History of Russia
History and Culture Facts
Famous Russians
Install Russian on PC
Add Russian to keyboard
Useful links

Brief History of Russia

The founding date of the old Russian state is believed to be in the year 882 AD, when the two largest cities, Novgorod and Kiev, were united by the Ruricovich ruling dynasty. Modern Russia inherited from old Russia the Christian orthodox religion, with its gorgeous cathedrals and charming traditions.

The multicentury epoch, during which Russia was born, and during which it changed names and capitals, started with the reign of Ivan III (1462-1505), the Great Prince of Moscow. It ended in the Revolution of 1917, and abdication of the last Emperor of Russia, Nicolas II (1894-1917) who was executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918. During this 450 year period Russia continued widening its borders until it became the largest country in the world. The Russian Empire has since collapsed as the result of revolutions, World War I, civil wars and the split into separate, independent states in 1991. It has never again seen the size it had in 1913.

Russian flag

Russia has a white-blue-red flag. It was first raised in 1668, on the flagship of the first Russian flotilla. The red color signified courage; the blue color (the color of the Mother of God) signified loyalty and faith; the white color signified Tsar and the Fatherland. The birthday of the flag is considered to be 20th January 1705, when Peter I officially proclaimed it as the flag of the Russian trade fleet. In 1883, Alexander III made the tri-colored flag the national flag of the Russian Empire. The colors were also explained as the title of the Russian tsars - “The Tsar of all Great, Little and White Russia”. The red color corresponded to Great Russia (Russians), the blue color to Little Russia ( Ukraine) and the white color to White Russians (Belo Russians). The word “beliy” means “white”.

Russian anthem

Music of the current Russian national anthem comes from the old Soviet Union hymn, but the lyrics is new.

Russia did not have a national anthem for quite some time. In the times of Peter I and Catherine II various musical compositions were used as the national anthem, for example, “Polonaise” of I. A. Kozlovsky. In 1816, the English anthem was officially recognized as the national anthem, and only in 1833 did Nicolas I order the composer Alexey Fyodorovich Lvov (1798 - 1870) to create a Russian anthem. The famous Russian composer Mikhail Glinka also tried to compose an anthem, but the Emperor preferred Lvov’s composition. The history of the anthem text is no less exciting. The first line is a translation of the English anthem “God, save the King”; the next two lines belong to the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, who did the first translation of the original English text in 1816. In 1833, a Russian Romance poet, Vasiliy Zhukovskiy, when asked by Lvov, completed and finished the text. The final version of the text had the title “Praying of the Russian Nation”. For the first time “Praying” sounded on December 11th, 1833 in the Bolshoy Theatre in Moscow andwas met with great success. The anthem was then proclaimed the national anthem of the Russian Empire and was used until 1917.

Fun History and Culture Facts

The cost of building of one kilometer of Moscow metro, depending on depth, averages between 15-35 million dollars.

Lapti, shoes made straw and worn by Russian peasants, were very thin and got worn out very fast. In winter, it took ten days to wear out one pair, in summer – only four.

Russian Empress Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great, used to change dresses several times a day. After her death, she left fifteen thousand dresses and two chests of silk stockings.

The first telephone station in St. Petersburg opened on July 1st, 1882 at Nevsky Prospect, 26. The telephone station was not perfect, and sometimes clients had to wait several hours to be connected. One end of the telephone receiver was used both for talking and listening, and so a client had to put a receiver to his ear if he wanted to hear the speech, and then put it to his mouth to be able to speak. Many people used to forget to do this, and administration put signs on every telephone stating “Don’t listen with your mouth and don’t speak with your ears”.

In 1704 Peter I ordered minting of silver and copper roubles. In the 18th century mostly copper coins were in use, and their weight varied. For example, in 1726 one rouble was 1.6 kilo (about 3.2 pounds). In 1748, the Empress Elizabeth Petrovna granted 2000 roubles to the Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov for his poem dedicated to the Empress. In 1748, the amount of coins to make a rouble was quite large, and weighed 900 grams (1.8 pounds), and so Lomonosov’s 2000 rouble award turned out to be very heavy – 1800 kilos (3600 pounds)!

Alexander Menshikov, the closest friend of Peter I, became the member of the London Academy of Sciences in 1714. Nobody knows how Isaak Newton could persuade members of the Academy to vote for the Russian Duke who could neither read nor write. Evidently the decision was based on diplomatic reasons.

Archeologists tell us that literacy existed in the Kievan Russia even in the 10th century AD. They came to this conclusion after discovering a clay bottle in 1949 in one of the burial sites in the village Gnezdovo near Smolensk. The bottle had only one word written on it – горухща
(горчица – mustard). Archeologists believe that the bottle dates 10th century AD.

Before the 16th century, all words in Russia were written together, without spaces between words. Spaces first appeared in the first Russian printed book “Apostol”. This book was published in 1564 by Russian printers Ivan Fyodorov and Petr Mstislavez.

The first Russian grammar book was written by Vasiliy Burzev in 1634. The cover page had a drawing of a teacher whipping a student.

Anna, the daughter of the Kievan Russia Prince Yaroslav the Wise and the wife of the King of France Henry I, is called Anna the Russian by the French. However, even though coming from the Kievan Russia, Anna did not have a single drop of the Russian blood in her veins. She was half Scandinavian, half Polovetsk.

Dmitriy Mendeleev, the famous inventor of the periodic table of elements, started his scientific career with a doctoral dissertation about .... Russian vodka, where he argued that "perfect" vodka is made of 60 parts of water and 40 parts of alcohol.

English names in Russian are not always spelled like they are in English. For example, William the Conqueror is spelled as Вильгельм (Wilhelm); Henry, when referring to kings, as Генрих (Henrikh), and Генри (Henry) when referring to non-royal persons. Alexander the Great is referred to as Александр Македонский (Alexander of Macedonia) in Russian. The English Queen’s name is not Elizabeth in Russian, but Елизавета (Yelizaveta). The name Charles, when referring to kings, is spelled as Карл (Karl), and Чарльз (Charles) when referring to persons of non-royal origin. However, there is one exception - the name of the English prince, Prince Charles, is spelled in Russian just like it is in English – Чарльз (Charles).

St. Petersburg during the time of Peter the Great had practically no public transportation. Peter I believed that public transportation should be organized only by water. He created “Particularnaya Verf” (a non-military ship-building company) on Fontanka River, which built small boats and gave them free of charge to all city residents, so they could get around the city by water. For comparison, in 1725, there were only twelve “public carriages” (boats that took people around the city, like modern taxis). By 1750, the number grew up to 3,000 carriages, and in 1790, the northern capital had 4,600 carriages. In 1900, the number was over 17,000.

At the time of the Crimean war, Nicolas I was given a report about military people stealing guns, clothing and food from the army supply. Outraged, Nicolas I turned to his son, future tsar Alexander, and said, “Sashka, I think that there are only two people in Russia who do not steal – you and I”.

Once Paul (Павел) Petrovich, the son of Catherine II (Catherine the Great), was reading reports from France during the revolution. He exclaimed in indignation, “I would stop it all with cannons”. Catherine II answered in a calm voice, “You are a fool. Cannons cannot fight ideas.”

Anecdotes About Famous Russians

Foreign blood of Russian tsars

It is well known that the best rulers of Russia were not Russians – the Vikings in Kievan Russia, Elizabeth II, Catherine the Great, and many other tsars and tsarinas of non-Russian origin who acted in the best interests of Russia. The following story happened at one of the Moscow liberal parties in the 1870s. Guests started arguing about how much Russian blood was in the veins of Alexander Alexandrovich, the successor to the Russian throne who considered himself to be pure Russian. Famous historian Solovyev, who happened to be among guests, helped to resolve the argument. He asked for a glass of red wine and a decanter with drinking water. He started his explanation, “Let the red wine be the Russian blood and the decanter with drinking water be German blood. Peter the Great married a German, Catherine I…” Celebrated historian poured half glass of clear water into a full glass with red wine and continued, “Their daughter, Anna, married a German, Herzog Golshtinsky.” Solovyev drank half the glass of wine and added more water instead. He continued the same routine while mentioning marriages of Peter III and German Catherine II (Catherine the Great), Paul I and Maria Fyodorovna, Nicolay I and Alexandra Fyodorovna, Alexander II and Maria Alexandrovna, all women being German Princesses. As a result, liquid in the glass was almost clear. In the end of his speech, Solovyev raised his glass and said, “This is how much Russian blood is in the successor to the Russian throne!”

Tchaikovsky's death

The St. Petersburg café “Wolf and Berange” on Nevsky Prospect played a peculiar role in the Russian culture. On January 27th 1837, Alexander Pushkin and his friend K. Danzas met in this café before Pushkin’s deadly duel. in October 1893, the great Russian composer Piotr Illich Tchaikovsky was dining at “Wolf and Berange” and asked a waiter to bring him a glass of water. The waiter apologized and said that they were out of drinking water. Then Tchaikovsky asked him to bring a glass of tap water. Tchaikovsky’s brother, Modest Petrovich, tried to persuade him not to drink as there was an epidemic of cholera in the city. “Prejudices”, said Tchaikovsky, “I don’t believe in cholera”. The next day he got sick. On October 25th he died form cholera.

Eating habits of Peter the Great

Peter the Great liked to dine at home in his family circle. His food was usually very simple. He preferred Russian cabbage soup, kasha, ham, duck in sour sauce and vegetables. Peter I usually drank a glass of vodka before his meal and Hungarian wine during his meal. He had only one person serving diner. Peter the Great did not like a lot of servants around and called them “spies who overhear incorrectly and then pass on untruths.”

Peter the Great and a State official

In his attempts to "westernise" the Russian nation, Peter the Great spent a lot of time, money and effort on educating his statesmen abroad. Upon return of one of his officials from Holland, Peter asked:
-- Did you like Holland?
--Yes I did, Your Majesty.
--What exactly did you like?
--They know a lot.
--Did you like the Dutch women?
--No.
--Why is that?
--They know a lot...
--That's what you get - answer is the same, but the meaning is different, - observed Peter.

Leo Tolstoy and the editor

Leo Tolstoy wrote a short story and sent it to the editor of a journal under an unknown name. In two weeks, he came to the editor of the journal to find out about the fate of his story. The editor was not very nice to Tolstoy and told him straight away that his story would not be published.
“Why is that?” asked Tolstoy.
“To tell you the truth, my dear friend, when I was reading your nonsense, I was absolutely confident that it was written by a very young man, and not someone your age. You should stop this scribbling, it is too late to start writing in your age. Have you ever written anything before?
“Yes, I did”, answered Tolstoy.
“And what did you write, dare I ask?”
“I wrote some novels which had great success, for example “War and Peace” and “Anna Karenina”…”
“….?”

Leo Tolstoy listens to his novel

Once, Sophia Alexandrovna Stakhovich was staying as a guest in Leo Tolstoy’s house in Yasnaya Polana. One evening she organized reading of Tolstoy’s novels to other guests. Tolstoy entered the room when her husband Stakhovich was reading an extract from War and Peace.
“What are you reading? It is well written.”
“Leo Nicolayevich, didn’t you recognize your own novel War and Peace?
Tolstoy waved his hand in disappointment and left the room.

Whistler

A famous Russian artist Volkov was once asked how he started his career. He irritably responded that in order to make a living, he had to work in a state department and handle an enormous caseload, because his colleague did nothing but whistling all day long.
--Surely, this whistler ended upbadly?
Volkov grinned.
--He didn’t record incoming data and didn’t check outgoing data… We were the first ones to be fired. He went on to the music college and I ended up being an artist, - Volkov finished with a sigh. – His name was Peter Tchaikovsky...

Black sheep of the family

Tchaikovsky’s family was very upset that he turned out to be completely inept to state service, left Ministry of Justice and enrolled into a music college. Tchaikovsky's uncle was very upset and lectured useless Peter, “Oh, Peter, Peter, what a shame! You traded jurisprudence for a pipe!”

Rumours

A governor complained to Duke Alexey Grigoryevich Orlov (a statesman and Catherine the Great’s lover) that someone had been spreading rumours about him [a governor] taking bribes.
--I understand you very well, -answered Orlov. – If you can believe it, I was a victim of the same rumours. People were telling that I was buying my Italian works of art with state money. The surprising thing is, rumours stopped as soon as I stopped doing it.

Nicolas I and a cow

Retired officer Ivanov, who went by the nickname Neptun (given to him for his dignified appearance), was serving as a manager of Nicolas I’s estate. One day, a cow broke away from the herd and got on a loan in front of Emperor’s windows. Nicolas noticed it and shouted to the manager:
-- Neptune, this cow is tramping down my flowers. Watch it – I’ll have you arrested!
--Cows aren’t my specialty, your majesty. It’s my wife’s.
--I am going to have her arrested if you don’t move this cow.
-- Should have arrested her long time ago…
Nobody knows how this conversation ended.

Brullov and an English Portrait Artist

An English portrait artist, whose portraits were very popular in Russia, was visiting Petersburg. Brullov, a famous Russian artist, was asked what he thought of her works. Brullov answered:
-- She certainly has talent, but her portraits lack bones - one can't see anything but flesh!

Gogol visiting Yazikov

Literary evenings of a Russian poet Yazikov were renouned for their "English Club" atmosphere, dull conversations and boredom. Guests were sitting in silence, smoking and only once in a while exchanged short meaningless phrases. At one of such evenings, Russian writer Gogol could not tolerate it any longer and said,
-- "Well, gentlemen, it is time to finish our loud debates", - and headed towards the door.

Short Reign of Catherine I

Life of the Russian Tsarina Catherine I, Peter the Great's widow, who was put on the throne by her ex-lover and Peter's friend Alexander Menshikov, reminded an adventurous novel rather than real life. During her short two year reign, the royal court consumed oysters and Hungarian wines alone worth of 716 thousand rubles, an enormous sum even for the royal court.

How to Install Russian Language on your PC (for Windows) and Add Russian Language to Your Keyboard

When you installed Windows, it came with a default language for the keyboard. If you need to type in another language, Windows allows you to select another language for the keyboard. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click the Start menu; choose Settings, Control Panel.
2. Double-click the Keyboard icon in the Control Panel to open the Keyboard Properties dialog box.
3. Click the Language tab so you see the dialog box.
4. Click the Add button to open the Add Language dialog box.
5. Select the new language from the drop-down list and click OK.

This dialog box shows what languages are installed and which one is the default.

Select the language from this list. Some languages (like English) have several varieties.

6. The language is now added. By default, Windows will still use the original language. The dialog box indicates that if you want to switch between languages, you press the Left Alt key and Shift at the same time. By default, Windows will also show you an indicator of which language is being used in the taskbar. When you are done adding languages, click OK.

Useful Links

Olga’s gallery - the largest (and definitely the best) online museum of Russian and world art with bios of painters. Lidia used some of their images in her second book, Unforgettable Classics, with kind permission.

LeaningRussian.com - good source of learning materials.

Master Russian - another source of learning materials, which includes tests, quizzes, idioms and much more.

Resources for Language Learners by Andrew Quilley - a collection of free vocabulary files (clothes, education, health, home, nature, people and other topics).

Language Guide.Org - users can place their cursor over any of the images and hear their Russian names pronounced and see them spelled out. In some pages, a notepad is displayed next to the title. Placing the cursor over this notepad will reveal a list of supplementary vocabulary .

Moscow News - one of the most popular Russian newspapers.

Rambler Dictionaries - free online Russian-English-Russian dictionary.

Automatic Russian Text Decoder - Russians use several coding system, which are often unreadable to most foreigners. This text decoder proved to be a life saver on more than one occasion.

Free Online Translator - can be a useful tool if you don't take translations seriously. It doesn't distinguish perfective/imperfective forms and uses a lot of bookish expressions.

Eugene Peskin Library - free online collection of Russian classical literature (texts are in Russian).

Maksim Moshkow Library - largest online library in Russia - free texts of Russian and foreign writers (mostly in Russian). While it is great for reading, it is unfit for research, as texts contain mistakes and paragraph division does not correspond to original texts.