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Regalia Of The Russian Tsars
Regalia of the Russian tsars from the 13th to the 20th centuries of the history of Russia, are the insignia of tsars and emperors of Russia. Some of the artefacts were changed or substituted, the most radical change happened in the 18th century, when Peter the Great reformed the state and transitioned it to European-style monarchy. After the Russian Revolution the great number of the Romanovs' was sold by the Bolsheviks, but the most important coronation regalia were placed in the Kremlin Armoury. Since 1967 they are displayed as a part of Diamond Fund permanent exposition. Oldest Russian regalia From the 13th up to the end of 14th century the main insignia of knyaz power were the decorated barmas and the knyaz belts. A barma is a neck-piece or a mantle made of gold, encrusted with gems and diamonds. Such treasured items were hereditary and closely connected to the knyazs' names, they were always mentioned in the wills. The Barmas Barmas of Old Ryazan were produced by ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Principality Of Ryazan
The Grand Duchy of Ryazan (1078–1521) was a duchy with the capital in Old Ryazan (destroyed by the Mongol Empire in 1237), and then in Pereyaslavl Ryazansky, which later became the modern-day city of Ryazan. It originally split off from the Chernigov Principality as the provincial Murom Principality. Prior to the invasion of Batu Khan Sometime between 1097 and 1155, the principality became a sovereign state and until 1161, according to the Hypatian Codex, the official name was the ''Muromo-Ryazan Principality''. The first ruler of Ryazan was supposedly Yaroslav Sviatoslavich, Prince of Chernigov (a city of Kievan Rus'), later Prince of Murom-Ryzan. The capital of the Grand Duchy became Ryazan, however the present-day city of Ryazan is located 40 miles north from the original site of the capital today known as ''Ryazan Staraya'' (Old Ryazan). By the end of 12th century, the Principality waged wars with the neighboring Grand Duchy of Vladimir. In the course of that stand-off, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ivan IV Of Russia
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] |
Turquoise
Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula . It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gemstone and ornamental stone for thousands of years owing to its unique hue. Like most other opaque gems, turquoise has been devalued by the introduction of treatments, imitations and synthetics into the market. The robin's egg blue or sky blue color of the Persian turquoise mined near the modern city of Nishapur in Iran has been used as a guiding reference for evaluating turquoise quality. Names The word ''turquoise'' dates to the 17th century and is derived from the French ''turquois'' meaning "Turkish" because the mineral was first brought to Europe through the Ottoman Empire.Turquoise . minerals.usgs.gov Howe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Garnet
Garnets () are a group of silicate minerals that have been used since the Bronze Age as gemstones and abrasives. All species of garnets possess similar physical properties and crystal forms, but differ in chemical composition. The different species are pyrope, almandine, spessartine, grossular (varieties of which are hessonite or cinnamon-stone and tsavorite), uvarovite and andradite. The garnets make up two solid solution series: pyrope-almandine-spessartine (pyralspite), with the composition range ; and uvarovite-grossular-andradite (ugrandite), with the composition range . Etymology The word ''garnet'' comes from the 14th-century Middle English word ''gernet'', meaning 'dark red'. It is borrowed from Old French ''grenate'' from Latin ''granatus,'' from ''granum'' ('grain, seed'). This is possibly a reference to ''mela granatum'' or even ''pomum granatum'' ('pomegranate', ''Punica granatum''), a plant whose fruits contain abundant and vivid red seed covers ( arils), whic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Belarus
Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Covering an area of and with a population of 9.4 million, Belarus is the List of European countries by area, 13th-largest and the List of European countries by population, 20th-most populous country in Europe. The country has a hemiboreal climate and is administratively divided into Regions of Belarus, seven regions. Minsk is the capital and List of cities and largest towns in Belarus, largest city. Until the 20th century, different states at various times controlled the lands of modern-day Belarus, including Kievan Rus', the Principality of Polotsk, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Little Russia
Little Russia (russian: Малороссия/Малая Россия, Malaya Rossiya/Malorossiya; uk, Малоросія/Мала Росія, Malorosiia/Mala Rosiia), also known in English as Malorussia, Little Rus' (russian: Малая Русь, Malaya Rus'; uk, Мала Русь, translit=Mala Rus') and Rus' Minor (from el, Μικρὰ Ῥωσία, translit=Mikrá Rosía), is a geographical and historical term used to describe the modern-day territories of Ukraine. The first use of such names has been attributed to Bolesław-Jerzy II, ruler of Ruthenia and Galicia-Volhynia, who in 1335 signed his decrees ''Dux totius Russiæ minoris''. The distinction between "Great" and "Little" Rus' probably originated among Byzantine, Greek-speaking, clerics who wanted to separate the two Ruthenian ecclesiastical metropolises of Halych and Moscow. The specific meaning of the adjectives "Great" and "Little" in this context is unclear. It is possible that terms such as "Little" and "L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Russia
Great Russia, sometimes Great Rus' (russian: Великая Русь, , , , , ), is a name formerly applied to the territories of "Russia proper", the land that formed the core of Muscovy and later Russia. This was the land to which the ethnic Russians were native and where the ethnogenesis of (Great) Russians took place. The name is said to have come from the Greek , used by Byzantines for the northern part of the lands of Rus'. From 1654–1721, Russian Tsars adopted the word - their official title included the wording (literal translation): "The Sovereign of all Rus': the Great, the Little, and the White". The term is mentioned in the opening lines of the State Anthem of the Soviet Union. Similarly, the terms Great Russian language (, ) and Great Russians (, ) were employed by ethnographers and linguists in the 19th century, but have since fallen out of use. The area became, together with the Volga-Ural region, North Caucasus and Siberia, the Russian SFSR, while ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crown (heraldry)
A crown is often an emblem of a sovereign state, usually a monarchy (see The Crown), but also used by some republics. A specific type of crown is employed in heraldry under strict rules. Indeed, some monarchies never had a physical crown, just a heraldic representation, as in the constitutional kingdom of Belgium. Crowns are also often used as symbols of religious status or veneration, by divinities (or their representation such as a statue) or by their representatives, e.g. the Black Crown of the Karmapa Lama, sometimes used a model for wider use by devotees. A crown can be a charge ''in'' a coat of arms, or set ''atop'' the shield to signify the status of its owner, as with the coat of arms of Norway. Physical and heraldic crowns Sometimes, the crown commonly depicted and used in heraldry differs significantly from any specific physical crown that may be used by a monarchy. File:Den norske kongekronen.jpg, Photograph of the physical crown of Norway File:Crown of the Kin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reforms Of Peter I Of Russia
The government reforms of Peter I aimed to modernize the Tsardom of Russia (later the Russian Empire) based on Western European models. Peter ascended to the throne at the age of 10 in 1682; he ruled jointly with his half-brother Ivan V. After Ivan's death in 1696, Peter started his series of sweeping reforms. At first he intended these reforms to support the Great Northern War of 1700-1721; later, more systematic reforms significantly changed the internal structure and administration of the state. Background During the Great Northern War (1700–1721), which dominated most of Peter's reign, Russia, along with a host of allies, seized control of the Baltic Sea from Sweden and gained considerable influence in Central and Eastern Europe. The war, one of history's costliest at the time, consumed significant financial and economic resources, and the administrative system Peter had inherited from his predecessors strained to gather and manage resources. During his Grand Embassy (russia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pearl
A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carbonate (mainly aragonite or a mixture of aragonite and calcite) in minute crystalline form, which has deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other shapes, known as baroque pearls, can occur. The finest quality of natural pearls have been highly valued as gemstones and objects of beauty for many centuries. Because of this, ''pearl'' has become a metaphor for something rare, fine, admirable and valuable. The most valuable pearls occur spontaneously in the wild, but are extremely rare. These wild pearls are referred to as ''natural'' pearls. ''Cultured'' or ''farmed'' pearls from pearl oysters and freshwater mussels make up the majority of those currently sold. Imitation pearls are also widely s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constantine IX Monomachos
Constantine IX Monomachos ( grc-x-medieval, Κωνσταντῖνος Μονομάχος, translit=Kōnstantinos IX Monomachos; 1004 – 11 January 1055), reigned as Byzantine emperor from June 1042 to January 1055. Empress Zoë Porphyrogenita chose him as a husband and co-emperor in 1042, although he had been exiled for conspiring against her previous husband, Emperor Michael IV the Paphlagonian. The couple shared the throne with Zoë's sister Theodora Porphyrogenita. Zoë died in 1050, and Constantine continued his collaboration with Theodora until his own death five years later. Constantine waged wars against groups which included the Kievan Rus', the Pechenegs and, in the East, the rising Seljuq Turks. Despite the varying success of these campaigns, the Byzantine Empire largely retained the borders established after the conquests of Basil II, even expanding eastwards when Constantine annexed the wealthy Armenian kingdom of Ani. Constantine accordingly may be considered the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
