title: The Last Airbender (2010 film)

text: On February 9, 2010, Nickelodeon Consumer Products also debuted the upcoming line of toys based on "The Last Airbender". It includes various 3-inch action figures, as well as larger, action-enabled figures, costumes, and other props. Among the toys featured in the line were figures based on Aang, Prince Zuko, Sokka, Katara, and a fully ride-able Appa the Sky Bison. "We worked very closely with M. Night, the rest of the Paramount team and our in-house design team, along with our partner Spin-Master, to come up with the right assortment, the right size for these action figures and make sure we had representation of all the nations within the 'Airbender' series," said Nickelodeon's Lourdes Arocho. "The Last Airbender" action figures released in three "waves"; with wave one beginning on June 1, wave two near the film's July release date, and wave three near the 2010 holiday season. THQ Studio Australia also developed a video game based on the film, which was released on June 29, 2010, for the Wii and the Nintendo DS.


title: The Last Airbender (2010 film)

text: Two original black-and-white graphic novels, entitled "" and "The Last Airbender", drawn in the manga style, were written by Dave Roman and Alison Wilgus. ""Avatar: The Last Airbender" has shown incredible crossover appeal with manga fans. The release of "The Last Airbender" movie and original tie-in manga gives us the chance to share completely new stories with Avatar fans looking for more about Aang, Zuko, and their favorite characters." Dallas Middaugh, Associate Publisher of Del Rey Manga said in a statement. The second manga was released on June 22, 2010. The plot, like the film, is a condensed version of the of the series.


title: The Last Airbender (2010 film)

text: The prequel, "Zuko's Story", is co-written by Alison Wilgus and Dave Roman and illustrated by Nina Matsumoto and was released on May 18, 2010. The synopsis for the graphic novel was released in early 2010, "When Prince Zuko dared to question authority, his father, Fire Lord Ozai, banished him from the Fire Nation. Horribly scarred and stripped of everything he held dear, Zuko has wandered the earth for almost three years in search of his only chance at redemption: the Avatar, a mystical being who once kept the four nations in balance. Everyone he encounters believes that this is an impossible task, as the Avatar disappeared a century ago. But Zuko stubbornly continues the search. He must regain his honor, so his quest is all he has left."


title: The Last Airbender (2010 film)

text: Roman and Wilgus, who developed comics based on the series for Nick Magazine, consulted series creators Mike Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, and the head writer for the show Aaron Ehasz while they were developing "Zuko's Story". The four wanted to try a comic that would fit into with the continuity of the show. The prequel, though mostly associated with the film, was meant to be a prequel to the series. Roman explained, "In a lot of ways, it's like an expanded origin. With the film and the series, there are differences and there are places where they split off, but the setup for both is exactly the same – so when you're introduced to the characters, that's the part where they're completely identical." The prequel allowed the expansions of different details told in the series; for example, an episode called "The Blue Spirit" in the series was seen in the film. However, since explaining everything that happened in that episode was hard to translate onto film, the prequel allowed for them to "delve" into that specific story. What more, when asked about whether he answered some questions that were left open at the end of the series, Roman stated that, while he had a strong relationship with the show's creators and got their blessing for his project, it wasn't his plot to address.


title: The Last Airbender (2010 film)

text: To avoid confusion with James Cameron's "Avatar", the title was changed from "Avatar: The Last Airbender" to simply "The Last Airbender".<ref name="/FILM"></ref> The film premiered in New York City on June 30, 2010, and opened the following day in 3,169 theaters, against "" which also stars Jackson Rathbone.


title: The Last Airbender (2010 film)

text: "The Last Airbender" was released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 16, 2010. At the same time, a Blu-ray 3D version was also made available exclusively at Best Buy locations. "The Last Airbender" was re-released on DVD and Blu-ray on April 25, 2017. The film has earned $48.7 million from DVD/Blu-ray sales, with 1.6 million DVDs and 300,000 Blu-ray discs sold as of December 2010.


title: The Last Airbender (2010 film)

text: "The Last Airbender" had grossed $131,772,187 in the United States, and $187,941,694 in other countries, making for a total of $319,713,881 worldwide. On its opening day in the United States, "The Last Airbender" made $16,614,112, ranking fifth overall for Thursday openings, and placed second behind "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse". For its opening three-day, Fourth of July weekend, "The Last Airbender" accumulated a total of $40,325,019. The following Monday, it grossed $11,479,213. 54% of its total gross was from 3D presentations at 1,606 screens. On Thursday, July 1, 2010, its opening day, it debuted at #2 behind "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse". Opening internationally in 923 sites, the film grossed an estimated $9 million, $8 million of which was from 870 sites in Russia, making it the number one film there. The film grossed $9.4 million from its second weekend in international markets. The film was the twentieth highest-grossing film of 2010, and is the fourth-highest-grossing film produced by Nickelodeon Movies, behind "" (2015), "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (2014), and "The Adventures of Tintin" (2011).


title: The Last Airbender (2010 film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, "The Last Airbender" holds an approval rating of 5%, based on 193 reviews with an average rating of 3/10, making it the lowest-rated film produced by Nickelodeon Movies, as well as Shyamalan's worst-reviewed film to date. The site's critical consensus reads, ""The Last Airbender" squanders its popular source material with incomprehensible plotting, horrible acting, and detached joyless direction." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 20 out of 100, based on 33 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average rating of "C" on an A+ to F scale.


title: The Last Airbender (2010 film)

text: Liam Lacey of "The Globe and Mail" stated the film had little chance to develop its characters and therefore suffered, with the overall storyline of the film becoming a run-on narrative. According to Owen Gleiberman from "Entertainment Weekly", who gave the film a C, ""The Last Airbender" keeps throwing things at you, but its final effect is, in every way, flat." Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film half a star in his review, stating that it "bores and alienates its audiences," and notes the poor use of 3D among the film's faults. Keith Phipps of "The A.V. Club" gave the film an F, criticizing the performances of the child actors, overuse of exposition, and shoehorned 3D special effects, calling it the worst summer blockbuster of 2010. Kirk Honeycutt of "The Hollywood Reporter" said that the lack of correct casting caused the film to lose substantial credibility in regard to its source material, but did praise the casting and acting of Ringer as Aang. Peter Debruge of "Variety" criticized the casting and the score, saying that the overall effect of each play into making the film a bore. Rifftrax put the film at number 5 of The Top 10 Worst Movies of All Time, saying "We CAN state for the record that it is quite easy to detest this movie even if you've never seen a frame of the TV show."


title: The Last Airbender (2010 film)

text: Charlie Jane Anders in the review by io9 criticized "the personality-free hero, the nonsensical plot twists, the CG clutter, the bland romance, the new-age pablum...", concluding that "Shyamalan's true achievement in this film is that he takes a thrilling cult TV series, "Avatar: The Last Airbender", and he systematically leeches all the personality and soul out of it – in order to create something generic enough to serve as a universal spoof of every epic, ever." Anders summarized the experience of watching the film by stating that, "Actually, my exact words when I walked out of this film were, 'Wow, this makes "Dragonball Evolution" look like a masterpiece.'" "Ain't It Cool News"' review questioned why Shyamalan was allowed to write the script, as well as why he was even chosen to direct such a high-profile film after a string of previous flops: "Burdened by [a] never-ending onslaught of expository dialogue awkwardly delivered by actors giving career-worst performances across the board, "The Last Airbender" is so outrageously bad it's a wonder it ever got before cameras."


title: The Last Airbender (2010 film)

text: Scott Bowles of "USA Today" gave a generally favorable review, claiming that Shyamalan delivered on fight scenes and the film worked as a kid's film, although he also added that poor scriptwriting made some of the performances sound wooden. Another favorable review came from Stephanie Zacharek of MovieLine, who praised the way Shyamalan captures the art of action and human motion. David Roark of "Relevant Magazine" accused other critics of having a bias against Shyamalan and gave the film a positive review, stating that its visuals and heart far outweighed the clunky plotting and "awful" dialogue.


title: The Last Airbender (2010 film)

text: Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" noted an unfortunate linguistic problem that reduced British viewers to "a state of nervous collapse" due to laughter. In British English, 'bent' is a slang term for gay, with 'bender' meaning a gay man, giving an entirely different meaning to lines such as, "I could tell at once that you were a bender." Bradshaw commented that the response from the audience to such lines was "deafeningly immature" and would "inevitably be repeated in every cinema in the land showing "The Last Airbender"." Bradshaw expressed his amazement that Shyamalan has managed to make a film worse than "Lady in the Water" or "The Happening". Kirk Honneycut of "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote, "Shyamalan, who never has mounted an epic film before, gets only passing grades. Huge sets and unit work from Greenland to New Zealand all look strangely underlit. One wonders whether the projector blew a light bulb. The movie was foolishly converted to 3D after principal photography, but if anything, this conversion is worse than "Clash of the Titans"." A "Collider.com" review says: "I'm calling it: "The Last Airbender" is the worst movie of 2010. It's too disturbing to consider that there could be something even more hideous out there."


title: The Last Airbender (2010 film)

text: Shyamalan argued that his style and art-form of storytelling resulted in the negative reviews of the film and compared it to asking a painter to change to a different style: "I bring as much integrity to the table as humanly possible. It must be a language thing, in terms of a particular accent, a storytelling accent. I can only see it this certain way and I don't know how to think in another language. I think these are exactly the visions that are in my head, so I don't know how to adjust it without being me."


title: The Last Airbender (2010 film)

text: Shyamalan also addressed criticisms about the barely 90-minute runtime of the film, which was considered bizarre given that it had to condense a 20-episode TV season into one film, and is a far shorter runtime than is typical for summer blockbusters. Shyamalan's response was that all of his previous films were 90 minutes because they were small-scale supernatural thrillers, and as a result, his instinct for the pacing of the film was to edit it down to 90 minutes. This short runtime indirectly led to several other problems which multiple critics objected to: characters frequently resort to giving long speeches of exposition to summarize entire scenes that were cut for time, and a running voiceover commentary by Katara was added in which she summarizes entire subplots (e.g. Sokka's relationship with Yue) that barely appear on-screen.


title: The Last Airbender (2010 film)

text: When Shyamalan gave the Ashok C. Sani Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence lecture at NYU's Stern School of Business on April 16, 2019, he revealed that he regretted accepting the directing position on the film, stating "There has always been this inexorable pull to join the group, a constant seduction in the form of whatever you want to tally, in the form of money, or safety, ease, not getting criticized. I did these movies, and I rightfully got crushed, because they rightfully said, 'You don't believe in yourself, you don't believe in your own voice, and you don't believe in your values." Shyamalan would go on to begin financing his own projects as a result.


title: The Last Airbender (2010 film)

text: Dev Patel expressed regret and dislike for his role and his experience with the film. At a 2016 actor's roundtable with "The Hollywood Reporter" while promoting his film "Lion" during Oscar contender season, Patel said, "I don't know what I would like to play, but I know what I'm afraid of playing: those big studio movies. After "Slumdog", I did a film that was not well received at all. The budget of "Slumdog" was like the budget of the craft services of this movie." He added, “I completely felt overwhelmed by the experience. I felt like I wasn't being heard. That was really scary for me, and that's really when I learned the power of no, the idea of saying no. Listen to that instinct you get when you read those words for the first time." He described his performance as Prince Zuko as being as though he "saw a stranger on the screen that I couldn't relate to." In a question-and-answer session on Reddit with Dante Basco, the original voice of Prince Zuko, when he was asked what he thought of the "Last Airbender" film, he responded by saying that the show's creators, Konietzko and DiMartino, told him not to see it.


title: The Last Airbender (2010 film)

text: "The Last Airbender" received nine nominations at the 31st Golden Raspberry Awards including Worst Picture. The film went on to sweep the Razzies with five awards: Worst Picture, Worst Director (Shyamalan), Worst Screenplay (Shyamalan), Worst Supporting Actor (Jackson Rathbone), and a special award, "Worst Eye-Gouging Mis-Use of 3D."


title: The Last Airbender (2010 film)

text: Shyamalan or Paramount/Nickelodeon did not immediately confirm the "go-ahead" or whether the plug would be pulled on the trilogy. While filming "The Last Airbender", Shyamalan mapped out a rough draft for a second film that was "darker" and includes Azula, portrayed by Summer Bishil, as the main antagonist. In a July 2010 interview with "New York Magazine", Shyamalan commented "In the next few months we'll be able to know whether we have that opportunity or not" when asked about the sequel. No such announcement was made, and in a September 2010 interview when asked if he knew when the sequel will be made, he replied, "I don't, because there are so many factors they take into account", adding, "I guess it will get into an area where it becomes a discussion – like pros and cons." In September 2015, Shyamalan told Metro UK that he may work on the sequel after completing his next thriller, which was supposed to start shooting in November 2015.


title: The Last Airbender (2010 film)

text: In October 2018, an unrelated live-action remake of the original "Avatar: The Last Airbender" for Netflix was announced, ending any lingering speculation of a potential sequel to "The Last Airbender". On August 12, 2020, the creators of , Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, quit the Netflix live-action adaptation due to creative differences between the two parties. DiMartino wrote, "When Bryan and I signed on to the project in 2018, we were hired as executive producers and showrunners [...] In a joint announcement for the series, Netflix said that it was committed to honoring our vision for this retelling and to supporting us on creating the series. And we expressed how excited we were for the opportunity to be at the helm. Unfortunately, things did not go as we had hoped."


title: Mark Lanegan

text: Mark William Lanegan (November 25, 1964 – February 22, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter, and poet. First becoming prominent as the lead singer for the early grunge band Screaming Trees, he was also known as a member of Queens of the Stone Age and The Gutter Twins. He released 12 solo studio albums, as well as three collaboration albums with Isobel Campbell and two with Duke Garwood. He was known for his baritone voice, which was described as being "as scratchy as a three-day beard yet as supple and pliable as moccasin leather" and has been compared to Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, and Nick Cave.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: Lanegan began his musical career in 1984 with Screaming Trees, with whom he released seven studio albums and five EPs before their disbandment in 2000. During his time with the band, he also started a solo career and released his first solo studio album, "The Winding Sheet", in 1990. He subsequently released a further 10 solo albums, which received critical recognition but only moderate commercial success. Following the end of Screaming Trees, he became a frequent collaborator of Queens of the Stone Age, and was a full-time member between 2001 and 2005 during the "Songs for the Deaf" and "Lullabies to Paralyze" eras.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: Lanegan collaborated with various artists throughout his career. In the 1990s, he and Kurt Cobain recorded an album of Lead Belly covers that was ultimately never released. He also joined Layne Staley and Mike McCready in the band Mad Season, and formed the alternative rock group The Gutter Twins with Greg Dulli in 2003, as well as contributing to releases by Moby, Bomb the Bass, Soulsavers, Tinariwen, The Twilight Singers, Manic Street Preachers, and Unkle, among others.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: Lanegan struggled with addiction to drugs and alcohol throughout his life, but had been sober for over a decade at the time of his death. Encouraged by his friend Anthony Bourdain, he released the memoir "Sing Backwards and Weep" in 2020. He followed this up in 2021 with the memoir "Devil in a Coma", which focused on his near-death experience with COVID-19. He and his wife Shelley Brien left the U.S. in 2020 and settled in the Irish town of Killarney, where he died two years later at the age of 57. No cause of death was revealed.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: Mark William Lanegan was born in Ellensburg, Washington, on November 25, 1964. During an interview with "The Rocket" in 1996, he said that he drove a combine harvester when he was younger. He was of Irish, Scottish, and Welsh descent. He said that he developed an alcohol use disorder by age 12, and began using drugs heavily by the age of 18, having already been arrested and sentenced to one year's imprisonment for drug-related crimes.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: Screaming Trees was formed in late 1984 by Lanegan, guitarist Gary Lee Conner, bassist Van Conner, and drummer Mark Pickerel. Along with Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, The Melvins, and Nirvana, Screaming Trees were part of Seattle's emerging grunge scene in the early 1990s. Pickerel would later be replaced with Barrett Martin. Lanegan originally joined as the drummer but later said, "I was such a shitty drummer that they made me sing." The band released the "Other Worlds" EP in 1986; recorded in 1985 and originally available only on cassette tape, the album was re-released on CD and LP by SST Records in 1987. Although the band was being courted by major labels, they signed to Velvetone Records in 1985 and released their debut album, "Clairvoyance", in 1986. The album was a combination of psychedelic music and hard rock, and bears many similarities to early grunge.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: In 1987, the band released their second effort, and their first for SST Records, "Even If and Especially When". After the release of the album in 1987 the band began working on the American indie circuit, playing shows across the United States. Their follow up album "Invisible Lantern" was released in 1988. 1989's "Buzz Factory" was the fourth full-length album by Screaming Trees and their final record released through SST.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: In 1991, the band released their fifth effort, and their first for a major label. "Uncle Anesthesia" was released in 1991 and was produced by Soundgarden vocalist Chris Cornell. "Uncle Anesthesia" included the single "Bed of Roses", which gained considerable airtime on alternative rock radio stations. The song peaked at number 23 on the Modern Rock Tracks and was the first Screaming Trees release to chart. Barrett Martin replaced previous drummer Pickerel and the new line up recorded "Sweet Oblivion" in 1992.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: "Sweet Oblivion" was the band's breakout album and included the singles "Nearly Lost You", "Dollar Bill", "Shadow of the Season", and "Butterfly". The first two singles gained considerable airtime on alternative rock radio stations, while the video for "Nearly Lost You" became an MTV and alternative radio hit in the fall of 1992, thanks to the momentum of . "Nearly Lost You" peaked at number 5 on the Modern Rock Tracks and number 50 in the United Kingdom and was the band's first single to chart outside the United States. "Sweet Oblivion" sold a total of 300,000 copies in the United States.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: After a hiatus brought about by in-fighting and uncertainty over the quality of the music they were recording, the band's final album, "Dust", was released in 1996. The album spawned several singles, including "All I Know" and "Dying Days", and peaked at number 134 on the "Billboard" 200. Reaching number 39 on the Canadian album chart, it was the only Screaming Trees album to chart outside the United States. Despite consistently favorable reviews, the album did not match the commercial success of "Sweet Oblivion". Following the "Dust" tour in the United States, Screaming Trees took another hiatus for Lanegan to begin his work on his third solo album, "Scraps at Midnight". The band headed back into the studio in 1999 and recorded several demos and shopped them around to labels, but no label was willing to take them on. The band played a few surprise shows in early 2000, and then following a concert to celebrate the opening of Seattle's Experience Music Project they unexpectedly announced their official breakup.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: When asked in 2021 about the '90s grunge movement, Lanegan commented, "It's not something that was contrived or cooked up around the campfire somewhere. It just happened organically. It's hard for me to comment, because there's always great new music and there probably always will be — as long as the sun keeps shining."


title: Mark Lanegan

text: In 1990, Lanegan released his first solo album, "The Winding Sheet" via label Sub Pop (which at the time was home to friends Nirvana and The Afghan Whigs). Lanegan had intimated that the album came around following a Leadbelly project he was working on with Mark Pickerel, Kurt Cobain, and Krist Novoselic. The project was short lived and eventually other musicians became involved in the evolution to the debut solo record. From the Leadbelly sessions a version of "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" appeared on "The Winding Sheet". "Ain't It a Shame" is available on the Nirvana box set, "With the Lights Out". Cobain also supplied backing vocals on "Down in the Dark" on Lanegan's debut. The majority of the album was recorded with Pickerel on drums, Mike Johnson on guitar, Steve Fisk on piano and organ, and Jack Endino on bass.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: His second solo record, 1994's "Whiskey for the Holy Ghost", was a more cohesive recording, with songs "The River Rise", "Kingdoms of Rain", "Riding the Nightingale", and "Beggar's Blues". Taking nearly three years to make, the album came close to not seeing the light of day as Lanegan was set to throw the master tapes in a pond outside of the recording studio, only to be stopped by producer Jack Endino at the last moment.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: In 1995, Lanegan appeared on the album "Above" by Mad Season. The project was fronted by friend Layne Staley (Alice in Chains) and was formed in late 1994 by Staley, Mike McCready of Pearl Jam, Barrett Martin of Screaming Trees, and John Baker Saunders of The Walkabouts. Lanegan appeared on "Long Gone Day" and "I'm Above". Lanegan also appeared on stage at Mad Season's concerts to perform the songs. After Staley's departure from the band, Mad Season began work on a potential second album featuring Lanegan as the primary vocalist. Three of these previously unreleased songs featuring Lanegan were eventually made available on the 2013 deluxe rerelease of Above.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: In 1998, "Scraps at Midnight" was released. The album was recorded the previous winter in Joshua Tree, California, and produced by long-time friend and collaborator Mike Johnson.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: Lanegan's fourth studio album was released in 1999. The album began life as B-Sides for singles from Scraps at Midnight (two tracks from the sessions appear on the single Hotel). Liking the way the sessions were shaping up, a few more were added and the recording was entitled "I'll Take Care of You". The album features covers of songs by prominent folk, R&B and punk artists such as Tim Hardin, Booker T. and the MGs, and country icon Buck Owens, as well as friend Jeffrey Lee Pierce of Gun Club. Lanegan stated that Jeffrey Lee Pierce was one of his early musical heroes and got him interested in making music. Also in 1999, Lanegan participated in the tribute album for Moby Grape co-founder, Skip Spence, who was terminally ill. In 2009 Lanegan sang lead vocals on 'The Last Time', an A side track on 'The Breeders' EP "Fate to Fatal".


title: Mark Lanegan

text: In 2001, he released his fifth studio album, "Field Songs". The album featured friend Duff McKagan, as well as major contributions from Soundgarden's bassist, Ben Shepherd. 2003 saw him appear on Greg Dulli's The Twilight Singers record "Blackberry Belle", sharing lead vocal duties on the epic closing track, "Number Nine". This would be the first of many collaborations with Dulli and The Twilight Singers.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: Prior to releasing his fourth album, Mark Lanegan released 'Here Comes That Weird Chill,' which included Methamphetamine Blues (later to appear on 'Bubblegum') as well as a number of b-sides and rarities (including Captain Beefheart cover 'Clear Spot') featuring collaborations with many who would feature on Bubblegum, such as Josh Homme, Dean Ween, Nick Oliveri and Chris Goss, as well as (notably) Natasha Shneider, Greg Dulli and Aldo Struyf.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: On his next solo album, "Bubblegum" (2004), Lanegan was joined by a cadre of prominent artists, including P. J. Harvey, Josh Homme and Nick Oliveri of Queens of the Stone Age, Greg Dulli of The Afghan Whigs and Twilight Singers, Dean Ween of Ween, and Duff McKagan and Izzy Stradlin, previously of Guns N' Roses. Also appearing on "Bubblegum" is Lanegan's ex-wife, Wendy Rae Fowler now in We Fell to Earth. The favorably reviewed album was his most commercially successful to date, reaching number 39 on Billboard's Top Independent Albums chart. Some would assume this is due to the appearance of several prominent musical figures, although the album did receive glowing review by critics. In 2013, the track "Strange Religion" was used in season 6 of the Showtime television series "Californication".


title: Mark Lanegan

text: Lanegan's seventh solo album, "Blues Funeral", was released in February 2012. Josh Homme, Alain Johannes, and Martyn LeNoble contributed to the creation of the album. In November 2012 Lanegan self-released a Christmas album titled "Dark Mark Does Christmas 2012", including a Roky Erickson cover "Burn the Flames". The limited six-track EP had only been available at his concerts.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: Released on Heavenly Recordings in 2013, Lanegan released his first collaboration with Duke Garwood entitled 'Black Pudding'. It featured a largely acoustic guitar driven sound, not unlike his first solo albums on Sub Pop, as well as long-time solo collaborator Alain Johannes.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: Lanegan released a five-track EP entitled "No Bells on Sunday" in the United States on July 29, 2014, followed by a European release on August 25. A music video was released on July 15 for "Sad Lover", the third track off the EP. Lanegan's next full-length album, "Phantom Radio", was released on October 21, 2014. It was produced by Alain Johannes and has a similar sound aesthetic to "Blues Funeral".


title: Mark Lanegan

text: Lanegan's second collaborative album with Duke Garwood, "With Animals", was released on August 24, 2018. The pair toured Europe in October 2018 to support the release.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: Lanegan released three further solo albums between 2017 and 2020 on Heavenly Recordings; "Gargoyle" in 2017, "Somebody's Knocking" in April 2019, and "Straight Songs of Sorrow" in May 2020.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: Lanegan's first appearance on a Queens of the Stone Age album was on "Rated R". He sang the lead vocals on "In the Fade" and background vocals on "Leg of Lamb", "Autopilot", and "I Think I Lost My Headache". "Rated R" became a commercial success and became the first Queens of the Stone Age album to chart.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: Shortly after the release of "Field Songs", Lanegan became a full-time member of Queens of the Stone Age. He appeared on the 2002 release "Songs for the Deaf", singing lead on the tracks "Song for the Dead", "Hangin' Tree", "Song for the Deaf", and "God Is in the Radio". The album became the band's big breakthrough and peaked at number 17 on the "Billboard" 200 and was certified gold by the RIAA. He also toured in support of the album over the next two years. Lanegan toured full-time as a third vocalist for Queens of the Stone Age in support of "Songs for the Deaf", joining his friend Joshua Homme, who supported the Screaming Trees as their touring guitarist in 1996. The album received two Best Hard Rock Performance Grammy nominations for the singles "No One Knows" (2003) and "Go with the Flow" (2004).


title: Mark Lanegan

text: In 2005, Lanegan released his last album with Queens of the Stone Age, "Lullabies to Paralyze", where he sang lead vocals on the first track of the album called "This Lullaby". The album was delayed during 2004 because of some changes to the line-up: bassist Nick Oliveri was fired and Lanegan went on tour to support "Bubblegum". Lanegan would later appear in support of the album.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: Lanegan continued to collaborate with Queens of the Stone Age and its members after leaving the band. In 2007, he appeared on their album, "Era Vulgaris", contributing background vocals to the track "River in the Road". On August 12, 2010, Lanegan re-joined Queens of The Stone Age on stage at the Nokia Club in Los Angeles, where he sang four encore songs with the band. The concert was put together to raise funds for Eagles of Death Metal bassist Brian O'Connor, who was diagnosed with cancer a few months prior to the event. In 2013, Lanegan appeared on their sixth album, "...Like Clockwork", co-writing the song "Fairweather Friends" and contributing background vocals to the track "If I Had a Tail".


title: Mark Lanegan

text: In April 2004, Lanegan released an EP with former Belle & Sebastian vocalist Isobel Campbell, titled "Time Is Just the Same". They would later release a single entitled "Ramblin' Man" for their collaboration album "Ballad of the Broken Seas". Campbell wrote and recorded the majority of the album's tracks in Glasgow, with Lanegan adding vocals in Los Angeles. The record was well received by critics who likened the duo to Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: In addition to providing vocals, Lanegan also wrote the track "Revolver" with Campbell. The album was nominated for the 2006 Mercury Prize. Lanegan and Campbell played four UK concerts in January 2007, with the London date being moved to a larger venue as a result of high demand for tickets. When making the decision to make a follow-up to "Ballad of the Broken Seas", Campbell reflected:


title: Mark Lanegan

text: After a concert with Lanegan in January 2007, Campbell asked Lanegan if he would consider making a new album, Lanegan replied: "in a heartbeat". This time Lanegan flew to Glasgow to record the new album at the end of March for nine days to record the songs Campbell had written. After working with Lanegan, Campbell remarked: "It is his classic, effortless American voice that I love". She added "I think I was playing about with that a lot so there's a few of what Mark would call raunchy songs and a few ballads too". The album, "Sunday at Devil Dirt", was released on May 5, 2008, with the track "Who Built the Road" being the only single released from it.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: A third collaborative album with Campbell was released on August 16, 2010, entitled "Hawk". The pair toured to promote the album, including a set at All Tomorrow's Parties, December 10–12, 2010 (Bowlie 2) curated by Belle & Sebastian and shows in Australia in 2011. By the end of the tour the duo had ceased to function and each went their separate ways.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: The Gutter Twins was a collaboration between Lanegan and Afghan Whigs/Twilight Singers vocalist Greg Dulli. Working on a collaborative album since at least 2003, the pair first played as The Gutter Twins in Rome in September 2005.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: "Saturnalia" was released on March 4, 2008, on Sub Pop, a label both Dulli and Lanegan had worked with before. The duo's first tour commenced on February 14, 2008, in New York City and continued in March and April throughout Europe and the United States.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: The album was a big hit and Blast Magazine's Liz Raftery ended up praising the album calling it "an audial descent into the dark emotions that often lurk beneath the surface." The album's highest position was at number 7 in Belgium. The album also peaked at number 117 on the "Billboard" 200. It meant that "Saturnalia" was the first album since Screaming Trees' "Dust" that had charted on the Billboard 200 with Lanegan as a permanent band member. On September 2, 2008, The Gutter Twins released an EP called "Adorata" exclusively on iTunes. Adorata contains eight tracks, most of them are covers, but also two Gutter Twins songs that never made it to the album.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: Lanegan appeared on three releases with The Twilight Singers ("Blackberry Belle, She Loves You", and "A Stitch in Time"). In 2006, Lanegan toured with the band in Europe and Israel on an excursus which later expanded to include the United States. In 2008, Lanegan collaborated with Tim Simenon on a track entitled "Black River" which appeared on Simenon's fourth album under his Bomb the Bass moniker, "Future Chaos".


title: Mark Lanegan

text: In 2007, English electronica duo Soulsavers' album "It's Not How Far You Fall, It's the Way You Land" featured Lanegan on 8 out of 10 album tracks. As well as appearing as a vocalist, the tracks "Revival", "Ghosts of You and Me", "Paper Money", and "Jesus of Nothing" are credited as written by Lanegan and Soulsavers. The album also features a re-working of "Kingdoms of Rain", which was initially released on Lanegan's second solo album, "Whiskey for the Holy Ghost". "Revival" and "Kingdoms of Rain" were released as singles from the album. Soulsavers recorded the tracks in England in 2005 and 2006, with Lanegan recording the vocal parts at Conway Studios in Los Angeles.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: In 2009, Soulsavers again enlisted Lanegan with him contributing vocals for several tracks on their third studio album "Broken". This led to a significant run of touring in support of the album, beginning on September 6, in Portland, Oregon. Following the tour of the United States, Lanegan continued to perform with them throughout their extensive run of European shows. These varied between headline gigs and slots in support of Depeche Mode. Having completed touring duties for Soulsavers, Lanegan announced a solo European tour. Shows focused specifically on his solo back catalogue, having not done so since touring finished in support of "Bubblegum".


title: Mark Lanegan

text: Also in 2009, Lanegan followed in Josh Homme's footsteps in collaborating with Unkle, the British electronic act masterminded by James Lavelle. He contributed his vocals to "Another Night Out", the final track of the album "Where Did the Night Fall" (released in May 2010).


title: Mark Lanegan

text: In 2011, Lanegan's music was featured in a trailer and end credits for the video game Rage and the soundtrack for the film "The Hangover Part II". Lanegan collaborated on a track "So Long Sin City" with Slash who recorded music for the 2011 indie film "This Is Not a Movie", directed by Olallo Rubio, and starring Edward Furlong, Peter Coyote, Miguel Ferrer, and more.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: On April 16, 2013, Lanegan and Duke Garwood released their first studio collaboration, "Black Pudding". Lanegan collaborated with Warpaint and Massive Attack for a cover of the xx's song "Crystalised". Lanegan, Warpaint, and Martina Topley-Bird recorded the cover of "Crystalised" and released it as a single in 2013.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: For Record Store Day 2013, Lanegan collaborated with Moby to release a 7-inch record called "The Lonely Night". Of working with Lanegan, Moby stated: "I've been a fan of Mark's from his early SST records days, and I've always wanted to work with him. He has one of the best and most distinctive voices of the last 25 years. Now that we live near each other it ended up being really easy working on a song together." "The Lonely Night" also appeared on Moby's album "Innocents".


title: Mark Lanegan

text: In 2013, Lanegan teamed up with Seattle producer Martin Feveyear, to work on a covers record, "Imitations". Prior to its release, Lanegan had only issued one previous record of covers, 1999's "I'll Take Care of You". On "Imitations", Lanegan offers contemporary songs, standards, and obscure numbers that, according to him, reveal the effect his parents' record collection had on him. He enlisted the help of Seattle composer Andrew Joslyn for the string arrangements and performances, as well as Seattle rock icons Duff McKagan, Barrett Martin, and others. The record was released September 17, 2013, through Vagrant Records.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: Lanegan and Josh Homme co-wrote the theme song for "", which first aired in 2013 on CNN. Lanegan contributed vocals on two tracks on Earth's 2014 album "Primitive and Deadly", released on September 2, 2014, and on one track on Manset's 2014 album "Un oiseau s'est posé". He also worked with Unkle on the track "Looking for the Rain" from their 2017 album "The Road: Part I", along with Eska. He also contributed vocals and songwriting to Tuareg rock band Tinariwen's "Nànnuflày" off their 2017 album "Elwan".


title: Mark Lanegan

text: In 2020, Lanegan contributed a spoken-word vocal performance to the song "The Mirror" by English rock band Hey Colossus, from their album "Dances/Curses".


title: Mark Lanegan

text: He also wrote lyrics and recorded lead vocals for "A Drink Of Poison Water" on spanish duo Agrio's La Murga Ep.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: Lanegan contributed vocals on the song "Inside of a Dream" on Cult of Luna's EP "The Raging River", released on February 5, 2021, "The Music Becomes a Skull" on The Armed's album "Ultrapop", released April 16, 2021, and "Blank Diary Entry" on Manic Street Preachers' 2021 album "The Ultra Vivid Lament". In October 2021, Lanegan released a collaborative album with former The Icarus Line member Joe Cardamone entitled "Dark Mark vs. Skeleton Joe".


title: Mark Lanegan

text: In 2017, Lanegan released the book "I Am the Wolf: Lyrics & Writings", a collection of lyrics accompanied by explanations and anecdotes. His memoir, "Sing Backwards and Weep", was published on April 28, 2020. Lanegan and Cold Cave frontman Wesley Eisold published a book of poetry "Plague Poems" in 2020. Another memoir "Devil in a Coma" was released in 2021, which details Lanegan's experiences contracting COVID-19, and being admitted to Kerry Hospital in March 2021. "Leaving California" a final book of 76 new poems was released in 2021.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: Lanegan struggled with alcoholism and heroin addiction during the 1990s and early 2000s. In his 2020 memoir, he claimed that he was "reviled as the town drunk before [he] could even legally drink" at the age of 12. During a Screaming Trees tour in 1992, his arm became so badly infected from using heroin needles that doctors considered amputating it. After leaving Screaming Trees, he became homeless for a period, then entered rehab in 1997. He credited Courtney Love, who recommended and paid for a year of his rehab and months of rental payments, with saving his life. After his first stint in rehab, he entered a halfway house and was given a job looking after Duff McKagan's house. He relapsed in 2004 and briefly went into a coma. After this relapse, he supported himself financially by painting sets for television shows. He entered rehab again in 2006. At the time of his death, he had been sober for over a decade.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: Lanegan was a friend of Kurt Cobain and had been invited to his home a few hours before Cobain's death. He was also a friend of Anthony Bourdain, who encouraged Lanegan to pursue writing a memoir. He wrote an obituary for Bourdain in "The Observer" after Bourdain's suicide in 2018. He was close friends with Layne Staley and had a highly publicized feud with Liam Gallagher. He supported the Seattle SuperSonics basketball team while growing up and switched allegiances to the Los Angeles Clippers upon moving to Los Angeles, though he remained a fan of the Seattle Mariners baseball team.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: Lanegan was married twice. He met musician Wendy Rae Fowler in 1998 and married her in 2002, with the couple relocating from Los Angeles to North Carolina. The day after their wedding, Lanegan departed for a tour with Queens of the Stone Age and the couple divorced soon afterwards. His second wife was Shelley Brien, with whom he remained until his death. The two left the U.S. and moved to the Irish town of Killarney in 2020.


title: Mark Lanegan

text: In March 2021, Lanegan was hospitalized with a severe infection of COVID-19 and almost died. The virus led to him temporarily going deaf, losing the ability to walk, and slipping in and out of a coma for several months. Nine months later, he said he had concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic was a "natural event" and admitted, "I was one of those knuckleheads who was wary of the vaccine. But I learned my lesson. I'll be the first one to get a booster shot when it's available in Ireland."


title: Mark Lanegan

text: Lanegan died at his home in Killarney on the morning of February 22, 2022, at the age of 57. No cause of death was revealed. Artists including Eddie Vedder, Iggy Pop, Moby, Scott Lucas, Simon Bonney, John Cale, Sleaford Mods, Badly Drawn Boy, Anton Newcombe, Peter Hook, Slash, Nick Cave, and the members of Manic Street Preachers paid tribute. Locals of Killarney, described as a "tightly knit community", also expressed a sense of loss. An obituary in "The Guardian" by Stevie Chick remembered him as "one of his generation's most soulful singers". In "Variety", music writer Chris Morris described him as "impassioned" and "adventurous".


title: History of Russia

text: The history of Russia begins with the histories of the East Slavs. The traditional start-date of specifically Russian history is the establishment of the Rus' state in the north in 862, ruled by Varangians. Staraya Ladoga and Novgorod became the first major cities of the new union of immigrants from Scandinavia with the Slavs and Finns. In 882, Prince Oleg of Novgorod seized Kiev, thereby uniting the northern and southern lands of the Eastern Slavs under one authority, moving the governance center to Kiev by the end of the 10th century, and maintaining northern and southern parts with significant autonomy from each other. The state adopted Christianity from the Byzantine Empire in 988, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Kievan Rus' ultimately disintegrated as a state due to the Mongol invasions in 1237–1240 along with the resulting deaths of significant numbers of the population, and with the numerous principalities being forced to accept the overlordship of the Mongols.


title: History of Russia

text: After the 13th century, Moscow became a political and cultural magnet for the unification of Russian lands. By the end of the 15th century, many of the petty principalities around Moscow had been united with the Grand Duchy of Moscow. The Grand Duchy stopped paying tribute to the Mongols in 1480 and took full control of its own sovereignty under Ivan the Great, who began styling himself "Tsar". Ivan the Terrible, the grandson of Ivan the Great, transformed the Grand Duchy of Moscow into the Tsardom of Russia in 1547. However, the death of Ivan's son Feodor I without issue in 1598 created a succession crisis and led Russia into a period of chaos and civil war known as the Time of Troubles. Russia emerged from the Time of Troubles on the coronation of Michael Romanov as the first Tsar of the Romanov dynasty in 1613. During the rest of the seventeenth century, Russia completed the exploration and conquest of Siberia, claiming lands as far as the Pacific Ocean by the end of the century. Domestically, Russia faced numerous uprisings of the various ethnic groups under their control, as exemplified by the Cossack leader Stenka Razin, who led a revolt in 1670–1671.


title: History of Russia

text: In 1721, in the wake of the Great Northern War, Tsar Peter the Great renamed the state as the Russian Empire, he's also noted for establishing St. Petersburg as the new capital of his Empire, and for his introducing Western European culture to Russia. Peter's death without a direct male heir left a confused succession, and a number of different relatives served as Emperor or Empress for the next several decades. In 1762, Russia came under the control of Catherine the Great, a German princess who was famous for her use of court intrigue to consolidate her power; she continued the westernizing policies of Peter the Great, and ushered in the era of the Russian Enlightenment. Catherine's grandson, Alexander I, repulsed an invasion by the French Emperor Napoleon, leading Russia into the status of one of the great powers of Europe. Peasant revolts intensified during the nineteenth century, culminating with Alexander II abolishing Russian serfdom in 1861. In the following decades, reform efforts such as the Stolypin reforms of 1906–1914, the constitution of 1906, and the State Duma (1906–1917) attempted to open and liberalize the economy and political system, but the emperors refused to relinquish autocratic rule and resisted sharing his power.


title: History of Russia

text: A combination of economic breakdown, mismanagement over Russia's involvement in World War I, and discontent with the autocratic system of government triggered the Russian Revolution in 1917. The overthrow of the monarchy initially brought into office a coalition of liberals and moderate socialists, but their failed policies led to October Revolution by the communist Bolsheviks on 25 October 1917 (7 November New Style). In 1922, Soviet Russia, along with Soviet Ukraine, Soviet Belarus, and the Transcaucasian SFSR signed the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR, officially merging all four republics to form the Soviet Union as a country. Between 1922 and 1991 the history of Russia became essentially the history of the Soviet Union, effectively an ideologically based state roughly conterminous with the Russian Empire before the 1918 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. From its first years, government in the Soviet Union-based itself on the one-party rule of the Communists, as the Bolsheviks called themselves, beginning in March 1918. The approach to the building of socialism, however, varied over different periods in Soviet history: from the mixed economy and diverse society and culture of the 1920s through the command economy and repressions of the Joseph Stalin era to the "era of stagnation" from the 1960s to the 1980s. During this period, the Soviet Union was one of the victors in World War II after recovering from a massive surprise invasion in 1941 by Nazi Germany, who had previously signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union. It became a superpower competing with fellow new superpower the United States and other Western countries in the Cold War. The USSR was successful with its space program, launching the first artificial satellite and first man into space.


title: History of Russia

text: By the mid-1980s, with the weaknesses of Soviet economic and political structures becoming acute, Mikhail Gorbachev embarked on major reforms, which eventually led to overthrow of the communist party and dissolution of the Soviet Union, leaving Russia again on its own and marking the start of the history of post-Soviet Russia. The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic renamed itself as the Russian Federation and became one of the several successors to the Soviet Union. The Russian Federation was the only post-soviet republic to assume the USSR's permanent membership in the UN Security Council. Later on, Russia inherited the Soviet Union's entire nuclear arsenal in 1994 after signing the Budapest Memorandum. Russia retained its nuclear arsenal but lost its superpower status. Scrapping the socialist central planning and state-ownership of property of the socialist era, new leaders, led by President Vladimir Putin took political and economic power after 2000 and engaged in an assertive foreign policy. Coupled with economic growth, Russia has since regained significant global status as a world power. Russia's 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula led to economic sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union. Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine led to massive sanctions designed to permanently weaken the modern sector of the economy. Under Putin's leadership, corruption in Russia is rated as the worst in Europe, and Russia's human rights situation has been increasingly criticized by international observers.


title: History of Russia

text: The first human settlement on the territory of Russia dates back to the Oldowan period in the early Lower Paleolithic. About 2 million years ago, representatives of "Homo erectus" migrated from Western Asia to the North Caucasus (archaeological site of on the Taman Peninsula). At the archaeological site of , in a skull of "Elasmotherium caucasicum", which lived 1.5–1.2 million years ago, a stone tool was found. 1.5-million-year-old Oldowan flint tools have been discovered in the Dagestan Akusha region of the north Caucasus, demonstrating the presence of early humans in the territory of the present-day Russian Federation from a very early time.


title: History of Russia

text: Fossils of Denisova man date to about 110,000 years ago. DNA from a bone fragment found in Denisova cave, that of a teenage girl who died about 90,000 years ago, shows that she was a hybrid of a Neanderthal mother and a Denisovan father. Russia was also home to some of the last surviving Neanderthals - the partial skeleton of a Neanderthal infant (Mezmaiskaya 2) in Mezmaiskaya cave in Adygea, showed a carbon-dated age of only 45,000 years. In 2008, Russian archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of Novosibirsk, working at the site of Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains of Siberia, uncovered a 40,000-year-old small bone fragment from the fifth finger of a juvenile hominin, which DNA analysis revealed to be a previously unknown species of human, which was named the Denisova hominin.


title: History of Russia

text: The first trace of "Homo sapiens" on the large expanse of Russian territory dates back to 45,000 years - in central Siberia (Ust'-Ishim man). The discovery of some of the earliest evidence for the presence of anatomically modern humans found anywhere in Europe was reported in 2007 from the deepest levels of the Kostenki archaeological site near the Don River in Russia (dated to at least 40,000 years ago) and at Sungir (34,600 years ago). Humans reached Arctic Russia (Mamontovaya Kurya) by 40,000 years ago.


title: History of Russia

text: During the prehistoric eras the vast steppes of Southern Russia were home to tribes of nomadic pastoralists. (In classical antiquity, the Pontic Steppe was known as "Scythia".) Remnants of these long-gone steppe cultures were discovered in the course of the 20th century in such places as Ipatovo, Sintashta, Arkaim, and Pazyryk.


title: History of Russia

text: In the later part of the 8th century BCE, Greek merchants brought classical civilization to the trade emporiums in Tanais and Phanagoria. Gelonus was described by Herodotus as a huge (Europe's biggest) earth- and wood-fortified grad inhabited around 500 BC by Heloni and Budini. The Bosporan Kingdom was incorporated as part of the Roman province of Moesia Inferior from 63 to 68 AD, under Emperor Nero. At about the 2nd century AD Goths migrated to the Black Sea, and in the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, a semi-legendary Gothic kingdom of Oium existed in Southern Russia until it was overrun by Huns. Between the 3rd and 6th centuries AD, the Bosporan Kingdom, a Hellenistic polity which succeeded the Greek colonies, was also overwhelmed by successive waves of nomadic invasions, led by warlike tribes which would often move on to Europe, as was the case with the Huns and Turkish Avars.


title: History of Russia

text: In the second millennium BC, the territories between the Kama and the Irtysh Rivers were the home of a Proto-Uralic-speaking population that had contacts with Proto-Indo-European speakers from the south. The woodland population is the ancestor of the modern Ugrian inhabitants of Trans-Uralia. Other researchers say that the Khanty people originated in the south Ural steppe and moved northwards into their current location about 500 AD.


title: History of Russia

text: A Turkic people, the Khazars, ruled the lower Volga basin steppes between the Caspian and Black Seas through to the 8th century. Noted for their laws, tolerance, and cosmopolitanism, the Khazars were the main commercial link between the Baltic and the Muslim Abbasid empire centered in Baghdad. They were important allies of the Byzantine Empire, and waged a series of successful wars against the Arab Caliphates. In the 8th century, the Khazars embraced Judaism.


title: History of Russia

text: Some of the ancestors of the modern Russians were the Slavic tribes, whose original home is thought by some scholars to have been the wooded areas of the Pripet Marshes. The Early East Slavs gradually settled Western Russia in two waves: one moving from Kiev towards present-day Suzdal and Murom and another from Polotsk towards Novgorod and Rostov.


title: History of Russia

text: From the 7th century onwards, East Slavs constituted the bulk of the population in Western Russia and slowly but peacefully assimilated the native Finnic tribes, such as the Merya, the Muromians, and the Meshchera.


title: History of Russia

text: Scandinavian Norsemen, known as Vikings in Western Europe and Varangians in the East, combined piracy and trade throughout Northern Europe. In the mid-9th century, they began to venture along the waterways from the eastern Baltic to the Black and Caspian Seas. According to the earliest Russian chronicle, a Varangian named Rurik was elected ruler ("knyaz") of Novgorod in about 860, before his successors moved south and extended their authority to Kiev, which had been previously dominated by the Khazars. Oleg, Rurik's son Igor and Igor's son Sviatoslav subsequently subdued all local East Slavic tribes to Kievan rule, destroyed the Khazar Khaganate and launched several military expeditions to Byzantium and Persia.


title: History of Russia

text: Thus, the first East Slavic state, Rus', emerged in the 9th century along the Dnieper River valley. A coordinated group of princely states with a common interest in maintaining trade along the river routes, Kievan Rus' controlled the trade route for furs, wax, and slaves between Scandinavia and the Byzantine Empire along the Volkhov and Dnieper Rivers.


title: History of Russia

text: By the end of the 10th century, the minority Norse military aristocracy had merged with the native Slavic population, which also absorbed Greek Christian influences in the course of the multiple campaigns to loot Tsargrad, or Constantinople. One such campaign claimed the life of the foremost Slavic druzhina leader, Svyatoslav I, who was renowned for having crushed the power of the Khazars on the Volga. At the time, the Byzantine Empire was experiencing a major military and cultural revival; despite its later decline, its culture would have a continuous influence on the development of Russia in its formative centuries.


title: History of Russia

text: Kievan Rus' is important for its introduction of a Slavic variant of the Eastern Orthodox religion, dramatically deepening a synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next thousand years. The region adopted Christianity in 988 by the official act of public baptism of Kiev inhabitants by Prince Vladimir I, who followed the private conversion of his grandmother. Some years later the first code of laws, Russkaya Pravda, was introduced by Yaroslav the Wise. From the onset, the Kievan princes followed the Byzantine example and kept the Church dependent on them, even for its revenues, so that the Russian Church and state were always closely linked.


title: History of Russia

text: By the 11th century, particularly during the reign of Yaroslav the Wise, Kievan Rus' displayed an economy and achievements in architecture and literature superior to those that then existed in the western part of the continent. Compared with the languages of European Christendom, the Russian language was little influenced by the Greek and Latin of early Christian writings. This was because Church Slavonic was used directly in liturgy instead.


title: History of Russia

text: A nomadic Turkic people, the Kipchaks (also known as the Cumans), replaced the earlier Pechenegs as the dominant force in the south steppe regions neighbouring to Rus' at the end of the 11th century and founded a nomadic state in the steppes along the Black Sea (Desht-e-Kipchak). Repelling their regular attacks, especially in Kiev, which was just one day's ride from the steppe, was a heavy burden for the southern areas of Rus'. The nomadic incursions caused a massive influx of Slavs to the safer, heavily forested regions of the north, particularly to the area known as Zalesye.


title: History of Russia

text: Kievan Rus' ultimately disintegrated as a state because of in-fighting between members of the princely family that ruled it collectively. Kiev's dominance waned, to the benefit of Vladimir-Suzdal in the north-east, Novgorod in the north, and Halych-Volhynia in the south-west. Conquest by the Mongol Golden Horde in the 13th century was the final blow. Kiev was destroyed. Halych-Volhynia would eventually be absorbed into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, while the Mongol-dominated Vladimir-Suzdal and independent Novgorod Republic, two regions on the periphery of Kiev, would establish the basis for the modern Russian nation.


title: History of Russia

text: The invading Mongols accelerated the fragmentation of the Rus'. In 1223, the disunited southern princes faced a Mongol raiding party at the Kalka River and were soundly defeated. In 1237–1238 the Mongols burnt down the city of Vladimir (4 February 1238) and other major cities of northeast Russia, routed the Russians at the Sit' River, and then moved west into Poland and Hungary. By then they had conquered most of the Russian principalities. Only the Novgorod Republic escaped occupation and continued to flourish in the orbit of the Hanseatic League.


title: History of Russia

text: The impact of the Mongol invasion on the territories of Kievan Rus' was uneven. The advanced city culture was almost completely destroyed. As older centers such as Kiev and Vladimir never recovered from the devastation of the initial attack, the new cities of Moscow, Tver and Nizhny Novgorod began to compete for hegemony in the Mongol-dominated Russia. Although a Russian army defeated the Golden Horde at Kulikovo in 1380, Mongol domination of the Russian-inhabited territories, along with demands of tribute from Russian princes, continued until about 1480.


title: History of Russia

text: The Mongols held Russia and Volga Bulgaria in sway from their western capital at Sarai, one of the largest cities of the medieval world. The princes of southern and eastern Russia had to pay tribute to the Mongols of the Golden Horde, commonly called Tatars; but in return they received charters authorizing them to act as deputies to the khans. In general, the princes were allowed considerable freedom to rule as they wished, while the Russian Orthodox Church even experienced a spiritual revival under the guidance of Metropolitan Alexis and Sergius of Radonezh.


title: History of Russia

text: The Mongols left their impact on the Russians in such areas as military tactics and transportation. Under Mongol occupation, Russia also developed its postal road network, census, fiscal system, and military organization.


title: History of Russia

text: At the same time, Prince of Novgorod, Alexander Nevsky, managed to repel the offensive of the Northern Crusades against Russia from the West. Despite this, becoming the Grand Prince, Alexander declared himself a vassal to the Golden Horde, not having the strength to resist its power.


title: History of Russia

text: Daniil Aleksandrovich, the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky, founded the principality of Moscow (known as Muscovy in English), which first cooperated with and ultimately expelled the Tatars from Russia. Well-situated in the central river system of Russia and surrounded by protective forests and marshes, Moscow was at first only a vassal of Vladimir, but soon it absorbed its parent state.


title: History of Russia

text: A major factor in the ascendancy of Moscow was the cooperation of its rulers with the Mongol overlords, who granted them the title of Grand Prince of Moscow and made them agents for collecting the Tatar tribute from the Russian principalities. The principality's prestige was further enhanced when it became the center of the Russian Orthodox Church. Its head, the Metropolitan, fled from Kiev to Vladimir in 1299 and a few years later established the permanent headquarters of the Church in Moscow under the original title of Kiev Metropolitan.


title: History of Russia

text: By the middle of the 14th century, the power of the Mongols was declining, and the Grand Princes felt able to openly oppose the Mongol yoke. In 1380, at Battle of Kulikovo on the Don River, the Mongols were defeated, and although this hard-fought victory did not end Tatar rule of Russia, it did bring great fame to the Grand Prince Dmitry Donskoy. Moscow's leadership in Russia was now firmly based and by the middle of the 14th century its territory had greatly expanded through purchase, war, and marriage.


title: History of Russia

text: In the 15th century, the grand princes of Moscow continued to consolidate Russian land to increase their population and wealth. The most successful practitioner of this process was Ivan III, who laid the foundations for a Russian national state. Ivan competed with his powerful northwestern rival, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, for control over some of the semi-independent Upper Principalities in the upper Dnieper and Oka River basins.


title: History of Russia

text: Through the defections of some princes, border skirmishes, and a long war with the Novgorod Republic, Ivan III was able to annex Novgorod and Tver. As a result, the Grand Duchy of Moscow tripled in size under his rule. During his conflict with Pskov, a monk named Filofei (Philotheus of Pskov) composed a letter to Ivan III, with the prophecy that the latter's kingdom would be the Third Rome. The Fall of Constantinople and the death of the last Greek Orthodox Christian emperor contributed to this new idea of Moscow as "New Rome" and the seat of Orthodox Christianity, as did Ivan's 1472 marriage to Byzantine Princess Sophia Palaiologina.


title: History of Russia

text: Under Ivan III, the first central government bodies were created in Russia - Prikaz. The Sudebnik was adopted, the first set of laws since the 11th century. The double-headed eagle was adopted as the coat of arms of Russia, as a symbol of the continuity of the power of Byzantium by Russia.


title: History of Russia

text: A contemporary of the Tudors and other "new monarchs" in Western Europe, Ivan proclaimed his absolute sovereignty over all Russian princes and nobles. Refusing further tribute to the Tatars, Ivan initiated a series of attacks that opened the way for the complete defeat of the declining Golden Horde, now divided into several Khanates and hordes. Ivan and his successors sought to protect the southern boundaries of their domain against attacks of the Crimean Tatars and other hordes. To achieve this aim, they sponsored the construction of the Great Abatis Belt and granted manors to nobles, who were obliged to serve in the military. The manor system provided a basis for an emerging cavalry-based army.


title: History of Russia

text: In this way, internal consolidation accompanied outward expansion of the state. By the 16th century, the rulers of Moscow considered the entire Russian territory their collective property. Various semi-independent princes still claimed specific territories, but Ivan III forced the lesser princes to acknowledge the grand prince of Moscow and his descendants as unquestioned rulers with control over military, judicial, and foreign affairs. Gradually, the Russian ruler emerged as a powerful, autocratic ruler, a tsar. The first Russian ruler to officially crown himself "Tsar" was Ivan IV.


title: History of Russia

text: Ivan III tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Golden Horde over the Rus', renovated the Moscow Kremlin, and laid the foundations of the Russian state. Biographer Fennell concludes that his reign was "militarily glorious and economically sound," and especially points to his territorial annexations and his centralized control over local rulers. However, Fennell, the leading British specialist on Ivan III, argues that his reign was also "a period of cultural depression and spiritual barrenness. Freedom was stamped out within the Russian lands. By his bigoted anti-Catholicism Ivan brought down the curtain between Russia and the west. For the sake of territorial aggrandizement he deprived his country of the fruits of Western learning and civilization."


title: History of Russia

text: The development of the Tsar's autocratic powers reached a peak during the reign of Ivan IV (1547–1584), known as "Ivan the Terrible". He strengthened the position of the monarch to an unprecedented degree, as he ruthlessly subordinated the nobles to his will, exiling or executing many on the slightest provocation. Nevertheless, Ivan is often seen as a farsighted statesman who reformed Russia as he promulgated a new code of laws (Sudebnik of 1550), established the first Russian feudal representative body (Zemsky Sobor), curbed the influence of the clergy, and introduced local self-management in rural regions. Tsar also created the first regular army in Russia - Streltsy.


title: History of Russia

text: His long Livonian War (1558–1583) for control of the Baltic coast and access to the sea trade ultimately proved a costly failure. Ivan managed to annex the Khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan, and Siberia. These conquests complicated the migration of aggressive nomadic hordes from Asia to Europe via the Volga and Urals. Through these conquests, Russia acquired a significant Muslim Tatar population and emerged as a multiethnic and multiconfessional state. Also around this period, the mercantile Stroganov family established a firm foothold in the Urals and recruited Russian Cossacks to colonise Siberia.


title: History of Russia

text: In the later part of his reign, Ivan divided his realm in two. In the zone known as the "oprichnina", Ivan's followers carried out a series of bloody purges of the feudal aristocracy (whom he suspected of treachery after the betrayal of prince Kurbsky), culminating in the Massacre of Novgorod in 1570. This combined with the military losses, epidemics, and poor harvests so weakened Russia that the Crimean Tatars were able to sack central Russian regions and burn down Moscow in 1571. However, in 1572 the Russians defeated the Crimean Tatar army at the Battle of Molodi and Ivan abandoned the "oprichnina".


title: History of Russia

text: At the end of Ivan IV's reign the Polish–Lithuanian and Swedish armies carried out a powerful intervention in Russia, devastating its northern and northwest regions.


title: History of Russia

text: The death of Ivan's childless son Feodor was followed by a period of civil wars and foreign intervention known as the Time of Troubles (1606–13). Extremely cold summers (1601–1603) wrecked crops, which led to the Russian famine of 1601–1603 and increased the social disorganization. Boris Godunov's (Борис Годунов) reign ended in chaos, civil war combined with foreign intrusion, devastation of many cities and depopulation of the rural regions. The country rocked by internal chaos also attracted several waves of interventions by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.


title: History of Russia

text: During the Polish–Muscovite War (1605–1618), Polish–Lithuanian forces reached Moscow and installed the impostor False Dmitriy I in 1605, then supported False Dmitry II in 1607. The decisive moment came when a combined Russian-Swedish army was routed by the Polish forces under hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski at the Battle of Klushino on . As the result of the battle, the Seven Boyars, a group of Russian nobles, deposed the tsar Vasily Shuysky on , and recognized the Polish prince Władysław IV Vasa as the Tsar of Russia on . The Poles occupied Moscow on . Moscow revolted but riots there were brutally suppressed and the city was set on fire.


title: History of Russia

text: The crisis provoked a patriotic national uprising against the invasion, both in 1611 and 1612. Finally, a volunteer army, led by the merchant Kuzma Minin and prince Dmitry Pozharsky, expelled the foreign forces from the capital on .


title: History of Russia

text: The Russian statehood survived the "Time of Troubles" and the rule of weak or corrupt Tsars because of the strength of the government's central bureaucracy. Government functionaries continued to serve, regardless of the ruler's legitimacy or the faction controlling the throne. However, the Time of Troubles caused the loss of much territory to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Russo-Polish war, as well as to the Swedish Empire in the Ingrian War.


title: History of Russia

text: In February 1613, after the chaos and expulsion of the Poles from Moscow, a national assembly, composed of representatives from 50 cities and even some peasants, elected Michael Romanov, the young son of Patriarch Filaret, to the throne. The Romanov dynasty ruled Russia until 1917.


title: History of Russia

text: The immediate task of the new monarch was to restore peace. Fortunately for Moscow, its major enemies, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Sweden, were engaged in a bitter conflict with each other, which provided Russia the opportunity to make peace with Sweden in 1617 and to sign a truce with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1619.


title: History of Russia

text: Recovery of lost territories began in the mid-17th century, when the Khmelnitsky Uprising (1648–1657) in Ukraine against Polish rule brought about the Treaty of Pereyaslav between Russia and the Ukrainian Cossacks. In the treaty, Russia granted protection to the Cossacks state in Left-bank Ukraine, formerly under Polish control. This triggered a prolonged Russo-Polish War (1654–1667), which ended with the Treaty of Andrusovo, where Poland accepted the loss of Left-bank Ukraine, Kiev and Smolensk.


title: History of Russia

text: The Russian conquest of Siberia, begun at the end of the 16th century, continued in the 17th century. By the end of the 1640s, the Russians reached the Pacific Ocean, the Russian explorer Semyon Dezhnev, discovered the strait between Asia and America. Russian expansion in the Far East faced resistance from Qing China. After the war between Russia and China, the Treaty of Nerchinsk was signed, delimiting the territories in the Amur region.


title: History of Russia

text: Rather than risk their estates in more civil war, the boyars cooperated with the first Romanovs, enabling them to finish the work of bureaucratic centralization. Thus, the state required service from both the old and the new nobility, primarily in the military. In return, the tsars allowed the boyars to complete the process of enserfing the peasants.


title: History of Russia

text: In the preceding century, the state had gradually curtailed peasants' rights to move from one landlord to another. With the state now fully sanctioning serfdom, runaway peasants became state fugitives, and the power of the landlords over the peasants "attached" to their land had become almost complete. Together, the state and the nobles placed an overwhelming burden of taxation on the peasants, whose rate was 100 times greater in the mid-17th century than it had been a century earlier. Likewise, middle-class urban tradesmen and craftsmen were assessed taxes, and were forbidden to change residence. All segments of the population were subject to military levy and special taxes.


title: History of Russia

text: Riots among peasants and citizens of Moscow at this time were endemic and included the Salt Riot (1648), Copper Riot (1662), and the Moscow Uprising (1682). By far the greatest peasant uprising in 17th-century Europe erupted in 1667. As the free settlers of South Russia, the Cossacks, reacted against the growing centralization of the state, serfs escaped from their landlords and joined the rebels. The Cossack leader Stenka Razin led his followers up the Volga River, inciting peasant uprisings and replacing local governments with Cossack rule. The tsar's army finally crushed his forces in 1670; a year later Stenka was captured and beheaded. Yet, less than half a century later, the strains of military expeditions produced another revolt in Astrakhan, ultimately subdued.


title: History of Russia

text: Much of Russia's expansion occurred in the 17th century, culminating in the first Russian colonisation of the Pacific in the mid-17th century, the Russo-Polish War (1654–1667) that incorporated left-bank Ukraine, and the Russian conquest of Siberia. Poland was divided in the 1790–1815 era, with much of the land and population going to Russia. Most of the 19th century growth came from adding territory in Asia, south of Siberia.


title: History of Russia

text: Peter the Great (Peter I, 1672–1725) brought centralized autocracy into Russia and played a major role in bringing his country into the European state system. Russia was now the largest country in the world, stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean. The vast majority of the land was unoccupied, and travel was slow. Much of its expansion had taken place in the 17th century, culminating in the first Russian settlement of the Pacific in the mid-17th century, the reconquest of Kiev, and the pacification of the Siberian tribes. However, a population of only 14 million was stretched across this vast landscape. With a short growing season, grain yields trailed behind those in the West and potato farming was not yet widespread. As a result, the great majority of the population workforce was occupied with agriculture. Russia remained isolated from the sea trade and its internal trade, communication and manufacturing were seasonally dependent.


title: History of Russia

text: Peter reformed the Russian army and created the Russian navy. Peter's first military efforts were directed against the Ottoman Turks. His aim was to establish a Russian foothold on the Black Sea by taking the town of Azov. His attention then turned to the north. Peter still lacked a secure northern seaport except at Archangel on the White Sea, whose harbor was frozen nine months a year. Access to the Baltic was blocked by Sweden, whose territory enclosed it on three sides. Peter's ambitions for a "window to the sea" led him in 1699 to make a secret alliance with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Denmark against Sweden resulting in the Great Northern War.


title: History of Russia

text: The war ended in 1721 when an exhausted Sweden sued for peace with Russia. Peter acquired four provinces situated south and east of the Gulf of Finland, thus securing his coveted access to the sea. There, in 1703, he had already founded the city that was to become Russia's new capital, Saint Petersburg, as a "window opened upon Europe" to replace Moscow, long Russia's cultural center. Russian intervention in the Commonwealth marked, with the Silent Sejm, the beginning of a 200-year domination of that region by the Russian Empire. In celebration of his conquests, Peter assumed the title of emperor, and the Russian Tsardom officially became the Russian Empire in 1721.


title: History of Russia

text: Peter re-organized his government based on the latest Western models, molding Russia into an absolutist state. He replaced the old "boyar" Duma (council of nobles) with a nine-member senate, in effect a supreme council of state. The countryside was also divided into new provinces and districts. Peter told the senate that its mission was to collect taxes. In turn tax revenues tripled over the course of his reign.


title: History of Russia

text: Administrative Collegia (ministries) were established in St. Petersburg, to replace the old governmental departments. In 1722, Peter promulgated his famous Table of ranks. As part of the government reform, the Orthodox Church was partially incorporated into the country's administrative structure, in effect making it a tool of the state. Peter abolished the patriarchate and replaced it with a collective body, the Holy Synod, led by a lay government official. Peter continued and intensified his predecessors' requirement of state service for all nobles.


title: History of Russia

text: By then, the once powerful Persian Safavid Empire to the south was heavily declining. Taking advantage, Peter launched the Russo-Persian War (1722–1723), known as "The Persian Expedition of Peter the Great" by Russian histographers, in order to be the first Russian emperor to establish Russian influence in the Caucasus and Caspian Sea region. After considerable success and the capture of many provinces and cities in the Caucasus and northern mainland Persia, the Safavids were forced to hand over the territories to Russia. However, by 12 years later, all the territories were ceded back to Persia, which was now led by the charismatic military genius Nader Shah, as part of the Treaty of Resht and Treaty of Ganja and the Russo-Persian alliance against the Ottoman Empire, the common neighbouring rivalling enemy.


title: History of Russia

text: Peter the Great died in 1725, leaving an unsettled succession, but Russia had become a great power by the end of his reign. Peter I was succeeded by his second wife, Catherine I (1725–1727), who was merely a figurehead for a powerful group of high officials, then by his minor grandson, Peter II (1727–1730), then by his niece, Anna (1730–1740), daughter of Tsar Ivan V. The heir to Anna was soon deposed in a coup and Elizabeth, daughter of Peter I, ruled from 1741 to 1762. During her reign, Russia took part in the Seven Years' War.


title: History of Russia

text: Nearly 40 years passed before a comparably ambitious ruler appeared. Catherine II, "the Great" (r. 1762–1796), was a German princess who married the German heir to the Russian crown. He took weak positions, and Catherine overthrew him in a coup in 1762, becoming queen regnant. Catherine enthusiastically supported the ideals of The Enlightenment, thus earning the status of an enlightened despot. She patronized the arts, science and learning. She contributed to the resurgence of the Russian nobility that began after the death of Peter the Great. Catherine promulgated the Charter to the Gentry reaffirming rights and freedoms of the Russian nobility and abolishing mandatory state service. She seized control of all the church lands, drastically reduced the size of the monasteries, and put the surviving clergy on a tight budget.


title: History of Russia

text: Catherine spent heavily to promote an expansive foreign policy. She extended Russian political control over the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth with actions, including the support of the Targowica Confederation. The cost of her campaigns, plus the oppressive social system that required serfs to spend almost all their time laboring on the land of their lords, provoked a major peasant uprising in 1773. Inspired by a Cossack named Pugachev, with the emphatic cry of "Hang all the landlords!", the rebels threatened to take Moscow until Catherine crushed the rebellion. Like the other enlightened despots of Europe, Catherine made certain of her own power and formed an alliance with the nobility.


title: History of Russia

text: Catherine successfully waged two wars (1768–1774, 1787–1792) against the decaying Ottoman Empire and advanced Russia's southern boundary to the Black Sea. Russia annexed Crimea in 1783 and created the Black Sea fleet. Then, by allying with the rulers of Austria and Prussia, she incorporated the territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, where after a century of Russian rule non-Catholic, mainly Orthodox population prevailed during the Partitions of Poland, pushing the Russian frontier westward into Central Europe.


title: History of Russia

text: In accordance to Russia's treaty with the Georgians to protect them against any new invasion of their Persian suzerains and further political aspirations, Catherine waged a new war against Persia in 1796 after they had again invaded Georgia and established rule over it about a year prior, and had expelled the newly established Russian garrisons in the Caucasus.


title: History of Russia

text: In 1798–1799, Russian troops participated in the anti-French coalition, the troops under the command of Alexander Suvorov defeated the French in Northern Italy.


title: History of Russia

text: Russian emperors of the 18th century professed the ideas of Enlightened absolutism. Innovative tsars such as Peter the Great and Catherine the Great brought in Western experts, scientists, philosophers, and engineers. However, Westernization and modernization affected only the upper classes of Russian society, while the bulk of the population, consisting of peasants, remained in a state of serfdom. Powerful Russians resented their privileged positions and alien ideas. The backlash was especially severe after the Napoleonic wars. It produced a powerful anti-western campaign that "led to a wholesale purge of Western specialists and their Russian followers in universities, schools, and government service."


title: History of Russia

text: The mid-18th century was marked by the emergence of higher education in Russia. The first two major universities Saint Petersburg State University and Moscow State University were opened in both capitals. Russian exploration of Siberia and the Far East continued. Great Northern Expedition laid the foundation for the development of Alaska by the Russians. By the end of the 18th century, Alaska became a Russian colony (Russian America). In the early 19th century, Alaska was used as a base for the First Russian circumnavigation. In 1819–1821, Russian sailors discovered Antarctica during an Antarctic expedition.


title: History of Russia

text: Russia was in a continuous state of financial crisis. While revenue rose from 9 million rubles in 1724 to 40 million in 1794, expenses grew more rapidly, reaching 49 million in 1794. The budget was allocated 46% to the military, 20% to government economic activities, 12% to administration, and 9% for the Imperial Court in St. Petersburg. The deficit required borrowing, primarily from Amsterdam; 5% of the budget was allocated to debt payments. Paper money was issued to pay for expensive wars, thus causing inflation. For its spending, Russia obtained a large and glorious army, a very large and complex bureaucracy, and a splendid court that rivaled Paris and London. However, the government was living far beyond its means, and 18th-century Russia remained "a poor, backward, overwhelmingly agricultural, and illiterate country."


title: History of Russia

text: By the time of her death in 1796, Catherine's expansionist policy had made Russia a major European power. Alexander I continued this policy, wresting Finland from the weakened kingdom of Sweden in 1809 and Bessarabia from the Ottomans in 1812. His key advisor was Adam Jerzy Czartoryski.


title: History of Russia

text: After Russian armies liberated allied Georgia from Persian occupation in 1802, they clashed with Persia over control and consolidation over Georgia, as well as the Iranian territories that comprise modern-day Azerbaijan and Dagestan. They also became involved in the Caucasian War against the Caucasian Imamate and Circassia. In 1813, the war with Persia concluded with a Russian victory, forcing Qajar Iran to cede swaths of its territories in the Caucasus to Russia, which drastically increased its territory in the region. To the south-west, Russia tried to expand at the expense of the Ottoman Empire, using Georgia at its base for the Caucasus and Anatolian front.


title: History of Russia

text: In European policy, Alexander I switched Russia back and forth four times in 1804–1812 from neutral peacemaker to anti-Napoleon to an ally of Napoleon, winding up in 1812 as Napoleon's enemy. In 1805, he joined Britain in the War of the Third Coalition against Napoleon, but after the massive defeat at the Battle of Austerlitz he switched and formed an alliance with Napoleon by the Treaty of Tilsit (1807) and joined Napoleon's Continental System. He fought a small-scale naval war against Britain, 1807–1812. He and Napoleon could never agree, especially about Poland, and the alliance collapsed by 1810.


title: History of Russia

text: Russia's economy had been hurt by Napoleon's Continental System, which cut off trade with Britain. As Esdaile notes, "Implicit in the idea of a Russian Poland was, of course, a war against Napoleon." Schroeder says Poland was the root cause of the conflict but Russia's refusal to support the Continental System was also a factor.


title: History of Russia

text: The invasion of Russia was a catastrophe for Napoleon and his 450,000 invasion troops. One major battle was fought at Borodino; casualties were very high, but it was indecisive, and Napoleon was unable to engage and defeat the Russian armies. He tried to force the Tsar to terms by capturing Moscow at the onset of winter, even though he had lost most of his men. Instead, the Russians retreated, burning crops and food supplies in a scorched earth policy that multiplied Napoleon's logistic problems. Unprepared for winter warfare, 85%–90% of Napoleon's soldiers died from disease, cold, starvation or ambush by peasant guerrillas. As Napoleon's forces retreated, Russian troops pursued them into Central and Western Europe, defeated Napoleon's army in the Battle of the Nations and finally captured Paris. Of a total population of around 43 million people, Russia lost about 1.5 million in the year 1812; of these about 250,000 to 300,000 were soldiers and the rest peasants and serfs.


title: History of Russia

text: After the final defeat of Napoleon in 1815, Alexander became known as the 'savior of Europe'. He presided over the redrawing of the map of Europe at the Congress of Vienna (1814–1815), which made him the king of Congress Poland. He formed the Holy Alliance with Austria and Prussia, to suppress revolutionary movements in Europe that he saw as immoral threats to legitimate Christian monarchs. He helped Austria's Klemens von Metternich in suppressing all national and liberal movements.


title: History of Russia

text: Although the Russian Empire would play a leading role on behalf of conservatism as late as 1848, its retention of serfdom precluded economic progress of any significant degree. As West European economic growth accelerated during the Industrial Revolution, sea trade and colonialism which had begun in the second half of the 18th century, Russia began to lag ever farther behind, undermining its ability to field strong armies.


title: History of Russia

text: Russia's great power status obscured the inefficiency of its government, the isolation of its people, and its economic backwardness. Following the defeat of Napoleon, Alexander I was willing to discuss constitutional reforms, and though a few were introduced, no thoroughgoing changes were attempted.


title: History of Russia

text: The tsar was succeeded by his younger brother, Nicholas I (1825–1855), who at the onset of his reign was confronted with an uprising. The background of this revolt lay in the Napoleonic Wars, when a number of well-educated Russian officers traveled in Europe in the course of the military campaigns, where their exposure to the liberalism of Western Europe encouraged them to seek change on their return to autocratic Russia. The result was the Decembrist Revolt (December 1825), the work of a small circle of liberal nobles and army officers who wanted to install Nicholas' brother as a constitutional monarch. But the revolt was easily crushed, leading Nicholas to turn away from liberal reforms and champion the reactionary doctrine "Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality".


title: History of Russia

text: In 1826–1828, Russia fought another war against Persia. Russia lost almost all of its recently consolidated territories during the first year but regained them and won the war on highly favourable terms. At the 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay, Russia gained Armenia, Nakhchivan, Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan, and Iğdır. In the 1828–1829 Russo-Turkish War Russia invaded northeastern Anatolia and occupied the strategic Ottoman towns of Erzurum and Gümüşhane and, posing as protector and saviour of the Greek Orthodox population, received extensive support from the region's Pontic Greeks. After a brief occupation, the Russian imperial army withdrew into Georgia. By the 1830s, Russia had conquered all Persian territories and major Ottoman territories in the Caucasus.


title: History of Russia

text: In 1831, Nicholas crushed the November Uprising in Poland. The Russian autocracy gave Polish artisans and gentry reason to rebel in 1863 by assailing the national core values of language, religion, and culture. The resulting January Uprising was a massive Polish revolt, which also was crushed. France, Britain and Austria tried to intervene in the crisis but were unable. The Russian patriotic press used the Polish uprising to unify the Russian nation, claiming it was Russia's God-given mission to save Poland and the world. Poland was punished by losing its distinctive political and judicial rights, with Russianization imposed on its schools and courts.


title: History of Russia

text: Tsar Nicholas I (reigned 1825–1855) lavished attention on his army. In a nation of 60–70 million people, it included a million men. They had outdated equipment and tactics, but the tsar, who dressed like a soldier and surrounded himself with officers, gloried in the victory over Napoleon in 1812 and took pride in its smartness on parade. The cavalry horses, for example, were only trained in parade formations, and did poorly in battle. The glitter and braid masked weaknesses that he did not see. He put generals in charge of most of his civilian agencies regardless of their qualifications. The Army became the vehicle of upward social mobility for noble youths from non-Russian areas, such as Poland, the Baltic, Finland and Georgia. On the other hand, many miscreants, petty criminals and undesirables were punished by local officials by enlisting them for life in the Army. Village oligarchies controlled employment, conscription for the army, and local patronage; they blocked reforms and sent the most unpromising peasant youth to the army. The conscription system was unpopular with people, as was the practice of forcing peasants to house the soldiers for six months of the year.


title: History of Russia

text: Finally the Crimean War at the end of his reign showed the world what no one had previously realized: Russia was militarily weak, technologically backward, and administratively incompetent. Despite his ambitions toward the south and Ottoman Empire, Russia had not built its railroad network in that direction, and communications were poor. The bureaucracy was riddled with graft, corruption and inefficiency and was unprepared for war. The Navy was weak and technologically backward; the Army, although very large, was good only for parades, suffered from colonels who pocketed their men's pay, poor morale, and was even more out of touch with the latest technology as developed by Britain and France. The nation's leaders realized that reforms were urgently needed.


title: History of Russia

text: The 1st quarter of the 19th century is the time when Russian literature becomes an independent and very striking phenomenon; this is the time when the very laws of the Russian literary language are formed. The reasons for such a rapid development of Russian literature during this period lie both in the intra-literary processes and in the socio-political life of Russian society.


title: History of Russia

text: As Western Europe modernized, after 1840 the issue for Russia became one of direction. Westernizers favored imitating Western Europe while others renounced the West and called for a return of the traditions of the past. The latter path was championed by Slavophiles, who heaped scorn on the "decadent" West. The Slavophiles were opponents of bureaucracy and preferred the collectivism of the medieval Russian "mir", or village community, to the individualism of the West.


title: History of Russia

text: Westernizers formed an intellectual movement that deplored the backwardness of Russian culture, and looked to western Europe for intellectual leadership. They were opposed by Slavophiles who denounced the West as too materialistic and instead promoted the spiritual depth of Russian traditionalism. A forerunner of the movement was Pyotr Chaadayev (1794–1856). He exposed the cultural isolation of Russia, from the perspective of Western Europe, in his "Philosophical Letters" of 1831. He cast doubt on the greatness of the Russian past, and ridiculed Orthodoxy for failing to provide a sound spiritual basis for the Russian mind. He called on Russia to emulate Western Europe, especially in rational and logical thought, its progressive spirit, its leadership in science, and indeed its leadership on the path to freedom. Vissarion Belinsky (1811–1848), and Alexander Herzen (1812–1870) were prominent Westernizers.


title: History of Russia

text: Since the war against Napoleon, Russia had become deeply involved in the affairs of Europe, as part of the "Holy Alliance." The Holy Alliance was formed to serve as the "policeman of Europe." However, to maintain the alliance required large armies. Prussia, Austria, Britain and France (the other members of the alliance) lacked large armies and needed Russia to supply the required numbers, which fit the philosophy of Nicholas I. When the Revolutions of 1848 swept Europe, however, Russia was quiet. The Tsar sent his army into Hungary in 1849 at the request of the Austrian Empire and broke the revolt there, while preventing its spread to Russian Poland. The Tsar cracked down on any signs of internal unrest.


title: History of Russia

text: Russia expected that in exchange for supplying the troops to be the policeman of Europe, it should have a free hand in dealing with the decaying Ottoman Empire—the "sick man of Europe." In 1853, Russia invaded Ottoman-controlled areas leading to the Crimean War. Britain and France came to the rescue of the Ottomans. After a grueling war fought largely in Crimea, with very high death rates from disease, the allies won.


title: History of Russia

text: When Alexander II came to the throne in 1855, the demand for reform was widespread. The most pressing problem confronting the Government was serfdom. In 1859, there were 23 million serfs (out of a total population of 67 Million). In anticipation of civil unrest that could ultimately foment a revolution, Alexander II chose to preemptively abolish serfdom with the emancipation reform in 1861. Emancipation brought a supply of free labor to the cities, stimulated industry, and the middle class grew in number and influence. The freed peasants had to buy land, allotted to them, from the landowners with the state assistance. The Government issued special bonds to the landowners for the land that they had lost, and collected a special tax from the peasants, called redemption payments, at a rate of 5% of the total cost of allotted land yearly. All the land turned over to the peasants was owned collectively by the "mir", the village community, which divided the land among the peasants and supervised the various holdings.


title: History of Russia

text: Alexander was responsible for numerous reforms besides abolishing serfdom. He reorganized the judicial system, setting up elected local judges, abolishing capital punishment, promoting local self-government through the zemstvo system, imposing universal military service, ending some of the privileges of the nobility, and promoting the universities.