Poltava was
salvaged after the Japanese captured Port Arthur and incorporated into the
Imperial Japanese Navy. The ship, renamed Tango in Japanese service, participated in the
Battle of Tsingtao in late 1914, during
World War I. She was sold back to the Russians in 1916 and renamed Chesma as her original name was in use by another battleship. The ship became the
flagship of the Russian
Arctic Flotilla in 1917, and her crew supported the
Bolsheviks later that year. Chesma was seized by the British in early 1918 when they
intervened in the
Russian Civil War, abandoned by them when they withdrew and
scrapped by the Soviets in 1924. (Full article...)
Image 2
A Finnish
Maxim M/09-21 machine gun crew during the Winter War
The Winter War was a war between the
Soviet Union and
Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of
World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the
Moscow Peace Treaty on 13 March 1940. Despite superior military strength, especially in tanks and aircraft, the Soviet Union suffered severe losses and initially made little headway. The
League of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the Soviet Union from its organization.
The Soviets made several demands, including that Finland cede substantial border territories in exchange for land elsewhere, claiming security reasons – primarily the protection of
Leningrad, 32 km (20 mi) from the Finnish border. When Finland refused, the Soviets invaded. Most sources conclude that the Soviet Union had intended to conquer all of Finland, and cite the establishment of the
puppet Finnish Communist government and the
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact's secret protocols as evidence of this, while other sources argue against the idea of a full Soviet conquest. Finland repelled Soviet attacks for more than two months and inflicted substantial losses on the invaders in temperatures as low as −43 °C (−45 °F). The battles focused mainly on
Taipale along the
Karelian Isthmus, on
Kollaa in
Ladoga Karelia and on
Raate Road in
Kainuu, but there were also battles in
Salla and
Petsamo in
Lapland. (Full article...)
Image 3
Adult rainbow trout
The rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) is a species of
trout native to cold-water
tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in North America and Asia. The steelhead (sometimes called steelhead trout) is an
anadromous (sea-run) form of the coastal rainbow trout(O. m. irideus) or
Columbia River redband trout(O. m. gairdneri) that usually returns to freshwater to
spawn after living two to three years in the ocean. Freshwater forms that have been
introduced into the
Great Lakes and migrate into tributaries to spawn are also called steelhead.
Adult freshwater stream rainbow trout average between 0.5 and 2.5 kilograms (1 and 5 lb), while lake-dwelling and anadromous forms may reach 9 kg (20 lb). Coloration varies widely based on
subspecies, forms, and
habitat. Adult fish are distinguished by a broad reddish stripe along the
lateral line, from
gills to the tail, which is most vivid in breeding males. (Full article...)
The region that formed the TDFR had been part of the
Russian Empire. As the empire dissolved during the 1917
February Revolution and a
provisional government took over, a similar body, called the
Special Transcaucasian Committee (Ozakom), did the same in the Caucasus. After the
October Revolution and rise of the
Bolsheviks in Russia, the
Transcaucasian Commissariat replaced the Ozakom. In March 1918, as the
First World War continued, the Commissariat initiated peace talks with the
Ottoman Empire, which had
invaded the region, but the talks broke down quickly as the Ottomans refused to accept the authority of the Commissariat. The
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which ended Russia's involvement in the war, conceded parts of the Transcaucasus to the Ottoman Empire, which pursued its invasion to take control of the territory. Faced with this imminent threat, on 22 April 1918 the Commissariat dissolved itself and established the TDFR as an independent state. A legislature, the Seim, was formed to direct negotiations with the Ottoman Empire, which had immediately recognized the state. (Full article...)
Image 5
Nikita Zotov,
rotogravure by Alexandr Osipov, 1882–1883
Not much is known about Zotov's life aside from his connection to Peter. Zotov left Moscow for a diplomatic mission to
Crimea in 1680 and returned to Moscow before 1683. He became part of the "Jolly Company", a group of several dozen of Peter's friends that eventually became
The All-Joking, All-Drunken Synod of Fools and Jesters. Zotov was mockingly appointed "Prince-Pope" of the Synod, and regularly led them in games and celebrations. He accompanied Peter on many important occasions, such as the
Azov campaigns and the torture of the
Streltsy after their
uprising. Zotov held a number of state posts, including from 1701 a leading position in the Tsar's personal secretariat. Three years before his death, Zotov married a woman 50 years his junior. He died in December 1717 of unknown causes. (Full article...)
Nadezhda Sergeyevna Alliluyeva (Russian: Надежда Сергеевна Аллилуева; 22 September [
O.S. 9 September] 1901 – 9 November 1932) was the second wife of
Joseph Stalin. She was born in
Baku to a friend of Stalin, a fellow revolutionary, and was raised in
Saint Petersburg. Having known Stalin from a young age, she married him when she was 17, and they had two children. Alliluyeva worked as a secretary for
Bolshevik leaders, including
Vladimir Lenin and Stalin, before enrolling at the
Industrial Academy in Moscow to study
synthetic fibres and become an engineer. She had health issues, which had an adverse impact on her relationship with Stalin. She also suspected he was
unfaithful, which led to frequent arguments with him. On several occasions, Alliluyeva reportedly contemplated leaving Stalin, and after an argument, she fatally shot herself early in the morning of 9 November 1932. (Full article...)
Image 8
Eduard Anatolyevich Streltsov (Russian: Эдуа́рд Анато́льевич Стрельцо́в, IPA:[ɨdʊˈartɐnɐˈtolʲjɪvʲitɕstrʲɪlʲˈtsof]ⓘ; 21 July 1937 – 22 July 1990) was a Soviet
footballer who played as a
forward for
Torpedo Moscow and the
Soviet national team during the 1950s and 1960s. A powerful and skilful attacking player, he scored the fourth-highest number of goals for the Soviet Union and has been called "the greatest outfield player Russia has ever produced". He is sometimes dubbed "the Russian
Pelé".
Born and raised in east Moscow, Streltsov joined Torpedo at the age of 16 in 1953 and made his international debut two years later. He was part of the squad that won the gold medal
at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, and came seventh in the
1957 Ballon d'Or. The following year, his promising career was interrupted by allegations of
sexual assault shortly before the
1958 World Cup. Soviet authorities pledged he could still play if he admitted his guilt, after which he confessed, but was instead prosecuted and sentenced to twelve years of
forced labour under the
Gulag system (abolished in 1960 and replaced by prisons). The conviction was highly controversial, with many pointing to conflicts between Streltsov and government officials. (Full article...)
Leonhard Euler (/ˈɔɪlər/OY-lər; German:[ˈleːɔnhaʁtˈʔɔʏlɐ]ⓘ, Swiss Standard German:[ˈleɔnhardˈɔʏlər]; 15 April 1707 – 18 September 1783) was a
Swisspolymath who was active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, logician, geographer, and engineer. He founded the studies of
graph theory and
topology and made influential discoveries in many other branches of mathematics such as
analytic number theory,
complex analysis, and
infinitesimal calculus. He also introduced much of modern mathematical terminology and
notation, including the notion of a
mathematical function. He is also known for his work in
mechanics,
fluid dynamics, optics, astronomy, and music theory. As a result, Euler has been described as a "universal genius" who "was fully equipped with almost unlimited powers of imagination, intellectual gifts and extraordinary memory".
Euler is regarded as arguably the most prolific contributor in the history of mathematics and science, and the greatest mathematician of the 18th century. Several great mathematicians who produced their work after Euler's death have recognised his importance in the field as shown by quotes attributed to many of them:
Pierre-Simon Laplace expressed Euler's influence on mathematics by stating, "Read Euler, read Euler, he is the master of us all."
Carl Friedrich Gauss wrote: "The study of Euler's works will remain the best school for the different fields of mathematics, and nothing else can replace it." His 866 publications and his correspondence are being collected in the Opera Omnia Leonhard Euler which, when completed, will consist of 81 quartos. He spent most of his adult life in
Saint Petersburg, Russia, and in
Berlin, then the capital of
Prussia. (Full article...)
He led the team that made the first crossing of the
Greenland interior in 1888, traversing the island on
cross-country skis. He won international fame after reaching a record northern latitude of 86°14′ during his
Fram expedition of 1893–1896. Although he retired from exploration after his return to Norway, his techniques of polar travel and his innovations in equipment and clothing influenced a generation of subsequent
Arctic and
Antarctic expeditions. He was elected an International Member of the
American Philosophical Society in 1897. (Full article...)
The sculpture depicts a female
personification of Russia, commonly referred to as Mother Russia. She wears a windswept shawl resembling wings, and holds a sword aloft in her right hand. Her left hand is extended outward, as she calls upon the Soviet people to battle. The statue was originally planned to be made of
granite and to stand only 30 metres (98 ft) tall, with a design consisting of a
Red Army soldier
genuflecting and placing a sword before Mother Russia holding a folded banner. However, the design was changed in 1961 to be a large concrete structure at nearly double the height, a decision that was subject to criticism from Soviet military officials and writers. It was inspired by the Winged Victory of Samothrace, an
ancient Greek sculpture of the goddess of victory,
Nike. (Full article...)
Image 12
A natural diamond crystal
Diamond is a
solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a
crystal structure called
diamond cubic. Diamond as a form of carbon is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of electricity, and insoluble in water. Another solid form of carbon known as
graphite is the
chemically stable form of carbon at
room temperature and pressure, but diamond is
metastable and converts to it at a negligible rate under those conditions. Diamond has the highest
hardness and
thermal conductivity of any natural material, properties that are used in major industrial applications such as cutting and polishing tools. They are also the reason that
diamond anvil cells can subject materials to pressures found deep in the Earth.
Because the arrangement of atoms in diamond is extremely rigid, few types of impurity can contaminate it (two exceptions are
boron and
nitrogen). Small numbers of
defects or impurities (about one per million of lattice atoms) can color a diamond blue (boron), yellow (nitrogen), brown (defects), green (radiation exposure), purple, pink, orange, or red. Diamond also has a very high
refractive index and a relatively high
optical dispersion. (Full article...)
Serving in the
Baltic Sea during
World War I, Slava was the largest ship of the Russian Gulf of Riga Squadron that fought the
German High Seas Fleet in the
Battle of the Gulf of Riga in August 1915. She repeatedly bombarded German positions and troops for the rest of 1915 and during 1916. During the
Battle of Moon Sound in 1917, Slava was badly damaged by the German
dreadnoughtSMS König, significantly increasing her draft. The shallow channel made it impossible to escape and she was
scuttled in the Moon Sound Strait between the island of
Muhu (Moon) and the mainland. The
Estoniansscrapped her during the 1930s. (Full article...)
Image 14
1876 portrait
Anna Pavlovna Filosofova (
Russian: Анна Павловна Философова; néeDiaghileva; 5 April 1837 – 17 March 1912) was a major Russian feminist and activist of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Born into a wealthy, noble family, she married Vladimir Filosofov at a young age; they had six children. Initially concerned with the plight of
serfs, Filosofova became a feminist in the late 1850s after joining the
salon of
Maria Trubnikova, who educated her on the subject. Alongside Trubnikova and
Nadezhda Stasova, Filosofova was one of the earliest leaders of the
Russian women's movement. Together, the three friends and allies were referred to as the "triumvirate". They founded and led several charitable organizations designed to promote women's cultural and economic independence, such as the Society for Cheap Lodgings and Other Benefits for the Citizens of St. Petersburg. Filosofova served as the president of that organization for several years. (Full article...)
The Rite of Spring (French: Le Sacre du printemps) is a ballet and orchestral concert work by the Russian composer
Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1913 Paris season of
Sergei Diaghilev's
Ballets Russes company; the original choreography was by
Vaslav Nijinsky with stage designs and costumes by
Nicholas Roerich. When first performed at the
Théâtre des Champs-Élysées on 29 May 1913, the
avant-garde nature of the music and choreography
caused a sensation. Many have called the first-night reaction a "riot" or "near-riot", though this wording did not come about until reviews of later performances in 1924, over a decade later. Although designed as a work for the stage, with specific passages accompanying characters and action, the music achieved equal if not greater recognition as a concert piece and is widely considered to be one of the most influential musical works of the 20th century.
Stravinsky was a young, virtually unknown composer when Diaghilev recruited him to create works for the Ballets Russes. Le Sacre du printemps was the third such major project, after the acclaimed Firebird (1910) and Petrushka (1911). The concept behind The Rite of Spring, developed by Roerich from Stravinsky's outline idea, is suggested by its subtitle, "Pictures of Pagan Russia in Two Parts"; the scenario depicts various primitive rituals celebrating the advent of spring, after which a young girl is chosen as a sacrificial victim and dances herself to death. After a mixed critical reception for its original run and a short London tour, the ballet was not performed again until the 1920s, when a version choreographed by
Léonide Massine replaced Nijinsky's original, which saw only eight performances. Massine's was the forerunner of many innovative productions directed by the world's leading choreographers, gaining the work worldwide acceptance. In the 1980s, Nijinsky's original choreography, long believed lost, was reconstructed by the
Joffrey Ballet in Los Angeles. (Full article...)
The Krestovsky Stadium is the home ground of
FC Zenit Saint Petersburg. Photographed here in 2016, when construction was nearing completion, it is situated on
Krestovsky Island in the Russian city of
Saint Petersburg. It was opened in 2017 as a venue for the
2017 FIFA Confederations Cup, and hosted the final, in which Germany beat Chile 1–0. It was one of the venues for the
2018 FIFA World Cup the following year. Among other features, it has a retractable roof, and is equipped with a video-surveillance and identification system, as well as security-alarm, fire-alarm and robotic fire-extinguishing systems. The stadium's seating capacity is 67,800.
The Solovetsky Monastery is a
Russian Orthodox monastery in
Solovetsky,
Arkhangelsk,
Russia. Founded in 1436 by the monk
Zosima, the monastery grew in power into the 16th century, becoming an economic and political center of the
White Sea region and eventually hosting 350 monks. After the
Bolshevik Revolution, Soviet authorities closed down the monastery and incorporated many of its buildings into
Solovki prison camp, one of the earliest forced-labor camps of the
gulag system. The camp closed after the region's trees had been harvested. Today the monastery has been re-established, and also serves as a museum.
Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821–81; depicted in 1872) was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and philosopher. After publishing his first novel, Poor Folk, at age 25, Dostoyevsky wrote (among others) eleven novels, three novellas, and seventeen short novels, including Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), and The Brothers Karamazov (1880).
The Last Day of Pompeii is an oil painting on canvas completed by the Russian artist
Karl Bryullov between 1830 and 1833. The painting is based on sketches the artist completed in 1828 while visiting
Pompeii, a city destroyed by the eruption of
Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. It is now held in the
State Russian Museum.
The Portrait of Chaliapin is an oil-on-canvas painting by
Boris Kustodiev, produced in 1921.
Feodor Chaliapin was a Russian
opera singer; possessing a deep and expressive
bass voice, he enjoyed an important international career at major opera houses. He is depicted here wearing an expensive fur coat, which had come from a Soviet warehouse containing items confiscated from rich people during the
Russian Revolution, and which he had received in lieu of payment for a performance. The background shows festivities at the traditional folk holiday of
Maslenitsa. Dressed in a smart suit and holding a cane, Chaliapin is portrayed as having risen above his contemporaries. His favourite dog is at his feet and, at the bottom left, his two daughters stroll on the festive square in front of a poster promoting his concert. This copy of the painting is in the collection of the
Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg.
Lenin, a Soviet
nuclear-powered icebreaker, was both the world's first nuclear-powered surface ship and the first nuclear-powered civilian vessel. The ship entered operation in 1959 and worked to clear sea routes for cargo ships along Russia's northern coast. Nuclear power proved to be an ideal technology for a vessel working in such a remote area, as it obviated the need for regular replenishment of fuel. From 1960 to 1965, the ship covered over 85,000 mi (137,000 km) during the Arctic navigation season, of which three-quarters was through ice. After being decommissioned in 1989, the vessel was subsequently converted into a museum ship and is now permanently based at
Murmansk.
Although
James Clerk Maxwell made the first color photograph in
1861, the results were far from realistic until Prokudin-Gorsky perfected the technique with a series of improvements around
1905. His process used a camera that took a series of monochrome pictures in rapid sequence, each through a different colored filter. Prokudin-Gorskii then went on to document much of the country of Russia, travelling by train in a specially equipped
darkroomrailroad car.
Kombat (Russian for '
battalion commander') is a black-and-white photograph by Soviet photographer
Max Alpert. It depicts a Soviet military officer, armed with a
TT pistol, raising his unit for an attack during
World War II. This work is regarded as one of the most iconic Soviet World War II photographs, yet neither the date nor the subject is known with certainty. According to the most widely accepted version, it depicts junior politruk Aleksei Gordeyevich Yeryomenko, minutes before his death on 12 July 1942, in
Voroshilovgrad Oblast, now part of Ukraine. The photograph is in the archives of
RIA Novosti, a Russian state-owned news agency.
Saint Michael's Castle is a former royal residence in the historic centre of
Saint Petersburg, Russia. It was built for Emperor
Paul I between 1797 and 1801, and named after
Saint Michael, the patron saint of the royal family. Constructed like a castle around a small octagonal courtyard, the four facades were built in different architectural styles, including
French Classicism,
Italian Renaissance and
Gothic. The emperor was assassinated in the castle forty days after taking up residence. After his death, the imperial family returned to the
Winter Palace and the building was transferred to the Russian Army's
Main Engineering School. In 1990, it became a branch of the
Russian Museum, and now houses its portrait gallery.
Kikin Hall, commissioned by
Alexander Kikin in 1714, is one of the oldest buildings in
Saint Petersburg. Incomplete at the time of Kikin's execution, the building was seized by the Russian crown and used for a variety of purposes. In the 1950s,
Irina Benois arranged for the restoration of the dilapidated building. It is now home to a music school.
This photo of the Nilov Monastery on
Stolobny Island in
Tver Oblast,
Russia, was taken by
Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky in 1910 before the advent of colour photography. His process used a camera that took a series of
monochrome pictures in rapid sequence, each through a different coloured filter. By projecting all three monochrome pictures using correctly coloured light, it was possible to reconstruct the original colour scene.
January 25, 1721 -
Peter established the Holy Synod, a body of ten clergymen chaired by a secular official, that was to head the
Russian Orthodox Church in lieu of the Patriarch of Moscow.
January 28, 1725 -
Peter died of urinary problems. He failed to name a successor; one of Peter's closest advisers,
Aleksandr Menshikov, convinced the
Imperial Guard to declare in favor of Peter's wife Catherine I.
Kurnik (
Russian: курник; "chicken
pirog"), also known as wedding pirog or tsar pirog, is a dome-shaped savoury
Russian pirog (loosely, a
pie) usually filled with chicken or turkey, eggs, onions,
kasha or rice, and other optional components. Sometimes filled with boiled rooster combs, this
pirog originated in
Southern Russia, especially in
Cossack communities, and was used as a "wedding pirog" in the rest of the country. It is dome-shaped, unlike any other non-sweet pirog. In special cases, it was served to tsar himself. Even today, this pirog is served on special occasions in most of
Russia. (Full article...)
Eduard Anatolyevich Streltsov (Russian: Эдуа́рд Анато́льевич Стрельцо́в, IPA:[ɨdʊˈartɐnɐˈtolʲjɪvʲitɕstrʲɪlʲˈtsof]ⓘ; 21 July 1937 – 22 July 1990) was a Soviet
footballer who played as a
forward for
Torpedo Moscow and the
Soviet national team during the 1950s and 1960s. A powerful and skilful attacking player, he scored the fourth-highest number of goals for the Soviet Union and has been called "the greatest outfield player Russia has ever produced". He is sometimes dubbed "the Russian
Pelé".
Born and raised in east Moscow, Streltsov joined Torpedo at the age of 16 in 1953 and made his international debut two years later. He was part of the squad that won the gold medal
at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, and came seventh in the
1957 Ballon d'Or. The following year, his promising career was interrupted by allegations of
sexual assault shortly before the
1958 World Cup. Soviet authorities pledged he could still play if he admitted his guilt, after which he confessed, but was instead prosecuted and sentenced to twelve years of
forced labour under the
Gulag system (abolished in 1960 and replaced by prisons). The conviction was highly controversial, with many pointing to conflicts between Streltsov and government officials. (Full article...)
The Washington Post reports that there is an "emerging consensus" among U.S. and European intelligence officials that maritime accidents, rather than Russian sabotage, was the cause of damage to Baltic seabed energy and communications lines.
(Washington Post)
A Frenchman is self-assured because he regards himself personally, both in mind and body, as irresistibly attractive to men and women. An Englishman is self-assured, as being a citizen of the best-organized state in the world, and therefore as an Englishman always knows what he should do and knows that all he does as an Englishman is undoubtedly correct. An Italian is self-assured because he is excitable and easily forgets himself and other people. A Russian is self-assured just because he knows nothing and does not want to know anything, since he does not believe that anything can be known. The German's self-assurance is worst of all, stronger and more repulsive than any other, because he imagines that he knows the truth--science--which he himself has invented but which is for him the absolute truth.
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