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Oprichnina
The oprichnina (russian: опри́чнина, ) was a state policy implemented by Tsar Ivan the Terrible in Russia between 1565 and 1572. The policy included mass repression of the boyars (Russian aristocrats), including public executions and confiscation of their land and property. In this context it can also refer to: *The notorious organization of six thousand Oprichniki, the first political police in the history of Russia. *The portion of Russia, ruled directly by Ivan the Terrible, where his Oprichniki operated. *The corresponding period of Russian history. The term ''oprichnina'', which Ivan coined for this policy, derives from the Russian word ''oprich'' (russian: опричь, ''apart from'', ''except''). Causes In 1558, Tsar Ivan IV started the Livonian War. A broad coalition, which included Poland, Lithuania and Sweden, became drawn into the war against Russia. The war became drawn-out (it continued until 1583) and expensive; raids by Crimean Tatars, Polish and Li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ivan The Terrible
Ivan IV Vasilyevich (russian: Ива́н Васи́льевич; 25 August 1530 – ), commonly known in English as Ivan the Terrible, was the grand prince of Moscow from 1533 to 1547 and the first Tsar of all Russia from 1547 to 1584. Ivan was the son of Vasili III, the Rurikid ruler of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. He was appointed grand prince after his father's death, when he was three years old. A group of reformers known as the "Chosen Council" united around the young Ivan, declaring him tsar (emperor) of all Rus' in 1547 at the age of 16 and establishing the Tsardom of Russia with Moscow as the predominant state. Ivan's reign was characterised by Russia's transformation from a medieval state to an empire under the tsar but at an immense cost to its people and its broader, long-term economy. During his youth, he conquered the khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan. After he had consolidated his power, Ivan rid himself of the advisers from the "Chosen Council" and triggered the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oprichnik
Oprichnik (russian: опри́чник, , ''man aside''; plural ''Oprichniki'') was the designation given to a member of the Oprichnina, a bodyguard corps established by Tsar Ivan the Terrible to govern a division of Russia from 1565 to 1572. Foundation Some scholars believe that Ivan's second wife, the Circassian Maria Temryukovna, first had the idea of forming the organization. This theory comes from Heinrich von Staden, a German oprichnik. Maria Temryukovna's brother also became a leading oprichnik. Oath Upon acceptance, the new Oprichniki were required to swear an oath of allegiance: I swear to be true to the Lord, Grand Prince, and his realm, to the young Grand Princes, and to the Grand Princess, and not to maintain silence about any evil that I may know or have heard or may hear which is being contemplated against the Tsar, his realms, the young princes or the Tsaritsa. I swear also not to eat or drink with the zemshchina, and not to have anything in common with them. O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Political Police
Secret police (or political police) are intelligence, security or police agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, religious, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. They protect the political power of a dictator or regime and often operate outside the law to repress dissidents and weaken political opposition, frequently using violence. History Africa Uganda In Uganda, the State Research Bureau (SRB) was a secret police organisation for President Idi Amin. The Bureau tortured many Ugandans, operating on behalf of a regime responsible for more than five hundred thousand violent deaths. The SRB attempted to infiltrate every area of Ugandan life. Asia China In East Asia, the ''jinyiwei'' (Embroidered Uniform Guard) of the Ming Dynasty was founded in the 1360s by the Hongwu Emperor and served as the dynasty's secret police until the collapse of Ming ru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vladimir Kobrin
Vladimir Borisovich Kobrin (Владимир Борисович Кобрин; 1930–1990) was a leading authority on the aristocracy of late medieval Russia. He graduated from the Moscow University in 1951 and continued Stepan Veselovsky's studies of medieval Russian aristocracy after the latter's death in 1952. He viewed the Oprichnina as a prop for Ivan IV's dictatorship and described it as a social catastrophe. Kobrin's popular biography of Ivan the Terrible was published in 1989. After the Perestroika was launched in 1985, Kobrin was involved in the publication of A. A. Zimin Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Zimin (Александр Александрович Зимин; 1920-1980) was one of the most prolific and well-known Soviet medievalists. His area of expertise was late medieval Muscovy. Zimin was born in a noble family ...'s controversial manuscripts.Чтения памяти В.Б. Кобрина: "Проблемы отечественной истории и культур ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aleksandrova Sloboda
Alexandrov ( rus, Александров, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandrəf) is a town and the administrative center of Alexandrovsky District in Vladimir Oblast, Russia. It is located northeast of Moscow and has a population of It was previously known as ''Alexandrovskaya Sloboda''. It operates on the EEST time zone, with the same time zone as Vladimir. History It was established in the mid-14th century and was known as Alexandrovskaya Sloboda (). It served as the capital of Russia for three months (from December 1564 to February 1565) under Tsar Ivan the Terrible until he agreed to return his court and the relics of Moscow which he had taken with him. Ivan agreed to return after the church gave him permission to found the Oprichnina. It was granted town status in 1778. Administrative and municipal status Within the framework of administrative divisions, Alexandrov serves as the administrative center of Alexandrovsky District, to which it is directly subordinated.Resolution #433 As a mu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sergey Platonov
Sergey Fyodorovich Platonov (russian: Серге́й Фёдорович Плато́нов) (28 June O.S.">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="6 June Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 1860 – 10 January 1933) was a Russian historian who led the official St Petersburg school of imperial historiography before and after the October Revolution, Russian Revolution. Life and career Platonov was born in the city of Chernigov, Russian Empire and attended a private gymnasium in St. Petersburg until 1878, when he went to the Department of History and Philology of St. Petersburg University until 1882. He was a student of Konstantin Bestuzhev-Ryumin, who recommended that he be given the opportunity to "prepare to be a professor." Platonov belonged to the "St. Petersburg school" of Russian historiography, which paid special attention to the study and publication of historical sources. Platonov gained his master's thesis in 1888 writing about Old Russian Legends and Tales About ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andrey Kurbsky
Knyaz (Prince) Andrey Mikhailovich Kurbsky (russian: Андрей Михайлович Курбский, pl, Andriej Michajłowicz Kurbski; 1528–1583) was a Russian political figure, military leader, and political philosopher, known as an intimate friend and then a leading political opponent of the Russian tsar Ivan the Terrible (). His correspondence with the tsar provides a unique source for the history of 16th-century Russia. In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 16th century the name of Prince Andrew Kurbsky of the Rurikovich dynasty was written in Polish in documents as ''Kurbski'' underJozef Wolff, «Kniaziowie Litewsko-Ruscy», Warszawa, 1895 r., Cz. 1 str. 194-197 (Kurbski-Jaroslawski), Cz. 2 str. 662 (Kozar-Krupski) or as ''Krupski'' (Coat of arms Levart ( Lew II)). Andrey Kurbsky belonged to a family of Rurikid princes, which took its name from the town of Kurba near Yaroslavl. At an early age, he gained renown for courage displayed in the annual campaigns against ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tsardom Of Russia
The Tsardom of Russia or Tsardom of Rus' also externally referenced as the Tsardom of Muscovy, was the centralized Russian state from the assumption of the title of Tsar by Ivan IV in 1547 until the foundation of the Russian Empire by Peter I in 1721. From 1551 to 1700, Russia grew by 35,000 km2 per year. The period includes the upheavals of the transition from the Rurik to the Romanov dynasties, wars with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Sweden and the Ottoman Empire, and the Russian conquest of Siberia, to the reign of Peter the Great, who took power in 1689 and transformed the Tsardom into the Russian Empire. During the Great Northern War, he implemented substantial reforms and proclaimed the Russian Empire after victory over Sweden in 1721. Name While the oldest endonyms of the Grand Duchy of Moscow used in its documents were "Rus'" () and the "Russian land" (), a new form of its name, ''Rusia'' or ''Russia'', appeared and became common in the 15th century. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia
The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; ) is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya entsiklopediya'' (or ''Great Russian Encyclopedia'') in an updated and revised form. The GSE claimed to be "the first Marxist–Leninist general-purpose encyclopedia". Origins The idea of the ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' emerged in 1923 on the initiative of Otto Schmidt, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In early 1924 Schmidt worked with a group which included Mikhail Pokrovsky, (rector of the Institute of Red Professors), Nikolai Meshcheryakov (Former head of the General Directorate for the Protection of State Secrets in the Press, Glavit, the State Administration of Publishing Affairs), Valery Bryusov (poet), Veniamin Kagan (mathematician) and Konstantin Kuzminsky to draw up a proposal which was agreed to in April 1924. Also in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Political Repression
Political repression is the act of a state entity controlling a citizenry by force for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing the citizenry's ability to take part in the political life of a society, thereby reducing their standing among their fellow citizens. It is often manifested through policies such as human rights violations, surveillance abuse, police brutality, imprisonment, involuntary settlement, stripping of citizen's rights, lustration, and violent action or terror such as the murder, summary executions, torture, forced disappearance, and other extrajudicial punishment of political activists, dissidents, or general population. Political repression can also be reinforced by means outside of written policy, such as by public and private media ownership and by self-censorship within the public. Where political repression is sanctioned and organised by the state, it may constitute state terrorism, genocide, politicide or cr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zemshchina
Zemshchina was in the classical sense, according to the definition of the archaeographer Vasily Storozhev, "land, as a concept opposite to the state, to everything state and sovereign in ancient Russia".Vasily StorozhevZemshchina// Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary: In 86 Volumes (82 Volumes and 4 Additional) – Saint Petersburg, 1890–1907 This term received special meaning in the 16th century, after the departure of Tsar Ivan the Terrible to the Alexandrovskaya Sloboda in December 1564. Returning to the kingdom through an intensified petition of clergy and boyars, Tsar Ivan IV Vasilyevich established the oprichnina and, having become its head, separated for her from the land "outside her" people and income; all that was not included in this oprichnina was a zemshchina, headed by its zemshchina boyars and even a special zemshchina king (Simeon Bekbulatovich, in 1574). The division into the oprichnina and zemshchina continued even after the exile of Tsar Simeon to T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Staraia Russa
Staraya Russa ( rus, Старая Русса, p=ˈstarəjə ˈrusːə) is a town in Novgorod Oblast, Russia, located on the Polist River, south of Veliky Novgorod, the administrative center of the oblast. Its population has steadily decreased over the past years, going from 41,538 recorded in the 1989 Census to 35,511 in the 2002 Census to 31,809 in the 2010 Census. Etymology The origin of the name of Staraya Russa is unclear. The most involved and widespread hypothesis was presented by philologists and linguists R. A. Akheyeva, V. L. Vasilyev, and M.V. Gorbanevsky. According to this hypothesis, ''Russa'' comes from Rus'—a Slavic people, who settled in the vicinity to control trade routes leading from Novgorod to Polotsk and Kiev—which, in turn, is usually thought to originate from an Old Norse term for "the men who row" (''rods-'') as rowing was the main method of navigating the rivers of Eastern Europe, and that it could be linked to the Swedish coastal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
