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Russians In Estonia
In Estonia, the population of ethnic Russians (, ) is estimated at 285,819, most of whom live in the capital city Tallinn and other urban areas of Harju and Ida-Viru counties. While a small settlement of Russian Old Believers on the coast of Lake Peipus has an over 300-year long history, the large majority of the ethnic Russian population in the country originates from the immigration from Russia and other parts of the former USSR during the 1944–1991 Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic. Early contacts The modern Estonian-language word for Russians ''vene(lane)'' is probably related to an old Germanic word ''veneð'' referring to the Wends, speakers of a Slavic language who lived on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea during the Middle Ages. The troops of prince Yaroslav the Wise of Kievan Rus' defeated Estonian '' Chuds'' in ca. 1030 and established a fort of ''Yuryev'' (in modern-day Tartu), which may have survived there until ca. 1061, when the fort's defenders wer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harju County
Harju County ( or ''Harjumaa''), is one of the fifteen counties of Estonia. It is situated in northern Estonia, on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland, and borders Lääne-Viru County to the east, Järva County to the southeast, Rapla County to the south, and Lääne County to the southwest. The Capital (political), capital and largest city of Estonia, Tallinn, is situated in Harju County. Harju is the largest county in Estonia in terms of population, as almost half (45%) of Estonia's population lives in Harju County. History Ancient history The territory of modern Harju County consists mostly of two ancient Estonian counties: Revala, around what is now Tallinn, and Harjumaa (ancient county), Harjumaa, which was situated south of Revala and presently rests mostly in Rapla County. Lindanise, then a small trading post at the Gulf of Finland, served as the capital of Revala. It eventually grew into the mostly Germans, German-populated Hanseatic league, Hanseatic town of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Slavic Language
The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the Early Middle Ages, which in turn is thought to have descended from the earlier Proto-Balto-Slavic language, linking the Slavic languages to the Baltic languages in a Balto-Slavic group within the Indo-European family. The current geographical distribution of natively spoken Slavic languages includes the Balkans, Central and Eastern Europe, and all the way from Western Siberia to the Russian Far East. Furthermore, the diasporas of many Slavic peoples have established isolated minorities of speakers of their languages all over the world. The number of speakers of all Slavic languages together was estimated to be 315 million at the turn of the twenty-first century. It is the largest and most diverse ethno-linguistic group in Europe. The Sl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tarbatu
Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 97,759 (as of 2024). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of Riga, Latvia. Tartu lies on the Emajõgi river, which connects the two largest lakes in Estonia, Lake Võrtsjärv and Lake Peipus. From the 13th century until the end of the 19th century, Tartu was known in most of the world by variants of its historical name Dorpat. Tartu, the largest urban centre of southern Estonia, is often considered the "intellectual capital city" of the country, especially as it is home to the nation's oldest and most renowned university, the University of Tartu (founded in 1632). Tartu also houses the Supreme Court of Estonia, the Ministry of Education and Research, the Estonian National Museum, and the oldest Estonian-language theatre, Vanemuine. It is also the birthplace of the Estonian Song Festivals. Tartu was designated as the European Capital of Culture in 2024. Names an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siege Of Tartu (1224)
The siege of Tartu took place in 1224 and resulted in the fall of the last major center of Estonian resistance in the mainland provinces to the Christian conquest of Estonia. Background In 1208, the Livonian Brothers of the Sword launched a crusade against the pagan Estonians, who had been raiding into the Latgalian and Livonian territories to the south which had recently been conquered by the Order. In 1219 Denmark joined the Crusade, and in 1220, Sweden. The Estonians were able to annihilate the Swedish presence, but by the winter of 1220 nearly all of continental Estonia had been conquered by the Germans and Danes, and the population declared Christian. Uprising of 1223 In 1223, there was a general anti-Christian uprising in the subjugated continental part of Estonia. All Germans and Danes who fell into the hands of the Estonians were put to the sword, and some of the priests ritually sacrificed to pagan gods. Estonians reoccupied all the fortresses after the German gar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Druzhina
A druzhina is the Slavonic word for a retinue in service of a chieftain, also called a ''knyaz'' (prince). Kievan Rus' ''Druzhina'' was flexible both as a term and as an institution. At its core, it referred to the prince's permanent personal bodyguards (''malaia''; 'small' ''Druzhina''); more generally, it referred to the prince's extended household (''dvor''; court).Simon Franklin, "Kievan Rus' (1015-1125)," in ''The Cambridge History of Russia'', vol. 1, ed. Maureen Perrie (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 81-82. Apart from a prince's kins, the druzhina was a his closest and most vital social group: it served as the "protective and coercitive basis for his power". A wise prince was expected to nurture his druzhina, keep it close, feast with it, consult it and reward it. The effects of not doing so can be seen with Boris's case; after his father's death, the latter's druzhina pledged loyalty to him and offered him the throne of Kiev. Boris declined, the ''dr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vyachko
Vyachko (; died 1224; also ''Vyacheslav''), also known as Vetseke, was the prince of Koknese (Kuikenos). He later became the prince of Yuryev (now Tartu) while in the service of Novgorod, which was the last Russian stronghold in Estonia. He died during the defense of the city against the Livonian Brothers of the Sword in 1224. Origins Vetseke may have been the equivalent to the Russian Vyachko (a shortened form of Vyacheslav). Evidence from the '' Chronicle of Henry of Livonia'' indicates the possibility that he came from a local élite, perhaps a Livonian, who converted to Orthodox Christianity and became a vassal of the Principality of Polotsk. Despite this, he was still perceived as a Russian prince. The ''Chronicle'' says that the population of Koknese (Kokenhusen) included Balts ( Latgallians and Selonians) and a Germanic colony, as well as some Slavic peoples. Early relations with the Crusaders At the beginning of the 13th century, when during the Northern Crusades th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Otepää
Otepää (formerly Nuustaku) is a town in Valga County, southern Estonia. It is the administrative centre of Otepää Parish. Otepää is a popular skiing resort, popularly known as the "winter capital" of Estonia (in contrast to the "summer capital" Pärnu). During the 2005–2006 season it became the site for FIS Cross-Country World Cup events. The name ''Otepää'' means 'Ott's Head' in South Estonian, where ''ott'' is a euphemism for 'bear'. History The first settlement in Otepää was in the 6th century BC. It has been inhabited continuously since the 6th-7th centuries. Otepää (or Odenpäh) was historically important as the site of a Viking hill fort and medieval castle. The fortress was first mentioned in Rus' sources in 1116 when the princes of Novgorod and Pskov undertook an expedition against Tartu and Otepää. The conquest of Estonia during the Northern Crusades began with an attack on the fortress at Otepää in 1208. The fort was attacked again in 1217, whe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
East Slavic Language
The East Slavic languages constitute one of three regional subgroups of the Slavic languages, distinct from the West and South Slavic languages. East Slavic languages are currently spoken natively throughout Eastern Europe, and eastwards to Siberia and the Russian Far East. In part due to the large historical influence of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, the Russian language is also spoken as a lingua franca in many regions of the Caucasus and Central Asia. Of the three Slavic branches, East Slavic is the most spoken, with the number of native speakers larger than the Western and Southern branches combined. The common consensus is that Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian are the extant East Slavic languages. Some linguists also consider Rusyn a separate language, although it is sometimes considered a dialect of Ukrainian. The modern East Slavic languages descend from a common predecessor spoken in Kievan Rus' from the 9th to 13th centuries, which later evolved into R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pühtitsa Convent
Pühtitsa Convent (Estonian: Kuremäe Jumalaema Uinumise nunnaklooster, Russian: Пюхтицкий Успенский женский монастырь) is a Russian Orthodox convent in Eastern Estonia (Ida-Viru County) between Lake Peipus and the Gulf of Finland. A small Orthodox Christian church was built in Pühtitsa in the 16th century. The convent was founded in 1891 and has grown into the largest Orthodox community in the Baltic states. History The convent is located on a site known as ''Pühitsetud'' ("blessed" in Estonian) since ancient times. According to a legend, a shepherd from the village of Kuremäe witnessed a divine revelation near a spring of water to this day venerated as holy. Later in the 16th century, locals found an ancient icon of Dormition of the Mother of God under a huge oak tree. The icon still belongs to the convent. In 1888, the Russian Orthodox Church sent a nun from the Ipatiev Monastery in Kostroma to establish a convent in Pühtitsa. The katho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tartu
Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 97,759 (as of 2024). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of Riga, Latvia. Tartu lies on the Emajõgi river, which connects the two largest lakes in Estonia, Lake Võrtsjärv and Lake Peipus. From the 13th century until the end of the 19th century, Tartu was known in most of the world by variants of its historical name Dorpat. Tartu, the largest urban centre of southern Estonia, is often considered the "intellectual capital city" of the country, especially as it is home to the nation's oldest and most renowned university, the University of Tartu (founded in 1632). Tartu also houses the Supreme Court of Estonia, the Ministry of Education and Research (Estonia), Ministry of Education and Research, the Estonian National Museum, and the oldest Estonian-language theatre, Vanemuine. It is also the birthplace of the Estonian Song Festivals. Tartu was designated as the E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chud
Chud or Chude (, , ) is a term historically applied in the early East Slavic annals to several Baltic Finnic peoples in the area of what is now Estonia, Karelia and Northwestern Russia. It has also been used to refer to other Finno-Ugric peoples. Etymology There are a number of hypotheses as to the origin of the term. ''Chud'' could be derived from the Slavic word ''tjudjo'' ('foreign' or 'strange'). Another hypothesis is that the term was derived from a transformation of the Finno-Ugric name for the wood grouse. Yet another hypothesis contends that it is derived from the Sami word ''tshudde'' or ''čuđđe'', meaning an enemy or adversary (). This, however, would have required prominent Sami presence in trading centers around Lake Ladoga. Attestation in Slavonic sources Arguably, the earliest attested written use of the word "Chuds" to describe Baltic Finnic peoples (presumably early Estonians) was 1100, in the earliest Rus' chronicles in the Old East Slavic language. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus,. * was the first East Slavs, East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of Russia'' (Penguin, 1995), p.14–16. Encompassing a variety of polities and peoples, including East Slavs, East Slavic, Norsemen, Norse, and Finnic peoples, Finnic, it was ruled by the Rurik dynasty, founded by the Varangians, Varangian prince Rurik.Kievan Rus , Encyclopædia Britannica Online. The name was coined by Russian historians in the 19th century to describe the period when Kiev was preeminent. At its greatest extent in the mid-11th century, Kievan Rus' stretched from the White Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south and from the River source, headwaters of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
