This site tells the story of a complex, world-class physicist who became the driving force the Soviet Union's race to develop the atomic and hydrogen bomb.
Medieval and early modern Russia stood at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. In this course we will examine some of the native developments and foreign influences which most affected the course of Russian history. Particular topics include the rise of the Kievan State, the Mongol Yoke, the rise of Muscovy, Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, relations with Western Europe. How did foreigners perceive Russia? How did those living in the Russian lands perceive foreigners? What social relations were developing between nobility and peasantry, town and country, women and men? What were the relations of each of these groups to the state? How did state formation come about in Kievan and Muscovite Russia? What were the political, religious, economic, and social factors affecting relations between state and society? In examining these questions we will consider a variety of sources including contemporary accounts (both domestic and foreign), legal and political documents, historical monographs and interpretive essays.
Debates have raged for years over whether the Soviet legacy was best characterized by its successes or its crimes. Was Lenin's revolution one of history's great events, later perverted by Stalin; or was the October Revolution, which rejected God, dispossessed large segments of the population, and made the entire people subject to the state, flawed from the moment of inception? Rather than answering the question, we hope with this web site to help students and readers understand the more complicated truth, that at all moments of its history, the Soviet Union offered experiences of great good and great evil. Soviet citizens were forced to understand them as a whole. The object of this web site is to give users a sense of what this total experience was like, using the original words of the participants. We have selected from Soviet history seventeen moments - following the title of a beloved spy series of the seventies - almost at random but not entirely. Some of these events were judged subsequently by history to be important, some less so.
Select a year of interest from the top chronological row, and see what event first presents itself. The pop-up menu will present other events great and insignificant that took place in the same year. Some of these events seem to fit together, some will seem incongruous peers. For each there will be a short essay introducing the subject, and a selection of newsreel clips, songs and audio clips, images and translated texts to give a sense of how contemporaries understood the events. Documents will be available to any user who registers free of charge with a user name and password. The images might be old and smudged, the voices muted and scratchy (earphones should help make these voices legible). Ideally, they will help transport users back to a world that no longer exists, but which still has a tremendous influence on the shape of our world.
Цикл лекций посвящен пяти сюжетам, связанным со «знаковыми» персонажами и событиями древней Руси: Ярославом Мудрым и Святополком Окаянным, Андреем Боголюбским, монгольским нашествием, Александром Невским и Дмитрием Донским. С точки зрения современной исторической науки анализируются мифы, сформировавшиеся в обыденном историческом сознании, вскрываются основные противоречия, существующие в общепринятых взглядах, даются современные трактовки событий, основанные на новом прочтении исторических источников.
1. Мифы новые и старые.
2. Родословная Ярослава и Святополка.
3. Распределение княжений.
4. Братоубийственная борьба за власть.
5. Вопросы к летописи.
6. Иностранные хроники как источник.
7. Библейские образы и прообразы.
