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Battle Of Orsha

Battle of Orsha

The Battle of Orsha took place September 8, 1514, between the forces of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Kingdom of Poland (less than 30,000 troops), under the command of Hetman Konstanty Ostrogski, and the army of Muscovy under Konyushy (конюший, "Tsar's Equerry") Ivan Chelyadnin (Иван Челяднин) and Kniaz (Prince) Mikhail Golitsa (Михаил Голица). The Battle of Orsha was part of a long chain of wars conducted by Russian tsars striving to gather all the Old Ruthenian lands under their rule. The much smaller army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland defeated the Muscovite forces, capturing their camp and commander.

Eve of battle

At the end of 1512, Muscovy began a new war for the Ruthenian lands of present-day Belarus and Ukraine that were part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The fortress of Smolensk was then the easternmost outpost of the Grand Duchy and one of the most important strongholds guarding it from the east. It repelled several Muscovite attacks, but in July 1514 a Muscovite army of 80,000 men and 300 guns besieged and finally captured it. (Some historians claim that the size of Muscovy's army has been overstated: see "Disputed data," below.) Spurred on by this initial success, the Grand Prince of Muscovy Vasili III ordered his forces farther into Belarus, occupying the towns of Krychau, Mscislau and Dubrouna. Meanwhile Poland's King Sigismund the Old gathered some 35,000 troops for war with the eastern neighbor. This army was inferior in numbers, but comprised mostly well-trained cavalry. The forces of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Kingdom of Poland placed under the command of Hetman Konstanty Ostrogski included:
- 16,000 horse of the Grand Duchy,
- 14,000 Polish cavalry (light and heavy),
- 3,000 mercenary infantry,
- 2,500 volunteers, mostly from Bohemia. Marching into Belarus, King Sigismund secured the town of Barysau with a 4,000-strong force, while the main forces moved on to face the Muscovites. At the end of August, several skirmishes took place at crossings of the Berezina, Bobr and Druts Rivers, but the Muscovite army avoided a major confrontation. Suffering negligible losses, the Muscovites advanced to the area between Orsha and Dubrouna on the River Krapiuna, where they set up camp. Ivan Chelyadnin, confident that the Lithuanian-Polish forces would have to cross one of two bridges on the Dnepr, split his own forces to guard those crossings. However, Ostrogski's army crossed the river farther north via two pontoon bridges. On the night of September 7, it began preparations for a final battle with the Muscovites. Hetman Ostrogski placed most of his 16,000 Lithuanian (Litvin) horse in the center, while most of the Polish infantry and the auxiliary troops manned the flanks. The Bohemian and Silesian infantry were deployed in the center of the line, in front of reserves comprising Lithuanian and Polish cavalry.

Battle

cavalry On September 8, 1514, shortly after dawn, Ivan Chelyadnin gave the order to attack. The Muscovite forces attempted to outflank the Lithuanians and Poles by attacking the flanks, manned by Polish troops. One of the pincers of the attack was commanded by Chelyadnin personally, while the other was led by Prince Bulgakov-Golitsa. The initial attack failed, and the Muscovites withdrew toward their starting positions. Chelyadnin was still confident that the almost 3:1 odds in his favor would give him the victory. However, preoccupied with his own wing of the Muscovite forces, he lost track of the other sectors and failed to coordinate a defense against the counterattack by the Lithuanian cavalry, which until then had been kept in reserve. The Lithuanian light horse attacked the overstretched center of the Muscovite lines in an attempt to split them. At the crucial moment the horse of the Grand Duchy seemed to waver, then went into retreat. The Muscovites pursued with all their cavalry reserves. The Lithuanian horse, after retreating for several minutes, chased by the Muscovites, suddenly turned to the sides. The Muscovite horse now found themselves confronted by artillery concealed in the forest. From both sides, Polish forces appeared and proceeded to surround the Muscovites. Ivan Chelyadnin sounded retreat, which soon became somewhat panicky. The Muscovite forces were pursued by the army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania for five kilometers. The Muscovite defeat is often attributed to repeated failures by Ivan Chelyadnin and Golitsa to coordinate their operations. According to accounts in Polish chronicles, at the Battle of Orsha 30,000 Muscovites were killed and an additional 3,000 were taken captive, including Ivan Chelyadnin and eight other commanders. The forces of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Kingdom of Poland seized the Muscovite camp and all 300 cannon.

Aftermath

Upset at word of the massive defeat, Muscovite Grand Prince Vasili III allegedly remarked that "the prisoners [were] as useful as the dead" and declined to negotiate their return. The Battle of Orsha was one of the biggest battles of 16th-century Europe. Ostrogski's forces continued their pursuit of the routed Muscovite army and retook most of the previously captured strongholds. However, the Lithuanian and Polish forces were too exhausted to besiege Smolensk before winter. Also Ostrogski did not reach the gates of Smolensk until late September, giving Vasili III enough time to prepare defense. In December 1514, Hetman Konstanty Ostrogski triumphantly entered Vilnius. To commemorate the victory, two Orthodox churches were erected: the Church of the Holy Trinity and the Church of Saint Nicholas, which remain among the most impressive examples of Orthodox Church architecture in Lithuania. The war between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Muscovy lasted until 1520. In 1522 a peace was signed, under the terms of which the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was forced to cede to Muscovy about a quarter of its Ruthenian possessions, including Smolensk. The latter city was not retaken from Russia until almost a century later, in 1611.

Disputed data

Due to the spectacular proportions of the defeat, information about the Battle of Orsha was suppressed in Muscovite chronicles. Even reputable historians of the Russian Empire such as Sergey Solovyov rely on non-Russian sources. On the other hand, King Sigismund I of Poland sought to gain as much political advantage as possible from his victory. Hence the figures quoted regarding the sizes of the respective forces, and the numbers of casualties and prisoners taken, are questioned by some modern historians. In particular, the size of the Muscovite army (80,000) is thought to have been seriously exaggerated. Even Ivan the Terrible, who commanded a larger territory than his father, could never muster more than 40,000 troops, 20% of whom were newly-conquered Tatars and Finns. As a consequence, the number of killed (30,000) is also questioned. Indirect evidence of exaggeration may be that King Sigismund wrote Pope Leo X and other European rulers that his army had killed 30,000 Muscovites and taken prisoner 46 commanders and 1,500 nobles. Extant Polish and Lithuanian documents, however, list all captured nobles by name, only 611 men in all.

Modern times

The battle is regarded as one of the symbols of Belarusian national revival by Belarusian nationalists, but its significance is being suppressed by the Belarusian authorities. In September of 2005, by order of president of Belarus Aleksander Lukashenka, four members of Belarusian National Front opposition were sentenced to almost 4 millions roubles (roughly 1500 Euro) fine each for celebration of the 491st anniversary of the battle.

References


- The battle was described by Sigismund von Herberstein in his Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii (Notes on Muscovite Affairs, 1549).

Related article

Battle of Vedrosha Category:1514 Orsza 1514 Orsha 1514 Orsha 1514 Category:History of Belarus

September 8

September 8 is the 251st day of the year (252nd in leap years). There are 114 days remaining.

Events


- 1331 - Stefan Dusan declares himself king of Serbia
- 1380 - Battle of Kulikovo - Russian forces defeat a mixed army of Tatars and Mongols, stopping their advance.
- 1449 - Battle of Tumu Fortress - Mongolians capture the Chinese emperor.
- 1504 - Michelangelo's David is unveiled in Florence.
- 1514 - Battle of Orsha - In one of the biggest battles of the century, Belarussians and Poles defeat the Russian army.
- 1565 - Pedro Menéndez de Avilés settles St. Augustine, Florida.
- 1565 - The Knights of Malta lift the Turkish siege of Malta (the Siege of Malta started on May 18).
- 1636 - A vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony establishes the first college in what would become the United States, today known as Harvard University.
- 1664 - The Dutch colony of New Amsterdam was surrendered to the British who renamed it New York in 1669.
- 1727 - A barn fire during a puppet show in the village of Burwell in Cambs, UK kills 78 people, many of whom are children
- 1755 - French and Indian War: Battle of Lake George
- 1796 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Bassano - French forces defeat Austrian troops at Bassano.
- 1810 - The Tonquin sets sail from New York Harbor with 33 employees of John Jacob Astor's newly created Pacific Fur Company on board. After a six-month journey around the tip of South America, the ship arrived at the mouth of the Columbia River and Astor's men established fur-trading town of Astoria, Oregon.
- 1831 - William IV was crowned King of Great Britain.
- 1863 - American Civil War: Second Battle of Sabine Pass - On the Texas-Louisiana border at the mouth of the Sabine River, a small Confederate force thwarts a Union invasion of Texas.
- 1888 - In London, the body of Jack the Ripper's second murder victim, Annie Chapman, is found.
- 1888 - In England the first six Football League matches ever are played.
- 1900 - Galveston Hurricane of 1900: a powerful hurricane hits Galveston, Texas killing about 8,000 people.
- 1921- 16-year-old Margaret Gorman won the Atlantic City Pageant's Golden Mermaid trophy; pageant officials later dubbed her the first Miss America.
- 1923 - Honda Point Disaster: Nine US Navy destroyers run aground off the California coast. Seven are lost.
- 1926 - Germany was admitted to the League of Nations.
- 1930 - 3M begins marketing Scotch transparent tape.
- 1934 - Off the New Jersey coast, a fire aboard the passenger liner SS Morro Castle kills 135 people.
- 1935 - US Senator from Louisiana, Huey Long, nicknamed "Kingfish", is fatally shot in the Louisiana capitol building.
- 1941 - World War II: Siege of Leningrad begins. German forces begin a siege against the Soviet Union's second-largest city, Leningrad. Stalin orders the Volga Deutsche deported to Siberia.
- 1943 - World War II: United States General Dwight D. Eisenhower publicly announces the Allied armistice with Italy.
- 1943 - World War II: Julius Fucik is executed by Nazis.
- 1944 - World War II: London is hit by a V2 rocket for the first time.
- 1944 - World War II: Menton is liberated from Germany.
- 1945 - Cold War: United States troops arrive to partition the southern part of Korea in response to Soviet troops occupying the northern part of the peninsula a month earlier.
- 1951 - Treaty of San Francisco: In San Francisco, California, 48 nations sign a peace treaty with Japan in formal recognition of the end of the Pacific War.
- 1954 - The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) is established.
- 1960 - In Huntsville, Alabama, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally dedicates the Marshall Space Flight Center (NASA had already activated the facility on July 1).
- 1962 - Newly independent, Algeria, by referendum, adopts a Constitution.
- 1966 - "The Man Trap", the first episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek airs.
- 1966 - The Severn Road Bridge was officially opened.
- 1971 - In Washington, DC, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is inaugurated, with the opening feature being the premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Mass.
- 1974 - Watergate Scandal: US President Gerald Ford pardons former President Richard Nixon for any crimes Nixon may have committed while in office.
- 1974 - Evel Knievel's attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon at Twin Falls, Idaho, fails after a parachute prematurely deploys on his "sky cycle."
- 1991 - Republic of Macedonia becomes independent.
- 1994 - A Boeing 737 operating USAir Flight 427 carrying 132 people on board, crashes on approach to Pittsburgh International Airport. There are no survivors.
- 1998 - At Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri, Mark McGwire breaks Roger Maris' 1961 record of 61 home runs hit in a single season.
- 1999 - US Attorney General Janet Reno names former US Senator John Danforth to head an independent investigation of the 1993 fire at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas.
- 2000 - The Republic of Albania officially joins the World Trade Organization, as Albania.
- 2001 - Durban, South Africa hosts the World Conference against Racism.
- 2003 - Brianna LaHara, a 12-year-old U.S. schoolgirl, is sued by the RIAA for downloading music illegally.
- 2004 - The NASA unmanned spacecraft Genesis crash-lands when its parachute fails to open.

Births


- 551 BC – Confucius, Chinese philosopher (d. 479 BC)
- 801 - Ansgar, German Catholic archbishop
- 828 - Ali al-Hadi, Shia Imam (d. 868)
- 1157 - King Richard I of England (d. 1199)
- 1207 - King Sancho II of Portugal
- 1271 - Charles Martel d'Anjou, son of Charles II of Naples (d. 1295)
- 1380 - Saint Bernardino of Siena, Italian Franciscan missionary (d. 1444)
- 1474 - Ludovico Ariosto, Italian poet (d. 1533)
- 1515 - Alfonso Salmeron, Spanish Jesuit biblical scholar (d. 1585)
- 1588 - Marin Mersenne, French mathematician (d. 1648)
- 1611 - Johann Friedrich Gronovius, German classical scholar (d. 1671)
- 1621 - Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, French general (d. 1686)
- 1633 - Ferdinand IV of Germany (d. 1654)
- 1672 - Nicolas de Grigny, French organist and composer (d. 1703)
- 1749 - Gabrielle de Polastron, comtesse de Polignac, French aristocrat (d. 1793)
- 1778 - Clemens Brentano, German poet (d. 1842)
- 1783 - Nicolai Grundtvig, Danish writer and philosopher (d. 1872)
- 1804 - Eduard Mörike, German poet (d. 1875)
- 1814 - Charles-Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, French writer and historian (d. 1874)
- 1828 - Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, American Civil War soldier
- 1830 - Frédéric Mistral, French poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1914)
- 1841 - Antonin Dvorak, Czech composer (d. 1904)
- 1852 - Emperor Gwangmu of Korea (d. 1919)
- 1873 - David O. McKay, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1970)
- 1881 - Harry Hillman, American athlete
- 1886 - Siegfried Sassoon, English poet (d. 1967)
- 1889 - Robert Alphonso Taft, U.S. Senator from Ohio (d. 1953)
- 1897 - Jimmie Rodgers, American singer and composer (d. 1933)
- 1901 - Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, Prime Minister of South Africa (d. 1966)
- 1910 - Jean-Louis Barrault, French actor and director (d. 1994)
- 1914 - Sir Denys Lasdun, English architect (d. 2001)
- 1918 - Derek Harold Richard Barton, British chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
- 1921 - Sir Harry Secombe, Welsh actor (d. 2001)
- 1922 - Sid Caesar, American comedian
- 1922 - Lyndon LaRouche, American politician
- 1924 - Mimi Parent, Canadian painter (d. 2005)
- 1925 - Peter Sellers, English actor (d. 1980)
- 1929 - Christoph von Dohnanyi, German conductor
- 1930 - Nguyen Cao Ky, Premier of South Vietnam
- 1932 - Patsy Cline, American singer (d. 1963)
- 1933 - Michael Frayn, English playwright
- 1934 - Peter Maxwell Davies, British composer
- 1938 - Sam Nunn, U.S. Senator from Georgia
- 1939 - Carsten Keller, German field hockey player
- 1944 - Terry Jenner, Australian Cricketer
- 1945 - Ron Pigpen McKernan, American musician (the Grateful Dead) (d. 1973)
- 1947 - Ann Beattie, American writer
- 1947 - Valery Afanassiev, Russian pianist
- 1956 - Frank Tovey, British singer and musician (d. 2002)
- 1960 - Aimee Mann, American musician
- 1964 - Michael Johns, business executive and White House speechwriter
- 1964 - Joachim Nielsen, Norwegian musician (d. 2000)
- 1966 - Carola, Swedish singer
- 1969 - Gary Speed, Welsh footballer
- 1970 - Neko Case, American musician
- 1970 - Latrell Sprewell, American basketball player
- 1970 - Yuji Nishizawa, Japanese hijacker
- 1971 - Brooke Burke, American model
- 1971 - Daniel Petrov, Bulgarian boxer
- 1972 - Lisa Kennedy, American television personality
- 1976 - Sjeng Schalken, Dutch tennis player
- 1979 - Pink, American singer
- 1981 - Morten Gamst Pedersen, Norwegian footballer
- 1981 - Jonathan Taylor Thomas, American actor

Deaths


- 701 - Pope Sergius I
- 780 - Leo IV, Byzantine Emperor
- 1425 - King Charles III of Navarre (b. 1361)
- 1539 - John Stokesley, English churchman
- 1603 - George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon, English politician (b. 1547)
- 1613 - Carlo Gesualdo, Italian composer (b. 1566)
- 1637 - Robert Fludd, English mystic (b. 1574)
- 1644 - John Coke, English politician (b. 1563)
- 1644 - Francis Quarles, English poet (b. 1592)
- 1645 - Francisco de Quevedo, Spanish writer (b. 1580)
- 1656 - Joseph Hall, English bishop and writer (b. 1574)
- 1682 - Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz, Spanish writer (b. 1606)
- 1721 - Michael Brokoff, Czech sculptor (b. 1686)
- 1739 - Yuri Troubetzkoy, Governor of Belgorod (b. 1668)
- 1755 - Ephraim Williams, American philanthropist (b. 1715)
- 1761 - Bernard Forest de Bélidor, French engineer (b. 1698)
- 1780 - Enoch Poor, American Continental Army general (b. 1736)
- 1784 - Ann Lee, American religious leader (b. 1736)
- 1811 - Peter Simon Pallas, German zoologist (b. 1741)
- 1933 - King Faysal I of Iraq (b. 1883)
- 1894 - Hermann von Helmholtz, German physician (b. 1821)
- 1943 - Julius Fucik, Czech journalist (executed) (b. 1903)
- 1948 - Thomas Mofolo, Lesotho writer (b. 1876)
- 1949 - Richard Strauss, German composer (b. 1864)
- 1965 - Dorothy Dandridge, American actress (b. 1922)
- 1965 - Hermann Staudinger, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1881)
- 1969 - Bud Collyer, American television game show host (b. 1908)
- 1969 - Alexandra David-Néel, French explorer and writer (b. 1868)
- 1977 - Zero Mostel, American actor (b. 1915)
- 1979 - Jean Seberg, American actress (b. 1938)
- 1980 - Willard Libby, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1908)
- 1981 - Bill Shankly, Scottish football manager (b. 1913)
- 1981 - Roy Wilkins, American civil rights activist (b. 1901)
- 1981 - Hideki Yukawa, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1907)
- 1985 - John Franklin Enders, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1887)
- 2002 - Laurie Williams, West Indian cricketer (b. 1968)
- 2003 - Jaclyn Linetsky, Canadian voice actress (b. 1986)
- 2003 - Leni Riefenstahl, German film director (b. 1902)
- 2004 - Frank Thomas, American animator (b. 1913)
- 2005 - Noel Cantwell, Irish cricketer and footballer (b. 1932)

Holidays


- RC Saints - Feast of the Birth of Mary, also in the Anglican Church; Pope Sergius I
- Eastern Orthodoxy - Feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos
- Andorra - National day: Mare de Deu de Meritxell
- Bahá'í Faith - Feast of 'Izzat (Might) - First day of the tenth month of the Bahá'í calendar
- Republic of Macedonia - Independence day (from Yugoslavia, 1991)
- Fiestas de Santa Fe in New Mexico, USA
- National literacy day (UK)

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/8 BBC: On This Day] ---- September 7 - September 9 - August 8 - October 8 – more historical anniversaries ko:9월 8일 ja:9月8日 simple:September 8 th:8 กันยายน

1514

Events


- March - Louis XII of France makes peace with Emperor Maximilian.
- July - Peace between England and France.
- September 8 - Battle of Orsha - In one of the biggest battles of the century, Belarussians and Poles defeat the Russian army.
- September 15 - Thomas Wolsey is appointed Archbishop of York.
- October 9 - marriage of Louis XII of France and Mary Tudor
- Albrecht Dürer makes his famous engraving Melancholia I.

Births


- January 1 - Henry, Duke of Cornwall, third son of Henry VIII of England
- March 8 - Amago Haruhisa, Japanese samurai and warlord (died 1562)
- June 16 - John Cheke, English classical scholar and statesman (died 1557)
- December 31 - Vesalius, Flemish anatomist (died 1564)
- Hosokawa Harumoto, Japanese military leader (died 1563)
- George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly, Scottish nobleman (died 1562)
- Georg Joachim Rheticus, cartographer and scientific instrument maker (died 1574)
- Shimazu Takahisa, Japanese samurai and warlord (died 1571)

Deaths


- January 2 - William Smyth, English bishop and statesman (born 1460)
- January 9 - Anne of Brittany, queen of Charles VIII of France (born 1477)
- February 11 - Henry, Duke of Cornwall, third son of Henry VIII of England
- March 11 - Donato Bramante, Italian architect (born 1444)
- October 25 - William Elphinstone, Scottish bishop and statesman (born 1431) Category:1514 ko:1514년 simple:1514

Jagiellon Poland

The Jagiellon Era 1385-1569, was dominated by the union of Poland with Lithuania under the Jagiellon Dynasty, founded by the Lithuanian grand duke Jagiello. The partnership proved profitable for the Poles and Lithuanians, who played a dominant role in one of the most powerful empires in Europe for the next three centuries.

The Polish-Lithuanian Union

Poland's unlikely partnership with the adjoining Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Europe's last heathen state, provided an immediate remedy to the political and military dilemma caused by the end of the Piast Dynasty. At the end of the fourteenth century, Lithuania was a warlike political unit with dominion over enormous stretches of present-day Belarus and Ukraine. Putting aside their previous hostility, Poland and Lithuania saw that they shared common enemies, most notably the Teutonic Knights; this situation was the direct incentive for the Union of Krewo in 1385. The compact hinged on the marriage of the Polish queen Jadwiga to Jagiello, who became king of Poland under the name Władysław II. In return, the new monarch accepted baptism in the name of his people, agreed to confederate Lithuania with Poland. In 1387 the bishopric of Wilno was established to convert Władysław's subjects to Roman Catholicism. (Eastern Orthodoxy predominated in some parts of Lithuania.) From a military standpoint, Poland received protection from the Mongols and Tatars, while Lithuania received aid in its long struggle against the Teutonic Knights. The Polish-Lithuanian alliance exerted a profound influence on the history of Eastern Europe. Poland and Lithuania would maintain joint statehood for more than 400 years, and over the first three centuries of that span the "Commonwealth of Two Nations" ranked as one of the leading powers of the continent. The association produced prompt benefits in 1410 when the forces of Poland-Lithuania defeated the Teutonic Knights in battle at Grunwald (Tannenberg), at last seizing the upper hand in the long struggle with the renegade crusaders. The new Polish Lithuanian dynasty, called "Jagiellon" after its founder, continued to augment its holdings during the following decades. By the end of the fifteenth century, representatives of the Jagiellons reigned in Bohemia and Hungary as well as Poland-Lithuania, establishing the government of their clan over virtually all of Eastern Europe and Central Europe. This farflung federation collapsed in 1526 when armies of the Ottoman Empire won a crushing victory at the Battle of Mohács (Hungary), wresting Bohemia and Hungary from the Jagiellons and installing the Turks as a menacing presence in the heart of Europe.

The "Golden Age" of the Sixteenth Century

The Jagiellons never recovered their hegemony over Central Europe, and the ascendancy of the Ottomans foreshadowed the eventual subjection of the entire region to foreign rule; but the half century that followed the Battle of Mohács marked an era of stability, affluence, and cultural advancement unmatched in national history and widely regarded by Poles as their country's golden age.

Poland-Lithuania as a European Power

The Teutonic Knights had been reduced to vassalage, and despite the now persistent threats posed by the Turks and an emerging Russian colossus, Poland-Lithuania managed to defend its status as one of the largest and most prominent states of Europe. The wars and diplomacy of the century yielded no dramatic expansion but shielded the country from significant disturbance and permitted significant internal development. An "Eternal Peace" concluded with the Ottoman Turks in 1533 lessened but did not remove the threat of invasion from that quarter. A lucrative agricultural export market was the foundation for the kingdom's wealth. A population boom in Western Europe prompted an increased demand for foodstuffs; Poland-Lithuania became Europe's foremost supplier of grain, which was shipped abroad from the Baltic seaport of Gdansk. Aside from swelling Polish coffers, the prosperous grain trade supported other notable aspects of national development. It reinforced the preeminence of the landowning nobility that received its profits, and it helped to preserve a traditionally rural society and economy at a time when Western Europe had begun moving toward urbanization and capitalism.

The Government of Poland-Lithuania

In other respects as well, the distinctive features of Jagiellonian Poland ran against the historical trends of early modern Europe. Not the least of those features was its singular governmental structure and practice. In an era that favored the steady accumulation of power within the hands of European monarchs, Poland-Lithuania developed a markedly decentralized system dominated by a landed aristocracy that kept royal authority firmly in check. The Polish nobility, or szlachta, enjoyed the considerable benefits of landownership and control over the labor of the peasantry. Nobles were not the masters of life and death of the peasentry, but peasants could not leave the village without permission of village' s noble owner. The szlachta included 7 to 10 percent of the population, making it a very large noble class by European standards. The nobility manifested an impressive group solidarity in spite of great individual differences in wealth and standing. Over time, the gentry introduced a series of royal concessions and guarantees that vested the noble parliament, or Sejm, with decisive control over most aspects of statecraft, including exclusive rights to the making of laws. In 1505 Sejm concluded that no new law could be established without the agreement of the nobility (the Nihil Novi act). King Alexander Jagiellon was forced to agree to this settlement. The Sejm operated on the principle of unanimous consent, regarding each noble as irreducibly sovereign. In a further safeguard of minority rights, Polish usage sanctioned the right of a group of gentry to form a confederation, which in effect constituted an uprising aimed at redress of grievances. The nobility also possessed the crucial right to elect the monarch, although the Jagiellons were in practice a hereditary ruling house in all but the formal sense. In fact, Jagiellons had to give privileges to the nobles to encourage them to elect their sons to be the successors. Those privileges reduced king's power. King Sigismund II Augustus was the last of Jagiellon dynasty; he had no sons. The prestige of the Jagiellons and the certainty of their succession supplied an element of cohesion that tempered the disruptive forces built into the state system. In retrospect historians frequently have derided the idiosyneratic, delicate governmental mechanism of Poland-Lithuania as a recipe for anarchy. Although its eventual breakdown contributed greatly to the loss of independence in the eighteenth century, the system worked reasonably well for 200 years while fostering a spirit of civic liberality unmatched in the Europe of its day. The host of legal protections that the nobility enacted for itself prefigured the rights generally accorded the citizens of modern democracies, and the memory of the "golden freedoms" of Poland-Lithuania is an important part of the Poles' present-day sense of their tradition of liberty. On the other hand, the exclusion of the lower nobility from most of those protections caused serious resentment among that largely impoverished class, and the aristocracy passed laws in the early sixteenth century that made the peasants virtual slaves to the flourishing agricultural enterprises.

Poland-Lithuania in the Reformation Era

In modern eyes, the most saliently liberal aspect of Jagiellon Poland is its exceptional toleration of religious dissent. This tolerance prevailed in Poland even during the religious upheavals, war, and atrocities associated with the Protestant Reformation and its repercussions in many parts of sixteenth-century Europe. The Reformation arrived in Poland between 1523 and 1526. The small Calvinist, Lutheran, and Hussite groups that sprang up were harshly persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church in their early years. Then in 1552 the Sejm suspended civil execution of ecclesiastical sentences for heresy. For the next 130 years, Poland remained solidly Roman Catholic while refusing to repress contending faiths and providing refuge for a wide variety of religious nonconformists. Such broad-mindedness derived as much from practical necessity as from principle, for Poland-Lithuania governed a populace of remarkable ethnic and religious diversity, embracing Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Protestants, and numerous non Christians. In particular, after the mid-sixteenth century the Polish lands supported the world's largest concentration of Jews, whose number was estimated at 150,000 in 1582. Under the Jagiellons, Jews suffered fewer restrictions in Poland-Lithuania than elsewhere in Europe while establishing an economic niche as tradesmen and managers of noble estates.

The Polish Renaissance

The sixteenth century was perhaps the most illustrious phase of Polish cultural history. During this period, Poland-Lithuania drew great artistic inspiration from the Italians, with whom the Jagiellon court cultivated close relations. Styles and tastes characteristic of the late Renaissance were imported from the Italian states. These influences survived in the renowned period architecture of Kraków, which served as the royal capital until that distinction passed to Warsaw in 1611. The University of Kraków gained international recognition as a cosmopolitan center of learning, and in 1543 its most illustrious student, Nicolaus Copernicus (Mikolaj Kopernik), literally revolutionized the science of astronomy. The period also bore the fruit of a mature Polish literature, once again modeled after the fashion of the West European Renaissance. The talented dilettante Mikolaj Rej was the first major Polish writer to employ the vernacular, but the elegant classicist Jan Kochanowski (1530-1584) is acknowledged as the genius of the age. Accomplished in several genres and equally adept in Polish and Latin, Kochanowski is widely regarded as the finest Slavic poet before the nineteenth century.

The Eastern Regions of the Realm

The population of Poland-Lithuania was not overwhelmingly Catholic or Polish. This circumstance resulted from the federation with Lithuania, where ethnic Poles were a distinct minority. In those days, to be Polish was much less an indication of ethnicity than of rank; it was a designation largely reserved for the landed noble class, which included members of Polish and non-Polish origin alike. Generally speaking, the ethnically non Polish noble families of Lithuania adopted the Polish language and culture. As a result, in the eastern territories of the kingdom a Polish or Polonized aristocracy dominated a peasantry whose great majority was neither Polish nor Catholic. This bred resentment that later grew into separate Lithuanian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian nationalist movements. In the mid-sixteenth century, Poland-Lithuania sought ways to maintain control of the diverse kingdom in spite of two threatening circumstances. First, since the late 1400s a series of ambitious tsars of the house of Rurik had led Russia in competing with Poland-Lithuania for influence over the Slavic territories located between the two states. Second, Sigismund II Augustus (1548-1572) had no male heir. The Jagiellon Dynasty, the strongest link between the halves of the state, would end after his reign. Accordingly, the Union of Lublin of 1569 transformed the loose federation and personal union of the Jagiellonian epoch into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, deepening and formalizing the bonds between Poland and Lithuania.

Reference


- - [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/pltoc.html Poland].

Konstanty Ostrogski

For article about other Konstanty Ostrogoski, see Konstanty Wasyl Ostrogski (1526-1608) Konstanty Ostrogski (approx. 1460 - 1530), also known under his Ruthenian name Konstantin Ivanovich Ostrozhsky and modern Belarusian transliteration Kanstancin Astrožski, was a Lithuanian duke and a Grand Hetman of Lithuania since September 11, 1497, until his death. As a speaker of the Ruthenian language he is considered to be one of the precursors of the Belarusian language and a national hero in Belarus. Belarus He started his military career under king John I Olbracht. He took part in successful campaigns against the Tatars and Muscovy. For his victory near Ochakov against the forces of Mehmet Girey he was awarded with the title of Grand Hetman of Lithuania. He was the first person to receive this title ever. However, during a war with Muscovy he was defeated in the Battle of Vedrosha (1500) and held captive for three years. In 1503 he managed to escape and joined king Sigismund the Old, who allowed him to resume his posts as a hetman. As one of the main military leaders (alongside Grand Hetmans of the Crown Mikołaj Firlej and Mikołaj Kamieniecki) of the alliance he continued to wage war against Muscovy and in 1512 achieved a great victory against the Tatars in the Battle of Wiśniowiec. In 1514 another war with Muscovy started and Ostrogski became the commander in chief of all the Polish and Lithuanian forces (amounting to up to 35,000 soldiers). Among his subordinates were Jerzy Radziwiłł, Janusz Świerczowski, Witold Sampoliński and the future Hetman of the Crown Jan Tarnowski. On September 8, 1514 he achieved a brilliant victory in the Battle of Orsza, defeating the 80,000-strong army of Vasili III. He died in 1530 as a well-respected military commander. Despite his steady loyalty to the Catholic kings of Poland as well as an old feud with an Orthodox Muscovy, Ostrogski himself remained a devout Orthodox in traditions of his family. He gave generously for construction of Orthodox churches and sponsored the creation of many church-affiliated schools for the orthodox children. As one of the wealthiest Orthodox nobles he was buried in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra in Kiev. Kiev

See also


- Ostrogski family
- Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Category:Hetmans Ostrogski, Konstanty Ostrogski, Konstanty Ostrogski, Konstanty Category:Ostrogski

Konyushy

Konyushy (Russian: Конюший) is literally translated as Master of the Horse, Equerry. Konyushy was a boyar in charge of stables of Russian rulers. It was a high title at the court of Russian rulers until the 17th century. By the end of the 15th century a special Equerry Office (конюшенный приказ, "konyushenny prikaz") was introduced, headed by the Konyushy. It was in charge of Tsar's stables, Tsar's parade equipage, ceremonies of court ride-offs, and military horse breeding. At some time Boris Godunov was konyushy. The Equerry Office handled a significant amount of Tsar's treasures, related to harness and horse/horseman armor, which were transferred to the Armoury (Kremlin) in 1736. See also: Koniuszy. Category:Titles Category:Russian nobility Category:History of Russia

Ivan Chelyadnin

Chelyadnins (Челяднины) is an old Russian boyar family of Radsha and St Varlaam lineage via Akinfovs (Акинфовы), extinct in 16th century.

Notable Chelyadnins

Boyar Andrey Fyodorovich Chelyadnin (?-1503), the first of Chelyadnins who gained the title of konyushy, governor (наместник, namestnik) of Novgorod. In 1496 he defeated Swedes. In 1500 he defeated Lithuanians at the Lovat River and captured the city of Toropets. Boyar Ivan Andreyevich Chelyadnin (?-1514), konyushy at court of Vasili III of Russia, voyevoda (1508-1509). He took part in a number of battles with Grand Duchy of Lithuania, after defeat of Russia at the Battle of Orsha he was taken into captivity and died in a prison in Wilno. Category:Russian noble families

Kniaz

Kniaz’ or knyaz is a word found in some Eastern European languages. It is usually translated into English either as Prince or Duke, although the correspondence is not exact.

Etymology

The etymology is directly related to the English King, the German König, and the Scandinavian konung. It was probably borrowed into Slavic early from the Proto-Germanic
- Kuningaz, a form also borrowed by Finnish and Estonian (Kuningas). The title is pronounced and written similarly in different Eastern European languages, Bulgarian: княз; Russian/Ukrainian: князь, in fem. княгиня (kniaginia/kniahynia); Serbian, Croatian, and Slovenian: knez; Romanian: cneaz, chinez; Hungarian: kenéz. In Western Slavic languages, the word has later come to denote "lord" (as in Sorbian knjez), while in Polish language this early Germanic loanword came to mean priest (ksiądz) as well as duke (książę).

Middle Ages

The meaning was changing during history. Initially it was used to denote the chieftain of a tribe. Later, with the development of feudal statehood it become the title of a ruler of a state among East Slavs (княжество, kniazhestvo, traditionally translated as duchy or principality), i.e. of Kievan Rus'. As the degree of centralization grew, the ruler acquired the title Velikii Kniaz (translated as Grand Prince or Grand duke, see Russian Grand Dukes). He ruled a Velikoe Knyazhestvo (Grand Duchy), while a ruler of its vassal constituent (udel, udelnoe kniazhestvo or volost) was called udelny kniaz or simply kniaz. When Kievan Rus' became fragmented in the 13th century, the title Kniaz continued to be used in Ruthenian states, including Novgorod, Vladimir-Suzdal', Muscovy, Tver, Halych-Volynia, and in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Russian title in modern times

As Muscovy gained dominion over much of former Kievan Rus', Velikii Kniaz Ivan IV of Russia in 1547 was crowned as Tsar. Since the mid-18th century, the title Velikii Kniaz has been revived to allude to sons and grandsons (through male lines) of the Russian Emperors. See titles for Tsar's family for details. Kniaz continued as a hereditary title of Russian nobility patrilineally descended from Rurik (e.g., Repnin, Gorchakov) or Gediminas (e.g., Galitzine, Troubetzkoy). Members of Rurikid or Gedyminid families were called princes when they ruled tiny quasi-sovereign medieval pricipalities. After their demesnes were absorbed by Muscovy, they settled at the Moscow court and were authorised to continue with their princely titles. Since 18th-century, the title was occasionally granted by the Tsar, for the first time by Peter the Great to his associate Alexander Menshikov, and then by Catherine the Great to her lover Grigory Potemkin. After 1801, with incorporation of Georgia into the Russian Empire, various titles of numerous local nobles were controversially rendered into Russian as "kniazes". Similarly, many petty Tatar nobles asserted their right to style themselves "kniazes" because they descended from Genghis Khan. Finally, within the Russian Empire of 1809-1917, Finland was called Grand Duchy of Finland (Velikoe Kniazhestvo Finlandskoe).

See also


- List of Grand Dukes of Russia
- List of Grand Duchesses of Russia Category:Slavic titles Category:Slavic culture Category:Belarusian nobility Category:Russian nobility Category:History of Belarus Category:History of Ukraine

Russia

The Russian Federation (, transliteration: Rossiyskaya Federatsiya or Rossijskaja Federacija), or Russia (Russian: Росси́я, transliteration: Rossiya or Rossija), is a country that stretches over a vast expanse of Europe and Asia. With an area of 17,075,200 km² (6,595,600 mi²), it is the largest country in the world (by land mass), covering almost twice the territory of the next-largest country, Canada. It ranks eighth in the world in population. It shares land borders with the following countries (counter-clockwise from NW to SE): Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland (only through Kaliningrad Oblast), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and North Korea. It is also close to the United States and Japan across stretches of water: the Diomede Islands (one controlled by Russia, the other by the United States) are just 3 km apart, and Kunashir Island (controlled by Russia but claimed by Japan) is about 20 kilometers from Hokkaido. Formerly the dominant republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Russia is now an independent country, and an influential member of the Commonwealth of Independent States, since the Union's dissolution in December 1991. During the Soviet era, Russia was officially called the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR). Russia is usually considered the Soviet Union's successor state in diplomatic matters. Most of the area, population, and industrial production of the Soviet Union, then one of the world's two superpowers, lay in Russia. After the breakup of the USSR, Russia's global role was greatly diminished, and cannot be compared to that of the former Soviet Union. In October 2005, the federal statistics agency reported that Russia's population has shrunk by more than half a million people dipping to 143 million.

History

Ancient Rus

:This section covers the pre-Russ ancient history of present Russia and its early medieval period, which is historically referred to as Ancient Rus. The vast lands of present Russia were home to disunited tribes who were variously overwhelmed by invading Goths, Huns, and Turkish Avars between the third and sixth centuries C.E. The Iranian Scythians populated the southern steppes, and a Turkic people, the Khazars, ruled the western portion of these lands through the 8th century. They in turn were displaced by a group of Scandinavians, the Varangians, who established a capital at the Slavic city of Novgorod and gradually merged with Slavic ruling classes. The Slavs constituted the bulk of the population from the 8th century onwards and slowly assimilated both the Scandinavians as well as native Finno-Ugric tribes, such as the Merya, the Muromians and the Meshchera. Meshchera The Varangian dynasty lasted several centuries, during which they affiliated with the Byzantine, or Orthodox church and moved the capital to Kiev in 1169 A.D. In this era the term "Rhos", or "Russ", first came to be applied to the Varangians and later also to the Slavs who peopled the region. In the 10th to 11th centuries this state of Kievan Rus became the largest in Europe and was quite prosperous, due to diversified trade with both Europe and Asia. Nomadic Turkic people Kipchaks (Polovtsi) conquered southern Russia at the end of 11th century and founded a nomadic state in the steppes along the Black Sea (Desht-e-Kipchak). In the 13th century the area suffered from internal disputes and was overrun by eastern invaders, the Golden Horde of the pagan Mongols and Muslim Turkic-speaking nomads who pillaged the Russian principalities for over three centuries. Also known as the Tatars, they ruled the southern and central expanses of present-day Russia, while its western zone was largely incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland. The political dissolution of Kievan Rus divided the Russian people in the north from the Belarusians and Ukrainians in the west. The northern part of Russia together with Novgorod retained some degree of autonomy during the time of the Mongol yoke and was largely spared the atrocities that affected the rest of the country. Nevertheless it had to fight the Germanic crusaders who attempted to colonize the region. Like in the Balkans and Asia Minor long-lasting nomadic rule retarded the country's economic and social development. Asian autocratic influences degraded many of the country's democratic institutions and affected its culture and economy in a very negative way. In spite of this, unlike its spiritual leader, the Byzantine Empire, Russia was able to revive, and organized its own war of reconquest, finally subjugating its enemies and annexing their territories. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453 Russia remained the only more or less functional Christian state on the Eastern European frontier, allowing it to claim succession to the legacy of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Imperial Russia

While still nominally under the domain of the Mongols, the duchy of Moscow began to assert its influence, and eventually tossed off the control of the invaders late in the 14th century. In the beginning of the 16th century the Russian state set the national goal to return all Russian territories lost as a result of the Mongolian invasion and to protect the borderland against attacks of hordes. The noblemen, receiving a manor from the sovereign, were obliged to serve in the army. The manor system became a basis for the nobiliary horse army. The Russian state persistently battled against Nogai-Horde and Crimean khanat which were successors of the Golden Horde. Russians, captivated by nomads, were on sale on Crimean slave markets. In 1571 Crimean khan Devlet-Girei, with a horde of 120 thousand horsemen, devastated Moscow. Annually thousands of Russians became victims of attacks by nomads. Tens of thousand of soldiers protected the southern borderland--a heavy burden for the state--which slowed its social and economic development. Ivan the Great first took the title Tsar (from the Roman Caesar, also written Czar) of Moscow following his marriage to Sofia, a Byzantine Princess (niece of the last Byzantine Emperor) consolidated surrounding areas under Moscow's dominion. At the end of 16 centuries Russian cossacks established the first settlements in Western Siberia. To the middle of 17th century Russian settlements were in Eastern Siberia, on Chukotka, the river Amur, coast of Pacific ocean. In 1648 Cossack Semyon Dezhnev opened the passage between America and Asia. The Russian Empire was born. Russian Empire] Muscovite control of the nascent nation continued after the Polish intervention 1605-1612 under the subsequent Romanov dynasty, beginning with Tsar Michael Romanov in 1613. Peter the Great, who ruled from 1689 to 1725, succeeded in bringing ideas and culture from Western Europe to a Russia which had been affected by primitive nomadic cultures. Catherine the Great, ruling from 1762 to 1796, enhanced this effort, establishing Russia not just as an Asian power, but on an equal footing with Britain, France, and Germany in Europe. She enlarged the Russian territory by the Partitions of Poland. Russia has taken territories with the ethnic Belarus and Ukrainian population, earlier parts of the medieval Kievan Rus'. As a result of victorious Russian-Turkish wars Russia reached to Black sea and has set as the purpose protection of Balkan Christians against a Turkish yoke. In 1783 Russia and Georgian Kingdom (which was almost totally devastated by Persian and Turkish invasions) have signed the treatise of Georgiev according to which Georgia has received protection of Russia. In 1812, having gathered nearly half a million soldiers from France, as well as from all of its vassal states in Europe, Napoleon entered Russia and was defeated by Russian troops. In 1813 Russian army defeated the French armies in Germany. Russia has won in the War of 1877-1878 and Ottoman Empire recognized the independence of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro and autonomy of Bulgaria. Unrest of the peasants and suppression of the growing Intelligentsia were continuing problems however, and on the eve of World War I, the position of Tsar Nicholas II and his dynasty appeared precarious. Repeated devastating defeats of the Russian army in World War I led to widespread rioting in the major cities of the Russian Empire and to the overthrow in 1917 of the Romanovs. At the close of this Russian Revolution of 1917, a Marxist political faction called the Bolsheviks seized power in St. Petersburg and Moscow under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin. The Bolsheviks changed their name to the Communist Party. A bloody civil war ensued, pitting the Bolsheviks' Red Army against a loose confederation of anti-socialist monarchist and bourgeois forces known as the White Army. The Red Army triumphed, and the Soviet Union was formed in 1922.

Russia as part of Soviet Union

The Soviet Union was to be a transnational worker's state free from nationalism, which Leninism teaches is a ruse used by the bourgeoisie to keep the international working classes from realizing their common exploited position and overthrowing the bourgeois. The concept of Russia as a separate national entity was therefore downplayed in the early Soviet Union. Although Russian institutions and cities certainly remained dominant, many non-Russians participated in the new government at all levels. One of these was a Georgian named Joseph Stalin. A brief power struggle ensued after Lenin's death in 1924. Stalin gradually eroded the various checks and balances which had been designed into the Soviet political system and assumed dictatorial power by the end of the decade. Leon Trotsky and almost all other Old Bolsheviks from the time of the Revolution were killed or exiled. As the 1930s began, Stalin launched the Great Purges, a massive series of political repressions. Millions of people who Stalin suspected of being a threat to his power in some way were executed or exiled to Gulag labor camps in remote areas of Siberia. Stalin forced rapid industrialization of the largely rural country and collectivization of its agriculture. Stalin also strengthened Russian dominance within the Soviet Union as he buttressed his own hold on power. In 1928, Stalin introduced his "First Five-Year Plan" for modernizing the Soviet economy. Most economic output was immediately diverted to establishing heavy industry. Civilian industry was modernized and heavy weapon factories established with German and US assistance. The plan worked, in some sense, as the Soviet Union successfully transformed from an agrarian economy to a major industrial powerhouse in an unbelievably short span of time, but widespread misery and famine ensued for many millions of people as a result of the severe economic upheaval. In 1939 the USSR was in strong opposition to nazi Germany, and supported the republicans in Spain who struggled against German and Italian troops. However, in 1938 Germany and the other major European powers signed the Munich treaty. Germany then divided Czechoslovakia with Poland. The Soviet government, being afraid of a German attack to the USSR, began diplomatic maneuvers. In 1939 Poland refused to participate in any measures of collective safety, so the USSR signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany. On September, 17, 1939, when German armies were within 150 kilometers of the Soviet border, the Soviet army invaded eastern portions of Poland, populated by ethnic Ukrainians and Belorussians. The Soviet Union staged an artillery attack it claimed had come from neighboring Finland, and invaded it in an attempt to secure itself against future invasion by Germany (which Finland had good relations with) and to gain control of the country, separating it from Europe, and most importantly, from Germany. This conflict is now known as the Winter War. The invasion was a slight disappointment as only the eastern parts of Finland (Karelia) were occupied. This lead to Finland allying with Germany in order to gain revenge. Germany and its allies (Hungary, Italy, Finland, Romania) invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. Although the Wehrmacht reached the outskirts of Moscow, the Red Army stopped the Nazi offensive at the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943, which became the decisive turning point for Germany's fortunes in the war. The Soviets drove through Eastern Europe and captured Berlin before Germany surrendered in 1945 (see Great Patriotic War). About 10 million Soviet citizens became victims of the oppressive policies and war crimes of Germany and its allies in the occupied territory. Although ravaged by the war, the Soviet Union emerged from the conflict as an acknowledged great power. The Red Army occupied Eastern Europe after the war, including the eastern half of Germany. Stalin installed loyal Communist governments in these satellite states. During the immediate postwar period, the Soviet Union first rebuilt and then expanded its economy, with control always exerted exclusively from Moscow. The Soviets extracted heavy war reparations from the areas of Germany under their control, mostly in the form of machinery and industrial equipment. The Soviet Union consolidated its hold on eastern Europe (see Eastern bloc). The United States helped the western European countries establish democracies, and both countries sought to achieve economic, political, and ideological dominance over the Third World. The ensuing struggle became known as the Cold War, which turned the Soviet Union's wartime allies, the United Kingdom and the United States, into its foes. Stalin died in early 1953 without leaving any instructions for the selection of a successor. His closest associates officially decided to rule the Soviet Union jointly, but secret police chief Lavrenty Beria appeared poised to seize dictatorial control. General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev organized an anti-Beria alliance and staged a coup d'etat. Beria was arrested in June of 1953 and executed later that year; Khrushchev became the undisputed leader of the USSR. Under Khrushchev, the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, and Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to orbit the earth. Khrushchev's reforms in agriculture and administration, however, were generally unproductive, and foreign policy toward China and the United States suffered reverses, notably the Cuban Missile Crisis, when he began installing nuclear missles in Cuba and nearly provoked a war with the United States. Over the course of several angry outbursts at the United Nations, Khrushchev was increasingly seen by his colleagues as belligerent, boorish, and dangerous. The remainder of the Soviet leadership removed him from power in 1964. Following the ousting of Khrushchev, another period of rule by collective leadership ensued, lasting until Leonid Brezhnev established himself in the early 1970s as the preeminent figure in Soviet political life. Brezhnev is frequently derided by historians for stagnating the development of the Soviet Union. In contrast to the revolutionary spirit that accompanied the birth of the Soviet Union, the prevailing mood of the Soviet leadership at the time of Brezhnev's death in 1982 was one of aversion to change. In the mid and late 1980s, the reform-minded Mikhail Gorbachev came to power. He introduced the landmark policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring), in an attempt to modernize Soviet communism. Glasnost meant that the harsh restrictions on free speech that had characterized most of the Soviet Union's existence were removed, and open political discourse and criticism of the government became possible again. Perestroika meant sweeping economic reforms designed to decentralize the planning of the Soviet economy. However, his initiatives provoked strong resentment amongst conservative elements of the government, and an unsuccessful military coup that attempted to remove Gorbachev from power instead led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Boris Yeltsin seized power in Russia and declared the end of exclusive Communist rule. The USSR splintered into 15 independent republics, and was officially dissolved in December of 1991 (see History of the Soviet Union (1985-1991)). Since then, Russia has struggled in its efforts to build a democratic political system and a market economy to replace the strict centralized social, political, and economic controls of the Soviet era.

Post-Soviet Russia

market economy Prior to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin had been elected President of Russia in June 1991 in the first direct presidential election in Russian history. In October 1991, as Russia was on the verge of independence, Yeltsin announced that Russia would proceed with radical market-oriented reform along the lines of Poland's "big bang," also known as "shock therapy." After the disintegration of the USSR, the economy of Russia went through a crisis. Outside Russia, in the newly independent states, were most of the nonfreezing ports, consumer goods factories, former Soviet pipelines, and significant numbers of the hi-tech enterprises (including the atomic power station). In Russia there was mainly heavy and military industry. Russia has taken up the responsibility for payment of the USSR's external debts, though its population is 50% of the population of the USSR. The largest state enterprises (a petroleum industry, metallurgy) have been privatized for the small sum of $US 600 million, which is far less than they were worth. Russia's Congress of People's Deputies attempted to impeach Yeltsin on 1993-03-26. Yeltsin's opponents gathered more than 600 votes for impeachment, but fell 72 votes short. On 1993-09-21, Yeltsin disbanded the Supreme Soviet and the Congress of People's Deputies by decree, which was illegal under the constitution. On September 21 there was a military showdown, the Russian constitutional crisis of 1993. With military help, Yeltsin held control. The conflict resulted in a number of civilian casualties, and was resolved in Yeltsin's favor. Elections were held on 1993-12-12. Since the Chechnyan seperatists declared independence in the early 1990s, an intermittent guerrilla war (First Chechen War, Second Chechen War) has been fought between disparate Chechen groups and the Russian military. Some of these groups have become increasingly Islamist over the course of the struggle. It is estimated that over 200,000 people have died in this conflict. Minor conflicts also exist in North Ossetia and Ingushetia. After Yeltsin's presidency in the 1990s, Vladimir Putin was elected in 2000. Under Putin, the intensified state control of the Russian media has raised Western concerns over Russian civil liberties. At the same time, the rising oil prices, tensions, and war in the Middle East have helped increase Russia's revenue from oil production and export, and have stimulated economic expansion. Putin's presidency has shown improvements in the Russian standard of living, as compared to the 1990s; despite acute crises, human rights abuses, and largely criticized government failures.

Politics

The Russian Federation is a federal republic with a president, directly elected for a four-year term, who holds considerable executive power. The president, who resides in the Kremlin, nominates the highest state officials, including the prime minister (or premier), who must be approved by the State Duma, the lower house of Russian parliament, and governors, who must be approved by regional legislatures. The president can pass decrees (executive orders) without consent from Parliament and is also head of the armed forces and of the Russian National Security Council. Russia's bicameral parliament, the Federal Assembly (Russian: Федеральное Собрание, English transliteration: Federalnoye Sobraniye) consists of an upper house known as the Federation Council (Совет Федерации, Sovet Federatsii), composed of 178 delegates, which are appointed by executive and legislative bodies of each of 89 federal subjects for the term of four or five years, and a lower house known as the State Duma (Государственная Дума, Gosudarstvennaya Duma), comprising 450 deputies also serving a four-year term, of which 225 are elected by direct popular vote from single member constituencies and 225 are elected by proportional representation from nation-wide party lists. From the next elections, which are to be held in December 2007, all 450 members of the Duma will be elected from party lists.

Subdivisions

:See also: Federal districts of Russia, Federal subjects of Russia, Republics of Russia, Oblasts of Russia, Krais of Russia, Autonomous Oblasts of Russia, Autonomous Districts of Russia, Federal cities of Russia. Federal cities of Russia The Russian Federation consists of a great number of different federal subjects, making a total of 88 constituent components. There are 21 republics within the federation that enjoy a high degree of autonomy on most issues and these correspond to some of Russia's ethnic minorities. The remaining territory consists of 48 oblasts (provinces) and 7 krais (territories), as well as 9 autonomous okrugs (autonomous districts), and 1 autonomous oblast. Beyond these there are two federal cities (Moscow and St. Petersburg). Recently, seven extensive federal districts (four in Europe, three in Asia) have been added as a new layer between the above subdivisions and the n