Samarskaya Luka National Park
Samarskaya Luka National Park (russian: Самарская Лука национальный парк) (in English, "Samara Bend") covers most of the peninsula formed by the 180-degree bend of the Volga River as it flows around the Zhiguli Mountains, near the cities of Samara and Zhigulyovsk in the Stavropolsky District, Samara Oblast. The north shore of the bend is on the Kuybyshev Reservoir, the south side is on the Saratov Reservoir, and on the north it has a border with Zhiguli Nature Reserve. The park is culturally important because of its centrality to a range of peoples back to ancient times, and to its scientific value resulting from the biodiversity of its closely placed variety of habitats. The territory is part of the Middle Volga Complex Biosphere. Topography The Samara Bend is located at the meeting zone of two geological regions: the Volga Uplands, and the Lower Volga Lowlands. In the Volga Uplands, a region of hills on the East European Plain, the park ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Samara Oblast
Samara Oblast ( rus, Сама́рская о́бласть, r=Samarskaya oblast, p=sɐˈmarskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Samara. From 1935 to 1991, it was known as Kuybyshev Oblast ( rus, Ку́йбышевская о́бласть, r=Kuybyshevskaya Oblast, p=ˈkujbɨʂɨfskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ). As of the Russian Census (2010), 2010 Census, the population of the oblast was 3,215,532. The oblast borders Tatarstan in the north, Orenburg Oblast in the east, Kazakhstan (West Kazakhstan Province) in the south, Saratov Oblast in the southwest and Ulyanovsk Oblast in the west. History The Samara region contains a remarkable succession of archaeological cultures from 7000 BC to 4000 BC. These sites have revealed Europe's earliest pottery (Elshanka culture), the world's oldest horse burial and signs of horse worship (the Syezzheye cemeter ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Barge Haulers On The Volga
''Barge Haulers on the Volga'' or '' Burlaki'' (russian: Бурлаки на Волге, ''Burlaki na Volge'') is an 1870–1873 oil-on-canvas painting by artist Ilya Repin. It depicts 11 men physically dragging a barge on the banks of the Volga River. They are at the point of collapse from exhaustion, oppressed by heavy, hot weather.Frank, Joseph. "Dostoevsky: The Mantle of the Prophet, 1871–1881". Princeton University Press, 2003. 111. The work is a condemnation of profit from inhumane labor. Although they are presented as stoical and accepting, the men are defeated; only one stands out: in the center of both the row and canvas, a brightly colored youth fights against his leather binds and takes on a heroic pose. Repin conceived the painting during his travels through Russia as a young man and depicts actual characters he encountered. It drew international praise for its realistic portrayal of the hardships of working men, and launched his career.Hilton, Alison. "The Exhi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ilya Repin
Ilya Yefimovich Repin (russian: Илья Ефимович Репин, translit=Il'ya Yefimovich Repin, p=ˈrʲepʲɪn); fi, Ilja Jefimovitš Repin ( – 29 September 1930) was a Russian painter, born in what is now Ukraine. He became one of the most renowned artists in Russia during the 19th century. His major works include ''Barge Haulers on the Volga'' (1873), '' Religious Procession in Kursk Province'' (1880–1883), ''Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan'' (1885); and ''Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks'' (1880–1891). He is also known for the revealing portraits he made of the leading literary and artistic figures of his time, including Mikhail Glinka, Modest Mussorgsky, Pavel Tretyakov and especially Leo Tolstoy, with whom he had a long friendship. Repin was born in Chuguyev, in Kharkov Governorate of the Russian Empire. His father had served in an Uhlan Regiment in the Russian army, and then sold horses. Repin began painting icons at age sixteen. He failed at his first ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Stepan Razin
Stepan Timofeyevich Razin (russian: Степа́н Тимофе́евич Ра́зин, ; 1630 – ), known as Stenka Razin ( ), was a Cossack leader who led a major uprising against the nobility and tsarist bureaucracy in southern Russia in 1670–1671. Early life Razin's father, Timofey Razya, supposedly came from a suburb of Voronezh, a city near Russia's steppe frontier, called the Wild Fields. Razin's uncle and grandmother still lived in the village of ''New Usman or ''Usman' Sobakina'', outside of Voronezh, until 1667. The identity of Razin's mother is debated. In one document, Razin was referred to as a ''tuma Cossack'' which means "half-blood", leading to a hypothesis that his mother was a captured "Turkish" (''turchanka'') or Crimean Tatar woman. However, this term was also used by "upper Cossacks" as a derogatory nickname towards all "lower Cossacks" regardless of origin Another hypothesis draws on information about Razin's godmother Matrena Govorukha. According to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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European Bee-eater
The European bee-eater (''Merops apiaster'') is a near passerine bird in the bee-eater family, Meropidae. It breeds in southern and central Europe, northern and southern Africa, and western Asia. Except for the resident southern African population, the species is strongly migratory, wintering in tropical Africa. This species occurs as a spring overshoot north of its usual range, with occasional breeding in northern Europe. Taxonomy and systematics The European bee-eater was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his ''Systema Naturae'' under its current binomial name ''Merops apiaster''. The genus name ''Merops'' is Ancient Greek for "bee-eater", and ''apiaster'' is Latin, also meaning "bee-eater", from ''apis'', "bee". Description This species, like other bee-eaters, is a richly coloured, slender bird. It has brown and yellow upper parts, whilst the wings are green and the beak is black. It can reach a length of , includi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Scots Pine
''Pinus sylvestris'', the Scots pine (UK), Scotch pine (US) or Baltic pine, is a species of tree in the pine family Pinaceae that is native to Eurasia. It can readily be identified by its combination of fairly short, blue-green leaves and orange-red bark. Description ''Pinus sylvestris'' is an evergreen coniferous tree growing up to in height and in trunk diameter when mature, exceptionally over tall and in trunk diameter on very productive sites. The tallest on record is a tree over 210 years old tree growing in Estonia which stands at . The lifespan is normally 150–300 years, with the oldest recorded specimens in Lapland, Northern Finland over 760 years. The bark is thick, flaky and orange-red when young to scaly and gray-brown in maturity, sometimes retaining the former on the upper portion.Trees for LifeSpecies profile: Scots pine/ref> The habit of the mature tree is distinctive due to its long, bare and straight trunk topped by a rounded or flat-topped mass of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Köppen Climate Classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notably in 1918 and 1936. Later, the climatologist Rudolf Geiger (1894–1981) introduced some changes to the classification system, which is thus sometimes called the Köppen–Geiger climate classification system. The Köppen climate classification divides climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on seasonal precipitation and temperature patterns. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (temperate), ''D'' (continental), and ''E'' (polar). Each group and subgroup is represented by a letter. All climates are assigned a main group (the first letter). All climates except for those in the ''E'' group are assigned a seasonal precipitation subgroup (the second letter). For example, ''Af'' indi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Humid Continental Climate
A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing cold (sometimes severely cold in the northern areas) winters. Precipitation is usually distributed throughout the year but often do have dry seasons. The definition of this climate regarding temperature is as follows: the mean temperature of the coldest month must be below or depending on the isotherm, and there must be at least four months whose mean temperatures are at or above . In addition, the location in question must not be semi-arid or arid. The cooler ''Dfb'', ''Dwb'', and ''Dsb'' subtypes are also known as hemiboreal climates. Humid continental climates are generally found between latitudes 30° N and 60° N, within the central and northeastern portions of North America, Europe, and Asia. They are rare and isolat ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Forest Steppe
A forest steppe is a temperate-climate ecotone and habitat type composed of grassland interspersed with areas of woodland or forest. Locations Forest steppe primarily occurs in a belt of forest steppes across northern Eurasia from the eastern lowlands of Europe to eastern Siberia in northeast Asia. It forms transition ecoregions between the temperate grasslands and temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biomes. Much of Russia belongs to the forest steppe zone, stretches from Central Russia, across Volga, Ural, Siberian and Far East Russia. In upper North America another example of the forest steppe ecotone is the aspen parkland, in the central Prairie Provinces, northeastern British Columbia, North Dakota, and Minnesota. It is the transition ecoregion from the Great Plains prairie and steppe temperate grasslands to the Taiga biome forests in the north. In central Asia the forest steppe ecotone is found in ecoregions in the mountains of the Iranian Plateau, in Iran, Afghanistan ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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East European Forest Steppe
The East European forest steppe ecoregion (WWF ID: PA0419) is a patchwork of broadleaf forest stands and grasslands (steppe) that stretches 2,100 km across eastern Europe from the Ural Mountains in Ural, through Povolzhye, Central Russia to the middle of Ukraine.There are also isolated areas of similar character off the western end in eastern Romania, Moldova, and Bulgaria. The region forms a transition zone between the temperate forests to the north, and the steppe to the south. The forest-steppe is an area of Russia in which precipitation and evaporation are approximately equal. The ecoregion is in the Palearctic realm, with a Humid Continental climate. According to one definition of its boundaries, it covers . Location and description The ecoregion forms a long band, about 2,100 km long and 600 km wide, from western edge of Siberia at the Ural Mountains in Ural in the east, through Povolzhye, to Central Russia and Ukraine. Most of the terrain is rolling hills and some plai ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |