1.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
Cathedral of St. Sophia, Novgorod
–
The Cathedral of St. Sophia in Veliky Novgorod is the cathedral church of the Archbishop of Novgorod and the mother church of the Novgorodian Eparchy. The 38-metre-high, five-domed, stone cathedral was built by Vladimir of Novgorod between 1045 and 1050 to replace an oaken cathedral built by Bishop Joachim the Korsunian in the tenth century. It was consecrated by Bishop Luka Zhidiata on September 14, in 1050 or 1052, while it is commonly known as St. It replaced an older wooden, 13-domed church built in or around 989 by Bishop Ioakim Korsunianin. The main, golden cupola, was gilded by Archbishop Ioann in 1408, the sixth dome crowns a tower which leads to the upper galleries. In medieval times these were said to hold the Novgorodian treasury and there was a library there, when the library was moved to the St. Petersburg Spiritual Academy in 1859, it numbered more than 1,500 volumes, some dating back to the 13th century. The current Archbishop, Lev, has reestablished a library there, as of 2004, it housed some 5,000 volumes. A Sunday school is held in the gallery. The cupolas are thought to have acquired their present helmet-like shape in the 1150s, the interior was painted in 1108 at the behest of Bishop Nikita, although the project was not undertaken until shortly after his death. In the 1860s, parts of the interior had to be repainted, a white stone belltower in five bays was built by Archbishop Evfimii II, the greatest architectural patron to ever hold the archiepiscopal office. He also had the Palace of Facets built just northwest of the cathedral in 1433, the nearby clocktower was initially completed under his patronage as well, but fell down in the seventeenth century and was restored in 1673. From the 12th to the 15th century, the cathedral was a ceremonial and spiritual centre of the Novgorod Republic, novgorodians were exceedingly proud of their church, boasting that they were willing to lay down their heads for Holy Wisdom or to die honorably for Holy Wisdom. When one prince angered them, they told him we have no prince, only God, the Truth, on another occasion, they made the cathedral the symbol of the city itself, saying Where Holy Wisdom is, there is Novgorod. The first burial there was Prince Vladimir himself in 1052, the first bishop was Luka Zhidiata in 1060. The last burial in the cathedral was Metropolitan Gurii in 1912, most of the burials are below the floor in the Martirievskaia Porch, on the south side of the cathedral, named for Bishop Martirii. Later burials took place in the Pretechenskaia Papter on the side of the cathedral. Today, there are burials in the main body of the church. Bishop Nikita lies in a glass-covered sarcaphogus between the chapels of the Nativity of the Mother of God and Sts, Ioakim and Anne and the sarcophagus is opened on his feast days so the faithful can venerate his relics
3.
Russian language
–
Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi
4.
Novgorod Kremlin
–
Novgorod Kremlin stands on the left bank of the Volkhov River in Veliky Novgorod about two miles north of where it empties out of Lake Ilmen. The compound was originally the site of a burial ground upon which the first bishop of Novgorod. Thus the compound was and remained largely a site, although many Novgorodian boyars built their houses in the southern part of the Detinets. The first reference to fortifications on the dates to 1044. These were probably earthen embankments topped by a palisade, although stone towers. Archbishop Vasily Kalika rebuilt the wall along the eastern side of the Detinets in 1331-1335. The rest was completed in only in 1400. In 1433, under the rule of Archbishop Evfimy II, a hall for the nobility council of Novgorod Republic was built as a part of the episcopal compound. Today it is called the Episcopal Chamber or the Chamber of Facets, due to its elaborate Gothic vaults, in 1437, part of Vasilys walls collapsed into the Volkhov River and were rebuilt by Evfimy II, too. It is a large oval 545 meters long and 240 meter wide with nine surviving towers, the tallest tower, the Kokui tower is capped by a silver dome. It was built in the century and its name is of Swedish origin. Today it is possible to enter this tower and climb to the top, the walls are 1,487 meters in circumference. The main buildings in the Detinets are the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom, the museum houses a fine icon collection and other artifacts from the citys history. There are numerous references in the chronicles to no longer extant buildings, including chapels over the gates, boris and Gleb, built by Sitko Sitinits, who is thought to be the historic source for the legendary Sadko. An eternal flame to the soldiers of the German-Soviet War can be seen just inside the west gate of the fortress, a public beach has been formed between the southeastern part of the Kremlin and the Volkhov river. Media related to Velikiy Novgorod Detinets at Wikimedia Commons
5.
Rurik
–
There is a debate over how Rurik came to control Ladoga and Novgorod. Afterwards the tribes started fighting each other and decided to invite the Varangians, led by Rurik, according to the Primary Chronicle, Rurik was one of the Rus, a Varangian tribe likened by the chronicler to Danes, Swedes, Angles, and Gotlanders. Rurik remained in power until his death in 879 and his successors, however, moved the capital to Kiev and founded the state of Kievan Rus, which persisted until the Mongol invasion in 1240. A number of extant princely families are descended from Rurik, although the last Rurikid to rule Russia, Vasily IV. According to the entries in the Radzivil and Hypatian Chronicles under the years 862–864 and it is only later that he moved his seat of power to Novgorod, a fort built not far from the source of the Volkhov River. The meaning of place name in medieval Russian is new fortification. The only similarly named figure described in Western chronicles was Rorik of Dorestad, since the 19th century, there have been attempts to identify him with the Rurik of Russian chronicles. Rorik of Dorestad was born about ca, 810–820 to Ali Anulo, 9th king of Haithabu. Frankish chroniclers mention that he received lands in Friesland from Emperor Louis I and this was not enough for him, and he started to plunder neighbouring lands, he took Dorestad in 850, captured Haithabu in 857, and looted Bremen in 859. The Emperor was enraged and stripped him of all his possessions in 860, Rorik of Dorestad reappeared in Frankish chronicles in 870, when his Friesland demesne was returned to him by Charles the Bald, in 882 Rorik of Dorestad is mentioned as dead. The Russian chronicle places the death of Rurik of Novgorod at 879, according to Western sources, the ruler of Friesland was converted to Christianity by the Franks. This may have parallels with the Christianization of the Rus, as reported by Patriarch Photius in 867, the hypothesis of their identity currently lacks support among scholars, though support for a Normanic origin of the Rus has increased. The Rurikid dynasty went on to rule the Kievan Rus, and ultimately the Tsardom of Muscovy, until 1598. Vasily Tatishchev claimed that Rurik was of Wendish extraction and went so far as to name Ruriks wife, Ufanda of Norway, mother, Umila, his grandfather, Gostomysl. According to the FamilyTreeDNA Rurikid Dynasty DNA Project, Rurik appears to have belonged to Y-DNA haplogroup N1c1, N1c1 is not widely found in Scandinavian countries, but is overwhelmingly found among Baltic and Finnish ethnicities. The N1c1 haplotype possess the distinctive value DYS390=23, also found in Scandinavia
6.
Veliky Novgorod
–
It is situated on the M10 federal highway connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg. The city lies along the Volkhov River just downstream from its outflow from Lake Ilmen, UNESCO recognized Novgorod as a World Heritage Site in 1992. At its peak during the 14th century, the city was the capital of the Novgorod Republic, the Charter of Veliky Novgorod recognizes 859 as the year when the city was first mentioned. Archaeological dating is fairly easy and accurate to within 15–25 years, as the streets were paved with wood, and most of the houses made of wood, allowing tree ring dating. The Varangian name of the city Holmgård/Holmgard is mentioned in Norse Sagas as existing at a yet earlier stage, originally, Holmgård referred only to the stronghold southeast of the present-day city, Rurikovo Gorodische. First mention of this Nordic or Germanic etymology to the name of the city of Novgorod occurs in the 10th-century policy manual De Administrando Imperio by Byzantine emperor Constantine VII, in 882, Ruriks successor, Oleg of Novgorod, conquered Kiev and founded the state of Kievan Rus. Novgorods size as well as its political, economic, and cultural influence made it the second most important city in Kievan Rus, according to a custom, the elder son and heir of the ruling Kievan monarch was sent to rule Novgorod even as a minor. When the ruling monarch had no son, Novgorod was governed by posadniks, such as the legendary Gostomysl, Dobrynya, Konstantin. Of all their princes, Novgorodians most cherished the memory of Yaroslav the Wise and his son, Vladimir, sponsored construction of the great St. Sophia Cathedral, more accurately translated as the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom, which stands to this day. In Norse sagas the city is mentioned as the capital of Gardariki, four Viking kings—Olaf I of Norway, Olaf II of Norway, Magnus I of Norway, and Harald Hardrada—sought refuge in Novgorod from enemies at home. No more than a few decades after the 1030 death and subsequent canonization of Olaf II of Norway, the town of Visby in Gotland functioned as the leading trading center in the Baltic before the Hansa League. At Novgorod in 1080, Visby merchants established a trading post which they named Gutagard, later, in the first half of the 13th century, merchants from northern Germany also established their own trading station in Novgorod, known as Peterhof. At about the time, in 1229, German merchants at Novgorod were granted certain privileges. In 1136, the Novgorodians dismissed their prince Vsevolod Mstislavich, the year is seen as the traditional beginning of the Novgorod Republic. One of the most important local figures in Novgorod was the posadnik, or mayor, the tysyatsky, or thousandman, originally the head of the town militia but later a commercial and judicial official, was also elected by the Veche. Another important local official was the Archbishop of Novgorod who shared power with the boyars, archbishops were elected by the Veche or by the drawing of lots, and after their election, were sent to the metropolitan for consecration. While a basic outline of the officials and the Veche can be drawn up. The boyars and the archbishop ruled the city together, although where one officials power ended, throughout the Middle Ages, the city thrived culturally
7.
Viktor Hartmann
–
Viktor Alexandrovich Hartmann was a Russian architect and painter. He was associated with the Abramtsevo Colony, purchased and preserved beginning in 1870 by Savva Mamontov, victor-Edouard Hartmann was born in Saint Petersburg into a family of German ancestry. He was orphaned at an age and grew up in the house of his mothers sister, L. Hemilian, and her husband Alexandre Hemilian. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg and he also worked as an architect and sketched, among other things, the monument to the thousandth anniversary of Russia in Novgorod, which was inaugurated in 1862. He made most of his colors and pencil drawings on journeys abroad in the years 1864 to 1868. Together with Ivan Ropet, Hartmann was one of the first artists to include traditional Russian motifs in his work, since Vladimir Stasov had introduced him to the circle of Mily Balakirev in 1870, he had been a close friend of the composer Modest Mussorgsky. This inspired Mussorgsky to compose his suite Pictures at an Exhibition, most of the works shown at the 1874 exhibition are now lost. List of Russian artists Reproductions of Viktor Hartmanns pictures More reproductions of Viktor Hartmanns pictures
8.
Mikhail Mikeshin
–
Mikhail Osipovich Mikeshin was a Russian artist who regularly worked for the Romanov family and designed a number of outdoor statues in the major cities of the Russian Empire. Mikeshin was born on 21 February 1835 in a village near Roslavl, although his forte was battle painting, Mikeshins sketch won the much-publicized contest for the monument to the Millennium of Russia in 1859. Only a few of Mikeshins outdoor monuments survived the Soviet years and these include the statues of Catherine the Great in Saint Petersburg, Bohdan Khmelnytsky in Kiev, and Yermak in Novocherkassk. He also won competitions to erect monuments abroad, e. g. the statue of Pedro IV in Lisbon and this xenophobic element was removed in the monument as finally erected. In 1876-78, Mikeshin was the editor of Pchela, a magazine in which he published his caricatures and illustrations to the works of Nikolai Gogol. He died on 31 January 1896 in Saint Petersburg, media related to Mikhail Mikeshin at Wikimedia Commons A. Savinov
9.
Bell
–
A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone. The strike may be made by an internal clapper or uvula, Bells are usually cast from bell metal for its resonant properties, but can also be made from other hard materials, this depends on the function. Many public or institutional buildings house bells, most commonly as clock bells to sound the hours and quarters, historically, bells have been associated with religious rituals, and are still used to call communities together for religious services. Later, bells were made to important events or people and have been associated with the concepts of peace. The study of bells is called campanology and it is popularly but not certainly related to the former sense of to bell which gave rise to bellow. The earliest archaeological evidence of dates from the 3rd millennium BC. Clapper-bells made of pottery have found in several archaeological sites. The pottery bells later developed into metal bells, in West Asia, the first bells appear in 1000 BC. The earliest metal bells, with one found in the Taosi site, early bells not only have an important role in generating metal sound, but arguably played a prominent cultural role. See also Klang Bell of the British Museum collection, in the western world, the common form of bell is a church bell or town bell, which is hung within a tower or bell cote. Such bells are fixed in position or mounted on a beam so they can swing to. Bells that are hung dead are normally sounded by hitting the bow with a hammer or occasionally by pulling an internal clapper against the bell. Where a bell is swung it can either be swung over an arc by a rope. As the bell swings higher the sound is projected rather than downwards. Bells hung for full circle ringing are swung through just over a circle from mouth uppermost. A stay engages a mechanism to allow the bell to rest just past its balance point, the rope is attached to one side of a wheel so that a different amount of rope is wound on and off as it swings to and fro. Swinging bells are sounded by an internal clapper, the clapper may have a longer period of swing than the bell
10.
Cross
–
A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally, a cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is also termed a saltire in heraldic terminology. The word [[wikt, cross|crossded from Old Irish, possibly via Old Norse, ultimately from the Latin crux, stake, the English verb to cross arises from the noun c. 1200, first in the sense to make the sign of the cross, the Latin word was, however, influenced by popular etymology by a native Germanic word reconstructed as*krukjo. This word, by conflation with Latin crux, gave rise to Old French crocier, Latin crux referred to the gibbet where criminals were executed, a stake or pole, but not necessarily to intersecting or cruciform beams. The Latin word derived from the verb crucio to torture, Latin crux originally referred to the tree or stake on which criminals were crucified in the pre-imperial period. This was later specified as crux acuta or crux simplex, the method of execution may have been adopted from the Phoenicians. The addition of a bar, to which the criminal would be fastened with nails or cords. The Latin name of the cross is crux decussata, the heraldic term saltire is introduced only towards the end of the medieval period. The Greek equivalent of Latin crux stake, gibbet is σταυρός stauros stake, the letter Tau was associated with the stauros or crux, while the notion of cruciform shapes, i. e. intersecting lines, were associated with the letter Chi. The Greek term for crossing was χίασμα chiasma, from a verb χιάζω chiázō to shape like the letter Chi, Latin had the comparable decussatus shaped like the numeral ten. Also of prehistoric age are numerous variants of the cross mark, including the crux gammata with curving or angular lines. Speculation of this kind became popular in the mid- to late-19th century in the context of comparative mythology seeking to tie Christian mythology to ancient cosmological myths. Influential works in this vein included G. de Mortillet, L. Müller, W. W. Blake, Ansault, in the European Bronze Age the cross symbol appeared to carry a religious meaning, perhaps as a symbol of consecration, especially pertaining to burial. The cross sign occurs trivially in tally marks, and develops into a number symbol independently in the Roman numerals, the Chinese rod numerals and the Brahmi numerals. In the Phoenician alphabet and derived scripts, the symbol represented the phoneme /t/, i. e. the letter taw. The letter name taw means mark, presumably continuing the Egyptian hieroglyph two crossed sticks, according to W. E. Vines Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, worshippers of Tammuz in Chaldea and thereabouts used the cross as symbol of that god. The shape of the cross, as represented by the letter T, clements contemporary Tertullian rejects the accusation that Christians are crucis religiosi, and returns the accusation by likening the worship of pagan idols to the worship of poles or stakes
11.
Mikhail Lomonosov
–
Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov was a Russian polymath, scientist and writer, who made important contributions to literature, education, and science. Among his discoveries were the atmosphere of Venus and the Law of Mass Conservation in chemical reactions and his spheres of science were natural science, chemistry, physics, mineralogy, history, art, philology, optical devices and others. Lomonosov was also a poet and influenced the formation of the modern Russian literary language, Lomonosov was born in the village of Denisovka in Archangelgorod Governorate, on an island not far from Kholmogory, in the far north of Russia. Lomonosovs mother was Vasilys first wife, a daughter, Elena Ivanovna Sivkova. He remained at Denisovka until he was ten, when his father decided that he was old enough to participate in his business ventures, learning was young Lomonosovs passion, however, not business. The boys thirst for knowledge was insatiable, Lomonosov had been taught to read as a boy by his neighbor Ivan Shubny, and he spent every spare moment with his books. He continued his studies with the deacon, S. N. Sabelnikov, but for years the only books he had access to were religious texts. When he was fourteen, Lomonosov was given copies of Meletius Smotrytskys Modern Church Slavonic, on his religious views, Lomonosov was a deist. In 1724, his father married for the third and final time, Lomonosov and his stepmother Irina had an acrimonious relationship. Unhappy at home and intent on obtaining an education, which Lomonosov could not receive in Denisovka. In 1730, at nineteen, Lomonosov went to Moscow on foot, not long after arriving, Lomonosov obtained admission into the Slavic Greek Latin Academy by falsely claiming to be a priests son. That initial falsehood would nearly get him expelled from the academy a few years later when discovered, Lomonosov lived on three kopecks a day, living off only black bread and kvass, but he made rapid progress scholastically. After three years in Moscow he was sent to Kiev to study for one year at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and he quickly became dissatisfied with the education he was receiving there, and returned to Moscow several months ahead of schedule, resuming his studies there. He completed a study course in only five years, graduating at the top of his class. In 1736, Lomonosov was awarded a scholarship to St. Petersburg Academy and he plunged into his studies and was rewarded with a two-year grant to study abroad at the University of Marburg, in Germany. The University of Marburg was among Europes most important universities in the century due to the presence of the philosopher Christian Wolff. Lomonosov became one of Wolffs personal students while at Marburg, both philosophically and as a science administrator, this connection would be the most influential of Lomonosovs life
12.
Alexander Pushkin
–
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era who is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature. Pushkin was born into Russian nobility in Moscow and his matrilineal great-grandfather was Abram Petrovich Gannibal, who was kidnapped from Eritrea and raised in the household of Peter the Great. Pushkin published his first poem at the age of fifteen, and was recognized by the literary establishment by the time of his graduation from the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. While under the surveillance of the Tsars political police and unable to publish, Pushkin wrote his most famous play. His novel in verse, Eugene Onegin, was serialized between 1825 and 1832, Pushkins father, Sergei Lvovich Pushkin, was descended from a distinguished family of the Russian nobility that traced its ancestry back to the 12th century. Pushkins mother, Nadezhda Ossipovna Gannibal, was descended through her grandmother from German and Scandinavian nobility. She was the daughter of Ossip Abramovich Gannibal and his wife, Abram wrote in a letter to Empress Elizabeth, Peter the Greats daughter, that Gannibal was from the town of Lagon. Largely on the basis of a biography by Gannibals son-in-law Rotkirkh. Vladimir Nabokov, when researching Eugene Onegin, cast serious doubt on this origin theory, after education in France as a military engineer, Gannibal became governor of Reval and eventually Général en Chef in charge of the building of sea forts and canals in Russia. Born in Moscow, Pushkin published his first poem at the age of fifteen, after school, Pushkin plunged into the vibrant and raucous intellectual youth culture of the capital, Saint Petersburg. In 1820 he published his first long poem, Ruslan and Ludmila, amidst much controversy about its subject, Pushkin gradually became committed to social reform and emerged as a spokesman for literary radicals. This angered the government, and led to his transfer from the capital in May 1820 and he went to the Caucasus and to Crimea, then to Kamianka and Chișinău, where he became a Freemason. Here he joined the Filiki Eteria, an organization whose purpose was to overthrow Ottoman rule in Greece. He was inspired by the Greek Revolution and when the war against the Ottoman Turks broke out he kept a recording the events of the great national uprising. He stayed in Chișinău until 1823 and wrote two Romantic poems which brought him acclaim, The Captive of the Caucasus and The Fountain of Bakhchisaray. In 1823 Pushkin moved to Odessa, where he clashed with the government. In Mikhaylovskoye, Pushkin wrote nostalgic love poems which he dedicated to Elizaveta Vorontsova, then Pushkin continued work on his verse-novel Eugene Onegin. In Mikhaylovskoye, in 1825, Pushkin wrote the poem To*** and it is generally believed that he dedicated this poem to Anna Kern, but there are other opinions
13.
Mikhail Lermontov
–
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
14.
Nikolai Gogol
–
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Russian dramatist of Ukrainian origin. His early works, such as Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, were influenced by his Ukrainian upbringing and his later writing satirised political corruption in the Russian Empire. Gogol was born in the Ukrainian Cossack village of Sorochyntsi, in Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire and his mother descended from Leonty Kosyarovsky, an officer of the Lubny Regiment in 1710. As was typical of the left-bank Ukrainian gentry of the nineteenth century. As a child, Gogol helped stage Ukrainian-language plays in his uncles home theater, in 1820, Gogol went to a school of higher art in Nezhin and remained there until 1828. It was there that he began writing and he was not popular among his schoolmates, who called him their mysterious dwarf, but with two or three of them he formed lasting friendships. Very early he developed a dark and secretive disposition, marked by a painful self-consciousness and boundless ambition, equally early he developed a talent for mimicry, which later made him a matchless reader of his own works and induced him to toy with the idea of becoming an actor. In 1828, on leaving school, Gogol came to Saint Petersburg, full of vague and he had hoped for literary fame, and brought with him a Romantic poem of German idyllic life – Hans Küchelgarten. He had it published, at his own expense, under the name of V. Alov, the magazines he sent it to almost universally derided it. He bought all the copies and destroyed them, swearing never to write poetry again, Gogol was in touch with the literary aristocracy, had a story published in Anton Delvigs Northern Flowers, was taken up by Vasily Zhukovsky and Pyotr Pletnyov, and was introduced to Pushkin. In 1831 Gogol brought out the first volume of his Ukrainian stories and he followed it in 1832 with a second volume, and in 1835 by two volumes of stories entitled Mirgorod, as well as by two volumes of miscellaneous prose entitled Arabesques. However, Gogols satire was much more sophisticated and unconventional, at this time, Gogol developed a passion for Ukrainian history and tried to obtain an appointment to the history department at Kiev University. Despite the support of Pushkin and Sergey Uvarov, the Russian minister of education and his fictional story Taras Bulba, based on the history of Ukrainian cossacks, was the result of this phase in his interests. During this time he developed a close and lifelong friendship with another Ukrainian. In 1834 Gogol was made Professor of Medieval History at the University of St. Petersburg and he turned in a performance ludicrous enough to warrant satiric treatment in one of his own stories. At the final examination, he sat in silence with a black handkerchief wrapped around his head, simulating a toothache. This academic venture proved a failure and he resigned his chair in 1835, during this time, the Russian critics Stepan Shevyrev and Vissarion Belinsky, contradicting earlier critics, reclassified Gogol from a Ukrainian to a Russian writer. It was only after the presentation at the Saint Petersburg State Theatre, on 19 April 1836, the comedy, a violent satire of Russian provincial bureaucracy, was staged thanks only to the intervention of the emperor, Nicholas I
15.
Karl Bryullov
–
Karl Pavlovich Bryullov, also transliterated Briullov or Briuloff and referred to by his friends as The Great Karl, was a Russian painter. He is regarded as a key figure in transition from the Russian neoclassicism to romanticism, Karl Bryullov was born on December, 12th,1799 in St. Petersburg, in a family of the academician, the woodcarver and engraver Pavel Ivanovich Briullo who was of Huguenot descent. He felt drawn to Italy from his early years, despite his education at the Imperial Academy of Arts, Bryullov never fully embraced the classical style taught by his mentors and promoted by his brother, Alexander Bryullov. His best-known work, The Last Day of Pompeii, is a vast composition compared by Pushkin and Gogol to the best works of Rubens and it created a sensation in Italy and established Bryullov as one of the finest European painters of his day. An anecdote concerning Bryullov appeared in Leo Tolstoys essay Why Do Men Stupefy Themselves. while he was working on the plafond of St Isaacs Cathedral, his health suddenly deteriorated. Following advice of his doctors, Bryullov left Russia for Madeira in 1849 and he died in the village of Manziana near Rome and is buried at the Cimitero Acattolico there. List of Russian artists Paintings by Bryullov Karl - high res Online gallery of Briullov paintings Brullovs paintings at the Russian Art Gallery Karl Brulloff
16.
Mikhail Glinka
–
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka was the first Russian composer to gain wide recognition within his own country, and is often regarded as the fountainhead of Russian classical music. Glinkas compositions were an important influence on future Russian composers, notably the members of The Five, Mikhail Glinka was born in the village of Novospasskoye, not far from the Desna River in the Smolensk Governorate of the Russian Empire. His great-great-grandfather was a Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth nobleman, Wiktoryn Władysław Glinka of the Trzaska coat of arms, the only music he heard in his youthful confinement was the sounds of the village church bells and the folk songs of passing peasant choirs. The church bells were tuned to a dissonant chord and so his ears became used to strident harmony, at the age of about ten he heard them play a clarinet quartet by the Finnish composer Bernhard Henrik Crusell. It had an effect upon him. Music is my soul, he many years later, recalling this experience. While his governess taught him Russian, German, French, and geography, he received instruction on the piano. At the age of 13, Glinka went to the capital, Saint Petersburg, here he learned Latin, English, and Persian, studied mathematics and zoology, and considerably widened his musical experience. He had three piano lessons from John Field, the Irish composer of nocturnes, who spent some time in Saint Petersburg and he then continued his piano lessons with Charles Mayer and began composing. When he left school his father wanted him to join the Foreign Office, the work was light, which allowed Glinka to settle into the life of a musical dilettante, frequenting the drawing rooms and social gatherings of the city. He was already composing a large amount of music, such as melancholy romances which amused the rich amateurs and his songs are among the most interesting part of his output from this period. In 1830, at the recommendation of a physician, Glinka decided to travel to Italy with the tenor Nikolai Kuzmich Ivanov, the journey took a leisurely pace, ambling uneventfully through Germany and Switzerland, before they settled in Milan. There, Glinka took lessons at the conservatory with Francesco Basili, although he struggled with counterpoint and he realized that his mission in life was to return to Russia, write in a Russian manner, and do for Russian music what Donizetti and Bellini had done for Italian music. His return route took him through the Alps, and he stopped for a while in Vienna and he stayed for another five months in Berlin, during which time he studied composition under the distinguished teacher Siegfried Dehn. A Capriccio on Russian themes for piano duet and an unfinished Symphony on two Russian themes were important products of this period, when word reached Glinka of his fathers death in 1834, he left Berlin and returned to Novospasskoye. While in Berlin, Glinka had become enamored with a beautiful and talented singer, there he reunited with his mother, and made the acquaintance of Maria Petrovna Ivanova. After he courted her for a period, the two married. The marriage was short-lived, as Maria was tactless and uninterested in his music, Glinka moved in with his mother, and later with his sister, Lyudmila Shestakova
17.
Ivan the Terrible
–
Ivan IV Vasilyevich, commonly known as Ivan the Terrible or Ivan the Fearsome, was the Grand Prince of Moscow from 1533 to 1547, then Tsar of All the Russias until his death in 1584. The last title was used by all his successors, during his reign, Russia conquered the Khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan and Sibir, becoming a multiethnic and multicontinental state spanning approximately 4,050,000 km2. Ivan exercised autocratic control over Russias hereditary nobility and developed a bureaucracy to administer his new territories and he transformed Russia from a medieval state into an empire, though at immense cost to its people, and its broader, long-term economy. In one such outburst, he killed his son and heir Ivan Ivanovich and this left his younger son, the pious but politically ineffectual Feodor Ivanovich, to inherit the throne. Ivan was a diplomat, a patron of arts and trade. He was popular among Russias commoners, except possibly the people of Novgorod and surrounding areas, the English word terrible is usually used to translate the Russian word grozny in Ivans nickname, but this is a somewhat archaic translation. The Russian word grozny reflects the older English usage of terrible as in inspiring fear or terror, dangerous, powerful and it does not convey the more modern connotations of English terrible, such as defective or evil. Vladimir Dal defines grozny specifically in archaic usage and as an epithet for tsars, courageous, magnificent, magisterial and keeping enemies in fear, other translations have also been suggested by modern scholars. Ivan was the first son of Vasili III and his wife, Elena Glinskaya. When Ivan was three years old, his father died from an abscess and inflammation on his leg that developed into blood poisoning, Ivan was proclaimed the Grand Prince of Moscow at the request of his father. His mother Elena Glinskaya initially acted as regent, but she died of what many believe to be assassination by poison, the regency then alternated between several feuding boyar families fighting for control. According to his own letters, Ivan, along with his younger brother Yuri, on 16 January 1547, at age sixteen, Ivan was crowned with Monomakhs Cap at the Cathedral of the Dormition. He was the first to be crowned as Tsar of All the Russias, prior to that, rulers of Muscovy were crowned as Grand Princes, although Ivan III the Great, his grandfather, styled himself tsar in his correspondence. Two weeks after his coronation, Ivan married his first wife Anastasia Romanovna, a member of the Romanov family, who became the first Russian tsaritsa. By being crowned Tsar, Ivan was sending a message to the world and to Russia, he was now the one and only ruler of the country. The new title symbolized an assumption of powers equivalent and parallel to those held by former Byzantine Emperor, the political effect was to elevate Ivans position. The new title not only secured the throne, but it also granted Ivan a new dimension of power and he was now a divine leader appointed to enact Gods will, as church texts described Old Testament kings as Tsars and Christ as the Heavenly Tsar. The newly appointed title was passed on from generation to generation
18.
Oprichnina
–
The oprichnina was a state policy implemented by Tsar Ivan the Terrible in Russia between 1565 and 1572. The policy included institution of secret police, mass repressions, public executions, the term oprichnina, which Ivan coined for this policy, derives from the Russian word oprich. In 1558, Tsar Ivan IV started the Livonian war after the Livonian Confederation refused to pay tribute to Russia, a broad coalition, which included Poland, Lithuania and Sweden, were drawn into the war against Russia. The war became drawn-out and expensive, raids by Crimean Tatars, Polish and Lithuanian invasions, famines, a trading blockade and escalating costs of war ravaged Russia. In 1564, Prince Andrei Kurbsky, who had defected to the Lithuanians, led the Lithuanian army against Russia, Tsar Ivan began to suspect that other aristocrats were also ready to betray him. Veselovskii explained the oprichnina in terms of Ivan’s paranoia and denied larger social aims for the oprichnina, however, historian Sergey Platonov argued that Ivan IV intended the oprichnina as a suppression of the rising boyar aristocracy. Professor Isabel de Madariaga has expanded this idea to explain the oprichnina as Ivan’s attempt to subordinate all independent social classes to the autocracy, on December 3,1564, Ivan IV departed Moscow on pilgrimage. While such journeys were routine for the throne, Ivan neglected to set the arrangements for rule in his absence. Moreover, a large personal guard, a significant number of boyars. After a month of silence, Ivan finally issued two letters from his fortifications at Aleksandrova Sloboda on January 3, the first addressed the elite of the city and accused them of embezzlement and treason. Further accusations concerned the clergy and their protection of denounced boyars, in conclusion, Ivan announced his abdication. The second letter addressed the population of Moscow and claimed “he had no anger against” its citizenry, divided between Sloboda and Moscow, the boyar court was unable to rule in absence of Ivan and feared the wrath of the Muscovite citizenry. A boyar envoy departed for Aleksandrova Sloboda to beg Ivan to return to the throne, Ivan IV agreed to return on condition that he may prosecute people for treason outside legal limitations. He demanded that he execute and confiscate the land of traitors without interference from the council or church. To pursue his investigations, Ivan decreed the creation of the oprichnina and this region included many of the financial centers of the state, including the salt region of Staraia Russa and prominent merchant towns. Ivan held exclusive power over the oprichnina territory, the Boyar Council ruled the zemshchina, the second division of the state. Until 1568, the oprichnina relied upon many administrative institutions under zemshchina jurisdiction, only when conflict between the zemshchina and oprichnina reached its peak did Ivan create independent institutions within the oprichnina. Ivan also stipulated the creation of a personal guard known as the oprichniki, originally it was a thousand strong
19.
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
–
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state from the 13th century until 1795. The state was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the polytheistic Baltic tribes from Aukštaitija, the Grand Duchy later expanded to include large portions of the former Kievan Rus and other Slavic lands, including territory of present-day Belarus, parts of Ukraine, Poland and Russia. At its greatest extent in the 15th century, it was the largest state in Europe and it was a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional state with great diversity in languages, religion, and cultural heritage. Consolidation of the Lithuanian lands began in the late 12th century, Mindaugas, the first ruler of the Grand Duchy, was crowned as Catholic King of Lithuania in 1253. The pagan state was targeted in the crusade by the Teutonic Knights. The multi-ethnic and multi-confessional state emerged only at the reign of Gediminas. The reign of Vytautas the Great marked both the greatest territorial expansion of the Grand Duchy and the defeat of the Teutonic Knights in the Battle of Grunwald in 1410 and it also marked the rise of the Lithuanian nobility. After Vytautass death, Lithuanias relationship with the Kingdom of Poland greatly deteriorated, Lithuanian noblemen, including the Radvila family, attempted to break the personal union with Poland. However, the unsuccessful Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars with the Grand Duchy of Moscow forced the union to remain intact, eventually, the Union of Lublin of 1569 created a new state, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In this federation, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania maintained its political distinctiveness and had separate government, laws, army, shortly after, the unitary character of the state was confirmed by adopting the Reciprocal Guarantee of Two Nations. The newly reformed Commonwealth was invaded by Russia in 1792 and partitioned between the neighbours, with a truncated state remaining only nominally independent, after the Kościuszko Uprising, the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and Austria in 1795. The Statutes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania name the name of the state as Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Ruthenia and Samogitia. The title of Grand Duchy was consistently applied to Lithuania from the 14th century onward, in the 12th century, Slavic chronicles refer to Lithuania as one of the areas attacked by the Rus. Pagan Lithuanians initially paid tribute to Polotsk, but they grew in strength. The sudden spark of military raids marked consolidation of the Lithuanian lands in Aukštaitija, the Livonian Order and Teutonic Knights, crusading military orders, were established in Riga in 1202 and in Prussia in 1226. The Christian orders posed a significant threat to pagan Baltic tribes, the peace treaty with Galicia–Volhynia of 1219 provides evidence of cooperation between Lithuanians and Samogitians. This treaty lists 21 Lithuanian dukes, including five senior Lithuanian dukes from Aukštaitija, although they had battled in the past, the Lithuanians and the Žemaičiai now faced a common enemy. Likely Živinbudas had the most authority and at least several dukes were from the same families, the formal acknowledgment of common interests and the establishment of a hierarchy among the signatories of the treaty foreshadowed the emergence of the state
20.
Gediminas
–
Gediminas was Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1315 or 1316 until his death. He is credited with founding this political entity and expanding its territory which, at the time of his death, Gediminas was born in about 1275. Because written sources of the era are scarce, Gediminas ancestry, early life, various theories have claimed that Gediminas was either his predecessor Grand Duke Vytenis son, his brother, his cousin, or his hostler. For several centuries only two versions of his origins circulated, another version introduced in the Lithuanian Chronicles, which also appeared long after Gediminas death, proclaimed that Gediminas was Vytenis son. However, the two men were almost the age, making this relationship unlikely. Recent research indicates that Gediminias ancestor may have been Skalmantas and this discovery led to the belief that Skalmantas was the long-sought ancestor of the Gediminids. Ochmański posited that the poem skipped the generation represented by Butvydas, baranauskas disagrees, believing Skalmantas was Butvydas brother rather than his father, and that Vytenis and Gediminas were therefore cousins. Gediminas became the Grand Duke in 1316 at the age of 40 and he inherited a vast domain, comprising not only Lithuania proper, but also Samogitia, Navahradak, Podlasie, Polotsk and Minsk. However, these possessions were all environed by the Teutonic Knights and the Livonian Order, Gediminas allied himself with the Tatars against the Teutonic order in 1319. Gediminas also asked that legates should be dispatched to him in order to be baptized and this action was supported by the Archbishop of Riga, Frederic Lobestat. Following these events, peace between the Duchy and the Livonian order was conducted on 2 October 1323. The immigrants were to choose their own settlements and be governed by their own laws, priests and monks were also invited to come and build churches at Vilnius and Navahradak. A compact was then signed at Vilnius, in the name of the whole Christian World, thus his raid upon Dobrzyń, the latest acquisition of the knights on Polish soil, speedily gave them a ready weapon against him. Nevertheless, disregarding the censures of the church, the Order resumed the war with Gediminas by murdering one of his delegates sent to welcome the Grand Master for his arrival to Riga in 1325. Thus in about 1339-40 he executed two Franciscan friars from Bohemia, Ulrich and Martin, who had gone beyond the authority granted them and had publicly preached against the Lithuanian religion, Gediminas ordered them to renounce Christianity, and had them killed when they refused. Five more friars were executed in 1369 for the same offence, despite Gediminas chief goal to save Lithuania from destruction at the hands of the Germans, he still died as a pagan reigning over semi-pagan lands. Also, he was bound to his pagan kinsmen in Samogitia, to his Orthodox subjects in Belarus. Therefore, it is unclear whether the letters sent to the Pope were an actual request for conversion or simply a diplomatic maneuver
21.
Vytautas
–
Vytautas, also known as Vytautas the Great from the 15th century onwards, was one of the most famous rulers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which chiefly encompassed the Lithuanians and Ruthenians. He was also the Prince of Hrodna, Prince of Lutsk, in modern Lithuania, Vytautas is revered as a national hero and was an important figure in the national rebirth in the 19th century. Vytautas is a male given name in Lithuania. In commemoration of the 500-year anniversary of his death, Vytautas Magnus University was named after him, monuments in his honour were built in many towns in the independent Republic of Lithuania during the interwar period, from 1918–1939. Vytautas uncle Algirdas had been Grand Duke of Lithuania until his death in 1377, Algirdas and Vytautas father Kęstutis had practically ruled jointly, with Algirdas governing the east and Kęstutis the west, primarily responsible for defense against the Teutonic Order. Algirdas was succeeded by his son Jogaila, and a struggle for power ensued, in 1380, Jogaila signed the secret Treaty of Dovydiškės with the Teutonic Order against Kęstutis. When Kęstutis discovered this in 1381, he seized Vilnius, imprisoned Jogaila, however, Jogaila escaped and raised an army against Kęstutis. The two sides confronted each other but never engaged in battle, Kęstutis was ready to negotiate, but he and Vytautas were arrested and transported to Kreva Castle. One week later, Kęstutis was found dead, whether he died of natural causes or was murdered is still a matter of debate. In 1382, Vytautas escaped from Kreva and he sought help from the Teutonic Order, who were negotiating with Jogaila at the time. Jogaila and the Order agreed to the Treaty of Dubysa, by which Jogaila promised to accept Christianity, become an ally of the Order, however, the treaty was never ratified. In summer 1383, the war between Jogaila and the Order resumed, Vytautas was baptised as a Catholic, receiving the name of Wigand. Vytautas participated in raids against Jogaila. In January 1384, Vytautas promised to cede part of Samogitia to the Teutonic Order, however, in July of the same year, Vytautas broke with the Order and reconciled with Jogaila. He then burned three important Teutonic castles, and regained all Kęstutis lands, except for Trakai, in 1385, Jogaila concluded the Union of Krewo with Poland, under which he married Jadwiga of Poland and became King of Poland as Władysław II Jagiełło. Vytautas participated in the Union and in 1386 was re-baptised as a Catholic, Jogaila left his brother Skirgaila as regent in Lithuania. However, Skirgaila was unpopular with the people and Vytautas saw an opportunity to become Grand Duke, in 1389, he attacked Vilnius but failed. In early 1390, Vytautas again allied with the Teutonic Order, Vytautas had to confirm his agreement of 1384, and cede Samogitia to the Order
22.
Belarus
–
Its capital and most populous city is Minsk. Over 40% of its 207,600 square kilometres is forested and its strongest economic sectors are service industries and manufacturing. In the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution, Belarus declared independence as the Belarusian Peoples Republic, the Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia became a founding constituent republic of the Soviet Union in 1922 and was renamed as the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. Belarus lost almost half of its territory to Poland after the Polish–Soviet War of 1919–1921, during WWII, military operations devastated Belarus, which lost about a third of its population and more than half of its economic resources. The republic was redeveloped in the post-war years, in 1945 the Byelorussian SSR became a founding member of the United Nations, along with the Soviet Union and the Ukrainian SSR. The parliament of the declared the sovereignty of Belarus on 27 July 1990. Alexander Lukashenko has served as the president since 1994. Belarus has been labeled Europes last dictatorship by some Western journalists, Lukashenko continued a number of Soviet-era policies, such as state ownership of large sections of the economy. Though not directly espousing communism like the five remaining communist countries of China, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam and North Korea, in 2000 Belarus and Russia signed a treaty for greater cooperation, with some hints of forming a Union State. Over 70% of Belaruss population of 9.49 million resides in urban areas, more than 80% of the population is ethnic Belarusian, with sizable minorities of Russians, Poles and Ukrainians. Since a referendum in 1995, the country has had two official languages, Belarusian and Russian, the Constitution of Belarus does not declare any official religion, although the primary religion in the country is Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Belarus is the only European country to retain capital punishment in both law and practice, the name Belarus is closely related with the term Belaya Rus, i. e. White Rus. There are several claims to the origin of the name White Rus, an alternate explanation for the name comments on the white clothing worn by the local Slavic population. A third theory suggests that the old Rus lands that were not conquered by the Tatars had been referred to as white, other sources claim that, before 1267, the land not conquered by the Mongols was considered White Rus. The name Rus is often conflated with its Latin forms Russia and Ruthenia, in some languages, including German and Dutch, the country is generally called White Russia to this day. The Latin term Alba Russia was used again by Pope Pius VI in 1783 to recognize the Society of Jesus there, exclaiming Approbo Societatem Jesu in Alba Russia degentem, approbo, approbo. The first known use of White Russia to refer to Belarus was in the century by Englishman Sir Jerome Horsey. During the 17th century, the Russian tsars used White Rus to describe the lands added from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
23.
Ukraine
–
Ukraine is currently in territorial dispute with Russia over the Crimean Peninsula which Russia annexed in 2014 but which Ukraine and most of the international community recognise as Ukrainian. Including Crimea, Ukraine has an area of 603,628 km2, making it the largest country entirely within Europe and it has a population of about 42.5 million, making it the 32nd most populous country in the world. The territory of modern Ukraine has been inhabited since 32,000 BC, during the Middle Ages, the area was a key centre of East Slavic culture, with the powerful state of Kievan Rus forming the basis of Ukrainian identity. Following its fragmentation in the 13th century, the territory was contested, ruled and divided by a variety of powers, including Lithuania, Poland, the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. A Cossack republic emerged and prospered during the 17th and 18th centuries, two brief periods of independence occurred during the 20th century, once near the end of World War I and another during World War II. Before its independence, Ukraine was typically referred to in English as The Ukraine, following independence, Ukraine declared itself a neutral state. Nonetheless it formed a limited partnership with the Russian Federation and other CIS countries. In the 2000s, the government began leaning towards NATO, and it was later agreed that the question of joining NATO should be answered by a national referendum at some point in the future. Former President Viktor Yanukovych considered the current level of co-operation between Ukraine and NATO sufficient, and was against Ukraine joining NATO and these events formed the background for the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014, and the War in Donbass in April 2014. On 1 January 2016, Ukraine applied the economic part of the Deep, Ukraine has long been a global breadbasket because of its extensive, fertile farmlands and is one of the worlds largest grain exporters. The diversified economy of Ukraine includes a heavy industry sector, particularly in aerospace. Ukraine is a republic under a semi-presidential system with separate powers, legislative, executive. Its capital and largest city is Kiev, taking into account reserves and paramilitary personnel, Ukraine maintains the second-largest military in Europe after that of Russia. Ukrainian is the language and its alphabet is Cyrillic. The dominant religion in the country is Eastern Orthodoxy, which has strongly influenced Ukrainian architecture, literature, there are different hypotheses as to the etymology of the name Ukraine. According to the older and most widespread hypothesis, it means borderland, while more recently some studies claim a different meaning, homeland or region. The Ukraine now implies disregard for the sovereignty, according to U. S. ambassador William Taylor. Neanderthal settlement in Ukraine is seen in the Molodova archaeological sites include a mammoth bone dwelling
24.
Pedestal
–
A pedestal or plinth is the support of a statue or a vase. In the imperial China, a tortoise called bixi was traditionally used as the pedestal for important stele. An elevated pedestal or plinth which bears a statue and which is raised from the substructure supporting it is called an acropodium. The term is from the Greek akros or topmost and pous or foot, Pedestal crater Pedestal desk Pedestal table, a table with a single central leg This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Pedestal
25.
Sortavala
–
Sortavala is a town in the Republic of Karelia, Russia, located at the northern tip of Lake Ladoga. The district of Sortavala was first recorded in Swedish documents dating to 1468, Russian documents first mention it as Serdovol or Serdobol in 1500. It was ceded to Sweden after the Ingrian War, with the 1721 Treaty of Nystad, the settlement was joined to Russia along with the rest of Old Finland and was given the Russian name Serdobol. It became known for its marble and granite quarries which provided materials necessary for construction of palaces in St. Petersburg. In 1812, along with the rest of Viipuri Province, it was joined to the newly formed Grand Duchy of Finland, in 1917, the town remained a part of independent Finland. It suffered extensively from mass Soviet bombardment during the Winter War, all of the population of the town was evacuated for the first time. Like the rest of Finnish Karelia, Sortavala was retaken by Finland during 1941–1944, however, after the armistice of 1944, the Finns were evacuated again and the town was ceded back empty of population. After the war, the town was resettled by the Slavic population, until 1940, the Ladoga shore southwest of Sortavala had been one of the very few relatively densely populated areas north of the Karelian Isthmus populated by Karelians. The remaining urban-type settlements and rural localities are incorporated within the district into two urban settlements and two rural settlements. Sortavala is a station on the Khiytola-Matkaselkä railway. Urban development enterprise - Karelian Industrial Complex, joensuu, Finland Kitee, Finland Bogen, Germany Serdobsk, Russia Законодательное Собрание Республики Карелия. Закон №871-ЗРК от29 апреля2005 г, «Об административно-территориальном устройстве Республики Карелия», в ред. Закона №1895-ЗРK от2 июня2015 г, «О внесении изменения статью9 Закона Республики Карелия Об административно-территориальном устройстве Республики Карелия». Вступил в силу со дня официального опубликования, Опубликован, газета Карелия, №48,7 мая2005 г. Закон №825-ЗРК от1 декабря2004 г, «О муниципальных районах в Республике Карелия», в ред. Закона №1694-ЗРK от2 апреля2013 г, Вступил в силу по истечении десяти дней со дня официального опубликования. Опубликован, газета Карелия, №141,16 декабря2004 г, Закон №813-ЗРК от1 ноября2004 г. «О городских, сельских поселениях в Республике Карелия», в ред, Закона №1694-ЗРK от2 апреля2013 г
26.
World War II
–
World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
27.
Nazism
–
National Socialism, more commonly known as Nazism, is the ideology and practice associated with the 20th-century German Nazi Party and Nazi Germany, as well as other far-right groups. Nazism subscribed to theories of racial hierarchy and Social Darwinism, identifying Germans as part of what Nazis regarded as an Aryan or Nordic master race and it aimed to overcome social divisions and create a homogeneous society, unified on the basis of racial purity. The term National Socialism arose out of attempts to create a nationalist redefinition of socialism, the Nazi Partys precursor, the Pan-German nationalist and anti-Semitic German Workers Party, was founded on 5 January 1919. By the early 1920s, Adolf Hitler assumed control of the organisation, following the Holocaust and German defeat in World War II, only a few fringe racist groups, usually referred to as neo-Nazis, still describe themselves as following National Socialism. The full name of Adolf Hitlers party was Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, the shorthand Nazi was formed from the first two syllables of the German pronunciation of the word national. The term was in use before the rise of the NSDAP as a colloquial and derogatory word for a peasant, characterizing an awkward. It derived from Ignaz, being a version of Ignatius, a common name in Bavaria. Opponents seized on this and shortened the first word of the name, Nationalsozialistische. The NSDAP briefly adopted the Nazi designation, attempting to reappropriate the term, the use of Nazi Germany, Nazi regime, and so on was popularised by German exiles abroad. From them, the spread into other languages and was eventually brought back to Germany after World War II. In English, Nazism is a name for the ideology the party advocated. The majority of scholars identify Nazism in practice as a form of far-right politics, far-right themes in Nazism include the argument that superior people have a right to dominate over other people and purge society of supposed inferior elements. Adolf Hitler and other proponents officially portrayed Nazism as being neither left- nor right-wing, but the politicians of the Right deserve exactly the same reproach. It was through their miserable cowardice that those ruffians of Jews who came into power in 1918 were able to rob the nation of its arms, a major inspiration for the Nazis were the far-right nationalist Freikorps, paramilitary organisations that engaged in political violence after World War I. The Nazis stated the alliance was purely tactical and there remained substantial differences with the DNVP, the Nazis described the DNVP as a bourgeois party and called themselves an anti-bourgeois party. After the elections in 1932, the alliance broke after the DNVP lost many of its seats in the Reichstag, the Nazis denounced them as an insignificant heap of reactionaries. The DNVP responded by denouncing the Nazis for their socialism, their violence. Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was pressured to abdicate the throne and flee into exile amidst an attempted communist revolution in Germany, there were factions in the Nazi Party, both conservative and radical
28.
Commemorative coins of the Soviet Union
–
Commemorative coins were released in the USSR between 1965 and 1991. Most of them were made of alloy, but there were also silver coins, gold coins, palladium coins. All of the coins were minted either by the Moscow Mint or by the Leningrad Mint, certain parts of the mintage of almost each coin were minted using the proof coinage technology. 2009 Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1901–2000
29.
Soviet Union
–
The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
30.
Varangians
–
According to the 12th century Kievan Primary Chronicle, a group of Varangians known as the Rus settled in Novgorod in 862 under the leadership of Rurik. Before Rurik, the Rus might have ruled an earlier hypothetical polity, Ruriks relative Oleg conquered Kiev in 882 and established the state of Kievan Rus, which was later ruled by Ruriks descendants. Engaging in trade, piracy, and mercenary activities, Varangians roamed the river systems and portages of Gardariki and they controlled the Volga trade route, connecting the Baltic to the Caspian Sea, and the Dnieper and Dniester trade route leading to the Black Sea and Constantinople. Attracted by the riches of Constantinople, the Varangian Rus initiated a number of Rus-Byzantine Wars, at least from the early 10th century many Varangians served as mercenaries in the Byzantine Army, constituting the elite Varangian Guard. Eventually most of them, both in Byzantium and in Eastern Europe, were converted from paganism to Orthodox Christianity, culminating in the Christianization of Kievan Rus in 988. Coinciding with the decline of the Viking Age, the influx of Scandinavians to Rus stopped. Some scholars seem to assume a derivation from vár with the common suffix -ing, the reduction of the second part of the word could be parallel to that seen in Old Norse foringi leader, correspondent to Old English foregenga and Gothic
31.
Veles (god)
–
Veles, also known as Volos, is a major Slavic god of earth, waters, forests and the underworld. His attributes are wet, wooly, hairy, dark and he is associated with cattle, believed to be related to the Indo-European deity of Mitra, as well as Norse deity of Loki. As such he probably has been imagined as a dragon, which in the belief of the pagan Slavs is a chimeric being and his tree is the willow, like god Peruns tree is the oak. No direct accounts survive, but reconstructions speculate that he may directly continue aspects of the Proto-Indo-European pantheon, Veles is one of few Slavic gods for which evidence of offerings can be found in all Slavic nations. The Primary Chronicle, a record of the early Eastern Slavic state, is the earliest and most important record. Many etymologists, however, suppose them two different gods, here, Volos is mentioned as god of cattle and peasants, who will punish oath-breakers with diseases, the opposite of Perun who is described as a ruling god of war who punishes by death in battle. In the later half of the 10th century, Veles or Volos was one of seven gods whose statues Volodymyr I, Prince of Kyiv had erected in his city. It is very interesting that Veless statue apparently did not stand next to others, on the hill where the castle was. A similar pattern can be observed among the South Slavs, here the name of Veles appears only in toponyms, the best-known of which is the city of Veles in Macedonia, over which looms a hill of St. Elias the Thunderer. Also, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a part of Sarajevo is called Velešići, another debatable if not improbable example is the town of Volosko in Croatia, situated on the seashore under the peak of Mount Ucka, nicknamed Perun. Among Western Slavs, the name can be found in 15th and 16th century Czech records. One possibility is that the name derives from the Proto-Indo-European root *wel- and this seems plausible, since in Slavic cosmology Veles in serpentine form is lying in a nest of black wool in the roots of the Tree of the World and Veles is the shepherd of the dead. Volos is also the Russian word for hair and Veles is hairy in his beastly form, the Proto-Indo-European root *welg- also means humid, wet. Nothing is more connected with Veles than humidity and wetness and his domain is down, у воду пот корч пот колоду. That is where Veles is in his place, there is also the Indo-European word *woltus meaning meadow which is derived from the same root. And Veles is the shepherd of the dead who was imagined to browse the deceased on green lush meadows in the underworld. And finally the Elysian Fields where Ἠλύσιος is etymologically related to the name Veles and in Greek λειμών is a low wet place, a meadow, the name may also be related to Slavic terminology for oxen, for which the South Slavs, Russians, and Poles use вол/vol/wół. Volos can also be a derivation from the root by Eastern Slavic phonetic laws
32.
Kiev
–
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population in July 2015 was 2,887,974, Kiev is an important industrial, scientific, educational, and cultural centre of Eastern Europe. It is home to many industries, higher education institutions. The city has an infrastructure and highly developed system of public transport. The citys name is said to derive from the name of Kyi, during its history, Kiev, one of the oldest cities in Eastern Europe, passed through several stages of great prominence and relative obscurity. The city probably existed as a centre as early as the 5th century. A Slavic settlement on the trade route between Scandinavia and Constantinople, Kiev was a tributary of the Khazars, until seized by the Varangians in the mid-9th century. Under Varangian rule, the city became a capital of the Kievan Rus, completely destroyed during the Mongol invasion in 1240, the city lost most of its influence for the centuries to come. It was a capital of marginal importance in the outskirts of the territories controlled by its powerful neighbours, first the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, followed by Poland. The city prospered again during the Russian Empires Industrial Revolution in the late 19th century, in 1917, after the Ukrainian National Republic declared independence from the Russian Empire, Kiev became its capital. From 1919 Kiev was an important center of the Armed Forces of South Russia and was controlled by the White Army. From 1921 onwards Kiev was a city of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which was proclaimed by the Red Army, during World War II, the city again suffered significant damage, but quickly recovered in the post-war years, remaining the third largest city of the Soviet Union. During the countrys transformation to an economy and electoral democracy. Kievs armament-dependent industrial output fell after the Soviet collapse, adversely affecting science, Kiev emerged as the most pro-Western region of Ukraine where parties advocating tighter integration with the European Union dominate during elections. As a prominent city with a history, its English name was subject to gradual evolution. The early English spelling was derived from Old East Slavic form Kyjev, the name is associated with that of Kyi, the legendary eponymous founder of the city. Early English sources use various names, including Kiou, Kiow, Kiew, on one of the oldest English maps of the region, Russiae, Moscoviae et Tartariae published by Ortelius the name of the city is spelled Kiou. On the 1650 map by Guillaume de Beauplan, the name of the city is Kiiow, in the book Travels, by Joseph Marshall, the city is referred to as Kiovia
33.
Christianization of Kievan Rus'
–
The Christianization of Kievan Rus took place in several stages. In early 867, Patriarch Photius of Constantinople announced to other Orthodox patriarchs that the Rus, baptised by his bishop, the latter events are traditionally referred to as baptism of Rus in Russian and Ukrainian literature. According to the Church Tradition, Christianity was first brought to the territory of modern Belarus, Russia and Ukraine by Saint Andrew and he traveled over the Black Sea to the Greek colony of Chersonesus Taurica in Crimea, where he converted several thousand men to new faith. Allegedly Saint Andrew traveled also north along the Dnieper River, where Kiev would be founded around the 5th century, the legendary account of the Russian Primary Chronicle tells that Saint Andrew was amused by the Slavic customs of washing in hot steam bath, banya, on his way. Saints Cyril and Methodius were the missionaries of Christianity among the Slavic peoples of Bulgaria, through their work they influenced the cultural development of all Slavs, for which they received the title Apostles to the Slavs. After their deaths, their pupils continued their work among other Slavs. Both brothers are venerated in the Ukrainian Catholic and Byzantine Catholic Churches as well as the Orthodox Church as saints with the title of equal-to-apostles, the most authoritative source for the early Christianization of Rus is an encyclical letter of Patriarch Photius, datable to early 867. Referencing the Siege of Constantinople of 860, Photius informs the Oriental patriarchs and bishops that, after the Bulgarians turned to Christ in 863, as was the case with the Bulgarians, the Patriarch found it prudent to send to the barbarians a bishop from Constantinople. With some modifications, the story is repeated by Constantine VII in De Administrando Imperio, followed by generations of Byzantine historians. There is also an argumentum ex silentio, no Greek source recorded the baptism of the Rus in the 990s. Whatever the scope of Photiuss efforts to Christianize the Rus, their effect was not lasting, although they fail to mention the mission of Photius, the authors of the Primary Chronicle were aware that a sizable portion of the Kievan population was Christian by 944. The Kievan collegiate church of St. Elijah is mentioned in the text of the chronicle, either in 945 or 957, the ruling regent, Olga of Kiev, visited Constantinople with a certain priest, Gregory. Her reception at the court is described in De Ceremoniis. According to legends, Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII fell in love with Olga, however, when she was baptized, she said it was inappropriate for a godfather to marry his goddaughter. Although it is presumed that Olga was baptized in Constantinople rather than Kiev, there is no explicit mention of the sacrament. Olga is also known to have requested a bishop and priests from Rome and her son, Sviatoslav, continued to worship Perun and other gods of the Slavic pantheon. He remained a pagan all of his life, according to the Primary Chronicle, he believed that his warriors would lose respect for him. Sviatoslavs successor, Yaropolk I, seems to have had a more conciliatory attitude towards Christianity, late medieval sources even claim that Yaropolk exchanged ambassadors with the Pope
34.
Vladimir the Great
–
Vladimir Sviatoslavich the Great or Volodymyr was a prince of Novgorod, grand prince of Kiev, and ruler of Kievan Rus from 980 to 1015. Vladimirs father was prince Sviatoslav of the Rurik dynasty, in Sweden, with the help from his relative Ladejarl Håkon Sigurdsson, ruler of Norway, he assembled a Varangian army and reconquered Novgorod from Yaropolk. Originally a follower of Slavic paganism, Vladimir converted to Christianity in 988, born in 958, Vladimir was the natural son and youngest son of Sviatoslav I of Kiev by his housekeeper Malusha. Malusha is described in the Norse sagas as a prophetess who lived to the age of 100 and was brought from her cave to the palace to predict the future, malushas brother Dobrynya was Vladimirs tutor and most trusted advisor. His place of birth is identified by different authors either as Budyatychi or Budnik, transferring his capital to Pereyaslavets in 969, Sviatoslav designated Vladimir ruler of Novgorod the Great but gave Kiev to his legitimate son Yaropolk. After Sviatoslavs death at the hands of the Pechenegs in 972, in 977, Vladimir fled to his kinsman Haakon Sigurdsson, ruler of Norway, collecting as many Norse warriors as he could to assist him to recover Novgorod. On his return the next year, he marched against Yaropolk, on his way to Kiev he sent ambassadors to Rogvolod, prince of Polotsk, to sue for the hand of his daughter Rogneda. The high-born princess refused to affiance herself to the son of a bondswoman, so Vladimir attacked Polotsk, slew Rogvolod, Vladimir continued to expand his territories beyond his fathers extensive domain. Although Christianity spread in the region under Olegs rule, Vladimir had remained a pagan, taking eight hundred concubines. He may have attempted to reform Slavic paganism by establishing the thunder-god, Perun, open abuse of the deities that most people in Rus revered triggered widespread indignation. A mob killed the Christian Fyodor and his son Ioann, immediately after the murder of Fyodor and Ioann, early medieval Rus saw persecutions against Christians, many of whom escaped or concealed their belief. However, Prince Vladimir mused over the incident long after, the result is described by the chronicler Nestor. Of the Muslim Bulgarians of the Volga the envoys reported there is no gladness among them, only sorrow and he also reported that Islam was undesirable due to its taboo against alcoholic beverages and pork. Vladimir remarked on the occasion, Drinking is the joy of all Rus and we cannot exist without that pleasure. His emissaries also visited Roman Catholic and Orthodox missionaries, ultimately Vladimir settled on Eastern Orthodox Christianity. If Vladimir was impressed by this account of his envoys, he was more attracted by the political gains of the Byzantine alliance. In 988, having taken the town of Chersonesos in Crimea, he negotiated for the hand of emperor Basil IIs sister. Never before had a Byzantine imperial princess, and one born in the purple at that, married a barbarian, as offers of French kings
35.
Russian Orthodox Church
–
The Russian Orthodox Church, alternatively legally known as the Moscow Patriarchate, is one of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches, in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox patriarchates. The Primate of the ROC is the Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus and it also exercises ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the autonomous Church of Japan and the Orthodox Christians resident in the Peoples Republic of China. The ROC branches in Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Moldova and Ukraine since the 1990s enjoy various degrees of self-government, in Ukraine, ROC has tensions with schismatic groups supported by the current government, while it enjoys the position of numerically dominant religious organisation. The ROC should also not be confused with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, headquartered in New York, New York, the two Churches reconciled on May 17,2007, the ROCOR is now a self-governing part of the Russian Orthodox Church. According to one of the legends, Andrew reached the location of Kiev. The spot where he erected a cross is now marked by St. Andrews Cathedral. By the end of the first millennium AD, eastern Slavic lands started to come under the influence of the Eastern Roman Empire. There is evidence that the first Christian bishop was sent to Novgorod from Constantinople either by Patriarch Photius or Patriarch Ignatios, by the mid-10th century, there was already a Christian community among Kievan nobility, under the leadership of Byzantine Greek priests, although paganism remained the dominant religion. Princess Olga of Kiev was the first ruler of Kievan Rus′ to convert to Christianity and her grandson, Vladimir of Kiev, made Rus officially a Christian state. The Kievan church was a metropolitanate of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Ecumenical patriarch appointed the metropolitan, who usually was a Greek. The Metropolitans residence was located in Kiev itself, the capital of the medieval Rus state. Following the tribulations of the Mongol invasion, the Russian Church was pivotal in the survival, despite the politically motivated murders of Mikhail of Chernigov and Mikhail of Tver, the Mongols were generally tolerant and even granted tax exemption to the Church. Such holy figures as Sergius of Radonezh and Metropolitan Alexis helped the country to withstand years of Tatar oppression, the Trinity monastery founded by Sergius of Radonezh became the setting for the flourishing of spiritual art, exemplified by the work of Andrey Rublev, among others. The followers of Sergius founded four hundred monasteries, thus extending the geographical extent of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. However, the Moscow Prince Vasili II rejected the act of the Council of Florence brought to Moscow by Isidore in March 1441, Isidore was in the same year removed from his position as an apostate and expelled from Moscow. The Russian metropolitanate remained effectively vacant for the few years due largely to the dominance of Uniates in Constantinople then. In December 1448, Jonas, a Russian bishop, was installed by the Council of Russian bishops in Moscow as Metropolitan of Kiev and All Russia without the consent from Constantinople. Subsequently, there developed a theory in Moscow that saw Moscow as the Third Rome, the successor to Constantinople
36.
Perun
–
In Slavic mythology, Perun is the highest god of the pantheon and the god of thunder and lightning. His other attributes were fire, mountains, wind, the oak, iris, eagle, firmament, horses and carts, weapons and he was first associated with weapons made of stone and later with those of metal. Of all historic records describing Slavic gods, those mentioning Perun are the most numerous, as early as the 6th century, he was mentioned in De Bello Gothico, a historical source written by the Eastern Roman historian Procopius. While the name of the god is not mentioned explicitly, 20th century research has established beyond doubt that the god of thunder. To this day the word perun in a number of Slavic languages means thunder and we find the same form of confirmation of a peace treaty by prince Igor in 945. In 980, when prince Vladimir the Great came to the throne of Kiev, Perun was chief among these, represented with a silver head and a golden moustache. Vladimirs uncle Dobrinja also had a shrine of Perun established in his city of Novgorod, after the Christianization of Kievan Rus, this place became a monastery, which, quite remarkably, continued to bear the name of Perun. This could be a reference to Perun, but since he is not named, nor any of his attributes mentioned. Moreover, the name of Perun is also found in Southern Slavic toponymy. The Bulgarian and Macedonian people believe that the name of the Bulgarian mountain Pirin, there are also places called, Perun, Perunac, Perunovac, Perunika, Perunička Glava, Peruni Vrh, Perunja Ves, Peruna Dubrava, Perunuša, Perušice, Perudina and Perutovac. It must be noted that the word Pero means feather and the names of mountains and these names today mostly represent mountain tops, but in medieval times, large oaks, sacred groves and even entire villages or citadels were named Perun. Also, as mentioned already, in Ukrainian perun and in Polish piorun means thunderbolt, among South Slavs, a mountain plant Iris germanica is known in folklore as perunika and sometimes also as bogisha, and was believed to grow from ground that had been struck by lightning. Also the Serbian surname Peruničić and the Macedonian Перуновски are derived from Perun, the root *perkwu originally probably meant oak, but in Proto-Slavic this evolved into per- meaning to strike, to slay. The Lithuanian word Perkūnas has two meanings, thunder and the name of the god of thunder and lightning, artifacts, traditions and toponyms show the presence of the cult of Perun among all Slavic, Baltic and Ugro-Finnic peoples. The cult of Perun in this territory, populated since the 5th century by Slavs, Perun pursued Veles around the earth, attacking him with his lightning bolts from the sky. In the end, Perun managed to kill Veles, or to him back down into his watery underworld. The supreme god thus reestablished order in the world, which had been disrupted by his chaotic enemy and he then returned to the top of the World tree and proudly informed his opponent down in the roots Well, there is your place, remain there. This line came from a Belarusian folk tale, the earliest supreme god was probably Rod, it is unclear precisely how and why his worship as the head of the pantheon evolved into the worship of Perun
37.
Tatars
–
The Tatars are a Turkic people living in Asia and Europe who were one of the five major tribal confederations in the Mongolian plateau in the 12th century CE. The name Tatar first appears in form on the Kul Tigin monument as
38.
Dmitry Donskoy
–
He was the first prince of Moscow to openly challenge Mongol authority in Russia. His nickname, Donskoy, alludes to his victory against the Tatars in the Battle of Kulikovo. He is venerated as a Saint in the Orthodox Church with his feast day on 19 May, Dmitry ascended the throne of the Principality of Moscow at the age of 9. During his minority, Russias Metropolitan Aleksey ran the government, in 1360 Khizr-khan, Khan of the Golden Horde, transferred the title most prized among Russian princes, that of Grand Prince of Vladimir, to Dmitry Konstantinovich of Nizhniy Novgorod. In 1363, after that prince was deposed, Dmitry Ivanovich was crowned at Vladimir, three years later, he made peace with Dmitriy Konstantinovich and married his daughter Eudoxia. In 1376 their joint armies ravaged Volga Bulgaria, the most important event during Dmitrys early reign was start of building the Moscow Kremlin, it was completed in 1367. Thanks to the new fortress, the city withstood two sieges by Algirdas of Lithuania during the Lithuanian–Muscovite War, the war ended with the Treaty of Lyubutsk. In 1375, Dmitry settled, in his own favor, a conflict with Mikhail II of Tver over Vladimir, other princes of Northern Russia acknowledged his authority and contributed troops to the impending struggle against the Horde. By the end of his reign, Dmitry had more than doubled the territory of the Principality of Moscow, Mongol domination of parts of what is now Russia began to crumble during Dmitrys thirty-year reign. The Golden Horde was severely weakened by war and dynastic rivalries. Dmitry took advantage of this lapse in Mongol authority to challenge the Tatars. While he kept the Khans patent to collect taxes for all of Russia, Mamai, a Mongol general and claimant to the throne, tried to punish Dmitry for attempting to increase his power. In 1378 Mamai sent a Mongol army, but it was defeated by Dmitrys forces in the Battle of Vozha River, two years later Mamai personally led a large force against Moscow. Dmitry met and defeated it at the Battle of Kulikovo, the defeated Mamai was presently dethroned by a rival Mongol general, Tokhtamysh. That khan reasserted Mongol rule over parts of now is Russia. Dimitry, however, pledged his loyalty to Tokhtamysh and to the Golden Horde and was reinstated as Mongol principal tax collector, upon his death in 1389, Dimitry was the first Grand Duke to bequeath his titles to his son Vasiliy without consulting the Khan. He was married to Eudoxia of Nizhniy Novgorod and she was a daughter of Dmitry of Suzdal and Vasilisa of Rostov. They had at least twelve children, Daniil Dmitriyevich, married Fyodor Olegovich, Prince of Ryazan
39.
Battle of Kulikovo
–
The battle took place on 8 September 1380, at the Kulikovo Field near the Don River and was won by Dmitri, who became known as Donskoy after the battle. Although the victory did not end the Mongol domination over Russia, it is regarded by Russian historians as the turning point when Mongol influence began to wane. This process eventually led to Muscovite independence and formation of the modern Russian state, according to the Russian historian Lev Gumilev, Russians went to the Kulikovo field as citizens of various principalities and returned as a united Russian nation. After the Mongol-Tatar conquest, the territories of the disintegrating Kievan Rus became part of the region of the Mongol Empire. The numerous Russian principalities became the Hordes tributaries, during this period, the small regional principality of Moscow was growing in power and was often challenging its neighbors over territory, including clashing with the Grand Duchy of Ryazan. The intrigues between Moscow and Ryazan pre-date the Mongol-Tartar conquest, having arisen during the ascent of regional powers within the Kievan Rus. A civil war had arisen in the falling Golden Horde and new powers were appearing, such as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Grand Duchy of Moscow. After the mysterious death of Khan Abdulla the Tartar in 1370, Mamai was not a Genghisid, and as such his grip on power was tenuous, as there were blood-descendants of Genghis Khan with potential claims to the rulership of the Horde. In 1362, the Prince of Moscow, Dmitri Donskoi, came into possession of the Grand Duchy of Vladimir. He sought a jarliq from Mamai granting him formal possession of the Duchy, instead, in 1371, Mamai passed its title to the Prince of Tver. Prince Dmitri refused to accept Mamais decision, conflict ensued in 1377, when a friend of Mamai Arpash defeated the united armies of Suzdal and Moscow, led by Prince Dmitri, at the Battle of Pyana River. The victors then began to raid Nizhniy Novgorod and Ryazan, after the victory, Mamai sought to re-affirm his control over the tributary lands of the Golden Horde. In 1378, he sent forces led by the warlord Murza Begich to ensure Prince Dmitris obedience, the Hordes army was defeated at the Battle of the Vozha River and Murza Begich was killed. Meanwhile, another khan, Tokhtamysh, arose in Middle Asia to challenge Mamai for the throne of the Golden Horde, although initially unsuccessful, khan Tokhtamysh slowly began to solidfy support for his challenge to the rulership of the Horde. In 1380, against this backdrop, Mamai chose to lead the Hordes forces against the forces of Moscow. In preparation for the invasion, he negotiated with both Prince Jogaila of Lithuania and a Russian prince Oleg II of Ryazan, who struggled against Dmitry. The armies of Lithuania and Ryazan marched to join the Hordes army, while Mamai camped, Prince Dmitry mobilized his troops and allies in Kolomna to resist the invasion. The army of Moscow was joined there by armies from most of other Russian principalities, including Tver, Suzdal, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Polotsk, Murom and Beloozero
40.
Mamai
–
Mamai, of Kiyat descent, was a powerful military commander of the Golden Horde in the 1370s. The Horde controlled the lands in what is now the southern Ukrainian/southern Russia, Mamai became governor, sometime in the second half of the 1350s, of a territory that later would become the Crimean Khanate. During the rule of Berdi Beg Mamai was appointed as beqlar beg, a position simultaneously combining the duties of general of the army, minister of foreign affairs, and the head of the supreme court. Upon the assassination of Berdi Beg by Qulpa in 1359, Mamai associated himself with one of the coalitions formed to depose Qulpa, during that period of time the Golden Horde was in relative chaos, numerous regional governors were striving to become the Khan. Qulpa eventually was killed by Nawruz Beg who was assassinated less than six months later. Mamai, who was not a descendant of Genghis Khan. In 1361 he supported Ğabdullah, son of Uzbeg Khan, who became Khan in Crimea, upon the death of Ğabdullah in 1370, Mamai supported Bulak under regency of Tulun Beg Khanum, who only briefly enjoyed power before being replaced by his main opponent Urus in 1372. After being badly defeated by Russians under Dmitri Donskoi first in 1378 at the Battle of the Vozha River and then at the Battle of Kulikovo, Mamai began to assemble a large force to punish Dmitri. But he was defeated by Tokhtamysh on the banks of the Kalka River and was executed by Tokhtamysh or assassinated by the Genoese after fleeing to Caffa. The death of Mamai paved the way for the khan to reunify the Golden Horde. The memory of Mamai has endured for centuries, contemporary Russian language has an expression как Мамай прошел, which translates roughly to its as if Mamai came through here, used to describe an utter mess. The burial of Mamai was found by the native Crimean and famous Russian painter Ivan Aivazovsky, Mamai was buried in a village of Şeyh Mamay. Khan Mamatsios or Mamatzios, Mamatsou, Mamatsu Macedonie was a son of Mamai. These legendary events could have taken place in the 15th century and his niece Elena Glinskaya was married to Vasily III, Grand Prince of Moscow, and Ivan the Terrible was her son
41.
Golden Horde
–
The Golden Horde was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. With the fragmentation of the Mongol Empire after 1259 it became a functionally separate khanate and it is also known as the Kipchak Khanate or as the Ulus of Jochi. After the death of Batu Khan in 1255, his dynasty flourished for a century, until 1359. The Hordes military power peaked during the reign of Uzbeg, who adopted Islam, the territory of the Golden Horde at its peak included most of Eastern Europe from the Urals to the Danube River, and extended east deep into Siberia. In the south, the Golden Hordes lands bordered on the Black Sea, the Caucasus Mountains, the khanate experienced violent internal political disorder beginning in 1359, before it briefly reunited under Tokhtamysh. However, soon after the 1396 invasion of Timur, the founder of the Timurid Empire, at the start of the 15th century the Horde began to fall apart. By 1466 it was being referred to simply as the Great Horde, within its territories there emerged numerous predominantly Turkic-speaking khanates. These internal struggles allowed the northern state of Muscovy to rid itself of the Tatar Yoke at the Great stand on the Ugra river in 1480. The Crimean Khanate and the Kazakh Khanate, the last remnants of the Golden Horde, in any event, it was not until the 16th century that Russian chroniclers begin explicitly using the term Golden Horde to refer to this particular successor khanate of the Mongol Empire. The first known use of the term, in 1565, in the Russian chronicle History of Kazan, applied it to the Ulus of Batu and its left wing was referred to as the Blue Horde in Russian chronicles and as the White Horde in Timurid sources. Western scholars have tended to follow the Timurid sources nomenclature and call the left wing the White Horde, the khanate apparently used the term White Horde to refer to its right wing, which was situated in Batus home base in Sarai and controlled the ulus. However, the designations Golden Horde, Blue Horde, and White Horde have not been encountered in the sources of the Mongol period. At his death in 1227, Genghis Khan divided the Mongol Empire amongst his four sons as appanages, Jochi was the eldest, but he died six months before Genghis. In 1235, Batu with the great general Subedei began an invasion westwards, first conquering the Bashkirs, from there he conquered some of the southern steppes of present-day Ukraine in 1237, forcing many of the local Cumans to retreat westward. The military campaign against the Kypchaks and Cumans had started under Jochi, by 1239 a large portion of Cumans were driven out of the Crimea peninsula, and it became one of the appanages of the Mongol Empire. The remnants of the Crimean Cumans survived in the Crimean mountains, moving north, Batu began the Mongol invasion of Rus and for three years subjugated the principalities of former Kievan Rus, whilst his cousins Möngke, Kadan, and Güyük moved southwards into Alania. Using the migration of the Cumans as their casus belli, the Mongols continued west, raiding Poland and Hungary and culminating in the battles of Legnica, in 1241, however, Ögedei Khan died in the Mongolia homeland. Batu turned back from his siege of Vienna to take part in disputing the succession, the Mongol armies would never again travel so far west
42.
Tug Banner
–
A tug, or a sulde сүлд) is a pole with circularly arranged horse or yak tail hairs of varying colors arranged at the top. It was historically flown during the period of the Mongol Empire, and later adopted in derived Turco-Mongol and Turkic khanates, in the 18th century, it was also adopted by Slavic cavalry, under the name bunchuk. It is still used by units of the Polish military. A white-haired banner is used as a symbol, while the black banner was for wartime. Usage of the tail is symbolic because horses are so central to the Mongols livelihood. This is similar to the use of tail hairs for the morin khuur. The original white banner disappeared early in history, but the black one survived as the repository of Genghis Khans soul, the Mongols continued to honor the banner, and Zanabazar built a monastery with the special mission of flying and protecting the black banner in the 17th century. Around 1937, the black banner disappeared amidst the great purges of the nationalists, monks and intellectuals, the Nine White Banners was a peacetime emblem used exclusively by the Khans in front of their yurt. The central banner is larger in size than the rest and is placed in the center of the other eight, the modern Mongolian nine white banners are kept in the Government Palace in Ulaanbaatar. The Dörvön khölt khar sulde or the Four base black banners was used in wartime and it is made of black horse tail hairs and flown in the same fashion. According to the illustrated Japanese chronicle Mōko Shūrai Ekotoba, the banner of the Mongolian Yuan fleet that invaded Japan was black, the modern Mongolian black banners are kept in the Ministry of Defense. Within the Mongolian Armed Forces, the tug is used as the finial in military colours flagpoles. A history of India under the two first sovereigns of the house of Taimur, Báber and Humáyun, longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans,1854. Zdzislaw Zygulski, Ottoman Art in the Service of Empire, Hagop Kevorkian Series on Near Eastern Art & Civilization, Ефрона Монгол Улсын Төрийн Туг // MongolWiki Довідник з історії України. Jack Weatherford, Wind, First Year Course on Genghis Khan Photo reportage, a tribute ceremony to the Great Black Banners, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
43.
Tsardom of Russia
–
From 1551 to 1700, Russia grew 35,000 km2 per year. After a military victory over Sweden and Poland, he implemented substantial reforms and proclaimed the Russian Empire in 1721. While the oldest endonyms of the Grand Duchy of Moscow used in its documents were Rus and the Russian land, in the 1480s Russian state scribes Ivan Cherny and Mikhail Medovartsev mention Russia under the name Росиа, Medovartsev also mentions the sceptre of Russian lordship. In England of the 16th century, it was both as Russia and Muscovy. In Northern Europe and at the court of the Holy Roman Empire, however, muscovites refute this, saying that their country was originally called Russia. When they are asked what nation they are, they respond Russac, which means Russians, and when they are asked what place they are from, by the 16th century, the Russian ruler had emerged as a powerful, autocratic figure, a Tsar. By assuming that title, the sovereign of Moscow tried to emphasize that he was a ruler or emperor on par with the Byzantine emperor or the Mongol khan. At first, the Byzantine term autokrator expressed only the meaning of an independent ruler. Ivan IV was crowned Tsar and thus was recognized, at least by the Russian Orthodox Church and that concept was to resonate in the self-image of Russians in future centuries. The development of the Tsars autocratic powers reached a peak during the reign of Ivan IV, Ivan strengthened the position of the Tsar to an exceptional degree, demonstrating the risks of unrestrained power in the hands of a mentally unstable individual. Although apparently intelligent and energetic, Ivan suffered from breakdowns of paranoia and depression, Ivan IV became Grand Prince of Moscow in 1533 at the age of three. The Shuysky and Belsky factions of the boyars competed for control of the regency until Ivan assumed the throne in 1547, reflecting Moscows new imperial claims, Ivans coronation as Tsar was a ritual modeled after those of the Byzantine emperors. With the continuing assistance of a group of boyars, Ivan began his reign with a series of useful reforms, in the 1550s, he declared a new law code, revamped the military, and reorganized local government. These reforms undoubtedly were intended to strengthen the state in the face of continuous warfare, the key documents prepared by the so-called Select Council of advisors and promulgated during this period are as follows. Muscovy remained a fairly unknown society in Western Europe until Baron Sigismund von Herberstein published his Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii in 1549 and this provided a broad view of what had been a rarely visited and poorly reported state. In the 1630s, the Russian Tsardom was visited by Adam Olearius, whose lively, further information about Russia was circulated by English and Dutch merchants. One of them, Richard Chancellor, sailed to the White Sea in 1553, upon his return to England, the Muscovy Company was formed by himself, Sebastian Cabot, Sir Hugh Willoughby, and several London merchants. Ivan the Terrible used these merchants to exchange letters with Elizabeth I, despite the domestic turmoil of the 1530s and 1540s, Russia continued to wage wars and to expand
44.
Ivan III of Russia
–
Ivan III Vasilyevich, also known as Ivan the Great, was a Grand Prince of Moscow and Grand Prince of all Rus. He was one of the longest-reigning Russian rulers in history, Ivans rule is marked by what subsequent Russophile historians called the Gathering of the Russian Lands. Ivan brought the independent duchies of different Rurikid princes under the control of Moscow, leaving the princes. His first enterprise was a war with the Republic of Novgorod and these wars were waged over Moscows religious and political sovereignty, and over Moscows efforts to seize land in the Northern Dvina region. Ivan visited Novgorod Central several times in the several years, persecuting a number of pro-Lithuanian boyars. In 1477, two Novgorodian envoys, claiming to have been sent by the archbishops and the entire city, Ivan dispossessed Novgorod of more than four-fifths of its land, keeping half for himself and giving the other half to his allies. Subsequent revolts were punished by the en masse of the richest and most ancient families of Novgorod to Moscow, Vyatka. Archbishop Feofil was also removed to Moscow for plotting against the Grand Prince, the rival republic of Pskov owed the continuance of its own political existence to the readiness with which it assisted Ivan against its ancient enemy. The other principalities were eventually absorbed by conquest, purchase, or marriage contract, The Principality of Yaroslavl in 1463, Rostov in 1474, Tver in 1485, the eldest, Iurii, died childless on 12 September 1472. He only had a draft of a will that said nothing about his land, Ivan seized the land, much to the fury of the surviving brothers, who he placated with some land. Boris and Andrei the Elder signed treaties with Vasily in February and they agreed to protect each others land and not to have secret dealings with foreign states, they broke this clause in 1480, fleeing to Lithuania. It is unknown whether Andrei the Younger signed a treaty and he died in 1481, leaving his lands to Ivan. In 1491 Andrei the Elder was arrested by Ivan for refusing to aid the Crimean Tatars against the Golden Horde and he died in prison in 1493, and Ivan seized his land. In 1494 Boris, the only brother able to pass his land to his sons, however, their land reverted to the Tsar upon their deaths in 1503 and 1515 respectively. There was one semi-autonomous prince in Muscovy when Ivan acceded, Prince Mikhail Andreevich of Vereia, in 1478 he was pressured into giving Belozersk to Ivan, who got all of Mikhails land on his death in 1486. The character of the government of Moscow changed significantly under Ivan III and this was a natural consequence of the hegemony of Moscow over the other north-eastern Rus lands, but also to new imperial pretensions. Ivan himself appeared to welcome the idea, and he began to style himself tsar in foreign correspondence, fennell emphasizes Ivans success in centralizing control over local rulers, he adds, however, that his reign was also a period of cultural depression and spiritual barrenness. Freedom was stamped out within the Muscovite lands, by his bigoted anti-Catholicism Ivan brought down the curtain between Muscovy and the west
45.
Byzantine Empire
–
It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, several signal events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which the Roman Empires Greek East and Latin West divided. Constantine I reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital, under Theodosius I, Christianity became the Empires official state religion and other religious practices were proscribed. Finally, under the reign of Heraclius, the Empires military, the borders of the Empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Maurice, the Empires eastern frontier was expanded, in a matter of years the Empire lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs. This battle opened the way for the Turks to settle in Anatolia, the Empire recovered again during the Komnenian restoration, such that by the 12th century Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest European city. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. Its remaining territories were annexed by the Ottomans over the 15th century. The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 finally ended the Byzantine Empire, the term comes from Byzantium, the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantines capital. This older name of the city would rarely be used from this point onward except in historical or poetic contexts. The publication in 1648 of the Byzantine du Louvre, and in 1680 of Du Canges Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of Byzantine among French authors, however, it was not until the mid-19th century that the term came into general use in the Western world. The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the Roman Empire, the Empire of the Romans, Romania, the Roman Republic, Graikia, and also as Rhōmais. The inhabitants called themselves Romaioi and Graikoi, and even as late as the 19th century Greeks typically referred to modern Greek as Romaika and Graikika. The authority of the Byzantine emperor as the legitimate Roman emperor was challenged by the coronation of Charlemagne as Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in the year 800. No such distinction existed in the Islamic and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the Islamic world, the Roman Empire was known primarily as Rûm, the Roman army succeeded in conquering many territories covering the entire Mediterranean region and coastal regions in southwestern Europe and north Africa. These territories were home to different cultural groups, both urban populations and rural populations. The West also suffered heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD
46.
Monomakh's Cap
–
Monomakhs Cap, also called the Golden Cap, is a chief relic of the Russian Grand Princes and Tsars. It is a symbol-crown of the Russian autocracy, and is the oldest of the crowns currently exhibited at the Kremlin Armoury, the cap is surmounted by a simple gold cross with pearls at each of the extremities. It is not to be confused with the Monomachus Crown in Budapest, boris Uspensky, in particular, argues that the Tatar headgear was originally used in coronation ceremonies to signify the Muscovite rulers subordination to the khan. According to Sergey Solovyov after the death of Ivan Kalita all Russian princes traveled to the Horde. and the Khan announced the eldest son of Kalita, Simeon, the Grand Prince of Vladimir. Also Solovyov writes that the first who introduced the coronation of the Russian monarch was Ivan III, at some point in the 15th or 16th century the crown was surmounted by a cross. The legend was elaborated in The Tale of the Princes of Vladimir, accordingly, the crown became known as Monomakhs Cap, the term first recorded in a Russian document from 1518. However the fact that Constantine IX Monomachus died 50 years before the coronation of Vladimir Monomakh makes the statement really a legend, the first version of the orient origin of the Cap was arisen by George Vernadsky. Vernadsky was pointing to a fact that according to Paul Pelliot Özbäg can be interpreted as a freeman. After Ivan the Terrible had himself crowned the first Russian Tsar with this headgear, Ivan was presumably not aware that at the time of Constantine IX Monomachus death, Vladimir Monomakh was only two years old and he was not the Kievan sovereign yet. The Monomakh Cap was last used in the coronation of Ivan V and Peter the Great in 1682. When Peter assumed the title of emperor, a new crown was fashioned
47.
Sceptre
–
A sceptre or scepter is a symbolic ornamental staff or wand held in the hand by a ruling monarch as an item of royal or imperial insignia. Figuratively, it means royal or imperial authority or sovereignty, either right or cruel, the ancient Indian work of Tirukkural dedicates a separate chapter each on the ethics of the right sceptre and the evils of the cruel sceptre. The Was and other types of staffs were signs of authority in Ancient Egypt, for this reason, they are often described as sceptres, even if they are full-length staffs. One of the earliest royal sceptres was discovered in the 2nd Dynasty tomb of Khasekhemwy in Abydos, kings were also known to carry a staff, and Pharaoh Anedjib is shown on stone vessels carrying a so-called mks-staff. The staff with the longest history seems to be the heqa-sceptre, the Bronze Age rulers of Mesopotamia are not regularly depicted with sceptres. However, in instances, they are shown armed, with bow and arrow. Use of a rod or staff as representing authority can be traced to the beginning of Classical Antiquity. Among the early Greeks, the sceptre was a staff, such as Agamemnon wielded or was used by respected elders, and came to be used by judges, military leaders, priests. It is represented on painted vases as a staff tipped with a metal ornament. When the sceptre is borne by Zeus or Hades, it is headed by a bird, when, in the Iliad, Agamemnon sends Odysseus to the leaders of the Achaeans, he lends him his sceptre. Among the Etruscans, sceptres of great magnificence were used by kings, many representations of such sceptres occur on the walls of the painted tombs of Etruria. The British Museum, the Vatican, and the Louvre possess Etruscan sceptres of gold, the Roman sceptre probably derived from the Etruscan. Under the Republic, a sceptre was a mark of consular rank. It was also used by generals who received the title of imperator. In the First Persian Empire, the Biblical Book of Esther mentions the sceptre of the King of Persia. Esther 5,2 When the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, she obtained favor in his sight, so Esther came near, and touched the top of the scepter. Under the Roman Empire, the sceptrum Augusti was specially used by the emperors, the codes of the right and the cruel sceptre are found in the ancient Tamil work of Tirukkural, dating back to between the first and the third centuries BCE. With the advent of Christianity, the sceptre was tipped with a cross instead of with an eagle
.jpg)
_front.jpg)
