Tomsk
Tomsk is a city and the administrative center of Tomsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Tom River. One of the oldest towns in Siberia, Tomsk celebrated its 400th anniversary in 2004. Population: 524,669 (2010 Census); 487,838 (2002 Census); 501,963 (1989 Census).
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TEDxYouth@Tomsk - Sergey Abdrashitov - Passion for physics and not only
Sergey Abdrashitov is a graduate student of Tomsk State University Department of physics, assistant at chair of higher mathematics and mathematical physics of Tomsk Polytechnic University, physics teacher at the Tomsk Polytechnic University Lyceum.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)
Chita, Siberia Jcarter's photos around Chita, Russia (chita siberia russia)
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Entry from: Chita, Russia
Entry Title: Chita, Siberia
Entry:
The first full day in Chita started very late as i didn't get to bed until 3am due to a 12 hour delay at the airport in moscow. When we first checked in for our 9pm flight, we were advised that it was delayed until 2am. we then upgraded to business class to get access to the first class lounge to pass the 7 or so hours until our flight. By 9pm, the flight was delayed until 7am. We were told to go a hotel counter to get a hotel room that had been arranged for us. Once there, the hotel didn't know anything about it and after an hour, we came to the conclusion that it was never going to happen. A group of us made our way back to the lounge, but security had been told not to let us back in. Not sure why. After about 2 hours of bugging airport administration, and doing a sit in, in front of the first class check in, they finally let us back inside. Anyway, long story, but after 15 hours, we finally got off the ground. I met someone from the army who couldn't speak a word of english, nor me russian. vodka was the universal language and he told me he was on his way to vladivostok where they have a top secret base. we shared photos taken in St. Pete's and he was off a few hours later. I stayed until the next day. finally landing at the airport around midnight their time. walked into a dark terminal and waited for the bags. There we met Misha's parents Misha and Svetlana. Great people. Off home we went and stayed up and chatted til 3.30am. I got up late at noon, and Misha, and his parents were up much earlier. Had a walk around town, then back for a meal. Between noon and 7 I ate 3 meals and then, i was told we were going out. After a little tour we saw the area where Misha's parents were building a cottage, then a drive further out into the night on a bumpy little highway we stopped for a Buriyati feast. the Buriyati are the areas indiginous people. They are are similiar to a mongolian people in my opinion. So out came the food. Keeping in mind that i had already eaten more than i usually would, i sampled all the food that i saw. First salad and then soup. no problem. Then out came this plate of something that can be best described as a meat donut. There is an opening at the top and you lips to the opening and try to drink out the broth through the hole, and then eat the meat inside. no problem. Then out came real ribs. not the grocery store variety. no problem. Then the meat platter containing the most unusual meats i had ever seen. Anyway they were cut up and put on my plate. I think one was like haggis, something stuffed with mince meat or something. no problem. then something that was a rubbery tube, i think was an intestine, but not sure. i put it in my mouth. problem. the gag reflex kicked in and i spit it out before loosing my cookies. the last delicacy, well, it looked like an animal appendage i won't mention before it got cut up. I played with the piece on my plate, using a fork. it was far too rubbery to even try, so i chickened out. On the way home, i got a tour of the city and even tho, some parts are run down and not up to western standards, the area is undergoing alot of expansion with new buildings going up everywhere. Apparently Moscow has given the region alot of money to upgrade the roads. Chita, sits in a valley surrounded by big hills on all sides, similar to monogolian steps, but not big enough to be mountains. The city roads are in terrible condition and the buildings vary in degrees of maintenance. On 1 block you can see a hundred year old wooden house, with a new glass multi storey building beside it. We went to Misha school and met some of his friends and he said hello to some of his teachers. I got to wander through the school a bit. The school ...
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Photos from this trip:
1. View from the misha's room
2. A village shot
3. At the lake
4. Buryati fast food joint
5. Buryati good luck tree
6. Buryati haggis and other asst organs
7. Camper
8. Contemplating diner
9. Driving a camas
10. Driving the sport car
11. Eating pelmeni 1
12. Heading out of town
13. I have to eat that?
14. Ivan & Stephan putting on Muskoka Bear Wear
15. Just like muskoka
16. Me & misha sr.
17. Military checkpoint
18. New buryati friends
19. On the tank course
20. Pelmeni 3
21. Pelmini 2
22. Ribs buryati style
23. Suburbs bus stop
24. The gang
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Irkutsk-Angarsk about Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Part 3
Alexander Otkidach, a member of youth parliament, Irkutsk region, Igor Shadrin, a member of regional parliament, Angarsk district, Oleg Yatsenko, a member of Delovaya Rossia ( Business Russia) Irkutsk regional branch, private entrepreneur about Mikhail Khodorkovsky
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramaturge and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. Chekhov practised as a medical doctor throughout most of his literary career: Medicine is my lawful wife, he once said, and literature is my mistress.
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Cossacks | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
00:04:43 1 Etymology
00:05:26 2 Early history
00:10:17 2.1 Zaporozhian Cossacks
00:17:38 2.2 Registered Cossacks
00:20:55 2.3 Black Sea, Azov and Danubian Sich Cossacks
00:23:36 3 Russian Cossacks
00:27:18 3.1 Don Cossacks
00:29:38 3.2 Kuban Cossacks
00:30:20 3.3 Terek Cossacks
00:31:01 3.4 Yaik Cossacks
00:32:06 3.5 Razin and Pugachev Rebellions
00:42:28 3.6 In the Russian Empire
00:45:34 3.6.1 Cossacks in World War I and February Revolution
00:46:52 3.7 Civil War, Decossackization and Holodomor of 1932–33
00:50:30 3.8 Second World War
00:55:59 3.9 Modern times
00:57:50 4 Culture and organization
01:00:15 4.1 Settlements
01:01:51 4.2 Family life
01:03:29 4.3 Popular image
01:07:55 4.4 Ranks
01:10:11 4.5 Uniforms
01:13:08 5 Modern-day Cossack identity
01:14:46 6 Registered Cossacks of the Russian Federation
01:15:17 7 See also
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Speaking Rate: 0.9822080920999468
Voice name: en-GB-Wavenet-D
I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.
- Socrates
SUMMARY
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Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic–speaking people who became known as members of democratic, self-governing, semi-military communities, predominantly located in Eastern and Southern Ukraine and in Southern Russia, within the borders of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. They inhabited sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper, Don, Terek and Ural river basins and played an important role in the historical and cultural development of both Ukraine and Russia.The origins of the Cossacks are disputed, though the 1710 Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk attests to a combination of East Slavic and Khazar origin. The emergence of Cossacks is dated to the 14th or 15th centuries, when two connected groups emerged, the Zaporozhian Sich of the Dnieper and the Don Cossack Host.The Zaporizhian Sich were a vassal people of Poland–Lithuania during feudal times. Under increasing pressure from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, in the mid-17th century the Sich declared an independent Cossack Hetmanate, initiated by a rebellion under Bohdan Khmelnytsky. Afterwards, the Treaty of Pereyaslav (1654) brought most of the Cossack state under Russian rule.
The Sich with its lands became an autonomous region under the Russian-Polish protectorate.The Don Cossack Host, which had been established by the 16th century, allied with the Tsardom of Russia. Together they began a systematic conquest and colonisation of lands in order to secure the borders on the Volga, the whole of Siberia (see Yermak Timofeyevich) and the Yaik (Ural) and the Terek rivers. Cossack communities had developed along the latter two rivers well before the arrival of the Don Cossacks.By the 18th century Cossack hosts in the Russian Empire occupied effective buffer zones on its borders. The expansionist ambitions of the Empire relied on ensuring the loyalty of Cossacks, which caused tension given their traditional exercise of freedom, democracy, self-rule, and independence. Cossacks such as Stenka Razin, Kondraty Bulavin, Ivan Mazepa and Yemelyan Pugachev led major anti-imperial wars and revolutions in the Empire in order to abolish slavery and odious bureaucracy and to maintain independence. The empire responded with ruthless executions and tortures, the destruction of the western part of the Don Cossack Host during the Bulavin Rebellion in 1707–08, the destruction of Baturyn after Mazepa's rebellion in 1708, and the formal dissolution of the Lower Dnieper Zaporozhian Host in 1775, after Pugachev's Rebellion.By the end of the 18th century Cossack nations had been transformed into a special military estate (Sosloviye), a military class. Similar to the knights of medieval Europe in feudal times or the tribal Roman auxiliaries, the Cossacks came to military service having to obtain charger horses, arms and supplies at their own expense. The government provided only firearms and suppl ...