1.
Minsk
–
Minsk (Belarusian, Мінск pronounced, is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Belarus, situated on the Svislach and Nyamiha rivers. It is the centre of the Commonwealth of Independent States. As the national capital, Minsk has an administrative status in Belarus and is the administrative centre of Minsk Region. In 2013, it had a population of 2,002,600, the earliest historical references to Minsk date to the 11th century, when it was noted as a provincial city within the principality of Polotsk. The settlement developed on the rivers, in 1242, Minsk became a part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It received town privileges in 1499, from 1569, it was a capital of the Minsk Voivodeship in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was part of a region annexed by the Russian Empire in 1793, from 1919 to 1991, after the Russian Revolution, Minsk was the capital of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic within the Soviet Union. Minsk will host the 2019 European Games, Minsk is located on the southeastern slope of the Minsk Hills, a region of rolling hills running from the southwest to the northeast – that is, to Lukomskaye Lake in northwestern Belarus. The average altitude above sea level is 220 metres, the physical geography of Minsk was shaped over the two most recent ice ages. There are six smaller rivers within the city limits, all part of the Black Sea basin, Minsk is in the area of mixed forests typical of most of Belarus. Pinewood and mixed forests border the edge of the city, especially in the north, some of the forests were preserved as parks as the city grew. The city was built on the hills, which allowed for defensive fortifications. Minsk has a warm summer humid continental climate, owing to its location between the strong influence of the moist air of the Atlantic Ocean and the dry air of the Eurasian landmass. Its weather is unstable and tends to change often, the average January temperature is −4.5 °C, while the average July temperature is 18.5 °C. The lowest temperature was recorded on 17 January 1940, at −40 °C and the warmest on 29 July 1936 at 35 °C and this results in frequent fogs, common in the autumn and spring. Minsk receives annual precipitation of 690 millimetres, of one third falls during the cold period. Throughout the year, most winds are westerly and northwesterly, bringing cool, similar climatic regimes are found in Stockholm, Sweden and in Halifax, Canada. The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Centre of Radioactive and Environmental Control, during 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons
2.
Russian Empire
–
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
3.
Baltic Germans
–
The Baltic Germans are ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their resettling from Estonia and Latvia during the upheavals and aftermath of the Second World War, the largest groups of present-day descendants of the Baltic Germans are found in Germany and Canada. It is estimated that several thousand still reside in Latvia and Estonia, for centuries Baltic Germans and the Baltic nobility were a ruling class over native “Undeutsche” serfs. The emerging Baltic-German middle class was mostly urban and professional, in the 12th and 13th centuries Germans, both traders and crusaders, began settling in the eastern Baltics. After the Livonian Crusade they assumed control of government, politics, economics, education, with the decline of Latin, German became the language of all official documents, commerce, education and government. After 1710 many of these increasingly took high positions in the military, political and civilian life of the Russian Empire, Baltic Germans held citizenship of the Russian Empire until 1918 and Estonian or Latvian citizenship until 1939–40. The Baltic German population never surpassed more than 10% of the total population, in 1881 there were 180,000 Baltic Germans in Russias Baltic provinces, but by 1914 this number had declined to 162,000. In 1881 there were approximately 46,700 Germans in Estonia, according to the Russian Empire Census of 1897, there were 120,191 Germans in Latvia, or 6. 2% of the population. Baltic German history and presence in the Baltics came to an end in late 1939, following the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, almost all the Baltic Germans were resettled by Nazi Germany under the Heim ins Reich program into the newly formed Reichsgaue Wartheland and Danzig-West Prussia. In 1945, most were expelled from these lands by the Soviet army, ethnic Germans from East Prussia and Lithuania are sometimes incorrectly considered Baltic Germans for reasons of cultural, linguistic, and historical affinities. However, the Germans of East Prussia held Prussian, and after 1871, Baltic Germans were not a purely German ethnic group. The early crusaders, tradesmen and craftsmen often married local females, some noble families, like Lievens, even claimed descent from native chieftains. Many of the German Livonian Order soldiers died during the Livonian war, during this time the Low German of the original settlers was replaced by the High German. In those cases where intermarriage occurred, the ethnic group frequently assimilated into German culture, adopting language, customs. They were then considered Germans, leading to the ethnogenesis of the Baltic Germans, barclay de Tolly and George Armitstead, who arrived from the British Isles, became part of the Baltic-German community. Livland, roughly the half of present-day Estonia and the northern and eastern part of todays Latvia, major towns, Riga, Wenden, Wolmar, Walk, Dorpat, Pernau. Kurland, roughly the half of present-day Latvia, major towns. Ösel belonging to present-day Estonia, major town, Arensburg, after the heavy defeat in the 1236 Battle of Saule the Livonian Brothers of the Sword became a part of the Teutonic Order
4.
Kazan (Volga region) Federal University
–
Kazan Federal University is located in Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. Founded in 1804 as Kazan Imperial University it is the second oldest among Russian universities, famous mathematician Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky served there as the rector from 1827 until 1846. In 1925, the university was renamed in honour of its most famous student Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, in 2010, Kazan University received the federal status. As of November 1,2015, the University consists of 16 Institutes,3 Higher Schools, Faculty of Law, more than 40,000 students enrolled in 479 degree programs at undergraduate and postgraduate level. It was not until 1814 that the university underwent its full opening and it was restructured as a classical university comprising four departments, moral and political sciences, physical and mathematical sciences, medical sciences and philology. In 1819, M. L. Magnitsky conducted a review of the university, in which he reported on the spirit of dissent and irreligion that he had observed at the university. In his report to the Emperor, he spoke of the destruction of the university and demanded it be closed. In addition, a strict barrack domestic regime was introduced for students of the university, in 1819-1821 an alumnus and scholar of Kazan University Ivan Simonov participated in the discovery of Antarctica during the first round-the-world expedition and pioneered Antarctic studies. In 1825, the Main Building of the university was built and, in 1830 and this included the Library Building, Chemical Laboratory, dissection facilities, astronomical observatory, and clinics. Resultantly the university became a centre of education and science. It was the scientific faculties that were, at time, organised into a number of research schools. In 1844, Karl Klaus, a professor at the university, discovered, and named in honour of Russia, Ruthenium, a renowned linguistic school was forming at the university during 1875-1883. Around that time Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, a leader of the Soviet Union. Subsequently, many of them were enrolled in universities in Siberia. This allowed the University of Kazan, which had lost the vast majority of its staff during the turmoil of the civil war, to restart proper education. The university soon opened a faculty, which aimed to provide the education for peasants. On 1 November 1919 peasant workers started their first classes without the requirement to pass an entrance exam, in 1922 the Universitys Faculty of Forestry merged with the Faculty of Agriculture of Kazan Polytechnic university to form Kazan Institute of Agriculture and Forestry. In 1925 by the decision of All-Russian Central Executive Committee Kazan State University was renamed to the V. I and this was done in order to recognise the period of time Vladimir Lenin spent as a student at the University of Kazan
5.
University of Tartu
–
The University of Tartu is a classical university in the city of Tartu, Estonia. It is the university of Estonia. The University of Tartu is the only university in the country. It was established by King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden in 1632, there are nearly 14,000 students at the university, of which over 1,300 are foreign students. The QS World University Rankings ranked the University of Tartu 347th in the world in 2016, the university is also ranked 4th in the Emerging Europe and Central Asia region. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings placed it in the 301–350 range among world universities and it is the only university in the Baltic countries to place among the top 200 universities in Europe. UT belongs to top 1% of worlds most cited universities in 10 research areas, the historical buildings of the university are included in the European Heritage Label list as embodiment of the ideas of a university in the Age of Enlightenment. The University of Tartu is a member of the Coimbra Group, the Academia Gustaviana in the then Swedish province of Livonia was the second university founded in the Swedish Empire, following Uppsala University and preceding the Academy of Åbo. A precursor to the academy had been a Jesuit grammar school Gymnasium Dorpatense, founded by Stefan Batory in 1583 and existing to 1601, the first students immatriculated between 20–21 April 1632. The opening ceremony of Academia Dorpatensis took place on 15 October in the same year, the academy in Tartu functioned with Philosophy, Law, Theology and Medical Faculties enjoying the privileges of the University of Uppsala. On account of the Russian–Swedish war, the University of Tartu moved to Tallinn in 1656, in the 17th century the future outstanding Swedish scholars Urban Hiärne, Olof Verelius, Arvid Moller and others studied at the university. In 1690 Tartu became a university town again, Academia Gustavo-Carolina shortly after that moved from Tartu to Pärnu as a result of the coalition against Sweden and the Great Famine of 1695–1697. Academia Gustavo-Carolina, which had opened in Pärnu on 28 August 1699 was closed because of the surrender to Russian forces on 12 August 1710 during the Great Northern War, according to the terms of the capitulation, the Russians agreed to maintain the university in Pärnu. The university was re-opened by the Baltic Germans in Estonia in April 1802, the language of instruction at Dorpat was German from 1802 to 1893. During that time, Dorpat had a nature in that it belonged both to the set of German and Russian universities. Financially and administratively, the latter was important, intellectually and regarding the professoriate and students. Among the 30 German-language universities, of which 23 were inside the German Empire, in teaching, the university educated the local Baltic German leadership and professional classes as well as staff especially for the administration and health system of the entire Russian Empire. In scholarship, it was a university, the time between 1860 and 1880 was its golden age
6.
White dwarf
–
A white dwarf, also called a degenerate dwarf, is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense, its mass is comparable to that of the Sun, a white dwarfs faint luminosity comes from the emission of stored thermal energy, no fusion takes place in a white dwarf wherein mass is converted to energy. The nearest known white dwarf is Sirius B, at 8.6 light years, there are currently thought to be eight white dwarfs among the hundred star systems nearest the Sun. The unusual faintness of white dwarfs was first recognized in 1910, the name white dwarf was coined by Willem Luyten in 1922. The universe has not existed long enough to experience a white dwarf releasing all of its energy as it will take many billions of years. If a red giant has insufficient mass to generate the temperatures, around 1 billion K, required to fuse carbon. After such a star sheds its outer layers and forms a planetary nebula, it will leave behind a core, usually, white dwarfs are composed of carbon and oxygen. If the mass of the progenitor is between 8 and 10.5 solar masses, the temperature will be sufficient to fuse carbon but not neon. Stars of very low mass will not be able to fuse helium, hence, the material in a white dwarf no longer undergoes fusion reactions, so the star has no source of energy. As a result, it support itself by the heat generated by fusion against gravitational collapse. A carbon-oxygen white dwarf that approaches this limit, typically by mass transfer from a companion star. A white dwarf is very hot when it forms, but because it has no source of energy, it will gradually radiate its energy and this means that its radiation, which initially has a high color temperature, will lessen and redden with time. Over a very time, a white dwarf will cool. The stars low temperature means it will no longer emit significant heat or light, and it will become a cold black dwarf. Because the length of time it takes for a dwarf to reach this state is calculated to be longer than the current age of the universe. The oldest white dwarfs still radiate at temperatures of a few thousand kelvins, the pair 40 Eridani B/C was discovered by William Herschel on 31 January 1783, p.73 it was again observed by Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve in 1825 and by Otto Wilhelm von Struve in 1851. In 1910, Henry Norris Russell, Edward Charles Pickering and Williamina Fleming discovered that, despite being a dim star,40 Eridani B was of spectral type A, or white. In 1939, Russell looked back on the discovery, p.1 I was visiting my friend and generous benefactor and this piece of apparently routine work proved very fruitful—it led to the discovery that all the stars of very faint absolute magnitude were of spectral class M
7.
Chandrasekhar limit
–
The Chandrasekhar limit is the maximum mass of a stable white dwarf star. The limit was first indicated in papers published by Wilhelm Anderson, stoner, and was named after Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, the Indian astrophysicist who independently discovered and improved upon the accuracy of the calculation in 1930, at the age of 19, in India. White dwarfs resist gravitational collapse primarily through electron degeneracy pressure, the Chandrasekhar limit is the mass above which electron degeneracy pressure in the stars core is insufficient to balance the stars own gravitational self-attraction. Those with masses under the limit remain stable as white dwarfs, the currently accepted value of the limit is about 1.4 M ⊙. Electron degeneracy pressure is a quantum-mechanical effect arising from the Pauli exclusion principle, since electrons are fermions, no two electrons can be in the same state, so not all electrons can be in the minimum-energy level. Rather, electrons must occupy a band of energy levels, compression of the electron gas increases the number of electrons in a given volume and raises the maximum energy level in the occupied band. Therefore, the energy of the electrons will increase upon compression, so pressure must be exerted on the gas to compress it. With sufficient compression, electrons are forced into nuclei in the process of electron capture, relieving the pressure. In the nonrelativistic case, electron degeneracy pressure gives rise to an equation of state of the form P = K1 ρ53, where P is the pressure, ρ is the mass density, and K1 is a constant. As the mass of a white dwarf increases, the typical energies to which degeneracy pressure forces the electrons are no longer negligible relative to their rest masses. The velocities of the approach the speed of light. In the strongly relativistic limit, the equation of state takes the form P = K2 ρ43 and this will yield a polytrope of index 3, which will have a total mass, Mlimit say, depending only on K2. For a fully relativistic treatment, the equation of state used will interpolate between the equations P = K1 ρ53 for small ρ and P = K2 ρ43 for large ρ. When this is done, the model radius still decreases with mass, the curves of radius against mass for the non-relativistic and relativistic models are shown in the graph. They are colored blue and green, respectively, μe has been set equal to 2. Radius is measured in standard solar radii or kilometers, and mass in standard solar masses, calculated values for the limit will vary depending on the nuclear composition of the mass. Chandrasekhar, eq. eq. eq. mH is the mass of the hydrogen atom, ω30 ≈2.018236 is a constant connected with the solution to the Lane-Emden equation. As ℏ c / G is the Planck mass, the limit is of the order of M Pl 3 m H2, lieb and Yau have given a rigorous derivation of the limit from a relativistic many-particle Schrödinger equation
8.
Astrophysics
–
Astrophysics is the branch of astronomy that employs the principles of physics and chemistry to ascertain the nature of the heavenly bodies, rather than their positions or motions in space. Among the objects studied are the Sun, other stars, galaxies, extrasolar planets, the interstellar medium and their emissions are examined across all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, and the properties examined include luminosity, density, temperature, and chemical composition. In practice, modern astronomical research often involves an amount of work in the realms of theoretical and observational physics. Although astronomy is as ancient as recorded history itself, it was separated from the study of terrestrial physics. Their challenge was that the tools had not yet been invented with which to prove these assertions, for much of the nineteenth century, astronomical research was focused on the routine work of measuring the positions and computing the motions of astronomical objects. Kirchhoff deduced that the lines in the solar spectrum are caused by absorption by chemical elements in the Solar atmosphere. In this way it was proved that the elements found in the Sun. Among those who extended the study of solar and stellar spectra was Norman Lockyer and he thus claimed the line represented a new element, which was called helium, after the Greek Helios, the Sun personified. By 1890, a catalog of over 10,000 stars had been prepared that grouped them into thirteen spectral types, most significantly, she discovered that hydrogen and helium were the principal components of stars. This discovery was so unexpected that her dissertation readers convinced her to modify the conclusion before publication, however, later research confirmed her discovery. By the end of the 20th century, studies of astronomical spectra had expanded to cover wavelengths extending from radio waves through optical, x-ray and it is the practice of observing celestial objects by using telescopes and other astronomical apparatus. The majority of observations are made using the electromagnetic spectrum. Radio astronomy studies radiation with a greater than a few millimeters. The study of these waves requires very large radio telescopes, infrared astronomy studies radiation with a wavelength that is too long to be visible to the naked eye but is shorter than radio waves. Infrared observations are made with telescopes similar to the familiar optical telescopes. Objects colder than stars are studied at infrared frequencies. Optical astronomy is the oldest kind of astronomy, telescopes paired with a charge-coupled device or spectroscopes are the most common instruments used. The Earths atmosphere interferes somewhat with optical observations, so adaptive optics, in this wavelength range, stars are highly visible, and many chemical spectra can be observed to study the chemical composition of stars, galaxies and nebulae
9.
Astronomy
–
Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It applies mathematics, physics, and chemistry, in an effort to explain the origin of those objects and phenomena and their evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, galaxies, and comets, while the phenomena include supernovae explosions, gamma ray bursts, more generally, all astronomical phenomena that originate outside Earths atmosphere are within the purview of astronomy. A related but distinct subject, physical cosmology, is concerned with the study of the Universe as a whole, Astronomy is the oldest of the natural sciences. The early civilizations in recorded history, such as the Babylonians, Greeks, Indians, Egyptians, Nubians, Iranians, Chinese, during the 20th century, the field of professional astronomy split into observational and theoretical branches. Observational astronomy is focused on acquiring data from observations of astronomical objects, theoretical astronomy is oriented toward the development of computer or analytical models to describe astronomical objects and phenomena. The two fields complement each other, with theoretical astronomy seeking to explain the results and observations being used to confirm theoretical results. Astronomy is one of the few sciences where amateurs can play an active role, especially in the discovery. Amateur astronomers have made and contributed to many important astronomical discoveries, Astronomy means law of the stars. Astronomy should not be confused with astrology, the system which claims that human affairs are correlated with the positions of celestial objects. Although the two share a common origin, they are now entirely distinct. Generally, either the term astronomy or astrophysics may be used to refer to this subject, however, since most modern astronomical research deals with subjects related to physics, modern astronomy could actually be called astrophysics. Few fields, such as astrometry, are purely astronomy rather than also astrophysics, some titles of the leading scientific journals in this field includeThe Astronomical Journal, The Astrophysical Journal and Astronomy and Astrophysics. In early times, astronomy only comprised the observation and predictions of the motions of objects visible to the naked eye, in some locations, early cultures assembled massive artifacts that possibly had some astronomical purpose. Before tools such as the telescope were invented, early study of the stars was conducted using the naked eye, most of early astronomy actually consisted of mapping the positions of the stars and planets, a science now referred to as astrometry. From these observations, early ideas about the motions of the planets were formed, and the nature of the Sun, Moon, the Earth was believed to be the center of the Universe with the Sun, the Moon and the stars rotating around it. This is known as the model of the Universe, or the Ptolemaic system. The Babylonians discovered that lunar eclipses recurred in a cycle known as a saros
