This painting draws evident comparison to Napoleon I on the Borodino Heights (1897) in that Vereshchagin, using the accounts of Napoleon’s generals, painted Napoleon sitting with a look of frustration and an entourage of officers behind him as he attempts to watch what would be the bloodiest battle of the French invasion. While both paintings show emperors watching devastating battles, the focus of the painting is revealed by the framing of the scenes. Napoleon’s retinue takes up most of the canvas and Vereshchagin paints the scene with enough detail that the focus of the painting is the presence of the very human experience of frustration and weakness in times of difficulty that negates the typically idealized representations of Napoleon.…
Lehane Giovanni Quinn (-- removed HTML --) Daughter of Alexander Giovanni and Michaela Quinn, born in Seattle, Washington but raised in a small town just outside of Los Angeles, California by her father. Alexander won custody of Lehane when she was just a baby after Michaela tried to give her up for adoption. Michaela won custody of their 3-year-old son (Grant Gustin). (-- removed HTML --) Alexander filed for divorce shortly after and moved Lehane, and himself to Little Rock, California.…
Russia was ruled by Tsars and followed a monarchy until 1917. The last Tsar of Russia was Nicholas II who brought industrial revolution in Russia. During those old days, one became a Tsar because they inherit, not because they were chosen to be Tsars because of their high qualifications. One of the events that enforced me to research on during our lecture was The French Revolution in 1792 and the Russian Tsar, Alexander I, in the revolution. It persisted for quite a long time (both Paul I and…
In 1917, Russia went through the most drastic political change in the country’s history. The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, over threw Czar Nicholas II, whose family had been in control of Russia for over 300 years. After the Bolsheviks took power, Vladimir Lenin began to rebuild Russia. His focus was primarily in the political and economic spheres of Russian Life. Lenin did not place much of an importance on the cultural sphere of Russian life. This led to a period of tolerance in which…
Nicholas Romanov II’s Failures as a Leader Introduction For over three hundred years, Russia was ruled by the Romanov dynasty. In 1917, that monarchy ended with Nicholas II, the last tsar. Nicholas II’s father, Tsar Alexander III died in 1894 when Nicholas II was only twenty-six years old. Nicholas inherited the role as supreme autocrat of Russia, which contained one sixth of the world’s land mass and over a hundred and thirty million people (Nilsen). When Nicholas II’s reign started, millions…
At the end of the nineteenth century, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia reluctantly took command of an empire overflowing with revolutionaries seeking change in response to hardships. His shy personality, coupled with his lack of political education, made him unfit to handle the war-torn chaos that would soon darken Russian skies. Nicholas’ series of unfortunate, unprepared and uninformed decisions began with his marriage and would ultimately lead to the demise of his imperial family’s…
The Reformation period of Tsar Alexander II’s reign stapled him in Russian history as the “Tsar-Liberator”. The Emancipation of Serfs, and the Zemstvo reform had a major positive impact on Russia in both economic and political ways. Through the scope of historical perspective, Alexander II is deserving of the title “Tsar-Liberator” for making great advancements in Russia even when it opposed prior Russian culture and norms. The Emancipation of Serfs was the boldest of all of Alexander II’s…
As Imperial Russia continued to expand, Serfdom took its place as a commonality in Russian culture. While social classes grew more and more apart, peasants were hit with the harsh reality of this class separation. As Kizhanich mentions in the source book; Medieval Russia, “in the middle of the fifteenth century, conditions of Russian peasants deteriorated rapidly. By the early seventeenth century the majority had become serfs of one kind to another.” Serfs did not live the best life, this can…
On March 3, 1861, Tsar Alexander II granted new rights to the peasants by passing his emancipation edict. These rights allowed for peasants to own property, marry as they chose, and file suits in the court of law. As there were pro’s to the emancipation, there were also cons. One of the limitations of this emancipation was that peasants had to purchase land from their landowners, however the landowners got to keep the good pieces of property. Even though this may seem like a great idea for the…
The 20th century was a period of rapid change in regards to politics, technology, and societal norms. The fluctuations that manifested themselves were especially apparent in Russia. For much of the century, the name Russia was obsolete; in its place, the communist Soviet Union took root. Prior to the communist takeover, Russia was under the control of the Romanov dynasty. This particular family was in power for nearly three centuries. However, as time pressed onward, the bloodline and ruling…