History Questions

Questions you should be able to answer


Why did the title of Grand Prince fall out of usage?
Power struggles caused the title of Grand Prince to fall out of usage.  It was replaced by "tsar."

What are the three major cities of Early Russia?
The three major cities of Early Russia were Novgorod, Kiev, and Moscow.

Describe the economy of the early Russia.
Early Russia was an agrarian society, supported by the large number of peasants.  The commerce grew and they established trade routes leading to the Baltic, Caspian, and Black Sea.

Who were the major rivals to the early Russians and their relative geographical location?
Major rivals included the Livonian Knights, Poland-Lithuania, and Sweden.  There were also the Ottoman Turks and the Crimean Tartas to the south.

Name the most important sea trade route for the early Russians.
The most important sea trade route was the White Sea Trade Route.

Name the trade route made possible by the Mongol Invasion.
The Great Silk Road was made possible by the Mongol Invasion.

Name some modern states that claim the early Russians' heritage and ethnic identity.
Modern states that claim the early Russians' heritage and ethnic identity include Belarus and Ukraine.

What is the major religion of the Russians?
The major religion is Russian Orthodox.

Why was it important for leaders to endorse or appease the officials of this religion?
It was important because it unified the Russians under one major religion, and many emperors and leaders claimed that they were selected to rule through divine anointment or divine right to rule in order to establish their authority.

What is autocracy?
Autocracy is a system of government where the leader has unlimited power.

DIG Stats: Geyser

1. What is the mean duration of the eruptions?
     3.6 minutes

2. Is the median duration much different from the mean duration?
    The median duration is different from the mean duration, but the difference is not too drastic.  The median
    duration (the value in the middle) is 4.0.

3. What is the most frequent length of the eruptions?
     The most frequent length (mode) of the eruptions is 4.3 minutes.

4. If you went to Yellowstone National Park to see Old Faithful, how long would you have to wait between
    eruptions of the geyser?
    You would have to wait one hour and ten to fifteen minutes between the eruptions of Old Faithful.

DIG Stats: Windspeed

1. What is the mean?
     11.03

2. What is the standard deviation?
     6.34

3. What is the 95% confidence interval?
     1.8

4. Would the confidence interval become wider or more narrow, if the confidence level was 90%?
     The confidence interval becomes narrower when the confidence level decreases from 95%-90%.

5. What is the primary reason the interval is the width that it is?
     Having a bigger range of numbers lets you be more confident that it will have the true mean.  A higher
     confidence interval will have a bigger width.

DIG Stats: Cigarettes

1. Which has the smaller standard deviation?
     Nicotine: 0.35
     Tar: 5.66
     Nicotine has the smaller standard deviation.

2. What is the range for the tar?
     The range for the tar is 28.8.

3. What is the range for the nicotine?
     The range for the nicotine is 1.9.

4. Which data set, the tar or the nicotine, has data points that tend to cluster around its mean?
     Nicotine has data points that tend to cluster around the mean.

This Year's 4 Russian Buildings

THE SMALL HERMITAGE
The Small Hermitage is the smallest of this year's 4 buildings, it is only two stories in height.  Under the Empress Catherine II, the Southern Pavilion of the Small Hermitage was constructed from 1765-1766.  It was designed by Yury Velten.  The Small Hermitage features both the Late Baroque style and the Early Classicist style when Jean Baptist Vallin de la Mothe constructed the Northern Pavilion in the Early Classicist style in 1767-1769.  The Southern and Northern Pavilion are joined by the Hanging Garden on the first floor.  The building was named the Small Hermitage because Catherine II had parties called "small hermitages" in the Northern Pavilion.  Inside in the side galleries, there are art pieces that started the Imperialmuseum's collections.  The Small Hermitage links the Winter Palace, the Great Hermitage, and the New Hermitage.

ST. BASIL'S CATHEDRAL
St. Basil's Cathedral is the commonly used name for the Cathedral of Saint Vasily the Blessed.  Its official names used by the Russian Orthodox Church are The Cathedral of the Protection of Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat, and Pokrovsky Cathedral.  It was constructed under Ivan the Terrible (Ivan IV) from 1555-1561 to celebrate the defeat of Kazan from Mongol forces .  It is easily recognized by its colorful stone designs.  The inside of the cathedral features more than 400 icons from the 14th to 19th centuries and even a wooden spiral staircase.

ST. ISAAC'S CATHEDRAL
St. Isaac's Cathedral was built by the architect Auguste Montferrand and was to be the main church of the Russian Empire, rising 101.5 meters (333 feet) high.  Its construction took 40 years (1818-1858).  It has one big central dome, which is covered in pure gold, and four smaller domes.  Its walls are made of grey and pink stones, and its 112 granite columns are made of single pieces of red granite.  The inside of the dome is elaborately decorated by 12 statues of angels (made by Joseph Hermann) and a sculpted dove representing the Holy Spirit under the peak of the dome.  The inside of the church features many icons created by mosaic techniques.  There is also a decorated bronze door designed by Lorenzo Ghiberti.

THE KOTELNICHESKAYA EMBANKMENT BUILDING
The Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building is the largest of this year's 4 buildings adn is one the seven Stalinist skyscrapers (Stalin Heights or Seven Sister).  It was designed by Dmitry Chechulin and Andrey Rostkovsky, and was constructed from 1947-1952.  The Building was meant to be an elite housing building with seven hundred apartments and tenants were very famous people.  It included shops, coffee-houses, SPA, a post office, and beauty salons.  There is a main tower, which rises 176 meters, has a hexagonal shape with 32 floors in the center and 18 floors on the sides.  There are two apartment blocks on separate sides, forming the W-shape of the design.  These were built from 1938-1940.  The Building has a Neo-Gothic style.  Neo-Gothic buildings had some features of Gothic cathedrals and typically had strong vertical lines to create a sense of great height, gargoyles and carvings, pointed and decorated windows, and pinnacles.

Sources:

http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/05/hm5_2_2.html

http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/d2b/d2b0902/d2b090200052/4305686-st-basil-s-cathedral-on-red-square-moscow-russia.jpg

http://www.travelallrussia.com/st-basil-moscow/

http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/6849695.jpg

http://www.saint-petersburg.com/virtual-tour/st-isaacs-cathedral.asp

http://www.moscow-russia-insiders-guide.com/images/Seven-sisters-in-moscow-house-on-kotelnicheskaya-embankment.jpg

http://www.moscow-russia-insiders-guide.com/seven-sisters-in-moscow.html

Sonnet of the Desperate High School Student

Had six months to do that dreaded project,

And yet I did not start until today.

I succumbed to Procrastination's Affect,

My old foe took my precious time away.

Too many times have this happened this year,

Too many times have I played with fire,

Although it always fills my heart with fear,

To know that consequences will be dire. 

So now I find myself here once again,

Stuck between a big rock and a hard place,

With my cruel fate already preordained,

Chosen by none other than my own mace.

But I can take comfort in my classmates,

In that they are staying up just as late.