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Ivan IV Of Russia

Ivan IV of Russia

:"Ivan the Terrible" redirects here. For other uses, see Ivan the Terrible (disambiguation). Ivan the Terrible (disambiguation) Ivan the Terrible (disambiguation) Ivan the Terrible (disambiguation) Ivan IV (Ivan Vasilyevich) (August 25, 1533 – March 18, 1584) was the first ruler of Russia to assume the title of tsar. This czar retains his place in the Russian folk tradition simply as Ivan the Terrible (Ива́н Гро́зный, Ivan Grozny). During his life, Ivan IV was the wealthiest monarch in all of Europe.

Early reign

Ivan was a long-awaited son of Vasily III. Upon his father's death, he formally came to the throne at the age of three, but his minority was dominated by the strong personality of his mother Elena Glinskaya. According to his own letters, Ivan customarily felt neglected and offended by the mighty boyars from the Shuisky and Belsky families. In one letter, he painfully recalls an episode when one drunken boyar put his dirty boots on Ivan's bed. These traumatic experiences doubtlessly contributed to his hatred for the boyars and to his psychopathic character in general. Ivan was crowned tsar with Monomakh's Cap at the Cathedral of the Dormition at age sixteen on January 16 1547. The early part of his reign was one of peaceful reforms and modernization. Ivan revised the law code (known as the sudebnik), created a standing army (the streltsy), established the Zemsky Sobor, the council of the nobles (known as the Chosen Council), and subordinated the church to the state with the Council of the Hundred Chapters, making a system of rituals and regulations. During his reign the first printing press was introduced to Russia (although the first Russian printers Ivan Fedorov and Pyotr Mstislavets had to flee from Moscow to Grand Duchy of Lithuania). Ivan formed new trading connections, opening up the White Sea and the port of Archangel to the Muscovy Company of English merchants. He also annexed the Kazan and Astrakhan Khanates to the east, thus transforming Russia into a multinational and multiconfessional state. He had St. Basil's Cathedral constructed in Moscow to commemorate the seizure of Kazan. Legend has it that he was so impressed with the structure that he had the architects blinded, so that they could never design anything as beautiful again. Other less positive aspects of this period include the introduction of the first laws restricting the mobility of the peasants, which would eventually lead to serfdom. The dramatic change in Ivan's personality is traditionally linked to his near-fatal illness in 1553 and the death of his first wife, Anastasia Romanovna. Ivan suspected boyars of poisoning his wife and of plotting to replace him on the throne with his cousin, Vladimir of Staritsa. In addition, during that illness Ivan had asked the boyars to swear an oath of allegiance to his eldest son, an infant at the time. Many boyars refused, deeming the tsar's health too hopeless to survive. This angered Ivan and added to his distrust of the boyars. There followed brutal reprisals and mass murders of innocent people, including Metropolitan Philip and Prince Alexander Gorbatyi-Shuisky. Also problematic was the 1565 formation of the Oprichnina (or Ochrana (Охрана), meaning security). The Oprichnina was the section of Russia directly ruled by Ivan and policed by his personal servicemen, the Oprichniks. This whole system of Oprichnina has been viewed by some historians as a tool against the omnipotent hereditary nobility of Russia (boyars) who opposed the absolutist drive of the tsar, while others have interpreted it as a sign of the paranoia and mental deterioration of the tsar.

Later reign

The later half of Ivan's reign was far less successful. Ivan supported Yermak's conquest of Siberia and launched a victorious war of seaward expansion in the west, only to find himself fighting the Swedes, Lithuanians, Poles, and the Livonian Teutonic Knights. For twenty-two years the Livonian War dragged on, damaging the Russian economy and military but winning it no territory. Ivan's best friend and closest advisor, Prince Andrei Kurbsky, defected to the Poles, deeply hurting Ivan. As the Oprichnina continued, Ivan became mentally unstable and physically disabled. In one week, he could easily pass from the most depraved orgies to prayers and fasting in a remote Northern monastery. Andrei Kurbsky] Andrei Kurbsky.]] Because he gradually grew unbalanced and violent, the Oprichniks under Malyuta Skuratov soon got out of hand and became murderous thugs. They murdered nobles and peasants, and conscripted men to fight the war in Livonia. Depopulation and famine ensued. What had been by far the richest area of Russia became the poorest. In a dispute with Novgorod Republic, Ivan ordered the Oprichniks to murder the inhabitants of this city. Between thirty and forty thousand were killed. Yet the official death toll named 1,500 of Novgorod big people (nobility) and only mentioned about the same number of smaller people. In 1581, Ivan Grozny beat his pregnant daughter-in-law for wearing immodest clothing, causing a miscarriage. His son Ivan, upon learning of this, engaged in a heated argument with his father which resulted in his (accidental) death. This event is depicted in the famous painting by Ilya Repin, Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan on Friday, November 13, 1581 better known as Ivan the Terrible killing his son.

Death and legacy

Ivan died while playing chess with Bogdan Belsky on 18 March 1584, a date which had previously been prophesied for his death. When Ivan's tomb was opened during renovations in the 1960s his remains were examined and discovered to contain very high amounts of mercury, indicating a high probability that he was poisoned, modern suspicion falling on his advisors Bogdan Belsky and Boris Godunov (who became tsar in 1598). Three days earlier, Ivan had allegedly attempted to rape Irina, Godunov's sister and Fyodor's wife. Her cries attracted Godunov and Belsky to the noise, whereupon Ivan let Irina go, but Belski and Godunov considered themselves marked for death. The tradition says that they either poisoned or strangled Ivan in fear for their own lives (note: the mercury found in Ivan's remains may also be related to treatment for syphilis, which it is speculated that Ivan had). Upon Ivan's death, the now ravaged kingdom was left to his unfit and childless son Feodor.

Sobriquet

The English word terrible is usually used to translate the Russian word grozny in Ivan's nickname, but the modern English usage of terrible, with a pejorative connotation of bad or evil, does not precisely represent the intended meaning. Grozny's meaning is closer to the original usage of terrible—inspiring fear or terror, dangerous (as in Old English in one's danger), formidable, or awesome. (Compare the city name Grozny.) The Russian people gave Ivan this nickname after he seized Kazan.

See also


- Ivan the Terrible (film) - the film by Sergei Eisenstein.

External links


- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/ivan/ivanmain.shtml BBC History page - Ivan the Terrible]
- [http://mars.acnet.wnec.edu/~grempel/courses/russia/lectures/09ivanIV.html "The Terrible Ivan"]
- [http://www.xs4all.nl/~kvenjb/madmonarchs/ivan4/ivan4_bio.htm "Mad Monarchs" - Ivan IV]
- [http://www.bfi.org.uk/bookvid/books/catalogue/details.php?bookid=252 British Film Institute - About Eisensteins' films] Ivan IV of Russia Ivan IV of Russia Category:Russian tsars ja:イヴァン4世

Ivan the Terrible (disambiguation)

Ivan the Terrible can refer to:
- Ivan IV of Russia (aka Ivan the Terrible)
- Ivan the Terrible, a 1945 film by Sergei Eisenstein
- Ivan the Terrible, a 1970s sitcom
- A name given to a notorious SS guard at the Treblinka extermination camp, once alleged to be John Demjanjuk
- A popular comedy routine by Billy Connolly
- A nickname given for the 2004 Hurricane Ivan

August 25

August 25 is the 237th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (238th in leap years), with 128 days remaining.

Events


- 1537 - The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior, is formed.
- 1580 - Battle of Alcantara. Spain defeats Portugal.
- 1609 - Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers.
- 1718 - New Orleans, Louisiana is founded.
- 1758 - Seven Years War: Frederick II of Prussia defeats the Russian army at the Battle of Zorndorf.
- 1768 - James Cook begins his first voyage.
- 1825 - Uruguay declares its independence from Spain.
- 1830 - Belgium revolts from the Netherlands
- 1835 - The New York Sun perpetrates the Great Moon Hoax.
- 1875 - Matthew Webb becomes the first person to swim the English Channel.
- 1894 - Shibasaburo Kitasato discovers the infectious agent of the bubonic plague and publishes his findings in The Lancet.
- 1910 - Yellow Cab is founded.
- 1912 - The Kuomintang, the Chinese nationalist party, is founded.
- 1916 - The United States National Park Service is created.
- 1920 - Polish-Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw, started on August 13, now ends. The Red Army is defeated.
- 1942 - World War II: Battle of Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea
- 1944 - World War II: Paris is liberated by the Allies.
- 1946 - Ben Hogan wins the PGA Championship.
- 1950 - President Harry Truman orders the US Army to seize control of the nation's railroads to avert a strike.
- 1960 - Games of the XVII Olympiad open in Rome.
- 1975 - Bruce Springsteen releases Born to Run, the album that would launch him to superstardom.
- 1980 - Microsoft announces their version of UNIX, Xenix.
- 1980 - The Broadway musical 42nd Street opens; the show's director, Gower Champion, had died earlier that day.
- 1988 - The historical center of Lisbon is destroyed by a fire.
- 1989 - Tadeusz Mazowiecki chosen as the first non-communist Prime Minister in Central and Eastern Europe.
- 1989 - Voyager 2 spacecraft flies by Neptune, the last major planet it could visit before leaving the Solar System.
- 1989 - Mayumi Moriyama becomes Japan's first female cabinet secretary.
- 1991 - Linus Torvalds first says in a post to the comp.os.minix newsgroup that he is working on a new free computer operating system.
- 1991 - Belarus declares independence from the Soviet Union
- 2003 - The Tli Cho land claims agreement is signed between the Dogrib First Nations and the Canadian federal government in Rae-Edzo, Northwest Territories.
- 2003 - Fifty-two are killed in two Islamic terrorist bomb blasts in Mumbai, India.
- 2005 - Tom Boonen wins the World Championship cycling in Madrid, Spain.
- 2005 - Hurricane Katrina makes landfall on the Miami-Dade/Broward county line, hours after reaching hurricane strength.

Births


- 1530 - Tsar Ivan IV of Russia (d. 1584)
- 1561 - Philippe van Lansberge, Dutch astronomer (d. 1632)
- 1624 - François de la Chaise, French confessor of Louis XIV of France (d. 1709)
- 1635 - Sir Henry Morgan, Welsh privateer (d. 1688)
- 1662 - John Leverett the Younger, American President of Harvard (d. 1724)
- 1719 - Charles-Amédée-Philippe van Loo, French painter (d. 1795)
- 1724 - George Stubbs, British painter (d. 1806)
- 1744 - Johann Gottfried Herder, German writer (d. 1803)
- 1767 - Antoine Louis Léon de Richebourg de Saint-Just, French revolutionary and writer (d. 1794)
- 1772 - King William I of the Netherlands (d. 1843)
- 1786 - King Ludwig I of Bavaria (d. 1868)
- 1796 - James Lick, California land baron (d. 1876)
- 1802 - Nikolaus Lenau, Austrian poet (d. 1850)
- 1819 - Allan Pinkerton, American private detective (d. 1884)
- 1836 - Bret Harte, American writer (d. 1902)
- 1841 - Emil Kocher, Swiss medical researcher, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1917)
- 1845 - King Ludwig II of Bavaria (d. 1886)
- 1850 - Charles Richet, French scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1935)
- 1882 - Sean O'Kelly, President of Ireland (d. 1966)
- 1898 - Helmut Hasse, German mathematican (d. 1975)
- 1900 - Sir Hans Adolf Krebs, German physician and biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1981)
- 1902 - Stefan Wolpe, German-born composer (d. 1972)
- 1909 - Ruby Keeler, Canadian singer and actress (d. 1993)
- 1909 - Michael Rennie, English actor (d. 1971)
- 1912 - Erich Honecker, head of state of East Germany (d. 1994)
- 1913 - Walt Kelly, American cartoonist (d. 1973)
- 1916 - Van Johnson, American actor
- 1916 - Frederick Chapman Robbins, American pediatrician and virologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2003)
- 1917 - Mel Ferrer, American actor
- 1918 - Leonard Bernstein, American conductor and composer (d. 1990)
- 1918 - Richard Greene, English actor (d. 1985)
- 1919 - George Wallace, Governor of Alabama (d. 1998)
- 1921 - Monty Hall, Canadian-born game show host
- 1921 - Brian Moore, Irish-born writer (d. 1999)
- 1927 - Althea Gibson, American tennis player (d. 2003)
- 1928 - Herbert Kroemer, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1930 - Sir Sean Connery, Scottish actor
- 1931 - Regis Philbin, American television host
- 1933 - Wayne Shorter, American musician
- 1933 - Tom Skerritt, American actor
- 1935 - Charles Wright, American poet
- 1938 - David Canary, American actor
- 1938 - Frederick Forsyth, English author
- 1939 - John Badham, American film director
- 1940 - José Van Dam, Belgian baritone
- 1944 - Anthony Heald, American actor
- 1946 - Rollie Fingers, baseball player
- 1947 - Anne Archer, American actress
- 1949 - Martin Amis, English novelist
- 1949 - John Savage, American actor
- 1949 - Gene Simmons, Israeli-born bassist
- 1951 - Rob Halford, English singer (Judas Priest)
- 1952 - Peter Wolf, American singer and composer
- 1954 - Elvis Costello, English musician
- 1958 - Tim Burton, American film director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1961 - Billy Ray Cyrus, American singer
- 1962 - David Packer, American actor
- 1964 - Maxim Kontsevich, Russian mathematician
- 1964 - Blair Underwood, American actor
- 1968 - Rafet El Roman, Turkish singer and composer
- 1968 - Stuart Murdoch, Scottish musician (Belle & Sebastian)
- 1968 - Rachael Ray, American cook and television host
- 1969 - Cameron Mathison, Canadian actor
- 1970 - Claudia Schiffer, German model
- 1972 - Marvin Harrison, American football player
- 1981 - Rachel Bilson, American actress
- 1987 - Stacey Farber, Canadian actress

Deaths


- 383 - Gratian, Roman Emperor (b. 359)
- 1192 - Hugh III, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1142)
- 1270 - King Louis IX of France
- 1282 - Thomas Cantilupe, English saint
- 1330 - James Douglas, Scottish soldier (b. 1286)
- 1482 - Margaret of Anjou, queen of Henry VI of England (b. 1429)
- 1554 - Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, English politician (b. 1473)
- 1632 - Thomas Dekker, English dramatist
- 1650 - Richard Crashaw, English poet
- 1688 - Henry Morgan, Welsh privateer
- 1699 - King Christian V of Denmark (b. 1646)
- 1711 - Edward Villiers, 1st Earl of Jersey, English politician
- 1742 - Carlos Seixas, Portuguese composer (b. 1704)
- 1774 - Niccolò Jommelli, Italian composer (b. 1714)
- 1776 - David Hume, Scottish philosopher and historian (b. 1711)
- 1792 - Jacques Cazotte, French writer (b. 1719)
- 1822 - William Herschel, German-born astronomer (b. 1738)
- 1867 - Michael Faraday, English scientist (b. 1791)
- 1900 - Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher (b. 1844)
- 1900 - Kuroda Kiyotaka, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1840)
- 1904 - Henri Fantin-Latour, French painter (b. 1836)
- 1908 - Henri Becquerel, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
- 1925 - Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, Austro-Hungarian field marshal (b. 1852)
- 1938 - Aleksandr Kuprin, Russian writer (b. 1870)
- 1942 - George Edward Alexander Windsor, Duke of Kent (b. 1902)
- 1945 - John Birch, American intelligence officer and missionary (b. 1918)
- 1967 - Stanley Bruce, eighth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1883)
- 1967 - Paul Muni, Polish actor (b. 1895)
- 1967 - George Lincoln Rockwell, American Nazi Party leader (b. 1918)
- 1971 - Ted Lewis, American musician and entertainer (b. 1890)
- 1976 - Eyvind Johnson, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1900)
- 1979 - Stan Kenton, American musician and bandleader (b. 1911)
- 1980 - Gower Champion, American dancer, actor, and choreographer (b. 1919)
- 1984 - Truman Capote, American author (b. 1924)
- 1984 - Waite Hoyt, baseball player (b. 1899)
- 1985 - Samantha Smith, American social activist and actress (plane crash) (b. 1972)
- 1990 - Morley Callaghan, Canadian writer (b. 1903)
- 2000 - Carl Barks, American cartoonist (b. 1901)
- 2001 - Aaliyah, American singer (plane crash) (b. 1979)
- 2002 - Dorothy Hewett, Australian writer (b. 1923)
- 2005 - Peter Glotz, German social democrat (b. 1939)

Holidays and observances


- Roman festivals - Opiconsivia held in honor of Ops.
- RC Saints - Genesius of Arles, Saint Louis IX of France, Saint Joseph Calasanz
- Uruguay - National Day (independence from Brazil in 1825).
- Philippines - National Heroes' Day.

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/25 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.britannica.com/eb/dailycontent?month=8&day=25 Encyclopædia Britannica: This Day in History] ---- August 24 - August 26 - July 25 - September 25 -- listing of all days ko:8월 25일 ms:25 Ogos ja:8月25日 simple:August 25 th:25 สิงหาคม

March 18

March 18 is the 77th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (78th in leap years). There are 288 days remaining.

Events


- 37 - The Roman Senate annuls Tiberius' will and proclaims Caligula emperor.
- 731 - Saint Gregory III begins his reign as a Catholic pope.
- 1229 - Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor declares himself King of Jerusalem during the Sixth Crusade.
- 1438 - Albert II of Habsburg becomes King of Germany.
- 1608 - Sissinios formally crowned Emperor of Ethiopia
- 1673 - John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton sells his part of New Jersey to some Friends (Quakers).
- 1766 - American Revolution: The British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act, which was very unpopular in the British colonies.
- 1850 - American Express is founded by Henry Wells & William Fargo.
- 1865 - American Civil War: The Congress of the Confederate States of America adjourns for the last time.
- 1871 - President of the French government Thiers orders evacuation of Paris, a socialist government rules the city.
- 1874 - Hawaii signs a treaty with the United States granting exclusive trading rights.
- 1909 - Einar Dessau uses a short-wave radio transmitter becoming the first to broadcast as a ham radio operator.
- 1913 - George I of Greece is assassinated.
- 1915 - World War I: Three battleships are sunk during a failed British & French naval attack on the Dardanelles.
- 1921 - The second Peace of Riga between Poland and Soviet Union. Despite the recent Polish successes, Soviets annex Ukraine and Belarus. Government of Ukraine emigrates to France. Famine kills millions of Russians.
- 1922 - In India, Mohandas Gandhi is sentenced to six years in prison for civil disobedience. He would serve only 2 years.
- 1925 - The Tri-State Tornado hits the Midwestern states of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, killing 695 people.
- 1937 - The New London School explosion kills three hundred, mostly children.
- 1937 - Spanish Civil War: Spanish Republican forces hand the Italian forces a grave defeat at the Battle of Guadalajara.
- 1938 - Mexico nationalizes all foreign-owned oil properties within its borders.
- 1940 - World War II: Axis Powers - Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini meet at Brenner Pass in the Alps and agree to form an alliance against France and the United Kingdom.
- 1945 - World War II: 1,250 American bombers attack Berlin.
- 1953 - An earthquake hits western Turkey killing 250.
- 1959 - American President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a bill into law allowing for Hawaiian statehood, which would become official on August 21.
- 1961 - In Cannes, France, Jean-Claude Pascal wins the sixth Eurovision Song Contest for Luxembourg singing "Nous les amoureux" (We the lovers).
- 1962 - France and Algeria sign an agreement ending the Algerian War.
- 1963 - Mark Tinley, Singer/ Songwriter is born.
- 1962 - In Luxembourg, Isabelle Aubret wins the seventh Eurovision Song Contest for France singing "Un premier amour" (A first love).
- 1965 - Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space.
- 1968 - Gold standard: The U.S. Congress repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back US currency.
- 1970 - Lon Nol ousts Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia.
- 1971 - A landslide at Chungar, Peru crashes into Lake Yanahuani killing 200.
- 1974 - Oil embargo crisis: Most OPEC nations end a five-month oil embargo against the United States, Europe and Japan.
- 1980 - On Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia 50 persons were killed at an explosion of a Vostok-2M rocket on its launch pad during a fueling operation.
- 1985 - The first episode of popular soap Neighbours airs on Australian TV.
- 1989 - In Egypt, a 4,400-year-old mummy is found in the Pyramid of Cheops.
- 1990 - 12 paintings, collectively worth $100 million, are stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts. This is the largest art theft in US history.
- 1992 - Microsoft ships Windows 3.1.
- 1997 - The tail of a Russian An-24 charter plane breaks off while en-route to Turkey causing the plane to crash and killing all 50 on board. This leads to the grounding of all An-24s.
- 2000 - 2000 Taiwanese presidential election: Chen Shui-bian is elected President of the Republic of China.
- 2005 - "The Screen Savers" TV show name was changed to Attack of the Show, ending an era of technological television.
- 2005 - The first ever Muslim Friday prayer, woman led mixed-gender congregation in New York City. This day marks a 1426 year Islamic tradition being broken.
- 2005 - Terri Schiavo's feeding tube is removed at the request of her husband, fueling a nationwide debate about her.

Births


- 1395 - John Holland, 2nd Duke of Exeter, English military leader (d. 1447)
- 1555 - François, Duke of Anjou (d. 1584)
- 1590 - Manuel de Faria e Sousa, Portuguese historian and poet (d. 1649)
- 1603 - Simon Bradstreet, Massachusetts Bay colonist (d. 1693)
- 1634 - Marie-Madeleine Pioche de la Vergne, comtesse de la Fayette, French writer (d. 1693)
- 1640 - Philippe de la Hire, French mathematician and astronomer (d. 1719)
- 1657 - Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni, Italian composer (d. 1743)
- 1679 - Matthew Decker, English merchant and writer (d. 1759)
- 1685 - Ralph Ersine, Scottish minister (d. 1752)
- 1690 - Christian Goldbach, Prussian mathematician (d. 1764)
- 1701 - Niclas Sahlgren, Swedish merchant and philanthropist (d. 1776)
- 1782 - John Calhoun, Vice President of the United States (d. 1850)
- 1813 - Christian Friedrich Hebbel, German writer (d. 1864)
- 1828 - William Randal Cremer, English politician and pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1908)
- 1837 - Grover Cleveland, President of the United States (d. 1908)
- 1840 - William Cosmo Monkhouse, English poet and critic (d. 1901)
- 1842 - Stéphane Mallarmé, French poet (d. 1898)
- 1844 - Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian composer (d. 1908)
- 1858 - Rudolf Diesel, German inventor (d. 1913)
- 1869 - Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1940)
- 1872 - Anna Held, Polish actress amd singer (d. 1918)
- 1877 - Edgar Cayce, American psychic (d. 1945)
- 1882 - Gian Francesco Malipiero, Italian composer (d. 1973)
- 1886 - Edward Everett Horton, American actor (d. 1970)
- 1898 - Jake Swirbul, American aircraft manufacturer (d. 1960)
- 1899 - Jean Goldkette, Greek-born jazz musician (d. 1962)
- 1904 - Srečko Kosovel, Slovenian poet (d. 1926)
- 1905 - Robert Donat, English actor (d. 1958)
- 1905 - Thomas Townsend Brown, American scientist (d. 1985)
- 1910 - Chiang Ching-kuo, President of the Republic of China (d. 1988)
- 1915 - Richard Condon, American novelist (d. 1996)
- 1918 - Al Benton, baseball player (d. 1968)
- 1918 - Bob Broeg, American sports writer (d. 2005)
- 1922 - Egon Bahr, German politician
- 1926 - Peter Graves, American actor
- 1927 - John Kander, American songwriter
- 1927 - George Plimpton, American writer and actor (d. 2003)
- 1928 - Julia Mullock, Princess of Korea
- 1928 - Fidel V. Ramos, President of the Philippines
- 1932 - John Updike, American author
- 1936 - Frederik Willem de Klerk, President of South Africa, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- 1937 - Mark Donohue, American race car driver (d. 1975)
- 1938 - Charley Pride, American musician
- 1941 - Wilson Pickett, American singer
- 1943 - Kevin Dobson, American actor
- 1949 - Alex Higgins, Irish snooker player
- 1950 - Brad Dourif, American actor
- 1951 - Bill Frisell, American jazz musician
- 1952 - Mike Webster, American football player (d. 2002)
- 1956 - Ingemar Stenmark, Swedish skier
- 1959 - Luc Besson, French producer, writer, and director
- 1959 - Irene Cara, American actress and singer
- 1960 - Richard Biggs, American actor (d. 2004)
- 1962 - Thomas Ian Griffith, American actor
- 1963 - Vanessa Lynn Williams, American beauty queen, actress, and singer
- 1964 - Bonnie Blair, American speed skater
- 1964 - Courtney Pine, British jazz saxophonist
- 1964 - Rozalla, Zambian singer
- 1966 - Jerry Cantrell, American musician (Alice in Chains)
- 1969 - Vassily Ivanchuk, Ukrainian chess player
- 1970 - Queen Latifah, American singer and actress
- 1972 - Dane Cook, American comedian
- 1973 - Max Barry, Australian author
- 1973 - Jason Beam, American artist
- 1977 - Danny Murphy, English footballer
- 1979 - Adam Levine, American singer (Maroon 5)
- 1980 - Alexei Yagudin, Russian figure skater

Deaths


- 978 - King Edward the Martyr of England
- 1227 - Pope Honorius III (b. 1148)
- 1583 - King Magnus of Livonia (b. 1540)
- 1584 - Tsar Ivan IV of Russia (b. 1530)
- 1675 - Arthur Chichester, 1st Earl of Donegall, Irish soldier (b. 1606)
- 1689 - John Dixwell, English judge (b. 1607)
- 1696 - Robert Charnock, English conspirator
- 1745 - Sir Robert Walpole, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1676)
- 1746 - Anna Leopoldovna, regent of Russia (b. 1718)
- 1768 - Laurence Sterne, Irish writer (b. 1713)
- 1835 - Christian Gunther von Bernstorff, Danish and Prussian statesman and diplomat (b. 1769)
- 1871 - Augustus De Morgan, Indian-born British mathematician and logician (b. 1806)
- 1898 - Matilda Joslyn Gage, American suffragist (b. 1826)
- 1907 - Marcellin Berthelot, French chemist and politician (b. 1827)
- 1913 - King George I of Greece (b. 1845)
- 1947 - William C. Durant, American automobile pioneer (b. 1861)
- 1962 - Walter W. Bacon, Governor of Delaware (b. 1880)
- 1964 - Sigfrid Edström, Swedish sports official (b. 1870)
- 1965 - King Farouk I of Egypt (b. 1920)
- 1977 - Marien Ngouabi, President of the Republic of the Congo (b. 1938)
- 1978 - Leigh Brackett, American author (b. 1915)
- 1986 - Bernard Malamud, American writer (b. 1914)
- 1990 - Robin Harris, American actor and comedian (b. 1953)
- 1996 - Odysseus Elytis, Greek writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
- 1999 - Adolfo Bioy Casares, Argentinian writer (b. 1914)
- 2001 - John Phillips, American musician (The Mamas and the Papas) (b. 1935)
- 2002 - R.A. Lafferty, American science fiction writer (b. 1914)
- 2003 - Karl Kling, German race car driver (b. 1910)
- 2003 - Adam Osborne, British computer pioneer (b. 1939)
- 2004 - Harrison McCain, Canadian businessman (b. 1927)

Holidays and observances


- Aruba - Flag Day (1976)
- Ancient Latvia - Bindus Diena
- United States - National Biodiesel Day
- Feast day of St Cyril of Jerusalem

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/18 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.tnl.net/when/3/18 Today in History: March 18] ---- March 17 - March 19 - February 18 - April 18 -- listing of all days ko:3월 18일 ms:18 Mac ja:3月18日 simple:March 18 th:18 มีนาคม

1584

1584 was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar.

Events


- June 1 - With the death of the Duc d'Anjou, the Huguenot Henry of Navarre becomes heir-presumptive to the throne of France.
- July 5 - Maronite College established in Rome
- July 10 - William I of Orange assassinated
- Dates between October 5 - 14 ignored in the Gregorian Calendar
- The first translation of the complete Bible into Slovenian language: Bibilija, tu je vse svetu pismu stariga inu noviga testamenta, slovenski tolmačena skuzi Jurija Dalmatina (Wittenberg), i.e. The Bible, it is a Complete Holy Scripture of the Old and of the New Testament, Translated into Slovenian by Jurij Dalmatin.
- Archangelsk is founded in northern Russia.
- Feodor I succeeds his father Ivan IV as Tsar of Russia
- Latin Book of Concord published in Germany

Births


- January 29 - Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange (died 1647)
- March 29 - Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron, English parliamentary general (died 1648)
- April 13 - Albert VI of Bavaria (died 1666)
- August 13 - Theophilus Howard, 2nd Earl of Suffolk, English politician (died 1640)
- December 16 - John Selden, English jurist (died 1654)
- William Baffin, English explorer (died 1622)
- Francis Beaumont, English dramatist (died 1616)
- Antonio Cifra, Italian composer (died 1629)
- Matthias Gallas, Austrian soldier (died 1647)
- John Hales, English theologian (died 1656)
- Robert Pierrepont, 1st Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull (died 1643)
- Mathieu Molé, French statesman (died 1656)
- Herman Wrangel, Swedish soldier and politician (died 1643) See also :Category: 1584 births.

Deaths


- March 10 - Thomas Norton, English politician and writer (born 1532)
- March 18 - Tsar Ivan IV of Russia (born 1530)
- May 18 - Ikeda Motosuke, Japanese military commander (born 1559)
- May 18 - Ikeda Tsuneoki, Japanese daimyo and military commander (born 1536)
- June 19 - François, Duke of Anjou (born 1555)
- July 10 - William I of Orange (assassinated) (born 1533)
- July 12 - Steven Borough, English explorer (b. 1525)
- July 23 - John Day, English Protestant printer (born 1522)
- August 22 - Jan Kochanowski, Polish writer (born 1530)
- November 4 - Saint Charles Borromeo, Italian cardinal (born 1538)
- Colin Campbell, 6th Earl of Argyll, Scottish nobleman and politician (born 1541)
- Sir James Balfour, Scottish judge and politician
- Jan Borukowski, royal secretary of Poland (born 1524)
- Balthasar Gérard, French assassin of William I of Orange (born 1557)
- Yi I of Joseon, Korean Confucian scholar (born 1536)
- Mikolaj Rudy Radziwill, Polish magnate (born 1512)
- Carolus Sigonius, Italian humanist (born 1524)
- Francis Throckmorton, conspirator against Queen Elizabeth I of England (born 1554)
- Francisco de Toledo, third Count of Oropesa (born 1515)
- Michal Wisniowiecki, prince at Wiśniowiec (born 1529) See also :Category: 1584 deaths. Category:1584 ko:1584년

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 national level.

Geography

federal districts The Russian Federation stretches across much of the north of the supercontinent of Eurasia. Although it contains a large share of the world's Arctic and sub-Arctic areas, and therefore has less population, economic activity, and physical variety per unit area than most countries, the great area south of these still accommodates a great variety of landscapes and climates. Most of Russia is in zones of a continental and Arctic climate. Russia is the coldest country of the world. Mid-annual temperature is −5,5 °C (for comparison, in Iceland +1,2 °C, in Sweden +4 °C). Most of the land consists of vast plains, both in the European part and the Asian part that is largely known as Siberia. These plains are predominantly steppe to the south and heavily forested to the north, with tundra along the northern coast. The permafrost (areas of Siberia and the Far East) occupies more than half of territory of Russia. Mountain ranges are found along the southern borders, such as the Caucasus (containing Mount Elbrus, Russia's and Europe's highest point at 5,633 m) and the Altai, and in the eastern parts, such as the Verkhoyansk Range or the volcanoes on Kamchatka. The more central Ural Mountains, a north-south range that form the primary divide between Europe and Asia, are also notable. Russia has an extensive coastline of over 37,000 km along the Arctic and Pacific Oceans, as well as more or less inland seas such as the Baltic, Black and Caspian seas. Some smaller bodies of water are part of the open oceans; the Barents Sea, White Sea, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea and East Siberian Sea are part of the Arctic, whereas the Bering Sea,