Sister city
Sister cities or twin towns are a form of legal or social agreement between towns, counties, prefectures, regions and countries in geographically and politically distinct areas to promote cultural and commercial ties. The modern concept of town twinning, conceived after the Second World War in 1947, was intended to foster friendship and understanding among different cultures and between former foes as an act of peace and reconciliation, to encourage trade and tourism. By the 2000s, town twinning became used to form strategic international business links among member cities. In the United Kingdom, the term "twin towns" is most used. In mainland Europe, the most used terms are "twin towns", "partnership towns", "partner towns", "friendship towns"; the European Commission uses the term "twinned towns" and refers to the process as "town twinning". Spain uses the term "ciudades hermanadas", which means "sister cities". Germany and the Czech Republic use Partnerstadt / miasto partnerskie / partnerské město, which translate as "partner town or city".
France uses ville jumelée, Italy has gemellaggio and comune gemellato. In the Netherlands, the term is stedenband. In Greece, the word αδελφοποίηση has been adopted. In Iceland, the terms vinabæir and vinaborgir are used. In the former Soviet Bloc, "twin towns" and "twin cities" are used, along with города-побратимы; the Americas, South Asia, Australasia use the term "sister cities" or "twin cities". In China, the term is 友好城市. Sometimes, other government bodies enter into a twinning relationship, such as the agreement between the provinces of Hainan in China and Jeju-do in South Korea; the douzelage is a town twinning association with one town from each of the member states of the European Union. Despite the term being used interchangeably, with the term "friendship city", this may mean a relationship with a more limited scope in comparison to a sister city relationship, friendship city relationships are mayor-to-mayor agreements. In recent years, the term "city diplomacy" has gained increased usage and acceptance as a strand of paradiplomacy and public diplomacy.
It is formally used in the workings of the United Cities and Local Governments and the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and recognised by the USC Center on Public Diplomacy. A March 2014 debate in the British House of Lords acknowledged the evolution of town twinning into city diplomacy around trade and tourism, but in culture and post-conflict reconciliation; the importance of cities developing "their own foreign economic policies on trade, foreign investment and attracting foreign talent" has been highlighted by the World Economic Forum. The earliest known town twinning in Europe was between Paderborn, Le Mans, France, in 836. Starting in 1905, Keighley in West Yorkshire, had a twinning arrangement with French communities Suresnes and Puteaux; the first recorded modern twinning agreement was between Keighley and Poix-du-Nord in Nord, France, in 1920 following the end of the First World War. This was referred to as an adoption of the French town; the practice was continued after the Second World War as a way to promote mutual understanding and cross-border projects of mutual benefit.
For example, Coventry twinned with Stalingrad and with Dresden as an act of peace and reconciliation, all three cities having been bombed during the war. The City of Bath formed an "Alkmaar Adoption committee" in March 1945, when the Dutch city was still occupied by the German Army in the final months of the war, children from each city took part in exchanges in 1945 and 1946. In 1947, Bristol Corporation sent five'leading citizens' on a goodwill mission to Hanover. Reading in 1947 was the first British town to form links with a former "enemy" city – Düsseldorf; the link still exists. Since 9 April 1956 Rome and Paris have been and reciprocally twinned with each other, following the motto: "Only Paris is worthy of Rome; the support scheme was established in 1989. In 2003 an annual budget of about €12 million was allocated to about 1,300 projects; the Council of European Municipalities and Regions works with the Commission to promote modern, high quality twinning initiatives and exchanges that involve all sections of the community.
It has launched a website dedicated to town twinning. As of 1995, the European Union had more than 7,000 bilateral relationships involving 10,000 European municipalities French and German. Public art has been used to celebrate twin town links, for instance in the form of seven mural paintings in the centre of the town of Sutton, Greater London; the five main paintings show a number of the main features of the London Borough of Sutton and its four twin towns, along with the heraldic shield of each above the other images. Each painting features a plant as a visual representation of its town's environmental awareness. In the case of Sutton this is in a separate smaller painting showing a beech tree, intended as a symbol of prosperity and from whi
Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War
The Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War or Great War occurred between 1409 and 1411, pitting the allied Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania against the Teutonic Knights. Inspired by the local Samogitian uprising, the war began by Teutonic invasion of Poland in August 1409; as neither side was ready for a full-scale war, Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia brokered a nine-month truce. After the truce expired in June 1410, the military-religious monks were decisively defeated in the Battle of Grunwald, one of the largest battles in medieval Europe. Most of the Teutonic leadership was taken prisoner. While defeated, the Teutonic Knights withstood the siege on their capital in Marienburg and suffered only minimal territorial losses in the Peace of Thorn. Territorial disputes lasted until the Peace of Melno of 1422. However, the Knights never recovered their former power and the financial burden of war reparations caused internal conflicts and economic decline in their lands; the war shifted the balance of power in Central Europe and marked the rise of the Polish–Lithuanian union as the dominant power in the region.
In 1230, the Teutonic Knights, a crusading military order, moved to the Kulmerland and, upon the request of Konrad I, king of the Masovian Slavs, launched the Prussian Crusade against the pagan Prussian clans. With support from the Pope and Holy Roman Emperor, the Teutons conquered and converted the Prussians by the 1280s and shifted their attention to the pagan Grand Duchy of Lithuania. For about a hundred years the Knights fought the Lithuanian Crusade raiding the Lithuanian lands Samogitia as it separated the Knights in Prussia from their branch in Livonia; the border regions became uninhabited wilderness, but the Knights gained little territory. The Lithuanians first gave up Samogitia during the Lithuanian Civil War in the Treaty of Dubysa; the territory was used as a bargaining chip to ensure Teutonic support for one of the sides in the internal power struggle. In 1385, Grand Duke Jogaila of Lithuania proposed to marry reigning Queen Jadwiga of Poland in the Union of Kreva. Jogaila converted to Christianity and was crowned as the King of Poland thus creating a personal union between the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
The official Lithuanian conversion to Christianity removed the religious rationale for the Order's activities in the area. However the Knights responded by publicly contesting the sincerity of Jogaila's conversion, bringing the charge to a papal court; the territorial disputes continued over Samogitia, in Teutonic hands since the Peace of Raciąż of 1404. Poland had territorial claims against the Knights in Dobrzyń Land and Danzig, but the two states were at peace since the Treaty of Kalisz; the conflict was motivated by trade considerations: the Knights controlled lower reaches of the three largest rivers in Poland and Lithuania. In May 1409, an uprising in Teutonic-held Samogitia started. Lithuania supported the Knights threatened to invade. Poland threatened to invade Prussia in return; as Prussian troops evacuated Samogitia, the Teutonic Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen declared war on the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania on 6 August 1409. The Knights hoped to defeat Poland and Lithuania separately and began by invading Greater Poland and Kuyavia, catching the Poles by surprise.
The Knights burned the castle at Dobrin, captured Bobrowniki after a fourteen-day siege, conquered Bydgoszcz, sacked several towns. The Poles recaptured Bydgoszcz; the Samogitians attacked Memel. However, neither side was ready for a full-scale war. Wenceslaus, King of the Romans, agreed to mediate the dispute. A truce was signed on 8 October 1409. Both sides used this time for preparations for the battle, gathering the troops and engaging in diplomatic maneuvers. Both sides sent letters and envoys accusing each other of various wrongdoings and threats to Christendom. Wenceslaus, who received a gift of 60,000 florins from the Knights, declared that Samogitia rightfully belonged to the Knights and only Dobrzyń Land should be returned to Poland; the Knights paid 300,000 ducats to Sigismund of Hungary, who had ambitions for the principality of Moldova, for his military assistance. Sigismund attempted to break the Polish–Lithuanian alliance by offering Vytautas a king's crown. At the same time Vytautas managed to obtain a truce from the Livonian Order.
By December 1409, Jogaila and Vytautas had agreed on a common strategy: their armies would unite into a single massive force and march together towards Marienburg, capital of the Teutonic Knights. The Knights, who took a defensive position, did not expect a joint attack and were preparing for a dual invasion – by the Poles along the Vistula River towards Danzig and by the Lithuanians along the Neman River towards Ragnit. To counter this perceived threat, Ulrich von Jungingen concentrated his forces in Schwetz, a central location from where troops could respond to an invasion from any direction rather quickly. To keep the plans secret and misguide the Knights and Vytautas organised several raids into border territories, thus forcing the Knights to keep their troops in place; the first stage of the Grunwald campaign was gathering all Polish–Lithuanian troops at Czerwinsk, a designated meeting point about 80 km from the Prussian border, where the joint army crossed the Vist
Sigismund I the Old
Sigismund I of Poland, of the Jagiellon dynasty, reigned as King of Poland and as the Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1506 until 1548. Earlier, Sigismund had been invested as Duke of Silesia. A successful monarch and a great patron of arts, he established Polish suzerainty over Ducal Prussia and incorporated the duchy of Mazovia into the Polish state, securing the nation's wealth and power. Sigismund I, the fifth son of Casimir IV and Elisabeth of Habsburg, had ruled Głogów, since 1499 and became margrave of Lusatia and governor of all Silesia in 1504. In a short time his judicial and administrative reforms transformed those territories into model states, he succeeded his brother Alexander I as grand prince of Lithuania and king of Poland in 1506. Although he established fiscal and monetary reforms, he clashed with the Polish Diet over extensions of royal power. At the Diet’s demand he married Barbara, daughter of Prince Stephen Zápolya of Hungary, in 1512, to secure a defense treaty and produce an heir.
She died three years however, leaving only daughters. In 1518 Sigismund married the niece of the Holy Roman emperor Maximilian, Bona Sforza of Milan, by whom he had one son, Sigismund II Augustus, four daughters, his daughter Catherine married John III of Sweden, from whom the Vasa kings of Poland were descended. In 1521 Sigismund made peace with his nephew Albert, Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, a paramilitary religious order that ruled East Prussia. Albert became a Lutheran and converted the Teutonic state to Protestantism in 1525, defecting from both the Papacy and Holy Roman Emperor and agreeing to do public homage to Sigismund in return for being granted the title of secular duke of Prussia and Ducal Prussia coming under Polish suzerainty. Sigismund added the Duchy of Masovia to the Polish state in 1529, after the death of Janusz III, the last of its Piast dynasty rulers. Under the command of Jan Tarnowski, Sigismund’s army defeated the invading forces of Moldavia at Obertyn in 1531 and of Muscovy in 1535, thereby safeguarding Poland’s eastern borders.
Sigismund, influenced by his wife, brought Italian artists to Kraków and promoted the development of the Polish variety of the Italian Renaissance. Although a devout Catholic, he accorded religious toleration to Greek Orthodox Christians and royal protection to Jews. At first he vigorously opposed Lutheranism but resigned himself to its growing power in Poland. Sigismund I was a member of the Order of the Golden Fleece; the son of King Casimir IV Jagiellon and Elisabeth of Austria, Sigismund followed his brothers John Albert and Alexander to the Polish throne. Their eldest brother Vladislaus became king of Bohemia and Croatia. Sigismund was christened as the namesake of his Habsburg maternal great-grandfather, Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund. After his father's death, Sigismund was the only son. In the years 1495–1496, he addressed his older brother, the Lithuanian Grand Duke Alexander, demanded the separation of a domain from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, but was refused. Queen Dowager Elisabeth Habsburg tried without success to ensure the succession of her son to the throne of Austria.
And the disastrous and unsuccessful invasion of Bukovina led by his older brother King John I Albert dispelled the plans for placing Sigismund on the Moldavian throne. Sigismund came under the care of his eldest brother Vladislaus II, King of Bohemia and Hungary, from whom he received the duchies of Głogów and Opava, in 1504 became governor of Silesia and Lower Lusatia. After the death of King Alexander I, Sigismund arrived in Vilnius, where he was elected by the Lithuanian Ducal Council on 13 September 1506 as Grand Duke of Lithuania, contrary to the Union of Mielnik, which proposed a joint Polish-Lithuanian election of a monarch. On 8 December 1506, during the session of the Polish Senate in Piotrków, Sigismund was elected King of Poland, he arrived in Kraków on 20 January 1507 and was crowned four days in Wawel Cathedral by Primate Andrzej Boryszewski. The internal situation in Poland was characterised by broad authorisation of the Chamber of Deputies and extended in the constitution of Nihil novi.
During Alexander's reign, the law of Nihil novi had been instituted, which forbade kings of Poland from enacting laws without the consent of the Sejm. Sigismund had little control over the act, unlike the senators, whom he appointed. During his reign, Sigismund benefited from the advice of the local nobility, competent ministers in charge of the royal judiciary system, the wealthy and influential treasurers of Kraków. Although he was reluctant to the parliamentary system and political independence of the nobility, he recognised the authority of legal norms, supported legalism and summoned annual sessions of the Sejm obtaining funds on state defence; however he was unsuccessful at attempting to create a permanent fund for defence from the annual income tax. Despite this "Achilles heel", in 1527 he established a conscript army and the bureaucracy needed to finance it, he set up the legal codes that formalised serfdom in Poland, locking the peasants into the estates of nobles. Related to tax matters was an unsuccessful attempt on the life of the king, made on 5 May 1523.
The identity of the would-be assassin - who shot the ruler while he was strolling in the evening around the cloisters of the Wawel castle - and his potential supporters was never established. Unclear motives remained after the assassination attempt; the only clue was the fact that three weeks before the event, Sigismund I introduced a new edict, unfav
Ukraine
Ukraine, sometimes called the Ukraine, is a country in Eastern Europe. Excluding Crimea, Ukraine has a population of about 42.5 million, making it the 32nd most populous country in the world. Its capital and largest city is Kiev. Ukrainian is the official language and its alphabet is Cyrillic; the dominant religions in the country are Greek Catholicism. Ukraine is in a territorial dispute with Russia over the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014. Including Crimea, Ukraine has an area of 603,628 km2, making it the largest country within Europe and the 46th largest 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 and divided by a variety of powers, including Lithuania, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Russia. A Cossack republic emerged and prospered during the 17th and 18th centuries, but its territory was split between Poland and the Russian Empire, merged into the Russian-dominated Soviet Union in the late 1940s as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
In 1991 Ukraine gained its independence from the Soviet Union in the aftermath of its dissolution at the end of the Cold War. Before its independence, Ukraine was referred to in English as "The Ukraine", but most sources have since moved to drop "the" from the name of Ukraine in all uses. Following its independence, Ukraine declared itself a neutral state. In 2013, after the government of President Viktor Yanukovych had decided to suspend the Ukraine-European Union Association Agreement and seek closer economic ties with Russia, a several-months-long wave of demonstrations and protests known as the Euromaidan began, which escalated into the 2014 Ukrainian revolution that led to the overthrow of Yanukovych and the establishment of a new government; these events formed the background for the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014, the War in Donbass in April 2014. On 1 January 2016, Ukraine applied the economic component of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area with the European Union.
Ukraine is ranks 88th on the Human Development Index. As of 2018, Ukraine has the second lowest GDP per capita in Europe. At US$40, it has the lowest median wealth per adult in the world, it suffers from a high poverty rate and severe corruption. However, because of its extensive fertile farmlands, Ukraine is one of the world's largest grain exporters. Ukraine maintains the second-largest military in Europe after that of Russia; the country is home to a multi-ethnic population, 77.8 percent of whom are Ukrainians, followed by a large Russian minority, as well as Georgians, Belarusians, Crimean Tatars, Jews and Hungarians. Ukraine is a unitary republic under a semi-presidential system with separate powers: legislative and judicial branches; the country is a member of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the OSCE, the GUAM organization, one of the founding states of the Commonwealth of Independent States. There are different hypotheses as to the etymology of the name Ukraine. According to the older widespread hypothesis, it means "borderland", while some more recent linguistic studies claim a different meaning: "homeland" or "region, country"."The Ukraine" used to be the usual form in English, but since the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, "the Ukraine" has become less common in the English-speaking world, style-guides recommend not using the definite article.
"The Ukraine" now implies disregard for the country's sovereignty, according to U. S. ambassador William Taylor. The Ukrainian position is that the usage of "'The Ukraine' is incorrect both grammatically and politically." Neanderthal settlement in Ukraine is seen in the Molodova archaeological sites which include a mammoth bone dwelling. The territory is considered to be the location for the human domestication of the horse. Modern human settlement in Ukraine and its vicinity dates back to 32,000 BC, with evidence of the Gravettian culture in the Crimean Mountains. By 4,500 BC, the Neolithic Cucuteni–Trypillia culture flourished in wide areas of modern Ukraine including Trypillia and the entire Dnieper-Dniester region. During the Iron Age, the land was inhabited by Cimmerians and Sarmatians. Between 700 BC and 200 BC it was Scythia. Beginning in the sixth century BC, colonies of Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome and the Byzantine Empire, such as Tyras and Chersonesus, were founded on the northeastern shore of the Black Sea.
These colonies thrived well into the 6th century AD. The Goths stayed in the area but came under the sway of the Huns from the 370s AD. In the 7th century AD, the territory of eastern Ukraine was the centre of Old Great Bulgaria. At the end of the century, the majority of Bulgar tribes migrated in different directions, the Khazars took over much of the land. In the 5th and 6th centuries, the Antes were located in the territory of; the Antes were the ancestors of Ukrainians: White Croats, Polans, Dulebes and Tiverians. Migrations from Ukraine throughout the Balkans established many Southern Slavic nations. Northern migrations, reaching to the Ilmen l
Invasion of Poland
The Invasion of Poland, known in Poland as the September Campaign or the 1939 Defensive War, in Germany as the Poland Campaign, was an invasion of Poland by Germany that marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week after the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between Germany and the Soviet Union; the Soviets invaded Poland on 17 September following the Molotov–Tōgō agreement that terminated the Soviet and Japanese Battles of Khalkhin Gol in the east on 16 September. The campaign ended on 6 October with Germany and the Soviet Union dividing and annexing the whole of Poland under the terms of the German–Soviet Frontier Treaty. German forces invaded Poland from the north and west the morning after the Gleiwitz incident. Slovak military forces advanced alongside the Germans in northern Slovakia; as the Wehrmacht advanced, Polish forces withdrew from their forward bases of operation close to the Polish–German border to more established defense lines to the east.
After the mid-September Polish defeat in the Battle of the Bzura, the Germans gained an undisputed advantage. Polish forces withdrew to the southeast where they prepared for a long defence of the Romanian Bridgehead and awaited expected support and relief from France and the United Kingdom. While those two countries had pacts with Poland and had declared war on Germany on 3 September, in the end their aid to Poland was limited. On 17 September, the Soviet Red Army invaded Eastern Poland, the territory that fell into the Soviet "sphere of influence" according to the secret protocol of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Facing a second front, the Polish government concluded the defence of the Romanian Bridgehead was no longer feasible and ordered an emergency evacuation of all troops to neutral Romania. On 6 October, following the Polish defeat at the Battle of Kock and Soviet forces gained full control over Poland; the success of the invasion marked the end of the Second Polish Republic, though Poland never formally surrendered.
On 8 October, after an initial period of military administration, Germany directly annexed western Poland and the former Free City of Danzig and placed the remaining block of territory under the administration of the newly established General Government. The Soviet Union incorporated its newly acquired areas into its constituent Belarusian and Ukrainian republics, started a campaign of Sovietization. In the aftermath of the invasion, a collective of underground resistance organizations formed the Polish Underground State within the territory of the former Polish state. Many of the military exiles that managed to escape Poland subsequently joined the Polish Armed Forces in the West, an armed force loyal to the Polish government-in-exile. On 30 January 1933, the National Socialist German Workers' Party, under its leader Adolf Hitler, came to power in Germany. While the Weimar Republic had long sought to annex territories belonging to Poland, it was Hitler's own idea and not a realization of Weimar plans to invade and partition Poland, annex Bohemia and Austria, create satellite or puppet states economically subordinate to Germany.
As part of this long-term policy, Hitler at first pursued a policy of rapprochement with Poland, trying to improve opinion in Germany, culminating in the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact of 1934. Earlier, Hitler's foreign policy worked to weaken ties between Poland and France, attempted to manoeuvre Poland into the Anti-Comintern Pact, forming a cooperative front against the Soviet Union. Poland would be granted territory to its northeast in Ukraine and Belarus if it agreed to wage war against the Soviet Union, but the concessions the Poles were expected to make meant that their homeland would become dependent on Germany, functioning as little more than a client state; the Poles feared that their independence would be threatened altogether. How can they demand the rights of independent states?"The population of the Free City of Danzig was in favour of annexation by Germany, as were many of the ethnic German inhabitants of the Polish territory that separated the German exclave of East Prussia from the rest of the Reich.
The so-called Polish Corridor constituted land long disputed by Poland and Germany, inhabited by a Polish majority. The Corridor had become a part of Poland after the Treaty of Versailles. Many Germans wanted the urban port city of Danzig and its environs to be reincorporated into Germany. Danzig city had a German majority, had been separated from Germany after Versailles and made into the nominally independent Free City. Hitler sought to use this as casus belli, a reason for war, reverse the post-1918 territorial losses, on many occasions had appealed to German nationalism, promising to "liberate" the German minority still in the Corridor, as well as Danzig; the invasion was referred to by Germany as the 1939 Defensive War since Hitler proclaimed that Poland had attacked Germany and that "Germans in Poland are persecuted with a bloody terror and are driven from their homes. The series of border violations, which are unbearable to a great power, prove that the Poles no longer are willing to respect the German frontier."Poland participated with Germany in the partition of Czechoslovakia that followed the Munich Agreement, although they were not part of the agreement.
It coerced Czechoslovakia to surrender the region of Český Těšín by issuing an ultimatum to that effect
Hasidic Judaism
Hasidism, sometimes Hasidic Judaism, is a Jewish religious group. It arose as a spiritual revival movement in contemporary Western Ukraine during the 18th century, spread throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most affiliates reside in the United States. Israel Ben Eliezer, the "Baal Shem Tov", is regarded as its founding father, his disciples developed and disseminated it. Present-day Hasidism is a sub-group within Ultra-Orthodox Judaism, is noted for its religious conservatism and social seclusion, its members adhere both to Orthodox Jewish practice – with the movement's own unique emphases – and the traditions of Eastern European Jews, so much so that many of the latter, including various special styles of dress and the use of the Yiddish language, are nowadays associated exclusively with Hasidism. Hasidic thought draws on Lurianic Kabbalah, and, to an extent, is a popularization of it. Teachings emphasize God's immanence in the universe, the need to cleave and be one with him at all times, the devotional aspect of religious practice, the spiritual dimension of corporeality and mundane acts.
Hasidim, the adherents of Hasidism, are organized in independent sects known as "courts" or dynasties, each headed by its own hereditary leader, a Rebbe. Reverence and submission to the Rebbe are key tenets, as he is considered a spiritual authority with whom the follower must bond to gain closeness to God; the various "courts" share basic convictions, but operate apart, possess unique traits and customs. Affiliation is retained in families for generations, being Hasidic is as much a sociological factor – entailing, as it does, birth into a specific community and allegiance to a dynasty of Rebbes – as it is a purely religious one. There are several "courts" with many thousands of member households each, hundreds of smaller ones; as of 2016, there were over 130,000 Hasidic households worldwide, about 5% of the global Jewish population. The terms hasid and hasidut, meaning "pietist" and "piety", have a long history in Judaism; the Talmud and other old sources refer to the "Pietists of Old" who would contemplate an entire hour in preparation for prayer.
The phrase denoted devoted individuals who not only observed the Law to its letter, but performed good deeds beyond it. Adam himself is honored with the title in tractate Eruvin 18b by Rabbi Meir: "Adam was a great hasid, having fasted for 130 years." The first to adopt the epithet collectively were the hasidim in Second Temple period Judea, known as Hasideans after the Greek rendering of their name, who served as the model for those mentioned in the Talmud. The title continued to be applied as an honorific for the exceptionally devout. In 12th-century Rhineland, or Ashkenaz in Jewish parlance, another prominent school of ascetics named themselves hasidim. In the 16th century, when Kabbalah spread, the title became associated with it. Jacob ben Hayyim Zemah wrote in his glossa on Isaac Luria's version of the Shulchan Aruch that, "One who wishes to tap the hidden wisdom, must conduct himself in the manner of the Pious." The movement founded by Israel Ben Eliezer in the 18th century adopted the term hasidim in the original connotation.
But when the sect grew and developed specific attributes, from the 1770s, the names acquired a new meaning. Its common adherents, belonging to groups each headed by a spiritual leader, were henceforth known as Hasidim; the transformation was slow: The movement was at first referred to as "New Hasidism" by outsiders to separate it from the old one, its enemies derisively mocked its members as Mithasdim, " pretend hasidim". Yet the young sect gained such a mass following that the old connotation was sidelined. In popular discourse, at least, Hasid came to denote someone who follows a religious teacher from the movement, it entered Modern Hebrew as such, meaning "adherent" or "disciple". One was not a hasid anymore, observed historian David Assaf, but a Hasid of someone or some dynasty in particular; this linguistic transformation paralleled that of the word tzaddik, "righteous", which the Hasidic leaders adopted for themselves – though they are known colloquially as Rebbes or by the honorific Admor.
Denoting an observant, moral person, in Hasidic literature tzaddik became synonymous with the hereditary master heading a sect of followers. The lengthy history of Hasidism, the numerous schools of thought therein, its use of the traditional medium of homiletic literature and sermons – comprising numerous references to earlier sources in the Pentateuch and exegesis as a means to grounding oneself in tradition – as the sole channel to convey its ideas, all made the isolation of a common doctrine challenging to researchers; as noted by Joseph Dan, "Every attempt to present such a body of ideas has failed". Motifs presented by scholars in the past as unique Hasidic contributions were revealed to have been common among both their predecessors and opponents, all the more so regarding many other traits that are extant – these play, Dan added, "a prominent role in modern non-Hasidic and anti-Hasidic writings as well"; the difficulty of separating the movement's philosophy from that of its main inspiration, Lurianic Kabbalah, determining what was novel and what a recapitulation baffled historians.
Some, like Louis Jacobs, regarded the early masters as innovators who introduced "much, new if only by emphasis".
Władysław I the Elbow-high
Władysław I the Elbow-high or the Short was the King of Poland from 1320 to 1333, duke of several of the provinces and principalities in the preceding years. He was a member of the Piast family of rulers, son of Duke Casimir I of Kujawy, great-grandson of King Casimir II the Just, he inherited a small portion of his father’s lands, but his dominion grew as some of his brothers died young. He tried for rule of the Duchy of Krakow in 1289, after the death of his half brother Leszek II the Black and the withdrawal from contention of his ally Bolesław II of Masovia, but was unsuccessful. After a period in exile during the rule of Wenceslas II, Władysław rebounded to re-assume some duchies after Wenceslas’ death, gained Krakow in 1306 after the murder of Wenceslas III, he temporarily took control of part of Greater Poland after the death of his ally Przemysł II, lost it, regained it on. He conquered Gdansk Pomerania, left it to familial governors. For defense of this territory he turned to the Teutonic Knights, who demanded an exorbitant sum or the land itself as an alternative.
This led to an extended battle with the Knights, not resolved after either a papal trial or Władysław’s own death. His greatest achievement was gaining papal permission to be crowned King of Poland in 1320, which occurred for the first time at Wawel Cathedral in Krakow. Władysław died in 1333, his reign was followed by the rule of his more renowned son, Casimir III the Great. In 1138, the Kingdom of Poland, growing in strength under the rule of the Piast dynasty, encountered an obstacle which impeded its development for nearly two hundred years. In the will of King Bolesław III Wrymouth, Poland was divided into five provinces: Silesia, Mazovia with eastern Kuyavia, Greater Poland, the Sandomierz Region, the Seniorate Province; the Seniorate Province comprised Kraków and western Lesser Poland, eastern Greater Poland including Gniezno and Kalisz, western Kuyavia, Łęczyca and Sieradz, with Pomerelia as a fiefdom. To prevent his four sons from quarreling, Bolesław granted one province to each of them, while the Seniorate Province was to be given to the eldest brother on the grounds of primogeniture.
This decision was meant to prevent the disintegration of the kingdom. However, it proved inadequate, began nearly two centuries of what it had sought to counteract – constant fighting and disorder. Władysław I succeeded in re-uniting most of these lands back into the kingdom of Poland. Władysław the Elbow-high was the oldest son of Casimir I of Kujawy and his third wife Eufrozyna of Opole, he was third in seniority to be Duke of Kujawy, however, as he had two older half-brothers from Casimir’s second marriage to Constance of Wrocław: Leszek II the Black and Ziemomysł. He was named after his uncle, his mother's brother Duke of Opole. In contemporary sources he was nicknamed "Łokietek", a diminutive of the word łokieć, it translates as "elbow" or "ell" – a medieval unit of measure similar to a cubit, as in "elbow-high". The origin of this nickname, as resulting from Władysław’s short stature, was explained only in the 15th century by historian Jan Dlugosz. In 1267, when Władysław the Elbow-high was seven years old, his father Casimir died.
At this time, Leszek II the Black inherited Łęczyca, Ziemomysł gained Inowrocław, Brześć Kujawski and Dobrzyń were held in regency by Eufrozyna on behalf of Władysław and his younger brothers Casimir II and Siemowit. After the death of his father, Władysław was sent to Krakow to the court of his relative, Bolesław V the Chaste. In 1273 Władysław participated in the arbitration by Bolesław the Pious, duke of Greater Poland, to reconcile him and his mother Eufrozyna with the Teutonic Knights. Władysław took responsibility for governing these territories in 1275, but they were held in a "niedzial" with his two younger brothers. In October 1277, lands destined for his younger brother Casimir II were invaded by Lithuanians, after the abduction of prisoners and seizure of loot returned home; this was a result of being the proteges of Bolesław V the Chaste, who at this time was in the opposite political camp from Konrad II, Duke of Mazovia, through whose land the Lithuanian invasion passed. Two years in 1279, Władysław the Elbow-high was considered to be one of the contenders to succeed in Lesser Poland after the death of Bolesław V the Chaste, according to the Hypatian Codex.
However the nobility abided by Boleslaw’s will, which had designated Władysław’s elder half-brother Leszek II the Black as his heir. After Leszek II the Black’s acquisition of power in Krakow and Sandomierz in 1279, Władysław, along with his younger brothers, recognized Leszek’s sovereignty; this resulted in, among other things, the adoption of a coat of arms by all of the sons of Casimir I Kujawski: half-lion, half-eagle, afterwards Władysław always served as an ally to his older half-brother. In 1280, Władysław militarily helped Leszek’s ally, the Mazovian Prince Bolesław II, in a battle with Bolesław's brother, Konrad II, during the expedition won the castle of Jazdów, it is possible that at a meeting between Leszek II the Black and Przemysł II, Duke of Greater Poland, in Sieradz in February 1284, the marriage of Władysław to Jadwiga, a cousin of Przemysł, was discussed. The following year, in August, Władysław was present, along with Przemysl II and Ziemomysł of Kujawy, w
Poland
listen); Yiddish: קאזשניץ Kozhnits; German: Koschnitz[1]) is a town in central Poland with 21,500 inhabitants (1995). Located four miles from the Vistula, it is the capital of Kozienice County (Polish Powiat kozienicki); the name of the town first appeared in records in 1429, when it was spelled in Latin Coszinicze (Kozinice). In 1569 it was called Kozienycze – the name comes from the given name Kozina.
Göllheim, Germany (1996)
Chuhuiv, Ukraine (2001)
Medzilaborce, Slovakia (2005)
