Russian History

April 22, 2003 2:20 AM

Russian History. 'Few nations have as colorful and vivid a history as Russia. At times torn between the East and the West, sometimes buffering the two, Russia has always been a pot of enormous ethnic diversity which refuses to melt. The result has been a mixture of socialism and capitalism, of east and west, Christianity and Islam with a bit of social experimentation thrown in. '
A Chronology of Russian History; the Russian Assembly of Nobility; the History of Moscow; the Khazars; the History of Jews in Russia; Treasures of the Tsars; Soviet and Russian Technology; Soviet Archives Exhibit.
posted by plep (8 comments total)

(There are a handful of broken links from the first page; sorry about that).
posted by plep at 2:21 AM on April 22, 2003

Thank you for the post.

The Russian Space Program is incredibly interesting to me. The cosmonaut walk, the trees planted for those before them, etc.
posted by four panels at 2:29 AM on April 22, 2003

Tremendous! Spaseebah, Comrade Plep!
posted by MrBaliHai at 6:33 AM on April 22, 2003

my russian teacher told me that there was a problem with the russian soul, 'because the sky there is too big, it weighs down on you like drowning'.

so much history and so much potential and so much sky...great links plep.
posted by th3ph17 at 6:39 AM on April 22, 2003

This is a wonderful resource. When deciding which grad school program to apply to for supplementation of my MPA, I got it down to Russian and Eastern European Studies or Latin-American Studies. For pragmatic purposes, I've chosen to apply to the Latin-American program (already speak the language, have travelled there, many friends throughout, etc.). That said, I'd still really like to go back and learn Russian and read the classics as they were written and learn the great wealth of history there. Thanks, plep.
posted by Ufez Jones at 7:26 AM on April 22, 2003

Great links, plep. Really took me back. When I was in college, I took a course called History of Soviet Russia. It was the prof's final class before retiring, and he'd been teaching that course for at least twenty years. On the day the final paper was due, Gorbechev made the announcement that the Soviet Union would be dissolving. Needless to say, the confluence of these events had a profound effect on me that day.
posted by GreyWingnut at 7:35 AM on April 22, 2003

Great post, plep. I'd be a bit leery of that Khazaria site, though; the guy is enthusiastic and has a lot of good stuff, but also a lot of dubious stuff (this essay, for example, quotes Leo Rosten as a source for Jewish history!). The fact is that we don't know very much about the Khazars and their Judaism, and the temptation to push the evidence farther than it warrants is too much for some people.
posted by languagehat at 1:14 PM on April 22, 2003

Thanks for the heads-up, languagehat.
posted by plep at 1:49 PM on April 22, 2003