Extent of Ali Bey and Zahir's territory between 1768 and 1774 and Russian naval movements in the Levant, based on the accounts of Sauveur Lusignan, a contemporary historian Beirut was twice occupied during the
Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774 by squadrons of the
Imperial Russian Navy's Mediterranean Fleet, first in June 1772 and second from October 1773 to early 1774, as part of its
Levant campaign.
Russia's main objective in this campaign was to assist local forces led by Egypt's autonomous ruler,
Ali Bey al-Kabir, who was in open rebellion against the
Ottoman Empire.
Russia, led by
Catherine the Great, was pressing the Ottomans in Europe. Ali took advantage of the Empire's preoccupation with Russia to declare Egypt's independence; in 1771 he sent an army led by
Muhammad Bey Abu al-Dhahab to occupy Ottoman territory in the Levant. Abu al-Dhahab unexpectedly returned to challenge Ali for control of Egypt. Ali requested Russian military assistance against both his rival and the Ottomans. When this aid, in the form of a small Russian
squadron, arrived in the region, Ali had already fled Egypt and taken refuge in
Acre, the power base of his ally,
Zahir al-Umar. After helping repel an Ottoman offensive on
Sidon, the Russian squadron sailed for Beirut. They bombarded the town in June 1772 and occupied it from June23 to 28. (Full article...)
After the mutineers sought asylum in
Constanța,
Romania, and after the Russians recovered the ship, her name was changed to Panteleimon. She accidentally sank a Russian submarine in 1909 and was badly damaged when she
ran aground in 1911. During
World War I, Panteleimon participated in the
Battle of Cape Sarych in late 1914. She covered several bombardments of the
Bosphorus fortifications in early 1915, including one where the ship was
attacked by the
OttomanbattlecruiserYavuz Sultan Selim – Panteleimon and the other Russian pre-dreadnoughts present drove her off before she could inflict any serious damage. The ship was relegated to secondary roles after Russia's first
dreadnought battleship entered service in late 1915. She was by then obsolete and was reduced to
reserve in 1918 in
Sevastopol. (Full article...)
Image 4
Largest European specimen, a male at Südostbayerisches Naturkunde- und Mammut-Museum,
Siegsdorf
The appearance and behaviour of this species are among the best studied of any
prehistoric animal because of the discovery of frozen carcasses in Siberia and
North America, as well as skeletons, teeth, stomach contents, dung, and depiction from life in prehistoric
cave paintings. Mammoth remains had long been known in Asia before they became known to Europeans in the 17th century. The origin of these remains was long a matter of debate, and often explained as being remains of
legendary creatures. The mammoth was identified as an extinct species of elephant by
Georges Cuvier in 1796. (Full article...)
Pallas's leaf warbler is one of the smallest
Palearcticwarblers, with a relatively large head and short tail. It has greenish upperparts and white underparts, a lemon-yellow rump, and yellow double wingbars,
supercilia and central
crown stripe. It is similar in appearance to several other Asian warblers, including some that were formerly considered to be its
subspecies, although its distinctive
vocalisations aid identification. (Full article...)
The Polish architect Władysław Horodecki originally constructed the House with Chimaeras for use as his own upmarket apartment building during 1901–02. However, as the years went by, Horodecki eventually had to sell the building due to financial troubles, after which it changed ownership numerous times before finally being occupied by an official
Communist Partypolyclinic until the early 2000s. When the building was vacated, its interior and exterior decor were fully reconstructed and restored according to Horodecki's original plans. (Full article...)
The army was formed at
Khabarovsk in the
Soviet Far East in 1938 as the 2nd Army. After the Far Eastern Front was split in September that year it became the 2nd Independent Red Banner Army. When the front was reformed in June 1940, the army was redesignated as the 2nd Red Banner Army, stationed in the
Blagoveshchensk area. It spent the bulk of World War II guarding the border in that area, sending formations to the
Eastern Front while undergoing several reorganizations. In August 1945, the army fought in the
Soviet invasion of Manchuria, capturing the Japanese fortified regions of
Aihun and
Sunwu adjacent to its sector of the border, and advancing into Manchuria to
Qiqihar. The army was disbanded after the war in late 1945. (Full article...)
Tsereteli was born and raised in Georgia when it was part of the
Russian Empire. A member of the
Menshevik faction of the RSDLP, Tsereteli was elected to the
Duma in 1907, where he gained fame for his oratory abilities. Shortly after entering the Duma, Tsereteli was arrested and charged with conspiracy to overthrow the
Tsarist government, and exiled to
Siberia. A dedicated Social Democrat who believed in the Menshevik ideology, Tsereteli was one of the leading figures of the movement in Russia. In 1915, during his Siberian exile, Tsereteli formed what would become known as
Siberian Zimmerwaldism, which advocated for the role of the
Second International in ending the war. He also developed the idea of "Revolutionary Defensism", the concept of a defensive war which only allowed for the defence of territory, and argued it was not being utilized. (Full article...)
The black stork (Ciconia nigra) is a large bird in the
stork family Ciconiidae. It was first described by
Carl Linnaeus in the
10th edition of his Systema Naturae. Measuring on average 95 to 100 cm (37 to 39 in) from beak tip to end of tail with a 145-to-155 cm (57-to-61 in) wingspan, the adult black stork has mainly black
plumage, with white underparts, long red legs and a long pointed red beak. A widespread but uncommon species, it breeds in scattered locations across Europe (predominantly in Portugal and Spain, and central and eastern parts), and east across the
Palearctic to the Pacific Ocean. It is a long-distance
migrant, with European populations wintering in tropical Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asian populations in the
Indian subcontinent. When migrating between Europe and Africa, it avoids crossing broad expanses of the
Mediterranean Sea and detours via the
Levant in the east, the
Strait of Sicily in the center, or the
Strait of Gibraltar in the west. An isolated non-migratory population lives in Southern Africa.
Unlike the closely related
white stork, the black stork is a shy and wary species. It is seen singly or in pairs, usually in marshy areas, rivers or inland waters. It feeds on
amphibians, small
fish and
insects, generally wading slowly in shallow water stalking its prey. Breeding pairs usually build nests in large forest trees—most commonly
deciduous but also
coniferous—which can be seen from long distances, as well as on large boulders, or under overhanging ledges in mountainous areas. The female lays two to five greyish-white
eggs, which become soiled over time in the nest.
Incubation takes 32 to 38 days, with both sexes sharing duties, and
fledging takes 60 to 71 days. (Full article...)
Image 10
Modern interpretation of
Rus'Varangians and their
longships in
Gardariki, by
Nicholas Roerich. The Caspian expeditions of the Rus' were
military raids undertaken by
the Rus' between the late 9th century and
c. 1041 on the
Caspian Sea shores, of what are nowadays
Iran,
Dagestan, and
Azerbaijan. Initially, the Rus' appeared in
Serkland in the 9th century travelling as merchants along the
Volga trade route, selling furs, honey, and slaves. The first small-scale
Viking raids took place in the late 9th and early 10th century. The Rus' undertook the first large-scale expedition in 913; having arrived on 500 ships, they pillaged in the
Gorgan region, in the territory of present-day Iran, and more to the west, in
Gilan and
Mazandaran, taking slaves and goods. On their return, the northern raiders were attacked and defeated by the
Khazars in the
Volga Delta, and those who escaped were killed by the local tribes in the middle
Volga.
During their next expedition in 943, the Rus' captured
Bardha'a, the capital of
Arran, in the modern-day Republic of Azerbaijan. The Rus' stayed there for several months, killing many inhabitants of the city and amassing substantial plunder. It was only an outbreak of
dysentery among the Rus' that forced them to depart with their spoils.
Sviatoslav, prince of
Kiev, commanded the next attack, which destroyed the Khazar state in 965. Sviatoslav's campaign established the Rus's hold on the north-south trade routes, helping to alter the demographics of the region. Raids continued through the time period with the last Scandinavian attempt to reestablish the route to the Caspian Sea taking place in
c. 1041 by
Ingvar the Far-Travelled. (Full article...)
Image 11
A Finnish
Maxim M/09-21 machine gun crew during the Winter War
The Winter War was a war between the
Soviet Union and
Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of
World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the
Moscow Peace Treaty on 13 March 1940. Despite superior military strength, especially in tanks and aircraft, the Soviet Union suffered severe losses and initially made little headway. The
League of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the Soviet Union from its organization.
The Soviets made several demands, including that Finland cede substantial border territories in exchange for land elsewhere, claiming security reasons – primarily the protection of
Leningrad, 32 km (20 mi) from the Finnish border. When Finland refused, the Soviets invaded. Most sources conclude that the Soviet Union had intended to conquer all of Finland, and cite the establishment of the
puppet Finnish Communist government and the
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact's secret protocols as evidence of this, while other sources argue against the idea of a full Soviet conquest. Finland repelled Soviet attacks for more than two months and inflicted substantial losses on the invaders in temperatures as low as −43 °C (−45 °F). The battles focused mainly on
Taipale along the
Karelian Isthmus, on
Kollaa in
Ladoga Karelia and on
Raate Road in
Kainuu, but there were also battles in
Salla and
Petsamo in
Lapland. (Full article...)
Image 12
The official arrangement of the Russian national anthem, completed in 2001
Peresvet and Pobeda were
salvaged after the Japanese captured Port Arthur and incorporated into the
Imperial Japanese Navy. Peresvet was sold back to the Russians during
World War I, as the two countries were by now allies, and sank after hitting German
mines in the Mediterranean in early 1917 while Pobeda, renamed Suwo, remained instead in Japanese service and participated in the
Battle of Tsingtao in late 1914. She became a gunnery
training ship in 1917. The ship was disarmed in 1922 to comply with the terms of the
Washington Naval Treaty and probably
scrapped around that time. (Full article...)
The Gurian Republic was an insurgent community that existed between 1902 and 1906 in the western
Georgian region of
Guria (known at the time as the
Ozurget Uyezd) in the
Russian Empire. It rose from a revolt over land grazing rights in 1902. Several issues over the previous decades affecting the peasant population including taxation, land ownership and economic factors also factored into the start of the insurrection. The revolt gained further traction through the efforts of
Georgian social democrats, despite some reservations within their party over supporting a peasant movement, and grew further during the
1905 Russian Revolution.
During its existence, the Gurian Republic ignored Russian authority and established its own system of government, which consisted of assemblies of villagers meeting and discussing issues. A unique form of justice, where trial attendees voted on sentences, was introduced. While the movement broke from imperial administration, it was not
anti-Russian, desiring to remain within the Empire. (Full article...)
Sadko is a character in the Russian medieval epic Bylina. An adventurer, merchant and gusli musician from
Novgorod, Sadko becomes wealthy with the help of the
Sea Tsar, but is thrown in the sea when he fails to pay the Sea Tsar his due respects. This story was widely adapted in the 19th century, including in a poem by
Alexei Tolstoy and
an opera by
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
Shown here is Sadko in the Underwater Kingdom, an 1876 painting by
Ilya Repin. It depicts Sadko meeting the Sea Tsar under the sea.
A late nineteenth-century
photochrom of a reindeer sled,
Arkhangelsk,
Russia. Reindeer have been
herded for centuries by several Arctic and Subarctic people including the
Sami and the
Nenets. They are raised for their meat, hides, antlers and, to a lesser extent, for milk and transportation.
This photo of the Nilov Monastery on
Stolobny Island in
Tver Oblast,
Russia, was taken by
Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky in 1910 before the advent of colour photography. His process used a camera that took a series of
monochrome pictures in rapid sequence, each through a different coloured filter. By projecting all three monochrome pictures using correctly coloured light, it was possible to reconstruct the original colour scene.
The Great Coat of Arms of the Russian Empire, as presented to Emperor
Paul I in October 1800. The use of the
double-headed eagle in the coat of arms (seen in multiple locations here) goes back to the 15th century. With the
fall of Constantinople and the end of the
Byzantine Empire in 1453, the
Grand Dukes of Moscow came to see themselves as the successors of the Byzantine heritage, a notion reinforced by the marriage of
Ivan III to
Sophia Paleologue. Ivan adopted the golden Byzantine double-headed eagle in his seal, first documented in 1472, marking his direct claim to the Roman imperial heritage and his assertion as sovereign equal and rival to the
Holy Roman Empire.
The Krestovsky Stadium is the home ground of
FC Zenit Saint Petersburg. Photographed here in 2016, when construction was nearing completion, it is situated on
Krestovsky Island in the Russian city of
Saint Petersburg. It was opened in 2017 as a venue for the
2017 FIFA Confederations Cup, and hosted the final, in which Germany beat Chile 1–0. It was one of the venues for the
2018 FIFA World Cup the following year. Among other features, it has a retractable roof, and is equipped with a video-surveillance and identification system, as well as security-alarm, fire-alarm and robotic fire-extinguishing systems. The stadium's seating capacity is 67,800.
Alexei Leonov (1934–2019) was a Soviet
cosmonaut,
Air Force major general, writer, and artist. On 18 March 1965, he became the first human to conduct a
spacewalk, exiting the
capsule during the
Voskhod 2 mission for 12 minutes and 9 seconds. At the end of the spacewalk, his spacesuit had inflated in the vacuum of space to the point that he had great difficulty re-entering the airlock, forcing him to open a valve to deflate his suit. His second trip into space took place ten years later, when he was commander of
Soyuz 19, the Soviet half of the 1975
Apollo–Soyuz Test Project, the first joint space mission between the Soviet Union and the United States. The crater
Leonov on the
far side of the Moon is named after him.
This picture shows Leonov photographed in 1974, wearing a lapel pin with a version of the emblem for the
Apollo–Soyuz Test Project, which was then in development.
The Solovetsky Monastery is a
Russian Orthodox monastery in
Solovetsky,
Arkhangelsk,
Russia. Founded in 1436 by the monk
Zosima, the monastery grew in power into the 16th century, becoming an economic and political center of the
White Sea region and eventually hosting 350 monks. After the
Bolshevik Revolution, Soviet authorities closed down the monastery and incorporated many of its buildings into
Solovki prison camp, one of the earliest forced-labor camps of the
gulag system. The camp closed after the region's trees had been harvested. Today the monastery has been re-established, and also serves as a museum.
Although
James Clerk Maxwell made the first color photograph in
1861, the results were far from realistic until Prokudin-Gorsky perfected the technique with a series of improvements around
1905. His process used a camera that took a series of monochrome pictures in rapid sequence, each through a different colored filter. Prokudin-Gorskii then went on to document much of the country of Russia, travelling by train in a specially equipped
darkroomrailroad car.
Hotel Astoria is a
five-star hotel located on
Saint Isaac's Square in
Saint Petersburg. Commissioned in 1910 by the Palace Hotel Company to host visitors to the
Romanov tercentenary, the hotel was designed by
Fyodor Lidval and first opened in 1912. After the
October Revolution, it continued to be used as a state-operated hotel, though during World War II it was also a field hospital. The hotel, now owned by
Rocco Forte Hotels, has been renovated several times, most recently in 2012.
Maxim Gorky (1868–1936) was a Russian political activist and writer who helped establish the
Socialist Realism literary method. This portrait dates from a trip Gorky made to the United States in 1906, on which he raised funds for the
Bolsheviks. During this trip he wrote his novel The Mother.
Alexis (1629–1676) was the
tsar of Russia from 1645 until his death. Born in
Moscow on 29 March 1629, the son of
Tsar Michael and
Eudoxia Streshneva, the sixteen-year-old Alexis acceded to the throne after his father's death.
Boris Morozov, a shrewd
boyar open to Western ideas, took charge of Russia in the early years of Alexis's reign, but was exiled from Moscow following
a popular uprising. Alexis responded to the uprising with
a new legal code. His reign saw wars
with Poland and
with Sweden,
a schism in the Russian Orthodox Church, and the major Cossack revolt of
Stenka Razin. Alexis was married twice and had sixteen children, including tsars
Fyodor III;
Ivan V;
Peter the Great; and
Sofia, who ruled as regent for her brothers from 1682 to 1689.
This oil painting, made by an unknown artist in the 1670s, is now located in a museum in
Ptuj, Slovenia.
An aerial view of the Field of Mars, a large park in central
Saint Petersburg, Russia, pictured in 2016. It is named after
Mars, the Roman god of war. The park's history goes back to the 18th century, when it was converted from bogland and named the Grand Meadow. Later, it was the setting for celebrations to mark Russia's victory over Sweden in the
Great Northern War. Its next name, the Tsaritsyn Meadow, appears after the royal family commissioned
Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli to build the
Summer Palace for
Empress Elizabeth. It became the Field of Mars during the reign of
Paul I. Towards the end of the 18th century, the park became a military drill ground, where they erected monuments commemorating the victories of the Russian Army and where parades and military exercises took place regularly. After the
February Revolution in 1917, the Field of Mars became a memorial area for the revolution's honoured dead. In the summer of 1942, as the city was besieged by the German army in the
Siege of Leningrad, the park was covered with vegetable gardens to supply food. An
eternal flame was lit in the centre of the park in 1957, in memory of the victims of various wars and revolutions.
Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (Russian: Ла́зарь Ма́ркович Лиси́цкий, listen; 23 November [
O.S. 11 November] 1890 – 30 December 1941), better known as El Lissitzky (Russian: Эль Лиси́цкий;
Yiddish: על ליסיצקי), was a Russian artist, designer, photographer,
typographer,
polemicist and architect. He was an important figure of the
Russian avant-garde, helping develop
suprematism with his mentor,
Kazimir Malevich, and designing numerous
exhibition displays and propaganda works for the
Soviet Union. His work greatly influenced the
Bauhaus and
constructivist movements, and he experimented with production techniques and stylistic devices that would go on to dominate
20th-century graphic design.
Lissitzky's entire career was laced with the belief that the artist could be an agent for change, later summarized with his edict, "das zielbewußte Schaffen" (goal-oriented creation). Lissitzky, of
Lithuanian Jewish оrigin, began his career illustrating
Yiddish children's books in an effort to promote Jewish culture in Russia. When only 15 he started teaching, a duty he would maintain for most of his life. Over the years, he taught in a variety of positions, schools, and artistic media, spreading and exchanging ideas. He took this ethic with him when he worked with Malevich in heading the suprematist
art groupUNOVIS, when he developed a variant suprematist series of his own,
Proun, and further still in 1921, when he took up a job as the Russian cultural ambassador to
Weimar Germany, working with and influencing important figures of the
Bauhaus and De Stijl movements during his stay. In his remaining years he brought significant innovation and change to
typography, exhibition design,
photomontage, and book design, producing critically respected works and winning international acclaim for his exhibition design. This continued until his deathbed, where in 1941 he produced one of his last works – a
Soviet propaganda poster rallying the people to construct more tanks for the fight against
Nazi Germany. In 2014, the heirs of the artist, in collaboration with
Van Abbemuseum and leading worldwide scholars on the subject, established the Lissitzky Foundation in order to preserve the artist's legacy and to prepare a
catalogue raisonné of the artist's oeuvre. (Full article...)
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