1.
Moscow
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Moscow is the capital and most populous city of Russia, with 13.2 million residents within the city limits and 17.8 million within the urban area. Moscow has the status of a Russian federal city, Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, and scientific center of Russia and Eastern Europe, as well as the largest city entirely on the European continent. Moscow is the northernmost and coldest megacity and metropolis on Earth and it is home to the Ostankino Tower, the tallest free standing structure in Europe, the Federation Tower, the tallest skyscraper in Europe, and the Moscow International Business Center. Moscow is situated on the Moskva River in the Central Federal District of European Russia, the city is well known for its architecture, particularly its historic buildings such as Saint Basils Cathedral with its brightly colored domes. Moscow is the seat of power of the Government of Russia, being the site of the Moscow Kremlin, the Moscow Kremlin and Red Square are also one of several World Heritage Sites in the city. Both chambers of the Russian parliament also sit in the city and it is recognized as one of the citys landmarks due to the rich architecture of its 200 stations. In old Russian the word also meant a church administrative district. The demonym for a Moscow resident is москвич for male or москвичка for female, the name of the city is thought to be derived from the name of the Moskva River. There have been proposed several theories of the origin of the name of the river and its cognates include Russian, музга, muzga pool, puddle, Lithuanian, mazgoti and Latvian, mazgāt to wash, Sanskrit, majjati to drown, Latin, mergō to dip, immerse. There exist as well similar place names in Poland like Mozgawa, the original Old Russian form of the name is reconstructed as *Москы, *Mosky, hence it was one of a few Slavic ū-stem nouns. From the latter forms came the modern Russian name Москва, Moskva, in a similar manner the Latin name Moscovia has been formed, later it became a colloquial name for Russia used in Western Europe in the 16th–17th centuries. From it as well came English Muscovy, various other theories, having little or no scientific ground, are now largely rejected by contemporary linguists. The surface similarity of the name Russia with Rosh, an obscure biblical tribe or country, the oldest evidence of humans on the territory of Moscow dates from the Neolithic. Within the modern bounds of the city other late evidence was discovered, on the territory of the Kremlin, Sparrow Hills, Setun River and Kuntsevskiy forest park, etc. The earliest East Slavic tribes recorded as having expanded to the upper Volga in the 9th to 10th centuries are the Vyatichi and Krivichi, the Moskva River was incorporated as part of Rostov-Suzdal into the Kievan Rus in the 11th century. By AD1100, a settlement had appeared on the mouth of the Neglinnaya River. The first known reference to Moscow dates from 1147 as a place of Yuri Dolgoruky. At the time it was a town on the western border of Vladimir-Suzdal Principality
2.
Ryazan
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Ryazan is a city and the administrative center of Ryazan Oblast, Russia, located on the Oka River 196 kilometers southeast of Moscow. It is argued that the Ryazan kremlin was founded in 800, by Slavic settlers, initially it was built of wood, gradually replaced by masonry. The oldest preserved part of the dates back to the 12th century. However, the first written mention of the city, under the name of Pereslavl, at that time, the city was part of the independent Principality of Ryazan, which had existed since 1078 and which was centered on the old city of Ryazan. The first ruler of Ryazan was supposedly Yaroslav Sviatoslavich, Prince of Ryazan, by the end of the 12th century, the capital of Duchy was burnt several times by the armies of Suzdal. Ryazan was the first Russian city to be sacked by the Mongol horde of Batu Khan, on December 21,1237, it was thoroughly devastated and never fully recovered. As result of the sack, the seat of the principality was moved about 55 kilometers to the town of Pereslavl-Ryazansky, the site of the old capital now carries the name of Staraya Ryazan, close to Spassk-Ryazansky. Late in the 13th century, the Princes of Ryazan moved their capital to Pereslavl, the principality was finally incorporated into that of Moscow in 1521. Immediately after World War II, rapid development of the city began, Ryazan became a major industrial, scientific, and military center of the European part of Russia. Massive factories were constructed in the city, occupying the urban areas. Leading areas of industry are heavy and non-ferrous metallurgy, oil refining and machine-tool industry, mechanical engineering, more than half of the plants produce for export. Several positioned MANPADS protect the urban sky, besides the Airborne School, Ryazan hosts the Automobile School and Institute of Communications, a regiment of railway troops, airbase strategic bombers, and a training center in Diaghilev. Ryazan developed particularly rapidly while Nadezhda Nikolaevna Chumakova served as Chair of the Council of Peoples Deputies of Ryazan and Ryazan mayor, under Chumakova, the citys population increased more than seven times, from 72 to 520 thousand people. Chumakova oversaw the construction of social and cultural amenities, more than 20 urban areas, landscaping became a fundamental strategy for the development of the city at that time. Ryazan repeatedly won recognition among the cities of the Soviet Union for its landscaping, during her 26 years in office, Nadezhda Chumakova often accepted awards of the Red Banner of the USSR on behalf of Ryazan. In September 1999, Ryazan became one of the involved in the Russian apartment bombings episode. In the Political system of Ryazan, the legislature, a city council is the Ryazan City Duma, kind of the lower house of the municipality - Youth Parliament, preparing draft legislative initiatives. Executive power in the city of Ryazan carried by the administration headed by the city manager, control over the activities of the authorities is administered by the Public Chamber of the city of Ryazan, work with youth involved in the headquarters of youth activists
3.
Moscow State University
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Lomonosov Moscow State University is a coeducational and public research university located in Moscow, Russia. It was founded on January 25,1755 by Mikhail Lomonosov, MSU was renamed after Lomonosov in 1940 and was then known as Lomonosov University. It also claims to house the tallest educational building in the world and it is rated among the universities with the best reputation in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy, ivan Shuvalov and Mikhail Lomonosov promoted the idea of a university in Moscow, and Russian Empress Elizabeth decreed its establishment on January 251755. The first lectures were given on April 26th, russians still celebrate January 25th as Students Day. Saint Petersburg State University and Moscow State University engage in rivalry over the title of Russias oldest university. The present Moscow State University originally occupied the Principal Medicine Store on Red Square from 1755 to 1787, in the 18th century, the University had three departments, philosophy, medicine, and law. A preparatory college was affiliated with the University until its abolition in 1812, in 1779, Mikhail Kheraskov founded a boarding school for noblemen which in 1830 became a gymnasium for the Russian nobility. The university press, run by Nikolay Novikov in the 1780s, published the most popular newspaper in Imperial Russia, in 1804, medical education split into clinical, surgical, and obstetrics faculties. During 1884–1897, the Department of Medicine -- supported by donations. The campus, and medical education in general, were separated from the University in 1918, as of 2015, Devichye Pole was operated by the independent I. M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University and by various other state and private institutions. The roots of student unrest in the University reach deep into the nineteenth century, in 1905, a social-democratic organization emerged at the University and called for the overthrow of the Czarist government and the establishment of a republic in Russia. The imperial government repeatedly threatened to close the University, after the October Revolution of 1917, the institution began to admit the children of the proletariat and peasantry. In 1919, the University abolished fees for tuition and established a facility to help working-class children prepare for entrance examinations. During the implementation of Joseph Stalins First Five-Year Plan, prisoners from the Gulag were forced to construct parts of the newly expanded University, after 1991, nine new faculties were established. The following year, the University gained a status, it is funded directly from the state budget. On March 19,2008, Russias most powerful supercomputer to date and its peak performance of 60 TFLOPS makes it the fastest supercomputer in the Commonwealth of Independent States. Since 1953, most of the faculties have been situated on Sparrow Hills, the main building was designed by architect Lev Vladimirovich Rudnev
4.
Butyrka
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Butyrka prison is a prison in the Tverskoy District of central Moscow, Russia. It was the transit prison in Tsarist Imperial Russia. During Soviet times, it held political prisoners. Currently, Butyrka remains the largest of Moscow remand prisons, overcrowding continues to be a problem. The first references to Butyrka prison may be traced back to the 17th century, the current building was erected in 1879 near the Butyrsk gate on the site of a prison-fortress which had been built by the architect Matvei Kazakov during the reign of Catherine the Great. The towers of the old fortress once housed the rebellious Streltsy during the reign of Peter I, members of Narodnaya Volya were also prisoners of the Butyrka in 1883, as were the participants in the Morozov Strike of 1885. The Butyrka prison was known for its brutal regime, the prison administration resorted to violence anytime the inmates tried to protest. Its famous inmates include the revolutionary poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, the Russian revolutionary Nikolay Bauman. During the February Revolution, the workers of Moscow freed all the prisoners from the Butyrka. After the October Revolution, Butyrka remained a place of internment for political prisoners, during the Great Purge, about twenty thousand inmates at a time were imprisoned in Butyrka. Thousands of political prisoners were shot after investigations, later, prominent political prisoners included the writers Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Yevgenia Ginzburg. Varlam Shalamov notes, in one of his tales, that the Butyrka is extremely hot in summer, Eduard Limonov, in his drama Death in the Police Van, emphatically agrees. He says that, with the collapse of the Soviet regime, overcrowding has become a real issue, most of these people are politically unreliable subjects from the Caucasus. Moreover, inmates are brought to the tribunal in overcrowded police vans, Butyrka has its own slang, the wardens are called manti, the inmates patzani, to take drugs is smazatsia, i. e. to oil oneself. The word khuy is used profusely, on a lighter note, television has been allowed since 1995. Fabijan Abrantovich, a well-known Catholic priest and a pro-independence activist from Belarus, anna Abrikosova, a nun of the Dominican Order and prominent figure in the Russian Catholic Church. Andrei Amalrik, Russian historian and famed dissident during the 1960s, author of Will the Soviet Union Survive Until 1984. Władysław Anders, Polish general and prime minister, isaak Babel, writer, killed in 1940
5.
Russian language
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Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi
6.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
7.
Neoclassicism
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The main Neoclassical movement coincided with the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment, and continued into the early 19th century, laterally competing with Romanticism. In architecture, the style continued throughout the 19th, 20th, European Neoclassicism in the visual arts began c.1760 in opposition to the then-dominant Baroque and Rococo styles. Each neo-classicism selects some models among the range of classics that are available to it. They ignored both Archaic Greek art and the works of Late Antiquity, the Rococo art of ancient Palmyra came as a revelation, through engravings in Woods The Ruins of Palmyra. While the movement is described as the opposed counterpart of Romanticism. The case of the main champion of late Neoclassicism, Ingres, demonstrates this especially well. The revival can be traced to the establishment of formal archaeology, the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann were important in shaping this movement in both architecture and the visual arts. With the advent of the Grand Tour, a fad of collecting antiquities began that laid the foundations of many great collections spreading a Neoclassical revival throughout Europe, Neoclassicism in each art implies a particular canon of a classical model. In English, the term Neoclassicism is used primarily of the arts, the similar movement in English literature. This, which had been dominant for decades, was beginning to decline by the time Neoclassicism in the visual arts became fashionable. Though terms differ, the situation in French literature was similar, in music, the period saw the rise of classical music, and Neoclassicism is used of 20th-century developments. Ingress coronation portrait of Napoleon even borrowed from Late Antique consular diptychs and their Carolingian revival, much Neoclassical painting is more classicizing in subject matter than in anything else. A fierce, but often very badly informed, dispute raged for decades over the merits of Greek and Roman art, with Winckelmann. The work of artists, who could not easily be described as insipid, combined aspects of Romanticism with a generally Neoclassical style. Unlike Carstens unrealized schemes, the etchings of Giovanni Battista Piranesi were numerous and profitable and his main subject matter was the buildings and ruins of Rome, and he was more stimulated by the ancient than the modern. Neoclassicism in painting gained a new sense of direction with the success of Jacques-Louis Davids Oath of the Horatii at the Paris Salon of 1785. Despite its evocation of republican virtues, this was a commission by the royal government, David managed to combine an idealist style with drama and forcefulness. David rapidly became the leader of French art, and after the French Revolution became a politician with control of government patronage in art
8.
Catherine the Great
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Catherine II of Russia, also known as Catherine the Great, was a Russian monarch. She was the female leader of Russia, reigning from 1762 until her death in 1796 at the age of 67. She came to following a coup détat when her husband. Russia was revitalised under her reign, growing larger and stronger than ever, in both her accession to power and in rule of her empire, Catherine often relied on her noble favourites, most notably Grigory Orlov and Grigory Potemkin. In the west, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, ruled by Catherines former lover, king Stanisław August Poniatowski, was eventually partitioned, in the east, Russia started to colonise Alaska, establishing Russian America. Catherine reformed the administration of Russian guberniyas, and many new cities, an admirer of Peter the Great, Catherine continued to modernise Russia along Western European lines. However, military conscription and the continued to depend on serfdom. This was one of the reasons behind several rebellions, including the large-scale Pugachevs Rebellion of cossacks. The period of Catherine the Greats rule, the Catherinian Era, is considered the Golden Age of the Russian Empire. The Manifesto on Freedom of the Nobility, issued during the reign of Peter III and confirmed by Catherine. Construction of many mansions of the nobility, in the classical style endorsed by the Empress and she enthusiastically supported the ideals of The Enlightenment, thus earning the status of an enlightened despot. Catherine was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Kingdom of Prussia as Princess Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, she was nicknamed Figchen. Her father, Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst, belonged to the ruling German family of Anhalt, two of her first cousins became Kings of Sweden, Gustav III and Charles XIII. In accordance with the then prevailing in the ruling dynasties of Germany, she received her education chiefly from a French governess. She once wrote to her correspondent Baron Grimm, I see nothing of interest in it, although Catherine was born a princess, her family had very little money. Catherines rise to power was supported by her mothers relatives who were both wealthy nobles and royal relations. Catherine first met Peter III at the age of 10, based on her writings, she found Peter detestable upon meeting him. She disliked his pale complexion and his fondness for alcohol at such a young age, Peter also still played with toy soldiers
9.
Kremlin Senate
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The Kremlin Senate is a building within the grounds of the Moscow Kremlin in Russia. Initially constructed from 1776 to 1787, it housed the Moscow branch of the Governing Senate. Currently, it houses the Russian presidential administration and is a secured and restricted area closed to the public. At present, only the southern corner façade, opposite the Tsar Cannon can be viewed, the Kremlin Senate is located in the northern part of the Kremlin grounds, between the Kremlin Arsenal and Kremlin Presidium. It is shaped like a triangle with each side approximately 100 metres in length. The building has three floors and is painted in the yellow color as many other administrative buildings within the Moscow Kremlin. The triangular structure has a courtyard, and is divided by hallways into a central pentahedral portion. In the middle of the main façade is an arched passage fashioned like an arch leading to the inner yard. Inside is Rotunda Hall, once called The Pantheon of Russia and its green dome, carrying the state flag as seen from the Red Square, would later become a Soviet propaganda icon. However, originally it carried a statue of St. George, the exterior styling of the building is an unusual mix of Doric and Ionic order columns. Inside the building, the large “Catherine Hall” is designed as a parade room and this is a circular hall, with a 24.7 meter diameter under extensive bas-relief ornamentation depicting Catherine as the Greek goddess Minerva. The Governing Senate was a created by Tsar Peter the Great in 1711. It had six departments, four of which were in St Petersburg, empress Catherine the Great had been a frequent guest in Moscow at the time when the city, neglected by past monarchs, did not have enough state offices. The site once housed the Trubetskoy family palace and at least three churches, in 1779 Blank was demoted, and Kazakov took the lead. He envisaged Governing Senate as a “Temple of Law”, and designed the structure in a Neoclassical style characterized by symmetry, the building was completed in 1787, with interior work continuing to 1790. According to Ivan Kondratiev, Catherine was so impressed by the building that she gave Kazakov her gloves, saying Ill pay your bills later and she indeed repaid Kazakov with diamonds, promotion and a pension. The building later served as a model for other official buildings in other Russian cities in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Later, in line with reforms of Catherines successors, the building lost its national functions and became the seat of Moscow Regional Court
10.
Fire of Moscow (1812)
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The fire destroyed almost the entire city of Moscow. The majority of Moscow residents left the city during August 1812, before leaving Moscow Count Rostopchin gave orders to have the Kremlin and major public buildings either blown up or set on fire. But this was not the foremost cause of the fire destroyed the city. As the bulk of the French army moved into the city and their cause has never been determined and both neglect as well as Rostopchins orders may be among possible reasons. Today, the majority of historians blames the initial fires on Russian sabotage and this version of events is confirmed by General Armand de Caulaincourt. He states that they had been in Moscow for three days and that evening a small fire had broken out but was extinguished and attributed to the carelessness of the troops. Later that evening Coulaincourt was woken by his valet with the news that for three quarters of an hour the city has been in flames, fires continued to break out in multiple separate points. Incendiarists were arrested and interrogated and declared that their commanding officer had ordered them to burn everything, houses had been designated to this end. I saw the fuses on the spot and many were taken to the Emperor and he goes on to write The examination of the police rank-and-file… all proved that the fire had been prepared and executed by order of Count Rostopchin. The catastrophe started as many fires, which promptly grew out of control. The fires spread quickly since most buildings in Moscow were made of wood, and although Moscow had a fire brigade, their equipment had previously either been removed or destroyed on Rostopchins orders. When Napoleon retreated to a castle outside the city, his troops finally lost their discipline and began to loot, even hard punishments could not prevent the plundering, beating or raping of Moscows citizens by French soldiers during the fire. The flames spread into the Kremlins arsenal, but the fire was put out by French Guardsmen, the burning of Moscow is reported to have been visible up to 215 km away. Some of those fires will inevitably get out of control, without an efficient firefighting action, these individual building fires will spread to become neighborhood fires, and ultimately a citywide conflagration. Dates in Gregorian calendar and numbers referenced to Clausewitz and Tarle September 8 - Russian army began retreating east from Borodino, September 12 - Russian army, followed by Joachim Murats vanguard, set camp at Fili, Russian vanguard lodged in Dorogomilovo. Peak of civilian flight from Moscow, next day, Russian military council at Fili agreed to abandon Moscow without fighting. September 14 - Russian army marched through Moscow into a road to Ryazan. French army crossed Moskva River in three columns in Fili, Dorogomilovo and Luzhniki, converging on the city center, main body of La Grande Armée counted less than 90,000 men, Murat with some 25,000 troops was dispatched east to follow Russian retreat
11.
Dmitry Ukhtomsky
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Prince Dmitry Vasilyevich Ukhtomsky, Дмитрий Васильевич Ухтомский was the chief architect of Moscow, Russia during the reign of Empress Elizabeth. Ukhtomsky was born in a village to the north of Yaroslavl, at the age of 12, he moved to Moscow and studied there at the School of Mathematics and Navigation until 1733. He studied architecture and worked at Ivan Michurins workshop until 1741, in 1742, Korobov supported Ukhtomskys nomination for his first professional title and delegated him the management of a firm. In 1744, Ukhtomsky acquired a full license and the rank of captain in state hierarchy. Ukhtomskys first public success were the temporary pavilions and arched for the coronation of Empress Elisabeth I of Russia in 1742, in 1753-1757 he rebuild one of these arched into landmark Red Gates, which stood until 1927. Since the 1740s, he built buildings in nearby Basmanny District, notably the extant Church of Martyr Nikita. The grand bell-tower of the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra,81 meter tall, was one of several projects where Ukhtomsky worked first with his mentor Michurin, present-day Kuznetsky Most, literally Blacksmiths Bridge, stands on the site of a 120-meter long bridge over Neglinnaya River, also designed by Ukhtomsky. The bridge, the palace in German Quarter and many buildings by Ukhtomsky were destroyed by accidental fires. For the first time in history of Moscow, Ukhtomsky produced master plans for redevelopment of areas destroyed by the fires of 1748 and 1752, Ukhtomsky also supervised repairs in Moscow Kremlin in the 1750s. He trained and influenced Matvei Kazakov, Ivan Starov, Alexander Kokorinov, in 1760, Ukhtomsky was accused of fraud and dismissed from his job, his school was closed in 1764. In 1767 he left Moscow forever, despite a 1770 verdict in his favor, Ухтомский и его школа, М.1954
12.
Tver
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Tver is a city and the administrative center of Tver Oblast, Russia. It is situated at the confluence of the Volga and Tvertsa Rivers, the city was known as Kalinin from 1931 to 1990. Tver’s foundation year is accepted to be 1135, although there is no universal agreement on this date. Originally a minor settlement of Novgorodian traders, it passed to the Grand Prince of Vladimir in 1209, in 1246, Alexander Nevsky granted it to his younger brother Yaroslav Yaroslavich, from whom a dynasty of local princes descended. Four of them were killed by the Golden Horde and were proclaimed saints by the Russian Orthodox church, formerly a land of woods and bogs, the Principality of Tver was quickly transformed into one of the richest and most populous Russian states. As the area was accessible for Tatar raids, there was a great influx of population from the recently devastated south. By the end of the century, it was ready to vie with Moscow for supremacy in Russia, both Tver and Moscow were young cities, so the outcome of their rivalry was far from being certain. Mikhail, the Grand Prince of Tver, who ascended the throne of Vladimir in 1305, was one of the most beloved of medieval Russian rulers and his policy of open conflict with the Golden Horde led to his assassination there in 1318. His son Dmitry the Terrible Eyes succeeded him, and, concluding an alliance with the mighty Grand Duchy of Lithuania, exasperated by Dmitrys influence, Prince Ivan Kalita of the Grand Duchy of Moscow engineered his murder by the Mongols in 1326. On hearing the news of crime, the city revolted against the Horde. The Horde joined its forces with Muscovites and brutally repressed the rebellion, many citizens were killed, enslaved or deported. This was the blow to Tver’s aspirations for supremacy in Russia. In the second half of the 14th century, Tver was further weakened by struggles between its princes. Two senior branches of the house, those of Kashin and Kholmsky. The claimers were backed up by Moscow and eventually settled at the Moscow Kremlin court, during the Great Feudal War in the Grand Duchy of Moscow, Tver once again rose to prominence and concluded defensive alliances with Lithuania, Novgorod, Byzantium, and the Golden Horde. Grand Prince Boris of Tver sent one of his men, Afanasy Nikitin, to search for gold, nikitin’s travelogue, describing his journey from 1466 to 1472, is probably the first ever firsthand account of India by a European. A monument to Nikitin was opened on the Volga embankment in 1955, at last, on September 12,1485, the forces of Ivan the Great seized the city. The principality was given as an appanage to Ivan’s grandson, only to be abolished several decades later, last scions of the ruling dynasty were executed by Ivan the Terrible during the Oprichnina
13.
Vasily Bazhenov
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Vasily Ivanovich Bazhenov was a Russian neoclassical architect, graphic artist, architectural theorist and educator. Bazhenov and his associates Matvey Kazakov and Ivan Starov were the local architects of the Russian Enlightenment. Bazhenovs early success was followed by a professional and private life. His two main projects were abandoned for political or financial reasons. His magnum opus, the neoclassical Grand Kremlin Palace, was cancelled shortly after groundbreaking, the imperial palace in Tsaritsyno Park fell victim to the Battle of the Palaces, Bazhenovs palace core was demolished on the orders of Catherine II. Another project, for the Moscow State University building, ended in a conflict with Bazhenovs former benefactor Prokofi Demidov. Before his death, Bazhenov implored his children to stay aside from the construction business. Even his place of birth and the location of Bazhenovs grave are unknown, the exact year and place of Bazhenovs birth is uncertain, he was born in 1737 or 1738 in a family of a church clerk either in Moscow or in the village of Dolskoye near Maloyaroslavets. According to the version, the family relocated to Moscow when Vasily was three months old. In 1753 Vasily volunteered into the Kremlin-based architectural company of Dmitry Ukhtomsky, there Bazhenov acquired practical construction skills, poverty forced him to seek paid work instead of classroom training. In 1755 Bazhenov joined the first class of the newly opened Moscow State University, Bazhenovs first biographer, Eugene Bolkhovitinov, wrote that Bazhenov also studied at the Slavic Greek Latin Academy but this opinion is firmly refuted by 20th century biographers. Bolkhovitinov, perhaps, knowingly twisted the facts to raise the prestige of clerical colleges and they, along with twenty boys selected in Saint Petersburg, became the first class of the Academy. Three years later Bazhenov and painter Anton Losenko became the first students of the Academy of Arts to be awarded a scholarship out of Russia, Bazhenov trained in Paris at the workshop of Charles De Wailly. Later, Bazhenov became the promoter of French neoclassicism in Russia. Next year, Bazhenov followed Orlov into Moscow where he would live for most of his life giving a Russian reality to French Classical. Orlov, fascinated by the proposal, rightfully questioned the feasibility of the enormous edifice, the largest neoclassical complex in Europe, if ever completed, would have replaced the Kremlin itself, leaving only its cathedrals intact. The palace would have enclosed the Kremlin Cathedrals, obstructing their view from across the Moskva River. The river itself should have been cleaned up, regulated and flanked by an embankment sided with logs, layout of the new Kremlin was the most inventive planning effort of Catherines reign
14.
Tverskaya Street
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Tverskaya Street, known as Gorky Street between 1935 and 1990, is the main and probably best-known radial street in Moscow. The street runs Northwest from the central Manege Square in the direction of Saint Petersburg, the route continues further as First Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street, Leningradsky Avenue and Leningradskoye Highway. Tourists are told that Tverskaya Street existed as early as the 12th century and its importance for the medieval city was immense, as it connected Moscow with its superior, and later chief rival, Tver. At that time, the crossed the Neglinnaya River. The first stone bridge across the Neglinnaya was set up in 1595, in the 17th and 18th centuries, Tverskaya Street was renowned as the centre of Moscows social life. The nobility considered it fashionable to settle in this district, among the Palladian mansions dating from the reign of Catherine the Great are the residence of the mayor of Moscow, and the English Club. The mayors residence among a number of historic buildings was moved about 14 meters for the widening of the Gorky Street during Stalins time. On the square before it stands a statue of the founder of Moscow, Yuri Dolgoruky. Several triumphal arches were constructed to commemorate coronation ceremonies, in 1792, the Tverskaya Square was laid out before the residence of the governor of Moscow as a staging ground for mass processions and parades. In 1947, the square was decorated with a statue of Prince Yury Dolgoruky. During Pushkins time, the Tverskaya was lined with five churches, towards the end of the 19th century, the street was reconstructed, with stately neoclassical mansions giving way to grandiose commercial buildings in an eclectic mixture of historical styles. A characteristic edifice of the time is the eclectic Hotel National, Moscow, the Society gave its last performance there on 3 January 1891 and the building burnt down on the night of January 10. Further expansion occurred in line with Joseph Stalins 1935 master plan, arkady Mordvinov, who handled this ambitious project, retained some historical buildings, like the ornately decorated Savvinskoye Podvorye by Ivan Kuznetsov. This building was moved to a new foundation North from the new street line, the project was only partially completed before World War II, more Stalinist blocks appeared in the 1940s and 1950s, still leaving a lot of 19th-century buildings. Most of them were torn down later, with a few exceptions like Yermolova Theatre still standing, intourist Hotel, a 23-story tower built in 1970, has been demolished in 2002 and replaced with an equally controversial hotel block. Tverskaya Street runs from the Manege Square through the Tverskoy District and its extension, First Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street, continues further on Northwest right up to Belorussky Rail Terminal, changing its name again into Leningradsky Prospekt. It keeps the same direction before diverging into Volokolamskoye Shosse and Leningradskoye Shosse, Tverskaya Street is the most expensive shopping street in Moscow and Russia. According to an index published by global real estate company Colliers International in 2008, it is now the third most expensive street in the world and it is the center of the citys nightlife and entertainment
15.
Gothic Revival architecture
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Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. Gothic Revival draws features from the original Gothic style, including decorative patterns, finials, scalloping, lancet windows, hood mouldings, the Gothic Revival movement emerged in 19th-century England. Its roots were intertwined with deeply philosophical movements associated with a re-awakening of High Church or Anglo-Catholic belief concerned by the growth of religious nonconformism, ultimately, the Anglo-Catholicism tradition of religious belief and style became widespread for its intrinsic appeal in the third quarter of the 19th century. The Gothic Revival was paralleled and supported by medievalism, which had its roots in antiquarian concerns with survivals, as industrialisation progressed, a reaction against machine production and the appearance of factories also grew. Proponents of the such as Thomas Carlyle and Augustus Pugin took a critical view of industrial society. To Pugin, Gothic architecture was infused with the Christian values that had been supplanted by classicism and were being destroyed by industrialisation, poems such as Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson recast specifically modern themes in medieval settings of Arthurian romance. In German literature, the Gothic Revival also had a grounding in literary fashions, guarino Guarini, a 17th-century Theatine monk active primarily in Turin, recognized the Gothic order as one of the primary systems of architecture and made use of it in his practice. Some of the earliest evidence of a revival in Gothic architecture is from Scotland, inveraray Castle, constructed from 1746, with design input from William Adam, displays the incorporation of turrets. These were largely conventional Palladian style houses that incorporated some features of the Scots baronial style. The eccentric landscape designer Batty Langley even attempted to improve Gothic forms by giving them classical proportions, a younger generation, taking Gothic architecture more seriously, provided the readership for J. Brittens series of Cathedral Antiquities, which began appearing in 1814. In 1817, Thomas Rickman wrote an Attempt. to name and define the sequence of Gothic styles in English ecclesiastical architecture, the categories he used were Norman, Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular. It went through numerous editions and was still being republished by 1881. The largest and most famous Gothic cathedrals in the U. S. A. are St. Patricks Cathedral in New York City and Washington National Cathedral on Mount St. Alban in northwest Washington, D. C. One of the biggest churches in Gothic Revival style in Canada is Basilica of Our Lady Immaculate in Ontario, Gothic Revival architecture was to remain one of the most popular and long-lived of the Gothic Revival styles of architecture. The revived Gothic style was not limited to architecture, classical Gothic buildings of the 12th to 16th Centuries were a source of inspiration to 19th-century designers in numerous fields of work. Architectural elements such as pointed arches, steep-sloping roofs and fancy carvings like lace ant lattice work were applied to a range of Gothic Revival objects. Sir Walter Scotts Abbotsford exemplifies in its furnishings the Regency Gothic style, parties in medieval historical dress and entertainment were popular among the wealthy in the 1800s but has spread in the late 20th century to the well-educated middle class as well. By the mid-19th century, Gothic traceries and niches could be inexpensively re-created in wallpaper, the illustrated catalogue for the Great Exhibition of 1851 is replete with Gothic detail, from lacemaking and carpet designs to heavy machinery
16.
Rotunda (architecture)
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A rotunda is any building with a circular ground plan, and sometimes covered by a dome. It can also refer to a room within a building. The Pantheon in Rome is a famous rotunda, a Band Rotunda is a circular bandstand, usually with a dome. The rotunda has historical and architectural value because it was widespread in medieval Central Europe, a great number of parochial churches were built in this form in the 9th to 11th centuries BCE in Central Europe. This type of circular shaped parochial building can be found in great number in Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Croatia, Austria, Bavaria, Dalmatia, Germany, and it was thought of as a structure descending from the Roman Pantheon. However, it can be found mainly not on former Roman territories, generally its size was 6–9 meters inner diameter and the apsis was directed toward the east. Sometimes 3 or 4 apsides were glued to the central circle, several types of rotundas are found in the Carpathian Basin, within the former boundaries of Medieval Hungary. The role and form developed from gradual enlargements of ancient small village churches, many of them still stand today, e. g. in Nagytótlak, Kallósd and Kissikátor in Hungary or in Bíňa and Šivetice in Slovakia. In many places the ancient foundations have been excavated and conserved, the village church of Sárospatak is complete with a simple circular nave and an eastern apse. The church of Alagimajor at Dunakeszi was enlarged toward the apse in the 14th century, in many cases the rotunda was used as the apse of the villages new and larger church. Such semi-circle apses are preserved all over the Carpathian Basin, rotundas of six apses, a most interesting form, are found at Karcsa, Kiszombor in Hungary, at Horjany in Ukraine and several places in Armenia. There is a connection between Central European and Caucasian rotundas of the 9th to 11th centuries BCE. Several Armenian built rotunda churches have sixfold arched central apsis, i. e. at Aragatz, Bagaran, Bagnayr, Botshor, at the same time eightfold arched central buildings are also frequently occurring in Armenia, Ani, Irind, Varzhahan. It was a suggestion that there was not only western European, temple of Heaven construction completed on 1420 during Yongle Emperor who also constructed Forbidden City of China. Fujian Tulou is a traditional rural dwellings of the Hakka in Fujian region of China and they are built between the 12th and the 20th centuries. The Baptistery at the Piazza dei Miracoli, Pisa, Italy, the Church of the Rotonda in Thessaloniki, built as the Tomb of Galerius in 306 AD. The St George Rotunda in Sofia, Bulgaria, a 4th-century Early Christian church, St. George Cathedral Church at Zvartnots, Armenia. St. Martins Rotunda in Vyšehrad Castle, Prague, Czech Republic, the Rotunda of St Marija Assunta in Mosta, Malta
17.
Paul I of Russia
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Paul I reigned as Emperor of Russia between 1796 and 1801. His reign lasted five years, ending with his assassination by conspirators and his most important achievement was the adoption of the laws of succession to the Russian throne - rules that lasted until the end of the Romanov dynasty and of the Russian Empire. He became de facto Grand Master of the Order of Hospitallers, Paul was born in the Palace of Empress Elizabeth in Saint Petersburg. He was the son of the Grand Duchess Catherine, later Empress Catherine the Great, who was the wife of Elizabeths heir and nephew, the Grand Duke Peter, later Emperor Peter III. During his infancy, Paul was taken immediately from his mother by the Empress Elizabeth, as a boy, he was reported to be intelligent and good-looking. His pug-nosed facial features in later life are attributed to an attack of typhus, some claim that his mother Catherine hated him, and was restrained from putting him to death. Paul was put in the charge of a governor, Nikita Ivanovich Panin. It is interesting to note that Panins nephew went on to one of Pauls assassins. The Russian Imperial court, first of Elizabeth and then of Catherine, was not a home for a lonely, needy. His tutor, Poroshin, complained that he was always in a hurry, the use made of his name by the rebel Yemelyan Pugachev, who impersonated his father Peter, tended no doubt to render Pauls position more difficult. On the birth of his first child in 1777 the Empress gave him an estate, Paul and his wife gained leave to travel through western Europe in 1781–1782. In 1783 the Empress granted him another estate at Gatchina, where he was allowed to maintain a brigade of soldiers whom he drilled on the Prussian model, an unpopular stance at the time. Catherine the Great and her son and heir, the future Paul I, the aunt of Catherines husband, Empress Elizabeth, took up the child as a passing fancy. Elizabeth proved an obsessive but incapable caretaker, as she had raised no children of her own, Paul was supervised by a variety of caregivers. Roderick McGrew briefly relates the neglect to which the infant heir was sometimes subject, On one occasion he fell out of his crib, even after Elizabeths death, relations with Catherine hardly improved. Paul was often jealous of the favours she would shower upon her lovers, in one instance the empress gave to one of her court favourites fifty thousand Rubles on her birthday, while Paul received a cheap watch. Pauls early isolation from his mother created a distance between them which later events would reinforce and she never considered inviting him to share her power in governing Russia. And once Pauls son Alexander was born, it appeared that she had found a suitable heir
18.
Gothic architecture
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Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished in Europe during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture and its characteristics include the pointed arch, the ribbed vault and the flying buttress. Gothic architecture is most familiar as the architecture of many of the cathedrals, abbeys. It is also the architecture of many castles, palaces, town halls, guild halls, universities and to a less prominent extent, private dwellings, for this reason a study of Gothic architecture is largely a study of cathedrals and churches. A series of Gothic revivals began in mid-18th-century England, spread through 19th-century Europe and continued, largely for ecclesiastical and university structures, the term Gothic architecture originated as a pejorative description. Hence, François Rabelais, also of the 16th century, imagines an inscription over the door of his utopian Abbey of Thélème, Here enter no hypocrites, slipping in a slighting reference to Gotz and Ostrogotz. Authorities such as Christopher Wren lent their aid in deprecating the old medieval style, the Company disapproved of several of these new manners, which are defective and which belong for the most part to the Gothic. Gothic architecture is the architecture of the medieval period, characterised by use of the pointed arch. As an architectural style, Gothic developed primarily in ecclesiastical architecture, the greatest number of surviving Gothic buildings are churches. The Gothic style is most particularly associated with the cathedrals of Northern France. At the end of the 12th century, Europe was divided into a multitude of city states, norway came under the influence of England, while the other Scandinavian countries and Poland were influenced by trading contacts with the Hanseatic League. Angevin kings brought the Gothic tradition from France to Southern Italy, throughout Europe at this time there was a rapid growth in trade and an associated growth in towns. Germany and the Lowlands had large flourishing towns that grew in comparative peace, in trade and competition with other, or united for mutual weal. Civic building was of importance to these towns as a sign of wealth. England and France remained largely feudal and produced grand domestic architecture for their kings, dukes and bishops, the Catholic Church prevailed across Europe at this time, influencing not only faith but also wealth and power. Bishops were appointed by the lords and they often ruled as virtual princes over large estates. The early Medieval periods had seen a growth in monasticism, with several different orders being prevalent. Foremost were the Benedictines whose great abbey churches vastly outnumbered any others in France, a part of their influence was that towns developed around them and they became centers of culture, learning and commerce
19.
Naryshkin Baroque
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Naryshkin baroque is essentially a fusion of traditional Russian architecture with baroque elements imported from Central Europe. It is in contrast to the radical approach of Petrine baroque. Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg and the Menshikov tower in Moscow, the first baroque churches were built in the estates of the Naryshkin family of Moscow boyars. It was the family of Natalia Naryshkina, Peter the Greats mother, most notable in this category of small suburban churches were the Intercession in Fili, the Sign in Dubrovitsy, and the Saviour in Ubory. They were built in red brick with profuse detailed decoration in white stone, as the style gradually spread around Russia, many monasteries were remodeled after the latest fashion. The most delightful of these were the Novodevichy Convent and the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow, as well as Krutitsy metochion and Solotcha Cloister near Riazan. Civic architecture also sought to conform to the aesthetics, e. g. the Sukharev Tower in Moscow. The most important architects associated with the Naryshkin Baroque were Yakov Bukhvostov, in the 1730s the Moscow Baroque style gave way to the Rastrelliesque, or Elizabethan, Baroque. A History of Russian Architecture ISBN 978-0-521-40333-7 Petrine Baroque Octagon on cube Naryshkin-Stroganov Baroque
20.
Mikhail Lermontov
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His influence on later Russian literature is still felt in modern times, not only through his poetry, but also through his prose, which founded the tradition of the Russian psychological novel. Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov was born in Moscow into a noble family. He had been captured by the Russian troops in Poland in the early 17th century, family legend asserted that George Learmonth descended from the famed 13th-century Scottish poet Thomas the Rhymer. Lermontovs father, Yuri Petrovich Lermontov, like his father before him, having moved up the ranks to captain, he married the sixteen-year-old Maria Mikhaylovna Arsenyeva, a wealthy young heiress of a prominent aristocratic Stolypin family. Lermontovs maternal grandmother, Elizaveta Arsenyeva, regarded their marriage as a mismatch, on October 15,1814, in Moscow where the family temporarily moved to, Maria gave birth to her son Mikhail. The marriage proved ill-suited and the couple grew apart. There is no evidence as to what had precipitated the quarrels theyve had. An earlier biographer, Pavel Viskovatov, suggested the discord might have been caused by Yuris affair with a woman named Yulia. Apparently it was her husbands violent, erratic behavior and the stresses that accounted for Maria Mikhaylovnas early demise. Her health quickly deteriorated, she developed tuberculosis and died on 27 February 1817, nine days after Marias death a final row broke out in Tarkhany and Yuri rushed away to his Kropotovo estate in Tula Governorate where his five sisters resided. Yelizaveta Arsenyeva launched a formidable battle for her grandson, promising to disinherit him if his father took the boy away. Eventually the two agreed that the boy should stay with his grandmother until the age of 16. Father and son separated and, at the age of three, Lermontov began a spoilt and luxurious life with his grandmother and numerous relatives. This bitter family feud formed a plot of Lermontovs early drama Menschen und Leidenschaften, in June 1817 Yelizaveta Alekseyevna moved her grandson to Penza. In 1821 they returned to Tarkhany and spent the six years there. The doting grandmother spared no expense to provide the young Lermontov with the best schooling and he received an extensive home education, became fluent in French and German, learned to play several musical instruments and proved a gifted painter. While living with the grandmother, Mikhail hardly met with his father, but the boys health was fragile, he suffered from scrofula and rickets and was kept under close surveillance of a French doctor, Anselm Levis. Colonel Capet, a Napoleon army prisoner-of-war who settled in Russia after 1812, was the boys first, a German pedagogue, Levy, who succeeded Capet, introduced Mikhail to Goethe and Schiller
21.
Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy
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Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy - is a higher military educational institution for training and retraining of engineers for the Russian Air Force. It is the world’s largest and oldest scientific school of aeronautics, the academy has the main campus in Moscow, and training centers in Monino, Noginsk and Kashira. №1 - aircraft, №2 - aircraft armament, №3 - aircraft equipment, №4 - aviation electronic equipment, №5 - training of foreign specialists, through its 90-year history the academy has undergone many reorganizations and name changes. The academy traces its history back to the The Moscow Aviation College which was created on the initiative of Professor Zhukovsky in 1919. On 26 September 1920 the Revolutionary Military Council has issued an order number 1946, the Regulation on the institute was approved by the Revolutionary Military Council on 23 November 1920. On September 9,1922, the academy was renamed into Air Force Academy named after N. E, in the summer of 1923, the Academy moved to the Petrovsky Travelling Palace, which significantly affected the improvement of the educational process. In March 1940 the command, navigator, operational departments were separated into a new Gagarin Air Force Academy, since 1940, the Academy was preparing only the engineering staff for the Air Force. In 2008, the academy was amalgamated with the Gagarin Air Force Academy to form a joint Zhukovsky – Gagarin Air Force Academy, the full name of the new academy is Russian Air Force Military Educational and Scientific Center “Air Force Academy named after Professor N. E. For further history of the see the article on the Zhukovsky – Gagarin Air Force Academy. Zhukovsky Academy page at the site of the Russian Ministry of Defence. Раздел ВВИА на сайте Министерства обороны РФ, Zhukovsky Academy official site Сайт, посвящённый ВВИА имени профессора Н. Zhukovsky Academy community site Сообщество ВВИА в «Живом журнале», Zhukovsky Academy graduates forum Форум выпускников академии. Zhukovsky Academy First Faculty graduates forum Сайт выпускников академии1 факультет2004 г. в, Zhukovsky Academy - 80th Anniversary Военно-воздушной инженерной академии имени профессора Н. Е. Жуковского -80 лет - М.2000. Zhukovsky Academy Scientific Schools - Научные школы Военно-воздушной инженерной академии имени профессора Н. Е. Жуковского, История развития и современное состояние - М.2000. Zhukovsky Academy - 90th Anniversary90 лет Военно-воздушной инженерной академии имени профессора Н. Е. Жуковского
22.
President of Russia
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The President of the Russian Federation is the elected head of state, Supreme Commander-in-Chief and holder of the highest office within the Russian Federation. The current President of Russia is Vladimir Putin, in 1991, the office was briefly known as the President of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic until 25 December 1991. According to the 1978 Russian Constitution, the President of Russia was head of the executive branch, according to the current 1993 Constitution of Russia, the President of Russia is not a part of the Government of Russia, which exercises executive power. In all cases where the President of the Russian Federation is unable to fulfill his duties, they shall be temporarily delegated to the Prime Minister, the Chairman of the Federation Council is the third important position after the President and the Prime Minister. In the case of incapacity of both the President and Prime Minister, the chairman of the house of parliament becomes acting head of state. The president is empowered to grant federal pardons and reprieves. The president also directs the foreign and domestic policy of the Russian Federation, the president is elected directly through a popular vote to a six-year term. The law prohibits anyone from ever being elected to the presidency for a consecutive term. In all,3 individuals have served 4 presidencies spanning 6 full terms, on May 7,2012, Vladimir Putin became the 4th and current president. A candidate for office must be a citizen of the Russian Federation who is at least 35 years old and has resided in Russia for at least 10 years. The Constitution of Russia limits the election of one person to the Presidency to two consecutive terms, since the constitution contains no ruling on a total number of terms that a President may serve, a former president may seek re-election after sitting out one complete term. The election of the President is mainly regulated by the Presidential Election Law, the Federation Council calls the presidential elections. If it does not call an election that is due. The Election Day is the second Sunday of the month and the electoral constituency is the territory of the Russian Federation as a whole. Each faction in the State Duma, the house of the Russian parliament has the right to nominate a candidate for the presidential elections. The minimum number of signatures for a presidential candidate fielded by a party with no parliamentary representation is 100,000. Terms were extended from four to six years in 2008, during Dmitry Medvedevs administration, the President is elected in a two-round system every six years, with a two consecutive term limitation. If no candidate wins by an majority in the first round
23.
Karl Blank
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Karl Blank was a Russian architect, notable as one of the last practitioners of Baroque architecture and the first Moscow architect to build early neoclassical buildings. His surviving, undisputed legacy consists of three churches and Moscow Orphanage. The Ukrainian palace of Kachanovka is also attributed to him, Blanks ancestors were French Huguenot refugees who settled in Germany. His grandfather, Jacob, a blacksmith, migrated to Russia during the reign of Peter I. Father, already having a name, Ivan Yakovlevich Blank. Eventually, he became an assistant to Russian architect, Pyotr Yeropkin, in June 1740, Volynsky and Yeropkin lost their heads for the alleged conspiracy against Anna of Russia. Ivan Blank was sentenced to exile in Siberia with all his family. Karls mother died during the way to Tobolsk. In Tobolsk, Ivan and Karl met a local boy. In 1741, when Elizabeth of Russia came to power and pardoned all involved in Volynsky trial, Blanks were allowed to return home, they took Kokorinov with them, however, Ivan Blank died soon upon his return. Karl Blank and Alexander Kokorinov joined state construction crews led by Ivan Korobov, by 1749, Karl passed junior architects exams to the panel presided by Bartolomeo Rastrelli and was appointed an assistant to Alexey Yevlashev. Rastrelli supervised Blanks early career and instructed him to plan restoration and expansion drafts for the cathedral of the New Jerusalem Monastery. This early project never materialized, but a few years later and his own early designs, like the completed Annenhof palace in Lefortovo, did not survive. Blanks career peaked in 1760s, in the reign of Catherine II and he successfully managed the architectural part of Catherines coronation in Moscow, the new empress commissioned him to build church of St. Catherine in Zamoskvorechye. Despite subsequent fires and rebuilds, original dome of St. Catherines still stands in Bolshaya Ordynka Street, Blank became a house architect for Ivan Vorontsov, and built two extant churches on Vorontsovs lands. The fourth extant church stands near Yauza Gates, two other Moscow churches were demolished in 1930s, some researchers also give him full credit for the Trinity church in present-day Zheleznodorozhny. From 1764 to 1781, Blank built his largest project, Moscow Orphanage, designed to house 8,000 resident children, only two thirds of his original plan were completed, the eastern wing was added only in 1940s. The Orphanage is believed to be Moscows first neoclassical building, and is surely the earliest extant example of the style, retaining most of original exterior
24.
Governing Senate
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It was chaired by the Procurator General, who served as the link between the sovereign and the Senate, he acted, in the emperors own words, as the sovereigns eye. Originally established only for the time of Peters absence, it became a permanent body after his return, the number of senators was first set at nine and, in 1712, increased to ten. Any disagreements between the Chief Procurator and the Senate were to be settled by the monarch, certain other officials and a chancellery were also attached to the Senate. While it underwent many subsequent changes, it one of the most important institutions of imperial Russia, especially for administration. The State Council, created by Alexander I, was supposed to inherit the executive power of the Senate, an envisioned parliament was to inherit legislative power, but that never happened. In the 19th century, the Senate evolved into the highest judicial body in Russia, as such, it exercised control over all legal institutions and officials throughout the country. The Senate was composed of departments, two of which were Courts of Cassation. It also included a Department of Heraldry, which managed matters relating to the rights of the nobles and honorary citizens
25.
Presidential Administration of Russia
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Other staff is appointed by the chief of the presidential administration. On 25 March 2004, Vladimir Putin undertook a reorganisation of this institution by a decree. Only two deputy chiefs remained out of seven, the Territorial Directorate was included in the Domestic policy Directorate. The Economic Directorate was abolished, the Civil Service Directorate was created, the Presidential Administration of Russia is situated in Moscow where it holds offices in several buildings of Kitay-gorod and inside the Kremlin. They are not the constituent units of Russia, each district includes several federal subjects and each federal district has a presidential envoy
26.
Berlin
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Berlin is the capital and the largest city of Germany as well as one of its constituent 16 states. With a population of approximately 3.5 million, Berlin is the second most populous city proper, due to its location in the European Plain, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one-third of the area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers. Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world, following German reunification in 1990, Berlin once again became the capital of all-Germany. Berlin is a city of culture, politics, media. Its economy is based on high-tech firms and the sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, research facilities, media corporations. Berlin serves as a hub for air and rail traffic and has a highly complex public transportation network. The metropolis is a popular tourist destination, significant industries also include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, clean tech, biotechnology, construction and electronics. Modern Berlin is home to world renowned universities, orchestras, museums and its urban setting has made it a sought-after location for international film productions. The city is known for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts. Since 2000 Berlin has seen the emergence of a cosmopolitan entrepreneurial scene, the name Berlin has its roots in the language of West Slavic inhabitants of the area of todays Berlin, and may be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl-. All German place names ending on -ow, -itz and -in, since the Ber- at the beginning sounds like the German word Bär, a bear appears in the coat of arms of the city. It is therefore a canting arm, the first written records of towns in the area of present-day Berlin date from the late 12th century. Spandau is first mentioned in 1197 and Köpenick in 1209, although these areas did not join Berlin until 1920, the central part of Berlin can be traced back to two towns. Cölln on the Fischerinsel is first mentioned in a 1237 document,1237 is considered the founding date of the city. The two towns over time formed close economic and social ties, and profited from the right on the two important trade routes Via Imperii and from Bruges to Novgorod. In 1307, they formed an alliance with a common external policy, in 1415 Frederick I became the elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which he ruled until 1440. In 1443 Frederick II Irontooth started the construction of a new palace in the twin city Berlin-Cölln
27.
Domenico Gilardi
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Domenico Gilardi, was an Italian architect who worked primarily in Moscow, Russia in Neoclassicist style. He was one of key architects charged with rebuilding the city after the Fire of 1812, gilardi’s legacy survives in public buildings like Moscow Orphanage, Widows’ House, Catherine’s Institute and the Old Hall of Moscow University. The Gilardi family of architects, originally from Ticino, established itself in Russia in the middle of the 18th century, domenico’s father Giovanni, also known as Ivan Dementievich, was well known in Moscow. Domenico was born in Montagnola and lived there until his mother brought him to Russia in 1796, Domenico longed for a career in painting, so in 1799, his father sent him to an Italian workshop in St. Petersburg. After the death of Paul I, dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna awarded him a scholarship, from 1803-1810 Domenico studied art in Milano, Florence, Venice and Rome. Domenico returned to Russia in June 1810, and in January 1811 joined his father, the first two stages of this enormous structure, conceived by educator Ivan Betzkoy, were completed in 1764-1781 and required continuous additions and improvements. Domenico remained in the employ of the Orphanage for the rest of his career, in 1812, after the Battle of Borodino, Gilardis fled Moscow. The city burnt down in September 1812, the created a wealth of opportunity for architects. In 1813, Domenico joined the Kremlin Building Commission, restoring Ivan the Great Bell Tower and other war losses, in 1817, his father retired and returned to Ticino, Domenico inherited his job as lead architect of The Orphanage. In 1817-1819 he completed his first independent job, reconstruction of Matvei Kazakov’s University in Mokhovaya Street, Gilardi retained the basic floorplan, but considerably changed exterior styling. In 1818, he received commissions to rebuild the Widows’ House. In a very time, Gilardi concentrated the efforts to restore the four largest public buildings in the city, with the aid of Afanasy Grigoriev. Gilardis style goes back to the Milano variety of Empire Classicism, Luigi Cagnola, Grigoriev later followed the same canon. Gilardis architectural talent is disputed, but his success in construction management and his first work in new construction was the Board of Trustees building, a new block on the Orphanage lot. It was followed by commissions from the Gagarin and Golitsyn families. In 1826-1832, Gilardi supervised the rebuilding of Slobodskoy Palace in Lefortovo, Grigoriev replaced his when Gilardi travelled to Europe and back. After less than twenty years of practice, Gilardi retired. Back home, he completed one project – a chapel near Montagnola
28.
House of Unions
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The House of the Unions is a historical building in the Tverskoy District in central Moscow, Russia. It is situated on the corner of Bolshaya Dmitrovka and Okhotny Ryad streets, the fist building on this location was constructed in the early 1770s, and originally belonged to Moscow Governor General Vasily Dolgorukov-Krymsky. In 1784 it was purchased by the Moscow Assembly of the Nobility to serve as a Ball venue for the Russian nobility, between 1784 and 1787 the original building was redesigned and rebuilt by Russian architect Matvey Kazakov. In particular, Kazakov added the monumental Pillar Hall in place of the courtyard of the building. The hall was named after 28 internal Corinthian columns, all wood with white faux marble finish, in 1860 Russian Musical Society began a tradition of symphony concerts in the Pillar Hall. Their organizer and conductor was Nikolai Rubinstein, today the buildings appearance is still very close to Kazakovs original, despite numerous exterior alterations. In addition to the Pillar Hall, the building several other large rooms such as the October Hall, Hall No 1, Hall No 2. After the October Revolution the building was assigned to the Moscow Council of Trade Unions, during the Soviet decades it mostly served as a place for important State events, i. e. Its political significance extended to the funeral services for high officials. House of the Unions was also a scene of the notorious Moscow Trials of 1931,1936,1937, and 1938
29.
Indo-Corinthian capital
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Indo-Corinthian capitals are capitals crowning columns or pilasters, which can be found in the northwestern Indian subcontinent, and usually combine Hellenistic and Indian elements. These capitals are typically dated to the first centuries of the Common Era, however, earlier Indian types reflecting Ionic influence are known from the 3rd century BCE, particularly with the Pataliputra capital. Indo-Corinthian capitals display a design and foliage structure which is derived from the academic Corinthian capital developed in Greece and its importation to India followed the road of Hellenistic expansion in the East in the centuries after the conquests of Alexander the Great. In particular the Greco-Bactrian kingdom, centered on Bactria, upheld the type at the doorstep of India, in India, the design was often adapted, usually taking a more elongated form and sometimes being combined with scrolls, generally within the context of Buddhist stupas and temples. Indo-Corinthian capitals also incorporated figures of the Buddha or Bodhisattvas, usually as central figures surrounded by, and often under the shade of and this practice was not limited to India, and also found favor in various areas of Central Asia. The depiction of figurines within the foliage of Corinthian capitals is not in itself an eastern development, Indo-Corinthian capital were also used in combination with architectural elements, such as Buddhist stupas. One of the best example was excavated and reconstituted at Sirkap, further, in the art of Gandhara, Indo-Corinthian capitals on top of separating pilasters, are used extensively in narrative friezes of the life of the Buddha. This usage continued as late as the 5th century, Greco-Buddhist art Errington, Elizabeth, Cribb, Joe, Claringbull, Maggie. The Crossroads of Asia, Transformation in Image and Symbol in Art of Ancient Afghanistan and Pakistan, cambridge, Ancient India and Iran Trust
30.
Vladimir Lenin
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Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known by the alias Lenin, was a Russian communist revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as head of government of the Russian Republic from 1917 to 1918, of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1918 to 1924, under his administration, Russia and then the wider Soviet Union became a one-party socialist state governed by the Russian Communist Party. Ideologically a Marxist, he developed political theories known as Leninism, born to a wealthy middle-class family in Simbirsk, Lenin embraced revolutionary socialist politics following his brothers execution in 1887. Expelled from Kazan Imperial University for participating in protests against the Russian Empires Tsarist regime and he moved to Saint Petersburg in 1893 and became a senior figure in the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. In 1897, he was arrested for sedition and exiled to Shushenskoye for three years, where he married Nadezhda Krupskaya, after his exile, he moved to Western Europe, where he became a prominent party theorist through his publications. In 1903, he took a key role in a RSDLP ideological split, Lenins government was led by the Bolsheviks—now renamed the Communist Party—with some powers initially also held by elected soviets. It redistributed land among the peasantry and nationalised banks and large-scale industry, opponents were suppressed in the Red Terror, a violent campaign orchestrated by the state security services, tens of thousands were killed and others interned in concentration camps. Anti-Bolshevik armies, established by both right and left-wing groups, were defeated in the Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1922, responding to wartime devastation, famine, and popular uprisings, in 1921 Lenin promoted economic growth through a mixed economic system. Seeking to promote world revolution, Lenins government created the Communist International, waged the Polish–Soviet War, in increasingly poor health, Lenin expressed opposition to the growing power of his successor, Joseph Stalin, before dying at his Gorki mansion. He became a figurehead behind Marxism-Leninism and thus a prominent influence over the international communist movement. Lenins father, Ilya Nikolayevich Ulyanov, was from a family of serfs, his origins remain unclear, with suggestions being made that he was Russian, Chuvash, Mordvin. Despite this lower-class background he had risen to middle-class status, studying physics and mathematics at Kazan Imperial University before teaching at the Penza Institute for the Nobility, Ilya married Maria Alexandrovna Blank in mid-1863. Well educated and from a prosperous background, she was the daughter of a German–Swedish woman. Soon after their wedding, Ilya obtained a job in Nizhny Novgorod, five years after that, he was promoted to Director of Public Schools for the province, overseeing the foundation of over 450 schools as a part of the governments plans for modernisation. His dedication to education earned him the Order of St. Vladimir, the couple had two children, Anna and Alexander, before Lenin—who would gain the childhood nickname of Volodya—was born in Simbirsk on 10 April 1870, and baptised several days later. They were followed by three children, Olga, Dmitry, and Maria. Two later siblings died in infancy, Ilya was a devout member of the Russian Orthodox Church and baptised his children into it, although Maria – a Lutheran – was largely indifferent to Christianity, a view that influenced her children. Every summer they holidayed at a manor in Kokushkino
31.
Joseph Stalin
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Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953. Holding the post of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, he was effectively the dictator of the state. Stalin was one of the seven members of the first Politburo, founded in 1917 in order to manage the Bolshevik Revolution, alongside Lenin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Trotsky, Sokolnikov, and Bubnov. Among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who took part in the Russian Revolution of 1917 and he managed to consolidate power following the 1924 death of Vladimir Lenin by suppressing Lenins criticisms and expanding the functions of his role, all the while eliminating any opposition. He remained General Secretary until the post was abolished in 1952, the economic changes coincided with the imprisonment of millions of people in Gulag labour camps. The initial upheaval in agriculture disrupted food production and contributed to the catastrophic Soviet famine of 1932–33, major figures in the Communist Party and government, and many Red Army high commanders, were arrested and shot after being convicted of treason in show trials. Stalins invasion of Bukovina in 1940 violated the pact, as it went beyond the Soviet sphere of influence agreed with the Axis, Germany ended the pact when Hitler launched a massive invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Despite heavy human and territorial losses, Soviet forces managed to halt the Nazi incursion after the decisive Battles of Moscow, after defeating the Axis powers on the Eastern Front, the Red Army captured Berlin in May 1945, effectively ending the war in Europe for the Allies. The Soviet Union subsequently emerged as one of two recognized world superpowers, the other being the United States, Communist governments loyal to the Soviet Union were established in most countries freed from German occupation by the Red Army, which later constituted the Eastern Bloc. Stalin also had relations with Mao Zedong in China and Kim Il-sung in North Korea. On February 9,1946, Stalin delivered a public speech in which he explained the fundamental incompatibility of communism and capitalism. He stressed that the system needed war for raw materials. The Second World War was but the latest in a chain of conflicts which could be broken only when the economy made the transformation into communism. Stalin led the Soviet Union through its post-war reconstruction phase, which saw a significant rise in tension with the Western world that would later be known as the Cold War, Stalin remains a controversial figure today, with many regarding him as a tyrant. However, popular opinion within the Russian Federation is mixed, the exact number of deaths caused by Stalins regime is still a subject of debate, but it is widely agreed to be in the order of millions. Joseph Stalin was born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili, the Russian-language version of his birth name is Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili. Ioseb was born on 18 December 1878 in the town of Gori, Georgia and his father was Besarion Jughashvili, a cobbler, while his mother was Ekaterine Keke Geladze, a housemaid. As a child, Ioseb was plagued with health issues
32.
Battle of Borodino
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The Battle of Borodino was a battle fought on 7 September 1812 in the Napoleonic Wars during the French invasion of Russia. The fighting involved around 250,000 troops and left at least 70,000 casualties, Napoleons Grande Armée launched an attack against the Russian army, driving it back from its initial positions but failing to gain a decisive victory. Both armies were exhausted after the battle and the Russians withdrew from the field the following day, Borodino represented the last Russian effort at stopping the French advance on Moscow, which fell a week later. After a series of Russian retreats at the beginning of the campaign, Mikhail Kutuzov was appointed as his replacement. In a final attempt to save Moscow, the Russians made a stand near the village of Borodino and they fortified their positions and waited for the French to attack. The Russian right wing occupied ideal defensive terrain, so the French tried to press the Russian left for much of the battle, the highlight of the fighting became the bloody struggle for the large Raevsky redoubt near the village of Borodino. The French managed to capture this redoubt late into the day, the Russians suffered terrible casualties during the fighting, losing over a third of their army. French losses were heavy, exacerbating the logistical difficulties that Napoleon encountered in the campaign. Napoleons Imperial Guard, the unit on the battlefield that saw no fighting, was available to swing into action at a moments notice. In refusing to commit the Guard, some believe, he lost his one chance to destroy the Russian army. The capture of Moscow proved a pyrrhic victory since the Russians had no intention of negotiating with Napoleon for peace. The French evacuated Russias spiritual capital in October and conducted a retreat that only ended in December. Historical reports of the battle differed significantly depending on whether they originated from supporters of the French or Russian side, factional fighting among senior officers within each army also led to conflicting accounts and disagreements over the roles of particular officers. The French Grande Armée began its invasion of Russia on 16 June 1812, in response, Emperor Alexander I proclaimed a Patriotic War and prepared to face the French. However, Phulls plan soon proved to be a mistake, as the enormous Grande Armée was more than enough to separate. Furthermore, the participation of Tsar Alexander I as commander caused more chaos in the Russian army, the Russian forces which were massed along the Polish frontier were obliged to fall back in the face of the swift French advance. Napoleon advanced from Vitebsk, hoping to catch the Russian Army in the open where he could annihilate it, the French army was not positioned well for an extended overland campaign, it was 925 km from its nearest supply base at Kovno. French supply lines were vulnerable and Cossacks, light cavalry, guerrilla forces and even French deserters attacked and seriously depleted French supply columns
33.
Prozorovsky
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Princes Prozorovsky were a Russian noble family of Rurikid stock descending from medieval rulers of Yaroslavl and Mologa. Their name is derived from the village of Prozorovo near Mologa, when the rebels took the city, they had him defenestrated from a kremlin tower. His little son was hung upside down on the city wall, ivans inglorious death only added to the family standing, and six of his nephews became boyars during the early reign of Peter the Great. Prince Ivan Andreyevich Prozorovsky, an Elizabethan general-in-chief, helped launch the career of his son-in-law. The latters life with Princess Daria Prozorovskaya was never peaceful and they separated early, and the Generalissimo never recognized her son Arkady Suvorov as his own. Prince Alexander Alexandrovich Prozorovsky was the only Field Marshal from the family and he gained distinction in the Seven Years War and the conquest of Crimea. In 1790 he returned to the service as the Governor General of Moscow. When the Russian army resumed its hostilities against Turkey in 1808, in 1870, the Prozorovsky family became extinct in a male line. 16 years earlier, Emperor Nicholas I had authorized Prince Alexander Fyodorovich Galitzine to take the name and arms of his maternal grandfather, galitzines line became extinct in 1914, with the death of his only son, Prince Alexander Galitzine-Prozorovsky
34.
Lubyanka Square
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Lubyanskaya Square, or simply Lubyanka in Moscow lies about 900 metres north-east of Red Square. History first records its name in 1480, when Grand Prince Ivan III of Moscow and they built the church of St Sophia, modelled after St Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod, and called the area Lubyanka after the Lubyanitsy district of their native city. Lubyanka Square is best known for the monumental Lubyanka Building, designed by Aleksandr V. Ivanov, originally built for the insurance company Rossiya, it later became better known for housing the headquarters of the KGB in its various incarnations. As of 2016 the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation occupies the building, the square was renamed Dzerzhinsky Square for many years in honor of the founder of the Soviet security service, Felix Dzerzhinsky. Yevgeny Vuchetichs monumental statue of Dzerzhinsky was erected in the center of the square in 1958, opposite the FSB building stands the massive Detsky Mir, Europes largest childrens store - built between 1953 and 1957 and fully restored in 2014. It hosts in its main atrium the worlds largest mechanical clock movement, on October 30,1990, the Memorial organization erected a monument to the victims of the Gulag, a simple stone from the Solovki prison camp in the White Sea. In 1991 the statue of Dzerzhinsky was removed by liberal protesters following the failure of the attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev. The Moscow Metro station Lubyanka operates under Lubyanka Square
35.
Gagarin family
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Gagarin is the name of a Rurikid princely family descending from sovereign rulers of Starodub-on-the-Klyazma. Prince Nikolai Sergeevich Gagarin Born in London, Prince Gagarin was appointed to the highest command of the 1st infantry during a drawing-up of the Moscow military force. He took part in the Battle of Borodino, the largest and bloodiest single-day battle of the Napoleonic Wars, Prince Gagarin also owned several businesses throughout Russia and Europe. In 1819, Prince Gagarin married Maria Alexeeva Bobrinsky, daughter of Count Bobrinsky, granddaughter of Catherine II of Russia, on October 16,1833, Prince Gagarin was appointed to the post of vice-president of the His Majestys Cabinet under Emperor Nicholas I and Chairman Viktor Kochubey. In December 1837, he was appointed a member of the commission for the restoration of the Winter Palace after a fire, Prince Gagarin died a violent death by the hand of a forest warden with a fatal shot in the neck. Contrary to what is explained, Prince Gagarin was not his employer, Prince Gagarin was killed in Saint Petersburg. Despite medical aid, the prince died in minutes, rejnman explained that he killed Gagarin because he had been exposed to oppression and had lost his rank. However, according to his contemporaries testimonies, Prince Gagarin had been a humane employer, Prince Nikolai Sergeevich Gagarins descendants were forced into exile during the Russian Revolution and lived in France until recently. Most descendants now live in the United States, Prince Grigory Grigorevich Gagarin was born on April 29,1810. He was the vice-president of the Imperial Academy of Arts, a renowned artist, a Major General and he was the son of Prince Grigory Ivanovich Gagarin. Grigory Grigorevich spent much of his traveling and always carried a sketchbook. A variety of the figures which have remained include studies, sketches, descendants of Prince Grigory Grigorievich Gagarin still live in Russia. The Princely House of Gagarin History & Genealogy Gagarin genealogy Biography of Gregory Gregorivich - painter
36.
Belarus
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Its capital and most populous city is Minsk. Over 40% of its 207,600 square kilometres is forested and its strongest economic sectors are service industries and manufacturing. In the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution, Belarus declared independence as the Belarusian Peoples Republic, the Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia became a founding constituent republic of the Soviet Union in 1922 and was renamed as the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. Belarus lost almost half of its territory to Poland after the Polish–Soviet War of 1919–1921, during WWII, military operations devastated Belarus, which lost about a third of its population and more than half of its economic resources. The republic was redeveloped in the post-war years, in 1945 the Byelorussian SSR became a founding member of the United Nations, along with the Soviet Union and the Ukrainian SSR. The parliament of the declared the sovereignty of Belarus on 27 July 1990. Alexander Lukashenko has served as the president since 1994. Belarus has been labeled Europes last dictatorship by some Western journalists, Lukashenko continued a number of Soviet-era policies, such as state ownership of large sections of the economy. Though not directly espousing communism like the five remaining communist countries of China, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam and North Korea, in 2000 Belarus and Russia signed a treaty for greater cooperation, with some hints of forming a Union State. Over 70% of Belaruss population of 9.49 million resides in urban areas, more than 80% of the population is ethnic Belarusian, with sizable minorities of Russians, Poles and Ukrainians. Since a referendum in 1995, the country has had two official languages, Belarusian and Russian, the Constitution of Belarus does not declare any official religion, although the primary religion in the country is Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Belarus is the only European country to retain capital punishment in both law and practice, the name Belarus is closely related with the term Belaya Rus, i. e. White Rus. There are several claims to the origin of the name White Rus, an alternate explanation for the name comments on the white clothing worn by the local Slavic population. A third theory suggests that the old Rus lands that were not conquered by the Tatars had been referred to as white, other sources claim that, before 1267, the land not conquered by the Mongols was considered White Rus. The name Rus is often conflated with its Latin forms Russia and Ruthenia, in some languages, including German and Dutch, the country is generally called White Russia to this day. The Latin term Alba Russia was used again by Pope Pius VI in 1783 to recognize the Society of Jesus there, exclaiming Approbo Societatem Jesu in Alba Russia degentem, approbo, approbo. The first known use of White Russia to refer to Belarus was in the century by Englishman Sir Jerome Horsey. During the 17th century, the Russian tsars used White Rus to describe the lands added from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
37.
Moscow Kremlin
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It is the best known of the kremlins and includes five palaces, four cathedrals, and the enclosing Kremlin Wall with Kremlin towers. Also within this complex is the Grand Kremlin Palace, the complex serves as the official residence of the President of the Russian Federation. It had previously used to refer to the government of the Soviet Union. Kremlinology refers to the study of Soviet and Russian politics, the site has been continuously inhabited by Finno-Ugric peoples since the 2nd century BC. Vyatichi built a structure on the hill where the Neglinnaya River flowed into the Moskva River. Up to the 14th century, the site was known as the grad of Moscow, the word Kremlin was first recorded in 1331. The grad was greatly extended by Prince Yuri Dolgorukiy in 1156, destroyed by the Mongols in 1237, dmitri Donskoi replaced the oak walls with a strong citadel of white limestone in 1366–1368 on the basic foundations of the current walls, this fortification withstood a siege by Khan Tokhtamysh. Dmitris son Vasily I resumed construction of churches and cloisters in the Kremlin, the newly built Annunciation Cathedral was painted by Theophanes the Greek, Andrei Rublev, and Prokhor in 1406. The Chudov Monastery was founded by Dmitris tutor, Metropolitan Alexis, while his widow, Eudoxia and it was during his reign that three extant cathedrals of the Kremlin, the Deposition Church, and the Palace of Facets were constructed. The highest building of the city and Muscovite Russia was the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, built in 1505–08, the Kremlin walls as they now appear were built between 1485 and 1495. Spasskie gates of the wall bear a dedication in Latin praising Petrus Antonius Solarius for the design. After construction of the new walls and churches was complete. The Kremlin was separated from the merchant town by a 30-meter-wide moat. The same tsar also renovated some of his grandfathers palaces, added a new palace and cathedral for his sons, and endowed the Trinity metochion inside the Kremlin. The metochion was administrated by the Trinity Monastery and boasted the graceful tower church of St. Sergius, during the Time of Troubles, the Kremlin was held by the Polish forces for two years, between 21 September 1610 and 26 October 1612. The Kremlins liberation by the army of prince Dmitry Pozharsky. During his reign and that of his son Alexis, the eleven-domed Upper Saviour Cathedral, Armorial Gate, Terem Palace, Amusement Palace, following the death of Alexis, the Kremlin witnessed the Moscow Uprising of 1682, from which czar Peter barely escaped. As a result, both of them disliked the Kremlin, three decades later, Peter abandoned the residence of his forefathers for his new capital, Saint Petersburg
38.
Demidov
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Their progenitor, Demid Antufiev, was a free blacksmith from Tula, where their family necropolis is preserved as a museum. His son Nikita Demidov made his fortune by his skill in the manufacture of weapons, peter the Great, with whom he was a favorite, ennobled him in 1720. For two centuries, the Demidov plants produced a portion of Russias iron and steel. The Palace of Westminster was one of notable buildings constructed of Demidov metal products. Nikitas son, Akinfiy Demidov, increased his wealth by the discovery and working of gold. He also founded the Siberian town of Barnaul, whose central square still bears his name and he also commissioned the Leaning Tower of Nevyansk. His fortune was inherited by his eldest son Prokofi Demidov, whilst his younger son Nikita Akinfievitch Demidov became an arts patron, akinfiys nephew, Pavel Grigoryevich Demidov, was a great traveller and benefactor of Russian scientific education who befriended Carl Linnaeus and Pallas. He established the Demidov Lyceum in Yaroslavl, the Demidov chair in Natural history at Moscow University, a bronze monument to him was installed in Yaroslavl in 1828. He was created a Count by the Grand Duke of Tuscany, nikolays son Count Pavel Nikolayevich Demidov fought as an officer in his fathers regiment and received his baptism of fire at the battle of Borodino in 1812. After the war, he entered the Chevalier Guards regiment and he received his discharge in 1831 with the rank of captain when he entered civil service as governor of the province of Kursk. In 1834, he entered service in the Ministry of the Exterior as court Huntsmaster, later State Councillor, Count Pavel Demidov is best known for his philanthropy, primarily for having founded the Demidov Prize. He married the well-known society beauty and maid-of-honour to her majesty the Empress Alexandra Feodorovnya Aurore Stjernvall in 1836 and their son, Pavel Pavlovich Demidov, who became the 2nd Prince of San Donato, was the grandfather of Prince Paul of Yugoslavia. Nikolays second son, Anatoly Nikolaievich Demidov, 1st Prince of San Donato, was a well-known traveller, in 1840, he acquired the Italian title of Prince of San Donato and married Princess Mathilde, daughter of Jérôme Bonaparte. His Villa Demidoff is a landmark of Florence. Anatoles great grand nephew, Prince Paul of Yugoslavia, was regent of Yugoslavia between 1934 and 1941. The second and last Prince Lopukhin, Paul, was granted the right to pass his title and name to his great-nephew, Nicolas Demidoff, the revolution impoverished the princes Lopukhin-Demidoff, who settled to Finland where they owned the manor of Anttolanhovi near Mikkeli. The dowager princess Natalie deceased in 1957, in 1798, Nikolay Nikitich Demidov was made a Family Commander of the Russian Grand Priory of the Order of Saint John, by Czar Paul I. In 1811, a Ukase was enacted which brought this institution to an end, however, by personal grant of the Emperor, the title of Hereditary Commander was held by some descendants who qualified
39.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
40.
Wayback Machine
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The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in October 2001. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet, the service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a three dimensional index. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been archiving cached pages of websites onto its large cluster of Linux nodes and it revisits sites every few weeks or months and archives a new version. Sites can also be captured on the fly by visitors who enter the sites URL into a search box, the intent is to capture and archive content that otherwise would be lost whenever a site is changed or closed down. The overall vision of the machines creators is to archive the entire Internet, the name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to the WABAC machine, a time-traveling device used by the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, an animated cartoon. These crawlers also respect the robots exclusion standard for websites whose owners opt for them not to appear in search results or be cached, to overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It. Information had been kept on digital tape for five years, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers, when the archive reached its fifth anniversary, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. Snapshots usually become more than six months after they are archived or, in some cases, even later. The frequency of snapshots is variable, so not all tracked website updates are recorded, Sometimes there are intervals of several weeks or years between snapshots. After August 2008 sites had to be listed on the Open Directory in order to be included. As of 2009, the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month, the growth rate reported in 2003 was 12 terabytes/month, the data is stored on PetaBox rack systems manufactured by Capricorn Technologies. In 2009, the Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage, in 2011 a new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a bit of material past 2008. In January 2013, the company announced a ground-breaking milestone of 240 billion URLs, in October 2013, the company announced the Save a Page feature which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL. This became a threat of abuse by the service for hosting malicious binaries, as of December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained almost nine petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of about 20 terabytes each week. Between October 2013 and March 2015 the websites global Alexa rank changed from 162 to 208, in a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc. defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbulas website, in an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No.02 C3293,65 Fed. 673, a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network
41.
Integrated Authority File
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The Integrated Authority File or GND is an international authority file for the organisation of personal names, subject headings and corporate bodies from catalogues. It is used mainly for documentation in libraries and increasingly also by archives, the GND is managed by the German National Library in cooperation with various regional library networks in German-speaking Europe and other partners. The GND falls under the Creative Commons Zero license, the GND specification provides a hierarchy of high-level entities and sub-classes, useful in library classification, and an approach to unambiguous identification of single elements. It also comprises an ontology intended for knowledge representation in the semantic web, available in the RDF format
