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Anti-Normanism

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164-725: Normanism and anti-Normanism are competing groups of theories about the origin of Kievan Rus' that emerged in the 18th and 19th centuries concerning the narrative of the Viking Age in Eastern Europe . At the centre of the disagreement is the origin of the Varangian Rus' , a people who travelled across and settled in Eastern Europe in the 8th and 9th centuries, and are considered by most modern historians to be of Scandinavian origin, eventually assimilated with

328-528: A Google Doodle . A great number of different stamps was issued in honor of Lomonosov throughout the years: Mikhail Lomonosov and the Academy of Sciences building in Leningrad stamp of 1925, stamps depicting Lomonosov issued in 1949, in 1956 and in 1961, a 275th Birth Anniversary of M.V. Lomonosov stamp of 1986, a History of Russia ( Ekaterina II ) stamp depicting Lomonosov and his study room talking to

492-526: A Slavic identity: in the words of F. Donald Logan , "in 839, the Rus were Swedes; in 1043 the Rus were Slavs". This relatively fast integration is noteworthy, and the processes of cultural assimilation in Rus' are an important area of research. The old Normanist assumption was that the Scandinavians introduced civilization to their Slavic subjects, but the number of Norsemen was relatively small compared to

656-428: A body that does not consist of any other smaller and different bodies ... corpuscle is a collection of elements forming one small mass." In a later study (1748), he uses the term "atom" instead of "element", and "particula" (particle) or "molecule" instead of "corpuscle." He regarded heat as a form of motion, suggested the wave theory of light, contributed to the formulation of the kinetic theory of gases , and stated

820-560: A cloak; rather the men among them wear garments that only cover half of his body and leaves one of his hands free." Liutprand of Cremona , who was twice an envoy to the Byzantine court (949 and 968), identifies the "Russi" with the Norse ("the Russi, whom we call Norsemen by another name") but explains the name as a Greek term referring to their physical traits ("A certain people made up of

984-590: A consensus that the origins of the Rus' people lay in Scandinavia and that this originally Scandinavian elite had a significant role in forming the polity of Kievan Rus'. Indeed, in 1995, the Russian archaeologist Leo Klejn "gave a paper entitled 'The End of the Discussion', in the belief that anti-Normanism 'was dead and buried ' ". However, Klejn soon had to revise this opinion as anti-Normanist ideas gained

1148-504: A few alternative, non-Normanist origins for the word Rus' , although none was endorsed in the Western academic mainstream: The controversies over the nature of the Rus and the origins of the Russian state have bedevilled Viking studies, and indeed Russian history, for well over a century. It is historically certain that the Rus were Swedes. The evidence is incontrovertible, and that a debate still lingers at some levels of historical writing

1312-637: A letter to Leonhard Euler dated 5 July 1748, rephrased and published in Lomonosov's dissertation "Reflexion on the solidity and fluidity of bodies," 1760). Lomonosov was the first to discover and appreciate the atmosphere of Venus during his observation of the transit of Venus of 1761 in a small observatory near his house in St Petersburg. At least in the English-speaking world, this attribution seems to have been owing to comments from

1476-462: A mythic tale of Oleg's death. A sorcerer prophesies that the death of the prince would be associated with a certain horse. Oleg has the horse sequestered, and it later dies. Oleg goes to visit the horse and stands over the carcass, gloating that he had outlived the threat, when a snake strikes him from among the bones, and he soon becomes ill and dies. The Chronicle reports that Prince Igor succeeded Oleg in 913, and after some brief conflicts with

1640-473: A navy to attack the city in 863–66, catching the Byzantines by surprise and ravaging the surrounding area, though other accounts date the attack in 860. Patriarch Photius vividly describes the "universal" devastation of the suburbs and nearby islands, and another account further details the destruction and slaughter of the invasion. The Rus' turned back before attacking the city itself, due either to

1804-533: A new prominence in both public and academic discourse in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. Anglophone scholarship has identified the continued commitment to anti-Normanism in these countries since the collapse of the Soviet Union as being motivated by present-day ethno-nationalism and state-formation. One prominent Russian example occurred with an anti-Normanist conference in 2002, which was followed by publications on

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1968-696: A part of the Norse, whom the Greeks call [...] the Russi on account of their physical features, we designate as Norsemen because of the location of their origin."). Leo the Deacon , a 10th-century Byzantine historian and chronicler, refers to the Rus' as " Scythians " and notes that they tended to adopt Greek rituals and customs. According to the Primary Chronicle , the territories of the East Slavs in

2132-410: A scholarly consensus (at least outside of nationalist historiography), was summarized by the historian, F. Donald Logan, "in 839, the Rus were Swedes ; in 1043 the Rus were Slavs ". Ahmad ibn Fadlan , an Arab traveler during the 10th century, provided one of the earliest written descriptions of the Rus': "They are as tall as a date palm , blond and ruddy, so that they do not need to wear a tunic nor

2296-546: A shift in power, from the north to Kiev. Thus, Kiev does not appear to have evolved from the infrastructure of the Scandinavian trade networks, but rather it forcibly took them over, as evidenced by the destruction of numerous earlier trade settlements in the north, including the famous Staraya Ladoga . Kievan Rus%27 Kievan Rus' , also known as Kyivan Rus ' , was the first East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from

2460-458: A son of a Kholmogory nobleman. In 1734 that initial falsehood, as well as another lie that he was the son of a priest, nearly got him expelled from the academy, but the investigation ended without severe consequences. Lomonosov lived on three kopecks a day, eating only black bread and kvass , but he made rapid progress scholastically. It is believed that in 1735, after three years in Moscow he

2624-411: A staunch pagan . Due to his abrupt death in an ambush in 972, Sviatoslav's conquests, for the most part, were not consolidated into a functioning empire, while his failure to establish a stable succession led to a fratricidal feud among his sons, which resulted in two of his three sons being killed. It is not clearly documented when the title of grand prince was first introduced, but the importance of

2788-730: A storm dispersing their boats, the return of the Emperor, or in a later account, due to a miracle after a ceremonial appeal by the Patriarch and the Emperor to the Virgin. The attack was the first encounter between the Rus' and Byzantines and led the Patriarch to send missionaries north to engage and attempt to convert the Rus' and the Slavs. Rurik led the Rus' until his death in about 879 or 882, bequeathing his kingdom to his kinsman, Prince Oleg , as regent for his young son, Igor . According to

2952-500: A substantial number of free farmers settling in the upper Volga region. Proponents of anti-Normanism are of the opinion that a state was founded by the Slavs even before the vocation of Rurik . Starting with Mikhail Lomonosov (1711–1765), Slavophilic scholars have criticised the idea of Norse invaders. By the early 20th century, the traditional anti-Normanist doctrine (as articulated by Dmitry Ilovaisky ) seemed to have lost currency. Russian and then Soviet historians began to downplay

3116-533: A wooden bridge which had previously stood at the site. It was one of seven moveable stone bridges of similar design crossing the Fontanka River, built simultaneously with the river's granite embankments. Only Lomonosov Bridge and Staro-Kalinkin Bridge have survived more or less intact. Moscow's Domodedovo Airport is officially named after Lomonosov. The Lomonosov Gold Medal was established in 1959 and

3280-443: Is a device with its own function within the narrative of the chronicle. ... Yet if we take it for what it actually is, if we accept that it is not a documentary ethnographic description of the 10th century, but a medieval origo gentis masterfully constructed by a Christian cleric of the early 12th century, then we have to reconsider the established scholarly narrative of the earliest phase of East European history, which owes so much to

3444-794: Is awarded annually by the Russian Academy of Sciences to a Russian and a foreign scientist. Lomonosovskaya Station on the Nevsko-Vasileostrovskaya Line of the Saint Petersburg Metro is named after him. It was opened in 1970. The street "Lomonosova iela" in the Maskavas Forštate district of Riga is named in honor of Lomonosov. During the Soviet era, a main street in Tallinn , Estonia ,

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3608-620: Is clear evidence of the holding power of received notions. The debate over this issue – futile, embittered, tendentious, doctrinaire – served to obscure the most serious and genuine historical problem which remains: the assimilation of these Viking Rus into the Slavic people among whom they lived. The principal historical question is not whether the Rus were Scandinavians or Slavs, but, rather, how quickly these Scandinavian Rus became absorbed into Slavic life and culture. F. Donald Logan There are some Anglophone scholars who remain skeptical about

3772-401: Is equal to the mass of the products." Lomonosov, together with Lavoisier, is regarded as the one who discovered the law of mass conservation. He stated that all matter is composed of corpuscles – molecules that are "collections" of elements – atoms. In his dissertation "Elements of Mathematical Chemistry" (1741, unfinished), the scientist gives the following definition: "An element is a part of

3936-542: Is more likely that he adopted Byzantine Christianity in order to strengthen his diplomatic relations with Constantinople. Vladimir's choice of Eastern Christianity may have reflected his close personal ties with Constantinople, which dominated the Black Sea and hence trade on Kiev's most vital commercial route, the Dnieper River . According to the Primary Chronicle , Vladimir was baptised in c. 987, and ordered

4100-526: Is now Sweden , into the waterways of Eastern Europe feature prominently in the history of the Baltic states , Scandinavia, Poland , and the Byzantine Empire . They are particularly important in the historiography and cultural history of Belarus , Russia and Ukraine , but have also featured in the history of Poland. Nevertheless, contention has centred around whether the development of Kievan Rus'

4264-646: Is said to have especially admired Günther . His "Ode on the Taking of Khotin from the Turks," composed in 1739, attracted a great deal of attention in Saint Petersburg. Contrary to his adoration for Wolff, Lomonosov had fierce disputes with Henckel over the training and education courses he and his two compatriot students were getting in Freiberg, as well as over very limited financial support which Henckel

4428-427: Is said to have founded a school system. Yaroslav's sons developed the great Kiev Pechersk Lavra ( monastery ). In the centuries that followed the state's foundation, Rurik's descendants shared power over Kievan Rus'. The means by which royal power was transferred from one Rurikid ruler to the next is unclear, however, historian Paul Magocsi mentioned that 'Scholars have debated what the actual system of succession

4592-423: Is the first such work in Russian and expounds a theory of literature on the basis of Russian literary models. His treatise "Predisloviye o polze knig tserkovnykh v rossiyskom yazyke" (Introduction to the usefulness of church books in the Russian language, 1757) is the first Russian work on stylistics . Lomonosov adopted classical views on the existence of three distinct styles—high, middle, and low—and applied them to

4756-532: The Primary Chronicle , which was produced in the 12th century. Nationalist accounts on the other hand have suggested that the Rus' were present before the arrival of the Varangians, noting that only a handful of Scandinavian words can be found in Russian and that Scandinavian names in the early chronicles were soon replaced by Slavic names. Nevertheless, the close connection between the Rus' and

4920-636: The Dnieper river valley to protect trade from Khazar incursions from the east, and took control of the city. Sviatoslav I ( r.  943–972 ) achieved the first major territorial expansion of the state, fighting a war of conquest against the Khazars . Vladimir the Great ( r.  980–1015 ) spread Christianity with his own baptism and, by decree, extended it to all inhabitants of Kiev and beyond. Kievan Rus' reached its greatest extent under Yaroslav

5084-575: The Hunnic invasion of the 370s halted Christianisation for several centuries. Some of the earliest Kievan princes and princesses such as Askold and Dir and Olga of Kiev reportedly converted to Christianity, but Oleg , Igor and Sviatoslav remained pagans. The Primary Chronicle records the legend that when Vladimir had decided to accept a new faith instead of traditional Slavic paganism , he sent out some of his most valued advisors and warriors as emissaries to different parts of Europe. They visited

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5248-582: The Old Norse name Garðaríki , which, according to a common interpretation , means "land of towns". Prior to the emergence of Kievan Rus' in the 9th century, most of the area north of the Black Sea was primarily populated by eastern Slavic tribes. In the northern region around Novgorod were the Ilmen Slavs and neighboring Krivichi , who occupied territories surrounding the headwaters of

5412-582: The Polotsk Princes . The position of the grand prince of Kiev was weakened by the growing influence of regional clans. The rival Principality of Polotsk was contesting the power of the Grand Prince by occupying Novgorod, while Rostislav Vladimirovich was fighting for the Black Sea port of Tmutarakan belonging to Chernigov. Three of Yaroslav's sons that first allied together found themselves fighting each other especially after their defeat to

5576-500: The Primary Chronicle ". Archaeological research, synthesizing a wide range of 20th-century excavations, has begun to develop what Jonathan Shepard has called a "bottom up" vision of the formation of the Rus' polity, in which, during the ninth and 10th century increasingly intensive trade networks criss-crossed linguistically and ethnically diverse groups around rivers like the Volga, the Don,

5740-525: The Primary Chronicle , Vladimir assembled a host of Varangian warriors, first subdued the Principality of Polotsk and then defeated and killed Yaropolk, thus establishing his reign over the entire Kievan Rus' realm. Although sometimes solely attributed to Vladimir, the Christianization of Kievan Rus' was a long and complicated process that began before the state's formation. As early as

5904-591: The Primary Chronicle , archaeological assemblages indicating Scandinavian-style weapon-bearing elites on the Upper Volga, and evidence for slave-trading and violent destruction of fortified settlements. Numerous artefacts of Scandinavian affinity have been found in northern Russia (as well as artefacts of Slavic origin in Sweden). However, exchange between the north and southern shores of the Baltic had occurred since

6068-472: The Primary Chronicle , in 880–82, Oleg led a military force south along the Dnieper river, capturing Smolensk and Lyubech before reaching Kiev, where he deposed and killed Askold and Dir: "Oleg set himself up as prince in Kiev, and declared that it should be the "mother of Rus' cities". Oleg set about consolidating his power over the surrounding region and the riverways north to Novgorod, imposing tribute on

6232-728: The Slavic peoples . This literature facilitated the conversion to Christianity of the Eastern Slavs and introduced them to rudimentary Greek philosophy , science, and historiography without the necessity of learning Greek (there were some merchants who did business with Greeks and likely had an understanding of contemporary business Greek). Following the Great Schism of 1054, the Kievan church maintained communion with both Rome and Constantinople for some time, but along with most of

6396-629: The Slavs . The Normanist theory has been firmly established as mainstream, and modern Anti-Normanism is viewed as historical revisionism . The origin of Kievan Rus' is infamously contentious, and relates to its perceived importance for the legitimation of nation-building , imperialism , and independence movements within the East Slavic-speaking world, and for legitimating different political relationships between eastern and western European countries. The Norsemen that ventured from what

6560-613: The University of Marburg and then in Freiberg . The University of Marburg was among Europe's most important universities in the mid-18th century due to the presence of the philosopher Christian Wolff , a prominent figure of the German Enlightenment . Lomonosov became one of Wolff's students while at Marburg from November 1736 to July 1739. Both philosophically and as a science administrator, this connection would be

6724-890: The West Dvina , Dnieper and Volga rivers. To their north, in the Ladoga and Karelia regions, were the Finnic Chud tribe. In the south, in the area around Kiev, were the Poliane , the Drevliane to the west of the Dnieper, and the Severiane to the east. To their north and east were the Vyatichi , and to their south was forested land settled by Slav farmers, giving way to steppelands populated by nomadic herdsmen. There

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6888-690: The White Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south and from the headwaters of the Vistula in the west to the Taman Peninsula in the east, uniting the East Slavic tribes. According to the Primary Chronicle , the first ruler to unite East Slavic lands into what would become Kievan Rus' was Oleg the Wise ( r.  879–912 ). He extended his control from Novgorod south along

7052-615: The atmosphere of Venus and the law of conservation of mass in chemical reactions . His spheres of science were natural science , chemistry , physics , mineralogy , history, art, philology , optical devices and others. The founder of modern geology , Lomonosov was also a poet and influenced the formation of the modern Russian literary language . Lomonosov was born in the village of Mishaninskaya , later renamed Lomonosovo in his honor, in Archangelgorod Governorate , on an island not far from Kholmogory , in

7216-611: The steppe region, leading to military conflict, disruption of trade, and instability within the Khazar Khaganate. The Rus' and Slavs had earlier allied with the Khazars against Arab raids on the Caucasus, but they increasingly worked against them to secure control of the trade routes . The Byzantine Empire was able to take advantage of the turmoil to expand its political influence and commercial relationships, first with

7380-536: The "Father of Russian Science," though many of his scientific accomplishments were relatively unknown outside Russia until long after his death and gained proper appreciation only in late 19th and, especially, 20th centuries. In 1756, Lomonosov tried to replicate Robert Boyle 's experiment of 1673. He concluded that the commonly accepted phlogiston theory was false. Anticipating the discoveries of Antoine Lavoisier , he wrote in his diary: "Today I made an experiment in hermetic glass vessels in order to determine whether

7544-529: The "Kievan Rus ' ". Moreover, there is doubt if the emerging Kievan Rus' were the same clan as the "Rus" who visited the Carolingians in 839 or who attacked Constantinople in 860 AD. The rise of Kiev itself is mysterious. Devoid of any silver dirham finds in the 8th century AD, it was situated west of the profitable fur and silver trade networks that spanned from the Baltic to the Muslim lands, via

7708-527: The 12th century also as Ruthenia or Rutenia . Various etymologies have been proposed, including Ruotsi , the Finnish designation for Sweden or Ros , a tribe from the middle Dnieper valley region. According to the prevalent theory, the name Rus ' , like the Proto-Finnic name for Sweden ( *rootsi ), is derived from an Old Norse term for 'men who row' ( rods- ) because rowing

7872-644: The 12th century, and covering the years 852 to 1110. At the beginning of an important speech in 1749, later published as Origines gentis et nominis Russorum ("The Origins of the People and the Name of the Russians"), Müller argued that the Rurikid dynasty descended from ethnically Scandinavian Varangians and that the term "Russia" originated from Old Norse. This statement caused such uproar in his Russian audience that he

8036-404: The 12th-century Orthodox priests who authored the Chronicle as an explanation how the Vikings managed to conquer the lands along the Varangian route so easily, as well as to support the legitimacy of the Rurikid dynasty. The three brothers— Rurik , Sineus and Truvor —supposedly established themselves in Novgorod, Beloozero and Izborsk , respectively. Two of the brothers died, and Rurik became

8200-429: The 19th century and early 20th centuries. Russian historians who accepted this historical account included Nikolai Karamzin (1766–1826) and his disciple Mikhail Pogodin (1800–1875), who gave credit to the claims of the Primary Chronicle that the Varangians were invited by East Slavs to rule over them and bring order. The theory was not without political implications. For some, it fitted with embracing and celebrating

8364-438: The 1st century AD, Greeks in the Black Sea Colonies converted to Christianity, and the Primary Chronicle even records the legend of Andrew the Apostle 's mission to these coastal settlements, as well as blessing the site of present-day Kyiv. The Goths migrated to through the region in the 3rd century, adopting Arian Christianity in the 4th century, leaving behind 4th- and 5th-century churches excavated in Crimea, although

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8528-506: The 20th-century, who saw in Russia "a wonderful instance of the state-organizing capability of the Germans among an inferior race". During the historical debates of the 20th century, the key evidence for the mainstream view that Scandinavian migrants had an important role in the formation of Kievan Rus' emerged as the following: In the 21st century, analyses of the rapidly growing range of archaeological evidence further noted that high-status 9th- to 10th-century burials of both men and women in

8692-429: The 275th anniversary of the birth of M.V. Lomonosov, the USSR State Bank issued a 1 ruble commemorative coin from a copper-nickel alloy. On 6 December 2022, the City Council of the Ukrainian city Dnipro decided to remove from the city all monuments to figures of Russian culture and history , in particular it was mentioned that the monuments to Lomonosov, Alexander Pushkin and Maxim Gorky would be removed from

8856-416: The 9th century were divided between the Varangians and the Khazars. The Varangians are first mentioned imposing tribute from Slavic and Finnic tribes in 859. In 862, various tribes rebelled against the Varangians, driving them "back beyond the sea and, refusing them further tribute, set out to govern themselves". They said to themselves, "Let us seek a prince who may rule over us, and judge us according to

9020-496: The Balkans to drive the Rus' back, and a naval contingent reportedly destroyed much of the Rus' fleet on its return voyage (possibly an exaggeration since the Rus' soon mounted another attack). The outcome indicates increased military might by Byzantium since 911, suggesting a shift in the balance of power. Igor returned to Kiev keen for revenge. He assembled a large force of warriors from among neighboring Slavs and Pecheneg allies, and sent for reinforcements of Varangians from "beyond

9184-411: The Byzantines deteriorated, as Byzantium increasingly allied with the Pechenegs against them. The Pechenegs were thus secure to raid the lands of the Khazars from their base between the Volga and Don rivers, allowing them to expand to the west. Relations between the Rus' and Pechenegs were complex, as the groups alternately formed alliances with and against one another. The Pechenegs were nomads roaming

9348-416: The Christians of the Latin Church , the Jews , and the Muslims before finally arriving in Constantinople. They rejected Islam because, among other things, it prohibited the consumption of alcohol, and Judaism because the god of the Jews had permitted his chosen people to be deprived of their country. They found the ceremonies in the Roman church to be dull. But at Constantinople, they were so astounded by

9512-432: The Chronicle, was biased against the pro-Greek party of Vladimir Monomakh and supported the pro-Scandinavian party of the ruling prince Svyatopolk . He cites Nestor as a pro-Scandinavian manipulator and compares his account of Rurik's invitation with numerous similar stories found in folklore around the world. By the 21st century, most professional scholars, in both Anglophone and Slavic-language scholarship, had reached

9676-431: The Cuman forces in 1068 at the Battle of the Alta River . The ruling Grand Prince Iziaslav fled to Poland asking for support and in a couple of years returned to establish the order. The affairs became even more complicated by the end of the 11th century driving the state into chaos and constant warfare. On the initiative of Vladimir II Monomakh in 1097 the Council of Liubech of Kievan Rus' took place near Chernigov with

9840-448: The Dnieper. This may have produced "an essentially voluntary convergence of groupings in common pursuit of primary produce exchangeable for artefacts from afar". This fits well with the image of Rus' that dominates the Arabic sources, focusing further south and east, around the Black and Caspian Seas, the Caucasus and the Volga Bulgars. Yet this narrative, though plausible, contends with the "top-down" image of state development implied by

10004-399: The Don river, and into the lower Volga region. The Rus' were raiding and plundering into the Caspian Sea region from 864, with the first large-scale expedition in 913, when they extensively raided Baku, Gilan, Mazandaran and penetrated into the Caucasus. As the 10th century progressed, the Khazars were no longer able to command tribute from the Volga Bulgars, and their relationship with

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10168-400: The Drevlians and the Pechenegs, a period of peace ensued for over twenty years. In 941, Igor led another major Rus' attack on Constantinople, probably over trading rights again. A navy of 10,000 vessels, including Pecheneg allies, landed on the Bithynian coast and devastated the Asiatic shore of the Bosphorus. The attack was well timed, perhaps due to intelligence, as the Byzantine fleet

10332-416: The Earth – his most significant geological work. This work puts him before James Hutton , who has been traditionally regarded as the founder of modern geology. Lomonosov based his conceptions on the unity of the Earth's processes in time, and necessity to explain the planet's past from present. Lomonosov's observation of iceberg formation led into his pioneering work in geography . Lomonosov got close to

10496-515: The East Slav tribes. In 883, he conquered the Drevlians , imposing a fur tribute on them. By 885 he had subjugated the Poliane, Severiane, Vyatichi, and Radimichs , forbidding them to pay further tribute to the Khazars. Oleg continued to develop and expand a network of Rus' forts in Slavic lands, begun by Rurik in the north. The new Kievan state prospered due to its abundant supply of furs, beeswax, honey and slaves for export, and because it controlled three main trade routes of Eastern Europe . In

10660-521: The Eastern churches it eventually split to follow the Eastern Orthodox. That being said, unlike other parts of the Greek world, Kievan Rus' did not have a strong hostility to the Western world. Yaroslav , known as "the Wise", struggled for power with his brothers. A son of Vladimir the Great , he was prince of Novgorod at the time of his father's death in 1015. Although he first established his rule over Kiev in 1019, he did not have uncontested rule of all of Kievan Rus' until 1036. Like Vladimir, Yaroslav

10824-401: The Iron Age (albeit limited to immediately coastal areas). Northern Russia and adjacent Finnic lands had become a profitable meeting ground for peoples of diverse origins, especially for the trade of furs, and attracted by the presence of oriental silver from the mid-8th century AD. There is an undeniable presence of goods and people of Scandinavian origin; however, the predominant people remained

10988-431: The Khazars and later with the Rus' and other steppe groups. The Byzantines established the Theme of Cherson , formally known as Klimata, in the Crimea in the 830s to defend against raids by the Rus' and to protect vital grain shipments supplying Constantinople. Cherson also served as a key diplomatic link with the Khazars and others on the steppe, and it became the centre of Black Sea commerce. The Byzantines also helped

11152-423: The Khazars build a fortress at Sarkel on the Don river to protect their northwest frontier against incursions by the Turkic migrants and the Rus', and to control caravan trade routes and the portage between the Don and Volga rivers. The expansion of the Rus' put further military and economic pressure on the Khazars, depriving them of territory, tributaries and trade. In around 890, Oleg waged an indecisive war in

11316-410: The Kiev principality was recognized after the death of Sviatoslav I in 972 and the ensuing struggle between Vladimir and Yaropolk . The region of Kiev dominated the region for the next two centuries. The grand prince (or grand duke) of Kiev controlled the lands around the city, and his formally subordinate relatives ruled the other cities and paid him tribute. The zenith of the state's power came during

11480-456: The Kievan state united the southern Rus' (of Slavic stock) and the northern Rus' (of Germanic stock) into a single nation. In light of evidence, theories – most of them proposed by Soviet scholars with nationalistic agendas – of a Slav state in the Baltic region attacked by and ultimately absorbing Viking invaders are more likely the product of wishful thinking than of fact. Waldman, & Mason 2005 , p. 668 The staunchest advocate of

11644-406: The Law." They accordingly went overseas to the Varangian Rus'. ... The Chuds, the Slavs, the Krivichs and the Ves then said to the Rus', "Our land is great and rich, but there is no order in it. Come to rule and reign over us". They thus selected three brothers with their kinfolk, who took with them all the Rus' and migrated. Modern scholars find this an unlikely series of events, probably made up by

11808-584: The Monomakh-Piast descendant Roman the Great . Mikhail Lomonosov Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov ( / ˌ l ɒ m ə ˈ n ɒ s ɒ f / ; Russian : Михаил Васильевич Ломоносов , IPA: [mʲɪxɐˈil vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ləmɐˈnosəf ] ; 19 November [ O.S. 8 November] 1711 – 15 April [ O.S. 4 April] 1765) was a Russian polymath , scientist and writer, who made important contributions to literature, education, and science. Among his discoveries were

11972-534: The Norse is confirmed both by extensive Scandinavian settlement in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine and by Slavic influences in the Swedish language. Though the debate over the origin of the Rus' remains politically charged, there is broad agreement that if the proto-Rus' were indeed originally Norse, they were quickly nativized , adopting Slavic languages and other cultural practices. This position, roughly representing

12136-467: The Norse origins of the Rus' have been supported directly by state policy in some cases, and the resultant foundation myths have been included in some school textbooks in Russia. While Varangians were Norse traders and Vikings , many Russian and Ukrainian nationalist historians argue that the Rus' were themselves Slavs. Normanist theories focus on the earliest written source for the East Slavs ,

12300-409: The Patriarch announced that the Rus' had accepted a bishop, and in 874 he speaks of an "Archbishop of the Rus'." Relations between the Rus' and Byzantines became more complex after Oleg took control over Kiev, reflecting commercial, cultural, and military concerns. The wealth and income of the Rus' depended heavily upon trade with Byzantium. Constantine Porphyrogenitus described the annual course of

12464-643: The Pechenegs to attack the Magyars from their rear. Boxed in, the Magyars were forced to migrate further west across the Carpathian Mountains into the Hungarian plain, depriving the Khazars of an important ally and a buffer from the Rus'. The migration of the Magyars allowed access for the Rus' to the Black Sea, and they soon launched excursions into Khazar territory along the sea coast, up

12628-581: The Rus' attacked Constantinople again in 907, probably to secure trade access. The Chronicle glorifies the military prowess and shrewdness of Oleg, an account imbued with legendary detail. Byzantine sources do not mention the attack, but a pair of treaties in 907 and 911 set forth a trade agreement with the Rus', the terms suggesting pressure on the Byzantines, who granted the Rus' quarters and supplies for their merchants and tax-free trading privileges in Constantinople. The Chronicle provides

12792-452: The Rus' as disparate, and often mutually antagonistic, clans of charismatic warriors and traders who formed wide-ranging networks across the North and Baltic Seas. They were a "multi-ethnic, multilingual and non-territorial community of sea nomads and trading settlements" that contained numerous Norsemen—but equally Slavs, Balts, and Finns. Tolochko argues "the story of the royal clan's journey

12956-564: The Rus' in later campaigns against the Byzantines, yet allied with the Byzantines against the Rus' at other times. After the Rus' attack on Constantinople in 860, the Byzantine Patriarch Photius sent missionaries north to convert the Rus' and the Slavs to Christianity. Prince Rastislav of Moravia had requested the Emperor to provide teachers to interpret the holy scriptures, so in 863 the brothers Cyril and Methodius were sent as missionaries, due to their knowledge of

13120-610: The Rus', including stringent regulations on the conduct of Rus' merchants in Cherson and Constantinople and specific punishments for violations of the law. The Byzantines may have been motivated to enter the treaty out of concern of a prolonged alliance of the Rus', Pechenegs, and Bulgarians against them, though the more favorable terms further suggest a shift in power. Following the death of Igor in 945, his wife Olga ruled as regent in Kiev until their son Sviatoslav reached maturity (c. 963). His decade-long reign over Kievan Rus'

13284-492: The Russian literary language. It also addresses the problems of the combination of Church Slavonic and Russian forms and the categorization of literary genres. In 1760, Lomonosov published a history of Russia. In addition, he attempted to write a grand Aeneid -inspired epic about Peter the Great, but he died before he could finish it. His granddaughter Sophia Konstantinova (1769–1844) married Russian military hero and statesman General Nikolay Raevsky . His great-granddaughter

13448-399: The Russian state owed its existence and origins to the supposedly racially superior Norse tribes. More recently, in the context of resurgent nationalism in post-Soviet states, Anglophone scholarship has analyzed renewed efforts to use this debate to create ethno-nationalist foundation stories, with governments sometimes directly involved in the project. Conferences and publications questioning

13612-867: The Slavonic language. The Slavs had no written language, so the brothers devised the Glagolitic alphabet , later replaced by Cyrillic (developed in the First Bulgarian Empire ) and standardized the language of the Slavs, later known as Old Church Slavonic . They translated portions of the Bible and drafted the first Slavic civil code and other documents, and the language and texts spread throughout Slavic territories, including Kievan Rus'. The mission of Cyril and Methodius served both evangelical and diplomatic purposes, spreading Byzantine cultural influence in support of imperial foreign policy. In 867

13776-593: The Swedish language. Modern studies of the Rus' began when the German historian Gerhardt Friedrich Müller (1705–1783) was invited to work in the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1725. Müller presented research made by his predecessor Gottlieb-Siegfried Bayer in the papers De Varagis ("On the Varangians ", 1729) and Origines russicae ("Russian origins", 1736), and on the Primary Chronicle , written in

13940-509: The Varangians to the Greeks ," continuing to the Black Sea and on to Constantinople. Kiev was a central outpost along the Dnieper route and a hub with the east–west overland trade route between the Khazars and the Germanic lands of Central Europe. and may have been a staging post for Radhanite Jewish traders between Western Europe, Itil and China. These commercial connections enriched Rus' merchants and princes, funding military forces and

14104-638: The Volga-Don steppes to eastern Crimea and the northern Caucasus during the 8th century, an era historians call the ' Pax Khazarica ', trading and frequently allying with the Byzantine Empire against Persians and Arabs. In the late 8th century, the collapse of the Göktürk Khaganate led the Magyars and the Pechenegs , Ugrians and Turkic peoples from Central Asia, to migrate west into

14268-529: The Volga– Kama basins. At the prime hill in Kiev, fortifications and other symbols of consolidation and power appear from the 9th century, thus preceding the literary appearance of "Rus" in the middle Dnieper region. By the 10th century, the lowlands around Kiev had extensive "Slavic" styled settlements, and there is evidence of growing trade with the Byzantine lands. This might have attracted Rus' movements, and

14432-546: The Wise ( r.  1019–1054 ); his sons assembled and issued its first written legal code, the Russkaya Pravda , shortly after his death. The state began to decline in the late 11th century, gradually disintegrating into various rival regional powers throughout the 12th century. It was further weakened by external factors, such as the decline of the Byzantine Empire , its major economic partner, and

14596-454: The academy. He was released and pardoned in January 1744 after apologising to all involved. Lomonosov was made a full member of the academy and named professor of chemistry in 1745. He established the academy's first chemistry laboratory. Eager to improve Russia's educational system, in 1755, Lomonosov joined his patron Count Ivan Shuvalov in founding Moscow University . In 1760, he

14760-504: The accompanying diminution of trade routes through its territory. It finally fell to the Mongol invasion in the mid-13th century, though the Rurik dynasty would continue to rule until the death of Feodor I of Russia in 1598. The modern nations of Belarus , Russia , and Ukraine all claim Kievan Rus' as their cultural ancestor, with Belarus and Russia deriving their names from it, and

14924-403: The adoption of this system was already in progress when Lomonosov publicized his theories. His "Ode on the Taking of Khotin" has been called the first "aesthetically indisputable example" of accentual-syllabic verse in the history of Russian literature. The iambic tetrameter and hexameter verse and the ten-line odic stanza which he developed had a lasting role in Russian poetry. His advocacy of

15088-535: The anti-Normanist views in the period following the Second World War was Boris Rybakov , who argued that the cultural level of the Varangians could not have warranted an invitation from the culturally advanced Slavs. This conclusion leads Slavicists to deny the Primary Chronicle , which writes that the Varangian Rus' were invited by the native Slavs. Rybakov assumed that Nestor , putative author of

15252-464: The atmosphere of Venus when the planet has progressed off the limb of the Sun, it has generally, if rather uncritically, been assumed that this was the same thing that Lomonosov saw. Indeed, the term "Lomonosov’s arc" has frequently been used in the literature. In 2012, Pasachoff and Sheehan consulted original sources, and questioned the basis for the claim that Lomonosov observed the thin arc produced by

15416-496: The atmosphere of Venus. A reference to the paper was even picked up by the Russian state-controlled media group RIA Novosti on 31 January 2013, under the headline "Astronomical Battle in US Over Lomonosov’s discovery." An attempt was made by a group of researchers to experimentally reconstruct Lomonosov's observation using antique telescopes during the transit of Venus on 5–6 June 2012. One of them, Y. Petrunin, suggested that

15580-504: The beauty of the cathedral of Hagia Sophia and the liturgical service held there that they made up their minds there and then about the faith they would like to follow. Upon their arrival home, they convinced Vladimir that the faith of the Byzantine Rite was the best choice of all, upon which Vladimir made a journey to Constantinople and arranged to marry Princess Anna , the sister of Byzantine emperor Basil II . Historically, it

15744-557: The bright flash of the solar photosphere before third contact. The first observers to record the actual arc associated with the atmosphere of Venus, in a form comporting with modern observations, appear to have been Chappe, Rittenhouse, Wayles and Dymond, and several others at the transit in June 1769. In 1762, Lomonosov presented an improved design of a reflecting telescope to the Russian Academy of Sciences forum. His telescope had its primary mirror adjusted at an angle of four degrees to

15908-511: The broader one, encompassing all the lands under the hegemony of Kiev's grand princes. The Russian term Kiyevskaya Rus' ( Russian : Ки́евская Русь ) was coined in the 19th century in Russian historiography to refer to the period when the centre was in Kiev. In the 19th century it also appeared in Ukrainian as Kyivska Rus' ( Ukrainian : Ки́ївська Русь ). Later, the Russian term

16072-454: The cities of Kiev, Chernigov , and Pereyaslavl and their surroundings came under Varangian control. From the late tenth century, Vladimir the Great and Yaroslav the Wise tried to associate the name with all of the extended princely domains. Both meanings persisted in sources until the Mongol conquest: the narrower one, referring to the triangular territory east of the middle Dnieper, and

16236-501: The construction of churches, palaces, fortifications, and further towns. Demand for luxury goods fostered production of expensive jewelry and religious wares, allowing their export, and an advanced credit and money-lending system may have also been in place. The rapid expansion of the Rus' to the south led to conflict and volatile relationships with the Khazars and other neighbors on the Pontic steppe . The Khazars dominated trade from

16400-536: The controversy is related to the foundation myths of modern states in the region. This often unfruitful debate over origins has periodically devolved into competing nationalist narratives of dubious scholarly value being promoted directly by various government bodies in a number of states. This was seen in the Stalinist period, when Soviet historiography sought to distance the Rus' from any connection to Germanic tribes, in an effort to dispel Nazi propaganda claiming

16564-471: The coveted throne of Kiev. Whatever the case, according to professor Ivan Katchanovski 'no adequate system of succession to the Kievan throne was developed' after the death of Yaroslav the Wise ( r.  1019–1054 ), commencing a process of gradual disintegration. The unconventional power succession system fomented constant hatred and rivalry within the royal family. Familicide was frequently deployed to obtain power and can be traced particularly during

16728-483: The creation of a system of Russian linguistic conventions, syntax and prosody which would allow the advancement of a native literary tradition on the basis of Western European genres. He laid out his literary theories in his work "Epistle on the Rules of Russian Versification" (1739). Lomonosov is considered the founder of accentual-syllabic (or syllabo-tonic) verse in Russian poetry, although statistical analysis suggests

16892-410: The far north of Russia. His father, Vasily Dorofeyevich Lomonosov, was a prosperous peasant fisherman turned ship owner, who amassed a small fortune transporting goods from Arkhangelsk to Pustozyorsk , Solovki , Kola , and Lapland . Lomonosov's mother was Vasily's first wife, a deacon 's daughter, Elena Ivanovna Sivkova. He remained at Denisovka until he was ten, when his father decided that he

17056-713: The first Russian poems on the theme of sublime admiration of nature. He applied an idiosyncratic theory to his later poems – tender subjects needed words containing the front vowel sounds E, I, Y and U, whereas things that may cause fear (like "anger", "envy", "pain" and "sorrow") needed words with back vowel sounds O, U and Y. That was a version of what is now called sound symbolism . He also wrote two verse tragedies, Tamira i Selim and Demofont . Lomonosov wrote an important Russian grammar in 1755 (published in 1757), in which he distinguished Old Church Slavonic and colloquial Russian forms. His work on rhetoric "Kratkoye rukovodstvo k krasnorechiyu" (Brief guide to eloquence, 1748)

17220-410: The flames, jumped overboard, preferring water to fire. Some sank, weighed down by the weight of their breastplates and helmets; others caught fire." Those captured were beheaded. The ploy dispelled the Rus' fleet, but their attacks continued into the hinterland as far as Nicomedia , with many atrocities reported as victims were crucified and set up for use as targets. At last a Byzantine army arrived from

17384-537: The iamb won out over Trediakovsky's arguments for the trochee as the basic metrical foot . Lomonosov wrote solemn occasional, spiritual, as natural-philosophical odes, as well as an Anacreontic ode. According to A. Kahn, "the turgidity of the Lomonosovian ode derives from a propensity to create semantic clusters, usually through etymologic play or tropes, such as zeugma ." His "Evening Meditation on God's Grandeur" and "Morning Meditation on God's Grandeur" are

17548-420: The idea of conservation of matter in the following words: "All changes in nature are such that inasmuch is taken from one object insomuch is added to another. So, if the amount of matter decreases in one place, it increases elsewhere. This universal law of nature embraces laws of motion as well, for an object moving others by its own force in fact imparts to another object the force it loses" (first articulated in

17712-501: The idea of Scandinavian influence in early Russian history. The anti-Normanist arguments were revived and adopted in official Soviet historiography , partly in response to Nazi propaganda, which posited that Russia owed its existence to a Germanic ruling elite. In the earlier 20th century, Nazi Germany had promoted the idea that Russia owed its statehood to a Germanic, racially superior, elite. Mikhail Artamonov ranks among those who attempted to reconcile both theories by hypothesizing that

17876-414: The interface between Venus and the Sun during transits are impressively large, and any inferences from them are fraught with peril". Again, the actual words used by Lomonosov do not refer to an "arc" at all. In the Russian version, he described a brief brightening lasting a second or so, just before third contact , which appeared to Pasachoff and Sheehan to most probably indicate a last fleeting glimpse of

18040-582: The lands of the lower Dniester and Dnieper rivers with the Tivertsi and the Ulichs , who were likely acting as vassals of the Magyars, blocking Rus' access to the Black Sea. In 894, the Magyars and Pechenegs were drawn into the wars between the Byzantines and the Bulgarian Empire . The Byzantines arranged for the Magyars to attack Bulgarian territory from the north, and Bulgaria in turn persuaded

18204-465: The late 9th to the mid-13th century. Encompassing a variety of polities and peoples, including East Slavic , Norse , and Finnic , it was ruled by the Rurik dynasty , founded by the Varangian prince Rurik . The name was coined by Russian historians in the 19th century to describe the period when Kiev was at the center. At its greatest extent in the mid-11th century, Kievan Rus' stretched from

18368-484: The local (Baltic and Finnic) peoples. The increasing volume of trade and internal competition necessitated higher forms of organization. The Rus' appeared to emulate aspects of Khazar political organization—hence the mention of a Rus' chaganus in the Carolingian court in 839 ( Royal Frankish Annals ). Legitimization was sought by way of adopting a Christian and linguistically Slavic "high culture" that became

18532-603: The main intention to find an understanding among the fighting sides. By 1130, all descendants of Vseslav the Seer had been exiled to the Byzantine Empire by Mstislav the Great . The most fierce resistance to the Monomakhs was posed by the Olegovichi when the izgoi Vsevolod II managed to become the Grand Prince of Kiev. The Rostislavichi , who had initially established in the lands of Galicia by 1189, were defeated by

18696-449: The mass of metals increases from the action of pure heat. The experiments – of which I append the record in 13 pages – demonstrated that the famous Robert Boyle was deluded, for without access of air from outside the mass of the burnt metal remains the same." That is the Law of Mass Conservation in chemical reaction , which is well-known today as "in a chemical reaction, the mass of reactants

18860-607: The mosaic art. In 1763, he set up a glass factory that produced the first stained glass mosaics outside of Italy. There were forty mosaics attributed to Lomonosov, with only twenty-four surviving to the present day. Among the best is the portrait of Peter the Great and the Battle of Poltava , measuring 4.8 by 6.4 metres (16 ft × 21 ft). Besides his scientific activities, Lomonosov also paid considerable attention to literature. Together with his contemporaries Alexander Sumarokov and Vasily Trediakovsky , Lomonosov sought

19024-473: The most influential of Lomonosov's life. In 1739–1740 he studied mineralogy and philosophy at the University of Göttingen ; there he intensified his studies of German literature. Lomonosov quickly mastered the German language, and in addition to philosophy, seriously studied chemistry , discovered the works of 17th century Irish theologian and natural philosopher Robert Boyle , and even began writing poetry. He also developed an interest in German literature. He

19188-500: The multi-lingual popular astronomy writer Willy Ley (1966), who consulted sources in both Russian and German, and wrote that Lomonosov observed a luminous ring (this was Ley's interpretation and was not indicated in quotes) and inferred from it the existence of an atmosphere "maybe greater than that of the Earth" (which was in quotes). Because many modern transit observers have also seen a threadlike arc produced by refraction of sunlight in

19352-505: The multiethnic character of the Russian Empire. However, it was also consistent with the racial theory widespread at the time that Germanics (and their descendants) were naturally suited to government, whereas Slavs were not. According to Karamzin, the Norse migration formed the basis and justification for Russian autocracy (as opposed to anarchy of the pre-Rurikid period), and Pogodin used the theory to advance his view that Russia

19516-717: The name Kievan Rus' derived from what is now the capital of Ukraine. During its existence, Kievan Rus' was known as the " Rus' land" ( Old East Slavic : ро́усьскаѧ землѧ́ , romanized:  rusĭskaę zemlę , from the ethnonym Роусь , Rusĭ ; Medieval Greek : Ῥῶς , romanized :  Rhos ; Arabic : الروس , romanized :  ar-Rūs ), in Greek as Ῥωσία , Rhosia , in Old French as Russie, Rossie , in Latin as Rusia or Russia (with local German spelling variants Ruscia and Ruzzia ), and from

19680-696: The north, Novgorod served as a commercial link between the Baltic Sea and the Volga trade route to the lands of the Volga Bulgars , the Khazars, and across the Caspian Sea as far as Baghdad , providing access to markets and products from Central Asia and the Middle East. Trade from the Baltic also moved south on a network of rivers and short portages along the Dnieper known as the " route from

19844-473: The northern coast of Siberia . The idea of a coaxial rotor originated from Mikhail Lomonosov. In July 1754, he developed a model of a small helicopter with a coaxial rotor and demonstrated it to the Russian Academy of Sciences. Lomonosov was proud to restore the ancient art of mosaics . In 1754, in his letter to Leonhard Euler , he wrote that his three years of experiments on the effects of chemistry of minerals on their colour led to his deep involvement in

20008-474: The number of Slavs and non-Slavs. In addition, the Norsemen married local women, had their weapons made by Slavs, and only a relatively small number of Norse loanwords in Russian have been established. In general, the Norsemen absorbed culture in Russia and down the Volga. There is uncertainty as to how large the Scandinavian migration to Rus' was, but some archaeological work in the years around 2000 argued for

20172-411: The only books he had access to were religious texts. When he was fourteen, Lomonosov was given copies of Meletius Smotrytsky 's Modern Church Slavonic (a grammar book) and Leonty Magnitsky 's Arithmetic . Lomonosov was a Russian Orthodox Christian all his life, but had close encounters with Old Believers schism in early youth and later in life he became a deist . In 1724, his father married for

20336-402: The origin of Rus', however, either because the evidence is not good enough, or because they remain uncertain whether Rus' was an ethnic group with a clear point of origin. Scholars such as Omeljan Pritsak and Horace G. Lunt offer explanations that go beyond simplistic attempts to attribute "ethnicity" on first glance interpretation of literary, philological, and archaeological evidence. They view

20500-463: The photosphere. As a check against this, Lomonosov's German version (he had learned to speak and write German fluently as a student at Marburg) was also consulted; he describes seeing "ein ganz helles Licht, wie ein Haar breit"=”a very bright light, as wide as a hair". Here, the adverb "ganz" in connection with "helles" (bright) could mean "as bright as possible" or "completely bright"), i.e., as bright as

20664-577: The population of Kiev to be baptised in August 988. The greatest resistance against Christianisation appears to have occurred in northern towns including Novgorod, Suzdal, and Belozersk. Adherence to the Eastern Church had long-range political, cultural, and religious consequences. The church had a liturgy written in Cyrillic and a corpus of translations from Greek that had been produced for

20828-574: The princes of Kiev, collecting tribute from client tribes, assembling the product into a flotilla of hundreds of boats, conducting them down the Dnieper to the Black Sea, and sailing to the estuary of the Dniester, the Danube delta, and on to Constantinople. On their return trip they would carry silk fabrics, spices, wine, and fruit. The importance of this trade relationship led to military action when disputes arose. The Primary Chronicle reports that

20992-978: The queen that was issued in 2004, three 300th Anniversary of the Birth of M.V. Lomonosov stamps were issued in 2011. The Akademik Lomonosov , the first of a series of Russian floating nuclear power stations , is named after him. It started operation on 19 December 2019. Moscow State University , founded by him in 1755, was renamed M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University in 1940, while celebrating its 185th anniversary. There are also Moscow Institute of Mechanics and Electrical Engineering M.V. Lomonosov (Lomonosov Institute), Lomonosov Institute of Geochemistry, Mineralogy and Petrography , USSR Academy of Sciences in Moscow, Lomonosov Northern (Arctic) Federal University, Odessa Technological Institute of Food Industry n.a. M.V. Lomonosov, Moscow State University of Fine Chemical Technologies n.a. M.V. Lomonosov, and several other schools in Russia and Kazakhstan. On 19 November 1986, on

21156-401: The reigns of Vladimir the Great ( r.  980–1015 ) and Prince Yaroslav I the Wise ( r.  1019–1054 ). Both rulers continued the steady expansion of Kievan Rus' that had begun under Oleg. Vladimir had been prince of Novgorod when his father Sviatoslav I died in 972, but fled to Scandinavia in 977 after his half-brother Yaropolk killed his other half-brother Oleg. According to

21320-543: The same conditions as Lomonosov, using a 40 mm Dollond at Batavia, Illinois, produced a close duplicate of Lomonosov's diagram. However, the rather large wing of light shown next to the black disk of Venus in his drawing (and Lomonosov's) is too coarse to have been the arc. Instead it appears to be a complicated manifestation of the celebrated optical effect known as the " black drop ". It should be kept in mind that, as stated in Sheehan and Westfall, "optical distortions at

21484-489: The same theme, and which appears to have been promoted by Russian government policy of the time. Accordingly, anti-Normanist accounts are prominent in some 21st century Russian school textbooks. Meanwhile, in Ukraine and to a lesser extent Belarus, post-Soviet nation-building opposed to a history of Russian imperialism has promoted anti-Normanist views in academia and, to a greater extent, popular culture. There have been quite

21648-511: The scanty and irregular allowance granted him by the Russian Academy of Sciences . As his circumstances became desperate, he got permission to return to Saint Petersburg. Lomonosov returned to Russia in June 1741, after being abroad 4 years and 8 months. A year later he was named an Adjunct of the Russian Academy of Science in the physics department. In May 1743, Lomonosov was accused, arrested, and held under house arrest for eight months, after he supposedly insulted various people associated with

21812-463: The sea". In 944, the Rus' force advanced again on the Greeks, by land and sea, and a Byzantine force from Cherson responded. The Emperor sent gifts and offered tribute in lieu of war, and the Rus' accepted. Envoys were sent between the Rus', the Byzantines, and the Bulgarians in 945, and a peace treaty was completed. The agreement again focused on trade, but this time with terms less favorable to

21976-541: The sole ruler of the territory and progenitor of the Rurik dynasty . A short time later, two of Rurik's men, Askold and Dir , asked him for permission to go to Tsargrad ( Constantinople ). On their way south, they came upon "a small city on a hill", Kiev, which was a tributary of the Khazars at the time, stayed there and "established their dominion over the country of the Polyanians ." The Primary Chronicle reports that Askold and Dir continued to Constantinople with

22140-476: The steppe raising livestock which they traded with the Rus' for agricultural goods and other products. The lucrative Rus' trade with the Byzantine Empire had to pass through Pecheneg-controlled territory, so the need for generally peaceful relations was essential. Nevertheless, while the Primary Chronicle reports the Pechenegs entering Rus' territory in 915 and then making peace, they were waging war with one another again in 920. Pechenegs are reported assisting

22304-432: The surface brightness of the solar disk, which is even stronger evidence that this can't be Venus's atmosphere, which always appears much fainter. Lomonosov's original sketches, if they existed, do not appear to have survived, Modern observations made during the nineteenth century transits and especially those of 2004 and 2012 suggest that what Lomonosov saw was not the arc associated with the atmosphere of Venus at all but

22468-430: The task of detecting the arc. Thus A. Koukarine, using a 67 mm Dollond on Mt. Hamilton, where seeing was likely much better than Lomonosov enjoyed at St. Petersburg, clearly observed the spiderweb-thin arc known to be due to refraction in the atmosphere of Venus. However, Koukarine's sketches do not really resemble the diagram published by Lomonosov. Koukarine's colleague V. Shiltsev, who more nearly observed under

22632-506: The telescope Lomonosov actually used was probably a 50 mm Dollond with a magnifying power of 40x. It was preserved at Pulkova Observatory but destroyed when the Germans bombed the observatory during World War II. Thus, Lomonosov's actual telescope was not available, but other presumably similar instruments were employed on this occasion, and led the researchers to affirm their belief that Lomonosov's telescope would have been adequate to

22796-471: The telescope's axis. This made the image focus at the side of the telescope tube, where the observer could view the image with an eyepiece without blocking the image. This invention was not published until 1827, so this type of telescope has become associated with a similar design by William Herschel , the Herschelian telescope . In 1759, with his collaborator, academician Joseph Adam Braun, Lomonosov

22960-634: The theory of continental drift , theoretically predicted the existence of Antarctica (he argued that icebergs of the Southern Ocean could be formed only on a dry land covered with ice), and invented sea tools which made writing and calculating directions and distances easier. In 1764, he organized an expedition (led by Admiral Vasili Chichagov ) to find the Northeast Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by sailing along

23124-593: The third and final time. Lomonosov and his stepmother Irina had an acrimonious relationship. Unhappy at home and intent on obtaining a higher education, which Lomonosov could not receive in Mishaninskaya, he was determined to leave the village. In 1730, determined to "study sciences," the 19-year-old Lomonosov walked all the way to Moscow . Shortly after arrival, he was admitted into the Slavic Greek Latin Academy by falsely claiming to be

23288-644: The time of the Yaroslavichi (sons of Yaroslav), when the established succession system was skipped in the establishment of Vladimir II Monomakh as the Grand Prince of Kiev ( r.  1113–1125 ), in turn creating major squabbles between the Olegovichi (sons of Oleg I ) from Chernigov, the Monomakhovichi from Pereyaslavl, the Izyaslavichi (sons of Iziaslav ) from Turov – Volhynia , and

23452-477: The underwater Lomonosov Ridge in the Arctic Ocean was named in his honor. Lomonosov Bridge in Saint Petersburg was named after the polymath. Originally called Tchernyshov Bridge (Chernyshev Bridge) in honour of Count Grigory Tchernyshov (Chernyshev)  [ ru ] one of Peter the Great's most prominent generals, whose estates were located nearby, the bridge was erected in 1785−1987, and replaced

23616-528: The vicinity of the Upper Volga exhibit material culture largely consistent with that of Scandinavia (though this is less the case away from the river, or further downstream). This has been seen as further demonstrating the Scandinavian character of elites in Old Rus'. It is also agreed, however, that ancestrally Scandinavian Rus' aristocrats, like Scandinavians elsewhere, swiftly assimilated culturally to

23780-712: The wide area where these Norsemen were active. Whereas the term " Normans " in English usually refers to the Scandinavian-descended ruling dynasty of Normandy in France from the 10th century onwards, and their scions elsewhere in Western Europe, in the context of the Rus' people, "Normanism" is the idea that the Rus' had their origins among the Normans (i.e. among " Northmen "). The term "Normanism"

23944-586: Was Princess Maria (Raevskaya) Volkonskaya , the wife of the Decembrist Prince Sergei Volkonsky . The city of Lomonosov, Russia (formerly Oranienbaum ), and a lunar crater bear his name, as does a crater on Mars and the asteroid 1379 Lomonosowa . A Russian satellite launched in 2016 was named Mikhailo Lomonosov after him. The Imperial Porcelain Factory, Saint Petersburg was renamed after him from 1925 to 2005. In 1948,

24108-599: Was eager to improve relations with the rest of Europe, especially the Byzantine Empire. Yaroslav's granddaughter, Eupraxia , the daughter of his son Vsevolod I , was married to Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor . Yaroslav also arranged marriages for his sister and three daughters to the kings of Poland, France, Hungary and Norway. Yaroslav promulgated the first law code of Kievan Rus', the Russkaya Pravda ; built Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev and Saint Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod ; patronized local clergy and monasticism ; and

24272-597: Was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences . In 1764, he was elected Foreign Member of the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna . In 1764, Lomonosov was appointed to the position of the State Councillor which was of Rank V in the Russian Empire's Table of Ranks . He died on 4 April (o.s.), 1765 in Saint Petersburg. He is widely and deservingly regarded as

24436-409: Was even thought during the 20th century that much of his research was destroyed, but recent research suggests that this is not the case: Müller managed to rework it and had it reprinted as Origines Rossicae in 1768. Despite the negative reception in the mid-18th century, by the end of the century, Müller's views were the consensus in Russian historiography , and this remained largely the case through

24600-441: Was immune to social upheavals and revolutions, because the Russian state originated from a voluntary treaty between the people of Novgorod and Varangian rulers. The German-born Moscow academician August Ludwig von Schlözer said in 1802 that the Slavs had been living like "savage beasts and birds" before the advent of the civilizing Norsemen, a view later adopted by several scholars as well as non-scholars such as Adolf Hitler in

24764-433: Was influenced by non-Slavic Varangians (this idea is characterised as the "Normanist theory"), or whether the people of Kievan Rus' emerged solely from autochthonous Slavic political development (known as the "anti-Normanist theory"), including some other anti-Normanist and skeptical theories stemming from the scarcity of contemporary evidence for the emergence of Kievan Rus', and the great ethnic diversity and complexity of

24928-584: Was instructed to provide to the Russians after numerous debts they had accumulated in Marburg. As the result, Lomonosov left Freiberg without permission and wandered for quite a while over Germany and Holland, unsuccessfully trying to obtain permission from Russian envoys to return to the St. Petersburg Academy. During his residence in Marburg, Lomonosov boarded with Catharina Zilch, a brewer's widow. He fell in love with Catharina's daughter Elizabeth Christine Zilch. They were married in June 1740. Lomonosov found it extremely difficult to maintain his growing family on

25092-404: Was marked by rapid expansion through the conquest of the Khazars of the Pontic steppe and the invasion of the Balkans . By the end of his short life, Sviatoslav carved out for himself the largest state in Europe, eventually moving his capital from Kiev to Pereyaslavets on the Danube in 969. In contrast with his mother's conversion to Christianity , Sviatoslav, like his druzhina , remained

25256-525: Was named in his honor as "M. Lomonossovi", but from 1991, the year when Estonia restored its independence, the street was renamed Gonsiori  [ et ] after Jakob Johann Gonsior, a 19th-century alderman and lawyer. In Dnipro , Ukraine , a statue of Lomonosov replaced a statue of Catherine the Great in 1919. It stood until 6 January 2023, when it was removed by the city of Dnipro because of Russia's full-scale invasion into Ukraine. On 19 November 2011, Google celebrated his 300th birthday with

25420-460: Was occupied with the Arabs in the Mediterranean, and the bulk of its army was stationed in the east. The Rus' burned towns, churches and monasteries, butchering the people and amassing booty. The emperor arranged for a small group of retired ships to be outfitted with Greek fire throwers and sent them out to meet the Rus', luring them into surrounding the contingent before unleashing the Greek fire. Liutprand of Cremona wrote that "the Rus', seeing

25584-427: Was old enough to participate in his business ventures, and Lomonosov began accompanying Vasily on trading missions. Learning was young Lomonosov's passion, not business. The boy's thirst for knowledge was insatiable. Lomonosov had been taught to read as a boy by his neighbor Ivan Shubny, and he spent every spare moment with his books. He continued his studies with the village deacon, S.N. Sabelnikov, but for many years

25748-488: Was once controversy over whether the Rus' were Varangians or Slavs (see anti-Normanism ), however, more recently scholarly attention has focused more on debating how quickly an ancestrally Norse people assimilated into Slavic culture. This uncertainty is due largely to a paucity of contemporary sources. Attempts to address this question instead rely on archaeological evidence, the accounts of foreign observers, and legends and literature from centuries later. To some extent

25912-399: Was or whether there was any system at all.' According to historian Nancy Kollmann, the rota system was used with the princely succession moving from elder to younger brother and from uncle to nephew, as well as from father to son. Junior members of the dynasty usually began their official careers as rulers of a minor district, progressed to more lucrative principalities, and then competed for

26076-470: Was rendered into Belarusian as Kiyewskaya Rus' or Kijeŭskaja Ruś ( Belarusian : Кіеўская Русь ) and into Rusyn as Kyïvska Rus' ( Rusyn : Київска Русь ). In English, the term was introduced in the early 20th century, when it was found in the 1913 English translation of Vasily Klyuchevsky 's A History of Russia , to distinguish the early polity from successor states, which were also named Rus ' . The Varangian Rus' from Scandinavia used

26240-433: Was sent to Kiev to study for short period at the Kiev Academy . He quickly became dissatisfied with the education he was receiving there, and returned to Moscow. In five years Lomonosov completed a twelve-year study course and in 1736, among 12 best graduates, was awarded a scholarship at the St. Petersburg Academy . He plunged into his studies and was rewarded with a four-year grant to study abroad, in Germany, first at

26404-420: Was the first person to record the freezing of mercury and to carry out initial experiments with it. Believing that nature is subject to regular and continuous evolution , he demonstrated the organic origin of soil , peat , coal, petroleum and amber . In 1745, he published a catalogue of over 3,000 minerals, and in 1760, he explained the formation of icebergs . In 1763, he published On The Strata of

26568-429: Was the main method of navigating the rivers of Eastern Europe, and could be linked to the Swedish coastal area of Roslagen ( Rus-law ) or Roden . The name Rus ' would then have the same origin as the Finnish and Estonian names for Sweden: Ruotsi and Rootsi . When the Varangian princes arrived, the name Rus' was associated with them and came to be associated with the territories they controlled. Initially

26732-425: Was unable to finish his presentation, and appeals to the president of the academy and the Empress led to the formation of a committee to determine if his research was "harmful to the interests and glory of the Russian Empire". Before the committee, scathing criticism from Lomonosov , Krasheninnikov , and other Russian historians led to Müller being forced to suspend his work on the issue until Lomonosov's death. It

26896-415: Was used to cover a range of opinions about the degree of influence of the Varangians in the early history of Kievan Rus . The idea that Varangians founded Rus was seen politically unacceptable by many Russian historians. Nevertheless, the close connection of Rus' with Scandinavians is confirmed by both archaeological evidence for extensive Scandinavian settlement in Russia and Ukraine, and Slavic influences in

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