1.
Republics of Russia
–
According to the Constitution, the Russian Federation is divided into 85 federal subjects,22 of which are republics. Most of the republics represent areas of ethnicity, although there are several republics with Russian majority. The indigenous ethnic group of a republic that gives it its name is referred to as the titular nationality, due to decades of internal migration inside Russia, each nationality is not necessarily a majority of a republics population. Republics differ from other subjects of Russia in that they have the right to establish their own official language and have their own constitution. Other federal subjects, such as krais and oblasts, are not explicitly given this right, the level of actual autonomy granted to such political units varies but is generally quite extensive. The parliamentary assemblies of such republics have often enacted laws which are at odds with the federal constitution, the republics executives tend to be very powerful. However, this autonomy was lessened considerably under Russian President Vladimir Putin, in addition, Putin strengthened the position of the republics legislatures, while weakening their executives power. The Presidents nomination must be accepted by the republics parliament, there are secessionist movements in most republics, but these are generally not very strong. However, there was support for secession among Tatars, Bashkirs, Yakuts. On March 18,2014, the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol were joined by treaty to the Russian Federation, much of the international community and the Ukrainian government do not recognize Crimeas accession to Russia and consider Crimea an integral part of Ukraine. After the dissolution of the USSR, each republic was succeeded by a republic with a similar name. Several autonomous oblasts have become republics as well, the expression autonomous republic is still sometimes used for the republics of Russia
Republics of Russia
–
1.
Adygea 2.
Altai 3.
Bashkortostan 4.
Buryatia 5.
Dagestan 6.
Ingushetia 7.
Kabardino-Balkaria 8.
Kalmykia
2.
Flag of the Mari El Republic
–
The flag of Mari El, a federal subject and republic in the Russian Federation, was adopted by the Parliament of Mari El on 30 November 2006. The Flag of Mari El is a cloth with a width to length ratio of 2,3. In the white stripe a dark red Mari cross is placed, within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the flag adorned the Russian SFSR flag with the republics name on the bottom. From 1992 to 2006, Mari El used a different flag and this flag had the horizontal bars in the ration 1,2,1, and below the Mari cross the republics name was written. Flags of the World, Flags of Mari El
Flag of the Mari El Republic
–
Flag of
Mari El
3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
–
Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
4.
Russia
–
Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
Russia
–
Kievan Rus' in the 11th century
Russia
–
Flag
Russia
–
The
Baptism of Kievans, by
Klavdy Lebedev
Russia
–
Sergius of Radonezh blessing
Dmitry Donskoy in
Trinity Sergius Lavra, before the
Battle of Kulikovo, depicted in a painting by
Ernst Lissner
5.
Federal districts of Russia
–
The federal districts are groupings of the federal subjects of Russia. Plenipotentiary Representatives are appointed by the President and are employees of the Presidential Administration, source, President Vladimir Putin established seven federal districts in May 2000. On January 19,2010 the new North Caucasian Federal District split from the Southern Federal District, on March 2014, after the Russian military intervention in and annexation of Crimea, the Crimean Federal District was established. The legality of this annexation is disputed by most states as well as NATO, on July 28,2016 the Crimean Federal District was abolished and merged into the Southern Federal District in order to improve the governance
Federal districts of Russia
–
This article is about the grouping of regions by a Presidential Decree. For the federal constituent units, see
federal subjects of Russia.
6.
Volga Federal District
–
Volga Federal District is one of the eight federal districts of Russia. It forms the part of European Russia. Its population was 29,899,699 according to the 2010 Census, Mikhail Babich was appointed the federal districts Presidential Envoy on December 15,2011. The district comprises the Volga, Volga-Vyatka and Urals economic regions and fourteen federal subjects, Sergey Kiriyenko Alexander Konovalov Grigory Rapota Mikhail Babich
Volga Federal District
–
Location of Volga Federal District within Russia
7.
Economic regions of Russia
–
No federal subject can belong to more than one economic region. Economic regions are grouped into economic zones. An economic region or its parts can belong to more than one economic zone, establishment and abolition of economic regions and economic zones or any changes in their composition are decided upon by the federal government of Russia. The following is the list and composition of the economic regions, sorted by population
Economic regions of Russia
–
History
Economic regions of Russia
–
Central economic region
Economic regions of Russia
Economic regions of Russia
8.
Yoshkar-Ola
–
Yoshkar-Ola is the capital city of the Mari El Republic, Russia. Its population is about a quarter million, Yoshkar-Ola means red city in Mari and was formerly known as Tsaryovokokshaysk before 1919, as Krasnokokshaysk between 1919 and 1927 and Charla. Yoshkar-Ola was established as a fortress in 1584, following the Russian conquest of the Mari region. Yoshkar-Ola means red city in Mari, the current name is the third to have been given to the city. The city was known as Tsaryovokokshaysk before 1919 and as Krasnokokshaysk between 1919 and 1927 and these names were derived from the name of the Malaya Kokshaga River, which runs through the city. The citys old Mari name was Charla, Yoshkar-Ola was established as a military fortress in 1584, following the Russian conquest of the Mari region. During the Soviet era, especially after World War II, the city was an industrial and transport center. The collapse of the Soviet Union removed support for state enterprises, much of the citys economic activity was supported by shuttle traders who would transport goods from the bustling markets of Moscow to Yoshkar-Olas bazaars. The sharp decline in living standards led to the emigration of specialized professionals to larger cities in Russia, Yoshkar-Ola is the capital of the republic. As a municipal division, the city of republic significance of Yoshkar-Ola is incorporated as Yoshkar-Ola Urban Okrug, Yoshkar-Ola is linked to other cities and regions in Russia by a series of train and bus routes. The local train station is served by a daily train to and from the capital Moscow with other short-service trains running to. Moscow and various nearby towns and regions can also be reached by buses departing from the local bus station. The Yoshkar-Ola Airport is also located 9 km north of the city and it is planned to expand the range of destinations in the near future. Destinations within the city limits can be reached through a network of buses, trolleys, there are currently seven different bus routes, eleven different trolley routes, and seventeen marshrutka routes. A train leaves Yoshkar-Ola every evening at 19,00 to Moscow, climate of Yoshkar-Ola is very similar to Nizhny Novgorod or Kirov. The city is situated in a continental climate. The winters are long and cold with lots of snow, with average January temperatures from −10 to −15 °C, additionally, Yoshkar-Ola has many private educational centers offering different qualifications and trainings in such disciplines as foreign languages, computer science and many others. The 14th Kiev-Zhitomir Rocket Division of the 27th Guards Missile Army of the Strategic Rocket Forces is located nearby, Yoshkar-Ola is twinned with, Szombathely, Hungary Bourges, France Princeton, West Virginia, United States Official website of Yoshkar-Ola Map of Yoshkar-Ola 24 июня1995 г
Yoshkar-Ola
–
Top: Wall clock display in the Yoshkar-Ola National Art Gallery; middle left: Yoshkar-Ola City Hall; middle right: Flower-style lantern in Obolensky-Nogotkov Square; bottom left: Monument to Obolensky-Nogotkov; bottom right: Monument to Tsar Cannon in the National Art Gallery
Yoshkar-Ola
–
Location of the Mari El Republic in Russia
9.
Federal subjects of Russia
–
Since March 18,2014, the Russian Federation constitutionally consists of 85 federal subjects, although the two most recently added subjects are internationally recognized as part of Ukraine. Three Russian cities of importance have a status of both city and separate federal subject which comprises other cities and towns within federal city keeping old structure of postal address. In 1993, there were 89 federal subjects listed, by 2008, the number of federal subjects had been decreased to 83 because of several mergers. In 2014, Sevastopol and the Republic of Crimea became the 84th and 85th federal subjects of Russia, every federal subject has its own head, a parliament, and a constitutional court. Federal subjects have their own constitution and legislation, subjects have equal rights in relations with federal government bodies. The federal subjects have equal representation—two delegates each—in the Federation Council and they do, however, differ in the degree of autonomy they enjoy. Composition of post-Soviet Russia was formed during the history of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic within the USSR, the Federation Treaty was included in the text of the 1978 Constitution of the Russian SFSR. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the system became de jure closer to other modern federal states with a republican form of government in the world. There are several groupings of Russian regions, Federal subjects should not be confused with the eight Federal districts which are not subdivisions of Russia, are much larger and each encompass many federal subjects. Federal districts were created by Executive Order of the President of Russia specially for presidential envoys, an official government translation of the Constitution of Russia in Article 5 states,1. Another translation of the Constitution of Russia gives for article 65, each federal subject belongs to one of the following types, b. ^ According to Article 13 of the Charter of Leningrad Oblast, however, St. Petersburg is not officially named to be the administrative center of the oblast. ^ According to Article 24 of the Charter of Moscow Oblast, however, Moscow is not officially named to be the administrative center of the oblast. ^ Not recognized internationally as a part of Russia, the merging process was finished on March 1,2008. No new mergers have been planned since March 2008, Федерального конституционного закона №7-ФКЗ от30 декабря2008 г. Вступил в силу со дня официального опубликования, Опубликован, Российская газета, №237,25 декабря1993 г
Federal subjects of Russia
–
Russia
10.
Time in Russia
–
There are eleven time zones in Russia, which currently observe times ranging from UTC+02,00 to UTC+12,00. Daylight saving time is not used in Russia, since 4 December 2016, the time zones are as follows, Daylight saving time in Russia was originally introduced on 30 June 1917 by a decree of the Russian Provisional Government. However, it was abandoned by a Decree of the Soviet government five months later, Daylight saving time was re-introduced in the USSR on 1 April 1981, by a decision of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. The usage of daylight saving time continued after the Soviet collapse but ended in 2011, on 27 March 2011, clocks were advanced as usual, but they did not go back on 30 October 2011, effectively making Moscow Time UTC+4 permanently. In the Russian Empire, most of the observed solar time. During the late 19th century, Moscow Mean Time was introduced on 1 January 1880,2,30,17 corresponds to 37. 6166667°, the longitude of Moscow. Other parts of Russia kept solar time for several years. At this time, Russia had the Julian calendar with 12 or 13 days less date compared to Western Europe, so it is possible to say the Moscow actually had GMT-285,29,43, GMT-309,29,43 and GMT-309,28,41. Russia adopted the Gregorian calendar on Thursday,14 February 1918, after the Soviet Union was created, Moscow Time became UTC+2 and the various other time zones were introduced throughout Russia and the rest of the Soviet Union, for example Irkutsk Time GMT+7. Between 1917-1922 the time was ordered, with daylight savings time some of those years. On 21 June 1930, the Soviet Union advanced all clocks by one hour, Moscow Time was now GMT+3 and Irkutsk Time GMT+8. On 1 April 1981, daylight saving time was re-introduced, clocks were moved one hour forward on 1 April, on 1 April 1981,00,00,00, Oymyakonsky District changed its time zone from MSK+6 to MSK+8. The change occurred during DST effectively changing the offset from UTC+9 to UTC+12, on 1 April 1982,00,00,00, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug changed its time zone from MSK+10 to MSK+9, thus eliminating Anadyr Time. The change occurred during DST effectively changing the offset from UTC+14 to UTC+13, on 27 March 1988,02,00,00, Saratov and Volgograd oblasts changed its time zone from MSK+1 to MSK. The change occurred during DST effectively changing the offset from UTC+5 to UTC+4, on 23 May 1993,00,00,00, Novosibirsk Oblast changed its time zone from MSK+4 to MSK+3. The change occurred during DST effectively changing the offset from UTC+8 to UTC+7, on 28 May 1995,00,00,00, Altai Krai and Altai Republic changed its time zone from MSK+4 to MSK+3. On 30 March 1997,02,00,00, Sakhalin Oblast changed its time zone from MSK+8 to MSK+7, on 1 May 2002,03,00,00, Tomsk Oblast changed its time zone from MSK+4 to MSK+3. On 1 January 2004,00,00,00, New Siberian Islands, Tomponsky District, the following time zone changes occurred on 28 March 2010, which, in particular, led to abolition of two of the eleven time zones
Time in Russia
–
Time in Russia Time
11.
Moscow Time
–
Moscow Time is the time zone for the city of Moscow, Russia, Belarus, and most of western Russia, including Saint Petersburg. It is the second-westernmost of the time zones of Russia. It has been set to UTC+3 permanently on 26 October 2014, Moscow Time is used to schedule trains, ships, etc. throughout Russia, while airplane travel is scheduled using local time. Times in Russia are often announced throughout the country on radio stations as Moscow Time, descriptions of time zones in Russia are often based on Moscow Time rather than UTC. For example, Yakutsk is said to be MSK+6 within Russia, on 27 March 2011, Muscovites set their clocks forward for a final time, effectively observing MSD, or UTC+4, permanently. On 1 July 2014, the State Duma passed a bill repealing the 2011 change, most of the European Russia uses Moscow Time. In Kaliningrad Oblast, Kaliningrad time is used, Samara Oblast and Udmurtia use Samara time and Perm Krai, Bashkortostan and Orenburg Oblast use Yekaterinburg time. Prior to 27 March 2011, Moscow Time was UTC+3, daylight saving time was used in the summer, advancing it to UTC+4. UTC+3 was also used in European parts of what was then the USSR, Belarus, in 1930–1991. Estonia, in 1940–1989 Latvia, in 1940–1989 Lithuania, in 1940–1989 Moldova, in 1940–1991 Ukraine, in 1930–1990 Kaliningrad Oblast, in 1946–1991 Samara Oblast, in 1989–1991, and again from 2010–2011. Moscow Summer Time, was first applied in 1981 and was used, until 1988 in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania until 1989 in Belarus, Moldova, between 1989 and 1990 and in 2010 in Samara Oblast. In 1922–1930 and 1991–1992, Moscow observed EET, daylight saving time was observed in the summer of 1991, and the city and region reverted to UTC+3 by the summer of 1992. The time in Moscow has been as follows, Time in Russia East Africa Time, also in UTC+03,00 Current time in Moscow Moscow time
Moscow Time
–
Time in Russia Time
12.
Vehicle registration plates of Russia
–
Vehicle registration plates are the mandatory number plates used to display the registration mark of a vehicle, and have existed in Russia for many decades. Most motor vehicles which are used on roads are required by law to display them. The current format uses a letter followed by 3 digits and two more letters, to improve legibility of the numbers for Russian cars abroad, only a small subset of Cyrillic characters that look like Latin characters are used. Finally, the number and letters RUS are included, as well as the national flag. There is a different format for trailers, motorcycles, mopeds and scooters plates are made of square reflective plates and its format is 4 digits at the top and two letters at the bottom. Some autonomous regions are not required to have the flag on the licence plates, vehicles used by certain organisations or categories of persons carry special plates, Special plates in the above categories never carry the Russian flag, except for trailers. There are special reserved for government officials. The license plates for government officials originally had a larger flag instead of the regional code. Rich businessmen, prominent politicians and crime lords often use para-legally acquired special licence plates to get preferential treatment from the transport police, often, this is used in conjunction with a flashing siren. The Society of Blue Buckets is a protest movement that opposes this trend, as of 2014, there are new codes for Russian plates, number 82 for the Republic of Crimea and 92 for Sevastopol. The Russian Federation then officially annexed Crimea from Ukraine and now administers it as two federal subjects, the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol. Ukraine, backed by most of the community, refuses to accept the annexation. As per GOST provision, only 1,726,272 combinations may be issued within one administration unit, in certain regions, the amount of vehicles exceeds that number, and the combination may not be reused after a vehicle was taken off the registration. All this creates an issue of running out of numbers, a short-term solution was introducing more codes for those regions. Introduction of new license plate is being considered as a future solution. In the following years some codes were reassigned or discontinued, as the populous regions started running out of license plate combinations, new codes past code 89 were assigned to them as well. Additional triple-digit codes were created by adding a 1 or a 7 to the regional code. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs Order 282 from March 28,2002, 1Code 059 is a former code for Syria
Vehicle registration plates of Russia
–
Russian registration plate, as observed in 2007 - 177 stands for
Moscow.
Vehicle registration plates of Russia
–
Bus with the licence number painted in large letters
Vehicle registration plates of Russia
13.
Russian language
–
Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi
Russian language
–
Russian language street sign in
Russia.
Russian language
–
Russian minimarket in
Limassol, Cyprus; translation: "Teremok market. Russian goods. Phone number: 96 74 19 63"
Russian language
–
This page from an "ABC" book printed in Moscow in 1694 shows the letter
П.
Russian language
–
The
Ostromir Gospels of 1056 is the second oldest
East Slavic book known, one of many medieval
illuminated manuscripts preserved in the
Russian National Library.
14.
Mari language
–
The Mari language, spoken by approximately 400,000 people, belongs to the Uralic language family. It is spoken primarily in the Mari Republic of the Russian Federation as well as in the area along the Vyatka river basin, Mari speakers, known as the Mari are found also in the Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Udmurtia, and Perm regions. Mari is the titular and official language of its republic, alongside Russian, the Mari language today has two standard forms, Hill Mari and Meadow Mari. Both language forms use modified versions of Cyrillic script, the Mari language and people were known as Cheremis. In medieval texts the variant forms Sarmys and Tsarmys are also found, as well as Tatar, Cyrillic Чирмеш, Latin Çirmeş, and Chuvash, Ҫармӑс, Şarmăs before the Russian Revolution. The term Mari comes from the Maris autonym марий, which is thought to have borrowed from the Indo-Aryan term *maryá- man, literally mortal. Most Maris live in areas with slightly more than a quarter living in cities. In the republican capital, Yoshkar-Ola, the percentage of Maris is just over 23 percent, at the end of the 1980s Maris numbered 670,868, of whom 80% claimed Mari as their first language and 18. 8% did not speak Mari. In the Mari Republic,11. 6% claimed Mari was not their first language, some qualitative evidence of a reversal in recent years has been noted. After the October Revolution, there was a period of support of all lesser national cultures in the Soviet Union, the period of glasnost and perestroika in the 1990s opened opportunities for a revival of efforts expand the use of Mari in education and the public sphere. In the 1990s, the Mari language, alongside Russian, was proclaimed in the constitution to be an official language of Mari El. By the beginning of the 21st century, Mari language and literature was taught in 226 schools, at the History and Philology Department of the Mari State University and the Krupskaya Teachers Training Institute, more than half of the subjects are taught in Mari. The principal division between Mari varieties is the West and the East, north-Western Mari Meadow Mari, spoken on the left Volgan bank on the central and eastern plain of Mari El around the republican capital, Yoshkar-Ola. Eastern Mari is scattered to the east of Mari El from Vyatka through Kama to Ufa, each main dialect is divided into their own smaller local subdialects. Only Hill and Meadow Mari have their own written standard varieties, based on the dialects of Kozmodemyansk. Eastern and Meadow Mari are often united as a Meadow-Eastern supra-dialect, north-Western Mari is transitional between the Hill and Meadow dialects, and its phonology and morphology are closer to Hill Mari. Mari is mostly written with the Cyrillic script, like other Uralic languages, Mari is an agglutinating language. It lacks grammatical gender, and does not use articles, generally, there is one prominent syllable per word and prominence may be found in any syllable of the word
Mari language
–
Hill Mari
15.
Capital city
–
A capital city is the municipality exercising primary status in a country, state, province, or other region, usually as its seat of government. A capital is typically a city that encompasses the offices and meeting places of its respective government. In some jurisdictions, including countries, the different branches of government are located in different settlements. In some cases, a distinction is made between the capital and the seat of government, which is in another place. The word capital derives from the Latin caput, meaning head, in several English-speaking states, the terms county town, county seat, and borough seat are also used in lower subdivisions. In unitary states, subnational capitals are known as administrative centres. The capital is often, but not necessarily, the largest city of its constituent, historically, the major economic centre of a state or region often becomes the focal point of political power, and becomes a capital through conquest or federation. Examples are Ancient Babylon, Abbasid Baghdad, Ancient Athens, Rome, Constantinople, Changan, Ancient Cusco, Madrid, Paris, London, Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo, Vienna, and Berlin. Some of these cities are or were also religious centres, e. g. Constantinople, Rome, Jerusalem, Ancient Babylon, Moscow, Belgrade, Paris, and Peking. A capital city that is also the economic, cultural. The convergence of political and economic or cultural power is by no means universal, traditional capitals may be economically eclipsed by provincial rivals, e. g. Nanking by Shanghai, Quebec City by Montreal, and numerous US state capitals. The decline of a dynasty or culture could also mean the extinction of its city, as occurred at Babylon. Although many capitals are defined by constitution or legislation, many long-time capitals have no legal designation as such, for example Bern, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London, Paris, are located in or near them. In Canada, there is a capital, while the ten provinces. The states of such countries as Mexico, Brazil, and Australia all have capital cities, for example, the six state capitals of Australia are Adelaide, Brisbane, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney. In Australia, the capital cities is regularly used, to refer to the aforementioned state capitals plus the federal capital Canberra and Darwin. Abu Dhabi is the city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. In unitary states which consist of multiple constituent countries, such as the United Kingdom or the Kingdom of Denmark, the national capitals of Germany and Russia, the Stadtstaat of Berlin and the Federal City of Moscow, are also constituent states of both countries in their own right
Capital city
–
Parliament Hill, the national legislative buildings, in
Ottawa, the capital of
Canada.
Capital city
–
The
Roman Forum was surrounded by many government buildings as the capital of
Ancient Rome.
Capital city
–
The
Western Wall is one of the greatest findings of the Jewish history in
Jerusalem.
Capital city
–
Cornwall Council headquarters in the
county town of
Truro.
16.
Russian Census (2010)
–
The Russian Census of 2010 is the first census of the Russian Federation population since 2002 and the second after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Preparations for the census began in 2007 and it took place between October 14 and October 25, the census was originally scheduled for October 2010, but was moved to 2013 allegedly for financial reasons, although it was also speculated that political motives were influential in the decision. However, in late 2009 Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced that the Government of Russia allocated 10.5 billion rubles in order to conduct the census as originally scheduled, Results showed the population to stand at 142.9 million. Since the previous 2002 census, population has decreased by 2.3 million, according to the 2010 census, urban population is 105.3 million, rural population is 37.5 million. The urbanisation rate is currently 73. 7%, the median age is 38 years. The ethnic composition is dominated by Russians, demographics of Russia Russian Census 2010 final results Results of 2010 All-Russia population census Official website of the 2010 Census
Russian Census (2010)
–
Inside a census station in
Severodvinsk
17.
East European Plain
–
The East European Plain is a vast interior plain extending east of the North European Plain, and comprising several plateaus stretching roughly from 25 degrees longitude eastward. It includes the westernmost Volhynian-Podolian Upland, than the Central Russian Upland, the plain includes also a series of major river basins such as the Dnepr Basin, the Oka-Don Lowland, and the Volga Basin. Along the southernmost point of the East European Plain are the Caucasus, together with the North European Plain covering much of central Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, it constitutes the European Plain, the mountain-free part of the European landscape. The East European Plain covers all or most of the Baltic states, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, the plain spans approximately 4,000,000 km2 and averages about 170 m in elevation. The highest point of the plain, located in the Valdai Hills is 346.9 metres, west, Baltic Sea, Oder and Lusatian Neisse, Sudetenland, Carpathians. South, Balkan Mountains, Crimean Mountains, Caucasus, black Sea, Sea of Azov and The Caspian Sea, Ustyurt Plateau. East, Ural Mountains and Turan Depression, North, White Sea, Barents Sea, Kara Sea, Scandinavian Mountains
East European Plain
–
Biogeography
East European Plain
–
Map of the landscapes of the East European Plain, according to a definition that includes the Baltics and eastern Poland
18.
Volga River
–
The Volga is the longest river in Europe. It is also Europes largest river in terms of discharge and watershed, the river flows through central Russia and into the Caspian Sea, and is widely regarded as the national river of Russia. Eleven of the twenty largest cities of Russia, including the capital, some of the largest reservoirs in the world can be found along the Volga. The river has a meaning in Russian culture and is often referred to as Волга-матушка Volga-Matushka in Russian literature and folklore. The Slavic name is a translation of earlier Scythian Rā Volga, literally wetness, cognate with Avestan Raŋhā mythical stream and Sanskrit rasā́- dew, liquid, juice. The Scythian name survives in modern Mordvin Rav Volga, the Turkic peoples living along the river formerly referred to it as Itil or Atil big river. In modern Turkic languages, the Volga is known as İdel in Tatar, Атăл in Chuvash, Idhel in Bashkir, Edil in Kazakh, the Turkic peoples associated the Itils origin with the Kama. Thus, a tributary to the Kama was named the Aq Itil White Itil which unites with the Kara Itil Black Itil at the modern city of Ufa. The name Indyl is used in Adyge language, among Asians, the river was known by its other Turkic name Sarı-su yellow water, but the Oirats also used their own name, Ijil mörön or adaptation river. Presently the Mari, another Uralic group, call the river Jul, formerly, they called the river Volgydo, a borrowing from Old Russian. The Volga is the longest river in Europe and it belongs to the closed basin of the Caspian Sea, being the longest river to flow into a closed basin. From there it turns south, flows past Ulyanovsk, Tolyatti, Samara, Saratov and Volgograd, at its most strategic point, it bends toward the Don. Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad, is located there, the Volga has many tributaries, most importantly the rivers Kama, the Oka, the Vetluga, and the Sura. The Volga and its tributaries form the Volga river system, which flows through an area of about 1,350,000 square kilometres in the most heavily populated part of Russia. The Volga Delta has a length of about 160 kilometres and includes as many as 500 channels, the largest estuary in Europe, it is the only place in Russia where pelicans, flamingos, and lotuses may be found. The Volga freezes for most of its length for three each year. The Volga drains most of Western Russia and its many large reservoirs provide irrigation and hydroelectric power. The Moscow Canal, the Volga–Don Canal, and the Volga–Baltic Waterway form navigable waterways connecting Moscow to the White Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Sea of Azov, high levels of chemical pollution have adversely affected the river and its habitats
Volga River
–
The Volga at
Ulyanovsk
Volga River
–
Cruise ships on the Volga River.
Volga River
–
The
Saratov Bridge,
Saratov Oblast
Volga River
–
Rzhev is the uppermost town situated on the Volga (photographed c. 1910)
19.
Kirov Oblast
–
Kirov Oblast is a federal subject of Russia. Its administrative center is the city of Kirov, the basis of the natural resources of the forest are, phosphate rock, peat, furs, water and land resources. Large stocks of non-metallic mineral raw materials, limestone, marl, clay, sand, in recent decades, in the east of the area revealed a minor recoverable oil reserves and deposits of bentonite clays. In the area is the largest in Europe Vyatsko-Kama deposit of phosphate rock, the area is rich in mineral springs and therapeutic mud. On the territory of Kumyonsky District is famous resort town of federal significance Nizhneivkino, the region has a total length of 19753 River 66.65 kilometers. Northern Uvaly two separate river basins - the Severodvinsk and the Volga, much of the area is occupied by the Vyatka River basin, a tributary of the Kama River in Tatarstan. At Kama is only in the upper reaches, to large flowing within the area are also river mole and Tansy, Luza, Cobra, Cheptsa. The total number of lakes in the area of 4.5 thousand ponds With the total number of closed area of 5.5 million. The largest lakes, Akshuben -85 hectares, the Oryol is 63 hectares, the deepest area of the pond Lezhninskoe Lake -36. 6m. Kirov Krai was established on December 7,1934 and it was transformed into Kirov Oblast on December 5,1936 upon the adoption of the 1936 Soviet Constitution. Kirov Oblast was formed on December 7,1934 and it is divided administratively into 39 districts,6 cities under oblast jurisdiction,13 town under district jurisdiction,58 urban-type settlements, and 580 selsoviets. Kirov Oblast is part of the Volga–Vyatka economic district located in the part of European Russia in the Volga. Agriculture was the priority sector at first, but starting in 1940, there was an upsurge in development of a complex, especially the engineering, metalworking. Kirov Oblast is part of the Volga–Vyatka agricultural zone, where more than half of the area sown in grain is located in Kirov Oblast itself, agricultural land occupies 27% of the regions territory. The most important grain crops are winter and spring wheat and rye, barley and oats are grown for fodder. Increased specialization in the production of more promising fodder crops like winter rye, barley, since 1991, CPSU lost all the power, and the head of the Oblast administration, and eventually the governor was appointed/elected alongside elected regional parliament. The Charter of Kirov Oblast is the law of the region. The Legislative Assembly of Kirov Oblast is the provinces standing legislative body, the Legislative Assembly exercises its authority by passing laws, resolutions, and other legal acts and by supervising the implementation and observance of the laws and other legal acts passed by it
Kirov Oblast
–
Pishchalskoye peat narrow gauge railway
Kirov Oblast
20.
Republic of Tatarstan
–
Tatarstan, officially the Republic of Tatarstan is a federal subject of the Russian Federation, located in the Volga Federal District. Its capital is the city of Kazan, the republic borders Kirov, Ulyanovsk, Samara, and Orenburg Oblasts, the Mari El, Udmurt, and Chuvash Republics, and the Republic of Bashkortostan. The area of the republic is 68,000 square kilometres, the unofficial Tatarstan motto is, Bez Buldırabız. As of the 2010 Census the population of Tatarstan was 3,786,488, the state has strong ties with its eastern neighbor the Republic of Bashkortostan. Tatarstan derives from the name of the ethnic group—the Tatars—and the Persian suffix -stan, another version of the Russian name is Тата́рия, which was official along with Tatar ASSR during the Soviet rule. The republic is located in the center of the East European Plain and it lies between the Volga River and the Kama River, and extends east to the Ural mountains. Borders, internal, Kirov Oblast, Udmurt Republic, Republic of Bashkortostan, Orenburg Oblast, Samara Oblast, Ulyanovsk Oblast, Chuvash Republic, bugulma-Belebey Upland Volga Upland Vyatskie Uvaly Major natural resources of Tatarstan include oil, natural gas, gypsum, and more. It is estimated that the Republic has over one billion tons of oil deposits, Islam was introduced by missionaries from Baghdad around the time of ibn Fadlans journey in 922. Volga Bulgaria finally fell to the armies of the Mongol prince Batu Khan in the late 1230s The inhabitants, mixing with the Golden Hordes Kipchak-speaking people, another theory postulates that there were no ethnic changes in that period, and Bulgars simply switched to the Kipchak-based Tatar language. In the 1430s, the region became independent as the base of the Khanate of Kazan. The Khanate of Kazan was conquered by the troops of Tsar Ivan the Terrible in the 1550s, a large number of Tatars were killed and forcibly converted to Christianity and were culturally Russified. Cathedrals were built in Kazan, by 1593 all mosques in the area were destroyed, the Russian government forbade the construction of mosques, a prohibition that was not lifted until the 18th century by Catherine the Great. The first mosque to be rebuilt under Catherines auspices was constructed in 1766-1770, in the 19th century Tatarstan became a center of Jadidism, an Islamic movement that preached tolerance of other religions. Under the influence of local Jadidist theologians, the Tatars were renowned for their relations with other peoples of the Russian Empire. However, after the October Revolution religion was largely outlawed and all theologians were repressed, during the Civil War of 1918–1920 Tatar nationalists attempted to establish an independent republic. They were, however, put down by the Bolsheviks and the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was established on May 27,1920, the boundaries of the republic did not include a majority of the Volga Tatars. The Tatar Union of the Godless were persecuted in Stalins 1928 purges, there was a famine in the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1921 to 1922 as a result of war communist policy. The famine deaths of 2 million Tatars in Tatar ASSR and in Volga-Ural region in 1921-1922 was catastrophic as half of Volga Tatar population in USSR died and this famine is also known as terror-famine and famine-genocide in Tatarstan
Republic of Tatarstan
–
View of the
Volga River in the confluence with the
Kama River
Republic of Tatarstan
–
Flag
Republic of Tatarstan
–
View on the Taima River from Devil's Tower in
Yelabuga
Republic of Tatarstan
–
An ancient mosque in
Bolgar
21.
Chuvash Republic
–
The Chuvash Republic, or Chuvashia for short, is a federal subject of Russia. It is the homeland of the Chuvash people, a Turkic ethnic group and its capital is the city of Cheboksary. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 1,251,619, the Chuvash Republic is located in the center of European Russia, in the heart of the Volga-Vyatka economic region, mostly to the west of the Volga River, in the Volga Upland. There are over two thousand rivers in the republic—with the major ones being the Volga, the Sura, some of the Volga River valley reservoirs are in the north of the republic, and the Sura River flows towards the Volga along much of the republics western boundary. Climate is moderate continental, with the temperatures ranging from −13 °C in January to +19 °C in July. Annual precipitation varies between 450 and 700 millimeters, but is uneven from one year to another, natural resources include gypsum, sand, clay, sapropel deposits, phosphorite, and peat. There are oil and natural gas deposits, although their extraction has not yet been commercially pursued, forests, mostly in the south along the Sura River, cover approximately 30% of the land. The ancestors of the Chuvash were Bulgars and Suars-which were Turkic tribes-residing in the Northern Caucasus in the 5th to 8th centuries. In the 7th and 8th centuries, a part of the Bulgars left for the Balkans, another part moved to the Middle Volga Region, where the Bulgar population that did not adopt Islam formed the foundation of the Chuvash people. During the Mongol invasion of Volga Bulgaria, the steppe-dwelling Suar migrated north, the Chuvash claim to be the descendants of these Suars who assimilated with the Mari. In 1242, they became vassals of the Golden Horde, later Mongol and Tatar rulers did not intervene in local internal affairs as long as tribute was paid annually to Sarai. When the power of the Golden Horde began to diminish, local Mişär Tatar Murzas from Piana, between 1650 and 1850, the Russian Orthodox Church sent Chuvash-speaking missionaries to try to convert the Chuvash to the Orthodox faith. A group of these created a written Chuvash language. Most of the Chuvash who stayed in the area became Orthodox Christians, in 1918–1919, the Russian Civil War encompassed the area. This ended with victory for the Bolsheviks, to gain support from the local population, Lenin ordered the creation of a Chuvash state within the Russian SFSR. On June 24,1920, the Chuvash Autonomous Oblast was formed, since 1991, CPSU lost all the power, and the head of the Republic administration, and eventually the governor was appointed/elected alongside elected regional parliament. The Charter of Republic of Chuvashia is the law of the region. The State Council of the Chuvash Republic is the regional standing legislative body
Chuvash Republic
–
Seat of the Government of the Chuvash Republic
Chuvash Republic
–
Flag
Chuvash Republic
–
In a liquor distillery,
Mariinsky Posad
22.
Nizhny Novgorod Oblast
–
Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, also known in English as Nizhegorod Oblast, is a federal subject of Russia. Its administrative center is the city of Nizhny Novgorod, from 1932 to 1990 it was known as Gorky Oblast. The oblast is crossed by the Volga River, apart from Nizhny Novgorods metropolitan area the biggest city is Arzamas. Near the town of Sarov there is the Serafimo-Diveyevsky Monastery, one of the largest convents in Russia, the Makaryev Monastery opposite of the town of Lyskovo used to be the location of the largest fair in Eastern Europe. Other historic towns include Gorodets and Balakhna, located on the Volga to the north from Nizhny Novgorod, the oblast covers an area of 76,900 square kilometers, which is approximately equal to the entire area of the Benelux countries or Czech Republic. Agricultural land occupies 41% of this area, forests, 48%, lakes and rivers, 2%, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast borders Kostroma Oblast, Kirov Oblast, the Mari El Republic, the Chuvash Republic, the Republic of Mordovia, Ryazan Oblast, Vladimir Oblast, and Ivanovo Oblast. Nizhny Novgorod Oblast is not rich in resources, which are limited to commercial deposits of sand, clay, gypsum, peat, mineral salt. After 1991, the CPSU lost all its power, the head of the Oblast administration, and eventually the governor, was appointed/elected alongside the elected regional parliament. The Charter of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast is the law of the region. The Legislative Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast is the provinces standing legislative body, the Legislative Assembly exercises its authority by passing laws, resolutions, and other legal acts and by supervising the implementation and observance of the laws and other legal acts passed by it. According to the 2010 Census, ethnic Russians at 3,109,661 made up 95. 1% of the oblasts population, other ethnic groups included Tatars, Mordva, Ukrainians, and various smaller groups, each accounting for less than 0. 5% of the total. Additionally,42,349 people were registered from administrative databases and it is estimated that the proportion of ethnicities in this group is the same as that of the declared group. Births,36,315 Deaths,54,184 Deaths decreased by 8. 5% in 2011 compared to 2010, the actual number of foreigners residing in the oblast as of June 1,2006 was estimated to be over 22,000. The oblast ranks seventh in Russia in industrial output, processing industries predominate in the local economy. More than 650 industrial companies employ nearly 700,000 people, industry generates 83% of the regional GDP and accounts for 89% of all material expenditures. The leading sectors are engineering and metalworking, followed by chemical and petrochemical industries and forestry, woodworking, the first three sectors account for about 75% of all industrial production. The oblast has traditionally been attractive to investors, in 2002, Moodys rating agency confirmed a Caa1rating based on the regions long-term foreign currency liabilities. The region maintains trade relations with countries and has an export surplus
Nizhny Novgorod Oblast
–
Nizhny Novgorod House of Legislative Assembly in the
Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin, 2007
Nizhny Novgorod Oblast
Nizhny Novgorod Oblast
–
A shopping center in
Fedyakovo
Nizhny Novgorod Oblast
–
Peat Briquette Factory
23.
Tributary
–
A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean, tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage basin of its surface water and groundwater, leading the water out into an ocean. A confluence, where two or more bodies of water together, usually refers to the joining of tributaries. The opposite to a tributary is a distributary, a river or stream that branches off from, distributaries are most often found in river deltas. Right tributary and left tributary are terms stating the orientation of the relative to the flow of the main stem river. These terms are defined from the perspective of looking downstream, where tributaries have the same name as the river into which they feed, they are called forks. These are typically designated by compass direction, for example, the American River receives flow from its North, Middle, and South forks. The Chicago Rivers North Branch has the East, West, and Middle Fork, the South Branch has its South Fork, forks are sometimes designated as right or left. Here, the handedness is from the point of view of an observer facing upstream, for instance, Steer Creek has a left tributary which is called Right Fork Steer Creek. Tributaries are sometimes listed starting with those nearest to the source of the river, the Strahler Stream Order examines the arrangement of tributaries in a hierarchy of first, second, third, and higher orders, with the first-order tributary being typically the least in size. For example, a second-order tributary would be the result of two or more first-order tributaries combining to form the second-order tributary, another method is to list tributaries from mouth to source, in the form of a tree structure, stored as a tree data structure
Tributary
–
Biała Lądecka, a right tributary of Nysa Kłodzka in Poland, located in the village of
Bielice in
Lower Silesia.
Tributary
–
The
Pfinz, a right tributary of the
Rhine, located in
Baden-Württemberg.
Tributary
–
Walton Creek, a small tributary of the
Lochsa River in
northeastern Idaho, flowing slightly
upstream of its confluence with a larger stream.
Tributary
–
In Norway, the river
Glomma meets its main tributary
Vorma.
24.
Lake Yalchik
–
Lake Yalchik is the largest lake in Mari El, Russia, located in the Marii Chodra national park. Lake Yalchik plays a role in tourism in region and several tourist centres are located here. It is renowned locally for its clean and warm water, lake Yalchik is a system of two lakes, the Greater and Smaller Yalchiks, which are linked by a channel which periodically dries up in summer. The elevation of Smaller Yalchik is higher than that of Greater Yalchik, the area of the lake is increasing due to the karst processes that shape the area. Legend says that the lake appeared after the collapse of a meadow. The last major collapse occurred in 1914 and it generated a tsunami-like wave, at the bottom of the lake there are two series of karst caves,1,600 meters and 1,200 meters long, and up to 30 meters deep. Greater Yalchik has a shape and many bays, whereas Smaller Yalchik has an elongated shape. Smaller Yalchik has two little brooks as inflows, but the Greater Yalchik has none, according to a local Mari legend the lake is named in honour of national hero Yalche. There is also a possibility that the name of the lake has Turkic root, Turkish diminutive suffix is -chik, and yalchik means small yal where yal means village in the Chuvash. Turkish influence could also be seen in the name of the region Mari El, also many of the locations in Marii El have the jär/yer endings, which in Turkish means place. Being popular for its nature, Yalchik attracts many tourists. However, there are no beaches at the lake, and the most of its coastline is covered with reed, many tourists reach Yalchik by own cars, but a significant number of them use a railway. The closest station to Yalchik is in the settlement of Yalchevsky, some Mari and Tatarstan universities sometimes arrange science conferences at the Yalchiks rest home. Article about Yalchik Экология фитопланктона карстовых озёр Среднего Поволжья
Lake Yalchik
–
Frozen Smaller Yalchik
Lake Yalchik
–
Bigger Yalchik, Health complex, June 30, 2014
Lake Yalchik
–
The
landscape along the lake
shore.
25.
Continental climate
–
In the Köppen climate system, Continental climates were bordered to the south by Temperate climates or C climates and to the north by Boreal climate or E climates. Köppen also defined continental climates as having more than 30 days with continuous snowcover on the ground, Continental climates often have a significant annual variation in temperature. They tend to occur in the latitudes, where prevailing winds come from over land. Continental climates occur mostly in the Northern Hemisphere which has the large landmasses required for this type of climate to develop, most of northern and northeastern China, eastern and southeastern Europe, and the central and upper eastern United States have this type of climate. In Continental climates, Precipitation tends to be moderate in amount, a portion of the annual precipitation falls as snowfall, and snow often remains on the ground for more than a month. Summers in continental climates can feature thunderstorms and frequent cool temperatures, the timing of intermediate spring-like or autumn-like temperatures in this zone vary depending on latitude and/or elevation. For example, spring may arrive as soon as early March in the parts of this zone. Annual precipitation in this zone is usually between 600 millimetres and 1,200 millimetres, most of it in the form of snow during winter and it also has cold winters and warm summers. Most such areas fit Köppen classifications of Dfa, Dwa or Dfb or Dwb, dry summer continental climates exist in high altitude areas near Mediterranean climates. In some cases, the climate classification of BSk can also be considered to be continental as long it has cold winter. Some climatologists use the 0 °C isotherm instead for the coldest month, Continental climates exist where cold air masses infiltrate during the winter and warm air masses form in summer under conditions of high sun and long days. Places with continental climates are as a rule either far from any moderating effects of oceans or are so situated that prevailing winds tend to head offshore. Such regions get quite warm in the summer, achieving temperatures characteristic of tropical climates but are colder than any other climates of similar latitude in the winter. These climates grade off toward subtropical climates equator-ward where winters are less severe, in Europe these climates may grade off into oceanic climates in which the influence of moderating air masses is more marked toward the west. The subarctic climate, with cold, long and dry winters. Canada, Throughout much of southern Canada from the Rocky Mountains to Atlantic Canada, major cities, Whistler, Prince George, Kamloops, Calgary, Edmonton, Fort McMurray, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, Kenora, Thunder Bay, Sault Ste
Continental climate
–
The snowy city of
Sapporo
Continental climate
–
Af
26.
Precipitation
–
In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, graupel, Precipitation occurs when a portion of the atmosphere becomes saturated with water vapor, so that the water condenses and precipitates. Thus, fog and mist are not precipitation but suspensions, because the vapor does not condense sufficiently to precipitate. Two processes, possibly acting together, can lead to air becoming saturated, Precipitation forms as smaller droplets coalesce via collision with other rain drops or ice crystals within a cloud. Short, intense periods of rain in scattered locations are called showers, moisture that is lifted or otherwise forced to rise over a layer of sub-freezing air at the surface may be condensed into clouds and rain. This process is active when freezing rain is occurring. A stationary front is often present near the area of freezing rain, provided necessary and sufficient atmospheric moisture content, the moisture within the rising air will condense into clouds, namely stratus and cumulonimbus. Eventually, the droplets will grow large enough to form raindrops. Lake-effect snowfall can be locally heavy, thundersnow is possible within a cyclones comma head and within lake effect precipitation bands. In mountainous areas, heavy precipitation is possible where upslope flow is maximized within windward sides of the terrain at elevation, on the leeward side of mountains, desert climates can exist due to the dry air caused by compressional heating. The movement of the trough, or intertropical convergence zone. Precipitation is a component of the water cycle, and is responsible for depositing the fresh water on the planet. Approximately 505,000 cubic kilometres of water falls as precipitation each year,398,000 cubic kilometres of it over the oceans and 107,000 cubic kilometres over land. Given the Earths surface area, that means the globally averaged annual precipitation is 990 millimetres, Climate classification systems such as the Köppen climate classification system use average annual rainfall to help differentiate between differing climate regimes. Precipitation may occur on celestial bodies, e. g. when it gets cold, Mars has precipitation which most likely takes the form of frost. Precipitation is a component of the water cycle, and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the planet. Approximately 505,000 km3 of water falls as precipitation each year,398,000 km3 of it over the oceans, given the Earths surface area, that means the globally averaged annual precipitation is 990 millimetres. Mechanisms of producing precipitation include convective, stratiform, and orographic rainfall, Precipitation can be divided into three categories, based on whether it falls as liquid water, liquid water that freezes on contact with the surface, or ice
Precipitation
–
A thunderstorm with heavy precipitation
Precipitation
–
Long-term mean precipitation by month
Precipitation
–
Late-summer
rainstorm in
Denmark
Precipitation
–
Lenticular cloud forming due to mountains over Wyoming
27.
Peat
–
Peat, also called turf, is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter that is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem is the most efficient carbon sink on the planet because peatland plants capture the CO2 which is released from the peat. Sphagnum moss is one of the most common components in peat, soils that contain mostly peat are known as histosols. Peat forms in wetland conditions, where flooding obstructs flows of oxygen from the atmosphere, Peatlands, particularly bogs, are the most important source of peat. That said, other less common types, including fens, pocosins. Landscapes covered in peat are home to specific kinds of plants including Sphagnum moss, ericaceous shrubs, because organic matter accumulates over thousands of years, peat deposits also provide records of past vegetation and climates stored in plant remains like pollen. This allows humans to reconstruct past environments and study changes in land use. Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in certain parts of the world, by volume, there are about 4 trillion cubic metres of peat in the world, covering a total of around 2% of the global land area, containing about 8 billion terajoules of energy. Over time, the formation of peat is often the first step in the formation of other fossil fuels such as coal. This is also the commonly used in the peat industry. At 106 g CO2/MJ, the carbon dioxide emission intensity of peat is higher than that of coal and natural gas, lastly, peat fires have been responsible for large public health disasters including the 1997 Southeast Asian haze. Peat forms when plant material does not fully decay in acidic and anaerobic conditions and it is composed mainly of wetland vegetation, principally bog plants including mosses, sedges, and shrubs. As it accumulates, the peat holds water and this slowly creates wetter conditions that allow the area of wetland to expand. Peatland features can include ponds, ridges, and raised bogs, most modern peat bogs formed 12,000 years ago in high latitudes after the glaciers retreated at the end of the last ice age. Peat usually accumulates slowly at the rate of about a millimetre per year, using Carbon-dating, scientists found that Peat in peatlands started forming 360 million years ago based on it currently containing 550 Gt of carbon. Peat material is either fibric, hemic, or sapric, fibric peats are the least decomposed and consist of intact fiber. Hemic peats are partially decomposed and sapric are the most decomposed, Phragmites peat is one composed of reed grass, Phragmites australis, and other grasses. It is denser than other types of peat
Peat
–
Peat gatherers at
Westhay,
Somerset Levels in 1905
Peat
–
Peat stacks and cutting at Westhay, Somerset Levels
Peat
–
Harvesting the peat at Westhay, Somerset Levels
Peat
–
Peat in
Lewis, Scotland
28.
Mineral water
–
Mineral water is water from a mineral spring that contains various minerals, such as salts and sulfur compounds. Mineral water may be effervescent or sparkling due to contained gases, traditionally, mineral waters were used or consumed at their spring sources, often referred to as taking the waters or taking the cure, at places such as spas, baths, or wells. Today, it is far more common for water to be bottled at the source for distributed consumption. Travelling to the water site for direct access to the water is now uncommon. There are more than 3,000 brands of mineral water commercially available worldwide, in Romania resorts developed since antiquity in places such as Băile Herculane, Geoagiu or Slănic. Tourist development resulted in spa towns and hydropathic hotels, the more calcium and magnesium ions that are dissolved in water, the harder it is said to be, water with few dissolved calcium and magnesium ions is described as being soft. No minerals may be added to this water, in many places, however, the term mineral water is colloquially used to mean any bottled carbonated water or soda water, as opposed to tap water. In the European Union, bottled water may be called mineral water when it is bottled at the source and has no or minimal treatment. No additions are permitted except for carbon dioxide, which may be added, removed or re-introduced by exclusively physical methods, no disinfection treatment is permitted, nor is the addition of any bacteriostatic agents. Bottled water Drinking water Lithia water Mineral spa Water quality LaMoreaux, Philip E. Tanner, Judy T, eds
Mineral water
–
A mineral water spring.
Mineral water
–
Mineral water.
29.
Limestone
–
Limestone is a sedimentary rock, composed mainly of skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral, forams and molluscs. Its major materials are the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate, about 10% of sedimentary rocks are limestones. The solubility of limestone in water and weak acid solutions leads to karst landscapes, most cave systems are through limestone bedrock. The first geologist to distinguish limestone from dolomite was Belsazar Hacquet in 1778, like most other sedimentary rocks, most limestone is composed of grains. Most grains in limestone are skeletal fragments of organisms such as coral or foraminifera. Other carbonate grains comprising limestones are ooids, peloids, intraclasts and these organisms secrete shells made of aragonite or calcite, and leave these shells behind when they die. Limestone often contains variable amounts of silica in the form of chert or siliceous skeletal fragment, some limestones do not consist of grains at all, and are formed completely by the chemical precipitation of calcite or aragonite, i. e. travertine. Secondary calcite may be deposited by supersaturated meteoric waters and this produces speleothems, such as stalagmites and stalactites. Another form taken by calcite is oolitic limestone, which can be recognized by its granular appearance, the primary source of the calcite in limestone is most commonly marine organisms. Some of these organisms can construct mounds of rock known as reefs, below about 3,000 meters, water pressure and temperature conditions cause the dissolution of calcite to increase nonlinearly, so limestone typically does not form in deeper waters. Limestones may also form in lacustrine and evaporite depositional environments, calcite can be dissolved or precipitated by groundwater, depending on several factors, including the water temperature, pH, and dissolved ion concentrations. Calcite exhibits a characteristic called retrograde solubility, in which it becomes less soluble in water as the temperature increases. Impurities will cause limestones to exhibit different colors, especially with weathered surfaces, Limestone may be crystalline, clastic, granular, or massive, depending on the method of formation. Crystals of calcite, quartz, dolomite or barite may line small cavities in the rock, when conditions are right for precipitation, calcite forms mineral coatings that cement the existing rock grains together, or it can fill fractures. Travertine is a banded, compact variety of limestone formed along streams, particularly there are waterfalls. Calcium carbonate is deposited where evaporation of the leaves a solution supersaturated with the chemical constituents of calcite. Tufa, a porous or cellular variety of travertine, is found near waterfalls, coquina is a poorly consolidated limestone composed of pieces of coral or shells. During regional metamorphism that occurs during the building process, limestone recrystallizes into marble
Limestone
–
Limestone outcrop in the
Torcal de Antequera nature reserve of
Málaga, Spain
Limestone
–
Limestone quarry at
Cedar Creek, Virginia, USA
Limestone
–
Cutting the limestone blocks at a quarry in
Gozo,
Malta
Limestone
–
Limestone as building material
30.
Volga Bulgaria
–
Information from first-hand sources on Volga Bulgaria is rather sparse. As no authentic Bulgar records have survived, most of our information comes from contemporary Arabic, some information is provided by excavations. It is thought that the territory of Volga Bulgaria was originally settled by Finno-Ugric peoples, the Bulgars of Kubrats son and appointed heir Batbayan Bezmer moved from the Azov region in about AD660, commanded by the Kazarig Khagan Kotrag to whom he had surrendered. They reached Idel-Ural in the century, where they became the dominant population at the end of the 9th century. Most scholars agree that the Volga Bulgars were subject to the Khazarian Empire until the mid 10th century, threat from Khazaria was completely gone after Khazarias destruction and conquest by Sviatoslav in the late 10th century, after which Volga Bulgaria grew greatly in size and power. Sometime in the late 9th century unification processes started, and the capital was established at Bolghar city,160 km south from modern Kazan. Most scholars doubt, however, that the state could assert independence from the Khazars until the Khazars were annihilated by Svyatoslav of Rus in 965, abu al-Ghazi Bahadur named the Volga-Bulgar people as Ulak. Volga Bulgaria adopted Islam in 922 -66 years before Russia became Christian, in 921 Almış sent an ambassador to the Caliph requesting religious instruction. Next year an embassy returned with Ibn Fadlan as secretary, a significant number of Muslims already lived in the country. The Bulgarians attempted to convert Vladimir I of Kiev to Islam, however Vladimir rejected the notion of Rus giving up wine, commanding the Volga River in its middle course, the state controlled much of trade between Europe and Asia prior to the Crusades. The capital, Bolghar, was a city, rivalling in size. Trade partners of Bolghar included from Vikings, Bjarmland, Yugra and Nenets in the north to Baghdad and Constantinople in the south, other major cities included Bilär, Suar, Qaşan and Cükätaw. Modern cities Kazan and Yelabuga were founded as Volga Bulgarias border fortresses, some of the Volga Bulgarian cities still have not been found, but they are mentioned in old East Slavic sources. They are, Ashli, Tuxçin, İbrahim, Taw İle, some of them were ruined during and after the Golden Horde invasion. The Rus principalities to the west posed the only military threat. In the 11th century, the country was devastated by raids by other Rus. Then, at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries, under Russian pressure from the west, the Bulgars had to move their capital from Bolghar to Bilär. In September 1223 near Samara an advance guard of Genghis Khans army under command of Uran, son of Subutai Bahadur, in 1236, the Mongols returned and in five years had subjugated the whole country, which at that time was suffering from internal war
Volga Bulgaria
–
Detailed map of Volga Bulgaria.
Volga Bulgaria
–
Flag
Volga Bulgaria
–
Volga Bulgaria in the Eurasian world of AD 1200
Volga Bulgaria
–
Devil's Tower in
Yelabuga, 12th century.
31.
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
Golden Horde
–
Jochi Mausoleum,
Karagandy Region
Golden Horde
–
Flag of the Golden Horde, as shown in the
Catalan Atlas (other sources illustrate that the Golden Horde was known for the yellow color of the khan's flag and trappings.)
Golden Horde
–
Batu Khan establishes the Golden Horde.
Golden Horde
–
The Golden Horde army defeats the
Ilkhanate at the
battle of Terek in 1262. Many of Hulagu's men drowned in Terek River while withdrawing.
32.
Khanate of Kazan
–
The Khanate of Kazan was a medieval Bulgarian-Tatar Turkic state that occupied the territory of former Volga Bulgaria between 1438 and 1552. Its khans were the descendants of Tugh Temür, the thirteenth son of Jochi. The khanate covered contemporary Tatarstan, Mari El, Chuvashia, Mordovia and it was one of the successor states of the Golden Horde, and it came to an end when it was conquered by the Tsardom of Russia. The territory of the khanate comprised the Muslim Bolgar-populated lands of the Bolğar, Cükätäw, Kazan, the Volga, Kama and Vyatka were the main rivers of the khanate, as well as the major trade ways. The majority of the population were Kazan Tatars and their self-identity was not restricted to Tatars, many identified themselves simply as Muslims or as the people of Kazan. The local feudal nobility consisted of ethnic Bolgars, but the court, according to the Ginghizide tradition, the local Turkic tribes were also called Tatars by the steppe nobility and, later, by the Russian elite. Part of the higher nobility hailed from the Golden Horde and it included members of four leading noble families, Arghin, Barin, Qipchaq, and Shirin. Peoples subject to the khan included the Chuvash, Mari, Mordva, Tatar-Mishar, Udmurt, the Permians and some of the Komi tribes were also incorporated into the Khanate. The Mishars had arrived during the period of the Golden Horde and gradually assimilated the resident Finnic Mordvins and their territory was governed by former steppe Tatars. Some Mishar duchies were never controlled from Kazan and instead gravitated towards the Qasim Khanate or Muscovite Russia, most of the khanate territory was covered by forests, and only the southern part adjoined the steppe. Later, Nogais were transplanted and replaced with Kalmyks, more recently, this area was settled by Tatars, Chuvash and Russians, who erected defensive walls to guard the southern border. Since the khanate was established, Tatar Cossack troops defended the khanate from the Nogais, Russian sources indicate that at least five languages were used in the Kazan khanate. The first and foremost was the Tatar language, including the Middle dialect of the Kazan Tatars and its written form was the favoured language of the state. The Chuvash language was a descendant of the Bolgar language, spoken by the pagan Chuvash people, the Bolgar language also strongly influenced the Middle dialect of Tatar language. The other three were probably the Mari language, the Mordvin languages and the Bashkir language, likewise developed from the Bolgar, the former territories of Volga Bulgaria may have regained a degree of independence within the disintegrating Golden Horde by the turn of the 15th century. The principality was self-governed and maintained a dynasty of Bolgar rulers and it has been suggested that the transfer of power from the local Bolgar dynasty to Muhammad was finalized by his son Maxmud in 1445. Throughout its history, the khanate was prone to civil turmoil, the khans were replaced 19 times in 115 years. There were a total of fifteen reigning khans, some ascending the throne multiple times, the Khan was often elected from the Gengizides by vernacular nobility and even by the citizens themselves
Khanate of Kazan
–
Tatar soldiers
Khanate of Kazan
–
Flag
Khanate of Kazan
–
The
Söyembikä Tower in
Kazan possibly displays some features of medieval Kazan architecture.
33.
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
Tsardom of Russia
–
Russia,
Mercator, 1595
Tsardom of Russia
–
Flag
Tsardom of Russia
–
Moscovia,
Herberstein, 1549
Tsardom of Russia
–
Russia vulgo Moscovia,
Atlas Maior, 1645
34.
Ivan the Terrible
–
Ivan IV Vasilyevich, commonly known as Ivan the Terrible or Ivan the Fearsome, was the Grand Prince of Moscow from 1533 to 1547, then Tsar of All the Russias until his death in 1584. The last title was used by all his successors, during his reign, Russia conquered the Khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan and Sibir, becoming a multiethnic and multicontinental state spanning approximately 4,050,000 km2. Ivan exercised autocratic control over Russias hereditary nobility and developed a bureaucracy to administer his new territories and he transformed Russia from a medieval state into an empire, though at immense cost to its people, and its broader, long-term economy. In one such outburst, he killed his son and heir Ivan Ivanovich and this left his younger son, the pious but politically ineffectual Feodor Ivanovich, to inherit the throne. Ivan was a diplomat, a patron of arts and trade. He was popular among Russias commoners, except possibly the people of Novgorod and surrounding areas, the English word terrible is usually used to translate the Russian word grozny in Ivans nickname, but this is a somewhat archaic translation. The Russian word grozny reflects the older English usage of terrible as in inspiring fear or terror, dangerous, powerful and it does not convey the more modern connotations of English terrible, such as defective or evil. Vladimir Dal defines grozny specifically in archaic usage and as an epithet for tsars, courageous, magnificent, magisterial and keeping enemies in fear, other translations have also been suggested by modern scholars. Ivan was the first son of Vasili III and his wife, Elena Glinskaya. When Ivan was three years old, his father died from an abscess and inflammation on his leg that developed into blood poisoning, Ivan was proclaimed the Grand Prince of Moscow at the request of his father. His mother Elena Glinskaya initially acted as regent, but she died of what many believe to be assassination by poison, the regency then alternated between several feuding boyar families fighting for control. According to his own letters, Ivan, along with his younger brother Yuri, on 16 January 1547, at age sixteen, Ivan was crowned with Monomakhs Cap at the Cathedral of the Dormition. He was the first to be crowned as Tsar of All the Russias, prior to that, rulers of Muscovy were crowned as Grand Princes, although Ivan III the Great, his grandfather, styled himself tsar in his correspondence. Two weeks after his coronation, Ivan married his first wife Anastasia Romanovna, a member of the Romanov family, who became the first Russian tsaritsa. By being crowned Tsar, Ivan was sending a message to the world and to Russia, he was now the one and only ruler of the country. The new title symbolized an assumption of powers equivalent and parallel to those held by former Byzantine Emperor, the political effect was to elevate Ivans position. The new title not only secured the throne, but it also granted Ivan a new dimension of power and he was now a divine leader appointed to enact Gods will, as church texts described Old Testament kings as Tsars and Christ as the Heavenly Tsar. The newly appointed title was passed on from generation to generation
Ivan the Terrible
–
18th century depiction in the
State Historical Museum
Ivan the Terrible
–
Portrait of Ivan IV by
Viktor Vasnetsov, 1897 (
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow)
Ivan the Terrible
–
The Oprichniki by
Nikolai Nevrev. The painting shows the last minutes of boyarin Feodorov, arrested for treason. To mock his alleged ambitions on the Tsar's title, the nobleman was given Tsar's
regalia before execution.
Ivan the Terrible
–
Ivan the Terrible Showing His Treasures to
Jerome Horsey by
Alexander Litovchenko (1875)
35.
Kazan
–
Kazan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. With a population of 1,143,535, it is the eighth most populous city in Russia, Kazan lies at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka Rivers in European Russia. The Kazan Kremlin is a World Heritage Site, in April 2009, the Russian Patent Office granted Kazan the right to brand itself as the Third Capital of Russia. In 2009 it was chosen as the Sports capital of Russia, in 2015, Kazan was visited by 2.1 million tourists, which is a 20% increase in comparison with 2014. The Kazan Kremlin was visited by 1.5 million tourists in 2015 and hotel, the origin of the name Kazan is uncertain. The most accepted legends derive it from the Bulgar word qazan, one legend claims that the city was named after the river Kazanka, which was named after the son of a Bulgar governor dropped a copper cauldron into it. Other local legends, including research by the Tatar scholar Shigabetdin Marjani, if there was a Bulgar city on the site, estimates of the date of its foundation range from the early 11th century to the late 13th century. It was a border post between Volga Bulgaria and two Finnic tribes, the Mari and the Udmurt, another vexatious question is where the citadel was built originally. The oldest of these seems to be the Kremlin, if Kazan existed in the 11th and 12th centuries, it could have been a stop on a Volga trade route from Scandinavia to Baghdad. It was a center, and possibly a major city for Bulgar settlers in the Kazan region. Kazan became a center of a duchy which was a dependency of the Golden Horde, two centuries later, in the 1430s, Kipchak descendants of Genghis Khan, such as Ghiasetdin of Kazan, usurped power from its Bolghar dynasty. Some Tatars also went to Lithuania, brought by Vytautas the Great, in 1438, after the destruction of the Golden Horde, Kazan became the capital of the powerful Khanate of Kazan. The city bazaar, Taş Ayaq became the most important trade center in the region, craft-based manufacturing also thrived, as the city gained a reputation for its leather and gold goods, as well as for the opulence of its palaces and mosques. The citadel and Bolaq channel were reconstructed, giving the city a strong defensive capacity, the Russians managed to occupy the city briefly several times. Kazan Khanate was making constant plundering raids on Russia, slavery in Kazan Khanate was legal. The number of slaves was up to 10% of the population, most of the slaves were Russian people who were captured during raids. All captured men were forced to turn Mohammedan, otherwise they could be killed or sold into slavery to other Muslim countries, as a result of the Siege of Kazan in 1552, Russia under Ivan the Terrible conquered the city and massacred the majority of the population. Also as a result of the Siege of Kazan 8,000 slaves were set free, in spite of the fact that under the treaty of 1551 all Russian slaves must be released Kazan Khanate still kept a lot of Russian slaves
Kazan
–
Left to right, top to bottom: Spasskaya Tower,
Söyembikä Tower,
Qol Sharif Mosque; Palace of farmers, Epiphany Cathedral; View of Kazan
Kazan
–
Annunciation Cathedral of Kazan Kremlin, 1561–1562
Kazan
–
Kazan city map from the 19th century, Russian edition
Kazan
–
Dmitry Medvedev visits Kazan
36.
Russian Revolution (1917)
–
The Russian Revolution was a pair of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which dismantled the Tsarist autocracy and led to the eventual rise of the Soviet Union. The Russian Empire collapsed with the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II, in the second revolution that October, the Provisional Government was removed and replaced with a communist state. The February Revolution was a revolution focused around Petrograd, then capital of Russia, in the chaos, members of the Imperial parliament assumed control of the country, forming the Russian Provisional Government. The army leadership felt they did not have the means to suppress the revolution, the February Revolution took place in the context of heavy military setbacks during the First World War, which left much of the Russian Army in a state of mutiny. During this chaotic period there were frequent mutinies, protests and many strikes, when the Provisional Government chose to continue fighting the war with Germany, the Bolsheviks and other socialist factions campaigned for stopping the conflict. The Bolsheviks turned workers militias under their control into the Red Guards over which they exerted substantial control, the Bolsheviks appointed themselves as leaders of various government ministries and seized control of the countryside, establishing the Cheka to quash dissent. To end Russia’s participation in the First World War, the Bolshevik leaders signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany in March 1918, soon after, civil war erupted among the Reds, the Whites, the independence movements and the non-Bolshevik socialists. It continued for years, during which the Bolsheviks defeated both the Whites and all rival socialists. In this way, the Revolution paved the way for the creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922, the Russian Revolution of 1905 was said to be a major factor to the February Revolutions of 1917. The events of Bloody Sunday triggered a line of protests, a council of workers called the St. Petersburg Soviet was created in all this chaos, and the beginning of a communist political protest had begun. World War I prompted a Russian outcry directed at Tsar Nicholas II and it was another major factor contributing to the retaliation of the Russian Communists against their royal opponents. However, the problems were merely administrative, and not industrial as Germany was producing great amounts of munitions whilst constantly fighting on two major battlefronts, the war also developed a weariness in the city, owing to a lack of food in response to the disruption of agriculture. Food scarcity had become a problem in Russia, but the cause of this did not lie in any failure of the harvests. As a result, they tended to hoard their grain and to revert to subsistence farming, thus the cities were constantly short of food. At the same time rising prices led to demands for wages in the factories. The outcome of all this, however, was a criticism of the government rather than any war-weariness. The original fever of excitement, which had caused the name of St. Heavy losses during the war also strengthened thoughts that Tsar Nicholas II was unfit to rule, the Liberals were now better placed to voice their complaints, since they were participating more fully through a variety of voluntary organizations
Russian Revolution (1917)
–
Bolshevik forces marching on
Red Square
Russian Revolution (1917)
–
Soldiers blocking
Narva Gate on
Bloody Sunday
Russian Revolution (1917)
–
Russian soldiers marching in Petrograd in February 1917
Russian Revolution (1917)
–
The Petrograd Soviet Assembly meeting in 1917
37.
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
–
The Republic comprised sixteen autonomous republics, five autonomous oblasts, ten autonomous okrugs, six krais, and forty oblasts. Russians formed the largest ethnic group, the capital of the Russian SFSR was Moscow and the other major urban centers included Leningrad, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara. The Russian Soviet Republic was proclaimed on November 7,1917 as a sovereign state, the first Constitution was adopted in 1918. In 1922 the Russian SFSR signed the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR, the economy of Russia became heavily industrialized, accounting for about two-thirds of the electricity produced in the USSR. It was, by 1961, the third largest producer of petroleum due to new discoveries in the Volga-Urals region and Siberia, trailing only the United States and Saudi Arabia. In 1974, there were 475 institutes of education in the republic providing education in 47 languages to some 23,941,000 students. A network of territorially organized public-health services provided health care, the effects of market policies led to the failure of many enterprises and total instability by 1990. On June 12,1990, the Congress of Peoples Deputies adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty, on June 12,1991, Boris Yeltsin was elected the first President. On December 8,1991, heads of Russia, Ukraine, the agreement declared dissolution of the USSR by its founder states and established the Commonwealth of Independent States. On December 12, the agreement was ratified by the Russian Parliament, therefore Russian SFSR denounced the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and de facto declared Russias independence from the USSR. On December 25,1991, following the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev as president of the Soviet Union, on December 26,1991, the USSR was self-dissolved by the Soviet of Nationalities, which by that time was the only functioning house of the Supreme Soviet. After dissolution of the USSR, Russia declared that it assumed the rights and obligations of the dissolved central Soviet government, the new Russian constitution, adopted on December 12,1993 after a constitutional crisis, abolished the Soviet system of government in its entirety. Initially, the state did not have a name and wasnt recognized by neighboring countries for five months. Meanwhile, anti-Bolsheviks coined the mocking label Sovdepia for the nascent state of the Soviets of Workers, on January 25,1918 the third meeting of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets renamed the unrecognized state the Soviet Russian Republic. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on March 3,1918, on July 10,1918, the Russian Constitution of 1918 renamed the country the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. By 1918, during the Russian Civil War, several states within the former Russian Empire seceded, internationally, in 1920, the RSFSR was recognized as an independent state only by Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania in the Treaty of Tartu and by the short-lived Irish Republic. On December 30,1922, with the creation of the Soviet Union, the final Soviet name for the republic, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, was adopted in the Soviet Constitution of 1936. By that time, Soviet Russia had gained roughly the same borders of the old Tsardom of Russia before the Great Northern War of 1700
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
–
Flag (1954–1991)
38.
Leonid Markelov
–
Leonid Igorevich Markelov is a Russian politician and lawyer, who is serving as the head of the Mari El republic in Russia. He took office on January 14,2001, in the first round, Markelov came slightly ahead of incumbent Vyacheslav Kislitsyn with Markelov receiving 29% and Kislitsyn receiving 25% in a field of several other candidates. In the runoff two weeks later, Markelov was elected with 59% of the vote, in 1996, Markelov had been defeated by Kislitsyn, receiving 38% of the vote. Markelov was elected to a second 4-year term in 2004, receiving 56% of the vote, Markelov was born to a Russian Orthodox family living in Moscow, as the only child. His father, Igor Markelov was the chief of the USSR Ministry of Agriculture and his father died when Markelov was nine years old, leaving him solely dependent on his mother throughout most of his childhood. He was educated at the Military University of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation and he was a member of the Communist Party of the USSR from 1981 to 1991, while at the same time serving in the Soviet army. He was an attorney in 1992, and entered politics in 1999 and he is married to Irina Konstantinova Markelova, and together they have a son and a daughter. April 6,2017 Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed the head of Mari El Leonid Markelov, Markelov is a controversial figure both in Russia and the Finno-Ugric community. He has been criticized for repressing the indigenous ethnicities of Mari El, in early 2005, Markelov drew the ire of the international press when it was alleged that his authorities beat political dissidents and opponents of his governments with iron pipes. Numerous opposition members were beaten badly, no charges were brought to this incident, or for the other crimes of violence. During 2005, the Mari activist and chief editor Vladimir Kozlov was badly beaten by Markelovs enforcers after he published criticism of Leonid Markelovs politics
Leonid Markelov
–
Leonid Markelov (2010).
39.
Mari people
–
The Mari are a Finno-Ugric ethnic group, who have traditionally lived along the Volga and Kama rivers in Russia. Almost half of Maris today live in the Mari El republic, in the past, the Mari have also been known as the Cheremis in Russian and the Çirmeş in Tatar. In the 2002 Russian census,604,298 people identified themselves as Mari, almost 60% of Mari lived in rural areas. The Mari have their own language, also called Mari, which is a member of the Uralic language family and it is written with a modified version of the Cyrillic alphabet. In the 2002 census,451,033 people stated that spoke the Mari language. Maris have traditionally practiced a pagan faith that closely connected the individual with nature, according to their beliefs, nature exerts a magical influence over people. They relate to it as a sacred, powerful, and living being outside of man cannot exist. Nature serves as a source of absolute good who always helps man as long as he does not harm or oppose it, the Mari native religion also possesses a pantheon of gods who reside in the heavens, the most important of whom is known as the Great White God. Other lesser gods include the god of fire and the god of wind, the Mari also believe in a number of half-men, half-gods who live on earth. The most revered of these is Chumbulat, or Chumbylat, a renowned leader, christianity was adopted by the Mari in the 16th century after their territory was incorporated into the Russian Empire during the reign of Ivan IV the Terrible. Pagans constitute a significant minority of 25 to 40% of the Mari, most Mari are members of the Russian Orthodox Church. Osteopetrosis affects 1 newborn out of every 20,000 to 250,000 worldwide, during the Soviet Era, the Mari Section was set up under the auspices of Narkomnats, the Peoples Commissariat for nationalities. Its task was to facilitate the union of the Mari people with other people, to abolish anti-Russian mistrust. In practice this involved facilitating grain requisitions by the Soviet state, the recruitment of soldiers for the Red Army, Mari people were generally dis-empowered by these changes. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the situation in Mari El first improved, then declined to the point where the ethnic Mari people are undergoing forced Russification and cultural suppression. The ethnically Russian former Communist Head of State Leonid Markelov has led or allowed an attack on Mari culture. Under his leadership, the government ordered many Mari language newspapers to close, the Marla faith of the Mari people has encountered hostility as well. Vitaly Tanakov was charged with inciting religious, national, social, Mari people have responded to this pressure by organizing methods of cultural preservation and celebration, starting, for instance, a summer school to teach youth Mari language and culture
Mari people
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Ivan Palantai •
Valentin Kolumb Yakov Shketan
Mari people
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Mari orthodox monks and novices. 1894
Mari people
Mari people
40.
Mari native religion
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The Mari native religion, or Mari Paganism, is the ethnic religion of the Mari people, a Volga Finnic ethnic group based in the republic of Mari El, in Russia. The religion has undergone changes over time, particularly under the influence of neighbouring monotheisms, in the last few decades, while keeping its traditional features in the countryside, an organised Neopagan-kind revival has taken place. The Mari religion is based on the worship of the forces of nature, before the spread of monotheistic teachings amongst the Mari, they worshipped many gods, while recognising the primacy of a Great God, Kugu Jumo. In the 19th century, influenced by monotheism, the Pagan beliefs altered, some activists claim that the Mari native religion believers are subject to pressure by Russian authorities as part of a wider campaign to Russify Mari culture. Vitaly Tanakov, an adherent of the faith, was charged with inciting religious, national, social, followers of the Mari native religion perform public rituals and mass prayers and conduct charitable, cultural and educational activities. They train and educate the younger generation and publish and distribute religious literature, currently, there are four regional Mari native religion organizations. Prayer meetings and mass prayers are held in accordance with the calendar, it always takes into account the position of the Moon. Public prayers are held, usually in the sacred groves, ceremonies are held by a rank of priests. There is a significant discrepancy between the pantheons of the Lowlands Mari, who worship roughly 140 gods, and Highlands Mari, however most of these deities are different forms of other gods. Nine deities are the most important ones, and these are said to be hypostases of the high god Osh Kugu Jumo. The Mari native religion includes tree worship and animal sacrifices, the religion is one of Europes indigenous religions of unbroken lineage which have survived Christianisation, although it has co-existed with Russian Orthodoxy for generations. Many Mari today are baptized as Christians yet they attend traditional prayers rather than Church services, a sociological survey conducted in 2004 found that about 15 percent of the population of Mari El consider themselves adherents of the Mari native religion. Since Mari make up just 45 percent of the population of 700,000. A similar number was claimed by Victor Schnirelmann, for whom between a quarter and a half of the Mari either worship the Pagan gods or are adherents of Neopagan groups. Some gods and spirits in the Mari pantheon, Kugu Jumo, tul, god of fire, attribute of Kugu Jumo. Surt, spirit of the household, attribute of Kugu Jumo, saksa, god of fertility, attribute of Kugu Jumo. Tutyra, god of fog, attribute of Kugu Jumo, and other attributes of the godhead. Purysho, the god of fate, the caster and the creator of the future of all men, shudyr-Shamych, the god of the stars
Mari native religion
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Symbol of the Mari Native Religion.
41.
Russian Census (2002)
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Russian Census of 2002 was the first census of the Russian Federation since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, carried out on October 9 through October 16,2002. It was carried out by the Russian Federal Service of State Statistics, the census data were collected as of midnight October 9,2002. The census was intended to collect statistical information about the resident population of Russian Federation. All detailed census tables are for the resident population, a sample of the participants were also asked more detailed questions about their economic and housing situation. Also, the census also counted two more groups of people, Russian citizens currently living abroad for more one year in connection with the employment with the federal government. Persons permanently residing abroad, but temporarily present in Russia, Foreign citizens present in Russia as employees of foreign diplomatic missions or international organizations, and members of their household, were excluded from the census altogether. The Census recorded the resident population of 145,166,731 persons and that included urban population of 106,429,000 and rural population of 38,738,000. The non-resident populations included, Russian citizens living abroad in connection with the government service,107,288. Census participants were asked what country they were citizens of,142,442,000 respondents reported being Russian citizens, among them,44,000 also had citizenship of another country. Among Russias resident population,1,025,413 foreign citizens and 429,881 stateless persons were counted,1,269,023 persons did not report their citizenship. Among the questions asked were Are you competent in the Russian language, and What other languages are you competent in. As the census manual explained, competence meant either the ability to speak, read and write a language, the questions did not distinguish native and non-native speakers, nor did they try to measure the degree of language competence. For small children, presumably, the answer was based on the language spoken by the parents. 142.6 million of the responders claimed competence in Russian, other widely reported languages are listed in the table below. 1.42 million responders did not provide language information, for a more detailed list, see List of languages of Russia. Demographics of Russia Russian Empire Census Soviet Census Official census home page Population of Chechnya, was the Census correct
Russian Census (2002)
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Contents
42.
Soviet Census (1989)
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The census found the total population to be 286,730,819 inhabitants. In 1989, the Soviet Union ranked as the third most populous in the world, above the United States, although it was well behind China and India. In 1989, about half of the Soviet Unions total population lived in the Russian SFSR, almost two-thirds of the population was urban, leaving the rural population with some 34. 3%. In this way, its gradual increase continued, as shown by the represented by 47. 9%,56. 3% and 62. 3% of 1959,1970 and 1979 respectively. The previous postwar censuses, conducted in 1959,1970 and 1979, had enumerated 208,826,650,241,720,134, and 262,436,227 inhabitants respectively. In 1990, the Soviet Union was more populated than both the United States and Canada together, having some 40 million more inhabitants than the U. S. alone. However, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in late 1991, the next census was possibly planned for 1999. Research Guide to Russian and Soviet Censuses, Ithaca, Cornell University Press,1986, dewdney, Population change in the Soviet Union, 1979-1989, Geography, Vol.75, Pt.3, No. Subjects of Russia, on the www. statoids. com website
Soviet Census (1989)
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Census Logo
Soviet Census (1989)
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Soviet State Emblem
Soviet Census (1989)
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1989 Soviet census information pamphlet
Soviet Census (1989)
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1989 census form
43.
Russian Revolution of 1917
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The Russian Revolution was a pair of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which dismantled the Tsarist autocracy and led to the eventual rise of the Soviet Union. The Russian Empire collapsed with the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II, in the second revolution that October, the Provisional Government was removed and replaced with a communist state. The February Revolution was a revolution focused around Petrograd, then capital of Russia, in the chaos, members of the Imperial parliament assumed control of the country, forming the Russian Provisional Government. The army leadership felt they did not have the means to suppress the revolution, the February Revolution took place in the context of heavy military setbacks during the First World War, which left much of the Russian Army in a state of mutiny. During this chaotic period there were frequent mutinies, protests and many strikes, when the Provisional Government chose to continue fighting the war with Germany, the Bolsheviks and other socialist factions campaigned for stopping the conflict. The Bolsheviks turned workers militias under their control into the Red Guards over which they exerted substantial control, the Bolsheviks appointed themselves as leaders of various government ministries and seized control of the countryside, establishing the Cheka to quash dissent. To end Russia’s participation in the First World War, the Bolshevik leaders signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany in March 1918, soon after, civil war erupted among the Reds, the Whites, the independence movements and the non-Bolshevik socialists. It continued for years, during which the Bolsheviks defeated both the Whites and all rival socialists. In this way, the Revolution paved the way for the creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922, the Russian Revolution of 1905 was said to be a major factor to the February Revolutions of 1917. The events of Bloody Sunday triggered a line of protests, a council of workers called the St. Petersburg Soviet was created in all this chaos, and the beginning of a communist political protest had begun. World War I prompted a Russian outcry directed at Tsar Nicholas II and it was another major factor contributing to the retaliation of the Russian Communists against their royal opponents. However, the problems were merely administrative, and not industrial as Germany was producing great amounts of munitions whilst constantly fighting on two major battlefronts, the war also developed a weariness in the city, owing to a lack of food in response to the disruption of agriculture. Food scarcity had become a problem in Russia, but the cause of this did not lie in any failure of the harvests. As a result, they tended to hoard their grain and to revert to subsistence farming, thus the cities were constantly short of food. At the same time rising prices led to demands for wages in the factories. The outcome of all this, however, was a criticism of the government rather than any war-weariness. The original fever of excitement, which had caused the name of St. Heavy losses during the war also strengthened thoughts that Tsar Nicholas II was unfit to rule, the Liberals were now better placed to voice their complaints, since they were participating more fully through a variety of voluntary organizations
Russian Revolution of 1917
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Bolshevik forces marching on
Red Square
Russian Revolution of 1917
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Soldiers blocking
Narva Gate on
Bloody Sunday
Russian Revolution of 1917
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Russian soldiers marching in Petrograd in February 1917
Russian Revolution of 1917
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The Petrograd Soviet Assembly meeting in 1917
44.
Republic of Bashkortostan
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The Republic of Bashkortostan, also known as Bashkiria is a federal subject of Russia. It is located between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains and its capital is the city of Ufa. With the population of 4,072,292 as of the 2010 Census, Bashkurdistan, the first ethnic autonomy in Russia, was established on November 281917. On March 20,1919, it was transformed into the Bashkir ASSR, in accordance with the Constitution of Bashkortostan and Russian Federation Constitution, Bashkortostan is a state, but has no sovereignty. On 11 October 1990 Bashkortostan adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty,11 October is Republic Day in Bashkortostan. The name Bashkortostan derives from the name of the Bashkir ethnic group, while the root of the name is Turkic, the suffix -stan is Persian, common to many Eurasian country-names. They speak the Bashkir language, which belongs to the Kypchak branch of the Turkic languages, the first settlements in the territory of modern Bashkortostan date from the early Paleolithic period, but the Bronze Age spurred an upsurge in the population of this territory. When people of the Abashevo culture started settling here they possessed high skills in manufacturing bronze tools, weapons and they were the first to establish permanent settlements in the Southern Urals. Bashkortostan takes its name from its native people — the Bashkirs, the Russian name of the country — Bashkiriya — formed at the end of the 16th century. Originally it appeared in the forms Bashkir land, Bashkir’, Bashkirda, the ethnonym Bashkirs first became known in the 7th century. His contemporary Ibn-Ruste described the Bashkirs as an independent people, occupying territories on both sides of the Ural mountain ridge between Volga, Kama, Tobol and upstream of Yaik river. After the early-feudal Mongolian state had broken down in the 14th century, the tribes that lived there were headed by bi. After Kazan fell to Ivan the Terrible in 1554–1555, representatives of western and northwestern Bashkir tribes approached the Tsar with a request to voluntarily join Muscovy, starting from the second half of the 16th century, Bashkirias territory began taking shape as a part of the Russian state. Ufa Governorate, with a center in Ufa, was formed in 1865— another step towards territorial identification, after the Russian Revolution of 1917 are All-Bashkir Qoroltays on which a decision on the need to create a national federal republic within Russia. The congress was formed the government of Bashkurdistan, the Pre-parliament - Kese-Qoroltay and other bodies of power and administration, in March 1919, based on the agreements of the Russian Government with the Bashkir Government was formed Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. During the Soviet period, Bashkiria was granted broad autonomous rights— the first among other Russian regions, the administrative structure of the Bashkir ASSR was based on principles similar to those of other autonomous republics of Russia. On October 11,1990 the Supreme Soviet of the Republic adopted the Declaration on state sovereignty of the Bashkir ASSR, on February 25,1992, the Bashkir ASSR was renamed the Republic of Bashkortostan. Bashkortostan contains part of the southern Urals and the adjacent plains, many rivers are part of the deepwater transportation system of European Russia, they provide access to ports of the Baltic and Black seas
Republic of Bashkortostan
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Cave paintings in the Shulgan-Tash
Republic of Bashkortostan
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Flag
Republic of Bashkortostan
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Mausoleum of Turahan, 14th-century building
Republic of Bashkortostan
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Bashkirs near
Hamburg during the
Napoleonic Wars, c. 1813
45.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
World War II
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Clockwise from top left: Chinese forces in the
Battle of Wanjialing, Australian
25-pounder guns during the
First Battle of El Alamein, German
Stuka dive bombers on the
Eastern Front in December 1943, a U.S. naval force in the
Lingayen Gulf,
Wilhelm Keitel signing the
German Instrument of Surrender, Soviet troops in the
Battle of Stalingrad
World War II
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The
League of Nations assembly, held in
Geneva,
Switzerland, 1930
World War II
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Adolf Hitler at a German
National Socialist political rally in
Weimar, October 1930
World War II
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Italian soldiers recruited in 1935, on their way to fight the
Second Italo-Abyssinian War
46.
Russians
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Russians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe. The majority of Russians inhabit the state of Russia, while notable minorities exist in Ukraine, Kazakhstan. A large Russian diaspora exists all over the world, with numbers in the United States, Germany, Israel. Russians are the most numerous group in Europe. They are predominantly Orthodox Christians by religion, the Russian language is official in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, and also spoken as a secondary language in many former Soviet states. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians. One is русские, which most often means ethnic Russians, another is россияне, which means citizens of Russia. The former word refers to ethnic Russians, regardless of what country they live in, under certain circumstances this term may or may not extend to denote members of other Russian-speaking ethnic groups from Russia, or from the former Soviet Union. The latter word refers to all people holding citizenship of Russia, regardless of their ethnicity, translations into other languages often do not distinguish these two groups. The name of the Russians derives from the Rus people, the name Rus would then have the same origin as the Finnish and Estonian names for Sweden, Ruotsi and Rootsi. According to other theories the name Rus is derived from Proto-Slavic *roud-s-ь, the modern Russians formed from two groups of East Slavic tribes, Northern and Southern. The tribes involved included the Krivichs, Ilmen Slavs, Radimichs, Vyatiches, genetic studies show that modern Russians do not differ significantly from Belarusians and Ukrainians. Some ethnographers, like Zelenin, affirm that Russians are more similar to Belarusians, such Uralic peoples included the Merya and the Muromians. Outside archaeological remains, little is known about the predecessors to Russians in general prior to 859 AD when the Primary Chronicle starts its records and it is thought that by 600 AD, the Slavs had split linguistically into southern, western, and eastern branches. Later, both Belarusians and South Russians formed on this ethnic linguistic ground, the same Slavic ethnic population also settled the present-day Tver Oblast and the region of Beloozero. With the Uralic substratum, they formed the tribes of the Krivichs, in 2010, the worlds Russian population was 129 million people of which 86% were in Russia,11. 5% in the CIS and Baltic countries, with a further 2. 5% living in other countries. Roughly 111 million ethnic Russians live in Russia, 80% of whom live in the European part of Russia, ethnic Russians historically migrated throughout the area of former Russian Empire and Soviet Union, sometimes encouraged to re-settle in borderlands by the Tsarist and later Soviet government. On some occasions ethnic Russian communities, such as Lipovans who settled in the Danube delta or Doukhobors in Canada, after the Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War starting in 1917, many Russians were forced to leave their homeland fleeing the Bolshevik regime, and millions became refugees
Russians
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Three generations of a Russian family, ca. 1910
Russians
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East Slavic tribes and peoples, 8th-9th century
Russians
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Russia's Arctic coastline from the
White Sea to the
Bering Strait had been explored and settled by
Pomors, Russian settlers from
Novgorod
Russians
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Terek Cossacks of the north
Caucasus guarded the southern frontier
47.
Tatars
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The Tatars are a Turkic people living in Asia and Europe who were one of the five major tribal confederations in the Mongolian plateau in the 12th century CE. The name Tatar first appears in form on the Kul Tigin monument as
Tatars
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Persian miniature of the
Szigetvár campaign showing Ottoman troops and
Tatars as vanguard.
Tatars
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Contemporary distribution of
Kipchak languages: Kipchak–Bolgar Kipchak–Cuman Kipchak–Nogay and Kyrgyz–Kipchak
Tatars
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Map of Tartaria (1705)
Tatars
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Drawing of Mongols of the
Golden Horde outside
Vladimir presumably demanding submission, before sacking the city.
