The polar bear (Ursus maritimus) is a large
bear native to the
Arctic and nearby areas. It is closely related to the
brown bear, and the two species can
interbreed. The polar bear is the largest extant species of bear and land
carnivore, with adult males weighing 300–800 kg (660–1,760 lb). The species is
sexually dimorphic, as adult females are much smaller. The polar bear is white- or yellowish-furred with black skin and a thick layer of fat. It is more slender than the brown bear, with a narrower skull, longer neck and lower shoulder hump. Its teeth are sharper and more adapted to cutting meat. The paws are large and allow the bear to walk on ice and paddle in the water.
Polar bears are both terrestrial and
pagophilic (ice-living) and are considered to be
marine mammals due to their dependence on
marine ecosystems. They prefer the annual
sea ice but live on land when the ice melts in the summer. They are mostly carnivorous and specialized for preying on
seals, particularly
ringed seals. Such prey is typically taken by ambush; the bear may stalk its prey on the ice or in the water, but also will stay at a breathing hole or ice edge to wait for prey to swim by. The bear primarily feeds on the seal's energy-rich
blubber. Other prey include
walruses,
beluga whales and some terrestrial animals. Polar bears are usually solitary but can be found in groups when on land. During the breeding season, male bears guard females and defend them from rivals. Mothers give birth to cubs in
maternity dens during the winter. Young stay with their mother for up to two and a half years. (Full article...)
Image 2
Antarctica (/ænˈtɑːrktɪkə/ⓘ) is
Earth's southernmost and least-populated
continent. Situated almost entirely south of the
Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the
Southern Ocean (also known as the
Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic
South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest continent, being about 40% larger than
Europe, and has an area of 14,200,000 km2 (5,500,000 sq mi). Most of Antarctica is covered by the
Antarctic ice sheet, with an average thickness of 1.9 km (1.2 mi).
Antarctica is, on average, the coldest, driest, and windiest of the continents, and it has the highest average
elevation. It is mainly a
polar desert, with annual
precipitation of over 200 mm (8 in) along the coast and far less inland. About 70% of the world's
freshwater reserves are frozen in Antarctica, which, if melted, would raise global
sea levels by almost 60 metres (200 ft). Antarctica holds the record for the
lowest measured temperature on Earth, −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F). The coastal regions can reach temperatures over 10 °C (50 °F) in the summer. Native
species of animals include
mites,
nematodes,
penguins,
seals and
tardigrades. Where
vegetation occurs, it is mostly in the form of
lichen or
moss. (Full article...)
Although musically precocious, Tchaikovsky was educated for a career as a civil servant as there was little opportunity for a musical career in Russia at the time and no system of public music education. When an opportunity for such an education arose, he entered the nascent
Saint Petersburg Conservatory, from which he graduated in 1865. The formal Western-oriented teaching that Tchaikovsky received there set him apart from composers of the contemporary
nationalist movement embodied by the Russian composers of
The Five with whom his
professional relationship was mixed. (Full article...)
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...)
The 1907 Tiflis bank robbery, also known as the Erivansky Square expropriation, was an armed robbery on 26 June 1907[a] in the city of
Tiflis (present-day Tbilisi, the capital of
Georgia) in the
Tiflis Governorate in the
Caucasus Viceroyalty of the
Russian Empire. A
Bolshevik group "
expropriated" a bank cash shipment to fund their revolutionary activities. The robbers attacked a bank stagecoach, and the surrounding police and soldiers, using bombs and guns while the stagecoach was transporting money through
Erivansky Square (present-day Freedom Square) between the post office and the Tiflis branch of the
State Bank of the Russian Empire. The attack killed forty people and injured fifty others, according to official archive documents. The robbers escaped with 241,000
rubles.
The robbery was organized by a number of top-level
Bolsheviks, including
Vladimir Lenin,
Joseph Stalin,
Maxim Litvinov,
Leonid Krasin, and
Alexander Bogdanov; and executed by a party of revolutionaries led by Stalin's early associate
Simon Ter-Petrosian, also known as "Kamo" and "The Caucasian Robin-Hood". Because such activities had been explicitly prohibited by the
5th Congress of the
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) only weeks previously, the robbery and the killings caused outrage within the party against the Bolsheviks (a faction within the RSDLP). As a result, Lenin and Stalin tried to distance themselves from the robbery. (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 construction of the cathedral was approved in 1894 by the
Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire.
Groundbreaking was in 1899; construction work began in 1901 and was completed ten years later. Three-aisled and built from red brick, the cathedral is based on a design by architect
Tomasz Bohdanowicz-Dworzecki. The style was influenced by
Westminster Abbey and
Milan Cathedral. With the help of funds from Catholic parishes in Russia and its neighbouring states, the church was consecrated as a chapel for Moscow's Polish parish in 1911. In the aftermath of the
Russian Revolution in 1917, the
Provisional Government was overthrown by the
Bolsheviks and Russia eventually became part of the
Soviet Union in 1922. Because the promotion of
state atheism was a part of
Marxist–Leninist ideology, the government
ordered many churches closed; the cathedral was closed in 1938. During World War II, it was threatened with demolition, and was used after the war for civil purposes, as a warehouse and then a hostel. Following the
fall of communism in 1991, it returned to being a church in 1996. In 2002 it was elevated to the status of cathedral. Following an extensive and costly programme of reconstruction and refurbishment, the cathedral was reconsecrated in 2005. (Full article...)
Image 8
William FeinerSJ (born Wilhelm Feiner; December 27, 1792 – June 9, 1829) was a German
Catholic priest and
Jesuit who became a
missionary to the United States and eventually the president of Georgetown College, now known as
Georgetown University.
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...)
The ship was torpedoed during the Japanese surprise attack on
Port Arthur during the night of 8/9 February 1904 and
grounded in the harbour entrance when she attempted to take refuge inside, as her
draft had significantly deepened from the amount of water she had taken aboard after the torpedo hit. She was refloated and repaired in time to join the rest of the
1st Pacific Squadron when they attempted to reach
Vladivostok through the Japanese blockade on 10 August. The Japanese battle fleet engaged them again in the
Battle of the Yellow Sea, forcing most of the Russian ships to return to Port Arthur after their
squadron commander was killed and his
flagship damaged. Retvizan was sunk by Japanese
howitzers in December after the Japanese gained control of the heights around the harbour. (Full article...)
Image 13
Bezhin Meadow (Бежин луг, Bezhin lug) is a 1937
Soviet propaganda film, famous for having been suppressed and believed destroyed before its completion. Directed by
Sergei Eisenstein, it tells the story of a young farm boy whose father attempts to betray the government for political reasons by sabotaging the year's harvest and the son's efforts to stop his own father to protect the Soviet state, culminating in the boy's murder and a social uprising. The film draws its title from a story by
Ivan Turgenev, but is based on the (largely fabricated) life story of
Pavlik Morozov, a young Russian boy who became a political
martyr following his death in 1932, after he supposedly denounced his father to Soviet government authorities and subsequently died at the hands of his family. Pavlik Morozov was immortalized in school programs, poetry, music, and film.
Commissioned by a
communist youth group, the film's production ran from 1935 to 1937, until it was halted by the central Soviet government, which said it contained artistic, social, and political failures. Some, however, blamed the failure of Bezhin Meadow on government interference and policies, extending all the way to
Joseph Stalin himself. In the wake of the film's failure, Eisenstein publicly recanted his work as an error. Individuals were arrested during and after the ensuing debacle. (Full article...)
Named for the
siege of Sevastopol during the
Crimean War, the ship was commissioned into the First Pacific Squadron of the
Russian Pacific Fleet and was stationed at
Port Arthur (today
Lüshunkou District,
Dalian,
Liaoning, China), a Russian naval base acquired from China in 1898 as part of the
Kwantung Leased Territory. One of the first ships to use Harvey nickel-steel armor and Popov radios, she displaced 11,854 long tons (12,044 t) at
full load and was 369 feet (112.5 m) long
overall, and mounted a main battery of four 12-inch (305 mm) guns in two twin turrets. She was laid down in May 1892, launched on 1 June 1895 and completed in 1899. Her sea trials lasted until 1900. (Full article...)
Image 15
In mid- to late-19th-century Russia,
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and a group of
composers known as
The Five had differing opinions as to whether
Russian classical music should be composed following Western or native practices. Tchaikovsky wanted to write professional compositions of such quality that they would stand up to Western scrutiny and thus transcend national barriers, yet remain distinctively Russian in melody, rhythm and other compositional characteristics. The Five, made up of composers
Mily Balakirev,
Alexander Borodin,
César Cui,
Modest Mussorgsky, and
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, sought to produce a specifically Russian kind of
art music, rather than one that imitated older European music or relied on European-style conservatory training. While Tchaikovsky himself used folk songs in some of his works, for the most part he tried to follow Western practices of composition, especially in terms of tonality and tonal progression. Also, unlike Tchaikovsky, none of The Five were academically trained in composition; in fact, their leader, Balakirev, considered academicism a threat to musical imagination. Along with critic
Vladimir Stasov, who supported The Five, Balakirev attacked relentlessly both the
Saint Petersburg Conservatory, from which Tchaikovsky had graduated, and its founder
Anton Rubinstein, orally and in print.
As Tchaikovsky had become Rubinstein's best-known student, he was initially considered by association as a natural target for attack, especially as fodder for Cui's printed critical reviews. This attitude changed slightly when Rubinstein left the Saint Petersburg musical scene in 1867. In 1869 Tchaikovsky entered into a working relationship with Balakirev; the result was Tchaikovsky's first recognized masterpiece, the fantasy-overture Romeo and Juliet, a work which The Five wholeheartedly embraced. When Tchaikovsky wrote a positive review of Rimsky-Korsakov's Fantasy on Serbian Themes he was welcomed into the circle, despite concerns about the academic nature of his musical background. The finale of his
Second Symphony, nicknamed the Little Russian, was also received enthusiastically by the group on its first performance in 1872. (Full article...)
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.
Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821–81; depicted in 1872) was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and philosopher. After publishing his first novel, Poor Folk, at age 25, Dostoyevsky wrote (among others) eleven novels, three novellas, and seventeen short novels, including Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), and The Brothers Karamazov (1880).
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.
Saint Michael's Castle is a former royal residence in the historic centre of
Saint Petersburg, Russia. It was built for Emperor
Paul I between 1797 and 1801, and named after
Saint Michael, the patron saint of the royal family. Constructed like a castle around a small octagonal courtyard, the four facades were built in different architectural styles, including
French Classicism,
Italian Renaissance and
Gothic. The emperor was assassinated in the castle forty days after taking up residence. After his death, the imperial family returned to the
Winter Palace and the building was transferred to the Russian Army's
Main Engineering School. In 1990, it became a branch of the
Russian Museum, and now houses its portrait gallery.
Lenin, a Soviet
nuclear-powered icebreaker, was both the world's first nuclear-powered surface ship and the first nuclear-powered civilian vessel. The ship entered operation in 1959 and worked to clear sea routes for cargo ships along Russia's northern coast. Nuclear power proved to be an ideal technology for a vessel working in such a remote area, as it obviated the need for regular replenishment of fuel. From 1960 to 1965, the ship covered over 85,000 mi (137,000 km) during the Arctic navigation season, of which three-quarters was through ice. After being decommissioned in 1989, the vessel was subsequently converted into a museum ship and is now permanently based at
Murmansk.
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.
Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) was a
Russian writer who is regarded as one of the world's greatest novelists. He is best known for War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877), often cited as pinnacles of
realist fiction. Born to an aristocratic family on 9 September [
O.S. 28 August] 1828, Tolstoy was orphaned when he was young. He studied at
Kazan University, but this was not a success, and he left university without completing his degree. During this time, he began to write and published his first novel, Childhood, in 1852. Tolstoy later served at the
Siege of Sevastopol during the
Crimean War, and was appalled by the number of deaths and left at the conclusion of the war. He spent the remainder of his life writing whilst also marrying and starting a family. In the 1870s he converted to a form of fervent
Christian anarchism.
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.
Photograph credit: Arto Jousi; restored by
Adam Cuerden
Yuri Gagarin (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a
Soviet Air Forces pilot and
cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into
outer space; his capsule,
Vostok 1, completed a single orbit of Earth on 12 April 1961. Gagarin became an international celebrity and was awarded many medals and titles, including
Hero of the Soviet Union, his nation's highest honour. In 1967, he served as a member of the backup crew for the ill-fated
Soyuz 1 mission, after which the Russian authorities, fearing for the safety of such an iconic figure, banned him from further spaceflights. However, he was killed the following year, when the
MiG-15 training jet that he was piloting with his flight instructor
Vladimir Seryogin crashed near the town of
Kirzhach.
This photograph of Gagarin, dated July 1961, was taken at a press conference during a visit to Finland approximately three months after his spaceflight.
A painting depicting Ivan Tsarevich, one of the main
heroes of
Russian folklore, riding a
magic carpet after having captured the
Firebird, which he keeps in a cage. This work was
Viktor Vasnetsov's first attempt at illustrating Russian folk tales and inaugurated a famous series of paintings on the themes drawn from Russian folklore.
Gorky Park is a park in central
Moscow, Russia, inaugurated in 1928 following the use of the site in 1923 for the First All-Russian Agricultural and Handicraft Industries Exhibition. The park was named after the writer and political activist
Maxim Gorky. It underwent a major reconstruction in 2011; nearly all the amusement rides and other attractions were removed, extensive lawns and flower beds were created, and new roadways were laid. A 15,000 m2 (160,000 sq ft)
ice rink was installed at the same time. This picture shows the
colonnaded main portal of Gorky Park.
The Bolshoi Theatre is a historic theatre in
Moscow, Russia, which holds ballet and opera performances. The company was founded on 28 March [
O.S. 17 March] 1776, when
Catherine the Great granted Prince
Pyotr Urusov a licence to organise theatrical performances, balls and other forms of entertainment. Usunov set up the theatre in collaboration with English tightrope walker
Michael Maddox. The present building was built between 1821 and 1824 and designed by architect
Joseph Bové.
A serving of shchi. This variant contains
saffron milk-caps, a type of mushroom.
Shchi (Russian: щи, IPA:[ɕːi]ⓘ) is a
Russian-style
cabbage soup. When
sauerkraut is used instead, the soup is called sour shchi, while soups based on
sorrel,
spinach,
nettle, and similar plants are called
green shchi (
Russian: зелёные щи, zelionyje shchi). In the past, the term sour shchi was also used to refer to a drink, a variation of
kvass, which was unrelated to the soup. (Full article...)
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...)
Sri Lanka's foreign ministry said that his country received assurances from Russia that it would stop recruiting its citizens to fight in Ukraine.
(Alarabiya)
A Russian
Sukhoi Su-34 crashed in the Caucasus mountains during a routine training exercise, killing the crew aboard.
(Reuters)
... that former
Czech Army doctor Marek Obrtel returned his military decorations from
NATO operations in 2014, citing his pro-Russian and anti-American views?
... that Michael S. Farbman's reporting of the
Russian Civil War in winter 1917–18 was described by The Observer as "one of the outstanding successes of the time in special correspondence"?
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