The History of England. Romans.

It is from the Romans, and particularly Tacitus, that we get the earliest detailed written records of Britain and its tribal society. We get fascinating glimpses of society in Britain before the Romans, although only briefly and disparagingly mentioned, particularly the importance of powerful women such as Cartimandua and Boudica. City dwelling was not new to pre-Roman Britain, but it was a lifestyle that the Romans preferred even though available to only a select few Romanised Britons. Romanisation was an important part of the Roman conquest strategy, and British rulers who willingly adopted Roman ways were rewarded as client kings. Although the Roman conquest was relatively swift, there was often rebellion, and war with the unconquered Caledonian tribes in the far north, and so the army became an important part of Roman British life. An army, probably larger than that of most medieval monarchs, gave a low-status Briton the chance of a steady job, the possibility of seeing the rest of the empire, and rewards for service if they survived. To subdue and control the country, the Romans built a major road network which not only was an important civil engineering project but formed the basis of the country's communication links. The Romans brought many other innovations and ideas such as writing and plumbing, but how many of these things were the preserve of the rich or were even lost and re-appropriated at a later date is uncertain. The one other great social change the Romans brought to Britain was Christianity, whose effect on society was probably minimal at first but eventually far succeeded.

 

Foreign Policy of Russian Lands

A climax in the struggle of Russian princes against khan Konchak happened in 1185. After three days of severe battles Igor's army was fully defeated. Four princes - Igor, his brother, nephew and son were captured. Polovtsy began campaign against Russia, but without significant results. In summer Igor managed to escape from the capture. Beginning from 90s of XIII century, the frequency of Polovtsy raids decreased, partly because of Polovtsy's inclination for settled way of life. Comparing with previous periods, the political relations with Byzantium were not significant (in 1204 Byzantium empire stopped temporary its existence after Constantinople being captured by crusaders). But church relations remained in full volume. To the beginning of XIII century the four strongest lands in Russia were defined: Chernigov, Smolensk, Vladimir-Suzdal and Volyn. They competed for three Russian thrones: Kiev, Novgorod and Galich in the first part of XIII century. Active participation in the struggle for Galich throne took Poland and Hungary. But in 1245 Daniil (son of Roman Mstislavich) defeated hungarian-polish army and obtained Galich principality. Rostislavich and Olgovich fought for Kiev throne in 1205-1212. Then for two decades Rostislavich reigned in Kiev. But in the end of XII-XIII there settled the system of collective ownership of Kiev land. All the princes of the strongest lands had the right for a part of Kiev land. Yurievich and Mstislavich had a struggle for Novgorod throne in XIII century. Since 30s, princes of Suzdal began to reign in Novgorod.

 

The Process of Ethnogeny

People exist at certain geographical location at some historical period; as time passed by areas of human distribution and borders of states changed. Both ethnic groups and states are not eternal: they are born and perish, develop and transform in new social communities. So Russian, Ukrainian and Byelorussian people were formed on the basis of eastern Slavonic super ethnic group. Formation of people (process of ethnogeny) and formation of states have economic base closely connected with inhabitancy of people and their way of life which in its turn influenced cultural and community features of ethnic groups. Natural cradle of eastern Slavic people of the Russian state was Eastern European plain. Its open spaces, landscapes, soil and climatic conditions, river basins determined not only the formation of dominant economic and cultural complexes, population settlements but also the formation of ethnic and state frontiers according to results of armed political conflicts and colonization processes. To the middle of the first millennium AD there were steady economic and cultural complexes located in woods, forest-steppes and steppe zones of Eurasia; the process of ethnogeny developed actively. To VI - VII centuries the final stage of eastern slavs allocation from common pro-Slavonic unity began. The transformation of eastern Slavic cultural and ethnic community into local independent civilization was connected with the adoption of Christianity by prince Vladimir in 988.

 

The Battle of Poltava

The year 2009 marked the 300th anniversary of a battle fought in hilly terrainnear the Ukrainian town of Poltava. In the history of warfare it does not rank as one of the outstanding examples of bravery, great generalship or brilliant tactics. The victors owed their success as much to fortune as to heroism. Daniel Defoe, on receiving the news in England, was scornful. He described the outcome as ‘an army of veterans beaten by a mob, a crowd, a mere militia; an army of the bravest fellows in the world, beaten by scoundrels’. Many of his contemporaries shared his surprise and dismay and assumed that this apparent triumph of an uncivilized eastern nation over the best fighting machine in Europe was but a flash in the pan. How wrong they were. The Battle of Poltava was one of the major turning points of modern history and we are still living with its consequences. Peter the Great’s victory over Charles XII on June 27th, 1709 signaled the end of Sweden’s long period of domination of the Baltic and, more significantly, the emergence of Russia as a major European power. Peter I became sole ruler of Russia in 1696 at the age of 23 and lost no time in setting about a far-reaching program of reform that transformed his country by opening it up to western influences. He understood well the importance of international trade and the potential wealth to be gained from the export of flax, hemp, pitch, furs, hides and timber. He was determined to challenge Swedish supremacy.

 

Novgorodian Icon-Painting

If we compare the art of Novgorod as a whole with that of Kievan Rus', the Principality of Vladimir - Suzdal' and the Grand Duchy of Moscow, we are immediately impressed by its full - blooded nature, its strong affinity with life, its close kinship with the people. It is striking in its freshness and spontaneity. Novgorodian painting is keynoted by the spelling force of its images, achieved through an original colour scheme, vivid and glowing. The artists of Novgorod did not favour complicated, intricate subjects. The involved symbolism of both Byzantine theologians and West European scholastics was alien to them. They preferred to depict the most venerated local saints (Florus and Laurus, Elijah, Anastasia, Paraskeva Pyatnitsa and others) who were counted on to help them in their farming and their trade. Lining the saints upon a row, beneath the image of the Virgin of the Sign, which came to be regarded as the city's emblem, Novgorodians treated the icon without undue ceremony, as an old friend. They confided their innermost thoughts to it, and they fully expected it to help them in everything that they regarded as important and urgent. This approach to icon - painting tended to bring it closer to life.

It would be wrong, however, to underestimate the visionary element in Novgorodian icon - painting. Like all medieval art it contains muchthat is abstract, conventional, much that transplants all images onto a different plane where the action takes place in a setting that is outside timeand space. This original combination of seemingly irreconcilable elements is the source of the Novgorodian icon's unfading charm.

Social Unrest

The reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901) marked the climax of Britain's imperial ambitions. The era was unique for its solidity of purpose and outlook, and its tremendous energies and achievements.' The earlier part of the twentieth century saw a strong reaction against the Victorian ethos, which led to critical underestimation of the literary and artistic output of the period, but the balance has now been redressed, and we are able to appreciate Victorian art and literature for what it was, in the context of its age.

Consideration of two laws, passed immediately prior to Victoria’s accession, is essential in order to gain Understanding of the period: the First Reform Bill of 1832 and the new Poor Law of 1834. The population explosion, which took the population of Britain from 10.5 million in 1801 to about 37 million in 1901, was an extremely important factor in shaping social and political life during the nineteenth century. High inflation (caused in part by the Corn Law of 1815, which artificially raised the price of grain in order to protect British farmers) and unemployment after the Napoleonic Wars led to great social unrest. Fearing riots and a French-style revolution, Parliament passed the First Reform Bill in 1832. This bill extended the voting franchise to members of the middle classes having a certain property qualification; and, for the first time, large cities like Manchester and Birmingham were represented in Parliament.

 

The People’s Charter

A new step on the road to universal suffrage was the People’s Charter of 1838, the result of a combined effort by unions, workers and radicals. This demanded rights which we nowadays take for granted: no property restrictions on MP’s, the secret ballot, payment for MP’s and voting rights for all adult citizens. The House of Commons rejected the Charter and civil unrest continued, followed by stringent measures taken by the Government to repress it. The Poor Law had set up the feared and hated ‘workhouses’ where poor were confined in conditions which were little improvement on the wretched misery they had suffered outside. They were fed a subsistence diet, made to work extremely long hours and separated from their families. Dickens’ novels depicted the hypocrisy and contradictions inherent in the system and were important in the creation of pressure for social reform.

The horrors of the workhouse led many people to drift toward the towns in the hope of finding a better life. Alas, depressing and dangerous conditions awaited them in the newly formed factories and the un healthy slums built for them hurriedly and at minimum cost. Epidemics were common and deadly: 31,000 died of cholera in 19832. it was not until the 1850s that town councils began to pay attention to these problems, appointing a Health Officer, and building parks and public baths for the population.

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving is America's preeminent day. It is celebrated every year on the fourth Thursday in the month of November. It has a very interesting history. Its origin can be traced back to the 16th century when the first thanksgiving dinner is said to have taken place. The legendary pilgrims crossed the Atlantic in the year 1620 in Mayflower-A, the 17th Century sailing vessel. About 102 people traveled for nearly two months with extreme difficulty. This was so because they were kept in the cargo space of the sailing vessel. No one was allowed to go on the deck due to terrible storms. The pilgrims comforted themselves by singing Psalms - a sacred song. The pilgrims reached Plymouth rock on December 11th 1620, after a sea journey of 66 days. Though the original destination was somewhere in the northern part of Virginia, they could not reach the place owing to winds blowing them off course. Nearly 46 pilgrims died due to extreme cold in winter. However, in the spring of 1621, Squanto, a native Indian taught the pilgrims to survive by growing food. In the summer of 1621, owing to severe drought, pilgrims called for a day of fasting and prayer to please God and ask for a bountiful harvest in the coming season. God answered their prayers and it rained at the end of the day. It saved the corn crops.

It is said that Pilgrims learnt to grow corn, beans and pumpkins from the Indians, which helped all of them survive. In the autumn of 1621, they held a grand celebration where 90 people were invited including Indians. The grand feast was organized to thank god for his favors. This communal dinner is popularly known as “The first thanksgiving feast”.

 

Origin of the Olympics

The Ancient Olympic Games is a series of competitions held between representatives of several city-states from Ancient Greece, which featured mainly athletic but also combat and chariot racing events. The origin of these Olympics is shrouded in mystery and legend. One of the most popular myths identifies Heracles and his father Zeus as the progenitors of the Games. According to legend, it was Heracles who first called the Games "Olympic" and established the custom of holding them every four years. A legend persists that after Heracles completed his twelve labors, he built the Olympic stadium as an honor to Zeus. Following its completion, he walked in a straight line for 200 steps and called this distance a "stadion", which later became a unit of distance. Another myth associates the first Games with the ancient Greek concept of Olympic truce. The most widely accepted date for the inception of the Ancient Olympics is 776 BC; this is based on inscriptions, found at Olympia, of the winners of a footrace held every four years starting in 776 BC. The Ancient Games featured running events, a pentathlon (consisting of a jumping event, discus and javelin throws, a foot race and wrestling), boxing, wrestling, and equestrian events. The winners of the events were admired and immortalized in poems and statues. The Games were held every four years, and this period, known as an Olympiad, was used by Greeks as one of their units of time measurement.

 

Operation Barbarossa

At the turn of the 21st century more books had been written about Hitler since his death than about Napoleon during the half-century after the latter’s demise. Time and distance from the events of World War II have also affected the historical interpretation of Hitler. There is a general consensus about his historical importance (a term that does not imply a positive judgment). Hitler was principally, and alone, responsible for starting World War II. (This was different from the various responsibilities of rulers and of statesmen who had unleashed World War I).

A major historical dispute concerns Hitler's reasons for Operation Barbarossa. Some historians such as Andreas Hillgruber have argued that Barbarossa was merely one "stage" of Hitler's Stufenplan (stage by stage plan) for world conquest, which Hillgruber believed that Hitler had formulated in the 1920s. Other historians such as John Lukacs have contended that Hitler never had a stufenplan, and that the invasion of the Soviet Union was an ad hoc move on the part of Hitler due to Britain's refusal to surrender. Lukacs has argued that the reason Hitler gave in private for Barbarossa, namely that Winston Churchill held out the hope that the Soviet Union might enter the war on the Allied side, and that the only way of forcing a British surrender was to eliminate that hope, was indeed Hitler's real reason for Barbarossa. In Lukacs's perspective, Barbarossa was thus primarily an anti-British move on the part of Hitler intended to force Britain to sue for peace by destroying her only hope of victory rather than an anti-Soviet move.

 

The many faces of Churchill

Churchill entered parliament as member for Oldham in 1900 as a Conservative. He changed parties in 1904 after increasing disagreement with the mainstream Conservative policy of protectionist tariffs preferentially favouring trade with the British Empire, joining the Liberals and winning the seat of Manchester North West. His political ascent was rapid, becoming successively Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, President of the Board of Trade, Home Secretary and First Lord of the Admiralty before he was 40 years old.

Winston Churchill was also an accomplished artist and took great pleasure in painting, especially after his resignation as First Lord of the Admiralty in 1915. He found a haven in art to overcome the spells of depression, or as he termed it, the "Black Dog", which he suffered throughout his life. As William Rees-Mogg has stated, "In his own life, he had to suffer the 'black dog' of depression. In his landscapes and still lives there is no sign of depression". He is best known for his impressionist scenes of landscape, many of which were painted while on holiday in the South of France, Egypt or Morocco.

Churchill was also a prolific writer of books, writing a novel, two biographies, three volumes of memoirs, and several histories in addition to his many newspaper articles. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 "for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values".

 

Бальная культура

Слово «бал» пришло в русский язык из немецкого; в переводе означает мяч. В старину в Германии существовал такой обычай: на Пасху сельские девушки с песнями обходили дома своих подруг, которые за минувший год вышли замуж. Каждой из них дарили по мячику, набитому шерстью или пухом. В ответ молодая женщина обязывалась устроить для всей молодежи деревни угощение и танцы, наняв за свой счет музыкантов. Сколько было в селе молодоженов, столько давалось и мячей, или балов, то есть вечеринок с танцами. В России до конца XVII в. ничего похожего на балы не существовало. В 1718 г. указом Петра I были учреждены ассамблеи, ставшие первыми русскими балами.

Начиная с петровской эпохи во всех государственных высших и средних учебных заведениях, высших школах, иностранных пансионах танец стал обязательным предметом. Его изучали в царском лицее и в скромных ремесленных и коммерческих училищах. В России не только прекрасно знали все новейшие и старинные бальные танцы, но умели исполнять их в благородной манере. Иностранные специалисты - владельцы частных танцевальных классов - невольно перенимали русскую манеру обучения. Петербург и Москва постепенно стали самыми значительными хореографическими центрами Европы.

 

Дочь графа Спенсера

Дочь графа Спенсера, представителя ветви того же семейства Спенсер-Черчиллей, что и герцог Мальборо и Уинстон Черчилль. Несмотря на формально «некоролевское» происхождение, в Диане текла королевская кровь. Ее предки по отцовской линии были носителями королевской крови через незаконнорожденных сыновей короля Чарльза II и незаконнорожденную дочь короля Джеймса I. Графы Спенсеры издавна проживали в самом центре Лондона, в Спенсер-хаузе. Познакомилась Диана с принцем во время благотворительного мероприятия, вышла замуж за него в 1981. К свадьбе было приковано большое внимание публики и СМИ. В 1982 и 1984 родились сыновья Дианы и Чарльза, принцы Уильям и Гарри (Генри). К середине 1980-х годов отношения между супругами испортились, в частности, из-за продолжавшихся после брака отношений Чарльза с Камиллой Паркер Боулз (впоследствии, после гибели Дианы, ставшей его второй женой). Сама Диана некоторое время была в близких отношениях со своим инструктором по верховой езде Джеймсом Хьюиттом, в чём призналась в 1995 году в телеинтервью (годом ранее Чарльз сделал аналогичное признание о связи с Камиллой). Брак распался в 1992 году, после чего супруги жили раздельно, и завершился разводом в 1996 году по инициативе королевы Елизаветы II.