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Daughters of the Habsburgs, fulfilling the dynastic policy of the family, married European rulers. The aim was to enter into profitable alliances or gain prospective financial aid. In 1553 Katarzyna Habsburżanka (Catherine of Austria) married Zygmunt August (Sigismund II Augustus). It was not a happy marriage. Katarzyna was not able to give her husband a much awaited son, thus, form the end of the 1550s their married life showed signs of falling apart. In 1559 the issue of the king’s divorce appeared for the first time. Despite intense exchange of legation between the Polish king and Maximillian II, Holy Roman Emperor, Katarzyna left the Crown in October 1566. However, Zygmunt August did not get a divorce and, thus, lost a chance to have a legal descendant. Archduchesses Barbara (Barbara of Austria) and Joanna (Joanna of Austria) were married to the rulers on the Apennine Peninsula. The first one became the wife of Alfonso II d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, Joanna was the wife of Francesco I de’Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. Both these marriages constituted a kind of agreement: Italian dukes counted on a powerful ally in the struggle for domination of the Apennine Peninsula; the Habsburgs expected mainly financial and military help in the campaign against Turkey. Marriages of Barbara and Joanna, like that of their sister Katarzyna, were not totally happy, although they did not end in separation. The fates of the Habsburg sisters clearly show that marriages concluded between members of the reigning houses not always fulfilled the expectations of the involved parties.
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Prenuptial agreements, made before marriage, are interesting source materials that enable to show some important regulations shaping marriages of the nobility. Simultaneously, agreements serve as a verification of the current biographical information, both in relation to the married couple and the other signatories of the act. The analysis of the prenuptial agreement between Antonina Rzewuska and Piotr Miączyński shows that such a source may not only compliment currently available information but also correct the false one. Furthermore, the agreement shows how family relationships and dowry influenced the material conditions of the married couple. Because of its special function and formal form, prenuptial agreements constitute an important source material which provides an insight into the financial situation of the nobility and into the motivation of the signatories.
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Sabine Rutar (ed.): Beyond the Balkans. Towards an Inclusive History of Southeastern Europe. Lit Verlag, Zürich– Berlin, 2014. 499 oldal
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In the 16th-19th centuries (until 1861) the term second serfdom is not applied in the investigations of the economic organization of Lithuania. However, the theory of the neo-Marxist capitalist world system (CWS) of the most famous and influential American comparative historical sociology representative I. Wallerstein offers to look at the phenomenon of the second serfdom from a global perspective emphasizing external causes and to consider it a manifestation of peripheral capitalism in Central Eastern Europe. In his fundamental work The Modern World System, the Polish and Lithuanian social economic order in the 16th-18th centuries is treated as the periphery of the CWS at that time. The goal of this article is using the access of modern comparative historical sociology to answer the question of whether the term second serfdom is applicable (and if so, when) to describe the economic organization of Lithuania in 1557–1861. The article states that in view of the economic development of Lithuania in 1557–1861 considering an essential component of the CWS theory – the concept of peripheral capitalism, the features of the second serfdom are most distinctly seen in Lithuania not in the 16th-18th centuries (as I. Wallerstein stated), but in the second half of the 18th century – 1861.
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In Księgi hetmańskie [Hetman Books] by Stanisław Sarnicki, the Ruthenian land of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is depicted as a turbulent land under permanent threat. The reason of the threat were the incessant invasions of the Tartars. According to the words of Sarnicki, the inspiration to write the Books were some talks resulting from the activity of the Crimean warriors which were held in Ruthenia. They concerned the issues of war and defense. In his work the author tried to describe precisely the routes of Tartar invasions passing through Ukraine. He paid close attention to the vocabulary used in those territories. He described the bravery of the Ruthenians, their weaponry and methods of combat. He enumerated many well-known people related to the Ukrainian region. In Hetman Books one can also find some information on medicaments used in Ukraine. Sarnicki also devoted a lot of space to the Cossacks, whom he considered great soldiers. He praised their skills of fighting in sea battles. He also saw a possibility to establish a Cossack fleet for the Commonwealth.
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The development of the interconfessional communications between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Anglican Church is tracked. The evolution of the confessional relations is investigated on the example of contacts of the British missionaries, theologians, historians, politicians with the Metropolitan of Moscow Philaret (Drozdov; 1782-1867), who played a key role in the Church diplomacy of XIX с. For the 10-60th of the XIX century with his participation the main criteria of Orthodox and Anglican intercommunion were formulated, activity of the Russian foreign clergy with the representatives of English and American Anglican Churches was coordinated. Studying of interconfessional communications was carried out on the basis of new archival materials, taking into account a factor of foreign policy of the great powers in the Near and Far East. The research of the historical experience of the contacts of the Russian Orthodox Church with the Church of England and the American Episcopal Church is of special interest for understanding of processes of formation of the religious relations in the modern world.
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The article focuses on the monographic study of Russian historian V. G. Tchentsova – Ченцова Вера Георгиевна, Икона Иверской Богоматери (очерки истории отношений греческой церкви с Россией в середине XVII в. по документам РГАДА), Москва «ИНДРИК», 2010, 416 с., илл., [Tchentsova Vera G., The Iviron Icon of the Mother of God (Essays on the History of the Greek Church relations with Russia in the middle of the XVII-th century. On the documents from RGADA – State Archive of Old Acts of Russia )] –, which are dedicated to controversial issues related to the appearance of the icon of Mother of the God from Iviron and Iviron brotherhood monastery acts from Athos in Moscow in 1648. The author examined the issue with a scrupulous attention (written signatures, seals, watermarks etc.) of several original documents, not just those that are directly connected to the bringing of Iviron icon of the Virgin Mary to Moscow and others, which attests the arrival in the Russian capital of many Greeks. At the same time the author, with a certain degree of probability, identifies both the authors of the documents and the timeframe in which they were brought to Russia. Stressing that all documents brought to the Court of Moscow were written in places where they claimed to be, the author of examined study concludes that many of them were written in the monasteries’ succursales from Danubian Principalities (Romanian Countries – our remark), primarily in the Principality of Moldavia. At the same time the author pay attention to the Greeks who came to Moscow, with aims such as charity, political or business, mentioning their pro-Russian orientation, or at least their willingness to collaborate with Russia. Moreover, she suggest to the reader the idea of imminent annexation to Russia not only of the territories which were under the control of Zaporozhy’e army, but also the territories inhabited by other Orthodox Christians, who were holding another ritual, an idea that is not found in the cited sources. Even the old theory, “Moscow – the Third Rome”, suggested by some Greeks arriving in Moscow was not accepted at the court of the Tsar. At least there are no documentary evidences, urging him to act as successor of the Byzantine Empire, and we it is sure that it had no expected effect to those who determine the orientation of the foreign policy of the Russian state at that time. The author examines the issue related to the possible formation in 1646 of the anti-Ottoman coalition of European states and affirms that if Russia had expressed its intention to support the anti-Ottoman coalition in which the rulers of both Moldavia and Wallachia would participate, the Polish Sejm would join probably the campaign against the Ottoman Empire. These and other examples illustrate while the author made a thorough Paleography analysis of documentary material, at the same time the conclusions of the author are politically biased. They are designed to present Russia from a positive side, particularly its role in the evolution of international relations at the mid of the XVII-th century. A particular interesting aspect in the work is related to the Moldavian-Russian political relations from 1656 and the role of Dionysius from Iviron, a Romanian Macedonian, “Macedo-Romanian” in the way he identifies himself, and as presented by V. G. Tchentsova, branded as a remarkable scholar of the time, a scholar that worked for a time at the printing department in the Russian capital. Quite confusing appears the assessments around the document in Greek drafted in Moscow on May 12, 1656, an act allegedly containing the request of the Moldavian side relating to a possible shift under Russian rule. There also doubts about the identification of the author who wrote this document in Greek. Based on the examination of paleographic writing and graphology of it, V. G. Tchentsova believes that the author of them was Dionysius from Iviron. But taking in account that the latter was a true scholar of his age, it is inexplicable why the document is replete with mistakes, which prompted other specialists to assess the author writing this note as an illiterate. Obviously the role of the Greeks of Moscow in the composition of the document text is exaggerated; the entire document was made in Jassy. A particular attention is drawn to relationships of Vasile Lupu with Moscow; however, the quoted letters from 1643 could in no way be related to the issue of restitution of Azov and to the hope of Moldavian Prince that the Sublime Porte would be on his side in the war which he began with the Wallachia’s ruler, Matei Basarab. In the other part, it is mentioned that Vasile Lupu in the late period of his reign, gave up the alliance with Rechzpsopolita and hoped for the help from the Court of Moscow. All these statements of the author have not any documentary supports. From the assumption that the ruler of Moldavia intends to seek immediate help from the Tsar, subsequently the author deduce a well-defined policy of Moldavian Prince, and Gheorghe Ştefan is described as a continuator of the policy of his predecessor. So then, gradually, from an assumption to another, there are created artificial suppositions about the “orientation” of Vasile Lupu at the “end of his reign” toward Russia and even “continuation” of his policy by the new Prince Gheorghe Ştefan. These assumptions, however, do not have any documentary evidence.
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The Serbian Orthodox Church-School Municipality in Mostar, as one of the most reputable and financially the most stable, was established at the time of the Ottoman rule in 1835 and abolished by virtue of the decision of the Austro-Hungarian occupation authorities in 1882. The motive for the abolishment were the accusations that it was the initiator of the 1881 riot of limited scope, launched over the Military Law which envisaged the recruitment of a contingent from Herzegovina to the Austro-Hungarian army. The Municipality was restored in 1888, based on the compromise with state authorities, when its autonomy was significantly diminished. Its erstwhile rights to represent all church-school municipalities in Herzegovina and elect priests in Mostar were abolished and transferred to the Herzegovina-Zahumlje Metropolitan. At the time of the first convocation of the renewed Church-School Municipality in Mostar in 1888–1891, even three metropolitans changed on the Herzegovina-Zahumlje throne. Metropolitan Ignjatije Ikonomidis, a Greek who maintained good cooperation with the Municipality, protesting together with it over the conclusion of the unfavourable Convention between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and AustriaHungary, was pensioned in1888. In the same year, the authorities nominated archimandrite Leontije Radulović, who was then ordained and assumed the throne, but died only six months later from tuberculosis. In 1889, he was succeeded by archimandrite Serafim Perović, who served until his death in 1903. In its session minutes, the restored Church-School Municipality did not record data on Metropolitan Ignjatije Ikonomidis, but described in detail his relationship with his successors – Leontije Radulović and Serafim Perović. It assumed the central role in the organisation of ceremonies relating to their ordainment and enthronement, and established with them good cooperation, despite disagreements concerning jurisdiction, particularly in the case of Serafim Perović. The Municipality also organised the erection of the monument to Metropolitan Leontije Radulović in the new Cathedral Church. In the years just after its restoration, the Church-School Municipality of Mostar quickly adjusted to changes on the Herzegovina-Zahumlje Metropolitan throne, and fostered good communication with the three Metropolitans who succeeded one another at the time.
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The article focuses on the debates concerning language and alphabet in late imperial Bessarabia. The main argument is that Bessarabia, in contrast to the other Russian borderlands, was not an object of a strictly determined “alphabetical policy”. Local writers and publishers were relatively free in the choice of the alphabet, orthography and literary standard for the local version of the Romanian language. In the early XX century several versions of the alphabet circulated in Bessarabia. The dilemma of Cyrillic vs. Latin was resolved in favor of the first alternative because the majority of the Moldavian population was not familiar with the Latin alphabet.
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In the first decade following the annexation of Bessarabia, the Russian authorities simoultaneously pursued two different approaches without fully realizing their contradictions. On the one hand, they sought to win support of the Bessarabian nobility by recognizing their land titles in the former Hotin reaya and proclaiming local autonomy based on the law of the land. On the other hand, they sought to colonize the underpopulated lands of Southern Bessarabia by inviting transdanubian Bulgarians and other ethnic groups. Although both approaches envisioned the transformation of the new province into a new homeland for the co-religionist Balkan peoples, their combination provoked social tensions between the the Bessarabian landowners and the colonists. The paper argues that the prolonged conflict between the two groups ultimately illustrates the uncertainty of Bessarabia’s status in the political geography of the Russian empire during the first decades after 1812. While the regime of the nobility-based Bessarabian autonomy was not unlike various schemes of indirect rule adopted in Russia’s Western borderlands, the invitation of colonists continued the colonization policies characteristic of New Russia. In this respect, the placement of the province under the jurisdiction of the governor-general of New Russia in 1822 emphasized colonization at the expense of local autonomy and prepared the abolition of the latter in 1828.
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The study aims to analyze a multidimensional perspective of holidays and how they get to be part of the process of legitimation of political power. Being the space of the exceptional and relaxation, the public holidays are meant to «remove» the individual from the daily and usual life and switch to another plan: at the show, the grandeur and ceremony fixed to certain symbols and rituals that contribute to group cohesion. Therefore, in certain historical eras, under different political regimes, but particularly, the totalitarian, the political power tried to wear of charms and symbolic atmosphere of holidays to legitimize the ideology, to promote new values and ideals, to strengthen the group over which it extends. In what follows, we wanted to highlight some of the ways in which the totalitarian societies, mainly Soviet society, the public holidays become educational opportunities and part of the national cultural policy in the design and standardization of human consciousness and the strengthening of state institutions.
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Within the present study the author provided a comparative analysis between the Tokaji and French wines, offering various technical and historical data. Some pieces of information are more than interesting, showing the celebrity that the Tokaji wine reached during the 19th century not only Europe, but also North America, where Thomas Jefferson unsuccessfully tried to acclimatize the Tokaji furmint.
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Migracije stanovništva na Balkanu čine veoma složenu naučnu problematiku. One su značajno uticale na profiliranje etničkih, političkih, društvenih i kulturnih odnosa u ovom historijski nestabilnom regionu. Među njima posebno mjesto zauzimaju muhadžirski pokreti. Vojno-političko slabljenje Osmanskog carstva povlačilo je za sobom stalno smanjivanje njegove teritorije, kao i neminovno povlačenje muslimanskog stanovništva u one oblasti koje su ostajale u njegovom posjedu, postajući pribježište muhadžira različite etničke i lingvističkog pripadnosti sa izgubljenih teritorija. To je pratilo i zbivanja na Balkanu, gdje su se, sa svim osmanskim porazima i uzmicanjima, pokretali iseljenički talasi muslimana, dinamizirani raznovrsnim progonima. Muhadžirski pokreti započeti krajem XVII stoljeća biće nastavljeni i u narednim stoljećima. Turska, koja je nastala na ruševinama Osmanskog carstva, biće odredište mnogobrojnih iseljeničkih talasa muslimana sa Balkana. Demografska deosmanizacija Balkana je slojevito pitanje koje, bez obzira na dosadašnja različita interpretiranja, u postjugoslavenskom periodu neosporno iziskuje iznijansirano promatranje sa više strana, lišeno raznih ideoloških opterećenja, historiografskih stereotipa i prevaziđenih, jednostranih ocjena.
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The text conceptualizes a period in modern history—roughly 1810 to 1950—through the “questions” that reigned at that time. The Russian writer Leo Tolstoy wrote his views on the “Eastern question” through the character of Levin in Anna Karenina, the future president of Czechoslovakia penned over 700 pages on the “social question”, and a German novelist expressed his immoderate views on the “oyster question”. When and why did people start thinking in terms of “questions,” and what did it mean?
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The history of the Chinese Eastern Railway goes back for more than 100 years. Today we must objectively assess its historical significance and its place in the history of sociocultural relations between the peoples of Russia and China. Recently, in both Chinese and Russian science we can see the withdrawing from the study of the political history of relations between Russia and China in late 19 — early 20 centuries in favor of the study of the history of cultural interaction between the two nations. No matter how modern Chinese and Russian scientist evaluate the role of CER in the history of Sino-Russian relations, the majority of them agree that the railway itself together with the city of Harbin represent a unique sociocultural phenomenon. Historians of St. Petersburg University in cooperation with Chinese colleagues from Harbin Institute of Technology are working on the following aspects: the role of the Chinese Eastern Railway in creation of the image of China in Russia, the Railway status after the Russo-Japanese war, economic policy on the Chinese Eastern Railway line, the Chinese labor migration in Russia during the First World war, engineering and construction solutions.
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The article describes the financial situation of peasants who lived on the Rudniki estate in the first half of the nineteenth century. In the early days of the Kingdom of Poland the nobility owned 3⁄4 of all the villages and farms across the country. The peasant farm size reduction in order to expand noble farms resulted in a deterioration of the economic situation of the peasants and a growing number of landless farmers. Although the Constitution of the Duchy of Warsaw provided personal freedom and equality before the law, the nobility still owned most of the land. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the Rudniki estate in the Wieluń County belonged to the Masłowski Family. An inventory report written in 1830 describes that their property con-sisted of Rudniki, Kuźnica, Młyny and Jawor villages, Buciny and Dalachów colonies as wellas Faustyanka and Błonie noble farms. Besides serfdom, peasants were obliged to pay tributein kind depending on their farm sizes. A few years later these goods passed into the hands ofHenryk Miączyński of Suchekomnaty coat of arms brougth as a dowry by Masłowska. TheTsar’s decree issued on 26 V (7 VI) 1846 partially improved peasants’ financial status. So called“Prestation tables”, compiled by the owners of private estates, provide us with valuable, detailedinformation about economic conditions of peasants. The prestation tables of Rudniki estate en-compass the list of peasants’ names, size of individual farms, amounts of cereals sown, infor-mation about buildings, obligations towards estate owner, the church, the rural community, thegovernment, the insurance company as well as additional income sources. Although the entriesmade in prestation tables should not be accepted uncritically, they are reliable historical sourcesas they provide basic data on the land ownership structure and the villagers’ relationship with thedominion in a unified form.
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This year marks the 100th anniversary of the death of King Carol I. This anniversary made the authors of this article present shortly the will of King Carol I with its two parts. The first was written on 14/26 of February 1899, and the second one, the „Codicil” was signed in December 1911.
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