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+{"text":"Hautecombe Abbey (; ) is a former Cistercian monastery, later a Benedictine monastery, in Saint-Pierre-de-Curtille near Aix-les-Bains in Savoy, France. For centuries it was the burial place of the members of the House of Savoy. It is visited by 150,000 tourists annually."}
+{"text":"The origins of Hautecombe lie in a religious community which was founded about 1101 in a narrow valley (or combe) near Lake Bourget by hermits from Aulps Abbey, near Lake Geneva. In about 1125 it was transferred to a site on the north-western shore of the lake under Mont du Chat, which had been granted to it by Amadeus III, Count of Savoy, who is named as the founder; and shortly afterwards it accepted the Cistercian Rule from Clairvaux. The first abbot was Amadeus de Haute-Rive, afterwards Bishop of Lausanne. Two daughter-houses were founded from Hautecombe at an early date: Fossanova Abbey (afterwards called For Appio), in the diocese of Terracina in Italy, in 1135, and San Angelo de Petra, close to Constantinople, in 1214."}
+{"text":"It has sometimes been claimed, but has often been disputed, that Pope Celestine IV and Pope Nicholas III were monks at Hautecombe."}
+{"text":"Hautecombe was for centuries the burial-place of the Counts and Dukes of Savoy. Count Humbert III, known as \"Blessed\", and his wife Anne were interred there in the latter part of the 12th century; and about a century later Boniface of Savoy, Archbishop of Canterbury (1245\u20131270), son of Count Thomas I of Savoy, was buried in the sanctuary of the abbey church. Aymon, Count of Savoy financed the expansion of a burial chapel at Hautecombe which was constructed from 1331 to 1342."}
+{"text":"The abbot Anthony of Savoy, a son of Charles Emmanuel I, was also buried there in 1673."}
+{"text":"The abbey was restored (in a debased style) by one of the dukes about 1750, but it was secularized and sold in 1792, when the French entered Savoy, and was turned into a china-factory. King Charles Felix of Sardinia purchased the ruins in 1824, had the church re-constructed by the Piedmontese architect Ernest Melano in an exuberant Gothic-Romantic style, and restored it to the Cistercian Order. He and his queen, Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies, are buried in the Belley chapel, which forms a kind of vestibule to the church. Some 300 statues and many frescoes adorn the interior of the church, which is long, with a transept wide. Most of the tombs are little more than reproductions of the medieval monuments."}
+{"text":"The Cistercians resettled the abbey from Turin, but the Italian monks soon left, and were replaced by others from S\u00e9nanque Abbey, who remained until about 1884. The premises were taken over by the Benedictines of Marseilles Priory in 1922, but in 1992 the monks left for Ganagobie Abbey in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, and the buildings are now administered by the Chemin Neuf Community, an ecumenical and charismatic Roman Catholic group."}
+{"text":"The Treaty of Paris was signed in 1355 between Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy and the first dauphin, future Charles V of France. Overall, the treaty benefited Savoy financially and politically by expanding and consolidating its territory, and it benefited France by ending dispute with Savoy and gaining it as an ally in the war against England."}
+{"text":"The dauphin ceded to Savoy the \"entire barony of Faucigny, the barony of Gex and its dependencies in the Valromey, the homage of the count of Geneva, suzerainty over all fiefs located in the Genevois, as well as the Valbonne... [and] everything belonging to the dauphin between the rivers Ain and Albarine on the approaches to Bresse and Bugey\"."}
+{"text":"Savoy surrendered holdings in the Viennois, and Amadeus renounced his engagement with an heiress of Burgundy to instead marry Bonne of Bourbon, bringing Savoy into closer alliance with the Bourbon king of France, John the Good."}
+{"text":"The swap of territories meant that local nobles would have to shift their allegiances from the dauphin to the Count of Savoy, and it was therefore initially resisted. For example, Amadeus III of Geneva objected to the treaty because he would have to pay homage to Amadeus VI, his former ward. But the treaty was quickly enforced by the dauphin, who was eager to secure Savoy's troops to fight against Edward the Black Prince."}
+{"text":"The titles of count, then of duke of Savoy are titles of nobility attached to the historical territory of Savoy. Since its creation, in the 11th century, the county was held by the House of Savoy. The County of Savoy was elevated to a duchy at the beginning of the 15th century, bringing together all the territories of the Savoyard state and having Amadeus VIII as its first duke. In the 18th century, the duke Victor Amadeus II annexed the Kingdom of Sardinia to the historical possessions of the Duchy, and from then on, the Savoyard dukes also held the title of Kings of Sardinia."}
+{"text":"The County of Savoy (, ) was a State of the Holy Roman Empire which emerged, along with the free communes of Switzerland, from the collapse of the Burgundian Kingdom in the 11th century. It was the cradle of the future Savoyard state."}
+{"text":"Sapaudia, stretching south of Lake Geneva from the Rh\u00f4ne River to the Western Alps, had been part of Upper Burgundy ruled by the Bosonid duke Hucbert from the mid 9th century. Together with the neighboring Free County of Burgundy (today's \"Franche Comt\u00e9\") it became part of the larger Kingdom of Burgundy under King Rudolph II in 933."}
+{"text":"Humbert the White-Handed was raised to count by the last king of Burgundy, Rudolph\u00a0III, in 1003. He backed the inheritance claims of Emperor Henry II and in turn was permitted to usurp the county of Aosta from its bishops at the death of Anselm. Following his support of Conrad\u00a0II in annexing Arles upon Rudolph's death and suppressing the revolts of Count Odo and Bishop Burchard, he also received the county of Maurienne (formerly held by the archbishops of Vienne) and territories in Chablais and Tarentaise, formerly held by its archbishops at Mo\u00fbtiers."}
+{"text":"While the Arelat remained a titular kingdom of the Holy Roman Empire, Humbert's descendants\u2014later known as the House of Savoy\u2014maintained their independence as counts. In 1046, his younger son Otto married Adelaide, daughter of Ulric Manfred II, marquis of Susa. When she inherited her father's lands in preference to other, male, relatives, he thereby acquired control of the extensive March of Turin. This was then united with Savoy upon his inheritance from his elder brother."}
+{"text":"The counts further enlarged their territory when, in 1218, they inherited the Vaud lands north of the Lake Geneva from the extinct House of Z\u00e4hringen. In 1220, Count Thomas I occupied the towns of Pinerolo and Chamb\u00e9ry (\"Kamrach\"), which afterwards became the Savoy capital. In 1240, his younger son Peter II was invited to England by King Henry III, who had married Peter's niece Eleanor of Provence. He was appointed Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and Earl of Richmond and had the Savoy Palace erected at London."}
+{"text":"In 1313, Count Amadeus V the Great officially gained the status of Imperial immediacy from Emperor Henry VII. What was left of the Kingdom of Burgundy effectively ceased to be entirely under the authority of the emperor after the Dauphin\u00e9 had passed to the future King Charles V of France in 1349 and Amadeus VI of Savoy was appointed Imperial vicar of Arelat by Emperor Charles IV in 1365."}
+{"text":"Amadeus VII gained access to the Mediterranean Sea by the acquisition of the County of Nice in 1388, his son Amadeus VIII purchased the County of Geneva in 1401. The extended Savoy lands were finally raised to a duchy in 1416 by the German king Sigismund (see Duchy of Savoy 1416\u20131718)."}
+{"text":"The Fortress of Miolans () is a former fortress prison located in a remote area of Savoy in France. The site, which has been occupied since the fourth century AD, strategically controlled the route across the junction of the Isere and Arc rivers. The fortress was converted into a prison by the Counts of Savoy in the mid-16th century. Its notoriety led it to be compared to the Bastille in Paris."}
+{"text":"The fortress of Miolans is in the hamlet of Miolans, part of the small town of St-Pierre Albigny. It is located between the major towns of Montm\u00e9lian and Albertville."}
+{"text":"Located in the foothills of the Arclusaz mountains, the fortress lies on a 550m-long rocky ridge 200m above the Combe de Savoie valley. It overlooks the confluence of the Arc and Is\u00e8re rivers where the bridge, known as the \"Pont-Royal\", is sited. Beyond the fortress is the Maurienne valley."}
+{"text":"In 1014, documents mention that the Miolans family - one of the oldest in Savoy - were in possession of the site."}
+{"text":"By 1083, the Miolans had built a small tower castle on the rocky promontory. In the second half of the 14th century, the lords of Miolans extended the fortifications by completing a second tower. This had been supplemented with a third tower in the early 16th century ."}
+{"text":"Following the repatriation (they fled to the Dominican Republic in the New World) of the Lords of Miolans in 1523, ownership of the castle passed to the Counts of Savoy. Count Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy transformed the fortress into a prison, a role it would retain until 1792. In its time as a prison, more than 200 prisoners were housed at Miolins."}
+{"text":"The castle became known as the \"Bastille tilt\" (). Its dungeons were called Hell, Purgatory, Paradise, Treasury, and little and great hope. Among the notable persons imprisoned at Miolins were:"}
+{"text":"All prisoners were released following the French revolution. The fortress prison was abandoned and allowed to fall into ruin as a symbol of the \"Ancien R\u00e9gime\"."}
+{"text":"In 1869, Eugene Alexander Guiter, Prefect of Savoy, privately bought the fortress from the French state and began its restoration."}
+{"text":"Castle Miolans was classified as a historical monument in May 1944."}
+{"text":"Today the castle remains a private property but is open to visitors."}
+{"text":"On 30 April 1772, the Marquis de Sade staged an escaped with two companions; his valet Latour, and Fran\u00e7ois-Marie de l'All\u00e9e, Baron Songy. The Marquis had requested that he and his companions be allowed to dine in a room within the main dining area, adjacent to a room containing unbarred windows. The three of them subsequently made their escape through the unbarred windows while the guards were having their own dinners."}
+{"text":"The Marquis instructed Latour to leave a candle burning in his room, along with a note on the table to the guards. Much later, a guard and the prison commandant discovered the note in the empty room. It said the Marquis praised the decency with which he had been treated and expressed his hope that the guards would not be held accountable for his escape. However, by the time several hours had passed so it was too late to gather a search party."}
+{"text":"Bonne of Berry (1362\/1365 \u2013 30 December 1435) was the daughter of John, Duke of Berry, and Joanna of Armagnac. Through her father, she was a granddaughter of John II of France."}
+{"text":"Her first marriage was to Amadeus VII, Count of Savoy. Their marriage contract is dated 7 May 1372 and they married on 18 January 1377, but she wouldn't arrive in Savoy until 1381. They had the following children:"}
+{"text":"After Amadeus' death in 1391, a regency dispute over their son Amadeus VIII ensued after her husband passed over Bonne in favor of his mother Bonne of Bourbon. This conflict would only be resolved by an agreement, signed on 8 May 1393."}
+{"text":"Her second marriage was to Bernard VII of Armagnac. Their marriage contract is dated on 2 December 1393. They had the following children:"}
+{"text":"Blanche of Montferrat (; 1472 \u2013 30 March 1519) was the duchess of Savoy as the wife of Charles I of Savoy. She acted as regent for her only son Charles from 1490 until his accidental death in 1496."}
+{"text":"Blanche was the eldest daughter of Marquess William VIII Palaiologos of Montferrat and Elisabetta, daughter of Duke Francesco I Sforza of Milan and Bianca Maria Visconti, after whom Blanche was named. Elisabetta died, at age 17, when Blanche was less than a year old."}
+{"text":"On 1 April 1485, Blanche married Duke Charles I of Savoy. The marriage produced two surviving children:"}
+{"text":"Soon after the death of her husband in 1490, Blanche gave birth to her youngest child, who did not survive. She then acted as regent for her young son, who had succeeded his father in his regnal and titular titles. She remained the ruler of Savoy until her son, who was seven years old at the time, was accidentally killed in a fall at Moncalieri. Her surviving child, Yolande fell ill and died three years later, without having produced any children; therefore Blanche's line became extinct."}
+{"text":"In December 1518, Blanche fell seriously ill, possibly with tuberculosis. In her will dated 12 February 1519, she named her choice of burial place which was the chapel of the Church of the Blessed Virgin in Carignano. She named her heir as Charles III, Duke of Savoy, and in default, the latter's younger brother Philippe, Count of Genevois. She died less than two months later."}
+{"text":"Adelaide of Turin (also \"Adelheid\", \"Adelais\", or \"Adeline\"; \u2013 19 December 1091) was the countess of part of the March of Ivrea and the marchioness of Turin in Northwestern Italy from 1034 to her death. She was the last of the Arduinici. She is sometimes compared to her second cousin, and close contemporary, Matilda of Tuscany."}
+{"text":"Born in Turin to Ulric Manfred II and Bertha around 1014\/1020, Adelaide's early life is not well known. Adelaide had two younger sisters, Immilla and Bertha. She may also have had a brother, whose name is not known, who predeceased her father. Thus, on Ulric Manfred's death (in December 1033 or 1034), Adelaide inherited the bulk of her father's property. She received property in the counties of Turin (especially in the Susa Valley), Auriate, and Asti. Adelaide also inherited property, but probably not comital authority, in the counties of Albenga, Alba, Bredulo and Ventimiglia. It is likely that Adelaide's mother, Bertha, briefly acted as regent for Adelaide after Ulric Manfred's death."}
+{"text":"Since the margravial title primarily had a military purpose at the time, it was thus was not considered suitable for a woman. Emperor Conrad II therefore arranged a marriage between Adelaide and his stepson, Herman IV, in 1036 or 1037. Herman was then invested as margrave of Turin. Herman died of the plague while fighting for Conrad II at Naples in July 1038."}
+{"text":"Adelaide remarried in order to secure her vast possessions. Probably in 1041, and certainly before 19 January 1042, Adelaide married Henry, Marquess of Montferrat. Henry died c.1045 and left Adelaide a widow for the second time. Immediately, a third marriage was undertaken, this time to Otto of Savoy (1046). With Otto she had three sons, Peter I, Amadeus II, and Otto. The couple also had two daughters, Bertha, who married Henry IV of Germany, and Adelaide, who married Rudolf of Rheinfelden (who later opposed Henry as King of Germany)."}
+{"text":"After the death of her husband Otto, c.1057\/60, Adelaide ruled the march of Turin and the county of Savoy alongside her sons, Peter and Amadeus."}
+{"text":"It is sometimes said that Adelaide abandoned Turin as a capital and began to reside permanently at Susa. This is incorrect. Adelaide is documented far more frequently at the margravial palace in Turin than anywhere else."}
+{"text":"In 1070 Adelaide captured and burned the city of Asti, which had rebelled against her."}
+{"text":"Adelaide made many donations to monasteries in the march of Turin. In 1064 she founded the monastery of Santa Maria at Pinerolo."}
+{"text":"Adelaide received letters from many of the leading churchmen of the day, including Pope Alexander II, Peter Damian, and Pope Gregory VII. These letters indicate that Adelaide sometimes supported Gregorian reform, but that at other times she did not. Peter Damian (writing in 1064) and Gregory VII (writing in 1073), relied upon Adelaide to enforce clerical celibacy and protect the monasteries of Fruttuaria and San Michele della Chiusa. By contrast, Alexander II (writing c.1066\/7) reproached Adelaide for her dealings with Guido da Velate the simoniac Archbishop of Milan."}
+{"text":"Adelaide died in December 1091. According to a later legend, she was buried in the parochial church of Canischio (\"Canisculum\"), a small village on the Cuorgn\u00e8 in the Valle dell'Orco, where she had supposedly been living incognito for twenty-two years before her death. The medieval historian Charles William Previt\u00e9-Orton called this story \"absurd\". In the cathedral of Susa, in a niche in the wall, there is a statue of walnut wood, beneath a bronze veneer, representing Adelaide, genuflecting in prayer. Above it can be read the inscription: \"Questa \u00e8 Adelaide, cui l'istessa Roma Cole, e primo d'Ausonia onor la noma\"."}
+{"text":"Because of a late Austrian source, Adelaide and Herman IV, Duke of Swabia are sometimes mistakenly said to have had children together. This was not the case. Herman was on campaign for much of his short marriage to Adelaide and he died without heirs. Nor did Adelaide have children with her second husband, Henry."}
+{"text":"Adelaide and Otto of Savoy had five children:"}
+{"text":"Adelaide is a featured figure on Judy Chicago's installation piece \"The Dinner Party\", being represented as one of the 999 names on the \"Heritage Floor.\""}
+{"text":"Yolande of Valois (23 September 1434 \u2013 23 August 1478) was a Duchess consort of Savoy by marriage to Duke Amadeus IX of Savoy, and regent of Savoy during the minority of her son Philibert I of Savoy from 1472 until 1478. She was named after her grandmother, Yolande of Aragon. She is sometimes known as \"Yolande of France\"."}
+{"text":"She was a daughter of King Charles VII of France, \"The Victorious,\" and Marie of Anjou. She married Duke Amadeus IX of Savoy in 1452."}
+{"text":"Her spouse became duke of Savoy in 1465, making her duchess. Her husband's retiring disposition and epilepsy left her in control of the state, to struggle with the Savoyard barons."}
+{"text":"After the death of her spouse in March 1472, she became regent for her son Philibert until her own death. Like her brother Charles, she was an ally to Charles, Duke of Burgundy, against her own brother Louis XI of France. After the humiliation of Burgundy at the Battle of Grandson in 1476, the duke accused her of being in league with Louis and imprisoned her. After her release, she made peace with her brother and remained on good terms with him until her death."}
+{"text":"Yolanda was the first person to in Europe to own a tiger during the Middle Ages. She is known to have kept one in Turin in 1478."}
+{"text":"Victor Amadeus of Savoy (Vittorio Amedeo Filippo Giuseppe; 6 May 1699 \u2013 22 March 1715) was the eldest son of Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy and his French wife Anne Marie d'Orl\u00e9ans. He was the heir apparent of Savoy from his birth and as such was styled as the \"Prince of Piedmont\". He acted as Regent of Savoy from September 1713 till September 1714 in the absences of his father. He died of smallpox at the age of 15."}
+{"text":"The Prince of Piedmont was born in Turin on 6 May 1699. He was the fifth child and first son of his parents, Victor Amadeus II of Savoy and Anne Marie d'Orl\u00e9ans, and was baptised with the names Victor Amadeus John Philip. He remained close to his father all his life. Though his parents were not close he also had a close relationship with his mother, a niece of Louis XIV of France."}
+{"text":"From birth he was styled as the Prince of Piedmont, the typical style for the heir apparent to the Duke of Savoy. Victor Amadeus was born at a time when the House of Savoy was in need of a male heir to succeed as the duchy observed Salic law which forbade females to inherit the throne. His birth was greeted with great celebration and throughout his life, his health required constant attention. During the Battle of Turin, he, his mother, grandmother and younger brother, Charles Emmanuel, had to flee Turin for their safety and go to Genoa. His father took part in the battle which was played out to west of the city. The prince was moved from female care in 1708."}
+{"text":"Victor Amadeus died in Turin on 22 March 1715 having caught smallpox. He was buried at the Turin Cathedral and later moved to the Basilica of Superga outside Turin. His body is located in the \"Sala degli Infanti\" (Hall of the Infantes [children]). He was succeeded as Prince of Piedmont by his younger brother, Charles Emmanuel."}
+{"text":"Thomas II (c. 1199 \u2013 7 February 1259) was the Lord of Piedmont from 1233 to his death, Count of Flanders \"jure uxoris\" from 1237 to 1244, and regent of the County of Savoy from 1253 to his death, while his nephew Boniface was fighting abroad. He was the son of Thomas I of Savoy and Margaret of Geneva."}
+{"text":"Thomas was born in Montm\u00e9lian. He started his career in the church as a canon at Lausanne and became pr\u00e9v\u00f4t of Valence by 1226. In 1233, when Thomas I of Savoy died, Thomas, being a younger son, inherited only the lordship of Piedmont, which he later raised to the status of a county."}
+{"text":"In 1235, when Thomas left his ecclesiastical career, he sought to fully divide his lands from the County of Savoy. His elder brother, Amadeus IV, negotiated with him to grant Thomas additional lands within the county, but that all lands would stay part of the county. Further, Thomas was encouraged like his other brothers to expand his holdings outside of Savoy."}
+{"text":"In 1234, Thomas and his brother William escorted his niece, Margaret of Provence to her wedding with Louis IX of France. While Thomas hoped to stay with her at the French court, the king's mother, Blanche of Castile, wanted greater control over the new queen, and so dismissed all who came with her before the couple even reached Paris."}
+{"text":"At the urging of Louis IX of France, Thomas married Joanna, Countess of Flanders and Hainaut, widow of Ferdinand, Count of Flanders and daughter of the Latin Emperor Baldwin I, in 1237."}
+{"text":"His loyalties as Count of Flanders were divided between the kings of France and England. In 1239, Thomas traveled to England to pay homage to Henry III, King of England. While there, his niece, Eleanor of Provence, gave birth to Edward. After recognizing Henry as his suzerain, Thomas received an annual stipend of 500 marks. He returned to visit the family around Easter of 1240 and was given a gift which Henry III of England extracted from the lands of Simon de Montfort."}
+{"text":"The count and countess were very generous toward local churches, and Thomas often followed his wife's lead on such matters. Thomas also understood the needs of the emerging merchant class, and worked to provide better rights for them. This included granting new charters and restructuring the governance in key cities such as Damme and Bruges."}
+{"text":"In July 1243, Thomas and his brother Amadeus were ordered by Enzo of Sardinia to join in a siege of Vercelli, which had recently switched allegiances from the Empire to the Pope. Not only was the attack on the city unsuccessful, but the brothers were excommunicated for it. When the brothers wrote to the new Pope Innocent IV to appeal, he granted their request, and further indicated that Thomas would be protected from excommunication without papal authorization."}
+{"text":"Thomas and Joanna had no issue and she died in 1244."}
+{"text":"Although he was the next brother of Amadeus IV, he never became the Count of Savoy because he predeceased his nephew, Boniface, who himself died without sons to succeed him. Thomas did act as regent for Boniface during the early years of his reign. Although Thomas left sons, upon Boniface' death the remaining uncles, younger brothers of Thomas, ruled the County of Savoy. Thomas' eldest son and heir Thomas III thought it to be an injustice and unsuccessfully claimed Savoy. However, it so happened that Philip I, the last surviving brother of Thomas, made Thomas' younger son Amadeus his heir in Savoy, leaving the elder son, Thomas, and the genealogically senior line descending from him out of the Savoy succession."}
+{"text":"In 1252, Thomas married Beatrice Fieschi, niece of Pope Innocent IV. Thomas and Beatrice had six children:"}
+{"text":"He also had at least three illegitimate children."}
+{"text":"Amadeus III (, 29 March 1311 \u2013 18 January 1367) was the Count of Geneva from 1320 until his death. He ruled the Genevois, but not the city of Geneva proper, and it was during his time that the term \"Genevois\" came to be used as it is today. He was the eldest son and successor of William III and Agnes, daughter of Amadeus V of Savoy. He played a major r\u00f4le in the politics of the House of Savoy, serving consecutively as regent and president of the council, and also sitting on the feudal tribunal\u2014one of three tribunals of the \"Audiences g\u00e9n\u00e9rales\"\u2014of the Duchy of Aosta."}
+{"text":"In 1336 Amadeus donated the village of V\u00e9senaz to the monastery of Bellerive."}
+{"text":"The first concern of the regents of Savoy after 1343 was securing the succession against the claims of Joan, daughter of Edward of Savoy, who died on 29 June 1344, but not before ceding her claims to Philip, Duke of Orl\u00e9ans. Amadeus and Louis sent an embassy to Pope Clement VI, seeking his support against Joan and Philip. In 1345 Philip signed a treaty relinquishing his claims in return for an annual stipend of 5,000 \"livres tournois\". The treaty was finalised at Paris and ratified at Chamb\u00e9ry on 25 February 1346."}
+{"text":"By 9 July 1351, Amadeus had fallen out with the rest of the council of Savoy and its anti-French policy. On that day, presiding over a meeting of the council at Saint-Genix, he ordered that his opposition to hearing some ambassadors from Edward III of England be recorded. Amadeus and the Savoyard chancellor, Georges de Solerio, were largely responsible for the subsequent treaty signed with France on 27 October at Avignon."}
+{"text":"In 1351 the peasantry of the Valais rebelled against the lordship of the Bishop of Sion, then Guichard Tavel, of Genevan family and Savoyard allegiance. On 7 January 1352 the rebels were excommunicated by Clement VI. In March an army, led by Amadeus of Savoy, Amadeus of Geneva, John II of Montferrat, and Peter IV of Gruy\u00e8re was gathering at Saint-Maurice to crush the rebels. The inhabitants of the Valais were so intimidated, however, that they surrendered without a fight."}
+{"text":"Order of the Collar and the crusade."}
+{"text":"In January 1364 Amadeus III was named the second knight of the newly founded Order of the Collar. While the formation of the Order was connected with the launch of , Amadeus III did not accompany the crusaders. He sent his eldest son, Aymon III, in his place, and he himself died only months after the crusaders departed, which suggests that he was in poor health at the time."}
+{"text":"In 1334 Amadeus married Mathilde or Mahaut d'Auvergne, also called \"de Boulogne\", with whom he had numerous offspring, four of whom were counts of Geneva in succession:"}
+{"text":"Her father died in 1652, killed in a duel with his brother-in-law Fran\u00e7ois, Duke of Beaufort. For the next several years she and her family were under the guardianship of her paternal uncle Henri II the new Duke of Nemours, though Marie Jeanne Baptiste had inherited many of her father's income sources. At Henri's death in 1659 the duchy of Nemours reverted to the crown but Marie Jeanne Baptiste continued to receive the income. With two young daughters, her mother \u00c9lisabeth looked to her maternal family for support in getting them properly settled. \u00c9lisabeth's mother was a princess of Lorraine."}
+{"text":"Her family wanted a match with Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy, who was the son of Christine Marie of France (half-aunt of \u00c9lisabeth). Christine Marie summoned Marie Jeanne Baptiste, her mother, and sister to Turin in 1659 for inspection. Charles Emmanuel showed a keen interest in Marie Jeanne as a potential wife. However, his mother had been warned by Cardinal Mazarin of Marie Jeanne Baptiste's ambitious nature, causing her to reject the marriage. Christine Marie arranged a marriage between her son and Fran\u00e7oise Madeleine d'Orl\u00e9ans, who proved suitably docile for the controlling mother. This wedding took place in 1663."}
+{"text":"Her husband also had various mistresses and illegitimate children, who Marie Jeanne Baptiste was obliged to ignore. In 1672 Hortense Mancini, on the run from her husband, sought and received the protection of Charles Emmanuel II. Much to Marie Jeanne Baptiste's annoyance, she became a regular mistress and was given the Ch\u00e2teau de Chamb\u00e9ry. Marie Jeanne Baptiste was unable to remove her from there until Charles Emmanuel died. On 12 June 1675 Charles Emmanuel suddenly died in Turin at the age of forty after a series of convulsive fevers. On his death bed he pronounced his wife as Regent of Savoy over his son and heir."}
+{"text":"Declared Regent of her eleven-year-old son's dominions, she took her new charge with great interest and ambition. She carried on her husband's work on the properties of Savoy, supporting construction projects, artistic organizations, and educational institutions. She supported the work of Alessandro Stradella, protecting him when he fled to Turin from Venice. She continued to fund and support the work of Guarino Guarini, who completed the chapel for the Shroud of Turin and a Jesuit college under her rule. She also worked to expand the city of Turin down to the Po river. She attempted to start a university in Chamb\u00e9ry, but was not successful."}
+{"text":"She did much to maintain links with her powerful neighbour France, which was both ally and family. She was criticised for wanting to maintain power too much, and for being a puppet of Louis XIV. However, she also worked to maintain and develop relationships with the royal courts of Spain, England, and the Empire. The people of Mondov\u00ec resisted her authority for many years, and it was only under her son that they finally relented."}
+{"text":"Marie Jeanne Baptiste then looked to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany which offered Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici as a bride. Negotiations were kept secret from France. This match was popular as it would give a powerful ally in Italy and was even favoured by Victor Amadeus II. The secret correspondence between Savoy and Tuscany has since been lost and the match never materialised."}
+{"text":"Even though Marie Jeanne Baptiste's regency officially ended in 1680 she did not hand over power until 1684 when forced to do so by her son. Louis XIV was eager to maintain his already considerable influence in Savoy and thus offered his niece Anne Marie d'Orl\u00e9ans. Anne Marie was the daughter of Philippe of France, Duke of Orl\u00e9ans and his first wife Henrietta of England. Victor Amadeus agreed to the match and he married Anne Marie in person on 6 May 1684."}
+{"text":"Victor Amadeus took full control of the Duchy at the start of 1684. He decided to banish his mother from all direct influence at court. She retired to the Palazzo Madama in the city of Turin opposite the Ducal Palace of Turin where the court resided most of the year. This building had been the home of Christine Marie in her dowager years and under Marie Jeanne Baptiste was extended under the direction of Filippo Juvarra who was a favourite of her son."}
+{"text":"In 1686 she sold the Duchy of Aumale to Louis Auguste de Bourbon, an illegitimate son of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan. Aumale had been her personal property since 1659 at her father's death. Marie Jeanne Baptiste was also the last Countess of Geneva. The county was united with Savoy after her death."}
+{"text":"Thanks to the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 her son was given the Kingdom of Sicily in recognition for his services to Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor in the War of the Spanish Succession. Her son was crowned king of Sicily in Palermo Cathedral in December 1713. Victor Amadeus II asked his mother to maintain the government while he was gone, but she declined and her grandson Victor Amadeus, Prince of Piedmont was made regent instead."}
+{"text":"Months after, the Savoyard court the family found out the death of Maria Luisa who had died in February 1714 which was followed a year later by the Prince of Piedmont who died of smallpox. Three deaths in four years caused mother and son to become closer. With the death of the Prince of Piedmont her youngest grandson Charles Emmanuel, Duke of Aosta became heir apparent to his father's domains."}
+{"text":"Marie Jeanne Baptiste died at the Palazzo Madama in March 1724 a month before her 80th birthday."}
+{"text":"Amadeus V (4 September 1249 \u2013 16 October 1323), surnamed the Great for his wisdom and success as a ruler, was the Count of Savoy from 1285 to 1323. He established Chamb\u00e9ry as his seat. He was the son of Thomas II of Savoy and Beatrice Fieschi."}
+{"text":"Following marriage to Sybille of B\u00e2g\u00e9 in 1272, Amadeus began life in the service of King Edward I of England, as a household knight, serving in the First Welsh War of 1277. During the Second Welsh War of 1282 he was in command of Edward's forces at Chester that relieved the siege of Rhuddlan Castle."}
+{"text":"His childless paternal uncle, Count of Savoy, Philip I died in 1285. Meanwhile, earlier, in 1282, his elder brother Thomas III of Piedmont, had accidentally died in 1282. Philip's will charged his niece Eleanor of Provence and her son King Edward I of England with the inheritance of Savoy. Amadeus was awarded the County of Savoy, and in order to diminish family rivalry his younger brother Louis was awarded the new Barony of Vaud becoming Louis I of Vaud."}
+{"text":"Through his marriage to Sybilla, Countess of Bugey and Bresse, he was able to incorporate these Burgundian districts into his states. Later expansion saw his dominions further increased."}
+{"text":"On 1 October 1285, Amadeus was declared protector of Geneva after negotiations with the Bishop of Geneva. The hereditary title belonged to Amadeus II, Count of Geneva who was in conflict with the Bishop."}
+{"text":"In 1287 Amadeus besieged the castle of Ile in the Rh\u00f4ne near Geneva, and captured it after fourteen weeks. In 1295, Amadeus acquired the fortress at Chamb\u00e9ry from its previous owner Hugh of La Rochette. He brought Georges de Aquila, a student of Giotto from Florence, to his court. Georges decorated the castle with paintings, carved wood, and frescoes. He worked there for the Savoyards until he died in 1348."}
+{"text":"Among his successes was the Treaty of Annemasse which the Count of Geneva and the Dauphin of Viennois accepted subservient roles to him as his vassals. The treaty was the result of military victories over the both of them. In 1301, Amadeus also settled his dispute over control of Valais with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sion."}
+{"text":"His reign, however, also saw friction between the County of Savoy and the Duchy of Austria. He pursued an alliance with the Kingdom of France and received Maul\u00e9vrier in Normandy as a result of initial good relations."}
+{"text":"The eventual recovery of Lyon by the Kings of France alerted Amadeus to their expansionistic tendencies towards the regions by the Alps. He sought a powerful ally against potential hostility in the German king Henry VII, who was married to Margaret of Brabant, the sister-in-law of Amadeus. Amadeus accompanied Henry in his Italian campaign of 1310 \u2013 1313, which culminated in Henry's coronation as Holy Roman Emperor on 29 June 1312. As a reward for his service, AMadeus received the title of Imperial Count, imperial vicar of Lombardy, and the lordships of Asti and Ivrea. Henry also elevated Aosta and Chablais to duchies, though they remained a part of the realm of Savoy."}
+{"text":"In 1315, Amadeus assisted the Knights Hospitaller in the defense of Rhodes against the Turks."}
+{"text":"He first married Sybille de Baug\u00e9, daughter of Guy I Damas de Baug\u00e9, Baron of Couzan (c.1230-1269) and Dauphine de Lavieu, and had eight children by her:"}
+{"text":"In 1297, he married, secondly, Marie of Brabant, who was a daughter of John I, Duke of Brabant and Margaret of Flanders. Her maternal grandparents were Guy of Dampierre and his first wife, Matilda of Bethune. They had 4 children:"}
+{"text":"Christine of France (10 February 1606 \u2013 27 December 1663) was the sister of Louis XIII and the Duchess of Savoy by marriage. At the death of her husband Victor Amadeus I in 1637, she acted as regent of Savoy between 1637 and 1648."}
+{"text":"Christine was born in the Palais du Louvre in Paris, she was the third child and second daughter of King Henry IV of France and his second wife, the Italian Marie de' Medici. As a daughter of the king, she was a Daughter of France. She was a younger sister of Louis XIII of France and Elisabeth of France. She was also an older sister of Nicholas Henri, Duke of Orl\u00e9ans, Gaston, Duke of Orl\u00e9ans and Henrietta Maria of France. Christine was a sister-in-law of Philip IV of Spain through \u00c9lisabeth and of Charles I of England through Henrietta Maria. As a child, she was raised under the supervision of the royal governess Fran\u00e7oise de Montglat."}
+{"text":"After the marriage of her older sister Elisabeth in 1615 to the future Philip IV of Spain, Christine took on the honorary title of \"Madame Royale\" indicating her status as the eldest and most senior unmarried daughter at the court of her father. After her marriage, the style went to her younger sister Henrietta Maria of France."}
+{"text":"Christine married Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy, on 10 February 1619 at the Louvre in the capital. From 1619 till her husband's accession, she was known as the Princess of Piedmont. He was a son of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, and Infanta Catherine Michelle of Spain. She was said to be volatile and frivolous. Educated at the French court, she introduced French culture to the court of Savoy; she later lived at the \"Palazzo Madama\" which she had rebuilt. She was also the driving force for the reconstruction of the Castello del Valentino as well as the additions to the Royal Palace of Turin. She would also later own \"Vigna di Madama Reale\", old residence of her brother in law Maurice of Savoy."}
+{"text":"Victor Amadeus became Duke after the death of his father on 26 July 1630. When Christine's husband died in 1637, she was created regent in the name of her son Francis Hyacinth. At the death of Francis Hyacinth in 1638, her second son Charles Emmanuel II succeeded and Christine retained the regency. Both Prince Maurice and his younger brother Prince Thomas of Savoy disputed the power of their sister-in-law and her French entourage. When the first heir Francis Hyacinth died in 1638, both brothers started the Piedmontese Civil War, with Spanish support. The two parties were called \"\"principisti\" (supporters of the Princes) and \"madamisti\"\" (supporters of Madama Reale)."}
+{"text":"After four years of fighting, Christine was victorious, thanks to French military support. Not only did she keep the Duchy for her son, she also prevented France getting too much power in the Duchy. When peace was concluded in 1642, Maurice married his fourteen-year-old niece Louise Christine, abandoning the title of cardinal and asking dispensation from Pope Paul V. Maurice became governor of Nice. Christine of France stayed in firm control of the Duchy of Savoy, until her son could follow in her footsteps; her formal regency ended in 1648, but she remained in charge at his invitation until her death."}
+{"text":"She lived an uninhibited private life and had relationships with the French Ambassador, Marini, her brother-in-law, Maurizio, and Count Filippo d'Agli\u00e9, a handsome learned and courageous man who remained faithful to her all her life. She encouraged her son Charles Emmanuel to marry her niece Fran\u00e7oise Madeleine d'Orl\u00e9ans, the youngest surviving daughter of Gaston, Duke of Orl\u00e9ans, her youngest brother. They married 3 Apr 1663."}
+{"text":"Christine died at the Palazzo Madama, Turin on 27 Dec 1663 at the age of 57 and was buried at the Basilica of Sant'Andrea. She had outlived 4 of her seven children."}
+{"text":"Fran\u00e7oise Madeleine died in January 1664 and her son later married another cousin, Marie Jeanne of Savoy. Marie Jeanne would give birth to Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia who would later marry another French Princess (and member of the House of Orl\u00e9ans) Anne Marie d'Orl\u00e9ans. 17 years after her death, in 1680, her granddaughter \"Victoria of Bavaria\" via her third daughter Princess Henriette Adelaide of Savoy, would marry her older brother's grandson Louis de France known as 'the Fat' and \"Monseigneur\". Christine thus became a direct ancestress of the Spanish branch of the House of Bourbon via Victoria's second son Philip V of Spain."}
+{"text":"In 2010, it was revealed on NBC's \"Who Do You Think You Are?\" that one of her descendants is model\/actress Brooke Shields. Princess Michael of Kent, born Baroness Marie Christine, is also a descendant by Christine's son, Charles Emmanuel."}
+{"text":"Umberto II (; 15 September 190418 March 1983) was the last King of Italy. He reigned for 34 days, from 9 May 1946 to 12 June 1946, although he had been \"de facto\" head of state since 1944, and was nicknamed the May King ()."}
+{"text":"Umberto was the only son among the five children of King Victor Emmanuel III and Queen Elena. In an effort to repair the monarchy's image after the fall of Benito Mussolini's regime, Victor Emmanuel transferred his powers to Umberto in 1944 while retaining the title of king. As a referendum on the abolition of the monarchy was in preparation, Victor Emmanuel abdicated his throne in favour of Umberto in the hope that his exit might bolster the monarchy. However, the referendum passed, Italy was declared a republic, and Umberto lived out the rest of his life in exile in Cascais, on the Portuguese Riviera."}
+{"text":"Umberto was brought up in an authoritarian and militaristic household and expected to \"show an exaggerated deference to his father\"; both in private and public Umberto always had to get down on his knees and kiss his father's hand before being allowed to speak, even as an adult, and he was expected to stand to attention and salute whenever his father entered a room. Like the other Savoyard princes before him, Umberto received a military education that was notably short on politics; Savoyard monarchs customarily excluded politics from their heirs' education with the expectation that they would learn about the art of politics when they inherited the throne."}
+{"text":"Umberto was the first cousin of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia. He was accorded the title Prince of Piedmont, which was formalised by Royal Decree on 29 September. In a 1959 interview, Umberto told the Italian newspaper \"La Settimana Incom Illustrata\" that in 1922 his father had felt that appointing Benito Mussolini prime minister was a \"justifiable risk\"."}
+{"text":"As Prince of Piedmont, Umberto visited South America, between July and September 1924. With his preceptor, Bonaldi, he went to Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile. This trip was part of the political plan of Fascism to link the Italian people living outside of Italy with their mother country and the interests of the regime."}
+{"text":"In Brazil, visits were scheduled to the national capital Rio de Janeiro and the state of S\u00e3o Paulo, where the largest Italian colony in the country lived. However, a major military rebellion that occurred on July 5, 1924, with Savoia had already departed from Europe, imposed a change in the tour. The prince had to stop in Salvador, capital of Bahia, to supply the ships, going directly to the other countries of South America. On his return, Savoi could only be received in Salvador again. Governor G\u00f3is Calmon (1924-1918), the Italian colony and other entities made a great reception to the illustrious heir to the Italian crown."}
+{"text":"Umberto was educated for a military career and in time became the commander-in-chief of the Northern Armies, and then the Southern ones. This role was merely formal, the \"de facto\" command belonging to his father, King Victor Emmanuel III, who jealously guarded his power of supreme command from \"Il Duce\", Benito Mussolini. By mutual agreement, Umberto and Mussolini always kept a distance. In 1926, Mussolini passed a law allowing the Fascist Grand Council to decide the succession, though in practice he admitted the prince would succeed his father."}
+{"text":"An attempted assassination took place in Brussels on 24 October 1929, the day of the announcement of his betrothal to Princess Marie Jos\u00e9. Umberto was about to lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Belgian Unknown Soldier at the foot of the \"Colonne du Congr\u00e8s\" when, with a cry of 'Down with Mussolini!', Fernando de Rosa fired a single shot that missed him."}
+{"text":"De Rosa was arrested and, under interrogation, claimed to be a member of the Second International who had fled Italy to avoid arrest for his political views. His trial was a major political event, and although he was found guilty of attempted murder, he was given a light sentence of five years in prison. This sentence caused a political uproar in Italy and a brief rift in Belgian-Italian relations, but in March 1932 Umberto asked for a pardon for de Rosa, who was released after having served slightly less than half his sentence and eventually killed in the Spanish Civil War."}
+{"text":"In 1928, after the colonial authorities in Italian Somaliland built the Mogadishu Cathedral (\"Cattedrale di Mogadiscio\"), Umberto made his first publicized visit to Mogadishu, the territory's capital. Umberto made his second publicized visit to Italian Somaliland in October 1934."}
+{"text":"Umberto was married in Rome on 8 January 1930 to Princess Marie Jos\u00e9 of Belgium (1906\u20132001), daughter of King Albert I of the Belgians and his wife, Queen Elisabeth, (\"n\u00e9e\" Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria)."}
+{"text":"In the Sal\u00f2 republic, Mussolini returned to his original republicanism and as part of his attack on the House of Savoy, Fascist newspapers in the area under the control of the Italian Social Republic \"outed\" Umberto, calling him \"Stellassa\" (\"Ugly Starlet\" in Piedmontese language). The Fascist newspapers reported in a lurid, sensationalist, and decidedly homophobic way Umberto's various relationships with men as a way of discrediting him. It was after Umberto was \"outed\" by the Fascist press in late 1943 that the issue of his homosexuality came to widespread public notice."}
+{"text":"Mack Smith wrote that he called \"some of the more extreme monarchists\" expressed doubts about the legitimacy of the referendum, claiming that millions of voters, many of them pro-monarchist, were unable to vote because they had not yet been able to return to their own local areas to register. Nor had the issue of Italy's borders been settled definitively, so the voting rights of those in disputed areas had not been satisfactorily clarified. Other allegations were made about voter manipulation, and even the issue of how to interpret the votes became controversial, as it appeared that not just a majority of those validly voting but of those votes cast (including spoiled votes), was needed to reach an outcome in the event the monarchy lost by a tight margin."}
+{"text":"Umberto II lived for 37 years in exile, in Cascais, on the Portuguese Riviera. He never set foot in his native land again; the 1948 constitution of the Italian Republic not only forbade amending the constitution to restore the monarchy, but until 2002 barred all male heirs to the defunct Italian throne from ever returning to Italian soil. Female members of the Savoy family were not barred, except queens consort. Relations between Umberto and Marie Jos\u00e9 grew more strained during their exile, and in effect their marriage broke up with Marie Jos\u00e9 moving to Switzerland while Umberto remained in Portugal though, as Catholics, the couple never filed for divorce."}
+{"text":"He travelled extensively during his exile, and was often seen in Mexico visiting his daughter Maria Beatrice."}
+{"text":"At the time when Umberto was dying, in 1983, President Sandro Pertini wanted the Italian Parliament to allow Umberto to return to his native country. Ultimately, however, Umberto died in Geneva and was interred in Hautecombe Abbey, for centuries the burial place of the members of the House of Savoy. No representative of the Italian government attended his funeral."}
+{"text":"At birth, Umberto was granted the traditional title of Prince of Piedmont. This was formalised by Royal Decree on 29 September 1904."}
+{"text":"Elisabeth Therese of Lorraine (15 October 1711 \u2013 3 July 1741) was born a Princess of Lorraine and was the last queen consort of Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia. The sister of Francis Stephan, Duke of Lorraine, she died as a result of giving birth to Benedetto of Savoy."}
+{"text":"In the spring of 1725, the young King Louis XV was fifteen and unmarried. He was engaged to Mariana Victoria of Spain, but the young princess was sent back to Spain because she was too young to conceive. As a result, \u00c9lisabeth Charlotte began negotiations to marry her daughter to the king. However, this was met with opposition from the king's prime minister, the Duke of Bourbon, who arranged for the king marry an obscure Polish princess, Marie Leszczynska later that year."}
+{"text":"The duke of Bourbon stated that marriages between the kings of France and princesses of Lorraine always resulted in strife, and that the House of Lorraine was too closely related to the House of Habsburg, which would cause discontent and conflict with the French nobility."}
+{"text":"Her father died in 1729 amid negotiations regarding a marriage between the then seventeen-year-old Elisabeth Therese and her recently widowed cousin Louis d'Orl\u00e9ans, Duke of Orl\u00e9ans. He refused outright, much to the annoyance of her mother. The match having come to nothing, leading her mother to name her daughter the \"coadjutrice\" of Remiremont Abbey on 19 October 1734. The Abbey of Remiremont was closely associated with the House of Lorraine. Her younger sister Anne Charlotte was later the abbess of the prestigious institution."}
+{"text":"In 1736 her brother the Duke of Lorraine married the Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria, daughter and heiress apparent of Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor. The union between the House of Lorraine and the House of Habsburg allowed a more prestigious marriage for the unwed princess. The already twice widowed Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia asked for her hand in late 1736."}
+{"text":"She married the King of Sardinia by proxy on 5 March 1737 at Lun\u00e9ville with the Prince of Carignan, who was the prince's brother-in-law, acting as the king. The day after the proxy marriage, she left for Lyon where she arrived on 14 March. Her brother the Duke of Lorraine raised a dowry for her and the marriage contract was signed in Vienna by the Duke and Duchess of Lorraine and Emperor Charles VI."}
+{"text":"The couple married in person on 1 April 1737. Charles Emmanuel III was her half-first cousin, his mother being Anne Marie d'Orl\u00e9ans, her mother \u00c9lisabeth Charlotte's half-sister. The marriage would produce three children, but only one would live to adulthood. She and her husband arrived in Turin on 21 April."}
+{"text":"Elisabeth Therese died at the Palace of Venaria aged 29, having fallen ill with puerperal fever after childbirth. She was buried in the Cathedral of Saint Giovanni Battista in Turin. She was moved to the Royal Basilica of Superga in 1786 by her stepson Victor Amadeus III."}
+{"text":"The Civil Order of Savoy was founded as an order of knighthood in 1831 by the King of Sardinia, Charles Albert, Duke of Savoy. The intention was to reward those virtues not belonging to the existing Military Order of Savoy, founded by Vittorio Emanuele I in 1815. The order has one degree, that of Knight (\"Cavalieri dell'Ordine civile di Savoia\"), and is limited to 70 members. Admission is in the personal gift of the head of the House of Savoy."}
+{"text":"The insignia bears the inscription \"Al Merito Civile\u20141831\"; the letters on the reverse substituted for after the death of Charles Albert in 1849."}
+{"text":"The civil order was continued on the unification of Italy in 1861, but has been suppressed by law since the foundation of the Republic in 1946. Umberto II did not abdicate his position as \"fons honorum\" however, and the now dynastic order remains under the Grand Mastership of the head of the former Royal house. While the continued use of those decorations awarded prior to 1951 is permitted in Italy, they no longer confer any right of precedence in official ceremonies. The military order on the other hand, was revived as the Military Order of Italy and remains a national order today."}
+{"text":"Prince Louis Thomas of Savoy (; Italian: \"Luigi Tommaso di Savoia\"; 15 December 1657 \u2013 14 August 1702) was a Count of Soissons and Prince of Savoy. He was killed as Feldzeugmeister of the Imperial Army at the Siege of Landau at the start of the War of the Spanish Succession. There was speculation that he was an illegitimate child of Louis XIV."}
+{"text":"Louis Thomas was the eldest son of Eugene Maurice, Count of Soissons and Olympia Mancini, as well as the oldest brother of Prince Eugene of Savoy. He married Uranie , whom Saint-Simon had once described as \"radiant as the glorious morn\". His daughter Princess Maria Anna Victoria of Savoy eventually inherited Eugene's estate. His maternal cousins included the Duke of Vend\u00f4me as well as the Duke of Bouillon and Louis Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne. His paternal cousins included Victor Amadeus I, Prince of Carignano and Louis William, Margrave of Baden-Baden."}
+{"text":"After the death of his father and the flight of his mother to Brussels due to her involvement in the notorious Poison affair, Louis Thomas and Urania were charged, along with his paternal grandmother, with the rearing of his younger brothers. Eugene was never to forget the couple's loving surrogate parentage."}
+{"text":"Louis Thomas obtained a commission as an officer in the French Army, but Louis XIV had amorous designs on his wife. Urania, however, spurned the king's romantic advances. Angered, Louis dismissed Louis Thomas from the army, and, when Louis Thomas sought a position abroad, terminated his pension and dues. In 1699, all but bankrupt, Louis Thomas sought the aid of his younger brother, Eugene, in Vienna. With Eugene's help, he obtained a commission in the Austrian Imperial Army."}
+{"text":"On 18 August Louis was killed by a French bomb at the Siege of Landau at the onset of the War of the Spanish Succession."}
+{"text":"Adelaide of Maurienne, also called Alix or Adele (1092 \u2013 18 November 1154) was a queen of France as the second wife of King Louis VI (1115-1137)."}
+{"text":"Adelaide was the daughter of Count Humbert II of Savoy and Gisela of Burgundy. Adelaide's older brother Amadeus III succeeded their father as count of Savoy in 1103. Adelaide had the same name as her paternal great-grandmother Adelaide of Susa, ruler of the March of Turin, and her second cousin, Adelaide del Vasto, queen of Jerusalem. Through her father, Adelaide was also related to Emperor Henry V. On her mother's side, Adelaide's relatives included her uncle Pope Callixtus II, who visited Adelaide at court in France, and her first cousin King Alfonso VII of Le\u00f3n and Castile."}
+{"text":"Adelaide became the second wife of King Louis VI of France, whom she married on 3 August 1115 in Paris, France. They had nine children, the second of whom became Louis VII of France."}
+{"text":"Adelaide was one of the most politically active of all France's medieval queens. Her name appears on 45 royal charters from the reign of Louis VI. During her tenure as queen, royal charters were dated with both her regnal year and that of the king. Among many other religious benefactions, she and Louis founded the monastery of St Peter's (Ste Pierre) at Montmartre, in the northern suburbs of Paris."}
+{"text":"After Louis VI's death, Adelaide did not immediately retire to conventual life, as did most widowed queens of the time. Instead, she married Matthieu I of Montmorency, with whom she had one child. She remained active in the French court and religious activities."}
+{"text":"In 1153 she retired to Montmartre Abbey, which she had founded with Louis VII. She died there on 18 November 1154. She was buried in the cemetery of the Church of St. Pierre at Montmartre. The abbey was destroyed during the French Revolution, but Adelaide's tomb is still visible in the church of St Pierre."}
+{"text":"Adelaide is one of two queens in a legend related in the seventeenth century by William Dugdale. As the story goes, Queen Ad\u00e9laide of France became enamored of a young knight, William d'Albini, at a joust. However, he was already engaged to Adeliza of Louvain and refused to become her lover. The jealous Ad\u00e9laide lured him into the clutches of a hungry lion, but William ripped out the beast's tongue with his bare hands and thus killed it. This story is almost without a doubt, apocryphal."}
+{"text":"Louis and Adelaide had seven sons and two daughters:"}
+{"text":"With Matthieu I of Montmorency, Adelaide had one daughter:"}
+{"text":"The emblem of the Italian Republic () was formally adopted by the newly formed Italian Republic on 5 May 1948. Although often referred to as a coat of arms (or in Italian), it is technically an emblem as it was designed not to conform to traditional heraldic rules."}
+{"text":"The emblem comprises a white five-pointed star, the \"Stella d\u2019Italia\" (English: \"Star of Italy\"), with a thin red border, superimposed upon a five-spoked cogwheel, standing between an olive branch to the left side and an oak branch to the right side; the branches are in turn bound together by a red ribbon with the inscription \"\" (\"Repubblica Italiana\", Italian for \"Italian Republic\", with the U - absent from the classical Latin alphabet - spelt with a V, as is common in inscriptions and heraldry). The emblem is used extensively by the Italian government."}
+{"text":"The armorial bearings of the House of Savoy, blazoned \"gules a cross argent\", were previously in use by the former Kingdom of Italy; the supporters, on either side \"a lion rampant Or\", were replaced with \"fasci littori\" (literally bundles of the lictors) during the fascist era."}
+{"text":"The central element of the emblem is the five-pointed star white star, also called \"Stella d'Italia\" (English: \"Star of Italy\"), which is the oldest national symbol of Italy, since it dates back to ancient Greece. In this historical epoch Italy was associated with the Star of Venus because it was located west of the Hellenic peninsula. Venus, immediately after sunset, is sometimes visible on the horizon towards the west. It is the traditional symbolic representation of Italy since the Risorgimento and refers to the traditional iconography that Italy wants to portray as an attractive woman surrounded by a turreted crown - from which the allegory of Italia turrita - and dominated by a bright star, the Star of Italy."}
+{"text":"The star marked the first award of Republican reconstruction, the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity, and still indicates membership of the Armed Forces today."}
+{"text":"In the republican emblem the Star of Italy is superimposed on a steel cogwheel, symbol of work, which is at the base of the Republic. Article 1 of the Italian Constitution reads:"}
+{"text":"However, this reference to work should not be understood as a legal rule, which would oblige the State to protect it in detail, but rather to refer to the principle connected to it, which is the foundation of Italian society. The second paragraph, instead, assigning sovereignty exclusively to the people, establishes the democratic character of the republic. The cogwheel is also present on the flag and the emblem of Angola and on the emblem of Mozambique, nations left by the process of decolonization of the Portuguese Empire as well as on the coats of arms of the Italian municipalities of Assago, Cafasse and Chiesina Uzzanese."}
+{"text":"The set formed by the cogwheel and the star of Italy is enclosed by an oak branch, located on the right, which symbolizes the strength and dignity of the Italians (in Latin the term \"robur\" means both oak and moral strength and physics), and from an olive branch, located instead on the left, which represents Italy's will for peace, both internally and vis-\u00e0-vis other nations. Both oak and olive trees are characteristic of the Italian landscape. The green branches are in turn bound together by a red ribbon bearing the inscription in white capital letters. As regards Italy's desire for peace, Article 11 of the Constitution states:"}
+{"text":"The refusal of war as an instrument of offense does not follow that Italy cannot participate in a conflict, so much so that articles 78 and 87 of the Constitution prescribe which state organs decide the state of war. In particular, for Italy, it is the two chambers that decree the state of war, which is then formally declared by the President of the Republic; the chambers then give the Italian government the necessary powers to face the conflict. Another extraordinary provision in case of war is the duration of the legislature of the two chambers, which can be exceptionally extended, as stated in article 103 of the Constitution, beyond the five canonical years."}
+{"text":"The emblem of the Italian Republic cannot be defined as a coat of arms as it has no shield; the latter being in fact, according to the heraldic definition, an essential part of the crests (as opposed to other decorations such as, for example, crowns, helmets or fronds, which are accessory parts). For this reason it is more correct to refer to it as \"national emblem\"."}
+{"text":"The Italian naval ensign, since 1947, comprises the national flag defaced with the arms of the Marina Militare; the \"Marina Mercantile\" (and private citizens at sea) use the civil ensign, differenced by the absence of the mural crown and the lion holding open the gospel, bearing the inscription , instead of a sword. The shield is quartered, symbolic of the four \"repubbliche marinare\", or great thalassocracies, of Italy: Venice (represented by the lion \"passant\", top left), Genoa (top right), Amalfi (bottom left), and Pisa (represented by their respective crosses)."}
+{"text":"To acknowledge the Navy's origins in ancient Rome, the \"rostrata\" crown, \"... emblem of honor and of value that the Roman Senate conferred on \"duci\" of shipping companies, conquerors of lands and cities overseas,\" was proposed by Admiral Cavagnari in 1939. An inescutcheon, bearing the Savoy shield flanked by fasces, was removed before the arms were first employed."}
+{"text":"The Esercito Italiano, Aeronautica Militare and Arma dei Carabinieri also have their own distinctive coats of arms as do each of the municipalities, provinces and regions of Italy."}
+{"text":"The Kingdom of Italy was a French client state founded in Northern Italy by Napoleon I, Emperor of the French in 1805. It had a peculiar coat of arms, formed by the arms of the House of Bonaparte augmented by charges from various Italian regions. When Napoleon abdicated the thrones of France and Italy in 1814, the former monarchies were gradually re-established and following the Treaty of Paris in 1815, the rump was annexed by the Austrian Empire."}
+{"text":"Between 1848 and 1861, a sequence of events led to the independence and unification of Italy (except for Venetia, Rome, Trento and Trieste, or \"Italia irredenta\", which were united with the rest of Italy in 1866, 1870 and 1918 respectively); this period of Italian history is known as the \"Risorgimento\", or resurgence. During this period, the green, white and red \"tricolore\" became the symbol which united all the efforts of the Italian people towards freedom and independence."}
+{"text":"On 4 May 1870, nine years later, the Consulta Araldica issued a decree on the arms, as with the Sardinian arms, two \"lions rampant\" in gold supporting the shield, bearing instead only the Savoy cross (as on the flag) now representing all Italy, with a crowned helmet, around which, the collars of the Military Order of Savoy, the Civil Order of Savoy, the Order of the Crown of Italy (established 2 February 1868), the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, and the Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation (bearing the motto FERT) were suspended. The lions held lances flying the national flag. From the helmet fell a royal mantle, engulfed by a pavilion under the \"Stellone d'Italia\", purported to protect the nation."}
+{"text":"After twenty years, on 1 January 1890, the arms' exterior were slightly modified more in keeping with those of Sardinia. The fur mantling and lances disappeared and the crown was taken from the helmet to the pavilion, now sewn with crosses and roses. The Iron Crown of Lombardy was placed on the helmet, under the traditional Savoyan crest (a winged lionhead), which, together with the banner of Savoy from the former Sardinian arms, replaced the star of Italy. These arms remained in official use for 56 years until the birth of the Italian Republic and continue today as the dynastic arms of the head of the House of Savoy."}
+{"text":"On 11 April 1929, the Savoy lions were replaced by Mussolini with fasces from the National Fascist Party shield. After his dismissal and arrest on 25 July 1943 however, the earlier version was briefly restored until the emblem of the new \"Repubblica Italiana\" was adopted, after the institutional referendum on the form of the state, held on 2 June 1946. This is celebrated in Italy as Festa della Repubblica."}
+{"text":"The arms of the short-lived Nazi state in northern Italy, the \"Repubblica Sociale Italiana\" (Italian Social Republic), or \"Republic of Sal\u00f2\" as it was commonly known, was that of the governing Republican Fascist Party, a silver eagle clutching a banner of the \"tricolore\" inverted on a shield charged with fasces. Italian fascism derived its name from the fasces, which symbolises authority and\/or \"strength through unity\". The fasces has been used to show the \"imperium\" (power) of the Roman Empire, and was thus considered an appropriate heraldic symbol. Additionally, Roman legions had carried the \"aquila\", or eagle, as \"signa militaria\"."}
+{"text":"This shield had previously been displayed alongside the Royal arms from 1927 to 1929, when the latter was modified to incorporate elements of both."}
+{"text":"On 25 April 1945, commemorated as Festa della Liberazione, the government of Benito Mussolini fell. The separate Italian Social Republic had existed for slightly more than one and a half years."}
+{"text":"The decision to provide the new Italian Republic with an emblem was taken by the government of Alcide De Gasperi in October 1946. The design was chosen by public competition, with the requirement that political party emblems were forbidden and the inclusion of the Stellone d'Italia (English: \"Great Star of Italy\"), \"inspired by a sense of the earth and municipalities.\" The five winners were assigned further requirements for the design of the emblem, \"a ring that has towered shaped crown,\" surrounded by a garland of Italian foliage and flora."}
+{"text":"Below a representation of the sea, and above, the gold star, with the legend \"Unit\u00e0 e Libert\u00e0\" or Unity and Liberty in the Italian language. The winner was Paolo Paschetto, Professor of the Institute of Fine Arts in Rome from 1914 to 1948, and the design was presented in February 1947, together with the other finalists, in an exhibition in Via Margutta. This version, however, did not meet with public approval, so a new competition was held, again won by Paolo Paschetto. The new emblem was approved by the Constituent Assembly in February 1948, and officially adopted by the President of the Italian Republic, Enrico De Nicola in May 1948."}
+{"text":"Princess Polyxena of Hesse-Rheinfels-Rotenburg (Polyxena Christina Johanna; 21 September 1706 \u2013 13 January 1735) was the second wife of Charles Emmanuel, Prince of Piedmont whom she married in 1724. The mother of the future Victor Amadeus III, she was queen consort of Sardinia from 1730 until her death in 1735."}
+{"text":"Polyxena was born as the eldest daughter of Ernst Leopold, Landgrave of Hesse-Rheinfels-Rotenburg and Princess Eleonore of L\u00f6wenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort, daughter of Maximilian Karl Albert, Prince of L\u00f6wenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort."}
+{"text":"King Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia approached her family and proposed a union between Polyxena and Victor Amadeus II's son and heir, Charles Emmanuel, Prince of Piedmont. A previous match orchestrated by Agostino Steffani with a daughter of Rinaldo d'Este, Duke of Modena, had come to nothing. His first wife, Countess Palatine Anne Christine of Sulzbach, died on 12 March 1723, less than a year after her marriage and barely a week after giving birth to a son, Victor Amadeus, Duke of Aosta (7 March 1723 \u2013 1 August 1725)."}
+{"text":"Although only two years younger, Polyxena was a niece of Charles Emanuel's first wife, and belonged to the only Roman Catholic branch (since 1652) of the reigning House of Hesse. She had been nominally a canoness of Thorn since 1720."}
+{"text":"The engagement was announced on 2 July 1724, and she wed Charles Emmanuel by proxy on 23 July in Rotenburg. The marriage was celebrated in person at Thonon in Chablais on 20 August 1724."}
+{"text":"Her stepson Victor Amadeus, heir after his father and grandfather to the Sardinian crown, died at the age of two, a year after Polyxena's marriage and before she had a child of her own. Nonetheless, she is said to have had a close relationship with her mother-in-law, Anne Marie d'Orl\u00e9ans, and the two frequented the \"Villa della Regina\" outside the capital, where the latter died in 1728."}
+{"text":"When King Victor Amadeus announced his decision to return to the throne after having abdicated in 1730, Polyxena used her influence over her husband to have his father imprisoned at the Castle of Moncalieri, where he was joined for a while by his morganatic wife, Anna Canalis di Cumiana, Polyxena's former lady of the bedchamber."}
+{"text":"In an 1869 history of the House of Savoy, Francesco Predari wrote that despite the fact Polyxena was praised for goodness of character and beautiful virtues, her father-in-law advised her to take care to maintain separate quarters from her husband for prudence's sake. In 1732 she founded a home for young mothers in Turin, redecorated the \"Villa della Regina\", Stupinigi's hunting lodge, and the Church of Saint Joseph in Turin. She carried out various improvements with Filippo Juvarra and popularised \"chinoiserie\". She was also a patron of Giovanni Battista Crosato, a baroque painter."}
+{"text":"Having been ill since June 1734, she died at the Royal Palace of Turin, and has been buried in the Royal Basilica of Superga since 1786. Two years after her death, her widower married Princess Elisabeth Therese of Lorraine, sister of the future Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor."}
+{"text":"The senior branch of the House of Savoy ended with her grandson Charles Felix of Sardinia. The \"Villa Polissena\" in Rome is named in her honour."}
+{"text":"Isabella of Savoy (11 March 1591 \u2013 28 August 1626) was a daughter of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, and Catherine Michelle of Spain. Her maternal grandparents were Philip II of Spain and Elisabeth of Valois, her paternal grandparents were Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy and Margaret of France, Duchess of Berry. She was the Hereditary Princess of Modena, dying before her husband succeeded to the Duchy of Modena in 1628."}
+{"text":"Isabella was born in Turin to Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy and his wife Infanta Catherine Michelle of Spain, a daughter of Philip II of Spain and Elisabeth of France."}
+{"text":"In Turin on 22 February 1608 she married Alfonso, Hereditary Prince of Modena (son of Cesare d'Este and Virginia de' Medici), this was a happy marriage, Alfonso was loving and loyal towards his wife. Within two years Isabella bore Alfonso a son, Francesco who would one day succeed his father as Duke of Modena and Reggio. When Isabella died on 28 August 1626 Alfonso was heartbroken, he never remarried and died in 1644. She died as a result of childbirth and before her husband became duke so she was never Duchess of Modena."}
+{"text":"Isabella and Alfonso had fourteen children in all:"}
+{"text":"Maria Carolina of Savoy (Maria Carolina Antonietta Adelaide; 17 January 1764 \u2013 28 December 1782) was a Princess of Savoy from her birth. She was the youngest daughter of the future Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia and married in 1781 to the Electoral Prince of Saxony. She died of Smallpox aged eighteen."}
+{"text":"Born to the Duke and Duchess of Savoy at the Royal Palace of Turin, she was the couple's tenth child and sixth daughter."}
+{"text":"Her sisters included the future granddaughters-in-law of Louis XV of France, Princess Maria Giuseppina, who married the future Louis XVIII of France in 1771 and Princess Maria Teresa, wife of the future Charles X of France, married in 1773. Her sisters' brother in law was the unfortunate Louis XVI of France."}
+{"text":"Her brothers included the last three kings of Sardinia from the main line; the future Charles Emmanuel IV, Victor Emmanuel I and Charles Felix of Sardinia. Her father became king of Sardinia in 1773 at the death of her grandfather Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia who had ruled Sardinia for 43 years."}
+{"text":"Her father decided that Maria Carolina would marry Prince Anthony of Saxony, who at the time was the Electoral Prince of Saxony, the heir to the Electorate. He was the fifth but third surviving son of Frederick Christian, Elector of Saxony, and Maria Antonia of Bavaria. Anthony's first cousins included the future Louis XVIII of France and Charles X of France, Maria Carolina's brothers-in-law. The couple also were joint first cousins of Charles IV of Spain and Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, Maria Carolina through her Spanish mother and Anthony through his father. Another first cousin of Maria Carolina was the famous \"princesse de Lamballe\""}
+{"text":"Despite the pleas of Maria Carolina, she was married by proxy at the Palazzina di caccia of Stupinigi on 29 September 1781 followed by another ceremony in Dresden on 24 October 1781 with her actual groom. The celebrations in Savoy were lavish with parties at the Royal Palace of her birth and at the Palazzo Gontieri."}
+{"text":"Maria Carolina left her home reluctantly in September 1781. Her family accompanied her as far as Vercelli when she had to be pushed out of the carriage to depart. She arrived at Augsburg, modern-day Germany on 14 October. Upon her arrival, she ranked as one of the highest females at the Saxon court, Anthony's mother Maria Antonia of Bavaria died in 1780. The highest-ranking female was Amalie of Zweibr\u00fccken-Birkenfeld, wife of Frederick Augustus III, then the ruler Elector of Saxony."}
+{"text":"Not happy with her adopted home, she caught Smallpox and died in Dresden 28 December 1782. Popular in her native land, she was remembered in an old folk song composed in her honor after her early death:"}
+{"text":"After her death, Anthony married Maria Theresa of Austria and had four children all of whom died in infancy. Her husband succeeded as King of Saxony in 1827 at the age of 71. She is buried at crypt number 30 at the Katholische Hofkirche, Dresden."}
+{"text":"Princess Maria Pia of Bourbon-Parma (n\u00e9e Princess Maria Pia of Savoy; born 24 September 1934) is the eldest daughter of Umberto II of Italy and Marie-Jos\u00e9 of Belgium. She is the older sister of Princess Maria Gabriella of Savoy, Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples, and Princess Maria Beatrice of Savoy."}
+{"text":"Maria Pia Elena Elisabetta Margherita Milena Mafalda Ludovica Tecla Gennara di Savoia was the first-born child of the Prince and Princess of Piedmont, born in Naples, Italy in 1934. Her parents, married since 1930, were unhappy together, as her mother confessed in an interview many years later (\"On n'a jamais \u00e9t\u00e9 heureux\", \"We were never happy\"), and separated after the Italian monarchy was abolished by plebiscite on 2 June 1946. Exiled, the family gathered briefly in Portugal, and she and her three younger siblings soon went with their mother to Switzerland while their father remained in the Portuguese Riviera. Being devout Catholics, her parents never divorced."}
+{"text":"She lives in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris, and Palm Beach, Florida."}
+{"text":"On the royal cruise of the yacht, \"Agamemnon\", hosted by Queen Frederica of Greece on 22 August 1954, she met and later married Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia (1924\u20132016), son of Prince Paul of Yugoslavia and Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark. The two were married on 12 February 1955 at Cascais in Portugal, where Maria Pia's father was living in exile."}
+{"text":"Not long after their wedding, Maria Pia gave birth to the couple's set of fraternal twin sons. Another set of twins was born to Maria Pia during the marriage five years later, this time a girl and boy:"}
+{"text":"In 2003, Maria Pia was married to Prince Michel of Bourbon-Parma (1926\u20132018), son of Prince Ren\u00e9 of Bourbon-Parma and Princess Margaret of Denmark, whose marriage with Princess Yolande de Broglie-Revel had been annulled and with whom he has five dynastic children, also being the father of a child born out of wedlock in 1977, Am\u00e9lie de Bourbon de Parme (wed in 2009 to Igor Bogdanoff). Through him she was a sister-in-law of Queen Anne of Romania. Maria Pia's ex-husband, Prince Alexander was also remarried, to Princess Barbara of Liechtenstein, a cousin of that principality's monarch, and they had one son, Prince Du\u0161an Paul."}
+{"text":"Marie \"Clotilde\" of France (Marie Ad\u00e9la\u00efde Clotilde Xavi\u00e8re; 23 September 1759 \u2013 7 March 1802), known as Clotilda in Italy, was Queen of Sardinia by marriage to Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia. She was the younger sister of Louis XVI of France. She was politically active and acted as the de facto first minister of her spouse during his reign. She is venerated in the Catholic Church, having been declared Venerable by Pope Pius VII."}
+{"text":"Born in Versailles, Clotilde was the elder daughter of Louis, Dauphin of France, the only son of King Louis XV, and Princess Maria Josepha of Saxony. As the granddaughter of the king, she was a \"Petite-Fille de France\". Upon the death of their grandfather in May 1774, Clotilde's oldest brother, Louis Auguste, became king Louis XVI of France."}
+{"text":"While Clothilde was described as a docile pupil, \"who made herself loved by all who approached her\", \u00c9lisabeth long refused to study, stating that \"there were always people at hand whose duty it was to think for Princes\", and treated her staff with impatience. Because of their difference, Madame de Marsan, who was not able to handle Elisabeth, preferred Clothilde, which made Elisabeth jealous and created a rift between the sisters. Their relationship improved when Elisabeth fell ill and Clothilde insisted upon nursing her; during that time, Clothilde taught Elisabeth the alphabet and gave her an interest in religion. Clothilde came to be Elizabeth's good friend, tutor and counselor."}
+{"text":"Clothilde did not have a good relationship with her sister-in-law Marie Antoinette, who reportedly demonstrated too openly that she preferred her sister Elisabeth, which caused some offense at court."}
+{"text":"Clotilde adapted herself to strict Catholic devotion early on and had the wish to follow the example of her aunt, Madame Louise, and join the Order of the Carmelites."}
+{"text":"On 12 June 1775, Clothilde attended the coronation of her brother Louis XVI in Reims. On 8 August, the ambassador of Sardinia, count de Viry, presented the official proposal to Clothilde from Charles Emmanuel, and on the 16th, the official engagement was announced to the royal court. On 21 August 1775, Louis XVI had his sister Clotilde married in Versailles by procuration to Charles Emmanuel, Prince of Piedmont, eldest son of Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia and Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of Spain, with her second eldest brother the count of Provence as proxy for the groom, and with Cardinal de la Roche-Aymon officiating at the ceremony."}
+{"text":"In Lyon, Clotilde made herself popular by her successful request to grant an amnesty to the imprisoned deserters in the town prison, before finally arriving at the border at Pont-de-Beauvoisin on 5 September. There, she was separated from her French entourage and ceremoniously transferred by count de Clermont-Tonnerre to count de Viry and her new Italian household, notably her new lady-in-waiting Madama Theresa Balbi, who was to become her favourite until her death. Having crossed the border with her new court, she was introduced to Charles Emmanuel."}
+{"text":"Accompanied by her brother the Count of Provence and her husband, she was introduced to her father-in-law at Les Echelles and to her mother-in-law and the rest of the Sardinian court at Chamb\u00e9ry, before making her formal entrance in Turin the 30 September. The official wedding took place in Turin. At the occasion of her marriage, there were comments in the French court that her groom had been given two brides instead of one, in reference to her weight. Her father-in-law was concerned that her weight might affect her ability to bear children. The groom reportedly commented that he had been given \"more to worship\"."}
+{"text":"Her first years in Savoy, she enjoyed fashion and entertainment and, despite her saintly reputation, her spouse himself said that it was in fact not her nature to be humble and submissive, and that she had to struggle to achieve this."}
+{"text":"Although the union was arranged for political reasons, Clotilde and Charles Emmanuel became devoted to each other, united in their piety and a strong belief in the Catholic faith. She played the guitar to his singing, they studied religious texts together, and enjoyed spending time at the Moncalieri and La Venaria to relax from the court etiquette."}
+{"text":"The marriage was to be childless. Concerns was raised that her difficulty to conceive was due to her weight, and during the course of her first years of marriage, she was subjected to a number of fertility treatments, among those being a diet that caused her to lose a great deal of weight. In 1779, there was a sign of pregnancy that proved to be false, and in 1783, after eight years of attempts to have issue, Clothilde asked Charles Emanuel to end sexual relations and live in chastity as \"uti frater et soror\", a request he willingly agreed to."}
+{"text":"Charles Emmanuel, being of passive character, leaned on Clothilde as a stronger personality, and she came to have a great influence upon him as a stabilizing factor and adviser, and she acted as a mediator during his conflicts with his father the King, often caused by Charles Emmanuel's nervous difficulties, a condition Clothilde took it upon herself to hide from others and stabilize."}
+{"text":"In the 1790s, Clothilde was described by the exiled \u00c9lisabeth Vig\u00e9e Le Brun as remarkably changed in her appearance as well as personality. As Vig\u00e9e Le Brun's stay in Italy occurred between 1789 and 1792, and was granted audience to Clothilde by letters of introduction by the \"Mesdames de France\", the meeting likely took place in 1791 or 1792, despite the fact that Vig\u00e9e Le Brun - perhaps in retrospect - referred to Clothilde and her spouse as king and queen, while they were in fact still Prince and Princess of Piedmont at this point:"}
+{"text":"During their reign in Turin, one of the most important affairs was the confiscation of church property, which was necessary for state economy, but Clothilde insisted on a lengthy (and successful) procedure of obtaining permission and blessings from the Pope for religious reasons before proceeding."}
+{"text":"During their reign in exile from mainland Sardinia, the couple traveled between the Italian states as well as their own provinces and upheld diplomatic relations with the hope of being restored to Turin. They traveled from Parma, Bologna and Florence to Sardinia, where they arrived to Cagliari on 3 March 1799, welcomed with a Te Deum and settled in the Royal Palace of Cagliari, where they held a reception for the local nobility."}
+{"text":"Clothilde was not well during their stay on Sardinia, as the woolen penitence clothing she insisted on wearing was not healthy in the hot climate of Sardinia."}
+{"text":"During their exile, Clotilde served as the spokesperson, de facto chief Councillor and first minister of Charles Emmanuel and in fact handled the Sardinian government in exile, demonstrating both diplomatic skill and a steady support for Charles Emmanuel, who refused to abdicate his office as long as she was alive, despite the demands of his brothers to do so. Despite her political activity, however, Clothilde always played down her personality, both publicly and privately, as this was considered more befitting of her pietas. On one occasion in 1801, she persuaded her husband's governor in Sardinia, the count of Genevois, not to resign."}
+{"text":"Clotilde died on 7 March 1802. Charles Emmanuel was so moved by her death that he abdicated on 4 June 1802 in favour of his younger brother, Victor Emmanuel. Queen Clotilde was buried in Santa Caterina a Chiaia in Naples. Pope Pius VII, who had personally known Clotilde, declared her venerable on 10 April 1808, the first step to her beatification."}
+{"text":"Marie de Bourbon (3 May 1606 \u2013 3 June 1692) was the wife of Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano, and thus a princess of Savoy by marriage. At the death of her brother in 1641, she became Countess of Soissons in her own right, passing the title down three generations of the House of Savoy."}
+{"text":"Marie de Bourbon, born at the \"H\u00f4tel de Soissons\" in Paris, was the second daughter and youngest child of Charles de Bourbon, Count of Soissons, and his wife Anne de Montafi\u00e9. At the court of Louis XIII, who was her second cousin, Marie enjoyed the rank of \"princesse du sang\". She was a sister of Louise de Bourbon, Duchess of Longueville. Originally placed in the Abbey of Fontevraud in Anjou, she took the habit on 10 April 1610 aged just four."}
+{"text":"On 6 January 1625, Marie was married to Thomas Francis, ninth child of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, and his wife Catherine Michelle of Austria. It was arranged that Thomas, as son of a reigning monarch, would hold the rank of first among the \"princes \u00e9trangers\" at the French court \u2013 taking precedence even before the formerly all-powerful House of Guise, whose kinship to the sovereign Duke of Lorraine was more remote. He was appointed Grand Master of France of the king's household, briefly replacing the traitorous Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Cond\u00e9. He engaged the services of the distinguished grammarian and courtier Claude Favre de Vaugelas as tutor for his children."}
+{"text":"After Thomas, the senior branch of his descendants repatriated to Savoy, alternately marrying French, Italian and German princesses."}
+{"text":"After the Bourbons obtained the French crown and the Princes de Cond\u00e9 and their heirs apparent became known (by right of their rank as \"First Prince of the Blood\"), respectively, as \"Monsieur le Prince\" and \"Monsieur le Duc\", Charles came to be styled \"Monsieur le Comte\" at court. That honorific was borne also by his son Louis and, subsequently, by the Savoy-Carignano counts of Soissons, who inherited the countship from Charles's daughter, Marie, princesse de Carignano, even though they ranked as \"princes \u00e9trangers\" in France rather than as \"princes du sang\"."}
+{"text":"At the death of her older brother Louis de Bourbon (6 July 1641), Marie was named his heir and became the Countess of Soissons \"suo jure\". She lived in her native France with her husband and resided at the H\u00f4tel de Soissons where she was born. It was Marie who built the small \"Ch\u00e2teau de Bagnolet\" in Paris; at her death the building was acquired by the \"Ferme g\u00e9n\u00e9rale\" Fran\u00e7ois Le Juge. In 1719 it became the property of Fran\u00e7oise Marie de Bourbon. Marie and her daughter helped to raise the famous soldier Prince Eugene of Savoy. She died in Paris."}
+{"text":"Princess Isabella of Bavaria (Marie Elisabeth Luise Amalie Elvire Blanche Eleonore; 31 August 1863 \u2013 26 February 1924) was the third child and eldest daughter of Prince Adalbert of Bavaria and his wife Infanta Amalia of Spain. By her marriage to Prince Thomas, Duke of Genoa, she became referred to as the Duchess of Genoa."}
+{"text":"Isabella was one of five children born to Prince Adalbert of Bavaria and his wife Infanta Amalia of Spain."}
+{"text":"Isabella's father Adalbert was the fourth son of Ludwig I of Bavaria and Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. Her mother Amalia was a daughter of Infante Francisco de Paula of Spain, a younger brother of Ferdinand VII of Spain. Her mother was also a sister of Francis, Duke of C\u00e1diz, the consort of Ferdinand VII's daughter Isabella II of Spain."}
+{"text":"On April 14, 1883 at Nymphenburg, Bavaria, Isabella married Prince Thomas, Duke of Genoa. He was the only son of Prince Ferdinand, Duke of Genoa and his wife Princess Elisabeth of Saxony. He was also a brother-in-law through his sister Margherita of Savoy of Umberto I of Italy, and thus was an uncle of the future King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy. Their union was the fourth time the houses of Wittelsbach and Savoy had been united in marriage."}
+{"text":"The wedding was regarded by one spectator as \"remarkable for good taste and simplicity\". Ludwig II of Bavaria (Isabella's cousin) did not attend, as he rarely went to public events. His absence, observed one attendee, meant that the wedding guests \"could enjoy themselves in an atmosphere of conviviality which is rarely found in Court festivities\"."}
+{"text":"Isabella and Thomas had the following children:"}
+{"text":"In 1905, Isabella and her husband, as well as other members of the House of Savoy attended a ceremony in honor of the beatification of a French priest. It was attended by Pope Pius X, along with 1,000 French pilgrims and several thousand worshipers of other nationalities, as well as twenty-two Cardinals and the Papal Court. The event was notable as it was the first time members of the House of Savoy had assisted at a religious function in the presence of the Pope."}
+{"text":"As Duke and Duchess of Genoa, Isabella and her husband often attended other royal functions as representatives of the House of Savoy. For instance, in 1911 they attended the unveiling of a large monument of Victor Emmanuel II of Italy in Rome. The event had nearly one million witnesses, and was also attended by dowager queens Maria Pia of Portugal and Margherita of Italy and the Duke and Duchess of Aosta."}
+{"text":"In 1913, Isabella had a near escape from death. While anointing her arms and neck with a preparation for rheumatism, she became too close to a lamp, causing the preparation to ignite. She only survived because her maid quickly smothered the flames."}
+{"text":"On 26 February 1924, Isabella died of bronchial pneumonia in Rome. She had been ill for several days beforehand. Thomas would die seven years later, in 1931."}
+{"text":"Adelaide of Austria (Adelheid Franziska Marie Rainera Elisabeth Clotilde; 3 June 1822 \u2013 20 January 1855) was the Queen of Sardinia by marriage to Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia, future King of Italy, from 1849 until 1855 when she died as a result of gastroenteritis. She was the mother of Umberto I of Italy."}
+{"text":"She was born at the Royal Palace of Milan to Archduke Rainer of Austria and his wife Princess Elisabeth of Savoy. Named \"Adelaide\", or known as \"Adele\" in the family, she held the title of Archduchess of Austria. Her father was the Viceroy of Lombardy-Venetia and was a son of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor and Maria Louisa of Spain. Her mother was a member of the House of Savoy and a daughter of the Prince of Carignano, the head of the junior branch of the House of Savoy, who ruled the Kingdom of Sardinia. Her younger brother Archduke Rainer Ferdinand later acted as Minister President of Austria. Both of her brothers contracted morganatic marriages."}
+{"text":"On 12 April 1842, at the Palazzina di Caccia di Stupinigi, she married Victor Emmanuel of Savoy. The marriage was used to cement relations between the House of Savoy and that of the House of Habsburg but was viewed by many people of the time to increase Austrian power in Italy."}
+{"text":"Victor Emmanuel was her first cousin and heir apparent to the King of Sardinia. He was styled the \"\"Duke of Savoy\" prior to succession. Adelaide thus took on the style of \"Duchess of Savoy.\"\" She maintained her style of \"Imperial and Royal Highness\" until she became Queen."}
+{"text":"Her husband's mother, Maria Theresa of Austria, retained great influence over her son throughout his life. Her mother-in-law was also her first cousin, both she and Adelaide being grandchildren of Emperor Leopold II. Adelaide and her husband of thirteen years had eight children. Four of these went on to have further progeny. Her husband had various extramarital affairs throughout the marriage. Adelaide was a quiet and pious woman and had a strict upbringing. She was a loving wife and frequently would give to charity."}
+{"text":"Henriette Adelaide of Savoy (Enrichetta Adelaide Maria; 6 November 1636 \u2013 13 June 1676), was Electress of Bavaria by marriage to Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria. She had much political influence in her adopted country and with her husband did much to improve the welfare of the Electorate of Bavaria."}
+{"text":"Born at the Castello del Valentino in Turin, she was the older of twin girls; her sister Princess Catherine Beatrice of Savoy died in Turin 26 August 1637. On 7 October 1637 she lost her father Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy, when she was just one year old. Her mother, Christine of France, was the daughter of Henry IV of France and Marie de' Medici. After the death of her father, her mother served as Regent of Savoy on behalf of two of Henriette Adelaide's brothers: Francis Hyacinth (1632\u20131638), then Charles Emmanuel II (1634\u20131675) after the older brother died. Her uncles Prince Maurice of Savoy and Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano, intrigued against their sister-in-law and her French entourage."}
+{"text":"When the first heir Francis Hyacinth died in 1638, the brothers Maurice and Thomas started the Piedmontese Civil War with Spanish support. The two parties in the war were known as the \"\"principisti\" (supporters of the princes) and \"madamisti\"\" (supporters of \"Madama Reale,\" the Regent Christine ). With the support of her brother, King Louis XIII of France, Marie Christine was able to defeat the challenge to her rule."}
+{"text":"On 8 December 1650 Henriette married Ferdinand Maria, heir to the Electorate of Bavaria future. The next year he became Elector upon the death of his father Maximilian."}
+{"text":"Henriette Adelaide had a strong influence on Bavarian foreign affairs in favor of France, whose royal family counted her mother as a member. This led to an alliance between France and Bavaria against Austria. One of the results of the alliance was the marriage of Henriette's eldest daughter Maria Anna and her cousin Louis, Dauphin of France (\"le Grand Dauphin\"), in 1680."}
+{"text":"She had a leading role in the building of Nymphenburg Palace and the Theatine Church in Munich. Many Italian artists were invited to Munich, and she also introduced Italian opera to the court of Bavaria."}
+{"text":"Henriette died in Munich and was buried in the Theatine Church - the church she and her husband built as a gesture of thanks for the birth of the long-awaited heir to the Bavarian crown, Prince Maximilan II Emanuel, in 1662."}
+{"text":"In addition, the Electress suffered three miscarriages: in June 1661, March 1664 and 1674."}
+{"text":"Dona Maria Francisca of Savoy (Marie Fran\u00e7oise \u00c9lisabeth; 21 June 1646 \u2013 27 December 1683) was twice queen consort of Portugal as the spouse of two Portuguese kings: Afonso VI and Peter II of Portugal. She first became queen of Portugal at the age of 20 on the day of her marriage to Afonso VI; because the marriage was never consummated, she was able to obtain an annulment. On 28 March 1668, she married Afonso's brother, the Infante Peter, Duke of Beja, who was appointed prince regent the same year due to Afonso's perceived incompetence. Maria Francisca became queen of Portugal for the second time when Peter succeeded his brother as Peter II in 1683 but died herself later that year."}
+{"text":"Maria Francisca was born in Paris as the younger daughter of Charles Amadeus, Duke of Nemours, and \u00c9lisabeth de Bourbon. Elisabeth was a granddaughter of Henry IV of France and his mistress Gabrielle d'Estr\u00e9es. Her only surviving sibling was Marie Jeanne of Savoy. Prior to marriage she was styled \"Mademoiselle d'Aumale\", a title derived from the duchy of Aumale which was a property of her father."}
+{"text":"In 1581, Portugal and Spain had been united under Philip II, but domestic opposition led to the 1640 to 1668 Portuguese Restoration War. By the end of 1665, Spanish attempts to reconquer Portugal had clearly failed, while their finances had collapsed, the Crown declaring bankruptcy no less than nine times between 1557 and 1666."}
+{"text":"This allowed Portuguese chief minister, Castelo Melhor, to focus on securing his own position. Afonso VI succeeded his father in 1653 but he was physically impaired and mentally unstable, with government controlled by his mother, Luisa de Guzm\u00e1n. Guided by Castelo Melhor, Alfonso sent her to a convent in 1662, where she died in February 1666."}
+{"text":"The Portuguese government was split between pro-French and pro-English factions, respectively led by Castelo Melhor and Alfonso's younger brother, Pedro. In 1662, Charles II of England married Alfonso's sister Catherine; Castelo Melhor and Louis XIV saw a marriage between Maria Francisca and Alfonso as a way to offset that. Louis persuaded Charles to agree by providing him with the unpaid portion of Catherine's dowry; Maria arrived in Portugal on 2 August 1666 and the wedding took place the same day."}
+{"text":"From then on, she became known as Maria Francisca Isabel de Sab\u00f3ia, although the marriage proved a disappointment. Alfonso abandoned the festivities early, leaving his new bride in charge, and reportedly displayed a similar lack of interest in consummating it. More importantly, Maria was an intelligent and resolute individual, who wanted to serve French interests but also rule; she soon discovered Alfonso was controlled by Castelo Melhor, who had no intention of sharing power. This drove her to first co-operate with her brother-in-law Pedro, then allegedly begin an affair with him."}
+{"text":"Although Castelo Melhor considered the marriage and the March 1667 Treaty of Lisbon with France as confirming his position, in fact they undermined it. Despite being financially exhausted, the treaty required Portugal to provide military support against Spain, while Maria persuaded Louis that Pedro was a better way to further French interests. In September, Castelo Melhor was forced into exile and in late November, Pedro deposed his brother, sending him to Terceira in the Azores. Maria retired to a convent and asked her marriage be annulled on the grounds of non-consummation; this was approved by her relative, French Cardinal Vend\u00f4me, and she married Pedro in September 1668."}
+{"text":"Months after her annulment, Maria Francisca married the Infante Peter, now the Prince Regent of Portugal. In 1669 she gave birth to a daughter, Isabel Lu\u00edsa Josefa of Portugal, Princess of Beira. The Braganza dynasty was at the brink of extinction, and Peter needed heirs, yet Maria Francisca was unable to produce further issue."}
+{"text":"When Afonso died in 1683, Peter succeeded him as Peter II of Portugal and Maria Francisca became queen again\u2014but died in December of the same year. Maria Francisca's only child, the Infanta Isabel Lu\u00edsa, died unmarried at age 21. Peter remarried to Maria Sofia of the Palatinate, who produced the much-needed heir, the future John V of Portugal."}
+{"text":"She was first buried at the Convent of the Francesinhas, then moved in 1912 to the Pantheon of the House of Braganza at the Monastery of S\u00e3o Vicente de Fora."}
+{"text":"Princess Yolanda of Savoy (1 June 1901 \u2013 16 October 1986) was the eldest daughter of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy."}
+{"text":"She was born Principessa Iolanda Margherita Milena Elisabetta Romana Maria di Savoia () in Rome, Italy. As a young woman she was a great sportswoman, particularly interested in swimming and riding."}
+{"text":"During the Great War, newspapers published reports of her engagement to the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VIII, who was serving in Italy in 1918. There was no basis for these rumors, but they were resurrected in 1919 when Yolanda joined her mother Elena of Montenegro, sister Princess Mafalda of Savoy, and the Duchess of Aosta (Princess H\u00e9l\u00e8ne of Orl\u00e9ans) on a visit to Paris, where the prince happened to be at the same time."}
+{"text":"After her marriage Yolanda lived in the town of Pinerolo, southwest of Turin."}
+{"text":"In 1946, Yolanda and her family went into voluntary exile with her father in Alexandria, Egypt. After King Victor Emmanuel's death, Yolanda and her family returned to Italy, where they lived at Castelporziano."}
+{"text":"Yolanda died in a hospital in Rome and is buried in Turin."}
+{"text":"On 9 April 1923 at the Quirinal Palace in Rome, she married Giorgio Carlo Calvi, Conte di Bergolo (15 March 1887, Athens \u2013 25 February 1977, Rome). They had five children:."}
+{"text":"Maria Theresa of Austria-Este, Queen of Sardinia"}
+{"text":"Maria Theresa of Austria-Este (Maria Theresia Josefa Johanna; 1 November 1773 \u2013 29 March 1832) was born an archduchess of Austria-Este and a princess of Modena. She was later queen of Sardinia as wife of Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia."}
+{"text":"She was born at the Royal Palace of Milan, a daughter of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, governor of Milan and son of Empress Maria Theresa after whom she was named. Her mother was Maria Beatrice d'Este, heir to the Duchy of Modena."}
+{"text":"Maria Theresa married on 25 April 1789 at the age of 15 with the 29-year-old Victor Emmanuel, Duke of Aosta future King Victor Emmanuel I. Their relationship was a happy one. She was a good friend of Marie Clotilde of France, the childless consort of Charles Emmanuel, Prince of Piedmont. She was also close to the Duchess of Chablais. At the time of her marriage, her spouse was the Duke of Aosta as such she was styled as Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Aosta till she became queen. The couple had six daughters and one son, who died young. Upon the invasion of Savoy by Napoleon in 1798, she left with her family first to Tuscany and then to Sardinia."}
+{"text":"Maria Theresa survived Victor Emmanuel by eight years. She was accused of having tried to convince her childless brother-in-law Charles Felix to assign Francis IV, duke of Modena (her brother and the husband of her eldest daughter Maria Beatrice), as heir to the throne. Due to the hostility directed toward her, she was not allowed to return to Turin until 1831. She was buried in the Basilica of Superga."}
+{"text":"Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of Spain (Mar\u00eda Antonia Fernanda; 17 November 1729 \u2013 19 September 1785) was a Queen consort of Sardinia by marriage to Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia. She was the youngest daughter of Philip V of Spain and Elisabeth Farnese. She was the mother of the last three mainline Kings of Sardinia."}
+{"text":"She was born at the Royal Alc\u00e1zar of Seville in Seville and was the youngest daughter of Philip V of Spain and of his second wife Elisabeth Farnese. She was born in Seville during the signing of the Treaty of Seville which ended the Anglo-Spanish War. She spent her infancy in the city of her birth before moving to Madrid in 1733. She was baptised with the names \"Mar\u00eda Antonia\" along with \"Fernanda\" in honour of her half brother, then the heir to the throne. Variations in her name range from \"Antonia Fernanda\" and \"Antonietta Ferdinanda\". As a daughter of the King of Spain, she held the title of Infanta of Spain and style of Royal Highness."}
+{"text":"In a double marriage plan she would marry Louis, Dauphin of France, and her brother, Infante Philip, would marry the Dauphin's sister Louise \u00c9lisabeth of France. Her mother consented to the latter union but insisted on waiting for Maria Antonia Ferdinanda to reach a more mature age. The Infanta's hand was also sought by the Electoral Prince of Saxony. The marriage between Infante Philip and Louise \u00c9lisabeth occurred in 1739 and eventually her older sister Infanta Maria Teresa Rafaela married the Dauphin in 1745. However, upon the death of Maria Teresa Rafaela in 1746 Ferdinand VI tried to engage Maria Antonia Fernandina to the Dauphin but the idea was snubbed by Louis XV as \"incest\". Instead he chose Maria Josepha of Saxony."}
+{"text":"At the death of her father-in-law Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia in 1773, her husband succeeded him as Victor Amadeus III. She was the first queen of Sardinia in over thirty years since the death of Elisabeth Therese of Lorraine in 1741. Her oldest son Charles Emmanuel, Prince of Piedmont married Marie Clotilde of France, sister of Louis XVI in 1775. Marie Clotilde and Maria Antonia Ferdinanda would become very close. Queen Maria Antonia Ferdinanda died in September 1785 at the Castle of Moncalieri. She was buried at the Royal Basilica of Superga. Her husband outlived her by eleven years."}
+{"text":"Christine of Hesse-Rheinfels-Rotenburg (Christine Henriette; 21 November 1717 \u2013 1 September 1778) was a princess of the German dynasty of Hesse-Rheinfels-Rotenburg. She was the Princess of Carignan by marriage and mother of the \"princesse de Lamballe\" and of Victor Amadeus II, Prince of Carignan."}
+{"text":"\"Christine\" Henriette was born in Rotenburg the youngest of the ten children of the Landgrave Ernst Leopold I of Hesse-Rheinfels-Rotenburg and his consort Princess Eleonore Anna Maria von L\u00f6wenstein-Wertheim-Rochefort. Her older sister Polyxena was married in 1730 to the future Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia and had issue. Another sister, Caroline was the wife of the French Prime Minister, Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon until her death in 1741."}
+{"text":"After Polyxena's marriage, Christine became engaged to Louis Victor, Prince of Carignan, the eldest surviving child of Victor Amadeus, Prince of Carignan and his wife Maria Vittoria Francesca of Savoy. The Carignans were a cadet branch of the House of Savoy, would inherit from them the kingship of Sardinia, and would be declared kings of Italy from 1861."}
+{"text":"Christine married Louis Victor on 4 May 1740 at the age of 22. The next year her husband succeeded to the title \"Prince de Carignan\", the \"seigneury\" of Carignan having belonged to the Savoys since 1418. The fact that it was part of Piedmont, only twenty kilometers south of Turin, meant that it could be a \"princedom\" for the cadet line in name only, being endowed neither with independence nor revenues of substance."}
+{"text":"Christine's second child, born at the Palazzo Carignano, was named Victor Amadeus and was the great-grandfather of the future Victor Emmanuel II of Italy. Her fifth daughter was her most famous; Louise, princesse de Lamballe, the tragic best friend of Marie Antoinette."}
+{"text":"Christine died at the Palazzo Carignano in Turin on the night of 31 August \u2013 1 September 1778, and was followed less than three months later by her husband. Buried firstly at Turin Cathedral, she was moved in 1835 to Turin's Basilica of Superga. At her death the \"Gazette de France\" published a small epitaph for her in honour of her daughter Madame de Lamballe:"}
+{"text":"\"Tuesday, the 31st of last month, princesse Christine Henriette de Hesse Rheinfels, wife of Louis Victor Am\u00e9d\u00e9e de Savoie, Prince de Carignan, died in this city [Turin], after a lingering and painful illness. She was born the 24th November, 1717\"."}
+{"text":"Louise of Savoy (28 December 1461 \u2013 24 July 1503) was a member of the French royal family, who gave up a life of privilege and comfort to become a Poor Clare nun. She has been beatified by the Roman Catholic Church."}
+{"text":"Louise was born on 28 December 1461, the Feast of the Holy Innocents, to the Amadeus IX, Duke of Savoy, and his wife, Yolande of Valois, the sister of King Louis XI of France. Through her mother, Louise was a collateral descendant of the Franciscan saint, Elizabeth of Hungary. She was born the fifth of their ten children. Her father was a very pious ruler who gave much attention to works of charity in his duchy. He suffered from epilepsy, which, added to his retiring nature, led him to leave the mechanisms of government in the hands of his wife. He himself was beatified in 1677."}
+{"text":"Louise showed an inclination to the spiritual life at a very young age. While still a child, she was found to be fasting on only bread and water on the Vigil of any major feast day of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Despite the active court life around her, she was drawn to prayer and solitude. Yet she was marked by a spirit of obedience, and when her mother insisted that she dress well in keeping with her station, she would obey. She would wear a hairshirt under her lovely garments, though."}
+{"text":"This life of happiness soon ended, though, as her husband, the Prince, died when she was 27 years of age. As she had no children, the young widow then determined to follow her calling as a nun, refusing many offers of marriage. She used her vast wealth to meet many needs of the poor and entered the monastery of the Poor Clare nuns in Orbe, now part of modern Switzerland."}
+{"text":"In the cloister, she showed herself to be a model of humility and obedience, preserving nothing of her royal origins. Louise died at the age of forty-two. She was beatified by Pope Gregory XVI in 1839. Her feast is observed by the Poor Clares on the date of her death."}
+{"text":"Maria Vittoria of Savoy (Maria Vittoria Francesca; 9 February 1690 \u2013 8 July 1766) was a legitimated daughter of Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia, first king of the House of Savoy. Married to the head of a cadet branch of the House of Savoy, she is an ancestor of the kings of Sardinia and of the Savoy kings of Italy."}
+{"text":"Maria Vittoria Francesca di Savoia was the child of Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia and his \"ma\u00eetresse-en-titre\", Jeanne Baptiste d'Albert de Luynes. Born in Turin on 9 February 1690 while her father was reigning Duke of Savoy, her parents' affair had begun in early 1689. Daughter of a French duke of distinguished ancestry and wife of a prominent Savoyard nobleman, initially she sought to avoid becoming a mistress of Victor Amadeus, then reigning Duke of Savoy. But ambition prompted her husband's family and even the Duke's wife, Anne Marie d'Orl\u00e9ans, to encourage the liaison."}
+{"text":"Her mother's popularity made her unpopular at the Savoyard court. Maria Vittoria's father, jealous and obsessed with Jeanne Baptiste, eventually had her shut up from view of the court. Jeanne Baptiste decided to flee Savoy in 1700 and sought refuge in France from Louis XIV."}
+{"text":"When her mother fled Savoy in 1700, Maria Vittoria and her brother, Vittorio Francesco di Savoia, remained in the duchy under the care of their father."}
+{"text":"Her father legitimated Maria Vittoria and her brother Vittorio Francesco, making him the Marchese di Susa (he died childless in 1762, aged 68) and granting her the feminine version of that title, \"Marchesa di Susa\"."}
+{"text":"In 1713 Victor Emmanuel acquired royal dignity, becoming King of Sicily (although he would be compelled to exchange that realm for Sardinia by the European Powers in 1720, while retaining the title of king). Betrothed in mid-1714 in an arrangement which imitated Louis XIV's practice of marrying his legitimated offspring to his royal kinsmen, the \"princes du sang\", Maria Vittoria married Victor Amadeus of Savoy, Prince of Carignan at the Castle of Moncalieri on 7 November, aged 23. Her father gave her husband an annual income of 400,000 livres, partly to assuage injury to the princely dignity of the Carignans for acquiescing to a marital alliance with a lady born out of wedlock."}
+{"text":"Her father was fond of Prince Victor Amadeus but in 1717, her husband was found to be deeply in debt and lost the King's favour. As a result, Maria Vittoria's husband fled to France in July 1718 during the Regency of Philippe II, Duke of Orl\u00e9ans, travelling as the \"Conte di Bosco\". Soon after, Maria Vittoria followed."}
+{"text":"The couple settled in Paris at the court of the infant Louis XV, who lived at the Tuileries Palace. Her husband was created \"Intendant des M\u00e9nus Plaisirs\" \u2013 a sort of Master of Ceremonies by the Regent. The couple lived at the \"H\u00f4tel de Soissons\", which they claimed in right of the Savoy-Soissons inheritance which had been confiscated when Savoy became an enemy of France under Louis XIV during the War of the Spanish Succession. Maria Vittoria and her husband led a scandalous life at the \"H\u00f4tel de Soissons\", turning it into \"one of the most dangerous for gambling in the capital\"."}
+{"text":"Maria Vittoria eventually developed a close relationship with Cardinal Fleury, \"She pretends to be devout and makes money out of the transactions of the court through the Cardinal, with whom she is on good terms.\" She also became an intimate of Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon, Louis XV's prime minister after the death of Phillipe d'Orl\u00e9ans."}
+{"text":"Her husband's position and their connections at the French court were important to their circumstances, as Prince Victor Amadeus proceeded to incur massive debts in France, adding to those already contracted in Savoy."}
+{"text":"Maria Vittoria is alleged to have intrigued with the Duke of Bourbon, reporting all to her father back in Savoy, effectively acting as a spy. She also reported attempts of Queen Marie Leszczy\u0144ska to influence Louis XV politically \u2013 which involved the Duke of Bourbon's trying to dispose of Fleury, a move which ended very badly for the duke. However, Maria Vittoria is alleged to have remained loyal to Fleury: When the Duke of Bourbon suggested, via an intermediary, that if she could mend the relationship between himself and the Cardinal her husband's huge debts in both France and Savoy would be settled and an income of half a million livres would be assured her, she is said to have indignantly refused."}
+{"text":"The Queen is said to have sought Maria Vittoria's advice as to how to reconcile with the King when he took offence at her attempts to interfere in his relations with Fleury. She advised the queen to henceforth discontinue all involvement in politics and act only as a role model for the consort of the Most Christian King of France, and advise queen Marie followed. Nonetheless, Maria Vittoria never became very intimate with the Queen; in 1726 she and Fleury speculated about who would replace Marie if she should die in childbirth."}
+{"text":"Maria Vittoria saw her son marry Landgravine Christine of Hesse-Rotenburg, whose sister Caroline of Hesse had married the disgraced Duke of Bourbon in 1728, in 1740."}
+{"text":"Her husband died at the H\u00f4tel de Soissons in April 1740 heavily in debt; she lived quietly as a widow but successfully managed to marry her only surviving daughter, Princess Anna Teresa of Savoy-Carignan, to the widowed Charles de Rohan, Prince of Soubise. Anna Teresa had one child; Victoire de Rohan, who would become the official governess of Louis XVI's daughter, Marie Th\u00e9r\u00e8se of France."}
+{"text":"In 1763 Leopold Mozart wrote in a letter that \"today my little girl was given a small, transparent snuff-box, inlaid with gold, from the Princess Carignan, and Wolfgang a pocket writing case in silver, with silver pens with which to write his compositions; it is so small and exquisitely worked that it is impossible to describe it\"."}
+{"text":"Maria Vittoria of Savoy-Carignan died in Paris on 8 July 1766 aged 76. She was the paternal grandmother of the \"Princesse de Lamballe\", tragic friend of Marie Antoinette."}
+{"text":"Princess Maria Francesca of Savoy (Maria Francesca Anna Romana; 26 December 1914 \u2013 7 December 2001) was the youngest daughter of Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and Elena of Montenegro. She was a sister of Umberto II of Italy and of Queen Giovanna of Bulgaria."}
+{"text":"She was born in Rome as the fifth and youngest child of her parents. She had three elder sisters, Yolanda, Giovanna, Mafalda, and a brother, Umberto. In her birthplace, on 23 January 1939, Maria married Prince Luigi of Bourbon-Parma (5 December 1899 - 4 December 1967), a younger son of Robert I, Duke of Parma, and Infanta Maria Antonia of Portugal. Her husband was a brother of Zita, Empress of Austria, among many others."}
+{"text":"The couple moved to Cannes, where all four of their children were born. Maria was interned with her husband and two elder children by the Nazis during World War II. After the war, they lived in Italy for a while, then returned to France. She took up permanent residence in Mandelieu, near Cannes, after her husband's death."}
+{"text":"Maria Beatrice of Savoy (Maria Beatrice Vittoria Giuseppina; 6 December 1792 \u2013 15 September 1840) was a Princess of Savoy and Duchess of Modena by marriage."}
+{"text":"She was the eldest daughter of Victor Emmanuel, Duke of Aosta and his wife Maria Teresa of Austria-Este. Her father became King of Sardinia unexpectedly in 1802 when Charles Emmanuel IV abdicated."}
+{"text":"Her maternal grandparents were Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Este and Maria Beatrice Ricciarda d'Este. Ferdinand was the third son of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor and Maria Theresa of Austria. Maria Beatrice was the eldest daughter of Ercole III d'Este and Maria Theresa, Princess of Carrara."}
+{"text":"In December 1798, Maria Beatrice left Turin with her parents and uncles to escape the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. They fled to Parma, then Florence, and finally settled at Sardinia, the last dominion held by Kingdom of Sardinia. Maria Beatrice spent most of her time at Cagliari in the following thirteen years."}
+{"text":"On 20 June 1812, Maria Beatrice married her maternal uncle Francis, Archduke of Austria-Este; due to their close relation, a special dispensation was received for their marriage from Pope Pius VII. Maria Beatrice's husband became Francis IV, Duke of Modena, Reggio, and Mirandola on 14 July 1814, thereby elevating Maria Beatrice to the rank of Duchess of Modena. The marriage beget four children:"}
+{"text":"The couple left Sardinia on 15 July 1813 for Zakynthos Island, and then sailed to Trieste off the east shore of Adriatic Sea, finally reaching Vienna by land. On the invasion of Joachim Murat during The Hundred Days, they fled Modena until 15 May 1815."}
+{"text":"On the outbreak of revolution, Maria Beatrice had to flee Modena again with her family on 5 February 1831, but with Austrian military assistance the Ducal family was able to return within a year."}
+{"text":"Maria Beatrice died of a heart condition on 15 September 1840 at Castello del Catajo. Her remains were kept in the Chiesa di San Vincenzo in Modena. She was a Lady of the Austrian Order of the Starry Cross."}
+{"text":"Through her father, she inherited the Jacobite claim to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland, but like other non-Stuart pretenders, she never asserted her claim. Had she gained the throne she would have been \"Mary III & II\"."}
+{"text":"Maria Letizia Bonaparte (Marie Laetitia Eug\u00e9nie Catherine Ad\u00e9la\u00efde; 20 November 1866 \u2013 25 October 1926) was one of three children born to Prince Napol\u00e9on and his wife Princess Maria Clotilde of Savoy. In 1888 she married Prince Amadeo, Duke of Aosta, the former king of Spain and her uncle. Maria Letizia became the Duchess of Aosta, as Amadeus was known before and after his kingship as Duke of Aosta. Their marriage was instrumental in almost reviving French hopes of reinstating the Bonaparte dynasty into a position of power, as seen in the days of Napoleon III."}
+{"text":"Maria Letizia's father Napol\u00e9on Joseph was a nephew of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte through his brother J\u00e9r\u00f4me Bonaparte, King of Westphalia. This then made Maria Letizia a great-niece of Emperor Napoleon. Her mother Maria Clotilde was a daughter of Victor Emmanuel II of Italy. Through this connection, Maria Letizia was a niece of King Umberto I of Italy and Queen Maria Pia of Portugal."}
+{"text":"Maria Letizia was born in the Palais Royal in Paris on 20 November 1866, during the last few years of the Second French Empire. She grew up living between Paris, Rome and elsewhere in Italy with her two brothers Napol\u00e9on Victor and Louis. After the fall of the French Empire in 1870, their family resided in a beautiful estate near Lake Geneva."}
+{"text":"The marriage was also unpopular with both the French and the Italians; the latter in particular felt that the daughter of their king had been sacrificed to an unpopular member of the House of Bonaparte and consequently regarded it as a \"m\u00e9salliance\". For France's part, Napol\u00e9on Joseph was ill-regarded and had been known to carry on a number of affairs both before and during his marriage. Their official reception into Paris on 4 February was greeted very coldly by Parisians, not out of disrespect for a daughter of the king of Sardinia, but instead out of dislike for her new husband. Indeed, all her life public sympathy tended to lean in her favour; she was fondly regarded as retiring, charitable, pious, and trapped in an unhappy marriage."}
+{"text":"After Maria Clotilde's father Victor Emmanuel died in 1878, she returned to Turin, Italy without her husband. During this period, Maria Letizia mostly resided with her mother in the Castle of Moncalieri, but her two brothers stayed mainly with their father. It was in Italy that their mother withdrew herself from society to dedicate herself to religion and various charities. As a result of her mother's religious devotion, Maria Letizia was raised in a convent-like atmosphere."}
+{"text":"By her late teens, Maria Letizia was considered by some contemporaries to be beautiful and to be in appearance a \"real Bonaparte\". She was said to have resembled some of the sisters of Napoleon Bonaparte, who were considered quite beautiful in their day."}
+{"text":"In Florence, Maria Letizia met and almost married her cousin Prince Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy. A change of plans occurred however, and the marriage never took place. Emanuele later married Princess H\u00e9l\u00e8ne of Orl\u00e9ans instead. In 1886, a rumour circulated that Maria Letizia was going to marry her cousin Prince Roland Bonaparte. He was thirty years old and recently widowed. Nothing ever came of these rumors however."}
+{"text":"It was in Moncalieri that she met Emanuele's father Amadeus, Duke of Aosta (sometimes referred to as Amadeo). He was her maternal uncle and was formerly the elected king of Spain for a brief period of three years (1870\u20131873)."}
+{"text":"Maria Letizia was considered very charming, and Amadeus was very dependent on her society when he visited Italy. In 1888, she agreed to marry him. One source attributes the marriage to the fact that Amadeus felt great love for his niece, but states that Maria Letizia's decision was simply a \"strong desire for independence on the part of the Princess because of the heaviness of the maternal yoke\". In preparation for the marriage, she received a great number of notable gifts from personages such as Empress Eugenie, the widowed wife of Napoleon III, and Amadeus' three sons."}
+{"text":"Eugenie sent her some \"great and illustrious\" family jewels, while the boys gave her a necklace with seven rows of pearls that was valued at sixty-thousand dollars. The couple planned to marry in Turin with the hopes of turning the city into a \"brilliant centre of attraction in Italy\"."}
+{"text":"The announcement of their marriage caused a great scandal in the Italian court, as he was not only twenty-two years older, but was also her mother's brother. Nevertheless, later that year the necessary papal dispensation was obtained, giving them permission to marry. Although the Pope gave them permission, the consanguinity of their marriage, along with those of other royal houses led Pope Leo XIII to declare in 1902 that no more dispensations would be granted for such marriages."}
+{"text":"They wedded that same year, on 11 September 1888 at the Royal Palace of Turin in Turin, Italy. The ceremony was performed by the Archbishop of Turin, Cardinal Gaetano Alimonda, who had gone to Rome to obtain their dispensation. Their wedding was attended by many members of the houses of Bonaparte and Savoy, including Queen Maria Pia of Portugal, who was Amadeus' sister and Maria Letizia's maternal aunt. Maria Letizia was Amadeus' second wife, as his first spouse Maria Vittoria del Pozzo della Cisterna had died in 1876. Due to the large age difference, Maria Letizia was only three years older than Amadeus' eldest child."}
+{"text":"It was the first marriage of a Bonaparte to a member of a reigning house of Europe since 1859. As the first major event since the fall of the Second French Republic, the marriage attracted considerable press attention to the Bonapartes' marriage prospects and the potential impact on the establishment of another government."}
+{"text":"One article stated that at the time of their marriage, a Bonaparte would have had an easy chance of obtaining at least two million votes if a plebiscite were to occur. This likelihood of a Bonaparte resurgence was most likely because there was a certain nostalgia among the French for the days of Maria Letizia's great uncle Napoleon I and even for the more recent rule of her uncle Napoleon III."}
+{"text":"The couple lived in Turin and had one son, Prince Umberto, Count of Salemi (1889\u20131918), who died of the Spanish flu during World War I. Maria Letizia was widowed after less than two years of marriage when Amadeus died on 18 January 1890."}
+{"text":"Up to 1902, Umberto and his mother were rarely seen at the Italian court. No images of Umberto were ever distributed, unlike other members of the Italian royal family. His absence sparked many rumors, some implying that he was \"mentally afflicted\" or \"misshapen\". In later years, he would appear more in the press, disproving all of these theories."}
+{"text":"Amadeus's first wife had been a wealthy woman; upon her death, she left her vast fortune to him and their three sons. This meant that any wealth Amadeus had accumulated went to his first three children, leaving little to nothing upon his death for Maria Letizia and their son Umberto. They thus remained dependent upon the allowance they received from the Italian crown. This dependency would cause problems later, as Umberto often angered his cousin Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, the head of the House of Savoy. After Umberto committed various misdemeanors and pranks in 1911, he was imprisoned in Moncalieri Castle."}
+{"text":"He had recently been dismissed from the naval academy in Livorno for what was apparently incorrigible behavior and amorous attentions to some young women in the town. Maria Letizia, worried over what she considered her son's harsh sentence, wrote to Queen Elena and asked her to intercede for her son. The King remained adamant, however, and only reduced the sentence slightly due to the recent death of his aunt Princess Maria Clotilde, Maria Letizia's mother."}
+{"text":"During her widowhood, Maria Letizia maintained an open and scandalous relationship with a military man twenty years her junior, who later wed the opera singer Vina Bovy. Upon Maria Letizia's death on 25 October 1926, he was named in her will as her sole heir."}
+{"text":"Charlotte of Savoy (c. 1441\/3 \u2013 1 December 1483) was queen of France as the second spouse of Louis XI. She served as regent during the king's absence in 1465, and was a member of the royal regency council during her son's minority in 1483."}
+{"text":"She was a daughter of Louis, Duke of Savoy and Anne of Cyprus. Her maternal grandparents were Janus of Cyprus and Charlotte de Bourbon-La Marche. Her maternal grandmother, for whom she was probably named, was a daughter of John I, Count of La Marche, and Catherine de Vend\u00f4me. She was one of 19 children, 14 of whom survived infancy."}
+{"text":"On 11 March 1443, when Charlotte was just over a year old, she was betrothed to Frederick of Saxony (28 August 1439- 23 December 1451), eldest son of Frederick II, Elector of Saxony. For reasons unknown, the betrothal was annulled. Less than eight years later on 14 February 1451, Charlotte married Louis, Dauphin of France (future Louis XI), eldest son of Charles VII of France and Marie of Anjou. The bride was nine years old and the groom twenty-seven. The marriage, which had taken place without the consent of the French king, was Louis' second; his first spouse, Margaret of Scotland, had died childless in 1445. Upon her marriage, Charlotte became Dauphine of France."}
+{"text":"Louis reportedly neglected her. When the news upon his succession to the throne of France reached the couple at the Burgundian court, he immediately abandoned her in Burgundy to secure his inheritance, leaving her dependent upon Isabella of Bourbon to borrow the carts and entourage necessary to travel to France to join him."}
+{"text":"On 22 July 1461, Charlotte became Queen of France. The following year, she became seriously ill and was close to death by August 1462. Although she recovered, her health was weakened."}
+{"text":"Charlotte was regarded as virtuous. A contemporary noted that \"while she was an excellent Princess in other respects, she was not a person in whom a man could take any great delight\"; However, after the birth of her last child in 1472, Louis swore that he would no longer be unfaithful, and according to the chronicler Phillip de Commynes, he kept this vow."}
+{"text":"Charlotte served as regent in September 1465."}
+{"text":"Charlotte was widowed on August 30, 1483, upon which Louis XI was succeeded by their son Charles VIII, who was still a minor."}
+{"text":"Louis XI did not make Charlotte regent if his son should succeed him while still a minor; he did in fact not formally appoint a regent at all, but he did leave instructions for a royal council to govern during such a minority, in which Charlotte, alongside Duke Jean de Bourbon II and their two sons-in-law Louis d'Orleans (married to their daughter Jeanne) and Peter II, Duke of Bourbon (married to their daughter Anne), were made members. In practice, her daughter Anne took control over France as regent during the minority of Charles."}
+{"text":"Charlotte died on 1 December 1483 in Amboise, just a few months after her spouse's death. She is buried with him in the Notre-Dame de Cl\u00e9ry Basilica in Cl\u00e9ry-Saint-Andr\u00e9 (Loiret) in the arrondissement of Orl\u00e9ans."}
+{"text":"Charlotte became the mother of eight children, but only three survived infancy. These were Charles VIII, who became king of France, Anne, who acted as regent of France for Charles, and Joan, who became queen of France as the spouse of Louis XII."}
+{"text":"Upon the death of her daughter, Anne, Charlotte's line became extinct; her granddaughter, Suzanne having died in 1521 without surviving issue."}
+{"text":"Dona Maria Pia (16 October 1847 \u2013 5 July 1911) was a Portuguese Queen consort, spouse of King Lu\u00eds I of Portugal. She was a member of the House of Savoy. On the day of her baptism, Pope Pius IX, her godfather, gave her a Golden Rose. Maria Pia was married to Lu\u00eds on the 6 October 1862 in Lisbon. She was the grand mistress of the Order of Saint Isabel."}
+{"text":"Maria Pia was the daughter of Victor Emmanuel II, the first King of Italy, by his wife Adelaide of Austria. Her sister Maria Clotilde was the \"princesse Napol\u00e9on\" as wife of Napol\u00e9on Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte, and her brothers were King Umberto I of Italy and King Amadeo of Spain"}
+{"text":"Maria Pia married King Lu\u00eds I of Portugal on 6 October 1862 at the age of 14 in the S\u00e3o Domingos Church in Lisbon, therefore she instantly became Queen consort of Portugal."}
+{"text":"One year after the wedding, Maria Pia gave birth to her first son and heir, Carlos, Duke of Braganza. In 1865 she had another son, Afonso, Duke of Porto."}
+{"text":"As Queen, Maria Pia was considered by some as extravagant, but far more for her many charitable works in aid of the Portuguese people. She was known by the Portuguese people as an \"angel of charity\" and \"mother of the poor\" for her compassion and work on social causes. At a masquerade ball in 1865, she changed her costume three times. When the Portuguese parliament discussed her expenses, she replied saying \"if you want a Queen, you have to pay for her\". As Queen, she was largely responsible for the interiors of the Ajuda Royal Palace in Lisbon, still used to this day for banquets during state visits by foreign heads of state."}
+{"text":"Maria Pia did not involve herself in politics, but at a conflict with Jo\u00e3o Carlos Saldanha de Oliveira Daun, 1st Duke of Saldanha in 1870, she stated: \"If I were the king, I would have you shot!\""}
+{"text":"King Lu\u00eds died on 19 October 1889 and Maria Pia became queen dowager. She remained very active and continued with her social projects while holding a dominating position at court. She served as regent during the absence of the king and queen abroad."}
+{"text":"The queen dowager was devastated after the assassination of her son King Carlos I of Portugal and grandson Crown Prince Lu\u00eds Filipe, Duke of Braganza, on 1 February 1908 on the Pra\u00e7a do Com\u00e9rcio in Lisbon. During her last years in Portugal, she withdrew from the public eye. She was deeply saddened after the military coup that deposed her remaining grandson, King Manuel II of Portugal by the 5 October 1910 Revolution."}
+{"text":"Due to the 1910 coup that deposed Maria Pia\u2019s grandson, Manuel II, and established the republic in Portugal, the whole Portuguese royal family was exiled. King Manuel and Queen Amelie went to England, while Maria Pia and Infante Afonso went to her native Italy, where she died on the 5th of July of the very next year in Stupinigi, and was interred in the Basilica of Superga."}
+{"text":"Margherita, Dowager Archduchess of Austria-Este (\"n\u00e9e\" Princess Margherita of Savoy-Aosta; born 7 April 1930) is the first-born child of the late Amedeo, 3rd Duke of Aosta, and Princess Anne d'Orl\u00e9ans. Margherita is the rightful heir to the British crown, if we follow the royal lineage from James I of England."}
+{"text":"The couple took up residence in Paris, where Robert was a bank clerk. They had five children:"}
+{"text":"Princess Mafalda of Savoy (19 November 1902 \u2013 27 August 1944) was the second daughter of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and his wife Elena of Montenegro. The future King Umberto II of Italy was her younger brother."}
+{"text":"Mafalda was born in Rome. In childhood she was close to her mother, from whom she inherited a love for music and the arts. During World War I, she accompanied her mother on her visits to Italian military hospitals."}
+{"text":"On 23 September 1925, at Racconigi Castle, Mafalda married Prince Philipp of Hesse, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel and grandson of German Emperor Frederick III. Prince Philipp and his brother Christoph were members of the National Socialist (Nazi) party."}
+{"text":"Prince Philipp's marriage to Princess Mafalda put him in position to act as intermediary between the National Socialist government in Germany and the Fascist government in Italy. On the evening of the 26 March 1935 she was present at an informal diplomatic dinner given by Adolf Hitler in the Reich President's House in Berlin. She sat next to Anthony Eden."}
+{"text":"However, during World War II, Adolf Hitler believed Princess Mafalda was working against the war effort; he called her the \"blackest carrion in the Italian royal house\". So did Hitler's Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, who called her \"the biggest bitch \"(gr\u00f6sste Rabenaas)\" in the entire Italian royal house\"."}
+{"text":"Early in September 1943, Princess Mafalda travelled to Bulgaria to attend the funeral of her brother-in-law, King Boris III. While there, she was informed of Italy's surrender to the Allied Powers, that her husband was being held under house arrest in Bavaria, and that her children had been given sanctuary in the Vatican. The Gestapo ordered her arrest, and on 23 September she received a telephone call from Hauptsturmf\u00fchrer Karl Hass at the German High Command, who told her that he had an important message from her husband. On her arrival at the German embassy, Mafalda was arrested, ostensibly for subversive activities. Princess Mafalda was transported to Munich for questioning, then to Berlin, and finally to Buchenwald concentration camp."}
+{"text":"On 24 August 1944, the Allies bombed an ammunition factory inside Buchenwald. Some four hundred prisoners were killed and Princess Mafalda was seriously wounded: she had been housed in a unit adjacent to the bombed factory, and when the attack occurred she was buried up to her neck in debris and suffered severe burns to her arm. The conditions of the labour camp caused her arm to become infected as a result, and the medical staff at the facility amputated it; she bled profusely during the operation and never regained consciousness. She died during the night of 26\u201327 August 1944; her body was reburied after the war at Kronberg Castle in Hesse."}
+{"text":"In 1997, the Italian government honored Princess Mafalda with her image on a postal stamp. \"Mafaldine\" (\"little Mafaldas\"), a variety of flat pasta, are named after her."}
+{"text":"Princess Mafalda married Philipp, Landgrave of Hesse on 23 September 1925 (civilly & religiously) at Racconigi Castle near Turin."}
+{"text":"Maria Cristina of Savoy (Maria Cristina Carlotta Giuseppa Gaetana Efisia; 14 November 1812 \u2013 21 January 1836) was the first Queen consort of Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies. She died as a result of childbirth. She is venerated in the Catholic Church, having been beatified as Blessed by Pope Francis."}
+{"text":"Maria Cristina was the youngest daughter of King Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia and Archduchess Maria Teresa of Austria-Este."}
+{"text":"Her maternal grandparents were Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Este and Maria Beatrice Ricciarda d'Este. Ferdinand was the fourteenth child and third son born to Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, and Maria Theresa of Austria. Maria Beatrice was the eldest daughter of Ercole III d'Este and Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina, Duchess of Massa and Princess of Carrara."}
+{"text":"On 21 November 1832, Maria Cristina married Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies. The bride was twenty years old and the groom twenty-two."}
+{"text":"Maria Cristina was described as beautiful but also timid and shy: modest and reserved, she was never comfortable at the royal court. Her relationship to Ferdinand was not happy, and he had little patience for her nervous modesty."}
+{"text":"She died at the age of 23, after having given birth 5 days before to her only child, Francis II of the Two Sicilies."}
+{"text":"On 10 July 1872 she was declared to be a Servant of God, on 6 May 1937 a Venerable Servant of God, and on 3 May 2013 Pope Francis authorized a decree recognizing a miracle due to her intercession, a further stage on her process to beatification. Her beatification took place on 25 January 2014 at the Basilica of Santa Chiara (Naples), where she is buried, making her Blessed Maria Cristina of Savoy."}
+{"text":"Giovanna of Italy (, \"Ioanna Savoiska\", ) (13 November 1907 \u2013 26 February 2000) was an Italian princess of the House of Savoy who later became the Tsaritsa of Bulgaria by marriage to Boris III of Bulgaria."}
+{"text":"Giovanna was born in Rome, the third daughter and fourth child of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and Queen Elena, former Princess of Montenegro. Upon her Roman Catholic christening, she was given the names Giovanna Elisabetta Antonia Romana Maria. Her older brother was the future Italian king Umberto II of Italy."}
+{"text":"In the years prior to World War II, Tsaritsa Ioanna became heavily involved in charities, including the financing of a children's hospital. During the war she counterbalanced her husband consigning Bulgaria to the Axis by obtaining transit visas to enable a number of Jews to escape to Argentina. Tsar Boris also proved less malleable than Hitler had hoped, and following a meeting in Berlin in August 1943, the Tsar became seriously ill and died, aged 49. Stress and a heart condition were the official reasons for his death."}
+{"text":"Ioanna's son, Simeon, became the new tsar and a regency was established, led by his uncle Prince Kyril, who was considered more pliable by the Germans."}
+{"text":"In the dying days of the Second World War, Bulgaria was invaded by the Soviet Union. Prince Kyril was tried by a People's Court and subsequently executed. Giovanna and her son Simeon remained under house arrest at Vrana Palace, near Sofia, until 1946, when the new Communist government gave them 48 hours to leave the country."}
+{"text":"After initially fleeing to Alexandria in the Kingdom of Egypt, to join her father, King Victor Emmanuel III, they moved on to Madrid. In 1962 Simeon II married and Queen Giovanna moved to Estoril, on the Portuguese Riviera, where she lived for the rest of her life, apart from a brief return to Bulgaria in 1993, when she visited the site of Boris's grave and was present at the reburial of his heart. During this last visit to Bulgaria she received a cordial welcome, and thousands of people went on the streets to greet her."}
+{"text":"She is buried in the Communal Cemetery of Assisi, Italy, where she had married King Boris III in 1930."}
+{"text":"Elisabeth of Savoy (Maria Francesca Elisabetta Carlotta Giuseppina; 13 April 1800 \u2013 25 December 1856) was the Vicereine of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia by marriage to Archduke Rainer of Austria. She was the aunt and mother-in-law of Vittorio Emanuele II, the first king of a united Italy."}
+{"text":"Maria Francesca Elisabetta Carlotta Giuseppina was born in Paris to Charles Emmanuel, Prince of Carignano (1770\u20131800), and Princess Maria Cristina of Saxony (1770\u20131851). She had an elder brother, Charles Albert, future King of Sardinia."}
+{"text":"On 28 May 1820 she was married in Prague to Archduke Rainer of Austria, Viceroy of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia."}
+{"text":"Elisabeth died of tuberculosis in Bolzano on Christmas Day, 1856."}
+{"text":"Louise of Savoy (Louise Christine; 1 August 1627 \u2013 7 July 1689) was a Savoyard Princess by birth. She was the mother of Louis, Margrave of Baden-Baden, the famous chief commander of the Imperial army."}
+{"text":"Louise was born at the H\u00f4tel de Soissons in Paris. The H\u00f4tel was the birthplace of her mother, a granddaughter of Louis de Bourbon, an uncle of Henry IV of France. Her father was Prince Thomas Francis of Savoy, the younger son of the Duke of Savoy and his Spanish wife, Infanta Catherine Michelle of Spain."}
+{"text":"She married Margrave Ferdinand Maximilian of Baden-Baden (1625\u20131669) on 15 March 1653 at the \u00c9glise Saint-Sulpice, Paris, France. The church was near the H\u00f4tel de Soissons. The marriage contract was signed on the same day and is today preserved in the Parisian Institut de France. This marriage was negotiated by none other than the famous Cardinal Mazarin and the Ambassador of the Margrave of Baden-Baden one Monsieur \"Krebs\". Her husband was the Hereditary Prince of Baden-Baden, this meant that he was the Heir apparent of his father Wilhelm, Margrave of Baden-Baden."}
+{"text":"Marriages between German and Savoyard nobles were common in an era when many Savoyard nobles lived in German states notably Baden itself, due to official charges in the country."}
+{"text":"The marriage was not successful. Louise Christine of Savoy refused to leave the refined French court and follow her husband to Baden-Baden. Louise Christine gave birth to a son on April 8, 1655 named Louis William of Baden-Baden. He was named after the French King Louis XIV, who was his godfather."}
+{"text":"Ferdinand Maximilian then abducted his son from Paris and brought him to Baden-Baden. Ferdinand ordered a Savoyard man named Charles Maurice de Lassolaye, who had access to the H\u00f4tel de Soissons, to smuggle his three-month-old son out of Paris and take him to be raised in Baden-Baden. As a consequence Louis William was not raised by his mother, but by his grandfather's second wife Maria Magdalena of Oettingen-Baldern."}
+{"text":"When it was clear that Louise Christine would not leave Paris, some said due to the influence of her mother, Louise Christine and her husband decided to separate and let her son be raised in Baden-Baden."}
+{"text":"Her descendants included the present Henri d'Orl\u00e9ans, French pretender; the Prince Napol\u00e9on; Duarte Pio, Duke of Braganza and his distant cousin Prince Luiz of Orl\u00e9ans-Braganza. She is also an ancestor of the ruling Felipe VI of Spain, Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg and Albert II of Belgium."}
+{"text":"Margaret of Savoy (7 August 1420 \u2013 30 September 1479), was a daughter of Amadeus VIII of Savoy and Mary of Burgundy. By her three illustrious marriages, she held a number of titles, including \"Duchess of Anjou\", \"Duchess of Calabria\", \"Countess of Maine\", \"Countess of the Palatinate\", and \"Countess of W\u00fcrttemberg\"."}
+{"text":"Margaret was one of seven children born to Amadeus VIII, Count of Savoy and his wife Mary of Burgundy. A few of her siblings included Louis, Duke of Savoy and Mary, Duchess of Milan."}
+{"text":"Her paternal grandparents were Amadeus VII, Count of Savoy and Bonne of Berry. Her maternal grandparents were Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy and Margaret III, Countess of Flanders."}
+{"text":"Margaret married firstly Louis, Duke of Anjou, the titular King of Naples. He was a son of Louis II of Anjou and Yolande of Aragon. Their first marriage contract is dated on 31 Mar 1431. She became known as the Duchess of Anjou. They had no children, and he died in 1434."}
+{"text":"In 1445, Margaret next married Louis IV, Count Palatine of the Rhine. He was a son of Louis III, Elector Palatine and his second wife Matilda of Savoy. Margaret became Countess of the Palatinate through this alliance. Their marriage lasted only four years, as Louis died on 13 August 1449. They had one son:"}
+{"text":"Thirdly, she married in Stuttgart 11 November 1453 Ulrich V, Count of W\u00fcrttemberg. They were both the other's third spouses. She added the title Countess of W\u00fcrttemberg to her many titles through this alliance. From this marriage they had the following children:"}
+{"text":"Princess Maria Beatrice of Savoy (born 2 February 1943) is the youngest daughter of Italy's last King, Umberto II, and his wife, Queen Marie Jos\u00e9."}
+{"text":"Born Principessa Maria Beatrice Elena Margherita Ludovica Caterina Romana di Savoia, she was the third daughter as well as the fourth and last child of the Prince and Princess of Piedmont, known as \"Titi\" to family and friends. When she was three years old, her father ruled Italy as Umberto II for slightly over a month, from 9 May 1946 to 12 June 1946. The family was then exiled and briefly gathered in Portugal, where her parents decided to separate. She and her siblings went with their mother to Switzerland while their father remained in the Portuguese Riviera."}
+{"text":"Princess Maria Beatrice attempted to marry Italian actor Maurizio Arena in 1967 but was prevented by her family, who filed a lawsuit claiming that she was mentally unfit to marry. The lawsuit was dropped in early 1968 when the relationship ended."}
+{"text":"Titi married Luis Rafael Reyna-Corval\u00e1n y Dillon (born 18 April 1939 in C\u00f3rdoba, Argentina \u2013 died 17 February 1999 in Cuernavaca, Mexico), son of Cesar Augusto Reyna-Corval\u00e1n and Amalia Maria Dillon Calvo, on 1 April 1970 in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. They were also married in a religious ceremony on January 1971 in C\u00f3rdoba, Argentina. They separated in 1995 and were divorced in 1998."}
+{"text":"For some time, her mother lived with her and her children in Mexico."}
+{"text":"Her eldest son died, aged 23, on 29 April 1994 in Boston, Massachusetts, falling from the terrace of the building where he lived."}
+{"text":"Her ex-husband was murdered on 17 February 1999 in Cuernavaca, Mexico. The Princess did not attend his funeral."}
+{"text":"Margherita of Savoy (\"Margherita Maria Teresa Giovanna\"; 20 November 1851 \u2013 4 January 1926) was the Queen consort of the Kingdom of Italy by marriage to Umberto I."}
+{"text":"Margherita was born to Prince Ferdinand of Savoy, Duke of Genoa and Princess Elisabeth of Saxony. Her father died in 1855, and her mother remarried morganatically to Major Nicholas Bernoud, Marchese di Rapallo."}
+{"text":"She was educated by countess Clelia Monticelli di Casalrosso and her Austrian governess Rosa Arbesser. Reportedly, she was given a more advanced education than most princesses at the time, and displayed a great deal of intellectual curiosity. As a person, she was described as sensitive, proud and with a strong force of will without being hard, as well as having the ability to be charming when she chose to. As to her appearance, she was described as a tall, stately blonde, but she was not regarded as a beauty."}
+{"text":"Initially, she was suggested to marry Prince Charles of Romania. In 1867, however, the president of the royal council, L.F. Menabrea, pressed the king to arrange a marriage between Margherita and her cousin, the heir to the Italian throne."}
+{"text":"Margherita signed the wedding contract with her first cousin, Umberto, Prince of Piedmont, on 21 April 1868 in the ballroom of the royal palace in Turin, followed the next day by one civilian and one religious wedding ceremony. After the wedding, the crown prince couple settled in Naples. On 11 November 1869, Margherita gave birth to Victor Emmanuel, Prince of Naples, later Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, in Capodimonte in Naples."}
+{"text":"The relationship between Margherita and Umberto was not a success in regards to personal feelings; before their wedding, Umberto was already involved in an affair with his long-term lover, Eugenia Attendolo Bolognini, and two years after their wedding, the couple reportedly discontinued their marital relations. Their son was therefore to remain their only child. However, they never made their personal separation known to the public, and their relationship was in other aspects quite amiable: Margherita and Umberto worked together harmoniously as colleagues, Umberto even relying on her politically."}
+{"text":"In January 1871, after the final unification of Italy and the proclamation of Rome as the capital of Italy, the crown prince and crown princess settled in Rome. There, Margherita successfully continued her task by making her receptions at the royal court the center of Roman high society in her effort to subdue the opposition toward unification within the Roman aristocracy. She eventually succeeded in making her salon one of the most exclusive and famous in contemporary Europe."}
+{"text":"Margherita became Queen of Italy upon the succession of Umberto to the throne on 9 January 1878. In the critical situation that year, with the king and the pope, as well as an assassination attempt against the new king, Umberto reportedly asked Margherita for political advice."}
+{"text":"The attempted assassination of the king by Giovanni Passannante in November 1878 reportedly made her work even more forcefully to strengthen the prestige of the crown and build loyalty to the institution by gathering followers and making connections. As when she was a crown princess, she was actively assisted in this networking and image building by her favorite courtiers, marchioness Paola Pes di Villamarina and marquis Emanuele Pes di Villamarina, who were appointed her \"dama d\u2019onore\" (senior lady in waiting) and \"cavaliere d\u2019onore\" (senior lord in waiting) respectively."}
+{"text":"As queen, Margherita worked to protect the monarchy against republicans and socialists, and she gathered a circle of conservative intellectuals and artists known as the \"Circolo della regina\" (Circle of the Queen) in her famous literary salon known as \"gioved\u00ec della regina\" (Queen's Thursdays), where she benefited artists and writers. Among her circle of artists were the notoriously democratic and republican poet Giosu\u00e8 Carducci, who famously wrote an ode to her when she became queen, and Marco Minghetti, who functioned somewhat as her guide in cultural circles, as well as her confidant. She founded cultural institutions, notably the Societ\u00e0 del Quartetto, and the Casa di Dante."}
+{"text":"Queen Margherita also fostered loyalty toward the monarchy by social and charitable work. She frequently visited and acted as the benefactor of hospitals, schools and institutions for children and the blind, founding the first library for the blind in Florence (1892). Her work was effective and already during the 1880s, she had become the center of a personal cult as a popular symbol of the Italian monarchy and celebrated by poets and authors, as well as by the press, as a symbol of moral reform."}
+{"text":"King Umberto, by contrast, had love affairs with the so-called \"contessa fatale\" (Vincenza Publicola-Santacroce, contessa di Santa Fiora), besides duchess Litta, whom he reportedly also asked for political advice, which exposed the court to scandal. The queen, however, was close to her son and strengthened her relations to him even further after his wedding. Queen Margherita was also involved in state affairs: viewing democracy as a potential threat to the monarchy, she supported F. Crispi against parliament."}
+{"text":"As a nationalist, she did not hesitate to support the First Italo-Ethiopian War in 1896, in contrast to Umberto, who was hesitant. As a central figure of the conservative forces, she supported the repressive actions toward the rioters in Milan in 1898, which lead to the Bava Beccaris massacre."}
+{"text":"On 18 August 1893, in the company of various guides, porters, Alpini, politicians and aristocrats, Margherita climbed the Punta Gnifetti (or Signalkuppe), a peak of the Monte Rosa massif on the Swiss-Italian border, for the inauguration of the mountain hut named after her. At 4,554 metres, the \"Capanna Regina Margherita\" remains the highest hut in Europe. Margherita later accepted the position of Honorary President of the Ladies' Alpine Club."}
+{"text":"Umberto I, who had already survived in the past two attempted murders by the anarchists Giovanni Passannante and Pietro Acciarito, was killed on 29 July 1900 by another anarchist, Gaetano Bresci. As the widow of a murdered monarch, Margherita found an enormous amount of sympathy, which created a veritable myth around her as the mourning widow. She was aware of this mythology and acted accordingly in this part to benefit the prestige of the monarchy."}
+{"text":"As queen dowager, Margherita took a step back and allowed her daughter-in-law to take precedence, as this was a part of the monarchical system which was her ideal. However, this did not mean that she retired from public life, and she remained a dominant public figure, performing what she regarded as her dynastic duties by making official visits to hospitals and churches until her death."}
+{"text":"She disliked the tolerance of democracy displayed by her son, the king, which she viewed as a form of socialist monarchy, and worked to ensure the monarchic traditions as much as she could against democratic tendencies. Her son did not wish to allow her any influence in state affairs, but she remained involved in politics through her connections and remained a political figure. In contrast to most nationalists, however, Margherita opposed World War I. During the war, she made one of her residences into a hospital and engaged actively within the Red Cross."}
+{"text":"After the end of World War I, Margherita feared a socialist revolution and the end of the monarchy. This, combined with her nationalism and social conservatism, led her to support Fascism under Benito Mussolini, for which she felt a personal regard, though she never explicitly expressed her support. In October 1922 the quadrumvirs (Emilio De Bono, Italo Balbo, Michele Bianchi and Cesare Maria de Vecchi) visited her at Bordighera to pay their respects prior to the March on Rome."}
+{"text":"In 1879, the town of Margherita di Savoia, in Apulia, Italy, near Barletta, was named after her. In 1881, the mining town of Margherita in Assam, India, was named after her."}
+{"text":"Also in 1881, a large glass-window was made of her by Studio Moretti Caselli in Perugia, which was then shown around Italy and Europe before returning."}
+{"text":"According to legend, in 1889, the Margherita pizza, whose red tomatoes, green basil, and white cheese represent the Italian flag, was named after her."}
+{"text":"In 1906, the Queen mother's nephew, Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi, made the first ascent of the highest summit of Mount Stanley (the third highest mountain in Africa) and named it Margherita Peak in her honour."}
+{"text":"In 2011, some of the Queen's jewellery was auctioned at Christies."}
+{"text":"Marina Ricolfi-Doria (born 1935) is a Swiss former water skier. She is the Princess of Naples as the wife of Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples, the son of the last king and queen of Italy, Umberto II and Marie Jos\u00e9."}
+{"text":"Ricolfi-Doria was born in Geneva in 1935; her parents were Iris Benvenuti and Ren\u00e9 Ricolfi-Doria, an industrialist."}
+{"text":"In 1955 she became a water-skiing performer at Cypress Gardens, in Florida in the United States. She competed three times in the Water Ski World Championships; in 1953, in 1955 and in 1957. In 1955 she took the Tricks gold medal, and in 1957 she took gold in both Slalom and Tricks, thus becoming the overall women's world champion. She won the overall title in the European Championships every year from 1953 to 1956, and took five or more overall Swiss national titles. In 1991 Ricolfi-Doria was included in the Hall of Fame of the International Water Ski Federation, as the \"finest female skier from Europe of the first decade of international competition\". She continued to compete until 1960."}
+{"text":"Ricolfi-Doria met Vittorio Emanuele di Savoia in 1960 at the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Nautique de Gen\u00e8ve, where both were water-skiing. They were married in a Roman Catholic church in Teheran in the autumn of 1971; their wedding had been announced during the 2,500 year celebration of the Persian Empire in Persepolis. They have one son, Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia."}
+{"text":"Maria Anna of Savoy (; 19 September 1803 \u2013 4 May 1884) was Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary (see Grand title of the Empress of Austria) by marriage to Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria."}
+{"text":"Maria Anna was born in Palazzo Colonna in Rome, the daughter of King Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia and of his wife, Archduchess Maria Teresa of Austria-Este. She had a twin sister Maria Teresa. The two princesses were baptised by Pope Pius VII. Their godparents were their maternal grandparents, Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Este and his wife Maria Beatrice Ricciarda d'Este. In the Museo di Roma can be seen a painting of the baptism."}
+{"text":"On 12 February 1831 Maria Anna was married by procuration in Turin to King Ferdinand V of Hungary (later Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria). On 27 February the couple were married in person in Vienna in the Hofburg chapel by the Cardinal Archbishop of Olm\u00fctz. Maria Anna was selected to marry the future Emperor at the age of 27, which was very late for a princess to marry in this time period. However, her age was seen as a sign that she would be more settled, religious and easier to manage."}
+{"text":"Maria Anna and Ferdinand had no children."}
+{"text":"Ferdinand succeeded as Emperor of Austria on 2 March 1835; Maria Anna became \"Empress of Austria\". On 12 September 1836 she was crowned as \"Queen of Bohemia\" at Prague."}
+{"text":"Maria Anna never learned to speak German during her tenure as Empress, but preferred to speak French. She enjoyed some popularity as an Empress, and a festival was celebrated on her name day 26 July each year. Minister Metternich managed the Government during the reign of her spouse. Unlike her sister-in-law Sophie of Bavaria, Maria Anna had no influence upon policy. She supported Emperor Ferdinand, who was unable to manage state affairs because of his health, was respected for this, and referred to herself as his nurse."}
+{"text":"During the 1848 Revolution, Maria Anna retracted her support from the Metternich Policy with support from Sophie of Bavaria. However, she did voice her opinion that stronger measures should be taken against the revolution. She influenced her spouse's decision to abdicate."}
+{"text":"On 2 December 1848 Ferdinand abdicated as Emperor of Austria, but retaining his imperial rank; Maria Anna was henceforward titled \"Empress Maria Anna\". They lived in retirement together, spending the winters at Prague Castle and the summers at Reichstadt (now Z\u00e1kupy) or at Ploschkowitz (now Ploskovice). Maria Anna was popular in Prague, where she was engaged in local charity."}
+{"text":"Maria Anna died in Prague. She is buried next to her husband in tomb number 63 in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna."}
+{"text":"Olympia Mancini, Countess of Soissons (French: \"Olympe Mancini\"; 11 July 1638 \u2013 9 October 1708) was the second-eldest of the five celebrated Mancini sisters, who along with two of their female Martinozzi cousins, were known at the court of King Louis XIV of France as the Mazarinettes because their uncle was Louis XIV's chief minister, Cardinal Mazarin. Olympia was later to become the mother of the famous Austrian general Prince Eugene of Savoy. She also involved herself in various court intrigues including the notorious Poison Affair, which led to her expulsion from France."}
+{"text":"Olympia Mancini was born on 11 July 1638 and grew up in Rome. Her father was Baron Lorenzo Mancini, an Italian aristocrat who was also a necromancer and astrologer. After his death in 1650, her mother, Geronima Mazzarini, brought her daughters from Rome to Paris in the hope of using the influence of her brother, Cardinal Mazarin, to gain them advantageous marriages."}
+{"text":"The Mancinis were not the only female family members that Cardinal Mazarin brought to the French court. The others were Olympia's first cousins, daughters of Mazarin's eldest sister. The elder, Laura Martinozzi, married Alfonso IV d'Este, Duke of Modena and was the mother of Mary of Modena, second wife of James II of England. The younger, Anne Marie Martinozzi, married Armand, Prince de Conti."}
+{"text":"The Mancini also had three brothers: Paul, Philippe, and Alphonse."}
+{"text":"Olympia was married on 24 February 1657 to Prince Eug\u00e8ne-Maurice of Savoy (1633\u20131673), by whom she had eight children, amongst whom was the famous soldier Prince Eugene of Savoy. At court, the Count of Soissons (\"comte Soissons\") was addressed as \"Monsieur le Comte\". As his wife, Olympia was referred to at court as \"Madame la comtesse\"."}
+{"text":"Soon after her sister Marie's marriage to Prince Colonna, Olympia was appointed Superintendent of the Queen's Household which gave her authority over and above that of all of the other ladies at Court with the exception of the Princesses of The Blood."}
+{"text":"Olympia was, by nature, an intrigante. Shortly after her marriage, she became involved in various intrigues at Court. There were rumours that prior to her marriage, she was briefly the mistress of Louis XIV. While not exactly beautiful, Olympia was described as possessing great charm and indisputable fascination. Her hair was dark, her complexion brilliant, her eyes black and vivacious, and her figure plump and rounded."}
+{"text":"After her marriage, she allied herself with Louis' sister-in-law, Henriette, Duchess of Orl\u00e9ans, who was known at court as \"Madame\", and with whom he had (allegedly) fallen deeply in love. Their relationship is highly unlikely to have been sexual, although the Queen Mother was deeply concerned about it. When Henriette and Louis sought to hide their relationship from others, Olympia is said to have introduced one of Henriette's ladies-in-waiting, \"Louise, Mademoiselle de La Valli\u00e8re\", to the King so that he might claim that his attendance upon Henriette and her ladies was based on his affection for Louise and not Henriette. Olympia turned against Louise, however, after the King fell in love with the latter at the expense of Henrietta Anne."}
+{"text":"Olympia was accused in 1679 in the \"Affaire des Poisons\" of having plotted with La Voisin to poison Louise de La Valli\u00e8re, of having poisoned her husband, three servants, as well as the king's former sister-in-law Henrietta of England. She was even said to have threatened the King himself with the words, \"come back to me, or you will be sorry\"."}
+{"text":"She was asked to leave the court in January 1680 and immediately left France for Brussels, thereby avoiding arrest and being put to trial for involvement in the Affaire des Poisons."}
+{"text":"She applied in 1682 for permission of returning to France, but was not allowed."}
+{"text":"She continued from Brussels to Spain, were she was well received and lived from 1686 to 1689, being celebrated by Spanish high society and receiving French guests in her salon. In 1680 she was suspected of having poisoned Queen Maria Luisa of Spain, the daughter of Henriette and niece of Louis XIV whose confidence she had gained after having taken up residence in Spain following her expulsion from France as a result of the Poison Affair."}
+{"text":"On 23 January 1690 she was ordered to leave the Spanish court; she moved back to Brussels, claiming her innocence. Occasionally she travelled to England with her two sisters Marie and Hortense. In Brussels she gave her patronage to musicians Pietro Antonio Fiocco and Henry Desmarest. She died in Brussels on 9 October 1708 just three months after her son Eugene's victory at The Battle of Oudenarde on 11 July 1708 which was her 70th birthday."}
+{"text":"She is portrayed in a novel by Judith Merkle Riley: \"The Oracle Glass\" (1994)."}
+{"text":"Clotilde Marie Pascale Courau (born 3 April 1969) is a French actress. She is married to Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia, a member of the House of Savoy and the grandson of Umberto II, the last king of Italy."}
+{"text":"Clotilde Courau was born on 3 April 1969 in Levallois-Perret, Hauts-de-Seine, France, the daughter of Jean-Claude Courau (b. 1942) and French noblewoman Catherine du (b. 1948), daughter of Count Pierre Francoise Marie Antoine du (b. 1926), whose family can be traced back to 13th century. She has three sisters named Christine, Camille, and Capucine Courau."}
+{"text":"Clotilde was brought up in the Roman Catholic religion."}
+{"text":"She had a featured role in Deterrence, an American film about nuclear war that marked the directing debut of Rod Lurie."}
+{"text":"Clotilde Courau announced her engagement on 10 July, and on 25 September 2003 at the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri in Rome, she married Emanuele Filiberto, Prince of Venice. At the ceremony she wore a wedding gown designed by Valentino. Six months pregnant at the time of the wedding, she was seen as a controversial bride because of her left-wing views."}
+{"text":"In 2009, her name was given to a rose created by the rose grower Fabien Ducher to mark the 500,000th visitor to the \"Jardins de l'Imaginaire\", Terrasson."}
+{"text":"Elisabeth of Saxony (4 February 1830 \u2013 14 August 1912) was a Princess of Saxony who married the second son of the King of Sardinia. She was the mother of Margherita, Queen of Italy."}
+{"text":"She was born in Dresden, capital of Saxony, as daughter of King John of Saxony and his wife Amalie Auguste of Bavaria. Her paternal grandparents were Prince Maximilian of Saxony and Carolina of Parma. Her maternal grandparents were King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria and Karoline of Baden."}
+{"text":"On 22 April 1850, she married, in Dresden Cathedral, Prince Ferdinand, 1st Duke of Genoa, second son of King Charles Albert of Sardinia and Maria Theresa of Austria and Tuscany. Their marriage was a dynastic arrangement, and it was generally held to be loveless."}
+{"text":"On 10 February 1855 her husband died in Turin, leaving Elizabeth a widow at the age of 25."}
+{"text":"Before her second year of widowhood had ended, she remarried on 4 October 1856 with her chamberlain Niccol\u00f2 Bernoud, Marchese di Rapallo. They married secretly, before her period of official mourning was over. This act so infuriated her brother-in-law Victor Emmanuel II of Italy that he ordered her into virtual exile and disallowed her from seeing her two children. They were later reunited however."}
+{"text":"In 1882, her second husband committed suicide. Court gossip had often hinted that their marriage was unhappy, and his suicide added fuel to these stories. Elisabeth had no children from her second marriage."}
+{"text":"Elisabeth suffered an attack of apoplexy in 1910, which caused her health to quickly deteriorate. She died on 14 August 1912."}
+{"text":"Margaret Yolande of Savoy (15 November 1635 \u2013 29 April 1663) was Princess of Savoy from birth and later Duchess consort of Parma. A proposed bride for her first cousin Louis XIV of France, she later married Ranuccio Farnese, son of the late Odoardo Farnese and Margherita de' Medici. She died in childbirth in 1663."}
+{"text":"\"Margherita Violante\" was the fifth child born to Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy and his wife Christine Marie of France, daughter of Henry IV of France and Marie de' Medici. She was born at the Castello del Valentino in the Duchy of Savoy which had been ruled by her family since 1416."}
+{"text":"Her father died in October 1637, when she was just two years old. As such, her oldest surviving brother Prince Francis Hyacinth succeeded as Duke of Savoy. Her mother was thus Regent of Savoy."}
+{"text":"Margherita Violante grew up at a time when her two uncles Prince Maurice and his younger brother Prince Thomas of Savoy disputed the power of their sister-in-law, and her French entourage."}
+{"text":"The first of her siblings to marry was her eldest sister Princess Luisa Cristina who was married their uncle Maurice of Savoy in 1642. Her younger sister, Henriette Adelaide of Savoy married in 1650 to Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria. Margherita Violante's mother the French born Christine Marie started communicating with France in order to secure a marriage between Margherita Violante and the young Louis XIV of France, first cousin of Margherita Violante; Louis XIV's father Louis XIII was the oldest brother of Christine Marie."}
+{"text":"Margherita Violante was in competition with the Spanish court who had presented the Infanta Maria Teresa of Austria as another proposed bride. Maria Teresa was a daughter of Elisabeth of France, another sister of Louis XIII and Christine. Maria Teresa's father Philip IV of Spain was also the brother of Anne of Austria, mother of Louis XIV and was eager to bring about peace between France and Spain with the marriage of Louis and Maria Teresa."}
+{"text":"Negotiations with France and Savoy went as far as Louis XIV and Margherita Violante, known to the French as \"Marguerite Yolande de Savoie\", meeting at Lyon on the French royal family leaving Paris on October 26, 1658. The French entourage included the Dowager Queen, Louis XIV, Philippe d'Anjou, \"la Grande Mademoiselle\" and Marie Mancini."}
+{"text":"The French were impressed by her appearance despite saying her skin was too tanned. They also said she was a quiet girl. Upon hearing of this meeting at Lyon, Philip IV is said to have said the marriage would not happen.."}
+{"text":"Prior to the proposed Franco-Savoyard match, \"Antoine Pimentel marquis de T\u00e1bara\", Spanish ambassador had had secret talks with"}
+{"text":"Cardinal Mazarin which later led the French to say to the Savoyard's \"...the Savoyard marriage is not for the King of France, Philip IV King of Spain proposes his daughter, the Infanta Maria Teresa who has all the qualities of being the wife of Louis XIV...\""}
+{"text":"The match, great for Savoy, was never to be; Louis XIV married Maria Teresa, the two were the parents of \"le Grand Dauphin\". Margherita Violante herself would remain unmarried till 1660. Her chosen husband would be the reigning Duke of Parma Ranuccio Farnese. The two would marry in Turin on 29 April 1660. The couple had two children who both died; the first was a stillborn daughter; the second was a son who live only one day."}
+{"text":"Margherita Violante and her husband started to reconstruct the Ducal Palace of Colorno, the main residence of the Ducal family. It was at the Ducal Palace that she died giving birth to her second son. She was buried at the Sanctuary of Santa Maria della Steccata in the centre of Parma."}
+{"text":"After her death, her husband married two princesses of Modena Isabella d'Este (1635\u20131666) and then her sister Maria d'Este. The only surviving child of Isabella was Odoardo Farnese, father of the future Elisabeth Farnese, Queen of Spain. The son born to Maria Francesco Farnese, later Duke of Parma, continued the work at Colorno dying in 1727."}
+{"text":"Princess Maria Gabriella of Savoy (Maria Gabriella Giuseppa Aldegonda Adelaide Ludovica Felicita Gennara; born 24 February 1940) is the middle daughter of Italy's last king, Umberto II, and Marie Jos\u00e9 of Belgium, the \"May Queen\", and a sister of a pretender to their father's throne, Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples. She is an historical writer."}
+{"text":"Educated in Switzerland, Maria Gabriella also took courses at a school associated with the Louvre in Paris. After her father's death, and with her brother's approval, she launched the King Umberto II Foundation in Lausanne, dedicated to preserving the history and legacy of the House of Savoy. She participated in numerous cultural presentations and organized an exhibit in Albertville during the 1992 Olympics. At the beginning of the 21st century she co-authored a number of books, mostly with Stefano Papi."}
+{"text":"Suggested marriage to the Shah of Iran."}
+{"text":"In the 1950s, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, then divorced from his second wife, indicated his interest in marrying Princess Maria Gabriella. Pope John XXIII reportedly vetoed the suggestion. In an editorial about the rumors surrounding the marriage of \"a Muslim sovereign and a Catholic princess\", the Vatican newspaper, \"L'Osservatore Romano\", wrote that the match constituted \"a grave danger.\""}
+{"text":"She married Robert Zellinger de Balkany (4 August 1931 in Iclod, Romania - 19 September 2015 in Geneva, Switzerland) on 12 February 1969 in Sainte-Mesme. The religious wedding was celebrated later on 21 June 1969 at Eze-sur-Mer, at Ch\u00e2teau Balsan. The couple separated in 1976 and divorced in November 1990. They had one child:"}
+{"text":"Anne Christine of Sulzbach, Princess of Piedmont"}
+{"text":"Anne Christine of Sulzbach, Princess of Piedmont (Anne \"Christine\" Louise; 5 February 1704 \u2013 12 March 1723), also called Christine of the Palatinate, was a princess of the Bavarian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire and first wife of Charles Emmanuel of Savoy, Prince of Piedmont, heir to the throne of the kingdom of Sardinia. She died during childbirth at the age of 19."}
+{"text":"Anne Christine Louise was born a Countess Palatine of Sulzbach. She was the daughter of Theodore Eustace, Prince Palatine of Sulzbach (1659\u20131732), the head of a Roman Catholic cadet branch of Bavaria's Wittelsbach dynasty, and Princess Eleonore of Hesse-Rheinfels-Rotenburg (1675-1720), daughter of William, Landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg. Her parents had married in 1692, Anne Christine being their eighth child."}
+{"text":"Christine's older brother John Christian (1700-1733) succeeded their father as Prince Palatine, also becoming Margrave \"jure uxoris\" of Berg-op-Zoom: His son, Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria, was the last of the senior branch of the House of Wittelsbach. Her older sister Francisca Christina became Princes-Abbess of Thorn and, later, of the more important immediate convent of Essen. Christine was a first cousin of her husband's subsequent wife Polyxena of Hesse, Queen consort of Sardinia, of Caroline of Hesse, Princess de Cond\u00e9, and of Christine of Hesse, Princess di Carignano."}
+{"text":"Louise of Savoy (11 September 1476 \u2013 22 September 1531) was a French noble and regent, Duchess \"suo jure\" of Auvergne and Bourbon, Duchess of Nemours, and the mother of King Francis I. She was politically active and served as the regent of France in 1515, in 1525\u20131526 and in 1529."}
+{"text":"Louise of Savoy was born at Pont-d'Ain, the eldest daughter of Philip II, Duke of Savoy and his first wife, Margaret of Bourbon. Her brother, Philibert II, Duke of Savoy, succeeded her father as ruler of the duchy and head of the House of Savoy. He was, in turn, succeeded by their half-brother Charles III, Duke of Savoy."}
+{"text":"Because her mother died when she was only seven, she was brought up by Anne de Beaujeu, who was regent of France for her brother Charles VIII. At Amboise she met Margaret of Austria, who was betrothed to the young king and with whom Louise would negotiate peace several decades later."}
+{"text":"At age eleven, Louise married Charles of Orl\u00e9ans, Count of Angoul\u00eame, on 16 February 1488 in Paris. She only began living with him when she was fifteen, though. Despite her husband having two mistresses, the marriage was not unhappy and they shared a love for books."}
+{"text":"The household of Charles was presided over by his ch\u00e2telaine Antoinette de Polignac, Dame de Combronde, by whom he had two illegitimate daughters, Jeanne of Angoul\u00eame and Madeleine. Antoinette became Louise's lady-in-waiting and confidante. Her children were raised alongside Louise's own. Charles had another illegitimate daughter, Souveraine, by Jeanne le Conte, who also lived in the Angoul\u00eame chateau. She would later arrange marriages for her husband's illegitimate children."}
+{"text":"Their first child, Marguerite, was born on 11 April 1492; their second child, Francis, was born on 12 September 1494."}
+{"text":"When her husband fell ill after going out riding in the winter of 1495, she nursed him and suffered much grief when he died on 1 January 1496."}
+{"text":"When she was widowed at the young age of 19, Louise deftly maneuvered her children into a position that would secure for each of them a promising future. Though they remained in Cognac for two years, she moved her family to court at the ascension of King Louis XII, her husband's cousin."}
+{"text":"Louise had a keen awareness for the intricacies of politics and diplomacy, and was deeply interested in the advances of arts and sciences in Renaissance Italy. She made certain that her children were educated in the spirit of the Italian Renaissance, also helped by her Italian confessor, Cristoforo Numai from Forl\u00ec. She commissioned books specifically for them and she taught Francis Italian and Spanish."}
+{"text":"When Louis XII became ill in 1505, he determined that Francis should succeed him and both Louise and his wife Anne of Brittany should be part of the regency council. He recovered and Francis became a favourite of the king, who eventually gave him his daughter Claude of France in marriage on 8 May 1514. Following the marriage, Louis XII designated Francis as his heir."}
+{"text":"With the death of Louis XII on 1 January 1515, Francis became king of France. On 4 February 1515, Louise was named Duchess of Angoul\u00eame, and on 15 April 1524, Duchess of Anjou."}
+{"text":"Louise of Savoy remained politically active on behalf of her son in the early years of his reign especially. During his absences, she acted as regent on his behalf. Louise served as the Regent of France in 1515, during the king's war in Italy, and again from 1525 to 1526, when the king was at war and during his time as prisoner in Spain."}
+{"text":"In 1524, she sent one of her servants, Jean-Joachim de Passano, to London to open unofficial negotiations with Cardinal Wolsey for a peace treaty; the negotiations were not a success, although they may have prepared the ground for the Treaty of the More the following year."}
+{"text":"She initiated friendly relations with the Ottoman Empire by sending a mission to Suleiman the Magnificent requesting assistance, but the mission was lost on its way in Bosnia. In December 1525, a second mission was sent, led by John Frangipani, which managed to reach Constantinople, the Ottoman capital, with secret letters asking for the deliverance of King Francis I and an attack on the Habsburg. Frangipani returned with a positive answer from Suleiman, on 6 February 1526, initiating the first steps of a Franco-Ottoman alliance."}
+{"text":"She was the principal negotiator for the Treaty of Cambrai between France and the Holy Roman Empire, concluded on 3 August 1529. That treaty, called \"the Ladies' Peace\", put an end to the second Italian war between the head of the Valois dynasty, Francis I of France, and the head of the Habsburg dynasty, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. The Treaty temporarily confirmed Habsburg hegemony in Italy."}
+{"text":"The treaty was signed by Louise of Savoy for France and her sister-in-law, Margaret of Austria, for the Holy Roman Empire."}
+{"text":"Louise of Savoy died on 22 September 1531, in Grez-sur-Loing. Her remains were entombed at Saint-Denis in Paris. After her death her lands, including Auvergne, merged in the crown. Through her daughter Marguerite (Queen of Navarre) and her granddaughter Jeanne d'Albret, she is the ancestress of the Bourbon kings of France, as her great-grandson, Henry of Navarre, succeeded as Henry IV of France."}
+{"text":"Princess Maria Theresia of Liechtenstein (Maria Theresia Anna Felicitas; 11 May 1694 \u2013 20 February 1772) was the heiress to the Silesian Duchy of Troppau (now Opava in Czech Republic). Countess of Soissons by marriage, she was the last person to hold the title. She had one son who predeceased her in 1734. Her son was engaged to Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina, duchess of Massa and heiress to the Principality of Carrara."}
+{"text":"Her father was Prince Hans-Adam I of Liechtenstein \u2013 who had purchased the counties of Vaduz and Schellenberg, which is now the modern state of Liechtenstein (although the first Prince to visit Vaduz did so only in 1844). Her mother, Erdmuthe Maria Theresia of Dietrichstein was the great-granddaughter of Adam von Dietrichstein (1527\u20131590), Hofmeister to the court of Emperor Rudolf II and buried in St Vitus Cathedral, Prague Castle."}
+{"text":"Maria Theresia\u2019s father had died in 1712 \u2013 and both her brothers before that."}
+{"text":"In Vienna on 24 October 1713 Maria Theresia married Thomas Emmanuel, Count of Soissons and Governor of Antwerp (born on 8 December 1687), second son of Louis Thomas of Savoy-Carignano and his wife Uranie de La Cropte de Beauvais. They had one son, Eugenio Giovanni."}
+{"text":"By this marriage she also became a princess of Savoy, having married into a cadet branch of the reigning dukes of Savoy. Her husband was a descendant of the princes of Carignano, which been raised by Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, into a principality as an appanage for his third son, Thomas Francis. The house of Carignano developed two junior branches, those of Soissons and Villafranca."}
+{"text":"In 1662 the town of Yvois in the Ardennes was raised by Louis XIV of France into a duchy in his favour, its name being changed at the same time to Carignano. The famous Prince Eugene of Savoy was the second son of the first Prince of Carignano."}
+{"text":"Prince Eugene was Thomas Emmanuel\u2019s uncle. Eugene served under Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor \u2013 and for his leadership at the Battle of Vienna (against the Turks) in 1683 he became known as \"The Atlas of the Austrian monarchy\". In 1697, as Field Marshal and chief of Austrian armies, he defeated the forces of the Ottoman sultan, Mustafa II, at the decisive Battle of Zenta (now Senta in Serbia) in Hungary."}
+{"text":"After her husband died in Vienna on 28 December 1729, Maria Theresia made \u0160kvorec Castle her seat."}
+{"text":"On 20 February 1772 Maria Theresia died in Vienna. She was a descendant of Georg Hartmann who had become Lutheran c. 1540, while her great-grandfather, Karl, a stattholder of Bohemia had found it wise to become a Catholic in 1599."}
+{"text":"Maria Theresa\u2019s son, Eugene Jean Francois, Count of Soissons and Duke of Troppau (born 23 September 1714; died at Mannheim on 24 November 1734) had died at only 20 years old, thus her estate passed to Franz Joseph I, Prince of Liechtenstein \u2013 great-grandson of Prince Hartmann III of Liechtenstein (1613\u20131686). The title of Count of Soissons became extinct with the young son\u2019s death and was returned to the French crown."}
+{"text":"Maria Luisa Gabriella of Savoy (17 September 1688 \u2013 14 February 1714), nicknamed \"La Savoyana\", was Queen of Spain by marriage to Philip V. She acted as regent during her husband's absence from 1702 until 1703 and had great influence as a political adviser during the War of the Spanish Succession. Because of her effectiveness, she was well-loved in her adoptive country."}
+{"text":"Mar\u00eda Luisa Gabriella was born on 17 September 1688, at the Royal Palace of Turin, Savoy. She was the third daughter and second surviving child of Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy and Anne Marie of Orl\u00e9ans, the youngest daughter of Philippe I, Duke of Orl\u00e9ans and Princess Henrietta of England. In her youth, Maria Luisa Gabriella was described as \"intelligent, playful, and fun-loving\" and had received an excellent education. She remained close to her older sister Maria Adelaide, who later married Louis, Duke of Burgundy, the eldest grandson of Louis XIV."}
+{"text":"The official wedding took place on 2 November 1701. Philip V was deeply in love with his wife from the start: as would be the case of his next consort, he was sexually dependent on her because his religious scruples prevented him from exercising any sexual life outside of marriage. Unlike what was normal for a Spanish monarch, he usually slept in her bed the entire night, and insisted upon his conjugal rights. Already shortly after their marriage, the French ambassador, the Duke of Gramont reported to Louis XIV that Philip would be completely governed by his spouse as long as he had one, a report that led Louis XIV to warn his grandson not to allow his Queen to dominate him."}
+{"text":"In general, the young Queen's influence was beneficial: Maria Luisa Gabriella is described as remarkably mature for her age, politically savvy, articulate and hardworking. She was praised throughout Spain for her regency and had been credited with giving the normally passive Philip V the energy he needed to participate in warfare."}
+{"text":"In 1702, Phillip V was obliged to leave Spain to fight in Naples as part of the ongoing War of Spanish Succession. During her husband's absence, 14-years-old Maria Luisa Gabriella effectively acted as regent from Madrid, insisting upon all complaints being investigated, ordering that the reports were directly sent to her, and working for hours with ministers. She gave audiences to ambassadors and tried to prevent Savoy from joining the enemy, though this goal soon failed. However, her issues successfully encouraged the reorganization of the \"Junta\" and considerable monetary donations from several nobles and cities towards the war effort. Philip V was eventually recognised as King of Spain and retained most of its colonial possessions, but"}
+{"text":"ceded territories in Italy and renounced the French throne for himself and his descendants."}
+{"text":"Towards the end of her life, Maria Luisa Gabriella became ill of tuberculosis. She eventually died in Royal Alcazar of Madrid, on 14 February 1714 at the age of 25. The Queen was buried at San Lorenzo de El Escorial. In 16 September 1714, just months after her death, her widower remarried by proxy, to Elisabeth Farnese, the heiress of the Duke of Parma. Her niece, Princess Maria Luisa was named after her."}
+{"text":"By her husband Philip V of Spain, Maria Luisa Gabriella gave birth to the her first child in 1707. She gave birth to three more children, two of whom would survive infancy:"}
+{"text":"As all of her children were to die without issue, there are no descendants of Maria Luisa Gabriella of Savoy."}
+{"text":"Maria Clotilde of Savoy (Ludovica Teresa Maria Clotilde; 2 March 1843 \u2013 25 June 1911) was born in Turin to Vittorio Emanuele II, later King of Italy and his first wife, Adelaide of Austria. She was the wife of Napol\u00e9on Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte. She is venerated in the Catholic Church, having been declared Servant of God by Pope Pius XII."}
+{"text":"Maria Clotilde was the eldest of eight children born to Victor Emmanuel, King of Sardinia by his first wife and cousin, Archduchess Adelaide of Austria. Her father would later become the King of a united Italy as Victor Emmanuel II."}
+{"text":"Maria Clotilde's paternal grandparents were Charles Albert of Sardinia and Maria Theresa of Tuscany."}
+{"text":"Her maternal grandparents were Archduke Rainer of Austria and Elisabeth of Savoy. Rainer was a younger son of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor."}
+{"text":"On 30 January 1859 she was married in Turin to Napol\u00e9on Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte (1822\u20131891). They had three children:"}
+{"text":"Her husband was unfaithful, and she was active within charities. Maria Clotilde was described as very proud, bigoted and dutiful. During a discussion of the proper way of dressing, Maria Clotide pointed out to Empress Eugenie that she should not forget that she was born and raised in a Royal Court. When Eugenie complained of the fatigue of the French Court on one occasion, Maria Clotilde replied \"We do not mind; you see, we are born to it\". She was also described however as \"pious and modest\"."}
+{"text":"The marriage was also unpopular with both the French and the Italians; the latter in particular felt that the daughter of their King had been sacrificed to an unpopular member of the House of Bonaparte and consequently regarded it as a \"m\u00e9salliance\". For France's part, Napol\u00e9on Joseph was ill-regarded and had been known to carry on a number of affairs both before and during his marriage. Their official reception into Paris on 4 February was greeted very coldly by Parisians, not out of disrespect for a daughter of the King of Savoy, but instead out of dislike for her new husband. Indeed, all her life, public sympathy tended to lean in her favor; she was fondly regarded as retiring, charitable, pious, and trapped in an unhappy marriage."}
+{"text":"With her husband, she traveled to the United States in 1861 and to Egypt and the Holy Land in 1863. While in the United States, she traveled on the newly completed main line of the Illinois Central Railroad, where the village of Savoy, Illinois was named in her honor."}
+{"text":"After the fall of the Second French Empire in 1870, Maria Clotilde had initially refused to leave Paris when the revolution broke out, because of her sense of what was suitable for a Princess from the House of Savoy, which was to stay on her post. They were forced to flee, however, and their family enjoyed a beautiful estate in the town of Prangins near Lake Geneva that they resided in."}
+{"text":"After Maria Clotilde's father Victor Emmanuel died in 1878, she returned to Turin, Italy without her husband. During this period, their daughter (Maria Letizia) mostly resided with her mother in the Castle of Moncalieri, but her two sons stayed mainly with their father. It was in Italy that their mother withdrew herself from society to dedicate herself to religion and various charities."}
+{"text":"After the revolution, she lived the rest of her life in Moncalieri (located outside of Turin), where she spent her days devoting herself to religion. She lived in retirement from the world for the following twenty years, until her death. Maria Clotilde died in Moncalieri at the age of 68. She was buried there, and the funeral was given regal honors. It was attended by Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, Queen Elena, and others."}
+{"text":"On 1936 the cause of beatification Maria Clotilde was introduced by the Archbishop of Turin, In 10 July 1942 Pope Pius XII declared the princess a Servant of God and the cause of her beatification still continue."}
+{"text":"Margaret of Savoy (April 1439 \u2013 9 March 1483), also known as Marguerite de Savoie or Margherita di Savoia, was the eldest surviving daughter of Louis I, Duke of Savoy. She was the wife of Margrave John IV of Montferrat, and later the wife of Peter II of Luxembourg, Count of Saint-Pol, of Brienne, Marle, and Soissons."}
+{"text":"Margaret was born in April 1439 in Turin, Italy, the eldest surviving daughter and one of the nineteen children of Louis I, Duke of Savoy and Princess Anne of Cyprus. Her paternal grandparents were Amadeus VIII of Savoy, who was also the Antipope Felix V, and Mary of Burgundy. Her maternal grandparents were King Janus of Cyprus and Armenia and Charlotte de Bourbon."}
+{"text":"In December 1458 at Casale, she married her first husband, John IV, Margrave of Montferrat, the son of John Jacob of Montferrat and Joan of Savoy. He was a condottiere for the Republic of Venice during the Wars in Lombardy which were a series of conflicts fought between Venice and Milan, and their various allies."}
+{"text":"Margaret brought a dowry of 100,000 scudi, and in return received Trino, Morano, Borgo San Martino, and Mombaruzzo. The marriage was childless, although John fathered several illegitimate children. He died on 19 January 1464, leaving her a widow at the age of twenty-five."}
+{"text":"Two and a half years later, on 12 July 1466, Margaret married her second husband, Peter II of Luxembourg, Count of Saint-Pol and Soissons, the second eldest son of Louis of Luxembourg, Count of Saint-Pol and Brienne and Jeanne de Bar, Countess of Marle and Soissons. The marriage produced five children:"}
+{"text":"Margaret died at Bruges on 9 March 1483, less than six months after her husband Pierre, and she was buried at the Abbey of Happlaincourt. Margaret was survived by her two daughters, Marie and Fran\u00e7oise, her three sons having died in early infancy."}
+{"text":"Favorito was the personal horse of Charles Albert of Savoy, King of Sardinia from 1831, and was ridden by him during the campaigns of 1848. After the Piedmontese defeat at the Battle of Novara in 1849, and the king's subsequent abdication, Favorito joined his master in exile in Porto. Following the death of Charles Albert in the July of that year, the horse was brought back to Turin and to the Royal Stables."}
+{"text":"On Favorito's death in 1867 his pelt was mounted on a life-size wooden sculpture commissioned from Giovanni Tamone, to a design by Count Stanislao Grimaldi. The horse was equipped as for the wars of 1848\u20139, including the saddle used by the king in the battle of Novara, and placed along with Charles Albert's other military effects in the Royal Armoury, where he remains on display to this day."}
+{"text":"Margaret of Savoy (June 21, 1382 or 1390 \u2013 November 23, 1464) was Marchioness of Montferrat, and a Dominican Sister."}
+{"text":"Margaret was the eldest of the four children\u2014all daughters\u2014born to Amadeo of Savoy, Lord of Piedmont (and titular Prince of Achaea), and his wife Catherine of Geneva."}
+{"text":"Her paternal grandparents were Giacomo of Savoy, titular Prince of Achaea, and his second wife Sibylle of Baux. Her maternal grandparents were Amadeus III, Count of Geneva, and Mahaut d'Auvergne. Their claim to the throne of Achaea came from her great-grandfather Philip of Savoy, eldest son of Thomas III of Piedmont and Guia of Burgundy. Philip married Isabella of Villehardouin, Princess of Achaea, and co-reigned with her from 1301 to 1307. They were both deposed by Philip I of Taranto but continued to claim the title. However Giacomo was a son of Philip by his second wife Catherine de la Tour du Pin and his claim to be the heir of Isabella of Villehardouin was disputed."}
+{"text":"On January 17, 1403, Margaret married Theodore II, Marquess of Montferrat, a member of the Palaiologos dynasty and male-line descendant of Andronikos II Palaiologos. Theodore was the widower of Jeanne of Bar, daughter of Robert I, Duke of Bar, and Marie Valois. Her piety increased after she heard the preaching of Vincent Ferrer, who spent several months in Montferrat. This marriage lasted for fifteen years but was childless. Theodore died in 1418."}
+{"text":"When she was left a widow, she decided to abandon the world. Leaving the direction of the affairs of the marquisate to Jean-Jacques, the son of her husband by his first marriage, she retired to Alba where she joined the Third Order of St. Dominic."}
+{"text":"A little later, Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, asked her hand in marriage and begged Pope Martin V to relieve her of her vow. But Margaret opposed a formal refusal to this request and with several young women of rank, she founded a monastery and placed it under the rule of the order of St. Dominic. Redoubling her mortifications she remained a model of piety and died at Alba, 23 November 1464."}
+{"text":"On 13 December 1464, her remains were placed in a simple tomb; in 1481 they were transferred to a different and much more beautiful sepulchre built in her monastery at the expense of William VIII of Montferrat. They are presently held in the church of Santa Maria Maddalena, Alba."}
+{"text":"Four noble \"beati\" of the Savoy family are depicted on the vault of a bay in the south aisle of the church of San Michele in Pavia. Margaret is shown dressed as a nun holding three arrows."}
+{"text":"Prince Thomas Emmanuel of Savoy, (8 December 1687 \u2013 28 December 1729), was born a Prince of Savoy and was later Count of Soissons from 1702 till his death."}
+{"text":"He was the son of Prince Louis Thomas of Savoy (1657\u20131702) and Uranie de La Cropte. The famous general Prince Eugene of Savoy was his uncle."}
+{"text":"He married on 24 October 1713 Princess Maria Theresia of Liechtenstein (1694\u20131772), Duchess of Troppau and had one son. He became a Knight in the Austrian Order of the Golden Fleece in 1712. He died in Vienna."}
+{"text":"Eugene Maurice of Savoy (French: \"Eug\u00e8ne Maurice de Savoie\"; 2 March 1635 \u2013 6 June 1673) was a Franco-Italian nobleman and general. A count of Soissons, he was the father of imperial field-marshal Prince Eugene of Savoy."}
+{"text":"Eugene Maurice was born in Chamb\u00e9ry, Savoy. He was son of Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano and Marie de Bourbon, Countess of Soissons. He was grandson of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy and Catherine Micaela of Austria."}
+{"text":"On 21 February 1657 he married the \"beautiful and witty\" Olimpia Mancini, a niece of cardinal Mazarin, daughter of Michele Mancini and Geronima Mazarini."}
+{"text":"He obtained high military posts through his wife's influence. He played a role in defeating the Spaniards at the battle of the Dunes in 1658. He took part in the campaigns at Flanders (1667), Franche-Comt\u00e9 (1668) and Holland (1672); and was present as ambassador extraordinary of France at the coronation of Charles II of England."}
+{"text":"He died at Unna in Westphalia in 1673, out of a deadly fever, although there were voices that he had been poisoned."}
+{"text":"The Basilica of Superga () is a church in the vicinity of Turin."}
+{"text":"It was built from 1717 to 1731 for Victor Amadeus II of Savoy, designed by Filippo Juvarra, at the top of the hill of Superga. This fulfilled a vow the duke (and future King of Sardinia) had made during the Battle of Turin, after defeating the besieging French army in the War of the Spanish Succession. The architect alluded to earlier styles while adding a baroque touch. The church contains the tombs of many princes and kings of the House of Savoy, including the \"Monument to Carlo Emanuele III\" (1733) by Ignazio Collino and his brother Filippo. Under the church are the tombs of the Savoy family, including most of its members, among them Charles Albert."}
+{"text":"This church by Juvarra is considered late Baroque-Classicism. The dome was completed in 1726 and resembles some elements of Michelangelo's dome at St. Peter's Basilica. This is no coincidence as Juvarra studied and worked in Rome for ten years prior to working in Turin. The temple front protrudes from a dome structure citing the Pantheon. The temple front is larger than typical proportions because the Superga is set upon this hill. It is also believed that Victor Amadeus wanted the basilica to rest on this hill as reminder of the power of the Savoy family as well as continue a line of sight to the existing Castle of Rivoli. Later, the Palazzina di caccia of Stupinigi completed the triangle between the three residences of Savoy."}
+{"text":"The Royal Crypt of Superga is the burial place of the Savoy family."}
+{"text":"The history of the church can be traced to 2 September 1706, when Duke Victor Amadeus II of Savoy and the Prince of Carignano, Eugene of Savoy climbed the hill to see Turin besieged by Franco-Spanish forces during the War of the Spanish Succession. Victor Amadeus, having knelt down in front of an old prop, swore that, in case of victory, he would have a monument built to our Lady (the Virgin Mary). From dawn until the early hours of the afternoon of 7 September the armies clashed in the fields at Jaya and Madonna di Campagna. Piedmontese armies achieved victory over the French. After Victor Amedeus was crowned King of Sicily he entrusted the design of this building to Filippo Juvarra."}
+{"text":"The mountain on which the Basilica is found was the site of the Superga air disaster of Grande Torino football team in 1949."}
+{"text":"The Royal crypt is the traditional burial place of members of the House of Savoy, successively Dukes of Savoy, Kings of Sardinia and Kings of Italy. Two kings of Italy, Victor Emmanuel II and Umberto I, have been interred in the Pantheon, Rome. The earlier generations of the House of Savoy as well as the last king of Italy, Umberto II, are buried in Hautecombe Abbey, the ancestral burial site of the family in Savoy."}
+{"text":"The Pantheon (, ; , from Greek \"Pantheion\", \"[temple] of all the gods\") is a former Roman temple, now a Catholic church (Basilica di Santa Maria ad Martyres or Basilica of St. Mary and the Martyrs), in Rome, Italy, on the site of an earlier temple commissioned by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of Augustus (27 BC \u2013 14 AD). It was rebuilt by the emperor Hadrian and probably dedicated 126 AD. Its date of construction is uncertain, because Hadrian chose not to inscribe the new temple but rather to retain the inscription of Agrippa's older temple, which had burned down."}
+{"text":"The building is cylindrical with a portico of large granite Corinthian columns (eight in the first rank and two groups of four behind) under a pediment. A rectangular vestibule links the porch to the rotunda, which is under a coffered concrete dome, with a central opening (oculus) to the sky. Almost two thousand years after it was built, the Pantheon's dome is still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome. The height to the oculus and the diameter of the interior circle are the same, ."}
+{"text":"It is one of the best-preserved of all Ancient Roman buildings, in large part because it has been in continuous use throughout its history and, since the 7th century, the Pantheon has been in use as a church dedicated to \"St. Mary and the Martyrs\" () but informally known as \"Santa Maria Rotonda\". The square in front of the Pantheon is called Piazza della Rotonda. The Pantheon is a state property, managed by Italy's Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism through the Polo Museale del Lazio. In 2013, it was visited by over 6 million people."}
+{"text":"The Pantheon's large circular domed cella, with a conventional temple portico front, was unique in Roman architecture. Nevertheless, it became a standard exemplar when classical styles were revived, and has been copied many times by later architects."}
+{"text":"Since the French Revolution, when the church of Sainte-Genevi\u00e8ve in Paris was deconsecrated and turned into the secular monument called the Panth\u00e9on of Paris, the generic term \"pantheon\" has sometimes been applied to other buildings in which illustrious dead are honoured or buried."}
+{"text":"In the aftermath of the Battle of Actium (31 BC), Marcus Agrippa started an impressive building program: the Pantheon was a part of the complex created by him on his own property in the Campus Martius in 29\u201319 BC, which included three buildings aligned from south to north: the Baths of Agrippa, the Basilica of Neptune, and the Pantheon. It seems likely that the Pantheon and the Basilica of Neptune were Agrippa's sacra privata, not aedes publicae (public temples). The former would help explain how the building could have so easily lost its original name and purpose (Ziolkowski contends that it was originally the Temple of Mars in Campo) in such a relatively short period of time."}
+{"text":"It had long been thought that the current building was built by Agrippa, with later alterations undertaken, and this was in part because of the Latin inscription on the front of the temple which reads:"}
+{"text":"or in full, \"\"M[arcus] Agrippa L[ucii] f[ilius] co[n]s[ul] tertium fecit\",\" meaning \"Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, made [this building] when consul for the third time.\" However, archaeological excavations have shown that the Pantheon of Agrippa had been completely destroyed except for the fa\u00e7ade. Lise Hetland argues that the present construction began in 114, under Trajan, four years after it was destroyed by fire for the second time (Oros. 7.12). She reexamined Herbert Bloch's 1959 paper, which is responsible for the commonly maintained Hadrianic date, and maintains that he should not have excluded all of the Trajanic-era bricks from his brick-stamp study. Her argument is particularly interesting in light of Heilmeyer's argument that, based on stylistic evidence, Apollodorus of Damascus, Trajan's architect, was the obvious architect."}
+{"text":"The only passages referring to the decoration of the Agrippan Pantheon written by an eyewitness are in Pliny the Elder's \"Natural History\". From him we know that \"the capitals, too, of the pillars, which were placed by M. Agrippa in the Pantheon, are made of Syracusan bronze\", that \"the Pantheon of Agrippa has been decorated by Diogenes of Athens, and the Caryatides, by him, which form the columns of that temple, are looked upon as masterpieces of excellence: the same, too, with the statues that are placed upon the roof,\" and that one of Cleopatra's pearls was cut in half so that each half \"might serve as pendants for the ears of Venus, in the Pantheon at Rome\"."}
+{"text":"The Augustan Pantheon was destroyed along with other buildings in a huge fire in the year 80 AD. Domitian rebuilt the Pantheon, which was burnt again in 110 AD."}
+{"text":"Cassius Dio, a Graeco-Roman senator, consul and author of a comprehensive \"History of Rome\", writing approximately 75 years after the Pantheon's reconstruction, mistakenly attributed the domed building to Agrippa rather than Hadrian. Dio appears to be the only near-contemporaneous writer to mention the Pantheon. Even by the year 200, there was uncertainty about the origin of the building and its purpose:"}
+{"text":"In 202, the building was repaired by the joint emperors Septimius Severus and his son Caracalla (fully \"Marcus Aurelius Antoninus\"), for which there is another, smaller inscription on the architrave of the fa\u00e7ade, under the aforementioned larger text. This now-barely legible inscription reads:"}
+{"text":"The building's consecration as a church saved it from the abandonment, destruction, and the worst of the spoliation that befell the majority of ancient Rome's buildings during the early medieval period. However, Paul the Deacon records the spoliation of the building by the Emperor Constans II, who visited Rome in July 663:"}
+{"text":"Remaining at Rome twelve days he pulled down everything that in ancient times had been made of metal for the ornament of the city, to such an extent that he even stripped off the roof of the church [of the blessed Mary], which at one time was called the Pantheon, and had been founded in honour of all the gods and was now by the consent of the former rulers the place of all the martyrs; and he took away from there the bronze tiles and sent them with all the other ornaments to Constantinople."}
+{"text":"Much fine external marble has been removed over the centuries \u2013 for example, capitals from some of the pilasters are in the British Museum. Two columns were swallowed up in the medieval buildings that abutted the Pantheon on the east and were lost. In the early 17th century, Urban VIII Barberini tore away the bronze ceiling of the portico, and replaced the medieval campanile with the famous twin towers (often wrongly attributed to Bernini) called \"the ass's ears\", which were not removed until the late 19th century. The only other loss has been the external sculptures, which adorned the pediment above Agrippa's inscription. The marble interior has largely survived, although with extensive restoration."}
+{"text":"Since the Renaissance the Pantheon has been the site of several important burials. Among those buried there are the painters Raphael and Annibale Carracci, the composer Arcangelo Corelli, and the architect Baldassare Peruzzi. In the 15th century, the Pantheon was adorned with paintings: the best-known is the \"Annunciation\" by Melozzo da Forl\u00ec. Filippo Brunelleschi, among other architects, looked to the Pantheon as inspiration for their works."}
+{"text":"In 1747, the broad frieze below the dome with its false windows was \"restored,\" but bore little resemblance to the original. In the early decades of the 20th century, a piece of the original, as could be reconstructed from Renaissance drawings and paintings, was recreated in one of the panels."}
+{"text":"Two kings of Italy are buried in the Pantheon: Vittorio Emanuele II and Umberto I, as well as Umberto's Queen, Margherita."}
+{"text":"The Pantheon is in use as a Catholic church. Masses are celebrated there on Sundays and holy days of obligation. Weddings are also held there from time to time."}
+{"text":"On 23 July 1725, the Pantheon was established as Cardinal-deaconry of S. Maria ad Martyres, i.e. a titular church for a cardinal-deacon."}
+{"text":"On 26 May 1929, this deaconry was suppressed to establish the Cardinal Deaconry of S. Apollinare alle Terme Neroniane-Alessandrine."}
+{"text":"The building was originally approached by a flight of steps. Later construction raised the level of the ground leading to the portico, eliminating these steps."}
+{"text":"The pediment was decorated with relief sculpture, probably of gilded bronze. Holes marking the location of clamps that held the sculpture suggest that its design was likely an eagle within a wreath; ribbons extended from the wreath into the corners of the pediment."}
+{"text":"In the walls at the back of the Pantheon's portico are two huge niches, perhaps intended for statues of Augustus Caesar and Agrippa."}
+{"text":"The large bronze doors to the cella, measuring 4.45m wide by 7.53m high, are the oldest in Rome. These were thought to be a 15th-century replacement for the original, mainly because they were deemed by contemporary architects to be too small for the door frames. However, analysis of the fusion technique confirmed that these are the original Roman doors, a rare example of Roman monumental bronze surviving, despite cleaning and the application of Christian motifs over the course of centuries."}
+{"text":"The 4,535-tonne weight of the Roman concrete dome is concentrated on a ring of voussoirs in diameter that form the oculus, while the downward thrust of the dome is carried by eight barrel vaults in the drum wall into eight piers. The thickness of the dome varies from at the base of the dome to around the oculus. The materials used in the concrete of the dome also vary. At its thickest point, the aggregate is travertine, then terracotta tiles, then at the very top, tufa and pumice, both porous light stones. At the very top, where the dome would be at its weakest and vulnerable to collapse, the oculus actually lightens the load."}
+{"text":"No tensile test results are available on the concrete used in the Pantheon; however, Cowan discussed tests on ancient concrete from Roman ruins in Libya, which gave a compressive strength of . An empirical relationship gives a tensile strength of for this specimen. Finite element analysis of the structure by Mark and Hutchison found a maximum tensile stress of only at the point where the dome joins the raised outer wall."}
+{"text":"The stresses in the dome were found to be substantially reduced by the use of successively less dense aggregate stones, such as small pots or pieces of pumice, in higher layers of the dome. Mark and Hutchison estimated that, if normal weight concrete had been used throughout, the stresses in the arch would have been some 80% greater. Hidden chambers engineered within the rotunda form a sophisticated structural system. This reduced the weight of the roof, as did the elimination of the apex by means of the oculus."}
+{"text":"The top of the rotunda wall features a series of brick relieving arches, visible on the outside and built into the mass of the brickwork. The Pantheon is full of such devices\u00a0\u2013 for example, there are relieving arches over the recesses inside\u00a0\u2013 but all these arches were hidden by marble facing on the interior and possibly by stone revetment or stucco on the exterior."}
+{"text":"The height to the oculus and the diameter of the interior circle are the same, , so the whole interior would fit exactly within a cube (or, a 43.3-m sphere could fit within the interior). These dimensions make more sense when expressed in ancient Roman units of measurement: The dome spans 150 Roman feet; the oculus is 30 Roman feet in diameter; the doorway is 40 Roman feet high. The Pantheon still holds the record for the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome. It is also substantially larger than earlier domes. It is the only masonry dome to not require reinforcement. All other extant ancient domes were either designed with tie-rods, chains and banding or have been retrofitted with such devices to prevent collapse."}
+{"text":"Though often drawn as a free-standing building, there was a building at its rear which abutted it. While this building helped buttress the rotunda, there was no interior passage from one to the other."}
+{"text":"Upon entry, visitors are greeted by an enormous rounded room covered by the dome. The oculus at the top of the dome was never covered, allowing rainfall through the ceiling and onto the floor. Because of this, the interior floor is equipped with drains and has been built with an incline of about to promote water runoff."}
+{"text":"The interior of the dome was possibly intended to symbolize the arched vault of the heavens. The oculus at the dome's apex and the entry door are the only natural sources of light in the interior. Throughout the day, the light from the oculus moves around this space in a reverse sundial effect. The oculus also serves as a cooling and ventilation method. During storms, a drainage system below the floor handles the rain that falls through the oculus."}
+{"text":"The dome features sunken panels (coffers), in five rings of 28. This evenly spaced layout was difficult to achieve and, it is presumed, had symbolic meaning, either numerical, geometric, or lunar. In antiquity, the coffers may have contained bronze rosettes symbolising the starry firmament."}
+{"text":"Circles and squares form the unifying theme of the interior design. The checkerboard floor pattern contrasts with the concentric circles of square coffers in the dome. Each zone of the interior, from floor to ceiling, is subdivided according to a different scheme. As a result, the interior decorative zones do not line up. The overall effect is immediate viewer orientation according to the major axis of the building, even though the cylindrical space topped by a hemispherical dome is inherently ambiguous. This discordance has not always been appreciated, and the attic level was redone according to Neoclassical taste in the 18th century."}
+{"text":"The present high altars and the apses were commissioned by Pope Clement XI (1700\u20131721) and designed by Alessandro Specchi. Enshrined on the apse above the high altar is a 7th-century Byzantine icon of the Virgin and Child, given by Phocas to Pope Boniface IV on the occasion of the dedication of the Pantheon for Christian worship on 13 May 609. The choir was added in 1840, and was designed by Luigi Poletti."}
+{"text":"The first niche to the right of the entrance holds a \"Madonna of the Girdle and St Nicholas of Bari\" (1686) painted by an unknown artist."}
+{"text":"The first chapel on the right, the Chapel of the Annunciation, has a fresco of the \"Annunciation\" attributed to Melozzo da Forl\u00ec. On the left side is a canvas by Clement Maioli of \"St Lawrence and St Agnes\" (1645\u20131650). On the right wall is the \"Incredulity of St Thomas\" (1633) by Pietro Paolo Bonzi."}
+{"text":"The second niche has a 15th-century fresco of the Tuscan school, depicting the \"Coronation of the Virgin\". In the second chapel is the tomb of King Victor Emmanuel II (died 1878). It was originally dedicated to the Holy Spirit. A competition was held to decide which architect should design it. Giuseppe Sacconi participated, but lost\u00a0\u2013 he would later design the tomb of Umberto I in the opposite chapel."}
+{"text":"Manfredo Manfredi won the competition, and started work in 1885. The tomb consists of a large bronze plaque surmounted by a Roman eagle and the arms of the house of Savoy. The golden lamp above the tomb burns in honor of Victor Emmanuel III, who died in exile in 1947."}
+{"text":"On the first niche to the left of the entrance is an \"Assumption\" (1638) by Andrea Camassei. The first chapel on the left, the Chapel of St Joseph in the Holy Land, is the chapel of the Confraternity of the , a confraternity of artists and musicians formed by a 16th-century canon, Desiderio da Segni, to ensure that worship was maintained in the chapel."}
+{"text":"The first members were, among others, Antonio da Sangallo the younger, Jacopo Meneghino, Giovanni Mangone, Zuccari, Domenico Beccafumi, and Flaminio Vacca. The confraternity continued to draw members from the elite of Rome's artists and architects, and among later members we find Bernini, Cortona, Algardi, and many others. The institution still exists, and is now called the \"Academia Ponteficia di Belle Arti\" (The Pontifical Academy of Fine Arts), based in the palace of the Cancelleria. The altar in the chapel is covered with false marble. On the altar is a statue of \"St Joseph and the Holy Child\" by Vincenzo de' Rossi."}
+{"text":"To the sides are paintings (1661) by Francesco Cozza, one of the Virtuosi: \"Adoration of the Shepherds\" on left side and \"Adoration of the Magi\" on right. The stucco relief on the left, \"Dream of St Joseph\", is by Paolo Benaglia, and the one on the right, \"Rest during the flight from Egypt\", is by Carlo Monaldi. On the vault are several 17th-century canvases, from left to right: \"Cumean Sibyl\" by Ludovico Gimignani; Moses by Francesco Rosa; \"Eternal Father\" by Giovanni Peruzzini; \"David\" by Luigi Garzi; and \"Eritrean Sibyl\" by Giovanni Andrea Carlone."}
+{"text":"The third niche holds the mortal remains\u00a0\u2013 his Ossa et cineres, \"Bones and ashes\", as the inscription on the sarcophagus says\u00a0\u2013 of the great artist Raphael. His fianc\u00e9e, Maria Bibbiena is buried to the right of his sarcophagus; she died before they could marry. The sarcophagus was given by Pope Gregory XVI, and its inscription reads \"ILLE HIC EST RAPHAEL TIMUIT QUO SOSPITE VINCI \/ RERUM MAGNA PARENS ET MORIENTE MORI\", meaning \"Here lies Raphael, by whom the mother of all things (Nature) feared to be overcome while he was living, and while he was dying, herself to die\". The epigraph was written by Pietro Bembo."}
+{"text":"The present arrangement is from 1811, designed by Antonio Mu\u00f1oz. The bust of Raphael (1833) is by Giuseppe Fabris. The two plaques commemorate Maria Bibbiena and Annibale Carracci. Behind the tomb is the statue known as the \"Madonna del Sasso\" (Madonna of the Rock) so named because she rests one foot on a boulder. It was commissioned by Raphael and made by Lorenzetto in 1524."}
+{"text":"In the Chapel of the Crucifixion, the Roman brick wall is visible in the niches. The wooden crucifix on the altar is from the 15th century. On the left wall is a \"Descent of the Holy Ghost\" (1790) by Pietro Labruzi. On the right side is the low relief \"Cardinal Consalvi presents to Pope Pius VII the five provinces restored to the Holy See\" (1824) made by the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. The bust is a portrait of Cardinal Agostino Rivarola. The final niche on this side has a statue of \"St. Evasius\" (\"Sant'Evasio\") (1727) by Francesco Moderati."}
+{"text":"Works modelled on, or inspired by, the Pantheon."}
+{"text":"As the best-preserved example of an Ancient Roman monumental building, the Pantheon has been enormously influential in Western architecture from at least the Renaissance on; starting with Brunelleschi's dome of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, completed in 1436."}
+{"text":"Among the most notable versions are the church of Santa Maria Assunta (1664) in Ariccia by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, which followed his work restoring the Roman original, Belle Isle House (1774) in England and Thomas Jefferson's library at the University of Virginia, The Rotunda (1817\u20131826). Others include the Rotunda of Mosta in Malta (1833). Other notable replicas, such as The Rotunda (New York) (1818), do not survive."}
+{"text":"The portico-and-dome form of the Pantheon can be detected in many buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries; numerous government and public buildings, city halls, university buildings, and public libraries echo its structure."}
+{"text":"Henri of Savoy () (2 November 157210 July 1632), called originally Marquis de Saint-Sorlin, was the son of Jacques of Savoy and Anna d'Este, the widow of Fran\u00e7ois de Lorraine, Duke of Guise. He succeeded his brother Charles Emmanuel as Duke of Nemours."}
+{"text":"In 1588 he took the marquisate of Saluzzo from the French for his cousin, the Duke of Savoy. The princes of Guise, his half-brothers, induced him to join the League, and in 1591 he was made governor of Dauphin\u00e9 in the name of that faction. He made his submission to Henry IV in 1596. After quarrelling with the duke of Savoy he withdrew to Burgundy and joined the Spaniards in their war against Savoy. After peace had been proclaimed on November 14, 1616, he retired to the French court."}
+{"text":"After his death, he was succeeded by his eldest son, Louis; on the death of Louis in 1641 by his second son Charles Amadeus; and on Charles's death in 1651 by his third son Henri. All three were the sons of his wife Anne de Lorraine (1600\u20131638), daughter of Charles de Lorraine, Duke of Aumale."}
+{"text":"James (January 1315 \u2013 May 1367) was the Lord of Piedmont from 1334 to his death. He was the eldest son of Philip I and Catherine de la Tour du Pin. While his father had abandoned his claim to the Principality of Achaea in 1307, James continued to use the princely title and even passed it on to his successors."}
+{"text":"In 1349, James agreed to a treaty between himself, Amadeus VI of Savoy, Amadeus III of Geneva, and the House of Visconti, rulers of Milan for mutual defence and assistance. This treaty included provisions for Galeazzo II Visconti to marry Bianca of Savoy, sister of the count."}
+{"text":"James opposed Robert of Taranto in Achaea in the 1340s. He began a war with Amadeus VI of Savoy, but was captured at Pinerolo and his territories confiscated. A treaty of 2 July 1362 returned them, however. James died at Pinerolo a few years later."}
+{"text":"James married his first wife Beatrice d'Este in 1338, daughter of Rinaldo II d'Este. She died in 1339 without having children."}
+{"text":"James remarried on 9 June 1339 to Sibyl, daughter of Raymond II of Baux and had:"}
+{"text":"After Sibyl died in 1361, James remarried on 16 July 1362 to Margaret (1346 \u2013 1402), daughter of Edward I of Beaujeu, They had two sons:"}
+{"text":"Jacques of Savoy, 2nd duke of Nemours (12 October 153115 June 1585) was the son of Philippe, Duke of Nemours and Charlotte of Orleans, and became Duke of Nemours on his father's death in 1533."}
+{"text":"Jacques distinguished himself at the sieges of Lens and Metz (1552\u20131553), at the Battle of Renty (1554) and in the campaign of Piedmont (1555)."}
+{"text":"Jacques was a supporter of the house of Guise, and caused a further altercation between the Bourbons and Guises when he got Fran\u00e7oise de Rohan, cousin and childhood friend of Jeanne d'Albret, pregnant and refused to marry her. Fran\u00e7oise filed a lawsuit that was neglected until 1565, when an ecclesiastical court ruled against her, giving Jacques the opportunity to marry Anne d'Este."}
+{"text":"Jacques signalized himself by his successes in Dauphin\u00e9 and Lyonnais against the Huguenots. In 1567 he induced the court to return from Meaux to Paris, took part in the battle of Saint Denis, protested against the peace of Longjumeau, and repulsed the invasion of Wolfgang, Count Palatine of Zweibr\u00fccken. He devoted his last years to letters and art, and died at Annecy."}
+{"text":"Jacques married Anna d'Este on 29 April 1566 daughter of Duke Ercole II of Ferrara and Ren\u00e9e of France. They had:"}
+{"text":"He was succeeded as Duke of Nemours by his son Charles Emmanuel de Savoie, 3rd Duc de Nemours."}
+{"text":"Louis of Savoy (1615 \u2013 16 September 1641) was Count of Geneva, Duke of Nemours, and Duke of Aumale from the death of his father Henry of Savoy in 1632 until his own death in 1641."}
+{"text":"Louis never married. On his death, his titles passed to his brother Charles Amadeus."}
+{"text":"Maria Vittoria dal Pozzo (Maria Vittoria Carlotta Enrichetta; 9 August 1847 \u2013 8 November 1876) was an Italian noblewoman and became the 6th Princess of La Cisterna after the death of her father. Married to Prince Amadeo of Savoy, Duke of Aosta, second son of King Victor Emmanuel. In 1870 her husband became the King of Spain, making her Queen consort of Spain."}
+{"text":"She was the eldest and only surviving child of Carlo Emmanuele dal Pozzo, 5th Prince of Cisterna and his wife, Countess Louise de Merode. Upon the death of her father in 1864, she inherited his noble titles and thus became the Princess della Cisterna, Princess di Belriguardo, Marchioness di Voghera and Countess di Ponderano, among other titles, in her own right."}
+{"text":"On 30 May 1867 in Turin, she married Prince Amadeo of Savoy, the Duke of Aosta and second son of King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy. An urban legend circulates claiming that numerous tragedies befell the wedding of Maria Vittoria and the Duke of Aosta."}
+{"text":"Her husband was elected to occupy the Spanish Throne on 16 November 1870. She lived a discreet life in Spain, only involving herself in charity. Amadeo resigned from the position on 11 February 1873, after which he and Maria Vittoria returned to Italy. Her health was damaged by the trip and childbirth, and she died later the same year of tuberculosis in Sanremo."}
+{"text":"Adelaide of Savoy (; c.1050\/2 \u2013 1079), a member of the Burgundian House of Savoy, was Duchess of Swabia from about 1062 until 1079 by her marriage with Rudolf of Rheinfelden, who also was elected German anti-king in 1077."}
+{"text":"Adelaide's parents were Count Otto of Savoy and his wife Adelaide of Susa from the Arduinici noble family. Her maternal grandparents were Margrave Ulric Manfred\u00a0II of Turin and Bertha of Milan. Adelaide was the younger sister of Bertha of Savoy, who was betrothed to the future king Henry IV of Germany in 1055."}
+{"text":"According to the \"Europ\u00e4ische Stammtafeln\" genealogy, she first was married to Count Guigues I of Albon, though this assumption seems highly unlikely. Actually Adelaide, around 1060\/62 and aged about ten, married the Swabian duke Rudolf of Rheinfelden."}
+{"text":"In 1069 Rudolf attempted to repudiate Adelaide for an alleged affair with Count Werner of Habsburg. In 1071 Adelaide cleared herself of the accusation of adultery in the presence of Pope Alexander II. Rudolf was required to reconcile with Adelaide. At the same time, Henry IV attempted to repudiate her sister Bertha, also without success."}
+{"text":"In 1077, an assembly of revolting German princes elected Rudolf anti-king. He was crowned by Archbishop Siegfried I of Mainz on March 26, with Adelaide as his consort. When the Great Saxon Revolt broke out, Adelaide remained in Swabia, defending her husband's lands, whilst Rudolf campaigned against Henry IV in Saxony."}
+{"text":"Adelaide died during the Easter period of 1079, apart from her husband at Hohentwiel Castle. She was buried in the monastery of St. Blasien."}
+{"text":"With Rudolf, Adelaide had at least four children:"}
+{"text":"Amadeo I (, sometimes latinized as Amadeus; 30 May 184518 January 1890) was an Italian prince who reigned as King of Spain from 1870 to 1873. The only King of Spain from the House of Savoy, he was the second son of King Vittorio Emanuele II of Italy and was known for most of his life as The Duke of Aosta."}
+{"text":"He was elected by the Cortes as Spain's monarch in 1870, following the deposition of Isabel II, and was sworn in the following year. Amadeo's reign was fraught with growing republicanism, Carlist rebellions in the north, and the Cuban independence movement. He abdicated and returned to Italy in 1873, and the First Spanish Republic was declared as a result."}
+{"text":"Granted the hereditary title of Duke of Aosta in the year of his birth, he founded the Aosta branch of Italy's royal House of Savoy, which is junior in agnatic descent to the branch descended from King Umberto I that reigned in Italy until 1900, but senior to the branch of the dukes of Genoa."}
+{"text":"Prince Amedeo of Savoy was born in Turin (then part of the Kingdom of Sardinia). He was the second son of King Vittorio Emanuele II (King of Sardinia and, later, first King of Italy) and of Archduchess Adelaide of Austria. He was styled the Duke of Aosta from birth."}
+{"text":"Entering the army as captain in 1859 he fought through the Third Italian War of Independence in 1866 with the rank of major-general, leading his brigade into action at the Battle of Custoza and being wounded at Monte Torre. In 1868, after his marriage, he was created vice admiral of the Italian navy, but this position ended when he ascended the Spanish throne."}
+{"text":"In March 1870, Maria Vittoria appealed to the King to remonstrate with her husband for marital infidelities that caused her hurt and embarrassment. But the King wrote in reply that, while understanding her feelings, he considered that she had no right to dictate her husband's behaviour and that her jealousy was unbecoming."}
+{"text":"After the Spanish revolution deposed Isabella II, the new \"Cortes\" decided to reinstate the monarchy under a new dynasty. The Duke of Aosta was elected king as Amadeo I on 16 November 1870. He swore to uphold the constitution in Madrid on 2 January 1871."}
+{"text":"The election of the new king coincided with the assassination of General Juan Prim, his chief supporter. After that, Amadeo had to deal with difficult situations, with unstable Spanish politics, republican conspiracies, Carlist uprisings, separatism in Cuba, same-party disputes, fugitive governments and assassination attempts."}
+{"text":"Amadeo could count on the support of only the progressive party, whose leaders were trading off in the government thanks to parliamentary majority and electoral fraud. The progressives divided into monarchists and constitutionalists, which made the instability worse, and in 1872 a violent outburst of interparty conflicts hit a peak. There was a Carlist uprising in the Basque and Catalan regions, and after that, republican uprisings happened in cities across the country. The artillery corps of the army went on strike, and the government instructed the King to discipline them."}
+{"text":"Though warned of a plot against his life on 18 August 1872, he refused to take precautions, and, while returning from Buen Retiro Park to Madrid in company with the queen, was repeatedly shot at in Via Avenal. The royal carriage was struck by several revolver and rifle bullets, the horses wounded, but its occupants escaped unhurt. A period of calm followed the event."}
+{"text":"With the possibility of reigning without popular support, Amadeo issued an order against the artillery corps and then immediately abdicated from the Spanish throne on 11 February 1873. At ten o'clock that same night, Spain was proclaimed a republic, at which time Amadeo made an appearance before the Cortes, proclaiming the Spanish people ungovernable."}
+{"text":"Completely disgusted, the ex-monarch left Spain and returned to Italy, where he resumed the title of Duke of Aosta. The First Spanish Republic lasted less than two years, and in November 1874 Alfonso XII, the son of Isabella II, was proclaimed king, with Antonio C\u00e1novas del Castillo, Spanish intermittent prime minister from 1873 until his assassination in 1897, briefly serving as regent."}
+{"text":"Amadeo's first wife died in 1876. In 1888 he married his French niece, Princess Maria Letizia Bonaparte, Duchess of Aosta (20 November 186625 October 1926), daughter of his sister Maria Clotilde and of Prince Napol\u00e9on Bonaparte, a nephew of Napoleon I. They had one child, Umberto (1889\u20131918), who died of the flu during the First World War."}
+{"text":"Amadeo remained in Turin, Italy until his death on 18 January 1890. His friend Puccini composed the famous elegy for string quartet \"Crisantemi\" in his memory."}
+{"text":"Lake Amadeus in central Australia is named after him, as is the Philippine municipality of Amadeo, Cavite."}
+{"text":"Prince Vittorio Amedeo Teodoro, Duke of Aosta"}
+{"text":"Vittorio Amedeo Theodore of Savoy (Prince Vittorio Amedeo Theodore; 7 March 1723 \u2013 11 August 1725) was a prince of Savoy and Duke of Aosta. He was born in the reign of his grandfather Victor Amadeus II, King of Sardinia."}
+{"text":"Prince Vittorio Amedeo was born at the Royal Palace of Turin, he was a son of Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia and his first wife Anne Christine of Sulzbach. He was styled as the \"Duke of Aosta\" from birth till his death. He was the first-born son of his parents and was second in line to the throne (after his father) from his birth, which was greeted with much celebration. He died on 11 August 1725, at the age of 2."}
+{"text":"His father had another son with his second wife also named Victor Amadeus, Duke of Savoy, in his honour."}
+{"text":"Victor Emmanuel I (Vittorio Emanuele; 24 July 1759 \u2013 10 January 1824) was the Duke of Savoy and King of Sardinia (1802\u20131821)."}
+{"text":"Victor Emmanuel was the second son of King Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia and Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of Spain, daughter of King Philip V of Spain and Elisabeth Farnese."}
+{"text":"Victor Emmanuel was known from birth as the Duke of Aosta. From 1792 to 1796, Aosta's father had taken an active part in the struggle of the old powers against the revolutionary forces in France but was defeated and forced to make peace, signing the Treaty of Paris. The old king died shortly thereafter, and in December 1798, his eldest son and successor, Charles Emmanuel IV, was faced with a French occupation and eventually annexation, of his mainland territories."}
+{"text":"Charles Emmanuel and his family were forced to withdraw to Sardinia, which was the only part of his domains not conquered by the French. Charles Emmanuel himself took little interest in the rule of Sardinia, living with his wife on the mainland in Naples and Rome until his wife's death in 1802, which led the childless Charles Emmanuel to abdicate the throne in favour of his younger brother."}
+{"text":"Aosta took the throne on 4 June 1802 as Victor Emmanuel I. He ruled Sardinia from Cagliari for the next twelve years, during which time he constituted the Carabinieri, a Gendarmerie corps, still existing as one of the main branches of the military of Italy."}
+{"text":"Victor Emmanuel could return to Turin only in 1814, his realm reconstituted by the Congress of Vienna, with the addition of the territories of the former Republic of Genoa. The latter became the seat of the Sardinian Navy. Victor Emmanuel abolished all the freedoms granted by the Napoleonic Codices and restored a fiercely oppressive rule: he restored the \"Regie Costituzioni\" of Victor Amadeus II and the \"Jus commune\", strengthened customs barriers, refused to grant a liberal constitution, entrusted education to the Church and reintroduced laws concerning labour and the justice system which discriminated against Jews and Waldensians."}
+{"text":"He nurtured expansionist ambitions in Lombardy, where nationalist anti-Austrian sentiments had developed, promoted largely by the bourgeoisie. This led to conflict with Austria. In March 1821, a liberal revolution exploded in Italy, largely the work of the Carbonari and it seemed that the anti-Austrian attitude of the revolutionaries matched that of Victor Emmanuel."}
+{"text":"However, Victor Emmanuel was not willing to grant a liberal constitution as desired by the revolutionaries, so he abdicated in favor of his brother, Charles Felix on 13 March 1821. Because Charles Felix was in Modena at the time, Victor Emmanuel temporarily entrusted the regency to Charles Albert, who was second in line to the throne."}
+{"text":"Thereafter Victor Emmanuel lived in a number of cities until 1824, when he returned to the Castle of Moncalieri, where he died. He is buried in the Basilica of Superga."}
+{"text":"On 21 April 1789, he married Archduchess Maria Teresa of Austria-Este, daughter of Ferdinand, Duke of Modena (who was the son of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor)."}
+{"text":"They had six daughters and one son who died very young:"}
+{"text":"As a descendant of Henrietta of England he carried the Jacobite claim to the thrones of England and Scotland."}
+{"text":"Carlo Francesco, Duke of Aosta (Carlo Francesco Maria Augusto; 1 December 1738 \u2013 25 March 1745) was a prince of Savoy. He was born in the reign of his father Charles Emmanuel III, King of Sardinia."}
+{"text":"Prince Carlo was born at the Palace of Venaria, Turin. He was the first child of his father Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia and \u00c9lisabeth Th\u00e9r\u00e8se of Lorraine. His mother died giving birth to his brother Prince Benedetto, named after Pope Benedict XIV who became pope the year before his birth."}
+{"text":"At the time of his birth, he was third in line to the Sardinian throne after his father and his oldest half brother Victor Amadeus, Duke of Savoy. His paternal cousins included Louis XV of France, the future Ferdinand VI of Spain and the Prince of Carignan. His maternal cousin's included the future Queen of Naples and the famous \"Marie Antoinette\"."}
+{"text":"He died in Turin aged 7, and was buried at Royal Basilica of Superga, Turin."}
+{"text":"Prince Aimone of Savoy-Aosta, Duke of Apulia (Aimone Umberto Emanuele Filiberto Luigi Amedeo Elena Maria Fiorenzo di Savoia-Aosta; born 13 October 1967) is the second child and first son of Prince Amedeo, 5th Duke of Aosta, one of the two claimants to the former throne of Italy. In 2006, his father declared himself Duke of Savoy and head of the House of Savoy; since then Prince Aimone has styled himself Duke of Aosta. However, because the headship of the royal house is disputed between his father and Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples, he is still referred to as \"Duke of Apulia\"."}
+{"text":"Beginning in 2000, Aimone was the president of Pirelli Tires' operations in Russia. Since 2012, he has also served as CEO of Pirelli Tyre's Nordic division. His contribution to deepening bilateral economic relations between Italy and Russia has been recognized by the authorities of both countries, by the appointment to the Order of Friendship of Russia and the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic."}
+{"text":"Since November 2019 he has served as the Representative of the Order of Malta in Russia."}
+{"text":"Prince Aimone was born in Florence the second child and only son of Prince Amedeo of Savoy, Duke of Aosta and his first wife, Princess Claude of Orl\u00e9ans. Aimone attended the Francesco Morosini Naval Military School and Bocconi University. After he completed his education, Aimone worked at JPMorgan Chase in the United Kingdom. He also served a period in the Italian Navy's special forces (see Comando Raggruppamento Subacquei e Incursori Teseo Tesei). Since 2000, Aimone has worked in Russia as president of the Italian company Pirelli."}
+{"text":"Aimone's engagement to Princess Olga of Greece, daughter of Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark, was announced in May 2005. Olga and Aimone are second cousins; both being great-grandchildren of the French pretender Prince Jean, Duke of Guise. They are also second cousins-once-removed, as George I of Greece is Olga's patrilineal great-grandfather and Aimone's great-great-grandfather. Several falsely reported wedding dates marked what was to become a three-year engagement. The couple finally wed on 16 September 2008 at the Italian embassy in Moscow, the city in which Aimone is employed. Their religious marriage took place on 27 September 2008 at Patmos."}
+{"text":"Prince Aimone and Princess Olga have three children, two sons and one daughter:"}
+{"text":"On 7 July 2006 Aimone's father, Prince Amedeo, assumed the headship of the House of Savoy and the title Duke of Savoy, claiming that his cousin Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples, had lost his dynastic rights when he married in 1971 without the legally required permission of King Umberto II. Since then Aimone has used the title Duke of Aosta."}
+{"text":"Prince Aimone, 4th Duke of Aosta (\"Aimone Roberto Margherita Maria Giuseppe Torino\"; 9 March 1900 \u2013 29 January 1948) was a prince of Italy's reigning House of Savoy and an officer of the Royal Italian Navy. The second son of Prince Emanuele Filiberto, Duke of Aosta he was granted the title Duke of Spoleto on 22 September 1904. He inherited the title Duke of Aosta on 3 March 1942 following the death of his brother Prince Amedeo, in a British prisoner of war camp in Nairobi."}
+{"text":"From 18 May 1941 to 31 July 1943 he was designated King of Independent State of Croatia (, NDH) though he never ruled there. He formally accepted the position and took the name Tomislav II (), after the first Croatian king. Later, however, he refused to assume the kingship in protest of the Italian annexation of the Dalmatia region, and is therefore referred to in some sources as king designate. Regardless, many sources refer to him as Tomislav II, King of Croatia, and the nominal head of the NDH during its first two years (1941\u20131943)."}
+{"text":"After the dismissal of Mussolini on 25 July 1943, the prince abdicated on 31 July as king on the orders of Victor Emmanuel III."}
+{"text":"Prince Aimone Roberto Margherita Maria Giuseppe Torino of Savoy-Aosta was born in Turin the second son of Prince Emanuele Filiberto, Duke of Aosta (eldest son of Prince Amedeo, 1st Duke of Aosta (and sometime \"King Amadeo I of Spain\") by his wife, \"n\u00e9e\" Vittoria dal Pozzo, Principessa della Cisterna) and Princess H\u00e9l\u00e8ne of Orl\u00e9ans (daughter of Philippe, comte de Paris, and Princess Marie Isabelle of Orl\u00e9ans). As his patrilinal great-grandfather was King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy, he was a member of the House of Savoy."}
+{"text":"On 22 September 1904, he was given the title Duke of Spoleto for life. With his brother Amedeo, he was educated at St David's College, Reigate, Surrey, England, and Aimone later went to study at the naval academy in Livorno. On 1 April 1921, Prince Aimone became a member of the Italian Senate. Princes of the House of Savoy became members of the Senate at age 21, obtaining the right to vote at age 25."}
+{"text":"In 1929, twenty years after his uncle Prince Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi had attempted to climb K2 in Karakoram, Prince Aimone led an expedition to Karakorum. A member of the expedition was Ardito Desio. Due to the failure to climb K2 twenty years earlier, Prince Aimone's expedition concentrated solely on scientific work. He was afterwards awarded the 1932 Royal Geographical Society's Patron's Gold Medal for his work."}
+{"text":"After being romantically linked with Infanta Beatriz of Spain, the daughter of King Alfonso XIII, he married, on 1 July 1939 in Florence, Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark, daughter of King Constantine I and Princess Sophie of Prussia. They had one son, Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta, born in 1943."}
+{"text":"On 18 May 1941, in a ceremony at the Quirinal Palace, to which Ante Paveli\u0107, the leader of the nazist Usta\u0161e movement that had assumed power in Croatia in April 1941 after the invasion of Yugoslavia, led a delegation of Croats requesting that Italy's King Victor Emmanuel III name a member of the House of Savoy as King of King of Croatia. The Independent State of Croatia was a fascist puppet state that was partly under Italian and German control, covering most of present-day states of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, but its leaders tried to assert their legitimacy by instating a monarchy that would resemble the medieval Croatian state."}
+{"text":"After the fall of the Fascist regime in Italy, Aimone abdicated as king of Croatia on 31 July 1943 on the orders of Victor Emmanuel III."}
+{"text":"Prince Aimone succeeded to the title Duke of Aosta on 3 March 1942, following the death of his elder brother Prince Amedeo, 3rd Duke of Aosta, in a British Prisoner of War camp in Kenya."}
+{"text":"In the Autumn of 1942, Aimone contacted Allied forces via his courier, the consul general Alessandro Marieni, about the possibility of a peace settlement between Italy and allied forces. Secret talks would continue into 1943, motivated in part by the aim of preserving the royal dynasty of Savoy."}
+{"text":"In the latter months of World War II, he became the commander of the Italian Naval Base of Taranto but he was dismissed from his post for his criticism of the judges that had found General Mario Roatta guilty of war crimes. During his naval career he reached the rank of Squadron Admiral."}
+{"text":"In 1947 following the birth of the Italian Republic the previous year, Prince Aimone left Italy for South America. Just a year after his arrival, he suddenly died on 29 January 1948 in his temporary residence, a private suite at the Alvear Palace Hotel in the French Borough of Recoleta in Buenos Aires, while his entourage was arranging his permanent residency documents and the purchase of his new home in Argentina. His son Prince Amedeo succeeded him as Duke of Aosta."}
+{"text":"Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta (born 1943)"}
+{"text":"Prince Amedeo, 5th Duke of Aosta (Amedeo Umberto Costantino Giorgio Paolo Elena Maria Fiorenzo Zvonimir di Savoia; born 27 September 1943) is a claimant to the headship of the House of Savoy, the family which ruled Italy from 1861 to 1946. Until 7 July 2006, Amedeo was styled Duke of Aosta; on that date he declared himself Duke of Savoy, a title that is disputed between him and his third cousin, Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples."}
+{"text":"Amedeo was born at \"Villa della Cisterna\" in Florence, the only child of Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta, formerly designated king of Croatia as Tomislav II, and of Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark."}
+{"text":"Only three weeks before Amedeo's birth, Italy had surrendered to the Allies. His father, then king-designate of Croatia, abdicated. Italy's former ally, Germany, thereupon launched a military operation to occupy Italy. The infant Amedeo was arrested by the Nazis along with his mother, aunt, and two cousins, and sent to an internment camp in Austria."}
+{"text":"When Amedeo was only four years old, his father died in exile in Buenos Aires, and he succeeded as Duke of Aosta, Prince della Cisterna e Belriguardo, Marchese di Voghera, and Count di Ponderano."}
+{"text":"Amedeo studied at the Collegio Navale Morosini in Venice and in England. He then attended the Naval Academy in Livorno from which he graduated as an officer in the Italian Navy."}
+{"text":"He is an Honorary Companion of the Pennsylvania Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, assigned insignia number 21015, as a great-grandson of Prince Philippe, Count of Paris."}
+{"text":"On 22 July 1964 Amedeo married his second cousin, Princess Claude of Orl\u00e9ans (born 11 December 1943) in Sintra, Portugal. She was the ninth child and fifth daughter of Henri, comte de Paris, Orl\u00e9anist claimant to the French throne, and of Princess Isabelle of Orl\u00e9ans-Braganza. Amedeo and Claude officially separated 20 July 1976, obtained a civil divorce 26 April 1982, and an ecclesiastical annulment from the Roman Rota 8 January 1987. Amedeo and Claude have three children:"}
+{"text":"On 30 March 1987 Amedeo married Silvia Patern\u00f2 di Spedalotto (b. Palermo, 31 December 1953) in the chapel of Villa Spedalotto in Bagheria, Sicily. She is the daughter of Vincenzo Patern\u00f2 di Spedalotto, 6th Marchese di Reggiovanni, and of Rosanna Bellardo e Ferraris. Amedeo and Silvia have no children."}
+{"text":"Amedeo has a daughter with Kyara van Ellinkhuizen, born outside of wedlock:"}
+{"text":"Amedeo and his wife Silvia live in the village of San Rocco near the town of Castiglion Fibocchi in Tuscany (about 15 km northwest of Arezzo). He is involved in various agricultural activities including the production of wine marketed under the name \"Vini Savoia Aosta\"."}
+{"text":"Since 1997, Amedeo has been president of the \"International Foundation Pro Herbario Mediterraneo\". From 2003 to 2006, he was president of the committee responsible for the nature reserve on the island of Vivara."}
+{"text":"On 21 May 2004, at a \"soir\u00e9e\" held at the Zarzuela Palace near Madrid during the wedding celebrations of the Spanish royal heir apparent, Felipe, Prince of Asturias, Amedeo approached Vittorio Emanuele who reportedly punched him twice in the face, causing him to stumble backward down the steps. The swift intervention of another guest, former Queen Anne-Marie of Greece, who propped him up, prevented Amedeo from falling to the ground. She helped him move indoors and stanched his bleeding facial wound until first aid was administered. Upon learning of the incident Spain's King Juan Carlos I, a cousin of both men, reportedly declared that \"never again\" would an opportunity to abuse his hospitality be afforded the rivals."}
+{"text":"Amedeo is a Knight of the Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation named by Umberto II, a Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, and a Knight of Honor and Devotion of the Sovereign Military Order of St. John of Jerusalem. He is an honorary citizen of the towns of Marigliano, Pantelleria, and Abetone."}
+{"text":"Charles Emmanuel III (27 April 1701 \u2013 20 February 1773) was the Duke of Savoy and King of Sardinia from 1730 until his death."}
+{"text":"He was born in Turin to Victor Amadeus II of Savoy and his first wife the French Anne Marie d'Orl\u00e9ans. His maternal grandparents were Prince Philippe of France and his first wife Princess Henrietta, the youngest daughter of Charles I of England and Henrietta Maria of France. Charles Emmanuel was the oldest surviving brother of Princess Maria Adelaide of Savoy - the mother of Louis XV of France; he was also the brother of Maria Luisa of Savoy, Queen of Spain as wife Philip V of Spain."}
+{"text":"At the time of his birth, when he was known as Duke of Aosta, Charles Emmanuel was not the heir to Savoy; his older brother Victor Amadeus, Prince of Piedmont, was the heir apparent. Charles Emmanuel was the second of three sons that would be born to his parents. His older brother died in 1715 and Charles Emmanuel then became heir apparent."}
+{"text":"As a result of his aid in the War of the Spanish Succession, Victor Amadeus II was made king of Sicily in 1713 under the Treaty of Utrecht which ended the war. Victor Amadeus was forced to exchange Sicily for the less important kingdom of Sardinia in 1720 after objections from an alliance of four nations, including some of his former allies."}
+{"text":"On 3 September 1730, Victor Amadeus who, in his later years had exhibited reticence and melancholy, abdicated the throne and retired from the royal court. His son became King Charles Emanuel III. He had not been a favorite of his father's, who had neglected his education except on the military field, where the son had sometimes accompanied the father."}
+{"text":"After some time spent at his residence in Chamb\u00e9ry, however, the former king started to intervene in his son's government. Victor Amadeus reclaimed the throne, accusing his son of incompetence. He established himself in Moncalieri, but Charles Emmanuel managed to have the former king arrested by the Crown Council, in order to prevent him from attacking Milan and probably causing an invasion of Piedmont. Victor Amadeus was then confined to the Castle of Rivoli, where he later died without further interference with his son's regime."}
+{"text":"In the War of the Polish Succession Charles Emmanuel sided with the French- backed king Stanislaw I. After the treaty of alliance signed in Turin, on 28 October 1733 he marched on Milan and occupied Lombardy without significant losses. However, when France tried to convince Philip V of Spain to join the coalition, he asked to receive Milan and Mantua in exchange. This was not acceptable for Charles Emmanuel, as it would recreate a Spanish domination in Italy as it had been in the previous centuries. While negotiations continued about the matter, the Savoy-French-Spanish troops attacked Mantua under the supreme command of Charles Emmanuel himself."}
+{"text":"His only Cousin Was Isabel Lu\u00edsa, Princess of Beira"}
+{"text":"Sure that in the end Mantua would be assigned to Spain, he voluntarily thwarted the expedition. The Franco-Piedmontese army was victorious in two battles at Crocetta and Guastalla. In the end, when Austria and France signed a peace, Charles was forced to leave Lombardy. In exchange, he was given some territories, including Langhe, Tortona and Novara."}
+{"text":"The outcome was the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which revealed his qualities as a negotiator, inasmuch as he both regained the lost provinces of Nice and Savoy, and obtained Vigevano as well as other lands in the Pianura Padana. Ties with Spain were reestablished with the marriage of his son Prince Victor Amadeus to the Infanta Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of Spain in 1750."}
+{"text":"He declined to participate in the Seven Years' War (1756\u201363), preferring to concentrate on administrative reforms, maintaining a well-disciplined army and strengthening his fortresses. In an attempt to improve the poor condition of the newly acquired Sardinia, he also restored the Universities of Sassari and Cagliari."}
+{"text":"Charles Emmanuel died in Turin in 1773. He was buried in the Basilica of Superga."}
+{"text":"Charles Emmanuel's ancestors were avid art collectors. He added many new paintings to the collection he inherited from his ancestors. He also received paintings from the collection of Prince Eugene of Savoy who had remained childless. The collection contained many works of Flemish and Dutch painters. As a result, the Sabauda Gallery in Turin was the largest collection in Italy of 16th and 17th century Flemish and Dutch paintings. In 1731 he established a tapestry workshop in Turin. The Flemish battle painter Jan Peeter Verdussen was his court painter and painted many of his military victories."}
+{"text":"Charles Emmanuel married three times, but all of his three wives died young. There were plans for him to marry his cousin [[Charlotte Agla\u00e9 d'Orl\u00e9ans]], but his mother declined the offer. [[Amalia d'Este]], daughter of [[Rinaldo d'Este, Duke of Modena|Rinaldo, Duke of Modena]], and [[Infanta Francisca Josefa of Portugal]], daughter of [[Pedro II of Portugal]], were also candidates."}
+{"text":"[[File:Enfants de Charles-Emmanuel III.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The children of Charles and his second wife; (L-R) [[Eleonora Maria Teresa of Savoy|Eleonora]]; [[Victor Amadeus III of Savoy|Victor Amadeus]]; [[Princess Maria Felicita of Savoy|Maria Felicita]] and [[Princess Maria Luisa of Savoy (1729\u20131767)|Maria Luisa Gabriella]].]]"}
+{"text":"[[Category:Italian military personnel of the War of the Polish Succession]]"}
+{"text":"Prince Amedeo, 3rd Duke of Aosta (Amedeo Umberto Isabella Luigi Filippo Maria Giuseppe Giovanni di Savoia-Aosta; 21 October 1898 \u2013 3 March 1942) was the third Duke of Aosta and a first cousin, once removed of the King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel III. During World War II, he was the Italian Viceroy of Italian East Africa (\"Africa Orientale Italiana\", or AOI)."}
+{"text":"Amedeo was born in Turin, Piedmont, to Prince Emanuele Filiberto, 2nd Duke of Aosta (son of Amadeo I of Spain and Princess Maria Vittoria), and Princess H\u00e9l\u00e8ne (daughter of Prince Philippe of Orl\u00e9ans and Princess Marie Isabelle of Orl\u00e9ans). As his patrilinal great-grandfather was King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy, he was a member of the House of Savoy. He was known from birth by the courtesy title of \"Duke of Apulia\"."}
+{"text":"Amedeo was a very tall man. According to Amedeo Guillet, he was once referred to by a journalist as \"Your Highness\" (which in Italian could also be interpreted to mean \"your height\"). The Duke replied in jest: \"198 centimetres\" (6 feet, 6\u00a0inches)."}
+{"text":"Amedeo was educated at St David's College, Reigate, Surrey, in England. He cultivated British mannerisms, spoke Oxford English, and even enjoyed the pastimes of fox hunting and polo. Amedeo entered the Nunziatella, the military academy in Naples, joined the Italian Royal Army (\"Regio Esercito\") and fought with distinction in the artillery during World War I. He left the army in 1921 and traveled widely in Africa."}
+{"text":"On 4 July 1931, upon the death of his father, Amedeo became the Duke of Aosta."}
+{"text":"In 1937, after the Italian conquest of Ethiopia during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, the Duke of Aosta replaced Marshal Graziani as Viceroy and as Governor-General of Italian East Africa. It was generally conceded that he was a vast improvement over Graziani. As Viceroy and Governor-General, the Duke of Aosta was also the Commander-in-Chief of all Italian military forces in Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Italian Somaliland."}
+{"text":"When Italy declared war on the United Kingdom and France on 10 June 1940, the Duke of Aosta became the commander of the Italian forces in what is known as the East African Campaign of World War II. He oversaw the initial Italian advances into the Sudan and Kenya and, in August, he oversaw the Italian invasion of British Somaliland."}
+{"text":"Shortly after his surrender, the Duke of Aosta was interned in a prisoner-of-war camp in Nairobi, Kenya. He was placed in command of his fellow prisoners, but never saw the end of World War II. On 3 March 1942, shortly after his internment, he died at the prison camp, reportedly as a result of complications from both tuberculosis and malaria. Amedeo was succeeded by his brother, Aimone, 4th Duke of Aosta. From 18 May 1941, the same day Amedeo surrendered Amba Alagi, Aimone was proclaimed King of Croatia under the regal name Tomislav II."}
+{"text":"Amedeo was well known and highly regarded for being a gentleman. In one instance, before he fled his headquarters at Addis Ababa, he wrote a note to the British to thank them in advance for protecting the women and children in the cities."}
+{"text":"Count Galeazzo Ciano, Italian Foreign Minister under his father-in-law Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, paid Amedeo a high compliment in his famous diaries. Upon being given the news of the Duke's death Ciano wrote, \"So dies the image of a Prince and an Italian. Simple in his ways, broad in outlook, and humane in spirit.\""}
+{"text":"Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia was also impressed by the respect and care that the Duke of Aosta showed to the exiled Emperor's personal property left behind in Addis Ababa. In a gesture of thanks, the Emperor during his state visit to Italy in 1953 invited the widowed Duchess of Aosta to tea during his stay in Milan, but was then informed by the Italian government that receiving the Duchess would cause offense to the Italian Republic, and so the Emperor sadly canceled the visit. Instead he invited the 5th Duke of Aosta to Ethiopia in the mid-60s, and accorded him all the protocol due to visiting royalty."}
+{"text":"Amedeo was married 5 November 1927, in Naples, to his first cousin Princess Anne of Orl\u00e9ans (1906\u20131986), daughter of Prince Jean, Duke of Guise, and his wife, Princess Isabelle of Orl\u00e9ans."}
+{"text":"Prince Amedeo's time in Italian Cyrenaica was depicted in the 1981 film \"Lion of the Desert\"; Amedeo was played by Sky du Mont."}
+{"text":"Amado was also briefly mentioned in \"A Farewell to Arms\" by Ernest Hemingway"}
+{"text":"Marie of Savoy, Countess of Saint-Pol, de Brienne, de Ligny, and Conversano (20 March 1448) was the second wife of Louis de Luxembourg, Count of Saint-Pol, Constable of France. She was a younger daughter of Louis, Duke of Savoy and Anne de Lusignan, Princess of Cyprus, one of nineteen children."}
+{"text":"Marie was born on 20 March 1448, one of the 19 children of Louis, Duke of Savoy and Anne de Lusignan of Cyprus."}
+{"text":"In 1454 at the age of six, she was betrothed to Filippo Maria Sforza (1448\u20131492), the son of Francesco I Sforza, Duke of Milan, and Bianca Maria Visconti. The contract was dated 13 December 1454. For reasons unknown, the betrothal was annulled, and he married instead his cousin, Costanza Sforza."}
+{"text":"In 1466, she married Louis de Luxembourg, Count of Saint-Pol, de Brienne, de Ligny, and Conversano, Constable of France (1418\u201319 December 1475). The marriage contract was dated 1 August 1466. She was his second wife, his first wife, Jeanne de Bar, Countess of Marle and Soissons having died in 1462. Together Louis and Marie had three children:"}
+{"text":"Charles Felix (; 6 April 1765 \u2013 27 April 1831) was the Duke of Savoy, Piedmont, Aosta and King of Sardinia from 1821 to 1831."}
+{"text":"Charles Felix was born in Turin as the eleventh child and fifth son born to Victor Amadeus III of Savoy and Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of Spain. His paternal grandparents were Charles Emmanuel III of Savoy and his German wife Polyxena of Hesse-Rotenburg. His maternal grandparents were French born King Philip V of Spain and his Italian wife, Elisabeth Farnese."}
+{"text":"He was a younger brother of two other rulers of Savoy Charles Emmanuel IV and Victor Emmanuel I. He spent his childhood with his sister Maria Carolina and his younger brother, Giuseppe Benedetto Placido, Count of Moriana, at the Castle of Moncalieri."}
+{"text":"From his youth, Carlo Felice was reported as having a very complex character: on the one hand consistent and inflexible, private, distrustful, and impulsive, if not touchy and vindictive; on the other hand honest, sincere, and capable of emotion and fondness. He had a clever mind, at times even ironic. He possessed a sacral conception of the monarchy and the right to reign."}
+{"text":"During the years of the French Revolution and the Italian Campaign, Charles Felix formed part of a \"parallel court\" opposed to Charles Emmanuel IV's circle, along with his brother Victor Emmanuel, the latter's wife Maria Theresa, Maurizio Giuseppe Duke of Monferrat, and Giuseppe Placido, count of Moriana."}
+{"text":"In this period, Charles Felix began to keep a personal diary, which is an important source for events and for his conflicts with the court in Savoy."}
+{"text":"When war broke out with France, Charles Felix did not distinguish himself as a soldier, despite having received a military education. In 1792, after the French occupation of the Duchy of Savoy and the county of Nice, he followed the troops to Saluzzo and in 1793, he accompanied his father, Victor Amadeus III, who had directed the operations for the reconquest of Nice and Savoy along with the Austrians under general J. de Vins, into the Susa Valley, to Pinerolo, Cuneo, and Tende."}
+{"text":"Charles Felix remained very far from the front lines in any case. In spring 1794, after the arrival in Aosta of his brother the Duke of Monferrat, Charles Felix and Giuseppe Placido went to Morgex in order to retake some positions of relative strategic importance, but they did not achieve anything."}
+{"text":"On 28 April 1796, Victor Amadeus III was forced to sign the Armistice of Cherasco with the French, which was followed by the Treaty of Paris on 15 May, which accepted French control of Nice, Savoy, Genevoise, and some fortresses. Charles Felix, who had been titled Duke of Genoa, obtained the title of Marquis of Susa in compensation for his nominal loss."}
+{"text":"Victor Amadeus III died in October of the same year and was succeeded as Prince of Piedmont by Charles Emmanuel IV. The relationship between the new king and Charles Felix had never been good, but now deteriorated as the king strove to keep his brothers in the dark about affairs of state."}
+{"text":"Two years into his reign, Charles Emmanuel IV was forced to surrender all royal control on the mainland. Along with the king and the rest of the royal family, Charles Felix left Turin on the evening of 9 December 1798 for Cagliari, where they arrived on 3 March 1799."}
+{"text":"Charles Emmanuel IV was childless and, after the death of his wife, he abdicated in favour of his brother Victor Emmanuel I on 4 June 1802. The latter did not take possession of the domains in Sardinia himself, preferring to entrust them to Charles Felix as viceroy."}
+{"text":"Charles Felix's government of Sardinia was rather rigid and authoritarian. Since the in 1794, the island had experienced a period of disorder, exacerbated by widespread poverty, which had led to an increase in crime, which the viceroy suppressed with notable harshness, writing to his brother the king, \"slaughter, slaughter, for the good of the human race.\""}
+{"text":"Charles Felix established a military regime, such that his Sardinian subjects referred to him as \"Carlo Feroce\" (Charles the Ferocious). The tool of this regime was the special court of the Viceregal delegation for the investigation of political proceedings, which took action immediately against the \"capopolo\" (popular leader), Vincenzo Sulis, who was guilty of nothing other than having been more successful than the viceroy in defeating the revolutionary movements. When Sulis was condemned to twenty years in gaol, the viceroy considered it a lenient sentence. Furthermore, in the persecution of \"state criminals,\" Charles Felix legitimated the adoption of military procedures and granted every power to the police, from spying, to censoring letters and placing bounties on suspects."}
+{"text":"In his reorganisation work, however, he displayed notable energy to control the autonomy of the judiciary and the local bureaucracy and managed to correct some abuses of the feudal regime."}
+{"text":"In fact, when the Stamenti, the parliament of the kingdom, voted to pay a tax of 400,000 lire, Charles Felix exerted significant pressure to have the poorest classes exempted from the tax and he judged disputes in feudal jurisdiction in favour of vassals rather than feudal lords. When an anti-feudal revolt took place against the Duke of Asinara, who had refused to conform to the regulations of the viceroy, Charles Felix decided to punish both the duke, who was stripped of his property, as well as the revolutionaries."}
+{"text":"Despite the precarious political and social situation, Charles Felix was able to bring some improvements to the agriculture and economy of the island. Under his rule, an agrarian society and an office for the administration of Crown mines and forests were established. Additionally, the farming of olives was encouraged and commercial contracts were granted in order to encourage local production. Finally, he began a project to systematise the road network."}
+{"text":"On 7 March 1807, in the Cappella Palatina of the Palazzo dei Normanni in Palermo, Charles Felix married by proxy Maria Cristina of Naples and Sicily (17 January 1779 - 11 March 1849), daughter of Ferdinand IV King of Naples and Sicily and Maria Carolina of Austria."}
+{"text":"The marriage, which had originally been opposed by Charles Felix, had been arranged for dynastic reasons. Neither Charles Emmanuel nor Victor Emmanuel had male children (the son of the latter had become sick and died in Sardinia), while the Duke of Montferrat and the Count of Morian were deceased, so Charles Felix had become the heir presumptive and therefore had to produce a male heir."}
+{"text":"Although the marriage to Maria Cristina proved harmonious, she was unable to have children, forcing Victor Emmanuel to consider the succession of Charles Albert, prince of Carignano, from a collateral line of the House of Savoy."}
+{"text":"After the fall of Napoleon and the return of Victor Emmanuel to Turin on 20 May 1814, Charles Felix joined him for a brief period before returning to Sardinia the following year with his wife. He formally retained the role of Viceroy until 1821, although he returned to the court in Turin after a short period."}
+{"text":"Following revolts in Cadiz in 1820, King Ferdinand VII of Spain was forced to restore the Spanish Constitution of 1812 and hope of obtaining similar concessions from their own sovereigns arose in many European states. Insurrections broke out in Naples and Palermo."}
+{"text":"The initial indications of crisis were confirmed on 11 January 1821 when four students were stopped by the police at a theatre performance in Turin because they were wearing red caps with black bows, symbol of the carboneria. The young men offered resistance and were arrested, provoking a large brawl."}
+{"text":"The next day, all the students and many of their teachers protested, calling for the release of the youths and, when this was refused, they blockaded themselves in the university and the government was forced to call in the army. Although nobody was killed, the wounded were very numerous and the situation escalated."}
+{"text":"A connection was made between the protestors and the secret society of the \"Federati\", whose leaders Santorre di Rossi, Giacinto Collegno, Carlo Emanuele Asinari, and Guglielmo Moffa di Lisio Gribaldi (all soldiers, officials, or sons of ministers) and Roberto d'Azeglio met with Charles Albert on 6 March. They were ready to act, having identified the prince as a new man for the House of Savoy, who might be willing to break with the absolutist past."}
+{"text":"The goal of the conspirators was not to abolish the House of Savoy, but to induce it to enact political and social reforms and then undertake a war against Austria, which seemed possible in light of the deeply anti-Austrian sentiments of the Victor Emmanuel I."}
+{"text":"In this, the conspirators took advantage of the absence of Charles Felix, whom they thought would have been able to induce Victor Emmanuel to oppose their plans. They planned to raise the army, surround the royal residence at Moncalieri castle and force him to grant a constitution and declare war on Austria. The role of Charles Albert would have been to mediate between the conspirators and the king, but the following morning, he changed his mind and attempted to escape from the conspirators, although he did not disavow them."}
+{"text":"The conspirators grew suspicious and prepared to cancel the insurrection which they had planned for the 10th. The same day, Charles Albert, completely penitent, raced to Moncalieri in order to confess everything to Victor Emmanuel and beg for pardon. In the night the garrison of Alessandria, commanded by one of the conspirators, Guglielmo Ansaldi, rebelled and occupied the city. Although they had been abandoned by the Prince, the rest of the revolutionaries decided to act at this point."}
+{"text":"Abdication of Victor Emmanuel and regency of Charles Albert."}
+{"text":"On Sunday 11 March 1821, King Victor Emmanuel I met with the Crown Council, which Charles Albert was a member of. As a result of the king's indecision, no action was taken."}
+{"text":"On 12 March, the Citadel of Turin fell into the hands of the rebels. Victor Emmanuel encouraged Charles Albert and Cesare Balbo to negotiate with the Carbonari, who refused to listen to their messages. Thus, in the evening, in the face of the spreading military uprising, the king abdicated in favour of his brother Charles Felix. Since the latter was in Modena at the time, Charles Albert was appointed regent."}
+{"text":"The abdication of the king, which followed the dismissal of the ministers of state, led to chaos because it created a dynastic crisis which foreign powers would not ignore and because it split the army and bureaucracy, preventing every possibility of maintaining order."}
+{"text":"The regent tried to take control by naming a new government (the lawyer, Ferdinando del Pozzo (1768-1843) as Minister of the Interior, general Emanuele Pes di Villamarina as minister of war, and Lodovico Sauli d'Igliano as minister of foreign affairs) and attempted to negotiate with the rebels, but he achieved nothing."}
+{"text":"Given the impossibility of taking any decisions without the agreement of the new king, Charles Albert sent Charles Felix an account of the events, seeking instructions, but the letter took a very long time to reach its destination."}
+{"text":"Fearful of becoming the object of popular anger, on the evening of 13 March 1821, Charles Albert signed a decree granting a constitution along the lines of the Spanish constitution of 1812, which would not become law until approved by the king."}
+{"text":"The next day, the regent decided to form a junta, which was to protect the parliament. Two days after that, he swore to observe the Spanish Constitution, in a Savoyard version which had been slightly altered according to the requests of Victor Emmanuel's consort, Maria Therese."}
+{"text":"At this point, Charles Felix, who had now received the letter from Charles Albert notifying him of his brother's abdication, decided to act. He told the messenger not to address him as \"majesty\", then asserted that since the abdication had been extracted through violence, it could not be considered valid. Finally, he said, \"tell the Prince that, if there is still a drop of our royal blood in his veins, he should set out for Novara immediately and wait there for my orders.\""}
+{"text":"As for the Spanish constitution, he declared any sovereign acts taken after the abdication of his brother to be null and void, then he issued the following proclamation, \"Far from consenting to any change in the pre-existing form of government with the nominal abdication of the king, our beloved brother, we consider all the royal subjects who have aided or abetted the traitors or who have presumed to proclaim a constitution, to be rebels.\""}
+{"text":"Charles Albert, deeply discouraged, did as Charles Felix commanded, went to Novara, and issued a proclamation renouncing the regency and calling on everyone to submit to Charles Felix. On the 29th, he received a letter from Charles Felix ordering him to depart with his family for Florence."}
+{"text":"With Charles Albert out of the way, Charles Felix dispatched several letters to Francis I of Austria, asking him to send troops in order to suppress the revolt."}
+{"text":"On 3 April, he issued a second proclamation which granted a pardon to the soldiers while applying strict sanctions to rebel officials, which ultimately, prevented any form of compromise. Chancellor Metternich himself said to Francis IV of Modena that this proclamation had been imprudent and was written \"with animosity, passion, and hatred.\""}
+{"text":"The rebels, realising that no other option remained for them, marched on Novara, where the forces loyal to Charles Felix were gathered under the command of Vittorio Sallier de La Tour. This, inevitably, convinced Metternich to intervene."}
+{"text":"On 8 April there was a battle (Noara-Borgo Vercelli) with the troops of de La Tour and then with those of the Austrian general Ferdinand von Bubna, who occupied Vercelli and Alessandria on 11 April, while de La Tour, who had received full powers from Charles Felix, occupied Turin on the 10th."}
+{"text":"On 19 April, despite pressure from the emperors of Russia and Austria, Metternich, Charles Albert, Francis IV, and Charles Felix himself (who hated the idea of receiving the crown \"thanks\" to rebels), Victor Emmanuel reaffirmed his abdication. Thus, on 25 April, Charles Felix acceded to the throne."}
+{"text":"Once control of Turin was re-established, Charles Felix, who was still in Modena, entered into personal communication with the Emperor of Austria in order to obtain recognition from the Congress of Laibach, which was then in session, that he would be able to assume full control of his possessions, as an absolute monarch, and that Austria would not be allowed to interfere in any way in his territories."}
+{"text":"At the subsequent Congress of Verona, Charles Felix feared pressure for constitutional changes and reiterated in his instructions to his ambassadors that the repression of the \"revolutionary spirit\" inspired by the Congress of Laibach belonged exclusively to him and that he was firmly convinced of the necessity of this obligation."}
+{"text":"Having decided to remain at Modena, he appointed Ignazio Thaon di Revel as Lieutenant General of the Kingdom, and placed G. Piccono della Valle and G.C. Brignole in charge of foreign affairs and financial affairs respectively."}
+{"text":"Finally, he began the suppression of opposition. The following extract from the work of Guido Astuti describes his actions:"}
+{"text":"Finally, the king instituted three different jurisdictions: a mixed civil and military tribunal called the Royal Delegation with penal powers, a military commission for investigating the conduct of officers and non-commissioned officers, and a scrutiny commission for investigating the conduct of every employee of the kingdom."}
+{"text":"The Royal Delegation sat from 7 May to early October, in which time it issued 71 death sentences, 5 sentences of life imprisonment, and 20 sentences of imprisonment for 5 to 20 years. After the delegation's dissolution, the senate issued a further 24 death sentences, 5 sentences of life imprisonment, and another 12 sentences of imprisonment for 15\u201320 years. By the end of October the military commission had dismissed 627 officers."}
+{"text":"The scrutiny commission, divided into a superior tribunal and seven divisional boards of scrutiny, issued numerous dismissals and suspensions of civil servants and professors of every kind of school, whom it found particularly culpable."}
+{"text":"On the instructions of the minister of the interior, Roget de Cholex, the University of Turin was closed and many professors received severe admonitions because, as the king wrote in a letter to his brother (9 May 1822): \"everyone who has studied at the university is entirely corrupt: the professors are detestable, but there is no way to replace them... Thus the bad are all taught and the good are all ignorant.\"."}
+{"text":"In any case, although an oppressive climate was established, accompanied by the habituation to accusations and to the diversity of political ideas, offering a pretext for pursuing private vendettas, the royal authority, especially the governor of Genoa, Giorgio Des Geneys, did not prevent people from fleeing. Of all the people who were condemned, only two were actually executed."}
+{"text":"Further, it is reported by a letter of the Count d'Agli\u00e8 that Charles Felix never prevented anyone from secretly passing subsidies to condemned men who had gone into exile and Angelo Brofferio reports that when the king discovered that one of these subsidies was going to the family of one of the two individuals who had actually been executed in 1821, the king doubled the sum."}
+{"text":"The suppression of opposition was terminated on 30 September 1821, when Charles Felix issued a pardon of all individuals who had been implicated in the revolt, excluding the leaders, the financiers and those who had been found guilty of homicide or extortion. A few days later, Charles Felix entered Turin."}
+{"text":"Even before he reached Turin, Charles Felix repudiated the Regent's promise and, to help restore order, he called in the Austrians, who stayed in Piedmont till 1823. In that same year Charles Albert went to Spain to extinguish by force of arms the last sparks of revolt, making himself an object of hatred as the betrayer of Italian liberalism, but regaining the confidence of the King, who might have chosen another successor."}
+{"text":"Charles Felix was a true reactionary, convinced that the world would soon be swept clean of all those - in his view - wicked and sacrilegious innovations introduced by the French Revolution and diffused throughout Europe by Napoleon Bonaparte \"the rascal\" as he called him."}
+{"text":"Charles Felix was rarely present at Turin as king and did not participate in the social life of the capital, since he had never sought the throne and had no particular affection for the Turinese, whom he considered to have proven themselves traitors to the dynasty through their support for Napoleon and the constitutional protests."}
+{"text":"In practice, he resided in Turin only during the theatre season and he spent the rest of the time travelling around Savoy, Nice, Genoa (one of his favourite residences) and the castles of Govone and Agli\u00e8, which he had inherited from his sister Maria Anna."}
+{"text":"As a result, the king tended to delegate large amounts of power to his ministers, especially Count Roget de Cholex, Minister of the Interior, reserving a supervisory role for himself. His government was characterised by Massimo d'Azeglio as follows:"}
+{"text":"Nevertheless, the king was not entirely unaware of the need for reform and certainly exerted himself in the defense of the Piedmontese realm from Pontifical and foreign intervention. He limited the privileges and exemptions of the church, which seemed harmful to the state, almost completely abolishing the right of sanctuary in holy places, granted secular courts the right to hear cases against priests, and imposed civic oversight of catechisms, sermons, and religious books."}
+{"text":"Regarding the issue of church property which had been secularised in 1792 (with Papal consent) and Francisican property which had been secularised unilaterally, the king appointed an extraordinary board composed of official and supporters of the clergy."}
+{"text":"The proposals, delivered to Pope Leo XII by ambassador-extraordinary Filiberto Avogadro di Collobiano in December 1827, were examined by a council of cardinals, who rejected some financial details and the right of the state to dispose of the property freely. However, on 1 April 1828, the king summoned a new council, to which he professed flexibility on the financial issues and rigidity on the issue of disposal. The resulting agreement was approved on 14 May 1828 by the Holy See."}
+{"text":"There were also important legislative reforms, which were effected by the Edict of 16 July 1822, which reformed mortgages; the Edict of 27 August 1822, which unified the military penal law; and the Edict of 27 September 1822, which reformed the judicial system. These changes were capped by the \"Civil and Criminal Laws of the Kingdom of Sardinia\", signed on 16 January 1827, which replaced the dated Carta de Logu."}
+{"text":"In fact, while Victor Emmanuel had implemented a rigid counter-revolution, which uncritically revoked every arrangement made by the French after the abdication of Charles Emmanuel IV, the state could not continue to ignore the will of the majority of its subjects who called for laws in accordance with the ideas and needs of their contemporary world. Some reforms to fill the gaps were necessary."}
+{"text":"Thus, on 27 September 1822, after Charles Felix had re-established the publication of mortgages and codified the military penal law, he promulgated an Edict on the reform of the civil judicial system - excluding Sardinia."}
+{"text":"The edict abolished a majority of the special jurisdictions (e.g. for gambling offences, or management of ports), instituted 40 collegial prefecture tribunals (which managed 416 \"district courts\"), with original jurisdiction, which were divided into four classes, according to the importance of the area, and he entrusted instruction of the procedures to special members of these tribunals. Civil and penal jurisdiction remained with the Senate in Turin and fiscal jurisdiction with the Court of Audit."}
+{"text":"In addition, a single appellate jurisdiction was introduced, eliminating the multiplicity of appeals that had previously existed and the ministerial position of fiscal advocate was introduced."}
+{"text":"Finally, he made the act of taking a case to court free, however inadequately, replacing the old system of the \"sportula\", which was a very heavy judicial fee, calculated on the basis of the seriousness of the case, which provided the judges' pay, with a regular system of salaries paid by the state."}
+{"text":"Another important change was the code of civil and criminal law of the Kingdom of Sardinia promulgated on 16 January 1827, mainly as a result of the work of the Count of Cholex. The code was prepared in Turin by the Supreme Council of Sardinia. It was then examined by an appropriate Sardinian committee and the Reale Udienza of Sardinia. The result was a confection of Sardinian and mainland sources, creating a law which was both traditional and novel."}
+{"text":"The most novel changes relate to penal law: the abolition of the \"giudatico\" (impunity for criminals who had arrested other criminals) and the \"esemplarit\u00e0\" (cruel extensions of the death penalty, like quartering the corpse and scattering the ashes); restrictions on the imposition of the death penalty; affirmation of the principle that the punishment should fit the crime; and the distinction between attempted crimes and crimes actually committed."}
+{"text":"Finally, the slave trade was abolished and it was declared that any person who was found in captivity on a ship flying the Sardinian flag would instantly be freed."}
+{"text":"Charles Felix's reign was characterised by financial and economic difficulties and rigid protectionism, but there were some initiatives relating to services and public works."}
+{"text":"The road network was improved by the construction of the road between Cagliari and Sassari (now Strada statale 131 Charles Felix) and between Genoa and Nice, as well as bridges over the Bormida and the Ticino (the latter completed in 1828). A large number of public buildings were constructed in the cities: the port of Nice was largely restored, Genoa received a theatre (the Teatro Carlo Felice, named after the king), and Turin benefited from a programme of urban improvement which included the bridge over the Dora, the Piazza Carlo Felice, underground drainage channels, the porticos of the Piazza Castello and various new suburbs."}
+{"text":"Charles Felix paid attention to the steelworking sector, which had already occupied him as Viceroy, as well as the banking and insurance sectors, which were improved significantly by the creation of the Cassa di Risparmio di Torino in 1827 and the establishment of the Royal Mutual Society of Insurers in June 1829. He also encouraged the agricultural and manufacturing sector by granting many exemptions and fiscal benefits and through the creation of trade fairs like that of 1829, in which 500 exhibitors participated."}
+{"text":"Theoretically, Charles Felix was committed to the territorial expansion of his realm, but he did not maintain any expansionist illusions and preferred to concentrate on the economic and commercial interests of his realm. Thus in 1821, with the help of the Austrians and English, he signed an advantageous trade agreement with the Sublime Porte."}
+{"text":"In September 1825, in order to force the Bey of Tripoli to observe the treaty established with him in 1816 under English auspices, and to respect Sardinian ships sailing along the coast of North Africa, he launched a demonstration of force. Towards the end of the month, two frigates (\"Commercio\" and \"Cristina\"), a corvette (\"Tritone\") and a brig (\"Nereide\") under the command of captain Francesco Sivori, appeared off the coast of Tripoli. After a final attempt to pressure the Bey diplomatically, ten Sardinian longboats sailed into the harbour on the night of 27 September and set fire to a Tripolitanian brig and two schooners, routing or murdering the Tripolitanian troops. This forced the Bey to take a more conciliatory approach."}
+{"text":"In 1828, he ended the construction of a bridge over the River Ticino at Boffalora, which had been begun by his brother Victor Emmanuel I some years earlier as a result of a treaty with the Emperor of Austria, who controlled the other side of the river as part of the Kingdom of Lombardy\u2013Venetia."}
+{"text":"Charles Felix was an avid patron of art and culture. In 1824, he acquired Hautecombe Abbey, where many of his ancestors were buried and entrusted a restoration programme to the architect Ernesto Melano."}
+{"text":"In the same year, he was responsible for the acquisition of a good part of the collection which now constitutes the Museo Egizio in Turin. The pieces were acquired from Bernardino Drovetti, a native of Barbania, who was then the French consul in Egypt. The collection was placed in the Palazzo dell'Accademia delle Scienze, which is still the site of the museum."}
+{"text":"In 1827, Charles Felix instituted the chamber of commerce and the School of Palaeography and Diplomacy, affiliated to the academy of painting and sculpture."}
+{"text":"Charles Felix died without issue on 27 April 1831, in Turin at the Palazzo Chablais which had been given to him by his sister Princess Maria Anna, Duchess of Chablais, after a reign of ten years. He was buried at Hautecombe Abbey in Savoy, where his wife was also buried in 1849. With his death, the main line of the House of Savoy became extinct. He was succeeded by the senior male member of the House of Savoy-Carignano, the regent Charles Albert (1798-1849). The selection of Charles Albert as successor had not been made willingly, since Charles Albert had shown himself to be inclined to liberalism and friendly to the carbonari."}
+{"text":"The Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa is named for him."}
+{"text":"The principal road of the island of Sardinia, the Strada statale 131 Charles Felix, which connects the towns of Cagliari and Sassari-Porto Torres, constructed in the 19th century, is named for him."}
+{"text":"Jacques of Savoy (12 November 1450 \u2013 30 January 1486) was Count of Romont and Lord of Vaud."}
+{"text":"Count of Romont and Lord of Vaud."}
+{"text":"He was the 7th son of Louis, Duke of Savoy and Anne de Lusignan."}
+{"text":"The House of Savoy possessed the Lordship of Vaud since the 12th century, when it wrested control from the original owners, the House of Z\u00e4hringen. Savoy extended its influence by supporting the city of Bern against the House of Habsburg. After the Battle of Laupen, Savoy and Bern became allies, but as the power of Bern increased, they became enemies at the beginning of the Burgundian Wars."}
+{"text":"When Amadeus IX became head of the House of Savoy in 1465, he gave his brother Jacques as an appanage the region of Vaud with the title of Count of Romont, Lord of Vaud and the towns of Murten, Avenches, Payerne, Romont, Moudon, Rue and Yverdon."}
+{"text":"Amadeus suffered from epilepsy and let his wife, Yolande of Valois, and his brother, the Count of Bresse govern for him. He died in 1472 and was succeeded by his son Philibert, who was only 6 years old. The young Duke's mother, Yolande, became his regent and tutor."}
+{"text":"Several alliances were formed within the family. Peter, Prince-Bishop of Geneva and brother of Amadeus, became a counsellor at Yolande's court. The Count of Bresse sought the favor of Louis XI of France. Jacques of Savoy joined the army of the powerful Duke of Burgundy, Charles de Bold. Jacques took the opportunity of a conflict with his sister-in-law Yolande to grab several fortified places that Amadeus IX had retained, and an arbitration by Bern and Fribourg in 1471 awarded them to him. However, these different alliances and clever political manoeuvering by King Louis XI eventually led to the loss of all the territories belonging to the Count of Romont in Vaud."}
+{"text":"In the army of Charles the Bold."}
+{"text":"Jacques of Savoy became a close friend of Charles the Bold. In 1473, he became Governor of Burgundy, Grand Marshal and supreme commander of a third of the Burgundian army. Jacques had made the city of Bern\u2014at that time on friendly terms with the House of Savoy\u2014protector of his territories in Vaud during his absence. However, Bern joined the confederacy of the original 8 cantons, becoming an ally of King Louis XI through the \"League of Constance\", which further comprised Sigismund of Tirol, the town of Basel and the Alsatian towns of Strasbourg, Colmar, and S\u00e9lestat. The treaty stipulated mutual assistance in case of outside attack and was directed against the Duke of Burgundy."}
+{"text":"Sigismund of Austria, of the House of Habsburg, had given the Upper Alsace to Burgundy as an appanage. The region revolted against its Burgundian bailiff, Peter von Hagenbach, and the League of Constance declared war on Charles the Bold and laid siege to H\u00e9ricourt. In November 1474 Jacques of Savoy led his army in an attempt to lift the siege. However, when he arrived, H\u00e9ricourt had already surrendered and in the ensuing battle the Burgundian army suffered a crushing defeat."}
+{"text":"On 14 October 1475 Bern declared war on Jacques of Savoy on the pretext of the hostility of the population they had themselves terrorised. Troops from Bern invaded Vaud again and massacred resisting garrisons. As no help would be forthcoming, other Vaudois villages surrendered before being attacked. However, as Charles the Bold became successful on the European battlefields, Jacques of Savoy could at last concentrate his attention on his territories in Vaud. In the beginning of 1476 he was able to retake his territories, in part because the Swiss confederation was withdrawing everywhere before the powerful army of Charles the Bold arrived."}
+{"text":"After the battles of Grandson and Murten, both decisive Swiss victories, Vaud was again conquered by the Swiss and lost to Jacques of Savoy. Bern demanded Vaud and threatened Geneva and Savoy. Meanwhile, Duchess Yolande had fallen into the hands of Charles the Bold. King Louis XI intervened in favor of his sister and forced the Swiss to accept an armistice. On 14 April 1476 the Swiss Confederacy and Savoy concluded a peace treaty under the sponsorship of the French King."}
+{"text":"The Treaty of Fribourg stipulated that the Swiss would be paid to return the territories of Savoy. However, the House of Savoy was unable to raise the ransom, so the territories remained in the hands of Bern. The Treaty also prevented the \"Barony of Vaud\" from being separated from Savoy in appanage and excluded the Count of Romont forever as Lord of Vaud. In this way, Jacques of Savoy lost all rights to his fiefs."}
+{"text":"After the loss of his possessions in Vaud and the death of Charles the Bold before the walls of Nancy, Jacques of Savoy joined the court of Charles's daughter and heiress, Mary of Burgundy, wife of the Habsburg emperor Maximillian I. In 1478, he was awarded the Order of the Golden Fleece. He participated courageously in the Battle of Guinegate in 1479, where he was wounded, helping to beat the army of King Louis XI of France and keeping the County of Flanders for Mary."}
+{"text":"In 1484 Jacques of Savoy married Marie de Luxembourg (1462\u20131546), granddaughter of Louis of Luxembourg-Saint-Pol, Count of Saint-Pol. They had one child, Fran\u00e7oise Louise of Savoy (1485\u20131511). She married Henry III of Nassau-Breda but died without issue."}
+{"text":"Jacques received Saint-Pol from King Charles VIII of France, with other fiefs in Flanders and Brabant out of the inheritance of Louis of Luxembourg."}
+{"text":"Jacques of Savoy died on 30 June 1486 in the Castle of Ham, an old possession of the Counts of Saint-Pol."}
+{"text":"Princess Adelaide of Savoy-Genoa (Maria Adelaide Vittoria Amelia; 25 April 1904 \u2013 2 August 1979), was a daughter of Prince Thomas, Duke of Genoa and Princess Isabella of Bavaria."}
+{"text":"Adelaide was the fifth of six children born to Prince Thomas, Duke of Genoa and his wife Princess Isabella of Bavaria. Her father was a grandson of King Charles Albert of Sardinia. Among her siblings were Ferdinando, 3rd Duke of Genoa; Filiberto, 4th Duke of Genoa; and Eugenio, 5th Duke of Genoa. Her mother Isabella was a granddaughter of Ludwig I of Bavaria."}
+{"text":"Through her aunt Margherita of Savoy, she was a cousin of Victor Emmanuel III of Italy."}
+{"text":"On 15 July 1935 she married her third cousin, Prince Leone Massimo di Arsoli (25 January 1896 in Rome \u2013 4 May 1979 in Rome), son of Camillo Francesco Massimo, 4th Principe di Arsoli and donna Eleonora . Leone was the 5th Prince of Arsoli, the 9th Marquis of Roccasecca, Baron of Pisterzo, Lord of Intrafiumara, Nobile of Tivoli and Velletri and 2nd Duke of Anticoli Corrado. Her husband was also a great-grandson of Princess Caroline of Naples and Sicily and Princess Maria Gabriella of Savoy-Carignano. They had six children:"}
+{"text":"Louis of Savoy (; 1436\u201337 ; April 1482) was King of Cyprus, reigning together with and in the right of his wife, Charlotte of Cyprus. He was the second son and namesake of Louis, Duke of Savoy, and his wife, Anne of Lusignan, daughter of King Janus of Cyprus. He was born in Geneva."}
+{"text":"Louis was born, according to Samuel Guichenon, in June 1431, in Geneva, but the historian specifies in note that he was born in 1436. The birth in June 1436 is therefore that adopted by contemporary authors. Guichenon also specifies that the prince is 8 years old when he married in 1444. Some mention a period between 1436-1437"}
+{"text":", especially for this last year the Swiss historian \u00c9douard Mallet (1805-1856)."}
+{"text":"On 14 December 1444, at Stirling Castle, he was married to Annabella, youngest daughter of King James I of Scotland (d. 1437) and sister of King James II of Scotland. The official wedding never took place and the marriage was annulled in 1458."}
+{"text":"On 7 October 1458, Louis married Queen Charlotte of Cyprus, his cousin, and became King of Cyprus as well as the titular King of Jerusalem and of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia for the brief period of her reign from 1458 to 1460, when they were deposed."}
+{"text":"Louis died in April 1482, at the priory of Ripaille."}
+{"text":"Louis (1364 \u2013 11 December 1418) was the Lord of Piedmont and titular Prince of Achaea from 1402. He was a son of James of Piedmont and Marguerite de Beaujeu (1346\u20131402)."}
+{"text":"In 1405, he founded the University of Turin. On 24 January 1403, he married Bona (1388\u20131432), daughter of Amadeus VII, Count of Savoy, but they never had any children. When he died in 1418, the Piedmont-Achaea cadet branch of the House of Savoy died with him. His titles and estates were inherited by the senior line of the House of Savoy."}
+{"text":"Descendants of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile"}
+{"text":"Some British lines descend from Henrietta Maria of France, granddaughter of Joanna of Austria, Grand Duchess of Tuscany. Although her legitimate descendants in Britain were banished during the Glorious Revolution, many remain descending from the bastard children of Charles II and James VII. Princess Diana was and her sons and grandchildren are among this group by virtue of descent from Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton and Henrietta FitzJames."}
+{"text":"The two princes Albert II of Monaco and Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein also have this blood. Albert's was introduced to the Grimaldi family by Lady Mary Victoria Douglas-Hamilton, granddaughter of Charles, Grand Duke of Baden. Charles was, among other ways this descent can be traced, a double great-grandson of Louis VIII, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, a great-grandson of Elisabeth Sophie. Hans-Adam has the bloodline from his grandmother Archduchess Elisabeth Amalie of Austria, who was both a Habsburg with near male-line descent excluding Maria Theresa and Joanna the Mad and a granddaughter of Miguel I of Portugal mentioned above."}
+{"text":"Duke of Nemours was a title in the Peerage of France. The name refers to Nemours in the \u00cele-de-France region of north-central France."}
+{"text":"In the 12th and 13th centuries, the Lordship of Nemours, in the Gatinais, France, was a possession of the house of Villeb\u00e9on, a member of which, Gautier, was marshal of France in the middle of the 13th century. The lordship was sold to King Philip III of France in 1274 and 1276 by Jean and Philippe de Nemours. It was then made a county and given in 1364 to Jean III de Grailly, captal de Buch."}
+{"text":"In 1404, Charles VI of France gave it to Charles III of Navarre and elevated it into a duchy in the peerage of France, in exchange to his ancestral county of \u00c9vreux in Normandy."}
+{"text":"After being confiscated and restored several times, the duchy reverted to the French crown in 1504, after the extinction of the house of Armagnac-Pardiac. In 1507, it was given by Louis XII of France to his nephew, Gaston de Foix, who was killed at the Battle of Ravenna in 1512."}
+{"text":"The duchy then returned to the royal domain and was detached from it successively for Giuliano de Medici and his wife Philiberta of Savoy in 1515, for Louise of Savoy in 1524, and for Philip of Savoy, Count of Genevois, in 1528. The descendants of Philip of Savoy held the duchy until its sale to Louis XIV of France."}
+{"text":"In 1672, Louis XIV gave it to his brother Philippe de France, Duke of Orl\u00e9ans, whose descendants held it until the French Revolution. It was one of the many subsidiary titles held by the House of Orl\u00e9ans. The title of Duke of Nemours was afterwards given to Louis Charles d'Orl\u00e9ans, the second son of King Louis Philippe of the French."}
+{"text":"Aveline married Walter of Villeb\u00e9on, lord of Beaumont-du-G\u00e2tinais, in 1150 and shared the lordship with him. They left it to their son in 1174."}
+{"text":"The lordship was sold to the king in 1274."}
+{"text":"After the death of Charles III in 1425, the Duchy was claimed both by the descendants of his younger daughter, Beatrice, and his elder daughter and heiress, Blanche I of Navarre."}
+{"text":"Louis XI settled the claim on Jacques d'Armagnac, grandson of Beatrix, in 1462, though Blanche's descendants, the Kings of Navarre, claimed the title until 1571."}
+{"text":"She received the duchy of Nemours in 1524 with the duchy of Anjou. It was later transferred to her half-brother in 1528 and she received the duchy of Touraine in exchange. She also received later the Duchy of Auvergne."}
+{"text":"This is a list of the Duchesses of Nemours and their original houses."}
+{"text":"The March or Marquisate of Turin () was a territory of medieval Italy from the mid-10th century, when it was established as the Arduinic March (). It comprised several counties in Piedmont, including the counties of Turin, Auriate, Albenga and, probably, Ventimiglia. The confines of the march thus stretched across the Po Valley from the Western Alps in the north, to the Ligurian Sea."}
+{"text":"Because of the later importance of the city and valley of Susa, to the House of Savoy, who styled themselves as \"marquises of Susa\", the march is sometimes referred to as the March or Marquisate of Susa. Yet in the tenth and early eleventh centuries, the city and valley of Susa were not the most important part of the county, let alone the march, of Turin. Successive members of the Arduinici dynasty were documented far more frequently in their capital, the city of Turin, than anywhere else, and until the late 1020s, Susa was controlled by a cadet branch of the dynasty, rather than by the marquises themselves."}
+{"text":"The march was formed by a reorganisation of the territory of the kingdom of Italy into three marches, named after their three ruling dynasties:"}
+{"text":"Arduin Glaber was invested as count of Turin in 941 by Hugh of Italy. Arduin had captured Turin and the Susa Valley from the Saracens. In 964, Arduin was appointed margrave of Turin by Emperor Otto I. The march continued to be ruled by members of the Arduinici thereafter. Arduin Glaber's son Manfred I succeeded him and his son, Ulric Manfred II, succeeded him. Ulric had no son, so he left the march to his daughter Adelaide. Although Adelaide ruled in her own right, de jure control passed to her husband Otto, count of Aosta. Their descendants would later comprise the House of Savoy. Gundulph, the father of St Anselm, may have represented a collateral branch of Manfred's dynasty."}
+{"text":"After Adelaide\u2019s death in 1091, the march of Turin broke up. Comital authority in the city of Turin was invested in the bishop of Turin (1092) and the city itself became a commune (1091)."}
+{"text":"In 1092, the emperor Henry IV appointed his son Conrad as margrave of Turin. (Conrad was Adelaide\u2019s grandson via her daughter Bertha of Savoy). Although Conrad attempted to gain control of the march, his power was never effectual and the title was largely nominal. Instead, the northern part of the march of Turin was absorbed into Savoy, which was ruled by another of Adelaide\u2019s grandsons, Humbert II. (Many centuries later, Turin became the capital of this dynasty.) To the south, lands which had composed the march of Turin were annexed by Adelaide's nephew, Boniface del Vasto."}
+{"text":"The title Marquis of Turin was later used by Prince Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy, a member of the house of Savoy which ruled Italy from 1861 and 1946."}
+{"text":"The Military Order of Italy (Italian: \"Ordine Militare d'Italia\") is the highest military order of the Italian Republic and the former Kingdom of Italy. It was founded as the Military Order of Savoy, a national order by the King of Sardinia, Vittorio Emanuele I, Duke of Savoy in 1815. The order is awarded in five degrees for distinguished wartime conduct of units of the armed forces or individual personnel that has \"proven expertise, a sense of responsibility and valour.\""}
+{"text":"The order was continued on the unification of Italy in 1861 and was revived, under its new name, following the foundation of the Republic in 1946. It is bestowed by decree of the President of the Italian Republic, head of the order, on the recommendation of the Minister of Defence."}
+{"text":"Recipients of the \"Ordine militare di Savoia\" were transferred retaining their existing accoutrements and seniority."}
+{"text":"The various degrees of the order, which may be conferred posthumously, are as follows:"}
+{"text":"The lowest of these may also be awarded for peacetime actions."}
+{"text":"Mary of Burgundy (French: Marie de Bourgogne; 1386\u20131428) was a Duchess of Savoy by her marriage to Amadeus VIII of Savoy, who was later known as Antipope Felix V."}
+{"text":"Mary was the eighth of the nine children of Philip the Bold and his wife Margaret III, Countess of Flanders."}
+{"text":"Philip of Savoy had made alliances with low county Bavarians, by marrying John to Margaret of Bavaria. Philip also made links with the Dukes of Austria and of Savoy, by marrying Catherine to Leopold IV of Austria, and Mary to Amadeus VIII Savoy, son of Amadeus VII, Count of Savoy and Bonne of Berry. Their marriage was contracted in the year of her birth, on 11 November 1386 in Sluis, Zeeland; they married by proxy 30 October 1393 in Chalon-sur-Sa\u00f4ne and in person at Arras May 1401, when Mary was ca. 15 years old."}
+{"text":"In 1416, Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor elevated Amadeus from Count to Duke of Savoy. Mary duly became Duchess. From then onwards Dukes ruled over Savoy."}
+{"text":"The couple were married for thirty-six years before Mary died in 1428 at Chateau of Thonon les Bains. She is buried in the Abbey of Hautecombe."}
+{"text":"Mary and Amadeus had nine children, with further descendants:"}
+{"text":"Yolande Palaiologina or \"Violant\" (Moncalvo, June 1318 \u2013 Chambery, December 24, 1342) was the daughter of Theodore I, Marquess of Montferrat, and Argentina Spinola (1303-1356), a Genoese lady, daughter of Opicino Spinola. She received the name Yolande from her paternal grandmother Irene of Montferrat."}
+{"text":"Yolande married on May 1, 1330 to Aimone, Count of Savoy, from her marriage she became countess of Savoy, Aosta and Moriana. Her marriage was arranged to seal the newly found peace between her family and the counts of Savoy, and on the basis that the latter would succeed to Montferrato in case of extinction in the male line of the Palaeologus-Montferrat family. According also to this act of inheritance in Montferatto, when the male line died out of the House of Palaeologus-Montferrat with the death of Bonifacio IV of Montferrat two centuries later, Charles III, Duke of Savoy, laid claim to Montferrato through Yolande his great-great-great-great grandmother. However it was claimed by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor"}
+{"text":"After failing to produce a child for the count in the first few years of marriage, she went to the shrine of the Virgin Mary at Bourg-en-Bresse, which was considered at the time to help marriages become fruitful. Not long after, she conceived a son, Amadeus. She returned to the shrine after his birth, and was pleased to then conceive a daughter."}
+{"text":"Yolande died whilst giving birth to her son Louis on 24 December 1342, and she was buried in a chapel at Hautecombe Abbey."}
+{"text":"Joan of Geneva (born c. 1040, died 1095) was a Countess Consort of Savoy; married to Amadeus II, Count of Savoy."}
+{"text":"According to the much later \"Chronicles of Savoy\", Amadeus married Joan, daughter of \"Girard, Count of Burgundy\", which scholars have surmised to have been Count Gerold of Geneva. The \"Chronicon Altacumbae\" says only that \"the wife of Amadeus [was] from Burgundy\", which might refer to Amadeus I. If his wife were Genevan, it would explain how the house of Savoy came so early to possess a large portion of the Genevois. His wife, whatever her name and origins, bore Amadeus II several children, although there is some uncertainty about how many:"}
+{"text":"Bonne of Bourbon (1341 \u2013 19 January 1402) was a Countess of Savoy by marriage to Amadeus VI of Savoy. She was the daughter of Peter I, Duke of Bourbon, and Isabella of Valois, and hence a sister of Joanna of Bourbon. She served as regent of Savoy during the absence of her spouse from 1366 to 1367 and in 1383, and during the minority of her grandson Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy in 1391-1395."}
+{"text":"She became engaged to Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy as part of the Treaty of Paris (1355), which included a dowry of three thousand florins per year. She married Amadeus in September 1355 in Paris. Immediately after their wedding, her husband had to return to his army, still engaged in the Hundred Years' War."}
+{"text":"In 1366, when her husband left on a crusade to Bulgaria, he named her as regent of Savoy for the duration of his absence, to be advised by his council. In 1367, James, lord of Piedmont, a cousin of Amadeus, died. There was a dispute over his inheritance between his eldest son, Philip and his widow, Margaret of Beaujeu, representing the interests of her young sons, Amadeus and Louis. Bonne, acting as regent, was only able to keep them from open war. She was not able to settle the dispute, and Philip had to go to Amadeus in Venice to try to get resolution."}
+{"text":"She greatly enjoyed the Alpine mountain lakes of Savoy, and tried to ensure the castles she stayed in had good views of them. In 1371, she oversaw the building of the chateau at Ripaille, seeking to build a manor that would more easily accommodate the larger court of the Count. The new chateau had large windows overlooking Lake Geneva. She was a great patron of music, and was known for her skill on the harp."}
+{"text":"In July 1382, funds were running low for her husband's ongoing wars in Italy, so she sold some of her jewelry for more than 400 florins to help him re-equip."}
+{"text":"When Amadeus VII died of tetanus in 1391, and Bonne became regent. Her influence over Savoy came to an end when Amadeus VII's doctor (widely seen to have been responsible for the Count's death) accused the Countess of ordering her son's death in 1395. The Dukes of Berry and Burgundy also accused several members of the Count's Council of being complicit in the murder and Bonne was relieved of the regency and of caring for her grandson, the new Count Amadeus VIII."}
+{"text":"Bonne died at the Ch\u00e2teau de M\u00e2con."}
+{"text":"Margaret of Geneva (1180?\u20131252), was a countess of Savoy by marriage to Thomas I of Savoy. She was the daughter of William I, Count of Geneva, and Beatrice de Faucigny (1160\u20131196)."}
+{"text":"She was supposed to become the third wife of Philip II of France. However, when her father was escorting her to France in May 1195, Thomas I of Savoy carried her off. Attracted by her beauty, Count Thomas then married her himself, claiming that Philip II was already married (the French King had married Ingeborg of Denmark in 1193 but had repudiated her soon thereafter). Margaret's father fell sick and died after the wedding, and her mother died the following year."}
+{"text":"The children of Marguerite and Thomas I of Savoy were:"}
+{"text":"After her death, she was buried at Hautecombe Abbey in Savoy."}
+{"text":"List of consorts of the Savoyard monarchs"}
+{"text":"Between 1859 and 1861 the Kingdom of Sardinia incorporated the majority of Italian states. On 17 March 1861 King Victor Emmanuel II was proclaimed King of Italy by the Parliament in Turin."}
+{"text":"Gisela of Burgundy (1075\u20131135), was a Countess consort of Savoy and a Marchioness consort of Montferrat. She was the spouse of Humbert II, Count of Savoy and later of Rainier I of Montferrat whom she married after Humbert's death. She was the daughter of William I, Count of Burgundy."}
+{"text":"With her first husband, Humbert II of Savoy, whom she married in 1090, her children included:"}
+{"text":"By her second marriage to Rainier, Marquess of Montferrat, her children were:"}
+{"text":"Adelaide of Merania (or Alice, Alix \u2013 died 8 March 1279, \u00c9vian) was the countess of Burgundy from 1248 until her death. She was also countess of Savoy and Bresse through her marriage in 1267 to Count Philip I of Savoy."}
+{"text":"Adelaide was the daughter of Duke Otto I of Merania and Countess Beatrice II of Burgundy. She inherited the county after the death of her brother, Otto III, Count Palatine of Burgundy, in 1248. As countess, she came into conflict with King Rudolph I."}
+{"text":"Adelaide died in 1279 and was buried in Cherlieu Abbey near Besan\u00e7on."}
+{"text":"Adelaide married Hugh, Count of Salins (died 1266), from a younger branch of male-line dynasty of Ivrean-originated Counts of Burgundy, around 1239. They had, among others, the following children:"}
+{"text":"On 11 June 1267, Adelaide married Philip, the former archbishop of Lyon who inherited the County of Savoy in the following year (died 1285). The marriage remained childless."}
+{"text":"Louis I (1249\/50 \u2013 1302) was the Baron of Vaud. At the time of his birth he was a younger son of the House of Savoy, but through a series of deaths and his own effective military service, he succeeded in creating a semi-independent principality in the \"pays de Vaud\" by 1286. He travelled widely in the highest circles of European nobility (the royal courts of London, Paris and Naples), obtained the right to mint coins from the Holy Roman Emperor, and convoked the first public assembly in the Piedmont to include members of the non-noble classes. When he died, his barony was inherited by his son."}
+{"text":"Youth in Savoy, England and France (1259\u201381)."}
+{"text":"While Louis was living in Paris in July 1281, King Philip III of France drew him into a pro-Angevin alliance with Count Aymar IV of Valentinois and Louis de Forez, sire of Beaujeu, against the bishops of Die, Lyon and Valence. Louis seems to have been induced to join by the promise of marrying Jeanne de Montfort, widow of Guy, sire of Beaujeu and count of Forez. The marriage probably took place in 1283, when Jeanne was still of child-bearing age. Her dowry consisted of the lands held by the sire of Beaujeu in Bugey and Valromey, lands which lay in an area of Savoyard expansion between the Rh\u00f4ne and the Ain."}
+{"text":"Wars with Geneva, the Dauphin\u00e9 and the king (1281\u201384)."}
+{"text":"In the fall of 1282, Louis was back in the service of his family, led by Count Philip of Savoy, when a war with Amadeus II of Geneva and his allies broke out. Louis captured the Delphinal fortress of La Buissi\u00e8re, and then invaded the Gr\u00e9sivaudan, as his brother Amadeus invaded the region south of Grenoble. Philip seems to have been grooming Louis to take command of the \"pays de Vaud\", for as early as September 1281 he had been sent to Moudon, the earliest Savoyard town in the Vaud, to receive the homage of certain vassals of the count."}
+{"text":"Louis may have felt underappreciated for his services at home, for Margaret of Provence, queen-mother of France and a Savoyard on her mother's side, tried to mediate between him and his brother and uncle in January 1283, to no effect. In the spring of 1283, Rudolf, King of Germany and emperor-elect, was trying to enforce his authority in Helvetia, and encroaching on the Savoyard sphere of influence. After his initial assault on Payerne in the Vaud was repulsed in June, Louis came to the city with a body of troops to relieve it. Rudolf besieged it for six months, but starvation forced capitulation in December, and the city was lost to Savoy."}
+{"text":"In May 1284 Louis obtained from Rudolf the right to mint coin in the \"pays de Vaud\", an implicit imperial confirmation of his lordship there. In October Philip wrote to Eleanor of Provence, Margaret's sister and Henry III's wife, and her son, now King Edward, asking them to arbitrate Louis's grievances. He also sent the Bishop of Aosta, Nicholas Bersatori, to England to explain the problem exactly. Possibly, Philip intended only to delay Louis's resort to arms. However, Philip\u2019s will left adjudication to Queen Eleanor and King Edward."}
+{"text":"After Philip's death, Louis did briefly make war on his brother, but he and Amadeus arrived at a settlement in January 1286. In return for liege homage, Louis received the entire \"pays de Vaud\" between the rivers Aubonne and Veveyse, including Moudon and Romont. He also received Saillon and Conthey in the Valais and Pierre-Ch\u00e2tel in Bugey, and an annual pension of 400 \"livres viennois\" from the \"p\u00e9age\" of Saint-Maurice-d'Agaune and Villeneuve. A few lords of the \"pays de Vaud\" remained liege vassals of the count and their lands were not a part of the barony of Vaud. These were the Count of Gruy\u00e8re and the lords of Ch\u00e2tel and Cossonay."}
+{"text":"Louis's eldest son, Louis II, succeeded him in Vaud, and his daughter Blanche made an adventitious match to a nephew of Otho de Grandison. This match was arranged in May 1303 at Paris, and the sons of Pierre II de Grandison and Blanche later served the Count of Savoy."}
+{"text":"Louis I died in Naples in 1302."}
+{"text":"Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy, Prince of Venice"}
+{"text":"Emanuele Filiberto Umberto Reza Ciro Ren\u00e9 Maria di Savoia (born 22 June 1972) is a member of the House of Savoy. He is the son and heir of Vittorio Emanuele di Savoia and only male-line grandson of Umberto II, the last King of Italy. As heir-apparent to the disputed headship of the House of Savoy, Emanuele Filiberto also styles himself as \"Prince of Piedmont\"."}
+{"text":"Emanuele Filiberto grew up as an exile from Italy, in accordance with the provision of the Italian constitution prohibiting the male issue of the Savoy kings of Italy from entering or staying on Italian territory. Since returning to Italy he has made many appearances on national television, including his participation as a contestant in \"Ballando con le stelle\" (the Italian version of \"Dancing with the Stars\"), and the Sanremo Music Festival."}
+{"text":"He is married to French actress Clotilde Courau."}
+{"text":"Emanuele Filiberto was born in Geneva, Switzerland, the only child of Victor Emmanuel, Prince of Naples, a disputed head of the House of Savoy, and his wife, Marina Ricolfi Doria, a Swiss former water ski champion."}
+{"text":"On 10 November 2002, he accompanied his father and mother to Italy, following revocation of the provision in the Italian constitution that forbade the male Savoy descendants of kings of Italy from setting foot in the country. On the three-day trip, he accompanied his parents on a visit to the Vatican for a 20-minute audience with Pope John Paul II. He also appeared in a TV commercial for a brand of olives, in which he said they made you \"feel like a king\"."}
+{"text":"On 10 July 2003, the engagement of Emanuele Filiberto to Clotilde Courau, a French actress, was announced. The couple married on 25 September of that year at the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri in Rome. There were some 1,200 guests at the wedding; among them were Pierre Cardin and Valentino Garavani, who had designed the wedding dress."}
+{"text":"In 2015 Emanuele Filiberto engaged in a public spat on Twitter with aristocratic journalist Beatrice Borromeo who broke the story of his father's confession on video regarding the death of Dirk Hamer. Vittorio Emanuele had sued the newspaper for defamation, but in 2015 after it won the case, Borromeo tweeted \"Vincere una causa \u00e8 sempre piacevole, ma contro Vittorio Emanuele di Savoia la goduria \u00e8 doppia! (\"Winning a case is always nice, but against Victor Emmanuel of Savoy there is double the pleasure\"), and \"caro @efsavoia goditi questa sentenza\" (\"dear @efsavoia enjoy this judgement\") which provoked Emanuele Filiberto to defend his father. She had earlier publicly confronted him on camera with a copy of a book on the murder by Hamer's sister, whose preface she had written."}
+{"text":"In 2018 Emanuele Filiberto revealed that he is contemplating the launch of a royalist party to advocate for restoration of monarchy in Italy. The comment was made during the prince's interview with the news daily \"Libero\", following release of polling data by the \"Istituto Piepoli\" that showed 15 percent of Italians (nearly 12 million people) favor the concept, while eight percent expressed support for Emanuele Filiberto as future king."}
+{"text":"Otto de Grandson (c. 1238\u20131328), sometimes numbered Otto I to distinguish him from later members of his family with the same name, was the most prominent of the Savoyard knights in the service of King Edward I of England, to whom he was the closest personal friend and many of whose interests he shared."}
+{"text":"The son of Pierre, lord of Grandson near Lausanne and Agnes. He was the elder brother of William de Grandison, 1st Baron Grandison and Henri de Grandson, both of whom would join him in England. As would his cousins Pierre de Champvent and Guillaume de Champvent."}
+{"text":"The young Otto travelled to England probably in the company of Peter II of Savoy in 1252, certainly not later than 1265. There he entered the service of King Henry III and by 1267 was placed in the household of Prince Edward. In return for likely service for Prince Edward at the battles of Lewes and Evesham he was rewarded with property at Queenhithe in London. In 1268 both prince and servant were knighted and in 1271 the latter accompanied his lord on the Ninth Crusade, where he served at Acre that year. According to one source, it was Otto, not Eleanor of Castile, who sucked the poison from the wounded Edward after an attempted assassination. In 1272 Otto was appointed an executor in Acre."}
+{"text":"In 1283 he was briefly in the employ of Edmund Crouchback, the king's younger brother, for diplomatic work. It was said that no one could do the king's will better, including the king himself."}
+{"text":"He was appointed governor of the Channel Islands and in 1290 appointed a bailiff for each of the bailiwicks of Guernsey and Jersey, giving them civil powers to administer the islands."}
+{"text":"King Edward I of England sent Otto to Acre in the Holy Land in 1290 along with some English knights. At the time of the fall of Acre (1291), he was the master of the English knights in Palestine. At Acre he saved the life of fellow Savoyard Jean I de Grailly, with whom he had served Edward in Gascony earlier. As the city fell to the Muslims he commandeered Venetian ships filling them with fleeing troops and the wounded Jean I de Grailly, Otto was the last to join them on board."}
+{"text":"After the fall of the city he fled to Cyprus a poor man, but went on a subsequent pilgrimage to Jerusalem. In 1298 or 1299, Otto, Jacques de Molay of the Templars, and Guillaume de Villaret of the Hospitallers campaigned in Cilicia in order to fight off an invasion by the Mamluks. In his \"La flor des estoires d'Orient\", the Armenian monk Hayton of Corycus mentions his activity on the mainland in Cilicia in 1298\u20131299: \"Otto de Grandison and the Masters of the Temple and of the Hospitallers as well as their convents, who were at that time [1298 or 1299] in these regions [Cilician Armenia] . . .\"."}
+{"text":"He was summoned to Parliament in 1299, which resulted in him becoming Baron Grandison. This title became extinct on his death."}
+{"text":"At the end of his life he returned to Grandson, which he had inherited from his father and to which he had made recurrent visits throughout his adult life. He never married and was succeeded by his nephew. He had advanced many of his relatives through his embassies, especially in the church. Three of his relatives served as Bishops of Lausanne and another nephew, John Grandisson, succeeded to the Diocese of Exeter. In the spring of 1328, the ninety-year-old knight set out tor one last trip to Rome. Close to Aigle, he was taken ill. On 5 April 1328, he died."}
+{"text":"His tomb was ordered by the Pope to be placed in the cathedral of Lausanne."}
+{"text":"Master James of Saint George (\u20131309),(French ),(Old French Mestre Jaks),(Latin Magistro Jacobo de Sancto Georgio), was a master of works\/architect from Savoy, described by historian Marc Morris as \"one of the greatest architects of the European Middle Ages\". He was largely responsible for designing King Edward I's castles in North Wales, including Conwy, Harlech and Caernarfon (all begun in 1283) and Beaumaris on Anglesey (begun 1295)."}
+{"text":"There is little firm documentary evidence of James\u2019 early life and origin. However, we have very strong circumstantial evidence that his place of birth was Saint-Prex in or around the year 1230. We know for certain that his father was also an architect mason named John. This strong evidence related to his father, including year of death and architectural style lead to the conclusion that John was Jean Cotereel the builder of Saint-Prex and Lausanne Cathedral."}
+{"text":"Savoyard archival records record that James' father, Master John, was a master mason working on castles in Savoy during the mid-13th century\u2009\u2014\u2009these castles included that first worked on by James of Saint George at Yverdon-les-Bains. His name \"Saint George\", acquired following his move to England, is believed to be a reference to the castle of , located southeast of Lyon in the Viennois."}
+{"text":"The first reference to this name in English records is Magistri Jacobi Di Sancto Georgio on 8 November 1280, two years after his arrival into England. His patron, King Edward I, probably met Master James of St George whilst returning from Crusade and visiting Savoy in 1273. It was 25 June 1273 that King Edward I of England visited so that his great nephew Philip I, Count of Savoy might pay homage to him in fulfilment of an earlier 1240 agreement on Alpine tolls."}
+{"text":"Historian and Author A. J. Taylor uncovered, what had been a mystery for centuries in discovering, the Savoyard origins of James, that and Master James of Saint George were one and the same man. Taylor travelled from Wales to Savoy noting for the first time the origins of the Welsh works in Savoy. Taylor citing the garderobes at La B\u00e2tiaz Castle, the windows at Chillon Castle along with the town walls at Saillon as examples"}
+{"text":"Responsible for the castles constructed for Philip I, Count of Savoy in the between 1270 and 1275 at , , and . It is very possible that the simultaneous construction of these castles, three round tower castles and one octagonal tower palace castle, influenced Edward\u2019s decision to hire him to construct the castles in north Wales. Perhaps his last work in Savoy was at in the Aosta Valley in the summer of 1275."}
+{"text":"The earliest references in the English records of James of St George are found in April 1278 describing him as \"\" translates as \u201cgoing to Wales to put in order the works of the castles\u201d there, that is the Mason charged with the design, technical direction and management of the works underway in Wales He is recorded as travelling to Wales, \"\" at which time four new castles were being built: Flint, Rhuddlan, Builth and Aberystwyth. Historian A. J. Taylor records that from 1277 until 1280 his main work was to supervise the building of Rhuddlan Castle and the canalisation of the River Clwyd before turning to Flint. Flint Castle is similar in concept to that built by Master James earlier at Yverdon-les-Bains"}
+{"text":"He was appointed Master of the Royal Works in Wales () around 1285, drawing a wage of 3\"s.\" a day. This appointment gave him control of construction in all its aspects of castles at Conwy, Caernarfon and Harlech."}
+{"text":"Harlech Castle, begun in 1283, was effectively completed in 1289. On 3 July 1290, James of St George was appointed Constable of Harlech Castle, succeeding John de Bonvillars who had died in August 1287. He held this position until 14 December 1293."}
+{"text":"His final Welsh castle was Beaumaris, on which work started in April 1295. Described by historian Marc Morris as Master James \"most perfectly conceived castle\" it remained unfinished on his death in 1309."}
+{"text":"James of St George had joined Edward I in Scotland, probably around September 1298. In February 1302, James of St George was appointed to oversee to the new defences at Linlithgow. He had also worked at Stirling during the siege of 1304."}
+{"text":"There is no record of James's wife, Ambrosia, receiving a pension after his death, so it is probable she did not survive him."}
+{"text":"William of Savoy (died 1239 in Viterbo) was a bishop from the House of Savoy. He was a son of Thomas, Count of Savoy and Margaret of Geneva. He was elected bishop of Valence in 1224. He negotiated the weddings of queens, and was an advisor to Henry III of England. Between his religious roles and his family relations, his influence was noted from London to Rome."}
+{"text":"Being at least the fourth son of a noble house, William's father Thomas sought for him positions in the church which would serve to strengthen the County of Savoy rather than diminish it. This included a request by 1220 to Henry III of England which led to William being responsible for the benefices of St Michael's on Wyre and Bingham. In 1220 he was also elected dean of the cathedral at Vienne, and in 1225 was elected bishop of Valence, replacing G\u00e9rold of Lausanne, who had just become patriarch of Jerusalem."}
+{"text":"His job as bishop included temporal authority as well as spiritual, but this was contested by Ademar de Peiteus, Count of Valentinois. With the assistance of his kinfolk, William was able to defeat the forces of Ademar and negotiated a favorable peace treaty in 1231."}
+{"text":"When their father died in 1233, William's brothers began to struggle for control of the various portions of the county. In July 1234, the brothers met at Ch\u00e2teau de Chillon, some bringing large armed forces with them. William played a key role in maintaining the integrity of the county under Amadeus IV of Savoy, with the others receiving significant portions under his authority. These portions were also designed to encourage those brothers to expand their authority outward from the county. The treaty they signed there required all the brothers to take arms against any one of them who violated the territory of another, and left William as the arbiter of any disputes."}
+{"text":"William of Savoy lobbied to have his niece Margaret of Provence marry Louis IX of France, as this would bring prestige and influence to his family. He and his brother Thomas accompanied her to her wedding and coronation, but William was not invited to the court in Paris and sent home by Blanche of Castile with a few gifts."}
+{"text":"William then labored to have Margaret's younger sister Eleanor marry Henry III of England. This succeeded and in 1236 he came with her to England. Henry made William the head of a council of advisors. Henry exchanged letters with Pope Gregory IX about how much he needed William in England. Granted the Honour of Richmond in August 1236. Henry then tried to have William selected as bishop of Winchester; the chapter resisted Henry on this. In 1237, William worked on behalf of his brother Thomas, Count of Flanders to convince Henry to release many Flemish merchants and restore better trade between England and Flanders. That same year, William was also a signing witness to a treaty between England and Scotland."}
+{"text":"When Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor called together an army to invade Italy in 1238, Henry chose William to accompany his force of 100 knights from Gascony, so that he could lead them through his Savoy's Alpine passes. He joined the imperial army in Turin, and then went on to participate in the siege of Brescia. His prowess during this was widely noted. Philippe Mousket recorded that he led his troops on 23 August to drive off a force coming in from Piacenza to help Brescia. He and his troops took 90 knights and 300 infantry prisoner, while the foe took only 5 prisoners."}
+{"text":"In 1238 William secured election as Prince-Bishop of Li\u00e8ge. He died next year, in Italy (said to have been poisoned)."}
+{"text":"In 1244, Boniface rejected Robert Passelewe, who had been selected as Bishop of Chichester, on the grounds that Passelewe was illiterate. Boniface then nominated his own candidate, Richard of Chichester, and although the king objected, Pope Innocent IV confirmed Richard's election. In 1258, Boniface objected to the selection of Hugh de Balsham as Bishop of Ely, and tried to elevate Adam Marsh instead, but Hugh appealed to Rome, which upheld Hugh's election. Boniface held church councils to reform the clergy, in 1257 at London, in 1258 at Merton, and in 1261 at Lambeth."}
+{"text":"During his archiepiscopate, a provincial court was established in the archdiocese of Canterbury, with a presiding \"Officialis\" appointed by Boniface."}
+{"text":"Boniface clashed with Henry's half-brothers, the Lusignans, who arrived in England in 1247 and competed for lands and promotions with the queens' Savoy relatives. Boniface's quarrel with Aymer de Valence over a hospital in Southwark led to the archbishop's palace at Lambeth being plundered and one of Boniface's functionaries being kidnapped. The dispute with Aymer was only settled in early 1253. Boniface was once more absent from England from October 1254 to November 1256, and spent most of that time in Savoy where he attempted to help his brothers rescue their eldest brother Thomas who was being held captive at Turin."}
+{"text":"In 1258 and 1259, Boniface was a member of the Council of Fifteen, which conducted business for Henry III under the Provisions of Oxford. This Council consisted of the earls of Leicester, Gloucester, Norfolk, Warwick, Hereford, the Count of Aumale, Peter of Savoy, John fitzGeoffrey, Peter de Montfort, Richard Grey, Roger Mortimer, James Audley, John Maunsell, Walter de Cantilupe, Bishop of Worcester as well as Boniface. One of the actions of this council was to send the Lusignans into exile. In April 1260, Boniface worked with Richard of Cornwall to broker a peace between King Henry and Prince Edward."}
+{"text":"Boniface accompanied the queen and Prince Edward to Burgos for the marriage of Edward to Eleanor of Castile and Edward's knighting. But in 1261 Boniface held a church council at Lambeth, where a series of ecclesiastical laws were published which denounced any royal limitations on ecclesiastical courts. These decrees were done without royal consent and thus was tantamount to an ecclesiastical revolt against royal authority similar to the baronial opposition movement that had begun in 1258."}
+{"text":"During the Second Barons' War, Boniface seems to have sided first with the English bishops against King Henry, but later he sided with Henry. In 1262, he went to France, where he excommunicated the barons opposing the king. He was not summoned to the Parliament at London in January 1265 because he was abroad. On the triumph of the king's party in 1265, he returned to England, arriving there in May 1266."}
+{"text":"The Early English Gothic chapel of Lambeth Palace dates from work carried out while Boniface was archbishop. Boniface left England in November 1268, and never returned. He died 18 July 1270, in Savoy. He was buried with his family in the Cistercian abbey of Hautecombe in Savoy. In his will, he left legacies to all the houses of the Franciscans and Dominicans in the diocese of Canterbury. His will had differing provisions for his burial depending on whether he died in England, France, or near the Alps. Oddly enough, his official seal included a head of the pagan god Jupiter Serapis along with the usual depiction of the archbishop in full vestments."}
+{"text":"After his death, Boniface's tomb was the center of a cult, and when the tomb was opened in 1580, his body was found to be perfectly preserved. The tomb and effigy was destroyed in the French Revolution, his remains were reburied and a new tomb built in 1839. He was beatified by Pope Gregory XVI in 1839, and his feast day is 14 July."}
+{"text":"Although Matthew Paris disapproved of Boniface, modern historians have seen him as a responsible archbishop. The historian D. A. Carpenter says that Boniface \"became a respected and reforming archbishop\". His episcopal registers do not survive."}
+{"text":"William de Grandison (died 1335), was an English noble, and Deputy Justiciar of North Wales."}
+{"text":"William was a younger son of and Agnes Neufch\u00e2tel. He was the younger brother of key ally and envoy, for King Edward I of England, Otto de Grandson, Grandison being an anglicisation of Grandson."}
+{"text":"He served in the household of Edmund, Earl of Lancaster and was active in the wars in Gascony and Scotland. During 1292, he was granted a license to crenellate his manor of Ashperton, Herefordshire."}
+{"text":"William married Sybil, daughter of John de Tregoz and Mabel FitzWarin, they are known to have had the following known issue:"}
+{"text":"Marie of Savoy (1411\u20131469) was a Duchess of Milan by marriage to Filippo Maria Visconti."}
+{"text":"She was a daughter of Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy (later the Antipope Felix V) and Mary of Burgundy. She married Filippo Maria Visconti, the Duke of Milan in 1428. They had no children."}
+{"text":"Beatrice of Savoy (before 4 March 1223 \u2013 10 May before 1259) was a daughter of Amadeus IV, Count of Savoy and his first wife Marguerite of Burgundy. She was a member of the House of Savoy by birth and by her first marriage she was Marchioness consort of Saluzzo."}
+{"text":"Beatrice was the elder of two daughters; her younger sister Margaret was married to Boniface II, Marquess of Montferrat. After the death of their mother, their father married Cecile of Baux and had further children including Boniface, Count of Savoy and a younger Beatrice."}
+{"text":"Beatrice was first betrothed not long after her birth on 4 March 1223 to Manfred III, Marquess of Saluzzo. However, the contract was broken off but was then renewed on 2 October 1227; a contract signed on that date refers to the dowry of Beatrice. The couple were married in March 1233. They were married for eleven years until Manfred's death in 1244, leaving Beatrice with two children and pregnant with twins. They had the following children:"}
+{"text":"Only two years after Manfred's death on 8 May 1246, Beatrice was betrothed a second time to a Manfred, an illegitimate son of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor by his mistress and possibly wife Bianca Lancia. Her marriage was arranged to recognize an alliance between Beatrice's father and Frederick. The couple were married by proxy in March 1247 and the marriage contract was signed on 21 April 1247. Manfred and Beatrice had one daughter, Constance (1249-1302) who went on to marry Peter III of Aragon and became mother of Alfonso III of Aragon, James II of Aragon and Elizabeth of Aragon."}
+{"text":"In a testament from Beatrice's father dated 24 May 1253, the succession rights of Beatrice were bypassed in favor of her younger half-brother; the testament fails to mention Beatrice's second husband, possibly indicating a breakdown in the marriage. Beatrice died before 1259. Her husband became King of Sicily in 1258 and went on to marry Helena Angelina Doukaina and father children with her."}
+{"text":"Prince Eugene Jean of Savoy (Eugene Jean Fran\u00e7ois; 23 September 1714 \u2013 23 November 1734) was the last Count of Soissons of the House of Savoy."}
+{"text":"The only son of Emmanuel Thomas, Count of Soissons (a member of the House of Savoy-Carignano), and Princess Maria Theresia of Liechtenstein, he succeeded to his father's titles, Count of Soissons and Duke of Troppau, when the latter died in 1729. In 1731, Eugene Jean became a Knight in the Austrian Order of the Golden Fleece, like his father."}
+{"text":"In Massa on 10 November 1734 he was married by proxy to Princess Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina (1725\u20131790), Duchess of Massa and Princess of Carrara in her own right. As the bridegroom died thirteen days later in Mannheim, however, the marriage was annulled on the basis that it was never consummated. Maria Teresa would later marry Ercole III d'Este, Duke of Modena."}
+{"text":"With his death, the title \"Count of Soissons\" became extinct and reverted to the French crown. The title \"Duke of Troppau\" returned to his mother, whose estates passed to Franz Joseph I, Prince of Liechtenstein, when she died in 1772."}
+{"text":"Joan of Savoy (1310 \u2013 29 June 1344), was Duchess consort of Brittany, wife of John III, Duke of Brittany. Joan was also a claimant to the County of Savoy upon the death of her father. She was a member of the House of Savoy and married into the House of Dreux."}
+{"text":"Joan was born in 1310, she was the only child of Edward, Count of Savoy, and his wife, Blanche of Burgundy."}
+{"text":"Joan married in 1329 aged nineteen to the forty-three-year-old, childless John III, Duke of Brittany; she was his third wife, John's second wife Isabella had died the previous year."}
+{"text":"The same year as Joan's marriage, her father died. Being his only child she considered herself his successor. However, Savoy had never had a female ruler, leading to a dispute in the succession. Joan's uncle Aymon had the support of the nobles of Savoy for the Semi-Salic inheritance and succeeded as count."}
+{"text":"John supported Joan's rights on Savoy. After the marriage, Joan renewed her claim on Savoy and allied herself with the Dauphin de Viennois against her uncle. By agreement settled by the French King on 22 November 1339, she renounced her rights of succession in return for an annual income of 6000 livres."}
+{"text":"Joan and John were married for twelve years but produced no offspring, and John died on 30 April 1341, leaving Joan a childless widow. This led to a disputed succession in Brittany between John's half-brother of the same name and John's niece Joan."}
+{"text":"In 1343, when her uncle Aymon died, Joan renewed her claim on the county of Savoy against her nine-year-old cousin, Amadeus VI. In her will, she left the county to Philip, Duke of Orl\u00e9ans to spite her cousins. In the end, he negotiated a similar settlement to the one of Joan, yielding the claim in exchange for 5000 livres annually."}
+{"text":"Prince Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi"}
+{"text":"Prince Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi (29 January 1873 \u2013 18 March 1933) was an Italian mountaineer and explorer, briefly Infante of Spain as son of Amadeo I of Spain, member of the royal House of Savoy and cousin of the Italian King Victor Emmanuel III. He is known for his Arctic explorations and for his mountaineering expeditions, particularly to Mount Saint Elias (Alaska\u2013Yukon) and K2 (Pakistan\u2013China). He also served as an Italian admiral during World War I. He created the homonymous village in Italian Somalia during his last years of life."}
+{"text":"He was born in Madrid, Spain as the third oldest son of Prince Amadeo of Savoy, Duke of Aosta and his first wife Donna Maria Vittoria dal Pozzo della Cisterna. Prince Luigi Amedeo was a grandson of King Vittorio Emanuele II of Italy. He was born during his father's brief reign as King Amadeo of Spain. His siblings are Prince Emanuele Filiberto, Prince Vittorio Emanuele, and Prince Umberto. Shortly after his birth, his father, who had reigned in Spain since 1870, abdicated and returned to Italy in 1873. Prince Luigi Amedeo was a member of the House of Savoy, well known in Europe since the 12th century. His uncle became King Umberto I of Italy in 1878, and his cousin became King Vittorio Emanuele III in 1900."}
+{"text":"The title Duke of the Abruzzi (Italian: \"Duca degli Abruzzi\") was created by King Umberto I in 1890 for Luigi Amedeo, who was a son of the abdicating King of Spain Amadeus and initially was given the title of Infante of Spain. His ducal title referred to the central Italian region of Abruzzo."}
+{"text":"Another witness wrote in \"The New York Times\": \"We could plainly see houses, well-defined streets, and trees. Here and there rose tall spires over huge buildings which appeared to be ancient mosques or cathedrals.\""}
+{"text":"In 1898, Prince Luigi Amedeo organized an expedition towards the North Pole and consulted the famous polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen that had sailed the furthest north with the Colin Archer-built polar ship in 1893\u20131896. In 1899 Amedeo acquired , a steam whaler of 570 tons. He renamed her \"Stella Polare\" and took her to Colin Archer's shipyard in Larvik, Norway. The interior was stripped out and beams, diagonals and knees heavily strengthened the ship."}
+{"text":"In spring 1899 he arrived in the Norwegian capital Christiania (the present day Oslo) with ten companions and \"Stella Polare\" (\"Pole Star\") took the expedition through the frozen sea. On 12 June they headed for Archangel (Arkhangelsk)."}
+{"text":"On 30 June \"Stella Polare\" dropped anchor in the docks of Arkhangelsk and the duke was solemnly received by governor Engelhardt. The same day, Prince Luigi Amedeo was invited to meet the local authorities and the present foreign diplomats."}
+{"text":"On 7 July, a local newspaper wrote:"}
+{"text":"Later the duke himself wrote about his stay in Arkhangelsk: \"Our departure was set for July 12. Early in the morning the church was open to us and we, although being Catholic, were allowed to join the mass. In the afternoon all the dogs were brought back on board to their kennels. In the evening the \"Stella Polare\" put out and was escorted by two steamers down the Dvina. I still remained on shore, as well as Doctor Cavalli, in order to spend the evening together with our Italian friends. Next evening we left Arkhangel\u2019sk. During the whole journey we saw flags being hoisted to welcome us\u2026\""}
+{"text":"Twenty men took part in the expedition, among them Captain Umberto Cagni, Lieutenant F. Querini and Doctor A. Cavalli Molinelli. They planned to go to Franz Joseph Land, in the Arctic wilderness, to establish a camp in which to stay during wintertime and, afterwards, to reach the North Pole by dogsled across the frozen sea."}
+{"text":"Prince Luigi Amedeo established the winter camp on Rudolf Island. The expedition was to start at the end of the Arctic night. The duke lost two fingers during winter because of the cold, which made it impossible for him to join the trip by sled. He left the command over the pole expedition to Captain Cagni. On 11 March 1900 Cagni left the camp and reached latitude 86\u00b0 34\u2019 on 25 April, setting a new record by beating Nansen's result of 1895 by . Cagni barely managed to return to the camp on 23 June. On 16 August \"Stella Polare\" left Rudolf Island heading south and the expedition returned to Norway. During the expedition the northern coast of Rudolf Island and two other islands were explored and measured."}
+{"text":"In 1906, inspired by Henry Morton Stanley's last wishes, the Duke led an expedition to the Ruwenzori Range (5,125 m), in Uganda. He scaled sixteen summits in the range, including the six principal peaks. One of them, Mount Luigi di Savoia, bears his name. The highest peak was reached on 18 June 1906."}
+{"text":"The next great expedition, in 1909, aimed to climb K2 in Karakoram. A team led by Prince Luigi Amedeo reached a height of 6,250 m on the ridge in 1909. The standard route up the mountain (formerly known as K2's East Ridge) climbs today on the Abruzzi Spur."}
+{"text":"In an attempt on Chogolisa he and his companions again failed to reach the summit, but set a world altitude record, a height of approximately 7,500 m (24,600 ft) before turning around just 150 m below the summit due to bad weather."}
+{"text":"A vice-admiral in the Italian Royal Navy (\"Regia Marina\"), he was Inspector of Torpedo Craft from 1911 to 1912. During World War I, he was the Commander-in-Chief of the Italian Fleet (1914\u20131917) based in Taranto, his flagship being the . Under the duke, the \"Regia Marina\" was responsible for saving the Army of the Kingdom of Serbia. In February 1917, he was replaced by Paolo Thaon di Revel, under pressure of the British and French allies. In February 1918, he was promoted to admiral, but played no role of importance anymore."}
+{"text":"The Explorers Club in New York elected the duke to its highest category of membership \u2014 Honorary Member \u2014 in 1912."}
+{"text":"The duke assisted Italian dictator Benito Mussolini with the Italo-Ethiopian Treaty of 1928. He traveled to Addis Ababa with gifts. One gift, a Fiat 3000 tank, ended up playing a role in crushing the abortive \"coup d'\u00e9tat\" of 1928."}
+{"text":"In 1932, the duke was briefly the president of the newly merged Italian Line of steamships. In 1931, combining all of Italy's transatlantic carriers into the Italian Line was one of Mussolini's biggest business deals. However, the duke resigned soon after broke down at Gibraltar. According to him, \"My reason is that I have been unable to achieve harmony among executives who formerly headed competing lines.\""}
+{"text":"In 1918, the Duke returned to Italian Somaliland. In 1920, he founded the \"Village of the Duke of Abruzzi\" (\"Villaggio Duca degli Abruzzi\" or \"Villabruzzi\") some ninety kilometres north of Mogadishu. It was an agricultural settlement experimenting with new cultivation techniques."}
+{"text":"By 1926, the colony comprised 16 villages, with 3,000 Somali and 200 Italian (Italian Somalis) inhabitants. Abruzzi raised funds for a number of development projects in the town, including roads, dams, schools, hospitals, a church and a mosque."}
+{"text":"He died in the village on 18 March 1933."}
+{"text":"In the late 1930s the village area was one of the most socio-economically developed in eastern Africa. The area around the \"Villaggio Duca degli Abruzzi\" was the most agriculturally developed of Somalia before World War II and had some important food industries."}
+{"text":"After Italian Somaliland was officially dissolved in 1947, the town was later renamed to Jowhar."}
+{"text":"In the early years of the twentieth century the Abruzzi was in a relationship with Katherine Hallie \"Kitty\" Elkins, daughter of the wealthy American senator Stephen Benton Elkins, but the Abruzzi's cousin King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy refused to grant him permission to marry a commoner. His brother, Emanuele Filiberto, to whom Luigi was very close, persuaded him to give up the relationship. His brother later approved of young Antoinette \"Amber\" Brizzi, the daughter of Quinto Brizzi, one of the largest vineyard owners in northern Italy. In the later years of his life, Abruzzi had a relationship with a young Somali woman named Faduma Ali."}
+{"text":"A species of African lizard, \"Leptosiaphos aloysiisabaudiae\", is named in honor of Prince Luigi Amedeo."}
+{"text":"Prince Benedetto, Duke of Chablais (Benedetto Maria Maurizio; 21 June 1741 \u2013 4 January 1808) was an Italian nobleman and military leader. He was the youngest child of King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia. He married his niece Maria Anna of Savoy; they had no children. Benedetto was the owner of the \"Palazzo Chiablese\" in Turin."}
+{"text":"Chablais was born at the Palace of Venaria. He was the youngest child of Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia and \u00c9lisabeth Th\u00e9r\u00e8se of Lorraine. His mother died giving birth to him. He was named after Pope Benedict XIV who became pope the year before his birth."}
+{"text":"Known alternatively as \"Benedetto\" or \"Maurizio\", at the time of his birth, he was third in line to the Sardinian throne after his oldest half brother Victor Amadeus, Duke of Savoy and Prince Carlo his only full brother who died in infancy. His paternal cousins included Louis XV of France, the future Ferdinand VI of Spain and the Prince of Carignan. His maternal cousins included the future Queen of Naples and the famous \"Marie Antoinette\"."}
+{"text":"His uncle Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor proposed his daughter Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria as a prospective wife but the marriage between the two never materialised. The Emperor wanted the marriage to encourage ties between the House of Lorraine and the House of Savoy."}
+{"text":"In 1753 his father gave what is now the Palazzo Chiablese as his personal residence. It was under Savoy that the building would be embellished under the direction of Benedetto Alfieri, a popular Savoyard architect of the era."}
+{"text":"In 1763 his father granted him the Duchy of Chablais (the prince having been styled Duke of Chablais since birth), with the subsidiary lands of Cureggio, Trino, Dezan, Crescentino, Riva di Chieri, Well, Ghemme Pollenzo Tricerro, and Apertole Centallo. His brother, later Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia, created him Marquis of Ivrea on 19 June 1796. In 1764 Chablais also bought the fiefdom of Agli\u00e8, where the Ducal Palace of Agli\u00e8 was situated, from his brother. Chablais also carried out improvements to the building under the direction of Ignatius Birago Borgaro."}
+{"text":"Chablais married Maria Anna of Savoy at the Royal Palace of Turin on 19 March 1775. Maria Anna was his niece, and sixth child of his oldest brother Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia, and his consort Maria Antonietta of Spain. The marriage produced no children, Maria Anna dying in 1824."}
+{"text":"Noted as a good soldier Chablais was given control of the Army of Italy which contained French troops and intended on restoring the monarchy in France after the execution of Louis XVI in 1793. He took part in the Battle of Loano."}
+{"text":"He died in Rome aged 66 and was buried at the church of San Nicolo dei Cesarini then later moved to the Royal Basilica of Superga, Turin. At his death the title of Duke of Chablais reverted to the crown."}
+{"text":"The title Duke of Chablais (, ) was a subsidiary title of the Duke of Savoy and later the King of Sardinia, both of the House of Savoy. The title is named after the province of Chablais, whose capital was Thonon-les-Bains."}
+{"text":"The title was granted four times to members of the Savoy family. None of them had any children to inherit the title."}
+{"text":"Charles Amadeus of Savoy (), Duke of Nemours (12 April 162430 July 1652) was a French military leader and magnate. He was the father of the penultimate Duchess of Savoy and of a Queen of Portugal."}
+{"text":"He was a son of Henri of Savoy, 3rd Duke of Nemours (1572-1632) and Anne of Lorraine. He was a younger brother of Louis of Savoy, who died in 1641."}
+{"text":"Charles Amadeus served in the Army of Flanders in 1645, and in the following year commanded the light cavalry at the siege of Kortrijk. In 1652 he took part in the war of the Fronde, and fought at Bleneau and at the \"Faubourg St Antoine\", where he was wounded."}
+{"text":"On 11 July 1643 he married, at the Louvre, \u00c9lisabeth de Bourbon, \"Mademoiselle de Vend\u00f4me\", the daughter of C\u00e9sar, Duke of Vend\u00f4me, the legitimised son of King Henry IV of France by his mistress, Gabrielle d'Estr\u00e9es. Her mother was the wealthy heiress, Fran\u00e7oise de Lorraine (1592\u20131669), the daughter of Philippe Emmanuel, Duke of Merc\u0153ur."}
+{"text":"Charles Amadeus had several children: two daughters, three sons and a stillborn child of unrecorded gender. Only his two daughters survived him;"}
+{"text":"Charles Amadeus was killed by his brother-in-law, Fran\u00e7ois de Bourbon, Duke of Beaufort in a duel in 1652. He was buried at the Notre Dame d'Annecy in Annecy, the capital of the Genevois, of which the Dukes of Nemours were also counts. Charles Amadeus' brother Henri, who had been archbishop of Reims, withdrew from orders in order to succeed him in the title of Duke of Nemours."}
+{"text":"Princess Elena of Montenegro, or more commonly known as Queen Elena of Italy (; 8 January 1873 \u2013 28 November 1952) was the Queen of Italy from 1900 until 1946 as wife of Victor Emmanuel III of Italy."}
+{"text":"Due to the Fascist conquest of Ethiopia in 1936 and Albania in 1939, Queen Elena briefly used the claimed titles of Empress of Ethiopia and Queen of Albania; both titles were dropped when her husband formally renounced them in 1943. She was the daughter of King Nicholas I of Montenegro and his wife, Queen Milena."}
+{"text":"She was born in Cetinje as daughter of Montenegrin Prince and future King Nicholas I and his wife Milena. At the age of 10, she went to the Smolny Institute for young ladies in Saint Petersburg, Russia. She was talented at painting and architecture, and she designed the monument for Prince Danilo I."}
+{"text":"As the result of Elena's marriage to King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy on 24 October 1896, she converted to Catholicism from Orthodox Christianity and became Queen of Italy when her husband acceded to the throne in 1900. Her mother was so distressed with the fact that Elena had changed her religion that she refused to come to the wedding ceremony in Rome."}
+{"text":"On 29 July 1900, following his father's assassination, Victor Emmanuel ascended the Italian throne. Officially, Elena assumed her husband's whole titles: she became \"Queen of Italy\", and with the birth of the Italian Colonial Empire she became \"Queen of Albania\" and \"Empress of Ethiopia\"."}
+{"text":"On 28 December 1908 Messina was hit by a disastrous earthquake. Queen Elena helped with the rescuers, as some photographs show. This helped to increase her popularity within the country."}
+{"text":"Elena was the first \"Inspector of the Voluntary Nurses\" for the Italian Red Cross from 1911 until 1921. She studied medicine and was able to obtain a laurea honoris causa. She financed charitable institutions for people with encephalitis, tuberculosis, former soldiers and poor mothers."}
+{"text":"She was deeply involved in her fight against disease, and she promoted many efforts for the training of doctors, and for research against poliomyelitis, Parkinson's disease and cancer."}
+{"text":"During the First World War Elena worked as a nurse and, with the help of the Queen Mother, she turned Quirinal Palace and Villa Margherita into hospitals. To raise funds, she invented the \"signed photograph\", which was sold at the charity desks. At the end of the war, she proposed to sell the crown treasures in order to pay the war debts."}
+{"text":"She influenced her husband to lobby Benito Mussolini, Prime Minister of Italy, for creation of the independent Kingdom of Montenegro in 1941. In 1943 she subsequently obtained the release from a German prison of her nephew, Prince Michael of Montenegro, and his wife, Genevi\u00e8ve. Prince Michael had been imprisoned after refusing to become King of Montenegro under the protection of Italy."}
+{"text":"On 15 April 1937 Pope Pius XI gave her the Golden Rose, the most important honour for a Catholic lady at the time. Pope Pius XII, in a condolence telegram sent to her son Umberto II for the queen's death, defined her a \"Lady of charitable work\"."}
+{"text":"In 1939, three months after the German invasion of Poland and the declaration of war by the United Kingdom and France, Elena wrote a letter to the six European queens still neutral (Queen Alexandrine of Denmark, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg, Queen Elisabeth of Belgium, Queen Ioanna of Bulgaria and Queen Mother Maria of Yugoslavia) in order to avoid the great tragedy World War II would become."}
+{"text":"On 25 July 1943 Victor Emmanuel III had Benito Mussolini arrested. The king left Rome on 9 September to flee to Brindisi with the help of the Allies and Elena followed her husband in his escape. In contrast, on 23 September their daughter Mafalda was arrested by the Nazis and sent to Buchenwald concentration camp, where she died in 1944."}
+{"text":"65 years after her death, on 15 December 2017, the remains of Elena were repatriated from Montpellier, to the sanctuary of Vicoforte, near Turin. The remains of Victor Emmanuel III were transferred two days later from Alexandria, and interred alongside hers."}
+{"text":"King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and Queen Elena had 5 children:"}
+{"text":"Prince Eugene Francis of Savoy\u2013Carignano (18 October 1663 \u2013 21 April 1736) better known as Prince Eugene was a field marshal in the army of the Holy Roman Empire and of the Austrian Habsburg dynasty during the 17th and 18th centuries. He was one of the most successful military commanders of his time, and rose to the highest offices of state at the Imperial court in Vienna."}
+{"text":"Born in Paris, Eugene was brought up in the court of King Louis XIV of France. Based on the custom that the youngest sons of noble families were destined for the priesthood, the Prince was initially prepared for a clerical career, but by the age of 19, he had determined on a military career. Based on his poor physique and bearing, and maybe due to a scandal involving his mother Olympe, he was rejected by Louis XIV for service in the French army. Eugene moved to Austria and transferred his loyalty to the Holy Roman Empire."}
+{"text":"Prince Eugene was born at the H\u00f4tel de Soissons in Paris on 18 October 1663. His mother, Olympia Mancini, was one of Cardinal Mazarin's nieces whom he had brought to Paris from Rome in 1647 to further his, and, to a lesser extent, their ambitions. The Mancinis were raised at the Palais-Royal along with the young Louis XIV, with whom Olympia formed an intimate relationship. Yet to her great disappointment, her chance to become queen passed by, and in 1657, Olympia married Eugene Maurice, Count of Soissons, Count of Dreux and Prince of Savoy."}
+{"text":"Together they had had five sons (Eugene being the youngest) and three daughters, but neither parent spent much time with the children: his father, a French general officer, spent much of his time away campaigning, while Olympia's passion for court intrigue meant the children received little attention from her."}
+{"text":"The King remained strongly attached to Olympia, so much so that many believed them to be lovers; but her scheming eventually led to her downfall. After falling out of favour at court, Olympia turned to Catherine Deshayes (known as \"La Voisin\"), and the arts of black magic and astrology. It was a fatal relationship. Embroiled in the \"Affaire des poisons\", suspicions now abounded of her involvement in her husband's premature death in 1673, and even implicated her in a plot to kill the King himself. Whatever the truth, Olympia, rather than face trial, subsequently fled France for Brussels in January 1680, leaving Eugene in the care of his father's mother, Marie de Bourbon, and her daughter, Hereditary Princess of Baden, mother of Prince Louis of Baden."}
+{"text":"Denied a military career in France, Eugene decided to seek service abroad. One of Eugene's brothers, Louis Julius, had entered Imperial service the previous year, but he had been immediately killed fighting the Ottoman Turks in 1683. When news of his death reached Paris, Eugene decided to travel to Austria in the hope of taking over his brother's command. It was not an unnatural decision: his cousin, Louis of Baden, was already a leading general in the Imperial army, as was a more distant cousin, Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria. On the night of 26 July 1683, Eugene left Paris and headed east. Years later, in his memoirs, Eugene recalled his early years in France:"}
+{"text":"By May 1683, the Ottoman threat to Emperor Leopold I's capital, Vienna, was very real. The Grand Vizier, Kara Mustafa Pasha\u2014encouraged by Imre Th\u00f6k\u00f6ly's Magyar rebellion\u2014had invaded Hungary with between 100,000 and 200,000 men; within two months approximately 90,000 were beneath Vienna's walls. With the 'Turks at the gates', the Emperor fled for the safe refuge of Passau up the Danube, a more distant and secure part of his dominion. It was at Leopold I's camp that Eugene arrived in mid-August."}
+{"text":"In March 1684, Leopold I formed the Holy League with Poland and Venice to counter the Ottoman threat. For the next two years, Eugene continued to perform with distinction on campaign and establish himself as a dedicated, professional soldier; by the end of 1685, still only 22 years old, he was made a Major-General. Little is known of Eugene's life during these early campaigns. Contemporary observers make only passing comments of his actions, and his own surviving correspondence, largely to his cousin Victor Amadeus, are typically reticent about his own feelings and experiences. Nevertheless, it is clear that Baden was impressed with Eugene's qualities\u2014\"This young man will, with time, occupy the place of those whom the world regards as great leaders of armies.\""}
+{"text":"Interlude in the west: Nine Years' War."}
+{"text":"Just as Belgrade was falling to Imperial forces under Max Emmanuel in the east, French troops in the west were crossing the Rhine into the Holy Roman Empire. Louis XIV had hoped that a show of force would lead to a quick resolution to his dynastic and territorial disputes with the princes of the Empire along his eastern border, but his intimidatory moves only strengthened German resolve, and in May 1689, Leopold I and the Dutch signed an offensive compact aimed at repelling French aggression."}
+{"text":"Military honours in Italy undoubtedly belonged to the French commander Marshal Catinat, but Eugene, the one Allied general determined on action and decisive results, did well to emerge from the Nine Years' War with an enhanced reputation. With the signing of the Treaty of Ryswick in September\/October 1697, the desultory war in the west was finally brought to an inconclusive end, and Leopold I could once again devote all his martial energies into defeating the Ottoman Turks in the east."}
+{"text":"Leopold I had warned Eugene that \"he should act with extreme caution, forgo all risks and avoid engaging the enemy unless he has overwhelming strength and is practically certain of being completely victorious\", but when the Imperial commander learnt of Sultan Mustafa II's march on Transylvania, Eugene abandoned all ideas of a defensive campaign and moved to intercept the Turks as they crossed the River Tisza at Zenta on 11 September 1697."}
+{"text":"The Battle of Zenta proved to be the decisive victory in the long war against the Turks. With Leopold I's interests now focused on Spain and the imminent death of Charles II, the Emperor terminated the conflict with the Sultan, and signed the Treaty of Karlowitz on 26 January 1699."}
+{"text":"Eugene crossed the Alps with some 30,000 men in May\/June 1701. After a series of brilliant manoeuvres the Imperial commander defeated Catinat at the Battle of Carpi on 9 July. \"I have warned you that you are dealing with an enterprising young prince,\" wrote Louis XIV to his commander, \"he does not tie himself down to the rules of war.\" On 1 September Eugene defeated Catinat's successor, Marshal Villeroi, at the Battle of Chiari, in a clash as destructive as any in the Italian theatre. But as so often throughout his career the Prince faced war on two fronts\u2014the enemy in the field and the government in Vienna."}
+{"text":"Dissension between Villars and the Elector of Bavaria had prevented an assault on Vienna in 1703, but in the Courts of Versailles and Madrid, ministers confidently anticipated the city's fall. The Imperial ambassador in London, Count Wratislaw, had pressed for Anglo-Dutch assistance on the Danube as early as February 1703, but the crisis in southern Europe seemed remote from the Court of St. James's where colonial and commercial considerations were more to the fore of men's minds. Only a handful of statesmen in England or the Dutch Republic realised the true implications of Austria's peril; foremost amongst these was the English Captain-General, the Duke of Marlborough."}
+{"text":"In Europe Blenheim is regarded as much a victory for Eugene as it is for Marlborough, a sentiment echoed by Sir Winston Churchill (Marlborough's descendant and biographer), who pays tribute to \"the glory of Prince Eugene, whose fire and spirit had exhorted the wonderful exertions of his troops.\" France now faced the real danger of invasion, but Leopold I in Vienna was still under severe strain: R\u00e1k\u00f3czi's revolt was a major threat; and Guido Starhemberg and Victor Amadeus (who had once again switched loyalties and rejoined the Grand Alliance in 1703) had been unable to halt the French under Vend\u00f4me in northern Italy. Only Amadeus' capital, Turin, held on."}
+{"text":"The Imperial commander arrived in theatre in mid-April 1706, just in time to organise an orderly retreat of what was left of Count Reventlow's inferior army following his defeat by Vend\u00f4me at the Battle of Calcinato on 19 April. Vend\u00f4me now prepared to defend the lines along the river Adige, determined to keep Eugene cooped to the east while the Marquis of La Feuillade threatened Turin. Feigning attacks along the Adige, Eugene descended south across the river Po in mid-July, outmanoeuvring the French commander and gaining a favourable position from which he could at last move west towards Piedmont and relieve Savoy's capital."}
+{"text":"Eugene proceeded to take the Banat fortress of Timi\u0219oara (Temeswar in German) in mid-October 1716 (thus ending 164 years of Turkish rule), before turning his attention to the next campaign and to what he considered the main goal of the war, Belgrade. Situated at the confluence of the Rivers Danube and Sava, Belgrade held a garrison of 30,000 men under Serasker Mustapha Pasha."}
+{"text":"The principal objectives of the war had been achieved: the task Eugene had begun at Zenta was complete, and the Karlowitz settlement secured. By the terms of the Treaty of Passarowitz, signed on 21 July 1718, the Turks surrendered the Banat of Temeswar, along with Belgrade and most of Serbia, although they regained the Morea from the Venetians. The war had dispelled the immediate Turkish threat to Hungary and was a triumph for the Empire and for Eugene personally."}
+{"text":"The 1720s saw rapidly changing alliances between the European powers and almost constant diplomatic confrontation, largely over unsolved issues regarding the Quadruple Alliance. The Emperor and the Spanish King continued to use each other's titles, and Charles VI still refused to remove the remaining legal obstacles to Don Charles' eventual succession to the duchies of Parma and Tuscany. Yet in a surprise move Spain and Austria moved closer with the signing of the Treaty of Vienna in April\/May 1725. In response Britain, France, and Prussia joined together in the Alliance of Hanover to counter the danger to Europe of an Austro-Spanish hegemony. For the next three years there was the continual threat of war between the Hanover Treaty powers and the Austro-Spanish bloc."}
+{"text":"From 1726 Eugene gradually began to regain his political influence. With his many contacts throughout Europe Eugene, backed by Gundaker Starhemberg and Count Sch\u00f6nborn, the Imperial vice-chancellor, managed to secure powerful allies and strengthen the Emperor's position\u2014his skill in managing the vast secret diplomatic network over the coming years was the main reason why Charles VI once again came to depend upon him. In August 1726 Russia acceded to the Austro-Spanish alliance, and in October Frederick William of Prussia followed suit by defecting from the Allies with the signing of a mutual defensive treaty with the Emperor."}
+{"text":"Despite the conclusion of the brief Anglo-Spanish conflict, war between the European powers persisted throughout 1727\u201328. In 1729 Elisabeth Farnese abandoned the Austro-Spanish alliance. Realizing that Charles VI could not be drawn into the marriage pact she wanted, Elisabeth concluded that the best way to secure her son's succession to Parma and Tuscany now lay with Britain and France. To Eugene it was 'an event that which is seldom to be found in history'. Following the Prince's determined lead to resist all pressure, Charles VI sent troops into Italy to prevent the entry of Spanish garrisons into the contested duchies. By the beginning of 1730 Eugene, who had remained bellicose throughout the whole period, was again in control of Austrian policy."}
+{"text":"In 1733 the Polish King and Elector of Saxony, Augustus the Strong, died. There were two candidates for his successor: first, Stanis\u0142aw Leszczy\u0144ski, the father-in-law of Louis XV; second, the Elector of Saxony's son, Augustus, supported by Russia, Austria, and Prussia. The Polish succession had afforded Louis XV's chief minister, Fleury, the opportunity to attack Austria and take Lorraine from Francis Stephen. In order to gain Spanish support France backed the succession of Elisabeth Farnese's sons to further Italian lands."}
+{"text":"Eugene entered the War of the Polish Succession as President of the Imperial War Council and commander-in-chief of the army, but he was severely handicapped by the quality of his troops and the shortage of funds; now in his seventies, the Prince was also burdened by rapidly declining physical and mental powers. France declared war on Austria on 10 October 1733, but without the funds from the Maritime Powers\u2014who, despite the Vienna treaty, remained neutral throughout the war\u2014Austria could not hire the necessary troops to wage an offensive campaign. \"The danger to the monarchy,\" wrote Eugene to the Emperor in October, \"cannot be exaggerated\". By the end of the year Franco-Spanish forces had seized Lorraine and Milan; by early 1734 Spanish troops had taken Sicily."}
+{"text":"Eugene returned to Vienna from the War of the Polish Succession in October 1735, weak and feeble; when Maria Theresa and Francis Stephen married in February 1736 Eugene was too ill to attend. After playing cards at Countess Batthy\u00e1ny's on the evening of 20 April until nine in the evening, he returned home at the Stadtpalais, his attendant offered him to take his prescribed medicine which Eugene declined."}
+{"text":"When his servants arrived to wake him the next morning on 21 April 1736, they found Prince Eugene dead after passing away quietly during the night. It has been said that on the same morning he was discovered dead, the great lion in his menagerie was also found dead."}
+{"text":"Eugene's heart was buried with the ashes of his ancestors in Turin, in the mausoleum of the Superga. His remains were carried in a long procession to St. Stephen's Cathedral, where his embalmed body was buried in the \"Kreuzkapelle\". It is said that the emperor himself attended as a mourner without anybody's knowledge."}
+{"text":"The Prince's niece Anna Victoria, whom he had never met, inherited Eugene's immense possessions. Within a few years she sold off the palaces, the country estates and the art collection of a man who had become one of the wealthiest in Europe, after arriving in Vienna as a refugee with empty pockets."}
+{"text":"Eugene never married and was reported to have said that a woman was a hindrance in a war, and that a soldier should never marry, because of this he was called \"Mars without Venus\". During the last 20 years of his life Eug\u00e8ne had a relationship with one woman, Hungarian Countess Eleonore Batthy\u00e1ny-Strattmann. Much of their acquaintance remains speculative since Eugene left no personal papers: only letters of war, diplomacy and politics. Eug\u00e8ne and Eleonora were constant companions, meeting for dinner, receptions and card games almost every day till his death; although they lived apart most foreign diplomats assumed that Eleonora was his long time mistress."}
+{"text":"It is not known precisely when their relationship began, but his acquisition of a property in Hungary after the Battle of Zenta, near Rechnitz Castle, made them neighbours. In the years immediately following the War of the Spanish Succession she began to be mentioned regularly in diplomatic correspondence as \"Eugen's Egeria\" and within a few years she was referred to as his constant companion and his mistress. When asked if she and the Prince would marry, Countess Batthy\u00e1ny replied: \"I love him too well for that, I would rather have a bad reputation that deprive him of his\"."}
+{"text":"Being one of the richest and most celebrated men of his age certainly created enmity; jealousy and spite pursued Eugene from the battlefields to Vienna, his old subordinate Guido Starhemberg in particular was an incessant and rancorous detractor of Eugene's fame, he became known at the court of Vienna, according to Montesquieu, as Eugene\u2019s main rival."}
+{"text":"Eugene's other friends such as the papal nuncio, Passionei, who delivered the funeral oration of Prince Eugene, made up for the family he lacked. For his only surviving nephew, Emmanuel, the son of his brother Louis Thomas, Eugene arranged marriage with one of the daughters of Prince Liechtenstein, but Emmanuel died of smallpox in 1729. With the death of Emmanuel's son in 1734, no close male relatives remained to succeed the Prince. His closest relative, therefore, was Louis Thomas's unmarried daughter, Princess Maria Anna Victoria of Savoy, daughter of his eldest brother, the count of Soissons, whom Eugene had never met and had made no effort to do so."}
+{"text":"Of more importance was the grandiose complex of the two Belvedere palaces in Vienna. The single-storey Lower Belvedere, with its exotic gardens and zoo, was completed in 1716. The Upper Belvedere, completed between 1720 and 1722, is a more substantial building; with sparkling white stucco walls and copper roof, it became a wonder of Europe. Eugene and Hildebrandt also converted an existing structure on his Marchfeld estate into a country seat, the Schlosshof, situated between the Rivers Danube and Morava. The building, completed in 1729, was far less elaborate than his other projects but it was strong enough to serve as a fortress in case of need. Eugene spent much of his spare time there in his last years accommodating large hunting parties."}
+{"text":"At Eugene's death his possessions and estates, except those in Hungary which the crown reclaimed, went to his niece, Princess Maria Anna Victoria, who at once decided to sell everything. The artwork was bought by Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia. Eugene's library, prints and drawings were purchased by the Emperor in 1737 and have since passed into Austrian national collections."}
+{"text":"Eugene was a disciplinarian\u2014when ordinary soldiers disobeyed orders he was prepared to shoot them himself\u2014but he rejected blind brutality, writing \"you should only be harsh when, as often happens, kindness proves useless\"."}
+{"text":"Although Frederick the Great had been struck by the muddle of the Austrian army and its poor organisation during the Polish Succession war, he later amended his initial harsh judgements. \"If I understand anything of my trade,\" commented Frederick in 1758, \"especially in the more difficult aspects, I owe that advantage to Prince Eugene. From him I learnt to hold grand objectives constantly in view, and direct all my resources to those ends.\" To historian Christopher Duffy it was this awareness of the 'grand strategy' that was Eugene's legacy to Frederick."}
+{"text":"To his responsibilities, Eugene attached his own personal values\u2014physical courage, loyalty to his sovereign, honesty, self-control in all things\u2014and he expected these qualities from his commanders. Eugene's approach was dictatorial, but he was willing to co-operate with someone he regarded as his equal, such as Baden or Marlborough. Yet the contrast to his co-commander of the Spanish Succession war was stark. \"Marlborough,\" wrote Churchill, \"was the model husband and father, concerned with building up a home, founding a family, and gathering a fortune to sustain it\"; whereas Eugene, the bachelor, was \"disdainful of money, content with his bright sword and his lifelong animosities against Louis XIV\"."}
+{"text":"The result was an austere figure, inspiring respect and admiration rather than affection."}
+{"text":"Several ships have been named in Eugene's honour:"}
+{"text":"Anne of Savoy, Princess of Squillace, Altamura, and Taranto (1 June 1455 \u2013 February 1480) was the first wife of King Frederick IV. She died 16 years before he succeeded to the Neapolitan throne, so she was never queen consort. Anne was a member of the House of Savoy, and through her mother Yolande of France, she was a granddaughter of King Charles VII of France."}
+{"text":"Anne was born on 1 June 1455, the eldest daughter and one of the 10 children of Amadeus IX of Savoy and Yolande of France, daughter of King Charles VII of France and Marie of Anjou. She had seven brothers, including Philibert and Charles; and two younger sisters. Due to her father's epilepsy, her mother ruled Savoy."}
+{"text":"In the summer of 1479 in Milan, Anne married Frederick of Aragon, Prince of Squillace, Altamura and Tarento (1452\u20131504), the future King Frederick IV of Naples. Together they had:"}
+{"text":"Anne died in March 1480, probably in childbirth or shortly afterwards. She was buried in Chamb\u00e9ry. Her husband married as his second wife, Isabella del Balzo, by whom he had five more children. In 1496, 16 years after Anne's death, he ascended the throne as the last King of Naples of the House of Trastamara."}
+{"text":"Her daughter, Charlotte was brought up at the French court. In 1496, she succeeded to the \"suo jure\" title of Princess of Taranto."}
+{"text":"The Royal Palace of Turin () is a historic palace of the House of Savoy in the city of Turin in Northern Italy. It was originally built in the 16th century and was later modernized by Christine Marie of France (1606\u20131663) in the 17th century, with designs by the Baroque architect Filippo Juvarra. The palace also includes the Palazzo Chiablese and the Chapel of the Holy Shroud, the latter of which was built to house the famous Shroud of Turin. In 1946, the building became the property of the state and was turned into a museum. In 1997, it was placed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list along with 13 other residences of the House of Savoy."}
+{"text":"Construction of the palace was ordered by the Regent Christina Maria in 1645. She wanted a new residence for the court after her son returned from the civil war."}
+{"text":"Thus the old Bishop's Palace became the seat of power and was greatly expanded by Emmanuel Philibert to house his ever-growing collection of art, animals, marbles, and furniture. Emmanuel Philibert died in Turin in August 1580 and the Savoyard throne was handed down to his son, Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy (1562\u20131630). In celebration of the joint marriages of his daughters Princess Margaret and Princess Isabella in 1608, Charles Emmanuel I commissioned the construction of a ring of porches topped off by an open gallery. His son, the future Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy (1587\u20131637), entered into a prestigious marriage when he married the French Princess Christine Marie of France. Their marriage took place in Paris at the Louvre in 1619."}
+{"text":"Victor Amadeus I succeeded to the Duchy of Savoy in 1630. He had previously spent his youth in Madrid at the court of his grandfather, Philip II of Spain. His wife set the tone for Victor Amadeus I's reign. Christine Marie had the court moved from the ducal palace in Turin to the Castello del Valentino, which at that time, was on the outskirts of the small capital. Many of Victor Amadeus I and Christine Marie's children were born at Valentino, including Francis Hyacinth, Duke of Savoy and his successor Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy. Christine Marie became the regent of Savoy after the death of her husband in 1637 on behalf of her two sons, who succeeded as Dukes of Savoy."}
+{"text":"During the reign of Victor Amadeus II, the Daniel gallery was created and named after Daniel Seiter, who painted the lavish murals seen there. Victor Amadeus II also had a collection of summer apartments built to look onto the court and a winter apartment overlooking the gardens. His wife was the niece of Louis XIV, born Anne Marie d'Orl\u00e9ans. Louis XV's mother and aunt were born in the palace in 1685 and 1688, respectively."}
+{"text":"The Chapel of the Holy Shroud, the current location of the Shroud of Turin, was added to the structure in 1668-1694."}
+{"text":"The Dukes of Savoy became the Kings of Sicily in 1713, but they swapped to the Kingdom of Sardinia and ruled from 1720 after the Treaty of The Hague. Anne Marie d'Orl\u00e9ans died at the palace in 1728."}
+{"text":"Victor Amadeus III married Maria Antonietta of Spain and the couple preferred to reside in the country in the Palazzina di caccia di Stupinigi. The Neoclassical style was introduced to the palace in the reign of Charles Emmanuel III. The palace was overshadowed by the Stupinigi building later on, when Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia married Maria Adelaide of Austria. The palace once again saw some life with the redecoration of some of its rooms."}
+{"text":"In 1946, the palace was claimed by the Italian Republic and turned into a \"Museum of the Life and Works of the House of Savoy\". Its rooms are decorated with rich tapestries and a collection of Chinese and Japanese vases. The Royal Armoury houses an extensive array of arms, including examples from the 16th and 17th centuries."}
+{"text":"The palace houses the \"Scala delle Forbici, \"a staircase by Filippo Juvarra. The Chapel of the Holy Shroud, with its spiral dome, was built in the west wing of the palace, joining the apse (a semicircular recess) of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, to house the famous Shroud of Turin, which belonged to the family from 1453 until 1946. The royal gates of the palace have a golden Medusa symbol embossed on them, in order to fend off intruders."}
+{"text":"Anna Caterina Gilli was active as a decorative painter at the palace."}
+{"text":"The Reggia di Val Casotto, or Valcasotto is a former royal residence located in Garessio, region of Piedmont, Italy."}
+{"text":"A structure at the site was founded in the 11th century as the \"Certosa di San Brunone\" (Charterhouse of St Bruno) housing monks of the cloistered Carthusian order. They were finally expelled by the invading French forces at the end of the 18th century. Earlier in the 18th century, under the direction of the architects Francesco Gallo and Bernardo Vittone, part had been refurbished into a rural palace. In 1837, the Duke Charles Albert of Savoy refurbished it again, accentuating the castle like elements. The King Vittorio Emanuele II used the palace as a hunting lodge. The residence is one of the \"Residenze Sabaude\" considered by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. The buildings are undergoing a prolonged restoration, and not open to visitors."}
+{"text":"The Palazzina di caccia of Stupinigi (Italian: \"The hunting residence of Stupinigi\") is one of the Residences of the Royal House of Savoy in northern Italy, part of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list. Built as a royal hunting lodge in the early 18th century, it is located in Stupinigi, a suburb of the town of Nichelino, southwest of Turin."}
+{"text":"The original castle was owned by the Acaja line of the House of Savoy, Lords of Piedmont until 1418, and was sold to marquis Rolando Pallavicino in 1493. It was then acquired by Emmanuel Philibert in 1563, when the ducal capital was moved from Chamb\u00e9ry to Turin."}
+{"text":"The new palace was designed by the architect Filippo Juvarra to be used as a \"palazzina di caccia\" (\"hunting lodge\") for Victor Amadeus II, King of Sardinia. Works started in 1729. Within two years construction was far enough advanced for the first formal hunt to take place."}
+{"text":"Juvarra called upon a team of decorators, many of them from Venice, to carry out the decor of the palazzina interiors. In the reigns of Carlo Emanuele III and Victor Amadeus III the \"palazzina\" and its formal park continued to be extended, at first by Juvarra's assistant, Giovanni Tommaso Prunotto, then by numerous North Italian architects, such as Ignazio Birago di Borgaro, Ludovico Bo, Ignazio Bertola and Benedetto Alfieri. The final building has a total of 137 rooms and 17 galleries, and covers 31,050 square meters. Polissena of Hesse-Rotenburg, wife of Carlo Emanuele III also carried out improvements."}
+{"text":"The original purpose of the hunting lodge is symbolized by the bronze stag perched at the apex of the stepped roof of its central dome, and the hounds' heads that decorate the vases on the roofline. The building has a saltire plan: four angled wings project from the oval-shaped main hall."}
+{"text":"The extensions resulted in separate pavilions linked by long angled galleries and a long octagonal forecourt enclosed by wings, extended forwards in two further entrance courts."}
+{"text":"Stupinigi was the preferred building to be used for celebrations and dynastic weddings by members of the House of Savoy. Here, in 1773, Maria Teresa, Princess of Savoy, married Charles Philippe, Count of Artois, brother of Louis XVI and the future Charles X of France."}
+{"text":"Today the Palace of Stupinigi houses the Museo di Arte e Ammobiliamento, a museum of the arts and furnishings, some original to the \"palazzina\", others brought from the former Savoia residences of Moncalieri and Venaria Reale. Stupinigi has the most important collection of Piedmontese furniture, including works by Turin's three most famous Royal cabinet-makers, Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo, Pietro Piffetti and Luigi Prinotti. Some of the sculptures of hunting figures are by Giovanni Battista Bernero. Additionally, temporary exhibitions are held in its galleries, such as the \"Mostra del Barocco\" (1963)."}
+{"text":"The plan of the building is defined by the four arms of St. Andrew's Cross, divided by the central axis that is aligned with the path that leads from Turin to the palace through a tree-lined avenue that runs alongside farms and stables and other old dependencies of the building."}
+{"text":"Also called \"Appartamento di Levante\" (as opposed to the specular Appartamento di Ponente), the set of rooms was enlarged under the direction of Benedetto Alfieri in the 18th century to accommodate the rooms of Benedetto di Savoia, Duke of Chiablese, son of King Carlo Emanuele III."}
+{"text":"Hall of Mirrors and Cabinet of Pauline Bonaparte."}
+{"text":"The first room, decorated with a very special rococo style, is decorated with stuccos and mirrors from the walls to the ceiling, idea of Giovanni Pietro Pozzo in 1766 with the help of Michele Antonio Rapous in the realization of the boiserie. The chandelier dating back to the 1940s is more ancient and is decorated with sculptures of wrought iron birds. The Cabinet of Pauline Bonaparte owes its fame to the fact that it was made to equip in current forms by Pauline Bonaparte, Napoleon's sister, during her period of stay at the palace when her husband Camillo Borghese was appointed governor of Piedmont. The room, small in size, contains a beautiful marble bathtub, decorated with bas-reliefs representing the imperial insignia with the Napoleonic eagle."}
+{"text":"The salon, steeped in its structure and in the decorations characteristic of the eighteenth century, also attracted the attention of several contemporaries who were able to see it personally as the French engraver Charles Nicolas Cochin, who however criticized the superabundance of decorations and excessive eccentricity. Of the same opinion was Joseph Jerome Lalande, who reported how the Juvarra was almost completely focused on the salon, leaving behind all the rest and revealing how it was arranged as the \"dream of an architect\", too risky for a city palace and only for a sumptuous country residence."}
+{"text":"Since 1992, woods and agricultural land surrounding Stupinigi have been preserved as the Parco naturale di Stupinigi. Included in the communal territories of Nichelino, Candiolo and Orbassano, it has an area of that includes a part of the region's original lowland forest, where visitors can admire some rare plant species no longer widely found elsewhere. Wildlife includes beech martens, weasels, foxes, hazel dormouses, European hares, white storks, tree squirrels and others."}
+{"text":"The Castle of Moncalieri is a palace in Moncalieri (Metropolitan City of Turin), Piedmont, in northern Italy. It is one of the Residences of the Royal House of Savoy listed by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites in 1997."}
+{"text":"The first structure was a fortress built by Thomas I of Savoy around 1100 on a hill, to command the main southern access to Turin. In the mid-15th century Yolanda of Valois, wife of Duke Amadeus IX, turned it into a pleasure residence. Architect Carlo di Castellamonte enlarged the construction substantially, and the interiors were redesigned by him and other local artists."}
+{"text":"The castle was the site of the marriage between Maria Vittoria Francesca of Savoy to the Prince of Carignano. It was also the place where Maria Carolina of Savoy married Anthony of Saxony by proxy in 1781."}
+{"text":"It was the scene of the death of Maria Antonietta of Spain in 1785; she was the wife of Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia. Victor Amadeus would later die there in 1796."}
+{"text":"The castle was used extensively by the Savoyards, and was the first castle occupied in 1798 by the French armies, who retained it until 1814. Returned to Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia and later to his distant nephew Charles Albert of Sardinia, Prince of Carignano, it became the residence of young family princes who studied here. King Victor Emmanuel II preferred it to the Royal Palace of Turin, and had numerous apartments furnished according to his tastes. In 1849, it was from this palace that emerged the famous Proclamation of Moncalieri, written by Massimo D'Azeglio and signed by the king Vittorio Emmanuel II."}
+{"text":"The palace was later was used by the Queen Mothers and royal princesses. Since 1921 it has been the home of the 1st Battalion of the Carabinieri, but the historical rooms can be freely visited."}
+{"text":"On April 5, 2008, a fire broke out in the castle, damaging one of the towers and the hall of the proclaim."}
+{"text":"The current structure of the castle is in the shape of a horseshoe facing south, with four massive square towers at each angle. The side sections have five floors, brick walls and robust buttresses. Two other minor buildings parallel the side sections and create two courts. The southern fa\u00e7ade has a \"giardino all'italiana\" and two small cylindrical towers, last remains of the 15th-century castle. The northern entrance has also a notable belvedere."}
+{"text":"The Palace of Venaria (Italian: Reggia di Venaria Reale) is a former royal residence and gardens located in Venaria Reale, near Turin in the Metropolitan City of Turin of the Piedmont region in northern Italy. With 80,000m\u00b2 in palace area and over 950.000m\u00b2 in premises, it is one of the largest palaces in the world. It is one of the Residences of the Royal House of Savoy, included in the UNESCO Heritage List in 1997."}
+{"text":"It is noted for its monumental architecture and Baroque interiors by Filippo Juvarra, including the \"Galleria Grande\" and its marble decorations, the chapel of St. Uberto, and its extensive gardens. It received 1,048,857 visitors in 2017, making it the sixth most visited museum in Italy."}
+{"text":"Charles Emmanuel was inspired by the example of the Castle of Mirafiori, built by Duke Charles Emmanuel I for his wife Catherine Michelle of Spain. Keen to leave a memorial of himself and his wife, Marie Jeanne of Savoy-Nemours, he bought the two small villages of Altessano Superiore and Altessano Inferiore from the Milanese-origin Birago family, who had created here a large complex of plants. The place was rechristened \"Venaria\" for his future function as hunting base (\"Venatio\", in Latin). The construction of this residence fell in the larger plan of surrounding the city of Turin with a \"garland of delicacies\" (\"Corona di Delizie\"), which included the Palazzina di caccia of Stupinigi, Castle of Rivoli, Villa della Regina, and others."}
+{"text":"Further damage was inflicted during the Siege of Turin (1706), when the French troops under Louis d'Aubusson de La Feuillade were garrisoned there. After the Savoyard victory, Victor Amadeus placed Filippo Juvarra in charge of the project in 1716. Juvarra completed the chapel, the Great Gallery, the Citronerie, and the stable, elevating the palace to a Baroque masterpiece. During the reign of Charles Emmanuel III, under the direction of Benedetto Alfieri, the palace was enlarged with new stables, galleries, and supporting buildings. With the fall of the Ancien R\u00e9gime, the palace fell in disuse."}
+{"text":"During the Napoleonic domination, the structures were turned into barracks and the gardens destroyed to create a training ground. The complex maintained this role also after the fall of Napoleon, and was used by the Italian Army until 1978, when it was sold to the Ministry of Culture."}
+{"text":"Restoration works were begun in 1999, and encapsulated the palace, gardens, and the historic center of the town. It was the largest restoration project in European history, with 100.000 m2 of buildings area, 1.000 frescoes, 9.5000 m2 stuccoes, 800.000 m2 garden area being renovated. The complex was open for tourism from 13 October 2007, and has since become a major turist destination and space for exhibitions and events."}
+{"text":"The entrance of the palace leads into the \"Cour d'honneur\" (\"Honour Court\"), which once housed a fountain with a deer. The main facade, covered in the 17th century section with plaster and featuring cornucopias, shells and fruits, is connected on the right by section with exposed brickwork added in the 18th century. The two towers date to the Michelangelo Garove period (1669\u20131713) and are covered with multicolor pentagonal tiles in ceramics, which are united by a large gallery, known as \"Galleria Grande\"."}
+{"text":"The interiors originally housed a large collection of stuccos, statues, paintings (according to Amedeo di Castellamonte, up to 8,000) from some of the court artists of the times, such as Vittorio Amedeo Cignaroli, and Bernardino Quadri."}
+{"text":"The original gardens of the residence are now totally disappeared, since French troops turned them into training grounds. Earlier drawings show an Italian garden with three terraces connected by elaborate stairways and architectural features such as a clock tower in the first court, the fountain of Hercules, a theater and parterres."}
+{"text":"Recent works have recreated a park in modern style, exhibiting modern works by Giuseppe Penone, including a fake 12\u00a0m-high cedar housing the thermic discharges of the palace."}
+{"text":"Church of Sant'Uberto and other 18th century additions."}
+{"text":"After the death of Garove (1713), Juvarra built the Grand Gallery and in parallel built a church dedicated to St. Hubertus, patron of the hunters (1716\u20131729). The church is strictly included within the palace's structure, so that it was impossible to build a dome: this was then frescoes \"trompe-l'\u0153il\" from inside."}
+{"text":"Other works of the Juvarra period included the stables, the \"citroneria\" (fruit grows, 1722\u20131728) and the renovation in French-style of the facades."}
+{"text":"The last buildings date from the mid-18th and early 19th centuries (stables, riding school, stair of the Reggia di Diana, gallery of Sant'Uberto); subsequently the Palace was abandoned in favour of the Palazzina di Caccia di Stupinigi (1729), which was by then more in tune with the tastes of the European courts."}
+{"text":"The Villa della Regina is a palace in the city of Turin, Piedmont, Italy. It was originally built by the House of Savoy in the 17th century."}
+{"text":"The original structure was designed in early 1615 by the Italian soldier, architect and military engineer, Ascanio Vitozzi. When he died in 1615, the project passed to his collaborators, father and son Carlo and Amedeo di Castellamonte. The original building was built for the Prince-Cardinal Maurice of Savoy during the reign of his brother Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy. The property was built as a private villa with its own vineyard, hence its alternative name of \"Vigna di Madama\". In 1637 Cardinal Maurice lost his brother and his sister in law Christine Marie of France became Regent of Savoy for her young son, Carlo Emanuele II of Savoye."}
+{"text":"Prince Maurice of Savoy and his brother Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano opposed the Regency and fled to Spain. Following his return to Turin, Maurice died at the Villa in 1657 and willed it to his wife Louise Christine of Savoy who also died there in 1692. At the death of Louise Christine, it passed to Anne Marie d'Orl\u00e9ans, niece of Louis XIV of France wife Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy in 1684."}
+{"text":"She used the Vigna when she could. Most of the present d\u00e9cor of the Vigna is from her lifetime. Her husband was the King of Sicily from 1713 till 1720, when he exchanged Sicily with Sardinia. From then on, the building was known as \"Villa della Regina\" (\"Villa of the Queen\"). It was here Anne Marie died in 1728. Anne Marie's eldest daughter Maria Adelaide came here and tried to recreate it at Versailles at the \"M\u00e9nagerie\"."}
+{"text":"Polyxena of Hesse-Rotenburg, daughter in law of Anne Marie, did some work in the main saloon of the building when she became the owner of the villa in 1728 at the death of Anne Marie."}
+{"text":"Inside there are frescoes and paintings by Giovanni Battista Crosato, Daniel Seyter and Corrado Giaquinto in the main room, grotesques of Filippo Minei and paintings by the brothers Domenico and Giuseppe Valeriani in the near rooms; there are also precious Chinese Cabinets in lacquer and golden wood. In the park there is the \"Pavilion of the Solinghi\", pagoda building in which the \"Academy of the Solinghi\" used to meet; it was a group of intellectuals founded by the Cardinal Maurice."}
+{"text":"The Villa was later used by the Spanish Queen of Sardinia Maria Antonietta Ferdinanda. It remained the property of the House of Savoy till 1868 when it was donated by Victor Emmanuel II of Italy to the Institute of the Army's Daughters and in 1994 it was given to the State domain."}
+{"text":"Damaged in the Second World War, it is today open to the public in order to fund its maintenance."}
+{"text":"Residences of the Royal House of Savoy"}
+{"text":"The Residences of the Royal House of Savoy are a group of buildings in Turin and the Metropolitan City of Turin, in Piedmont (northern Italy). It was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list in 1997."}
+{"text":"The House of Savoy is an ancient royal family, being founded in year 1003 in the Savoy region (now in Rh\u00f4ne-Alpes, France), later expanding so that by 1720 it reigned over the Kingdom of Sardinia in northwestern Italy. Through its junior branch, the House of Savoy-Carignano, it led the unification of Italy in 1861 and ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1861 until the end of World War II. At this time, King Victor Emanuel III abdicated in favour of his son Umberto II but after an institutional referendum in 1946, the monarchy was abolished, a republic was established, and members of the House of Savoy were required to leave the country."}
+{"text":"In 1562, Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy moved his capital to Turin and commenced a series of building projects using the best architects available at the time. The buildings, lavishly constructed and including embellishments by contemporary artists, were designed to impress the public and demonstrate the power of the House of Savoy. As well as palaces in Turin itself, country houses and hunting lodges were built in the surrounding countryside. All these buildings have been jointly listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the basis that they \"represent the best in European monumental architecture from the 17th and 18th centuries, expressing in their style and opulence a potent demonstration of the power of absolute monarchy in material terms\"."}
+{"text":"The Royal Castle of Racconigi is a palace and landscape park in Racconigi, province of Cuneo, Italy. It was the official residence of the Carignano line of the House of Savoy, and is one of the Residences of the Royal House of Savoy included by UNESCO in the World Heritage Sites list."}
+{"text":"The first records of the castle are from around the year 1000, when Bernardino of Susa rebuilt an ancient manor, leaving it to Cistercian monks."}
+{"text":"The castle was a possession of the margraves of Saluzzo and others starting in the 13th century, and in the 16th century was acquired by the House of Savoy. In 1630, Duke Charles Emmanuel I granted it to his nephew Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano, founder of the Savoy-Carignano line. At this time, the castle was a high brick moated fortress with a square plan, four corner towers and a tall donjon (\"mastio\") on one side."}
+{"text":"Emanuele Filiberto, Prince of Carignano, Tommaso's son, in the late 17th century, commissioned Guarino Guarini to transform the fortress into a pleasure residence. The architect erected the current central section where the court was, adding a pagoda-like roof. The two northern towers were replaced by pavilions with dome roof and square plan, provided with white marble lanterns. The gardens were also created."}
+{"text":"In the late 18th century, Ludovico Luigi Vittorio of Carignano ordered a renovation of the interiors, enlarging the two southern towers, adding stucco and other neoclassical decoration; he also commissioned a new entrance, with 4 Corinthian columns and a triangular fronton, and the great staircase."}
+{"text":"Charles Albert, a Carignano who eventually became King of Sardinia, further enlarged and embellished the castle to represent the splendour of the newly acquired reign. His court architect Ernesto Melano expanded the ancient square structure around the central section, added two side buildings connected to the fa\u00e7ade pavilions, as well as another staircase on the southern side."}
+{"text":"Here the last King of Italy, Umberto II, was born in 1904. Having received the castle as a wedding present in 1930, he proceeded to install in it the family gallery of some 3,000 paintings and historical documents regarding the Shroud of Turin."}
+{"text":"Emmanuel Philibert created a wide park in the \"jardin \u00e0 la fran\u00e7aise\" style that opens for the castle's northwards view. It was designed by the renowned 17th-century French landscape architect Andr\u00e9 Le Notre, known for designing the gardens of Versailles radiating from Palace of Versailles."}
+{"text":"In the late 18th century the English landscape garden style was introduced, Pelagio Palagi erected a series of small structures along the lake; such as the Doric \"Tempietto,\" the Gothic style chapel, and other landscape elements. A Russian dacha, built to honour Tsar Nicholas II of Russia's visit to Piedmont in order to sign the Racconigi Bargain, was also created in the landscape park."}
+{"text":"The one hundred and seventy hectares of parkland were given its current design by the German Xavier Kurten, who gave the setting a romantic touch: lakes, canals, bridges, caves, picturesque buildings and old trees populated by several species of birds, including a large colony of storks, which are still nowadays a source of popularity, appreciation and attraction."}
+{"text":"At the far end of the park the most impressive buildings can be found. These are the \"Margherie\", so called because they were originally used for the production of milk and cheese and as a dwelling for the shepherds. In the nineteenth century, in fact, as the new concept of country residence required, Racconigi intended to be a model farm and not just a royal castle and park. Therefore a compromise was reached for the creation of a functional and, at the same time, aesthetically impeccable building."}
+{"text":"Louis Victor of Savoy, 4th Prince of Carignano (25 September 1721 \u2013 16 December 1778) headed a cadet branch of the Italian dynasty which reigned over the Kingdom of Sardinia, being known as the Prince of Carignano from 1741 till his death. Upon extinction of the senior line of the family, his great-grandson succeeded to the royal throne as King Charles Albert of Sardinia, while his great-great-grandson, Victor Emmanuel II, became King of Italy."}
+{"text":"Louis Victor was born at the H\u00f4tel de Soissons, the Parisian home of his ancestor Marie de Bourbon, Countess of Soissons, to Victor Amadeus I, Prince of Carignano and his wife Maria Vittoria di Savoia. His father was a grandson of Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano and thus a descendant of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy and Infanta Catherine Michelle of Spain. He was doubly descended from the latter pair, as his mother was a legitimated daughter of Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia and his mistress Jeanne Baptiste d'Albert de Luynes."}
+{"text":"One of five children, he was the second son of his parents; his older brother Joseph Victor died and infant in 1716. Louis Victor was thus heir to the cadet branch of the House of Savoy-Carignano from birth. His older sister Anne Th\u00e9r\u00e8se married the Frenchman Charles de Rohan and was Princess de Soubise by marriage. Anne Th\u00e9r\u00e8se was the mother of Madame de Gu\u00e9m\u00e9n\u00e9, official governess to the children of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI."}
+{"text":"Louis Victor grew up in Paris, where his father was both a courtier and an inveterate gambler. Heavily in debt in Piedmont, and sued by his sisters whose dowries he had gambled away, he had fled to France where he lived so luxurious a life that his son was forced to sell significant family assets in that country. He later moved to Piedmont, between Turin and Racconigi."}
+{"text":"On 4 May 1740 Louis Victor married Princess Christine of Hesse-Rotenburg-Rheinfels, a sister of the Sardinian king's deceased wife Queen Polyxena (1706\u20131736). The couple had nine children."}
+{"text":"The most renowned of their children, Marie Th\u00e9r\u00e8se, is known to history as the Princesse de Lamballe whose close friendship with Marie Antoinette led to her brutal death during the French Revolution."}
+{"text":"In 1741, Louis Victor's father died and he became the Prince of Carignano. The fief of Carignano had belonged to the Savoys since 1418, but the fact that it was part of Piedmont, only twenty km south of Turin, meant that it could be a \"princedom\" for Thomas in name only, being endowed neither with independence nor revenues of substance."}
+{"text":"Louis Victor lost his wife in September, 1778 and died himself on 16 December 1778 at the Palazzo Carignano, the Turin residence of the Savoy-Carignano family. Since 1835 his wife's grave has been in Turin's Basilica of Superga, as is that of Louis Victor."}
+{"text":"His descendants include Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples and Amedeo, 5th Duke of Aosta, rival claimants for the defunct throne of the Kingdom of Italy, as well as Prince Lorenz of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este, head of a cadet branch of the former imperial House of Habsburg-Lorraine."}
+{"text":"King Victor and King Charles was the second play written by Robert Browning for the stage. He completed it in 1839 for William Macready, who had staged \"Strafford\" two years before, but Macready rejected it as unsuitable and it was never performed. It was published in 1842 as the second number of \"Bells and Pomegranates\"."}
+{"text":"The subject of the play is the strange incident in 1730\u201332 in the Kingdom of Sardinia in which the elderly king, Victor Amadeus II, first abdicated in favour of his son Charles Emmanuel III, and then after months of ever-increasing complaints unexpectedly demanded to be restored. He was imprisoned until his death a year later. Browning's treatment is based on 18th century sources which cast Victor as deliberately deceptive, but he goes further to create a secret history in which Charles is exonerated from all charges of cruelty."}
+{"text":"The play is in four acts and has only four main characters: Victor, Charles, Charles's wife Polyxena, and the minister D'Ormea. Charles suffers from an inferiority complex. He has always been regarded as the dull son, forced into the role of heir after the death of his abler brother. The theme is the anxious and misguided loyalty of Charles to his father and his refusal to believe that he could have been deceived. Despite his disappointment, his virtuous behaviour finally leads to a reconciliation."}
+{"text":"The setting is the Castle of Rivoli. There are no scene changes."}
+{"text":"The Duchy of Savoy, comprising Savoy proper and Piedmont (today in France and Italy respectively), has been united for three centuries. Over the past decades of Victor Amadeus's rule, the House of Savoy has prospered. It has successfully defended itself against its powerful enemies during the War of the Spanish Succession, after which a treaty permitted the acquisition of Sicily in 1713. Sicily was exchanged for Sardinia in 1720. Victor, the duke turned king, has solidified his power and is now one of the most absolute monarchs in Europe."}
+{"text":"Polyxena is helping Charles to rehearse state speeches when they are visited briefly by the disdainful D'Ormea. Charles believes that he has been summoned to the palace to be disinherited in favour of an illegitimate son. Polyxena suggests that the King's mistress, Marchioness Sebastian, may have influenced Victor in that direction after he was widowed in 1728."}
+{"text":"Victor soliloquises while carrying the regalia. Having foolishly made secret, incompatible deals with Austria and with Spain, he fears that a reconciliation between the two great powers will lead to the revealment of the deception, and justify the annexation of his kingdom. Nothing short of a change in ruler will extricate Sardinia from this situation, he believes. However, he has little faith in Charles, and expects to take power back from his weak son as soon as a renegotiation is complete and the coast is clear."}
+{"text":"When Charles enters, Victor is startled by his tone of accusation, and wonders if D'Ormea (who expects to be made scapegoat) has told him anything. Victor places the crown on Charles's head and announces an intention to abdicate. He will take the name Count Tende and spend his retirement in Chamb\u00e9ry, 150 km away in the extreme northwest of Savoy. Charles is somewhat angry when he learns that Victor has secretly married his old mistress, but the guilt over his earlier suspicion is so great that he refuses even to consider the possibility that his father has ulterior motives for stepping down. When the baffled Polyxena suggests that all may not be as it seems, he turns away from her."}
+{"text":"Victor enters the palace alone, and is surprised by his son while wandering about his old chamber. At first the old man is tactful, but gradually his indignation over his son's failure to adhere to his policies causes him to demand openly the return of his crown."}
+{"text":"Polyxena and D'Ormea enter and remonstrate with him, having overheard. Victor quickly dissembles, modifying the end of his rant to make it appear that he had been complaining about his allowance and living quarters."}
+{"text":"Victor is seized and brought to the palace. He is defiant, but when Charles places the crown on his head he is devastated by the filial piety the gesture represents. Fully reconciled with his son, Victor takes his old seat and passes away."}
+{"text":"Macready wrote in his diary, in the entry for 5 September 1839: \"Read Browning's play on Victor, King of Sardinia\u2014it turned out to be a \"great mistake\". I called Browning into my room and most explicitly told him so.\" Arthur Symons described it as \"the least interesting and valuable of Browning's plays, the thinnest in structure, the dryest in substance.\" Browning himself called it a \"very indifferent substitute\" for another play he had hoped to publish."}
+{"text":"It was once generally accepted as historical fact that the abdication had been a ruse. However, modern historians believe that Victor sincerely intended to retire and that his subsequent behaviour was the result of a stroke, and attendant mental illness, possibly prompted by distress over the prison-like environment at Chamb\u00e9ry. Another former explanation, the supposed ambition and scheming of his mistress-turned-wife, was probably a cover story put out by authorities to divert blame and halt further speculation."}
+{"text":"Henri of Savoy (7 November 1625, Paris \u2013 4 January 1659, Paris) was the seventh Duc de Nemours (1652\u201359), and was also Count of Geneva."}
+{"text":"Henri, as the third son of Henri de Savoie, 4th Duc de Nemours, was not expected to succeed to the dukedom and entered the priesthood. By 1651, he had become Archbishop of Reims. When his brothers Louis and Charles both predeceased him without leaving sons, he was relieved of his vows and became Duc de Nemours in 1652. He married Marie d'Orleans (daughter of Henri d'Orl\u00e9ans, Duke of Longueville and Louise de Bourbon) in 1657, but died two years later without children. On his death, the title of Duke of Nemours reverted to the Crown. He was succeeded as Count of Geneva by his niece, Marie Jeanne Baptiste de Savoie, Duchess of Savoy."}
+{"text":"The Order of the Black Swan ( or ) was a short-lived chivalric order founded by Amadeus VI of Savoy in 1350. It was defunct by 1364, when Amadeus founded the Order of the Collar in its stead. Along with Amadeus, Amadeus III of Geneva and Galeazzo Visconti were the \"great lords\" (\"grans seignours\") of the Order. At the time of its founding, the existence of black swans was unknown to Europeans."}
+{"text":"The order was originally composed of fourteen knights. The requirements of membership were the possession of a charger and a palfrey, and the ability to serve at one's own expense for one week whenever required. The Order did collect dues (at least from noblemen, \"riches hommes\") for purposes \"estreordinaire\" (extraordinary) according to rank (\"puissance\"): eight \"\u00e9cus\" from a knight banneret, four from what they called a \"chivallier simple\", and one from any squire. Annually on Saint Andrew's Day the knights assembled and approved expenditures. In the meantime, the monies were stored in several religious establishments."}
+{"text":"The Order's emblem was a black swan with red beak and feet on a white field, and members (\"compaignons\") were required to display it, usually on their shields. Members swore an oath to defend each other, even against relatives beyond the degree of first cousin, and to submit all disputes between themselves to the judgement of the membership. Any knight who refused to abide by the arbitration of the others was expelled and his former comrades joined in arms against him."}
+{"text":"Antonia of Savoy (died 1500), was Lady of Monaco by marriage to Jean II, Lord of Monaco."}
+{"text":"Antonia or Antoinette of Savoy was the illegitimate daughter of Philip II, Duke of Savoy and his mistress Libera Portoneri. She was raised in the household of the queen of France, Charlotte of Savoy. In 1487, she was arranged to marry the heir to the throne of Monaco in a peace agreement between Monaco and Savoy supported by France. The marriage was of high importance to Savoy, and part of a process in which was completed in 1489, when Savoy acknowledged the independence of Savoy."}
+{"text":"The couple had a daughter, Marie Grimaldi, wo was in 1515 married to Geronimo della Rovere and was forced to renounce her rights to the throne upon her marriage."}
+{"text":"Princess Bona of Savoy-Genoa, later Princess Bona of Bavaria (Maria Bona Margherita Albertina Vittoria; 1 August 1896 \u2013 2 February 1971), was a daughter of Prince Thomas, Duke of Genoa and Princess Isabella of Bavaria."}
+{"text":"Bona was the third of six children born to Prince Thomas, Duke of Genoa and his wife Princess Isabella of Bavaria. Her father was a grandson of King Charles Albert of Sardinia. Among her siblings were Ferdinando, 3rd Duke of Genoa; Filiberto, 4th Duke of Genoa; and Eugenio, 5th Duke of Genoa. Her mother Isabella was a granddaughter of Ludwig I of Bavaria."}
+{"text":"Bona was born at Castle d'Agli\u00e8, Piedmont. Her father had bought the eleventh-century castle shortly before his marriage with Isabella. They passed their honeymoon there."}
+{"text":"On 8 January 1921, Bona married her second cousin, Prince Konrad of Bavaria. He was the youngest son of Prince Leopold of Bavaria and Archduchess Gisela of Austria. Through his father, he was a great-grandson of Ludwig I of Bavaria, and through his mother was a grandson of Franz Joseph I of Austria. The wedding took place at Castle Agli\u00e8 in Piedmont, Italy (where she was born). It was attended by King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, Crown Prince Umberto, and the Duke of Aosta, among others. The wedding is notable for being the first royal marriage between two enemy houses since World War I began and ended. It was also remarkable as a gathering of royalty representing the Houses of Habsburg, Savoy, and Wittelsbach."}
+{"text":"At the end of the Second World War, Prince Konrad was arrested by the French military at Hinterstein. He was brought to Lindau and temporarily interned in the hotel Bayerischer Hof, together with among others the German Crown Prince Wilhelm and the former Nazi diplomat Hans Georg von Mackensen. Princess Bona, who worked during the war as a nurse, stayed afterwards with her relatives in Savoy. She was prohibited from entering Germany and was not reunited with her family until 1947. In later years Prince Konrad worked on the Board of German automaker NSU."}
+{"text":"Bona died on 2 February 1971 in Rome. Her tomb can be found in the church of the Andechs Abbey, in Germany. Her husband Prince Konrad died on 6 September 1969."}
+{"text":"Thomas Francis of Savoy, 1st Prince of Carignano (; ; 21 December 1596 \u2013 22 January 1656) was an Italian military commander and the founder of the Carignano branch of the House of Savoy, which reigned as kings of Sardinia from 1831 to 1861, and as kings of Italy from 1861 until the dynasty's deposition in 1946."}
+{"text":"Born in Turin, Thomas was the youngest of the five legitimate sons of the sovereign Duke Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy by his consort Caterina Micaela of Austria, a daughter of King Philip II of Spain and the French princess Elisabeth of France. His mother died the following year. While still a young man, Thomas bore arms in the service of the king of Spain in Italy."}
+{"text":"Although in previous reigns, younger sons had been granted rich appanages in Switzerland (Genevois, Vaud), Italy (Aosta), or France (Nemours, Bresse), the Savoy dukes found that this inhibited their own aggrandizement while encouraging intra-dynastic strife and regional secession. Not only did Thomas have older brothers, he was but one of the twenty-one acknowledged children of Charles Emmanuel. While only nine of these were legitimate, the others, being the widowed duke's offspring by noble mistresses, appear to have been generously endowed or dowered during their father's lifetime."}
+{"text":"The fief of Carignano had belonged to the Savoys since 1418, and the fact that it was part of Piedmont, only twenty km. south of Turin, meant that it could be a \"princedom\" for Thomas in name only, being endowed neither with independence nor revenues of substance. Instead of receiving a significant patrimony, Thomas was wed in 1625 to Marie de Bourbon; she was sister to and co-heiress with Louis, Count of Soissons, who would be killed in 1641 while fomenting rebellion against Cardinal Richelieu."}
+{"text":"In anticipation of this inheritance Thomas and Marie did not establish themselves at his brother's capital, Turin, but dwelt in Paris, where Marie enjoyed the exalted rank of a \"princesse du sang\", being a second cousin of King Louis XIII. It was arranged that Thomas, as son of a reigning monarch, would hold the rank of first among the \"princes \u00e9trangers\" at the French court\u2014taking precedence even before the formerly all-powerful House of Guise, whose kinship to the sovereign Duke of Lorraine was more remote. He was appointed \"Grand Ma\u00eetre\" of the king's household, briefly replacing the traitorous \"Grand Cond\u00e9\". He engaged the services of the distinguished grammarian and courtier Claude Favre de Vaugelas as tutor for his children."}
+{"text":"The prospect of Marie's eventual succession to the Swiss principality of Neuch\u00e2tel, near Savoy, was foiled in 1643 by the king's decision to legitimate Louis Henri de Bourbon, \"chevalier\" de Soissons (1640\u20131703), a son of Marie's late brother. This prevented the substitution of Savoyard for French influence in that region, but left Thomas with little more than the empty title of \"prince de Carignano\". Marie did eventually inherit her brother's main holding in France, the county of Soissons, but this would be established as a secundogeniture for the French branch of the family. After Thomas, the senior branch of his descendants repatriated to Savoy, alternately marrying French, Italian and German princesses."}
+{"text":"After seeking Spanish support late in 1638 for action against Regent Christine Marie, \"Madame Royale\", Thomas went to Spanish Milan early in 1639, and alongside Spanish forces invaded Piedmont, where many towns welcomed him. He took Turin by trickery, but the French continued to control its citadel. In 1640, he held the city in the multi-layered siege of Turin. After repeated bouts of negotiations with the Regent and the French, Thomas made peace with both in the first half of 1642, and unblushingly changed sides and started fighting with the French against the Spaniards."}
+{"text":"During his absence, Regent Christine had gained control of the fortresses granted to Thomas as part of the settlement of the Piedmontese Civil War (legally, these reverted to ducal control when the Duke came of age), which under Piedmontese law Charles Emmanuel did in 1648, though his mother remained in control of the government; Christine, accompanied by her son and part of the ducal army, entered Ivrea and dismissed Thomas' personal garrison; she appointed Thomas instead as governor or Asti and Alba, positions which sweetened the blow but were entirely under ducal control, not guaranteed by treaty. When he returned to Piedmont, Thomas had no choice but to accept the fait accompli, and soon after this he went to live in Paris."}
+{"text":"After the 1655 campaign, Thomas returned to Turin where he died the following January; the suggestion in Spanheim that he died \"at\" the siege of Pavia is not supported - malaria, a common problem in the marshes of the Po valley, carried him off, as it carried off his successor as allied commander-in-chief, Francesco I d'Este."}
+{"text":"Thomas and Marie de Bourbon had seven children (Italian names in parentheses):"}
+{"text":"The House of Savoy-Carignano (; ) originated as a cadet branch of the House of Savoy. It was founded by Thomas Francis of Savoy, Prince of Carignano (1596\u20131656), an Italian military commander who was the fifth son of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy. His descendants were accepted as \"princes \u00e9trangers\" at the court of France, where some held prominent positions. They eventually came to reign as kings of Sardinia from 1831 to 1861, and as kings of Italy from 1861 until the dynasty's deposition in 1946. The Savoy-Carignano family also, briefly, supplied a king each to Spain and Croatia, as well as queens consort to Bulgaria and Portugal."}
+{"text":"Born in Turin, Thomas Francis of Savoy was the youngest of the five legitimate sons of Charles Emmanuel I, sovereign Duke of Savoy, by his wife, Catherine Micaela of Spain (daughter of King Philip II of Spain and his consort, Elizabeth of Valois, a French princess). While still a young man, he bore arms in Italy in the service of the King of Spain."}
+{"text":"Although in previous reigns, younger sons of Savoy had been granted rich appanages in Switzerland (Genevois, Vaud), Italy (Aosta), or France (Nemours, Bresse), the Savoy dukes found that this inhibited their own aggrandizement while encouraging intra-dynastic strife and regional secession. Not only did Thomas Francis have older brothers, but he was just one of the twenty-one acknowledged children of Charles Emmanuel. While only nine of these were legitimate, the others, being the widowed duke's offspring by noble mistresses, appear to have been generously endowed or dowered during their father's lifetime."}
+{"text":"The fief of Carignano had belonged to the Savoys since 1418, and the fact that it was part of Piedmont, only twenty kilometers south of Turin, meant that it could be a \"princedom\" for Thomas in name only, being endowed neither with independence nor revenues of substance. Instead of receiving a significant patrimony, Thomas was wed in 1625 to Marie de Bourbon, sister and co-heiress of Louis, Count of Soissons, who would be killed in 1641 while fomenting rebellion against Cardinal Richelieu."}
+{"text":"In anticipation of this inheritance, Thomas Francis and Marie did not establish themselves at his brother's ducal capital, Turin, but dwelt in Paris, where Marie enjoyed the exalted rank of a \"princesse du sang\", being a second cousin of King Louis XIII. It was arranged that Thomas Francis, as son of a reigning monarch, would hold the rank of first among the \"princes \u00e9trangers\" at the French court \u2014- taking precedence even before the formerly all-powerful House of Guise, whose kinship to the sovereign Duke of Lorraine was more remote. He was appointed \"Grand Ma\u00eetre\" of the king's household, briefly replacing the traitorous \"Grand Cond\u00e9\". He engaged the services of the distinguished grammarian and courtier Claude Favre de Vaugelas as tutor for his children."}
+{"text":"The prospect of Marie's eventual succession to the Swiss principality of Neuch\u00e2tel, near Savoy, was foiled in 1643 by the king's decision to legitimate Louis Henri de Bourbon, \"chevalier\" de Soissons (1640\u20131703), a son of Marie's late brother. This prevented the substitution of Savoyard for French influence in that region, but left Thomas with little more than the empty title of \"prince de Carignan\". Marie did eventually inherit her brother's main holding in France, the county of Soissons, but this would be established as a secundogeniture for the French branch of the family. After Thomas Francis, the senior branch of his descendants repatriated to Savoy, alternately marrying French, Italian and German princesses."}
+{"text":"When France launched the Franco-Spanish War (1635\u201359), Thomas Francis served under the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand, brother of Philip IV in the Spanish Netherlands. Piedmont was reluctantly dragged into the fighting alongside the French, consequently Thomas Francis was, strictly, fighting against his own homeland. He was completely defeated and his army entirely killed, captured or scattered - the first in an unbroken career of military defeats. He managed to rally the remnants at Namur, then retreated before the numerically-superior French and Dutch forces; and he probably served the rest of the campaign with Ferdinand."}
+{"text":"In 1636, Thomas Francis served with the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand who organised a joint Spanish-Imperialist army for a major invasion of France from the Spanish Netherlands. The invasion was initially very successful, and seemed capable of reaching Paris, where there was a great panic; if Ferdinand and Thomas had pushed on, they might have ended the war at this point, but they both felt that continuing to Paris was too risky, so they stopped the advance. Later in the campaign, Thomas had problems with the Imperialist general Ottavio Piccolomini, who refused to accept orders from the Prince as a Spanish commander, arguing that his Imperialist troops were an independent force."}
+{"text":"In this year, when his brother-in-law Louis de Bourbon, comte de Soissons fled from France after his failed conspiracy against Cardinal Richelieu, Thomas Francis acted as intermediary between Soissons and the Spanish in negotiations which led to a formal alliance between the count and Philip IV of Spain concluded 28 June 1637 - although within a month Soissons had reconciled with France. In 1638, Thomas served in Spanish Flanders, helping to defend the fortress-city of Saint-Omer against a French siege."}
+{"text":"After seeking Spanish support late in 1638 for action against the Regent Christine of Savoy, \"Madame Royale\", Thomas went to Spanish Milan early in 1639, and alongside Spanish forces invaded Piedmont, where many towns welcomed him. He took Turin by knavery, but the French continued to control its citadel. In 1640, he held the city in the multi-layered siege of Turin. After repeated bouts of negotiations with the Regent and the French, Thomas Francis made peace with both in the first half of 1642, unblushingly changed sides, and started fighting with the French against the Spaniards."}
+{"text":"In 1645, now commanding with Du Plessis Praslin, he took Vigevano, and repulsed a Spanish attempt to block his withdrawal at the River Mora, the nearest he ever came to a success in the field. In 1646, Thomas Francis was put in command of the French expedition sent south to take the Tuscan forts, after which he was to advance further south to Naples, drive out the Spanish and put himself on the throne of the kingdom; but the expedition set off late, and when he besieged Orbetello, the supporting French fleet was defeated by the Spanish and he was forced to raise the siege and conduct a difficult retreat, which he performed poorly."}
+{"text":"In the 1647 campaign, Thomas Francis is mentioned as commanding alongside the French general in the forces sent across north Italy to work with the Duke of Modena Francesco I d'Este who had just allied with France and opened up a 'second front' against the Spaniards in Milan, though Mazarin confessed that he had appointed Thomas only because he feared that, if left behind in Piedmont, the Prince's restless spirit would make more trouble."}
+{"text":"During his absence, Regent Christine had gained control of the fortresses granted to Thomas Francis as part of the settlement of the Piedmontese Civil War (legally, these reverted to ducal control when the Duke came of age, which under Piedmontese law Charles Emmanuel did in 1648, though his mother remained in control of the government; Christine, accompanied by her son and part of the ducal army, entered Ivrea and dismissed Thomas' personal garrison; she appointed Thomas Francis instead as governor or Asti and Alba, positions which sweetened the blow but were entirely under ducal control, not guaranteed by treaty. When he returned to Piedmont, Thomas had no choice but to accept the fait accompli, and soon after this he went to live in Paris."}
+{"text":"The Franco-Spanish war had been continuing in north Italy, and late in 1654, increasing Piedmontese hostility to the current French commander Grancey led to a search for a new allied commander-in-chief; the French would have preferred to send the Duke of York (later King James II), but he too was unacceptable to Turin, so Thomas Francis was appointed as joint commander - though his wife was held in France almost as a hostage for his good behaviour. On 16 December 1654 he arrived in Turin, to a ceremonial welcome by the French troops and an unexpectedly friendly reception by Duke Charles Emmanuel. After the 1655 campaign, Thomas Francis returned to Turin where he died the following January."}
+{"text":"Among the children of Prince Thomas Francis and Marie de Bourbon-Soissons were:"}
+{"text":"The subsequent Princes of Carignano, with their respective dates of tenure in brackets, were as follows:"}
+{"text":"Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, 2nd Prince of Carignano (20 August 1628 \u2013 23 April 1709), Prince of Carignano, was the son and heir of Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano. He constructed the Palazzo Carignano in Turin."}
+{"text":"He was born deaf, at Mo\u00fbtiers, Savoy, now part of France. His being deaf greatly concerned his family. However, he eventually learned to communicate with others by lip-reading, and to speak a few words, though with great difficulty."}
+{"text":"As a youth he was sent to the Spanish priest Don Manuel Ramirez, a famous teacher of the deaf in Spain. Under his guidance, Emmanuel Philibert learned to read and to write. He went on to study a range of sciences under the guidance of Alessandro Tesauro, showing great aptitude. His sister, Princess Louise Christine was the wife of Hereditary Prince Ferdinand Maximilian of Baden-Baden, they were the parents of the famous \"T\u00fcrkenlouis\", Ludwig Wilhelm of Baden-Baden."}
+{"text":"In his 20s Emmanuel Philibert followed his father Thomas in the last of his campaigns in Lombardy, acquitting himself with great valour, and two years later he was named a colonel of cavalry in the service of his distant cousin Louis XIV, King of France."}
+{"text":"In 1658 Emmanuel Philibert was created a lieutenant-general by his first cousin Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy, in the latter's absence, and in 1663 was appointed governor of the city of Asti. When Charles Emmanuel died in 1675, his son and heir Victor Amadeus was only nine years old, and Emmanuel Philibert became heir presumptive to Savoy unless and until Victor Amadeus had a male heir in turn (which was not to happen until 1699)."}
+{"text":"A great connoisseur of architecture, Emmanuel Philibert commissioned the Palazzo Carignano in Turin, built between 1679 and 1684. He also commissioned major renovations to the castle of Racconigi. Guarino Guarini rebuilt an older dwelling, while the project for the park was entrusted to Andr\u00e9 le N\u00f4tre who realised magnificent French-style gardens."}
+{"text":"In November 1701, he acted as Philip V of Spain in a proxy marriage between Philip V and his cousin Maria Luisa of Savoy. He also acted as god father to Maria Luisa's sister, Princess Maria Adelaide, mother of Louis XV."}
+{"text":"Emmanuel Philibert died in Turin on 21 April 1709. In 1836 his remains were brought to the church of San Michele della Chiusa in that city."}
+{"text":"On 10 November 1684 in the Castle of Racconigi, Emmanuel Philibert, by now in his fifties, married Maria Angela Caterina d'Este, the beautiful daughter of the late General Borso d'Este, a member of the ducal family of Modena, and Ippolita d'Este, Borso's niece. This match was opposed by Louis XIV of France, who had wanted Emmanuel Philibert to marry a French princess, given his position as heir to the duchy of Savoy (Marie Th\u00e9r\u00e8se de Bourbon or one of her sisters were the proposed bride's, as Louis XIV had no surviving legitimate daughters)."}
+{"text":"In 1685, after the intercession of Vittorio Amadeo II, Emmanuel Philibert obtained permission from Louis XIV to return to Turin. He and Caterina had two girls and two boys, of whom only their son Vittorio Amadeo would have children."}
+{"text":"Anna Carlotta Teresa Canalis di Cumiana (23 April 1680 \u2013 13 April 1769) was the morganatic wife of Victor Amadeus II, King of Sardinia. She was created Marchesa of Spigno."}
+{"text":"Born at the Palazzo Canalis, Turin in 1680, she was a daughter of Francesco Maurizio Canalis, Count of Cumiana and his wife Monica Francesca San Martino d'Agli\u00e8. Receiving education as a nun at the Convent of the Visitation in Turin, she was introduced to the ducal court of Savoy in 1695. She was made a lady-in-waiting to Marie Jeanne of Savoy, mother of the ruler, Victor Amadeus II. She was styled as \"Mademoiselle de Cumiana\"."}
+{"text":"She was married on 21 April 1703 to Ignazio Francesco Novarina, the Count of San Sebastiano, by whom she purportedly had eight children. The marriage was arranged by Duchess Marie Jeanne, to whose household she belonged and who had noticed her son's wandering eye looking in the direction of the beautiful and unmarried Anna."}
+{"text":"The couple's first child is widely believed to have been fathered by Victor Amadeus but San Sebastiano accepted paternity. Victor Amadeus and Anna were in correspondence and she soon became a confidante in place of his wife, Anne Marie. Leaving the court in 1723 with her husband who had a good career, she soon became a widow at her husband's death on 25 September 1724. Left with limited means, Victor Amadeus called her back to court where she was made a lady-in-waiting to Polyxena, Princess of Piedmont, wife of Charles Emmanuel, Prince of Piedmont and heir apparent of Victor Amadeus II. She was later elevated to the position of Polyxena's lady-in-waiting, where she was given a position equivalent to Lady of the Bedchamber."}
+{"text":"In August 1728 Victor Amadeus's consort Anne Marie d'Orl\u00e9ans died after a series of heart attacks. Two years later he married Anna in a private ceremony on 12 August 1730 in the Royal Chapel in Turin, having obtained permission from Pope Clement XII. Victor Amadeus created her Marchesa of Spigno. The title was attached to a fief of the Holy Roman Empire, acquired as spoils of the War of the Spanish Succession and subsequently owned by an illegitimate brother of Victor Amadeus."}
+{"text":"The couple made their marriage public on 3 September 1730, much to the dismay of the court. A month later, Victor Amadeus announced his wish to abdicate the throne and did so in a ceremony at the Castle of Rivoli on the day of his marriage. His son succeeded him as Charles Emmanuel III."}
+{"text":"King Victor Amadeus having died in September 1732, Anna was imprisoned in the Convent of San Giuseppe di Carignano. She was later moved to the Convent of the Visitation in Pinerolo where she died aged 88. Her son later left the Savoy court in disgrace but succeeded to the marquisate of Spigno. She was buried at Pinerolo in a grave without a headstone."}
+{"text":"The Perfect Fusion () was the 1847 act of the Savoyard king Charles Albert of Sardinia which abolished the administrative differences between the Mainland states (Savoy and Piedmont) and the island of Sardinia, in a fashion similar to the Acts of Union between Great Britain and Ireland in 1800."}
+{"text":"The once Iberian Kingdom of Sardinia had become a possession of the House of Savoy in 1720, and it had continued to be ruled as during the ages of the Spanish Empire."}
+{"text":"Although the Sardinian populace had been showing hostility against the new Piedmontese rulers since the failed insurrection in 1794, the island's separate status from the Mainland became a problem for the local notables from two major cities of Cagliari and Sassari when liberal reforms began to be put in force in Turin, and some of them started to see their own legal system as a handicap more than a privilege; a minority of other Sardinian notables, like Giovanni Battista Tuveri and Federico Fenu, were not in favour of the idea, fearing that further moves toward the centralisation of the Savoy-led Kingdom might have followed thereafter. King Charles Albert eventually solved the problem by transforming all his dominions into a single, centralized state."}
+{"text":"A new legal system entered into force in Sardinia, and the last viceroy, Claudio Gabriele de Launay, left Cagliari on 4 March 1848. The island was divided into three provinces ruled by their prefects, following the system already used in Piedmont since 1815."}
+{"text":"Anna of Savoy, born Giovanna (1306\u20131365) was a Byzantine Empress consort, as the second spouse of Andronikos III Palaiologos. She served as regent during the minority of her son from 1341 until 1347."}
+{"text":"Anna was a daughter of Amadeus V, Count of Savoy, and his second wife, Maria of Brabant. She was betrothed to Andronikos III Palaiologos in September 1325, during which time he was involved in a civil war with his paternal grandfather Andronikos II Palaiologos."}
+{"text":"The marriage took place in October 1326. She joined the Eastern Orthodox Church and took the name Anna. In 1328, Andronikos III entered Constantinople and finally deposed his grandfather."}
+{"text":"On 14-15 June 1341, Andronikos III died. He was succeeded by their son John V who was still three days short of his ninth birthday. Anna was appointed regent for her son. However Andronikos III had entrusted the administration to his advisor John Kantakouzenos. Anna did not trust the powerful advisor."}
+{"text":"At about the same time, Stefan Uro\u0161 IV Du\u0161an of Serbia launched an invasion of Northern Thrace. Kantakouzenos left Constantinople to try to restore order to the area. In his absence, Patriarch John XIV of Constantinople and courtier Alexios Apokaukos convinced Anna that the senior advisor was her enemy. Anna declared Kantakouzenos an enemy of the state and offered the title of eparch of Constantinople to Apokaukos."}
+{"text":"Kantakouzenos was still in control of part of the Byzantine army. On 26 October 1341, he answered by proclaiming himself emperor at Didymoteicho. This was the beginning of a civil war that would last until 1347. Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria soon allied with the faction under John V and Anna while Stefan Uro\u0161 IV Du\u0161an of Serbia sided with John VI. Both rulers were actually taking advantage of the civil war for their own political and territorial gains. In time John VI would ally himself with Orhan I of the nascent Ottoman emirate."}
+{"text":"At the same time Anna was attempting to gain support from Western Europe. In Summer, 1343 an emissary proclaimed her loyalty to Pope Clement VI in Avignon. In August, 1343, Anna pawned the Byzantine crown jewels to the Republic of Venice for 30,000 ducats as part of an attempt to secure more finances for the war. However Anna at last lost the war."}
+{"text":"On 3 February 1347, the two sides reached an agreement. John VI was accepted as senior emperor with John V as his junior co-ruler. The agreement included the marriage of John V to Helena Kantakouzene, a daughter of John VI. John VI entered Constantinople and took effective control of the city."}
+{"text":"In 1351, Anna left Constantinople for Thessaloniki. She held her own court in the city, issuing decrees in her name and even controlling a mint. She was the second Byzantine empress to hold court in Thessaloniki, following Irene of Montferrat. Her rule there lasted to about 1365."}
+{"text":"Her last official act was the donation of a convent in the memory of \"Agioi Anargyroi\" (Greek: \u00ab\u0386\u03b3\u03b9\u03bf\u03b9 \u0391\u03bd\u03ac\u03c1\u03b3\u03c5\u03c1\u03bf\u03b9\u00bb \"The Holy Unmercenaries\"). Agioi Anargyroi is the joined description of Saints Cosmas and Damian, who supposedly"}
+{"text":"offered free medical services. Their devotees usually pray for healing. The donation may indicate Anna suffering from poor health and hoping for a cure. A little later she became a nun and died under the name \"Anastasia\" ca. 1365."}
+{"text":"Count Thomas III (c. 1246 \u2013 16 May 1282), called \"Thomas of Savoy\" or \"de Savoie\", was the lord of Piedmont and a claimant to the county of Savoy from 1268."}
+{"text":"He was the eldest son of Thomas II of Savoy and Beatrice di Fieschi, niece of Pope Innocent IV."}
+{"text":"Upon the death of his father, Thomas became Count in his paternal estates in Piedmont."}
+{"text":"When his first cousin Boniface, Count of Savoy died in 1263, the 15-year-old Thomas regarded himself as the successor of the deceased, and claimed the county and the headship of the house. However, his late father's younger brother Peter II, Count of Savoy, a sonless nobleman who had resided in England for much of his life, was recognized as count. After Peter's death in 1268, Thomas continued his claim although Philip of Savoy, archbishop of Lyon, the youngest surviving brother of his father and also sonless, succeeded in the county and was recognized."}
+{"text":"Thomas III, as he was the eldest son and heir of Thomas II, felt an injustice in being surpassed by younger brothers of his father, and claimed unsuccessfully Savoy from his uncles."}
+{"text":"Thomas III married in 1274 to Guia of Burgundy, the stepdaughter of his uncle Philip I of Savoy and they had five children:"}
+{"text":"Philip and Thomas were in dispute much of their reigns 1268\u201382. Thomas' marriage was a rather unsuccessful attempt to patch up things and get Philip to recognize hims as the successor in Savoy, which would have belonged to Thomas, him being the eldest son of Thomas II and thus the founder of the genealogically senior line of the House of Savoy. Philip\u2019s will charged his niece Eleanor of Provence and her son King Edward I of England with the inheritance of Savoy."}
+{"text":"Thomas III was fatally wounded in a border dispute with Humbert I of Viennois in 1282."}
+{"text":"Prince Umberto of Savoy (22 June 1889 \u2013 19 October 1918) was a member of the Aosta branch of the House of Savoy and was styled the Count of Salemi."}
+{"text":"Umberto was born in Turin, the fourth son of Prince Amadeo of Savoy, Duke of Aosta, the only one by his second wife and niece Princess Maria Letizia Bonaparte (1866\u20131926) the daughter of Prince Napol\u00e9on and Princess Maria Clotilde of Savoy. His father, a former king of Spain, died when he was just a year old. He had three older half-brothers: the Duke of Aosta, the Count of Turin and the Duke of the Abruzzi."}
+{"text":"In 1908 Umberto began studies at the Naval Academy in Livorno. In May 1911, while still at the academy, he was accused of theft. His cousin King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy wanted him arrested, but his mother took him to Turin and challenged the king to carry out the arrest. In July Victor Emmanuel ordered that he be detained at the Castle of Moncalieri and then spend eighteen months aboard a man-of-war, during which time a Carabinieri colonel would act as his tutor and keeper."}
+{"text":"During the First World War Umberto volunteered to serve in the Royal Italian Army. He joined the army as a lieutenant and served in a Catania cavalry regiment. During the war he was awarded a silver medal for bravery displayed while acting as a bombing officer."}
+{"text":"Umberto died a month before the end of the war. The official court bulletin recorded that he was killed in action, but in fact he was a victim of the 1918 influenza pandemic. He was buried in the cemetery of Crespano del Grappa. In 1926 his remains were moved to the Sacrario Militare del Monte Grappa."}
+{"text":"Eugenio of Savoy (Eugenio Ilarione; 21 October 1753 \u2013 30 June 1785) was a prince of the House of Savoy and founder of the Villafranca branch of the royal family of Italy that survived until 1888. He was a brother of Queen Marie Antoinette's tragic confidante, the \"Princesse de Lamballe\"."}
+{"text":"Born in Turin, he was the next to youngest of the nine children of Louis Victor of Savoy, Prince of Carignano and his German wife, Christine of Hesse-Rheinfels-Rotenburg. Although their family seat was the principality of Carignano 20 kilometers south of Turin, of which they were nominally suzerains, as princes of the blood royal in the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Savoy-Carignanos were in attendance at the royal court of the Savoys in Turin, while also maintaining a residence in Paris and frequenting the French court."}
+{"text":"\"Prinz Eugen, der edle Ritter\" (Prince Eugene, the Noble Knight) is an Austrian-German folksong about the victory of Prince Eugene of Savoy in 1717 during the Austro-Turkish War of 1716\u20131718. It tells of the bravery of Prince Eugene, his companion Prince Ludwig who lost his life in the battle, and their soldiers in defeating the Turks and recovering the city of Belgrade for the Holy Roman Empire. The oldest known record of the song comes from a handwritten songbook of 1719. The lyricist is unknown."}
+{"text":"The song is a narrative of the Siege of Belgrade (1717). The text diverts from historical accuracy in two aspects. The day of the final assault on the defenders is given as the 21 August although it was 16 August. Second, the song tells of the death of one Prince Louis (\"Prinz Ludewig\"). Eugene had two brothers named Louis but none of them fell at Belgrade. The younger one, Louis Julius (1660\u20131683) who had entered Imperial service prior to Eugene was killed by Crimean Tatars at Petronell, whereas the older one, Louis Thomas (1657\u20131702) had died at the Siege of Landau (1702)."}
+{"text":"The author of the song is unknown. The melody derives from \"Als Chursachsen das vernommen\" (1683) and has also been adopted in the period before the German revolutions of 1848\u20131849 to (Whether we [wear] red or yellow collars). Josef Strauss composed in 1865 his Prinz Eugen March, Op. 186, for the unveiling of a statue of Prince Eugene at the Heldenplatz in Vienna; it uses elements of the folksong."}
+{"text":"The First Churchills is a BBC serial from 1969 about the life of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and his wife, Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough. It stars John Neville as the duke and Susan Hampshire as the duchess, was written and produced by Donald Wilson, and was directed by David Giles. It is notable as being the first programme shown on PBS's long-running \"Masterpiece\" series in the United States. Wilson and Giles were fresh from their success in writing and directing \"The Forsyte Saga\", which also starred Susan Hampshire and Margaret Tyzack."}
+{"text":"The serial presents the lives of John and Sarah Churchill from their meeting in 1673 until a time shortly after the death of Queen Anne in 1714, and illustrates, along the way, much of the context of contemporary English politics. Like many BBC serials of the era, it was made on a low budget, with sound-studio sets, and generally avoided battle and crowd scenes because they were unable to stage them in a convincing manner. The series is based on the Marlboroughs' famous descendant Winston Churchill's life of his ancestor the Duke, and as such presents a very favourable portrait of the Marlboroughs."}
+{"text":"The serial depicts most of the important political figures of the day:"}
+{"text":"The theme for the opening titles of each episode is the \"Trumpet tune (Warlike consort)\" from Act V of Henry Purcell's opera \"King Arthur\". The theme for the closing credits of each episode is the second piece, a Rondeau, of Henry Purcell's incidental music, composed about 1695, to Aphra Behn's 1676 play \"Abdelazer, or The Moor's Revenge\", perhaps better known as the theme used by Benjamin Britten in \"The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra\"."}
+{"text":"The serial has been released on DVD, distributed by Acorn Media UK."}
+{"text":"Honorat de Savoie, marquis of Villars (c. 1511 - 20 September 1580, Le Grand-Pressigny) was a marshal of France and admiral of France."}
+{"text":"He was a son of Ren\u00e9 of Savoy and Anne of Lascaris. He accompanied Henry II of France on his 1552 trip to Lorraine and in 1553 relieved the town of Hesdin from its siege by the prince of Piedmont. He was wounded at battle of Saint-Quentin on 10 August 1557, though this did not stop him relieving Corbie from its Spanish siege. He accompanied Charles IX of France on his grand tour of France and in 1567 assisted at the Assembl\u00e9e des Grands de France held at Moulins. He fought zealously against the Huguenots, fighting at Saint-Denis and Moncontour."}
+{"text":"In 1540 he married Jeanne Fran\u00e7oise de Foix, viscountess of Castillon (\u20201542), with whom he only had one child, Henriette de Savoie-Villars (\u2020 1611), who married Charles, Duke of Mayenne. In 1565, his fiefdom of Villars was promoted to a marquisate dependent on the House of Savoy. In 1570, he succeeded Blaise de Monluc as lieutenant of Guyenne, where he repressed the Huguenots in 1573. The king rewarded him by making him marshal of France in 1571 and admiral of France and of the Levant Seas in 1572 after the death of Gaspard II de Coligny. He was dismissed as admiral in 1578 in favour of his relation Charles de Lorraine, duc de Mayenne. He was appointed to the Order of the Holy Spirit on 1 January 1579."}
+{"text":"FERT (sometimes tripled, \"FERT, FERT, FERT\"), the motto of the royal house of Savoy-Sardinia and Italy, the House of Savoy, was adopted by King Vittorio Amedeo II (1666\u20131732)."}
+{"text":"It appeared for the first time on the collar of the Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation, or \"Ordine Supremo della Santissima Annunziata\", the primary dynastic order of the kingdom. This ceased to be a national order when Italy became a republic in 1946. The order remains under the jurisdiction of the head of the House of Savoy, however, as hereditary Sovereign and Grand Master."}
+{"text":"The meaning of the letters has been a matter of some controversy, to which a number of interpretations have been offered. The motto is believed an acronym of:"}
+{"text":"It has also been suggested that the letters are actually the Latin word (third-person singular present active indicative of ), meaning '[he\/she\/it] suffers\/bears', possibly referring to Jesus bearing the sins of the world."}
+{"text":"A French-language parody of FERT was said by Savoy's neighbors to mean (French: 'Strike, Enter, Break Everything'), from their penchant for ."}
+{"text":"The lordship, later principality of Piedmont (, ) was originally an appanage of the Savoyard county and as such its lords were members of the Achaea branch of the House of Savoy. The title was inherited by the elder branch of the dynasty in 1418, at about which time Savoy was elevated to ducal status and Piedmont to princely status. When the House of Savoy was given the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Savoyards used the style of Prince of Piedmont () for their heir apparent. This first came into use by Prince Victor Amadeus of Savoy."}
+{"text":"The usage was retained when Victor Emmanuel II became King of Italy, \"Prince of Piedmont\" becoming roughly equivalent to the British \"Prince of Wales\", the title bestowed to the Crown prince."}
+{"text":"When the House of Savoy became the ruling dynasty of Italy in 1861, they continued to use the title of Prince of Piedmont for the heir apparent but also began alternating it with a new title, the Prince of Naples, once conferred by Joseph Bonaparte as being hereditary on his children and grandchildren."}
+{"text":"Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation"}
+{"text":"The Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation () is a Roman Catholic order of knighthood, originating in Savoy. It eventually was the pinnacle of the honours system in the Kingdom of Italy, which ceased to be a national order when the kingdom became a republic in 1946. Today, the order continues as a dynastic order under the jurisdiction of the Head of the House of Savoy, Amedeo, 5th Duke of Aosta, who is the order's hereditary Sovereign and Grand Master."}
+{"text":"The origins of the Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation begins in 1362, when Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy (1343-1383) instituted the order's earliest designation, under the title of Order of the Collar. Even at this time, the order was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is celebrated as \"Our Lady of the Annunciation.\" Thus, the order is a dynastic religious (or Catholic) order of chivalry."}
+{"text":"Under its first formulation, the order had fifteen knights. The number was symbolic of the number of daily masses celebrated with the order. In 1409, Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy, gave the order its first known statutes, and in 1434, he extended the order to five more knights."}
+{"text":"Amadeus VIII's statutes were subsequently amended and reformed by Charles III, Duke of Savoy in 1518, by Emanuele Filiberto, Duke of Savoy in 1570, and thereafter by succeeding Sovereigns. The most recent took place on 11 June 1985 by HRH Victor Emmanuel, Prince of Naples and hereditary Grand Master of the order. It was in 1518, that many of the present designations were instituted. Most importantly, the order's name was changed to its current name, The Most Holy Order of the Annunciation. The badge of the order was also changed, with the representation of the Blessed Virgin Mary being added."}
+{"text":"The order, throughout its early history and following the reforms of Charles III, was awarded for supreme recognition of distinguished services. The order constituted a kind of religious and military fraternity between the Sovereign Head of the Order and his companions; it was reserved exclusively to distinguished men-at-arms who, apart from exemplary service, had to be of illustrious birth, particularly of catholic and noble birth."}
+{"text":"Eventually, it was deemed appropriate to recognize also those who had rendered distinguished service to the Kingdom of Italy (and now the House of Savoy) in the exercise of high civil offices, not requiring, when a such achievements could be demonstrated, nobility of birth as well."}
+{"text":"Today, the order holds the following other regulations:"}
+{"text":"In 1925, a law was passed on the day before Christmas which made the Head of Government (who at the time was Benito Mussolini) the Secretary of the Order, and stipulated that he would preside over the Knights of the Order at public functions and ceremonies."}
+{"text":"The order has only one class, i.e. \"Knight\". The full Italian title is \"Cavaliere dell'Ordine Supremo della Santissima Annunziata\"."}
+{"text":"Although the order has only one class, it has two sets of insignia, the \"Piccola Collana\" and the \"Grande Collana\". The two hold similar designs, though the \"Grande Collana\" has some different features than the \"Piccola Collana\" and is worn only on the most special of occasions."}
+{"text":"The primary and oldest insignia of the order is its collar. It consists of a solid gold medallion of the collar, which portrays the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary by the Archangel Gabriel. The medallion is surrounded by three intertwined Savoyan knots, decorated with small crosses fleury, and in the upper center, between two of the Savoyan knots, a cluster of rays with a dove, representing the Holy Spirit, is depicted also in gold."}
+{"text":"The badge is suspended from a gold chain made up of fifteen ornate gold sections, each of which is linked by Savoyan knot. Each has the letters F.E.R.T. interwoven. The meaning of these letters have been of some controversy, to which a number of interpretations have been offered. The first states that the letters stand for \"Fortitudo Eius Rhodum Tulit\" (meaning \"By his bravery he conquered Rhodes\"), referring to the victory at Rhodes by Count Amadeus V in 1310."}
+{"text":"The star of the order, which was first used in 1680 by specifications of the Royal Lady Maria Giovana Battista, Duchess Regent of Savoy, is of gold and also has a representation of the Annunciation in a medallion in the center which is set within a gold cross of four pommels. This is surrounded by a cluster of gold rays. Between the arms of the cross of four pommels are the letters F.E.R.T."}
+{"text":"The \"Grande Collana\" differs from the \"Piccola Collana\" in that the collar consists of fourteen ornate sections, each of which is made up of the letters F.E.R.T. in gold, intertwined with a white and red enameled Savoyan knot. The sections are interlinked with fourteen roses, alternately enameled red and white. The roses represent the mysteries in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The knots surrounding the medallion of the collar is enameled white, red, and blue."}
+{"text":"The insignia of the order has the following regulations:"}
+{"text":"On the day of the initiation of a new knight into the Order the small collar was worn by the initiate before the accolade by Grand Master, while after the accolade the Grand Master would place the large collar over the shoulders of the new knight."}
+{"text":"When the order is not worn, Knights may wear a gold miniature of the badge (medallion of the collar) of the order suspended from a red ribbon. They may also wear either a ribbon-bar (upon a uniform) or a rosette (upon a suit), both of which are red and have a miniature cross of four pommels engraved with the Annunciation."}
+{"text":"The \"Grand Magisterium\" is the governing body of the dynastic orders of the Royal House of Savoy. It consists of the Sovereign and Grand Master of the Order, the Grand Chancellor of the Order, the Council of the Order, Members, and the Giunta of the Order. The following are some of those that make up the \"Grand Magisterium\" of the order."}
+{"text":"Among the notable recipients of the order of the Annunciation, King Amanullah of Afghanistan (reigned 1919-1929) should probably be mentioned, especially since he was not a Christian. He received the honor during his State visit to Italy in 1928, when he authorized, for the first time, the opening of a Catholic church in Afghanistan (within the Italian Embassy) and the residence of a Catholic priest."}
+{"text":"Philip II (1340 \u2013 20 January 1368) was the Count of Piedmont and claimant to the Principality of Achaea briefly from 1367 to his death."}
+{"text":"He was the son of James of Piedmont and Sibylle des Baux. On 19 September 1362, he married Alix de Thoire de Villars, but he had no children. He succeeded James, but died within a year of that date, leaving his titles to his brother Amadeus.<br>"}
+{"text":"The paternity to Umberta a nun (Filippina de Storgi) is probably his.<br>"}
+{"text":"Tradition says that he was saved in 1368 by intercession of the Beaste Umberto of Savoie by a medal that he carried. He lived in Fatima in Spain, and is believed to have died in 1418."}
+{"text":"The Order of the Crown of Italy, , was founded as a national order in 1868 by King Vittorio Emanuele II, to commemorate the unification of Italy in 1861. It was awarded in five degrees for civilian and military merit."}
+{"text":"Compared with the older Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus (1572), the Order of the Crown of Italy was awarded more liberally and could be conferred on non-Catholics as well; eventually, it became a requirement for a person to have already received the Order of the Crown of Italy in at least the same degree before receiving the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus."}
+{"text":"The order has been suppressed by law since the foundation of the Republic in 1946. However, Umberto II did not abdicate his position as \"fons honorum\" and it remained under his Grand Mastership as a dynastic order. While the continued use of those decorations conferred prior to 1951 is permitted in Italy, the crowns on the ribbons issued before 1946 must be substituted for as many five pointed stars on military uniforms."}
+{"text":"The various degrees of the order, with corresponding ribbons, were as follows:"}
+{"text":"Following the demise of the last reigning monarch in 1983, the order, founded by the first, is no longer bestowed. It was replaced by the Order of Merit of Savoy instituted by his heir, the current head of the former Royal House, in 1988. While the \"Ordine al merito d'Savoia\" has never been a national order, it is subsidiary to the Civil Order of Savoy which was. The Order of Merit has around 2,000 members and, as with the Order of the Crown of Italy previously, it is entrusted to the Chancellor of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus."}
+{"text":"Bianca of Savoy (1337\u2013 Pavia, 31 December 1387) was Lady of Milan by marriage to Galeazzo II Visconti. She was the only surviving daughter of Aimone, Count of Savoy and Yolande Palaeologina of Montferrat."}
+{"text":"Bianca was the second of five children born to Count Aimone and Yolande, herself the daughter of Theodore I, Marquess of Montferrat (1291\u20131338) and Genoese noblewoman Argentina Hispanola."}
+{"text":"When Bianca was six years old she lost her mother Yolande, who died giving birth on 24 December 1342 to her younger brother Louis, who died in childhood. Six months later on 22 June 1343 her father, Aimone died."}
+{"text":"In 1345, negotiations were started for her to marry a son of Edward III of England, to renew the relationship between Savoy and England."}
+{"text":"Bianca was raised in the Castle of the Counts of Savoy on the shores of Lake Bourget. In 1345 tragedy struck when Bianca's younger brother John died. This left only one son and heir to Savoy, Bianca's older brother Amadeus VI, the \"Green Count\" of Savoy. The period was marked by the devastating epidemic of the Black Death that killed off much of the population of Europe between 1347 and 1350."}
+{"text":"In an attempt to curb the expansionist policies of Bianca's uncle John II, Marquess of Montferrat, an alliance was established on the 22 October 1349 between Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy and Giovanni Visconti of Milan. In the agreements, a marriage was arranged between Bianca and Giovanni's nephew Galeazzo II Visconti."}
+{"text":"On 28 September 1350 at Rivoli, Bianca and Galeazzo were married, he was sixteen years her senior. Only weeks after the marriage in October 1350, Galeazzo was asked by his uncle to seize the city of Bologna but his fragile health forced him to leave the conquest."}
+{"text":"After moving to Bologna in 1351 their first child was born, Gian Galeazzo Visconti, then in 1352 a daughter, Maria (who died aged ten in April 1362) and then another daughter Violante in 1354."}
+{"text":"In 1360 Galeazzo was appointed Imperial vicar by Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor and Pavia fell under the domination of the Visconti family."}
+{"text":"Bianca followed her husband here who built the Visconti Castle where she educated, availed herself of illustrious friends, including Francesco Petrarca founder of the Library Visconti, which brought the first copies of Divine Comedy."}
+{"text":"When war broke out between Milan and her uncle John II, on the side of the latter was Bianca's brother, Count Amadeus VI. Bianca tried to whatever means to avert quarrels between him and her husband. The conflict ended with a dedication by John II in occupied areas of Lombardy and Piedmont."}
+{"text":"When the state of her husband's health deteriorated, the couple relocated to Cortenova. Galeazzo died in 1378. Bianca founded the Franciscan Monastery Cortenova dedicated to St. Clare of Assisi. In the last years of life, Bianca spent time raising her granddaughter, Valentina, whom she taught French and German."}
+{"text":"In 1385, together with her son, she participated in a conspiracy against Bernab\u00f2 Visconti. The conspiracy succeeded, and Bernab\u00f2 died half a year later in captivity. Bianca's son Gian Galeazzo was then the sole ruler of Milan. In 1386, Violante died. Bianca took the death of her daughter very badly."}
+{"text":"Bianca died on 31 December 1387 at the age of 51. She was buried at Pavia Santa Chiara, Pavia."}
+{"text":"Charles Emmanuel de Savoie, 3rd Duc de Nemours (12 February 156713 August 1595) was the son of Jacques of Savoy and Anne of Este, the widow of Francis, Duke of Guise. As a child he was known as the prince of Genevois. He was the Duke of Nemours from 1585 to his death in 1595, during the French Wars of Religion."}
+{"text":"Charles Emmanuel was duke at a volatile time, and subsequently was involved in many political intrigues, mostly by his relationship on his mother's side with the House of Guise. The Duke of Guise was one of the leaders of the Catholic League opposing the Huguenots, and Charles Emmanuel sympathised with their cause. However, after the assassination of Henry I, Duke of Guise and his brother the Cardinal of Guise, Charles Emmanuel was imprisoned by the Huguenots in 1588, but was able to escape."}
+{"text":"He was to fight the Huguenot forces for some years; he fought at the Battle of Arques in 1589. That same year, Charles Emmanuel was the governor of Paris, as the Huguenot forces, led by Henry of Navarre besieged Paris. During the siege, King Henry III of France perished, and Henry of Navarre soon declared himself King Henry IV of France. Charles Emmanuel escaped, and fought the newly proclaimed King at the Ivry in 1590, which was a decisive loss for the Catholic League. The same year he commanded Catholic forces during the Siege of Paris, successfully defending the city."}
+{"text":"After the defeat, Charles Emmanuel strongly disagreed with his half-brother and long-time ally Charles of Lorraine, Duke of Mayenne (also of the House of Guise), who advocated conciliation with Henry IV. Charles Emmanuel withdrew to his government in Lyonnais, where he endeavoured to make himself independent from the French crown. He was imprisoned, however, in the chateau of Pierre-Encise by the archbishop of Lyon. Again, he successfully escaped, and decided to attack Lyon. The intervention of the Constable de Montmorency thwarted his attack however, and his attempt at independence failed."}
+{"text":"He died at Annecy in 1595, leaving the Duchy of Nemour to his brother Henri de Savoie."}
+{"text":"Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Victoria Franziska Antonia Juliane Luise; 14 February 1822 \u2013 10 November 1857) was the daughter of Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Princess Maria Antonia Koh\u00e1ry. Her father was the second son of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Countess Augusta Reuss of Ebersdorf."}
+{"text":"Born to Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Princess Maria Antonia Koh\u00e1ry. Her mother was the daughter and heiress of Ferenc J\u00f3zsef, Prince Koh\u00e1ry de Cs\u00e1br\u00e1g et Szitnya. When Antonia's father died in 1826, she inherited his estates in Slovakia and Hungary. Her elder brother was King Ferdinand II of Portugal and first cousins included British Queen Victoria, her husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as well as Belgian King Leopold II and his sister, Empress Carlota of Mexico."}
+{"text":"On 27 April 1840, at the Ch\u00e2teau de Saint-Cloud, she married Louis d'Orl\u00e9ans, known since birth as the Duke of Nemours, second son of King Louis Philippe of France. After the Revolution of 1848 in France, the royal family went into exile and settled in England."}
+{"text":"The Duke and Duchess of Nemours had four children, all of them having issue except the last, Blanche, who never married. Victoria was outlived by her husband, who died in 1896. She died almost two weeks after giving birth to Blanche at Claremont and was buried at the Chapel of Saint Charles Borromeo in Weybridge. Her remains were transferred to the Royal Chapel of Dreux, the traditional burial place of the House of Orl\u00e9ans, in 1979."}
+{"text":"Francis Hyacinth (; 14 September 1632 \u2013 4 October 1638) was the Duke of Savoy from 1637 to 1638 under regency of his mother Christine Marie."}
+{"text":"Born at the Castle of Valentino in Turin he was the eldest surviving son of Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy and his wife Christine Marie of France. As the heir to the Savoyard throne, he was styled as the Prince of Piedmont. His parents had another son who had died in 1628 prior to the birth of Francis Hyacinth."}
+{"text":"At his father's death in October 1637, he succeeded and his mother took power having been claimed regent. While Duke of savoy he also held the subsidiary titles of Marquess of Saluzzo, count of Aosta, Moriana and Nice, and claimant King of Jerusalem. The infant was nicknamed the \"Flower of Paradise\" (French: \"Fleur de Paradis\"). Having succeeded his father at such a young age, Francis Hyacinth did not rule de facto being only 5 years old. Having caught a fever, he died at the Castle of Valentino, and was succeeded by his brother Charles Emmanuel II. The infant was buried at the Sacra di San Michele in Turin."}
+{"text":"Charles Emmanuel I (; 12 January 1562 \u2013 26 July 1630), known as the Great, was the Duke of Savoy from 1580 to 1630. He was nicknamed \"Testa d'feu\" (\"the Hot-Headed\") for his rashness and military aggression."}
+{"text":"Being ambitious and confident, Charles pursued a policy of expansion for his duchy, seeking to expand it into a kingdom."}
+{"text":"Charles was born in the Castle of Rivoli in Piedmont, the only child of Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy and Margaret of France, Duchess of Berry. He became duke on 30 August 1580."}
+{"text":"Well-educated, and intelligent, Charles spoke Italian, French, Spanish, as well as Latin. He proved an able warrior although short and hunchbacked. In the autumn of 1588, taking advantage of the civil war weakening France, he occupied the Marquisate of Saluzzo, which was under French protection. The new king, Henry IV, demanded the restitution of that land, but Charles Emmanuel refused, and war ensued. The broader conflict involving France and Spain ended with the Peace of Vervins (2 May 1598), which left the current but separate question of Saluzzo unsolved. After the Duke started talks with Spain, Henry threatened to return to war until, with the Treaty of Lyon (17 January 1601), Saluzzo went to Savoy in exchange for Bresse, Bugey, and Gex."}
+{"text":"In 1602 Charles Emmanuel attacked the city of Geneva. On 11 December that year he led his troops to the city during the night and they surrounded the city walls by two in the morning. The Savoyard cuirassiers were ordered to dismount and climb the city walls in full armour as a shock tactic. However, the alarm was raised by a night watchman and Geneva's militia rose to meet the invaders. The attempted raid was a disastrous failure, and 54 Savoyards were killed, and many more were captured. Charles Emmanuel's army retreated in a panic and the Savoyard prisoners were executed."}
+{"text":"The heavy helmets worn by Charles Emmanuel's troops, with visors made in a stylized imitation of a human face, were known as \"Savoyard\" helmets after this notorious incident. A number of these suits of armour were captured by the Swiss and kept as trophies. The Geneva militia's successful defence of the city's walls is still celebrated as an act of heroism during the annual festival of L'Escalade."}
+{"text":"With the Treaty of Bruzolo (25 April 1610), Charles Emmanuel allied with France against Spain, but the assassination of Henry IV changed the situation, as the treaty was not recognized by Marie de' Medici, who immediately assumed regency for Henry's son Louis XIII, a minor. Nevertheless, Charles Emmanuel obtained the help of French troops to free Alba from the Spaniards (January 1617), as the new king resumed his father's alliance with Savoy. His sister Christine Marie was married to Charles Emmanuel's son, Victor Amadeus in 1619."}
+{"text":"In the First Genoese-Savoyard War of 1625, Charles Emmanuel tried with the help of France to obtain access to the Mediterranean Sea at the expense of Genoa. After Spanish intervention, the status-quo was restored in the Treaty of Mon\u00e7on."}
+{"text":"However, when the French occupied Casale Monferrato during the War of the Mantuan Succession, Charles Emmanuel allied with Spain. When Richelieu invaded Piedmont and conquered Susa, the duke changed sides again and returned to an alliance with France. However, when Philip IV of Spain sent two invasion forces from Genoa and Como, Charles Emmanuel declared himself neutral, and in 1630 Richelieu ordered a French army to march into Savoy to force the duke to comply with the pacts. The French troops, soon backed by another army, occupied Pinerolo and Avigliana. The Savoy army under Victor Amadeus was defeated in Lower Valsusa."}
+{"text":"In 1609, Charles Emmanuel came in contact with Albanian mercenaries like Giovanni Renesi, his brother Demetrio Renesi and a relative Don Joanne Renesi, who intended to revolt against the Ottomans at the Convention of Ku\u00e7i in 1614."}
+{"text":"The duke died suddenly of a stroke, while campaigning during the second Monferrato war, at Savigliano in late July 1630. He was succeeded by his son Victor Amadeus."}
+{"text":"In 1584 Charles married Infanta Catherine Michelle of Spain, daughter of Philip II of Spain and Elizabeth of Valois. They had:"}
+{"text":"In Riva di Chieri on 28 November 1629, he secretly married his long-time and official mistress, Marguerite de Rossillon, \"Marchesa\" di Riva di Chieri (bap. 24 December 1599 \u2013 10 November 1640), with whom he had four children, legitimized after the wedding but without succession rights:"}
+{"text":"In addition he had several illegitimate children:"}
+{"text":"Umberto I (; 14 March 1844 \u2013 29 July 1900), nicknamed \"the Good\" (Italian: \"il Buono\"), was the King of Italy from 9 January 1878 until his assassination on 29 July 1900."}
+{"text":"Umberto's reign saw Italy attempt colonial expansion into the Horn of Africa, successfully gaining Eritrea and Somalia despite being defeated by Abyssinia at the Battle of Adwa in 1896. In 1882, he approved the Triple Alliance with the German Empire and Austria-Hungary."}
+{"text":"He was deeply loathed in leftist circles because of his conservatism and support of the Bava Beccaris massacre in Milan. He was especially hated by anarchists, who attempted to assassinate him during the first year of his reign. He was killed by another anarchist, Gaetano Bresci, two years after the Bava-Beccaris massacre."}
+{"text":"From March 1858, he had a military career in the Sardinian army, beginning with the rank of captain. Umberto took part in the Italian Wars of Independence: he was present at the battle of Solferino in 1859, and in 1866 commanded the XVI Division at the Villafranca battle that followed the Italian defeat at Custoza."}
+{"text":"Because of the upheaval the Savoys caused to a number of other royal houses (all the Italian ones, and those related closely to them, such as the Bourbons of Spain and France) in 1859\u201360, only a minority of royal families in the 1860s were willing to establish relations with the newly founded Italian royal family. It proved difficult to find any royal bride for either of the sons of king Victor Emmanuel II. (His younger son Amedeo, Umberto's brother, married ultimately a Piedmontese subject, princess Vittoria of Cisterna.) Their conflict with the papacy did not help these matters. Not many eligible Catholic royal brides were easily available for young Umberto."}
+{"text":"Accession to the throne and first assassination attempt."}
+{"text":"In foreign policy Umberto I approved the Triple Alliance with Austria-Hungary and Germany, repeatedly visiting Vienna and Berlin. Many in Italy, however, viewed with hostility an alliance with their former Austrian enemies, who were still occupying areas claimed by Italy. A strong militarist, Umberto loved Prussian-German militarism and on his visits to Germany his favorite activity was to review the Prussian Army and he was greatly honored to be allowed to lead a Prussian hussar regiment on field maneuvers outside of Frankfurt. Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany told him during one visit that he should strengthen the \"Regio Esercito\" to the point that he could abolish parliament and rule Italy as a dictator."}
+{"text":"Umberto was also favorably disposed towards the policy of colonial expansion inaugurated in 1885 by the occupation of Massawa in Eritrea. Italy expanded into Somalia in the 1880s as well. Umberto's preferred solution to the problems of Italy was to conquer Ethiopia, regardless of overwhelming public opposition, and supported the ultra-imperialist Prime Minister Francesco Crispi who in May 1895 spoke of \"the absolute impossibility of continuing to govern through Parliament.\" In December 1893, Umberto appointed Crispi prime minister despite his \"shattered reputation\" due to his involvement in the Banca Romana scandal together with numerous other scandals that the king himself called \"sordid\". As Crispi was heavily in debt, the king secretly agreed to pay off his debts in exchange for Crispi following the king's advice."}
+{"text":"In the summer of 1900, Italian forces were part of the Eight-Nation Alliance which participated in the Boxer Rebellion in Imperial China. Through the Boxer Protocol, signed after Umberto's death, the Kingdom of Italy gained a concession territory in Tientsin."}
+{"text":"Umberto's attitude towards the Holy See was uncompromising. In an 1886 telegram, he declared Rome \"untouchable\" and affirmed the permanence of the Italian possession of the \"Eternal City\"."}
+{"text":"The reign of Umberto I was a time of social upheaval, though it was later claimed to have been a tranquil \"belle \u00e9poque\". Social tensions mounted as a consequence of the relatively recent occupation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the spread of socialist ideas, public hostility to the colonialist plans of the various governments, especially Crispi's, and the numerous crackdowns on civil liberties. The protesters included the young Benito Mussolini, then a member of the socialist party. On 22 April 1897, Umberto I was attacked again, by an unemployed ironsmith, Pietro Acciarito, who tried to stab him near Rome."}
+{"text":"During the colonial wars in Africa, large demonstrations over the rising price of bread were held in Italy and on 7 May 1898, the city of Milan was put under military rule by General Fiorenzo Bava Beccaris, who ordered rifle-fire and artillery against the demonstrators. As a result, 82 people were killed according to the authorities, with opposition sources claiming that the death toll was 400 dead with 2,000 wounded. King Umberto sent a telegram to congratulate Bava Beccaris on the restoration of order and later decorated him with the medal of Great Official of Savoy Military Order, greatly outraging a large part of the public opinion."}
+{"text":"On the evening of 29 July 1900, Umberto was assassinated in Monza. The king was shot four times by the Italian-American anarchist Gaetano Bresci. Bresci claimed he wanted to avenge the people killed in Milan during the suppression of the riots of May 1898. Commenting about the 1969 book \"Killing No Murder\" by Edward Hyams, the Canadian critic George Fetherling in \"The Book of Assassins\" wrote that the description by Hyams of Umberto I \"is so harsh that one is left to marvel that only three people tried to kill him\"."}
+{"text":"Umberto was buried in the Pantheon in Rome, by the side of his father Victor Emmanuel II, on 9 August 1900. He was the last Savoy to be buried there, as his son and successor Victor Emmanuel III died in exile and was buried in Egypt until his remains were transferred to Vicoforte near Cuneo in 2017."}
+{"text":"American anarchist Leon F. Czolgosz claimed that the assassination of Umberto I was his inspiration to kill U. S. President William McKinley in September 1901."}
+{"text":"Victor Amadeus II (Vittorio Amedeo Francesco; 14 May 166631 October 1732) was Duke of Savoy from 1675 to 1730. He also held the titles of Prince of Piedmont, Duke of Montferrat, Marquis of Saluzzo and Count of Aosta, Moriana and Nice."}
+{"text":"Louis XIV organised his marriage in order to maintain French influence in the Duchy, but Victor Amadeus soon broke away from the influence of France. At his father's death in 1675, his mother, Marie Jeanne Baptiste of Nemours, was regent in the name of her nine-year-old son and would remain in de facto power until 1684 when Victor Amadeus banished her further involvement in the state."}
+{"text":"Having fought in the War of the Spanish Succession, he became king of Sicily in 1713, but he was forced to exchange this title and instead became king of Sardinia."}
+{"text":"Victor Amadeus left a considerable cultural influence in Turin, remodeling the Royal Palace of Turin, Palace of Venaria, Palazzina di caccia of Stupinigi, as well as building the Basilica of Superga where he rests."}
+{"text":"Victor Amadeus was born in Turin to Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy and his second wife Marie Jeanne Baptiste of Nemours. Named after his paternal grandfather Victor Amadeus I he was their only child. As an infant he was styled as the \"Prince of Piedmont\", traditional title of the heir apparent to the duchy of Savoy. A weak child, his health was greatly monitored. As an infant he had a passion for soldiers and was noted as being very intelligent."}
+{"text":"The news of these rebellions soon reached a wider scope and it became clear that soon the whole of Piedmont was on the verge of revolt. Power at this point still being with Victor Amadeus' mother, she ordered representatives of the town of Mondov\u00ec to go to Turin to conclude treaties and were cordially welcomed by the young Victor Amadeus, who agreed to the treaties. The event had allowed Victor Amadeus a chance to exert some power."}
+{"text":"Having succeeded in ending his mother's power in Savoy, Victor Amadeus looked to his oncoming marriage with the youngest child of Philippe I, Duke of Orl\u00e9ans (brother of Louis XIV) and Henrietta of England. The contract of marriage between Anne Marie and the Duke of Savoy was signed at Versailles on 9 April; On 10 April 1684, Anne Marie was married at Versailles, by proxy, to Victor Amadeus. The couple were married in person on 6 May 1684."}
+{"text":"At the urging of Louis, Victor Amadeus II began a large-scale persecution of the Vaudois (Piedmontese and Savoyard Protestants) in 1685. The state had been bankrupted due to various conflicts and a famine in 1679 which had used all last resources. Due to his alliances with England and the Dutch Republic during the Nine Years' War, he was forced to cease this practice from 1688, and in 1694 granted an Edict of Toleration. However, in 1698 Louis XIV forced him to expel all Protestant immigrants from Savoy in accordance with a treaty of 1696."}
+{"text":"During this period he became anxious to free himself of domination by Louis, and his first sign of independence was his independent visit to Venice in 1687, where he conferred with Prince Eugene of Savoy and others. Louis discovered this and demanded that Victor Amadeus launch another expedition against the Vaudois; he grudgingly complied, but as described below soon chose the allies countering France."}
+{"text":"Victor Amadeus II undertook sweeping administrative reforms within Savoy. In 1696 he established a system of intendants, based on the French model, responsible for collecting taxes and law enforcement. In 1697 he began a land survey which was largely completed by 1711, the Perequazione, to examine the land holdings and privileges of the Church and nobility. In 1717 he reformed the secretariat system in Turin establishing individual secretaries for war, internal affairs and foreign affairs. From the 1670s he also had a new administrative zone built in Turin, around the ducal palace. This zone included a military academy, the ministry of war, a mint, and a customs house. This work was still ongoing upon his death."}
+{"text":"Victor Amadeus also undertook a number of military reforms. Often when one of his key fortresses was under attack, he would replace its commanding officer with one of his most reliable and trusted leaders. In 1690 he established a select militia within his territories, and he later overhauled the militia system in 1714 and strictly codified it. This included an obligation for each region under his rule to provide a number of men for the militia based on population. From 1713 he also began to establish his own navy based on the limited Sicilian naval forces he had been granted."}
+{"text":"Victor Amadeus was able to use the experienced armies he developed in foreign wars to establish more firm control within his own territories. Faced with rebellion by Mondov\u00ec at the end of the century, he brought a force of veterans from the Nine Years War there and re-established his authority. He employed a similar strategy against an anti-tax riot in Cigliano in 1724."}
+{"text":"Under his mother's regency Savoy, despite being a state of the Holy Roman Empire, was closely linked to and heavily dependent upon France, essentially becoming a French satellite. Victor Amadeus II broke this link by joining alliances against France in both the Nine Years War and the War of the Spanish Succession. Savoy was considered a valuable ally in both wars due to its geographical position, enabling a second front to be opened against France in the south. Savoy relied heavily on foreign subsidies, particularly from England and the Dutch Republic, in both wars to maintain its armies."}
+{"text":"England and Austria ignored his claim, the latter of which had a candidate in the person of Archduke Charles, who immediately proclaimed himself King of Spain. The Grand Duke of Tuscany also ignored his claims. In the meantime he pursued the expansion of Savoy and bought various fiefdoms of the Holy Roman Empire."}
+{"text":"In 1703, Victor Amadeus switched sides, joining the Grand Alliance as he had in the Nine Years War. Savoy fared particularly badly against the larger French forces resulting in a siege of Turin in 1706. Anne Marie's uncle, Louis XIV (along with Spanish forces from Anne Marie's second cousin Philip V of Spain), besieged Turin during the \"Battle of Turin\". French troops were under the control of Anne Marie's half brother, the Duke of Orl\u00e9ans. She and her sons were forced to flee Turin with the grandmother for the safety of Genoa. Turin was saved by the combined forces of Victor Amadeus and Prince Eugene of Savoy in September 1706."}
+{"text":"As a result of his aid in the War of the Spanish Succession, Victor Amadeus II gained the Kingdom of Sicily in 1713 under the Treaty of Utrecht which ended the war. Being crowned King of Sicily in\u00a0Palermo\u00a0in December 1713, he returned to Turin in September 1714."}
+{"text":"As ruler of an independent kingdom and a key player in the recent war, Victor Amadeus significantly expanded his foreign relations. As a duke, he had envoys and embassies in France, the Empire, and Rome. In 1717, he established his own foreign office."}
+{"text":"Victor Amadeus in 1720 was forced to exchange Sicily for the less important kingdom of Sardinia after objections from an alliance of four nations, including several of his former allies. The duke was a marquis and Prince and Perpetual Vicar in the Holy Roman Empire."}
+{"text":"Taking the style of \"King Victor Amadeus\", he and Anna moved into the ch\u00e2teau de Chamb\u00e9ry outside the capital. The couple took a small retinue of servants and Victor Amadeus was kept informed of matters of state. He insisted on having a Louis XIV-style wig with him at all times as his only luxury."}
+{"text":"Under the influence of Anna, in 1731 having suffered a stroke, Victor Amadeus decided he wanted to resume his tenure on the throne and informed his son of his decision. Arrested by his son, he was transported to the Castle of Moncalieri and Anna was taken to a house for reformed prostitutes at the Castle of Ceva but was later allowed to return to the Castle of Rivoli where her husband was moved. She was returned to him on 12 April. The stroke seemed to have affected Victor Amadeus in a way which caused him to later turn violent towards his wife, blaming her for his misfortunes."}
+{"text":"King Victor Amadeus died in September 1732 and was buried in the Convent of San Giuseppe di Carignano. His son decided not to bury him in the Basilica of Superga which Victor Amadeus had built and where he asked to be buried, as his son did not want to remind the public of the scandal which his abdication had caused. Anna was moved to the Convent of the Visitation in Pinerolo where she died aged 88."}
+{"text":"Despite his political reforms and his passion for trying to increase the importance of Savoy in Europe, Victor Amadeus left a considerable cultural legacy in the city of his birth. In 1697 Victor Amadeus commissioned Le Notre to lay out large gardens at the Palace of Turin where he had previously commissioned the Viennese Daniel Seiter to paint a famous gallery which exists to this day. Victor Amadeus subsequently had Seiter knighted. He also encouraged musical patronage in Savoy and the court became a centre for various musicians of the period."}
+{"text":"Being crowned King of Sicily in Palermo in December 1713, he returned to Turin in September 1714. From Palermo he brought back Filippo Juvarra, an Italian architect who had spent many years in Rome. Juvarra was patronised by Victor Amadeus and was the mind behind the remodelling of the Royal Palace of Turin, Palace of Venaria, Palazzina di caccia of Stupinigi as well as building the Basilica of Superga. The architect was also responsible for various roads and piazza's in Turin. Victor Amadeus' mother also used Juvarra for the famous staircase within the Palazzo Madama where she lived after being banished."}
+{"text":"In 1997 the \"UNESCO\" added a group of buildings which were connected to Victor Amadeus and his family to be added to have World Heritage status. These buildings including the Royal Palace, the Palazzo Madama, the Palazzina di caccia of Stupinigi and his wife's \"Villa della Regina\" were grouped as the \"Residences of the Royal House of Savoy\"."}
+{"text":"Anne Marie would remain a devoted wife. She quietly accepted his extramarital affairs; the longest one being with the famed beauty Jeanne Baptiste d'Albert de Luynes by whom he had two children. Jeanne Baptiste was his mistress for eleven years and eventually fled Savoy due to Victor Amadeus' obsession with her. Victor Amadeus subsequently had his daughter with Jeanne Baptiste, Maria Vittoria, marry the Prince of Carignano from which the present Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples is a direct descendant. His favourite child was Victor Amadeus born in 1699 and given the title Prince of Piedmont as heir apparent. The Prince of Piedmont later died in 1715 from smallpox. Anne Marie died in 1728 after a series of heart attacks."}
+{"text":"His relationship with his younger son and eventual successor Charles Emmanuel was a cold one and the two were never close. Victor Amadeus organised the first two marriages of Charles Emmanuel, the first one being to Anne Christine of Sulzbach, daughter of the Count Palatine of Sulzbach, which produced a son who died in infancy. The second marriage was to Polyxena of Hesse-Rotenburg, a first cousin of Anne Christine and mother of six children, including the future Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia."}
+{"text":"Prince Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy, Prince of Naples (\"Vittorio Emanuele Alberto Carlo Teodoro Umberto Bonifacio Amedeo Damiano Bernardino Gennaro Maria di Savoia\"; born 12 February 1937) is the only son of Umberto II, the last King of Italy and his wife Queen Marie-Jos\u00e9 of Belgium. Vittorio Emanuele also uses the title Duke of Savoy and claims the headship of the House of Savoy. These claims are disputed by supporters of his third cousin, Prince Amedeo, 5th Duke of Aosta."}
+{"text":"Vittorio Emanuele was born 12 February 1937 in Naples to Umberto, Prince of Piedmont, who would later become the last King of Italy as Umberto II, and Princess Marie-Jos\u00e9 of Belgium. When Umberto II left Italy after the monarchy was abolished by the Italian constitutional referendum, 1946, the remaining members of the House of Savoy lived in exile, mostly in Switzerland and on the Portuguese Riviera, though the former king Victor Emmanuel III, grandfather to Vittorio Emanuele, lived in Egypt until his death in 1947. Following the separation of the exiled ex-King and ex-Queen, Prince Vittorio Emanuele lived with his mother in an estate in Merlinge, Switzerland. Vittorio Emanuele and his family currently reside in Geneva."}
+{"text":"After an 11-year relationship, Vittorio Emanuele married Swiss biscuit heiress and world-ranked water skier Marina Ricolfi-Doria in Tehran on 7 October 1971, at the occasion of the 2,500 year celebration of Iran's monarchy. Coincidentally, Vittorio Emanuele and his wife Marina share a birthday (12 February) but Vittorio Emanuele is two years younger than Marina (she was born in 1935)."}
+{"text":"Vittorio Emanuele has worked as a banker and an aircraft salesman, and then an arms dealer."}
+{"text":"Vittorio Emanuele has one son, Prince Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy, Prince of Venice, born on 22 June 1972, who has two daughters."}
+{"text":"On 7 July 2006 Vittorio Emanuele's kinsman and dynastic rival, Amedeo, 5th Duke of Aosta declared himself to be the head of the House of Savoy and Duke of Savoy, claiming that Vittorio Emanuele had lost his dynastic rights when he married without the permission of Umberto II in 1971. Amedeo has received the support of the President of the \"Council of the Senators of the Kingdom\" Aldo Alessandro Mola."}
+{"text":"Vittorio Emanuele and his son have applied for a judicial injunction to forbid Amedeo from using the title \"Duke of Savoy\". In February 2010, the court of Arezzo ruled that the Duke of Aosta and his son must pay damages totalling \u20ac50,000 to their cousins and cease using the surname \"Savoy\" instead of \"Savoy-Aosta\"."}
+{"text":"In line with certain other countries that were formerly monarchies, the Italian Constitution required all male members of the House of Savoy to leave Italy and barred them from ever returning to Italian soil again. This was enacted as a \"temporary disposition\" enacted when the constitution was promulgated in 1948. The constitution also forbade any amendment that would change the republican form of government, effectively foreclosing any effort to restore the monarchy short of adopting a new constitution."}
+{"text":"Vittorio Emanuele lobbied the Parliament of Italy over the years in which the law prohibiting his return was in force, to be allowed to return to his homeland after 56 years in exile. In 1999, he filed a case at the European Court of Human Rights, in which the Prince charged that his lengthy exile violated his human rights. In September 2001, the court decided to hold a hearing on the case at a date later to be fixed."}
+{"text":"In order to achieve a return to his homeland, he renounced any claim to the defunct throne and to Italy's crown jewels. He publicly assured the Italian government that the nation and the crown properties, confiscated by the State in 1946, \"are no longer ours\", referring to the House of Savoy. \"For that matter we have no claim on the Crown jewels\", he said. \"We have nothing in Italy and we are not asking for anything\". Vittorio Emanuele also dropped his case at the European Court of Human Rights. In February 2002, Vittorio Emanuele and his son Emanuele Filiberto wrote a signed letter, published through a law firm, in which they formally expressed their loyalty to the Constitution of Italy."}
+{"text":"On 23 October 2002, the provision in the constitution that barred male members of the former royal house from returning to Italy was repealed. As part of a deal with the government, Vittorio Emanuele signed an agreement renouncing all claims to the defunct throne and recognizing the Republic as the only lawful government of Italy. Vittorio Emanuele was permitted to re-enter the country from 10 November 2002. On 23 December 2002, he made his first trip home in over half a century. On the one-day visit he, his wife and his son had a 20-minute audience with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican."}
+{"text":"Upon their first visit in 2003 to Naples, where Vittorio Emanuele was born, and from where his family sailed into exile in 1946, the reception of the Savoys was mixed; most people were indifferent to them, some hostile, a few supportive. The media reported that many in Naples were not happy to see the return of the family, when hundreds of noisy demonstrators chanted negative slogans as they progressed through the city. Demonstrations were staged by two traditionally opposing factions: anti-monarchists on one hand, and supporters of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, the royal house deposed when Italy was united in 1861 under the House of Savoy."}
+{"text":"Vittorio Emanuele unilaterally declared himself King of Italy on 15 December 1969. He argued that by agreeing to submit to a referendum on his place as head of state, his father had thereby abdicated. Vittorio Emanuele took this action after his father allegedly called for Amedeo, 5th Duke of Aosta to visit him in Portugal to name him his heir. Under his self-assumed powers as King of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele conferred the title of Duchess of Sant'Anna di Valdieri on his then fianc\u00e9e, Marina Doria."}
+{"text":"On the night of 17 August or the morning of 18 August 1978, on the island of Cavallo (which lies off the south coast of Corsica), Vittorio Emanuele discovered his yacht's rubber dinghy had been taken and attached to another nearby yacht. Arming himself with a rifle, he attempted to board the vessel. He shot at a passenger he had awakened; the shot missed the passenger but mortally wounded Dirk Hamer (the 19-year-old son of Ryke Geerd Hamer), a passenger sleeping on the deck of another adjacent yacht. The prince admitted civil liability for the death in a letter dated 28 August 1978. Dirk Hamer died of his wounds on 7 December 1978, and Vittorio Emanuele was arrested."}
+{"text":"On 11 October 1989, Vittorio Emanuele was indicted on charges of inflicting lethal injury and possession of a dangerous weapon. But on 18 November 1991, after thirteen years of legal proceedings, the Paris Assize Court acquitted him of the fatal wounding and unintentional homicide charges, finding him guilty only of unauthorised possession of an M1 Garand rifle. He received a six-month suspended prison sentence."}
+{"text":"When incarcerated in June 2006, on unconnected charges of corruption (see below, \"Arrest and imprisonment\"), Vittorio Emanuele was recorded admitting that \"I was in the wrong, [...] but I must say I fooled them [the French judges]\", leading to a call from Dirk Hamer's sister Birgit for Vittorio Emanuele to be retried in Italy for killing her brother."}
+{"text":"Vittorio Emanuele also said in 2003 that the anti-Semitic laws passed under Mussolini's regime were \"not that terrible\"."}
+{"text":"\"I'm not saying it was he who signed the racial laws in 1938. But, as a Savoy heir, Victor Emmanuel has never distanced himself from them,\" the president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, Amos Luzzatto, said in an interview with \"Il Corriere della Sera\" newspaper."}
+{"text":"On 27 January 2005, in a letter published by \"Il Corriere della Sera\", Vittorio Emanuele issued an apology to Italy's Jewish leadership asking forgiveness from the Italian Jewish community, and declaring that it was an error for the Italian Royal Family to have signed the racial laws of 1938."}
+{"text":"On 21 May 2004, following a dinner held by King Juan Carlos I of Spain at the Zarzuela Palace on the eve of the wedding of his son Felipe, Prince of Asturias, Vittorio Emanuele punched his third cousin and arch-rival Amedeo, Duke of Aosta, twice in the face, causing him to fall down the steps. Former Queen Anne-Marie of Greece caught Amedeo to prevent him further injuring himself and helped him indoors, staunching his bleeding face until first aid could be administered. Upon learning of the incident, Juan Carlos reportedly declared that \"never again\" would an opportunity to abuse his hospitality be afforded to the competing pretenders."}
+{"text":"On 16 June 2006 he was arrested in Varenna and imprisoned in Potenza on charges of corruption and recruitment of prostitutes for clients of the Casin\u00f2 di Campione of Campione d'Italia."}
+{"text":"The enquiry was conducted by Italian magistrate John Woodcock, of British ancestry, famous for other VIPs' arrests."}
+{"text":"After several days, Vittorio Emanuele was released and placed under house-arrest instead. He was released from house-arrest on 20 July 2006, but he had to stay within the borders of Italy."}
+{"text":"Vittorio Emanuele di Savoia was acquitted of all charges in the years 2007 and 2010."}
+{"text":"\"La Repubblica\" reported in 2006 that Emanuele Filiberto had distanced himself from his father."}
+{"text":"In 2007, Vittorio Emanuele and his son Emanuele Filiberto requested formally that the state pay financial damages of 260 million euros and initiate full restitution of all properties and belongings that had been confiscated from the royal house after the abolition of the monarchy. The financial damages claim is based on having suffered moral injustice during the exile. The Italian government has rejected the request and, in response, indicated that it may seek damages for historic grievances."}
+{"text":"Vittorio Emanuele's patriline is the line from which he is descended father to son."}
+{"text":"Patrilineal descent is the principle behind membership in royal houses, as it can be traced back through the generations, which means that Vittorio Emanuele is a member of the House of Savoy."}
+{"text":"Charles Emmanuel IV (Carlo Emanuele Ferdinando Maria; 24 May 1751 \u2013 6 October 1819) was King of Sardinia from 1796 to 1802. He abdicated in favour of his brother Victor Emmanuel I."}
+{"text":"Carlo Emanuele Ferdinando Maria di Savoia was born in Turin, the eldest son of Victor Amadeus III, King of Sardinia and of his wife Infanta Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of Spain."}
+{"text":"From his birth to his own succession to the throne of Sardinia in 1796, Charles Emmanuel was styled \"Prince of Piedmont\"."}
+{"text":"In 1775, Charles Emmanuel married Marie Clotilde of France, the daughter of Louis, Dauphin of France and Princess Marie-Jos\u00e8phe of Saxony, and sister of King Louis XVI of France. Although the union was arranged for political reasons, Charles Emmanuel and his wife became devoted to each other. Their attempts to have children, however, were unsuccessful."}
+{"text":"At the death of his father (14 October 1796), Charles Emmanuel succeeded as King of Sardinia. The kingdom included not only the island of Sardinia but also significant territories in northwest Italy including all of Piedmont."}
+{"text":"At his succession to the throne in 1796, Sardinia had been forced to conclude the disadvantageous Treaty of Paris (1796) with the French Republic, giving the French army free passage through Piedmont. On December 6, 1798, the French under Joubert occupied Turin and forced Charles Emanuel to abdicate all his territories on the Italian mainland and to withdraw to the island of Sardinia, which stayed out of the reach of the French army. The following year he tried unsuccessfully to regain Piedmont. He and his wife lived in Rome and in Naples as guests of the wealthy Colonna family."}
+{"text":"On 7 March 1802, Charles Emmanuel's wife Marie Clothilde died. He was so moved by her death that he decided to abdicate, June 4, 1802, in favour of his brother Victor Emmanuel. Charles Emmanuel retained the personal title of King. He lived in Rome and in the nearby town of Frascati."}
+{"text":"In Frascati he was a frequent guest of Henry Benedict Stuart, Cardinal Duke of York, last member of the Royal House of Stuart, who was his cousin. Charles was descended from Henrietta Anne Stuart, the youngest daughter of Charles I, whereas Henry Benedict Stuart was descended from James II who was the second son of Charles I."}
+{"text":"When Henry died in 1807, Charles Emmanuel became the senior heir-general of King Charles I of England and Scotland."}
+{"text":"Indeed, in 1815 at the age of sixty-four Charles Emmanuel took simple vows in the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits). He was never ordained to the priesthood but lived the rest of his life at the Jesuit novitiate in Rome."}
+{"text":"Charles Emmanuel died at the Palazzo Colonna in Rome on 6 October 1819. He is buried in the Church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale."}
+{"text":"Emanuel Filibert of Savoy (16 April 1588 \u2013 4 August 1624) was the third son of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, and was Viceroy of Sicily between 1622 and 1624."}
+{"text":"Born in Turin, Emanuel Filibert of Savoy was the third son of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy and Infanta Catherine Michelle of Spain."}
+{"text":"He was destined for a career in the Church and entered at the age of 12 in the Order of the Knights Hospitaller, but later he pursued a military career. In 1603 he and his elder brothers, Philip Emanuel and Victor Amadeus, traveled to Madrid, to complete their education. After the death of Philip Emanuel, they returned to Savoy in 1606, where the second brother Victor Amadeus became hereditary prince."}
+{"text":"In 1610, Emanuel Filibert returned to Madrid, and entered in the service of King Philip III of Spain, who made him Grand Admiral of Spain. Under the next King Philip IV of Spain, Emanuel Filibert was appointed in 1622 viceroy of Sicily. His reign came to an end when he died at the age of 36 in the Plague epidemic of 1624. He was buried in the crypt of the lower church of the palatine chapel of the Norman Palace in Palermo."}
+{"text":"Anthony van Dyck made a painting of him in 1623, after being invited by the Viceroy to Palermo. The painting is now conserved in the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London."}
+{"text":"Charles Emmanuel II (); 20 June 1634 \u2013 12 June 1675) was the Duke of Savoy from 1638 to 1675 and under regency of his mother Christine of France until 1648. He was also Marquis of Saluzzo, Count of Aosta, Geneva, Moriana and Nice, as well as claimant king of Cyprus, Jerusalem and Armenia. At his death in 1675 his second wife Marie Jeanne Baptiste of Savoy-Nemours acted as Regent for their nine-year-old son."}
+{"text":"He was born in Turin to Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy, and Christine of France. His maternal grandparents were Henry IV of France and his second wife Marie de' Medici. In 1638 at the death of his older brother Francis Hyacinth, Duke of Savoy, Charles Emmanuel succeeded to the duchy of Savoy at the age of 4. His mother governed in his place, and even after reaching adulthood in 1648, he invited her to continue to rule. Charles Emmanuel continued a life of pleasure, far away from the affairs of state."}
+{"text":"Only after the death of his mother in 1663, did he really assume power. He was not successful in gaining a passage to the sea at the expense of Genoa (Second Genoese\u2013Savoyard War, 1672\u20131673), and had difficulties in retaining the influence of his powerful neighbour France."}
+{"text":"But he greatly improved commerce and wealth in the Duchy, developing the port of Nice and building a road through the Alps towards France. He also reformed the army, which until then was mostly composed of mercenaries: he formed instead five Piedmontese regiments and recreated cavalry, as well as introducing uniforms. He also restored fortifications. He constructed many beautiful buildings in Turin, for instance the Palazzo Reale."}
+{"text":"He died on 12 June 1675, leaving his second wife as regent for his son. He is buried at Turin Cathedral."}
+{"text":"Charles Emmanuel first met Marie Jeanne of Savoy in 1659 and fell in love with her. However, his mother disagreed with the pairing, and encouraged him to marry Fran\u00e7oise Madeleine d'Orl\u00e9ans, daughter of his maternal uncle Gaston, Duke of Orl\u00e9ans, the younger brother of his mother Christine Marie. They were married 3 April 1663. The couple had no issue. His mother died at the end of 1663, and his first wife died at the start of 1664. This left him free to get married on 20 May 1665 to Marie Jeanne of Savoy. They had one son:"}
+{"text":"Charles Emmanuel II also recognized five of his illegitimate children by three different mistresses."}
+{"text":"Prince Vittorio Emanuele of Savoy-Aosta, Infante of Spain, Count of Turin (24 November 1870 \u2013 10 October 1946) was a grandchild of King Victor Emmanuel II and a member of the House of Savoy. He was a cousin of Victor Emmanuel III."}
+{"text":"Vittorio Emanuele was born in Turin just before his father Prince Amadeo of Savoy, Duke of Aosta was about to leave for Spain where he had been elected king. His mother was Maria Vittoria del Pozzo della Cisterna. With his father's accession to the Spanish throne he gained the additional title Infante of Spain."}
+{"text":"In 1897 Vittorio Emanuele challenged Prince Henri of Orl\u00e9ans to a duel, after Henri described, in several articles in the newspaper \"Le Figaro\", the Italian soldiers being held captive in Ethiopia during the First Italo\u2013Ethiopian War as cowards. The dispute was widely echoed in Italy and Europe. It was agreed on the use of the sword as weapon of choice, as the Italians thought duels with pistols, favored by the French, were worthy of betrayed husbands, not of princes of royal blood."}
+{"text":"The duel with swords, directed by the Count Leontieff and the Count Avogadro, lasting 26 minutes, took place at 5:00 am on 15 August 1897 in the Bois de Marechaux at Vaucresson, France. Vittorio Emanuele defeated Henri after five reprises. Henri received a serious wound to his right abdomen, and the doctors of both parties considered the injury serious enough to put him in a state of obvious inferiority, causing the end of the duel and making Vittorio Emanuele famous in Europe."}
+{"text":"The public response for Vittorio Emanuele in Italy was triumphant. In Turin King Umberto I welcomed him saying, \"I want to be the first to congratulate you with all my heart on the example you set and the success you scored\"."}
+{"text":"In April 1898 Vittorio Emanuele set out on a tour of world. His first stop was New York City in the United States of America. After spending a day at the Newport Country Club he presented the club with a silver cup which is presented to the winner of the annual Count of Turin golf tournament. After his stay in the United States he visited China and Japan on the next leg of his world tour."}
+{"text":"Vittorio Emanuele pursued a career in the Royal Italian Army and became the Commander in Chief of the Italian Cavalry. He held this position during the First World War. Following the armistice he was awarded the Croix de guerre by France."}
+{"text":"Vittorio Emanuele died in Brussels four months after the proclamation of the Italian Republic. He was the last surviving son of Amedeo I."}
+{"text":"Prince Eugenio of Savoy, 5th Duke of Genoa (Eugenio Alfonso Carlo Maria Giuseppe; 13 March 1906 \u2013 8 December 1996) was a member of the House of Savoy, Duke of Ancona from birth, and the 5th and final Duke of Genoa. Prince Eugenio was the sixth and youngest child of Prince Thomas of Savoy, 2nd Duke of Genoa and his wife Princess Isabella of Bavaria."}
+{"text":"Prince Eugenio married Princess Lucia of the Two Sicilies, fifth child and fourth-eldest daughter of Prince Ferdinand Pius of the Two Sicilies, Duke of Calabria and his wife Princess Maria Ludwiga Theresia of Bavaria, on 29 October 1938 at Nymphenburg Palace in Munich, Germany. The bride and groom were second cousins once removed in descent from King Ludwig I of Bavaria. Prince Eugenio and Princess Lucia had one daughter:"}
+{"text":"After the dissolution of the Kingdom of Italy in 1946, Prince Eugenio and his family relocated to Brazil where the Duke ran a farm. Upon his death on 8 December 1996, the male line of the Genoa branch of the House of Savoy became extinct as did the Royal Dukedom of Genoa. In 2006, the ashes of the Duke and Duchess of Genoa were transferred to the Royal Crypt of Superga near Turin."}
+{"text":"Victor Emmanuel II (; full name: \"Vittorio Emanuele Maria Alberto Eugenio Ferdinando Tommaso di Savoia\"; 14 March 1820 \u2013 9 January 1878) was King of Sardinia from 1849 until 17 March 1861, when he assumed the title of King of Italy and became the first king of a united Italy since the 6th century, a title he held until his death in 1878. Borrowing from the old Latin title \"Pater Patriae\" of the Roman emperors, the Italians gave him the epithet of \"Father of the Fatherland\" ()."}
+{"text":"Victor Emmanuel supported the Expedition of the Thousand (1860\u20131861) led by Giuseppe Garibaldi, which resulted in the rapid fall of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in southern Italy. However, Victor Emmanuel halted Garibaldi when he appeared ready to attack Rome, still under the Papal States, as it was under French protection. In 1860, Tuscany, Modena, Parma and Romagna decided to side with Sardinia-Piedmont, and Victor Emmanuel then marched victoriously in the Marche and Umbria after the victorious battle of Castelfidardo over the Papal forces. He subsequently met Garibaldi at Teano, receiving from him the control of southern Italy and becoming the first King of Italy on 17 March 1861."}
+{"text":"In 1866, the Third Italian War of Independence allowed Italy to annex Veneto. In 1870, Victor Emmanuel also took advantage of the Prussian victory over France in the Franco-Prussian War to conquer the Papal States after the French withdrew. He entered Rome on 20 September 1870 and set up the new capital there on 2 July 1871. He died in Rome in 1878, and was buried in the Pantheon."}
+{"text":"The Italian national Victor Emmanuel II monument in Rome, containing the Altare della Patria, was built in his honor."}
+{"text":"Victor Emmanuel was born as the eldest son of Charles Albert, Prince of Carignano, and Maria Theresa of Austria. His father succeeded a distant cousin as King of Sardinia-Piedmont in 1831. He lived for some years of his youth in Florence and showed an early interest in politics, the military, and sports. In 1842, he married his cousin, Adelaide of Austria. He was styled as the \"Duke of Savoy\" prior to becoming King of Sardinia-Piedmont."}
+{"text":"He took part in the First Italian War of Independence (1848\u20131849) under his father, King Charles Albert, fighting in the front line at the battles of Pastrengo, Santa Lucia, Goito and Custoza."}
+{"text":"He became King of Sardinia-Piedmont in 1849 when his father abdicated the throne, after being defeated by the Austrians at the Battle of Novara. Victor Emmanuel was immediately able to obtain a rather favorable armistice at Vignale by the Austrian imperial army commander, Radetzky. The treaty, however, was not ratified by the Piedmontese lower parliamentary house, the Chamber of Deputies, and Victor Emmanuel retaliated by firing his Prime Minister, Claudio Gabriele de Launay, replacing him with Massimo D'Azeglio. After new elections, the peace with Austria was accepted by the new Chamber of Deputies. In 1849, Victor Emmanuel also fiercely suppressed a revolt in Genoa, defining the rebels as a \"vile and infected race of canailles.\""}
+{"text":"In 1852, he appointed Count Camillo Benso of Cavour (\"Count Cavour\") as Prime Minister of Piedmont-Sardinia. This turned out to be a wise choice, since Cavour was a political mastermind and a major player in the Italian unification in his own right. Victor Emmanuel II soon became the symbol of the \"Risorgimento\", the Italian unification movement of the 1850s and early 60s. He was especially popular in the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont because of his respect for the new constitution and his liberal reforms."}
+{"text":"Following Victor Emmanuel's advice, Cavour joined Britain and France in the Crimean War against Russia. Cavour was reluctant to go to war due to the power of Russia at the time and the expense of doing so. Victor Emmanuel, however, was convinced of the rewards to be gained from the alliance created with Britain and, more importantly, France."}
+{"text":"After successfully seeking British support and ingratiating himself with France and Napoleon III at the Congress of Paris in 1856 at the end of the war, Count Cavour arranged a secret meeting with the French emperor. In 1858, they met at Plombi\u00e8res-les-Bains (in Lorraine), where they agreed that if the French were to help Piedmont combat Austria, which still reigned over the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia in northern Italy, France would be awarded Nice and Savoy."}
+{"text":"Later that same year, Victor Emmanuel II sent his forces to fight the papal army at Castelfidardo and drove the Pope into Vatican City. His success at these goals led him to be excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Then, Giuseppe Garibaldi conquered Sicily and Naples, and Sardinia-Piedmont grew even larger. On 17 March 1861 the Kingdom of Italy was officially established and Victor Emmanuel II became its king."}
+{"text":"Victor Emmanuel supported Giuseppe Garibaldi's Expedition of the Thousand (1860\u20131861), which resulted in the rapid fall of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in southern Italy. However, the king halted Garibaldi when he appeared ready to attack Rome, still under the Papal States, as it was under French protection. In 1860, through local plebiscites, Tuscany, Modena, Parma and Romagna decided to side with Sardinia-Piedmont. Victor Emmanuel then marched victoriously in the Marche and Umbria after the victorious battle of Castelfidardo (1860) over the Papal forces."}
+{"text":"The king subsequently met with Garibaldi at Teano, receiving from him the control of southern Italy. Another series of plebiscites in the occupied lands resulted in the proclamation of Victor Emmanuel as the first King of Italy by the new Parliament of unified Italy, on 17 March 1861. He did not renumber himself after assuming the new royal title, however. Turin became the capital of the new state. Only Rome, Veneto, and Trentino remained to be conquered."}
+{"text":"Victor Emmanuel died in Rome in 1878, after meeting with Pope Pius IX's envoys, who had reversed the excommunication, and received last rites. He was buried in the Pantheon. His successor was his son Umberto I."}
+{"text":"In 1842 he married his first cousin once removed Adelaide of Austria (1822\u20131855). By her he had eight children:"}
+{"text":"In 1869 he married morganatically his principal mistress Rosa Vercellana (3 June 1833 \u2013 26 December 1885). Popularly known in Piedmontese as \"Bela Rosin\", she was born a commoner but made Countess of Mirafiori and Fontanafredda in 1858. Their offspring were:"}
+{"text":"In addition to his morganatic second wife, Victor Emmanuel II had several other mistresses:"}
+{"text":"\u2014Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione, who, as the mistress of Napoleon III, pleaded the case for Italian unification."}
+{"text":"\u2014Laura Bon at Stupinigi, who bore him two children:"}
+{"text":"\u2014Virginia Rho at Turin, mother of two children:"}
+{"text":"Charles Albert (; 2 October 1798 \u2013 28 July 1849) was the King of Sardinia from 27 April 1831 until 23 March 1849. His name is bound up with the first Italian constitution, the Albertine Statute, and with the First Italian War of Independence (1848\u20131849)."}
+{"text":"During the Napoleonic period, he resided in France, where he received a liberal education. As Prince of Carignano in 1821, he granted and then withdrew his support for a rebellion which sought to force Victor Emmanuel I to institute a constitutional monarchy. He became a conservative and participated in the legitimist expedition against the Spanish liberals in 1823."}
+{"text":"He became king of Sardinia in 1831 on the death of his distant cousin Charles Felix, who had no heir. As king, after an initial conservative period during which he supported various European legitimist movements, he adopted the idea of a federal Italy, led by the Pope and freed from the House of Habsburg in 1848. In the same year he granted the Albertine Statute, the first Italian constitution, which remained in force until 1947."}
+{"text":"Charles Albert led his forces against the Imperial Austrian army in the First Italian War of Independence (1848\u20131849), but was abandoned by Pope Pius IX and Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies and was defeated in 1849 at the Battle of Novara, after which he abdicated in favour of his son, Victor Emmanuel II. Charles Albert died in exile a few months later in the Portuguese city of Porto."}
+{"text":"The attempt to free northern Italy from Austria represents the first attempt of the House of Savoy to alter the equilibrium established in the Italian peninsula after the Congress of Vienna. These efforts were continued successfully by his son Victor Emmanuel II, who became the first king of a unified Italy in 1861."}
+{"text":"Charles Albert received a number of nicknames, including \"the Italian Hamlet\" (given to him by Giosu\u00e8 Carducci on account of his gloomy, hesitant and enigmatic character) and \"the Hesitant King\" (\"Re Tentenna\") because he hesitated for a long time between the establishment of a constitutional monarchy and the reinforcement of absolute rule."}
+{"text":"Charles Albert's father, Charles Emmanuel of Carignano, had studied in France and had been an officer in the French army. Sympathetic to liberalism, he travelled to Turin in 1796, in the wake of the French invasion of 1796 and King Charles Emmanuel IV's flight into exile. There Charles Emmanuel of Carignano and his wife joined the French cause. Despite this, the pair were sent to Paris, where they were placed under surveillance and forced to live in poor conditions in a house in the suburbs. These were the circumstances in which their children, Charles Albert and his sister Maria Elisabeth (born 13 April 1800), grew up."}
+{"text":"On 16 August 1800, Charles Emmanuel of Carignano died suddenly. It was up to Charles Albert's mother to deal with the French, who had no intention of recognising her rights, titles or property. She nonetheless refused to send her son to the Savoy family in Sardinia for a conservative education. In 1808, Maria Christina married for a second time, to Giuseppe Massimiliano Thibaut di Montl\u00e9art, whose relationship with Charles Albert was poor."}
+{"text":"When he was twelve years old, Charles Albert and his mother were finally granted an audience with Napoleon, who granted the boy the title of count and an annual pension. Since it was no longer appropriate for him to be educated at home, Charles Albert was sent to the Coll\u00e8ge Stanislas in Paris in 1812. He remained at the school for two years, but did not attend regularly; instead, he attended only to sit exams, apparently with success. In the meantime, Albertina had moved to Geneva, where Charles Albert joined her from March 1812 to December 1813, and she was married to the Protestant Pastor, Jean-Pierre Etienne Vaucher (1763\u20131841), a follower of Jean-Jacques Rousseau."}
+{"text":"After Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813, the family left Geneva, fearing the arrival of Austrian forces and returned to France. At the beginning of 1814, Charles Albert enrolled in the military school in Bourges, hoping to become an officer in the French army. He was sixteen years old. Napoleon named him a lieutenant of dragoons in 1814."}
+{"text":"After Napoleon was defeated for good, the new king Louis XVIII celebrated the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty in Paris on 16 May 1814. Among those present at the festivities were Princess Maria Christina di Carignano and her children Charles Albert and Elisabetta. Despite their past, the family was treated well, although Charles Albert had to renounce the title of Count of the Empire, which had been conferred upon him at the military school in Bourges and the annuity which Napoleon had granted him."}
+{"text":"The re-establishment of peace in Europe meant that Charles Albert could return to Turin, and he was advised to do so by his tutor, count Alessandro Di Saluzzo di Menusiglio, and by Albertina. He left Paris (and his step-father) and arrived in Turin on 24 May. There he was welcomed affectionately by King Victor Emmanuel I (Charles IV had abdicated in 1802) and his wife Queen Maria Theresa, by birth a Habsburg archduchess. His property and lands were restored to him and he was granted the Palazzo Carignano as a residence. Given the dynastic situation (neither Victor Emmanuel nor his brother Charles Felix had male children Charles Albert was now the heir presumptive."}
+{"text":"Thus he was assigned a mentor to counter the liberal ideas that he had learnt in France. The first of these was Count Filippo Grimaldi del Poggetto, and after he had failed, the dragoon, Policarpo Cacherano d'Osasco. Although he was better equipped for the task, he was not able to influence the mindset of Charles Albert, who began to suffer from anxiety at this time."}
+{"text":"The court decided that marriage would provide the prince with internal equilibrium. The chosen bride, accepted by Charles Albert, was the sixteen-year-old daughter of Ferdinand III of Tuscany, Archduchess Maria Theresa, a relative of Queen Maria Theresa. Charles Albert traveled to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and then to Rome on 18 March 1817 and, after a 6-month engagement, married Maria Theresa on 30 September in Florence Cathedral."}
+{"text":"The wedding was followed by a ball organised by the Sardinian embassy in Florence. After that, on 6 October, the couple departed for Piedmont. On 11 October, they reached Castello del Valentino and from there they made their formal entrance into Turin."}
+{"text":"The young Maria Theresa was very shy and religious - quite different from Charles Albert's temperament. The couple resided in the Palazzo Carignano, to which Charles Albert began to invite young intellectuals with whom he shared liberal ideas. The most intimate of these friends were Santorre di Rossi de Pomarolo, Roberto d'Azeglio, Giacinto Collegno, Cesare Balbo, Guglielmo Moffa di Lisio Gribaldi and Carlo Emanuele Asinari di San Marzano."}
+{"text":"In these years, Charles Albert also suffered from a deep religious crisis. This led to a friendship with the French diplomat Jean Louis de Douhet d'Auzers and a visit by the prince to Rome in 1817 to visit the former king Charles Emmanuel IV, who had retired to a monastery. In the years following his marriage, however, Charles Albert had extramarital affairs with several women, including Marie Caroline de Bourbon, widow of the Duke of Berry."}
+{"text":"Maria Theresa had two miscarriages \u2013 the second in 1819 as a result of a carriage accident \u2013 but gave birth to a son on 14 March 1820, Victor Emmanuel, the future king of Italy."}
+{"text":"After the 1820 uprising in Cadiz, King Ferdinand VII of Spain was forced to grant the Spanish Constitution of 1812. Hope of obtaining similar constitutions arose in many European states. Insurrections broke out in Naples and Palermo. On 6 March 1821, Santorre di Rossi de Pomarolo, Giacinto Provana di Collegno, Carlo di San Marzano and Guglielmo Moffa di Lisio (all military officers, officials, or sons of ministers) and Roberto d'Azeglio met with Charles Albert. The young liberals were ready to act and had identified the prince as a new type of man for the House of Savoy - one ready to break with the absolutist past."}
+{"text":"The conspirators had no desire to abolish the House of Savoy, but claimed, on the contrary, that they hoped to force it to grant reforms which would grant it the gratitude of the people. During the months of preparation, Charles Albert had assured them of his support and on 6 March he confirmed this, declaring that he supported armed action. They were to raise troops, surround King Victor Emmanuel I's residence at Moncalieri and demand that he grant a constitution and declare war on Austria. Charles Albert was to play the role of mediator between the conspirators and the king."}
+{"text":"On 14 March, the regent decided to form a Junta which would be able to act as guardians of the parliament. The head was Canon Pier Bernardo Marentini, a Jansenist, who was Vicar-General of the Archdiocese of Turin and had been chosen as Bishop of Piacenza in 1813 but denied the role by the Pope. Charles Albert replaced the minister of war he had appointed the previous day with Santorre di Rossi, the leader of the armed uprising. On 15 March, in the presence of the Junta, Charles Albert swore to observe the Spanish Constitution, which had been amended with a few clauses requested by Victor Emmanuel I's queen, Maria Theresa."}
+{"text":"Meanwhile, the representatives of liberals of Lombardy had arrived: , , and . They asked Charles Albert to declare war on Austria in order to free Milan, but the prince refused. Instead, he accepted the advice of Cesare Balbo, who reported the discipline of the armed forces, stopped excesses and firmly established the troops loyal to the king. Charles Felix himself, however, had responded very badly to the news of his brother's abdication, which he considered an \"abominable act of violence\" and, from Modena, he sent an order to Charles Albert, ordering him to come to Novara, and declaring any actions taken in the name of the king after the abdication of his brother, including the concession of the Spanish Constitution, to be null and void."}
+{"text":"At midnight on 21 March 1821, Charles Albert secretly departed from the Palazzo Carignano. His departure was not discovered by the revolutionaries until the next day. From Rondissone, on 23 March he made for San Germano, from which he intended to travel to Novara, which remained loyal to the king. At Novara he remained for six days before a dispatch arrived from Charles Felix on the 29th, ordering him to depart immediately for Tuscany."}
+{"text":"On the afternoon of 2 April 1821, the prince arrived in Florence. His wife and son, who had been in France, followed on the 13th. The Prince's father-in-law, Grand Duke Ferdinand III granted them the Palazzo Pitti as a residence. In May, Charles Felix, who had successfully secured Austrian assistance to restore order, met with Victor Emmanuel I at Lucca. The two discussed Charles Albert's conduct for a long time and, although the new queen Maria Christina spoke in his defense, they decided that he was responsible for the conspiracy."}
+{"text":"As a result of this decision and the circumstances, Charles Albert decided to disavow his liberal ideas - especially as Charles Felix had entertained the idea of eliminating him from the line of succession and passing the crown straight to his son Victor Emmanuel. Charles Felix asked the opinion of Metternich on this, who was unexpectedly opposed to the idea."}
+{"text":"On 16 September 1822, the infant Victor Emmanuel barely escaped from a fire in his cot, exposing the tenuous nature of the line of succession, which was taken out of danger by the birth of a second son, Ferdinand, on 15 November. In Florence, Charles Albert cultivated various cultural interests. He became a collector of old books, but was also interested in contemporary authors, acquiring the poetry of Alphonse de Lamartine and the conservative Joseph de Maistre."}
+{"text":"At the beginning of 1823, Duke Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoul\u00eame assumed command of the French expeditionary force which the European powers had entrusted with the task of suppressing the liberal revolution there and restoring King Ferdinand VII to the Spanish throne, after he had been captured by Spanish revolutionaries in Cadiz. Charles Albert wished to demonstrate his penitence and therefore asked to be part of the contingent. He wrote to Charles Felix on this subject for the first time on 20 February 1823, but only received permission to depart on 26 April."}
+{"text":"At the end of August 1823, with the French fleet aiding from the sea, the troops launched an assault on the Trocadero. Charles Albert fought at the head of the troops crossing the canal - the sole point of entry to the fortress. He plunged into the water holding the flag of the 6th regiment of the royal guards, forded the canal and leapt into the enemy trenches. He sought to prevent the enemy prisoners being killed, and the French soldiers gave him the epaulettes of an officer killed in the assault, so that he might be distinguished from a regular grenadier."}
+{"text":"He remained at his post until nightfall and the next day he was among the first to break into Trocadero. King Ferdinand VII and queen Maria Josepha, his cousin, were freed and embraced him in joy at seeing him. On 2 September there was a grand military parade, after which the Duc d'Angoul\u00eame decorated Charles Albert with the Cross of the Order of Saint Louis."}
+{"text":"Visit to Paris and return to Turin."}
+{"text":"With the dissolution of the expeditionary force, Charles Albert travelled from Seville to Paris, arriving on 3 December 1823. In the French capital he participated in balls, receptions, and parties, and developed a close relationship with Marie Caroline, widow of the Duc de Berry. On 15 December, King Louis XVIII held a grand reception for the victors of Trocadero, at which Charles Albert was among the guests of honour."}
+{"text":"King Charles Felix of Sardinia decided that, as a result of his success, it was time for Charles Albert to return to Turin. The prince was required, however, to swear \"to respect and religiously maintain all the fundamental laws of the monarchy when I ascend to power, which have led to fortune and glory over the centuries.\" On 29 January 1824, Charles Albert received permission to depart for Turin. At a final meeting with Louis XVIII, he received some advice on rulership and was enrolled in the Order of the Holy Spirit, the most prestigious chivalrous order of the French monarchy."}
+{"text":"On 2 February, Charles Albert departed and on the 6th he reached Mont Cenis, where he received orders to enter Turin by night, in order to avoid protests. Charles Albert did so, probably on the 23rd."}
+{"text":"Despite the conservative attitudes of the period, Charles Albert also supported literati who held liberal ideas, such as Carlo Giuseppe Guglielmo Botta, whose books were banned in Piedmont. He owned the works of Adam Smith and the \"Collection of Classic Italian Writers on Political Economy\", edited by , a supporter of Napoleon."}
+{"text":"In 1830, Charles Felix became very ill. He summoned Charles Albert to his sick-bed on 24 April 1831. The entire government was present in the room as the king said to the ministers, \"Behold my heir and successor, I am sure that he will act for the good of his subjects.\""}
+{"text":"Charles Felix died on 27 April at 2:45 pm. Charles Albert closed the corpse's eyes and kissed its hand and then assumed the throne. He received the dignitaries of court and brought his sons into the Royal Palace. At 5:00 pm, the troops in rendered their oaths to the new king at the direction of Governor , who published the proclamation relating to this. Thus the throne passed to the house of Carignano and the direct line of Savoy came to an end."}
+{"text":"Thus Charles Albert came to the throne aged 33. His health was poor; he suffered from a liver disease. His faith added to his suffering; he wore a cilice and slept alone on an iron bed, waking at 5:00 am every morning and celebrating two masses per day. He worked from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm everyday without interruption. He ate little and suffered from frequent religious crises, but never renounced extramarital affairs even so. The most significant of these was his relationship with Maria Antonietta di Robilant (1804\u20131882), daughter of Friedrich Truchsess zu Waldburg (1776\u20131844), the Prussian ambassador to Turin and wife of Maurizio di Robilant (1798\u20131862)."}
+{"text":"The new king was affected by the July Revolution, which had deposed Charles X of France and led to the accession of Louis Philippe, an ex-revolutionary, and as a result, he decided to make an alliance with the Austrian Empire. The treaty, signed on 23 July 1831 and ratified in 1836, entrusted the defence of the Kingdom of Sardinia to Austria. However, in the event of war, the commander of the joint forces was to be Charles Albert. He wrote to the Austrian ambassador, Ludwig Senfft von Pilsach (1774\u20131853), \"... the most beautiful day of my life will be the day on which there is war with France and I have the good fortune to serve in the Austrian army.\""}
+{"text":"In accordance with this legitimist position, Charles Albert lent support to his close friend Marie-Caroline de Bourbon-Sicile, duchesse de Berry in December 1823 when she sought to place her son, Henri, on the French throne. She was the widow of the Duc de Berry, second son of Charles X, whose eldest son, Louis Antoine had renounced the throne. Henri's claim to the throne had been denied by the king."}
+{"text":"Despite the advice of the French ambassador to exercise prudence, in 1832, Charles Albert loaned Marie-Caroline a million francs and placed a steamer at her disposal for transporting legitimist volunteers to France. The plot was discovered and failed; the steamer was stopped at Marseilles and the volunteers were defeated at Vend\u00e9e in a few hours. Marie-Caroline fled, but was soon arrested in Nantes and imprisoned in the Citadel of Blaye, near Bordeaux."}
+{"text":"Charles Albert displayed similar conservativism in internal politics. When the minister of war, Matteo Agn\u00e8s Des Geneys (1763\u20131831) died, he replaced him with Carlo San Martino d'Aglie, who was not very popular at the time. He retained as Minister of Foreign Affairs until 1835, when he replaced him with the extremely conservative Clemente Solaro. These appointments were made with the intent of restoring a ministerial oligarchy. In 1831 he appointed Gaudenzio Maria Caccia, Count of Romentino (1765\u20131834) as minister of Finance, as Minister of Justice, and the reformer, Antonio Tonduti, Count of Escar\u00e8na (1771\u20131856), as minister of the Interior. On 5 April 1832, d'Aglie was replaced as Minister of War by ."}
+{"text":"In June 1831, Giuseppe Mazzini, who was in exile in Marseilles, addressed a letter to Charles Albert as \"an Italian,\" in which he encouraged him to focus on the unification of Italy, in vain. For the moment, the new King of Sardinia cleaved to almost the same ideas as his predecessors."}
+{"text":"Charles Albert accompanied these measures with an economic policy of liberalisation of commerce. In 1834, the tax on grain was reduced and the next year, the export of raw silk was made legal. Duties on the import of raw materials (coal, metals, textiles) were subsequently reduced and the acquisition of industrial machinery from abroad was supported. Despite having impinged on some minor sources of state income, the balance of the kingdom was positive from 1835, and it was possible to entertain ambitions for the improvement of agriculture, roads, railroads, and ports."}
+{"text":"Charles Albert also reformed the army, reformed the law codes, instituted a Court of cassation, and eliminated feudalism in Sardinia, in 1838. He enabled the opening of institutes of credit, he reformed the public agencies and the state, and reduced the control of the religious hierarchy somewhat. The royal court, however, was full of clerics - at least fifty of them - and the court was sumptuous for such a small kingdom. There were a great number of cooks, butlers, waiters, carpenters, squires, stallers, pages, footmen, masters of ceremonies, etc."}
+{"text":"After the death of king Ferdinand VII of Spain, the nation was divided into two factions: the anti-liberal reactionaries who supported the legitimist aspirations of Don Carlos and the constitutionalists who defended Maria Christina's regency on behalf of Isabella II. The Holy Alliance of Russia, Austria, and Prussia supported Don Carlos; Great Britain, France and Portugal supported the constitutionalists. Charles Albert sides with the former group, but in the Carlist War of 1833\u20131840, the constitutionalists prevailed."}
+{"text":"Similarly, in the Portuguese Liberal Wars (1828\u20131834), which followed the death of John VI, Charles Albert sided with the absolutists under Dom Miguel, who spent time in Piedmont. In this case, too, the liberals, led by Dom Miguel's brother Dom Pedro, enjoyed the support of Great Britain and Louis-Philippe's France and were ultimately successful."}
+{"text":"At the time of Charles Albert's ascent to the throne in 1831, there were riots in Rome, the carbonari revolt of Ciro Menotti in Modena, and an insurrection in Bologna and Parma which led to the flight of Francis IV and Marie Louise. But Austria was able to restore order and Charles Albert decided that his alliance with the Habsburgs was essential."}
+{"text":"The Kingdom of Sardinia was also troubled by the plots of revolutionaries in these years, and even by an attempted invasion. In April 1833 in Genoa, two low-ranking officers were arrested for a scuffle and it was discovered that they belonged to Giuseppe Mazzini's Young Italy. They supplied various names and investigations were expanded to other garrisons. Charles Albert, who considered Mazzini's association the \"most terrible and bloody,\" ordered the investigation to continue until it got to the bottom of the matter, acting in accordance with the law, but with utmost severity."}
+{"text":"In the end, twelve people were executed by firing squad and two committed suicide in gaol. Twenty-one were condemned to death but could not be executed because they had escaped or, like Mazzini, had been abroad the whole time. Charles Albert granted no pardons, and the ambassadors of France and Britain in Turin protested at court about the severity of the punishment and the lack of any mercy. The King of Sardinia showed his gratitude to the investigators by granting honours to those who had played a leading role in the repression."}
+{"text":"In these circumstances, Charles Albert realised the necessity of granting reforms to make the kingdom more modern and to satisfy the needs of the populace. Immediately on ascending to the throne he had named a commission which had been tasked with creating new civil, criminal, commercial and procedural laws."}
+{"text":"This process of reform took a very long time, but eventually, on 20 June 1837, the new civil code, partially inspired by the Napoleonic Code, was promulgated. The king also participated in the drafting of the new criminal code, which was published on 26 October 1839. During the process, Charles Albert insisted on the concept of corrective justice, limiting the death penalty as much as possible. Nevertheless, he ordained very severe penalties for those guilty of sacrilege or suicide (whose last wills and testaments had no legal power). In 1842, finally, the commercial code and the code of criminal procedure, with innovative guarantees of the rights of the accused, were promulgated."}
+{"text":"In 1840 the Oriental Crisis, which placed Louis Philippe's France in conflict with the other European great powers, inspired Charles Albert to begin thinking about a programme of territorial expansion in the Po valley. In the same year, a commercial crisis erupted between Turin and Vienna, regarding an old treaty in which the Kingdom of Sardinia undertook not to provide salt to Switzerland. Following the breach of this treaty, Austria increased the customs duty on Piedmontese wine entering Lombardy-Veneto by 100%. Charles Albert's response was to threaten to build a railroad from Genoa to Lake Maggiore, in order to capture the German commerce which sustained the Austrian port of Trieste for the Ligurian ports."}
+{"text":"These were still only minor disputes and diplomatic relations between the two states continued to be generally good, culminating in the magnificent wedding of Charles Albert's eldest son, Victor Emmanuel and Adelaide of Austria, daughter of Ranier Joseph of Habsburg-Lorraine, who was the Austrian Viceroy in Lombardy-Veneto and Charles Albert's brother-in-law, since he had married his sister Elisabeth in 1820. Victor Emmanuel and Adelaide were thus first cousins."}
+{"text":"In 1845, revolutionary movements erupted in Rimini and in the Papal States. To Massimo d'Azeglio, who had gone to report on the events, Charles Albert said, \"that on the day of conflict with Austria, he would throw himself in with his sons, with his army, with all his substance, to fight for the independence of Italy.\""}
+{"text":"Understandably, on 8 June 1846, on the orders of Chancellor Metternich, the Austrian ambassador to Turin, Karl Ferdinand von Buol, asked Charles Albert to clarify his position - was he with Austria or with the revolutionaries? The King of Sardinia hesitated. In the meanwhile, on 16 June, Pope Pius IX had been elected as Pope. His first order of business was to grant an amnesty to those condemned of political crimes. The new pope then protested against Austria for having occupied Ferrara, in the Holy See, without its consent. Charles Albert, who saw in Pius IX a way of reconciling his loyalty with his old liberal ideas, wrote to him offering his support."}
+{"text":"In the same way, in September 1847, , Charles Albert's secretary, was authorised to write a letter on 2 September, in which the king expressed his hope that God would grant him the power to undertake a war of independence in which he would take command of the army and the Guelph cause. These declarations made Charles Albert far more popular. However, he continued to break up anti-Austrian demonstrations because the court and government remained divided. De La Tour, Foreign Minister Solaro della Margarita, and Archbishop considered the anti-Austrian policy exceptionally dangerous, but it was supported by Minister of War , Cesare Alfieri di Sostegno, Cesare Balbo, Massimo and Roberto d'Azeglio, and the young Count Cavour."}
+{"text":"Meanwhile, the demands of the people became pressing and were not always accepted. In this period, for example, Charles Albert did not accept a Genoese delegation which called for the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Kingdom, whom he had already banned from political writings. He did, however, implement the so-called Perfect Fusion of the Savoyard state on 29 November 1847, which extended the reforms carried out on the mainland to the island of Sardinia."}
+{"text":"At the beginning of 1848, news arrived that following the outbreak of the Spring of Nations, Ferdinand II had granted a constitution in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. In Turin there were acclamations for the King of Naples and the Pope, while Charles Albert remained bound by the oath he had sworn to Charles Felix to respect religiously all the fundamental laws of the monarchy, and to retain absolutist rule."}
+{"text":"On 7 January 1848, at the hotel \"Europa\" in Turin, there was a meeting of the city's journalists at which Cavour, director of the \"Risorgimento\", proposed to request a constitution from the king. The majority of the ministers were also in favour of the concession of a constitution, and of ensuring that one was not imposed by the people. Charles Albert was not sure what to do, unwilling to make the wrong decision and considered abdicating as Victor Emmanuel I had in similar circumstances. He sent for his son to prepare him for the succession, but his son managed to convince him to retain his position."}
+{"text":"On 7 February, an extraordinary Council of State was convented. Seven ministers, the holders of the order of the Annunciation, and other high dignitaries were present. All of them spoke and the discussion went on for many hours. Charles Albert, pale, listened in silence. De La Tour, , and were opposed to the constitution. During the lunch break, Charles Albert received a delegation from the capital, which asked for the constitution for the good of the people and in order to safeguard order."}
+{"text":"It was now necessary to make a decision and, at last, Giacinto Borelli, Minister of the Interior, was appointed to draft the Constitution immediately. The document was approved and was named the \"Statute.\" Charles Albert had stated that he would not approve the document if it did not clearly state the pre-eminent position of the Catholic religion and the honour of the monarchy. Since he had received these things, he approved it. The meeting was dissolved at dawn."}
+{"text":"Around 3:30 in the afternoon on 8 February, a royal edict was published in the streets of Turin, which laid out the 14 articles which formed the basis of the Statute for a system of representative government. By 6:00 pm, the city was entirely lit up and massive demonstrations in favour of Charles Albert were held."}
+{"text":"The edict specified that the Catholic faith was the sole state religion, that executive power belonged to the king, as did command of the armed forces. Legislative power was vested in two chambers, one of which would be elected. The free press and individual liberty were guaranteed. The full version of the Statute, with all its articles, was finally agreed on 4 March 1848 and approved the same day by Charles Albert. The announcement of the Statute was met with great enthusiasm throughout Piedmont. The first constitutional government, presided over by Cesare Balbo, was sworn in on 16 March 1848, two days before the beginning of the Five Days of Milan."}
+{"text":"Elected in 1846, the new pope Pius IX had caught the imagination of the liberals of Italy when he began to dismantle the archaic Vatican institutions: granting a free press, instituting the civic guard in place of foreign mercenaries, and creating a council of ministers. On 12 January 1848, there was a revolt in Palermo and King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies was forced to concede a constitution, but all Europe was further convulsed when, on 22 February 1848, there was a revolt in Paris, King Louis-Philippe was deposed, and a Republic was established. The revolution spread to Milan on 18 March, then to Venice, and finally to Vienna, where riots forced Metternich and Emperor Franz Joseph I to flee."}
+{"text":"In Milan, it was expected that Charles Albert would take the opportunity to declare war on Austria. A clear message from Turin was delivered the Milanese liberal, on 19\/20 March:"}
+{"text":"Although the Kingdom's resources were small, the Piedmontese army began to mobilise. The majority of the troops were deployed on the western border, since the eastern border was safeguarded by the treaty of alliance with Austria. But Charles Albert realised that this was a unique opportunity to expand his holdings into Lombardy. Thus he told the Milanese that he would intervene on their behalf if they agreed to join the Kingdom of Sardinia."}
+{"text":"On 23 March 1848, the Piedmontese embassy to Milan returned to Turin with news that the Austrians had been forced to evacuate the city and that a provisional government headed by Gabrio Casati had been established, which asked Charles Albert to become an ally. Clearly not very enthusiastic about the idea of annexation, the Milanese asked the king to keep his troops outside the city and to adopt the tricolor of the Cisalpine Republic as his flag."}
+{"text":"On 23 March 1848, the proclamation of Charles Albert to the people of Lombardy and Veneto was published, in which he assured them that the Piedmontese troops, \"... go now to offer, in the final trials, that help which a brother expects from a brother, a friend from a friend. We will comply with your just requests, trusting in the aid of God, who is clearly with us, of God, who has given Italy Pius IX, of God, whose miraculous prompting places Italy in the position to act for itself.\" Thus, the war began."}
+{"text":"The federalist Carlo Cattaneo was not impressed, \"Now that the enemy is in flight, the king wants to come with the whole army. He should have sent us anything - even a single cart of powder - three days ago. There was heard, in Piedmont, for five days, the thundering of the guns which consumed us: The king knew and did not move.\""}
+{"text":"At the opening of hostilities, on 8 and 9 April, Italian sharpshooters had achieved success in the first battle of the campaign at the Battle of Goito Bridge. After crossing the Mincio with his army, Charles Albert achieved another victory on 30 April at Pastrengo, where he saw the front lines. The units under his command attacked some Austrians who had been dispersed by a charge of the carabinieri on horseback. On 2 May, in the midst of this triumphant atmosphere, news arrived that Pius IX had withdrawn his military and political support for the Italian cause."}
+{"text":"Nevertheless, the Papal soldiers in the army did not withdraw, choosing to remain to fight as volunteers, but Charles Albert had lost the moral justification for his mission. His dream of becoming the sword of the papacy and king of an Italy united under the Pope, as Vincenzo Gioberti had proposed, was thwarted. Yet the king was undiscouraged and continued to advance towards Verona, where a harsh and indecisive battle was fought with the Austrians at Santa Lucia on 6 May."}
+{"text":"In the meantime, on 8 June, the Milanese and Lombards had voted with an overwhelming majority to join the Kingdom of Sardinia, as had the citizens of the Duchy of Parma on 2 May. But for Charles Albert, things were going sour: the soldiers were angry about the recent defeat and were hungry and exhausted. A council of war suggested seeking a truce."}
+{"text":"Events in Milan and the armistice of Salasco."}
+{"text":"On the evening of 27 July 1848, the Austrians agreed to grant a truce if the Piedmontese withdrew to the west bank of the Adda (a little more than 20\u00a0km east of Milan), surrendered all the fortresses, including Peschiera and yielded the Duchies of Parma and Modena, whose rulers had been forced into exile. Charles Albert, who disagreed with his son Victor Emmanuel on the conduct of the war, exclaimed \"I would rather die!\" and prepared to make a stand at the Oglio (about 25\u00a0km further east than requested by Radetzky)."}
+{"text":"Although the Austrian proposal had been rejected, his troops ended up having to withdraw to the Adda anyway, because the Oglio was judged to be an inadequate defensive line. At the Adda, some manoeuvres taken by a general on his own initiative left a division isolated and made it necessary to withdraw again, in order to retreat inside the walls of Milan. Charles Albert went to the , ignoring the Milanese desire to resist, he negotiated the surrender of the city to the Austrians in exchange for permitting the safe withdrawal of the army to Piedmont."}
+{"text":"The day after, the Milanese learnt of the agreement and revealed their fury. The crowd protested in front of the Palazzo Greppi and when the King came out on the balcony, they fired their rifles at him. According to the noblewoman Cristina Trivulzio di Belgiojoso, who participated actively in the riots in Milan:"}
+{"text":"The Charles Albert's second son, Ferdinand and general Alfonso Ferrero La Marmora carried the king to safety. In the night he departed from Milan with the army."}
+{"text":"On 8 August, general returned to Milan and negotiated an armistice with the Austrians, known as the Armistice of Salasco, which was signed on 9 August. Charles Albert ratified the armistice despite some opposition, including from Gioberti, who remained confident of aid from France. The king said that the former French foreign minister, Alphonse de Lamartine, had declared that the French would only give such aid to Republicans."}
+{"text":"The king was not proud of the campaign and, once he had written a record of the first campaign, Charles Albert decided to break the armistice. On 1 March, at the inauguration of the legislature, he spoke clearly about war and Chamber responded positively. For the imminent resumption of hostilities, the king was convinced to renounce effective command of the army, which he continued to hold formally. Rather than appointing a Piedmontese general, he selected the Polish general Wojciech Chrzanowski as commander of the army. On 8 March, the council of war in Turin decided that the armistice would be broken on the 12th. According to the terms of the armistice, hostilities would then begin eight days later on 20 March."}
+{"text":"The war did indeed resume on that day. On 22 March, Charles Albert arrived at Novara and a day later, Radetzy attacked the city from the south with superior numbers, near the village of Bicocca. Chrzanowski made some significant tactical errors and despite the bravery of the Piedmontese and Charles Albert himself, who fought along with his son Ferdinand in the front lines, the Battle of Novara proved a disastrous defeat."}
+{"text":"Returning to the Palazzo Bellini in Novara, the king declared, \"Bicocca was lost and retaken three or four times, before our troops were forced to yield... the Major General [Chrzanowski] employed all his strength, my sons did everything they could, the Duke of Genoa [Ferdinand] lost two horses from under himself. Now we have withdrawn within the city, on its walls, with the enemy below, with an exhausted army - further resistance is impossible. It is necessary to request an armistice.\""}
+{"text":"Austria's conditions were very harsh: occupation of the Lomellina and the fortress of Alessandria, as well as the surrender of all the Lombards who had fought against Austria. Charles Albert asked the generals if it was possible for a final push to open a path to Alessandria. They said it was not: the army was in pieces, discipline had crumbled, many soldiers fighting in the campaign were despoiling the houses in the countryside and they feared an attack on the king himself."}
+{"text":"At 9:30 pm on the same day, Charles Albert summoned his sons, Chrzanowski, generals Alessandro Ferrero La Marmora, , Giovanni Durando, (who had negotiated the armistice) and minister Carlo Cadorna. He confessed that he had no choice but to abdicate. They tried to dissuade him, but, in the hope that Victor Emmanuel could get better terms, he ended the discussion, \"My decision is the fruit of mature reflexion. From this moment, I am no longer the king; the king is Victor, my son.\""}
+{"text":"Charles Albert's eldest son became king of Sardinia as Victor Emmanuel II and agreed to an armistice with Radetzky on 24 March 1849 at Vignale, effectively obtaining more favourable terms than previously offered. The Austrians were to occupy Lomellina for a while and only half of the fort of Alessandria, with \"permission\" rather than \"by right.\""}
+{"text":"The former king continued via Moncalvo, Nizza Monferrato, Acqui, Savona, Ventimiglia and Monaco, which he reached on 26 March. At Nice in France, he dispatched instructions to organise his family affairs, without adding any information for his wife. On 1 April he was at Bayonne, near the Atlantic coast, and on 3 April he received a message from Turin in order to get him to legally confirm his abdication."}
+{"text":"Charles Albert continued through Torquemada, Valladolid, Le\u00f3n, and A Coru\u00f1a, which he reached on 10 April, and which was the end of the carriage road. On horseback, suffering from illness, he reached Lugo on 15 April and entered Portuguese territory at Caminha. From there he went to Viana do Castelo, P\u00f3voa de Varzim and, finally, on 19 April, at noon, he arrived in Oporto. From there he may have planned to travel to America, but he was forced to stop because he had become ill with a liver complaint."}
+{"text":"Once his arrival in Oporto became known, Charles Albert was hosted at the \"Hotel do Peixe\", where he remained for two weeks, as his condition worsened. Then he accepted a new residence from a private individual on the \"rua de Entre Quintas\", with a view of the ocean. On 3 May, he hosted Giacinto Provana di Collegno and Luigi Cibrario, who brought him greetings from the Piedmontese government. To them he said:"}
+{"text":"During this time, Charles Albert suffered from progressive decay, coughing and abscesses. He had two heart attacks, but the doctors considered the condition of his liver the most serious issue, for which the former king abstained from eating very much and fasted on Wednesdays. He read the letters and newspapers which arrived from Italy. He wrote occasionally to his wife, but regularly and with feeling to the Countess of Robilant. He forbade his mother, wife, and children from visiting."}
+{"text":"His body was embalmed and displayed in the Cathedral of Oporto. On 3 September, the ships, \"Mozambano\" and \"Goito\" arrived under the command of his cousin Eugene Emmanuel. On 19 September the corpse was brought on board the \"Monzambano\", which departed for Genoa that evening. It arrived on 4 October. The funeral took place in Turin Cathedral on 13 October, with , Archbishop of Chamb\u00e9ry, presiding along with five Piedmontese bishops, and was well-attended by the people. The day after, the body was solemnly interred in the crypt of the Basilica of Superga, where it still lies."}
+{"text":"Among the indigenous princes, the number one enemy of Italian freedom was and is Charles Albert. Italians should bear in mind and repeat every hour the old saying: \"God watch over my friends, so that I can watch over my enemies\". From Ferdinand of the House of Bourbon, there is nothing to fear; he has for a long time been discredited. Charles Albert, on the other hand, calls himself pompously the \"liberator of Italy\" while on the very people he is supposed to be liberating he imposes as a condition the yoke of his rule."}
+{"text":"A strange pathetic being, at odds with himself and his time; compounded of monkish asceticism and soldierly courage; autocratic, but irresolute; holding his honor dearer than his life, yet pursued through life by accusations of dishonor: such was Charles Albert, to whom when he had passed beyond the reach of their praises or their blame, his countrymen gave the epithet 'magnanimous'."}
+{"text":"In 1817, Charles Albert married his second cousin once removed, Maria Theresa of Austria, the youngest daughter of Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Princess Luisa of Naples and Sicily. The couple had the following children:"}
+{"text":"Victor Amadeus of Savoy, 3rd Prince of Carignano (1 March 1690 \u2013 4 April 1741) was an Italian nobleman who was Prince of Carignano from 1709 to 1741. He was the son of Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, Prince of Carignano and his wife, the Maria Angela Caterina d'Este."}
+{"text":"Born in Turin, he was the third child of four and the eldest son."}
+{"text":"Made a Knight of the Annunciation in 1696, he married, at Moncalieri on 7 November 1714, Marie Victoire Fran\u00e7oise of Savoy (1690\u20131766), legitimised daughter of Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia, King of Sardinia and of Jeanne Baptiste d'Albert de Luynes, Countess of Verrue."}
+{"text":"His father-in-law showed affection for him but ended up depriving him, in 1717, of his 400,000 livres of annual income because of excessive spending. It was then that he ran away to France, at the end of 1718, in order to take possession of his inheritance."}
+{"text":"Since he had lost the Ch\u00e2teau de Cond\u00e9 to Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Leriget de La Faye when it was confiscated from his family by Louis XIV on 6 March 1719, he established himself in the h\u00f4tel de Soissons, which he transformed, with his wife who had followed him there, into a \"sumptuous gaming house\" which for a time sheltered the economist John Law. He died, ruined, and his h\u00f4tel was razed to construct in its place a grain-trading hall, now the site of the Bourse de commerce de Paris."}
+{"text":"Next to his mother-in-law, Jeanne Baptiste d'Albert de Luynes, Countess of Verrue, he counted in the 1730s among the most influential amateurs and art collectors in Paris. He gathered in an important painting collection which was sold after his death in 1742 partly to Louis XV, King of France, and to August III of Poland, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony."}
+{"text":"He had a passion for the Paris Op\u00e9ra, and was named intendant of the Menus-Plaisirs by Louis XV. He brought about the disgrace of the tax farmer Alexandre Le Riche de La Poupelini\u00e8re after he caught him in the company of his mistress, the actress Marie Antier."}
+{"text":"Victor Amadeus I (; 8 May 1587 \u2013 7 October 1637) was the Duke of Savoy from 1630 to 1637. He was also known as the \"Lion of Susa\"."}
+{"text":"He was born in Turin, Piedmont to Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy and Catherine Micaela of Spain, daughter of King Philip II of Spain. He spent much of his childhood in Madrid at the court of his grandfather Philip II. He stayed there until the king's death in 1598, when Victor Amadeus was eleven. When his brother, Filippo Emanuele, died in 1605, he became heir-apparent to the Duchy of Savoy and received the homage of the court at Racconigi on 21 January 1607."}
+{"text":"Victor Amadeus became Duke of Savoy after his father's death in 1630. Charles Emmanuel's policies had brought a great instability in the relationships with both France and Spain, and troops were needed to defend the Duchy. As money was lacking to recruit mercenaries or train indigenous soldiers, Victor Amadeus signed a peace treaty with Spain."}
+{"text":"With the Treaty of Cherasco, Savoy was forced to give Pinerolo to France. This gave France a strategic route into the heart of Savoy territory and on into the rest of Italy. The rulers of Savoy from that point resented this loss, and worked for decades with the goal of regaining that loss. Subsequently, under the direction of Cardinal Richelieu, Victor Amadeus attempted to create an anti-Spanish league in Italy. He achieved two victories against the Spanish: In 1636 in the Battle of Tornavento and on 8 September 1637 in the Battle of Mombaldone."}
+{"text":"On 25 September 1637, Victor Amadeus fell ill after a dinner offered by the Duke of Cr\u00e9qui. He was carried to Vercelli, where he died on 7 October, aged 50."}
+{"text":"In 1619, he married Christine Marie of France (1606\u20131663), a daughter of Henry IV of France and Marie de' Medici. Following his death, she served as regent of the Duchy from 1637 to 1663. They had children including:"}
+{"text":"Victor Amadeus of Savoy, 5th Prince of Carignano (31 October 1743 \u2013 10 September 1780) was a member of the House of Savoy and Prince of Carignano. He was the brother of the murdered \"princesse de Lamballe\" and grandfather of King Charles Albert of Sardinia."}
+{"text":"Born in Turin to Louis Victor of Savoy and his wife Christine of Hesse-Rotenburg, he was the couple's second child and eldest son. As a male line descendant of the Duke of Savoy, he was a \"Prince of Savoy\" by birth. He was named after his cousin King Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia. At his father's death he succeeded to the style of Prince of Carignano. Expecting to find military glory, his namesake created him Lieutenant General of the Sardinian Army. His career was cut short by his death."}
+{"text":"On 18 October 1768 at Oulx Victor Amadeus married Princess Jos\u00e9phine of Lorraine, daughter of Louis de Lorraine, Prince of Brionne and Louise de Rohan. The couple had one child who succeeded Victor Amadeus as Prince of Carignano in 1780. In 1786 he was moved to the Royal Basilica of Superga outside Turin. The current Prince of Naples is a direct male line descendant."}
+{"text":"Victor Emmanuel III (Vittorio Emanuele Ferdinando Maria Gennaro di Savoia; , , \"V\u012btoriyo \u0100manu\u2019\u0113li\"; 11 November 1869 \u2013 28 December 1947) reigned as King of Italy from 29 July 1900 until his abdication on 9 May 1946. In addition, he was Emperor of Ethiopia (1936\u20131941) and King of the Albanians (1939\u20131943). During his reign of nearly 46 years, which began after the assassination of his father Umberto I, the Kingdom of Italy became involved in two world wars. His reign also encompassed the birth, rise, and fall of Italian Fascism and its regime."}
+{"text":"During the First World War, Victor Emmanuel III accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Paolo Boselli and named Vittorio Emanuele Orlando (the \"premier of victory\") in his place. Following the March on Rome, he appointed Benito Mussolini as Prime Minister and later deposed him in 1943 during the Allied invasion of Italy of the Second World War."}
+{"text":"Victor Emmanuel abdicated his throne in 1946 in favour of his son Umberto II, hoping to strengthen support for the monarchy against an ultimately successful referendum to abolish it. He then went into exile to Alexandria, Egypt, where he died and was buried the following year in St. Catherine's Cathedral of Alexandria. In 2017 his remains were returned to rest in Italy, following an agreement between Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi."}
+{"text":"Victor Emmanuel was also called by some Italians \"Sciaboletta\" (\"little saber\"), due to his height of , and \"il Re soldato\" (the Soldier King), for having led his country during both world wars."}
+{"text":"Unlike his paternal first cousin's son, the 1.98\u00a0m (6-foot 6\") tall Amedeo, 3rd Duke of Aosta, Victor Emmanuel was short of stature even by 19th-century standards, to the point that today he would appear diminutive. He was just 1.53\u00a0m tall (just over 5 feet). From birth until his accession, Victor Emmanuel was known by the title of the Prince of Naples."}
+{"text":"On 24 October 1896, Prince Victor Emmanuel married Princess Elena of Montenegro."}
+{"text":"On 29 July 1900, at the age of 30, Victor Emmanuel acceded to the throne upon his father's assassination. The only advice that his father Umberto ever gave his heir was \"Remember: to be a king, all you need to know is how to sign your name, read a newspaper, and mount a horse\". His early years showed evidence that, by the standards of the Savoy monarchy, he was a man committed to constitutional government. Indeed, even though his father was killed by an anarchist, the new king showed a commitment to constitutional freedoms."}
+{"text":"Though parliamentary rule had been firmly established in Italy, the Statuto Albertino, or constitution, granted the king considerable residual powers. For instance, he had the right to appoint the prime minister even if the individual in question did not command majority support in the Chamber of Deputies. A shy and somewhat withdrawn individual, the King hated the day-to-day stresses of Italian politics, though the country's chronic political instability forced him to intervene on no fewer than ten occasions between 1900 and 1922 to solve parliamentary crises."}
+{"text":"When World War I began, Italy at first remained neutral, despite being part of the Triple Alliance (albeit it was signed on defensive terms and Italy objected that the Sarajevo assassination did not qualify as aggression). However, in 1915, Italy signed several secret treaties committing her to enter the war on the side of the Triple Entente. Most of the politicians opposed war, however, and the Italian Chamber of Deputies forced Prime Minister Antonio Salandra to resign. At this juncture, Victor Emmanuel declined Salandra's resignation and personally made the decision for Italy to enter the war. He was well within his rights to do so under the \"Statuto,\" which stipulated that ultimate authority for declaring war rested with the crown."}
+{"text":"The economic depression which followed World War I gave rise to much extremism among Italy's sorely tried working classes. This caused the country as a whole to become politically unstable. Benito Mussolini, soon to be Italy's Fascist dictator, took advantage of this instability for his rise to power."}
+{"text":"In 1922, Mussolini led a force of his Fascist supporters on a March on Rome. Prime Minister Luigi Facta and his cabinet drafted a decree of martial law. After some hesitation the King refused to sign it, citing doubts about the ability of the army to contain the uprising without setting off a civil war."}
+{"text":"Fascist violence had been growing in intensity throughout the summer and autumn of 1922, climaxing in rumours of a possible coup. On 24 October 1922, during the Fascist congress in Naples, Mussolini announced that the Fascists would march on Rome \"take by the throat our miserable ruling class\". General Pietro Badoglio told the King that the military would be able without difficulty to rout the rebels, who numbered no more than 10,000 men armed mostly with knives and clubs whereas the \"Regio Esercito\" had 30,000 soldiers in the Rome area armed with heavy weapons, armoured cars, and machine guns. During the \"March on Rome\", the Fascist \"squadristi\" were halted by 400 lightly armed policemen, as the \"squadristi\" had no desire to take on the Italian state."}
+{"text":"By midday on 30 October, Mussolini had been appointed President of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister), at the age of 39, with no previous experience of office, and with only 32 Fascist deputies in the Chamber. Though the King claimed in his memoirs that it was the fear of a civil war that motivated his actions, it would seem that he received some 'alternative' advice, possibly from the arch-conservative Antonio Salandra as well as General Armando Diaz, that it would be better to do a deal with Mussolini."}
+{"text":"Victor Emmanuel was disgusted by what he regarded as the superficiality and frivolity of what he called the \"so-called elegant society\" of Rome, and as such, the king preferred to spend his time out in the countryside where he went hunting, fishing and reading military history books outside. A taciturn man who felt deeply uncomfortable expressing himself in conversation, Victor Emmanuel was content to let Mussolini rule Italy as he regarded \"Il Duce\" as a \"strong man\" who saved him the trouble from meeting various politicians as he had done before 1922."}
+{"text":"In 1926, the king allowed Mussolini to do what he prevented Orlando from doing in 1919, giving permission to open negotiations with the Vatican to end the \"Roman Question\". In 1929, Mussolini, on behalf of the King, signed the Lateran Treaty. The treaty was one of the three agreements made that year between the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See. On 7 June 1929, the Lateran Treaty was ratified and the \"Roman Question\" was settled."}
+{"text":"The Italian monarchy enjoyed popular support for decades. Foreigners noted how even as late as the 1930s newsreel images of King Victor Emmanuel and Queen Elena evoked applause, sometimes cheering, when played in cinemas, in contrast to the hostile silence shown toward images of Fascist leaders."}
+{"text":"On 30 March 1938, the Italian Parliament established the rank of First Marshal of the Empire for Victor Emmanuel and Mussolini. This new rank was the highest rank in the Italian military. His equivalence with Mussolini was seen by the king as offensive and a clear sign that the ultimate goal of the fascist was to get rid of him."}
+{"text":"As popular as Victor Emmanuel was, several of his decisions proved fatal to the monarchy. Among these decisions was his assumption of the imperial crown of Ethiopia, his public silence when Mussolini's Fascist government issued its notorious racial purity laws, and his assumption of the crown of Albania."}
+{"text":"Prior to his government's invasion of Ethiopia, Victor Emmanuel travelled in 1934 to Italian Somaliland, where he celebrated his 65th birthday on 11 November. In 1936, Victor Emmanuel assumed the crown as Emperor of Ethiopia. His decision to do this was not universally accepted. Victor Emmanuel was only able to assume the crown after the Italian Army invaded Ethiopia (Abyssinia) and overthrew Emperor Haile Selassie during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War."}
+{"text":"Ethiopia was annexed to the Italian Empire. The League of Nations condemned Italy's participation in this war and the Italian claim by right of conquest to Ethiopia was rejected by some major powers, such as the United States and the Soviet Union, but was accepted by Great Britain and France in 1938. In 1943, Italy's possession of Ethiopia came to an end."}
+{"text":"The term of the last acting Viceroy of Italian East Africa, including Eritrea and Italian Somaliland, ended on 27 November 1941 with surrender to the allies. In November 1943 Victor Emmanuel renounced his claims to the titles of Emperor of Ethiopia and King of Albania, recognizing the previous holders of those titles as legitimate."}
+{"text":"The crown of the King of the Albanians had been assumed by Victor Emmanuel in 1939 when Italian forces invaded the nearly defenceless monarchy across the Adriatic Sea and caused King Zog I to flee. The Italian invasion of Albania was generally seen as the act of a stronger nation taking unfair advantage of a weaker neighbour."}
+{"text":"In 1941, while in Tirana, the King escaped an assassination attempt by the 19-year-old Albanian patriot Vasil La\u00e7i. Later, this attempt was cited by Communist Albania as a sign of the general discontent among the oppressed Albanian population. A second attempt by Dimitri Mikhaliov in Albania gave the Italians an excuse to affirm a possible connection with Greece as a result of the monarch's assent to the Greco-Italian War."}
+{"text":"As Italy's fortunes worsened, the popularity of the King suffered. One coffee-house ditty went as follows:"}
+{"text":"On the night of 25 July 1943, the Grand Council of Fascism voted to adopt an \"Ordine del Giorno\" (order of the day) proposed by Count Dino Grandi to ask Victor Emmanuel to resume his full constitutional powers under Article 5 of the \"Statuto.\" In effect, this was a motion of no confidence in Mussolini."}
+{"text":"The following afternoon, Mussolini asked for an audience with the king at Villa Savoia. When Mussolini tried to tell Victor Emmanuel about the Grand Council's vote, Victor Emmanuel abruptly cut him off and told him that he was dismissing him as Prime Minister in favour of Marshal Pietro Badoglio. He then ordered Mussolini's arrest. Victor Emmanuel had been planning this move to get rid of the dictator for some time."}
+{"text":"On 8 September 1943, Victor Emmanuel publicly announced an armistice with the Allies. Confusion reigned as Italian forces were left without orders, and the Germans, who had been expecting this move for some time, quickly disarmed and interned Italian troops and took control in the occupied Balkans, France and the Dodecanese, as well as in Italy itself. Many of the units that did not surrender joined forces with the Allies against the Germans."}
+{"text":"Fearing a German advance on Rome, Victor Emmanuel and his government fled south to Brindisi. This choice may have been necessary to protect his safety; indeed, Hitler had planned to arrest him shortly after Mussolini's overthrow. Nonetheless, it still came as a surprise to many observers inside and outside Italy. Unfavourable comparisons were drawn with King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, who refused to leave London during the Blitz, and of Pope Pius XII, who mixed with Rome's crowds and prayed with them after Rome's working-class neighborhood of Quartiere San Lorenzo had been destroyed by bombing."}
+{"text":"On 12 September, the Germans launched Operation Eiche and rescued Mussolini from captivity. In a short time, he established a new Fascist state in northern Italy, the Italian Social Republic (\"Repubblica Sociale Italiana\"). This was never more than a German-dominated puppet state, but it did compete for the allegiance of the Italian people with Badoglio's government in the south."}
+{"text":"By this time, it was apparent that Victor Emmanuel was irrevocably tainted by his earlier support of the Fascist regime. At a 10 April meeting, under pressure from ACC officials Robert Murphy and Harold Macmillan, Victor Emmanuel transferred most of his constitutional powers to his son, Crown Prince Umberto. Privately, Victor Emmanuel told General Noel Mason-MacFarlane that by forcing him to give power to Umberto, the Allies were effectively giving power to the Communists."}
+{"text":"By this time, however, events had moved beyond Victor Emmanuel's ability to control. After Rome was liberated on 4 June, when he turned over his remaining powers to Umberto and named him Lieutenant General of the Realm, while nominally retaining the title of king."}
+{"text":"In any event, once the referendum's result was certified, Victor Emmanuel and all other male members of the House of Savoy were required to leave the country. Taking refuge in Egypt, where he was welcomed with great honour by King Farouk, Victor Emmanuel died in Alexandria a year later, of pulmonary congestion. He was interred behind the altar of St Catherine's Cathedral. He was the last surviving grandchild of Victor Emmanuel II of Italy. In 1948, \"Time\" magazine included an article about \"The Little King\"."}
+{"text":"On 17 December 2017, an Italian air force military plane officially repatriated the remains of Victor Emmanuel III, which were transferred from Alexandria to the sanctuary of Vicoforte, near Turin, and interred alongside those of Elena, that had been transferred two days earlier from Montpellier, France."}
+{"text":"The abdication prior to the referendum probably brought back to the minds of undecided voters the monarchy's role during the Fascist period and the King's own actions (or lack of them), at the very moment monarchists hoped voters would focus on the positive impression created by Umberto and his wife, Maria Jos\u00e9, over the previous two years. The \"May\" King and Queen, Umberto and Maria Jos\u00e9, in Umberto's brief, month-long reign, were unable to shift the burden of recent history and opinion."}
+{"text":"At one point, there was an avenue in Paris named Avenue Victor-Emmanuel III, but the king's support of the Axis Powers led the road to be renamed Franklin D. Roosevelt Avenue following the end of World War II."}
+{"text":"In 1896 he married princess Elena of Montenegro (1873\u20131952), daughter of Nicholas I, King of Montenegro. Their issue included:"}
+{"text":"Reference 4: James Rennell Rodd [British Ambassador to Italy before and during the Great War]."}
+{"text":"Social and Diplomatic Memories. Third Series. 1902\u20131919. London, 1925."}
+{"text":"Philip II (5 February 1438 \u2013 7 November 1497), surnamed the Landless, was the Duke of Savoy for a brief reign from 1496 to 1497."}
+{"text":"He spent most of his life as a junior member of the ducal family. His original apanage was the district of Bresse, close to the French and Burgundian border, but it was lost and therefore Philip received his sobriquet \"the Landless\", or \"Lackland\"."}
+{"text":"He married Margaret of Bourbon (5 February 1438 \u2013 1483) and had:"}
+{"text":"He married Claudine de Brosse of Brittany (1450\u20131513), daughter of Jean II de Brosse and Nicole de Ch\u00e2tillon, and they had:"}
+{"text":"He also had eight illegitimate children by two mistresses."}
+{"text":"Philip is an ancestor, through an illegitimate daughter of Honorat II of Savoy, of Jos\u00e9phine de Beauharnais, first wife of Napoleon."}
+{"text":"Victor Amadeus III (Vittorio Amadeo Maria; 26 June 1726 \u2013 16 October 1796) was King of Sardinia from 1773 to his death. Although he was politically conservative, he carried out numerous administrative reforms until he declared war on Revolutionary France in 1792. He was the father of the last three mainline Kings of Sardinia."}
+{"text":"Born at the Royal Palace of Turin, he was a son of Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia and his second wife Polyxena of Hesse-Rotenburg. He was styled the \"Duke of Savoy\" from birth until he succeeded to his father's throne. He was the eldest son of his parents and was the heir apparent from birth which was greeted with much celebration. His father had had a son with his first wife, Countess Palatine Anne Christine of Sulzbach who was also named Victor Amadeus, Duke of Aosta, but died in 1725. His education was entrusted to Gerdil Giacinto Sigismondo, with a particular emphasis on military training. Throughout his life he would have a great interest in the state military on which he lavished attention."}
+{"text":"As a young prince, he surrounded himself with intellectuals and ministers, many of whom would come to prominence in his reign. He was privately conservative and very religious person, who, as a young boy, stayed far from public life. His father felt him to be unsuitable to hold power."}
+{"text":"Good-natured but naive, Savoy would be loved by his subjects for his generosity."}
+{"text":"He married Infanta Maria Antonia of Spain (1729\u20131785), youngest daughter of Philip V of Spain and Elisabeth Farnese. They were married on 31 May 1750 at Oulx and later had twelve children. He had a loving relationship with his wife who exerted little influence over her husband. The marriage had been arranged by Maria Antonietta's half brother, the ruling Ferdinand VI of Spain. The Spanish Infanta had been previously rejected by Louis, Dauphin of France. The union was used to strengthen relations between Madrid and Turin having fought on opposing sides in the War of the Austrian Succession. The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ended the war."}
+{"text":"When Victor Amadeus came to the throne in 1773 he started working on bureaucratic and military aspects of the reign. He was suspicious of anything innovative. However, he did implement several public works as well as paying a great deal of attention to his administration and armed forces. He approved and set up two new important cultural state institutions on the advice of the bourgeoisie and aristocracy alike. He started works of improvements in the port of Nice, and had dams in the Arce and the road of the C\u00f4te built."}
+{"text":"He died on 16 October, 1796 at the Castle of Moncalieri having suffered an attack of apoplexy. Victor Amadeus died leaving an economically damaged kingdom and two key provinces \u2013 Savoy and Nice \u2013 devastated having suffered at the hands of French revolutionary forces. He was buried at the Basilica of Superga in Turin."}
+{"text":"In 1786 Victor Amadeus III moved the remains on many of his ancestors and kinsmen to the Basilica of Superga, where he himself rests today. He established the Gold Medal of Military Valor 21 May 1793. Like his parents, he carried out improvements to the Palazzina di caccia of Stupinigi outside Turin. Victor Amadeus III also encouraged the extension of the Orto Botanico dell'Universit\u00e0 di Torino as well as the Societ\u00e0 Agraria di Torino, which he created in 1785. His first cousin the Landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg was named after him."}
+{"text":"Charles III of Savoy (10 October 1486 \u2013 17 August 1553), often called Charles the Good, was Duke of Savoy from 1504 to 1553, although most of his lands were ruled by the French between 1536 and his death."}
+{"text":"He was a younger son of Philip (Filippo) the Landless, an aged younger son of the ducal family, and his second wife Claudine de Brosse of the family that unsuccessfully claimed the Duchy of Brittany. His grandparents were Duke Louis of Savoy and Anne of Cyprus. As a child, there were next to no expectations for him to succeed to any monarchy. He was christened as a namesake of the then-reigning Duke, Charles I of Savoy, the Warrior, his first cousin."}
+{"text":"However, when he was ten years old, his father unexpectedly succeeded his grandnephew Charles II of Savoy as duke and head of the Savoy dynasty, which had now also received the titles of the kingdoms of Cyprus, Jerusalem and Armenia. However, Charles's father was not the heir general of the deceased duke, only the male heir. Jerusalem, Cyprus and certain other claims and possessions could go to a different heir, and they did, in principle, going to Charles II's sister Yolande Louise. Charles's father was not ready to relinquish those, and he took such titles to his own titulary, staking a claim. He also had Yolande marry his son, Philibert the Handsome, in 1496, to ensure the male line of succession."}
+{"text":"In 1497, Charles's half-brother Philibert succeeded their father as Duke of Savoy, etc. Philibert however died childless in 1504, surprisingly, and now Charles succeeded, at age eighteen."}
+{"text":"Charles faced down challenges to his authority, including from Philibert Berthelier."}
+{"text":"After Yolande's death in 1499, the \"de jure\" rights of Jerusalem and Cyprus were lost to the Savoy family. Charles however, as some sort of heir-male, took those titles, which his successors also used. In 1713, Charles's great-great-great-grandson Victor Amadeus II of Savoy received confirmation to that title from the Kings of Spain and France, who also claimed it. The rights, according to succession of heirs general, i.e. not excluding female lines, had gone, until Charles's death, to the House of La Tr\u00e9moille, the French lords of La Tremoille, Princes of Talmond and Taranto."}
+{"text":"In response to the riots between Catholic and Protestants within Geneva, Charles launched a surprise attack in July 1534, but his army was beaten back. A second siege in October 1535 was attempted, and again Charles' army was defeated when forces from Berne arrived to assist Geneva. Charles was allied with the Habsburg camp in Western European politics, where Francis I of France and Emperor Charles V battled for ascendancy. France invaded Savoy in 1536, and held almost all of Charles' possessions. He spent the rest of his life practically in exile, at the mercy of relatives. He died in 1553 and was succeeded by his only surviving child, Emanuele Filiberto."}
+{"text":"He was the duke who imprisoned Fran\u00e7ois Bonivard, the \"prisoner of Chillon\" in 1530."}
+{"text":"Charles married the rich, beautiful and ambitious Infanta Beatrice of Portugal (1504\u20131538), daughter of the richest monarch in Europe at the time Manuel I of Portugal and Maria of Aragon. Beatrice was both first cousin and sister-in-law of the Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. They had nine children, but only one child, Emmanuel Philibert, would reach adulthood:"}
+{"text":"The Counts of Villafranca and later the Counts of Villafranca-Soissons are legitimate male line descendants of Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano the founder of the Carignano line of the House of Savoy. The title was created in 1778 for Prince Eugenio of Savoy (1753\u20131785). The third count Prince Eugenio Emanuele married in 1863 to Felicita Crosio (1844\u20131911) in what was a morganatic marriage. His wife was created Countess of Villafranca-Soissons in 1888 so the descendants of the marriage bear the title Count\/Countess of Villafranca-Soissons. The current head of the Villafranca-Soissons line is Count Edoardo Emanuele Filiberto (born 1945) the grandson of the first count of Villafranca-Soissons via his second son Count Giuseppe Carlo (1904\u20131971)."}
+{"text":"Emmanuel Philibert (), known as Testa di ferro, , \"Ironhead\", because of his military career (8 July 1528 \u2013 30 August 1580), was Duke of Savoy from 1553 to 1580. He is remembered for the Italianization of the House of Savoy, as he recovered the Savoyard state (invaded and occupied by France when he was a child) following the Battle of St. Quentin (1557) and subsequently moved the capital to Turin and made Italian the official language in Piedmont."}
+{"text":"Born in Chamb\u00e9ry, Emmanuel Philibert was the only child of Charles III, Duke of Savoy, and Beatrice of Portugal to reach adulthood. His mother was sister-in-law to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and the future duke served in Charles's army during the war against Francis I of France, distinguishing himself by capturing Hesdin in July 1553. A month later, he became Duke of Savoy on the death of his father, but this was a nearly empty honour, as the vast majority of his hereditary lands had been occupied and administered by the French since 1536. Instead, he continued to serve the Habsburgs in hopes of recovering his lands, and served his cousin Philip II of Spain as Governor of the Netherlands from 1555 to 1559."}
+{"text":"In this capacity, he personally led the Spanish invasion of northern France and won a brilliant victory at Saint-Quentin on 10 August 1557. He was also a suitor to Lady Elizabeth Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII of England. With the Peace of Cateau Cambr\u00e9sis between France and Spain signed in 1559, the duchy was restored to Emmanuel Philibert and he married his first cousin once removed, Margaret of France, Duchess of Berry, the sister of King Henry II of France. Their only child was Charles Emmanuel I of Savoy."}
+{"text":"Following the death of his uncle, Henry I of Portugal, on 31 January 1580, Emmanuel Philibert fought to impose his rights as a claimant to the Portuguese throne. However, he soon realised that he had quite a fragile position due to the claims of Philip II, who gained control of the country, thus uniting Spain and Portugal."}
+{"text":"Emmanuel Philibert spent his rule regaining what had been lost in the costly wars with France. A skilled political strategist, he took advantage of various squabbles in Europe to slowly regain territory from both the French and the Spanish, including the city of Turin. He also purchased two territories. Internally, he moved the capital of the duchy from Chamb\u00e9ry to Turin and replaced Latin as the duchy's official language with Italian. He was attempting to acquire the marquisate of Saluzzo when he died in Turin. Later, he was buried in the Chapel of the Holy Shroud of the Turin Cathedral, to which he had moved the Sindone in 1578."}
+{"text":"Philip of Savoy, Duke of Nemours (149025 November 1533) was a French nobleman. He was a son of Philip II, Duke of Savoy, and his second wife Claudine de Brosse. He was a half-brother of Louise of Savoy, the mother of Francis I of France. He was the founder of the Nemours branch of the house of Savoy which eventually settled in France."}
+{"text":"Originally destined for the priesthood, he was given the bishopric of Geneva at the age of five, but resigned it in 1510, when he was made count of Genevois. He served under Louis XII, with whom he was present at the battle of Agnadello (1509), under the emperor Charles V in 1520, and finally under his nephew, Francis I."}
+{"text":"In 1528 Francis gave him the duchy of Nemours and married him to Charlotte of Orleans, a daughter of Louis d'Orl\u00e9ans, Duke of Longueville. They had two children:"}
+{"text":"Amadeus VIII (4 September 1383 \u2013 7 January 1451) was a Savoyard nobleman, the son of Amadeus VII, Count of Savoy and Bonne of Berry. He was nicknamed the Peaceful. After the death of his father in 1391, his mother acted as a regent, because of his youth. He was a claimant to the papacy from 1439 to 1449 as Felix V in opposition to Eugene IV and Nicholas V, and is considered the last historical antipope."}
+{"text":"Born at Chamb\u00e9ry, he was the count of Savoy from 1391 to 1416 and was elevated by Emperor Sigismund to duke of Savoy in 1416. In 1418, his distant cousin Louis of Piedmont, his brother-in-law, the last male of the elder branch of House of Savoy, died, leaving Amadeus as his heir-general, thus finally uniting the male-lines of the House of Savoy."}
+{"text":"Amadeus increased his dominions and encouraged several attempts to negotiate an end to the Hundred Years' War. From 1401 to 1422, he campaigned to recover the area around Geneva and Annecy. After the death of his wife in 1431, he founded the Order of Saint Maurice with six other knights in 1434. They lived alone in the castle of Ripaille, near Geneva, in a quasi-monastic state according to a rule drawn up by himself. He appointed his son Louis regent of the duchy."}
+{"text":"Amadeus' image in history is marred by the account of him as a pontiff concerned with money, to avoid disadvantaging his heirs, found in the \"Commentaries\" of Pius II. Nor is there any evidence that he intrigued to obtain the papal office, sending the bishops of Savoy to Basel for this purpose. Of the twelve bishops present, seven were Savoyards. After the death of his opponent Pope Eugene IV in 1447, both sides of the church favoured a settlement of the schism, and in 1449 he accepted the authority of Pope Nicholas V."}
+{"text":"He married Mary of Burgundy (1386\u20131422), daughter of Philip the Bold. They had nine children:"}
+{"text":"Rotruda (or Roza) of Pavia (died after March 945) was an Italian noblewoman. Rotruda was married to Giselbert I of Bergamo and later became the mistress of Hugh of Italy."}
+{"text":"Rotruda was the daughter of the \"iudex\" (judge) Walpert of Pavia. She married Giselbert of Bergamo \"c\".895. Together they had a son, Lanfranc I of Bergamo."}
+{"text":"Probably after Giselbert I\u2019s death (c.927\/929), Rotruda became the mistress of Hugh of Italy, with whom she had a daughter, Rotlinda. Because of her relationship with Hugh, Rotruda is mentioned in Liutprand of Cremona's work \"Antapodosis\"."}
+{"text":"With Giselbert, Rotruda had the following children:"}
+{"text":"With Hugh, Rotruda had the following children:"}
+{"text":"Eugenia Attendolo Bolognini (1837\u20131914), styled by marriage as \"duchessa Litta Visconti Arese\", was an Italian noblewoman, philanthropist and hostess of a famous literary salon in Milan."}
+{"text":"She was for a time a lady-in-waiting to the Queen of Italy, Margherita of Savoy. She is most known for her love affair with King Umberto I of Italy, which lasted from the time of his marriage in 1868 until his death in 1900."}
+{"text":"Isabella Boschetti or Boschetto (c.1502 \u2013 ?) was a Mantuan noblewoman and lover of Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. She was nicknamed 'La bella Boschetta' (the beautiful Boschetta)."}
+{"text":"She was the second daughter of Giacomo Boschetti, a courtier and soldier in the Gonzaga court who fought at Fornovo. Her mother was a sister of Baldassarre Castiglione. A few years after she became Federico's mistress she married a nobleman at his court, Francesco Cauzzi Gonzaga, conte di Calvisano, who suffered a violent death in mysterious circumstances. In 1542 she remarried to count Filippo Tornielli."}
+{"text":"In 1517 Anna d'Alen\u00e7on managed to get a betrothal between Federico and her eldest daughter Maria Paleologa, but this was broken off when she was accused of trying to poison Isabella. Federico built the Palazzo Te for Isabella from 1525 onwards, where she entertained and received famous guests. The couple had two children, Alessandro (1520\u20131580), who became State Councillor of the Duchy of Mantua and served in the Spanish army in Flanders during the Dutch Revolt, and Emilia (1517\u20131573) who married Carlo Gonzaga (1523\u20131555) signore di Gazzuolo, with whom she had ten children."}
+{"text":"In 1531 Federico commissioned Correggio's \"Dana\u00eb\", apparently intended for the Sala di Ovidio di Palazzo Te, intended for Isabella. Her year of death is unknown."}
+{"text":"Lucrezia Donati (Florence, Italy; 1447-\"ibidem\", 1501) was an Italian noble who lived in the 15th century, mistress of Lorenzo de' Medici."}
+{"text":"The identity of the woman in the sculpture \"Dama col mazzolino\", at Bargello Museum in Florence could be attributed to Lucrezia Donati. Also Sandro Botticelli's painting \"Fortitude\" would be another representation of her."}
+{"text":"Lucrezia was the daughter of Manno Donati and Caterina Bardi, a Florentine dame who belonged to an extinct family tree, being the last descendant. From 1461 was the mistress of Lorenzo il Magnifico, a platonic love, until Lorenzo later married the Italian noble Clarice Orsini. In 1486 Lorenzo remembered the poems he had written for her when he was 16 in the poem \"Corinto\"."}
+{"text":"Lucrezia married the Florentian businessman Niccol\u00f2 Ardighelli, who died in exile in 1496."}
+{"text":"The actress Laura Haddock starred as Lucrezia Donati in the television series \"Da Vinci's Demons\". Alessandra Mastronardi played Lucrezia in \"\"."}
+{"text":"Rosa Vercellana, 1st Countess of Mirafiori and Fontanafredda (3 June 1833 \u2013 26 December 1885), commonly known as \u2018Rosina\u2019 and, in Piedmontese, as La Bela Rosin, was the mistress and later wife of Victor Emmanuel II, King of Italy. Despite this, the morganatic status of her marriage meant that she was never recognized as Queen of Italy."}
+{"text":"She was born in Nice, then part of the Kingdom of Sardinia, the youngest child of Giovanni Battista Vercellana and his wife, Maria Teresa Griglio. Four days later she was baptised as Maria Rosa Teresa Aloisia."}
+{"text":"Her father, from Moncalvo in the Province of Asti, had been a standard bearer in the Napoleonic Imperial Guard. After the fall of Napoleon, he was appointed an Officer in the King's Guards and commanded the Royal Garrison in the hunting estate of Racconigi by 1847. There, while living with her family, the fourteen-year-old Rosa met Crown Prince Victor Emmanuel."}
+{"text":"She became his mistress and later had two children by him."}
+{"text":"Their affair caused a great scandal in 1849 when Victor Emanuel was crowned King of Sardinia. When his Queen died in 1855, the King named Rosa Countess of Mirafiori and Fontanafredda by royal decree in 1858. The King also recognized their two children and assigned them the surname Guerrieri.,\u00a0 In 1860, Victor Emmanuel established her in a new residence in a restored castle of La Mandria, near Venaria."}
+{"text":"In 1864, the capital of Italy was moved from Turin to Florence and Vercellana established herself there in the villa La Pietraia. Five years later the king fell gravely ill at San Rossore, the royal estate near Pisa. Fearing death, on 18 October 1869, he hurriedly married his mistress, in a purely religious ceremony which conferred no civil rights upon his wife. Telegrams to Rome followed, seeking papal benediction."}
+{"text":"A civil ceremony was held in Rome eight years later in 1877. This was a morganatic marriage, so she was never made Queen and her children had no rights of succession to the throne."}
+{"text":"Victor Emanuel died two months after the ceremony. Rosa Vercellana survived him by eight years, dying on 26 December 1885."}
+{"text":"As the Savoy family refused to allow her to be buried next to her husband in the Pantheon, her children had a mausoleum built for her in a similar form (if on a smaller scale) in Turin, next to the road to the Castello di Mirafiori. The circular, copper-domed, neoclassical monument, surmounted by a latin cross and surrounded by a large park, was designed by Angelo Dimezzi and completed in 1888."}
+{"text":"In 1970 it was purchased by the Turin city council from a descendant of Rosa Vercellana for the sum of 132 million lire. The park was opened to the public two years later but almost immediately the mausoleum was broken into and the remains of Vercellana and her descendants were mutilated by people searching for jewels. Further acts of vandalism took place over subsequent years and the structure fell into a state of dereliction. Major restoration work was carried out at the start of the twenty-first century and the park was re-opened to the public in 2005."}
+{"text":"Victor Emmanuel and Rosa Vercellana's children were:"}
+{"text":"Laura Bon (1825\u20131904) was an Italian stage actress."}
+{"text":"She was the lover of Victor Emmanuel II of Italy between 1844 and 1858, and had a daughter with him. She resumed her acting career in 1858, and enjoyed a successful stage career until the 1870s."}
+{"text":"Bianca Cappello (154820 October 1587) was an Italian noblewoman who was the mistress, and afterward the second wife, of Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. Her husband officially made her his consort. Coincidentally, the creation of the fortunate term serendipity by the writer Horace Walpole is due to a portrait of Bianca."}
+{"text":"Bianca was born in Venice, in 1548, the daughter of Venetian nobleman Bartolomeo (1519-1594) and , a member of the Morosini family, one of the richest and noblest Venetian families, and was noted for her great beauty."}
+{"text":"At the age of fifteen she fell in love with , a young Florentine clerk in the firm of Salviati family, and on 28 November 1563 escaped with him to Florence, where they were married. In 1564 she had a daughter named Virginia, or, according to other sources, Pellegrina. The Venetian government made every effort to have Bianca arrested and brought back but the Grand Duke Cosimo I intervened in her favour and she was left unmolested."}
+{"text":"However, she did not get on well with her husband's family, who were very poor and made her do menial work, until at last her beauty attracted Grand Prince Francesco, son and heir apparent of the grand duke."}
+{"text":"Although already married to Joanna of Austria, Francesco seduced Bianca and gave her jewels, money and other presents. Bonaventuri, Bianca's husband, was given court employment and consoled himself with other ladies until, in 1572, he was murdered in the streets of Florence in consequence of some amorous intrigue. It is possible that Bianca and Francesco were involved."}
+{"text":"In 1578, Joanna died; a few months later Francesco secretly married Bianca, and on 10 June 1579, the marriage was publicly announced, and Antonio acknowledged as the Duke's son. Two days later, on 12 June, Bianca was crowned the Grand Duchess of Tuscany at the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. The Venetian government now put aside its resentment and was officially represented at the magnificent wedding festivities, for it saw in Bianca Cappello an instrument for cementing good relations with Tuscany."}
+{"text":"Bianca's position, however, was still not secure. The heir remained the young Grand Prince Philip; her own son by Francesco, though acknowledged, remained illegitimate, barred from inheriting the duchy. There would be no more children born of the relationship, and Bianca was aware that, if her husband were to die before her, she was lost, for his family, especially his brother Cardinal Ferdinand, hated her bitterly, as an adventuress and interloper."}
+{"text":"In 1582, however, Grand Prince Philip died. Francesco immediately began working on securing the succession for his remaining son, Antonio, having him legitimated and declared heir apparent, with the support of Philip II of Spain. As the mother of the heir, Bianca's position was far stronger: even if Francesco died before Antonio reached adulthood, Bianca would have a good claim to ruling as regent on her son's behalf, and her husband's family would give her more respect as the mother of the heir."}
+{"text":"In October 1587, at the Villa Medici in Poggio a Caiano, Francesco and Bianca died on 19 and 20 October, possibly poisoned, or as some historians believe, from malarial fever. As Bianca wasn't an official member of the Medici family, Cardinal Ferdinand did not allow her to be buried in the Medici family tombs. Instead, some believe that Bianca was buried in an unmarked mass grave under the church of St. Lorenzo, having been brought back to Florence from Poggio a Caiano. In 2006, forensic and toxicology experts at the University of Florence reported evidence of arsenic poisoning in a study published in the \"British Medical Journal\", but in 2010 evidence of the parasite \"Plasmodium falciparum\", which causes malaria, was found in Francesco's remains."}
+{"text":"The biography of Bianca Cappello was used by Thomas Middleton for his tragedy \"Women Beware Women\" (published 1657)."}
+{"text":"Bax, Clifford, \"Bianca Cappello\" (London, 1927): a modern biography"}
+{"text":"Taddea Malaspina (1505 - ?) was an Italian marchesa. She was the mistress of Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence from the early 1530s to about 1537 and was likely the mother of at least two of his children, Giulio di Alessandro de' Medici and Giulia de' Medici. Giulio de' Medici was associated with the Malaspina family at different points throughout his life."}
+{"text":"Taddea was the younger daughter of Alberico Malaspina, sovereign marquis of Massa, and Lucrezia d'Este. She married Count Giambattista Boiardo di Scandiano. After his death and the death of her father, Malaspina lived with her mother in Florence and had a number of lovers, including Alessandro. Her sister Ricciarda inherited the title after their father's death. Through Ricciarda's marriage, the family was related to Pope Innocent VIII. Ricciarda was probably also one of Alessandro de' Medici's lovers."}
+{"text":"In a portrait of Alessandro by Pontormo, dated to about 1534, the Duke, dressed in black, draws the profile of a woman in silverpoint. The portrait may have been a gift for Malaspina. The Chiesa della Madonna del Carmine and the Santa Chiara monastic complex in Massa, now in the Italian province of Massa Carrara, were built on Taddea Malaspina's order; they still stand."}
+{"text":"Agnese del Maino (c. 1411 \u2013 13 December 1465) was a Milanese noblewoman and the mistress of Filippo Maria Visconti, the last legitimate Duke of Milan of the Visconti dynasty. Agnese was the mother of Bianca Maria Visconti, who succeeded to the title of Duchess of Milan in 1450, despite her illegitimacy."}
+{"text":"Agnese was born around 1411 in Milan. She was the daughter of Ambrogio del Maino, a Count Palatine and ducal \"questore\" or chief of police. Her mother's name and identity is unknown. Agnese had two brothers, Lancillotto del Maino and Andreotto del Maino, who were both courtiers and members of the ducal council. She became the mistress of Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, the last Duke of Milan of the Visconti dynasty, whose wife Beatrice Lascaris di Tenda had been executed for adultery in 1418 and had produced no children. He was the son of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan by his second wife, Caterina Visconti."}
+{"text":"On 31 March 1425 at Settimo Pavese, Agnese gave birth to Filippo's daughter, whom they named Bianca Maria. When the baby was six months old, Agnese and Bianca Maria were sent to the castle of Abbiategrasso, where lavish apartments were provided for mother and child. In 1426, Agnese bore the Duke a second daughter, Caterina Maria, but the child died shortly after her birth. Filippo, for reasons of state, married secondly, by proxy on 2 December 1427, and in person on 24 September 1428, Marie of Savoy (January 1411 \u2013 22 February 1479), the daughter of Amadeus VIII of Savoy and Marie of Burgundy. The duke's second marriage was also childless, making Bianca Maria his sole heir to the duchy of Milan."}
+{"text":"On 25 October 1441, Bianca Maria was married, in a magnificent ceremony at the Abbey of San Sigismondo in Cremona, to Francesco Sforza, a renowned \"Condottiero\" and member of the Condottieri Sforza family. Agnese was present at her daughter's wedding. The extravagant festivities, which lasted for days, offered a sumptuous banquet, a series of tournaments, a \"palio\", painted carts featuring allegorical scenes, and an oversized cake that reproduced the \"Torrazzo\", Cremona's most prominent tower. Bianca Maria's considerable dowry included the towns of Cremona and Pontremoli. The marriage produced eight children, among these were, Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, and Ippolita Maria Sforza, Duchess of Calabria."}
+{"text":"Filippo Maria Visconti died on 13 August 1447; he was not quite fifty-five years old. Bianca Maria was his only direct heir, albeit illegitimate. His death, without legitimate offspring, resulted in the creation of the short-lived Ambrosian Republic. That same year, Agnese convinced Matteo Da Bologna, the \"condottiero\" who held the city of Pavia, to restore the city to her son-in-law, Francesco Sforza who had inherited it upon the death of Filippo. Francesco subsequently took the title of Count of Pavia."}
+{"text":"Agnes del Maino in art and drama."}
+{"text":"There are two contemporary paintings of Agnese which survive to this day; the artists, however, remain unknown. Agnese is a character in the 1833 tragic opera \"Beatrice di Tenda\" by Sicilian composer Vincenzo Bellini. The role of Agnese was played by Anna del Serre when the opera was first performed at Teatro La Fenice in Venice on 16 March 1833."}
+{"text":"Fioretta Gorini (1453\/60 \u2013 possibly 1478) was the mistress of Giuliano de' Medici and the mother of Giulio de' Medici, the future Pope Clement VII. Gorini was the daughter of a professor, Antonio Gorini. Her actual name was Antonia or Antonietta, while Fioretta was a nickname given to her."}
+{"text":"On May 26, 1478, a month after the assassination of Giuliano in the Pazzi conspiracy, Fioretta gave birth to his illegitimate son, Giulio. Not much of Gorini's life after her son's birth is known, and some records have her dying that same year. Giulio spent the first seven years of life with his godfather, architect Antonio da Sangallo the Elder."}
+{"text":"The female figure of Fioretta is represented in \"Ritratto di giovane donna\" (1475), of Sandro Botticelli, which is preserved in Palazzo Pitti, although it will represent Simonetta Vespucci, Clarice Orsini, Alfonsina Orsini or Lucrezia Tornabuoni. The woman sculpted on \"Dama col mazzolino\" (1475), of Andrea del Verrocchio, which is preserved in Museo Nazionale del Bargello, could be Fioretta Gorini. There has also been speculation that Gorini was the inspiration behind the \"Mona Lisa\"."}
+{"text":"Claudia Colla (died 1611), was an alleged Italian witch and the royal mistress of the sovereign Ranuccio I Farnese, Duke of Parma."}
+{"text":"Colla belonged to the Parmesan merchant class. In 1599, her royal lover Farnese married Margherita Aldobrandini. After a decade of childless marriage, Farnese accused Claudia Colla and her mother Elena for having caused the lack of offspring by the use of sorcery. The accusation of sorcery was unusual for someone of her class. She was judged guilty and sentenced to be executed by burning."}
+{"text":"Laura Dianti (Early sixteenth century in Ferrara \u2013 25 June 1573 in Ferrara, Italy) was a lover of Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara after the death of his wife Lucrezia Borgia. She was probably also his third wife. She was also known under the pseudonym Eustochia."}
+{"text":"Beatrice of Savoy (c. 1198 \u2013 c. 1267) was the daughter of Thomas I of Savoy and Margaret of Geneva. She was Countess consort of Provence by her marriage to Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence."}
+{"text":"Her paternal grandparents were Humbert III, Count of Savoy, and Beatrice of Viennois. Her maternal grandparents were William I, Count of Geneva and Beatrice de Faucigny. Beatrice of Savoy's mother, Margaret, was betrothed to Philip II of France. While Margaret was travelling to France for her wedding, she was captured by Beatrice's father, Thomas. He took her back to Savoy and married her himself. Thomas' excuse was that Philip II was already married, which was true."}
+{"text":"Beatrice was the tenth of fourteen children born to her parents. Her siblings included: Amadeus IV, Count of Savoy; Thomas II of Piedmont; Peter II, Count of Savoy; Philip I, Count of Savoy; Boniface of Savoy, Archbishop of Canterbury; Avita the Countess of Devon; and Margherita of Savoy wife of Hartmann I of Kyburg."}
+{"text":"Beatrice was betrothed on 5 June 1219 to Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence; they married in December 1220. She was a shrewd and politically astute woman, whose beauty was likened to that of a second Niobe by Matthew Paris. Ramon and Beatrice of Savoy had four daughters, who all lived to adulthood, and married kings. Their only son, Raymond died in early infancy."}
+{"text":"In 1242, Beatrice's brother Peter was sent to Provence by Henry III to negotiate the marriage of Sanchia to Richard. Another brother, Philip, escorted Beatrice and Sanchia to the English court in Gascony, arriving in May 1243. There they joined Henry, Eleanor, and their infant daughter, Beatrice of England. Henry was very happy at this occasion and gave many gifts to the various relatives."}
+{"text":"In November 1243, Beatrice and Sanchia travelled to England for the wedding. This wedding did much to strengthen the bond between Richard and Henry III. She further strengthened the unity of the English royal family by convincing Henry III to help pay the debts of his sister Eleanor and her husband Simon de Montfort, who had often been at odds with Henry. In January 1244, Beatrice negotiated a loan for her husband from Henry of four thousand marks, offering the king five Proven\u00e7al castles as collateral."}
+{"text":"Henry protested the selection, arguing that he had not yet received the full dowry for Eleanor nor his brother for Sanchia. He also still had the castles in Provence against the loan he had made to the former count."}
+{"text":"When Charles took over the administration of Provence in 1246, he did not respect Beatrice's rights within the county. She sought the aid of Barral of Baux and the Pope in protecting her rights within the area. The citizens of Marseille, Avignon, and Arles joined this resistance to Capetian control. In 1248, Charles began to seek peace with her so that he could join his brother's crusade. A temporary truce was reached to allow this."}
+{"text":"In 1248, she travelled back to England with her brother Thomas, to see their family there."}
+{"text":"In 1254, as Louis was returning from his crusade by way of Provence, Beatrice petitioned him for a more permanent resolution of the dispute with Charles. The French queen Margaret joined the petition, noting that Charles had not respected her dowry either. Beatrice travelled with them back to Paris. As the year progressed, Henry and his wife were invited to travel to Paris, and eventually all four daughters joined their mother there for Christmas."}
+{"text":"The generally good relationship among the four sisters did much to improve the relationship of the French and English kings. It brought about the Treaty of Paris in 1259, where differences were resolved. Beatrice and all her four daughters participated in the talks. While the family was still gathered, Louis IX finally persuaded Beatrice to surrender her claims and control in Provence in exchange for a sizeable pension to be paid to her. Charles also paid back the loan henry had made to the previous count, clearing his claims in the county."}
+{"text":"In 1262, Beatrice was part of the family discussion to try again to bring peace between Henry and Simon de Montfort. When Henry was captured in 1264, Beatrice's brother Peter II, Count of Savoy took his army to join the efforts to free the king. He left Beatrice in charge of Savoy while he was gone."}
+{"text":"Beatrice outlived her third daughter Sanchia and came close to outliving her youngest daughter Beatrice, who died months after her mother (Beatrice the elder died in January, Beatrice the younger died in September). Beatrice of Savoy died on 1265 or 1266\u20131267."}
+{"text":"Louis II (1283\u00d794 \u2013 1348\u00d749), son of Louis I of Vaud of the House of Savoy, was the Baron of Vaud from 1302 until his death. A military man, he fought widely in Italy and, during the first phase of the Hundred Years' War, in France. As a diplomat he visited England and the papal court in Rome and Avignon, and he served as regent of the County of Savoy between 1343 and his death, during which period he was the leader of the House of Savoy."}
+{"text":"Louis married Isabelle, daughter of John I, lord of Arlay, of the House of Chalon. With her he had at least one son and one daughter:"}
+{"text":"In 1308 Louis was one of those representing the Savoyards at the coronation of Edward II of England in Westminster Abbey. In 1310 he joined the expedition of Henry VII into Italy to be crowned Emperor, and was himself made a Senator of Rome. He continued to serve Henry's cause in Italy until 1313. His grandiloquent title at this time was \"Louis of Savoy, a magnificent man, by the grace of God a most illustrious senator of the city of Rome\"."}
+{"text":"After 1337 Louis was frequently in France serving Philip VI with his troops during the war with the England, the Edwardian War. In 1339 Louis's only son was killed at the Battle of Laupen, and his son-in-law Azzo also died, leaving his daughter Catherine as a widow and a potential heiress. Louis's requested and received from Count Aymon permission to name her his heir in the barony, an exceptional privilege given the customs of Savoy."}
+{"text":"Question of the Dauphin\u00e9 and the Piedmont."}
+{"text":"In 1343 Louis was tasked with presenting Savoyard fears about the agreed upon sale of the Dauphin\u00e9 to Philip, Duke of Orl\u00e9ans, a younger son of the French king, to the chancellor of France. Nothing seems to have come of Louis's diplomacy, but he and fellow regent Amadeus III had been reconciled to the plan by January 1344, when they agreed to a marriage between their youthful charge and Joan, a daughter of Peter I, Duke of Bourbon, and thus a grand-niece of the French king."}
+{"text":"\"After sixty years of active and adventurous life\", Louis died late in 1348 or early the next year, certainly before 29 January 1349, possibly of the Black Death then sweeping Europe. He was succeeded by his daughter Catherine, who, twice widowed, ruled for two years jointly with her mother. The two were known as \"les Dames de Vaud\", the ladies of Vaud."}
+{"text":"Matilda of Savoy (, ; \u2013 3 December 1157\/58) was Queen of Portugal, after her marriage to King Afonso Henriques, the first sovereign of Portugal, whom she married in 1146."}
+{"text":"She was the second or third daughter of Amadeus III, Count of Savoy and Maurienne, and Mahaut of Albon (the sister of Guigues IV of Albon, \"le Dauphin\"). One of her aunts, Adelaide of Maurienne, was queen consort as the wife of King Louis VI of France, and one of her great-granduncles was Pope Callixtus II whose papacy lasted from 1119 until 1124, the year of his death."}
+{"text":"Her father had participated in the Second Crusade and this could have been one of the reasons why she was chosen as the consort of Portugal's first monarch. Such an alliance would contribute to expelling the Moors from Portuguese territory and would also show the new King's independence by selecting a wife outside the sphere of influence of the Kingdom of Le\u00f3n. It is also possible that he was not able to select one of the infantas from the neighboring Iberian kingdoms due to reasons of consanguinity. The wedding could have also been suggested by Guido de Vico, the papal representative in the Iberian Peninsula who had been one of the witnesses of the Treaty of Zamora in 1143."}
+{"text":"Mafalda first appears with her husband on 23 May 1146 confirming a donation that had been made previously by her mother-in-law, Teresa of Le\u00f3n, to the Order of Cluny. She was very devoted to the Cistercian Order and founded the Monasterio of Costa in Guimar\u00e3es and a hospital\/hostel for pilgrims, the poor and the sick in Canaveses. She stipulated in her will that this hospital was to be kept always clean, that it should be furnished with good and clean beds and that, if any of those lodged at the institution should die there, three masses were to be celebrated for the salvation of their souls."}
+{"text":"Walter Map, in his work, \"De nugis curialium\", tells a story that \"the King of Portugal now living\", almost certainly Afonso, had been convinced by evil counselors to murder his pregnant wife out of misplaced jealousy. However, there is no other authority for this account, and it is not generally accepted."}
+{"text":"Queen Mafalda died in Coimbra on 3 December 1157 or 1158 and was buried at the Monastery of Santa Cruz where her husband, who survived her by more than twenty-seven years, was later interred. She was survived by six of her seven children, only three of whom, infantes Sancho, Urraca and Theresa, would reach adulthood."}
+{"text":"Although the \"Annales D. Alfonsi Portugallensium Regis\", record that the wedding of Alfonso and Mafalda was celebrated in 1145, it was not until a year later, in May 1146, when they both appear in royal charters. Historian Jos\u00e9 Mattoso refers to another source, \"Noticia sobre a Conquista de Santar\u00e9m\" (News on the Conquest of Santar\u00e9m), which states that the city was taken on 15 May 1147, less than a year after their marriage. Since at that time no wedding ceremony could be performed during Lent, Mattoso suggests that the marriage could have taken place in March or April of 1146, possibly on Easter Sunday which fell on 31 March of that year. The groom was almost thirty-eight years old and the bride was about twenty-one years old."}
+{"text":"Beatrice of Savoy (1250\u20131292) was the daughter of Amadeus IV the Count of Savoy and his second wife, Cecile of Baux. She was a member of the House of Savoy by birth, by her second marriage she became known as Lady of Villena."}
+{"text":"Beatrice was a full sister to Boniface, Count of Savoy, as well as two sisters Eleanor and Constance. She had two older half-sisters from her father's first marriage, an elder Beatrice and Margaret."}
+{"text":"Upon the death of her father in 1253, Beatrice received an amount of money as an inheritance. Upon the death of her ten-year-old brother Count Boniface, he was succeeded by their uncle as Peter II, Count of Savoy. Upon Peter's death, Beatrice had to renounce her claim on Savoy along with the consent of her mother in favor of the succession of her other uncle as Philip I, Count of Savoy, in the article (dated 21 October 1268) she is referred to as Contesson possibly to distinguish her from her older half-sister of the same name. A charter dated 11 August 1266 by Pope Clement IV presumably tells of Count Philip donating property to his niece \"B\" most likely referring to Beatrice."}
+{"text":"Beatrice was firstly betrothed to James, second son of James I of Aragon however, the contract was broken on 11 August 1266. Ten years after the betrothal was broken, James became King of Majorca."}
+{"text":"Beatrice firstly married on 21 October 1268 to Peter of Chalon, Seigneur de Ch\u00e2telbelin, son of Jean l'Antique. Peter granted property to his wife in 1269. The couple were married for no more than six years when Peter died, they had no children."}
+{"text":"A second marriage took place in 1274 to Manuel of Castile; this was a second marriage for both parties, Manuel's first wife Constance (sister to Beatrice's one-time fiancee James) had died leaving him with two children. Manuel and Beatrice had one son Juan Manuel who was born in Escalona on May 5, 1282. Manuel died a year after the birth of their son therefore he was succeeded by their son as Manuel's other son by Constance had died young. Beatrice cared for her son until her own death nine years later, after which time Juan Manuel was left in the care of his uncle, Sancho IV of Castile."}
+{"text":"The Kingdom of Sicily was ruled by the House of Savoy from 1713 until 1720, although they lost control of it in 1718 and did not relinquish their title to it until 1723. The only king of Sicily from the House of Savoy was Victor Amadeus II. Throughout this period Sicily remained a distinct realm in personal union with the other Savoyard states, but ultimately it secured for the House of Savoy a royal title and a future of expansion in Italy rather than in France. During this period, the Savoyard monarch used his new title to affirm his sovereign independence."}
+{"text":"Victor Amadeus's policy towards Sicily was to bring it more in line with his mainland possessions, but to this end he progressed little in the short span of time he had. His own domain was weakened by the addition of Sicily, becoming more fragmented and extended (geographically), and more composite (legally and socially). He was finally forced to renounce Sicily in exchange for Sardinia."}
+{"text":"Acquisition of Sicily by the House of Savoy."}
+{"text":"At Victor Amadeus' leaving, many problems with the government of Sicily remained. The Palermitan bureaucracy, and the aristocracy of which its officials formed a part, had been alienated by the crackdown on corruption. The populace remained pro-Spanish and Spanish propaganda was being disseminated from enclaves like Modica. The viceroy Maffei was left with little power to effect reform, but with 10,000 Piedmontese troops stationed on the island by 1718 he had the resources to suppress the endemic brigandage."}
+{"text":"In 1717 Victor Amadeus placed the Direttore delle Finanze, the finance minister of Sicily, under the authority of the Generale delle Finanze, the finance minister of his mainland dominions at Turin, and ordered him to adopt Piedmontese accounting practices. This alarmed the baronage, which comprised only about seventy to eighty families. These families controlled both the parliament and the cities, and owned vast tracts of land farmed by a destitute peasantry. The Sicilian system was latifundist and feudal. The Savoyard reforms had barely begun when the island was lost in 1718."}
+{"text":"The kings of Sicily had since Norman times possessed the status of an apostolic legate in their kingdom. This special prerogative in ecclesiastical matters was exercised through the Tribunal of the Monarchy. When Victor Amadeus became king, Pope Clement XI, who regarded Sicily as a Papal fief, refused to recognise him. At the same time, the Tribunal was in the midst of a dispute with the Bishop of Lipari, ongoing since 1711, which had in turn led to Papal interference:"}
+{"text":"In 1711 the bishop had excommunicated some customs officials for levying duty on a couple of pounds of chickpeas belonging to his household. The Tribunal nullified the excommunication, whereupon the bishop imposed an interdict on his diocese and left to seek help at Rome. The Papal curia issued a declaration denying the Tribunal's power to lift ecclesiastical sanctions, which was published early in 1712 by several Sicilian bishops. Counter-measures duly followed from the Spanish viceroy and the Tribunal, so that by the time Victor Amadeus reached Sicily the archbishop of Messina and the bishops of Agrigento and Catania had followed their colleague into exile, the last two leaving their sees under interdict."}
+{"text":"Loss of Sicily to Spain and Austria."}
+{"text":"In July 1717 the Spanish attacked Sardinia, while Austria was embroiled in a war with the Ottomans. By November the entire island has been subdued. In December Victor Amadeus sent another embassy to Vienna, but the Spanish minister Giulio Alberoni urged him to invade the long-coveted Duchy of Milan, promising Spanish assistance. It was a ruse to distract the Savoyards from the planned Spanish invasion of Sicily."}
+{"text":"In September 1726 a British envoy, John Hedges, arrived in Turin to suggest, among other things, that Victor Amadeus be returned Sicily. Victor Amadeus was still asking for compensation for the loss of Sicily as late as November 1729."}
+{"text":"Bertha of Savoy (21 September 1051 \u2013 27 December 1087), also called Bertha of Turin, a member of the Burgundian House of Savoy, was Queen consort of Germany from 1066 and Holy Roman Empress from 1084 until 1087 as the first wife of the Salian emperor Henry\u00a0IV."}
+{"text":"Bertha of Savoy was a daughter of Count Otto I of Savoy (also called \"Eudes\" or \"Odo\"; c.\u20091023 \u2013 c.\u20091057\/1060) and his wife Adelaide of Susa (c.\u20091014\/1020 \u2013 1091) from the Arduinici noble family. She thereby was the sister of Count Peter I of Savoy (d. 1078), Count Amadeus II of Savoy (d. 1080), and Adelaide (d. 1079), consort of the German anti-king Rudolf of Rheinfelden."}
+{"text":"Still during the lifetime of Emperor Henry\u00a0III, Bertha at the age of four was betrothed to Henry III's son, Henry IV (aged five) on 25 December 1055 in Z\u00fcrich. Bertha was raised in Germany thereafter. When she was fifteen, Bertha was crowned queen in W\u00fcrzburg in June 1066 and married Henry on 13 July 1066 at the \"K\u00f6nigspfalz\" of Trebur."}
+{"text":"Although they had grown up together and Bertha was apparently a pretty young woman, the Saxon chronicler Bruno of Merseburg, an avowed opponent of Henry\u00a0IV, reported on Henry's continual unfaithfulness: \"He had two or three concubines at the same time, in addition [to his wife], yet he was not content. If he heard that someone had a young and pretty daughter or wife, he instructed that she be supplied to him by force. (...) His beautiful and noble wife Bertha (...) was in such a manner hated by him that he never saw her after the wedding any more than necessary, since he had not celebrated the wedding out of free will.\""}
+{"text":"During the fierce Investiture Controversy, Bertha's husband was excommunicated by Pope Gregory VII at the Lenten synod in Rome in 1076. In October, the German princes took the occasion and swore an oath at Trebur that they would no longer recognise Henry as king unless this excommunication was lifted. Henry thus had to cross the Alps and travel to Italy in order to meet with Gregory during the winter of 1076\/77."}
+{"text":"Bertha and their young son, Conrad, accompanied Henry on his dangerous journey. While the South German princes supporting his rival Rudolf of Rheinfelden blocked his path, Henry hoped to travel through one of the Alpine passes controlled by his mother-in-law, but Adelaide extracted a high price before allowing him to do this. Adelaide then accompanied Henry and Bertha on the long and dangerous Walk to Canossa, where from 25 January 1077, Henry and Bertha underwent penance barefoot for three days outside in the cold and begged Gregory VII's forgiveness. Adelaide was among those who acted as an oath-helper to secure Henry's absolution from excommunication."}
+{"text":"After the forces of Henry IV had besieged and occupied Rome, he and Bertha were crowned emperor and empress on 31 March 1084 by Antipope Clement III."}
+{"text":"Bertha was thirty-six years old when she died in Mainz on 27 December 1087. She was buried in the Salian crypt at Speyer Cathedral. In 1089 Emperor Henry married Eupraxia of Kiev but the marriage failed in 1095."}
+{"text":"From her marriage with Henry, Bertha eventually had five children, two of whom died while still young:"}
+{"text":"Infanta Beatrice of Portugal ( ; 31 December 1504 \u2013 8 January 1538) was a Portuguese princess by birth and duchess of Savoy by marriage to Charles III, Duke of Savoy. She was the ruling countess of Asti from 1531 to 1538."}
+{"text":"She was the second daughter of Manuel I of Portugal (1469\u20131521) and his second wife, Maria of Aragon (1482\u20131517). Her siblings included King John III of Portugal and Holy Roman Empress Isabella. She was educated under the supervision of her governess Elvira de Mendoza."}
+{"text":"In Villefranche-sur-Mer on 8 April 1521, Beatrice married Duke Charles III of Savoy. He had succeeded as the duke of Savoy in 1504, making Beatrice duchess at the moment of her wedding."}
+{"text":"Beatrice is described as beautiful, brilliant, and ambitious. In 1531, she received as a fiefdom, from her cousin and brother-in-law, Emperor Charles V, the County of Asti which, on her death, was inherited by her son and permanently included on the Savoy's heritage."}
+{"text":"Beatrice and Charles III had nine children:"}
+{"text":"After the death of the childless Sebastian of Portugal (her grand-nephew), her son fought for his rights to become King of Portugal, however he failed and the throne was given to Isabella's son Philip."}
+{"text":"Claudine de Brosse (1450\u20131513), was a Duchess Consort of Savoy; married in 1485 to Philip II, Duke of Savoy."}
+{"text":"She was a daughter of Jean II de Brosse and Nicole de Ch\u00e2tillon."}
+{"text":"Catalina Micaela of Spain (; 10 October 1567 \u2013 6 November 1597) was a duchess of Savoy who ruled the duchy as regent several times during the absence of her husband, Charles Emmanuel I. She was the younger surviving daughter of Philip II of Spain and Elisabeth of Valois."}
+{"text":"Duke Charles Emmanuel I of Savoy suggested that he should marry Catalina Micaela as a way of gaining Spanish support for his plans to expand Savoy on the coast of the then weakened France. The wedding took place in Zaragoza on 11 March 1585 and the couple made their entrance to Turin in Savoy 10 August 1585."}
+{"text":"Catalina Micaela died near the end of 1597; she had miscarried earlier that year. Her father died the following year."}
+{"text":"In 1584, she married Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy. This marriage produced ten children:"}
+{"text":"National Institute for the Honour Guard of the Royal Tombs of the Pantheon"}
+{"text":"The National Institute for the Honour Guard of the Royal Tombs of the Pantheon (Italian: \"Istituto nazionale per la guardia d'onore alle reali tombe del Pantheon\") is an Italian paramilitary company, originally chartered by the House of Savoy and subsequently operating with authorization of the Italian Republic, which mounts guards of honor at the royal tombs of the Roman pantheon."}
+{"text":"The organization was founded in 1878. As of 2014 it had about 4,000 personnel, of whom between 15 and 20 percent were women. Members, uniformed in black berets and cloaks bearing the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Italy, volunteer to assume shifts guarding the tombs of the Savoy dynasty."}
+{"text":"Enlistment in the Honour Guard is open to Italian citizens who \"share the aims of the Institute\" and pay an initiation fee of \u20ac100, however, a majority of the total membership must be veterans of the Italian Armed Forces."}
+{"text":"Beatrice of Savoy ( 1237 \u2013 21 April 1310) ruled as Lady of Faucigny, having succeeded her mother, Agnes of Faucigny. She was the only legitimate child of Peter II, Count of Savoy, but did not inherit the county, which passed instead to her uncle. Beatrice was also Dauphine of Viennois and Viscountess of B\u00e9arn by her two marriages."}
+{"text":"In 1253 Beatrice was married to Guigues VII of Viennois, they had been betrothed to each other since 1241, the marriage being the work of Beatrice's maternal grandfather Aymon II, Seigneur de Faucigny."}
+{"text":"In 1269, Guigues died and due to the minority of their son John, Beatrice was appointed his regent. Her son was married to Bonne, daughter of Amadeus V, Count of Savoy, who was a cousin of Beatrice. However, her son died after a fall from a horse aged around eighteen. He was eventually succeeded by Beatrice's older daughter Anne and her husband Humbert, with future dauphins descending from their marriage. Following the death of her son, Beatrice left for Taninges with his remains, laying them to rest there and praying for his soul in the monastery she founded, M\u00e9lan."}
+{"text":"Beatrice was married for a second time on April 2, 1273 to Gaston VII, Viscount of B\u00e9arn. Her second marriage is confirmed by the agreement dated 15 December 1284 under which Gaston makes an agreement with Anne and Humbert over his claim on the County of Vienne. Beatrice arranged a marriage for stepdaughter Constance of B\u00e9arn to Aymon II of Geneva, a relative through her grandmother. Gaston had dealt with domestic problems amongst his daughters from his first marriage and which would succeed him upon death, his sons-in-law Roger-Bernard III, Count of Foix and Gerald VI, Count of Armagnac had battled for power. The marriage between Beatrice and Gaston did not produce any children. After seventeen years of marriage, Gaston died and was succeeded by his son-in-law, Roger-Bernard."}
+{"text":"Beatrice did not remarry after the death of her second husband but did have more political involvement with her family back in Savoy. In 1294, she transferred her lands between Seyssel and Freiburg to her cousin Count Amadeus V. In 1296, she gave up her title as \"Dame of Faucigny\" to her son-in-law Humbert, for the benefit of one of his sons, reserving the usufruct for herself. Beatrice continued to be a powerful force in Savoy, causing torment for her cousin Amadeus especially, when she attempted to claim Savoy for her grandson Hugh. However, the claim proved unsuccessful and Amadeus remained count for the rest of his lifetime."}
+{"text":"Beatrice died on 21 April 1310 and was buried at her monastery in Melun beside her son. Her various alliances with relatives and clerics in Geneva and the sharing out of her inheritance during and after her life, led to conflicts amongst her descendants for generations. The disputes between the House of Savoy and Dauphin de Viennois over the territory which the House of Savoy won back from the French in the Treaty of Paris (1355)."}
+{"text":"The House of Savoy () is a royal dynasty that was established in 1003 in the historical Savoy region. Through gradual expansion, the family grew in power from ruling a small Alpine county north-west of Italy to absolute rule of the Kingdom of Sicily in 1713 to 1720, when they were handed the island of Sardinia, over which they would exercise direct rule from then onward."}
+{"text":"Through its junior branch of Savoy-Carignano, the House of Savoy led the unification of Italy in 1861 and ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1861 until 1946; they also briefly ruled the Kingdom of Spain in the 19th century. The Savoyard kings of Italy were Victor Emmanuel II, Umberto I, Victor Emmanuel III, and Umberto II. The last monarch ruled for a few weeks before being deposed following the Constitutional Referendum of 1946, after which the Italian Republic was proclaimed."}
+{"text":"The name derives from the historical region of Savoy in the Alpine region between what is now France and Italy. Over time, the House of Savoy expanded its territory and influence through judicious marriages and international diplomacy. From rule of a small region on the French\/Italian border, the dynasty's realm grew to include nearly all of the Italian Peninsula by the time of its deposition."}
+{"text":"The house descended from Humbert I, Count of Sabaudia (Umberto I \"Biancamano\"), (1003\u20131047 or 1048). Humbert's family is thought to have originated near Magdeburg in Saxony, with the earliest recording of the family being two 10th century brothers, Amadeus and Humbert. Though Sabaudia was originally a poor county, later counts were diplomatically skilled, and gained control over strategic mountain passes in the Alps. Two of Humbert's sons were commendatory abbots at the Abbey of St. Maurice, Agaunum, on the River Rhone east of Lake Geneva, and Saint Maurice is still the patron of the House of Savoy."}
+{"text":"Humbert's son, Otto of Savoy succeeded to the title in 1051 after the death of his elder brother Amadeus I of Savoy and married the Marchioness Adelaide of Turin, passing the Marquessate of Susa, with the towns of Turin and Pinerolo, into the House of Savoy's possession. This diplomatic skill caused the great powers such as France, England, and Spain to take the counts' opinions into account."}
+{"text":"They once had claims on the modern canton of Vaud, where they occupied the Ch\u00e2teau of Chillon in Switzerland, but their access to it was cut by Geneva during the Protestant Reformation, after which it was conquered by Bern. Piedmont was later joined with Sabaudia, and the name evolved into \"Savoy\" (). The people of Savoy were descended from the Celts and Romans."}
+{"text":"By the time Amadeus VIII came to power in the late 14th century, the House of Savoy had gone through a series of gradual territorial expansions and he was elevated by the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund to the Duke of Savoy in 1416."}
+{"text":"In 1494, Charles VIII of France passed through Savoy on his way to Italy and Naples, which initiated the Italian War of 1494\u201398. During the outbreak of the Italian war of 1521-1526, Emperor Charles V stationed imperial troops in Savoy. In 1536, Francis I of France invaded Savoy and Piedmont, taking Turin by April of that year. Charles III, Duke of Savoy, fled to Vercelli."}
+{"text":"When Emmanuel Philibert came to power in 1553 most of his family's territories were in French hands, so he offered to serve France's leading enemy the House of Habsburg, in the hope of recovering his lands. He served Philip II as Governor of the Netherlands from 1555 to 1559. In this capacity he led the Spanish invasion of northern France and won a victory at St. Quentin in 1557. He took advantage of various squabbles in Europe to slowly regain territory from both the French and the Spanish, including the city of Turin. He moved the capital of the duchy from Chamb\u00e9ry to Turin."}
+{"text":"The 17th century brought about economic development to the Turin area and the House of Savoy took part in and benefitted from that. Charles Emmanuel II developed the port of Nice and built a road through the Alps towards France. And through skillful political manoeuvres territorial expansion continued. In early 18th century in the War of the Spanish Succession Victor Amadeus switched sides to assist the Habsburgs and via the Treaty of Utrecht they rewarded him with large pieces of land in northeastern Italy, and a Crown in Sicily. Savoy rule over Sicily lasted only seven years (1713\u201320)."}
+{"text":"The crown of Sicily, the prestige of being kings at last, and the wealth of Palermo helped strengthen the House of Savoy further. In 1720 they were forced to exchange Sicily for Sardinia as a result of the War of the Quadruple Alliance. On the mainland, the dynasty continued its expansionist policies as well. Through advantageous alliances during the War of the Polish Succession and War of the Austrian Succession, Charles Emmanuel III gained new lands at the expense of the Austrian-controlled Duchy of Milan."}
+{"text":"In 1792 Piedmont-Sardinia joined the First Coalition against the French First Republic. It was beaten in 1796 by Napoleon and forced to conclude the disadvantageous Treaty of Paris (1796), giving the French army free passage through Piedmont. In 1798, Joubert occupied Turin and forced Charles Emmanuel IV to abdicate and leave for the island of Sardinia. Eventually, in 1814 the kingdom was restored and enlarged with the addition of the former Republic of Genoa by the Congress of Vienna."}
+{"text":"In the meantime, nationalist figures such as Giuseppe Mazzini were influencing popular opinion. Mazzini believed that Italian unification could only be achieved through a popular uprising, but after the failure of the 1848 revolutions, the Italian nationalists began to look to the Kingdom of Sardinia and its prime minister Count Cavour as leaders of the unification movement. In 1848, Charles Albert conceded a constitution known as the \"Statuto Albertino\" to Piedmont-Sardinia, which remained the basis of the Kingdom's legal system even after Italian unification was achieved and the Kingdom of Sardinia became the Kingdom of Italy in 1861."}
+{"text":"The Kingdom of Italy was the first Italian state to include the Italian Peninsula since the fall of the Roman Empire. But when Victor Emmanuel was crowned King of Italy in 1861, his realm did not include the Venetia region (subject to Habsburg governance), Lazio (with Rome), Umbria, Marche and Romagna (with the Papal town of Bologna). Yet the House of Savoy continued to rule Italy for several decades, through the Italian Independence wars as Italian unification proceeded and even as the First World War raged on in the early 20th century."}
+{"text":"In April 1655, based on (perhaps false) reports of resistance by the Waldensians, a Protestant religious minority, to a plan to resettle them in remote mountain valleys, Charles Emmanuel II ordered their general massacre. The massacre was so brutal it aroused indignation throughout Europe. Oliver Cromwell, then ruler in England, began petitioning on behalf of the Waldensians, writing letters, raising contributions, calling a general fast in England and threatening to send military forces to the rescue. The massacre prompted John Milton's famous sonnet, \"On the Late Massacre in Piedmont\"."}
+{"text":"In 1898, the Bava Beccaris massacre in Milan involved the use of cannons against unarmed protesters (including women and old people) during riots over the rising price of bread. King Umberto I of the House of Savoy congratulated General Fiorenzo Bava Beccaris for the massacre and decorated him with the medal of Great Official of Savoy Military Order, greatly outraging a large part of the public opinion. As a result, Umberto I was assassinated in July 1900 in Monza by Gaetano Bresci, the brother of one of the women massacred in the crowd, who had traveled back to Italy from the United States for the assassination. The king had previously been the target of failed assassination attempts by anarchists Giovanni Passannante and Pietro Acciarito."}
+{"text":"When the First World War ended, the Treaty of Versailles fell short of what had been promised in the London Pact to Italy. As the economic conditions in Italy worsened after the war, popular resentment and along with it the seeds of Italian fascism began to grow and resulted in the March on Rome by Benito Mussolini."}
+{"text":"General Pietro Badoglio advised King Victor Emmanuel III that he could easily sweep Mussolini and his rag-tag Blackshirt army to one side, but Victor Emmanuel decided to tolerate Mussolini and appointed him as prime minister on 28 October 1922. The king remained silent as Mussolini engaged in one abuse of power after another from 1924 onward, and did not intervene in 1925-26 when Mussolini dropped all pretense of democracy. By the end of 1928, the king's right to remove Mussolini from office was, at least theoretically, the only check on his power. Later, the King's failure, in the face of mounting evidence, to move against the Mussolini regime's abuses of power led to much criticism and had dire future consequences for Italy and for the monarchy itself."}
+{"text":"On 12 June 1946, the Kingdom of Italy formally came to an end as Umberto transferred his powers to Prime Minister Alcide de Gasperi and called for the Italian people to support the new republic. He then went into exile in Portugal, never to return; he died in 1983."}
+{"text":"Under the Constitution of the Italian Republic, the republican form of government cannot be changed by constitutional amendment, thus forbidding any attempt to restore the monarchy short of adoption of an entirely new constitution. The constitution also forbade male descendants of the House of Savoy from entering Italy. This provision was removed in 2002 but as part of the deal to be allowed back into Italy, Vittorio Emanuele, the last claimant to the House of Savoy, renounced all claims to the throne."}
+{"text":"The Residences of the Royal House of Savoy in Turin and the neighbourhood are protected as a World Heritage Site. Although the titles and distinctions of the Italian royal family are not legally recognised by the Italian Republic, the remaining members of the House of Savoy, like dynasties of other abolished monarchies, still use some of the various titles they acquired over the millennium of their reign prior to the republic's establishment, including Duke of Savoy, \"Prince of Naples\" previously conferred by Joseph Bonaparte to be hereditary on his children and grandchildren, Prince of Piedmont and Duke of Aosta."}
+{"text":"Currently the leadership of the House of Savoy is contested by two cousins: Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples, who used to claim the title of King of Italy, and Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta, who still claims the title of Duke of Savoy. Their rivalry has not always been peaceful\u00a0\u2014 on 21 May 2004, following a dinner held by King Juan Carlos I of Spain on the eve of the wedding of his son Felipe, Prince of Asturias, Vittorio Emanuele punched Amedeo twice in the face."}
+{"text":"Some of the activities of members of the House of Savoy have evoked media coverage disappointing to Italian royalists. In November 1991, after thirteen years of legal proceedings, the Paris Assize Court acquitted Vittorio Emanuele of the fatal wounding and unintentional homicide in August 1978 of Dirk Hamer, finding him guilty only of unauthorised possession of a firearm during the incident. On 16 June 2006 Vittorio Emanuele was arrested in Varenna and imprisoned in Potenza on charges of corruption and recruitment of prostitutes for clients of the Casin\u00f2 di Campione of Campione d'Italia. After several days, Vittorio Emanuele was released and placed under house arrest instead. He was released from house arrest on 20 July but was required to remain within the territory of the Republic."}
+{"text":"When incarcerated in June 2006, Vittorio Emanuele was recorded admitting with regard to the killing of Dirk Hamer that \"I was in the wrong, [...] but I must say I fooled them [the French judges]\", leading to a call from Hamer's sister Birgit for Vittorio Emanuele to be retried in Italy for the killing. After a long legal fight, Birgit Hamer obtained the full video. The story was broken in the press by aristocratic journalist Beatrice Borromeo, who also wrote the preface for a book on the murder \"Delitto senza castigo\" by Birgit Hamer. Vittorio Emanuele sued the newspaper for defamation, claiming the video had been manipulated. In 2015, a court judgement ruled in favor of the newspaper."}
+{"text":"Judicially separated since 1976, civilly divorced in 1982 and their marriage religiously annulled in 1987, Amedeo of Aosta's first wife, Princess Claude d'Orl\u00e9ans, revealed that she was aware that her husband fathered a child by another woman during their marriage. Aosta acknowledged paternity of another child, born out-of-wedlock in 2006 during his second marriage, but agreed to contribute financially to the child's care only after being directed to do so by court order."}
+{"text":"The patrilineal lineage of the House of Savoy was reduced to four males between 1996 and 2009. In 2008 Aimone of Savoy-Aosta married Princess Olga of Greece, his second cousin, and they became the parents of sons Umberto and Amedeo born, respectively, in 2009 and 2011."}
+{"text":"In 2019, Vittorio Emanuele issued a formal decree that modified the medieval law restricting succession to male heirs to place his granddaughter, Vittoria Cristina Chiara Adelaide Marie, in the line of succession. Prince Aimone declared the change illegitimate."}
+{"text":"The House of Savoy has held two dynastic orders since 1362 which were brought into the Kingdom of Italy as national orders. Although the Kingdom ceased to exist in 1946, King Umberto II did not abdicate his role as \"fons honorum\" over the two dynastic orders over which the family has long held sovereignty and grand mastership. Today, following the dispute, both Prince Vittorio Emanuele and Prince Amedeo claim to be hereditary Sovereign and Grand Master of the following orders of the House of Savoy:"}
+{"text":"In addition to these, Vittorio Emanuele claims sovereignty over two more orders:"}
+{"text":"Recently, all three of Vittorio Emanuele's sisters (Princess Maria Pia, Princess Maria Gabriella, and Princess Maria Beatrice) resigned from the Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation and the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, alleging that memberships in the orders had been sold to unworthy candidates, a newfound practice they could not abide."}
+{"text":"In 1941, in the fascist puppet state Independent State of Croatia, Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta, grandson of Amadeo I of Spain, was formally named as the king under the name \"Tomislav II\", but was never crowned, never ruled, and formally abdicated in 1943."}
+{"text":"In 1396, the title and privileges of the final king of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, Levon V, were transferred to James I, his cousin and king of Cyprus. The title of King of Armenia was thus united with the titles of King of Cyprus and King of Jerusalem. The title was held to the modern day by the House of Savoy."}
+{"text":"\"VITTORIO AMEDEO III, per la grazia di Dio Re di Sardegna, Cipro, Gerusalemme e Armenia; Duca di Savoia, Monferrato, Chablais, Aosta e Genevese; Principe di Piemonte ed Oneglia; Marchese in Italia, di Saluzzo, Susa, Ivrea, Ceva, Maro, Oristano, Sezana; Conte di Moriana, Nizza, Tenda, Asti, Alessandria, Goceano; Barone di Vaud e di Faucigny; Signore di Vercelli, Pinerolo, Tarantasia, Lumellino, Val di Sesia; Principe e Vicario perpetuo del Sacro Romano Impero in Italia.\""}
+{"text":"The English translation is: Victor Amadeus III, by the Grace of God, King of Sardinia, Cyprus, Jerusalem, Armenia, Duke of Savoy, Montferrat, Chablais, Aosta and Genevois, Prince of Piedmont and Oneglia, Marquis (of the Holy Roman Empire) in Italy, of Saluzzo, Susa, Ivrea, Ceva, Maro, Oristano, Sezana, Count of Maurienne, Nice, Tende, Asti, Alessandria, Goceano, Baron of Vaud and Faucigny, Lord of Vercelli, Pinerolo, Tarentaise, Lumellino, Val di Sesia, Prince and perpetual Vicar of the Holy Roman Empire in Italy."}
+{"text":"These titles were used during the unified Kingdom of Italy which lasted from 1860\u20131946."}
+{"text":"The land reforms done in the Duchy of Savoy, beginning at 1720, was the first land reform that emancipated peasants in France from the bondages of Feudalism."}
+{"text":"During the Middle Ages, most lands in Savoy, as in most of Europe, were owned by Feudal lords. Peasants were bound to their lords by heavy duties. The \"mainmorte\" system allowed a lord to inherit all the property of a peasant who died childless. This caused the estates of the lords to grow larger and larger. Both peasants and lords had little incentives to invest in agricultural or industrial improvements."}
+{"text":"In 1720, Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia, the duke of Savoy, had financial problems. To increase his income, he expropriated all estates held by lords who could not produce title to their lands. Subsequently, he began levying taxes on the nobility. These were the first steps in reducing the power of the feudal lords."}
+{"text":"His son Charles Emmanuel III continued his reforms, and in 1762 he abolished all \"mainmorte\" on the royal estates and personal mainmorte on private estates. In 1771 he also abolished real-estate mainmorte on private estates. In this year he also declared that all duties of peasants towards their lords could be redeemed on terms to be set by negotiation between peasant and seigneur. If no agreement was reached, the duke himself would set the terms. This provision gave leverage to the peasants."}
+{"text":"Negotiations were long and slow, but by 1792, when the French Revolution came to Savoy, all estates had been at least partially emancipated. At 1793, the Revolutionary Government of France declared full emancipation with no further redemption price."}
+{"text":"The Savoyan League (, ) was a regionalist and populist political party based in Savoy, France."}
+{"text":"Founded in 1995, the party supported the independence of Savoy from France and the unification of the two departments of Savoy, named Savoie and Haute-Savoie, which have belonged to France since the Treaty of Turin in 1860. Formerly a member of the European Free Alliance, the party was generally pro-European in outlook, while lying on the right of the political spectrum. The League co-operated with the Savoy Region Movement, which does not support independence but rather federalism and Savoyard autonomism."}
+{"text":"In the 1998 regional elections, the League won 5.39% in Savoy (4.42% in Savoie and 6.05% in Haute-Savoie) and therefore won a seat in the Rh\u00f4ne-Alpes Regional Council. It did not participate in the 2004 regional elections."}
+{"text":"At the party's 17th Congress on 21 October 2012, the Savoyan League suspended its activities."}
+{"text":"Samuel Guichenon (18 August 1607, M\u00e2con - 8 September 1664) was a French lawyer, historian and genealogist."}
+{"text":"He was one of three sons born to Gr\u00e9goire Guichenon and Claudine Chaussat, a Calvinist family originating in Ch\u00e2tillon-les-Dombes. His father was a surgeon at Bourg-en-Bresse and his mother was the daughter of a rich merchant from Bourg-en-Bresse, but they settled in M\u00e2con to be closer to the Protestant community at Pont-de-Veyle. He had an active adolescence \"with prodigious humour and a tender heart\" and studied law in Annonay before completing his doctorate in Lyon."}
+{"text":"He displeased the House of Savoy by disputing traditional chroniclers and disproving its hereditary rights to several lost territories such as Geneva and Cyprus. He clarified certain obscure points in its history and revealed some well-kept secrets, which led to many polemical disputes with other historians. Finally, under pressure, he recognized the House's traditional claim to Saxon origins and a dynastic link with the Holy Roman Emperor and endorsed the Duke of Savoy's policy of regional expansion towards Italy and of renouncing its claims to lands in western Europe which were too difficult to capture or hold onto due to French pressure."}
+{"text":"In 1658 Louis XIV of France ennobled Guichenon and made him official historian of France. His \"Histoire g\u00e9n\u00e9alogique de la Royale Maison de Savoie\" was published in Lyon in 1660 and presented to Christine of France - it marked the start of a new age in history-writing in which research was founded on the authenticity of sources and rational study. He was awarded the Cross of Saint Maurice. Never published, his last work was \"Le Soleil en son apog\u00e9e\", a panegyric of Christine, edited during the last months of his life. He is buried in the \u00e9glise des Jacobins at Bourg-en-Bresse. He was highly thought of until the end of the 18th century."}
+{"text":"The Medulli were a Gallic tribe dwelling in the upper valley of Maurienne, in the modern region of Savoie, during the Roman period."}
+{"text":"They are mentioned as \"Medullorum\" by Vitruvius (late 1st c. BC), \"M\u00e9d(o)ulloi\" (\u039c\u03ad\u03b4<\u03bf>\u03c5\u03bb\u03bb\u03bf\u03b9) by Strabo (early 1st c. AD), \"Medulli\" by Pliny (1st c. AD), and as \"Medo\u00fallous\" (\u039c\u03b5\u03b4\u03bf\u03cd\u03bb\u03bb\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2) by Ptolemy (2nd c. AD)."}
+{"text":"The Gaulish ethnonym \"Medulli\" is generally derived from the Celtic root \"medu\"-, meaning 'mead, alcoholic drink' (cf. Olr. \"mid\", MW. \"medd\", OBret. \"medot\"), and thus may be translated as 'those inebriated by mead'. This interpretation is encouraged by the mention, in Vitruvius' \"De architetura\", of a \"kind of water\" (\"genus aquae\") drunk by the Medulli. Alternatively, Javier de Hoz has proposed to glose the name as 'those who lived in the middle', or 'in the border woods', by connecting it to the root *\"medhi\/u\"- ('middle')."}
+{"text":"The Medulli dwelled in the upper Maurienne valley, along the upper course of the Arc river, near the modern town of Modane. Their territory was located east of the Graioceli (themselves east of the Vocontii), north of the Brigianii and Quariates, west of the Segusini, and south of the Ceutrones (themselves south of the Allobroges)."}
+{"text":"They belonged to the tribes governed by Cottius in Alpes Taurinae and were later integrated into the province of Alpes Cottiae."}
+{"text":"The Medulli were subjugated by Augustus (27 BC\u201314 AD). They are mentioned in the Trophy of the Alps."}
+{"text":"According to Vitruvius, they were particularly prone to suffer from goitre."}
+{"text":"The Treaty of Turin concluded between France and Piedmont-Sardinia on 24 March 1860 is the instrument by which the Duchy of Savoy and the County of Nice were annexed to France."}
+{"text":"Emperor Napoleon III of France and the Count of Cavour, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia, met in secret at Plombi\u00e8res-les-Bains on 21 July 1858. They agreed that France would support the unification of Italy by Sardinia, provided that the pope should retain control of Rome. In return Sardinia was asked to cede the Duchy of Savoy to France along with, more contentiously, the predominantly Italian speaking County of Nice."}
+{"text":"In April 1859, Austria, complaining that Sardinia had been supplying arms to Lombard separatists, declared war on Sardinia. The Franco-Sardinian forces defeated the Austrians in several battles: Palestro, Montebello, Magenta, and Solferino."}
+{"text":"But Napoleon III, who had taken personal command of his army, professed himself horrified by the extent of the bloodshed involved and resolved to end the war. The fighting ended with the armistice of Villafranca on 12 July 1859. The armistice led to the Treaty of Zurich of 10 November 1859, which transferred Lombardy to Sardinia. Complete Italian unification was deferred, though as matters turned out, not for long."}
+{"text":"The late King Charles Albert of Sardinia (1798\u20131849) had been an active Italian nationalist. Among the liberal elites in francophone Savoy, the idea had grown up that the \"House of Savoy\" in Turin had little concern for their province beyond Mont Blanc. In practical terms, at a time when the extent of state activity was increasing across Europe, this was manifest in a perceived discrimination against French speakers when making government appointments. On 25 July 1859 about 30 leading citizens of Chamb\u00e9ry presented an address to Napoleon III, calling for Savoy to be annexed to France."}
+{"text":"Elsewhere in Savoy, especially in the north, opposition to the idea of French annexation began to mobilise. The formerly Savoyard province of Carouge, adjacent to Geneva, had been transferred to Switzerland in 1816 under an earlier Treaty of Turin, as part of the unbundling of Napoleon I's First French Empire. Scenarios now under discussion included continuing with Savoy as a province of Sardinia, or joining more or even all of the territory with Switzerland, an outcome favored by Great Britain. There was very little support for the idea of a totally autonomous Savoy, the vulnerability of small quasi-autonomous territories having been vividly demonstrated within living memory by Napoleon I."}
+{"text":"Art. 1. His Majesty the King of Sardinia consents to the annexation (\"r\u00e9union\") of Savoy and of the \"arrondissement\" of Nice (\"circondario di Nizza\") to France, and renounces for himself and all his descendants and successors his rights and claims to the said territories. It is agreed between their Majesties that this \"r\u00e9union\" shall be effected without any constraint upon the wishes of the populations, and that the Governments of the Emperor of the French and of the King of Sardinia shall concert together as soon as possible on the best means of appreciating and taking note of (\"constater\") the manifestations of those wishes."}
+{"text":"Art. 2. It is also understood that His Majesty the King of Sardinia cannot transfer the neutralized portions of Savoy except upon the conditions upon which he himself possesses them, and that it will appertain to His Majesty the Emperor of the French to come to an understanding on that subject as well with the Powers represented at the Congress of Vienna as with the Helvetic Confederation, and to give them the guarantees which result from the stipulations alluded to in the present article."}
+{"text":"Art. 3. A mixed commission will determine, in a spirit off equity, the frontiers of the two States, taking into account the configuration of the mountains and the necessity of defence."}
+{"text":"Art. 4. One or more mixed commissions will be charged to examine and to resolve, within a brief delay, the divers incidental questions to which the annexation will give rise,\u2013such as the decision of the contribution of Savoy and of the arrondissement of Nice to the public debt of Sardinia, and the execution of the obligations resulting from contracts entered into with the Sardinian Government, which, however, engages to terminate itself the works commenced for cutting a tunnel through the Alps (Mont C\u00e9nia)."}
+{"text":"Art. 5. The French Government will take into account, as regards functionaries of the civil and military order belonging by their birth to the province of Savoy, or to the \"arrondissement\" of Nice, and who will become French subjects, the rights which they have acquired by services rendered to the Sardinian Government; they will especially enjoy the benefits of life appointments in the magistrature and of the guarantees assured to the army."}
+{"text":"Art. 6. Sardinian subjects originally of Savoy, or of the \"arrondissement\" of Nice, or domiciled actually in those provinces, who would wish to maintain the Sardinian nationality, will enjoy during the period of one year, dating from the exchange of the ratifications, and in virtue of a previous declaration made to the competent authorities, the faculty of removing their domicile to Italy, and settling there, in which case their qualifications as Sardinian citizens will remain to them. They will be at liberty to keep their landed property situate on the territory annexed to France."}
+{"text":"Art. 7. For Sardinia the present treaty will become law as soon as the necessary legislative sanction has been given by the Parliament."}
+{"text":"Art. 8. The present treaty shall be ratified and the ratifications exchanged at Turin within the delay of ten days, or earlier if possible."}
+{"text":"In faith of which the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed it and affixed their seals thereunto."}
+{"text":"Done in duplicate at Turin the 24th day of the month of March of the year of grace 1860."}
+{"text":"Such were some of the indications of public sentiment at the time when the French garrisons were taking their places. It was evident that the people were not to be easily overawed."}
+{"text":"But the efforts of the government had only just begun. Immediately after the occupation of the country by French troops, there was published an order transferring the civil government of the provinces to France. The French provisional governor, Lubonis, made haste to use the power thus placed in his hands for the advantage of his imperial master, and his example was speedily followed by Lachinal. Many of the mayors and local authorities were utterly opposed to the idea of French annexation, and without their co-operation it was felt that a vote of the people in favor of the measure could not be insured. Accordingly, the following circular, filled out as might in each case be required, was issued:"}
+{"text":"Considering that Monsieur \u2014\u2014\u2014 , mayor of the commune of \u2014\u2014\u2014 , seems not to have accepted favorably the consequences of the Treaty of the 24th of March last; considering that it is important, under the present circumstances, to have at the head of the administration of each commune men devoted to the new order of things;"}
+{"text":"1. Monsieur \u2014\u2014\u2014 , present mayor of the commune of \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014 , is dismissed from his functions."}
+{"text":"2. The municipal counselor \u2014\u2014\u2014 is charged, until a new order, with the administration of said commune."}
+{"text":"3. The above will be transmitted to Messieurs \u2014\u2014\u2014 and \u2014\u2014\u2014 , for their guidance."}
+{"text":"In commenting upon this transfer of civil authority to the sole interests of the Emperor, the French journals gave evidence of abundant zeal. One of them, \"Le Bon Sens\", remarked:"}
+{"text":"The military and civil machinery thus in order, the authorities now devoted themselves to the more immediate work of manufacturing the requisite majority. First of all, the public was informed not only that it was prohibited to hold any meetings to discuss the affairs of Nice, but also that no canvassing on the part of those opposed to French annexation would be permitted, and that no placards or circulars would be allowed to be issued by the Italian party. At the same time, documents of various kinds were issued by the officers in authority, appealing to their subordinates and to the people. The provisional governor, Lubonis, issued a proclamation, of which the following is the most important portion:"}
+{"text":"A proclamation similar to this of Lubonis was issued by Malaussena, Mayor of Nice; and finally, as if to crown all, the Bishop came forward in the same interest, appealing to all loyal members of the Church to vote for annexation. Nor, indeed, was this all. The French Committee sent to all the officials a circular bearing the government seal, and appealing for support to all the authorities in town and country. Referring to the advantages to be derived from annexation, the Committee used these words:"}
+{"text":"The \"necessary measures\" to which the committee alluded were amply provided for. A sum of money had been placed at their disposal by the French government; and of this it is stated on good authority that 3,000,000 francs were used in the direct work of bribery, exclusive of the expenses of the government on the day of voting. Drinking booths and \"caf\u00e9s\" were erected especially for the purpose by the officials, and a tri-colored cockade or a voting ticket with \"oui\" upon it entitled the bearer to the gratuitous enjoyment of all their privileges."}
+{"text":"Another device which appealed to the religious zeal of the people was that of blessing the standards of the imperial party. This official blessing of the French flags was calculated to work an immense effect upon the ignorant and somewhat superstitious population. The authorization ran in this way:"}
+{"text":"\"MM. les Commissaires will distribute the flags which MM. les Cur\u00e9s are authorized, and indeed invited, to bless. These standards will be in this case presented by the Commune, at the head of the inhabitants, to MM. les Cur\u00e9s, who will receive them at the entry of the church. Finally, you will understand the importance which I attach to this last recommendation. You will take care that official proclamations, manifestoes, and notices are preserved intact. All appeals to the passions\u2014any notice whatever affixed without the required authorization\u2014will be immediately torn down.\""}
+{"text":"Side by side with this was posted the following official manifesto:"}
+{"text":"\"The Mayor of Bonneville notifies that the Communal Council will assist at the benediction of the flags which the Imperial Government has presented to the Commune; that this religious ceremony will take place on Sunday, the 22nd, at seven o'clock, A. M.; that the \"cort\u00e8ge\" will leave the Hotel de Ville to go to the church. All electors are invited to this ceremony, which will immediately precede the opening of the voting-urns. In the morning the Hotel de Ville will be decorated with the French flags and the national colors. All the inhabitants are invited to decorate their houses with flags of the same colors."}
+{"text":"\"The Imperial Government has made its \"d\u00e9but\" by a signal benefit in giving us the customs \"zone\", which has hitherto been refused. It assures to us the prosperity of the country. Its generosity will not end here. French engineers have explored the province, have begun to study the banks of the rivers, the state of the roads, and the public works most useful to the country. The numerous mines of Faucigny will be worked, the condition of our \"coll\u00e9ge\" will be improved. Let us show our gratitude to the Emperor. Let us give a free course to our sympathies, so long restrained, and prove by a compact and unanimous vote that we are as much French as our fathers were."}
+{"text":"As the day of voting approached, the Central Committee issued the following circular:"}
+{"text":"\"SIR, The Central Annexationist Committee, upon whose proceedings no restrictions were placed, has named you member of the Special Committee for the parish of \u2014\u2014\u2014. You will have the goodness, sir, to concert with your colleagues, Messrs. \u2014\u2014\u2014, measures which may unite and bring to the poll on Sunday next the greatest possible number of electors, and take any steps which appear expedient, \"in order that the vote of the population may be at the same time a striking manifestation of its sentiments towards France and towards the Emperor\".\""}
+{"text":"In addition to all the other pressure, the local police authorities openly declared that lists of the \"proscrits\" would be made out, and that those who abstained from voting would be punished as soon as they became French subjects. The same authorities received orders from headquarters at Nice to collect the peasants on the day of voting and march them into town, with drums beating, and French flags floating at their head. An Englishman, who was at Nice at the time of the election, thus describes what he saw:"}
+{"text":"The same witness wrote subsequently from Bonneville, where he happened to be on the day of the voting in Savoy:"}
+{"text":"Historian John A. Davis, said in 2005, \"Everyone, it seems, is busy rethinking, revisioning, revisiting, remaking, remapping or demythologizing the Risorgimento. However, it is not the Risorgimento that is being revisited but the changing images that have made it the potent founding myth of the Italian nation for successive generations of Italians.\" In the 20th century, and especially since the end of World War II, the received interpretation of Italian unification, the \"Risorgimento\", has become the object of historical revisionism. The justifications offered for unification, the methods employed to realise it and the benefits supposedly accruing to unified Italy are frequent targets of the revisionists. Some schools have called the \"Risorgimento\" an imperialist or colonialist venture imposed by Savoy."}
+{"text":"Some revisionists tend to negatively re-evaluate key characters of Italian national unity, such as Camillo Benso di Cavour, Giuseppe Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy. They grafted in this way in the debate on the causes of the so-called Southern Question (\"Questione Meridionale\"), and say that the Risorgimento was a true work of colonization, followed by a centralizing policy of conquest, because of which the Italian Mezzogiorno would have fallen into a state of backwardness still manifest. Others consider that the policies of tax, toll and industry implemented in the southern regions by the Savoy government since 1861, together with endogenous factors, have further depleted the area or they have affected its development."}
+{"text":"Background and historical basis of revisionism on the Risorgimento."}
+{"text":"The ideas behind the revisionist movement already began to awaken and strengthen in the years immediately following the events that led to the Kingdom of Sardinia to become the Kingdom of Italy, even before the birth of a historical debate on the subject. The first doubts about the reasons behind the foreign policy of the House of Savoy were raised by Giuseppe Mazzini, one of the theorists and supporters of Italian unification. In this regard Mazzini suggested in his paper \"\"Italy of the people\" that the government of Cavour was not interested in the principle of a united Italy, but simply to push the boundaries of the Savoy state. Even once Italy was unified, Mazzini returned to attack the Government in respect of the new nation:"}
+{"text":"Statements of Mazzini are precursors of the dispute on the ideal unification process, which began already during the 20th century, as a continuation of the contentious debate between the moderate and democratic parties of Risorgimento. The first criticism of the hagiographic reconstructions came by the same liberal leaders, who had enthusiastically promoted any political activity that would have contributed to the national cause. Among the main targets, there were contentious politics of the new centralized unitary state, defined negatively by the neologism of \"piemontesizzazione\"\" (homologation to Piedmont)."}
+{"text":"Parallel to the abovementioned political and ideal dispute, across the late 19th century began to appear the first historiographical contributions alternative to the mainstream historiography on the Italian Risorgimento. These works furnished the substrate on which the later revisionist theories were built."}
+{"text":"A prime example was the writer Alfredo Oriani, which put into question the outcome of the events of the Risorgimento in his work \"The political struggle in Italy\" (1892), which examined the conflict between federalism and unitarianism. Oriani criticized the \"royal conquest\" as a unilateral action to create a new state, assuming that without the support of a strong democratic movement, it would prove to be weak in its foundations. This work is considered the prototype of the first modern revisionist historiography on Italy, alternately to apologetic historiography of Savoy."}
+{"text":"Criticisms against the interpretation of the Risorgimento events were also moved by Francesco Saverio Nitti, who in his works \"North and South\" (Nord e Sud)(1900) and \"Italy at the dawn of the twentieth century\" (L'Italia all'alba del secolo XX) (1901), analyzed the consequences of the national Unity from a framework illustrating the political and economic situation in the pre-unification states. According to Nitti, the benefits of the national unification process were not equitably distributed throughout the country, facilitating further development of northern Italy at the expense of the South."}
+{"text":"Oriani's ideas influenced the thinking of the liberal Piero Gobetti who in 1926 criticized the liberal ruling class in his collection of essays \"Risorgimento without heroes\" (\"Risorgimento senza eroi\"). According to Gobetti, the Risorgimento was the work of a minority who resigned to pursue a deeper social and cultural revolution. From this \"failed revolution\" a state unable to meet the needs of the masses was born."}
+{"text":"In the same vein of political and cultural connotations, but with more openly Marxist-style, is part of the revisionist and anti-apologetic analysis of Antonio Gramsci. In his book \"Prison Notebooks\" (Quaderni del carcere), published posthumously only after 1947, he describes the Risorgimento as a \"passive revolution\" suffered by the peasants, the poorest social class of the population. The Southern question, Jacobinism, the construction of the revolutionary process in Italy are the central themes of his analysis on the basis of which he reinterprets the Italian Risorgimento as a process of socio-political transformation began in 1789 with the French Revolution, passively transposed in Italy, and hesitated in the collapse of the Ancien R\u00e9gime."}
+{"text":"The reinterpretation of the Italian Risorgimento's events have not a single origin. The questioning of the assumptions of official history is coming from a part of the academic world and from several independent scholars, including several essayists. The growth of this cultural movement, in particular measure across the last fifty years, has generated the emergence of a growing critical literature of the broader historiography, which has gradually been the subject of increasingly acute dispute and controversy. Across the following paragraphs are presented the contributions to historical revisionism, divided according to the framework of origin."}
+{"text":"In the years following the annexation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies to the newborn Italian State, contemporary witnesses gave the prints the first works that brought a critical analysis of the political unification of the peninsula."}
+{"text":"In his works, he described the unification process as an assault against two sovereign states (the Two Sicilies and the Church), in violation of international law and in particular of the spiritual and civil values of the Neapolitan nation. The thought of de' Sivo was long the subject of ostracism, in spite of Benedetto Croce had highlighted his thickness as a scholar by writing a biography that was included in the work \"A family of patriots\" (Una famiglia di patrioti)."}
+{"text":"The years following the unification of Italy also saw the flowering of a vast literature of memoirs in which mainly ex-members of the dissolved Army of Two Sicilies brought their own interpretation of the facts. Among the numerous examples can be mentioned the brothers Pietro and Ludovico Quandel and Giuseppe Butt\u00e0. Chaplain of the 9th Battalion Hunters of the Bourbon Army, he was the author of \"A Journey from Boccadifalco to Gaeta\" (Un viaggio da Boccadifalco a Gaeta) (1875), autobiographical work that tells the story of the landing of the Expedition of the Thousand in Marsala until the Siege of Gaeta as viewed from the vanquisheds' side."}
+{"text":"For a description of the events from his point of view Butt\u00e0 resorted to a cutting language and a tone more sarcastic than de' Sivo's, also sparing no criticism against the Bourbon officers whom he accused of cowardice or treason against the crown. Despite the limitations resulting from transpositions of individual points of view, the memoirs are cited by many revisionist authors, which give them the value of historical documents."}
+{"text":"The revisionism of Risorgimento knew a clear radicalization and resumed in the mid-20th century, after the fall of the Savoy monarchy and that of fascism, for which the Risorgimento was considered an intangible myth. The changed political conditions allowed the emergence of a group of scholars which began re-examining the value of the House of Savoy work, and made largely negative reviews in that respect. About a hundred years after De' Sivo, the members of this group also took up the arguments of criticism, charging in particular to the process of national unification the cause of most problems of the Southern Italy."}
+{"text":"In the line of cultural descent, Michele Topa follows Carlo Alianello. By his works \"Thus ended the Bourbons of Naples\" (Cos\u00ec finirono i Borbone di Napoli) (1959) and \"The Brigands of His Majesty\" (I briganti di Sua Maest\u00e0) (1967), helped to outline a new historiographical conception of the Risorgimento, seen from the losers' standpoint."}
+{"text":"Another leading and more intransigent figure of revisionism was Nicola Zitara. Along the same cultural lines of Alianello and Topa, the Calabrian writer considered Italy as the result of an operation of military conquest and economic damage to the South against which it would have been put in place an intricate plot. In her works, Zitara expresses his beliefs derived from an economic analysis conducted according to the canons of Marxist ideology."}
+{"text":"Over the years, the revisionism of Risorgimento has found other supporters, both southern- and northern-born, which further in-depth research on the controversial events of the unification process. Among them we can mention Lorenzo Del Boca, Gigi Di Fiore, Francesco Mario Agnoli, Pino Aprile, Fulvio Izzo, Massimo Viglione, Antonio Ciano, Aldo Servidio, Roberto Martucci, Luciano Salera and Pier Giusto Jaeger."}
+{"text":"Revisionism of Risorgimento is written about, albeit in different ways, by some academic authors, in most cases of non-Italian origin."}
+{"text":"The best-known example is perhaps as the British historian Denis Mack Smith, whose work focuses on the history of Italy from the Risorgimento to the present day. He graduated at Cambridge, a member of the British Academy of Wolfson College (University of Cambridge), of All Souls College (Oxford University) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he was a collaborator of Benedetto Croce and Grand Officer of the Order Merit of the Italian Republic."}
+{"text":"A distinctly different opinion was expressed by the scholar against Mazzini in the biography he dedicated to him, where the Italian thinker was positively judged because of the impulse given to the democratic life of the 19th century, with particular reference to the campaigns in favor of social security, universal suffrage and women's rights."}
+{"text":"In his essay \"Documentary falsification and Italian biography\", Mack Smith finally highlighted as the systematic destruction, rewriting in apologetic terms and concealment of official documents is a practice which all states are in danger of falling, but in some moments of Italian history this has been systematic. Citing specific examples referred to historical personages of great importance (Vittorio Emanuele II, Garibaldi, Lamarmora, Crispi) the historian provided many examples of manipulation of historical events for political use."}
+{"text":"Another influential member of the academic revisionism is Christopher Duggan, a student of Mack Smith and Director of the Centre for the Advanced Study of Italian Society of the University of Reading."}
+{"text":"In his work \"The force of destiny \u2013 history of Italy from 1796 to today\", Duggan expressed strong criticisms of the most popular historiography, with particular reference to the interpretation of the anti-unification movements in the South and of their repression. In particular, he reports that already in occasion of the massacre of Pontelandolfo and Casalduni voices like the one of the Deputy Giuseppe Ferrari, who called what happened a real \"civil war\" were abruptly silenced, since according to the official interpretation \"the \"banditry\" was responsible for violence in southern Italy and no one else\"."}
+{"text":"According to the English scholar, the governments of the period after 1861 were obliged to represent the furious fighting that occurred in the former territories of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies as solely related to the common crime, as any other interpretation would have clashed sharply with the results of the \"plebiscites\" which spoke instead of a population unanimously in favor of unity. Duggan also said that efforts to credit the official version were blatantly contradicted by the facts since in 1864, no fewer than 100,000 soldiers (half of the entire Italian Army) were deployed in the South in an attempt to respond to rising."}
+{"text":"According to Duggan, the substrate on which these statements were based was a mixture of \"self-interest and fear\". It was useful, in fact, to paint the southern territories as corrupt and backward, as this allowed the new government to justify the imposition of its own constitution and laws, administrative practices and men according to the approach of \"piemontesizzazione\". On the other hand, there was deep concern about the possibility of the spread of riots, which would have fragmented the country again, with unforeseeable consequences."}
+{"text":"The historian writes that the alleged backwardness of the southern territories was instrumentally used to justify acts of flagrant lawlessness and violence. Over all, it is remembered the event involving the eminent Piedmontan General Giuseppe Govone, which was sent to Sicily with the task of rounding up conscripts and used of methods such as \"putting cities under siege, cutting water supply and the kidnapping of women and children.\" In an attempt to justify his actions in Parliament, Govone made reference to the alleged \"barbarism\" of the territory, causing an outbreak of turmoil in the courtroom. Francesco Crispi, a Sicilian, challenged to a duel a prominent deputy of Northern origin and 21 Democrats, including Garibaldi himself, resigned."}
+{"text":"Duggan also examines the problem of the number of those killed in the years after unification, citing Quintino Sella in what he calls a \"real civil war\". He makes a comparison between the official figures (5,200 killed in fighting between and executed in the period 1861-1865) and those calculated by using the local testimoniances and foreign press reports, which speak of tens of thousands (and up to 150,000) deaths. He believes these latest figures \"unlikely but not impossible\" because the very nature of the killings like that of Pontelandolfo makes no trace left of it in official documents."}
+{"text":"The English historian criticizes the \"transplant (to) the whole of Italy (with) the laws and institutions of the Piedmont\" on the grounds that it was done \"with so little consultation, and a callousness so fast and big, from seriously offending the sensibilities and local interests\". If in fact, the Piedmont could claim a certain moral leadership as the only Italian state to have a constitution (but not the first, as the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies' Ferdinand II had in the first enactment of a Constitution in Italy), in other respects such as education, local government and justice, Lombardy, Tuscany and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies had better credentials. Only recently, in fact, Piedmont had shed the reputation of being the \"rear-most point of the peninsula\"."}
+{"text":"In addition to the former Kingdom of Two Sicilies, a country of long legal tradition, the replacement of the existing codes with the Piedmont's laws caused extensive discontent in Tuscany, in particular the introduction of the death penalty, which did not exist in enlightened local legal traditions. Others widespread discontent was due to the introduction of the \"prefects\" as reference points of the system of local government. These were for many decades after the unification invariably of Northern or Piedmont origin, and invariably linked by relations of friendship with the Minister of Interior in key locations such as Milan, Florence, Naples and Palermo."}
+{"text":"Duggan turns his critical attention also to the construction of the mythology of the Risorgimento, as defined through the words of Francesco Crispi \"religion of the country (which we need to give) the greatest solemnity, the maximum popularity\"."}
+{"text":"British historian believes that the idealization of the unified movement was consciously pursued through the exaltation of the figures of Vittorio Emanuele II and Garibaldi, as a catalyst and homogenization of the various and often conflicting, monarchical and republican, federal and unitary, conservative and radicals trends. This myth was sustained by a steady stream of hagiographic literature, especially after the death of two characters (1878 and 1882, respectively) and an equally conspicuous and in many cases forced the construction of monuments."}
+{"text":"This operation of iconification on a national scale had accents of the lowest level (such as the placing of plaques on sites in which Garibaldi had spent a few hours to take a bath) and even moments of blatant counterinformation. Duggan reports the case of serious Garibaldi's biography, written by Giuseppe Guerzoni in 1882, where next to the virtues he described Garibaldi's very human flaws. It was immediately branded as \"too sophisticated\" by Achille Bizzoni, who hastened to write to a watered down version \"of the people use\"."}
+{"text":"Duggan also shows that the work of construction of a mythology of the Risorgimento was also extended to the \"nationalization\" of school curricula in history, the teaching of which was to be made \"so that prospective students absorbed by the history of Italy the love of country\". Thus was a careful handling of textbooks, in which there had to be made any mention of the possibility of such figures as Cavour, or worse yet, Vittorio Emanuele, had not been in all respects of disinterested patriots."}
+{"text":"In particular, for the protection of the latter, whenever a high political figure died, they proceeded to a careful examination of his papers and private correspondence with the king to expunge and secrete in the Royal Library any incriminating documents. Similarly, the correspondence of Cavour was heavily expurgated of the fierce hostility of Garibaldi and the democrats and phrases that were deeply offensive to Italians."}
+{"text":"Another member of the academic revisionism is Martin Clark, professor of political history to the University of Edinburgh."}
+{"text":"In his book \"The Italian Risorgimento \u2013 still a controversial story\" Clark says the non-sustainability of the \"patriotic and progressive\" vision of the unification process. British historian rejects the teleological view of the Risorgimento as an inevitable and finalistic process, considering it rather the correlation of different events, some of which random."}
+{"text":"The researcher concludes that \"patriotic interpretation of the Risorgimento is wrong, if only for the fact that the Italians were divided and not at all anxious to achieve national unity\"."}
+{"text":"The British also recognized that academic scholars of the Southern School (\"Meridionalisti\", see specific paragraph) have shown that the society of the ancient Kingdom of Two Sicilies was not stagnant, and some institutions strongly disputed by mainstream historians, such as estate, were not an index of socio-cultural backwardness but rather the \"most appropriate response to the technological conditions and market circumstances\". It was actually the customs and fiscal policies adopted by the new rulers that destroyed the southern economy."}
+{"text":"Rigorous analyses of the Risorgimento were also conducted by Lucy Riall, a professor of history at Birkbeck College of University of London."}
+{"text":"Italian unification ( ), also known as the Risorgimento (, ; meaning \"Resurgence\"), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single state, the Kingdom of Italy. Inspired by the rebellions in the 1820s and 1830s against the outcome of the Congress of Vienna, the unification process was precipitated by the revolutions of 1848, and reached completion in 1871, when Rome was officially designated the capital of the Kingdom of Italy."}
+{"text":"Some of the states that had been targeted for unification (\"terre irredente\") did not join the Kingdom of Italy until 1918, after Italy defeated Austria-Hungary in World War I. For this reason, historians sometimes describe the unification period as continuing past 1871, to include activities during the late 19th century and the First World War (1915\u20131918), and reaching completion only with the Armistice of Villa Giusti on November 4, 1918. This more expansive definition of the unification period is the one presented, for example, at the Central Museum of the Risorgimento at the Vittoriano."}
+{"text":"Italy was unified by Rome in the third century BC. For 700 years, it was a \"de facto\" territorial extension of the capital of the Roman Republic and Empire, and for a long time experienced a privileged status but was not converted into a province."}
+{"text":"After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Italy remained united under the Ostrogothic Kingdom and later disputed between the Kingdom of the Lombards and the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire. Following conquest by the Frankish Empire, the title of King of Italy merged with the office of Holy Roman Emperor. However, the emperor was an absentee German-speaking foreigner who had little concern for the governance of Italy as a state; as a result, Italy gradually developed into a system of city-states. Southern Italy, however, was governed by the long-lasting Kingdom of Sicily or Kingdom of Naples, which had been established by the Normans. Central Italy was governed by the Pope as a temporal kingdom known as the Papal States."}
+{"text":"This situation persisted through the Renaissance but began to deteriorate with the rise of modern nation-states in the early modern period. Italy, including the Papal States, then became the site of proxy wars between the major powers, notably the Holy Roman Empire (including Austria), Spain, and France."}
+{"text":"Harbingers of national unity appeared in the treaty of the Italic League, in 1454, and the 15th-century foreign policy of Cosimo De Medici and Lorenzo De Medici. Leading Renaissance Italian writers Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Machiavelli and Guicciardini expressed opposition to foreign domination. Petrarch stated that the \"ancient valour in Italian hearts is not yet dead\" in \"Italia Mia\". Machiavelli later quoted four verses from \"Italia Mia\" in \"The Prince\", which looked forward to a political leader who would unite Italy \"to free her from the barbarians\"."}
+{"text":"The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 formally ended the rule of the Holy Roman Emperors in Italy. However, the Spanish branch of the Habsburg dynasty, another branch of which provided the Emperors, continued to rule most of Italy down to the War of the Spanish Succession (1701\u201314)."}
+{"text":"A sense of Italian national identity was reflected in Gian Rinaldo Carli's \"Della Patria degli Italiani\", written in 1764. It told how a stranger entered a caf\u00e9 in Milan and puzzled its occupants by saying that he was neither a foreigner nor a Milanese. Then what are you?' they asked. 'I am an Italian,' he explained.\""}
+{"text":"After Napoleon fell, the Congress of Vienna (1814\u201315) restored the pre-Napoleonic patchwork of independent governments. Italy was again controlled largely by the Austrian Empire and the Habsburgs, as they directly controlled the predominantly Italian-speaking northeastern part of Italy and were, together, the most powerful force against unification."}
+{"text":"An important figure of this period was Francesco Melzi d'Eril, serving as vice-president of the Napoleonic Italian Republic (1802\u20131805) and consistent supporter of the Italian unification ideals that would lead to the Italian \"Risorgimento\" shortly after his death."}
+{"text":"Meanwhile, artistic and literary sentiment also turned towards nationalism; Vittorio Alfieri, Francesco Lomonaco and Niccol\u00f2 Tommaseo are generally considered three great literary precursors of Italian nationalism, but the most famous of proto-nationalist works was Alessandro Manzoni's \"I promessi sposi\" \"(The Betrothed)\", widely read as a thinly veiled allegorical critique of Austrian rule. Published in 1827 and extensively revised in the following years, the 1840 version of \"I Promessi Sposi\" used a standardized version of the Tuscan dialect, a conscious effort by the author to provide a language and force people to learn it."}
+{"text":"Exiles dreamed of unification. Three ideals of unification appeared. Vincenzo Gioberti, a Piedmontese priest, had suggested a confederation of Italian states under leadership of the Pope in his 1842 book \"Of the Moral and Civil Primacy of the Italians\". Pope Pius IX at first appeared interested but he turned reactionary and led the battle against liberalism and nationalism."}
+{"text":"Giuseppe Mazzini and Carlo Cattaneo wanted the unification of Italy under a federal republic, which proved too extreme for most nationalists. The middle position was proposed by Cesare Balbo (1789\u20131853) as a confederation of separate Italian states led by Piedmont."}
+{"text":"One of the most influential revolutionary groups was the Carboneria, a secret political discussion group formed in Southern Italy early in the 19th century; the members were called \"Carbonari\". After 1815, Freemasonry in Italy was repressed and discredited due to its French connections. A void was left that the Carboneria filled with a movement that closely resembled Freemasonry but with a commitment to Italian nationalism and no association with Napoleon and his government. The response came from middle-class professionals and businessmen and some intellectuals. The Carboneria disowned Napoleon but nevertheless were inspired by the principles of the French Revolution regarding liberty, equality and fraternity. They developed their own rituals, and were strongly anticlerical. The Carboneria movement spread across Italy."}
+{"text":"Many leading Carbonari revolutionaries wanted a republic, two of the most prominent being Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi. Mazzini's activity in revolutionary movements caused him to be imprisoned soon after he joined. While in prison, he concluded that Italy could\u00a0\u2212 and therefore should\u00a0\u2212 be unified, and he formulated a program for establishing a free, independent, and republican nation with Rome as its capital. Following his release in 1831, he went to Marseille in France, where he organized a new political society called \"La Giovine Italia\" (Young Italy), whose motto was \"Dio e Popolo\" (God and People), which sought the unification of Italy."}
+{"text":"Garibaldi, a native of Nice (then part of Piedmont), participated in an uprising in Piedmont in 1834 and was sentenced to death. He escaped to South America, though, spending fourteen years in exile, taking part in several wars, and learning the art of guerrilla warfare before his return to Italy in 1848."}
+{"text":"In 1820, Spaniards successfully revolted over disputes about their Constitution, which influenced the development of a similar movement in Italy. Inspired by the Spaniards (who, in 1812, had created their constitution), a regiment in the army of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, commanded by Guglielmo Pepe, a Carbonaro (member of the secret republican organization), mutinied, conquering the peninsular part of Two Sicilies. The king, Ferdinand I, agreed to enact a new constitution. The revolutionaries, though, failed to court popular support and fell to Austrian troops of the Holy Alliance. Ferdinand abolished the constitution and began systematically persecuting known revolutionaries. Many supporters of revolution in Sicily, including the scholar Michele Amari, were forced into exile during the decades that followed."}
+{"text":"The leader of the 1821 revolutionary movement in Piedmont was Santorre di Santarosa, who wanted to remove the Austrians and unify Italy under the House of Savoy. The Piedmont revolt started in Alessandria, where troops adopted the green, white, and red \"tricolore\" of the Cisalpine Republic. The king's regent, prince Charles Albert, acting while the king Charles Felix was away, approved a new constitution to appease the revolutionaries, but when the king returned he disavowed the constitution and requested assistance from the Holy Alliance. Di Santarosa's troops were defeated, and the would-be Piedmontese revolutionary fled to Paris."}
+{"text":"In Milan, Silvio Pellico and Pietro Maroncelli organized several attempts to weaken the hold of the Austrian despotism by indirect educational means. In October 1820, Pellico and Maroncelli were arrested on the charge of carbonarism and imprisoned."}
+{"text":"After 1830, revolutionary sentiment in favor of a unified Italy began to experience a resurgence, and a series of insurrections laid the groundwork for the creation of one nation along the Italian peninsula."}
+{"text":"The Duke of Modena, Francis IV, was an ambitious noble, and he hoped to become king of Northern Italy by increasing his territory. In 1826, Francis made it clear that he would not act against those who subverted opposition toward the unification of Italy. Encouraged by the declaration, revolutionaries in the region began to organize."}
+{"text":"During the July Revolution of 1830 in France, revolutionaries forced the king to abdicate and created the July Monarchy with encouragement from the new French king, Louis-Philippe. Louis-Philippe had promised revolutionaries such as Ciro Menotti that he would intervene if Austria tried to interfere in Italy with troops. Fearing he would lose his throne, Louis-Philippe did not, however, intervene in Menotti's planned uprising. The Duke of Modena abandoned his Carbonari supporters, arrested Menotti and other conspirators in 1831, and once again conquered his duchy with help from the Austrian troops. Menotti was executed, and the idea of a revolution centered in Modena faded."}
+{"text":"At the same time, other insurrections arose in the Papal Legations of Bologna, Ferrara, Ravenna, Forl\u00ec, Ancona and Perugia. These successful revolutions, which adopted the \"tricolore\" in place of the Papal flag, quickly spread to cover all the Papal Legations, and their newly installed local governments proclaimed the creation of a united Italian nation. The revolts in Modena and the Papal Legations inspired similar activity in the Duchy of Parma, where the \"tricolore\" flag was adopted. The Parmese duchess Marie Louise left the city during the political upheaval."}
+{"text":"Insurrected provinces planned to unite as the \"Province Italiane unite\" (United Italian Provinces), which prompted Pope Gregory XVI to ask for Austrian help against the rebels. Austrian Chancellor Metternich warned Louis-Philippe that Austria had no intention of letting Italian matters be, and that French intervention would not be tolerated. Louis-Philippe withheld any military help and even arrested Italian patriots living in France."}
+{"text":"In early 1831, the Austrian army began its march across the Italian peninsula, slowly crushing resistance in each province that had revolted. This military action suppressed much of the fledgling revolutionary movement, and resulted in the arrest of many radical leaders."}
+{"text":"Revolutions of 1848\u20131849 and First Italian War of Independence."}
+{"text":"On 5 January 1848, the revolutionary disturbances began with a civil disobedience strike in Lombardy, as citizens stopped smoking cigars and playing the lottery, which denied Austria the associated tax revenue. Shortly after this, revolts began on the island of Sicily and in Naples. In Sicily the revolt resulted in the proclamation of the Kingdom of Sicily with Ruggero Settimo as Chairman of the independent state until 1849, when the Bourbon army took back full control of the island on 15 May 1849 by force."}
+{"text":"In February 1848, there were revolts in Tuscany that were relatively nonviolent, after which Grand Duke Leopold II granted the Tuscans a constitution. A breakaway republican provisional government formed in Tuscany during February shortly after this concession. On 21 February, Pope Pius IX granted a constitution to the Papal States, which was both unexpected and surprising considering the historical recalcitrance of the Papacy. On 23 February 1848, King Louis Philippe of France was forced to flee Paris, and a republic was proclaimed. By the time the revolution in Paris occurred, three states of Italy had constitutions\u2014four if one considers Sicily to be a separate state."}
+{"text":"Meanwhile, in Lombardy, tensions increased until the Milanese and Venetians rose in revolt on 18 March 1848. The insurrection in Milan succeeded in expelling the Austrian garrison after five days of street fights \u2013 18\u201322 March (Cinque giornate di Milano). An Austrian army under Marshal Josef Radetzky besieged Milan, but due to defection of many of his troops and the support of the Milanese for the revolt, they were forced to retreat."}
+{"text":"Soon, Charles Albert, the King of Sardinia (who ruled Piedmont and Savoy), urged by the Venetians and Milanese to aid their cause, decided this was the moment to unify Italy and declared war on Austria (First Italian Independence War). After initial successes at Goito and Peschiera, he was decisively defeated by Radetzky at the Battle of Custoza on 24 July. An armistice was agreed to, and Radetzky regained control of all of Lombardy-Venetia save Venice itself, where the Republic of San Marco was proclaimed under Daniele Manin."}
+{"text":"While Radetzky consolidated control of Lombardy-Venetia and Charles Albert licked his wounds, matters took a more serious turn in other parts of Italy. The monarchs who had reluctantly agreed to constitutions in March came into conflict with their constitutional ministers. At first, the republics had the upper hand, forcing the monarchs to flee their capitals, including Pope Pius IX."}
+{"text":"Before the powers could respond to the founding of the Roman Republic, Charles Albert, whose army had been trained by the exiled Polish general Albert Chrzanowski, renewed the war with Austria. He was quickly defeated by Radetzky at Novara on 23 March 1849. Charles Albert abdicated in favour of his son, Victor Emmanuel II, and Piedmontese ambitions to unite Italy or conquer Lombardy were, for the moment, brought to an end. The war ended with a treaty signed on 9 August. A popular revolt broke out in Brescia on the same day as the defeat at Novara, but was suppressed by the Austrians ten days later."}
+{"text":"In 1857, Carlo Pisacane, an aristocrat from Naples who had embraced Mazzini's ideas, decided to provoke a rising in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. His small force landed on the island of Ponza. It overpowered guards and liberated hundreds of prisoners. In sharp contrast to his hypothetical expectations, there was no local uprising and the invaders were quickly overpowered. Pisacane was killed by angry locals who suspected he was leading a gypsy band trying to steal their food."}
+{"text":"The Second Italian Independence War of 1859 and its aftermath."}
+{"text":"The Austrians were defeated at the Battle of Magenta on 4 June and pushed back to Lombardy. Napoleon III's plans worked and at the Battle of Solferino, France and Sardinia defeated Austria and forced negotiations; at the same time, in the northern part of Lombardy, the Italian volunteers known as the Hunters of the Alps, led by Giuseppe Garibaldi, defeated the Austrians at Varese and Como. On 12 July, the Armistice of Villafranca was signed. The settlement, by which Lombardy was annexed to Sardinia, left Austria in control of Venice."}
+{"text":"Sardinia eventually won the Second War of Italian Unification through statesmanship rather than armies or popular election. The final arrangement was ironed out by \"back-room\" deals instead of in the battlefield. This was because neither France, Austria, nor Sardinia wanted to risk another battle and could not handle further fighting. All of the sides were eventually unhappy with the final outcome of the 2nd War of Italian Unification and expected another conflict in the future."}
+{"text":"Sardinia annexed Lombardy from Austria; it later occupied and annexed the United Provinces of Central Italy, consisting of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Duchy of Parma, the Duchy of Modena and Reggio and the Papal Legations on 22 March 1860. Sardinia handed Savoy and Nice over to France at the Treaty of Turin, decision that was the consequence of the Plombi\u00e8res Agreement, on 24 March 1860, an event that caused the Ni\u00e7ard exodus, that was the emigration of a quarter of the Ni\u00e7ard Italians to Italy."}
+{"text":"Thus, by early 1860, only five states remained in Italy\u2014the Austrians in Venetia, the Papal States (now minus the Legations), the new expanded Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and San Marino."}
+{"text":"Francis II of the Two Sicilies, the son and successor of Ferdinand II (the infamous \"King Bomba\"), had a well-organized army of 150,000 men. But his father's tyranny had inspired many secret societies, and the kingdom's Swiss mercenaries were unexpectedly recalled home under the terms of a new Swiss law that forbade Swiss citizens to serve as mercenaries. This left Francis with only his mostly unreliable native troops. It was a critical opportunity for the unification movement. In April 1860, separate insurrections began in Messina and Palermo in Sicily, both of which had demonstrated a history of opposing Neapolitan rule. These rebellions were easily suppressed by loyal troops."}
+{"text":"In the meantime, Giuseppe Garibaldi, a native of Nice, was deeply resentful of the French annexation of his home city. He hoped to use his supporters to regain the territory. Cavour, terrified of Garibaldi provoking a war with France, persuaded Garibaldi to instead use his forces in the Sicilian rebellions. On 6 May 1860, Garibaldi and his cadre of about a thousand Italian volunteers (called \"I Mille\"), steamed from Quarto near Genoa, and, after a stop in Talamone on 11 May, landed near Marsala on the west coast of Sicily."}
+{"text":"Near Salemi, Garibaldi's army attracted scattered bands of rebels, and the combined forces defeated the opposing army at Calatafimi on 13 May. Within three days, the invading force had swelled to 4,000 men. On 14 May Garibaldi proclaimed himself dictator of Sicily, in the name of Victor Emmanuel. After waging various successful but hard-fought battles, Garibaldi advanced upon the Sicilian capital of Palermo, announcing his arrival by beacon-fires kindled at night. On 27 May the force laid siege to the Porta Termini of Palermo, while a mass uprising of street and barricade fighting broke out within the city."}
+{"text":"With Palermo deemed insurgent, Neapolitan general Ferdinando Lanza, arriving in Sicily with some 25,000 troops, furiously bombarded Palermo nearly to ruins. With the intervention of a British admiral, an armistice was declared, leading to the Neapolitan troops' departure and surrender of the town to Garibaldi and his much smaller army. In Palermo was created the Dictatorship of Garibaldi."}
+{"text":"This resounding success demonstrated the weakness of the Neapolitan government. Garibaldi's fame spread and many Italians began to consider him a national hero. Doubt, confusion, and dismay overtook the Neapolitan court\u2014the king hastily summoned his ministry and offered to restore an earlier constitution, but these efforts failed to rebuild the peoples' trust in Bourbon governance."}
+{"text":"The settling of the peninsular standoff now rested with Napoleon III. If he let Garibaldi have his way, Garibaldi would likely end the temporal sovereignty of the Pope and make Rome the capital of Italy. Napoleon, however, may have arranged with Cavour to let the king of Sardinia free to take possession of Naples, Umbria and the other provinces, provided that Rome and the \"Patrimony of St. Peter\" were left intact."}
+{"text":"It was in this situation that a Sardinian force of two army corps, under Fanti and Cialdini, marched to the frontier of the Papal States, its objective being not Rome but Naples. The Papal troops under Lamorici\u00e8re advanced against Cialdini, but were quickly defeated and besieged in the fortress of Ancona, finally surrendering on 29 September. On 9 October, Victor Emmanuel arrived and took command. There was no longer a papal army to oppose him, and the march southward proceeded unopposed."}
+{"text":"Garibaldi distrusted the pragmatic Cavour since Cavour was the man ultimately responsible for orchestrating the French annexation of the city of Nice, which was his birthplace. Nevertheless, he accepted the command of Victor Emmanuel. When the king entered Sessa Aurunca at the head of his army, Garibaldi willingly handed over his dictatorial power. After greeting Victor Emmanuel in Teano with the title of King of Italy, Garibaldi entered Naples riding beside the king. Garibaldi then retired to the island of Caprera, while the remaining work of unifying the peninsula was left to Victor Emmanuel."}
+{"text":"The progress of the Sardinian army compelled Francis II to give up his line along the river, and he eventually took refuge with his best troops in the fortress of Gaeta. His courage boosted by his resolute young wife, Queen Marie Sophie, Francis mounted a stubborn defence that lasted three months. But European allies refused to provide him with aid, and food and munitions became scarce, and disease set in, so the garrison was forced to surrender. Nonetheless, ragtag groups of Neapolitans loyal to Francis fought on against the Italian government for years to come."}
+{"text":"The fall of Gaeta brought the unification movement to the brink of fruition\u2014only Rome and Venetia remained to be added. On 18 February 1861, Victor Emmanuel assembled the deputies of the first Italian Parliament in Turin. On 17 March 1861, the Parliament proclaimed Victor Emmanuel King of Italy, and on 27 March 1861 Rome was declared Capital of Italy, even though it was not yet in the new Kingdom."}
+{"text":"Three months later Cavour died, having seen his life's work nearly completed. When he was given the last rites, Cavour purportedly said: \"Italy is made. All is safe.\""}
+{"text":"Mazzini was discontented with the perpetuation of monarchical government and continued to agitate for a republic. With the motto \"Free from the Alps to the Adriatic\", the unification movement set its gaze on Rome and Venice. There were obstacles, however. A challenge against the Pope's temporal dominion was viewed with profound distrust by Catholics around the world, and there were French troops stationed in Rome. Victor Emmanuel was wary of the international repercussions of attacking the Papal States, and discouraged his subjects from participating in revolutionary ventures with such intentions."}
+{"text":"Nonetheless, Garibaldi believed that the government would support him if he attacked Rome. Frustrated at inaction by the king, and bristling over perceived snubs, he came out of retirement to organize a new venture. In June 1862, he sailed from Genoa and landed again at Palermo, where he gathered volunteers for the campaign, under the slogan \"o Roma o Morte\" (\"either Rome or Death\"). The garrison of Messina, loyal to the king's instructions, barred their passage to the mainland. Garibaldi's force, now numbering two thousand, turned south and set sail from Catania. Garibaldi declared that he would enter Rome as a victor or perish beneath its walls. He landed at Melito on 14 August and marched at once into the Calabrian mountains."}
+{"text":"Far from supporting this endeavour, the Italian government was quite disapproving. General Cialdini dispatched a division of the regular army, under Colonel Pallavicino, against the volunteer bands. On 28 August the two forces met in the Aspromonte. One of the regulars fired a chance shot, and several volleys followed, but Garibaldi forbade his men to return fire on fellow subjects of the Kingdom of Italy. The volunteers suffered several casualties, and Garibaldi himself was wounded; many were taken prisoner. Garibaldi was taken by steamer to Varignano, where he was honorably imprisoned for a time, but finally released."}
+{"text":"Meanwhile, Victor Emmanuel sought a safer means to the acquisition of the remaining Papal territory. He negotiated with the Emperor Napoleon for the removal of the French troops from Rome through a treaty. They agreed to the September Convention in September 1864, by which Napoleon agreed to withdraw the troops within two years. The Pope was to expand his own army during that time so as to be self-sufficient. In December 1866, the last of the French troops departed from Rome, in spite of the efforts of the pope to retain them. By their withdrawal, Italy (excluding Venetia and Savoy) was freed from the presence of foreign soldiers."}
+{"text":"The seat of government was moved in 1865 from Turin, the old Sardinian capital, to Florence, where the first Italian parliament was summoned. This arrangement created such disturbances in Turin that the king was forced to leave that city hastily for his new capital."}
+{"text":"In the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Austria contested with Prussia the position of leadership among the German states. The Kingdom of Italy seized the opportunity to capture Venetia from Austrian rule and allied itself with Prussia. Austria tried to persuade the Italian government to accept Venetia in exchange for non-intervention. However, on 8 April, Italy and Prussia signed an agreement that supported Italy's acquisition of Venetia, and on 20 June Italy issued a declaration of war on Austria. Within the context of Italian unification, the Austro-Prussian war is called the \"Third Independence War\", after the \"First\" (1848) and the \"Second\" (1859)."}
+{"text":"Victor Emmanuel hastened to lead an army across the Mincio to the invasion of Venetia, while Garibaldi was to invade the Tyrol with his Hunters of the Alps. The Italian army encountered the Austrians at Custoza on 24 June and suffered a defeat. On 20 July the Regia Marina was defeated in the battle of Lissa. The following day, Garibaldi's volunteers defeated an Austrian force in the Battle of Bezzecca, and moved toward Trento."}
+{"text":"Meanwhile, Prussian Minister President Otto von Bismarck saw that his own ends in the war had been achieved, and signed an armistice with Austria on 27 July. Italy officially laid down its arms on 12 August. Garibaldi was recalled from his successful march and resigned with a brief telegram reading only \"Obbedisco\" (\"I obey\")."}
+{"text":"Prussia's success on the northern front obliged Austria to cede Venetia (present-day Veneto and parts of Friuli) and the city of Mantua (the last remnant of the \"Quadrilatero\"). Under the terms of a peace treaty signed in Vienna on 12 October, Emperor Franz Joseph had already agreed to cede Venetia to Napoleon III in exchange for non-intervention in the Austro-Prussian War, and thus Napoleon ceded Venetia to Italy on 19 October, in exchange for the earlier Italian acquiescence to the French annexation of Savoy and Nice."}
+{"text":"In the peace treaty of Vienna, it was written that the annexation of Venetia would have become effective only after a referendum\u2014taken on 21 and 22 October\u2014to let the Venetian people express their will about being annexed or not to the Kingdom of Italy. Historians suggest that the referendum in Venetia was held under military pressure, as a mere 0.01% of voters (69 out of more than 642,000 ballots) voted against the annexation. However it should be admitted that the re-establishment of a Republic of Venice orphan of Istria and Dalmatia had little chances to develop."}
+{"text":"Austrian forces put up some opposition to the invading Italians, to little effect. Victor Emmanuel entered Venice and Venetian land, and performed an act of homage in the Piazza San Marco."}
+{"text":"The national party, with Garibaldi at its head, still aimed at the possession of Rome, as the historic capital of the peninsula. In 1867 Garibaldi made a second attempt to capture Rome, but the papal army, strengthened with a new French auxiliary force, defeated his poorly armed volunteers at Mentana. Subsequently, a French garrison remained in Civitavecchia until August 1870, when it was recalled following the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War."}
+{"text":"Before the defeat at Mentana on 3 November 1867, Enrico Cairoli, his brother Giovanni, and 70 companions had made a daring attempt to take Rome. The group had embarked in Terni and floated down the Tiber. Their arrival in Rome was to coincide with an uprising inside the city. On 22 October 1867, the revolutionaries inside Rome seized control of the Capitoline Hill and of Piazza Colonna. Unfortunately for the Cairolis and their companions, by the time they arrived at Villa Glori, on the northern outskirts of Rome, the uprising had already been suppressed. During the night of 22 October 1867, the group was surrounded by Papal Zouaves, and Giovanni was severely wounded. Enrico was mortally wounded and bled to death in Giovanni's arms."}
+{"text":"With Cairoli dead, command was assumed by Giovanni Tabacchi who had retreated with the remaining volunteers into the villa, where they continued to fire at the papal soldiers. These also retreated in the evening to Rome. The survivors retreated to the positions of those led by Garibaldi on the Italian border."}
+{"text":"At the summit of Villa Glori, near the spot where Enrico died, there is a plain white column dedicated to the Cairoli brothers and their 70 companions. About 200 meters to the right from the Terrazza del Pincio, there is a bronze monument of Giovanni holding the dying Enrico in his arm. A plaque lists the names of their companions. Giovanni never recovered from his wounds and from the tragic events of 1867. According to an eyewitness, when Giovanni died on 11 September 1869:"}
+{"text":"In July 1870, the Franco-Prussian War began. In early August, the French Emperor Napoleon III recalled his garrison from Rome, thus no longer providing protection to the Papal State. Widespread public demonstrations illustrated the demand that the Italian government take Rome. The Italian government took no direct action until the collapse of the Second French Empire at the Battle of Sedan. King Victor Emmanuel II sent Count Gustavo Ponza di San Martino to Pius IX with a personal letter offering a face-saving proposal that would have allowed the peaceful entry of the Italian Army into Rome, under the guise of offering protection to the pope. The Papacy, however, exhibited something less than enthusiasm for the plan:"}
+{"text":"Initially the Italian government had offered to let the pope keep the Leonine City, but the Pope rejected the offer because acceptance would have been an implied endorsement of the legitimacy of the Italian kingdom's rule over his former domain. Pius IX declared himself a prisoner in the Vatican, although he was not actually restrained from coming and going. Rather, being deposed and stripped of much of his former power also removed a measure of personal protection\u2014if he had walked the streets of Rome he might have been in danger from political opponents who had formerly kept their views private. Officially, the capital was not moved from Florence to Rome until July 1871."}
+{"text":"Historian Raffaele de Cesare made the following observations about Italian unification:"}
+{"text":"Unification was achieved entirely in terms of Piedmont's interests. Martin Clark says, \"It was Piedmontization all around.\" Cavour died unexpectedly in June 1861, at 50, and most of the many promises that he made to regional authorities to induce them to join the newly unified Italian kingdom were ignored. The new Kingdom of Italy was structured by renaming the old Kingdom of Sardinia and annexing all the new provinces into its structures. The first king was Victor Emmanuel II, who kept his old title."}
+{"text":"National and regional officials were all appointed by Piedmont. A few regional leaders succeeded to high positions in the new national government, but the top bureaucratic and military officials were mostly Piedmontese. The national capital was briefly moved to Florence and finally to Rome, one of the cases of Piedmont losing out."}
+{"text":"However, Piedmontese tax rates and regulations, diplomats and officials were imposed on all of Italy. The new constitution was Piedmont's old constitution. The document was generally liberal and was welcomed by liberal elements. However, its anticlerical provisions were resented in the pro-clerical regions in places such as around Venice, Rome, and Naples \u2013 as well as the island of Sicily. Cavour had promised there would be regional and municipal, local governments, but all the promises were broken in 1861."}
+{"text":"The first decade of the kingdom saw savage civil wars in Sicily and in the Naples region. Hearder claimed that failed efforts to protest unification involved \"a mixture of spontaneous peasant movement and a Bourbon-clerical reaction directed by the old authorities\"."}
+{"text":"The pope lost Rome in 1870 and ordered the Catholic Church not to co-operate with the new government, a decision fully reversed only in 1929. Most people for Risorgimento had wanted strong provinces, but they got a strong central state instead. The inevitable long-run results were a severe weakness of national unity and a politicized system based on mutually hostile regional violence. Such factors remain in the 21st century."}
+{"text":"From the spring of 1860 to the summer of 1861, a major challenge that the Piedmontese parliament faced on national unification was how they should govern and control the southern regions of the country that were frequently represented and described by northern Italian correspondents as \"corrupt\", \"barbaric\", and \"uncivilized\". In response to the depictions of southern Italy, the Piedmontese parliament had to decide whether it should investigate the southern regions to better understand the social and political situations there or it should establish jurisdiction and order by using mostly force."}
+{"text":"The dominance of letters sent from the Northern Italian correspondents that deemed Southern Italy to be \"so far from the ideas of progress and civilization\" ultimately induced the Piedmontese parliament to choose the latter course of action, which effectively illustrated the intimate connection between representation and rule. In essence, the Northern Italians' \"representation of the south as a land of barbarism (variously qualified as indecent, lacking in 'public conscience', ignorant, superstitious, etc.)\" provided the Piedmontese with the justification to rule the southern regions on the pretext of implementing a superior, more civilized, \"Piedmontese morality\"."}
+{"text":"Italian unification is still a topic of debate. According to Massimo d'Azeglio, centuries of foreign domination created remarkable differences in Italian society, and the role of the newly formed government was to face these differences and to create a unified Italian society. Still today the most famous quote of Massimo d'Azeglio is, \"L'Italia \u00e8 fatta. Restano da fare gli italiani\" (\"Italy has been made. Now it remains to make Italians\")."}
+{"text":"The economist and politician Francesco Saverio Nitti criticized the newly created state for not considering the substantial economic differences between Northern Italy, a free-market economy, and Southern Italy, a state protectionist economy, when integrating the two. When the Kingdom of Italy extended the free-market economy to the rest of the country, the South's economy collapsed under the weight of the North's. Nitti contended that this change should have been much more gradual in order to allow the birth of an adequate entrepreneurial class able to make strong investments and initiatives in the south. These mistakes, he felt, were the cause of the economic and social problems which came to be known as the Southern Question (\"Questione Meridionale\")."}
+{"text":"The politician, historian, and writer Gaetano Salvemini commented that even though Italian unification had been a strong opportunity for both a moral and economic rebirth of Italy's Mezzogiorno (Southern Italy), because of a lack of understanding and action on the part of politicians, corruption and organized crime flourished in the South. The Marxist theorist Antonio Gramsci criticized Italian unification for the limited presence of the masses in politics, as well as the lack of modern land reform in Italy."}
+{"text":"Revisionism of Risorgimento produced a clear radicalization of Italy in the mid-20th century, following the fall of the Savoy monarchy and fascism during World War II. Reviews of the historical facts concerning Italian unification's successes and failures continue to be undertaken by domestic and foreign academic authors, including Denis Mack Smith, Christopher Duggan, and Lucy Riall. Recent work emphasizes the central importance of nationalism."}
+{"text":"It can be said that Italian unification was never truly completed in the 19th century. Many Italians remained outside the borders of the Kingdom of Italy and this situation created the Italian irredentism."}
+{"text":"\"Italia irredenta\" (unredeemed Italy) was an Italian nationalist opinion movement that emerged after Italian unification. It advocated irredentism among the Italian people as well as other nationalities who were willing to become Italian and as a movement; it is also known as \"Italian irredentism\". Not a formal organization, it was just an opinion movement that claimed that Italy had to reach its \"natural borders,\" meaning that the country would need to incorporate all areas predominantly consisting of ethnic Italians within the near vicinity outside its borders. Similar patriotic and nationalistic ideas were common in Europe in the 19th century."}
+{"text":"Italy entered into the First World War in 1915 with the aim of completing national unity: for this reason, the Italian intervention in the First World War is also considered the Fourth Italian War of Independence, in a historiographical perspective that identifies in the latter the conclusion of the unification of Italy, whose military actions began during the revolutions of 1848 with the First Italian War of Independence."}
+{"text":"During the post-unification era, some Italians were dissatisfied with the current state of the Italian Kingdom since they wanted the kingdom to include Trieste, Istria, and other adjacent territories as well. This Italian irredentism succeeded in World War I with the annexation of Trieste and Trento, with the respective territories of Venezia Giulia and Trentino."}
+{"text":"The Kingdom of Italy had declared neutrality at the beginning of the war, officially because the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary was a defensive one, requiring its members to come under attack first. Many Italians were still hostile to Austria's continuing occupation of ethnically Italian areas, and Italy chose not to enter. Austria-Hungary requested Italian neutrality, while the Triple Entente (which included Great Britain, France and Russia) requested its intervention. With the London Pact, signed in April 1915, Italy agreed to declare war against the Central Powers in exchange for the \"irredent\" territories of Friuli, Trentino, and Dalmatia (see \"Italia irredenta\")."}
+{"text":"Italian irredentism obtained an important result after the First World War, when Italy gained Trieste, Gorizia, Istria, and the city of Zara. During the Second World War, after the Axis attack on Yugoslavia, Italy created the \"Governatorato di Dalmazia\" (from 1941 to September 1943), so the Kingdom of Italy annexed temporarily even Split (Italian \"Spalato\"), Kotor (\"Cattaro\"), and most of coastal Dalmatia. From 1942 to 1943, even Corsica and Nice (Italian \"Nizza\") were temporarily annexed to the Kingdom of Italy, nearly fulfilling in those years the ambitions of Italian irredentism."}
+{"text":"For its avowed purpose, the movement had the \"emancipation\" of all Italian lands still subject to foreign rule after \"Italian unification\". The Irredentists took language as the test of the alleged Italian nationality of the countries they proposed to emancipate, which were Trentino, Trieste, Dalmatia, Istria, Gorizia, Ticino, Nice (Nizza), Corsica, and Malta. Austria-Hungary promoted Croatian interests in Dalmatia and Istria to weaken Italian claims in the western Balkans before the First World War."}
+{"text":"After World War II, the irredentism movement faded away in Italian politics. Under the Treaty of Peace with Italy, 1947, Istria, Kvarner, most of the Julian March as well as the Dalmatian city of Zara was annexed by Yugoslavia causing the Istrian-Dalmatian exodus, which led to the emigration of between 230,000 and 350,000 of local ethnic Italians (Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians), the others being ethnic Slovenians, ethnic Croatians, and ethnic Istro-Romanians, choosing to maintain Italian citizenship."}
+{"text":"Italy celebrates the Anniversary of Risorgimento every fifty years, on 17 March (date of proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy)."}
+{"text":"The anniversary occurred in 1911 (50th), 1961 (100th), 2011 (150th) and 2021 (160th) with several celebrations throughout the country."}
+{"text":"In art, this period was characterised by the Neoclassicism that draws inspiration from the \"classical\" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome. The main Italian sculptor was Antonio Canova who became famous for his marble sculptures that delicately rendered nude flesh. The mourning Italia turrita on the tomb to Vittorio Alfieri is one of the main works of Risorgimento by Canova."}
+{"text":"Francesco Hayez was another remarkable artist of this period whose works often contain allegories about Italian unification. His most known painting \"The Kiss\" aims to portray the spirit of the Risorgimento: the man wears red, white and green, representing the Italian patriots fighting for independence from the Austro-Hungarian empire while the girl's pale blue dress signifies France, which in 1859 (the year of the painting's creation) made an alliance with the Kingdom of Piedmont and Sardinia enabling the latter to unify the many states of the Italian peninsula into the new kingdom of Italy. Hayez's three paintings on the \"Sicilian Vespers\" are an implicit protest against the foreign domination of Italy."}
+{"text":"Andrea Appiani, Domenico Induno, and Gerolamo Induno are also known for their patriotic canvases. Risorgimento was also represented by works not necessarily linked to Neoclassicism\u2014as in the case of Giovanni Fattori who was one of the leaders of the group known as the Macchiaioli and who soon became a leading Italian plein-airist, painting landscapes, rural scenes, and military life during the Italian unification."}
+{"text":"The most well known writer of Risorgimento is Alessandro Manzoni, whose works are a symbol of the Italian unification, both for its patriotic message and because of his efforts in the development of the modern, unified Italian language. He is famous for the novel \"The Betrothed\" (orig. Italian: \"I Promessi Sposi\") (1827), generally ranked among the masterpieces of world literature."}
+{"text":"Vittorio Alfieri, was the founder of a new school in the Italian drama, expressed in several occasions his suffering about the foreign domination's tyranny."}
+{"text":"Ugo Foscolo describes in his works the passion and love for the fatherland and the glorious history of the Italian people; these two concepts are respectively well expressed in two masterpieces, \"The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis\" and \"Dei Sepolcri\"."}
+{"text":"Vincenzo Monti, known for the Italian translation of the \"Iliad\", described in his works both enthusiasms and disappointments of Risorgimento until his death."}
+{"text":"Giovanni Berchet wrote a poetry characterized by a high moral, popular and social content; he also contributed to \"Il Conciliatore\", a progressive bi-weekly scientific and literary journal, influential in the early Risorgimento that was published in Milan from September 1818 until October 1819 when it was closed by the Austrian censors; its writers included also Ludovico di Breme, Giuseppe Nicolini, and Silvio Pellico."}
+{"text":"Giacomo Leopardi was one of the most important poets of Risorgimento thanks to works such as \"Canzone all'Italia\" and \"Risorgimento\"."}
+{"text":"Niccol\u00f2 Tommaseo, the editor of the \"Italian Language Dictionary\" in eight volumes, was a precursor of the Italian irredentism and his works are a rare examples of a metropolitan culture above nationalism; he supported the liberal revolution headed by Daniele Manin against the Austrian Empire and he will always support the unification of Italy."}
+{"text":"Francesco de Sanctis was one of the most important scholars of Italian language and literature in the 19th century; he supported the Revolution of 1848 in Naples and for this reason he was imprisoned for three years; his reputation as a lecturer on Dante in Turin brought him the appointment of professor at ETH Z\u00fcrich in 1856; he returned to Naples as Minister of Public Education after the unification of Italy."}
+{"text":"The writer and patriot Luigi Settembrini published anonymously the \"Protest of the People of the Two Sicilies\", a scathing indictment of the Bourbon government and was imprisoned and exiled several times by the Bourbons because of his support to Risorgimento; after the formation of the Kingdom of Italy, he was appointed professor of Italian literature at the University of Naples."}
+{"text":"Ippolito Nievo is another main representative of Risorgimento with his novel \"Confessioni d'un italiano\"; he fought with Giuseppe Garibaldi's Expedition of the Thousand."}
+{"text":"Risorgimento was also depicted in famous novels:"}
+{"text":"\"The Leopard\" written by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, \"Heart\" by Edmondo De Amicis, and \"Piccolo mondo antico\" by Antonio Fogazzaro."}
+{"text":"Risorgimento won the support of many leading Italian opera composers. Their librettos often saw a delicate balance between European romantic narratives and dramatic themes evoking nationalistic sentiments. Ideas expressed in operas stimulated the political mobilisation in Italy and among the cultured classes of Europe who appreciated Italian opera. Furthermore, Mazzini and many other nationalists found inspiration in musical discourses."}
+{"text":"In his \"L'italiana in Algeri (The Italian Girl in Algiers)\", Gioachino Rossini expressed his support to the unification of Italy; the patriotic line \"Pensa alla patria, e intrepido il tuo dover adempi: vedi per tutta Italia rinascere gli esempi d\u2019ardir e di valor\" (\"Think about the fatherland and intrepid do your duty: see for all Italy the birth of the examples of courage and value\") was censored in the Kingdom of Two Sicilies."}
+{"text":"Vincenzo Bellini was a secret member of the Carbonari and in his masterpiece \"I puritani (The Puritans)\", the last part of Act 2 is an allegory to Italian unification. Another Bellini opera, \"Norma\", was at the center of an unexpected standing ovation during its performance in Milan in 1859: while the chorus was performing \"Guerra, guerra! Le galliche selve (War, war! The Gallic forests)\" in Act 2, the Italians began to greet the chorus with loud applause and to yell the word \"War!\" several times towards the Austrian officers at the opera house."}
+{"text":"The relationship between Gaetano Donizetti and the Risorgimento is still controversial. Even though Giuseppe Mazzini tried to use some of Donizetti's works for promoting the Italian cause, Donizetti had always preferred not to get involved in politics."}
+{"text":"Franco Della Peruta argues in favour of close links between the operas and the Risorgimento, emphasizing Verdi's patriotic intent and links to the values of the Risorgimento. Verdi started as a republican, became a strong supporter of Cavour and entered the Italian parliament on Cavour's suggestion. His politics caused him to be frequently in trouble with the Austrian censors. Verdi's main works of 1842\u201349 were especially relevant to the struggle for independence, including \"Nabucco\" (1842), \"I Lombardi alla prima crociata\" (1843), \"Ernani\" (1844), \"Attila\" (1846), \"Macbeth\" (1847), and \"La battaglia di Legnano\" (1848). However, starting in the 1850s, his operas showed few patriotic themes because of the heavy censorship of the absolutist regimes in power."}
+{"text":"Giuseppe Verdi's \"Nabucco\" and the Risorgimento are the subject of a 2011 opera, \"Risorgimento!\" by Italian composer Lorenzo Ferrero, written to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Italian unification."}
+{"text":"\"The Leopard\" is a film from 1963, based on the novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, and directed by Luchino Visconti. It features Burt Lancaster as the eponymous character, the Prince of Salina. The film depicts his reaction to the Risorgimento, and his vain attempts to retain his social standing."}
+{"text":"There are other movies set in this period:"}
+{"text":"The Piedmontese Easter (Italian: \"Pasque piemontesi\", French: \"P\u00e2ques pi\u00e9montaises\" or \"P\u00e2ques vaudoises\") was a series of massacres on Waldensians (also known as Waldenses or Vaudois) by Savoyard troops in the Duchy of Savoy in 1655."}
+{"text":"Alexis Muston, a 19th-century French Protestant pastor based in Bordeaux, claimed in \"L'Israel des Alpes\" (Paris 1852) that neither Duke Charles Emmanuel II of Savoy nor the Waldensians themselves had sought to wage war, and both parties were content with maintaining the peace. It was due to the constant pressure exerted by New Council of Propagation of the Faith and the Extermination of Heresy (\"Concilium Novum de Propaganda Fide et Extirpandis Haereticis\"), an institution of the Roman Catholic Church established in Turin in 1650, that regularly convened in the palace of the Archbishop of Turin."}
+{"text":"Although the Waldensian population (numbering around 15,000 in 1685) in certain areas of Piedmont had held privileges of tolerance and freedom of belief and conscience for centuries that were written down in several documents, these long-established rights for Protestant Italians were being violated by new decrees passed by Andrea Gastaldo, member of the Council. Two decrees in particular threatened the continued existence of Waldensian communities in Piedmont: the Edict of 15 May 1650, abrogating the old Waldensian privileges, and the Edict of 25 January 1655, which was in fact a religious expulsion order:"}
+{"text":"The Waldensian refusal to obey the Edict of 25 January 1655 led the government to send troops to plunder and burn Waldensian houses, and to station over 15,000 soldiers in their valleys. The Savoyard army consisted of local soldiers, as well as French and Irish troops, under the command of the Marquis of Pianezza."}
+{"text":"On 24 April 1655, the Piedmontese Easter Massacre commenced: a massacre of thousands of Waldensian civilians (4,000 to 6,000 according to one estimate) was committed by ducal troops."}
+{"text":"This caused a mass exodus of Waldensian refugees to the Valley of Perosa (P\u00e9rouse), and led to the formation of rebel groups under the leadership of Joshua Janavel, Jean L\u00e9ger and Bartolomeo Jahier, whilst several states including England, France, Germany and the Protestant cantons of Switzerland attempted to intervene diplomatically. On 18 August, the Pinerolo Declaration of Mercy was issued, which constituted a peace treaty between Charles Emmanuel II and the Waldensians."}
+{"text":"Estimates of how many Waldensians were killed during the Piedmontese Easter vary widely, including \"more than a thousand\", \"4,000 to 6,000\", and \"6,000\"."}
+{"text":"Reports from the massacres spread quickly throughout Protestant Europe, sparking outrage, especially in Britain. Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell threatened the Duchy of Savoy with intervention, somewhat shaping the military decisions made by the Duke. English poet John Milton was inspired to write the sonnet \"On the Late Massacre in Piedmont\"."}
+{"text":"Chablais was a province of the Duchy of Savoy. Its capital was Thonon-les-Bains."}
+{"text":"Chablais was elevated to a duchy in 1311 by Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor."}
+{"text":"This region is currently divided into three territories, the \"Chablais savoyard\", the \"Chablais valaisan\", and the \"Chablais vaudois\", and is now split across two countries: France (department of Haute-Savoie) and Switzerland (cantons of Valais and Vaud). The Chablais Alps is a mountain range situated between the two countries."}
+{"text":"Italian irredentism in Savoy was the political movement among Savoyards promoting annexation to the Savoy dynasty's Kingdom of Italy. It was active from 1860 to World War II."}
+{"text":"Italian irredentists were citizens of Savoy who considered themselves to have ties with the House of Savoy dynasty. Savoy was the original territory of the duke of Savoy that later became King of Italy. Since the Renaissance the area had ruled over Piedmont and had for regional capital the town of Chamb\u00e9ry. The official language of Savoy was French since the 15th century, and was divided administratively in Savoie Propre (Chamb\u00e9ry), Chablais (Thonon), Faucigny (Bonneville), Genevois (Annecy), Maurienne (Saint Jean de Maurienne) and Tarentaise (Mo\u00fbtiers)."}
+{"text":"Vaugelas, a native of the duchy became one of the most renowned French linguists."}
+{"text":"In spring 1860 the area was annexed to France after a referendum and the administrative boundaries changed, but a segment of the Savoyard population demonstrated against the annexation. Indeed, the final vote count on the referendum announced by the Court of Appeals was 130,839 in favour of annexation to France, 235 opposed and 71 void, showing a questionable complete support for French nationalism (that motivated criticisms about rigged results)."}
+{"text":"At the beginning of 1860, more than 3000 people demonstrated in Chamb\u00e9ry against the annexation to France rumours. On 16 March 1860, the provinces of Northern Savoy (Chablais, Faucigny and Genevois) sent to Victor Emmanuel II, to Napoleon III, and to the Swiss Federal Council a declaration - sent under the presentation of a manifesto together with petitions - where they were saying that they did not wish to become French and shown their preference to remain united to the Kingdom of Sardinia (or be annexed to Switzerland in the case a separation with Sardinia was unavoidable)."}
+{"text":"Giuseppe Garibaldi complained about the referendum that allowed France to annex Savoy and Nice, and a group of his followers (between the Italian Savoyards) took refuge in Italy in the following years. With a 99.8% vote in favour of joining France, there were allegations of vote-rigging"}
+{"text":"In 1861, the \"Associazione Oriundi Savoiardi e Nizzardi Italiani\" was founded in Italy"}
+{"text":", an association of the Italian Savoyards that lasted one century until 1966."}
+{"text":"During the fascist period in the early 1940s, organizations were created that promoted the unification of Savoy to the Kingdom of Italy. The fascist members were nearly one hundred in 1942, concentrated mainly in Grenoble and Chamb\u00e9ry."}
+{"text":"When Italy occupied Savoy in November 1942 these fascist groups claimed that nearly 10,000 Savoyards demanded the unification to Italy, but nothing was done mainly because the King of Italy opposed it."}
+{"text":"After World War II all the organizations of the Irredentist Savoyards were outlawed by the French authorities of Charles de Gaulle."}
+{"text":"Most of the remaining Irredentist Savoyards supported in the 1950s and 1960s the development of autonomistic political organizations of Savoy, like the Mouvement R\u00e9gion Savoie (Savoy Regional Movement)."}
+{"text":"Only in 1940 did the Italian Savoyards fulfilled their irredentism, and some small areas bordering the Alps were annexed by Italy. The initial zone was 832\u00a0km\u00b2 and contained 28,500 inhabitants."}
+{"text":"In November 1942, in conjunction with \"Case Anton\", the German occupation of most of Vichy France, the Royal Italian Army (\"Regio Esercito\") expanded its occupation zone. Italian forces took control of Grenoble, Nice, the Rh\u00f4ne River delta, and nearly all of Savoy."}
+{"text":"A process of Italianization of the schools in Savoy was started, but was never fully implemented. Only a few Italian Savoyards were voluntarily enrolled in the Italian Army through fascist organizations like the Camicie Nere, most of them rejoined the resistance and fought against the invaders."}
+{"text":"Most of the Irredentist Savoyards actively helped the Jews in the occupied zone in Savoy, a region that acted as a refugee zone for Jews fleeing persecution in Vichy France during World War II."}
+{"text":"The projects to incorporate Savoy to the Kingdom of Italy were supported by the fascist Savoyards of Grenoble, but nothing was done even because in September 1943 Nazi Germany substituted Italy in the occupation of Savoy."}
+{"text":"Savoyards historically have spoken a dialect related to the Arpitan language: the Savoyard dialect. Arpitan is spoken in France, in Switzerland and in Italy. However, French is the predominant language today."}
+{"text":"During the fascist occupation in 1942-1943, Italian authorities promoted a process of Italianization of all the people of Savoy, mainly related to the use of Italian in substitution of the Savoyard dialect."}
+{"text":"Marc-Claude de Buttet (1530, Chamb\u00e9ry, then in the Duchy of Savoy - 1586, Geneva) was a Renaissance poet, courtier and humanist. He formed part of the La Pl\u00e9iade circle. He was lord of the feudal rent of Gr\u00e9sy in the province of Genevois (now Gr\u00e9sy-sur-Aix)."}
+{"text":"He came from an old Savoyard noble family originating in Ugine and since the late 14th century his ancestors had gained distinction as secretaries to the counts and dukes of Savoy at Chamb\u00e9ry and to the counts and dukes of Genvois (the future Genevois-Nemours branch of the house of Savoy) at Annecy."}
+{"text":"His father was Claude de Buttet, once master-auditor at the court of accounts at Annecy and later syndic of Chamb\u00e9ry. Claude's father, Mermet de Buttet, had inherited the lordship of Bourget-du-Lac and was secretary to Louis I, Duke of Savoy. Marc-Claude's mother Jeanne-Fran\u00e7oise de La Mar was originally from Geneva - Jeanne-Fran\u00e7oise's mother had been syndic of that city."}
+{"text":"In 1549 de Buttet happily followed the precepts on poetry which came to be published by Joachim du Bellay as \"D\u00e9fense et illustration de la langue fran\u00e7aise\". He became friends with Pierre de Ronsard and for the rest of their lives they exchanged epigrams praising each other."}
+{"text":"de Buttet edited his first elegy \"Le Tr\u00e9pas de la Reine de Navarre\" - this work added to that done by all his fellow members of la Pl\u00e9iade."}
+{"text":"In 1554 he returned to Savoy and renewed his acquaintances with Savoyard friends who had stayed behind there, including Emmanuel-Philibert de Pingon and Louis Milliet. Chamb\u00e9ry was still under French occupation and a French parliament. A new code of laws was published with a preface by Barth\u00e9l\u00e9my Aneau, in which inhabitants of Savoy were called savages and barbarians. Aged 27, de Buttet published a fierce riposte in prose, using the publisher Angelin Benoist in Lyon. It was entitled \"Apologia for Savoy against the insults of Barth\u00e9l\u00e9my Aneau\"."}
+{"text":"De Buttet died surrounded by his nephews in 1586 - he never married and had no issue."}
+{"text":"William I of Geneva ( \u2013 25 July 1195) was Count of Geneva from 1178 to 1195, in succession to his father, Count Amadeus I of Geneva. William's mother was Amadeus' wife, Matilda de Cuiseaux."}
+{"text":"He died at the Ch\u00e2teau de Novel in Annecy, France."}
+{"text":"Peter (died 1392) was the fourth of five sons of Count Amadeus III of Geneva and succeeded his brother John I as Count of Geneva in 1370. When he died without a son to succeed him in 1392, the county passed to the fifth of the brothers, then Antipope Clement VII."}
+{"text":"Peter led a contingent of Genevans in an invasion of the Kingdom of Naples in 1382. The invasion was led by his lord, Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy, and by Louis I, Duke of Anjou, the adopted son and heir of the imprisoned Queen Joan I of Naples, all supporters of his brother's claim to the papal throne. He was present at the deathbed of Amadeus at Castropignano on 1 March 1383. The Savoyard treasurer Pierre Voisin, in his final account, described Amadeus' death as occurring \"on [the] first day of the month of March ... at about midnight, in the presence of Louis, duke of Calabria and Anjou, Lord Pierre, count of Geneva. . .\""}
+{"text":"Around 1377 Peter was employing a Jewish physician, Isaac de Portis."}
+{"text":"Amadeus IV (died 1369) was the Count of Geneva from 1367 until his death. He was the second son of Amadeus III and Mahaut d'Auvergne. He succeeded his childless brother Aymon III in August 1367. He reversed the policy of his father and brother respecting the House of Savoy, and supported the bishops of Lausanne and Geneva against his cousin Amadeus VI of Savoy."}
+{"text":"Amadeus seems to have come to terms with his Savoyard cousin by 13 May 1368, the date on which he performed the act of homage to him for the county of Geneva. He then travelled with the count of Savoy into Italy for the campaign to bring Philip II of Piedmont to submission, and was present at Philip's trial by a stacked Savoyard court at Rivoli in September\u2013October 1368. It is possible that the real reason for his accompanying Amadeus into Italy was to have an opportunity to speak with the Emperor, who was also in the region at that time. In February 1369 the Emperor repeated his revocation of Amadeus VI's vicariate. Amadeus IV died later that year."}
+{"text":"Rudolf or Rudolph (French: \"Raoul\" or \"Rodolphe de Gen\u00e8ve\") was the Count of Geneva from 1252 until his death in 1265. He was the eldest son of William II, and was described by a Renaissance historian as \u201cthe more quarrelsome son of a quarrelsome father.\u201d He was a constant warrior, and his most frequent foes were of the House of Savoy."}
+{"text":"In 1250, when the Savoyards appeared to be engaged in a concerted effort to expand their territory, William II and Rudolf again went to war, this time mainly in defence of the Albert III of La Tour-du-Pin, who was William's brother-in-law and Rudolf's father-in-law, and whose lands were threatened by both Peter and his brother Philip. In the war Savoy defeated Geneva, and Philip imposed a \u201cCarthaginian peace\u201d on the losers. The indemnity had never been paid and was mercifully halved, and more castles were taken. It was a reduced patrimony that Rudolf inherited two years later."}
+{"text":"In November 1252 William II died at Dom\u00e8ne. Rudolf immediately acted to expand his shrunken county of Geneva. By arms he forced Simon of Joinville, the lord of Gex and son of Simon, lord of Joinville, to do him homage. He seized the castle at Charousse and expelled a creditor of \u201cthe Little Charlemagne\u201d, who was holding it as security on a loan. For this castle he steadfastly refused to do homage to any Savoyard. When his aunt, Margaret, the dowager countess of Savoy, died in 1258, Rudolf took over the lands at Cornillon and the Val des Clefs that formed her dowry."}
+{"text":"Rudolf died in 1265 and was succeeded by his son Aymon II, who was later succeeded by his brother Amadeus II."}
+{"text":"Amadeus I of Geneva (1098\u20131178) was count of Geneva. He succeeded his father in the county's government in 1128, and remained count of Geneva until his death in 1178. Amadeus was the son of Aymon I of Geneva (the preceding count) and of Ida Faucigny."}
+{"text":"During his lifetime Amadeus I added the city of Annecy to his territories, thereby increasing the power of his County."}
+{"text":"He also sought the protection of the House of Z\u00e4hringen, after losing the rights to the dioceses of Sion, Lausanne and Geneva. Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in 1156 granted the rights to Berthold IV of Z\u00e4hringen instead. However, Pope Alexander III took the bishop of Lausanne under his protection and superseded all claims to Lausanne, thereby reducing the power of the Duke of Z\u00e4hringen. The three bishops of the dioceses in question, however, wanted to maintain autonomy from all parties concerned."}
+{"text":"In 1162, Amadeus permitted the use of the land of Vaud, and the forests that belonged to him, by the Abbot of Haut-Cr\u00eat."}
+{"text":"In 1178 Amadeus donated the vineyards and tithes collected in Bossey to the canons of the chapter of St. Pierre Cathedral in Geneva."}
+{"text":"Amadeus was the son of Aymon I of Geneva (f. 1128) and Ida Faucigny, daughter of Sir Lu\u00eds I of Faucigny. For two years Amadeus was married to the Lady Matilde of Cuiseaux, daughter of Hugo I of Cuiseaux, with whom he had:"}
+{"text":"In a second marriage (1137), with Lady Beatriz de Dom\u00e8ne, daughter of Pierre Ainar of Dom\u00e8ne, he had:"}
+{"text":"Aymon III or Aimon III (died 30\/31 August 1367), a soldier, statesman and Crusader, was the twelfth Count of Geneva between January 1367 and his death seven months thence. He was the eldest son and successor of Amadeus III and Mahaut d'Auvergne. He pursued a policy of alliance and cooperation with the House of Savoy begun by his father. By all contemporary accounts, he was \"handsome [and] possessed great charm of person and of manner.\""}
+{"text":"On 23 May 1366, shortly before leaving on Crusade, Aymon made a written agreement to marry Margaret, eldest daughter of the late Henri de Joinville, Count of Vaud\u00e9mont, but the marriage never took place because of his death."}
+{"text":"William II (\"floruit\" 1208\u20131252) was the Count of Geneva, originally a usurper, from 1225 until his death. He fought a long series of wars with the House of Savoy and lost control of all of his county outside of the traditional Genevois and saw his influence over the city of Geneva proper and the Bishop of Geneva severely reduced."}
+{"text":"William was the second son of Count William I of Geneva (died 1195) and younger brother of Count Humbert I of Geneva. When Humbert died in 1225, William seized the county and expelled Humbert's sons, his nephews, Peter and Ebal, who eventually found protection under Peter \"le Petit Charlemagne\", who had brought them with him to England by 1244. That year Peter, the elder, married a rich English heiress, Mathilda de Lacy. Peter \"le Petit Charlemagne\" was in fact William's nephew, a son of his sister Margaret."}
+{"text":"In September 1229 at Tournon William was one of the arbiters of a dispute between the Bishop of Valence, William of Savoy, who was a brother of \"le Petit Charlemagne\", and the citizens of Valence. In 1234 he had his second son, Amadeus, installed as a canon in the Diocese of Lausanne. In 1239 Amadeus was successful in leading the pro-Genevan party over he pro-Savoyard in the episcopal election which placed Jean de Cossonay on the bishop's seat."}
+{"text":"William II died at Dom\u00e8ne in November 1252 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Rudolf, while his younger son, Henry, received the fortresses of Vuache and Ternier. Besides his sons Rudolf, Amadeus and Henry, William II had four others. One Savoyard Renaissance historian described William II as \u201cquarrelsome\u201d."}
+{"text":"Aymon II (died 1280) was the Count of Geneva from 1265. He was the son and heir of Count Rudolf, but died heirless himself and was succeeded by his brother Amadeus II. According to one modern historian, he was \u201coverawed by the power of the count of Savoy\u201d, and did little during his fifteen-year reign to recover the lands and jurisdictions lost to the Savoyards by his father and grandfather."}
+{"text":"In 1279 Aymon married Constance, a daughter of Gaston VII of B\u00e9arn and viscountess in her own right of Marsan and Bigorre. The marriage was arranged by Gaston's second wife, \u201cla Grande Dauphine\u201d Beatrice, who as a daughter of Peter II of Savoy and widow of Guigues VII of Viennois, was related to two traditional rivals of the counts of Geneva. Constance was twice widowed herself, having been married very briefly to Alfonso, a son of James I of Aragon, and to Henry of Almain, son of Richard, King of Germany. She bore him no children."}
+{"text":"Late in his life, Aymon may have become involved an anti-Angevin alliance under the auspices of the Crown of Aragon. In 1280, Peter III of Aragon (James's son), who had a claim on the Kingdom of Sicily, then ruled by an Angevin, sent a secretive message, \"to treat of certain affairs\", to several princes who were threatened by Angevin power in the County of Provence and the Piedmont. Dalmau de Villarasa, the ambassador bearing the letters, was accredited to, among others, the count of Geneva."}
+{"text":"William III of Geneva (, 1280 - 1320) was the Count of Geneva from 1308 to 1320. He was the son of count Amadeus II of Geneva, and Agn\u00e8s, daughter of John, Count of Chalon."}
+{"text":"William was the oldest son of the Count of Geneva, Amadeus II, and Agn\u00e8s de Chalon, daughter of Jean I of Chalon from the House of Ivrea. He was born in the Region of Savoy-Maurienne, he had two other brothers Hugues, a layman, and Am\u00e9d\u00e9e who will become bishop of Toul from 1320 to 1330. His sister Jeanne married Guichard VI of Albon, nicknamed LeGrand, lord of Beaujeuet, his other sister Marie, married Jean II de Chalon-Arlay son of John I of Chalon-Arlay (1259-1316).<br>"}
+{"text":"In 1297, married Agnes of Savoy, daughter of Amadeus V, Count of Savoy, with issue:"}
+{"text":"William also had an illegitimate son with Emeraude de La Frasse, lady of Montjoie:"}
+{"text":"William III accession to the throne, his father Count Amadeus, establishes his will at the castle of La Balme, September 24, 1306. In this act, he designates him as his successor and specifies that these brothers, Am\u00e9d\u00e9e and Hugues, will receive the castles of Varey, Mornex, , Rumilly-sous-Cornillon, and Cornillon, for the vicedominus des Bornes, for the rights on the market of La Roche, and for the lands and rents which he possesses in Vaud, all under the condition that they will be able to alienate these castles and rights only in favor of the heirs of Count. His father dies on May 22, 1308, near the Vuache castle."}
+{"text":"The actual entry in function of Count William III is not known, Pierre Duparc gives the hypothesis of Jules Vuy who considered that the new count became sometime before the death of Amadeus. This observation is based on the analysis of a charter, not original, of 1308. The historian Matthieu de la Corbi\u00e8re; however, indicates \"by a transaction concluded on May 29, his eldest son Guillaume took over\"."}
+{"text":"Death and succession, on April 11, 1319, Count William establishes his will at the castle of Annecy naming heir his son Am\u00e9d\u00e9e. In the event that his son disappears, he makes his brothers, Hugues and Am\u00e9d\u00e9e his successors. In his will, he leaves a rent to his brothers, his mother, Agn\u00e8s of Chalon, and his wife Agn\u00e8s of Savoy, his dowry and the Valley of the Keys and the castle of Charousse. The act is supplemented by donations to the Church and its institutions."}
+{"text":"Amadeus II (died 22 May 1308) was the Count of Geneva, which included the Genevois, but not the city of Geneva, from 1280 to 1308. He was the second son of Count Rudolf and succeeded his heirless brother Aymon II."}
+{"text":"Amadeus died 22 May 1308 \"apud lu Bacho\", and was buried the next day (23 May) at Montagny."}
+{"text":"Amadeus married Agnes, daughter of John, Count of Chalon, and his second wife, Laurette de Commercy, by a marriage contract drawn up 1 June 1285. She bore him three sons and two daughters who were still living at his death:"}
+{"text":"The Genevois is a former province of the Duchy of Savoy. Its capital is Annecy and other centres include Faverges, Th\u00f4nes, and La Clusaz. It was bordered by the provinces of Carouge to the north-west, Faucigny to the north-east, and Savoy proper to the south-east and south-west."}
+{"text":"Although the province took its name from the city of Geneva, the Counts of Geneva were never able to exercise their authority in the city itself, which was ruled by the Bishops of Geneva. The County of Geneva, having passed to the de Thoire et Villars family on the death of Count Robert (the Avignon Pope Clement VII) in 1394, was sold in 1401 to the Counts of Savoy. It was subsequently conceded in appanage to several Savoyard princes before being joined to the Duchy of Savoy in 1659."}
+{"text":"The Valais witch trials consisted of a witch-hunt including a series of witch trials which took place in the Valais (the House of Savoy and the prince-bishopric of Sion), today part of Switzerland, beginning in 1428."}
+{"text":"The Valais witch-hunt is the first of the systematic campaigns which would become much more widespread in the decades to come, initiating the period of witch trials in Europe."}
+{"text":"The persecutions started in French-speaking Lower Valais (House of Savoy and prince-bishopric of Sion) and spread to German-speaking Upper Valais and to nearby valleys in the Western Alps."}
+{"text":"They subsided after six to eight years (c. 1434\/6), but the phenomenon spread further afield from here, to Vaud, Fribourg, Neuchatel, and beyond."}
+{"text":"Although occasional burning of witches (\"hexen\") is recorded in Switzerland since the beginning of the 15th century, the Valais trials of 1428 are the first event in which the accusation of sorcery leads to systematic persecution with hundreds of victims executed."}
+{"text":"The main contemporary account of the event is the short report by Johannes Fr\u00fcnd of Lucerne, written in c. 1430, possibly on the request of Christoph von Silenen, at the time castellan in Siders. It is extant in two versions, one in Lucerne (Zentralbibliothek BB 335, pp. 483-488), the other in Strasbourg (BNU Ms. 2. 935, ff. 162-164). The Lucerne version is older, and a probable autograph. This is the oldest known account of the incipient systematic witch-hunts of the 1430s to 1440s. A critical edition was published along with four other early texts on the topic by Ostorero et al. (1999)."}
+{"text":"The witch-trials emerged before the background of the persecution of the Waldensians in Fribourg (1399\u20131430), due to which a functioning inquisition with a seat in Lausanne had been established. Additionally, the Valais was at the time politically fragmented, in the wake of the rebellion of 1415\u20131420 and the weakening of Savoyard rule in Vaud."}
+{"text":"The events began in Val d'Anniviers (\"Enfis\") and Val d'H\u00e9rens (\"Urens\"), the valleys south of Siders and Sion, respectively. Still, in the same year, the witch-hunt spread first throughout the French-speaking (\"walche\") Lower Valais and then to the German-speaking (\"tutsche\") Upper Valais."}
+{"text":"By the summer of 1428, the entire Valais was affected. On 7 August, the authorities in Leuk issued a formal proclamation of the necessary procedures for a witch trial. According to this document, the \"public talk or slander of three or four neighbours\" was enough for arrest and imprisonment, even if the accused was a member of the nobility. The use of torture was reserved for victims \"slandered by five, six, or seven or more persons, up to the number of ten, who were qualified to do so and not under suspicion themselves\", but also those \"accused by three persons who had been tried and sentenced to death for the practice of sorcery\"."}
+{"text":"According to Fr\u00fcnd's account, the victims were accused of murder, heresy, and sorcery, being in pact with the devil. They were supposedly paying tribute to the devil, who appeared as a black animal such as a bear or a ram. The devil asked his followers to avoid holy mass and confession. Fr\u00fcnd relates that some of the accused were tortured to death without issuing a confession, while others did confess a variety of evil deeds, such as causing lameness, blindness, madness, miscarriage, impotence, infertility, and killing and eating their own children."}
+{"text":"He also alludes to the topos of flying witches - saying that they would apply a salve to their chairs, and then ride the chairs wherever they wanted - and the witches sabbath, saying that the witches would meet in people's cellars at night and drink their wine, and meeting to listen to anti-Christian sermons by the devil in the form of a schoolmaster, with a mock-confession of any good-deeds they might have done, which would gain much influence in the early modern period. He even reports some of them being werewolves, killing livestock in the shape of a wolf, and knowing the recipe of an invisibility potion."}
+{"text":"Others confessed to ruining crops (wine and grain) and causing livestock to give no milk and plowing teams to stand still."}
+{"text":"The trials continued for several years more, well into the 1430s."}
+{"text":"The number of victims is unknown, but ranges in the hundreds. Fr\u00fcnd speaks of a conspiracy of \"700\" witches of which \"more than 200\" had been burned two years into the trials (c. 1430)."}
+{"text":"Contrary to the later phase of the European witch-trials, when the majority of those accused were women, the victims in the Valais witch trials are estimated to have been two-thirds male and one-third female."}
+{"text":"After the witch trials had subsided in Valais and Savoy, the phenomenon spread further in the decades leading up to the Reformation, to Fribourg and Neuchatel (1440), Vevey (1448), the bishopric of Lausanne and Lake Geneva area (c. 1460\u20131480) and Dommartin (1498, 1524-1528)."}
+{"text":"The influence of the Valais on the much larger phenomenon of the witch trials in the early modern period, lasting throughout the 16th and 17th centuries in much of Western Europe, may have been amplified by the Council of Basel which took place during the same period, during 1431\u20131437."}
+{"text":"Here, theologians discussed the evidence for the new phenomenon of witchcraft and collected the court proceedings from the Valais, Vaud, and Savoy region. These documents were perused by the first generation of authors on witchcraft, such as Johannes Nider, the author of \"Formicarius\" (written 1436\u20131438)."}
+{"text":"Italian-occupied France was an area of south-eastern France and Monaco occupied by the Kingdom of Italy between 1940 and 1943 in parallel to the German occupation of France. The occupation had two phases, divided by Case Anton in November 1942 in which the Italian zone expanded significantly. Italian forces retreated from France in September 1943 in the aftermath of the fall of the Fascist regime in Italy, and German Wehrmacht forces occupied the abandoned areas until the Liberation (Operation Dragoon, 1944)."}
+{"text":"The initial Italian occupation of France territory occurred in June 1940; it was then expanded in November 1942."}
+{"text":"The German offensive against the Low Countries and France began on 10 May and by the middle of May German forces were on French soil. By the start of June, British forces were evacuating from the pocket in Northern France. On 10 June 1940, Italy declared war against the French and British. Ten days later, the Italian army invaded France. On 24 June 1940, after the Fall of France, Italy and France signed the Franco-Italian Armistice, two days after the cessation of hostilities between France and Germany, agreeing upon an Italian zone of occupation."}
+{"text":"This initial zone of occupation annexed officially to the Kingdom of Italy was and contained 28,500 inhabitants. The largest town contained within the initial Italian zone of occupation was Menton. The main city inside the \"demilitarized zone\" of from the former border with the Italian Alpine Wall was Nice."}
+{"text":"In November 1942, in conjunction with \"Case Anton\", the German occupation of most of Vichy France, the Royal Italian Army (\"Regio Esercito\") expanded its occupation zone. Italian forces took control of Toulon and all of Provence up to the river Rh\u00f4ne, with the island of Corsica (claimed by the Italian irredentists). Nice and Corsica were to be annexed to Italy (as had happened in 1940 with Menton), in order to fulfil the aspirations of Italian irredentists (including local groups such as the Nizzardo Italians and the Corsican Italians). But this was not completed because of the Italian armistice in September 1943 when the Germans took over the Italian occupation zones."}
+{"text":"The area of southeast France actually occupied by the Italians has been disputed. A study of the postal history of the region has cast new light on the part of France controlled by the Italians and the Germans (Trapnell, 2014). By studying mail that had been censored by the occupying power, this study showed that the Italians occupied the eastern part up to a \"line\" joining Toulon - Gap - Grenoble - Chamb\u00e9ry - Annecy - Geneva. Places occupied by the Italians west of this were few or transitory."}
+{"text":"The Italian Army of occupation in southern France in November 1942 was made up of four infantry divisions with 136,000 soldiers and 6,000 officers, while in Corsica there were 66,000 soldiers with 3,000 officers. There was virtually no guerrilla war against the Italians in France until summer 1943. The Vichy regime that controlled southern France was friendly toward Italy, seeking concessions of the sort Germany would never make in its occupation zone."}
+{"text":"Many thousands of Jews moved to the Italian zone of occupation to escape Nazi persecution in Vichy France. Nearly 80% of the remaining 300,000 French Jews took refuge there after November 1942. The book Robert O. Paxton's \"Vichy France, Old Guard, New Order\" describes how the Italian zone acted as a refuge for Jews fleeing persecution in Vichy France during the occupation."}
+{"text":"The Italian Jewish banker Angelo Donati had an important role in convincing the Italian civil and military authorities to protect the Jews from French persecution."}
+{"text":"In January 1943 the Italians refused to cooperate with the Nazis in rounding up the Jews living in the occupied zone of France under their control and in March prevented the Nazis from deporting Jews in their zone. German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop complained to Mussolini that \"Italian military circles... lack a proper understanding of the Jewish question.\""}
+{"text":"However, when the Italians signed the armistice with the Allies, German troops invaded the former Italian zone on 8 September 1943 and initiated brutal raids. Alois Brunner, the SS official for Jewish affairs, was placed at the head of units formed to search out Jews. Within five months, 5,000 Jews were caught and deported."}
+{"text":"In August 1940, the Italian Royal Navy (\"Regia Marina\") established a submarine base at Bordeaux, outside Italian-occupied France."}
+{"text":"Operating from \"Bordeaux Sommergibile\" (\"BETASOM\") as it was known, thirty-two Italian submarines participated in the Battle of the Atlantic. These submarines sank 109 Allied merchant ships (593,864\u00a0tons) and 18 warships (20,000 tons) up to September 1943. Eleven of these submarines were lost."}
+{"text":"The Bishopric of Courland (, Low German: \"Bisdom Curland\") was the second smallest (4500\u00a0km2) ecclesiastical state in the Livonian Confederation founded in the aftermath of the Livonian Crusade. During the Livonian War in 1559 the bishopric became a possession of Denmark, and in 1585 sold by Denmark to Poland\u2013Lithuania."}
+{"text":"In ancient times a Baltic tribe, the Curonians, inhabited Courland and had strong links with the maritime tribes in both sides of the Baltic sea. In 1230, Lamekinas, Duke of West Courland, signed an agreement with the vice-legat Baldwin of Alna (\"Baudoin d\u2019Aulne\") of the Pope Gregory IX about the voluntary conversion of his people to Christianity and receiving the same rights as the inhabitants of Gotland."}
+{"text":"In 1234 Dominican friar Engelbert was appointed to be the first bishop of Courland. In 1242 the area of Courland passed under the influence of the Teutonic Knights owing to the amalgamation of this order with that of the Brethren of the Sword in 1237. In 1253 the territory of Courland was divided between the Bishopric of Courland and the Livonian branch of the Order of Teutonic Knights. After severe defeat of knights in the Battle of Durbe the Bishop Heinrich von L\u00fctzelburg left Courland in 1263 and the new bishop returned in his bishopric only after suppression of Curonian and Semigallian insurgencies in 1290."}
+{"text":"During the Livonian War (1558\u20131582), under the increasing pressure of Muscovy, the Livonian Confederation dissolved."}
+{"text":"In 1559 the Bishop of Courland and \u00d6sel-Wiek sold his lands to King Frederick II of Denmark for 30,000 thalers. The Danish king gave the territory to his younger brother Duke Magnus of Holstein. Duke Magnus was crowned King of Livonia in 1570. In 1577, having lost Ivan's favor and receiving no support from his brother, Magnus called on the Livonian nobility to rally to him in a struggle against foreign occupation. He was attacked by Ivan's forces and taken prisoner. On his release, he renounced his royal title."}
+{"text":"Magnus spent the last six years of his life at the castle of Pilten, where he died as a pensioner of the Polish crown. He promised to transfer it to the Duchy of Courland after his death, but this plan failed and only later Wilhelm Kettler did regain this district. After Magnus of Livonia died in 1583, Polish\u2013Lithuanian Commonwealth invaded his territories in the Duchy of Courland and Frederick II of Denmark decided to sell his rights of inheritance."}
+{"text":"The valleys of the Alps have been inhabited since prehistoric times. The Alpine culture, which developed there, centers on transhumance."}
+{"text":"Currently the Alps are divided among eight states: France, Monaco, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany and Slovenia. In 1991 the Alpine Convention was established to regulate this transnational area, whose area measures about ."}
+{"text":"The Wildkirchli caves in the Appenzell Alps show traces of Neanderthal habitation (about 40,000 BCE). During the W\u00fcrm glaciation (up to c. 11700 BP), the entire Alps were covered in ice."}
+{"text":"Anatomically modern humans reach the Alpine region by c. 30,000 years ago. MtDNA Haplogroup K (believed to have originated in the mid-Upper Paleolithic, between about 30,000 and 22,000 years ago, with an estimated age here of c. 12,000 years BP), is a genetic marker associated with southeastern Alpine region."}
+{"text":"Traces of transhumance appear in the neolithic. In the Bronze Age, the Alps formed the boundary of the Urnfield and Terramare cultures."}
+{"text":"The mummy found on the \u00d6tztaler Alps, known as \"\u00d6tzi the Iceman,\" lived c. 3200 BC. At that stage the population in its majority had already changed from an economy based on hunting and gathering to one based on agriculture and animal husbandry. It is still an open question whether forms of pastoral mobility, such as transhumance (alpiculture), already existed in prehistory."}
+{"text":"The earliest historical accounts date to the Roman period, mostly due to Greco-Roman ethnography, with some epigraphic evidence due to the Raetians, Lepontii and Gauls, with Ligurians and Venetii occupying the fringes in the southwest and southeast, respectively (Cisalpine Gaul) during the 4th and 3rd centuries BC."}
+{"text":"The Rock Drawings in Valcamonica date to this period. A few details have come down to modern scholars of the conquest of many of the Alpine tribes by Augustus, as well as Hannibal's battles across the Alps."}
+{"text":"Most of the local Gallic tribes allied themselves with the Carthaginians in the Second Punic War, for the duration of which Rome lost control over most of Northern Italy. The Roman conquest of Italy was only complete after the Roman victory over Carthage, by the 190s BC."}
+{"text":"Between 35 and 6 BC, the Alpine region was gradually integrated into the expanding Roman Empire. The contemporary monument Tropaeum Alpium in La Turbie celebrates the victory won by the Romans over 46 tribes in these mountains. The subsequent construction of roads over the Alpine passes first permitted southern and northern Roman settlements in the Alps to be connected, and eventually integrated the inhabitants of the Alps into the culture of the Empire. The upper Rh\u00f4ne valley or \"Vallis Poenina\" fell to the Romans after a battle at Octodurus (Martigny) in 57 BC. Aosta was founded in 25 BC as \"Augusta Praetoria Salassorum\" in the former territory of the Salassi. Raetia was conquered in 15 BC."}
+{"text":"In the 7th century, much of the Eastern Alps were settled by Slavs. Between the 7th and 9th century, the Slavic principality of Carantania existed as one of the few non-Germanic polities in the Alps. The Alpine Slavs, who inhabited the majority of present-day Austria and Slovenia, were gradually Germanized from the 9th to the 14th century. The modern Slovenes are their southernmost descendants."}
+{"text":"The successive emigration and occupation of the Alpine region by the Alemanni from the 6th to the 8th centuries are, too, known only in outline. For \"mainstream\" history, the Frankish and later the Habsburg empire, the Alps had strategic importance as an obstacle, not as a landscape, and the Alpine passes have consequently had great significance militarily."}
+{"text":"Between 889 and 973, a Muslim community existed at Fraxinetum in the Western Alps. These \"Saracens\", as they were known, blocked the Alpine passes to Christian travelers until their expulsion by Christian forces led by Arduin Glaber in 973, at which point transalpine trade was able to resume."}
+{"text":"Not until the final breakup of the Carolingian Empire in the 10th and 11th centuries is it possible to trace out the local history of different parts of the Alps, notably with the High Medieval Walser migrations."}
+{"text":"Later Medieval to Early Modern Era (1200 to 1900)."}
+{"text":"The process of state formation in the Alps was driven by the proximity to focal areas of European conflicts such as in the Italian wars of 1494\u20131559. In that period the socio-political structures of Alpine regions drifted apart. One can identify three different developmental models: one of princely centralization (Western Alps), a local-communal one (Switzerland) and an intermediate one, characterised by a powerful nobility (Eastern Alps)."}
+{"text":"In the Central Alps the chief event, on the northern side of the chain, is the gradual formation from 1291 to 1516 of the Swiss Confederacy, at least so far as regards the mountain Cantons, and with especial reference to the independent confederations of the Grisons and the Valais, which only became full members of the Confederation in 1803 and 1815 respectively. The attraction of the south was too strong for both the Forest Cantons and the Grisons, so that both tried to secure, and actually did secure, various bits of the Milanese."}
+{"text":"In the 15th century, the Forest Cantons won the Val Leventina as well as Bellinzona and the Val Blenio (though the Ossola Valley was held for a time only). Blenio was added to the Val Bregaglia (which had been given to the bishop of Coire in 960 by the emperor Otto I), along with the valleys of Mesocco and of Poschiavo."}
+{"text":"In the case of the Western Alps (excluding the part from the chain of Mont Blanc to the Simplon Pass, which followed the fortunes of the Valais), a prolonged struggle for control took place between the feudal lords of Savoy, the Dauphin\u00e9 and Provence. In 1349 the Dauphin\u00e9 fell to France, while in 1388 the county of Nice passed from Provence to the house of Savoy, which also then held Piedmont as well as other lands on the Italian side of the Alps. The struggle henceforth was limited to France and the house of Savoy, but little by little France succeeded in pushing back the house of Savoy across the Alps, forcing it to become a purely Italian power."}
+{"text":"One turning-point in the rivalry was the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), by which France ceded to Savoy the Alpine districts of Exilles, Bardonn\u00e8che (Bardonecchia), Oulx, Fenestrelles, and Ch\u00e2tean Dauphin, while Savoy handed over to France the valley of Barcelonnette, situated on the western slope of the Alps and forming part of the county of Nice. The final act in this long-continued struggle took place in 1860, when France obtained by cession the rest of the county of Nice and also Savoy, thus remaining sole ruler on the western slope of the Alps."}
+{"text":"For the modern era it is possible to offer a quantitative estimate of the population of the Alpine region. Within the area delimited by the Alpine Convention, there were about 3.1 million inhabitants in 1500, 5.8 in 1800, 8.5 in 1900 and 13.9 in 2000."}
+{"text":"During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries several important changes occurred. First, the Alpine population was now characterised by a particular growth rate, which was increasingly differentiated from that of the more dynamic non-mountain areas. Second, the migratory fluxes became ever more important and ever more directed toward extra-European destinations. Beginning in the early twentieth century, several regions were affected by depopulation. This process amplified the imbalanced distribution of the population within the Alps, because the urban centres at lower altitudes experienced strong growth and clearly became the most important dynamic localities during the twentieth century."}
+{"text":"In general, it is noteworthy that even if modern industry \u2013 tourism, the railway and later the highway system \u2013 represented opportunities for the Alps, complementing its traditional openness to new challenges, it also produced negative consequences, such as the human impact on the environment."}
+{"text":"Like other parts of Europe, the Alpine region was affected by the formation of the nation states that produced tensions between various groups and had consequences for border areas. In these regions, the coercive power of the state was felt much more strongly that it had been before. Borders lost their permeability and now bisected areas formerly characterised by a shared sense of community and ongoing exchanges. During World War I the eastern Alpine region was one of the epicentres of the conflict."}
+{"text":"The fascination that the Alps exerted on the British has to be related to the general increase in charm and appeal of this mountain range during the eighteenth century. Yet British particularities were involved as well. Traditionally, many Englishmen felt the attraction of the Mediterranean, which was associated with the practice of the Grand Tour, and thus had to cross Europe and the Alps to reach it. From a place of transit, the Alps turned into a tourist destination as the flow of people and means of transport increased. Moreover, with the invention of new sports the Alps became an area of experimental training. The Alps offered many mountain climbers a degree of difficulty that fit their expectations."}
+{"text":"The convergence of these phenomena granted to Alpine tourism a central position. It intensified from the middle of the nineteenth century onwards and, in spite of fluctuations, would never lose its importance. Railway companies, travel guides, travelogues and travel agents joined forces to make the Alps a prestigious tourist destination. With Thomas Cook in particular, the Alps appeared, as early as 1861, in the catalog of tourist offers and were instrumental in the establishment of a \u201ctruly international industry\u201d of tourism. This industry developed the infrastructure: railway lines, hotels and other services such as casinos, promenades, improvements, and funiculars."}
+{"text":"The conquest of the Alps by British tourists was achieved along with their domestication and with the passionate participation of local, regional and national \u00e9lites, be they political, economic or cultural. Leslie Stephen, in a best-selling book first published in 1871, defined the Alps as \u201cthe Playground of Europe.\u201d The book highlights the incredible success of the mountains but it also reflects the tensions that emerged among their visitors. There was a clash between the \u201creal enthusiasts,\u201d sensitive to beauty, and the \u201cflock of ordinary tourists\u201d sticking to their customs and comforts."}
+{"text":"The Alps are at the crossroads of the French, Italian, German and South Slavic linguistic sprachraums. They also act as a linguistic refugium, preserving archaic dialects such as Romansh, Walser German or Romance Lombardic. Extinct languages known to have been spoken in the Alpine region include Rhaetic, Lepontic, Ligurian and Langobardic."}
+{"text":"As a result of the complicated history of the Alpine region, the native language and the national feelings of the inhabitants do not always correspond to the current international borders. The Trentino-Alto Adige\/S\u00fcdtirol region, which was annexed by Italy after World War I, has a German-speaking majority in the northern province of South Tyrol. There are Walser German speakers to found in northern Italy near the Swiss border. There are some French and Franco-Provencal-speaking districts in the Italian Aosta Valley, while there are clusters of Slovene-speakers in the Italian portion of the Julian Alps, in the Resia Valley (where the archaic Resian dialect of Slovene is still spoken) and in the mountain district known as Venetian Slovenia."}
+{"text":"White Croats (; ; ; ), or simply known as Croats, were a group of Early Slavic tribes who lived among other West and East Slavic tribes in the area of modern-day Lesser Poland, Galicia (north of Carpathian Mountains), Western Ukraine, and Northeastern Bohemia. They were documented primarily by foreign medieval authors and managed to preserve their ethnic name until the early 20th century, primarily in Lesser Poland. It is considered that they were assimilated into Czech, Polish and Ukrainian ethnos, and are one of the predecessors of the Rusyn people. In the 7th century, some White Croats migrated from their homeland, White Croatia, to the territory of modern-day Croatia in Southeast Europe along the Adriatic Sea, forming the ancestors of the South Slavic ethnic group of Croats."}
+{"text":"It is generally believed that the Croatian ethnonym - \"Hrvat\", \"Horvat\" and \"Harvat\" - etymologically is not of Slavic origin, but a borrowing from Iranian languages. According to the most plausible theory by Max Vasmer, it derives from \"*(f\u0161u-)haurvat\u0101-\" (cattle guardian), more correctly Proto-Ossetian \/ Alanian *\"xurv\u00e6t-\" or *\"xurv\u0101t-\", in the meaning of \"one who guards\" (\"guardian, protector\")."}
+{"text":"It is considered that the ethnonym is first attested in anthroponyms Horo\u00faathos, Horo\u00e1thos, and Hor\u00f3athos on the two Tanais Tablets, found in the Greek colony of Tanais at the shores of Sea of Azov in the late 2nd and early 3rd century AD, at the time when the colony was surrounded by Iranian-speaking Sarmatians. However, acceptance of any non-Slavic etymology is problematic because it implies an ethnogenesis relationship with the specific ethnic group. There is no mention of an Iranian tribe named as \"Horoat\" in the historical sources, but it was not uncommon for Slavic tribes to get their tribal names from anthroponyms of their forefathers and chiefs of the tribe, like in the case of Czechs, Dulebes, Radimichs, and Vyatichi."}
+{"text":"Any mention of the Croats before the 9th century is uncertain, and there were several loose attempts at tracing; \"Struhates\", \"Auhates\", and Krobyzoi by Herodotus, \"Horites\" by Orosius in 418 AD, and the \"Harus\" (original form \"Hrws\", some read \"Hrwts\"; \"Hros\", \"Hrus\") at the Sea of Azov, near the mythical Amazons, mentioned by Zacharias Rhetor in 550 AD. The \"Hros\" some relate to the ethnonym of the Rus' people. The distribution of the Croatian ethnonym in the form of toponyms in later centuries is considered to be hardly accidental because it is related with Slavic migrations to Central and South Europe."}
+{"text":"The epithet \"white\" for the Croats and their homeland is related to the use of colors for cardinal directions among Eurasian people. That is, it meant \"Western Croats\", or \"Northern Croats\", in comparison to lands where they lived before. The epithet \"great\" signified an \"old, ancient\" or \"former\" homeland, for the Croats when they were new arrivals in the Roman province of Dalmatia."}
+{"text":"Although the early medieval Croatian tribes in the scholarship are often called as White Croats, there's a scholarly dispute whether it is a correct term as some scholars differentiate the tribes according to separate regions and that the term implies only the medieval Croats who lived in Central Europe."}
+{"text":"The first Iranian tribes who lived on the shores of the Sea of Azov were Scythians, who arrived there c. 7th century BCE. Around the 6th century BCE the Sarmatians began their migration westwards, gradually subordinating the Scythians by the 2nd-century BCE. During this period there was substantial cultural and linguistic contact between the Early Slavs and Iranians, and in this environment were formed the Antes. Antes were Slavic people who lived in that area and to the West between Dniester and Dnieper from the 4th until the 7th century. It is thought that the Croats were part of the Antes tribal polity who migrated to Galicia in the 3rd-4th century, under pressure by invading Huns and Goths."}
+{"text":"Nestor the Chronicler in his \"Primary Chronicle\" (12th century) mentions the White Croats, calling them \"Horvate Belii\" or \"Hrovate Belii\", the name depending upon which manuscript of his is referred to:"}
+{"text":"Most what is known about the early history of White Croats comes from the work by the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII, \"De Administrando Imperio\" (10th century). In the 30th chapter, \"The Story of the Province of Dalmatia\" Constantine wrote:"}
+{"text":"Croats seemingly were not recorded by the Bavarian Geographer (9th century), however, some scholars assumed that the unknown \"Sittici\" (\"a region with many peoples and heavily fortified cities\") and \"Stadici\" (\"an infinite population with 516 gords\") were part of the Carpathian Croats tribal polity, or that the Croats were part of these unknown tribal designations in Prykarpattia. Others saw \"Lendizi\" (98), \"Vuislane\", \"Sleenzane\" (50), \"Fraganeo\" (40; Prague), \"Lupiglaa\" (30 gords), \"Opolini\" (20), and \"Golensizi\" (5) as possible tribes of Croats. Lehr-Sp\u0142awi\u0144ski, \u0141owmia\u0144ski and others concluded that Vistulans and Lendians because of their mention and described location in different sources were tribes behind which were hidden Croats."}
+{"text":"In the Hebrew book \"Josippon\" (10th century) are listed four Slavic ethnic names from Venice to Saxony; \"Mwr.wh\" (Moravians), \"Krw.tj\" (Croats), \"Swrbjn\" (Sorbs), \"Lwcnj\" (Lu\u010dan\u00e9 or Lusatians). Since the Croats are placed between Moravians and Serbs it identified the Croatian realm with the Duchy of Bohemia."}
+{"text":"To the upper accounts by the historians were related the Vladimir the Great's conquest of the Cherven Cities in 981, and \"Annales Hildesheimenses\" note that Vladimir threatened to attack the Duke of Poland, Boles\u0142aw I the Brave (992 to 1025), in 992. Polish chronicler Wincenty Kad\u0142ubek in his \"Chronica Polonorum\" (12-13th century) recounted that Boles\u0142aw I the Brave conquered some \"Hunnos seu Hungaros, Cravatios et Mardos, gentem validam, suo mancipavit imperio\"\". The occurrence of the Croatian name among the people, and the fact during the period of Boles\u0142aw I the Brave the Polish realm expanded to the territory later-known as Lesser Poland, indicates that the mentioned Croats most probably lived on the territory of Lesser Poland."}
+{"text":"Thietmar of Merseburg recorded in 981 toponym \"Chrvuati vicus\" (also later recorded in 11th-14th century), which is present-day Gro\u00dfkorbetha, between Halle and Merseburg in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The \"Chruuati\" (901) and \"Chruuati\" (981) near Halle. In charter by Henry II is recorded \"Chruazzis\" (1012), by Henry III as \"Churbate\" (1055), by Henry IV as \"Grawat\" (also \"Curewate\", 1086). This settlement today is Korbetha on river Saale, near Wei\u00dfenfels."}
+{"text":"In the 10th-12th centuries Croatian name can be often found in the territory of March and Duchy of Carinthia, as well March and Duchy of Styria. In 954, Otto I in his charter mentions \u017eupa \"Croat\" - \"\"hobas duas proorietatis nostrae in loco Zuric as in pago Crouuati et in ministerio Hartuuigi\", and again in 961 \"pago Crauuati\". The \"pago Chruuat\" is also mentioned by Otto II (979), and \"pago Croudi\" by Otto III."}
+{"text":"One of the legendary figures Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv who founded Kiev, brother Khoryv or Horiv, and its oronym Khorevytsia, is often related to the Croatian ethnonym. This legend, recorded by Nestor, has similar Armenian transcript from the 7th-8th century, in which Horiv is mentioned as \"Horean\". Pa\u0161\u010denko related his name, beside to the Croatian ethnonym, to solar deity Hors. Near Kiev there's a stream where previously existed large homonymous village Horvatka or Hrovatka (destroyed in the time of Joseph Stalin), which flows into Stuhna River. In the vicinity are parts of the Serpent's Wall."}
+{"text":"Scholars consider that Croats could have been mentioned in the Old English and Nordic epic poems. The verse in Old English poem \"Widsith\" (10th century):"}
+{"text":"The Hr\u00e6da is genitive plural of *\"Hraede\", and is usually related with the Goths (\"Hred-Gotum\", \"Hreth-Gotan\", \"Hreidhgotar\"). However, this verse is similar to the one in Hervarar saga ok Hei\u00f0reks (13th century), where prior the battle between Goths and Huns, Heidrek died in \"Harva\u00f0a fj\u00f6llum\" (Carpathian Mountains) which is sometimes translated as \"beneath the mountains of Harvathi\", considered somewhere beneath Carpathian Mountains near river Dnieper. Lewicki argued that Anglo-Saxons, as in the case of Alfred the Great where called Croats \"Horithi\", often distorted foreign Slavic names."}
+{"text":"The legendary Czech hermit from the 9th century, , is mentioned as the son of certain king Gestimul or Gostimysl, who according to the Czech chronicles descended from the Croats or Obotrites."}
+{"text":"Polish writer Kazimierz W\u0142adys\u0142aw W\u00f3ycicki released work \"Pie\u015bni ludu Bia\u0142ochrobat\u00f3w, Mazur\u00f3w i Rusi z nad Bugu\" in 1836. In 1861, in the statistical data about population in Volhynia governorship released by Mikhail Lebedkin, were counted Horvati with 17,228 people. According to United States Congress Joint Immigration Commission which ended in 1911, Polish immigrants to the United States born in around Krak\u00f3w reportedly declared themselves as Bielochrovat (i.e. White Croat), which with Krakus and Crakowiak\/Cracovinian was \"names applying to subdivisions of the Poles\"."}
+{"text":"The Northern Croats contributed and assimilated into Czech, Polish and Ukrainian ethnos. They are considered as the predecessors of the Rusyns, specifically Dolinyans, Boykos, Hutsuls, and Lemkos."}
+{"text":"By the 7th century the Croats had established and fortified Horods (Gord), which became a commerce and trade centers. Galicia was an important geographical location because it connected via an overland route Kiev in the East with Krak\u00f3w, Buda, Prague and other cities in the West, as well as northwest to the Baltic Sea and southeast to the Black Sea. Along these routes were founded the settlements of Przemy\u015bl, Zvenyhorod, Terebovlia, Halych, and Uzhhorod, of which the last was ruled by a mythical ruler Laborec."}
+{"text":"The Republic was headed by Jaroslav Kacmarcyk as President of the Central National Council. It was ended by the Polish government in March 1920. Its fate was sealed by the September 1919 Treaty of Saint-Germain, which gave Galicia west of the San to Poland and by the Peace of Riga in March 1921 whereby the fait accompli was recognized by Moscow."}
+{"text":"This state should not be confused with the Komancza Republic of eastern Lemkivshchyna, another short-lived republic. This was a smaller pro-Ukrainian state that existed between November 1918 and 23 January 1919."}
+{"text":"On 5 December 1918, the Republic's delegates issued the statement: \"We, the Rusyn nation, living in a compact settlement in the southern parts of the Galician administrative units of Nowy Targ and in Sanok. Do not wish to be incorporated into the Polish state, and wish to share the fate of our Rusyn brothers [living] in Spi\u0161, \u0160ari\u0161, and Zempl\u00edn counties as one indivisible geographic and ethnographic unit.\""}
+{"text":"Saint Parthenius (died 3rd century) was an early Christian saint and martyr from Rome of Armenian origin. He is venerated in both the Catholic and Orthodox churches. His brother was Saint Calocerus. He is the patron of Galicia and included in their list of Orthodox saints."}
+{"text":"While serving as a eunuch in his wife's palace, Parthenius was accused by Roman emperor Decius with embezzlement of Anatolia's money, and with the capital crime of Christianity. Ignoring the financial accusations, Parthenius and his brother defended the Christian faith. The court took their defense as an admission of their Christianity and sentenced them to death. Parthenius was thrown into a bonfire but did not burn. In order to carry out his sentence, guards took flaming brands from the fire and beat him to death. He was buried in the catacombs under Saint Callixtus."}
+{"text":"In the 18th century, relics of St. Parthenius were moved to Vienna. In 1784, with the permission of Pope Pius VI, the relics were moved to Zhovkva in Eastern Galicia (then Austrian Empire, nowadays western Ukraine). They are now preserved in the Basilian Ukrainian Greek-Catholic monastery of Holy Jesus Heart in Zhovkva."}
+{"text":"The Battle of Zawichost (1205) was a battle fought between Roman the Great of Galicia-Volhynia and Leszek I the White of Lesser Poland, along with his brother, Konrad I of Masovia. After declaring war and invading Lesser Poland, Roman and his forces (druzhina) were ambushed by the Poles in the vicinity of Zawichost by the Vistula (Visla) River. In the tumult that followed, Roman was killed and the Polish victory would lead to Poland's growing power and the weakening of Rus'."}
+{"text":"D\u0142ugosz further explains that before crossing the Polish frontier, Roman sent emissaries to the Bishop of Vladimir and asked for his blessing, as he intended to campaign in Poland for three years. The Bishop declined Roman's gifts and denied him any blessing, explaining that \"he cannot bless Roman or his enterprise, since he has previously started unjust and wicked wars and is again embarking on one that is quite unjustified, considering that the Poles have so often exposed their bodies to danger and death to defend the Ruthenians against the barbarians.\" Roman responded by telling the bishop that he will cut his head off when he returns from his victory."}
+{"text":"Many of the Rus' drowned and many more died at the hands of the local population, as Polish troops chased them all the way to Vladimir. Few survived the massacre and at the order of Leszek and Konrad, Roman's body was buried in Sandomierz. The two factions came to an agreement and the Russians released all their prisoners and paid 1,000 silver marks to recover the body of Roman, which was then buried in Vladimir."}
+{"text":"After his triumph, Leszek's reputation took a positive turn, earning him credibility and the trust of Krak\u00f3w, which would give him temporary power over the city. Konrad, coming of age, asked for his share of power and at the meditation of their mother and a selected group of aristocrats, the two brothers divide the country under their authority. Rus' turned unstable from its internal conflicts and the country is invaded by Lithuanians, this being the first time the Poles hear of that name. The Ruthenians suffered great casualties, but managed to defeat the invaders. In 1208, the country fell into civil war."}
+{"text":"Lesser Poland, often known by its Polish name Ma\u0142opolska (), is a historical region situated in southern and south-eastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Krak\u00f3w. Throughout centuries, Lesser Poland developed a separate culture featuring diverse architecture, folk costumes, dances, cuisine, traditions and a rare Lesser Polish dialect. The region is rich in historical landmarks, monuments, castles, natural scenery and UNESCO World Heritage Sites."}
+{"text":"The region should not be confused with the modern Lesser Poland Voivodeship, which covers only the southwestern part of Lesser Poland. Historical Lesser Poland was much larger than the current voivodeship that bears its name. It reached from Bielsko-Bia\u0142a in the southwest as far as to Siedlce in the northeast. It consisted of the three voivodeships of Krak\u00f3w, Sandomierz and Lublin."}
+{"text":"It comprised almost 60,000\u00a0km2 in area; today's population in this area is about 9,000,000 inhabitants. Its landscape is mainly hilly, with the Carpathian Mountains and Tatra Mountain Range in the south; it is located in the basin of the upper Vistula river. It has been noted for its mighty aristocracy (\"magnateria\") and wealthy nobility (\"szlachta\")."}
+{"text":"Between the 14th and 18th century, the Lesser Poland Province of the Polish Crown also encompassed the historical region of Red Ruthenia. In the era of partitions, the southern part of Lesser Poland became known as Galicia, which was under Austrian control until Poland regained its independence in 1918. As a result of this long-lasting division, many inhabitants of the northern part of Lesser Poland (including those in such cities as Lublin, Radom, Kielce and Cz\u0119stochowa) do not recognize their Lesser Polish identity."}
+{"text":"However, while Lublin \"(Lubelskie)\" was declared an independent Voivodeship as early as 1474, it still has speakers of the Lesser Polish dialect."}
+{"text":"Across history, many ethnic and religious minorities existed in Lesser Poland as they fled persecution from other areas or countries. Poland's once tolerant policy towards these minorities allowed them to flourish and create separate self-governing communities. Some minorities still remain, but are on the verge of extinction, most notably Wymysorys-speaking Vilamovians, Halcnovians, Gorals, Lemkos, Uplanders, and once Polish Jews and Walddeutsche Germans."}
+{"text":"Almost the whole area is located in the Vistula Basin, with the exception of the western and southern parts, belonging to the Odra and Dunaj Basins. The main rivers of the province are the Vistula, upper Warta, So\u0142a, Skawa, Raba, Dunajec, Wis\u0142ok, Wis\u0142oka, San, Wieprz, Przemsza, Nida, Kamienna, Radomka, and Pilica. The major lakes of the province are Lake Ro\u017cn\u00f3w, Lake Czch\u00f3w, Lake Dobczyce, Lake Czorsztyn, Lake Czaniec, Lake Mi\u0119dzybrodzie, Lake Klimk\u00f3wka and \u017bywiec Lake. Most of them are man-made reservoirs."}
+{"text":"Lesser Poland stretches from the Carpathians in the south to Pilica and Liwiec rivers to the north. It borders Mazovia to the north, Podlaskie to the northeast, Red Ruthenia to the east, Slovakia to the south, Silesia to the west, and Greater Poland to the northwest. Currently, the region is divided between Polish voivodeships \u2013 Lesser Poland Voivodeship (whole), \u015awi\u0119tokrzyskie Voivodeship (whole), Silesian Voivodeship (eastern half), Podkarpackie Voivodeship (western part), Masovian Voivodeship (southern part), \u0141\u00f3d\u017a Voivodeship (southeastern corner), and Lublin Voivodeship (western part)."}
+{"text":"Around the year 1000, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Krak\u00f3w was created, and its borders covered whole area of Lesser Poland. During the reign of Casimir I the Restorer, Krak\u00f3w for the first time became the capital of Poland (around 1040), since Greater Poland and Silesia, with main Polish urban centers, such as Gniezno and Pozna\u0144 were ravaged by Duke Bretislaus I of Bohemia. In 1138, following the Testament of Boles\u0142aw III Krzywousty, the country was divided between his sons (see also Fragmentation of Poland). Boles\u0142aw III Wrymouth created the Seniorate Province, which, among others, consisted of Krak\u00f3w. At the same time, Lesser Poland was divided into two parts, when its eastern part formed the Duchy of Sandomierz, carved by the ruler for his son Henry of Sandomierz."}
+{"text":"In the late Middle Ages, Lesser Poland gradually became the center of Polish statehood, with Krak\u00f3w being the capital of the country from the mid-11th century until 1596. Its nobility ruled Poland when Queen Jadwiga was too young to control the state, and the Union of Krewo with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was the brainchild of Lesser Poland's szlachta."}
+{"text":"In the 16th century, Lesser Poland retained its position as the most important province of the country. As no major conflicts took place on its territory, it was the center of Renaissance in Poland. The province was home to numerous scholars, writers and statesmen, and it was here where Polish\u2013Lithuanian Commonwealth was created in 1569 (see Union of Lublin). In the Commonwealth, Lesser Poland proper was the base of the Province of Lesser Poland, which covered southern lands of the vast country. The province was made of Lesser Poland itself, also Red Ruthenia, Volhynia, Podolia, and Ukrainian voivodeships \u2013 Kij\u00f3w Voivodeship (Kyiv), Czernih\u00f3w Voivodeship (Chernihiv), and Brac\u0142aw Voivodeship (Bratslav), which, until 1569, had been part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania."}
+{"text":"After the conflict, Lesser Poland began a recovery, which was hampered by several other factors. Province's cities frequently burned (Lublin 1719, Nowy Targ 1784, Nowy S\u0105cz, Dukla 1758, Wieliczka 1718, Miech\u00f3w 1745, Drzewica), there also were numerous outbreaks of plagues and typhus (in 1707\u20131708, some 20,000 died in Krak\u00f3w and its area)"}
+{"text":"Lesser Poland was one of main centers of the Bar Confederation. On 21 June 1786 in Krak\u00f3w, local confederation was announced, and on the same day Voievode of Krak\u00f3w, Michal Czarnocki, urged his citizens to join the movement. Soon afterwards, Krak\u00f3w was captured by the Russian troops, and the center of Lesser Poland's insurgency moved to the mountainous south \u2013 areas around Dukla and Nowy S\u0105cz. During the Confederation, several battles and skirmishes took place there. In 1770, after the Battle of Iwonicz, the Russians ransacked Biecz. The movement ended in 1772, and its decline was connected with the Partitions of Poland. Another local center of the movement was Jasna G\u00f3ra Monastery in Cz\u0119stochowa, which was defended by Kazimierz Pulaski for almost two years (1770\u20131772)."}
+{"text":"The Partitions of Poland began earlier in Lesser Poland than in other provinces of the country. In 1769, Austrian Empire annexed a small territory of Spisz, and next year, the towns of Czorsztyn, Nowy S\u0105cz and Nowy Targ. In 1771, the Russians and the Prussians agreed on the first partition of the country, and in early 1772, Austrian Emperor Maria Theresa decided to join the two powers. In the first partition of the Commonwealth, the Austrians seized the territory which would later be called Galicia, and which included southwestern corner of Lesser Poland (south of the Vistula river), with \u017bywiec, Tarn\u00f3w, and Biecz, but without major urban centers of the province, such as Krak\u00f3w, Sandomierz, Radom, Lublin, Cz\u0119stochowa, and Kielce."}
+{"text":"As a result of their support of the failed insurrection, several Lesser Poland's towns lost their charters and were turned into villages. Among them were Kra\u015bnik, Bodzentyn, Opat\u00f3w, I\u0142\u017ca, Ma\u0142ogoszcz, W\u0105chock, Busko-Zdr\u00f3j, J\u0119drzej\u00f3w, Cmielow, Zwole\u0144, Drzewica, Wierzbica, Czelad\u017a, Kazimierz Dolny, Wolborz, Stopnica, Daleszyce, Wi\u015blica, Paj\u0119czno, Lipsko, Pacan\u00f3w, O\u017car\u00f3w, Wolbrom, Proszowice, Nowe Miasto Korczyn, W\u0142oszczowa, Przysucha, Opole Lubelskie."}
+{"text":"The division of Lesser Poland along the Vistula river, which lasted from 1772 until 1918, is visible even today. For more than 100 years, southern Lesser Poland (Krak\u00f3w, Tarn\u00f3w, Biala Krakowska, and Nowy S\u0105cz) was administered by Austria, while northern, larger part of the province (Cz\u0119stochowa, Sosnowiec, Kielce, Radom, Lublin, Sandomierz) was forcibly part of the Russian Empire. Inhabitants of Austrian part of Poland enjoyed limited autonomy, with Polish language institutions, such as Jagiellonian University. At the same time, Russian-controlled Poland was subject to Russification. As a result of decades of this division, most inhabitants of the areas stolen by Russia are not aware of their Lesser Poland's heritage. Furthermore, current administrative boundaries of the country still reflect the defunct border between the former Russian and Austria\u2013Hungarian Empires."}
+{"text":"In late 1918, Lesser Poland emerged as one of main centers of fledgling Polish administration and independence movement. According to historian Kazimierz Banburski of Tarn\u00f3w's District Museum, Tarn\u00f3w was the first Polish city which became independent, after 123 years of oppression. On 31 October 1918, at 8\u00a0am, Tarn\u00f3w's inhabitants began disarming demoralized Austrian soldiers, and after three hours, the city was completely in Polish hands. On 28 October 1918, Polish Liquidation Committee was created in Krak\u00f3w. A few days later, socialist peasants founded the Republic of Tarnobrzeg. In the night of 6\/7 November 1918, \"Polish People's Republic\" was proclaimed in Lublin, by Ignacy Daszynski and other activists. In 1919, the legislative election took place in Lesser Poland without major problems."}
+{"text":"Even though Lesser Poland's countryside was almost exclusively Polish, its towns and cities were inhabited by numerous Jews, whose communities were very vibrant. In Krak\u00f3w, Jews made 25% of the population, in Lublin \u2013 31%, in Kielce \u2013 30%, and in Radom \u2013 32%. Apart from the Jews, and Gypsies scattered in the south, there were no other significant national minorities in interbellum Lesser Poland."}
+{"text":"Lesser Poland remained a center of Polish culture, with Krak\u00f3w's Jagiellonian University, AGH University of Science and Technology, and Catholic University of Lublin, which was opened in 1918. Several important figures of interbellum political, military, and cultural life of Poland were born in Lesser Poland. Among them were Wincenty Witos, W\u0142adys\u0142aw Sikorski, Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski, J\u00f3zef Dowbor-Mu\u015bnicki, J\u00f3zef Haller, W\u0142adys\u0142aw Belina-Pra\u017cmowski, Tadeusz Kutrzeba, Feliks Koneczny, Stefan \u017beromski, Tadeusz Peiper, Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska, Witold Gombrowicz, Jan Kiepura, Stefan Jaracz. In 1920, in Lesser Poland's town of Wadowice, Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, was born."}
+{"text":"On 1 September 1939, armed forces of Nazi Germany attacked Poland (see: Invasion of Poland). Lesser Poland, due to its proximity to the then-border with Germany, became a battleground on the first day of the invasion. The Germans attacked the province both in its northwest (area west of Cz\u0119stochowa), and in the south (Podhale), along the border with Slovakia, Third Reich's ally."}
+{"text":"Lesser Poland was defended by the following Polish armies:"}
+{"text":"On 12 October 1939, upon a decree of Adolf Hitler, General Government, a separate region of the Greater German Reich was created, with Hans Frank as its Governor-General. Its capital was established in Krak\u00f3w, and it covered most of the area of historical Lesser Poland, except for its western counties, which were directly incorporated into Nazi Germany's Upper Silesia Province (B\u0119dzin, Sosnowiec, Zawiercie, Bia\u0142a, \u017bywiec, Chrzan\u00f3w, Olkusz)."}
+{"text":"Anti-Nazi resistance was particularly strong in Lesser Poland, and it was in the extreme northwestern corner of the province (around Opoczno), that armed struggle against the occupiers began in late 1939 and early 1940 (see Henryk Dobrza\u0144ski). Structures of the Home Army were well-developed in the region. Lesser Poland's independent areas of the Home Army were located in Krak\u00f3w, Kielce-Radom, and Lublin. During Operation Tempest in mid-1944, several Lesser Poland's towns were liberated, also uprising in Krak\u00f3w was prepared, but never realized. Apart from the Home Army, other resistance groups were strong in the province, such as pro-Communist Armia Ludowa, peasant's Bataliony Ch\u0142opskie, and right-wing National Armed Forces, with its Holy Cross Mountains Brigade."}
+{"text":"In all major Lesser Poland's cities, Jewish ghettos were opened, with the biggest ones in Krak\u00f3w, and Lublin. At first the Nazis were planning to create a so-called \"reservation\" for European Jews, located around Lesser Poland's town of Nisko (see Nisko Plan), but they changed the plan, and decided to murder all Jews. Condemned to death, Jews in Lesser Poland took to fighting (see Cz\u0119stochowa Ghetto Uprising), but their efforts failed. As a result of The Holocaust in Poland, once thriving and numerous Jewish population of Lesser Poland was decimated."}
+{"text":"The government of Communist Poland invested in heavy industry, following the pre-1939 idea of Central Industrial Area. In Krak\u00f3w, a new district of Nowa Huta was constructed in the 1950s. In Cz\u0119stochowa and Zawiercie, the steelworks were significantly expanded, and in early 1970, the government initiated construction of Katowice Steelworks, which, despite its name, is located in Lesser Poland's D\u0105browa G\u00f3rnicza. To connect Katowice Steelworks with Soviet plants, in late 1970s Broad Gauge Metallurgy Line was opened, which crossed Lesser Poland from west to east. Among other major factories, opened in Lesser Poland during Communist rule, there are:"}
+{"text":"Other Lesser Poland's major plants were significantly expanded after 1945, including \u017bywiec Brewery, Okocim Brewery, Fablok, \u0141ucznik Arms Factory, F\u0141T-Kra\u015bnik, Jaworzno Power Station, Siersza Power Plant, Huta Stalowa Wola, Janina Coal Mine, Sobieski Coal Mine, Zak\u0142ady Azotowe Tarn\u00f3w-Mo\u015bcice. Furthermore, in early 1950s significant sulfur resources were discovered in Tarnobrzeg, as a result of which Siarkopol company was founded, and the city of Tarnobrzeg quickly grew. In 1975, coal was discovered northeast of Lublin, and soon afterwards, Bogdanka Coal Mine and Piaski Coal Mine were opened."}
+{"text":"Between 1971 and 1977, Central Trunk Line was opened, which goes along western boundary of the province, and which connects Krak\u00f3w and Katowice, with Warsaw. In the early 1980s, construction of a highway between Krak\u00f3w and Katowice began. The 61-kilometer road is now run by Stalexport Autostrada Ma\u0142opolska, and is part of A4 highway."}
+{"text":"Residents of Lesser Poland frequently protested against Communist government. Major centers of anti-Communist resistance were in Krak\u00f3w, Nowa Huta, Radom, and Lublin. Among major protests that took place in the province were 1968 Polish political crisis (with Krak\u00f3w as one of major centers of protests), June 1976 protests (in Radom), Lublin 1980 strikes, 31 August 1982 demonstrations in Poland (in several locations), 1988 Polish strikes (with Stalowa Wola as one of major centers). Several anti-Nazi, and anti-Communist leaders hailed from Lesser Poland: Jan Piwnik, Emil August Fieldorf, Leopold Okulicki, Ryszard Siwiec, Stanis\u0142aw Pyjas, Hieronim Dekutowski, Andrzej Gwiazda, Andrzej Czuma."}
+{"text":"A number of key personalities of Communist government were born in Lesser Poland, including J\u00f3zef Cyrankiewicz, Boles\u0142aw Bierut, Edward Gierek, Wojciech Jaruzelski, Czes\u0142aw Kiszczak, Stanis\u0142aw Kania, Hilary Minc, Edward Ochab, Micha\u0142 Rola-\u017bymierski, J\u00f3zef Oleksy."}
+{"text":"Among prominent personalities of Polish cultural life of the 20th century, who were born in Lesser Poland, there are: Xawery Dunikowski, Witold Gombrowicz, Gustaw Herling-Grudzi\u0144ski, S\u0142awomir Mro\u017cek, Tadeusz Kantor, Jan Kanty Pawlu\u015bkiewicz, Marek Kondrat, Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska, Krzysztof Penderecki, Zbigniew Preisner, Leon Schiller, Jerzy Stuhr, Jan Sztaudynger, Grzegorz Turnau, Jerzy Turowicz."}
+{"text":"In 1998, the government of Poland carried out administrative reform of the country. For the first time in history, Lesser Poland Voivodeship was created, with capital in Krak\u00f3w, and area of 15,108 square kilometers. The new province covers only a small, southwestern part of historical Lesser Poland."}
+{"text":"Today, Lesser Poland is divided between several voivodeships: whole Lesser Poland Voivodeship, whole \u015awi\u0119tokrzyskie Voivodeship, western half of Lublin Voivodeship, western part of Subcarpathian Voivodeship, eastern half of Silesian Voivodeship, southern part of Mazovian Voivodeship and southeastern corner of \u0141\u00f3d\u017a Voivodeship (around Opoczno)."}
+{"text":"There were suggestions that Lesser Poland voivodeship should stretch from Bielsko-Bia\u0142a, to Ostrowiec \u015awi\u0119tokrzyski and Sandomierz. Furthermore, creation of Old Poland Voivodeship was proposed, on the historical lands of northern Lesser Poland. Also, since about half of territory of current Silesian Voivodeship belongs to historical Lesser Poland, there are suggestions to rename it into \"Silesian \u2013 Lesser Poland Voivodeship\"."}
+{"text":"The list is based on the Polish Central Statistical Office list of 100 biggest cities of Poland, as for 30 June 2008."}
+{"text":"In the Kingdom of Poland and Polish\u2013Lithuanian Commonwealth, several other locations used to be important urban centers of Lesser Poland, but in the course of the time, their significance declined. The main example is Sandomierz, which for hundreds of years was one of the most important cities of Poland, but now is a town of 25,000. Other examples of historically important places, which are now little towns or villages are:"}
+{"text":"In the 20th century, natural resources were also discovered in central and eastern counties Lesser Poland."}
+{"text":"In 1964, the world's largest open-pit sulfur mine was opened in Mach\u00f3w near Tarnobrzeg. Other sulfur deposits in the area of Tarnobrzeg are Jeziorko, Grzyb\u00f3w-Gacki, and Gr\u0119b\u00f3w-Wydza. The mine at Mach\u00f3w is now closed. In the late 1960s, eastern Lesser Poland became one of three coal basins of the country, when Lublin Basin was created. Major coal mine in the area is KWK Bogdanka near \u0141\u0119czna, which is the only coal mine in Poland which has continuously generated a profit. Other Polish coal mines located in Lesser Poland are those found in western part of the province, along the boundary with Upper Silesia \u2013 KWK Janina in Jaworzno, KWK Sobieski, and also in Jaworzno. Copper and silver are extracted in Myszk\u00f3w (see Myszk\u00f3w mine)."}
+{"text":"In the late 1930s, the government of the Second Polish Republic created Central Industrial Region, which was almost exclusively located in Lesser Poland. Currently, within borders of the province, there are following industrial regions:"}
+{"text":"Several European roads (see International E-road network) cross Lesser Poland. The most important one is the European route E40, which goes from west to east, across whole Europe. In Lesser Poland, the E40 goes from Jaworzno, via Krak\u00f3w and Tarn\u00f3w, towards eastern border of the country. Another main European road in Lesser Poland is the E77, which goes from north to south, via Radom, Kielce and Krak\u00f3w, to southern border of Poland at Chy\u017cne. Third major European road in Lesser Poland is the E30, which crosses the territory of the province in its extreme northeast corner, in Siedlce. Apart from these roads, Lesser Poland is crossed by the following European routes:"}
+{"text":"Within borders of historical Lesser Poland, there are two airports \u2013 John Paul II International Airport Krak\u00f3w \u2013 Balice, and Katowice International Airport, which is located in the village of Pyrzowice, on the border between Lesser Poland and Upper Silesia. Pyrzowice is part of Gmina O\u017carowice, which after Partitions of Poland, and Congress of Vienna belonged to B\u0119dzin County of the Russian Empire. In the interbellum, the area of future airport belonged to Lesser Poland's Kielce Voivodeship, and in 1945, was transferred to Katowice Voivodeship (initially \"Silesian-D\u0105browa Voivodeship\"). In 1998, O\u017carowice, together with the airport, was attached to Tarnowskie G\u00f3ry County, despite the fact that it is not located in Upper Silesia"}
+{"text":"Further airports in Lesser Poland will be opened in the future \u2013 Lublin \u2013 \u015awidnik, Kielce \u2013 Obice, and Radom \u2013 Sadk\u00f3w. Also, Rzesz\u00f3w-Jasionka Airport is located on eastern border of the province."}
+{"text":"Among rail hubs of Lesser Poland, there are Bielsko-Bia\u0142a, Chab\u00f3wka, Cz\u0119stochowa, D\u0105browa G\u00f3rnicza, D\u0119bica, D\u0119blin, Jaworzno-Szczakowa, Kalwaria Zebrzydowska Lanckorona, Kielce, Koniecpol, Koz\u0142\u00f3w, Krak\u00f3w, Lublin, \u0141uk\u00f3w, Muszyna, Nowy S\u0105cz, O\u015bwi\u0119cim, Siedlce, Spytkowice, Skar\u017cysko-Kamienna, Stalowa Wola, Str\u00f3\u017ce, Sucha Beskidzka, Radom, Tarn\u00f3w, Trzebinia, Tunel, Zawiercie, and \u017bywiec."}
+{"text":"In the late 1970s, the Communist government built the broad-gauge Broad Gauge Metallurgy Line, which crosses Lesser Poland from west to east along the Vistula."}
+{"text":"Lesser Poland is famous for its underground waters and spas, such as Busko-Zdr\u00f3j, Solec-Zdr\u00f3j, Na\u0142\u0119cz\u00f3w, Muszyna, Szczawnica, Piwniczna, Wysowa-Zdr\u00f3j, Rabka, Swoszowice, \u017begiest\u00f3w, Krzeszowice, Wieliczka, and Krynica-Zdr\u00f3j. Mountains and resorts of the province make it a major center of Polish tourism \u2013 Tatra National Park is visited by around 3 million tourists every year."}
+{"text":"The following National Parks are located in Lesser Poland:"}
+{"text":"Lesser Poland is home to Poland's oldest university \u2013 Krak\u00f3w's Jagiellonian University, which was established in 1364. For centuries, it was the only college of the province, and of the whole country. In December 1918, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin was opened, becoming second university of Lesser Poland. In 1944, also in Lublin, Maria Curie-Sk\u0142odowska University was established."}
+{"text":"There are several technical universities in Lesser Poland \u2013 Krak\u00f3w's AGH University of Science and Technology, and University of Technology, as well as University of Bielsko-Bia\u0142a, Cz\u0119stochowa University of Technology, Lublin University of Technology, Kazimierz Pu\u0142aski Technical University of Radom, and Kielce University of Technology."}
+{"text":"Future teachers may study at Pedagogical University of Cracow, or Jan D\u0142ugosz University in Cz\u0119stochowa, and future physicians at Jagiellonian University Medical College, and Medical University of Lublin. Other state colleges are Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce, Pontifical University of John Paul II in Krak\u00f3w, Agricultural University of Cracow, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, and Cracow University of Economics. Unique in the country is the Polish Air Force Academy, located in D\u0119blin. Among private colleges of Lesser Poland, there is Wy\u017csza Szko\u0142a Biznesu \u2013 National-Louis University in Nowy S\u0105cz."}
+{"text":"Among several Lesser Poland's regional organizations, one of the most important is \"Stowarzyszenie Gmin i Powiat\u00f3w Ma\u0142opolski\" (\"The Association of Villages and Counties of Lesser Poland\"). It publishes a magazine called \"Wsp\u00f3lnota Ma\u0142opolska\" (\"Lesser Polish Community\"), and every year it chooses a \"Lesser Polish Person of the Year\" (among winners are John Paul II, Anna Dymna, and Stanis\u0142aw Dziwisz). \"The Association of Villages and Counties of Lesser Poland\" has over 120 members from four Polish voivodeships. Among members are cities of Krak\u00f3w, Cz\u0119stochowa, Bielsko-Bia\u0142a, Tarn\u00f3w, and Przemy\u015bl."}
+{"text":"Arguably, the most famous product of Lesser Polish cuisine is the bagel, which was invented in Krak\u00f3w. Other famous food specialties of the province are oscypek (EU Protected Geographical Status), slivovitz from the village of \u0141\u0105cko, bublik, papal cream cake from Wadowice, Lisiecka Sausage (EU Protected Geographical Status), and Bryndza Podhala\u0144ska. Among other popular products that are made in Lesser Poland, there are beers (Browary Lubelskie, \u017bywiec Beer, and Okocim Beer), pastas and snacks from Lublin's Lubella, Kielce Mayonnaise, coffee substitute beverage INKA from Skawina, chocolates from Krak\u00f3w's Wawel Factory, juices from Tymbark, vodka \u017bo\u0142\u0105dkowa Gorzka produced in Lublin, and Chopin produced in Siedlce."}
+{"text":"Several renowned sportspeople and entertainers come from Lesser Poland. Among them are some of the most famous personalities of contemporary Polish sports \u2013 boxer Tomasz Adamek, Formula 1 driver Robert Kubica, swimmer Pawe\u0142 Korzeniowski, skier Justyna Kowalczyk, tennis player Agnieszka Radwa\u0144ska, football and volleyball stars Jakub B\u0142aszczykowski, Artur Boruc, and Piotr Gruszka. Among late and retired sports stars who were born in the region, there also are Polish Sportspersonalities of the Year: tennis player and Wimbledon finalist Jadwiga J\u0119drzejowska, skier J\u00f3zef \u0141uszczek, ski jumper Stanis\u0142aw Marusarz, and driver Sobies\u0142aw Zasada."}
+{"text":"Krak\u00f3w's major association football teams \u2013 KS Cracovia, and Wis\u0142a Krak\u00f3w, are multiple champions of the country, also Stal Mielec won Polish championship twice (1973, 1976), and Garbarnia Krak\u00f3w once (1931). Other popular football teams from Lesser Poland are Zag\u0142\u0119bie Sosnowiec (four time Polish Cup winner), G\u00f3rnik \u0141\u0119czna, Korona Kielce, Motor Lublin, Radomiak Radom, Rak\u00f3w Cz\u0119stochowa, Stal Stalowa Wola, and Sandecja Nowy S\u0105cz."}
+{"text":"Besides association football, Lesser Poland's teams were multiple national champions in other sports:"}
+{"text":"Major sports venues of the province are Stadion Miejski in Krak\u00f3w, Kielce City Stadium, Marshal J\u00f3zef Pi\u0142sudski Stadium in Krak\u00f3w, Miejski Stadion Sportowy \"KSZO\" w Ostrowcu Sw., Stadion Ludowy in Sosnowiec, D\u0119bowiec Sports Arena in Bielsko-Bia\u0142a, \"Hala Legion\u00f3w\" in Kielce, \"Hala Globus\" in Lublin, \"Arena Cz\u0119stochowa\", \"Kielce Racetrack\", \"Hala Sportowa MOSiR\" in Radom, Wielka Krokiew in Zakopane."}
+{"text":"Among popular rock music bands from Lesser Poland, there are Budka Suflera, Golec uOrkiestra, Maanam, and Zakopower. From Lesser Poland hail composers Jan Kanty Pawlu\u015bkiewicz, and Krzysztof Penderecki, as well as singers Basia, Ewa Demarczyk, Justyna Steczkowska, Grzegorz Turnau, Maciej Zembaty. Major music festivals in the province are: \"Coke Live Music Festival\" in Krak\u00f3w, \"Celtic Music Festival ZAMEK\" in B\u0119dzin, \"Film Music Festival\" in Krak\u00f3w, \"Gaude Mater\" in Cz\u0119stochowa, \"Boyscout's Festival of School Music\" in Kielce, \"Summer with Chopin\" in Busko-Zdr\u00f3j, \"Festiwal of Shanties\" in Krak\u00f3w, and \"Festival of Student Song\" in Krak\u00f3w."}
+{"text":"Lesser Polish dialect of the Polish language."}
+{"text":"Lesser Polish dialect is spoken in southeastern corner of Poland, both in lands which belong to historical Lesser Poland, and in areas which are not part of the province (around Sieradz and \u0141\u0119czyca). On the other hand, as seen on the map, Lesser Polish dialect is not spoken in extreme northeast of Lesser Poland, in Siedlce and vicinity, where people rather speak Masovian dialect. Descending from the language of the Vistulans, it is the most numerous dialectal group in modern Poland. According to Wincenty Pol, it is divided into three subdivisions: Sandomierz dialect, Lublin dialect, and Sanok dialect."}
+{"text":"In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Lesser Polish dialect, together with Greater Polish dialect, contributed to creation of standard Polish, it also greatly influenced Silesian language (see Dialects of the Polish language), as well as dialects of Polish used in southern part of Kresy Wschodnie. Later on, however, its importance diminished and was replaced by Masovian dialect, which became the leading dialect of Polish. After Partitions of Poland, when Lesser Poland was divided between Austria and Russia, northern areas of the province took over many features of the Masovian dialect, while Lesser Polish dialect in Austrian province of Galicia was heavily influenced by German."}
+{"text":"According to Multimedia Guide to Polish Dialects, a webpage maintained by University of Warsaw, Lesser Polish dialect is divided into the following subdialects:"}
+{"text":"Krosno Voivodeship () was a unit of administrative division and local government in Poland in years 1975\u20131998, superseded by Subcarpathian Voivodeship (except Biecz Commune which is now a part of Lesser Poland Voivodeship). Its capital city was Krosno."}
+{"text":"The Komancza Republic, also known as the Eastern Lemko Republic (), was a short-lived microstate, an association of thirty three Lemko villages, seated in Koma\u0144cza in eastern Lemkivshchyna, that existed between 4 November 1918 and 24 January 1919. It was headed by Head of the Council (\u0433\u043e\u043b\u043e\u0432\u0430 \u041f\u043e\u0432\u0456\u0442\u043e\u0432\u043e\u0457 \u0423\u043a\u0440\u0430\u0457\u043d\u0441\u044c\u043a\u043e\u0457 \u041d\u0430\u0446\u0456\u043e\u043d\u0430\u043b\u044c\u043d\u043e\u0457 \u0420\u0430\u0434\u0438, Head of the \"Powiat\" Ukrainian National \"Rada\") Rev. Panteleymon Shpylka."}
+{"text":"Unlike the contemporaneous Lemko Republic to its west, the Komancza Republic planned to unite with the West Ukrainian People's Republic in an independent Ukrainian state (the Lemko Republic sought unification with the Russian Soviet Republic). Unification of the Komancza Republic and West Ukraine was suppressed by the Polish government as part of the Polish\u2013Ukrainian War."}
+{"text":"The Treaty of Saint-Germain made Galicia west of the San Polish."}
+{"text":"The Republic of Tarnobrzeg (, ) was a short-lived entity, proclaimed 6 November 1918 in the Polish town of Tarnobrzeg. Its main founders were two socialist activists Tomasz D\u0105bal and the Roman Catholic priest Eugeniusz Oko\u0144."}
+{"text":"The idea of the Republic had its roots in mass demonstrations of peasants, which were taking place almost on a daily basis in the fall of 1918. Tarnobrzeg had been part of the Austrian Empire (Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria) and dissolution of this entity created a political unrest. On 6 November, after a demonstration with some 30,000 people, local peasants decided to take advantage of it and seize power."}
+{"text":"As news of the Russian Revolution came to Tarnobrzeg, socialist activists decided to follow Communist ideas. They demanded the liquidation of capitalist government and the introduction of a land reform, which would result in taking away land from rich owners and giving it to the poor peasantry. Also, directed by Oko\u0144 and D\u0105bal, the peasants started to organize local administration as well as a peasants' militia."}
+{"text":"The Republic of Tarnobrzeg was suppressed by units of the freshly created Polish Army at the beginning of 1919. Father Oko\u0144 was arrested but soon released, when the locals elected him to the Polish Parliament."}
+{"text":"Wilamowice (earlier \"Willamowice\", , in local Wymysorys: \"Wymyso\u00fc\") is a rural town in southern Poland, situated in the Bielsko County, Silesian Voivodeship (since 1999, previously in Bielsko-Bia\u0142a Voivodeship, 1975\u20131998). According to a UNESCO report in 2009, the rural town is also known for the endangered language Wymysorys, a minority ethnolect, one of many Germanic \"colonial\" dialects spoken in the country since the Medieval period."}
+{"text":"According to historians, after the desolation of Polish lands by the Mongol invasion in 1241, the then Silesian Piast rulers of the Duchy of Opole and Racib\u00f3rz decided to bring settlers from the West to the deserted and destroyed lands around the Silesian Foothills, to revive agriculture, industry and trade. The area was settled in the course of the German eastward colonization of Slavic lands. In this way, around 1250, a group of colonists from the area of former Flanders came to the region, specifically from Friesland, near Bruges and established the settlement Wilamowice."}
+{"text":"The settlement was first documented in 1325, in the Peter's Pence register as the parish Novovillamowicz (New-Wilamowice) in medieval Latin, among the Catholic parishes of O\u015bwi\u0119cim diaconate, in the Diocese of Krak\u00f3w. The place name is seen as a demarcation to the older settlement \"Antiquo-Willamowicz\" (Old-Wilamowice, today named Stara Wie\u015b). In 1529, the two place names were recorded respectively in medieval Latin as \"Vilamovice Nova\" and \"Antiqua Vylamovicze\"."}
+{"text":"In the course of history, the area has been part of several territorial border changes. Politically, both settlements\u2014old and new, belonged to the Duchy of Opole and Racib\u00f3rz, and the castellany gord of O\u015bwi\u0119cim ceded from Lesser Poland around 1177 by duke Casimir II the Just to the duke of Opole\u2014Mieszko I Tanglefoot, which in 1315 was formed in the process of the feudal fragmentation of Poland into the Duchy of O\u015bwi\u0119cim, ruled by the local dukes of the Silesian Piast dynasty. In 1327, the Duchy of O\u015bwi\u0119cim became a fiefdom of the Kingdom of Bohemia within the Holy Roman Empire."}
+{"text":"In the 15th century, Jan D\u0142ugosz lists the settlement in the diocese of Krakow benefactors register \"Liber beneficiorum dioecesis Cracoviensis\" in Old Polish language \"Wylamowycze\", in allodial lordship of the nobleman Andreas of Wilamowic (aka Wilamowski) and the heirs Johannes and Nicolaus Wilamowski. From 1527, owners of the lordship mentioned include: the nobleman Jakob Saszowski of Gieraltowic and Wilamowic, and in 1533: the nobleman and chief judge of O\u015bwi\u0119cim Nicolaus Saszowski of Gieraltowic (aka Giera\u0142towski), in 1633: Christopher Korycinski (castellan of Wojnicz), between 1707\u20131719 W\u0142adys\u0142aw Morsztyn and his wife Helena n\u00e9e Kalinowska; to the end of the 19th century the owner Psarski sold his land and rights to residents, and from there on Wilamowice became a small rural town."}
+{"text":"In 1457, duke Jan IV of O\u015bwi\u0119cim agreed to sell the Duchy of O\u015bwi\u0119cim to the Polish Crown, and in the accompanying document issued on 21 February the settlement was mentioned in Old Polish language \"Wylamowycze\". It was not, however, until 1564, at the General sejm, that King Sigismund II Augustus issued privileges of incorporation, recognizing the Duchy of O\u015bwi\u0119cim as part of the Polish Crown into the Silesian County of the Krak\u00f3w Voivodeship."}
+{"text":"Since the 15th century, the names used in official chronicles were the German versions \"Wilmeshau\" and \"Wilmesdorf\" for both the new and old Wilamowice respectively. The place name was subject to several vernacular changes over the course of history, and since the 18th century the name \"Wilmesau\" in High German prevailed under the ruling Habsburg Monarchy; when in 1772, upon the First Partition of Poland, it became part of the Habsburg's Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, a semi-autonomous protectorate of the Austrian Empire. After World War I and the dissolution of Austro-Hungarian monarchy, it became part of the newly independent nation of the Second Polish Republic."}
+{"text":"In 1939, after the joint Invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and the Free City of Danzig, the area was annexed by Germany (see Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany) in the Occupation of Poland. After the end of the Second World War, Polish territories seized by the Red Army as it advanced westward, were restored to the post-War Polish People's Republic."}
+{"text":"Today, the Wymysorys dialect is still spoken by less than 70 native speaking residents\u2014the elderly being the majority. The dialect is the result of the transformation of the Flemish language. According to the late professor , a Polish historian and expert of Germanic languages, including the Flemish language, described this dialect as a patchwork of ancient languages: Old Germanic, Old French, Celtic, Gaulish and Romansh, which later crystallized in Dutch or Flemish."}
+{"text":"The status of the Wilamowice ethnolect is controversial, because according to the traditional classification of all dialects it is broadly understood as a High German language, and should be considered a dialect of the German language. Nevertheless, the self-determination of its users as a separate group from the Germans and the existence of a literary Wymysorys language (or, to be more exact, micro-language) allows to assume that this ethnolect is a separate language."}
+{"text":"Szczawnica is a resort town in Nowy Targ County in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland. As of June 30, 2007, its population was 7,378."}
+{"text":"Szczawnica has been a well-known resort town since the mid nineteenth century. Due to the presence of alkali sorrel springs and favorable climatic conditions, many respiratory and digestive tract illnesses are treated there. In 2005 the popular local spa was officially returned by the Polish government to its prewar owners \u2013 Count Stadnicki family. The spa has almost two-hundred-year history. Its last private owner was Count Adam Stadnicki, whose grandson \u2013 Andrzej Ma\u0144kowski \u2013 is the founder of the new Spa Town Museum being fitted in the center of Szczawnica, at Dietl Square (2009). The museum of the Szczawnica resort aims to present more than 350 different types of artifacts associated with the local therapeutics, archival documents, drawings, plans of buildings, old photographs, postcards and books."}
+{"text":"Szczawnica has many skiing trails and slopes. The longest (2\u00a0km) at Palenica, is fitted with a 4-person ski lift with overhead lighting and a capacity of 2,200 people per hour. It is operated by a state agency."}
+{"text":"The name of the town comes from \u201cszczawy\u201d, which is what the locals call the acidic waters. The first historical mention of the spa town dates back to the beginning of the 16th century. Until the end of the 18th century, Szczawnica was part of the Czorsztyn district. In 1839, J\u00f3zef Stefan Szalay took over the administration of Szczawnica and the development of the spa resort truly began."}
+{"text":"The middle of the 19th century sees the town develop dynamically thanks to the vision of J\u00f3zef Dietl, a doctor and promoter of spa resorts who visited Szczawnica in 1857. Seduced by the locality, he helped it to develop its hydrotherapy activities, already respecting the norms set by other European resorts. New thermal facilities are rapidly developed."}
+{"text":"New thermal springs are discovered one after the other. Before dying, J\u00f3zef Szalay ceded the management of his thermal establishment to the Academy of Learning in Krak\u00f3w, which continued the visionary work of its founder despite financial difficulties. This is how the Dworek Go\u015bcinny (Guest Manor), renowned throughout Europe, was built."}
+{"text":"In 1909, Szczawnica was acquired by Count Adam Stadnicki of Nawojowa. Despite the war that ravaged Europe a few years later, Adam Stadnicki\u2019s activities were a success and Szczawnica profited from continuous growth. The thermal baths were renovated, the \u201cG\u00f3rny Park\u201d extended to include the \u201c\"polonyna\"\u201d (the alpine grasslands above the timberline). The Inhalatorium, which was then equipped with pressurised rooms unique in Poland, was built, as was the Willa pod Modrzewiami (Villa under the Larches)."}
+{"text":"Unfortunately, the start of World War II halted the development of the spa resort and in 1948, the government of the PRL (Polish People's Republic) nationalised the resort. In 1956, the Pa\u0144stwowe Przedsi\u0119biorstwo Uzdrowisko Szczawnica (National Szczawnica Spa Company) was created and focused its activities on the occupational illnesses of miners and met- alworkers. The sanatoriums built at the time are named after the professions then valued by the state: Hutnik (Metalworker), G\u00f3rnik (Miner), Nauczyciel (Teacher), Budowlani (Builders), Papiernik (Papermaker) and Dzwonk\u00f3wka (named after a nearby mountain)."}
+{"text":"In 1973, the Natural Therapy Spa was opened, featuring all the required health equipment for baths, inhalation, physiotherapy and massages."}
+{"text":"In 2005, the Polish government returned the Szczawnica Spa Resort to the descendants of its pre-war owners. Andrzej Mankowski, grandson of Count Adam Stadnicki, and his three children decided to invest the requisite funds and a considerable amount of work to restore Szczawnica to its old splendour and charm."}
+{"text":"Very quickly, by 2008, the eastern part of Dietl Square was rebuilt in its historical form, containing a bar for Szczawnica\u2019s mineral waters, an art gallery, the Caf\u00e9 Helenka and the Holenderka and Szwajcarka villas. From 2009, the five-star Modrzewie Park hotel was ready to greet its first guests. In 2010, the Spa Resort Museum was inaugurated and more recently, in 2011, the reconstruction of the Dworek Go\u015bcinny (Guest Manor) was finished. In 2012, in collaboration with the town of Szczawnica, the last part of this long-term and passionate project \u2013 the regeneration of the Dolny"}
+{"text":"Szczawnica is one of the oldest and most beautiful spa resorts in Poland. It owes its development to J\u00f3zef Szalay and J\u00f3zef Dietl, the true initiator of its spa activities. He built the first thermal baths there, new buildings for baths and accommodation and actively promoted the town by inviting the famous people of the time there."}
+{"text":"The Szczawnica Spa is located in one of the most beautiful regions of Poland. Situated in the valley of the Grajcarek, the right-bank tributary of the Dunajec and between the ranges of the Pieniny and the S\u0105cz Beskids, it forms perfect microclimate favourable for improvement of one\u2019s health and the state of the upper respiratory tract."}
+{"text":"There are springs of twelve acidic mineral waters - \u201cszczawy\u201d - whose curative properties were first mentioned in the 16th century. Until today, their curative properties attract patients from all over the world. This is why one of the main features of the Spa comes as a magnificent Pump-Room where visitors can enjoy benefits of bicarbonate, sodium, iodine, and bromide waters rich in mineral salts and numerous micro-elements."}
+{"text":"Patients planning to arrive to the Pieniny health resort are welcome to take advantage of sanatoria and rehabilitation-and-treatment centres. They perform 42 types of treatments such as hydrotherapy, inhalations (exceptionally effective cell inhalations), physiotherapy, kinesitherapy, and drinking treatments."}
+{"text":"The spa specializes in treatment of the upper respiratory tract disorders, including chronic nose and throat inflammations, diseases of the vocal apparatus, allergies of the upper respiratory tract, bronchial asthma; musculoskeletal disorders, i.e. degenerative disorders of the spine and joints as well as rheumatoid disorders and rheumatoid arthritis. In treatments afforded to patients, the health centres use the spa\u2019s own balneological resources such as its own mineral waters as well as the environmental conditions, namely the therapeutic microclimate."}
+{"text":"Szczawnica\u2019s waters are acidic mineral waters containing bicarbonate, chlorine, sodium, bromine and iodine. They are regenerative waters, with curative properties. Currently, six drinkable mineral water sources are offered in the Mineral Water Bar, rebuilt and reopened in its historical location on Dietl Square."}
+{"text":"HELENA - spring discovered in 1844. It treats diseases of the upper and lower respiratory tract, rheumatologic disorders, chronic kidney inflammation, obesity, and osteoporosis. It is helpful in treatment of orthopedic diseases and orthopaedic trauma."}
+{"text":"JAN - spring discovered in 1869 - bicarbonate-chloride-sodium acidic water. Used in mineral baths and in production of Szczawniczanka table water."}
+{"text":"J\u00d3ZEF - spring discovered in 1986. It is used in treatment of the digestive system disorders, diseases of the upper and lower respiratory tracts, rheumatologic diseases, obesity and osteoporosis."}
+{"text":"SZYMON \u2013 Recommended in gastrointestinal diseases, as well as in neuroses, obesity and gout."}
+{"text":"PITONIAK\u00d3WKA - Recommended in diseases of neuroses, obesity, inflammation of the upper respiratory tract and bronchi."}
+{"text":"WANDA - Retrieved know since 1867. Recommended in diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, neuroses, obesity and gout."}
+{"text":"MAGDALENA - spring discovered in 1939. The bi-carbonate-chloride-sodium-iodide acidic water recommended in diseases of the digestive system, inflammations of the intestine, gall bladder and bile ducts, ulcers of the stomach and duodenum, obesity and mild neuroses."}
+{"text":"STEFAN - The spring known since 1822. The bi-carbonate-chloride-sodium-iodide acidic water. Recommended, among others, in urinary tract inflammations, nephrolithiasis, catarrhs of nose, throat, bronchi inflammations, asthma, emphysema."}
+{"text":"J\u00d3ZEFINA - The oldest spring in Szczawnica, known already before 1810. The bicarbonate-chloride-sodium acidic water recommended in catarrhs of nose and throat, inflammations, asthma, emphysema, gout and obesity."}
+{"text":"The ski mountaineer Szymon Zachwieja was born in Szczawnica."}
+{"text":"Eugeniusz Kap\u0142aniak, K1 Slalom Canoeist, 1961 Bronze and 1963 Silver Medallist at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships"}
+{"text":"Stefan Kap\u0142aniak, K1 and K2 Sprint Canoeist, 1958 double Gold Medallist at the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships, and 1960 Bronze Medallist in the Summer Olympics"}
+{"text":"Dominic Ciesielka, member of the prestigious FNN program"}
+{"text":"Brzesko (; , \"Brigel\") is a town in southern Poland, in Lesser Poland Voivodeship. It lies approximately west of Tarn\u00f3w and east of the regional capital Krak\u00f3w. Since Polish administrative reorganization (in 1999), Brzesko has been the administrative capital of Brzesko County in Lesser Poland Voivodeship. Before reorganization it was part of Tarn\u00f3w Voivodeship (1975\u20131998)."}
+{"text":", its population was 16,828. Historically, the town was subject of various ownerships since its 1385 founding. Okocim Brewery, founded by Jan Goetz in 1845, is located in nearby Okocim ()."}
+{"text":"Brzesko lies on the Uszwica river, along the important rail route from Krak\u00f3w to Przemy\u015bl, and along the European route E40. The town has a 14th-century church of St. Jacob, and the 19th-century palace of the Goetz family (founders of the Okocim Brewery). Other historic buildings were either destroyed in numerous wars, or burned in fires, such as the great fire of 1904. The name Brzesko probably comes from the word \"brzeg\" (shore), as the town is located on the shore of a river."}
+{"text":"The town was founded in 1385 by Spytko II of Melsztyn, the castellan of Biecz, with permission of Queen Jadwiga of Poland. Brzesko still retains the medieval shape of its town center, with a market square and the Gothic church of St. Jacob (1447)."}
+{"text":"In 1440, the town built a hospital for the poor, funded by Gregory of Sanok. Until 1772 (see Partitions of Poland), Brzesko belonged to Krakow Voivodeship, then it was annexed by Austria and became part of Galicia, to which it belonged until 1918. Before that, in 1856, Brzesko got a rail station, along a line from Krak\u00f3w to Lwow."}
+{"text":"During World War II, the Wehrmacht arrived in Brzesko on 5 September 1939. The town became part of the Kreis (county) Tarn\u00f3w in the Krakow district of the General Government, a separate administrative region of the Third Reich. 44 people were killed and about 200 were injured as they were waiting for the evacuation trains from Silesia. A closed Jewish ghetto existed between spring 1941 and September 1942. It spread across 3 areas: Berka Joselewicza Street, then all the buildings north of the Market Square up to the Rynek Sienny (known today as Sobieskiego Street and Chopina Street), and finally G\u0142owackiego Street up to Trzcianka and the Kazimierza Wielkiego Square. The Red Army arrived in Brzesko on 19 January 1945."}
+{"text":"The town has several cemeteries of historical significance. There are three military cemeteries dating from World War I and a kirkut dating back to at least 1847."}
+{"text":"The three military cemeteries were all commissioned by the Austro-Hungarian Ministry of War between 1914-1915 and designed by the architect Robert Motka. Cemetery no. 277, in Brzesko-Okocim, is the smallest of the three, with 9 Austro-Hungarian soldiers buried there. No. 276 is the largest, with graves of 441 Austro-Hungarian, 9 German, and 63 Russian soldiers. It borders the kirkut known as \"New Jewish Cemetery\" (\"Nowy cmentarz \u017cydowski\"), which also contains within its historical area military cemetery no. 275, where 21 Jewish Austro-Hungarian soldiers are buried."}
+{"text":"Brzesko is home to Okocimski Klub Sportowy Brzesko (\"Okocim Brzesko Sports Club\"), which from its beginnings in 1933 has been associated with the Okocim Brewery."}
+{"text":"In addition to its historical cemeteries points of cultural interest in Brzesko include the Goetz palace, built at the end of the 19th century by the Goetz family, and the adjoining English garden, a statue of Saint Florian, the city's patron originally erected in 1731 and restored after a city fire in 1904, a monument to the unknown soldier of World War I and the historic city hall (\"Ratusz\") located in the city center."}
+{"text":"Zator (, Wymysorys: \"Naoj\u015btaod\") is an old town on the Skawa river within O\u015bwi\u0119cim County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship (since 1999) in southern Poland. From 1975 to 1998 it belonged to the Bielsko-Bia\u0142a Voivodeship. It is the administrative seat of the Gmina Zator. According to data from December 31, 2008, Zator was inhabited by 4779 people."}
+{"text":"The city, located on the Skawa river, is well known for pisciculture, especially carp, and periodic event called Zatorskie Dni Karpia. Zator is the main city of the Carp Valley."}
+{"text":"Originally a part of Lesser Poland, the area was acquired by the Silesian Piast Duke W\u0142adys\u0142aw of Opole by a 1274 agreement with the Polish Princeps Boles\u0142aw V the Chaste. Zator then belonged to the Upper Silesian Duchy of Opole and after W\u0142adys\u0142aw's death in 1281 fell to the Duchy of Cieszyn. It received town privileges in 1292."}
+{"text":"From 1315 on Zator belonged to the Duchy of O\u015bwi\u0119cim split off Cieszyn and in 1445 even became the capital of a Piast duchy in its own right, the Duchy of Zator under Duke Wenceslaus I, a Bohemian vassal. It finally fell back to the Kingdom of Poland, when in 1494 Wenceslaus' son Jan V sold his lands to King John I Albert."}
+{"text":"From 1564 Zator had been incorporated into the Krak\u00f3w Voivodeship of Lesser Poland; in the course of the 1772 First Partition of Poland it was annexed by the Habsburg Monarchy under Empress Maria Theresa of Austria and incorporated into the Austrian Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. After the dissolution of Austria-Hungary by the 1919 Treaty of Saint-Germain Zator again fell to Poland."}
+{"text":"During the World War II, Zator was incorporated to Nazi Germany as a part of the Province of Upper Silesia, and was liberated on January 26, 1945."}
+{"text":"Krzeszowice () is a town in southern Poland, situated in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship. As of 2004, its population was 9,993. Krzeszowice belongs to \"Krak\u00f3w Metropolitan Area\", and lies 25 kilometers west of the center of the city of Krak\u00f3w. The town has a rail station, on a major route from Krak\u00f3w to Katowice, and lies along National Road Nr. 79, which goes from Warsaw to Bytom. In 1928\u20131966 the town had the status of a spa. Krzeszowice has a sports club called \"\u015awit\", founded in 1923."}
+{"text":"Krzeszowice is located in southern part of the Krak\u00f3w-Cz\u0119stochowa Upland, with numerous caves and valleys in the area. In 1981, when the \"Complex of Jura Landscape Parks\" was created, three parks from the gmina of Krzeszowice were added to it (\"Rudnia Landscape Park, Tenczynek Landscape Park\" and \"Krak\u00f3w Valleys Landscape Park\"). In 2008, it was selected with 19 villages of Europe - Germany, Poland, Italy and Spain - for the Spanish documentary film \"Villages of Europe\" Pueblos de Europa, produced by Juan Frutos (Colours Communication Group) and Orange Productions S.L."}
+{"text":"First mention of Krzeszowice comes from 1286, when Bishop of Krak\u00f3w, Pawe\u0142 z Przemankowa, allowed a man named Fryczek Freton to locate the village of \"Cressouicy\". By 1337, Krzeszowice already had a wooden church of St. Martin. In the mid-15th century, it had a school and a public house. In 1555, Krzeszowice belonged to Stanis\u0142aw T\u0119czynski, then it was owned by several noble families - the Sieniawski family, Opali\u0144ski family, Czartoryski family, Lubomirski family and, since 1816, the Potocki family."}
+{"text":"In the early 17th century, the advantages of local mineral water were discovered by Krzeszowice parish priest, reverend Bernard Boche\u0144ski, who mentioned it in the 1625 parish records. In 1778, Prince August Czartoryski opened here first baths, and soon afterwards, patients began visiting Krzeszowice. In 1783\u20131786, the \"Vauxhall Palace\" was built, and in 1819, the \"Green Bath\" was opened. Krzeszowice began to prosper, in 1809\u20131815 and 1855\u20131867, the town was the seat of a county. In 1815\u20131846, Krzeszowice belonged to the Free City of Krak\u00f3w, and to Austria in 1846-1918 within the Grand Duchy of Cracow, Chrzanow \"Bezirkshauptmannschaft\"."}
+{"text":"A hospital was opened here in 1829, a shelter for the poor in 1843, and in 1844, neo-Gothic church was built. In 1847 Krzeszowice received a rail station, along the newly built route from Krak\u00f3w to Mys\u0142owice. Local residents took part in the Krak\u00f3w Uprising, and helped Polish rebels from Russian-controlled Congress Poland, during the January Uprising. In 1850\u20131855, the \"Potocki Palace\" was built, in the Italian Renaissance style, together with English garden. The palace with all its details was not completed until 1870."}
+{"text":"By 1910, the population of Krzeszowice was 2619, out of which Jews made 18%. The town continued to develop, with several new enterprises opened here in the late 19th and early 20th century. On December 3, 1924, Krzeszowice was officially incorporated as a town. New districts and blocks of flats were built, and by 1931, the population grew to 3,391. During World War II Krzeszowice belonged to the General Government. The \"Potocki Palace\" was restored by polish slave laborer by order of Nazis and renamed by Germans into \"Haus Kressendorf\", becoming summer residence of Hans Frank. Almost all Jewish citizens were murdered in the Holocaust. The German occupation of Krzeszowice ended on 19 January 1945."}
+{"text":"Rzepiska , (, , ) is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Bukowina Tatrza\u0144ska, within Tatra County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland, close to the border with Slovakia. It lies approximately north-east of Bukowina Tatrza\u0144ska, north-east of Zakopane, and south of the regional capital Krak\u00f3w."}
+{"text":"It is one of the 14 villages in the Polish part of the historical region of Spi\u0161 (Polish: \"Spisz\")."}
+{"text":"Szczucin is a town in D\u0105browa County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Szczucin. It lies approximately north-east of D\u0105browa Tarnowska, north of Tarn\u00f3w and east of the regional capital Krak\u00f3w. The town has a population of 4,069."}
+{"text":"Before Polish administrative reorganization (1999) Szczucin was part of Tarn\u00f3w Voivodeship (1975\u20131998). Located on the Vistula river, Szczucin is the ending station of a secondary-importance, one track rail line Tarn\u00f3w - D\u0105browa Tarnowska - Szczucin, built by the Austrian government in 1906. There were several plans to extend the line northwards, to Busko Zdroj and Kielce, but so far, they have not been carried out. Current shape of the line is the result of Szczucin's having been located until 1918 on northern border of Austria-Hungary. The Vistula marked the border, beyond which stretched the Russian Empire, and the governments of both countries were not interested in completion of the line, which would otherwise have connected Austrian-controlled Tarn\u00f3w with Russian-controlled Kielce."}
+{"text":"After the Partitions of Poland, Szczucin found itself in the Austrian Partition of Poland, since 1815 located on the Austrian-Russian border, and the town stagnated. In the autumn of 1914, during World War I, Szczucin was captured by the Russians, who remained here until 1915 (see Gorlice\u2013Tarn\u00f3w Offensive). In 1918, Poland regained independence and control of the town."}
+{"text":"During the German invasion of Poland, which started World War II in September 1939, Szczucin was the area of several skirmishes between retreating units of the Krak\u00f3w Army, and the advancing Wehrmacht. On September 12, 1939, German soldiers carried out a massacre of around 40 Polish prisoners of war and around 30 Polish civilian refugees (see also \"Nazi crimes against the Polish nation\"). Altogether, 70 Poles were murdered, and this tragedy is commemorated by a monument. During the German occupation, Szczucin was a center of the Polish resistance movement. In 1943, soldiers of the J\u0119drusie resistance organization executed here an officer of the Blue Police. In late 1944, Germans ordered evacuation of all Szczucin's inhabitants, because they prepared defensive positions along the Vistula."}
+{"text":"The town is placed along National Road No. 73 (Warszawa - Kielce - Tarn\u00f3w - Jas\u0142o), and here regional road nr. 982 stems eastwards, to Mielec, making Szczucin a local transportation hub."}
+{"text":"One of the main historic heritage sights of Szczucin is the Baroque Saint Mary Magdalene church, located at the Market Square in the town center."}
+{"text":"Szczucin is home to Poland's only road museum (Muzeum Drogownictwa), which has the area of two hectares, displaying ancient road building machines, as well as road signs, road posts, documents and other items."}
+{"text":"Skawina is a town in southern Poland with 27,328 inhabitants (2008). Situated in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship (since 1999), previously in Krak\u00f3w Voivodeship (1975\u20131998). The town is located on the Skawinka river, in close proximity to the city of Krak\u00f3w. Its population (as for December 31, 2010) was 23,761, and the area of the town is 20,50\u00a0km2. One of the most interesting historic buildings in Skawina is a Renaissance palace, built in the mid-16th century by Pawe\u0142 Korytko. The name of the town probably comes from the Skawinka river."}
+{"text":"In the Second Polish Republic Skawina belonged to the Krak\u00f3w Voivodeship. On September 6, 1939 the first Wehrmacht troops entered the town, and the German occupation lasted until January 23, 1945. During this time, the Germans murdered nearly all of the town's pre-war population of around 300 Jews. Some where murdered nearby while others were rounded up and sent to the killing camp of Belzec where they were immediately gassed. A few were sent to labor camps near Plaszow where most were later murdered too. Those who hid from the roundup were later shot in the town."}
+{"text":"The Communist government of People's Republic of Poland decided that Skawina would become a center of heavy industry. In 1954, the \"Skawina Aluminum Works\" (\"Huta Aluminium Skawina\") were opened, and in 1961 the Skawina Power Station (\"Elektrownia Skawina\") went on line. The aluminium works were closed in 1981 due to the widespread pollution they caused. The growth of industry resulted in an influx of new residents and the construction of several apartment blocks in new districts of the town."}
+{"text":"Skawina is home to sports club \"Skawinka\", founded in 1922."}
+{"text":"Starting in 1928, there were recurring attempts to create a \"triangle of security\", an industrial region in the middle of the country, which would be secure from any aggression by Germany or the Soviet Union. The plan was finally approved in 1936 by the Polish government. By April 1938, the plan, which had already set in motion in some parts of the country, was expanded to the territories beyond those covered by the original plan for the most secure 'triangle'."}
+{"text":"The COP was located in the territories of the following former voivodeships: the eastern parts of Kielce Voivodship and Krak\u00f3w Voivodship, the southern part of Lublin Voivodeship, and the western part of Lw\u00f3w Voivodeship, or in other terms, 46 powiats, constituting 15.4% of the territory of Poland and inhabited by 17% of Poland's population. The urbanization factor of those territories was 17% (94 cities), compared to the national average of 30%. There were several arguments for the location of the COP:"}
+{"text":"The COP plan required a massive financial investment, just the development of the infrastructure and the military industry being estimated at 3 billion zlotys. As expectations of war grew, there was too little private investment in Europe in the late 1930s and so the Polish government carried most of the burden for financing the project. From 1937 to 1939, the COP had consumed approximately 60% of all Polish investment funds."}
+{"text":"The following industrial projects were part of the plan: a steel mill (Huta Stalowa Wola) and power plant in a brand new city of Stalowa Wola, a rubber factory in D\u0119bica, an automobile factory in Lublin, an aircraft factory in Mielec, an aircraft engine and artillery factory in Rzesz\u00f3w, hydroelectric power plants in Ro\u017cn\u00f3w and Myczkowce, and the expansion of Zak\u0142ady Azotowe in Mo\u015bcice. The military industry in the Staropolski Okr\u0119g Przemys\u0142owy was expanded in the towns of Radom, Skar\u017cysko-Kamienna, Ostrowiec \u015awi\u0119tokrzyski, Starachowice, and Kielce. Most of those investments were located in regions with high unemployment, and their construction succeeded in reducing social tensions and began to strengthen the Polish economy."}
+{"text":"The development of the COP and similar projects, like the construction of the seaport in Gdynia, were the most outstanding achievements of the Second Polish Republic, marking the beginning of the new era of recently regained independence. The COP plan was continued by the communist government of Poland after the Second World War."}
+{"text":"However, as the end date for the plan was the end of July 1940, and Poland did not have sufficient capital to carry out the entire plan on its own, few of the intended projects were completely operational before the war broke out, and many other ones were not launched at all. Consequently, their contribution to the equipment of the Polish Army in the run-up to the war was relatively insignificant, and did little to offset the crushing material superiority of the German armed forces."}
+{"text":"In any event, the German dismemberment of Czechoslovakia outflanked Poland from the south and put the majority of COP factories in the direct path of German advance from Slovakia. During the German occupation, most of the factories were converted to contribute to the German war effort. After the war, the COP-initiated industrial enterprises were further expanded and for the most part, continue to function until today."}
+{"text":"Melchior Wa\u0144kowicz, in his 1939 book Sztafeta, emphasized the fact that the quick growth of the COP's towns and cities was not followed by necessary investments in infrastructure, especially schools and housing. As Ilustrowany Kurier Codzienny announced on January 10, 1939, in the first half of 1938, the population of Rzesz\u00f3w grew by 24%, that of Sandomierz by 29%, Tarnobrzeg by 49%, and Mielec by 58%. Altogether, in the first half of 1938, the total population of all the COP's towns and cities grew by 20%. According to a press release from January 1939, out of 33 towns and cities located at the confluence of the San and the Vistula rivers, as many as 23 needed new schools."}
+{"text":"Wojnicz () is an ancient historic town in Tarn\u00f3w County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship. In the early medieval period of the Polish state, it became one of the most important centres in the province of Lesser Poland, as part of the system of Dunajec river castles. It became the seat of a Castellan and prospered from the 13th century to the first half of the 17th century, being on an international trade route bordering Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. It had town and market rights, its church was raised to collegiate status with links to the Jagiellonian University in Krak\u00f3w 64\u00a0km away."}
+{"text":"Wojnicz lies on the boundary of two distinct geographical regions in Poland: the Sandomierz Basin and the Western Carpathians. The Dunajec, a major tributary of the Vistula River, flows 2\u00a0km east of the present town centre. The decline of Wojnicz deprived it of a rail link when a railway line was planned in the 1850s. It is however located at the intersection of European route E40, and local route number 975 from D\u0105browa Tarnowska to Nowy S\u0105cz."}
+{"text":"In 1217, the town was called \"Woynicze\". In 1224, another spelling was \"Woyniz\", and in 1239, \"Woynicz\". Polish language specialists Kazimierz Rymut and Stanis\u0142aw Rospond believe that the name Wojnicz comes from the surname \"Wojno\", which was then changed to \"Wojnice\", \"Wojnic\", and finally \u2013 Wojnicz."}
+{"text":"During Poland's Golden Age, Wojnicz developed and prospered. In 1527, a bridge over the Dunajec river was built. In 1530, the first Craft guild was founded. In 1575 the town was recorded as having a town hall with a bell and clock-tower. Like other places in Lesser Poland, Wojnicz suffered greatly during the Swedish invasion of Poland. On 3 October 1655, it was the scene of \"the Battle of Wojnicz\". On 19 March 1657 the town was sacked and burned by troops of George II Rakoczi of Hungary. During the Great Northern War, Swedish invaders once again destroyed the town in 1702. After that devastation, Wojnicz never really regained its civic importance."}
+{"text":"In 1772, Wojnicz was annexed by the Habsburg Empire (see Partitions of Poland). The 19th century was not kind to the town: the Austrians kept Wojnicz County until 1867. However, in 1831 and 1895 further fires destroyed large parts of Wojnicz, including the historic town hall. In 1856, the Galician Railway of Archduke Charles Louis bypassed the town, laying its route some ten kilometers to the north."}
+{"text":"With the outbreak of World War I, the Russian Empire conducted a Blitzkrieg that overwhelmed much of Galicia right up to Krak\u00f3w, but were repulsed eastwards by the Austrian army up to the Dunajec river and remained stationed outside Wojnicz throughout 1914 and 1915 until the Russians abandoned nearby Tarn\u00f3w. The devastation in the province was immense in terms of the human toll and heritage looting. The fallen Austro-Hungarians and Italians in local battles are buried and commemorated in two cemeteries, no. 282 and no. 285 in Wojnicz. Fallen Wojnicz conscripts are commemorated on the war monument in the market square."}
+{"text":"Wojnicz had remained part of the Austrian Empire until 1918, when it returned to the newly independent Second Polish Republic. In 1928, it was visited by President Ignacy Mo\u015bcicki, but seven years later Wojnicz was stripped of its town privileges and reduced to the status of a village."}
+{"text":"After the war, it became a backwater throughout the duration of the Polish People's Republic. Wojnicz remained in the Krak\u00f3w Voivodeship until 1975 when it passed to the newly formed Tarn\u00f3w Voivodeship until 1999. It did not recover its Town rights until January 1, 2007."}
+{"text":"Jaworzno is a city in southern Poland, near Katowice. It lies in the Silesian Highlands, on the Przemsza river (a tributary of the Vistula). Jaworzno belongs to the historic province of Lesser Poland. The city is situated in the Silesian Voivodeship since its formation in 1999, previously (1975\u20131999) it was in Katowice Voivodeship. Jaworzno is one of the cities of the 2,7 million conurbation \u2013 Katowice urban area and within a greater Silesian metropolitan area populated by about 5,294,000 people. The population of the city is 91,563 (2018)."}
+{"text":"The municipality is situated a short distance to the north-east of Junction 41 on the A4 Highway. It lies in the Silesian Highlands, in the historical region of Lesser Poland, and since its foundation until 1975, it was administratively tied with Lesser Poland's capital, Krak\u00f3w. Until 1795, it belonged to Krak\u00f3w Voivodeship, then, together with Krak\u00f3w, was seized by the Habsburg Empire in the Partitions of Poland. In 1815\u20131846 it belonged to the Free City of Krak\u00f3w, which was annexed by Austria and merged with Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. In 1918 Jaworzno returned to Poland. The name of the city comes from the \"jawor\" trees (sycamore maple), which in the past were abundant in this area."}
+{"text":"Jaworzno was placed into the Silesian Voivodeship (province) effective January 1, 1999 under the Local Government Reorganization Act. Previously, it was attached to the Katowice Voivodeship (1975\u20131998) and before that to the Krak\u00f3w Voivodeship. Jaworzno lies in the east of the largest metropolis in Poland and is one of the largest in the European Union, numbering about 3,5 million. This urban expansion bloomed in the 19th century thanks to the rapid development of the mining and metallurgical industries. In the year 2006 Jaworzno and 14 neighboring cities formed the multimunicipal structure, the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union. Its population is 2 million and its area is ."}
+{"text":"The climate of the area is continental humid. The annual average temperature is (January average and July average \u00b0C). Yearly rainfall averages at , the most rainy month being July. The area's characteristic weak winds blow at about 2\u00a0m\/s from the west (Moravian Gate)."}
+{"text":"Jaworzno is located at the intersection of a number of road routes such as:"}
+{"text":"A4 motorway (part of European route E40)"}
+{"text":"S1 expressway (part of European route E75) Gda\u0144sk \u2013 Cieszyn,"}
+{"text":"national road No. 79 Warsaw \u2013 Bytom,"}
+{"text":"provincial road No. 903 Jaworzno 79 \u2013 Jaworzno 4"}
+{"text":"Public transport is provided by PKM Jaworzno (Przedsi\u0119biorstwo Komunikacji Miejskiej w Jaworznie \u2013 public transport company in Jaworzno) not belonging to the KZK GOP. PKM Jaworzno was one of the first public transport companies in Poland which introduced the magnetic card called Jaworznicka Karta miejska (Jaworzno Urban Card) instead of paper tickets. Currently PKM Jaworzno is one of the most modern public transport companies in Poland. The PKM Jaworzno's fleet is based 40% on electric vehicles."}
+{"text":"Greens, forests, and undeveloped land constitute 60 percent of the town's area. Jaworzno has environmentally valuable areas which as a group present a diversity of landscapes and vegetation as well as a richness of flora and fauna. These include the Dolina Zabnika nature reserve, the Dobra Wilkoszyn landscape protection area, the Sasanka natural surface monument, Grodzisko hill, and Sosina lake. Within Jaworzno's boundaries there are 41 plant species under strict protection and 11 under partial protection."}
+{"text":"The city of Jaworzno has many sporting facilities at the Europe-wide level and offers a rich variety of educational and cultural activities. The city major arena, the \"Hala Widowiskowo-Sportowa\", can seat 2,500 spectators. The \"Sosina\" water sports centre is the venue for the annual Polish water-skiing championships."}
+{"text":"Lipnica Murowana is a village in southern Poland. It lies approximately south-east of Bochnia and south-east of the regional capital Krak\u00f3w. It is the seat of the district called Gmina Lipnica Murowana, within Bochnia County."}
+{"text":"The village is the site of Saint Leonard's church, built in the end of 15th century. This is one of the six Wooden Churches of Southern Little Poland, on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites since 2003."}
+{"text":"Lipnica was first mentioned in the 1320s, when its name was spelled Lypnycza. In a 1327 document, it was called Villa Conradi, while in 1342, its name was presented as civitatis Lipnik. In a court document from 1445, the town was called Lipnicza murata, while in 1588 King Zygmunt III Waza officially named it civitas Murata Lipnicensis. Since the 18th century, the Polish form of the name of the town is used as either Lipnica Murowana or just Lipnica."}
+{"text":"Lipnica Murowana is located along the Uszwica river valley, among the hills of the Island Beskids. First Slavic settlements here date back to the early Middle Ages, and according to parish documents from 1781, first Roman Catholic church was established here in 1141, but this has not been confirmed by any other sources."}
+{"text":"The period of prosperity for Lipnica ended in the 1650s, when, during the catastrophic Swedish invasion of Poland, the town was captured and burned to the ground by Swedes and Transilvanians. Lipnica has never recovered from the destruction, and gradually lost its importance. Following the first partition of Poland (1772), Lipnica was annexed by the Habsburg Empire, and remained in Austrian Galicia until 1918. During Austrian rule, Lipnica further declined, and its residents lived in widespread poverty."}
+{"text":"In early months of World War I, the area of Lipnica witnessed heavy fighting between Russian and Austro-Hungarian troops (see Battle of Galicia). The town was destroyed, and after the frontline had moved eastwards, local residents starved. In 1918, Lipnica became part of Krakow Voivodeship, Second Polish Republic. On July 1, 1934, it lost its town charter, and the mayor was replaced by the voigt."}
+{"text":"Osiek Jasielski is a village in Jas\u0142o County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in south-eastern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Osiek Jasielski. It lies approximately south of Jas\u0142o and south-west of the regional capital Rzesz\u00f3w."}
+{"text":"The village has a population of 680."}
+{"text":"Osiek Jasielski is located on a hill, some 270 meters above sea level, along the Wisloka river. The defensive settlement of Osiek probably existed since early Middle Ages, guarding southeastern corner of Lesser Poland. In 1365, King Kazimierz Wielki decided to found here a town, together with a castle, with the purpose of defending Poland from possible Hungarian raids. Osiek was the seat of a starosta, and the newly established town was famous for its fairs, which took place twice a year, on April 28 and July 13. Royal bill confirming dates of fairs was announced on Jule 2, 1583, at the market square in Biecz."}
+{"text":"Osiek, which until 1772 was part of Biecz County, Krakow Voivodeship, remained a small town. According to some sources, its town charter was voided in 1604, to be returned by King Zygmunt III Waza on March 12, 1618. Most of its residents supported themselves by cultivating land, and the number of artisans was small."}
+{"text":"Following the first partition of Poland (1772) Osiek became part of Austrian Galicia, in which it remained until November 1918. In 1934 the government of the Second Polish Republic stripped it of the town charter. During World War II, Osiek was one of stops along the route from General Government to Hungary. The route was used by the Home Army, which was very strong in the area. During Operation Tempest, two bridges were blown up by the Home Army on August 11, 1944, disturbing movements of the Wehrmacht."}
+{"text":"Gorlice is a city and an urban municipality (\"gmina\") in south eastern Poland with around 29,500 inhabitants (2008). It is situated south east of Krak\u00f3w and south of Tarn\u00f3w between Jas\u0142o and Nowy S\u0105cz in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship (since 1999), previously in Nowy S\u0105cz Voivodeship (1975\u20131998). It is the capital of Gorlice County."}
+{"text":"The city lies between the Ropa and S\u0119k\u00f3wka river valleys, surrounded by several mountain ranges of the Carpathian Mountains, namely their part called Beskid Niski (Low Beskids) massive. It is located in the heartland of the Do\u0142y (Pits), and its average elevation above sea level is , although there are some more considerable hills located within the confines of the city. The city is nowadays situated in a heavily populated region from Jas\u0142o, from Nowy S\u0105cz, from Tarn\u00f3w, and from Krak\u00f3w. Gorlice is known in ; in ; and in ."}
+{"text":"Gorlice was founded during the reign of Casimir the Great in 1354. In that year, the Stolnik of Sandomierz, Derslaw Karwacjan, received royal permission to found a town in a densely forested area of the Carpathian foothills. The existence of the town is mentioned in sources from 1388, 1404 and 1417. In the 15th century, Gorlice remained private property of the Karwacjan family."}
+{"text":"The town quickly developed, becoming a regional center of crafts and trade. In 1504, Jan Karwacjan received royal permission for two fairs annually and a weekly market. In the period known as Polish Golden Age, Gorlice prospered. Its artisans and merchants had contacts not only with other Polish towns, but also with merchants from Upper Hungary. In the second half of the 16th century, Gorlice became property of the Odrowaz family, which supported Protestant Reformation. Swedish invasion of Poland (1655\u201360) brought widespread destruction: the population of Gorlice fell from 1200 (as for 1657) to only 284 (as for 1662)."}
+{"text":"As a result of the first Partition of Poland (Treaty of St-Petersburg dated 5 July 1772), the town area was attributed to the Habsburg Empire (for more details, read the article Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria). In 1806, the Austrian government sold the town to a local nobleman, Jan Nepomucen Stadnicki of Roznow."}
+{"text":"Until 1918, the town remained part of the Austria side (Cisleithania) after the compromise of 1867, head (since 1865) of the county with the same name, one of the 78 \"Bezirkshauptmannschaften\" in Austrian Galicia province (Crown land). By mid-19th century, the population of Gorlice was some 4000. The town entered the period of its prosperity after its 1854\u20131858 resident Ignacy Lukasiewicz invented the kerosene lamp in 1853. In a few years, sprawling oil wells emerged in Gorlice, and the town was called the cradle of Polish oil industry; its rapid industrialization was spurred with the construction of a railroad (1883)."}
+{"text":"By early 20th century, the population of Gorlice grew to 6000, but its development was halted by World War I. The city was the focal point of the German Gorlice-Tarn\u00f3w Offensive during World War I, in May 1915. Extremely heavy and prolonged fighting took place here, Gorlice frequently changed hands, and as a result, the town was completely destroyed. Hence the \"Gorlice fair\" or \"Gorlice days\" held every year during the May Bank Holidays and adjoining days, which are enjoyed by many visitors both domestic and from abroad."}
+{"text":"During the First World War, Gorlice played a strategically significant role in the 1915 Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive. On May 1, 1915, the combined forces of Austria-Hungary and Germany initiated artillery barrages against Russian soldiers stationed on the battle line stretching from Gorlice to Tarnow. The following day, Austro-German infantry units launched an unsuccessful attack near Tarnow. In Gorlice, the weakened Russian forces were unable to defend against the Austrian and German attackers. On May 6, General Radko-Dmitriev, commander of the Russian Third Army, ordered his troops to retreat. An attempt by General Radko-Dmitriev to counterattack on May 7 and 8 resulted in disaster for the Russians, as German reinforcements outnumbered the defenders."}
+{"text":"The following spring, General Alexei Brusilov, commander of the Russian Eighth Army, launched a counteroffensive that nearly destroyed the Austro-Hungarian Army. The Brusilov Offensive, as it is known, is regarded as one of the most successful operations in the First World War."}
+{"text":"In the Second Polish Republic, Gorlice belonged to Krak\u00f3w Voivodeship. Since local oil wells had almost dried, the center of Polish oil industry moved eastwards, to Boryslaw. This resulted in widespread unemployment, street demonstrations and increased popularity of Communist ideology among local workers. On 1 May 1936, a May Day rally attracted 20,000 people."}
+{"text":"German occupation of Gorlice began on 7 September 1939 (see Invasion of Poland). During the war, the town's Jewish community was first herded by Nazi Germans into the newly formed Gorlice Ghetto and then murdered at Belzec. On 16 January 1945, the Red Army captured Gorlice."}
+{"text":"History of Jews in Gorlice before German Occupation."}
+{"text":"In the 19th century, when more Jews started settling inside of Gorlice, the current non-Jewish residents worked mostly in crafts and agriculture. At the time that the Jews were moving into Gorlice, there was also the discovery of oil in the Gorlice region in that later half of the 19th century. While the non-Jewish residents were working with agriculture, the Jews were prevailing in the oil industry with trade and development. In 1874, Jewish investors helped with the development of an oil refinery, along with another one nearby then in 1883."}
+{"text":"The population of the Jews in Gorlice is not well documented or reliable before the later half of the 19th century. There are statistics on the Jewish population from 1880 to 1910 though. Looking first at the Gorlice district in 1880 there was a total of 74,072 residents and out of those 6.4% (4,755) were Jews. Just in the city of Gorlice itself, there were 2,257 Jews out of the around 5,000 residents of the city which is close to 50%. The population of Jews in Gorlice grew to 7.5% of the Gorlice district composed of Jews in 1910 and 51% of residents in the City of Gorlice were Jewish at that time (3,495 out of 6,600)."}
+{"text":"Because of World War I, the population did drop from 1910 to 1921. In 1921, after the war, there were about 2,300 Jews left, which was about 41% of the population. During World War I, the Russian army was one of the main reasons for this drop in the number of Jews. There was rapes, robberies, and murders, and a lot of Jews fled Gorlice to other countries and never came back after the war."}
+{"text":"When World War II started in 1939, the population of the Jews in Gorlice was back up to around 5000 which was once again above half of the residents of the city. At the start of the war, a lot of Jews in Gorlice fled elsewhere before the German occupation began."}
+{"text":"As documented by Jan D\u0142ugosz, the chronicler and diplomat, in his manuscripts, Casimir III the Great had erected the Lanckorona Castle to protect the road to Krak\u00f3w and its borders with the Duchy of O\u015bwi\u0119cim. The castle was already standing at the time of the erection of Saint John the Baptist Roman Catholic Parish Church of Lanckorona in 1336. In its Township Act, King Casimir III the Great gave its inhabitants the right to hold a weekly Thursday town marketplace as well as a concession to import beer into the town. At the time, the dwellers of Lanckorona enjoyed the same rights as the inhabitants of its much larger neighbouring Capital City of Krak\u00f3w."}
+{"text":"Two of the main battles of the Bar Confederation took place on the plains before Lanckorona."}
+{"text":"On 22 February 1771, the Bar Confederates defended Lanckorona and its castle from the Russian army led by Alexander Suvorov."}
+{"text":"J\u00f3zef Pu\u0142aski and his son Casimir Pulaski were the founders of the Bar Confederation. Casimir Pulaski went on to become the \"father of American cavalry as he emigrated to North America to help in the cause of the American Revolution and freedom there. He distinguished himself heroically throughout the revolution, most notably when he saved the life of George Washington and became a general in the Continental Army, and when he created the Pulaski Cavalry Legion and reformed the American cavalry."}
+{"text":"In 1602, Miko\u0142aj Zebrzydowski the Voivode of Krak\u00f3w and Lanckorona commissioned the construction of the Kalwaria Zebrzydowska monastery and the trails of the Passion of Christ in the neighbouring town of Kalwaria Zebrzydowska modeled on the Calvary outside the city walls of Jerusalem."}
+{"text":"Wilkowice () is a village in Bielsko County, Silesian Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Wilkowice. It lies approximately south of Bielsko-Bia\u0142a and south of the regional capital Katowice. The village has a population of 6,496."}
+{"text":"It is one of the oldest villages in \u017bywiec Basin. It was established in the early 14th century by the Cistercian monastery in Rudy, which owned the area alongside \u0141odygowice and Pietrzykowice."}
+{"text":"The main attraction of the village are the tourist mountain trails running to the top of Magurka and Rogacz. Other natural assets include rocks and mountain streams. Among the Monuments of Wilkowice it is worth mentioning:"}
+{"text":"Ropczyce () is a town in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship in south-eastern Poland, situated in the valley of the Wielopolka River (a tributary of the Wis\u0142oka River). The town has a population of 15,098 (). and is the seat of Ropczyce-S\u0119dzisz\u00f3w County."}
+{"text":"Situated in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship (since 1999), it is the capital of Ropczyce-S\u0119dzisz\u00f3w County."}
+{"text":"Ropczyce is located east of Krak\u00f3w and west of Rzesz\u00f3w. The coordinates for Ropczyce: Latitude 50\u00b00500' and Longitude 21\u00b06167. In DMS or Degree, Minutes, & Seconds; Latitude 50\u00b02'60N and Longitude is 21\u00b037'0E. Its elevation is above sea level. The time zone for Poland is UTC+1."}
+{"text":"Ropczyce has a total population of 26,055 according to the Polish Official Census 2008 of whom 15,098 live in the Ropczyce urban area and 10,957 live in the surrounding rural areas ( radius). It is the seat of Ropczyce-S\u0119dzisz\u00f3w County, which has a total population of 713,350 people (30 June 2008)."}
+{"text":"King Casimir III the Great, king Kazimierz IV Jagiello\u0144czyk and king W\u0142adys\u0142aw II Jagie\u0142\u0142o were regular visitors to Ropczyce. Under the patronage of the Polish Royals and subsequent trade agreements with Ruthenia, the town's future started to look very good. It could then grow and develop, also due to its favourable location on an important trade route from Silesia and Lesser Poland (Ma\u0142opolska) to Ruthenia. Ropczyce was severely damaged during a Tatar raid in 1504. To help the town and citizens recover from this tragedy, king Aleksander Jagiello\u0144czyk gave all the citizens a 10-year tax exemption from 1504\u20131514 In the 15th and 16th centuries Ropczyce became a major centre in the manufacture of canvas goods."}
+{"text":"Since its formation Ropczyce has been known by several different names, although these appear to be phonetic variations of the same name. By the middle of the 16th century, it was first recorded as 'Ropczyce' replacing the previous variation of 'Robczyce' \u2013 this name is thought to have probably originated from the family name of Robek (\"from the Polish verb, 'robi\u0107 \u2013 to work\"') who are thought to have established the original settlement."}
+{"text":"In the 16th century Ropczyce's churches were influenced by The Reformation, with the Parish Church going over to Protestantism several times. Around the 1550s the Parish Church was under the control of the Polish Brethren \"(Bracia Polscy, also called Arians or Socinians)\" for over a decade."}
+{"text":"The earliest information about Jews settling in Ropczyce dates back to 1564. It was noted then that four Jewish families, i.e. about 30 people, lived on the farm of the Gryf family. In 1604, King Sigismund III Vasa granted Ropczyce with a law, following which only two Jewish families (of a district\u2019s leaseholder and of a tax collector) were allowed to live in the town, however, they were strictly forbidden to"}
+{"text":"Up until World War II Ropczyce was a \"\u2018shtetl\u2019\" () with a significant Jewish population. There is a Ropshitz Hasidic dynasty."}
+{"text":"Ropczyce's \"\u2018Golden Age\u2019\" was but a distant memory in the 17th and 18th centuries \u2013 these were times of wars and invasions. The town went into decline and life got a lot harder for the townspeople. In 1605 over half of the town was destroyed in a great fire. Fifty years later, Ropczyce was hit by The Plague. Ropczyce was plundered by Swedish troops in 1655 and then devastated in 1657 by the army of George II R\u00e1k\u00f3czi, the Prince of Transylvania. In 1669 the Parish Church was destroyed by fire."}
+{"text":"On 14 July 1772, following the First Partition of Poland, Ropczyce found itself in the Austrian province of Galicia, part of the Habsburg Monarchy in the Austro-Hungarian Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. Ropczyce was first located in the administrative area (or \"cyrku\u0142\") of Pilznen and in the Sandomierski district. In 1775 the administrative areas in Galicia were reorganised and Ropczyce was reallocated to the Tarn\u00f3w \"cyrku\u0142\". Fortunately for Ropczyce, as a 'Royal town', it was given virtually autonomous administration. The position of 'town advocate\u2019 was replaced by the new position of mayor. However, during these times the whole region was systematically Germanised, from the system of administration, local by-laws, education to everyday life."}
+{"text":"At the beginning of the 19th century, the population grew to over 1,000. At this time there was a small Austrian garrison stationed in the town. In 1806 there was a Cholera outbreak in which 133 people from Ropczyce died. In 1873 the town was again struck by a great fire, with much destruction."}
+{"text":"In the following administrative changes of the region of Galicia in 1885, 178 counties \"(powiats)\" were created in the existing 19 administrative areas (\"cyrku\u0142s\") and Ropczyce was made the administrative centre of its own county. The last reorganisation occurred in 1867 saw the reduction of administrative areas and the number of counties set to 74. Ropczyce remained as the seat of its county. At the end of 1867 the population of Ropczyce county was 58,975 people, the first starosta; elder or mayor of the reorganised county of Ropczyce was Wilhelm Mehoffer (\"father of J\u00f3zef Mehoffer, Polish painter\"). Ropczyce remained part of Galicia until 1918, when it became part of independent Poland (Second Polish Republic)."}
+{"text":"Ropczyce is located on the main West-East European E40 Highway, which goes from Calais in France via Belgium, across Germany, Poland, Ukraine and onto Russia and Kazakhstan. (Within Poland the E40 follows the A4 Highway and the DK 4 National Road). However, the A4 is not regarded as a 'highway' in the Ropczyce area \u2013 it is by Western standards, just a regular, one-lane main A-road (although, it is currently being upgraded). Other Polish cities located by the E40 are Wroc\u0142aw, Opole, Katowice, Krak\u00f3w, Tarn\u00f3w, Rzesz\u00f3w and Przemy\u015bl."}
+{"text":"The nearest airport is Rzesz\u00f3w-Jasionka Airport \"(Port Lotniczy Rzesz\u00f3w-Jasionka)\" located in the village of Jasionka, north of Rzesz\u00f3w. It is about east of Ropczyce on the E40 and takes about 40 minutes by car."}
+{"text":"Scheduled passenger services include flights to: Warsaw (WAW), Dublin, London (Stansted), Bristol, UK, Birmingham, UK, New York (JFK Airport, and Newark Liberty International Airport)."}
+{"text":"Ropczyce has a railway station which is on the main West-East rail route; . This runs from Silesia and Krak\u00f3w, Krak\u00f3w Main station \"(Krak\u00f3w G\u0142\u00f3wny)\" \u2013 Medyka on the Polish eastern border. This line then continues on to Ukraine."}
+{"text":"Two tourist trails: and run through the most picturesque and interesting parts of the terrain."}
+{"text":"Tylicz , \"T\u0233lych\", , \"Tylych\") is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Krynica-Zdr\u00f3j, within Nowy S\u0105cz County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland, close to the border with Slovakia. It lies approximately east of Krynica-Zdr\u00f3j, south-east of Nowy S\u0105cz, and south-east of the regional capital Krak\u00f3w."}
+{"text":"The village has a population of 1,800."}
+{"text":"The history of Tylicz dates back to the 13th century, when a settlement called Ornamentum was founded along merchant trail from Poland to Hungary. At that time, Tylicz was also called Oppidium Novum and Ornawa, and was an important garrison of Polish royal army, which guarded southern border of the kingdom. Furthermore, Ornamentum\/Ornawa was home to royal courts and councils of local nobility."}
+{"text":"In 1363, king Casimir III the Great, who promoted settlement in this sparsely populated corner of Poland, granted Magdeburg rights to Ornawa, changing its name into Miastko. Furthermore, the king founded a parish church together with a school. Soon afterwards, a defensive wall was built. Miastko had its own court, and the right to stock merchant products, which provided it with revenue."}
+{"text":"In 1391, king Jogaila (W\u0142adys\u0142aw II Jagie\u0142\u0142o) handed Miastko together with nearby Muszyna to Bishop of Krak\u00f3w, Jan Radlica. In a document, issued by Jogaila for this occasion, Tylicz\/Miastko was named Ornamentum and Novum Oppidium, and the town remained part of the vast bishophoric Muszyna Estate until the first partition of Poland (1772). In 1474, Tylicz and whole southern Lesser Poland was affected by a disastrous Hungarian raid of King Matthias Corvinus. The destruction was so severe that in a 1529 document called Liber retaxatiorum, Tylicz\/Miastko was called a village. A royal castle probably stood nearby, but its location has not been establishes."}
+{"text":"In 1612, Bishop of Krak\u00f3w Piotr Tylicki regranted town charter to Miastko. He also gave it a coat of arms and several privileges, also founding a new parish church and school. To honor this, residents of Miastko changed the name of the town into Tylicz. Bishop Tylicki ordered construction of new homes, located at distances from each other, to prevent fires. Tylicz prospered, becoming sixth largest town of Nowy S\u0105cz County of Krak\u00f3w Voivodeship, after Nowy S\u0105cz, Stary S\u0105cz, Muszyna, and Nowy Targ."}
+{"text":"The period of relative prosperity ended in the mid-17th century, when Nowy S\u0105cz County was suffered widespread destruction during Swedish invasion of Poland. In October 1683, Crown Hetman Stanis\u0142aw Jab\u0142onowski camped with his army in Tylicz, after the victorious Battle of Vienna. In the 1760s, the area of Tylicz became a base of the Bar Confederation. Several battles and skirmishes took place here, including the Battle of Lackowa (June 3\/4, 1770), in which Polish army under Casimir Pulaski fought Russians commanded by General Ivan Drevich."}
+{"text":"Following the Partitions of Poland, Tylicz was annexed by the Habsburg Empire, and remained in Austrian Galicia until November 1918. During Austrian rule, the town declined and lost its importance, at the expense of nearby spa of Krynica-Zdr\u00f3j, which rapidly grew since the late 19th century. Furthermore, construction of railroads missed Tylicz, which contributed to its decline. In 1930, several houses in the market square burned."}
+{"text":"After World War II, Tylicz was the seat of a separate gmina, but in 1952, it was moved to Krynica-Zdr\u00f3j, where it still remains."}
+{"text":"Notable natives include Rena Kornreich Gelissen author and survivor of Nazi concentration camps."}
+{"text":"Kalwaria Zebrzydowska (Polish: ) is a town in southern Poland with 4,429 inhabitants (2007 estimate). As of 1999, it is situated in Lesser Poland or Ma\u0142opolska (in Polish). Previously, the town was administered within the Voivodeship of Bielsko-Bia\u0142a (1975\u20131998)."}
+{"text":"With a vision while viewing the neighbouring hills and valleys from the Castle of Lanckorona, on 1 December 1602, Miko\u0142aj Zebrzydowski, the Voivode of Krak\u00f3w commissioned the construction of a calvary, i.e. Roman Catholic monastery and the trails of the Passion of Christ modeled on the Calvary outside the city walls of Jerusalem."}
+{"text":"After World War II, the town's economic development largely relied on the expansion of its furniture manufacturing and woodcraft industry, shoemaking, as well as a growing number of pilgrims to its religious complex."}
+{"text":"Pope John Paul II made several visits to Kalwaria Zebrzydowska on the pilgrimages he made to his homeland Poland. It was at the monastery of Kalwaria Zebrzydowska that Pope John Paul II repeated the words of his motto:"}
+{"text":"\"Totus tuus ego sum, et omnia mea tua sunt. Accipio te in mea omnia. Praebe mihi cor tuum, Maria.\" (\"I belong entirely to you, and all that I have is yours. I take you for my all. O Mary, give me your heart\")."}
+{"text":"According to his Apostolic Letter \"Rosarium Virginis Mariae\" he borrowed the motto from the Marian consecrating prayer found in the book \"True Devotion to Mary\" by Saint Louis de Montfort."}
+{"text":"Pope John Paul II once recalled how as a young seminarian he \"read and reread many times and with great spiritual profit\" some writings of Saint Louis de Montfort and that:"}
+{"text":"In 1987, Henryk G\u00f3recki composed a choral piece \"(Totus Tuus Op. 60)\" to celebrate Pope John Paul II's third pilgrimage to his native Poland that summer. While the motet opens with the same words as the apostolic motto, the piece actually uses a poem by Maria Boguslawska for its text."}
+{"text":"Brzeszcze (German: \"Brisk\") is a town in O\u015bwi\u0119cim County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship in southern Poland, near O\u015bwi\u0119cim. , Brzeszcze has about 12,000 citizens. The history of the town dates back to the 15th century, and it was probably founded by Flemish settlers. Brzeszcze lies along regional roads nr. 933 and nr. 949, and its name comes from the brzost (Ulmus glabra) trees, which once were abundant in the Sola river valley. In the past the town was spelled Brzescie, Breszcze, Brescze, Brzeszce, and Brzesczye."}
+{"text":"Brzeszcze lies in the Northern Carpathian Foothills, on the Vistula river, in western Lesser Poland. The town is part of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin. The distance to Krak\u00f3w is , and the distance to Czech border crossing at Cieszyn, . The town has three rail stations \u2013 Brzeszcze, Brzeszcze-Kopalnia, and Brzeszcze-Jawiszowice. All three are located along rail line nr. 93, which goes from Trzebinia to Zebrzydowice."}
+{"text":"First documented mention of Brzeszcze comes from 1438, when the village was part of the Duchy of O\u015bwi\u0119cim, a fee of the Kingdom of Bohemia. In 1457 Jan IV of O\u015bwi\u0119cim agreed to sell the duchy to the Polish Crown, and in the accompanying document issued on 21 February the village was mentioned as \"Brzescze\". The territory of the Duchy of O\u015bwi\u0119cim was eventually incorporated into Poland in 1564 and formed Silesian County of Krak\u00f3w Voivodeship."}
+{"text":"For centuries Brzeszcze remained a small, private village, which belonged to Polish kings, who leased it to members of the nobility. The inhabitants were mainly fishermen and farmers, and among others, Brzeszcze was owned by Dominik Gherri, the physician of King Stanis\u0142aw August Poniatowski. Like almost all towns and villages of Lesser Poland, Brzeszcze was completely destroyed during the Swedish invasion of Poland (1655\u20131660)."}
+{"text":"Following the Partitions of Poland, the village was annexed by the Habsburg Empire, and from 1772 until 1918 it was part of the province of Galicia. In 1900, there were some 220 houses at Brzeszcze, with the population of 1,400. Almost all residents were ethnic Poles and Roman Catholics. Brzeszcze grew because of the anthracite coal mine, which was founded in 1907. New housing districts for miners were built, the population quickly grew, and in the Second Polish Republic, Brzeszcze was one of main industrial villages of Krak\u00f3w Voivodeship."}
+{"text":"During World War II, the town was a stronghold of the Polish resistance, helping the prisoners of Auschwitz concentration camp. Prisoners of Auschwitz were also housed in a sub-camp, called Jawischowitz, near the mine where they labored. Numerous prisoners were killed through slave labor by the German civilian mine authorities, and by the SS. German authorities changed its name into Kohlendorf. After the war the village continued its development, and in July 1962 was granted town charter."}
+{"text":"The economy of the town focuses on an anthracite coal mine \"Brzeszcze-Silesia\" which is the biggest employer in the region, and one of the biggest in the entire Voivodeship. In the Second Polish Republic, it was the only large coal mine which belonged to the Polish state. During the war, the mine was part of the Reichswerke Hermann G\u00f6ring conglomerate, and inmates of the Jawischowitz were employed in it."}
+{"text":"Most important point of interest is a 19th-century Roman Catholic parish church of St. Urban. Its construction was initiated in 1874, and lasted 30 years, mostly due to financial difficulties. Apart from the church, Brzeszcze has an 18th-century Austrian boundary marker, several 19th-century roadside chapels, and foundations of a 16th-century church, which was burned by the Swedish invaders in 1655."}
+{"text":"Binarowa is a village in southern Poland."}
+{"text":"The village is the site of St. Michael's Archangel Catholic Church, built in the beginning of 16th century. This is one of the six Wooden Churches of Southern Little Poland, on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites since 2003."}
+{"text":"Zdynia () is a village in the administrative district of Gmina U\u015bcie Gorlickie, within Gorlice County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland, close to the border with Slovakia. It lies approximately east of U\u015bcie Gorlickie, south-east of Gorlice, and south-east of the regional capital Krak\u00f3w."}
+{"text":"The village has a population of 220. Zdynia is the site of an of Lemko culture. The village is located between mountains of Beskid Niski on the way of walking and cycle paths. It is also a place of one of the largest in Poland motorcycle gatherings."}
+{"text":"Pilzno is a town in Poland, in Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in D\u0119bica County. It has 4,943 inhabitants as of 2018. It is located at the junction of important roads \u2013 West-East European E40 Highway, and National Road 73 (\"Droga Krajowa nr. 73, DK 73\") to Jas\u0142o, but at the same time, it has no railroad station, even though in 1939 Polish government began construction of the D\u0119bica \u2013 Jas\u0142o line, via Pilzno. The project was never completed."}
+{"text":"Granted Magdeburg rights in 1354 by King Kazimierz Wielki, Pilzno has a rich history. In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth it was the capital of a powiat, located in the Sandomierz Voivodeship. Most important historical building is St. John's church, with the famous \"Shrine and Painting of Our Lady of Consolation', founded around 1256. It is located near the medieval market square."}
+{"text":"During World War I Pilzno was occupied by Russians from September 1914 to May 1915. The Russians were driven away on May 6, 1915, and on November 1, 1918, Pilzno became independent, when local civil servants destroyed Austrian symbols. In 1931, the seat of the county was moved to Ropczyce (later to D\u0119bica), despite protests of residents. Furthermore, when in 1936 D\u0119bica became one of main centers of the Central Industrial Region, Pilzno\u2019s importance was further weakened, and it remained so until now."}
+{"text":"Most important point of interest of the town is a local parish church, which traces back to 1256. It was remodelled in 1370 and in 1482, after the Hungarian invasion of 1474. Pilzno also has a Carmelite monastery with a church (15th century), tenement houses in the market square (19th century), and World War I military cemeteries. A number of Polish Chicagoans hail from Pilzno, and in 2004 their organization the 'Pilzno' Society of Chicago \"Klub Pil\u017anian\" festively celebrated its 80th anniversary"}
+{"text":"The Slovak invasion of Poland occurred during Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland in September 1939. The recently-created Slovak Republic joined the attack, and Field Army Bernol\u00e1k contributed over 50,000 soldiers in three divisions. Since most of the Polish forces were engaged with the German armies, which were more to the north of the southern border, the Slovak invasion met only weak resistance and suffered minimal losses."}
+{"text":"On March 14, 1939, the Slovak State was established as a client state of Germany, which initiated the breakup of Czechoslovakia. On November 2, 1938, the south-Slovak part of Czechoslovakia had contained a substantial Hungarian population (Slovakia had been part of the Kingdom of Hungary) was taken by the Royal Hungarian Army as a result of the First Vienna Award on November 2, 1938."}
+{"text":"The official political pretext for the Slovak participation in the Polish Campaign was a small disputed area on the Poland-Slovakia border. Poland had appropriated the area on October 1, 1938 after the previous month's Munich Agreement. In addition, some Polish politicians supported Hungary in its effort to include areas that were inhabited mostly by Hungarians."}
+{"text":"During secret discussions with the Germans on July 20\u201321, 1939, the Slovak government agreed to participate in Germany's planned attack on Poland and to allow Germany to use Slovak territory as the staging area for German troops. On August 26, Slovakia mobilised its armed forces and established a new field army, codenamed \"Bernol\u00e1k\", with 51,306 soldiers. Additionally, 160,000 reservists were called up, with 115,000 entering service until September 20, 1939."}
+{"text":"The Bernol\u00e1k army group was led by Slovak Defence Minister Ferdinand \u010catlo\u0161 and had its initial headquarters in Spi\u0161sk\u00e1 Nov\u00e1 Ves, though after September 8 this was moved to Solivar near Pre\u0161ov. It consisted of:"}
+{"text":"The group was part of the German Army Group South; was subordinated to the 14th Army, led by Wilhelm List; and contributed to the 14th Army's total of five infantry divisions, three mountain divisions, two panzer divisions and one Luftwaffe division. Bernol\u00e1k's tasks were to prevent a Polish incursion into Slovakia and to support German troops."}
+{"text":"They were oppossed by the Polish Karpaty Army (Carpathian Army), which consisted of mainly of infantry units with some light artillery support and no tanks."}
+{"text":"The attack started without a formal declaration of war on September 1, 1939 at 5:00\u00a0a.m. The 1st division occupied the village of Javorina and the town of Zakopane and continued toward Nowy Targ to protect the German 2nd Mountain Division from the left. On September 4 and 5, it engaged in fighting with regular Polish Army units. On September 7, the division stopped its advance 30\u00a0km inside Polish territory. Later, the division was pulled back, with one battalion remaining until September 29 to occupy Zakopane, Jurg\u00f3w and Javorina."}
+{"text":"The 2nd Division was kept in reserve and participated only in mopping-up operations in which it was supported by the Kalin\u010diak group. The 3rd Division had to protect 170\u00a0km of the Slovak border between Star\u00e1 \u013dubov\u0148a and the border with Hungary. It fought minor skirmishes, and after several days, it moved into Polish territory and ended its advance on September 11."}
+{"text":"Two or three Slovak air squadrons (codenamed \"\u013dalia\", Lily) were used for reconnaissance, bombing and close support for German fighters. Two Slovak planes were lost (one to anti-aircraft fire, another to an accidental crash), and one Polish plane was shot down. The total Slovak losses during the campaign were 37 dead, 114 wounded and 11 missing."}
+{"text":"All Slovak units were pulled back until the end of September 1939. On October 5, a victorious military parade was held in Poprad. The mobilised units were gradually demobilised, and the Army Group Bernol\u00e1k was disbanded on October 7."}
+{"text":"The Slovak Army took around 1,350 civilian prisoners in Poland. In February 1940, around 1,200 of them were handed to Germans, and some of the remainder to the Soviets. The rest were kept in a Slovak prison camp in Le\u0161\u0165."}
+{"text":"All of the disputed territory, whether in Poland from 1920 or only from 1938, was given to Slovakia, which was confirmed by a Slovak parliamentary resolution on December 22, 1939. That arrangement lasted until 20 May 1945, when the border line was returned to its 1920 position. Since the war was started without a formal declaration of war and there were no longer any Polish prisoners of war held by Slovakia, there was no formal peace treaty between Poland and Slovakia."}
+{"text":"Buczkowice is a village in Bielsko County, Silesian Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Buczkowice. It lies approximately south of Bielsko-Bia\u0142a and south of the regional capital Katowice."}
+{"text":"The village has a population of 4,102."}
+{"text":"Szczyrk () is a town in the Beskid \u015al\u0105ski mountains of southern Poland, situated in the valley of the \u017bylica river. It is part of the Silesian Voivodeship (since 1999), previously being part of the Bielsko-Bia\u0142a Voivodeship (1975\u20131998). It has a population of 5,734 people (2019)."}
+{"text":"The town is a popular winter sports centre, with over 60\u00a0km of ski runs served by 30 ski lifts. Poland's Winter Olympics athletes train in Szczyrk for events such as skiing and ski jumping."}
+{"text":"The two mountain ranges that surround the valley are dominated by the peaks of Skrzyczne at and Klimczok , both of significant interest to tourists since they have commanding views from either peak. Moreover, both peaks are accessible to most people in one day's hike via the tourist routes. Skrzyczne is also accessible via a chairlift."}
+{"text":"To the west of Szczyrk is Wis\u0142a, a town where the source of the Vistula (Wis\u0142a) river can be found (around the Barania G\u00f3ra mountain)."}
+{"text":"Brzostek is a town in D\u0119bica County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, south-eastern Poland (historic province of Lesser Poland). It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Brzostek. The town has a population of 2,597 It lies on the Wis\u0142oka river, in the foothills of the Carpathians, approximately south of D\u0119bica and west of the regional capital Rzesz\u00f3w. Brzostek is a local center of education and commerce."}
+{"text":"Brzostek gained its Magdeburg rights in 1367, but first documented mentions of the town come from 1123-1125, when a list of possessions of the Benedictine Abbey in Tyniec was created. Among a number of villages specified in the document, there is Brzostek (spelt \"Brestek\"). For centuries Brzostek remained a small town, frequently destroyed in numerous wars and conflicts. In 1657 the town was burned by the forces of the Transylvanian prince George II R\u00e1k\u00f3czi, who crossed into Poland earlier in the year."}
+{"text":"Following the partitions of Poland in the late 18th century, Brzostek along with most of the region became part of Austria and remained in Austria until World War I (1914\u20131918). On 18 February 1846 the Galician peasant revolt started in the town (see Jakub Szela), and in the second half of the 19th century, Ignacy \u0141ukasiewicz opened his pharmacy here. In 1934 Brzostek lost its town status, as its population was under 3,000, too small to be officially called a town. Its Jewish population was murdered by the Germans in the Holocaust, Brzostek itself was destroyed during World War II in 65%. It regained the town status on 1 January 2009."}
+{"text":"Among points of interest there are 18th and 19th-century houses in the market square, roadside chapels (18th and 19th centuries), a Classicistic church (1818), and World War I military cemeteries."}
+{"text":"Bochnia () is a town of 29,992 inhabitants on the river Raba in southern Poland. The town lies approximately in halfway [] between Tarn\u00f3w (east) and the regional capital Krak\u00f3w (west). Bochnia is most noted for its salt mine, the oldest functioning in Europe, built in the 13th century, a World Heritage Site. Since Poland's administrative reorganization in 1999, Bochnia has been the administrative capital of Bochnia County in Lesser Poland Voivodeship. Before reorganization it was part of Tarn\u00f3w Voivodeship."}
+{"text":"The area of Bochnia (as for 2002) is . The town is located along national roads 94 and 75. The A4 motorway European route E40 also passes to the north of the town. It also has a rail station. Bochnia is a stop on a strategic West \u2013 East line from Krak\u00f3w to Medyka (former Galician Railway of Archduke Charles Louis)."}
+{"text":"Bochnia is one of the oldest cities of Lesser Poland. The first known source mentioning the city is a letter of 1198, in which Aymar the Monk, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, confirmed a donation by the local magnate Mikora Gryfit to the monastery of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre in Miech\u00f3w. The discovery of major deposits of rock salt at the site of the present mine in 1248 led to the grant of city privileges (Magdeburg rights) on 27 February 1253 by Boles\u0142aw V the Chaste. In the original founding document, the German name of the town (Salzberg) is mentioned as well, since many Bochnia's residents were German-speaking settlers from Lower Silesia."}
+{"text":"Poland regained independence in 1918, and in the Second Polish Republic, Bochnia belonged to Krak\u00f3w Voivodeship and was the capital of a county. The town housed a small garrison of the Polish Army, with 3rd Silesian Uhlans Regiment stationed there from 1924."}
+{"text":"During the German invasion of Poland, which started World War II, on September 6\/7, 1939, Bochnia was defended by several Polish units. The \"Einsatzgruppe I\" entered the town shortly after to commit various crimes against the population. One of the first mass executions in occupied Poland took place in the town: the Germans shot 52 Poles as a reprisal for killing two German police officers."}
+{"text":"In April 1943, Polish wartime hero Witold Pilecki hid there after his escape from the Auschwitz concentration camp. In 1944, the 12th Home Army Infantry Regiment was established in Bochnia. In 1944, during and following the Warsaw Uprising, the Germans carried out deportations of Varsovians from the Dulag 121 camp in Pruszk\u00f3w, where they were initially imprisoned, to Bochnia. Those Poles were mainly old people, ill people and women with children."}
+{"text":"The Jewish family of Tiders expelled from Zaborowo in 1940 were murdered in Brze\u015b\u0107 with children except for their oldest son, 24-year-old Mendel Tider, who paved the road to Tamowo on German orders at the time of the killings. He escaped to Bochnia where he met J\u00f3zef Langdorf from his neighbourhood. Together, they escaped back to Zaborowo and found refuge at the farm of the Mika family of six. Both survived, treated like relatives and fed for free until liberation. In 2000 the three members of the Mika family were bestowed the titles of the Righteous thanks to Mrs Langdorf from Israel. Stefan Mika was 73, and living in Krak\u00f3w; the other two, father and mother, were already dead for several decades."}
+{"text":"Although Poland was liberated from Germany, it fell to the Soviet sphere of influence, and the Soviets installed a communist regime, which remained in power until the 1980s. The Polish anti-communist resistance movement was active in Bochnia. In the following decades, Bochnia grew larger, with several villages incorporated into the town, mostly in the 1970s. From 1975 to 1998, Bochnia belonged to the Tarn\u00f3w Voivodeship, and in 1984, a by-pass of the European route E40 was completed, redirecting the traffic from congested center of the town."}
+{"text":"The Bochnia Salt Mine (Polish: \"kopalnia soli w Bochni\") is one of the oldest salt mines in the world and the oldest one in Poland and Europe. The mine was established between the 12th and 13th centuries after salt was discovered in Bochnia. The mines measure in length and in depth at 16 different levels. Deserted chambers, shafts and passages form a so-called underground town, which is now open to sightseers. The largest of the preserved chambers has been converted into a sanatorium."}
+{"text":"Bochnia Academy of Economics (\"Wy\u017csza Szko\u0142a Ekonomiczna w Bochni\") is a privately owned collegiate-level institution of higher education in the city, founded in 2000. It grants bachelor's degrees (licencjat) in two fields of knowledge - Finance and Accounting, and Economics."}
+{"text":"The local football club is . It competes in the lower leagues."}
+{"text":"Sucha Beskidzka (before 1961 called only \"Sucha\") is a town in the \"Beskid \u017bywiecki\" mountain range in southern Poland, on the Skawa river. It is the county seat of Sucha County. It has been in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship since 1999; previously it was in Bielsko-Bia\u0142a Voivodeship (1975\u20131998)."}
+{"text":"Sucha Beskidzka lies in a basin, between the hills of the Beskids (Beskid Makowski and Beskid Maly), on the Skawa river. In 2002, Sucha had the area of 27,46\u00a0km2., with forests occupying 44%. The town is a rail junction, located along two lines \u2013 the 97th from Skawina to \u017bywiec, and the 98th from Sucha Beskidzka to Chabowka. The rail station PKP Sucha Beskidzka, together with a roundhouse was built in the 1880s."}
+{"text":"Until 1964, the town was called Sucha. The adjective Beskidzka, added in that year, refers to the Beskidy Mountains."}
+{"text":"In the late Middle Ages, the area of Sucha Beskidzka belonged to Duchy of O\u015bwi\u0119cim. In the early years of the 15th century, Prince Jan III of O\u015bwi\u0119cim initiated a program of settlement of the sparsely populated forested areas in the Beskids. In 1405, a man named Strzala was allowed to found a settlement, which later took on the name Sucha. Most likely, the Strzala family remained owners of the settlement until the late 15th century, when Sucha was transferred into the hands of the S\u0142upski family. In 1554, Stanis\u0142aw S\u0142upski sold the village to an Italian-born goldsmith from Krak\u00f3w, Gaspare Castiglione, who changed his name to Kasper Suski. Castiglione initiated the construction of the Sucha Castle."}
+{"text":"Lucy Lipiner, then Lusia Mandelbaum, who grew up in Sucha, writes of her fond pre-war memories of Sucha in her book Long Journey Home. But the day after the Germans invaded Poland, Lusia's family and several aunts and uncles fled by horse-drawn cart to the east. They survived the war in Lwow, then under Soviet control, then Siberia, where they were deported, then later Tajikistan where they lived with several other Jewish families. When they returned to Poland after the war, they found all the rest of their family had been murdered."}
+{"text":"After the war, the government of People's Republic of Poland again attached Sucha to Krak\u00f3w Voivodeship. New districts with blocks of flats were built, new factories were opened. In 1956, for the first time in history, Sucha became the seat of a county, and in 1975, the town became part of Bielsko-Bia\u0142a Voivodeship. In 1983, the new hospital was completed."}
+{"text":"Since the beginning of the 20th century Sucha Beskidzka has been a tourist centre for the Beskidy Mountains (part of the Carpathians). Here several tourist trails begin, which lead into the mountains. First trail was marked in 1906. In the town there are fine examples of old architecture: a Renaissance castle (16th century), named \"Little Wawel\" after the royal palace in Krak\u00f3w (now it serves as a hotel with a restaurant), a church with a cloister (17th century) and an old wooden inn, called \"Rzym\" (literally meaning \"Rome\"; 18th century)."}
+{"text":"In the town, there are two higher education schools:"}
+{"text":"Tymbark is a village in southern Poland, some 80\u00a0km south-east of Krak\u00f3w, population 2,400 (2004 data). It lies approximately west of Limanowa and south-east of the regional capital Krak\u00f3w."}
+{"text":"Tymbark was granted city rights in 1357 by King Casimir III of Poland. The town's original name was \"Jod\u0142owa G\u00f3ra\" (literally: \"firry mountain\"), but as the majority of first burghers came from German lands, the name was soon Germanised as \"Tannenberg\", which gave origin to the current one, used from about the 16th century. Tymbark lost the city status in 1934; now it is the administrative centre of Gmina Tymbark."}
+{"text":"In 1936 the Podhala\u0144ska Fruit and Vegetable Cooperative was established in Tymbark, which developed into a successful business. The cooperative was nationalised in 1950, reprivatised in 1995 and now operates as \"Tymbark S.A.\", producing fruit preserves, drinks and juices."}
+{"text":"Tymbark is twinned with Whaley Bridge in England."}
+{"text":"Dobczyce is a town in southern Poland, situated since 1999 in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship (previously in Krak\u00f3w Voivodeship from 1975 to 1998). There is a large dam with Lake Dobczyce on the Raba river, and a partially rebuilt 14th-century Dobczyce Castle, with ruins of a 14th-century defensive wall - which is open for tourists. Dobczyce is also the name of a small part of Bobrowniki Ma\u0142e, a village in Lesser Poland."}
+{"text":"Dobczyce received its Magdeburg rights town charter probably in 1310, during the reign of W\u0142adys\u0142aw \u0141okietek. The town was famous for its castle, where Jan D\u0142ugosz liked to stay and work on his chronicles. Here, in 1450, Polish astronomer and dean of Krak\u00f3w Academy Leonard Vitreatoris (Leonhard von Dobsch\u00fctz) was born. Dobczyce enjoyed several royal privileges, allowing its residents to buy salt from nearby Wieliczka. The town was a local center of cloth and wool making, but the period of prosperity ended during the Swedish invasion of Poland (1655\u20131660). After the Partitions of Poland, Dobczyce was annexed by the Habsburg Empire, and from 1772 to 1918 belonged to Galicia. On the main square there is a 19th-century parish church."}
+{"text":"Zakopane is a town in the extreme south of Poland, in the southern part of the Podhale region at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. From 1975 to 1998, it was part of Nowy S\u0105cz Province; since 1999, it has been part of Lesser Poland Voivodeship. its population was 27,266. Zakopane is a centre of Goral culture and is often referred to as \"the winter capital of Poland\u201d. It is a popular destination for mountaineering, skiing, and tourism."}
+{"text":"Zakopane lies near Poland's border with Slovakia, in a valley between the Tatra Mountains and Guba\u0142\u00f3wka Hill. It can be reached by train or bus from the province capital, Krak\u00f3w, about two hours away. Zakopane lies 800\u20131,000 metres above sea level and centres on the intersection of its Krup\u00f3wki and Ko\u015bciuszko Streets."}
+{"text":"The ski jump on Wielka Krokiew was opened in 1925."}
+{"text":"The cable car to Kasprowy Wierch was completed in 1936."}
+{"text":"The funicular connected Zakopane and the top of Guba\u0142\u00f3wka in 1938."}
+{"text":"Because of Zakopane's popular ski mountains, the town gained popularity this made the number of tourists increase to about 60,000 people by 1930."}
+{"text":"During the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland, which started World War II in September 1939, the town was invaded by Germany, and the \"Einsatzgruppe I\" entered the town on September 4, 1939, to commit various crimes against Poles. In March 1940, representatives of the Soviet NKVD and the Nazi Gestapo met for one week in Zakopane's Villa Tadeusz, to coordinate the pacification of resistance in Poland. Throughout World War II, Zakopane served as an underground staging point between Poland and Hungary."}
+{"text":"From 1942 to 1943, 1,000 prisoners from the German Krak\u00f3w-P\u0142asz\u00f3w concentration camp were set to work in a stone quarry. In January 1945, the Germans retreated from Zakopane and the German occupation ended."}
+{"text":"The Zakopane Style of Architecture is an architectural mode inspired by the regional art of Poland's highland region known as Podhale. Drawing on the motifs and traditions in the buildings of the Carpathian Mountains, the style was pioneered by Stanislaw Witkiewicz and is now considered a core tradition of the Goral people."}
+{"text":"The Tatras are a popular destination among hikers, skiers, ski-tourers and climbers."}
+{"text":"There is a network of well-marked hiking trails in the Tatras and according to the national park regulations the hikers must stick to them. Most of these trails are overcrowded, especially in the summer season."}
+{"text":"The High Tatras offer excellent opportunities for climbing (up to X UIAA grade)."}
+{"text":"In summer, lightning and snow are both potential hazards for climbers, and the weather can change quickly. Thunderstorms are common in the afternoons. In winter the snow can be up to several meters deep."}
+{"text":"In the winter, thousands arrive in Zakopane to ski, especially around Christmas and in February. The most popular skiing areas are Kasprowy Wierch and Guba\u0142\u00f3wka. There are a number of cross country skiing trails in the forests surrounding the town."}
+{"text":"Zakopane hosted the Nordic World Ski Championships in 1929, 1939, and 1962; the winter Universiades in 1956, 1993, and 2001; the biathlon World Championship; several ski jumping world cups; and several Nordic combined, Nordic and Alpine European Cups. It hosted the Alpine World Ski Championships in 1939, the first outside the Alps and the last official world championships prior to World War II."}
+{"text":"Zakopane made unsuccessful bids to host the 2006 Winter Olympics and the 2011 and 2013 Alpine World Ski Championships."}
+{"text":"Zakopane is visited by over 2,500,000 tourists a year. In the winter, Zakopane's tourists are interested in winter sports activities such as skiing, snowboarding, ski jumping, snowmobiling, sleigh rides, snowshoe walks, and Ice skating. During the summer, Tourists come to do activities like hiking, climbing, bike and horse ride the Tatras mountain, there are many trails in the Tatras. Tourists ride quads and dirt bikes that you can rent. Swimming and boat rides on the Dunajec river are popular. Many come to experience Goral culture, which is rich in its unique styles of food, speech, architecture, music, and costume. Zakopane is especially popular during the winter holidays, which are celebrated in traditional style, with dances, decorated horse-pulled sleighs called kuligs and roast lamb."}
+{"text":"Popular tourist activity is taking a stroll through the town's most popular street: Krup\u00f3wki. It is lined with stores, restaurants, carnival rides, and performers."}
+{"text":"During the winter and summer seasons, Krup\u00f3wki Street is crowded with tourists visiting the shops and restaurants. In the summer, a local market along Krup\u00f3wki Street offers traditional Goral apparel, leather jackets, fur coats, shoes, and purses. Venders also sell foods like the famous \"oscypek\" smoked sheep cheese, fruit, vegetables, and meats. There are also many stands with Zakopane souvenirs."}
+{"text":"Zakopane is popular for nightlife. At night there are always people walking around town checking out the different bars and dance clubs. Most of these bars and dance clubs are located on Krupowki street. These are the bars that are located in Zakopane: Paparazzi, Cafe Piano, Anemone, Anemone, Cafe Antrakt, Literatka, Winoteka Pod Berlami, and Karczma u Ratownikow. These are dance clubs located in Zakopane: Vavaboom, Finlandia Arctic, Genesis, Rockus, Morskie Oko, and Cocomo Go-Go Club."}
+{"text":"A scene in Andrzej Wajda's film \"Man of Marble\" (\"Cz\u0142owiek z marmuru\") was filmed in Zakopane, introducing the town to a worldwide audience."}
+{"text":"The mountain scenes from the Bollywood film \"Fanaa\" were filmed around Zakopane."}
+{"text":"Zakopane participates in town twinning to foster international links."}
+{"text":"Ryglice is a town in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Tarn\u00f3w County, the seat of the urban-rural gmina Ryglice. It is located about from Tarn\u00f3w, near the town of Tuch\u00f3w, and had town privileges in 1824\u20131934, and from 2001. Between 1975 and 1998, Ryglice administratively belonged to Tarn\u00f3w Voivodeship. On 30 June 2007, the population of the town was 2,811."}
+{"text":"Ryglice is a local road junction, with three roads meeting here. The town does not have a rail station, and the nearest one is located in Tuch\u00f3w. It has a sports club (KS Ryglice), with men\u2019s football and volleyball departments. Among historic buildings worth visiting is the church from 1940 with antique equipment and a vicarage, palace and a granary all dating back to the 18th century. Recently Ryglice became famous for the controversial \"monument of Emigration\", which was established at the initiative of the Mayor of Ryglice Bernard Karasiewicz."}
+{"text":"During World War II, Ryglice\u2019s Jewish community was murdered by the Germans in the Holocaust. In 1940, the Germans burned a synagogue, and in late 1944\/early 1945, most of the village, together with the town hall, three bridges, and 18th century buildings, was burned by the Germans, who retreated on January 17, 1945."}
+{"text":"Wadowice () is a city in southern Poland, southwest of Krak\u00f3w with 19,200 inhabitants (2006), situated on the Skawa river, confluence of Vistula, in the eastern part of Silesian Foothills (Pog\u00f3rze \u015al\u0105skie). Wadowice is known for being the birthplace of Karol Wojty\u0142a, later Pope John Paul II."}
+{"text":"The administrative division of the region in the times of regional division was complicated. Initially, between 1313\/1317 and 1445, Wadowice belonged to the Silesian Duchy of O\u015bwi\u0119cim and after 1445 to the Duchy of Zator. In 1482 W\u0142adys\u0142aw I of Zator inherited only half of his father's lands and created a separate Duchy of Wadowice, which lasted until his death in 1493. The following year his brother and successor, Jan V of Zator abdicated. At the same time the land was subject to Bohemian overlordship, which lasted until the following year, when the Duchy was bought by the Kings of Poland and incorporated as a Silesian County. Finally, the county was incorporated into the Krak\u00f3w Voivodeship of the Lesser Poland Province of the Polish Crown in 1564."}
+{"text":"In the 16th\u201317th centuries Wadowice was a regional centre of crafts and trade. Among the most notable sons of the town was Marcin Wadowita, a theologian, philosopher and a deacon of the Krak\u00f3w Academy. He was also the founder of a hospital and a basic school in Wadowice. However, several plagues and fires halted the prosperity and the town's growth was eventually halted as well."}
+{"text":"In the effect of the First Partition of Poland, Wadowice was annexed by Austria, incorporated into the newly established Kingdom of Galicia, under direct Austrian rule, and renamed \"Frauenstadt\". The town's growth started soon afterwards, after a road linking Vienna with Lw\u00f3w was built. The town became a seat of a communal administration and since 1867 \u2013 a county site. Small industries were developing slowly during the 19th century. New inhabitants settled in the area, attracted by the industry, new military barracks and various administrative institutions. In addition, a new hospital and a regional court were erected in the town centre. Finally, in the last 25 years of the 19th century partial liberalisation of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy led to creation of various Polish cultural and scientific societies."}
+{"text":"After World War I and the dissolution of the monarchy, Wadowice became part of the newly reborn Poland. The seat of a powiat remained in the town and in 1919 the inhabitants of the area formed the 12th Infantry Regiment that took part in the Polish\u2013Soviet War of 1919\u20131920. In 1920 Karol Wojty\u0142a was born in Wadowice (he became the bishop of Krak\u00f3w, then Pope John Paul II, and was canonised after his death)."}
+{"text":"After the war, in 1945 Wadowice retained its powiat town status and until 1975 served as a notable centre of commerce and transport in the Krak\u00f3w Voivodeship. After that the town was transferred to the newly created Bielsko-Bia\u0142a Voivodeship. After the peaceful transformation of the political and economical system in Poland (in 1989), most of the local industry was found inefficient and went bankrupt. However, the ecological and historical heritage of the area as well as its status as the birthplace of Pope John Paul II led to fast growth of tourism. Currently more than 200,000 people visit Wadowice every year and this number is rising."}
+{"text":"Wadowice is today mainly a centre for tourism and sightseeing, but also a place for small industries such as the production of machines and construction materials. There is also the headquarters of the biggest juice-maker of Poland, Maspex, and the shoe producer Badura."}
+{"text":"The town's most notable sports club is with football, basketball, volleyball and tennis sections. Founded in 1907, it is one of the oldest sports clubs in the region."}
+{"text":"Wieliczka (German: \"Gro\u00df Salze\", Latin: \"Magnum Sal\") is a historic town in southern Poland, situated within the Krak\u00f3w metropolitan area in Lesser Poland Voivodeship since 1999. The town was initially founded in 1290 by Premislaus II of Poland. Nowadays, it is mostly known for the Wieliczka Salt Mine, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978, and the historic old town core which was listed as one of National Polish Monuments in 1994. The population in 2019 was estimated at 23,395."}
+{"text":"The city of Wieliczka lies in the south central part of Poland, within the Ma\u0142opolska (Lesser Poland) province. The city is located to the southeast of Krak\u00f3w and not far from the town of Niepolomice. The Wieliczka Salt Mine \u2013 one of the world's oldest operating salt mines, has been established on significant salt deposits which are also present in nearby Bochnia."}
+{"text":"The town lies in a valley between two ridges that stretch from west to east: south Wieliczka foothills, north Bogucice sands, including the Wieliczka-Gd\u00f3w Upland. The south ridge is higher, while the northern ridge leads to national road 94. Near the town lies the A4 highway (E40 European route), which connects Krak\u00f3w with Poland's south western and south eastern regions. Despite the small area, the city's relative altitude accounts for more than 137 \u2013m\u2013: the highest mountain reaches 361,8 metres above the sea, and the lowest point lies at an altitude of 224 metres above sea level."}
+{"text":"Wieliczka, as well as the nearby village of Lednica G\u00f3rna are among the last places in Poland where the Easter tradition of Siuda Baba is still practised."}
+{"text":"The first settlers were probably from the Celtic tribes. In later years they were driven out by the West Slavic or Lechitic clans. The importance of mining deposits arose after the capital of Poland was moved from Gniezno to Krak\u00f3w by Casimir I the Restorer in the 11th century. However, further development of the mining practices was abruptly halted by the Mongol invasion, which destroyed Krak\u00f3w and its surroundings in the 13th century. The area was subsequently populated with migrating Germans, who called the settlement \"Gross Salz\" (English: Grand\/Great Salt) and from which the old Polish name \"Wielka S\u00f3l\" was derived. With time, the name evolved into Wieliczka, although the name Wielka S\u00f3l remained in official use, particularly in royal seals and documents."}
+{"text":"After the 1252 discovery of large salt and potassium deposits across southern Poland, the extraction of salt began on a much broader scale. In the year 1289, Henryk IV Probus, then Lord of Krak\u00f3w, issued a document authorising brothers Jescho and Isenbold to expand the town. Duke and future king Premislaus II granted Wieliczka town privileges in 1290."}
+{"text":"In 1651, the population of Wieliczka was decimated by a plague. In the years 1655\u20131660, at the time of the Swedish Deluge, the city was in economic decline. The mine was plundered and burned by the Swedes and Swedish troops guarded the mine and the taxes were raised upon the locals. Gabriel Wojni\u0142\u0142owicz along with Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski proceeded to organize approximately 3,000 people which took part in the liberation of Wieliczka, Bochnia and Wi\u015bnicz. The battle took place in Kamionna, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, where the Poles emerged victorious."}
+{"text":"After the first partition of Poland in 1772, Wieliczka became part of the Austrian-led Habsburg Monarchy. In 1809, Wieliczka was incorporated into the Duchy of Warsaw; the Habsburgs regained the city after the fall of the Duchy and its partition by the Congress of Vienna. The town then became part of the semi-autonomous province of Galicia. Under the multicultural Austrian Empire, many German, Hungarian, Croatian and Transylvanian miners settled in Wieliczka, thus changing the ethnic composition of the city. After the outbreak of the Krak\u00f3w uprising in 1846, the rebellious miners seized power at the salt mines. With progressing industrialization, the town developed into a small city, which was now renowned for its salt production and output throughout the Empire."}
+{"text":"Only by the end of the 19th century, the Galician authorities began investing in public housing. However, the city expanded with private investments, wealthy entrepreneurs built mining colonies (organized settlements for families of mine workers) and power plants (supplied electricity not only to the mine, but also to the town)."}
+{"text":"In the inter-war period, Wieliczka's total population increased which encouraged territorial expansion; local villages were incorporated into town borders and new residential districts were erected in the 1920s to meet the demands of the growing population. However, the town also witnessed the 1933 miners' strike, which took place due to the reduction of wages by 13%."}
+{"text":"On 21 January 1945, the Soviet Red Army liberated Wieliczka from the Nazis. During the fighting, 138 Soviet soldiers were killed."}
+{"text":"In 1994, the city was listed in the Register of Historic Monuments of Poland."}
+{"text":"Zakliczyn is a town in Tarn\u00f3w County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland, with a population of 1,558 (2006). Zakliczyn lies on the right bank of the Dunajec river, surrounded by wooded hills above sea level. Zakliczyn has a town hall, located in a spacious market square, one of the largest in the province, at . The town was originally called \"Opatkowice\". Its name was changed in 1558, in honour of the village of Zakliczyn, My\u015blenice County, which was ancient seat of the Jordan family."}
+{"text":"From 1744 to 1886 Zakliczyn belonged to the Lanckoro\u0144ski family. In 1772 (see Partitions of Poland), the town was annexed by the Austrian Empire. Until 1918 it lay within Galicia. In the early 19th century, a new town hall was erected. In early 1846, it was the scene of a peasant revolt when local farmworkers attacked members of Polish nobility (see Galician slaughter), murdering many of them. In 1867, the population of Zakliczyn numbered 1,415."}
+{"text":"During World War I, the town was destroyed after heavy Austrian - Russian fighting, several military cemeteries from that era still exist in surrounding villages. In the Second Polish Republic the situation did not improve, and to make matters worse, Zakliczyn suffered widespread destruction in the 1934 flood in Poland. Finally, in 1934 it was stripped of its town charter and was reduced to village status."}
+{"text":"In 1939 the population of Zakliczyn reached 2,000 of whom 50% were Jews. This led during World War II to the establishment of a Jewish ghetto when the Nazis overran Poland and Jewish citizens were brought in from neighbouring municipalities to Zakliczyn before being transported to Belzec extermination camp. Almost all of Zakliczyn's Jews perished in the Holocaust. The German occupiers also burned down several neighbouring villages, killing around 500 of Zakliczyn's Polish catholic residents. Wehrmacht units finally retreated on January 17, 1945 with the arrival of Soviet troops."}
+{"text":"In 2008, Zakliczyn was one of 19 villages in Europe (Germany, Poland, Italy and Spain) featured in the Spanish documentary film \"Pueblos de Europa\" (\"Villages of Europe\"), produced by Juan Frutos."}
+{"text":"Closest airport: Krak\u00f3w, closest railway station: Tarn\u00f3w. Regular bus services take residents to Krak\u00f3w (90mins by coach) Bochnia, Brzesko, Tarn\u00f3w (40mins) & Nowy S\u0105cz (30mins) as well as many small villages in between."}
+{"text":"Zakliczyn is home to a sport club \"Dunajec\", founded in 1973."}
+{"text":"Nowy Targ (, , , \"Naymarkt,\" Goral: \"Miasto\/Now\u00fd Targ\") is a town in southern Poland with 34,000 inhabitants (2006). It is the capital of Goralscyzna and the Podhale region within it. The town is situated in a valley beneath the Gorce Mountains featuring Gorce National Park established in 1981, at the confluence of rivers Bia\u0142y and Czarny Dunajec. Administratively, it is in Nowy Targ County in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship. It was previously in Nowy S\u0105cz Voivodeship (1975\u20131998)."}
+{"text":"Nowy Targ is located in the heart of (Goral;\"Gorolsc\u00fdzna,\" Polish;\"Goralscyzna\") at the altitude of 585\u2013850 m above sea level (AMSL); latitude 49\u00b028' N, longitude 20\u00b001' E. Distance to the main urban agglomerations in Poland is: Warsaw \u2013 , \u0141\u00f3d\u017a \u2013 , Krak\u00f3w \u2013 , Gda\u0144sk \u2013 , Wroc\u0142aw \u2013 , Katowice \u2013 , Kielce \u2013 , Rzesz\u00f3w \u2013 , Szczecin \u2013 , Bia\u0142ystok - , Pozna\u0144 \u2013 , Cz\u0119stochowa \u2013 , S\u0142upsk \u2013 ."}
+{"text":"According to the K\u00f6ppen climate classification, Nowy Targ straddles the border of the Warm Summer Continental (Dfb) and Subarctic (Dfc) climates, with most of the city falling in the Dfb group. The Dfc climate is only found above of elevation within Nowy Targ."}
+{"text":"Wooden church overseeing the city cemetery. Its origins date to the 15th century, although local legends describe it as founded in 1219."}
+{"text":"Initially built in a gothic style, it was later repaired and rebuilt featuring, among others, a baroque altar piece and paintings, a rococo pulpit, and 18th-century organ and bell tower."}
+{"text":"Dedicated to St. Catherine of Alexandria, the church was built in 1346 by King Casimir the Great. It is the oldest existing church of the Podhale region."}
+{"text":"The church has been damaged by numerous fires and military attacks, and subsequently rebuilt and renovated. The interior retains its baroque character, especially in the altar and side chapels, although numerous pieces are replicas of wooden originals lost to fire. A painting of St. Catherine from 1892 dominates the main altar."}
+{"text":"Owczary (, \"Rykhval\u2019d\") is a village in the administrative district of Gmina S\u0119kowa, within Gorlice County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland, close to the border with Slovakia. It lies approximately south-west of S\u0119kowa, south of Gorlice, and south-east of the regional capital Krak\u00f3w."}
+{"text":"In Owczary is buried the Polish resistance fighter, Maria Kotarba ."}
+{"text":"Limanowa (, \"Liminuv\") is a small town in southern Poland, in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship. It is the capital of Limanowa County and had a population of 15,132 in 2012."}
+{"text":"Mentions of the town date back to 1496, when it was documented as Ilmanowa, a rural estate that belonged to members of the szlachta. In 1520, ownership of the estate was passed from the S\u0142upski family to Achacy Jordan, who subsequently established a judiciary."}
+{"text":"Limanowa became a township in 1565, after being granted city rights by King Sigismund II Augustus. The residents were not required to pay taxes to the Crown for a period of thirty years, throughout which the town rapidly developed. However, its economic strength declined due to the plague, and destruction caused by the Swedish invasion of 1655."}
+{"text":"While the town was constantly damaged by fire because of its wooden buildings, much of its infrastructure was destroyed by the fire of 1759. It was not until the Polish Partitions, and Limanowa's incorporation into the Austrian province of Galicia, that it was rebuilt. The town began to flourish as a trading hub, hosting over eighteen markets per year."}
+{"text":"During World War I, Limanowa was located at the Eastern Front. In the early months of the war, it was the site of the Battle of Limanowa between December 1 and December 9, 1914 in which the Austro-Hungarian Army repelled a Russian breakthrough southwestwards between Limanowa and Krak\u00f3w."}
+{"text":"The Second World War saw invasion by German soldiers, and the establishment of a ghetto in Limanowa. The town suffered heavy casualties as a result of the occupation; 472 people were shot as hostages and conspiracy participants, 123 as concentration camp prisoners, 91 people died in the Third Reich, 47 died fighting in the war, and 3,053 people from Limanowa's Jewish population were murdered, including the family of U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders."}
+{"text":"Moszczenica is a village in Gorlice County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Moszczenica. It lies approximately north-west of Gorlice and south-east of the regional capital Krak\u00f3w."}
+{"text":"The village has a population of 4,706."}
+{"text":"Biecz () () is a town and municipality in southeastern Poland, in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Gorlice County. It is in the Carpathian Mountains, in the Do\u0142y Jasielsko-Sanockie, by the Ropa River. Due to its rich history, it is often referred to as \"little Krak\u00f3w\" or the \"pearl of the Carpathians.\" The many preserved medieval city walls and buildings have also given rise to the nickname \"Polish Carcassonne\" for both Biecz and the town of Szyd\u0142\u00f3w."}
+{"text":"By the mid-16th century, the city was one of the largest in Poland. Being a royal city, Biecz enjoyed an economic and social Renaissance during the 14th and 15th centuries which tapered off into a gradual decline starting during the 17th century. Today, it is a small town with a number of historical monuments."}
+{"text":"The earliest mentions in historical sources give the name of the town as Beyech, Begech, Begecz, Begesz, Beyecz, Beecz, Beycz, Byecz and Beiech. This allows to establish that the original form of the name was \"Biejecz\", apparently a regular possessive adjective derived from the diminutive personal name \"Biejek\" (not attested, but easily reconstructable from \"Biejecz\" and perhaps \"Biejk\u00f3w\"). The age of the town makes further derivation from \"Bieniedzikt\" improbable, leading linguists to hypothesize that the ultimate source is \"Biezdziad\" or other Old Slavic name beginning in \"Bie-\". In the 13th century, the nominative stem was levelled to the oblique stem \"Biejcz-\" (e.g. Loc. \"w Biejczu\" \"in Biejecz\"), giving \"Biejcz\" without stem alternations (attested as late as the 17th century) and then the current form, \"Biecz\"."}
+{"text":"Apart from that, there are a plethora of other theories, including obvious folk etymologies, linking the name e.g. to a Carpathian tribe called \"Biessi\", mentioned by Ptolemy; a legendary bandit called Becz; the Beskids; and a west and south-west Slavic dialectal word meaning \"borough\", attested e.g. as \"Be\u010d\/\u0411\u0435\u0447\" in Serbo-Croatian, borrowed into Romani (\"Bech\") and Hungarian (\"B\u00e9cs\")."}
+{"text":"The Biecz coat of arms depicts Saints Peter and Paul on a field of red. St. Paul, on the right, holds a sword, while St. Peter holds the Keys of Heaven. Between them is the capital letter B, a reference to the city name."}
+{"text":"The coat of arms dates back to the 16th century, when official seals depicting the images of Saints Peter and Paul and the letter B first appeared. The seals were used with more regularity during the 17th and 18th centuries. On 12 July 1990, the Municipal Council officially adopted the use of the coat of arms."}
+{"text":"The area of Biecz has been settled periodically since the Neolithic period, though the first mentions of a named settlement date back to the 11th century. This early medieval town was approximately from the modern one. By the 12th century, the town had become a castellany, and by the mid-14th century, it had been granted rights based on Magdeburg Law."}
+{"text":"Biecz enjoyed a cultural and economic renaissance during the 14th and 15th centuries. Beginning in the 17th century, the town was beset by a number of natural disasters, including flooding, fires, and a plague which killed all but 30 inhabitants. The town suffered heavy population losses during World War II, including a public massacre of 200 local Jews in the market square in 1942."}
+{"text":"A castle was erected as early as the 9th century, a small settlement quickly developing around its perimeter. This early castle was demolished by King Casimir IV Jagiellon in the 13th century and replaced with a much larger structure, now one of three surviving castles in the area. Biecz is first referenced by name in church documents written by Thietmar of Merseburg c. 1012\u20131018. In 1184, Casimir II the Just gave the land as tithes to St. Florian of Krak\u00f3w. Documents dating to 1243 and 1257 make reference to specific castellans: Nicolaus de Beycz and Bronisius de Begech."}
+{"text":"The castle was a strategic military stronghold due to its location near the Polish border. It served as a preparation area for attacks on enemy states and a rallying point for forces resisting invasion. The stronghold also served as a center for trade due to its position at the crossroads between east\u2013west and north\u2013south trade routes between Red Ruthenia and Hungary."}
+{"text":"Biecz was granted its Magdeburg rights around the year 1257 CE, probably by Prince Boles\u0142aw V the Chaste of Krak\u00f3w. The exact year is unknown, as the royal edict granting these rights has not been preserved. These rights were confirmed by King Casimir III the Great in 1363, and then later by Queen Jadwiga. Trade relations with Bardejov across the Carpathians were also formalized during the 14th century."}
+{"text":"During the late 13th century, King Wenceslaus II gifted the town to Jan Muskata, bishop of Krak\u00f3w, in exchange for the territory where he would later found Nowy S\u0105cz. According to contemporary documents, the transfer of power occurred on 24 March 1303 in Prague."}
+{"text":"During the fall of 1306, ownership of the town and castle were peacefully transferred to the control of W\u0142adys\u0142aw I the Elbow-high. From this point forward, the town and municipality were under the control of the Polish crown. W\u0142adys\u0142aw I based his campaign to unify Poland from the castle of Biecz from September 1311 to April 1312. Due to the importance granted to the city during this period, Biecz was initially considered the capital city of Poland."}
+{"text":"Initially the town was protected by earthworks and ditches. Walls were first constructed during the 14th century, as evidenced by a royal edict issued by King W\u0142adys\u0142aw II Jagie\u0142\u0142o (Jogaila) in 1399 ordering all able-bodied men to assist in the expansion and repair of the city walls. The walls were extended in the 16th century and again in the 17th, when seventeen towers were constructed to aid in the fortification and protection of the town."}
+{"text":"King Casimir III the Great took great interest in the city. In 1361 he gave orders for the construction of weighing scales and textile mills, and established a number of fairs, which were major sources of income. In addition, he granted all Biecz business an exemption from taxation and tariffs, as well as economic benefit from surrounding villages."}
+{"text":"Biecz flourished under Jagiellonian rule. The crown's encouragement of growth and trade, as well as the town's favorable location, were major influences on Biecz's rapid growth during this period. Under the rule of King Casimir IV Jagiellon, the town built its first municipal water supply. Inhabitants were also granted a number of privileges, such as relief from duties on various imported commodities. Additionally, merchants entering Polish territory were required to pass through Biecz, wherein taxes and other import tariffs were levied. This practice was established by Louis I of Hungary in 1372 along the Hungarian-Red Ruthenian trade route."}
+{"text":"Economic development prompted rapid population growth. By the end of the 14th century, Biecz had become one of the largest cities in all of Poland, with a population of over 3,000 in the city and its suburbs."}
+{"text":"As a castellany, Biecz was not only entrusted with defensive responsibilities, but also served as judicial, administrative, and economic center for southern part of Krak\u00f3w Voivodeship. After a lull in economic and population growth in the latter half of the 14th century, the judiciary and administration of the region were reorganized. The region of Krak\u00f3w, or Krak\u00f3w Voivodeship was established, and was further split into six powiats (districts), one of which was the large district of Biecz. Biecz was then designated a judicial center, and was home to two different court systems. Krak\u00f3w, Nowy S\u0105cz, and Biecz were the locations of the high courts that dealt with the enforcement of the Magdeburg laws as established in 1374 by the Privilege of Ko\u0161ice."}
+{"text":"Little is known about the establishment of the Biecz \"starostwo\" during the late 14th century. Nothing is known about the first recorded starosta but his name: Drago. The \"starostwo\" were Crown lands administered by the \"starosta\", and established mainly for economic purposes as the Crown considered revenues generated by these administrative regions a significant source of income. The Biecz \"starostwo\" had a strong economic base; by 1581 it encompassed 23 villages and Crown-operated \"folwarks\". Until 1641 the \"starosta\" had an office in the Franciscan monastery; after 1641 his office was moved to a designated administrative building."}
+{"text":"In 1624, the reformed Franciscan order arrived in Biecz from Zakliczyn, where a substantial reformation had recently occurred under the guidance of Friar Hipolit \u0141owicjan and Father Piotr Zielonacki. In 1651 the Franciscan monastery was moved from its original location on the Ropa River to a new location closer to the city center."}
+{"text":"Numerous public and private buildings were built during the 15th and 16th centuries. On 25 July 1395, Queen Jadwiga issued building orders for the \"Szpital \u015bw. Ducha\" (Hospital of the Holy Ghost). The writ appropriated a nearby folwark, several fish ponds, and the remnants of a plaza that had been destroyed by fire in 1388. Funded entirely by tax revenue, the hospital's budget was the largest in the country."}
+{"text":"Over the years, many churches have been located in Biecz, the most ever being seven within the city limits. The most prominent of these is Corpus Christi Church (\"Ko\u015bci\u00f3\u0142 Bo\u017cego Cia\u0142a\"). The oldest surviving structures date back to 1480, but the register of monuments of the Kingdom of Poland show that construction had already begun by 1326. The main nave was constructed during the 15th century and completed by 1519. The side chapels were built between 1521 and 1560, and the main altar was added in 1604."}
+{"text":"Another important monument constructed during this period is City Hall. The original bell tower was constructed in 1569, and the rest of the structure was built between 1569 and 1580. The structure was built with funds donated by Marcin Kromer. Once construction on the tower was completed, the tradition of trumpeting the hejna\u0142 was begun. The hejna\u0142 was played every morning, noon, and evening, coinciding with the closing of the city gates, as well as in times of emergency."}
+{"text":"In 1523, the \"Dom Barian\u00f3w-Rokickich\" was built. The building was owned by Marcin Kromer and served as a pharmacy until the 17th century. Other important period buildings include the 1519 Kromer House, which never actually had anything to do with Marcin Kromer, and the Castle, built in the first half of the 16th century."}
+{"text":"Biecz was a royal city, and the center of local administrative, judicial, and military authority from the 12th century until 1783. In the 17th century, the district of Biecz encompassed eleven cities and 264 villages, as well as three castles, the royal court, and several royal residences. Kings from both the Piast and Jagiellon dynasties made use of these royal residences. The royal residences remained in use by Polish monarchs until John II Casimir Vasa, who passed through the city while on his campaign to drive the Swedes from Poland."}
+{"text":"The castle served as a center of economic exchange for many centuries, mainly due to its favorable location at the intersection of north\u2013south and east\u2013west trade routes."}
+{"text":"In 1505, Alexander Jagiellon strengthened trade relations with Hungary. As a result, the majority of Hungarian exports to Polish territories and beyond were sent through Biecz. These goods include iron, copper, lead, salt, wool, and large quantities of Hungarian wine. Initially this wine was a poor trade good, as the liquor was so expensive that only the magnates could afford to buy it. Over time, however, it became a more common drink, and increasing quantities were exported. On 17 January 1618, the wine cellars built by Casimir the Great had a stock of 331 barrels of Hungarian wine."}
+{"text":"As the major defensive stronghold of the region, Biecz was required to combat manifestations of lawlessness. Marauders would frequently attack trade caravans, their major targets being those carrying large quantities of Hungarian wine. The issue was so widespread that the local sejm designated a special committee to litigate the issue."}
+{"text":"As attacks on merchants increased in frequency and severity, the government increased penalties for these types of crimes. The punishment was torture, usually flagellation, followed by execution. Afterwards, the head of the criminal would be mounted on a pole at the city gate to serve as a warning to others. The bodies of highwaymen were, according to tradition, hung from gibbets, which can be seen in the Hogenberg etching above. Though no longer in use, these gibbets can still be seen today."}
+{"text":"Biecz executioners also performed executions in nearby villages for a fee. According to financial records, in the year 1450 executioners were sent to the towns of Jas\u0142o, Ryman\u00f3w, Dukla, D\u0119bowiec, Rzesz\u00f3w, and Wojnicz."}
+{"text":"The sheer number of executions enacted gave rise to the popular legend that there existed an executioners' school in Biecz. It is likely that this is the invention of a 19th-century author, as trade schools did not exist during the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, the legend is a popular one, and some historical scholars have even devoted time to study the possibility."}
+{"text":"As the population grew, so did the variety of trade goods and handicrafts produced in the city. In the 14th century, there were 30 different types of goods produced in the city, most of which are cloth or canvas goods. Economic prosperity gave rise to a mentality that valued education, which prompted the 1528 opening of a new school building. In the 15th and 16th centuries, 150 Bieczan students studied at the Jagiellonian University in Krak\u00f3w, then still known as \"Akademia Krakowska\". Most of these students returned to Biecz after completing their studies."}
+{"text":"Biecz was home to a number of artists, painters, poets, and writers, including Jan Matejko and Stanis\u0142aw Wyspia\u0144ski. The first panoramic painting of Biecz was created in 1617 by Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg. Another famous depiction is J. Janson's copperplate \"Widok og\u00f3lny Biecza\" (\"General view of Biecz\"), which appears in \"Regni Poloni\u00e6 Ducatus Lituani\u00e6 novissima descriptio\" (1659). Biecz was also the subject of artworks created by several artists, including Tadeusz Rybkowski, J\u00f3zef Mehoffer, and Helena Krajewska. Biecz was the subject of Miron Bia\u0142oszewski's tapestry \"\u015aredniowieczny gobelin o Bieczu\"."}
+{"text":"The economic development of Biecz resulted in a population boom. A census conducted by the judiciary from 1388 to 1398 lists the names of 515 heads of households. Taking into account that contemporary families consisted on average of six people, it is believed that Biecz and its suburbs had at least 3,000 residents. By the mid-16th century, Biecz had a population of 3,700, the highest population the city achieved during the Middle Ages. Starting in the 17th century, Biecz went into a decline, its population slipping to approximately 1800 people in the first half of the 17th century, and then to 462 inhabitants in 1662."}
+{"text":"Starting in the mid-17th century, the city began to decline due to the stationing of foreign troops, alterations in trade routes, and numerous natural disasters. Further devastation was caused by the Deluge, a series of disastrous wars with Sweden that left the Polish\u2013Lithuanian Commonwealth in ruins. The invading Swedes razed houses, farms, peasant buildings, hospitals, and three wooden churches on the outskirts of the city."}
+{"text":"The wine trade, which had sustained the city as trade waned, began to decline. Contemporary record-keeping shows a significant reduction in the stock of wine in the middle of the 17th century. As time went on, the wine trade dwindled further before eventually disappearing completely."}
+{"text":"On 4 April 1770, Kierkor, the commander of a troop of 100 cavalry, mounted an attack from Biecz against the Imperial Russian Army in Siepietnica under the command of Iwan Drewicz (Russian: \u0418\u0432\u0430\u043d \u0413\u0440\u0438\u0433\u043e\u0440\u044c\u0435\u0432\u0438\u0447 \u0414\u0440\u0435\u0432\u0438\u0447). The cavalry were overwhelmed, and the Russian forces pursued the retreating troops and plundered Biecz."}
+{"text":"The golden age of Biecz ended with the partition of Poland, after which the city was under Austrian rule. After the 1783 liquidation of the District of Biecz, the eastern portion of city hall, which was devoted to district administration, was demolished between 1815 and 1840."}
+{"text":"By 1787, trade good production had declined such that there remained only eight trade guilds. The most prosperous of the remaining trades was weaving, with approximately thirty workshops. Another surviving craft was shoemaking, with fourteen workshops. The shoemaking profession soon disappeared, however, as industrialization allowed for mass production of much cheaper product."}
+{"text":"At the beginning of the 16th century, Biecz was one of the largest Polish cities both in area and population. Beginning in the middle of that century, however, Biecz fell victim to a number of natural disasters which devastated both its population and infrastructure. In 1543, 110 inhabitants died from a plague; a second plague in 1572 claimed 1,500 victims. In 1600 Biecz suffered yet another plague, which struck again in 1622. This plague struck the workshops, nearly wiping out the tradesman population. 52 craftsmen survived. The same occurred in the next plague, which struct in 1652. In 1721, Biecz suffered what is now known as the great plague, which devastated the populace and spared approximately thirty people."}
+{"text":"In 1776, the ruling Habsburg dynasty sold the city to the Siemie\u0144scy family, effectively revoking Biecz's status as a royal city. Initially the new administration provided a certain stability. However, in 1783, the city was forced to defend itself against invaders, forcing the administrative and judicial branches of government to shut down. The last Biecz castle still in service as a military stronghold fell to the invaders, who laid siege to the city. Effectively cut off from communication with the rest of the Austrian partition, and severed from the traditional Hungarian trade routes, the city withstood the invasion solely due to the recent renovation and strengthening of the city walls."}
+{"text":"Biecz began to recover economically beginning in the late 19th century. During this period, the petrochemical industry began to develop in the vicinity, which contributed to a number of personal fortunes through the years. In 1879, the first oil well was constructed in the Hart neighborhood, northwest of Biecz. Devastated areas were rebuilt and rejuvenated with money from these newly made oil fortunes. One of these nouveau riche, Father Jan Bochniewicz, established a charitable foundation with 50,000 PLN initial capital, a percentage of which was earmarked for distribution among the fifty poorest inhabitants of the city. The foundation survived until 1958."}
+{"text":"The economic recovery and the inflow of capital to Biecz contributed positively to improving the quality of life. In 1882, Biecz constructed its first railroad station, and in 1889, its first credit union. Slowly education and culture returned to the city. In 1891 a new parochial school building was constructed, and in 1912 an all-girls school was opened. The 19th century brought with it an increased awareness of the historical value of buildings, and a subsequent increase in the conservation and protection of historic monuments. As a result, Biecz soon became the focus of interest of many art historians, professors, and conservators."}
+{"text":"On 12 May 1903, a great fire broke out in Biecz, razing half of the city. According to historical documents, destroyed buildings included twenty Jewish stores, thirty Catholic homes, the tax collector's offices, a pharmacy, the newly built Synagogue, and old city hall. In total, 600 residents were left without homes."}
+{"text":"In 1898, the city's public library, named after Tadeusz Kosciuszko, was opened and quickly became a cultural center. The original library was completely destroyed in the fire, but shortly thereafter was rebuilt and stocked with approximately 8,000 volumes."}
+{"text":"While World War I had little impact on the city proper, a number combatants who participated in the Gorlice\u2013Tarn\u00f3w Offensive are buried in cemeteries throughout the municipality."}
+{"text":"There are five numbered cemeteries in Biecz wherein soldiers of World War I are buried:"}
+{"text":"The interwar period heralded new growth in Biecz. A number of societies were founded during this period, including the \"Zwi\u0105zek M\u0142odzie\u017cy Polskiej\" Polish Youth Union (1920) and the \"Towarzystwo Przyjaci\u00f3\u0142\" Society of Friends (1938). The Society of Friends soon established the Muzeum Ziemi Bieckiej (Museum of Bieczan Lands)."}
+{"text":"In 1934, the Ropa River flooded, washing away railway embankments and all the houses built on the banks or valleys of the River. The floodwaters rose to unprecedented heights."}
+{"text":"The outbreak of World War II abruptly halted all forms of cultural life. The War resulted in significant population losses, as well as the destruction of several buildings and cultural facilities. Many people were resettled in Biecz from towns like Jas\u0142o; by 1944 the total population of the city was 5,973 inhabitants."}
+{"text":"Nationalist and patriotic feelings were strong, and resistance forces quickly developed during both wars in the forms of National Army recruits and the Bataliony Ch\u0142opskie peasant battalions, as well as acts of violence and sabotage."}
+{"text":"After the war, Biecz began the process of reconstruction and preservation. The first new buildings constructed were related to education, and included several high schools and vocational schools. In 1949, a new public library was built, and in 1953, a regional museum. During the 1970s, new buildings included hotels, restaurants, cooperatives, a health center, and a public kindergarten. The 1980s saw the construction of 150 single-family homes."}
+{"text":"In 1950\u20131953, the city hall bell tower was renovated and strengthened, and the cupola covered in sheet copper. Later the city embarked on a costly campaign to repair and preserve the outer sgraffito. Numerous preservation projects were ongoing during this period in Corpus Christi Church, such as the preservation of confessionals, altars, statues, and so forth. In 1992, the church gates of Corpus Christi Church were demolished. The gates dated back to the Renaissance."}
+{"text":"In 1955, a memorial plaque was placed on the city hall bell tower to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the death of Adam Mickiewicz. During the 1970s, the city built and dedicated a monument to the victims of the world wars. In 1989, a bust of Marcin Kromer and accompanying monument were dedicated on the 400th anniversary of his death."}
+{"text":"The 21st century has been marked by numerous restoration and preservation projects. In 2000, renovation work was completed on the 15th-century bell tower. The 14th-century Corpus Christi Church has been the scene of a number of important restoration projects, including the 2004 restoration of the altar of St. Teresa of Avilla, 2002 restoration of the main altar, and 2005 replacement of a number of important structural support beams."}
+{"text":"In March 2001, the \"Fundacja na Rzecz Szpitala Ubogich im. \u015bw. Jadwigi Kr\u00f3lowej w Bieczu\" was established as part of a campaign to save the Gothic Hospital of the Holy Ghost. Renovation and preservation work had already begun by 2004."}
+{"text":"On 21 April 2005, the town government reinstated the tradition of playing the hejna\u0142. Beginning June 2009 of that year, the hejna\u0142 was played from the bell tower of town hall."}
+{"text":"Biecz was one of the towns to host the seventh annual \"Ma\u0142opolskie Dni Dziedzictwa Kulturowego\" (Lesser Poland cultural heritage day) from 20 to 21 May 2006. On 8 June 2006, relics of Queen Jadwiga of Poland, the patron saint of Biecz, were brought to the town for a dedicated exhibition. The relics were processed along a number of city and country roads that the Queen probably walked."}
+{"text":"On 1 July 2007, Biecz celebrated the 750-year anniversary of the city's establishment under Magdeburg law. The festival was marked by dance performances, musical exhibitions, theater, and lectures by historical experts."}
+{"text":"On 16 October 2008, the Biecz beltway was officially opened."}
+{"text":"Biecz lies on the Ropa River, on a pass through the Carpathian Mountains. Up until the 19th century, the River ran through the heart of the city. With the construction of the railroad, however, the river's course was altered so that it ran alongside the city instead."}
+{"text":"Despite the relatively small size of the city, there is a significant grade in elevation. The highest point lies at above sea level, while the lowest lies at . Biecz borders Binarowa, G\u0142\u0119boka, Grudna K\u0119pska, Korczyna, Libusza, and Strzeszyn."}
+{"text":"In the Biecz and the surrounding area there are a number of oil deposits."}
+{"text":"Biecz lies in the South-eastern part of Poland, approximately from the Slovakian border and from the Ukrainian border. The distance from Biecz to the most important Polish cities is: Nowy S\u0105cz - , Tarn\u00f3w - , Krak\u00f3w - , Katowice - , Lublin - , \u0141\u00f3d\u017a - , Warsaw - , Pozna\u0144 - , Bydgoszcz - , Gda\u0144sk - , and Szczecin - ."}
+{"text":"The city lies within the borders of the historical region of Ma\u0142opolska. Throughout history, the territory was also a part of the region of Krak\u00f3w. Biecz's importance during his medieval and renaissance heyday resulted in the city receiving administrative control over a significant amount of surrounding territory (Latin: \"Terra Biecensis\")."}
+{"text":"The average annual temperature is approximately . The average high in July is , and in January the average low is . The area receives at most of rain per annum. Sheet ice in winter lasts approximately 100 days, and has an average thickness of ."}
+{"text":"Biecz municipality is split into three formal divisions called \"jednostki pomocnicze gminy\" (literally, auxiliary municipality units). These divisions are numbered one through three. Each division has a governing council, with an elected chairman. , the chairmen of the divisions were: W\u0142adys\u0142aw Lignar, Renata Kud\u0142a, and Ireneusz Zaj\u0105c."}
+{"text":"In addition to the formal divisions, Biecz has a number of neighborhoods, each with their own particular history and character. These include:"}
+{"text":"With a population of approximately 5,000, Biecz ranks as the 44th most populous city in Lesser Poland Voivodeship. As the city prospered and grew, so did the population. In the 14th century, the district of Biecz, including the surrounding villages, had a total population of 522. By the mid-16th century, this number was 3,700, and by the early 17th century had fallen back down to approximately 1,800."}
+{"text":"During the first half of the 16th century, Biecz was one of the largest Polish cities both in size and population. The wars with Sweden as well as numerous fires caused the population to begin to decrease. In 1721, a great plague struck Biecz. The thirty survivors built a memorial chapel to St. Michael the Archangel in memory of the victims. Nazi occupation during World War II resulted in significant population losses. A number of smaller villages were resettled into Biecz during this time, resulting, in 1944, in a population of 5,973, the highest recorded population in history."}
+{"text":"In recent years, Biecz has slowly begun to decrease in population once more. There exists a migration trend that moves populations from cities to larger cities and abroad, mostly due to high unemployment and lack of higher education institutions. According to census records, in 2007 the city had 4,575 inhabitants, about 73 fewer than in the previous year."}
+{"text":"In Biecz there are 107 women for every 100 men. The number of women in an age group is greater than the number of men for all age groups except the following: 5-19, 30\u201334, and 40\u201344."}
+{"text":"Due to its long, rich history, Biecz is home to a number of culturally and historically significant monuments and buildings. Some of the most important of these include the 14th-century Corpus Christi Church, the 15th-century town hall bell tower, and the 14th-century hospital of the Holy Ghost."}
+{"text":"Corpus Christi Church (Polish: \"Ko\u015bci\u00f3\u0142 Bo\u017cego Cia\u0142a\") is Polish Brick Gothic church dating back to the early 14th century. One of the most important churches in Poland, it houses the relics of Queen Jadwiga. The church is built of stone and brick, and decorated with patterns of strongly fired bricks."}
+{"text":"The oldest part of the church is the presbytery, which was completed before 1480. This date was inscribed on a support beam, and probably indicates the year in which expansion was begun. According to the monument registry of the Kingdom of Poland, construction first began in 1326. The presbytery entrance is framed by a 15th-century painted screen of the Passion of Jesus Christ. To the sides are 17th-century stalls. A music pulpit that dates back to 1633, and which is the oldest such monument of its kind in Europe, can be found on the altar."}
+{"text":"The altar was built in 1604. The altarpiece includes an image of the cross, circled by St. Michael the Archangel. It is one of three such images in the world. Above the painting is a scene showing the fatigue of the Mother of God, painted by Stanislas Stoss, son of Veit Stoss. At the top is the coronation of Mary. To the left of the altar is the 17th-century lesser altar of the Immaculate Conception, which features the family tree of Mary."}
+{"text":"On either side of the presbytery are 17th-century, richly carved stalls. To the left is the Oratorium, where, according to legend, St. Jadwiga often prayed. In 2006, a shrine was added to the Oratorium to hold the relics of St. Jadwiga."}
+{"text":"The church has eight chapels. Each chapel has a patron and guild dedicated to it. The chapels are:"}
+{"text":"The main nave was added in 1519, and consists of a huge stone vault supported by eight stone pillars. A hanging pulpit was added in 1604. On the left of the chancel is the altar of Our Lady of the Rosary, alongside sculptures of Piotr Su\u0142owski, Saint Anne, and Miko\u0142aj Lig\u0119za. Near the Kromer and St. Anthony chapels is a memorial plaque to the 400th anniversary of Marcin Kromer's death."}
+{"text":"The wooden choir loft was built in 1898 by organmaster Jan \u015aliwi\u0144ski. The organ has 22 voices, 2 manual and keyboard foot pedals. The instrument itself was designed by S\u0142awomir Odrzywolski. The choir stalls date back to the Renaissance period."}
+{"text":"Alongside the church is a 15th-century bell tower that was initially intended to serve as a defensive tower under the auspices of the butchers guild. The bell dates back to the 14th century. Since World War II, the bell has been on display in the Kromer House museum. The belltower is built alongside the 19th-century chapel of St. Barbara that was built over the ruins of a 15th-century chapel."}
+{"text":"The outer walls of the church are decorated with Hungarian-sculpted statues of the Apostles."}
+{"text":"The originally Gothic town hall was rebuilt in the 16th century, and served as the center of administrative power for the powiat of Biecz. After the First Partition of Poland, the powiat was dissolved, and the parts of the building dedicated to its administration fell into disuse. In the 19th century, the eastern wing of the hall was demolished. These foundations were discovered during a 1958 archaeological excavation of market square. Today these foundations are marked with commemorative plates."}
+{"text":"The old bell tower collapsed from disrepair on 8 May 1569. It was rebuilt from 1569 to 1580 with funds donated by Marcin Kromer. The tower stands at in height, the highest building in the town. The walls are sgraffitoed plaster simulating the appearance of rustication."}
+{"text":"Inside hang numerous crests and coats of arms, including that of Marcin Kromer and Adam Mickiewicz. On the east wall is a 16th-century 24-hour clock face. This style of clock is rare, as the 17th century brought with it a switch to 12-hour clock faces."}
+{"text":"The bell tower's ornate cap burned in the great city fire on 12 May 1903. During the process of reconstruction, the cap was rebuilt with wooden shingles, which in 1998 were covered with sheet copper. Historically, a trumpeter played the hejna\u0142 from this tower when the city gates were opened, morning, noon, and night. This tradition ended with the collapse of the old bell tower, which killed the town trumpeter. In 2005, the tradition was restarted, and today the hejna\u0142 is played every day at noon."}
+{"text":"The lowest levels of the tower include a dungeon called \"Turm\". Convicts scratched primitive calendars and other inscriptions into the walls, which are still visible to this day. Today, the dungeons include an exhibition of prison cells, and an exhibition dedicated to medieval torture instruments."}
+{"text":"The Hospital of the Holy Spirit (Polish: \"Szpital \u015bw. Ducha\") is the oldest preserved hospital in Poland. The Catholic church first began establishing hospitals in Western Europe during the 8th century. The first Polish hospitals were established during the 13th century, where they were administered by various religious orders. Each hospital had an attached parish and church."}
+{"text":"By the late 14th century, Biecz had accumulated a population of over 3,000 residents, necessitating some form of public health service. On 25 July 1395, Queen Jadwiga signed a royal edict ordering the construction of the hospital, granting tax breaks for the duration of construction, and earmarking two fiefs, a folwark, 3 fish ponds, and a town square near the city walls for construction. The budget provided by the queen for construction was one of the largest of its kind in the country."}
+{"text":"In the 18th century, the church attached to the hospital was demolished, and in the 19th century, the hospital was renovated. The hospital continued to administer to the poor until 1950, when it was converted into a boys' boarding school. After a new school building had been built, the hospital was abandoned, and began to fall into a state of disrepair. Attempts to restore the buildings began during the 1980s, but were disrupted due to political changes in Poland. Due to difficult economic times from 1991 to 1997, only the walls and roofs have been preserved at present."}
+{"text":"The hospital is in the eastern part of the city, and consists of a two-story building measuring . The eastern and western walls are decorated with patterns made from dark, strongly fired bricks. The eastern wall has two entries, while the west has one stone entry that has since been walled over. Above the stone entryway is a stone sculpture of the Polish coat of arms with the date 1487, that was probably moved there from the remnants of the third castle during the 17th century."}
+{"text":"The Kromer House (Polish: \"Dom Kromera\") is a 16th-century building that never actually belonged to Marcin Kromer. Built in 1519, only seven years after Kromer's birth, the building belonged to the wealthy Chodor\u00f3w family."}
+{"text":"Today the building houses a cultural museum that includes a number of important folk artifacts, art, and coins. The oldest exhibits include axeheads and related neolithic artefacts, as well as Roman and Byzantine coins, and medieval ceramics and weaponry. Other exhibits showcase historical weaponry and the day-to-day life of townspeople throughout history."}
+{"text":"The city walls date back to the beginnings of the 14th century, when approximately 1,200 meters of walls protected the city. During the course of history, the city's defense systems altered to reflect the changing technologies of war, and today there remain only fragments of the original defenses. These fragments can be seen near Corpus Christi Church and the hospital of the Holy Ghost."}
+{"text":"Of the seventeen original towers, only three remain standing:"}
+{"text":"In 1964, the foundations of one of Poland's best-known barbicans was discovered near Corpus Christi Church."}
+{"text":"During the course of history, there existed three separate castles in Biecz. Currently, only the ruins of one of these remain. Of the other two castles, one was built in the current location of the Franciscan church, while the other was located on land owned by the hospital."}
+{"text":"Only the foundations remain of the Gothic royal castle on nearby G\u00f3rze Zamkowej (literally \"Castle Mountain\"). The castle was built on the foundations of an early medieval gord. Built in the 13th century, the castle was made of fortified stone, and served as field headquarters for Polish kings and princes."}
+{"text":"The entire hill was surrounded by a rectangular defensive wall. The northern gate was guarded by a tower, bridge, and gates. The southern wall was protected by the Ropa River."}
+{"text":"The castle ceased to be considered an important line of defense during the second half of the 15th century. In 1475, King Casimir IV Jagiellon ordered the castle's demolition. Large pieces of stonework and related ruins were scattered across the nearby countryside as late as the 19th century. Today, all that is visible is the foundation of the castle, which has been preserved for posterity."}
+{"text":"There are 3 bus stops and one railway station. There are 4 schools. The main industries are trade, services and tourism. There is one cinema."}
+{"text":"Bobowa (, \"Bobov\") is a small town in Gorlice County, southern Poland. Administratively part of the Lesser Polish Voivodeship, it is situated west of Gorlice and south-east of the regional capital Krak\u00f3w. It was formerly a village, but was granted town status on 1 January 2009. Bobowa is also located on a railway line running from Tarn\u00f3w to the border with Slovakia at Leluch\u00f3w."}
+{"text":"It is not known when the village of Bobowa appeared on the map of Poland. It probably was a Slavic gord, destroyed in 1240 (see Mongol invasion of Poland). Bobowa received Magdeburg rights town charter in 1339. By 1346, the town already had a parish church, and Bobowa at that time belonged to the Gryfita family (Gryf coat of arms). In the 1460 register Liber beneficiorum by Jan D\u0142ugosz, one can find the information of Bobowa\u2019s stone parish church, as well as two smaller, wooden churches. The town still belonged to the Gryfita family, and according to D\u0142ugosz, it had three owners - Miko\u0142aj, Jan and Gietko Gryfita. Furthermore, Bobowa had a court and w\u00f3jt, who in 1467 was a man named Jan Lempart."}
+{"text":"In the mid-16th-century Bobowa emerged as a local center of the Protestant Reformation, and some time in the early 17th century, the town was purchased by the Jordan family. In 1740 its owner was Stanis\u0142aw \u0141\u0119towski. Following the Partitions of Poland, Bobowa in 1772 became part of Austrian province of Galicia, where it remained until late 1918. In 1934, the government of the Second Polish Republic stripped Bobowa of its town charter due to its depopulation. Bobowa regained its town status on January 1, 2009."}
+{"text":"The Jews were brought to Bobowa by Micha\u0142 Jaworski in 1732 in order to improve the town's collapsing economy. A synagogue was erected in 1756 serving the needs of 44 families. In 1900 the Jewish population of Bobowa numbered 749. Before the Holocaust in Poland, the town was home to a \"yeshiva\", notable as a historic centre of Hasidism, created and led by the tsadik of the Bobov dynasty."}
+{"text":"It was also the home of Gen. Boles\u0142aw Wieniawa-D\u0142ugoszowski who became \"President of Poland for a day\" in 1939. During the Second World War Bobowa became a \"concentration village\" where the Jews from the surrounding area were imprisoned. The General's brother Kazimierz was the mayor and was able to save at least one Jew. Almost all were finally killed. One of the few survivors, Professor Samuel P. Oliner of Humboldt State University, California, describes these events in his autobiography \"Restless Memories\". He devoted his academic career to the study of altruism, having himself been rescued by a Polish peasant woman called Balwina."}
+{"text":"After the war Grand Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam (1907 \u2013 August 2, 2000) re-established the Bobov Hasidic dynasty in America. He was the son of Rabbi Ben Zion Halberstam (1874\u20131941) of Bobowa, who died in the Holocaust. Initially based in the neighbourhood of Borough Park, Brooklyn, New York, it now has branches in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn; Monsey, New York; Montreal; Toronto; Antwerp; London and Israel and is under the leadership of Rabbi Shlomo's son Rabbi Ben-Zion Aryeh Leibish Halberstam."}
+{"text":"Kozy (German: \"Seiffersdorf, Seibersdorf, Kosy (1941\u201345)\"; Wymysorys: \"Zajwy\u015bdi\u00fcf\") is a large village with a population of 12,457 (2013) within Bielsko County, located in the historical and geographical south-west region of Lesser Poland, between K\u0119ty and Bielsko-Bia\u0142a, and about 65 kilometres south-west of Krak\u00f3w and south of Katowice. It is the largest village in Poland (by comparison - the population of Opatowiec, the smallest town in Poland, is only 338). The village name translates to 'Goats' in English, and has an area of 26,9\u00a0km2."}
+{"text":"Since 1 January 1999, following Polish local government reforms adopted in 1998, Kozy has been part of the newly established Silesian Voivodeship (province); between 1975-1998 it was formerly part of the Bielsko-Bia\u0142a Voivodeship. The village is well connected with the nearby city of Bielsko-Bia\u0142a. It has a railway transport station, and lies on National Road No. 52. Kozy is the centre of the administrative district of Gmina Kozy."}
+{"text":"The village settlement was first mentioned in 1326 under two names \"Duabuscapris seu Siffridivilla\" in Latin, translated as \"two goats or goats village\", recorded in the parish Peter's Pence list, deanery of O\u015bwi\u0119cim, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Krak\u00f3w."}
+{"text":"In old Polish the village was known as \"Dwyekozy\" (\"Dwiekozie\"); \"two goats\", and consisted of two settlements - \"Upper Kozy\" (\"Kozy G\u00f3rne\"), and \"Lower Kozy\" (\"Kozy Dolne\")."}
+{"text":"Kozy was historically located on lands held by the Silesian Piast branch of the Polish royal Piast dynasty. The village was in the Duchy of O\u015bwi\u0119cim, located in the historic region of Upper Silesia. From 1327 the duchy was part of the Bohemian Crown lands (Kingdom of Bohemia). In 1457 the duchy was sold to the Polish king Casimir IV Jagiellon and returned to the Kingdom of Poland. In the accompanying document issued on 21 February the village was mentioned as \"Dwe Kozy\". Kozy was a privately owned village, owned by such wealthy noble families as Miko\u0142aj Sz\u0142op of D\u0119bowiec during the 15th century and from the early 16th century became part of the House of Saszowski estates."}
+{"text":"A few years later, in the First Partitions of Poland (1772), the Duchy of O\u015bwi\u0119cim and thus the almost deserted village of Kozy, was annexed by the Habsburg Austrian Empire, as part of the Austrian Partition. Until November 1918, the Duchy of O\u015bwi\u0119cim remained part of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria crown-lands of Austria. During the 19th-century, Kozy revived once again as one of the most affluent villages of \"O\u015bwi\u0119cim Land\", famous for its skilled stonemasons, carpenters and loom weaving cloth makers. The 16th-century parish wooden church, was demolished in 1899, paving way for the new neo-Gothic style church. The 16th-century church ceiling murals, however, were preserved and transferred into the collections of the National Museum in Krak\u00f3w."}
+{"text":"According to an Austrian census in 1900, the population of Kozy was 3,693, 403 buildings, and an area of 1,358 hectare (13.58\u00a0km2); 3,646 residents were Roman Catholic, 1 Greek-Catholic, 40 Israelite, and 12 residents of other religion. 3,688 declared Polish- and 8 German-speaking, and 6 declared other language. In the Second Polish Republic (1918), the lands of O\u015bwi\u0119cim and thus Kozy, were reincorporated into Poland's Krak\u00f3w Voivodeship at the end of World War I. During World War II, it was a local centre for the Polish resistance Armia Krajowa (Home Army). After the war, Kozy belonged to the administrative district (gmina) of Bia\u0142a Wie\u015b, and in 1954, it emerged as a separate administrative district Gmina Kozy."}
+{"text":"In June 1979, Pope John Paul II's papal visit to Poland encompassed various papal motorcade trails. One such trail planned with the Vatican, was from Kozy to , where Pope John Paul II began his journey from the Church of St. Simon and Jude Tadeusza in Kozy."}
+{"text":"Kozy currently has three twin towns and sister cities"}
+{"text":"Brzyska is a village in Jas\u0142o County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in south-eastern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Brzyska. It lies approximately north-west of Jas\u0142o and south-west of the regional capital Rzesz\u00f3w."}
+{"text":"The village has a population of 1,900."}
+{"text":"The Battle of the Vistula River, also known as the Battle of Warsaw, was a Russian victory against the German Empire and Austria-Hungary on the Eastern Front during the First World War."}
+{"text":"To face the threat from Silesia, the Russians withdrew men from East Prussia and from the front facing the Austro-Hungarians The geographical barrier that separated the bulk of the opposing armies was the Vistula River. The Russian corps marching north to fill the gap moved along the east bank of the Vistula, which protected their left flanks. The troop movements involved both the Southwest Front commanded by Nikolay Iudovich Ivanov and the Northwest Front under Nikolai Ruzsky. Their movements were poorly coordinated."}
+{"text":"To guard the crossings for their Fourth and Ninth Armies, on the west bank of the Vistula the Russians deployed the 75th Reserve Division (Fourth Army) at Radom, as well as the group of General Delsalle, consisting of the Guard Rifle Brigade, 2nd Rifle Brigade and 80th Reserve Division, at Opat\u00f3w-Klimont\u00f3w. Both groups were screened by the Cavalry divisions of the Corps Nowikow."}
+{"text":"On 28 September German Ninth Army began a meticulously planned advance toward the Vistula River. German XI, Guard and Austro-Hungarian I Corps marched in heavy rain toward Delsalle's group. Because German Army wagons were too heavy for the woeful Polish roads, submerged in several feet of mud, they used light Polish carts hired along with their peasant drivers. As they advanced they improved the roads and bridges so they could support heavy artillery and adjusted the rails to the narrower European gauge. (The Vienna-Warsaw line was already European gauge.) Explosives were cached at road and railway bridges so they could be destroyed if necessary."}
+{"text":"On 6 October, Dankl's First Army cavalry had reached Sandomierz, and though the Russians lost 7000 of General Delsalle's infantry killed or taken prisoner near Opat\u00f3w, the remaining forces had withdrawn across the Vistula. On 7 October, Archduke Joseph Ferdinand's Fourth Army captured Rzesz\u00f3w, while Svetozar Boroevi\u0107's Third Army advanced towards Przemy\u015bl. On 11 October, Austro-Hungarian troops captured Jaros\u0142aw, and 5000 prisoners, but once, again, the Russians were able to withdraw across the San River."}
+{"text":"The Austro-Hungarian First Army, which was taking over the German right flank, was unable to defend the crossings over the Vistula. The Germans claimed that they deliberately allowed the Russians to cross, then intending to engulf them. According to the Austro-Hungarians they arrived too late to prevent the crossings. In any event, the Russians were able to bring enough men quickly over the river to force the Austro-Hungarians to retreat to a line ,to the west. According to Max Hoffmann, the third ranking member of Ninth Army Staff, they pulled back without alerting the nearby German units\u2014they escaped only because they were warned by a German telephone operator. In fact the Austro-Hungarians did properly inform their allies"}
+{"text":"According to Buttar, \"Both the German and the Austro-Hungarian commanders attempted to emphasise that they had been forced to retreat because their allies had not delivered what was required. Despite taking an estimated 12,000 Russian prisoners, First Army had lost over 40,000 men, and had failed to eliminate any of the Russian bridgeheads across the Vistula.\" On 30 October, the Russians reached \u0141\u00f3d\u017a."}
+{"text":"The Germans calculated that until extensive repairs were finished the furthest the Russians could advance over the devastated countryside was , so they would have some weeks respite before the Russians could invade Silesia, but they had been forced back. They portrayed the withdrawal as a strategic maneuver, and had succeeded in blocking an enemy advance into Germany for weeks, while their army was trying to win on the Western Front. The retreat \"\u2026 filled the Russian army with confidence in its strength to deal with Germany\". Now Russian troops had beaten both Germans and the Austro-Hungarians. But they dissipated their advantage by indecision about their next move and confusion in their administrative arrangements"}
+{"text":"On 1 November, Hindenburg was given command of all of the German forces on the Eastern Front. Mackensen was promoted as commander of the Ninth Army, the majority of which was deployed by rail to Thorn, so as to threaten the Russian northern flank. Yet, for the Austro-Hungarian forces, in the words of Buttar, \"All the gains of the October campaign were to be abandoned, and a new line would be held through the winter, running along the Carpathians and then to Krakow.\""}
+{"text":"Order of battle on 1 October 1914."}
+{"text":"Russian North-Western Front. Commander-in-chief \u2013 Nikolai Ruzsky"}
+{"text":"The Cherven Cities or Cherven Grods (, ), often literally translated as Red Cities, Red Forts or Red Boroughs, was a point of dispute between the Kingdom of Poland and Kievan Rus' at the turn of 10th and 11th centuries, with both sides claiming their rights to the land."}
+{"text":"Originally, the name \"Cherven Cities\" probably identified a territory between the Bug and Wieprz rivers. Its name is derived from Czerwie\u0144 (cf. Proto-Slavic \"*\u010d\u044crven\u044a\" \"red\"), a \"gord\" that existed there, possibly on the site of the present village of Czermno. The first mention of the \"Cherven cities\" is given by the \"Primary Chronicle\" (12th century), when Volodymyr the Great captured them from the \"Lyakhs\" (Poles) in 981."}
+{"text":"In early medieval times, whether the Cherven Cities were inhabited by the Early Slavic tribes of Lendians (\"Lyakhs\") or White Croats, and a territory independent from both Poland and Kievan Rus', is part of a wider ethnographic dispute between Polish and Ukrainian-Russian historians."}
+{"text":"Cosmas of Prague (c. 1045 \u2013 1125) relates that the P\u0159emyslid rulers of Bohemia controlled the land of Krak\u00f3w until 999. In support of Cosmas, the foundation charter of the Archdiocese of Prague (1086) traces the Eastern border of the archdiocese, as established in 973, along the Bug and Styr (or Stryi) rivers. Abraham ben Jacob, who travelled in Eastern Europe in 965, remarks that Boleslaus II of Bohemia ruled the country \"stretching from the city of Prague to the city of Krak\u00f3w\"."}
+{"text":"In the 970s, Mieszko I of Poland took over the region: the \"Primary Chronicle\" infers this when reporting that Vladimir the Great conquered the Red Cities from the Lyakhs in 981. He took over the Red Ruthenian strongholds in his military campaign on the border with the land of Lendians. Nestor reports in his chronicle that: \"Volodymyr marched upon the Lyakhs (\"Poles\") and took their cities: Peremyshl (Przemy\u015bl), Cherven (Czermno), and other towns\"."}
+{"text":"Lemkivshchyna or Lemkovyna (; \/\"Lemkovyna\"; , \"Lemkivshchyna\") is a region in Europe that is traditionally inhabited by the Lemko people. While the Lemko are a distinct ethnic group, they consider themselves to be part of the broader Rusyn and\/or Ukrainian communities. Lemkovyna mostly stretches along the border between Poland and Slovakia covering some western territories of Ukraine."}
+{"text":"The region forms an ethnographic peninsula long and wide from the Ukrainian border within Polish and Slovak territory. The Lemko region occupies the lowest part of the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains\u2014most of the Low Beskids, the western part of the Middle Beskyd, and the eastern fringe of the Western Beskyd. It includes the higher elevations of the Carpathians of modern-day Poland, extending to around the Poprad River to the west (see: Ru\u015b Szlachtowska), and extending to the east as far as the region around Sanok, where it meets the Boyko region. The corresponding latitudes of the adjacent highlands of present-day Slovakia are also included by some in the description of Lemko-land."}
+{"text":"Previously a frontier area under the nominal control of Great Moravia, Lemkivshchyna became part of Poland in medieval Piast times. It was made part of the Austrian province of Galicia due to the First Partition of Poland in 1772. Parts were briefly independent under the Lemko-Rusyn Republic and Komancza Republic, and later annexed to Poland."}
+{"text":"After the deportation of Lemkos from the northern part of this area in 1946, only the southern section, southwest of the Carpathian Mountains, known as the Pre\u0161ov region in Slovakia, has remained inhabited by Lemkos."}
+{"text":"The landscape is typical of medium-height-mountain terrain, with ridges reaching and sometimes . Only small parts of southern Low Beskids and the northern San river region have a low-mountain landscape. A series of mountain passes along the Torysa River and Poprad River\u2014Tylych Pass (), Dukla Pass (), and \u0141upk\u00f3w Pass ()\u2014facilitate communications between Galician and Transcarpathian Lemkos."}
+{"text":"The vernacular architecture of the Carpathians draws on environmental and cultural sources to create unique designs."}
+{"text":"Vernacular architecture refers to non-professional, folk architecture, including that of the peasants. In the Carpathian Mountains and the surrounding foothills, wood and clay are the primary traditional building materials."}
+{"text":"Because most Ukrainian, Rusyn, and Romanian people are Eastern Christians, their building techniques have traditionally incorporated religious considerations into their buildings that are distinct from their Western Christian and Jewish neighbours."}
+{"text":"Firstly, all churches are divided into three parts (the narthex, the nave, and the sanctuary) and include an iconostasis (a wall of icons). The outer shape is often cruciform (cross shaped), but will always include a central dome and often several other domes. Parishioners face east during worship and there are no pews."}
+{"text":"The main door and windows of the home face south (as in passive solar design), and icons and other religious paraphernalia are displayed in a special icon corner, usually on the east wall."}
+{"text":"East-Central European synagogues are noted for their unique all-wooden design."}
+{"text":"Details vary from locale to locale but the majority of homes in this area have traditionally been a single-storey rectangular plan; one or two rooms; a central chimney; a gable, hipped-gable or hipped roof; and plastered and limewashed exteriors."}
+{"text":"Materials used were those that could be procured locally, including wood (usually oak), mud, straw, fieldstone, lime, and animal dung. Roofs in densely wooded and hilly areas are typically clad in wooden shakes or shingles, while flatter and more open areas have traditionally used rye straw."}
+{"text":"In the late 19th century two types of construction predominated, horizontal log construction, and frame and fill construction. Log walls were common in areas where wood was available. In places with very poor timber or with an extreme timber shortage post and sill or wattle and daub techniques could also be used."}
+{"text":"For horizontal log construction, logs needed to be notched in order to hold together. The simple saddle notch is the easiest and therefore common. Dovetailing is used by people with more experience in woodworking."}
+{"text":"Many peoples in this area plaster their log homes inside and out to keep out moisture, improve insulation, to hide imperfections in construction, and for general aesthetic value. Traditional plaster is made of clay, water, dung, and straw or chaff. Several coats may be applied to create a smooth finish, and then coated with lime and water to produce a pleasing white colour and protect the clay from the rain."}
+{"text":"Thatched roofs are traditional, but have been declining in popularity for over a century because they may pose a fire hazard. Dirt floors are common, and are made hard by washing with a dung mixture, although wooden floors are preferred."}
+{"text":"Typically the long wall of a house is between and and the side wall between and . The centre of the home is dominated by a traditional clay oven (Ukrainian: \"pich\" or \"pietz\")"}
+{"text":"Walddeutsche (lit. \"Forest Germans\" or \"Taubdeutsche\" - \"Deaf Germans\"; - \"deaf-mutes\") is the name for a group of people of mostly German origin, who settled between the 14th and 17th century on the territory of present-day Sanockie Pits, in southeastern Poland. The Walddeutsche peopled migrated to the Pit region which was previously only sparsely inhabited because the land was difficult to farm."}
+{"text":"The term \"Walddeutsche\" \u2013 coined by the Polish historians Marcin Bielski, 1531, Szymon Starowolski 1632, Bishop Ignacy Krasicki and Wincenty Pol \u2013 also sometimes refers to Germans living between Wis\u0142oka and the San River part of the West Carpathian Plateau and the Central Beskidian Piedmont in Poland."}
+{"text":"The Polish term \"G\u0142uchoniemcy\" is a sort of pun; it means \"deaf-mutes\", but sounds like \"forest Germans\": \"Niemcy\", Polish for \"Germans\", is derived from \"niemy\" (\"mute\", unable to talk comprehensibly, i.e. in the Polish language), and \"g\u0142uchy\" (\"deaf\", i.e. \"unable to communicate\") sounds similar to \"g\u0142usz\" meaning \"wood\"."}
+{"text":"In the 14th century a German settlement called Hanshof existed in the area. The Church of the Assumption of Holy Mary and St. Michael's Archangel in Hacz\u00f3w (Poland), the oldest wooden Gothic temple in Europe, was erected in the 14th century and was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 2003."}
+{"text":"Germans settled in the territory of the Kingdom of Poland (territory of present-day Subcarpathian Voivodeship and eastern part of Lesser Poland) from the 14th to 16th centuries (\"see Ostsiedlung\"), mostly after the region returned to Polish sphere of influence in 1340, when Casimir III of Poland took the Czerwie\u0144 towns."}
+{"text":"Marcin Bielski states that Boles\u0142aw I Chrobry settled some Germans in the region to defend the borders against Hungary and Kievan Rus' but the arrivals were ill-suited to their task and turned to farming. Maciej Stryjkowski mentions German peasants near Przeworsk, Przemy\u015bl, Sanok, and Jaros\u0142aw, describing them as good farmers."}
+{"text":"Some Germans were attracted by kings seeking specialists in various trades, such as craftsmen and miners. They usually settled in newer market and mining settlements. The main settlement areas were in the vicinity of Krosno and some language islands in the Pits and the Rzesz\u00f3w regions. The settlers in the Pits region were known as \"Uplander Sachsen\". Until approximately the 15th century, the ruling classes of most cities in present-day Beskidian Piedmont consisted almost exclusively of Germans."}
+{"text":"The Beskidian Germans underwent Polonization in the latter half of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century."}
+{"text":"Important cities of this region include Pilzno, Brzostek, Biecz, Gorlice, Ropczyce, Wielopole Skrzy\u0144skie, Frysztak, Jas\u0142o, Krosno, Czudec, Rzesz\u00f3w, \u0141a\u0144cut, Tyczyn, Brzoz\u00f3w, Ja\u0107mierz, Ryman\u00f3w, Przeworsk, Jaros\u0142aw, Ka\u0144czuga, Przemy\u015bl, Dyn\u00f3w, Brzoz\u00f3w, and Sanok."}
+{"text":"The name \"Galicia\" is the Latinized form of Halych, a principality of the medieval Ruthenia. \"Lodomeria\" is also a Latinized form of Volodymyr-Volynskyi, that was founded in the 10th century by Vladimir the Great and until the partitions of Poland was known simply as Volodymyr (). King of Galicia and Lodomeria was a medieval title which King Andrew II of Hungary adopted during his conquest of the region in the 12th century."}
+{"text":"This historical region in Eastern Europe is divided today between Poland and Ukraine. The nucleus of historic Galicia consists of the modern Lviv, Ternopil, and Ivano-Frankivsk regions of western Ukraine."}
+{"text":"The name of the Kingdom in its ceremonial form, in , existed in all languages spoken there including ; ; , transliterated: \"Korolivstvo Halychyny ta Volodymyrii z velykym kniazivstvom Krakivskym i kniazivstvamy Osventsyma i Zatoru\", and ."}
+{"text":"In 1815, as a result of decisions of the Congress of Vienna, the Lublin area and surrounding regions (most of the New or West Galicia) were ceded by the Austrian Empire to Congress Poland (Kingdom of Poland), which was ruled by the Tsar, and the Ternopil Region, including the historical region of Southern Podolia, was returned to the Austrian Empire by Russia, which had held it since 1809. The large city of Krak\u00f3w and surrounding territory, formerly also part of New or West Galicia, became the semi-autonomous Free City of Krak\u00f3w under supervision of the three powers sharing rule over Poland (i. e., Austria, Russia, and Prussia)."}
+{"text":"In the same period, a sense of national awakening began to develop among the Ruthenians in the eastern part of Galicia. A circle of activists, primarily Greek Catholic seminarians, affected by the romantic movement in Europe and the example of fellow Slavs elsewhere, especially in eastern Ukraine under the Russians, began to turn their attention to the common folk and their language. In 1837, the so-called Ruthenian Triad led by Markiian Shashkevych, published \"Rusalka Dnistrovaia\" (The Nymph of the Dniester\")\", a collection of folksongs and other materials in vernacular Ukrainian (then called \"rusynska\", Ruthenian). Alarmed by such democratism, the Austrian authorities and the Greek Catholic Metropolitan banned the book."}
+{"text":"In 1848, revolutionary actions broke out in Vienna and other parts of the Austrian Empire. In Lviv, a Polish National Council, and then later, a Ukrainian, or Ruthenian Supreme Council were formed. Even before Vienna had acted, the remnants of serfdom were abolished by the Governor, Franz Stadion, in an attempt to thwart the revolutionaries. Moreover, Polish demands for Galician autonomy were countered by Ruthenian demands for national equality and for a partition of the province into an Eastern, Ruthenian part, and a Western, Polish part. Eventually, Lviv was bombarded by imperial troops and the revolution put down completely."}
+{"text":"A decade of renewed absolutism followed, but to placate the Poles, Count Agenor Goluchowski, a conservative representative of the eastern Galician aristocracy, the so-called Podolians, was appointed Viceroy. He began to Polonize the local administration and managed to have Ruthenian ideas of partitioning the province shelved. He was unsuccessful, however, in forcing the Greek Catholic Church to shift to the use of the western or Gregorian calendar, or among Ruthenians generally, to replace the Cyrillic alphabet with the Latin alphabet."}
+{"text":"By 1863, open revolt broke out in Russian Poland and from 1864 to 1865 the Austro-Hungarian government declared a state of siege in Galicia, temporarily suspending civil liberties."}
+{"text":"The year 1865 brought a return to federal ideas along the lines suggested by Goluchowski and negotiations on autonomy between the Polish aristocracy and Vienna began once again."}
+{"text":"Meanwhile, the Ruthenians felt more and more abandoned by Vienna and among the Old Ruthenians grouped around the Greek Catholic Cathedral of Saint George, there occurred a turn towards Russia. The more extreme supporters of this orientation came to be known as Russophiles. At the same time, influenced by the Ukrainian language poetry of the eastern Ukrainian writer, Taras Shevchenko, a Ukrainophile movement arose which published literature in the Ukrainian\/Ruthenian vernacular and eventually established a network of reading halls. Supporters of this orientation came to be known as Populists, and later, simply as Ukrainians. Almost all Ruthenians, however, still hoped for national equality and for an administrative division of Galicia along ethnic lines."}
+{"text":"In 1866, following the Battle of Sadova and the Austrian defeat in the Austro-Prussian War, the Austro-Hungarian empire began to experience increased internal problems. In an effort to shore up support for the monarchy, Emperor Franz Joseph began negotiations for a compromise with the Magyar nobility to ensure their support. Some members of the government, such as the Austro-Hungarian prime minister Count Belcredi, advised the Emperor to make a more comprehensive constitutional deal with all of the nationalities that would have created a federal structure. Belcredi worried that an accommodation with the Magyar interests would alienate the other nationalities. However, Franz Joseph was unable to ignore the power of the Magyar nobility, and they would not accept anything less than dualism between themselves and the traditional Austrian \u00e9lites."}
+{"text":"Finally, after the so-called Ausgleich of February 1867, the Austrian Empire was reformed into a dualist Austria-Hungary. Although the Polish and Czech plans for their parts of the monarchy to be included in the federal structure failed, a slow yet steady process of liberalisation of Austrian rule in Galicia started. Representatives of the Polish aristocracy and intelligentsia addressed the Emperor asking for greater autonomy for Galicia. Their demands were not accepted outright, but over the course of the next several years a number of significant concessions were made toward the establishment of Galician autonomy."}
+{"text":"From 1873, Galicia was de facto an autonomous province of Austria-Hungary with Polish and, to a much lesser degree, Ukrainian or Ruthenian, as official languages. The Germanisation had been halted and the censorship lifted as well. Galicia was subject to the Austrian part of the Dual Monarchy, but the Galician Sejm and provincial administration had extensive privileges and prerogatives, especially in education, culture, and local affairs."}
+{"text":"Beginning in the 1880s, a mass emigration of the Galician peasantry occurred. The emigration started as a seasonal one to Germany (newly unified and economically dynamic) and then later became a Trans-Atlantic one with large-scale emigration to the United States, Brazil, and Canada."}
+{"text":"A total of several hundred thousand people were involved in this Great Economic Emigration which grew steadily more intense until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. The war put a temporary halt to the emigration which never again reached the same proportions. The Great Economic Emigration, especially the emigration to Brazil, the \"Brazilian Fever\" as it was called at the time, was described in contemporary literary works by the Polish poet Maria Konopnicka, the Ukrainian writer Ivan Franko, and many others. Some states in south of Brazil have a large percentage of their population formed by direct descendants of these Ruthenian\/Ukrainian immigrants."}
+{"text":"At the time these emigrations in the 1890s many Polish and Ukrainian liberals saw Galicia as a Galician Piedmont as a Polish Piedmont and a Ukrainian Piedmont. Because Italians had started their liberation from Austrian rule in the Italian Piedmont these Ukrainian and Polish nationalists felt that the liberation of their two countries would begin in Galicia."}
+{"text":"In spite of almost 750,000 persons emigrating across the Atlantic from 1880 to 1914 Galicia's population increased by 45% between 1869 and 1910."}
+{"text":"During the First World War Galicia saw heavy fighting between the forces of Russia and the Central Powers. The Russian forces overran most of the region in 1914 after defeating the Austro-Hungarian army in a chaotic frontier battle in the opening months of the war. They were in turn pushed out in the spring and summer of 1915 by a combined German and Austro-Hungarian offensive."}
+{"text":"In late 1918 Eastern Galicia became a part of the restored Republic of Poland, which absorbed the Lemko-Rusyn Republic. The local Ukrainian population briefly declared the independence of Eastern Galicia as the West Ukrainian People's Republic. During the Polish-Soviet War the Soviets tried to establish the puppet-state of the Galician SSR in East Galicia, the government of which after couple of months was liquidated."}
+{"text":"The fate of Galicia was settled by the Peace of Riga on March 18, 1921, giving all of Galicia to the Second Polish Republic. Although never accepted as legitimate by some Ukrainians, it was internationally recognized with significant French support on May 15, 1923. The French support for Polish rule of ethnically Ukrainian eastern Galicia and its oil resources in the Borys\u0142aw-Drohobycz basin were rewarded by Warsaw allowing significant French investment to pour into the Polish oil industry. The Poles had convinced the French that since less than 25% of the ethnic Ukrainians were literate before the Great War and Ukrainians were novices in governing themselves, only the Poles, not the Ukrainians, would be able to administer eastern Galicia and its precious oil assets."}
+{"text":"The Ukrainians of the former eastern Galicia and the neighbouring province of Volhynia made up about 12% of the population of the Second Polish Republic, and were its largest minority. As Polish government policies were unfriendly towards minorities, tensions between the Polish government and the Ukrainian population grew, eventually giving the rise to the militant underground Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists."}
+{"text":"Soon the newly acquired Polish territories (see First Partition of Poland) which were known as Kreise (Voivodeship in Poland) were restructured in November 1773 into 59 Kreisdistriktes (Land districts), while kreises were abolished. Some former voivodeships were incorporated completely, while most of them only partially. Among them were the former voivodeships of Belz, Red Ruthenia, Cracow, Lublin, Sandomierz, and Podolie. Also during the Russo-Turkish War in 1769, the northwestern territory of Moldavia (renamed Bukovina) was occupied by the Russian Empire which ceded it in 1774 to the Austrian Empire as a \"token of appreciation\"."}
+{"text":"The Kingdom was split into numerous counties (powiats) which in 1914 were about 75. Besides Lviv (Lw\u00f3w in Polish) being the capital of the Kingdom, Krak\u00f3w was considered as the unofficial capital of the western part of Galicia and the second most important city in the region."}
+{"text":"West Galicia was part of the Kingdom from 1795 to 1809, until 1803 as a separate administrative unit."}
+{"text":"Bukovina was part of the Kingdom from 1775 to 1849 (after 1849: Duchy of Bukovina)."}
+{"text":"Krak\u00f3w was a condominium with Prussia and Russia from 1815 to 1846, part of the Kingdom from 1846."}
+{"text":"After the partition of Poland the region was government by an appointed governor, later a vice-regent. During the war time the office of vice-regent was supplemented by a military-governor. In 1861 a regional assembly was established, the Sejm of the Land, which initially due to lack of adequate administrative building was located in the building of the Skarbek Theatre until 1890."}
+{"text":"In 1773, Galicia had about 2.6 million inhabitants in 280 cities and markets and approx. 5,500 villages. There were nearly 19,000 noble families with 95,000 members (about 3% of the population). The \"non-free\" accounted for 1.86 million, more than 70% of the population. A small number were full farmers, but by far the overwhelming number (84%) had only smallholdings or no possessions."}
+{"text":"No country of the Austrian monarchy had such a varied ethnic mix as Galicia: Poles, Ruthenians, Germans (Galician Germans), Armenians, Jews, Hungarians, Romani people, Lipowaner, etc. The Poles were mainly in the west, with the Ruthenians (Ukrainians) predominant in the eastern region (Ruthenia)."}
+{"text":"The Jews of Galicia had immigrated in the Middle Ages from Germany and mostly spoke Yiddish as their first language. German-speaking people were more commonly referred to as \"Saxons\" or \"Swabians\", even though most of them did not come from Saxony or Swabia (cf. Transylvanian Saxons and Danube Swabians). There were also some Mennonites who mostly came originally from Switzerland, but spoke a dialect of Palatine German which is close to Pennsylvania German. With inhabitants who had a clear difference in language such as with the Saxons or the Roma identification was less problematic, but widespread multilingualness blurred the borders again."}
+{"text":"The average life expectancy was 27 years for men and 28.5 years for women, as compared to 33 and 37 in Bohemia, 39 and 41 in France and 40 and 42 in England. Also the quality of life was much lower as Galicia was the poorest province in the Austrian empire. The yearly consumption of meat did not exceed per capita, as compared to in Hungary and 33 in Germany. This was mostly due to much lower average income. In 2014, \"The Economist\" reported: \"Poverty in Galicia in the 19th century was so extreme that it had become proverbial\u2014the region was called Golicja and Glodomeria, a play on the official name (Galicja i Lodomeria) and \"goly\" (naked) and \"glodny\" (hungry).\""}
+{"text":"In 1888 Galicia extended over and had a population of about 6.4 million people, including 4.8 million peasants (75% of the whole population). The population density, at 81 people per square kilometre, was higher than that of France (71 inhabitants\/km2) or Germany. The population rose to 7.3 million in 1900 and to 8 million in 1910."}
+{"text":"Galicia was economically the least developed part of Austria and received considerable transfer payments from the Vienna government. Its level of development was comparable to or higher than that of Russia and the Balkans, but well behind Western Europe."}
+{"text":"The first detailed description of the economic situation of the region was prepared by Stanislaw Szczepanowski (1846\u20131900), a Polish lawyer, economist and chemist who in 1873 published the first version of his report titled \"N\u0119dza galicyjska w cyfrach\" (\"The Galician Poverty in Numbers\"). Based on his own experience as a worker in the India Office, as well as his work on development of the oil industry in the region of Borys\u0142aw and the official census data published by the Austro-Hungarian government, he described Galicia as one of the poorest regions in Europe."}
+{"text":"All in all, the region was used by the Austro-Hungarian government mostly as a reservoir of cheap workforce and recruits for the army, as well as a buffer zone against Russia. It was not until early in the 20th century that heavy industry started to be developed, which would be comparable to much of Russia and the Balkans. Even then it was mostly connected to war production. The biggest state investments in the region were the railways and the fortresses in Przemy\u015bl, Krak\u00f3w and other cities. Industrial development was mostly connected to the private oil industry started by Ignacy \u0141ukasiewicz and to the Wieliczka salt mines, operational since at least the Middle Ages."}
+{"text":"In 1880, industry in Galicia was at a low level. In 1857 Galicia had 102,189 persons or 2.2% of the population worked in industry. By 1870 that number had risen to 179,626, or 3.3% of the population."}
+{"text":"Galicia was the Central Powers' only major domestic source of oil during the Great War."}
+{"text":"Until 1849, Galicia and Lodomeria was a single province with Bukovina and used the blue-red flag (consisting of two horizontal stripes: the upper one was blue, the lower one was red)."}
+{"text":"In 1849, Bukovina was given an independent status from that of Galicia-Lodomeria and kept the blue-red flag. Galicia was given a new flag consisting of three horizontal stripes being blue, red and yellow."}
+{"text":"That flag remained in use until 1890, when Galicia-Lodomeria received a new flag consisting of two horizontal stripes being red and white. It remained in use until the dissolution of the Kingdom of Galicia-Lodomeria in 1918 and is displayed in Str\u00f6hl's \"Oesterreichisch-ungarische Wappenrolle\" (1898)."}
+{"text":"The Kingdom was divided into three major military districts centered in Krak\u00f3w, Lviv, and Przemy\u015bl. Local military used a specialized language for communication known as Army Slav. One of the major army units was the 1st Army consisting of 1st (Krak\u00f3w), 5th (Pressburg), and 10th (Przemy\u015bl) Corps."}
+{"text":"Eight out of 11 Lancer regiments were located in Galicia (see Uhlan)"}
+{"text":"The Lendians () were a Lechitic tribe who lived in the area of East Lesser Poland and Cherven Towns between the 7th and 11th centuries. Since they were documented primarily by foreign authors whose knowledge of Central and East Europe geography was often vague, they were recorded by different names, which include \"Lendzanenoi\", \"Lendzaninoi\", \"Lz\u2019njn\", \"Lachy\", \"Landzaneh\", \"Lendizi\", \"Licicaviki\" and \"Litziki\"."}
+{"text":"In Latin historiography the Bavarian Geographer (generally dated to the mid-9th century) attests that \"Lendizi habent civitates XCVIII\", that is, that the \"Lendizi\" had 98 gords, or settlements. The Lendians are mentioned, among others, by \"De administrando imperio\" (c. 959, as \u039b\u03b5\u03bd\u03b6\u03b1\u03bd\u03b7\u03bd\u03bf\u03af), by Josippon (c. 953, as \"Lz\u2019njn\"), by the \"Primary Chronicle\" (c. 981, as \u043b\u044f\u0445\u0438), by Ali al-Masudi (c. 940, as \"Landzaneh\")."}
+{"text":"They are also identified to the \"Licicaviki\" from the 10th-century chronicle \"Res gestae saxonicae sive annalium libri tres\" by Widukind of Corvey, who recorded that Mieszko I of Poland (960\u2013992) ruled over the \"Sclavi\" tribe. The same name is additionally considered to be related to the oral tradition of Michael of Zahumlje from \"DAI\" that his family originates from the unbaptized inhabitants of the river Vistula called as \"Litziki\", and the recount by Thomas the Archdeacon in his \"Historia Salonitana\" (13th century), where seven or eight tribes of nobles, who he called \"Lingones\", arrived from Poland and settled in Croatia under Totila's leadership."}
+{"text":"The name \"L\u0119dzianie\" (*l\u0119d-jan-in\u044a) derives from the Proto-Slavic and Old Polish word \"l\u0119da\", meaning \"field\". In modern Polish, the word \"l\u0105d\" means \"land\". The L\u0119dzianie tribe's name comes from their use of slash-and-burn agriculture, which involved cutting and burning of forests or woodlands to create fields. Accordingly, in this meaning Lendians were a woodland-burning farmers, or \"inhabitants of fields\". Several European nations source their ethnonym for Poles, and hence Poland, from the name of Lendians: Lithuanians (\"lenkai\", \"Lenkija\") and Hungarians (\"Lengyelorsz\u00e1g\")."}
+{"text":"Lendians are often considered to be a tribe that the Ruthenian chronicles referred to as Liakhy (\u041b\u0467\u0445\u043e\u0432\u0463). The Hypatian Codex however states the following:"}
+{"text":"Which translates as: \"The Slavs who came and settled along Wisla and were called \"Liakhove\" from whom descended Lechitic Polans, Lutici, Masovians, and Pomeranians.\""}
+{"text":"After the Polish Piast dynasty united many West Slavic tribes, the ethnonym Liakhy was used to refer to all those tribes and subsequently to the newly established Polish people. It was mainly an exonym \u2014 rarely used by Poles themselves in historic times, with the exception of the Lachy Sadeckie \u2014 though one of the Old Czech Chronicles states that a legendary person named Lech was the founder of Poland (see Lech, \u010cech, and Rus)."}
+{"text":"In pre-Slavic times the region was populated by the Lugii and Anarti, associated with the Przeworsk and Puchov cultures. They were followed by East Germanic tribes, the Goths, and Vandals. After these vacated the territory, the West Slavs (Lendians and Vistulans) moved in. Around 833 the land of the Lendians was incorporated into the Great Moravian state. Upon the invasion of the Hungarian tribes into the heart of Central Europe around 899, the Lendians submitted to their authority (Masudi). In the first half of the 10th century, they paid tribute to Igor I of Kiev (Constantine VII)."}
+{"text":"The Free, Independent, and Strictly Neutral City of Cracow with its Territory (), more commonly known as either the Free City of Cracow or the Republic of Cracow (, ), was a city republic created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815, which included the city of Krak\u00f3w and its surrounding areas."}
+{"text":"It was jointly controlled by its three neighbours (Russia, Prussia, and Austria), and was a centre of agitation for an independent Poland. In 1846, in the aftermath of the unsuccessful Krak\u00f3w Uprising, the Free City of Cracow was annexed by the Austrian Empire. It was a remnant of the Duchy of Warsaw, which was partitioned between the three states in 1815."}
+{"text":"The Free City of Cracow was an overwhelmingly Polish-speaking city-state; of its population 85% were Catholics, 14% were Jews while other religions comprised less than 1%. The city of Krak\u00f3w itself had a Jewish population reaching nearly 40%, while the rest were almost exclusively Polish-speaking Catholics."}
+{"text":"The Free City was approved and guaranteed by of the of 3 May 1815. The statelet received an at the same time, revised and expanded in 1818, establishing significant autonomy for the city. The Jagiellonian University could accept students from the partitioned territory of Poland. The Free City thus became a centre of Polish political activity on the territories of partitioned Poland."}
+{"text":"During the November Uprising of 1830\u201331, Krak\u00f3w was a base for the smuggling of arms into the Russian-controlled Kingdom of Poland. After the end of the uprising the autonomy of the Free City was severely restricted. The police were controlled by Austria and the election of the president had to be approved by all three powers. Krak\u00f3w was subsequently occupied by the Austrian army from 1836 to 1841. After the unsuccessful Krak\u00f3w uprising of 1846, the Free City was annexed by Austria on 16 November 1846 as the Grand Duchy of Cracow."}
+{"text":"The Free City of Cracow was created from the southwest part of the Duchy of Warsaw (part of the former Krak\u00f3w Department on the left bank of the Vistula river). The territory of the city was at its least 1164\u20131234\u00a0km\u00b2 (sources vary). It bordered the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Empire. It comprised the city of Krak\u00f3w and its environs; the other settlements in the area administered by the Free City included 224 villages and three towns (Chrzan\u00f3w, Trzebinia and Nowa G\u00f3ra)."}
+{"text":"In 1815, its population was 95,000; as of 1843, it had a population of 146,000. 85% of them were Catholics, 14% Jews, while other religions comprised 1%. The most notable szlachta family was the Potocki family of magnates, who had a mansion in Krzeszowice."}
+{"text":"The Free City was a duty-free area, allowed to trade with Russia, Prussia and Austria. In addition to no duties, it had very low taxes, and various economic privileges were granted by the neighbouring powers. As such, it became one of the European centres of economic liberalism and supporters of laissez-faire, attracting new enterprises and immigrants, which resulted in impressive growth of the city. Weavers from Prussian Silesia had often used the Free City as a contraband outlet to avoid tariff barriers along the borders of Austria and the Kingdom of Poland, but with Austria's annexation of the Free City came a significant drop in Prussian textile exports."}
+{"text":"The statelet received an initial constitution in 1815 which had mainly been devised by Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski. The constitution was revised and expanded in 1818, establishing significant autonomy for the city. Legislative power was vested in the Assembly of Representatives (\"Izba Reprezentant\u00f3w\"), and the executive power was given to a Governing Senate."}
+{"text":"In 1833, in the aftermath of the November Uprising and the foiled plan by some Polish activists to start an uprising in Krak\u00f3w, the partitioning powers issued a new, much more restrictive constitution: the number of senators and deputies was lowered and their competences limited, while the commissars of the partitioning powers had their competences expanded. Freedom of the press was also curtailed. In 1835 a secret treaty between the three partitioning powers presented a plan in which in case of additional Polish unrest, Austria was given the right to occupy and annex the city. That would take place after the Krak\u00f3w Uprising of 1846."}
+{"text":"The law was based on the Napoleonic civil code and French commercial and criminal law. The official language was Polish. In 1836 the local police force was disbanded and replaced by Austrian police; in 1837 the partitioning powers curtailed the competences of the local courts which refused to bow down to their demands."}
+{"text":"The Free City of Krak\u00f3w was the first purely republican government in the history of Poland."}
+{"text":"The Museum of Nowa Huta is a branch of the Historical Museum of Krak\u00f3w. This department was opened on 26 April 2005 by the Mayor of Krakow, Jacek Majchrowski. It contains temporary exhibitions related to the history and monuments of Nowa Huta, the youngest district of Krakow. This branch arranges lessons, lectures and organizes academic conferences related to this district. The museum is located on the ground floor in a 4-floor apartment building. The scouts' supply depot has been adapted to the needs of this branch and a modern audio-visual and exhibition room has been created."}
+{"text":"Almanach cracoviense ad annum 1474 (Cracovian Almanac for the Year 1474) is a broadside astronomical wall calendar for the year 1474, and Poland's oldest known print. This single-sheet incunable, known also as the Calendarium cracoviense (Cracovian Calendar), was published at Krak\u00f3w in 1473 by Kasper Straube, an itinerant Bavarian printer who worked in Krak\u00f3w between 1473 and 1476."}
+{"text":"Like other almanacs and calendars of its day, the \"Almanach\" lists Church holidays and astronomical data, including planetary oppositions and conjunctions. It also provides medical advice, listing the best days for bloodletting, depending on the age and illness of the patient. The \"Almanach\"'s text is in Latin."}
+{"text":"At the time of its publication, the technology of printing with movable type was just 20 years old and remained almost entirely confined to Germans, who in the 1470s spread it widely through Europe. Printing appeared early in that decade in France and the Netherlands, and after 1473 in England and Spain."}
+{"text":"The only surviving copy of \"Almanach cracoviense\" measures 37\u00a0cm by 26.2\u00a0cm, and is in the collections of the Jagiellonian University."}
+{"text":"The Kasina Wielka witch trial occurred in 1634 in the small rural village of Pr\u0105mnik in Krak\u00f3w, Poland. Zofia Konstancja and Agnieszka Micha\u0142owska were convicted of witchcraft. Konstancia was burned at the stake on 11 August 1634, and Micha\u0142owska was burned on 5 September 1634."}
+{"text":"The two women were accused of using witchcraft against the Pramnik Mill belonging to the Dominican monastery in Krak\u00f3w, which resulted in damage to the Pr\u0105mnicki fields, and of causing harm to one of the monks, i.e. the Protas factor."}
+{"text":"This is the only rural witchcraft trial that resulted in a death sentence in Poland, and one of a few in Europe. The story of this accusation resembles the folk tale Mowing-Devil."}
+{"text":"The Pramnik Mill still stands in Pr\u0105dnik Czerwony in Krak\u00f3w on Dominikana Street, a historic example of a medieval watermill."}
+{"text":"The Prussian Homage or Prussian Tribute (; ) was the formal investment of Albert of Prussia as duke of the Polish fief of Ducal Prussia."}
+{"text":"As a symbol of vassalage, Albert received a standard with the Prussian coat of arms from the Polish king. The black Prussian eagle on the flag was augmented with a letter \"S\" (for Sigismundus) and had a crown placed around its neck as a symbol of submission to Poland."}
+{"text":"Homages of Grand Masters of the Teutonic Knights."}
+{"text":"The tradition of \"Prussian Homages\" dates back to the year 1469, when, after the Thirteen Years' War, and the Second Peace of Thorn, all Grand Masters of the Teutonic Knights were obliged to pay homage to Polish rulers within six months of their election. Some Grand Masters refused to do so, claiming that the Teutonic Knights were under Papal sovereignty. Among those who refused were Martin Truchse\u00df von Wetzhausen, Frederick of Saxony (who referred the matter to the 1495 Imperial Diet), as well as Duke Albert."}
+{"text":"The Duchy of Prussia was created in 1525, and the homage of Duke Albert of Prussia took place on 10 April 1525 at Krak\u00f3w. The last homage took place on 6 October 1641 in front of the Warsaw's Royal Castle. Following the Treaty of Bromberg (1657), Prussian rulers were no longer regarded as vassals of Polish kings."}
+{"text":"Sodalitas Litterarum Vistulana (\"Literary Sodality of the Vistula\") was an international academic society modelled after the Roman Academy, founded around 1488 in Cracow by Conrad Celtes, a German humanist scholar who in other areas founded several similar societies."}
+{"text":"The society was active in the fields of mathematics, astronomy and the natural sciences. Notable members, besides Conrad Celtes, were Albert Brudzewski, Filip Callimachus, Laurentius Corvinus."}
+{"text":"The General Government of Galicia and Bukovina () was a temporary Imperial Russian military administration of eastern parts of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria captured from Austria-Hungary during World War I."}
+{"text":"The administration was established after the Russian victory in the Battle of Galicia, led by the commander-in-chief Nikolai Ivanov in the late summer of 1914. It did not last long and by mid-1915 Russians retreated, following the Gorlice\u2013Tarn\u00f3w Offensive led by the Central Powers overall commander August von Mackensen. During the later stages of the war, the Russian forces tried to reclaim the territory during the military operations of Brusilov and Kerensky."}
+{"text":"There were four governments (\"guberniya\") that were divided into counties (\"uyezdy\", locally - \"powiats\")."}
+{"text":"The Priestly Society of Saint Josaphat Kuntsevych (SSJK) is a society of traditionalist priests and seminarians originating from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church which is led by the excommunicated priest Basil Kovpak. It is based in Riasne, Lviv, Western Ukraine. In Lviv, the society maintains a seminary, at which currently thirty students reside, and takes care of a small convent of Basilian sisters. The SSJK is affiliated with the Society of St. Pius X and Holy Orders are conferred by the latter society's bishops in the Roman Rite. The SSJK clergymen, however, exclusively follow a version of Slavonic Byzantine Rite in the Ruthenian recension."}
+{"text":"The seminary of the SSJK is dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Our Lady and currently is attended by thirty seminarians. The seminary, the society says, is intended to be a modest support in the conversion to Catholicism not only of Ukraine, but of Russia as well. Devotion to Our Lady of Fatima and fidelity to traditional Catholic theology (with an emphasis on pre-conciliar theological emphases) are considered important."}
+{"text":"Relations with the \"sui iuris\" Ukrainian Catholic Church and the Holy See."}
+{"text":"The SSJK rejects the de-Latinization reforms currently being strongly enforced within the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which is in full communion with Rome. These reforms began with the 1930s corrections of the liturgical books by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky. According to his biographer Cyril Korolevsky, however, Metropolitan Andrey opposed the use of force against liturgical Latinizers. He expressed fear that any attempt to do so would lead to a Greek Catholic equivalent of the 1666 Schism in the Russian Orthodox Church."}
+{"text":"The de-Latinisation of the UGCC gained further momentum with the 1964 decree \"Orientalium Ecclesiarum\" of the Second Vatican Council) and several subsequent documents. This resulted in the Latinisations being discarded within the Ukrainian diaspora. The Soviet occupation of Western Ukraine had meanwhile forced Byzantine Catholics into a clandestine existence and the Latinizations continued to be used in the underground. After the prescription against the UGCC was lifted in 1989, numerous UGCC priests and hierarchs arrive from the diaspora and attempted to enforce liturgical conformity."}
+{"text":"In his memoir \"Persecuted Tradition\", Basil Kovpak has accused the UGCC hierarchy of using intense psychological pressure against priests who are reluctant or unwilling to de-Latinize. He alleges that numerous laity, who have been attached to the Latinizations since the days of the underground, would prefer to stay home on Sunday rather than attend a de-Latinized liturgy."}
+{"text":"The SSJK for instance opposes the removal of the stations of the cross, the rosary, and the monstrance from the liturgy and parishes of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. In rejecting these reforms, they also reject the right of the Church authorities to make these reforms; thus who controls the formate of liturgy becomes an important point of debate."}
+{"text":"Critics of the SSJK point out that their liturgical practice favours severely abbreviated services and imported Roman Rite devotions over the traditional and authentic practices and ancient devotions of Eastern Tradition and particularly the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Proponents counter that these \"Latin\" symbols and rituals, borrowed from their Latin Catholic Polish neighbours, have long been practised by Ukrainian Greek Catholics, in some cases for centuries, and that to suppress them is to deprive the Ukrainian Catholic faithful of a part of their own sacred heritage. The central point in the dispute is over what constitutes 'organic development'."}
+{"text":"The Holy See, however, has argued since before the Second Vatican Council that Latinization was not an organic development. Frequently cited examples of this are Pope Leo XIII's 1894 encyclical \"Orientalium dignitas\" and Saint Pius X's instructions that the priests of the Russian Catholic Church should offer the Liturgy, \"No More, No Less, and No Different,\" than the Orthodox and Old Ritualist clergy."}
+{"text":"The SSJK also opposes the abandonment of Church Slavonic, the traditional liturgical language of the Slavic Churches (both Orthodox and Greek-Catholic) in favour of the modern Ukrainian in the Liturgy of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. The society holds that Church Slavonic is essential to stress necessary Catholic unity among all Slavic peoples, and to avoid nationalism which has for a long time divided Slavic Christians."}
+{"text":"However, critics claim that the essence of Eastern liturgical practice is to pray in a language which is understood by the people, and that Church Slavonic has ceased to be such a language, becoming a pale imitation of the Western practice of using Latin to promote unity. The Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church has a large presence in many non-Slavic countries, with numerous eparchies and parishes in the diaspora, exacerbating the problem of parishioners not understanding what is being celebrated as well as raising issues of assimilation."}
+{"text":"The Society of Saint Josaphat condemns ecumenism with the Orthodox currently practised by both the Holy See and the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Instead the society promotes Catholic missionary activities among the Orthodox, who are not in communion with the Holy See. In \"Persecuted Tradition\", Basil Kovpak cites numerous examples of the UGCC turning away Orthodox clergy and laity who wish to convert. In many cases, he alleges, this is because the converts are not ethnically Ukrainian."}
+{"text":"In 2003, Cardinal Lubomyr Husar excommunicated SSJK superior Kovpak from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Kovpak appealed this punishment at the Roman Rota in Vatican City and the excommunication was declared null and void by reason of a lack of canonical form."}
+{"text":"On 22 November 2006, Bishop Richard Williamson who was then a member of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), illicitly ordained two priests and seven deacons in Warsaw, Poland, for the SSJK, in violation of canon 1015 \u00a72, and of canons 1021 and 1331 \u00a72 of the Code of Canon Law, and the corresponding canons of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. An SSPX priest who was present remarked, \"We were all very edified by their piety, and I myself was astonished by the resemblance of the atmosphere amongst the seminarians with that which I knew in the seminary\u00a0\u2013 this in spite of the difference of language, nationality and even rite.\""}
+{"text":"Archbishop Ihor Vozniak of Lviv (the archdiocese in which Kovpak is incardinated) denounced Williamson's action as a \"criminal act\" and condemned Kovpak's participation in the ceremony. He stressed that the two priests that Williamson had ordained would not receive faculties within the archeparchy. Officials of the Lviv archdiocese said that Kovpak could face [[excommunication]], and that \"'he deceives the church by declaring that he is a Greek (Byzantine) Catholic priest,' while supporting a group [SSPX] that uses the old Latin liturgy exclusively, eschewing the Byzantine tradition, and does not maintain allegiance to the Holy See.\" Accordingly, Kovpak's excommunication process was restarted by the hierarchy of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church and confirmed by the [[Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith]] on 23 November 2007."}
+{"text":"John Jenkins, a member of the Society of St. Pius X, said in 2006 that the new archbishop of Lviv declared that his main task for the following year was to eradicate the \"Lefebvrists\" from his territory."}
+{"text":"Although the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, with the backing of the Holy See, had thus declared Kovpak excommunicated and the Society of St. Josaphat lacking faculties for a ministry within the Catholic Church, they themselves maintain that, though they are in dispute with Lubomyr and, presumably, with his successor, [[Sviatoslav Shevchuk]], and through their association with the Society of St Pius X, indirectly in dispute with the church hierarchy, they are loyal to the [[Pope]] and the [[Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church]], and are merely resisting what they consider to be [[Modernism (Roman Catholicism)|modernism]], [[indifferentism]], and [[liberalism]]."}
+{"text":"Unlike in the case of their ethnic Polish counterparts, the Ukrainian nobility in Galicia (Galician Rusyns) as a class played a marginal role in western Ukrainian society, which came to be dominated by Ukrainian priestly families, who formed a tight-knit hereditary caste that constituted the wealthiest and most highly educated group within the Ukrainian population. There was considerable overlap between priests and nobles however, with many priestly families also belonging to the nobility. During the late nineteenth century until the 1930s more than half of the Ukrainian priestly families in western Ukraine had noble origins. Such families tended to identify themselves primarily as priests rather than as nobles. The focus of this article is on those ethnic Ukrainians in western Ukraine whose primary social orientation was as nobles."}
+{"text":"The territory of western Ukraine was part of the medieval state of Kievan Rus. After the collapse of Kieven Rus, the westernmost part of that state formed the independent Kingdom of Galicia-Volhynia. By the end off the fourteenth century, this territory had become part of Poland. Over the following centuries, most of the wealthy native landowning nobility eventually adopted the dominant Polish nationality and Roman Catholic religion, and completely assimilated into Polish society."}
+{"text":"The nobility in western Ukraine that retained its non-Polish identity was generally poorer and developed as a social class in the fourteenth century."}
+{"text":"In the 1930s the Polish government attempted to assimilate western Ukrainian nobles into Polish culture. At that time, Polish researchers claimed that the Ukrainian nobles were descended from poor Polish nobles who became assimilated into Ukrainian culture by adopting the Ukrainian language and Orthodox religion of the peasants among whom they lived. They noted that the period of Polish rule involved the settlement of newly acquired Ukrainian territories by Poles, and that the Ukrainian nobility's speech frequently used Polish words and expressions. The Polish historians also pointed out that in the early 19th century western Ukrainian nobles tended to ally themselves with Polish rather than East Slavic or Ukrainian causes politically. This was seen as a vestige of their originally Polish roots."}
+{"text":"During the times when western Ukraine was part of Poland, the nobles had a duty to defend the Polish state. Accordingly, they were obligated to participate in regular military reviews where they presented themselves and their weapons. The relative poverty of the Ukrainian nobility was evident in the fact that few owned armor, very few could afford to come on horseback, and they were typically armed only with sabers, muskets or even small caliber bird-hunting rifles."}
+{"text":"Under Austria-Hungary and into the twentieth century."}
+{"text":"Abolition of serfdom and loss of status."}
+{"text":"In one of the two regions with a large concentration of Ukrainian nobles, western Podilia, the loss of special noble legal privileges and elimination of peasant serfdom led to the assimilation of most of the western Ukrainian nobility into the Ukrainian peasantry and to the disappearance of the nobility as a social group. In contrast, nobles from southern Galicia would retain their distinct self-identity well into the twentieth century."}
+{"text":"Because the western Ukrainian nobles had not owned estates or serfs, unlike the Polish nobility they were not hated by the peasants. Conversely, because they themselves had never been enserfed, the Ukrainian nobility did not share the peasants' animosity towards the Polish nobility, and indeed felt a class solidarity with them."}
+{"text":"During and After the First World War."}
+{"text":"On the eve of World War I, many Ukrainian nobles joined the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, a patriotic Ukrainian unit within the Austro-Hungarian Army. Dmytro Vitovsky and Myron Tarnavsky, two of the supreme commanders of the Ukrainian Galician Army which fought against Poland for Ukrainian independence after World War I, were noblemen. Yevhen Petrushevych, president of the West Ukrainian People's Republic was from a family of noble priests who traced their origins to Galician boyars. In a survey given to members of the Ukrainian National Council, the legislative body of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic, although 2.4% listed their primary social origin as nobility several of those who listed their origin as clergy also came from noble families."}
+{"text":"During the period of Polish rule over Western Ukraine between the world wars, efforts by the Polish government in the 1930s to split the Ukrainian nobility from other Ukrainians (through the formation of \"Kola Szlacheckie\") were unsuccessful. Such efforts backfired, resulting in many nobles rejecting and even concealing their status as nobles in order to avoid possible association with the Polish nation and in order to emphasize their solidarity with the Ukrainian people, most of whom were the descendants of peasants."}
+{"text":"In the early 21st century an attempt was made to revive the Association of Ruthenian Gentry. Based in the traditional heartland of western Ukrainian nobility, the town of Sambir, its first head was the priest Petro Sas-Pohoretsky."}
+{"text":"The earliest recorded observations noted that western Ukrainian nobles spoke the East Slavic Ukrainian (or Ruthenian) language, rather than Polish. Although they spoke the same language as the Ukrainian peasants, they maintained their own particular traditions. Nobles tended to be more likely to be literate than were peasants. The nobility tended to use the literary Ukrainian language rather than local village dialects. Reflecting some exposure to education, noble speech was also differentiated from that of the peasants by the frequent use of Polish and Latin words and expressions."}
+{"text":"The western Ukrainian nobility often used as surnames the names of the villages where they lived. For example, the nobles of Terlo adopted the name Terletsky, and those of Kulchytsi adopted the name Kulchytsky. Surnames ending in -ich (-\u0438\u0447) or -ik (-\u0438\u043a) were also used. They usually gave their children Ukrainian names but on occasion gave them Polish versions of Ukrainian names."}
+{"text":"Villages populated primarily by nobles generally had no central planning, with the nobles building their homes wherever they liked on their properties. Western Ukrainian nobles typically lived in small one or two room houses with straw roofs whose interiors were in most ways indistinguishable from those of the peasants. Noble homes differed from those of peasants primarily by their outward appearance. Noble homes had front porches, with columns, and larger windows than did peasant homes."}
+{"text":"Those nobles who were not also priests usually worked as farmers and, after the abolition of serfdom in 1848, had lifestyles very similar to those of the Ukrainian peasants. When possible, the nobility sought to use common fields and forests that were different from those used by peasants. A minor difference between peasants and nobles was the peasants tended to use oxen for plowing, while the nobility favored the use of horses for such work. This tradition was likely a vestige of earlier times when the nobles' ancestors were obligated to occasionally use horses for military activities and as scouts."}
+{"text":"The nobles amused themselves by dancing and visiting each other in their homes; they tended to segregate themselves from peasants when doing so. Among their favorite dances were the same ones beloved by non-noble Ukrainians, such as the Kolomyjka and the Kozak. The Mazurka, popular among Poles, was shunned by Ukrainian nobles."}
+{"text":"The peasants had mixed feelings about the nobility. On the one hand, peasant songs mentioned noble laziness and shoddy workmanship. Despite nobles' feelings of superiority, during the late nineteenth century the western Ukrainian nobility had a reputation among the peasants of being poorer than peasants because they did not work as hard. Due to the nobility's material poverty, the peasants sometimes viewed the nobles' proclamations of their status and expressions of superiority as ridiculous. On the other hand, it was considered a great honor in a peasant household if someone married a noble."}
+{"text":"The western Ukrainian poet Ivan Franko, whose mother was a noblewoman, supported the peasants and in his writings frequently mocked the Ukrainian nobility's feelings of superiority."}
+{"text":"A western Ukrainian nobleman serves as a protagonist in the story \"Der Don Juan von Kolomea\" (The Don Juan of Kolomiya) written by Austrian writer Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, whose mother was from the western Ukrainian nobility."}
+{"text":"The Muczne massacre of 16 August 1944 was the massacre of Polish civilians committed by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UIA) in village Muczne located in Bieszczady County in Poland."}
+{"text":"Among the Poles were mainly refugees after the repression of the population in Volhynia and retreating in front of - 70 Poles were murdered. They were residents of nearby villages such as foresters, priests and children. Members of the UPA murdered Poles with axes, pitchforks and scythes."}
+{"text":"In place of the murder in 2010 the memorial and a wooden cross was erected."}
+{"text":"The Huta Pieniacka massacre was a massacre of the Polish inhabitants of the village Huta Pieniacka, located in modern-day Ukraine, which took place on February 28, 1944. Estimates of the number of victims range from 500, to 1,200."}
+{"text":"Polish and Ukrainian historians disagree over the responsibility for the Huta Pienacka massacre. According to the Polish Institute of National Remembrance, the action was committed by the 14th subunit of the 14th SS Volunteer Division \"Galizien\" of the Waffen-SS. Polish witnesses testified that the orders were given by German officers. According to witness accounts and scholarly publications, SS Galizien were accompanied by a paramilitary unit of Ukrainian nationalists under W\u0142odzimierz Czerniawski's command, including members of the UPA and inhabitants of local villages who intended to seize property found in the households of the murdered. According to Ukrainian historians, the massacre was committed by SS Police regiments."}
+{"text":"The Warsaw division of the \"Commission for the punishment of crimes against the Polish people\" launched an investigation in July 2001."}
+{"text":"Huta Pieniacka was a village of about 1,000 ethnically Polish inhabitants in 200 houses, located in the Tarnopol Voivodeship, Poland (today Ternopil Oblast in Ukraine). In 1939, following joint German and Soviet attack on Poland, the voivodeship was annexed by the Soviet Union, becoming part of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic. After the 1941 German attack on the Soviet Union, it fell under German occupation."}
+{"text":"The village was a major Polish resistance centre, fighting against German forces and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. As a result, the Ukrainians wanted to eliminate this Polish stronghold. Polish inhabitants of the village co-operated with Soviet partisans, active in the area. In January and February 1944, Soviet troops were frequent visitors, and this was noticed by both the Ukrainians and the Germans. An armed stronghold, Huta Pieniacka had fought off several attacks in 1943 and early 1944."}
+{"text":"Early in the morning of February 28, 1944, a mixed force of Ukrainian SS and German soldiers surrounded Huta Pieniacka. There were some 600\u2013800 soldiers and it has been established that Kazimierz Wojciechowski (who was burnt alive that day), commandant of Polish forces in the village, had been informed of the approaching enemy around two hours before the attack. The Poles however, had too little time to prepare a defense or to escape."}
+{"text":"The village was shelled by artillery. Some time around noon a mixed force of Ukrainian SS and German soldiers and a strong contingent from the SS Freiwilligen Division \"Galizien\" surrounded Huta Pieniacka and herded the villagers into their barns. The attackers set fire to the village and it burned all day. According to Bogus\u0142awa Marcinkowska, a historian from Krak\u00f3w's office of the Institute of National Remembrance, the Ukrainians threw infants against walls and cut open the stomachs of pregnant women. The murderers left at night. Many of them were drunk and singing songs. Only four houses remained, and on the next day a mass funeral took place. Those who survived escaped to Zloczow and other towns, never to return."}
+{"text":"Witnesses interrogated by the Polish prosecutors of \"The Head Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation\" described the details of crimes committed against women, children and newborn babies. After murdering the inhabitants of Huta Pieniacka, the local Ukrainian population looted the remaining property of the murdered, loading everything on horse-drawn carts that had been prepared beforehand. According to those Poles who survived, the Germans did not participate in the massacre itself."}
+{"text":"In the April 9, 2008 issue of the \"Gazeta Polska\" weekly, an article about the massacre appeared. According to those persons who survived (four of whom were cited), the murderers were Ukrainians of the SS Galizien Division. All those who recollected the massacre (Emilia Bernacka, then 10; Filomena Franczukowska, then 20; Jozefa Orlowska, then 16; and Regina Wroblewska, then 6) claimed that the village was attacked by the Ukrainian troops, who murdered all Poles they managed to catch, including infants. The mentioned persons survived because somebody managed to open the rear door of a village church in which the murderers were massacring the Polish civilians."}
+{"text":"The weekly publication of the Polish Home Army \u2013 the \"Biuletyn Ziemi Czerwienskiej\" (\"Land of Czerwien Bulletin\") for March 26, 1944 (\u2116 12) [216, p.\u00a08] stated that during the Battle at Pidkamin and Brody, Soviet forces took a couple of hundred soldiers of the SS Galizien division prisoner. All were immediately shot in the Zbarazh castle on the basis that two weeks earlier they had apparently taken part in the killing of the Polish inhabitants of Huta Pienacka, and as a result could not be categorized as prisoners of war."}
+{"text":"The Warsaw branch of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) started an investigation into the massacre in November 1992. The investigation was subsequently suspended between 1997 and 2001, and as of 2008 is being conducted by the Krak\u00f3w branch of the Institute."}
+{"text":"The Institute of History of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences investigated the events at Huta Pienicka and concluded that the 4th and 5th SS Police regiments did indeed kill the civilians within the village. It noted that at the time of the massacre the police regiments were not under 14th division command but rather under German police command (specifically, under German Sicherheitsdienst and SS command of the General Government). During this time, these units enjoyed a close relationship with local UPA units."}
+{"text":"After the massacre, some local AK commanders forbade Polish strongholds from sheltering Soviet partisans in order to minimize the risk of those self-defence posts' destruction."}
+{"text":"In the late 1940s, some 8,000 soldiers of the SS Galizien division were allowed to come to Britain, allegedly including members of the unit that massacred inhabitants of Huta Pieniacka. Most of them were not questioned about their activities, and successive British governments refused requests by lobby groups as well as American authorities to investigate their backgrounds. However, a 2001 television documentary, \"The SS in Britain\", initiated a police investigation after uncovering evidence suggesting that former members of the SS Galizien division living in Britain had participated in massacres in Poland."}
+{"text":"The documentary, however, made numerous factual mistakes. The statement that the 4th and 5th regiments of the SS Galizien Division took part in the massacre was inaccurate, as the division had at that time been normalized to 3 regiments; there were no 4th or 5th regiments. The division also was at that time still in the process of formation, which was completed two months later in May 1944 near the Polish town of D\u0119bica."}
+{"text":"On February 28, 1989 a memorial was built on the site of the previous village, but was soon destroyed. A new monument commemorating the victims was erected in 2005 and unveiled on October 21, 2005. During the unveiling the consul put the blame of the massacre on the Ukrainians in his speech, stating, \"On 28 February 1944, when the 'SS Galizien' together with other Ukrainian nationalists did horrible things as told by a contemporary, they shot mothers, children and murdered...\""}
+{"text":"Ukraine sent a note of protest regarding the fact that the Polish consul had ignored the Ukrainian government completely when opening the monument, that the new monument did not adhere to \"Ukrainian laws\" and was erected without the \"necessary permits\"."}
+{"text":"As a result of actions by the parliamentarian Oleh Tyahnybok, a note of protest regarding the \"illegal erection\" of the monument was sent out and the Polish consul was declared a \"persona non-grata\" for \"degrading the national dignity of the Ukrainian people\"."}
+{"text":"On February 28, 2007 a new monument was unveiled to the Poles who had been killed in the atrocities at Huta Peniacka. A delegation from Poland led by the vice consul of Culture for the Polish consulate in Lviv, Marcin Zieniewicz, stated that the occasion marked one of the most tragic pages in the history of not only the Polish people, but also of the Ukrainian people. On February 28, 2009 the presidents of Ukraine and Poland met at the monument to commemorate the massacre."}
+{"text":"The village of Huta Pieniacka no longer exists. Most of the houses were burned during the massacre and only the school and a Roman Catholic church remained. Both of these buildings were demolished after the war, and in the area of the village there is a pasture for cattle. There is a post with a Ukrainian inscription \"Center of the former village\", but it does not mention the name of the village."}
+{"text":"January 2017: Monument to Polish WWII massacre victims desecrated with fascist symbols in Ukraine. A cross made of stone was blown up, while two tables with the names of the Poles killed in the 1944 massacre were damaged. The Polish Foreign Ministry has condemned the attack on the monument. In a statement published on its website, it called for an \"immediate\" investigation, saying those behind it must be punished. Incidents like this threaten relations between the two nations, the statement added. The monument was rebuilt on behalf of local Ukrainian community and unveiled on February 26, 2017."}
+{"text":"The Palikrowy massacre was a war crime committed by made up of Ukrainian soldiers of the SS-Galizien who were removed from the SS-Galizien at the time of the massacre and placed under German police command, Ukrainian SVK (\"Self-defence\", Ukrainian: Samoobronni Kuszczowi Widdi\u0142y) forces and Ukrainian Insurgent Army on Poles in the village of Palikrowy (since 1945 Palykorovy), which took place on 12 March 1944. A total of 385 Poles were killed."}
+{"text":"Palikrowy was an ethnically mixed village, with 70% Polish population. In 1944, the population was about 1880, with about 360 houses. The action in Palikrowy was coordinated with the attack on nearby Pidkamin including the monastery in Pidkamin, where some of inhabitants from Palikrowy were hiding during the massacre of Poles in Volhynia."}
+{"text":"All the inhabitants of Palikrowy were gathered on a meadow near village. The Ukrainian inhabitants of the village were released. Then the Poles were killed by two heavy machine guns. Only a few wounded people survived. Polish houses were burned down and hiding Polish civilians were murdered, and their property stolen."}
+{"text":"The Pidkamin massacre or the Podkamie\u0144 massacre of 12 March 1944 was the massacre of Polish civilians committed by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) under the command of Maksym Skorupsky (Maks), in cooperation with a unit of the 14th SS-Volunteer Division \"Galician\". The victims were ethnic Polish residents of the Eastern Galician village of Podkamie\u0144 in the occupied Second Polish Republic's Tarnopol Voivodeship (now Pidkamin, Brody Raion, Ukraine). During the war the area was administratively part of the Nazi German \"Reichskommissariat Ukraine\" (now Ternopil Oblast). Estimates of victims include 150, more than 250 and up to 1000."}
+{"text":"During World War II Pidkamin, (), was a shelter for Poles from the neighbouring province of Volhynia, who had escaped the Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and sought refuge in the local Dominican monastery. The complex was surrounded by walls and was located on a hill that dominated the surrounding area and as a result provided a relatively safe haven for refugees. Around 2,000 people were living at Podkamin town and the monastery when it was attacked in March 1944, by the UIA in cooperation with 14th SS Division."}
+{"text":"On the first day of the attack it was repelled by a small self-defence group, and that night some of the inhabitants managed to escape. The next day the UIA promised to spare the inhabitants lives in exchange for the surrender of the monastery. While the monastery was being evacuated the UIA opened fire and entered the monastery complex, and massacred a number of people, including the clergy. The bodies of the dead were then thrown into the well. Afterwards the UIA camped in the nearby town of Pidkamin, and between the 12\u201316 March repeatedly attacked people hiding in the villages. On 16 March, as the Soviet Red Army approached, the UIA withdrew from the area."}
+{"text":"Approximately 100 ethnic Poles were murdered in the monastery, and additional 500 were killed in the town of Pidkamen itself. In the nearby village of Palikrowy, 365 Poles were killed. Armed Ukrainian groups destroyed the monastery, stealing all the valuables, except for the monastery's crowned icon. Tadeusz Piotrowski who based his findings on the Home Army or German Police sources, estimates that the number of victims in the monastery and adjacent villages numbered 1000. Among the survivors was the renowned writer and painter, Leopold Buczkowski."}
+{"text":"Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia"}
+{"text":"The massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia (, literally: \"Volhynian slaughter\"; , \"Volyn tragedy\"), were carried out in German-occupied Poland by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, or the UPA, with the support of parts of the local Ukrainian population against the Polish minority in Volhynia, Eastern Galicia, parts of Polesia and Lublin region from 1943 to 1945. The peak of the massacres took place in July and August 1943. Most of the victims were women and children. The UPA's actions resulted in between 50,000 and 100,000 deaths."}
+{"text":"According to Timothy Snyder, the ethnic cleansing was a Ukrainian attempt to prevent the post-war Polish state from asserting its sovereignty over Ukrainian-majority areas that had been part of the prewar Polish state. Henryk Koma\u0144ski and Szczepan Siekierka write that the killings were directly linked to the policies of Stepan Bandera's faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-B) and its military arm, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, whose goal as specified at the Second Conference of the OUN-B on 17\u201323 February 1943 (March 1943 in some sources) was to purge all non-Ukrainians from the future Ukrainian state. The massacres led to a wider conflict between Polish and Ukrainian forces in the German-occupied territories, with the Polish Home Army in Volhynia responding to the Ukrainian attacks."}
+{"text":"In 2008, the massacres which were committed by the Ukrainian nationalists against the Poles in Volhynia and Galicia were described by Poland's Institute of National Remembrance as bearing the distinct characteristics of a genocide, and on 22 July 2016, the Parliament of Poland passed a resolution recognizing the massacres as genocide. This classification is disputed by Ukraine and non-Polish historians. According to a 2016 article in \"Slavic Review\", there is a \"scholarly consensus that this was a case of ethnic cleansing as opposed to genocide\"."}
+{"text":"Just before the Soviet invasion of 1939, Volhynia had been part of the Second Polish Republic. According to the historian Timothy Snyder, between 1928 and 1938, Volhynia was \"the site of one of eastern Europe's most ambitious policies of toleration\". Through supporting Ukrainian culture, religious autonomy and the Ukrainization of the Orthodox Church, J\u00f3zef Pi\u0142sudski and his allies wanted to achieve Ukrainian loyalty to the Polish state and to minimise Soviet influences in the borderline region. That approach was gradually abandoned after Pi\u0142sudski's death in 1935 as a consequence of an increase in radical Ukrainian nationalism."}
+{"text":"In 1929, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) was formed in Vienna, Austria, and was the result of a union between radical nationalist and extreme right-wing organisations, including the Union of Ukrainian Fascists. The organization initiated a terrorist campaign in Poland, which included the assassination of prominent Polish politicians, such as Interior Minister Bronis\u0142aw Pieracki, and Polish and Ukrainian moderates, such as Tadeusz Ho\u0142\u00f3wko."}
+{"text":"The terror campaign and civil unrest in the Galician countryside resulted in Polish police exacting a policy of collective responsibility on local Ukrainians in an effort to \"pacify\" the region, demolishing Ukrainian community centers and libraries, confiscating property and produce, and beating protesters. Ukrainian parliamentarians were placed under house arrest to prevent them from participating in elections, with their constituents terrorized into voting for Polish candidates. The Ukrainian plight, protests and pacification received the attention of the League of Nations as 'an international cause c\u00e9l\u00e8bre', with Poland receiving condemnation from European politicians. The ongoing policies of Poland led to the deepening of ethnic cleavages in the area."}
+{"text":"Volhynia was a place of increasingly-violent conflict, with Polish police on one side and Western Ukrainian communists supported by many dissatisfied Ukrainian peasants on the other. The communists organized strikes, killed at least 31 suspected police informers in 1935\u20131936 and began to assassinate local Ukrainian officials for \"collaboration\" with the Polish state. The police conducted mass arrests, reported the killing 18 communists in 1935 and killed at least 31 people in gunfights and during arrests over the course of 1936."}
+{"text":"Beginning in 1937, the Polish government in Volhynia initiated an active campaign to use religion as a tool for Polonization and to convert the Orthodox population to Roman Catholicism. Over 190 Orthodox churches were destroyed and 150 converted to Roman Catholic churches. The remaining Orthodox churches were forced to use the Polish language in their sermons. In August 1939, the last remaining Orthodox church in the Volhynian capital of Lutsk was converted to a Roman Catholic church by a decree of the Polish government."}
+{"text":"Harsh policies implemented by the Second Polish Republic were often provoked by OUN-B violence but contributed to a further deterioration of relations between the two ethnic groups. Between 1934 and 1938, a series of violent and sometimes-deadly attacks against Ukrainians were conducted in other parts of Poland."}
+{"text":"Also in Wo\u0142y\u0144 Voivodeship, some of the new policies were implemented, resulting in the suppression of the Ukrainian language, culture and religion, and the antagonism escalated. Although around 68% of the voivodeship's population spoke Ukrainian as their first language (see table), practically all government and administrative positions, including the police, were assigned to Poles."}
+{"text":"Jeffrey Burds of Northeastern University believes that the buildup towards the ethnic cleansing of Poles, which erupted during the Second World War in Galicia and Volhynia, had its roots in that period."}
+{"text":"The Ukrainian population was outraged by the Polish government policies. A Polish report on the popular mood in Volhynia recorded a comment of a young Ukrainian from October 1938: \"we will decorate our pillars with you and our trees with your wives\"."}
+{"text":"By the beginning of the Second World War, the membership of OUN had risen to 20,000 active members, and the number of supporters was many times as many."}
+{"text":"On June 22, 1941, the territories of eastern Poland which were occupied by the Soviet Union were attacked by German, Slovak and Hungarian forces. In Volhynia the Red Army was only able to resist the attack for a couple of days. On June 30, 1941, the Soviets withdrew eastward and Volhynia was overrun by the Germans, with support from Ukrainian nationalists, who carried out acts of sabotage. The OUN organized the Ukrainian People's Militia, which staged pogroms and helped the Germans round up and execute Poles, Jews and those who were deemed to be communist or Soviet activists, most notably in Lw\u00f3w, Stanis\u0142aw\u00f3w, Korosten and Sokal."}
+{"text":"In 1941, two brothers of the Ukrainian leader Stepan Bandera were murdered, while they were imprisoned in Auschwitz, by Volksdeutsche kapos. In the Che\u0142m region, 394 Ukrainian community leaders were killed by the Poles on the grounds of collaboration with the German authorities."}
+{"text":"During the first year of the German occupation, the OUN urged its members to join German police units. They were trained in the use of weapons so they could assist the German SS in the murder of approximately 200,000 Volhynian Jews. While the Ukrainian police's share in the actual killings of Jews was small because it primarily played a supporting role, the Ukrainian police learned how to make use of genocidal techniques from the Germans: detailed and advanced planning and careful site selection, giving phony assurances to local populations prior to their annihilation, and sudden encirclement and mass killing. The training which the UPA received in 1942 explains how it was able to efficiently kill Poles in 1943."}
+{"text":"The decisions leading to the massacre of Poles in Volhynia and their implementation can be primarily attributed to the extremist Bandera faction of OUN (OUN-B), not to other Ukrainian political or military groups. The OUN-B had an ideology involving the following ideas: integral nationalism, with a pure national state and language being desired goals; glorification of violence and armed struggle of nation versus nation; and totalitarianism in which the nation must be ruled by one person and one political party. While the moderate Melnyk faction of OUN admired aspects of Mussolini's fascism, the more extreme Bandera faction of OUN admired aspects of Nazism."}
+{"text":"At the time of OUN's founding, the most popular political party among Ukrainians was the Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance, which was opposed to Polish rule but called for peaceful and democratic means to achieve independence from Poland. The OUN, on the other hand, was originally a fringe movement in western Ukraine and was condemned for its violence by figures from mainstream Ukrainian society such as the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Metropolitan Andriy Sheptytsky, who wrote of the OUN's leadership that \"whoever demoralizes our youth is a criminal and an enemy of our people\". Several factors contributed to OUN-B's increase in popularity and ultimately monopoly of power within Ukrainian society, conditions that were necessary for the massacres to occur."}
+{"text":"Only one group of Ukrainian nationalists, OUN-B under Mykola Lebed and then Roman Shukhevych, intended the ethnic cleansing of Volhynia. Taras Bulba-Borovets, the founder of the Ukrainian People's Revolutionary Army, rejected the idea and condemned the anti-Polish massacres when they started. The OUN-M leadership did not believe that such an operation was advantageous in 1943."}
+{"text":"After Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union, both the Polish government-in-exile and the Ukrainian OUN-B considered the possibility that in the event of mutually-exhaustive attrition warfare between Germany and the Soviet Union, the region would become a scene of conflict between Poles and Ukrainians. The Polish government-in-exile, which wanted the region to return to Poland, planned for a swift armed takeover of the territory, as part of its overall plan for a future anti-German uprising. That view was compounded by OUN's prior collaboration with the Nazis and so by 1943 no understanding between the Polish Home Army and the OUN was possible."}
+{"text":"Between 1939 and 1943, Volhynian Poles had been already reduced to some 8% of the region's population (around 200,000 people). They were dispersed around the countryside and deprived of their elites by Soviet deportations, with no local partisan army of their own or state authority (except the Germans) to protect them."}
+{"text":"On February 9, 1943, a UPA group, commanded by Hryhory Perehyniak, pretended to be Soviet partisans and assaulted the Paro\u015ble settlement in Sarny County. It is considered a prelude to the massacres and is recognized as the first mass murder committed by the UPA in the area. Estimates of the number of victims range from 149 to 173."}
+{"text":"In 1943, the massacres were organized westward and started in March in Kostopol and Sarny Counties. In April, they moved to the area of Krzemieniec, Rivne, Dubno and Lutsk. The UPA killed approximately 7,000 unarmed men, women and children in late March and early April 1943."}
+{"text":"On the night of April 22\u201323, Ukrainian groups, commanded by Ivan Lytwynchuk (aka \"Dubovy\"), attacked the settlement of Janowa Dolina, killing 600 people and burning down the entire village. The few who survived were mostly people who had found refuge with friendly Ukrainian families. In one of the massacres, in the village of Lipniki, almost the entire family of Miros\u0142aw Hermaszewski, Poland's only cosmonaut, was murdered along with about 180 inhabitants. The attackers murdered the grandparents of the composer Krzesimir D\u0119bski, whose parents engaged during the Ukrainian attack on Kisielin. D\u0119bski's parents survived by taking refuge with a friendly Ukrainian family."}
+{"text":"In another massacre, according to the UPA reports, the Polish colonies of Kuty, in the Szumski region, and Nowa Nowica, in the Webski region, were liquidated for co-operation with the Gestapo and the other German authorities. According to Polish sources, the Kuty self-defense unit managed to repel a UPA assault, but at least 53 Poles were murdered. The rest of the inhabitants decided to abandon the village and were escorted by the Germans who arrived at Kuty, alerted by the glow of fire and the sound of gunfire. Maksym Skorupskyi, one of the UPA commanders, wrote in his diary: \"Starting from our action on Kuty, day by day after sunset, the sky was bathing in the glow of conflagration. Polish villages were burning\"."}
+{"text":"By June 1943, the attacks had spread to Kowel, W\u0142odzimierz Wo\u0142y\u0144ski and Horoch\u00f3w Counties and in August to Luboml County. The Soviet victory at Kursk acted as a stimulus for the escalation of massacres in June and August 1943, when the ethnic cleansing reached its peak. In June 1943, Dmytro Klyachkivsky, head-commander of the UPA-North, issued a secret directive saying:"}
+{"text":"We should make a large action of the liquidation of the Polish element. As the German armies withdraw, we should take advantage of this convenient moment for liquidating the entire male population in the age from 16 up to 60 years. We cannot lose this fight, and it is necessary at all costs to weaken Polish forces. Villages and settlements lying next to the massive forests, should disappear from the face of the earth."}
+{"text":"However, most of the victims were women and children. In mid-1943, after a wave of killings of Polish civilians, the Poles tried to initiate negotiations with the UPA. Two delegates of the Polish government-in-exile and the Home Army, Zygmunt Rumel and Krzysztof Markiewicz, attempted to negotiate with the UPA leaders, but they were captured and murdered on July 10, 1943 in the village of Kustycze. Some sources claim that they were tortured before their death."}
+{"text":"In August 1943, the Polish village of Gaj, near Kovel, was burned and some 600 people were massacred, in the village of Wola Ostrowiecka 529 people were killed, including 220 children under 14, and 438 people were killed, including 246 children, in Ostrowki. In September 1992, exhumations were carried out in those villages and confirmed the number of dead."}
+{"text":"The same month, the UPA placed notices in every Polish village: \"in 48 hours leave beyond the Bug River or the San river- otherwise Death\". Ukrainian attackers limited their actions to villages and settlements and did not strike towns or cities."}
+{"text":"The killings were opposed by the Ukrainian Central Committee under Volodymyr Kubiyovych. In response, UPA units murdered Ukrainian Central Committee representatives and a Ukrainian Catholic priest who had read an appeal by the Ukrainian Central Committee from his pulpit."}
+{"text":"The Polish historian W\u0142adys\u0142aw Filar, who witnessed the massacres, cites numerous statements made by Ukrainian officers when they reported their actions to the leaders of the UPA-OUN. For example, in late September 1943, the commandant \"Lysyi\" wrote to the OUN headquarters: \"On September 29, 1943, I carried out the action in the villages of Wola Ostrowiecka (see Massacre of Wola Ostrowiecka), and Ostrivky (see Massacre of Ostr\u00f3wki). I have liquidated all Poles, starting from the youngest ones. Afterwards, all buildings were burned and all goods were confiscated\". On that day in Wola Ostrowiecka, 529 Poles were murdered (including 220 children under 14), and in Ostr\u00f3wki, the Ukrainians killed 438 people (including 246 children)."}
+{"text":"Father Kami\u0144ski claimed that in Koropiec, where no Poles were actually murdered, a local Greek Catholic priest, in reference to mixed Polish-Ukrainian families, proclaimed from the pulpit: \"Mother, you're suckling an enemy \u2013 strangle it.\" Among the scores of Polish villages whose inhabitants were murdered and all buildings burned are places like Berezowica, near Zbaraz; Ihrowica, near Ternopil; Plotych, near Ternopil; Podkamien, near Brody; and Hanachiv and Hanachivka, near Przemy\u015blany."}
+{"text":"Roman Shukhevych, a UPA commander, stated in his order from 25 February 1944: \"In view of the success of the Soviet forces it is necessary to speed up the liquidation of the Poles, they must be totally wiped out, their villages burned... only the Polish population must be destroyed\"."}
+{"text":"A military journal of the Ukrainian 14th SS Division condemned the killing of Poles. In a March 2, 1944 article directed to the Ukrainian youth, which was written by military leaders, Soviet partisans were blamed for the murders of Poles and Ukrainians, and the authors stated, \"If God forbid, among those who committed such inhuman acts, a Ukrainian hand was found, it will be forever excluded from the Ukrainian national community\". Some historians deny the role of the Ukrainian 14th SS Division in the killings and attribute them entirely to German units, but others disagree. According to Yale historian Timothy Snyder, the Ukrainian 14th SS Division's role in the ethnic cleansing of Poles from western Ukraine was marginal."}
+{"text":"By the end of the summer, mass acts of terror aimed at Poles were taking place in Eastern Galicia to force Poles to settle on the western bank of the San River under the slogan \"Poles behind the San\". Snyder estimates that 25,000 Poles were killed in Galicia alone, and Grzegorz Motyka estimated the number of victims at 30,000\u201340,000."}
+{"text":"The slaughter did not stop after the Red Army entered the areas, with massacres taking place in 1945 in such places as Czerwonogrod (Ukrainian: Irkiv), where 60 Poles were murdered on February 2, 1945, the day before they were scheduled to depart for the Recovered Territories."}
+{"text":"By Autumn 1944, anti-Polish actions stopped, and terror was used only against those who co-operated with the NKVD, but in late 1944-early 1945, the UPA performed a last massive anti-Polish action in Ternopil region. On the night of February 5\u20136, 1945, Ukrainian groups attacked the Polish village of Barysz, near Buchach; 126 Poles were massacred, including women and children. A few days later, on February 12\u201313, a local group of OUN under Petro Khamchuk attacked the Polish settlement of Pu\u017aniki, killed around 100 people and burned houses. Most of those who survived moved to Niemys\u0142owice, Gmina Prudnik."}
+{"text":"Approximately 150\u2013366 Ukrainian and a few Polish inhabitants of Paw\u0142okoma were killed on March 3, 1945 by a former Polish Home Army unit, aided by Polish self-defense groups from nearby villages. The massacre is believed to be an act of retaliation for earlier alleged murders by Ukrainian Insurgent Army of 9 or 11 Poles in Paw\u0142okoma and unspecified number of Poles killed by of the UPA in the neighboring villages."}
+{"text":"Attacks on Poles during the massacres in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia were marked with extreme sadism and brutality. Rape, torture and mutilation were commonplace. Poles were burned alive, flayed, impaled, crucified, disembowelled, dismembered and beheaded. Women were gang raped and had their breasts sliced off, children were hacked to pieces with axes, babies were impaled on bayonets and pitchforks or bashed against trees."}
+{"text":"The atrocities were carried out indiscriminately and without restraint. The victims, regardless of their age or gender, were routinely tortured to death. Norman Davies in \"No Simple Victory\" gives a short but shocking description of the massacres:"}
+{"text":"An OUN order from early 1944 stated:"}
+{"text":"UPA commander's order of 6 April 1944 stated: \"Fight them [the Poles] unmercifully. No one is to be spared, even in case of mixed marriages\"."}
+{"text":"Timothy Snyder describes the murders: \"Ukrainian partisans burned homes, shot or forced back inside those who tried to flee, and used sickles and pitchforks to kill those they captured outside. In some cases, beheaded, crucified, dismembered, or disemboweled bodies were displayed, in order to encourage remaining Poles to flee\". A similar account has been presented by Niall Ferguson, who wrote: \"Whole villages were wiped out, men beaten to death, women raped and mutilated, babies bayoneted\". The Ukrainian historian Yuryi Kirichuk described the conflict as similar to medieval peasant uprisings."}
+{"text":"Even though it may be an exaggeration to say that the massacres enjoyed the general support of the Ukrainians, it has been suggested that without wide support from local Ukrainians, they would have been impossible. The Ukrainian peasants who took part in the killings created their own groups, the SKV or \"Samoboronni Kushtchovi Viddily\" (\u0421\u0430\u043c\u043e\u043e\u0431\u043e\u0440\u043e\u043d\u043d\u0456 \u041a\u0443\u0449\u043e\u0432\u0456 \u0412\u0456\u0434\u0434\u0456\u043b\u0438, \u0421\u041a\u0412). Many of their victims who were perceived as Poles, even despite not knowingly the Polish language, were murdered by \u0421\u041a\u0412 along with the others."}
+{"text":"The violence reached its peak on July 11, 1943 known to many Poles as \u201cBloody Sunday\u201d when the UPA carried out attacks on 100 Polish villages in Volhynia burning them to the ground and slaughtering some 8,000 Polish men, women and children including patients and nurses at a hospital. These attacks as well as others could have been stopped at anytime by the Germans who in some cases were stationed in garrisons in or near the villages that were attacked. German soldiers however were given orders not to intervene. In some cases individual German soldiers and officers made deals with the UPA to give weapons and other materials to them in exchange for a share of the loot taken from Poles."}
+{"text":"In Polish-Ukrainian families, one common UPA instruction was to kill one's Polish spouse and children born of that marriage. People who refused to carry such an order were often murdered, together with their entire family."}
+{"text":"According to Ukrainian sources, in October 1943 the Volhynian delegation of the Polish government estimated the number of Polish casualties in of Sarny, Kostopol, R\u00f3wne and Zdo\u0142bun\u00f3w Counties to exceed 15,000. Timothy Snyder estimates that in July 1943, the UPA actions resulted in the deaths of at least 40,000 Polish civilians in Volhynia (in March 1944, another 10,000 were killed in Galicia), causing additional 200,000 Poles to flee west before September 1944 and 800,000 afterward."}
+{"text":"The massacres prompted Poles in April 1943 to begin to organize in self-defence, 100 of such organizations being formed in Volhynia in 1943. Sometimes, self-defence organizations obtained arms from the Germans, but other times, the Germans confiscated their weapons and arrested the leaders. Many of the organizations could not withstand the pressure of the UPA and were destroyed. Only the largest self-defense organizations, whkch were able to obtain help from the Home Army or Soviet partisans, were able to survive. Kazimierz B\u0105bi\u0144ski, commander of the Union for Armed Struggle-Home Army Wo\u0142y\u0144 in his order to AK partisan units stated:"}
+{"text":"The Home Army on 20 July 1943 called upon Polish self-defense units to place themselves under its command. Ten days later, it declared itself for Ukrainian independence on territories without Polish populations, and it called for an end to the killings of civilians."}
+{"text":"Polish self-defence organizations started to take part in revenge massacres of Ukrainian civilians in the summer of 1943, when Ukrainian villagers who had nothing to do with the massacres suffered at the hands of Polish partisan forces. Evidence includes a letter dated 26 August 1943 to the local Polish self-defence in which the AK commander Kazimierz B\u0105bi\u0144ski criticized the burning of neighboring Ukrainian villages, the killing of any Ukrainian who crossed its path and the robbing of Ukrainians of their material possessions. The total number of Ukrainian civilians murdered in Volyn in retaliatory acts by Poles is estimated at 2,000\u20133,000."}
+{"text":"The 27th Home Army Infantry Division was formed in January 1944 and tasked to fight the UPA and then the Wehrmacht."}
+{"text":"While Germans actively encouraged the conflict, they tried not to get directly involved. Special German units formed from the collaborationist Ukrainian and later the Polish auxiliary police were deployed in pacification actions in Volhynia, and some of their crimes were attributed to the Home Army or to the UPA."}
+{"text":"According to Yuriy Kirichuk the Germans actively prodded both sides of the conflict against each other. Erich Koch once said: \"We have to do everything possible so that a Pole meeting a Ukrainian, would be willing to kill him and conversely, a Ukrainian would be willing to kill a Pole\". Kirichuk quotes a German commissioner from Sarny who responded to the Polish complaints: \"You want Sikorski, the Ukrainians want Bandera. Fight each other\"."}
+{"text":"On August 25, 1943, the German authorities ordered all Poles to leave the villages and settlements and to move to larger towns."}
+{"text":"Soviet partisan units in the area were aware of the massacres. On May 25, 1943, the commander of the Soviet partisan forces of the Rivne area stressed in his report to the headquarters that Ukrainian nationalists did not shoot the Poles but cut them dead with knives and axes, with no consideration for age or gender."}
+{"text":"The death toll among civilians murdered during the Volhynia Massacre is still being researched. At least 10% of ethnic Poles in Volhynia were killed by the UPA. Accordingly, \"Polish casualties comprised about 1% of the prewar population of Poles on territories where the UPA was active and 0.2% of the entire ethnically Polish population in Ukraine and Poland\". \u0141ossowski emphasizes that documentation is far from conclusive, as in numerous cases, no survivors were later able to testify."}
+{"text":"The Soviet and German invasions of prewar eastern Poland, the UPA massacres, and the postwar Soviet expulsions of Poles contributed to the virtual elimination of a Polish presence in the region. Those who remained left Volhynia, mostly for the neighbouring province of Lublin. After the war, the survivors moved further west to the territories of Lower Silesia. Polish orphans from Volhynia were kept in several orphanages, with the largest of them around Krak\u00f3w. Several former Polish villages in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia no longer exist, and those that remain are in ruins."}
+{"text":"The historian Timothy Snyder considers it likely that the UPA killed as many Ukrainians as it killed Poles, because local Ukrainians who did not adhere to its form of nationalism were considered traitors. Within a month of the beginning of the massacres, Polish self-defense units responded in kind. All conflicts resulted in Poles taking revenge on Ukrainian civilians. According to Motyka, the number of Ukrainian victims is 2,000\u20133,000 in Volhynia, and 10,000-15,000 in all of the territories covered by the conflict. G. Rossolinski-Liebe puts the number of Ukrainians, both OUN-UPA members and civilians, killed by Poles during and after World War II to be 10,000\u201320,000."}
+{"text":"Ukrainian casualties which were caused by Polish retribution are estimated to have numbered 2,000\u20133,000 in Volhynia. Together with those killed in other areas, the Ukrainian casualties were between 10,000 and 12,000, with the bulk of them occurring in Eastern Galicia and present-day Poland. According to Kataryna Wolczuk for all of the areas affected by conflict, the Ukrainian casualties are estimated as from 10,000 to 30,000 between 1943 and 1947. According to Motyka, the author of a fundamental monograph about the UPA, estimations of 30,000 Ukrainian casualties are unsupported."}
+{"text":"The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), of which the Ukrainian Insurgent Army had become the armed wing, promoted the removal, by force if necessary, of non-Ukrainians from the social and economic spheres of a future Ukrainian state."}
+{"text":"The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists adopted in 1929 the \"Ten Commandments of the Ukrainian Nationalists\" to which all of its members were expected to adhere. They stated, \"Do not hesitate to carry out the most dangerous deeds\" and \"Treat the enemies of your nation with hatred and ruthlessness\"."}
+{"text":"Ethnic violence was exacerbated with the circulation of posters and leaflets inciting the Ukrainian population to murder Poles and \"Judeo-Muscovites\" alike."}
+{"text":"Taras Bulba-Borovets, the founder of the UPA, criticized the attacks as soon as they began:"}
+{"text":"According to prosecutor Piotr Zaj\u0105c, the Polish Institute of National Remembrance in 2003 considered three different versions of the events in its investigation:"}
+{"text":"The IPN concluded that the second version to be the most likely."}
+{"text":"According to , much of the study of the massacres is done in an \"ethnohistorical paradigm\". He argues that nationalism is responsible for myths and misconceptions about the events."}
+{"text":"According to Ukrainian historian Andrii Portnov the classification as genocide has been strongly supported by Poles who were expelled from the east and by parts of the Polish right-wing politics. Some Polish writers have labeled the Ukrainian crimes worse than Nazi or Soviet atrocities; others, including Waldemar Rezmer, use the word \"Zag\u0142ada\", originally applied to the Final Solution, to describe them."}
+{"text":"The Institute of National Remembrance investigated the crimes committed by the UPA against the Poles in Volhynia, Galicia and prewar Lublin Voivodeship and collected over 10,000 pages of documents and protocols. The massacres were described by the commission's prosecutor, Piotr Zaj\u0105c, as bearing the characteristics of a genocide: \"there is no doubt that the crimes committed against the people of Polish nationality have the character of genocide\". Also, the Institute of National Remembrance in a published paper stated:"}
+{"text":"The Volhynian massacres have all the traits of genocide listed in the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which defines genocide as an act \"committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such.\""}
+{"text":"On 15 July 2009, the Sejm of the Republic of Poland unanimously adopted a resolution regarding \"the tragic fate of Poles in Eastern Borderlands\". The text of the resolution states that July 2009 marks the 66th anniversary \"of the beginning of anti-Polish actions by the Organization of Ukrainian nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army on Polish Eastern territories \u2013 mass murders characterised by ethnic cleansing with marks of genocide\". On 22 July 2016, the Sejm passed a resolution declaring 11 July a National Day of Remembrance to honor the Polish victims murdered in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia by Ukrainian nationalists and formally called the massacres a genocide."}
+{"text":"In Ukraine, the events are called \"Volyn tragedy\". Coverage in textbooks may be brief and\/or euphemistic. Some Ukrainian historians accept the genocide classification, but argue that it was a \"bilateral genocide\" and that the Home Army was responsible for crimes against Ukrainian civilians that were equivalent in nature."}
+{"text":"Many Ukrainians perceived the 2016 resolution as an \"anti-Ukrainian gesture\" in the context of Vladimir Putin's attempts to use the Volhynia issue to divide Poland and Ukraine in the context of the Russian\u2013Ukrainian war. In September 2016, the Verkhovna Rada passed a resolution condemning \"the one-sided political assessment of the historical events\" in Poland."}
+{"text":"In 2009, a Polish historical documentary film \"By\u0142o sobie miasteczko...\" was produced by Adam Kruk for Telewizja Polska which tells the story of the Kisielin massacre."}
+{"text":"The massacre of Poles in Volhynia was depicted in the 2016 movie \"Volhynia\", which was directed by the Polish screenwriter and film director Wojciech Smarzowski."}
+{"text":"[[Category:Massacres of Poles in Eastern Galicia| ]]"}
+{"text":"[[Category:Wartime sexual violence in World War II]]"}
+{"text":"The Galician Soviet Socialist Republic (, \u0413.\u0421.\u0421.\u0420.) was a short-lived, self-declared Bolshevik political entity that existed from 15 July to formally 21 September 1920. The communist state was established during a successful counter-offensive of the Red Army in the summer of 1920 as part of the Polish-Soviet War and in the course of which the Polish-Ukrainian joint military force (Polish Ukrainian Front) was forced to retreat from its positions along the Dnieper that it secured earlier in 1920 all the way to the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains."}
+{"text":"The republic became a buffer zone of the ongoing conflict within the area of the South-Western front of the Red Army. Due to the successful offensive in July 1920, the Soviet government also created the Polrevkom and had intentions of creating the Polish Socialist Soviet Republic. A similar, but less elaborate activity, of the communist Polrevkom, was related to the North-Western front of the Red Army (the \"government\" was seated in Bia\u0142ystok)."}
+{"text":"The Galician SSR was established on 15 July 1920 when the Galician Revolutionary Committee (Halrevkom), a \"revkom\" (provisional government) headed by Volodymyr Zatonsky (Vladimir Zatonsky) and created on 8 July in Kyiv under the auspices of the Communist Party of Bolsheviks of Ukraine (CP(b)U), issued its declaration."}
+{"text":"The communist government moved to Tarnopol (today Ternopil) in Eastern Galicia on 1 August 1920 upon occupation of the region by the Red Army. The same day the Halrevkom adopted a decree \"About establishing of Soviet power in Galicia\". The national languages (of equal status) were declared to be Polish, Ukrainian and Yiddish. With its decrees, the communist government abolished private ownership of the means of production, established an eight-hour workday, separated church from state and nationalised church estates, established a single labour school with seven-year education, and nationalised the land. By the end of August, the Halrevkom tried to conduct elections to establish a permanent Soviet government and convene the All-Galician Congress of Soviets."}
+{"text":"With the Polish offensive on 15 September, those plans failed and the Halrevkom withdrew from Tarnopol. On 21 September 1920, the republic was officially abolished and its revolutionary committee was transformed into the Galician Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. With the signing of the Peace of Riga in March 1921, the bureau was liquidated."}
+{"text":"Halrevkom did not control the most important area of East Galicia: the Lviv area with its oilfields of Boryslav and Drohobych."}
+{"text":"Red Ruthenia or Red Rus' (; \"\"; ; ; ; ) is a term used since the Middle Ages for the south-western principalities of the Kievan Rus', namely the Principality of Peremyshl and the Principality of Belz. Nowadays the region comprises parts of western Ukraine and adjoining parts of south-eastern Poland. It has also sometimes included parts of Lesser Poland, Podolia, \"Right-bank Ukraine\" and Volhynia. Centred on Przemy\u015bl (Peremyshl) and Belz, it has included major cities such as: Che\u0142m, Zamo\u015b\u0107, Rzesz\u00f3w, Krosno and Sanok (now all in Poland), as well as Lviv and Ternopil (in Ukraine)."}
+{"text":"First mentioned by that name in a Polish chronicle of 1321, Red Ruthenia was the portion of Ruthenia incorporated into Poland by Casimir the Great during the 14th century. The disintegration of Rus', Red Ruthenia was contested by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (the Gediminids), the Kingdom of Poland (the Piasts), the Kingdom of Hungary and the Kingdom of Ruthenia. After the Galicia\u2013Volhynia Wars, for about 400 years most of Red Ruthenia became part of Poland as the Ruthenian Voivodeship."}
+{"text":"A minority of ethnic Poles have lived since the beginning of the second Millennium in northern parts of Red Ruthenia. The exonym \"Ruthenians\" usually refers to members of the Rusyn and\/or Ukrainian ethnicity."}
+{"text":"The first known inhabitants of northern Red Ruthenia were Lendians and White Croats, while subgroups of Rusyns, such as Boykos and Lemkos, lived in the south."}
+{"text":"Later Walddeutsche (\"Forest Germans\"), Jews, Armenians and Poles also made up part of the population. According to Marcin Bielski, although Boles\u0142aw I Chrobry settled Germans in the region to defend the borders against Hungary and Kievan Rus' the settlers became farmers. Maciej Stryjkowski described German peasants near Rzesz\u00f3w, Przemy\u015bl, Sanok, and Jaros\u0142aw as good farmers. Casimir the Great settled German citizens on the borders of Lesser Poland and Red Ruthenia to join the acquired territory with the rest of his kingdom. In determining the population of late medieval Poland, colonisation and Polish migration to Red Ruthenia, Spi\u0161 and Podlachia (whom the Ukrainians called \"Mazury\"\u2014poor peasant migrants, chiefly from Mazowsze) should be considered."}
+{"text":"During the second half of the 14th century, the Vlachs arrived from the southeastern Carpathians and quickly settled across southern Red Ruthenia. Although during the 15th century the Ruthenians gained a foothold, it was not until the 16th century that the Wallachian population in the Bieszczady Mountains and the Lower Beskids was Ruthenized. From the 14th to the 16th centuries Red Ruthenia underwent rapid urbanization, resulting in over 200 new towns built on the German model (virtually unknown before 1340, when Red Ruthenia was the independent Kingdom of Halych)."}
+{"text":"During the early Middle Ages, the region was part of Kievan Rus' and, from 1199, the independent Kingdom of Galicia\u2013Volhynia."}
+{"text":"It came under Polish control in 1340, when Casimir the Great acquired it. During his reign from 1333 to 1370, Casimir the Great founded several cities, urbanizing the rural province."}
+{"text":"In October 1372, W\u0142adys\u0142aw Opolczyk was deposed as count palatine. Although he retained most of his castles and goods in Hungary, his political influence waned. As compensation, Opolczyk was made governor of Hungarian Galicia. In this new position, he contributed to the economic development of the territories entrusted to him. Although Opolczyk primarily resided in Lw\u00f3w, at the end of his rule he spent more time in Halicz. The only serious conflict during his time as governor involved his approach to the Orthodox Church, which angered the local Catholic boyars. Under Polish rule 325 towns were founded from the 14th century to the second half of the 17th century, most during the 15th and 16th centuries (96 and 153, respectively)."}
+{"text":"Ruthenia was subject to repeated Tatar and Ottoman Empire incursions during the 16th and 17th centuries and was impacted by the Khmelnytsky Uprising (1648\u20131654), the 1654\u20131667 Russo-Polish War and Swedish invasions during the Deluge (1655\u20131660); the Swedes returned during the Great Northern War of the early 18th century. Red Ruthenia consisted of three voivodeships: Ruthenia, whose capital was Lviv and provinces were Lviv, Halych, Sanok, Przemy\u015bl and Che\u0142m; Be\u0142z, separating the provinces of Lviv and Przemy\u015bl from the rest of the Ruthenian voivodeship; and Podolia, with its capital at Kamieniec Podolski."}
+{"text":"Red Ruthenia (except for Podolia) was conquered by the Austrian Empire in 1772 during the First Partition of Poland, remaining part of the empire until 1918. Between World Wars I and II, it belonged to the Second Polish Republic. The region is currently split, with its western portion in southeastern Poland (around Rzesz\u00f3w, Przemy\u015bl, Zamo\u015b\u0107 and Che\u0142m) and its eastern portion (around Lviv) in western Ukraine."}
+{"text":"The Romanian occupation of Pokuttia () took place in early 1919, when, as a result of alliances concluded between Romania and Poland, the former entered the southeastern corner of the former Austro-Hungarian ruled province of Galicia. During the interwar period, Romania was Poland's main ally in Eastern Europe (\"see Polish\u2013Romanian alliance\"). Both nations were bound by several treaties and history of this alliance dates back to the end of World War I and the Treaty of Versailles. However, to actively cooperate, governments in Bucharest and Warsaw emphasized the necessity of a shared border. Discussions about the border started in Paris some time at the beginning of 1919 and continued during the following months."}
+{"text":"The proposal for occupation was first advanced by the Romanian government of Ion I. C. Br\u0103tianu on May 8, 1919. Br\u0103tianu suggested this as a means to separate both Czechoslovakia and Hungary from Soviet influences, thus consolidating the position of both Greater Romania and the Second Polish Republic, as well as help the Poles get in touch with their Romanian ally."}
+{"text":"The proposal was accepted by the Polish leader, Marshal J\u00f3zef Pi\u0142sudski and on May 24, 1919, the Romanian Army 7. Infantry Division, led by General Iacob Zadik, entered Pokuttya. After three days, the Romanians met the Poles in the area of Kalusz. As Polish Army was involved in other conflicts (chiefly with the Soviets), the Romanians stayed in Pokuttia until late August 1919. Their units were stationed in such towns as Ivano-Frankivsk, and Kolomyia. In late summer of 1919 Polish troops entered Pokuttya (\"see Polish-Ukrainian War\") and the Romanians withdrew to their country."}
+{"text":"Also, the mutual cooperation resulted in Romanian permit for the free passage of the 4th Riflemen Division (under General Lucjan \u017beligowski). This unit was kept in Romanian province of Bukovina for political purposes, and on June 17, 1919 the Romanians allowed it to enter Poland."}
+{"text":"During the Holocaust, the Jewish population of over 3000 in Bolekhiv (Yiddish: Bolechov, \u05d1\u05d5\u05dc\u05d5\u05d7\u05d5\u05d1 or \u05d1\u05d0\u05dc\u05e2\u05db\u05d5\u05d1, Polish: Bolech\u00f3w) in 1940, with additional thousands of Jews brought in from the surrounding villages and towns in 1941 and 1942, was mostly annihilated, brutally, by the Germans with local Ukrainian collaborators. Only 48 of Bolekhiv's Jews were known to have survived the war."}
+{"text":"A wealth of documentation exists about the atrocities committed in this town, beginning already in 1935, before World War II, by the local population and government, and ending with the total annihilation of the Jewish population by 1943. A book, \"\" by Daniel Mendelsohn, tells the story of the town and the demise of its Jews, according to testimony, most of which was found at the Yad Vashem holocaust museum in Jerusalem. A survivor, Shlomo Adler, published a book \"I am a Jew Again\" about the town in Hebrew, and a German writer Anatol Regnier who married an Israeli singer the daughter of a Jewish Bolechov survivor, wrote another version of the town story \"Damals in Bolech\u00f3w: Eine j\u00fcdische Odyssee\"."}
+{"text":"A documentary movie \"Neighbors and Murderers\" was made, about the books and their authors, following the survivors' stories, and those of some of the Ukrainian neighbors who witnessed what happened, also confronting some of the Ukrainian perpetrators' family. The movie ends with the sister in law of one of the murderers from the Ukrainian police, herself a victim of the communist regime sent to Siberia for many years, asking forgiveness, and the survivor asking if he is allowed to forgive."}
+{"text":"A Jewish community existed in Bolekhiv (Yiddish pronunciation: Bolechov) since its establishment by Nicholas Gydzincki. The town founder proclaimed equal rights to Jews as Christians, and this was confirmed by Sigismund III Vasa, the king of the new Polish\u2013Lithuanian Commonwealth, formerly crown prince of Poland, the grand duke of Lithuania, and later to become king of Sweden."}
+{"text":"By 1890, seventy-five percent of the population of Bolekhiv (4237 people) was Jewish."}
+{"text":"Two Jewish residents of Bolekhiv, Moshe Weiss and Josef Rotte, established and participated in the first Kibbutz by the Shomer Hatzair movement in Palestine, and were members of the Shomriya Workers Battalion."}
+{"text":"By 1940 the Jewish population of Bolekhiv reached about 3000."}
+{"text":"In 1941 and 1942, thousands of Jews were added to the population, from the surrounding towns."}
+{"text":"Only 48 Jews of the town survived World War II"}
+{"text":"A book about 19th century Bolekhiv, \"Memoirs of Reb Bear of Bolechov\" is known to be one of the important historical documents about Jewish life in Galicia and eastern Europe in those times."}
+{"text":"A Hassidic Rebbe, rabbi Shneibalg, 'the Rebbe of Bolechov', had a large Hassidic court in the town."}
+{"text":"In 1935 with the death of the Polish leader Joseph Pilsudski, antisemitism began to prevail. The Polish government encouraged citizens to boycott Jewish businesses, and Christian business owners were warned not to do business with Jewish owned companies. These measures caused a deterioration in the economic status of the Jews of Galicia and among them of the Jews of Bolekhiv. From newspaper reports of the time, it is known that the number of violent attacks against Jews was on a rise, and hundreds of Jews were shot and killed."}
+{"text":"In 1940 the thriving Jewish population of Bolekhiv was about 3000, with 4 major Synagogues."}
+{"text":"On 28 and 29 October 1941, four months after capturing the town, and 16days after the first mass murders in Galicia at Stanislavov the German police carried out a first \"Aktion\" (German annihilation operation) in Bolekhiv: About 1000 of the richer Jews, doctors, and others including the Rabbis, were taken from their homes, rounded up in the town square and marched to the \"Dom Katolicki\" - the catholic center at the north of the town, where they were tortured for 24hours, especially the rabbis, and many killed. They were then taken to the nearby Taniawa forest where they were shot and dropped into a pit and then buried, many of them still alive."}
+{"text":"At around the same time the population grew by a few thousand, when Jews from surrounding towns were brought to Bolekhiv."}
+{"text":"Ms. Rivka Mondshein gave evidence about this first 'Aktion':"}
+{"text":"About a year later, on 3 to 5 September 1942, the Germans committed a second 'Aktion' in which about 1,500 Jews were murdered, many of them children, and an additional 2,000 Jews were sent to the Belzec death camp where most were subsequently murdered."}
+{"text":"The Jews had received a warning message from the Judenrat of Drohobitz that a murderous attack was ensuing. Local Ukrainian residents decided to begin the massacre before the Germans arrived. Mostly children were brutally murdered, one baby stamped upon after being grabbed from his tortured mother while giving birth. The Gestapo soldiers bragged that they killed 600 children, and one Ukrainian civilian said that he alone killed 97 children. (Following the war, a son of this man, living in the US, and serving as a priest read about these atrocities and dedicated the rest of his life helping commemorate the Jewish community of Bolekhiv)."}
+{"text":"A total of 600-700 children and 800-900 adults were killed that day. Two thousand others were gathered and sent to the Belzec death camp. While marching to the train station they were forced to sing, mostly the song \"Belz mein shtetele Belz\"."}
+{"text":"In 1946 Ms. Mathilda Geleranter gave the following evidence about the second Aktion in Bolechov:"}
+{"text":"Most of the Jews gathered from the nearby towns or originally living in Bolechov were murdered during 1942. Very few hid in dug out caves in the forest and stole food from nearby farms, or joined the Partisans, and survived the war, but mostly all the Jews left in Bolechov were killed."}
+{"text":"A list of deportations to the Belzec death camp list 2000 Jews sent on 3 to 6 August 1942 (perhaps this is a mistake and should be 3 to 6 September during the 2nd action) and then 400 Jews deported there on 21 October and another 300 Jews on 20 to 23 November."}
+{"text":"In June Dina Ostrover, a survivor of the train ride to Belzec from Stryi, who was in Bolechov with false papers as a Ukrainian, heard that the next day 30 German soldiers were coming to town. It was obvious that they were coming to finish off the Jews. She saved a Jewish accountant who came regularly to the farm and his wife, and hid them in the attic, till the end of the war."}
+{"text":"On 25 August 1943, 3200 Jews, who were most of, or the last of the remaining Jews in Bolechov, were deported to the Stanislavov Ghetto or to a camp nearby."}
+{"text":"At some stage in 1943, when there were only about 900 Jews left, working at local makeshift \"work camps\" for a few days, groups of 100 and 200 Jews were marched to the town cemetery nearby and shot. The sounds were heard well in the town, and one woman testified that her mother, who was then at the age of 40, felt obliged to drown out the sound with an old pedal powered sewing machine."}
+{"text":"Surviving Jews testified that several local Ukrainians took a major part in the atrocities."}
+{"text":"According to Rab Van der Laarse, in an article written for a conference of the European Union Archaeologist Society, Eastern European \"national amnesia\" is now (since around 2000 and till today at 2014) being contested, with national and international affiliations, including at times affiliation with the Nazi regime as anti-communist, and emphasizing communist post-war atrocities, as well as pre-war and during the war mass murders and other crimes."}
+{"text":"In the documentary movie \"Neighbors and Murderers\", neighbours of the cemetery, who remember the killing in the cemetery, differ on the perpetrators. One says that \"the Jews were taken like a herd of sheep, the Germans surrounded the Jews in cemetery from three sides...\" but another, when asked who did the actual shooting, said: \"They were all our policemen. Nine Ukrainian policemen, there were no Germans at all.\" Shlomo Adler, one of the Jewish survivors, discovers that the Ukrainian collaborator that disclosed the hiding place of three families living in a cave, was the brother of the woman that saved his own life and hid him throughout the last years of the war."}
+{"text":"In the same movie, the sister in law of Matwiecki is confronted by Adler (mistaking her for Matwiecki's actual sister), and upon hearing of her brother in law's actions, at first cannot believe it and claims it's a mistake, but finally realizes the truth and cries along with Adler."}
+{"text":"The District of Galicia (, , ) was a World War\u00a0II administrative unit of the General Government created by Nazi Germany on 1 August 1941 after the opening of Operation Barbarossa. Initially, during the invasion of Poland by Germany and the Soviet Union, the territory temporarily fell under the Soviet occupation in 1939 as part of Soviet Ukraine."}
+{"text":"Then Adolf Hitler (Document No. 1997-PS of 17 July 1941) formed a capital in Lemberg (Lviv), the \"Galizien\" province existed from 1941 until 1944. It ceased to exist after the Soviet counter-offensive."}
+{"text":"District of Galicia comprised mainly the pre-war Lw\u00f3w Voivodeship of the Second Polish Republic, today part of western Ukraine. The territory was taken over by Nazi Germany in 1941 after the attack on USSR and incorporated into the General Government, governed by \"Gauleiter\" Hans Frank since the invasion of 1939. The region was taken over again by the Soviet Union in 1944."}
+{"text":"The district area was managed by Frank's brother-in-law Karl Lasch (, ) from 1 August 1941 to 6 January 1942, and by SS Brigadef\u00fchrer Dr. Otto W\u00e4chter from 6 January 1942 to September 1943. W\u00e4chter utilised the district capital Lemberg as a recruitment base for the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Galicia (1st Ukrainian). In the course of the Holocaust in occupied Poland starting from the year of the invasion, the largest Jewish extermination ghettos were created in Lw\u00f3w (Lemberg) and in Stanis\u0142aw\u00f3w (Stanislau)."}
+{"text":"The Kerensky offensive (), also commonly known as the July offensive () or Galician offensive, was the last Russian offensive in World War I. It took place in July 1917. It was decided by Alexander Kerensky, Minister of War in the Russian provisional government, and led by General Aleksei Brusilov. Such a decision was ill-timed, because, following the February Revolution, there were strong popular demands for peace, especially within the Russian Army, whose fighting capabilities were quickly deteriorating."}
+{"text":"The Russian provisional government was greatly weakened by this military catastrophe, and the possibility of another revolution by the Bolsheviks became increasingly real. Far from strengthening Russian army morale, this offensive proved that Russian army morale no longer existed. No Russian general could now count on the soldiers under his command actually doing what they were ordered to do. This offensive also helped the start of the July Days. One last fight took place between the Germans and the Russians in this war. On September 1, 1917, the Germans attacked and captured Riga. The Russian soldiers defending the town refused to fight and fled from the advancing German troops."}
+{"text":"The offensive was ordered by Alexander Kerensky, Minister of War in the Russian provisional government, and led by General Aleksei Brusilov. Such a decision was ill-timed, because, following the February Revolution, there were strong popular demands for peace, especially within the army, whose fighting capabilities were quickly deteriorating."}
+{"text":"Riots and mutineering at the front became common and officers were often the victims of soldier harassment and even murder. Furthermore, the policy of the new government towards the war effort was one of fulfilling obligations towards Russia's allies, as opposed to fighting for the sake of total victory, thus giving soldiers a less credible motivation to fight."}
+{"text":"However, Kerensky hoped that an important Russian victory would gain popular favour and restore the soldiers' morale, thus strengthening the weak provisional government and proving the effectiveness of \"the most democratic army in the world\", as he referred to it. Brusilov deemed this the 'last hope to which he could resort', as he saw the collapse of the army as inevitable."}
+{"text":"Starting on July 1, 1917 the Russian troops attacked the Austro-Hungarian and German forces in Galicia, pushing toward Lviv. The operations involved the Russian 11th, 7th and 8th Armies against the Austro-Hungarian\/German South Army (General Felix Graf von Bothmer) and the Austro-Hungarian 7th and 3rd Armies."}
+{"text":"Initial Russian success was the result of powerful bombardment, such as the enemy never witnessed before on the Russian front. At first, the Austrians did not prove capable of resisting this bombardment, and the broad gap in the enemy lines allowed the Russians to make some progress, especially against the Austro-Hungarian 3rd Army. However, the German forces proved to be much harder to root out, and their stubborn resistance resulted in heavy casualties among the attacking Russians."}
+{"text":"As Russian losses mounted, demoralisation of infantry soon began to tell, and the further successes were only due to the work of cavalry, artillery and special \"shock\" battalions, which General Kornilov had formed. The other troops, for the most part, refused to obey orders. Soldiers' committees discussed whether the officers should be obeyed or not. Even when a division did not flatly refuse to fight, no orders were obeyed without preliminary discussion by the divisional committee, and if the latter decided to obey orders it was usually too late to be of any use."}
+{"text":"The Russian advance collapsed altogether by July 16. On July 19, the Germans and Austro-Hungarians counterattacked, meeting little resistance and advancing through Galicia and Ukraine as far as the Zbruch River. The Russian lines were broken on July 20 and by July 23, the Russians had retreated about (Vinny). \"The only limit to the German advance was the lack of the logistical means to occupy more territory\"."}
+{"text":"The Russian provisional government was greatly weakened by this military catastrophe, and the possibility of a Bolshevik Revolution became increasingly real. Far from strengthening Russian army morale, this offensive proved that Russian army morale no longer existed. No Russian general could now count on the soldiers under his command actually doing what they were ordered to do."}
+{"text":"This offensive helped the start of the July Days, and also affected the situation in Romania. Romanian and Russian forces, which first broke the Austro-Hungarian front at the Battle of M\u0103r\u0103\u0219ti in support of the Kerensky offensive, were stopped."}
+{"text":"One further fight took place between the Germans and the Russians in 1917. On September 1, 1917, the Germans attacked and captured Riga. The Russian soldiers defending the town refused to fight and fled from the advancing German troops."}
+{"text":"The Russian National Party or Russian People's Party (), founded in 1900, was a political party created by Western Ukrainian Russophiles in the Austro-Hungarian Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria to represent their interests. It represented radicalization among western Ukrainian Russophiles towards the end of the 19th and beginning of the twentieth centuries, promoting the standard literary Russian language without local linguistic features and conversion to Russian Orthodoxy. The Russian National Party had ties to Russian nationalist parties in the Russian Empire and received subsidies from the Russian government. Its members actively helped the Russian administration during its rule in western Ukraine during the first world war."}
+{"text":"In parliamentary elections, it was a member of the Ukrainian parliamentary association of Austria-Hungary."}
+{"text":"Drohobych Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine"}
+{"text":"The Drohobych Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, commonly referred to as the Drohobych CPU obkom, was the position of highest authority in the Drohobych Oblast, in the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union. The position was created on November 1939 following the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland during the ongoing World War II and abolished in 21 May 1959. On 21 May 1959 the Drohobych Regional Committee was merged into the Lviv Regional Committee."}
+{"text":"The First Secretary was a de facto appointed position usually by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine or the First Secretary of the Republic."}
+{"text":"Sambir (, , , \"Sambor\") is a city in Lviv Oblast, Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of Sambir Raion (district), it is designated as a city of oblast significance and does not belong to the raion. It is located close to the border with Poland. Population:"}
+{"text":"Sambir is situated on the left bank of the Dniester river. The city stands at the crossroads. It is the cultural, industrial and tourist center of modern Ukraine."}
+{"text":"The fifth largest city in Lviv Oblast. Distance to the regional center by rail for 78 miles, by road 76\u00a0km length of the city from the South-West to North-East is 10.5\u00a0km, and from North-West to South-East 4.5\u00a0km from the hotel. The area is 24\u00a0km2."}
+{"text":"The center is located at the height of 305,96 m above sea level."}
+{"text":"The city is an important road connecting Eastern and Western Europe, North and South. Through Sambor electrified railway tracks, trunk pipelines and power lines."}
+{"text":"The history of the cities Sambir and Staryi Sambir, which are both situated in Halychyna (which is now part of Ukraine), in Lviv Oblast by the Dnister river, begins in a place currently known as Staryi Sambir (\"Old Sambir\"). This was founded in the 12th century and served as an important center of the Halych Princedom. In the 13th century, the Tatars destroyed it, and in the year 1241 it was burnt down."}
+{"text":"Part of the Stariy Sambir population, especially the weavers, moved to a village called Pohonich, at a distance of some twelve kilometers from the old town, and it was called Novyi Sambor (New Sambor) to distinguish it from old Sambor. The latter began to be called Staryi-Sambor, or the old city. The village of Pohonicz was first under the rule of Rus; in 1340 became part of the Kingdom of Poland."}
+{"text":"The foundations of the future city of Sambir were laid in 1390 by the voivode of Krak\u00f3w, Spytek of Melsztyn, a companion and adviser to the Polish king W\u0142adys\u0142aw II Jagie\u0142\u0142o (1396\u20131434) in his war expeditions. The king granted his loyal companion, for his military services, enormous pieces of land, from Dobromyl to Stryi. Spytek (also Spytko), evaluating the importance of Pohonicz, left a document dated 13 December 1390 addressed to the Wojt (Mukhtar), Henrik from Landshut, permitting him to establish a city in Pohonicz to be called Novyi-Sambor, granting it the rights of Magdeburg."}
+{"text":"It is not possible to determine exactly when the village of Pohonicz was founded because of the lack of historical sources. It may be assumed that, it being on the important commercial and strategic crossroads near the Dniester and its tributary Mlinuvka, it served as a worth center for fortification and defense. Despite the fact that the village of Pohonicz was raised to the status of a city and its name changed to Novi-Sambor, we find in official documents up to the year 1450 that the city was called by two names: Sambor or Novi-Sambor, formerly Pohonicz."}
+{"text":"Sambir is situated on what is almost an island formed between two parallel rivers, the one distant from the other by a few kilometers \u2013 the Dniester on one side and the Strwiaz on the other \u2013 which come together after Sambir in the vicinity of Dolubova. In the pre-historic period the Dniester, at a distance of about three kilometers from Sambor, created a special kind of tributary called Mlinuvka, which, separating completely from the Dniester, falls into the river Strwionz. The Dniester and the Mlinuvka add a natural charm to Sambor. The grant of municipal rights led to people flocking to the city \u2013 Poles, Germans, Russians and Jews."}
+{"text":"From the city's founding, Spytko saw to its development and granted it many rights. In January 1394, King Wladyslaw Jagiello, at Spytko's request, exempted the inhabitants from paying various taxes. Not for very long, however, did Sambor benefit from his actions for the good of the city. In 1399 Spytko participated in the war against the Tatars, in which he was killed on 12 August 1399 near the river Worskla (see: Battle of the Vorskla River). After his death, the Sambor properties passed to his wife, Elzbieta Melsztynska."}
+{"text":"In the earliest times, Sambir had natural conditions for development of commerce, lying as it did on the important commercial route where the Baltic Sea, through the river San, and the Black Sea, through the river Dniester, are connected. The Dniester had already played an important role as a natural water route leading to Akerman near the Black Sea. From there, the Greek merchants reached the land of Scythia with their products. Through Sambor, an important dry land route also led to Hungary, and by this passage to the borders of Poland, merchandise was brought such as timber, salt, cattle, fox and bear skins, honey, and from Hungary, particularly wines. The Sambor merchants would purchase from the Hungarian merchants wines, horses, leather, cloth and various fruits."}
+{"text":"From Sambir there was also a road to Lviv through Rudki and Komarno, which connected it with the commercial center of goods from the east, making Sambor an important commercial juncture."}
+{"text":"Sambir was rebuilt several times. In 1498, when Poland was attacked by the Turks and the Tatars, it was burnt down completely. And before the population had recovered from this disaster, the city was threatened, in 1515, by an invasion by the Tatars."}
+{"text":"In the 16th century, a new Sambor was established on the ruins of the burnt-out wooden houses."}
+{"text":"In 1530, in view of all the invasions and attacks on the city, the Starosta (district governor) Krzysztof Odrowaz Szydlowski surrounded it with a thick wall and deep trenches, to enable it to be defended. For two hundred and fifty years, Sambor, thus enclosed, was compelled to shrink, limiting itself to narrow streets, without any possibility of expanding and developing naturally. The city was frozen into restricting borders until the first years of the Austrian conquest in 1772 (see: Partitions of Poland)."}
+{"text":"The city's walls, gates and towers were of much concern to the city fathers, who imposed heavy taxes on the population to cover the costs of safeguarding them for defense. Furthermore, each of the eleven artisans' guilds in the city had to take upon itself the obligation to guard and defend a certain part of the wall, as well as provide arms at its own expense."}
+{"text":"In the center of the market place stood \"Ratusz\" (City Hall), with a clock tower on it. This building, the most important in the rebuilt city, was entirely destroyed in 1637 in a fire that wiped out almost all of Sambor. The new \"Ratusz\" was completed only in 1668, and then, for the first time, at the top of the tower the city emblem was unfurled: a deer with an arrow in its throat."}
+{"text":"Second in importance for defense was the royal palace, which was situated outside the city walls, in the suburb of Blich. At first it was built of wood and was burnt down in 1498. When the Starosta Shidlovski rebuilt it in 1530, near the Dniester, he built it as a fortress, surrounded by moats, behind which were earthen walls."}
+{"text":"In the royal palace, which was the seat of the Starosta, there was, besides the service workers numbering sixty-five in 1569, a garrison composed of infantry and cavalry. This army was intended not only to protect the palace, but also to safeguard the peace and security of Sambor and the vicinity. Furthermore, it was needed to stamp out gangs which would infiltrate from Hungary and spread panic in the neighborhood."}
+{"text":"The royal palace of Sambor had the honor to host within it almost all the kings of Poland and heads of state; many splendid receptions were held there with the participation of the city's notables."}
+{"text":"Church of Nativity of the Theotokos in Sambir built of wood in the late 1570s, in the town of Sambir, (in the Polish\u2013Lithuanian Commonwealth), commissioned by the Ruthenians (), Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania Bona. This decision provoked protests and complaints in a multi-confessional environment of the community of Sambir. However, the \"dispute was successfully resolved in favor of the Lord\" and a wooden The Church of Nativity of the Theotokos was built, which served until 1738, when it was rebuilt in stone."}
+{"text":"The stone church, preserved with minor rearrangements and side-chapels (see photo) was built in 1738. Funds for its construction and design were donated by a wealthy family of Galician nobles, the Komarnickis."}
+{"text":"The architectural lines of the building have a simple and clear form. On the facade, a balcony and loft house statues of guardian angels. Inside, there is a painting by the artist-painter Yablonski."}
+{"text":"There were around 8,000 Jews living in the town of Sambor in 1939, predominantly in the city-centre. There was a Jewish school and a synagogue. The Jews were merchants, craftsmen and artisans."}
+{"text":"The German occupation of Sambor began on June 30, 1941. In March 1942, an open ghetto was established in the village. In May, there were around 6,500 Jews in the ghetto because a lot of Jews had managed to flee before the German occupation. Between August and October 1942, there were four Jewish actions carried out in the village. The first action took place on August 4, 1942. A selection was organized in the stadium by the German gendarmerie, Ukrainian police and a team of the Security police. 150 Jews were murdered. On August 6, these Jews were transferred to Lviv. Other Jews were brought to the camp. During this action which lasted three days, 4,000 Jews were shot."}
+{"text":"The second action took place on September 25\u201326, 1942. The Jewish Council selected 300 Jews who were shot in the forest of Ralivka, also called Radlowicze."}
+{"text":"On October 17\u201318 and 22, 1942, a third and then fourth action was perpetrated by the German gendarmerie, Schutzpolizei, and the Ukrainian police. Jews were collected from the jail and from nearby villages."}
+{"text":"During the third action, 1,000 Jews were sent to Belzec extermination camp and during the fourth action, 460 Jews were sent to Belzec. During the four actions which were perpetrated from August to October 1942, 5000 Jews were sent from Sambir to Belzec. The open ghetto became a closed ghetto in December 1942. Several actions took place in the ghetto from February to June 1943. During the first action, on February 13, 1943, 500 Jews were executed in the forest of Ralivka. On April 14, 1943, a second action was carried out during which 1,200 Jews were selected and 900 were shot in the cemetery."}
+{"text":"On May 20\u201322, 1943, a third ghetto action was carried out and several hundreds of Jews \u201cincapable of working\u201d were shot in the forest of Ralivka. The liquidation of the ghetto took place on June 5, 1943 and 1,000 Jews were shot in the forest of Ralivka."}
+{"text":"There were about 160 Jewish survivors, many of them hidden by local farmers, both Poles and Ukrainians."}
+{"text":"The average annual temperature in Sambir is between ."}
+{"text":"There is a fairly mild winter, with thaws, sometimes without snow cover (for winter precipitation typical minimum amount per year, although they are in the form of rain and snow falls often), in Sambor. Spring is long, sometimes lengthy, windy, cool, and very wet. Summer is warm, hot, a little wet and a little rainy."}
+{"text":"Autumn is warm, sunny and dry (usually lasts until the first of November). The average temperature of the coldest month (January ) is , the average temperature in July . The winter 2013-2014 was extremely warm. The average temperature in December stood at , minimum , and maximum . Also, the snow cover at all this month was observed."}
+{"text":"In Sambir and throughout Ukraine there's one time zone: the official Kyiv time. Every year there is a transition to summer and winter time on the last Sunday of March at 3:00, which is 1 hour ahead and the last Sunday of October at 4:00 on 1 hour ago."}
+{"text":"Maslosojuz or Maslosoiuz (real name: Association of Dairy Cooperatives) was a Ukrainian dairy cooperation, founded in Stryj in 1904\/05. At the beginning it was a branch of Prosvita, and in 1907 it was renamed into \"National Dairy Union Maslosojuz\". By 1914, it united around 100 smaller dairy cooperations, which handled around 7.5 mln liters of milk from Ukrainian farmers in eastern Galicia. The founders of Maslosojuz were: Yevhen Olesnytsky, Ivan Bachynsky, Ostap Nyzhankivsky, and Lev Horalevych."}
+{"text":"After World War I, Maslosojuz was recreated in 1924, within boundaries of newly created Second Polish Republic. The cooperation quickly grew, with several professionals being employed. Its turnover was around 12 million zlotys (as for 1938), and export of butter reached 423 000 kilograms (as for 1935). Products of Maslosojuz were available across whole territory of the Second Polish Republic. In the city of Lwow itself, in the 1930s, Maslosojuz had five stores. As leading Polish daily Ilustrowany Kurier Codzienny wrote on 15 January 1937: \"The products of Maslosojuz are well known across the nation, and the corporation itself controls all dairy markets of former Eastern Galicia\"."}
+{"text":"In 1939, Polish authorities incorporated Maslosojuz into the so-called \"Dairy Cooperation\". After Polish September Campaign, it ceased to exist. Maslosojuz returned in 1941, and was active during German occupation. Finally, it was closed by the Soviets in 1944."}
+{"text":"Drohobych salt plant in the existence from 1250 is the oldest working salt plant in Drohobych, Lviv region, Ukraine. It has been working since 1250."}
+{"text":"Drohobych salt plant has been in operation since the 13th century and maybe even earlier on the territory close to sources of raw materials called \"salt brine\". The foundation of the salt plant was in 1250, and it is believed that this plant is the oldest working industrial company in Ukraine. During this time, Drohobych was one of the richest cities in the Carpathian region making this important in the history of the last decades in the existence of the Galicia-Volyn principality."}
+{"text":"Drohobych's growth was caused by the salt manufactory, which provided not only Galician, Transcarpathia but also Volun, Holm, and Kiev regions with salt. In 1339 Drohobych was occupied by Polish seigniors and the Drohobych salt manufactory became the part of the royal property. At that time salt was the most famous good produced in Drohobych. Chumaks from the entire Ukraine (Podillya, Brtislav, and Volun regions) came to Drohobych to purchase salt."}
+{"text":"Volyn piers (found on the river Sluch and Horyn) were used to load Drohobych salt on the ships (called \"komyaha\"), then the salt was transported to Prypyat, and after that it was shipped along Dnipro straight to Kyiv. The towers in Drohobych, Yasenytsya, and other surrounding villages belonged to the king. Peasants were forced to work for the king. The king never visited Drohobych."}
+{"text":"Rich Italian merchants rented salterns (salt water pools), because they had caravans traveling from Italy through Lviv and Bukovyna to Crimean city Kapha. During the 14th and 15th centuries these merchants were the intendants and the main workers of the saltern in Drohobych. This benefited King and merchants alike. Italians marchants produced high-quality salt, thus greatly expanding trade relations between Drohobych and Europe, however, this brought many conflicts in Drohobych. These conflicts were caused by citizens' opinion that only some people were seeing profit while and others did not. Conflict in 1491, between Italians merchants with Drohobych citizens was resolved with the help of king's decree."}
+{"text":"The king declared that people have to produce a cart (containing 6000 salt barrels). In the years after this, each citizen entering Drohobych was charged 3 dinnars per cart of either salt or other goods. Money was used to keep the Drohobych city streets in good condition. According to documents dating back to 1768, it is known that the upper layer of the road situated in Zhupna street (which exists today) was made of wood. The territory between the saltern and Zhupna Street was joined by the bridge constructed above the river Pobuk. At that time two wells could be found on the territory of Drohobych saltern: the King's saltern and baron Hartenberg's private saltern."}
+{"text":"Proceeds from both of these two salters were used to fund Cathedral hospital called \"The hospital for the poor\". According to documents from 1565, 26,000 barrels of salt was produced in Drohobych; half of this was produced in King's saltern and other half by private salterns. Nowadays, Drohobych salt is producing two types of salt of the high quality."}
+{"text":"Lviv Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine"}
+{"text":"The Lviv Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, commonly referred to as the Lviv CPU obkom, was the position of highest authority in the Lviv Oblast, in the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union. The position was created on November 1939 following the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland during the ongoing World War II and abolished in August 1991. On 21 May 1959 the Drohobych Regional Committee was merged into the Lviv Regional Committee."}
+{"text":"The battle of Gr\u00f3dek Jagiello\u0144ski or battle of Horodok took place during the Russo-Polish War (1654\u201367) on 29 September 1655. Russian and Ukrainian Cossack forces under Vasily Borisovich Sheremetev and Bohdan Khmelnytsky engaged a Polish\u2013Lithuanian army under Stanis\u0142aw \"Rewera\" Potocki near Gr\u00f3dek Jagiello\u0144ski, which at that time was part of Polish\u2013Lithuanian Commonwealth's Ruthenian Voivodeship (now Horodok, Lviv Oblast, Ukraine). Polish forces were defeated and forced to retreat, losing their supplies to the Russians. The Russians advanced, besieging Lwow, and Potocki with the remains of his army was soon forced to surrender to the invading Swedes."}
+{"text":"In August 1655, Russian-Cossack forces moved into Red Ruthenia, which at that time was one of few provinces of the Commonwealth still controlled by Polish forces, as in July of that year, Poland\u2013Lithuania had been invaded by the Swedish Empire. Russian-Cossack forces were faced by a numerically inferior Polish Crown army commanded by Hetman Stanislaw \"Rewera\" Potocki. The Poles were supported by light Crimean Tatar cavalry, but their forces were inadequate to stop the Russians, and were steadily pushed westwards by the invaders. Near Grodek Jagiellonski Russian cavalry forced their opponent to fight among swamps and ponds."}
+{"text":"First Russian charge was repulsed, and Polish cavalry followed the retreating enemy, getting between two columns of Cossack infantry. Hetman Potocki ordered a retreat, which turned into panic. Potocki managed to regain the control of his army, but Russian-Cossack forces were too numerous, and despite desperate resistance, they managed to capture Polish camp, chasing retreating Poles as far as Jaworow."}
+{"text":"After the victory, Russians and Cossacks besieged Lwow: to save itself, the city paid an enormous sum of money. The invaders then headed to Lublin, reaching as far west as the Vistula near Pulawy and Kazimierz Dolny. To save his army from complete annihilation, Potocki surrendered to King of Sweden Charles X Gustav, on October 28, 1655."}
+{"text":"The Galician Assembly () was the joint session of the regional oblast councils of Lviv, Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk on February 16, 1991 in Ukraine (at the time part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic). The assembly approved an agreement of cooperation between the three regional councils in political, economic, scientific, humanitarian and cultural spheres to counterbalance the political instability in the Soviet Union."}
+{"text":"Battle of Kopychyntsi (, ), (May 12, 1651) was a battle of the Khmelnytsky Uprising. Polish\u2013Lithuanian Commonwealth forces under the command of Marcin Kalinowski defeated the Cossacks and Tatars forces under the command of Asand Demka."}
+{"text":"The Battle of Zboriv (, ), during the Khmelnytsky Uprising, was fought near the vicinity of Zbor\u00f3w (village of , Ukraine) on the Strypa River, and near the Siege of Zbarazh. The battle was fought between the combined Cossack-Crimean force and the Crown army of the Polish\u2013Lithuanian Commonwealth."}
+{"text":"King John II Casimir Vasa and the main Polish army left Warsaw on 23 June and had made it to Toporiv in the final days of July when Mikolaj Skrzetuski (called Jan Skrzetuski in Henryk Sienkiewicz's \"With fire and Sword\") informed the king of the desperate situation at Zbarazh. The king made it to within a half-mile of Zboriv on 13 August."}
+{"text":"Earlier, on August 9, 1649 Bohdan Khmelnytsky redeployed his main forces from Zbarazh to Staryi Zbarazh to the west where the terrain hid them from the Poles, while he used deception to prevent the besieged from noticing. The Horde, followed by the Cossack Host advanced toward the royal camp during the night of 15 August."}
+{"text":"The Crown forces were surprised during the rainy and foggy day while crossing the river Strypa. The Horde split into two parts and attacked from the front and the back, but the king rallied his army to repel the attack and the Tatars retreated by nightfall."}
+{"text":"The night brought a council of war on the Polish side and two letters from the king, one for the Khan and one for Khmelnytsky. The letter to the khan \"reminded the khan of the favor that he had enjoyed from the Poles in his youth, while sojourning as a captive...invited the khan to a renewal of their old friendship...receiving money for past, present, and future years.\" The letter to Khmelnytsky commanded him to \"abandon all hostile actions and retreat ten miles from our army, and send us your envoys - what you desire from us and from the Commonwealth.\""}
+{"text":"The next day brought more attacks from the Cossacks and the Tatars on two fronts but then a letter from the khan and Khmelnytsky arrived. The khan was prepared to negotiate provided there was \"satisfaction of the Cossacks, payment of the suspended tribute...a substantial consideration...above the tribute, as well as permission for the Horde to take captives on its way back.\" The letter from Khmelnytsky stated, he would \"take this occasion earnestly to deliver myself with my humble services beneath the feet of the majesty of Your Royal Highness.\""}
+{"text":"On 18 August, the Treaty of Zboriv (Zbor\u00f3w) was agreed upon by Khmelnytsky and the Lord commissioners Jerzy Ossolinski, Lord Crown chancellor, Kazimierz Lew Sapieha, Lord chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Krzysztof Koniecpolski, Lord Palatine of Belz, Stanislaw Witowski, Lord of Sandomierz, and Adam Kysil, Lord Palatine of Kyiv. \"It was drafted not in the form of a treaty...but as a unilateral royal manifesto...at the request and intervention of the Crimean khan.\""}
+{"text":"The Ruthenian Voivodeship (, was a voivodeship of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland from 1434 until the 1772 First Partition of Poland with a center in the city of Lviv (). Together with a number of other voivodeships of southern and eastern part of the Kingdom of Poland, it formed Lesser Poland Province of the Polish Crown, with its capital city in Krak\u00f3w. Following the Partitions of Poland, most of Ruthenian Voivodeship, except for its northeastern corner, was annexed by the Habsburg Monarchy, as part of the province of Galicia. Today, the former Ruthenian Voivodeship is divided between Poland and Ukraine."}
+{"text":"Following the Galicia\u2013Volhynia Wars, the Kingdom of Galicia\u2013Volhynia was divided between Poland and Lithuania. In 1349 the Polish portion was transformed into the Ruthenian domain of the Crown, while the Duchy of Volhynia was held by Prince Lubart. With the death of Casimir III the Great, the Kingdom of Poland was passed on to the Kingdom of Hungary and the Ruthenian domain was governed by Ruthenian starosta general, one of whom was Wladyslaw of Opole."}
+{"text":"The voivodeship was created in 1434 based on the 1430 Jedlnia-Cracow Privilege () on territory that belonged to the Kingdom of Galicia\u2013Volhynia. Between 1349 and 1434, the territory along with the Western Podolie was known as Ruthenian Domain of the Crown and in such manner the King of Poland were titled as the Lord of Ruthenian lands. Western Podolie was added to the domain in 1394. In 1434 on territory of the domain were created Ruthenian Voivodeship and Podolian Voivodeship."}
+{"text":"In Polish sources, western outskirts of the region was called \"Ziemia czerwie\u0144ska\", or \"Czerwie\u0144 Land\", from the name of Cherven, a town that existed there. Today there are several towns with this name, none of them related to Red Ruthenia."}
+{"text":"Zygmunt Gloger, in his monumental book\" Historical Geography of the Lands of Old Poland\", provides this description of the Ruthenian Voivodeship:"}
+{"text":"In the 10th and 11th centuries, Przemysl and Czerwien were the largest gords in this region. Later on, Halych emerged as the capital of the province, while the city of Lw\u00f3w was founded only in 1250. In ca. 1349, King Casimir III of Poland took control over Principality of Halych. The province was governed by royal starostas, the first one of whom was a man named Jasiek Tarnowski. Most probably in final years of reign of King W\u0142adys\u0142aw II Jagie\u0142\u0142o, it was named the Ruthenian Voivodeship, as at that time the voivodes of Przemysl began calling themselves the voivodes of Rus'. Firs such voivode was Jan Mezyk of Dabrowa."}
+{"text":"The Land of Przemysl was divided into two counties: those of Przemysl and Przeworsk. In 1676, the County of Przemysl had 657 villages and 18 towns, while the County of Przeworsk had 221 villages and 18 towns (...) The Land of Sanok, located in the Carpathian Foothills, was not divided into counties. In 1676, it had 371 villages and 12 towns (...)"}
+{"text":"The Land of Halicz, with its own separate local government, was divided into the counties of Trembowla, Halicz and Kolomyja. It had its own sejmik at Halicz, where six deputies were elected to the Polish Sejm (two from each county), also one deputy to the Crown Tribunal and one to the Treasury Tribunal at Radom. The Land of Halicz had one senator, and starostas, who resided in Halicz, Trembowla, Kolomuja, Tlumacz, Rohatyn, Jablonow, Sniatyn, Krasnopol, and other locations. In 1676, it had 565 villages and 38 towns."}
+{"text":"Regional Sejmik (\"sejmik generalny\") for all Ruthene lands"}
+{"text":"Seats of Regional Sejmik (\"sejmik poselski i deputacki\"):"}
+{"text":"List of rulers of Galicia and Volhynia"}
+{"text":"List of rulers of Halychyna and its sister principality Volhynia. They were basically separate principalities (rulers being closely related) until Roman the Great, Prince of Volhynia who conquered also Halych but immediately gave it to his son. They continued usually as separate states, but within the same dynasty and under vassalage to Knyaz of Halych until Lev, who annexed Volhynia to the principality. The royal crown lapsed and rulers were known as princes and\/or dukes after Andriy Yuriyovych."}
+{"text":"The Principality in the Kingdom of Halych\u2013Volhynia."}
+{"text":"Between 1199 and 1206: annexed by the Kingdom of Halych\u2013Volhynia"}
+{"text":"Between 1211 and 1213: annexed by the Kingdom of Halych\u2013Volhynia"}
+{"text":"Between 1228 and 1264: annexed by the Kingdom of Halych\u2013Volhynia"}
+{"text":"In 1399, Galicia-Volhynia merged in the Kingdom of Poland."}
+{"text":"At the end of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), Russia, first allied with Austria and France, had decided to support Prussia, allowing a victory of the Prussians (allied with Great-Britain) over the Austrians (allied with France)."}
+{"text":"On 11 April 1764, a new treaty was signed between Frederick of Prussia and Catherine II, choosing Stanislaus Poniatowski (ex-lover of Catherine II) as the future king of Poland after Augustus III's death (October 1763)."}
+{"text":"Neither France nor Austria were able to challenge this candidate and Stanislas was elected in October 1764."}
+{"text":"In the early 18th century the Polish\u2013Lithuanian Commonwealth had declined from the status of a major European power to that of a Russian protectorate (or vassal or satellite state), with the Russian tsar effectively choosing Polish\u2013Lithuanian monarchs during the \"free\" elections and deciding the direction of much of Poland's internal politics, for example during the Repnin Sejm (1767-1768), named after the Russian ambassador who unofficially presided over the proceedings."}
+{"text":"During this session, the Polish parliament (Sejm) was forced to pass resolutions demanded by the Russians. Many of the conservative nobility felt anger at that foreign interference, at the perceived weakness of the government under king Stanislaus Augustus, and at the provisions, particularly the ones that empowered non-Catholics, and at other reforms which they saw as threatening the Golden Freedoms of the Polish nobility."}
+{"text":"The protectorate of Russia over Poland became official with the \"Treaty of perpetual friendship between Russia and the Commonwealth\" (\"Traktat wieczystej przyja\u017ani pomi\u0119dzy Rosj\u0105 a Rzecz\u0105pospolit\u0105\") which the Repnin Sejm accepted without debate on 27 February 1768."}
+{"text":"Creation of the Bar Confederation (29 February 1768)."}
+{"text":"In response to that, and particularly after Russian troops arrested and exiled several vocal opponents (namely bishop of Kiev J\u00f3zef Andrzej Za\u0142uski, bishop of Cracow Kajetan So\u0142tyk, and Field Crown Hetman Wac\u0142aw Rzewuski with his son Seweryn), a group of Polish magnates decided to form a \"confederatio\" - a military association opposing the government in accordance with Polish constitutional traditions. The articles of the confederation were signed on 29 February 1768 at the fortress of Bar in Podolia."}
+{"text":"The instigators of the confederation included Adam Krasi\u0144ski, Bishop of Kamieniec, his brother Micha\u0142 Hieronim Krasi\u0144ski, Casimir Pulaski, Kajetan So\u0142tyk, Wac\u0142aw Rzewuski, Micha\u0142 Jan Pac, Jerzy August Mniszech, Joachim Potocki and Teodor Wessel. Priest Marek Jando\u0142owicz was a notable religious leader, and Micha\u0142 Wielhorski the Confederation's political ideologue."}
+{"text":"The confederation, encouraged and aided by Roman Catholic France and Austria, declared a war on Russia. Its irregular forces, formed from volunteers, magnate militias and deserters from the royal army, soon clashed with the Russian troops and units loyal to the Polish crown. Confederation forces under Micha\u0142 Jan Pac and Prince Karol Stanis\u0142aw Radziwi\u0142\u0142 roamed the land in every direction, won several engagements with the Russians, and at last, utterly ignoring the King, sent envoys on their own account to the principal European powers, i.e. Ottoman Empire, the major ally of Bar confederation, France and Austria."}
+{"text":"King Stanislaus Augustus was at first inclined to mediate between the Confederates and Russia, the latter represented by the Russian envoy to Warsaw, Prince Nikolai Repnin; but finding this impossible, he sent a force against them under Grand Hetman Franciszek Ksawery Branicki and two generals against the confederates. This marked the Ukrainian campaign, which lasted from April till June 1768, and was ended with the capture of Bar on 20 June. Confederation forces retreated to Moldavia. There was also a pro-Confederation force in Lesser Poland, that operated from June till August, that ended with the royal forces securing Krak\u00f3w on 22 August, followed by a period of conflict in Belarus (August\u2013October), that ended with the surrender of Nesvizh on 26 October."}
+{"text":"However, the simultaneous outbreak of the Koliyivschyna in Ukraine (May 1768\u2013June 1769) made major confederation forces to retreat to Ottoman Empire beforehand and kept the Confederation alive."}
+{"text":"The Confederates appealed for help from abroad and contributed to bringing about war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire (the Russo-Turkish War (1768\u20131774) that began in September)."}
+{"text":"An attempt of Bar Confederates (including Casimir Pulaski) to kidnap king Stanislaus II Augustus on 3 November 1771 led the Habsburgs to withdraw their support from the confederates, expelling them from their territories. It also gave the three courts another pretext to showcase the \"Polish anarchy\" and the need for its neighbors to step in and \"save\" the country and its citizens. The king thereupon reverted to the Russian faction, and for the attempt of kidnapping their king, the Confederation lost much of the support it had in Europe."}
+{"text":"In the meantime, taking advantage of the confusion in Poland, already by 1769\u201371, both Austria and Prussia had taken over some border territories of the Commonwealth, with Austria taking Szepes County in 1769-1770 and Prussia incorporating Lauenburg and B\u00fctow. On 19 February 1772, the agreement of partition was signed in Vienna. A previous secret agreement between Prussia and Russia had been made in Saint Petersburg on 6 February 1772. Early in August, Russian, Prussian, and Austrian troops fighting the Bar confederation in the Commonwealth occupied the provinces agreed upon among themselves. On 5 August, the three parties issued a manifesto about their respective territorial gains on the Commonwealth's expense."}
+{"text":"Bar Confederates taken as prisoners by the Russians, together with their families, formed the first major group of Poles exiled to Siberia. It is estimated that about 5,000 former confederates were sent there. Russians organized 3 concentration camps in Polish\u2013Lithuanian Commonwealth for Polish captives, where these concentrated persons have been waiting for their deportation there."}
+{"text":"International situation after the defeat of Bar confederation and its Ottoman allies."}
+{"text":"Although for a few decades (since the times of the Silent Sejm) Russia had seen weak Poland as its own protectorate, Poland had also been devastated by a civil war in which the forces of the Bar Confederation attempted to disrupt Russian control over Poland. The recent Koliyivschyna peasant and Cossack uprising in Ukraine also weakened Polish position. Further, the Russian-supported Polish king, Stanislaus Augustus, was seen as both weak and too independent-minded; eventually the Russian court decided that the usefulness of Poland as a protectorate had diminished. The three powers officially justified their actions as a compensation for dealing with troublesome neighbor and restoring order to Polish anarchy (the Bar Confederation provided a convenient excuse); in fact all three were interested in territorial gains."}
+{"text":"After Russia occupied the Danubian Principalities, Henry convinced Frederick and Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria that the balance of power would be maintained by a tripartite division of the Polish\u2013Lithuanian Commonwealth instead of Russia taking land from the Ottomans. Under pressure from Prussia, which for a long time wanted to annex the northern Polish province of Royal Prussia, the three powers agreed on the First Partition of Poland. This was in light of the possible Austrian-Ottoman -Bar confederation alliance with only token objections from Austria, which would have instead preferred to receive more Ottoman territories in the Balkans, a region which for a long time had been coveted by the Habsburgs, including Bukovina. The Russians also withdrew from Moldavia and Wallachia away from the Austrian border."}
+{"text":"Until the times of the Bar Confederation, confederates \u2013 especially operating with the aid of outside forces \u2013 were seen as unpatriotic antagonists. But in 1770s, during the times that the Russian Army marched through the theoretically independent Commonwealth, and foreign powers forced the Sejm to agree to the First Partition of Poland, the confederates started to create an image of Polish exiled soldiers, the last of those who remained true to their Motherland, an image that would in the next two centuries lead to the creation of Polish Legions and other forces in exile."}
+{"text":"The Confederation has generated varying assessments from the historians. All admit its patriotic desire to free the Commonwealth from outside (primarily-Russian) influence. Some, such as Jacek J\u0119druch, criticise its regressive stance on civil rights issues, primarily with regards to religious tolerance (J\u0119druch writes of \"religious bigotry\" and a \"narrowly Catholic\" stance), and assert that to have contributed to the First Partition. Others, such as Bohdan Urbankowski, applaud it as the first serious national military effort to restore Polish independence."}
+{"text":"The Bar Confederation has been described as the first Polish uprising and the last mass movement of szlachta. It is also commemorated on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Warsaw, with the inscription \"\"."}
+{"text":"Tavria Okruha () was an administrative territorial entity of the Ukrainian State (Ukraine) and created in April 1918. The okruha was governed by a starosta from Berdyansk. The territory was named after the Crimean Peninsula."}
+{"text":"After the return of the Soviets, the okruha was split between the Kherson Governorate and Aleksandrovsk (Zaporizhzhia) Governorate."}
+{"text":"Following withdrawal of forces of the Central powers in late 1918, in most of the Okruha were raised Russian tri-colors of the Armed Forces of South Russia, except for few localities in Dnipro County closer to Kherson Governorate."}
+{"text":"The Crimean Socialist Soviet Republic ( or \u041a\u0440\u044b\u043c\u0441\u043a\u0430\u044f \u0421\u043e\u0432\u0435\u0442\u0441\u043a\u0430\u044f \u0421\u043e\u0446\u0438\u0430\u043b\u0438\u0441\u0442\u0438\u0447\u0435\u0441\u043a\u0430\u044f \u0420\u0435\u0441\u043f\u0443\u0431\u043b\u0438\u043a\u0430; ) or the Soviet Socialist Republic of the Crimea was a state allied with Soviet Russia that existed in Crimea for several months in 1919 during the Russian Civil War. It was the second Bolshevik government in Crimea and its capital was Simferopol."}
+{"text":"In April 1919, the Bolsheviks invaded Crimea for the second time (the first was in March 1918 and led to the creation of the short-lived Taurida Soviet Socialist Republic). After the conquest of Crimea (with the exception of the Kerch Peninsula) by the 3rd Ukrainian Red Army, a Crimean Regional Party Conference at Simferopol from 28\u201329 April adopted a resolution forming the Crimean Soviet Socialist Republic and a revolutionary committee government."}
+{"text":"By 30 April, the Bolsheviks had occupied the entire peninsula and, on 5 May, the government was formed with Dmitry Ilyich Ulyanov, Vladimir Lenin's brother, as chairman. On 1 June, the Crimean SSR joined in military union with soviet republics in Russia, Ukraine, Belorussia, Lithuania, and Latvia."}
+{"text":"The republic was declared to be a non-national entity based on the equality of all nationalities. Nationalization of industry and confiscation of the land of landlords, kulaks, and the church were implemented. The Crimean SSR was more friendly toward the interests of Crimean Tatars than the Taurida SSR had been and leftist Tatars were allowed to take positions in the government."}
+{"text":"Starting in late May, Anton Denikin's White Volunteer Army, which had been gaining strength, threatened seizure of Crimea. On 18 June, White forces under Yakov Slashchov () landed in the area Koktebel and, as a result, the authorities of the Crimean SSR were evacuated from Crimea from 23\u201326 June and the Whites assumed control of the peninsula. Crimea did not have its own government again until the formation of the South Russian Government by the Whites in February 1920."}
+{"text":"The Crimean Oblast (; ; ) was an oblast (province) of the former Russian SFSR (1945\u20131954) and Ukrainian SSR (1954\u20131991) within the Soviet Union. Its capital was the city of Simferopol."}
+{"text":"The Crimean Oblast replaced the Crimean ASSR on 30 June 1945."}
+{"text":"The oblast was transferred from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR on 19 February 1954."}
+{"text":"Sevastopol was a closed city due to its importance as the port of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet and was attached to the Crimean Oblast only in 1978."}
+{"text":"Following a referendum held on 20 January 1991, the Crimean Oblast was given back its pre-World War II status of Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic on 12 February 1991, by the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR."}
+{"text":"With effect from 6 May 1992, the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was transformed into the \"Republic of Crimea\" within Ukraine. 21 September 1994 it was renamed to Autonomous Republic of Crimea by Verkhovna Rada. This name was used for Crimea (with the exception of the city of Sevastopol) in new Ukrainian Constitution of 1996. The status of Sevastopol, due to its strategic importance as the port of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, remained disputed between Ukraine and Russia until 1997 when it was agreed that it should be treated as a \"city with special status\" within Ukraine."}
+{"text":"In 2014, Crimea and Sevastopol were annexed by the Russian Federation amid pro-Russian unrest in various regions of Ukraine, although Ukraine, along with most of the international community, still considers Crimea and Sevastopol to be Ukrainian territory."}
+{"text":"The blockade of Southern Naval Base lasted from 3 March to 27 March, 2014. It began with the blocking of the exit from Donuzlav by the Russian missile cruiser \"Moskva\", Russian Navy later flooded the Russian anti-submarine ship \"Ochakov\" to prevent Ukrainian ships from leaving and reaching the Ukrainian fleet in Odessa. As a result of the blockade, 13 Ukrainian ships were blocked in Donuzlav. The blockade ended with the establishment of Russian control over the last ship under the Ukrainian flag in Crimea, \"Cherkasy\"."}
+{"text":"In 1961 a 200-meter canal was made, which was made from the lake Donuzlav Bay. Since then, the development of the region has been linked to the Southern Naval Base. After the separation of the Black Sea Fleet, the base passed under the control of Ukraine. The Southern Naval Base of Ukraine was created. Several joint exercises between NATO and Ukraine \"Sea Breeze\" took place on Donuzlav's territory, which caused disapproval of Russia, as well as the pro-Russian forces of the peninsula."}
+{"text":"At the beginning of the blockade, the following military units and naval units of Ukraine were located in the Novoozerne settlement: 257 combined armaments and assets (air force A4290), a naval intelligence station (A \/ 343 military unit), the Southern Naval Base Ukraine (air force A2506) and 21 district of the coastal surveillance system (airborne A4249). Also, in the Donuzlav area in the village Mirny is the abandoned air base of anti-aircraft aviation."}
+{"text":"As of March 2014, the ships of 5 brigades of surface ships of the Naval Forces were based in Novoozerne:"}
+{"text":"In the structure of 8 separate divisions of the ships were the provision of:"}
+{"text":"From 23 to 27 February, the executive power of Sevastopol and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea was changed. The new Crimean authorities have declared illegitimacy of the authorities of Ukraine and appealed for help to the leadership of Russia, which gave her support."}
+{"text":"On March 1, after receiving an appeal from the Government of Crimea and Viktor Yanukovych, Russian President Vladimir Putin appealed to the Federation Council on the use of Russian troops on the territory of Ukraine. The same day, the Federation Council, having gathered for an extraordinary meeting, agreed to use Russian troops in Ukraine."}
+{"text":"Also on March 1, 2014 by decree in. at. President of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov appointed Denis Berezovsky the commander of the Naval Forces of Ukraine. The next day, the Rear Admiral swore an oath to the new leadership of Crimea and was appointed Commander of the Navy of Crimea. That same day he was removed from office by a decision of Defense Minister of Ukraine Ihor Tenyukh and decree by President of Ukraine. Instead of Berezovsky's commander Serhiy Hayduk was appointed."}
+{"text":"According to the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Igor Tenyukh, at the moment of blockage, only four ships remained in the quasi-combatant capacity, including the large landing ship \"Konstantin Olshansky\", which was based in Donuzov. Answering the question why Ukrainian ships were not withdrawn from Crimea at the end of February 2014, Tenyukh accused the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Yuriy Ilyin, who, according to him did not issue an order. However, Ilyin himself accused Tenyukh of the absence of such an order."}
+{"text":"On March 2, 2014, four KamAZ trucks with armed people arrived in Novoazerne settlement. On March 3 information appeared on the blocking of the Southern Naval Base of Ukraine by military servicemen of the Russian Federation. The 200-meter-long exit from the Gulf of Donuzlav blocked the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet of Russia, missile cruiser \"Moskva\", accompanied by four ships of support. On land, the Ukrainian part was blocked by about 100 military servicemen of Russia. At the same time, Ukrainian Navy's ships were ordered to take off from the pier and concentrate on Donuzlav."}
+{"text":"The commander of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation, Aleksandr Vitko personally came to negotiations with the command of the part, during which he offered to surrender and oath to the Crimean people, but he was denied. Denied and in execution of the order of Denis Berezovsky - the ships retired to the berth and handed over the weapons to the warehouses. On the morning of March 4 Crimean Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov said that personnel of the Ukrainian military units ready to submit to the new government of Crimea and that for commanders who refused to do his bidding, will be prosecuted."}
+{"text":"On March 4, armed people without identification marks began to dig trenches near the berth. On March 5, Donuzlav blocked the exit of ships SFP-183, \"Moskow\", \"Shtel\" and \"Lightning\". In order to prevent the release of Ukrainian ships to Odessa on the night of March 5 to 6, 2014, a large antifouling ship \"Ochakov\" (length about 180 meters) and a rescue ship \"Shakhty\" belonging to the Russian Federation were flooded at the exit from Donuzlav. \"Ochakov\", blocked the exit from the bay. The flooding \"Ochakov\" took about 80 minutes."}
+{"text":"In connection with the blockade of Ukrainian ships in Donuzlav, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine expressed its strong protest to the Russian Federation. On March 7 flooded fire boat BM-416 was flooded, it had a displacement of 30-40 tons."}
+{"text":"On March 13, there was information about the flooding of the fourth ship at the exit of the Gulf, after which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine handed a verbal note to Russia in connection with the flooding of ships in Donuzlav and the threat to environmental safety in the Black Sea. Director of the Information Policy Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Yevhen Perebyinis stated that the responsibility for damage to the marine environment and natural resources rested on the Russian side."}
+{"text":"Also, on March 13, to the location of the Southern Naval Base of Ukraine, food was delivered in the amount of about 25 tons collected by farmers from the Rivne region. Base commander Vladimir Dogonov said that there is a lot of assistance for their base, and therefore shared it with neighboring military units. Through the Red Cross, residents of Kropyvnytskyi and Novomyrhorod passed the aid. Yuri Fedash, commander of the Cherkasy minesweeper, said that Crimean Tatars from the neighboring villages of Medvedev and Kirovske also provided assistance."}
+{"text":"Following a referendum on the Crimea status on March 16, the seamen requested a clear plan from the Ukrainian leadership for further action on the evacuation of servicemen and their families from Donuzlav. However, the Acting President of Ukraine, Oleksandr Turchynov, said that the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff issued orders to protect their ships. Turchynov also stressed the need to withstand and prevent further Russian invasion of Ukraine."}
+{"text":"Volodymyr Komoedov, deputy of the State Duma of Russia and former commander of the Black Sea Fleet Volodymyr Komoedov, said that Ukrainian vessels that are in the Crimea will become Russian after the referendum."}
+{"text":"On March 19, 2014, the headquarters of the Southern Naval Base of Ukraine went under the control of the Russian Federation. The headquarters gates near the checkpoint were demolished by a bulldozer. Russian military civilian vehicles blocked the exit from the fleet of vehicles. After that, the ships \"Vinnitsa\", \"Konstantin Olshansky\", \"Kirovograd\", \"Cherkassy\" and \"Chernigov\" came to the middle of Donuzlav to prevent capture. March 20, Vitaliy Zvyagintsev, commander of the 5 brigades of the surface ships of the Naval Forces of Ukraine, who crossed Russia, ordered all ships to berth."}
+{"text":"On March 21, three machine gun points were deployed on the shore, the berth was occupied by Russian military personnel. On the same day, the ships \"Kirovograd\", \"Theodosius\" and \"Chernigov\" approached the berth and surrendered. The commander of Kirovgrad, captain of the 3rd rank Volodymyr Khromchenkov, called the Shuster Live transmission live in the evening and told that the ships are waiting for an adequate order for their further fate, adding that the leadership is not connected with him. The next day, with the commander contacted the head of the Presidential Administration Serhiy Pashynskyi."}
+{"text":"Later, the commander of \"Kirovograd\" Volodymyr Khromchenkov, the commander of \"Theodosius\" O. Bily and the commander of \"Chernigov\" Boris Paliy passed to the side of Russia."}
+{"text":"March 21, the minesweeper Cherkasy made the first attempt to break through with Donuzlav. \"Cherkasy\" was hit by mooring cables one of the flooded ships and tried to delay it. The operation lasted about two hours, but the miner was not able to do it because of a lack of power. The commander of the ship Yuri Fedash asked for help from the minesweeper \"Chernigov\", but he was denied. On this day, two officers, one midshipman and nine people came from Cherkassy. Instead, on board three sailors climbed from the minesweeper \"Chernigov\"."}
+{"text":"On March 22, the corvette \"Vinnitsa\", as a result of the assault, raised the Andriyivsky flag, and the commander Sergei Zagolnikov eventually turned to Russia. On the same day, Sergei Gaiduk said that food supplies on ships that are in Donuzlav are left for 10 days. On March 23, the \"Henichesk\" raid trawler attempted to exit Donuzlav, however, it was blocked by the tug of the Black Sea Fleet of Russia. On the same day, Yuri Fedash, commander of the Cherkasy minesweeper, said that he had a relationship with the command."}
+{"text":"On the night of March 24, a small vessel was flooded. Later, Konstantin Olshansky used smokescreens, but was still captured from the boat U8301, as well as the minesweeper Genichesk. Captain Konstantin Olshansky Dmitry Kovalenko said that the issue of flooding was not considered. At the time of capture of the ship from 120 crew left 21. For all time, \"Konstantin Olshansky\" was thrown about 400 grenades. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine named the seizure of ships by Russia - piracy."}
+{"text":"The trawler \"Cherkasy\" made an attempt to leave Donuzlav, passing between two floodplain ships. As a result, the trawler was blocked by a towering vessel, from which attempts were made to land on board. According to Fedash, he considered a variant of capture of this vessel, but the leadership in Kiev refused. He also said that in order to prevent the seizure of the ship, they fired on water and used grenades. Also on March 24 President of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchinov said that the Ministry of Defense was given an order to withdraw military units from the Crimea."}
+{"text":"On March 25, an unknown boat traveled around the minesweeper \"Cherkasy\". March 26, the last Ukrainian ship in Crimea - a minesweeper \"Cherkasy\" was captured by two Mi-35 helicopters and three boats. The ship maneuvered for several hours, but was still captured using firearms and light-and-noise grenades. According to Fedash, Tambov Special Forces participated in the capture of \"Cherkasy\"."}
+{"text":"During the assault, there we no victims, however, control mechanisms were damaged. As a result, the tug \"Kovel\" pulled \"Cherkasy\" to the berth. The next day the crew went to the coast and traveled to the mainland Ukraine, the last of the ship came commander Yuri Fedash, after which the Ukrainian symbolism was removed from the minesweeper."}
+{"text":"Following the capture of Ukrainian ships, Alexander Turchinov instructed the Defense Minister of Ukraine Mikhail Koval that \"no warships should remain in captivity\". On April 19, 2014, the ships \"Kirovograd\", \"Vinnytsia\", \"Kherson\", \"Kovel\", \"Gorlovka\" and \"Novoozernye\" were returned to Ukraine and relocated to Odessa. The transfer took place in neutral waters, where the ships were towed by the Russian side, after which the Ukrainian flags were again raised on the ships. In May the minesweeper \"Genichesk\" and passenger boat \"Dobropillya\" were transferred to Ukraine."}
+{"text":"As of June 2015, the ships \"Chernihiv\", \"Cherkasy\" and \"Konstantin Olshansky\" were not returned to Ukraine."}
+{"text":"On August 8, 2014, in Novoozerne, the head of the State Council of the Crimea, Volodymyr Konstantinov opened a memorial sign to the flooded ships that blocked the exit of the naval ships of the Naval Forces of Ukraine. On the memorial plaque it is written: In memory of the ships that were flooded in March 2014 for the reunification of the Crimea with Russia."}
+{"text":"On March 27, 2014, the commander of theminesweeper \"Cherkasy\" Yury Fedash was awarded the title of honorary citizen of the city of Cherkasy, and on August 24 the Order of Danylo Halytsky was presented. April 4, congratulations were received by the crew of the minesweeper \"Cherkasy\" in the center of the city of the same name, where they were greeted as heroes."}
+{"text":"In April 2014, the rock band \"Lyapis Trubetskoy\" invited the sailors of the \"Konstantin Olshansky\" to his concert in Odessa and called the Ukrainian sailors in Donuzlav heroes. They also noted a video clip that was shot on a ship, where sailors perform the song \"Warriors of the World\". However, it is erroneously believed that the video was taken to the Cherkasy minesweeper. On April 6, 2014, before the match between Dynamo Kyiv and Kharkiv Metalist within the framework of the Ukrainian Championship, seamen from Kirovograd were invited to the stadium \"Olimpiysky \", whom they met as heroes."}
+{"text":"On August 24, 2014, during a military parade on the occasion of the Independence Day of Ukraine, the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, said: \"Ukraine will never forget the actions of the crew of the minesweeper Cherkasy, which until recently maneuvered and defended its ship in the Donuzlav bay\"."}
+{"text":"The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached the disputed territory of Crimea (claimed and \"de facto\" administered by Russia as the Republic of Crimea, but recognised as a part of Ukraine by most of the international community as the Autonomous Republic of Crimea) in March 2020. The Russian government includes cases in the Republic of Crimea in the count of cases in Russia."}
+{"text":"On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019."}
+{"text":"The case fatality ratio for COVID-19 has been much lower than SARS of 2003, but the transmission has been significantly greater, with a significant total death toll."}
+{"text":"On 21 March, the first case was confirmed."}
+{"text":"As of May 11, the Russian head of Crimea reported 126 COVID-19 cases in the city of Sevastopol and 202 cases in the rest of the peninsula, for 328 cases in total."}
+{"text":"According to the Crimean Human Rights Group, on July 10, 2020, there were ten new cases in Crimea including Sevastopol. The total count during the pandemic was 1,089 with 37 deaths."}
+{"text":"The Krymchaks (Krymchak: , , , ) are Jewish ethno-religious communities of Crimea derived from Turkic-speaking adherents of Rabbinic Judaism. They have historically lived in close proximity to the Crimean Karaites, who are also Turkic but follow Karaite Judaism."}
+{"text":"At first \"krymchak\" was a Russian descriptive used to differentiate them from their Ashkenazi Jewish coreligionists, as well as other Jewish communities in the former Russian Empire such as the Georgian Jews, but in the second half of the 19th century this name was adopted by the Krymchaks themselves. Before this their self-designation was \"\u0421\u0440\u0435\u043b\u044c \u0431\u0430\u043b\u0430\u043b\u0430\u0440\u044b\" (\"Srel balalary\") \u2013 literally \"Children of Israel\". The Crimean Tatars referred to them as \"zulufl\u0131 \u00e7ufutlar\" (\"Jews with pe'ot\") to distinguish them from the Karaites, who were called \"zulufs\u0131z \u00e7ufutlar\" (\"Jews without pe'ot\")."}
+{"text":"The Krymchaks are likely a result of diverse origins whose ancestors probably included Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews, and Jews from the Byzantine empire, Genoa, Georgia, and other places."}
+{"text":"The late classical era saw great upheaval in the region as Crimea was occupied by Goths, Huns, Bulgars, Khazars, and other peoples. Jewish merchants such as the Radhanites began to develop extensive contacts in the Pontic region during this period, and probably maintained close relations with the proto-Krymchak communities. Khazar dominance of Crimea during the Early Middle Ages is considered to have had at least a partial impact on Krymchak demographics."}
+{"text":"In the late 7th century most of Crimea fell to the Khazars. The extent to which the Krymchaks influenced the ultimate conversion of the Khazars and the development of Khazar Judaism is unknown. During the period of Khazar rule, intermarriage between Crimean Jews and Khazars was likely, and the Krymchaks probably absorbed numerous Khazar refugees during the decline and fall of the Khazar kingdom (a Khazar successor state, ruled by Georgius Tzul, was centered in Kerch). It is known that Kipchak converts to Judaism existed, and it is possible that from these converts the Krymchaks adopted their distinctive language."}
+{"text":"In times when the Crimea belonged to the Byzantine Empire and after then, waves of Byzantine Jews settled there. These newcomers were in most cases merchants from Constantinople and brought with them Romaniote Jewish practices (Bonfil 2011)."}
+{"text":"The Mongol conquerors of the Pontic\u2013Caspian steppe were promoters of religious freedom, and the Genoese occupation of southern Crimea (1315\u20131475) saw rising degrees of Jewish settlement in the region. The Jewish community was divided among those who prayed according to the Sephardi, Ashkenazi and Romaniote rites. In 1515 the different traditions were united into a distinctive Krymchak prayer book, which represented the Romaniote rite by Rabbi Moshe Ha-Golah, a Chief Rabbi of Kiev, who had settled in Crimea."}
+{"text":"In the 18th century the community was headed by David Ben Karasubazar Lehno Eliezer (d. 1735), author of the introduction to the \"Kaffa\" rite prayer book and \"Mishkan David\" (\"Abode of David\"), devoted to Hebrew grammar. He was also the author of a monumental Hebrew historical chronicle, \"Devar sefataim\" (\"Utterance the mouth\"), on the history of the Crimean Khanate."}
+{"text":"Under the Crimean Khanate the Jews lived in separate quarters and paid the dhimmi-tax (the Jizya). A limited judicial autonomy was granted according to the Ottoman millet system. Overt, violent persecution was extremely rare."}
+{"text":"According to anthropologist S.Vaysenberg, \"The origin of Krymchaks is lost in the darkness of the ages. Only one thing can be said, that they carry less Turkic blood than the Karaites, although certain kinship between both peoples and the Khazars can hardly be denied. But Krymchaks during the Middle Ages and modern times constantly mixed with their European counterparts. There was an admixture with Italian Jews from the time of the Genoeses with the arrival of the Lombroso, Pyastro and other families. Cases of intermarriage with Russian Jews occurred in recent times."}
+{"text":"There is no general work on the ethnography of Krymchaks. The available summary of folklore materials is not complete. Extensive anthroponimic data has been collected from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but does not cover earlier periods, for which archival material does exist. The study of each of these groups of sources can shed light on the ethnogenesis of the Krymchak ethnic minority."}
+{"text":"The Russian Empire annexed Crimea in 1783. The Krymchaks were thereafter subjected to the same religious persecution imposed on other Jews in Russia. Unlike their Karaite neighbors, the Krymchaks suffered the full brunt of anti-Jewish restrictions."}
+{"text":"During the 19th century many Ashkenazim from Ukraine and Lithuania began to settle in Crimea. Compared with these Ashkenazim the Krymchaks seemed somewhat backward; their illiteracy rates, for example, were quite high, and they held fast to many superstitions. Intermarriage with the Ashkenazim reduced the numbers of the distinct Krymchak community dramatically. By 1900 there were 60,000 Ashkenazim and only 6,000 Krymchaks in Crimea."}
+{"text":"In the mid-19th century the Krymchaks became followers of Rabbi Chaim Hezekiah Medini, also known by the name of his work the Sedei Chemed, a Sephardi rabbi born in Jerusalem who had come to Crimea from Istanbul. His followers accorded him the title of gaon. Settling in Karasubazaar, the largest Krymchak community in Crimea, Rabbi Medini spent his life raising their educational standards."}
+{"text":"The picture of the Sedei Chemed here incorrectly says: Krymchak, Crimean Jew (author of the Sdei Hemed, Rabbi Chaim Hezekiah Medini.) The Sedei Chemed himself was not a Krymchak, but he did marry one, so his children were Krymchaki, and he still has Krymchaki descendants today. (Heard verbally from the former head of the Crimean Krymchak community, Viktor Lombrozo, and others.)"}
+{"text":"By 1897, the Krymchaks stopped being \"the majority of Talmudic Jews on the Crimean Peninsula\"."}
+{"text":"After the Russian Revolution of 1917, civil war tore apart Crimea. Many Krymchaks were killed in the fighting between the Red Army and the White Movement. More still died in the famines of the early 1920s and the early 1930s. Many emigrated to the Holy Land, the United States and Turkey."}
+{"text":"Under Joseph Stalin, the Krymchaks were forbidden to write in Hebrew and were ordered to employ the Cyrillic alphabet to write their own language. Synagogues and yeshivas were closed by government decree. Krymchaks were compelled to work in factories and collective farms."}
+{"text":"Unlike the Crimean Karaites, the Krymchaks were targeted for annihilation by the Nazis. Six thousand Krymchaks, almost 75% of their population, were killed by the Nazis. Moreover, upon the return of Soviet authority to the region, many Krymchaks found themselves deported to Central Asia along with their Crimean Tatar neighbors."}
+{"text":"By 2000, only about 600 Krymchaks lived in the former Soviet Union, about half in Ukraine and the remainder in Georgia, Russia, and Uzbekistan. Some 600\u2013700 Krymchaks still clinging to their Crimean identity live in Israel, and others in the United States."}
+{"text":"The Krymchaks practice Orthodox or Talmudic Judaism. Their unique \"nusah,\" or prayer book, known as Nusah Kaffa, emerged during the 16th century. Kaffa was a former name of the Crimean city of Feodosia."}
+{"text":"Traditional occupations for the Krymchaks included farming, trade, and viticulture."}
+{"text":"The dress and customs of the Krymchaks resembled that of the nearby Karaites and Crimean Tatars."}
+{"text":"The Kymchaks considered themselves a distinct group and rarely intermarried with Karaites or the Crimean Tatars. The Krymchaks used to practice polygamy but then adopted monogamy by the late 19th century."}
+{"text":"The North Crimean Canal (, ; in the Soviet Union: North Crimean Canal of the Lenin's Komsomol of Ukraine) is a land improvement canal for irrigation and watering of Kherson Oblast in southern Ukraine, and the Crimean Peninsula. The canal also has multiple branches throughout Kherson Oblast and the Crimean Peninsula."}
+{"text":"The construction preparation started in 1957 soon after the transfer of Crimea of 1954. The main project works took place between 1961 and 1971 and had three stages. The construction was conducted by the Komosomol members sent by the Komsomol travel ticket (\"Komsomolskaya putyovka\") as part of shock construction projects and accounted for some 10,000 volunteer workers."}
+{"text":"The idea to construct the canal was raised in the 19th century, particularly by the Russian-Finnish botanist Christian von Steven. But it was not until after World War II when the decision was finally adopted on September 21, 1950 by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Government of the Soviet Union. The decision was to build the Kakhovka Hydro Electric Station, South Ukrainian and North Crimean canals. In 1951 the Soviet postal service released a commemorative post stamp where the North Crimean Canal was categorized as one of the Great Construction Projects of Communism."}
+{"text":"Since the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea."}
+{"text":"After the Russian annexation of Crimea, Ukrainian authorities greatly cut the volume of water flowing into Crimea via the canal, citing a huge outstanding debt on water supplies owed by the peninsula. This caused the peninsula's agricultural harvest which is heavily dependent on irrigation to fail in 2014."}
+{"text":"Crimean water sources are being connected to the North Crimean Canal to replace the former Ukrainian sources. The objective is to restore irrigation and urban supplies to the Kerch Peninsula and to smaller communities on the east coast of Crimea. In 2014, a reservoir was built to store water of the rivers of the Eastern Crimea near the village of Novoivanovka, Nyzhnohirskyi Raion. The North Crimean Canal is connected with the Novoivanovka reservoir."}
+{"text":"According to official Russian statistics, the Crimean agricultural industry fully overcame the consequences of blocking the North Crimean Canal and crop yields grew by a factor of 1.5 from 2013 by 2016. The reported rapid growth in agricultural production in the Crimea is due to the fact that, with the help of subsidies of the order of 2\u20133 billion rubles a year from the budget of the Russian Federation, agricultural producers of Crimea were able to increase the fleet of agricultural machinery."}
+{"text":"These statistics contrasts with reports of a massive shrinkage in the area under cultivation in Crimea, from 130,000 hectares in 2013 to just 14,000 in 2017."}
+{"text":"The President of the Republic of Crimea (; ) was the head of the state of the Republic of Crimea, Ukraine from February 16, 1994 to the time of the liquidation of this position on March 17, 1995. The post was liquidated as it contradicted the Constitution of Ukraine."}
+{"text":"The first round of voting in the Crimean presidential elections was held on January 16, 1994, and on January 30, the second round was held. With 72.9% of the vote, the pro-Russian politician Yuriy Meshkov was declared the winner. He was the only person to hold the post of President of the Republic of Crimea."}
+{"text":"Eski Yurt (, , ) \u2014 a historical settlement in South West Crimea, presently a historical quarter in the western part of Bakhchisaray. Its name derives from the Crimean Tatar language terms for \"old settlement\" or \"old headquarter\" and \"felt tent\"."}
+{"text":"Eventually, after the new Crimean capital Bakhchisaray had been founded in 1532, Eski Yurt lost its economic and administrative status (and apparently received its later name of \"Old Settlement\"; the original name remains unknown). Nevertheless, up to the beginning of the 20th century Eski Yurt was still considered by the Crimean Tatars as one of the most important Muslim religious centers in the Crimea due to the sanctuary of Malik Ashtar which existed there."}
+{"text":"Aziz of Malik Ashtar in Eski Yurt."}
+{"text":"The Aziz (\"sanctuary\") of Malik Ashtar was located in the central part of Eski Yurt. It was a large Muslim cemetery whose main object was the \"maqam\" (symbolical tomb) of Malik al-Ashtar en-Nahai (618-658), a companion of khalif Ali Ibn Abi Talib (618-657), actually buried in Cairo, Egypt. Similar \"maqam\" attributed to Malik Ashtar is situated also in Diyarbak\u0131r, Turkey."}
+{"text":"The Crimean Tatar tales portray Malik Ashtar as a dragon fighter and the brave warrior, who was the first to spread Islam in Crimea. According to the legends, he was wounded to the death in a battle with giants and died in Eski Yurt. Long time after, the legends say, his grave was discovered in a miraculous way by dervishes of the Nakshbandi (or Mevlevi) order, who established the shrine of his name. The Crimean Tatars believed that those bitten by snakes may obtain healing visiting the Aziz of Malik Ashtar and praying there."}
+{"text":"The shrine was surrounded by a large Muslim cemetery with hundreds of engravements arranged in common graves, underground stone vaults and in mausoleums. As narrative sources state, the cemetery was a place to bury noble people including some of the Crimean Tatar rulers from the Giray dynasty. The mosque at Aziz, besides being a common prayer house, was also used as a \"tekiye\" for the dervishes who practiced their mystical rituals and prayer dances inside it."}
+{"text":"The Muslim religious center in Eski Yurt attracted a lot of visitors and existed till the 1920s when the Soviet regime closed it along with many other shrines and temples of different faiths."}
+{"text":"Fyodor Fyodorovich Ushakov (; \u2013 ) was the most illustrious Russian naval commander and admiral of the 18th century. He is notable for winning every engagement he participated in as the Admiral of the Russian fleet."}
+{"text":"On 15 February 1761, he signed up for the Russian Navy in Saint Petersburg. After training, he served on a galley in the Baltic Fleet. In 1768 he was transferred to the Don Flotilla (Azov Sea Navy) in Taganrog, and served in the Russo-Turkish War (1768\u201374). He commanded Catherine II's own yacht, and was active in protecting Russian merchant ships in the Mediterranean during the First League of Armed Neutrality."}
+{"text":"After the Russian Empire conquered the Crimean Khanate in 1783, Ushakov personally supervised the construction of a naval base in Sevastopol and the building of docks in Kherson. During the Russo-Turkish War (1787\u201392), he defeated the Ottomans at Fidonisi (1788), Kerch Strait (1790), Tendra (1790), and Cape Kaliakra (1791). In these battles, he demonstrated the ingenuity of his innovative doctrines in the art of naval warfare."}
+{"text":"In 1798 Ushakov was promoted to full admiral and given command of a squadron which sailed to the Mediterranean via Constantinople, where it joined with a Ottoman squadron. The combined Russian-Ottoman fleet then operated under Ushakov's command in the War of the Second Coalition against the French Republic. The expedition started by conquering the Ionian islands, acquired by France the year before from the defunct Republic of Venice in the Treaty of Campo Formio. This action culminated in the Siege of Corfu (1798\u20131799), and led to the subsequent creation of the Septinsular Republic. Ushakov's squadron then blockaded French bases in Italy, notably Genoa and Ancona, and successfully assaulted Naples and Rome."}
+{"text":"Tsar Paul, in his capacity as the Grand Master of the Order of St. John, ordered Ushakov to proceed to Malta, which a British fleet under Nelson was assisting in besieging."}
+{"text":"However, after rendezvousing with the Coalition forces on Malta, Ushakov was almost immediately recalled back home to Russia in 1800 (along with his fleet), where the new Emperor, Alexander I, failed to appreciate his victories. Ushakov resigned command in 1807 and withdrew into the Sanaksar Monastery in modern-day Mordovia. He was asked to command the local militia during the Patriotic War of 1812 but declined."}
+{"text":"In the course of 43 naval battles under his command he did not lose a single ship and never lost a battle."}
+{"text":"Distinguishing features of Ushakov's tactics were: use of unified marching and fighting orders; resolute closing to close quarters with the enemy forces without evolution of a fighting order; concentration of effort against enemy flagships; maintaining a reserve (Kaiser-flag squadrons); combination of aimed artillery fire and maneuvering; and chasing the enemy to its total destruction or capture. Giving great value to sea and fire training of his staff, Ushakov was a supporter of generalissimo Suvorov's principles of training for sailors and officers. Ushakov's innovations were among the first successful developments of naval tactics, from its \"line\" to maneuvering concepts."}
+{"text":"Several warships have been named after Admiral Ushakov."}
+{"text":"On 3 March 1944 the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR established the Order of Ushakov for Navy officers who showed outstanding achievement leading to victory over a numerically superior enemy. This medal was one of several which was preserved in Russia upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union, thus remaining one of the highest military awards in the Russian Federation. The Ushakov Medal was established simultaneously for servicemen who had risked their life in naval theatres defending the Soviet Union. In May 2014, the medal was presented to 19 surviving British sailors who had served on the Arctic convoys during World War II in a ceremony aboard HMS \"Belfast\"."}
+{"text":"The Baltic Naval Institute in Kaliningrad also carries his name. The minor planet 3010 Ushakov, discovered by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Ivanovna Chernykh in 1978, is named after him."}
+{"text":"In 1953 two Soviet films were released portraying his career \"Attack from the Sea\" and \"Admiral Ushakov\". In both films he was played by Ivan Pereverzev."}
+{"text":"Ushakov is one of the eight patrons depicted in the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ at Patriot Park, Moscow"}
+{"text":"On 7 August 2001 the Russian Orthodox Church glorified Fyodor Ushakov as a Saint and declared as the patron of Russian Navy, His relics are enshrined in Sanaksar Monastery, Temnikov, Russia."}
+{"text":"In 2005, in the Cathedral of St. Theodore Ushakov in Saransk (Mordovia), Patriarch Alexius II declared Saint Feodor Ushakov the patron saint of Russian nuclear-armed strategic bombers."}
+{"text":"The Crimean journey of Catherine the Great (, also known as \u0422\u0430\u0432\u0440\u0438\u0447\u0435\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0439 \u0432\u043e\u044f\u0436 (Taurida Voyage) at the time) was a six-month (January 2, 1787 \u2014 July 11, 1787) inspection trip of Catherine II of Russia to the newly acquired lands of New Russia and Crimea, gained as a result of the victorious wars against the Ottoman Empire (1735\u201339 and 1768\u201374) and peace treaties with the Cossack Hetmanate followed by the forced liquidation of free Zaporizhian Sich. The trip was carried out with her court and several ambassadors. During the trip she met with the Austrian emperor Joseph II, travelling incognito. The trip was arranged by Gregory Potemkin, a favorite and lover of Catherine II. The trip happened when the Russo-Turkish War (1787\u201392) was just about to erupt."}
+{"text":"Since these times the expression \"Potemkin village\" came into being, referring to the legend about fake villages hastily erected by Potemkin along the Catherine's route, in order to impress the Empress."}
+{"text":"Taurida Oblast (, \"Tavricheskaya oblast\u2032\") was an oblast (province) of the Russian Empire. It roughly corresponded to most of the Crimean peninsula and parts of the Southern Ukraine regions. It was created out of territories of the Crimean Khanate, which Russia annexed in 1783. In 1796 it was merged into the Novorossiya Governorate."}
+{"text":"The oblast was created under the Imperial ukase of 13 February 1784 signed by Catherine the Great. The administrative seat of the region was declared the city of Simferopol. Before 1784 Qarasuvbazar served as a temporary administrative center."}
+{"text":"The oblast was divided into seven counties (uyezd)."}
+{"text":"In 1787 Levkopol and Levkopol county were renamed into Feodosiya and Feodosiya county respectfully. In 1791 an administrative seat of Melitopol county was moved to Great Tokmak."}
+{"text":"On 12 December 1796 the oblast was abolished, its territory was redivided into two counties (Aqmescit (former Simferopol) and Perekop) and passed to the Novorossiya Governorate. The city of Simferopol was changed to Aqmescit."}
+{"text":"Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Empire"}
+{"text":"The territory of Crimea, previously controlled by the Crimean Khanate, was annexed by the Russian Empire on . The period before the annexation was marked by Russian interference in Crimean affairs, a series of revolts by Crimean Tatars, and Ottoman ambivalence. The annexation began 134 years of rule by the Russian Empire, which ended with the Russian Revolution of 1917."}
+{"text":"After changing hands several times during the Russian Civil War, Crimea was part of the Russian Soviet Republic from 1921, and then was transferred to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1954, which became independent Ukraine in 1991\u20131992. The Russian Federation annexed Crimea in March 2014, re-establishing Russian rule of the peninsula, though that annexation is not internationally recognised."}
+{"text":"In March 1783, Prince Potemkin made a rhetorical push to encourage Empress Catherine to annex Crimea. Having just returned from Crimea, he told her that many Crimeans would \"happily\" submit to Russian rule. Encouraged by this news, Empress Catherine issued a formal proclamation of annexation on . Tatars did not resist the annexation. After years of turmoil, the Crimeans lacked the resources and the will to continue fighting. Many fled the peninsula, leaving for Anatolia. Count Alexander Bezborodko, then a close advisor to the Empress, wrote in his diary that Russia was forced to annex Crimea:"}
+{"text":"This view was far from reality. Crimean \"independence\" had been a puppet regime, and the Ottomans had played little role in the Crimean revolts. Crimea was incorporated into the Empire as the Taurida Oblast. Later that year, the Ottoman Empire signed an agreement with Russia that recognised the loss of Crimea and other territories that had been held by the Khanate. The agreement, signed on 28 December 1783, was negotiated by Russian diplomat Yakov Bulgakov."}
+{"text":"Feodosiysky Uyezd (\"\u0424\u0435\u043e\u0434\u043e\u0441\u0438\u0439\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0439 \u0443\u0435\u0437\u0434\") was one of the subdivisions of the Taurida Governorate of the Russian Empire. It was situated in the southeastern part of the governorate, in eastern Crimea. Its administrative centre was Feodosiya."}
+{"text":"At the time of the Russian Empire Census of 1897, Feodosiysky Uyezd had a population of 24,096. Of these, 46.8% spoke Russian, 18.8% Crimean Tatar, 11.4% Yiddish, 7.7% Ukrainian, 5.3% Greek, 3.7% Armenian, 2.5% Polish, 1.3% German, 0.6% Belarusian, 0.5% Turkish, 0.3% Latvian, 0.2% Italian, 0.2% Bulgarian, 0.2% French, 0.1% Moldovan or Romanian and 0.1% Czech as their native language."}
+{"text":"Yevpatoriysky Uyezd (\"\u0415\u0432\u043f\u0430\u0442\u043e\u0440\u0438\u0439\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0439 \u0443\u0435\u0437\u0434\") was one of the subdivisions of the Taurida Governorate of the Russian Empire. It was situated in the southwestern part of the governorate, in western Crimea. Its administrative centre was Yevpatoria."}
+{"text":"At the time of the Russian Empire Census of 1897, Yevpatoriysky Uyezd had a population of 63,211. Of these, 42.7% spoke Crimean Tatar, 21.1% Ukrainian, 17.6% Russian, 12.0% German, 2.5% Yiddish, 1.6% Greek, 0.7% Armenian, 0.6% Estonian, 0.3% Polish, 0.3% Belarusian, 0.2% Czech, 0.1% Romani, 0.1% Mordvin and 0.1% Moldovan or Romanian as their native language."}
+{"text":"Yaltinsky Uyezd (\"\u042f\u043b\u0442\u0438\u043d\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0439 \u0443\u0435\u0437\u0434\") was one of the subdivisions of the Taurida Governorate of the Russian Empire. It was situated in the southern part of the governorate, in southern Crimea. Its administrative centre was Yalta."}
+{"text":"At the time of the Russian Empire Census of 1897, Yaltinsky Uyezd had a population of 73,260. Of these, 59.0% spoke Crimean Tatar, 27.1% Russian, 5.4% Greek, 2.8% Ukrainian, 1.5% Turkish, 0.9% Armenian, 0.6% Polish, 0.4% German, 0.3% Belarusian, 0.1% French, 0.1% Estonian and 0.1% Czech as their native language."}
+{"text":"The Battle of Malakoff (, ) was a French attack against Russian forces on the Malakoff redoubt and its subsequent capture on 8 September 1855 as a part of the siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War. The French army under General MacMahon successfully stormed the Malakoff redoubt, while a simultaneous British attack on the Redan to the south of the Malakoff was repulsed. In one of the war's defining moments, the French \"zouave\" Eug\u00e8ne Libaut raised the French flag on the top of the Russian redoubt. The Battle of Malakoff resulted in the fall of Sevastopol on 9 September, bringing the 11-month siege to an end."}
+{"text":"Until 1784 most of the fortifications around Sevastopol were dedicated to the protection of the harbour entrance, the city itself and its naval base and were positioned close to these features. The construction of fortifications in the surrounding hills had been planned as early as 1837, but at the time of the battle only basic facilities and roadways had been completed on the north side of the long, westward-facing bay. To the south the central anchor of the defence system was the Malakoff-Kurgan ridge. Situated about southeast of the city, it consisted of a two-story stone tower of limestone on which the Russians had placed five heavy 18-pounder cannons at the beginning of the siege."}
+{"text":"There is some mystery surrounding this tower. Although it is known that the tower was built some time before the start of the war, the historical records do not show exactly when this occurred, and no mention of this is made in the contemporary descriptions of the siege itself. Additionally, there are different spellings and translations into or from Russian, including \u041c\u0430\u043b\u0430\u0445\u043e\u0432\u0430 \u0431\u0430\u0448\u043d\u044f. What is known is that the tower was originally built or expanded by Sevastopol merchants and then later taken over by the Russian Navy. The tower had a diameter of about and a height of . In its centre the battery known as \"Lunette Kamchatka\" was placed. This was a smaller fortification that was designed to protect several artillery pieces."}
+{"text":"At this time the Russian cartographers marked all landmarks in and around this ridge as \"Fort Malakoff\". This included several large grave mounds and the same ridge lying in front known as Mamelon (\"vert Mamelon\"). The name \"Fortmortal Malakoff\" (or French \"Fort Malakoff\", Russian \"Malakhoff\") was retained after the war in Western literature covering the Crimean War."}
+{"text":"The harbour of Sevastopol, formed by the estuary of the Chernaya, was protected against attack by sea not only by the Russian war-vessels, afloat and sunken, but also by heavy granite forts on the south side and by the defensive works. For the town itself and the Karabelnaya suburb the plans for the works had been laid down for years. The Malakoff Tower covered the suburb, flanked on either side by the Redan and the Little Redan. The town was covered by a line of works marked by a flagstaff and central bastions, and separated from the Redan by the inner harbour."}
+{"text":"Lieutenant Colonel Eduard Totleben, the Russian chief engineer, had begun work on these sites early in the war. Through daily efforts to rebuild, re-arm and improve the fortifications, he was able to finally connect them with a continuous defence system enceinte. Yet early in October 1854, Sevastopol was not the towering fortress it later became, and Totleben himself maintained that had the allies assaulted it immediately, they would have succeeded in taking the city. There were, however, many reasons against them doing so at the time, and it was not until 17 October that the first attack took place."}
+{"text":"Throughout 17 October, a tremendous artillery duel raged. The Russian artillery was initially successful, the French corps fell under siege and suffered heavy losses. The advancing fleet engaging the harbour batteries also suffered a loss of 500 men and several ships were heavily damaged. Still, British siege batteries managed to silence the Malakoff and its annexes, after having succeeded in hitting a munitions depot and, if failure had not occurred at the other points of attack, an assault might have succeeded. As it was, by daybreak, Totleben's engineers had repaired and improved the damaged works."}
+{"text":"For months the siege of Sevastopol continued. During July the Russians lost on an average of 250 men a day, and finally the Russians decided to break the stalemate and gradual attrition of their army. Gorchakov and the field army were to make another attack at the Chernaya, the first since the Inkerman. On 16 August, both Pavel Liprandi and Read's corps furiously attacked the 37,000 French and Sardinian troops on the heights above Traktir Bridge. The assailants came on with the greatest determination, but they were ultimately unsuccessful. At the end of the day, the Russians drew off leaving 260 officers and 8,000 men dead or dying on the field; the French and British only lost 1,700. With this defeat the last chance of saving Sevastopol vanished."}
+{"text":"French right sector (French 2nd Corps under GdD Bosquet)"}
+{"text":"British sector (see Battle of the Great Redan)"}
+{"text":"French left sector (French 1st Corps under GdD La Salles)"}
+{"text":"At first sight Russia would seem to be almost invulnerable to a sea power, and no first success, however crushing, could have humbled Nicholas I. Indeed, the mere capture of Sevastopol would not have been strategically decisive. However, as the Tsar had decided to defend it at all costs and with unlimited resources, it became an unpleasant defeat, especially as the Allies had reached victory with limited resources."}
+{"text":"During the nearly one-year siege of Sevastopol in the Crimean War, the fortifications on the Malakhov were hotly contested as they overlooked the whole city and the inner harbour. After the success of the French troops under the command of Marshal Pelissier, later the Duke of Malakoff (French: Duc de Malakoff), and General Patrice de Mac-Mahon, the Russian defenders evacuated the entire city on 8 September 1855, bringing a climax to the war."}
+{"text":"As the fortress enabled the control of the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, the Russian forces destroyed all of their equipment and withdrew, leaving Russia with no more military fortifications on the Black Sea. The long-awaited Russian domination of the inland sea to obtain free passage through the Bosporus to the Mediterranean (and beyond) was now not possible."}
+{"text":"Among the seven surviving defenders of a stone tower on the Malakov Kurgan, which were found by French troops among the dead, was the seriously wounded Vasily Kolchak, the father of Aleksandr Vasiliyevich Kolchak. Kolchak would later become the head of all the counter-revolutionary anti-communist White forces during the Russian Civil War."}
+{"text":"The Battle of Inkerman was fought during the Crimean War on 5 November 1854 between the allied armies of Britain and France against the Imperial Russian Army. The battle broke the will of the Russian Army to defeat the allies in the field, and was followed by the siege of Sevastopol. The role of troops fighting mostly on their own initiative due to the foggy conditions during the battle has earned the engagement the name \"The Soldier's Battle\"."}
+{"text":"The allied armies of Britain, France, Sardinia, and the Ottoman Empire had landed on the west coast of Crimea on 14 September 1854, intending to capture the Russian naval base at Sevastopol. The allied armies fought off and defeated the Russian Army at the Battle of Alma, forcing them to retreat in some confusion toward the River Kacha. While the allies could have taken this opportunity to attack Sevastopol before Sevastopol could be put into a proper state of defence, the allied commanders, British general FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan and the French commander Fran\u00e7ois Certain Canrobert could not agree on a plan of attack."}
+{"text":"The Second Division in action; the Russians in the valley."}
+{"text":"The rest of the Russian column proceeded down to the valley where they were attacked by British artillery and pickets, eventually being driven off. The resistance of the British troops here had blunted all of the initial Russian attacks. General Paulov, leading the Russian second column of some 15,000, attacked the British positions on Sandbag Battery. As they approached, the 300 British defenders vaulted the wall and charged with the bayonet, driving off the leading Russian battalions. Five Russian battalions were assailed in the flanks by the British 41st Regiment, who drove them back to the River Chernaya."}
+{"text":"Meanwhile, the Light Division occupied Victoria Ridge throughout the day. Its commander, Sir George Brown (British Army officer) was wounded, so General William Codrington (British Army officer) took command. He refused the help of other troops, perpetually sending them back to the battle."}
+{"text":"Defence of Home Hill by the British and French forces."}
+{"text":"Despite being severely outnumbered, the allied troops held their ground, becoming a marvel of each regiment's tradition and tenacity. The amount of fog during the battle led to many of the troops on both sides being cut off, in battalion-sized groups or less. Thus, the battle became known as \"The Soldier's Battle\". The Russian attack, although unsuccessful, had denied the allies any attempt at gaining a quick victory in the siege of Sevastopol. Following this battle, the Russians made no further large-scale attempts to defeat the allies in the field."}
+{"text":"Alexander Kinglake obtained the official casualty returns for the battle. By his account allied casualties were: 2,573 British, of whom 635 were killed, and 1,800 French, of whom 175 were killed. Russia lost 3,286 killed within a total (including men taken prisoner) of 11,959 casualties."}
+{"text":"The battle popularised the use of the name Inkerman in placenames in Victorian England, including Inkerman Road in Kentish Town, London; Inkerman Road, St Albans, and Inkerman Way in Knaphill. There is an Inkerman Street in St Kilda, Victoria, Australia, in between Balaclava Rd and Alma Rd. There is also an Inkerman, New Brunswick named after the battle."}
+{"text":"The Battle of Eupatoria (Russian: \u0428\u0442\u0443\u0440\u043c \u0415\u0432\u043f\u0430\u0442\u043e\u0440\u0438\u0438 (Storm of Eupatoria), Turkish: G\u00f6zleve Muharebesi) occurred on 17 February 1855 during the Crimean War when the army of the Russian Empire unsuccessfully attempted to capture the Crimean port city of Eupatoria held by the forces of the Ottoman Empire."}
+{"text":"On 28 March 1854, the United Kingdom and France formally entered the Crimean War as allies of the Ottoman Empire by declaring war against Russia. In September 1854, Allied forces landed on the coast of the Crimean Peninsula as a part of a military offensive to attack and capture Russia's primary Black Sea naval base at Sevastopol. By mid-October, the Allies had surrounded Sevastopol and put the port city under siege. During the fall and winter of 1854-1855, the belligerents reinforced their armies on Crimea. While the Russians brought troops to Crimea overland from the mainland, the Allies brought in their reinforcements by means of transports across the Black Sea with Eupatoria being one of two major disembarkation points for the Allies on Crimea."}
+{"text":"In December 1855, Tsar Nicholas I wrote to Prince Alexander Menshikov, the Russian Commander-in-chief for the Crimean War, demanding that the reinforcements being sent to Crimea be put to a useful purpose and expressing a fear that enemy landings at Eupatoria were a danger. The Tsar feared rightfully so that additional Allied forces at Eupatoria, located 75 kilometers north of Sebastopol, could sever Crimea from Russia at the Isthmus of Perekop cutting-off the flow of communications, materials, and reinforcements."}
+{"text":"Shortly thereafter, Prince Menshikov informed his officers on Crimea that Tsar Nicholas insisted that Eupatoria be captured and destroyed if it could not be held. To conduct the attack, Menshikov added that he had been authorized to use the reinforcements currently en route to Crimea including the 8th Infantry Division. Menshikov then acted to select a commanding officer for the attack to which his first and second choices both declined the assignment, making excuses to avoid leading an offensive that neither believed would have a successful outcome. Ultimately, Menshikov selected Lieutenant General Stepan Khrulev, an artillery staff officer described as willing to \"do exactly what you tell him,\" as the officer in overall charge of the undertaking."}
+{"text":"To prepare for the attack, Khrulev inspected Eupatoria by means of numerous reconnaissance missions. In the opinion of the Russian commander, the town was strongly fortified as it was surrounded by a continuous earthen wall bordered by a ditch. There were some portions of the wall, however, that seemed unfinished and under construction. Along the walls were gun batteries supporting 34 cannons. Given its position bordering the shore of the Black Sea to the south, the city was also protected by the guns of Allied warships in the harbor. Outside the fortified walls, the landscape was largely barren as the need for firewood had resulted in the destruction of most of the surrounding buildings and structures."}
+{"text":"Inside the city there were approximately 33,000 men including nearly five Turkish infantry divisions, two Turkish cavalry squadrons, 1,000 Tatars, 276 French sailors, and a small French infantry detachment. The Turkish forces at Eupatoria were under the command of Omar Pasha an experienced military officer."}
+{"text":"To capture the city, Khrulev planned to attack in three columns. The primary thrust would be in the center at the north wall where the impact of a potential naval bombardment would be less. In order to draw the defenders away from the center, Khrulev would use the other two columns to attack on the flanking walls of the city. The flanking attack on the left would begin first followed by the flanking attack on the right. If the plan went well, the focus of the defenders would shift to the flanks and the Russians would move to break through at the center."}
+{"text":"Each of the three columns was to be composed of approximately 5,000 foot soldiers and 36 cannons. The columns charged with conducting the flanking attacks were also to be supported by over 2,200 cavalry troopers. Two dragoon regiments with a light horse battery and a brigade of lancers were to be held behind the lines in reserve. To provide cover for the artillery and their crews, 76 wooden epaulements were to be built before the battle and moved to a position 500 yards from the town walls when the battle began. Khrulev's total deployment for the battle was planned to include 22 infantry battalions, 24 cavalry squadrons, and five Cossack sotnias, a total of nearly 19,000 men."}
+{"text":"In the evening of 16 February, Khrulev put his plan into action, quietly moving his forces to positions approximately 3\u00bd kilometers from the walls of Eupatoria. At that point, lines of riflemen and the Cossacks were moved to the front as forward posts while the remainder of the men silently began to build the epaulements for the gun batteries. The darkness of the night and the contour of the land hid their activities from the Turkish pickets."}
+{"text":"As dawn approached, Khrulev mounted his horse and personally led the column on the left forward to the point of the first attack, approximately 1,300 meters from Eupatoria's walls. Following immediately behind Khrulev, the company commanders led their battalions forward. As they moved forward, however, they were observed by the Tatars on watch who retreated toward the city sounding the alarm. Although, Khrulev planned his offensive as a surprise attack, the Turks were aware that an attack was forthcoming and were already on the parapets."}
+{"text":"At approximately 6 am, the first shots were fired when the Turks began a general cannonade supported by rifle fire. As quickly as they could respond, the Russians began their own artillery fire. For about an hour both sides continued to bombard each other. During this time, Khrulev reinforced his column on the left, advanced his artillery to within 500 meters of the city walls, and began to concentrate his cannon fire on the Turkish center."}
+{"text":"At this point, the attack effectively stopped. The ditches were filled with water at such a depth that the attackers quickly found themselves unable to scale the walls. After numerous failed attempts to cross the ditches and ascend their ladders to the top of the walls, the Russians were forced to retreat and seek shelter back at grounds of the cemetery. Seeing their enemy's difficulties, the Turks took advantage of the situation and sent a battalion of infantry and two squadrons of cavalry out of the city to pursue the Russians as they fell back."}
+{"text":"Almost immediately, Khrulev deemed the ditches as an obstacle that could not be overcome and came to the conclusion that Eupatoria could not be taken given its defenses and complement of defenders. When asked with regard to the next steps, Khrulev ordered his forces to retreat. The order was communicated to the commanders of the right and center columns, neither of which had engaged in the fight to the degree as the effort of the left column."}
+{"text":"Although many of the Russian commanders desired to continue the attack, they were overruled by Khrulev and an orderly retreat was begun at about 10 am that morning. Khrulev led his defeated force to a defensive position in the hills to the east and formed them up into three columns. Omar Pasha sent a force of infantry and cavalry in pursuit, but chose only to observe their activities."}
+{"text":"The Russian casualties were almost twice as great as those of the Turkish defenders. The Russians suffered 168 killed, 583 wounded, and 18 missing. The Turkish casualties were 91 killed and 286 wounded. Among the Ottoman dead was General Selim-Pasha."}
+{"text":"When the news of the defeat reached St. Petersburg, Tsar Nicholas was extremely disappointed and saddened. Already ill, Tsar Nicholas' spirit seemed broken and he died shortly thereafter on 2 March 1855. Succeeding his father, Tsar Alexander II dismissed Khrulev and replaced Prince Menshikov as the Commander-in-chief of the Russian forces for the Crimean War."}
+{"text":"Although there was sentiment that the tyrant was dead and that the war would soon end, Tsar Alexander did not seek an immediate peace. Strategically, the battle of Eupatoria confirmed that Allied command of the Black Sea would ensure that the threat to the Russian flank on Crimea would remain for the duration of hostilities. For the Allies, possession of Eupatoria also meant that the investment of Sevastopol remained a viable option."}
+{"text":"Melitopolsky Uyezd () was one of the subdivisions of the Taurida Governorate of the Russian Empire. It was situated in the northern part of the governorate. Its administrative centre was Melitopol."}
+{"text":"At the time of the Russian Empire Census of 1897, Melitopolsky Uyezd had a population of 384,239. Of these, 54.9% spoke Ukrainian, 32.8% Russian, 5.2% German, 4.2% Yiddish, 0.9% Belarusian, 0.6% Polish, 0.5% Bulgarian, 0.3% Crimean Tatar, 0.2% Czech, 0.1% Armenian, 0.1% Greek and 0.1% Romani as their native language."}
+{"text":"Dneprovsky Uyezd () was one of the subdivisions of the Taurida Governorate of the Russian Empire. It was situated in the northwestern part of the governorate. Its administrative centre was Alyoshki (Oleshky)."}
+{"text":"At the time of the Russian Empire Census of 1897, Dneprovsky Uyezd had a population of 212,241. Of these, 73.6% spoke Ukrainian, 19.9% Russian, 3.0% Yiddish, 1.4% Belarusian, 1.3% German, 0.3% Polish, 0.2% Crimean Tatar, 0.2% Moldovan or Romanian and 0.1% Romani as their native language."}
+{"text":"Perekopsky Uyezd (\"\u041f\u0435\u0440\u0435\u043a\u043e\u043f\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0439 \u0443\u0435\u0437\u0434\") was one of the subdivisions of the Taurida Governorate of the Russian Empire. It was situated in the central part of the governorate, in northeastern Crimea. Its administrative centre was Perekop."}
+{"text":"At the time of the Russian Empire Census of 1897, Perekopsky Uyezd had a population of 51,393. Of these, 23.9% spoke Crimean Tatar, 22.8% Russian, 22.8% German, 22.0% Ukrainian, 2.6% Yiddish, 1.6% Estonian, 1.2% Czech, 1.2% Armenian, 0.5% Romani, 0.4% Greek, 0.4% Belarusian, 0.3% Polish, 0.1% Lithuanian and 0.1% Moldovan or Romanian as their native language."}
+{"text":"Kamianka-Dniprovska (; ) is a city in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Kamianka-Dniprovska Raion. Population:"}
+{"text":"The landscape of this district is flat and steppe."}
+{"text":"In 1972 the population was 16 900 people."}
+{"text":"In January 1989 the population was 17 906 people."}
+{"text":"In January 2013 the population was 13 495 people."}
+{"text":"The city is home to the Kamianka-Dniprovska District Historical and Archeological Museum. An archeological site near Kamianka-Dniprovska gives evidence suggesting that the city was once the capital of the ancient Scythian Kingdom."}
+{"text":"Simferopolsky Uyezd (\"\u0421\u0438\u043c\u0444\u0435\u0440\u043e\u043f\u043e\u043b\u044c\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0439 \u0443\u0435\u0437\u0434\") was one of the subdivisions of the Taurida Governorate of the Russian Empire. It was situated in the southern part of the governorate, in southern Crimea. Its administrative centre was Simferopol."}
+{"text":"At the time of the Russian Empire Census of 1897, Simferopolsky Uyezd had a population of 141,717. Of these, 44.4% spoke Crimean Tatar, 30.2% Russian, 7.1% Ukrainian, 6.5% Yiddish, 4.1% German, 2.1% Armenian, 1.7% Greek, 1.2% Polish, 1.0% Bulgarian, 0.4% Estonian, 0.4% Belarusian, 0.2% Czech, 0.1% Turkish, 0.1% Romani, 0.1% French and 0.1% Moldovan or Romanian as their native language."}
+{"text":"Kerch (; , ; Old East Slavic: \u041a\u044a\u0440\u0447\u0435\u0432\u044a, Ancient Greek: , \"Pantik\u00e1paion\", Medieval Greek: \"Bosporos\"; ; ) is a city of regional significance on the Kerch Peninsula in the east of the Crimea."}
+{"text":"Founded 2,600 years ago as an ancient Greek colony, Kerch is considered to be one of the most ancient cities in Crimea. The city experienced rapid growth starting in the 1920s and was the site of a major battle during World War II."}
+{"text":"Today, it is one of the largest cities in Crimea and is among the republic's most important industrial, transport and tourist centres."}
+{"text":"Archeological digs at Mayak village near the city ascertained that the area had already been inhabited in 17th\u201315th centuries BC. While many finds from Kerch can be found in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg and the local museum, a large number of antique sculptures, reliefs, bronze and glassware, ceramics and jewellery were excavated in 1855-1856 during the Crimean War by Doctor Duncan MacPherson, a surgeon from the British Army, and later donated to the British Museum in London."}
+{"text":"Kerch as a city starts its history in 7th century BC, when Greek colonists from Miletus founded a city-state named Panticapaeum on Mount Mithridat near the mouth of the Melek-Chesme river. Panticapaeum subdued nearby cities and by 480 BC became a capital of the Kingdom of Bosporus. Later, during the rule of Mithradates VI Eupator, Panticapaeum for a short period of time became the capital of the much more powerful and extensive Kingdom of Pontus."}
+{"text":"The city was located at the intersection of trade routes between the steppe and Europe. This caused it to grow rapidly. The city's main exports were grain and salted fish; wine-making was also common. Panticapaeum minted its own coins. According to extant documents the Melek-Chesme river (small and shallow nowadays) was navigable in Bosporan times, and sea galleys were able to enter the river. A large portion of the city's population was ethnically Scythian, later Sarmatian, as the large royal barrow (Kurgan) at Kul-Oba testifies."}
+{"text":"In the 1st century AD Panticapaeum and the Kingdom of Bosporus suffered from Ostrogoth raids; then the city was devastated by the Huns in AD 375."}
+{"text":"Myrmekion was founded in the eastern part of the Kerch, 4\u00a0km NE of ancient Panticapaeum. The settlement was founded by Ionians in the first half of the 6th c. BC."}
+{"text":"From the 6th century the city was under the control of the Byzantine Empire. By order of Emperor Justinian I, a citadel named Bospor was built there. Bospor was the centre of a bishopric, the diocese of Bosporus and developed under the influence of Greek Christianity. In 576, it withstood a siege by the G\u00f6kt\u00fcrks under Bokhan, aided by Anagai, the last khan (ruler) of the Uturgurs (tribe of Huns)."}
+{"text":"In the 7th century, the Turkic Khazars took control of Bospor, and the city was named Karcha from Turkic \"kar\u015f\u0131\" meaning 'opposite, facing.' The main local government official during Khazar times was the tudun. Christianity was a major religion in Kerch during the period of Khazar rule. Kerch's Church of St. John the Baptist was founded in 717; thus, it is the oldest church in Ukraine. The \"Church of the Apostles\" existed during the late 8th and early 9th centuries, according to the \"Life of the Apostle Andrew\" by Epiphanius of Salamis."}
+{"text":"Following the fall of Khazaria to Kievan Rus' in the late 10th century, Kerch became the centre of a Khazar successor-state. Its ruler, Georgius Tzul, was deposed by a Byzantine-Rus expedition in 1016."}
+{"text":"From the 10th century, the city was a Slavic settlement named Korchev, which belonged to the Tmutarakan principality. Kerch was a center of trade between Russia', Crimea, Caucasus and the Orient."}
+{"text":"In the 13th century, the Crimea including Korchev was invaded by Mongols. After Mongols, the city became the Genoese colony of Cerco (Cherkio) in 1318 and served as a sea harbour, where townspeople worked at salt-works and fishery."}
+{"text":"In 1475, city was passed to the Ottoman Empire. During the Turkish rule Kerch fell into decay and served as a slave-market. It repeatedly suffered from raids of Zaporizhian Cossacks."}
+{"text":"In response to strengthening of Russian military forces in Azov area, the Turks built a fortress, named Yenikale, near Kerch on the shore of Kerch Strait. The fortress was completed by 1706. In 1771 the Imperial Russian Army invaded Crimea and approached Yenikale. The Turks decided to abandon the fortress, though reinforcements from the Ottoman Empire had arrived a few days earlier. By the Peace Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji in 1774, Kerch and Yenikale were ceded to Russia. As a result, the Turkish heritage has been almost completely wiped out."}
+{"text":"In 1790 Russian naval forces under the command of admiral Fyodor Ushakov defeated the Turkish fleet at the Battle of Kerch Strait."}
+{"text":"Because of its location, from 1821 Kerch developed into an important trade and fishing port. The state museum of ancient times and a number of educational institutions were opened in the city. The ironwork factory was built in 1846 based on a huge iron ore deposit found on Kerch Peninsula."}
+{"text":"During the Crimean War the city was devastated by British forces in 1855."}
+{"text":"In the late 19th century, mechanical and cement factories were built, and tinned food and tobacco factories were established."}
+{"text":"By 1900, Kerch was connected to a railroad system, and the fairway of Kerch Strait was deepened and widened. At this time, the population had reached 33,000."}
+{"text":"After suffering a decline during the First World War and the Russian Civil War, the city resumed its growth in the late 1920s, with the expansion of various industries, iron ore and metallurgy in particular, and by 1939 its population had reached 104,500."}
+{"text":"On the Eastern Front of World War II from 1941 to 1945, Kerch was the site of heavy fighting between Red Army and Axis forces."}
+{"text":"After fierce fighting, the city was taken by the Germans in November 1941. On 31 December 1941 the 302nd Mountain Rifle Division recaptured the city following a naval landing operation at Kamysh Burun, to the south of the city, five days earlier. In 1942 the Germans occupied the city again. The Red Army lost over 160,000 men, either killed or taken POW at the Battle of the Kerch Peninsula. On 31 October 1943 another Soviet naval landing operation was launched. Kerch returned to Soviet control on 11 April 1944."}
+{"text":"The German invaders killed about 15,000 citizens and deported another 14,000 during their occupation."}
+{"text":"Evidence of German atrocities in Kerch was presented in the Nuremberg trials. After the war, the city was awarded the title Hero City."}
+{"text":"The Adzhimushkay catacombs (mines) in the city's suburbs were the site of guerrilla warfare against the occupation. Thousands of soldiers and refugees found shelter inside, and were involved in counterattacks. Many of them died underground, including those who died of numerous alleged poison gas attacks. Later, a memorial was established on the site."}
+{"text":"On 11 November 2007 there was a great storm that passed through the city, causing much damage and an ecological disaster as a few ships, including an oil tanker, were shipwrecked and blocked the Kerch Strait."}
+{"text":"On 17 October 2018, a student killed 20 people and himself at Kerch Polytechnic College."}
+{"text":"Kerch has a humid subtropical climate (K\u00f6ppen climate classification \"Cfa\") with cool to cold winters and warm to hot summers."}
+{"text":"The city municipality stretches over a substantial area and includes several separate neighborhoods that are part of the Kerch city: Eltigen (Heroyevskoe), Kamysh-Burun (Arshyntsevo), Port Krym, Adzhimushkai, and Tuzla Island."}
+{"text":"Today Kerch is considered as a city of metallurgists, shipbuilders and fishermen, and also has a significant tourism sector."}
+{"text":"The largest enterprises in the city are:"}
+{"text":"Construction-materials, food processing, and light industries play a significant role in the city's economy. Kerch is also a fishing fleet base and an important processing centre for numerous fish products."}
+{"text":"Because of its location on the shores of the Azov and Black seas, Kerch became a popular summer resort among people of the former USSR. Also, several mud-cure sources are located near the city. Despite the seaside location, the tourist appeal of Kerch today is limited because of the industrial character of the city and associated pollution."}
+{"text":"Despite the lack of beaches in the town's area, there are a lot of them at a distance of 20 minutes' travel by bus, train or taxi."}
+{"text":"Kerch has a number of impressive architectural and historical monuments. Ancient historical heritage of the city makes it attractive for scientific tourism. The most notable of Kerch's sights are:"}
+{"text":"Kerch has a harbour on the Kerch Strait, which makes it a key to the Sea of Azov, several railroad terminals and a small airport. The Kerch Strait ferry line across the Kerch Strait was established in 1953, connecting Crimea and the Krasnodar Krai (Port Krym \u2013 Port Kavkaz line); (as of November 2009) there are also plans for a Kerch-Poti ferry route."}
+{"text":"Tavrida Highway work in progress along Kerch railway (two rails) highway (four lanes) bridge to connect Rostov Krasnodar with peninsula."}
+{"text":"There are several ports in Kerch, including Kerch Maritime Trading Port, Kerch Maritime Fishing Port, Port Krym (ferry crossing), Kamysh-Burun Port."}
+{"text":"The railroad terminals include: Kerch, Kerch I, Kerch Factory, Arshyntsevo, and Krym."}
+{"text":"Bus network connects Kerch to other cities in Crimea and Krasnodar Krai."}
+{"text":"On 25 April 2010, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed an agreement to build a bridge across the Kerch Strait. In January 2015, with Russia now in control, the contract for the construction of the bridge was awarded to Arkady Rotenberg's S.G.M. Group. In May 2015 construction commenced, and the road section of the bridge was opened to traffic in May 2018. The rail section was opened in 2019, with Russian president Vladimir Putin taking the first train across on December 23."}
+{"text":"Archaeological digs in Kerch were launched under Russian auspices in the middle of the 19th century. Since then the site of ancient Panticapaeum city on Mount Mithridat has been systematically excavated. Located nearby are several ancient burial mounds (kurgans) and excavated cities. Kerch takes part in UNESCO's \"Silk Road\" programme."}
+{"text":"Treasures and historical findings of Kerch adorn the collections of major museums around the world. Such as: the Hermitage, the Louvre, the British Museum, the Berlin Museum, the Moscow State Museum of fine arts and many others."}
+{"text":"Currently, excavations at ancient fortresses of Kerch are led by scientists from Russia, Ukraine, and Poland."}
+{"text":"A minor planet 2216 Kerch discovered in 1971 by Soviet astronomer Tamara Mikhailovna Smirnova is named after the city."}
+{"text":"The Battle of the Great Redan () was a major battle during the Crimean War, fought between British forces against Russia on 18 June and 8 September 1855 as a part of the Siege of Sevastopol. The French army successfully stormed the Malakoff redoubt, whereas a simultaneous British attack on the Great Redan to the south of the Malakoff was repulsed. Contemporary commentators have suggested that, although the Redan became so important to the Victorians, it was probably not vital to the taking of Sevastopol. The fort at Malakhov was much more important and it was in the French sphere of influence. When the French stormed it after an eleven-month siege that the final, the British attack on the Redan became somewhat unnecessary."}
+{"text":"Russia attacked the Ottoman Empire in 1853, aiming for territorial aggrandisement, but their invasion was repulsed. In early 1854 the British and French governments issued an ultimatum to Russia that they should cease their aggression against the Ottomans, but this was refused, resulting in a state of war existing between these states. The Franco-British navies entered the Black Sea with the intent of destroying the Russian fleet. After destroying the secondary naval base at Odessa their attention turned to the main Russian base at Sevastopol."}
+{"text":"Landing at Eupatoria, the allies swept aside the Russian army at the Battle of the Alma. The allies then marched to Sevastopol and invested it. Russian attempts to break the siege failed, and the French refused to make aggressive movements against the Russian fortifications, even refusing to attack after the \"second bombardment\". This changed on 16 May 1855 when P\u00e9lissier assumed command of the French Army, and agreed with Lord Raglan that the Russian fortifications should be assaulted. This led to three allied offensives in the summer of 1855, the last of which overwhelmed the Russian defences."}
+{"text":"By spring of 1855 the British controlled the central sector of the allied line. The British \"right attack\" faced the Russian \"Bastion No. 3\" commonly called the \"Great Redan\". The British \"left attack\" faced \"Bastion No. 4\", called the \"Flagstaff Bastion\" by the British. On the left the French 1eme Corps faced Bastions no. 4, 5 and 6 (it being an angle in the Russian line the British and French sectors met at Bastion No. 4) and the right the French 2e Corps faced Bastions No. 2 (Little Redan) and No. 3 (Malakoff)."}
+{"text":"The first allied offensive was intended to gain ground and advance the parallels. After several days of bombardment the two attacks, one British and one French, were completely successful and the allies held all their gains against heavy Russian counterattacks. The British attack was against \"The Quarries\" and was carried out by parts of the Light and 2nd Divisions (right attack). They advanced the lines sufficiently that the Great Redan was within attack range. A simultaneous attack on the Mamelon by the French enabled them to advance their parallels against the Malakoff."}
+{"text":"With the successes of early June, it was decided to attempt a general assault against the whole Russian line. On 17 June the \"fourth bombardment\" silenced the Russian batteries and an assault on the 18th was proposed. Lord Raglan proposed a further two hours of bombardment to destroy any repairs that had been made during the night and suppress the defences. P\u00e9lissier proposed to attack at dawn (0300 hrs) without further preparation, and Raglan agreed to attack as soon as practicable after the French assault went in."}
+{"text":"The British assault force consisted of three brigades, with the plan being to occupy the flanks of the Great Redan with 1st brigade, Light Division under Colonel Yea on the right and 1st brigade, 4th Division under Major General Sir John Campbell on the left. Then a brigade of the 2nd Division under Colonel Charles Trollop would assault the Redan proper. The other four brigades of these three divisions (2nd Division had three brigades at this time) were in reserve ready to attack past the Redan. On the left attack Sir Richard England's 3rd Division was ordered to make a demonstration against Redoubt No. 4, and the 1st Division was brought up as a final reserve."}
+{"text":"Raglan, seeing the French being slaughtered, launched his attack to divert Russian attention and allow the French to retreat. Only Yea's and Campbell's brigades (10 battalions) advanced, and they were caught in a crossfire and suffered heavy casualties, including both brigade commanders. The attack was aborted, and the British suffered 1,433 casualties, almost all in the two attacking brigades and almost all within a few dozen yards of the start line."}
+{"text":"In the aftermath of the attack the French were unwilling to launch another attack until they had dug their way forward and secured a good start line. This took six weeks. The allies had used the distraction of the attack to move forces across the River Chernaya, which precipitated a Russian counterattack in August and a further bombardment (fifth) which lasted for ten days, but was not followed by an attack as French preparations were incomplete."}
+{"text":"Third and Final Offensive, 7\u20139 September 1855."}
+{"text":"With the French having dug forward the allies planned to launch another attack, and the plan was set on 3 September. The attack would open with the French 2nd Corps assaulting the right sector, from the Little Redan to the Malakoff with up to 25,000 men. The British would then assault the Great Redan in the centre, and with that taken the French 1st Corps would assault the Flagstaff and Central Bastions."}
+{"text":"On 7 September the bombardment opened, and continued until noon of the 8th. The French 1st Corps then launched their attack on the Malakoff and Little Redan, which were initially successful. The signal for the British to begin their assault (the flag of St. George raised over the Mamelon) was then made and the British then assaulted the Great Redan."}
+{"text":"The British assault force was drawn from the Light and 2nd Divisions. Each division placed part of a battalion (200 men each) forward as skirmishers and held a brigade divided into two lines (assault and support) of two battalions (all of 500 men). Behind them the other brigade of the division was in reserve, and a final reserve consisting of 1st brigade, Highland Division with 1st brigade, 4th Division attached was behind them. On the left attack were the 1st and 3rd Divisions, and 2nd brigade of the 4th Division. Only the covering battalions, first assault line and half the supporting assault line (10 battalions) were engaged."}
+{"text":"The two lead brigades were under the command of Acting Brigadier General Charles Ash Windham (known as the Hero of the Redan) and Brigadier General Horatio Shirley. In the face of devastating Russian fire, Shirley's brigade was driven back by a crossfire from the left, but Windham's brigade stormed the Great Redan and the broke the Vladimirski Regiment. Windham was promoted Major General out of turn for 'his distinguished conduct in having with the greatest intrepidity and coolness headed the column of attack which assaulted the enemy's defences."}
+{"text":"Major Augusta Welsford commanded a ladder party in the initial wave the assault on the Great Redan. He crossed a broad open space of 400 metres while against a hail of bullets. He made it to a ditch in front of the work and proceeded to climb one of the ladders which had been placed against the counterscarp. As he rose above the lip of an embrasure at the top, a gun was fired from within which blew his head off. Welsford was highly regarded in his regiment."}
+{"text":"The other Nova Scotian officer, William Buck Carthew Augustus Parker also crossed the 400 metres field under fire, successfully scaled the counterscarp, got inside the work, and made a vain attempt to stem the mounting British retreat before a hail of bullets swept him into the ditch."}
+{"text":"Windham's brigade had stormed and occupied the Redan, routing the defenders, and the signal (signal rockets fired from the Lancaster Battery) was made to General la Salles, commanding the French 1st Corps, to assault the Flagstaff Bastion (which the British left attack would co-operate with). However, la Salles failed to promptly launch his attack and the guns of the Flagstaff Bastion swept the approaches to the Great Redan, stopping the British supports coming forward. For two hours Windham's men held the Great Redan, and the British infantry put a heavy fire on the Russian reserve line."}
+{"text":"The local Russian commander, Colonel Ventsel of the Vladimirski Regiment, was unable to rally his panicked troops, but as senior officer on the ground ordered the Selenginski and Iakutski regiments to make a charge with the bayonet. The British troops occupying the Redan had been fighting for hours and were short on ammunition. With the French on the left not launching their attack, and 3,000 Russians in close order columns coming on with the bayonet. Windham ordered a withdrawal to the ditch in front of the Great Redan. The Selenginski reoccupied the Redan, and repulsed some minor attacks by the British infantry. The French 1st Corps finally launched a faltering attack, but halted it."}
+{"text":"The French attacks on the Malakoff and Little Redan and the British attacks on the Great Redan were initially successful, but the geography of the Malakoff (a tower surrounded by a moat) enabled the French to retain possession of the position in spite of heavy Russian counterattacks. The two Redans, being essentially open-backed walls, were not suitable for defence from the rear, and could not be maintained without large numbers. Both the French and the British in these positions could not hold them."}
+{"text":"James Simpson, commander of the British Army following the death of Lord Raglan, ordered another assault the next morning by the Highland and 3rd Divisions, but at 2300 hrs the Russians exploded their magazines and retreated from the Great Redan. It was occupied at dawn by the highlanders. The Siege of Sevastopol was over, and the Russian Black Sea Fleet annihilated."}
+{"text":"In the first attack (18 June 1855) the British suffered 1,433 casualties, \"vis\" 155 killed, 1,126 wounded and 152 missing. Around half the wounded were classified as \"sightly wounded\""}
+{"text":"In the second attack the British suffered 2,447 casualties, \"vis\" 385 killed, 1,886 wounded and 176 missing. The approximately 2\/3rds of the wounded were classified as \"slightly wounded\"."}
+{"text":"Russian casualties for these actions are conflated with the French attacks that occurred simultaneously. On 18 June the Russians suffered 4,352 casualties (700 killed, 2828 severely wounded, 860 slightly wounded and 14 missing). On 8 September they suffered 11,692 casualties (2,685 killed, 6,064 severely wounded, 1,180 slightly wounded and 1,764 missing). Of these 16,044 casualties suffered in the two joint assaults it is probable about a quarter were suffered in the British sector or 4,000 overall."}
+{"text":"Right Attack (15 battalions, ca. 11,000 engaged)"}
+{"text":"The Left attack and the reserve force of the right attack were not engaged. The support force of 2nd Brigade, Light Division (19th and 88th Foot) and the 95th Foot did not attack."}
+{"text":"Memorial to fallen Thomas Edwin Roberts, Royal Welsh Fusileers, Sergeant, of Holywell, North Wales."}
+{"text":"The Battle of Balaclava, fought on 25 October 1854 during the Crimean War, was part of the Siege of Sevastopol (1854\u201355), an Allied attempt to capture the port and fortress of Sevastopol, Russia's principal naval base on the Black Sea. The engagement followed the earlier Allied victory in September at the Battle of the Alma, where the Russian General Menshikov had positioned his army in an attempt to stop the Allies progressing south towards their strategic goal. Alma was the first major encounter fought in the Crimean Peninsula since the Allied landings at Kalamita Bay on 14 September, and was a clear battlefield success; but a tardy pursuit by the Allies failed to gain a decisive victory, allowing the Russians to regroup, recover and prepare their defence."}
+{"text":"The Russians split their forces. Defending within the allied siege lines was primarily the Navy manning the considerable static defenses of the city and threatening the allies from without was the mobile Army under General Menshikov."}
+{"text":"The Allies decided against a slow assault on Sevastopol and instead prepared for a protracted siege. The British, under the command of Lord Raglan, and the French, under Canrobert, positioned their troops to the south of the port on the Chersonese Peninsula: the French Army occupied the bay of Kamiesch on the west coast whilst the British moved to the southern port of Balaclava. However, this position committed the British to the defence of the right flank of the Allied siege operations, for which Raglan had insufficient troops. Taking advantage of this exposure, the Russian General Liprandi, with some 25,000 men, prepared to attack the defences around Balaclava, hoping to disrupt the supply chain between the British base and their siege lines."}
+{"text":"As the Allied siege guns bombarded Sevastopol the Russian reserves were moving to the Crimea. The Russians sought to relieve Sevastopol from bombardment by marching newly arrived reinforcements from the Danubian front. This force of Russian reinforcements would strike at the allies' main port of supply\u2014Balaclava. At the forefront of these reinforcements was the 12th Infantry Division \u2013 part of the Russian 4th Corps \u2013 under General Pavel Liprandi. This division, consisting of the Azovsky, Dnieper, Ukraine and Odessa regiments, along with four batteries of artillery, had arrived from Bessarabia; by the time the division had reached the Crimea, Menshikov had decided on the plan to use them to attack the Allied rear from Chorgun, and march on Balaclava."}
+{"text":"The vulnerability of Balaclava was well known to both sides. Undertaking the siege operations around Sevastopol whilst securing the Allies' eastern flank was stretching the resources of Raglan's dwindling forces \u2013 British casualties at the Alma had been high, and many were still suffering from the cholera epidemic; others simply fell sick from exhaustion. With the arrival of further Russian reinforcements, Menshikov's total force in theatre (including 12 Division) numbered around 65,000. The remainder of 4th Corps \u2013 10 and 11 Divisions \u2013 were also heading towards the Crimea, but Menshikov, under pressure from Nicholas I to strike back at the Allies, decided not to wait for these troops before beginning the attack."}
+{"text":"Recent intelligence received by the British had indicated a major Russian attack was imminent. After a considerable number of false alarms the previous week, however, Raglan failed to act, believing that they were needlessly exhausting his men who were turned out on every report. But this latest intelligence proved accurate, and early on 25 October, just before 05:00, Liprandi's troops of the 'Chorgun Detachment' left their camp and marched off in silence towards the Balaclava valleys."}
+{"text":"In accordance with his usual practice Lucan had gone forward at daybreak to inspect the redoubts and outposts, accompanied by his staff: Lord George Paget, Lord William Paulet, and Major Thomas McMahon. As they approached Canrobert's Hill, two signal flags were observed, signifying the approach of the Russians. Paget, commanding officer of the 4th Light Dragoons (and commanding officer of the Light Brigade in Cardigan's absence), later recalled the moment when they realized something was wrong:"}
+{"text":"\"Hello,\" said Lord William, \"there are two flags flying; what does it mean?\" \"Why, that surely is the signal that the enemy is approaching,\" said Major McMahon. \"Are you quite sure?\" we replied. Hardly were the words out of McMahon's mouth, when bang went a cannon from the redoubt in question, fired on the advancing masses of the enemy."}
+{"text":"The Russians dash at the Highlanders. The ground flies beneath their horses' feet; gathering speed at every stride, they dash on towards that thin red streak topped with a line of steel."}
+{"text":"Meanwhile, the main part of Ryzhov's cavalry remained static on the southern slopes of the Causeway Heights, some 800 yards (~730 m) from Scarlett's Heavy Brigade still moving south-east in the South Valley. The eight squadrons of the Heavy Brigade consisted of two each from the Scots Greys, the 6th Dragoons, 4th Dragoon Guards, and the 5th Dragoon Guards; the brigade's remaining two squadrons from the 1st Royal Dragoons were left in their original position to the west of No.6 redoubt. Although outnumbering the British by two or three to one and having the advantage of the high ground, the Russians seemed shaken by the unexpected presence of Scarlett's cavalry."}
+{"text":"10:45. Lord Raglan wishes the cavalry to advance rapidly to the front \u2013 follow the enemy and try to prevent the enemy carrying away the guns \u2013 Troop Horse Artillery may accompany \u2013 French cavalry is on your left. R Airey. Immediate."}
+{"text":"Having read the order scribbled down by Airey, Raglan summoned Captain Louis Nolan of the 15th The King's Hussars, Airey's hot-tempered aide-de-camp, to deliver it to Lucan. As he turned his horse to head directly down the escarpment, Raglan called after him, \"Tell Lord Lucan the cavalry is to attack immediately.\" These words sealed the fate of the Light Brigade."}
+{"text":"Lucan was puzzled by Raglan's imprecise order. There was no mention of heights \u2013 it referred instead to the front \u2013 and gone were all references to infantry. He was to try to 'prevent the enemy carrying away the guns' but from his position he could not see any guns being carried away. When Lucan questioned the order an excited Nolan told him he was to attack immediately."}
+{"text":"\"I know it,\" said Lucan. \"But Lord Raglan will have it. We have no choice but to obey.\""}
+{"text":"The Light Brigade had formed up in two lines. The 13th Light Dragoons, the 17th Lancers, and the 11th Hussars, formed the first line (the latter regiment was soon moved behind the Lancers to reduce the width of the front). Paget commanded the second line formed by the 4th Light Dragoons and the 8th Hussars. Once the brigade had moved off, Lucan would follow with the Heavy Brigade in support."}
+{"text":"The Taurida Governorate (, modern spelling , ; , ; , ) or the Government of Taurida, was a historical governorate of the Russian Empire. It included the Crimean Peninsula and the mainland between the lower Dnieper River and the coasts of the Black Sea and Sea of Azov. It was formed after the Taurida Oblast was abolished in 1802 in the course of Paul I's administrative reform of the South-Western territories that had been annexed from the Crimean Khanate. The governorate's centre was the city of Simferopol. The province was named after the ancient Greek name of Crimea - Taurida."}
+{"text":"The governorate comprised three counties (uyezds) on the mainland:"}
+{"text":"and five counties plus two gradonachalstva on the peninsula:"}
+{"text":"Before 1820 the governorate consisted of seven counties, including Tmutarakan county on the Taman Peninsula on the eastern side of the Kerch Strait. The Yalta and Berdyansk counties formed later. From 1804 to 1829 there also existed the gradonachalstvo of Feodosiya; and in 1914 Yalta county became the gradonachalstvo of Yalta."}
+{"text":"In December 1917 the governorate split, with most of its peninsular part forming the Crimean People's Republic (1917-1918), while the rest remained in undefined position including the city of Sevastopol which remained the main naval base of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Republic. The mainland counties were declared part of the Ukrainian People's Republic, yet remained under effective of jurisdiction of the Taurida Governorate."}
+{"text":"On the Third Universal of the Tsentralna Rada of the Ukrainian People's Republic proclaimed the territory of the Ukrainian Republic as comprising: Volyn Governorate, Kiev Governorate, Podolie Governorate, Chernigov Governorate, Poltava Governorate, Kharkov Governorate, Yekaterinoslav Governorate, Kherson Governorate and Taurida Governorate (not including Crimea)."}
+{"text":"After occupation of Ukraine by Bolsheviks during the Ukrainian\u2013Soviet War, the Taurida Governorate became finally split between Russian soviet republics of the Donetsk-Krivoi Rog Soviet Republic and Taurida Socialist Republic of Soviets."}
+{"text":"The governorate bordered Yekaterinoslav Governorate and Kherson Governorate to its north. The Strait of Kerch bordered the \"Free lands of the Don Cossacks\". It has natural borders, being surrounded by the waters of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov."}
+{"text":"The mainland and the peninsular parts of the region differ significantly."}
+{"text":"The total area of the governorate was of which the mainland portion consisted of and is largely black earth steppe land. The population of the whole region was 1,634,700 in 1906. At that time, the mainland part of the governorate was mostly populated by Ukrainians and Russians but had significant ethnic minorities of Germans, Bulgarians, Armenians and Jews, while major ethnic groups of the Crimean peninsula were Crimean Tatars and Russians with German, Greek, Poles, Armenian, and Karaim minorities. Major urban centres were Simferopol, Sevastopol, Theodosia, Bakhchisaray, and Yalta in Crimea, and Aleshki, Berdyansk, and Melitopol on the mainland."}
+{"text":"In 1897 289,316 people lived in the cities, constituting 19.98% of the total population. The ethnicities of the urban population were Russians (49.1%), Tatars (17.16%), and Jews (11.84%), with only 31 people living in cities who chose not to disclose their identity."}
+{"text":"In 1783, the Khanate of Crimea was annexed by Catherine the Great\u2019s Russia. Soon after this the Taurida Oblast was established. During the reign of Paul I the oblast was abolished, but soon (in 1802) re-established as a governorate (guberniya). It was a part of the Russian Empire until the Russian Revolution of 1918."}
+{"text":"Following the 1917 October Revolution, the ethnic Tatar government proclaimed the Crimean People's Republic on December 13, 1917, which was the first Muslim Democratic state. The Tatar republic covered the peninsular portion of the former governorate, while its northern counties ended up temporarily under jurisdiction of the Yekaterinoslav Governorate. However neither Ukraine nor the Crimea managed to hold on to their territories and were overrun by Bolshevik Red Guards in the winter of 1917-18. Briefly in early 1918 the bolsheviks split the governorate territories between the Taurida Soviet Socialist Republic and the Donetsk-Krivoi Rog Soviet Republic before being overrun by the forces of the Ukrainian People's Republic with military assistance from the German Empire."}
+{"text":"Berdyansky Uyezd () was one of the subdivisions of the Taurida Governorate of the Russian Empire. It was situated in the northeastern part of the governorate. Its administrative centre was Berdyansk."}
+{"text":"At the time of the Russian Empire Census of 1897, Berdyansky Uyezd had a population of 304,718. Of these, 58.8% spoke Ukrainian, 18.1% Russian, 10.4% Bulgarian, 7.8% German, 2.9% Yiddish, 0.5% Moldovan or Romanian, 0.4% Belarusian, 0.3% Tatar, 0.2% Greek, 0.1% Turkish, 0.1% Mordvin, 0.1% Polish, 0.1% Armenian and 0.1% Italian as their native language."}
+{"text":"The Battle of the Chernaya (also Tcherna\u00efa; Russian: \u0421\u0440\u0430\u0436\u0435\u043d\u0438\u0435 \u0443 \u0427\u0435\u0440\u043d\u043e\u0439 \u0440\u0435\u0447\u043a\u0438, \u0421\u0440\u0430\u0436\u0435\u043d\u0438\u0435 \u0443 \u0440\u0435\u043a\u0438 \u0427\u0435\u0440\u043d\u043e\u0439, literally: Battle of the Black River) was a battle by the Chyornaya River fought during the Crimean War on August 16, 1855. The battle was fought between Russian troops and a coalition of French, Sardinian and Ottoman troops. The Chyornaya River is on the outskirts of Sevastopol. The battle ended in a Russian retreat and a victory for the French, Sardinians and Turks."}
+{"text":"58,000 Russian troops in two army corps under Prince Michael Gorchakov fought against 28,000 French and Sardinian troops under French General Aimable P\u00e9lissier and Italian General Alfonso Ferrero La Marmora. Although the British correspondents were amazed at the courageousness and impetuosity of their attack, the assault of the Russian army was handicapped by poor organization and lack of experienced soldiers which, due to the absolute priority of reinforcing and holding Sevastopol with any available regular troops, forced their corps to consist mostly of militia."}
+{"text":"In the cover of the morning fog, the Russians advanced towards Traktir Bridge with 47,000 infantry, 10,000 cavalry and 270 cannon under command of General Pavel Liprandi on the left and General N. A. Read on the right. The two generals had been ordered by Gorchakov not to cross the river until given explicit orders. Annoyed that things weren\u2019t happening fast enough, Gorchakov sent a note to his generals with the words \"Let's start it.\" By this, Gorchakov only meant that the Russians should start to deploy their forces. Unfortunately his generals interpreted his words as his order to attack and they acted accordingly, although reserve forces were still en route to the battlefield."}
+{"text":"The bravery of Sardinian troops and the French soldiers of the 50th, 82nd, 95th, 97th of the line; the 19th Foot Chasseurs; and the 2nd and 3rd Zouaves was especially noted. The Italian troops' valiant effort at the battle was a contributing factor to their inclusion at the negotiation tables at the end of the war; it was there that the Kingdom of Sardinia began looking for the aid of other European nations towards the Unification of Italy."}
+{"text":"Russian Count Leo Tolstoy was a participant in the Battle of the Chernaya River. He witnessed as the Russians crossed the river and started up the hillside in the morning sunlight. Tolstoy saw Russian soldiers being killed in clusters as shells exploded around them. Before the morning was over, the Russians were forced to retreat. They left thousands of their dead comrades behind. Tolstoy was depressed and angered by the slaughter. He believed much of it was due to incompetent generals and staff. Tolstoy vented his anger by composing a , an approximate translation of which reads:"}
+{"text":"<br>This humorous song soon gained widespread popularity among the Russian soldiers, and is the only piece of verse Tolstoy is known to have written. The stanza from Tolstoy's song \"\u0413\u043b\u0430\u0434\u043a\u043e \u0432\u043f\u0438\u0441\u0430\u043d\u043e \u0432 \u0431\u0443\u043c\u0430\u0433\u0435, \u0414\u0430 \u0437\u0430\u0431\u044b\u043b\u0438 \u043f\u0440\u043e \u043e\u0432\u0440\u0430\u0433\u0438\" (\"It was smoothly written into the papers \/ But it was forgotten about the ravines\") entered as a catch phrase, in a slightly modified form \"\u0413\u043b\u0430\u0434\u043a\u043e \u0431\u044b\u043b\u043e \u043d\u0430 \u0431\u0443\u043c\u0430\u0433\u0435...\" (\"It was"}
+{"text":"The battle was a disaster for the Russians. Even with numerical superiority, the Russians had managed to lose the battle and suffer almost five times as many casualties as the Allies. Tsar Alexander had hoped for a Russian victory so that he could negotiate a peace with favorable terms. That hope was now lost. As a result of the slaughter that took place at the battle, the Russian soldiers had lost their trust in the Russian commanders and it was now only a question of time before the Russian army would be forced to surrender Sevastopol."}
+{"text":"Sevastopol (Russian, Ukrainian: \u0421\u0435\u0432\u0430\u0441\u0442\u043e\u043f\u043e\u043b\u044c; ) is the largest city in Crimea and a major port on the Black Sea. Since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Sevastopol has been administered as a federal city of the Russian Federation. Nevertheless, Ukraine and a majority of the United Nations member countries continue to regard Sevastopol as a city with special status within Ukraine. The city has a Russian majority population, with a substantial minority of Ukrainians."}
+{"text":"Sevastopol has a population of 509,992 (as of January 2021) concentrated mostly near the Sevastopol Bay and surrounding areas. The location and navigability of the city's harbors have made Sevastopol a strategically important port and naval base throughout history. The city has been a home to the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which is why it was considered a separate city in Crimea of significant military importance and was once operated by the Soviet Union as a closed city."}
+{"text":"Although relatively small at , Sevastopol's unique naval and maritime features have been the basis for a robust economy. The city enjoys mild winters and moderate warm summers, characteristics that help make it a popular seaside resort and tourist destination, mainly for visitors from the former Soviet republics. The city is also an important centre for marine biology research. In particular, the military has studied and trained dolphins in the city for military use since the end of World War II."}
+{"text":"The name of Sevastopolis was originally chosen in the same etymological trend as other cities in the Crimean peninsula; it was intended to express its ancient Greek origins. It is a compound of the Greek adjective, (\"sebastos\", 'venerable', ) and the noun (\"p\u00f3lis\") ('city'). is the traditional Greek equivalent (Sebastian) of the Roman honorific \"Augustus\", originally given to the first emperor of the Roman Empire, Augustus and later awarded as a title to his successors."}
+{"text":"Despite its Greek origin, the name is not from Ancient Greek times. The city was probably named after Empress (\"Augusta\") Catherine II of the Russian Empire who founded Sevastopol in 1783. She visited the city in 1787, accompanied by Joseph II, the Emperor of Austria, and other foreign dignitaries."}
+{"text":"In the west of the city, there are well-preserved ruins of the ancient Greek port city of Chersonesos, founded in the 5th century BC by settlers from Heraclea Pontica. This name means \"peninsula\", reflecting its immediate location. It is not related to the ancient Greek name for the Crimean Peninsula as a whole: \"Cherson\u0113sos Taurik\u0113\" (\"the Taurian Peninsula\")."}
+{"text":"The name of the city is spelled as:"}
+{"text":"In the 6th century BC, a Greek colony was established in the area of the modern-day city. The Greek city of Chersonesus existed for almost two thousand years, first as an independent democracy and later as part of the Bosporan Kingdom. In the 13th and 14th centuries, it was sacked by the Golden Horde several times and was finally totally abandoned. The modern day city of Sevastopol has no connection to the ancient and medieval Greek city, but the ruins are a popular tourist attraction located on the outskirts of the city."}
+{"text":"One of the most notable events involving the city is the Siege of Sevastopol (1854\u201355) carried out by the British, French, Piedmontese, and Turkish troops during the Crimean War, which lasted for 11 months. Despite its efforts, the Russian army had to leave its stronghold and evacuate over a pontoon bridge to the north shore of the inlet. The Russians chose to sink their entire fleet to prevent it from falling into the hands of the enemy and at the same time to block the entrance of the Western ships into the inlet. When the enemy troops entered Sevastopol, they were faced with the ruins of a formerly glorious city."}
+{"text":"A panorama of the siege originally was created by Franz Roubaud. After its destruction in 1942 during World War II, it was restored and is currently housed in a specially constructed circular building in the city. It portrays the situation at the height of the siege, on 18 June 1855."}
+{"text":"During the Soviet era, Sevastopol became a so-called \"closed city\". This meant that any non-residents had to apply to the authorities for a temporary permit to visit the city."}
+{"text":"On 29 October 1948, the Presidium of Supreme Council of the Russian SFSR issued a \"ukase\" (order) which confirmed the special status of the city. Soviet academic publications since 1954, including the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, indicated that Sevastopol, Crimean Oblast was part of the Ukrainian SSR (\"Great Soviet Encyclopedia\" 1976, Vol.23. pp 104)."}
+{"text":"In 1954, under Nikita Khrushchev, both Sevastopol and the remainder of the Crimean peninsula were administratively transferred from being territories within the Russian SFSR to being territories administered by the Ukrainian SSR. Administratively, Sevastopol was a municipality excluded from the adjacent Crimean Oblast. The territory of the municipality was 863.5\u00a0km2 and it was further subdivided into four raions (districts). Besides the City of Sevastopol proper, it also included two towns\u2014Balaklava (having had no status until 1957), Inkerman, urban-type settlement Kacha, and 29 villages."}
+{"text":"At the 1955 Ukrainian parliamentary elections on 27 February, Sevastopol was split into two electoral districts, Stalinsky and Korabelny (initially requested three Stalinsky, Korabelny, and Nakhimovsky). Eventually, Sevastopol received two people's deputies of the Ukrainian SSR elected to the Verkhovna Rada A. Korovchenko and M. Kulakov."}
+{"text":"In 1957, the town of Balaklava was incorporated into Sevastopol."}
+{"text":"On 10 July 1993, the Russian parliament passed a resolution declaring Sevastopol to be \"a federal Russian city\". At the time, many supporters of the president, Boris Yeltsin, had ceased taking part in the Parliament's work. On 20 July 1993 the United Nations Security Council denounced the decision of the Russia parliament. According to Anatoliy Zlenko, it was for the first time that the council had to review actions and come up with qualification of them for a legislative body."}
+{"text":"On 14 April 1993, the Presidium of the Crimean Parliament called for the creation of the presidential post of the Crimean Republic. A week later, the Russian deputy, Valentin Agafonov, stated that Russia was ready to supervise the referendum on Crimean independence and include the republic as a separate entity in the CIS. On 28 July 1993, one of the leaders of the Russian Society of Crimea, Viktor Prusakov, stated that his organisation was ready for an armed mutiny and establishment of the Russian administration in Sevastopol."}
+{"text":"In September, the commander of the joint Russian-Ukrainian Black Sea Fleet, , accused Ukraine of converting some of his fleet and conducting an armed assault on his personnel, and threatened to take countermeasures of placing the fleet on alert. (In June 1992, the Russian president Boris Yeltsin and the Ukrainian president Leonid Kravchuk had agreed to divide the former-Soviet Black Sea Fleet between Russia and Ukraine. Eduard Baltin had been appointed commander of the Black Sea Fleet by Yeltsin and Kravchuk on 15 January 1993.)"}
+{"text":"In May 1997, Russia and Ukraine signed the Peace and Friendship Treaty, ruling out Moscow's territorial claims to Ukraine. A separate agreement established the terms of a long-term lease of land, facilities, and resources in Sevastopol and the Crimea by Russia."}
+{"text":"The ex-Soviet Black Sea Fleet and its facilities were divided between Russia's Black Sea Fleet and the Ukrainian Naval Forces. The two navies co-used some of the city's harbours and piers, while others were demilitarised or used by either country. Sevastopol remained the location of the Russian Black Sea Fleet headquarters with the Ukrainian Naval Forces Headquarters also in the city. A judicial row periodically continued over the naval hydrographic infrastructure both in Sevastopol and on the Crimean coast (especially lighthouses historically maintained by the Soviet or Russian Navy and also used for civil navigation support)."}
+{"text":"As in the rest of the Crimea, Russian remained the predominant language of the city, although following the independence of Ukraine there were some attempts at Ukrainisation with very little success. The Russian society in general and even some outspoken government representatives never accepted the loss of Sevastopol and tended to regard it as temporarily separated from the homeland."}
+{"text":"In July 2009, the chairman of the Sevastopol city council, Valeriy Saratov (Party of Regions) stated that Ukraine should increase the amount of compensation it is paying to the city of Sevastopol for hosting the foreign Russian Black Sea Fleet, instead of requesting such obligations from the Russian government and the Russian Ministry of Defense in particular."}
+{"text":"On 27 April 2010, Russia and Ukraine ratified the Russian Ukrainian Naval Base for Gas treaty, extending the Russian Navy's lease of Crimean facilities for 25 years after 2017 (through 2042) with an option to prolong the lease in five-year extensions. The ratification process in the Ukrainian parliament encountered stiff opposition and erupted into a brawl in the parliament chamber. Eventually, the treaty was ratified by a 52% majority vote\u2014236 of 450. The Russian Duma ratified the treaty by a 98% majority (without incident)."}
+{"text":"On February, 23 2014, a massive rally took place in Nakhimov Square. Sevastopolians declared their disagreement with the removal of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, their desire for self-govermnent (in Ukrainian times, the Mayor of the city was appointed by Ukrainian authorities without any elections), and their will to be part of Russia."}
+{"text":"Sevastopol was annexed by Russia in 2014 with the rest of Crimea and since then has been administered as the federal city of Sevastopol."}
+{"text":"The city of Sevastopol is located at the southwestern tip of the Crimean peninsula in a headland known as Heracles peninsula on a coast of the Black Sea. The city is designated a special city-region of Ukraine which besides the city itself includes several of its outlying settlements. The city itself is concentrated mostly at the western portion of the region and around the long Bay of Sevastopol. This bay is a ria, a river canyon drowned by Holocene sea-level rise, and the outlet of Chorna River. Away in a remote location southeast of Sevastopol is located the former city of Balaklava (since 1957 incorporated within Sevastopol), the bay of which in Soviet times served as a main port for the Soviet diesel-powered submarines."}
+{"text":"The coastline of the region is mostly rocky, in a series of smaller bays, a great number of which are located within the Bay of Sevastopol. The biggest of them are the Southern Bay (within Bay of Sevastopol), the Archer Bay, a gulf complex that consists of the Deergrass Bay, the Bay of Cossack, the Salty Bay, and many others. There are over thirty bays in the immediate region."}
+{"text":"Through the region flow three rivers: the Belbek, Chorna, and Kacha. All three mountain chains of Crimean mountains are represented in Sevastopol, the southern chain by the Balaklava Highlands, the inner chain by the Mekenziev Mountains, and the outer chain by the Kara-Tau Upland (Black Mountain)."}
+{"text":"Sevastopol has a semi-arid climate according to the (K\u00f6ppen climate classification: \"Cfa\"), closely bordering on a humid subtropical climate. Due to the summer mean straddling it is also bordering on a four-season oceanic climate, with cool winters and warm to hot summers."}
+{"text":"The average yearly temperature is during the day and around at night. In the coldest months, January and February, the average temperature is during the day and around at night. In the warmest months, July and August, the average temperature is around during the day and around at night. Generally, summer\/holiday season lasts 5 months, from around mid-May and into September, with the temperature often reaching or more in the first half of October."}
+{"text":"The average annual temperature of the sea is , ranging from in February to in August. From June to September, the average sea temperature is greater than . In the second half of May and first half of October; the average sea temperature is about . The average rainfall is about per year. There are about 2,345 hours of sunshine duration per year."}
+{"text":"On 18 March 2014, the Kremlin announced that Sevastopol would become the third federal city in the Russian Federation, the two others being Moscow and St. Petersburg."}
+{"text":"The executive power of Sevastopol is exercised by the Sevastopol City State Administration led by a chairman. Since April 2014 the executive power is held by the Government of Sevastopol, led by the City Governor."}
+{"text":"Before 2014, the Sevastopol City Council was the legislature of Sevastopol and the mayor of Sevastopol was appointed by the Ukrainian central government. However, during the 2014 Crimean crisis, the pro-Russian City Council threw its support behind Russian citizen Alexei Chaly as the \"people's mayor\" and said it would not recognise orders from Kyiv."}
+{"text":"After the Annexation of Crimea to the Russian Federation, the Legislative Assembly of Sevastopol replaced the City Council and the mayor is appointed by the legislative branch on the nomination of the Russian President, and officially the mayor is called the Governor of Sevastopol City."}
+{"text":"Sevastopol is administratively divided into four districts."}
+{"text":"Within the Russian municipal framework, the territory of the federal city of Sevastopol is divided into nine municipal okrugs and the Town of Inkerman. While individual municipal divisions are contained within the borders of the administrative districts, they are not otherwise related to the administrative districts."}
+{"text":"Apart from navy-related civil facilities, Sevastopol hosts some other notable industries. An example is Stroitel, one of the leading plastic manufacturers in Russia."}
+{"text":"The city received millions of US Dollars in compensation for hosting the Russian Black Sea Fleet from the Russian and the Ukrainian government."}
+{"text":"There are seven types of transport in Sevastopol:"}
+{"text":"Sevastopol Shipyard comprises three facilities that together repair, modernise, and re-equip Russian Naval ships and submarines. The Sevastopol International Airport is used as a military aerodrome at the moment and being reconstructed to be used by international airlines."}
+{"text":"Sevastopol maintains a large port facility in the Bay of Sevastopol and in smaller bays around the Heracles peninsula. The port handles traffic from passengers (local transportation and cruise), cargo, and commercial fishing. The port infrastructure is fully integrated with the city of Sevastopol and naval bases of the Black Sea Fleet."}
+{"text":"Due to its military history, most streets in the city are named after Russian and Soviet military heroes. There are hundreds of monuments and plaques in various parts of Sevastopol commemorating its military past."}
+{"text":"The population of Sevastopol proper is 443,211 (01.01.19), making it the largest in the Crimean Peninsula. The city's agglomeration has about 600,000 people (2015). According to the Ukrainian National Census, 2001, the ethnic groups of Sevastopol include Russians (71.6%), Ukrainians (22.4%), Belarusians (1.6%), Tatars (0.7%), Crimean Tatars (0.5%), Armenians (0.3%), Jews (0.3%), Moldovans (0.2%), and Azerbaijanis (0.2%)."}
+{"text":"There are many historical buildings in the central and eastern parts of the city and Balaklava, some of which are architectural monuments. The Western districts have modern architecture. More recently, numerous skyscrapers have been built. Balaklava Bayfront Plaza (on hold), currently under construction, will be one of the tallest buildings in Ukraine, at with 43 floors."}
+{"text":"After the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea the city's monument to Petro Konashevych-Sahaidachny was removed and handed over to Kharkiv."}
+{"text":"The naval Battle of Kerch Strait (also known as Battle of Yenikale, by the old Turkish name of the strait near Kerch) took place on 19 July 1790 near Kerch, Crimea, was a victory for Imperial Russia over the Ottoman Empire during the Russo-Turkish War, 1787-1792."}
+{"text":"\"Rozhdestvo Christovo\" 84 (flag of Vice-Admiral Fyodor Ushakov)"}
+{"text":"\"Mukaddeme-i Nusret\" 74 (flag of Kapudane Said Bey)"}
+{"text":"\"Bahr-i Zafer\" 72 (flag of Kapudan Pasha Giritli H\u00fcseyin)"}
+{"text":"\"Melik-i Bahri\" 72 (flag of Patrona Bey)"}
+{"text":"\"Feyz-i H\u00fcda\" 66 (flag of Riyale Bey)"}
+{"text":"23 small craft (k\u0131rlang\u0131\u00e7, pergende (brigantine) and \u015fehtiye (xebec) type ships)"}
+{"text":"These battles took place during the Russo-Turkish War, 1768-1774, on 20 June and 9 July (Old Style) 1774 south of Kerch, Ukraine."}
+{"text":"On 20 June an Ottoman force of 5 ships of the line, 9 frigates and 26 galleys and xebecs surprised a Russian force, under Vice-Admiral Senyavin, of 3 frigates, 4 16-gun vessels, 2 bombs and 3 small craft and tried to cut it off. The Russians anchored just outside the Kerch Strait and sailed toward Kerch the next day."}
+{"text":"On 9 July, the Ottomans, needing to destroy the Russian ships so their land army could cross the Kerch Strait, attacked, but abandoned the effort after it was found that the Russian bombs had a greater range. The Ottoman force that day consisted of 6 battleships, 7 frigates, 1 bomb and 17 galleys and xebecs."}
+{"text":"The de-Tatarization of Crimea (, ) refers to the Soviet and Russian efforts to remove traces of the indigenous Crimean Tatar presence from the peninsula. De-Tatarization has manifested in various ways throughout history, from smaller measures such as the burning of Crimean Tatar books in the 1920s to the full-scale deportation and exile of Crimean Tatars in 1944."}
+{"text":"The vast majority of districts, raions, villages, and geographic features in Crimea bearing Crimean Tatar names were given Slavic names shortly after the deportation of the Tatars per a decree of the Crimean Regional Committee mandating such renaming. Most places in Crimea still bear the post-deportation names, many redundant, that were imposed in the 1940s to remove traces of Qirim Tatarlik. Very few localities Bakhchysarai, Dzhankoy, , Alushta, Alupka, and Saky were spared renaming."}
+{"text":"Soviet party officials in Crimea indoctrinated the Slavic population of Crimea with Tatarophobia, depicting Crimean Tatars as \"traitors\", \"bourgeoisie\", or \"counter-revolutionaries\", and falsely implying that they were \"Mongols\" with no historical connection to the Crimean peninsula (despite their Greek, Italian, Armenian, and Gothic roots.) A 1948 conference in Crimea was dedicated to promoting and sharing anti-Crimean-Tatar sentiments."}
+{"text":"The attempts to paint Amet-khan Sultan as a Dagestani contrary to his Crimean origins has faced backlash from the Crimean Tatar community. Despite the flying ace being born in Crimea to a Tatar mother and always identifying himself as Tatar, the Russian Federation named a Dagestani Airport after him while naming Crimea's main airport after Ivan Aivazovsky instead, ignoring numerous petitions from the Crimean Tatar community requesting that the airport bearing Amet-khan's name be in his homeland."}
+{"text":"De Ghisolfi (also known as de Guizolfi, de Gisolfi, Guigursis, Guilgursis and Giexulfis) was the name of a Genoese-Jewish family prominent in the late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance."}
+{"text":"In 1419, the Genoese Jew Simeone de Ghisolfi married a reigning princess of the municipality of Tmutarakan on the Taman Peninsula named Bikhakhanim, and took possession of this area, most likely centered on the town of Matrega. The de Ghisolfi clan ruled this principality as a protectorate of the Genoese consulate of Gazaria for much of the 15th century."}
+{"text":"In 1453, the Republic of Genoa ceded its Crimean possessions to the Bank of St. George, a private enterprise to which it was heavily in debt. The Ghisolfi family continued to rule Matrega and the surrounding region on behalf of the Bank. Through such intermediaries as Khozi Kokos, they maintained relations with the rulers of Muscovy and other Russian principalities."}
+{"text":"Notwithstanding the fact that the Turks had captured Tana (Azov) and most of the settlements in Gazaria, Ghisolfi continued the war from Matrice, but with only a small measure of success. Learning that he had expressed a desire to come to Russia, and glad of an opportunity to ally with the Circassians and other peoples resisting Ottoman incursions, Ivan III of Muscovy directed Prince Nozdrevaty, his ambassador to the Crimean Tatar khan Me\u00f1li I Giray, to forward a message \"sealed with the gold seal\" to Zacharias the Jew, at Caffa. This message, dated March 14, 1484, and forwarded by Luka and Prince Vasili, both court dignitaries, reads as follows:"}
+{"text":"From subsequent events, it is evident that Ghisolfi entered the service of the khan, for further negotiations were carried on, and in April 1500, Ivan, instructing his ambassador, refers to Ghisolfi as \"Zacharias the Fryazin,\" who had lived in Circassia and is now in the service of Me\u00f1li I Giray, but who never reached Russia.\""}
+{"text":"Ivan's repeated invitations to Ghisolfi seem to indicate that he hoped the latter's services would be valuable to him in extending Russian influence on the Black Sea. Yet it is strange that during a period of more than eighteen years Ghisolfi did not succeed in reaching Russia. Whether the fact that Ghisolfi was a Jew had anything to do with the impediments put in his way, it is difficult to ascertain, for no mention of him is to be found in Jewish writings. The different spellings of Zachariah's name in Italian and Russian documents\u2014\"Guizolfi,\" \"Guigursis,\" and \"Guilgursis\"\u2014may be attributed to errors of the Russian scribes."}
+{"text":"The Black Sea bumping incident of 12 February 1988 occurred when American cruiser tried to exercise the right of innocent passage through Soviet territorial waters in the Black Sea during the Cold War. The cruiser was bumped by the Soviet frigate \"Bezzavetny\" with the intention of pushing \"Yorktown\" into international waters. This incident also involved the destroyer , sailing in company with USS \"Yorktown\" and claiming the right of innocent passage, which was intentionally shouldered by a Soviet \"SKR-6\". \"Yorktown\" reported minor damage to its hull, with no holing or risk of flooding. \"Caron\" was undamaged."}
+{"text":"At the time, the Soviet Union recognized the right of innocent passage for warships in its territorial waters solely in designated sea lanes. The United States believed that there was no legal basis for a coastal nation to limit warship transits to sea lanes only. Subsequently, the U.S. Department of State found that the Russian-language text of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Article 22, paragraph 1 allowed the coastal state to regulate the right of innocent passage whenever necessary, while the English-language text did not. Following the incident, the Soviet Union expressed a commitment to resolve the issue of innocent passage in Soviet territorial waters."}
+{"text":"In 1979, the United States launched an informal program to promote the \"rights and freedoms of navigation and overflight guaranteed to all nations under international law\". The US government said that it initiated the program because some countries were beginning to assert jurisdictional boundaries beyond traditional claims. The United States wished to stop this and, it said, diplomatic protests had seemed to be ineffective. A new customary international law could emerge if nations avoided operating their ships and aircraft in the disputed areas, and the US saw this as undesirable."}
+{"text":"In the 1980s, US warships were passing through the straits from the Mediterranean into the Black Sea two or three times a year to \"show the flag\" and to claim the right of innocent passage in the coastal states. Aside from the right of free passage, US naval activity in the Black Sea served the purpose of upholding US rights under the 1936 Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits. According to a US government official, \"the Dardanelles and the Bosporus form an international waterway\" under that convention and \"if you don't periodically reaffirm your rights you find that they're hard to revive\"."}
+{"text":"Meanwhile, \"The Rules of Navigation and Sojourn of Foreign Warships in the Territorial Waters and Internal Waters and Ports of the USSR\", enacted by the Soviet Council of Ministers in 1983, acknowledged the right of innocent passage of foreign warships only in restricted areas of Soviet territorial waters in the Baltic, Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan; no sea lanes for innocent passage in the Black Sea were designated. Soviet vessels and aircraft were routinely dispatched to observe US warships there. In the 1980s, the Soviet Union viewed the US presence in the Black Sea as an attempt to undermine improving Soviet\u2013American relations."}
+{"text":"After the 1986 incident in the Black Sea, also involving USS \"Yorktown\" and USS \"Caron\", a meeting of the Soviet Defence Council was held later in the same year. At the meeting, the Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Navy Vladimir Chernavin suggested to Mikhail Gorbachev, Defense Minister Sergey Sokolov, Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, and other senior officials that intruding foreign warships could be driven from Soviet waters by several means, including bumping."}
+{"text":"First, \"Caron\" was approached by the frigate \"SKR-6\", and three minutes later, \"Yorktown\" was approached by the frigate \"Bezzavetnyy\", while Tupolev Tu-16 bombers monitored the vessels' movements. As the US warships clipped a corner of the Soviet territorial waters, they were bumped. At 10:02 a.m, local time, at , from the coast, \"SKR-6\" bumped the port side aft of \"Caron\" at frame about from the bow. \"Caron\" received superficial scraping of paint, with no personnel injuries. \"Bezzavetnyy\", having bumped \"Yorktown\", was ordered to move away and not to contact her again."}
+{"text":"Both US warships stayed on even course after the incident. \"Caron\" left Soviet territorial waters at 11:50 a.m. local time without further incident."}
+{"text":"Both US warships reported the incident to the commander-in-chief of United States Naval Forces Europe. \"Caron\" reported that, at 13:20 local time, it was informed on channel 16 VHF by \"Bezzavetnyy\": \"Soviet ships have orders to prevent violation of territorial waters, extreme measure is to strike your ship with one of ours.\" The reply of \"Caron\" was \"I am engaged in innocent passage consistent with international law.\" \"Yorktown\", in its report stated that on 9:56, local time, it was contacted by \"Bezzavetnyy\" via channel 16 and told to leave Soviet territorial waters or \"our ship is going to strike on yours.\" Then, according to the report, \"Bezzavetnyy\" came alongside port side of \"Yorktown\" at 10:03 and bumped it by turning into the ship."}
+{"text":"The starboard anchor of \"Bezzavetnyy\" was torn away. Two Harpoon missile canisters on \"Yorktown\" sustained damage when \"Bezzavetnyy\"s bullnose passed down port quarter. \"Bezzavetnyy\" then cleared to port and took station off the port beam of \"Yorktown\". \"Bezzavetnyy\" required a minor repair."}
+{"text":"The Soviet Ministry of Defense issued a statement blaming the U.S. warships for ignoring the \"warning signals of Soviet border guard ships\" and for \"dangerously maneuvering in Soviet waters\". The incident also drew a diplomatic protest from the U.S. government."}
+{"text":"These incidents were covered in the annual review of compliance with the US\/Soviet Agreement On the Prevention of Incidents On and Over the High Seas signed on 25 May 1972."}
+{"text":"On 18 March 2014, a Ukrainian soldier and the member of quasi \"Crimean self-defense forces\" were killed in the first case of bloodshed during the Russian military intervention in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation."}
+{"text":"After the attack, the Crimean interior ministry stated that a militant from Right Sector had been detained, according to Russian media Gazeta.ru. Right Sector had previously stated (on February 27, 2014) that it did not have any intention to go to Crimea. On March 20, Crimean prosecution denied that the detention had happened."}
+{"text":"None of the accounts of this event could be verified independently. The Ukrainian and the Crimean authorities provided conflicting reports of the event. The two casualties had a joint funeral attended by both Crimean and Ukrainian authorities. The event continues to be under investigation by both the Crimean authorities and the Ukrainian military."}
+{"text":"On March 18, 2014, at 3 p.m, 15 masked gunmen attired in Russian uniforms without insignia, stormed the 13th Photogrammetric Center of the Central Military-Topographic and Navigation Administration in Simferopol, Crimea. The base was administered by Ukrainian soldiers and had been completely surrounded by pro-Russian and Crimean Self-Defense troops since 13 March. Pro-Russian forces demanded that the garrison surrender the base or otherwise they will take the center with force."}
+{"text":"Although it is unclear how the incident initially began, reports emerged of a pro-Russian self-defense member attempting to scale a wall into the base compound, and being told to get back by Ukrainian guards. The argument escalated into live gunfire being exchanged by both sides and the storming of the base itself. However, civilian testimonies indicated seeing self-defense troops and militiamen preparing for a possible storming of the base prior any confrontation."}
+{"text":"Soldier Serhiy Kokurin, a Ukrainian junior officer manning a watchtower overseeing a vehicle pool at the base, was fatally injured in the neck during the shoot-out. A second Ukrainian serviceman was shot in the neck and evacuated by several ambulances. The ambulances were granted entrance to the scene by self-defense troops, who sealed off the base to journalists. This death marked the first military fatality in the Russian takeover of Crimea. In addition to the officer, an ethnic Russian volunteer was reported killed per Crimean authorities, though it was unclear if he was killed by resisting Ukrainian troops or by accidental friendly fire (both were reported)."}
+{"text":"The storming followed with the takeover of the park located within the base's compound and the Ukrainian command center. According to civilians and journalists at the scene, a total of 15 unmarked soldiers, armed with shotguns and AK-47s, participated in the assault, supported by two military vehicles bearing the Russian flag. A Ukrainian soldier on patrol at the park was beaten by self-defense soldiers with a pair of iron rods during the capture. The soldier's condition was reported as serious, according to military accounts."}
+{"text":"Shooting continued until the Ukrainian commander, Colonel Andriy Andryushyn, was captured. He was taken hostage, along with several other soldiers, in order to gain entry into the base's nautical building, where the remaining Ukrainian personnel had barricaded themselves on the second floor, refusing to surrender. The Ukrainian commander was interrogated by Russian troops, and allegedly declared his defection to the \"People of Crimea\" afterwards."}
+{"text":"Negotiations over the surrender of the nautical building, and the Ukrainian troops inside, continued until late Tuesday evening, when talks were met over their surrender. A total of 18 remaining Ukrainian soldiers were detained and placed under arrest by gunmen. The soldiers were placed in rows and had all identification marks, weapons, and money confiscated at the behest of Crimean police. By March 24, the remaining Ukrainian troops who had been captured during the altercation were freed, unharmed."}
+{"text":"Ukrainian interim prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk accused Russia of a war crime over the incident. \"Today, Russian soldiers began shooting at Ukrainian servicemen and this is a war crime without any expiry under a statute of limitations.\" Acting Ukrainian president Oleksandr Turchynov suggested that the Russian annexation of Crimea was moving from a political phase to a military phase, following the announcement of the death of a servicemen. He issued orders on the night of 18 March, allowing Ukrainian soldiers to use their weapons to defend themselves. The Ukrainian government released a statement declaring that the steps Russia was reminiscent to those taken by Nazi Germany and its annexations of territories before the start of World War 2."}
+{"text":"The Treaty on Accession of the Republic of Crimea to Russia was signed on the same day by Vladimir Putin and the self-declared Crimean republic, formally joining the independent Republic of Crimea to the Russian Federation as two federal subjects - the Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol."}
+{"text":"British prime minister David Cameron said: \"The steps taken by President Putin today to attempt to annexe Crimea to Russia are in flagrant breach of international law and send a chilling message across the continent of Europe. Russia will face more serious consequences and I will push European leaders to agree further EU measures.\""}
+{"text":"On March 19, 2014 Russian media, citing Crimean police, reported that authorities had detained a 17-year-old nationalist Right Sector marksman from Western Ukraine in connection to the killings. Sergey Aksyonov, de facto Head of Crimea, confirmed it in Twitter. Later, however, Crimean prosecutors denied detaining any gunmen, according to Interfax. \"The information on the shooter's detention has not been confirmed. It is untrue. Unfortunately, no one has been detained yet,\" Natalia Boyarkina, press officer for the Crimean prosecutors, told Interfax-Ukraine on March 20."}
+{"text":"Igor Strelkov, the commander of pro-Russian forces in the War in Donbass in 2014, admitted in his interview he gave on November 20, 2014, he was in charge of the Center's assault."}
+{"text":"The Crimean Prosecutor General Natalia Poklonskaya investigated the incident."}
+{"text":"The day after the incident, Poklonskaya reported that pre-trial investigation services had determined the following:"}
+{"text":"Several unarmed officials of the Russian Defense Ministry came to the Ukrainian military base to discuss cartography issues. This meeting had been agreed upon by both the base's Commander and Kyiv. While they were inside the base, Crimean self-defense forces were shot outside the base."}
+{"text":"A series of shots were fired both at Ukrainian soldiers and members of Crimean self-defence forces. There were victims on both sides: a Cossack self-defense soldier was killed, and another was injured. One Ukrainian soldier from the military base was killed and another was injured."}
+{"text":"At the time of Poklonskaya's initial statement, the exact position and number of shooters were unknown."}
+{"text":"The scene was examined by six investigation groups, including criminologists, detectives from the Crimean Republic attorney office, detectives from the main department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs [of Ukraine or Russia?], and members of related departments. Poklonskaya stated that according to these experts, the incident was very similar to the snipers' attacks on Maidan Nezalezhnosti, Kyiv's central square, from February 18 to 21, 2014. Their goal was allegedly to provoke conflict between soldiers of Ukraine and the Crimean Republic."}
+{"text":"Several expert examinations were completed, including forensic medical examinations. Ballistic examinations were continuing, along with witness interviews."}
+{"text":"Meir Ashkenazi was a sixteenth-century Crimean Jew."}
+{"text":"Anti-NATO protests (including one riot) took place in the Ukrainian port city of Feodosia from late May to early June 2006, partially disrupting a joint Ukrainian-U.S. military exercise, which was canceled 20 July 2006."}
+{"text":"The military Ukraine-NATO Partnership for Peace military exercise \"Sea Breeze 2006\" exercise (in Crimea) was scheduled to take place in Ukraine starting 17 July 2006. Its aim was to \"simulate the defence of a peninsula caught between a totalitarian state and a democratic one.\" \"Sea Breeze\" manoeuvres had been held annually since 1997. Another British-Ukrainian war-game called \"Tight Knot\" was scheduled to start on 14 June 2006 (near Mykolaiv)."}
+{"text":"On 4 June 2006, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko signed a decree on preparations of the two war-games. The approval for the exercises by the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's parliament) was still pending early June 2006 because after the parliamentary election of March 2006 it resumed its work on 7 June 2006. In February 2006 the Verkhovna Rada elected before the 2006 election rejected a presidential bill on allowing foreign troops to take part in the maneuvers planned for 2006. The Verkhovna Rada was due to vote on the same bill on 7 June 2006, but decided to adjourn until 14 June."}
+{"text":"On 6 June 2006 the Crimean legislature declared Crimea a \"NATO-free territory\"."}
+{"text":"On 27 May 2006 the United States (U.S.) cargo ship \"Advantage\" anchored in Feodosia, bringing what Ukrainian Defense Minister Anatoliy Hrytsenko described as U.S. \"technical aid.\" Unarmed seamen offloaded construction materials to build barracks for Ukrainian sailors at a training range near the town of Stary Krym, not far from Feodosia. Two days later, Feodosia residents, mobilized by local chapters of the Party of Regions, the Nataliya Vitrenko Bloc, and the Russian Community of Crimea, began to picket the port, displaying anti-NATO slogans written in Russian and blocking U.S. cargo from getting to its destination."}
+{"text":"Reportedly the group of protesters rarely consisted of more than a few hundred demonstrators. They accused NATO and the United States of seeking a foothold in Ukraine. The Ukrainian defense ministry stated 2 June 2006 that the planned exercises were not connected with NATO."}
+{"text":"On 5 June 2006, Serhiy Yevtushenko, an advisor to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, was stopped at the Moscow airport and sent back to Ukraine. The following day, Russian Duma vice-speaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky and member Konstantin Zatulin were banned from entering Ukraine (were declared \"persona non grata\") based on the Ukrainian law concerning foreigners\u2019 status, \"foreigners are prohibited to enter the country if they violated Ukrainian legislation during their previous stay.\" In the case of Zatulin, Ukrainian government accused him of trying to invoke ethnic violence and work against territorial integrity of the Ukrainian state. For example, Zhirinovskiy stated: \u201cUkraine does not exist. Russian governors must sit in Kyiv and Minsk. True Russian borders are the borders of September 1917.\u201d The Russian Foreign Ministry denounced the ban as unfriendly."}
+{"text":"NATO-involved military events in Ukraine since 2006."}
+{"text":"The 2006 Crimean anti-NATO protests did not impact foreign military units to participate in multinational military exercises in Ukraine. Various military exercises (including ones with NATO troops) were held in Crimea since 2006."}
+{"text":"According to a poll by Razumkov Center in March 2011 some 51% of the Crimean residents considered NATO a threat, while across Ukraine this rate was 20.6% on average."}
+{"text":"The 1927 Crimean earthquakes occurred in the month of June and again in September in the waters of the Black Sea near the Crimean Peninsula. Each of the submarine earthquakes in the sequence triggered tsunami. The June event was moderate relative to the large September 11 event, which had at least one aftershock that also generated a tsunami. Following the large September event, natural gas that was released from the sea floor created flames that were visible along the coastline, and was accompanied by bright flashes and explosions."}
+{"text":"The June shock was a strong event with a magnitude of 6.0 that caused a nondestructive tsunami along the coast. The shock occurred at a depth of on the submarine slope near Yalta. The shock's intensity was gauged to be VII\u2013VIII (\"Very strong\u2013Damaging\") on the Medvedev\u2013Sponheuer\u2013Karnik scale. Tide gauge stations recorded waves with a maximum amplitude of at Yalta, at Yevpatoria, and at Feodosia."}
+{"text":"The September event struck the Crimean Peninsula with a moment magnitude of 6.7 at a depth of . This destructive earthquake occurred at 22:15 UTC and was recorded by several early seismographs. The shock was centered about southeast of Yalta and had a maximum perceived intensity of VIII (\"Damaging\") on the Medvedev\u2013Sponheuer\u2013Karnik scale. Near the epicentral region, fishermen reported disturbance of the sea, with tidal gauges recording waves at Yevpatoria and waves in Yalta."}
+{"text":"Numerous, very large flames were seen offshore Sevastopol, Cape Lucullus, and Yalta in the early morning following the September event. Several types of fire and flame were described by witnesses. Pale flames were up to wide and up to in height, and were visible for several minutes at a time. Other flames began with a whitish glow and became bright red; this style of flame sometimes burned for more than an hour. Bright flashes and explosions were also reported. The flames and explosions were attributed to methane or other hydrocarbon gasses that had been released from the seabed and spontaneously combusted in Phosphine (a self-igniting gas)."}
+{"text":"An aftershock that was estimated to have a magnitude of 4.9 occurred on September 16 at 08:21 UTC. The shock was described as weak, but the sea receded at Balaklava Bay."}
+{"text":"The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached Sevastopol in March 2020. The Russian government includes the cases in Sevastopol in the count of cases in Russia (the city is \"de facto\" administered by Russia, but recognised as a part of Ukraine by most of the international community)."}
+{"text":"As of 30 March 2020, there were five confirmed cases in Sevastopol."}
+{"text":"On March 13, 1986, the American cruiser and the destroyer , claiming the right of innocent passage, entered Soviet territorial waters in the Black Sea near the southern Crimean Peninsula. The warships passed within six miles of the Soviet coast, where they were soon confronted by the Soviet frigate . The commander of \"Ladny\" notified the U.S. warships that they had violated Soviet territorial waters and requested that they depart immediately. The U.S. warships confirmed receipt of the warning but did not change course. The Soviet command placed its Black Sea air and naval forces on combat readiness and dispatched border guard vessels and naval aircraft to intercept the U.S. warships."}
+{"text":"\"Yorktown\" and \"Caron\" stayed in Soviet territorial waters for roughly two hours. The situation de-escalated when the U.S. ships left; diplomatic repercussions continued for several weeks."}
+{"text":"On March 10, 1986, the USS \"Yorktown\", accompanied by the USS \"Caron\", entered the Black Sea via the Turkish Straits. Their entrance was observed by a , \"Ladny\", which was ordered to continue observation. On March 13 with their main armament pointed in the direction of the Soviet coastline, \"Yorktown\" and \"Caron\" entered the Soviet territorial waters and sailed west along the southern Crimean Peninsula, approaching within six miles of the coast. Having entered from the direction of Feodosia, the US warships sailed for two hours and 21 minutes. Both American warships also confronted the Soviet border guard vessels \"Dozorny\" and \"Izmail\". The commander of \"Ladny\", Captain Zhuravlev, reported the incident to his superiors."}
+{"text":"According to \"Izvestiya\" editor Vyacheslav Lukashin, at the time of the incident the Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Navy Vladimir Chernavin knew that the order for the U.S. warships to proceed into Soviet waters was given by the U.S. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger with the consent of President Ronald Reagan."}
+{"text":"The Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs held two press conferences concerning the incident. The U.S. charge d'affaires, Richard Combs, was summoned to the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs to receive the Soviet protest. The Soviet Union stated that the U.S. violation of its territorial waters \"was of a demonstrative, defiant nature and pursued clearly provocative aims\". Vladimir Chernavin affirmed that \"the innocent passage of foreign warships through the territorial waters of the USSR is permitted only in specially authorized coastal areas which have been announced by the Soviet government [and] there are no such areas in the Black Sea off the coast of the Soviet Union\"."}
+{"text":"In the subsequent incident of 1988, the same USS \"Yorktown\" and USS \"Caron\", while claiming innocent passage again in the Black Sea, were bumped by the Soviet vessels."}
+{"text":"The Taurida Soviet Socialist Republic () was an unsuccessful attempt to establish a Soviet republic situated in the Crimean Peninsula part of Soviet Russia. The republic was established by Bolsheviks Jan Miller and Anton Slutsky who previously participated in the Petrograd Bolshevik Revolution."}
+{"text":"It existed from 19 March to 30 April 1918 and was recognised by the Russian SFSR."}
+{"text":"Following the 1917 October Revolution, the ethnic Tatar government proclaimed the Crimean People's Republic on 13 December 1917. In January 1918, however, it was overrun by Bolshevik forces. In Simferopol a guberniya revkom was established which, however, did possess sufficient authority as the military center continued to be located in Sevastopol."}
+{"text":"To liquidate this dual authority on February 10\u201312, 1918 there took place a conference of revkoms at which participated 44 delegates (including 27 Bolsheviks). The conference was later recognized as an extraordinary congress of the Soviets of Workers and Soldiers Deputies. At the meeting, it was decided to create 14 commissariats. The Congress also confirmed the disbandment of the Council of People's Representatives and Qurultay. The local administration was transformed into a system of soviets replacing the old system of duma and land administration (zemstvo). The 14-member Central Executive Committee was established as the central administration of guberniya which consisted of 10 Bolsheviks; the rest were Left SRs. Jan Miller (Bolshevik) was appointed as chairman of the committee."}
+{"text":"The Congress, with 23 votes \"for\" and 20 \"against\", decided that the administrative center would be in Simferopol rather than Sevastopol, while the military center, which was subordinated to the central executive committee, was left in Sevastopol. The major administrative and political issues were to be decided by laws adopted at the 3rd All-Russian Congress of Soviets. The Taurida congress also approved the adoption of drastic measures for grain procurement allowing requisition and the use of armed force sending bread to industrial areas and the army."}
+{"text":"A few weeks later, on 19 and 21 March, decrees of the Taurida Central Executive Committee (CEC) issued in Simferopol established the Taurida Soviet Socialist Republic on the same territory. Areas of Taurida that lay north of Crimea were also claimed by the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic and the Ukrainian People's Republic."}
+{"text":"With the assistance of the German Empire, the Taurida Soviet Socialist Republic was quickly overrun by forces of the Ukrainian People's Republic during the Crimean Offensive. By the end of April 1918, the majority of the CEC and the Council of People's Commissars, including council leader Anton Slutsky and local Bolshevik chief Jan Tarwacki, were arrested and shot in Alushta by insurgent Crimean Tatars. On 30 April, the Republic was abolished."}
+{"text":"Following the invasion, a German-protected Crimean Regional Government was established under Maciej Sulkiewicz and, later, Solomon Krym. After the defeat of the White Movement's Volunteer Army and the reassertion of Soviet control in late 1920, the lands of the former Republic were passed to the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic under the Russian SFSR."}
+{"text":"The South Russian Government () was a Russian White movement government established by Armed Forces of South Russia commander Anton Denikin in Novorossiysk, Kuban, in March 1920 during the Russian Civil War."}
+{"text":"On 27 March 1920, Denikin was forced to evacuate Novorossiysk for Crimea, which the Whites had controlled since June 1919. However, the slipshod retreat discredited Denikin and he stepped down, succeeded by General Pyotr Wrangel, who was elected new Commander-in-Chief of the White Army by military council. The South Russian Government was dissolved on 30 March in Feodosiya. Wrangel set up a new Government of South Russia in Sevastopol in April."}
+{"text":"This attempted establishment of civil government by the White authorities was a recognition that previous neglect of civil administration by the General Command of the Armed Forces of South Russia had cost the Whites civilian support."}
+{"text":"Seraya Shapshal or \"His Excellency Hajji Seraya Khan Shapshal \" (Karaim: \u0421\u0435\u0440\u0430\u044f \u0411\u0435\u043d \u041c\u043e\u0440\u0434\u0435\u0445\u0430\u0439 \u0428\u0430\u043f\u0448\u0430\u043b; ; ; ) (1873\u20131961) was a hakham and leader of the Crimean and then the Polish and Lithuanian Crimean Karaites (Karaim) community."}
+{"text":"Shapshal was born in Bah\u00e7esaray, Crimea and studied at St. Petersburg University, where he was graduated in philology and oriental languages. During his studies he became a strong adopter of Russian orientalist V.Grigorjev's theory about the Khazarian origin of the Crimean Karaites. Immediately after his graduation at 1901 he was invited to serve as the personal tutor of the Iranian crown prince, Mohammad Ali Shah, and became a minister in the Persian government in 1907 (actually he was a Russian spy). In 1911 he returned to Crimea and became Chief Hakham of the Crimean Karaites communities in Crimea."}
+{"text":"From 1920 to 1927 he lived in Istanbul. Here he was active in the pan-Turkic movement. In 1927 while living in Turkey he was elected the head of the Karaims in Poland and in 1928 moved to Wilno."}
+{"text":"He denied any connection between Crimean Karaites and Rabbinic Jews. Shapshal is the founder of the Crimean Karaite religion and historical doctrine of Dejudaization."}
+{"text":"Under this doctrine, he changed the traditional title of \"Hacham\" to \"Gahan\" (\"\u1e24akhan\"), which in his opinion goes back to the Khazarian word \"Khagan\". In the mid 1930s, he began to create a theory of the Altai-Turkic origin of the Karaims and the pagan roots of the Karaite religious teaching (worship of sacred oaks, polytheism, led by the god Tengri, the Sacrifice). Shapshal's doctrine is still a topic of critical research and public debate."}
+{"text":"He made a number of reforms aimed at the Turkification of the Karaims and the eradication of Jewish elements from their culture and language. He issued an order abolishing the teaching of Hebrew in Karaite schools, replaced names of Jewish holidays and months with the Turkic ones, renamed \"Gahan\" the position of \"Hacham\" in consonance with the word \"khan\". According to Shapshal, the doctrine of Anan ben David was close to early Christianity, and Karaites had believed for centuries in Jesus and Mohammed as prophets. Crimean Karaites adopted the law of Moses, but continued to adhere to the ancient Turkic pagan beliefs."}
+{"text":"Between the efforts to impose a Khazarian origin for the Crimean Karaites was the \"militarization\" process of their history originated in the 20th century's inter-war Poland: the trend of representing the Karaite population of Eastern Europe as a nation of warriors."}
+{"text":"Shapshal was one of the initiators of this process."}
+{"text":"In 1945 he formally abdicated from Karaite Gahan post, submitting a statement to the Commissioner for Religious Affairs of the Council of Ministers of the Lithuanian SSR, and got a position as a researcher at the Institute of History of the Soviet-dominated Lithuanian Academy of Sciences"}
+{"text":"He co-authored a Karaim\u2013Russian\u2013Polish dictionary (published in 1974) and wrote a number of articles on the Crimean Karaites."}
+{"text":"Using his position he continued to promote his ideas, including forgery of some evidences regarding the military past of Crimean Karaites, publishing the articles about his \"discoveries\" in the Soviet Union's leading academic journals."}
+{"text":"Recent studies on Shapshal's archive have shown that his drafts include several versions of the \"original\" documents texts, evidencing forgery. In spite of that, Shapshal's ideas about Karaim warriors were adopted widely in USSR and even abroad."}
+{"text":"Thus in Trakai, modern Lithuania, visitors are often told that Karaim warriors were guards of Trakai Castles."}
+{"text":"In 1997, a commemorative coin in denominations of 50 LTL was issued in honor of the 600th anniversary of the Tatars and Crimean Karaites in Lithuania. The coin includes the image of Tatar and Karaim warriors."}
+{"text":"Some of his works (including \"History of the Karaims\") remain unpublished. Part of his collections and books are kept in National Library of Lithuania, the other in a small museum in the old kenesa of Trakai, where he died in 1961."}
+{"text":"Some of his descendants settled in Israel during the 1990s under the Law of Return."}
+{"text":"KaZantip, also known simply as \"Z\", was an electronic dance music festival that took place every year from 1992 to 2013 on the Crimean Peninsula; from 2002 to 2013, it was held in the village of Mysovoye, near Shchelkino. The entrance ticket is called a \"viZa\". It takes place for 2\u20133 weeks in August, and about 100,000 \"paradiZers\" visit each year. There is a cult of orange-coloured fashion and yellow suitcases associated with the festival."}
+{"text":"In 2014, the festival took place outside of Crimea for the first time ever, in Anaklia, Georgia. In 2015, it was to be held 18\u201328 February on the Koh Puos Island in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, but was cancelled at the last minute by the local authorities."}
+{"text":"The 2014 edition, called \"Z22\", took place in Anaklia, Georgia, due to the politically unstable situation in Crimea at the time. The Anaklia festival proved controversial from the start, as members of the Georgian Orthodox Church protested the event due to fears of drugs and nudity at the festival. The head of Georgia's National Tourism Administration also publicly claimed that he was fired over a dispute with the church about the 2014 festival's taking place in Anaklia."}
+{"text":"There is a special celebration called \"Mayovka\", or \"Happiness Parade\", which, as a rule, is held from the end of April to the beginning of May. This is the Z-national holiday, dedicated to spring, friendship, and happiness. During these days, Z-people dance, take part in a Happiness Parade, show their happiness to each other, and prepare for the big summer events."}
+{"text":"KaZantip presents itself as a \"virtual republic\", with over 300 DJs on more than 14 dance floors, playing 21 hours per day. The republic is held on a piece of land covering 60,000 square metres (15 acres)."}
+{"text":"DJs performing during KaZantip 2010 were (among others) Carl Cox, Hybrid, Marco Carola, Oliver Huntemann, DJ URI (Boston, USA), Armin Van Buuren, Josh Wink, and Seba. Season 2011 (also called \"Z19\") brought Pendulum as an opening headliner, Leeroy Thornhill (ex-keyboardist from The Prodigy) as one of the guest DJs, as well as John B, Marc Romboy, Richie Hawtin, Ricardo Villalobos, and many more."}
+{"text":"The 2012 lineup included Armin Van Buuren (Leiden, Netherlands), DJ URI (Boston, USA), Ti\u00ebsto (Breda, Netherlands), Carl Cox (Oldham, England), Josh Wink (Philadelphia, USA), Skrillex (Los Angeles, USA), Rusko (Wheldrake, England), Benny Benassi (Reggio Emilia, Italy), Vika Jigulina (Timi\u0219oara, Romania), David Guetta (Paris, France), and quite a few more."}
+{"text":"In 2013, there were performances by Bobina, Ferry Corsten, Markus Schulz, Gabriel & Dresden, Maceo Plex, Adam Freeland, and many more."}
+{"text":"The Italians of Crimea are a small ethnic minority residing in Crimea."}
+{"text":"Italians have populated some areas of Ukraine and Crimea since the time of the Roman Empire, but also during the era of the Republic of Genoa and the Republic of Venice. Some sources affirm that at the end of the 18th century, 10% of the population of Odessa was Italian."}
+{"text":"In 1783, 25,000 Italians immigrated to Crimea, which had been recently annexed by the Russian Empire. In 1830 and in 1870, two distinct migrations arrived in Kerch from the cities of Trani, Bisceglie and Molfetta. These migrants were peasants and sailors, attracted by the job opportunities in the local Crimean seaports and by the possibility to cultivate the nearly unexploited and fertile Crimean lands. Italian general and patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi worked as a sailor at least twice in the region of Odessa, between 1825 and 1833. A later wave of Italians came at the beginning of 20th century, invited by Imperial Russian authorities to develop agricultural activities, mainly grape cultivation."}
+{"text":"In Kerch, the Italians of Crimea built a Roman Catholic church, still known locally as the Church of the Italians. From Kerch, the Italians moved to Feodosiya (the former Genoese colony of Caffa), Simferopol, Mariupol and to other Imperial Russian seaports of the Black Sea, such as Batumi and Novorossiysk."}
+{"text":"In the beginning of the 20th century, the Italian community was numerous enough to have a primary school and a library. The local newspaper at that time, \"Ker\u010denskij Rabocij,\" used to publish articles in Italian. According to information contained in the Ukrainian statistics archives, the Italians of Kerch accounted for 1.8% of the population in 1897 and 2%, or 3,000 people in 1921 to 2%."}
+{"text":"After the October Revolution, many Italians were considered foreigners and were seen as an enemy. They therefore faced much repression."}
+{"text":"Between 1920 and 1930, many anti-fascist Italians seeking asylum in Soviet Union were sent from Moscow to Kerch to organise the local Italian community. According to the plans of Soviet collective farming, the Italians were forced to create a kolkhoz, named Sacco e Vanzetti for the two Italian anarchists of the same name. Those refusing to comply were forced to leave or were deported. According to 1933 census, the number of Italians in the region of Kerch had already dropped by 1.3%."}
+{"text":"Between 1936 and 1938, during Stalin's Great Purge, many Italians were accused of espionage and were arrested, tortured, deported or executed. In 1939, more Italians fled once their Italian citizenship was at risk of being lost, after the Soviet Union imposed its own citizenship onto those of foreign origin. After this, 1,100 Italians were left in Kirch and smaller amounts in other communities."}
+{"text":"In 1942, when the Wehrmacht conquered Ukraine and Crimea, the Italian ethnic minority was deported to Asia with the same modalities of the Volga Germans, who had already been deported in August of 1941. The entire Italian community, including the anti-fascists who settled in the 1920s, was gathered and sent to Kazakhstan in sealed trains. The trip started on January 29, 1942 and lasted until March, when the convoy arrived in Atbasar and the prisoners were moved to labour camps. Half of the convoy (including all the children) died during the trip, as well as many others during the detention in the camps."}
+{"text":"The few survivors were allowed to return to Kerch under Nikita Khrushchev's regency. Some families dispersed in other territories of Soviet Union, mainly in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan."}
+{"text":"The descendants of the survival Italians of Crimea account today to 300 people, mainly resident in Kerch. As of 2012, the deportation of the Italians of Crimea is still not recognised by the Ukrainian Government."}
+{"text":"There was a territorial dispute over the ownership of the Tuzla Island between Ukraine and Russia in October 2003. The Russian authorities claimed the 1954 transfer of Crimea to Ukraine had only included the continental parts of Crimea, even though the Tuzla Island had been administratively part of Crimea since 1941. Since the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea Tuzla island is a de facto part of Russia and forms a foundation for the Crimean Bridge."}
+{"text":"On October 21, 2003, the Border Service of Ukraine arrested the Russian tugboat \"Truzhenik\" that crossed the State Border of Ukraine and conducted photo and video surveillance of the island. After the incident, a respective protocol was created and the ship was handed over to the Russian border authorities. On October 23, 2003, the Ukrainian parliament issued a resolution \"to eliminate a threat to the territorial integrity of Ukraine that appeared as a result of dam construction by the Russian Federation in the strait of Kerch\". A provisional special parliamentary commission was created to investigate the case more thoroughly."}
+{"text":"On October 30\u201331, 2003, talks started between Ukraine and Russia that led to suspension of the construction of the dam. Due to the conflict, on December 2, 2003, a border patrol station of Ukraine was installed on the island. On December 5, 2003, the Cabinet of Ukraine issued Order #735p in regards to urgent measures to save the island. On July 4, 2004, the Cabinet of Ukraine issued Order #429p, which foresaw the construction of shore reinforcement structures and population transfer from the flooding territories."}
+{"text":"Following the 2003 conflict, the Supreme Council of Crimea ordered the establishment of a new settlement on the island. However, on September 6, 2006, the Kerch city administration refused to create such a settlement, as it conflicted with the administrative-territorial composition of the city."}
+{"text":"The distance to the unfinished dam that stretches from the Taman peninsula is about , with water depth along the former shallow no more that ."}
+{"text":"Disputes about right of passage were resolved by a 2003 bilateral agreement on cooperation in the use of the Sea of Azov and the strait of Kerch, which made these water bodies shared internal waters of both countries, but new tensions arose after the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea."}
+{"text":"The Crimea Operation took place in April 1918 when Crimea was cleared of Bolsheviks by Ukrainian troops and the Imperial German Army."}
+{"text":"With the assistance of the German Empire, the Taurida Soviet Socialist Republic was quickly overrun by forces of the Ukrainian People's Republic under command of Petro Bolbochan during the Crimean Offensive. By the end of April 1918, the majority of the members of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars, including council leader Anton Slutsky and local Bolshevik chief Jan Tarwacki, were arrested and shot in Alushta by insurgent Crimean Tatars, partially in reaction to the prior killing of Tatar independence leader Noman \u00c7elebicihan by the Bolsheviks earlier in February. On 30 April, the Taurida SSR was abolished."}
+{"text":"The goal of both Ukrainians and Germans was to get control over the Black Sea Fleet, anchored in Sevastopol. Former Chief of Staff Mikhail Sablin raised the colours of the Ukrainian National Republic on 29 April 1918. and moved a portion of his fleet (two battleships and fourteen destroyers) to Novorossiysk in order to save it from capture by the Germans. He was ordered to scuttle his ships by Lenin but refused to do so."}
+{"text":"Most ships returned to Sevastopol, where they first came under German control, until November 1918 when they came under Allied control who later gave the ships to the White Russians (See Wrangel's fleet)."}
+{"text":"The capture of the Verkhovna Rada of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea on 27 February 2014 is an episode of the Crimean crisis. The Crimean Prosecutor's Office considered the incident as a terrorist attack."}
+{"text":"On February 25, a pro-Russian rally organized by the Crimean Front and Cossack organizations was held under the building of the Crimean Verkhovna Rada. The protesters shouted pro-Russian slogans and demanded separation from Ukraine by holding a referendum. Before the protesters came the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of the ARC Volodymyr Konstantinov, announcing the extraordinary session of February 26. The media reported that a question about the withdrawal of the Crimea from Ukraine could be put to the session, but Konstantinov denied such rumors, calling it the provocation of the \"Makeevka team in the Crimean government\"."}
+{"text":"On February 26, two events took place in parallel by the walls of the ARC Verkhovna Rada: a pro-Ukrainian rally organized by the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, which gathered up to 10 thousand participants, and a pro-Russian rally of about 700 people, initiated by the party \"Rus unity\". Due to unsatisfactory security measures taken by law enforcement officers, there were fights between pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian rally participants, resulting in the death of 2 people of the pro-Russian rally. The pro-Russian rally was pushed to the inner court of the Crimean Verkhovna Rada, and scheduled the day before parliament's session was canceled."}
+{"text":"At 8:30, the chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Crimea Anatolii Mohyliov made an appeal to the inhabitants of Crimea, in which he informed them about the capture of the Verkhovna Rada of the ARC by unknown persons numbering about 50. At 9 o'clock Anatolii Mohyliov announced talks, but they did not have any result, because, according to Mohyliov, the unknown people refused to speak."}
+{"text":"Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, the then head of the SBU, believes that there was no forceful capture of the ARC Verkhovna Rada, as the local Crimean authorities, including the police, voluntarily transferred control over the building and weapons."}
+{"text":"Abraham (Avraham) ben Samuel Firkovich (Hebrew \u05d0\u05d1\u05e8\u05d4\u05dd \u05d1\u05df \u05e9\u05de\u05d5\u05d0\u05dc - \"Avraham ben Shmuel\"; Karayce: \u0410\u0432\u0440\u0430\u0433\u044a\u0430\u043c \u0424\u0438\u0440\u043a\u043e\u0432\u0438\u0447 - \"Avragham Firkovich\") (1786\u20131874) was a famous Karaite writer and archaeologist, collector of ancient manuscripts, and a Karaite Hakham. He was born in Lutsk, Volhynia, then lived in Lithuania, and finally settled in \u00c7ufut Qale, Crimea. Gabriel Firkovich of Troki was his son-in-law."}
+{"text":"Firkovich collected a vast number of Hebrew, Arabic and Samaritan manuscripts during his many travels in his search for evidence concerning the traditions of his people. These included thousands of Jewish documents from throughout the Russian Empire in what became known as the First Firkovich Collection. His Second Collection contains material collected from the Near East. His visit took place about thirty years before Solomon Schechter's more famous trip to Egypt. This \"Second Firkovich Collection\" contains 13,700 items and is of incredible value."}
+{"text":"As a result of his research he became focused on the origin of the ancestors of the Crimean Karaites who he claimed had arrived in Crimea before the common era. The Karaites, therefore, could not be seen as culpable for the crucifixion of Jesus because they had settled in Crimea at such an early date. His theories persuaded the Russian imperial court that Crimean Karaites cannot be accused in Jesus' Crucifixion and they were excluded from the restrictive measures against Jews. Many of his findings were disputed immediately after his death, and despite their important value there is still controversy over many of the documents he collected."}
+{"text":"The Russian National Library purchased the Second Firkovich Collection in 1876, a little more than a year after Firkovich's death."}
+{"text":"Among the treasures in the Firkovich collection is a manuscript of the \"Garden of Metaphors\", an aesthetic appreciation of Biblical literature written in Judeo-Arabic by one of the greatest of the Sephardi poets, Moses ibn Ezra."}
+{"text":"Firkovich's life and works are of great importance to Karaite history and literature. His collections at the Russian National Library are important to biblical scholars and to historians, especially those of the Karaite and Samaritan communities. Controversy continues regarding his alleged discoveries and the reliability of his works."}
+{"text":"Firkovich's chief work is his \"Abne Zikkaron,\" containing the texts of inscriptions discovered by him (Wilna, 1872). It is preceded by a lengthy account of his travels to Daghestan, characterized by Strack as a mixture of truth and fiction. His other works are \"\u1e24otam Toknit,\" antirabbinical polemics, appended to his edition of the \"Mib\u1e25ar Yesharim\" by Aaron the elder (Koslov, 1835); \"Ebel Kabod,\" on the death of his wife and of his son Jacob (Odessa, 1866); and \"Bene Reshef\", essays and poems, published by Peretz Smolenskin (Vienna, 1871)."}
+{"text":"Abraham Firkovich collected several distinct collections of documents. In sum the Firkovich collection contains approximately 15,000 items, of which many are fragmentary. His collections represent 'by far the greatest repository of all Judaeo-Arabic manuscripts' and are today held in the National Library of Russia in St Petersburg, while microfilm reproductions of all the manuscripts are held in the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew manuscripts at the Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem."}
+{"text":"This collection contains material from the Crimea and the Caucasus. It was largely collected between 1839 and 1840, but with additions from Firkovich as late as 1852. It was originally owned by the Odessa Society of History and Antiquities and was stored in the Odessa museum."}
+{"text":"Some of these documents deteriorated due to chemical treatment performed by Firkovich. Other documents which were suspected forgeries disappeared; Firkovich claimed they had been stolen. The collection was moved to the Imperial Public Library in 1863."}
+{"text":"In 1844 the Russian historian Arist Kunik, a leading anti-Normanist, and Bezalel Stern, an influential Russian Maskil, would study and partly describe the discovery."}
+{"text":"Briefly stated, the discoveries include the major part of the manuscripts described in Pinner's \"Prospectus der Odessaer Gesellschaft f\u00fcr Geschichte und Alterthum Geh\u00f6renden Aeltesten Hebr\u00e4ischen und Rabbinischen Manuscripte\" (Odessa, 1845), a rather rare work which is briefly described in \"Literaturblatt des Orients\" for 1847, No. 2. These manuscripts consist of:"}
+{"text":"Contains material from the Crimea and the Caucasus largely collected between 1839 and 1841. It was purchased by the Imperial Public Library in 1862."}
+{"text":"Another collection of 317 Samaritan manuscripts, acquired in Nablus, arrived in the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy in 1867 (see F\u00fcrst, \"Geschichte des Kar\u00e4erthums\", iii. pp.\u00a0176, Leipsic, 1869)"}
+{"text":"In 1864 Firkovich acquired a large collection of Samaritan documents in Nablus. He sold the documents to the Imperial Public Library in 1870. In sum the collection contains 1,350 items."}
+{"text":"Contains material collected from the Near East. The material was collected between 1863 and 1865. Firkovich collected in Jerusalem, Aleppo and also in Cairo. Firkovich concealed where he obtained the documents. He possibly collected from the Cairo Geniza thirty years before Solomon Schechter discovered it. Firkovich sold this collection to the Imperial Public Library in 1873."}
+{"text":"Firkovich has come to be regarded as a forger, acting in support of Karaite causes. He wished to eliminate any connection between Rabbinic Judaism and the Karaites by declaring that the Karaites were descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes. Firkovich successfully petitioned the Russian government to exempt the Karaites from anti-Jewish laws on the grounds that Karaites had immigrated to Europe before the crucifixion of Jesus and thus could not be held responsible for his death."}
+{"text":"In contradiction, Firkovich's most sympathetic critic, Chwolson, gives as a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 of his belief, after considering all controversies, that Firkovich succeeded in demonstrating that some of the Jewish tombstones from Chufut-Kale date back to the seventh century, and that seemingly modern forms of eulogy and the method of counting after the era of creation were in vogue among Jews much earlier than had been hitherto suspected. Chwolson alone defended him, but he also was forced to admit that in some cases Firkovich had resorted to forgery. In his \"Corpus Inscriptionum Hebraicarum\" (St. Petersburg, 1882; Russian ed., ib. 1884) Chwolson attempts to prove that the Firkovich collection, especially the epitaphs from tombstones, contains much which is genuine."}
+{"text":"In 1980, V. V. Lebedev investigated the Firkovich collection and came to the conclusion that forgery cannot be attributed to Firkovich, but rather it was done by the previous owners, in an attempt to increase the price of the manuscripts."}
+{"text":"For many years the manuscripts were not available to Western scholars. The extent of Firkovich\u2019s forgeries is still being determined. Firkovich\u2019s materials require careful examination on a case by case basis. His collection remains of great value to scholars of Jewish studies."}
+{"text":"Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation"}
+{"text":"The Crimean Peninsula, north of the Black Sea in Eastern Europe, was annexed by the Russian Federation between February and March 2014 and since then has been administered as two Russian federal subjects\u2014the Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol. The annexation from Ukraine followed a Russian military intervention in Crimea that took place in the aftermath of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution and was part of wider unrest across southern and eastern Ukraine."}
+{"text":"On 22\u201323 February 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin convened an all-night meeting with security service chiefs to discuss the extrication of the deposed Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych. At the end of the meeting, Putin remarked that \"we must start working on returning Crimea to Russia\". On 23 February, pro-Russian demonstrations were held in the Crimean city of Sevastopol. On 27 February, masked Russian troops without insignia took over the Supreme Council (parliament) of Crimea and captured strategic sites across Crimea, which led to the installation of the pro-Russian Aksyonov government in Crimea, the conducting of the Crimean status referendum and the declaration of Crimea's independence on 16 March 2014. Russia formally incorporated Crimea as two federal subjects of the Russian Federation on 18 March 2014."}
+{"text":"The Russian Federation opposes the \"annexation\" label, with Putin defending the referendum as complying with the principle of self-determination of peoples. In July 2015, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that Crimea had been fully integrated into Russia."}
+{"text":"Crimea became part of the Russian Empire in 1783, when the Crimean Khanate was annexed, then became part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic until 1954. During the first stages of the Russian Civil War there were a series of short-lived independent governments (Crimean People's Republic, Crimean Regional Government, Crimean SSR) but they were followed by White Russian governments (General Command of the Armed Forces of South Russia and later South Russian Government). In October 1921, the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of the Russian SFSR was instituted. After the Second World War and the subsequent deportation of all of the indigenous Crimean Tatars, the Crimean ASSR was stripped of its autonomy in 1946 and was downgraded to the status of an oblast of the Russian SFSR."}
+{"text":"In 1954, the Crimean Oblast was transferred from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Ukraine's union with Russia."}
+{"text":"In 1989, under Gorbachev's perestroika, the Supreme Soviet declared that the deportation of the Crimean Tatars under Stalin had been illegal, and the mostly Muslim ethnic group was allowed to return to Crimea."}
+{"text":"In 1990, the Soviet of the Crimean Oblast proposed the restoration of the Crimean ASSR. The oblast conducted a referendum in 1991, which asked whether Crimea should be elevated into a signatory of the New Union Treaty (that is, became a union republic on its own). By that time, though, the dissolution of the Soviet Union was well underway. The Crimean ASSR was restored for less than a year as part of Soviet Ukraine before Ukrainian independence. Newly independent Ukraine maintained Crimea's autonomous status, while the Supreme Council of Crimea affirmed the peninsula's \"sovereignty\" as a part of Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities limited Crimean autonomy in 1995."}
+{"text":"In September 2008, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Volodymyr Ohryzko accused Russia of giving out Russian passports to the population in Crimea and described it as a \"real problem\" given Russia's declared policy of military intervention abroad to protect Russian citizens."}
+{"text":"On 24 August 2009, anti-Ukrainian demonstrations were held in Crimea by ethnic Russian residents. Sergei Tsekov (of the Russian Bloc and then deputy speaker of the Crimean parliament) said then that he hoped that Russia would treat Crimea the same way as it had treated South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Crimea is populated by an ethnic Russian majority and a minority of both ethnic Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars, and thus demographically possessed one of Ukraine's largest ethnic Russian populations."}
+{"text":"Already in 2011, some analysts speculated that the Russian government had irredentist plans:"}
+{"text":"The Euromaidan protest movement began in Kiev in late November 2013 after President Viktor Yanukovych, of the Party of Regions, failed to sign the Ukraine\u2013European Union Association Agreement due to failure of Ukrainian Supreme Council (Rada) to pass promised required legislation. Yanukovych won the 2010 presidential election with strong support from voters in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and southern and eastern Ukraine. The Crimean autonomous government strongly supported Yanukovych and condemned the protests, saying they were \"threatening political stability in the country\". The Crimean autonomous parliament said that it supported the government's decision to suspend negotiations on the pending association agreement and urged Crimeans to \"strengthen friendly ties with Russian regions\"."}
+{"text":"On 4 February 2014, the Presidium of the Supreme Council considered holding a referendum on the peninsula's status, and asked the Russian government to guarantee the vote. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) responded by opening a criminal case to investigate the possible \"subversion\" of Ukraine's territorial integrity. On 20 February 2014, during a visit to Moscow, Chairman of the Supreme Council of Crimea Vladimir Konstantinov stated that the 1954 transfer of Crimea from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic had been a mistake."}
+{"text":"The February 2014 revolution that ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych sparked a political crisis in Crimea, which initially manifested as demonstrations against the new interim Ukrainian government, but rapidly escalated. In January 2014 the Sevastopol city council had already called for formation of \"people's militia\" units to \"ensure firm defence\" of the city from \"extremism\"."}
+{"text":"Crimean parliament members called for an extraordinary meeting on 21 February. In response to pro-Russian separatist sentiment, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said that it would \"use severe measures to prevent any action taken against diminishing the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine\". The party with the largest number of seats in the Crimean parliament (80 of 100), the Party of Regions of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, did not discuss Crimean secession, and were supportive of an agreement between President Yanukovych and Euromaidan activists to end the unrest that was struck on the same day in Kyiv."}
+{"text":"On 22\u201323 February, Russian President Vladimir Putin convened an all-night meeting with security services chiefs to discuss extrication of the deposed Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych, and at the end of that meeting Putin had remarked that \"we must start working on returning Crimea to Russia.\" On 23 February pro-Russian demonstrations were held in the Crimean city of Sevastopol."}
+{"text":"On the same day, more troops in unmarked uniforms, assisted this time by what appeared to be local \"Berkut\" riot police (as well as Russian troops from the 31st Separate Airborne Assault Brigade dressed in Berkut uniforms), established security checkpoints on the Isthmus of Perekop and the Chonhar Peninsula, which separate Crimea from the Ukrainian mainland. Within hours, Ukraine had effectively been cut off from Crimea."}
+{"text":"The Russian\u2013Ukrainian Partition Treaty on the Status and Conditions of the Black Sea Fleet signed in 1997 and prolonged in 2010, determined the status of the military bases and vessels in Crimea prior to the crisis. Russia was allowed to maintain up to 25,000 troops, 24 artillery systems (with a calibre smaller than 100\u00a0mm), 132 armoured vehicles, and 22 military planes, on military base in Sevastopol and related infrastructure on the Crimean Peninsula. The Russian Black Sea fleet had basing rights in Crimea until 2042. Usage of navigation stations and troop movements were improperly covered by the treaty and were violated many times as well as related court decisions. February's troop movements were in \"complete disregard\" of the treaty."}
+{"text":"Both Russia and Ukraine are signatories to the Charter of the United Nations. The ratification of said charter has several ramifications in terms of international law, particularly those that cover the subjects of declarations of independence, sovereignty, self-determination, acts of aggression, and humanitarian emergencies. Vladimir Putin said that Russian troops in the Crimean peninsula were aimed \"to ensure proper conditions for the people of Crimea to be able to freely express their will\", whilst Ukraine and other nations argue that such intervention is a violation of Ukraine's sovereignty."}
+{"text":"Russia, United States, United Kingdom and Ukraine also signed the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances, by which all these countries reaffirmed their obligation to respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine (including Crimea) and to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine."}
+{"text":"According to the Constitution of Russia, the admission of new federal subjects is governed by federal constitutional law (art. 65.2). Such a law was adopted in 2001, and it postulates that admission of a foreign state or its part into Russia shall be based on a mutual accord between the Russian Federation and the relevant state and shall take place pursuant to an international treaty between the two countries; moreover, it must be initiated by the state in question, not by its subdivision or by Russia."}
+{"text":"On 28 February 2014, Russian MP Sergey Mironov, along with other members of the Duma, introduced a bill to alter Russia's procedure for adding federal subjects. According to the bill, accession could be initiated by a subdivision of a country, provided that there is \"absence of efficient sovereign state government in foreign state\"; the request could be made either by subdivision bodies on their own or on the basis of a referendum held in the subdivision in accordance with corresponding national legislation."}
+{"text":"On 11 March 2014, both the Supreme Council of Crimea and the Sevastopol City Council adopted a declaration of independence, which stated their intent to declare independence and request full accession to Russia should the pro-Russian option receive the most votes during the scheduled status referendum. The declaration directly referred to the Kosovo independence precedent, by which the Albanian-populated Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija declared independence from Russia's ally Serbia as the Republic of Kosovo in 2008\u2014a unilateral action Russia staunchly opposed. Many analysts saw the Crimean declaration as an overt effort to pave the way for Crimea's annexation by Russia."}
+{"text":"Crimean authorities' stated plans to declare independence from Ukraine made the Mironov bill unnecessary. On 20 March 2014, two days after the treaty of accession was signed, the bill was withdrawn by its initiators."}
+{"text":"At its meeting on 21\u201322 March, the Venice Commission stated that the Mironov bill violated \"in particular, the principles of territorial integrity, national sovereignty, non-intervention in the internal affairs of another state and pacta sunt servanda\" and was therefore incompatible with international law."}
+{"text":"On 27 February 2014, following the takeover of its building by Russian special forces, the Supreme Council of Crimea voted to hold a referendum on 25 May, with the initial question as to whether Crimea should upgrade its autonomy within Ukraine. The referendum date was later moved from 25 May to 30 March. A Ukrainian court declared the referendum to be illegal."}
+{"text":"On 4 March, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia was not considering annexing Crimea. He said of the peninsula that \"only citizens themselves, in conditions of free expression of will and their security can determine their future\". Putin later acknowledged that he had ordered \"work to bring Crimea back into Russia\" as early as February. He also acknowledged that in early March there were \"secret opinion polls\" held in Crimea, which, according to him, reported overwhelming popular support for Crimea's incorporation into Russia."}
+{"text":"On 6 March, the Supreme Council moved the referendum date to 16 March and changed its scope to ask a new question: whether Crimea should accede to Russia or restore the 1992 constitution within Ukraine, which the Ukrainian government had previously invalidated. This referendum, unlike one announced earlier, contained no option to maintain the \"status quo\" of governance under the 1998 constitution. Ukraine's erstwhile President, Oleksander Turchinov, stated that \"The authorities in Crimea are totally illegitimate, both the parliament and the government. They are forced to work under the barrel of a gun and all their decisions are dictated by fear and are illegal.\""}
+{"text":"On 14 March, the Crimean status referendum was deemed unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, and a day later, the Verkhovna Rada formally dissolved the Crimean parliament."}
+{"text":"The referendum was held despite the opposition from the Ukrainian government. Official results reported about 95.5% of participating voters in Crimea (turnout was 83%) were in favour of seceding from Ukraine and joining Russia. The results of referendum were questioned; another report by Evgeny Bobrov, a member of the Russian President's Human Rights Council, suggested the official results were inflated and only 15% to 30% of Crimeans eligible to vote actually voted for the Russian option."}
+{"text":"The means by which the referendum was conducted were widely criticised by foreign governments and in the Ukrainian and international press, with reports that anyone holding a Russian passport regardless of residency in Crimea was allowed to vote. After the OSCE refused to send observers Russia invited a group of observers from various European far-right political parties aligned with Putin, who stated the referendum was conducted in a free and fair manner."}
+{"text":"Putin officially recognised the Republic of Crimea 'as a sovereign and independent state' by decree and approved the admission of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol as separate federal subjects of Russia."}
+{"text":"Accession treaty and finalization of the annexation."}
+{"text":"The Treaty on Accession of the Republic of Crimea to Russia was signed between representatives of the Republic of Crimea (including Sevastopol, with which the rest of Crimea briefly unified) and the Russian Federation on 18 March 2014 to lay out terms for the immediate admission of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol as federal subjects of Russia and part of the Russian Federation. It was ratified by the Federal Assembly by 21 March."}
+{"text":"During a controversial incident in Simferopol on 18 March, some Ukrainian sources said that armed gunmen that were reported to be Russian special forces allegedly stormed the base. This was contested by Russian authorities, who subsequently announced the arrest of an alleged Ukrainian sniper in connection with the killings, but later denied the arrest had occurred."}
+{"text":"The two casualties had a joint funeral attended by both the Crimean and Ukrainian authorities, and both the Ukrainian soldier and Russian paramilitary \"self-defence volunteer\" were mourned together. As of March 2014 the incident was under investigation by both the Crimean authorities and the Ukrainian military."}
+{"text":"In response to shooting, Ukraine's then acting defense minister Tenyukh authorised Ukrainian troops stationed in Crimea to use deadly force in life-threatening situations. This increased the risk of bloodshed during any takeover of Ukrainian military installations, yet the ensuing Russian operations to seize the remaining Ukrainian military bases and ships in Crimea did not bring new fatalities, although weapons were used and several people were injured. The Russian units involved in such operations were ordered to avoid usage of deadly force when possible. Morale among the Ukrainian troops, which for three weeks were blockaded inside their compounds without any assistance from the Ukrainian government, was very low, and the vast majority of them did not offer any real resistance."}
+{"text":"On 19 March, President Putin submitted a treaty on Crimea's annexation by Russia and a constitutional amendment to set up two new federal subjects of the Russian Federation to the State Duma. The Russian Constitutional Court found that treaty is in compliance with the Constitution of Russia. The court sat in an emergency session following a formal request by President Vladimir Putin to assess the constitutionality of the treaty."}
+{"text":"After the Russian Constitutional Court upheld the constitutionality of the treaty, the State Duma ratified it on 20 March. The Duma also approved the draft federal constitutional law admitting Crimea and Sevastopol and establishing them as federal subjects. A Just Russia's Ilya Ponomarev was the only State Duma member to vote against the measures. A day later, the treaty itself and the required amendment to article 65 of the Russian Constitution (which lists the federal subjects of Russia) were ratified by the Federation Council and almost immediately signed into law by Putin. Crimea's admission to the Russian Federation was considered retroactive to 18 March, when Putin and Crimean leaders signed the draft treaty."}
+{"text":"On 24 March, the Ukrainian government ordered the full withdrawal of all of its armed forces from Crimea. In addition, the Ministry of Defense announced that approximately 50% of the Ukrainian soldiers in Crimea had defected to the Russian military. On 26 March the last Ukrainian military bases and Ukrainian Navy ships were captured by Russian troops."}
+{"text":"On 27 March, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a non-binding resolution, which declared the Crimean referendum and subsequent status change invalid, by a vote of 100 to 11, with 58 abstentions and 24 absent."}
+{"text":"Crimea and Sevastopol switched to Moscow Time at 10 p.m. on 29 March."}
+{"text":"On 2 April, Russia formally denounced the 2010 Kharkiv Pact and Partition Treaty on the Status and Conditions of the Black Sea Fleet. Putin cited \"the accession of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol into Russia\" and resulting \"practical end of renting relationships\" as his reason for the denunciation. On the same day, he signed a decree formally rehabilitating the Crimean Tatars, who were ousted from their lands in 1944, and the Armenian, German, Greek, and Bulgarian minority communities in the region that Stalin also ordered removed in the 1940s."}
+{"text":"On 11 April, the Constitution of the Republic of Crimea and City Charter of Sevastopol were adopted, in addition the new federal subjects were enumerated in a newly published revision of the Russian Constitution."}
+{"text":"On 14 April, Vladimir Putin announced that he would open a ruble-only account with Bank Rossiya and would make it the primary bank in the newly annexed Crimea as well as giving the right to service payments on Russia's $36\u00a0billion wholesale electricity market \u2013 which gave the bank $112\u00a0million annually from commission charges alone."}
+{"text":"In July 2015, Russian Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev, declared that Crimea had been fully integrated into Russia. Until 2016 these new subjects were grouped in the Crimean Federal District."}
+{"text":"In 2017, a survey performed by the Centre for East European and International Studies showed that 85% of the non-Crimean Tatar respondents believed that if the referendum would be held again it would lead to the same or \"only marginally different\" results. Crimea was fully integrated into the Russian media sphere, and links with the rest of Ukraine were hardly existent."}
+{"text":"On 26 November 2018, lawmakers in the Ukraine Parliament overwhelmingly backed the imposition of martial law along Ukraine's coastal regions and those bordering Russia in response to the firing upon and seizure of Ukrainian naval ships by Russia near the Crimean peninsula a day earlier. A total of 276 lawmakers in Kyiv backed the measure, which took effect on 28 November 2018 and was ended on 26 December."}
+{"text":"On 28 December 2018, Russia completed a high-tech security fence marking the de facto border between Crimea and Ukraine."}
+{"text":"While initially (right after the annexation), salaries rose, especially those of government workers, this was soon offset by the increase in prices caused by the depreciation of the ruble. Subsequently, after Russian authority became established, wages were cut back again by 30% to 70%. Tourism, previously Crimea's main industry, suffered in particular; it was down by 50% from 2014 in 2015. Crimean agricultural yields were also significantly impacted by the annexation. Ukraine cut off supplies of water through the North Crimean Canal, causing the 2014 rice crop to fail, and greatly damaging the maize and soybean crops. Additionally, research shows that the annexation had a negative influence of Russians working in Ukraine and Ukrainians working in Russia."}
+{"text":"According to the German newspaper \"Die Welt\", the annexation of Crimea is economically disadvantageous for the Russian Federation. Russia will have to spend billions of euros a year to pay salaries and pensions. Moreover, Russia will have to undertake costly projects to connect Crimea to the Russian water supply and power system because Crimea has no land connection to Russia and at present (2014) gets water, gas and electricity from mainland Ukraine. This requires building a bridge and a pipeline across the Kerch Strait. Also, Novinite claims that a Ukrainian expert told \"Die Welt\" that Crimea \"will not be able to attract tourists\"."}
+{"text":"The first Deputy to Minister of Finance of Russian Federation Tatyana Nesterenko said in her interview to \"Forbes Woman\" that the decision to annex Crimea was made by Russian President Vladimir Putin exclusively, without consulting Russia's Finance Ministry."}
+{"text":"The Russian business newspaper \"Kommersant\" expresses an opinion that Russia will not acquire anything economically from \"accessing\" Crimea, which is not very developed industrially, having just a few big factories, and whose yearly gross product is only $4\u00a0billion. The newspaper also says that everything from Russia will have to be delivered by sea, higher costs of transportation will result in higher prices for everything, and to avoid a decline in living standards Russia will have to subsidise Crimean people for a few months. In total, Kommersant estimates the costs of integrating Crimea into Russia in $30\u00a0billion over the next decade, i.e. $3\u00a0billion per year."}
+{"text":"On the other hand, western oil experts estimate that Russia's seizing of Crimea, and the associated control of an area of Black Sea more than three times its land area gives it access to oil and gas reserves potentially worth trillions of dollars. It also deprives Ukraine of its chances of energy independence. Most immediately however, analysts said, Moscow's acquisition may alter the route along which the South Stream pipeline would be built, saving Russia money, time and engineering challenges. It would also allow Russia to avoid building in Turkish territorial waters, which was necessary in the original route to avoid Ukrainian territory. This pipeline was later canceled in favour of TurkStream, however."}
+{"text":"Russian\/Chechen businessman Ruslan Baisarov announced he is ready to invest 12\u00a0billion rubles into the construction of a modern sea resort in Crimea, which is expected to create about 1,300 jobs. Ramzan Kadyrov, the Head of Chechnya, said that other Chechen businessmen are planning to invest into Crimea as well."}
+{"text":"In the year following the annexation, armed men seized various Crimean businesses, including banks, hotels, shipyards, farms, gas stations, a bakery, a dairy, and Yalta Film Studio. Russian media have noted this trend as \"returning to the 90's\", which is perceived as a period of anarchy and rule of gangs in Russia."}
+{"text":"In 2015, the Investigative Committee of Russia announced a number of theft and corruption cases in infrastructure projects in Crimea, for example; spending that exceeded the actual accounted costs three times. A number of Russian officials were also arrested for corruption, including head of federal tax inspection."}
+{"text":"(According to February 2016 official Ukrainian figures) after Russia's annexation 10% of Security Service of Ukraine personnel left Crimea; accompanied by 6,000 of the pre-annexation 20,300 people strong Ukrainian army."}
+{"text":"As result of the Crimea unsettled status Russian mobile operators never expanded their operations on its territory and all mobile services are offered on the basis of \"internal roaming\", which caused significant controversy inside Russia. Telecoms however argued that expanding coverage to Crimea will put them at risk of Western sanctions and, as result, they will lose access to key equipment and software, none of which is produced locally."}
+{"text":"In March 2014, Human Rights Watch reported that pro-Ukrainian activists and journalists had been attacked, abducted, and tortured by self-defense groups. Some Crimeans were simply \"disappeared\" with no explanation."}
+{"text":"On 9 May 2014, the new \"anti-extremist\" amendment to the Criminal Code of Russia, passed in December 2013, came into force. Article 280.1 designated incitement of violation of territorial integrity of the Russian Federation (incl. calls for secession of Crimea from Russia) as a criminal offense in Russia, punishable by a fine of 300 thousand roubles or imprisonment up to 3 years. If such statements are made in public media or the internet, the punishment could be obligatory works up to 480 hours or imprisonment up to five years."}
+{"text":"<section begin=HumanRights \/>Following the annexation of Crimea, according to report released on the Russian government run President of Russia's Council on Civil Society and Human Rights website, Tatars who were opposed to Russian rule have been persecuted, Russian law restricting freedom of speech has been imposed, and the new pro-Russian authorities \"liquidated\" the Kyiv Patriarchate Orthodox church on the peninsula. The Crimean Tatar television station was also shut down by the Russian authorities."}
+{"text":"In February 2016 human rights defender Emir-Usein Kuku from Crimea was arrested and accused of belonging to the Islamist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir although he denies any involvement in this organization. Amnesty International has called for his immediate release."}
+{"text":"In December 2016, the United Nations General Assembly voted on a resolution on human rights in occupied Crimea. It called on the Russian Federation \"to take all measures necessary to bring an immediate end to all abuses against residents of Crimea, in particular reported discriminatory measures and practices, arbitrary detentions, torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment, and to revoke all discriminatory legislation.\" It also urged Russia to \"immediately release Ukrainian citizens who were unlawfully detained and judged without regard for elementary standards of justice.\""}
+{"text":"According to the United Nations and multiple NGOs, the Russian Federation is responsible for multiple human rights abuses, including torture, arbitrary detention, forced disappearances and instances of discrimination, including persecution of Crimean Tatars in Crimea since the illegal annexation. On 24 May 2014 Ervin Ibragimov, a former member of the Bakhchysarai Town Council and a member of the World Congress of Crimean Tatars went missing. CCTV footage from a camera at a nearby shop documents that Ibragimov had been stopped by a group of men and that he is briefly speaking to the men before being forced in their van. According to the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group Russian authorities refuse to investigate the disappearance of Ibragimov."}
+{"text":"In May 2018 Server Mustafayev, the founder and coordinator of the human rights movement Crimean Solidarity was imprisoned by Russian authorities and charged with \"membership of a terrorist organisation\". Amnesty International and Front Line Defenders demand his immediate release."}
+{"text":"On 12 June 2018, Ukraine lodged a memorandum weighing about 90\u00a0kg, consisting of 17,500 pages of text in 29 volumes to the UN's International Court of Justice about racial discrimination by Russian authorities in occupied Crimea and state financing of terrorism by Russian Federation in Donbass."}
+{"text":"Between 2015 and 2019 over 134,000 people living in Crimea applied for and were issued Ukrainian passports."}
+{"text":"A joint survey by American government agency Broadcasting Board of Governors and polling firm Gallup was taken during April 2014. It polled 500 residents of Crimea. The survey found that 82.8% of those polled believed that the results of the Crimean status referendum reflected the views of most residents of Crimea, whereas 6.7% said that it did not. 73.9% of those polled said that they thought that the annexation would have a positive impact on their lives, whereas 5.5% said that it would not. 13.6% said that they did not know."}
+{"text":"A comprehensive poll released on 8 May 2014 by the Pew Research Centre surveyed local opinions on the annexation. Despite international criticism of 16 March referendum on Crimean status, 91% of those Crimeans polled thought that the vote was free and fair, and 88% said that the Ukrainian government should recognise the results."}
+{"text":"In a survey completed in 2019 by a Russian company FOM 72% of surveyed Crimean residents said their lives have improved since annexation. At the same time only 39% Russians living in the mainland said the annexation was beneficial for the country as a whole which marks a significant drop from 67% in 2015."}
+{"text":"Immediately after the treaty of accession was signed in March, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Provisional Principal of Russia in Ukraine to present \"note verbale\" of protest against Russia's recognition of the Republic of Crimea and its subsequent annexation. Two days later, the Verkhovna Rada condemned the treaty and called Russia's actions \"a gross violation of international law\". The Rada called on the international community to avoid recognition of the \"so-called Republic of Crimea\" or the annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol by Russia as new federal subjects."}
+{"text":"On 15 April 2014, the Verkhovna Rada declared the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol to be under \"provisional occupation\" by the Russian military and imposed travel restrictions on Ukrainians visiting Crimea. The territories were also deemed \"inalienable parts of Ukraine\" subject to Ukrainian law. Among other things, the special law approved by the Rada restricted foreign citizens' movements to and from the Crimean Peninsula and forbade certain types of entrepreneurship. The law also forbade activity of government bodies formed in violation of Ukrainian law and designated their acts as null and void."}
+{"text":"Ukrainian authorities greatly reduced the volume of water flowing into Crimea via the North Crimean Canal due to huge debt for water supplied in previous year, threatening the viability of the peninsula's agricultural crops, which are heavily dependent on irrigation."}
+{"text":"The Ukrainian National Council for TV and Radio Broadcasting has instructed all cable operators on 11 March to stop transmitting a number of Russian channels, including the international versions of the main state-controlled stations, Rossiya-1, Channel One and NTV, as well as news channel Rossiya-cable operators on."}
+{"text":"In March 2014, activists began organising flash mobs in supermarkets to urge customers not to buy Russian goods and to boycott Russian gas stations, banks, and concerts. In April 2014, some cinemas in Kyiv, Lviv, and Odessa began shunning Russian films."}
+{"text":"On 2 December 2014, the Ministry of Information Policy was created with one of its goals being, according to first Minister of Information, Yuriy Stets, to counteract \"Russian information aggression\"."}
+{"text":"In December 2014, Ukraine halted all train and bus services to Crimea."}
+{"text":"On 16 September 2015 the Ukrainian parliament voted for the law that sets 20 February 2014 as the official date of the Russian temporary occupation of Crimean peninsula. On 7 October 2015 the President of Ukraine signed the law into force."}
+{"text":"The Ministry of Temporarily Occupied Territories and IDPs was established by Ukrainian government on 20 April 2016 to manage occupied parts of Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea regions affected by Russian military intervention of 2014."}
+{"text":"In a poll published on 24 February 2014 by the state-owned Russian Public Opinion Research Center, only 15% of those Russians polled said 'yes' to the question: \"Should Russia react to the overthrow of the legally elected authorities in Ukraine?\""}
+{"text":"On 26 February, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian Armed Forces to be \"put on alert in the Western Military District as well as units stationed with the 2nd Army Central Military District Command involved in aerospace defence, airborne troops and long-range military transport.\" Despite media speculation that this was in reaction to the events in Ukraine, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said it was for reasons separate from the unrest in Ukraine. On 27 February 2014, the Russian government dismissed accusations that it was in violation of the basic agreements regarding the Black Sea Fleet: \"All movements of armored vehicles are undertaken in full compliance with the basic agreements and did not require any approvals\"."}
+{"text":"On 27 February, the Russian governing agencies presented the new law project on granting citizenship."}
+{"text":"The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on the West and particularly NATO to \"abandon the provocative statements and respect the neutral status of Ukraine\". In its statement, the ministry claims that the agreement on settlement of the crisis, which was signed on 21 February and was witnessed by foreign ministries from Germany, Poland and France had to this date, not been implemented (Vladimir Lukin from Russia had not signed it)."}
+{"text":"On 28 February, according to ITAR-TASS, the Russian Ministry of Transport discontinued further talks with Ukraine in regards to the Kerch Strait Bridge project. However, on 3 March Dmitry Medvedev, then Prime Minister of Russia, signed a decree creating a subsidiary of Russian Highways (Avtodor) to build a bridge at an unspecified location along the Kerch strait."}
+{"text":"On Russian social networks, there was a movement to gather volunteers who served in the Russian army to go to Ukraine."}
+{"text":"On 28 February, President Putin stated in telephone calls with key EU leaders that it was of \"extreme importance of not allowing a further escalation of violence and the necessity of a rapid normalisation of the situation in Ukraine\". Already on 19 February the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had referred to the Euromaidan revolution as the \"Brown revolution\"."}
+{"text":"The Federation Council approved that Russia may introduce a limited contingent of Russian troops in Crimea for the security of the Black Sea Fleet and the Russians."}
+{"text":"In Moscow, on 2 March, an estimated 27,000 rallied in support of the Russian government's decision to intervene in Ukraine. The rallies received considerable attention on Russian state TV and were officially approved by the government."}
+{"text":"On 2 March, one Moscow resident protested against Russian intervention by holding a \"Stop the war\" banner, but he was immediately harassed by passers-by, and when the police were arresting him, a woman offered them a serious, fabricated charge against him, of beating up a child; however, her charge was rejected by the police. Andrei Zubov, a professor at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, who compared Russian actions in Crimea to the Anschluss of Austria, was threatened. Akexander Chuyev, the leader of the pro-Kremlin Spravedlivaya Rossiya party, also objected to Russian intervention in Ukraine. Boris Akunin, popular Russian writer, predicted that Russia's moves would lead to political and economic isolation."}
+{"text":"President Putin's approval rating among the Russian public increased by nearly 10% since the crisis began, up to 71.6%, the highest in three years, according to a poll conducted by the All-Russian Center for Public Opinion Research, released on 19 March. Additionally, the same poll showed that more than 90% of Russians supported unification with the Crimean Republic."}
+{"text":"On 4 March, at a press conference in Novo-Ogaryovo, President Putin expressed his view on the situation that if a revolution took place in Ukraine, it would be a new country with which Russia had not concluded any treaties. He offered an analogy with the events of 1917 in Russia, when as a result of the revolution the Russian Empire fell apart and a new state was created. However, he stated Ukraine would still have to honour its debts."}
+{"text":"Russian politicians speculated that there were already 143,000 Ukrainian refugees in Russia. The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs refuted those claims of refugee increases in Russia. At a briefing on 4 March 2014, the director of the department of information policy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Yevhen Perebiynis said that Russia was misinforming its own citizens as well as the entire international community to justify its own actions in the Crimea."}
+{"text":"On 5 March, an anchor of the Russian-owned international news channel RT America, Abby Martin, in an interview with Piers Morgan, said she \"did not agree\" with how her employer RT was covering the Ukrainian crisis, but claimed RT still supported her despite her differences of opinion. Also on 5 March 2014, another RT America anchor, Liz Wahl, of the network's Washington, DC bureau, resigned on air, explaining that she could not be \"part of a network that whitewashes the actions of Putin\" and citing her Hungarian ancestry and the memory of the Soviet repression of the Hungarian Uprising as a factor in her decision."}
+{"text":"In early March, Igor Andreyev, a 75-year-old survivor of the Siege of Leningrad, attended an anti-war rally against the Russian intervention in Crimea and was holding a sign that read \"Peace to the World\". The riot police arrested him, and a local pro-government lawyer then accused him of being a supporter of \"fascism\". The retiree, who lived on a 6,500-ruble monthly pension, was fined 10,000 rubles."}
+{"text":"Prominent dissident Mikhail Khodorkovsky said that Crimea should stay within Ukraine with broader autonomy."}
+{"text":"On 13 March, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a comparison between Crimea and Kosovo in a phone call with US President Barack Obama."}
+{"text":"On 15 March, thousands of protesters (estimates varying from 3,000 by official sources up to 50,000 claimed by opposition) in Moscow marched against Russian involvement in Ukraine, many waving Ukrainian flags. At the same time, a pro-government (and pro-referendum) rally occurred across the street, counting in the thousands as well (officials claiming 27,000 with opposition claiming about 10,000)."}
+{"text":"In February 2015, the leading independent Russian newspaper \"Novaya Gazeta\" reported that it obtained documents, allegedly written by oligarch Konstantin Malofayev and others, which provided the Russian government with a strategy in the event of Viktor Yanukovych's removal from power and the break-up of Ukraine, which were considered likely. The documents outline plans for annexation of Crimea and the eastern portions of the country, closely describing the events that actually followed after Yanukovych's fall. The documents also describe plans for a public relations campaign which would seek to justify Russian actions."}
+{"text":"In June 2015 Mikhail Kasyanov stated that all Russian Duma decisions on Crimea annexation were illegal from the international point of view and the annexation was provoked by false accusations of discrimination of Russian nationals in Ukraine."}
+{"text":"As of January 2019, Arkady Rotenberg through his Stroygazmontazh LLC and his companies building the Crimean Bridge along with Nikolai Shamalov and Yuri Kovalchuk through their Rossiya Bank have become the most important investors in Russia's development of the annexed Crimea."}
+{"text":"Though the 2014 annexation of Crimea is condemned by most governments as indicated in a UN General Assembly vote, the Russian government argued that the transfer was justified as supported by most of local population, which is apparently confirmed by local opinion polls, consistently displaying local support for the annexation. However, several authors have cautioned against using surveys concerning identities and support for the annexation conducted in \"oppressive political environment\" of Russian-held Crimea."}
+{"text":"There have been a range of international reactions to the annexation. The UN General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution 100 in favour, 11 against and 58 abstentions in the 193-nation assembly that declared invalid Crimea's Moscow-backed referendum. In a move supported by the Lithuanian President, the United States government imposed sanctions against persons they deem to have violated or assisted in the violation of Ukraine's sovereignty. The European Union suspended talks with Russia on economic and visa-related matters, and is considering more stringent sanctions against Russia in the near future, including asset freezes. while Japan announced sanctions which include suspension of talks relating to military, space, investment, and visa requirements. The United Kingdom qualified the referendum vote in Crimea of being \"farcical\", \"illegal\" and \"illegitimate\"."}
+{"text":"China said \"We respect the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine\". A spokesman restated China's belief of non-interference in the internal affairs of other nations and urged dialogue."}
+{"text":"Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called for change in EU energy policy as Germany's dependence on Russian gas poses risks for Europe."}
+{"text":"On 13 March, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned the Russian government it risks massive damage to Russia, economically and politically, if it refuses to change course on Ukraine, though close economic links between Germany and Russia significantly reduce the scope for any sanctions."}
+{"text":"After Russia moved to formally incorporate Crimea, some worried whether it may do the same in other regions. US deputy national security advisor Tony Blinken said that the Russian troops massed on the eastern Ukrainian border may be preparing to enter the country's eastern regions. Russian officials stated that Russian troops would not enter other areas. US Air Force Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, NATO's supreme allied commander in Europe, warned that the same troops were in a position to take over the separatist Russian-speaking Moldovan province of Transnistria."}
+{"text":"On 9 April, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe deprived Russia of voting rights."}
+{"text":"On 14 August, while visiting Crimea, Vladimir Putin ruled out pushing beyond Crimea. He undertook to do everything he could to end the conflict in Ukraine, saying Russia needed to build calmly and with dignity, not by confrontation and war which isolated it from the rest of the world."}
+{"text":"On 15 March 2014, a US-sponsored resolution that went to a vote in the UN Security Council to reaffirm that council's commitment to Ukraine's \"sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity\" was not approved. Though a total of 13 council members voted in favour of the resolution and China abstained, Russia vetoed the resolution."}
+{"text":"<!-- MAP IS NOT ACCURATE. E.G. Serbia does not recognise Crimea's annexation. Sub-state entities have no recognition powers --"}
+{"text":"The Crimean campaigns of 1687 and 1689 (, ) were two military campaigns of the Tsardom of Russia against the Crimean Khanate. They were a part of the Russo-Turkish War (1686\u20131700) and Russo-Crimean Wars. These were the first Russian forces to come close to Crimea since 1569. They failed due to poor planning and the practical problem of moving such a large force across the steppe but nonetheless played a key role in halting the Ottoman expansion in Europe. The campaigns came as a surprise for the Ottoman leadership, spoiled its plans to invade Poland and Hungary and forced it to move significant forces from Europe to the east, which greatly helped the League in its struggle against the Ottomans."}
+{"text":"Having signed the Eternal Peace Treaty with Poland in 1686, Russia became a member of the anti-Turkish coalition (\"Holy League\" \u2014 Austria, the Republic of Venice and Poland), which was pushing the Turks south after their failure at Vienna in 1683 (the major result of this war was the conquest by Austria of most of Hungary from Turkish rule). Russia's role in 1687 was to send a force south to Perekop to bottle up the Crimeans inside their peninsula."}
+{"text":"The Crimean campaigns of 1687 and 1689 diverted some of the Ottoman and Crimean forces in favour of Russia's allies. They also led to the end of the alliance between the Crimean Khanate, France and Imre Th\u00f6k\u00f6ly signed in 1683. However, the Russian army didn't reach the goal of stabilizing Russia's southern borders. The unsuccessful outcome of these campaigns was one of the reasons the government of Sophia Alekseyevna collapsed."}
+{"text":"Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin-Tauricheski (, , ; ; ) was a Russian military leader, statesman, nobleman and favourite of Catherine the Great. He died during negotiations over the Treaty of Jassy, which ended a war with the Ottoman Empire that he had overseen."}
+{"text":"Potemkin was born into a family of middle-income noble landowners. He first attracted Catherine's favor for helping in her 1762 coup, then distinguished himself as a military commander in the Russo-Turkish War (1768\u20131774). He became Catherine's lover, favorite and possibly her consort. After their passion cooled, he remained her lifelong friend and favored statesman. Catherine obtained for him the title of \"Prince of the Holy Roman Empire\" and gave him the title of \"Prince of the Russian Empire\" among many others: he was both a Grand Admiral and the head of all of Russia's land and irregular forces. Potemkin's achievements include the peaceful annexation of the Crimea (1783) and the successful second Russo-Turkish War (1787\u20131792)."}
+{"text":"In 1775, Potemkin became the governor-general of Russia's new southern provinces. An absolute ruler, he worked to colonize the wild steppes, controversially dealing firmly with the Cossacks who lived there. He founded the towns of Kherson, Nikolayev, Sevastopol, and Ekaterinoslav. Ports in the region became bases for his new Black Sea Fleet."}
+{"text":"His rule in the south is associated with the \"Potemkin village\", a ruse involving the construction of painted fa\u00e7ades to mimic real villages, full of happy, well-fed people, for visiting officials to see. Potemkin was known for his love of women, gambling and material wealth. He oversaw the construction of many historically significant buildings, including the Tauride Palace in St. Petersburg."}
+{"text":"A distant relative of the Moscovite diplomat Pyotr Potemkin (1617\u20131700), Grigory was born in the village of Chizhovo near Smolensk into a family of middle-income noble landowners."}
+{"text":"His father, Alexander Potemkin, was a decorated war veteran; his mother Daria was \"good-looking, capable and intelligent\", though their marriage proved ultimately unhappy. Potemkin received his first name in honour of his father's cousin Grigory Matveevich Kizlovsky, a civil servant who became his godfather. It has been suggested that Kizlovsky fathered Potemkin, who became the centre of attention, heir to the village and the only son among six children. As the son of an (albeit petty) noble family, he grew up with the expectation that he would serve the Russian Empire."}
+{"text":"Back at the front, Potemkin won more military acclaim, but then fell ill; rejecting medicine, he recovered only slowly. After a lull in hostilities in 1772 his movements are unclear, but it seems that he returned to St. Petersburg where he is recorded, perhaps apocryphally, to have been one of Catherine's closest advisers. Though Orlov was replaced as her favourite, it was not Potemkin who benefited. Alexander Vasilchikov, another Horse-Guardsman, replaced Orlov as the queen's lover. Potemkin returned to war in 1773 as Lieutenant-General to fight in Silistria. It appears that Catherine missed him, and that Potemkin took a December letter from her as a summons. In any case Potemkin returned to St. Petersburg as a war hero."}
+{"text":"Potemkin returned to St. Petersburg in November 1783 and was promoted to Field Marshal when the Crimea was formally annexed the following February. He also became President of the College of War. The province of Taurida (the Crimea) was added to the state of Novorossiya (lit. \"New Russia\"). Potemkin moved south in mid-March, as the \"Prince of Taurida\". He had been the \"namestnik\" of Russia's southern provinces (including Novorossiya, Azov, Saratov, Astrakhan and the Caucasus) since 1774, repeatedly expanding the domain via military action. He kept his own court, which rivalled Catherine's: by the 1780s he operated a chancellery with fifty or more clerks and had his own minister, Vasili Popov, to oversee day-to-day affairs. Another favored associate was Mikhail Faleev."}
+{"text":"The \"criminal\" breaking of the Cossack hosts, particularly the Zaporozhian Cossacks in 1775, helped define his rule. However, Montefiore argues that given their location, and in the wake of the Pugachev rebellion, the Cossacks were likely doomed in any case. By the time of Potemkin's death, the Cossacks and their threat of anarchic revolt were well controlled. Among the Zaporizhian Cossacks he was known as \"Hrytsko Nechesa\"."}
+{"text":"The notion of the Potemkin village (coined in German by critical biographer Georg von Helbig as \"\") arose from Catherine's visit to the south. Critics accused Potemkin of using painted fa\u00e7ades to fool Catherine into thinking that the area was far richer than it was. Thousands of peasants were alleged to have been stage-managed for this purpose. Certainly, Potemkin had arranged for Catherine to see the best he had to offer (organising numerous exotic excursions) and at least two cities' officials did conceal poverty by building false houses. It seems unlikely that the fraud approached the scale alleged. The Prince of Ligne, a member of the Austrian delegation, who had explored on his own during the trip, later proclaimed the allegations to be false."}
+{"text":"Success on the Turkish front continued, mostly attributable to Potemkin. He now had the opportunity to confront the Turks and dictate a peace, but that would mean leaving Catherine. His procrastination soured Catherine's attitude towards him, a situation compounded by Potemkin's choice of the married Princess Paskovia Adreevna Golitsyna (n\u00e9e Shuvalova) as his latest mistress. In the end, Potemkin was given the requisite authority to negotiate with the Turks (and, afterwards, to pursue his Polish ambitions), and dispatched by Catherine back to the south. She sent a note after him, reading \"Goodbye my friend, I kiss you\"."}
+{"text":"Potemkin was embalmed, and a funeral was held for him in Jassy. Eight days after his death, he was buried. Catherine was distraught and ordered social life in St. Petersburg be put on hold. Derzhavin's ode \"Waterfall\" lamented Potemkin's death; likewise many in the military establishment had looked upon Potemkin as a father figure and were especially saddened by his demise. Polish contemporary Stanis\u0142aw Ma\u0142achowski claimed that Aleksandra von Engelhardt, a niece of Potemkin's and the wife of Franciszek Ksawery Branicki, a magnate and prominent leader of the Targowica Confederation, also worried for the fate of Poland after the death of the man who had planned to revitalise the Polish state with him as its new head."}
+{"text":"Potemkin had used the state treasury as a personal bank, preventing the resolution of his financial affairs to this day. Catherine purchased the Tauride Palace and his art collection from his estate, and paid off his debts. Consequently, he left a relative fortune."}
+{"text":"Catherine's son Paul, who succeeded to the throne in 1796, attempted to undo as many of Potemkin's reforms as possible. The Tauride Palace was turned into a barracks, and the city of Gregoripol, which had been named in Potemkin's honor, was renamed."}
+{"text":"Potemkin's grave survived a destruction order issued by Paul and was eventually displayed by the Bolsheviks. His remains now appear to lie in his tomb at St. Catherine's Cathedral in Kherson. The exact whereabouts of some of his internal organs, including his heart and brain first kept at Golia Monastery in Jassy, remain unknown."}
+{"text":"Potemkin \"exuded both menace and welcome\"; he was arrogant, demanding of his courtiers, and very changeable in his moods, but also fascinating, warm, and kind. It was generally agreed among his female companions that he was \"amply endowed with 'sex appeal'\"."}
+{"text":"Potemkin was most likely was affected by bipolar disorder. His highs and lows, his material and sexual excesses, his impulsive whims, his energy and lethargy, and his depressive spells speak to some kind of bipolar disorder. In a time that was not aware of mental illness, Potemkin (and, it must be said, the people in his life such as Catherine) suffered from this lack of understanding."}
+{"text":"Potemkin was also an intellectual. The Prince of Ligne noted that Potemkin had \"natural abilities [and] an excellent memory\". He was interested in history, generally knowledgeable, and loved the classical music of the period, as well as opera. He liked all food, both peasant and fine (particular favorites included roast beef and potatoes), and his anglophilia meant that English gardens were prepared wherever he went. A practical politician, his political ideas were \"quintessentially Russian\", and he believed in the superiority of the Tsarist autocracy (he once described the French revolutionaries as \"a pack of madmen\")."}
+{"text":"One evening, at the height of his power, Potemkin declared to his dinner guests:"}
+{"text":"Potemkin had no legitimate descendants, though it is probable he had illegitimate issue. Four of his five sisters lived long enough to bear children, but only the daughters of his sister Marfa Elena (sometimes rendered as 'Helen') received Potemkin's special attention. The five unmarried Engelhardt sisters arrived in court in 1775 on the direction of their recently widowed father Vassily. Legend suggests Potemkin soon seduced many of the girls, one of whom was twelve or thirteen at the time. An affair with the third eldest, Varvara, can be verified; after that had subsided, Potemkin formed close\u2014and probably amorous\u2014relationships successively with Alexandra, the second eldest, and Ekaterina, the fifth."}
+{"text":"Potemkin also had influential relatives. Potemkin's sister Maria, for example, married Russian senator Nikolay Samoylov: their son Alexander was decorated for his service under Potemkin in the army; their daughter Ekaterina married first into the Raevsky family, and then the wealthy landowner Lev Davydov. She had children with both husbands, including highly decorated General Nikolay Raevsky, Potemkin's great-nephew. His wider family included several distant cousins, among them Count Pavel Potemkin, another decorated military figure, whose brother Mikhail married Potemkin's niece Tatiana Engelhardt. A distant nephew, Felix Yusupov, helped murder Rasputin in 1916."}
+{"text":"Despite attempts by Paul I to play down Potemkin's role in Russian history, his name found its way into numerous items of common parlance:"}
+{"text":"The Crimean Khanate ( or ), own name \u2014 Great Horde and Desht-i Kipchak (), in old European historiography and geography \u2014 Little Tartary () was a Crimean Tatar state existing from 1441 to 1783, the longest-lived of the Turkic khanates that succeeded the empire of the Golden Horde. Established by Hac\u0131 I Giray in 1441, it was regarded as the direct heir to the Golden Horde and to Desht-i-Kipchak."}
+{"text":"In 1783, violating the 1774 Treaty of K\u00fc\u00e7\u00fck Kaynarca (which had guaranteed non-interference of both Russia and the Ottoman Empire in the affairs of the Crimean Khanate), the Russian Empire annexed the khanate. Among the European powers, only France came out with an open protest against this act, due to the longstanding Franco-Ottoman alliance."}
+{"text":"Crimean khans, considering their state as the heir and legal successor of the Golden Horde and Desht-i Kipchak, called themselves khans of \"the Great Horde, the Great State and the Throne of the Crimea\". The full title of the Crimean khans, used in official documents and correspondence with foreign rulers, varying slightly from document to document during the three centuries of the khanate's existence, was as follows: \"By the Grace and help of the blessed and highest Lord, the great padishah of the Great Horde, and the Great State, and the Throne of the Crimea, and all the Nogai, and the mountain Circassians, and the tats and tavgachs, and The Kipchak steppe and all the Tatars\" ()."}
+{"text":"According to Oleksa Hayvoronsky, the inhabitants of the Crimean Khanate in Crimean Tatar usually referred to their state as \"Q\u0131r\u0131m yurtu, Crimean Yurt\", which can be translated into English as \"the country of Crimea\" or \"Crimean country\"."}
+{"text":"English-speaking writers during the 18th and early 19th centuries often called the territory of the Crimean Khanate and of the Lesser Nogai Horde \"Little Tartary\" (or subdivided it as \"Crim Tartary\" (also \"Krim Tartary\") and \"Kuban Tartary\"). The name \"Little Tartary\" distinguished the area from (Great) Tartary \u2013 those areas of central and northern Asia inhabited by Turkic peoples or Tatars."}
+{"text":"The London-based cartographer Herman Moll in a map of c. 1729 shows \"Little Tartary\" as including the Crimean peninsula and the steppe between Dnieper and Mius River as far north as the Dnieper bend and the upper Tor River (a tributary of the Donets)."}
+{"text":"The Khanate included the Crimean peninsula and the adjacent steppes, mostly corresponding to the parts of South Ukraine between the Dnieper and the Donets rivers (i.e. including most of present-day Zaporizhzhia Oblast, left-Dnepr parts of Kherson Oblast, besides minor parts of southeastern Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and western Donetsk Oblast). The territory controlled by the Crimean Khanate shifted throughout its existence due to the constant incursions by the Cossacks, who had lived along the Don since the disintegration of the Golden Horde in the 15th century."}
+{"text":"The first known Turkic peoples appeared in Crimea in the 6th century, during the conquest of the Crimea by The Turkic Kaganate. In the 11th century, Cumans (Kipchaks) appeared in Crimea, who later became the ruling and state-forming people of the Golden Horde and the Crimean Khanate. In the middle of the 13th century, the northern steppe lands of the Crimea, inhabited mainly by Turkic peoples \u2014 Cumans, became the possession of Ulus Juchi, known as the Golden Horde or Ulu Ulus. In this era, the role of Turkic peoples increased. Since this time, the local Kipchaks took the name of Tatars (\"tatarlar\")."}
+{"text":"In the Horde period, the khans of the Golden Horde were the Supreme rulers of the Crimea, but their governors \u2014 Emirs \u2014 exercised direct control. The first formally recognized ruler in the Crimea is considered Aran-Timur, the nephew of Batu Khan of the Golden Horde, who received this area from Mengu-Timur, and the first center of the Crimea was the ancient city Q\u0131r\u0131m (Solhat). This name then gradually spread to the entire Peninsula. The second center of Crimea was the valley adjacent to Q\u0131rq Yer and Ba\u011f\u00e7asaray."}
+{"text":"The multi-ethnic population of Crimea then consisted mainly of those who lived in the steppe and foothills of the Peninsula Kipchaks (Cumans), Crimean Greeks, Crimean Goths, Alans, and Armenians, who lived mainly in cities and mountain villages. The Crimean nobility was mostly of both Kipchak and Horden origin."}
+{"text":"Horde rule for the peoples who inhabited the Crimean Peninsula was, in general, painful. The rulers of the Golden Horde repeatedly organized punitive campaigns in the Crimea, when the local population refused to pay tribute. A well-known campaign of the Nogai Khan in 1299, as a result of which a number of Crimean cities suffered. As in other regions of the Horde, separatist tendencies soon began to manifest themselves in Crimea."}
+{"text":"In 1303, in Crimea, the most famous written monument of the Kypchak or Cuman language was created (named in Kypchak \"tatar tili\") \u2014 \"Codex Cumanicus\", which is the oldest memorial of the Crimean Tatar language and of great importance for the history of Kypchak and Oghuz dialects \u2014 as directly related to the Kipchaks of the Black Sea steppes and Crimea."}
+{"text":"During the reign of Canike Han\u0131m, Tokhtamysh's daughter, in Q\u0131rq-Or, she supported Hac\u0131 I Giray in the struggle against the descendants of Tokhtamysh, Kichi-Muhammada and Sayid Ahmad, who as well as Hac\u0131 Giray claimed full power in the Crimea and probably saw him as her heir to the Crimean throne. In the sources of the 16th\u201418th centuries, the opinion according to which the separation of the Crimean Tatar state was raised to Tokhtamysh, and Canike was the most important figure in this process, completely prevailed."}
+{"text":"The sons of Hac\u0131 I Giray contended against each other to succeed him. The Ottomans intervened and installed one of the sons, Me\u00f1li I Giray, on the throne. Menli I Giray, took the imperial title \"Sovereign of Two Continents and Khan of Khans of Two Seas.\""}
+{"text":"In 1475 the Ottoman forces, under the command of Gedik Ahmet Pasha, conquered the Greek Principality of Theodoro and the Genoese colonies at Cembalo, Soldaia, and Caffa (modern Feodosiya). Thenceforth the khanate was a protectorate of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman sultan enjoyed veto power over the selection of new Crimean khans. The Empire annexed the Crimean coast but recognized the legitimacy of the khanate rule of the steppes, as the khans were descendants of Genghis Khan."}
+{"text":"The alliance of the Crimean Tatars and the Ottomans was comparable to the Polish\u2013Lithuanian union in its importance and durability. The Crimean cavalry became indispensable for the Ottomans' campaigns against Poland, Hungary, and Persia."}
+{"text":"In 1502, Me\u00f1li I Giray defeated the last khan of the Great Horde, which put an end to the Horde's claims on Crimea. The Khanate initially chose as its capital Sala\u00e7\u0131q near the Q\u0131rq Yer fortress. Later, the capital was moved a short distance to Bah\u00e7eseray, founded in 1532 by Sahib I Giray. Both Sala\u00e7\u0131q and the Q\u0131rq Yer fortress today are part of the expanded city of Bah\u00e7eseray."}
+{"text":"The slave trade was the backbone of the economy of the Crimean Khanate. However, some historians are of the opinion that the role of the slave trade in the economy of the Crimean Khanate is greatly exaggerated by modern historians, and the raiding economy is nothing but a historical myth."}
+{"text":"The Crimeans frequently mounted raids into the Danubian principalities, Poland\u2013Lithuania, and Muscovy to enslave people whom they could capture; for each captive, the khan received a fixed share (sav\u011fa) of 10% or 20%. These campaigns by Crimean forces were either (\"sojourns\"), officially declared military operations led by the khans themselves, or \"\u00e7apuls\" (\"despoiling\"), raids undertaken by groups of noblemen, sometimes illegally because they contravened treaties concluded by the khans with neighbouring rulers."}
+{"text":"For a long time, until the early 18th century, the khanate maintained a massive slave trade with the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East, exporting about 2 million slaves from Russia and Poland\u2013Lithuania over the period 1500\u20131700. Caffa, an Ottoman city on Crimean peninsula (and thus not part of the Khanate), was one of the best known and significant trading ports and slave markets. In 1769, a last major Tatar raid resulted in the capture of 20,000 Russian and Ruthenian slaves."}
+{"text":"Author and historian Brian Glyn Williams writes:"}
+{"text":"Early modern sources are full of descriptions of sufferings of Christian slaves captured by the Crimean Tatars in the course of their raids:"}
+{"text":"Alliances and conflicts with Poland and Zaporozhian Cossacks."}
+{"text":"The Crimeans had a complex relationship with Zaporozhian Cossacks who lived to the north of the khanate in the modern Ukraine. The Cossacks provided a measure of protection against Tatar raids for Poland\u2013Lithuania and received subsidies for their service. They also raided Crimean and Ottoman possessions in the region. At times Crimean Khanate made alliances with the Polish\u2013Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Zaporizhian Sich. The assistance of \u0130sl\u00e2m III Giray during the Khmelnytsky Uprising in 1648 contributed greatly to the initial momentum of military successes for the Cossacks. The relationship with the Polish\u2013Lithuanian Commonwealth was also exclusive, as it was the home dynasty of the Girays, who sought sanctuary in Lithuania in the 15th century before establishing themselves on the Crimean peninsula."}
+{"text":"In the middle of the 16th century, the Crimean Khanate asserted a claim to be the successor to the Golden Horde, which entailed asserting the right of rule over the Tatar khanates of the Caspian-Volga region, particularly the Kazan Khanate and Astrakhan Khanate. This claim pitted it against Muscovy for dominance in the region. A successful campaign by Devlet I Giray upon the Russian capital in 1571 culminated in the burning of Moscow, and he thereby gained the sobriquet, That Al\u011fan (seizer of the throne). The following year, however, the Crimean Khanate lost access to the Volga once and for all due to its catastrophic defeat in the Battle at Molodi."}
+{"text":"Don Cossacks reached lower Don, Donets and Azov by the 1580s and thus became the north-eastern neighbours of the khanate. They attracted peasants, serfs and gentry fleeing internal conflicts, over-population and intensifying exploitation. Just as Zaporozhians protected the southern borders of the Commonwealth, Don Cossacks protected Muscovy and themselves attacked the khanate and Ottoman fortresses."}
+{"text":"Under the influence of the Crimean Tatars and of the Ottoman Empire, large numbers of Circassians converted to Islam from Christianity. Circassian mercenaries and recruits played an important role in the khan's armies, khans often married Circassian women and it was a custom for young Crimean princes to spend time in Circassia training in the art of warfare. Several conflicts occurred between Circassians and Crimean Tatars in the 18th century, with the former defeating an army of khan Kaplan Giray and Ottoman auxiliaries in the battle of Kanzhal."}
+{"text":"The Turkish traveler writer Evliya \u00c7elebi mentions the impact of Cossack raids from Azak upon the territories of the Crimean Khanate. These raids ruined trade routes and severely depopulated many important regions. By the time Evliya \u00c7elebi had arrived almost all the towns he visited were affected by the Cossack raids. In fact, the only place Evliya \u00c7elebi considered safe from the Cossacks was the Ottoman fortress at Arabat."}
+{"text":"In the first half of the 17th century, Kalmyks formed the Kalmyk Khanate in the Lower Volga and under Ayuka Khan conducted many military expeditions against the Crimean Khanate and Nogays. By becoming an important ally and later part of the Russian Empire and taking an oath to protect its southeastern borders, the Kalmyk Khanate took an active part in all Russian war campaigns in the 17th and 18th centuries, providing up to 40,000 fully equipped horsemen."}
+{"text":"The united Russian and Ukrainian forces attacked the Khanate during the Chigirin Campaigns and the Crimean Campaigns. It was during the Russo-Turkish War, 1735-1739 that the Russians, under the command of Field-Marshal M\u00fcnnich, finally managed to penetrate the Crimean Peninsula itself, burning and destroying everything on their way."}
+{"text":"More warfare ensued during the reign of Catherine II. The Russo-Turkish War, 1768-1774 resulted in the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji, which made the Crimean Khanate independent from the Ottoman Empire and aligned it with the Russian Empire."}
+{"text":"The rule of the last Crimean khan \u015eahin Giray was marked with increasing Russian influence and outbursts of violence from the khan administration towards internal opposition. On 8 April 1783, in violation of the treaty (some parts of which had been already violated by Crimeans and Ottomans), Catherine II intervened in the civil war, de facto annexing the whole peninsula as the Taurida Governorate. In 1787, \u015eahin Giray took refuge in the Ottoman Empire and was eventually executed, on Rhodes, by the Ottoman authorities for betrayal. The royal Giray family survives to this day."}
+{"text":"Through the 1792 Treaty of Jassy (Ia\u015fi), the Russian frontier was extended to the Dniester River and the takeover of Yedisan was complete. The 1812 Treaty of Bucharest transferred Bessarabia to Russian control."}
+{"text":"The Nogay pastoral nomads north of the Black Sea were nominally subject to the Crimean Khan. They were divided into the following groups: Budjak (from the Danube to the Dniester), Yedisan (from the Dniester to the Bug), Jamboyluk (Bug to Crimea), Yedickul (north of Crimea) and Kuban."}
+{"text":"Internally, the khanate territory was divided among the beys, and beneath the beys were mirzas from noble families. The relationship of peasants or herdsmen to their mirzas was not feudal. They were free and the Islamic law protected them from losing their rights. Apportioned by village, the land was worked in common and taxes were assigned to the whole village. The tax was one tenth of an agricultural product, one twentieth of a herd animal, and a variable amount of unpaid labor. During the reforms by the last khan \u015eahin Giray, the internal structure was changed following the Turkish pattern: the nobles' landholdings were proclaimed the domain of the khan and reorganized into \"qad\u0131l\u0131qs\" (provinces governed by representatives of the khan)."}
+{"text":"Crimean law was based on Tatar law, Islamic law, and, in limited matters, Ottoman law. The leader of the Muslim establishment was the mufti, who was selected from among the local Muslim clergy. His major duty was neither judicial nor theological, but financial. The mufti's administration controlled all of the vakif lands and their enormous revenues. Another Muslim official, appointed not by the clergy but the Ottoman sultan, was the kad\u0131asker, the overseer of the khanate's judicial districts, each under jurisdiction of a kadi. In theory, kadis answered to the kadiaskers, but in practice they answered to the clan leaders and the khan. The kadis determined the day to day legal behavior of Muslims in the khanate."}
+{"text":"Substantial non-Muslim minorities - Greeks, Armenians, Crimean Goths, Adyghe (Circassians), Venetians, Genoese, Crimean Karaites and Q\u0131r\u0131m\u00e7aq Jews - lived principally in the cities, mostly in separate districts or suburbs. Under the \"millet\" system, they had their own religious and judicial institutions. They were subject to extra taxes in exchange for exemption from military service, living like Crimean Tatars and speaking dialects of Crimean Tatar. Mikhail Kizilov writes: \"According to Marcin Broniewski (1578), the Tatars seldom cultivated the soil themselves, with most of their land tilled by the Polish, Ruthenian, Russian, and Walachian (Moldavian) slaves.\""}
+{"text":"The Jewish population was concentrated in \u00c7ufut Kale ('Jewish Fortress'), a separate town near Bah\u00e7eseray that was the Khan's original capital. As other minorities, they spoke a Turkic language. Crimean law granted them special financial and political rights as a reward, according to local folklore, for historic services rendered to an \"uluhane\" (first wife of a Khan). The capitation tax on Jews in Crimea was levied by the office of the uluhane in Bah\u00e7eseray. Much like the Christian population of Crimea, the Jews were actively involved in the slave trade. Both Christians and Jews also often redeemed Christian and Jewish captives of Tatar raids in Eastern Europe."}
+{"text":"The slave trade (15th-17th century) in captured Ukrainians and Russians was one of the major sources of income of Crimean Tartar and Nogay nobility. In this process, known as \"harvesting the steppe\", raiding parties would go out and capture, and then enslave the local Christian peasants living in the countryside. In spite of the dangers, Polish and Russian serfs were attracted to the freedom offered by the empty steppes of Ukraine. The slave raids entered Russian and Cossack folklore and many \"dumy\" were written elegising the victims' fates. This contributed to a hatred for the Khanate that transcended political or military concerns. But in fact, there were always small raids committed by both Tatars and Cossacks, in both directions."}
+{"text":"The last recorded major Crimean raid, before those in the Russo-Turkish War (1768\u20131774) took place during the reign of Peter I (1682\u20131725)."}
+{"text":"The Selim II Giray fountain, built in 1747, is considered one of the masterpieces of Crimean Khanate's hydraulic engineering designs and is still marveled in modern times. It consists of small ceramic pipes, boxed in an underground stone tunnel, stretching back to the spring source more than away. It was one of the finest sources of water in Bakhchisaray."}
+{"text":"One of the notable constructors of Crimean art and architecture was Q\u0131r\u0131m Giray, who in 1764 commissioned the fountain master Omer the Persian to construct the Bakhchisaray Fountain. The Bakhchisaray Fountain or \"Fountain of Tears\" is a real case of life imitating art. The fountain is known as the embodiment of love of one of the last Crimean Khans, Khan Q\u0131r\u0131m Giray for his young wife, and his grief after her early death. The Khan was said to have fallen in love with a Polish girl in his harem. Despite his battle-hardened harshness, he was grievous and wept when she died, astonishing all those who knew him. He commissioned a marble fountain to be made, so that the rock would weep, like him, forever."}
+{"text":"The peninsula itself was divided by the khan's family and several \"beys\". The estates controlled by beys were called \"beylik\". Beys in the khanate were as important as the Polish \"Magnats\". Directly to the khan belonged Cufut-Qale, Bakhchisaray, and Staryi Krym (Eski Qirim). The khan also possessed all the salt lakes and the villages around them, as well as the woods around the rivers Alma, Kacha, and Salgir. Part of his own estate included the wastelands with their newly created settlements."}
+{"text":"Part of the main khan's estates were the lands of the \"Kalha-sultan\" (Qal\u011fa) who was next in the line of succession of the khan's family. He usually administered the eastern portion of the peninsula. Kalha also was Chief Commander of the Crimean Army in the absence of the Khan. The next hereditary administrative position, called \"Nureddin,\" was also assigned to the khan's family. He administrated the western region of the peninsula. There also was a specifically assigned position for the khan's mother or sister \u2014 \"Ana-beim\" \u2014 which was similar to the Ottomans' Valide Sultan. The senior wife of the Khan carried a rank of \"Ulu-beim\" and was next in importance to the Nureddin."}
+{"text":"By the end of the khanate regional offices of the \"kaimakans\", who administered smaller regions of the Crimean Khanate, were created."}
+{"text":"The Jewish Steppe is a 2001 documentary about a group of Russian Jews who, suffering as a result of prejudice and fearful of pogroms, left their homeland to farm the Crimean Peninsula. Established in the 1920s, their Soviet agrarian commune was destroyed."}
+{"text":"\"Why should the Jewish people go to Palestine where the land is less productive and requires big investments?\" a Jewish newspaper asked at the time of the settlement, \"Who go so far if the fertile Crimean land is beckoning to the Jewish people?\""}
+{"text":"At the turn of the twentieth century, antisemitism was common in Russia. Legislation was passed that limited Jews to working only in retail and handicrafts. When these laws were lifted, around the time the Russian Revolution of 1917, pogroms broke out. Approximately 30,000 Jews left for the Crimean Peninsula. Rare pictures and film footage from the Russian State Film and Photo Archive are narrated in \"The Jewish Steppe\" to explain how they lived there."}
+{"text":"One newspaper wrote that everyone on the steppe was competing with each other to work harder. When, in 1931, famine occurred in Russia, the Jewish settlements continued to have an abundant harvest that helped feed the rest of the nation during its grain shortage."}
+{"text":"Two years after it was settled, the area was recognized as the Soviet Union's first Jewish district. They went on to establish schools and two colleges."}
+{"text":"\"As a result of healthy life and labor,\" a local farmer commented in a newspaper, \"peace of mind is replacing the nervousness typical for Jewish people, movements have become measured, and faces have become calm.\" He went on to say that these changes were particularly noticeable in the younger generation."}
+{"text":"Under Joseph Stalin, the commune was destroyed, leaving only archival footage and documents."}
+{"text":"Other documentaries about Jews of the Diaspora:"}
+{"text":"Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Crimea"}
+{"text":"The Declaration of Independence of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol was a joint resolution adopted on March 11, 2014 by the dissolved Supreme Council of Crimea and the Sevastopol City Council that proclaimed the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol a sovereign state \u2014 the Republic of Crimea. The decision was based on the results of an referendum that was held on March 16, 2014 after Russian troops took over Crimea and seized the region's parliament. The declaration of independence and the referendum following it was not internationally recognised by most countries."}
+{"text":"According to the Declaration, the newly formed state has the right to apply to Russia for the inclusion of the territory in the federation as a separate subject."}
+{"text":"In Ukraine's constitution, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol are recognised as integral parts of Ukraine, and changes to the territory of Ukraine is possible only after the relevant result of an All-Ukrainian referendum."}
+{"text":"Russia recognised the Republic of Crimea's declaration of independence and agreed to incorporate the Republic into the Russian Federation following a referendum. However, the referendum was condemned as \"illegal\" by the European Union and countries such as the United States. US President Barack Obama said that Russian actions were a violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and that the referendum would \"violate the Ukrainian constitution and international law\". On 27 March 2014, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the \"Territorial Integrity of Ukraine\" Resolution, which recognised Crimea as part of Ukraine."}
+{"text":"Crimean speech of President Vladimir Putin, refers to a speech by the Russian president Vladimir Putin on March 18, 2014 to both chambers of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation in connection with the request for admission by the Crimean parliament of the republic in the Russian Federation. He spoke in the St. George Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace in the Moscow Kremlin."}
+{"text":"In the same place, Putin delivered another speech on December 4, 2014 that also picked out the Crimea as a central theme."}
+{"text":"In the beginning of his speech, Putin said that a referendum was held in full compliance with democratic procedures and rules of international law, and that the numbers support the entry of Crimea in Russia were very convincing."}
+{"text":"Putin recalled the ancient Chersonesos where Prince Vladimir was baptized, on the graves of Russian soldiers on Sevastopol \u2014 the home of the Black Sea Fleet. Noted that the Crimean Tatars suffered cruel injustice in Soviet times, together with the other peoples, including the Russian people. After the Crimean Tatars have returned to their land, new solutions for a complete rehabilitation of the Crimean Tatar people are required. He proposed three equal official languages for Crimea - Russian, Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar."}
+{"text":"The President stressed that in the heart of the Crimean people, Crimea has always been an integral part of Russia. Bolsheviks included a significant amount of the historical Russian southern land into the Ukrainian SSR without taking into account the national composition of its population. Further, in 1954, the Crimea and Sevastopol in the Ukrainian SSR passed. This decision was taken in violation of constitutional norms, behind the scenes, in a totalitarian state residents of Crimea and Sevastopol nothing asked. That decision was seen as a formality, since the territory transferred within the same country."}
+{"text":"Putin assured that Russia will not seek confrontation with the West and the East, and stressed that Russia and Ukraine \u2014 are one people. Ukraine will continue to live millions of Russian citizens, which means that Russia will always defend their interests."}
+{"text":"Putin's speech lasted 45\u00a0minutes. During the speech, Putin used the term \"natsional-predateli\" (\"national-traitors\") which is a calque from the German term \"Nationalverr\u00e4ter\". The refusal to accept the new Ukrainian government he explained in the unlawful events on Euromaidan: Groups \"wanted to seize power and would stop short of nothing. They resorted to terror, murder and pogroms. Nationalists, neo-Nazis, Russophobes and anti-Semites executed this coup. They continue to set the tone in Ukraine to this day.\" Nevertheless, he expressed appreciation to those protesting peacefully against corruption, inefficient state management and poverty."}
+{"text":"The audience has been applauding Putin for over 5 minutes at the beginning of the speech and at least 2\u20133 minutes thereafter. Many were shedding tears."}
+{"text":"Glenn Kessler from \"The Washington Post\" reported that several of Putin's statements were \"dubious and false.\" In particular, he disputed Putin's claims that the referendum was legal and unrigged and that the Supreme Soviet had no authority to transfer Crimea from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR. He also accused Putin of making a false equivalency between the annexation and the United States's support of Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia."}
+{"text":"Daisy Sindelar of Radio Free Europe criticized Putin for minimizing historic and current Soviet and Russian persecution of ethnic minorities, denying the legitimacy of Viktor Yushchenko's government after the Orange Revolution, and falsely stating that Ukraine was planning to join NATO before the annexation."}
+{"text":"Bob Dreyfuss of \"The Nation\" noted the speech's \"aggrieved evocation of Russia's history and its religious, Russian Orthodox overtones\" and that \"by annexing Crimea, Putin is almost certainly fueling the fire of the most extreme nationalist elements in Kiev. Unless the situation changes soon, what had been a dangerous minority of radical-right elements in the new Kiev government could gain huge new momentum, making Putin's inflated claims a self-fulfilling prophecy\""}
+{"text":"In a BBC News article, Bridget Kendall called Putin's pledge to protect Russian minorities in the former Union republics \"A veiled reminder for other former Soviet republics with Russian-speaking minorities to send a message that, as in Ukraine, Mr Putin views Russian compatriots there as part of a single Russian nation - and therefore conceivably might make moves to ensure their protection too, if he felt they needed it,\" citing Transnistria and the Baltic States as specific examples."}
+{"text":"In an interview with Tamara Zamyatina on ITAR-TASS, Colonel-General Valery Manilov praised Putin's speech, saying \"Vladimir Putin in a dignified manner rebuffed the cravings of our opponents from the US and Western countries to misrepresent the results of the Crimean referendum. Particularly convincing was his criticism of the EU officials who recalled the existence of international law in connection with referendum, although they more than once encroached on its provisions in Serbia, Iraq and Libya.\""}
+{"text":"The British government's response to points made by President Putin lists 7 points, among them the Crimean \"referendum\", the accusation of terror, pogrom and murder as well as the legal status of the Ukrainian government; \" (...) Parliament (...) remained unchanged and was elected in a free vote of the people in Ukraine. The interim government was approved by an overwhelming majority in a free vote in the Ukrainian Parliament, including representatives of Yanukovych's Party of the Regions.\""}
+{"text":"Hillary Clinton has compared events in Crimea to the Czech Crisis of 1938 and has directly compared Russia's Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler. Other politicians and journalists have done the same and have compared Crimean speech of Vladimir Putin to Hitler's speech."}
+{"text":"Barack Obama gave a speech on March 26, 2014 to counter many of the arguments made by Putin. Obama stated that the historical relations between Ukraine and Russia did not give Russia the right to dictate Ukraine's future. He also denied Putin's claim that the Russian minority in Ukraine was in danger and argued that the Russians actions against Ukraine were undemocratic and constituted brute force."}
+{"text":"Future President Donald Trump criticized the Obama administration after Putin's speech on a \"Today\" interview, saying that \"Putin has eaten Obama's lunch, therefore our lunch, for a long period of time\" and expressed concern that Obama would \"do something very foolish and very stupid to show his manhood.\""}
+{"text":"In a CNN article, Newt Gingrich called the address \"a very serious speech by a very determined national security professional who has spent his entire adult life trying to defend Great Russian nationalism. He is clearly determined to unify and rebuild the Russian Empire as quickly as he can.\" However, he also opposed sanctions against Russia as meaningless \"symbolic liberalism\" that would cause a Second Cold War or World War III and proposed a foreign policy \"based on a realistic sense of what America can accomplish in a multipolar world in which there are many powers who fear the United States a lot more than they fear Putin.\""}
+{"text":"Russian historian Andrey Piontkovsky compared the speech to Hitler's speech on Sudetenland from 1939 as using \"the same arguments and vision of history\". According to him, this speech played key role in starting the war in Donbass."}
+{"text":"The Kerch Polytechnic College massacre was a school shooting and bomb attack that occurred in Kerch, Crimea, on 17 October 2018. 18-year-old student Vladislav Roslyakov shot and killed 20 people and wounded 70 others before committing suicide. The attack was the greatest loss of life in school violence in the former Soviet Union since the 2004 Beslan school siege."}
+{"text":"Vladislav Roslyakov purchased a shotgun on 8 September and bought 150 rounds legally at a gun shop on 13 October. He entered the grounds of Kerch Polytechnic College on 17 October at about 11:45\u00a0a.m. and shortly after began shooting. A survivor of the incident said that the shooting lasted for more than 15 minutes."}
+{"text":"Several witnesses described a lone gunman walking up and down the halls at Kerch Polytechnic College and firing randomly at classmates and teachers. He also fired at computer monitors, locked doors and fire extinguishers. A large nail-bomb was detonated during the attack, and local police said that they deactivated more explosives on the campus. Student witnesses described the explosion as blasting out the windows, and that people running to escape were shot at point blank range. However, there was initially variation in survivors' accounts of the incident, with some claiming that a large bomb exploded and others describing only gunfire and the use of grenades."}
+{"text":"The town website claimed that the explosion occurred on the first floor although the shooting occurred on the second. CNN reported that state television channel Russia-24 said that 200 military personnel had been sent to the location. Eyewitness accounts differ about the time it took for law enforcement to respond, as times differ between 10 and 15 minutes, even though a police station is across the street, within 300 meters (approx. 990 feet) of the college. The massacre ended when the gunman committed suicide in the college's library."}
+{"text":"Graphic video footage of the attack was captured by school surveillance cameras and later posted on both the news programme \"Vesti.Krym\"'s YouTube channel and on its website. This footage was later removed from both sites shortly afterwards."}
+{"text":"Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee said that most of the victims were teenagers. Fifteen students and five teachers died and according to the Investigative Committee, all died of gunshot wounds."}
+{"text":"The Kerch Deputy Mayor, Dilyaver Melgaziyev, initially clarified rumors on 18 October that six of the deceased were under the age of 18. This figure was later revised to eleven. Crimean authorities have published a list of the initial 20 victims who were killed."}
+{"text":"The Russian Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova told reporters that a total of 70 people were wounded, 10 of whom were described as being in a \"critical\" condition, including five in comas."}
+{"text":"In the days immediately following the massacre, investigators researched Roslyakov's background in attempts to establish his precise motive. These investigators also revealed that, ultimately, they were treating the incident as a calculated school shooting. Officials are investigating concerns in the case, such as where Roslyakov got the 30,000\u201340,000 rubles (about $450\u2013600 USD) for the weapon, and where he learned to use those weapons. It was discovered Roslyakov obtained a weapon permit in 2018 and owned the gun legally, after completing a legally required training on weapon security and presenting all required documents, including medical report. He periodically attended a shooting club. Shortly before the shooting he legally purchased 150 rounds of ammunition."}
+{"text":"The Investigative Committee ordered a psychiatric evaluation of Roslyakov postmortem. Crimean Prime Minister Sergey Aksyonov stated on 18 October that it was possible the perpetrator had an accomplice, and police were searching for the individual \"who was coaching\" Roslyakov for the crime. However, on 9 November 2018, the Investigative Committee came to the conclusion that Roslyakov had acted alone."}
+{"text":"The attack was perpetrated by a fourth-year student of the college, 18-year-old Vladislav Igorevich Roslyakov ()."}
+{"text":"A friend has claimed that Roslyakov \"hated the polytechnic very much\" and had vowed revenge on his teachers. There were also reports that he may have been bullied. According to an ex-girlfriend, Roslyakov had informed her he had lost faith in people when his classmates started to ridicule him for being different. In the days before the attack he discussed ignorance by others, the lack of purpose in his life, mass shootings and suicide on social media. Roslyakov was in a number of online communities dedicated to serial killers."}
+{"text":"Crimean Prime Minister Sergey Aksyonov announced that there would be three days of mourning. Crimean State Council speaker Vladimir Konstantinov announced that the victims' families would receive financial compensation, with preliminary discussions suggesting that the payments would be 1 million rubles (USD ) from the Russian federal budget and 1 million rubles from the local budget. He also said that it was impossible to conceive that 18-year-old suspect Vladislav Roslyakov had prepared the attack by himself saying \"On the ground, he acted alone, that is already known and established, but in my opinion and in the opinion of my colleagues this reprobate could not have carried out the preparations.\""}
+{"text":"Russia's Investigative Committee initially classified the attack as terrorism but later changed it to mass murder."}
+{"text":"After the first reports of an alleged terrorist attack in Kerch, many Russian politicians and mass media suggested that the events were the activities of \"Ukrainian saboteurs\" and that the Ukrainian government was responsible, but changed their views after more information emerged, while others questioned whether Roslyakov was sufficiently checked before being allowed to purchase a gun and ammunition, which Roslyakov legally did. Sergei Mikhailovich Smirnov, deputy head of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), said the security services needed to have greater control over the Internet."}
+{"text":"Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi that the attack appeared to be the result of globalisation, social media and the internet, and that \"everything started with the tragic events in schools in the US...we're not creating healthy (Internet) content for young people...which leads to tragedies of this kind.\" Some saw the remarks to be a part of Russians blaming the West for the attack and a linkage with his past as head of the Kremlin and FSB before becoming president which \"The Irish Times\" said are \"suspicious of the internet and social media, seeing them as western-dominated technologies that can be used to stir up dissent and street protests.\""}
+{"text":"Russian political analyst Sergey Mikheyev on Russian state TV blamed the attack on \"Western subculture,\" claiming that it \"builds its matrix on the cult of violence...the one who has a weapon in his hands is right. This is a purely American approach to the matter.\" Some media saw the remarks to be a part of Russians blaming the West for the attack."}
+{"text":"Leaders of several countries expressed their condolences to the victims of the attack, including Armenia, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Italy, Thailand, the UK, and Venezuela. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko expressed condolences to the victims, whom he described as Ukrainian citizens, stating that the Prosecutor General's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea had initiated criminal proceedings under the article \"act of terrorism\". The Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbj\u00f8rn Jagland and Secretary-General of the United Nations Ant\u00f3nio Guterres also expressed condolences."}
+{"text":"Some newspapers described the attack as \"Russia's Columbine\", a reference to the 1999 US high school massacre. Steven Rosenberg said the attack should not be surprising as he noted there had already been five attacks in schools in Russia in 2018 where a number of children were injured. A \"Telegraph\" article also claimed there had been half a dozen school attacks in Russia in 2018, although claiming the previous incidents involved knives and traumatic pistols rather than high-powered firearms."}
+{"text":"Students returned to studies 23 October, with checkpoints at the entrances at which the students\u2019 identities are confirmed. A spokesperson for the Rostov Region Directorate of the Russian Emergency Ministry, told reporters: \"An examination has been carried out. According to the preliminary information, there is no danger of [the building's] collapse.\""}
+{"text":"On 28 May 2019, a student in Volsk, Saratov Region, Russia committed an attack. The attacker, 15-year-old Daniil Pulkin, was obsessed with Roslyakov."}
+{"text":"According to a 25 February 2020 statement made by FSB, two adolescent fans of Roslyakov had planned to target two schools in Kerch."}
+{"text":"Throughout Russia and other countries, hundreds of people gathered for memorials for the victims. In Moscow the memorial of Kerch in the Alexander Garden was decorated with flowers. A makeshift memorial was created outside of the school, for residents and survivors to bring flowers and toys."}
+{"text":"An open memorial and funeral for the victims was held in the central square of Kerch, with a speech by Sergey Aksyonov, who told the crowd; \"We don't want to talk, we want to weep. The history of Crimea will be divided in two \u2014 before and after 17 October. We need to be strong we need to be brave.\" Around 20,000 people were estimated to have attended the public funeral in Kerch."}
+{"text":"Chufut-Kale (; Russian and Ukrainian: \u0427\u0443\u0444\u0443\u0442-\u041a\u0430\u043b\u0435 - \"Chufut-Kale\"; ; Karaim: \u041a\u0430\u043b\u0430 - \u05e7\u05dc\u05e2\u05d4 - \"Kala\") is a medieval city-fortress in the Crimean Mountains that now lies in ruins. It is a national monument of Crimean Karaites culture just east of Bakhchisaray."}
+{"text":"Its name is Crimean Tatar and Turkish for \"Jewish Fortress\" (\"\u00e7ufut\/\u00e7\u0131f\u0131t\" - Jew, \"qale\/kale\" - fortress), while Crimean Karaites refer to it simply as \"Fortress\", considering the place as historical center for the Crimean Karaite community. In the Middle Ages the fortress was known as \"Q\u0131rq Yer\" (Place of Forty) and as Karaites to which sect the greater part of its inhabitants belong, \"Sela' ha-Yehudim\" (The Rock of the Jews)."}
+{"text":"In the 15th century the first Crimean Khan, Hadji-Girei, realizing the fortress\u2019 advantages, turned the old section of the town into his fortified residence. After the defeat of the Golden Horde, the Crimean Khanate became considerably stronger. The significance of Kyrk-Or as a stronghold declined, and the Crimean Khan, Menglis-Girei, moved his capital to Bakhchisarai. The old town remained a citadel of Bakhchisarai and a place of incarceration for aristocratic prisoners. In the mid-17th century Tatars left Kyrk-Or. Only Karaites and several Krymchak families remained living there due to anti-Jewish restrictions on stays in other towns of the Crimean Khanate. Tatars considered Karaites to be Jews, hence the town gradually acquired the name of Chufut-Kale, which in Turkic meant \"Jewish fortress\" with negative and scornful meaning."}
+{"text":"After the Crimea's conquest and its inclusion into the Russian empire, the fortress inhabitants were permitted to live anywhere in the Crimea. From that time on, Chufut-Kale was deserted. By the mid-19th century the town ceased to exist."}
+{"text":"There are many legends concerning the place. According to one, it was called \"Q\u0131rq Yer\" because the khans Me\u00f1li Giray or Tokhtamysh, the founders of the city, brought with them forty Karaite families, and in their honor called it the \"Place of Forty\"."}
+{"text":"\"Chufutkale\" is mentioned (and also transliterated as \"Chew-Foot-Calais\") in Vladimir Nabokov's 1968 masterpiece, \"Ada\", page 338. The novel uses the site for the death of a minor character, Percy de Prey, during an imaginary Second Crimean War in 1888."}
+{"text":"It is also mentioned in Jonathan Littel's great book \"The kindly Ones\" (2006) page 232 and is used to emphasize the regions intricate history."}
+{"text":"Adam Mickiewicz wrote a sonnet \"Droga nad przepa\u015bci\u0105 w Czufut-Kale\" (\"The Pass Across the Abyss in Czufut-Kale\"), published in 1826."}
+{"text":"Mount Sapun or Sapun Ridge (, , ) is a 240 m high ridge to the southeast of Sevastopol, situated on the disputed Crimean peninsula."}
+{"text":"It became the site of heavy fighting during the siege of Sevastopol (1941-1942), and also during its recapture in 1944."}
+{"text":"When defending Sevastopol the Soviet troops held the Sapun Ridge and could observe German movements to the city from the south."}
+{"text":"It took Wehrmacht nearly 2 weeks of desperate fighting to take control over these positions in late June 1942. As a consequence, Soviet troops had to evacuate from Crimea."}
+{"text":"In 2 years, on the final stage of the Crimean Offensive the assault of Sapun-gora on 7 May 1944 was successful for Red Army. On 9 May 1944, just over one month after the start of the battle, Sevastopol fell. German forces were evacuated from Sevastopol to Constan\u021ba."}
+{"text":"Later in 1944 the first monuments to the Soviet warriors on this place were erected, in 1959 the diorama showing the assault of the German fortifications was opened."}
+{"text":"In 1921 the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was created. This republic was dissolved in 1945, and the Crimea became an oblast first of the Russian SSR (1945\u20131954) and then the Ukrainian SSR (1954\u20131991). From 1991 the territory was covered by the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol City within independent Ukraine. However, during the 2014 Crimean crisis, the peninsula was taken over by Russia and a referendum on whether to rejoin Russia was held. Shortly after the result in favour of joining Russia was announced, Crimea was annexed by the Russian Federation as two federal subjects: the Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol."}
+{"text":"Archaeological evidence of human settlement in Crimea dates back to the Middle Paleolithic. Neanderthal remains found at Kiyik-Koba Cave have been dated to about 80,000 BP. Late Neanderthal occupations have also been found at Starosele (c. 46,000 BP) and Buran Kaya III (c. 30,000 BP)."}
+{"text":"Archaeologists have found some of the earliest anatomically modern human remains in Europe in the Buran-Kaya caves in the Crimean Mountains (east of Simferopol). The fossils are about 32,000 years old, with the artifacts linked to the Gravettian culture."}
+{"text":"During the Last Glacial Maximum, along with the northern coast of the Black Sea in general, Crimea was an important refuge from which north-central Europe was re-populated after the end of the Ice Age. The East European Plain during this time was generally occupied by periglacial loess-steppe environments, although the climate was slightly warmer during several brief interstadials and began to warm significantly after the beginning of the Late Glacial Maximum. Human site occupation density was relatively high in the Crimean region and increased as early as c. 16,000 years before the present."}
+{"text":"Proponents of the Black Sea deluge hypothesis believe Crimea did not become a peninsula until relatively recently, with the rising of the Black Sea level in the 6th millennium BC."}
+{"text":"The beginning of the Neolithic in Crimea is not associated with agriculture, but instead with the beginning of pottery production, changes in flint tool-making technologies, and local domestication of pigs. The earliest evidence of domesticated wheat in the Crimean peninsula is from the Chalcolithic Ardych-Burun site, dating to the middle of the 4th millennium BC"}
+{"text":"By the 3rd millennium BC, Crimea had been reached by the Yamna or \"pit grave\" culture, assumed to correspond to a late phase of Proto-Indo-European culture in the Kurgan hypothesis."}
+{"text":"In the early Iron Age, Crimea was settled by two groups: the Tauri (or Scythotauri) in southern Crimea, and the East Iranian-speaking Scythians north of the Crimean Mountains."}
+{"text":"Taurians intermixed with the Scythians starting from the end of 3rd century BC were mentioned as \u00a0Tauroscythians and Scythotaurians in the works of ancient Greek writers."}
+{"text":"The origins of the Tauri, from which the classical name of Crimea as \"Taurica\" arose, are unclear. They are possibly a remnant of the Cimmerians displaced by the Scythians. Alternative theories relate them to the Abkhaz and Adyghe peoples, which at that time resided much farther west than today."}
+{"text":"The Greeks, who eventually established colonies in Crimea during the Archaic Period, regarded the Tauri as a savage, warlike people. Even after centuries of Greek and Roman settlement, the Tauri were not pacified and continued to engage in piracy on the Black Sea. By the 2nd century BC they had become subject-allies of the Scythian king Scilurus."}
+{"text":"The Crimean Peninsula north of the Crimean Mountains was occupied by Scythian tribes. Their center was the city of Scythian Neapolis on the outskirts of present-day Simferopol. The town ruled over a small kingdom covering the lands between the lower Dnieper River and northern Crimea. In the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, Scythian Neapolis was a city \"with a mixed Scythian-Greek population, strong defensive walls and large public buildings constructed using the orders of Greek architecture\". The city was eventually destroyed in the mid-3rd century AD by the Goths."}
+{"text":"The ancient Greeks were the first to name the region \"Taurica\" after the Tauri. As the Tauri inhabited only mountainous regions of southern Crimea, at first the name Taurica was used only to this southern part, but later it was extended to name the whole peninsula."}
+{"text":"Greek city-states began establishing colonies along the Black Sea coast of Crimea in the 7th or 6th century BC. Feodosiya and Panticapaeum were established by Milesians. In the 5th century BC, Dorians from Heraclea Pontica founded the sea port of Chersonesos (in modern Sevastopol)."}
+{"text":"In 438 BC, the Archon (ruler) of Panticapaeum assumed the title of the King of Cimmerian Bosporus, a state that maintained close relations with Athens, supplying the city with wheat, honey and other commodities. The last of that line of kings, Paerisades V, being hard-pressed by the Scythians, put himself under the protection of Mithridates VI, the king of Pontus, in 114 BC. After the death of this sovereign, his son, Pharnaces II, was invested by Pompey with the Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus in 63 BC as a reward for the assistance rendered to the Romans in their war against his father. In 15 BC, it was once again restored to the king of Pontus, but from then ranked as a tributary state of Rome."}
+{"text":"In the 2nd century BC, the eastern part of Taurica became part of the Bosporan Kingdom, before being incorporated into the Roman Empire in the 1st century BC."}
+{"text":"During the AD 1st, 2nd and 3rd centuries, Taurica was host to Roman legions and colonists in Charax, Crimea. The Charax colony was founded under Vespasian with the intention of protecting Chersonesos and other Bosporean trade emporiums from the Scythians. The Roman colony was protected by a vexillatio of the Legio I Italica; it also hosted a detachment of the Legio XI Claudia at the end of the 2nd century. The camp was abandoned by the Romans in the mid-3rd century. This de facto province would have been controlled by the legatus of one of the Legions stationed in Charax."}
+{"text":"Throughout the later centuries, Crimea was invaded or occupied successively by the Goths (AD 250), the Huns (376), the Bulgars (4th\u20138th century), the Khazars (8th century)."}
+{"text":"Crimean Gothic, an East Germanic language, was spoken by the Crimean Goths in some isolated locations in Crimea until the late 18th century."}
+{"text":"In the mid-10th century, the eastern area of Crimea was conquered by Prince Sviatoslav I of Kiev and became part of the Kievan Rus' principality of Tmutarakan. In 988, Prince Vladimir I of Kiev also captured the Byzantine town of Chersonesos (presently part of Sevastopol) where he later converted to Christianity. An impressive Russian Orthodox cathedral marks the location of this historic event."}
+{"text":"At the same time, the southern fringe of the peninsula was controlled by the Byzantine Empire as the Cherson theme."}
+{"text":"Kiev lost its hold on the Crimean interior in the early 13th century due to the Mongol invasions. In the summer of 1238 Batu Khan devastated the Crimean peninsula and pacified Mordovia, reaching Kiev by 1240. The Crimean interior came under the control of the Turco-Mongol Golden Horde from 1239 to 1441. The name \"Crimea\" (via Italian, from Turkic \"Qirim\") originates as the name of the provincial capital of the Golden Horde, the city now known as Staryi Krym."}
+{"text":"The Byzantines and their successor states (the Empire of Trebizond (1204\u20131461) and the Principality of Theodoro (early 14th century\u20131475)) continued to maintain control over parts of southern Crimea until the Ottoman conquest in 1475. In the 13th century the Republic of Genoa seized the settlements which their rivals, the Venetians, had built along the Crimean coast and established themselves at Cembalo (present-day Balaklava), Soldaia (Sudak), Cherco (Kerch) and Caffa (Feodosiya), gaining control of the Crimean economy and the Black Sea commerce for two centuries."}
+{"text":"In 1346 the Golden Horde army besieging Genoese Kaffa (present-day Feodosiya) catapulted the bodies of Mongol warriors who had died of plague over the walls of the city. Historians have speculated that Genoese refugees from this engagement may have brought the Black Death to Western Europe."}
+{"text":"After Timur destroyed a Mongol Golden Horde army in 1399, the Crimean Tatars founded an independent Crimean Khanate under Hac\u0131 I Giray (a descendant of Genghis Khan) in 1441. Hac\u0131 I Giray and his successors reigned first at Q\u0131rq Yer, then - from the beginning of the 15th century - at Bakhchisaray."}
+{"text":"The Crimean Tatars controlled the steppes that stretched from the Kuban to the Dniester River, however, they were unable to take control of the commercial Genoese towns in the Crimea. After the Crimean Tatars asked for help from the Ottomans, an Ottoman invasion of the Genoese towns led by Gedik Ahmed Pasha in 1475 brought Kaffa and the other trading towns under their control."}
+{"text":"After the capture of the Genoese towns, the Ottoman Sultan held Khan Me\u00f1li I Giray captive, later releasing him in return for accepting Ottoman suzerainty over the Crimean Khans and allowing them rule as tributary princes of the Ottoman Empire.<ref name=\"blacksea-crimea\/hist\"><\/ref> However, the Crimean Khans still had a large amount of autonomy from the Ottoman Empire, and followed the rules they thought best for them."}
+{"text":"Crimean Tatars introduced the practice of raids into Ukrainian lands (the Wild Fields), in which they captured slaves for on-sale. For example, from 1450 to 1586, eighty-six Tatar raids were recorded, and from 1600 to 1647, seventy. In the 1570s close to 20,000 slaves a year went on sale in Kaffa."}
+{"text":"Slaves and freedmen formed approximately 75% of the Crimean population. In 1769 a last major Tatar raid, which took place during the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774, saw the capture of 20,000 slaves."}
+{"text":"The Crimean Tatars as an ethnic group dominated the Crimean Khanate from the 15th to the 18th centuries. They descend from a complicated mixture of Turkic peoples who settled in the Crimea from the 8th century, presumably also absorbing remnants of the Crimean Goths and the Genoese."}
+{"text":"Linguistically, the Crimean Tatars are related to the Khazars, who invaded the Crimea in the mid-8th century; the Crimean Tatar language forms part of the Kipchak or Northwestern branch of the Turkic languages, although it shows substantial Oghuz influence due to historical Ottoman Turkish presence in the Crimea."}
+{"text":"A small enclave of Crimean Karaites, a people of Jewish descent practising Karaism who later adopted a Turkic language, formed in the 13th century. It existed among the Muslim Crimean Tatars, primarily in the mountainous \u00c7ufut Qale area."}
+{"text":"In 1553\u20131554 Cossack Hetman Dmytro Vyshnevetsky (in office: 1550-1557) gathered together groups of Cossacks and constructed a fort designed to obstruct Tatar raids into Ukraine. With this action, he founded the Zaporozhian Sich, with which he would launch a series of attacks on the Crimean Peninsula and the Ottoman Turks."}
+{"text":"In 1774 the Crimean Khans fell under Russian influence with the Treaty of K\u00fc\u00e7\u00fck Kaynarca. In 1778 the Russian government deported numerous Greek Orthodox residents from Crimea to the vicinity of Mariupol."}
+{"text":"In 1783 the Russian Empire annexed all of the Crimea."}
+{"text":"The Taurida Oblast was created by a decree of Catherine the Great on 2 February 1784. The center of the oblast was first in Karasubazar but was moved to Simferopol later in 1784. The establishment decree divided the oblast into 7 uyezds. However, by a decree of Paul I on 12 December 1796, the oblast was abolished and the territory, divided into 2 uyezds (Akmechetsky \"[\u0410\u043a\u043c\u0435\u0447\u0435\u0442\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0439]\" and Perekopsky \"[\u041f\u0435\u0440\u0435\u043a\u043e\u043f\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0439]\") was attached to the second incarnation of the Novorossiysk Governorate."}
+{"text":"After 1799, the territory was divided into uyezds. At that time, there were 1,400 inhabited villages and 7 towns\u2014Simferopol, Sevastopol, Yalta, Yevpatoria, Alushta, Feodosiya, and Kerch."}
+{"text":"In 1802, in the course of Paul I's administrative reform of areas that were annexed from the Crimean Khanate, the Novorossiysk Governorate was again abolished and subdivided. Crimea was attached to a new Taurida Governorate established with its centre at Simferopol. The governorate included both the 25,133\u00a0km2 Crimea as well as 38,405\u00a0km2 of adjacent areas of the mainland. In 1826 Adam Mickiewicz published his seminal work \"The Crimean Sonnets\" after traveling through the Black Sea Coast."}
+{"text":"By the late 19th century, Crimean Tatars continued to form a slight plurality of Crimea's still largely rural population but there were large numbers of Russians and Ukrainians as well as smaller numbers of Germans, Jews (including Krymchaks and Crimean Karaites), Bulgarians, Belarusians, Turks, Armenians, and Greeks and Gypsies."}
+{"text":"The Tatars were the predominant portion of the population in the mountainous area and about half of the steppe population. Russians were concentrated most heavily in Feodosiya district. Germans and Bulgarians settled in the Crimea at the beginning of the 19th century, receiving a large allotment and fertile land and later wealthy colonists began to buy land, mainly in Perekopsky and Evpatoria uyezds."}
+{"text":"The Crimean War (1853\u20131856), a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the Duchy of Nassau, was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining Ottoman Empire. Russia and the Ottoman Empire went to war in October 1853 over Russia's rights to protect Orthodox Christians; to stop Russia's conquests France and Britain entered in March 1854. While some of the war was fought elsewhere, the principal engagements were in Crimea."}
+{"text":"Following action in the Danubian Principalities and in the Black Sea, allied troops landed in Crimea in September 1854 and besieged the city of Sevastopol, home of the Tsar's Black Sea Fleet and the associated threat of potential Russian penetration into the Mediterranean. After extensive fighting throughout Crimea, the city fell on 9 September 1855."}
+{"text":"The war devastated much of the economic and social infrastructure of Crimea. The Crimean Tatars had to flee from their homeland \"en masse\", forced by the conditions created by the war, persecution and land expropriations. Those who survived the trip, famine and disease, resettled in Dobruja, Anatolia, and other parts of the Ottoman Empire. Finally, the Russian government decided to stop the process, as the agriculture began to suffer due to the unattended fertile farmland."}
+{"text":"In 1909, the Russian battleship \"Potemkin\" accidentally sank a Russian submarine."}
+{"text":"Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, the military and political situation in Crimea was chaotic like that in much of Russia. During the ensuing Russian Civil War, Crimea changed hands numerous times and was for a time a stronghold of the anti-Bolshevik White Army. It was in Crimea that the White Russians led by General Wrangel made their last stand against Nestor Makhno and the Red Army in 1920. When resistance was crushed, many of the anti-Bolshevik fighters and civilians escaped by ship to Istanbul."}
+{"text":"Approximately 50,000 White prisoners of war and civilians were summarily executed by shooting or hanging after the defeat of General Wrangel at the end of 1920. This is considered one of the largest massacres in the Civil War."}
+{"text":"Crimea changed hands several times over the course of the conflict and several political entities were set up on the peninsula. These included:"}
+{"text":"On 18 October 1921, the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was created as part of the Russian SFSR which, in turn, became part of the new Soviet Union. However, this did not protect the Crimean Tatars, who constituted about 25% of the Crimean population, from Joseph Stalin's repressions of the 1930s. The Greeks were another cultural group that suffered. Their lands were lost during the process of collectivisation, in which farmers were not compensated with wages. Schools which taught Greek were closed and Greek literature was destroyed, because the Soviets considered the Greeks as \"counter-revolutionary\" with their links to capitalist state Greece, and their independent culture."}
+{"text":"From 1923 until 1944 there was an effort to create Jewish settlements in Crimea. At one time, Vyacheslav Molotov suggested the idea of establishing a Jewish homeland."}
+{"text":"Crimea experienced two severe famines in the 20th century, the Famine of 1921\u20131922 and the Holodomor of 1932\u20131933. A large Slavic population influx occurred in the 1930s as a result of the Soviet policy of regional development. These demographic changes permanently altered the ethnic balance in the region."}
+{"text":"Sevastopol held out from October 1941 until 4 July 1942 when the Germans finally captured the city. From 1 September 1942, the peninsula was administered as the \"Generalbezirk Krim\" (general district of Crimea) \"und Teilbezirk\" (and sub-district) \"Taurien\" by the Nazi \"Generalkommissar\" Alfred Eduard Frauenfeld (1898\u20131977), under the authority of the three consecutive Reichskommissare for the entire Ukraine. In spite of heavy-handed tactics by the Nazis and the assistance of the Romanian and Italian troops, the Crimean mountains remained an unconquered stronghold of the native resistance (the partisans) until the day when the peninsula was freed from the occupying force."}
+{"text":"The Crimean Jews were targeted for annihilation during Nazi occupation. According to Yitzhak Arad, \"In January 1942 a company of Tatar volunteers was established in Simferopol under the command of \"Einsatzgruppe 11\". This company participated in anti-Jewish manhunts and murder actions in the rural regions.\""}
+{"text":"In 1944, Sevastopol came under the control of troops from the Soviet Union. The so-called \"City of Russian Glory\" once known for its beautiful architecture was entirely destroyed and had to be rebuilt stone by stone. Due to its enormous historical and symbolic meaning for the Russians, it became a priority for Stalin and the Soviet government to have it restored to its former glory within the shortest time possible."}
+{"text":"On 19 February 1954, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a decree on the transfer of the Crimean region of the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR. This Supreme Soviet Decree states that this transfer was motivated by \"the commonality of the economy, the proximity, and close economic and cultural relations between the Crimean region and the Ukrainian SSR\"."}
+{"text":"In post-war years, Crimea thrived as a tourist destination, with new attractions and sanatoriums for tourists. Tourists came from all around the Soviet Union and neighbouring countries, particularly from the German Democratic Republic. In time the peninsula also became a major tourist destination for cruises originating in Greece and Turkey. Crimea's infrastructure and manufacturing also developed, particularly around the sea ports at Kerch and Sevastopol and in the oblast's landlocked capital, Simferopol. Populations of Ukrainians and Russians alike doubled, with more than 1.6 million Russians and 626,000 Ukrainians living on the peninsula by 1989."}
+{"text":"The North Crimean Canal (Russian: \u0421\u0435\u0432\u0435\u0440\u043e-\u041a\u0440\u044b\u043c\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0439 \u043a\u0430\u043d\u0430\u043b, Ukrainian: \u041f\u0456\u0432\u043d\u0456\u0447\u043d\u043e-\u041a\u0440\u0438\u043c\u0441\u044c\u043a\u0438\u0439 \u043a\u0430\u043d\u0430\u043b; in the Soviet Union \u2013 North Crimean Canal of the Lenin's Komsomol of Ukraine) is a land improvement canal for irrigation and watering of Kherson Oblast in southern Ukraine, and the Crimean peninsula. The canal also has multiple branches throughout Kherson Oblast and the Crimean peninsula."}
+{"text":"The construction preparation started in 1957 soon after the transfer of Crimea of 1954. The main project works took place between 1961 and 1971 and had three stages. The construction was conducted by the Komosomol members sent by the Komsomol travel ticket (Komsomolskaya putyovka) as part of shock construction projects and accounted for some 10,000 \"volunteer\" workers."}
+{"text":"With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Crimea became part of the newly independent Ukraine. Independence was supported by a referendum in all regions of Ukrainian SSR, including Crimea. 54% of the Crimean voters supported independence with a 60% turnout (in Sevastopol 57% supported independence). The percentage of the total Crimean electorate that had voted for Ukrainian independence in the referendum was 37%. In 1994, the legal status of Crimea as part of Ukraine was backed up by Russia, who pledged to uphold the territorial integrity of Ukraine in a memorandum signed in 1994, also signed by the US and UK."}
+{"text":"This new situation led to tensions between Russia and Ukraine. With the Black Sea Fleet based on the peninsula, worries of armed skirmishes were occasionally raised. In August 1991, Yuriy Meshkov established the Republican Movement of Crimea which was registered on 19 November."}
+{"text":"On 2 September 1991, the National Movement of Crimean Tatars appealed to the V Extraordinary Congress of People's Deputies in Russia demanding the program how to return the deported Tatar population back to Crimea. Based on the resolution of the Verkhovna Rada (the Crimean parliament) on 26 February 1992, the Crimean ASSR was renamed the Republic of Crimea. The Crimean parliament proclaimed self-government on 5 May 1992. (which was yet to be approved by a referendum to be held 2 August 1992) and passed the first Crimean constitution the same day. On 6 May 1992 the same parliament inserted a new sentence into this constitution that declared that Crimea was part of Ukraine."}
+{"text":"On 14 April 1993, the Presidium of the Crimean parliament called for the creation of the presidential post of the Crimean Republic. A week later the Russian deputy, Valentin Agafonov, stated that Russia is ready to supervise the referendum on Crimean independence and include the republic as a separate entity in the CIS. On 28 July 1993, one of the leaders of the Russian Society of Crimea, Viktor Prusakov, stated that his organization is ready for an armed mutiny and establishment of the Russian administration in Sevastopol. In September, Eduard Baltin accused Ukraine of converting some of his fleet and conducting an armed assault on his personnel, and threatened to take \"countermeasures\" of placing the fleet on alert."}
+{"text":"Following the ratification of the May 1997 Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership on friendship and division of the Black Sea Fleet, international tensions slowly eased off. With the treaty, Moscow recognized Ukraine's borders and territorial integrity, and accepted Ukraine's sovereignty over Crimea and Sevastopol. In a separate agreement, Russia was to receive 80 percent of the Black Sea Fleet and use of the military facilities in Sevastopol on a 20-year lease."}
+{"text":"However, other controversies between Ukraine and Russia still remain, including the ownership of a lighthouse on Cape Sarych. Because the Russian Navy controlled 77 geographical objects on the south Crimean Shore, the Sevastopol Government Court ordered the vacating of the objects, which the Russian military did not carry out. Since August 3, 2005, the lighthouse has been controlled by the Russian Army. Through the years, there have been various attempts to return Cape Sarych to Ukrainian territory, all of which were unsuccessful."}
+{"text":"In 2006, protests broke out on the peninsula after U.S. Marines arrived at the Crimean city of Feodosiya to take part in the Sea Breeze 2006 Ukraine-NATO military exercise. Protesters greeted the marines with barricades and slogans bearing \"Occupiers go home!\" and a couple of days later, the Crimean parliament declared Crimea a \"NATO-free territory.\" After several days of protest, the U.S. Marines withdrew from the peninsula."}
+{"text":"In September 2008, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Volodymyr Ohryzko accused Russia of giving out Russian passports to the population in the Crimea and described it as a \"real problem\" given Russia's declared policy of military intervention abroad to protect Russian citizens."}
+{"text":"During a press conference in Moscow on 16 February 2009, the Mayor of Sevastopol Serhiy Kunitsyn claimed (citing recent polls) that the population of Crimea is opposed to the idea of becoming a part of Russia."}
+{"text":"Although western newspapers like the \"Wall Street Journal\" have speculated about a Russian coup in Sevastopol or another Crimean city in connection with the Russian-Georgian war and the Recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia by Russia. Valentyn Nalyvaychenko, acting head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), stated on 17 February 2009, that he is confident that any \"Ossetian scenario\" is impossible in Crimea. The SBU had started criminal proceedings against the pro-Russian association \"People's front Sevastopol-Crimea-Russia\" in January 2009."}
+{"text":"On the 55th anniversary of the transfer of the Crimea from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR (on 19 February 2009) some 300 to 500 people took part in rallies to protest against the transfer."}
+{"text":"On 24 August 2009, anti-Ukrainian demonstrations were held in Crimea by ethnic Russian residents. Sergei Tsekov (of the Russian Bloc and then deputy speaker of the Crimean parliament) said then that he hoped that Russia would treat the Crimea the same way as it had treated South Ossetia and Abkhazia."}
+{"text":"Chaos in the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament) during a debate over the extension of the lease on a Russian naval base erupted on 27 April 2010 after Ukraine's parliament ratified the treaty that extends Russia's lease on a military wharf and shore installations in the Crimean port Sevastopol until 2042. The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Lytvyn had to be shielded by umbrellas as he was pelted with eggs, while smoke bombs exploded and politicians brawled. Along with the Verkhovna Rada the treaty was ratified by the Russian State Duma as well."}
+{"text":"Before 2014, Crimea can be considered a part of the political base of then President Viktor Yanukovych. Thus, in the period just prior to 2014, Crimea was not experiencing intense mobilization against Ukraine or on behalf of absorption into Russia."}
+{"text":"Within days, on 26 February 2014, hundreds of pro-Russia and pro-Ukraine protesters clashed in front of the parliament building in Simferopol. The previous day, 300\u2013500 pro-Russia protesters chanting \"Russia\" had replaced the flag of Ukraine with the flag of the Russian Federation. Leaders of Crimean Tatars organised a meeting in order to block a meeting of Crimean parliament which is \"doing everything to execute plans of separation of Crimea from Ukraine\". According to the Russian state media, the pretext of the clash was the purported abolition, on 23 February 2014, of a controversial law on the status of regional languages."}
+{"text":"On 27 February, unidentified troops widely suspected of being Russian special forces seized the building of the Supreme Council of Crimea and the building of the Council of Ministers in Simferopol. Whilst the \"little green men\" were occupying the Crimean parliament building, the parliament held an emergency session. It voted to terminate the Crimean government, and replace Prime Minister Anatolii Mohyliov with Sergey Aksyonov. According to the Constitution of Ukraine, the Prime Minister of Crimea is appointed by the Supreme Council of Crimea in consultation with the President of Ukraine. Both Aksyonov and speaker Vladimir Konstantinov stated that they viewed Viktor Yanukovych as the \"de jure\" president of Ukraine, through whom they were able to ask Russia for assistance."}
+{"text":"The \"little green men\" began to surround Ukrainian bases in the peninsula and soon individuals were kidnapped. On 11 March, after disagreements between Crimea, Sevastopol, and the interim Government in Ukraine, the Crimean parliament and the city council of Sevastopol adopted a resolution to show their intention to unilaterally declare themselves independent as a single united nation with the possibility of joining the Russian Federation as a federal subject, should voters approve to do so in an upcoming referendum."}
+{"text":"On 16 March, Crimea's government claimed that nearly 96% of those who voted in Crimea supported joining Russia. The vote received no international recognition and, aside from Russia, no country had sent official observers there."}
+{"text":"On 17 March, the Crimean parliament officially declared its independence from Ukraine and requested to join the Russian Federation."}
+{"text":"On 18 March 2014, the self-proclaimed independent Republic of Crimea signed a treaty of accession to the Russian Federation. The accession was granted but separately for each the former regions that composed it: one accession for the Autonomous Republic of Crimea as the \"Republic of Crimea\"\u2014the same name as the short-lived self-proclaimed independent republic - and another accession for Sevastopol as a federal city. The accession was only recognised internationally by a few states with most regarding the action as illegal. Though Ukraine refused to accept the annexation, the Ukrainian military began to withdraw from Crimea on March 19."}
+{"text":"All actions of Crimean parliament were declared null and void by Ukrainian constitutional court that led to its disbandment by Ukrainian parliament."}
+{"text":"The Ukrainian parliament has stated that the referendum is unconstitutional. The United States and the European Union said they consider the vote to be illegal, and warned that there may be repercussions for the Crimean ballot."}
+{"text":"On 27 March, the U.N. General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution 100 in favour, 11 against and 58 abstentions in the 193-nation assembly that declared invalid Crimea's Moscow-backed referendum."}
+{"text":"In July 2015, Russian Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev, declared that Crimea had been fully integrated into Russia."}
+{"text":"On 18 September 2016, the whole of Crimea participated in the Russian legislative election."}
+{"text":"Zephyrium or Zephyrion () was a town of the Chersonesus Taurica (modern Crimean Peninsula), mentioned by Pliny the Elder."}
+{"text":"The Treaty of Livadia () was an unequal treaty between the Russian Empire and the Chinese Qing dynasty signed in Livadiya, Crimea, on 2 October 1879, wherein Russia agreed to return a portion of the lands it had occupied in Xinjiang during the Dungan Revolt of 1862\u20131877. Even though Qing forces had reconquered the area, the resulting treaty was extremely unfavorable to China. As a result, the Qing government refused to ratify it and the emissary who made the negotiations was sentenced to death (although the sentence was not carried out). Seventeen months later, the two nations signed the Treaty of Saint Petersburg, which apart from territorial matters, largely had the same terms as the Treaty of Livadia."}
+{"text":"The Qing dynasty under the Qianlong Emperor conquered Xinjiang from the Dzungar Khanate in the late 1750s. However, Qing China declined in the late 19th century following the First Opium War. A major revolt known as the Dungan Revolt occurred in the 1860s and 1870s in Northwest China, and Qing rule almost collapsed in all of Xinjiang except for places such as Tacheng. Taking advantage of this revolt, Yakub Beg, commander-in-chief of the army of Kokand occupied most of Xinjiang and declared himself the Emir of Kashgaria."}
+{"text":"Russia was officially neutral during the conflict, but as a result of the Treaty of Tarbagatai in 1864, had already gained about of territory in Xinjiang. Furthermore, the Russian Governor-General of Turkestan had sent troops into the Ili Valley in 1871, ostensibly to protect his citizens during the rebellion, but they had extensively built up infrastructure in the Ili capital of Ghulja. This was typical of the Russian strategy of taking control over a region and negotiating recognition of its sovereignty after the fact."}
+{"text":"The Qing counterinsurgency, led by General Zuo Zongtang began in September 1876 and concluded in December 1877, having completely retaken the lands that were lost. During this time, Russia had promised to return all occupied lands to China."}
+{"text":"The Treaty of Livadia actually consisted of two separate agreements."}
+{"text":"The first treaty consisted of eighteen articles, and stipulated that:"}
+{"text":"The second treaty contained seventeen articles that focused on the logistics of conducting trade, such as tax issues, passport requirements, and certification procedures, the total effect of which was very preferential to Russian commercial interests and represented unprecedented access to the Chinese interior. There was also an unrelated supplementary article that reaffirmed Russia's right to navigate the Songhua River as far as Tongjiang in Manchuria."}
+{"text":"At the time of negotiations, China was in a strong position. Zuo's army was still in the region and far outnumbered the Russian troops that remained. Furthermore, Russia had recently concluded the Russo-Turkish War and the resulting Treaty of Berlin had not been particularly favorable to them. Military expenditures during that war had also drained the national treasury, so the fact that the terms of Livadia were so heavily in their favor came as quite a shock among government officials when they became widely known."}
+{"text":"As the months passed, tensions between the two countries remained high and both sides prepared for war. China dispatched Zeng Jize as their new negotiator. The foreign emissaries in Beijing pleaded on behalf of Chonghou, and even Queen Victoria personally interceded. Finally, on 12 August 1880, it was announced that Chonghou would be freed, and negotiations resumed. The resulting Treaty of Saint Petersburg kept many of the same provisions as the Treaty of Livadia, with the major exceptions being that Russia would return almost all of Xinjiang, less a small area reserved for Dungans who wanted to become Russian citizens, and that the amount of the indemnity payment increased."}
+{"text":"For many years, the story that Chonghou was solely responsible for the debacle was perpetuated by the Chinese government, and this was the view put forth by historians as well. Although Chonghou had survived, he was turned into a nonperson by the government; he was expunged from government records and his letters were not published posthumously, as was the custom for Chinese court officials. Furthermore, neither the Chinese nor Russian governments retained any documents from the negotiations, thus making it difficult to determine how China ended up with an unequal treaty despite being in the better negotiating position."}
+{"text":"Historian S. C. M. Paine investigated the circumstances around the treaty and discovered that contrary to the official story, Chonghou was an experienced diplomat and had a career of over thirty years in negotiations with France, England, and the United States. In fact, he led the delegation to France to offer the Chinese apology after the Tianjin Massacre in 1870."}
+{"text":"Instead, Paine believes blame should be laid on the Qing government as a whole. At the Zongli Yamen (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Prince Gong, who had founded the ministry, had plenty of experience dealing with Russia during negotiations for the Convention of Peking in 1860, and during the Russian occupation period, there was plenty of communication between the two countries that Russian territorial and commercial demands should have been known long before negotiations started. However, despite its charter, the Zongli Yamen was not the only agency that dealt with foreign affairs. Even within the ministry, there was a split between those who were open to foreigners (such as Prince Gong) and those were not."}
+{"text":"Paine argues that given Chonghou's experience, because the terms were so unfavorable to China, it is unlikely that he would have made those concessions on his own, as evidenced from the subsequent outrage. It was only when Empress Dowager Cixi sought comment on the treaty from others that it turned into a scandal. Cixi's installation of her nephew as emperor also created a power struggle in the government between her and Prince Gong, whose son was also in contention to succeed the Tongzhi Emperor. Thus, Prince Gong may have been distracted and unable to apply his foreign affairs expertise. In addition, Wenxiang, another diplomat who was also experienced in negotiating with Westerners, had died in 1876."}
+{"text":"In short, Paine believes that Chonghou was poorly advised by the Zongli Yamen and when the court became outraged by the treaty, he became the scapegoat, otherwise the ministry and by extension Manchus (who made up the majority of Zongli Yamen officials) would have to take the blame."}
+{"text":"Suuksu or Suuk-su (, , ) is a cape on the southern coast of Crimea, Ukraine between the town Gurzuf and western slopes of Mount Ayu-Dag (\"Bear Mountain\"). On top of the cape is an early medieval cemetery. Excavation of the cemetery began in 1903 and turned up a variety of jewelry, dishes and weapons."}
+{"text":"The cemetery was named for the cape, which it is located. In the Crimean Tatar language, it means \"cold water\" (suvuq - cold, suv - water)."}
+{"text":"The Evacuation of the Crimea (November 13\u201316, 1920) was an event in the Russian Civil War, in which the White Russian state evacuated over sea from the Crimean Peninsula, their last stronghold on the Southern Front, bringing an end to the fighting on that Front."}
+{"text":"During the occupation of Crimea by the Crimean Soviet Army under the command of Pavel Dybenko in April 1919, the Entente troops were evacuated from Sevastopol, taking with them a number of refugees, including some of the leaders of the Second Crimean regional government of Solomon Crimea. White Army units retreated to the Kerch Peninsula and held it. Initially, the Crimean Socialist Soviet Republic and its leaders Dmitry Ulyanov pursued a relatively soft policy in comparison with the atrocities of the winter of 1917-1918 and were able to avoid mass terror."}
+{"text":"However by the end of October 1920, the White Army had been driven out of Southern Russia and Ukraine, and only held the Crimean Peninsula, defended behind the narrow Perekop Isthmus. When this last defensive line was breached by the Red Army during the Siege of Perekop, the commander of the White Army, Pyotr Wrangel, decided to evacuate. The operation had been preliminarily worked out and planned by General Wrangel's staff, so its implementation was carried out in good order."}
+{"text":"During the evacuation from the ports of the Crimean peninsula (Sevastopol, Yevpatoria, Kerch, Feodosia, Yalta) a total of 145,693 soldiers and civilians, not counting the crews, were taken on board on 126 ships and \"sudenosheks\" (small boats and tugs)."}
+{"text":"This fleet, known as Wrangel's fleet, and composed of ships of the Whites' Black Sea fleet, foreign ships and the temporarily mobilized ships of the Voluntary Fleet, first sailed to Entente-occupied Constantinople. A significant part of the passengers left the ships here, replenishing the ranks of White Russian emigrees. Between December 8, 1920 and February 1921, the reduced flotilla sailed to the Tunisian port of Bizerte."}
+{"text":"The soldiers and civilians who were left behind in the Crimea, suffered under the Red Terror organised by B\u00e9la Kun and Rosalia Zemlyachka, under the general management of the representative of the Russian Soviet government Yuri Pyatakov and authorised by Vladimir Lenin. <br>"}
+{"text":"The estimated number of executions vary from minimum 12,000 over 50,000 to 120,000. The White Army soldiers had been falsely promised amnesty if they surrendered."}
+{"text":"Several rare photographs of the moment of evacuation in Sevastopol and Yalta have been preserved. The Crimean Evacuation is also shown in Soviet feature films \"Two Comrades Were Serving\" (1968) and \"The Flight\" (1970), and also in the 2014 film \"Sunstroke\" ."}
+{"text":"Trebizond already had a long history of autonomous rule before it became the center of a small empire in the Late Middle Ages. Due to its natural harbours, defensible topography and access to silver and copper mines, Trebizond became the pre-eminent Greek colony on the eastern Black Sea shore soon after its founding. Its remoteness from Roman capitals gave local rulers the opportunity to advance their own interest. In the centuries before the founding of the empire the city had been under control of the local Gabras family, which \u2013 while officially still remaining part of the Byzantine Empire \u2013 minted its own coin."}
+{"text":"The rulers of Trebizond called themselves \"Megas Komnenos\" (\"Great Comnenus\") and \u2013 like their counterparts in the other two Byzantine successor states, the Empire of Nicaea and the Despotate of Epirus \u2013 initially claimed supremacy as \"Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans\". However, after Michael VIII Palaiologos of Nicaea recaptured Constantinople in 1261, the Komnenian use of the style \"Emperor\" became a sore point. In 1282, John II Komnenos stripped off his imperial regalia before the walls of Constantinople before entering to marry Michael's daughter, accepting his legal title of despot. However, his successors used a version of his title, \"Emperor and Autocrat of the entire East, of the Iberians and the Perateia\" until the Empire's end in 1461."}
+{"text":"Geographically, the Empire of Trebizond consisted of the narrow strip along the southern coast of the Black Sea and the western half of the Pontic Alps, along with the Gazarian Perateia, or southern Crimea (soon losing to Genoese Gazaria and Theodorite Gazaria)."}
+{"text":"The empire traces its foundation to April 1204, when Alexios Komnenos and his brother David took advantage of the preoccupation of the central Byzantine government with the encampment of the soldiers of the Fourth Crusade outside their walls (June 1203 \u2013 mid-April 1204) and seized the city of Trebizond and the surrounding province of Chaldia with troops provided by their relative, Tamar of Georgia. Henceforth, the links between Trebizond and Georgia remained close, but their nature and extent have been disputed. However some scholars believe that the new state was subject to Georgia, at least in the first years of its existence, at the beginning of the 13th century."}
+{"text":"After marching from Georgia, and with the help of their paternal aunt Queen Tamar, Alexios and David occupied Trebizond in April 1204. That same month Alexios was proclaimed emperor at the age of 22, an act considered by later writers as the moment the Empire of Trebizond was founded. Alexios would then proceed to rule his new empire for the next twenty-two years, until his death in February 1222. The throne then passed to his son-in-law Andronikos I Gidos Komnenos."}
+{"text":"For most of the 13th century Trebizond was in continual conflict with the Seljuk Sultanate of R\u00fbm and later with the Ottoman Turks, as well as Constantinople, the Italian republics, and especially the Republic of Genoa. It was an empire more in title than in fact, surviving by playing its rivals against each other, and offering the daughters of its rulers, who were famed for their beauty, for marriage with generous dowries, especially with the Turkish rulers of inland Anatolia. The common view is that the Empire of Trebizond relied heavily upon wealth gained from its trade with Genoese and Venetian merchants to secure for itself the resources necessary to maintain independence."}
+{"text":"The second son of Alexios I, Manuel I (1238\u20131263), preserved internal security and acquired the reputation of a great commander. His accomplishments included capturing Sinope in 1254. He was the first ruler to issue silver coins, which were known as \"aspers\"."}
+{"text":"From the civil wars to the end of the 14th century."}
+{"text":"Under the rule of Alexios III, Trebizond was considered an important trade center and was renowned for its great wealth and artistic accomplishment. It was at this point that their famous diplomatic strategy of marrying the princesses of the Grand Komnenos to neighboring Turkish dynasts began. However, Anthony Bryers has argued against thinking this empire was a wealthy polity, stating that while the income from taxes levied on this trade was \"by Byzantine standards\" substantial, as much as three quarters of the income of the Emperor came from land \"either directly from the imperial estates or indirectly from taxes and tithes from other lands.\""}
+{"text":"Alexios IV's eldest son, John IV (1429\u20131459), could not help but see that his Empire would soon share the fate of Constantinople. The Ottoman Sultan Murad II first attempted to take the capital by sea in 1442, but high surf made the landings difficult and the attempt was repulsed. While Murad's son and successor, Mehmed II, was away laying siege to Belgrade in 1456, the Ottoman governor of Amasya attacked Trebizond, and although defeated, he took many prisoners and extracted a heavy tribute. A Genoese document records the seizure of one of their ships at that port in 1437 by a military Galley on the orders of Emperor John IV."}
+{"text":"After John's death in 1459, his brother David came to power. David intrigued with various European powers for help against the Ottomans, speaking of wild schemes that included the conquest of Jerusalem. Mehmed II eventually heard of these intrigues and was further provoked to action by David's demand that Mehmed remit the tribute imposed on his brother."}
+{"text":"Mehmed's response came in the summer of 1461. He collected a sizable army at Bursa, and in a surprise move marched on Sinope, whose emir quickly surrendered. Then the Sultan moved south across eastern Anatolia to neutralize Uzun Hasan. Having isolated Trebizond, Mehmed quickly swept down upon it before the inhabitants knew he was coming, and placed it under siege. The city held out for a month before David surrendered on August 15, 1461. With the fall of Trebizond, the last independent remnant of the Byzantine Empire, as well as the Roman Empire from which the Byzantine Empire sprang, was the Empire of Trebizond's offshoot, the Principality of Theodoro. On December 5, 1475 it would also fall to Ottoman rule."}
+{"text":"In the relatively limited territory of the kingdom of the Grand Komnenoi (known as the \u201cEmpire of Trebizond\u201d) there was enough room for three dioceses: Trebizond, which was the only diocese established far in the past, Cerasous and Rizaion in Lazika, both formed as upgraded bishoprics. All three dioceses survived the Ottoman conquest (1461) and generally operated until the 17th century, when the dioceses of Cerasous and Rizaion were abolished. The diocese of Rizaion and the bishopric of Of were abolished at the time due to the Islamisation of the Laz and of the region respectively. Possibly the diocese of Cerasous was deactivated for the same reasons."}
+{"text":"Christianity strongly influenced society in the Empire of Trebizond. According to the Acts of Vazelon, which were written by contemporary monks, most peasants in the Matzouka region of the Empire had first names relating to Christian religious figures. Last names often referred to Christian saints, trades, and place names."}
+{"text":"In Italian, there exists the expression \"to lose the Trebizond\" (\"perdere la Trebisonda\") which means \"to be bewildered\". Trebizond was a port reachable by all the routes that crossed the Black Sea, and therefore a safe shelter in case of storms."}
+{"text":"The Russo-Crimean Wars were fought between the forces of Russia and the Nogays of the Crimean Khanate during the 16th century over the region around the Volga River."}
+{"text":"In the 16th century, the Wild Steppes in Russia were exposed to the Khanate. During the wars, the Crimean Khanate (supported by the Turkish army) invaded central Russia, devastated Ryazan, and burned Moscow. However, the next year they were defeated in the Battle of Molodi. Despite the defeat, the raids continued. As a result, the Crimean Khanate was invaded several times, conquered in the late 18th century. The Tatars eventually lost their influence in the regions."}
+{"text":"The raids began shortly after the establishment of the Russian buffer state, Qasim Khanate, and the domination of Russia in the Russo-Kazan Wars of the late 15th century."}
+{"text":"The Crimean invasions of Russia began in 1507, after the death of Moscow's grand duke Ivan III, with the Crimean Khanate attacking the Russian towns of Belev and Kozelsk."}
+{"text":"Over the course of the 16th century, the outer border of the \"Wild Steppes\" was near the city of Ryazan, outside the Oka River. The main path for the invading forces to Moscow was the Muravsky Trail, running from the Crimean Isthmus of Perekop, between the basins of the Dnieper and Seversky Donets rivers, and finally up to Tula. The Tatars would turn back only after extensive looting and kidnapping, the Tartars usually managed to penetrate 100\u2013200 kilometers into Russian territory. Captives were subsequently sent to the Crimean city of Caffa to be sold into slavery. As a result, the Russian population in the border regions suffered heavily."}
+{"text":"Each spring, Russia mobilized up to several thousand soldiers for border service. The defensive lines consisted of a circuit of fortresses and cities."}
+{"text":"To protect from invasions by the Nogai Horde in the region between the Volga and Irtysh rivers, the Volga cities of Samara (1586), Tsaritsyn (1589), and Saratov (1590) were founded."}
+{"text":"The most damaging invasions occurred in 1517, 1521 (supported by the Khanate of Kazan), 1537 (supported by the Khanate of Kazan, the Lithuanians, and the Ottoman Empire), 1552, 1555, 1570\u201372 (supported by Sweden and the Ottoman Empire), 1589, 1593, 1640, 1666\u201367 (supported by Poland\u2013Lithuania), 1671, and 1688."}
+{"text":"In 1570 the Crimean Tatars' horde devastated the Ryazan borderland of Russia."}
+{"text":"In May 1571, the 120,000-strong Crimean and Turkish army (80,000 Tatars, 33,000 irregular Turks, and 7,000 janissaries) led by the khan of Crimea Devlet I Giray, and Big and Small Nogai hordes and troops of Circassians, bypassed the Serpukhov defensive fortifications on the Oka River, crossed the Ugra River, and rounded the flank of the 6,000-man Russian army. The sentry troops of Russians were crushed by the Crimeans. Not having forces to stop the invasion, the Russian army retreated to Moscow. The rural Russian population also fled to the capital."}
+{"text":"The Crimean army devastated unprotected towns and villages around Moscow, and then set fire to suburbs of the capital. Due to a strong wind, the fire quickly expanded. The townspeople, chased by a fire and refugees, rushed to the northern gate of the capital. At the gate and in the narrow streets, there was a crush, people \"went in three lines went on heads one of another, and top pressed those who were under them\". The army, having mixed up with refugees, lost order, and general prince Belsky died in a fire."}
+{"text":"Within three hours, Moscow burnt completely. In one more day, the Crimean army, sated with its pillage, left on the Ryazan road to the steppes. Contemporaries counted up to 80,000 victims of the invasion in 1571, with 150,000 Russian taken as captives. Papal ambassador Possevin testified of the devastation: he counted in 1580 no more than 30,000 inhabitants of Moscow, although in 1520 the Moscow population was about 100,000."}
+{"text":"After the burning of Moscow, Devlet Giray Khan, supported by the Ottoman Empire, invaded Russia again in 1572. A combined force of Tatars and Turks, however, this time they were repelled in the Battle of Molodi. In July\u2013August, the 120,000-strong horde of Devlet I Giray of Crimea was also defeated by the Russian army, led by Prince Mikhail Vorotynsky and Prince Dmitriy Khvorostinin."}
+{"text":"Later, the Russian expansion turned to the Black Sea region and the Crimean khanate was invaded several times in the 18th century and finally conquered during the Russo-Turkish Wars."}
+{"text":"This list does not include raids into Poland-Lithuania (75 raids during 1474\u20131569)"}
+{"text":"Crimean Regional Government ( \"Krymskoe kraevoe pravitel'stvo\") refers to two successive short-lived regimes in the Crimean Peninsula during 1918 and 1919."}
+{"text":"Following Russia's 1917 October Revolution, an ethnic Tatar government proclaimed the Crimean People's Republic. The republic was soon overrun by Bolshevik forces in early 1918 who established the Taurida Soviet Socialist Republic and then by the forces of the Ukrainian People's Republic with a military assistance from the German Empire in the Crimean Offensive at the end of April 1918."}
+{"text":"The first Crimean Regional Government was established on 25 June 1918. It was formed under German protection with Lipka Tatar General Maciej (Suleyman) Sulkiewicz as prime minister, minister of interior and military affairs. There were efforts by Ukraine to exert control over Crimea but, with German support, the regional government remained separate from Ukraine though, in September and October, there were talks to effect a federation of the two."}
+{"text":"Following the withdrawal of German troops from Crimea, the unpopular Sulkiewicz fell from power on 25 November 1918 and was succeeded by Crimean Karaite politician and former \"Kadet\" member Solomon Krym. This liberal, anti-Bolshevik regime included fellow former \"Kadet\" member Maxim Vinaver as foreign minister and Vladimir D. Nabokov as minister of justice. In late November 1918, troops of the Allies of World War I, mainly French and Greek, landed in Crimea but they withdrew in April 1919, after the loss of Odessa."}
+{"text":"The Krym government, also called the Crimean Frontier Government, began to crumble in early 1919 due to tensions with the Russian White movement's Volunteer Army under Anton Denikin which suspected the loyalty of its main figures. The collapse of the World War I Central Powers and the withdrawal of the Allies had made the Crimea again fully dependent on Russia."}
+{"text":"On 2 April 1919, the Soviet Red Army occupied Simferopol and the second Crimean Regional Government was dissolved. The Crimean Socialist Soviet Republic was then established only to be retaken by White forces in June 1919. The Whites under Denikin and later Pyotr Wrangel held Crimea until November 1920."}
+{"text":"The Yalta Raion (; ) was an administrative division (a district) of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and later the Crimean Oblast as part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic until it was reorganized into the Yalta municipality in 1948."}
+{"text":"About 50 years later, students from Moscow created a monument of remembrance for the battle."}
+{"text":"In November 1920, immediately prior to the main attack on Perekop, the balance of forces was as follows:"}
+{"text":"The construction of fortifications on the isthmus of Perekop began in the autumn of 1919. The White Army defense system consisted of two strips of defense: The Perekop (founded on the Turkish Wall with a total length of 11\u00a0km, it included a ditch, barbed wire in 3-5 rows and three lines of trenches) and Ishun (20\u201325\u00a0km from the first line)."}
+{"text":"There were also fortifications to strengthen the Chonhar Peninsula and the Arabat Spit - up to 5-6 lines of trenches and trenches with barbed wire.<br>"}
+{"text":"Relatively weak defended was the Lithuanian Peninsula with only one line of trenches and barbed wire."}
+{"text":"Approximately 10,000 White Army soldiers defended Perekop and Ishun while 3,000 defended the Syvash, the Chongar Strait and Arabat Spit, a strong reserve. Just over 14,000 were located in the rear."}
+{"text":"Initially, Frunze had planned to deliver the main blow toward Chongar but due to the ice holding back the Azov flotilla, the main attack was transferred on toward Perekop."}
+{"text":"The assault on Perekop was executed by the 6th Army, 1st Cavalry Army and 2nd Cavalry Army.<br>"}
+{"text":"Communists and Komsomol members were sent to strengthen the troops. Just before the operation began, 8,000 Communists and 2,500 Komsomol members were added to the Army."}
+{"text":"On the night of November 8, 1920, the striking force of the 6th Army, in adverse weather conditions (strong winds and minus 11-12 degrees Celsius), crossed the 7-kilometer water obstacle (Syvash), and captured the Lithuanian Peninsula on that day."}
+{"text":"At the same time, the 51st Rifle Division undertook a frontal attack at the Turkish Redoubt. For the purpose of the concentration of forces in the attack, the division was reorganized into six waves - the first component grenade launchers and wire cutters, second - attack aircraft; third - reserve; fourth - \"cleaners\", and the fifth and sixth - reserve. The attack was not successful."}
+{"text":"After back-and-forth fighting, complicated by fluctuating water levels in Syvash bay, the Red Army achieved a breakthrough on November 12, 1920, sending the opposition in general retreat.<br>"}
+{"text":"General Wrangel had no other option than to evacuate his army from the Crimea to Constantinople."}
+{"text":"A popular uprising in Sevastopol in 1830 in response to strict quarantine measures imposed upon the city to combat the spread of the plague."}
+{"text":"In 1828, there was a plague in the southern part of the Russian Empire, which was then at war with The Ottoman Empire. Even though there was no plague in Sevastopol, a quarantine was called as a preventative measure, likely due to the city's strategic importance as a port for the Russian Navy."}
+{"text":"In May 1828, a quarantine cordon was built around Sevastopol, and all traffic into and out of the city had to pass through a checkpoint. In the summer of 1829, the quarantine was made stricter, such that anyone travelling to the city had to spend 2\u20133 weeks in the quarantine zone. Anybody suspected of illness had to be put into isolation. This dissuaded local farmers from entering the city with goods. This led to a shortage of rations, which was compounded by hoarding of goods by quarantine officials."}
+{"text":"The deficit and poor quality of the goods in the city contributed to illness and death amongst the population, and the effects were the most pronounced in the poorer parts of the city."}
+{"text":"Matters got so bad that an official commission was ordered from St. Petersburg to investigate the situation. Mass abuses were found, but no officials were punished and the commission was disbanded in November of that same year."}
+{"text":"In March 1830, the quarantine was toughened further when all of the residents were ordered not to leave their homes. This ban was lifted in May, except for those residents of the poorer Korablenaya neighborhood, who were ordered to remain in quarantine for another 7 days, and upon passage of this week, for another 2 weeks. This enraged those residents, as well as their relations outside of the neighbourhood, and they refused the orders - despite the urging of Counter admiral Ivan Skalovsky and others in the military and religious establishment."}
+{"text":"The quarantine was enforced by the infantry, and the desperate residents began planning an armed resistance, led by retired military amongst them. Many within the infantry sympathised with the residents. The two sides managed to avoid the outbreak of an armed confrontation."}
+{"text":"On the 3rd of June, Lt. General and Military Governor of Sevastopol, Nikolai Stolypin, in response to the growing instability, positioned troops in the streets and around the governor's mansion. This further incensed the revolting residents, who descended upon the governor's mansion in an angry mob and murdered Stolypin."}
+{"text":"They were supported by the military garrisons deployed to enforce the quarantine, some of these soldiers tore down the quarantine cordon around the neighbourhood. The revolting citizens and soldiers held control of the city for 22 hours, during which time they ordered 'plague' officials to sign written documents stating that there was no plague in the city."}
+{"text":"The next day Lt. Gen. Andrei Turchaninov replaced the murdered Stolypin and signed a decree ordering the end of the quarantine."}
+{"text":"Despite accomplishing their immediate goal, the revolters did face repercussions when a division under Timofeyev arrived to regain control of the city. A committee under the governor of Novorossiya, Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov, considered the cases of about 6,000 people. 7 people were executed for leading the uprising and about 1,000 residents and sailors were sent to hard labor. Approximately 4,200 civilians were deported to other cities. The officers received disciplinary punishment."}
+{"text":"The Government of South Russia ( ) was a White movement government established in Sevastopol, Crimea in April 1920."}
+{"text":"It was the successor to General Anton Denikin's South Russian Government (\u042e\u0436\u043d\u043e\u0440\u0443\u0441\u0441\u043a\u043e\u0435 \u041f\u0440\u0430\u0432\u0438\u0442\u0435\u043b\u044c\u0441\u0442\u0432\u043e \"Yuzhnorusskoye Pravitel'stvo\") set up in February 1920."}
+{"text":"General Pyotr Wrangel was the \"pravitel\"' (\u043f\u0440\u0430\u0432\u0438\u0442\u0435\u043b\u044c, \"ruler\") while the head of the government itself was the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Alexander Krivoshein, with Peter Berngardovich Struve serving as foreign minister. The government officially adopted the name \"Government of South Russia\" on 16 August 1920, and it controlled the area of the former Russian Empire's Taurida Governorate, i.e., the Crimean Peninsula and adjacent areas of the mainland."}
+{"text":"The Government of South Russia received assistance from the Allied Powers including France (which recognized it in August 1920) and the United States, as well as from the newly independent Poland. However, foreign support gradually dried up so offensives of the former Armed Forces of South Russia and the Volunteer Army, now called the Russian Army, had failed in Northern Taurida."}
+{"text":"In early November with the Perekop\u2013Chongar operation, the Bolsheviks won decisive victories and entered Crimea proper. Between 7 and 17 November it broke through Russian Army defenses on the Isthmus of Perekop, crossing the Sivash and capturing the Lithuanian Peninsula, the fortified , Yushun, and Chongar positions. After breaking through at Perekop, the front advanced into Crimea. Wrangel initiated an evacuation of 146,000 people to Constantinople with the last boats departing on 16 November. With this withdrawal, the final remnants of the White forces in European Russia were defeated."}
+{"text":"Chersonesus (; ; modern Russian and Ukrainian: \u0425\u0435\u0440\u0441\u043e\u043d\u0435\u0301\u0441, \"Khersones\"; also rendered as \"Chersonese\", \"Chersonesos\"), in medieval Greek contracted to Cherson (\u03a7\u03b5\u03c1\u03c3\u03ce\u03bd; Old East Slavic: \u041a\u043e\u0440\u0441\u0443\u043d\u044c, \"Korsun\") is an ancient Greek colony founded approximately 2,500\u00a0years ago in the southwestern part of the Crimean Peninsula. Settlers from Heraclea Pontica in Bithynia established the colony in the 6th century BC."}
+{"text":"The ancient city is located on the shore of the Black Sea on the outskirts of present-day Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula, where it is referred to as \"Khersones\" (). The site is part of the \"National Preserve of Tauric Chersonesos\". The name \"Chersonesos\" in Greek means \"peninsula\" and aptly describes the site on which the colony was established. It should not be confused with the \"Tauric Chersonese\", a name often applied to the whole of the southern Crimea."}
+{"text":"During much of the classical period Chersonesus operated as a democracy ruled by a group of elected Archons and a council called the \"Demiurgoi\". As time passed, the government grew more oligarchic, with power concentrated in the hands of the archons. A form of oath sworn by all the citizens from the 3rd century BC onwards has survived to the present day."}
+{"text":"In 2013 UNESCO listed Chersonesus as a World Heritage Site."}
+{"text":"In the late 2nd century BC Chersonesus became a dependency of the Bosporan Kingdom. It was subject to Rome from the middle of the 1st century BC until the 370s AD, when it was captured by the Huns."}
+{"text":"It became a Byzantine possession during the Early Middle Ages and withstood a siege by the G\u00f6kt\u00fcrks in 581. Byzantine rule was slight: there was a small imperial garrison more for the town's protection than for its control. It was useful to Byzantium in two ways: it was an observation point to watch the barbarian tribes, and its isolation made it a popular place of exile for those who angered the Roman and later Byzantine governments. Among its more famous \"inmates\" were Pope Clement I and Pope Martin I, and the deposed Byzantine Emperor Justinian II."}
+{"text":"According to Theophanes the Confessor and others, Chersonesus was the residence of a Khazar governor (\"tudun\") in the late 7th century. Between approximately 705 and 840, the city's affairs were managed by elected officials called \"babaghuq\", meaning \"father of the city\"."}
+{"text":"In 833, Emperor Theophilus sent the nobleman Petronas Kamateros, who had recently overseen the construction of the Khazar fortress of Sarkel, to take direct control over the city and its environs, establishing the theme of Klimata\/Cherson. It remained in Byzantine hands until the 980s, when it reportedly fell to Kiev. Vladimir the Great agreed to evacuate the fortress only if Basil II's sister Anna Porphyrogeneta would be given him in marriage. The demand caused a scandal in Constantinople. As a pre-condition for the marriage settlement, Vladimir was baptized here in 988, thus paving the way to the Baptism of Kievan Rus'. Thereafter Korsun' was evacuated."}
+{"text":"Since this campaign is not recorded in Greek sources, historians have suggested that the account actually refers to the events of the Rus'\u2013Byzantine War (1043) and to a different Vladimir. In fact, most valuables looted by the Slavs in Korsun' made their way to Novgorod (perhaps by way of Joachim the Korsunian, the first Novgorodian bishop, as his surname indicates ties to Korsun), where they were preserved in the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom until the 20th century. One of the most interesting items from this \"Korsun Treasure\" is the copper Korsun Gate, supposedly captured by the Novgorodians in Korsun' and now part of the St. Sophia Cathedral."}
+{"text":"After the Fourth Crusade (1202\u201304), Chersonesus became dependent on the Byzantine Empire of Trebizond as the Principality of Theodoro. After the Siege of Trebizond (1461) the Principality of Theodoro became independent. The city fell under Genoese control in the early 13th century. In 1299, the town was sacked by the Mongol armies of Nogai Khan's Golden Horde. Byzantine sources last mention Chersonesus in 1396, and based on archaeological evidence the site is presumed to have been abandoned in the following decades."}
+{"text":"Chersonesus had been a Roman pre-Great Schism, later Greek\/Orthodox, episcopal see for centuries, elevated early to the rank of archbishopric, since it is mentioned as such in the \"Notitiae Episcopatuum\"; it disappeared after the Turkish conquest in 1475 and the destruction of the city."}
+{"text":"In the late 19th century, the grand Russian Orthodox St Vladimir's Cathedral (completed 1892) was built on a small hill overlooking the site; designed in Byzantine style, it was intended to commemorate the site of Vladimir's baptism."}
+{"text":"In 1333, a Latin Church diocese of Chersonesus was established, but it appears that it had only a bishop, a Dominican called Richard the Englishman."}
+{"text":"No longer a residential diocese, Chersonesus in Zechia is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular archbishopric, since the early 20th century, originally called Cherson(a) or Chersonesus, since 1933 specifically Chersonesus in Zechia, avoiding confusion with other sees called Chersonesus (notably in Crete) by specifying it is Crimean."}
+{"text":"It is vacant for decades, having had the following incumbents, all of the intermediary (archiepiscopal) rank:"}
+{"text":"Chersonesus's ancient ruins are presently located in one of Sevastopol's suburbs. They were excavated by the Russian government, starting from 1827. They are today a popular tourist attraction, protected as an archaeological park."}
+{"text":"The buildings mix influences of Greek, Roman and Byzantine culture. The defensive wall was approximately long, 3.5 to 4\u00a0metres wide and 8 to 10\u00a0metres high with towers at a height of 10 to 12\u00a0metres. The walls enclosed an area of about . Buildings include a Roman amphitheatre and a Greek temple."}
+{"text":"The surrounding land under the control of the city, the chora, consists of several square kilometres of ancient but now barren farmland, with remains of wine presses and defensive towers. According to archaeologists, the evidence suggests that the locals were paid to do the farm work instead of being enslaved."}
+{"text":"The excavated tombstones hint at burial practices that were different from the Greek ones. Each stone marks the tomb of an individual, instead of the whole family and the decorations include only objects like sashes and weapons, instead of burial statues. Over half of the tombs archaeologists have found have bones of children. Burned remnants suggest that the city was plundered and destroyed."}
+{"text":"In 2007, Chersonesus tied for fifth in the Seven Wonders of Ukraine poll."}
+{"text":"On February 13, 2009, Ukrainian Defence Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov called on Russia's Black Sea naval fleet to move its automobile depot from the site to another place. The location of the Russian Black Sea naval fleet's automobile depot was one of the obstacles to the inclusion of the reserve on UNESCO's list of world heritage sites."}
+{"text":"In 2017, archaeologists discovered on the outskirts of Sevastopol, fragments of an ancient Greek altar with figures of gods."}
+{"text":"The 1935 basilica is the most famous basilica excavated in Chersonesus. The original name is unknown so \"1935\" refers to the year it was opened. The basilica was probably built in the 6th century on the site of an earlier temple, assumed by historians to be a synagogue, itself replacing a small temple dating from the early days of Christianity. The 1935 basilica is often used as an image representing Chersonesos. Its picture appears on one Ukrainian banknote."}
+{"text":"As well as the archaeological sites, the museum has around 200,000 smaller items from 5\u00a0AD to the 15th century, over 5,000 of which are currently exhibited. These include:"}
+{"text":"The Institute of Classical Archaeology of the University of Texas at Austin and the local Archaeological Park has investigated the site since 1992. The Ukrainian government has included the site on its tentative World Heritage List. The site, however, is in danger of further urban encroachment and coastal erosion."}
+{"text":"In 2013, \"The Ancient City of Tauric Chersonese and its Chora\" was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This World Heritage Site consists of seven locations that encompass the city of Chersonesus and six plots of agricultural land. The site was designated as a World Heritage site under the UNESCO criterion (ii) and (v). UNESCO considers these areas to show cultural lifestyles and land use of ancient populations that inhabited these areas."}
+{"text":"During the 2014 Crimean crisis, the Crimean peninsula was annexed by Russia, but UNESCO has maintained that it will continue to recognize Crimea and its heritage sites as belonging to Ukraine."}
+{"text":"The encroachment of modern building in and around the ancient archaeological site, coupled with a lack of funding to prevent such development pressures, has left the site of Chersonesus firmly at risk."}
+{"text":"In an October 2010 report titled \"Saving Our Vanishing Heritage\", Global Heritage Fund identified Chersonesus as one of 12 worldwide sites most \"On the Verge\" of irreparable loss and destruction, citing insufficient management and development pressures as primary causes."}
+{"text":"On July 29, 2015 governor of Sevastopol Sergei Menyailo (\u0421\u0435\u0440\u0433\u0435\u0439 \u041c\u0435\u043d\u044f\u0439\u043b\u043e), after firing the director of Chersonesus Preserve Andrey Kulagin (\u0410\u043d\u0434\u0440\u0435\u0439 \u041a\u0443\u043b\u0430\u0433\u0438\u043d), appointed a priest, Sergiy Khalyuta (\u0421\u0435\u0440\u0433\u0438\u0439 \u0425\u0430\u043b\u044e\u0442\u0430) to the position. This move caused heated protests of the staff, and the 109 members unanimously refused to work under the new director. The conflict attracted a significant attention of the media. The workers claim that the conflict of the governor and the director of the Preserve started on July 11, when director complained about road construction works within the territory of the Preserve, approved by Governor without the permits necessary for works in protected areas. Eventually, under the pressure, Father Sergiy stepped down."}
+{"text":"Sevastopol City Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine"}
+{"text":"The Sevastopol City Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, commonly referred to as the Sevastopol CPU gorkom, was the position of highest authority in the city of Kiev."}
+{"text":"The position was created in 1954, and abolished in August 1991."}
+{"text":"The First Secretary was a de facto appointed position usually by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine or the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine. The First Secretary exercised a large influence throughout the Soviet Union."}
+{"text":"Maciej (Suleyman bey) Sulkiewicz (, , , Matvei (Magomet) Sulkevich; 20 June 1865, Kiemiej\u0161y, now Voranava District, Grodno Region, Belarus \u2013 15 July 1920, Baku) was a Imperial Russian lieutenant general, Prime Minister of Crimean Regional Government (1918), and Chief of General Staff of Azerbaijani Armed Forces in 1918\u201320."}
+{"text":"Born to parents of Lipka Tatar origin, he changed his name to Mohammad after settling in Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, but in Azerbaijan he is still known as Suleyman bey Sulkiewicz and Mammad bey Sulkiewicz."}
+{"text":"He was executed by the Bolsheviks, after the Bolshevik invasion of Azerbaijan in 1920."}
+{"text":"The intermittent Germanisation of Prussia was a historical process that resulted in the region\u2019s inclusion in various German states. Originating with the arrival of ethnically German groups in the Baltic region, it progressed sporadically with the development of the Teutonic Order and then much later under the Kingdom of Prussia, which continued to impact the region with germanising policies generally aimed at enhancing state control. Ultimately, attempts at Germanisation peaked as the Prussian state transitioned into the German Empire, by which point the main target of reforms were Germany's Polish subjects, only to be halted by the outbreak of the First World War."}
+{"text":"From the early 13th century the establishment of trade settlements in the Baltic began, advancing the economic interests of a powerful German, mercantile, ruling-class. Consequently, this settlement coincided with growth of the Hanseatic League, particularly north of Prussia with the growth of the Brothers of the Sword Order. This established a definitively German presence in the region, allowing for future expansion, contemporarily promoted as crusading. This was especially the case for Prussia, which scholars have contrasted to other incursions such as those into Livonia and Lithuania as the best example of conventional crusading, with religious justifications remaining central rather than political or economic motivations taking precedence."}
+{"text":"Having formally crowned himself King \"in\" Prussia, Frederick III (then Frederick I of Prussia) cemented the unification of the remaining secularised possessions of the Teutonic Order with the Duchy of Brandenburg in 1701, ending Brandenburg-Prussia. Frederick I's father, Frederick William the Great Elector, had been previously granted full sovereignty over Ducal Prussia, the eastern portion of Prussia, for his eventual support of Poland in the Second Northern War. The 'in' rather than 'of' in 'King in Prussia' was stipulated so as to reconcile a desire for greater political clout with the appeasement of the Polish crown by not directly threatening its titles."}
+{"text":"This re-iterated geographical concerns associated with the separation of Prussian possessions, which Frederick the Great, the grandson of Frederick I, sought to remedy. By 1772, Frederick the Great had acquired the vast majority of West Prussia from Poland through a diplomatic \"fait accompli\", backed by Russia and Austria in what was the First Partition of Poland. Thus, Frederick restored much of the Teutonic Order's former territory to Germanic ownership, bar the cities of Danzig and Thorn which remained for a short while longer in Poland's possession. Moreover, this united the region of Prussia with the remainder of the Kingdom as predominately a singular landmass."}
+{"text":"Under Frederick the Great's father, Frederick William I of Prussia, any historical records linking Prussia to the Polish crown were erased, so as to assert the region's independence and justify the continuance of The Prussian Kingdom."}
+{"text":"Importantly, Frederick the Great considered the Polish to be an inferior people, underscoring the resumption of Germanisation policies, albeit with greater vigour than previous historical occurrences. Altogether, his reforms were numerous and formative in encouraging efficient integration, with every fifth Prussian being involved in the mass resettlement across Prussia at the time of his death."}
+{"text":"While policy norms established by Frederick the Great focused upon tolerance, regarding Poles as inferior but still respecting their cultural differences, the policy shift under Otto von Bismarck following the unification of Germany was significant. Correspondingly, a determination to eradicate non-German cultural aspects exhibited themselves again amongst the Prussian region, targeting particularly education and land ownership. Moreover, the targeting and disempowerment of the Polish and other minorities was also driven by martial interests, due to the strategic proximity of Polish populations to the capital in Berlin. Here, the security interests of the military additionally saw Polish soldiers diffused throughout the German army, so as to prevent a concentration of Polish soldiers at a regimental level."}
+{"text":"Center for Urban History of East Central Europe"}
+{"text":"The Center for Urban History of East Central Europe (Ukrainian: \u0426\u0435\u043d\u0442\u0440 \u043c\u0456\u0441\u044c\u043a\u043e\u0457 \u0456\u0441\u0442\u043e\u0440\u0456\u0457 \u0446\u0435\u043d\u0442\u0440\u0430\u043b\u044c\u043d\u043e-\u0441\u0445\u0456\u0434\u043d\u043e\u0457 \u0404\u0432\u0440\u043e\u043f\u0438) is an independent research center, that was founded by the Austrian historian Harald Binder in 2004 as a private non-profit organization. It is one of the principal academic establishments looking at the urban history of East Central Europe, the region between the German-speaking countries and Russia. The academic principal of the center is Sofia Dyak."}
+{"text":"The Center for Urban History is located on Akademika Bohomoltsia Street off of Ivana Franka Street. The Center is not far from Soborna Square and the Danylo Halytsky Monument and about a ten-minute walk from Rynok Square. The building was developed by the renowned Ukrainian architect Ivan Levynskyi and is considered to be one of Lviv's best preserved clusters of Art Nouveau architecture. Secessionist latticework consisting of leaves and flowers dominates in its facade over its Neo-Renaissance layout which follows Classical order principles."}
+{"text":"The database project \u00ab\u0423\u0440\u0431\u0430\u043d\u0456\u0441\u0442\u0438\u0447\u043d\u0456 \u043e\u0431\u0440\u0430\u0437\u0438\u00bb (\u201cUrban Images\u201d) aims at collecting and processing the urban image of East and Central Europe through engravings, photos and postcards and openly accessible."}
+{"text":"The Center has hosted a number of conferences:"}
+{"text":"The Sarmatians (; Greek: ; , ) were a large Iranian confederation that existed in classical antiquity, flourishing from about the fifth century BC to the fourth century AD."}
+{"text":"Originating in the central parts of the Eurasian Steppe, the Sarmatians were part of the wider Scythian cultures. They started migrating westward around the fourth and third centuries BC, coming to dominate the closely related Scythians by 200 BC. At their greatest reported extent, around first century AD, these tribes ranged from the Vistula River to the mouth of the Danube and eastward to the Volga, bordering the shores of the Black and Caspian seas as well as the Caucasus to the south."}
+{"text":"The Sarmatians were eventually decisively assimilated (e.g. Slavicisation) and absorbed by the Proto-Slavic population of Eastern Europe."}
+{"text":"\"Sarmatae\" probably originated as just one of several tribal names of the Sarmatians, but one that Greco-Roman ethnography came to apply as an exonym to the entire group. Strabo in the first century names as the main tribes of the Sarmatians the Iazyges, the Roxolani, the Aorsi, and the Siraces."}
+{"text":"The Greek name \"Sarmatai\" (\u03a3\u03b1\u03c5\u03c1\u03bf\u03bc\u03ac\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9) sometimes appears as \"Sauromatai\", which is almost certainly no more than a variant of the same name. Nevertheless, historians often regarded these as two separate peoples, while archaeologists habitually use the term 'Sauromatian' to identify the earliest phase of Sarmatian culture. Any idea that the name derives from the word lizard (\"sauros\"), linking to the Sarmatians' use of reptile-like scale armour and dragon standards, is almost certainly unfounded. Whereas the word \"\u1f40\u03bc\u03bc\u03ac\u03c4\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd\/ \u03bc\u03ac\u03c4\u03b9\", meaning eye, would suggest the origin of the name could be due to having what appeared as lizard eyes to Greeks."}
+{"text":"Both Pliny the Elder (\"Natural History\" book iv) and Jordanes recognised the \"Sar-\" and \"Sauro-\" elements as interchangeable variants, referring to the same people. Greek authors of the fourth century (Pseudo-Scylax, Eudoxus of Cnidus) mention \"Syrmatae\" as the name of a people living at the Don, perhaps reflecting the ethnonym as it was pronounced in the final phase of Sarmatian culture."}
+{"text":"English scholar Harold Walter Bailey (1899\u20131996) derived the base word from Avestan \"sar-\" (to move suddenly) from \"tsar-\" in Old Iranian (\"tsarati, tsaru-\", hunter), which also gave its name to the western Avestan region of \"Sairima\" (\"*salm\", \"\u2013 *Sairmi\"), and also connected it to the tenth\u2013eleventh century AD Persian epic \"Shahnameh\"s character \"Salm\"."}
+{"text":"Oleg Trubachyov derived the name from the Indo-Aryan \"*sar-ma(n)t\" (feminine\u00a0\u2013 rich in women, ruled by women), the Indo-Aryan and Indo-Iranian word \"*sar-\" (woman) and the Indo-Iranian adjective suffix \"-ma(n)t\/wa(n)t\". By this derivation was noted the high status of women (matriarchy) that was unusual from the Greek point of view and went to the invention of Amazons (thus the Greek name for Sarmatians as \"Sarmatai Gynaikokratoumenoi\", ruled by women)."}
+{"text":"The Sarmatians were part of the Iranian steppe peoples, among whom were also Scythians and Saka. These also are grouped together as \"East Iranians\". Archaeology has established the connection 'between the Iranian-speaking Scythians, Sarmatians, and Saka and the earlier Timber-grave and Andronovo cultures'. Based on building construction, these three peoples were the likely descendants of those earlier archaeological cultures. The Sarmatians and Saka used the same stone construction methods as the earlier Andronovo culture. The Timber grave (Srubnaya culture) and Andronovo house building traditions were further developed by these three peoples. Andronovo pottery was continued by the Saka and Sarmatians. Archaeologists describe the Andronovo culture people as exhibiting pronounced Caucasoid features."}
+{"text":"The Sarmatians differed from the Scythians in their veneration of a fire deity rather than a nature deity, and the prominent role of women in warfare that may have served as inspiration for the Amazons."}
+{"text":"There are two theories accounting for the origin of the Sarmatian culture."}
+{"text":"In 1947, Soviet archaeologist Boris Grakov defined a culture flourishing from the sixth century BC to the fourth century AD, apparent in late kurgan graves (buried within earthwork mounds), sometimes reusing part of much older kurgans. It was a nomadic steppe culture ranging from the Black Sea eastward to beyond the Volga that is especially evident at two of the major sites at Kardaielova and Chernaya in the trans-Uralic steppe. The four phases \u2013 distinguished by grave construction, burial customs, grave goods, and geographical spread \u2013 are:"}
+{"text":"While \"Sarmatian\" and \"Sauromatian\" are synonymous as ethnonyms, purely by convention they are given different meanings as archaeological technical terms. The term \"Prokhorovka culture\" derives from a complex of mounds in the Prokhorovski District, Orenburg region, excavated by S. I. Rudenko in 1916."}
+{"text":"Reportedly, during 2001 and 2006 a great Late Sarmatian pottery centre was unearthed near Budapest, Hungary in the \u00dcll\u01515 archaeological site. Typical grey, granular \u00dcll\u01515 ceramics form a distinct group of Sarmatian pottery is found ubiquitously in the north-central part of the Great Hungarian Plain region, indicating a lively trading activity."}
+{"text":"A 1998 paper on the study of glass beads found in Sarmatian graves suggests wide cultural and trade links."}
+{"text":"Archaeological evidence suggests that Scythian-Sarmatian cultures may have given rise to the Greek legends of Amazons. Graves of armed women have been found in southern Ukraine and Russia. David Anthony noted that approximately 20% of Scythian-Sarmatian \"warrior graves\" on the lower Don and lower Volga contained women dressed for battle as warriors and he asserts that encountering that cultural phenomenon \"probably inspired the Greek tales about the Amazons\"."}
+{"text":"The Sarmatians spoke an Iranian language that was derived from 'Old Iranian' and it was heterogenous. By the first century BC, the Iranian tribes in what is today South Russia spoke different languages or dialects, clearly distinguishable. According to a group of Iranologists writing in 1968, the numerous Iranian personal names in Greek inscriptions from the Black Sea coast indicate that the Sarmatians spoke a North-Eastern Iranian dialect ancestral to Alanian-Ossetian. However, Harmatta (1970) argued that \"the language of the Sarmatians or that of the Alans as a whole cannot be simply regarded as being Old Ossetian\"."}
+{"text":"A genetic study published in \"Nature Communications\" in March 2017 examined several Sarmatian individuals buried in Pokrovka, Russia (southwest of the Ural Mountains) between the fifth century BC and the second century BC. The sample of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup R1b1a2a2. This was the dominant lineage among males of the earlier Yamnaya culture. The eleven samples of mtDNA extracted belonged to the haplogroups U3, M, U1a'c, T, F1b, N1a1a1a1a, T2, U2e2, H2a1f, T1a, and U5a1d2b. The Sarmatians examined were found to be closely related to peoples of the earlier Yamnaya culture and to the Poltavka culture."}
+{"text":"A genetic study published in \"Nature\" in May 2018 examined the remains of twelve Sarmatians buried between 400 BC and 400 AD. The five samples of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup R1a1, I2b, R (two samples), and R1. The eleven samples of mtDNA extracted belonged to C4a1a, U4a2 (two samples), C4b1, I1, A, U2e1h (two samples), U4b1a4, H28, and U5a1."}
+{"text":"A genetic study published in \"Science Advances\" in October 2018 examined the remains of five Sarmatians buried between 55 AD and 320 AD. The three samples of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup R1a1a and R1b1a2a2 (two samples), while the five samples of mtDNA extracted belonged to haplogroup H2a1, T1a1, U5b2b (two samples), and D4q."}
+{"text":"A genetic study published in \"Current Biology\" in July 2019 examined the remains of nine Sarmatians. The five samples of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup Q1c-L332, R1a1e-CTS1123, R1a-Z645 (two samples), and E2b1-PF6746, while the nine samples of mtDNA extracted belonged to haplogroup W, W3a, T1a1, U5a2, U5b2a1a2, T1a1d, C1e, U5b2a1a1, U5b2c, and U5b2c."}
+{"text":"In a study conducted in 2014 by Gennady Afanasiev, Dmitry Korobov and Irina Reshetova from the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, DNA was extracted from bone fragments found in seven out of ten Alanic burials on the Don River. Four of them turned out to belong to yDNA Haplogroup G2 and six of them possessed mtDNA haplogroup I."}
+{"text":"In 2015, the Institute of Archaeology in Moscow conducted research on various Sarmato-Alan and Saltovo-Mayaki culture Kurgan burials. In these analyses, the two Alan samples from the fourth to sixth century AD turned out to belong to yDNA haplogroups G2a-P15 and R1a-z94, while two of the three Sarmatian samples from the second to third century AD were found to belong to yDNA haplogroup J1-M267 while one belonged to R1a. Three Saltovo-Mayaki samples from the eighth to ninth century AD turned out to have yDNA corresponding to haplogroups G, J2a-M410 and R1a-z94."}
+{"text":"In the late second or early third century AD, the Greek physician Galen declared that Sarmatians, Scythians, and other northern peoples had reddish hair. They are said to owe their name (Sarmatae) to that characteristic."}
+{"text":"The Alans were a group of Sarmatian tribes, according to the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus. He wrote that nearly all the Alani were \"of great stature and beauty, their hair is somewhat yellow, their eyes are frighteningly fierce\"."}
+{"text":"Herodotus (\"Histories\" 4.21) in the fifth century BC placed the land of the Sarmatians east of the Tanais, beginning at the corner of the Maeotian Lake, stretching northward for a fifteen-day journey, and adjacent to the forested land of the Budinoi."}
+{"text":"Herodotus (4.118\u2013144) later relates how the Sauromatians under their king Scopasis, answered the Scythian call for help against the Persian King Darius I, to repel his campaign in Scythia, along with the Gelonians and the Boudinians. The Persians invaded much of the Sauromatian territory, but eventually were forced to withdraw due to the tactics used by the tribespeople, of delay and the use of a scorched earth policy."}
+{"text":"Hippocrates explicitly classes them as Scythian and describes their warlike women and their customs:"}
+{"text":"Polybius (XXV, 1) mentions them for the first time as a force to be reckoned with in 179 B.C."}
+{"text":"Strabo mentions the Sarmatians in a number of places, but never says much about them. He uses both the terms of Sarmatai and Sauromatai, but never together, and never suggesting that they are different peoples. He often pairs Sarmatians and Scythians in reference to a series of ethnic names, never stating which is which, as though Sarmatian or Scythian could apply equally to them all."}
+{"text":"Strabo wrote that the Sarmatians extend from above the Danube eastward to the Volga, and from north of the Dnieper River into the Caucasus, where, he says, they are called Caucasii like everyone else there. This statement indicates that the Alans already had a home in the Caucasus, without waiting for the Huns to push them there."}
+{"text":"Even more significantly, Strabo points to a Celtic admixture in the region of the Basternae and he notes that they were of Germanic origin. He places the Celtic Boii, Scordisci, and Taurisci there as well as a fourth ethnic element interacting and intermarrying, the Thracians (7.3.2), and moreover, that the peoples toward the north were Keltoskythai, \"Celtic Scythians\" (11.6.2)."}
+{"text":"Strabo portrays the peoples of the region as being nomadic, or Hamaksoikoi, \"wagon-dwellers\", and Galaktophagoi, \"milk-eaters\". This latter likely referred to the universal \"kumis\" eaten in historical times. The wagons were used for transporting tents made of felt, a type of the yurts used universally by Asian nomads."}
+{"text":"According to Pliny, Scythian rule once extended as far as Germany. Jordanes supports this hypothesis by telling us on the one hand that he was familiar with the \"Geography\" of Ptolemy that includes the entire Balto-Slavic territory in Sarmatia, and on the other that this same region was Scythia. By \"Sarmatia\", Jordanes means only the Aryan territory. The Sarmatians were, therefore, a sub-group of the broader Scythian peoples."}
+{"text":"In his \"De Origine et situ Germanorum\", Tacitus speaks of \"mutual fear\" between Germanic peoples and Sarmatians:"}
+{"text":"According to Tacitus, the Sarmatians wore long, flowing robes similar to the Persians (ch 17). He also noted that the Sarmatians exacted tribute from the Cotini and Osi, and that they exacted iron from the Cotini (ch. 43), \"to their shame\" (presumably because they could have used the iron to arm themselves and resist)."}
+{"text":"By the third century BC, the Sarmatian name appears to have supplanted the Scythian in the plains of what now is south Ukraine. The geographer, Ptolemy, reported them at what must be their maximum extent, divided into adjoining European and central Asian sections. Considering the overlap of tribal names between the Scythians and the Sarmatians, no new displacements probably took place. The people were the same Indo-Europeans, but were referred to under yet another name."}
+{"text":"Later, Pausanias, viewing votive offerings near the Athenian Acropolis in the second century AD, found among them a Sauromic breastplate."}
+{"text":"The description by Pausanias is well borne out in a relief from Tanais (see image). These facts are not necessarily incompatible with Tacitus, as the western Sarmatians might have kept their iron to themselves, it having been a scarce commodity on the plains."}
+{"text":"In the late fourth century, Ammianus Marcellinus describes a severe defeat that Sarmatian raiders inflicted upon Roman forces in the province of Valeria in Pannonia in late 374 AD. The Sarmatians almost destroyed two legions: one recruited from Moesia and one from Pannonia. The latter had been sent to intercept a party of Sarmatians that had been in pursuit of a senior Roman officer named Aequitius. The two legions failed to coordinate, allowing the Sarmatians to catch them unprepared."}
+{"text":"In the fourth and fifth centuries the Huns expanded and conquered both the Sarmatians and the Germanic tribes living between the Black Sea and the borders of the Roman Empire. From bases in modern-day Hungary, the Huns ruled the entire territory formerly ruled by the Sarmatians. Their various constituents flourished under Hunnish rule, fought for the Huns against a combination of Roman and Germanic troops, and departed after the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains (451), the death of Attila (453), and the appearance of the Bulgar ruling elements west of the Volga."}
+{"text":"During the Early Middle Ages, eventually the Proto-Slavic population of Eastern Europe decisively assimilated and absorbed the Sarmatians. However, a people related to the Sarmatians, known as the Alans, survived in the North Caucasus into the Early Middle Ages, ultimately giving rise to the modern Ossetic ethnic group."}
+{"text":"Sarmatism (or Sarmatianism) is an ethno-cultural concept with a shade of politics designating the formation of an idea of the origin of Poland from Sarmatians within the Polish\u2013Lithuanian Commonwealth. The dominant Baroque culture and ideology of the nobility (\"szlachta\") that existed in times of the Renaissance to the eighteenth centuries. Together with another concept of \"Golden Liberty\", it formed a central aspect of the Commonwealth's culture and society. At its core was the unifying belief that the people of the Polish Commonwealth descended from the ancient Iranic Sarmatians, the legendary invaders of Slavic lands in antiquity."}
+{"text":"The Alans () were an ancient and medieval Iranian nomadic pastoral people of the North Caucasus - generally regarded as part of the Sarmatians, and possibly related to the Massagetae. Modern historians have connected the Alans with the Central Asian Yancai of Chinese sources and with the Aorsi of Roman sources. Having migrated westwards and become dominant among the Sarmatians on the Pontic\u2013Caspian steppe, the Alans are mentioned by Roman sources in the 1st century AD. At that time they had settled the region north of the Black Sea and frequently raided the Parthian Empire and the Caucasian provinces of the Roman Empire. From 215250 AD, their power on the Pontic Steppe was broken by the Goths."}
+{"text":"Upon the Hunnic defeat of the Goths on the Pontic Steppe around 375AD, many of the Alans migrated westwards along with various Germanic tribes. They crossed the Rhine in 406AD along with the Vandals and Suebi, settling in Orl\u00e9ans and Valence. Around 409 AD, they joined the Vandals and Suebi in crossing the Pyrenees into the Iberian Peninsula, settling in Lusitania and Hispania Carthaginensis. The Iberian Alans were soundly defeated by the Visigoths in 418 AD and subsequently surrendered their authority to the Hasdingi Vandals. In 428AD, the Vandals and Alans crossed the Strait of Gibraltar into North Africa, where they founded a powerful kingdom which lasted until its conquest by forces of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I in 534 AD."}
+{"text":"The Alans who remained under Hunnic rule founded a powerful kingdom in the North Caucasus in the Middle Ages, which survived until the Mongol invasions in the 13th century AD. These Alans are said to be the ancestors of the modern Ossetians."}
+{"text":"The Alans spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian."}
+{"text":"The name \"Alan\" is an Iranian dialectal form of \"Aryan\"."}
+{"text":"The Alans were documented by foreign observers from the 1st century CE onward under similar names: ; '; ' (Pinyin; \"Alan\" + \"Liu\") in the 2nd century, ' in the 3rd century, later \"Alanguo\" (); Parthian and Middle Persian \"Al\u0101n\u0101n\" (plural); Arabic \"Al\u0101n\" (singular); Syriac \"Al\u0101nay\u0113\"; Classical Armenian \"Alank; Georgian \"Alaneti\" ('country of the Alans'); Hebrew \"Alan\" (pl. \"Alanim\"). Rarer Latin spellings include \"Alauni\" or \"Halani\". The name was also preserved in the modern Ossetian language as \"Allon\"."}
+{"text":"The ethnonym \"Al\u0101n\" is a dialectal variant of the Old Iranian *\"Ary\u0101na\", itself derived from the root \"arya\"-, meaning 'Aryan', the common self-designation of Indo-Iranian peoples. It probably came in use in the early history of the Alans for the purpose of uniting a heterogeneous group of tribes through the invocation of a common, ancestral 'Aryan' origin. Like the name of Iran (*\"Ary\u0101n\u0101m\"), the adjective *\"ary\u0101na\" appears to be related to \"Airyan\u0259m Wa\u0113\u01f0\u014d\" ('stretch of the Aryas'), the mythical homeland of the early Iranians mentioned in the \"Avesta\"."}
+{"text":"Some other ethnonyms also bear the name of the Alans: the \"Rhoxol\u0101ni\" ('Bright Alans'), an offshoot of the Alans whose name may be linked to religious practices, and the \"Alanorsoi\" ('White Alans'), perhaps a conglomerate of Alans and Aorsi. The personal names \"Alan\" and \"Alain\" (from Latin \"Alanus\") may have been introduced by Alan settlers to Western Europe during the first millennium CE."}
+{"text":"The Alans were also known over the course of their history by another group of related names including the variations \"Asi\", \"As\", and \"Os\" (Romanian ', Bulgarian ', Hungarian ', Russian ', Georgian \"\"). It is this name at the root of the modern \"Ossetian\"."}
+{"text":"The first mentions of names that historians link with the \"Alani\" appear at almost the same time in texts from the Mediterranean, Middle East and China."}
+{"text":"The fact that the Alans invaded Parthia through Hyrcania shows that at the time many Alans were still based north-east of the Caspian Sea. By the early 2nd century CE the Alans were in firm control of the Lower Volga and Kuban. These lands had earlier been occupied by the Aorsi and the Siraces, whom the Alans apparently absorbed, dispersed and\/or destroyed, since they were no longer mentioned in contemporaneous accounts. It is likely that the Alans' influence stretched further westwards, encompassing most of the Sarmatian world, which by then possessed a relatively homogenous culture."}
+{"text":"In 135 CE, the Alans made a huge raid into Asia Minor via the Caucasus, ravaging Media and Armenia. They were eventually driven back by Arrian, the governor of Cappadocia, who wrote a detailed report (\"Ektaxis kata Alanoon\" or 'War Against the Alans') that is a major source for studying Roman military tactics."}
+{"text":"From 215 to 250 CE, the Germanic Goths expanded south-eastwards and broke the Alan dominance on the Pontic Steppe. The Alans however seem to have had a significant influence on Gothic culture, who became excellent horsemen and adopted the Alanic animal style art. (The Roman Empire, during the chaos of the 3rd century civil wars, suffered damaging raids by the Gothic armies with their heavy cavalry before the Illyrian Emperors adapted to the Gothic tactics, reorganized and expanded the Roman heavy cavalry, and defeated the Goths under Gallienus, Claudius II and Aurelian)."}
+{"text":"After the Gothic entry to the steppe, many of the Alans seem to have retreated eastwards towards the Don, where they seem to have established contacts with the Huns. Ammianus writes that the Alans were \"somewhat like the Huns, but in their manner of life and their habits they are less savage.\" Jordanes contrasted them with the Huns, noting that the Alans \"were their equals in battle, but unlike them in their civilisation, manners and appearance\". In the late 4th century, Vegetius conflates Alans and Huns in his military treatise \"Hunnorum Alannorumque natio\", the \"nation of Huns and Alans\"and collocates Goths, Huns and Alans, \"exemplo Gothorum et Alannorum Hunnorumque\"."}
+{"text":"The 4th century Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus noted that the Alans were \"formerly called Massagetae,\" while Dio Cassius wrote that \"they are Massagetae.\" It is likely that the Alans were an amalgamation of various Iranian peoples, including Sarmatians, Massagetae and Sakas. Scholars have connected the Alans to the nomadic state of Yancai mentioned in Chinese sources. The Yancai are first mentioned in connection with late 2nd century BCE diplomat Zhang Qian's travels in Chapter 123 of \"Shiji\" (whose author, Sima Qian, died c. 90 BCE). The Yancai of Chinese records has again been equated with the Aorsi, a powerful Sarmatian tribe living between the Don River and the Aral Sea, mentioned in Roman records, in particular Strabo."}
+{"text":"Link to \"Yancai\" (\u5944\u8521) \/\"Alanliao\" (\u963f\u862d\u804a) \/\"Hesu\" (\u95d4\u8607)."}
+{"text":"The Later Han dynasty Chinese chronicle, the \"Hou Hanshu\", 88 (covering the period 25\u2013220 and completed in the 5th century), mentioned a report that the \"Yancai\" nation (\u5944\u8521 lit \"Vast Steppes\" or \"Extensive Grasslands\" < LHC *\"\u0294\u0268amB\"-\"s\u0251C\", compare Latin \"Abzoae\", identified with the Aorsi (Ancient Greek \"\u0391\u03bf\u03c1\u03c3\u03b9\u03bf\u03b9\")) had become a vassal state of the Kangju and was now known as \"Alanliao\" (\u963f\u862d\u804a)"}
+{"text":"Y. A. Zadneprovskiy suggests that the Kangju subjugation of Yancai occurred in the 1st century BCE, and that this subjugation caused various Sarmatian tribes, including the Aorsi, to migrate westwards, which played a major role in starting the Migration Period. The 3rd century Weil\u00fce also notes that Yancai was then known to be Alans, although they were no longer vassals of the Kangju."}
+{"text":"Dutch Sinologist A. F. P. Hulsew\u00e9 noted that:"}
+{"text":"Around 370, according to Ammianus, the peaceful relations between the Alans and Huns were broken, after the Huns attacked the Don Alans, killing many of them and establishing an alliance with the survivors. These Alans successfully invaded the Goths in 375 together with the Huns. They subsequently accompanied the Huns in their westward expansion."}
+{"text":"Under Beorgor (), they moved throughout Gaul, till the reign of Petronius Maximus, when they crossed the Alps in the winter of 464, into Liguria, but were there defeated, and Beorgor slain, by Ricimer, commander of the Emperor's forces."}
+{"text":"In 442, after it became clear to Aetius that he could no longer rely upon the Huns for support, he turned to Goar and convinced him to move some of his people to settlements in the Orleanais in order to control the bacaudae of Armorica and to keep the Visigoths from expanding their territories northward across the Loire. Goar settled a substantial number of his followers in the Orleanais and the area to the north and personally moved his own capital to the city of Orleans."}
+{"text":"Following the fortunes of the Vandals and Suebi into the Iberian peninsula (Hispania, comprising modern Portugal and Spain) in 409, the Alans led by Respendial settled in the provinces of Lusitania and Carthaginensis. The Kingdom of the Alans was among the first Barbarian kingdoms to be founded. The Siling Vandals settled in Baetica, the Suebi in coastal Gallaecia, and the Asding Vandals in the rest of Gallaecia. Although the newcomers controlled Hispania they were still a tiny minority among a larger Hispano-Roman population, approximately 200,000 out of 6,000,000."}
+{"text":"In 418 (or 426 according to some authors), the Alan king, Attaces, was killed in battle against the Visigoths, and this branch of the Alans subsequently appealed to the Asding Vandal king Gunderic to accept the Alan crown. The separate ethnic identity of Respendial's Alans dissolved. Although some of these Alans are thought to have remained in Iberia, most went to North Africa with the Vandals in 429. Later the rulers of the Vandal Kingdom in North Africa styled themselves \"Rex Wandalorum et Alanorum\" (\"King of the Vandals and Alans\")."}
+{"text":"There are some vestiges of the Alans in Portugal, namely in Alenquer (whose name may be Germanic for the \"Temple of the Alans\", from \"Alan Kerk\", and whose castle may have been established by them; the Alaunt is still represented in that city's coat of arms), in the construction of the castles of Torres Vedras and Almourol, and in the city walls of Lisbon, where vestiges of their presence may be found under the foundations of the Church of \"Santa Luzia\"."}
+{"text":"In the Iberian peninsula the Alans settled in Lusitania (Alentejo) and the Cartaginense provinces. They became known in retrospect for their massive hunting and fighting running mastiff-type dogs, the Alaunt, which they apparently introduced to Europe. The breed is extinct, but its name is carried by a Spanish breed of dog still called \"Alano\", traditionally used in boar hunting and cattle herding. The Alano name, however, has historically been used for a number of dog breeds in a few European countries thought to descend from the original dog of the Alans, such as the German mastiff (Great Dane) and the French Dogue de Bordeaux, among others."}
+{"text":"The Alans who remained in their original area of settlement north of the Caucasus (and for a time east of the Caspian Sea as well), came into contact and conflict with the Bulgars, the G\u00f6kturks, and the Khazars, who drove most of them from the plains and into the mountains."}
+{"text":"Some of the other Alans remained under the rule of the Huns. Those of the eastern division, though dispersed about the steppes until late medieval times, were forced by the Mongols into the Caucasus, where they remain as the Ossetians. Between the 9th and 12th centuries, they formed a network of tribal alliances that gradually evolved into the Christian kingdom of Alania. Most Alans submitted to the Mongol Empire in 1239\u20131277. They participated in Mongol invasions of Europe and the Song dynasty in Southern China, and the Battle of Kulikovo under Mamai of the Golden Horde."}
+{"text":"In 1253, the Franciscan monk William of Rubruck reported numerous Europeans in Central Asia. It is also known that 30,000 Alans formed the royal guard (Asud) of the Yuan court in Dadu (Beijing). Marco Polo later reported their role in the Yuan dynasty in his book \"Il Milione\". It is said that those Alans contributed to a modern Mongol clan, Asud. John of Montecorvino, archbishop of Dadu (Khanbaliq), reportedly converted many Alans to Roman Catholic Christianity in addition to Armenians in China. In Poland and Lithuania, Alans were also part of the powerful Clan of Ostoja."}
+{"text":"It is believed that some Alans resettled to the North (Barsils), merging with Volga Bulgars and Burtas, eventually transforming to Volga Tatars. It is supposed that the Iasi, a group of Alans founded a town in the northeast of Romania (about 1200\u20131300), near the Prut river, called Ia\u0219i. The latter became the capital of ancient Moldavia in the Middle Ages."}
+{"text":"Alan mercenaries were involved in the affair with the Catalan Company."}
+{"text":"Descendants of the Alans, who live in the autonomous republics of Russia and Georgia, speak the Ossetian language which belongs to the Northeastern Iranian language group and is the only remnant of the Scytho-Sarmatian dialect continuum, which once stretched over much of the Pontic steppe and Central Asia. Modern Ossetian has two major dialects: \"Digor\", spoken in the western part of North Ossetia; and \"Iron\", spoken in the rest of Ossetia. A third branch of Ossetian, \"Jassic\" (\"J\u00e1sz\"), was formerly spoken in Hungary. The literary language, based on the Iron dialect, was fixed by the national poet, Kosta Khetagurov (1859\u20131906)."}
+{"text":"The fourth-century Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus wrote this on the appearance of the Alans:"}
+{"text":"In a study conducted in 2014 by V. V.Ilyinskyon on bone fragments from 10 Alanic burials on the Don River, DNA could be abstracted from a total of seven. Four of them turned out to belong to yDNA Haplogroup G2 and six of them had mtDNAI. The fact that many of the samples share the same y- and mtDNA raises the possibility that the tested individuals belonged to the same tribe or even were close relatives. Nevertheless, this is a strong argument for direct Alan ancestry of Ossetians, competing with the hypothesis that Ossetians are alanized Caucasic speakers, since the major Haplogroup among Ossetians is G2 also."}
+{"text":"In 2015 the Institute of Archaeology in Moscow conducted research on various Sarmato-Alan and Saltovo-Mayaki culture Kurgan burials. In this analysis, the two Alan samples from the 4th to 6th century CE had yDNAs G2a-P15 and R1a-z94, while from the three Sarmatian samples from 2nd to 3rd century CE two had yDNA J1-M267 and one possessed R1a."}
+{"text":"Also, the three Saltovo-Mayaki samples from 8th to 9th century CE turned out to have yDNAs G, J2a-M410 and R1a-z94 respectively."}
+{"text":"A genetic study published in \"Nature\" in May 2018 examined the remains of six Alans buried in the Caucasus from ca. 100 CE to 1400 CE. The sample of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup R1 and haplogroup Q-M242. One of the Q-M242 samples found in Beslan, North Ossetia from 200 CE found 4 relatives among Chechens from the Shoanoy Teip. The samples of mtDNA extracted belonged to HV2a1, U4d3, X2f, H13a2c, H5, and W1."}
+{"text":"Archaeological finds support the written sources. P. D. Rau (1927) first identified late Sarmatian sites with the historical Alans. Based on the archaeological material, they were one of the Iranian-speaking nomadic tribes that began to enter the Sarmatian area between the middle of the 1st and the 2nd centuries."}
+{"text":"The ancient language of the Alans was an Eastern Iranian dialect either identical, or at least closely related, to ancient Eastern Iranian languages. This is confirmed by comparison of the word for horse in various Indo-Iranian languages and the reconstructed Alanic word for horse:"}
+{"text":"Prior to their Christianisation, the Alans were Indo-Iranian polytheists, subscribing either to the poorly understood Scythian pantheon or to a polytheistic form of Zoroastrianism. Some traditions were directly inherited from the Scythians, like embodying their dominant god in elaborate rituals."}
+{"text":"In the 4th5th centuries the Alans were at least partially Christianized by Byzantine missionaries of the Arian church. In the 13th century, invading Mongol hordes pushed the eastern Alans further south into the Caucasus, where they mixed with native Caucasian groups and successively formed three territorial entities each with different developments. Around 1395 Timur's army invaded the Northern Caucasus and massacred much of the Alanian population."}
+{"text":"As time went by, Digor in the west came under Kabard and Islamic influence. It was through the Kabardians (an East Circassian tribe) that Islam was introduced into the region in the 17th century. After 1767, all of Alania came under Russian rule, which strengthened Orthodox Christianity in that region considerably. A substantial minority of today's Ossetians are followers of the traditional Ossetian religion."}
+{"text":"The history of the Caucasus region may be divided by geography into the history of the Northern Caucasus (Ciscaucasia), historically in the sphere of influence of Scythia and of Southern Russia (Eastern Europe), and that of the Southern Caucasus (Transcaucasia; Caucasian Albania, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan) in the sphere of influence of Persia, Anatolia and (for a very brief time) Assyria."}
+{"text":"After dissolution of Kingdom of Urartu () and up to including the early-19th century, Persia mostly controlled the Southern Caucasus and a part of the Northern Caucasus (Dagestan). In 1813 and 1828 by the Treaty of Gulistan and the Treaty of Turkmenchay respectively, Persians ceded the Southern Caucasus and Dagestan to Imperial Russia."}
+{"text":"Russia conquered and annexed the rest of the Northern Caucasus in the course of the 19th century in the Caucasian Wars (1817\u20131864)."}
+{"text":"The Northern Caucasus became the scene of intense fighting during the Second World War. Nazi Germany attempted to capture the Caucasus region of Soviet Union in 1942 by a two-pronged attack towards both the western bank of the Volga (intended to seize the city of Stalingrad) and southeast towards Baku, a major center of oil production. Some parts of the Northern Caucasus fell under German occupation, but the Axis invasion eventually faltered as it failed to accomplish either goal, and Soviet soldiers drove the Germans back west following the Battle of Stalingrad (1942\u20131943)."}
+{"text":"Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia became independent nations. The Caucasus region has become the setting of territorial disputes in the post-Soviet era, leading to establishment of unrecognized states of Artsakh, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia."}
+{"text":"The Kingdom of Urartu rose to power in the mid-9th century BC"}
+{"text":"and flourished for two centuries before it was absorbed into the Median Empire in the early 6th century BC, followed by the conquest by the Achaemenid Empire."}
+{"text":"The Northern Caucasus enters the historical record later, being in cultural contact with the Pontic steppe. The Koban culture (ca. 1100 to 400 BC) is a late Bronze Age and Iron Age culture of the northern and central Caucasus. Its end presumably correlates with the Scythian expansion in the region."}
+{"text":"During the Middle Ages Bagratid Armenia, Kingdom of Tashir-Dzoraget, Kingdom of Syunik and Principality of Khachen organized local Armenian population facing multiple threats after the fall of antique Kingdom of Armenia."}
+{"text":"Caucasian Albania maintained close ties with Armenia and the Church of Caucasian Albania shared same Christian dogmas with the Armenian Apostolic Church and had a tradition of their Catholicos being ordained through the Patriarch of Armenia."}
+{"text":"While Georgia and Armenia remained Christian, the Chechens gradually adopted Sunni Islam. The Circassians were mostly Islamized under the influence of the Crimean Tatars and the Ottoman Empire in the 17th century."}
+{"text":"Polonization (or Polonisation; ) involves the acquisition or imposition of elements of Polish culture, in particular the Polish language. This happened in some historic periods among the non-Polish populations of territories controlled or substantially under the influence of Poland. Like other examples of cultural assimilation, Polonization could either be voluntary or forced; it is most visible in the case of territories where the Polish language or culture were dominant or where their adoption could result in increased prestige or social status, as was the case for the nobility of Ruthenia and Lithuania. To a certain extent political authorities have administratively promoted Polonization, particularly in the period following World War II."}
+{"text":"Between the 12th and the 14th centuries many towns in Poland adopted the so-called Magdeburg rights that promoted the towns' development and trade. The rights were usually granted by the king on the occasion of the arrival of migrants. Some, integrated with the larger community, such as merchants who settled there, especially Greeks and Armenians. They adopted most aspects of Polish culture but kept their Orthodox faith. Since the Middle Ages, Polish culture, influenced by the West, in turn radiated East, beginning the long process of cultural assimilation."}
+{"text":"In the 1569 Union of Lublin, the Ruthenian territories controlled by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were transferred to the newly formed Polish\u2013Lithuanian Commonwealth. The non-Polish ethnic groups found themselves under strong influence of the Polish culture and language. Quarter century later, following the Union of Brest the Ruthenian Church sought to break relations with the Eastern Orthodox Church. The sparsely populated lands, owned by the Polish and Polonized nobility, were settled by farmers from central Poland. The attractions, and pressures of Polonization on Ruthenian nobility and cultural elite resulted in almost complete abandonment of Ruthenian culture, traditions and the Orthodox Church by the Ruthenian higher class."}
+{"text":"The Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila was offered the Polish crown and became W\u0142adys\u0142aw II Jagie\u0142\u0142o (reigned 1386\u20131434). This marked the beginning of the gradual, voluntary Polonization of the Lithuanian nobility. Jagie\u0142\u0142o built many churches in pagan Lithuanian land and provided them generously with estates, gave out the lands and positions to the Catholics, settled the cities and villages and granted the biggest cities and towns Magdeburg Rights. The Ruthenian nobility was also freed from many payment obligations and their rights were equalized with those of the Polish nobility."}
+{"text":"Under Jogaila successor as a king of Crown W\u0142adys\u0142aw III of Varna, who reigned in 1434\u20131444, Polonization attained a certain degree of subtlety. W\u0142adys\u0142aw III introduced some liberal reforms. He expanded the privileges to all Ruthenian nobles irrespective of their religion, and in 1443 signed a bull equalizing the Orthodox church in rights with the Roman Catholicism thus alleviating the relationship with the Orthodox clergy. These policies continued under the next king Casimir IV Jagiellon. Still, the mostly cultural expansion of the Polish influence continued since the Ruthenian nobility were attracted by both the glamour of the Western culture and the Polish political order where the magnates became the unrestricted rulers of the lands and serfs in their vast estates."}
+{"text":"As the Eastern Rite Greek-Catholic Church originally created to accommodate the Ruthenian, initially Orthodox, nobility, ended up unnecessary to them as they converted directly into the Latin Rite Catholicism en masse, the Church largely became an hierarchy without followers. The Greek Catholic Church was then used as a tool aimed to split even the peasantry from their Ruthenian roots, still mostly unsuccessfully. The commoners, deprived of their native protectors, sought protection through the Cossacks, who, being fiercely Orthodox, tended also to easily turn to violence against those they perceived as their enemies, particularly the Polish state and what they saw as its representatives, the Poles and generally the Catholics, as well as the Jews."}
+{"text":"After several , especially the fateful Khmelnytsky uprising, and foreign invasions (like the Deluge), the Commonwealth, increasingly powerless and falling under the control of its neighbours, started to decline, the process which eventually culminated with the partitions of Polish\u2013Lithuanian Commonwealth in the end of the 18th century and no Polish statehood for the next 123 years."}
+{"text":"While the Commonwealth's Warsaw Compact is widely considered an example of an unprecedented religious tolerance for its time, the oppressive policies of Poland towards its Eastern Orthodox subjects is often cited as one of the main reasons that brought the state's demise."}
+{"text":"During all time of existing of Commonwealth Polonization in western part of country referred to rather small groups of colonists, like Bambrzy in Greater Poland."}
+{"text":"Polonization also occurred during times when a Polish state didn't exist, despite the empires that partition Poland applied the policies aimed at reversing the past gains of Polonization or aimed at replacing Polish identity and eradication of Polish national group."}
+{"text":"The Polonization took place in the early years of the Prussian partition, where, as a reaction to the persecution of Roman Catholicism during the Kulturkampf, German Catholics living in areas with a Polish majority voluntarily integrated themselves within Polish society, affecting approximately 100,000 Germans in the eastern provinces of Prussia."}
+{"text":"According to some scholars the biggest successes in Polonization of the non-Polish lands of former Commonwealth were achieved after the Partitions, in times of persecution of Polishness (noted by Leon Wasilewski (1917), Mitrofan Dovnar-Zapolsky (1926). Paradoxically, the substantial eastward movement of the Polish ethnic territory (over these lands) and growth of the Polish ethnic regions were taking place exactly in the period of the strongest Russian attack on everything Polish in Lithuania and Belarus."}
+{"text":"The general outline of causes for that is considered to include the activities of the Roman-Catholic Church and the cultural influence exacted by the big cities (Vilna, Kovno) on these lands, the activities of the Vilna educational district in 19th century\u20131820s, the activities of the local administration, still controlled by the local Polish or already Polonized nobility up to the 1863\u20131864 January uprising, secret (Polish) schools in second half nineteenth to the beginning of the 20th century (\"tajne komplety\") and the influence of the land estates."}
+{"text":"With time, the traditional Latin was fully eliminated from the University and by 1816 it was fully replaced by Polish and Russian. This change both affected and reflected a profound change in the Belarusian and Lithuanian secondary schools systems where Latin was also traditionally used as the University was the main source of the teachers for these schools. Additionally, the University was responsible for the textbooks selection and only Polish textbooks were approved for printing and usage."}
+{"text":"Dovnar-Zapolsky notes that \"the 1800s\u20131810s had seen the unprecedented prosperity of the Polish culture and language in the former Great Duchy of Lithuania lands\" and \"this era has seen the effective completion of the Polonization of the smallest nobility, with further reduction of the areal of use of the contemporary Belarusian language. also noting that the Polonization trend had been complemented with the (covert) anti-Russian and anti-Eastern Orthodox trends. The results of these trends are best reflected in the ethnic censuses in previously non-Polish territories."}
+{"text":"Following the Polish November uprising aimed at breaking away from Russia, the Imperial policies finally changed abruptly. The University was forcibly closed in 1832 and the following years were characterized by the policies aimed at the assimilationist solution of the \"Polish question\", a trend that was further strengthened following another unsuccessful uprising (1863)."}
+{"text":"By the times of Second Polish Republic (1918\u20131939) much of Poland's previous territory, which were historically mixed Ruthenian and Polish, had Ukrainian and Belorussian majorities. Following the post-World War I rebirth of the Polish statehood, these lands again became disputed but the Poles were more successful than the nascent West Ukrainian People's Republic in the Polish-Ukrainian War of 1918. Approximately one third of the new state's population was non-Catholic, including a large number of Russian Jews who immigrated to Poland following a wave of Ukrainian pogroms which continued until 1921. The Jews were entitled by a peace treaty in Riga to choose the country they preferred and several hundred thousand joined the already large Jewish minority of the Polish Second Republic."}
+{"text":"The issue of non-Polish minorities was a subject of intense debate within the Polish leadership. Two ideas of Polish policy clashed at the time: a more tolerant and less assimilationist approach advocated by J\u00f3zef Pi\u0142sudski, and an assimilationist approach advocated by Roman Dmowski and Stanis\u0142aw Grabski."}
+{"text":"Linguistic assimilation was considered by National Democrats to be a major factor for \"unifying the state.\" For example, Grabski as Polish Minister for Religion and Public Education in 1923 and 1925\u20131926, wrote that \"Poland may be preserved only as a state of Polish people. If it were a state of Poles, Jews, Germans, Rusyns, Belarusians, Lithuanians, Russians, it would lose its independence again\"; and that \"it is impossible to make a nation out of those who have no 'national self-identification,' who call themselves 'local' (\"tutejszy\").\" Grabski also said that \"the transformation of the state territory of the Republic into a Polish national territory is a necessary condition of maintaining our frontiers.\""}
+{"text":"In internal politics, Pi\u0142sudski's reign marked a much-needed stabilization and improvement in the situation of ethnic minorities, which formed almost a third of the population of the Second Republic. Pi\u0142sudski replaced the National-Democratic \"ethnic-assimilation\" with a \"state-assimilation\" policy: citizens were judged by their loyalty to the state, not by their ethnicity. The years 1926\u20131935 were favourably viewed by many Polish Jews, whose situation improved especially under the cabinet of Pi\u0142sudski's appointee Kazimierz Bartel. However a combination of various reasons, from the Great Depression, through the Pi\u0142sudski's need for support from parties for the parliament's election to the vicious spiral of terrorist attacks by Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and government pacifications meant that the situation continued to degenerate, despite Pi\u0142sudski's efforts."}
+{"text":"However, Polonization also created a new educated class among the non-Polish minorities, a class of intellectuals aware of the importance of schooling, press, literature and theatre, who became instrumental in the development of their own ethnic identities."}
+{"text":"The territories of Western Belarus, western Ukraine and the Vilnius region, were incorporated into interwar Poland in 1921 at the Treaty of Riga in which the Polish eastern frontiers had been first defined following the Polish\u2013Soviet War of 1919\u20131921. At the same time, the government of the new Polish state, with pressure from the Allies agreed to grant political autonomy to Galicia, but not Volhynia."}
+{"text":"The Treaty of Riga signed between sovereign Poland and the Soviet Russia representing the Soviet Ukraine without any participation from Belarusian side assigned almost half of the modern-day Belarus (the western half of Soviet Belarus) to the Polish Second Republic. The government of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic according to the text of the Riga treaty was also acting \"on behalf of Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic\" formed in the course of war. Additionally, in accordance with the Treaty, the Soviet Russia received three regions from the newly formed Soviet Belarus, which were reassigned back by the Bolsheviks in 1924 and 1926. Protests by the exiled government of the Belarusian Democratic Republic proclaimed in 1918 were ignored by Poland and the Soviets."}
+{"text":"According to Per Anders Rudling, the Belarusian language was essentially pushed out of the schools in Polish West Belarus in violation of the Minorities' Treaty between Poland and the Western powers of 1919. The Polish author Marek Wierzbicki brings this in connection with the fact that the first textbook of Belarusian grammar was written no earlier than 1918."}
+{"text":"Following the intentions of the majority of the Polish society, the Polish government introduced harsh policies of polonization and assimilation of Belarusians in West Belarus. The Polish official Leopold Skulski, an advocate of polonization policies, is being quoted as saying in the Sejm in late 1930s: \"I assure you that in some ten years you won't be able to find a single [ethnic] Belarusian [in West Belarus]\"."}
+{"text":"W\u0142adys\u0142aw Studnicki, an influential Polish official at the administration of the Kresy region, openly stated that Poland needed the Eastern regions as an object for colonization."}
+{"text":"There widespread cases of discrimination of the Belarusian language, it was forbidden for usage in state institutions."}
+{"text":"Orthodox Christians also faced discrimination in interwar Poland. This discrimination was also targeting assimilation of Eastern Orthodox Belarusians. The Polish authorities were imposing Polish language in Orthodox church services and ceremonies, initiated the creation of \"Polish Orthodox Societies\" in various parts of West Belarus (Slonim, Bielastok, Va\u016dkavysk, Navahrudak)."}
+{"text":"Belarusian Roman Catholic priests like Fr. Vincent Hadle\u016dski who promoted Belarusian language in the church and Belarusian national awareness were also under serious pressure by the Polish regime and the leadership of the Catholic Church in Poland. The Polish Catholic Church issued documents to priests prohibiting the usage of the Belarusian language rather than Polish language in Churches and Catholic Sunday Schools in West Belarus. A 1921 Warsaw-published instruction of the Polish Catholic Church criticized the priests introducing the Belarusian language in religious life: \u201c\"They want to switch from the rich Polish language to a language that the people themselves call simple and shabby\"\u201d."}
+{"text":"Before 1921, there were 514 Belarusian language schools in West Belarus. In 1928, there were only 69 schools which was just 3% of all existing schools in West Belarus at that moment. All of them were phased out by the Polish educational authorities by 1939. The Polish officials openly prevented the creation of Belarusian schools and were imposing Polish language in school education in West Belarus. The Polish officials often treated any Belarusian demanding schooling in Belarusian language as a Soviet spy and any Belarusian social activity as a product of a communist plot."}
+{"text":"The Belarusian civil society resisted polonization and mass closure of Belarusian schools. The Belarusian Schools Society (), led by Branis\u0142a\u016d Tara\u0161kievi\u010d and other activists, was the main organization promoting education in Belarusian language in West Belarus in 1921\u20131937."}
+{"text":"Compared to the (larger) Ukrainian minority living in Poland, Belarusians were much less politically aware and active. Nevertheless, according to Belarusian historians, the policies by the Polish government against the population of West Belarus increasingly provoked protests and armed resistance. In the 1920s, Belarusian partisan units arose in many areas of West Belarus, mostly unorganized but sometimes led by activists of Belarusian left wing parties. In the spring of 1922, several thousands Belarusian partisans issued a demand to the Polish government to stop the violence, to liberate political prisoners and to grant autonomy to West Belarus. Protests were held in various regions of West Belarus until mid 1930s."}
+{"text":"The largest Belarusian political organization, the \"Belarusian Peasants' and Workers' Union\" (or, the Hramada), which demanded a stop to the polonization and autonomy for West Belarus, grew more radicalized by the time. It received logistical help from the Soviet Union, and financial aid from the Comintern. By 1927 \"Hramada\" was controlled entirely by agents from Moscow. It was banned by the Polish authorities, and further opposition to the Polish government was met with state-imposed sanctions once the connection between \"Hramada\" and the more radical pro-Soviet Communist Party of Western Belarus was discovered. The Polish policy was met with armed resistance."}
+{"text":"Territories of Galicia and Volhynia had different backgrounds, different recent histories and different dominant religions. Until the First World War, Galicia with its large Ukrainian Greek Catholic population in the east (around Lw\u00f3w), and Polish Roman Catholics in the west (around Krak\u00f3w), was controlled by the Austrian Empire. On the other hand, the Ukrainians of Volhynia, formerly of the Russian Empire (around R\u00f3wne), were largely Orthodox by religion, and were influenced by strong Russophile trends. Both \"Polish officials and Ukrainian activists alike, distinguished between Galician and Volhynian Ukrainians\" in their political aims. There was a much stronger national self-perception among the Galician Ukrainians increasingly influenced by OUN (Ukrainian nationalists)."}
+{"text":"While the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), which functioned in communion with the Latin Rite Catholicism, could have hoped to receive a better treatment in Poland where the leadership saw Catholicism as one of the main tools to unify the nation \u2013 the Poles under Stanis\u0142aw Grabski saw the restless Galician Ukrainians as less reliable than the Orthodox Volhynian Ukrainians, seen as better candidates for gradual assimilation. That's why the Polish policy in Ukraine initially aimed at keeping Greek Catholic Galicians from further influencing Orthodox Volhynians by drawing the so-called \"Sokalski line\"."}
+{"text":"Due to the region's history the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church attained a strong Ukrainian national character, and the Polish authorities sought to weaken it in various ways. In 1924, following a visit with the Ukrainian Catholic believers in North America and western Europe, the head of the UGCC was initially denied reentry to Lviv for a considerable amount of time. Polish priests led by their bishops began to undertake missionary work among Eastern Rite faithful, and the administrative restrictions were placed on the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church."}
+{"text":"The Polish administration closed many of the popular Prosvita Society reading rooms, an action which, combined with the devastation brought about during the war years, produced a marked decline in the number of reading rooms, from 2,879 in 1914 to only 843 in 1923."}
+{"text":"As for the educational system, the provincial school administration from the Austrian era, which was based in L'viv and had separate Ukrainian representation, was abolished in January 1921. All decisions were subsequently to be made in Warsaw and to be implemented by administrators in local school districts. Ukrainians now found themselves within six different school districts (L'viv, Volhynia, Polissia, Cracow, Lublin, and Bialystok), although at least initially the Ukrainian school system, especially at the elementary level, was left undisturbed."}
+{"text":"In 1924, the government of Prime Minister W\u0142adys\u0142aw Grabski passed a law (known as the lex Grabski), over the objections of Ukrainian parliamentary representatives, which set up bilingual Ukrainian and Polish schools. The result was a rapid decline in the number of unilingual Ukrainian schools together with a sharp increase in Polish-Ukrainian bilingual schools in Galicia and Polish schools in Volhynia (1,459 in 1938)."}
+{"text":"The principle of \"numerus clausus\" had been introduced following which the Ukrainians were discriminated when entering the Lviv University (not more than 15% of the applicants' total number, the Poles enjoying not less than the 50% quota at the same time)."}
+{"text":"The land reform designed to favour the Poles in Volhynia, where the land question was especially severe, and brought the alienation from the Polish state of even the Orthodox Volhynian population who tended to be much less radical than the Greek Catholic Galicians."}
+{"text":"Traditionally, Volhynian Ukrainian peasants had benefited from rights of use in the commons, which in Volhynia meant the right to collect wood from forests owned by nobles. When all land was treated as private property with defined owners, such traditional rights could not be enforced. Forests were cleared, and the lumber sold abroad. Volhynian peasants lost access to what had been a common \"good\", without profiting from its commercialization and sale."}
+{"text":"By 1938 nearly two million acres (some 800,000 hectares) had been redistributed within Ukrainian-inhabited areas. The redistribution did not necessarily help the local Ukrainian population, however. For instance, as early as 1920, 39 percent of the newly allotted land in Volhynia and Polissia (771,000 acres [312,000 hectares]) had been awarded as political patronage to veterans of Poland's 'war for independence,' and in eastern Galicia much land (494,000 acres [200,000 hectares]) had been given to land-hungry Polish peasants from the western provinces of the country. This meant that by the 1930s the number of Poles living within contiguous Ukrainian ethnographic territory had increased by about 300,000."}
+{"text":"While Operation Vistula was underway in south-western Poland, the Soviet NKVD deported over 114,000 mostly women and children from West Ukraine to Kazakh SSR and Siberia during the parallel Operation West. Only 19,000 men were among the Soviet deportees, most of them sent to coal mines and stone quarries in the north. None of the families deported by the NKVD received any farms or empty homes to live in. They were instantaneously forced into extreme poverty and hunger. Dr Zbigniew Palski informs also that during Operation Vistula none of the three conditions of the United Nations Charter of 26 June 1945 about the possible struggle toward their own self-determination among the Polish deportees was broken at the time. Other international laws were already in effect."}
+{"text":"Caucasology, or Caucasiology refers to the historical and geopolitical studies of the Caucasus region. The branch has more than 150 years history. In 1972, the Caucasiological Center (renamed to International Caucasiological Center in 2000) was founded under the auspices of the Israel President Zalman Shazar."}
+{"text":"Nader's last years are characterised by wandering his own empire in a series of barbaric campaigns in which rebellions were put down in the most brutal and cruel manner. One of his very last major battles was a battle near Kars against the Ottomans where he annihilated the Ottoman army sent against him prompting Istanbul to seek terms of peace. He was finally assassinated by a faction of his officers in his own tent. The death of Nader spelt the beginning of an extremely troubled and bloody chapter in Iranian history were continuous civil war engulfed the nation for over half a century before the establishment of the Qajar dynasty under Agha-Mohammad Khan Qajar."}
+{"text":"Revolts swept through the province during the 1720s as a direct consequence of the Afghan revolt in the eastern provinces of the empire which eventually led to an invasion led by the Hotaki leader Mahmud Hotaki. In a pitched battle Mahmud inflicted a humiliating defeat on the Imperial forces sent from Isfehan in the battle of Gulnabad, after which he marched on the capital itself where he captured Isfehan after a terrible siege."}
+{"text":"A courtier in Isfahan by the name of Malek Mahmoud Sistani reached an accord with the Hotaki Afghan conquerors in which he would set up an independent kingdom in khorasan in exchange for his recognition of Mahmud as Shah of Iran. Sistani entered Khorasan and managed to regain most of Khorasan from the rebels and local warlords in a relatively short period of time with the capital Mashad falling into his hands. At this juncture Nader had established himself in the fortress of kalat north of Mashad and with a mere force of 1,200 men raided Sistani's territory, although they did not come into direct confrontation Nader had established himself as the only real challenge to Sistani's influence in Khorasan."}
+{"text":"Tahmasp II and the siege of Mashhad."}
+{"text":"After the conclusion of the siege of Isfahan Mahmud sent a contingent of his Afghans to subdue Qazvin where a new Safavid pretender Tahmasp had risen and proclaimed himself Shah. He was forced to flee Qazvin but could not stay in the region permanently as those areas not under Afghan control were unremittingly coming under the marching boots of Ottoman soldiers invading from the west. Tahmasp was chased from the west of the country and in Astarabad found a loyal if difficult subject warlord by the name of Fathali Khan of the Qajar clan."}
+{"text":"The Qajar contingent however remained with the Loyalist army despite Fathali's beheading and ironically it was a betrayal on the other side of the conflict that brought the siege to an end where Pir Mohammad allowed Nader to infiltrate the city walls forcing Sistani to take refuge in the citadel, surrendering shortly after."}
+{"text":"The defeated Malek Mahmoud Sistani was surprisingly treated with courtesy and in a show of reconciliatory mercy allowed to spend the rest of his life as a sage (Though he was executed the following year when he became suspect in Nader's eyes). The results of the siege had gifted the capital of Khorasan to Tahmasp as well as gifting Fathali's position to the sole person of Nader as he now took to subdue the remaining Khans and tribes of the province hence further augmenting his forces. His conquest of Khorasan allowed the Safavid loyalist movement to next focus on an expedition further east towards Herat."}
+{"text":"The Conquest of Afghanistan by Nader Shah consisted of a series of intermittent and fluid engagements culminating in the finale of Nader's military operations against the Abdali Afghans. Nader having recently concluded a successful campaign against his own monarch and prince, the badly humiliated Tahmasp II, set out from Mashad on May 4, 1729 making sure the Shah also accompanied him on this journey where he could be kept under close supervision."}
+{"text":"The battle of Kafer Qal'eh resulted in a tactical victory for Nader after which Allahyar Khan was pursued and re-engaged. At the height of the battle Nader's scouts brought word of Zulfaqar Khans approach prompting Nader to carry out an ingenious ruse. A column of Iranian troops was sent on a march round Allahyar Khan's army with their victory drums & horns sounding loudly which led him to believe that Zulfaqar Khan's men had already been defeated forcing him to beat another hasty retreat."}
+{"text":"As Allahyar broke away towards Herat Nader dispatched a portion of his army to pursue him but kept the bulk of his men to turn and face the fresh troops under Zulfaqar khan's command, however before Nader engaged Zulfaqar's contingent a sandstorm swept into the area rendering any further fighting all but impossible, thereby providing a cover under which the Abdali forces managed to withdraw towards Herat unmolested."}
+{"text":"The entire campaign thus far had been a chain of skirmishes, marches and counter marches where Nader excelled as a quick thinking commander who outwitted his foes at every corner despite at times seemingly caught in near impossible situations such as when news of Zulfaqar's imminent arrival reached him when he was already heavily engaged with Allahyar Khan's men. The impressive campaign however did not result in the Abdali's destruction and Nader followed their retreat eastward until he came in view of Herat where the combined forces of Allahyar & Zulfaqar rode out to meet him in a finale to the campaign."}
+{"text":"When battle was joined for the final time in view of Herat itself the action was uncannily similar to the previous engagements between the Iranians and the Abdalis except that on this particular occasion the frontal charge of the Abdalis was firmly halted by muskets of the Iranian line infantry crashing out simultaneously breaking the impetus of the Afghans charge and providing adequate persuasion to the Abdalis to fall behind the city walls. Herat now came under an intense bombardment from the Iranian guns and mortars, convincing the governor of Herat, Allahyar Khan, to sue for peace in exchange for recognition of Iran as suzerain of Herat."}
+{"text":"With the Abdalis in Herat brought into orbit the road now lay open to the heartland of the Iranian empire and the liberation of Isfahan seemed feasible given the successes of the previous campaigns. Nader had also demonstrated the effectiveness of his military system and through numerous engagements had perfected the art and technique of overcoming fierce cavalry charges by steady infantry formations supported by cannon and guarded by cavalry on the flanks where the combined fire of musketry & cannon-fire would break the charge of the mounted assailants. This tactical system would be put to the ultimate test in the battles of Mihmandust & Murche-Khort by Nader's veteran troops going up against the very best of the cavalry the oriental world had to offer."}
+{"text":"The Safavid restoration to the throne of Iran took place in the latter part of 1729 by a series of battles fought between Nader, Tahmasp's commander-in-chief and Ashraf Hotaki. Despite nominally bringing Tahmasp to the seat of power, true authority still rested with Nader who had, ever since the debacle in northern Khorasan, managed to seize Tahmasp II as his vassal. As for Afghan rule, the Ghilzai Afghans were ejected from the Iranian Plateau permanently and in the following years were re-annexed by Nader whence they were once again absorbed into the Iranian empire."}
+{"text":"Having delayed a confrontation with Tahmasp long enough, Ashraf found himself threatened by the pretender to the Safavid throne and his young general Nader. Hearing of their expedition against the Abdali of Herat Ashraf decided to march on the capital of Khorasan and capture Mashad before Nader could return from the east. However Nader was back in Mashad well before Ashraf had a chance of invading Khorasan."}
+{"text":"Marching towards Damghan Nader and Ashraf clashed near the village of Mihmandoost where despite being heavily outnumbered the Iranians gave the Afghans a terribly bloody lesson in modern warfare and crushed Ashraf's army forcing him to retire towards Semnan."}
+{"text":"Ashraf retreated west where he set up a well thought out ambush in the Khwar pass where he hoped the Iranians, flushed with their recent triumph, would be surprised and dealt a heavy blow. Nader upon discovering the ambush encircled and then completely destroyed it with whatever remnants fleeing towards Isfahan."}
+{"text":"Requesting urgent support from the Ottoman Empire Ashraf sought to counter the Iranian army's thrust towards Isfahan. The Ottomans keen to hold Ashraf in power instead of seeing a resurgent Iran on their eastern frontier were all too eager to help with both guns and artillerymen. At the battle of Murche-Khort the Afghans were yet again decisively defeated forcing Ashraf to flee south."}
+{"text":"Nader liberated Isfahan and soon after received Tahmasp II outside the main city gates where the Shah expressed his gratitude to Nader. The city had been devastated by the Afghans leaving very little in terms of riches for when Nader arrived. Tahmasp famously weeped when he saw what had befallen the capital. The city was greatly reduced both in terms of population and in terms of wealth. The people took vengeance on those Afghans who were found hiding throughout the city."}
+{"text":"Nader set out from Isfahan heading towards Shiraz where Ashraf was busy raking together what he could with the support of some of the local Arab tribes. At this juncture there was no realistic hope for a revival of Afghan fortunes and near Zarghan the Iranian engaged and decimated the last army Ashraf commanded, with historical sources disagreeing on his exact fate in the aftermath of the battle."}
+{"text":"Nader's first Ottoman Campaign was his first against perhaps his most formidable of adversaries, namely the Ottomans, where he proved triumphant in conquest. The great successes of his expedition, however, were rendered null when Shah Tahmasp II decided to take personal command of the theatre in Nader's absence, forcing a furious Nader to return and rectify the situation after forcing Tahmasp's abdication in favour of his infant son Abbas III."}
+{"text":"The Ottomans had entered the western regions of the country in the early 1720s when the Hotaki invasion of Mahmud I was launched against the Safavid state. In a decisive engagement near Gulnabad, Mahmud Hotaki managed a surprising victory against a far greater (though severely divided) Iranian army. The route of the imperial army allowed him to march on the capital Isfahan which he captured after a 6-month siege that caused unheard misery and loss of life in the city. During the chaos of the Safavid overthrow, the Tsardom of Russia and the Ottoman Empire seized on this opportunity to annex as much land as they could with Ottoman Turkey taking western Iran and dividing the Caucasus up with the Russians."}
+{"text":"Soon the Hotaki conquerors installed a new leader as king through a coup de'tat in which Mahmud I was replaced with a capable cousin of his; Ashraf. Ashraf marched west to put a halt to any further expansion by the Ottomans and to the surprise of many defeated them. The diplomatic outcome however was very much reconciliatory as the Ottomans promised recognition of Ashraf as the legitimate Shah of Iran in exchange for Ashraf's acknowledgement of Ottoman rule in their new territories in the Caucasus and western Iran."}
+{"text":"On March 9, 1730, the Iranian army exited Shiraz and in a leisurely manner celebrated the new year (Nowruz), after which Nader commenced a rapid forced march westward in the hope of catching the Ottomans off balance. Reaching Ottoman-occupied town of Nahavand via Luristan, Nader put the Turks here to flight towards Hamadan, where, recovering from their initial shock and panic, they regrouped and presented themselves in the valley of Malayer to give battle in the hope of ending the Iranian advance on Hamadan."}
+{"text":"The Ottoman force arrayed in front of the Iranian army was of a different nature altogether from all the previous foes the Iranian army had faced up to this point. The Afghan and tribal opponents of Nader had been almost completely devoid of any infantry or artillery units (excluding Murche-Khort), comprised almost exclusively of excellent mounted warriors instead."}
+{"text":"Now Nader faced an adversary who in many respects mirrored the Iranian army's own composition in structure as well as constituent unit types. The Turks had drawn themselves up parallel to a stream flowing through the valley, on the other side of which Nader deployed his men into three separate divisions, placing himself in the centre. As the two armies came within musket range of each other, a general fire broke out along the entire length of the line, with the smoke created from the muskets & cannon dancing over shallow body of water separating the two armies, obscuring the Iranians and Ottomans from each other's view. Nader, under the veil of smoke, started strengthening and preparing his right wing for a bold gamble."}
+{"text":"After liberating Hamadan along with its 10,000 imprisoned Iranian soldiers, Nader gained Kermanshah, thus liberating large swathes of western Iran from Ottoman rule. Leaving behind a fortified position, he now moved his army to Azerbaijan, where he took Tabriz on August 12, crushing an army sent (too late) to reinforce Tabriz. The Turkish prisoners were treated kindly, with Nader freeing many of the Pashas, dispatching them with messages of peace to Constantinople (Istanbul). In a lightning campaign Nader had reincorporated all the main provinces of the Iranian heartland."}
+{"text":"At this time in Constantinople, Patrona Halil, a mob rebellion had produced a change in leadership bringing Mahmud I to power. Sultan Mahmud I appointed a half-Venetian statesman to command in the east at the head of an army which would prove Tahmasp's undoing. Aiming to cloak the Caucasus under Iranian hegemony as in the time of his forefathers Tahmasp aimed to conquer Chokhur-e Sa'd, Georgia and Daghestan from the Turks. An army of 18,000 was led into Chokhur-e Sa'd were Tahmasp found himself scoring a victory over an Ottoman army near Yerevan."}
+{"text":"There seems to have been an unintentional initiation of musketry by the inexperienced Iranian infantry leading to a pitched battle where the Iranian cavalry on either flank overcame their counterparts but were let down by the nervous infantry in the centre who were easily put to flight by the advance of the Janissaries which now turned to aid their mounted comrades in a counter-attack on the Iranian horsemen routing them in turn also. Tabriz also fell to Hakimoghlu Khan with Ahmad Pasha complementing his gains by capturing Hamadan."}
+{"text":"Tahmasp was obliged to sign a treaty by which he accepted Ottoman suzerainty over the Caucasus and in exchange he would be given back Tabriz, Hamadan and kermanshah. The conclusion of his incompetence in this foreign venture had resulted in signing one of the most humiliating treaties of his dynasty although this seemed to weigh little on his mind as he soon returned to Isfahan to resume a magnificently opulent lifestyle."}
+{"text":"On discovering the cataclysmic events that had unfolded in the west Nader abandoned any further conquest in the east to return to Isfahan with much justified anger at the Shah's inept statesmanship which must have been all the more infuriating as Nader's impressive achievements against the Ottomans during the previous year had become utterly irrelevant. This gave Nader the political ammunition to force Tahmasp II to abdicate in favour of his infant son Abbas III in effect making Nader the supreme and unchallenged authority in the realm paving the way for his eventual overthrow of the Safavid dynasty altogether."}
+{"text":"As a direct result of Tahmasp II's blunders in his ill-fated invasion of the Ottoman Caucasus all of Nader's previous gains in the theatre were lost and a humiliating treaty had been signed giving away hegemony over the Caucasus to Istanbul. This settlement gave Nader the authority to force Tahmasp's abdication and resume the war against the Turks by launching an invasion of Ottoman Iraq and Mesopotamia."}
+{"text":"Ottoman held Iraq seemed a peculiar choice for Nader's invasion as all the western territories of Iran were restored under the ignominious treaty signed by Tahmasp with the Caucasus under Turkish control. Axworthy speculates that Nader intended to seize Baghdad as a bargaining chip in exchange for the Caucasus but with Baghdad being such a strategic prize in itself it is rather doubtful any civil exchange of territory was held in mind at the time at all. Despite the unexpected choice of theatre the Ottomans in the region were well prepared to receive the Iranians."}
+{"text":"To achieve a modicum of surprise Nader decided upon a march through the mountains as opposed to a direct advance against the fortified border town of Zohab near Qasr-e Shirin. The mountain path was a difficult and snowy route to negotiate and some amongst the soldiers perished but Nader managed to get his 600 men to descend down into the valley behind the Ottoman battlements and without hesitation struck in the dead of night. Completely out-witted by Nader the garrison of Zohab woke up and fled their posts in terror. Nader ordered a new fort to be built and moved south to join the main Iranian army that had left Hamadan and was heading to Baghdad."}
+{"text":"Besieging Kirkuk with a residue force of 7,000 the main Iranian army marched on until they defeated an Ottoman army near Baghdad and then proceeded to encircle the city itself in preparation for a siege after a hard fought campaign of manoeuvre were Nader managed to cross the Tigris. Ahmad Pasha would prove a stubborn defender of the city and held out until the approach of a relief effort in the form of an army of 80,000 under Topal Pasha."}
+{"text":"In a cunning ruse Topal drew Nader into a disadvantageous battle where despite losing a quarter of his own men Topal inflicted a crushing defeat on the Iranian army, half of which was destroyed and all its guns lost. This monumental victory allowed the lifting of the siege further to the south where Ahmad Pasha- having heard of Topal Osman's victory -came out with an enthusiastic garrison to chase away the 12,000 Iranians left to maintain the blockade of Baghdad."}
+{"text":"Making an almost fantastical recovery from his seemingly irreplaceable losses Nader rebuilt his army in an incredibly short amount of time and invaded Ottoman Iraq once more. After some minor frontier skirmishing he sent Haji Beg Khan to lure out Topal Pasha which he succeeded in doing. The Ottoman advance guard was set upon drowned under the waves of a ferocious ambush after which Nader gathered his men and marched directly against the main Ottoman army nearby."}
+{"text":"An intense musketry duel was kept up along the entire breadth of the line until Nader ordered his infantry unsheathe their sabres and charge the Ottomans, supporting them with a pincer movement by his cavalry reserve which put Topal Osman's army in a cauldron of Iranian troops. The Turks crumbling in the face of this manoeuvre found that not even the presence of the old fox in the person of Topal Pasha could rally them and fled leaving all their guns."}
+{"text":"Nader however could not pursue his impressive conquest due to a growing uprising in southern Iran which required his immediate attention. Therefore, Baghdad was yet again saved from falling into Iranian hands. The campaign itself did not decide the fate of the war but set the stage for Nader's Caucasus campaign in 1735 where through a shattering defeat of the Ottomans at Baghavard, Istanbul was brought to its knees."}
+{"text":"As the Iranian empire set about re-incorporating the lost territories to the west, Hussein sultan of Qandahar intrigued the Abdalis of Herat to raise against their masters while the main Iranian forces were arrayed against the Ottomans thousands of kilometres to the west. The governor of Herat, Allahyar Khan, who was confirmed in his position by Nader after his the war of in 1729 remained loyal but his chief lieutenant Zulfaqar Khan was very much taken by Qandahar's assurances and support."}
+{"text":"Allahyar Khan was obliged to flee Herat and was given refuge by Nader's brother Ibrahim Khan. The Abdalis soon invaded Khorasan itself and marched on its capital, Mashad, defeating the Iranian under Ibrahim Khan and forcing it to withdraw into the city walls which now came under siege. Although the Abdalis had little chance of actually taking the city as what little artillery they possessed would make hardly any impression on the battlements of Mashad, these events shook Nader who received word that his power base back in Khorasan was under threat. On August 16 Nader left Tabriz behind and marched his force across 2,250 kilometres over the Iranian plateau with lightning speed, bringing him Mashad where he found the Abdalis in headlong retreat."}
+{"text":"Hussein Hotaki was growing increasingly anxious about his position in Qandahar with Nader approaching Herat, prompting him to enter into negotiations with Nader in which he sent back a few captive Safavid princesses. Hussein sultan's support for his proxy, Zulfaqar Khan, however did not cease or even lessen \u2013 in fact a Ghilzai force of at least a few thousand strong commanded by Mohammad Seidal Khan was sent from Qandahar to support him."}
+{"text":"The final decisive engagement took place outside the city when Zulfaqar Khan and Seidal Khan agreed to a joint coordinated attack against the Iranians. The attack was decimated when Nader sent a flanking force round the Afghans and himself rode directly against their front with a large body of cavalry. The defeat caused Seidal Khan's departure which in turn led to the remaining defenders of Herat asking for terms of submission."}
+{"text":"Under the treaty signed by both sides Allahyar Khan was returned his governorship of Herat with Zulfaqar Khan being exiled to Farah. Nader did not however militarily occupy the citadel \u2013 an action which would prove a terrible mistake when 4,000 fighters came down from Farah an stoked the fires of rebellion once more. Allahyar Khan was pressured despite his reluctance to join the revolt. Allahyar Khan was also exiled."}
+{"text":"The siege of the citadel was hence resumed with the Afghan's sending peace emissaries once they realised their predicament. The negotiations lasted a long while but were eventually concluded, giving Zulfaqar Khan and his brother a chance to escape to Qandahar whilst Herat came under occupation but was surprisingly not looted or sacked by Nader's troops. Ibrahim Khan managed to conquer Farah, helping to pacify the region as a whole in addition to Nader's policies of forced migration for many of the tribes involved in the rebellion as well as incorporating many of their fighters into his own armed forces."}
+{"text":"After Nader put down the revolt in Afghanistan, he was able to continue his invasion of the Ottoman Empire and the Caucasus which ended in an Iranian victory allowing Nader to recast Iranian hegemony over almost the entire Caucasus, region, reconconquering it for the Safavid state."}
+{"text":"The Caucasus had fallen under Ottoman control since 1722 with the collapse of the Safavid state. The first target of the campaign was the reconquering of the Shirvan Khanate, with its capital Shamakhi falling in August 1734 freeing up the Iranian forces to march west and lay siege to Ganja. The battlements of Ganja as well as its garrison of 14,000 soldiers provided a formidable defence. After Tahmasp Khan Jalayer engaged and routed a joint Ottoman and Crimean Tatar force in the south east Caucasus Nader cut their line of retreat further west dealing them another crippling blow, scattering them into the mountains north."}
+{"text":"The mountains to the north in Avarestan made any pursuit of the defeated foe a daunting prospect especially considering the approach of winter, so Nader chose to turn west and besiege Ganja where he was drawn into an intense effort to capture the surprisingly formidable fortress. The Iranian artillery was still severely lacking in strong siege guns and consisted mostly of field batteries which were effective in battles but unable to make significant impact against city walls and battlements."}
+{"text":"Failing in their siege artillery capacity the Iranians sent sappers to dig underground to reach the citadels walls from beneath but the Turks received timely intelligence reports revealing the intention of the besiegers. Tunnelling underground the Iranians and Ottomans burrowed into each other's way whence they came to grips in hand-to-hand combat. The Iranians were able to detonate six charges killing 700 Ottoman defenders but still failed in their main object of destroying the citadels walls. The Iranians also lost some 30 to 40 men themselves."}
+{"text":"Nader also blockaded Yerevan and Tiflis forcing a response from the Ottoman 'Saraskar' Koprulu Pasha. Istanbul had found the preliminary negotiations by Ahmad Pasha, governor of Ottoman Baghdad unsatisfactory and sent an enormous army consisting of 50,000 cavalry, 30,000 janissaries and 40 cannon to be commanded by Koprulu Pasha foe the defence of Ottoman possessions in the region."}
+{"text":"Nader having besieged many of the key cities and fortresses in the area awaited the arrival of Koprulu Pasha's main army of some 130,000 men according to Nader's court historian Mirza Mehdi Astarabadi, prompting Nader to gather his advance guard of around 15,000 men and march them westwards to engage the relief army under Koprulu Pasha. By the time the main Iranian army of 40,000 reached the scene of the battle Nader, despite the enormous disparity in numbers, routed the Ottomans, forcing Istanbul to finally sign a peace recognizing Iranian control of the Caucasus and the border in Mesopotamia already agreed to in the treaty of Zuhab."}
+{"text":"The crushing defeat at Baghavard also provided sufficient persuasion to retreat for the 50,000 Crimean Tatars who were commanded by the Turkish Sultan to march south along the coast of the Black Sea descending down into the Caucasus in order to aid Koprulu Pasha's forces."}
+{"text":"Emperor Nader Shah, the Shah of Iran (1736\u201347) and founder of the Afsharid dynasty, invaded the Mughal Empire with a fifty-five thousand strong army, eventually attacking Delhi in March 1739. His army had easily defeated the Mughals at the battle at Karnal and would eventually capture the Mughal capital in the aftermath of the battle."}
+{"text":"Nader Shah's victory against the weak and crumbling Mughal Empire in the far East meant that he could afford to turn back and resume war against Iran's archrival, the neighbouring Ottoman Empire, but also the further campaigns in the North Caucasus and Central Asia."}
+{"text":"Nader Shah became the official Iranian monarch in 1736, and founded the Afsharid dynasty in that year overthrowing the last puppet safavid shah after the successful campaign of 1730-35. In 1738, Nader Shah conquered Kandahar, the last outpost of the Hotaki dynasty, he, then, began to launch raids across the Hindu Kush mountains into Northern India, which, at that time, was under the rule of the Mughal Empire."}
+{"text":"The Mughal empire had been weakened by ruinous wars of succession in the three decades following the death of Aurangzeb. The Muslim nobles had asserted their independence whilst the Hindu Marathas of the Maratha Empire had captured vast swathes of territory in Central and Northern India. Its ruler, Muhammad Shah, proved unable to stop the disintegration of the empire. The imperial court administration was corrupt and weak whereas the country was extremely rich whilst Delhi\u2019s prosperity and prestige was still at a high. Nader Shah, attracted by the country's wealth, sought plunder like so many other foreign invaders before him."}
+{"text":"At the Battle of Karnal on 13 February 1739, Nader led his army to victory over the Mughals, Muhammad Shah surrendered and both entered Delhi together."}
+{"text":"The keys to the capital of Delhi were surrendered to Nader. He entered the city on 20 March 1739 and occupied Shah Jehan\u2019s imperial suite in the Red Fort. Coins were struck, and prayers said, in his name in the Jama Masjid and other Delhi mosques. The next day, the Shah held a great durbar in the capital."}
+{"text":"The Iranian occupation led to price rises in the city. The city administrator attempted to fix prices at a lower level and Iranian troops were sent to the market at Paharganj, Delhi to enforce them. However, the local merchants refused to accept the lower prices and this resulted in violence during which some Iranians were assaulted and killed."}
+{"text":"When a rumour spread that Nader had been assassinated by a female guard at the Red Fort, some Indians attacked and killed Iranian troops during the riots that broke out on the night of 21 March. Nader, furious at the killings, retaliated by ordering his soldiers to carry out the notorious \"qatl-e-aam\" (qatl = killing, aam = publicly, in open) of Delhi."}
+{"text":"Areas of Delhi such as Chandni Chowk and Dariba Kalan, Fatehpuri, Faiz Bazar, Hauz Kazi, Johri Bazar and the Lahori, Ajmeri and Kabuli gates, all of which were densely populated by both Hindus and Muslims, were soon covered with corpses. Muslims, like Hindus and Sikhs, resorted to killing their women, children and themselves rather than submit to the Iranians."}
+{"text":"Muhammad Shah was forced to beg for mercy. These horrific events were recorded in contemporary chronicles such as the Tarikh-e-Hindi of Rustam Ali, the Bayan-e-Waqai of Abdul Karim and the Tazkira of Anand Ram Mukhlis."}
+{"text":"Finally, after many hours of desperate pleading by the Mughals for mercy, Nader Shah relented and signalled a halt to the bloodshed by sheathing his battle sword once again."}
+{"text":"It has been estimated that during the course of six hours in one day, 22 March 1739, something like 20,000\u00a0to\u00a030,000 Indian men, women and children were slaughtered by the Iranian troops during the massacre in the city. Exact casualty figures are uncertain, as after the massacre, the bodies of the victims were simply buried in mass burial pits or cremated in grand funeral pyres without any proper record being made of the numbers cremated or buried."}
+{"text":"The city was sacked for several days. An enormous fine of 20 million rupees was levied on the people of Delhi. Muhammad Shah handed over the keys to the royal treasury, and lost the Peacock Throne, to Nader Shah, which thereafter served as a symbol of Iranian imperial might. Amongst a treasure trove of other fabulous jewels, Nader also gained the Koh-i-Noor and Darya-ye Noor (\"Mountain of Light\" and \"Sea of Light,\" respectively) diamonds; they are now part of the British and Iranian Crown Jewels, respectively. Iranian troops left Delhi at the beginning of May 1739."}
+{"text":"The plunder seized from Delhi was so rich that Nader stopped taxation in Iran for a period of three years following his return. Nader Shah's victory against the crumbling Mughal Empire in the East meant that he could afford to turn to the West and face the Ottomans. The Ottoman Sultan Mahmud I initiated the Ottoman-Iranian War (1743\u20131746), in which Muhammad Shah closely cooperated with the Ottomans until his death in 1748."}
+{"text":"Nader's Indian campaign alerted the East India Company to the extreme weakness of the Mughal Empire and the possibility of expanding to fill the power vacuum."}
+{"text":"Nader attempted to ratify the Treaty of Constantinople (1736), by demanding that the Ja'fari, a small Shi'ite sect was to be accepted as a fifth legal sect of Islam."}
+{"text":"In early 1744 Nader Shah resumed his offensive and besieged Kars, but returned to Daghestan to suppress a revolt. He returned afterwards and routed an Ottoman army at the battle of Kars in August 1745. The war disintegrated. Nader Shah grew insane and started to punish his own subjects, which led to a revolt from early 1745 to June 1746. In 1746 peace was made. The boundaries were unchanged and Baghdad remained in Ottoman hands. Nader Shah dropped his demand for Ja'fari recognition. The Porte was pleased and dispatched an ambassador but before he could arrive, Nader Shah was assassinated by his own officers."}
+{"text":"John Frederick Baddeley (July 1854 \u2013 Oxford, 16 February 1940) was a British traveller, writer and journalist, best known by his works on Russia and the Caucasus region."}
+{"text":"He was educated at Wellington College, Berkshire. After visiting Russia for seven months in 1879, Baddeley became the St. Petersburg correspondent for the London Standard, and began a lifelong relationship with that country, travelling widely and writing several important books on its history. In the summer of 1900 he made his first of several journeys to Siberia and the Russian Far East. He was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1902-1940."}
+{"text":"Other Baddeley's works are \"The Russian Conquest of the Caucasus\" (1908), \"Russia in the 'eighties', sport and politics\" (1921) and \"The rugged flanks of Caucasus\" (1940); this posthumous work is dedicated to the geography, topography, history, archaeology, Natural history, and ethnology of the Caucasus, including the oil fields of Baku and some pages on Nadir Shah."}
+{"text":"Filippo De Filippi (1869\u20131938) was an Italian medical doctor, scientist, mountaineer and explorer. De Filippo was born in Turin on 6 April 1869 to Giuseppe De Filippi, a lawyer, and Olimpia Sella."}
+{"text":"As a doctor he specialised in physiological chemistry and in experimental aspects of surgery, lecturing at Bologna and Genoa universities."}
+{"text":"He married Caroline Fitzgerald in 1901, a poet, daughter of William John Fitzgerald. In World War I he volunteered as a lieutenant colonel in the Red Cross and was posted to London from 1917 to 1919 where he ran the Italian office of propaganda and information. He was awarded the honorary knighthood of KCIE in 1916."}
+{"text":"He was the editor of the travel and exploration section of the \"Enciclopedia italiana\". He died at Settignano near Florence on 23 September 1938."}
+{"text":"Well known as an Alpine mountaineer, in 1897 he joined the Duke of the Abruzzi in an expedition to Alaska where they were the first people to climb Mount Saint Elias on 31 July. Then, in 1903, he explored Asia, crossing the Caucasus and entering Turkestan. In 1906 he wrote the book about (though did not take part in) Abruzzi's exploration of the Ruwenzori mountains on the Uganda\u2013Congo border. In 1909 he again went with the Duke of the Abruzzi, this time in the Karakoram mountains, writing the book describing the expedition."}
+{"text":"From 1913 to 1914, De Filippo organised and led a large and highly successful scientific expedition to Central Asia: Baltistan, Ladakh and Xinjiang. Accurate gravity and magnetic measurements were made and wireless signals were used to determine longitude. There were ethnological and anthropological, topographical and geological studies. The exploration determined that the Rimo Glacier formed the watershed of Central Asia. The work was written up in seventeen volumes."}
+{"text":"Heinrich Julius Klaproth (11 October 1783 \u2013 28 August 1835) was a German linguist, historian, ethnographer, author, orientalist and explorer. As a scholar, he is credited along with Jean-Pierre Abel-R\u00e9musat, with being instrumental in turning East Asian Studies into scientific disciplines with critical methods."}
+{"text":"H.J. Klaproth was usually known as Julius or Julius von Klaproth. His name also erroneously appears as \"Julius Heinrich Klaproth\"."}
+{"text":"Klaproth was born in Berlin on 11 October 1783, the son of the chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth, who is credited with the discovery of four elements including uranium."}
+{"text":"Young Klaproth devoted his energies in quite early life to the study of Asiatic languages, and published in 1802 his \"Asiatisches Magazin\" (Weimar 1802\u20131803). He was in consequence called to St. Petersburg and given an appointment in the academy there. In 1805 he was a member of Count Golovkin's embassy to China. On his return he was despatched by the academy to the Caucasus on an ethnographical and linguistic exploration (1807\u20131808), and was afterwards employed for several years in connection with the academy's Oriental publications. In 1812 he moved to Berlin."}
+{"text":"In 1815 he settled in Paris, and in 1816 Humboldt procured him from the king of Prussia the title and salary of professor of Asiatic languages and literature, with permission to remain in Paris as long as was requisite for the publication of his works. He died in Paris on 28 August 1835."}
+{"text":"Klaproth was an orientalist or an \"Asiatologist,\" in that he had a good command not only of"}
+{"text":"Chinese, but also Manchu, Mongolian, Sanskrit, Turkish, Arabic, Persian, and even Caucasian languages. His wide range of interests encompassed the study of the development of individual countries in their Asian context, which contrast with the 21st century focus on specialization."}
+{"text":"Klaproth's 1812 \"Dissertation on language and script of the Uighurs\" (\"Abhandlung \u00fcber die Sprache und Schrift der Uiguren\") was disputed by Isaak Jakob Schmidt, who is considered the founder of Mongolian Studies. Klaproth asserted that the Uighur language was a Turkic language, which today is undisputed, while Schmidt was persuaded that Uighur should be classified as a \"Tangut\" language."}
+{"text":"Klaproth's bibliography extends to more than 300 published items."}
+{"text":"His great work \"Asia Polyglotta\" (Paris, 1823 and 1831, with Sprachatlas) not only served as a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 of all that was known on the subject, but formed a new departure for the classification of the Eastern languages, more especially those of the Russian Empire. To a great extent, however, his work is now superseded."}
+{"text":"The \"Itinerary of a Chinese Traveller\" (1821), a series of documents in the military archives of St. Petersburg purporting to be the travels of George Ludwig von , and a similar series obtained from him in the London foreign office, are all regarded as spurious."}
+{"text":"Klaproth was also the first to publish a translation of \"Taika\" era Japanese poetry in the West. Donald Keene explained in a preface to the Nippon Gakujutsu Shink\u014dkai edition of the \"Man'y\u014dsh\u016b:\""}
+{"text":"Gustav Ferdinand Richard Radde (27 November 1831 \u2013 2 March 1903) was a German naturalist and Siberian explorer. Radde's warbler and several other species are named after him."}
+{"text":"Radde was born in Danzig, the son of a schoolmaster. He had little formal education, and began a career as an apothecary. At an early age he was influenced by Anton Menge and became increasingly interested in natural history, and in 1852 he gave up his career and spent two years in the Crimea with the botanist Christian von Steven, collecting both plants and animals. He made further trips to southern Russia with Johann Friedrich von Brandt and Karl Ernst von Baer. He was botanist and zoologist on the East Siberian Expedition of 1855, led by the astronomer Ludwig Schwarz."}
+{"text":"In 1864 he eventually settled in Tbilisi. In the same year he explored the region surrounding Mount Elbrus, the highest mountain in the Western Palearctic. As well as collecting many plants he recorded the languages, ballads and customs of the local tribes. He set up a museum (the Caucasus Museum) and library in Tbilisi to exhibit his discoveries. His collecting expeditions included visits along the Black Sea coast and eastwards beyond the Caspian Sea to Askhabad. In 1895 he sailed to India and Japan with the Grand Duke Michael, and two years later he was official naturalist on a visit by members of the Russian imperial family to North Africa. He eventually became a member of the Council of State in Tbilisi."}
+{"text":"In 1884 he was honoured with the chairmanship of the first International Ornithological Congress in Vienna. He was also an honorary member of the \"Deutsche Ornithologen-Gesellschaft\", and a foreign member of the British Ornithologists' Union and the Zoological Society of London. He was awarded the Patron's Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1889 and the Constantine Medal of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society in 1898."}
+{"text":"Animals named after him include birds such as Radde's warbler and Radde's accentor, and amphibians and reptiles such as the Mongolian toad (\"Pseudepidalea raddei)\", the Azerbaijan lizard (\"Darevskia raddei)\", a toadhead agama (\"Phrynocephalus raddei)\", and Radde's mountain viper (\"Montivipera raddei)\"."}
+{"text":"Radde was an avid entomologist. His insect (and other) collections are divided: Transbaikal and Amur material is in the Zoological Museum of the Russian Academy of Science; Caucasus and Transcaspian material is in the Georgian National Museum Zoological Section, Tbilisi."}
+{"text":"This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation Radde when citing a botanical name."}
+{"text":"In 1892, he wrote a Russian description of his voyage with the grand dukes Alexander and Sergeis Mikhailovitch."}
+{"text":"Ivan Alekseyevich Bartolomei (, 28 November 1813 \u2013 5 October 1870) was an Imperial Russian military officer, antiquarian, and writer."}
+{"text":"Bartolomei was born in St. Petersburg in the family of a Russian army general, originally of the Livonian noble family of von Bartholom\u00e4i. He took part in the Caucasus War and the Crimean War. In 1853, he led a mission to bring the mountaineers of Free Svanetia under Russian suzerainty. He was promoted to lieutenant-general in 1865. Beyond his service as an Imperial general and bureaucrat, Bartolomei was interested in the peoples and cultures of the Caucasus. He collected Georgian, Bactrian, Parthian, and Sasanian coins, which he subsequently donated to the Hermitage Museum. He authored several studies on the Caucasian ethnography and linguistics and first attempts at creating Abkhaz and Chechen primers. He died in Tiflis in 1870."}
+{"text":"Vasileios Vatatzes was born in Therapeia near Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire and was a scion of the Vatatzes noble family. His father was a Greek Orthodox priest who served at the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, and he had five siblings."}
+{"text":"According to the modern historian Evangelos Venetis, Vatatzes had traveled to Prussia, the Kingdom of France, the Dutch Republic, Great Britain and Denmark by 1732\/3. Post-1733 information about Vatatzes's life remains obscure. Venetis notes that in all likelihood, according to Vatatzes's own writings, he \"spent much time in the court of Nader Shah, accumulating all necessary information before compiling Nader Shah's biography\". In addition to spending much time at court, he also participated in Nader's military expeditions. In 1748, Vatatzes completed Nader's biography (known as the \"Persika\") in Greek. Vatatzes was proficient in Persian and also drew a map."}
+{"text":"According to Venetis, Vatatzes \"was associated with the 18th-century Greek Enlightenment of the Danubian Principalities\". Venetis adds that Vatatzes either wrote his manuscripts at the court of the Greek Phanariote rulers of the Danubian Principalities or they were reproduced there in large quantities after his death. Anyhow, in all likelihood, Vatatzes was a member of the retinue of the Phanariote rulers. Venetis adds that Vatatzes was \"an admirer of Persian civilization and of Nader Shah's rule\" and an \"important author for Iranian history and Hellenic-Iranian studies\". However, his works \"have been largely ignored by modern scholarship\"."}
+{"text":"Jean Chardin (16 November 1643 \u2013 5 January 1713), born Jean-Baptiste Chardin, and also known as Sir John Chardin, was a French jeweller and traveller whose ten-volume book \"The Travels of Sir John Chardin\" is regarded as one of the finest works of early Western scholarship on Persia and the Near East in general."}
+{"text":"He was born in Paris, son of a wealthy merchant, jeweller of the Place Dauphine, and followed his father's business."}
+{"text":"In 1664, he started for the East Indies with M. Raisin, a Lyons merchant."}
+{"text":"They journeyed by Constantinople and the Black Sea, reaching Persia early in 1666."}
+{"text":"The same year the shah, Abbas II, made Chardin his agent for the purchase of jewels."}
+{"text":"In the middle of 1667, he visited India and returned to Persia in 1669. The next year he arrived in Paris."}
+{"text":"He issued an account of some events to which he was an eyewitness in Persia, entitled 'Le Couronnement de Soleiman Troisi\u00e8me,' Paris, 1671."}
+{"text":"A learned nobleman, Mirza Sefi, a prisoner in his own palace at Isfahan, had entertained him, instructed him in the Persian language, and assisted him in this work."}
+{"text":"Peter de la Croix and Tavernier severely criticised it, while Ange de la Brosse as strongly defended it."}
+{"text":"Chardin again started for the East, August 1671."}
+{"text":"He was at Constantinople from March to July 1672."}
+{"text":"A quarrel between the grand vizier and the French ambassador made the position of French subjects dangerous, and Chardin escaped in a small vessel across the Black Sea, and made a most adventurous journey by Caffa, and through Georgia, and Armenia to Ispahan, which he reached in 1673."}
+{"text":"At Sapias, he was robbed by thugs in Samegrelo of all he possessed except two small bundles, worth \u00a36,000."}
+{"text":"He stayed at Ispahan four years, following the court in all its removals, and making particular journeys throughout the land, from the Caspian to the Persian Gulf and the river Indus, and visiting several Indian cities."}
+{"text":"By these two journeys he realised a considerable fortune, and, deciding to return home, reached Europe in 1677 by a voyage round the Cape of Good Hope."}
+{"text":"Of four volumes originally projected the first volume was published in 1686, \"Journal du Voyage . . . de Chardin en Parse et aux Indes Orientales,\" London, fol."}
+{"text":"This volume contains the author's journey from Paris to Ispahan, and has the author's half-length portrait by Loggan, with eighteen copper plates, mostly folding."}
+{"text":"His former work is reprinted there with a fulsome 'Epistle Dedicatory to James II.'"}
+{"text":"Chardin in his preface announced three other volumes to follow. The last, which was to contain a short history of Persia, along with his diaries for 1675\u201377, never appeared. The other three volumes (with many additions to the first) were published at Amsterdam, 1711, 4to, \"Voyages de Mons. le Chevalier Chardin\", as the complete work. In 1711 another edition, with his translation of \"La Relation des Mingreliens\", by J. M, Zampi, appeared in ten vols., Amsterdam, l2mo; and in 1735 another edition was published in four vols. 4to, containing a great number of passages added from his manuscripts, but with many omissions of violent Calvinistic passages. The most complete reprint is that of M. L. Langles, in ten vols. 8vo, Paris, 1811."}
+{"text":"Chardin's style of writing is simple and graphic, and he gives a faithful account of what he saw and heard. Montesquieu, Rousseau, Gibbon, and Helvetius acknowledge the value of his writings; and Sir William Jones says he gave the best account of Mahometan nations ever published."}
+{"text":"Extracts from his works appear in all the chief collections of travels, but there is no complete English translation."}
+{"text":"In 1681, Chardin determined to settle in England because of the persecution of Protestants in France."}
+{"text":"He was well received at court, and was soon after appointed court jeweller."}
+{"text":"He was knighted by Charles II at Whitehall, 17 November 1681."}
+{"text":"The same day he married a Protestant lady, Esther, daughter of M. de Lardini\u00e8re Peign\u00e9, councillor in the Parliament of Rouen, then a refugee in London."}
+{"text":"He carried on a considerable trade in jewels, and in the correspondence of his time was called 'the flower of merchants.'"}
+{"text":"In 1682, when he lived in Holland House, Kensington, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society."}
+{"text":"In 1684, the king sent him as envoy to Holland, where he stayed some years, was styled agent to the East India Company."}
+{"text":"On his return to London he devoted most of his time to oriental studies."}
+{"text":"In the prefaces to his works, 1686 and 1711, besides travels he speaks of what he calls 'my favourite desipi,' or 'Notes upon Passages of to the Holy Scriptures, illustrated by Eastern ally Customs and Manners,' as having occupied his time for many years."}
+{"text":"He did not live after to publish it, and after his death the manuscript was supposed to be lost."}
+{"text":"Some of his descendants advertised a reward of twenty guineas for it."}
+{"text":"When Thomas Harmer published a second edition of his, 'Observations on divers pissages of Scripture,' 2 vols., London, 1776, 8vo, it was found that by the help of Sir Philip Musgrave, a descendant of Chardin, he had recovered the lost manuscript in six small volumes, and had incorporated almost all of them in his work, under the author's name, or signed 'MS. C.,' i.e. manuscript of Chardin."}
+{"text":"In his latter years Chardin lived at Turnin."}
+{"text":"Sir John died in Chiswick, London in 1713. He was buried in Turnham Green (Chiswick). A funeral monument to Chardin exists in Westminster Abbey, bearing the inscription \"Sir John Chardin \u2013 nomen sibi fecit eundo\" (\"he made a name for himself by travelling\")."}
+{"text":"The remains of Chardin's library were sold by James Levy at Tom's coffee-house, St. Martin's Lane, 1712\u201313."}
+{"text":"He had four sons and three daughters. His eldest son, John, was created a baronet 1720 and died unmarried. He had three others, Daniel, Charles and George. He left his large Kempton Manor House and estate, Sunbury on Thames to his nephew Sir Philip Chardin Musgrave."}
+{"text":"Modern scholars consider the 1711 edition of \"Voyages\" (edited by the Orientalist Louis-Mathieu Langl\u00e8s) to be the standard version. The complete book has never been translated into English; in fact, English-language versions contain less than half of the original material."}
+{"text":"Jean Chardin's life story forms the basis of Dirk Van der Cruysse's 1998 book \"Chardin le Persan\", and of the partly fictionalised 2011 biography, \"Le Joaillier d'Ispahan\" by Danielle Digne."}
+{"text":"George Kennan (February 16, 1845 \u2013 May 10, 1924) was an American explorer noted for his travels in the Kamchatka and Caucasus regions of the Russian Empire. He was a cousin twice removed of the American diplomat and historian George F. Kennan; both shared a birthday."}
+{"text":"George Kennan was born in Norwalk, Ohio, and was keenly interested in travel from an early age. However, family finances made him begin work at the Cleveland and Toledo Railroad Company telegraph office at 12."}
+{"text":"In 1864, he secured employment with the Russian\u2013American Telegraph Company to survey a route for a proposed overland telegraph line through Siberia and across the Bering Strait. Having spent two years in the wilds of Kamchatka, he returned to Ohio via Saint Petersburg and soon became well known by his lectures, articles, and a book about his travels."}
+{"text":"Kennan subsequently (1878) obtained a position with the Associated Press based in Washington, D.C., and as a war correspondent travelled throughout his career to many conflict areas of the world. He also contributed articles to magazines, such as \"Century Magazine\", \"Atlantic Monthly\", \"McClure's Magazine\" (a muckraker magazine), \"National Geographic\" and \"The Outlook\"."}
+{"text":"Kennan befriended other \u00e9migr\u00e9s as well, such as Peter Kropotkin and Sergei Kravchinskii. He became the best-known member of the Society of Friends of Russian Freedom, whose membership included Mark Twain and Julia Ward Howe, and also helped found \"Free Russia\", the first English-language journal to oppose Tsarist Russia. In 1901, the Russian government responded by banning him from Russia."}
+{"text":"Kennan was not completely consumed by Russian matters. As a reporter and war correspondent, he also covered American politics, the Spanish\u2013American War, the assassination of President William McKinley, and the Russo-Japanese War, as well as World War I and the Russian Revolution. He also published a book, \"E. H. Harriman's Far Eastern Plans\", (1917, The Country Life Press) about Harriman's efforts to secure a lease to the South Manchuria Railway from Japan, as well as \"The Chicago and Alton Case: A Misunderstood Transaction\", (1916, The Country Life Press), defending Harriman's purchase of the Chicago & Alton Railroad from politically motivated criticism by the ICC and Teddy Roosevelt."}
+{"text":"Kennan was vehemently against the October Revolution because he felt the Bolsheviks lacked the \"knowledge, experience, or education to deal successfully with the tremendous problems that have come up for solutions since the overthrow of the Tsar.\" President Woodrow Wilson read and weighed Kennan's report in 1918 criticizing the Bolsheviks, but Kennan eventually criticized Wilson's administration for being too timid in intervening against Bolshevism."}
+{"text":"Kennan's last criticism of Bolshevism was written in the \"Medina Tribune\", a small-town newspaper, in July 1923:"}
+{"text":"Kennan died at his home in Medina, New York on May 10, 1924, and was buried in Boxwood Cemetery."}
+{"text":"Robert Mignan (1803 \u2013 3 June 1852) was a British military officer, explorer, and author. He was fellow of the Linnean Society of London and member of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland."}
+{"text":"Mignan entered the Bombay Army in 1819 and became a lieutenant of the 1st European Regiment on 3 May 1820. In January 1821, he was part of an expeditionary force of 2,695 men under the command of General Lionel Smith sent on a punitive campaign against the Bani Bu Ali tribe in Oman."}
+{"text":"In the 1820s, Mignan commanded the escort attached to the resident of the British East India Company. Between 1826 and 1828, Mignan made several archaeological excursions into the little known regions of Iraq, visiting such sites as Ctesiphon and Babylon. He published \"Travels in Chald\u00e6a: Including a Journey from Bussorah to Bagdad, Hillah, and Babylon, Performed on Foot in 1827\" in 1829."}
+{"text":"In 1829 Mignan departed, with his family, from London to return to his military duties in India. Travelling through St. Petersburg, the Russian capital, he joined Prince Khosrow Mirza, Persian envoy extraordinary, returning to Persia after conveying regrets at the murder of the Russian diplomat Alexander Griboedov in Teheran. While in St. Petersburg, Mignan met the Prussian scholar Alexander von Humboldt who convinced him to explore the western coastline of the Caspian Sea. His winter journey on a difficult route via Novocherkassk and through the Caucasus to Tiflis, the capital of Russian Georgia, and further south into northwestern Persia in 1829 and 1830 is described in Mignan's travelogue \"A Winter Journey through Russia, the Caucasian Alps, and Georgia\", published in London in 1839."}
+{"text":"Mignan was promoted to captain on 11 September 1830 and major of the right wing on 15 August 1847. His last commission was brevet lieutenant colonel on 7 June 1849. He died in Poonah in 1852."}
+{"text":"Vicken Cheterian (Western ) is a Lebanese-born journalist and author, who teaches international relations at Webster University Geneva. He has also lectured at University of Geneva and SOAS University of London (2012-14). Cheterian is also a columnist for the Istanbul-based weekly \"Agos\". He holds a PhD from Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IUHEI)."}
+{"text":"Agathangelos (in Agat\u02bfange\u0142os, in Greek \"bearer of good news\" or angel, 5th century AD ) is the pseudonym of the author of a life of the first apostle of Armenia, Gregory the Illuminator, who died about 332."}
+{"text":"According to Agathangelos, he was tasked by Tiridates III to write about his father Khosrov II of Armenia and his reign period. Until the 19th century, based on this fact, scholars believe that Agathangelos lived in the 4th century. However further detailed research of his writing has demonstrated that Agathangelos lived and worked in the 5th century and was not able to be Tiridates III's secretary."}
+{"text":"Kirakos Gandzaketsi (}) (c. 1200\/1202\u20131271) was an Armenian historian of the 13th century and author of the \"History of Armenia\", a summary of events from the 4th to the 12th century and a detailed description of the events of his own days. The work concentrates primarily on the history of Medieval Armenia and events occurring in the Caucasus and Near East. The work serves as a primary source for the study of the Mongol invasions and even contains the first recorded word list of the Mongolian language. The work has been translated into several languages including Latin, French and Russian."}
+{"text":"A ransom was paid to free Vanakan in the summer of that year but Kirakos also managed to escape the same night and returned to the town of Getik."}
+{"text":"Following Vanakan's death in 1251, Kirakos assumed his former teacher's duties and became the head of the school in New Getik. In 1255, he was granted an audience with the leader of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, Hetum I, in the town of Vardenis (in Aragatsotn), informing him of missionary work in the region."}
+{"text":"He remained in New Getik for several more years; he died in 1271 and was buried there."}
+{"text":"Kirakos completed several works in his lifetime; however, his most prominent is that of \"History of Armenia\" (\u054a\u0561\u057f\u0574\u0578\u0582\u0569\u0575\u0578\u0582\u0576 \u0540\u0561\u0575\u0578\u0581). He began to write the book on May 19, 1241 and completed it in 1265. Divided into two parts, the first part of the \"History of the Armenians\" begins with the life of Gregory the Illuminator, the patron saint of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and is devoted largely to the history of the Armenian church from the third century to the twelfth century. The second part of \"History\" focuses on the ramifications and physical damage inflicted against the people of the region by the Turkic and Mongol invasions, including the torture and death of Hasan-Jalal, the prince of Khachen."}
+{"text":"Approximately 47 facsimiles of the 65 chapters of \"History of Armenia\" survived and can be found in numerous repositories located around the world including the Matenadaran in Yerevan, Armenia and museums in Vienna, London, Paris, and St. Petersburg."}
+{"text":"Tovma Artsruni (; also known in English-language historiography as Thomas Artsruni; precise birth date and date of death unknown) was a ninth-century to tenth-century Armenian historian and author of the \"History of the House of Artsrunik\" (). Contrary to the given title, the four-volume work not only relates the history of Artsruni royal family, of which he was a member of, and its origins near Lake Van but also comprehensively covers the history of Armenia."}
+{"text":"Tovma began writing \"History\" sometime in the 870s. Much like other histories composed by Armenian historians, the first volume starts at the beginning of the Armenian nation and ends in the middle of the fifth century. However, Tovma's most valuable contributions are found in the second and third volumes which accurately detail Armenian life under the rule of the Arab Caliphates and in particular the 851 Arab military expedition led by the Turkic general Bugha al-Kabir, its subsequent consequences, and the establishment of the independent Bagratid state north of Lake Van. Tovma was a relative of the king of Vaspurakan Gagik I, and wrote a detailed account in \"History\" about the famous palace and church Gagik constructed on Akhtamar Island."}
+{"text":"The precise date that Tovma completed his work is unknown although some historians have determined that it was composed sometime after 905. Tovma's work ends with an incomplete 29th chapter yet several unknown authors (referred to as \"Anonymous\"; ) took it upon themselves to continue \"History\" down to the 1370s and added an appendix and colophon. Tovma's \"History\" was first published in 1852 in Constantinople in Armenian and was subsequently translated into French by Marie-F\u00e9licit\u00e9 Brosset in 1862."}
+{"text":"Alec (Alirza) Rasizade () is a retired Azeri-American professor of history and political science, who specialized in Sovietology, primarily known for the typological model (or \"algorithm\" in his own words), which describes the impact of a drop in oil revenues on the process of decline in rentier states by stages and cycles of their general socio-economic degradation upon the end of an oil boom. He has also authored more than 200 studies on the history of international relations, Perestroika reforms and breakup of the USSR, oil diplomacy and contemporary politics in the post-Soviet states and autonomies of Russia, Central Asia and the Caucasus."}
+{"text":"Professor Rasizade's academic contribution to Sovietology may be divided into 4 general categories: Caspian oil boom, Russia, Azerbaijan and Central Asia. His ideas and conclusions for each of these major studies are summarized in the following theses:"}
+{"text":"1) Having an insider knowledge of Caspian oil reserves, Rasizade precisely calculated and predicted in his writings the exact end of the second Baku oil boom of 2005-2014, notwithstanding the geopolitical euphoria of the 1990s in Western capitals based on exaggerated estimates by American academia, Azeri government and Caspian oil consortium."}
+{"text":"2) On Russia, he wrote that Putin's Bonapartism was a natural result of the 1990s turmoil, when the society as a whole and the nouveau riches in particular, longed for a strongman who could establish order, stability and legitimacy for the illegally acquired wealth even at the expense of civil rights restriction. Furthermore, Rasizade argues that demise of the USSR was only the first stage in the process of Russian Federation's own breakup or, as he put it bluntly, Russia is doomed to disintegrate as did all multinational empires in history."}
+{"text":"3) Azerbaijan, in his view, is a classic Middle Eastern petrostate, which will eventually sink into its legitimate place among the impoverished Muslim nations with the end of oil boom, as is predetermined by its culture, endemic corruption and lack of industrial endowment. He insists that the oil boom was just an aberration on Azerbaijan's natural path from communism into the Third world."}
+{"text":"4) As for Central Asia, his main argument has been the futility of US efforts to impose there the democratic values of European civilization, since democracy in Muslim countries inevitably leads to election and entrenchment of Islamofascism. Instead of direct Western intervention in the region, he recommends support for the local despots who are able to maintain peace in the region and order in their countries by brutally effective methods of the same Islam."}
+{"text":"Simon Janashia (; July 13, 1900 \u2013 November 5, 1947) was a Georgian historian and public figure. He was a professor of history and one of the founding members of the Georgian Academy of Sciences."}
+{"text":"Janashia was born in 1900, in Makvaneti in the southwestern Georgian province of Guria. His father, Nikoloz Janashia (1872-1918), was an educator and ethnographer, born in Abkhazia. In 1922, Simon Janashia graduated from the Tbilisi State University. From 1924 to 1947, he served as a lecturer (1924-1930), Associate Professor (1930-1935) and Professor (1935-1947) there. In 1941, he was one of the founders of the Georgian Academy of Sciences (GAS), and from 1941 to 1947, he was Vice-President of the Academy and Director of the Institute of History of the GAS. In 1943, Janashia was elected as a member of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union (now the Russian Academy of Science). In the 1940s, he organized archaeological excavations in Mtskheta and Armazi in eastern Georgia."}
+{"text":"Janashia's main fields of his research were the ethnogenesis of the Georgians and other Caucasian peoples, the history of feudalism in Georgia and the Caucasus, the history and archaeology of ancient Georgia, the history of Colchis and Caucasian Iberia, the history of Christianity in Georgia, and source studies of the history of Georgia and the Caucasus. He was an author of more than 100 scholarly works, including about 10 monographs. A full collection of Janashia's works was published in four volumes in Tbilisi between 1949 and 1968. Simon Janashia died in Tbilisi in 1947."}
+{"text":"Ivane Javakhishvili (, 11 April 1876 \u2013 18 November 1940) was a Georgian historian and a linguist whose voluminous works heavily influenced the modern scholarship of the history and culture of Georgia. He was also one of the founding fathers of the Tbilisi State University (1918) and its rector from 1919 to 1926."}
+{"text":"Javakhishvili authored more than 170 works dealing with various aspects of Georgia's political, cultural, social and economic history. Since the publication of its first edition in 1908, his main work, \"A History of the Georgian Nation\" (fully published between 1908 and 1949), has remained one of the most comprehensive and eloquent treatments of pre-modern Georgian history. Regrettably, it has not been translated into any other language. Several of Javakhishvili's most influential articles and books including \"A History of the Georgian Nation\" have been reprinted in his twelve-volume collected works from 1977 and 1998."}
+{"text":"A Persianate society is a society that is based on or strongly influenced by the Persian language, culture, literature, art and\/or identity."}
+{"text":"The term \"Persianate\" is a neologism credited to Marshall Hodgson. In his 1974 book, \"The Venture of Islam: The expansion of Islam in the Middle Periods\", he defined it thus: \"The rise of Persian had more than purely literary consequences: it served to carry a new overall cultural orientation within Islamdom... Most of the more local languages of high culture that later emerged among Muslims... depended upon Persian wholly or in part for their prime literary inspiration. We may call all these cultural traditions, carried in Persian or reflecting Persian inspiration, 'Persianate' by extension.\""}
+{"text":"The term designates ethnic Persians but also societies that may not have been ethnically Persian but whose linguistic, material or artistic cultural activities were influenced by or based on Persianate culture. Examples of pre-19th-century Persianate societies were the Seljuq, Timurid, Mughal, and Ottoman dynasties, as well as the Qarmatians who entertained Persianate notions of cyclical time even though they did not invoke the Iranian genealogies in which these precepts had converged. \"Persianate\" is a multiracial cultural category, but it appears at times to be a religious category of a racial origin."}
+{"text":"Persianate culture flourished for nearly fourteen centuries. It was a mixture of Persian and Islamic cultures that eventually underwent Persification and became the dominant culture of the ruling and elite classes of Greater Iran, Asia Minor, and South Asia."}
+{"text":"When the peoples of Greater Iran were conquered by Islamic forces in the 7th and 8th centuries, they became part of an empire much larger than any previous one under Persian rule. While the Islamic conquest led to the Arabization of language and culture in the former Byzantine territories, this did not happen in Persia. Rather, the new Islamic culture evolving there was largely based on pre-Islamic Persian traditions of the area, as well as on the Islamic customs that were introduced to the region by the Arab conquerors."}
+{"text":"Persianate culture, especially among the elite classes, spread across the Muslim territories in western, central, and south Asia, although populations across this vast region had conflicting allegiances (sectarian, local, tribal, and ethnic) and spoke many different languages. It was spread by poets, artists, architects, artisans, jurists, and scholars, who maintained relations among their peers in the far-flung cities of the Persianate world, from Anatolia to India."}
+{"text":"Persianate culture involved modes of consciousness, ethos, and religious practices that have persisted in the Iranian world against hegemonic Arab Muslim (Sunni) cultural constructs. This formed a calcified Persianate structure of thought and experience of the sacred, entrenched for generations, which later informed history, historical memory, and identity among Alid loyalists and heterodox groups labeled by sharia-minded authorities as \"ghul\u0101t\". In a way, along with investing the notion of heteroglossia, Persianate culture embodies the Iranian past and ways in which this past blended with the Islamic present or became transmuted. The historical change was largely on the basis of a binary model: a struggle between the religious landscapes of late Iranian antiquity and a monotheist paradigm provided by the new religion, Islam."}
+{"text":"This duality is symbolically expressed in the Shiite tradition that Husayn ibn Ali, the third Shi'ite Imam, had married Shahrbanu, daughter of Yazdegerd III, the last Sassanid king of Iran. This genealogy makes the later imams, descended from Husayn and Shahrbanu, the inheritors of both the Islamic Prophet Muhammad and of the pre-Islamic Sassanid kings."}
+{"text":"After the Arab Muslim conquest of Iran, Pahlavi, the language of Pre-Islamic Iran, continued to be widely used well into the second Islamic century (8th century) as a medium of administration in the eastern lands of the Caliphate. Despite the Islamization of public affairs, the Iranians retained much of their pre-Islamic outlook and way of life, adjusted to fit the demands of Islam. Towards the end of the 7th century, the population began resenting the cost of sustaining the Arab caliphs, the Umayyads, and in the 8th century, a general Iranian uprising\u2014led by Abu Muslim Khorrasani\u2014brought another Arab family, the Abbasids, to the Caliph's throne."}
+{"text":"Under the Abbasids, the capital shifted from Syria to Iraq, which had once been part of the Sassanid Empire and was still considered to be part of the Iranian cultural domain. Persian culture, and the customs of the Persian Barmakid viziers, became the style of the ruling elite. Politically, the Abbasids soon started losing their control over Iranians. The governors of Khurasan, the Tahirids, though appointed by the caliph, were effectively independent. When the Persian Saffarids from Sistan freed the eastern lands, the Buyyids, the Ziyarids and the Samanids in Western Iran, Mazandaran and the north-east respectively, declared their independence."}
+{"text":"The separation of the eastern territories from Baghdad was expressed in a distinctive Persianate culture that became dominant in west, central, and south Asia, and was the source of innovations elsewhere in the Islamic world. The Persianate culture was marked by the use of the New Persian language as a medium of administration and intellectual discourse, by the rise of Persianised-Turks to military control, by the new political importance of non-Arab ulama and by the development of an ethnically composite Islamic society."}
+{"text":"Pahlavi was the \"lingua franca\" of the Sassanian Empire before the Arab invasion, but towards the end of the 7th and the beginning of the 8th century Arabic became a medium of literary expression. In the 9th century, a New Persian language emerged as the idiom of administration and literature. The Tahirid and Saffarid dynasties continued using Persian as an informal language, although for them Arabic was the \"language for recording anything worthwhile, from poetry to science\", but the Samanids made Persian a language of learning and formal discourse. The language that appeared in the 9th and 10th centuries was a new form of Persian, derivative of the Middle-Persian of pre-Islamic times, but enriched amply by Arabic vocabulary and written in the Arabic script."}
+{"text":"The Persian language, according to Marshall Hodgson in his \"The Venture of Islam\", was to form the chief model for the rise of still other languages to the literary level. Like Turkish, most of the more local languages of high culture that later emerged among Muslims depended upon Persian (Urdu being a prime example). One may call these traditions, carried in Persian or reflecting Persian inspiration, \u2018Persianate\u2019 by extension. This seems to be the origin of the term \"Persianate\"."}
+{"text":"The Iranian dynasty of the Samanids began recording its court affairs in Persian as well as Arabic, and the earliest great poetry in New Persian was written for the Samanid court. The Samanids encouraged translation of religious works from Arabic into Persian. In addition, the learned authorities of Islam, the \"ulama\", began using the Persian \"lingua franca\" in public. The crowning literary achievement in the early New Persian language was the \"Shahnameh\" (Book of Kings), presented by its author Ferdowsi to the court of Mahmud of Ghazni (998\u20131030). This was a kind of Iranian nationalistic resurrection: Ferdowsi galvanized Persian nationalistic sentiment by invoking pre-Islamic Persian heroic imagery and enshrined in literary form the most treasured folk stories."}
+{"text":"Ferdowsi's \"Shahnameh\" enjoyed a special status in Iranian courtly culture as a historical narrative as well as a mythical one. The powerful effect that this text came to have on the poets of this period is partly due to the value that was attached to it as a legitimizing force, especially for new rulers in the Eastern Islamic world:"}
+{"text":"The Persianate culture that emerged under the Samanids in Greater Khorasan, in northeast Persia and the borderlands of Turkistan exposed the Turks to Persianate culture; The incorporation of the Turks into the main body of the Middle Eastern Islamic civilization, which was followed by the Ghaznavids, thus began in Khorasan; \"not only did the inhabitants of Khurasan not succumb to the language of the nomadic invaders, but they imposed their own tongue on them. The region could even assimilate the Turkic Ghaznavids and Seljuks (11th and 12th centuries), the Timurids (14th and 15th centuries), and the Qajars (19th and 20th centuries)."}
+{"text":"The Ghaznavids, the rivals and future successors of the Samanids, ruled over the southeastern extremities of Samanid territories from the city of Ghazni. Persian scholars and artists flocked to their court, and the Ghaznavids became patrons of Persianate culture. The Ghaznavids took with them Persianate culture as they subjugated Western and Southern Asia . Apart from Ferdowsi, Rumi, Abu Ali Sina, Al-Biruni, Unsuri Balkhi, Farrukhi Sistani, Sanayi Ghaznawi and Abu Sahl Testari were among the great Iranian scientists and poets of the period under Ghaznavid patronage."}
+{"text":"Persianate culture was carried by successive dynasties into Western and Southern Asia, particularly by the Persianized Seljuqs (1040\u20131118) and their successor states, who presided over Iran, Syria, and Anatolia until the 13th century, and by the Ghaznavids, who in the same period dominated Greater Khorasan and parts of India. These two dynasties together drew the centers of the Islamic world eastward. The institutions stabilized Islamic society into a form that would persist, at least in Western Asia, until the 20th century."}
+{"text":"The Ghaznavids moved their capital from Ghazni to Lahore in modern Pakistan, which they turned into another center of Islamic culture. Under their patronage, poets and scholars from Kashgar, Bukhara, Samarkand, Baghdad, Nishapur, Amol and Ghazni congregated in Lahore. Thus, the Persian language and Persianate culture was brought deep into India and carried further in the 13th century. The Seljuqs won a decisive victory over the Ghaznavids and swept into Khorasan; they brought Persianate culture westward into western Persia, Iraq, Anatolia, and Syria. Iran proper along with Central Asia became the heartland of Persian language and culture."}
+{"text":"As the Seljuqs came to dominate western Asia, their courts were Persianized as far west as the Mediterranean Sea. Under their rule, many pre-Islamic Iranian traditional arts like Sassanid architecture were resurrected, and great Iranian scholars were patronized. At the same time, the Islamic religious institutions became more organized and Sunni orthodoxy became more codified."}
+{"text":"Shahnameh's impact and affirmation of Persianate culture."}
+{"text":"As the result of the impacts of Persian literature as well as to further political ambitions, it became a custom for rulers in the Persianate lands to not only commission a copy of the \"Shahnameh\", but also to have his own epic, allowing court poets to attempt to reach the level of Ferdowsi:"}
+{"text":"Iranian and Persianate poets received the \"Shahnameh\" and modeled themselves after it. Murtazavi formulates three categories of such works too: poets who took up material not covered in the epic, poets who eulogized their patrons and their ancestors in \"masnavi\" form for monetary reward, and poets who wrote poems for rulers who saw themselves as heroes in the \"Shahnameh\", echoing the earlier Samanid trend of patronizing the Shahnameh for legitimizing texts."}
+{"text":"First, Persian poets attempted to continue the chronology to a later period, such as the \"Zafarnamah\" of the Ilkhanid historian Hamdollah Mostowfi (d. 1334 or 1335), which deals with Iranian history from the Arab conquest to the Mongols and is longer than Ferdowsi's work. The literary value of these works must be considered on an individual basis as Rypka cautions: \"all these numerous epics cannot be assessed very highly, to say nothing of those works that were substantially (or literally) copies of Ferdowsi. There are however exceptions, such as the \"Zafar-Nameh\" of Hamdu'llah Mustaufi a historically valuable continuation of the Shah-nama\" and the \"Shahanshahnamah\" (or \"Changiznamah\") of Ahmad Tabrizi in 1337\u201338, which is a history of the Mongols written for Abu Sa'id."}
+{"text":"Second, poets versified the history of a contemporary ruler for reward, such as the \"Ghazannameh\" written in 1361\u201362 by Nur al-Din ibn Shams al-Din. Third, heroes not treated in the \"Shahnameh\" and those having minor roles in it became the subjects of their own epics, such as the 11th-century \"Garsh\u0101spn\u0101meh\" by Asadi Tusi. This tradition, chiefly a Timurid one, resulted in the creation of Islamic epics of conquests as discussed by Marjan Mol\u00e9. Also see the classification employed by Z. Safa for epics: \"milli\" (national, those inspired by Ferdowsi's epic), \"tarikhi\" (historical, those written in imitation of Nizami's Iskandarnamah) and \"dini\" for religious works. The other source of inspiration for Persianate culture was another Persian poet, Nizami, a most admired, illustrated and imitated writer of romantic \"masnavis\"."}
+{"text":"Along with Ferdowsi's and Nizami's works, Amir Khusraw Dehlavi's \"khamseh\" came to enjoy tremendous prestige, and multiple copies of it were produced at Persianized courts. Seyller has a useful catalog of all known copies of this text."}
+{"text":"In the 16th century, Persianate culture became sharply distinct from the Arab world to the west, the dividing zone falling along the Euphrates. Socially the Persianate world was marked by a system of ethnologically defined elite statuses: the rulers and their soldiery were non-Iranians in origin, but the administrative cadres and literati were Iranians. Cultural affairs were marked by a characteristic pattern of language use: New Persian was the language of state affairs, scholarship and literature and Arabic the language of religion."}
+{"text":"Safavids and the resurrection of Iranianhood in West Asia."}
+{"text":"The Safavid dynasty ascended to predominance in Iran in the 16th century\u2014the first native Iranian dynasty since the Buyyids. The Safavids, who were of mixed Kurdish, Turkic, Georgian, Circassian and Pontic Greek ancestry, moved to the Ardabil region in the 11th century. They re-asserted the Persian identity over many parts of West Asia and Central Asia, establishing an independent Persian state, and patronizing Persian culture They made Iran the spiritual bastion of Shi\u2019ism against the onslaughts of orthodox Sunni Islam, and a repository of Persian cultural traditions and self-awareness of Persian identity."}
+{"text":"The founder of the dynasty, Shah Isma'il, adopted the title of Persian Emperor \"P\u0101di\u0161ah-\u012b \u012ar\u0101n\", with its implicit notion of an Iranian state stretching from Afghanistan as far as the Euphrates and the North Caucasus, and from the Oxus to the southern territories of the Persian Gulf. Shah Isma'il's successors went further and adopted the title of \"Sh\u0101hansh\u0101h\" (king of kings). The Safavid kings considered themselves, like their predecessors the Sassanid Emperors, the \"khud\u0101yg\u0101n\" (the shadow of God on earth). They revived Sassanid architecture, build grand mosques and elegant \"charbagh\" gardens, collected books (one Safavid ruler had a library of 3,000 volumes), and patronized \"Men of the Pen\" The Safavids introduced Shiism into Persia to distinguish Persian society from the Ottomans, their Sunni archrivals to the west."}
+{"text":"At the beginning of the 14th century, the Ottomans rose to predominance in Asia Minor. The Ottomans patronized Persian literature for five and a half centuries and attracted great numbers of writers and artists, especially in the 16th century. One of the most renowned Persian poets in the Ottoman court was Fethullah Arifi \u00c7elebi, also a painter and historian, and the author of the \"S\u00fcleymanname\" (or \"Suleyman-nama\"), a biography of S\u00fcleyman the Magnificent. At the end of the 17th century, they gave up Persian as the court and administrative language, using Turkish instead; a decision that shocked the highly Persianized Mughals in India. The Ottoman Sultan Suleyman wrote an entire divan in Persian language. According to Hodgson:"}
+{"text":"Toynbee's assessment of the role of the Persian language is worth quoting in more detail, from \"A Study of History\":"}
+{"text":"E. J. W. Gibb is the author of the standard \"A Literary History of Ottoman Poetry\" in six volumes, whose name has lived on in an important series of publications of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish texts, the Gibb Memorial Series. Gibb classifies Ottoman poetry between the \"Old School\", from the 14th century to about the middle of the 19th century, during which time Persian influence was dominant; and the \"Modern School\", which came into being as a result of the Western impact. According to Gibb in the introduction (Volume I):"}
+{"text":"The Saljuqs had, in the words of the same author:"}
+{"text":"The Mughals, who were of Turco-Mongol descent, strengthened the Indo-Persian culture, in South Asia. For centuries, Iranian scholar-officials had immigrated to the region where their expertise in Persianate culture and administration secured them honored service within the Mughal Empire. Networks of learned masters and madrasas taught generations of young South Asian men Persian language and literature in addition to Islamic values and sciences. Furthermore, educational institutions such as Farangi Mahall and Delhi College developed innovative and integrated curricula for modernizing Persian-speaking South Asians. They cultivated Persian art, enticing to their courts artists and architects from Bukhara, Tabriz, Herat, Shiraz, and other cities of Greater Iran. The Taj Mahal and its Charbagh were commissioned by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan for his Iranian bride."}
+{"text":"The tendency towards Sufi mysticism through Persianate culture in Mughal court circles is also testified by the inventory of books that were kept in Akbar's library, and are especially mentioned by his historian, Abu'l Fazl, in the \"\u0100\u2019in-\u012b Akbar\u012b\". Some of the books that were read out continually to the emperor include the \"masnavis\" of Nizami, the works of Amir Khusrow, Sharaf Manayri and Jami, the \"Masnavi i-manavi\" of Rumi, the \"J\u0101m-i Jam\" of Awhadi Maraghai, the \"Hakika o San\u0101\u2019i\", the \"Qabusnameh\" of Keikavus, Sa\u2019di's \"Gulest\u0101n\" and \"B\u016bst\u0101n\", and the \"diwans\" of Khaqani and Anvari."}
+{"text":"This intellectual symmetry continued until the end of the 19th century, when a Persian newspaper, \"Miftah al-Zafar\" (1897), campaigned for the formation of Anjuman-i Ma\u2019arif, an academy devoted to the strengthening of Persian language as a scientific language."}
+{"text":"Almost every Persian artwork was accompanied by texts. In the late 14th and 15th centuries, political control in Iran passed to the Timurids, who moved the capital from Tabriz in the west to Samarkand and Herat in the east. In the first half of the 15th century, Iranian artists working for the Timurid sultans developed the highly detailed, jewel-like style of painting that signifies Persian painting, which became known as the \"Persian School of Herat\"."}
+{"text":"When the Safavids came to power in 1501 and unified the eastern and western parts of Iran, the eastern and western Persian painting styles were mingled. The political unity under the first two Safavid rulers Ismail I and Tahmasp I, and the establishment of the Safavid capital at Tabriz in the west, led Persian artists to leave Herat. One of the most celebrated Iranian painters, Behzad, known as \"the master of Persian painting\", influenced many other Persian painters, including Reza Abbasi and Sultan Muhammad. He eventually painted perhaps the most extraordinary example of Persian painting \"The Court of the Gayumars\" from an opulent edition of the Shahnameh, commissioned by Shah Tahmasp c. 1522\u20131525. The painting depicts the legendary court of Gayumars, the first shah in the epic."}
+{"text":"In Anatolia, a flourishing school of painting developed at the courts of Turkic rulers in the second half of the 15th century. The style of Ottoman miniature illustrations was derived from the Persian models, especially the painting of Shiraz. The long reign of the Ottoman sultan Suleyman enabled his successor Selim (r. 1566\u20131574) to enjoy the pleasures of the palace without much concern for military conquests. A painting of Sultan Selim II in the exhibition depicts him partaking in one of his favorite pastimes, drinking, which earned him the nickname \"Selim the Sot\"."}
+{"text":"By the mid-16th century, some Iranian artists from the Safavid Persian court had immigrated to Istanbul. Others had made their way to India in the retinue of the Mughal emperor Humayun, who returned to India in 1555 from exile in Iran. It was at the court of Humayun's son and successor Akbar (r. 1556\u20131605), however, that the Mughal style of painting came into its own."}
+{"text":"The most important early project in this new style was the 14-volume \"Hamzanama\" produced by a team of Indian artists, both Muslim and Hindu, working under the supervision of Mir Sayyid Ali and Abd al-Samad, two Persian \u00e9migr\u00e9 artists. Akbari paintings incorporated the precise, linear style of Persian painting with the dynamism and vibrant palette of indigenous Indian painting. With the introduction of European-style perspective and modelling, Mughal painting became increasingly naturalistic from the 1580s until the mid-17th century, but the core of both Ottoman and Mughal painting remained Persian."}
+{"text":"The term \"nowruz\" first appeared in Persian records in the 2nd century CE, but it was also an important day during Achaemenid times (c. 550\u2013330 BCE), on which kings from different nations under Persian rule would present gifts to the emperor (\"Shahanshah\") of Persia[5]. It has been suggested that the famous Persepolis complex, or at least the palace of Apadana and the \"Hundred Columns Hall\", were built for the specific purpose of celebrating Nowruz. However, no mention of Nowruz exists in Achaemenid inscriptions (see picture). Later it became the national holiday of the Parthian Empire, which ruled Iran (c. 247 BCE \u2013 224 CE). There are specific references to the celebration of Nowruz during the reign of Vologases I (51\u201378 CE), but these include no details."}
+{"text":"Extensive records on the celebration of Nowruz appear following the accession of Ardashir I of Persia, the founder of the Sasanian Empire (224\u2013651 CE). Under the Sassanid kings, Nowruz was celebrated as the most important day of the year. Most royal traditions of Nowruz, such as audiences with the public, cash gifts, and the pardoning of prisoners, were established during the Sassanid era, and they persisted unchanged until modern times."}
+{"text":"Nowruz, along with Sadeh (celebrated in mid-winter), survived in society following the introduction of Islam in 650 CE. Other celebrations such as Gahanbar and Mehregan were eventually side-lined or were only continued by the Zoroastrians, who carried them as far as Turkey. Nowruz, however, was honored even by the early founders of Islam. There are records of the Rashidun caliphs presiding over Nowruz celebrations and it was adopted as the main royal holiday during the Abbasid period."}
+{"text":"Following the demise of the caliphate and the subsequent re-emergence of Persian dynasties such as the Samanids and Buyyids, Nowruz was elevated to an even higher status. The Buyids revived the Sassanid traditions and restored many smaller celebrations that had been eliminated by the caliphate. Even the Turkish and Mongol invaders did not attempt to abolish Nowruz in favor of any other celebration. Thus, Nowruz remained the main celebration of Persian lands by both the officials and the people."}
+{"text":"The Transcaucasian Commissariat was established at Tbilisi on 11 November 1917, as the first government of the independent Transcaucasia following the October Revolution in Petrograd. The Commissariat decided to strengthen the Georgian\u2013Armenian\u2013Azerbaijani union by convoking a Diet or general assembly (\"Sejm\") in January 1918.It declared independence from Russia and formed the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic after being faced with the threat of being overrun by the Ottoman invasion."}
+{"text":"Peace talks were initiated with the Ottoman Empire in March 1918, but broke down quickly as the Ottoman refused to accept the authority of the Commissariat. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which ended Russia's involvement in the First World War, conceded parts of the Transcaucasus to the Ottoman Empire, who continued their invasion of the region in order to take control of the territory. Faced with this imminent threat, the TDFR was proclaimed as an independent state on 22 April 1918. Further negotiations began immediately with the Ottoman, which recognized the state."}
+{"text":"The Kingdom of Georgia (), also known as the Georgian Empire, was a medieval Eurasian monarchy that started circa 1008 AD. It reached its Golden Age of political and economic strength during the reign of King David IV and Queen Tamar the Great from 11th to 13th centuries. Georgia became one of the pre-eminent nations of the Christian East, their pan-Caucasian empire stretching, at its largest extent, from the North Caucasus to the northern portion of Iran and Anatolia, while also maintaining religious possessions abroad, such as the Monastery of the Cross in Jerusalem and the Monastery of Iviron in Greece. It was the principal historical precursor of present-day Georgia."}
+{"text":"Located on the crossroads of protracted Roman\u2013Persian wars, the early Georgian kingdoms disintegrated into various feudal regions by the early Middle Ages. This made it easy for the remaining Georgian realms to fall prey to the early Muslim conquests in the 7th century."}
+{"text":"In struggle against the Arab occupation, Iberian princes of Bagrationi dynasty came to rule over Tao-Klarjeti, the former southern provinces of Iberia, and established Kouropalatate of Iberia as a nominal vassal of the Byzantine Empire. Bagrationi's continued fighting for the central Georgian land, known as Kartli, contested also by the Kingdom of Abkhazia, the Arab emirs of Tbilisi and even by Kakhetian and Armenian Bagratid rulers of Tashir-Dzoraget. The restoration of the Iberian kingship begins in 888, however Bagrationi dynasty failed to maintain the integrity of their kingdom, which was actually divided between the three branches of the family with the main branch retaining in Tao and another controlling Klarjeti."}
+{"text":"An Arab incursion into western Georgia was repelled by Abkhazians jointly with Lazic and Iberian allies in 736. The successful defense against the Arabs, and the increasingly expansionist tendencies of the kingdom to the east and the struggle against Byzantium, fighting for the hegemony within the Georgian territories speed up the process of unification of Georgian states into a single feudal monarchy. In 9th century western Georgian Church broke away from Constantinople and recognized the authority of the Catholicate of Mtskheta; language of the church in Abkhazia shifted from Greek to Georgian, as Byzantine power decreased and doctrinal differences disappeared."}
+{"text":"At the end of the 10th century David III of Tao invaded the Kartli and gave it to his foster-son Bagrat III and installed his father Gurgen as his regent, who was also crowned as \"King of the Iberians\" in 994. Through his mother Gurandukht, sister of the childless Abkhazian king Theodosius III ( 975\u2013978), Bagrat was a potential heir to the realm of Abkhazia."}
+{"text":"Bagrat's reign, a period of uttermost importance in the history of Georgia, brought about the final victory of the Georgian Bagratids in the centuries-long power struggles. Bagrat's foreign policy was generally peaceful and the king successfully manoeuvred to avoid the conflicts with both the Byzantine and Muslim neighbours even though David's domains of Tao remained in the Byzantine and Tbilisi in the Arab hands."}
+{"text":"The second half of the 11th century was marked by the strategically significant invasion of the Seljuq Turks, who by the end of the 1040s had succeeded in building a vast empire including most of Central Asia and Persia. The Seljuk threat prompted the Georgian and Byzantine governments to seek a closer cooperation. To secure the alliance, Bagrat's daughter Maria married, at some point between 1066 and 1071, to the Byzantine co-emperor Michael VII Ducas."}
+{"text":"The Seljuqs made their first appearances in Georgia in the 1060s, when the sultan Alp Arslan laid waste to the south-western provinces of the Georgian kingdom and reduced Kakheti. These intruders were part of the same wave of the Turkish movement which inflicted a crushing defeat on the Byzantine army at Manzikert in 1071. Although the Georgians were able to recover from Alp Arslan's invasion and even securing the Tao (theme of Iberia), by the help of Byzantine governor of Armeno-Georgian origin, Gregory Pakourianos. On this occasion, George II was bestowed with the Byzantine title of \"Caesar\", granted the fortress of Kars and put in charge of the Imperial Eastern limits."}
+{"text":"Watching his kingdom slip into chaos, George II ceded the crown to his 16-year-old son David IV in 1089. King David IV proved to be a capable statesman and military commander. As he came of age under the guidance of his court minister, George of Chqondidi, David IV suppressed dissent of feudal lords and centralized the power in his hands to effectively deal with foreign threats. In 1089\u20131100, he organized small detachments to harass and destroy isolated Seljuk troops and began the resettlement of desolate regions. By 1099 David IV's power was considerable enough that he was able to refuse paying tribute to Seljuqs."}
+{"text":"In 1103 a major ecclesiastical congress known as the Ruis-Urbnisi Synod was held. Next year, David's supporters in the eastern Georgian province of Kakheti captured the local king Aghsartan II (1102\u20131104), a loyal tributary of the Seljuk Sultan, and reunited the area with the rest of Georgia. Following the annexation of Kakheti, in 1105, David routed a Seljuk punitive force at the Battle of Ertsukhi, leading to momentum that helped him to secure the key fortresses of Samshvilde, Rustavi, Gishi, and Lori between 1110 and 1118."}
+{"text":"To strengthen his army, King David launched a major military reform in 1118\u20131120 and resettled several thousand Kipchaks from the northern steppes to frontier districts of Georgia. In return, the Kipchaks provided one soldier per family, allowing King David to establish a standing army in addition to his royal troops (known as Monaspa). The new army provided the king with a much-needed force to fight both external threats and internal discontent of powerful lords. The Georgian-Kipchak alliance was facilitated by David's earlier marriage to the Khan's daughter."}
+{"text":"David IV founded the Gelati Academy, which became an important center of scholarship in the Eastern Orthodox Christian world of that time. Due to the extensive work carried out by the Gelati Academy, people of the time called it \"a new Hellas\" and \"a second Athos\". David also played a personal role in reviving Georgian religious hymnography, composing the \"Hymns of Repentance\", a sequence of eight free-verse psalms. In this emotional repentance of his sins, David sees himself as reincarnating the Biblical David, with a similar relationship to God and to his people. His hymns also share the idealistic zeal of the contemporaneous European crusaders to whom David was a natural ally in his struggle against the Seljuks."}
+{"text":"Reign of Demetrius I and George III."}
+{"text":"The kingdom continued to flourish under Demetrius I, the son of David. Although his reign saw a disruptive family conflict related to royal succession, Georgia remained a centralized power with a strong military. In 1139, he raided the city of Ganja in Arran and brought the iron gate of the defeated city to Georgia and donated it to Gelati Monastery at Kutaisi, western Georgia. Despite this brilliant victory, Demetrius could hold Ganja only for a few years. A talented poet, Demetrius also continued his father's contributions to Georgia's religious polyphony. The most famous of his hymns is Thou Art a Vineyard."}
+{"text":"The unified monarchy maintained its precarious independence from the Byzantine and Seljuk empires throughout the 11th century, and flourished under David IV the Builder ( 1089\u20131125), who repelled the Seljuk attacks and essentially completed the unification of Georgia with the re-conquest of Tbilisi in 1122. In spite of repeated incidents of dynastic strife, the kingdom continued to prosper during the reigns of Demetrios I (1125\u20131156), George III (1156\u20131184), and especially, his daughter Tamar (1184\u20131213)."}
+{"text":"The successes of his predecessors were built upon by Queen Tamar, daughter of George III, who became the first female ruler of Georgia in her own right and under whose leadership the Georgian state reached the zenith of power and prestige in the Middle Ages. She not only shielded much of her Empire from further Turkish invasions but successfully pacified internal tensions, including a coup organized by her Russian husband Yury Bogolyubsky, prince of Novgorod."}
+{"text":"This offensive, which would prove the ruin of Georgia, was preceded by the devastating conflict with Khwarazm ruler Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu, the son of the last ruler of Khwarazm, who was defeated by the Mongols and now led his Khwaras mian army to Caucasus. The Georgians suffered bitter defeat at the Battle of Garni, and the royal court with Queen Rusudan moved to Kutaisi, when the Georgian capital Tbilisi was besieged by the Khwarezmians. The victorious Khwarezmid soldiers sacked Tbilisi and massacred its Christian population and terminated Georgia's \"Golden Age\". Jalal al-Din continued devastating Georgian regions until 1230, when the Mongols finally defeated him."}
+{"text":"In 1235\u20131236, Mongol forces, unlike their first raid in 1221, appeared with the sole purpose of conquest and occupation and easily overran the already devastated Kingdom. Queen Rusudan fled to the security of western Georgia, while the nobles secluded themselves in their fortresses. By 1240 all the country was under the Mongol yoke. Forced to accept the sovereignty of the Mongol Khan in 1242, Rusudan had to pay an annual tribute of 50,000 gold pieces and support the Mongols with a Georgian army."}
+{"text":"Fearing that her nephew David VII of Georgia would aspire to the throne, Rusudan held him prisoner at the court of her son-in-law, the sultan Kaykhusraw II, and sent her son David VI of Georgia to the Mongol court to get his official recognition as heir apparent. She died in 1245, still waiting for her son to return."}
+{"text":"The Mongols created the \"Vilayet of Gurjistan\", which included Georgia and the whole South Caucasus, where they ruled indirectly, through the Georgian monarch, the latter to be confirmed by the Great Khan upon his\/her ascension. Following the death of Queen Rusudan in 1245, an interregnum began during which the Mongols divided the Caucasus into eight tumens."}
+{"text":"The period between 1259 and 1330 was marked by the struggle of the Georgians against the Mongol Ilkhanate for full independence. The first anti-Mongol uprising started in 1259 under the leadership of King David Narin who in fact waged his war for almost thirty years. The Anti-Mongol strife went on under the Kings Demetrius II ( 1270\u20131289) and David VIII ( 1293\u20131311)."}
+{"text":"In 1334, Shaykh Hasan of the Jalayir was appointed as governor of Georgia by Abu Sai'd. However, George soon took advantage of the civil war in the Il-Khanate, where several khans were overthrown between 1335 and 1344, and drove the last remaining Mongol troops out of Georgia. The following year he ordered great festivities on the Mount Tsivi to celebrate the anniversary of the victory over the Mongols, and massacred there all oppositionist nobles."}
+{"text":"Having restored the kingdom's unity, he focused now on cultural, social and economic projects. He changed the coins issued by Ghazan khan with the Georgian ones, called George's tetri. Between 1325 and 1338, he worked out two major law codes, one regulating the relations at the royal court and the other devised for the peace of a remote and disorderly mountainous district. Under him, Georgia established close international commercial ties, mainly with the Byzantine Empire, but also with the great European maritime republics, Genoa and Venice."}
+{"text":"One of the primary reasons of Georgian political and military decline was the bubonic plague. It was first introduced in 1346 by the soldiers of George the Brilliant returning from a military expedition in south-western Georgia against invading Osmanli tribesmen. It is said that the plague wiped out a large part, if not half of the Georgian populace. This further weakened the integrity of the kingdom, as well as its military and logistic capabilities."}
+{"text":"There was a period of reunion and revival under George V the Brilliant, but the eight onslaughts of the Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur between 1386 and 1403 dealt a great blow to the Georgian kingdom. Timur's first appearance in the Caucasus was a response to Khan Tokhtamysh\u2019s marauding inroad into Northern Iran through the Caucasian lands in 1385."}
+{"text":"In late autumn 1386, a huge army of Timur attacked Georgia. Timur officially proclaimed his invasions to be jihad against the region's non-Muslims. Tbilisi was besieged and taken on 22 November 1386, after a fierce fight. The city was pillaged and Bagrat V and his family were imprisoned. Taking advantage of this disaster, the royal vassal Duke Alexander of Imereti proclaimed himself an independent ruler and was crowned king of Imereti at the Gelati Monastery in 1387."}
+{"text":"Georgian resistance prompted a renewed attack by the Turco-Mongol armies. Bagrat's son and successor, George VII, put up a stiff resistance and had to spend much of his reign (1395\u20131405) fighting the Timurid invasions. Timur personally led most of these raids to subdue the recalcitrant Georgian monarch. Although he was not able to establish a firm control over Georgia, the country suffered a blow from which it never recovered. By the time George VII was forced to accept Timur's terms of peace and agree to pay tribute, he was a master of little more than gutted towns, ravaged countryside and a shattered monarchy."}
+{"text":"The political split of the kingdom was sped up by the Eristavs of Samtskhe. In 1462 Kvarkvare II Jaqeli called against the king of Georgia Uzun Hasan, the leader of the Aq Qoyunlu. His invasion was used by the viceroy of the western Georgia \u2013 Bagrat VI. In 1463 Bagrat VI defeated Giorgi VIII at Chikhori. \"Dadiani, Gurieli, Abkhazians and Svans came to the conqueror and expressing the wish of all the Imerians (westerners) blessed him to be King. From that time Imereti turned into one kingdom and four Duchies or satavado."}
+{"text":"Bagrat was the king of only west Georgia for a short period. In 1466 he crossed the borders of East Georgia (Inner Kartli) and proclaimed himself King of all Georgia. In fact, he possessed only west Georgia and Inner Kartli. Giorgi VIII went to Kakheti and formed an independent Kakhetian Kingdom. Recognizing as a sovereign of Bagrat VI the grandson of Alexander I the Great \u2013 Constantine II was consolidated in the lower Kartli (Tbilisi), while Samtskhe-Saatabago became an independent principality."}
+{"text":"In 1490 Constantine asked a specially assembled royal court for an advice concerning restoration of the integral kingdom. The royal court advised Constantine II to postpone this struggle till the better times. After this the king of Kartli had to temporarily reconcile with the kings of Kakheti and Imereti and also prince of Samtskhe having thus formed the factual split of Georgia. Its unity was finally shattered and, by 1490\/91, the once powerful monarchy fragmented into three independent kingdoms \u2013 Kartli (central to eastern Georgia), Kakheti (eastern Georgia), and Imereti (western Georgia) \u2013 each led by the rival branches of the Bagrationi dynasty, and into five semi-independent principalities \u2013 Odishi (Mingrelia), Guria, Abkhazia, Svaneti and Samtskhe \u2013 dominated by their own feudal clans."}
+{"text":"The aristocratic \u00e9lite of this period was divided into two major classes: an upper noble whose dynastic dignity and feudal quality was expressed in the terms Tavadi and Didebuli, respectively; both of these terms were synonymous, from the 11th to the 14th centuries, with Eristavi, and all three terms referred to one of the upper nobles, \"a Prince\". Lesser nobles, the Aznauri, were either \"nobles of race\" or \"of patent\" who acquired their status in specific charters issued by the king or a lord. The power of the feudal nobles over the peasantry also increased and the cultivators began to loss a degree of personal freedom they had formerly enjoyed."}
+{"text":"\"Eristavi\"'s (dukes) were in charge of local governing. Saeristavo (duchy) was divided into Khevi ruled by \"Khevistavi\" (in mountainous regions \u2013 \"Khevisberi\"). List of duchies at the time of reign Tamar the Great: Svaneti, Racha-Takveri; Tskhumi, Artgveti, Odishi, Kartli, Kakheti, Hereti and Samtskhe."}
+{"text":"The frontier regions were granted exceptional privileges and autonomous rights, and were governed by monapire eristavi (frontier governor). There were several frontier (sanapiro) marches estabelished specifically on southern districts: Gagi, Lore, Akhalkalaki, Artani, Panaskerti, Gachiani and Kari."}
+{"text":"For their part, towns were governed by \"amiri\", while large cities by \"amirt-amiri\". All these arrangements were codified and systematised in special legislation \u2013 Regulations of the Royal Court \u2013 and codes of laws. The bishops and the churches were exempted from quitrents and duties."}
+{"text":"Tribute extracted from the neighbors and war booty added to the royal treasury, giving rise to the saying that \"the peasants were like nobles, the nobles like princes, and the princes like kings.\""}
+{"text":"During the Middle Ages, Christianity was the central element of Georgian culture. Specific forms of art were developed in Georgia for religious purposes. Among them, calligraphy, polyphonic church singing, cloisonn\u00e9 enamel icons, such as the Khakhuli triptych, and the \"Georgian cross-dome style\" of architecture, which characterizes most medieval Georgian churches. The most celebrated examples of Georgian religious architecture of the time include the Gelati Monastery and Bagrati Cathedral in Kutaisi, the Ikalto Monastery complex and Academy, and the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in Mtskheta."}
+{"text":"Outstanding Georgian representatives of Christian culture include Euthymius of Athos (Ekvtime Atoneli, 955\u20131028), George of Athos (Giorgi Atoneli, 1009\u20131065), Arsen Ikaltoeli (11th century), and Ephrem Mtsire, (11th century). Philosophy flourished between the 11th and 13th century, especially at the Academy of Gelati Monastery, where Ioane Petritsi attempted a synthesis of Christian, aristotelician and neoplatonic thought."}
+{"text":"Tamar's reign also marked the continuation of artistic development in the country commenced by her predecessors. While her contemporary Georgian chronicles continued to enshrine Christian morality, the religious theme started to lose its earlier dominant position to the highly original secular literature. This trend culminated in an epic written by Georgia's national poet Rustaveli \u2013 \"The Knight in the Panther's Skin\" (\"Vepkhistq'aosani\"). Revered in Georgia as the greatest achievement of native literature, the poem celebrates the Medieval humanistic ideals of chivalry, friendship and courtly love."}
+{"text":"From the 10th century, Georgians had started to play a significant role in preaching Christianity in the mountains of the Caucasus. \"Wherever the missions of the patriarchs of Constantinople, Rome, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem failed, the Georgian Church succeeded in bringing Jesus's Cross and preaching His Gospels\". This is corroborated not only by old written sources, but also by Christian architectural monuments bearing Georgian inscriptions, which are still to be seen throughout the North Caucasus in Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan, North Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria. The golden age of Georgian monasticism lasted from the 9th to the 11th century. During that period, Georgian monasteries were founded outside the country, most notably on Mount Sinai, Mount Athos (the Iviron monastery, where the Theotokos Iverskaya icon is still located), and in Palestine."}
+{"text":"The Transcaucasian Military District, a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces, traces its history to May 1921 and the incorporation of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia into the Soviet Union. It was disbanded by being redesignated as a Group of Forces in the early 1990s after the Soviet Union collapse. The military district formed as a basis of the modern day armed forces of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia."}
+{"text":"The Transcaucasian Military District was originally formed from the Red Army's Separate Caucasian Army, which became the Red Banner Caucasian Army in August 1923. On 17 May 1935, the Red Banner Caucasus Army was redesignated the Transcaucasian Military District. The Georgian, Armenian, and Azerbaijani national formations, plus units from the 11th Soviet Red Army, all joined the new district about this time."}
+{"text":"In July 1936 the District's formations and units received designations according to the countrywide numbering scheme and became: the 9th (formerly 1st Caucasus) Mountain Rifle Division, named for the Central Executive Committee of the Georgian SSR; the 20th (formerly 3rd Caucasus) Mountain Rifle Division; the 47th (former 1st) Georgian Mountain Rifle Division, named for Joseph Stalin; the 63rd (former 2nd) Georgian Mountain Rifle Division, named for Mikhail Frunze; the 76th Armenian Mountain Rifle Division, named after Comrade Voroshilov, and the 77th \u0410zerbaijani Mountain Rifle Division, named for Grigoriy Ordzhonikidze."}
+{"text":"On 22 June 1941 the District consisted of the 3rd (4th, 20th, and 47th Rifle Divisions), 23rd Rifle Corps (136th and 138th Rifle Divisions) and 40th Rifle Corps (9th and 31st Rifle Division), the 28th Mechanised Corps, which included the 6th and 54th Tank Divisions and the 236th Motorised Division (), five unattached divisions \u2013 the 63rd, 76th, and 77th Rifle, the 17th Mountain Cavalry Division and the 24th Cavalry Division, and three fortified regions."}
+{"text":"On 1 August 1941 the 46th Army was formed from the 3rd Rifle Corps headquarters. 45th Army was formed from the 23rd Rifle Corps. 45th and 46th Armies guarded the Turkish border. The 44th Army was formed from the 40th Rifle Corps and the 47th Army formed from the 27th Mechanized Corps. Both armies were deployed on the Iranian border. On 23 August, the military district became the Transcaucasus Front. District headquarters was subordinated to the front's military council and directed the formation of new units. It was disbanded on 14 September 1941."}
+{"text":"On 28 January 1942, the military district was reformed when the Caucasian Front was divided into the Transcaucasian Military District and the Crimean Front. The district was commanded by Ivan Tyulenev and included the 45th and 46th Armies, as well as 4 rifle divisions and a rifle brigade. On 28 April 1942, the district became the second formation of the Transcaucasian Front."}
+{"text":"After the war the Transcaucasus Front reverted to being a part of the Headquarters Transcaucasus Military District (ZakVO), in Tbilisi. In 1979 Scott and Scott reported the District' headquarters address as Tbilisi-4, Ulitsa Dzneladze, Dom 46. The District became part of the Southern Direction, headquartered in Baku and including the North Caucasus and Turkestan Military Districts, in the late 1970s and early 1980s."}
+{"text":"In 1988, dispositions within the District were as follows:"}
+{"text":"The Soviet Air Forces' presence in the district consisted of the 34th Air Army, established in 1949, redesignated the Air Forces of the Transcaucasian Military District (VVS ZKVO) in 1980, and then given the name 34th Air Army again in 1988. It was made up of the 36th Bomber Aviation Division, 283rd Fighter Aviation Division and six independent aviation regiments, totaling twelve aviation regiments. The formation's Military Unit Number was 21052."}
+{"text":"Army composition (source V.I. Feskov et al 2004):"}
+{"text":"The Soviet Air Defence Forces had the 19th Army of Air Defence Forces located in the District."}
+{"text":"By Ukaz No. 260 of the President of the Russian Federation of 19 March 1992 the Soviet Transcaucasian Military District and the Caspian Flotilla were transferred to the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation."}
+{"text":"On 26 September 1992 the district was disbanded, according to Michael Holm and Feskov et al. 2013. Another, earlier report said on 1 January 1993, the District became the Group of Russian Forces in the Transcaucasus (Russian \u0413\u0440\u0443\u043f\u043f\u0430 \u0440\u043e\u0441\u0441\u0438\u0439\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0445 \u0432\u043e\u0439\u0441\u043a \u0432 \u0417\u0430\u043a\u0430\u0432\u043a\u0430\u0437\u044c\u0435 \u2013 \u0413\u0420\u0412\u0417; GRVZ). After many of the divisions listed above had disbanded or become part of the former republics' armed forces, in the mid 1990s the GRVZ's dispositions were:"}
+{"text":"General Major Aleksander Studenikin, former deputy commander of the Moscow Military District's 20th Army, commanded the Group in 2004 with General (Major?) Andrei Popov as his deputy."}
+{"text":"The Russian presence at Vaziani was withdrawn in the late 1990s and an agreement over the withdrawal of the 12th and 62nd Bases by 2007\u201308 was made in 2005. The Akhalkalaki 62nd base was officially transferred on schedule to Georgia on 27 June 2007. The 12th Military Base in Batumi was transferred earlier than scheduled; scheduled for February 2008, it was transferred on 13 November 2007. The 'Zvezda' command post (probably the former District war headquarters) in the town of Mtskheta, just north of Tbilisi, was handed over by early September 2005. Due to the espionage conflict between Russia and Georgia, the Transcaucasus Group of Forces headquarters in Tbilisi was closed down ahead of schedule: 287 Russian servicemen left Georgia by 31 December 2006."}
+{"text":"Even after the GRVZ was totally withdrawn, Russian troops continue to remain in peacekeeping roles in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, de jure parts of Georgia. There are about 1,600 men on the Abkhazian-Georgian boundary (serving alongside UNOMIG) and a battalion in South Ossetia. According to the Russian authorities, the Gudauta military base is also now used by the peacekeeping forces, but no international monitoring has ever been allowed there."}
+{"text":"The Special Transcaucasian Committee (Russian: \u041e\u0441\u043e\u0431\u044b\u0439 \u0417\u0430\u043a\u0430\u0432\u043a\u0430\u0437\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0439 \u041a\u043e\u043c\u0438\u0442\u0435\u0442 \"Osobyi Zakavkazskii Komitet\" (OZaKom, Ozakom or OZAKOM)) was established on March 9, 1917, with Member of the State Duma V. A. Kharlamov as Chairman, to replace the Imperial Viceroy Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich and with special instruction to establish civil administrations in areas occupied in the course of the war on the Caucasian front by the Russian Provisional Government in the Transcaucasia as the highest organ of civil administrative body. Commissars were appointed for the Terek Oblast and the Kuban Oblast, and these as well as the Committee were to carry on relations with central government institutions through a Commissar for Caucasian Affairs in Petrograd attached to the Provisional Government."}
+{"text":"Soviets also sprang up throughout the area and, in time, organized an influential Regional Center at Tiflis, using the loyalty of the Russian Armenians. Hakob Zavriev was instrumental in having Ozakom issue a decree about the administration of the occupied territories. This region was officially identified as \"the land of Turkish Armenia\" and transferred to a civilian rule under Zavriev, who oversaw districts Trebizon, Erzurum, Bitlis, and Van. Each of the districts under Administration for Western Armenia had their own Armenian governor, with Armenian civil officials. The position of the Caucasian Muslems was different though membership was drown from ethnically representatives of Duma deputies."}
+{"text":"The committee ignored the Social Democratic hegemony in the region and provoked the Soviet to demand its abolition."}
+{"text":"The Ozakom was composed of five members:"}
+{"text":"The ruble (, ), manat () or maneti () was the currency of both Transcaucasian states, the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic and the Transcaucasian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic."}
+{"text":"In 1918, the Comissariat of the short-lived Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic issued paper money denominated in rubles: . This ruble was equivalent to the Russian ruble. The notes bore Russian text on the obverse, with Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian texts on the reverses. Denominations were 1, 3, 5, 10, 50, 100 and 250 rubles."}
+{"text":"Between 1919 and 1922\/3, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia issued their own currencies, the Armenian ruble, Azerbaijani manat and Georgian maneti, which replaced the Transcaucasian ruble at par."}
+{"text":"In 1923 and 1924, the Transcaucasian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic (part of the USSR) issued notes of denominations between 1000 and 10 milliard rubles."}
+{"text":"From 1924 and onwards, the Soviet ruble circulated as the official currency of the Transcaucasian SFSR (and the three Soviet Socialist Republics that succeeded the Transcaucasian SFSR). Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia gained independence and issued their own respective currencies in 1993, 1992, and 1993, shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union."}
+{"text":"The Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic (TDFR; 22 April \u2014 28 May 1918) was a short-lived South Caucasian state extending across the present-day countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, plus parts of eastern Turkey as well as Russian border areas. The state lasted only for a month before Georgia declared independence, followed shortly by Azerbaijan and Armenia."}
+{"text":"Diverging goals of the three major groups (Armenians, Azerbaijanis, and Georgians) jeopardized the TDFR's existence. The peace talks again broken down, and facing a renewed Ottoman offensive in May 1918 Georgian delegates in the Seim announced that the TDFR was unable to continue on, and declared independent the Georgian Democratic Republic on 26 May, with aid from the German Empire. With the Georgians no longer part of the TDFR, the Armenians and Azerbaijanis each declared themselves independent on 28 May, ending the federation."}
+{"text":"The South Caucasus had been conquered by the Russian Empire in the early nineteenth century, with the last annexations taking place in 1828. A Caucasian Viceroyalty had originally been established in 1801, and over the next several decades the administration was reformed to consolidate Russian control, with the Viceroyalty given greater power in 1845. Tiflis (now Tbilisi), which had been the capital of the Georgian Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti, became the seat of the viceroy and the \"de facto\" capital of the region."}
+{"text":"The South Caucasus was overwhelmingly rural: aside from Tiflis the only other city of significance was Baku, which grew in the late nineteenth century as the region began exporting oil and became a major economic hub."}
+{"text":"With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the Caucasus became a major theatre, with the Russian and Ottoman Empires fighting each other in the region. The Russians won several battles and invaded deep into Ottoman territory. However they were concerned that the local population, who were mostly Muslims, would continue to follow the Ottoman Sultan and disrupt the Russian forces, as he was also the caliph, the spiritual leader of Islam. Both sides also wanted to use the Armenian population, who lived across the border, to their advantage and foment uprisings. However, after military defeats, the Ottoman government turned against the Armenians, launching the Armenian Genocide by 1915, in which an estimated 0.8 to 1.5 million Armenians were killed."}
+{"text":"The idea to establish a Transcaucasian legislative body had been discussed since November 1917, though it had not been acted on at that time. However, with the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly in January, it became apparent to the leaders of the Commissariat that ties with Russia had been all but severed. With no desire to follow the lead of the Bolsheviks the Commissariat agreed to establish their own legislative body, so that the Transcaucasus could have a legitimate government and negotiate with the Ottoman Empire more properly. Thus on 23 February they established the \"Seim\" (legislature) in Tiflis."}
+{"text":"No election was held for the deputies; instead the results for the Constituent Assembly election were used, with the electoral threshold lowered to one-third of that used for the Constituent Assembly in order to allow more members to join, which allowed smaller parties to be represented. Nikolai Chkheidze, a Georgian Menshevik, was named the chairman. Ultimately the Seim comprised some ten different parties. However, it was dominated by three parties, each representing one major ethnic group: the Georgian Mensheviks and Azerbaijaini Musavat party each had 30 members, while the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) had 27 members. The Bolsheviks boycotted the Seim, asserting that the only legitimate government for Russia (including Transcaucasia) was the Council of People's Commissars (known by its Russian acronym, Sovnarkom)."}
+{"text":"From the outset the Seim faced challenges to its authority. With a diverse ethnic and political makeup and no clear status to its authority, there was conflict both within its chambers and outside. It was largely dependent on national councils, represented by the three main ethnic groups, and was unable to proceed without their consent. Thus the Ottoman offer to renew peace talks and a willingness to meet in Tiflis, where the Seim was based, was refused, as the Seim felt it would only showcase the internal disagreements taking place. Instead they agreed to travel to Trabzon, in northeast Anatolia."}
+{"text":"During the recess at Trabzon, the Ottoman forces continued their advance into the Transcaucasian territory, crossing the 1914 border with the Russian Empire by the end of March. The Seim debated the best course of action; majority of the delegates favored a political solution. To this end, on 20 March the Ottoman delegates offered that only if the Seim were to declare independence, thereby confirming that Transcaucasus was no longer part of Russia, could they return to negotiations. The idea of independence had come up before, with the Georgians having discussed it for themselves in depth in the preceding years. However, it was decided against as the Georgian leadership felt the Russians would not approve it and the Menshevik political ideology leaned away from nationalism."}
+{"text":"By 5 April, Chkhenkeli accepted the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk as a basis for further negotiations and urged the Transcaucasian Seim to accept this position. He initially asked that Batum remain part of the Transcaucasus, arguing that as the major port in the region it was an economic necessity. However, the Ottomans refused the proposal, making it clear that they would only accept the terms of Brest-Litovsk, to which Chkhenkeli conceded. Acting on his own accord, on 9 April Chkhenkeli agreed to negotiate further based on the terms set out, though requested that representatives from the other Central Powers participate in the talks. Rauf replied that such a request could only be considered if the Transcaucasus were an independent state."}
+{"text":"The Ottoman forces made their military superiority apparent right away. They occupied Batum on 14 April, with little resistance. They also attacked Kars, but a force of 3000 Armenian soldiers, with artillery support, held the city until it was evacuated on 25 April. Having captured most of their desired territory and not willing to lose more soldiers, the Ottoman delegates offered another truce on 22 April and waited for the Transcaucasians to reply."}
+{"text":"The debate finished, Davit Oniashvili, a Menshevik, proposed the motion for the Seim \"to proclaim Transcaucasia an independent democratic federative republic\". Some deputies left the chamber in order to avoid voting against the matter, so the motion passed with few dissents. The new republic, the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic (TDFR), immediately sent a message to Vehib Pasha announcing this development and expressing their will to accept the provisions of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and surrendered Kars to the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire recognized the new republic, the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic (TDFR), on 28 April. Despite this recognition the Ottomans continued their advance into Transcaucasian territory and shortly after occupied both Erzerum and Kars."}
+{"text":"The treaty contained twelve articles, which called for the Ottoman Empire to be ceded not only Ardahan, Batum, and Kars, but also the , , and Surmalin Uyezds, and large parts of the Aleksandropol and Echmiadzin Uyezds, mainly along the tracks of the Kars-Julfa railway. The territory named would effectively bring the entire Armenia within the Ottoman Empire. The railway was desired as the Ottoman forcese sought a fast route to North Persia, where they were fighting the British forces in the Persian Campaign, though historian Richard G. Hovannisian has suggested that the real reason was to allow them a means to reach Baku."}
+{"text":"Giving the TDFR several days to consider their options, the Ottoman forces resumed their military advances into Armenia on 21 May. They engaged the Armenians at the battles of Bash Abarn (21\u201324 May), Sardarapat (21\u201329 May) and Kara Killisse (24\u201328 May), but could not defeat the Armenians decisively. As a result, their advance slowed down and eventually they were forced to retreat."}
+{"text":"As the TDFR lasted only a month, it has had a limited legacy, and the historical scholarship on the topic is limited. Historians Adrian Brisku and Timothy K. Blauvelt have noted that it \"seemed both to the actors at the time and to later scholars of the region to be unique, contingent, and certainly unrepeatable.\" Stephen F. Jones stated it was \"the first and last attempt at an independent Transcaucasian union,\" while Hovannisian noted that the actions of the TDFR during its short existence demonstrated that it \"was not independent, democratic, federative, or a republic\"."}
+{"text":"While the three successor states would be reunited within the Soviet Union as the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, this would only exist between 1922 and 1936 before being broken up again into three union republics. Within the modern states of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, the TDFR is largely ignored in their respective national historiography, given consideration only as the first stage towards their own independent states."}
+{"text":"The Treaty of Ahmet Pasha (Persian:\"\u0639\u0647\u062f\u0646\u0627\u0645\u0647 \u0627\u062d\u0645\u062f \u067e\u0627\u0634\u0627\", ) was a treaty signed on 10 January 1732 between the Ottoman Empire and Safavid Persia."}
+{"text":"In the 17th century, a stalemate between the Ottoman and Safavid empires had been reached by the treaties of Serav and Zuhab. However, during the short rule of Afghanistan based Hotaki dynasty, chaos in Iran resulted in clashes along frontiers, especially in Caucasus. Meanwhile, Peter I of Russia began to occupy the Iranian territories in the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia, gains which were confirmed by the Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1723). Fearing a Russian-controlled Caucasus, the Ottomans decided to capture Tbilisi to balance the Russian advance. But this operation resulted in a long Ottoman Safavid war."}
+{"text":"Between 1723 and 1730, the Ottomans were able to control South Caucasus by capturing Yerevan and Ganja in addition to Tbilisi. In the southern fronts (i.e., Western Iran), Ottomans captured Tabriz, Urmia, Khorramabad, Kermanshah and Hamed\u0101n. In 1724, the Ottomans and Russians had agreed, by the Treaty of Constantinople (1724), to further divide the aforementioned Iranian territories between the two of them. But after Tahmasp II of Safavids began controlling Iran, the Ottoman advance was checked. Tired of war, both sides decided to end the war. Ahmet Pasha (Ottoman) and Mehmet R\u0131za Kulu (Persian) signed the treaty."}
+{"text":"The treaty proved to be an armistice rather than a permanent treaty. Because, neither Ottoman sultan Mahmut I approved the loss of Tabriz nor Nader Shah, then the commander in chief of the Persian army, the losses in Caucasus. During Nader Shah's reign, Afsharid Persia was able to regain its losses."}
+{"text":"The Caucasian Native Cavalry Division (), or \"Savage Division\" () was a cavalry division of the Imperial Russian Army. Formed on 23 August 1914, it was transformed into the Caucasian Native Cavalry Corps on 4 September 1917 before being dissolved several months later. It was composed mostly of Muslim volunteers from among various Peoples of the Caucasus. It took part in World War I, commanded by Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia, younger brother of Emperor Nicholas II."}
+{"text":"The division earned the nickname \"Savage\" for its personnel's traditional attire and relaxed discipline. During the course of World War I it distinguished itself in numerous engagements, including the Brusilov and Kerensky Offensives. During the February Revolution, the Savage Division remained loyal to the Russian Provisional Government and refused to participate in the Kornilov affair. Dissolving soon afterwards, many of its veterans enlisted into the armed forces of the White movement and the Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus."}
+{"text":"In early October, the newly formed division conducted a parade in Vladikavkaz, the division\u2019s units then began transferring to Vinnytsia and Proskurov. On 15 November, the division was dispatched to Lvov where it became part of the 2nd Cavalry Corps of the Southwestern Front. On 28 November, it began its march towards the front line at Sambir. On 30 November, the division crossed the border Russia between Austria-Hungary. On 8 December, the Circassian Regiment clashed with the enemy at Terky and Volkovya."}
+{"text":"Between 26 and 27 February, the Kabardin Regiment defended the Lomnica river crossing at Podgorka against several Austrian attacks, while being targeted by heavy shelling. The regiment lost three killed and 29 wounded in the fighting. The Ingush and Circassian Regiments crossed the Lomnica river under heavy enemy fire a week later. They then attacked the Tsu Babina village, which was held by an Austrian infantry battalion supported by six machine guns and dislodged the defenders. The Austrians lost 323 men killed and 54 captured. On 6 March, Michael Alexandrovich personally led the division in an offensive on Tlumach, defeating two Austrian battalions and seizing the town. He was later awarded the Saint George Sword for the action."}
+{"text":"A large scale Austrian offensive forced the division to withdraw to the right bank of the Prut and by the middle of May it returned to its initial positions on the Dniester. On 4 June, the division took part in the Brusilov Offensive advancing along the right bank of the Dniester towards Chernivtsi, taking Okno village two days later. On 11 June, the division counter-attacked the Austrians who had attempted to create a bridgehead at Zhezhava. The division continued to pursue the Austrians taking the villages Luzhany, Shepenice and Altmaeshti on the left bank of the Prut, taking 1,320 prisoners in the process."}
+{"text":"In the middle of October 1916, the 1st and 3rd Brigades were incorporate into the Romanian Front's 4th Army and were forwarded to Stanislavov. In December 1916, the division fought a series of battles in Roman and Bac\u0103u. In February 1917, the division was withdrawn to the Bessarabia Governorate, allowing its personnel to rest. The February Revolution and the subsequent Abdication of Nicholas II did not negatively affect the division's morale. In the middle of June 1917, the division joined the 12th Army Corps at Stanislavov in preparation of the Kerensky Offensive. On 8 July, the division launched an offensive on Kalush and Dolyna. On 12 July, the 1st Brigade and the 3rd Caucasus Cossack Division thwarted a German counter-offensive at Kalush."}
+{"text":"Mount Qaf, or Qaf-Kuh, also spelled Cafcuh and Kafkuh (), or Jabal Qaf, also spelled Djebel Qaf (), or Koh-i-Qaf, also spelled \"Koh-Qaf\" and \"Kuh-i-Qaf\" or \"Kuh-e Qaf\" () is a legendary mountain in the popular mythology of the Middle East. In Islamic tradition, Mount Qaf is said to be the homeland of the jinn and was made out of shining emerald by God."}
+{"text":"Historically Iranian power never extended over all of the Northern Caucasus and ancient lore shrouded these high mountains in mystery."}
+{"text":"In Iranian tradition this mountain could be any of the following:"}
+{"text":"The Peri and Deev kingdoms of Qaf include are Shad-u-kam (Pleasure and Delight), with its magnificent capital Juherabad (Jewel-city), Amberabad (Amber-city), and Ahermanabad (Aherman\u2019s city)."}
+{"text":"Mount Qaf in Arabic tradition is a mysterious mountain renowned as the \"farthest point of the earth\" owing to its location at the far side of the ocean encircling the earth. Because of its remoteness, the North Pole is sometimes identified with this mountain. According to Hatim Tai\u2019s account, the Qaf Mountains were said"}
+{"text":"to be composed of green emerald, peridot or chrysolite, whose reflection gave"}
+{"text":"Zakariya al-Qazwini published \u02bfAj\u0101'ib al-makhl\u016bq\u0101t wa ghar\u0101'ib al-mawj\u016bd\u0101t (\"The Wonders of Creation\", literally \"Marvels of things created and miraculous aspects of things existing\") in the 13th century, a book that was influential in early modern Islamic society. According to Qazwini's cosmology, the sky is held by God so that it does not fall on Earth. The Earth is considered flat (later Islamic scholars believed that it was round) and surrounded by a series of mountains \u2014including Mount Qaf\u2014 that hold it in its place like pegs; the Earth is supported by the Kuyuthan that stands on Bahamut, a giant fish ( \"Baham\u016bt\") dwelling in a cosmic ocean; the ocean is inside a bowl that sits on top of an angel or jinn."}
+{"text":"According to certain authors, the \"Jabal Qaf\" of Muslim cosmology is a version of Rupes Nigra, a mountain whose ascent \u2014such as Dante's climbing of the Mountain of Purgatory, represents the pilgrim's progress through spiritual states."}
+{"text":"In some Sufistic oral traditions, as conceived by Abd al-Rahman and Attar, Mount Qaf was considered as a realm of consciousness and the goal of a \"murid\". Hadda Sahib (d. 1903) is said to have visited Mount Qaf in one night and was greeted by the king of peris."}
+{"text":"\"Mount Qaf\" (original Turkish title \"Kafda\u011f\u0131\") is also the title of a novel by Turkish author M\u00fcge \u0130plik\u00e7i."}
+{"text":"Mount Qaf is frequently referenced in the 1001 Nights as a home of jinn."}
+{"text":"The Treaty of Zuhab (, \"Ahadn\u0101mah Zuhab\"), also called Treaty of Qasr-e Shirin (), was an accord signed between the Safavid Empire and the Ottoman Empire on May 17, 1639. The accord ended the Ottoman-Safavid War of 1623\u20131639 and was the last conflict in almost 150 years of intermittent wars between the two states over territorial disputes. It can roughly be seen as a confirmation of the previous Peace of Amasya from 1555."}
+{"text":"The treaty confirmed the dividing of territories in West Asia priorly held by the Safavids, such as the permanent parting of the Caucasus between the two powers, in which East Armenia, eastern Georgia, Dagestan, and Azerbaijan stayed under the control of the Safavid Empire, while western Georgia and most of Western Armenia came fully under Ottoman rule. It also included all of Mesopotamia (including Baghdad) being irreversibly ceded to the Ottomans, as well as Safavid-controlled eastern Samtskhe (Meskheti), making Samtskhe in its entirety an Ottoman possession. With the Treaty of Zuhab, Eastern Armenia remained for more than eight decades under Safavid Rule, who separated it into two administrative regions: Erivan Province and Karabakh Province."}
+{"text":"The Reichskommissariat Kaukasus (), also spelled as Kaukasien, was the theoretical political division and planned civilian occupation regime of Germany in the conquered territories of the Caucasus during World War II. Unlike the other four planned Reichskommissariats, within the borders of the proposed Caucasus \"Reichskommissariat\" experiments were to be conducted for various forms of autonomy for \"indigenous groups\"."}
+{"text":"Reichskommissariat Kaukasus theoretically included all of Transcaucasia and Ciscaucasia (the North Caucasus), as well as parts of Southern Russia as far as the Volga river. Major cities to be included were among others Rostov, Krasnodar and Maykop in the west, Stavropol, Astrakhan, Elista, Makhachkala in the east, and Grozny, Nalchik, Vladikavkaz, Yerevan and Baku in the south. Civil administration of the territory was to be in Tbilisi, Georgia."}
+{"text":"Rosenberg eventually suggested that the post of the Commissar\/Resident should go to party journalist, and his long-time friend and a fellow Baltic German, \"Stabsleiter\" Arno Schickedanz, while he recommended Hermann G\u00f6ring, as the Plenipotentiary of the Four Year Plan, to appoint a head of an \"oil commission\" to work alongside the Commissar. Dr Hermann Neubacher, the former mayor of Vienna and then a special envoy to the puppet Hellenic State, was to function alongside Schickedanz on the region's economic matters. Schickedanz reportedly spent considerable time examining sketches of his future palace in Tbilisi and discussing the number of gates it would need."}
+{"text":"Planners theorised about a possible advance to western Kazakhstan to secure the eastern frontiers. German plans to capture western Kazakhstan certainly existed as railway nets and territories in west Central Asian countries lay along lines of advance to the Middle East in order to aid the Afrika Korps in the African Campaign, with the additional purpose of seizing Persia."}
+{"text":"There was a power struggle between Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, the Mufti of Jerusalem, and Rashid Ali al-Gaylani, ex-Prime Minister of Iraq, for the control and political objectives of Arab units (also known as \"\"Legion Freier Araber\" or \"Arabian Korps\"\"). It was sent to the Caucasus region in September 1942 for the planned invasion of the Arab lands and saw action against the Red Army."}
+{"text":"This planning did not advance much further than preliminary discussions and paper planning, due to the advance of Red Army forces during the war. Historian Norman Rich asserts that the short duration of the German occupation in the Caucasus means that the policies which the Germans implemented give little indication as to the long-term future of the region if it had been brought under firm Axis control."}
+{"text":"The Reichskommissariat Kaukasien was planned to be administratively divided between the following seven \"Generalkommissariate\". These were sub-divided into a number of \"Sonderkommissariaten\" (\"special districts\") and \"Kreiskommissariate\", and those in turn into \"Raions\". The overall administrative seat was to be in Tbilisi\/Tiflis."}
+{"text":"30 Kreiskommissariate (83 Raions) including part of the Rostov region."}
+{"text":"Generalkommissariat f\u00fcr die Gebiete der Bergv\u00f6lker (Berg-Kaukasien)."}
+{"text":"30 Kreiskommissariate (93 Raions) incl. the Kizlyar region."}
+{"text":"Sonderkommissariat Nord-Ossetien - Capital: Ordschonikidse - 3 Kreiskommissariate (10 Raions)"}
+{"text":"Sonderkommissariat Dagestan - Capital: Machatschkala - 10 Kreiskommissariate (32 Raions)"}
+{"text":"Sonderkommissariat Kabardino-Balkarien - 5 Kreiskommissariate (15 Raions)"}
+{"text":"Sonderkommissariat Karatschai - 2 Kreiskommissariate (6 Raions)"}
+{"text":"Sonderkommissariat Tscherkessien - 1 Kreiskommissariat (4 Raions)"}
+{"text":"Included the Kalmyk ASSR, the Astrakhan region and the southeastern part of the Rostov region."}
+{"text":"The Treaty of Finckenstein, often spelled Finkenstein, was a treaty concluded between France and Persia (modern-day Iran) in the Finckenstein Palace (now Kamieniec, Poland) on 4 May 1807 and formalised the Franco-Persian alliance."}
+{"text":"At the time the war commenced, the Safavid Empire was in a chaotic state under its weak ruler, Mohammad Khodabanda. In the resulting fighting, the Ottomans had managed to take most of the Safavid provinces of Azerbaijan (including the former capital Tabriz), Georgia (Kartli, Kakheti, eastern Samtskhe-Meskheti), Karabagh, Erivan, Shirvan and Khuzestan, despite Mohammad Khodabanda's initially successful counterattack. When Abbas I succeeded to the throne in 1588, the Safavid realm was still plagued by domestic issues, and thus the Ottomans managed to push further, taking Baghdad during that year and Ganja shortly after. Confronted by even more problems (i.e. civil wars, uprisings, and the war against the Uzbeks in the northeastern part of the realm), Abbas I agreed to sign a humiliating treaty with disadvantageous terms."}
+{"text":"This treaty was a success for the Ottoman Empire, as vast areas had been annexed. However, the new status quo did not last for long. Abbas I would use the time and resources which resulted from the peace on the main front with the Ottomans, to successfully deal with the other issues (including the Uzbeks and other revolts), while waiting for a suitable moment to regain his possessions. When the Ottoman Empire during the reign of young sultan Ahmet I was engaged with the Celali revolts, he was able to regain most of his losses, which the Ottoman Empire had to accept in the Treaty of Nasuh Pasha, 22 years after this treaty."}
+{"text":"The Caucasian-Mohammedan Legion (German: \"Kaukasisch-Mohammedanische Legion\") was a volunteer unit of the German Army. The Legion was created on January 13, 1942 by order of General Infantria Olbricht. The Legion consisted of Abkhazians, Circassians, Balkars, Karachais, Chechens, Ingushes, and the peoples of Daghestan. The Kurds, Talyshs and Ossetians appeared later. In accordance with the decree of February 19, 1942, volunteers from the peoples of the North Caucasus were August 2, 1942 allocated on a national-territorial basis separately to the North Caucasian Legion \/ Mountain-Caucasian Legion. The initial placement of the Legion was Wesel."}
+{"text":"In October 1941, one for each of the Turkestan and Caucasian prisoners of war (the operation of the Abwehr \"Tiger B\") was created for the special purposes of Abwehr and controlled by the Stab Walli (in June of 1941, it consisted of 21 Abwehr commandos, at least 70 Abwehrgroups and many sabotage-intelligence schools) and subordinated to the two officers of the Abwehr, Major Andreas Meier Mader and Theodor Oberl\u00e4nder. Professor Oberleutnant Oberl\u00e4nder was the Head of the Department of Social Sciences department in K\u00f6nigsberg, Greifswald and Prague before the war. Oberleutnant Oberl\u00e4nder was also the political leader of the Nachtigall Battalion."}
+{"text":"In 1943 the headquarters of the North Caucasian Legion was created in the town of Mirgorod of Poltava region under command of Lt. Col. Ristov. In the summer of 1944, the formation of the North Caucasian and Caucasian SS regiments began on the basis of 70 and 71 police battalions. At the end of the war in Northern Italy, the North Caucasian combat group joined the Caucasian Unity of the SS troops. The commander of the Standard Army of the SS, a former officer of the White Army Kuchuk Ulagay, joined the regiment as a regiment."}
+{"text":"In addition to the reinforced 9 field battalions,1 battalion of the \"Sonderverband \"Bergmann\"\" (Special Unit \"Miner\") of the and one combat group of the Caucasian Waffen-SS unit, the natives of the North Caucasus were part of a separate Sonderkommando Schamil consisting of three groups of forces up to a platoon, three sapper, railway and road-building companies, as well as two serf regiments. According to the researcher Traho R. \"The total number of North Caucasian volunteers since the beginning of the war against the USSR and until 1945 amounted to 28-30 thousand people\"."}
+{"text":"The Stavropol Governorate was a governorate (province) of the Russian Empire. It roughly corresponded to most of present-day Stavropol Krai. It was created in 1847 out of the territories of Caucasian peoples and disbanded in Russian SFSR in 1924."}
+{"text":"As of 1897, 873,301 people populated the oblast. Russians constituted the majority of the population. Significant minorities consisted of Ukrainians. Total Slavic population was 804,153 (92%)"}
+{"text":"The Sittaceni were an ancient people dwelling along the Palus Maeotis in antiquity. Strabo describes them as living among the Maeotae, Sindi, Dandarii, Toreatae, Agri, Arrechi, Tarpetes, Obidiaceni, Dosci, and Aspurgiani, among others (xi. 2. 11). Sittaceni is one of the Maeotae tribes, who lived in the 1st millennium BC on the east and the south-eastern coast of the Azov sea. In the \"Great Soviet Encyclopedia\", they were concluded to have been one of the ancestors to the Circassians. In the 4th\u20133rd centuries BC many of the Maeotae tribes were included into the Bosporan Kingdom."}
+{"text":"The Caucasian War (; \"Kavkazskaya vojna\") of 1817\u20131864 was an invasion of the Caucasus by the Russian Empire which resulted in Russia's annexation of the areas of the North Caucasus, and the ethnic cleansing of Circassians. It consisted of a series of military actions waged by the Empire against the native peoples of the Caucasus including the Chechens, Adyghe, Abkhaz\u2013Abaza, Ubykhs, Kumyks and Dagestanians as Russia sought to expand. Among the Muslims, resistance to the Russians was described as jihad."}
+{"text":"Russian control of the Georgian Military Highway in the center divided the Caucasian War into the Russo-Circassian War in the west and the Murid War in the east. Other territories of the Caucasus (comprising contemporary eastern Georgia, southern Dagestan, Armenia and Azerbaijan) were incorporated into the Russian empire at various times in the 19th century as a result of Russian wars with Persia. The remaining part, western Georgia, was taken by the Russians from the Ottomans during the same period."}
+{"text":"The Russian invasion encountered fierce resistance. The first period of the invasion ended coincidentally with the death of Alexander I and the Decembrist Revolt in 1825. It achieved surprisingly little success, especially compared with the then recent Russian victory over the \"Grande Arm\u00e9e\" of Napoleon in 1812."}
+{"text":"Between 1825 and 1833, little military activity took place in the Caucasus against the native North Caucasians as wars with Turkey (1828\/1829) and with Persia (1826\u20131828) occupied the Russians. After considerable successes in both wars, Russia resumed fighting in the Caucasus against the various rebelling native ethnic groups in the North Caucasus, and that was the start of the Caucasian genocide committed by Russians, most of the terminated people were from the Circassian nation."}
+{"text":"Russian units again met resistance, notably led by Ghazi Mollah, Gamzat-bek, and Hadji Murad. Imam Shamil followed them. He led the mountaineers from 1834 until his capture by Dmitry Milyutin in 1859. In 1843, Shamil launched a sweeping offensive aimed at the Russian outposts in Avaria. On 28 August 1843, 10,000 men converged, from three different directions, on a Russian column in Untsukul, killing 486 men. In the next four weeks, Shamil captured every Russian outpost in Avaria except one, exacting over 2,000 casualties on the Russian defenders. He feigned an invasion north to capture a key chokepoint at the convergence of the Avar and Kazi-Kumukh rivers. In 1845, Shamil's forces achieved their most dramatic success when they withstood a major Russian offensive led by Prince Vorontsov."}
+{"text":"During the Crimean War of 1853\u20131856, the Russians brokered a truce with Shamil, but hostilities resumed in 1855. Warfare in the Caucasus finally ended between 1856 and 1859, when a 250,000 strong army under General Baryatinsky broke the mountaineers' resistance."}
+{"text":"The war in the Eastern part of the North Caucasus ended in 1859; the Russians captured Shamil, forced him to surrender, to swear allegiance to the Tsar, and then exiled him to Central Russia. However, the war in the Western part of the North Caucasus resumed with the Circassians (i.e. Adyghe, but the term is often used to include their Abkhaz\u2013Abaza kin as well) resuming the fight. A manifesto of Tsar Alexander II declared hostilities at an end on June 2 (May 21 OS), 1864. Among post-war events, a tragic page in the history of the indigenous peoples of the North Caucasus (especially the Circassians), was Muhajirism, or population transfer of the Muslim population to the Ottoman Empire."}
+{"text":"According to one source, the population in Greater and Lesser Kabarda decreased from 350,000, before the war, to 50,000 by 1818. According to another version, in 1790 the population was 200,000 people and in 1830 30,000 people. As a percentage of the total population of the North Caucasus, the number of the remaining Circassian Circassians was 40% (1795), 30% (1835) and 25% (1858). Similarly: Chechens 9%, 10% and 8.5%; Avars 11%, 7% and 2%; Dargins 9.5%, 7.3% and 5.8%; Lezghins 4.4%, 3.6% and 3.9% ."}
+{"text":"The Arrechi (Greek: ) were an ancient tribe of the Maeotae, on the east coast of the Palus Maeotis. (Strabo xi. 2. 11; Steph. B. \"s. v.\"; Plin. vi. 7.) Strabo places them among the Maeotae, Sindi, Dandarii, Toreatae, Agri, Tarpetes, Obidiaceni, Sittaceni, Dosci, and Aspurgiani, among others. (Strab. \"l.c.\")"}
+{"text":"They are probably the same as the Arichi (Greek: ) of Ptolemy (v. 9. \u00a7 18)."}
+{"text":"The Arrechi is one of the Maeotae tribes, who lived in the 1st millennium BC on the east and the south-eastern coast of the Azov sea."}
+{"text":"Russian scientists, archeologists, historians and ethnographers in the Soviet period it was concluded - Maeotae this is one of the names of the tribes Adyghe people (Circassians)."}
+{"text":"In the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, in the article about the Adyghe people, it is written,\"Living in the basin of the river Kuban part of the tribes ([[Adyghe people]]), as a rule, be indicated (names) of ancient historians under the collective name 'Maeotae'.\""}
+{"text":"In the article about the Maeotae), it says,\"Maeotae were engaged in farming and fishing. Part of the Maeotae by the language was akin to the Adygs (Circassians), the part of the Iranians. In the 4th-3rd centuries BC many of Maeotae included in the composition of the [[Bosporan kingdom]].\""}
+{"text":"The Cimmerians (also Kimmerians; Greek: , \"Kimm\u00e9rioi\") were a nomadic Indo-European people, who appeared about 1000 BC and are mentioned later in 8th century\u00a0BC in Assyrian records. While the Cimmerians were often described by contemporaries as culturally \"Scythian\", they evidently differed ethnically from the Scythians proper, who also displaced and replaced the Cimmerians."}
+{"text":"Probably originating in the Pontic-Caspian steppe, the Cimmerians subsequently migrated both into Western Europe and to the south, by way of the North Caucasus."}
+{"text":"Some of them likely comprised a force that, c. 714\u00a0BC, invaded Urartu, a state subject to the Neo-Assyrian Empire. This foray was defeated by Assyrian forces under Sargon II in 705, after which the same, southern branch of Cimmerians turned west towards Anatolia and conquered Phrygia in 696\/5. They reached the height of their power in 652 after taking Sardis, the capital of Lydia; however, an invasion of Assyrian-controlled Anshan was thwarted. Soon after 619, Alyattes of Lydia defeated them. There are no further mentions of them in historical sources, but it is likely that they settled in Cappadocia."}
+{"text":"The origin of the Cimmerians is unclear. They are possibly related to either Iranian or Thracian speaking groups which migrated under pressure of the Scythian expansion of the 9th to 8th century BC."}
+{"text":"According to Herodotus, the Cimmerians inhabited the region north of the Caucasus and the Black Sea during the 8th and 7th centuries BC (i.e. what is now Ukraine and Russia), although they have not been identified with any specific archaeological culture in the region."}
+{"text":"The origin of the culture is associated with the Belozerskaya culture (12th to 10th centuries) and the later and more certain Novocerkassk (10th to 7th centuries BC) between the Danube and the Volga."}
+{"text":"The use of the name \"Cimmerian\" in this context is due to Paul Reinecke, who in 1925 postulated a \"North-Thracian-Cimmerian cultural sphere\" (\"nordthrakisch-kimmerischer Kulturkreis\") overlapping with the younger Hallstatt culture of the Eastern Alps."}
+{"text":"The term Thraco-Cimmerian (\"thrako-kimmerisch\") was first introduced by I. Nestor in the 1930s. Nestor intended to suggest that there was a historical migration of Cimmerians into Eastern Europe from the area of the former Srubnaya culture, perhaps triggered by the Scythian expansion, at the beginning of the European Iron Age. In the 1980s and 1990s, more systematic studies of the artifacts revealed a more gradual development over the period covering the 9th to 7th centuries BC, so that the term \"Thraco-Cimmerian\" is now rather used by convention and does not necessarily imply a direct connection with either the Thracians or the Cimmerians."}
+{"text":"Austen Henry Layard's discoveries in the royal archives at Nineveh and Calah included Assyrian primary records of the Cimmerian invasion."}
+{"text":"These records appear to place the Cimmerian homeland, \"Gamir\", south (rather than north) of the Black Sea."}
+{"text":"The first record of the Cimmerians appears in Assyrian annals in the year 714 BC. These describe how a people termed the \"Gimirri\" helped the forces of Sargon II to defeat the kingdom of Urartu. Their original homeland, called \"Gamir\" or \"Uishdish\", seems to have been located within the buffer state of Mannae. The later geographer Ptolemy placed the Cimmerian city of \"Gomara\" in this region."}
+{"text":"The Assyrians recorded the migrations of the Cimmerians, as the former people's king Sargon II was killed in battle against them while driving them from Persia in 705 BC."}
+{"text":"The Cimmerians were subsequently recorded as having conquered Phrygia in 696\u2013695 BC, prompting the Phrygian king Midas to take poison rather than face capture. In 679 BC, during the reign of Esarhaddon of Assyria (r. 681\u2013669 BC), they attacked the Assyrian colonies Cilicia and Tabal under their new ruler Teushpa. Esarhaddon defeated them near Hubushna (Hupisna), and they also met defeat at the hands of his successor Ashurbanipal."}
+{"text":"A people named \"Kimmerioi\" is described in Homer's \"Odyssey\" 11.14 (c. late 8th century BC), as living beyond the Oceanus, in a land of fog and darkness, at the edge of the world and the entrance of Hades."}
+{"text":"According to Herodotus (c. 440 BC), the Cimmerians had been expelled from their homeland between the Tyras (Dniester) and Tanais (Don) rivers by the Scythians. Unreconciled to Scythian advances, to ensure burial in their ancestral homeland, the men of the Cimmerian royal family divided into groups and fought each other to the death. The Cimmerian commoners buried the bodies along the river Tyras and fled across the Caucasus and into Anatolia. Herodotus also names a number of Cimmerian kings, including Tugdamme (\"Lygdamis\" in Greek; mid-7th century BC), and Sandakhshatra (late-7th century)."}
+{"text":"In 654 BC or 652 BC \u2013 the exact date is unclear \u2013 the Cimmerians attacked the kingdom of Lydia, killing the Lydian king Gyges and causing great destruction to the Lydian capital of Sardis. They returned ten years later during the reign of Gyges' son Ardys; this time they captured the city, with the exception of the citadel. The fall of Sardis was a major shock to the powers of the region; the Greek poets Callinus and Archilochus recorded the fear that it inspired in the Greek colonies of Ionia, some of which were attacked by Cimmerian and Treres raiders."}
+{"text":"The Cimmerian occupation of Lydia was brief, however, possibly due to an outbreak of disease. They were beaten back by Alyattes. This defeat marked the effective end of Cimmerian power."}
+{"text":"The term \"Gimirri\" was used about a century later in the Behistun inscription (c. 515 BC) as an Assyro-Babylonian equivalent of Iranian Saka (Scythians). Otherwise, Cimmerians disappeared from the historical record."}
+{"text":"In sources beginning with the Royal Frankish Annals, the Merovingian kings of the Franks traditionally traced their lineage through a pre-Frankish tribe called the Sicambri (or Sugambri), mythologized as a group of \"Cimmerians\" from the mouth of the Danube river, but who instead came from Gelderland in modern Netherlands and are named for the Sieg river."}
+{"text":"Early modern historians asserted Cimmerian descent for the Celts or the Germans, arguing from the similarity of \"Cimmerii\" to \"Cimbri\" or \"Cymry\". The etymology of \"Cymro\" \"Welshman\" (plural: \"Cymry\"), connected to the Cimmerians by 17th-century Celticists, is now accepted by Celtic linguists as being derived from a Brythonic word * \"kom-brogos\", meaning \"compatriot\". The Cambridge Ancient History classifies the Maeotians as either a people of Cimmerian ancestry or as Caucasian under Iranian overlordship."}
+{"text":"The Biblical name \"Gomer\" has been linked by some to the Cimmerians."}
+{"text":"According to Georgian national historiography, the Cimmerians, in Georgian known as \"Gimirri\", played an influential role in the development of the Colchian and Iberian cultures. The modern Georgian word for \"hero\", \"gmiri\", is said to derive from their name."}
+{"text":"It has been speculated that the Cimmerians finally settled in Cappadocia, known in Armenian as , \"Gamir-k\u02bf\" (the same name as the original Cimmerian homeland in Mannae)."}
+{"text":"It has also been speculated that the modern Armenian city of Gyumri (Arm.: \u0533\u0575\u0578\u0582\u0574\u0580\u056b ), founded as Kumayri (Arm.: \u053f\u0578\u0582\u0574\u0561\u0575\u0580\u056b), derived its name from the Cimmerians who conquered the region and founded a settlement there."}
+{"text":"Only a few personal names in the Cimmerian language have survived in Assyrian inscriptions:"}
+{"text":"Some researchers have attempted to trace various place names to Cimmerian origins. It has been suggested that \"Cimmerium\" gave rise to the Turkic toponym \"Q\u0131r\u0131m\" (which in turn gave rise to the name \"Crimea\")."}
+{"text":"Based on ancient Greek historical sources, a Thracian or a Celtic association is sometimes assumed."}
+{"text":"A genetic study published in Science Advances in October 2018 examined the remains of three Cimmerians buried between ca. 1,000 BC and 800 BC. The two samples of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup R1b1a and Q1a1, while the three samples of mtDNA extracted belonged to haplogroup H9a, C5c and R."}
+{"text":"A genetic study published in Current Biology in July 2019 examined the remains of three Cimmerians. The two samples of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup R1a-Z645 and R1a2c-B111, while the three samples of mtDNA extracted belonged to haplogroup H35, U5a1b1 and U2e2."}
+{"text":"Conan the Barbarian, created by Robert E. Howard in a series of fantasy stories published in \"Weird Tales\" in 1932, was described as a native Cimmerian, though in Howard's fictional world, his Cimmerians dwelt in a mythological Hyborian Age. The Cimmerians of Hyboria are a pre-Celtic people said by Howard to be the ancestors of the Irish and Scots (Gaels)."}
+{"text":"If on a winter's night a traveler. The novel by Italo Calvino is a framed presentation of a series of incomplete novels, one of them purported to be translated from the Cimmerian. However, in Calvino's novel, Cimmeria is a fictional country."}
+{"text":"The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay A novel by Michael Chabon has a chapter that talks about the oldest book in the world \"The Book of Lo\" created by ancient Cimmerians."}
+{"text":"Kabardia () or East Circassia was a historical region in the North Caucasus corresponding partly to the modern Kabardino-Balkaria. It had better political organization than its neighbors and a somewhat \"feudal\" social structure. It existed as a political community from the fifteenth century or earlier until it came under Russian control in the early nineteenth century."}
+{"text":"1600-1753: In 1645 a regiment was moved to Tersk (it has been re-established early in the century). Kabardia split into two factions, the pro-Russian Baksan and pro-Crimean Kashkatau (originally the alliances were opposite, but they switched sides some time after 1722.). One side brought in Russians from Astrakhan. The Nekrasov Cossacks settled on the Kuban about 1711. More Cossacks settled on the Terek and Kizlyar was founded in 1736. In 1739 Kabardia was declared a buffer state between the Russian and Ottoman empires. In 1744 Koltsov and 400 Cossacks arrived to support the Baksan faction. Another force was sent in 1753."}
+{"text":"Conquest: Kabardia came under Russian control between about 1769 and 1830. They moved west from the Terek country, southwest from Astrakhan and to a lesser degree southeast from Azov. From 1769 Russia intervened in Georgia south of the mountains. This required them to hold the Georgian Military Highway which passed through Kabardia. Georgia was annexed in 1800."}
+{"text":"The word abrek is a North Caucasian term. In Chechen or Ingush the word \"abrek\" has the meaning of \"avenger\"; in Circassian or Karachay the word has the meaning of \"brave man\". In the Caucasus the word has the derogatory meaning of \"bandit\" only in Ossetian and Russian - but these languages belong to the Indo-European language family, and these people have been enemies of Abrek lifestyle in the past."}
+{"text":"The term \"abrek\" was mostly used for people who struggled against Russian colonialism, mostly a guerrilla fighter during Russian expansion in the Caucasus in the 19th century. The term was also used in the Caucasus for a person who vowed to avoid any pleasures and to be fearless in fighting for the sake of Allah and justice. An abrek renounced any contact with friends and relatives. The abrek lifestyle also included a lonely life in the unexplored wilderness and prayers. Later, the majority of abreks were devoted Muslims."}
+{"text":"The word \"abrek\" was used as a propaganda term for the anti-Soviet guerrillas of the post-war North Caucasus, as well as for all illegals. Those abreks were widely popularized as the defenders of the motherland and as paupers. In their old age, the abreks of the West Caucasus usually devoted themselves to beekeeping. The majority of the East Caucasus abreks were killed in non-stop warfare against the federal army."}
+{"text":"After the establishment of Soviet power in the Caucasus in the 1920s, abreks continued the fight against oppressors, for the most part in Chechnya. The Chechen abreks provoked the rebellions of 1920-21, 1929\u201331, 1931-1939, and the last in 1940-44, that led to the deportation of the Chechens and Ingush in 1944. The last anti-Soviet Chechen abrek was killed on 28 March 1976 at the age of 70."}
+{"text":"Ambazuces () was a \"Hunnic\" ruler in the North Caucasus in the early 6th century, probably of the Sabirs."}
+{"text":"According to the Byzantine historian Procopius, Ambazuces ruled the area of the \"Caspian Gates\"\u2014most likely referring to the Darial Pass\u2014during the reign of the Byzantine emperor Anastasius I (). Procopius reports that he was friendly towards Byzantium, and in his old age offered to cede his realm, but Anastasius declined. This was probably during or shortly after the Anastasian War of 502\u2013506 between Byzantium and Sassanid Persia."}
+{"text":"After his death, he was succeeded by his sons, who were defeated by the Persian king Kavadh I (), who annexed their territory to Persia."}
+{"text":"The Zygii (, \"Zygo\u00ed\") or Zygians were described by Strabo as a nation to the north of Colchis. He wrote:"}
+{"text":"\"And on the sea lies the Asiatic side of the Bosporus, or the Syndic territory. After this latter, one comes to the Achaei and the Zygii and the Heniochi, and also the Cercetae and the Macropogones. And above these are situated the narrow passes of the Phtheirophagi (Phthirophagi); and after the Heniochi the Colchian country, which lies at the foot of the Caucasian, or Moschian, Mountains.\" (Strabo, \"Geographica\" 11.2)"}
+{"text":"William Smith observes that \"they were partly nomad shepherds, partly brigands and pirates, for which latter vocation they had ships specially adapted\". They inhabited the region known as Zyx, which is on the northern slopes of the Western Caucasus. To the east were the Avars. To the north was Sarmatian territory, and to the south lay the part of Colchis inhabited by the Svans (\"Soanes\" of Strabo and Pliny the Elder)."}
+{"text":"Initially, Zyx (Italian: \"Sychia\", Georgian: \"Jiqeti\") in Greek literature referred to a people inhabiting the area between Gagra and Tuapse, who later expanded up to the estuary of the Kuban and the neighbouring region of historical Tmutarakan. This tribe also features in several ancient and medieval works, notably in Pliny (\"Zichoi\"), Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos, medieval Georgian chroniclers (\"Jikebi\"), Marco Polo, and Johannes de Galonifontibus, who, in his \"Libellus de notitia orbis\", speaks of \"Zikia or Circassia\" and their language, perhaps the earliest reference to the Northwest Caucasian languages."}
+{"text":"Researchers assume that the Zygii spoke a Northwest Caucasian language. Northwest Caucasian hydro- and toponyms, traditional names of rulers and also the seamless transition from the Zygii and the Cercetae, whose designations were subsequently replaced with the names of several Circassian tribes, confirm this."}
+{"text":"The North Caucasus Line was a line of Russian forts and Cossack settlements along the north side of the Caucasus Mountains. Originating in the mid 16th century with a few free Cossacks near the Caspian Sea, from the mid 18th century the line was pushed west and used as a base to conquer the mountains to the south and to populate the steppes to the north."}
+{"text":"In the east along the Terek the soil is poor and rainfall low. Dense peasant settlement only became possible when the line was pushed west to the Stavropol highland in the center in the late 18th century."}
+{"text":"Around 1500 Russia was just beginning to push south from its heartland in Muscovy. Everything south to the Black Sea and Caucasus was controlled by the Nogai nomads. In 1556 Russia moved down the Volga and captured Astrakhan at the north end of the Caspian sea. South of the Terek along the Caspian Sea the land was controlled by various khanates nominally subject to Persia. The northernmost was what later became the Shamkhalate of Tarki."}
+{"text":"Free Cossacks were living on the lower Terek by the first half of the 16th century. The usual dates are 1520 and 1563, but the matter is very obscure."}
+{"text":"To the west of the Terek Cossacks lived the Greben Cossacks. They were first formally distinguished in 1736. Before that date a distinction between Greben and Terek Cossacks is questionable."}
+{"text":"Since the whole point of being a free Cossack was to be out of the reach of the government there are few records. The few records we have from this period usually relate to raiding or warfare."}
+{"text":"1711 - 1763: the Russian state gains control of the Cossacks."}
+{"text":"1763-1864: Westward expansion, massive peasant colonization and war in the mountains."}
+{"text":"By the mid 18th century there were only 1,162 active-duty Cossacks in the north Caucasus. By 1851 there were 86,538."}
+{"text":"In 1777 Russia began building a line of forts between Mozdok and Azov. In that year Stavropol and Georgievsk were founded along this line. (Georgievsk was the seat of the Caucasus Governorate from 1802 to 1822.) In the same year the Volga regiment was formed from Volga Cossacks on the eastern part of this line. Each new fort became a magnet for both legal and illegal settlers. 68000 peasants were settled in 1781-84 and 68000 more by the end of the century."}
+{"text":"Far to the west, in 1708, the Nekrasov Cossacks settled on the Kuban. They were refugees from the Bulavin Rebellion and lived in Crimean-Nogai territory. They seem to have gradually broken up and merged with other groups. In 1783, the same year that Georgia became a Russian vassal, Russia annexed the Khanate of Crimea and thereby inherited its claim over the Nogai nomads. In 1787 the Black Sea Cossack Host was given the land between Azov and the Kuban. By 1794 25000 people had settled along the Kuban. Krasnodar was founded in 1794. The Kuban line became the base for the Russo-Circassian War. The line was pushed west to the Laba River."}
+{"text":"In the center the line was pushed south from the Terek to the Sunzha. Grozny was founded in 1818. In 1824 general Aleksey Yermolov created the Mountain Cossack regiment between the Volga and Mozdok regiments. These new \"Cossacks\" were created by decree, the government declaring that various Cossacks, state peasants and natives were now Cossacks. During the Murid War Chechens were driven north or south of the two rivers. The Sunzha Regiment was founded in 1845."}
+{"text":"During the Russo-Circassian War (until 1864) in the west and the Murid War (1830-1859) in the east, the line was the northern base for the conquest of the mountains. When the fighting ended the Cossacks were no longer needed for local fighting, but they remained and remain a rather distinct community."}
+{"text":"A proper account of peasant settlement north of the line on the Black Sea-Caspian Steppe would require census figures which do not seem to exist."}
+{"text":"The Dandarii or Dandaridae were an ancient people dwelling along the Palus Maeotis in antiquity. Strabo describes them as living among the Maeotae, Sindi, Toreatae, Agri, Arrechi, Tarpetes, Obidiaceni, Sittaceni, Dosci, and Aspurgiani, among others. The Dandarii were one of the Maeotae tribes, who lived in the 1st millennium BC on the east and the south-eastern coast of the Azov sea. In the \"Great Soviet Encyclopedia\", they were concluded to have been one of the ancestors to the Circassians. Maeotae were engaged in farming and fishing. In the 4th\u20133rd centuries BC many of the Maeotae tribes were included into the Bosporan Kingdom."}
+{"text":"The Circassians (; ), also known by their endonym Adyghe (Circassian languages: \u0410\u0434\u044b\u0433\u044d\u0445\u044d\u0440, \"Ad\u0131g\u0259x\u0259r\" , \"Adygi\"; ), are a Northwest Caucasian ethnic group native to Circassia, most of whom were exiled to Turkey and the Middle East during the Circassian genocide in the aftermath of the Russo-Circassian War. The Circassians used to mainly speak the Circassian languages, a Northwest Caucasian dialect continuum with two main dialects and numerous sub-dialects, but the Circassian language has been mostly forgotten over the years and today most Circassians speak Turkish, Russian, English, Arabic and Hebrew, having been exiled by Russia to lands of the Ottoman Empire, where the majority of them live today. The majority of Circassians are Muslim."}
+{"text":"The term \"Circassian\" includes the twelve historic Adyghe tribes of Circassia (three democratic and nine aristocratic); Abdzakh, Besleney, Bzhedugh, Hatuqwai, Qabardey, Mamkhegh, Natukhaj, Shapsugh, Chemguy, Ubykh, Yegeruqwai and Zhaney, each star on the Circassian flag representing one tribe."}
+{"text":"Historical Circassia has been divided by Soviet and Russian administrations into the modern-day republics of Adygea, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia and Krasnodar Krai, as well as southwestern parts of Stavropol Krai and Rostov Oblast. Accordingly, Circassians or Adyghe have also been designated as the following: \"Adygeans\" in Adygea, \"Kabardians\" in Kabardino-Balkaria, \"Cherkess\" in Karachay-Cherkessia, and \"Shapsug\" in Krasnodar Krai, although all four are essentially the same people. About 800,000 Circassians remain in historical Circassia, while others live in the Russian Federation outside these republics and \"krais\". The 2010 Russian Census recorded 718,727 Circassians, of whom 516,826 are Kabardian, 124,835 are other Adyghe in Adygea, 73,184 are Cherkess and 3,882 Shapsug."}
+{"text":"The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization estimated in the early 1990s that there are as many as 3.7 million \"ethnic Circassian\" diaspora (in over 50 countries) outside the titular Circassian republics (meaning that only one in seven \"ethnic Circassians\" lives in their homeland), and that, of these 3.7 million, more than 2 million live in Turkey, 300,000 in the Levant (mostly in modern-day Jordan and Syria) and Mesopotamia and 50,000 in Western Europe and the United States."}
+{"text":"The Circassians refer to themselves as \"Adyghe\" (also transliterated as \"Adyga\", \"Adyge\", \"Adygei\", \"Adyghe\", \"Att\u00e9gh\u00e9i\"). The name is believed to derive from \"att\u00e9\" \"height\" to signify a mountaineer or a highlander, and \"gh\u00e9i\" \"sea\", signifying \"a people dwelling and inhabiting a mountainous country near the sea coast\", or \"between two seas\"."}
+{"text":"In languages in the geography close to the Caucasus, the name has been settled as \"Cherkes\/Circassian\". It is the same or similar in many world languages that cite these languages."}
+{"text":"In early Russian sources, the Circassians are referred to as \"Kasogi\", whereas in medieval Arabic sources, \"Kasogi\" is written as \"Jarkas\" and \"Jah\u0101rkas\". The spelling \"Charkas\" may be an abbreviation of Persian \"Chah\u0101r-kas\" (\"four people\"), denoting four tribes. Though \"Jah\u0101rkas\" was used by Ibn Khaldun (died 1406) and Ali ibn al-Athir (died c. 1232\/3), the Persian hypothesis remains uncertain."}
+{"text":"With the advent of the Golden Horde in the 13th century, the designation \"Cherkess\" \"came to refer to the Adyghe who remained in the Caucasus\". This in turn created terminology \"anomalies\", and as a result, \"Cherkes\" became often used alongside other names such as \"Adyghe\", \"Abaza\", \"Kabardian\", and \"Abkhaz\". In Medieval Oriental and European texts, \"the Adyghe people were known by the name Cherkess\/Circassians\"."}
+{"text":"The \"Encyclopaedia Islamica\" adds: \"This is because the Cherkess, the Kabardians and the western Adyghe people share a common language, which is spoken by the north-western Caucasian (Abkhazi) people, and belongs to the family known as Abkhazian-Adyghe\". In Persian sources, \"Charkas\/Cherkes\" is used to refer to the \"actual\" Circassians of the northwest Caucasus, and in some occasions as a general designation for Caucasians who live beyond Derbent (Darband)."}
+{"text":"Despite a common self-designation and a common Russian name, Soviet authorities applied four designations to Circassians remaining in the historic lands of Circassia:"}
+{"text":"Genetically, the Adyghe have shared ancestry partially with neighboring peoples of the Caucasus, with some influence from the other regions. The Circassian language, also known as Cherkess, is a member of the Northwest Caucasian language family. Archaeological findings, mainly of dolmens in Northwest Caucasus region, indicate a megalithic culture in the Northwest Caucasus."}
+{"text":"The ancestors of present-day Circassians are known as the Sind-Maeot tribes. Findings obtained as a result of archaeological research show that these tribes were the indigenous people of the Caucasus. Some researchers have claimed there may be links between Circassians and Indo-European-speaking communities, and some have argued that there are connections between Circassians and Hatti, who are from ancient Anatolian peoples, but these theories have not been addressed further and are not widely accepted. Within the scope of genetic tests performed on Circassians, the closest relatives of Circassians were found to be Ingush, Chechens and Abkhazians."}
+{"text":"Some groups of nationalist Turks have claimed that the Circassians are of Turkic origin, but no scientific evidence has been published to support this claim, and has been strongly denied by Circassians, impartial research, linguists and historians around the world. Circassian language is not similar to the Turkish language except for borrowed words. According to various historians, the Circassian origin of the Sind-Meot tribes refutes the claim that the Circassians are of Turkic origin. The community, including Circassians, is today classified as \"White Caucasian Peoples\". Still, some Turkic groups have persisted in claiming Circassians are of Turkic origin, and argued that no proof is needed."}
+{"text":"In 1382, Circassian slaves took the Mamluk throne, the Burji dynasty took over and the Mamluks became a Circassian state. The Mongols, who started invading the Caucasus in 1223, destroyed some of the Circassians and most of the Alans. The Circassians, who lost most of their lands during the ensuing Golden Horde attacks, had to retreat to the back of the Kuban River. In 1395 Circassians fought violent wars against Tamerlane, and although the Circassians won the wars, Tamerlane plundered Circassia."}
+{"text":"In the 17th century, under the influence of the Crimean Tatars and of the Ottoman Empire, large numbers of Circassians converted to Islam from Christianity."}
+{"text":"In 1708, Circassians paid tribute to the Ottoman sultan in order to prevent Tatar raids, but the sultan did not fulfill the obligation and the Tatars raided all the way to the center of Circassia, robbing everything they could. For this reason, Kabardian Circassians announced that they would never pay tribute to the Crimean Khan and the Ottoman Sultan again. The Ottomans sent their army of at least 20,000 men to Kabardia under the leadership of the Crimean khan Kaplan-Girey to conquer the Circassians and ordered him collect the tribute. The Ottomans expected an easy victory against the Kabardinians, but the Circassians won because of the strategy set up by the Kazaniko Jabagh."}
+{"text":"The Crimean army was destroyed in one night on 17 September 1708. The Crimean Khan Kaplan-Giray barely managed to save his life, and was humiliated, all the way to his shoes taken, leaving his brother, son, field tools, tents and personal belongings. In 2013, the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences recognized that the Battle of Kinzhal Mountain with the paramount importance in the national history of Circassians, Balkarians and Ossetians."}
+{"text":"In 1714, Peter I established a plan to occupy the Caucasus. Although he was unable to implement this plan, he laid the political and ideological foundation for the occupation to take place. Catherine II started putting this plan into action. The Russian army was deployed on the banks of the Terek River."}
+{"text":"Although it is not known exactly how many people are affected, researchers have suggested that at least 75%, 90%, 94%, or 95% -97% of the ethnic Circassian population are affected. Considering these rates, calculations including those taking into account the Russian government's own archival figures, have estimated a loss 600,000-1,500,000. Ivan Drozdov, a Russian officer who witnessed the scene at Qbaada in May 1864 as the other Russians were celebrating their victory remarked:"}
+{"text":"The Ottoman Empire regarded the Adyghe warriors as courageous and well-experienced. It encouraged them to settle in various near-border settlements of the Ottoman Empire in order to strengthen the empire's borders."}
+{"text":"\"Circassia was a small independent nation on the northeastern shore of the Black Sea. For no reason other than ethnic hatred, over the course of hundreds of raids the Russians drove the Circassians from their homeland and deported them to the Ottoman Empire. At least 600,000 people lost their lives to massacre, starvation, and the elements while hundreds of thousands more were forced to leave their homeland. By 1864, three-fourths of the population was annihilated, and the Circassians had become one of the first stateless peoples in modern history\"."}
+{"text":"As of 2020, Georgia was the only country to classify the events as genocide, while Russia actively denies the Circassian genocide, and classifies the events as a simple migration of \"undeveloped barbaric peoples\"."}
+{"text":"The actions of the Russian military in acquiring Circassian land through expulsion and massacres have given rise to a movement among descendants of the expelled ethnicities for international recognition of the perpetration of genocide."}
+{"text":"On 20 May 2011 the Georgian parliament voted in a 95 to 0 declaration that Russia had committed genocide when it engaged in massacres against Circassians in the 19th century."}
+{"text":"Adyghe society prior to the Russian invasion was highly stratified. While a few tribes in the mountainous regions of Adygeya were fairly egalitarian, most were broken into strict castes. The highest was the caste of the \"princes\", followed by a caste of lesser nobility, and then commoners, serfs, and slaves. In the decades before Russian rule, two tribes overthrew their traditional rulers and set up democratic processes, but this social experiment was cut short by the end of Adyghe independence."}
+{"text":"Circassians mainly speak the Circassian languages, two mutually intelligible languages of the Northwest Caucasian language family, namely Adyghe (West Circassian) and Kabardian (East Adyghe). Adyghe is based on Temirgoy (Chemirgoy) dialect, while Kabardian is based on the dialect of the same name. Circassians also speak Russian, Turkish, English, Arabic, and Hebrew in large numbers, having been exiled by Russia to lands of the Ottoman Empire, where the majority of them live today, and some to neighboring Persia, to which they came primarily through mass deportations by the Safavids and Qajars or, to a lesser extent, as \"muhajirs\" in the 19th century."}
+{"text":"Linguists divide the Northwest Caucasian languages into three branches, namely Circassian (Adyghe and Kabardian), Ubykh (consisting only of the Ubykh language, which is considered to have diverged from the Circassian languages and is now a dead language), and Abazgi (Abkhaz and Abaza). The Ubykhs lived on the Black Sea coast, around the city of Sochi, the capital of Circassia, north of Abkhazia."}
+{"text":"Although related, Abazgi and Circassian are mutually unintelligible. Abazgi is spoken by Abkhazians and the Abazins. The Abkhazians lived on the coast between the Circassians and the Georgians, were organized as the Principality of Abkhazia and were involved with the Georgians to some degree. The Abazins or Abaza, their relatives, lived north of the mountains and were involved with Circassia proper. They extended from the mountain crest northeast onto the steppe and partially separated the Kabardians from the rest. Sadz were either northern Abkhazian or eastern Abaza, depending on the source."}
+{"text":"Walter Richmond writes that the Circassian languages in Russia are \"gravely threatened.\" He argues that Russian policy of surrounding small Circassian communities with Slavic populations has created conditions where Circassian languages and nationality will disappear. By the 1990s, Russian had become the standard language for business in the Republic of Adygea, even within communities with Circassian majority populations."}
+{"text":"Ancestors of modern Adyghe people gradually went through following various religions: Ancient Polytheists Beliefs, Christianity, and then Islam."}
+{"text":"It is the tradition of the early church that Christianity made its first appearance in Circassia in the first century AD via the travels and preaching of the Apostle Andrew. Subsequently, Christianity spread throughout the Caucasus between the 4th century and the 6th century."}
+{"text":"A small Muslim presence in Circassia has existed since the Middle Ages, but widespread Islamization occurred after 1717, when Sultan Murad IV ordered the Crimean Khans to spread Islam among the Circassians, with the Ottomans and Crimeans seeing some success in converting members of the aristocracy who would then ultimately spread the religion to their dependents. Moreover, the ever increasing threat of an invasion from Russia helped expedite the already centuries long process of gradual islamization of the region."}
+{"text":"Significant Christian and pagan presence remained among some tribes such as the Shapsugs and Natukhai with Islamization pressures implemented by those loyal to the Caucasus Emirate. Sufi orders including the Qadiri and Nakshbandi orders gained prominence and played a role in spreading Islam."}
+{"text":"Today, a large majority of Circassians are Muslim, with minorities of Habze, atheists and Christians. Atheist Circassians tend to be of the younger generation (20\u201335 years old), in which they were found to constitute a quarter of Circassians in Kabardino-Balkaria. Among Christians, Catholicism, originally introduced along the coasts by Venetian and Genoese traders, today constitutes just under 1% of Kabardins. Some Circassians are also Orthodox Christian, notably including those in Mozdok and some of those Kursky district. Among Muslims, Islamic observance varies widely between those who only know a few prayers with a Muslim identity that is more \"cultural\" than religious, to those who regularly observe all requirements."}
+{"text":"Both Islam and the Habze are identified as national characteristics even by those that do not practice. Today, Islam is a central part of life in many Circassian diaspora communities, such as in Israel, while in the Circassian homeland Soviet rule saw an extensive process of secularization, and there is wide influence of many social norms which contradict Islamic law, such as widespread norms like social alcohol consumption; in Israel, meanwhile, such non-Islamic social norms are not present."}
+{"text":"In the modern times, it has been reported that they identify primarily as Muslims. There have also been reports of violence and threats against those \"reviving\" and diffusing the original Circassian pre Islamic faith. The relationship between \"habze\" and Islam varies between Circassian communities; for some, there is conflict between the two, while for others, such as in Israel, they are seen as complementary philosophies."}
+{"text":"Society was organized by \"Adyghe khabze\", or Circassian custom. Many of these customs had equivalents throughout the mountains. The seemingly disorganized Circassians resisted the Russians just as effectively as the organized theocracy of Imam Shamil. The aristocracy was called \"warq\". Some aristocratic families held the rank of \"Pshi\" or prince and the eldest member of this family was the \"Pshi-tkhamade\" who was the tribal chief. Below the warq was the large class to \"tfokotl\", roughly yeomen or freemen, who had various duties to the \"warq\"."}
+{"text":"They were divided into clans of some sort. Below them were three classes approximating serfs or slaves. Of course, these Circassian social terms do not exactly match their European equivalents. Since everything was a matter custom, much depended on time, place, circumstances and personality. The three 'democratic' tribes, Natukhai, Shapsug, and Abdzakh, managed their affairs by assemblies called \"Khase\" or larger ones called \"Zafes\"."}
+{"text":"Decisions were made by general agreement and there was no formal mechanism to enforce decisions. The democratic tribes, who were perhaps the majority, lived mainly in the mountains where they were relatively protected from the Russians. They seem to have retained their aristocrats, but with diminished powers. In the remaining 'feudal' tribes power was theoretically in the hands of the \"Pshi-tkhamade\", although his power could be limited by Khases or other influential families."}
+{"text":"In addition to the vertical relations of class there were many horizontal relations between unrelated persons. There was a strong tradition of hospitality similar to the Greek \"xenia\". Many houses would have a \"kunakskaya\" or guest room. The duty of a host extended even to \"abreks\" or outlaws. Two men might be sworn brothers or \"kunaks\". There were brotherhoods of unrelated individuals called \"tleuzh\" who provided each other mutual support. It was common for a child to be raised by an \"atalyk\" or foster father. Criminal law was mainly concerned with reconciling the two parties. \"Adyghe khabze\" is sometimes called \"adat\" when it is contrasted to the kind of Islamic law advocated by people like Imam Shamil."}
+{"text":"The traditional female clothing ( ) was very diverse and highly decorated and mainly depends on the region, class of family, occasions, and tribes. The traditional female costume is composed of a dress ( ), coat ( ), shirt, pant ( ), vest ( ), lamb leather bra ( ), a variety of hats ( ), shoes, and belts ( )."}
+{"text":"Holiday dresses are made of expensive fabrics such as silk and velvet. The traditional colors of women's clothing rarely includes blue, green or bright-colored tones, instead mostly white, red, black and brown shades are worn. The Circassian dresses were embroidered with gold and silver threads. These embroideries were handmade and took time to complete as they were very intricate."}
+{"text":"The traditional male costume ( ) includes a coat with wide sleeves, shirt, pants, a dagger, sword, and a variety of hats and shoes. Traditionally, young men in the warriors\u2019 times wore coat with short sleeves\u2014in order to feel more comfortable in combat. Different colors of clothing for males were strictly used to distinguish between different social classes, for example white is usually worn by princes, red by nobles, gray, brown, and black by peasants (blue, green and the other colors were rarely worn)."}
+{"text":"A compulsory item in the traditional male costume is a dagger and a sword. The traditional Adyghean sword is called \"shashka\". It is a special kind of sabre; a very sharp, single-edged, single-handed, and guardless sword. Although the sword is used by most of Russian and Ukrainian Cossacks, the typically Adyghean form of the sabre is longer than the Cossack type, and in fact the word Shashka came from the Adyghe word \"Sashkhwa\" () which means \"long knife\". On the breast of the costume are long ornamental tubes or sticks, once filled with a single charge of gunpowder (called gaziri cartridges) and used to reload muskets."}
+{"text":"The Adyghe cuisine is rich with different dishes. In the summer, the traditional dishes consumed by the Adyghe people are mainly dairy products and vegetable dishes. In the winter and spring the traditional dishes are mainly flour and meat dishes. An example of the latter is known as \"ficcin\"."}
+{"text":"Circassian cheese is considered one of the more famous types of cheeses in the North Caucasus."}
+{"text":"A popular traditional dish is chicken or turkey with sauce, seasoned with crushed garlic and red pepper. Mutton and beef are served boiled, usually with a seasoning of sour milk with crushed garlic and salt."}
+{"text":"Variants of pasta are found. A type of ravioli may be encountered, which is filled with potato or beef."}
+{"text":"On holidays the Adyghe people traditionally make \"haliva\" () (fried triangular pastries with mainly Circassian cheese or potato), from toasted millet or wheat flour in syrup, baked cakes and pies. In the Levant there is a famous Circassian dish which is called Tajen Alsharkaseiah."}
+{"text":"The Adyghes have been famous for making carpets ( ) or mats worldwide for thousands of years."}
+{"text":"Making carpets was very hard work in which collecting raw materials is restricted to a specific period within the year. The raw materials were dried, and based on the intended colours, different methods of drying were applied. For example, when dried in the shade, its colour changed to a beautiful light gold colour. If it were dried in direct sun light then it would have a silver colour, and if they wanted to have a dark colour for the carpets, the raw materials were put in a pool of water and covered by poplar leaves ( )."}
+{"text":"The carpets were adorned with images of birds, beloved animals (horses), and plants, and the image of the Sun was widely used."}
+{"text":"The carpets were used for different reasons due to their characteristic resistance to humidity and cold, and in retaining heat. Also, there was a tradition in Circassian homes to have two carpets hanging in the guest room, one used to hang over rifles ( ) and pistols (), and the other used to hang over musical instruments."}
+{"text":"The carpets were used to pray upon, and it was necessary for every Circassian girl to make three carpets before marriage. These carpets would give the grooms an impression as to the success of their brides in their homes after marriage."}
+{"text":"From the late Middle Ages, a number of territorial- and political-based Circassian tribes or ethnic entities began to take shape. They had slightly different dialects."}
+{"text":"Dialects came to exist after Circassia was divided into tribes after the death of Inal of Kabardia, who united Circassia for the last time before its short reunion during the Russo-Caucasian War. As the logistics between the tribes became harder, each tribe became slightly isolated from one another, thus the people living under the banner of each tribe developed their own dialects. In time, the dialects they speak were named after their tribes."}
+{"text":"At the end of the Caucasian War most Circassians were expelled to the Ottoman Empire, and many of the tribes were destroyed and the people evicted from their historical homeland in 1864."}
+{"text":"The twelve stars on the Circassian flag symbolize the individual tribes of the Circassians; the nine stars within the arc symbolize the nine aristocratic tribes of Adygea, and the three horizontal stars symbolize the three democratic tribes. The three democratic tribes or tribes were the Natukhai, Shapsug, and Abdzakh. They managed their affairs by assemblies while the other tribes were controlled by \"princes\" or \"Pshi\". The twelve tribes are the Abdzakh, Besleney, Bzhedug, Hatuqwai, Kabardian, Mamkhegh, Natukhai, Shapsug, Temirgoy, Ubykh, Yegeruqwai, and Zhaney."}
+{"text":"Adyghe tribes with remnants still in Circassia are: Kabarda (the largest), the Temirgoy and Bzhedug in Adygea, and the Shapsug near Tuapse and to the north of Tuapsiysiy Rayon of Krasnodarskiy Kray. There are also a few Besleney and Natukhai villages, and an Abdzakh village. The majority tribes in diaspora are Kabardian, Abdzakh, and Shapsug."}
+{"text":"Small tribes or large clans that are included in one of the twelve Adyghe tribes:"}
+{"text":"The Circassian tribes can be grouped and compared in various ways:"}
+{"text":"Much of Adyghe culture was disrupted after the conquest of their homeland by Russia in 1864. The Circassian people were subjected to ethnic cleansing and mass exile mainly to the Ottoman Empire, and to a lesser extent Qajar Iran and the Balkans. This increased the number of Circassians in the region and even created several entirely new Circassian communities in the states that got created after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. However, Adyghe have also lived outside the Caucasus region since the Middle Ages. They were particularly well represented in Turkey and Egypt."}
+{"text":"Turkey has the largest Adyghe population in the world, around half of all Circassians live in Turkey, mainly in the provinces of Samsun and Ordu (in Northern Turkey), Kahramanmara\u015f (in Southern Turkey), Kayseri (in Central Turkey), Band\u0131rma, and D\u00fczce (in Northwest Turkey), along the shores of the Black Sea; the region near the city of Ankara. All citizens of Turkey are considered Turks by the government, but it is estimated that approximately two million ethnic Circassians live in Turkey. The \"Circassians\" in question do not always speak the languages of their ancestors, and in some cases some of them may describe themselves as \"only Turkish\". The reason for this loss of identity is mostly due to Turkey's Government assimilation policies"}
+{"text":"Circassians had settled n Cyprus during the Memluk period. However these were mainly members of Memluk Army and majority of them left the island during the Venetian period. Even though, Circassians have arrived to the island during the Otttoman Empire from Caucasus by ships and they settled Limasol Circassian Farm (Cerkez Ciftlik) and villages of Larnaca; Arsos (Yi\u011fitler), Vuda, Tremetousa (Erdemli), Paralimni in October, 1864. Cypriot Circassians had joined to Turkish Cypriot Community and some of them to Greek Cypriot Community. Although they lost their languages and cultures, they still express themselves as Circassian."}
+{"text":"In Israel, the Adyghe initially settled in three places\u2014in Kfar Kama, Rehaniya, and in the region of Hadera. Due to a malaria epidemic, the Adyghe eventually abandoned the settlement near Hadera. Though Sunni Muslim, Adyghe within Israel are seen as a loyal minority who serve in the Israeli armed forces."}
+{"text":"The Adyghe had a major role in the history of the Kingdom of Jordan. Over the years, various Adyghe have served in distinguished roles in the kingdom of Jordan. Adyghes have served as a prime minister (Sa'id al-Mufti), as ministers (commonly at least one minister should represent the Circassians in each cabinet), as high-ranking officers, etc., and due to their important role in the history of Jordan, Adyghe form the Hashemites' honour guard at the royal palaces. They represented Jordan in the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo in 2010, joining other honour guards such as the Airborne Ceremonial Unit. Jordanian Circassians cluster around several areas, most notably Sweileh in Amman."}
+{"text":"During the 13th century the Mamluks seized power in Cairo. Some 15th-century Circassian converts to Islam became Mamluks and rose through the ranks of the Mamluk dynasty to high positions, some becoming sultans in Egypt such as Qaitbay, Mamluk Sultan of Egypt (1468\u20131496). The majority of the leaders of the Burji Mamluk dynasty in Egypt (1382\u20131517) had Circassian origins, while also including Abkhaz, Abaza, and Georgian peoples whom the Arab sultans had recruited to serve their kingdoms as a military force. With the rise of Muhammad Ali Pasha (who ruled Egypt from 1805 to 1848), most senior Mamluks were killed by him in order to secure his rule and the remaining Mamluks fled to Sudan."}
+{"text":"Most Circassian communities in Egypt were assimilated into the local population. several thousand Adyghe reside in Egypt; in addition to the descendants of Burji Mamluks of Adyghe origin, there are many who descend from royal Circassian consorts or Ottoman pashas of Circassian origin as well as Circassian muhajirs of the 19th century."}
+{"text":"Adyghe came to Iraq directly from Circassia. They settled in all parts of Iraq\u2014from north to south\u2014but most of all in Iraq's capital Baghdad. Many Adyghe also settled in Kerkuk, Diyala, Fallujah, and other places. Circassians have played major roles in different periods throughout Iraq's history, and made great contributions to political and military institutions in the country, to the Iraqi Army in particular. Several Iraqi prime ministers have been of Circassian descent."}
+{"text":"However, significant communities of Circassians continue to live in particular cities in Iran, like Tabriz and Tehran, and in the northern provinces of Gilan and Mazandaran."}
+{"text":"Notable places of traditional Circassian settlement in Iran include Gilan Province, Fars Province, Isfahan, and Tehran (due to contemporary migration). Circassians in Iran are the nation's second largest Caucasus-derived nation after the Georgians."}
+{"text":"Significant communities live in Jordan, Syria (see Circassians in Syria), and smaller communities live in Israel (in the villages of Kfar Kama and Rehaniya\u2014see Circassians in Israel). Circassians are also present in Iraq. Baghdad, Sulaymaniyah, and Diyala comprise the country's main cities with Circassians, though lesser numbers are spread in other regions and cities as well."}
+{"text":"Out of 1,010 Circassians living in Ukraine (473 Kabardian Adyghe (Kabardin), 338 Adygean Adyghe, and 190 Cherkessian Adyghe (Cherkess)\u2014after the existing Soviet division of Circassians into three groups), only 181 (17.9%) declared fluency in the native language; 96 (9.5%) declared Ukrainian as their native language, and 697 (69%) marked \"other language\" as being their native language. The major Adyghe community in Ukraine is in Odessa."}
+{"text":"There is a small community of Circassians in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia. A number of Adyghe also settled in Bulgaria in 1864\u20131865 but most fled after it became separated from the Ottoman Empire in 1878. The small part of the community that settled in Kosovo (the Kosovo Adyghes) moved to the Republic of Adygea in 1998, after the reprisals of the Serbian occupation forces became heavily intensified. The majority of the community, however, remained in Kosovo where they have been well established and integrated into Kosovan society. Many members of this community can be identified as they carry the family name \"\u00c7erkezi\", or \"Qerkezi\". This community is also well established in the Republic of North Macedonia, usually mingling with the Albanian Muslim population."}
+{"text":"There are Circassians in Germany and a small number in the Netherlands."}
+{"text":"Numerous Circassians have also immigrated to the United States and settled in Upstate New York, California, and New Jersey. There is also a small Circassian community in Canada."}
+{"text":"The 2014 Winter Olympics facilities in Sochi (once the Circassian capital) were built in areas that were claimed to contain mass graves of Circassians who were killed during genocide by Russia in military campaigns lasting from 1860 to 1864."}
+{"text":"Adyghe organizations in Russia and the Adyghe diaspora around the world requested that construction at the site stop and that the Olympic Games not be held at the site of the Adyghe genocide, to prevent desecration of Adyghe graves. According to Iyad Youghar, who headed the lobby group International Circassian Council: \"We want the athletes to know that if they compete here they will be skiing on the bones of our relatives.\" The year 2014 also marked the 150th anniversary of the Circassian Genocide which angered the Circassians around the world. Many protests were held all over the world to stop the Sochi Olympics, but were not successful."}
+{"text":"The insurgency in the North Caucasus () was a low-level armed conflict between Russia and militants associated with the Caucasus Emirate and, since June 2015, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) groups, in the North Caucasus. It followed the official end of the decade-long Second Chechen War on 16 April 2009. It attracted people from the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and Central Asia, who then participated in the conflict, but volunteers from the North Caucasus are also fighting in Syria."}
+{"text":"The insurgency became relatively dormant in its later years. During its peak, the violence was mostly concentrated in the North Caucasus republics of Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia and Kabardino-Balkaria. Occasional incidents happened in surrounding regions, like North Ossetia-Alania, Karachay-Cherkessia, Stavropol Krai and Volgograd Oblast."}
+{"text":"The insurgency was officially declared over on 19 December 2017 after more than 8 years when FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov announced the final elimination of the terrorist underground in the North Caucasus."}
+{"text":"In late 1999, Russia's Premier, Vladimir Putin, ordered military, police and security forces to enter the breakaway region of Chechnya. By early 2000, these forces occupied most of the region. High levels of fighting"}
+{"text":"continued for several more years and resulted in thousands of Russian and Chechen casualties and hundreds of thousands of displaced persons. In 2005, Chechen rebel leader, Abdul-Halim Sadulayev, decreed the formation of a Caucasus Front against Russia, among Islamic believers in the North Caucasus, in an attempt to widen Chechnya's conflict with Russia. After his death, his successor, Dokka Umarov, declared continuing jihad to establish an Islamic fundamentalist Caucasus Emirate in the North Caucasus and beyond. Russia's pacification policy in Chechnya has involved setting up a pro-Moscow regional government and transferring more local security duties to this government."}
+{"text":"In the period from 2010 to 2014, the number of casualties in the North Caucasus insurgency declined each year, with the overall death toll falling by more than half. Reasons suggested for the decline include the deaths of high-ranking insurgency commanders, the increased targeting by security forces of the support infrastructure relied on by the insurgents, and an exodus of insurgents to other conflict zones. A special investigation by \"Reuters\" claimed that in the lead-up to the 2014 Sochi Olympics, Russian security services had allowed and encouraged militants to leave Russia to fight in the Syrian Civil War, in order to reduce the risk of domestic attacks."}
+{"text":"The insurgency in the North Caucasus is a direct result of the two post-Soviet wars fought between Russia and Chechnya. The First Chechen War was a nationalist struggle, with both secular and Islamist overtones, for independence from Russia and took place between 1994 and 1996. After a vicious struggle between Russian federal forces and Chechen separatist guerrillas, Chechnya was granted \"de facto\" independence per the terms of the Khasavyurt Accord, signed on 30 August 1996. With a devastated infrastructure and various armed factions, subordinate to specific warlords, the next three years saw Chechnya devolve into a corrupted and criminal state, plagued by armed gangs, an epidemic of kidnappings-for-ransom and the rise of radical Islam in the region as a response to suppression."}
+{"text":"In August 1999, an armed incursion of 1,500 Islamic radicals, led by Chechen warlord, Shamil Basayev, and Arab jihadist, Ibn al-Khattab, in support of a Dagestani separatist movement, combined with a series of apartment bombings in Russia, gave Moscow sufficient reasoning for re-invading Chechnya, thus triggering the Second Chechen War, a conflict fought with significant Islamist overtones."}
+{"text":"The republic remained a major center of violence for many years. According to Russian figures, between April 2009 (when the anti-terrorist operation in Chechnya was officially ended) and April 2010, 97 servicemen were killed in Chechnya; at the same time, government forces killed 189 persons claimed to be militants or their collaborators. Reported casualties declined, with 26 security forces and 24 suspected militants being killed in 2014."}
+{"text":"Dagestan is the most religious, populous and complex of all the north Caucasian republics. It is double the size of Chechnya and consists of several dozen ethnic groups, most with their own language. The conflict in Dagestan, however, is not between ethnic groups but between Sufism, a syncretic form of Islam which includes local customs and recognises the state, and Salafism, a more traditional form which rejects secular rule and insists that the Salafist interpretation of Islam should govern all spheres of life."}
+{"text":"Dagestan has the highest levels of violence and extremism in the North Caucasus republics. The Russian Interior Ministry stated that of the 399 terrorist crimes committed in the North Caucasus in 2013, 242 were in Dagestan."}
+{"text":"By 2017, all subversive and terrorist groups operating in Dagestan were eliminated."}
+{"text":"Along with Dagestan, Ingushetia bore the brunt of the violence in the North Caucasus in the Insurgencies early years. The Islamist insurgency in the republic sprang from the wars in neighbouring Chechnya in the 1990s and early 2000s. In June 2004, Ingush and Chechen fighters launched a large-scale attack on Ingushetia's biggest town, Nazran, killing scores of civilians, policemen and soldiers."}
+{"text":"As elsewhere in the North Caucasus, the brutality of state security forces has been a major factor, driving young men to join the Islamists. Under the presidency of the former KGB officer, Murat Zyazikov, teams of masked operatives kidnapped, tortured and killed suspected rebels and members of their families. Zyazikov's successor, Yunus-bek Yevkurov, appointed in 2008, had success in dampening the violence, although he was seriously injured in a suicide bombing by the militants during his first year in office. Human rights violations by Russian commandos decreased, but remained widespread."}
+{"text":"The capture of Ali Taziev in June 2010, an ethnic Ingush and one of the top leaders of the Caucasus Emirate, dealt a blow to the jihadists in Ingushetia, with the number of attacks falling substantially over the next 5 years. In mid-2015, Ingushetia's president, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, stated that the insurgency in the Republic had been 'defeated'."}
+{"text":"The insurgency in Kabardino-Balkaria began in the early 2000s and was led by the Yarmuk Jamaat, a militant Islamist jamaat which flourished as a result of persecution of Muslims by police and security forces."}
+{"text":"In October 2005, several score of the militants launched a raid on the capital of the republic, Nalchik, which left 142 people dead. The guerrillas have also carried out numerous assassinations of government officials and law enforcement officers."}
+{"text":"The republic saw a flare-up of violence in late 2010 and early 2011, in the wake of the death of Anzor Astemirov, a senior figure in the Caucasus Emirate and the head of its United Vilayat of Kabarda, Balkaria and Karachay. The new leaders of Kabardino-Balkaria's guerrilla movement, Asker Dzhappuyev and Ratmir Shameyev, preferred a more aggressive approach and the militants murdered several civilians in the republic, including Russian tourists. In response, a vigilante group called the Black Hawks threatened the relatives of some of the Islamists. Dzhappuyev, Shameyev and Khamurzov were killed in a special operation by security forces in April 2011."}
+{"text":"Casualties fell in the following years. There was a total of 49 people (militants, security forces and civilians) reported killed in the republic over the whole of 2014."}
+{"text":"On 9 September 2010, a car-bomb attack occurred at a crowded marketplace in Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia, killing 19 adults and children, and injuring over 190. President Medvedev responded, that \"we will certainly do everything to catch these monsters, who have committed a terrorist attack against ordinary people. What's more, a barbarous terrorist attack. We will do everything, so that they are found and punished in accordance with the law of our country, or in the case of resistance or other cases, so that they are eliminated.\""}
+{"text":"Vilayat Galgaycho reportedly took responsibility, stating that the attack was aimed against \"Ossetian infidels\" on \"occupied Ingush lands\"."}
+{"text":"The majority of the civilians killed were Russians, but also foreigners from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Belarus, Germany, Austria, United Kingdom and Armenia were killed in terrorist attacks."}
+{"text":"North Caucasian Soviet Republic (, \"Severo-Kavkazskaya Sovetskaya Respublika\") (July 7\u2013December, 1918) was a territory in the North Caucasus established to consolidate Soviet power during the Russian Civil War. A republic of the Russian SFSR, it was created by merging the Kuban-Black Sea Soviet Republic, the Stavropol Soviet Republic, and the Terek Soviet Republic. Its capital was Yekaterinodar; however, on August 17, 1918 Yekaterinodar was taken by Denikin's Volunteer Army, and the capital was moved to Pyatigorsk."}
+{"text":"By the end of 1918, when the majority of the republic's territory was captured by the White Army, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee abolished the republic."}
+{"text":"The North Caucasus Operation was a strategic offensive conducted by the Caucasian Front of the Red Army against the White Armed Forces of South Russia in the North Caucasus region between 17 January and 7 April 1920. It took place on the Southern Front of the Russian Civil War and was a Soviet attempt to destroy White resistance."}
+{"text":"The operation ended with the defeat of the White forces in the North Caucasus and the evacuation of the remnants of the Volunteer Army, reduced to a corps, to Crimea. The Red Army advanced to the borders of Georgia and Azerbaijan by the end of the operation, which was followed by an invasion of Azerbaijan."}
+{"text":"The Soviet plan provided for the four armies of the right wing and center to launch a strong frontal attack towards Yekaterinodar along the line from the mouth of the Don to Sadovoe and destroy the White troops, preventing them from retreating towards the Kuban. On the left wing, the 11th Army was to simultaneously launch an offensive against Kizlyar and Svyatoy Krest. Subsequently, the offensive of the front was to be directed towards the center and left wing, using converging attacks to defeat the White troops in the central and southern North Caucasus and capture Stavropol, Mineralnye Vody, the Grozny oilfields, and Dagestan."}
+{"text":"At the beginning of February Denikin ordered the subordination of the Separate Volunteer Corps to the Don Army for a counterattack, but the Caucasus Front preempted this by resuming the advance."}
+{"text":"The second phase of the offensive, described in Soviet historiography as the Tikhoretsk Operation, ran from 14 February to 2 March. During the operation, the Red attack decisively defeated the AFSR, splitting the White front in the North Caucasus in two and creating the conditions for the final attack. As a result, the strategic initiative in the Caucasus finally passed to the Red Army. To stave off complete defeat, Denikin began a retreat into the Kuban. Simultaneous with the Tikhoretsk Operation, the 11th Army cooperated with pro-Bolshevik partisans at Stavropol to carry out the Stavropol Operation, during which that city was taken on 29 February, and the Kuban Army (the renamed Caucasus Army) pushed back into the Kuban."}
+{"text":"In late April, the Caucasus Front advanced to the border of Georgia and Azerbaijan from the Black Sea to the Caspian, preceding the invasion of Azerbaijan. The front had captured an area of 296,000 square kilometers with a population of 6.91 million during the operation."}
+{"text":"The operation resulted in the destruction of a large portion of the AFSR, one of the strongest threats to the Bolsheviks; Soviet troops reported the capture of 163,600 White soldiers and officers, 537 guns, 723 machine guns, 23 armored trains, seventeen tanks, thirty armored cars, about 3.4 million artillery shells, and 60 million cartridges, among others. The victory of the operation freed up large forces for the Polish\u2013Soviet War and the Perekop\u2013Chongar Offensive later that year. In Crimea, Denikin gave up command to Pyotr Wrangel on 4 April and went into exile."}
+{"text":"For their actions in the operation, three rifle and three cavalry regiments of the Red Army were awarded the Honorary Revolutionary Red Banner along with a single artillery battery, while two regiments of the 21st Rifle Division received the Order of the Red Banner."}
+{"text":"The Siraces (, , also \"Siraceni\" and \"Seraci\") were a hellenized Sarmatian tribe that inhabited Sarmatia Asiatica; the coast of Achardeus at the Black Sea north of the Caucasus Mountains, Siracena is mentioned by Tacitus as one of their settlements. They were said to be relatively small nation but with great morale. They were neighbours to the later enemy tribe of Aorsi."}
+{"text":"They migrated from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea region. By the late 4th century, they had occupied lands between the Caucasus mountains and the Don, becoming masters of the Kuban region. They were the first Sarmatian tribe to have contact with the Hellenic groups on the coast of the Black Sea."}
+{"text":"In 310\u2013309 BC, their king Aripharnes took part in the Bosporan Civil War and lost at the battle of the River Thatis (a tributary of the Kuban river)."}
+{"text":"In the 1st century BC during the rule of Pharnaces II of Pontus, King of Siraces Abeacus organized 20,000 horses after the Roman occupation of the Kingdom of Pontus (63\u201362 BC)."}
+{"text":"They and the Aorsi were merchants who traded with goods of Babylonia and India through the Armenians and Medes, with camels. They profited greatly from this, seen in their clothing attributed with much gold."}
+{"text":"King Zorsines fought in the Bosporus under Mithridates, the king of Armenia, against the Dandaridae. Their ally Mithridates later turned against the Romans who had put Mithridates on the throne in 41. Mithridates eluded the Romans and recovered his kingdom. In the Bosporan War, The Aorsi under Prince Eunones, sent by Aquila and Cotys is sent after Mithridates and his lands, fights with Zorsines and sieges Uspe in 49 AD (The town offers 10,000 slaves for their capitulation but the assault continues as the Romans decline), Zorsines finally decides to leave Mithridates to rule his paternal lands, after giving hostages to the Romans and thus making peace. He acknowledged Roman superiority before the image of Emperor Claudius and the power of the Siraces is greatly weakened."}
+{"text":"They were the most hellenized of the Sarmatians, and maintained good relations with the Bosporans."}
+{"text":"Ptolemy mentions their colony in Sinai in the second century. In 193 AD, after another conflict in the Bosporus, the Siraces disappears from the history."}
+{"text":"See Marek Jan Olbrycht, Die Aorser, die Oberen Aorser und die Siraker bei Strabon. Zur Geschichte und Eigenart der V\u00f6lker im nordostpontischen und nordkaukasischen Raum im 2.-1. Jh. v. Chr. [The Aorsians, the Upper Aorsians, and the Sirakians in Strabo. On the History and Characteristics of the Peoples in the Northeastern Pontic and North Caucasian regions in the 2nd -1st century BC.], Klio 83(2001):425-450; DOI:10.1524\/klio.2001.83.2.425"}
+{"text":"Amjad Jaimoukha (Circassian: \u0416\u044d\u043c\u044b\u0445\u044a\u0443\u044d \u0410\u043c\u0434\u0436\u044d\u0434, ; sometimes quoted as \"\u0410\u043c\u044b\u0449\", the Circassian personal name) was a Circassian writer, publicist and historian, who wrote a number of books on North Caucasian \u2013 specifically Circassian and Chechen \u2013 culture and folklore. According to the \"Circassian Encyclopaedia\" \"Jaimoukha is perhaps the most important writer on Circassian issues\". He was considered one of the most influential Circassian writers and publicists in the last decade. In particular, he was active in promoting and assisting a new crop of Circassian and non-Circassian writers working on raising the profile of Caucasian issues at the global level."}
+{"text":"Jaimoukha published with the following Western publishing houses: Routledge [RoutledgeCurzon], Curzon, Bennett and Bloom, Palgrave (Macmillan) [St. Martin's Press], L'Harmattan. He also worked with Sanjalay Press and the International Centre for Circassian Studies."}
+{"text":"Jaimoukha was director of the International Centre for Circassian Studies (ICCS), an institute specialising in the dissemination of Circassian culture and folklore. The Centre is the brainchild of the famous Circassian writer and film producer and director Mohydeen Quandour. The principal aim of the Centre is the development and dissemination of Circassian literature, culture and folklore. There is a particular emphasis on boosting the status of Circassian and to promote its teaching and use. The Centre publishes a bilingual journal (in Circassian and English) \"The Hearth Tree\". The publications of the Centre can be accessed via its website."}
+{"text":"Jaimoukha devised a Latin orthography for Kabardian (Eastern Circassian) that is characterised by relative simplicity (considering the complexity of the language). An advantage of this system is that it has a one-to-one correspondence with the current Cyrillic orthography used for Kabardian, and already a software has been designed to render one orthography into the other, making it possible to turn works already published in Cyrillic Kabardian into the new orthography, and vice versa, facilitating transition from one system to the other."}
+{"text":"Jaimoukha previously held the position of Assistant President of the Royal Scientific Society (RSS) in the period 2003-2007. He published a number of studies and bibliographic tomes during his tenure at RSS, including \"Scientific Integrity\", \"Intellectual Capital Report\", and \"Bibliography of the Publications of the Royal Scientific Society\"."}
+{"text":"Principal literary collaborations included work with Nicholas Awde, the editor of the Caucasus World series published by Routledge and co-owner of the publishing house Bennett and Bloom, JonArno Lawson, the writer of a number of fantastic books, and Michel Malherbe, the prolific writer and editor of the \"Parlons...\" series published by the French publishing house L'Harmattan. A work on the Adigean dialect of Circassian was scheduled to be published by L'Harmattan in 2010. Jaimoukha contributed five articles (on the Circassians, Kabardians, Karachai, Dagestanis, and Jordan) in Carl Skutsche's seminal three-volume work \"Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities\", published by Routledge in 2004 in New York."}
+{"text":"There was a close co-operation with the Circassian writer Luba Belaghi (Balagova; publications in Circassian and Russian) in the framework of the publications of the International Centre for Circassian Studies."}
+{"text":"The Caucasian Imamate, also known as the Caucasus Imamate (), was the state established by the imams in Chechnya and Dagestan during the early-to-mid 19th century in the North Caucasus, to fight against the Russian Empire during the Caucasian War, where Russia sought to conquer the Caucasus in order to secure communications with its new territories south of the mountains."}
+{"text":"Previously in the Northeast Caucasus, there had, since recordable history, been a large array of states."}
+{"text":"Caucasian Albania had existed in Southern Dagestan, for most of its history being a vassal under the direct rule of the Parthians and later the Sasanid Persians, but eventually, the majority converted to Islam following the Muslim conquest of Persia, as their overlords did. Traveling Arabs proved to be instrumental in this, and after they left, they relinquished the new Muslim states of Lezghia (centered in the Islamic learning center of Derbent), Lakia (centered in another, rival city of Islamic learning, Kumukh) and their less important neighbors. In these areas (Southern and Southeast Dagestan), where interethnic conflict was often present, Islam served a unifying role, and it was often the clerical establishment which mediated disputes."}
+{"text":"Islam was far less well-ingrained, but still highly important in Chechnya. This region had always lain far outside the influence of Caucasian Albania and fiercely fought off the Arab invaders. The Georgian chronicles noted the existence of a Dzurdzuketia (Dzurdzuks, the Georgian name for the Vainakhs, the ancestors of Chechens and Ingush), which appears to have been absorbed into Alania at times, constituting an important part of the latter. Sarir was the strongest. Sarir at times adopted Christianity as the nominal, but not in reality, official religion. It was reduced at various times to a puppet state of Alania, Khazaria, or Sarmatia. In this area, kingdoms arose and fell or were subjugated frequently, and the Dido were reduced to their current state."}
+{"text":"In Chechnya, Islam was considerably less ingrained than in the Imamate's other claims. Islam only began to make inroads in the 16th century in Chechnya, and even then was not highly important, with the indigenous Vainakh religion still holding strong. It was only at the point of the threat of Russian conquest that people began to turn en masse, to Islam as a way to mobilize a coordinated resistance to Russian encroachment. Islam was spread to the Chechens this way mainly through the work of Sheikh Mansur. Nonetheless, as Shamil and his predecessors discovered, the actual commitment of the Chechens to Islam was disappointingly small. Paganism remained in practice until the early 19th century."}
+{"text":"Parts of the Muslim population started to radicalize due to rapacious Russian activity and taxation and were calling for a Gazawat (Holy War) and the enforcement of Sharia. Two imams, Imam Ghazi Muhammad and Imam Shamil, attempted to initiate the Gazawat they called for by trying to seize the capital of Khunzakh from the khan of Pakkou-Bekkhe in 1827. The attack failed and so, disheartened, the imams bided their time, waiting for the various Muslim tribes to agree with one another. In 1828, the two attacked again, this time in Northern Dagestan, and with success."}
+{"text":"The Russians, who at the time ruled over Northern Dagestan, were used to fighting on the open battlefields of Europe inlined formation instead of the thick woods of the Caucasus and so were very unprepared for the guerrilla tactics of the two imams, resulting in a victory for Ghazi and Shamil. However, this action would start the Caucasian War , a war between the Imamate and Russia that would eventually lead to the capture of all the Caucasus by the Russian Empire."}
+{"text":"Here the Imamate was formed, with Ghazi self-appointed as its first leader. The supreme government body of the Imamate, the State Council (D\u012bv\u0101n) was formed which consisted of Sufi Muslim scholars and students as well as Shamil's military lieutenants, his \"Naibs\"."}
+{"text":"During the war the Imamate would see support from other Muslim tribes, eventually amalgamating with Chechnya, parts of Ingushetia and the rest of Dagestan during the Imamship of Imam Shamil. The"}
+{"text":"western tribes, the Adyghes would fall under the control of the Imamate during Shamil's rule as well, but a problem arose in the form of the Kabardins and Ossetians that sat in between Shamil's east and west tribes, so these tribes were run mainly by Shamil's \"naibs\" who had traveled to the west instead of the \"D\u012bv\u0101n\" itself."}
+{"text":"The Imamate's first leader was Imam Ghazi Muhammad, who ruled from 1828 until 1832 when he was succeeded by Gamzat-bek four years later. When he was murdered in 1834, by a band which included Hadji Murad, Shamil became the third imam. The Imamate reached its peak under Shamil's rule, spanning all of the Muslim Northern Caucasus."}
+{"text":"The Imamate was a highly militaristic country, having been at war since its establishment. Its politics were always concerned with the furthering of Islam or the Caucasian War. As such, the only people that ever sat on its council were Muslim scholars or military \"naibs\"."}
+{"text":"The war and the surrender of the Imamate."}
+{"text":"Whereas previous enemies of the empire had been imprisoned, killed or exiled, Shamil became a national celebrity [in Russia]. After his surrender, he settled into a comfortable retirement in Kaluga, southeast of Moscow."}
+{"text":"In 1859, Shamil wrote to one of his sons: \"By the will of the Almighty, the Absolute Governor, I have fallen into the hands of unbelievers... the Great Emperor... has settled me here... in a tall, spacious house with carpets and all the necessities.\""}
+{"text":"After the Russian Revolution of 1917, an attempt to reestablish the Imamate with the help of Turkey, during March\u2013April 1918, was made by the son of one of Shamil's naibs, Najmuddin Hotso. This name stems from the Dagestani settlement of Gotso (when he was awarded nobility by Tsar). He was pronounced the fourth Imam of the North Caucasus and deposed the Soviet power, but was soon defeated by the Soviets. Hotso only had support in Dagestan, and there he carried on his fight (in Chechnya, meanwhile, North Caucasian nationalists of various creeds similarly went into guerrilla war against the Russians). Both were finally quelled in 1925."}
+{"text":"Alania was a medieval kingdom of the Iranian Alans (proto-Ossetians) that flourished in the Northern Caucasus, roughly in the location of latter-day Circassia, Chechnya, Ingushetia, and modern North Ossetia\u2013Alania, from its independence from the Khazars in the late 9th century until its destruction by the Mongol invasion in 1238\u201339. Its capital was Maghas, and it controlled a vital trade route through the Darial Pass. The kingdom reached its peak in the 11th century, under the rule of king Durgulel."}
+{"text":"The name \"Alania\" stems from the Old Iranian root *\"Ary\u0101na-\", a derivative form of the Indo-Iranian root *\"arya\"- ('Aryan'). It is cognate with the name of Iran (\"\u0112r\u0101n\"), which stems from the Old Persian \"*Ary\u0101n\u0101m\" ('of the Aryans')\".\""}
+{"text":"The Alans (Alani) originated as an Iranian-speaking subdivision of the Sarmatians. They were split by the invasion of the Huns into two parts, the European and the Caucasian. The Caucasian Alans occupied part of the North Caucasian plain and the foothills of the main mountain chain from the headwaters of the Kuban River in the west to the Darial Gorge in the east."}
+{"text":"After Leo assumed the imperial title, the land of his mountaineer allies was invaded by Umar II's forces. A Khazar chieftain, Barjik, hastened to their succor and, in 722, the joint Alan-Khazar army inflicted a defeat on the Arab general Tabit al-Nahrani. The Khazars erected Skhimar and several other strongholds in Alania at this period. In 728 Maslamah ibn Abd al-Malik, having penetrated the Gate of the Alans, devastated the country of the Alans. Eight years later, Marwan ibn Muhammad passed by the Gate in order to ravage the forts in Alania. In 758, as Ibn al-Faqih reports, the Gate was held by another Arab general, Yazid ibn Usayd."}
+{"text":"As a result of their united stand against the successive waves of invaders from the south, the Alans of the Caucasus fell under the overlordship of the Khazar Khaganate. They remained staunch allies of the Khazars in the 9th century, supporting them against a Byzantine-led coalition during the reign of the Khazar king Benjamin. According to the anonymous author of the Schechter Letter, many Alans were during this period adherents of Judaism."}
+{"text":"In the late 9th century, Alania became independent from the Khazars. In the early 10th century, the Alans fell under the influence of the Byzantine Empire due to King Constantine III of Abkhazia's activities in north Caucasus, the latter sent an army into Alan territory and, with the Byzantine patriarch Nicholas Mystikos, converted the Alans to Christianity. The conversion is documented in the letters of Patriarch Nicholas Mysticus to the local archbishop, Peter, who was appointed here through King George II of Abkhazia's efforts."}
+{"text":"When Ibn Rustah visited Alania at some point between 903 and 913, its king was by then Christian. The Persian traveller came to Alania from Sarir, a Christian kingdom immediately to the east:"}
+{"text":"The Byzantines, who had adopted an anti-Khazar foreign policy, involved the Alans in a war against the Khaganate during the reign of the Khazar ruler Aaron II, probably the early 920s. In this war the Alans were defeated and their king captured. According to Muslim sources such as al-Mas'udi (943\/56), the Alans abandoned Christianity and expelled the Byzantine missionaries and clergy roughly contemporaneously with these events. Aaron's son married the daughter of the Alan king and Alania was re-aligned with the Khazars, remaining so until the collapse of the Khaganate in the 960s."}
+{"text":"In the late 1230s all three Christian powers - Alania, Georgia, and Vladimir-Suzdal - fell before the Mongol invaders. Bishop Theodore of Alania described the plight of his metropolis in a lengthy epistolary sermon written during the tenure of Patriarch Germanus II (1222\u201340). The French-Flemish monk and traveler William of Rubruck mentions Alans numerous times in the account of his 1253\u20131255 journey through Eurasia to the Great Khan, e.g. Alans living as Mongol subjects in Crimea, Old Astrakhan, the Khan's capital Karakoram, and also still as freemen in their Caucasian homeland (\"the Alans or Aas, who are Christians and still fight the Tartars\")."}
+{"text":"The wars of Timur in the 14th century inflicted the final blow on Alania and decimated its population. Those who survived being killed or enslaved by the Mongols and Timur's armies, broke up into three groups. One retreated into the foothills and valleys of the central Caucasus and produced the two principal Ossetian groups, Digor and Iron. Another group of Alans migrated with the Kipchaks into Eastern Europe and preserved their language and ethnic identity as the Jassic people until the 15th century. The third group joined the Mongol horde and soon disappeared from history."}
+{"text":"The nomenclature used by the rulers of Alania is unknown. Where they are mentioned by historical records, they are variously called \"lord\", \"prince\", \"king\", \"tsar\", and by the Byzantines, \"exousiokrator\". Notably, the Byzantines never referred to other foreign rulers by this title, using \"arkhon\" or \"exousiastes\" instead."}
+{"text":"In the last years of the Soviet Union, as nationalist movements swept throughout the Caucasus, many intellectuals in the North Ossetian ASSR called for the revival of the name \"Alania\". A leading Ossetian philologist, T.A. Guriev, was the main advocate of this idea, insisting that the Ossetians should accept the name of the Alans as their self-designation and rename North Ossetia into Alania. The term \"Alania\" quickly became popular in Ossetian daily life through the names of various enterprises, a TV channel, political and civic organizations, a publishing house, a soccer team, an airline company etc. In November 1994, the name of \"Alania\" was officially added to the republican title (Republic of North Ossetia\u2013Alania)."}
+{"text":"The Nakh peoples today partly also known as Vainakh peoples (Chechen\/Ingush: , apparently derived from Chechen , Ingush \"our people\"; also Chechen-Ingush) are the speakers of the Vainakh languages. These are chiefly the ethnic Chechen (including the Chechen sub-ethnos, the Kists, in Georgia), Ingush and Bats peoples of the North Caucasus, including closely related minor or historical groups."}
+{"text":"Traditionally, Nakh peoples were known as a society with a highly developed and complex clan system. Individuals are united in family groups called \"Tsa\" \u2013 house. Several Tsa's are part of the \"Gar\" -branch or \"Nekh\"-road, a group of Gar's is in turn called a Teip. Teip is a unit of tribal organization of Vainakh people. Teip has its own Council of Elders and unites people from the political, economic and military sides. Teips leave all cases to the democratically elected representatives of houses i.e. \"Tsa\". The number of participants of Teipan-Khelli depends on the number of houses."}
+{"text":"Most teips made unions called Tukkhums. Tukkhum is a military-economic or military-political union of teips. Tukkhums were governed by a Board of Representatives of Teips, called \"Teipan-Khelli\". Teip's Council of Elders chose one or several people to submit their Teip in Tukkhum-Khelli (Council of Tukkhum). New Teips were included in tukkhums depending on their geographical location and on the harmonization of Tukkhum's Council of Elders. Joining a Tukkhum depended on the desire of a Teip itself. No one could force a teip to join a Tukkhum."}
+{"text":"All Vainakh Councils also bore responsibility and respect for law and order. If the problem is not solved in the Teip Council, it could move to the Tukkhum Council and further even to Mexk-Khel, a process which was called \"Mexkidaqqar\" meaning \"to make a state matter\" and \"bringing to Mexki\". Mexk-Khel name comes from the Nakh word \"Moxk,\" the state. On the top of the social structure stands the nation, which is referred to in most Nakh languages something resembling as \"Kham\"."}
+{"text":"It is notable that the Chechen and Ingush systems, as well as the system later adopted from them by some Eastern Circassian tribes, resembles the typical Western democratic republic. It has a central government with a legislative body (the Mexk-Khel), a body resemblant of an executive branch (the Council of Tukkhum) as well as a judicial branch (the other councils). The adat and other bodies have served as the constitution. The members of all three of the main national councils of the nation were elected, producing an indigenous democracy of the Nakh peoples."}
+{"text":"During the Soviet Union period, as well as during the Ramzan Kadyrov's regime, the Teip-Council system was strongly criticized by Russian governments and their puppet governments installed in Chechnya and Ingushetia, who viewed it as a destabilizing force and an obstacle to maintaining order. They said that such a system was illustrative of the anarchic nature of the Caucasian ethos."}
+{"text":"The democratic and egalitarian nature, the values of freedom and equality of Chechen society have been cited as factors contributing to their resistance to Russian rule. (In addition, there was no elite to be coopted by Tsarist authorities, as Wood notes)."}
+{"text":"According to Nakh ethos and moral codes such as the adat, hospitality is considered extremely important. Only freedom (the highest value) and equality are more important."}
+{"text":"The emphasis on hospitality has produced historic effects within the teip system. Several times, foreign groups who entered the territory have been completely integrated into the teip system, and developed their own teip. A notable example are ethnic Germans who lived among the Chechens after both groups were deported to exile in Kazakhstan and Siberia: during even as short a period of 13 years, the Germans decided to join the teip system. The new \"German\" teip was founded by M. Weisert, whose relatives still lived mainly in Germany."}
+{"text":"There have also been several periods when Jews living in Chechnya founded their own teip (teip Dzugtoi), which is still in existence. Its membership has declined considerably due to the flight of people from Chechnya during 21st-century wars. Teips were also formed, sometimes temporarily, by Russians (teips Orsi, Arsoi), Poles or Ukrainians. These teips are often eventually viewed as integral parts of the nation, despite their foreign origin."}
+{"text":"A characteristic feature of Vainakh architecture in the Middle Ages, rarely seen outside Chechnya and Ingushetia, was the Vainakh tower. This was a kind of multi-floor structure that was used for dwelling or defense (or both). Nakh tower architecture and construction techniques reached their peak from the 15th to 17th centuries."}
+{"text":"Residential towers had two or three floors, supported by a central pillar of stone blocks, and were topped with flat shale roofing. These towers have been compared in character to the prehistoric mountain settlements dating to 8000 BC."}
+{"text":"Military (\"combat\") towers were 25 meters high or more, with four of five floors and a square base approximately six meters wide. Access to the second floor was through a ladder. The defenders fired at the enemy through loopholes. The top of the tower had \"mashikul\" \u2013 overhanging small balconies without a floor. These towers were usually crowned with pyramid-shaped roofing built in steps and topped with a sharpened capstone."}
+{"text":"Buildings combining the functions of residential and military towers were intermediate in size between the two types, and had both loop-holes and \"mashikuls\". Nakh towers used to be sparingly decorated with religious or symbolic petrographs, such as solar signs or depictions of the author's hands, animals, etc. Military towers often bore a Golgopha cross."}
+{"text":"Some irrigation structures were built also on lowlands but they were less complicated."}
+{"text":"Carts and carriages made by Vainakh masters were highly valued in the region and beyond. Products of Vainakh masters brought power not only to the Caucasian peoples, but also by such excess power to the established industry of Russia. To support non-competitive domestic producers, Russia overlaid Vainakh manufacturers with large fees. At this complaining Terek Cossacks in their letters to Russian Government, despite the fact that they are a natural enemy of the tree. In 1722 the Russian Army bought 616 vehicles for 1308 rubles, at a time when the annual salary of the governor of the three villages was only 50 rubles."}
+{"text":"Since ancient times, the Chechen have been producing thin felt carpets called \"Istang\". Chechen rugs are distinguished by a peculiar pattern and high quality. Jacob Reineggs, who visited the region in the 18th century, noticed that Chechen and Ingush women skillfully manufactured carpets and fringes. Ornamen Vainakh carpets were divided among themselves into different groups dependent on patterns;"}
+{"text":"Only a few fragments of Vainakh mythology have survived to modern times. These fragments consist of the names of deities personifying elements of animist ideas, Nart saga, cosmogonic tradition, remnants of stock-breeding and landtilling, totemic beliefs and folk calendar."}
+{"text":"The greatest samples of Nakh mythology are the legends of Pkharmat, Galanchoge Lake, the epic war of Pkhagalberi (hare riders) dwarves against Narts, Kezanoi Lake, and myths about how sun, moon and stars appeared."}
+{"text":"The Nakh myth of the legendary Pkharmat being shackled on Mount Kazbek by God Sela because he has stolen heavenly fire from him shows some parallels with Greek Myth of Prometheus and Georgian Amirami."}
+{"text":"The legendary war of Pkhalberi (hare riders) dwarves against Narts can be compared to Greek \"Crane and Pygmies war\" by Said-Magomed Khasiev"}
+{"text":"The Golden Fleece myth seems to be bound to Nakh 11 years calendar tradition. In such a myth, ram skin was placed in an oak frame \"Jaar\" for 11 years, and produced golden fleece named \"Dasho Ertal\"."}
+{"text":"This legend has explicit parallels with Biblical Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Islamic Lot. The story tells us that there once was a very rich settlement at the place where now there is a lake. Despite their wealth, the people of this city were very greedy. Once God Dela sent his representatives in the guise of beggars, to test people. They asked all residents to give them food, but the residents of the city in response abused and drove them away. Only one poor family in the village shared their food with them."}
+{"text":"Legend has it that a poor family left a burnt bread for themselves and gave a piece of white bread for their guests. Leaving the house, the guests told the family that after some time has passed, water will be collected in puddles behind the front door, and when this happens they should gather the bare necessities, leave their home, and go to the mountains. Since poor families do not disobey and so did everything as they were told to do by the guests."}
+{"text":"They told the rich of the impending disaster, and asked to follow them. But their greed would not allow them to leave their treasures. That evening, the family watched a terrible catastrophe, they saw the water cover their house along with those who remained. In memory of the terrible events, Vainakhs named the lake, the lake of sorrow and cruelty, Kezanoi lake."}
+{"text":"In ancient Nakh cosmology, the universe was created by the supreme god Dela. Earth, created in three years, was three times larger than heavens and was propped up on the gigantic bullhorns. The realm of the Vainakh Gods was over the clouds. Ishar-Deela was the ruler of the subterranean world, Deeli-Malkhi. Deeli-Malkhi was larger than the realm of the human; it took seven years to create it. Nakhs believed that when the sun sets in the west it goes to the netherworld and vice versa. Deeli-Malkhi wasn't an evil realm of the dead or undead. It was almost similar to the upper world with some improvements in its social structures. There was no judgment in life after life."}
+{"text":"Dela-Malkh was the sun god playing a central role in religious celebrations. On 25 December Nakhs celebrated Sun Festival in honour of the Sun God's birthday."}
+{"text":"The names of stars and constellations were also connected to myths:"}
+{"text":"In the Middle Ages, Vainakh society felt a strong Byzantine influence that led to the adoption of Eastern Orthodox Christianity in some parts of the country (particularly the mountainous South). However, Christianity did not last long. After the devastation of the country by Tamerlane, Christianity was eroded (due to the temporary loss of contacts between Georgia and Nakh Christians) and gradually the Chechens and Ingush returned to their native, pagan beliefs (while the Bats were permanently Christianized). Islam began to spread on Nakh peoples lands from 16th and 17th centuries."}
+{"text":"Vainakhs are predominantly Muslim of the Shafi`i school of thought of Sunni Islam. The majority of Chechen (approx 1.5 million) and Ingush (500,000 people) people are Muslim of the Shafi`i school. Kists (about 7,100 people) are mainly Sunni Muslims with a Georgian Orthodox minority when Bats approx. 3,000 people are Christian (Georgian Orthodox)"}
+{"text":"By rite, most Chechens are Qadiris, with a considerable Nakshbandi minority. There is also a tiny Salafi minority (Sunni sect). The two main groups (Salafism is more of a modern introduction to the region, and is still considered to be completely foreign) have often had divergent responses to events (for example, the Qadiri authorities initially backing the Bolsheviks after the promised to grant freedom to the Chechens from Russia; while the Nakshbandis were more sceptical of the Bolsheviks' sincerity)."}
+{"text":"This attitude has been largely consistent (except for in 1998 when Maskhadov briefly allowed Sharia courts to appear due to intense pressure from his opponents, including Shamil Basayev and Salman Raduyev, in an attempt to find unity by compromise). It is noted by many observers, Chechen, Russian (such as Valery Tishkov) and Western (such as Paul B. Henze, though his wife is in fact Abkhaz, as well as Tony Wood and Anatol Lieven), that often, as seen in countries like Turkey and Albania, nationalist imagery -particularly the wolf, an animal viewed as symbolic of the Chechen nation- is given far more importance than religion."}
+{"text":"Burial vaults or crypts remained from the pagan period in the history of Vainakhs, before they converted to Islam in the 16th century (partially, the entire region, Islam has spread only in the 17th century.). They were built either a bit deepening into the ground or half underground and on the surface. The latter formed whole \u201ctowns of the dead\u201d on the outskirts of the villages and reminded sanctuaries from the outside, with a dummy vaults constructed of overlapping stones. The deceased were placed on the special shelves in the crypts, in clothes and decorations and arms."}
+{"text":"The general Islamic rituals established burials with the further penetration of Islam inside the mountainous regions of Chechnya and Ingushetia. Stone steles, churts, inscribed with prayers and epitaphs, began to be erected at the graves and more prosperous mountaineers were honoured with mausoleums after death. The Borgha-Kash Mausoleum dating to the very beginning of the 15th century and built for a Noghai prince is a good example of these."}
+{"text":"The Vainakh have been referred to by various names including \"Durdzuks\" in medieval Arab, Georgian and Armenian ethnography."}
+{"text":"Historical linguists including Johanna Nichols have connected ancestral Nakh languages and their distant relatives to a Neolithic migration from the Fertile Crescent."}
+{"text":"Another view, not necessarily contradicting the previous one, posits a migration of Nakh into their present location in the North Caucasus during the Classical era, following the collapse of Urartu."}
+{"text":"Igor Diakonoff and Sergei Starostin have suggested that Nakh is distantly related to Hurro-Urartian, which they included as a branch of the Northeastern Caucasian language family (which were dubbed Alarodian languages by Diakonoff). Several studies argue that the connection is probable. Other scholars, however, doubt that the language families are related, or believe that, while a connection is possible, the evidence is far from conclusive. Various interpretations of the Nakh-Urartian relationship exist: another, held by Kassian (2011), is that Urartian and Nakh's common vocabulary instead reflects a history of intense borrowing from Urartian into Nakh."}
+{"text":"Some of these place names are also held make reference to the ethnonym of the \"Ers\", a hypoethical Nakh people invented by Jaimoukha who he says inhabited a small region roughly in the northern part of what is now the Republic of Armenia where many of these placenames of interest are located."}
+{"text":"The following is a list of historical or prehistoric peoples who have been proposed as speakers of Nakh languages."}
+{"text":"According to Georgian scholars I.A. Djavashvili and Giorgi Melikishvili the Urartuan state of Supani was occupied by the ancient Nakh tribe Tzov, the state of which is called Tsobena in ancient Georgian historiography. Sophene was part of the kingdom of Urartu from the 8th to 7th centuries BCE. After uniting the region with his kingdom in the early 8th century BCE, king Argishtis I of Urartu resettled many of its inhabitants to his newly built city of Erebuni. However, Djavashvili's and Melikishvili's theory is not widely accepted."}
+{"text":"Despite Jaimoukha's claims, Strabo suggests that the Gargareans were Aeolian Greeks and locates their homeland Gargara in Troad, in the far west of modern Turkey."}
+{"text":"The Tsanars were a people of East-Central Northern Georgia, living in an area around modern Khevi. Tsanaria was their state, and it distinguished itself by the decisive role it and its people played in fending off the Arab invasion of Georgia. Their language is thought by many historians (including Vladimir Minorsky and Amjad Jaimoukha) to be Nakh, based on placenames, geographic location, and other such evidence. However, there is opposition to the theory that theirs was a Nakh language. Others claim they spoke a Sarmatian language like Ossetic. The Tsanars, too, eventually were assimilated within Georgiandom."}
+{"text":"Ghlighvi has been a historical name for the Ingush, possibly deriving from their ethnonym \"Ghalghaj\". It was first mentioned by Vakhushti of Kartli in 1745, a Georgian noble, who noted that they split off from the Durdzuks."}
+{"text":"The Malkhs were a Nakh people who were deemed to be the westernmost Nakh people, and made an alliance with the Greek Bosporus Kingdom."}
+{"text":"The Isadiks were an ancient Nakh people of the North Caucasus who were farmers. They were probably undone by Scythian invaders. A remnant of them may have been absorbed by the Vainakh, as their name can now be seen in the Chechen teip \"Sadoy\"."}
+{"text":"The Khamekits were another ancient Nakh people of the North Caucasus who were farmers. They were also probably undone by Scythian invaders. A remnant of them may have been absorbed by the Vainakh, as their name may now be reflected in the Ingush teip \"Khamki.\""}
+{"text":"Before the 19th century, the Arshtins were a Vainakh tukkhum living in between the Ingush and Chechens, with vague affinities to both groups, along the Sunzha River's middle reaches and its tributaries. The Arshtins were mostly known as Karabulaks, which they are called in Russian, from their Kumyk name. They also called themselves \"Baloi\". They were variously considered to be an independent people, a subgroup of Chechens, or a subgroup of Ingush (further complicated by the fact that many in the 19th century, including many Ingush themselves, considered the Ingush to be a subgroup of the Chechens). Their language is thought to have been similar to Chechen and Ingush (not unlike today's Galanchozh dialect spoken by the Myalkhi tukhum)."}
+{"text":"The Arshtins eventually were wiped out by Russian imperialism. The late 1850s saw the end of the Eastern and Central Caucasian resistance to Tsarist rule; and in 1865, the Deportation of Circassians occurred. Although the Russians mainly targeted Circassians for expulsion or murder, the Arshtins also were victims. In May\u2013July 1865, according to official documents, 1366 Arshtin families disappeared and only 75 remained. These 75 families joined (or rejoined) the Chechen nation as the Erstkhoi tukhum."}
+{"text":"The Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria is a federal subject of Russia (a republic), located in the Caucasus region."}
+{"text":"As with other parts of the Caucasus, the area that is now known as Kabardino-Balkaria has been inhabited for thousands of years. The origins of its inhabitants are somewhat obscure."}
+{"text":"It is known that proto-Kabardians called Kassogs were inhabiting that area already in the 9th century, as the Arab traveler Al Masudi speaks of them."}
+{"text":"Balkars were part of Alania and one of the Vainakh tribes, who were influenced by Turkic culture after the Mongol invasion's split of the lowlands of Nakh tribes and adopted the language. Also genetically they are closely related to Chechens and Ingush."}
+{"text":"The region came under the control of the Mongols between 1242 and 1295. It passed into the hands of the Georgians from 1295 to 1505 before falling, briefly, into the orbit of the Persian Empire between 1502 and 1516. It was then ruled by the Ottoman Empire from 1516 to 1557. From 1557, it became a protectorate of the expanding Russian state \u2013 first Muscovy, then the Russian Empire. See Kabardia."}
+{"text":"Kabardia gained independence briefly between 1739 and 1774, before being annexed by Russia under the terms of the Treaty of K\u00fc\u00e7\u00fck Kaynarca. Balkaria was annexed in 1827. The Russians established a number of forts in the region, notably at Nalchik (the republic's present-day capital), to secure their control over it. A significant number of Russians \u2013 many of Cossack descent \u2013 also settled there."}
+{"text":"During the Russian Civil War, the region became part of the anti-communist South-Eastern League (1917\u20131918), then joined the Mountain Peoples\u2019 Autonomous Republic in 1921. On September 1, 1921, with the emergence of the Soviet Union, the territories were organized into the Kabardin Autonomous Oblast. The region's name was changed to the Kabardino-Balkar Autonomous Oblast the following year, and on December 5, 1936 it was elevated in status and named Kabardino-Balkar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic."}
+{"text":"In 1944, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin falsely accused the Balkars of collaborating with Nazi Germany and deported the entire population. Their name was deleted from the territory, which was renamed the Kabardin ASSR. The Balkar population was only allowed to return in 1957 at which point its pre-war name was restored."}
+{"text":"Kabardino-Balkaria became a full republic in 1991 and in March 1992 became one of the constituent republics of the Russian Federation."}
+{"text":"The republic's economy was very hard hit by the fall of the Soviet Union and the outbreak of war in neighboring Georgia and nearby Chechnya. The instability produced by the conflicts led to a collapse in tourism in the region and produced an unemployment level estimated to be as high as 90%. The republic's mainly Muslim population has become increasingly radicalised by the region's instability. In October 2005, Kabardino-Balkaria's capital Nalchik was the site of fighting after an attack on the city by Chechen militants. On 1 July 1994 Kabardino-Balkaria became the second republic after Tatarstan to sign a power-sharing agreement with the federal government, granting it autonomy. This agreement would be abolished on 8 August 2002."}
+{"text":"The Mountain Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic or Mountain ASSR () was a short-lived autonomous republic within the Russian SFSR in the Northern Caucasus that existed from 20 January 1921, to 7 July 1924."}
+{"text":"The ASSR did not exist in its original state very long. Already on 1 September 1921, Kabardin Okrug was split from the ASSR as separate Kabardin Autonomous Okrug, subordinated directly to the RSFSR. Next came Karachay Okrug, which was transformed into Karachay Autonomous Okrug on 12 January 1922; Balkar Okrug, which was transformed into Balkar Autonomous Okrug on 16 January 1922; and Chechen Okrug, which was transformed into the Chechen Autonomous Oblast on 30 November 1922."}
+{"text":"By the Decree of the VTsIK of 7 July 1924, the remaining territory of the ASSR was partitioned into the North Ossetian Autonomous Oblast and the Ingush Autonomous Oblast. The Sunzha Cossack Okrug and the city of Vladikavkaz were directly subordinated to the VTsIK until 17 October 1924, when North Caucasus Krai was formed and integrated all of the former ASSR in addition to those two units."}
+{"text":"The Agri were an ancient people dwelling along the Palus Maeotis in antiquity. Strabo describes them as living among the Maeotae, Sindi, Dandarii, Toreatae, Arrechi, Tarpetes, Sittaceni, Dosci, and Aspurgiani, among others."}
+{"text":"Agri is one of the Maeotae tribes, who lived in the 1st millennium BC on the east and the southeast coast of the Azov sea. Russian scientists, archeologists, historians and ethnographers in the Soviet period concluded that the Maeotae is one of the tribes of the Adyghe people (Circassians)."}
+{"text":"In the \"Great Soviet Encyclopedia\" in the article about the Adyghe people) it says\"Living in the basin of the river Kuban part of the tribes ([[Adyghe people]]), as a rule, be indicated (names) of ancient historians under the collective name 'Maeotae'.\" In the article about the Maeotae it is written.\"Maeotae were engaged in farming and fishing. Part of the Maeotae by the language was akin to the Adygs (Circassians), the part of the Iranians. In the 4th\u20133rd centuries BC many of Maeotae included in the composition of the [[Bosporan kingdom]].\""}
+{"text":"Maghas or Maas \u2014 more properly, Mags or Maks \u2014 was the capital city of Alania, a medieval kingdom in the Greater Caucasus. It is known from Islamic and Chinese sources, but its location is uncertain, with some authors favouring North Ossetia and others pointing to Arkhyz in modern-day Karachay\u2013Cherkessia, where three 10th-century churches still stand."}
+{"text":"The destruction of Maghas is ascribed to Batu Khan, a Mongol leader and a grandson of Genghis Khan, in the beginning of 1239. Some Russian geographers, like D. V. Zayats, point to a location in Ingushetia."}
+{"text":"The capital of the Russian Republic of Ingushetia, Magas, is named after Maghas."}
+{"text":"The Toreatae (Greek: , Strabo xi. 2. 11) or Toretae (Greek: , Steph. B. \"s. v.\"; Dionys. Per. 682; Plin. vi. 5; Mela, i. 2; Avien. \"Orb. Terr.\" 867) were a tribe of the Maeotae in Asiatic Sarmatia. Strabo describes them as living among the Maeotae, Sindi, Dandarii, Agri, Arrechi, Tarpetes, Obidiaceni, Sittaceni, Dosci, and Aspurgiani, among others. (xi. 2. 11)"}
+{"text":"Ptolemy (v. 9. \u00a7 9) mentions a in Asiatic Sarmatia; and in another passage (iii. 5. \u00a7 25) he speaks of the (Toreccadae) as a people in European Sarmatia, who are perhaps the same as the Toretae or Toreatae."}
+{"text":"The Toreatae were one of the Maeotae tribes, who lived in the 1st millennium BC on the eastern and south-eastern coast of the Azov sea. Russian archeologists, historians and ethnographers in the Soviet period concluded that Maeotae was one of the names of the tribes of the Adyghe people (or Circassians): in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in the article \"Adyghe people\") was written:Living in the basin of the river Kuban were some of the tribes of the (Adyghe people), who generally were given the collective name \"Maeotae\" by ancient historians."}
+{"text":"The Maeotae, engaged in farming and fishing, were thought by other Soviet writers to be a mixture of speakers of Adyghe language and an Iranian language. In the 4th\u20133rd centuries BC many of them were incorporated into the Bosporan kingdom."}
+{"text":"A caftan or coat of linen with silk borders in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art represents the typical clothing worn by horsemen along the Silk Road in the North Caucasus during the 8th\u201310th centuries. The caftan is reconstructed from garment fragments excavated from a burial ground near Moshchevaja Balka (located by the Bolshaya Laba River in Karachay-Cherkessia, on the Pontic\u2013Caspian steppe). Moshchevaja Balka is considered part of the Saltovo-Mayaki archaeological culture."}
+{"text":"The caftan is associated with a pair of silk leggings with linen feet, also in the Met. Along with fragmentary garments from Moshchevaja Balka in the collection of the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, the caftan and leggings represent rare survivals of garments from the Caucasus, where the climate\u2014unlike that of more arid regions\u2014is not generally conducive to the preservation of organic materials."}
+{"text":"The Silk Road was the great overland trade route of the Ancient World, carrying goods including silks from China to the Mediterranean. By the 6th century C.E., tensions between Byzantium and the Sasanian Empire disrupted trade along the traditional route. Central Asian merchants developed a new route to Byzantium, going north from the Caspian Sea and crossing the Caucasus Mountains via steep passes (most prominently in the North Caucasus, the Darial Gorge). The first caravan carrying Chinese silks traveled via this North Caucasus route in 568. The Caucasus silk routes remained in use through the Middle Ages, losing their importance only in the 14th century."}
+{"text":"In the 20th century, many textile finds of this period were discovered near the mountain passes and on the piedmont below. The main site is a burial ground at Moshchevaja Balka (\"Ravine of the Mummies or Relics\"), in a densely wooded area about above sea level. Anna A. Ierusalimskaja, curator of the North Caucasian antiquities in the Hermitage, has written extensively on the finds (in Russian and in German), but Elfriede R. Knauer concludes that \"neither the age and places of manufacture of the majority of Chinese silks nor of those from the eastern Mediterranean recovered at the North Caucasian sites can as yet be defined with absolute certainty. In the absence of further criteria, Ierusalimskaja's dates can only be accepted with caution.\""}
+{"text":"These finds provide the context for the Met's caftan. It is consistent with documented finds from Moshchevaja Balka, where several tribes of the North Caucasus \"seem to have shared a fairly uniform and\u2014were it not for the textile finds\u2014unspectacular material culture, known as the Saltovo-Majaki culture\". The wearer could have been a man from Alania, in a region then under Khazar domination. These tribal horsemen would have served as local guides and carriers, collecting short lengths of silk as \"tolls and rewards\" in kind from among the textiles shipped via the northern route of the ancient Silk Road."}
+{"text":"The caftan is made of dense, bleached plain weave linen, now discolored from the grave. It is trimmed with a border of two distinct woven silk textiles, and had a sheepskin lining of which only traces remain. The cut or shape of the caftan is distinctive to men's coats of the Adygo-Alanic tribes of the central Caucasus, although the style shows influences from Persia, Central Asia, and the nomads of the steppe."}
+{"text":"The caftan is fitted to the upper body and has a flared skirt attached at the waist. The front is double-breasted, with the \"proper left front closing toward the right and the right front overlapping it\". Two long slits at the back, below the hipline, also trimmed with silk borders, accommodate a seated rider. The garment is secured with three sets of frogs, fabric-covered buttons and twisted loops of cording made of bias-cut strips of linen. The caftan is made from linen cloth woven as a bolt of fabric and cut using a \"semistraight\" structure, with triangles and trapezoids\u2014some of them pieced from smaller fragments of cloth\u2014assembled to shape the garment. This type of construction is common to traditional garments of Eastern Europe and Western Asia."}
+{"text":"The lower sleeves and upper neckline of the caftan have not survived, and it is unknown whether a collar or cuffs were part of the garment. The pieces are sewn with linen thread in neat flat-felled seams, and the upper body and skirts were assembled and trimmed separately before being joined at the waist. \"Overall, the high quality of the linen cloth, garment design, cutting, assembling, and sewing demonstrated remarkable professional coordination in comparison with ontemporaneous examples from other cultures, attesting to this region's elevated standards in artistic and technical achievements regarding textile culture and perhaps even social decorum.'"}
+{"text":"The Durdzuks (), also known as Dzurdzuks, was a Georgian name from \"The Georgian Chronicles\" used to describe a people in the North Caucasus, unanimously identified as the Vainakh peoples."}
+{"text":"\"Durdzuk\" was mentioned by the \"Chronicles\" as \"the most distinguished among the descendants of Kavkas\", who led his people, the Durdzuks, into the mountains, where they would become the ancestors of today's Vainakh peoples. Before his death, Targamos [Togarmah] divided the country amongst his sons, with Kavkasos [Caucas], the eldest and most noble, receiving the Central Caucasus. Kavkasos engendered the Chechen tribes, and his descendant, Durdzuk, who took residence in a mountainous region, later called \"Dzurdzuketia\" after him, established a strong state in the fourth and third centuries BC."}
+{"text":"The name Durdzuk traces back to the ancient city north of Lake Urmia, not far from Nakhichevan \/ Nakhchivan. Durdzuks and were remnants of the Urartians. Durdzuks were also known as the Hurrian tribe."}
+{"text":"In the \"Armenian Chronicles\", the Durdzuks defeated Scythians and became a significant power in the area in the region in the first millennium BC."}
+{"text":"Durdzuks allied themselves with Georgia, and helped the first Georgian king Pharnavaz I of Iberia consolidate his reign against his unruly vassals. The alliance with Georgia was cemented when King Pharnavaz married a Durdzuk girl."}
+{"text":"Later on, the Durdzuks are mentioned fighting the Mongols alongside their Georgian allies as well as the Osses. Durdzuk soldiers are mentioned fighting alongside Georgians against the troops of Jalal-ad-Din of Khwarezm. Queen Tamar of Georgia was highly esteemed, and the Durdzuks named daughters as well as bridges and other buildings after her."}
+{"text":"The \"Gate of Durdzuks\" mentioned in Georgian sources is thought to have been in the Assa gorge of Ingushetia, which is a path connecting the North and South Caucasus regions."}
+{"text":"Among the Chechen teips, the teip , consonant with the ethnonym Dzurdzuk, living in the Itum-Kale region of Chechnya. In 1926, on the Vashndar river in the Argun gorge of Chechnya, there was a Chechen aul (rural settlement) Zurzuk, now a tract southeast of the village of Ulus-Kert."}
+{"text":"The Durdzuks were known as the \"Dourts\" in the \"Geography of Armenia\"."}
+{"text":"The Great Horde (\"Ulu\u011f Orda\") was a rump state of the Golden Horde that existed from the mid 15th century to 1502.<ref name=\"https:\/\/books.google.se\/books?id=Ai1_5IHQ9vsC&pg=PA243&dq=great+horde+tatar&hl=sv&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjO4Mv57pfQAhVCDCwKHf3_DFg4FBDoAQgaMAA#v=onepage&q=great%20horde%20tatar&f=false\"><\/ref><ref name=\"https:\/\/books.google.se\/books?id=QjzYdCxumFcC&pg=PA159&dq=great+horde+tatar-mongol&hl=sv&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwio8YiR9ZfQAhVDiiwKHUsGD00Q6AEIYjAJ#v=onepage&q=great%20horde%20tatar-mongol&f=false\"><\/ref> It was centered at the core of the Golden Horde at Sarai. Both the Khanate of Astrakhan and the Khanate of Crimea broke away from the Great Horde throughout its existence, states that were hostile to the Great Horde. The defeat of the forces of the Great Horde at the Great Stand on the Ugra River by Ivan III of Russia marked the end of the Tatar yoke over Russia."}
+{"text":"Joint rule of K\u00fcch\u00fck Muhammad and Sayid Ahmad I."}
+{"text":"The Crimean Khanate, which had become a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire in 1475, subjugated what remained of the Great Horde, sacking Sarai in 1502. After seeking refuge in Lithuania, Sheikh Ahmed, last Khan of the Horde, died in prison in Kaunas some time after 1504. According to other sources, he was released from the Lithuanian prison in 1527."}
+{"text":"The Crimean Khanate considered its state as the heir and legal successor of the Golden Horde and Desht-i Kipchak, called themselves khans of \"the Great Horde, the Great State and the Throne of the Crimea\"."}
+{"text":"The Khuni, Huni or Chuni were a people of the North Caucasus during late antiquity. They have sometimes been referred to as the North Caucasian Huns and are often assumed to be related to the Huns who later entered Eastern Europe. However, the ethnolinguistic and geographical origins of the Khuni are unclear."}
+{"text":"The first contemporaneous reference to the Khuni may be by Dionysius Periegetes and Claudius Ptolemy's Geography, in the 2nd century CE, when they are said to be living near the Caspian Sea."}
+{"text":"Agathangelos claims that there were Huns living among the peoples of the Caucasus in 227 and that they were related to the Iranian Huns."}
+{"text":"In 535 or 537, an Armenian missionary team headed by the bishop Kardost baptized many of the North Caucasian Huns. The Syriac source reporting this event also indicates that a writing system for Hunnic was developed."}
+{"text":"Huns are said to have established a polity in Daghestan in the 6th century CE. This may have incorporated numerous indigenous Caucasian peoples."}
+{"text":"In 682 Bishop Israel of Caucasian Albania led an unsuccessful delegation to convert Alp Iluetuer, the ruler of the Caucasian Huns, to Christianity. It has been suggested that Iluetuer is a corruption of the Khazar title \"elteber\" (\"client-ruler) and that this people was subordinate to Khazar rulers from the mid to late 7th century. They are frequently described as being allied with the Khazars in their various wars of the period, particularly against the Caliphate."}
+{"text":"Little is known about their fate after the early 8th century. It is likely that they became incorporated into the Khazar Khaganate. However, it is likely that they survived in some form or another for several centuries, possibly even until the 11th century."}
+{"text":"Hunnic state Djidan was an early feudal Kumyk state"}
+{"text":"The Obidiaceni were an ancient people dwelling along the Palus Maeotis in antiquity. Strabo describes them as living among the Maeotae, Sindi, Dandarii, Toreatae, Agri, Arrechi, Tarpetes, Sittaceni, Dosci, and Aspurgiani, among others."}
+{"text":"The Obidiaceni is one of the Maeotae tribes, who lived in the 1st millennium BC on the east and the southeast coast of the Azov sea."}
+{"text":"Russian scientists, archeologists, historians and ethnographers in the Soviet period concluded that the Maeotae is one of the tribes of the Adyghe people (Circassians)."}
+{"text":"In the \"Great Soviet Encyclopedia\" in the article about the Adyghe people) it says\"Living in the basin of the river Kuban part of the tribes ([[Adyghe people]]), as a rule, be indicated (names) of ancient historians under the collective name 'Maeotae'.\" In the article the [[Maeotae]] it is written.\"[[Maeotae]] were engaged in farming and fishing. Part of the Maeotae by the language was akin to the Adygs (Circassians), the part of the Iranians. In the 4th\u20133rd centuries BC many of [[Maeotae]] included in the composition of the [[Bosporan kingdom]].\""}
+{"text":"The Caucasus Campaign of 1734\u20131735 was the last great campaign of the Ottoman\u2013Persian War (1730\u201335) which ended in a Persian victory allowing Nader to recast Persian hegemony over almost the entire Caucasus, region, reconconquering it for the Safavid state."}
+{"text":"The Caucasus had fallen under Ottoman control since 1722 with the collapse of the Safavid state. The first target of the campaign was the reconquering of the Shirvan Khanate, with its capital Shamakhi falling in August 1734 freeing up the Persian forces to march west and lay siege to Ganja. The battlements of Ganja as well as its garrison of 14,000 soldiers provided a formidable defence. After Tahmasp Khan Jalayer engaged and routed a joint Ottoman and Crimean Tatar force in the south east Caucasus Nader cut their line of retreat further west dealing them another crippling blow, scattering them into the mountains north."}
+{"text":"The mountains to the north in Avarestan made any pursuit of the defeated foe a daunting prospect especially considering the approach of winter, so Nader chose to turn west and besiege Ganja where he was drawn into an intense effort to capture the surprisingly formidable fortress. The Persian artillery was still severely lacking in strong siege guns and consisted mostly of field batteries which were effective in battles but unable to make significant impact against city walls and battlements."}
+{"text":"Failing in their siege artillery capacity the Persian sent sappers to dig underground to reach the citadels walls from beneath but the Turks received timely intelligence reports revealing the intention of the besiegers. Tunnelling underground the Persians and Ottomans burrowed into each other's way whence they came to grips in hand-to-hand combat. The Persians were able to detonate six charges killing 700 Ottoman defenders but still failed in their main object of destroying the citadels walls. The Persians also lost some 30 to 40 men themselves."}
+{"text":"Nader having besieged many of the key cities and fortresses in the area awaited the arrival of Koprulu Pasha's main army of some 130,000 men according to Nader's court historian Mirza Mehdi Astarabadi, prompting Nader to gather his advance guard of around 15,000 men and march them westwards to engage the relief army under Koprulu Pasha. By the time the main Persian army of 40,000 reached the scene of the battle Nader, despite the enormous disparity in numbers, routed the Ottomans, forcing Istanbul to finally sign a peace recognizing Persian control of the Caucasus and the border in Mesopotamia already agreed to in the treaty of Zuhab."}
+{"text":"The crushing defeat at Baghavard also provided sufficient persuasion to retreat for the 50,000 Crimean Tatars who were commanded by the Turkish Sultan to march south along the coast of the black sea descending down into the Caucasus in order to aid Koprulu Pasha's forces."}
+{"text":"Under the Brezhnev Doctrine, the Soviet Union reserved the right to intervene in other socialist states. In response, China moved towards the United States following the Sino-Soviet border conflict and later reformed and liberalized its economy while the Eastern Bloc saw the Era of Stagnation in comparison with the capitalist First World. The Soviet\u2013Afghan War nominally expanded the Eastern Bloc, but the war proved unwinnable and too costly for the Soviets, challenged in Eastern Europe by the civil resistance of \"Solidarity\". In the late 1980s, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev pursued policies of \"glasnost\" (openness) and \"perestroika\" (restructuring) to reform the Eastern Bloc and end the Cold War, which brought forth unrest throughout the bloc."}
+{"text":"Post-1991 usage of the term \"Eastern Bloc\" may be more limited in referring to the states forming the Warsaw Pact (1955\u20131991) and Mongolia (1924\u20131992), which are no longer communist states. Sometimes they are more generally referred to as \"the countries of Eastern Europe under communism\", excluding Mongolia, but including Yugoslavia and Albania which had both split with the Soviet Union by the 1960s."}
+{"text":"Prior to the common use of the term, in the 1920s \"Eastern Bloc\" was used to refer to a loose alliance of the eastern and central European countries."}
+{"text":"Even though Yugoslavia was a socialist country, it was not a member of the COMECON or the Warsaw Pact. Parting with the USSR in 1948, Yugoslavia did not belong to the East, but it also did not belong to the West because of its socialist system and its status as a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement. However, many sources consider Yugoslavia to be a member of the Eastern Bloc. Others consider Yugoslavia not to be a member after it broke with Soviet policy in the 1948 Tito\u2013Stalin split."}
+{"text":"In 1922, the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Byelorussian SSR and the Transcaucasian SFSR approved the Treaty of Creation of the USSR and the Declaration of the Creation of the USSR, forming the Soviet Union. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, who viewed the Soviet Union as a \"socialist island\", stated that the Soviet Union must see that \"the present capitalist encirclement is replaced by a socialist encirclement\"."}
+{"text":"Expansion of the Soviet Union from 1939 to 1940."}
+{"text":"In 1939, the USSR entered into the Molotov\u2013Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany that contained a secret protocol that divided Romania, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Finland into German and Soviet spheres of influence. Eastern Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Bessarabia in northern Romania were recognized as parts of the Soviet sphere of influence. Lithuania was added in a second secret protocol in September 1939."}
+{"text":"The Soviet Union had invaded the portions of eastern Poland assigned to it by the Molotov\u2013Ribbentrop Pact two weeks after the German invasion of western Poland, followed by co-ordination with German forces in Poland. During the Occupation of East Poland by the Soviet Union, the Soviets liquidated the Polish state, and a German-Soviet meeting addressed the future structure of the \"Polish region.\" Soviet authorities immediately started a campaign of sovietization of the newly Soviet-annexed areas. Soviet authorities collectivized agriculture, and nationalized and redistributed private and state-owned Polish property."}
+{"text":"Initial Soviet occupations of the Baltic countries had occurred in mid-June 1940, when Soviet NKVD troops raided border posts in Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, followed by the liquidation of state administrations and replacement by Soviet cadres. Elections for parliament and other offices were held with single candidates listed and the official results fabricated, purporting pro-Soviet candidates' approval by 92.8 percent of the voters in Estonia, 97.6 percent in Latvia, and 99.2 percent in Lithuania. The fraudulently installed peoples assemblies immediately requested admission into the USSR, which was granted by the Soviet Union, with the annexations resulting in the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, and Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic. The international community condemned this initial annexation of the Baltic states and deemed it illegal."}
+{"text":"In 1939, the Soviet Union unsuccessfully attempted an invasion of Finland, subsequent to which the parties entered into an interim peace treaty granting the Soviet Union the eastern region of Karelia (10% of Finnish territory), and the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic was established by merging the ceded territories with the KASSR. After a June 1940 Soviet Ultimatum demanding Bessarabia, Bukovina, and the Hertza region from Romania, the Soviets entered these areas, Romania caved to Soviet demands and the Soviets occupied the territories."}
+{"text":"In June 1941, Germany broke the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact by invading the Soviet Union. From the time of this invasion to 1944, the areas annexed by the Soviet Union were part of Germany's Ostland (except for the Moldavian SSR). Thereafter, the Soviet Union began to push German forces westward through a series of battles on the Eastern Front."}
+{"text":"In the aftermath of World War II on the Soviet-Finnish border, the parties signed another peace treaty ceding to the Soviet Union in 1944, followed by a Soviet annexation of roughly the same eastern Finnish territories as those of the prior interim peace treaty as part of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic."}
+{"text":"From 1943 to 1945, several conferences regarding Post-War Europe occurred that, in part, addressed the potential Soviet annexation and control of countries in Central Europe. There were various Allied plans for state order in Central Europe for post-war. While Joseph Stalin tried to get as many states and his control as possible, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill preferred a Central European Danube Confederation to counter these countries against Germany and Russia. Churchill's Soviet policy regarding Central Europe differed vastly from that of American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, with the former believing Soviet leader Stalin to be a \"devil\"-like tyrant leading a vile system."}
+{"text":"When warned of potential domination by a Stalin dictatorship over part of Europe, Roosevelt responded with a statement summarizing his rationale for relations with Stalin: \"I just have a hunch that Stalin is not that kind of a man. . . . I think that if I give him everything I possibly can and ask for nothing from him in return, noblesse oblige, he won't try to annex anything and will work with me for a world of democracy and peace\". While meeting with Stalin and Roosevelt in Tehran in 1943, Churchill stated that Britain was vitally interested in restoring Poland as an independent country. Britain did not press the matter for fear that it would become a source of inter-allied friction."}
+{"text":"In February 1945, at the conference at Yalta, Stalin demanded a Soviet sphere of political influence in Central Europe. Stalin eventually was convinced by Churchill and Roosevelt not to dismember Germany. Stalin stated that the Soviet Union would keep the territory of eastern Poland they had already taken via invasion in 1939, and wanted a pro-Soviet Polish government in power in what would remain of Poland. After resistance by Churchill and Roosevelt, Stalin promised a re-organization of the current pro-Soviet government on a broader democratic basis in Poland. He stated that the new government's primary task would be to prepare elections."}
+{"text":"The parties at Yalta further agreed that the countries of liberated Europe and former Axis satellites would be allowed to \"create democratic institutions of their own choice\", pursuant to \"the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live.\" The parties also agreed to help those countries form interim governments \"pledged to the earliest possible establishment through free elections\" and \"facilitate where necessary the holding of such elections.\""}
+{"text":"At the beginning of the July\u2013August 1945 Potsdam Conference after Germany's unconditional surrender, Stalin repeated previous promises to Churchill that he would refrain from a \"sovietization\" of Central Europe. In addition to reparations, Stalin pushed for \"war booty\", which would permit the Soviet Union to directly seize property from conquered nations without quantitative or qualitative limitation. A clause was added permitting this to occur with some limitations."}
+{"text":"At first, the Soviets concealed their role in other Eastern Bloc politics, with the transformation appearing as a modification of Western \"bourgeois democracy\". As a young communist was told in East Germany, \"it's got to look democratic, but we must have everything in our control\". Stalin felt that socioeconomic transformation was indispensable to establish Soviet control, reflecting the Marxist\u2013Leninist view that material bases, the distribution of the means of production, shaped social and political relations."}
+{"text":"Moscow-trained cadres were put into crucial power positions to fulfill orders regarding sociopolitical transformation. Elimination of the bourgeoisie's social and financial power by expropriation of landed and industrial property was accorded absolute priority. These measures were publicly billed as \"reforms\" rather than socioeconomic transformations. Except for initially in Czechoslovakia, activities by political parties had to adhere to \"Bloc politics\", with parties eventually having to accept membership in an \"antifascist bloc\" obliging them to act only by mutual \"consensus\". The bloc system permitted the Soviet Union to exercise domestic control indirectly."}
+{"text":"Crucial departments such as those responsible for personnel, general police, secret police and youth were strictly Communist run. Moscow cadres distinguished \"progressive forces\" from \"reactionary elements\" and rendered both powerless. Such procedures were repeated until Communists had gained unlimited power and only politicians who were unconditionally supportive of Soviet policy remained."}
+{"text":"In June 1947, after the Soviets had refused to negotiate a potential lightening of restrictions on German development, the United States announced the Marshall Plan, a comprehensive program of American assistance to all European countries wanting to participate, including the Soviet Union and those of Eastern Europe. The Soviets rejected the Plan and took a hard-line position against the United States and non-communist European nations. However, Czechoslovakia was eager to accept the US aid; the Polish government had a similar attitude, and this was of great concern to the Soviets."}
+{"text":"In one of the clearest signs of Soviet control over the region up to that point, the Czechoslovakian foreign minister, Jan Masaryk, was summoned to Moscow and berated by Stalin for considering joining the Marshall Plan. Polish Prime minister J\u00f3zef Cyrankiewicz was rewarded for the Polish rejection of the Plan with a huge 5-year trade agreement, including $450\u00a0million in credit, 200,000 tons of grain, heavy machinery and factories."}
+{"text":"In July 1947, Stalin ordered these countries to pull out of the Paris Conference on the European Recovery Programme, which has been described as \"the moment of truth\" in the post-World War II division of Europe. Thereafter, Stalin sought stronger control over other Eastern Bloc countries, abandoning the prior appearance of democratic institutions. When it appeared that, in spite of heavy pressure, non-communist parties might receive in excess of 40% of the vote in the August 1947 Hungarian elections, repressions were instituted to liquidate any independent political forces."}
+{"text":"In that same month, annihilation of the opposition in Bulgaria began on the basis of continuing instructions by Soviet cadres. At a late September 1947 meeting of all communist parties in Szklarska Por\u0119ba, Eastern Bloc communist parties were blamed for permitting even minor influence by non-communists in their respective countries during the run up to the Marshall Plan."}
+{"text":"In the former German capital Berlin, surrounded by Soviet-occupied Germany, Stalin instituted the Berlin Blockade on 24 June 1948, preventing food, materials and supplies from arriving in West Berlin. The blockade was caused, in part, by early local elections of October 1946 in which the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) was rejected in favor of the Social Democratic Party, which had gained two and a half times more votes than the SED. The United States, Britain, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and several other countries began a massive \"Berlin airlift\", supplying West Berlin with food and other supplies."}
+{"text":"The Soviets mounted a public relations campaign against the western policy change and communists attempted to disrupt the elections of 1948 preceding large losses therein, while 300,000 Berliners demonstrated and urged the international airlift to continue. In May 1949, Stalin lifted the blockade, permitting the resumption of Western shipments to Berlin."}