Russian History

[ÖZKAN, Murat]. [87/5 Numaralı Rusya Ahkam Defterinin Transkripsiyon ve İncelenmesi (s. 1-95)], [Yüksek Lisans Tezi], Ordu, [2012].
Osmanlı Devleti ile Rusya arasındaki tarihi münasebetler başlangıcından itibaren pek dostane olmamıştır. Osmanlı Devleti'nin gerileme dönemi Rusya'nın genişleme ve güçlenme dönemidir. Rusya 1700'lerden itibaren Osmanlı Devleti'nin ciddi bir rakibidir. Kuzeyden gelen bu yeni tehdit iki devlet arasında büyük mücadelelerin yaşanmasıyla sonuçlanmış, Rusya'nın üstünlüğü ilerleyen dönemlerde bariz bir hal almıştır. Bu mücadeleler sonrasında yapılan barış antlaşmalarında iki devlet arasındaki ticarete dair hususlar bu rekabetin ekonomik boyutunu ortaya koymaktadır.
Osmanlı Devleti'nin Avrupa devletlerine “imtiyaz-ı mahsusa” adı altında verdiği haklar zamanla kapitülasyon haline dönüşmüştür. Bu çerçevede Ruslar diğer Avrupa devletlerine bahşedilen imtiyazlardan yararlanmak için Osmanlı Devleti‟ne baskı yapmıştır. Belgrad Antlaşması'nda Osmanlı gemileriyle Karadeniz‟de ticaret yapma hakkını elde eden Ruslar, Küçük Kaynarca Antlaşması ile de kendi gemileriyle Karadeniz'de ve boğazlarda serbest ticaret yapma hakkını elde etmiştir. Kırım'ı da işgal eden Ruslar Karadeniz'deki hâkimiyetlerini tamamen pekiştirmiştir. İki devlet arasında 1783 yılında imzalanan Ticaret Muahedesi'yle ticaretin hangi Şartlarda yapılacağı kararlaştırılmıştır.
Osmanlı-Rus ilişkilerinin ihmal edilen konularından biri ticari ilişkilerdir. Bu çerçevede Osmanlı arşivlerinde bulunan Düvel-i Ecnebiye Defterleri tasnifinde bulunan Rusya Ahkam Defterleri önem arzetmektedir. Yaptığımız bu çalışma Rusya Ahkam Defterlerinden olan 87/5 Numaralı Rusya Ahkam Defteri'nin transkripsiyonundan ve değerlendirmesinden oluşmaktadır. Bu defter 1797-1800 yıllarında Osmanlı Devleti ve Rusya arasında başta ticaret olmak üzere, diplomatik, siyasi, sosyal ilişkilere ve ortaya çıkan sorunların antlaşmalar çerçevesinde halledilmesine dair hükümleri ihtiva etmektedir.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Osmanlı, Rusya, Ticaret, Karadeniz, Ahkam, İmtiyaz.

Giuseppe Garibaldi’nin iki yüzüncü doğum senesi, iki âlemin kahramanının görüntü ve yapıtı hakkında ciddi bir tartışma ortamı yaratılmasına fırsat verdi. Zamanın geçmesi ve pek çok siyasal görüşlerin değişmesi neticesinde efsanenin son bulması üzerine bu zatın şimdi kişiliği ve yapıtı üzerine daha gerçekçi bir biçimde ciddi bir şekilde eğilebiliriz. Evrensel değerleri sebat ve uygunluk içinde savunduğu kadar İtalya için olmasa bile tam bir
hümanizmaya sahip olduğu görülen bu vatan babası veya babalardan birisinin kim olduğu da şimdi daha iyi anlaşılabilir. Gençliğinin ilk yılları üzerinde çalıştığımız zaman onun anılarında bu duruma pek fazla bir yer vermediğini görüyoruz ve araştırmacılarda bunun sonradan pek fazla bir değeri olmadığını gördüler. Ziyaret ettiği mahalleri,
karşılaştığı insanları, yaşadığı âlemi incelemeye başladığımız zaman, onun gelişmesi ve kişiliğine dair ilgi çekici bazı şeyler keşfedebiliriz. 1807 senesinde dünyaya gelip de, bir takım ihtilalci hareketlere girişmesi üzerine 1834 senesinde idam cezasına çaptırılmasından sonra sürgüne gitmeye zorunlu olmasından dolayı, aradan geçen zamanın ne kadar önemli olduğunu görmek gerçekten bizi hayrete düşürüyor. Böylece onun gerçek yaşam öyküsünün bu noktada başladığını söyleyebiliriz. Fakat bu delikanlı Rio de Jenerio şehrine geldiği zaman henüz otuz yaşında idi. Yirmi seneden beri
ismi duyulmakta olan Mazzini’nin gençliği ile hiçbir ilgisi yoktu

La Russie est indéniablement la grande oubliée, en France, du centenaire de la Première Guerre mondiale et plus encore lorsqu’il s’agit de l’histoire des brigades venues combattre sur le front d’Orient. Cet article tend à montrer qu’il y a pourtant là un terrain particulièrement fertile, tant du point de vue de l’histoire diplomatique que de l’expérience combattante proprement dite.
Plan :
I - Entente et fronts périphériques en 1915
II - Les brigades russes au combat en Macédoine, 1916-1917
III - 1917 : Révolution macédoniennes
IV - Le démantèlement des brigades russes en Macédoine

Baha’u’llah’s Bishārāt (Glad-Tidings):
A Proclamation to Scholars and Statesmen
Christopher Buck and Youli A. Ioannesyan
Baha’i Studies Review 16 (2010): 3–28.

This article is a historical and textual study of the one of the major writings of Baha’u’llah: the Lawḥ-i Bishārāt (‘Tablet of Glad-Tidings’), revealed circa 1891, and advances new theories as to its provenance and purpose. The ‘Tablet of Glad-Tidings’ is a selective compendium of Baha’u’llah’s laws and principles, sequentially presented in a series of fifteen ‘Glad-Tidings.’ As the Arabic term, bishārāt, suggests, these ‘Glad-Tidings’ were a public announcement of some of the essential teachings of the new Baha’i religion. The ‘Glad-Tidings’ is the most extensive of several ‘Tablets’ by Baha’u’llah that present key teachings in a numbered structure. The Glad-Tidings may, in part, be regarded as serially articulated ‘world reforms’ intermixed with religious reforms emanating from Baha’u’llah in his professed role as ‘World Reformer.’ The ‘Glad-Tidings’ also functioned analogously (albeit anachronistically) to a press release, serving not only as a public proclamation, but to rectify the inaccuracies and gross misrepresentations that had previously circulated in print. Intended for widespread translation and publication, the Glad-Tidings was sent to scholars — notably Russian orientalist, Baron Viktor Rosen (1849–1908) and Cambridge Orientalist, Edward Granville Browne (1862–1926) — and possibly pre-revolutionary Russian statesmen as well. As a ‘Proclamatory Aqdas,’ the Tablet of Glad-Tidings was part of a much broader proclamation by Baha’u’llah, who proclaimed his mission to the political and religious leaders of the world. This study will argue that the Baha’u’llah may have revealed the Tablet of Glad-Tidings for E.G. Browne — or rather through him, since Baha’u’llah evidently intended that Browne should translate and publish the Bishārāt in order to make the nature of the Baha'i teachings more widely known. This would then correct the distortions that had previously been published regarding Baha’u’llah's purpose and the nature of the religion that he founded, thereby, promoting a public awareness that a new world religion was on the horizon of modernity.

Illustrated history of Bulgarian-Russian diplomatic relations for 140 years. Documents and illustrative materials from Russian and Bulgarian archives were used, the authors of the text are Bulgarian historians.
Илюстрирана история на българо-руските дипломатически отношения за 140 години. Използвани са документи и илюстративни материали от руски и български архиви, автори на текста са български историци.

The monograph dedicated to the analysis of the politics of history in Ukraine, 'Eastern Europe', and 'Western Europe' in the 1980s - 2010s. Rich empirical material, detailed analysis of roles and performances of state (President, government, local governing bodies, and non-governmental) actors (NGOs, political parties, media, historians),

Bourke-White: "Things are happening in Russia, and happening with staggering speed. I could not afford to miss any of it. I wanted to make the pictures of this astonishing development, because, whatever the outcome, whether success or failure, the plan is so gigantic, so unprecedented in all history...a great scenic drama being unrolled before the eyes of the world." [Text for illustrated article in The Photo Review, 22: 3&4 (Summer & Fall 1999), 1-14.]

в отечественной науке роль варягов в образовании древнерусского государства оценивается весьма высоко, в частности у исследователей уже практически не вызывает сомнений скандинавское происхождение самой княжеской династии Рюриковичей. Однако на сегодняшний день в так называемом варяжском вопросе наблюдается известное противоречие: при огромном массиве археологических данных, недвусмысленно свидетельствующих об активном присутствии варягов на Руси в X–XI вв., мы располагаем весьма ограниченным количеством лингвистических следов и примет этнокультурного взаимодействия русских и скандинавов в эту эпоху. Данная книга представляет собой опыт историко-филологического разыскания в области культурных контактов Скандинавии и Руси на излете эпохи викингов. Образ идеального правителя, практика обмена дарами, представления о статусе и наследственных правах незаконнорожденного, рассказ о предках как средство характеристики потомков, перекличка личных имен, прозвищ и торжественных панегириков — такова лишь часть тех напряженных точек этого взаимодействия, к которым мы попытались подступиться в нашем исследовании.
The Varangian contribution to the formation of the ancient Russian state is highly
evaluated in the national scholarly tradition, more specifi cally, there are practically
no doubts about the Scandinavian origin of the Rurik dynasty. However, there is
a certain contradiction in the so-called Varangian problem: given a huge body of
archaeological data unambiguously confi rming the active Varangian presence in Rus
in the 10th–11th centuries, we can only have at our disposal a very limited amount
of the linguistic traces of ethnic and cultural connections between Russians and
Scandinavians at that time.
This book presents an attempt at the historical and philological study in the
fi eld of the cultural contacts between Scandinavia and Rus before the very end of the
Viking age. The image of the ideal ruler, the practice of gift exchange, the concepts of
the status and inheritance rights of illegitimate children, a narrative about ancestors
as a way of characterizing descendants, and similarities between personal names,
nicknames and solemn eulogies — these are, to name just a few, the intense points of
this interaction which became the focus of our study.

L’intento di questo lavoro è presentare un quadro che sia il più completo possibile nell’analizzare il percorso dell’Unione delle Repubbliche Socialiste Sovietiche dalla sua nascita, nel 1922, fino al suo crollo, nel 1991 e, successivamente, la delicata fase di transizione russa dal comunismo all’economia di mercato, cercando di mettere in luce i problemi incontrati dal Paese nell’instaurare la democrazia. L'ultima parte analizza la figura della Banca Europea per la Ricostruzione e lo Sviluppo ed il suo ruolo specifico nella delicata fase di transizione economica della Russia.

This book is a revised and enlarged version of my former book. It is mainly a social-economic history of the borderland regions of Kars, Ardahan  and Artvin under Russian rule from 1878 to 1918. Based on Ottoman, Russian, Georgian and Armenian archival sources, the study analyzes Russian administrative, political, demographic and economic policies in the region and their results during this period. After being on the periphery of Ottoman and Russian empires, these three provinces became part of modern Turkey. The book also includes an analysis of the impact of WWI on the region, especially on the civiian population. It sheds new light on the operations of the Ottoman Special Organization as well.

Should Russia become part of the West, or follow an Eastern path? This has been a centuries-old discussion among Russian intellectuals. For Westernizers in Russia, the " West " symbolized progress, freedom, democracy, civil society, normality, and a nation-state. Their opponents saw the West as representing moral decadence in the beginning and later capitalist exploitation. This paper attempts to lay out the foundations and the evolution of the 200-year-old discussion of Russia's place in the world. It briefly examines the period of Muscovite Russia, where the foundations of the authoritarian state tradition were laid and further strengthened. The paper then focuses on the period of Peter the Great's reign, in which educated Russians became increasingly acquainted with Western European culture and started having doubts about Russia's status in the face of perceived European superiority. Trying to summarize how the international and internal developments of the 1800s and 1900s have affected the debate about Russia's place between East and West, the paper then examines the current state of discussions in Russia under Putin's leadership and finally attempts to make predictions for the future.

What is to be done? by Nikolay Chernyshevsky. An attemp at "non-revolutionary interpretation"
The origin of the novel "What is to be done?" by Nikolay Chernyshevsky should be linked with the way Chernyshevsky understood the role of literature in the historical process. For that Russian thinker and writer, literature was a “quick intermediary between science and life”. Thus, for him literature become subservient to science and history, and the novel was the most convenient genre for illustrating various theoretical ideas. Chernyshevsky thought that in the event of a “lack of reality” literature should, in a sense, replace it. Since his novel were created and published in a country where, according to him, reality didn’t exist, then the novel itself was to become a “matrix” of reality. The artistic plot was, for the author of What is to be done?, only a pretext for presenting some ethical and economic ideas. As regards ethics, Chernyshevsky’s mentors were the thinkers of the French Enlightenment and Ludwig Feuerbach, who propounded the idea of the so-called “reasonable egoism”. According to that theory, everybody acts to protect their own interests. However, for the proponents of the “reasonable egoism”, one’s own advantage is possible only when more general, i.e. social, interests are taken into account. Only such a “calculated theory” explains the true motives of life and becomes one of the two mainsprings of a relative historical progress. The other mainspring of that progress was a correct organisation of economic life. In this respect Chernyshevsky’s mentors were the two continuators of the French Enlightenment: Charles Fourier and Robert Owen, who, in the first half of the 19th century were giving voice to and putting into practice the ideas of cooperative socialism. All the thinkers whose authority Chernyshevsky recognised were against the class conflict and bloody social revolutions. And it is in this spirit that the four main characters of What is to be done?: Vyera Pavlovna, Kirsanov, Lopukhóf and Rakhmetov are acting. As Chernyshevsky himself used to say, “whoever likes Fourier’s ideas is not going to like communism”. While being a man of the Enlightenment, and even though he turned against the “ideological routine”, and propounded new anthropological, ethical and economic ideas, Chernyshevsky didn’t want carry them out by means of “class egoism”, i.e. bloody “class struggle”.

"Co robić?" Mikołaja Czernyszewskiego. Próba "nierewolucyjnej interpretacji".
Geneza powieści "Co robić?" jest ściśle powiązana z tym, w jaki sposób sam Czernyszewski pojmował rolę literatury w procesie historycznym. Literatura, jego zdaniem, winna być pośredniczką między nauką a życiem, wypełniając poniekąd rolę „służki nauki i historii.” Artystyczna fabuła stanowiła zatem dla autora jedynie punkt
wyjścia do demonstracji idei z zakresu etyki i ekonomii. W sferze etycznej nauczycielami Czernyszewskiego byli myśliciele francuskiego Oświecenia i Niemiec Ludwig Feuerbach, którzy głosili idee „rozumnego egoizmu.” W dziedzinie ekonomicznej
Czernyszewski szedł śladami dwóch kontynuatorów francuskiego Oświecenia —
Charlesa Fouriera i Roberta Owena, którzy w drugiej połowie XIX w. głosili i wcielali
w życie zasady socjalistycznych stowarzyszeń. Wszyscy zaś powyżsi myśliciele,
których Czernyszewski uważał za swoich nauczycieli, byli przeciwnikami walki klas
i społecznych buntów. I właśnie w takim duchu rozumnego egoizmu i utopijnego
socjalizmu, a jednocześnie w duchu nierewolucyjnym myślą i działają wszyscy czterej
główni bohaterowie Co robić?: Wiera Pawłowna, Kirsanow, Łopuchow i Rachmietow.
Jak mówił sam Czernyszewski: „komu podoba się furieryzm, temu komunizm
się nie spodoba.” Czernyszewski jako „oświeciciel,” występując przeciwko wszelkiej
ideologicznej stagnacji i rutynie, głosząc nowe antropologiczne, etyczne i ekonomiczne
idee, nigdy wszelako nie pragnął wcielać ich w życie za pomocą „egoizmu” klasowego,” ani tym bardziej „walki klas.”

"Что делать?” Николая Чернышевского. Опыт "нереволюционного толкования"

Генезис романа "Что делать?" связан с тем, как Чернышевский понимал роль
литературы в историческом процессе. Литература должна быть «быстрой по-
средницей» между наукой и жизнью, т.е. выполнять функцию служанки науки
и истории. Художественная фабула была для автора лишь точкой отправления
для демонстрации идей из области этики и экономики. В этической сфере учи-
телями Чернышевского были мыслители французского Просвещения и немец
Людвиг Фейербах, которые проповедовали идею «разумного эгоизма». В о бла-
сти экономической учителями Чернышевского были два последователя фран-
цузского Просвещения: Шарль Фурье и Роберт Оуэн, которые в первой поло-
вине XIX века проповедовали и воплощали в жизнь идеи «социалистических
ассоциаций». Все мыслители, которых Чернышевский считал своими учите-
лями, были противниками классовой борьбы и кровавых социальных бунтов.
И именно в таком разумно-эгоистическом пространстве, социалистическом,
а з аодно и нереволюционном духе действуют все четыре главных героя романа: Вера Павловна, Кирсанов, Ло пухов и Рахметов. Как говорил сам Чернышевский, «кому нравится фурьеризм, то му коммунизм не понравится». Чернышевский как просветитель, выступая против «идеологической рут ины», проповедуя новые антропологические, этические и экономические идеи, никогда не хотел, однако, воплощать их в жизнь при помощи «классового эгоизма», тем более — «классовой борьбы».

Монография посвящена анализу ключевых административно-территориальных преобразований на Северном Кавказе второй половины XIX–XX вв., предопределивших современное состояние организации власти и границ региона. В ней рассматриваются основные реформы системы управления и соответствующие им территориальные изменения, выявляются их динамика и обусловленность, определяются принципы и формы взаимодействия центра и региона; прослеживается взаимосвязь между доктринальными представлениями управленческой элиты, потребностями развития страны и формированием административных практик интеграции региона в российское государственное пространство; выявляется роль профессионального сообщества в формировании бытующих на протяжении последних двух столетий представлений о разбалансированности власти и слабой управляемости регионом.

Why is so little known about the KGB career of Russia's acting President Vladimir Putin? Most reporting on both sides of the Atlantic is thinly sourced, if sourced at all, and often conflicting. Was Putin a professional foreign intelligence cadre officer whose experience abroad exposed him to reformist ideas, as many claim? If so, how was he, the first Russian leader since Andropov to have lived abroad, and the leader who lived abroad the longest since Lenin, exposed to enlightened thinking from his isolated outpost in Erich Honecker's East Germany? If Putin wasn't a cadre intelligence officer, what was he? Determining with which part of the KGB Putin identifies himself will help determine what shaped his professional formation and experience and could serve as a guidepost toward the direction in which he will lead Russia. The KGB was no monolith. Its sprawling bureaucracy and diverse functions employed polished spies steeped in Western ways, scholars, linguists, mathematicians, engineers, paper-pushing bureaucrats, guardsmen, and the ubiquitous thugs, snoops and dissident-hunters that formed the core of the KGB ethos.

Stella Ghervas (2018). "The Black Sea", in Oceanic Histories, ed. David Armitage, Alison Bashford and Sujit Sivasundaram (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), pp. 234-266.

Abstract of the volume:
"Oceanic Histories is the first comprehensive account of world history focused not on the land but viewed through the 70% of the Earth's surface covered by water. Leading historians trace the history of the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and the world's seas from the Arctic and the Baltic to the South China Sea and the Sea of Japan/Korea's East Sea, over the longue durée. Individual chapters trace the histories and the historiographies of the various oceanic regions with special attention to the histories of circulation and particularity, the links between human and non-human history and the connections and comparisons between parts of the World Ocean. Showcasing oceanic history as a field with a long past and a vibrant future, these authoritative surveys, original arguments and guides to research make this volume an indispensable resource for students and scholars alike."

Tartaria (originally pronounced “Tataria” without the first “r”) is the name of the pre Mongolian empire that originated in northern Asia before spanning the entire northern hemisphere. Great Tartaria was the largest empire during its time and would have still been the largest empire today. The Tartarian empire flourished due in part of the civilization being a leader in advanced technology, free energy, and grand architecture.
Tartaria is also where the Greek word “Tartarus” originated from.
The denotation of lost souls spending eternity in Tartarus the underworld is due to the Tartarian Empire having been buried and wiped out during the mud flood. The world of the Tartarians is literally the world under our world. The underworld. Tartarus wasn’t the underworld and will never be the underworld. Tartaria is the underworld. The religionists used the Mud Flood deluge and how it wiped out the Tartarian Empire to confuse the populous into thinking they would join those in the “underworld” if they challenged the religious authority.
Who were the Tartarians?
The Tartarians (or Tartars) were the indigenous people (quite possibly founded by Noah’s sons) making up the world renowned Tartarian empire. The Tartarians were a tall people, averaging some eight to twelve feet in height. They would have been considered giants to our current average height of only around six feet; however, back then the height of ten feet was the average. Like the civilizations before them whose heights averaged twelve feet, fifty feet, two+ miles, etc…each preceding civilization had an average taller height than the civilizations coming after them and each succeeding civilization had an average shorter height than the civilizations predating them. Statures are diminishing after each deluge and with each new astrological age we enter.
Civilizations in the current astrological age (the Age of Pisces) are shorter in height than civilizations that existed in the previous astrological age (the Age of Aries) and will be taller in height than civilizations that will exist in the next astrological age (the Age of Aquarius).
The Tartarians are thought to have been “Breatherians,” a being who does not rely on the digestion and burning of calories from food/water, but instead rather receives energy straight from the aether. The aether is thought to be the very fabric of the space time continuum that some would associate with electrons, the wind, the holy spirit, the atmosphere, and the gasses in the atmosphere such as oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen. Since the The Tartarians quite possibly had a completely altered digestion system than the one we now have, they had no need for toilets in their bathrooms. Which could hint at one of the reasons why bathrooms in the recent past have been used quite extensively as social gathering powder rooms to not only freshen oneself up but to hear and spread local gossip.
The Tartarians were masters of masonry, brickwork, steam punk style technology, universally free energy, and grand architecture. Their Roman/Gothic esque style architecture can still be found in the current guise as water ducts, city halls, banks, water stations, cathedrals, churches, hospitals and similar public and city works type buildings.

In The History of Ukraine, Paul Kubicek takes on the daunting task of covering roughly thirteen centuries of Ukrainian history in just 180 pages. The book contains ten concise chapters, as well as a chronology, bibliographical essay, and biographical sketches of key leaders. Chapters One and Two describe Kievan Rus' and the Polish-Lithuanian period respectively. Chapters Four and Five discuss Ukraine under the Russian Empire and Western Ukraine under the Habsburg Empire. The next three chapters trace the rise of Ukrainian nationalism after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires, industrial transformation during the Soviet period, and the drive for Ukrainian independence spawned by Mikhail Gorbachev's reform programme in the late 1980s. The final two chapters outline the political and economic struggles in post-Soviet Ukraine under Leonid Kravchuk and Leonid Kuchma (1991-2004) and the Orange Revolution led by Viktor Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko.

In an age where nothing seems clear-cut it is wonderful to have a hero and an even clearer villain. Putin is the new Hitler, an obsessive maniac with no respect for human life. The Ukrainians, by contrast, remind us of our parents and grandparents and their pluck during World War II, when Britain stood alone. But, of course, nothing is ever quite so simple. So, at this stage in the war, what is the balance of the good, the bad and the ugly?

Tartaria (originally pronounced “Tataria” without the first “r”) is the name of the pre Mongolian empire that originated in northern Asia before spanning the entire northern hemisphere. Great Tartaria was the largest empire during its time and would have still been the largest empire today. The Tartarian empire flourished due in part of the civilization being a leader in advanced technology, free energy, and grand architecture.
Tartaria is also where the Greek word “Tartarus” originated from.
The denotation of lost souls spending eternity in Tartarus the underworld is due to the Tartarian Empire having been buried and wiped out during the mud flood. The world of the Tartarians is literally the world under our world. The underworld. Tartarus wasn’t the underworld and will never be the underworld. Tartaria is the underworld. The religionists used the Mud Flood deluge and how it wiped out the Tartarian Empire to confuse the populous into thinking they would join those in the “underworld” if they challenged the religious authority.
Who were the Tartarians?
The Tartarians (or Tartars) were the indigenous people (quite possibly founded by Noah’s sons) making up the world renowned Tartarian empire. The Tartarians were a tall people, averaging some eight to twelve feet in height. They would have been considered giants to our current average height of only around six feet; however, back then the height of ten feet was the average. Like the civilizations before them whose heights averaged twelve feet, fifty feet, two+ miles, etc…each preceding civilization had an average taller height than the civilizations coming after them and each succeeding civilization had an average shorter height than the civilizations predating them. Statures are diminishing after each deluge and with each new astrological age we enter.
Civilizations in the current astrological age (the Age of Pisces) are shorter in height than civilizations that existed in the previous astrological age (the Age of Aries) and will be taller in height than civilizations that will exist in the next astrological age (the Age of Aquarius).
The Tartarians are thought to have been “Breatherians,” a being who does not rely on the digestion and burning of calories from food/water, but instead rather receives energy straight from the aether. The aether is thought to be the very fabric of the space time continuum that some would associate with electrons, the wind, the holy spirit, the atmosphere, and the gasses in the atmosphere such as oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen. Since the The Tartarians quite possibly had a completely altered digestion system than the one we now have, they had no need for toilets in their bathrooms. Which could hint at one of the reasons why bathrooms in the recent past have been used quite extensively as social gathering powder rooms to not only freshen oneself up but to hear and spread local gossip.
The Tartarians were masters of masonry, brickwork, steam punk style technology, universally free energy, and grand architecture. Their Roman/Gothic esque style architecture can still be found in the current guise as water ducts, city halls, banks, water stations, cathedrals, churches, hospitals and similar public and city works type buildings.

Wayne Vucinic Book Prize 2007, "for the most important contribution to Russian, Eurasian, and East European studies in any discipline of the humanities or social sciences." 

Endorsement by Slavoj Zizek:

"Alexei Yurchak's Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More immediately seduced me by its very title with a profound philosophical implication that eternity is a historical category--things can be eternal for some time. The same spirit of paradox runs through the entire book--it renders in wonderful details the gradual disintegration of the Soviet system from within its ideological and cultural space, making visible all the hypocrisy and misery of this process. I consider Yurchak's book by far the best work about the late epoch of the Soviet Union--it is not just history, but a pleasure to read, a true work of art." (Slavoj Zizek, author of In Defense of Lost Causes)

Abstract:

Soviet socialism was based on paradoxes that were revealed by the peculiar experience of its collapse. To the people who lived in that system the collapse seemed both completely unexpected and completely unsurprising. At the moment of collapse it suddenly became obvious that Soviet life had always seemed simultaneously eternal and stagnating, vigorous and ailing, bleak and full of promise. Although these characteristics may appear mutually exclusive, in fact they were mutually constitutive. This book explores the paradoxes of Soviet life during the period of "late socialism" (1960s-1980s) through the eyes of the last Soviet generation.

Moğolların Türkistan’ı ele geçirmesinden sonra Cengiz Han’ın oğlu Çağatay tarafından kurulan Çağatay Hanlığı, akabinde Timur’un kurduğu Timurlu Devleti ve ileriki yıllarda yine aynı coğrafyada kurulan birçok devlet, tarih sahnesinden çekilseler bile onları var eden toplumlar yok olmamış, bilakis yeni siyasî yapılar kurarak günümüze kadar varlıklarını devam ettirmişlerdir. Bu siyasî yapılardan birisi de adını Altın Orda Hanı Özbek’ten alan Özbek ulusunun kurduğu Buhara Hanlığı’dır. 1500-1920 yılları arasında bölgede hüküm süren Buhara Hanlığı (Buhara Emirliği), Türkistan coğrafyasında Türk-İslam kültürünün kök salmasına büyük katkı sağladı. Buharalıların, kuruluşundan Rus işgaliyle yıkılışına kadar dört asırdan biraz daha uzun bir süre hayatta kalan hanlıkları, Mâverâünnehir hâkimiyeti için Safevîlere, Babürlülere, Çarlık Rusya’ya ve Sovyetler Birliği’ne karşı mücadele ettiği gibi, zaman zaman Hive ve Hokand Hanlıkları gibi kendi soydaşlarıyla da mücadele etmek zorunda kaldı. Murat Özkan’ın Buhara Hanlığı (1500-1920) başlıklı bu kısa ama yoğun çalışması, Mâverâünnehir bölgesinin en önemli kültür ve bilim merkezlerinden birisi olan Buhara ve adını verdiği Buhara Hanlığı’nın tarihini siyasî, iktisadî ve kültürel veçheleriyle ele alıyor.

Die Warschauer Anhänger des jüdischen Pseudomessias Jakob Frank und die Glaubensenthusiasten um die St. Petersburger Prophetin Ekaterina Tatarinova pflegten kirchliche und ausserkirchliche sowie rabbinische und nichtrabbinische religiöse Praxen zugleich. Aus vergleichender lebensweltlicher und mikrohistorischer Betrachtung entwickelt die Autorin das Konzept der "situativen Religiosität", um die Selbstverortungsstrategien dieser Gläubigen zu beschreiben. Das Konzept bricht das vorgelagerte Verständnis von hoogenen religiösen Identitäten auf und zeigt die Gleichzeitigkeit mehrfacher religiöser Identitäten als besonderes Phänomen der Epoche am Vorabend der religiös pluralistischen Industriegesellschaften, ohne diese Identitäten als marginal, deviant oder korrupt zu lokalisieren.