Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod, colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is a city in Russia and the administrative center of Volga Federal District and Nizhny Novgorod Oblast. From 1932 to 1990, it was known as Gorky, after the writer Maxim Gorky, born there; the city is an important economic, scientific and cultural center in Russia and the vast Volga-Vyatka economic region, is the main center of river tourism in Russia. In the historic part of the city there is a large number of universities, theaters and churches. Nizhny Novgorod is located about 400 km east of Moscow. Population: 1,250,619 ; the city was founded in 4 February 1221 by Prince Yuri II of Vladimir. In 1612 Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky organized an army for the liberation of Moscow from the Poles. In 1817 Nizhny Novgorod became a great trade center of the Russian Empire. In 1896 at a fair, an All-Russia Exhibition was organized. During the Soviet period, the city turned into an important industrial center. In particular, the Gorky Automobile Plant was constructed in this period.
The city was given the nickname "Russian Detroit". During World War II, Gorky became the biggest provider of military equipment to the Eastern Front. Due to this, the Luftwaffe bombed the city from the air; the majority of the German bombs fell in the area of the Gorky Automobile Plant. Although all the production sites of the plant were destroyed, the citizens of Gorky reconstructed the factory after 100 days. After the war, Gorky became a "closed city" and remained one until after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1990. At that time, the city was renamed Nizhny Novgorod once again. In 1985, the Nizhny Novgorod Metro was opened. In 2016, Vladimir Putin opened the new 70th Anniversary of Victory Plant, part of the Almaz-Antey Air and Space Defence Corporation; the Kremlin – the main center of the city – contains the main government agencies of the city and the Volga Federal District. The demonym for a Nizhny Novgorod resident is "нижегородец" for male or "нижегородка" for female, rendered in English as Nizhegorodian.
Novgorodian is inappropriate. The name was just Novgorod, but to distinguish it from the other and well-known Novgorod to the west, the city was called "Novgorod of the Lower lands"; this land was named "lower" because it is situated downstream from the point of view of other Russian cities such as Moscow and Murom. It was transformed into the contemporary name of the city that means "Lower Newtown"; the city traces its origin from a small Russian wooden hillfort, founded by Grand Duke Yuri II in 1221 at the confluence of two of the most important rivers in his principality, the Volga and Oka rivers. Its independent existence was threatened by the continuous Mordvin attacks against it. A major stronghold for border protection, Nizhny Novgorod fortress took advantage of a natural moat formed by the two rivers. Along with Moscow and Tver, Nizhny Novgorod was among several newly founded towns that escaped Mongol devastation on account of their insignificance, but grew into centers in vassalic Russian political life during the period of the Tatar Yoke.
With the agreement of the Mongol Khan, Nizhny Novgorod was incorporated into the Vladimir-Suzdal Principality in 1264. After 86 years its importance further increased when the seat of the powerful Suzdal Principality was moved here from Gorodets in 1350. Grand Duke Dmitry Konstantinovich sought to make his capital a rival worthy of Moscow; the earliest extant manuscript of the Russian Primary Chronicle, the Laurentian Codex, was written for him by the local monk Laurentius in 1377. After the city's incorporation into the Grand Duchy of Moscow in 1392, the local princes took the name Shuisky and settled in Moscow, where they were prominent at the court and ascended the throne in the person of Vasily IV. After being burnt by the powerful Crimean Tatar chief Edigu in 1408, Nizhny Novgorod was restored and regarded by the Muscovites as a great stronghold in their wars against the Tatars of Kazan; the enormous red-brick kremlin, one of the strongest and earliest preserved citadels in Russia, was built in 1508–1511 under the supervision of Peter the Italian.
The fortress was strong enough to withstand Tatar sieges in 1520 and 1536. In 1612, the so-called "national militia", gathered by a local merchant, Kuzma Minin, commanded by Knyaz Dmitry Pozharsky expelled the Polish troops from Moscow, thus putting an end to the "Time of Troubles" and establishing the rule of the Romanov dynasty; the main square in front of the Kremlin is named after Minin and Pozharsky, although it is locally known as Minin Square. Minin's remains are buried in the citadel. In the course of the following century, the city prospered commercially and was chosen by the Stroganovs as a base for their operations. A particular style of architec
Garden Ring
The Garden Ring known as the "B" Ring, is a circular ring road avenue around central Moscow, its course corresponding to what used to be the city ramparts surrounding Zemlyanoy Gorod in the 17th century. The Ring consists of seventeen individually named fifteen squares, it has a circumference of sixteen kilometres. At its narrowest point, Krymsky Bridge, the Ring has six lanes. After finishing the reconstruction, all sections of the Ring will have not more than 10 lanes. In 2018, more than 50 % of sections of the Garden Ring are reconstructed, including Zubovskaya square, the widest section, there were about 18 lanes before; the Ring emerged in the 1820s, replacing fortifications, in the form of ramparts, that were no longer of military value. Garden Ring is a direct descendant of the Skorodom and Earth Rampart fortifications, erected in the reign of Feodor I of Russia after a disastrous raid by Ğazı II Giray. Although Boris Godunov, de facto regent of Russia, prevented Crimean Tatars from taking the city north of Moskva River, he anticipated future raids and arranged construction of another defence ring.
When the Time of troubles ended, instead of rebuilding Skorodom, Mikhail Romanov government replaced it with a new, taller rampart known as Zemlyanoy Val, completed in 1630-1638. Its name survives in present-day Zemlyanoy Val Street in the south-eastern segment of Garden Ring. Instead of towers, the Rampart had 34 gates for passage; as a defense measure, Streltsy slobodas were located next to these gates in southern Yakimanka and Zamoskvorechye Districts. Effective against Tatar raiders, Streltsy were politically unstable. After Streltsy Uprising of 1698, Peter I arranged mass executions of Streltsy on the Earth Rampart, hanging 36 soldiers at each of Zamoskoverchye gates and 56 at Taganka gates. In 1683-1718, the Rampart served. Peter I lifted this taxation in 1722, but it resumed in the 1730s at the new city border, Kamer-Kollezhsky Val; the rampart lost its military value in the 18th century. In the same 1775, local authorities entertained the idea of restoring the rampart but were set back by the number of state institutions that had to be demolished.
The Fire of Moscow destroyed these properties, so nothing stood in the way of city development plans. Instead of rebuilding the useless rampart, the city levelled it; the new free land was developed according to local social status: upper-class western segment of the Ring acquired central boulevards, flanged by side streets. Present-day streets in this segments are still called Boulevards. Elsewhere, Garden Ring was set as a 10-20 sazhen wide street; these streets have a name beginning with Sadovaya–, e.g. Sadovo–Triumphalnaya Street. By 1850, all buildings in this street were hidden from view by foliage. In south-eastern segment, the Ring was not as wide, thus Zemlyanoy Val. Largest square - a combination of two market squares - was created at Red Gates in the north-eastern segment. In the 1830s-1862, Novinsky Boulevard has become a popular amusement park with cheap theaters and carousels. In 1841, local entrepreneurs set up a short railroad with a real Mercury tank engine - a pleasure ride for the party crowds.
Rails for horsecars were installed in Moscow since 1872, the first lines were built on radial streets. The first electrical tram was launched in 1899, but Garden Ring was electrified in 1907-1910. Circular line traversing the Ring was known as the "B" route. New rental housing of 4-5-6 storey buildings replaced old two-story blocks. 1935 Joseph Stalin's master plan of Moscow provided for expansion of Garden Ring to at least 30-40 meter width, demolition of buildings set at the ends of Garden Ring boulevards to create wide open squares. Grand Stalinist buildings, envisioned on all the ring, were planned only for major squares like Kursky Rail Terminal Square and Triumphalnaya Square. However, one end-of-boulevard block survives on Triumphalnaya Square, atop the six-lane tunnel; the same plan required removal of tram tracks in line with Moscow Metro construction. In fact, removal of tram tracks proceeded well in advance of subway construction. Stalinist construction proceeded after World War II, notably the three skyscrapers.
However, no part of the Ring was rebuilt in Stalinist style. Any street of the Ring is a mixture of d
Volga River
The Volga is the longest river in Europe with a catchment area of 1,350,000 square kilometres. It is Europe's largest river in terms of discharge and drainage basin; the river flows through central Russia and into the Caspian Sea, is regarded as the national river of Russia. Eleven of the twenty largest cities of Russia, including the capital, are located in the Volga's drainage basin; some of the largest reservoirs in the world are located along the Volga. The river has a symbolic meaning in Russian culture and is referred to as Волга-матушка Volga-Matushka in Russian literature and folklore; the Russian hydronym Volga derives from Proto-Slavic *vòlga "wetness, moisture", preserved in many Slavic languages, including Ukrainian volóha "moisture", Russian vlaga "moisture", Bulgarian vlaga "moisture", Czech vláha "dampness", Serbian vlaga "moisture", Croatian vlaga "moisture" and Slovene vlaga "moisture" among others. The Slavic name is a loan translation of earlier Scythian Rā "Volga" "wetness", cognate with Avestan Raŋhā "mythical stream" and Vedic Sanskrit rasā́ "dew, juice.
The Scythian name survives in modern Mordvin Rav "Volga". The Turkic peoples living along the river referred to it as Itil or Atil "big river". In modern Turkic languages, the Volga is known as İdel in Tatar, Атăл in Chuvash, Idhel in Bashkir, Edil in Kazakh, İdil in Turkish; the Turkic peoples associated the Itil's origin with the Kama. Thus, a left tributary to the Kama was named the Aq Itil "White Itil" which unites with the Kara Itil "Black Itil" at the modern city of Ufa; the name Indyl is used in Adyge language. Among Asians, the river was known by its other Turkic name Sarı-su "yellow water", but the Oirats used their own name, Ijil mörön or "adaptation river". Presently the Mari, another Uralic group, call the river Jul, they called the river Volgydo, a borrowing from Old East Slavic. The Volga is the longest river in Europe, its catchment area is entirely inside Russia, though the longest river in Russia is the Ob–Irtysh river system, it belongs to the closed basin of the Caspian Sea, being the longest river to flow into a closed basin.
Rising in the Valdai Hills 225 meters above sea level northwest of Moscow and about 320 kilometers southeast of Saint Petersburg, the Volga heads east past Lake Sterzh, Dubna, Yaroslavl, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan. From there it turns south, flows past Ulyanovsk, Samara and Volgograd, discharges into the Caspian Sea below Astrakhan at 28 meters below sea level. At its most strategic point, it bends toward the Don. Volgograd Stalingrad, is located there; the Volga has many tributaries, most the rivers Kama, the Oka, the Vetluga, the Sura. The Volga and its tributaries form the Volga river system, which flows through an area of about 1,350,000 square kilometres in the most populated part of Russia; the Volga Delta has a length of about 160 kilometres and includes as many as 500 channels and smaller rivers. The largest estuary in Europe, it is the only place in Russia where pelicans and lotuses may be found; the Volga freezes for most of its length for three months each year. The Volga drains most of Western Russia.
Its many large reservoirs provide hydroelectric power. The Moscow Canal, the Volga–Don Canal, the Volga–Baltic Waterway form navigable waterways connecting Moscow to the White Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. High levels of chemical pollution have adversely affected its habitats; the fertile river valley provides large quantities of wheat, has many mineral riches. A substantial petroleum industry centers on the Volga valley. Other resources include natural gas and potash; the Volga Delta and the nearby Caspian Sea offer superb fishing grounds. Astrakhan, at the delta, is the center of the caviar industry. A number of large hydroelectric reservoirs were constructed on the Volga during the Soviet era, they are: Volgograd Reservoir Saratov Reservoir Kuybyshev Reservoir – the largest in Europe by surface Cheboksary Reservoir Gorky Reservoir Rybinsk Reservoir Uglich Reservoir Ivankovo Reservoir Volgograd Nizhny Novgorod Kazan Samara Saratov Tolyatti Yaroslavl Astrakhan Ulyanovsk Cheboksary Tver The area downstream of the Volga believed to have been a cradle of the Proto-Indo-European civilization, was settled by Slavs and other Turkic peoples in the first millennium AD, replacing the Scythians.
The ancient scholar Ptolemy of Alexandria mentions the lower Volga in his Geography. He calls it the Rha, the Scythian name for the river. Ptolemy believed the Don and the Volga shared the same upper branch, which flowed from the Hyperborean Mountains; the Russian ethnicity in Western Russia and around the Volga river evolved among other tribes, out of the East Slavic tribe of the Buzhans. Several localities in Russia are connected to the Buzhans, like for example Sredniy Buzhan in the Orenburg Oblast and the Buzan river in the Astrakhan Oblast. Buzhan is a village in Nishapur, Iran. Subsequently, the river basin played an important role in the movements of peoples from Asia to Europe. A powerful polity of Volga Bulgaria once flourished where the Kama jo
Vancouver, Washington
Vancouver is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U. S. state of Washington, the largest suburb of Portland, Oregon. Incorporated in 1857, it is the fourth largest city in the state, with a population of 161,791 as of April 1, 2010 census. Vancouver is the county seat of Clark County and forms part of the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area, the 23rd largest metropolitan area in the United States. Established in 1825 around Fort Vancouver, a fur-trading outpost, the city is located on the Washington/Oregon border along the Columbia River, directly north of Portland. In 2005, Money magazine named it No. 91 on its list of best places in America to live. In 2016, WalletHub ranks Vancouver the 89th best place in the US for families to live. Vancouver shares its name with the larger city of Vancouver in southern British Columbia, Canada 300 mi to the north. Both cities were named after sea captain George Vancouver. Vancouver, British Columbia was incorporated 29 years after the incorporation of Vancouver and more than 60 years after the name Vancouver was first used in reference to the historic Fort Vancouver trading post on the Columbia River.
City officials have periodically suggested changing the U. S. city's name to Fort Vancouver to reduce confusion with its larger and better-known northern neighbor. Many Pacific Northwest residents distinguish between the two cities by referring to the Canadian city as "Vancouver, B. C." and the United States city as "Vancouver, Washington," or "Vancouver, USA." Local nicknames include "Vantucky" and "The'Couv". In 2013, the nickname "Vansterdam" surfaced as a result of the legalization of marijuana in the state of Washington; the Vancouver area was inhabited by a variety of Native American tribes, most the Chinook and Klickitat nations, with permanent settlements of timber longhouses. The Chinookan and Klickitat names for the area were Skit-so-to-ho and Ala-si-kas meaning "land of the mud-turtles." First European contact was made in 1775, with half of the indigenous population dead from smallpox before the Lewis and Clark expedition camped in the area in 1806. Within another fifty years, other actions and diseases such as measles and influenza had reduced the Chinookan population from an estimated 80,000 "to a few dozen refugees, landless and swindled out of a treaty."Meriwether Lewis wrote that the Vancouver area was "the only desired situation for settlement west of the Rocky Mountains."
The first permanent European settlement did not occur until 1824, when Fort Vancouver was established as a fur trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company. From that time on, the area was settled by both the US and Britain under a "joint occupation" agreement. Joint occupation led to the Oregon boundary dispute and ended on June 15, 1846, with the signing of the Oregon Treaty, which gave the United States full control of the area. Before 1845, American Henry Williamson laid out a large claim west of the Hudson's Bay Company, called Vancouver City and properly registered his claim at the U. S. courthouse before leaving for California. In 1850, Amos Short named the town Columbia City, it changed to Vancouver in 1855. The City of Vancouver was incorporated on January 23, 1857. Based on an act in the 1859–60 legislature, Vancouver was the capital of Washington Territory, before capital status was returned to Olympia, Washington by a 2–1 ruling of the territory's supreme court, in accordance with Isaac Stevens' preference and concern that proximity to the border with Oregon might give some of the state's influence away to Oregon.
U. S. Army Captain Ulysses S. Grant was quartermaster at what was known as Columbia Barracks for 15 months beginning in September 1852. Soon after leaving Vancouver, he resigned from the army and did not serve again until the outbreak of the American Civil War. Other notable generals to have served in Vancouver include George B. McClellan, Philip Sheridan, Oliver O. Howard and 1953 Nobel Peace Prize recipient George Marshall. Army presence in Vancouver was strong, as the Department of the Columbia built and moved to Vancouver Barracks, the military reservation for which stretched from the river to what is Fourth Plain Boulevard and was the largest Army base in the region until surpassed by Fort Lewis, 120 miles to the north. Built on the old company gardens and skirmish range, Pearson Army Field was a key facility, at one point the US Army Signal Corps operated the largest spruce cut-up plant in the world to provide much-needed wood for airplanes. Vancouver became the end point for two ultra-long flights from USSR over the North Pole.
The first of these flights was performed by Valery Chkalov in 1937 on a Tupolev ANT-25RD airplane. Chkalov was scheduled to land at an airstrip in nearby Portland, but redirected at the last minute to Vancouver's Pearson Airfield. Today there is a street named for him in Vancouver. In 1975 an obelisk was erected at Pearson Field commemorating this event. Separated from Oregon until 1917, when the Interstate Bridge began to replace ferries, Vancouver had three shipyards just downstream which produced ships for World War I before World War II brought an enormous economic boom. An Alcoa aluminum plant opened on September 2, 1940, using inexpensive power from the nearby New Deal hydropower turbines at Bonneville Dam. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Henry Kaiser opened a shipyard next to the U. S. Army base, whi
Soviet Air Forces
The Soviet Air Forces was the official designation of one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces; the Air Forces were formed from components of the Imperial Russian Air Service in 1917, faced their greatest test during World War II. The groups were involved in the Korean War, dissolved along with the Soviet Union itself in 1991–92. Former Soviet Air Forces' assets were subsequently divided into several air forces of former Soviet republics, including the new Russian Air Force. "March of the Pilots" was its song. The All-Russia Collegium for Direction of the Air Forces of the Old Army was formed on 20 December 1917; this was a Bolshevik aerial headquarters led by Konstantin Akashev. Along with a general postwar military reorganisation, the collegium was reconstituted as the "Workers' and Peasants' Red Air Fleet", established on 24 May 1918 and given the top-level departmental status of "Main Directorate", it became the Directorate of the USSR Air Forces on 28 March 1924, the Directorate of the Workers-Peasants Red Army Air Forces on 1 January 1925.
Its influence on aircraft design became greater. From its earliest days, the force mimicked ground forces' organization in the 1930s, by which time it was made up of air armies, aviation corps, aviation divisions, aviation regiments. After the creation of the Soviet state many efforts were made in order to modernize and expand aircraft production, led by its charismatic and energetic commander, General Yakov Alksnis, an eventual victim of Joseph Stalin's Great Purge. Domestic aircraft production increased in the early 1930s and towards the end of the decade, the Soviet Air Force was able to introduce Polikarpov I-15 and I-16 fighters and Tupolev SB and SB-bis and DB-3 bombers. One of the first major tests for the VVS came in 1936 with the Spanish Civil War, in which the latest Soviet and German aircraft designs were employed against each other in fierce air-to-air combat. At first, the I-16 proved superior to any Luftwaffe fighters, managed to achieve local air superiority wherever they were employed.
However, the Soviets refused to supply the plane in adequate numbers, their aerial victories were soon squandered because of their limited use. Bf 109s delivered to Franco's Spanish Nationalist air forces secured air superiority for the Nationalists, one they would never relinquish; the defeats in Spain coincided with the arrival of Stalin's Great Purge of the ranks of the officer corps and senior military leadership, which affected the combat capabilities of the expanding Soviet Air Forces. Newly promoted officers lacked flying and command experience, while older commanders, witnessing the fate of General Alksnis and others, lacked initiative referring minor decisions to Moscow for approval, insisting that their pilots comply with standardized and predictable procedures for both aerial attack and defence. On 19 November 1939, VVS headquarters was again titled the Main Directorate of the Red Army Air Forces under the WPRA HQ. Between 1933 and 1938, the Soviet government planned and funded missions to break numerous world aviation records.
Not only did aviation records and achievements become demonstrations of the USSR's technological progress, they served as legitimization of the socialist system. With each new success, Soviet press trumpeted victories for socialism, popularizing the mythology of aviation culture with the masses. Furthermore, Soviet media idolized record-breaking pilots, exalting them not only as role models for Soviet society, but as symbols of progress towards the socialist-utopian future; the early 1930s saw a shift in ideological focus away from collectivist propaganda and towards "positive heroism." Instead of glorifying socialist collectivism as a means of societal advancement, the Soviet Communist Party began uplifting individuals who committed heroic actions that advanced the cause of socialism. In the case of aviation, the government began glorifying people who utilized aviation technology instead of glorifying the technology itself. Pilots such as Valery Chkalov, Georgy Baydukov, Alexander Belyakov, Mikhail Gromov—as well as many others—were raised to the status of heroes for their piloting skills and achievements.
In May 1937, Stalin charged pilots Chkalov and Belyakov with the mission to navigate the first transpolar flight in history. On 20 June 1937, the aviators landed their ANT-25 in Washington. A month Stalin ordered the departure of a second crew to push the boundaries of modern aviation technology further. In July 1937 Mikhail Gromov, along with his crew Sergei Danilin and Andrei Yumashev, completed the same journey over the North Pole and continuing on to Southern California, creating a new record for the longest nonstop flight; the public reaction to the transpolar flights was euphoric. The media called the pilots "Bolshevik knights of culture and progress." Soviet citizens celebrated Aviation Day on 18 August with as much zeal as they celebrated the October Revolution anniversary. Literature including poems, short stories, novels emerged celebrating the feats of the aviator-celebrities. Feature films like Victory, Tales of Heroic Aviators, Valery Chkalov reinforced the "positive hero" imagery, celebrating the aviators' individuality within the context of a socialist government.
Soviet propaganda, newspaper articles, other forms of media sought to connect Soviet citizens to relevant themes from daily life. For aviation, Stalin's propagandists drew on Russian folklore. Examples i
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire known as Imperial Russia or Russia, was an empire that existed across Eurasia and North America from 1721, following the end of the Great Northern War, until the Republic was proclaimed by the Provisional Government that took power after the February Revolution of 1917. The third largest empire in world history, at its greatest extent stretching over three continents, Europe and North America, the Russian Empire was surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires; the rise of the Russian Empire coincided with the decline of neighboring rival powers: the Golden Horde, the Swedish Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire. It played a major role in 1812–1814 in defeating Napoleon's ambitions to control Europe and expanded to the west and south; the House of Romanov ruled the Russian Empire from 1721 until 1762, its matrilineal branch of patrilineal German descent the House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov ruled from 1762. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Russian Empire extended from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Black Sea in the south, from the Baltic Sea on the west to the Pacific Ocean, into Alaska and Northern California in America on the east.
With 125.6 million subjects registered by the 1897 census, it had the third-largest population in the world at the time, after Qing China and India. Like all empires, it included a large disparity in terms of economics and religion. There were numerous dissident elements. Economically, the empire had a predominantly agricultural base, with low productivity on large estates worked by serfs, Russian peasants; the economy industrialized with the help of foreign investments in railways and factories. The land was ruled by a nobility from the 10th through the 17th centuries, subsequently by an emperor. Tsar Ivan III laid the groundwork for the empire that emerged, he tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Golden Horde, renovated the Moscow Kremlin, laid the foundations of the Russian state. Emperor Peter the Great fought numerous wars and expanded an huge empire into a major European power, he moved the capital from Moscow to the new model city of St. Petersburg, led a cultural revolution that replaced some of the traditionalist and medieval social and political mores with a modern, Europe-oriented, rationalist system.
Empress Catherine the Great presided over a golden age. Emperor Alexander II promoted numerous reforms, most the emancipation of all 23 million serfs in 1861, his policy in Eastern Europe involved protecting the Orthodox Christians under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. That connection by 1914 led to Russia's entry into the First World War on the side of France, the United Kingdom, Serbia, against the German and Ottoman empires; the Russian Empire functioned as an absolute monarchy on principles of Orthodoxy and Nationality until the Revolution of 1905 and became a de jure constitutional monarchy. The empire collapsed during the February Revolution of 1917 as a result of massive failures in its participation in the First World War. Though the Empire was only proclaimed by Tsar Peter I following the Treaty of Nystad, some historians would argue that it was born either when Ivan III of Russia conquered Veliky Novgorod in 1478, or when Ivan the Terrible conquered the Khanate of Kazan in 1552. According to another point of view, the term Tsardom, used after the coronation of Ivan IV in 1547, was a contemporary Russian word for empire.
Much of Russia's expansion occurred in the 17th century, culminating in the first Russian colonization of the Pacific in the mid-17th century, the Russo-Polish War that incorporated left-bank Ukraine, the Russian conquest of Siberia. Poland was divided in the 1790 -- 1815 era, with much of the population going to Russia. Most of the 19th-century growth came from adding territory in Asia, south of Siberia. Peter I the Great played a major role in introducing Russia to the European state system. While the vast land had a population of 14 million, grain yields trailed behind those of agriculture in the West, compelling nearly the entire population to farm. Only a small percentage lived in towns; the class of kholops, close in status to slavery, remained a major institution in Russia until 1723, when Peter converted household kholops into house serfs, thus including them in poll taxation. Russian agricultural kholops were formally converted into serfs earlier in 1679. Peter's first military efforts were directed against the Ottoman Turks.
His attention turned to the North. Peter still lacked a secure northern seaport, except at Archangel on the White Sea, where the harbor was frozen for nine months a year. Access to the Baltic was blocked by Sweden. Peter's ambitions for a "window to the sea" led him to make a secret alliance in 1699 with Saxony, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Denmark against Sweden, resulting in the Great Northern War; the war ended in 1721. Peter acquired four provinces situated east of the Gulf of Finland; the coveted access to the sea was now secured. There he built Russia's new capital, Saint Petersburg, to replace Moscow, which had long been Russia's cultural center. In 1722, he tur
Eastern Slavic naming customs
Eastern Slavic naming customs are the traditional way of identifying a person's given name and patronymic name in countries influenced by rule of the Russian Empire and more the Soviet Union which enacted widespread Russification in culture, lingua franca and customs. They are used in Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, to an extent in Kyrgyzstan and Georgia, it is named after the East Slavic language group. They are found in the Balkans among older generations. Eastern Slavic parents select a given name for a newborn child. Most first names in East Slavic languages originate from two sources: Eastern Orthodox Church tradition native pre-Christian Slavic lexiconsAlmost all first names are single. Doubled first names are rare and from foreign influence. Most doubled. Being synthetic languages, Eastern Slavic treats personal names as grammatical nouns and apply the same rules of inflection and derivation to them as for other nouns. So one can create many forms with different degrees of affection and familiarity by adding the corresponding suffixes to the auxiliary stem derived from the original name.
The auxiliary stem may be identical to the word stem of the full name, most names have the auxiliary stem derived unproductively. Unlike English, in which the use of diminutive forms is optional between close friends, in East Slavonic languages such forms are obligatory in certain contexts because of the strong T–V distinction: the T-form of address requires the short form of the counterpart's name. Unlike other languages with prominent use of name suffixes, such as Japanese, the use of derived name forms is limited to the T-addressing: there is no way to make the name more formal than the plain unsuffixed full form, no suffixes can be added to the family name. Most Russian philologists distinguish the following forms of given names: The "short name" also "half-name", is the simplest and most common name derivative. Bearing no suffix, it is produced suppletively and always has the declension noun ending for both males and females, thus making short forms of certain unisex names indistinguishable: for example, Sasha is the short name for both the masculine name Aleksandr and the feminine form Aleksandra.
Some names, such as Zhanna and Mark have no short forms, others may have two different forms. In the latter case, one form is more informal than the other. Diminutive forms are produced from the "short name" by means of various suffixes. Unlike the full name, a diminutive name carries a particular emotional attitude and may be unacceptable in certain contexts. Depending on the nature of the attitude, nameforms can be subdivided in three broad groups: affectionate and slang. Formed by suffixes -еньк-, -оньк-, -ечк-, -ушк, as illustrated by the examples below, it emphasises a tender, affectionate attitude and is analogous to German suffixes -chen, -lein, Japanese -chan and -tan and affectionate name-derived nicknames in other languages. It is used to address children or intimate friends. Within a more official context, this form may be combined with the honorific plural to address a younger female colleague. Colloquial diminutives are derived from short names by the -к- suffix. Expressing a familiar attitude, the use may be considered rude or pejorative outside a friendly context.
Slang forms exist for male names and, female names. They are formed with the suffixes -ян, -он, -ок/ёк; the suffixes give the sense of "male brotherhood", once expressed by the patronymic-only form of address in the Soviet Union. Originating in criminal communities, such forms came into wide usage in Russia in the 1990s. During the days of the October Revolution, as part of the campaign to rid Russia of bourgeois culture, there was a drive to invent new, revolutionary names; as a result, many Soviet children were given unusual or atypical names being acronyms/initialisms besides many other names above. The patronymic name is based on the first name of the father and is written in all legal and identity documents. If used with the first name, the patronymic always follows it; the patronymic is formed by a combination of the father's name and suffixes. The suffix is -ович for a son, -овна - for a daughter. For example, if the father's name was Иван, the patronymic will be Иванович for a son and Ивановна for a daughter.
The standard rules for the suffix have some exceptions like the following: If the suffix is being appended to a name ending in a й or a soft consonant, the initial o in the suffixes -ович and -овна becomes a е and the suffixes change to -евич and -евна. For example, if the father is Дмитрий, the patronymic is Дмитриевич for a son and Дмитриевна for a daughter, it is not Дмитрович or Дмитровна because the name Дмитрий ends on "й".
Soviet Union
