Moldavia
Moldavia is a historical region and former principality in Central and Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester River. An independent and autonomous state, it existed from the 14th century to 1859, when it united with Wallachia as the basis of the modern Romanian state; the region of Pokuttya was part of it for a period of time. The western half of Moldavia is now part of Romania, the eastern side belongs to the Republic of Moldova, the northern and southeastern parts are territories of Ukraine; the original and short-lived reference to the region was Bogdania, after Bogdan I, the founding figure of the principality. The names Moldova are derived from the name of the Moldova River. Dragoș was accompanied by his female hound called Molda; the dog's name would have been extended to the country. The old German Molde, meaning "open-pit mine" the Gothic Mulda meaning "dust", "dirt", referring to the river. A Slavic etymology, marking the end of one Slavic genitive form, denoting ownership, chiefly of feminine nouns.
A landowner named Alexa Moldaowicz is mentioned in a 1334 document as a local boyar in service to Yuriy II of Halych. In several early references, "Moldavia" is rendered under the composite form Moldo-Wallachia. Ottoman Turkish references to Moldavia included Boğdan Boğdan. See names in other languages; the name of the region in other languages include French: Moldavie, German: Moldau, Hungarian: Moldva, Russian: Молдавия, Turkish: Boğdan Prensliği, Greek: Μολδαβία. The inhabitants of Moldova were Christians. Archaeological works revealed the remains of a Christian necropolis at Mihălășeni, Botoșani county, from the 5th century; the place of worship, the tombs had Christian characteristics. The place of worship had a rectangular form with sides of seven meters. Similar necropolises and places of worship were found at Nicolina, in IașiThe Bolohoveni, is mentioned by the Hypatian Chronicle in the 13th century; the chronicle shows that this land is bordered on the principalities of Halych and Kiev.
Archaeological research identified the location of 13th-century fortified settlements in this region. Alexandru V. Boldur identified Voscodavie, Voloscovti, Volcovti and their other towns and villages between the middle course of the rivers Nistru/Dniester and Nipru/Dnieper; the Bolohoveni disappeared from chronicles after their defeat in 1257 by Daniel of Galicia's troops. Their ethnic identity is uncertain. In the early 13th century, the Brodniks, a possible Slavic–Vlach vassal state of Halych, were present, alongside the Vlachs, in much of the region's territory. Somewhere in the 11th century, a Viking named Rodfos was killed by Vlachs in the area of what will become Moldavia. In 1164, the future Byzantine emperor Andronikos I Komnenos, was taken prisoner by Vlach shepherds around the same region. Friar William of Rubruck, who visited the court of the Great Khan in the 1250s, listed "the Blac", or Vlachs, among the peoples who paid tribute to the Mongols, but the Vlachs' territory is uncertain.
Rubruck described "Blakia" as "Assan's territory" south of the Lower Danube, showing that he identified it with the northern regions of the Second Bulgarian Empire. In the 14th century, King Charles I of Hungary attempted to expand his realm and the influence of the Catholic Church eastwards after the fall of Cuman rule, ordered a campaign under the command of Phynta de Mende. In 1342 and 1345, the Hungarians were victorious in a battle against Tatar-Mongols; the Polish chronicler Jan Długosz mentioned Moldavians as having joined a military expedition in 1342, under King Władysław I, against the Margraviate of Brandenburg. In 1353, Dragoș, mentioned as a Vlach Knyaz in Maramureș, was sent by Louis I to establish a line of defense against the Golden Horde forces of Mongols on the Siret River; this expedition resulted in a polity vassal to Hungary, centered around Baia. Bogdan of Cuhea, another Vlach voivode from Maramureș who had fallen out with the Hungarian king, crossed the Carpathians in 1359, took control of Moldavia, succeeded in removing Moldavia from Hungarian control.
His realm extended north to the Cheremosh River, while the southern part of Moldavia was still occupied by t
Nobility
Nobility is a social class ranked under royalty and found in some societies that have a formal aristocracy. Nobility possesses more acknowledged privileges and higher social status than most other classes in society; the privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be honorary, vary by country and era. As referred to in the Medieval chivalric motto "noblesse oblige", nobles can carry a lifelong duty to uphold various social responsibilities, such as honorable behavior, customary service, or leadership positions. Membership in the nobility, including rights and responsibilities, is hereditary. Membership in the nobility has been granted by a monarch or government, unlike other social classes where membership is determined by wealth, lifestyle, or affiliation. Nonetheless, acquisition of sufficient power, military prowess, or royal favour has enabled commoners to ascend into the nobility. There are a variety of ranks within the noble class.
Legal recognition of nobility has been more common in monarchies, but nobility existed in such regimes as the Dutch Republic, the Republic of Genoa, the Republic of Venice, the Old Swiss Confederacy, remains part of the legal social structure of some non-hereditary regimes, e.g. Channel Islands, San Marino, the Vatican City in Europe. Hereditary titles and styles added to names, as well as honorifics distinguish nobles from non-nobles in conversation and written speech. In many nations most of the nobility have been un-titled, some hereditary titles do not indicate nobility; some countries have had non-hereditary nobility, such as the Empire of Brazil or life peers in the United Kingdom. The term derives from the abstract noun of the adjective nobilis. In ancient Roman society, nobiles originated as an informal designation for the political governing class who had allied interests, including both patricians and plebeian families with an ancestor who had risen to the consulship through his own merit.
In modern usage, "nobility" is applied to the highest social class in pre-modern societies, excepting the ruling dynasty. In the feudal system, the nobility were those who held a fief land or office, under vassalage, i.e. in exchange for allegiance and various military, services to a suzerain, who might be a higher-ranking nobleman or a monarch. It came to be seen as a hereditary caste, sometimes associated with a right to bear a hereditary title and, for example in pre-revolutionary France, enjoying fiscal and other privileges. While noble status conferred significant privileges in most jurisdictions, by the 21st century it had become a honorary dignity in most societies, although a few, residual privileges may still be preserved and some Asian and African cultures continue to attach considerable significance to formal hereditary rank or titles. Nobility is a historical and legal notion, differing from high socio-economic status in that the latter is based on income, possessions or lifestyle.
Being wealthy or influential cannot ipso facto make one noble, nor are all nobles wealthy or influential. Various republics, including former Iron Curtain countries, Greece and Austria have expressly abolished the conferral and use of titles of nobility for their citizens; this is distinct from countries which have not abolished the right to inherit titles, but which do not grant legal recognition or protection to them, such as Germany and Italy, although Germany recognizes their use as part of the legal surname. Still other countries and authorities allow their use, but forbid attachment of any privilege thereto, e.g. Finland and the European Union, while French law protects lawful titles against usurpation. Although many societies have a privileged upper class with substantial wealth and power, the status is not hereditary and does not entail a distinct legal status, nor differentiated forms of address. Not all of the benefits of nobility derived from noble status per se. Privileges were granted or recognised by the monarch in association with possession of a specific title, office or estate.
Most nobles' wealth derived from one or more estates, large or small, that might include fields, orchards, hunting grounds, etc. It included infrastructure such as castle and mill to which local peasants were allowed some access, although at a price. Nobles were expected to live "nobly", that is, from the proceeds of these possessions. Work involving manual labour or subordination to those of lower rank was either forbidden or frowned upon socially. On the other hand, membership in the nobility was a prerequisite for holding offices of trust in the realm and for career promotion in the military, at court and the higher functions in the government and church. Prior to the French Revolution, European nobles commanded tribute in the form of entitlement to cash rents or usage taxes, labour or a portion of the annual crop yield from commoners or no
Vasile Lupu
Lupu Coci, known as Vasile Lupu was the Voivode of Moldavia between 1634 and 1653. Lupu had secured the Moldavian throne in 1634 after a series of complicated intrigues and managed to hold it for twenty years. Vasile was a capable administrator and a brilliant financier and was soon the richest man in the Christian East, his gifts to Ottoman leaders kept him on good terms with the Ottoman authorities. The Coci family settled in Wallachia in the first half of the 16th century, his father, Nicolae Coci was a shopkeeper, the son of Constantin and Ecaterina, who originated from Macedonia or Epirus. Nicolae entered Moldavian nobility in 1593. Nikolae was born in Arbanasi. According to different researchers it was a village in modern-day Bulgaria, while some historians claim Arbănaşi. Dimitrie Cantemir called him Albanezul. Nicolae Bănescu maintained while his mother was Romanian. R. W. Seton-Watson mentioned him as being of Albanian origin. English historian Steven Runciman maintains that his father was an Albanian adventurer, his mother was a Moldavian heiress.
According to historian Ioan Bolovan, Vasile Lupu's father was an Albanian from Arbanasi with distant origin from Epirus. According to historian Toader Nicoară, he may have been an Albanian from Bulgaria. In modern historiography, his descent has been described as of Greek origin, he received Greek education. Lupu had held a high office under Miron Barnovschi, was subsequently selected Prince as a sign of indigenous boyars' reaction against Greek and Levantine competition; this was because Vasile Lupu had led a rebellion against Alexandru Iliaş and his foreign retinue, being led into exile by Moise Movilă. Despite having led the rebellion against Greek influence, Lupu maintained strong ties to the Greeks and the Patriarchate of Constantinople, he sought to become the new Byzantine Emperor. His rule was marked by pomp, he was a builder of a patron of culture and arts. These acts had negative effects, the tax burdens being increased to an intolerable level. After relations between the two Princes soured, Vasile Lupu spent much of his reign fighting the Wallachian Matei Basarab, trying to impose his son Ioan to the throne in Bucharest.
His army was defeated twice in 1639 at Ojogeni and Nenişori and a third time, at Finta, in 1653. After this last battle, the Moldavian boyars rebelled and replaced him with the Wallachian favorite, Gheorghe Ştefan. Vasile Lupu went into exile and died while being kept in Turkish custody at Yedikule prison in Constantinople. Lupu built a strong alliance with hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, arranging the marriage of his own daughter Ruxandra to Khmelnytsky's son Tymofiy, who went on to fight alongside Lupu at Finta. Vasile Lupu introduced the first codified printed law in Moldavia, the Carte Româneascǎ de învăţătură, known as the Pravila lui Vasile Lupu; the document follows Byzantine tradition, being a translated review of customs and identical to its Wallachian contemporary equivalent. Lupu founded monasteries throughout his lands; the liturgical language was described as "vulgar Greek" by Robert Bargrave. Lupu founded the Princely High School of Trei lerarhi Church in 1640, which taught in Greek and Latin.
The Coci last name was carried on by Stefan Coci who married the daughter of Petru Rareş, a voivode of Moldavia, but by the descendant of Gabriel Coci named Hatmanul. The descending line of Coci intersects with aristocratic families from Moldavia, old families such as the Bucioc and Abazesti. Synod of Jassy Trei Ierarhi Monastery St. Paraskeva Church, Lviv Runciman, Steven; the Great Church in Captivity: A Study of the Patriarchate of Constantinople from the Eve of the Turkish Conquest to the Greek War of Independence. Cambridge University Press. Pp. 286–7, 341–3, 370. ISBN 978-0-521-31310-0. George Ioan Brătianu. Sfatul domnesc şi adunarea stărilor în principatele române. Editura Enciclopedică. ISBN 978-973-45-0096-3. N. Jorga "Byzance apres Byzance, pp. 163–181
Bohdan Khmelnytsky
Zynoviy Bohdan Khmelnytsky was a Ukrainian Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He led an uprising against the Commonwealth and its magnates that resulted in the creation of a state led by the Cossacks of Ukraine. In 1654, he concluded the Treaty of Pereyaslav with the Tsardom of Russia. Although there is no definite proof of the date of Khmelnytsky's birth, Ukrainian historian Mykhaylo Maksymovych suggests that it is 27 December 1595; as was the custom in the Orthodox Church, he was baptized with one of his middle names, translated into Ukrainian as Bohdan. A biography of Khmelnytsky by Smoliy and Stepankov, suggests that it is more he was born on 9 November and was baptised on 11 November. Khmelnytsky was born in the village of Subotiv, near Chyhyryn in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland at the estate of his father Mykhailo Khmelnytsky, he was born into the Ukrainian lesser nobility, his father, a courtier of Great Crown Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski, was of noble birth and belonged to the Clan Massalski, Abdank or Syrokomla, but there has been controversy as to whether Bohdan belonged to the szlachta.
Some sources state that in 1590 his father Mykhailo was appointed as a sotnyk for the Korsun-Chyhyryn starosta Jan Daniłowicz, who continued to colonize the new Ukrainian lands near the Dnieper river. According to the above-mentioned-source, Mykhailo established Chyhyryn and his own family estates of Subotiv and Novoseltsi. Khmelnytsky identified as a noble, his father's status as a deputy Starosta of Chyhyryn helped him to be considered as such by others. During the Uprising, Khmelnytsky would stress his mother's Cossack roots and his father's exploits with the Cossacks of the Sich. Khmelnytsky's early education cannot be documented, however it is speculated that he received his elementary education in Ukrainian. Several historians believe he received his elementary schooling from a church clerk until he was sent to one of Kiev's Orthodox fraternity schools, he continued his education in Polish at a Jesuit college in Jarosław, but more in Lviv in the school founded by hetman Żółkiewski. He completed his schooling by 1617, acquiring a broad knowledge of world history and learning Polish and Latin.
He learned Turkish and French. Unlike many of the other Jesuit students, he did not embrace Roman Catholicism but remained Orthodox. Bohdan Khmelnytsky married a daughter of a rich Pereyaslavl Cossack. By the second half of the 1620s, they had three daughters: Stepanida and Kateryna, his first son Tymish was born in 1632, another son Yuriy was born in 1640. Upon completion of his studies in 1617, Khmelnytsky entered into service with the Cossacks; as early as 1619 he was sent together with his father to Moldavia, when the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth entered into war against the Ottoman Empire. His first military engagement was a tragic one. During the battle of Cecora on 17 September 1620, his father was killed, young Khmelnytsky, among many others including future hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski, was captured by the Turks, he spent the next two years in captivity in Constantinople as a prisoner of an Ottoman Kapudan Pasha. Other sources claim that he spent his slavery in Ottoman Navy on galleys as an oarsman, where he picked up a knowledge of Turkic languages.
While there is no concrete evidence as to his return to Ukraine, most historians believe Khmelnytsky either escaped or was ransomed. Sources vary as to his benefactor — his mother, the Polish king — but by Krzysztof Zbaraski, ambassador of the Commonwealth to the Ottomans. In 1622 he paid 30,000 thalers in ransom for all prisoners of war captured at the Battle of Cecora. Upon return to Subotiv, Khmelnytsky took over operating his father's estate and became a registered Cossack in the Chyhyryn Regiment, he was promoted to pysar. From 1625, he participated in several sea raids on Constantinople together with Zaporozhian Cossacks. In those raids he earned his title of sotnyk. During this period his widowed mother remarried, to Belarusian noble Vasyl Stavetsky, moved to his estate, leaving Khmelnytsky in charge of Subotiv. Within year she gave birth to another son, Hryhoriy. For a short time, the senior Khmelnytsky served as a koniuszy to hetman Mikołaj Potocki but departed quickly after a personal conflict.
Khmelnytsky advanced in rank in his regiment. He first became a sotnyk and advanced to the rank of a regiment scribe, he commanded respect of his fellow Cossacks. On 30 August 1637, he was included in a delegation to Warsaw to plead the Cossacks' case before the Polish King Władysław IV. Serving in the army of a Polish magnate and respected commander, hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski, he participated in a successful campaign when the Commonwealth army scored a decisive victory over the Crimean Khanate in 1644. According to archival documents, he had a meeting in Warsaw with the French ambassador Count De Bregie, during which he discussed the possibility of Cossack participation
Hetman
Hetman is a political title from Central and Eastern Europe assigned to military commanders. It was the title of the second-highest military commander in the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the 16th to 18th centuries. A hetman was the highest military officer in the hetmanates of Ukraine, the Zaporizhian Host, the Ukrainian State; the title was used by Ukrainian Cossacks from the 16th century. Used by the Czechs in Bohemia since the 15th century, in the modern Czech Republic the title is used for regional governors. Throughout much of the history of Romania and the Moldavia, hetmans were the second-highest army rank; the best-accepted hypothesis, as found in dictionaries, is that the term hetman means'head-man', derives from the Early Modern High German Heubtmann. The German title was common during medieval times, functionally corresponding to Modern English'captain', it has been suggested that the Czech language may have served as an intermediary, Polish has been suggested.
Alternatively, it could be a variant of the comparable Turkic title ataman. The Polish title Grand Crown Hetman dates from 1505; the title of Hetman was given to the leader of the Polish Army and until 1581 the hetman position existed only during specific campaigns and wars. After that, it became a permanent title, as were all the titles in the Kingdom of Poland and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. At any given time the Commonwealth had four hetmans – a Great Hetman and Field Hetman for each of both Poland and Lithuania. From 1585, the title could not be taken away without a proven charge of treachery, thus most hetmans served for life, as illustrated by the case of Jan Karol Chodkiewicz commanding the army from his deathbed. Hetmans were not paid for their job by the royal treasury. Hetmans were the main commanders of the military forces, second only to the monarch in the army's chain of command; the fact that they could not be removed by the monarch made them independent, thus able to pursue independent policies.
This system worked well when a hetman had great ability and the monarch was weak, but sometimes produced disastrous results in the opposite case. The security of the position notably contrasted with that of military leaders in states bordering the commonwealth, where sovereigns could dismiss their army commanders at any time. In 1648 the Zaporizhian Host elected a hetman of their own, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, igniting the Ukrainian struggle for independence; the military reform of 1776 limited the powers of the hetmans. The Hetman office was abolished after the third partition of Poland in 1795. At the end of the sixteenth century, the commanders of the Zaporizhian Cossacks were titled Koshovyi Otaman or Hetman. In 1572, a hetman was a commander of the Registered Cossack Army of the Rzeczpospolita, too. From 1648, the start of Bohdan Khmelnytsky's uprising, a hetman was the head of the whole Ukrainian State — Hetmanshchyna. Although they were elected, Ukrainian hetmans had broad powers and acted as heads of the Cossack state, their supreme military commanders, top legislators.
After the split of Ukraine along the Dnieper River by the 1667 Polish–Russian Treaty of Andrusovo, Ukrainian Cossacks became known as Left-bank Cossacks and Right-bank Cossacks. In the Russian Empire, the office of Cossack Hetman was abolished by Catherine II of Russia in 1764; the last Hetman of the Zaporozhian Army was Kyrylo Rozumovsky, who reigned from 1751 until 1764. The title was revived in Ukraine during the revolution of 1917 to 1920. In early 1918, a conservative German-supported coup overthrew the radical socialist Ukrainian Central Rada and its Ukrainian People's Republic, establishing a hetmanate monarchy headed by Pavlo Skoropadskyi, who claimed the title Hetman of Ukraine; this regime lasted until late 1918, when it was overthrown by a new Directorate of Ukraine, of a re-established Ukrainian People's Republic. Used by the Czechs in Bohemia from the Hussite Wars onward, hejtman is today the term for the elected governor of a Czech region. For much of the history of Romania and the Principality of Moldavia, hetmans were second in rank in the army, after the ruling prince, who held the position of Voivode.
Hetman has been used figuratively to mean'commander' or simply'leader'. Examples: "They say there was a whole band of them, that this bearded man was their elder, the hetman." — Maxim Gorky, Mother "Once I was a hetman on the Zaporoska. — Robert E. Howard, A Witch Shall Be Born Appointed Hetman Ataman Bulawa Hetman's sign Media related to Hetmans at Wikimedia Commons "Hetman". Encyclopædia Britannica. 13. 1911
Cossacks
Cossacks were a group of predominantly East Slavic-speaking people who became known as members of democratic, self-governing, semi-military communities, predominantly located in Eastern and Southern Ukraine and in Southern Russia. They inhabited sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper, Don and Ural river basins and played an important role in the historical and cultural development of both Ukraine and Russia; the origins of the first Cossacks are disputed, though the 1710 Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk claimed Khazar origin. The emergence of Cossacks is dated to the 14th or 15th centuries, when two connected groups emerged, the Zaporozhian Sich of the Dnieper and the Don Cossack Host; the Zaporizhian Sich were a vassal people of Poland–Lithuania during feudal times. Under increasing pressure from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, in the mid-17th century the Sich declared an independent Cossack Hetmanate, initiated by a rebellion under Bohdan Khmelnytsky. Afterwards, the Treaty of Pereyaslav brought most of the Cossack state under Russian rule.
The Sich with its lands became an autonomous region under the Russian-Polish protectorate. The Don Cossack Host, established by the 16th century, allied with the Tsardom of Russia. Together they began a systematic conquest and colonisation of lands in order to secure the borders on the Volga, the whole of Siberia and the Yaik and the Terek rivers. Cossack communities had developed along the latter two rivers well before the arrival of the Don Cossacks. By the 18th century Cossack hosts in the Russian Empire occupied effective buffer zones on its borders; the expansionist ambitions of the Empire relied on ensuring the loyalty of Cossacks, which caused tension given their traditional exercise of freedom, self-rule, independence. Cossacks such as Stenka Razin, Kondraty Bulavin, Ivan Mazepa and Yemelyan Pugachev led major anti-imperial wars and revolutions in the Empire in order to abolish slavery and odious bureaucracy and to maintain independence; the empire responded with ruthless executions and tortures, the destruction of the western part of the Don Cossack Host during the Bulavin Rebellion in 1707–08, the destruction of Baturyn after Mazepa's rebellion in 1708, the formal dissolution of the Lower Dnieper Zaporozhian Host in 1775, after Pugachev's Rebellion.
By the end of the 18th century Cossack nations had been transformed into a special military estate, "a military class". Similar to the knights of medieval Europe in feudal times or the tribal Roman auxiliaries, the Cossacks came to military service having to obtain charger horses and supplies at their own expense; the government provided only supplies for them. Cossack service was considered the most rigorous one; because of their military tradition, Cossack forces played an important role in Russia's wars of the 18th–20th centuries, such as the Great Northern War, the Seven Years' War, the Crimean War, Napoleonic Wars, the Caucasus War, numerous Russo-Persian Wars, numerous Russo-Turkish Wars and the First World War. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Tsarist regime used Cossacks extensively to perform police service, they served as border guards on national and internal ethnic borders. During the Russian Civil War and Kuban Cossacks were the first people to declare open war against the Bolsheviks.
By 1918 Russian Cossacks declared the complete independence and formed independent states, the Don Republic and the Kuban People's Republic. The Ukrainian State emerged. Cossack troops formed the effective core of the anti-Bolshevik White Army, Cossack republics became centers for the anti-Bolshevik White movement. With the victory of the Red Army, the Cossack lands were subjected to Decossackization and the Holodomor. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Cossacks made a systematic return to Russia. Many took an active part in post-Soviet conflicts. In Russia's 2002 Population Census, 140,028 people reported their ethnicity as Cossacks. There are Cossack organizations in Russia, Ukraine and the United States. Max Vasmer's etymological dictionary traces the name to the Old East Slavic word козакъ, kozak, a loanword from Cuman, in which cosac meant "free man", from Turkish/Turkic languages quazzaq rabble rouser, trouble maker, outcast rebel, from Tatar languages Kazak skinny bollard The ethnonym Kazakh is from the same Turkic root.
In modern Turkish it is pronounced as "Kazak". In written sources the name is first attested in Codex Cumanicus from the 13th century. In English, "Cossack" is first attested in 1590, it is not clear when new Slavic people apart from Brodnici and Berladniki started settling in the lower reaches of major rivers such as the Don and the Dnieper after the demise of the Khazar state. It is unlikely it could have happened before the 13th century, when the Mongols broke the power of the Cumans, who had assimilated the previous population on that territory, it is known that new settlers inherited a lifestyle that persisted there long before, such as those of the Turkic Cumans and the Circassian Kassaks. However, Slavic settlements in southern Ukraine started to appear early during the Cuman rule, with the earliest ones, like Oleshky, dating back to the 11th century. Early "Proto-Cossack" groups are reported to have come into existence within the present-day Ukraine in the mid-13th century as the influence of Cumans grew weaker, though some have ascribed their origins to as early as the tenth century.
Some historians suggest that the Cossack people were of mixed ethnic origins, descending from Russians, Belarusians, Turks and others who settled or passed through the vast Steppe. However some Turkologists arg
Integrated Authority File
The Integrated Authority File or GND is an international authority file for the organisation of personal names, subject headings and corporate bodies from catalogues. It is used for documentation in libraries and also by archives and museums; the GND is managed by the German National Library in cooperation with various regional library networks in German-speaking Europe and other partners. The GND falls under the Creative Commons Zero licence; the GND specification provides a hierarchy of high-level entities and sub-classes, useful in library classification, an approach to unambiguous identification of single elements. It comprises an ontology intended for knowledge representation in the semantic web, available in the RDF format; the Integrated Authority File became operational in April 2012 and integrates the content of the following authority files, which have since been discontinued: Name Authority File Corporate Bodies Authority File Subject Headings Authority File Uniform Title File of the Deutsches Musikarchiv At the time of its introduction on 5 April 2012, the GND held 9,493,860 files, including 2,650,000 personalised names.
There are seven main types of GND entities: LIBRIS Virtual International Authority File Information pages about the GND from the German National Library Search via OGND Bereitstellung des ersten GND-Grundbestandes DNB, 19 April 2012 From Authority Control to Linked Authority Data Presentation given by Reinhold Heuvelmann to the ALA MARC Formats Interest Group, June 2012
