Bohdan Khmelnytsky - Early life. Khmelnytsky was probably born in Chyhyryn, in Ukraine; it is unclear whether to a family of Ruthenian nobility or to Polish nobility of Abdank Coat of Arms who had immigrated to Ukraine from Masovia. Khmelnytsky was educated by the Jesuits in Lviv. Unlike many of their other pupils, he did not embrace Roman Catholicism but early in life became indifferent to the faith. Later he seemed to belong to the Greek Orthodox faith, to which most of the Cossacks and the Ruthenian peasants b ...

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Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Bohdan Khmelnytsky - Biography, Bohdan Khmelnytsky - Early life, Bohdan Khmelnytsky - Cossack leader, Bohdan Khmelnytsky - The Uprising, Bohdan Khmelnytsky - Khmelnytsky in Fiction, Bohdan Khmelnytsky - External link

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Cossack - Ukrainian Cossacks. Hetman - a Ukrainian Cossack supreme military leader Bulava - a ceremonial mace, a symbol of Hetman's authority Starshyna - officers polkovnyk - colonel oboznyi osavul khorunzhyi Otaman - lieutenant tabor - a tactic using a set of horse-drawn wagons, mastered by Cossacks in 16-17th century See also:

Cossack, Cossack - History, Cossack - Russian Cossacks, Cossack - Cossack Settlements, Cossack - Cossacks during the final years of the Russian Empire, Cossack - Cossacks After the Revolution, Cossack - Cossack organization, Cossack - Cossacks and religion, Cossack - Popular image of Cossacks, Cossack - Terminology, Cossack - Ukrainian Cossacks, Cossack - Russian Cossacks, Cossack - Tatar Cossacks

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Main article: Early History of the Cossacks It is not clear when the Slavic people started settling in the lower reaches of the Don and the Dnieper. It is unlikely it could have happened before the 13th century, when the Mongol hordes broke the power of the Cumans and other Turkic tribes on that territory. Proto-Cossack groups most likely came into existence within the territories of today's Ukraine in the mid-13th century, when many Slavs fled south to escape the Tatar yoke. In 1261 some Slavic people living in the area ...

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Cossack, Cossack - History, Cossack - Russian Cossacks, Cossack - Cossack Settlements, Cossack - Cossacks during the final years of the Russian Empire, Cossack - Cossacks After the Revolution, Cossack - Cossack organization, Cossack - Cossacks and religion, Cossack - Popular image of Cossacks, Cossack - Terminology, Cossack - Ukrainian Cossacks, Cossack - Russian Cossacks, Cossack - Tatar Cossacks

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The immediate task of the new dynasty was to restore order. Fortunately for Russia, its major enemies, Poland and Sweden, were engaged in a bitter conflict with each other, which provided Russia the opportunity to make peace with Sweden in 1617 and to sign a truce with Poland in 1619. After an unsuccessful attempt to regain the city of Smolensk (the Smolensk War) from Poland in 1632, Russia made peace with Poland in 1634. Polish king Wladyslaw IV, whose father and predecessor Sigismund III had been elected by Russian boyars as tsar of Russia during the Time of Troubles, renounced all claims to the title ...

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Muscovy, Muscovy - Rise of Muscovy, Muscovy - Evolution of the Russian Autocracy, Muscovy - Evolution of the Russian Aristocracy, Muscovy - Ivan IV, Muscovy - Time of Troubles, Muscovy - Romanovs, Muscovy - Expansion, Muscovy - Western European knowledge of Muscovy, Muscovy - Early Imperial Russia

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Ivan IV was succeeded by his son Fedor, who was mentally deficient. Actual power went to Fedor's brother-in-law, the boyar Boris Godunov. Perhaps the most important event of Fedor's reign was the proclamation of the patriarchate of Moscow in 1589. The creation of the patriarchate climaxed the evolution of a separate and totally independent Russian Orthodox Church. In 1598 Fedor died without an heir, ending the Rurik Dynasty. Boris Godunov then convened a Zemsky Sobor, a national assembly of boyars, church officials, and commone ...

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Muscovy, Muscovy - Rise of Muscovy, Muscovy - Evolution of the Russian Autocracy, Muscovy - Evolution of the Russian Aristocracy, Muscovy - Ivan IV, Muscovy - Time of Troubles, Muscovy - Romanovs, Muscovy - Expansion, Muscovy - Western European knowledge of Muscovy, Muscovy - Early Imperial Russia

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The development of the tsar's autocratic powers reached a peak during the reign of Ivan IV, and he became known as the Terrible (his Russian epithet, groznyi, means threatening or dreaded). Ivan strengthened the position of the tsar to an unprecedented degree, demonstrating the risks of unbridled power in the hands of a mentally unstable individual. Although apparently intelligent and energetic, Ivan suffered from bouts of paranoia and depression, and his rule was punc ...

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Muscovy, Muscovy - Rise of Muscovy, Muscovy - Evolution of the Russian Autocracy, Muscovy - Evolution of the Russian Aristocracy, Muscovy - Ivan IV, Muscovy - Time of Troubles, Muscovy - Romanovs, Muscovy - Expansion, Muscovy - Western European knowledge of Muscovy, Muscovy - Early Imperial Russia

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Boyars were hereditary nobles of three categories: 1) Rurikid princes of Upper Oka towns, Suzdal, Rostov, Yaroslavl, etc. that lived in Moscow after their hereditary principalities had been incorporated into Muscovy (e.g., Shuisky, Vorotynsky, Repnin, Romodanovsky); 2) foreign princes from Lithuania and Golden Horde, claiming descent either from Grand Duke Gediminas or from Genghis Khan (e.g., Belsky, Mstislavsky, Galitzine, Trubetskoy); 3) ancient families of Muscovite nobility that have been recorded in the service of Grand D ...

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Muscovy, Muscovy - Rise of Muscovy, Muscovy - Evolution of the Russian Autocracy, Muscovy - Evolution of the Russian Aristocracy, Muscovy - Ivan IV, Muscovy - Time of Troubles, Muscovy - Romanovs, Muscovy - Expansion, Muscovy - Western European knowledge of Muscovy, Muscovy - Early Imperial Russia

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Russia continued its territorial growth through the 17th century. In the south-west, it acquired eastern Ukraine, which had been under Polish rule. The Ukrainian Cossacks, warriors organized in military formations, lived in the frontier areas bordering Poland, the Tatar lands, and Russia. Although they had served in the Polish army as mercenaries, the Cossacks of the Zaporozhian Host remained fiercely independent and staged a number of rebellions against the Poles. In 1648, the peasants of Ukraine joined the Cossacks in rebellion during the ...

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Muscovy, Muscovy - Rise of Muscovy, Muscovy - Evolution of the Russian Autocracy, Muscovy - Evolution of the Russian Aristocracy, Muscovy - Ivan IV, Muscovy - Time of Troubles, Muscovy - Romanovs, Muscovy - Expansion, Muscovy - Western European knowledge of Muscovy, Muscovy - Early Imperial Russia

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Internal consolidation accompanied outward expansion of the state. By the 15th century, the rulers of Muscovy considered the entire Russian territory their collective property. Various semi-independent princes of Rurikid stock still claimed specific territories, but Ivan III forced the lesser princes to acknowledge the grand prince of Muscovy and his descendants as unquestioned rulers with control over military, judicial, and foreign affairs. Gradually, the Muscovite ruler emerged as a powerful, autocratic ruler, a tsar. By assuming t ...

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Muscovy, Muscovy - Rise of Muscovy, Muscovy - Evolution of the Russian Autocracy, Muscovy - Evolution of the Russian Aristocracy, Muscovy - Ivan IV, Muscovy - Time of Troubles, Muscovy - Romanovs, Muscovy - Expansion, Muscovy - Western European knowledge of Muscovy, Muscovy - Early Imperial Russia

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Main article: Imperial Russia. The following article in the series describes how in the 18th century, Russia was transformed from a static, somewhat isolated, traditional state into the more dynamic, partially Westernized, and secularized Russian Empire. This transformation was in no small measure a result of the vision, energy, and determination of Peter the Great. Historians disagree about the extent to which Peter himself transformed Russia, but they generally concur that he laid the foundations for empire building over the ...

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Muscovy, Muscovy - Rise of Muscovy, Muscovy - Evolution of the Russian Autocracy, Muscovy - Evolution of the Russian Aristocracy, Muscovy - Ivan IV, Muscovy - Time of Troubles, Muscovy - Romanovs, Muscovy - Expansion, Muscovy - Western European knowledge of Muscovy, Muscovy - Early Imperial Russia

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The native land of the Russian Cossacks is defined by a line of the Russian town-fortresses located on the border with the steppe and stretching from the middle Volga to Ryazan and Tula, then breaking abruptly to the south and extending to the Dnieper via Pereyaslavl. This area was settled by a population of free people practising various trades and crafts. These people, constantly facing the Tatar warriors on the steppe frontier, received the Turkic name "cossacks" which was then extended to other free people in northern Russia. The ...

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Cossack, Cossack - History, Cossack - Origins, Cossack - Russian Cossacks, Cossack - Cossack Settlements, Cossack - Cossacks during the final years of the Russian Empire, Cossack - Cossacks After the Revolution, Cossack - Cossack organization, Cossack - Cossacks and religion, Cossack - Popular image of Cossacks, Cossack - Terminology, Cossack - Ukrainian Cossacks, Cossack - Russian Cossacks, Cossack - Tatar Cossacks

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Plateresque and Churrigueresque Baroque in Mexico: The baroque in Mexico derives from Plateresque and Churrigueresque architecture. Late fifteenth-century Plateresque freely borrowed the decorative motifs of the intricately detailed work of silversmiths, the “Plateros.” In the seventeeth century, after the restrained Juan de Herrera interlude, decorated architecture in Spain reached an apotheosis in the exuberant —some would say capricious— Churrigueresque baroque, named ...

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Baroque architecture, Baroque architecture - Precursors and features of Baroque architecture, Baroque architecture - In Italy and France, Baroque architecture - In Central Europe, Baroque architecture - In Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Baroque architecture - In England and Russia, Baroque architecture - In Northern America: Mexico and California

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Among Vasily's sons, one was Ivan III's okolnichi, another sat in the Boyar Duma during Vasily III's reign. Their nephew was sent by Ivan the Terrible as a Russian ambassador to Copenhagen. The latter's nephew, Prince Ivan Petrovich Romodanovsky, was killed by the Kalmucks on his way from Persia in 1607. Since the 17th century, the family was divided into senior and cadet lines, both of which benefited from extinction of the higher-placed families of Muscovy after the Oprichnina purges and the Time of Troubles. During the reign of the ...

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Romodanovsky, Romodanovsky - Early history, Romodanovsky - Service to Tsar Alexis, Romodanovsky - Their Caesarean Majesties, Romodanovsky - External link

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In early times, Cossack tribes were commanded by an ataman (later called hetman). He was elected by the tribe members at a Cossack rada, as were the other important tribe officials: the judge, the scribe, the lesser officials, and even the clergy. The ataman's symbol of power was a ceremonial mace, called bulava. The ataman had executive powers and at time of war he was the supreme commander in the field. Legislative power was given to the Tribal Assembly (Rada). The senior officers were called starshyna. In the absence of written laws, the Cossacks were governed by the ...

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Cossack, Cossack - History, Cossack - Origins, Cossack - Russian Cossacks, Cossack - Cossack Settlements, Cossack - Cossacks during the final years of the Russian Empire, Cossack - Cossacks After the Revolution, Cossack - Cossack organization, Cossack - Cossacks and religion, Cossack - Popular image of Cossacks, Cossack - Terminology, Cossack - Ukrainian Cossacks, Cossack - Russian Cossacks, Cossack - Tatar Cossacks

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Cossacks have long appealed to romantics as idealizing freedom and resistance to external authority, and their military exploits against enemies of the Russian people have contributed to this favourable image. For others they have been a symbol of repression because of their role in suppressing popular uprisings in the Russian Empire, as well as their assaults against Jews. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, many have begun seeing Cossacks as defenders of Russian sovereignty and traditional culture. Literary reflections of Cossack culture abound in Russian literature, particularly in the works ...

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Cossack, Cossack - History, Cossack - Origins, Cossack - Russian Cossacks, Cossack - Cossack Settlements, Cossack - Cossacks during the final years of the Russian Empire, Cossack - Cossacks After the Revolution, Cossack - Cossack organization, Cossack - Cossacks and religion, Cossack - Popular image of Cossacks, Cossack - Terminology, Cossack - Ukrainian Cossacks, Cossack - Russian Cossacks, Cossack - Tatar Cossacks

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The most important member of the senior branch was Prince Grigory Grigorievich Romodanovsky (Григорий Григорьевич Ромодановский). He took part in the Pereyaslav Rada of 1654 and led his Streltsy against the Poles during a war which resulted in the reunification of Russia with Ukraine. During the 1660s and 1670s, he was instrumental in spreading Muscovite influence in the Cossack Hetmanate, sometimes openly interfering into election of hetmans and promoting the candidates backed up by Moscow. He was in c ...

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Romodanovsky, Romodanovsky - Early history, Romodanovsky - Service to Tsar Alexis, Romodanovsky - Their Caesarean Majesties, Romodanovsky - External link

Read more here: » Romodanovsky: Encyclopedia II - Romodanovsky - Service to Tsar Alexis

Cossack - Ukrainian Cossacks. Hetman - a Ukrainian Cossack supreme military leader Bulava - a ceremonial mace, a symbol of Hetman's authority Starshyna - officers polkovnyk - colonel oboznyi osavul khorunzhyi Otaman - lieutenant tabor - a tactic using a set of horse-drawn wagons, mastered by Cossacks in 16-17th century See also:

Cossack, Cossack - History, Cossack - Origins, Cossack - Russian Cossacks, Cossack - Cossack Settlements, Cossack - Cossacks during the final years of the Russian Empire, Cossack - Cossacks After the Revolution, Cossack - Cossack organization, Cossack - Cossacks and religion, Cossack - Popular image of Cossacks, Cossack - Terminology, Cossack - Ukrainian Cossacks, Cossack - Russian Cossacks, Cossack - Tatar Cossacks

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Muscovy remained a fairly unknown society in western Europe until Baron Sigismund von Herberstein published his Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii (literally Notes on Muscovite Affairs) in 1549. This provided a comprehensive view of what had been a rarely visited and poorly reported state. In the 1630s, Muscovy was visited by Adam Olearius, whose lively and well-informed writings were soon translated into all major languages of Europe. Further exploration of the Russian lands was conducted by English and Dutch merchants. One of t ...

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Muscovy, Muscovy - Rise of Muscovy, Muscovy - Evolution of the Russian Autocracy, Muscovy - Evolution of the Russian Aristocracy, Muscovy - Ivan IV, Muscovy - Time of Troubles, Muscovy - Romanovs, Muscovy - Expansion, Muscovy - Western European knowledge of Muscovy, Muscovy - Early Imperial Russia

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Ukraine is subdivided into twenty-four oblasts (provinces) and one autonomous republic, Crimea. Additionally, two cities, Kiev and Sevastopol, have a special legal status. Cherkasy Chernihiv Chernivtsi Autonomous Republic of Crimea Dnipropetrovsk Donetsk Ivano-Frankivsk Kharkiv Kherson Khmelnytskyi Kirovohrad Kiev Oblast Luhansk Lviv Mykolaiv Odessa Poltava ...

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Ukraine, Ukraine - Name, Ukraine - History, Ukraine - Government and Politics, Ukraine - Subdivisions, Ukraine - Geography, Ukraine - Economy, Ukraine - Demographics, Ukraine - Religion, Ukraine - Culture, Ukraine - Miscellaneous topics

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Boyars were hereditary nobles of three categories: 1) Rurikid princes of Upper Oka towns, Suzdal, Rostov, Yaroslavl, etc. that lived in Moscow after their hereditary principalities had been incorporated into Muscovy (e.g., Shuisky, Vorotynsky, Repnin, Romodanovsky); 2) foreign princes from Lithuania and Golden Horde, claiming descent either from Grand Duke Gediminas or from Genghis Khan (e.g., Belsky, Mstislavsky, Galitzine, Trubetskoy); 3) ancient families of Muscovite nobility that have been recorded in the service of Grand D ...

See also:

Muscovy, Muscovy - Rise of Muscovy, Muscovy - Evolution of the Russian Autocracy, Muscovy - Evolution of the Russian Aristocracy, Muscovy - The time of Ivan IV, Muscovy - Time of Troubles, Muscovy - Romanovs, Muscovy - Expansion, Muscovy - Western European knowledge of Muscovy, Muscovy - Early Imperial Russia, Muscovy - See Also

Read more here: » Muscovy: Encyclopedia II - Muscovy - Evolution of the Russian Aristocracy

The development of the tsar's autocratic powers reached a peak during the reign of Ivan IV, and he became known as the Terrible (his Russian epithet, groznyy, means threatening or dreaded). Ivan strengthened the position of the tsar to an unprecedented degree, demonstrating the risks of unbridled power in the hands of a mentally unstable individual. Although apparently intelligent and energetic, Ivan suffered from bouts of paranoia and depression, and his r ...

See also:

Muscovy, Muscovy - Rise of Muscovy, Muscovy - Evolution of the Russian Autocracy, Muscovy - Evolution of the Russian Aristocracy, Muscovy - The time of Ivan IV, Muscovy - Time of Troubles, Muscovy - Romanovs, Muscovy - Expansion, Muscovy - Western European knowledge of Muscovy, Muscovy - Early Imperial Russia, Muscovy - See Also

Read more here: » Muscovy: Encyclopedia II - Muscovy - The time of Ivan IV