1.
Russian language
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Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi
2.
Romanization of Russian
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Romanization of the Russian alphabet is the process of transliterating the Russian language from the Cyrillic script into the Latin alphabet. Scientific transliteration, also known as the International Scholarly System, is a system that has used in linguistics since the 19th century. It is based on the Czech alphabet and formed the basis of the GOST, OST8483 was the first Soviet standard on romanization of Russian, introduced in 16 October 1935. This standard is an equivalent of GOST 16876-71 and was adopted as a standard of the COMECON. GOST7. 79-2000 System of Standards on Information, Librarianship and it is the official standard of both Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Machine readable passports is an adoption of an ICAO stadards for travel documents and it was used in Russian passports for a short period during 2010–2013. The standard was substituted in 2013 by GOST R ISO/IEC 7501-1-2013, which does not contain romanization, ISO/R9, established in 1954 and updated in 1968, was the adoption of the scientific transliteration by the International Organization for Standardization. It covers Russian and seven other Slavic languages, ISO9,1995 is the current transliteration standard from ISO. It is based on its predecessor ISO/R9,1968, which it deprecates, for Russian, the UNGEGN, a Working Group of the United Nations, in 1987 recommended a romanization system for geographical names, which was based on the 1983 version of GOST 16876-71. It may be found in some international cartographic products, American Library Association and Library of Congress romanization tables for Slavic alphabets are used in North American libraries and in the British Library since 1975. The formal, unambiguous version of the system requires some diacritics and two-letter tie characters, British Standard 2979,1958 is the main system of the Oxford University Press, and a variation was used by the British Library to catalogue publications acquired up to 1975. The BGN/PCGN system is relatively intuitive for Anglophones to read and pronounce, the portion of the system pertaining to the Russian language was adopted by BGN in 1944 and by PCGN in 1947. In Soviet international passports, transliteration was based on French rules, in 1997, with the introduction of new Russian passports, a diacritic-free English-oriented system was established by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but this system was also abandoned in 2010. In 2006, GOST52535. 1-2006 was adopted, which defines technical requirements and standards for Russian international passports, in 2010, the Federal Migratory Service of Russia approved Order No. 26, stating that all names in the passports issued after 2010 must be transliterated using GOST52535. 1-2006. The standard was abandoned in 2013, finally in 2013, Order No.320 of the Federal Migratory Service of Russia came into force. It states that all names in the passports must be transliterated using the ICAO system. This system differs from the GOST52535. 1-2006 system in two things, ц is transliterated into ts, ъ is transliterated into ie, Scholarly ¹ Some archaic letters are transcribed in different ways
3.
Bogatyr
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A bogatyr or vityaz is a stock character in medieval East Slavic legends, akin to a Western European knight-errant. In modern Russian, the word is used to describe a knight, a warrior or, figuratively, bogatyr is derived from baghatur, a historical Turco-Mongol honorific title. The etymology of word is uncertain, although the first syllable is very likely the Iranian word *baγ god. Many Rus epic poems, called Bylinas, prominently featured stories about heroes, as did several chronicles. Some bogatyrs are presumed to be figures, while others, like the giant Svyatogor, are purely fictional. Many of the stories about bogatyrs revolve around the court of Vladimir I of Kiev, there served the most notable bogatyrs or vityazes, the trio of Alyosha Popovich, Dobrynya Nikitich and Ilya Muromets. Most of those bogatyrs adventures are fictional, and often included fighting dragons, giants, however, the bogatyrs themselves were often based on real people. Historical prototypes of both Dobrynya Nikitich and Ilya Muromets are proven to have existed, the Novgorod Republic produced a specific kind of hero, an adventurer rather than a noble warrior. The most prominent examples were Sadko and Vasili Buslayev, later notable bogatyrs also include those who fought by Alexander Nevskys side and those who fought in the Battle of Kulikovo. Although based on history, the film also shows a strong bylina influence. Knight-errant Slavic mythology Beckwith, Christopher I, empires of the Silk Road, A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Богатыри и витязи Русской земли, По былинам, сказаниям и песням
4.
Fairy tale
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Fairy tales may be distinguished from other folk narratives such as legends and explicitly moral tales, including beast fables. The term is used for stories with origins in European tradition and, at least in recent centuries. In less technical contexts, the term is used to describe something blessed with unusual happiness. Colloquially, a tale or fairy story can also mean any far-fetched story or tall tale, it is used especially of any story that not only is not true. Legends are perceived as real, fairy tales may merge into legends, Fairy tales are found in oral and in literary form, the name fairy tale was first ascribed to them by Madame dAulnoy in the late 17th century. Many of todays fairy tales have evolved from stories that have appeared, with variations. The history of the tale is particularly difficult to trace because only the literary forms can survive. Still, according to researchers at universities in Durham and Lisbon, such stories may date back thousands of years, Fairy tales, and works derived from fairy tales, are still written today. Folklorists have classified fairy tales in various ways, the Aarne-Thompson classification system and the morphological analysis of Vladimir Propp are among the most notable. Other folklorists have interpreted the significance, but no school has been definitively established for the meaning of the tales. It moves in a world without definite locality or definite creatures and is filled with the marvelous. In this never-never land, humble heroes kill adversaries, succeed to kingdoms, a fairy tale with a tragic rather than a happy end is called an anti-fairy tale. Although the fairy tale is a genre within the larger category of folktale. The term itself comes from the translation of Madame DAulnoys conte de fées, Vladimir Propp, in his Morphology of the Folktale, criticized the common distinction between fairy tales and animal tales on the grounds that many tales contained both fantastic elements and animals. Were I asked, what is a fairytale, I should reply, Read Undine, that is a fairytale. of all fairytales I know, I think Undine the most beautiful. As Stith Thompson points out, talking animals and the presence of magic seem to be common to the fairy tale than fairies themselves. However, the presence of animals that talk does not make a tale a fairy tale, especially when the animal is clearly a mask on a human face. Steven Swann Jones identified the presence of magic as the feature by which fairy tales can be distinguished from other sorts of folktales, davidson and Chaudri identify transformation as the key feature of the genre
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Poetry
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Poetry has a long history, dating back to the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh. Early poems evolved from folk songs such as the Chinese Shijing, or from a need to retell oral epics, as with the Sanskrit Vedas, Zoroastrian Gathas, and the Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Ancient attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotles Poetics, focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy. Later attempts concentrated on such as repetition, verse form and rhyme. From the mid-20th century, poetry has sometimes been more generally regarded as a creative act employing language. Poetry uses forms and conventions to suggest differential interpretation to words, devices such as assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve musical or incantatory effects. The use of ambiguity, symbolism, irony and other elements of poetic diction often leaves a poem open to multiple interpretations. Similarly figures of such as metaphor, simile and metonymy create a resonance between otherwise disparate images—a layering of meanings, forming connections previously not perceived. Kindred forms of resonance may exist, between verses, in their patterns of rhyme or rhythm. Some poetry types are specific to cultures and genres and respond to characteristics of the language in which the poet writes. Much modern poetry reflects a critique of poetic tradition, playing with and testing, among other things, in todays increasingly globalized world, poets often adapt forms, styles and techniques from diverse cultures and languages. Some scholars believe that the art of poetry may predate literacy, others, however, suggest that poetry did not necessarily predate writing. The oldest surviving poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, comes from the 3rd millennium BCE in Sumer. An example of Egyptian epic poetry is The Story of Sinuhe, other forms of poetry developed directly from folk songs. The earliest entries in the oldest extant collection of Chinese poetry, the efforts of ancient thinkers to determine what makes poetry distinctive as a form, and what distinguishes good poetry from bad, resulted in poetics—the study of the aesthetics of poetry. Some ancient societies, such as Chinas through her Shijing, developed canons of poetic works that had ritual as well as aesthetic importance, Classical thinkers employed classification as a way to define and assess the quality of poetry. Later aestheticians identified three major genres, epic poetry, lyric poetry, and dramatic poetry, treating comedy and tragedy as subgenres of dramatic poetry, Aristotles work was influential throughout the Middle East during the Islamic Golden Age, as well as in Europe during the Renaissance. English Romantic poet John Keats termed this escape from logic Negative Capability and this romantic approach views form as a key element of successful poetry because form is abstract and distinct from the underlying notional logic
6.
Alexander Pushkin
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Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era who is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature. Pushkin was born into Russian nobility in Moscow and his matrilineal great-grandfather was Abram Petrovich Gannibal, who was kidnapped from Eritrea and raised in the household of Peter the Great. Pushkin published his first poem at the age of fifteen, and was recognized by the literary establishment by the time of his graduation from the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. While under the surveillance of the Tsars political police and unable to publish, Pushkin wrote his most famous play. His novel in verse, Eugene Onegin, was serialized between 1825 and 1832, Pushkins father, Sergei Lvovich Pushkin, was descended from a distinguished family of the Russian nobility that traced its ancestry back to the 12th century. Pushkins mother, Nadezhda Ossipovna Gannibal, was descended through her grandmother from German and Scandinavian nobility. She was the daughter of Ossip Abramovich Gannibal and his wife, Abram wrote in a letter to Empress Elizabeth, Peter the Greats daughter, that Gannibal was from the town of Lagon. Largely on the basis of a biography by Gannibals son-in-law Rotkirkh. Vladimir Nabokov, when researching Eugene Onegin, cast serious doubt on this origin theory, after education in France as a military engineer, Gannibal became governor of Reval and eventually Général en Chef in charge of the building of sea forts and canals in Russia. Born in Moscow, Pushkin published his first poem at the age of fifteen, after school, Pushkin plunged into the vibrant and raucous intellectual youth culture of the capital, Saint Petersburg. In 1820 he published his first long poem, Ruslan and Ludmila, amidst much controversy about its subject, Pushkin gradually became committed to social reform and emerged as a spokesman for literary radicals. This angered the government, and led to his transfer from the capital in May 1820 and he went to the Caucasus and to Crimea, then to Kamianka and Chișinău, where he became a Freemason. Here he joined the Filiki Eteria, an organization whose purpose was to overthrow Ottoman rule in Greece. He was inspired by the Greek Revolution and when the war against the Ottoman Turks broke out he kept a recording the events of the great national uprising. He stayed in Chișinău until 1823 and wrote two Romantic poems which brought him acclaim, The Captive of the Caucasus and The Fountain of Bakhchisaray. In 1823 Pushkin moved to Odessa, where he clashed with the government. In Mikhaylovskoye, Pushkin wrote nostalgic love poems which he dedicated to Elizaveta Vorontsova, then Pushkin continued work on his verse-novel Eugene Onegin. In Mikhaylovskoye, in 1825, Pushkin wrote the poem To*** and it is generally believed that he dedicated this poem to Anna Kern, but there are other opinions
7.
Snow White
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Snow White is a fictional character and a main character from Walt Disney Productions first animated feature film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The character of Snow White was derived from a tale known from many countries in Europe. Snow White is the first Disney Princess and the first fictional character with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Snow White first appears in the film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, after many years, the Queens Magic Mirror confirms Snow White as being the fairest of them all, which causes the Queen to cast Snow White out and send a huntsman to kill her. But when he refuses to do so because she means no harm, Snow White stumbles upon the home of the Seven Dwarfs, who happily aid her. When the dwarfs are away the hag arrives at the cottage and offers Snow White the poisoned apple. Snow White bites into the apple and falls into a coma, the dwarfs discovering what had happened track down the Queen, a short fight ensues and the Queen is killed. Believing her dead too, the build a open grave for Snow White to rest on. Time passes and the Prince comes across Snow White, saddened by her apparent death, he kisses her, causing her to awaken. As the Seven Dwarfs dance with joy, Snow White and the Prince go off to live together, Snow White is a princess, and the fairest in the land. She is described by her stepmothers Magic Mirror as having hair as black as ebony, lips as red as the rose and her voice is also the inspiration for that of Minerva Mink in Animaniacs. Along with yellow shoes, a red cape, and a red bow in her hair, Snow White is innocent, kind, gentle, sweet, and cheerful. Her generous, trusting and helpful nature can cause her trouble, as people might take advantage of it, such as her vain. Although she is sensitive and soft-spoken, she can be energetic and stern, Snow White is motherly, compassionate and delights in keeping house for the lovable Seven Dwarfs while she waits to meet her beloved prince again. With her kindness and ethereal beauty, Snow White charms every creature in the kingdom except the Queen and she also shows great resilience and an inner strength against adversity. Animators initial sketches for Snow Whites character, some of which bore a resemblance to Betty Boop, did not meet Walt Disneys expectations, as they were too cartoonish. This was a challenge Luske and co-animator Les Clark had previously asked to explore while developing the character of Persephone for the Silly Symphonies animated short The Goddess of Spring. Of that project, Les Clark later remarked, Im sure Walt was thinking ahead to Snow White, Snow White and the Queen were refined by Grim Natwick and Norm Ferguson, who would often override Walt Disneys instructions
8.
Grimms' Fairy Tales
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Childrens and Household Tales is a collection of German fairy tales first published in 1812 by the Grimm brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm. The collection is known in English as Grimms Fairy Tales. The first volume of the first edition was published in 1812, containing 86 stories, for the second edition, two volumes were issued in 1819 and a third in 1822, totalling 170 tales. The third edition appeared in 1837, fourth edition,1840, fifth edition,1843, sixth edition,1850, stories were added, and also subtracted, from one edition to the next, until the seventh held 211 tales. All editions were illustrated, first by Philipp Grot Johann and, after his death in 1892. Many changes through the editions – such as turning the wicked mother of the first edition in Snow White, in 1825, the Brothers published their Kleine Ausgabe or small edition, a selection of 50 tales designed for child readers. This childrens version went through ten editions between 1825 and 1858, the influence of these books was widespread. W. H. Auden praised the collection during World War II as one of the works of Western culture. The tales themselves have put to many uses. Writers who have written about the Holocaust have combined the tales with their memoirs, there was not always a pleased reaction to their collection. Joseph Jacobs was in inspired by his complaint that English children did not read English fairy tales, in his own words, What Perrault began. Three individual works of Wilhelm Grimm include Altdänische Heldenlieder, Balladen und Märchen in 1811, Über deutsche Runen in 1821, the Grimm anthology has been a source of inspiration for artists and composers. Arthur Rackham, Walter Crane and Rie Cramer are among the artists who have created illustrations based on the stories, the code KHM stands for Kinder- und Hausmärchen. The titles are those as of 1857, some titles in 1812 were different. All editions from 1812 until 1857 split the stories into two volumes, the Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, the complete first edition. The Original 1812 Grimm Fairy Tales, a New Translation of the 1812 First Edition Kinder- und Hausmärchen Collected through the Brothers Grimm. The Original 1812 Grimm A web site for the Original 1812 Kinder und Hausmärchen featuring references, grimmstories. com All Grimms Fairy Tales available freely in English, German, Dutch, Spanish, Danish, Italian and French. Wiltse through a purifying and eliminating process, be found any stories with bad morals
9.
Mikhaylovskoye Museum Reserve
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Mikhaylovskoye Museum Reserve is a museum complex dedicated to Alexander Pushkin, a Russian poet considered to be the founder of modern literary Russian language. In 1742, the land around the village of Mikhaylovskoye was granted to Abram Petrovich Gannibal by empress Elizabeth, Pushkins mother, Nadezhda Osipovna Pushkina, was a granddaughter of Abram Gannibal. Pushkin was visiting the estate on a basis, and between 1824 and 1826 he was also exiled there. He was killed on a duel in January 1837 in Saint Petersburg and was buried in Svyatogorsky Monastery in what is now Pushkinskiye Gory, the estate remained in the family until 1899, when the state bought it from Grigory Pushkin, a son of Alexanfer Pushkin. An unsuccessful attempt to open a museum was made in 1911. On March 17,1922 Mikhaylovskoye, Trigorskoye, and the tomb of Pushkin in Svyatogorsky Monastery were declared a state monument, in 1936, the whole Svyatogorsky Monastery was added, as well as the estate of Petrovskoye, which formerly belonged to Pushkins uncle, and adjacent areas. The museum was looted and badly damaged during World War II, after the war, in 1992, the monastery was transferred to the property of Russian Orthodox Church, and in 1995, the museum was renamed Mikhaylovskoye Museum Reserve. It was further expanded in the same year, the museum includes several areas, Mikhaylovskoye, the former estate by Pushkin, where the main house, several service buildings, and a landscape park were preserved. Trigorskoye, the estate by Praskovya Osipova, a close friend of Pushkin. The main estate house, the bath, and the park were preserved, Petrovskoye was granted to Abram Gannibal together with Mikhaylovskoye. In Pushkins times, it was owned by his mothers cousin, Veniamin Gannibal, the estate with the park was preserved. Bugrovo, the village where a mill was restored. The archeological sites of Savkina Gorka, Voronich, and Velye, museum-Reserve of A. S Pushkin at Google Cultural Institute
10.
Alexander Afanasyev
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Alexander Nikolayevich Afanasyev was a Russian Empire Slavist who published nearly 600 Russian folktales and fairytales—one of the largest folktale collections in the world. The first edition of his collection was published in eight fascicules from 1855–67 and he was educated at a high school in Voronezh and studied law at the University of Moscow, in which he attended the lectures of Konstantin Kavelin and Timofey Granovsky. He brought out a series of articles about leading personalities of the 18th century, being a progressive, he failed his final exams and could not have a chair in the university of Moscow. Luckily, he was appointed librarian in the Archives of Moscow in 1849, in that year, he was dismissed because of the scandal provoked by his publishing of the Russian Popular Religious Legends, which were a ferocious satire of the Orthodox clergy. After his dismissal, he had a lot of trouble finding a new job and was penniless and this didnt stop him from writing his big theoretical work, The Poetic Outlook of Slavs about Nature, which came out between 1865 and 1869. He died in Moscow aged 45, Afanasyev became interested in old Russian and Slav traditions and stories in the 1850s. In such an interpretation, he regarded the fairy tale Vasilisa the Beautiful as depicting the conflict between the sunlight, the storm, and dark clouds, in the early 1850s, being already known for his articles, Afanasyev began to think about a collection of folk tales. He was then asked by the Russian Geographical Society of Saint Petersburg to publish the folktales archives that the Society had been in possession of for about ten years and these archives are at the start of his Collection. Afanasyev chose 74 tales out of these and he added to them the enormous collection of Vladimir Dal, from which he kept 148 numbers, finding the other ones too distorted, his own collection, and a few other collections. He added already published tales, a few coming from epic songs, stories about the dead, a few medieval satirical texts. From the scientific point of view, his collection goes further and his collection was ahead of his time. Their obscene and anticlerical subject matter made their publication in Imperial Russia unthinkable, prior to Afanasyevs works in the 1850s, only a few attempts had ever been made to record or study the folk beliefs of peasant Russia. Though written Church Slavonic had existed since the 10th century, it was used almost solely by the church and it was not until the 18th and 19th centuries that a sizable body of secular literature developed in vernacular Russian. Thus, Afanasyevs collections made a valuable contribution to the dissemination and legitimization of Russian culture. The influence of folk tales can be seen in the works of many writers and composers, notably Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Townsend, Dorian Aleksandra, From Upyr to Vampire, The Slavic Vampire Myth in Russian Literature, dissertation, School of German and Russian Studies, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, May 2011. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Brockhaus. Russian folk tales by Alexander Afanasiev
11.
Dmitry Sadovnikov
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Dmitry Nikolayevich Sadovnikov was a Russian poet, folklorist and ethnographer. Among his major works were acclaimed compilations The Mysteries of Russian People, The Pagan Dreams of Russia and Fables, the poetic legacy of Sadovnikov who died in poverty and has never received wide recognition, is generally underrated. For one, D. S. Mirsky claimed him to be the second Russian poet of the 1870s after Nekrasov, Sadovnikov has never received due credit even for his most famous poem, Iz-za ostrova na strezhen. Set to a folk melody, this piece about ataman Stenka Razin is widely considered to be part of Russian musical folklore. Iz-za ostrova na strezhen by Anna German
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Dmitry Konstantinovich Zelenin
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Dmitry Konstantinovich Zelenin was a Russian linguist and ethnographer. He led the European Brigade of the Institute of Anthropology and Ethnography, in November 2004 the Antropologicheskii forum of St Petersburg honoured him with some readings dedicated to him Mezhdunarodnyi iazyk nauki i kulturnykh snoshenii, Moscow,1901. Russische Volkskunde, Berlin und Leipzig, de Gruyter,1927, kult ongonov v Sibiri, Moscow,1936. Le culte des idoles en Sibérie, Paris, Payot,1952, acta Eurasica, Issue #1,2005 Empire of Nations, Ethnographic Knowledge and the Making of the Soviet Union by Francine Hirsch, Cornell University Press,2005
13.
Historical Slavic religion
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Slavic mythology is the mythological aspect of the polytheistic religion that was practised by the Slavs before Christianisation. Unlike ancient Greek, Hindu, Chinese or Egyptian mythology, there are no records for the study of Slavic mythology. It has not been proven that the Slavs had any sort of writing system before the arrival of Saints Cyril, fragments of old mythological beliefs and pagan festivals survive up to this day in folk customs, songs, stories and folk-tales of all the Slavic nations. Although Herodotus is himself not convinced by this rumour, he stresses that he has heard some swear it, the identification of Neuri with Proto-Slavs remains controversial, however. According to Procopius, these Slavs worshipped a single deity, who crafted lightning, though not named explicitly, it can be deduced this is a reference to the deity known as Perun in later historic sources, as in many Slavic languages today. Perun simply means thunder or lightning bolt and he also mentions the belief in various demons and nymphs, but does not mention any other names. The Slavic Primary Chronicle is a work with many valuable references to the pagan beliefs of Eastern Slavs. The chronicle treats the history of the early Eastern Slavic state, even though the manuscript was compiled at the beginning of the 12th century, it contains references to and copies of older documents, and describes events predating the Baptism of Kiev. Two deities, Perun and Veles/Volos, are mentioned in the text of the early 10th century peace treaties between pagan rulers of East Slavs and Byzantine Emperors, later, Nestor the Chronicler describes a state pantheon introduced by Prince Vladimir in Kiev in 980 CE. Vladimirs pantheon included Perun, Hors, Dažbog, Stribog, Simargl, the Hypatian Codex of the Primary Chronicle also mentions Svarog, compared to Greek Hephaestus. Also very interesting are the passages in the East Slavic epic The Tale of Igors Campaign referring to Veles, Dažbog, the original epic has been dated to the end of the 12th century, although there are marginal disputes over the authenticity of this work. The most numerous and richest written records are of West Slavic paganism, particularly of Wendish and Polabian tribes, the German missionaries and priests who criticized pagan religion left extensive records of old mythological systems they sought to overcome. However, they restrained themselves from pious lies, claiming pagan Slavs were idolatrous. As none of those missionaries learned any Slavic language, their records are confused and exaggerated, major works include a chronicle of Thietmar of Merseburg from the beginning of the 11th century, who described a temple in the city of Riedegost where the great deity Zuarasic was worshipped. According to Thietmar, this was the most sacred place in the land of pagan Slavs, another very valuable document is the Chronica Slavorum written in the late 12th century by Helmold, a German priest. Saxo meticulously described the worship of Svantevit, the associated with it. He also mentioned multi-headed deities of other Slavic tribes, Rugievit, Porewit, according to the manuscript, the most important Slavic deity was Triglav, whose temples in the city of Szczecin were respected oracles. In the cities of Wolgast and Havelberg, the war god Gerovit was worshiped, a corruption of Jarovit
14.
Christianity
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Christianity is a Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, who serves as the focal point for the religion. It is the worlds largest religion, with over 2.4 billion followers, or 33% of the global population, Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the savior of humanity whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament. Christian theology is summarized in creeds such as the Apostles Creed and his incarnation, earthly ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection are often referred to as the gospel, meaning good news. The term gospel also refers to accounts of Jesuss life and teaching, four of which—Matthew, Mark, Luke. Christianity is an Abrahamic religion that began as a Second Temple Judaic sect in the mid-1st century, following the Age of Discovery, Christianity spread to the Americas, Australasia, sub-Saharan Africa, and the rest of the world through missionary work and colonization. Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization, throughout its history, Christianity has weathered schisms and theological disputes that have resulted in many distinct churches and denominations. Worldwide, the three largest branches of Christianity are the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the denominations of Protestantism. There are many important differences of interpretation and opinion of the Bible, concise doctrinal statements or confessions of religious beliefs are known as creeds. They began as baptismal formulae and were expanded during the Christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries to become statements of faith. Many evangelical Protestants reject creeds as definitive statements of faith, even agreeing with some or all of the substance of the creeds. The Baptists have been non-creedal in that they have not sought to establish binding authoritative confessions of faith on one another. Also rejecting creeds are groups with roots in the Restoration Movement, such as the Christian Church, the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada, the Apostles Creed is the most widely accepted statement of the articles of Christian faith. It is also used by Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists and this particular creed was developed between the 2nd and 9th centuries. Its central doctrines are those of the Trinity and God the Creator, each of the doctrines found in this creed can be traced to statements current in the apostolic period. The creed was used as a summary of Christian doctrine for baptismal candidates in the churches of Rome. Most Christians accept the use of creeds, and subscribe to at least one of the mentioned above. The central tenet of Christianity is the belief in Jesus as the Son of God, Christians believe that Jesus, as the Messiah, was anointed by God as savior of humanity, and hold that Jesus coming was the fulfillment of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The Christian concept of the Messiah differs significantly from the contemporary Jewish concept, Jesus, having become fully human, suffered the pains and temptations of a mortal man, but did not sin
15.
Tsar
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Tsar /zɑːr/ or /tsɑːr/, also spelled tzar, csar, or czar, is a title used to designate certain Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, occasionally, the word could be used to designate other secular supreme rulers. Simeon II, the last Tsar of Bulgaria, is the last person to have borne the title Tsar, the title Tsar is derived from the Latin title for the Roman emperors, Caesar. In the history of the Greek language, basileus had originally meant something like potentate and it gradually approached the meaning of king in the Hellenistic Period, and it came to designate emperor after the inception in the Roman Empire. Thus, tsar was not only used as an equivalent of Latin imperator but was used to refer to Biblical rulers. From this ambiguity, the development has moved in different directions in the different Slavic languages, thus, the Bulgarian language and Russian language no longer use tsar as an equivalent of the term emperor/imperator as it exists in the West European tradition. Currently, the term refers to native sovereigns, ancient and Biblical rulers, as well as monarchs in fairy tales. The title of king is sometimes perceived as alien and is by some Russian-speakers reserved for European royalty, foreign monarchs of imperial status, both inside and outside of Europe, ancient as well as modern, are generally called imperator, rather than tsar. Biblical rulers in Serbian are called цар and in Croatian kralj, in the Polish language however tsar is always used as imperator, never as king. The term tsar is very used to refer to the Russian rulers after Peter the Great. In 705 Emperor Justinian II named Tervel of Bulgaria Caesar, the first foreigner to receive this title, the sainted Boris I is sometimes retrospectively referred to as tsar, because at his time Bulgaria was converted to Christianity. However, the tsar was actually adopted and used for the first time by his son Simeon I. Since in Byzantine political theory there was place for two emperors, Eastern and Western, the Bulgarian ruler was crowned basileus as a spiritual son of the Byzantian basileus. In Latin sources the Emperor of Bulgaria is sometimes designated Emperor of Zagora, various additional epithets and descriptions apart, the official style read Emperor and autocrat of all Bulgarians and Greeks. During the five-century period of Ottoman rule in Bulgaria, the sultan was referred to as tsar. This may be related to the fact that he had claimed the legacy of the Byzantine Empire or to the fact that the sultan was called Basileus in medieval Greek, after Bulgarias liberation from the Ottomans in 1878, its new monarchs were at first autonomous prince. With the declaration of independence, Ferdinand I of Bulgaria adopted the traditional title tsar in 1908. However, these titles were not generally perceived as equivalents of emperor any longer, in the Bulgarian as in the Greek vernacular, the meaning of the title had shifted
16.
Tsarina
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Tsaritsa, tsarina or czarina (Russian, царица, is the title of a female autocratic ruler of Bulgaria, Serbia or Russia, or the title of a tsars wife. The English spelling is derived from the German czarin or zarin, in the way as the French tsarine/czarine. Since 1721, the titles of the Russian male and female monarchs were Emperor and Empress, respectively. Officially the last Russian tsarina was Eudoxia Lopukhina, Peter the Greats first wife, alexandra Feodorovna, the wife of Nicholas II of Russia, was the last Russian Empress. Eudoxia Lopukhina was sent to monastery in 1698, and died in 1731, in 1712 Peter married in church Catherine I of Russia. The Russian Empire was officially proclaimed in 1721, and Catherine become Empress by marriage, after Peters death she became ruling Empress by her own right. In following centuries the title tsarina was in informal use – a kind of pet name for Empresses – ruling queens. For a list of Russian empresses in the 18th and 19th centuries see Empress of Russia, de jure tsaritsas in Russia existed from 1547 until 1721. Among the most famous tsaritsas of this period were six or seven wives of Ivan the Terrible, however, only the first four of them were crowned tsaritsas, as the later marriages were not blessed with the Orthodox Church and considered as cohabitation. Polish noblewoman Marina Mnishek also became tsaritsa of Russia by her marriage to an impostor False Dmitry I, many wives were chosen by Bride-show, when hundreds of poor but handsome noblewomen gathered in Moscow from all the regions of Russia, and the tsar chose the most beautiful. This deprived Russia of the benefits of royal intermarriage with European monarchs, but protected from inbreeding and degeneration, the only foreign wife of a Russian tsar was Maria Temryukovna, a Circassian princess, who converted in Orthodoxy. Ivan Zabelins book The Domestic Life of Russian Tsaritsas in detail describes the subject, the last Bulgarian tsarina was Giovanna of Italy, the wife of Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria. The first Serbian tsarina was Helena of Bulgaria, sister of Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Alexander and she was the empress consort of Serbia from 1346 until Dušans sudden death in 1355. The second, and the last, Serbian tsarina was Ana Basarab and she married Dušans son, Tsar Stephen Uroš V of Serbia somewhere between 1356 and 1360, and ruled until the Serbian empires demise in 1371. Tsarevna List of Russian consorts List of Serbian consorts List of Bulgarian consorts
17.
Prince
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A prince is a male ruler, monarch, or member of a monarchs or former monarchs family. Prince is also a title in the nobility of some European states. The feminine equivalent is a princess, the English word derives, via the French word prince, from the Latin noun princeps, from primus + capio, meaning the chief, most distinguished, ruler, prince. The Latin word prīnceps, became the title of the informal leader of the Roman senate some centuries before the transition to empire. Emperor Augustus established the position of monarch on the basis of principate. The term may be used of persons in various cultures. These titles were borne by courtesy and preserved by tradition, not law, in medieval and Early Modern Europe, there were as many as two hundred such territories, especially in Italy, Germany, and Gaelic Ireland. In this sense, prince is used of any and all rulers and this is the Renaissance use of the term found in Niccolò Machiavellis famous work, Il Principe. Most small territories designated as principalities during feudal eras were allodial and this is attested in some surviving styles for e. g. British earls, marquesses, and dukes are still addressed by the Crown on ceremonial occasions as high, in parts of the Holy Roman Empire in which primogeniture did not prevail, all legitimate agnates had an equal right to the familys hereditary titles. Gradual substitution of the title of Prinz for the title of Fürst occurred. Both Prinz and Fürst are translated into English as prince, but they not only different. This distinction had evolved before the 18th century for dynasties headed by a Fürst in Germany, note that the princely title was used as a prefix to his Christian name, which also became customary. Cadets of Frances other princes étrangers affected similar usage under the Bourbon kings, the post-medieval rank of gefürsteter Graf embraced but elevated the German equivalent of the intermediate French, English and Spanish nobles. By the 19th century, cadets of a Fürst would become known as Prinzen, the husband of a queen regnant is usually titled prince consort or simply prince, whereas the wives of male monarchs take the female equivalent of their husbands title. In Brazil, Portugal and Spain, however, the husband of a monarch was accorded the masculine equivalent of her title. To complicate matters, the style His/Her Highness, a prefix often accompanying the title of a dynastic prince, although the arrangement set out above is the one that is most commonly understood, there are also different systems. Depending on country, epoch, and translation, other usages of prince are possible, foreign-language titles such as Italian principe, French prince, German Fürst and Prinz, Russian knyaz, etc. are usually translated as prince in English
18.
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
19.
Traditional animation
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Traditional animation is an animation technique where each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation in cinema until the advent of computer animation, Animation productions begin by deciding on a story. The oral or literary source material must then be converted into a film script. The storyboard has a somewhat similar to a comic book, and it shows the sequence of shots as consecutive sketches that also indicate transitions, camera angles. The images allow the team to plan the flow of the plot. The storyboard artists will have meetings with the director and may have to redraw or re-board a sequence many times before it meets final approval. Before true animation begins, a soundtrack or scratch track is recorded. A completed cartoon soundtrack will feature music, sound effects, often, an animatic or story reel is made after the soundtrack is created, but before full animation begins. An animatic typically consists of pictures of the storyboard synchronized with the soundtrack and this allows the animators and directors to work out any script and timing issues that may exist with the current storyboard. The storyboard and soundtrack are amended if necessary, and a new animatic may be created and reviewed with the director until the storyboard is perfected, advertising agencies today employ the use of animatics to test their commercials before they are made into full up spots. Animatics use drawn artwork, with moving pieces, video storyboards are similar to animatics but do not have moving pieces. Photomatics are another option when creating test spots, but instead of using drawn artwork, there is a shoot in which hundreds of digital photographs are taken. The large amount of images to choose from may make the process of creating a test commercial a bit easier, as opposed to creating an animatic, because changes to drawn art take time and money. Photomatics generally cost more than animatics, as they may require a shoot, however, the emergence of affordable stock photography and image editing software permits the inexpensive creation of photomatics using stock elements and photo composites. Once the animatic has been approved, it and the storyboards are sent to the design departments, character designers prepare model sheets for all important characters and props in the film, these are used to help standardize appearance, poses, and gestures. These model sheets will show how a character or object looks from a variety of angles with a variety of poses, sometimes, small statues known as maquettes may be produced, so that an animator can see what a character looks like in three dimensions. While design is going on, the director takes the animatic and analyzes exactly what poses, drawings. An exposure sheet is created, this is a table that breaks down the action, dialogue
20.
Saint Petersburg Conservatory
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The N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory is a music school in Saint Petersburg. In 2004, the conservatory had around 275 faculty members and 1,400 students, the conservatory was founded in 1862 by the Russian pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein. On his resignation in 1867, he was succeeded by Nikolai Zaremba, Rimsky-Korsakov was appointed in 1871 and the conservatory has borne his name since 1944. In 1887, Rubinstein returned to the Conservatory with the goal of improving overall standards and he revised the curriculum, expelled inferior students, fired and demoted many professors, and made entrance and examination requirements more stringent. In 1891, he resigned again over the Imperial demand of racial quotas, the current building was erected in the 1890s on the site of the old Bolshoi Theatre of Saint Petersburg and still preserves its grand staircase and landing. As the city changed its name in the 20th century, the conservatory was duly renamed Petrograd Conservatory, amongst his pupils were German Okunev and Boris Tishchenko. Composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov taught at the Conservatory for almost forty years, the youngest musician ever admitted to the Conservatory was four-year-old violinist Clara Rockmore, who later became one of the worlds foremost theremin players. Anton Rubinstein Nikolai Zaremba Mikhail Azanchevsky Karl Davydov Yuli Johansen Auguste Bernhard Alexander Glazunov A
21.
Vladimir Propp
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Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp was a Soviet folklorist and scholar who analyzed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements. Vladimir Propp was born on April 17,1895 in Saint Petersburg to a German family and he attended Saint Petersburg University, majoring in Russian and German philology. Upon graduation he taught Russian and German at a secondary school and his Morphology of the Folktale was published in Russian in 1928. His character types are used in education and can be applied to almost any story, be it in literature, theatre, film, television series, games. In 1932, Propp became a member of Leningrad University faculty, after 1938, he chaired the Department of Folklore until it became part of the Department of Russian Literature. Propp remained a faculty member until his death in 1970, Morphology of the Tale was translated into English in 1958 and 1968. It was also translated into Italian and Polish in 1966, French and Romanian in 1970, Spanish in 1971, historical Roots of the Wonder Tale was translated into Italian in 1949 and 1972, Spanish in 1974, and French, Romanian and Japanese in 1983. Oedipus in the light of folklore was translated into Italian in 1975, Russian Agrarian Feasts was translated into French in 1987. Vladimir Propp broke up fairy tales into sections, through these sections he was able to define the tale into a series of sequences that occurred within the Russian fairytale. Usually there is a situation, after which the tale usually takes the following 31 functions. Vladimir Propp used this method to decipher Russian folklore and fairy tales, first of all, there seems to be at least two distinct types of structural analysis in folklore. If a tale consists of elements A to Z, the structure of the tale is thus delineated in the same sequence, the other type of analysis is termed paradigmatic, and describes instead the underlying pattern of the folkloric text, independent of chronology. Elements of the plot may be out of their given order. Respectively equivalent to syntagmatic and paradigmatic are the terms diachronic and synchronic, diachronic covers the sort of analysis that conveys a sense of traversing the highs and lows of a story, like riding the pattern of a sine wave. The second term, synchronic, is where the story is instead absorbed as a whole, most literary analyses are synchronic, offering a greater sense of unity among the components of a story. Although both structural analyses convey partial information about the story, each angle of analysis delivers a different set of information. After the initial situation is depicted, the tale takes the following sequence of 31 functions, ABSENTATION and this may be the hero themselves, or it may be some other relation that the hero must later rescue. This division of the cohesive family injects initial tension into the storyline and this may serve as the Heros introduction, typically portraying them as an ordinary person
22.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
23.
IMDb
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In 1998 it became a subsidiary of Amazon Inc, who were then able to use it as an advertising resource for selling DVDs and videotapes. As of January 2017, IMDb has approximately 4.1 million titles and 7.7 million personalities in its database, the site enables registered users to submit new material and edits to existing entries. Although all data is checked before going live, the system has open to abuse. The site also featured message boards which stimulate regular debates and dialogue among authenticated users, IMDb shutdown the message boards permanently on February 20,2017. Anyone with a connection can read the movie and talent pages of IMDb. A registration process is however, to contribute info to the site. A registered user chooses a name for themselves, and is given a profile page. These badges range from total contributions made, to independent categories such as photos, trivia, bios, if a registered user or visitor happens to be in the entertainment industry, and has an IMDb page, that user/visitor can add photos to that page by enrolling in IMDbPRO. Actors, crew, and industry executives can post their own resume and this fee enrolls them in a membership called IMDbPro. PRO can be accessed by anyone willing to pay the fee, which is $19.99 USD per month, or if paid annually, $149.99, which comes to approximately $12.50 per month USD. Membership enables a user to access the rank order of each industry personality, as well as agent contact information for any actor, producer, director etc. that has an IMDb page. Enrolling in PRO for industry personnel, enables those members the ability to upload a head shot to open their page, as well as the ability to upload hundreds of photos to accompany their page. Anyone can register as a user, and contribute to the site as well as enjoy its content, however those users enrolled in PRO have greater access and privileges. IMDb originated with a Usenet posting by British film fan and computer programmer Col Needham entitled Those Eyes, others with similar interests soon responded with additions or different lists of their own. Needham subsequently started an Actors List, while Dave Knight began a Directors List, and Andy Krieg took over THE LIST from Hank Driskill, which would later be renamed the Actress List. Both lists had been restricted to people who were alive and working, the goal of the participants now was to make the lists as inclusive as possible. By late 1990, the lists included almost 10,000 movies and television series correlated with actors and actresses appearing therein. On October 17,1990, Needham developed and posted a collection of Unix shell scripts which could be used to search the four lists, at the time, it was known as the rec. arts. movies movie database
24.
Ruslan and Ludmila
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Ruslan and Ludmila is a poem by Alexander Pushkin, published in 1820. It is written as a fairy tale consisting of a dedication, six cantos. It tells the story of the abduction of Ludmila, the daughter of Prince Vladimir of Kiev, by an evil wizard, Pushkin began writing the poem in 1817, while attending the Imperial Lyceum at Tsarskoye Selo. He based it on Russian folktales he had heard as a child, before it was published in 1820, Pushkin was exiled to the south of Russia for political ideas he had expressed in other works such as his ode to Freedom”. A slightly revised edition was published in 1828, the poem was the basis of an opera of the same name composed by Mikhail Glinka between 1837 and 1842. A feature film based on the poem was produced in the Soviet Union in 1972, directed by Aleksandr Ptushko and starring Valeri Kozinets, lines from the prologue of this poem are repetitively recited by the character Masha in the play Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov. Pushkin dedicates the poem to unnamed young beauties, the “queens of my soul”, walking on a golden chain that is bound to an oak is a wise story-telling cat. The narrator remembers one of the stories in particular, namely the one that follows. This prologue was not part of the original 1820 edition, it first appeared in the 1828 edition, the story opens with a feast given by Prince Vladimir to celebrate the marriage of his daughter, Ludmila, to the bold warrior Ruslan. Among the guests are Ruslan’s jealous rivals, the bold warrior Rogday, the boastful Farlaf, on their wedding night, as Ruslan prepares to consummate the marriage, a strange presence fills the bedroom, accompanied by thunder and lightning. Ruslan finds that his bride has mysteriously vanished, on hearing of Ludmilas disappearance, the angered Vladimir annuls the marriage and promises his daughter’s hand to whoever is able to return her safely. Ruslan and his three rivals set off on horseback, the old man himself is a Finn who tells the story of how he had fallen in love with a beautiful young maiden, Naina, who spurned his attention. In order to win her love he tried to become a glorious warrior and he finally cast a spell to win Nainas love, only to find that she herself was actually an old crone. After he rejected her, she became bent on revenge, now that Finn had helped Ruslan, Naina will hate him as well. Rogday decides to abandon the quest for Ludmila and to find, seeing a rider, he attacks, only to find it is Farlaf and not Ruslan, and leaves him shaken but alive. An old woman appears and points Rogday to the direction in which to find Ruslan and she then advises Farlaf to return to Kiev to await his trophy. Ruslan is challenged by another rider and the story turns briefly to Ludmila’s fate and she finds herself in a lavish chamber where three maidens are ready to fulfill her every desire. Opening the chamber door, she discovers a marvelous garden to rival Solomon’s, however, she feels empty without Ruslan
25.
The Gabrieliad
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The Gabrieliad is a humorous poem on the subject of Annunciation widely believed to have been written by Alexander Pushkin in April 1821, while he was in his student years. The Gavriiliada is a description of the beginning of the New Testament, primarily making fun of virgin birth. In Pushkins narrative, Mary, the mother of Jesus, a young and attractive Jewish girl, is married to an old, God chooses her to be the mother of Jesus and sends Archangel Gabriel to announce the good news. Satan learns about Gods plan and arrives first in the form of a snake to seduce, Gabriel arrives too late to save her from Satan but manages to drive him off with an illegal punch to testicles. Then he quickly has his way with Mary, who had seen him in a vision and was impatiently waiting for him. The next morning, God in the form of a dove flies into Marys bedroom and has intercourse with her, the poem was written anonymously because the author could be prosecuted for blasphemy by the Holy Synod. In 1828, an investigation of the alleged authorship by Pushkin has started. After initially denying writing the poem, Pushkin admitted it in a letter to Nicholas I, full text Pushkins testimony Article on the Gavriiliada case
26.
The Fountain of Bakhchisaray
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For Boris Asafyevs ballet of the same name, see The Fountain of Bakhchisarai The Fountain of Bakhchisaray is a poem by Alexander Pushkin, written during the years 1821 to 1823. Pushkin began creating The Fountain of Bakhchisaray in the spring of 1821, the bulk of the poem was written during 1822. In spring 1823, the draft was completed. During the autumn of 1823, the received its final finishing and was prepared for printing. The first edition of The Fountain of Bakhchisaray was published March 10,1824, in 1909–1910, a short film based on the poem was created by Yakov Protazanov. In 1934, Boris Asafyev created a ballet of the name, also inspired by Pushkins work
27.
The Gypsies (poem)
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The Gypsies is a narrative poem by Alexander Pushkin, originally written in Russian in 1824 and first published in 1827. The poem has inspired at least eighteen operas and several ballets, when she arrives, she announces that she has brought home with her a man, Aleko, who has fled the city because the law is pursuing him. At this point the narrative style changes, the omniscient narrator steps aside, Zemfira asks Aleko if he misses the splendor of his homeland, but he responds that his only desire is to spend his life with her in voluntary exile. This is thought to be a reference to the Roman poet Ovid, two years pass and Aleko remains with Zemfira in the Gypsy camp. However, Zemfira begins to sing a song about an adulterous affair which shocks. At this point the poem switches from iambic tetrameter and is consistent with fewer feet. The Old Man warns Aleko that he has heard this song before from his wife Mariula who later left him, Aleko is upset by the song and falls asleep, and Zemfira is angry when she hears him pronounce another womans name in his sleep. The Old Man warns Aleko not to expect Zemfira to be faithful, Aleko, however, insists on his rights, or at least the possibility of getting the pleasure of revenge. Zemfira meets her lover at night and, just as they are parting, in a scene of extremely fast-moving dialogue, he kills them both. The poem closes with an attack on the idea of the noble savage, But even among you. Tormenting dreams live below your bedraggled tents, the Gypsies is the last of Pushkins Southern Poems, and is usually considered to be the most mature and sophisticated of these works. The Southern Poems are indebted to Byron, they use exotic and orientalized settings, rapid transitions, however, critics agree that The Gypsies, while inheriting much from the Byronic tradition, also strives to move away from it. Michael Wachtel argues that the grim, fatalistic acceptance of life as a tragedy, john Bayley argues that The Gypsies shows the problem of a poet as naturally classical as Pushkin in an epoch fashionably and self-consciously romantic. Boris Gasparov estimates that The Gypsies has inspired some eighteen operas and half a dozen ballets, including Sergei Rachmaninoffs Aleko, Ruggero Leoncavallos Zingari, and Vasily Kalafatis Gypsies. It is speculated that The Gypsies was the inspiration for Prosper Mérimées novella Carmen written in 1845, mérimée had read the poem in Russian by 1840 and translated it into French in 1852. Alexander Pushkin, A Critical Study Duckworth, London, Pushkin in music in The Cambridge Companion to Pushkin, ed. Andrew Kahn. Music Note in programme for Carmen, royal Opera House Covent Garden,1984 Pushkin, A. S. and Bondi S. M. ЦЫГАНЫ in Cобрание сочинений в десяти томах Moscow, Pushkin, Aleksandr, Antony Wood and Simon Brett
28.
Poltava (poem)
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Poltava is a narrative poem written by Aleksandr Pushkin in 1828-9 about the involvement of the Ukrainian Cossack hetman Ivan Mazepa in the 1709 Battle of Poltava between Sweden and Russia. The poem intertwines a love plot between Mazepa and Maria with an account of Mazepas betrayal of Tsar Peter I and Peters victory in battle, the poem inspired Tchaikovskys 1884 opera Mazeppa. The poem opens with an epigraph from Byrons 1819 Mazeppa, which depicts the Hetman as a Romantic hero, Pushkin follows this epigraph with a passionate dedication to an anonymous loved one. The poem itself is divided into three parts - or songs - of roughly equal length, Part I opens by setting the scene in the estate of the nobleman Vasily Kochubei, and describing the beauty of his daughter Maria. Maria has fallen in love with the Hetman Mazepa, who is her godfather and much older than she is, however, they are quickly discovered, and are forced to elope, which brings shame on the family and leaves their parents scared. The narrative then switches to a description of the trouble in Ukraine, there is a significant support for a break with Russia. Kochubei vows to revenge upon Mazepa for breaking the bond of trust between them and eloping with Maria. He has remained loyal to the Tsar and sends a messenger to denounce the Hetman to the Tsar, most of Part II is written as a dramatic dialogue in the tradition of closet drama. Mazepa is focused on his plans to rebel against the Tsar and he asks her to promise that she would always choose him over her father, but declines to tell her of his betrayal of the Tsar. Meanwhile, Kochubei has been captured by the rebels and he is tortured and interrogated by Orlik, the rebels demand to know where he has hidden his money but he declines to reply. Marias mother comes to find her and help her save her father, Mazepa is tormented on discovering Marias disappearance and sets out to look for her. Part III switches back to a single third-person narrator, Mazepa pretends that his physical health is failing, so that to lull tsars vigilance, while King Charles XII of Sweden is preparing for battle against Peter I. Peter I and his cavalry arrive and defeat the Swedish army, Mazepa does little fighting and flees the battlefield as fast as he can. He finds he can no longer sleep and sees Maria again and this time its clear that she has lost her mind. In a memorable passage, Maria no longer recognizes him, because she sees him for what he truly is, a ridiculous and horrible old man. The poem closes with a reflection by the narrator after one hundred years, claiming that while Mazepa is now forgotten, Peter I, the narrator tells us that he does not know the fate of Maria. Ivan Mazepa, Vasily Kochubei, and Kochubeis daughter Maria are historical figures, according to historians, it is true that Mazepa had a romantic interest in Maria and she went to live in his home, but whether they were involved in a relationship is unclear. In reality, Mazepa and Maria did not elope, Kochubei removed her from Mazepas home and it is true that Kochubei denounced Mazepa to Peter in 1706 for conspiring against him with Charles XII of Sweden, but it is unclear if Kochubei had evidence of this alleged conspiracy
29.
The Bronze Horseman (poem)
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The Bronze Horseman, A Petersburg Tale is a narrative poem written by Alexander Pushkin in 1833 about the equestrian statue of Peter the Great in Saint Petersburg and the great flood of 1824. While the poem was written in 1833, it was not published, in its entirety, widely considered to be Pushkins most successful narrative poem, The Bronze Horseman has had a lasting impact on Russian literature. It is considered one of the most influential works in Russian Literature, the poem is divided into three sections, a shorter introduction and two longer parts. The introduction opens with a history of the establishment of the city of Saint Petersburg in 1703. In the first two stanzas, Peter the Great stands at the edge of the River Neva and conceives the idea for a city which will threaten the Swedes and open a window to Europe. The poem describes the area as almost uninhabited, Peter can only see one boat, the rest of the introduction is in the first person and reads as an ode to the city of Petersburg. The poet-narrator describes how he loves Petersburg, including the stern, muscular appearance, its landmarks such as the Admiralty. He encourages the city to retain its beauty and strength and stand firm against the waves of the Neva, Part I opens with an image of the Neva growing rough in a storm, the river is tossing and turning like a sick man in his troubled bed. Against this backdrop, a poor man in the city, Evgenii, is contemplating his love for a young woman, Parasha. Evgenii falls asleep, and the narrative then turns back to the Neva, with a description of how the river floods and destroys much of the city. The frightened and desperate Evgenii is left sitting alone on top of two lions on Peters Square, surrounded by water and with the Bronze Horseman statue looking down on him. In Part II, Evgenii finds a ferryman and commands him to row to where Parashas home used to be, however, he discovers that her home has been destroyed, and falls into a crazed delirium and breaks into laughter. For a year, he roams the street as a madman, but the autumn, he is reminded of the night of the storm. In a fit of rage, he curses the statue of Peter, which brings the statue to life, the narrator does not describe Evgeniis death directly, but the poem closes with the discovery of his corpse in a ruined hut floating on the water. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was born in Moscow on May 26,1799 and he had African ancestry as his maternal great grandfather, from Abyssinia, was the adopted grandson and personal secretary to Peter the Great. Pushkin was raised by his tutors, house maids, and nanny, Arina Rodionovna, in his teenage years, he lived in Lycèe of Tsarkoe Selo outside of St. Petersburg, which was later renamed Pushkin in his honor. There he associated with a group of radicals, including the figures in the Decembrist uprising. After several relocations, Pushkin’s exile was ended in 1826 by Tsar Nicholas I, after his initial meeting with Pushkin, Tsar Nicholas told the deputy minister of education that he had just spoke with “the cleverest man in Russia
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I Loved You (poem)
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I Loved You is a poem by Pushkin written in 1829 and published in 1830. It has been described as the statement of the theme of lost love in Russian poetry. The poem is translated and understood differently by different translators, Pushkin expresses his affectionate feelings towards a lady in this poem. He is very much carried away by the beauty of the lady, at the same time, he doesnt want to be very possessive about her. The poet is neither sad nor happy when the left him. Even after losing the girl, the poet remains respectful to her, the poet is not selfish and doesnt want to fight to get back the girl. He just wants to carry her in his heart for a while, the greatest test of love is the ability to wish good for the other person even if you lose the person. Most recently in I Loved You, a trilogy of documentaries by Viktor Kossakovsky
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The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda
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The Tale of the Priest and of his Workman Balda is a fairy tale in verse by Alexander Pushkin. Pushkin wrote the tale on September 13,1830 while staying at Boldino and it is based on a Russian folk tale which Pushkin collected in Mikhailovskoe early on. The Tale of the Priest and of his Workman Balda consists of 189 extremely varied lines that range from three to fourteen syllables but made to rhyme in couplets, in the summer of 1831, Pushkin read the tale to Nikolai Gogol who liked it a great deal. The Tale was first published posthumously by Vasily Zhukovsky in 1840 with considerable alterations due to censorship, the poem tells of a lazy priest who is wandering around a market looking for a cheap worker. There he meets Balda who agrees to work for a year without pay except that he be allowed to hit the priest three times on his forehead and have cooked spelt for food, the priest, being a cheapskate, agrees. But then, after he gets a chance to observe Balda at work, he sees that he is not only very patient and careful and that worries the priest greatly and he starts giving Balda impossible missions to accomplish. The Priest asks Balda to collect a debt from sea devils. Balda troubles the sea with rope and forces the leader of the devils and he agrees to pay the debt if Balda will defeat his grandson at running and weight carrying. Balda tricks the little Bies, first by getting a hare, whom he proclaims his brother to run in his stead. The story ends when Balda gives the priest three blows to the forehead which results in the priest losing his mind, the final line is, You shouldnt have gone rushing off after cheapness. 1956 - The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda, USSR,1973 - The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda, USSR, traditionally animated film by Inessa Kovalevskaya. after the local diocese objected to the portrayal of the priest in the work. The resulting production was reduced to a series of numbers, none of which included the priest. Conflict over similar matters had also arisen in Dnepropetrovsk Opera and Ballet Theatre on Christmas & New Year Season of 2006/2007, read about this in Russian at Alexander Pushkin, A Critical Study by A. D. P. Briggs, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers,1982, Сказка о попе и о его работнике Балде available at Lib. ru Excerpts from the English translation by Oliver Elton
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The Tale of Tsar Saltan
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As a folk tale it is classified as Aarne–Thompson type 707 for its dancing water, singing apple and speaking bird. The story is about three sisters, the youngest is chosen by Tsar Saltan to be his wife. He orders the two sisters to be his royal cook and weaver. They become jealous of their younger sister, when the tsar goes off to war, the tsaritsa gives birth to a son, Prince Gvidon The older sisters arrange to have the tsaritsa and the child sealed in a barrel and thrown into the sea. The sea takes pity on them and casts them on the shore of a remote island, the son, having quickly grown while in the barrel, goes hunting. He ends up saving an enchanted swan from a kite bird, the swan creates a city for Prince Gvidon to rule, but he is homesick, so the swan turns him into a mosquito to help him. In this guise, he visits Tsar Saltans court, where he stings his aunt in the eye, back in his realm, the swan gives Gvidon a magical squirrel. But he continues to pine for home, so the swan transforms him again, in this guise Prince Gvidon visits Saltans court again and he stings his older aunt in the eye. The third time, the Prince is transformed into a bumblebee, in the end, The Prince expresses a desire for a bride instead of his old home, at which point the swan is revealed to be a beautiful princess, whom he marries. He is visited by the Tsar, who is overjoyed to find his newly married son,1900 - The Tale of Tsar Saltan, opera by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in which the popular piece Flight of the Bumblebee is found. 1943 - The Tale of Tsar Saltan, USSR, traditionally animated film directed by Brumberg sisters,1966 - The Tale of Tsar Saltan, USSR, feature film directed by Aleksandr Ptushko. 1984 - The Tale of Tsar Saltan, USSR, traditionally animated film directed by Ivan Ivanov-Vano and Lev Milchin. 2012 Malek Rama Lakhooma, Hannibal Alkhas Assyrian Aramaic poem, loosely based on the Pushkin fairy tale, was staged in San Jose, Ivan Bilibin made the following illustrations for Pushkins tale in 1905, This basic folktale has variants from many lands. Compare, The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird Princess Belle-Etoile The Three Little Birds The Bird of Truth A. D. P. Briggs. Сказка о царе Салтане available at Lib. ru The Tale of Tsar Saltan, transl. by Louis Zellikoff
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The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish
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The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish is a fairy tale in verse by Alexander Pushkin. Pushkin wrote the tale in autumn 1833 and it was first published in the literary magazine Biblioteka dlya chteniya in May 1835, the tale is about a fisherman who manages to catch a Golden Fish which promises to fulfill any wish of his in exchange for its freedom. The storyline is similar to the Russian fairy tale The Greedy Old Wife, in Pushkins poem, an old man and woman have been living poorly for many years. They have a hut, and every day the man goes out to fish. One day, he throws in his net and pulls out seaweed two times in succession, but on the time he pulls out a golden fish. The fish pleads for its life, promising any wish in return, however, the old man is scared by the fact that a fish can speak, he says he does not want anything, and lets the fish go. The next day, the wife asks for a new house, as the man goes to ask for each item, the sea becomes more and more stormy, until the last request, where the man can hardly hear himself think. When he asks that his wife be made the Ruler of the Sea,1866 - Le Poisson doré, fantastic ballet, choreography by Arthur Saint-Léon, the music by Ludwig Minkus. 1917 - The Fisherman and the Fish by Nickolay Tcherepnin, op.41 for orchestra 1937 - The Tale of the Fisherman,1950 - The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish, USSR, classic traditionally animated film by Mikhail Tsekhanovsky. 2002 - About the Fisherman and the Goldfish, Russia, stop-motion film by Nataliya Dabizha, Alexander Pushkin, A Critical Study by A. D. P. Briggs, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers,1982
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The Tale of the Golden Cockerel
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The Tale of the Golden Cockerel is the last fairy tale in verse by Alexander Pushkin. Pushkin wrote the tale in 1834 and it was first published in literary magazine Biblioteka dlya chteniya in 1835, the tale is based on the short story Legend of the Arabian Astrologer from the Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving. 1907 – The Golden Cockerel, opera by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov,1967 – Golden Cockerel, USSR, production of a film studio Soyuzmultfilm, popular animated film by Alexandra Snezhko-Blotskaya. Alexander Pushkin, A Critical Study by A. D. P, briggs, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers,1982. «Сказка о золотом петушке» available at Russian Virtual Library The Tale of the Golden Cockerel, translated by Walter W. Arndt
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Eugene Onegin
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Eugene Onegin is a novel in verse written by Alexander Pushkin. Onegin is considered a classic of Russian literature, and its eponymous protagonist has served as the model for a number of Russian literary heroes and it was published in serial form between 1825 and 1832. The first complete edition was published in 1833, and the accepted version is based on the 1837 publication. This form has come to be known as the Onegin stanza or the Pushkin sonnet, the story is told by a narrator, whose tone is educated, worldly, and intimate. The narrator digresses at times, usually to expand on aspects of social and intellectual world. This allows for a development of the characters and emphasizes the drama of the plot despite its relative simplicity, the book is admired for the artfulness of its verse narrative as well as for its exploration of life, death, love, ennui, convention and passion. Eugene Onegin, A dandy from Saint Petersburg, about 25, an arrogant, selfish and world-weary cynic. Vladimir Lensky, A young poet, about 18, a very romantic and naïve dreamer. Tatyana Larina, A shy and quiet, but passionate, landowners daughter, Pushkin referred to her as aged 17 in a letter to Pyotr Vyazemsky. In the 1820s, Eugene Onegin is a bored Saint Petersburg dandy, whose life consists of balls, concerts, parties, one day he inherits a landed estate from his uncle. When he moves to the country, he strikes up a friendship with his neighbor, one day, Lensky takes Onegin to dine with the family of his fiancée, the sociable but rather thoughtless Olga Larina. At this meeting he also catches a glimpse of Olgas sister Tatyana, a quiet, precocious romantic and the exact opposite of Olga, Tatyana becomes intensely drawn to Onegin. Soon after, she bares her soul to Onegin in a letter professing her love, contrary to her expectations, Onegin does not write back. When they meet in person, he rejects her advances politely but dismissively and condescendingly, later, Lensky mischievously invites Onegin to Tatyanas name day celebration promising a small gathering with just Tatyana, Olga, and their parents. When Onegin arrives, he finds instead a boisterous country ball, Onegin is irritated with the guests who gossip about him and Tatyana, and with Lensky for persuading him to come. He decides to himself by dancing and flirting with Olga. Olga is insensitive to her fiancé and apparently attracted to Onegin, earnest and inexperienced, Lensky is wounded to the core and challenges Onegin to fight a duel, Onegin reluctantly accepts, feeling compelled by social convention. During the duel, Onegin unwillingly kills Lensky, afterwards, he quits his country estate, traveling abroad to deaden his feelings of remorse
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The Belkin Tales
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The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin is a series of five short stories and a fictional editorial introduction by Russian author Aleksandr Pushkin. The collection is opened with the editorial, in which Pushkin pretends to be the publisher of Belkins tales. The tales themselves are not related to one another, except that they are all said in the introduction to be told by various people to a recently deceased landowner. The introduction continues to say that Belkin was an interesting and mysterious man and it is also mentioned that Belkins favorite pastime was to collect and hear stories, several of which are to be presented to the reader. This story was told to Belkin by Colonel I. L. P. who in the days of his military career was stationed at a country outpost. The officers always visit a man named Silvio to play cards. Silvio is always practising shooting, and the walls of his house are full with bullet holes, on one occasion the host is insulted by one of his guests, but he does not challenge his guest to a duel, as custom dictates. He decided that as life apparently was meaningless to the endlessly fortunate young man, he would not shoot, but rather ask to postpone the duel. If he had now engaged the officer in a duel over the game, he would almost certainly have killed him. However, Silvio soon learns that his opponent is engaged to be married. This is the moment Silvio has been waiting for, and he leaves to get his revenge, after several years, the narrator leaves active duty on his parents death and leaves for his country estate. After a while, his neighbors arrive, in particular a pretty young countess, on the wall he notices a painting of a Swiss landscape with two bullet holes very close together. The narrator, seeing this, tells his neighbor about a man he knew in the army who was an extraordinary shot, and tells the count of Silvio. The count is overcome with fear, and informs the narrator that he was Silvios opponent, the neighbor draws the right to shoot first, but misses, and the bullet ends up in the painting. As Silvio aims to shoot, the bride enters the room. Silvio, honor satisfied, leaves the couple, and is later, the narrator never meets him again. This story was told to Belkin by Miss K. I. T. who herself is not involved in the story, the Blizzard, also translated as The Snowstorm, concerns a young noblewoman, Marya Gavrilovna, and her young lover, a lieutenant named Vladimir. The reason for their relationship is not specifically given, but the story famously states Marya Gavrilovna was raised on French novels, at first, Marya Gavrilovna agrees to the plan, but as the ceremony approaches, she feels more and more anxious
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The Blizzard
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The Blizzard is the second of five short stories that constitute The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin by Aleksandr Pushkin. The manuscript for the story was originally completed October 20,1830 and it was intended to be the last of The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin to be published, but Pushkin decided to push the story to the front of the volume. The plot concerns the relationships of a young woman named Marya Gavrilovna. The following is copied from the notes by Ledbetter, In 1811. Her parents disapprove of the relationship, which continues into the winter through correspondence, finally they decide to elope, marry quickly, and then throw themselves at the feet of her parents to beg forgiveness. The plan was for Marya Gavrilovna to slip out in the middle of a night and take a sleigh to a distant village church. On the night in question, a blizzard was raging, but the girl managed to do all she had promised and to reach the church. Her lover, on the hand, driving alone to the rendezvous, became lost in the dark. The next morning, Marya was once more at home, in a feverish delirium, she said enough to make it clear to her mother that she was hopelessly in love with the young officer. Her parents, deciding that this was a love, gave their permission for a wedding. But when they wrote to inform the officer of this fact and he begged their forgiveness and insisted that his only hope was death. He rejoined the army, was wounded at the battle of Borodino, meanwhile, Maryas father died, leaving her the richest young woman in her region. Suitors pressed for her hand, but she refused to accept anyone and she seemed to be living only for the memory of her lost love. Finally, though, she made the acquaintance of a colonel of the hussars, Burmin. Burmin was a man who had once had a reputation as a notorious rake. The two developed a friendship, and it became very clear that he was so restrained that he never made any declaration of love or formal proposal to her. Marya purposely arranged a situation in which they would be able to talk freely with no one else near, to the astonished Marya, he explains that, in the winter of 1812, he was trying to rejoin his regiment, when a terrible blizzard came on. Riding in a troika with a guide, they became lost in unfamiliar country, seeing a light in the distance, they drove toward it and found themselves at a village church where people were crying out This way
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Dubrovsky (novel)
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Dubrovsky is an unfinished novel by Alexander Pushkin, written in 1832 and published after Pushkin’s death in 1841. The name Dubrovsky was given by the editor, Vladimir Dubrovsky is a young nobleman whose land is confiscated by a greedy and powerful aristocrat, Kirila Petrovitch Troekurov. Determined to get justice one way or another, Dubrovsky gathers a band of serfs and goes on the rampage, stealing from the rich, along the way, Dubrovsky falls in love with Masha, Troekurov’s daughter, and lets his guard down, with tragic results. Lyrics, Narrative poems, Folk tales, Plays, Prose, selected and edited, with an introduction by Avrahm Yarmolinsky. Reprinted, Unto myself I reared a monument, translated by Babette Deutsch, in Russki golos, New York,1937, Feb.7,1, also in Moscow News, Moscow,1937, v.7, no. 7, p.3, also in Moscow Daily News, Moscow,1937, no 29, p 3, verses written during a sleepless night. Work, Parting, all translated by Babette Deutsch, in Russki golos, New York,1937, Feb.21, excerpts from Evgeny Onegin, translated by Babette Deutsch, in Moscow Daily News. P.2,4, The Snowstorm reprinted in Moscow Daily News,1937, “The Captain’s daughter and other tales. ”, Translated, with an introduction, by Natalie Duddington. London, J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd, New York, E. P. Dutton & Co.1933. Reviewed by Ben Ray Redman in Books, New York, v.10, Feb.11,1934, p.12 “Dubrovsky. ”“Dubrovski, the Prose tales of A. Pushkin, translated by T. Keane. London, G. Bell and Sons, Ltd.1894, authority, W. S. Sonnenschein, A reader’s guide to contemporary literature. New York, G. P. Putnam’s Sons,1895, reprinted with the addition of The Egyptian nights and Peter the Great’s negro in Bohn’s Standard Library, London, in 1896,1911,1916. Copy of 1896 edition in Library of Congress, authority for 1911 edition on verso of t. -p. of 1916 edition. Another edition issued in London by G. Bell and Sons In 1914, authority for 1914 and 1919 editions on verso of 1926 edition. A copy of 1914 edition in the Library of Congress, also published by the Macmillan Company, New York in 1894,1896,1914. Authority, American catalog, 1890—95, p.358, 1895—1900, p.399, also published under title, The Captain’s daughter and other tales, by Hodder and Stoughton, London, in 1915. Authority, English catalog, 1916/20, p.918, also published in 1925 by Harcourt, Brace and Company. Authority, Cumulative book index, v.28, p.1009, “Dubrovsky and Egyptian Nights” by Alexander Pushkin
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The Queen of Spades (story)
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The Queen of Spades is a short story with supernatural elements by Alexander Pushkin about human avarice. Pushkin wrote the story in autumn 1833 in Boldino and it was first published in the literary magazine Biblioteka dlya chteniya in March 1834. The story was the basis of the operas The Queen of Spades by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, La dame de pique by Fromental Halévy and it has been filmed various times. Hermann, an ethnic German, is an officer of the engineers in the Imperial Russian Army and he constantly watches the other officers gamble, but never plays himself. One night, Tomsky tells a story about his grandmother, an elderly countess. Many years ago, in France, she lost a fortune at cards, Hermann becomes obsessed with obtaining the secret. The countess has a ward, Lizavyeta Ivanovna. Hermann sends love letters to Lizavyeta, and persuades her to let him into the house, there Hermann accosts the countess, demanding the secret. She first tells him that story was a joke, but Hermann refuses to believe her and he repeats his demands, but she does not speak. He draws a pistol and threatens her, and the old lady dies of fright, Hermann then flees to the apartment of Lizavyeta in the same building. There he confesses to have killed the countess by fright with his pistol and he defends himself by saying that the pistol was not loaded. He escapes from the house with the aid of Lizavyeta, who is disgusted to learn that his professions of love were a mask for greed. Hermann attends the funeral of the countess, and is terrified to see the countess open her eyes in the coffin, later that night, the ghost of the countess appears. The ghost names the three cards, tells him he must play just once each night and then orders him to marry Lizavyeta. Hermann takes his entire savings to Chekalinskys salon, where wealthy men gamble for high stakes, on the first night, he bets it all on the three and wins. On the second night, he wins on the seven, on the third night, he bets on the ace — but when cards are shown, he finds he has bet on the Queen of Spades, rather than the ace, and loses everything. When the Queen appears to wink at him, he is astonished by her resemblance to the old countess. In a short conclusion, Pushkin writes that Lizavyeta marries the son of the Countess former steward, Hermann, however, goes mad and is committed to an asylum
