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Krasnoyarsk

Krasnoyarsk

Krasnoyarsk (Russian: Красноя́рск), administrative center of the Krasnoyarsk Krai, is the third largest city in Siberia. It lies on the Yenisei River and is an important station on the Trans-Siberian railway.

Coat of Arms

Trans-Siberian railway Trans-Siberian railway The first version of the Krasnoyarsk coat of arms had been approved on March 12, 1804. The coat of arms had been divided horizontally into two parts, the upper part contained the coat of arms of the Tomsk Guberniya, the lower part had the picture of the Krasnyy Yar cliff on the silver background. The coat of arms approved on November 23, 1851 had the golden figure of a lion placed on the red heraldic shield with a spade in the right fore paw and a sickle in the left fore paw, both made of the same metal. The shield was topped with the golden crown of the Russian Empire. The current coat of arms (see above) approved on November 28, 2004 contains the same red shield with the slightly changed figure of the lion topped with the golden five-tower status crown of a federal subject center. In 2005 the 16 meters (52.5 ft) tall pillar with the bronze statue of the Krasnoyarsk heraldic lion upon its top was erected at the Krasnoyarsk Railway Station square.

Geography

Krasnoyarsk Railway Station Geographical location of the city is . The total area of the city including suburbs and the river is 172 square kilometres (66 mile²). Average temperature of January is -20 °C (-4.0 °F), July is 18 °C (64 °F), minimum ever recorded temperature is -56 °C (-68.8 °F), maximum is 36 °C (96.8 °F). Due to the hydroelectric power station water reservoir located in 32 km (20 miles) upstream the river never freezes in winter and its temperature never exceeds 14 °C (57.2 °F) in summer. The Yenisei water level near the city center is 136 meters (446 ft) from the Sea level. The city is situated on both banks of the Yenisei River, in the city area it flows from west to east. There are several islands on the river, the largest of which are Tatyshev and Otdyha used mainly for recreation purposes. To the south and west Krasnoyarsk is surrounded by the forest-covered hills with an average height of 410 meters (1345 ft) from the Yenisei River level. The hills located on the right (southern) bank of Yenisei are steeper than the western hills of the left (northern) bank. The right bank of Yenisei is notable for the gigantic rock cliffs of the national nature reserve Stolby rising from the surrounding hills. The western hills form the Gremyachinskaya Griva crest starting from the Nikolayevskaya Sopka hill notable for the ski-jumping tracks and extending westwards up to the Sobakina River. The relief of the northern part of the neighborhood is rather plain with forests to the north-west and agricultural fields to the north-east and east. The most prominent hills in the Krasnoyarsk area are:
- Nikolayevskaya Sopka
- Karaulnaya Gora
- Chornaya Sopka
- Drokinskaya The major rivers located in the Krasnoyarsk area are:
- Mana
- Bazaiha
- Kacha
- Yesaulovka
- Beryozovka
- Karaulnaya
- Slizneva River
- Listvennaya River
- Zarechnaya Listvyanka
- Minzhul
- Sobakina (Pionerskaya)
- Krutenkaya
- Laletina Due to the specifics of the relief there are few natural lakes exist in the Krasnoyarsk neighborhood. The nearby towns are (with distances from Krasnoyarsk and directions):
- Sosnovoborsk (30 km NE)
- Divnogorsk (34 km W)
- Zheleznogorsk (46 km NE)
- Uyar (88 km E)
- Zelenogorsk (103 km E)
- Zaozyornyy (109 km E)
- Borodino (122 km E)
- Achinsk (153 km W)
- Nazarovo (158 km E)
- Kansk (173 km E)
- Artyomovsk (186 km S)
- Ilanskiy (195 km E)
- Uzhur (209 km W)
- Bogotol (213 km W)

Urban structure

Krasnoyarsk is divided into seven administrative districts:
- Zheleznodorozhnyy
- Kirovskiy
- Leninskiy
- Oktyabrskiy
- Sverdlovskiy
- Sovetskiy
- Tsentralnyy (Central) Each district includes several quarters or micro-districts. Many of these quarters are relatively new while the others are former villages that were situated beyond the city line in past.

Demographics

The population count dynamic by years:
Population count by districts (2001):
- Zheleznodorozhnyy: 91,700
- Kirovskiy: 114,000
- Leninskiy: 140,100
- Oktyabrskiy: 133,800
- Sverdlovskiy: 131,500
- Sovetskiy: 202,800
- Tsentralnyy (Central): 62,000 The population of Krasnoyarsk includes a number of peoples, the most numerous are Russians, Ukrainians, Tatars, Germans and Belarusians. Of the late years the number of Tajiks, Uzbeks and other Central Asian and Caucasian peoples has extensively grown because of the vast, often illegal immigration in search for work. Another multitudinous immigrants are Chinese who, in opposite to other foreign workers, are employed in much more lucrative areas and often doing co-operative business with local companies. Many Chinese are busy in trading at bazaars, there even exists a special large Chinese bazaar named Sodruzhestvo (Russian for fellowship) and the Chinese Trading Town (Russian: Китайский торговый город) or colloquially Kitai-gorod situated at Strelka.

History

The city was founded in the midst of July 1628 as a fort. The sluzhylyye lyudi led by the Cossack Andrey Dubenskoy arrived to the influx of the Kacha River and quickly began to build up the fortifications intended to protect the frontier from attacks of Tatars who lived along Yenisei and its tributaries. In the letter to Tsar the Cossacks reported: : ... The town of trunks we have constructed and around the place of fort, we the servants of lord ye, posts have bedded in and the double bindings have laid so and the place of fort have strengthened mightily ... The fort have been named "Krasnyy Yar" (Russian: Кра́сный Яр) after the local Turkic name of the place it was built by: "Kyzyl Dzhar", meaning "Red Cliff" or "Krasnyy Yar" in old Russian. The name "Krasnoyarsk" was given later when the village of Krasnyy Yar has received the town status. The intensive growth of Krasnoyarsk began with the arrival of the Moscow Postroad (the road M53 nowadays) in 1735 to 1741 which connected the nearby towns of Achinsk and Kansk with Krasnoyarsk and with the rest of Russia, and later by the discovery of gold and by the arrival of the railroad in 1895. In the 19th century Krasnoyarsk was the center of the Siberian Cossack movement. In 1822 it had gained the status of town and had become the capital of the Yenisei Guberniya. In the end of the 19th century Krasnoyarsk had several manufactures, railroad workshops and an engine-house. In Imperial Russia Krasnoyarsk was the one of the places of political exile. Eight Decembrists have been deported there after the failure of the revolt. After the Russian Revolution of 1917 during the Pyatiletkas the large plants and factories have been built in Krasnoyarsk: Sibtyazhmash, the dock yard, the paper factory, the hydroelectric power station (now the fifth largest in the world and the second in Russia), the river port. In 1934 the Krasnoyarsk Krai had been formed with the center in Krasnoyarsk. During the epoch of Stalinism Krasnoyarsk was the major Gulag center. The most important labor camp was the Kraslag or Krasnoyarskiy ITL (1938-ca.1960) with the two units located in Kansk and Reshyoty. In Krasnoyarsk itself the Yeniseylag or Yeniseiskiy ITL labor camp existed in 1940-41(?). During the World War II the dozens of factories have been evacuated from the western Russia to Krasnoyarsk and the nearby towns which stimulated the industrial growth of the city. After the war more of the gigantic plants have been built: the aluminum plant, the metallurgic plant, the plant of base metals and many others. In the end of 1970s the Soviet Union began constructing the radar station near Krasnoyarsk that violated the ABM Treaty. After the insistent demands of the United States the construction had been ceased. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and beginning of the privatization many large plants and factories, such as the Krasnoyarsk Aluminum Plant, have become owned by criminal authorities and oligarchs while others were declared bankrupt, this begot the dramatic raise of unemployment and numerous strikes. Certain problems with ownership of Krasnoyarsk plants continue nowadays since nearly all of them are owned either by monopolistic financial groups or by oligarchs. The most known financial scandal of the second half of 1990's had happened when ownership of the Krasnoyarsk Aluminum Plant by a known Krasnoyarsk businessman Anatoliy Bykov had been cancelled after accusation him of the murder of this partner Vilor Struganov. The murder eventually turned out to be fictional. Since the election of Pyotr Pimashkov as the mayor of Krasnoyarsk in 1996 the look of the city began to slowly improve: old historical buildings were restored, asphalt walkways have been replaced with paving-stone, numerous squares with fountains have been constructed. Now the major part of the city bears only a few traces of its poor Soviet look.

Architecture

There is a number of historical buildings in Krasnoyarsk, the oldest of them is the Svyato-Pokrovskiy Cathedral (1785 to 1795, restored in 1977 to 1978). Other significant samples of Russian Orthodox architecture are the Svyato-Blagoveschenskiy Cathedral (1802-12), the Svyato-Troitskiy Cathedral (1802-12), the Ioanna Predtechi Church (1899, former archbishop's house), the Arkhistratiga Mikhaila Church (1998 to 2003). On the top of the Karaulnaya Gora hill, at the plot of the ancient Tatar place of sacrifice and later the Krasnoyarsk fort watchtower, the Paraskeva Pyatnitsa's Chapel (1804, rebuilt in 1854 to 1855) is located. The chapel, displayed on the 10-ruble note, is one of the most well-known city symbols. The chapel was abandoned and decayed during the Soviet era and only when Perestroyka came it had been regained by the Yenisei eparchy. Another unofficial symbol of Krasnoyarsk is the incomplete 24 storey tower located at Strelka. Construction of the tower had been started just before Perestroyka and then frozen due to the administrative crisis. The silouette of the tower is clearly seen from many places in the city. Among the other well-known buildings: the mansions of the merchant Nikolay Gadalov (beginning of the 20th century), the Roman-Catholic Preobrazheniya Gospodnya Chapel (1911), the Krasnoyarsk Krai Museum stylized as an Ancient Egyptian temple, the Krasnoyarsk Cultural/Historical Center and the triumphal arch at Strelka (2003), the Krasnoyarsk Krai administration building with the two towers behind it known as the "Donkey Ears". There is a number of 2-storey wooden houses in the city built mostly in the middle of the 20th century as temporary habitations. Many urbanized villages located inside the city keep the remnants of typical Russian village architecture: wooden houses with backyards, many somewhat decayed now but still inhabited.

Culture

Krasnoyarsk is the hometown of many famous people, some of whom are well-known throughout the world. The most prominent culture figures are the world-famous historic painter Vasily Surikov, the classic writer Viktor Astafiev, the world-class opera singers Pyotr Slovtsov and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. The other honourable artists are the painters Andrey Pozdeev, Valeriy Kudrinskiy and Toivo Rännel, sculptors Boris Musat and Yuriy Zlotya, writers Roman Solntsev and Nikolay Gayduk. There is a number of local holidays celebrated annually in Krasnoyarsk. The most significant holiday is the Day of the City (Russian: День города) hilariously celebrated in June, usually with the carnival. Other holidays and cultural events are: the Mana Festival (Russian: Манский фестиваль) usually held on last weekend of June with the traditional bard contest, the International Museum Biennale traditionally held in the Krasnoyarsk Cultural/Historical Center, the avant-garde Museum Night (Russian: Музейная ночь) festival dedicated to the International Museum Day (May 18), the Jazz on Yenisey (Russian: Джаз на Енисее) festival, the Stolbist Day (Russian: День столбиста) held many times a year celebrating the traditions of mountain climbing in the Stolby national reserve, the Bikers' Rally (Russian: Слёт байкеров). Krasnoyarsk has a number of local television companies and the highly-developed telecommunications, many disctricts of the city have LAN-based broadband Internet access.

Education

Next to Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk is a very prominent scientific and eductational center of Siberia with more than 30 higher education facilities, many of which are the branches of the Russian Academy of Science, and about 200 high schools. The most notable higher education institutes are:
- Krasnoyarsk State University (Russian abbreviation is KGU), founded in 1963 as a division of Novosibirsk State University, became standalone university in 1969
- Krasnoyarsk State Technical University (Russian abbreviation is KGTU) founded in 1956
- Siberian State Technological University (Russian abbreviation is SibGTU), the oldest in the city, founded in 1930 as the Siberian Institute of Forest
- Sukachev Institute of Forest, founded in 1944 Similarly to Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk has the special city district called Akademgorodok (Academic Town in Russian) where many of the institues are located. There, in the Institute of Biophysics, the experiment on ecological isolation of human beings called "Bios", similar to the US experiment Biosphere 2, has been successfully held in 1973-1985.

Tourism

The most popular place of attraction for tourists visiting Krasnoyarsk is the huge national nature reserve Stolby (Pillars in Russian) or the Rock Pillars. Stolby covers an area of 470 km² (181 mile²) with numerous giant granite rocks formations up to 100 meters high, many of very extraordinary shapes. Stolby is also a major rock climbing location, many local climbers intentionally do not use any belaying equipment and call their extreme sport "stolbizm", which is known around the world as solo climbing. Other popular showplaces include the Krasnoyarsk Hydroelectric Power Station dam, the Karaulnaya Gora hill with the Paraskeva Pyatnitsa's Chapel, museums, theaters, etc.

External links


- [http://www.waytorussia.net/Siberia/Krasnoyarsk/Guide.html Krasnoyarsk Visiting Guide]
- [http://www.sibtourguide.com Siberian Tour Guide]
- [http://tlcom.krs.ru Concise information about the city]
- [http://www.kraskarta.ru The interactive map of Krasnoyarsk] (in Russian)
- [http://live.krsn.ru Web-cams of public places] (in Russian)
- [http://art.sibinet.ru The gallery of Krasnoyarsk artists]
- [http://www.lan.krasu.ru/english The Krasnoyarsk State University homepage] Category:Cities and towns in Russia Category:Siberia ko:크라스노야르스크 ja:クラスノヤルスク

Russian language

Russian (Russian: русский язык, russkij jazyk, ) is the most widely spoken language of Europe and the most widespread of the Slavic languages. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages, and is therefore related to Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin, as well as the modern Germanic, Romance, and Celtic languages, including English, French, and Irish, respectively. Written examples are attested from the 10th century onwards. While it preserves much of its ancient synthetic-inflexional structure and a Common Slavonic word base, modern Russian exhibits a large stock of the international vocabulary for politics, science, and technology. A language of great political importance in the 20th century, Russian is one of the official languages of the United Nations. NOTE. Russian is written in a non-Latin script. All examples below are in the Cyrillic alphabet, with transcriptions in IPA.

Classification

Russian is a Slavic language in the Indo-European family. From the point of view of the spoken language, its closest relatives are Belarusian and Ukrainian, the other two national languages in the East Slavic group. In many places in Ukraine and Belarus, these languages are spoken interchangeably. The basic vocabulary, principles of word-formation, and, to some extent, inflexions and literary style of Russian have been influenced by Church Slavonic, a developed and partly adopted form of the South Slavic Old Church Slavonic language used by the Russian Orthodox Church. Many words in modern literary Russian are closer in form to the modern Bulgarian language than to Ukrainian or Belarusian. However, the East Slavic forms have tended to remain in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with slightly different meanings. For details, see Historical Sound Changes and History of the Russian language. Outside the Slavic languages, the vocabulary and literary style of Russian have been greatly influenced by Greek, Latin, French, German, and English.

Geographic distribution

Russian is primarily spoken in Russia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics of the USSR. Until 1917, it was the sole official language of the Russian Empire. During the Soviet period, the policy toward the languages of the various other ethnic groups fluctuated in practice. Though each of the constituent republics had its own official language, the unifying role and superior status was reserved for Russian. Following the break-up of 1991, several of the newly independent states have encouraged their native languages, which has partly reversed the privileged status of Russian, though its role as the language of post-Soviet national intercourse throughout the region has continued. In Latvia, notably, its official recognition and legality in the classroom have been a topic of considerable debate in a country where more than third of the population is Russian-speaking, consisting mostly of post-World War II immigrants from Russia and other parts of the former USSR (Belarus, Ukraine). Similarly, in Estonia, the Soviet-era immigrants and their Russian-speaking descendants constitute about one quarter of the country's current population. A much smaller Russian-speaking minority in Lithuania has largely been assimilated during the decade of independence and currently represent less than 1/10 of the country's overall population. In the twentieth century it was widely taught in the schools of the members of the old Warsaw Pact and in other countries that used to be satellites of the USSR, especially in Poland, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia. However, younger generations are usually not fluent in it, because Russian is no longer mandatory in the school system. It was, and still is, widely taught in Asian countries such as Laos, Vietnam and Mongolia due to Soviet influence, and is still used as a lingua franca in Afghanistan by various tribes. Russian is also spoken in Israel by at least 750,000 ethnic Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union (1999 census). The Israeli press and websites regularly publish material in Russian. Sizeable Russian-speaking communities also exist in North America (especially in large urban centers of the US and Canada such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto, Miami, and Chicago). In the first two of them, Russian-speaking groups total over half a million. In a number of locations they issue their own newspapers, live in their self-sufficient neighborhoods (especially the generation of immigrants who started arriving in the early sixties). It is important to note, however, that only about a quarter of them are ethnic Russians. Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union the overwhelming majority were Russian-speaking Jews. Afterwards the influx from the countries of the former Soviet Union changed the statistics somewhat. According to the United States 2000 Census, Russian was reported as language spoken at home by 1.50% of population, or about 4.2 million, placing it as #10 language in the United States. Significant Russian-speaking groups also exist in Western Europe. These have been fed by several waves of immigrants since the beginning of the twentieth century, each with its own flavour of language. Germany, Britain, Spain, France, Italy, Belgium, and Greece have significant Russian-speaking communities totaling 3 million people. Two thirds of them are actually Russian-speaking descendants of Germans, Greeks, Jews, Armenians, or Ukrainians who either repatriated after the USSR collapsed or are just looking for temporary employment. But many are well-off Russian families acquiring property and getting education. Earlier, the descendants of the Russian émigrés tended to lose the tongue of their ancestors by the third generation. Now, when the border is more open, Russian is likely to survive longer, especially when many of the emigrants visit their homelands at least once a year and also have access to Russian websites and TV channels. Recent estimates of the total number of speakers of Russian:

Official status

Russian is the official language of Russia, and an official language of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (Ukraine) and the unrecognized Moldovan Republic of Transnistria. It is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a popular choice for many of the both native and RSL (Russian as a second language) speakers in Russia and many of the former Soviet republics. 97% of the public school students of Russia, 75% in Belarus, 41% in Kazakhstan, 24% in Ukraine, 23% in Kyrgyzstan, 21% in Moldova, 7% in Azerbaijan, 5% in Georgia received their education only or mostly in Russian, although the corresponding percentage of ethnic Russians was 80% in Russia, 11% in Belarus, 27% in Kazakhstan, 17% in Ukraine, 9% in Kyrgyzstan, 6% in Moldova, 2% in Azerbaijan, 1.5% in Georgia.

Dialects

Despite levelling after 1900, especially in matters of vocabulary, a large number of dialects exist in Russia. Some linguists divide the dialects of the Russian language into two primary regional groupings, "Northern" and "Southern", with Moscow lying on the zone of transition between the two. Others divide the language into three groupings, Northern, Central and Southern, with Moscow lying in the Central region. Dialectology within Russia recognizes dozens of smaller-scale variants. The dialects often show distinct and non-standard features of pronunciation and intonation, vocabulary, and grammar. Some of these are relics of ancient usage now completely discarded by the standard language. Also cf. Moscow pronunciation of "-чн-", e.g. "булошная" (buloshnaya - bakery) instead of "булочная" (bulochnaya). The northern dialects typically pronounce unstressed clearly (the phenomenon called okanye оканье); the southern palatalize the final and aspirate the into . It should be noted that some of these features are also present in modern Ukrainian, indicating a linguistic continuum or strong influence one way or the other. Among the first to study Russian dialects was Lomonosov in the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth, Vladimir Dal compiled the first dictionary that included dialectal vocabulary. Detailed mapping of Russian dialects began at the turn of the twentieth century. In modern times, the monumental Dialectological Atlas of the Russian Language (Диалектологический атлас русского языка ), was published in 3 folio volumes 1986-1989, after four decades of preparatory work. The standard language is based on the Moscow dialect.

Derived languages


- Fenia or Fenka, a criminal lingo of ancient origin, with Russian grammar, but with distinct vocabulary.
- Surzhyk is a Ukrainian-Russian pidgin spoken in some rural areas of Ukraine
- Trasianka is a Belarusian-Russian mix (sort of pidgin) used by a large portion of the rural population in Belarus.
- Russenorsk is an extinct pidgin language with Russian vocabulary and Norwegian grammar, used for communication between Russians and Norwegians in Svalbard and Kola Peninsula.
- Runglish: Russian-English pidgin.

Writing system

Alphabet

Runglish publication describing the "Slavonic" language.]] Russian is written using a modified version of the Cyrillic (кириллица) alphabet, consisting of 33 letters. The following table gives their majuscule forms, along with IPA values for each letter's typical sound: Old letters that have been abolished at one time or another but occur in this and related articles include or , і , and or . The yers ъ and ь were originally pronounced as ultra-short or reduced , (conventional transcription, not IPA). For information on an informal approach on transliterating Russian into English, see the article Transliteration of Russian into English.

Orthography

Russian spelling is reasonably phonetic in practice. It is in fact a balance among phonetics, morphology, etymology, and grammar, and, like that of most living languages, has its share of inconsistencies and controversial points. The current spelling follows the major reform of 1918, and the final codification of 1956. An update proposed in the late 1990's has met a hostile reception, and has not been formally adopted. The punctuation, originally based on Byzantine Greek, was in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries reformulated on the French and German models.

Sounds

The phonological system of Russian is inherited from Common Slavonic, but underwent considerable modification in the early historical period, before being largely settled by about 1400. The language possesses five vowels, which are written with different letters depending on whether or not the preceding consonant is palatalized. The consonants typically come in plain vs. palatalized pairs, which are traditionally called hard and soft. (The 'hard' consonants are sometimes said to be velarized, but this is only the case for /l/.) The standard language, based on the Moscow dialect, possesses heavy stress and moderate variation in pitch. Stressed vowels are somewhat drawled, while unstressed vowels (except /u/) tend to be reduced to an unclear schwa. Russian syllable structure can be quite complex with both initial and final consonant clusters of up to 4 consecutive sounds. Using a formula with V standing for the nucleus (vowel) and C for each consonant the stucture can be described as follows: (C)(C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C)

Consonants

Russian is notable for its distinction based on palatalization of most of the consonants. While /k/, /ɡ/, /x/ do have palatalized allophones , only might be considered a phoneme, though it is marginal and generally not considered distinctive. It should be noted that palatalization is a phonological concept, and not all 'soft' consonants are phonetically palatalized. The velar and labial consonants are truly palatalized, which means that the center of the tongue is raised during and after the articulation of the consonant. The coronal stops, however, are phonetically laminal. In addition, in the case of /t/ and /d/, the tongue is raised enough to produce frication, thus making affricate-like. (There is no contrast between frication and no frication, though, as /ts/ is never palatalized.) are postalveolar with a flat tongue (laminal retroflex).

Grammar

Russian has preserved an Indo-European synthetic-inflexional structure, although considerable levelling has taken place. Russian grammar encompasses
- a highly synthetic morphology
- a syntax that, for the literary language, is the conscious fusion of three elements:
  - a polished vernacular foundation;
  - a Church Slavonic inheritance;
  - a Western European style. The spoken language has been influenced by the literary, but continues to preserve characteristic forms. The dialects show various non-standard grammatical features, some of which are archaisms or descendants of old forms since discarded by the literary language.

Vocabulary

Western European See History of Russian language for an account of the successive foreign influences on the Russian language. The total number of words in Russian is difficult to reckon because of the ability to agglutinate and create manifold compounds, diminutives, etc. (see Word Formation under Russian grammar). The number of listed words or entries in some of the major dictionaries published during the last two centuries, and the total vocabulary of Pushkin, are as follows: Philologists have estimated that the language today may contain as many as 350,000 to 500,000 words. (As a historical aside, Dahl was, in the second half of the nineteenth century, still insisting that the proper spelling of the adjective русский, which was at that time applied uniformly to all the Orthodox Eastern Slavic subjects of the Empire, as well as to its one official language, be spelled руский with one s, in accordance with ancient tradition and what he termed the "spirit of the language". He was contradicted by the philologist Grot, who distinctly heard the s lengthened or doubled.)

The language of abuse and invective

Main article: Mat (language) Apparently, the ability to curse effectively has always been recognized as a form of art not only in certain quarters of society, but even by the more conservative-minded literati. For example, as far back as in the nineteenth-century naval yarns of Staniukovich, "artistic invective" (артистическая ругань ) keeps coming out of the sailors' mouths, though it is never spelled out. The ability to agglutinate has produced the so-called "three-decker curse" (трёхэтажный мат ).

Proverbs and sayings

Main article: Russian proverbs, Russian sayings Russian language is replete with many hundreds of proverbs (пословица ) and sayings (поговоркa ). These were already tabulated by the seventeenth century, and collected and studied in the nineteenth and twentieth, with the folk-tales being an especially fertile source.

History and examples

See also: Reforms of Russian orthography The history of Russian language may be divided into the following periods.
- Origins
- The Kievan period (9th-11th centuries)
- Feudal breakup (12th-14th centuries)
- The Moscovite period (15th-17th centuries)
- Empire (18th-19th centuries)
- Soviet period and beyond (20th century) See also:
- Examples of literary language (12-20th century) Judging by the historical records, by approximately 1000 AD the predominant ethnic group over much of modern European Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus was the Eastern branch of the Slavs, speaking a closely related group of dialects. The political unification of this region into Kievan Rus, from which both modern Russia and Ukraine trace their origins, was soon followed by the adoption of Christianity in 988-9 and the establishment of Old Church Slavonic as the liturgical and literary language. Borrowings and calques from Byzantine Greek began to enter the vernacular at this time, and simultaneously the literary language began to be modified in its turn to become more nearly Eastern Slavic. Dialectal differentiation accelerated after the breakup of Kievan Rus' in approximately 1100, and the Mongol conquest of the thirteenth century. After the disestablishment of the "Tartar yoke" in the late fourteenth century, both the political centre and the predominant dialect in European Russia came to be based in Moscow. There is some consensus that Russian and Ukrainian can be considered distinct languages from this period at the latest. The official language remained a kind of Church Slavonic until the close of the seventeenth century, but, despite attempts at standardization, as by Meletius Smotrytsky c. 1620, its purity was by then strongly compromised by an incipient secular literature. The political reforms of Peter the Great were accompanied by a reform of the alphabet, and achieved their goal of secularization and Westernization. Blocks of specialized vocabulary were adopted from the languages of Western Europe. By 1800, a significant portion of the gentry spoke French, less often German, on an everyday basis. The modern literary language is usually considered to date from the time of Alexander Pushkin in the first third of the nineteenth century. The political upheavals of the early twentieth century and the wholesale changes of political ideology gave written Russian its modern appearance after the spelling reform of 1918. Political circumstances and Soviet accomplishments in military, scientific, and technological matters (especially cosmonautics), gave Russian a world-wide if occasionally grudging prestige, especially during the middle third of the twentieth century. Since the collapse of 1990-91, fashion for ways and things Western, economic uncertainties and difficulties within the educational system have made for inevitable rapid change in the language. Russian today is a tongue in great flux.

References

The following serve as references for both this article and the related articles listed below that describe the Russian language:

In English


- B. Comrie, G. Stone, M. Polinsky, The Russian Language in the Twentieth Century, 2nd. ed. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1996
- W.K. Matthews, Russian Historical Grammar, London, University of London, Athlone Press, 1960
- T.R. Carleton, Introduction to the Phonological History of the Slavic Languages, Columbus, Ohio : Slavica Publishers, 1991
- A. Stender-Petersen, Anthology of old Russian literature, New York, Columbia University Press, 1954

In Russian


- Иванов В.В. Историческая грамматика русского языка. "Просвещение", М., 1990.
- Цыганенко Г. П. Этимологический словарь русского языка. Киев, 1970.
- Т. Н. Михельсон, Рассказы русских летописей XV–XVII веков. М., 1978
- Н.М. Шанский, В.В. Иванов, Т.В. Шанская. Краткий этимологический словарь русского языка. М. 1961.
- А. Шицгал, Русский гражданский шрифт, "Исскуство", Москва, 1958, 2-e изд. 1983.
- Л. П. Жуковская, отв. ред. Древнерусский литературный язык и его отношение к старославянскому. М., «Наука», 1987. Many further references are listed in the books above.

See also

Language description


- Russian alphabet
- Russian grammar
- Russian orthography
- Russian phonetics
- History of Russian language

Related languages


- East Slavic languages
- Church Slavonic language
- Great Russian language
- Old Church Slavonic language
- Old Russian language

Other


- List of Russian language topics
- List of English words of Russian origin
- Russian literature
- Russian humour
- Russian proverbs
- Reforms of Russian orthography
- Transliteration of Russian into English
- Volapuk encoding
- Non-native pronunciations of English
- List of commonly confused homonyms in Russian
- Common phrases in different languages
- Runglish

External links


- [http://www.declan-software.com/russian Russian language learning software]
- [http://www.russianlessons.net/ Online Russian language lessons]
- [http://www.dicts.info/dictlist1.php?k1=81 All free Russian dictionaries]
- [http://overstuffed-closet.net/russian The Russian Language Fanlisting]
- [http://www.speakrus.ru/dict/ Free downloadable vocabularies of the Russian language]
- [http://RusWin.net Cyrillic (Russian)]
- [http://www.masterrussian.com MasterRussian.com - vocabulary words and phrases, tips, hand-picked links]
- [http://www.ifstudio-translations.com/ Free Russian translations.]
- [http://tinyurl.com/5lhlp Vasmer's Etymological Dictionary of Russian language]
- [http://www.masterrussian.net/mforum Russian Language Forum. A large community interested in Russian]
- [http://www.gramota.ru "GRAMOTA". An educational/reference site on the Russian language, supported by the Russian government. (In Russian)]
- [http://www.lib.ru "Moshkov's library". A large collection of classical and modern Russian e-texts. (In Russian)]
- [http://www.languagehelpers.com/Russian/TheRussianAlphabet.html Russian alphabet with sound (languagehelpers.com)]
- [http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/language/ Reference Grammar]
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Russian-english/ Russian - English Dictionary]
- [http://www.lorem-ipsum.info/_russian Generator for Russian typographical filler text]
- [http://www.andaman.org/book/reprints/weber/rep-weber.htm G. Weber, "Top Languages"]
- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=rus SIL Ethnologue Report for Russian]
- [http://www.linguarus.com Russian for Everybody (Self-Learning)]
- [http://www.applelanguages.com/en/learn/russian.php Russian courses]
- [http://dmoz.org/Science/Social_Sciences/Linguistics/Languages/Natural/Indo-European/Slavic/Russian/ ODP Russian Language category]
- [http://www.language-usa.com/ Russian Translation USA]
- [http://runglish1.narod.ru Runglish]
- [http://www.orlandorussians.com/ Russian Language Groups in America]
- [http://www.russki-mat.net/ Multilingual Russian slang dictionaries]
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Russian-english/ Russian English Dictionary] from [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org Webster's Online Dictionary] - the Rosetta Edition Category:Languages of Belarus Category:Languages of Finland Category:Languages of Russia Category:Languages of Ukraine Category:Languages of Kazakhstan Category:Languages of Georgia Category:Languages of Armenia Category:Languages of Azerbaijan Category:Languages of Turkmenistan Category:Languages of Uzbekistan Category:Languages of Moldova Category:Languages of Tajikistan Category:Languages of Kyrgyzstan Category:Languages of Estonia Category:Languages of Latvia Category:Languages of Lithuania Category:Languages of China Category:Languages of Mongolia Category:Languages of Afghanistan Category:Languages of Bulgaria Category:Russian language Category:East Slavic languages ko:러시아어 ms:Bahasa Russia ja:ロシア語 simple:Russian language th:ภาษารัสเซีย

Siberia

:Siberia is also an album by Echo & The Bunnymen. Echo & The Bunnymen Siberia (, common English transliterations: Sibir’, Sibir; from the Tatar for “sleeping land”) is a vast region of Russia and northern Kazakhstan constituting almost all of northern Asia. It extends eastward from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean and southward from the Arctic Ocean to the hills of north-central Kazakhstan and the borders of both Mongolia and China. All but the extreme south-western area of Siberia lies in Russia, and it makes up about 56% of that country's territory.

Administrative subdivisions

China Geographically, Siberia includes the federal subjects of the Urals Federal District, Siberian Federal District and Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, which is a part of the Far Eastern Federal District (see a list of subjects below). From the historical point of view, the whole Russian Far East is considered a segment of Siberia.
- Altai Krai, administrative center — Barnaul
- Altai Republic, capital — Gorno-Altaisk
- Buryat Republic, capital — Ulan Ude
- Chita Oblast, administrative center — Chita
- Irkutsk Oblast, administrative center — Irkutsk
- Republic of Khakassia, capital — Abakan
- Kemerovo Oblast, administrative center — Kemerovo
- Koryakia Autonomous District, administrative center — Palana
- Krasnoyarsk Krai, administrative center — Krasnoyarsk
- Novosibirsk Oblast, administrative center — Novosibirsk
- Omsk Oblast, administrative center — Omsk
- Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, capital — Yakutsk
- Tomsk Oblast, administrative center — Tomsk
- Tuva Republic, capital — Kyzyl Major cities include:
- Irkutsk
- Krasnoyarsk
- Novosibirsk
- Omsk
- Tomsk

History

Main article: History of Siberia Siberia was occupied by differing groups of nomads such as the Yenets, the Nenets, the Huns, and the Uyghurs. The Khan of Sibir in the vicinity of modern Tobolsk was known as a prominent figure who endorsed Kubrat as Khagan in Avaria in 630. The area was conquered by the Mongols in the 13th century and eventually became the autonomous Siberian Khanate. The growing power of Russia to the east began to undermine the Khanate in the 16th century. First groups of traders and Cossacks began to enter the area, and then the imperial army began to set up forts further and further east. The towns like Mangazeya, Tara, Yeniseysk, and Tobolsk sprang up, the latter being declared the capital of Siberia. By the mid-17th century, the Russian-controlled areas had been extended to the Pacific. Siberia remained a mostly unexplored and uninhabited area. During the following few centuries, only a few exploratory missions and traders inhabited Siberia. The other group that was sent to Siberia consisted of prisoners exiled from western Russia. The first great change to Siberia was the Trans-Siberian railway, constructed in 1891 - 1905. It linked Siberia more closely to the rapidly-industrializing Russia of Nicholas II. Siberia is filled with natural resources and during the 20th century these were developed, and industrial towns cropped up throughout the region.

Geography and geology

With an area of over 9,653,000 km2, Siberia makes up roughly two thirds of the total area of Russia. If Siberia were to secede from Russia, it would be the world's second-largest country, with only Canada being larger. Major geographical zones include the West Siberian Plain and the Central Siberian Plateau. The West Siberian Plain consists mostly of Cenozoic alluvial deposits and is extraordinarily flat, so much so that a rise of fifty metres in sea level would cause all land between the Arctic Ocean and Novosibirsk to be inundated. Many of the deposits on this plain result from ice dams; having reversed the flow of the Ob and Yenisei Rivers, so redirecting them into the Caspian Sea (perhaps the Aral as well). It is very swampy and soils are mostly peaty Histosols and, in the treeless northern part, Histels. In the south of the plain, where permafrost is largely absent, rich grasslands that are an extension of the Kazakh Steppe formed the original vegetation (almost all cleared now). The Central Siberian Plateau is an extremely ancient craton (sometimes called Angaraland) that formed an independent continent before the Permian (see Siberia (continent)). It is exceptionally rich in minerals, containing large deposits of gold, diamonds, and ores of manganese, lead, zinc, nickel, cobalt and molybdenum. Only the extreme northwest was glaciated during the Quaternary, but almost all is under exceptionally deep permafrost and the only tree that can thrive, despite the warm summers, is the deciduous Siberian Larch (Larix sibirica) with its very shallow roots. Soils here are mainly Turbels, giving way to Spodosols where the active layer becomes thicker and the ice content lower. Eastern and central Sakha comprise numerous north-south mountain ranges of various ages. These mountains extend up to almost three thousand metres in elevation, but above a few hundred metres they are devoid of vegetation to an extraordinary degree. The Verkhoyansk Range was extensively glaciated in the Pleistocene, but the climate was too dry for glaciation to extend to low elevations. At these low elevations are numerous valleys, many of them deep, and covered with larch forest except in the extreme north, where tundra dominates. Soils are mainly Turbels and the active layer tends to be less than a metre deep except near rivers.

Lakes and rivers


- Anabar River
- Angara River
- Indigirka River
- Irtysh River
- Kolyma River
- Lake Baikal
- Lena River
- Ob River
- Tunguska River
- Uvs Nuur Lake
- Yana River
- Yenisei River

Mountain ranges


- Anadyr Range
- Chersky Range
- Dzhugdzhur Mountains
- Gydan Mountains
- Koryak Mountains
- Sayan Mountains
- Ural Mountains
- Verkhoyansk Mountains
- Yablonoi Mountains A harsh climate has limited Siberia's development and population growth. The region has an abundance of natural resources, including many minerals, vast oil fields, rich forests, and grasslands in the extreme southwest that are good for farming. However, the winters are long and bitter. Ice and snow cover most of the region for about six months of the year. The temperature can drop below -68°C (-90°F). Most of the coastal waters, lakes, and rivers freeze for much of the year.

Demographics

Siberia has a population density of only 3 persons per square kilometer. Most Siberians are Russians and Russified Ukrainians. Ethnic Russians are descended from Slavs who lived in Eastern Europe several hundred years ago. Such Mongol and Turkic groups as Buryats, Tuvinians, and Yakuts lived in Siberia originally, and descendants of these peoples still live there. Other ethnic groups include: Evenks, Chukchis, Koryaks, Yukaghirs. See the Northern indigenous peoples of Russia article for more. About 70% of Siberia's people live in cities. Most city people are crowded into small apartments. Many people in rural areas live in simple, but more spacious, log houses. Novosibirsk is the largest city in Siberia, with a population of about 1.5 million. Tobolsk, Tomsk, Irkutsk and Omsk are the older, historical centers. With a lowest record temperature of -71.2 Celsius, Oymyakon has the distinction of being the coldest town on Earth.

On Film


- "Dersu Uzala" (1974). Survival in Siberia in the year 1900. Directed by Akira Kurosawa.

See also


- Tunguska event
- Afanasy Shchapov
- West Siberian Plain
- Gulag

External links


-
- [http://www.altaionline.com Tourism in Siberia]
- [http://www.baikalinfo.com Tourism around Lake Baikal and the Sayan Mountains]
- [http://frontiers.loc.gov/ Meeting of Frontiers: Siberia, Alaska, and the American West] Category:Geography of Russia Category:Asia
- ko:시베리아 ja:シベリア

Trans-Siberian Railway

The Trans-Siberian Railway or Trans-Siberian Railroad (Транссибирская магистраль, Транссиб in Russian, or Transsibirskaya magistral', Transsib) is a network of railways connecting European Russia with Russian Far East provinces, Mongolia and China. The main route, the Trans-Siberian, runs from Moscow to Vladivostok via southern Siberia and was built between 1891 and 1916. It is often associated with the main Russian train that connects these two cities. At 9,288 kilometres (5,772 miles) and spanning 8 time zones, it is the longest single continuous service in the world, and it takes about 7 days to complete its journey. A second primary route is the Trans-Manchurian, which coincides with the Trans-Siberian as far as Tarskaya, about 1000 km east of Lake Baikal. From Tarskaya the Trans-Manchurian heads southeast into China and makes its way down to Beijing. Beijing] The third primary route is the Trans-Mongolian, which coincides with the Trans-Siberian as far as Ulan Ude on Lake Baikal's eastern shore. From Ulan-Ude the Trans-Mongolian heads south to Ulaan-Baatar before making its way southeast to Beijing. In 1991, a fourth route running further to the north was finally completed, after more than five decades of sporadic work. Known as the Baikal Amur Mainline, this recent extension departs from the Trans-Siberian line several hundred miles west of Lake Baikal and passes the lake at its northernmost extremity. It reaches the Pacific to the northeast of Khabarovsk, at Sovetskaya Gavan (i.e., Soviet Haven, a.k.a. Sovgavan, Sovietgavan, and earlier Imperatorskaya Gavan, i.e., Imperial Haven). While this route provides access to Baikal's stunning northern coast, it also passes through some rather forbidding terrain.

Route

Trans-Siberian line

Sovetskaya Gavan] The main line follows the following route:
- Moscow (0 km, Moscow Time). Most trains start from Yaroslavsky train station
- Nizhny Novgorod (442 km, MT) on the Volga River, still called by its old soviet name Gorky in most timetables
- Perm (1436 km, MT+2) on the Kama River
- Official boundary between Europe and Asia (1777 km), marked by a white obelisk
- Yekaterinburg (1816 km, MT+2) in the Urals, still called by its old soviet name Sverdlovsk in most timetables
- Omsk (2712 km, MT+3) on the Irtysh River
- Novosibirsk (3335 km, MT+3) on the Ob River
- Krasnoyarsk (4098 km, MT+4) on the Yenisei River
- Irkutsk (5185 km, MT+5) near Lake Baikal's southern extremity
- Ulan Ude (5642 km, MT+5)
- Junction with the Trans-Mongolian line (5655 km)
- Chita (6199 km, MT+6)
- Junction with the Trans-Manchurian line at Tarskaya (6312 km)
- Khabarovsk (8521 km, MT+7) on the Amur River
- Vladivostok (9288 km, MT+7), near the Pacific Ocean From 1956 to 2001 trains went via Yaroslavl instead of Nizhny Novgorod.

Trans-Manchurian line

The Trans-Manchurian line follows the same route than the Trans-Siberian between Moscow and Chita, and then follows this route to China:
- Branch off from the Trans-Siberian-line at Tarskaya (6312 km from Moscow)
- Zabaikalsk (6661 km), Russian border town
- Manzhouli (2323 km from Beijing), Chinese border town
- Harbin (1388 km)
- Beijing

Trans-Mongolian line

The Trans-Mongolian line follows the same route than the Trans-Siberian between Moscow and Ulan Ude, and then follows this route to Mongolia and China:
- Branch off from the Trans-Siberian line (5655 km from Moscow)
- Naushki (5895 km), Russian border town
- Russia-Mongolia border (5900 km)
- Sühbaatar (5921 km), Mongolian border town
- Ulaan-Baatar (6304 km), the Mongolian capital
- Zamiin Uud (7013 km), Mongolian border town
- Erlyan (842 km from Beijing), Chinese border town
- Datong (371 km)
- Beijing

History

Beijing Russia's longstanding desire for a Pacific port was realised with the founding of Vladivostok in 1860. By 1880, Vladivostok had grown into a major port city, and the lack of adequate transportation links between European Russia and its Far Eastern provinces soon became an obvious problem. Full time construction on the Trans-Siberian Railway began in 1891 and was put into execution and overseen by Sergei Witte, who was then Finance Minister. Similar to the First Transcontinental Railroad in the USA, Russian engineers started construction at both ends and worked towards the center. From Vladivostok the railway was laid north along the right bank of the Ussuri River to Khabarovsk at the Amur River becoming the Ussuri railway. In 1890 a bridge across the river Ural was built and the new railroad entered Asia. The bridge across the Ob River was built in 1898 and the small city Novonikolaevsk, founded in 1883, metamorphosed into a large Siberian center - Novosibirsk city. In 1898 the first train reached Irkutsk and the shore of Lake Baikal. The railroad ran on to the East, across the Shilka and the Amur rivers and soon reached Khabarovsk. The Vladivostok - Khabarovsk branch was built a bit earlier, in 1897. Convict labour, from Sakhalin Island and other places, and Russian soldiers were drafted into railway-building service. One of the largest obstacles was Lake Baikal, some 41 miles east of Irkutsk. Lake Baikal is more than 400 miles (640 km) long and over 5,000 feet (1,600 m) deep. The line ended on each side of the lake and a special icebreaker ferryboat was purchased from England to connect the railway. In the winter sleighs were used to move passengers and cargo from one side of the lake to the other until the completion of the Lake Baikal spur along the southern edge of the lake. With the completion of the Amur River line north of the Chinese border in 1916, there was a continuous railway from Petrograd to Vladivostok that remains to this day the world's longest railway line. Lake Baikal on the Yuryuzan River between Ufa and Cheliabinsk in the Ural Mountain region, ca. 1910]] Electrification of the line, begun in 1929 and completed in 2002, allowed a doubling of train weights to 6,000 tonnes. Today the Trans-Siberian Railway carries about 20,000 containers per year to Europe, including 8,300 containers from Japan. This is a fairly small amount, considering that for all means of transport combined Japan sends 360,000 containers to Europe per year. Thus there is potential for growth, and the Russian Ministry of Transport plans to increase the number of containers shipped on the railway to 100,000 by the year 2005 and satisfy the passage and cargo needs of 120 trains per day. This requires that stretches that are now single track and form a bottleneck are made double track. The Trans-Siberian line remains the most important traffic connection within Russia, and around 30% of Russian exports travel on the line. While it attracts many foreign tourists, it is very much used by Russian people to travel around their country.

Trivia

Since Russia and Mongolia use broad gauge railways while China uses the standard gauge, there is a break-of-gauge, meaning that carriages to or from China cannot simply cross the border, and each carriage has be lifted in turn to have its bogies changed. The whole operation, combined with passport and customs control, can take several hours. The lower the train number the fewer stops it makes and therefore the faster the journey. Unfortunately, the train number makes no difference to the duration of border crossings.

See also


- Famous trains

References


- Thomas, Bryn (2003). The Trans-Siberian Handbook (6th Ed). Trailblazer. ISBN 1873756704

External links


- [http://www.transsib.ru/Eng/ The Trans-Siberian Railway: Web Encyclopedia]
- [http://www.waytorussia.net/TransSiberian/ Guide to the Trans-Siberian Railway] by [http://waytorussia.net].
- [http://www.bisnis.doc.gov/bisnis/isa/010202KhabTransp.htm Transportation Overview in the Khabarovsk Krai Region of Russia] from U.S. Department of State
- [http://www.regent-holidays.co.uk/images/transsibmap.jpg Map]
- For timetables, see [http://www.bahn.de/pv/uebersicht/die_bahn_international_guests.shtml Travel planner of German Railways] (covers Europe, as well as at least each branch of the Trans-Siberian Railway) and [http://www.lernidee-reisen.de/_ressourcen/inhalte/produkte/statisch/transsib_individuell/transsib_2004.pdf time-table with distances (pdf)]; note that Moscow time applies for railways throughout Russia.
- [http://www.parovoz.com/indexe.php The site about railways in C.I.S. and Baltics]
- [http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.ndlpcoop/mtfxtx.nb0004 Guide to the Great Siberian Railway (1900)] Travel tales:
- [http://www.hirohurl.net/ultomo.html From Ulaanbaator to Moscow]
- [http://abc.net.au/news/specials/transsiberia/default.htm The Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Moscow correspondent writes a travel blog about her trip on the Trans-Siberian.] Category:Named passenger trains Category:Railway lines Category:Railways of Russia ko:시베리아 횡단 철도 ja:シベリア鉄道

Russian Empire

Imperial Russia is the term used to cover the period of history from the expansion of Russia under Peter the Great, through the expansion of the Russian Empire from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean, to the deposal of Nicholas II of Russia, the last tsar, at the start of the Russian Revolution of 1917.

History

Image:Gerb rosimperii.jpg|Greater Arms of the Russian Empire, adopted in 1882 Image:Russia empire.gif|Simplified Coat of Arms of the Russian Empire Image:Romanovflag.gif|Flag of Russian Empire 1858-1883 Image:1914-17.png|Flag of Russian Empire 1914-1917 The Russian state was officially named the Russian Empire () from 1721 to 1917. The capital city of the Russian Empire was Saint-Petersburg (after 1914 re-named Petrograd). At the end of the 19th century the size of the Empire was about 22,400,000 square kilometers (almost 1/6 of the Earth's landmass); its only rival in size was the British Empire. According to the 1897 census its population was about 128,200,000 people, however, a majority of them (93.4 million) lived in European Russia. More than a 100 different ethnic groups lived in the Russian Empire (ethnic Russians were about 45% of the population). In addition to today's Russia prior to 1917 Russian Empire included territories of Finland (Grand Duchy of Finland), Estonia and Latvia (Baltic provinces), most of Lithuania, Belarus, most of Ukraine, a significant part of Poland (Kingdom of Poland), Moldova (Bessarabia), Caucasus, and most of Central Asia (Russian Turkestan). In 1914 the Russian Empire consisted of 81 provinces (guberniyas) and 20 regions (oblasts). Vassals and protectorates of the Russian Empire included khanates of Bukhara, Khiva and after 1914 Tuva. The Russian Empire was a hereditary monarchy headed by an autocratic Emperor (Tsar) from a Romanov dynasty. Orthodox Christianity was the official faith of the Empire and was controlled by the monarch through the Holy Synod. Subjects of the Russian Empire were segregated into sosloviya, or social estates (classes) such as "dvoryanstvo" (nobility), clergy, merchants, cossacks and peasants. Native people of Siberia and Central Asia were officially registered as a category called "inorodtsy" (non-Russians, literally: "people of alien kind"). In addition to Russia proper, the empire consisted of the constitutional monarchies of the Kingdom of Poland (1815-1831) and the Grand Duchy of Finland (1809-1917) The coat of arms of the Russian Empire was a two-headed eagle; the national anthem - God Save the Tsar (Bozhe, tsarya khrani); the official language - Russian. After the overthrow of monarchy during the February Revolution of 1917 Russia was declared to be a republic by the Provisional Government. This period, together with overlaps with the preceding and subsequent periods, is covered in the following articles.
- Russian history, 1682-1796
- Russian history, 1796-1855
- Russian history, 1855-1892
- Russian history, 1892-1920 Russian history, 1892-1920

Rulers

Peter the Great changed his title from tsar to Emperor in 1721 and his successors kept it, but tsar/tsaritsa were still in regular popular use up to the fall of the Russian Empire.
- Peter I (the Great), (1682-1725)
- Catherine I, (1725-1727)
- Peter II, (1727-1730)
- Anna, (1730-1740)
- Ivan VI, (1740-1741)
- Elizabeth, (1741-1762)
- Peter III, (1762)
- Catherine II (the Great), (1762-1796)
- Paul I, (1796-1801)
- Alexander I, (1801-1825)
- Nicholas I, (1825-1855)
- Alexander II, (1855-1881)
- Alexander III, (1881-1894)
- Nicholas II, (1894-1917)

References


- Library of Congress Country Studies: [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/rutoc.html Russia]

External links


- [http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/ The Empire that was Russia]: Color photographs of Tsarist Russia
- [http://web2.airmail.net/napoleon/Russian_army.htm Russian Army during the Napoleonic Wars] Category:Imperial Russia Category:History of Russia Russia ja:ロシア帝国 th:จักรวรรดิรัสเซีย

Federal subjects of Russia

Russia is a federation which consists of 88 subjects (; English transliteration: subyekty, sing. subyekt). These subjects are of equal federal rights in the sense that they have equal representation—two delegates each—in the Federation Council (upper house of the Russian parliament). However, they do differ in the degree of autonomy they enjoy. Each subject of the federation belongs to one of the following categories:

Subjects of the Russian Federation

autonomy

Administrative map of the Russian Federation

autonomy
autonomy

Mergers

There are plans to merge many of these subjects into larger territories, starting in 2005. The first new one formed was Perm Krai, comprising former Perm Oblast and the Autonomous District of the Komi-Permyaks. The merger was approved by referendum on December 7, 2003, and the new territory appeared on the map on December 1, 2005. The second one will be a merger of the Autonomous districts of the Evenks and the Taymyrs and the Krasnoyarsk Krai, incorporating the two former into the latter. This decision was approved by referendum on April 17, 2005, and the merger is to take place on January 1, 2007. On October 23, 2005, a referendum was held on the merger of the Kamchatka Oblast and the Autonomous District of Koryakia, with the majority approving the merger. Other proposals include:
- merging Irkutsk Oblast with the Autonomous District of the Ust-Ordinsk Buryats into Irkutsk Krai;
- merging Tyumen Oblast with the Yamal Nenetses into Tyumen Krai;
- merging Chita Oblast with the Autonomous District of the Aga Buryats;
- merging the federal cities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg with the oblasts surrounding them (Moscow and Leningrad Oblast, respectively);
- merging Arkhangelsk and Murmansk Oblasts, the Komi Republic, and the Autonomous District of the Nenetses into proposed Northern/Arctic Krai or a Republic of Pomor-Nenetses.

See also


- History of the administrative division of Russia
- Subdivisions of Russia
- Federal districts of Russia
- Economic regions of Russia
- Flags of Federal subjects of Russia
- Federal Subjects of Russia Federal subjects of Russia ja:ロシア連邦の地方区分

Kilometre

A kilometre (American spelling: kilometer), symbol: km is a unit of length in the metric system equal to 1000 metres (from the Greek words χίλια (khilia) = thousand and μέτρο (metro) = count/measure). It is approximately equal to 0.621 miles, 1094 yards or 3281 feet. Slang terms for kilometre include "klick" (sometimes spelt "click" or "klik") and "kay" (or "k"). All these slang terms can also refer to kilometres per hour.

Metric system

:Main articles: Metric system and Metre Like the kilometre, all units of length in the metric system are based on the metre, by adding an SI prefix that stands for a power of ten, such as hecto for one hundred to form hectometre (= 0.1 kilometre) or mega for one million to form megametre (= 1,000 kilometre). The metre is not only the basis for all units of length in the metric system, but also of units of area (the square metre) and volume (the cubic metre). This extends to the kilometre, so one can have square and cubic kilometres. Unicode has symbols for "km" (㎞), for square kilometre (㎢) and for cubic kilometre (㎦); however, they are useful only in CJK texts, where they are equal in size to one Chinese character.

Pronunciation

In theory, the pronunciation of the word kilometre should have the stress placed on the first syllable, in line with other metric prefixes (as in kilogram, kilojoule and, analogous, kilobyte). However, pronunciation with the stress on the second syllable is usual in English.

See also

hectometre << kilometre << megametre
- Orders of magnitude, 1 E3 m
- SI, SI prefix
- mile, verst Category:Units of length ja:キロメートル zh-min-nan:Kong-lí simple:Kilometre th:กิโลเมตร

Sea level

:For considerations of sea level change, in particular rise associated with possible global warming, see sea level rise.

Definition

Mean sea level (MSL) is the average height of the sea, with reference to a suitable reference surface. Defining the reference level [http://www.pol.ac.uk/psmsl/puscience/index.html#1], however, involves complex measurement, and accurately determining MSL can prove difficult.

Measurement

sea level rise To an operator of a tide gauge, MSL means the "still water level"—the level of the sea with motions such as wind waves averaged out—averaged over a period of time such that changes in sea level, e.g., due to the tides, also get averaged out. One measures the values of MSL in respect to the land. Hence a change in MSL can result from a real change in sea level, or from a change in the height of the land on which the tide gauge operates.

Difficulties in utilization

To extend this definition far from land means comparing the local height of the mean sea surface with a "level" reference surface, or datum, called the geoid. In a state of rest or absence of external forces, the mean sea level would coincide with this geoid surface, being an equipotential surface of the Earth's gravity field. In reality, due to currents, air pressure variations, temperature and salinity variations, etc., this does not occur, not even as a long term average. The location-dependent, but persistent in time, separation between mean sea level and the geoid is referred to as (stationary) sea surface topography. It varies globally in a range of ±2 m. Traditionally, one had to process sea-level measurements to take into account the effect of the 228-month Metonic cycle and the 223-month eclipse cycle on the tides. Mean sea level does not remain constant over the surface of the entire earth. Mean sea level at the Pacific end of the Panama Canal stands 20 cm higher than at the Atlantic end. Despite the difficulties, aviators flying under instrument flight rules (IFR) must have accurate and reliable measurements of their altitudes above (or below - see Schiphol Airport) mean sea level, and the altitude of the airports where they intend to land. That problem can compound when landing on an aircraft carrier in a gravitational anomaly. In aviation mean sea level is increasingly being defined with reference to an ellipsoid defined by the World Geodetic System. Compared to a geoid, an ellipsoid is simpler to model mathematically and therefore lends itself to use with the Global Positioning System. Several terms are used to describe the changing relationships between sea level and dry land. When the term "relative" is used, it connotes change that is not attributed to any specific cause. The term "eustatic" refers to changes in the amount of water in the oceans, usually due to climatic changes. The term "isostatic" refers to changes in the level of the land masses due to thermal buoyancy or tectonic effects and implies no real change in the amount of water in the oceans. The melting of glaciers at the end of ice ages is an example of eustatic sea level rise. The subsidence of land due to the withdrawal of groundwater is an isostatic cause of relative sea level rise. Paleoclimatologists can track sea level by examining the rocks deposited along coasts that are very tectonically stable, like the east coast of North America. Areas like volcanic islands are experiencing relative sea level rise as a result of isostatic cooling of the rock which causes the land to sink. On other planets that lack a liquid ocean, planetologists can calculate a "mean altitude" by averaging the heights of all points on the surface. This altitude, sometimes referred to as a "sea level", serves equivalently as a reference for the height of planetary features.

Changes through geologic time

planetologist planetologist Sea level has changed over geologic time. As the graph shows, sea level today is very near the lowest level ever attained (the lowest level occurred at the Permo-Triassic boundary about 250 million years ago). For this reason, sea level is more prone to rise than fall today, and small changes in climate can have noticeable effects during human lifetimes. During the most recent ice age (at its maximum about 20,000 years ago) the world's sea level was about 130 m lower than today, due to the large amount of sea water that had evaporated and been deposited as snow and ice in northern hemisphere glaciers. The majority of the glaciers had melted by about 10,000 years ago, but minor glacial melting has continued (with occasional reversals) throughout recorded human history. More detail about the changes in sea level for the past 140,000 years can be seen by accessing [http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/wg1/fig11-4.htm this chart]. Hundreds of similar glacial cycles have occurred throughout the Earth's history. Geologists who study the positions of coastal sediment deposits through time have noted dozens of similar basinward shifts of shorelines associated with a later recovery. This results in sedimentary cycles which in some cases can be correlated around the world with great confidence. This relatively new branch of geological science linking eustatic sea level to sedimentary deposits is called sequence stratigraphy.

See also


- Above mean sea level

External links


- [http://164.214.2.59/GandG/datums/vertdatum.htm National Imaging and Mapping Agency article]
- [http://www.pol.ac.uk/psmsl/ Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level]
- [http://www.agu.org/revgeophys/dougla01/dougla01.html Global sea level change: Determination and interpretation]
- [http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/ResourceCenterPublicationsSeaLevelRiseIndex.html Environment Protection Agency Sea level rise reports] Category:Oceanography Category:Cartography simple:Sea level

Yenisei River

The Yen