How often do you sit and wonder about unfamiliar lands outside the current territory in which you inhabit? The technology we possess today leaves little to the imagination, allowing us to glance at different parts of the world with just a click of a computer mouse. Such technology didn't exist in the nineteenth century however, and left many people throughout the world wondering what other parts of the world were like. One man by the name of Nikolai Przhevalsky wanted to find out new and interesting things outside of his native country of Russia. While many Russian explorers attempted to adventure outside of their native lands in attempt to discover new things, Przhevalsky was the more successful adventurer in doing so. During his travels, Przhevalsky completed several successful expeditions, made quite a few discoveries, and accomplished several tasks that not only separated him from other explorers, but helped shape Russia into the country it is today.
So, who is Nikolai Przhevalsky? Nikolai Przhevalsky is a renowned explorer, geographer, military officer, and a teacher that was born in Smolensk, Russia in 1839. He was obsessed with reaching the city of Lhasa, which is located on the Tibetan plateau. He attempted time and time again during his expeditions to accomplish this goal, but would fall short every time. Przhevalsky started his life off in the military. “Przhevalsky started his military career off in 1855 with an appointment as a subaltern in an infantry regiment. In 1855 he was appointed as an officer, and in 1860 he entered the academy of the general staff. From 1864 to 1866, he taught geography at the military school in Warsaw. In 1867 he became a general officer and was assigned to Irkutsk near Lake Baikal.”1 Przheva...
... middle of paper ...
...n Review 53, no. 3 (1994): 369. http://www.jstor.org/stable/131192 (accessed November 10, 2013).
Encyclopedia of world biography. 2nd ed. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998.
Medvedev, Zhores A., and Roy Aleksandrovich Medvedev. The unknown Stalin. London: I.B. Tauris, 2003.
Meyer, Karl Ernest, and Shareen Blair Brysac. Tournament of shadows: the great game and race for empire in Central Asia. Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 1999.
Nikolai Mikhailovich Przhevalsky." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition (September 2013): 1. Academic Search Premier, EBSCO host (accessed November 30, 2013).
Smith, Geoffrey. Explorers and Exploration. Danbury, Conn.: Grolier Educational, 1998. Print.
Tenison, Robin. The great Explorers. London: Thames & Hudson, 2010.
Wood, Frances. The Silk Road: two thousand years in the heart of Asia. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
Moss, W., 2014. A History of Russia Volume 2: Since 1855. 1st ed. London, England: Anthem Press London, pp.112-113.
...lped educated the Russians. He even helped turn Russia from a Back ward agricultural state into the world's second greatest military and industrial power- Stalin modernized Russia.
Throughout history there have been many odd characters. Russian history was not excluded. Grigory Rasputin, who was an assistant to the Royal Russian family, was an unusual man.
During the early Ming Dynasty, China was one of the most economically and technologically advanced countries in the world. As Ebrey pointed out, “Europe was not yet a force in Asia and China continued to look on the outer world in traditional terms.” China was regarded as the center of Asia at the beginning of 15th century and the idea of “Middle Kingdom” (Zhong guo) began to take off at that time. The early Ming Emperors were not interested in promoting commercial trade at all. Emperor Hongwu, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, implemented the Hai jin policy which forbade maritime shipping and private foreign trade outside of the tributary system (Ebrey, p. 209). Emperor Yongle, the son of Emperor Hongwu, lifted this policy to a certain extent when he ordered his eunuch Zheng He’s voyages. However, he was only intereste...
"Prominent Russians: Mikhail Gorbachev." Mikhail Gorbachev – Russiapedia Leaders Prominent Russians. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.
Peter the Great had many goals during the time he ruled. One of his biggest goals was to modernize and westernize Russia. The main reason Peter the Great modernized Russia was because he did not want the country he ruled to be left vulnerable to expansionist powers in Europe. The powers were constantly at war, fighting to take over each other’...
Edward Dunes’ life as a revolutionary during Russia’s transition from a Tsarist state to that of a Marxist-Socialist regime, was propagated by many situational influences/factors stemming from his families relocation from Riga to Moscow. As a young boy in Riga, Dunes’ thirst for books along with a good educational elevated his potential to be a highly skilled worker. Dune’s childhood education coupled with factory life in Moscow along with a subsequent influential individual in his life with his father’s heavy labor socialist views, molded Dune into the Bolshevik revolutionary he became.
Peter was only ten years old when the Kremlin saw an open and violent struggle of power between the Naryshkins and Miloslavskys. He had witnessed killings including his mother’s former guardian. These vicious and unnecessary killings created a deep hatred in Peter for the streltsy and revulsion against the Kremlin and its politics. Peter had spent the next seven years in the village of Preobrazhenskoe and his mother whom now served as a head of state. Peter then used his own devices to familiarize himself which in fact were military matters and Western technology. His mother’s death in 1694 and Ivan the Terrible’s death in 1696 made Peter the sole ruler of Russia. (Gupta, 2006) Despite the fact that he had no formal or complete education, Peter was beyond his years physically and mentally. He gained knowledge from mostly foreigners when it came to technical skills who worked for Russian service that had lived nearby. He spent a majority of his time in the German quarter in Moscow learning from the scholars from the German University. (Hutchinson, 2011) A new revolt of the streltsy took place in...
lll. Cheka / Exiled to Siberia: While in Siberia Lenin met his wife to be Nadezhda Krupskaya (“Vladimir Lenin”). He spent almost 15 years in Western Europe, where he became a well-known figure in the international revolutionary movement. He was then announced the leader of The ‘Bolshevik’ party of the
Alexander was intreged with the devlopment of railways and headed the project himself. His interest lay within the notion, that a expansive railway sytem would lead to increased military proformence, as well as a more productive way to harvest the natural resources Russia has to offer. Inevidably this lead to the Chechnya, previously fought by Peter the Great and Cathirena ...
18 Mar. 2014. Кудрявцев, Сергей. " Историко-революционный трагифарс с элементами фантастики." 3500 рецензий. Москва: Печатный двор, n.d. N. pag.
The Silk Road was brought about around 200 B.C.E as a trading route from Western Rome to the Han Dynasty. Innumerable diverse patterns of interaction have taken place since then, coming to a halt around 1450 C.E. These changes and continuities generally revolved around products, cultural expression, and religion.
After Rasputin failed at being a monk, he began to wander. In 1906 he arrived in St. Petersburg and by this time many people had heard of his supernatural gifts. Years later, he met Czar Nicholas...
Riasanovsky, Nicholas V., and Mark D. Steinberg. A History of Russia. 7th ed. Oxford: Oxford, 2005. Print.
Vladimir Lenin, who’s real name was Vladimir Ilch Ulyanov, played an important role in shaping the character of the twentieth century western world. He oversaw the most far-reaching revolution that in 1917 radically changed the political and social structure of Russia and balance of power in the world. Being an important historical figure in Russia, Lenin is treated more like a god. To the Russian public, he is presented as strong, wise, courageous, and kind. Lenin’s infallibility, or accuracy, was so strong that his words pervaded every level of daily life. Such as newspapers, storybooks, etc. Children were taught to follow his example and adults were told to follow his path and advice on how to be hardworking, loyal communists. Since the revolution more than 350 million works by Lenin have been published in the former USSR. He is the ultimate mentor and guide for all soviets, like he was a god or idle. He had the final authority on every aspect of their life. Anyone who visits the Soviet Union then and now is bound to be shocked by the utter extravagance of the nation’s adulation with him. Americans today can not even grasp why the Soviets idolize one man so much. It inspires guilt in Americans about their own revolutionary past. But, to the extremes of which the worship of Lenin is carried makes us ask ourselves who he really was.