1.
Prime Minister of Russia
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The official residence of the prime minister is Gorki-9 in Odintsovsky District, Moscow Oblast, but his working residence is in Moscow. Under Article 24 of the Federal Constitutional Law On the Government of the Russian Federation, the Russian Prime Minister is considered the second highest position in the government, after the President. Due to the role of the President of Russia in the political system. The use of the term Prime Minister is strictly informal and is never used by the Russian Constitution, Federal Laws, the current prime minister is Dmitry Medvedev of United Russia, who was appointed on May 8,2012. Since the office evolved rather than being created, it may not be totally clear-cut who was the first Prime Minister. However, these bodies had been only Advisory functions, and had no independence, the office of Chairman of those bodies were more decorative and do not bear any responsibility, besides, simultaneously the position of Chairman could hold several people. For example, from 1726 to 1727, the government headed by six people simultaneously, Alexander Menshikov, Fyodor Apraksin, Gavriil Golovkin, Andrey Osterman, Dmitry Golitsyn and Pyotr Tolstoy. From 1905 to 1917, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, the modern post of Prime Minister appeared in 1905, after the transformation of the Committee of Ministers to the Council of Ministers. 6 November 1905, Sergei Witte was appointed the first Prime Minister of Russia, the position of Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Empire, lasted 12 years, during this time,7 people took this post. The position was abolished after the Russian revolution, the abdication of Nicholas II from the throne, during the Russian Provisional Government in 1917, the official title of the prime minister was Minister-Chairman of the Russian Provisional Government. This position was held by two people, Georgy Lvov and Alexander Kerensky. The position lasted about six months, and after the October Revolution, was replaced by Chairman of the Council of peoples Commissars of the Russian SFSR. In the era of the Soviet Union, the head of government was the Chairman of the Council of Peoples Commissars, people who held those positions are sometimes referred to as the prime ministers. They may have also referred to as Premier of Ministers. Currently, the title is the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation. After the election of Boris Yeltsin, President of Russia, the head of the government was personally Yeltsin and he headed the Russian SFSR Council of Ministers about six months. In fact, Yeltsin was the first Head of Government of Russia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, after Yeltsin, Acting Prime Minister became Yegor Gaidar, but the Russian Supreme Soviet refused to approve him as Prime Minister. 14 December 1992, the Prime Minister was appointed Viktor Chernomyrdin, in general, the Prime Minister serves more of an administrative role, nominating members of the Cabinet and implementing domestic policy
2.
Nicholas II of Russia
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Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, ruling from 1 November 1894 until his forced abdication on 15 March 1917. His reign saw the fall of the Russian Empire from being one of the foremost great powers of the world to economic, Soviet historiography portrayed Nicholas as a weak and incompetent leader, whose decisions led to military defeats and the deaths of millions of his subjects. The Anglo-Russian Entente, designed to counter German attempts to influence in the Middle East. Nicholas approved the Russian mobilisation on 30 July 1914, which led to Germany declaring war on Russia on 1 August 1914 and it is estimated that around 3,300,000 Russians were killed in World War I. Following the February Revolution of 1917, Nicholas abdicated on behalf of himself and his son, Nicholas, the recovered remains of the Imperial Family were finally re-interred in St. Petersburg, eighty years to the day on 17 July 1998. In 1981, Nicholas, his wife and their children were canonized as martyrs by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, located in New York City. On 15 August 2000 Nicholas and his family were canonized as passion bearers, Nicholas was born in the Alexander Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, the eldest son of Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia. He had five siblings, Alexander, George, Xenia, Michael. Nicholas often referred to his father nostalgically in letters after Alexanders death in 1894 and he was also very close to his mother, as revealed in their published letters to each other. His paternal grandparents were Emperor Alexander II and Empress Maria Alexandrovna of Russia and his maternal grandparents were King Christian IX and Queen Louise of Denmark. Nicholas was of primarily German and Danish descent, his last ethnically Russian ancestor being Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna, Nicholas was related to several monarchs in Europe. His mothers siblings included Kings Frederik VIII of Denmark and George I of Greece, Nicholas, his wife Alexandra, and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany were all first cousins of King George V of the United Kingdom. Nicholas was also a first cousin of both King Haakon VII and Queen Maud of Norway, as well as King Constantine I of Greece, Tsar Nicholas II was the first cousin-once-removed of Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich. To distinguish between them the Grand Duke was often known within the Imperial family as Nikolasha and Nicholas the Tall, while the Tsar was Nicholas the Short. In his childhood, Nicholas, his parents and siblings made annual visits to the Danish royal palaces of Fredensborg and Bernstorff to visit his grandparents, the king and queen. The visits also served as family reunions, as his mothers siblings would come from the United Kingdom, Germany. It was there in 1883, that he had a flirtation with one of his English first cousins, in 1873, Nicholas also accompanied his parents and younger brother, two-year-old George, on a two-month, semi-official visit to England. In London, Nicholas and his family stayed at Marlborough House, as guests of his Uncle Bertie and Aunt Alix, the Prince and Princess of Wales, where he was spoiled by his uncle
3.
Pyotr Stolypin
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Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin, chairman of the Council of Ministers, served as Prime Minister, and Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire from 1906 to 1911. His tenure was marked by efforts to counter revolutionary groups and by the implementation of agrarian reforms. Stolypin was a monarchist and hoped to strengthen the throne and he is considered one of the last major statesmen of Imperial Russia with clearly defined public policies and the determination to undertake major reforms. Stolypin seems to have born in Dresden on 14 April 1862. Arkady Dmitrievich Stolypin, his father, was a general in the Russian artillery, Pyotr grew up on the family estate Serednikovo, once inhabited by Mikhail Lermontov, and near Moscow. From 1869, Stolypin spent his years in Kalnaberžė manor, built by his father. In 1876, the Stolypin family moved to Vilnius, where he studied at the grammar school. In 1879 the family moved to Oryol, Stolypin and his brother Aleksandr studied at the Oryol Boys College where he was described by his teacher, B. Fedorova as ‘standing out amongst his peers for his rationalism and character. ’ In 1881 he studied agriculture at St. Petersburg University where one of his teachers was Dmitri Mendeleev. He entered government service upon graduating in 1885, writing his thesis on tobacco growing in the south of Russia and it is unclear if he joined the Ministry of State Property or Internal Affairs. Stolypin served as marshal of the Kovno Governorate between 1889 and 1902 and this public service gave him an inside view of local needs and allowed him to develop administrative skills. He was fascinated by the lifestyle of the Northwestern Krai and sought to propagate their privately owned. Stolypin’s service in Kovno was recognised as a success by the Russian government – he was promoted seven times, four of his daughters were also born during this period – his daughter Maria recalled “this was the most calm period his life”. In 1884, Stolypin married Olga Borisovna Neidhart – whose family was of a similar standing to Stolypin’s and they married whilst Stolypin was still a student – an uncommon occurrence at the time. The marriage began in tragic circumstances, Olga had been engaged to Stolypin’s brother, Mikhail and their marriage was a happy one, devoid of scandal, the couple had five daughters and one son. In May 1902 Stolypin was appointed governor in Grodno, where he was the youngest person appointed to this position. In February 1903 he became governor of Saratov, Stolypin is known for suppressing strikers and peasant unrest in January 1905. According to Orlando Figes its peasants were among the poorest and most rebellious in the whole of the country and it seems he cooperated with the zemstvos, the local government
4.
Ivan Goremykin
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Ivan Logginovitch Goremykin was a conservative Russian politician who served as Prime Minister in 1906, and from 1914–1916, during World War I. He was the last person to have the rank of Active Privy Councillor. He was born on 8 November 1839 into a noble family, in 1860 he completed studies at the Imperial School of Jurisprudence and became a lawyer in Saint Petersburg. In the Senate Goremykin became responsible for agriculture in Congress Poland, in 1866 he was appointed as vice governor in Płock and 1869 in Kielce. In 1891 he was appointed as deputy minister of justice, considered being an expert on the peasant question, within a year he moved to the Ministry of the Interior, becoming Minister from 1895-1899. He was apparently well liked by the Empress Alexandra, in 1897 Vladimir Chertkov, a leading member of the Tolstoyan movement, was banned by Goremykin or his ministry. While heading the Interior Ministry he submitted a proposal to the Tsar advocating administrative reform, faced with opposition to the program, he left the position in 1899. In April 1906, Sergei Witte, a reformist, was succeeded by Goremykin and he was replaced by his Minister of Interior, the younger and more forceful Peter Stolypin. Called back to service by the Tsar, he served as Chairman of the Council of Ministers from April 1914 to February 1916. Vladimir Kokovtsov was replaced by the decrepit and absent-minded Goremykin, seventy-five years of age, a conservative, and a life-long bureaucrat, he was, in his own words, ‘pulled like a winter coat out of mothballs, ’ to lead the government. The hostility expressed toward him by members of both the State Duma and the Council of Ministers greatly impaired the effectiveness of his government. When Nicholas II decided to direct command of the army, Goremykin and Alexander Krivoshein begged the Tsar not to lead the army. All the ministers realized that the change would put the Empress and Rasputin in charge, Goremykin urged the Council to endorse the decision. When they refused, Goremykin told the Tsar that he was not fitted and asked to be replaced with a man of modern views. He held a hostile attitude towards the Imperial Duma and the Progressive Bloc and his wish for retirement was granted at the beginning of February 1916, when he was replaced by Boris Stürmer. Stürmer was not opposed to the convening of the Duma, as Goremykin had been, in May Kerensky agreed to his release, on condition that he retired to his datcha in Sochi. On 24 December 1917 he was murdered in a raid, together with his wife, his daughter. Goremykins conservatism and inability to function in a system made him largely unsuitable for the position of head of government during the last years of Imperial Russia
5.
Ivan Logginovich Goremykin
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Ivan Logginovitch Goremykin was a conservative Russian politician who served as Prime Minister in 1906, and from 1914–1916, during World War I. He was the last person to have the rank of Active Privy Councillor. He was born on 8 November 1839 into a noble family, in 1860 he completed studies at the Imperial School of Jurisprudence and became a lawyer in Saint Petersburg. In the Senate Goremykin became responsible for agriculture in Congress Poland, in 1866 he was appointed as vice governor in Płock and 1869 in Kielce. In 1891 he was appointed as deputy minister of justice, considered being an expert on the peasant question, within a year he moved to the Ministry of the Interior, becoming Minister from 1895-1899. He was apparently well liked by the Empress Alexandra, in 1897 Vladimir Chertkov, a leading member of the Tolstoyan movement, was banned by Goremykin or his ministry. While heading the Interior Ministry he submitted a proposal to the Tsar advocating administrative reform, faced with opposition to the program, he left the position in 1899. In April 1906, Sergei Witte, a reformist, was succeeded by Goremykin and he was replaced by his Minister of Interior, the younger and more forceful Peter Stolypin. Called back to service by the Tsar, he served as Chairman of the Council of Ministers from April 1914 to February 1916. Vladimir Kokovtsov was replaced by the decrepit and absent-minded Goremykin, seventy-five years of age, a conservative, and a life-long bureaucrat, he was, in his own words, ‘pulled like a winter coat out of mothballs, ’ to lead the government. The hostility expressed toward him by members of both the State Duma and the Council of Ministers greatly impaired the effectiveness of his government. When Nicholas II decided to direct command of the army, Goremykin and Alexander Krivoshein begged the Tsar not to lead the army. All the ministers realized that the change would put the Empress and Rasputin in charge, Goremykin urged the Council to endorse the decision. When they refused, Goremykin told the Tsar that he was not fitted and asked to be replaced with a man of modern views. He held a hostile attitude towards the Imperial Duma and the Progressive Bloc and his wish for retirement was granted at the beginning of February 1916, when he was replaced by Boris Stürmer. Stürmer was not opposed to the convening of the Duma, as Goremykin had been, in May Kerensky agreed to his release, on condition that he retired to his datcha in Sochi. On 24 December 1917 he was murdered in a raid, together with his wife, his daughter. Goremykins conservatism and inability to function in a system made him largely unsuitable for the position of head of government during the last years of Imperial Russia
6.
Ivan Shipov
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Ivan Pavlovich Shipov was an Imperial Russian politician. After graduating from the Imperial Alexander Lyceum, he entered the Ministry of Finance and he rose to the position of Assistant Director of the Special Credit Office, and was eventually Director of the General Office. In addition, he served on the Board of the State Bank in 1902–1905, in 1905, he was appointed Minister of Finance during the Witte government. In 1906, he left that position when Witte resigned, due in part to his association with Witte. The circumstances of Shipovs death are uncertain, but seem to coincide with many political arrests, count Sergei Witte and the Twilight of Imperial Russia, A Biography
7.
Pyotr Bark
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Pyotr Lvovich Bark later Sir Peter Bark, was a Russian statesman. Bark was born in Novotroitskoye village in Yekaterinoslav Governorate, He was descended from a family from Latvia. His father Karl Ludwig Bark was a manager for the Royal forests. After studying law in St. Petersburg university, Pyotr Bark entered Credit Chancellery of the Ministry of Finance in 1891, later he acted as a private secretary to the governor of the State Bank of Russia. In 1903 he went to Berlin to study banking with Mendelssohn & Co, on his return he was appointed manager of the foreign department of the State Bank. Later he became deputy Governor of the State Bank and he resigned from his post in 1907 to accept appointment in private Volga-Kama Bank. In 1911 Bark was appointed Assistant Minister of Commerce and Industry, In 1914 he was appointed Minister of Finance and he served in that position throughout the First World War until the abdication of Nicholas II. Although briefly detained by the Provisional Government he was released after which he immigrated to the west. Held the position of Managing-Director of the Anglo-International Bank based in London, knighted by King George V of the United Kingdom and the other realms in 1935 for his contributions to banking industry. Bark married Baronness Sofia Leopoldovna von Behr and had two children, a daughter, Nina and a son, Georgiy Bark died in Aubagne, count Sergei Witte and the Twilight of Imperial Russia, A Biography. The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol.16, No
8.
Sergei Witte
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Witte was neither a liberal or a conservative. He attracted foreign capital to boost Russias industrialization, Witte served under the last two emperors of Russia, Alexander III and Nicholas II. During the Russo-Turkish War he had risen to a position in which he controlled all the passing to the front along the lines of the Odessa Railways. As Minister of Finance Witte presided over extensive industrialization and the management of various railroad lines and he framed the October Manifesto of 1905, and the accompanying government communication, but was not convinced it would solve Russias problem with the Tsarist autocracy. On 20 October 1905 he became the first Chairman of the Russian Council of Ministers, assisted by his Council he designed Russias first constitution. Within a few months he fell in disgrace within court circles as a reformer and he resigned before the First Duma assembled. He has been described as the great reforming finance minister of the 1890s, one of Nicholass most enlightened ministers, Wittes father Christoph Hendrik Georg Witte descended from a Lutheran Baltic family of Dutch origin and converted to Russian Orthodoxy upon marriage with Yekaterina Fadeyeva. He became a member of the knighthood in Pskov, but moved to Saratov, Sergei was raised on the estate of his mothers parents. His grandfather was Andrei Mikhailovich Fadeyev, a Governor of Saratov and Privy Councillor of the Caucasus, Sergei had two brothers and two sisters, and the mystic Helena Blavatsky was their first cousin. He entered a Tiflis gymnasium, but he took more interest in music, Sergei finished Gymnasium I in Kishinev and commenced studying Physico-Mathematical Sciences at the Novorossiysk University in Odessa in 1866 graduating top of his class in 1870. Witte had initially planned to pursue a career in academia with the aim of becoming a professor in Theoretical Mathematics and his relatives took a dim view of this career path as it was considered unsuitable for a noble at the time. He was instead persuaded by Count Vladimir Alekseyevich Bobrinsk, then Minister of Ways and Communication, at the end of this period he was appointed chief of the traffic office. After a wreck on the Odessa Railways in late 1875 cost many lives, in 1879, Witte accepted a post in St. Petersburg, where he met his future wife. He moved to Kiev the following year, in 1883, he published a paper on Principles of railway tariffs for cargo transportation, in which he also spoke out on social issues and the role of the monarchy. In 1886, he was appointed manager of the privately held Southwestern Railways, based in Kiev and his warnings were proven in the October 1888 Borki train disaster, which resulted in the appointment of Witte to the position of Director of State Railways. Witte worked in management for twenty years, starting out as a ticket clerk. He served as Russian Director of Railway Affairs within the Finance Ministry from 1889 to 1891, until then less than one-fourth of the small railway systems was under direct state control, but Witte set about making the railway service a monopoly of the State. Witte also obtained the right to assign employees based on their performance and this resulted in a new customs law for Russia in 1891, which spurred an increase in industrialization in Russia towards the turn of the century
9.
Eduard Pleske
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Eduard Pleske Eduard Pleske was born into a noble family in the Russian Empire. He was educated in the Imperial Alexander Lyceum, after graduation, he joined the Ministry of Finance. Pleske was Assistant Director and later Director of the Special Credit Office, Eduard Pleske also held the position of Head of the State Bank of the Russian Empire, and his signature can be seen in many Russian banknotes dated 1895–1899. He was appointed Assistant Minister of Finance under Sergei Witte in 1903 and he succeeded Witte on 16 August 1903 after Witte was shunted aside to the position of Chairman of the Committee of Ministers. He died in office on the 4 February 1904 and he was also briefly a member of the Imperial State Council in 1904. Eduard Pleske published in 1885, Reference Guide to Tax collectors, State Chambers and Treasuries Eduard Pleske signature on Russian banknotes
10.
Borovichi
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As of the 2010 Census, its population was 53,690. The Msta River was an important waterway since at least the 10th century, since it connected Novgorod with the basins of the Volga, the settlement was first mentioned in 1495. It was granted town status in 1770 by Catherine the Great, the main occupation of the towns inhabitants was piloting ships through the rapids of the Msta River that used to be a part of an important waterway connecting Central Russia with the Baltic Sea. However, by the century, after opening of the Volga–Baltic Waterway and the Moscow-Saint Petersburg Railway. In the course of the administrative reform carried out in 1708 by Peter the Great, in 1727, separate Novgorod Governorate was split off. In 1773, Borovichsky Uyezd was established, in 1776, the area was transferred to Novgorod Viceroyalty. In 1796, the viceroyalty was abolished and Borovichsky Uyezd was transferred to Novgorod Governorate, sources of fire clay were discovered near the town in the 19th century, and the first fire brick manufacturing plant opened in the region in 1855. In 1878, a branch connected the town to Uglovka station of the Moscow-Saint Petersburg Railway. Now about half of the population is employed in the fire brick industry. In 1905, the first arch bridge in Russia was built in Borovichi across the Msta, on August 1,1927, the uyezds were abolished, and Borovichsky District was established, with the administrative center in Borovichi. The district was a part of Borovichi Okrug of Leningrad Oblast, the town of Borovichi initially belonged to the district, but from 1930 it was elevated in status to that of a town of oblast significance. On July 5,1944, Borovichsky District was transferred to newly established Novgorod Oblast, within the framework of administrative divisions, Borovichi serves as the administrative center of Borovichsky District, even though it is not a part of it. As an administrative division, it is incorporated separately as the town of oblast significance of Borovichi—an administrative unit with the equal to that of the districts. As a municipal division, the town of oblast significance of Borovichi is incorporated within Borovichsky Municipal District as Borovichi Urban Settlement, in Borovichi, there are enterprises of construction material production, timber industry, and food industry. There is also production of woodworking machines and of engines, Borovichi is connected by a railroad with Uglovka and thus with the railway between Moscow and Saint Petersburg. There are road connections to Tikhvin, Okulovka, and Pestovo, Borovichi is a local bus transportation hub. The town is home to the Borovichi Regional Museum, the famous rapids of the Msta River popular among tourists are located just upstream from Borovichi. Bandy club Borovichi is the professional sports team in Novgorod Oblast
11.
Russian Empire
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The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until it was overthrown by the short-lived February Revolution in 1917. One of the largest empires in history, stretching over three continents, the Russian Empire was surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires. The rise of the Russian Empire happened in association with the decline of neighboring powers, the Swedish Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Persia. It played a role in 1812–14 in defeating Napoleons ambitions to control Europe. The House of Romanov ruled the Russian Empire from 1721 until 1762, and its German-descended cadet branch, with 125.6 million subjects registered by the 1897 census, it had the third-largest population in the world at the time, after Qing China and India. Like all empires, it included a large disparity in terms of economics, ethnicity, there were numerous dissident elements, who launched numerous rebellions and assassination attempts, they were closely watched by the secret police, with thousands exiled to Siberia. Economically, the empire had an agricultural base, with low productivity on large estates worked by serfs. The economy slowly industrialized with the help of foreign investments in railways, the land was ruled by a nobility from the 10th through the 17th centuries, and subsequently by an emperor. Tsar Ivan III laid the groundwork for the empire that later emerged and he tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Golden Horde, renovated the Moscow Kremlin, and laid the foundations of the Russian state. Tsar Peter the Great fought numerous wars and expanded an already huge empire into a major European power, Catherine the Great presided over a golden age. She expanded the state by conquest, colonization and diplomacy, continuing Peter the Greats policy of modernisation along West European lines, Tsar Alexander II promoted numerous reforms, most dramatically the emancipation of all 23 million serfs in 1861. His policy in Eastern Europe involved protecting the Orthodox Christians under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and that connection by 1914 led to Russias entry into the First World War on the side of France, Britain, and Serbia, against the German, Austrian and Ottoman empires. The Russian Empire functioned as a monarchy until the Revolution of 1905. The empire collapsed during the February Revolution of 1917, largely as a result of failures in its participation in the First World War. Perhaps the latter was done to make Europe recognize Russia as more of a European country, Poland was divided in the 1790-1815 era, with much of the land and population going to Russia. Most of the 19th century growth came from adding territory in Asia, Peter I the Great introduced autocracy in Russia and played a major role in introducing his country to the European state system. However, this vast land had a population of 14 million, grain yields trailed behind those of agriculture in the West, compelling nearly the entire population to farm. Only a small percentage lived in towns, the class of kholops, close to the one of slavery, remained a major institution in Russia until 1723, when Peter I converted household kholops into house serfs, thus including them in poll taxation
12.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
13.
Russians
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Russians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe. The majority of Russians inhabit the state of Russia, while notable minorities exist in Ukraine, Kazakhstan. A large Russian diaspora exists all over the world, with numbers in the United States, Germany, Israel. Russians are the most numerous group in Europe. They are predominantly Orthodox Christians by religion, the Russian language is official in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, and also spoken as a secondary language in many former Soviet states. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians. One is русские, which most often means ethnic Russians, another is россияне, which means citizens of Russia. The former word refers to ethnic Russians, regardless of what country they live in, under certain circumstances this term may or may not extend to denote members of other Russian-speaking ethnic groups from Russia, or from the former Soviet Union. The latter word refers to all people holding citizenship of Russia, regardless of their ethnicity, translations into other languages often do not distinguish these two groups. The name of the Russians derives from the Rus people, the name Rus would then have the same origin as the Finnish and Estonian names for Sweden, Ruotsi and Rootsi. According to other theories the name Rus is derived from Proto-Slavic *roud-s-ь, the modern Russians formed from two groups of East Slavic tribes, Northern and Southern. The tribes involved included the Krivichs, Ilmen Slavs, Radimichs, Vyatiches, genetic studies show that modern Russians do not differ significantly from Belarusians and Ukrainians. Some ethnographers, like Zelenin, affirm that Russians are more similar to Belarusians, such Uralic peoples included the Merya and the Muromians. Outside archaeological remains, little is known about the predecessors to Russians in general prior to 859 AD when the Primary Chronicle starts its records and it is thought that by 600 AD, the Slavs had split linguistically into southern, western, and eastern branches. Later, both Belarusians and South Russians formed on this ethnic linguistic ground, the same Slavic ethnic population also settled the present-day Tver Oblast and the region of Beloozero. With the Uralic substratum, they formed the tribes of the Krivichs, in 2010, the worlds Russian population was 129 million people of which 86% were in Russia,11. 5% in the CIS and Baltic countries, with a further 2. 5% living in other countries. Roughly 111 million ethnic Russians live in Russia, 80% of whom live in the European part of Russia, ethnic Russians historically migrated throughout the area of former Russian Empire and Soviet Union, sometimes encouraged to re-settle in borderlands by the Tsarist and later Soviet government. On some occasions ethnic Russian communities, such as Lipovans who settled in the Danube delta or Doukhobors in Canada, after the Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War starting in 1917, many Russians were forced to leave their homeland fleeing the Bolshevik regime, and millions became refugees
14.
Alma mater
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Alma mater is an allegorical Latin phrase for a university or college. In modern usage, it is a school or university which an individual has attended, the phrase is variously translated as nourishing mother, nursing mother, or fostering mother, suggesting that a school provides intellectual nourishment to its students. Before its modern usage, Alma mater was a title in Latin for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele. The source of its current use is the motto, Alma Mater Studiorum, of the oldest university in continuous operation in the Western world and it is related to the term alumnus, denoting a university graduate, which literally means a nursling or one who is nourished. The phrase can also denote a song or hymn associated with a school, although alma was a common epithet for Ceres, Cybele, Venus, and other mother goddesses, it was not frequently used in conjunction with mater in classical Latin. Alma Redemptoris Mater is a well-known 11th century antiphon devoted to Mary, the earliest documented English use of the term to refer to a university is in 1600, when University of Cambridge printer John Legate began using an emblem for the universitys press. In English etymological reference works, the first university-related usage is often cited in 1710, many historic European universities have adopted Alma Mater as part of the Latin translation of their official name. The University of Bologna Latin name, Alma Mater Studiorum, refers to its status as the oldest continuously operating university in the world. At least one, the Alma Mater Europaea in Salzburg, Austria, the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, has been called the Alma Mater of the Nation because of its ties to the founding of the United States. At Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, the ancient Roman world had many statues of the Alma Mater, some still extant. Modern sculptures are found in prominent locations on several American university campuses, outside the United States, there is an Alma Mater sculpture on the steps of the monumental entrance to the Universidad de La Habana, in Havana, Cuba. Media related to Alma mater at Wikimedia Commons The dictionary definition of alma mater at Wiktionary Alma Mater Europaea website
15.
Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum
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Furniture and utensils were given together with the Neoclassical building, designed by Vasily Stasov, next to the Catherine Palace. The Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum was opened on October 19,1811, the first graduates included Alexander Pushkin and Alexander Gorchakov. The opening date was celebrated each year with carousals and revels, in January 1844 the Lyceum was moved to St Petersburg. During the 33 years of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceums existence, there were 286 graduates, list of Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum people THE IMPERIAL LYCEUM - from Tsarskoye Selo in 1910 Pushkin and the Lyceum
16.
Count
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Count or countess is a title in European countries for a noble of varying status, but historically deemed to convey an approximate rank intermediate between the highest and lowest titles of nobility. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning “companion”, the adjective form of the word is comital. The British and Irish equivalent is an earl, alternative names for the count rank in the nobility structure are used in other countries, such as Graf in Germany and Hakushaku during the Japanese Imperial era. In the Western Roman Empire, Count came to indicate generically a military commander, in the Eastern Roman Empire, from about the seventh century, count was a specific rank indicating the commander of two centuries. Military counts in the Late Empire and the Germanic successor kingdoms were often appointed by a dux, the position of comes was originally not hereditary. By virtue of their estates, many counts could pass the title to their heirs—but not always. For instance, in Piast Poland, the position of komes was not hereditary, the title had disappeared by the era of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the office had been replaced by others. Only after the Partitions of Poland did the title of count resurface in the title hrabia, in the United Kingdom, the equivalent Earl can also be used as a courtesy title for the eldest son of a duke or marquess. In Italy, by contrast, all the sons of certain counts were counts, in Sweden there is a distinction between counts created before and after 1809. All children in comital families elevated before 1809 are called count/countess, the following lists are originally based on a Glossary on Heraldica. org by Alexander Krischnig. The male form is followed by the female, and when available, apart from all these, a few unusual titles have been of comital rank, not necessarily to remain there. Dauphin was a comital title in southern France, used by the Dauphins of Vienne and Auvergne. The Dauphin was the lord of the province known as the région Dauphiné. Conde-Barão Count-Baron is a title used in Portugal, notably by D. Luís Lobo da Silveira, 7th Baron of Alvito. His palace in Lisbon still exists, located in a named after him. The German Graf and Dutch graaf stems from the Byzantine-Greek grapheus meaning he who calls a meeting together), the Ottoman military title of Serdar was used in Montenegro and Serbia as a lesser noble title with the equivalent rank of a Count. Since Louis VII, the highest precedence amongst the vassals of the French crown was enjoyed by those whose benefice or temporal fief was a pairie, i. e. In the eleventh century, conti like the Count of Savoy or the Norman Count of Apulia, were virtually sovereign lords of broad territories
17.
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
18.
Emperor of All Russia
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Emperor of All Russia, Empress of All Russia was the title of the ruler of the Russian Empire from 1721 to 1917. It was created in connection with the victory in the Great Northern War, the suffix of All Russia was transformed from the previous version of All Rus. Article 1 of the Fundamental Laws of the Russian Empire stated that Emperor of All Russia is an autocratic, to obey his supreme authority, not only out of fear but out of conscience as well, God himself commands. The article points to the fact that Russia had an unrestricted monarchy, the full title of the emperor in the 20th century, The title of the Emperor of All Russia was introduced to Peter the Great. On November 2,1721 Peter I accepted the title, since then the Russian State was referred to as the Russian Empire
19.
Novgorod Governorate
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Novgorod Governorate, was an administrative division of the Russian Empire, which existed from 1727 to 1776 and from 1796 to 1927. Its administrative center was in the city of Novgorod, the governorate was located in the northwest of the Russian Empire. The governorate was established in 1727 from Belozersk, Novgorod, Pskov, Tver and it was abolished by a decree of Catherine II on September 5,1776, which established Novgorod and Tver Viceroyalties instead. Novgorod Viceroyalty included Novgorod and Olonets Oblast, whereas Tver Viceroyalty was made of the former Tver Province, after 1796, Novgorod Viceroyalty was mentioned in official documents only as Novgorod Governorate. This second Novgorod Governorate existed until 1927, when its territory was included into Leningrad Oblast, in 1927, it only comprised a larger part of current Novgorod Oblast and a small part of Tver Oblast. In 1727, the description of Novgorod Governorates borders was not given, instead, the territory was defined as a set of cities and the lands adjacent to those cities. In 1764, Jacob Sievers was appointed governor of Novgorod and he suggested that Vyshny Volochyok, Valday, Borovichi, and Ostashkov would be chartered instead. In 1770, these towns were indeed chartered, Novgorod Governorate bordered Poland in the west until 1772. In 1772, as a result of the First Partition of Poland, parts of Livonia, in order to accommodate these areas, Pskov Governorate was created, and Velikiye Luki and Pskov Provinces were transferred to this governorate. In 1773, Olonetsky Uyezd was incorporated as Olonets Province but still remained in Novgorod Governorate, the province consisted of three uyezds with the centers in Olonets, Vytegra, and Padansky Pogost. In the same year, Porkhovsky, Gdovsky, Ladozhsky, Starorussky, in 1802, Olonets Governorate was restored in pre-1796 borders. It included Petrozavodsky, Olonetsky, Kargopolsky, Vytegorsky, and Lodeynopolsky Uyezds, simultaneously, Krestetsky Uyezd, Kirillovsky Uyezd, and Cherepovetsky Uyezd were re-established. In 1816, Novgorod Governorate became the area where military settlements were deployed, in accordance with the project designed by Aleksey Arakcheyev and it was inconvenient to have both civial and military administration in Staraya Russa, and therefore Starorussky Uyezd was abolished in 1824. The town of Staraya Russa and some adjacent territories were subordinated to the Defense Ministry. Simultaneously, Demyansk was chartered, and Demyansky Uyezd was established, military settlements were established in Novgorodsky, Demyansky, and Krestetsky Uyezds. The military settlements were proven inefficient, in particular, in 1831, in 1857, Starorussky Uyezd was re-established. In 1917, two towns of the governorate were chartered but did not become uyezd centers, Bologoye and Lyuban, in 1920, Malovishersky Uyezd was established, however, Malaya Vishera was not chartered until 1921. In 1922, Krestetsky District was abolished, in June 1918, five uyezds of the Novgorod Governorate were split off to create Cherepovets Governorate, with the administrative center located in Cherepovets
20.
Saint Petersburg State University
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Saint Petersburg State University is a Russian federal state-owned higher education institution based in Saint Petersburg. It is the oldest and one of the largest universities in Russia, the university has two primary campuses, one on Vasilievsky Island and the other in Peterhof. During the Soviet period, it was known as Leningrad State University and it was named after Andrei Zhdanov in 1948. Saint Petersburg State University is the second best multi-faculty university in Russia after Moscow State University, the university has a reputation for having educated the majority of Russias political elite, these include presidents Vladimir Putin and Dimitry Medvedev, both of whom studied Law at the university. The university is Russias oldest university, founded in 1724 by Peter the Great, Saint Petersburg state university is included in all ratings and lists of the best universities in the world and is one of the leaders in all indicators in Russia. The university was the first from Russian universities to join The Coimbra Group and it is disputed by the university administration whether Saint Petersburg State University or Moscow State University is the oldest higher education institution in Russia. The Petersburg Pedagogical Institute, renamed the Main Pedagogical Institute in 1814, was established in 1804, in 1823 most of the university moved from the Twelve Collegia to the southern part of the city beyond the Fontanka. In 1824 a modified version of the charter of Moscow University was adopted as the first charter of the Saint Petersburg Imperial University, in 1829 there were 19 full professors and 169 full-time and part-time students at the university. In 1830 Tsar Nicholas returned the building of the Twelve Collegia back to the university. In 1835 a new Charter of the Imperial Universities of Russia was approved, however, Pyotr Pletnyov was reappointed Rector and ultimately became the longest-serving rector of Saint Petersburg University. In 1855 Oriental studies were separated from the Faculty of History and Philology, in 1859–1861 female part-time students could attend lectures in the university. In 1861 there were 1,270 full-time and 167 part-time students in the university, of them 498 were in the Faculty of Law, many Russian, Georgian etc. managers, engineers and scientists studied at the Faculty of law therefore. During 1861–1862 there was student unrest in the university, and it was closed twice during the year. The students were denied freedom of assembly and placed under police surveillance, after the unrest, in 1865, only 524 students remained. A decree of the Emperor Alexander II of Russia adopted on 18 February 1863 restored the right of the university assembly to elect the rector and it also formed the new faculty of the theory and history of art as part of the faculty of history and philology. In March 1869, student unrest shook the university again but on a smaller scale, by 1869,2,588 students had graduated from the university. In 1880 the Ministry of National Enlightenment forbade students to marry, in 1882 another student unrest took place in the university. In 1884 a new Charter of the Imperial Russian Universities was adopted, on March 1,1887 a group of the university students was arrested while planning an attempt on the life of Alexander III of Russia
21.
Aleksandr Gradovsky
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Aleksandr Gradovsky was a Russian jurist. A professor of law at St. Petersburg University since 1869, he was a leading theorist of Russian administrative and he was succeeded by Nikolay Korkunov. Juristen, ein biographisches Lexikon, von der Antike bis zum 20
22.
Alexei Khvostov
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Aleksey Nikolayevich Khvostov was a Russian statesman and politician. He opposed constitutional reforms and was an anti-semite, Khvostov was born in a noble family of land proprietors. After finishing the Imperial Alexander Lyceum in Tsarskoye Selo, he became a student in Law, in 1898 he married Ekaterina Popova, the daughter of Alexander Popov, a lawyer. In 1904 he became governor of Minsk and later that year was appointed in Tula. In 1906 Khvostov became Vice Governor and then Governor of Nizhny Novgorod, when Pyotr Stolypin was murdered Grigori Rasputin paid him a visit in order of the Tsar to look in his soul, but came to the conclusion he was too young to be appointed as minister. In 1912 he was elected to the Fourth Imperial State Duma as a member and president of the Russian Assembly and he was Minister of the Interior from September 26,1915 to March 3,1916. His uncle Aleksandr Khvostov was opposed to the appointment of his nephew, the Russian Minister of the Interior, A. N. Chvostov, has declared himself in favor of inaugurating a fight against the yellow press. Not long ago, some of these newspapers were involved in society scandals, mr. Chvostovs Ministry has under consideration a plan for exiling from Petrograd the journalists who were connected with the newspapers involved in the scandals. After Khvostov came into office he began to intrigue against his colleagues, against the Prime Minister himself in order to get his place, Khvostov and Iliodor concocted a plan to kill Rasputin. Khvostov had come to the conclusion that Rasputin was a German spy or agent, evidence that Rasputin actually worked for the Germans is flimsy at best. In his efforts to plot against Rasputin Khvostov had to resign, after Boris Stürmer, his uncle Aleksandr Khvostov, became his successor. Khvostov was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress by the Russian Provisional Government during the February Revolution of 1917, in 1918, less than a year after the Bolsheviks seized power he was executed by firing squad in Petrovsky Park, Moscow
23.
Grigori Rasputin
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Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was a Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man who befriended the family of Tsar Nicholas II and gained considerable influence in late imperial Russia. Born to a peasant family in the Siberian village of Pokrovskoye and he has been described as a monk or as a strannik, though he held no official position in the Russian Orthodox Church. After traveling to St. Petersburg, either in 1903 or the winter of 1904-5, Rasputin captivated some church and he became a society figure, and met the Tsar in November 1905. In late 1906, Rasputin began acting as a healer for the Nicholas II and Alexandras son Alexei, at court, he was a divisive figure, seen by some Russians as a mystic, visionary, and prophet, and by others as a religious charlatan. The high point of Rasputins power was in 1915, when Nicholas II left St Petersburg to oversee Russian armies fighting World War I, as Russian defeats in the war mounted, however, both Rasputin and Alexandra became increasingly unpopular. On the night of 29-30 December 1916 Rasputin was assassinated by a group of noblemen who opposed his influence over Alexandra. Some writers have suggested that Rasputin helped to discredit the tsarist government, and thus helped to precipitate the Russian Revolution, very little about Rasputins life and influence is certain, however, as accounts have often been based on hearsay, rumor, and legend. Rasputin was born a peasant in the village of Pokrovskoye. His father, Efim, was a peasant farmer and church elder who had born in Pokrovskoye in 1842. Efim also worked as a government courier, ferrying people and goods between Tobolsk and Tyumen,6,14 The couple had seven children, all of whom died in infancy. There may have been a child, Feodosiya. After a courtship of several months, they married in February 1887, praskovya remained in Pokrovskoye throughout Rasputins later travels and rise to prominence, and remained devoted to him until his death. Building a makeshift chapel in Efims root cellar - Rasputin was still living within his fathers household at the time - the group held secret meetings there. Petersburg Theological Seminary at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, and arranged for him to travel to St. Petersburg, during this time, however, Rasputin wrote several letters to the Tsar. 69-76 Rasputin was wandering as a pilgrim in Siberia when he heard reports of Tsarevich Alexeis illness. This made it appear that Rasputin was effectively healing him, skeptics have claimed that he did so by hypnosis. His pragmatic tips included suggestions such as Dont let the doctors bother him too much, Rasputin had a considerable personal and political influence on Alexandra, and the Tsar and Tsarina considered him a man of God and a religious prophet. Alexandra came to believe that God spoke to her through Rasputin, of course, this relationship can also be viewed in the context of the very strong, traditional, age-old bond between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian state leadership. Another important factor was probably the Tsarinas German-Protestant origin and she was definitely highly fascinated by her new Orthodox outlook — the Orthodox religion puts a great deal of faith in the healing powers of prayer
24.
Tobolsk
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Tobolsk is a town in Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Tobol and Irtysh Rivers. It is a capital of Siberia. Situated where the River Irtysh turns from flowing westward to flowing northward and it became the seat of the newly established Siberia Governorate in 1708 and prospered on trade with China to the east and with Bukhara to the south. Tobolsk saw the establishment of the first school, theater, after the Russians defeated the Swedish army at Poltava in 1709, large numbers of Swedish prisoners were sent to Tobolsk. They numbered about 25% of the total population, many of them were not repatriated until the 1720s, and some of them settled permanently in Tobolsk. After administrative division of the territory, Tobolsk remained the seat of the Governor-General of Western Siberia until the seat moved to Omsk in the 1820s or 1830s. Acknowledging the authority of Tobolsk, many Siberian towns, including Omsk, Tyumen, Omsk continues to honor the legacy as of 2015. From 1796 until 1919, the served as the seat of Tobolsk Governorate. After 1825 some of the Decembrists were exiled and lived there as well, the towns relative importance declined when the Trans-Siberian Railway line between Tyumen and Omsk bypassed it to the south in the 1890s. In August 1917, after the February Revolution, the Provisional Government evacuated Tsar Nicholas II, after a White Army approached the city in spring of 1918, the Bolsheviks moved the imperial family west to Yekaterinburg in the Urals and had them shot there in July 1918. Within the framework of administrative divisions, Tobolsk serves as the center of Tobolsky District. As an administrative division, it is, together with one urban-type settlement, as a municipal division, the Town of Tobolsk is incorporated as Tobolsk Urban Okrug. The economy of modern Tobolsk centers on a oil refinery. Some traditional crafts, such as bone-carving, are also preserved, Tobolsk has a humid continental climate bordering on a subarctic climate. Winters are very cold with temperatures from −21.6 °C to −12.7 °C in January. Precipitation is moderate and is higher in summer than at other times of the year. Tobolsk is the town in Siberia and one of the few in Russia which has a standing stone kremlin. Its white walls and towers with an ensemble of churches and palatial buildings spectacularly sited on a river bank were proclaimed a national historical and architectural treasure in 1870
25.
February Revolution
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The February Revolution, known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution was the first of two Russian revolutions in 1917. The revolution centered on Petrograd, then the Russian capital, arguably beginning on 8 March, Revolutionary activity was largely confined to the capital and its vicinity, and lasted about eight days. It involved mass demonstrations and armed clashes with police and gendarmes, on 12 March mutinous Russian Army forces sided with the revolutionaries. Three days later the result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, Russian Council of Ministers was replaced by a Russian Provisional Government under Prince Georgy Lvov. The revolution appeared to break out spontaneously, without any leadership or formal planning. Russia had been suffering from a number of economic and social problems, bread rioters primarily women in bread lines, and industrial strikers were joined on the streets by disaffected soldiers from the citys garrison. As more and more troops deserted, and with loyal troops away at the Front, in all, over 1,300 people were killed in the protests of February 1917. A number of factors contributed to the downfall of the Imperial government in the spring of 1917, different historians apply different weights to different factors, liberal historians emphasise the turmoil created by the war, whereas Marxists emphasise the inevitability of change. Rabinowitch summarizes the main long-term and short-term causes, The February 1917 revolution, despite its occurrence at the height of World War I, the roots of the February Revolution date much further back. As historian Richard Pipes writes, the incompatibility of capitalism and autocracy struck all who gave thought to the matter. The first major event of the Russian Revolution was the February Revolution, dissatisfaction of proletarians was compounded by food shortages and military failures. Widespread strikes, riots and the mutiny on the Battleship Potemkin ensued. These conditions caused much agitation among the working and professional classes. This tension erupted into revolt with the 1905 Revolution, and again under the strain of war in 1917. The revolution was provoked by Russian military failures during the First World War, the economic challenges faced due to fighting a total war also contributed. In August 1914, all supported and virtually all political deputies voted in favour of the war. The exceptions included the Bolshevik Party and specifically Vladimir Lenin who argued it was not a war fighting. The declaration of war was followed by a revival of nationalism across Russian society, nearly six million casualties—dead, wounded and missing—had been accrued by January 1917
26.
Kislovodsk
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Kislovodsk is a spa city in Stavropol Krai, Russia, in the North Caucasus region of Russia which is located between the Black and Caspian Seas. In 1803 Tsar Alexander I of Russia ordered the construction of the station which became Kislovodsk. The site took its name from the mineral springs around the city. The settlement gained town status in 1903, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Kislovodsk as a fashionable spa attracted many musicians, artists, and members of the Russian aristocracy. Several of the events in Mikhail Lermontovs 1840 novel A Hero of Our Time take place in Kislovodsk, as a municipal division, the city of krai significance of Kislovodsk is incorporated as Kislovodsk Urban Okrug. The most famous native of Kislovodsk was Nobel Prize winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a museum is planned in the house he was born in. It is set to undergo renovations in 2011 in preparation, nikolai Yaroshenkos memorial house is open to the public. Mother Thekla was born in Kislovodsk in 1918 and she was abbess of the Monastery of the Assumption at Normanby near Whitby in North Yorkshire, England. The notable Ukrainian historian Mykhailo Hrushevskyi died when on exile to Kislovodsk in 1934, under circumstances which remain mysterious, the ceremony, attended by most of the SS and Wehrmacht officers in the area, was described in great detail. The highlight of the feast was the local tribes presentation of a horse intended for Adolf Hitler to the Germans. Постановление №63-п от4 мая2006 г, «Об утверждении реестра административно-территориальных единиц Ставропольского края», в ред. Постановления №75-п от5 марта2015 г, «О внесении изменения в пункт47 Раздела II Реестра административно-территориальных единиц Ставропольского края, утверждённый Постановлением Правительства Ставропольского края от04 мая2006 г. Вступил в силу с4 мая2006 г, Опубликован, Сборник законов и других правовых актов Ставропольского края, №17, ст. Закон №88-кз от4 октября2004 г, «О наделении муниципальных образований Ставропольского края статусом городского, сельского поселения, городского округа, муниципального района», в ред. Закона №51-кз от28 мая2015 г, Вступил в силу со дня официального опубликования. Опубликован, Ставропольская правда, №216,6 октября2004 г, official website of Kislovodsk Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Kislovodsk
27.
October Revolution
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It took place with an armed insurrection in Petrograd on 25 October 1917. During this time, urban workers began to organize into councils wherein revolutionaries criticized the provisional government and this immediately initiated the establishment of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the worlds first self-proclaimed socialist state. The revolution was led by the Bolsheviks, who used their influence in the Petrograd Soviet to organize the armed forces, Bolshevik Red Guards forces under the Military Revolutionary Committee began the takeover of government buildings on 24 October 1917. The following day, the Winter Palace, was captured, the long-awaited Constituent Assembly elections were held on 12 November 1917. The Bolsheviks only won 175 seats in the 715-seat legislative body, coming in second behind the Socialist Revolutionary party, the Constituent Assembly was to first meet on 28 November 1917, but its convocation was delayed until 5 January 1918 by the Bolsheviks. On its first and only day in session, the body rejected Soviet decrees on peace and land, as the revolution was not universally recognized, there followed the struggles of the Russian Civil War and the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922. At first, the event was referred to as the October coup or the Uprising of 25th, in Russian, however, переворот has a similar meaning to revolution and also means upheaval or overturn, so coup is not necessarily the correct translation. With time, the term October Revolution came into use and it is also known as the November Revolution having occurred in November according to the Gregorian Calendar. The Great October Socialist Revolution was the name for the October Revolution in the Soviet Union after the 10th anniversary of the Revolution in 1927. The February Revolution had toppled Tsar Nicolas II of Russia, however, the provisional government was weak and riven by internal dissension. It continued to wage World War I, which became increasingly unpopular, a nationwide crisis developed in Russia, affecting social, economic, and political relations. Disorder in industry and transport had intensified, and difficulties in obtaining provisions had increased, gross industrial production in 1917 had decreased by over 36% from what it had been in 1914. In the autumn, as much as 50% of all enterprises were closed down in the Urals, the Donbas, at the same time, the cost of living increased sharply. Real wages fell about 50% from what they had been in 1913, russias national debt in October 1917 had risen to 50 billion rubles. Of this, debts to foreign governments constituted more than 11 billion rubles, the country faced the threat of financial bankruptcy. In these months alone, more than a million took part in strikes. Workers established control over production and distribution in many factories and plants in a social revolution, by October 1917, there had been over 4,000 peasant uprisings against landowners. When the Provisional Government sent punitive detachments, it only enraged the peasants
28.
Cheka
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Cheka was the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations. It was created on December 20,1917, after a decree issued by Vladimir Lenin, and was led by Felix Dzerzhinsky. After 1922, Cheka groups underwent a series of reorganizations, with the NKVD, in 1921 the Troops for the Internal Defense of the Republic numbered at least 200,000. The name of the agency was originally The All-Russian Emergency Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage, in 1918 its name was changed, becoming All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution, Profiteering and Corruption. A member of Cheka was called a chekist, also, the term chekist often referred to Soviet secret police throughout the Soviet period, despite official name changes over time. In The Gulag Archipelago, Alexander Solzhenitsyn recalls that zeks in the camps used old Chekist as a mark of special esteem for particularly experienced camp administrators. The term is found in use in Russia today. The Chekists commonly dressed in leather, including long flowing coats. Western communists adopted this clothing fashion, the Chekists also often carried with them Greek-style worry beads made of amber, which had become fashionable among high officials during the time of the cleansing. In the first month and half after the October Revolution, the duty of extinguishing the resistance of exploiters was assigned to the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee and it represented a temporary body working under directives of the Council of Peoples Commissars and Central Committee of RDSRP. The VRK created new bodies of government, organized food delivery to cities and the Army, requisitioned products from bourgeoisie, one of its most important functions was the security of revolutionary order, and the fight against counterrevolutionary activity. On December 1,1917, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee reviewed a proposed reorganization of the VRK, on December 5, the Petrograd VRK published an announcement of dissolution and transferred the functions to the department of TsIK to the fight against counterrevolutionaries. On December 6, the Council of Peoples Commissars strategized how to persuade government workers to strike across Russia and they decided that a special commission was needed to implement the most energetically revolutionary measures. Peters, K. A. Peterson, V. A. Trifonov, on December 7,1917, all invited except Zhydelev and Vasilevsky gathered in the Smolny Institute to discuss the competence and structure of the commission to combat counterrevolution and sabotage. The commission should conduct a preliminary investigation. The commission should also observe the press and counterrevolutionary parties, sabotaging officials and it was decided to create three sections, informational, organizational, and a unit to combat counter-revolution and sabotage. Upon the end of the meeting, Dzerzhinsky reported to the Sovnarkom with the requested information, the commission was allowed to apply such measures of repression as confiscation, deprivation of ration cards, publication of lists of enemies of the people etc. That day, Sovnarkom officially confirmed the creation of VCheKa, the commission was created not under the VTsIK as was previously anticipated, but rather under the Council of the Peoples Commissars
29.
Japan
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Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
30.
Russo-Japanese War
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The Russo-Japanese War was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and Korea. The major theatres of operations were the Liaodong Peninsula and Mukden in Southern Manchuria and the seas around Korea, Japan, Russia sought a warm-water port on the Pacific Ocean for their navy and for maritime trade. Vladivostok was operational only during the summer, whereas Port Arthur, since the end of the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, Japan feared Russian encroachment on its sphere of influence. Russia had demonstrated an expansionist policy in the Siberian Far East from the reign of Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century, through threat of Russian expansion, Japan offered to recognize Russian dominance in Manchuria in exchange for recognition of Korea as being within the Japanese sphere of influence. Russia refused and demanded Korea north of the 39th parallel to be a buffer zone between Russia and Japan. The Japanese government perceived a Russian threat to its strategic interests, after negotiations broke down in 1904, the Japanese Navy opened hostilities by attacking the Russian Eastern Fleet at Port Arthur, China, in a surprise attack. The war concluded with the Treaty of Portsmouth, mediated by US President Theodore Roosevelt, the complete victory of the Japanese military surprised world observers. The consequences transformed the balance of power in East Asia, resulting in a reassessment of Japans recent entry onto the world stage and it was the first major military victory in the modern era of an Asian power over a European one. Scholars continue to debate the historical significance of the war, after the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the Meiji government endeavored to assimilate Western ideas, technological advances and ways of warfare. By the late 19th century, Japan had transformed itself into an industrial state. The Japanese wanted to be recognized as equal with the Western powers, the Meiji restoration had always been intended to make Japan a modernized state, not a Westernized one, and Japan was always an imperialist power, looking towards overseas expansionism. By the 1890s it had extended its realm across Central Asia to Afghanistan, the Russian Empire stretched from Poland in the west to the Kamchatka Peninsula in the east. With its construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway to the port of Vladivostok, in the Tsushima incident of 1861 Russia had directly assaulted Japanese territory. Between the Meiji Restoration and its participation in World War I, the first war Japan fought was the First Sino-Japanese War, fought in 1894 and 1895. The war revolved around the issue of control and influence over Korea under the rule of the Joseon dynasty, from the 1880s onward, there had been vigorous competition for influence in Korea between China and Japan. The Korean court was prone to factionalism, and was divided by a reformist faction that was pro-Japanese. In 1884, a coup attempt was put down by Chinese troops. A peasant rebellion led by the Tonghak religious movement led to a request by the Korean government for the Qing dynasty to send in troops to stabilize the country
31.
The New York Times
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The New York Times is an American daily newspaper, founded and continuously published in New York City since September 18,1851, by The New York Times Company. The New York Times has won 119 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper, the papers print version in 2013 had the second-largest circulation, behind The Wall Street Journal, and the largest circulation among the metropolitan newspapers in the US. The New York Times is ranked 18th in the world by circulation, following industry trends, its weekday circulation had fallen in 2009 to fewer than one million. Nicknamed The Gray Lady, The New York Times has long been regarded within the industry as a newspaper of record. The New York Times international version, formerly the International Herald Tribune, is now called the New York Times International Edition, the papers motto, All the News Thats Fit to Print, appears in the upper left-hand corner of the front page. On Sunday, The New York Times is supplemented by the Sunday Review, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Magazine and T, some other early investors of the company were Edwin B. Morgan and Edward B. We do not believe that everything in Society is either right or exactly wrong, —what is good we desire to preserve and improve, —what is evil, to exterminate. In 1852, the started a western division, The Times of California that arrived whenever a mail boat got to California. However, when local California newspapers came into prominence, the effort failed, the newspaper shortened its name to The New-York Times in 1857. It dropped the hyphen in the city name in the 1890s, One of the earliest public controversies it was involved with was the Mortara Affair, the subject of twenty editorials it published alone. At Newspaper Row, across from City Hall, Henry Raymond, owner and editor of The New York Times, averted the rioters with Gatling guns, in 1869, Raymond died, and George Jones took over as publisher. Tweed offered The New York Times five million dollars to not publish the story, in the 1880s, The New York Times transitioned gradually from editorially supporting Republican Party candidates to becoming more politically independent and analytical. In 1884, the paper supported Democrat Grover Cleveland in his first presidential campaign, while this move cost The New York Times readership among its more progressive and Republican readers, the paper eventually regained most of its lost ground within a few years. However, the newspaper was financially crippled by the Panic of 1893, the paper slowly acquired a reputation for even-handedness and accurate modern reporting, especially by the 1890s under the guidance of Ochs. Under Ochs guidance, continuing and expanding upon the Henry Raymond tradition, The New York Times achieved international scope, circulation, in 1910, the first air delivery of The New York Times to Philadelphia began. The New York Times first trans-Atlantic delivery by air to London occurred in 1919 by dirigible, airplane Edition was sent by plane to Chicago so it could be in the hands of Republican convention delegates by evening. In the 1940s, the extended its breadth and reach. The crossword began appearing regularly in 1942, and the section in 1946
32.
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
33.
Stanford University Press
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The Stanford University Press is the publishing house of Stanford University. In 1892, an independent publishing company was established at the university, the first use of the name Stanford University Press in a books imprinting occurred in 1895. In 1917, the university bought the press, making it a division of Stanford, in 1999, the press became a division of the Stanford University Libraries. It was located on Page Mill Road in the Stanford Research Park to the southeast of the Stanford campus before moving to its current location, Redwood City and it publishes about 130 books per year. Stanford relies on the University of Chicago Press to perform the actual distribution of titles, bancroft Prize, Pearl Harbor, Warning and Decision,1962. Bancroft Prize, Preponderance of Power, National Security, the Truman Administration, nautilus Book Award, Companies on a Mission,2010. Acting Out Between Pacific Tides Born Red Is Geography Destiny, janet Lewis, wife of Stanford poet Yvor Winters, campaigning for Lamsons acquittal, wrote a pamphlet emphasizing the dangers of using circumstantial evidence. Lamson was ultimately released after being tried four times
34.
Doubleday (publisher)
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Doubleday is an American publishing company founded as Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897 that by 1947 was the largest in the United States. It published the work of mostly U. S. authors under a number of imprints, in 2009 Doubleday was merged with Knopf Publishing Group to form the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. The firm was founded as Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897 by Frank Nelson Doubleday, one of their first bestsellers was The Days Work by Rudyard Kipling. Other authors published by the company in its early years include W. Somerset Maugham, theodore Roosevelt, Jr. later served as a vice-president of the company. In 1900, the company became Doubleday, Page & Company when Walter Hines Page joined as a new partner, in 1922, the founders son, Nelson Doubleday, joined the firm. In 1910, Doubleday, Page, and Co. moved its operations, the Doubleday company purchased much of the land on the east side of Franklin Avenue, and estate homes were built for many of its executives on Fourth Street. In 1916, company co-founder and Garden City resident Walter Hines Page was named Ambassador to Great Britain, in 1927, Doubleday merged with the George H. Doran Company, creating Doubleday, Doran, then the largest publishing business in the English-speaking world. In 1946, the company became Doubleday and Company, Nelson Doubleday, Jr. resigned as president, but continued as chairman of the board until his death on January 11,1949. Douglas Black took over and was president from 1946 to 1963, by 1947, Doubleday was the largest publisher in the US, with annual sales of over 30 million books. In 1980, the company bought the New York Mets baseball team and it defeated the Boston Red Sox to win the World Series in 1986 in a classic 7-game contest. The company had offices in London and Paris and wholly owned subsidiaries in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, with joint ventures in the UK and the Netherlands. Doubleday sold the company to Bertelsmann in 1986, and teamed up with minority owner Fred Wilpon to buy the Mets in his own name. In 1988, portions of the firm part of the Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group. In late 2008 and early 2009, the Doubleday imprint was merged with Knopf Publishing Group to form the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, image Books, Catholic Books—still a Doubleday unit as part of Doubleday Religious Publishing Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, a literary imprint established in 1990. Talese, the publisher and editorial director, is a senior vice president of Doubleday
35.
Flickr
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Flickr is an image hosting and video hosting website and web services suite that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo on March 20,2005. The Verge reported in March 2013 that Flickr had a total of 87 million registered members, in August 2011 the site reported that it was hosting more than 6 billion images and this number continues to grow steadily according to reporting sources. Photos and videos can be accessed from Flickr without the need to register an account, registering an account also allows users to create a profile page containing photos and videos that the user has uploaded and also grants the ability to add another Flickr user as a contact. For mobile users, Flickr has official mobile apps for iOS, Android, and PlayStation Vita, operating systems, Flickr was launched in February 2004 by Ludicorp, a Vancouver-based company founded by Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake. The service emerged from tools originally created for Ludicorps Game Neverending, Flickr proved a more feasible project, and ultimately Game Neverending was shelved, Butterfield later launched a similar online game, Glitch, which closed down in November 2012. Early versions of Flickr focused on a room called FlickrLive with real-time photo exchange capabilities. The successive evolutions focused more on the uploading and filing backend for individual users and it was eventually dropped as Flickrs backend systems evolved away from Game Neverendings codebase. Key features of Flickr not initially present are tags, marking photos as favorites, group photo pools and interestingness, Yahoo acquired Ludicorp and Flickr in March 2005. The acquisition reportedly cost $22 to $25 million, during the week of 26 June –2 July 2005, all content was migrated from servers in Canada to servers in the United States, and all resulting data become subject to United States federal law. In May 2007, Yahoo announced that Yahoo Photos would close down on 20 September 2007, after which all photos would be deleted and this move was criticized by some users. Flickr upgraded its services from beta to gamma in May 2006, in December 2006, upload limits on free accounts were increased to 100 MB a month and were removed from Flickr Pro accounts, which originally had a 2 GB per month limit. On 9 April 2008, Flickr began allowing paid subscribers to upload videos, on 2 March 2009, Flickr added the facility to upload and view HD videos, and began allowing free users to upload normal-resolution video. At the same time, the set limit for free accounts was lifted, in 2009, Flickr announced a partnership with Getty Images in which selected users could submit photographs for stock photography usage and receive payment. In 2010, this was changed so that users could label images as suitable for stock use themselves, the Justified View is paginated between 72 and 360 photos per page but unpaginated in search result presentation. Tech Radar described the new style Flickr as representing a sea change in its purpose, many users criticized the changes, and the sites help forum received thousands of negative comments. In March 2014, Flickrs New Photo Experience, a user interface redesign, on May 7,2015, Yahoo overhauled the site, adding a revamped Camera Roll, a new way to upload photos and upgraded the sites apps. The new Uploadr application was available for Macs, Windows. In June 2008, Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield announced his resignation, which followed his wife and co-founder Caterina Fake, Butterfield wrote a humorous resignation letter to Brad Garlinghouse
36.
Petr Stolypin
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Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin, chairman of the Council of Ministers, served as Prime Minister, and Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire from 1906 to 1911. His tenure was marked by efforts to counter revolutionary groups and by the implementation of agrarian reforms. Stolypin was a monarchist and hoped to strengthen the throne and he is considered one of the last major statesmen of Imperial Russia with clearly defined public policies and the determination to undertake major reforms. Stolypin seems to have born in Dresden on 14 April 1862. Arkady Dmitrievich Stolypin, his father, was a general in the Russian artillery, Pyotr grew up on the family estate Serednikovo, once inhabited by Mikhail Lermontov, and near Moscow. From 1869, Stolypin spent his years in Kalnaberžė manor, built by his father. In 1876, the Stolypin family moved to Vilnius, where he studied at the grammar school. In 1879 the family moved to Oryol, Stolypin and his brother Aleksandr studied at the Oryol Boys College where he was described by his teacher, B. Fedorova as ‘standing out amongst his peers for his rationalism and character. ’ In 1881 he studied agriculture at St. Petersburg University where one of his teachers was Dmitri Mendeleev. He entered government service upon graduating in 1885, writing his thesis on tobacco growing in the south of Russia and it is unclear if he joined the Ministry of State Property or Internal Affairs. Stolypin served as marshal of the Kovno Governorate between 1889 and 1902 and this public service gave him an inside view of local needs and allowed him to develop administrative skills. He was fascinated by the lifestyle of the Northwestern Krai and sought to propagate their privately owned. Stolypin’s service in Kovno was recognised as a success by the Russian government – he was promoted seven times, four of his daughters were also born during this period – his daughter Maria recalled “this was the most calm period his life”. In 1884, Stolypin married Olga Borisovna Neidhart – whose family was of a similar standing to Stolypin’s and they married whilst Stolypin was still a student – an uncommon occurrence at the time. The marriage began in tragic circumstances, Olga had been engaged to Stolypin’s brother, Mikhail and their marriage was a happy one, devoid of scandal, the couple had five daughters and one son. In May 1902 Stolypin was appointed governor in Grodno, where he was the youngest person appointed to this position. In February 1903 he became governor of Saratov, Stolypin is known for suppressing strikers and peasant unrest in January 1905. According to Orlando Figes its peasants were among the poorest and most rebellious in the whole of the country and it seems he cooperated with the zemstvos, the local government
37.
Alexander Danilovich Menshikov
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A highly appreciated associate and friend of Tsar Peter the Great, he was the de facto ruler of Russia for two years. Menshikov was born on 16 November 1673 in Moscow and it has been disputed by his enemies whether his father was a stablehand or worked on a barge, it is more likely that he was of petty noble stock. As the story goes, he was making a living on the streets of Moscow as a vendor of stuffed buns known as pirozhki at the age of twenty. His fine appearance and witty character caught the attention of Franz Lefort, Peters first favorite, on the death of Lefort in 1699, Menshikov succeeded him as Peters prime favorite and confidant. He took a part in the Azov campaigns against the Ottoman Empire. During the tsars first foreign tour in the year, Menshikov worked by his side in the dockyard of Amsterdam. Around 1706 he had a conflict with Andrew Vinius, Vinius lost all of his land, Menshikov understood perfectly the principles on which Peters reforms were conducted and was the right hand of the tsar in all his gigantic undertakings. But he abused his position, and his corrupt practices frequently brought him to the verge of ruin. Every time the tsar returned to Russia he received fresh accusations of plunder against his Serene Highness, Peters first serious outburst of indignation was due to the princes looting in Poland. On his return to Russia in 1712, Peter discovered that Menshikov had turned an eye to wholesale corruption in his own governor-generalship. Peter warned him for the last time to change his ways, yet, in 1713, he was implicated in the Solovey process, in the course of which it was demonstrated that he had defrauded the government of 100,000 roubles. He only owed his life on occasion to a sudden illness. On his recovery Peters fondness for his friend overcame his sense of justice, in 1714 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In the last year of Peters reign new allegations of fraud by Menshikov came to light and it was chiefly through the efforts of Menshikov and his colleague Tolstoi that, on the death of Peter, in 1725, Catherine was raised to the throne. Menshikov was committed to the Petrine system, and he recognised that, if that system were to continue, Catherine was, at particular time. Her name was a watchword for the progressive faction, the placing of her on the throne meant a final victory over ancient prejudices, a vindication of the new ideas of progress, and not least security for Menshikov and his ill-gotten fortune. During Catherines short reign, Menshikov was practically the absolute ruler of Russia and he promoted himself to the unprecedented rank of Generalissimus, and was the only Russian to bear a ducal title. Upon finishing the construction of the Menshikov Palace on the Neva Embankment in St Petersburg, pushkin in one of his poems alluded to Menshikov as half-tsar
38.
Fyodor Apraksin
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The Apraksin brothers were launched to prominence after the marriage of their sister Marfa to Tsar Feodor III of Russia in 1681. Fyodor entered the service of his brother-in-law at the age of 10 as a stolnik, after Feodors death he served the little tsar Peter in the same capacity. He took part in military amusements of the tsar and helped to build a toy flotilla for him. The playfellowship of the two resulted in a lifelong friendship. In 1692 Apraksin was appointed governor of Arkhangelsk, the foremost trade port of Russia at that time, while living there, he commissioned one of the first Russian trade vessels to be built and sail abroad. In 1697 he was entrusted with major shipbuilding activities in Voronezh and he won his colonelcy at the siege of Azov. He was nominated the first Russian governor of Azov in 1700, while Peter was combating Charles XII, Apraksin was constructing fleets, building fortresses and havens in South Russia, notably Tavrov and Taganrog. In 1700 he was appointed chief of the admiralty, in which post his unusual technical ability was of great service. Having pacified the rebellious Astrakhan, Apraksin was summoned to Moscow, where he was put in charge of the mint, in 1707, he was appointed president of the Russian Admiralty. The following year, he was appointed commander-in-chief in Ingria, to defend the new capital Saint Petersburg against the Swedes, on February 25,1710, aged 48, he became the third Russian ever to be elevated to the comital dignity. Apraksin held the command in the Black Sea during the campaign of the Pruth. In March 1710 he was in command at the Siege of Vyborg, taking this Swedish fortress in June, he was invested with the Order of St. Andrew and appointed governor of the conquered provinces. He commanded the Imperial Russian Navy in the taking of Helsinki - materially assisting the conquest of Finland by his operations from the side of the sea - and that same year he assisted the tsar in launching a new harbour in Revel. Earlier, in 1712, he held parley with Turkey, which ended in the destruction of Taganrog, for these great services he was made a senator and General Admiral of the Empire. In 1715, Apraksin fell into disgrace with the tsar. After brief investigation, he was fined and dispatched to govern Estonia, in 1719, he led the Russian naval expedition into the Gulf of Bothnia. During the Russo-Persian War Apraksin barely escaped an attempt by a Chechen. Upon Peters I death in 1725, his wife Catherine invested the ailing admiral with the Order of St, once Empress Anna Ivanovna was crowned she began to rule absolutely, and she had Dmitry Galitzine sentenced to death but later commuted his sentence to exile
39.
Gavriil Golovkin
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Count Gavrila Ivanovich Golovkin was a Russian statesman who formally presided over foreign affairs of the Russian Empire from 1706 until his death. The real control over Russian diplomacy during his term in office was exercised by Boris Kurakin until 1727. He accompanied the young tsar abroad on his first foreign tour, in 1706, he succeeded Golovin in the direction of foreign policy, and was created the first Russian grand-chancellor on the field of Poltava. Golovkin held this office for twenty-five years, in the reign of Catherine I, he became a member of the Supreme Privy Council, which had the chief conduct of affairs during this and the succeeding reigns. The empress also entrusted him with her last will whereby she appointed the young Peter II her successor, under Anna, he was a member of the first cabinet formed in Russia, but had less influence in affairs than Osterman and Munnich. In 1707, Golovkin was created a count of the Holy Roman Empire and he was one of the wealthiest, and at the same time one of the stingiest, magnates of his day. His ignorance of any language but his own made his intercourse with foreign ministers very inconvenient, for the ultimate disgrace of his relatives, see the Lopukhina Affair. Yury Golovkin, Russias first ambassador to China, was his great grandson, list of Descendants at European Dynastics. com This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Golovkin, Gavriil Ivanovich
40.
Andrey Osterman
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Count Andrey Ivanovich Osterman was a German-born Russian statesman who came to prominence under Tsar Peter I of Russia and served until the accession of the Tsesarevna Elizabeth. His foreign policy was based upon the Austrian alliance, born in Bochum in Westphalia, of middle-class parents, his original name was Heinrich Johann Friedrich Ostermann. Osterman became secretary to Vice-Admiral Cornelis Kruse, who had a commission from Peter the Great to pick up promising young men. Osterman, together with General Bruce, represented Russia at the peace congress of 1718. In 1721 Osterman concluded the Peace of Nystad with Sweden, and was created a baron for his services, in 1723 he was made vice-president of the ministry of foreign affairs for bringing about a very advantageous commercial treaty with Persia. During the reign of Catherine I of Russia Ostermans authority still further increased, the conduct of foreign affairs was left entirely in his hands, and he held also the posts of minister of commerce and postmaster-general. He held aloof till the empress Anne was firmly established on the throne as autocrat and his unique knowledge of foreign affairs made him indispensable to the empress and her counsellors, and even as to home affairs his advice was almost invariably followed. It was at his suggestion that the system was introduced into Russia. All the useful reforms introduced between 1730 and 1740 are to be attributed to his initiative and he improved the state of trade, lowered taxation, encouraged industry and promoted education, ameliorated the judicature and materially raised the credit of Russia. As foreign minister he was cautious and circumspect, but when war was necessary he prosecuted it vigorously, the successful conclusions of the War of the Polish Succession and of the war with Turkey were entirely due to his diplomacy. He had, therefore, guaranteed the Pragmatic Sanction with the intention of defending it. Hence the determination of France to remove him at any cost, Osterman was therefore the first and the most illustrious victim of the coup détat of 6 December 1741. Ostermans children returned to the court during the reign of Catherine the Great and his elder son, count Feodor Andreevich, was the senator and governor of Moscow. Another son, Ivan Andreevich, was the Russian ambassador in Stockholm and then, for 16 years, after his death the Osterman titles and estates passed to his nephew, Alexander Ivanovich Tolstoy, chancellor of the Russian military orders. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Bain
41.
Pyotr Andreyevich Tolstoy
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Count Pyotr Andreyevich Tolstoy was a Russian statesman and diplomat, prominent during and after the reign of Peter the Great. He was the ancestor of all the Counts Tolstoy, including the novelist Leo Tolstoy and his wife was Solomonic Timofeevna Dubrovskaya born 1660 and died 1722, he had two sons with her, Ivan and Peter. Both his sons died in exile with him the year before his own death and he was, however, survived by many grandchildren, the family was recalled by the Empress Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great in 1760, and had all honors and land restored. Some historians assume Pyotr Tolstoy to have been an okolnichy, while others consider he came from a boyar background and he served in 1682 as Chamberlain at the court of childless Tsar Feodor III Alekseevich, Tsar 1676–1682. Peter was the son of Tsar Alexei I of Russias second marriage. For a long time Peter kept his latest supporter at arms length, however, in 1697, Tolstoy volunteered to go to Venice to learn Italian and ship-building, and Peter could not resist the subtle flattery implied in such a proposal from a middle-aged Muscovite noble. Even before Poltava, Tolstoy had the greatest difficulty in preventing the Turks from aiding the Swedes, when Charles XII took refuge on Turkish soil, Tolstoy instantly demanded his extradition. This diplomatic blunder only irritated the already alarmed Turks, and on October 10,1710, Tolstoy was thrown into the Seven Towers, a proceeding tantamount to a declaration of war against Russia. On his release, in 1714, he returned to Russia, was created a senator, the unfortunate tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, a widower since 1715, at the age of 25, had been the husband of Saxony princess Charlotte Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Nevertheless, Tsar Peter II of Russia, Peter Alexeyvich, the Russian-Saxon grandson of Peter I, was also a Tsar for about three years, albeit he managed to live till the age of 15. Tolstoy was well aware that the elevation of the grand duke Peter II, son of the tsarevich Alexei, Peter II, grandson of Peter I of Russia, was Tsar of Russia aged 12, for three years, and died aged 15. But Menshikov was too strong and too quick for his ancient colleague, on the very day of Empress Catherine I death, Tolstoy, now in his 82nd year, was banished to the Solovetsky Monastery in the White Sea, where he died two years later. Pyotr Tolstoy is the author of a sketch of the impressions made upon him by Western Europe during his tour in the years 1697–1698, not all the later family lineages of nobility bearing the last name of Tolstoy list Pyotr Andreyevich as their ancestor. However, it is among his descendants in the male line where we find all the known Tolstoy writers, among them Leo Tolstoy, Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy. There were a number of statesmen and soldiers descending from Pyotr Andreyevich, as Education and his other notable descendants were such literati as the pioneering Russian philosopher Pyotr Chaadayev and Vladimir Odoyevsky. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Tolstoy. The Travel Diary of Peter Tolstoi, A Muscovite in Early Modern Europe, Hardcover, Northern Illinois University Press, ISBN 0-87580-130-7. The Rise and Fall of Latin Humanism in Early-Modern Russia, Pagan Authors, Ukrainians, politics and Culture in Eighteenth-Century Russia, Collected Essays
42.
Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp
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Duke Charles Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp was the son of Frederick IV of Holstein-Gottorp and his consort, Hedvig Sophia, daughter of King Charles XI of Sweden. He became reigning duke in infancy, upon his fathers death in 1702, and all his life was a claimant to the throne of Sweden, as pro forma heir to Charles XII. He is the father of Peter III of Russia, and as such he was an ancestor of all Russian emperors after Catherine II. Charles Frederick was born in Sweden, where his parents had been offered safety during the outbreak of the Great Northern war by his maternal uncle and he succeeded to the duchy at the age of two after the death of his father. Duke Charles Frederick was under the regency of his mother, with whom he resided in Stockholm, actual daily rule of the duchy was left to administrators. Danish troops had ravaged the lands during the Great Northern War and conquered its northern portions. His mother is said to have raised him tenderly but firmly and his mother, and later Hedwig Eleonora, both supported and worked for his right to be considered heir of Sweden after his childless uncle. Charles Frederick met his uncle Charles XII for the first time in 1716 and he was declared of legal majority in 1717, and was then given some military responsibility. Upon the death in 1718 of his uncle and second cousin, Charles XII of Sweden. The dukes party asserted that the monarchy in Sweden, which his grandfather King Charles XI had created. Upon the news of the death of his uncle, he was reportedly too grief-stricken to take any action, Ulrika Eleonoras husband Frederick, however, who was also present with him in Tistedalen, rushed to assist her in claiming the throne. When Charles Frederick was confronted with Ulrika Eleonora, he was forced by Arvid Horn to greet her as queen. He asked to be granted the title Royal Highness and to be recognized as her heir, Charles Frederick withdrew from Sweden, eventually settling in Russia. Afterward, the so-called Holsteiner Party in Sweden continued to advance Charles Fredericks claims, the party made preparations and awaited the childless Ulrika Eleonoras death, but Charles Frederick died before his aunt and left his claims to his infant son. By that time Sweden had enacted new laws of succession, however and his first cousin Adolph Frederick, of his same Oldenburg dynasty, was elected Crown Prince of Sweden. In 1723, he was granted the title Royal Highness in his absence, Charles Frederick left for Hamburg, as Holstein-Gottorp had been occupied by Denmark since 1713. He succeeded to have the occupation removed by application to the German-Roman Emperor, in 1720, Sweden and Denmark-Norway concluded the Treaty of Frederiksborg, in which Sweden pledged to cease its support of Holstein-Gottorp. Duke Charles Frederick was married to Anna Petrovna, Tsesarevna of Russia and elder daughter of Tsar Peter I and his peasant wife, as Charles was the Swedish heir, Peter saw the marriage as politically useful
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