#dneipr

[otmaaromanovas]

Over 14 NEW photographs of the Romanov sisters have been discovered

I will endeavour to post them all individually eventually, with extra information!

Some of these may seem familiar, but they are new angles/poses taken at the same time as more famous, existing photos.

As always, discovered by Ilia, LastRomanovs on Flickr!

[kazimirovich]

The root of negative German-Russian relations is the depth and seriousness of our differing cultural outlooks on open windows.

[fapangel]

Does Russia have any chance of taking meaningful ground past the Dneipr at this point?

They could definitely do it if they 1. actually focused their efforts in the south instead of splitting a smaller force up between three different axes of advance, and 2. waited for the ground conditions to improve a bit so armor can work better while 3. doing their best to consolidate their gains instead of blyatkrieging around. Having an entire BTG effectively destroyed up in Voznesensk really exemplifies what blyatkrieg has cost them.

I suspect they're going to switch tactics now and try to drive up the east and west banks of the Dnieper simultaneously, so they can cut off Zapoizhzhia from both sides. Problem is the major bridges over the Dnieper at that point are absolutely wired to blow by now so I'm not quite sure what they think it will avail them. It wouldn't let them push into the heart of the Ukrainian rear areas directly; the forces on either side of the city would have no real communication with each other. They'd still have this problem to deal with:

See those big wide-open NO HIGHWAYS areas on the west side of the river, there? This is why they were pushing up towards Bashtanka and Kryvyi Rih, they need those roads. Unfortunately for the Russians this is hard to do without investing Mykolaiv to prevent flanking attacks to fuck with that line of supply. But as you've seen me posting and saying before a LOT of what we see coming out of Mykolaiv is Ukrainians filming fucked up Russian equipment out in the urban boonies; not in the city proper. The Russians were confirmed via commercial sat to be established in the northern suburbs, but you can't really invest the city there. You can certainly bypass the city to use the highway for blyatkrieg (at the cost of artillery strikes on your supply convoys) but they already did that and lost a BTG up at Voznesenk. So any way you dice it they need to properly control all that open terrain right up to the outskirts of Mykolaiv to secure their main supply route north and allow them to get into the Ukrainian interior. This is a good reason for them to want Odessa - even if the Ukies blew the bridges in Mykolaiv (and they openly said they were wired to blow, now) they could conceivably bring supplies in via ship at the Odessa port. Ships move a lot of freight and rail to ship operations have been a staple of commercial logistics since trains were invented.

Which leads me to the one possible exception; the big-ass lake south of Zaporizhzhia where the Dnieper gets w i d e could perhaps be bypassed with a ferry link. Same for the river north of Dnirpro, which has the added benefit of being a rail hub so (if they can capture any train engines intact on the other side or somehow magic one across which is a big fuckin doubt.png but possible) they could use barges (or even those ten landing ships since they're Ro-Ro's) to ferry trucks or intermodal containers across. Thing is the Russian supply trains I've seen don't seem to USE intermodal containers. I'm still thinking about all this and looking at all angles but if I were the Russians I'd stop fucking around on that side of the river entirely, hold Kherson strongly and divert as much forces as I could to breaking through the Ukrainian defensive lines in the south to actually try and cut off that big chunk of the Ukrainian army in the east. Only reason I can think of for still wasting precious manpower in ugly city fighting in Mariupol against very angry, determined and skilled defenders is to get Mariupol's port facilities and use those landing ships and/or commercial ro-ros to shuttle in cargo trucks from Russia proper; again since it's such a short ferry that could achieve good throughput. They have Crimea and all but that's still just one rail link (the Kerch strait bridge is a bit of a chokepoint there) and two would be better. Obviously, linking up with the Donbas forces and opening a contiguous route from western Russia to the interior of Ukraine would help too but the Ukrainians have been very proactive in blowing bridges and overpasses and even though most of those rivers are very bridgeable 1. the Russians seem to have a shortage of pontoon bridges (more on this later) and 2. you can't pontoon bridge for a train far as I know, so they'll have to actually repair all the small rail bridges. That takes time but man, Mariupol is clearly taking fucking LONGER, so. Whether or not they actually do this depends on if they're thinking or not. We'll see.

[orthodoxydaily]

Saints&Reading: Sat., July 24, 2021

July 25 ( old cal.) _July 11 ( new cal.) 

 St OLGA of KIEV,  EQUAL-TO-THE-APOSTLES (969)

Saint Olga, Equal of the Apostles, was the wife of the Kievan Great Prince Igor. The struggle of Christianity with paganism under Igor and Olga, who reigned after Oleg (+ 912), entered into a new phase. The Church of Christ in the years following the reign of Igor (+ 945) became a remarkable spiritual and political force in the Russian realm. The preserved text of a treaty of Igor with the Greeks in the year 944 gives indication of this: it was included by the chronicler in the “Tale of Bygone Years,” under the entry recording the events of the year 6453 (945).

The peace treaty had to be sworn to by both the religious communities of Kiev: “Baptized Rus”, i.e. the Christian, took place in the cathedral church of the holy Prophet of God Elias (July 20); “Unbaptized Rus”, i.e. the pagans, in turn swore their oath on their weapons in the sanctuary of Perun the Thunderer. The fact, that Christians are included in the document in the first place, indicates their significant spiritual influence in the life of Kievan Rus.

Evidently at the moment when the treaty of 944 was being drawn up at Constantinople, there were people in power in Kiev sympathetic to Christianity, who recognized the historical inevitability of involving Rus into the life-creating Christian culture. To this trend possibly belonged even prince Igor himself, whose official position did not permit him personally to go over to the new faith, nor at that time of deciding the issue concerning the Baptism of the whole country with the consequent dispersal throughout it of Orthodox Church hierarchs. The treaty therefore was drawn up in the circumspect manner of expression, which would not hinder the prince to ratify it in either the form of a pagan oath, or in the form of a Christian oath.

But when the Byzantine emissaries arrived in Kiev, conditions along the River Dneipr had essentially changed. A pagan opposition had clearly emerged, at the head of which stood the Varangian voevoda (military-leader) Svenel’d (or Sveinald) and his son Mstislav (Mtsisha) to whom Igor had given holdings in the Drevlyani lands.

Strong also at Kiev was the influence of the Khazar Jews, who could not but be displeased with the thought of the triumph of Orthodoxy in the Russian Land.

Unable to overcome the customary inertia, Igor remained a pagan and he concluded the treaty in the pagan manner, swearing an oath on his sword. He refused the grace of Baptism and was punished for his unbelief. A year later, in 945, rebellious pagans murdered him in the Drevlyanian land, cut down betwixt two trees. But the days of paganism and the lifestyle of the Slavic tribes basic to it were already numbered. The burden of government fell upon the widow of Igor -- the Kiev Great-princess Olga, and her three-year-old son Svyatoslav.

The name of the future enlightener of the Russian Land and of her native region is first to be met with in the “Tale of Bygone Years,” in the phrase where it speaks about the marriage of Igor: “and they brought him a wife from Pskov, by the name of Olga.” She belonged, so specifies the Joakimov Chronicle, to the lineage of the Izborsk princes, -- one of the obscure ancient-Russian princely dynasties, of which in Rus during the 10th-11th Centuries there numbered no less than twenty, but who were all displaced by the Rurikovichi or merged otherwise with them through marriage. Some of them were of local Slavic descent, others -- Varangian new-comers. It is known, that the Scandinavian Viking “koenigs” (kinglets) called to become princes in the Russian cities -- invariably assimilated to the Russian language, and often, they soon became genuinely Russian with Russian names and lifestyle, world-outlook and even physical appearance of attire.

Thus, Igor’s wife also had the Varangian name “Helga,” which in Russian is pronounced Olga. The feminine name Olga corresponds to the masculine name “Oleg” (Helgi), which means “holy” [from Germanic “heilig” for “holy”]. Although the pagan understanding of holiness was quite different from the Christian, it also presupposed within a man a particular frame of reference, of chastity and sobriety of mind, and of insight. The fact that people called Oleg the Wise-Seer (“Veschi”) and Olga the Wise (“Mudra”) shows the spiritual significance of names.

Rather later traditions regard her a native of a village named Vybuta, several kilometers from Pskov up along the River Velika. They still not so long ago used to point out at the river the Olga Bridge, the ancient fording place, where Olga was met by Igor. The Pskov geographic features have preserved several names connected with this great descendent of Pskov: the village of Ol’zhinets and Ol’gino Pole (Olga Field); the Olga Gateway, one of the branches of the River Velika; Olga Hill and the Olga Cross near Lake Pskov; and the Olga Stone at the village of Vybuta.

The beginning of the independent rule of Princess Olga is connected in the chronicles with the narrative about her terrible revenge on the Drevlyani, who murdered Igor. Having sworn their oaths on their swords and believing “only in their swords”, the pagans were doomed by the judgment of God to also perish by the sword (Mt. 26: 52). Worshipping fire among the other primal elements, they found their own doom in the fire. And the Lord chose Olga to fulfill the fiery chastisement.

The struggle for the unity of Rus, for the subordination to the Kievan center of mutually divisive and hostile tribes and principalities paved the way towards the ultimate victory of Christianity in the Russian Land. For Olga, though still a pagan, the Kiev Christian Church and its Heavenly patron saint the holy Prophet of God Elias [in icons depicted upon a fiery chariot] stood as a flaming faith and prayer of a fire come down from the heavens, and her victory over the Drevlyani—despite the severe harshness of her victory, was a victory of Christian constructive powers in the Russian realm over the powers of a paganism, dark and destructive.

The God-wise Olga entered into history as a great builder of the civil life and culture of Kievan Rus. The chronicles are filled with accounts of her incessant “goings” throughout the Russian land with the aim of the well-being and improvement of the civil and domestic manner of life of her subjects. Having consolidated the inner strengthening of the might of the Kiev great-princely throne, thereby weakening the influence of the hodge-podge of petty local princes in Rus, Olga centralized the whole of state rule with the help of the system of “pogosti” (administrative trade centers). In the year 946 she went with her son and retinue through the Drevlyani land, “imposing tribute and taxes”, noting the villages, inns and hunting places, liable for inclusion in the Kiev great-princely holdings. The next year she went to Novgorod, establishing administrative centers along the Rivers Msta and Luga, everywhere leaving visible traces of her activity. “Her lovischa (hunting preserves) were throughout all the land, the boundary signs, her places and administrative centers, wrote the chronicler, and her sleighs stand at Pskov to this very day, as are her directed places for snaring of birds along the Dneipr and the Desna Rivers; and her village of Ol’zhicha stands to the present day.”

The “pogosti” established by Olga, as financial-administrative and law-court centers, represented sturdy props of great-princely power in these places.

Being first of all, and in the actual sense of the word, centers of trade and exchange (the merchant as “guest”) gathered together and became organized around the settlements (and in place of the “humanly arbitrary” gathering of tribute and taxes, there now existed uniformity and order with the “pogosti” system). Olga’s “pogosti” became an important network of the ethnic and cultural unification of the Russian nation.

Later on, when Olga had become a Christian, they began to erect the first churches at the “pogosti”; from the time of the Baptism of Rus the “pogost” and church (parish) became inseparably associated. (It was only afterwards with the existence of cemeteries alongside churches that there developed the current meaning of the Russian word “pogost” to nowadays signify “parish graveyard”.)

Princess Olga exerted much effort to fortify the defensive might of the land. The cities were built up and strengthened, Vyshgorod (or Detintsa, Kroma) they enclosed with stone and oak walls (battlements), and they bristled them with ramparts and pallisades. Knowing how hostile many were to the idea of strengthening the princely power and the unification of Rus, the princess herself lived constantly “on the hill” over the Dneipr, behind the trusty battlements of Kievan Vyshgorod (“Verkhna-gorod” or “Upper-city”), surrounded by her faithful retainers. Two thirds of the gathered tribute, as the chroniclers testify, she gave over for the use of the Kiev “veche” (city-council), and the remaining one third went “to Olga, for Vyshgorod” -- for the needs of building fortifications. And to the time period of Olga, historians note the establishment of the first state frontiers of Russia -- to the west, with Poland. Heroic outposts to the south guarded the peaceful fields of the Kievans from the peoples of the Wild Plains. Foreigners hastened to Gardarika (“the land of cities”), as they called Rus, with merchandise and craftwares. Swedes, Danes, Germans all eagerly entered as mercenaries into the Russian army. The foreign connections of Kiev spread. This furthered the development of construction with stone in the city, the beginnings of which was initiated under Olga. The first stone edifices of Kiev -- the city palace and Olga’s upper enclosure -- were discovered by archaeologists only but in this century. (The palace, or more properly its foundations and remains of the walls were found in excavations during the years 1971-1972).

But it was not only the strengthening of the civil realm and the improvement of domestic norms of the manner of life for people that attracted the attention of the wise princess. Even more urgent for her was the fundamental transformation of the religious life of Rus, the spiritual transfiguration of the Russian nation. Rus had become a great power. Only two European realms could compare with it during these years in significance and might: in Eastern Europe -- the ancient Byzantine empire, and in the West the kingdom of Saxony.

The experience of both empires, connected with the exaltation in spirit of Christian teaching, with the religious basis of life, showed clearly, that the way to the future greatness of Rus lay not through military means, but first of all and primarily through spiritual conquering and attainment. Having entrusted Kiev to her teenage son Svyatoslav, and seeking grace and truth, Great-princess Olga in the Summer of 954 set off with a great fleet to Constantinople. This was a peaceful “expedition”, combining the tasks of religious pilgrimage and diplomatic mission, but the political considerations demanded that it become simultaneously a display of the military might of Rus on the Black Sea, which would remind the haughty “Romaioi” [Byzantine Greeks] of the victorious campaigns of Askold and Oleg, who in the year 907 advanced in their shields “to the very gates of Constantinople.”

The result was attained. The appearance of the Russian fleet in the Bosphorus created the necessary effect for the developing of Russo-Byzantine dialogue. In turn, the southern capital struck the stern daughter of the north with its variety of beauty and grandeur of architecture, and its jumbled mixture of pagans and peoples from all over the world. But a great impression was produced by the wealth of Christian churches and the holy things preserved in them. Constantinople, “the city of the imperial Caesar,” the Byzantine Empire, strove in everything to be worthy of the Mother of God, to Whom the city was dedicated by Saint Constantine the Great (May 21) in 330 (see May 11). The Russian princess attended services in the finest churches of Constantinople: at Hagia Sophia, at Blachernae, and others.

In her heart the wise Olga found the desire for holy Orthodoxy, and she made the decision to become a Christian. The sacrament of Baptism was made over her by the Constantinople Patriarch Theophylactus (933-956), and her godfather was the emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitos (912-959). At Baptism she was given the name Helen in honor of the holy Equal of the Apostles Helen (May 21), the mother of Saint Constantine, and she also had been the discoverer of the Venerable Wood of the Cross of the Lord. In an edifying word spoken at the conclusion of the rite, the Patriarch said: “Blessed are you among Russian women, for you have forsaken the darkness and have loved the Light. The Russian people shall bless you in all the future generations, from your grandson and great-grandson to your furthermost descendants.” He instructed her in the truths of the Faith, the churchly rules and the rule of prayer, he explained the commands about fasting, chastity and charity. “She, however,” says the Monk Nestor, “bowed her head and stood, literally like a sponge absorbing water, listening to the teaching, and bowing down to the Patriarch, she said, “By your prayers, O Master, let me be preserved from the wiles of enemies”.

It is in precisely this way, with a slightly bowed head, that Saint Olga is depicted on one of the frescoes of the Kiev Sophia cathedral, and likewise on a Byzantine miniature contemporary to her, in a manuscript portrait of the Chronicles of John Scilitius in the Madrid National Library. The Greek inscription, accompanying the miniature, terms Olga “Archontissa (i.e. ruler) of Rus,” “a woman, Helga by name, who came to the emperor Constantine and was baptized”. The princess is depicted in special head attire, “as a newly-baptized Christian and venerable deaconess of the Russian Church.” Beside her in the same attire of the newly-baptized -- is Malusha (+ 1001), the future mother of the Equal of the Apostles Saint Vladimir (July 15).

For one who had originally so disliked the Russians as did the emperor Constantine Porphyrigenitos, it was no trivial matter for him to become the godfather to the “Archontissa of Rus”. In the Russian chronicles are preserved narratives about this, how resolutely and on an equal footing Olga conversed with the emperor, amazing the Greeks by her spiritual depth and wisdom of governance, and displaying that the Russian nation was quite capable of accepting and assimilating the highest attainments of the Greek religious genius, the finest fruition of Byzantine spirituality and culture. And thus by a peaceful path Saint Olga succeeded in “taking Constantinople”, something which no other military leader before her had ever been able to do. According to the witness of the chronicles, the emperor himself had to admit, that Olga “had given him the slip” (had outwitted him), and the popular mind, jumbling together into one the traditions about Oleg the Wise and Olga the Wise, sealed in its memory this spiritual victory in the bylina or folk-legend entitled “Concerning the Taking of Constantinople by Princess Olga”.

In his work “About the Ceremonies of the Byzantine Court,” which has survived to the present day in just one copy, Constantine Porphyrigenitos has left us a detailed description of the ceremony surrounding the stay of Saint Olga at Constantinople. He describes a triumphant reception in the famed Magnaura palace, beneath the singing of bronze birds and the roars of copper lions, where Olga appeared with an impressive retinue of 108 men (not counting the men of Svyatoslav’s company). And there took place negotiations in the narrower confines of the chambers of the empress, and then a state dinner in the hall of Justinian. And here during the course of events, there providentially met together at one table the four “majestic ladies”: the grandmother and the mother of holy Equal of the Apostles Saint Vladimir (Saint Olga and her companion Malusha), and the grandmother and the mother of Saint Vladimir’s future spouse Anna (the empress Helen and her daughter-in-law Theophano). Slightly more than half a century would pass, and at the Desyatin church of the Most Holy Theotokos at Kiev would stand aside each other the marble tombs of Saint Olga, Saint Vladimir and “Blessed Anna”.

During the time of one of these receptions, as Constantine Porphyrogenitos relates, the Russian princess was presented a golden plate inset with jewels. Saint Olga offered it to the vestry of the Sophia cathedral, where at the beginning of the thirteenth century it was seen and described by the Russian diplomat Dobrynya Yadeikovich (who afterwards was to become the Novgorod archbishop Anthony): “The large golden official plate of Olga of Russia, when she took it as tribute, having come to Constantinople; upon the plate be precious stones, and upon it is written in these stones the name Christ”.

Moreover, the wily emperor, after reporting such details as would underscore how “Olga had given him the slip”, also presents a difficult riddle for historians of the Russian Church. This is it: Saint Nestor the Chronicler relates in the “Tale of Bygone Years” that the Baptism of Olga took place in the Biblical year 6463 (955 or 954), and this corresponds to the account of the Byzantine chronicles of Kedrinos. Another Russian Church writer of the eleventh century, Yakov Mnikh, in his work “Eulogy and Laudation to Vladimir... and how Vladimir’s Grandmother Olga was Baptized”, speaks about the death of the holy princess (+ 969) and he notes that she lived as a Christian for fifteen years, and he places the actual date of Baptism as the year 954, which corresponds within several months to the date indicated by Nestor. In contrast to this, describing for us the stay of Olga at Constantinople and providing the precise dates of the receptions given in her honor, Constantine Porphyrogenitos has us to understand in no uncertain terms that all this occurred in the year 957.

To reconcile the cited chronicles, on the one hand, with the testimony of Constantine on the other hand, Russian Church historians are led to suppose one of two things: either Saint Olga made a second journey to Constantinople in the year 957 to continue negotiations with the emperor, or she was not baptized at Constantinople, having previously been baptized at Kiev in 954, and that she was merely making a pilgrimage to Byzantium, since she was already a Christian. The first supposition is the more credible.

As for the immediate diplomatic outcome of the negotiations, there were basic matters for Saint Olga that had been left unsettled. She had gained success on questions concerning Russian trade within the territories of the Byzantine Empire, and also the reconfirmation of the peace accord with Byzantium, concluded by Igor in the year 944. But she had not been able to sway the emperor on two issues of importance to Rus: the dynastic marriage of Svyatoslav with a Byzantine princess, and the conditions for restoring an Orthodox metropolitan to Kiev as had existed at the time of Askold. The evidently inadequate outcome of her mission is detected in her answer, when she had already returned home, which was given to emissaries sent out by the emperor. To the emperor’s inquiry about promised military aid, Saint Olga curtly replied through the emissaries: “If you had spent time with me at Pochaina, as I did at the Court, then I would send the soldiers to help you.”

Amidst all this, in spite of her failed attempts at establishing the Church hierarchy within Rus, Saint Olga, after becoming a Christian, zealously devoted herself to efforts of Christian evangelization among the pagans, and also church construction: “demanding the distressing of demons and the beginning of life for Christ Jesus”. She built churches: of Saint Nicholas and the church of the Holy Wisdom at Kiev, of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos at Vytebsk, and of the Holy Life-Creating Trinity at Pskov. Pskov from that period has been called in the chronicles the Domicile of the Holy Trinity. The church, built by Olga at the River Velika at a spot pointed out to her from on high, according to the chronicler, by a “light-beam of the Thrice-Radiant Divinity”, stood for more than one and an half centuries. In the year 1137 holy Prince Vsevolod-Gabriel (February 11) replaced this wooden temple with one made of stone, which in turn in 1363 was rebuilt and replaced finally with the presently existing Trinity cathedral.

Another very important monument of Russian “Monument Theology”, as Church architecture frequently is termed, connected with the name of Saint Olga, is the temple of the Wisdom of God at Kiev, which was started soon after her return from Constantinople, and consecrated on May 11, 960. This day was afterwards observed in the Russian Church as a special Church feastday.

In the Mesyatseslov (calendar supplement)of a parchment Epistle-book from 1307, under May 11 is written: “On this day the consecration of Saint Sophia took place at Kiev in the year 6460.” The date is indicated in the so-called “Antiochian” rather than generally-accepted Constantinople chronology, and it corresponds to the year 960 from the Birth of Christ.

It was no mere coincidence that Saint Olga received in Baptism the name of Saint Helen, who found the Venerable Wood of the Cross at Jerusalem (March 6). The foremost sacred item in the newly built Kiev Sophia temple was a piece of the Holy Cross, brought by this new Helen from Constantinople, and received by her in blessing from the Constantinople Patriarch. The Cross, by tradition, was hewn out from an entire piece of the Life-Creating Wood of the Lord. Upon the Cross-Wood was inscribed: “The Holy Cross for the Regeneration of the Russian Land, Received by Noble Princess Olga.”

Saint Olga did much to memorialize the first Russian confessors of the Name of Christ: over the grave of Askold the Saint Nicholas church was built, where according to certain accounts, she herself was afterwards interred. Over the grave of Dir was built the afore-mentioned Sophia cathedral, which stood for half a century and burned in the year 1017. On this spot Yaroslav the Wise later on built a church of Saint Irene in 1050, but the sacred items of Olga’s Sophia temple were transferred into a stone church of the same name now standing as the Kiev Sophia, started in 1017 and consecrated about the year 1030. In the Prologue of the thirteenth century, it says about the Olga Cross: “for It is now at Kiev in Saint Sophia in the altar on the right side.” The plundering of Kiev’s holy things, which after the Mongols was continued by the Lithuanians who captured the city in 1341, did not spare even this. Under Jagiello in the period of the Liublin Unia, which in 1384 united Poland and Lithuania into one state, the Olga Cross was snatched from the Sophia cathedral and carried off by the Catholics to Lublin. Its further fate is unknown.

But even in Olga’s time there were at Kiev among the nobles and retainers no few people who, in the words of Solomon, “hated Wisdom”, and also Saint Olga, for having built Wisdom’s temple. Zealots of the old paganism became all the more emboldened, viewing with hope the coming of age of Svyatoslav, who decidedly spurned the urgings of his mother to accept Christianity, and even becoming angry with her over this. It was necessary to hurry with the intended matter of the Baptism of Rus. The deceit of Byzantium, at the time not wanting to promote Christianity in Rus, played into the hands of the pagans. In search of a solution, Saint Olga looked to the west. No contradiction here yet existed. Saint Olga (+ 969) belonged still to the undivided Church (i.e. before the Great Schism of 1054), and she had scant possibility to study the theological points involved between the Greek and Latin Creeds. The opposition of West and East presented itself to her first of all as a political rivalry, of secondary importance in comparison with her task, the establishment of the Russian Church and the Christian enlightenment of Rus.

Under the year 959, the German chronicler named “the Continuant of Reginon,” records: “to the king came emissaries of Helen, queen of the Russes, who was baptized in Constantinople, and who sought for their nation to have bishop and priests” King Otto, the future founder of the German Empire, willingly acceded to Olga’s request, but he urged that the matter not be decided in haste. It was only on Nativity of the following year 960, that there was established a Russian bishop Libutius, from the monastery brethren of Anatolius Alban am Mainz. But he soon died (March 15, 961). In his place was ordained Adalbert of Trier, whom Otto “generously furnishing all needs” finally sent to Russia. It is difficult to say what would have happened, had the king not delayed for so long a while, but when in 962 when Adalbert showed up at Kiev, he “did not succeed in the matter for which he had been sent, and did consider his efforts to be in vain.” Furthermore, on the return journey “certain of his companions were murdered, and the bishop himself did not escape mortal danger.”

It turned out that after the passage of years, as Olga indeed had foreseen, matters at Kiev had twisted ultimately in favor of paganism, and Rus having become neither Orthodox nor Catholic, had second thoughts about accepting Christianity. The pagan reaction thus produced was so strong, that not only did the German missionaries suffer, but also some of the Kiev Christians who had been baptized with Olga at Constantinople. By order of Svyatoslav, Saint Olga’s nephew Gleb was killed and some of the churches built by her were destroyed. It seems reasonable, that this transpired not without Byzantium’s secret diplomacy: given the possibility of a strengthened Rus in alliance with Otto, the Greeks would have preferred to support the pagans, with the consequent intrigues against Olga and various disorders.

The collapse of the mission of Adalbert had providential significance for the future Russian Orthodox Church, escaping papal dominion. Saint Olga was obliged to accede to the humiliation and to withdraw fully into matters of personal piety, handing over the reigns of governance to her pagan-son Svyatoslav. Because of her former role, all the difficult matters were referred over to her in her wisdom of governance. When Svyatoslav absented himself from Kiev on military campaigns and wars, the governance of the realm was again entrusted to his mother. But the question about the Baptism of Rus was for a while taken off the agenda, and this was ultimately bitter for Saint Olga, who regarded the good news of the Gospel of Christ as the chief matter in her life.

She meekly endured the sorrow and grief, attempting to help her son in civil and military affairs, and to guide matters with heroic intent. The victories of the Russian army were a consolation for her, particularly the destruction of an old enemy of the Russian state—the Khazar kaganate. Twice, in the years 965 and 969, the armies of Svyatoslav went through the lands of “the foolish Khazars,” forever shattering the might of the Jewish rulers of Priazovia and lower Povolzhia. A subsequent powerful blow was struck at the Mahometan Volga Bulgars, and then in turn came the Danube Bulgars. Eighteen years were spent on the Danube with the Kiev military forces. Olga was alone and in worry: it was as though, absorbed by military matters in the Balkans, Svyatoslav had forgotten about Kiev.

In the Spring of 969 the Pechenegs besieged Kiev: “and it was impossible to lead out the horses to water, for the Pechenegs stood at the Lybeda.” The Russian army was far away, at the Danube. Having sent off messengers to her son, Saint Olga herself headed the defense of the capital. When he received the news, Svyatoslav rode quickly to Kiev, and “he hugged his mother and his children and was distressed, with what had happened with them from the Pechenegs.” But after routing the nomads, the warrior prince began anew to say to his mother: “It does not please me to sit at Kiev, for I wish to live at Pereslavl’ on the Dunaj (Danube) since that is the center of my lands.”

Svyatoslav dreamed of creating a vast Russian holding from the Danube to the Volga, which would unite all Rus, Bulgaria, Serbia, the Near Black Sea region and Priazovia (Azov region), and extend his borders to those of Constantinople itself. Olga the Wise understood however, that all the bravery and daring of the Russian companies could not compare against the ancient Byzantine Empire, and that the venture of Svyatoslav would fail. But the son would not heed the admonitions of his mother. Saint Olga thereupon said, “You see that I am ill. Why do you want to forsake me? After you bury me, then go wherever you wish.”

Her days were numbered, and her burdens and sorrows sapped her strength. On July 11, 969 Saint Olga died: “and with great lament they mourned her, her son and grandsons and all the people.” In her final years, amidst the triumph of paganism, she had to have a priest by her secretly, so she would not evoke new outbursts of pagan fanaticism. But before death, having found anew her former firmness and resolve, she forbade them to make over her the pagan celebration of the dead, and she gave final instructions to bury her openly in accord with Orthodox ritual. Presbyter Gregory, who was with her at Constantinople in 957, fulfilled her request.

Saint Olga lived, died, and was buried as a Christian. “And thus having lived and well having glorified God in Trinity, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, having worshipped in the blessed faith, she ended her life in the peace of Christ Jesus, our Lord.” As her prophetic testament to succeeding generations, with deep Christian humility she confessed her faith concerning her nation: “God’s will be done! If it pleases God to have mercy upon my native Russian Land, then they shall turn their hearts to God, just as I have received this gift.”

God glorified the holy toiler of Orthodoxy, the “initiator of faith” in the Russian Land, by means of miracles and incorrupt relics. Yakov Mnikh (+ 1072), a hundred years after her death, wrote in his work “Memory and Laudation to Vladimir”: “God has glorified the body of His servant Olga, and her venerable body remains incorrupt to this day.”

Saint Olga glorified God with good deeds in all things, and God glorified her. Under holy Prince Vladimir, ascribed by some as occurring in the year 1007, the relics of Saint Olga were transferred into the Desyatin church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos and placed within a special sarcophagus, such as was customary to enclose the relics of saints in the Orthodox East. “And hear ye concerning a certain miracle about her: the grave of stone is small in the church of the Holy Mother of God, this church built by the blessed Prince Vladimir, and in the grave is the blessed Olga. And an opening was made in the tomb to behold Olga’s body lying there whole.” But not everyone was given to see this miracle of the incorrupt relics of the saint: “For whoever came with faith, the aperture opened up, and there the venerable body could be seen lying intact, and one would marvel at such a miracle -- the body lying there for so many years without decay. Worthy of all praise is this venerable body: resting in the grave whole, as though sleeping. But for those who did not approach in faith, the grave aperture would not open up, and they would not see this venerable body, but only the grave.”

Thus even after death Saint Olga espoused life eternal and resurrection, filling believers with joy and confounding non-believers. She was, in the words of Saint Nestor the Chronicler, “a precursor in the Christian land, like the dawn before sunrise or the twilight before the light.”

The holy Equal of the Apostles Great Prince Vladimir, himself giving thanks to God on the day of the Baptism of Rus, witnessed before his countrymen concerning Saint Olga with the remarkable words: “The sons of Rus bless you, and also the generations of your descendants.”

LUKE 7:36-50 

36 Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee's house, and sat down to eat. 37 And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, 38 and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. 39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, "This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner." 40 And Jesus answered and said to him, "Simon, I have something to say to you." So he said, "Teacher, say it."41There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.42And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?43 Simon answered and said, "I suppose the one whom he forgave more." And He said to him, "You have rightly judged." 44 Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head.45 You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. 46 You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. 47 Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.48 Then He said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." 49And those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?" 50 Then He said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you. Go in peace."

2 CORINTHIANS 6:1-10

1 We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 For He says: In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you." Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 3 We give no offense in anything, that our ministry may not be blamed. 4 But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, 5 in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings; 6 by purity, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love, 7 by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, 8 by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; 9 as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and yet not killed; 10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.

[honestsycrets]

Hay Sy, I'm a little bit confused here. After yesterday's sneak peak me and my friend were talking about Ivar in the Silk road, and we mostly were confused about how that road would eventually lead him to Russia from Scandinavia, since (from what we found) it mostly covers Southern Asia/India/the Middle East? I know Hirst isn't exactly a fan of historical accuracy, but do you happen to have some kind of explanation? 🤔

Of course.

The Vikings did trade on the Silk Road for things like silk and food. From Russia, they gained honey, slaves, wax, and furs. There were two gateway rivers to travel to Russia. Largely, Vikings used rivers to connect Northern Europe to Russia.

One can be traced from Finland. Lake Ladoga by way of river Volkhov to lake Ilmen of Novgorod. Then, they would row up rivers to either the Dneipr or the Volga. The Dneipr for the Black Sea and the Volga for the Caspian Sea. Along the Dneipr, you would find cities— present day Kiev.

Below is a sample of Viking trading routes. Keep in mind that Ivar is traveling on land, though, so it must be more tedious for him.

[russianprincesses]

Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia relaxing on the haystacks near the Dniepr River, 1916

[scentedkryptoniteballoon]

Iron Maiden with the original Ed Force One on the 2008 Somewhere Back In Time Tour. The first Ed Force One was a Boeing 757-200 combi conversion owned by Astraeus Airlines. Another 757 was used for the 2011 The Final Frontier World Tour. The most recent Ed Force One was a 747-400, originally operated by Air France, reworked into a combi by Volga-Dneipr Gulf and owned by Air Atlanta Icelandic. It was used in 2016 for The Book Of Souls World Tour.

[tubes-n-needles]

Song of Wise Oleg

Oleg, the wise Prince, roused to arm, Cried: “Vengeance on the ruthless horde Of raiding Chosars! Field and farm My men shall put to fire and sword!” And when his faithful horse was brought, He rode out with his knights and men, In damascened, gold armour, wrought, By some deviceful Saracen-

Before his men he rode in pride, Their hero-prince and nothing feared; But, ere he reached the forest-side; From out its darkling deeps appeared Dread Perun’s prophet, old and wise, Who studied in the secret shrine That he might in each man’s own eyes His destiny and doom divine.

The brave Prince rode towards him, and cried: “O Wizard, favoured of the gods, What woe or weal shall me betide? How soon shall I, beneath the sods, Lie buried, while my foes rejoice? Fear naught; nor speak with faltering words- Whate’ er my doom, be thine the choice Of all the horses in my herds!”

“No wizard dreads an earthly lord!” The old man scornful answer flung: “And naught availeth bribe or sword To loose or bind the prophet’s tongue. Heaven’s secrets are not bought and sold: The future’s veiled in mist and gloom: Yet, as a tale already told, On thy bright brows I read thy doom.”

“Mark well this day the words I speak, For, ever, to the warrior fame Brings solace, when he waxes weak With years and wounds. Know thou, thy name Is victory! The nations yield Before thine army’s dread advance: Envied of all, thy golden shield Hangs o'er the gate of proud Byzance.”

The blue sea’s treacherous waves to thee, Though lashed to storm, no scathe shall bring: They know thee, Lord of Victory! Nor dread the arrow or the sling, Or traitorous dagger; for thy life To all is sacred; and no blow Shall pierce thine armour in the strife With thee an unseen guard doth go.“

"Thy horse, that dreads no furious fray, Hath borne thee well in many lands; And like a rock amid the spray Among the whistling shafts he stands, Or bears thee through the brunt of spears, Obedient to thy lightest breath: Nor frost, nor fight, with thee he fears: Yet, even he shall be thy death.”

The brave prince beard the strange discourse, With smiling lips, but gloomy brow: Then, sadly, lighting from his horse, He spake: “And must we two part now?” (Caressing with a kindly touch, His servant’s silky neck) “Old friend, Together, we have weathered much Victoriously: but all things end;

And we must part. Thou, who did'st bear Thy lord to triumph, East and West, Shall bear none other now, and ne'er Shall foot in your gold stirrup rest. For me, still waits the field of strife; But thou in peaceful meads shalt dwell. Until death end thy loyal life, Forget me not, old friend. Farewell!”

Then turning to his grooms: “My steed To pleasant river-pastures bring; And bathe him daily there; and feed Him ever on choice oats; and fling A soft wool rug about his flanks To keep him warm. "The horseboys led The wondering beast back through the ranks; And brought another horse instead.

Years passed. Oleg, with all his lords, Grown old with him in fray and fight, Feasted one summer day-their swords Sheathed after victory; and white As snow upon the mountain s peak, Their hair-as of the old deeds done In valiant youth they yet did speak, And victories together won.

"And where is now my comrade? Where My faithful horse?” Oleg then asked; Doth he on light, fleet foot still fare- He whom no journey e'er o'ertasked- He who ne’er stayed for strife or steep?“ One answered: By the river-shore, On a high hill-top, sound asleep He lies; and will awake no more.”

Musing, Oleg bent low his head, Remembering the days of old; And sadly to himself he said: “Had I not feared the doom foretold By that old fashioner of lies, My old friend had been with me still!” And then he bade his lords arise; And seek with him the burial hill.

Full-mournfully the Prince rode out Towards the river, with his son, The gallant Igor, thronged about By his old warriors, ‘till they won Unto the Dneipr’s shore, where strewn On a high hill, ‘mid sand and stones, 'Neath waving grass, in glare of noon Lay bare the old rain-whitened bones.

With gentle foot, and bowed with grief, Touching the skull, Oleg then said: “Sleep well, my friend! Our day is brief; Though I live; thou art with the dead: Nor, at my funeral feast, fullnigh, Sword-spilt shall thy warm life-blood fall Upon me dead, when even I Drop to the dust that ends us all.”

And, even as these words he spake, From out the eyeless skull there shot A ribbon-like black deadly snake, Which stung his foot. “Is this my lot By that old wizard prophesied? Death ambushed in a lifeless bone! Then, welcome death!” the brave Prince cried: And sank to earth without a moan.

Full-sadly as the cups went round At the high funeral-festival, When, Igor, on the burial mound With Olga sat, his warriors all Around them sitting, talked of days When 'neath Oleg’s flag they had fought The world, and won; and sang the praise Of him whom death had brought to naught.

— by A. S. Pushkin translated from Russian by A.L. Pogosky verse by W.W. Gibson

This is easily one of my favourite poems by Pushkin. It’s an rather old legend which dates back to the times of Kievan Rus, Oleg being one of its princes. Pushkin made it a beautiful poem and Pogolsky translated it so that it’s no worse than the original.

I don’t know why, but I always tear up when I read it. And before anybody begins their humor exercise, it’snot because ‘poor horsey’.

[fardell24b]

Rise of Weirdness - Part 35

January 2001

More Atlantean artefacts are discovered around the North Atlantic.

The Yugoslavia Civil War begins, with Macedonian declaration of independence.

January 1, 2001

In the ruins of Babylon, an archaeologist discovers a map of the Solar System showing locations where pieces of a powerful artifact are to be found.

An Atlantean artefact is found near Douglas, Isle of Man.

January 2, 2001

Archaeologists examining the monolith that shot down the Zond probe discover that it's actually of Atlantean origin.

In Damascus, a teenager digs up a Tablet, that suddenly glows...

January 3, 2001: John F. Kennedy Jr., (D-NY) is sworn in as Majority Leader to the U.S. Senate in Washington D.C.,

Dneipr River Crisis; Soviet officials from Turkey and the NATO alliance of backing nationalist and Islamic fundamentalist forces across the Caucasus,...

January 4, 2001

A mysterious artefact is discovered in a cave near Sydney, New South Wales.

In Peru, an archaeologist finds a Quipu with magical properties near Machu Picchu..

January 5, 2001

In the State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, a young researcher finds a reference to 'magic' being observed in the colonial era,

An Atlantean artefact is found near Havana, Cuba.

January 6, 2001

Lawrence Fields, who had discovered the colonial era reference to magic the previous day, discovers further information of Indigenous people performing magic in Corroborees.

The Syrian Government takes possession of the glowing Tablet that had been discovered four days before.

January 7, 2001 In a suburban community in New Jersey, a bored teenager discovers an abandoned lab beneath her family's basement.

In Washington, Senator Kennedy announces that an Antiquities Committee will be set up in the Senate.

January 8, 2001

Atlantean artefacts are discovered on Bermuda...

The Dneipr River Crisis, escalates with fighting between NATO and Soviet forces breaking out in the region...

January 9, 2001

In New Jersey, Peta Fields has another look at the mysterious basement. She also discovers a journal, and some old tapes. She starts reading the journal.

A mysterious artefact is found in the Jenolan Caves, near Oberon, New South Wales.

January 10, 2001

Feilds reads more of the journal, finding that it notes the location of the Library of Magic for her community.

A stash of magical Quippu is found near the location of the other discovery.

January 11, 2001

More artefacts are discovered in the cave near Sydney.

In the Mitchell Library, further references to magic being observed in the colonial era by explorers are discovered.

January 12, 2001

Feilds searches for the Library of Magic for the first time. She doesn't find it and goes home disappointed.

An Atlantean artefact is found near Roanoke, Virginia.

January 13, 2001

Atlantean artefacts are found near Ponta Delaga, Azores.

A ceasefire is called in the Dneipr River Crisis.

January 14, 2001

Feilds asks her friends about rumours as to the location of the Library of Magic. She is met with many different responses...

A mysterious artefact is found in the Wellington Caves, near Wellington, New South Wales.

January 15, 2001

Atlantean artefacts are found in Westfjords, Iceland.

Feilds decides to search for the Library of Magic the next day.

January 16, 2001

Fields begins scouring the town for the Library of Magic.

In Peru, more magical quippu are found in the dig near Machu Piccu.

January 18, 2001

Atlantean artefacts are found near Nuuk, Greenland.

A mysterious artefact is found under the sea near Sydney...

January 19, 2001

Peta's History teacher tells her that the Library of Magic had been moved sometime in the last 30 years (but she won't say where it is now.)

January 20, 2001

Atlantean artefacts are found near New York.

January 21, 2001

Peta continues to look for the Library of Magic... by looking at the newspaper archives at the regular Library (reading between the lines)...

Bucharest Riots; Vampires, neo-fascist Legionnaires, and Jewish guerillas clash over alleged plans to join the "Greater Exodus" fueling tensions. Across Eastern Europe,...

January 22, 2001:

Macedonian leaders led by Boris Trajkovski proclaim independence from the Yugoslavian state, calling for political and diplomatic recognition by the United States, European Union and the Anglo-French Union,....

Fighting erupts in Polog and Kumanova, Macedonia, as Serbian forces clash over Bosnia-Hercegovina, in an effort to control the Visoko Pyramid,...

January 23, 2001

Atlantean artefacts are found on the outskirts of Providence, RI.

January 24, 2001

Peta Feilds does find the Library of Magic, by pestering one of her Fluffy classmates. He allows her to accompany him to the Library of Magic.

January 25, 2001

Yugoslavia Civil War begins, when Federal forces beseige Skopje...

January 26, 2001

Atlantean artefacts are found near Dover, Delaware.

January 27, 2001

Peta Feilds visits the Library of Magic a second time, and signs up to a course on 'How to use Incantations Responsibly'.

January 28, 2001

The seige of Skopje is relieved as more uprisings occur in northern Macedonia and southern Kosovo.

January 29, 2001

Atlantean artefacts are found on Elsemere Island, Canada.

January 30, 2001

Peta shows up to the Library of Magic to begin the course.

January 31, 2001

Uprising in Pristina, Kosovo...

February 2001

More Atlantean artefacts are discovered in North America.

The Yugoslavian Civil War spreads to Montenegro, Bosnia and Croatia...

February 1, 2001

Atlantean artefacts are found near Reykjavik, Iceland.

February 2, 2001

Peta discovers that the original Library of Magic for the community had been taken offworld...

February 3, 2001

Slovenia declares independence from Yugoslavia...

February 4, 2001

The archaeologist who discovered the map (Quinn Daniels) presents her discovery to her mentor at Cambridge. Her mentor advises her to keep it a secret, for now.

February 5, 2001

Atlantean artefacts are found beneath the ruins of Cobh, Ireland.

February 6, 2001

South of Newark, New Jersey: Peta Fields finds that simply having access to the Library of Magic doesn't mean that the other Buzzer's would give her the time of day.

February 7, 2001

Yugoslavia Civil War: The Federal Air Force bombs Skopje to try to force the Macedonian Separatists into submission. This draws international condemnation...

February 8. 2001

Her mentor having given her permission to proceed, Daniels begins preparing for her expedition to find the first segment.

February 9, 2001

Atlantean artefacts are found near Penzance, Cornwall.

Mermaids launch attack on the USS Greenville nuclear submarine after it conducts military operations at a religious site at Oahu, Hawaii,...

February 10, 2001

Feilds begins using incantations to help with her chores at home. (Clearly, she hasn't seen Fantasia...)

February 11, 2001

The siege of Dubrovnik begins.

February 12, 2001

Daniels leaves Cambridge, to go to Australia...

February 13, 2001

Atlantean artifacts are found on Anglesly, Wales.

February 14, 2001

Indeed, Peta Fields should have heeded Walt Disney's warning in Fantasia. Some of her incantations pile up into a feedback loop and the house automates itself in a manner hostile to its residents...

February 15, 2001

The United Nations General Assembly debates the situation in Yugoslavia. Particularly whether to send Peacekeeping forces or not.

February 16, 2001

Quinn Daniels arrives in Armidale, New South Wales to meet the archaeologists who would be assisting her during her journey into the Outback.

February 17, 2001

Atlantean artefacts are found on the ocean floor, very close to the wreck of the Titanic.

February 18, 2001

Peta apologises to her parents for causing trouble with the incantations. (It is fortunate for her that they didn't go to the police...)

February 19, 2001

Refugees begin crossing the border from Kosovo into Albania in large numbers.

February 20, 2001

After much discussion, Quinn Daniels and the other archaeologists leave Armidale.

February 21, 2001

Atlantean artefact are found in the Irish Sea, off the shore of the Isle of Man.

February 22, 2001

Peta again signs up to the 'Responsible Use of Incantations' course.

February 23, 2001

Sarajevo comes under siege...

February 24, 2001

In Coober Pedy, South Australia, CHUDs are reported in the Opal mines... (Just in time for Quinn Daniels and the archaeologists from Armidale be held up by the reports).

February 25, 2001

Atlantean Artefacts are found on the ocean floor off Rockall.

February 26, 2001

Peta spends the entire evening in the Library of Magic, researching a mystery from the 80's...

February 27, 2001

In San Francisco, the General Assembly votes on whether to send peacekeeping forces to Yugoslavia.

February 28, 2001

In Coober Pedy, the threat of the CHUDs is deemed to have passed (once the local Army forces have secured the mines, but the nature of the area means that most of the underground passages cannot be).

March 2001

Even Serbia becomes a combat zone...

More Atlantean artefacts are found in Ireland.

March 1, 2001

Atlantean artefacts are found near the Giants Causeway.

March 2, 2001

Peta discovers that something had been buried somewhere in the community in 1985...

March 3, 2001

Quinn Daniels and the other archaeologists are able to leave Cooper Pedy. (The threat of the CHUDs having deemed to have passed.)

March 4, 2001

An Atlantean artefact is discovered in the Bahamas...

March 5, 2001

Peta and one of her friends begins searching for the buried artefact...

March 6, 2001

Quinn Daniels arrives at the first location indicated in the map, deep in the Australian outback.

March 7, 2001

The United Nations resolves to send peacekeeping forces to Yugoslavia.

March 8, 2001

Quinn Daniels and the other archaeologists arrive back in Coober Pedy with the artefact segment...

March 9, 2001

Atlantean artefacts are found near Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

March 10, 2001

Peta buries a time capsule of her recent discoveries in the Pine Barrens.

March 13, 2001:

Visoko Bosnian Pyramid triggers the awakening of zombies at Samogitia, Lithuania, fueling panic amongst Soviet forces in the region,...

April 2001

Tensions increase in the Balkans (with news of atrocities occurring everywhere in Yugoslavia).

Australia elects a celebrity as Prime Minister.

April 1, 2001:

U.S. reconnaissance fight is shot down by Soviet forces in the Crimea, fueling tensions in the Balkans,...

April 6, 2001:

Fighting erupts between Croatian Ustashe guerillas and Serbian Chetnik militias in Sarajevo, escalating the violence in the Balkans,...

April 13, 2001:

Mogul Richard Garriot (a.k.a. "Lord Angleterre") of Cambridge, England, proclaims majority ownership of the moon, threatening to expel the Transformed populace,...

April 18, 2001:

Celebrity Paul Hogan is elected Australian Prime Minister in national elections, based on a populist campaign,...

April 28, 2001:

Ghosts erupt in Gudovac, Croatia, from Ustasi-created mass graves from 1941, triggering a humanitarian crisis,...

April 30, 2001:

Fighting in the Balkans intensifies as ghosts of those killed in the Holocaust begin appearing in Zagreb, Croatia, sparking a humanitarian crisis,....

May 2001

Tensions rise in India with the resignation of the Prime Minister.

The Yugoslavian Ghost Eruptions cause much consternation, especially in various religious communities, throughout the Solar System.

May 9, 2001:

Ghosts erupt in Blagaj, Croatia, fueling panic across Yugoslavia, with mass graves by Ustasi, sparking international concern,...

May 11, 2001:

Ghosts erupt in Glina, Croatia, fueling the evacuation of central Croatia, expanding the humanitarian crisis in the region,...

May 19, 2001:

Indian officials report Atlantean artifacts at the Gulf of Khambhat, fueling. Political tensions with China, Pakistan and Iran,..

May 21, 2001:

Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, ending c. 32 years of Hundu nationalist/fundamentalist political rule nationwide, fueling civil unrest and violence,

May 22, 2001:

Off-world leaders led by Danii Randall launch a media campaign condemning the religious leaders of Roman Catholicism triggering massive protest,...

Indian government officials led by President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, refuse to relinquish the Atlantean artifacts, citing them as Harrapan, and thus indigenous,...

June 2001

With findings of Atlantean artifacts increasing, there are calls for the United Nations to set up an agency to handle them.

(There is also hope amongst some circles that there's an artefact to deal with the 'Ghost Eruptions'.

June 3, 2001:

Ghosts of Ustasi atrocities in 1941 erupt in Korita, Serbia, escalating the violence in the region,...

June 4, 2001:

Mermaids flood Houston, Texas, triggering a massive tsunami wave flooding the city, killing 36 people, demanding the return of all Atlantean artifacts,....

June 6, 2001

Quinn Daniels returns to Cambridge with the first piece of the artefact.

June 15, 2001:

Followers of Edgar Cayce, Association fror Research & Enlightenment (ARE) led by Paula Zalitzki and Manuel Iturrade, report uncovering Atlantean artifacts in Guanacabibes, Cuba, fueling tensions in the Gulf of Mexico,...

Armed mermaid militia arrives at the United Nations in San Francisco, California demanding the return of all Atlantean artifacts, threatening similar attacks on coastal cities,..

Ghosts of Ustasi atocities of 1941, erupt in Knin, Croatia, further escalating the military crisis in the region,..

Vilnius Uprising; Soviet forces launch a brutal crackdown on Lithuanian nationalists claiming to have information of possible Exodus of the region into space, sparking international attention,...

June 22, 2001:

Ghosts of Ustasi atrocities of 1941, erupt in Rasica Gaj, Bosnia-Hercegovina, signaling the expansion of violence in the region,...

June 25, 2001:

Ghosts of Ustasi atrocities of 1941, erupt in Metkovic, Croatia and Dracevo, Bosnia-Hercegovina, signaling the escalation of violence in the region,...

July 2001

Anti-Semitism is on the rise in Eastern Europe.

As is Crime in Boston.

(Are these linked?)

July 6, 2001:

Mermaids trigger the flooding of Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, killing 253 people in the process, demanding the return of Atlantean artifacts,...

July 7, 2001

Information on the Babylonian Map is stolen from Cambridge...

July 14, 2001:

Glogau Riots; Riots erupt in Glogau, Poland, amidst claims of "host desecration" by anti-Semitic mobs against the Jewish population,...

July 23, 2001:

Jenna Kingsley begins to assist Marina Neverton in her crimefighting in Boston...

July 27, 2001:

Ghost of Ustasi Ustasi atrocities of 1941, erupt at Grabovac, Croatia; Boricevac, Croatia; and Brotjna, Croatia; making portions of Yugoslavia impassable,

July 31, 2001:

Ghosts are invoked on the remains of Dachau, triggered by actions in Yugoslavia, fueling civil unrest and panic in the region,...

August 2001

More Atlantean artifacts are found on the Moon...

August 5, 2001:

Washington Post uncovers evidence of "re-education camps established by the Chinese government, cracking down on Transformed and Falun Gong members,.. .

August 8, 2001

Quinn Daniels arrives at the second location indicated on the Map, a location close to Copernicus...

September 2001

Various pagan faiths increase their influence on Earth.

New shows start on various American networks, that increase representation of Transformed...

September 1, 2001:

Libertarians led by Matt Philips announce in Manchester, New Hampshire, their intent to immigrate en masse to the moon, to form their own colony,

September 13, 2001:

Indian special forces capture a cache of Pakistani nuclear weapons in the disputed region of Kashmir…

September 15, 2001:

British actor Alan Davies comes out as a Spectrophilliac.

A DEFCON is held in Sydney, Australia.

September 16, 2001:

A ‘Pagan Pride’ Parade is held in Edmonton, Alberta…

September 20, 2001:

A copy of The Necronomicon Files is found in a raid on a terror cell’s safehouse in Londonderry, Northern Ireland.

September 25th, 2001:

The Legion of the Underground declares war on Al Qaida…

26, September 2001:

Star Trek: Enterprise premiers. Main Character Hoshi Sato is a Transformed (Linda Park is herself a Transformed TTL).

September 27th, 2001:

Zimbabwe Civil War: Harare bombarded by Opposition forces, as they approach the city.

October 2001

Tensions increase on Mars between Bland and Transformed settlers, particularly in the Utopia Planetia region.

Zimbabwe descends into chaos.

October 1, 2001:

Zimbabwe Civil War. Harare comes under siege by Opposition forces.

October 17, 2001:

Political activist "Starhawk" (a.k.a. Miriam Simos) is assassinated, fueling ethnic and sectarian violence throughout the State of Aphrodite; Many leaders claim that the assassination is an attempt by the United Nations to undermine the stability of the country,....

October 26, 2001:

Battle of Utopia Planetia is considered one of the most violent uprisings between Human settlers led by Kelvin Probst and Transformed settlers led by Janella Xanthe Peters,...

November, 2001

The Soviet entry into the World Trade Organisation marks a major change in geopolitics.

November 10, 2001:

Soviet Premier Gennady Zyuganov announces the Soviet entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), with many in the press noting the irony of the groupd entry into the capitalist group,...

November 18, 2001:

In a shocking development, mermaids seize control of Sardinia, threatening to flood the island until all Atlantean artifacts are returned,...

December 2001

In Cambridge, Daniels and her mentor discuss whether the artefact she is collecting is dangerous. (More dangerous than what has been found so far...)

December 9, 2001

Quinn Daniels returns to Cambridge with the second peice of the artefact.

[otmaaromanovas]

Amazing high quality version of this lovely photo of Maria and Anastasia playing with their cousin, Dmitri Pavlovich, by the Dneipr River, Mogilev, 1916

This is one of the last photos the Romanovs have with Dmitri. In December the same year he would be involved in the murder of Rasputin, and would be exiled to the Persian War Front as punishment. Dmitri appeared to be greatly loved within the extended family, as he was the subject of a letter signed by various Romanovs addressed to Tsar Nicholas asking for a less harsh sentence.

From the incredible lastromanovs on flickr:

Anastasia's 1916-17 album variant 2

[laboratorium-ix]

DO YOUR DUTY!

VOLUNTEER NOW FOR THE DNEIPR TANK REGIMENT!

(Original design: ???, something with G.O. Army?)

[silverfang07]

ERROR

... and Francis' arm sticking through a wall, and bad grammar. And a Good n Plenty box.

But mostly the sacred ERROR which had to be carried most of the map, no matter how narrow the passageway. At all costs it had to be protected!

-shot for stupidity-

[otmaaromanovas]

The Grand Duchesses sunbathing at Mogilev, next to the Dneipr River, 1916

From the second variant of Anastasia's 1916-1917 album

[russianprincesses]

Empress Alexandra with her second daughter Grand Duchess Tatiana by the Dneipr River, 1916