1.
Science fiction
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Science fiction often explores the potential consequences of scientific and other innovations, and has been called a literature of ideas. Science fiction is difficult to define, as it includes a range of subgenres and themes. Author and editor Damon Knight summed up the difficulty, saying science fiction is what we point to when we say it, a definition echoed by author Mark C. Glassy, who argues that the definition of science fiction is like the definition of pornography, you do not know what it is, in 1970 or 1971William Atheling Jr. According to science fiction writer Robert A, rod Serlings definition is fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science fiction is the improbable made possible, Science fiction is largely based on writing rationally about alternative possible worlds or futures. Science fiction elements include, A time setting in the future, in alternative timelines, a spatial setting or scenes in outer space, on other worlds, or on subterranean earth. Characters that include aliens, mutants, androids, or humanoid robots, futuristic or plausible technology such as ray guns, teleportation machines, and humanoid computers. Scientific principles that are new or that contradict accepted physical laws, for time travel, wormholes. New and different political or social systems, e. g. utopian, dystopian, post-scarcity, paranormal abilities such as mind control, telepathy, telekinesis Other universes or dimensions and travel between them. A product of the budding Age of Reason and the development of science itself. Isaac Asimov and Carl Sagan considered Keplers work the first science fiction story and it depicts a journey to the Moon and how the Earths motion is seen from there. Later, Edgar Allan Poe wrote a story about a flight to the moon, more examples appeared throughout the 19th century. Wells The War of the Worlds describes an invasion of late Victorian England by Martians using tripod fighting machines equipped with advanced weaponry and it is a seminal depiction of an alien invasion of Earth. In the late 19th century, the scientific romance was used in Britain to describe much of this fiction. This produced additional offshoots, such as the 1884 novella Flatland, the term would continue to be used into the early 20th century for writers such as Olaf Stapledon. In the early 20th century, pulp magazines helped develop a new generation of mainly American SF writers, influenced by Hugo Gernsback, the founder of Amazing Stories magazine. In 1912 Edgar Rice Burroughs published A Princess of Mars, the first of his series of Barsoom novels, situated on Mars
2.
Fantasy
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Fantasy is a fiction genre set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Most fantasy uses magic or other elements as a main plot element, theme. Magic and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds, in popular culture, the fantasy genre is predominantly of the medievalist form. In its broadest sense, however, fantasy works by many writers, artists, filmmakers. Fantasy is studied in a number of disciplines including English and other studies, cultural studies, comparative literature, history. The identifying trait of fantasy is the reliance on imagination to create narrative elements that do not have to rely on history or nature to be coherent. This differs from realistic fiction in that whereas realistic fiction has to attend to the history and natural laws of reality, an author applies his or her imagination to come up with characters, plots, and settings that are impossible in reality. Fantasy has often compared with science fiction and horror because they are the major categories of speculative fiction. Fantasy is distinguished from science fiction by the plausibility of the narrative elements, a science fiction narrative is unlikely, though seeming possible through logical scientific and/or technological extrapolation, whereas fantasy narratives do not need to be scientifically possible. The imagined elements of fantasy do not need an explanation to be narratively functional. Authors have to rely on the suspension of disbelief, an acceptance of the unbelievable or impossible for the sake of enjoyment. Despite both genres heavy reliance on the supernatural, fantasy and horror are distinguishable, horror primarily evokes fear through the protagonists weaknesses or inability to deal with the antagonists. Beginning perhaps with the earliest written documents, mythic and other elements that would come to define fantasy. MacDonald was an influence on both J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. The other major fantasy author of this era was William Morris, lord Dunsany established the genres popularity in both the novel and the short story form. Many popular mainstream authors also began to write fantasy at this time, including H. Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Indeed, juvenile fantasy was considered more acceptable than fantasy intended for adults, nathaniel Hawthorne wrote fantasy in A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys, intended for children, though works for adults only verged on fantasy. Political and social trends can affect a societys reception towards fantasy, in the early 20th century, the New Culture Movements enthusiasm for Westernization and science in China compelled them to condemn the fantastical shenmo genre of traditional Chinese literature
3.
Russian literature
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The roots of Russian literature can be traced to the Middle Ages, when epics and chronicles in Old Russian were composed. By the Age of Enlightenment, literature had grown in importance, romanticism permitted a flowering of poetic talent, Vasily Zhukovsky and later his protégé Alexander Pushkin came to the fore. The first great Russian novelist was Nikolai Gogol, then came Ivan Turgenev, who mastered both short stories and novels. Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky soon became internationally renowned, in the second half of the century Anton Chekhov excelled in short stories and became a leading dramatist. The beginning of the 20th century ranks as the Silver Age of Russian poetry, after the Revolution of 1917, Russian literature split into Soviet and white émigré parts. While the Soviet Union assured universal literacy and a highly developed book printing industry, in the 1930s Socialist realism became the predominant trend in Russia. Its leading figure was Maxim Gorky, who laid the foundations of this style, Nikolay Ostrovskys novel How the Steel Was Tempered has been among the most successful works of Russian literature. Alexander Fadeyev achieved success in Russia, some writers dared to oppose Soviet ideology, like Nobel Prize-winning novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who wrote about life in the gulag camps. The Khrushchev Thaw brought some fresh wind to literature and poetry became a cultural phenomenon. This thaw did not last long, in the 1970s, some of the most prominent authors were banned from publishing, the end of the 20th century was a difficult period for Russian literature, with few distinct voices. Among the most discussed authors of this period were Victor Pelevin, who gained popularity with stories and novels, novelist and playwright Vladimir Sorokin. In the 21st century, a new generation of Russian authors appeared, differing greatly from the postmodernist Russian prose of the late 20th century, which lead critics to speak about new realism. Leading new realists include Ilja Stogoff, Zakhar Prilepin, Alexander Karasyov, Arkadi Babchenko, Vladimir Lorchenkov, Alexander Snegiryov, Russian authors have significantly contributed to numerous literary genres. Russia has five Nobel Prize in literature laureates, as of 2011, Russia was the fourth largest book producer in the world in terms of published titles. A popular folk saying claims Russians are the worlds most reading nation, Old Russian literature consists of several masterpieces written in the Old Russian language. The main type of Old Russian historical literature were chronicles, most of them anonymous, anonymous works also include The Tale of Igors Campaign and Praying of Daniel the Immured. Hagiographies formed a genre of the Old Russian literature. Life of Alexander Nevsky offers a well-known example, other Russian literary monuments include Zadonschina, Physiologist, Synopsis and A Journey Beyond the Three Seas
4.
Historical Slavic religion
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Slavic mythology is the mythological aspect of the polytheistic religion that was practised by the Slavs before Christianisation. Unlike ancient Greek, Hindu, Chinese or Egyptian mythology, there are no records for the study of Slavic mythology. It has not been proven that the Slavs had any sort of writing system before the arrival of Saints Cyril, fragments of old mythological beliefs and pagan festivals survive up to this day in folk customs, songs, stories and folk-tales of all the Slavic nations. Although Herodotus is himself not convinced by this rumour, he stresses that he has heard some swear it, the identification of Neuri with Proto-Slavs remains controversial, however. According to Procopius, these Slavs worshipped a single deity, who crafted lightning, though not named explicitly, it can be deduced this is a reference to the deity known as Perun in later historic sources, as in many Slavic languages today. Perun simply means thunder or lightning bolt and he also mentions the belief in various demons and nymphs, but does not mention any other names. The Slavic Primary Chronicle is a work with many valuable references to the pagan beliefs of Eastern Slavs. The chronicle treats the history of the early Eastern Slavic state, even though the manuscript was compiled at the beginning of the 12th century, it contains references to and copies of older documents, and describes events predating the Baptism of Kiev. Two deities, Perun and Veles/Volos, are mentioned in the text of the early 10th century peace treaties between pagan rulers of East Slavs and Byzantine Emperors, later, Nestor the Chronicler describes a state pantheon introduced by Prince Vladimir in Kiev in 980 CE. Vladimirs pantheon included Perun, Hors, Dažbog, Stribog, Simargl, the Hypatian Codex of the Primary Chronicle also mentions Svarog, compared to Greek Hephaestus. Also very interesting are the passages in the East Slavic epic The Tale of Igors Campaign referring to Veles, Dažbog, the original epic has been dated to the end of the 12th century, although there are marginal disputes over the authenticity of this work. The most numerous and richest written records are of West Slavic paganism, particularly of Wendish and Polabian tribes, the German missionaries and priests who criticized pagan religion left extensive records of old mythological systems they sought to overcome. However, they restrained themselves from pious lies, claiming pagan Slavs were idolatrous. As none of those missionaries learned any Slavic language, their records are confused and exaggerated, major works include a chronicle of Thietmar of Merseburg from the beginning of the 11th century, who described a temple in the city of Riedegost where the great deity Zuarasic was worshipped. According to Thietmar, this was the most sacred place in the land of pagan Slavs, another very valuable document is the Chronica Slavorum written in the late 12th century by Helmold, a German priest. Saxo meticulously described the worship of Svantevit, the associated with it. He also mentioned multi-headed deities of other Slavic tribes, Rugievit, Porewit, according to the manuscript, the most important Slavic deity was Triglav, whose temples in the city of Szczecin were respected oracles. In the cities of Wolgast and Havelberg, the war god Gerovit was worshiped, a corruption of Jarovit
5.
Folklore of Russia
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Folklore of Russia is folklore of Russians and other ethnic groups of Russia. Russian folklore takes its roots in the beliefs of ancient Slavs. Epic Russian bylinas are also an important part of Slavic mythology, the oldest bylinas of Kievan cycle were actually recorded mostly in the Russian North, especially in Karelia, where most of the Finnish national epic Kalevala was recorded as well. Many Russian fairy tales and bylinas have been adapted for films, or for feature movies by prominent directors such as Aleksandr Ptushko. Folklorists today consider the 1920s the Soviet Union’s golden age of folklore, there were two primary trends of folklore study during the decade, the formalist and Finnish schools. Formalism focused on the form of ancient byliny and faerie tales, specifically their use of distinctive structures. The Finnish school was concerned with the connections amongst related legends of various Eastern European regions, Finnish scholars collected comparable tales from multiple locales and analyzed their similarities and differences, hoping to trace these epic stories’ migration paths. Once Joseph Stalin came to power and put his First Five Year Plan into motion in 1928, Stalin and the Soviet regime repressed Folklore, believing that it supported the old tsarist system and a capitalist economy. They saw it as a remnant of the backward Russian society that the Bolsheviks were working to surpass, to keep folklore studies in check and prevent inappropriate ideas from spreading amongst the masses, the government created the RAPP – the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers. The RAPP specifically focused on censoring fairy tales and children’s literature, believing that fantasies, faerie tales were removed from bookshelves and children were encouraged to read books focusing on nature and science. RAPP eventually increased its levels of censorship and became the Union of Soviet Writers in 1932, in order to continue researching and analyzing folklore, intellectuals needed to justify its worth to the Communist regime. Otherwise, collections of folklore, along all other literature deemed useless for the purposes of Stalin’s Five Year Plan. In 1934, Maksim Gorky gave a speech to the Union of Soviet Writers arguing that folklore could, in fact, be consciously used to promoted Communist values. Apart from expounding on the value of folklore, he stressed that traditional legends and faerie tales showed ideal, community-oriented characters. The attitudes of such legendary characters paralleled the mindset that the Soviet government wished to instill in its citizens, convinced by Gor’kij and Sokolov’s arguments, the Soviet government and the Union of Soviet Writers began collecting and evaluating folklore from across the country. The Union handpicked and recorded stories that, in their eyes, sufficiently promoted the collectivist spirit and showed the Soviet regime’s benefits. It then proceeded to redistribute copies of approved stories throughout the population, meanwhile, local folklore centers arose in all major cities. Responsible for advocating a sense of Soviet nationalism, these organizations ensured that the media published appropriate versions of Russian folktales in a systematic fashion and these contemporary folktales combined the structures and motifs of the old byliny with contemporary life in the Soviet Union
6.
Golden Age
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By definition, one is never in the Golden Age. By extension Golden Age denotes a period of peace, harmony, stability. During this age peace and harmony prevailed, people did not have to work to feed themselves and they lived to a very old age with a youthful appearance, eventually dying peacefully, with spirits living on as guardians. Plato in Cratylus recounts the golden race of humans who came first and he clarifies that Hesiod did not mean literally made of gold, but good and noble. There are analogous concepts in the religious and philosophical traditions of the South Asian subcontinent, for example, the Vedic or ancient Hindu culture saw history as cyclical, composed of yugas with alternating Dark and Golden Ages. The Kali yuga, Dwapara yuga, Treta yuga and Satya yuga correspond to the four Greek ages, similar beliefs occur in the ancient Middle East and throughout the ancient world, as well. In classical Greek mythology the Golden Age was presided over by the leading Titan Cronus, in some version of the myth Astraea also ruled. The earliest attested reference to the European myth of the Ages of Man 500 BC-350 BC appears in the late 6th century BC works of the Greek poet Hesiods Works and Days. Hesiod, a deteriorationist, identifies the Golden Age, the Silver Age, the Bronze Age, the Heroic Age, with the exception of the Heroic Age, each succeeding age was worse than the one that went before. When they died, it was as though they were overcome with sleep and they dwelt in ease and peace. Plato in his Cratylus referred to an age of men and also expounded at some length on Ages of Man from Hesiods Works. The Roman poet Ovid simplified the concept by reducing the number of Ages to four, Gold, Bronze, Silver, in Hesiods version, the Golden Age ended when the Titan Prometheus conferred on mankind the gift of fire and all the other arts. For this, Zeus punished Prometheus by chaining him to a rock in the Caucasus, the gods sent the beautiful maiden Pandora to Prometheuss brother Epimetheus. The Orphic school, a cult that originated in Thrace and spread to Greece in the 5th century BCE, held similar beliefs about the early days of man. In common with the other mystery cults prevalent in the Graeco-Roman world. Initiation into its secret rites, together with ascetic practices, was supposed to guarantee the individuals soul eventual release from the circle of mortality. Orphics sometimes identified the Golden Age with the era of the god Phanes, in classical mythology however, the Golden Age was associated with the reign of Saturn. However, in the 3rd century BCE, the Greek poet, Theocritus, writing in Alexandria, set his poetry in on the lushly fertile island of Sicily
7.
Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
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The brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky were Soviet-Russian science fiction authors who collaborated through most of their careers. The Strugatsky brothers were born to Natan Strugatsky, an art critic, and his wife and their father was Jewish and their mother was Russian Orthodox. Their early work was influenced by Ivan Yefremov and Stanisław Lem and their best-known novel, Piknik na obochine, has been translated into English as Roadside Picnic. Andrei Tarkovsky adapted the novel for the screen as Stalker, nowadays, they are arguably the best-known Russian science fiction writers, with a well-developed fan base. The Strugatsky brothers were Guests of Honour at Conspiracy 87, the 1987 World Science Fiction Convention, held in Brighton, in 1991, Text Publishers brought out the collected works by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. Arkady Natanovich Strugatsky was born 25 August 1925 in Batumi, the later moved to Leningrad. In January 1942, Arkady and his left the besieged city. He worked as a teacher and interpreter for the military until 1955, in 1955, he began working as an editor and writer. In 1958, he began collaborating with his brother Boris, a collaboration that lasted until Arkadys death on 12 October 1991, born 14 April 1933, Boris Natanovich Strugatsky remained in Leningrad with his mother during the siege of the city during World War II. He graduated from school in 1950 and applied to the physics department at Leningrad State University. After graduating in 1955, he worked as an astronomer and computer engineer until 1966, Boris Strugatsky died in Saint Petersburg on 19 November 2012. Several of the Strugatsky brothers books take place in the The World of Noon, the name is derived from the title of one of their texts, Noon, 22nd Century. For instance, this world knows no monetary stimulation, and every person is engaged in a profession that interests him or her, the Earth of the Noon Universe is governed by a global meritocratic council composed of the worlds leading scientists and philosophers. The Noon Universe was described by the authors as the world in which they would like to live and it became highly influential for at least a generation of Soviet people, e. g. a person could quote the Strugatsky books and be sure of being understood. One of the important story arcs of those books addresses how the human civilization covertly steers the development of those considered less advanced. Agents of humans are known as Progressors, at the same time, some humans suspect that a very advanced spacefaring race called Wanderers exists and is progressing humanity itself. Yaroslavtsev, The following titles were published by Boris Strugatsky under the pseudonym S. Vititsky, Strugatskies books were adapted for screen, stage, comics. Some of the adaptations are very loose, like Tarkovskys Stalker, some are not adaptations but rather a new script written by Brothers themselves, like The Sorcerers
8.
Kir Bulychev
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Kir Bulychev or Bulychov was a pen name of Igor Vsevolodovich Mozheiko, a Soviet Russian science fiction writer and historian. His magnum opus is a science fiction series Alisa Selezneva. Mozheiko received a Masters degree in 1965 and a Ph. D. in 1981, since 1963 he worked in the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He was a specialist in the history of Burma and wrote a biography of Aung San. He first used the pseudonym Kir Bulychev in 1965, for his very first science fiction story and it was the first in what will become his most popular book series, Alisa Selezneva, that eventually comprised more than 50 novellas and short stories. Bulychev kept writing Alisa for the rest of his life - the last book came out in 2003, there were four animated and three life-action adaptations of Alisa stories, as well as tie-in comics and video games. Another of Bulychevs best-known works is a series of stories about Veliky Guslar. This fictional city is based on the city of Veliky Ustyug. He also wrote many science fiction novels, including The Last War, Thirteen Years of Travel, Those Who Survive, The Witches Cave, River Chronos. Bulychev wrote scripts for more than 20 movies, according to Mir Fantastiki magazine, besides his own writing, he translated numerous American science fiction stories into Russian. All scripts are written by Bulychov himself, except noted, mystery of the Third Planet, animated, based on Alisas Voyage. The Guest from the Future, TV miniseries based on One Hundred Years Ahead, the Lilac Ball, based on the book of the same name. Prisoners of Yamagiri-Maru, animated, based on a story of the same name, the Island of Rusty General, based on The Rusty Field Marshal. Not written by Bulychov, Alices Birthday, animated, based on the novella of the same name, animated TV series, based on characters only. Abduction of the Wizard, TV film, based on a story of the same name Per Aspera Ad Astra, tears Were Falling Comet A Chance Two Tickets to India, animated, based on a story of the same name. The Pass, animated, based on Village, the Witches Cave, based on the novella of the same name
9.
Mikhail Bulgakov
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Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov was a Russian writer, physician and playwright active in the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his novel The Master and Margarita, published posthumously, Mikhail Bulgakov was born on 15 May 1891 in Kiev, Kiev Governorate of the Russian Empire. His mother was Varvara Mikhailovna Bulgakova, a former teacher, both of his grandfathers were clergymen in the Russian Orthodox Church. Afanasiy Bulgakov was born in Bryansk Oblast, Russia, where his father was a priest, Varvara Bulgakova was born in Karachev, Russia. From childhood Bulgakov was drawn to theater, at home, he wrote comedies, which his brothers and sisters acted out. In 1901 Bulgakov joined the First Kiev Gymnasium, where he developed an interest in Russian and European literature, theatre, the teachers of the Gymnasium exerted a great influence on the formation of his literary taste. After the death of his father in 1907, Mikhails mother, after graduation from the Gymnasium in 1909, Bulgakov entered the Medical Faculty of Kiev University, which he finished with special commendation. He then took a position as a physician at the Kiev Military Hospital, in 1913, Bulgakov married Tatiana Lappa. At the outbreak of the First World War, he volunteered with the Red Cross as a doctor and was sent directly to the front. Bulgakovs suffering from these wounds had deleterious long-term effects, to suppress chronic pain, especially in the abdomen, he injected himself with morphine. Over the next year his addiction grew stronger, in 1918, he abandoned morphine and never used it again. Morphine, a released in 1926, is his account of that trying period. In 1916, Bulgakov graduated from the Medical Department of Kiev University and his life in those days is reflected in his A Country Doctors Notebook. In September 1917 Bulgakov was moved to the hospital in Vyazma, in February 1918, he returned to Kiev, Ukraine, where he opened a private practice at his home at Andreyevsky Descent,13. Here he lived through the Russian Civil War and witnessed ten coups, successive governments drafted the young doctor into their service while two of his brothers were serving in the White Army against the Bolsheviks. In February 1919 he was mobilised as a physician by the Ukrainian Peoples Army. There, he became ill with typhus and barely survived. That was when he last saw his family, after the Civil War, after illness Bulgakov abandoned his career as a doctor for that of a writer
10.
Iron Curtain
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The Iron Curtain was the name for the boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. A term symbolizing the efforts by the Soviet Union to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the West, on the east side of the Iron Curtain were the countries that were connected to or influenced by the Soviet Union. The most notable border was marked by the Berlin Wall and its Checkpoint Charlie, the events that demolished the Iron Curtain started in discontent in Poland, and continued in Hungary, the German Democratic Republic, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, and Romania. Romania became the only communist state in Europe to overthrow its government with violence. The use of the iron curtain as a metaphor for strict separation goes back at least as far as the early 19th century. It originally referred to fireproof curtains in theaters, various usages of the term iron curtain pre-date Churchills use of the phrase. The term iron curtain has since been used metaphorically in two different senses - firstly to denote the end of an era and secondly to denote a closed geopolitical border. The source of these metaphors can refer to either the safety curtain deployed in theatres or to roller shutters used to secure commercial premises. The first metaphorical usage of iron curtain, in the sense of an end of an era, perhaps should be attributed to British author Arthur Machen, who used the term in his 1895 novel The Three Impostors. The door clanged behind me with the noise of thunder, and I felt that an iron curtain had fallen on the passage of my life. Queen Elisabeth of the Belgians used the term Iron Curtain in the context of World War I to describe the situation between Belgium and Germany in 1914. The passage runs, With clanging, creaking, and squeaking, time to put on your fur coats and go home. We looked around, but the fur coats and homes were missing, chesterton used the phrase in a 1924 essay in The Illustrated London News. Chesterton, while defending Distributism, refers to that iron curtain of industrialism that has cut us off not only from our neighbours condition, how, a moment before the iron curtain was wrung down on it, did the German political stage appear. All German theatres had to install an iron curtain as a precaution to prevent the possibility of fire spreading from the stage to the rest of the theatre. Such fires were common because the decor often was very flammable. In case of fire, a wall would separate the stage from the theatre. Douglas Reed used this metaphor in his book Disgrace Abounding, The bitter strife had only hidden by the iron safety-curtain of the Kings dictatorship
11.
Perestroika
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The literal meaning of perestroika is “restructuring”, referring to the restructuring of the Soviet political and economic system. Perestroika is sometimes argued to be a cause of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe, Perestroika allowed more independent actions from various ministries and introduced some market-like reforms. The goal of the perestroika, however, was not to end the command economy, Perestroika and resistance to it are often cited as major catalysts leading to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In May 1985, Gorbachev gave a speech in Leningrad in which he admitted the slowing-down of the economic development and this was the first time in Soviet history that a Soviet leader had done so. During the initial period of Mikhail Gorbachevs time in power, he talked about modifying central planning, Gorbachev and his team of economic advisors then introduced more fundamental reforms, which became known as perestroika. In July 1987, the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union passed the Law on State Enterprise, the law stipulated that state enterprises were free to determine output levels based on demand from consumers and other enterprises. Enterprises had to fulfill orders, but they could dispose of the remaining output as they saw fit. However, at the time the state still held control over the means of production for these enterprises. Enterprises bought input from suppliers at negotiated contract prices, under the law, enterprises became self-financing, that is, they had to cover expenses through revenues. No longer was the government to rescue unprofitable enterprises that could face bankruptcy, finally, the law shifted control over the enterprise operations from ministries to elected workers collectives. Gosplans responsibilities were to supply general guidelines and national investment priorities, the Law on Cooperatives, enacted in May 1988, was perhaps the most radical of the economic reforms during the early part of the Gorbachev era. For the first time since Vladimir Lenins New Economic Policy was abolished in 1928, the law permitted private ownership of businesses in the services, manufacturing, the law initially imposed high taxes and employment restrictions, but it later revised these to avoid discouraging private-sector activity. Under this provision, cooperative restaurants, shops, and manufacturers became part of the Soviet scene, Gorbachev brought perestroika to the Soviet Unions foreign economic sector with measures that Soviet economists considered bold at that time. His program virtually eliminated the monopoly that the Ministry of Foreign Trade had once held on most trade operations, in addition, regional and local organizations and individual state enterprises were permitted to conduct foreign trade. This change was an attempt to redress a major imperfection in the Soviet foreign trade regime, after potential Western partners complained, the government revised the regulations to allow majority foreign ownership and control. Under the terms of the Joint Venture Law, the Soviet partner supplied labor, infrastructure, the foreign partner supplied capital, technology, entrepreneurial expertise, and in many cases, products and services of world competitive quality. Gorbachevs economic changes did not do much to restart the sluggish economy in the late 1980s. The reforms decentralised things to some extent, although price controls remained, as did the rubles inconvertibility, by 1990 the government had virtually lost control over economic conditions
12.
Mysticism
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Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in ultimate or hidden truths, the term mysticism has Ancient Greek origins with various historically determined meanings. Derived from the Greek word μυω, meaning to conceal, mysticism referred to the liturgical, spiritual. During the early period, the definition of mysticism grew to include a broad range of beliefs. In modern times, mysticism has acquired a limited definition, with applications, as meaning the aim at the union with the Absolute. This limited definition has been applied to a range of religious traditions and practices. Since the 1960s scholars have debated the merits of perennial and constructionist approaches in the research of mystical experiences. The perennial position is now largely dismissed by scholars, most scholars using a contextual approach, Mysticism is derived from the Greek μυω, meaning I conceal, and its derivative μυστικός, mystikos, meaning an initiate. The verb μυώ has received a different meaning in the Greek language. The primary meanings it has are induct and initiate, secondary meanings include introduce, make someone aware of something, train, familiarize, give first experience of something. The related form of the verb appears in the New Testament. As explained in Strongs Concordance, it properly means shutting the eyes and its figurative meaning is to be initiated into the mystery revelation. The meaning derives from the rites of the pagan mysteries. Also appearing in the New Testament is the related noun μυστήριον, the term means anything hidden, a mystery or secret, of which initiation is necessary. According to Thayers Greek Lexicon, the term μυστήριον in classical Greek meant a hidden thing, a particular meaning it took in Classical antiquity was a religious secret or religious secrets, confided only to the initiated and not to be communicated by them to ordinary mortals. In the Septuagint and the New Testament the meaning it took was that of a purpose or counsel. It is sometimes used for the hidden wills of humans, but is often used for the hidden will of God. Elsewhere in the Bible it takes the meaning of the mystic or hidden sense of things and it is used for the secrets behind sayings, names, or behind images seen in visions and dreams
13.
Voltaire
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Voltaire was a versatile writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote more than 21,000 letters and over two books and pamphlets. He was an advocate of civil liberties, despite the risk this placed him in under the strict censorship laws of the time. As a satirical polemicist, he made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma. Some speculation surrounds Voltaires date of birth, because he claimed he was born on 20 February 1694 as the son of a nobleman. Two of his older brothers—Armand-François and Robert—died in infancy and his brother, Armand. Nicknamed Zozo by his family, Voltaire was baptized on 22 November 1694, with François de Castagnère, abbé de Châteauneuf, and Marie Daumard, the wife of his mothers cousin, standing as godparents. He was educated by the Jesuits at the Collège Louis-le-Grand, where he was taught Latin, theology, and rhetoric, later in life he became fluent in Italian, Spanish, and English. By the time he left school, Voltaire had decided he wanted to be a writer, against the wishes of his father, Voltaire, pretending to work in Paris as an assistant to a notary, spent much of his time writing poetry. When his father out, he sent Voltaire to study law. Nevertheless, he continued to write, producing essays and historical studies, Voltaires wit made him popular among some of the aristocratic families with whom he mixed. In 1713, his father obtained a job for him as a secretary to the new French ambassador in the Netherlands, the marquis de Châteauneuf, at The Hague, Voltaire fell in love with a French Protestant refugee named Catherine Olympe Dunoyer. Their scandalous affair was discovered by de Châteauneuf and Voltaire was forced to return to France by the end of the year, Most of Voltaires early life revolved around Paris. From early on, Voltaire had trouble with the authorities for critiques of the government and these activities were to result in two imprisonments and a temporary exile to England. One satirical verse, in which Voltaire accused the Régent of incest with his own daughter, the Comédie-Française had agreed in January 1717 to stage his debut play, Œdipe, and it opened in mid-November 1718, seven months after his release. Its immediate critical and financial success established his reputation, both the Régent and King George I of Great Britain presented Voltaire with medals as a mark of their appreciation. He mainly argued for tolerance and freedom of thought. He campaigned to eradicate priestly and aristo-monarchical authority, and supported a constitutional monarchy that protects peoples rights, the author adopted the name Voltaire in 1718, following his incarceration at the Bastille
14.
Utopia
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A utopia is an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its citizens. The opposite of a utopia is a dystopia and you could also say that utopia is a perfect place that has been made so there are no problems. The term has been used to describe intentional communities, the term utopia was coined from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island society in the Atlantic Ocean. The word comes from Greek, οὐ and τόπος and means no-place, however, in standard usage, the words meaning has narrowed and now usually describes a non-existent society that is intended to be viewed as considerably better than contemporary society. Eutopia, derived from Greek εὖ and τόπος, means good place, in English, eutopia and utopia are homophonous, which may have given rise to the change in meaning. Chronologically, the first recorded utopian proposal is Platos Republic, part conversation, part fictional depiction, and part policy proposal, Republic would categorize citizens into a rigid class structure of golden, silver, bronze and iron socioeconomic classes. The golden citizens are trained in a rigorous 50-year-long educational program to be benign oligarchs, plato stressed this structure many times in both quotes by him and in his published works, such as the Republic. The wisdom of these rulers will supposedly eliminate poverty and deprivation through fairly distributed resources, the educational program for the rulers is the central notion of the proposal. It has few laws, no lawyers and rarely sends its citizens to war, during the 16th century, Thomas Mores book Utopia proposed an ideal society of the same name. Some maintain the position that Mores Utopia functions only on the level of a satire, but the homophonic prefix eu-, meaning good, also resonates in the word, with the implication that the perfectly good place is really no place. Ecological utopian society describes new ways in which society should relate to nature and these works perceive a widening gap between the modern Western way of living that destroys nature and a more traditional way of living before industrialization. Ecological utopias may advocate a society that is more sustainable, according to the Dutch philosopher Marius de Geus, ecological utopias could be inspirational sources for movements involving green politics. Particularly in the early 19th century, several ideas arose. These ideas are often grouped in a utopian socialist movement. A once common characteristic is a distribution of goods, frequently with the total abolition of money. Citizens only do work which they enjoy and which is for the good, leaving them with ample time for the cultivation of the arts. One classic example of such a utopia was Edward Bellamys Looking Backward, Another socialist utopia is William Morriss News from Nowhere, written partially in response to the top-down nature of Bellamys utopia, which Morris criticized. However, as the socialist movement developed, it moved away from utopianism, in a materialist utopian society, the economy is perfect, there is no inflation, and only perfect social and financial equality exists
15.
Alexander Sumarokov
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Born of a good family of Muscovite gentry, Sumarokov was educated at the Cadet School in Petersburg, where he acquired an intimate familiarity with French polite learning. Neither an aristocratic dilettante like Antiokh Kantemir nor a learned professor like Vasily Trediakovsky and he consequently may be called the father of the Russian literary profession. Sumarokov wrote much and regularly, chiefly in those literary kinds neglected by Lomonosov and his principal importance rests in his plays, among which Khorev is regarded as the first regular Russian drama. He ran the first permanent public theatre in the Russian capital and his plays were based on the subjects taken from Russian history, proto-Russian legends or on Shakespearean plots. D. S. Mirsky believed that there could be no doubt the good acting made the reputation of Sumarokov and his tragedies are a stultification of the classical method, their Alexandrine couplets are exceedingly harsh, their characters are marionettes. His comedies are adaptations of French plays, with a sprinkling of Russian traits. Their dialogue is a prose that had never been spoken by anyone. Sumarokovs non-dramatic work is by no means negligible and his fables are the first attempt in a genre that was destined to flourish in Russia with particular vigor. His satires, in which he imitates the manner of popular poetry, are racy and witty attacks against the government clerks. His songs, of all his writings, still attract readers of poetry and they are remarkable for a prodigious metrical inventiveness and a genuine gift of melody. In subject matter they are entirely within the pale of classical, conventional love poetry, sumarokovs literary criticism is usually carping and superficial, but it did much to inculcate on the Russian public the canons of classical taste. He was a follower of Voltaire, with whom he prided himself on having exchanged several letters. Vain and self-conscious, Sumarokov considered himself a Russian Racine and Voltaire in one, in personal relations he was irritable, touchy, and often petty. But his exacting touchiness contributed, almost as much as did Lomonosovs calm dignity, to raise the profession of the pen, the first opera written in Russian was Цефал и Прокрис by Italian composer Francesco Araja serving to the Russian Court. The opera was staged at St. Petersburg on March 7,1755, the second opera set to a Russian text was Альцеста by German composer Hermann Raupach also serving to the Russian Court. This article incorporates text from D. S. Mirskys A History of Russian Literature, a publication now in the public domain
16.
Mikhail Shcherbatov
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Prince Mikhailo Mikhailovich Shcherbatov was a leading ideologue and exponent of the Russian Enlightenment, on the par with Mikhail Lomonosov and Nikolay Novikov. His view of nature and social progress is kindred to Swifts pessimism. He was known as a statesman, historian, writer and philosopher, M. M. Shcherbatov received a good-formal education. He studied history, philosophy, literature and medicine, until the end of his life he had a vast collection of 40,000 volumes in his home library. Like all educated people of that time he knew French, and in addition to that, he was competent in German, Italian. From 1767 onwards, Shcherbatov was in the service and held responsible posts. In 1768 he received the position of historiographer and was appointed a Chief Herald of the Senate, in his view the political ideal was to follow the British example of a constitutional monarchy with separation of powers. He found a certain analogy to this ideal in Pre-Petrian Russia when, in his opinion, mikhail’s personal view and attitude of Peter I of Russia or Peter the Great in his writings was quite ambiguous. Yet, Shcherbatov was aware that, apart from the personal weaknesses, Peter was forced by the time to be a despot. Scherbatovs father was a governor-general of Moscow and a Rurikid prince and his belonging to the oldest of Russian families may explain Scherbatovs lifelong interest in the national history. In a series of published in 1759-61 he defended serfdom. When elected by the nobility of Yaroslavl to represent their interests at the Legislative Assembly of 1767 and he caught the attention of the Empress and was appointed imperial historian in 1768 and president of a ministry in 1778. He worked in the Senate from 1779 to 1786, Scherbatovs History of Russia from the Earliest Times, of which seven volumes appeared between 1771 and 1791, is imbued with rationalistic ideals of the Age of Reason. He thought that inequality was inherent to nature and illustrated this tenet in the first Russian utopia. Scherbatovs final and probably most lasting work was an attack on the contemporary social customs in the treatise On the Corruption of Morals in Russia. There was also criticism of the methods of Peter the Great by which he promoted obscure people, yet, Shcherbatov tried to be unbiased and to show both the positive and negative sides of Peter’s modernization. After the accession of Catherine II, Shcherbatov participated in the Established Commission and he supported the elimination of cards on the Table of Ranks and the expansion of the rights of the Russian nobility. However, he was not a pure court ideologist, caring only about narrow interests, as far as those serfs who were registered at the factories, he proposed to free them little by little, giving them freedom as a reward for good character and excellent knowledge of arts
17.
Chivalric romance
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As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a type of prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Popular literature also drew on themes of romance, but with ironic, satiric or burlesque intent. Still, the image of medieval is more influenced by the romance than by any other medieval genre, and the word medieval evokes knights, distressed damsels, dragons. Originally, romance literature was written in Old French, Anglo-Norman, Occitan, and Provençal, during the early 13th century, romances were increasingly written as prose. In later romances, particularly those of French origin, there is a tendency to emphasize themes of courtly love. Unlike the later form of the novel and like the chansons de geste, the earliest forms were invariably in verse, but the 15th century saw many in prose, often retelling the old, rhymed versions. Many influences are clear in the forms of chivalric romance, the epics of Charlemagne, unlike such ones as Beowulf, already had feudalism rather than the tribal loyalties, this was to continue in romances. The romance form is distinguished from the epics of the Middle Ages by the changes of the 12th century. This occurred regardless of congruity to the material, Alexander the Great featured as a fully feudal king. Chivalry was treated as continuous from Roman times, historical figures reappeared, reworked, in romance. The entire Matter of France derived from known figures, and suffered somewhat because their descendents had an interest in the tales that were told of their ancestors, unlike the Matter of Britain. Hereward the Wakes early life appeared in chronicles as the embellished, romantic adventures of an exile, complete with rescuing princess, fulk Fitzwarin, an outlaw in King Johns day, has his historical background a minor thread in the episodic stream of romantic adventures. The earliest medieval romances dealt heavily with themes from folklore, which diminished over time, morgan le Fay never loses her name, but in Le Morte dArthur, she studies magic rather than being inherently magical. Still, fairies never completely vanished from the tradition, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late tale, but the Green Knight himself is an otherworldly being. In Italy there is the story called Il Bel Gherardino and it is the most ancient prototype of an Italian singing fairy tale by an anonymous Tuscan author. It tells the story of a young Italian knight, depleted for its magnanimitas, other examples of Italian poetry tales are Antonio Puccis literature, Gismirante, Il Brutto di Bretagna or Brito di Bretagna and Madonna Lionessa. Another work of a second anonymous Italian author that is worth mentioning is Istoria di Tre Giovani Disperati e di Tre Fate, some romances, such as Apollonius of Tyre, show classical pagan origins. Tales of the Matter of Rome in particular may be derived from such works as the Alexander Romance
18.
Mikhail Kheraskov
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Mikhail Matveyevich Kheraskov was regarded as the most important Russian poet by Catherine the Great and her contemporaries. Kheraskovs father was a Romanian boyar who settled in the Ukraine, patronized by his Freemason friends, Mikhail furthered his education abroad and was appointed dean of the Moscow University at the age of 30. In 1771–1779, he wrote the Rossiad, the first Russian epic in the tradition of Homer and Virgil, the Rossiads only rival for the title of the longest poem in the Russian language is Kheraskovs Vladimir Reborn, concerned with the baptism of Kievan Rus. Somewhat more popular is his oriental tale Bakhariana, Kheraskov also wrote 20 plays but, like the rest of his writings, they have been neglected by posterity. He spent much of his time in Grebnevo, his estate near Moscow. Mikhail Timofeyevich Vysotsky was a godson of Mikhail Kheraskov
19.
Epic poetry
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An epic poem, epic, epos, or epopee is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Milman Parry and Albert Lord have argued that the Homeric epics and these works form the basis of the epic genre in Western literature. Nearly all Western epic self-consciously presents itself as a continuation of the tradition begun by these poems, classical epic employs dactylic hexameter and recounts a journey, either physical or mental or both. Epics also tend to highlight cultural norms and to define or call into question cultural values, another type of epic poetry is epyllion, which is a brief narrative poem with a romantic or mythological theme. The term, which means little epic, came into use in the nineteenth century, the most famous example of classical epyllion is perhaps Catullus 64. The first epics were products of preliterate societies and oral history poetic traditions, in these traditions, poetry is transmitted to the audience and from performer to performer by purely oral means. Early twentieth-century study of living oral traditions in the Balkans by Milman Parry. What they demonstrated was that oral epics tend to be constructed in short episodes, each of equal status, interest and this facilitates memorization, as the poet is recalling each episode in turn and using the completed episodes to recreate the entire epic as he performs it. Parry and Lord also contend that the most likely source for written texts of the epics of Homer was dictation from an oral performance, poets in literate societies have sometimes copied the epic format. The earliest surviving European examples are the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes and Virgils Aeneid, other obvious examples are Nonnus Dionysiaca, Tulsidas Sri Ramacharit Manas. In his work Poetics, Aristotle defines an epic as one of the forms of poetry, contrasted with lyric poetry, an attempt to delineate ten main characteristics of an epic, Begins in medias res. The setting is vast, covering many nations, the world or the universe, Begins with an invocation to a muse. Begins with a statement of the theme, contains long lists, called an epic catalogue. Shows divine intervention on human affairs, features heroes that embody the values of the civilization. Often features the tragic heros descent into the Underworld or hell, the hero generally participates in a cyclical journey or quest, faces adversaries that try to defeat him in his journey and returns home significantly transformed by his journey. The epic hero illustrates traits, performs deeds, and exemplifies certain morals that are valued by the society the epic originates from, many epic heroes are recurring characters in the legends of their native culture. Conventions of epics, Preposition, Opens by stating the theme or cause of the epic and this may take the form of a purpose, of a question, or of a situation. Invocation, Writer invokes a Muse, one of the nine daughters of Zeus, the poet prays to the Muses to provide him with divine inspiration to tell the story of a great hero
20.
Semyon Bobrov
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Semyon Sergeyevich Bobrov — was a Russian poet and civil servant. Bobrovs father was a church minister, at the age of nine Bobrov entered a religious seminary at Moscow. In 1780 he enrolled in the school attached to Moscow University from which he graduated in 1785. His first published writing appeared in 1784, after graduation from the university he moved to St. Petersburg. In 1787 he was hired by the Heraldry department of the Governing Senate and he worked as a translator at the Admiralty Board and at the committee on legislature. Beginning in 1792 he served in the admiralty office of the Black Sea Fleet under admiral Nikolay Mordvinov and he spent about ten years in southern Russia. Through the responses to his ideas by P. A, Batyushkov and Pushkin, who called him the heavy bibrus, Bobrov’s name was saved from complete oblivion. Toward the end of his life, Bobrov developed a drinking habit and he died from tuberculosis in St. Petersburg and was buried at the Volkovo Cemetery. Bobrov wrote dense, heavy material, as witnessed by the titles of his huge books and he was one of the first in Russia to take an interest in English literature. He was a mystic, but his mysticism was a clear and human one, his mystic feeling fed on literature, bobrovs poetic prowess was taken note of by many of his contemporaries. However, beside such praise, he met with the opposite, long before Vyazemsky, Batyushkov and Pushkin. His contemporaries simply could not find value in Bobrov the literary theorist with strong, in his time Bobrov felt the full harshness of the struggle between the perception of thought and its adequate expression in language. Speech is light, but how delusive, reaching us through our ears it often looses its rightful sense. He boldly coined neologisms, declaring that Usual and worn-out expressions, it seems, might not give to the word such strength as fresh, bold expressions invented with patriotic endeavour. Many new words were coined by him, most of them clumsily complicated and in bad taste, some, however, entered into colloquial, most often he used slavianisms, which brought him the sympathies of Shishkov, but made him the laughing stock of the karamzinists. He upheld that rhyme should never hold up the qualities of a poem. Often serves as a deflection of the most beautiful feelings and the most refined thoughts, but almost always destroys the very soul of the work, if the author makes the slightest concession to it
21.
Russian cosmism
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Russian cosmism is a philosophical and cultural movement that emerged in Russia in the early 20th century. It entailed a broad theory of philosophy, combining elements of religion and ethics with a history and philosophy of the origin, evolution and future existence of the cosmos. It combined elements from both Eastern and Western philosophic traditions as well as from the Russian Orthodox Church. Cosmism was one of the influences on Proletkult, and after the October Revolution, emotional paeans to physical labor, machines, and the collective of industrial workers. Organized around the image of the universal Proletarian, who strides forth from the earth to conquer planets and this form of cosmism, along with the writings of Nikolai Fyodorov, was a strong influence on Andrei Platonov. Many ideas of the Russian cosmists were later developed by those in the transhumanist movement, victor Skumin argues that the Culture of Health will play an important role in the creation of a human spiritual society into the Solar System. The Culture of Health is the science about Spiritual Humanity. It studies the perspectives of development of Spiritual man and Spiritual ethnos as a conscious creator of the State of Light into the territory of the Solar System. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was among the pioneers of space exploration and cosmonautics. In 1903, he published Изслѣдованіе міровыхъ пространствъ реактивными приборами, the first serious work on space travel. Tsiolkovsky believed that colonizing space would lead to the perfection of the race, with immortality. He also developed ideas of the atom, and radiant mankind. In 1881 Russian revolutionary and rocket pioneer Nikolai Kibalchich proposed an idea of pulsed rocket propulsion by combustion of explosives, other cosmists included Vladimir Vernadsky, who developed the notion of noosphere, and Alexander Chizhevsky, pioneer of heliobiology. A minor planet,3113 Chizhevskij is named after him, from the Famous quotes by Brain website, Rerikhism Russian Futurism Russian philosophy Sobornost Art works by Russian cosmism painter XX – XXI ct. Nikolai Fyodorov, Studien zu Leben, Werk und Wirkung, by Michael Hagemeister, ISBN 3-87690-461-7, Michael Hagemeister, Russian Cosmism in the 1920s and Today. In, Bernice G. Rosenthal, The Occult in Russian and Soviet Culture, the Russian Cosmists, The Esoteric Futurism of Nikolai Fedorov and His Followers. New York, Oxford University Press,2012, R. com Spaceflight or Extinction, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Excerpts from The Aims of Astronautics, The Call of the Cosmos The Foundations of the Space Age Roerich. The Call Of Cosmic Evolution World Organisation of Culture of Health
22.
Faddey Bulgarin
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Bulgarin was born into a noble Polish family near Minsk, Belarus. His father, one of Kosciuszkos associates, was exiled to Siberia for having assassinated a Russian general, Bulgarin was educated in a St. Petersburg military school, took part in the Battle of Friedland but was arrested for theft soon afterwards. While his regiment was stationed in Finland, Bulgarin deserted to Warsaw and he fought under Napoleons banners in the Peninsular War and the 1812 Lithuanian campaign. In 1812 Bulgarin was taken prisoner in Battle of Berezina and transported to Prussia, there is a 6-year lapse in his biography after that. In 1820, Bulgarin travelled from Warsaw to St. Petersburg and he also made friends with the playwright Alexander Griboyedov and the philologist Nicholas Gretsch. The latter helped him to edit the newspaper Northern Bee, the literary journal Fatherlands Son, bulgarins unscrupulous manners made him the most odious journalist in Russia. Alexander Pushkin, in particular, ridiculed him in a number of epigrams, Bulgarin retorted with epigrams, in which Pushkins name was rendered as Chushkin. Inspired by Sir Walter Scott, Bulgarin wrote the Vyzhigin series of historical novels and he followed these with two sententious novels about the False Dmitry and Ivan Mazepa. In 1837 he published under his own name a lengthy description of Imperial Russia, which was actually a work by Professor Nikolai Alexeyevich Ivanov of Dorpat University
23.
Hollow Earth
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The Hollow Earth hypothesis proposes that the planet Earth either is entirely hollow or otherwise contains a substantial interior space. The scientific community has dismissed the notion since at least the late 18th century, the concept of a hollow Earth recurs many times in folklore and as the premise for subterranean fiction, fake news, and a subgenre of adventure fiction. It is also featured in some present-day pseudoscientific and conspiracy theories, in ancient times, the concept of a subterranean land inside the Earth appeared in mythology, folklore and legends. The idea of a realm is also mentioned in Tibetan Buddhism belief. According to one story, there is an ancient city called Shamballa which is located inside the Earth, in Thracian and Dacian legends, it is said that there are underground chambers occupied by an ancient God called Zalmoxis. In Mesopotamian religion there is a story of a man who, after traveling through the darkness of a tunnel in the mountain of Mashu, in Hindu mythology, the underworld is referred to as Patala. In the Hindu epic Ramayana, it has been depicted how Rama and Lakshmana were taken by the king of the underworld Ahiravan, later on they were rescued by Hanuman. The Angami Naga tribes of India claim that their ancestors emerged in ancient times from a subterranean land inside the Earth, the Taino from Cuba believe their ancestors emerged in ancient times from two caves in a mountain underground. Natives of the Trobriand Islands believe that their ancestors had come from a subterranean land through a hole called Obukula. Mexican folklore also tells of a cave in a five miles south of Ojinaga. In the middle ages, an ancient German myth held that some mountains located between Eisenach and Gin Germany hold a portal to the inner Earth, a Russian legend says the Samoyeds, an ancient Siberian tribe, traveled to an underground cavern city to live inside the Earth. In Native American mythology, it is said that the ancestors of the Mandan people in ancient times emerged from a subterranean land through a cave at the side of the Missouri River. There is also a tale about a tunnel in the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona near Cedar Creek which is said to lead inside the Earth to a land inhabited by a mysterious tribe. It is also the belief of the tribes of the Iroquois that their ancient ancestors emerged from a world inside the Earth. The elders of the Hopi people believe that a Sipapu entrance in the Grand Canyon exists which leads to the underworld, ancestors of the Inca supposedly came from underground caves which are located east of Cuzco, Peru. Edmond Halley in 1692 put forth the idea of Earth consisting of a shell about 800 km thick. Atmospheres separate these shells, and each shell has its own magnetic poles, the spheres rotate at different speeds. Halley proposed this scheme in order to explain anomalous compass readings and he envisaged the atmosphere inside as luminous and speculated that escaping gas caused the Aurora Borealis
24.
Osip Senkovsky
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Osip Ivanovich Senkovsky, born Józef Julian Sękowski, was a Polish-Russian orientalist, journalist, and entertainer. Senkovsky was born into an old family of Polish szlachta, during his study in the University of Vilno he became fascinated with all things oriental. In 1821 he returned to the Russian capital, where he got the chair in oriental languages at the University of St Petersburg, in the 1820s, Senkovsky started publishing in the popular periodicals of Kondraty Ryleyev and Faddei Bulgarin. A very prolific writer, Senkovsky contributed articles on a range of topics. As a literary critic he had few principles, his motto being easy reading, one day he would pronounce his friend Nestor Kukolnik to be Gogols superior, only to place Gogol higher than Homer the very next day. He dismissed The Tale of Igors Campaign as a fake, derogated Pushkin as a second-hand imitator. During his last years, Senkovsky turned from literature to music and he claimed to have invented a five-stringed violin and a new type of oven. He also published pioneering studies of Chinese, Mongolian, and Tibetan languages
25.
Gothic fiction
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Gothic fiction, which is largely known by the subgenre of Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature and film that combines fiction and horror, death, and at times romance. Its origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, the effect of Gothic fiction feeds on a pleasing sort of terror, an extension of Romantic literary pleasures that were relatively new at the time of Walpoles novel. It originated in England in the half of the 18th century and had much success in the 19th, as witnessed by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Another well known novel in this genre, dating from the late Victorian era, is Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the name Gothic refers to the -medieval buildings, emulating Gothic architecture, in which many of these stories take place. This extreme form of romanticism was very popular in England and Germany, the English Gothic novel also led to new novel types such as the German Schauerroman and the French Georgia. The novel usually regarded as the first Gothic novel is Horace Walpoles The Castle of Otranto, Horace Walpoles declared aim was to combine elements of the medieval romance, which he deemed too fanciful, and the modern novel, which he considered to be too confined to strict realism. Walpole published the first edition disguised as a romance from Italy discovered and republished by a fictitious translator. When Walpole admitted to his authorship in the edition, its originally favourable reception by literary reviewers changed into rejection. A romance with elements, and moreover void of didactical intention, was considered a setback. Walpoles forgery, together with the blend of history and fiction, contravened the principles of the Enlightenment and associated the Gothic novel with fake documentation. Clara Reeve, best known for her work The Old English Baron, set out to take Walpoles plot, the question now arose whether supernatural events that were not as evidently absurd as Walpoles would not lead the simpler minds to believe them possible. Ann Radcliffe developed the technique of the supernatural in which every seemingly supernatural intrusion is eventually traced back to natural causes. Among other elements, Ann Radcliffe introduced the figure of the Gothic villain. Radcliffes novels, above all The Mysteries of Udolpho, were best-sellers, however, along with most novels at the time, they were looked down upon by many well-educated people as sensationalist nonsense. Radcliffe also provided an aesthetic for the genre in an influential article On the Supernatural in Poetry, Romantic literary movements developed in continental Europe concurrent with the development of the Gothic novel. The roman noir appeared in France, by writers as François Guillaume Ducray-Duminil, Baculard dArnaud. In Germany, the Schauerroman gained traction with writers as Friedrich Schiller, with novels like The Ghost-Seer and these works were often more horrific and violent than the English Gothic novel. Matthew Gregory Lewiss lurid tale of debauchery, black magic
26.
Alexander Bestuzhev
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Alexander Alexandrovich Bestuzhev (Russian, Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Бесту́жев, IPA, was a Russian writer and Decembrist. After the Decembrist revolt he was sent into exile to Caucasus where Russian Empire was waging the war against the Circassians, there writing under the pseudonym Marlinsky he became known as a romantic poet, short story writer and novelist. He was killed there in a skirmish, Alexander Bestuzhev came from the rich and noble Bestuzhev family. From a very young age his father prepared him for military service, since he was not keen on mathematics he failed to enter the navy and began to serve as a dragoon in the Guard. In 1818 he was promoted to officer, he served as aide-de-camp to several senior officers. Due to this fact and due to his confessions during the trial, he spent only a year, Bestuzhev wanted to return to society and in order to obtain forgiveness he asked the authorities for transference to the army in Caucasus as a private. In 1829 he started serving in the 14th Chasseurs regiment, though authorities were reluctant to promote degraded officers, Bestuzhev proved himself an outstandingly brave soldier and was finally promoted to officer in 1836. On 19 June 1837 he was killed in a skirmish with Circassians, two of his brothers, Mikhail and Nikolay were sentenced to life at hard labor for their part in the Decembrist plot in 1826. Bestuzhev started publishing his poetry and short prose in 1819 and soon received attention and he became acquainted with Alexander Pushkin, Aleksander Griboyedov, Kondraty Ryleyev and many others. Before the Decembrist revolt, Bestuzhev was quite a prolific author, in 1823 and 1824 together with Ryleyev he edited famous literary almanac Polar Star which featured almost all notable contemporary Russian poets and was a huge success. His ceased writing during the trial and exile in Siberia, due to his pseudonym Bestuzhev is commonly referred to as Bestuzhev in order to distinguish him from another Decembrist Bestuzhev who was executed. The works of Bestuzhev may be classified as the florid Romanticism in the vein of Lord Byron and his characters are often excessively extravagant, sometimes he deliberately chose medieval jousts as a background for his prose. In 1830s Bestuzhev was one of the most popular writers in Russia whose fame could be compared with that of Pushkin, the first edition of Bestuzhevs complete works was published in 1839. An Evening on Bivouac, and The Test, from Russian Romantic Prose, An Anthology, ISBN 978-1-46-830151-9 The new American cyclopædia. George Ripley and C. A. Dana
27.
Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy
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Count Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, often referred to as A. K. He also gained fame for his works, published under his own name. His fictional works include the novella The Family of the Vourdalak, The Vampire, Aleksey was a member of the Tolstoy family, and a second cousin of Leo Tolstoy. Due to his mothers closeness with the court of the Tsar, Aleksey was admitted to the future Alexander IIs childhood entourage, as a young man Tolstoy traveled widely, including trips to Italy and Germany, where he met Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Tolstoy began his education at home under the tutelage of his uncle the writer Antony Pogorelsky, under whose influence he first became interested in writing poetry, in 1834 Tolstoy enrolled in the Moscow Foreign Ministry State Archive as a student. In December 1835 he completed exams at the University of Moscow, throughout the 1840s Tolstoy led a busy high society life, full of pleasure trips, salon parties and balls, hunting sprees and fleeting romances. He also spent many years in service as a bureaucrat and diplomat. In 1856, on the day of his Coronation, Alexander II appointed Tolstoy one of his personal aide-de-adjutants, Tolstoy served as an infantry major in the Crimean War. He eventually left state service in the early 1860s to pursue his literary career and he died in 1875 of a self-administered lethal dose of morphine at his Krasny Rog estate in the Chernigov Governorate. Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy was born in Saint Petersburg to the family of Tolstoy. His father, Count Konstantin Petrovich Tolstoy, a son of the general, was a Russian state assignation bank councilor. His mother, Anna Alekseyevna Perovskaya, was a daughter of Count Aleksey Kirillovich Razumovsky. A. K. Tolstoys uncle was Fyodor Tolstoy and his uncle on his mothers side was Aleksey Perovsky, an author known under the pen name of Antony Pogorelsky. Aleksey Konstantinovich was a cousin of Leo Tolstoy, Count Pyotr Andreyevich Tolstoy was their common great-grandfather. Konstantin Tolstoy and Anna Perovskayas marriage was short-lived, they divorced in October 1817 and it was under the latters influence that Aleksey started to write poetry, as early as 1823, inspired by some old books he found at home. Aleksey had good teachers and at the age of six he fluently spoke French, German, later he learned Italian as well. As for the Tolstoys, Anna Perovskaya stopped seeing them altogether, only sending them postcards on major dates and holidays. Remembering those happy years, Aleksey later wrote, I was brought up by Aleksey Perovsky… I spent the first years of my life at his estate and my childhood, which was very happy, left me the most cloudless memories
28.
Mikhail Lermontov
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His influence on later Russian literature is still felt in modern times, not only through his poetry, but also through his prose, which founded the tradition of the Russian psychological novel. Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov was born in Moscow into a noble family. He had been captured by the Russian troops in Poland in the early 17th century, family legend asserted that George Learmonth descended from the famed 13th-century Scottish poet Thomas the Rhymer. Lermontovs father, Yuri Petrovich Lermontov, like his father before him, having moved up the ranks to captain, he married the sixteen-year-old Maria Mikhaylovna Arsenyeva, a wealthy young heiress of a prominent aristocratic Stolypin family. Lermontovs maternal grandmother, Elizaveta Arsenyeva, regarded their marriage as a mismatch, on October 15,1814, in Moscow where the family temporarily moved to, Maria gave birth to her son Mikhail. The marriage proved ill-suited and the couple grew apart. There is no evidence as to what had precipitated the quarrels theyve had. An earlier biographer, Pavel Viskovatov, suggested the discord might have been caused by Yuris affair with a woman named Yulia. Apparently it was her husbands violent, erratic behavior and the stresses that accounted for Maria Mikhaylovnas early demise. Her health quickly deteriorated, she developed tuberculosis and died on 27 February 1817, nine days after Marias death a final row broke out in Tarkhany and Yuri rushed away to his Kropotovo estate in Tula Governorate where his five sisters resided. Yelizaveta Arsenyeva launched a formidable battle for her grandson, promising to disinherit him if his father took the boy away. Eventually the two agreed that the boy should stay with his grandmother until the age of 16. Father and son separated and, at the age of three, Lermontov began a spoilt and luxurious life with his grandmother and numerous relatives. This bitter family feud formed a plot of Lermontovs early drama Menschen und Leidenschaften, in June 1817 Yelizaveta Alekseyevna moved her grandson to Penza. In 1821 they returned to Tarkhany and spent the six years there. The doting grandmother spared no expense to provide the young Lermontov with the best schooling and he received an extensive home education, became fluent in French and German, learned to play several musical instruments and proved a gifted painter. While living with the grandmother, Mikhail hardly met with his father, but the boys health was fragile, he suffered from scrofula and rickets and was kept under close surveillance of a French doctor, Anselm Levis. Colonel Capet, a Napoleon army prisoner-of-war who settled in Russia after 1812, was the boys first, a German pedagogue, Levy, who succeeded Capet, introduced Mikhail to Goethe and Schiller
29.
Chapbook
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A chapbook is an early type of popular literature printed in early modern Europe. Produced cheaply, chapbooks were commonly small, paper-covered booklets, usually printed on a single sheet folded into books of 8,12,16 and 24 pages and they were often illustrated with crude woodcuts, which sometimes bore no relation to the text. When illustrations were included in chapbooks, they were considered popular prints, the tradition of chapbooks arose in the 16th century, as soon as printed books became affordable, and rose to its height during the 17th and 18th centuries. The term chapbook for this type of literature was coined in the 19th century, the corresponding French and German terms are bibliothèque bleue and Volksbuch, respectively. In Spain they were known as pliegos de cordel, the term chapbook is also in use for present-day publications, commonly short, inexpensive booklets. Chapbook is first attested in English in 1824, and seems to derive from the word for the itinerant salesmen who would sell such books, the first element of chapman comes in turn from Old English cēap. Broadside ballads were popular songs, sold for a penny or halfpenny in the streets of towns and they preceded chapbooks, but had similar content, marketing and distribution systems. These sales are probably characteristic of the market for chapbooks, Chapbooks gradually disappeared from the mid-19th century in the face of competition from cheap newspapers and, especially in Scotland, religious tract societies that regarded them as ungodly. Although the form originated in Britain, many were made in the U. S. during the same period, because of their flimsy nature such ephemera rarely survive as individual items. They were aimed at buyers without formal libraries, and, in an era when paper was expensive, were used for wrapping or baking, paper has also always had hygienic uses and there are contemporary references to the use of chapbooks as bum fodder. Many of the surviving chapbooks come from the collections of Samuel Pepys between 1661 and 1688 which are now held at Magdalene College, Cambridge, anthony Wood also collected 65 chapbooks, which are now at The Bodleian Library. There are also significant Scottish collections, such as held by the University of Glasgow. Modern collectors, such as Peter Opie, have chiefly a scholarly interest in the form, however, the category has no real limits, some chapbooks were long, some well produced, and some even historically accurate. The centre of chapbook and ballad production was London, and until the Great Fire of London the printers were based around London Bridge, however, a feature of chapbooks is the proliferation of provincial printers, especially in Scotland and Newcastle upon Tyne. Chapbooks were an important medium for the dissemination of culture to the common people. They were a medium of entertainment, information and history, however, they are nonetheless valued as a record of popular culture, preserving cultural artifacts that may not survive in any other form. Chapbooks were priced for sales to workers, although their market was not limited to the working classes, Broadside ballads were sold for a halfpenny, or a few pence. Prices of chapbooks were from 2d. to 6d, when agricultural labourers wages were 12d. per day
30.
Invisibility
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Invisibility is the state of an object that cannot be seen. An object in this state is said to be invisible and this is known as transparency, and is seen in many naturally occurring materials. Invisibility perception depends on optical and visual factors. For example, invisibility depends on the eyes of the observer and/or the instruments used, thus an object can be classified as invisible to a person, animal, instrument, etc. In research on sensorial perception it has shown that invisibility is perceived in cycles. In illusion optics, invisibility is a case of illusion effects. This is known as active camouflage, though stealth technology is declared to be invisible to radar, all officially disclosed applications of the technology can only reduce the size and/or clarity of the signature detected by radar. On October 19,2006 a team effort of researchers from Britain, in filmmaking, people, objects, or backgrounds can be made to look invisible on camera through a process known as chroma keying. An artificially made meta material that is invisible to the microwave spectrum, engineers and scientists have performed various kinds of research to investigate the possibility of finding ways to create real optical invisibility for objects. Methods are typically based on implementing the techniques of transformation optics. Currently, a cloaking device does not exist. A2006 theoretical work predicts that the imperfections are minor, the technique is predicted to be applied to radio waves within five years, and the distortion of visible light is an eventual possibility. The theory that light waves can be acted upon the way as radio waves is now a popular idea among scientists. The agent can be compared to a stone in a river, around which water passes and this is the technique depicted in the 2000 television portrayal of The Invisible Man. Two teams of scientists worked separately to create two Invisibility Cloaks from metamaterials engineered at the nanoscale level and they demonstrated for the first time the possibility of cloaking three-dimensional objects with artificially engineered materials that redirect radar, light or other waves around an object. While one uses a type of fishnet of metal layers to reverse the direction of light, an observer looking at the cloaked object would then see light from behind it, making it seem to disappear. For a metamaterial to produce negative refraction, it must have a structural array smaller than the wavelength of the radiation being used. Valentines team created their fishnet material by stacking silver and metal dielectric layers on top of each other, the other team used an oxide template and grew silver nanowires inside porous aluminum oxide at tiny distances apart, smaller than the wavelength of visible light
31.
E. T. A. Hoffmann
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Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann was a Prussian Romantic author of fantasy and Gothic horror, a jurist, composer, music critic, draftsman and caricaturist. His stories form the basis of Jacques Offenbachs famous opera The Tales of Hoffmann and he is also the author of the novella The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, on which Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovskys ballet The Nutcracker is based. The ballet Coppélia is based on two stories that Hoffmann wrote, while Schumanns Kreisleriana is based on Hoffmanns character Johannes Kreisler. Hoffmanns stories highly influenced 19th century literature, and he is one of the authors of the Romantic movement. Hoffmanns ancestors, both maternal and paternal, were jurists and his father, Christoph Ludwig Hoffmann, was a barrister in Königsberg, Prussia, as well as a poet and amateur musician who played the viola da gamba. In 1767 he married his cousin, Lovisa Albertina Doerffer, ernst Theodor Wilhelm, born on 24 January 1776, was the youngest of three children, of whom the second died in infancy. The household, dominated by the uncle, was pietistic and uncongenial, Hoffmann was to regret his estrangement from his father. Nevertheless, he remembered his aunts with great affection, especially the younger, Charlotte, between 1781 and 1792 he attended the Lutheran school or Burgschule, where he made good progress in classics. He was taught drawing by one Saemann, and counterpoint by a Polish organist named Podbileski, ernst showed great talent for piano-playing, and busied himself with writing and drawing. He had however read Schiller, Goethe, Swift, Sterne, Rousseau and Jean Paul, and wrote part of a novel titled Der Geheimnisvolle. Around 1787 he became friends with Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel the Younger, the son of a pastor, and nephew of Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel the Elder, during 1792, both attended some of Kants lectures at the University of Königsberg. Their friendship, although tested by an increasing social difference, was to be lifelong. In 1794, Hoffmann became enamored of Cora Hatt, a woman to whom he had given music lessons. She was ten years older, and in 1795 gave birth to her sixth child, in February 1796, her family protested against his attentions and, with his hesitant consent, asked another of his uncles to arrange employment for him in Glogau, Prussian Silesia. From 1796 Hoffmann obtained employment as a clerk for his uncle, Johann Ludwig Doerffer, after passing further examinations he visited Dresden, where he was amazed by the paintings in the gallery, particularly those of Correggio and Raphael. During the summer of 1798 his uncle was promoted to a court in Berlin, and it was there that Hoffmann first attempted to promote himself as a composer, writing an operetta called Die Maske and sending a copy to Queen Luise of Prussia. The official reply advised to him to write to the director of the Royal Theatre, from June 1800 to 1803 he worked in Prussian provinces in the area of Greater Poland and Masovia. This was the first time he had lived without supervision by members of his family, and he started to become what school principals, parsons, uncles, and aunts call dissolute
32.
Nikolai Gogol
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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
33.
Antony Pogorelsky
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Antony Pogorelsky is a penname of Alexey Alexeyevich Perovsky, a Russian prose writer. He was a son of A. K. Razumovsky and an uncle of Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, also a man of letters. During the Patriotic War of 1812 he served in the army as a volunteer. When living in Germany during his military service Perovsky took a great interest in German romanticism, and Hoffman, in particular, after retirement he settled in Petersburg and took care of upbringing and education of his nephew Aleksey. During that period Perovsky came to be one of the most active defenders of Alexander Pushkin, then a beginning poet. In 1829 Pogorelsky published the book brought him real fame, it was the fairy tale Black Hen, or Living Underground written for his nephew. His novel Monastyrka, a “moral-descriptive novel” combining both sentimental and romantic elements was very well accepted by public and critics, antony Pogorelskys Biography Works by Pogorelsky
34.
Nikolai Polevoy
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His father, disappointed in his refusal to take up the family business and disapproving of his interest in literature and history, refused to pay for his education, so he taught himself. In 1825 he started his own journal, Moskovskii telegraf, hoping to attract the writers he admired, like Pushkin, when Polevoy wrote his own six-volume History of the Russian People, it was savaged by almost everyone. The factions do not seem to have been in their right minds thirty years ago, what was the cause of their being so hostile that they foamed at the mouth. In 1834, after competition from both the aristocrats and the plebeians had laid waste to the Polevoys finances, The Moscow Telegraph was closed down by the government, the Polevoys spent most of the rest of their lives editing the journals of Bulgarin and Grech. Even the Moscow journalists were hampered, in comparison with those of St. Petersburg, thus in 1834 Polevóy, who had severely reviewed a patriotic play, found, on his arrival in St. Petersburg, that it had pleased the upper society. Said his protector, the Administrator of Police, you see how they take the play here, you will have to agree with this opinion, or else you will get yourself into terrible trouble. D. S. Mirsky writes, But his memory after his death was deservedly reverenced by the new intelligentsia as that of a pioneer and, in a sense, nikolay Polevoy is the main hero of Izlomanny Arshin novel by Samuil Lurie. Leighton, Lauren G. Russian Romantic Criticism, An Anthology, northwestern University Press,1999 Pares, Bernard. London, Archibald Constable,1907 Brockhaus and Efron biography Krugosvet biography RIN. ru article Russkaya Fantastika article Vikiznanie article on Moskovskii telegraf
35.
Konstantin Aksakov
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Konstantin Sergeyevich Aksakov was a Russian critic and writer, one of the earliest and most notable Slavophiles. He wrote plays, social criticism, and histories of the ancient Russian social order and his father Sergey Aksakov was a writer, and his younger brother, Ivan Aksakov, was a journalist. Konstantin was the first to publish an analysis of Gogols Dead Souls, after Tsar Alexander IIs accession to the throne, he sent him a letter advising to restore the zemsky sobor. Aksakov also penned a number of articles on Slavonic linguistics, Aksakov was raised on a country estate before he moved to Moscow with his family. He remained with his parents his entire life, without ever marrying or moving out of the house and he studied at Moscow State University, and he became a member of the Stankevitch Circle, a group of Russian Hegelians and early believers of Russian democracy. Aksakov eventually made the acquaintance of Ivan Kireyevsky and Aleksey Khomyakov, adopted their philosophy of Slavophilism, aksakovs thesis on Mikhail Lomonosov attempted to synthesize his view of the Russian peasants religious and historical mission with Hegels philosophy. Later in his career, Aksakov abandoned Hegelian philosophy and became radically anti-European
36.
Mikhail Zagoskin
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Mikhail Nikolayevich Zagoskin, was a Russian writer of social comedies and historical novels. Zagoskin was born in the village of Ramzay in Penza Oblast and he began his official career as a librarian, then became part of the management of the Imperial Theatres, and lastly served as director of the Moscow Armory Museum. In the 1810s and 20s he published a series of comedies and his best known work, the historical novel Yury Miloslavsky, was published in 1829 and became the first Russian best-seller. His historical novels, including Yury Miloslavsky, were imitations of Sir Walter Scott. Zagoskin attempted to Russify his characters and provided authentic descriptive detail, the dramatist in him shows through in the preponderance of dialogue over description or exposition, and in the use of colloquial speech, and the oral speech of the common people. Sergey Aksakov described the impact of Yury Miloslavsky, We did not yet have a popular writer in the accurate. Our distance from the people and their low literacy being direct, but Zagoskin more than anyone else can be called a popular writer. In addition to classes, he has been read and is read by all merchant peasants able to read. They tell about what they have read and sometimes read aloud to many other illiterate peasants, the enormous number of snuffboxes and printed kerchiefs with depictions of various scenes from Yury Miloslavsky carried to all corners of the Russian expanse uphold the renown of its author. The Young Muscovite, or, The Poles in Russia, in three volumes, Cochrane and McCrone, London,1834, from Google Books Tales of Three Centuries, Little, Brown, and Company, Boston,1891
37.
Vladimir Odoyevsky
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Prince Vladimir Fyodorovich Odoyevsky was a prominent Russian philosopher, writer, music critic, philanthropist and pedagogue. He became known as the Russian Hoffmann on account of his keen interest in phantasmagoric tales, the last of his family, Prince Odoevsky was genealogically the most senior member of the House of Rurik. Considered by his contemporaries as a typical Muscovite, he was educated at the Nobility School of the Moscow University in 1816-22. In the mid-1820s, Odoyevsky presided over the Lyubomudry Society, where he and his fellow students met to discuss the ideas of Friedrich Schelling, at that period, he came to know many future Slavophiles and Westernizers, but refused to identify himself with any of these movements. Since 1824, Odoyevsky was active as a critic and journalist. In 1824 he and Wilhelm Küchelbecker founded the short-lived Moscow literary magazine Mnemozina, perhaps most famously, he co-edited the Sovremennik with Alexander Pushkin in the mid-1830s. In 1826, he moved to St Petersburg, where he joined the staff of the Imperial Public Library, two decades later, he was put in charge of the Rumyantsev Museum. Odoyevsky finally returned to Moscow in 1861 but continued to serve as a senator until his death and he is buried in the Donskoy monastery necropolis. Following the success of Pushkins The Queen of Spades, Odoyevsky wrote a number of stories on the dissipated life of the Russian aristocracy. On account of his short stories from the 1820s and 1830s. His most mature book was the collection of essays and novellas entitled The Russian Nights, loosely patterned after the Noctes Atticae, the book took two decades to complete. It contains some of Odoyevskys best known fiction, including the dystopian novellas The Last Suicide, the stories are interlaced with philosophic conversations redolent of the French Encyclopedists. As a music critic, Odoyevsky set out to propagate the national style of Mikhail Glinka and his followers and he also wrote a romanticised biography of the Russian violinist Ivan Khandoshkin, whose career he presented as thwarted by the malign influence of such Italian musicians as Giuseppe Sarti. Johann Sebastian Bach and Beethoven appear as characters in some of his novellas, Odoyevsky was active in the foundation of the Russian Musical Society, Moscow Conservatory, and St. Petersburg Conservatory. Odoyevsky took part in development of electroplating technology, invented by Moritz von Jacobi in Russia, in 1844 Odoyevsky wrote a book, Galvanism applied in technology. He made a number of experiments and developed cobalt electroplating, recently, Odoyevsky has been credited to have predicted blogging, and the basic principles of the Internet. In his unfinished utopian novel Year 4338, he mused, Finally, today we received a journal from the prime minister. You need to know that in many houses, especially well connected, such journals are published
38.
Alexander Veltman
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Alexander Fomich Veltman was one of the most successful Russian prose writers of the 1830s and 1840s, popular for various modes of Romantic fiction — historical, Gothic, fantastic, and folkloristic. He was one of the pioneers of Russian science fiction, Veltman was born in Saint Petersburg, the first of four children of Foma Fomich Veltman and Maria Petrovna Kolpanicheva. In 1811 he entered the school for the nobility attached to Moscow University, but his studies were interrupted the next year by the invasion of Napoleon, like much of the population, the Veltmans fled Moscow, staying in Kostroma until the French retreat. In 1814, he resumed his education and he graduated in 1817 from the Korpus kolonnovozhatykh, a school established by General Nikolay N. Muravyov in his home to train staff officers, and was commissioned as an ensign in the army. In Bessarabia, Veltman became popular among his officers for his humorous verse, but he was eclipsed when Alexander Pushkin arrived in Kishinev. Although Pushkin was only twenty-one, he was famous, and Veltman tried to avoid meeting him. Anna Pavlovna died in 1847, and in 1850 he married Elena Ivanovna Kube, in 1852 Veltman became Director of the Museum of Armaments, and he and his wife became prosperous, entertaining guests on Thursdays in their large and luxurious new apartment near the Arbat. In 1854 he was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences. Elena died in 1868 and Veltman himself two years later, Veltmans first novel, Strannik, had extraordinary success. Laura Jo McCullough wrote, The Wanderer is, in a sense, Veltmans artistic manifesto, in it, Veltman gives whole conversations in Yiddish, Modern Greek and Rumanian, as well as in the more readily intelligible German and French. He followed Strannik with Koshchei bessmertny, Bylina starogo vremeni, a parody of the adventure novels popular at the time. Its hero, Iva Olelkovich Puta-Zarev, is a sort of Russian Don Quixote, after his marriage, he imagines that his bride has been captured by Koschei, and after various adventures the couple are reunited. Veltman indulges in cheerful leaps through space and time, happy to be sidetracked down the byways of history, critics are in general agreement that Strannik and Koshchei bessmertny are the works that best reflect Veltmans talent. Ioann has an twin brother Eol, who seizes power and drives the country into ruin, after his death, peace. The novel is a successor to the utopias of the 18th century, the novel includes digressions into philosophy, ideas on education, and descriptions of provincial life, the student protagonist has been seen as a precursor of Dostoevskys doubles. The situation is parallel to that of loann and Eol from MMMCDXLVIII god, the narrator rides to ancient Greece on a hippogriff, hoping to discover what aspects of life and character made it possible for the ancients to be great military leaders and rulers of peoples. He abducts the Pythia, finds himself in the camp of Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great and he then takes a trip with Alexander in which he mocks pagan rites and tries to pay for sacred writings with a 19th-century assignat. Having bid farewell to Alexander, the protagonist returns to his own century on his time machine, the incident reveals the way in which pandemonium has taken over from pantheon, for here, in effect, the devil has assumed the role of Cupid
39.
Koschei
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In Slavic folklore, Koschei is an archetypal male antagonist, described mainly as abducting the heros wife. In Vitali Vitalievs book Granny Yaga he is described as tall and although in excellent health, extremely, almost inhumanly, the author then explains that Koshchei—in the old Krivichi dialect—means skeleton. In book illustrations, cartoons and cinema he has been most frequently represented as a very old, Koschei is also known as Koschei the Deathless, as well as Tsar Koschei. As is usual in transliterations, there are numerous other spellings, such as Koshchei, Kashchej, the spelling in Russian and other Slavic languages suggests that his name may be derived from the word kost, meaning bone, implying a skeletal appearance. Koschei cannot be killed by conventional means targeting his body, as long as his soul is safe, he cannot die. If the chest is dug up and opened, the hare will bolt away, if it is killed, anyone possessing the egg has Koschei in their power. He begins to weaken, becomes sick, and immediately loses the use of his magic, if the egg is tossed about, he likewise is flung around against his will. If the needle is broken, Koschei will die, the Death of Koschei the Deathless is a Russian fairy tale collected by Alexander Afanasyev in Narodnye russkie skazki, which itself is included in The Red Fairy Book. Koschei also appears in Russian versions of the story The Frog Princess, in Vasilisa Prekrasnaya, a Russian cartoon based on the Russian fairy tale. A villain in Igor Stravinskys Firebird, in Alexander Veltmans Koshchei bessmertny, Bylina starogo vremeni, a parody of historical adventure novels, the hero, Iva Olelkovich, imagines that his bride has been captured by Koschei. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov wrote an opera involving Koschei, titled Кащей бессмертный, in the Soviet animated film Beloved Beauty. Mercedes Lackeys novel of Stravinskys Firebird features Katschei as the main villain, also, in her 500 Kingdoms series, the Katschei is referenced in the novels The Fairy Godmother and Fortunes Fool. Koschei appears as a slave to Baba Yaga in the Hellboy comic book series, his hidden in an egg, inside a duck, inside a hare. First appearing in Hellboy, Darkness Calls, Baba Yaga sends Koschei to kill Hellboy in return for his freedom, Vasilisa Prekrasnaya also appears and helps Hellboy. Koscheis origin story is revealed in backup stories to single issues of Hellboy. The story is collected in Hellboy, Weird Tales. While Koshei doesnt appear in person in the tabletop RPG Pathfinder, he is the inspiration for the Demon Lord Kostchtchie, in The Sandman, Fables and Reflections, Koscheis emerald heart passes into the possession of a Romani trader, then a werewolf, then Baba Yaga. In Monday Begins on Saturday by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, as one of the held in the NIIChaVo institute
40.
Time travel
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Some ancient myths depict skipping forward in time. The Buddhist Pāli Canon mentions the relativity of time, in the period of our century, one hundred years, only a single day, twenty four hours would have passed for them. The Japanese tale of Urashima Tarō, first described in the Nihongi tells of a fisherman named Urashima Taro who visits an undersea palace. After three days, he returns home to his village and finds himself 300 years in the future, where he has forgotten, his house is in ruins. Early science-fiction stories feature characters who sleep for years and awaken in a changed society. Among them LAn 2440, rêve sil en fût jamais by Louis-Sébastien Mercier, Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving, Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy, prolonged sleep, like the more familiar time machine, is used as a means of time travel in these stories. Decades-long and centuries-long sleep is featured in ancient myths. Like forward time travel, backward time travel has an uncertain origin, the narrator rides to ancient Greece on a hippogriff, meets Aristotle, and goes on a voyage with Alexander the Great before returning to the 19th century. While the narrator waits under a tree for a coach to take him out of Newcastle and he encounters the Venerable Bede in a monastery and explains to him the developments of the coming centuries. However, the story never makes it clear whether these events are real or a dream, charles Dickenss A Christmas Carol has early depictions of time travel in both directions, as the protagonist, Ebenezer Scrooge, is transported to Christmases past and future. However, these might be interpreted as visions rather than as time travel because Scrooge experiences the time periods as a rather than as a participant. A clearer example of time travel is found in the popular 1861 book Paris avant les hommes by the French botanist and geologist Pierre Boitard. This may have been the first story to feature an alternate history created as a result of time travel. Early time machines One of the first stories to feature time travel by means of a machine is The Clock that Went Backward by Edward Page Mitchell, however, the mechanism borders on fantasy. An unusual clock, when wound, runs backwards and transports people nearby back in time, the author does not explain the origin or properties of the clock. Enrique Gaspar y Rimbaus El Anacronópete may have been the first story to feature a vessel engineered to travel through time, H. G. Wellss The Time Machine popularized the concept of time travel by mechanical means. In technical papers, physicists generally avoid the language of moving or traveling through time. Movement normally refers only to a change in position as the time coordinate is varied
41.
Hippogriff
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The hippogriff, or sometimes hippogryph is a legendary creature which has the front half of an eagle and the hind half of a horse. The first recorded mention of the hippogriff was made by the Latin poet Virgil in his Eclogues, though sometimes depicted during the Classical Era and during the rule of the Merovingians, it was used by Ludovico Ariosto in his Orlando Furioso, at the beginning of the 16th century. Within the poem, the hippogriff is a steed born of a mare and it is ridden by magicians and the wandering knight Ruggiero, who, from the creature’s back, frees the beautiful Angelica. Sometimes depicted on coats of arms, the hippogriff became a subject of visual art in the 19th century. The word hippogriff was adopted into English shortly before 1615, the hippogriff is a symbol of the Greek god Apollo, either through his connection to the Muses or as god of the sun. Buonarotti is stated to have believed that the worship of Apollo, of the heraldic representations of the hippogriff, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies states that hybrid fantastical creatures depictions are ugly, inartistic, and unnecessary. Their representation leaves one with a feeling of crudity of draughtsmanship. John Vinycomb states that the hippogriff is not used in the British heraldic tradition, Ludovico Ariostos poem, Orlando furioso contains description, XVIII no fiction wrought magic lore, But natural was the steed the wizard pressed, For him a filly to griffin bore, Hight hippogryph. In wings and beak and crest, Formed like his sire, as in the feet before, But like the mare, his dam, such on Riphaean hills, though rarely found, Are bred, beyond the frozen oceans bound. This only real, Where all the rest was hollow and ideal, claw marks were found on a rock near Mas Carol. In some traditions, the hippogriff is said to be the symbol of love, as its parents, in other traditions, the hippogriff represents Christs dual nature as both human and divine. Artist Max Klinger used the hippogriff amongst other objects in his drawing Fantasy, in a hoax initially perpetrated in 1904 in Lake George, New York State, tricksters used a fake “monster” which became known as The Hippogriff. The creation had a head of a bird of prey, teeth, the pranks and sightings faded until 1999 when several people staying at the Island Harbour House Hotel stated they had seen a sea monster at night. The old hoax was uncovered by the Daily News and the Lake George Historical Association Museum, the hippogriff appears in various works of fantasy, such as works of E. Nesbit and E. R. Eddisons The Worm Ouroboros. According to the rules, the creatures are closely related to griffins. A hippogriff named Buckbeak features prominently in Harry Potter, al Roker calls the creation of Buckbeak in the film Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban one of the most magnificent and realistic creatures in film history. Griffin Pegasus Media related to Hippogriff at Wikimedia Commons Ariosto, Harry Potter and Hippogriffs, weaving textual webs
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