Questions tagged [russia]
The largest country in the world, spanning territory from the eastern edge of Europe to Siberia in northern Asia.
307
questions
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2answers
323 views
How was the vast Khazar fortress of Sarkel destroyed?
I understood that Sarkel was a vast Khazar hilltop limestone-bricks fortress of the type of a fortified town, located in the present-day Rostov Oblast of Russia, on the left bank of the lower Don ...
6
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0answers
85 views
Which misdeeds of F. Reineke was J.B.B. de Lesseps “obliged to suppress”?
F. Reineke was commandant of Kamchatka from about 1780 to 1784. According to Витер's История символов как история административного деления государства he was responsible for moving the territorial ...
7
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1answer
100 views
Who was part of the Raznochintsy class in 1800s Russia?
In the system of social estates of Imperial Russia, someone "of miscellaneous rank" was a member of the raznochintsy, at least until the category was abolished. В.Н.Разгон says this happened at the ...
-3
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1answer
232 views
Why did Hitler repeat Napoleon's error (attacking Russia in mid-summer instead of late spring)? [closed]
We often hear that it's important to learn from history to avoid the errors of people before us. To me - then - it's astounding to think that a head of state like Hitler, surrounded with elite ...
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2answers
386 views
Why is the English name of the country “Russia” not spelled “Rossia” (with the letter o)? [closed]
Russkoje tsarstvo later changed to Rossiyskoye tsarstvo.
Why is the English name of the country "Russia" not spelled "Rossia"?
3
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1answer
301 views
Why didn't all non-Russian states become independent during the collapse of the Soviet Union?
There are so many sub-divisions in the country who are not Russian in their language and ethnicity, Tuva, Dagestan, Chechnya etc.
When states like the Baltics, Ukraine, and Central Asia were gaining ...
4
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1answer
286 views
Would an Illegitimate child of a monarch have been recognized at the Russian court?
For purposes of a novel I am writing I would like to know if an illegitimate son or daughter of a 19th century Russian tsar would have been recognized by the court. Would it matter if the birth was ...
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0answers
56 views
Did Russia support both Georgian nationalists and the Georgian government during Georgian civil war?
I am trying to understand the history of Georgia after the independence from Russia reading the French Wikipedia article about it. Yet I don't understand the position of Russia during the Civil War.
...
0
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1answer
176 views
Are the war plans published in “Dropshot: The American Plan for World War III against Russia in 1957” genuine?
In 1979 Anthony Cave Brown published a book (Operation, World War III: The Secret American Plan 'Dropshot' for War with the Soviet Union, 1957, Arms and Armour Press, 1979; Google Books, Amazon) which ...
1
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2answers
230 views
What are some good sources on the everyday life of Soviet troops during WWII?
Imagine I wanted to get a basic understanding what the everyday life of a Soviet soldier (especially infantry, tank units, air force) during WWII was like.
What books and other resources in English, ...
25
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1answer
3k views
Did Catherine the Great really call for the abolition of serfdom?
... like Catherine the Great S01E01 (2019) shows?
This would be almost a century before serfdom was actually abolished, and makes one wonder why the Czars didn't just do it, if they were in favor of ...
4
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1answer
295 views
Did Yuri Gagarin really mention Anna Magnani in his flight in space?
This NYTimes article about the Italian actress Anna Magnani states:
Perhaps the best way to describe her effect on audiences is to quote from a documentary on the Italian actress by the Belgian ...
4
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0answers
172 views
What uniform is my great great Cossack grandfather wearing?
The man bellow with the medals and the beard is my great great grandfather. He was a cossack in the Urals, I have been looking for ages but I can not find what Cossack uniform he is wearing.
I really ...
4
votes
2answers
297 views
What are specific parts of this 19th century dress called?
Src: Portrait of Nadezhda Polovtseva
So this a the Portrait of Nadezhda Polovtseva in which she is wearing a white and green gown. I just need a really simple explaination of what the separate ...
4
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0answers
128 views
What medals is my Cossack Great Grandfather wearing?
The man in the centre with the medals and the moustache is my great great grandfather. Ive been trying to figure out what Medals he's been wearing, I know he have 4 crosses of st George on the left of ...
11
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1answer
3k views
What are these hats and the function of those wearing them (worn by the Russian imperial army at Borodino)?
After the battle of Borodoni Franz Roubaud worked on a great panorama painting of 115 meters long.
looking at the big panorama painting by Franz Roubaud I noticed that some of the Russian imperial ...
25
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5answers
9k views
How did the Axis intend to hold the Caucasus?
We all know how the Axis offensive in 1942 led to the "turning point" battle of Stalingrad and the eventual defeat of the Third Reich, and that this offensive had been launched in order to capture and ...
5
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0answers
153 views
What is the context for Glennon's intelligence gathering trip to Russia in 1956
In 1956 my father, John J. Glennon (Librarian for the what is now the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics), was one of the few fluent Russian speakers in the US, as I was given to ...
4
votes
1answer
593 views
When did Tsar Nicholas II become Tsar of Russia?
I'm having trouble understanding the technicalities of throne inheritance in the Tsardom.
Did Nicholas II become Tsar after his fathers' death on the 1st of November 1894, or did he become Tsar after ...
4
votes
1answer
213 views
How long was a coach journey from Coburg to St Peterburg in 1790s?
If someone had to get from Coburg to St Petersburg in the 1790s? Would they travel overland by stagecoach or go up to the north German coast and get a boat round to the Gulf of Finland and enter ...
12
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4answers
3k views
Did the Russian Empire have a claim to Sweden? Was there ever a time where they could have pursued it?
Consider that Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and the one that all Russian emperors after Catherine were descended from, would have been king of Sweden had his aunt not stolen the throne ...
2
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2answers
333 views
Is this story about the Tsar's encounter with a sergeant true?
I once read a story (about why one should not be rude to strangers or rude in general) in a local magazine that,
once Tsar Peter I asked about directions from a Sergeant. Sergeant (not knowing whom ...
2
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0answers
65 views
What happened to the cavalry corps of Simon Boudienny?
According to this question, there was a campaign led by the Russians in Ukraine where they engaged a cavalry unit. I imagine it was in 1941, and according to Wikipedia research, it might be the ...
2
votes
1answer
112 views
For how many years in the eighteenth century were Russian soldiers present within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth borders?
For modern Poland, the answer is rather simple. Russian, and later Soviet soldiers, were stationed inside the Polish borders for almost the whole 19th and 20th centuries (with a notable exception for ...
6
votes
1answer
833 views
Identification of a badge with Russian text
Here's a curious badge that I found somewhere years ago, but didn't know whom to ask.
(click to enlarge)
Could someone please identify it? I learnt the Cyrillic script and tried googling it, but ...
1
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0answers
43 views
Did Boris Tarasov return from Mexico to Russia?
Boris Tarasov, employee of the Russian-American Company, was arrested in San Pedro, California in 1815. As a prisoner of some political value, in 1816 he was sent from Monterey to San Blas and then ...
8
votes
1answer
774 views
Where can I find documents from the Nuremberg trials about war crimes of the Wehrmacht in the Soviet Union?
I want to read documents that were used to prove German war crimes in the Soviet Union, incl. crimes against civilians and treatment of Soviet prisoners of war.
So far I found the following:
...
21
votes
4answers
7k views
Why did the Germans forbid the possession of pet pigeons in Rostov-on-Don in 1941?
Photograph made by Max Alpert shows a dead boy holding a pigeon. It seems that the child has been tortured before he was killed.
Source: Federal Archive Agency of Russia, Russian state archive of ...
7
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1answer
1k views
What was the average age of first marriage in 18th century Russia?
I found the following claim on Wikipedia (Women in Russia) and I wonder if it is true:
Early in the eighteenth-century, the average age for peasant girls to marry was around twelve years old.
In ...
2
votes
1answer
78 views
Are the Zemstvo Statistics Digitized?
There were massive statistics collected during the late Russian Empire (1861-1917)-- the "Zemstvo Statistics." They are available on microform at Yale (http://www.library.yale.edu/slavic/microform/...
8
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2answers
743 views
Why did Russia set up so many cities in Siberia and Far East?
If one takes a casual glance at the Russian population census data, he or she would be astonished to find that a significant part of the Russian population is actually not concentrated west of the ...
8
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3answers
514 views
Did Imperial Japan persecute Slavic people, as European fascists did?
Over the interwar period, fascist governments in Europe heavily promoted anti-Slavic propaganda. In Germany, they were labelled as Untermensch alongside the Jews, and in Italy, Slavic media, languages,...
7
votes
1answer
235 views
Telegraph availability in Russia around year 1875
Were there any telegraph lines available in late 19th century Russia (let's say year 1875), which would go deep into mainland Russia?
I can find some mentions about Moscow telegraph station being ...
3
votes
3answers
486 views
Did the defense of the Brest fortress make sense?
I came across an opinion of an alternative "historian"/conspiracy theorist who claims that the defense of Brest fortress did not make sense. According to his theory, its inhabitants should have left ...
29
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6answers
6k views
What are the text and subtext of this 1949 Soviet cartoon?
Over on Wikipedia, we find this cover from the March 1949 issue of Soviet satire mag Krokodil:
The person who uploaded it to Wikipedia captioned it "Antisemitic caricature of rootless cosmopolitan." ...
11
votes
1answer
526 views
What's this flag flying on a fort at Kodiak, Alaska?
Naval captain Yuri Lisianskii drew a harbor scene in Alaska about 1805. It was engraved in England for an edition of his book.
(High-res version)
In the image, from left to right, there are flags ...
2
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1answer
73 views
Which Imperial Russian officials created and verified passports?
In Imperial Russia (as in other states) passports were required for interior travel. They were issued to individuals and had a finite duration. I'm guessing that being found away from home without a ...
2
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0answers
100 views
Which prayer did sailors in Russian America expect to hear?
Father Ioann Veniaminov (Saint Innocent) was a Russian Orthodox priest who ministered in Russian America. Leaving Sitka, he recorded the following in his journal:
Tuesday, June 30, 1836. Having ...
2
votes
1answer
148 views
Were “The People's Will” referred to as “terrorist” by their contemporaries?
Narodnaya Volya (The People's Will) was the organization responsible for the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in in March 1881. Is there any evidence (preferably online sources) which point to the ...
2
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0answers
177 views
What was the troop ratio between the red and white army in the Russian revolution?
I am making a game over the Russian Revolution for English class. I want to make this game a somewhat accurate representation of the Russian Revolution. I have been able find the answers to all of my ...
1
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2answers
174 views
How was money transferred in early 1900s' Russia?
I'm reading Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore. The book frequently quotes letters between him and fellow revolutionaries, often when he was in internal exile in some obscure corner of Siberia.
...
5
votes
1answer
204 views
Was slaughtering cows in Kamchatka prohibited in the 1820s?
In To the Pacific and Arctic with Beechey: The Journal of Lieutenant George Peard of HMS Blossom, 1825–1828, Peard claims that in Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka, "nearly every family possesses a Cow (...
7
votes
1answer
170 views
Kabris, the “half-wild Frenchman”, in Kamchatka
A Frenchman who had gone native in the Marquesas Islands, Jean Cabri or Kabris, returned to Europe in the early 1800s and became a well-known attraction and swimming teacher.
His return voyage ...
0
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1answer
159 views
Was The Great Game a war? [closed]
I know that The Great Game was between UK & Russia and done through parts of Asia, Middle East & Europe. I was wondering if the Great Game was basically two empires trying fighting each other ...
14
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2answers
603 views
Why is Russian far east less populated than Chinese north east regions?
I was comparing the Russia's Far Eastern zone with the equivalent Northeast China. Anyway the two regions have many difference but by comparing regions at the same latitude I found vast difference to ...
3
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1answer
311 views
Under Catherine the Great were all officers appointed for five years?
I noticed that the chief commandants of Kamchatka seemed to serve terms of about five years (Koselev 1802-1807, Petrovskii 1807-1813, Rudakov 1813-1817). Their rank (IV) qualified them to be made ...
5
votes
2answers
235 views
What were Catherine the Great's orders to von Böhm?
In about 1773, Catherine the Great appointed Magnus Karl von Böhm (or Behm, depending on the roundtrip transliteration) governor of Kamchatka. The peninsula had been pacified and the natives were ...
3
votes
1answer
215 views
How did the Russian-American Company hire serfs?
In the Russian Empire until 1861 the estate of serfdom kept most of the country's population the property of others. This cheap labor was attractive to capitalist enterprises like the Russian-American ...
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0answers
46 views
How old were the youngest employees of the Russian-American Company?
The Russian-American Company, founded 1799, employed some real lowlifes. Golovnin about 1810 found them "composed for the most part of dissolute persons, many of whom have been flogged with the knout ...
2
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0answers
133 views
What would have been Napoleon's optimal strategy after Borodino? [closed]
There is a saying that everyone is a general after the battle, but I still could not figure out what could have Napoleon done differently in order to save his army and consequently empire after ...
