This Master’s thesis examines the relation between climatic conditions and hunger in Northeast Europe in A.D. 1100–1550.
Frosts, Floods, and Famines – Climate in Relation to Hunger in North-East Europe A.D. 1100–1550
October 31, 2011 By
Vikings in the East: Scandinavian Influence in Kievan Rus
October 5, 2011 By
The Vikings, referred to as Varangians in Eastern Europe, were known throughout Europe as traders and raiders, and perhaps the creators or instigators of the first organized Russian state: Kievan Rus.
The Tale of Peter and Fervoniia: The Text and the Icon
September 26, 2011 By
The Tale of Peter and Fervoniia: The Text and the Icon By Priscilla Hunt Elementa, Vol.3 (1997) Introduction: The enigmatic Tale of Peter and Fevroniia brings us face to face with the problem of how to read a medieval Russian text. We have certain clues which are frequently not available in medieval Slavic tradition. Scholars […]
From Flax to Linen in the Medieval Rus Lands
September 25, 2011 By
From Flax to Linen in the Medieval Rus Lands By Heidi Sherman Medieval Clothing and Textiles, Volume 4 (2008) Introduction: In the mid-nineteenth century, Imperial Russia’s exports of flax and hemp, the primary materials for canvas sails and rope, exceeded the value of its grain exports. Generally of lesser quality than the vegetal fibers of […]
The Lord’s Prayer “Our Father” indicates Slovenians are West Slavs
August 21, 2011 By
The Lord’s Prayer “Our Father” indicates Slovenians are West Slavs Jandáček, Petr Paper given at the Fifth International Topical Conference (2007) Abstract The currently held opinion of the political and academic communities is that Slovenians are South (Yugo) Slavs. While this concept is expedient and based on Slovenian proximity to, and recent communal history with and […]
A Swedish Crusader King as Russian Orthodox Saint on the Valamo Archipelago?
July 23, 2011 By
A Swedish Crusader King as Russian Orthodox Saint on the Valamo Archipelago? Lind, John H. (University of Southern Denmark, Odense) University of Paris, Sorbonne, Cahiers slaves n°7, March 21 (2005) Abstract In 1347 King Magnus Eriksson of Sweden undertook a crusade against Novgorodian territory. In this he was inspired by the powerful aristocrat Birgitta Birgersdaughter, […]
Furs, Fish and Ivory – Medieval Norsemen at the Arctic Fringe
July 22, 2011 By
Furs, Fish and Ivory – Medieval Norsemen at the Arctic Fringe By Christian Keller Journal of the North Atlantic, Vol. 3 (2010) Abstract: Why did the Norse Icelanders colonize Greenland in the late tenth century A.D., and why did they explore the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland? Was it a desperate search for farmland at […]
Mobilisation of the European Periphery against the Mongols
July 21, 2011 By
I related how, according to the Novgorod Chronicles, newly arrived crusaders, together with the Sword Brothers, allied themselves with the Russian-Orthodox Pskovites before they went on to their crushing defeat at the hands of the Lithuanians at Saule in September 1236.
Novgorodian Travelers to the Mediterranean World in the Middle Ages
July 17, 2011 By
Novgorodian Travelers to the Mediterranean World in the Middle Ages Matsuki, Eizo Studies in the Mediterranean World Past and Present (1988) Abstract “Novgorod the Great,” a unique republic city state in the 12th-15th centuries, was situated at the Northwest corner of the Russian plain, not far from the Baltic Sea. It was on the northern […]
Legend, Veneration, and Nationalism: The History of Devotion and Pilgrimage to the Miraculous Icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa
July 14, 2011 By
Legend, Veneration, and Nationalism: The History of Devotion and Pilgrimage to the Miraculous Icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa Młynarz, Mike (University of Alberta Edmonton, Alberta) Axis Mundi (2005/6) Abstract According to legend, St. Luke the Evangelist painted an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which eventually found its way to a monastery in Częstochowa, […]
Waterways and Shipbuilding in North-western Russia in the Middle Ages
June 19, 2011 By
Waterways and Shipbuilding in North-western Russia in the Middle Ages By Petr Sorokin Published Online (2002) Introduction: The investigations of the waterways, which were based on the interpretation of written sources, started in the 19th century. Taking as a basis the chronicles and landscape-archaeological investigations, Z. D. Hodakovsky in the article “Means of communication in […]
Cross Kissing: Keeping One’s Word in Twelfth-Century Rus
June 12, 2011 By
Cross Kissing: Keeping One’s Word in Twelfth-Century Rus By Yulia Mikhailova and David K. Prestel Slavic Review, 70, no. 1 (2011) Introduction: Jean-Claude Schmitt argues that for most of western medieval society, writing, though prestigious, was inaccessible. Thus, for the majority, gestures had value and power superior to what was found on parchment. There is […]
The Black Dragon – Music from the Time of Vlad Dracula
May 13, 2011 By
The Black Dragon – Music from the Time of Vlad Dracula Annette Bauer – recorders, voice, percussion, citole, bells Phoebe Jevtovic – voice, bells Shira Kammen – vielle, harp, voice Tim Rayborn – psaltery, percussion ‘ud, citole Tonight, we were delighted that we had a fantastic opportunity to attend a concert by Cançonièr. Cançonièr, “songbook” […]
The Chronicle of George Hamartolos, an Old Russian MS of the 14th Century
May 10, 2011 By
The Chronicle of George Hamartolos, an Old Russian MS of the 14th Century By Ol’ga A. Kniazevskaia Polata Knigopisnaia: an Information Bulletin Devoted to the Study of Early Slavic Books, Texts and Literatures, Vol. 27-28 (1995) Introduction: The Chronicle, composed in the second half of the 9th c. in one of the (sub)- urban monasteries […]
The Mongol Connection: Russia’s Asian Entry into European Politics
April 25, 2011 By
The Mongol Connection: Russia’s Asian Entry into European Politics By Iver B. Neumann Published Online (2008) Abstract: The end of the 15th Century saw what was beginning to be known as Europeans coming into first contact with the ‘new world’ to their West, and driving the Moor out of Europe to their South. In what […]
The Lay of Igor’s Campaign and the Works It Has Inspired
April 24, 2011 By
The Lay of Igor’s Campaign and the Works It Has Inspired By Katherine Owens Vestnik: The Journal of Russian and Asian Studies, Vol.3 (2005) Introduction: In A.D. 1185, as the Kievan Rus Empire was starting to deteriorate, a little known prince on the eastern Russian borders led his outnumbered men into battle against Mongolian invaders, […]
Spenser and the Search for Asian Silk
March 2, 2011 By
Spenser and the Search for Asian Silk Murrin, Michael Arthuriana 21.1 (2011) Abstract Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene follows the Arthurian tradition of travel eastward. Because the poem distributes its narrative onto a scene of action that forms part of the Muscovy Company’s activities in Central Asia in the 1560s, The Faerie Queene can be understood […]
Manufacturing Techniques of Belt and Harness Fittings of the 10th Century AD
February 28, 2011 By
The present study includes approximately 900 items of belt and horse harness fittings. They have been found on the Upper Dnieper, Smolensk region, the site of the Gnezdovo settlement and cemetery dating from the end of 9th to the beginning of 11th century.
Rus’ in the ethnic nomenclature of the Povest’ vremennykh let
February 13, 2011 By
Rus’ in the ethnic nomenclature of the Povest’ vremennykh let By Paul Bushkovitch Cahiers du monde russe et soviétique, Vol.12:3 (1971) Introduction: The problem of the origin and significance of the term Rus’ in the early history of Russia is normally considered in terms of the Anti-Normannist-Normannist debate on the role of the Varangians in […]
A Reconstruction of the Flora and Vegetation in the Central Area of Early Medieval Kyiv, Ukraine, Based on the Results of Palynological Investigations
February 13, 2011 By
A Reconstruction of the Flora and Vegetation in the Central Area of Early Medieval Kyiv, Ukraine, Based on the Results of Palynological Investigations By Lyudmila G. Bezusko, Timur V. Bezusko, and Sergei L. Mosyakin Urban Habitats, Vol.1:1 (2003) Abstract: This paper provides a partial reconstruction of the main features of the flora and vegetation of […]
Women’s Clothing in Kievan Rus
February 13, 2011 By
Women’s Clothing in Kievan Rus La Rus, Sofya Kies, Mka Lisa Medieval Textiles, Issue.27 (2001) Abstract Women’s clothing in 10th to 15th century Rus’, as in other cultures, reflected societal norms, and the individual’s originality and conception of beauty, and indicated rank, wealth, profession, family status and locality. A woman’s inner dignity and emotional restraint were emphasized […]
The Struggle over control of Kiev in 1235 and 1236
February 11, 2011 By
The Struggle over control of Kiev in 1235 and 1236 By Martin Dimnik Canadian Slavonic Papers, Vol.21 (1979) Introduction: The years 1235 and 1236 are important in the history of Kievan Rus’ because they witnessed a major reorientation in the status quo between the families of princes. Historians have argued that the most powerful political […]
The Baptism of Kiev
January 30, 2011 By
A thousand years ago, in 988, the Slav principality of Kievan Rus’, or Kievan Russia, came into being as one of a cluster of Christian States in Europe
The Infamous Svjatoslav: Master of Duplicity in War and Peace?
January 26, 2011 By
The Infamous Svjatoslav: Master of Duplicity in War and Peace? By Walter K. Hanak Peace and War in Byzantium: Essays in Honor of George T. Dennis, S.J., edited by Timothy S. Miller and John Nesbitt (Washington, 1995) Introduction: Several decades ago Jonathan Shepard elaborated upon the notion, although as he admits the idea was not original […]
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