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The Solovetsky Islands／Îles Solovki

The Solovetsky Islands (Russian: Солове́цкие острова́, Соловки́) are located in the Onega Bay of the White Sea, Russia. The islands are administrated from Arkhangelsk as Solovetsky District and are served by the Solovki Airport. Area: 347 km². Population: 968 (2002 Census); 1,317 (1989 Census).


Geography

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This archipelago consists of six islands known collectively as the Solovki:

    Bolshoy Solovetsky Island – 246 km².
    Anzersky Island (Anzer) – 47 km².
    Bolshaya Muksalma – 17 km².
    Malaya Muksalma – 0,57 km².
    Bolshoy Zayatsky – 1,25 km².
    Maly Zayatsky – 1,02 km².

The shores of the islands are very indented. They are formed of granites and gneiss. The relief of the islands is hilly (the highest point is 107 m). Most of the Solovetsky Islands are covered with Scots Pine and Norway Spruce forests, which are partially swampy. There are numerous lakes, which were joined by monks so as to form a network of canals.

One interesting feature of these islands is stone labyrinths and other stone settings, especially the Stone labyrinths of Bolshoi Zayatsky Island. Such labyrinths were typical for Northern Europe, but most have perished and now Solovetsky Islands have some of the best remaining examples.

Monastery

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Historically the islands have been the setting of the famous Russian Orthodox Solovetsky Monastery complex. It was founded in the second quarter of the 15th century by two monks from the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. By the end of the 16th century, the abbey had emerged as one of the wealthiest landowners and most influential religious centres in Russia.

The existing stronghold and its major churches were erected in stone during the early reign of Ivan the Terrible at the behest of St. Philip of Moscow. At the onset of the Schism of the Russian Church, the monks staunchly stuck to the faith of their fathers and expelled the tsar's representatives from the Solovki, precipitating the eight-year-long siege of the islands by the forces of Tsar Alexis.
"Bombardment of the Solovetsky Monastery by the Royal Navy during the Crimean War". A lubok (popular print) from 1868.

Throughout the imperial period of Russian history, the monastery was renowned as a strong fortress which repelled foreign attacks during the Livonian War (16th century), Time of Troubles (17th century), the Crimean War (19th century), and the Russian Civil War (20th century).

Labor camp

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After the October Revolution, the islands attained some notoriety as the site of the first Soviet prison camp. The camp was inaugurated as a "detention camp" in 1921, while Lenin was still at the helm of Soviet Russia. It was transformed into a prison in 1929 and was closed ten years later, on the eve of the World War II. The Soviet government realised the islands' strategic importance, and by the beginning of the war, there was a naval base of the Soviet Northern Fleet.

In 1974, the Solovetsky Islands were designated a historical and architectural museum and a natural reserve of the USSR. In 1992, they were inscribed on the World Heritage List "as an outstanding example of a monastic settlement in the inhospitable environment of northern Europe which admirably illustrates the faith, tenacity, and enterprise of later medieval religious communities".Today, the Solovki are seen as a major tourist magnet in the orbit of the Russian North. One can get to the islands either by ship from Kem or by plane from Arkhangelsk.

Les Îles Solovetski (en russe : Солове́цкие острова́), connues également sous les noms de Solovki ou Solovetsk, forment un archipel au nord-ouest de la Russie dans la mer Blanche. Situées dans la baie d'Onega, les îles sont administrées par l'oblast d'Arkhangelsk. Leur superficie totale est de 347 km2 pour une population de 968 habitants en 2002. L'archipel comprend six îles dont les plus grandes sont Solovetski, Anzerski, Bolchaïa Mouksalma et Malaïa Mouksalma). Il est célèbre pour le monastère de Solovetski du XVe siècle et son ancien camp de travail soviétique, précurseur de l'organisation du Goulag. En 1974, les îles devinrent une réserve naturelle protégée : l'archipel, son patrimoine architectural comme son histoire qui en fait un lieu de mémoire privilégié de la Terreur stalinienne, furent l'un des premiers sites russes à être inscrits sur la liste du patrimoine mondial de l'UNESCO en 1992.

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50th Anniversary of Ice-breaker’s Fleet of Russia／
Le 50ème Anniversaire de la Flotte de Brise-glace de la Russie

7 RUR: Ice-breaker "Lenin".
8 RUR: Ice-breaker "Taimyr".
9 RUR: Ice-breaker "Yamal".
10 RUR: Ice-breaker "50 Let Pobedy".

NS Lenin is a Soviet icebreaker launched in 1957, and is both the world's first nuclear powered surface ship and the first nuclear powered civilian vessel. Lenin was put into operation in 1959 and officially decommissioned in 1989.
In the later configuration (two nuclear reactors), the reactors provided steam for four Kirov turbines. These were connected to generators, which powered three sets of electric motors to drive the ship's three propellers.
When launched in 1957, Lenin was powered by three OK-150 reactors.
In February 1965, there was a loss of coolant accident. After being shut down for refueling, the coolant was removed from the number two reactor before the spent fuel had been removed. As a result, some of the fuel elements melted or deformed inside the reactor. This was discovered when the spent elements were being unloaded for storage and disposal. 124 fuel assemblies (about 60% of the total) were stuck in the reactor core. It was decided to remove the fuel, control grid, and control rods as a unit for disposal; they were placed in a special cask, solidified, stored for two years, and dumped in Tsivolki Bay (near the Novaya Zemlya archipelago) in 1967.
Monument of the icebreaker "Lenin" in memorial to Conquerors of the Arctic in Murmansk
The second accident was a cooling system leak which occurred in 1967, shortly after refueling. Finding the leak required breaking through the concrete and metal biological shield with sledgehammers. Once the leak was found, it became apparent that the sledgehammer damage could not be repaired; subsequently, all three reactors were removed, and replaced by two OK-900 reactors. This was completed in the Spring of 1970.
Details of these accidents were not widely available until after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Taymyr (sometimes spelled Taimyr) is a shallow-draft nuclear powered icebreaker, and the first of four similar vessels. She was built in 1989 for the Soviet Union in Helsinki, at the Finnish shipyard Wärtsilä, by order of the Murmansk Shipping Co.
The Taymyr was delivered to Russia for the installation of the reactor system. It has a nuclear-turbo-electric reactor giving up to 50,000 hp. This shallow-draft icebreaker is used mainly for clearing rivers, including their mouths and estuaries of ice and opening channels in order to make winter navigation possible.
This icebreaker and its sister ship Vaygach belong to a type known as Taymyr-class River Icebreakers.
The Call sign of Taymyr is UEMM.

The NS Yamal (Russian: Яма́л) is a Russian Arktika class nuclear powered icebreaker operated by the Murmansk Shipping Company. It is named after the Yamal Peninsula in Northwest Siberia; the name means End of the Land in Nenets.
Laid down in Leningrad in 1986, and launched in October 1992, after the end of communism in Russia, she never filled her designed role of keeping shipping lanes open. She has always carried passengers on arctic excursions. Yamal took an excursion to the North Pole to celebrate the Millennium. Yamal is the 12th surface ship ever to reach the north pole.[citation needed]
The Yamal is equipped with a double hull. The outer hull is 48 mm thick where ice is met and 25 mm elsewhere and has a polymer coating to reduce friction. There is water ballast between the inner and outer hulls which can be shifted in order to aid icebreaking. Icebreaking is also assisted by an air bubbling system which can deliver 24 m³/s of air from jets 9 m below the surface. The Yamal can break ice while making way either forwards or backwards.
Yamal is one of the Russian "Arctic" family of icebreakers, the most powerful icebreakers in the world. These ships must cruise in cold water to cool their reactors, so they cannot pass through the tropics to undertake voyages in the Southern hemisphere.[1]
Yamal carries one helicopter and several Zodiac boats. Radio and satellite communications systems are installed which can provide navigation, telephone, fax, and email services. Amenities include a large dining room (capable of holding all 100 passengers in one sitting), a library, passenger lounge, auditorium, volleyball court, gymnasium, heated indoor swimming pool, a sauna, and an infirmary. She is equipped with 50 passenger cabins and suites, all with toilets, exterior windows, a television, and a desk.

NS 50 Let Pobedy (Russian: 50 лет Победы), translated as 50 Years of Victory or Fiftieth Anniversary of Victory, is a Russian Arktika class nuclear powered icebreaker, the largest in the world as of 2007.
Construction on project no. 10521 started on October 4, 1989 at the Baltic Works in Leningrad (currently Saint Petersburg), USSR. Originally the ship was named NS Ural. Work was halted in 1994 for lack of funds, so that the actual fiftieth anniversary of Victory Day, in 1995, found the ship in an abandoned state. Construction was restarted in 2003.
On 30 November 2004, a fire broke out on the ship. All workers aboard the vessel had to be evacuated while the fire crews battled the fire for some 20 hours before getting it under control; one worker was sent to the hospital. There was no threat of radioactive contamination as the nuclear reactor did not yet have fuel inside.
She was finally completed in the beginning of 2007, after the 60th Anniversary. The icebreaker sailed into the Gulf of Finland for two weeks of sea trials on February 1, 2007.
Upon completing sea trials, the icebreaker returned to St-Petersburg Baltic shipyard and started preparations for her maiden voyage to Murmansk. The new ship showed superior characteristics for an icebreaker, such as exceptional maneuverability and a top speed of 21.4 knots (39.6 km/h).
She arrived at her homeport Murmansk on April 11, 2007.
The icebreaker is an upgrade of the Arktika-class, the most powerful icebreakers ever built. The 159.60 m (524 ft) long and 20.0 m (66 ft) wide vessel, with a displacement of 25840 metric tons, is designed to break through ice up to 2.8 meters thick. She has a 140-man crew.
50 Years Since Victory is also an experimental project; for the first time in history of the Russian icebreakers it used a spoon-shaped bow. As predicted by the ship's designers, such a shape increases the efficiency of the ship's efforts in breaking the ice. The icebreaker is equipped with an all-new digital automated control system. The biological shielding complex was heavily modernized and re-certified by the State Commission. A new ecological compartment was created.
The ship has an athletic/exercise facility, a swimming pool, a library, a restaurant, a massage facility, and a music salon at the crew's disposal.
A group of eclipse chasers has used the vessel to observe the eclipse of August 1, 2008. They departed from Murmansk on July 21, 2008 and reached the North Pole on July 25, 2008, which sets a speed record for the ship (the trip lasted 4 days instead of 7).

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Battle of Poltava／Bataille de Poltava

Battle of Poltava: The turning point in the Northern War (1700–21) between Sweden and Russia. When Hetman Ivan Mazepa learned that Tsar Peter I intended to abolish the autonomy of the Hetman state, he began secret negotiations with Charles XII of Sweden to ensure that Ukraine would not be annexed by Poland in the event of a Swedish victory. After the main Swedish army entered Ukraine, Mazepa openly sided with Charles against Peter. The entire matter was complicated by the fact that the Swedish force that was to have marched directly on Moscow had unexpectedly turned south toward Ukraine before reaching Smolensk. Mazepa was left in an awkward position, but tried to accommodate the Swedes as well as he could.

Because of the harsh winter of 1708–1709 and a series of military defeats the situation of the Swedish army in Ukraine became precarious. The assistance Charles XII expected from Turkey and the Crimean Khanate did not materialize, and the Polish army of King Stanislaus I Leszczyński and a Swedish corps were forced to remain in Poland to fight the supporters of Frederick Augustus II. Charles's only success at that time was enlisting the support of Otaman Kost Hordiienko and his army of 8,000 Zaporozhian Cossacks in April 1709. Semiencircled by the Russians, Charles chose not to retreat to Volhynia (as his generals counseled) but to advance to the Vorskla River and thence on to Moscow via Kharkiv and Kursk. Several fortified cities on the way encumbered Charles's advance. One such city was Poltava, situated at the intersection of important routes to Southern Ukraine, Right-Bank Ukraine, and Slobidska Ukraine and the Don region. It was defended by a garrison of 4,300 Russian soldiers and 2,600 Ukrainian volunteers commanded by Gen Aleksei Kelin.

In early May 1709, on Ivan Mazepa's advice, Charles XII decided to capture Poltava. Having failed to take it by storm, he besieged and bombarded the hungry city. Peter I arrived to relieve Poltava and decided his army of 42,500 soldiers and 102 cannons would attack the Swedes on 10 July. Cossack forces loyal to Peter under the command of Hetman Ivan Skoropadsky cut off possible Swedish retreat to the Dnieper River between Pereiaslav and Kremenchuk. Charles had 31,000 men but only 4 cannons; 6,000 of his soldiers were engaged in maintaining the siege or guarding the Vorskla River rear. Mazepa's small force was held in reserve to protect the Swedish western flank and ensure that Kelin would not attack from the fortress.

When Charles XII learned, during the night of 7 July, that a Kalmyk army of 40,000 would arrive to reinforce the Russians in two days, he decided to act first and destroy the Russian encampment in a lightning blow. At 5 AM on 8 July the Swedish infantry advanced on Russian positions but was repelled by cavalry. The Swedish cavalry successfully engaged its counterpart but was forced to retreat under heavy fire. The Swedish infantry attacked once more and captured two Russian redoubts, but failed to hold them. As the Swedes attempted to bypass the redoubts, Prince Aleksandr Menshikov's troops encircled them and inflicted heavy casualties. Fifty to seventy meters from Russian positions the Swedes met a hail of deadly artillery fire. Panic ensued in their ranks, but they managed to retreat into the nearby Budyshcha forest, where Charles was able, with considerable difficulty, to restore order.

At around 9 AM, having regrouped their forces, both Peter I and Charles XII ordered their troops to advance. Intense Russian artillery fire again created chaos in the Swedish ranks, their center buckled, and a disorderly retreat ensued to the Swedish encampment, which by then had been captured by Russian forces. By 11 AM the Swedes had been routed. Over 9,300 died, and nearly 2,900 were taken prisoner, including Field Marshal C.-G. Rehnskjold and the first minister, C. Piper. The Russian army suffered 1,345 dead and 3,290 wounded. Swedish units that were not captured were led by Gen A.L. Lewenhaupt along the Vorskla River to Perevolochna, whence Charles, Ivan Mazepa, and Kost Hordiienko and a contingent of 3,000 Swedes and Cossacks crossed the Dnieper River and fled into Turkish-occupied territory. A.L. Lewenhaupt's army of 16,000 was forced to capitulate and surrender to Menshikov. According to the fifth provision of the capitulation agreement Cossacks under Swedish command were handed over to the Russians. Most of them were executed on the spot, and the rest were exiled to Siberia.

The Battle of Poltava resulted in Russian military rule in the Hetman state and increasing curtailment of its autonomy. The Museum of the History of the Battle of Poltava, which very much lauded Peter’s triumph, was opened at the battle site in 1950.

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65th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War／

Le 65ème Anniversaire de Victoire dans la Grande guerre Patriote

The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of war between the European Axis powers, Germany, Romania, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, Croatia, Finland (not an Axis member) and the Soviet Union which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945. It was known by many different names depending on the nation, notably the Great Patriotic War (Russian: Великая Отечественная Война) in USSR, the Eastern Front (German: die Ostfront), the Eastern Campaign (German: der Ostfeldzug) or the Russian Campaign (German: der Rußlandfeldzug) in Germany.

The battles on the "Eastern Front" constituted the largest military confrontation in history. They were characterised by unprecedented ferocity, wholesale destruction, mass deportations, and immense loss of life variously due to combat, starvation, disease, and massacres. The Eastern Front, as the site of nearly all extermination camps, death marches, ghettos, and the majority of pogroms, was central to the Holocaust. Various figures average a total number of 70,000,000 dead because of World War II; with over 30 million dead, many of them civilians, the Eastern Front represents almost half of this total, and has been called a war of extermination. The Eastern Front was decisive in determining the outcome of World War II, eventually serving as the main reason for Germany's defeat. It resulted in the destruction of the Third Reich, the partition of Germany and the rise of the Soviet Union as a military and industrial superpower.

The two principal belligerent powers were Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The Soviet-Finnish Continuation War may be considered the northern flank of the Eastern Front. In addition, the joint German-Finnish operations across the northernmost Finnish-Soviet border and in the Murmansk region are also considered part of the Eastern Front.

Le terme de Front de l’Est (aussi appelé le Front russe) désigne le théâtre d'opérations en Europe de l'Est pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. De juin 1941 à mai 1945, l'Allemagne nazie et l'Union soviétique, les deux principales nations belligérantes, se livrèrent à une guerre totale prenant place d'abord en Union soviétique, puis dans les pays occupés par les forces de l'Axe.

Il s'agit du plus grand théâtre d'opérations de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Le Front de l'Est fut le lieu de la guerre la plus féroce, d'énormes destructions et déportations de masse, et résulta en de gigantesques pertes militaires et civiles par suite de la guerre elle-même, de famine, de maladie, de conditions météorologiques extrêmes, et de massacres. Les pertes civiles et militaires sur le Front de l'Est sont estimées à environ 30 millions de personnes, soit environ la moitié des dégâts infligés tout au long de la Seconde Guerre mondiale.

Ce conflit fut sans doute le plus déterminant dans la chute du Troisième Reich. Il eut comme conséquences la destruction de l'Allemagne comme puissance militaire, l'accession de l'Union soviétique au rang de superpuissance, la constitution du bloc soviétique en Europe de l’Est (derrière le rideau de fer) et la division de l'Allemagne.

Les Soviétiques et maintenant les Russes appellent ce conflit la Grande Guerre patriotique, par allusion à la « Guerre patriotique » de 1812 contre Napoléon Ier. Les Allemands nomment le conflit "Ostfront", ce qui se traduit par "Front de l'Est". Les Finlandais, qui combattirent aux côtés des Allemands, nomment la partie des combats qui se déroula sur leur territoire entre 1941 et 1944 guerre de Continuation, car elle prolongeait la guerre d'Hiver de 1939-1940.

Le 9 mai, jour de la reddition allemande pour le fuseau horaire de Moscou, est une fête nationale en Russie et dans certaines des anciennes républiques soviétiques (День Победы, littéralement le jour de la victoire).

Le Front de l'Est fit sa jonction avec le Front de l'Ouest en Allemagne et en Tchécoslovaquie en 1945.

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175th Anniversary of Hydrometeorologic Service／
175ème Anniversaire de Service Hydrométéorologique

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Towns of Soldierly Glory／
Villes de la gloire de soldat


Towns of Soldierly Glory - Belgorod, Kursk, Orel, Polyarny, Rzhev.

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2009 - the Year of Youth／
2009 - l'Année de la Jeunesse

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Symbols of Moscow and St.Petersburg／
Les symboles de Moscou et de Saint-Pétersbourg


6.60RUR: Symbols of St.Petersburg
9.00RUR: Symbols of Moscow

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Europa 2009-Astronomy／
Europa 2009-Astronomie

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Catherine I ／Catherine Ier


Catherine I (In Russian: Екатерина I Алексеевна) (born Marta Helena Skowrońska, Latvian: Marta Elena Skavronska, later Marfa Samuilovna Skavronskaya) (15 April [O.S. 5 April] 1684 – 17 May [O.S. 6 May] 1727), the second wife of Peter the Great, reigned as Empress of Russia from 1725 until her death.

The life of Catherine I was said by Voltaire to be nearly as extraordinary as Peter the Great himself. There are no documents that confirm the ascent of Catherine. The commonly accepted version is that Catherine was born in Ringen (Rõngu), in present-day Estonia. At the time this area was the Swedish province of Livonia. Originally named 'Marta Skowrońska', she was the daughter of Samuel Skowroński, later Samuil Skavronsky, a Latvian peasant of Polish origin, most likely a Catholic, and who was already a widower of one Dorothea Hann. Her mother has been listed on at least one site as Elisabeth Moritz, whom her father married at Jakobstadt in 1680. There is some speculation that her parents were runaway serfs. Some sources state her father was a gravedigger. Samuil and her mother died of plague around 1684 or 1685, leaving five children. She was taken by an aunt who sent her to be raised by Ernst Glück, the Lutheran pastor and educator who first translated the Bible into Latvian, in Marienburg. She was essentially a house servant. No effort was made to teach her to read and she remained illiterate throughout her life.

She was a very beautiful young girl, and there are accounts that Frau Glück became fearful that Marta would become involved with her son. At the age of seventeen, she was married off to a Swedish dragoon, Johan Cruse or Johann Rabbe, with whom she remained for eight days in 1702, at which point the Swedish troops were withdrawn from Marienburg. When Russian forces captured Marienburg the Pastor Glück offered and was taken to Moscow to work as a translator for Field Marshal Boris Sheremetev. There are unsubstantiated stories that Marta worked briefly in the laundry of the victorious regiment, and also that she was presented in her undergarments to the Brigadier General Adolf Rudolf Bauer to be his mistress. She definitely worked in the household of his superior, the Field Marshal Sheremetev. It is not known whether she was his mistress, or domestic servant.

She then became part of the household of Prince Aleksandr Menshikov, the best friend of Peter the Great. Anecdotal sources suggest that she was purchased by him. Whether the two of them were lovers is highly disputed, for Menshikov was engaged to Darya Arsenyeva, his future well-loved wife. It is clear that Menshikov and Marta formed a lifetime alliance, and it is possible that Menshikov who was quite jealous of Peter's attentions and knew his tastes, wanted to procure a mistress on whom he could rely. In any case, in 1703, while visiting Menshikov at his home, Peter met Marta, and shortly after, he took her as his own mistress. In 1705, she converted to Orthodoxy and changed her name to Yekaterina Alexeyevna. She and Darya accompanied Peter and Menshikov on their military excursions.

Catherine and Peter married secretly in 1707. They had nine children, two of whom survived into adulthood, Yelizaveta (1709) and Anna (born 1708). Peter had moved the capital to St Petersburg in 1703. While the city was being built he lived in a three-room log cabin with Catherine, where she did the cooking and caring for the children and he tended a garden as though they were an ordinary couple. The relationship was the most successful of Peter's life and a great number of letters exist demonstrating the strong affection between Catherine and Peter. As a person she was very strong, energetic, compassionate, charming and always cheerful. She was able to calm Peter in his frequent rages and was called in to attend him during his epileptic seizures.

Catherine continued to accompany Peter on his Pruth Campaign in 1711. There Catherine was said to have saved Peter and his Empire. Surrounded by overwhelming numbers of Turkish troops, Catherine suggested before surrendering, her jewels and those of the other women be used in an effort to bribe the Grand Vizier Baltaji into allowing a retreat. Baltaji allowed the retreat, whether motivated by a bribe or considerations of trade and diplomacy. In any case Peter credited Catherine and proceeded to marry her again (this time officially) at Saint Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg on 9 February 1712. Catherine was Peter's second wife; he had previously married and divorced Eudoxia Lopukhina, who had borne him the Tsarevich Alexis Petrovich. Upon their wedding,she (Catherine) took the style of her husband and became Tsarina. When Peter elevated the Russian Tsardom to Empire,Catherine became Empress (Imperatrica). The Order of Saint Catherine was instituted by her husband on the occasion of their wedding.

Upon Peter's death, Catherine found her four siblings, Christine, Anna, Karl and Friederich/Theodor, gave them the newly created titles of Count and Countess, and brought them to Russia. Christine Skowrońska, renamed Christina Samuilovna Skavronskaya (1687 – 14 April 1729), married Simon-Heinrich N (1672-1728) and their issue were Counts Hendrikov; Anna Skowrońska, renamed Anna Samuilovna Skavronskaya, married one Michael-Joachim N and their issue were Counts Efimovsky; Karl Skowroński, renamed Karel Samuilovich Skavronsky, was created a Count of the Russian Empire on 5 January 1727 and made a Chamberlain of the Imperial Court, married to Maria Ivanovna, a Russian woman, by whom he had issue extinct in male line in 1793; Friedrich/Theodor Skowroński, renamed Feodor Samuilovich Skavronsky, was created a Count of the Russian Empire on 5 January 1727 and married twice to N, a Lithuanian woman, and to Ekaterina Rodionovna Saburova, without issue of any of them.

In 1724 Catherine was officially named co-ruler.

The year before his death, Peter and Catherine had an estrangement over her support of William Mons (brother of Peter's former mistress and secretary to Catherine) and his sister Matrena, one of Catherine's ladies-in-waiting. Peter had fought his entire life a somewhat hopeless battle to clear up corruption in Russia. Catherine had a great deal of influence on who could gain access to her husband. William Mons and his sister had begun selling their influence to those who wanted access to Catherine and, through her, to Peter. Apparently this had been overlooked by Catherine, who was fond of both. Peter found out and had Mons executed and his sister exiled. He and Catherine did not speak for several months. Rumors flew that she and Mons had had an affair, but there is no evidence for this.

Peter died (28 January 1725 Old Style) without naming a successor. Catherine represented the interests of the "new men", commoners who had been brought to positions of great power by Peter based on competence. A change in government was likely to favor the entrenched aristocrats. For that reason during a meeting of a council to decide on a successor a coup was arranged by Menshikov and others in which the guards regiments with whom Catherine was very popular proclaimed her the ruler of Russia, giving her the title of Empress. Supporting evidence was "produced" from Peter's secretary Makarov and the Bishop of Pskov, both "new men" with motivation to see Catherine take over. The real power, however, lay with Menshikov, Peter Tolstoy and with other members of the Supreme Privy Council.

Catherine was the first woman to rule Imperial Russia, opening the legal path for a century almost entirely dominated by women, including her daughter Elizabeth and Catherine the Great, all of whom continued Peter the Great's policies in modernizing Russia. She was said to be a just and fair ruler.

The Supreme Privy Council concentrated power in the hands of one party, and thus was an executive innovation. In foreign affairs, Russia joined the Austro-Spanish league to reluctantly defend the interests of Catherine's son-in-law, the Duke of Holstein, against England.

Catherine gave her name to Catherinehof near St. Petersburg, and built the first bridges in the new capital. She was also the first royal owner of the Tsarskoye Selo estate, where the Catherine Palace still bears her name.

In general, Catherine's policies were reasonable and cautious. The story of her humble origins was considered by later generations of tsars to be a state secret.

She died just two years after Peter, at age 43, in St. Petersburg, where she was buried at St. Peter and St. Paul Fortress. It is not known what caused her early demise.

Catherine I (Екатерина I), de son vrai nom Marthe Skavronskaïa (née le 15 avril 1684 en Livonie et décédée le 17 mai 1727), est impératrice de Russie de 1725 à 1727. Elle épouse l'empereur Pierre Ier en 1707.

Née de parents pauvres, qui moururent atteints de la peste, elle fut envoyée par sa tante en tant que servante chez le pasteur Johann Ernst Glück (en), traducteur de la Bible en letton. Analphabète, elle venait d'épouser à 17 ans un simple soldat suédois lorsqu'elle fut réduite en captivité après la prise de Marienbourg. D'une beauté remarquable, elle plut au prince Alexandre Menchikov, et bientôt après à Pierre le Grand lui-même. En 1711, elle accompagna le tsar dans sa campagne contre les Turcs, et lui rendit le plus important service en traitant avec les ennemis qui le tenaient enfermé sur les bords du Prout : elle acheta au prix de ses pierreries la retraite du grand vizir. Le tsar l'épousa après en avoir eu plusieurs enfants ; en 1724 il la fit couronner solennellement impératrice. Après la mort du tsar (1725), elle fut reconnue souveraine de toutes les Russies puis laissa Menchikov prendre une grande influence.

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Weapon of the Victory／Arme de la Victoire

7 (R)：Rifles (SVT-40) and (AVS-36).
8 (R)：Revolver 1895, gun (TT) 1933.
9 (R)：Submachine guns (PPS-43) and (PPSH-41).
10 (R)：Machine guns (DP) and (SG-43).

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The 150th anniversary of birth A.S.Popov (1859-1906), physicist and electrical engineer, inventor of radio.／
Le 150ème anniversaire de naissance A.S.Popov (1859-1906), physicien et électrotechnicien, l'inventeur de radio.



Alexander Stepanovich Popov (Russian: Алекса́ндр Степа́нович Попо́в; March 16 [O.S. March 4] 1859 – January 13 [O.S. December 31, 1905] 1906) was a Russian physicist who first demonstrated the practical application of electromagnetic (radio) waves, although he did not apply for a patent for his invention.

Beginning in the early 1890s he continued the experiments of other radio pioneers, such as Heinrich Hertz. In 1894 he built his first radio receiver, a version of the coherer. Further refined as a lightning detector, it was presented to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society on May 7, 1895 — the day has been celebrated in the Russian Federation as "Radio Day". The paper on his findings was published the same year. In March 1896, he effected transmission of radio waves between different campus buildings in St Petersburg. Upon learning about Guglielmo Marconi's system, he effected ship-to-shore communication over a distance of 6 miles in 1898 and 30 miles in 1899.

Alexandre Stepanovitch Popov (en russe : Александр Степанович Попов ; 16 mars 1859 - 13 janvier 1906), ingénieur russe, précurseur de la Radio.

Né dans l'Oural à Krasnotourinsk près de Perm, il étudie les émissions électromagnétiques des orages quand il a l'idée d'améliorer la sensibilité du récepteur équipé d'un radioconducteur de Branly en y raccordant le fil d'un paratonnerre. Il venait d'inventer l'antenne. Cette découverte permet à Marconi de réaliser les premières liaisons radiotélégraphiques en 1899 (expérience de Wimereux).

En 1899 à Paris, Alexandre Popov a collaboré avec l'ingénieur Eugène Ducretet. Il fut nommé professeur à l'Institut Electro-Technique de Saint-Petersbourg en 1905.

Alexandre Popov est enterré au cimetière Volkovo à Saint-Pétersbourg.

FDC from Russia／FDC de la russie

Birth Bicentenary of Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol／
Bicentenaire de Naissance de Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol




Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol (Russian: Никола́й Васи́льевич Го́голь, Nikolaj Vasil'evič Gogol' ; Ukrainian: Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, Mykola Vasylovych Hohol) (31 March [O.S. 19 March] 1809,– 4 March [O.S. 21 February] 1852) was a Ukrainian-born Russian novelist, humorist, and dramatist.[1] His early works, such as Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, were heavily influenced by his Ukrainian upbringing and identity.

He is considered the father of modern Russian realism. His writing satirised the corrupt bureaucracy of the Russian Empire, leading to his exile. On his return, he immersed himself in the Orthodox Church.[4] The novels Taras Bul'ba (1835; 1842) and Dead Souls (1842), the play The Inspector-General (1836, 1842), and the short stories Diary of a Madman, The Nose and The Overcoat (1842) are among his best known works. With their scrupulous and scathing realism, ethical criticism as well as philosophical depth, they remain some of the most important works of world literature.

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75th Birth Anniversary of Yuri. A. Gagarin／
75ème Anniversaire de Naissance d'Yuri. A. Gagarin.

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (Russian: Ю́рий Алексе́евич Гага́рин) (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968), Hero of the Soviet Union, was a Soviet cosmonaut. On 12 April 1961, he became the first human in outer space and the first to orbit the Earth. He received medals from around the world for his pioneering tour in space.

Yuri Gagarin was born in the village of Klushino near Gzhatsk (now in Smolensk Oblast, Russia), on 9 March 1934. The adjacent town of Gzhatsk was renamed Gagarin in 1968 in his honour. His parents, Alexey Ivanovich Gagarin and Anna Timofeyevna Gagarina, worked on a collective farm.While manual labourers are described in official reports as "peasants", this may be an oversimplification if applied to his parents — his mother was reportedly a voracious reader, and his father a skilled carpenter. Yuri was the third of four children, and his elder sister helped raise him while his parents worked. Like millions of people in the Soviet Union, the Gagarin family suffered during Nazi occupation in World War II. His two elder siblings were sent to Germany as slave labourers in 1943, and did not return until after the war. While a youth, Yuri became interested in space and planets, and began to dream about his space tour which would one day become a reality.Yuri was described by his teachers in the Moscow satellite town of Lyubertsy as intelligent and hard-working, if occasionally mischievous. His mathematics and science teacher had flown in the Soviet Air Forces during the war, which presumably made some substantial impression on young Gagarin.

After starting an apprenticeship in a metalworks as a foundryman, Gagarin was selected for further training at a technical high school in Saratov. While there, he joined the "AeroClub", and learned to fly a light aircraft, a hobby that would take up an increasing proportion of his time. By dint of effort, rather than brilliance, he reportedly mastered both; in 1955, after completing his technical schooling, he entered military flight training at the Orenburg Pilot's School. While there he met Valentina Goryacheva, whom he married in 1957, after gaining his pilot's wings in a MiG-15. Post-graduation, he was assigned to Luostari airbase in Murmansk Oblast, close to the Norwegian border, where terrible weather made flying risky. As a full-grown man, Gagarin was 1.57 metres (5 ft 2 in) tall, which was an advantage in the small Vostok cockpit.He became Lieutenant of the Soviet Air Force on 5 November 1957 and on 6 November 1959 he received the rank of Senior Lieutenant.

In 1960, after the search and selection process, Yuri Gagarin was selected with 19 other cosmonauts for the Soviet space program. Along with the other prospective cosmonauts, he was subjected to experiments designed to test his physical and psychological endurance; he also underwent training for the upcoming flight. Out of the twenty selected, the eventual choices for the first launch were Gagarin and Gherman Titov because of their performance in training, as well as their physical characteristics — space was at a premium in the small Vostok cockpit and both men were rather short.

On 12 April 1961, Gagarin became the first human to travel into space, launching to orbit aboard the Vostok 3KA-2 (Vostok 1). His call sign in this flight was Kedr (Cedar; Russian: Кедр).During his flight, Gagarin famously whistled the tune "The Motherland Hears, The Motherland Knows" (Russian: "Родина слышит, Родина знает"). The first two lines of the song are: "The Motherland hears, the Motherland knows/Where her son flies in the sky". This patriotic song was written by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1951 (opus 86), with words by Yevgeniy Dolmatovsky.

Around the same time, some Western sources claimed that Gagarin, during his space flight, had made the comment, "I don't see any God up here." However, no such words appear in the verbatim record of Gagarin's conversations with the Earth during the spaceflight.In a 2006 interview a close friend of Gagarin, Colonel Valentin Petrov, stated that Gagarin never said such words, and that the phrase originated from Nikita Khrushchev's speech at the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, where the anti-religious propaganda was discussed. In a certain context Khrushchev said, "Gagarin flew into space, but didn't see any God there".Colonel Petrov also said that Gagarin had been baptised into the Orthodox Church as a child.

After the flight, Gagarin became a worldwide celebrity, touring widely with appearances in Italy, Great Britain, Germany, Canada, and Japan to promote the Soviet achievement.

In 1962, he began serving as a deputy to the Supreme Soviet. He later returned to Star City, the cosmonaut facility, where he worked on designs for a reusable spacecraft. Gagarin worked on these designs in Star City for 7 years. Gagarin became Lieutenant Colonel (or Podpolkovnik) of the Soviet Air Force on 12 June 1962 and on 6 November 1963 he received the rank of Colonel (Polkovnik) of the Soviet Air Force.Soviet officials tried to keep him away from any flights, being worried of losing their hero in an accident. Gagarin was backup pilot for Vladimir Komarov in the Soyuz 1 flight. As Komarov's flight ended in a fatal crash, Gagarin was ultimately banned from training for and participating in further spaceflights.

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Bridges／Ponts



6 (R). multicoloured. Moscow. Bridge over Moscow-river.
7 (R). multicoloured. Kimry. Bridge over Volga.
8 (R). multicoloured. Surgut. Bridge over Ob.
9 (R). multicoloured. St-Petersburg. Bridge over Neva.

FDC from Taiwan／FDC du Taiwan

Cover to South Ossetia, return from Georiga.
l'enveloppe à Ossétie du Sud, revenez de Géorgie.

2008(97).12.15：Send from Taipei, To South Ossetia
(Хуссар Ирыстон; Южная Осетия), Via Russia→
29.12.08.16：Arrived Vladikavkaz (Владикавка́з), North Ossetia→
07.01.09.13：Cannot enter South Ossetia, left Vladikavkaz to Georiga.→
22.01.2009：Write "Force Major", return from Georiga→
2.2.09-11：Arrived Taipei
There is censor open on the left side of cover.

PS: This is third time I send to South Ossetia and also third time cannot
enter, Could anyone can explain "Force Major" mean?

FDC from Russia／FDC de la Russie

The monuments of science and technique-Bicycles.／
Les monuments de science et la technique-Bicyclettes.



stamps by clockwise:
Collapsible bicycle of the military sample of "Leytner". Russia. 1917.
Racing track bicycle GM-30. The USSR. 1938
Road female bicycle V-22. The USSR. 1954.
Bicycle ZiCh-1. The USSR. 1946.

FDC from Russia／FDC de la Russie

Russia is the world champion in hockey-2008／
La Russie est le champion du monde en 2008 de hockey.

FDC from Russia／FDC de la Russie

The 100th anniversary of Shuvalov swimming school ／
Le 100ème anniversaire d'école de natation de Shuvalov

FDC from Russia／FDC de la Russie

The 15th anniversary of the State Duma and Council of Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.／
Le 15ème anniversaire du Duma d'État et le Conseil de Fédération de l'Assemblage Fédéral de la Fédération de Russie.