1.
Grand Duke of Vladimir
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The Grand Duke of Vladimir was a prince during the Kievan Rus and after its collapse. He ruled territory approximately bounded by the Volga, Oka and Northern Dvina rivers and its capital was Vladimir during 1157-1238. Vladimir city was founded by a Kievan prince Vladimir Monomakh in 1108 and was destroyed by a Mongol invasion in 1238, the second important city was Suzdal, also destroyed by Mongols. The Grand Duke Yuri Dolgorukii, the son of Vladimir Monomakh. Vladimir-Suzdal began the consolidation of Russian lands, completed by Muscovy. Vladimir was founded in the 12th century, the principality was overrun by the Mongols under Batu Khan in 1242. He and his successors asserted suzerainty over it until 1328, during this period, Vladimir became the chief town of the Russian settlements in the basin of the Oka and it clashed with the new principality of Moscow, to which it finally succumbed in 1328. It began to decay in the 14th century, traditionally, Vladimir-Suzdal is perceived as a cradle of the Great Russian language and nationality and gradually evolved into the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Since 1332 the title of the Grand Princes of Vladimir passed to the Grand Dukes of Moscow
2.
Vasily Vereshchagin
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Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin transcribed in English as Basil Verestchagin was one of the most famous Russian war artists and one of the first Russian artists to be widely recognized abroad. The graphic nature of his realist scenes led many of them to never be printed or exhibited, Vereshchagin was born at Cherepovets, Novgorod Governorate, Russia in 1842 as the middle of three brothers. His father was a landowner of noble birth, when he was eight years old he was sent to Tsarskoe Selo to enter the Alexander Cadet Corps, and three years later he entered the Sea Cadet Corps at St Petersburg, making his first voyage in 1858. He served on the frigate Kamchatka, which sailed to Denmark, France, Vereshchagin graduated first in the list at the naval school, but left the service immediately to begin the study of drawing in earnest. He won a two years later, in 1863, from the St Petersburg Academy for his Ulysses Slaying the Suitors. In 1864 he proceeded to Paris, where he studied under Jean-Léon Gérôme, in the Paris Salon of 1866 he exhibited a drawing of Dukhobors chanting their Psalms. In the next year he was invited to accompany General Konstantin Kaufmans expedition to Turkestan and he was granted the rank of ensign. His heroism at the siege of Samarkand from June 2–8,1868 resulted an award of the Cross of St George. He was a traveler, returning to St. Petersburg in late 1868, to Paris in 1869, back to St. Petersburg later in the year. In 1871, he established an atelier in Munich, and made an exhibition of his works at the Crystal Palace in London in 1873. He made another exhibition of his works in St, in late 1874, he departed for an extensive tour of the Himalayas, India and Tibet, spending over two years in travel. He returned to Paris in late 1876, with the start of the Russo-Turkish War, Vereshchagin left Paris and returned to active service with the Imperial Russian Army. At the conclusion of the war, he acted as secretary to General Skobelev at San Stefano, after the war, Vereshchagin settled at Munich, where he produced his war pictures so rapidly that he was freely accused of employing assistants. Vereshchagin painted several scenes of imperial rule in British India and his epic portrayal of The State Procession of the Prince of Wales into Jaipur in 1876 is claimed to be the third largest painting in the world. In 1882–1883, he traveled to India. He aroused much controversy by his series of three pictures of a Roman execution, of sepoys blown from the guns in India, and his picture Suppression of the Indian Revolt by the English depicted executions carried out by tying victims to the barrels of guns. Vereshchagins detractors argued that executions had only occurred in the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Because of its style, the painting appeared to present itself as an impartial record of a real event
3.
Sarai (city)
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Located in present-day Russia, they were among the largest cities of the medieval world, with a population estimated by the 2005 Britannica at 600,000. Sarai is Persian for palace and Russian for shed, there is also a variation meaning home, similar to Sarajevo in the Balkan peninsula. Old Sarai, or Sarai Batu or Sarai-al-Maqrus was established by Mongol ruler Batu Khan in the mid-1240s, on a site east of the Akhtuba river, Sarai was the seat of Batu and his successor Berke. Under them Sarai was the capital of a great empire, the various Rus princes came to Sarai to pledge allegiance to the Khan and receive his patent of authority. The bishops of Krutitsy resided in Tsarev from 1261 to 1454 and it had probably succeeded Sarai Batu as the capital of the Golden Horde by the mid-14th century. Both cities were sacked several times, timur sacked New Sarai around 1395, and Meñli I Giray of the Crimean Khanate sacked New Sarai around 1502. The forces of Ivan IV of Russia finally destroyed Sarai after conquering the Astrakhan Khanate in 1556, in 1623-1624, a Russian merchant, Fedot Kotov, travelled to Persia via the lower Volga. He described the site of Sarai, Here by the river Akhtuba stands the Golden Horde, the khans court, palaces, and courts, and mosques are all made of stone. But now all these buildings are being dismantled and the stone is being taken to Astrakhan, since Old Sarai lies at 120 km from Astrakhan and New Sarai at 300 km, it is difficult to decide to which of these two cities this description applies. After the destruction of New Sarai, Russia established the city of Tsaritsyn to control the area. Sarai Juk was a city on the Ural River and it is often conflated with the other Sarais in historical and modern accounts. This town was the city of the Nogai Horde, one of the successors of the Golden Horde. Although sacked by the Ural Cossacks in 1580, it was used as the headquarters by some Kazakh khans
4.
Nobility
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The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be largely honorary, and vary from country to country and era to era. There is often a variety of ranks within the noble class. g, san Marino and the Vatican City in Europe. Hereditary titles often distinguish nobles from non-nobles, although in many nations most of the nobility have been un-titled, some countries have had non-hereditary nobility, such as the Empire of Brazil. The term derives from Latin nobilitas, the noun of the adjective nobilis. In modern usage, nobility is applied to the highest social class in pre-modern societies and it rapidly came to be seen as a hereditary caste, sometimes associated with a right to bear a hereditary title and, for example in pre-revolutionary France, enjoying fiscal and other privileges. Nobility is a historical, social and often legal notion, differing from high socio-economic status in that the latter is based on income. Being wealthy or influential cannot, ipso facto, make one noble, various republics, including former Iron Curtain countries, Greece, Mexico, and Austria have expressly abolished the conferral and use of titles of nobility for their citizens. Not all of the benefits of nobility derived from noble status per se, usually privileges were granted or recognised by the monarch in association with possession of a specific title, office or estate. Most nobles wealth derived from one or more estates, large or small and it also included infrastructure such as castle, well and mill to which local peasants were allowed some access, although often at a price. Nobles were expected to live nobly, that is, from the proceeds of these possessions, work involving manual labour or subordination to those of lower rank was either forbidden or frowned upon socially. In some countries, the lord could impose restrictions on such a commoners movements. Nobles exclusively enjoyed the privilege of hunting, in France, nobles were exempt from paying the taille, the major direct tax. In some parts of Europe the right of war long remained the privilege of every noble. During the early Renaissance, duelling established the status of a respectable gentleman, Nobility came to be associated with social rather than legal privilege, expressed in a general expectation of deference from those of lower rank. By the 21st century even that deference had become increasingly minimised, in France, a seigneurie might include one or more manors surrounded by land and villages subject to a nobles prerogatives and disposition. Seigneuries could be bought, sold or mortgaged, if erected by the crown into, e. g. a barony or countship, it became legally entailed for a specific family, which could use it as their title. Yet most French nobles were untitled, in other parts of Europe, sovereign rulers arrogated to themselves the exclusive prerogative to act as fons honorum within their realms. Nobility might be inherited or conferred by a fons honorum
5.
Rurik dynasty
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The Rurik dynasty or Rurikids was a dynasty founded by the Varangian prince Rurik, who established himself in Novgorod around the year AD862. They ruled until 1610 and the Time of Troubles, following which they were succeeded by the Romanovs and they are one of Europes oldest royal houses, with numerous existing cadet branches. The Rurikid dynasty was founded in 862 by Rurik, a Varangian prince, come and reign as princes and have authority over us. Three brothers came with their kin and all the Rus in response to this invitation, Rurik set up rule in Novgorod, giving more provincial towns to his brothers. The Rurikid Dynasty DNA Project of FamilyTreeDNA commercial genetic genealogy company reports that Y-DNA testing of the descendants of Rurikids suggests their non-Slavic origin, Rurik and his brothers founded a state that later historians called Kievan Rus′. By the middle of the century, Kievan Rus′ had dissolved into independent principalities. The dynasty followed agnatic seniority and the izgoi principle, in addition, a line of Polotsk princes assimilated themselves with the princes of Lithuania. In the 10th century the Council of Liubech made some amendments to a succession rule, vsevolods line eventually became better known as the Monomakhovychi and was the predominant one. The line of Svyatoslav later became known as Olegovychi and often claim to the lands of Chernihiv. The Izyaslavychi who ruled Turov and Volhynia were eventually replaced by a Monomakhovychi branch, the Rurikid dynasty… attempted to impose on their highly diverse polity the integrative concept of russkaia zemlia and the unifying notion of a Rus′ people. But Kievan Rus′ was never really a unified polity and it was a loosely bound, ill-defined, and heterogeneous conglomeration of lands and cities inhabited by tribes and populous groups whose loyalties were primarily territorial. This caused the Rurik dynasty to effectively dissolve into several sub-dynasties ruling smaller states in the 10th and 11th centuries and these were the Olgoviches of Severia who ruled in Chernigov, Yuryeviches who controlled Vladimir-Suzdal, and Romanoviches in Galicia-Volhynia. The Olgoviches descended from Oleg I of Chernigov, a son of Sviatoslav II of Kiev and they continued to rule until the early 14th century when they were torn apart by the emerging Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Grand Duchy of Moscow. Vsevolod I of Kiev was the father of Vladimir II Monomakh, two of Vladimir IIs sons were Mstislav I of Kiev and Yuri Dolgorukiy. The Romanoviches were the line of Roman the Great, descended from Mstislav I of Kiev through his son Iziaslav II of Kiev and his grandson Mstislav II of Kiev, father of Roman the Great. The older Monomakhovychi line that ruled Principality of Volhynia, they were crowned kings of Galicia and Volhynia. Romanovychi displaced the line of Izyaslavychi from Turov and Volhynia as well as Rostyslavychi from Galicia. The last were two brothers of Romanovychi, Andrew and Lev II, who ruled jointly and were trying to repel Mongol incursions
6.
Anna of Kashin
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Saint Anna of Kashin was a Russian princess from the Rurik Dynasty, who was canonized in 1650. Anna was a daughter of Prince Dmitry Borisovich of Rostov and a great-granddaughter of Prince Vasily of Rostov, from her earliest years, Anna was brought up strictly Christian. She was taught the virtues of humility and obedience and her teacher was Saint Ignatius, Bishop of Rostov, who was noted for strict selflessness and pacifism. Like all royal daughters of her time, Anna learned different kinds of needlework, when the princess grew up, Princess Xenia of Tver, second wife of Grand Prince Yaroslav of Tver sent ambassadors to Rostov with a request to marry Anna to her son Mikhail. The embassy was successful, and Anna became the wife of Prince Mikhail, Princess Annas marriage to Prince Mikhail took place on 8 November 1294 in the Preobrazhensky cathedral of Tver. In celebration of this event, dwellers in the city of Kashin built the Saint Michael Church, in the Kashin Uspensky cathedral a special Feast was established and celebrated annually on 8 November. Soon after that, Anna and Mikhails first-born daughter, Feodora, fell severely ill, in 1296, another fire destroyed their palace, and the prince and princess were barely rescued. In 1317, a war began between her husband and Prince Yury of Moscow, in 1318 the princess said goodbye to her husband forever, who was summoned to the Horde, where he was brutally tortured to death on 22 November 1318. Only in July of the year did Anna hear about her husbands martyrdom. Learning that Mikhails remains had been brought to Moscow, she sent an embassy there, in 1325, her eldest son, Dimitry, was tortured in the Horde. In 1327, her son, Alexander, broke the Tartar army. In revenge Uzbeg Khan gathered a new army and destroyed Tver, for ten years, Anna did not see her son, and in 1339 Prince Alexander and his son Feodor were killed by the Horde. After the death of Prince Mikhail, Anna carried out an old desire in silence to work only for God and she took vows in Sofias monastery in Tver and adopted the name Evfrosiniya. In 1365 the youngest son of the princess, Vasiliy, her only child remaining alive by that time, the Uspensky monastery was built in Kashin, and there the saint accepted the schema with the name of Anna. She died of old age on 2 October 1368, and was buried in the temple of the Blessed Virgin. The name of the Princess Anna was forgotten for many centuries and her relics were reported to work miracles. The synod of the Russian Orthodox Church convened in 1649 and declared her relics worthy of a universal homage, the princess was glorified as a saint. Twenty-eight years later, Patriarch Joachim addressed the Moscow Synod with a suggestion to decanonize her because of the uncommon veneration, despite numerous efforts of the Church authorities to correct the situation, her hand always went back to the same two-fingered position
