tried to conquer the rebellious Rostislvichi who established themselves well in the land of Halych, however, his attempts were rather unsuccessful. In 1100 the principality of Turov was passed to Yaroslav Svyatopolkovich who ruled both lands of Turov and Volhynia, during another conflict between the prince of Turov and the Grand Prince of Rus Yaroslav was eliminated out of his realm in 1118. The land of Turov then was passed to son of Svyatopolk Bryachislav. The 1097 Council of Liubech modified the system such that the Principality became patrimonial land. After the death of Bryachislav Vladimir, Monomakh gave the Turov principality to his Vyacheslav who kept it until the middle of the 12th century, around the 1150s Turov belonged to the descendants of Yuri Dolgoruki Andrei and Boris. Finally in 1162 the principality was passed by Yuri Dolgoruki back to one of the Izyaslavichi Yury Yaroslavich, grandson of Svyatopolk II of Kiev, however, at the same time the duchy became more and more divided between several sons of the duke Yury
40.
Principality of Kiev
–
The Principality of Kiev was a Ruthenian state in the regions of central Ukraine around the city of Kiev that existed after the fragmentation of the Kievan Rus in the early 12th century. Later, Kiev would be bordered by the separated Principality of Turov-Pinsk to the north, the region of the Kievan Rus fragmented in the early 12th century and a number of semi-autonomous successor states arose. Kiev remained the core of the country and was the center of the life with the office of the Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church in Kiev. Following the death of Mstislav I of Kiev in 1132, the states were de facto independent. The importance of the Kievan Principality began to decline, in the years 1150-1180 many of its cities such as Vyshhorod, Kaniv, and Belgorod sought independence as individual principalities. The Mongol invasion of Rus left the Principality of Kiev in a ruined state. Following the invasion, it was now under the suzerainty of the Grand Prince of Vladimir-Suzdal, Alexander Nevsky. After the Battle of Irpen in 1321, Kiev was the object of desire among the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas, Yaroslav II of Vladimir Alexander Nevsky Yaroslav III Yaroslavich Principality was ruled by princes of Olshanski and Olgovichi. Vladimir Ivanovich Stanislav Terence Fyodor Principality was ruled by princes of Olshanski, Vladimir Olgerdovich *Start of Lithuanian Rule* Skirgaila Ivan Borisovich. Olelko Vladimirovich Simeon Alexandrovich *Principality became Kiev Voivodeship*
41.
Kingdom of Hungary
–
The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed from the Middle Ages into the twentieth century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephen I at Esztergom in about the year 1000, by the 12th century, the kingdom became a European middle power within the Western world. The House of Habsburg held the Hungarian throne after the Battle of Mohács until 1918, from 1867 territories connected to the Hungarian crown were incorporated into Austria-Hungary under the name of Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen. The monarchy ended with the deposition of the last king Charles IV in 1918, the kingdom was nominally restored during the Regency of 1920–46, ending with the Soviet occupation in 1946. From 1102 it also included Croatia, being in union with it. Today, the feast day of the first king Stephen I is a holiday in Hungary. The Latin forms Regnum Hungariae or Ungarie, Regnum Marianum, or simply Hungaria, were the used in official documents in Latin from the beginning of the kingdom to the 1840s. The German name Königreich Ungarn was used officially from 1784 to 1790, the Hungarian name was used in the 1840s, and then again from the 1860s to 1946. The non-official Hungarian name of the kingdom was Magyarország, which is still the colloquial, in Austria-Hungary, the unofficial name Transleithania was sometimes used to denote the regions of the Kingdom of Hungary. Officially, the term Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen was included for the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary, the Hungarians led by Árpád settled the Carpathian Basin in 895, established Principality of Hungary. The Hungarians led several successful incursions to Western Europe, until they were stopped by Otto I, the principality was succeeded by the Christian Kingdom of Hungary with the coronation of St Stephen I at Esztergom on Christmas Day 1000. The first kings of the kingdom were from the Árpád dynasty and he fought against Koppány and in 998, with Bavarian help, defeated him near Veszprém. The Catholic Church received powerful support from Stephen I, who with Christian Hungarians, Stephen I of Hungary was canonized as a Catholic saint in 1083 and an Orthodox saint in 2000. After his death, a period of revolts and conflict for supremacy ensued between the royalty and the nobles, in 1051 armies of the Holy Roman Empire tried to conquer Hungary, but they were defeated at Vértes Mountain. The armies of the Holy Roman Empire continued to suffer defeats, before 1052 Peter Orseolo, a supporter of the Holy Roman Empire, was overthrown by king Samuel Aba of Hungary. This period of revolts ended during the reign of Béla I, Hungarian chroniclers praised Béla I for introducing new currency, such as the silver denarius, and for his benevolence to the former followers of his nephew, Solomon. The second greatest Hungarian king, also from the dynasty, was Ladislaus I of Hungary. He was also canonized as a saint, however, kingship over all of Croatia would not be achieved until the reign of his successor Coloman
42.
Principality of Moldova
–
Moldavia is a historical region, and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river. The western half of Moldavia is now part of Romania, the eastern side belongs to the Republic of Moldova, the original and short-lived reference to the region was Bogdania, after Bogdan I, the founding figure of the principality. Dragoș was accompanied by his female hound called Molda, when reached the shores of an unfamiliar river. The dogs name would have given to the river and extended to the country. The old German Molde, meaning open-pit mine the Gothic Mulda meaning dust, dirt, a Slavic etymology, marking the end of one Slavic genitive form, denoting ownership, chiefly of feminine nouns. In several early references, Moldavia is rendered under the composite form Moldo-Wallachia, Ottoman Turkish references to Moldavia included Boğdan Iflak and Boğdan. See also names in other languages, the name of the region in other languages include French, Moldavie, German, Moldau, Hungarian, Moldva, Russian, Молдавия, Moldaviya, Turkish, Boğdan Prensliği, Greek, Μολδαβία. The inhabitants of Moldova were Christians, archaeological works revealed the remains of a Christian necropolis at Mihălășeni, Botoșani county, from the 5th century. The place of worship, and the tombs had Christian characteristics, the place of worship had a rectangular form with sides of 8 and 7 meters. Similar necropolis and place of worship were found at Nicolina, in Iași The Bolohoveni, the chronicle shows that this land is bordered on the principalities of Halych, Volhynia and Kiev. Archaeological research also identified the location of 13th-century fortified settlements in this region, Alexandru V. Boldur identified Voscodavie, Voscodavti, Voloscovti, Volcovti, Volosovca and their other towns and villages between the middle course of the rivers Nistru/Dniester and Nipru/Dnieper. The Bolohoveni disappeared from chronicles after their defeat in 1257 by Daniil Romanovichs troops, in the early 13th century, the Brodniks, a possible Slavic–Vlach vassal state of Halych, were present, alongside the Vlachs, in much of the regions territory. On the border between Halych and the Brodniks, in the 11th century, a Viking by the name of Rodfos was killed in the area by Vlachs who supposedly betrayed him. In 1164, the future Byzantine Emperor Andronikos I Komnenos, was prisoner by Vlach shepherds around the same region. In 1342 and 1345, the Hungarians were victorious in a battle against Tatar-Mongols, the Polish chronicler Jan Długosz mentioned Moldavians as having joined a military expedition in 1342, under King Władysław I, against the Margraviate of Brandenburg. In 1353, Dragoș, mentioned as a Vlach Knyaz in Maramureș, was sent by Louis I to establish a line of defense against the Golden Horde forces of Mongols on the Siret River and this expedition resulted in a polity vassal to Hungary, centered around Baia. His realm extended north to the Cheremosh River, while the part of Moldavia was still occupied by the Tatar Mongols. After first residing in Baia, Bogdan moved Moldavias seat to Siret, disfavored by the brief union of Angevin Poland and Hungary, Bogdans successor Lațcu accepted conversion to Roman Catholicism around 1370, but his gesture was to remain without consequences
43.
State of the Teutonic Order
–
The state was based in Prussia after the Orders conquest of the Pagan Old Prussians which began in 1230. It expanded to include at various times Courland, Gotland, Livonia, Neumark and its territory was in the modern countries of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Russia. Most of the territory was conquered by military orders, after which German colonization occurred to varying effect, the Livonian Brothers of the Sword controlling Terra Mariana were incorporated into the Teutonic Order as its autonomous branch Livonian Order in 1237. In 1346, the Duchy of Estonia was sold by the King of Denmark for 19,000 Köln marks to the Teutonic Order, the shift of sovereignty from Denmark to the Teutonic Order took place on 1 November 1346. Following its defeat in the Battle of Grunwald in 1410 the Teutonic Order fell into decline, the Teutonic lands in Prussia were split in two after the Peace of Thorn in 1466. The western part of Teutonic Prussia was converted into Royal Prussia, the monastic state in the east was secularized in 1525 during the Protestant Reformation as the Duchy of Prussia, a Polish fief governed by the House of Hohenzollern. The Livonian branch continued as part of the Livonian Confederation until its dissolution in 1561, the Old Prussians withstood many attempts at conquest preceding that of the Teutonic Knights. Bolesław I of Poland began the series of unsuccessful conquests when he sent Adalbert of Prague in 997, in 1147, Bolesław IV of Poland attacked Prussia with the aid of Kievan Rus, but was unable to conquer it. Numerous other attempts followed, and, under Duke Konrad I of Masovia, were intensified, the West-Baltic Prussians successfully repelled most of the campaigns and managed to strike Konrad in retaliation. However, the Prussians and Yotvingians in the south had their territory conquered, the land of the Yotvingians was situated in the area of what is today the Podlaskie Voivodeship of Poland. The Prussians attempted to oust Polish or Masovian forces from Yotvingia and Culmerland, Konrad of Masovia had already called a crusade against the Old Prussians in 1208, but it was not successful. Konrad, acting on the advice of Christian, first bishop of Prussia, established the Order of Dobrzyń, the Order, however, was soon defeated and, in reaction, Konrad called on the Pope for yet another crusade and for help from the Teutonic Knights. As a result, several called for crusades against the Old Prussians. The crusades, involving many of Europes knights, lasted for sixty years, in 1211, Andrew II of Hungary enfeoffed the Teutonic Knights with the Burzenland. In 1225, Andrew II expelled the Teutonic Knights from Transylvania, early in 1224, Emperor Frederick II announced at Catania that Livonia, Prussia with Sambia, and a number of neighbouring provinces were under Imperial immediacy. This decree subordinated the provinces directly to the Roman Catholic Church, at the end of 1224, Pope Honorius III announced to all Christendom his appointment of Bishop William of Modena as the Papal Legate for Livonia, Prussia, and other countries. As a result of the Golden Bull of Rimini in 1226, the Knights began the Prussian Crusade in 1230. Under their governance, woodlands were cleared and marshlands made arable, upon which many cities and villages were founded, the cities were heavily fortified, accounting for the long lasting conflicts with the resistive native Old Prussians, with armed forces under command of the knights
Ukraine
Poland
Belarus
Romania
Slovakia
Moldova
