My school has blocked all livejournal communities! Oddly enough, I can still read my friends page, make posts, and visit personal journals. Wtf shs? Their reason for blocking it is "Chat/IM". That makes a lot of sense. :) I was looking at a french community. Very educational. But fine, if they dont want me to be able to compete with students from other countries, that is fine with me. Protest! Oh! Did I also tell you that the school board is not letting french students go on an educational field trip to Quebec? What the hell! So the band can go on overnight fieldtrips all over the place, as can the sports teams and FFA, FBLA, etc, but we can't? O_O You can be sure that I have worked my magic. I have contacts lined up all across the boarders. o_o But I never said that!!
Russia (Russian: Росси́я, Rossiya; pronounced [rʌ'sʲi.jə]), also[1] the Russian Federation (Russian: Росси́йская Федера́ция, Rossiyskaya Federatsiya; pronounced [rʌ'sʲi.skə.jə fʲɪ.dʲɪ'ra.ʦɪ.jə], listen ), is a country that stretches over a vast expanse of Eurasia. With an area of 17,075,400 square kilometres, it is the largest country in the world by land mass, covering almost twice the territory of the next-largest country, Canada. It has the world's eighth largest population. Russia shares land borders with the following countries (counter-clockwise from NW to SE): Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It is also close to the United States and Japan across relatively small stretches of water.
Formerly the dominant republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Russia is now an independent country and an influential member of the Commonwealth of Independent States, since the Union's dissolution in December 1991. During the Soviet era, Russia was officially called the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). Russia is considered the Soviet Union's successor state in diplomatic matters.
Most of the area, population, and industrial production of the Soviet Union, then one of the world's two superpowers, lay in Russia. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russia's global role was greatly diminished compared to that of the former Soviet Union. In October 2005, the federal statistics agency reported that Russia's population has shrunk by more than half a million people dipping to 143 million, although Russia remains the second country in the world by the number of immigrants from abroad.[2]
Prior to the Christian era, the vast lands of South Russia were home to disunited tribes, such as Proto-Indo-Europeans and Scythians. Between the third and sixth centuries AD, the steppes were overwhelmed by successive waves of nomadic invasions, led by warlike tribes which would often move on to Europe, as was the case with Huns and Turkish Avars. A Turkic people, the Khazars, ruled South Russia through the 8th century. They were important allies of the Byzantine Empire and waged a series of successful wars against the Arab Califates.
The Early East Slavs constituted the bulk of the population in Western Russia from the 7th century onwards and slowly assimilated the native Finno-Ugric tribes, such as the Merya, the Muromians and the Meshchera. In the mid-9th century, a group of Scandinavians, the Varangians, assumed the role of a ruling elite at the Slavic capital of Novgorod. Although they were quickly assimilated by the predominantly Slavic population, the Varangian dynasty lasted several centuries, during which they affiliated with the Byzantine, or Orthodox church and moved the capital to Kiev in A.D. 882.
In this era the term "Rhos", or "Rus", first came to be applied to the Varangians and later also to the Slavs who peopled the region. As well as one of the rulers who contributed to the name "rus" In the 10th to 11th centuries this state of Kievan Rus became the largest in Europe and one of the most prosperous, due to diversified trade with both Europe and Asia. The opening of new trade routes with the Orient at the time of the Crusades contributed to the decline and fragmentation of Kievan Rus by the end of the 12th century.
In the 11th and 12th centuries, the constant incursions of nomadic Turkic tribes, such as the Kipchaks and the Pechenegs, led to the massive migration of Slavic populations from the fertile south to the heavily forested regions of the north, known as Zalesye. The medieval states of Novgorod Republic and Vladimir-Suzdal emerged as successors to Kievan Rus on those territories, while the middle course of the Volga River came to be dominated by the Muslim state of Volga Bulgaria.
Henry VIII (28 June 1491–28 January 1547) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 22 April 1509 until his death. He was the second monarch of the Tudor dynasty, succeeding his father, Henry VII. Henry VIII is famous for having been married six times to have a son, "divorcing" two by execution, and ultimately breaking with Rome. He wielded perhaps the most untrammelled power of any English monarch, and brought about the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and the union of England and Wales.
Several significant pieces of legislation were enacted during Henry VIII's reign. They included the several Acts which severed the English Church from the Roman Catholic Church and established Henry as the supreme head of the Church in England; the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542, which brought the law in Wales in line with that in England; the Buggery Act 1533, the first anti-sodomy enactment in England; and the Witchcraft Act 1542, which punished 'invoking or conjuring an evil spirit' with death.
From wikipedia, of course.
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