1.
Latin
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Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
2.
Public university
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A public university is a university that is predominantly funded by public means through a national or subnational government, as opposed to private universities. Whether a national university is considered public varies from one country to another, in Egypt, Al-Azhar University opened in 975 AD as the second oldest university in the world. In Nigeria Public Universities can be established by both the Federal Government and by State Governments, students are enrolled after completing the 8-4-4 system of education and attaining a mark of C+ or above. They are also eligible for a low interest loan from the Higher Education Loan Board and they are expected to pay back the loan after completing higher education. South Africa has 23 public tertiary institutions, either categorised as a traditional university or a comprehensive university. Almost entire national universities in Brunei are public universities and these are major universities in Brunei, University of Brunei Darussalam Brunei Technological University Sultan Sharif Ali Islamic University There are 40 public universities in Bangladesh. The University Grant Commission is the body for all the public universities in Bangladesh. The universities do not deal directly with the government, but with the University Grants Commission, recently many private universities are established under the Private University Act of 1992. In mainland China, nearly all universities and research institutions are public and currently, the public universities are usually run by the provincial governments, there are also circumstances where the municipal governments administer the universities. Some public universities are national, which are administered by the central government. Private undergraduate colleges do exist, which are vocational colleges sponsored by private enterprises. The majority of universities are not entitled to award bachelors degrees. Public universities usually enjoy higher reputation domestically, eight institutions are funded by the University Grants Committee. The Academy for Performing Arts also receives funding from the government, the Open University of Hong Kong is also a public university, but it is largely self-financed. The Shue Yan University is the private institution with the status of a university. There are public and private institutes in Indonesia. The government provide public universities, institutes, high schools and academies in each province, the private educational institution usually provided by religious organizations, public organizations, and some big companies. In India, most universities and nearly all research institutions are public, There are some private undergraduate colleges, mostly engineering schools, but a majority of these are affiliated to public universities
3.
Rector (academia)
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A rector is a term used in non-English-speaking countries for a university chancellor. In the sphere of academia, it is the highest academic official of universities and in certain other institutions of higher education. The term and office of a rector are called a rectorate, the title is used widely in universities in Europe. And is very common in Latin American countries and it is also used in Brunei, Turkey, Russia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Israel and the Middle East. In some universities, the title is phrased in an even loftier manner and this term is generally not used in English-speaking countries. In England and elsewhere in Great Britain, the head of a university is referred to as a chancellor. This pattern has been followed in the Commonwealth, the United States, in Scotland, many universities are headed by a chancellor, with the Lord Rector designated as an elected representative of students at the head of the university court. The head of a university in Germany is called a president, rector magnificus or rectrix magnifica, in Dutch universities, the rector magnificus is the most publicly prominent member of the board, responsible for the scientific agenda of the university. In the Netherlands, the rector is, however, not the chair of the university board, the chair has, in practice, the most influence over the management of the University. In some countries, including Germany, the position of teacher in secondary schools is also designated as rector. In the Netherlands, the rector and conrector are used commonly for high school directors. This is also the case in some Maltese secondary schools, in the Scandinavian countries, the head of a university or a gymnasium is called a rektor. In Sweden and Norway, this term is used for the heads of primary schools. For example, in Portugal, the rector of the University of Coimbra, the heads of Czech universities are called the rektor. The rector acts in the name of the university and decides the universitys affairs unless prohibited by law, the rector is nominated by the University Academic Senate and appointed by the President of the Czech Republic. The nomination must be agreed by a majority of all senators. The vote to elect or repeal a rector is secret, the term of office is four years and a person may hold it for at most two consecutive terms. The rector appoints vice-rectors, who act as deputies to the extent the Rector determines, Rectors salaries are determined directly by the Minister of Education
4.
Kiev
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Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population in July 2015 was 2,887,974, Kiev is an important industrial, scientific, educational, and cultural centre of Eastern Europe. It is home to many industries, higher education institutions. The city has an infrastructure and highly developed system of public transport. The citys name is said to derive from the name of Kyi, during its history, Kiev, one of the oldest cities in Eastern Europe, passed through several stages of great prominence and relative obscurity. The city probably existed as a centre as early as the 5th century. A Slavic settlement on the trade route between Scandinavia and Constantinople, Kiev was a tributary of the Khazars, until seized by the Varangians in the mid-9th century. Under Varangian rule, the city became a capital of the Kievan Rus, completely destroyed during the Mongol invasion in 1240, the city lost most of its influence for the centuries to come. It was a capital of marginal importance in the outskirts of the territories controlled by its powerful neighbours, first the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, followed by Poland. The city prospered again during the Russian Empires Industrial Revolution in the late 19th century, in 1917, after the Ukrainian National Republic declared independence from the Russian Empire, Kiev became its capital. From 1919 Kiev was an important center of the Armed Forces of South Russia and was controlled by the White Army. From 1921 onwards Kiev was a city of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which was proclaimed by the Red Army, during World War II, the city again suffered significant damage, but quickly recovered in the post-war years, remaining the third largest city of the Soviet Union. During the countrys transformation to an economy and electoral democracy. Kievs armament-dependent industrial output fell after the Soviet collapse, adversely affecting science, Kiev emerged as the most pro-Western region of Ukraine where parties advocating tighter integration with the European Union dominate during elections. As a prominent city with a history, its English name was subject to gradual evolution. The early English spelling was derived from Old East Slavic form Kyjev, the name is associated with that of Kyi, the legendary eponymous founder of the city. Early English sources use various names, including Kiou, Kiow, Kiew, on one of the oldest English maps of the region, Russiae, Moscoviae et Tartariae published by Ortelius the name of the city is spelled Kiou. On the 1650 map by Guillaume de Beauplan, the name of the city is Kiiow, in the book Travels, by Joseph Marshall, the city is referred to as Kiovia
5.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
6.
Ukrainian language
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Ukrainian /juːˈkreɪniən/ is an East Slavic language. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic script, historical linguists trace the origin of the Ukrainian language to the Old East Slavic of the early medieval state of Kievan Rus. After the fall of the Kievan Rus as well as the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, the Modern Ukrainian language has been in common use since the late 17th century, associated with the establishment of the Cossack Hetmanate. From 1804 until the Russian Revolution, the Ukrainian language was banned from schools in the Russian Empire and it has always maintained a sufficient base in Western Ukraine, where the language was never banned, in its folklore songs, itinerant musicians, and prominent authors. The Ukrainian language retains a degree of intelligibility with Belarusian and Russian. The first theory of the origin of Ukrainian language was suggested in Imperial Russia in the middle of the 18th century by Mikhail Lomonosov and this theory posits the existence of a common language spoken by all East Slavic people in the time of the Rus. Another point of view developed during the 19th and 20th centuries by linguists of Imperial Russia, like Lomonosov, they assumed the existence of a common language spoken by East Slavs in the past. This general point of view is the most accepted amongst academics worldwide, the supporters of this theory disagree, however, about the time when the different languages were formed. Soviet scholars set the divergence between Ukrainian and Russian only at time periods. During the time of the incorporation of Ruthenia into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and this point of view is, however, at variance with some historical data. In fact, several East Slavic tribes, such as Polans, Drevlyans, Severians, Dulebes, White Croats, Tiverians, notably, some Ukrainian features were recognizable in the southern dialects of Old East Slavic as far back as the language can be documented. In contrast, Ahatanhel Krymsky and Alexei Shakhmatov assumed the existence of the spoken language of Eastern Slavs only in prehistoric times. According to their point of view, the diversification of the Old East Slavic language took place in the 8th or early 9th century, Ukrainian linguist Stepan Smal-Stotsky went even further, denying the existence of a common Old East Slavic language at any time in the past. Similar points of view were shared by Yevhen Tymchenko, Vsevolod Hantsov, Olena Kurylo, Ivan Ohienko, according to this theory, the dialects of East Slavic tribes evolved gradually from the common Proto-Slavic language without any intermediate stages during the 6th through 9th centuries. The Ukrainian language was formed by convergence of tribal dialects, mostly due to a migration of the population within the territory of todays Ukraine in later historical periods. This point of view was supported by George Shevelovs phonological studies. During the 13th century, when German settlers were invited to Ukraine by the princes of Galicia-Vollhynia and their influence would continue under Poland not only through German colonists but also through the Yiddish-speaking Jews. Often such words involve trade or handicrafts, examples of words of German or Yiddish origin spoken in Ukraine include dakh, rura, rynok, kushnir, and majster
7.
University of Lviv
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Lviv University or officially the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv is the oldest continuously operating university in Ukraine. It is located in the city of Lviv in Lviv Oblast of Western Ukraine. The Jesuits had tried to create the university earlier, in 1589, establishing another college in Poland was seen as a threat by authorities of Krakóws Jagiellonian University, who did not want a rival and for many years managed to halt plans of the Jesuits. King John II Casimir was a sympathizer of the Jesuits and his stance was crucial, the royal diploma was confirmed by another act issued in Częstochowa on February 5,1661. Creation of the school was stipulated by the Treaty of Hadiach. In 1758 King Augustus III issued a decree, which described the Collegium as an Academic School, in equal to the Jagiellonian University. In 1772 Lwów/Lviv was annexed by Austria. e,21 October 1784 the Austrian Emperor Joseph II signed an act of foundation of the secular university. He started germanisation of the institution by bringing German-speaking professors from the parts of the Empire. The University had four departments - theology, philosophy, law, Latin was the official language of the school, with Polish and German as the supportive ones. Literary Slaveno-Rusyn of the period was used in the Studium Ruthenum, in 1805 the university was closed, as Austria, then involved in the Napoleonic wars, did not have sufficient funds to support it. Instead, a school was established. The university reopened in 1817, officially Vienna described it as an act of mercy, the Austrian government were well-aware of the pro-Polish policies of Russian Emperor Alexander I and they wanted to counterbalance it. However, quality of education was not high, Latin was replaced by German, the few good ones regarded their stay in Lviv as a springboard to other careers. In 1848, when pan-European revolution reached Lviv, students of the university created two organizations—the Academic Legion and Academic Committee—demanding that the school be polonized, soon afterwards, curfew was established and the university was temporarily closed. The school was reopened in January 1850, with limited autonomy, after a few years the Austrians relented and on July 4,1871 Vienna declared Polish and Ruthenian official languages at the university. Eight years later this was changed, the Austrian authorities declared Polish as official and Ruthenian and German as auxiliary. Examinations in two languages were possible as long as the professors spoke them. This bill created unrest among the Ruthenians, who were demanding equal rights, finally, a Ruthenian student of department of philosophy, Miroslaw Siczynski murdered in 1908 the Polish governor of Galicia, Andrzej Potocki
8.
National University of Kharkiv
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The University of Kharkiv or officially the Vasyl Karazin Kharkiv National University is one of the major universities in Ukraine, and earlier in the Russian Empire and Soviet Union. It was founded in 1804 through the efforts of Vasily Karazin becoming the second oldest university in modern-day Ukraine after the University of Lviv, on 29 January 1805, the Decree on the Opening of the Imperial University in Kharkiv came into force. The university became the university in the south of the Russian Empire. It was founded on the initiative of the community with Vasyly Karazin at the fore, whose idea was supported by the nobility. Count Severin Pototski was appointed the first supervisor of the university, the first periodicals in Slobozhanshchyna appear in the university around this time, including Kharkovski Ezhenedelnik, Ukrainski Vestnik, Ukrainski Zhurnal, etc. In 1839, a school, which in 1851 became an independent institute, was established at the university. By this time, the campus included laboratories, clinics, an observatory, a botanical garden. Previously, the university was autonomous with rectors being elected, however, from 1820 to 1850, all its activity was strictly controlled. Rectors were appointed by the Minister of Education, while scientific publications, in 1863, under a new Statute, the university became partly autonomous. The university has been publishing Scientific Notes since 1874, from the 19th century up to the early 20th century, the University of Kharkiv had four schools, School of Physics and Mathematics, School of History and Philology, School of Medicine, School of Law. The university exerted great influence on school-life in Slobozhanshchyna in the first period of its existence, from 1917 to 1920, there was a struggle between advocates of the Ukrainian statehood and Russian course. Some of the professors who opposed new political realities left, most of the Ukrainian professors remained in Kharkiv. In 1921, Kharkiv Medical Institute was founded based on the School of Medicine of the University of Kharkiv, in 1936, the university was named after the late Russian writer Maxim Gorky. During the German-Soviet war, it was evacuated to the city of Kizilord in Kazakhstan, in 1943/44, the university returned to Kharkiv. In 1951,800 university students suffered from persecution after they refused to pass exams in Russian, court trials were held behind closed doors. In 2004, the university was given a building, opposite Svobody square. According to the estimation of teaching quality, the university ranked seventh and fourth in Ukraine, according to one of the world leading university rankings, Kharkiv National University holds the fourth position among Ukrainian universities and the 1138th position in the world. Kharkiv National University holds the place in Ukraine in volume of publications and citations in scientific database Scopus
9.
Vladimir the Great
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Vladimir Sviatoslavich the Great or Volodymyr was a prince of Novgorod, grand prince of Kiev, and ruler of Kievan Rus from 980 to 1015. Vladimirs father was prince Sviatoslav of the Rurik dynasty, in Sweden, with the help from his relative Ladejarl Håkon Sigurdsson, ruler of Norway, he assembled a Varangian army and reconquered Novgorod from Yaropolk. Originally a follower of Slavic paganism, Vladimir converted to Christianity in 988, born in 958, Vladimir was the natural son and youngest son of Sviatoslav I of Kiev by his housekeeper Malusha. Malusha is described in the Norse sagas as a prophetess who lived to the age of 100 and was brought from her cave to the palace to predict the future, malushas brother Dobrynya was Vladimirs tutor and most trusted advisor. His place of birth is identified by different authors either as Budyatychi or Budnik, transferring his capital to Pereyaslavets in 969, Sviatoslav designated Vladimir ruler of Novgorod the Great but gave Kiev to his legitimate son Yaropolk. After Sviatoslavs death at the hands of the Pechenegs in 972, in 977, Vladimir fled to his kinsman Haakon Sigurdsson, ruler of Norway, collecting as many Norse warriors as he could to assist him to recover Novgorod. On his return the next year, he marched against Yaropolk, on his way to Kiev he sent ambassadors to Rogvolod, prince of Polotsk, to sue for the hand of his daughter Rogneda. The high-born princess refused to affiance herself to the son of a bondswoman, so Vladimir attacked Polotsk, slew Rogvolod, Vladimir continued to expand his territories beyond his fathers extensive domain. Although Christianity spread in the region under Olegs rule, Vladimir had remained a pagan, taking eight hundred concubines. He may have attempted to reform Slavic paganism by establishing the thunder-god, Perun, open abuse of the deities that most people in Rus revered triggered widespread indignation. A mob killed the Christian Fyodor and his son Ioann, immediately after the murder of Fyodor and Ioann, early medieval Rus saw persecutions against Christians, many of whom escaped or concealed their belief. However, Prince Vladimir mused over the incident long after, the result is described by the chronicler Nestor. Of the Muslim Bulgarians of the Volga the envoys reported there is no gladness among them, only sorrow and he also reported that Islam was undesirable due to its taboo against alcoholic beverages and pork. Vladimir remarked on the occasion, Drinking is the joy of all Rus and we cannot exist without that pleasure. His emissaries also visited Roman Catholic and Orthodox missionaries, ultimately Vladimir settled on Eastern Orthodox Christianity. If Vladimir was impressed by this account of his envoys, he was more attracted by the political gains of the Byzantine alliance. In 988, having taken the town of Chersonesos in Crimea, he negotiated for the hand of emperor Basil IIs sister. Never before had a Byzantine imperial princess, and one born in the purple at that, married a barbarian, as offers of French kings
10.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
11.
Moscow State University
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Lomonosov Moscow State University is a coeducational and public research university located in Moscow, Russia. It was founded on January 25,1755 by Mikhail Lomonosov, MSU was renamed after Lomonosov in 1940 and was then known as Lomonosov University. It also claims to house the tallest educational building in the world and it is rated among the universities with the best reputation in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy, ivan Shuvalov and Mikhail Lomonosov promoted the idea of a university in Moscow, and Russian Empress Elizabeth decreed its establishment on January 251755. The first lectures were given on April 26th, russians still celebrate January 25th as Students Day. Saint Petersburg State University and Moscow State University engage in rivalry over the title of Russias oldest university. The present Moscow State University originally occupied the Principal Medicine Store on Red Square from 1755 to 1787, in the 18th century, the University had three departments, philosophy, medicine, and law. A preparatory college was affiliated with the University until its abolition in 1812, in 1779, Mikhail Kheraskov founded a boarding school for noblemen which in 1830 became a gymnasium for the Russian nobility. The university press, run by Nikolay Novikov in the 1780s, published the most popular newspaper in Imperial Russia, in 1804, medical education split into clinical, surgical, and obstetrics faculties. During 1884–1897, the Department of Medicine -- supported by donations. The campus, and medical education in general, were separated from the University in 1918, as of 2015, Devichye Pole was operated by the independent I. M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University and by various other state and private institutions. The roots of student unrest in the University reach deep into the nineteenth century, in 1905, a social-democratic organization emerged at the University and called for the overthrow of the Czarist government and the establishment of a republic in Russia. The imperial government repeatedly threatened to close the University, after the October Revolution of 1917, the institution began to admit the children of the proletariat and peasantry. In 1919, the University abolished fees for tuition and established a facility to help working-class children prepare for entrance examinations. During the implementation of Joseph Stalins First Five-Year Plan, prisoners from the Gulag were forced to construct parts of the newly expanded University, after 1991, nine new faculties were established. The following year, the University gained a status, it is funded directly from the state budget. On March 19,2008, Russias most powerful supercomputer to date and its peak performance of 60 TFLOPS makes it the fastest supercomputer in the Commonwealth of Independent States. Since 1953, most of the faculties have been situated on Sparrow Hills, the main building was designed by architect Lev Vladimirovich Rudnev
12.
Saint Petersburg State University
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Saint Petersburg State University is a Russian federal state-owned higher education institution based in Saint Petersburg. It is the oldest and one of the largest universities in Russia, the university has two primary campuses, one on Vasilievsky Island and the other in Peterhof. During the Soviet period, it was known as Leningrad State University and it was named after Andrei Zhdanov in 1948. Saint Petersburg State University is the second best multi-faculty university in Russia after Moscow State University, the university has a reputation for having educated the majority of Russias political elite, these include presidents Vladimir Putin and Dimitry Medvedev, both of whom studied Law at the university. The university is Russias oldest university, founded in 1724 by Peter the Great, Saint Petersburg state university is included in all ratings and lists of the best universities in the world and is one of the leaders in all indicators in Russia. The university was the first from Russian universities to join The Coimbra Group and it is disputed by the university administration whether Saint Petersburg State University or Moscow State University is the oldest higher education institution in Russia. The Petersburg Pedagogical Institute, renamed the Main Pedagogical Institute in 1814, was established in 1804, in 1823 most of the university moved from the Twelve Collegia to the southern part of the city beyond the Fontanka. In 1824 a modified version of the charter of Moscow University was adopted as the first charter of the Saint Petersburg Imperial University, in 1829 there were 19 full professors and 169 full-time and part-time students at the university. In 1830 Tsar Nicholas returned the building of the Twelve Collegia back to the university. In 1835 a new Charter of the Imperial Universities of Russia was approved, however, Pyotr Pletnyov was reappointed Rector and ultimately became the longest-serving rector of Saint Petersburg University. In 1855 Oriental studies were separated from the Faculty of History and Philology, in 1859–1861 female part-time students could attend lectures in the university. In 1861 there were 1,270 full-time and 167 part-time students in the university, of them 498 were in the Faculty of Law, many Russian, Georgian etc. managers, engineers and scientists studied at the Faculty of law therefore. During 1861–1862 there was student unrest in the university, and it was closed twice during the year. The students were denied freedom of assembly and placed under police surveillance, after the unrest, in 1865, only 524 students remained. A decree of the Emperor Alexander II of Russia adopted on 18 February 1863 restored the right of the university assembly to elect the rector and it also formed the new faculty of the theory and history of art as part of the faculty of history and philology. In March 1869, student unrest shook the university again but on a smaller scale, by 1869,2,588 students had graduated from the university. In 1880 the Ministry of National Enlightenment forbade students to marry, in 1882 another student unrest took place in the university. In 1884 a new Charter of the Imperial Russian Universities was adopted, on March 1,1887 a group of the university students was arrested while planning an attempt on the life of Alexander III of Russia
13.
Nikolai Bunge
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Nikolai Khristianovich Bunge was the preeminent architect of Russian capitalism under Alexander III. He was a distinguished economist, statesman, and academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Bunge was born to a German ethnic family in Kiev and was second generation of Kievan. His grandfather moved from the East Prussia to Kiev sometime in the 18th century. Bunge was a professor of the Kiev University, of which he served as a dean between 1859 and 1880, when he was summoned to St. Petersburg to become a deputy minister and then Minister of Finance. Five years later, he became Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers, Bunge undertook a number of reforms with the aim of modernizing the Russian economy. He consolidated the banking system of the Empire and founded the Peasants Land Bank which helped peasants to purchase land and he introduced important tax law changes which seriously reduced the tax burden of the peasantry. The head tax was abolished and the tax was introduced. Bunges policies towards the Russian industries were extremely protectionist and he promoted the construction of railways and spearheaded the first Russian labour laws, some of them aimed at reducing child labour. However, in 1887 under pressure of conservative deputies, accusing him of incompetence and incapability to overcome the budgeted deficit, N. K
14.
Mykhailo Drahomanov
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Mykhailo Petrovych Drahomanov was a Ukrainian political theorist, economist, historian, philosopher, ethnographer and public figure in Kyiv. He was also an uncle of Ukrainian poet Larysa Kosach and brother - Olha Drahomanova-Kosach, drahomanovs uncle, Yakiv Drahomanov, was a member of the Decembrist movement and political prisoner for participating in the secret Society of United Slavs. During the transferring of Taras Shevchenko remains from Saint Petersburg to the Taras Hill, in emigration he continued his political, scholarly and publishing activities. In 1885–95, he was a professor at the University of Sofia to his son-in-law Ivan Shishmanov, Drahomanov wrote the first systematic political program for the Ukrainian national movement. He himself defined his political convictions as ethical socialism, and was impressed by socialist literature as a teenager. Drahomanov was one of leaders of Kyiv hromada, while continuing to pursue his academic career, being a member of the Russian Geographic society, he established contacts with Ukrainians of Austria. Under his influence, the Academic Circle in Lemberg adopted the Ukrainian democratic platform, as a victim of anti-Ukrainian repressive measures by the Russian government, in 1875 Drahomanov was fired from the Kyiv University. In 1876 Drahomanov became a spokesman of Hromada abroad while settling in Geneva, between 1878-1882 he published a Ukrainian political magazine Hromada and number of Russophone pamphlets. Drahomanov also created a Ukrainian socialist organization the Geneva Circle, in 1886 his political stance became not aligned with the political views of Hromada, which resulted in a rift between then, and the society in Ukraine losing its financial support. The lasting legacy of Drahomanov can be discerned in the whole Ukrainian tradition of leftist political parties, in 1890 these intellectuals founded the first Ukrainian political party - Ruthenian-Ukrainian Radical Party. The program-maximum of this party was socialist and therefore the party can be seen as one of the first socialist parties in Eastern Europe, Drahomanov tried to popularize an orthographic reform, called the Drahomanivka after him. In 1991, the Kyivan State Pedagogical University Named After Mykhaylo Drahomanov in Kyiv was founded on the basis of the former Kyivan State Pedagogical University Named After Maxim Gorky, in 1997, the university was granted National University-status. Hornowa E. Problemy polskie w twórczości Michala Drahomanowa, Rudnytsky Ivan L. Essays in Modern Ukrainian History / Ed. by P. L. Rudnytsky. – Edmonton, Canadian institute of Ukrainian studies, University of Alberta,1987, –499 p. Drahomanov as a Political Theorist – P.203 –253. The First Ukrainian Political Program, Mykhailo Drahomanovʼs “Introduction” to Hromada, Mykhailo Drahomanov and the Problem of Ukrainian-Jewish Relations. Bibliography of Writings by and on Mykhaylo Drahomanov—nearly comprehensive Biography of Drahomanov and his writings The Orthodox Nationalist, Mykhailo Drahomanov audio
15.
Mykhailo Hrushevsky
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Mykhailo Serhiyovych Hrushevsky was a Ukrainian academician, politician, historian, and statesman, one of the most important figures of the Ukrainian national revival of the early 20th century. He died under suspicious circumstances during Stalins purges in 1934, Mykhailo Hrushevsky was born on September 29,1866 in a Ukrainian noble family. Hrushevsky grew up in the foothills of the Caucasian mountains in Stavropol and his spiritual native land became Podolia in the area of the village of Sestrynivka, Podolia Governorate, where his mother was born, and where her father was a local Orthodox priest. In the same village she married the professor of the Kyiv Ecclesiastical Seminary, Serhiy Hrushevskys father was a highly decorated official. In addition to major works, he wrote numerous specialized studies in which he displayed a very acute critical acumen. His personal bibliography lists over 2000 separate titles, in Hrushevskys varied historical writings certain basic ideas come to the fore. Firstly, Hrushevsky saw continuity in Ukrainian history from ancient times to his own, thus he claimed the ancient Ukrainian Steppe cultures from Scythia, through Kievan Rus to the Cossacks as part of the Ukrainian heritage. He viewed the Principality of Galicia–Volhynia as the legitimate heir of Kievan Rus. This is opposed to the scheme of Russian history which claimed Kievan Rus for the Vladimir-Suzdal Principality. Secondly, to real depth to this continuity, Hrushevsky stressed the role of the common people. Thus popular revolts against the foreign states that ruled Ukraine were also a major theme. Thirdly, Hrushevsky always put the accent upon native Ukrainian factors rather than international ones as the causes of various phenomena, thus continuity, nativism, and populism characterized his general histories. With regard to the role of statehood in Hrushevskys historical thought, after the revolution of 1905 in Russia, Hrushevsky organized the Ukrainian Scientific Society in Kyiv in 1907 that served as a prototype to the future academy of sciences. In 1899, he was a co-founder of the Galician-based National Democratic Party and this party looked forward to eventual Ukrainian independence. After 1905, Hrushevsky advised the Ukrainian Club in the Russian State Duma or Parliament, at this time, Hrushevsky was clearly revealed as a radical democrat and a socialist. Following the German-supported coup of general Pavlo Skoropadsky, he went into hiding, Hrushevsky felt that Skoropadsky had perverted the cause of Ukrainian statehood by associating it with social conservatism. Hrushevsky returned to politics following the overthrow of Skoropadsky by the Directory. He did not, however, approve of the Directory and soon found himself in conflict with it, in 1919 he emigrated, having acquired a mandate from the Ukrainian Party of Socialist Revolutionaries to co-ordinate the activities of its representatives abroad
16.
Nikolai Berdyaev
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Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev was a Russian religious and political philosopher. Nikolai Berdyaev was born near Kiev in 1874, in a military family. His father, Alexander Mikhailovich Berdyaev, came from a line of Kiev. Almost all of Alexander Mikhailovichs ancestors served as high-ranking military officers, nikolais mother, Alina Sergeevna Berdyaeva, was half-French and came from the top levels of both French and Russian nobility. Greatly influenced by Voltaire, his father was a man that considered himself a freethinker. Nikolais mother, Orthodox by birth, was in her views on religion more Catholic than Orthodox and he spent a solitary childhood at home, where his fathers library allowed him to read widely. He read Hegel, Schopenhauer, and Kant when he was only 14, Berdyaev decided on an intellectual career and entered the Kiev University in 1894. It was a time of revolutionary fervor among the students and the intelligentsia and he became a Marxist and he was arrested in a student demonstration and expelled from the university. His involvement in activities led in 1897 to three years of internal exile, Vologda, in northern Russia, a mild sentence compared to that faced by many other revolutionaries. In 1904, he married Lydia Trusheff, the couple moved to Saint Petersburg, the Russian capital, and the centre of intellectual and revolutionary activity. He participated fully in intellectual and spiritual debate, eventually departing from radical Marxism to focus his attention on philosophy, in Christianity and Social Reality, he tells about his journey from Marx to Christ and his disillusionment with both the revolutionaries and the Church. A fiery 1913 article, criticising the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, caused him to be charged with the crime of blasphemy, the World War and the Bolshevik Revolution prevented the matter coming to trial. After the October Revolution of 1917, he fell out with the Bolshevik régime because of its totalitarianism, nonetheless, he was permitted, for the time being, to continue to lecture and write. His disaffection culminated, in 1919, with the foundation of his own private academy and it was primarily a forum for him to lecture on the hot topics of the day and to present them from a Christian point of view. In 1920, Berdiaev became professor of philosophy at the University of Moscow, in the same year, he was accused of participating in a conspiracy against the government, he was arrested and jailed. It seems that the head of the Cheka, Felix Dzerzhinsky, came in person to interrogate him. Berdyaevs prior record of activity seems to have saved him from prolonged detention. Now there is a man who had a point of view, the Soviet authorities eventually expelled Berdyaev from Russia, in September 1922
17.
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
18.
Viacheslav Chornovil
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Viacheslav Chornovil was a Ukrainian politician. A prominent Ukrainian dissident in the Soviet Union, he was arrested multiple times in the 1960s and 1970s for his political views, Chornovil enrolled into the University of Kiev initially at the College of Philology, but after the first semester transferred to the College of Journalism. In 1958 due to conflict in the university he took a break from studying and went for construction project in Zhdanov of a blast furnace, Chornovil was a member of the Komsomol of Ukraine. He graduated in 1960 with honors and defended his diploma with a thesis Publicistic work of Borys Hrinchenko, Chornovil worked for various newspapers and in television in Lviv and Kiev between 1960-64. In 1964 he moved to Vyshhorod and participated in the construction of the Kiev HES, during the same year Chornovil also enrolled into the aspirantura of the Kiev Pedagogical Institute, but was not allowed to study. On September 4,1965 together with Ivan Dzyuba and Vasyl Stus, after that he was fired out of his job, searched by authorities. For refusing to stand witness and testify at the trials of the Horyn brothers and he became known as a dissident after documenting the illegal imprisonment of some Ukrainian intellectuals. Later, he covered a story about twenty Ukrainians. The Times awarded him the Tomalin Prize for the documentation of the trials, during his exile in 1969 Chornovil married to Atena Pashko. At the same time Chornovil created an underground magazine Ukrainian informer, since 1971 he worked in the Lviv department of the Ukraine Nature Conservation Society. He was imprisoned another time for being involved in Ukrainian separatist movements and this time Chornovil was given six years of imprisonment and three more years of exile. His term he spent in Mordva camps for prisoners in the villages of Ozernoye. Half of his term Chornovil spent in an isolation cell. Chornovil renounced his Soviet citizenship and decided to move to Canada in 1975 and he joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, which helped to monitor and enforce the 1975 Helsinki Accords. In 1978 by train Chornovil was exiled to the village of Chappandu where he worked as a laborer at a state farm. In 1978 he was admitted to the International PEN society and he was arrested yet again for attempted rape in April 1980 and was sentenced to five years in prison, after which he carried out a 120-day-long hunger strike. He was released in 1983 following the protest of the Prosecutor of Yakutia not to return to Ukraine. In May 1985 Chornovil found job as a stoker at the Lviv Miskrembudtrest, in the late 1980s he actively participated in the Ukrainian national movement becoming the first leader of the Peoples Movement of Ukraine
19.
Leonid Kravchuk
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Leonid Makarovych Kravchuk is a former Ukrainian politician and the first President of Ukraine, who served from 5 December 1991, until his resignation on 19 July 1994. He is also a former Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada and Peoples Deputy of Ukraine serving in the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine faction. After a political crisis involving the President and the Prime Minister, Kravchuk resigned from the Presidency and he was defeated by his former Prime Minister, Leonid Kuchma, who served as President for two terms. He is currently retired from politics, Leonid Makarovych Kravchuk was born in 1934 in the village of Velykyi Zhytyn to a peasant family. At that time the village was located in Aleksandrija gmina, Rowno powiat in Poland, the village became part of Rivne Oblast in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic after the Soviet invasion in 1939 when Kravchuk was a child. His father served in the Polish cavalry in the 1930s, and later he, during World War II Kravchuks father perished on the front lines. Kravchuk married math teacher Antonina Mykhailivna Mishura in 1957, first Lady of the United States from 1989-93, Barbara Bush, described Antonina in her memoirs, She was the nicest young woman, a math teacher with absolutely no interest in politics. Kravchuk joined the Communist Party of Ukraine in 1958 and rose through the ranks of the party and of its agitprop department. He became a member of the Ukrainian Politburo in 1989, and on 23 July 1990 became Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR, after the 19–21 August 1991 Soviet coup attempt Kravchuk resigned from the Communist Party. After the Verkhovna Rada passed the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine on 24 August, Kravchuk was vested with presidential powers, thus becoming both de facto and de jure head of state. Later that year, on 5 December 1991, voters elected him president in Ukraines first presidential election. On the same day, the voters voted overwhelmingly to secede from the Soviet Union, Leonid Kravchuks political creed is avoiding conflicts and straightforward declaration of his position. He is widely considered to be cunning, diplomatic, and cautious and he describes himself as a man who refuses to take an umbrella because he hopes to slip between the raindrops. Such diplomacy helped Kravchuk to retain and strengthen his power over Ukraine during the transition from Soviet rule to independence and he was third in command in Ukraines CPSU leadership before the fall of Soviet Union even though he didnt belong to the ruling Dnipropetrovsk group. He avoided inflexible positions towards democratic changes and was a figure for both party conservatives and reformists. Soon after his defeat in 1994, Kravchuk joined the powerful business and this group, led by oligarchs Viktor Medvedchuk and Hryhoriy Surkis, is formally organized as the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine. Despite its formal centrist/social-democratic slogans, the party is associated with big business, organized crime, corruption. In 2004, Surkis was banned from visiting the United States, the group also took a strongly pro-Russian and anti-Western stand
20.
Taras Shevchenko
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Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko was a Ukrainian poet, writer, artist, public and political figure, as well as folklorist and ethnographer. His literary heritage is regarded to be the foundation of modern Ukrainian literature and, to a large extent, Shevchenko is also known for many masterpieces as a painter and an illustrator. He was a member of the Sts Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood, in 1847 Shevchenko was politically convicted for writing in the Ukrainian language, promoting the independence of Ukraine and ridiculing the members of the Russian Imperial House. Taras Shevchenko was born on March 91814 in the village of Moryntsi, Zvenyhorodka county, Kyiv Governorate, Russian Empire. According to the legends, Tarass forefathers were Cossacks who served in the Zaporizhian Host and took part in liberation wars. Those uprisings were suppressed in Cherkasy, Poltava, Kyiv, Bratslav. Most of the population was enslaved and impoverished. In 1816 Shevchenko family moved back to the village of Kyrylivka in Zvenyhorodka county where Taras father, Taras spent his childhood years in that village. On May 241816, Taras sister Yaryna was born, once, young Taras went looking for the iron pillars that hold up the sky and got lost. Chumaks who met the boy took him with him to Kerelivka, on March 201821 Taras brother Yosyp was born. In the fall of 1822 Taras started to take some classes at a local precentor Sovhyr. At that time Shevchenko became familiar with Hryhoriy Skovorodas works, during 1822-1828 Shevchenko painted horses and soldiers. On February 101823 his older sister and nanny Kateryna married Anton Krasytskyi, on September 11823 Taras hard working mother died. A month later on October 191823 his father married a widow Oksana Tereshchenko, a native of Moryntsi village and she cruelly treated her foster children and, in particular, little Taras. On July 41824 Tarass sister Maria from the marriage of Hryhoriy Ivanovych was born. In 1824 Taras, along with his father, became a merchant and traveled to Zvenyhorodka, Uman. At the age of eleven Taras became an orphan when, on April 21825, soon his stepmother along with her children returned to Moryntsi. Taras went to work for precentor Bohorsky who had just arrived from Kyiv in 1824, as an apprentice, Taras carried water, heated up a school, served the precentor, read psalms over the dead and continued to study
21.
Nicholas I of Russia
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Nicholas I was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855. He was also the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland and his biographer Nicholas V. Riasanovsky says that Nicholas displayed determination, singleness of purpose, and an iron will, along with a powerful sense of duty and a dedication to very hard work. He saw himself as a junior officer totally consumed by spit. A handsome man, he was nervous and aggressive. Trained as an engineer, he was a stickler for minute detail, in his public persona, says Riasanovsky, Nicholas I came to represent autocracy personified, infinitely majestic, determined and powerful, hard as stone, and relentless as fate. His reign had an ideology called Official Nationality that was proclaimed officially in 1833 and it was a reactionary policy based on orthodoxy in religion, autocracy in government, and Russian nationalism. He was the brother of his predecessor, Alexander I. Nicholas inherited his brothers throne despite the failed Decembrist revolt against him and his aggressive foreign policy involved many expensive wars, having a disastrous effect on the empires finances. He was successful against Russias neighbouring southern rivals as he seized the last territories in the Caucasus held by Persia by successfully ending the Russo-Persian War and he ended the Russo-Turkish War successfully as well. Later on, however, he led Russia into the Crimean War with disastrous results, historians emphasize that his micromanagement of the armies hindered his generals, as did his misguided strategy. Fuller notes that historians have concluded that the reign of Nicholas I was a catastrophic failure in both domestic and foreign policy. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its zenith, spanning over 20 million square kilometers. Nicholas was born at Gatchina Palace in Gatchina to Grand Duke Paul, five months after his birth, his grandmother, Catherine the Great, died and his parents became emperor and empress of Russia. He was a brother of Emperor Alexander I of Russia, who succeeded to the throne in 1801. Riasanovsky says he was, the most handsome man in Europe, Nicholas was not brought up to become the Emperor of Russia, he had two elder brothers. However, as both of them failed to produce sons, Nicholas remained second in the line of succession, in 1825, when Alexander I died suddenly of typhus, Nicholas was caught between swearing allegiance to his second-eldest brother, Constantine Pavlovich, and accepting the throne for himself. The interregnum lasted until Constantine, who was in Warsaw at that time, additionally, on 25 December, Nicholas issued the manifesto proclaiming his accession to the throne. That manifesto retroactively named 1 December, the date of Alexander Is death, during this confusion, a plot was hatched by some members of the military to overthrow Nicholas and to seize power
22.
Christianization of Kievan Rus'
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The Christianization of Kievan Rus took place in several stages. In early 867, Patriarch Photius of Constantinople announced to other Orthodox patriarchs that the Rus, baptised by his bishop, the latter events are traditionally referred to as baptism of Rus in Russian and Ukrainian literature. According to the Church Tradition, Christianity was first brought to the territory of modern Belarus, Russia and Ukraine by Saint Andrew and he traveled over the Black Sea to the Greek colony of Chersonesus Taurica in Crimea, where he converted several thousand men to new faith. Allegedly Saint Andrew traveled also north along the Dnieper River, where Kiev would be founded around the 5th century, the legendary account of the Russian Primary Chronicle tells that Saint Andrew was amused by the Slavic customs of washing in hot steam bath, banya, on his way. Saints Cyril and Methodius were the missionaries of Christianity among the Slavic peoples of Bulgaria, through their work they influenced the cultural development of all Slavs, for which they received the title Apostles to the Slavs. After their deaths, their pupils continued their work among other Slavs. Both brothers are venerated in the Ukrainian Catholic and Byzantine Catholic Churches as well as the Orthodox Church as saints with the title of equal-to-apostles, the most authoritative source for the early Christianization of Rus is an encyclical letter of Patriarch Photius, datable to early 867. Referencing the Siege of Constantinople of 860, Photius informs the Oriental patriarchs and bishops that, after the Bulgarians turned to Christ in 863, as was the case with the Bulgarians, the Patriarch found it prudent to send to the barbarians a bishop from Constantinople. With some modifications, the story is repeated by Constantine VII in De Administrando Imperio, followed by generations of Byzantine historians. There is also an argumentum ex silentio, no Greek source recorded the baptism of the Rus in the 990s. Whatever the scope of Photiuss efforts to Christianize the Rus, their effect was not lasting, although they fail to mention the mission of Photius, the authors of the Primary Chronicle were aware that a sizable portion of the Kievan population was Christian by 944. The Kievan collegiate church of St. Elijah is mentioned in the text of the chronicle, either in 945 or 957, the ruling regent, Olga of Kiev, visited Constantinople with a certain priest, Gregory. Her reception at the court is described in De Ceremoniis. According to legends, Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII fell in love with Olga, however, when she was baptized, she said it was inappropriate for a godfather to marry his goddaughter. Although it is presumed that Olga was baptized in Constantinople rather than Kiev, there is no explicit mention of the sacrament. Olga is also known to have requested a bishop and priests from Rome and her son, Sviatoslav, continued to worship Perun and other gods of the Slavic pantheon. He remained a pagan all of his life, according to the Primary Chronicle, he believed that his warriors would lose respect for him. Sviatoslavs successor, Yaropolk I, seems to have had a more conciliatory attitude towards Christianity, late medieval sources even claim that Yaropolk exchanged ambassadors with the Pope
23.
Russian Empire
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The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until it was overthrown by the short-lived February Revolution in 1917. One of the largest empires in history, stretching over three continents, the Russian Empire was surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires. The rise of the Russian Empire happened in association with the decline of neighboring powers, the Swedish Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Persia. It played a role in 1812–14 in defeating Napoleons ambitions to control Europe. The House of Romanov ruled the Russian Empire from 1721 until 1762, and its German-descended cadet branch, with 125.6 million subjects registered by the 1897 census, it had the third-largest population in the world at the time, after Qing China and India. Like all empires, it included a large disparity in terms of economics, ethnicity, there were numerous dissident elements, who launched numerous rebellions and assassination attempts, they were closely watched by the secret police, with thousands exiled to Siberia. Economically, the empire had an agricultural base, with low productivity on large estates worked by serfs. The economy slowly industrialized with the help of foreign investments in railways, the land was ruled by a nobility from the 10th through the 17th centuries, and subsequently by an emperor. Tsar Ivan III laid the groundwork for the empire that later emerged and he tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Golden Horde, renovated the Moscow Kremlin, and laid the foundations of the Russian state. Tsar Peter the Great fought numerous wars and expanded an already huge empire into a major European power, Catherine the Great presided over a golden age. She expanded the state by conquest, colonization and diplomacy, continuing Peter the Greats policy of modernisation along West European lines, Tsar Alexander II promoted numerous reforms, most dramatically the emancipation of all 23 million serfs in 1861. His policy in Eastern Europe involved protecting the Orthodox Christians under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and that connection by 1914 led to Russias entry into the First World War on the side of France, Britain, and Serbia, against the German, Austrian and Ottoman empires. The Russian Empire functioned as a monarchy until the Revolution of 1905. The empire collapsed during the February Revolution of 1917, largely as a result of failures in its participation in the First World War. Perhaps the latter was done to make Europe recognize Russia as more of a European country, Poland was divided in the 1790-1815 era, with much of the land and population going to Russia. Most of the 19th century growth came from adding territory in Asia, Peter I the Great introduced autocracy in Russia and played a major role in introducing his country to the European state system. However, this vast land had a population of 14 million, grain yields trailed behind those of agriculture in the West, compelling nearly the entire population to farm. Only a small percentage lived in towns, the class of kholops, close to the one of slavery, remained a major institution in Russia until 1723, when Peter I converted household kholops into house serfs, thus including them in poll taxation
24.
Eastern Orthodox Church
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The Eastern Orthodox Church teaches that it is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church established by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission to the apostles. It practices what it understands to be the original Christian faith, the Eastern Orthodox Church is a communion of autocephalous churches, each typically governed by a Holy Synod. It teaches that all bishops are equal by virtue of their ordination, prior to the Council of Chalcedon in AD451, the Eastern Orthodox had also shared communion with the Oriental Orthodox churches, separating primarily over differences in Christology. Eastern Orthodoxy spread throughout the Roman and later Eastern Roman Empires and beyond, playing a prominent role in European, Near Eastern, Slavic, and some African cultures. As a result, the term Greek Orthodox has sometimes used to describe all of Eastern Orthodoxy in general. However, the appellation Greek was never in use and was gradually abandoned by the non-Greek-speaking Eastern Orthodox churches. Its most prominent episcopal see is Constantinople, there are also many in other parts of the world, formed through immigration, conversion and missionary activity. The official name of the Eastern Orthodox Church is the Orthodox Catholic Church and it is the name by which the church refers to itself in its liturgical or canonical texts, in official publications, and in official contexts or administrative documents. Orthodox teachers refer to the Church as Catholic and this name and longer variants containing Catholic are also recognized and referenced in other books and publications by secular or non-Orthodox writers. The common name of the Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, is a shortened practicality that helps to avoid confusions in casual use, for this reason, the eastern churches were sometimes identified as Greek, even before the great schism. After 1054, Greek Orthodox or Greek Catholic marked a church as being in communion with Constantinople and this identification with Greek, however, became increasingly confusing with time. Missionaries brought Orthodoxy to many regions without ethnic Greeks, where the Greek language was not spoken. Today, many of those same Roman churches remain, while a large number of Orthodox are not of Greek national origin. Eastern, then, indicates the element in the Churchs origin and development, while Orthodox indicates the faith. While the Church continues officially to call itself Catholic, for reasons of universality, the first known use of the phrase the catholic church occurred in a letter written about 110 AD from one Greek church to another. Quote of St Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans, Wheresoever the bishop shall appear, there let the people be, even as where Jesus may be, thus, almost from the very beginning, Christians referred to the Church as the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The Orthodox Church claims that it is today the continuation and preservation of that same Church, a number of other Christian churches also make a similar claim, the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Assyrian Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches. The Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic Church, not directly from the Orthodox Church, the depth of this meaning in the Orthodox Church is registered first in its use of the word Orthodox itself, a union of Greek orthos and doxa
25.
Vilnius University
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Vilnius University is the oldest university in the Baltic states and one of the oldest in Northern Europe. It is the largest university in Lithuania, the university was founded in 1579 as the Jesuit Academy of Vilnius by Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland, Stephen Báthory. It was the third oldest university in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, in the aftermath of the Third Partition of Poland and the November Uprising, the university was closed down and suspended its operation until 1919. In the aftermath of World War I the university saw failed attempts to restart it by Lithuania, in 1945 the Polish community of students and scholars of Stefan Batory University was transferred to Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. After Lithuania regained its independence in 1990, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the wide-ranging Vilnius University ensemble represents all major architectural styles that predominated in Lithuania, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Classicism. The university has been known by many names during its history, due to its long history of Jewish, Polish and Russian influence or rule, the city portion of its name is rendered as Vilna, Wilna or Wilno, in addition to the modern Lithuanian Vilnius. 1579–1782, Alma Academia et Universitas Vilnensis Societatis Iesu, the Latin name is rendered into English as Jesuit Academy, Jesuit College, or Academy of Vilnius. 1782–1803, Schola Princeps Magni Ducatus Lithuaniae, Principal School of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania 1803–1832, the following year Walerian Protasewicz, the bishop of Vilnius, purchased several buildings in the city center and established the Vilnian Academy. Initially, the academy had three divisions, humanities, philosophy, and theology, the curriculum at the college and later at the academy was taught in Latin. At the beginning of the 17th century there are records about special groups that taught Lithuanian-speaking students Latin, the first students were enrolled into the Academy in 1570. A library at the college was established in the same year, in its first year of existence the college enrolled 160 students. His edict was approved by Pope Gregory XIIIs bull of October 30,1579, the first rector of the Academy was Piotr Skarga. Lithuanians at the time comprised about one third of the students, others were Germans, Poles, Swedes, in 1575, Duke Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł and Elżbieta Ogińska sponsored a printing house for the academy, one of the first in the region. The printing house issued books in Latin and Polish and the first surviving book in Lithuanian printed in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was in 1595 and it was Kathechismas, arba Mokslas kiekvienam krikščioniui privalus authored by Mikalojus Daukša. The academys growth continued until the 17th century, the following era, known as The Deluge, led to a dramatic drop in the number of students who matriculated and in the quality of its programs. In the middle of the 18th century, education authorities tried to restore the academy and this led to the foundation of the first observatory in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, in 1753, by Tomasz Żebrowski. The Commission of National Education, the worlds first ministry of education, took control of the academy in 1773, the language of instruction changed from Latin to Polish. Thanks to the rector of the academy, Marcin Poczobutt-Odlanicki, the academy was granted the status of Principal School in 1783, the commission, the secular authority governing the academy after the dissolution of the Jesuit order, drew up a new statute
26.
November Uprising
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The November Uprising, Polish–Russian War 1830–31, also known as the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in Warsaw when the young Polish officers from the local Army of the Congress Polands military academy revolted, led by lieutenant Piotr Wysocki and they were soon joined by large segments of societies of Lithuania, Belarus, and the Right-bank Ukraine. Despite local successes, the uprising was crushed by a numerically superior Imperial Russian Army under Ivan Paskevich. Tsar Nicholas I decreed that henceforth Poland was a part of Russia, with Warsaw little more than a military garrison. After the Partitions of Poland, Poland ceased to exist as an independent political entity at the end of 1795, however, the Napoleonic Wars and Polish participation in the wars against Russia and Austria resulted in the creation the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807. The Congress of Vienna brought that states existence to an end in 1815, and essentially solidified the long-term division of Poland among Russia, Prussia, United with Russia through a personal union with the Tsar as King of Poland, the province could elect its own parliament and government. The kingdom had its own courts, army and treasury, over time, however, the freedoms granted to the Kingdom were gradually taken back and the constitution was progressively ignored by the Russian authorities. Alexander I of Russia never formally crowned himself as King of Poland, instead, in 1815, he appointed Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich as de facto viceroy, disregarding the constitution. Soon after the Congress of Vienna resolutions were signed, Russia ceased to respect them, in 1819 Alexander I abandoned liberty of the press in Congress Kingdom and introduced censorship. As a result, after 1825 sessions of Polish Sejm were conducted in secret, Nicholas I of Russia formally crowned himself as King of Poland on 24 May 1829 in Warsaw. He abolished Polish social and patriotic organizations, the opposition of the Kaliszanie faction. Although married to a Pole, he was considered as an enemy of the Polish nation. Also, his command over the Polish Army led to conflicts within the officer corps. These frictions led to various conspiracies throughout the country, most notably within the army, the final spark that ignited Warsaw was a Russian plan to use the Polish Army to suppress Frances July Revolution and the Belgian Revolution, in clear violation of the Polish constitution. The rebels managed to enter the Belweder, but Grand Duke Constantine had escaped in womens clothing, the rebels then turned to the main city arsenal, capturing it after a brief struggle. The following day, armed Polish civilians forced the Russian troops to north of Warsaw. This incident is called the Warsaw Uprising or the November Night. Taken by surprise by the unfolding of events during the night of 29 November
27.
Mykola Leontovych
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Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych was a Ukrainian composer, choral conductor, and teacher of international renown. His music was inspired by Mykola Lysenko and the Ukrainian national music school, Leontovych specialized in a cappella choral music, ranging from original compositions, to church music, to elaborate arrangements of folk music. Leontovych was born and raised in the Podolia Governorate of the Russian Empire and he was educated as a priest in the Kamianets-Podilskyi Theological Seminary and later furthered his musical education at the Saint Petersburg Court Capella and private lessons with Boleslav Yavorsky. With the independence of the Ukrainian state in the 1917 revolution, Leontovych moved to Kiev where he worked at the Kiev Conservatory and he is recognized for composing Shchedryk in 1904, known to the English-speaking world as Carol of the Bells or Ring, Christmas Bells. He was assassinated by a Soviet agent in 1921, during his lifetime Leontovychs compositions and arrangements became popular with professional and amateur groups alike across Ukraine. Performances of his works in western Europe and North America earned him the nickname the Ukrainian Bach in France, apart from his very popular Shchedryk, Leontovychs music is performed primarily in Ukraine and the Ukrainian diaspora. Mykola Leontovych was born on Dec 131877 in the Monastyrok community, near the village of Selevyntsi and his father, grandfather, and great grandfather were village priests. His father, Dmytro Feofanovych Leontovych, was skilled at singing and playing cello, double bass, harmonium, violin, Leontovych received his first musical lessons from him. His mother, Mariya Yosypivna Leontovych, was also a singer, other members of Leontovychs family also grew up to have careers in music. In the summer of 1879 Dmytro Leontovych was moved to a new parish located in the village Shershni where he would spend his childhood, then in 1887 Leontovych was admitted to Nemyriv gymnasium. Due to financial problems a year later, however, his father transferred him to the Sharhorod Spiritual Beginners School, at the school Leontovych mastered singing, and was able to freely read difficult passages from religious choral texts. In 1892, Leontovych began his studies at the seminary in Kamianets-Podilskyi. His younger brother Oleksandr was enrolled as well, graduating two years after Mykola, during his studies there, Leontovych continued to advance his skills on the violin and learned to play a variety of other instruments. He also participated in the choir, and when an orchestra was formed during his third year of study, Leontovych joined. Leontovych studied music theory and started writing choral arrangements as a student at the seminary, when the seminary’s choir director died, the school administration requested that Leontovych take over this position. As the conductor of the choir, Leontovych added secular music to the repertoire of church music. This included Ukrainian folk songs arranged by Mykola Lysenko, Profyriy Demutskiy, Leontovych graduated from the Kamianets-Podilskiy Theological Seminary in 1899 and broke the family tradition by becoming a music teacher instead of a priest. At the time, a career in music in Ukraine meant having an unstable income, Leontovych worked in Kiev, Yekaterinoslav, and Podolia guberniyas over the next few years in order to remain gainfully employed
28.
Shchedryk (song)
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Shchedryk is a Ukrainian shchedrivka, or New Years carol, known in English as The Little Swallow. It was arranged by composer and teacher Mykola Leontovych in 1916, Shchedryk was originally sung on the night of January 13, New Years Eve in the Julian Calendar, which is Shchedry Vechir. Early performances of the piece were made by students at Kyiv University, Wilhousky copyrighted and published his new lyrics in 1936, and the song became popular in the United States, where it became strongly associated with Christmas. The song is based on a traditional folk chant whose language was thought to have magical properties, the original traditional Ukrainian text used a device known as hemiola in the rhythm. The songs sung for this celebration are known as Schedrivky, the original Ukrainian text tells the tale of a swallow flying into a household to proclaim the plentiful and bountiful year that the family will have. The title is derived from the Ukrainian word for bountiful, in Ukraine, the carol is currently sung on the eve of the Julian New Year. The four-note melody over a third of the chant was used by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych as an ostinato theme in a number of arrangements he made. The arrangement for mixed choir a cappella was popularized by the Ukrainian Republic Capella directed by Oleksander Koshetz when it toured the West after 1920. The first of the English language lyrics to Carol of the Bells were written in 1936 by Peter Wilhousky of NBC Radio, the song reminded Wilhousky of beautiful ringing bells and he captured that imagery in his lyrics. Although Carol of the Bells and Shchedryk share the same melody, the lyrics of these two songs have nothing in common
29.
Alexander Koshetz
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Alexander Koshetz was a Ukrainian choral conductor, arranger, composer, ethnographer, writer, musicologist, and lecturer. He helped popularize Ukrainian music around the world and his name is sometimes transliterated as Oleksandr Koshyts. At one time, a performance of Koshetzs Ukrainian National Chorus held the record for audience attendance. His performance also popularized Mykola Leontovychs Shchedryk in his concert, which Peter Wilhousky later translated into the popular Carol of the Bells, Koshetz was born in the village of Romashky in Kiev Guberniya. He graduated from the Kiev Theological Academy in 1901, then studied in the Lysenko School of Music and Drama and he taught choral music at Kievs Imperial Conservatory of Music, conducted the Sadovsky Theatre Orchestra, served as conductor and choirmaster of the Kiev Opera. In the latter case he too managed to collect a number of songs, after World War I, Koshetz was the co-founder and conductor of the Ukrainian Republic Capella. The choir toured Europe and the Americas in 1919–1924 and 1926–27 and it was Koshetz who introduced the song Shchedryk by Mykola Leontovych, at a concert in Kiev in 1919. Eventually the song became a Christmas classic under the name Carol of the Bells and he moved to New York City in 1922 where he collected liturgical music, arranged and popularized Ukrainian folk music. Koshetz also documented the choirs travels in the memoir With Song, from 1941 Koshetz spent the summer months teaching in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, where he died in 1944 at age 69. The O. Koshetz Choir in Winnipeg is named in his memory, a unique concert titled the Unknown Koshetz was produced at the University of Manitoba on 26 March 2006. The personal archives of Alexander and Tetyana Koshetz remain at the Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, although Koshetz was mostly known as a conductor, he also did his share of composing and arranging music. In the 1920s, after the creation of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, Koshetz composed his liturgy, later in emigration, he composed much more religious music. Koshetz, Oleksander З піснею через світ, подорож української республиканської капелі,3 volumes, O. Koshetz Choir O. Koshetz – information and his works performed by the best Ukrainian choirs
30.
Imperial Academy of Arts
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The Russian Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was founded in 1757 by Ivan Shuvalov under the name Academy of the Three Noblest Arts. Catherine the Great renamed it the Imperial Academy of Arts and commissioned a new building, the academy promoted the neoclassical style and technique, and sent its promising students to European capitals for further study. Training at the academy was virtually required for artists to make successful careers, formally abolished in 1918 after the Russian Revolution, the academy was renamed several times. It established free tuition, students from across the country competed fiercely for its few places annually, in 1947 the national institution was moved to Moscow, and much of its art collection was moved to the Hermitage. The building in Leningrad was devoted to the Ilya Repin Leningrad Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, since 1991 it has been called the St. Petersburg Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. The academy was located in the Shuvalov Palace on Sadovaya Street, in 1764, Catherine the Great renamed it the Imperial Academy of Arts and commissioned its first rector, Alexander Kokorinov, to design a new building. It took 25 years to complete the Neoclassical edifice, which opened in 1789, konstantin Thon was responsible for the sumptuous decoration of the interiors. He also designed a quayside in front of the building, with stairs down to the Neva River, Ivan Betskoy reorganized the academy into a de facto government department, it supervised matters concerning art throughout the country, distributing orders and awarding ranks to artists. The academy vigorously promoted the principles of Neoclassicism by sending the most notable Russian painters abroad, in order to learn the ancient and Renaissance styles of Italy and it also had its own sizable collection of choice artworks intended for study and copying. The adherents of this movement became known as peredvizhniki, led by Ivan Kramskoi, they publicly broke with the Academy and organized their own exhibitions, which traveled from town to town across Russia. Ilya Repin, Mikhail Vrubel and some other painters still regarded the academys training as indispensable for the development of professional and technical skills. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Imperial Academy passed through a series of transformations, after the Academys move to Moscow that year, the building in what was then called Leningrad was renamed Ilya Repin Leningrad Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. The national academy has stayed in Moscow, in 1991 it was renamed the Russian Academy of Arts. The old academys art collection, which included works by Poussin, David. During the Soviet era, academies were free of tuition fees as they were financed by the government, many would-be students would apply to the Academy for as many as six or seven years in a row without success. With just twenty places available and thousands of applicants, the competition was brutal, well-known graduates of Ilya Repin Leningrad Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1930–1950s include, The Russian Academy of Arts has been headquartered in Moscow since 1947. Its current president is Zurab Tsereteli and its vice-president is Tair Salakhov and it is also called the St. Petersburg State Academic Institute of Fine Arts, Sculpture and Architecture. - Saint Petersburg, NP-Print Edition,2007, the Leningrad School Russian Academy of Arts The St. Petersburg State Academic Institute of Fine Arts Sergei V. Ivanov
31.
Saint Petersburg
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Saint Petersburg is Russias second-largest city after Moscow, with five million inhabitants in 2012, and an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea. It is politically incorporated as a federal subject, situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, it was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 271703. In 1914, the name was changed from Saint Petersburg to Petrograd, in 1924 to Leningrad, between 1713 and 1728 and 1732–1918, Saint Petersburg was the capital of imperial Russia. In 1918, the government bodies moved to Moscow. Saint Petersburg is one of the cities of Russia, as well as its cultural capital. The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Saint Petersburg is home to The Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world. A large number of consulates, international corporations, banks. Swedish colonists built Nyenskans, a fortress, at the mouth of the Neva River in 1611, in a then called Ingermanland. A small town called Nyen grew up around it, Peter the Great was interested in seafaring and maritime affairs, and he intended to have Russia gain a seaport in order to be able to trade with other maritime nations. He needed a better seaport than Arkhangelsk, which was on the White Sea to the north, on May 1703121703, during the Great Northern War, Peter the Great captured Nyenskans, and soon replaced the fortress. On May 271703, closer to the estuary 5 km inland from the gulf), on Zayachy Island, he laid down the Peter and Paul Fortress, which became the first brick and stone building of the new city. The city was built by conscripted peasants from all over Russia, tens of thousands of serfs died building the city. Later, the city became the centre of the Saint Petersburg Governorate, Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712,9 years before the Treaty of Nystad of 1721 ended the war, he referred to Saint Petersburg as the capital as early as 1704. During its first few years, the city developed around Trinity Square on the bank of the Neva, near the Peter. However, Saint Petersburg soon started to be built out according to a plan, by 1716 the Swiss Italian Domenico Trezzini had elaborated a project whereby the city centre would be located on Vasilyevsky Island and shaped by a rectangular grid of canals. The project was not completed, but is evident in the layout of the streets, in 1716, Peter the Great appointed French Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond as the chief architect of Saint Petersburg. In 1724 the Academy of Sciences, University and Academic Gymnasium were established in Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great, in 1725, Peter died at the age of fifty-two. His endeavours to modernize Russia had met opposition from the Russian nobility—resulting in several attempts on his life
32.
Order of Lenin
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The Order of Lenin, named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union. Those who were awarded the titles Hero of the Soviet Union and it was also bestowed on cities, companies, factories, regions, military units and ships. Corporate entities, various institutions and military units who received the said Order applied the full name of the order into their official titles. The order was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6,1930, the first design of the Order of Lenin was sculpted by Pyotr Tayozhny and Ivan Shadr based on sketches by Ivan Dubasov. It was made by Goznak of silver with some lightly gold-plated features and it was a round badge with a central disc featuring Vladimir Lenins profile surrounded by smokestacks, a tractor and a building, possibly a power plant. A thin red-enamelled border and a circle of wheat panicles surrounded the disc, at the top was a gold-plated hammer and sickle emblem, and at the bottom were the Russian initials for USSR in red enamel. Only about 800 of this design were minted, the second design was awarded from 1934 until 1936. This was a gold badge, featuring an silver plated disc bearing Lenins portrait. The disc is surrounded by two golden panicles of wheat, and a red flag with LENIN in Cyrillic script, a red star is placed on the left and the hammer and sickle emblem at the bottom, both in red enamel. The third design was awarded from 1936 till 1943, design was same as previous, but central disc was gray enamelled and Lenins portrait was separate piece made of platinum fixed by rivets. The fourth design was awarded from 1943 till 1991, design was same as previous, but was worn as a medal suspended from a ribbon. The badge was worn by screwback on the left chest without ribbon. Later it was worn as a suspended from a red ribbon with pairs of yellow stripes at the edges. The ribbon bar is of the same design, the portrait of Lenin was originally a riveted silver piece. For a time it was incorporated into a gold badge. The first Order of Lenin was awarded to the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda on 23 May 1930, also among the first ten recipients were five industrial companies, three pilots, and the Secretary to the Central Executive Committee Avel Enukidze. The first person to be awarded a second Order of Lenin was the pilot Valery Chkalov in 1936, another pilot, Vladimir Kokkinaki, became the first to receive a third Order in 1939. The first five recipients, a German and four Americans, received the award for helping in the reconstruction of Soviet industry
33.
Order of the October Revolution
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The Order of the October Revolution was instituted on October 31,1967, in time for the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. It was conferred upon individuals or groups for services furthering communism or the state, or in enhancing the defenses of the Soviet Union, military and it is second highest Soviet order, after the Order of Lenin. Above it was a red flag bearing the words October Revolution in Russian, a Hammer and Sickle emblem was placed at the bottom. The badge was worn on the left chest with a red ribbon bearing five blue stripes at the centre, the Russian cruiser Aurora was itself awarded with the Order of the October Revolution, the only ship ever to have received the award. Military units and institutions receiving the award applied the name to their title upon its reception. Order of the October Revolution at the Directory of the orders, medals, Order of the October Revolution Reference Page
34.
College and university rankings
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College and university rankings are rankings of institutions in higher education ordered by various combinations of various factors. Rankings have most often conducted by magazines, newspapers, websites, governments. In addition to ranking entire institutions, organizations perform rankings of specific programs, departments, various rankings mostly evaluating on institutional output by research. Some rankings evaluate institutions within a country, while others assess institutions worldwide. The subject has produced much debate about rankings usefulness and accuracy, the expanding diversity in rating methodologies and accompanying criticisms of each indicate the lack of consensus in the field. The variety of academic rankings provide an overview and insightful overlook of different academic institutions on composite capabilities in academia. For rankings of United States universities in particular, see Rankings of universities in the United States, several organizations produce worldwide university rankings, including the following. The ranking is funded by the Chinese government and its purpose was to measure the gap between Chinese and world class universities. In the 2015 Academic Ranking of World Universities there are no Chinese universities in the first 100 of 500 places, ARWU rankings have been cited by The Economist magazine. It has been lauded for being consistent and transparent based on an article, the education ministers of France, Norway and Denmark traveled to China to discuss and find ways to improve their rankings. ARWU does not rely on surveys and school submissions, among other criteria, ARWU includes the number of articles published by Nature or Science and the number of Nobel Prize winners and Fields Medalists. Harvard has topped the ranking for years, one of the primary criticisms of ARWUs methodology is that it is biased towards the natural sciences and English language science journals over other subjects. This Saudi Arabia-based consulting organization has published rankings of world universities since 2012. This university ranking is owned by the French consulting company and rating agency SMBG and it ranks masters and MBA in its 9 geographical regions. G-factor ranks university and college web presence by counting the number of only from other university websites. G-factor is an indicator of the popularity or importance of each universitys website from the perspectives of other institutions. The annual U. S. News Best Global Universities rankings were produced to provide insight into how universities compare globally. The Best Global Universities rankings also provide insight into how U. S. universities – which U. S. News has been ranking separately for more than 30 years – stand globally
35.
Times Higher Education World University Rankings
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Times Higher Education World University Rankings is an annual publication of university rankings by Times Higher Education magazine. The publisher had collaborated with Quacquarelli Symonds to publish the joint THE–QS World University Rankings from 2004 to 2009 before it turned to Thomson Reuters for a new ranking system. It is considered as one of the most widely observed university measures together with Academic Ranking of World Universities and it is praised for having a new improved methodology but undermining non-English-instructing institutions and being commercialized are the major criticisms. Times Higher Education chose to partner with educational and careers advice company QS to supply the data, the publication developed a new rankings methodology in consultation with its readers, its editorial board and Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters will collect and analyse the data used to produce the rankings on behalf of Times Higher Education, the first ranking was published in September 2010. In fact, the surveys of reputation, which made up 40 percent of scores, and its clear that our research measures favored the sciences over the humanities. He went on to describe previous attempts at peer review as embarrassing in The Australian, The sample was too small. THE published its first rankings using its new methodology on 16 September 2010, the Globe and Mail in 2010 described the Times Higher Education World University Rankings to be arguably the most influential. The inaugural 2010-2011 methodology contained 13 separate indicators grouped under five categories, Teaching, research, citations, international mix, the number of indicators is up from the Times-QS rankings published between 2004 and 2009, which used six indicators. A draft of the methodology was released on 3 June 2010. The names of the categories and the weighting of each was modified in the final methodology, the overall ranking score was calculated by making Z-scores all datasets to standardize different data types on a common scale to better make comparisons among data. The reputational component of the came from an Academic Reputation Survey conducted by Thomson Reuters in spring 2010. The survey gathered 13,388 responses among scholars statistically representative of global higher educations geographical, the magazines category for industry income – innovation came from a sole indicator, institutions research income from industry scaled against the number of academic staff. The magazine stated that it used this data as proxy for high-quality knowledge transfer, the Times stated that articles published in 2009–2010 have not yet completely accumulated in the database. The magazine announced on 5 September 2011 that its 2011–2012 World University Rankings would be published on 6 October 2011, at the same time, the magazine revealed changes to the ranking formula that will be introduced with the new rankings. The methodology will continue to use 13 indicators across five categories and will keep its fundamental foundations. Teaching and research will each remain 30 percent of the overall score, however, a new international outlook – staff, students and research will be introduced and will make up 7.5 percent of the final score. One 2011–2012 indicator, the public research income, will be dropped
36.
U.S. News & World Report
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U. S. News & World Report is an American media company that publishes news, opinion, consumer advice, rankings, and analysis. Founded as a magazine in 1933, U. S. News transitioned to primarily web-based publishing in 2010. The rankings are popular in North America but have drawn criticism from colleges, administrations, and students for their dubious, disparate. The ranking system by U. S. News is usually contrasted with the Washington Monthly, United States News was founded in 1933 by David Lawrence, who also started World Report in 1946. The two magazines covered national and international news separately, but Lawrence merged them into U. S. News & World Report in 1948 and subsequently sold the magazine to his employees. Historically, the magazine tended to be more conservative than its two primary competitors, Time and Newsweek, and focused more on economic, health. It also eschewed sports, entertainment, and celebrity news, important milestones in the early history of the magazine include the introduction of the Washington Whispers column in 1934 and the News You Can Use column in 1952. In 1958, the magazines circulation passed one million and reached two million by 1973. Since 1983, it has become known primarily for its influential ranking and annual reports of colleges and graduate schools, spanning across most fields and its print edition was consistently included in national bestseller lists, augmented by online subscriptions. Additional rankings published by U. S. News & World Report include hospitals, in October 1984, publisher and real estate developer Mortimer B. Zuckerman purchased U. S. News & World Report. Zuckerman is also the owner of the New York Daily News, in 1993, U. S. News & World Report entered the digital world by providing content to CompuServe and in 1995, the website usnews. com was launched. In 2001, the won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence Online. In 2007, U. S. News & World Report published its first list of the nations best high schools and its ranking methodology includes state test scores and the success of poor and minority students on these exams, and schools performance in Advanced Placement exams. Starting in June 2008, the magazine reduced its frequency in three steps. It switched in June 2008 from weekly to biweekly, in November 2008 it decreased to monthly. In November 2010, it was reported that U. S, moving forward, the publication expressed its plans to focus mainly on research and the provision of relevant information to students pursuing higher education. Its rankings and university guide books are available in print at the majority of bookstores and magazine vendors in the United States, selling millions of copies on an annual basis. In June 2008, citing the overall magazine circulation and advertising, U. S. News & World Report announced that it would become a biweekly publication
37.
Scopus
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Scopus is a bibliographic database containing abstracts and citations for academic journal articles. It covers nearly 22,000 titles from over 5,000 publishers, of which 20,000 are peer-reviewed journals in the scientific, technical, medical and it is owned by Elsevier and is available online by subscription. Searches in Scopus also incorporate searches of patent databases, the board consists of scientists and subject librarians. Evaluating ease of use and coverage of Scopus and the Web of Science, the ability to search both forward and backward from a particular citation would be very helpful to the researcher. However, Scopus and WOS complement each other as neither resource is all inclusive and it has alerting features that allows registered users to track changes to a profile and a facility to calculate authors h-index. Scopus IDs for individual authors can be integrated with the nonproprietary digital identifier ORCID, source Normalized Impact per Paper Web of Science Official website
38.
Eastern Europe
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Eastern Europe, also known as East Europe, is the eastern part of the European continent. There is no consensus on the area it covers, partly because the term has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, cultural. There are almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region, a related United Nations paper adds that every assessment of spatial identities is essentially a social and cultural construct. One definition describes Eastern Europe as an entity, the region lying in Europe with main characteristics consisting in Byzantine, Orthodox. Another definition was created during the Cold War and used more or less synonymously with the term Eastern Bloc, a similar definition names the formerly communist European states outside the Soviet Union as Eastern Europe. Historians and social scientists generally view such definitions as outdated or relegating, several definitions of Eastern Europe exist today, but they often lack precision or are extremely general. These definitions vary both across cultures and among experts, even scientists, recently becoming more and more imprecise. The Ural Mountains, Ural River, and the Caucasus Mountains are the land border of the eastern edge of Europe. Eurovoc, a multilingual thesaurus maintained by the Publications Office of the European Union, provides entries for 23 EU languages, of these, those in italics are classified as Eastern Europe in this source. Other official web-pages of the European Union classify some of the countries as strictly Central European. The East–West Schism is the break of communion and theology between what are now the Eastern and Western churches which began in the 11th century and lasts until this very day and it divided Christianity in Europe, and consequently the world, into Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity. Since the Great Schism of 1054, Europe has been divided between Roman Catholic and Protestant churches in the West, and the Eastern Orthodox Christian churches in the east, due to this religious cleavage, Eastern Orthodox countries are often associated with Eastern Europe. A cleavage of this sort is, however, often problematic, for example, Greece is overwhelmingly Orthodox, the fall of the Iron Curtain brought the end of the East–West division in Europe, but this geopolitical concept is sometimes still used for quick reference by the media. The Baltic states have seats in the Nordic Council as observer states and they also are members of the Nordic-Baltic Eight whereas Eastern European countries formed their own alliance called the Visegrád Group. Estonia Latvia Lithuania The Caucasus nations may be included in the definitions of Eastern Europe, the extent of their geographic or political affiliation with Europe varies by country and source. All three states are members of the European Unions Eastern Partnership program and the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly, on 12 January 2002, the European Parliament noted that Armenia and Georgia may enter the EU in the future. Georgia — in modern geography, Georgia has been classified as part of Eastern Europe. Under the European Union’s geographic criteria, Georgia is viewed as part of Eastern Europe and is the only Caucasus country to be actively seeking EU membership and it is a member of Council of Europe and Eurocontrol
39.
Ukraine
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Ukraine is currently in territorial dispute with Russia over the Crimean Peninsula which Russia annexed in 2014 but which Ukraine and most of the international community recognise as Ukrainian. Including Crimea, Ukraine has an area of 603,628 km2, making it the largest country entirely within Europe and it has a population of about 42.5 million, making it the 32nd most populous country in the world. The territory of modern Ukraine has been inhabited since 32,000 BC, during the Middle Ages, the area was a key centre of East Slavic culture, with the powerful state of Kievan Rus forming the basis of Ukrainian identity. Following its fragmentation in the 13th century, the territory was contested, ruled and divided by a variety of powers, including Lithuania, Poland, the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. A Cossack republic emerged and prospered during the 17th and 18th centuries, two brief periods of independence occurred during the 20th century, once near the end of World War I and another during World War II. Before its independence, Ukraine was typically referred to in English as The Ukraine, following independence, Ukraine declared itself a neutral state. Nonetheless it formed a limited partnership with the Russian Federation and other CIS countries. In the 2000s, the government began leaning towards NATO, and it was later agreed that the question of joining NATO should be answered by a national referendum at some point in the future. Former President Viktor Yanukovych considered the current level of co-operation between Ukraine and NATO sufficient, and was against Ukraine joining NATO and these events formed the background for the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014, and the War in Donbass in April 2014. On 1 January 2016, Ukraine applied the economic part of the Deep, Ukraine has long been a global breadbasket because of its extensive, fertile farmlands and is one of the worlds largest grain exporters. The diversified economy of Ukraine includes a heavy industry sector, particularly in aerospace. Ukraine is a republic under a semi-presidential system with separate powers, legislative, executive. Its capital and largest city is Kiev, taking into account reserves and paramilitary personnel, Ukraine maintains the second-largest military in Europe after that of Russia. Ukrainian is the language and its alphabet is Cyrillic. The dominant religion in the country is Eastern Orthodoxy, which has strongly influenced Ukrainian architecture, literature, there are different hypotheses as to the etymology of the name Ukraine. According to the older and most widespread hypothesis, it means borderland, while more recently some studies claim a different meaning, homeland or region. The Ukraine now implies disregard for the sovereignty, according to U. S. ambassador William Taylor. Neanderthal settlement in Ukraine is seen in the Molodova archaeological sites include a mammoth bone dwelling
40.
Azerbaijan
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Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a country in the South Caucasus region, situated at the crossroads of Southwest Asia and Southeastern Europe. It is bound by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west and Iran to the south. The exclave of Nakhchivan is bound by Armenia to the north and east, Iran to the south and west, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic proclaimed its independence in 1918 and became the first democratic state in the Muslim orient world. The country was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1920 as the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, the modern Republic of Azerbaijan proclaimed its independence on 30 August 1991, prior to the official dissolution of the USSR in December 1991. In September 1991, the Armenian majority of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region seceded to form the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, the region and seven adjacent districts outside it became de facto independent with the end of the Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1994. These regions are recognized as part of Azerbaijan pending a solution to the status of the Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan is a unitary semi-presidential republic, the country is a member state of the Council of Europe, the OSCE and the NATO Partnership for Peace program. It is one of six independent Turkic states, a member of the Turkic Council. Azerbaijan has diplomatic relations with 158 countries and holds membership in 38 international organizations and it is one of the founding members of GUAM, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Its term of office began on 19 June 2006, Azerbaijan is also a member state of the Non-Aligned Movement, holds observer status in World Trade Organization and is a correspondent at the International Telecommunication Union. The Constitution of Azerbaijan does not declare an official religion and all political forces in the country are secularist. However, the majority of the population are of a Shiite Muslim background, Azerbaijan has a high level of human development which ranks on par with most Eastern European countries. It has a rate of economic development and literacy, as well as a low rate of unemployment. According to the Davos World Economic Forum, Azerbaijans economy has scored 37th place within 138 countries in 2016, Global Competitiveness Index 2015 indicates that Azerbaijan scores highest in its region. ASAN services, established with Presidential Decree, are known for eliminating bribery. ASAN Service has been awarded with United Nations Public Service Award 2015, the ruling party, the New Azerbaijan Party, has been accused of authoritarianism and human rights abuses. The original etymology of name is thought to have its roots in the once-dominant Zoroastrianism. In the Avesta, Frawardin Yasht, there is a mention of âterepâtahe ashaonô fravashîm ýazamaide, the name Atropates itself is the Greek transliteration of an Old Iranian, probably Median, compounded name with the meaning Protected by the Fire or The Land of the Fire
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