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174-616: The Eurasian Land Bridge ( Russian : Евразийский сухопутный мост , romanized : Yevraziyskiy sukhoputniy most ), sometimes called the New Silk Road ( Новый шёлковый путь , Noviy shyolkoviy put' ), is the rail transport route for moving freight and passengers overland between Pacific seaports in the Russian Far East and China and seaports in Europe. The route, a transcontinental railroad and rail land bridge , comprises
348-649: A constitutional referendum on whether to adopt Russian as a second official language. According to the Central Election Commission, 74.8% voted against, 24.9% voted for and the voter turnout was 71.1%. Starting in 2019, instruction in Russian will be gradually discontinued in private colleges and universities in Latvia, and in general instruction in Latvian public high schools. On 29 September 2022, Saeima passed in
522-628: A limited engagement at Mayi involving the assassination of the Chanyu would throw the Xiongnu realm into chaos and benefit the Han. When this plot failed in 133 BC, Emperor Wu launched a series of massive military invasions into Xiongnu territory. The assault culminated in 119 BC at the Battle of Mobei , when Han commanders Huo Qubing ( d. 117 BC ) and Wei Qing ( d. 106 BC ) forced
696-510: A new education law which requires all schools to teach at least partially in Ukrainian, with provisions while allow indigenous languages and languages of national minorities to be used alongside the national language. The law faced criticism from officials in Russia and Hungary. The 2019 Law of Ukraine "On protecting the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language" gives priority to
870-595: A Greek sailor had visited. Emperor Zhang 's ( r. 75–88 AD ) reign came to be viewed by later Eastern Han scholars as the high point of the dynastic house. Subsequent reigns were increasingly marked by eunuch intervention in court politics and their involvement in the violent power struggles of the imperial consort clans . In 92 AD, with the aid of the eunuch Zheng Zhong ( d. 107 AD ), Emperor He ( r. 88–105 AD ) had Empress Dowager Dou ( d. 97 AD ) put under house arrest and her clan stripped of power. This
1044-457: A change which debased the value of coinage. Although these reforms provoked considerable opposition, Wang's regime met its ultimate downfall with the massive floods of c. 3 AD and 11 AD. Gradual silt build-up in the Yellow River had raised its water level and overwhelmed the flood control works . The Yellow River split into two new branches: one emptying to the north and
1218-445: A coalition of former officials and officers against Dong, who burned Luoyang to the ground and resettled the court at Chang'an in May 191 AD. Dong Zhuo later poisoned Emperor Shao. Dong was killed by his adopted son Lü Bu ( d. 198 AD ) in a plot hatched by Wang Yun ( d. 192 AD ). Emperor Xian fled from Chang'an in 195 AD to the ruins of Luoyang. Xian
1392-416: A coup against the eunuchs Hou Lan ( d. 172 AD ), Cao Jie ( d. 181 AD ), and Wang Fu ( 王甫 ). When the plot was uncovered, the eunuchs arrested Empress Dowager Dou ( d. 172 AD ) and Chen Fan. General Zhang Huan ( 張奐 ) favoured the eunuchs. He and his troops confronted Dou Wu and his retainers at the palace gate where each side shouted accusations of treason against
1566-712: A crucial link to the outside world for landlocked Mongolia, and the shortest connection between the Trans-Siberian Railway and Beijing. This line's capacity, however, is limited by its being single-track. While the USSR had long been connected with China via the rail links in Northeastern China and Mongolia , since the 1950s plans existed to connect the two countries' rail networks at the Kazakhstan / Xinjiang border. The Soviets completed their line from Aktogay (a station on
1740-516: A descendant of Emperor Jing ( r. 157–141 BC ), attempted to restore the Han dynasty and occupied Chang'an as his capital. However, he was overwhelmed by the Red Eyebrow rebels who deposed, assassinated, and replaced him with the puppet monarch Liu Penzi . Gengshi's distant cousin Liu Xiu, known posthumously as Emperor Guangwu ( r. 25–57 AD ), after distinguishing himself at
1914-462: A distance of 11,870 kilometres (7,400 mi). The exact route used to connect the two cities, whether through Mongolia or Kazakhstan, however, is unclear. An alternative way from China to Europe is via Turkey. The route from China follows Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Turkey. Due to longer distance, insufficient service, and border crossings, this route has not regularly been used for direct transport from China to Europe. However, work
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#17328482953072088-476: A formula with V standing for the nucleus (vowel) and C for each consonant, the maximal structure can be described as follows: (C)(C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C) Han dynasty The Han dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) and
2262-558: A hard or soft counterpart, and the distinction is a prominent feature of the language, which is usually shown in writing not by a change of the consonant but rather by changing the following vowel. Another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels . Stress , which is often unpredictable, is not normally indicated orthographically , though an optional acute accent may be used to mark stress – such as to distinguish between homographic words (e.g. замо́к [ zamók , 'lock'] and за́мок [ zámok , 'castle']), or to indicate
2436-479: A language that "belongs to the European cultural space". The financing of Russian-language content by the state will cease, which the concept says create a "unified information space". However, one inevitable consequence would be the closure of public media broadcasts in Russian on LTV and Latvian Radio, as well as the closure of LSM's Russian-language service. In Lithuania , Russian has no official or legal status, but
2610-572: A lesser extent the languages to the south and the east: Uralic , Turkic , Persian , Arabic , and Hebrew . According to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California , Russian is classified as a level III language in terms of learning difficulty for native English speakers, requiring approximately 1,100 hours of immersion instruction to achieve intermediate fluency. Feudal divisions and conflicts created obstacles between
2784-730: A long-distance freight train service between Beijing and Hamburg . Travelling a total of 10,000 kilometres (6,210 mi), the train uses the China Railways and the Trans-Mongolian line to travel from Xiangtan (in Hunan Province) to Ulaanbaatar , where it then continues north to the Trans-Siberian. After reaching the end of the Trans-Siberian at Moscow the train continues to Germany via rail links in Belarus and Poland. Total transit time
2958-607: A minority language under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities . 30% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 2% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. In Azerbaijan , Russian has no official status, but is a lingua franca of the country. 26% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 5% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. In Georgia , Russian has no official status, but it
3132-552: A number of container terminals in China and their counterparts in Europe has become fairly regular. Between some city pairs, there is one train per week. Both with respect to cost and speed, the China-Europe direct train service is in between the air and sea options. While it is estimated that the overall volume of goods moving between China and Europe by rail is not going to surpass 1–2% of the sea cargo volume, it may eat significantly into
3306-516: A qualitatively new entity can be said to emerge—the general language of the working class... capitalism has the tendency of creating the general urban language of a given society. In 2010, there were 259.8 million speakers of Russian in the world: in Russia – 137.5 million, in the CIS and Baltic countries – 93.7 million, in Eastern Europe – 12.9 million, Western Europe – 7.3 million, Asia – 2.7 million, in
3480-561: A request by Kushan ruler Vima Kadphises ( r. c. 90 – c. 100 AD – ) for a marriage alliance with the Han was rejected in AD ;90, he sent his forces to Wakhan (modern-day Afghanistan) to attack Ban Chao. The conflict ended with the Kushans withdrawing because of lack of supplies. In AD 91, the office of Protector General of the Western Regions
3654-432: A result, trains cannot run from China or European countries into or out of the former USSR without changing bogies . Large facilities to carry out this procedure exist at most border crossing between the " Russian " and " standard " gauge territories (e.g., at Zabaykalsk or Erenhot ) Changing the bogies on a rail car takes hours and special, heavy equipment. In many cases (especially, containerized freight), freight
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#17328482953073828-428: A series of reforms that limited the power of these kingdoms in 145, dividing their former territories into new commanderies under central control. Kings were no longer able to appoint their own staff; this duty was assumed by the imperial court. Kings became nominal heads of their fiefs and collected a portion of tax revenues as their personal incomes. The kingdoms were never entirely abolished and existed throughout
4002-545: A successful overthrow of her regime to enthrone Emperor Shun of Han ( r. 125–144 AD ). Yan was placed under house arrest, her relatives were either killed or exiled, and her eunuch allies were slaughtered. The regent Liang Ji ( d. 159 AD ), brother of Empress Liang Na ( d. 150 AD ), had the brother-in-law of Consort Deng Mengnü ( d. 165 AD ) killed after Deng Mengnü resisted Liang Ji's attempts to control her. Afterward, Emperor Huan employed eunuchs to depose Liang Ji, who
4176-446: A test of the route by shipping roof tiles to Europe via the Trans-Siberian. The tiles were transported by ship from Hamada, Shimane to Vladivostok, then by the railway to Moscow. The transit time was expected to be 30 days, in comparison with the 50 days on average it takes to ship cargo by ship from Hamada to ports in western Russia. If successful, the ministry would use the results of the test to encourage other Japanese companies to use
4350-474: A war to determine who would have hegemony over China, which had fissured into Eighteen Kingdoms , each claiming allegiance to either Xiang Yu or Liu Bang. Although Xiang Yu proved to be an effective commander, Liu Bang defeated him at the Battle of Gaixia (202 BC) in modern-day Anhui . Liu Bang assumed the title of Emperor at the urging of his followers and is known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu ( r. 202–195 BC ). Chang'an (modern Xi'an)
4524-702: A warring interregnum known as the Chu–Han Contention (206–202 BC), and it was succeeded by the Three Kingdoms period (220–280 AD). The dynasty was briefly interrupted by the Xin dynasty (9–23 AD) established by the usurping regent Wang Mang , and is thus separated into two periods—the Western Han (202 BC – 9 AD) and the Eastern Han (25–220 AD). Spanning over four centuries,
4698-716: Is the same gauge as Chinese railways ( standard gauge , as opposed to 1,520 mm gauge in the former Russian Empire and the Soviet Union), rail links to India, Burma , Thailand , Malaysia and elsewhere in Southeast Asia , construction of a rail tunnel and highway bridge across the Bering Strait to connect the Trans-Siberian to the North American rail system, and construction of a rail tunnel between South Korea and Japan. The United Nations has proposed further expansion of
4872-596: Is 15 days, as compared with the 30 days average it would take for the freight to make the same journey by ship. The first train of 50 containers, carrying a mixed load of clothes, ceramics and electronics (for the Fujitsu company), travelled on tracks operated by six different railways. Hartmut Mehdorn , chairman of Deutsche Bahn (DB), stated in March 2008 that regularly scheduled, weekly China-Germany freight services should be in operation by 2010. In April 2009, however, DB postponed
5046-527: Is Belarusian, among ethnic Belarusians this share is 28.5%; the highest share of those who speak Belarusian at home is among ethnic Poles — 46.0%. In Estonia , Russian is spoken by 29.6% of the population, according to a 2011 estimate from the World Factbook, and is officially considered a foreign language. School education in the Russian language is a very contentious point in Estonian politics, and in 2022,
5220-462: Is China–Kazakhstan–Azerbaijan–Georgia–Turkey. The former countries of the Russian Empire and USSR, including Finland (which was once part of Russia), as well as Mongolia, use a track gauge of 1,520 mm ( 4 ft 11 + 27 ⁄ 32 in ). The international standard gauge used in most of Europe and China is 1,435 mm ( 4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ). As
5394-475: Is a co-official language per article 5 of the Constitution of Kyrgyzstan . The 2009 census states that 482,200 people speak Russian as a native language, or 8.99% of the population. Additionally, 1,854,700 residents of Kyrgyzstan aged 15 and above fluently speak Russian as a second language, or 49.6% of the population in the age group. In Tajikistan , Russian is the language of inter-ethnic communication under
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5568-401: Is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian , and a moderate degree of it in all modern Slavic languages, at least at the conversational level. Russian is written using a Cyrillic alphabet. The Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters. The following table gives their forms, along with IPA values for each letter's typical sound: Older letters of
5742-593: Is a post-posed definite article -to , -ta , -te similar to that existing in Bulgarian and Macedonian. In the Southern Russian dialects , instances of unstressed /e/ and /a/ following palatalized consonants and preceding a stressed syllable are not reduced to [ɪ] (as occurs in the Moscow dialect), being instead pronounced [a] in such positions (e.g. несл и is pronounced [nʲaˈslʲi] , not [nʲɪsˈlʲi] ) – this
5916-647: Is an East Slavic language belonging to the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family . It is one of the four extant East Slavic languages, and is the native language of the Russians . It was the de facto and de jure official language of the former Soviet Union . Russian has remained an official language of the Russian Federation , Belarus , Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan , and Tajikistan , and
6090-485: Is being used less frequently by Russian-speaking typists in favor of the extension of Unicode character encoding , which fully incorporates the Russian alphabet. Free programs are available offering this Unicode extension, which allow users to type Russian characters, even on Western 'QWERTY' keyboards. The Russian language was first introduced to computing after the M-1 , and MESM models were produced in 1951. According to
6264-613: Is called yakanye ( яканье ). Consonants include a fricative /ɣ/ , a semivowel /w⁓u̯/ and /x⁓xv⁓xw/ , whereas the Standard and Northern dialects have the consonants /ɡ/ , /v/ , and final /l/ and /f/ , respectively. The morphology features a palatalized final /tʲ/ in 3rd person forms of verbs (this is unpalatalized in the Standard and Northern dialects). During the Proto-Slavic (Common Slavic) times all Slavs spoke one mutually intelligible language or group of dialects. There
6438-523: Is comparatively little used (the management mentions 6 million tons of freight per year, not indicating the year), the management expects the line to be fully used in the foreseeable future for oil and copper ore export, and has plans to double-track it. While the Trans-Siberian has always been used by the Tsarist , Soviet and modern Russian government to project political power into their territories in Asia, in
6612-541: Is expected to reach 25.5 million tons by 2010. Besides cargo (principally, Russian oil exported to China), this crossing sees a direct weekly passenger train, Moscow–Beijing, as well as some local passenger trains. The eastern border point of the former Chinese Eastern Railway, at Suifenhe / Grodekovo , sees significant use as well, with over 8 million tons of freight crossing the border there in 2007, and regular cross-border passenger service. A third, little-known and less used, rail connection between Russia and China
6786-563: Is more spoken than English. Sizable Russian-speaking communities also exist in North America, especially in large urban centers of the US and Canada, such as New York City , Philadelphia , Boston , Los Angeles , Nashville , San Francisco , Seattle , Spokane , Toronto , Calgary , Baltimore , Miami , Portland , Chicago , Denver , and Cleveland . In a number of locations they issue their own newspapers, and live in ethnic enclaves (especially
6960-486: Is now northern Sichuan and southern Shaanxi , was not quelled until 215 AD. Zhang Jue's massive rebellion across eight provinces was annihilated by Han forces within a year; however, the following decades saw much smaller recurrent uprisings. Although the Yellow Turbans were defeated, many generals appointed during the crisis never disbanded their assembled militias and used these troops to amass power outside of
7134-564: Is odd") – чу́дно ( chúdno – "this is marvellous"), молоде́ц ( molodéts – "well done!") – мо́лодец ( mólodets – "fine young man"), узна́ю ( uznáyu – "I shall learn it") – узнаю́ ( uznayú – "I recognize it"), отреза́ть ( otrezát – "to be cutting") – отре́зать ( otrézat – "to have cut"); to indicate the proper pronunciation of uncommon words, especially personal and family names, like афе́ра ( aféra , "scandal, affair"), гу́ру ( gúru , "guru"), Гарси́я ( García ), Оле́ша ( Olésha ), Фе́рми ( Fermi ), and to show which
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7308-402: Is recognized as a minority language under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities . Russian is the language of 9% of the population according to the World Factbook. Ethnologue cites Russian as the country's de facto working language. In China , Russian has no official status, but it is spoken by the small Russian communities in the northeastern Heilongjiang and
7482-541: Is recorded in the Weilüe and Book of Later Han to have reached the court of Emperor Huan of Han ( r. 146–168 AD ) in AD 166, yet Rafe de Crespigny asserts that this was most likely a group of Roman merchants . In addition to Roman glasswares and coins found in China, Roman medallions from the reign of Antoninus Pius and his adopted son Marcus Aurelius have been found at Óc Eo in Vietnam. This
7656-569: Is sometimes considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. Also, Russian has notable lexical similarities with Bulgarian due to a common Church Slavonic influence on both languages, but because of later interaction in the 19th and 20th centuries, Bulgarian grammar differs markedly from Russian. Over the course of centuries, the vocabulary and literary style of Russian have also been influenced by Western and Central European languages such as Greek, Latin , Polish , Dutch , German, French, Italian, and English, and to
7830-576: Is spoken by 14.2% of the population according to an undated estimate from the World Factbook. In 2005, Russian was the most widely taught foreign language in Mongolia, and was compulsory in Year 7 onward as a second foreign language in 2006. Around 1.5 million Israelis spoke Russian as of 2017. The Israeli press and websites regularly publish material in Russian and there are Russian newspapers, television stations, schools, and social media outlets based in
8004-610: Is still commonly used as a lingua franca in Ukraine , Moldova , the Caucasus , Central Asia , and to a lesser extent in the Baltic states and Israel . Russian has over 258 million total speakers worldwide. It is the most spoken native language in Europe , the most spoken Slavic language , as well as the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia . It is the world's seventh-most spoken language by number of native speakers , and
8178-518: Is the stressed word in a sentence, for example Ты́ съел печенье? ( Tý syel pechenye? – "Was it you who ate the cookie?") – Ты съе́л печенье? ( Ty syél pechenye? – "Did you eat the cookie?) – Ты съел пече́нье? ( Ty syel pechénye? "Was it the cookie you ate?"). Stress marks are mandatory in lexical dictionaries and books for children or Russian learners. The Russian syllable structure can be quite complex, with both initial and final consonant clusters of up to four consecutive sounds. Using
8352-416: Is transshipped from one train to another instead of changing the bogies. As of 2016, this is the usual procedure with China-Europe container trains at places such as Khorgos ; it is reported that containers can be moved from one train to another in as little as 47 minutes. In the case of liquids, frozen goods and hazardous materials, however, the bogies are usually changed. Russian language Russian
8526-572: Is underway to improve the viability of this route, such as the Marmaray project to connect Europe and Asia via a tunnel under the Bosphorus . After the completion of the project, a continuous run of trains will be possible between Asia and Europe, which is now done by rail ferry service. But the Marmaray tunnel may give a limited service to freight trains due to dense usage by public transport. On 7 November 2019
8700-461: The 2011 Lithuanian census , Russian was the native language for 7.2% of the population. In Moldova , Russian was considered to be the language of interethnic communication under a Soviet-era law. On 21 January 2021, the Constitutional Court of Moldova declared the law unconstitutional and deprived Russian of the status of the language of interethnic communication. 50% of the population
8874-589: The Amur (Heilong) River , connecting Tongjiang in China's Heilongjiang province with Nizhneleninskoye in Russia's Jewish Autonomous Oblast . On 4 November 2010, the project director, Wang Jin, told Xinhua News Agency that construction on the bridge would begin in January 2011. The Trans-Mongolian line , connecting Ulan-Ude on the Trans-Siberian with China's Erenhot via the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar , both serves as
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#17328482953079048-966: The Apollo–Soyuz mission, which first flew in 1975. In March 2013, Russian was found to be the second-most used language on websites after English. Russian was the language of 5.9% of all websites, slightly ahead of German and far behind English (54.7%). Russian was used not only on 89.8% of .ru sites, but also on 88.7% of sites with the former Soviet Union domain .su . Websites in former Soviet Union member states also used high levels of Russian: 79.0% in Ukraine, 86.9% in Belarus, 84.0% in Kazakhstan, 79.6% in Uzbekistan, 75.9% in Kyrgyzstan and 81.8% in Tajikistan. However, Russian
9222-526: The Battle of Kunyang in 23 AD, was urged to succeed Gengshi as emperor. Under Guangwu's rule, the Han Empire was restored. Guangwu made Luoyang his capital in 25 AD, and by 27 his officers Deng Yu and Feng Yi had forced the Red Eyebrows to surrender and executed their leaders for treason . From 26 until 36 AD, Emperor Guangwu had to wage war against other regional warlords who claimed
9396-517: The Battle of Zhizhi , in modern Taraz , Kazakhstan. In 121 BC, Han forces expelled the Xiongnu from a vast territory spanning the Hexi Corridor to Lop Nur . They repelled a joint Xiongnu- Qiang invasion of this northwestern territory in 111 BC. In that same year, the Han court established four new frontier commanderies in this region to consolidate their control: Jiuquan , Zhangyi , Dunhuang , and Wuwei . The majority of people on
9570-715: The Buyeo Kingdom in Manchuria to the Ili River of the Wusun people. The Xianbei reached their apogee under Tanshihuai ( d. AD 181 ), who consistently defeated Chinese armies. However, Tanshihuai's confederation disintegrated after his death. Ban Chao ( d. AD 102 ) enlisted the aid of the Kushan Empire , which controlled territory across South and Central Asia, to subdue Kashgar and its ally Sogdiana. When
9744-733: The Chu–Han Contention , the resulting Han dynasty was named after the Hanzhong fief. China's first imperial dynasty was the Qin dynasty (221–207 BC). The Qin united the Chinese Warring States by conquest, but their regime became unstable after the death of the first emperor Qin Shi Huang . Within four years, the dynasty's authority had collapsed in a rebellion. Two former rebel leaders, Xiang Yu ( d. 202 BC ) of Chu and Liu Bang ( d. 195 BC ) of Han , engaged in
9918-413: The Constitution of Tajikistan and is permitted in official documentation. 28% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 7% used it as the main language with family, friends or at work. The World Factbook notes that Russian is widely used in government and business. In Turkmenistan , Russian lost its status as the official lingua franca in 1996. Among 12% of the population who grew up in
10092-450: The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom ); he also gathered information on Shendu (the Indus River valley) and Anxi (the Parthian Empire ). All of these countries eventually received Han embassies. These connections marked the beginning of the Silk Road trade network that extended to the Roman Empire , bringing goods like Chinese silk and Roman glasswares between the two. From c. 115 BC until c. 60 BC , Han forces fought
10266-439: The Han and Tang dynasties, Parthia , Rouran , Sogdiana , Göktürks , Xiongnu , Yuezhi and the Mongol Empire . Beginning in the 5th century AD, new land routes between Asia and Europe developed further to the north. Many of these routes passed through Yugra and extended to the Baltic region . The Khazars , Volga Bulgaria , and the Rus' Khaganate were active in trading along the northern trade routes. Traffic along
10440-407: The Han government but shared power with both the nobility and the appointed ministers who came largely from the scholarly gentry class . The Han Empire was divided into areas directly controlled by the central government called commanderies , as well as a number of semi-autonomous kingdoms . These kingdoms gradually lost all vestiges of their independence, particularly following the Rebellion of
10614-437: The Islamic Republic of Iran Railways . The link potentially enables rail freight from China to reach ports on the Persian Gulf and via other train lines, to reach into the Caucasus and Turkey . In 2016, direct container train service was inaugurated on this route, between Yiwu ( Zhejiang Province) and Teheran ; the trip takes 14 days. The central Asian route did not extend all the way into Europe until October 2013 when
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#173284829530710788-403: The Trans-Siberian Railway , which runs through Russia and is sometimes called the Northern East-West Corridor , and the New Eurasian Land Bridge or Second Eurasian Continental Bridge, running through China and Kazakhstan . As of November 2007, about one percent of the $ 600 billion in goods shipped from Asia to Europe each year were delivered by inland transport routes. Completed in 1916,
10962-400: The Turksib in eastern Kazakhstan) to their border station Druzhba (now Dostyk ), but the construction on the Chinese side stopped because of the Sino-Soviet split of the 1960s. In 1985 construction commenced on the Northern Xinjiang Railway to link the Chinese and Russian rail networks via Kazakhstan. The section between Ürümqi and Alashankou was completed on 16 September 1990, linking
11136-476: The Ukrainian language in more than 30 spheres of public life: in particular in public administration , media, education, science, culture, advertising, services . The law does not regulate private communication. A poll conducted in March 2022 by RATING in the territory controlled by Ukraine found that 83% of the respondents believe that Ukrainian should be the only state language of Ukraine. This opinion dominates in all macro-regions, age and language groups. On
11310-507: The United States Census , in 2007 Russian was the primary language spoken in the homes of over 850,000 individuals living in the United States. Russian is one of the official languages (or has similar status and interpretation must be provided into Russian) of the following: The Russian language is also one of two official languages aboard the International Space Station – NASA astronauts who serve alongside Russian cosmonauts usually take Russian language courses. This practice goes back to
11484-413: The Xiongnu , a nomadic confederation centred in the eastern Eurasian steppe . The Xiongnu defeated the Han in 200 BC , prompting the Han to appease the Xiongnu with a policy of marriage alliance and payments of tribute, though the Xiongnu continued to raid the Han's northern borders. Han policy changed in 133 BC, under Emperor Wu , when Han forces began a series of military campaigns to quell
11658-399: The Xiongnu , who were estranged from Han until their leader Bi ( 比 ), a rival claimant to the throne against his cousin Punu ( 蒲奴 ), submitted to Han as a tributary vassal in AD 50. This created two rival Xiongnu states: the Southern Xiongnu led by Bi, an ally of Han, and the Northern Xiongnu led by Punu, an enemy of Han. During the turbulent reign of Wang Mang, China lost control over
11832-500: The Yellow Turban Rebellion and Five Pecks of Rice Rebellion in 184 AD, largely because the court did not want to continue to alienate a significant portion of the gentry class who might otherwise join the rebellions. The Yellow Turbans and Five-Pecks-of-Rice adherents belonged to two different hierarchical Taoist religious societies led by faith healers Zhang Jue ( d. 184 AD ) and Zhang Lu ( d. 216 AD ), respectively. Zhang Lu's rebellion, in what
12006-507: The Zhou dynasty ( c. 1050 – 256 BC). The coinage minted by the central government in 119 BC remained the standard in China until the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD). The period saw a number of limited institutional innovations. To finance its military campaigns and the settlement of newly conquered frontier territories, the Han government nationalised private salt and iron industries in 117 BC, creating government monopolies that were later repealed during
12180-461: The 1960s it was opened by the USSR as an international trade route connecting the Western Pacific with Europe. Freight shipments on the Trans-Siberian, however, experienced increasing problems over time with dilapidated rail infrastructures, theft, damaged freight, late trains, inflated freight fees, uncertain scheduling for return of containers and geopolitical tension. As a result, use of the railway for international trade had declined to almost zero by
12354-546: The 1990s. According to Hofstra University , as of 2001 there was renewed interest in using the Trans-Siberian as a route across Asia to Europe. Also, the Trans-Siberian links directly to railways which ultimately connect, via Finland and Sweden, to the year-round ice-free port of Narvik in Norway. At Narvik, freight can be transshipped to ships to cross the Atlantic to North America. Rail links from Russia also connect to Rotterdam , but may encounter greater congestion along this route with resulting delays. The trade route between
12528-461: The 20th century, Russian was a mandatory language taught in the schools of the members of the old Warsaw Pact and in other countries that used to be satellites of the USSR. According to the Eurobarometer 2005 survey, fluency in Russian remains fairly high (20–40%) in some countries, in particular former Warsaw Pact countries. In Armenia , Russian has no official status, but it is recognized as
12702-696: The Beijiang line, are the Longhai Railway and the Lanzhou–Xinjiang Railway . Together, the railways create an uninterrupted rail link between the port city of Lianyungang in Jiangsu province and Kazakhstan. In 1995 the Chinese and Kazakhstan governments signed an agreement which allows the latter to use Lianyungang as its primary seaport for exports and imports, and the former intends for Lianyungang to serve as
12876-465: The Belarusian society the Russian language prevails, so according to the 2019 census 6,718,557 people (71.4% of the total population) stated that they speak Russian at home, for ethnic Belarusians this share is 61.4%, for Russians — 97.2%, for Ukrainians — 89.0%, for Poles — 52.4%, and for Jews — 96.6%; 2,447,764 people (26.0% of the total population) stated that the language they usually speak at home
13050-494: The Eastern period. There were significant advances in science and technology during the Han period, including the emergence of papermaking , rudders for steering ships, negative numbers in mathematics , raised-relief maps , hydraulic -powered armillary spheres for astronomy , and seismometers that discerned the cardinal direction of distant earthquakes by use of inverted pendulums . The Han dynasty had many conflicts with
13224-659: The Eurasian Land Bridge, including the Trans-Asian Railway project. Commercial traffic between Europe and Asia took place along the Silk Road from at least the 2nd millennium BC . The Silk Road was not a specific thoroughfare, but a general route used by traders to travel, much of it by land, between the two continents along the Eurasian Steppes through Central Asia. The 8,000-kilometre-long (5,000 mi) route
13398-555: The European end of the freight route, the rail terminal near Duisburg 's river port ( Ruhrort ) is a major destination. According to a 2018 report, Duisburg is either the destination, or one of the destinations, of some 80% of all direct China-Western Europe cargo trains. The New Eurasian Land Bridge, also called the New Eurasian Continental Bridge, is the name given to China's rail link with Central Asia. The route includes China's east–west railways which, in addition to
13572-519: The Great and developed from the Moscow ( Middle or Central Russian ) dialect substratum under the influence of some of the previous century's Russian chancery language. Prior to the Bolshevik Revolution , the spoken form of the Russian language was that of the nobility and the urban bourgeoisie. Russian peasants, the great majority of the population, continued to speak in their own dialects. However,
13746-448: The Han as equal partners in a royal marriage alliance, but the Han were forced to send large amounts of tribute items such as silk clothes, food, and wine to the Xiongnu. Despite the tribute and negotiation between Laoshang Chanyu ( r. 174–160 BC ) and Emperor Wen ( r. 180–157 BC ) to reopen border markets, many of the Chanyu 's subordinates chose not to obey
13920-438: The Han dynasty is considered a golden age in Chinese history , and had a permanent impact on Chinese identity in later periods. The majority ethnic group of modern China refer to themselves as the " Han people " or "Han Chinese". The spoken Chinese and written Chinese are referred to respectively as the "Han language" and " Han characters ". The Han emperor was at the pinnacle of Han society and culture . He presided over
14094-689: The Imperial University on a dubious charge of treason. In 167 AD, the Grand Commandant Dou Wu ( d. 168 AD ) convinced his son-in-law, Emperor Huan, to release them. However, the emperor permanently barred Li Ying and his associates from serving in office, marking the beginning of the Partisan Prohibitions . Following Huan's death, Dou Wu and the Grand Tutor Chen Fan ( d. 168 AD ) attempted
14268-578: The Institute of Russian Language of the Russian Academy of Sciences, an optional acute accent ( знак ударения ) may, and sometimes should, be used to mark stress . For example, it is used to distinguish between otherwise identical words, especially when context does not make it obvious: замо́к ( zamók – "lock") – за́мок ( zámok – "castle"), сто́ящий ( stóyashchy – "worthwhile") – стоя́щий ( stoyáshchy – "standing"), чудно́ ( chudnó – "this
14442-515: The Middle East and North Africa – 1.3 million, Sub-Saharan Africa – 0.1 million, Latin America – 0.2 million, U.S., Canada , Australia, and New Zealand – 4.1 million speakers. Therefore, the Russian language is the seventh-largest in the world by the number of speakers , after English, Mandarin, Hindi -Urdu, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Portuguese. Russian is one of the six official languages of
14616-807: The Russian alphabet include ⟨ ѣ ⟩ , which merged to ⟨ е ⟩ ( /je/ or /ʲe/ ); ⟨ і ⟩ and ⟨ ѵ ⟩ , which both merged to ⟨ и ⟩ ( /i/ ); ⟨ ѳ ⟩ , which merged to ⟨ ф ⟩ ( /f/ ); ⟨ ѫ ⟩ , which merged to ⟨ у ⟩ ( /u/ ); ⟨ ѭ ⟩ , which merged to ⟨ ю ⟩ ( /ju/ or /ʲu/ ); and ⟨ ѧ ⟩ and ⟨ ѩ ⟩ , which later were graphically reshaped into ⟨ я ⟩ and merged phonetically to /ja/ or /ʲa/ . While these older letters have been abandoned at one time or another, they may be used in this and related articles. The yers ⟨ ъ ⟩ and ⟨ ь ⟩ originally indicated
14790-458: The Russian principalities before and especially during Mongol rule. This strengthened dialectal differences, and for a while, prevented the emergence of a standardized national language. The formation of the unified and centralized Russian state in the 15th and 16th centuries, and the gradual re-emergence of a common political, economic, and cultural space created the need for a common standard language. The initial impulse for standardization came from
14964-751: The Russian rail system. Two connect with the Trans-Siberian Railway (the Turksib and the Shu – Nur-Sultan – Petropavl meridional line ) while the other two (the Trans-Aral Railway , and the connection via Atyrau and Astrakhan Oblast ) go directly to European Russia. These links to the Russian rail system are sometimes called the Eurasian Railway. Kazakhstan plays an important role in the "New Silk Road" initiative, known as "One Belt, One Road" linking China and Europe through Central Asia and Russia. A new direction of
15138-457: The Seven States . From the reign of Emperor Wu ( r. 141–87 BC ) onward, the Chinese court officially sponsored Confucianism in education and court politics, synthesized with the cosmology of later scholars such as Dong Zhongshu . The Han dynasty oversaw periods of economic prosperity as well as significant growth in the money economy that had first been established during
15312-915: The Silk Road was launched in January 2016 and included the Ukraine – Georgia – Azerbaijan – Kazakhstan – China route. Kazakhstan's infrastructure development program Nurly Zhol was developed in line with the New Silk Road Initiative. President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev even noted that Nurly zhol was a part of the New Silk Road Economic Belt. There are three main routes for container services from China to Europe: Eastern route from Vostochny Port (Russia), northern route from west China via Manzhouli/Zabaikalsk border stations and southern route from east China via Dostyk border station, through which totally 25k TEU has been transported on rail by 2014. In January 2008 China and Germany inaugurated
15486-454: The Soviet era can speak Russian, other generations of citizens that do not have any knowledge of Russian. Primary and secondary education by Russian is almost non-existent. In Uzbekistan , Russian is the language of inter-ethnic communication. It has some official roles, being permitted in official documentation and is the lingua franca of the country and the language of the elite. Russian
15660-725: The Tarim Basin, which was conquered by the Northern Xiongnu in AD 63 and used as a base to invade the Hexi Corridor in Gansu . Dou Gu ( d. 88 AD ) defeated the Northern Xiongnu at the Battle of Yiwulu in AD 73, evicting them from Turpan and chasing them as far as Lake Barkol before establishing a garrison at Hami. After the new Protector General of the Western Regions Chen Mu ( d. AD 75 )
15834-564: The Trans-Siberian Railway line is capable of transporting around 100 million tons of freight annually. The line can handle up to 200,000 TEU of containerized international transit freight per year. A more northerly east–west route across Siberia, parallel to the Trans-Siberian line and known as the Baikal–Amur Mainline was mostly completed in 1989. It terminates at the Pacific ports of Vanino and Sovetskaya Gavan . Although this line
16008-409: The Trans-Siberian connects Moscow with Russian Pacific seaports such as Vladivostok . From the 1960s until the early 1990s the railway served as the primary land bridge between Asia and Europe, until several factors caused the use of the railway for transcontinental freight to dwindle. One factor is use of a wider rail gauge by the railways of the former Russian Empire and Soviet Union than most of
16182-476: The Trans-Siberian over the sea route. In 2011, a direct container rail service began carrying car parts 11,000 kilometres (6,800 mi) from Leipzig , Germany, to inland Shenyang , China, through Siberia in 23 days, every day. In 2013 a direct container, pallet, and general cargo rail service began, 10,000 kilometres (6,200 mi) from Łódź , Poland, to inland Chengdu , China, through Siberia in 14 days, 3 days each week. According to Russian statistics,
16356-460: The United Nations. Education in Russian is still a popular choice for both Russian as a second language (RSL) and native speakers in Russia, and in many former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics. In Belarus , Russian is a second state language alongside Belarusian per the Constitution of Belarus . 77% of
16530-508: The Xiongnu court to flee north of the Gobi Desert , and Han forces reached as far north as Lake Baikal . After Wu's reign, Han forces continued to fight the Xiongnu. The Xiongnu leader Huhanye ( r. 58–31 BC ) finally submitted to the Han as a tributary vassal in 51 BC. Huhanye's rival claimant to the throne, Zhizhi Chanyu ( r. 56–36 BC ), was killed by Han forces under Chen Tang and Gan Yanshou ( 甘延壽 ) at
16704-476: The Xiongnu over control of the oasis city-states in the Tarim Basin. The Han was eventually victorious and established the Protectorate of the Western Regions in 60 BC, which dealt with the region's defence and foreign affairs. The Han also expanded southward . The naval conquest of Nanyue in 111 BC expanded the Han realm into what are now modern Guangdong , Guangxi , and northern Vietnam. Yunnan
16878-481: The Xiongnu. The Xiongnu were eventually defeated and forced to accept a status as Han vassals , and the Xiongnu confederation fragmented. The Han conquered the Hexi Corridor and Inner Asian territory of the Tarim Basin from the Xiongnu, helping to establish the Silk Road . The lands north of the Han's borders were later overrun by the nomadic Xianbei confederation. Emperor Wu also launched successful conquests in
17052-536: The Yuan brothers, Zhang committed suicide by jumping into the Yellow River. General Dong Zhuo ( d. 192 AD ) found the young emperor and his brother wandering in the countryside. He escorted them safely back to the capital and was made Minister of Works , taking control of Luoyang and forcing Yuan Shao to flee. After Dong Zhuo demoted Emperor Shao and promoted his brother Liu Xie as Emperor Xian, Yuan Shao led
17226-549: The air cargo volume. The service is typically used for valuable and somewhat time-sensitive cargo where the time advantage of rail over ship is essential, which, however, is heavy enough to make the cost saving vs. air transport noticeable. Typical cargoes include complex machinery and spare parts (in both directions), as well as high-end groceries and consumer goods (primarily toward China). While major customers ship their products by full container load, freight forwarders also make it possible to send less-than-container shipments. On
17400-538: The amount of international container shipments transiting annually through Russia over the Trans-Siberian grew by a factor of 7 between 2009 and 2014, reaching 131,000 TEU (55,000 physical containers) in 2014. Belarusian Railways reported similar statistics: in 2014, the volume of direct container traffic from China to Western Europe crossing Belarus amounted to 40,600 TEU, on 25 direct container train routes. This constituted over 20% of Belarusian Railway's entire volume of container transportation that year, 193,100 TEU. This
17574-403: The broader sense of expanding the use of Russian alongside or in favour of other languages. The current standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language ( современный русский литературный язык – "sovremenny russky literaturny yazyk"). It arose at the beginning of the 18th century with the modernization reforms of the Russian state under the rule of Peter
17748-517: The capital was moved eastward to Luoyang. The era from his reign until the fall of Han is known as the Eastern Han or Later Han (25–220 AD). The Eastern Han ( traditional Chinese : 東漢 ; simplified Chinese : 东汉 ; pinyin : Dōnghàn ), also known as the Later Han ( 後漢 ; 后汉 ; Hòuhàn ), formally began on 5 August AD 25, when Liu Xiu became Emperor Guangwu of Han . During
17922-434: The collapsing imperial authority. General-in-chief He Jin ( d. 189 AD ), half-brother to Empress He ( d. 189 AD ), plotted with Yuan Shao ( d. 202 AD ) to overthrow the eunuchs by having several generals march to the outskirts of the capital. There, in a written petition to Empress He, they demanded the eunuchs' execution. After a period of hesitation, Empress He consented. When
18096-562: The country. There is an Israeli TV channel mainly broadcasting in Russian with Israel Plus . See also Russian language in Israel . Russian is also spoken as a second language by a small number of people in Afghanistan . In Vietnam , Russian has been added in the elementary curriculum along with Chinese and Japanese and were named as "first foreign languages" for Vietnamese students to learn, on equal footing with English. The Russian language
18270-667: The designated starting point for the New Eurasian Land Bridge. From Almaty in Kazakhstan, the railway extends to Tashkent and Samarkand , Uzbekistan and then to Tejen , Turkmenistan. From Tejen, another line continues to Ashgabat , the capital of Turkmenistan. After Ashgabat, the line ends at Türkmenbaşy, Turkmenistan , a port on the Caspian Sea . Since 2013, the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route has been operating, which goes through
18444-571: The east coast of North America and eastern Russia using the Trans-Siberian is often called the Northern East West Freight Corridor . In an effort to attract use of the Trans-Siberian to transport goods from Japan, China, and Korea to Europe, in the mid-1990s Russia lowered tariffs on freight using the railway. As a result, freight volume over the rail line doubled in 1999 and 2000. In February and March 2011, Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism sponsored
18618-490: The emperor was often a minor, ruled over by a regent such as the empress dowager or one of her male relatives. Ranked immediately below the emperor were the kings who were of the same Liu family clan. The rest of society, including nobles lower than kings and all commoners excluding slaves, belonged to one of twenty ranks ( ershi gongcheng 二十公乘 ). Each successive rank gave its holder greater pensions and legal privileges. The highest rank, of full marquess , came with
18792-576: The empire . The Han dynasty came to an end in 220 AD when Cao Pi , king of Wei , usurped the throne from Emperor Xian . According to the Records of the Grand Historian , after the collapse of the Qin dynasty the hegemon Xiang Yu appointed Liu Bang as prince of the small fief of Hanzhong , named after its location on the Han River (in modern southwest Shaanxi ). Following Liu Bang's victory in
18966-548: The empresses and empresses dowager . Imperial authority was also seriously challenged by large Taoist religious societies which instigated the Yellow Turban Rebellion and the Five Pecks of Rice Rebellion . Following the death of Emperor Ling ( r. 168–189 AD ), the palace eunuchs were massacred by military officers, allowing members of the aristocracy and military governors to become warlords and divide
19140-633: The eunuchs discovered this, however, they had her brother He Miao ( 何苗 ) rescind the order. The eunuchs assassinated He Jin on 22 September 189. Yuan Shao then besieged Luoyang's Northern Palace while his brother Yuan Shu ( d. 199 AD ) besieged the Southern Palace. On September 25 both palaces were breached and approximately two thousand eunuchs were killed. Zhang Rang had previously fled with Emperor Shao ( r. 189 AD ) and his brother Liu Xie—the future Emperor Xian of Han ( r. 189–220 AD ). While being pursued by
19314-413: The factory and the industrial plant their local peasant dialects with their phonetics, grammar, and vocabulary, and the very process of recruiting workers from peasants and the mobility of the worker population generate another process: the liquidation of peasant inheritance by way of leveling the particulars of local dialects. On the ruins of peasant multilingual, in the context of developing heavy industry,
19488-427: The family inheritance. His brothers Yuan Shang and Yuan Xi were killed in 207 AD by Gongsun Kang ( d. 221 AD ), who sent their heads to Cao Cao. After Cao's defeat at the naval Battle of Red Cliffs in 208 AD, China was divided into three spheres of influence, with Cao Cao dominating the north, Sun Quan (182–252 AD) dominating the south, and Liu Bei (161–223 AD) dominating
19662-451: The final reading amendments that state that all schools and kindergartens in the country are to transition to education in Latvian . From 2025, all children will be taught in Latvian only. On 28 September 2023, Latvian deputies approved The National Security Concept, according to which from 1 January 2026, all content created by Latvian public media (including LSM ) should be only in Latvian or
19836-481: The first Chinese freight train through the Marmaray tunnel to Europe ran, from Xi’an using a Chinese locomotive. This demonstrated a China to Turkey transportation time reduced from a month to 12 days. The Baku–Tbilisi–Kars railway also provides a route via the Caspian Sea by bypassing Iran, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. The new railway lines constructed in Kazakhstan will make it shorter. The new route, in this case,
20010-722: The first rail connection between Europe and Asia, from Moscow to Vladivostok. The line, at 9,200 kilometres (5,720 mi), is the longest rail line in the world. The Trans-Siberian connects the Russian Pacific ports of Vladivostok and Nakhodka with Moscow. Rail links at Moscow allow passengers and freight to connect to train lines running further west into Europe. By making further transfers, passengers and freight can eventually reach Western European seaports. The Trans-Siberian also connects with North Korea (e.g. via Dandong in Northeastern China, or directly at Khasan south of Vladivostok). A fully electrified and double-tracked line,
20184-601: The frontier were soldiers. On occasion, the court forcibly moved peasant farmers to new frontier settlements, along with government-owned slaves and convicts who performed hard labour. The court also encouraged commoners, such as farmers, merchants, landowners, and hired labourers, to voluntarily migrate to the frontier. Even before the Han's expansion into Central Asia, diplomat Zhang Qian 's travels from 139 to 125 BC had established Chinese contacts with many surrounding civilizations. Zhang encountered Dayuan ( Fergana ), Kangju ( Sogdiana ), and Daxia ( Bactria , formerly
20358-672: The generation of immigrants who started arriving in the early 1960s). Only about 25% of them are ethnic Russians, however. Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union , the overwhelming majority of Russophones in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn in New York City were Russian-speaking Jews. Afterward, the influx from the countries of the former Soviet Union changed the statistics somewhat, with ethnic Russians and Ukrainians immigrating along with some more Russian Jews and Central Asians. According to
20532-480: The government bureaucracy for the lack of a reliable tool of communication in administrative, legal, and judicial affairs became an obvious practical problem. The earliest attempts at standardizing Russian were made based on the so-called Moscow official or chancery language, during the 15th to 17th centuries. Since then, the trend of language policy in Russia has been standardization in both the restricted sense of reducing dialectical barriers between ethnic Russians, and
20706-550: The line to Saryozek by 2013. The rail link through the Korgas Pass was completed in December 2012. Because Kazakhstan was once in the Russian Empire and then a member of the USSR, its rail system connects with and carries the same rail gauge as the Russian rail system, as well as the other Central Asian republics of Turkmenistan , Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan . From Kazakhstan, four major north–south railways connect with
20880-411: The nobility, Wang Mang claimed on 10 January that the divine Mandate of Heaven called for the end of the Han dynasty and the beginning of his own: the Xin dynasty (9–23 AD). Wang Mang initiated a series of major reforms that were ultimately unsuccessful. These reforms included outlawing slavery, nationalizing and equally distributing land between households, and introducing new currencies,
21054-468: The northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region . Russian was also the main foreign language taught in school in China between 1949 and 1964. In Kazakhstan , Russian is not a state language, but according to article 7 of the Constitution of Kazakhstan its usage enjoys equal status to that of the Kazakh language in state and local administration. The 2009 census reported that 10,309,500 people, or 84.8% of
21228-515: The other hand, before the war, almost a quarter of Ukrainians were in favour of granting Russian the status of the state language, while after the beginning of Russia's invasion the support for the idea dropped to just 7%. In peacetime, the idea of raising the status of Russian was traditionally supported by residents of the south and east . But even in these regions, only a third of the respondents were in favour, and after Russia's full-scale invasion , their number dropped by almost half. According to
21402-455: The other three languages in the East Slavic branch. In many places in eastern and southern Ukraine and throughout Belarus, these languages are spoken interchangeably, and in certain areas traditional bilingualism resulted in language mixtures such as Surzhyk in eastern Ukraine and Trasianka in Belarus. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect , although it vanished during the 15th or 16th century,
21576-666: The other to the south of the Shandong Peninsula , though Han engineers managed to dam the southern branch by 70 AD. The flood dislodged thousands of peasant farmers, many of whom joined roving bandit and rebel groups such as the Red Eyebrows to survive. Wang Mang's armies were incapable of quelling these enlarged rebel groups. Eventually, an insurgent mob forced their way into the Weiyang Palace and killed Wang Mang. The Gengshi Emperor ( r. 23–25 AD ),
21750-560: The other. When the retainers gradually deserted Dou Wu, he was forced to commit suicide. Under Emperor Ling ( r. 168–189 AD ) the eunuchs had the partisan prohibitions renewed and expanded, while also auctioning off top government offices. Many affairs of state were entrusted to the eunuchs Zhao Zhong ( d. 189 AD ) and Zhang Rang ( d. 189 AD ) while Emperor Ling spent much of his time roleplaying with concubines and participating in military parades. The Partisan Prohibitions were repealed during
21924-446: The parliament approved a bill to close up all Russian language schools and kindergartens by the school year. The transition to only Estonian language schools and kindergartens will start in the 2024-2025 school year. In Latvia , Russian is officially considered a foreign language. 55% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 26% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. On 18 February 2012, Latvia held
22098-453: The peasants' speech was never systematically studied, as it was generally regarded by philologists as simply a source of folklore and an object of curiosity. This was acknowledged by the noted Russian dialectologist Nikolai Karinsky , who toward the end of his life wrote: "Scholars of Russian dialects mostly studied phonetics and morphology. Some scholars and collectors compiled local dictionaries. We have almost no studies of lexical material or
22272-455: The population aged 15 and above, could read and write well in Russian, and understand the spoken language. In October 2023, Kazakhstan drafted a media law aimed at increasing the use of the Kazakh language over Russian, the law stipulates that the share of the state language on television and radio should increase from 50% to 70%, at a rate of 5% per year, starting in 2025. In Kyrgyzstan , Russian
22446-418: The population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 67% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. According to the 2019 Belarusian census , out of 9,413,446 inhabitants of the country, 5,094,928 (54.1% of the total population) named Belarusian as their native language, with 61.2% of ethnic Belarusians and 54.5% of ethnic Poles declaring Belarusian as their native language. In everyday life in
22620-475: The pronunciation of ultra-short or reduced /ŭ/ , /ĭ/ . Because of many technical restrictions in computing and also because of the unavailability of Cyrillic keyboards abroad, Russian is often transliterated using the Latin alphabet. For example, мороз ('frost') is transliterated moroz , and мышь ('mouse'), mysh or myš' . Once commonly used by the majority of those living outside Russia, transliteration
22794-466: The proper pronunciation of uncommon words or names. Russian is an East Slavic language of the wider Indo-European family . It is a descendant of Old East Slavic , a language used in Kievan Rus' , which was a loose conglomerate of East Slavic tribes from the late 9th to the mid-13th centuries. From the point of view of spoken language , its closest relatives are Ukrainian , Belarusian , and Rusyn ,
22968-506: The rail link across the Bosphorus though the Marmaray link was opened. Iranian rail lines use 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in) gauge, requiring freight cars transiting from China into Iran to change wheel gauges twice. The train ferry across Lake Van is also a capacity restriction. Chinese state media claims that the New Eurasian Land/Continental Bridge extends from Lianyungang to Rotterdam ,
23142-571: The railway lines of the two countries at Dostyk. In July 1991 the first goods train traveled along the line from China to Kazakhstan's then-capital of Almaty . In December 2009, a second rail link from China was built to the Kazakhstan border at Khorgos . The Jinghe–Yining–Khorgos Railway forks off of the Northern Xinjiang Railway at Jinghe and approaches Kazakhstan from the Ili River Valley. A rail link on Kazakh side will extend
23316-511: The railways connect with other countries in Central Asia and the Middle East, including Iran . With the October 2013 completion of the rail link across the Bosphorus under the Marmaray project, the New Eurasian Land Bridge now theoretically connects to Europe via Central and South Asia . Proposed expansion of the Eurasian Land Bridge includes construction of a railway across Kazakhstan that
23490-584: The remainder of Western and Eastern Han. To the north of China proper , the nomadic Xiongnu chieftain Modu Chanyu ( r. 209–174 BC ) conquered various tribes inhabiting the eastern portion of the Eurasian Steppe . By the end of his reign, he controlled the Inner Asian regions of Manchuria , Mongolia , and the Tarim Basin , subjugating over twenty states east of Samarkand . Emperor Gaozu
23664-491: The respondents), while according to the 2002 census – 142.6 million people (99.2% of the respondents). In Ukraine , Russian is a significant minority language. According to estimates from Demoskop Weekly, in 2004 there were 14,400,000 native speakers of Russian in the country, and 29 million active speakers. 65% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 38% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. On 5 September 2017, Ukraine's Parliament passed
23838-480: The rest of Europe and China. China's rail system had long linked to the Trans-Siberian via northeastern China and Mongolia . In 1990, China added a link between its rail system and the Trans-Siberian via Kazakhstan . China calls its uninterrupted rail link between the port city of Lianyungang and Kazakhstan the New Eurasian Land Bridge or Second Eurasian Continental Bridge. In addition to Kazakhstan,
24012-599: The salt and iron monopolies were eventually abolished in the early Eastern Han. The issuing of coinage remained a central government monopoly throughout the rest of the Han dynasty. The government monopolies were eventually repealed when a political faction known as the Reformists gained greater influence in the court. The Reformists opposed the Modernist faction that had dominated court politics in Emperor Wu's reign and during
24186-917: The service indefinitely because of the global economic crisis . Another test run, from Chongqing to Duisburg via Alashankou crossing, Kazakhstan , Russia, Belarus , and Poland took place in March–April 2011, covering 10,300 km (6,400 mi) in 16 days. It was again said by DB that if there is enough demand, the service can be made regular already in 2011, As of March 2014, the Chongqing-Duisburg route makes three weekly services carrying up to 50 forty-foot-long containers. The transportation authorities in another industrial center of central China, Wuhan , plan to organize regular runs of direct freight train between Wuhan and European destinations (Czech Republic, Poland, Germany) starting in April 2014. Plans call for
24360-510: The service starting from 1–2 trains per month in April–June 2014, gradually increasing the frequency to 1–2 trains per week in 2015. A new customs facility is under construction in Wuhan's Wujiashan (吴家山) industrial area; after its planned opening in October 2015, exports from the Wuhan region will be able to clear Chinese customs there, instead of Alashankou . By 2016, the freight rail service between
24534-475: The south , annexing Nanyue in 111 BC and Dian in 109 BC . He further expanded Han territory into the northern Korean Peninsula , where Han forces conquered Gojoseon and established the Xuantu and Lelang commanderies in 108 BC. After 92 AD, palace eunuchs increasingly involved themselves in the dynasty's court politics, engaging in violent power struggles between various consort clans of
24708-591: The southern Silk Road routes greatly diminished with the fall of Constantinople in the 15th century and development of the sea route around the Cape of Good Hope in the 16th century. By the 18th century, European influence on trade and new national boundaries severely restricted the movement of traders along all land routes between Europe and China, and overland trade between East Asia and Europe virtually disappeared. The Trans-Siberian Railway and its various associated branches and supporting lines, completed in 1916, established
24882-479: The subsequent regency of Huo Guang ( d. 68 BC ). The Modernists argued for an aggressive and expansionary foreign policy supported by revenues from heavy government intervention in the private economy. The Reformists, however, overturned these policies, favouring a cautious, non-expansionary approach to foreign policy, frugal budget reform, and lower tax-rates imposed on private entrepreneurs. Wang Zhengjun (71 BC – 13 AD)
25056-675: The survey carried out by RATING in August 2023 in the territory controlled by Ukraine and among the refugees, almost 60% of the polled usually speak Ukrainian at home, about 30% – Ukrainian and Russian, only 9% – Russian. Since March 2022, the use of Russian in everyday life has been noticeably decreasing. For 82% of respondents, Ukrainian is their mother tongue, and for 16%, Russian is their mother tongue. IDPs and refugees living abroad are more likely to use both languages for communication or speak Russian. Nevertheless, more than 70% of IDPs and refugees consider Ukrainian to be their native language. In
25230-459: The syntax of Russian dialects." After 1917, Marxist linguists had no interest in the multiplicity of peasant dialects and regarded their language as a relic of the rapidly disappearing past that was not worthy of scholarly attention. Nakhimovsky quotes the Soviet academicians A.M Ivanov and L.P Yakubinsky, writing in 1930: The language of peasants has a motley diversity inherited from feudalism. On its way to becoming proletariat peasantry brings to
25404-721: The territory of Kazakhstan to the Port Kuryk , then through the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan ( Ələt ), then to Georgia, and from the Georgian Poti Sea Port through the Black Sea to the countries of the European Union . After the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the disruption of previous routes, this route became more relevant. In 1996 a branch railway from Tejen was constructed across the border with Iran (at Serakhs ) and linked to
25578-401: The title of emperor; when these warlords were defeated, China reunified under the Han. The period between the foundation of the Han dynasty and Wang Mang's reign is known as the Western Han ( 西漢 ; 西汉 ; Xīhàn ) or Former Han ( 前漢 ; 前汉 ; Qiánhàn ) (206 BC – 9 AD). During this period the capital was at Chang'an (modern Xi'an ). From the reign of Guangwu
25752-414: The treaty and periodically raided Han territories south of the Great Wall for additional goods. In a court conference assembled by Emperor Wu ( r. 141–87 BC ) in 135 BC, the majority consensus of the ministers was to retain the heqin agreement. Emperor Wu accepted this, despite continuing Xiongnu raids. However, a court conference the following year convinced the majority that
25926-406: The two companies who own the line, Northeast Asia Railway Group, a Chinese company, and JSC Golden Link, a Russian company, signed an agreement to resume operations on the line in May 2011. In November 2008, the transport ministries of Russia and the China signed an agreement about creating one more link between the railway systems of the two countries. It will involve a railway bridge between across
26100-615: The two. Others divide the language into three groupings, Northern , Central (or Middle), and Southern , with Moscow lying in the Central region. The Northern Russian dialects and those spoken along the Volga River typically pronounce unstressed /o/ clearly, a phenomenon called okanye ( оканье ). Besides the absence of vowel reduction, some dialects have high or diphthongal /e⁓i̯ɛ/ in place of Proto-Slavic * ě and /o⁓u̯ɔ/ in stressed closed syllables (as in Ukrainian) instead of Standard Russian /e/ and /o/ , respectively. Another Northern dialectal morphological feature
26274-454: The use of the language has some presence in certain areas. A large part of the population, especially the older generations, can speak Russian as a foreign language. However, English has replaced Russian as lingua franca in Lithuania and around 80% of young people speak English as their first foreign language. In contrast to the other two Baltic states, Lithuania has a relatively small Russian-speaking minority (5.0% as of 2008). According to
26448-400: The war with Chu, Emperor Gaozu enfeoffed some of them as kings. By 196, the Han court had replaced all of these kings with royal Liu family members, with the lone exception of Changsha . The loyalty of non-relatives to the emperor was questioned, and after several insurrections by Han kings—with the largest being the Rebellion of the Seven States in 154—the imperial court began enacting
26622-435: The west. Cao Cao died in March 220 AD. By December his son Cao Pi (187–226 AD) had Emperor Xian relinquish the throne to him and is known posthumously as Emperor Wen of Wei . This formally ended the Han dynasty and initiated an age of conflict between the Three Kingdoms : Cao Wei , Eastern Wu , and Shu Han . In the hierarchical social order, the emperor was at the apex of Han society and government. However,
26796-411: The widespread rebellion against Wang Mang , the state of Goguryeo was free to raid Han's Korean commanderies ; Han did not reaffirm its control over the region until AD 30. The Trưng Sisters of Vietnam rebelled against Han in AD 40. Their rebellion was crushed by Han general Ma Yuan ( d. AD 49 ) in a campaign from AD 42 to 43. Wang Mang renewed hostilities against
26970-533: The world's ninth-most spoken language by total number of speakers . Russian is one of two official languages aboard the International Space Station , one of the six official languages of the United Nations , as well as the fourth most widely used language on the Internet . Russian is written using the Russian alphabet of the Cyrillic script ; it distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without—the so-called "soft" and "hard" sounds. Almost every consonant has
27144-438: Was appointed regent as Marshall of State on 16 August under Emperor Ping ( r. 1 BC – 6 AD). When Ping died on 3 February 6 AD, Ruzi Ying ( d. 25 AD ) was chosen as the heir and Wang Mang was appointed to serve as acting emperor for the child. Wang promised to relinquish his control to Liu Ying once he came of age. Despite this promise, and against protest and revolts from
27318-777: Was brought into the Han realm with the conquest of the Dian Kingdom in 109 BC, followed by parts of the Korean Peninsula with the Han conquest of Gojoseon and establishment of the Xuantu and Lelang commanderies in 108 BC. The first nationwide census in Chinese history was taken in 2 AD; the Han's total population was registered as comprising 57,671,400 individuals across 12,366,470 households. To pay for his military campaigns and colonial expansion, Emperor Wu nationalised several private industries. He created central government monopolies administered largely by former merchants . These monopolies included salt, iron, and liquor production, as well as bronze coinage . The liquor monopoly lasted only from 98 to 81 BC, and
27492-441: Was built farther south, between Hunchun (in China's Jilin province) and Russian Makhalino (a station on the Ussuriysk – Khasan –North Korean border line, 41 km (25 mi) before Khasan). It began operating in February 2000, and saw only a minor amount of traffic (678 railcars of lumber) over the next two years. The line was closed in 2002–03, briefly reopened in 2003, and closed again in September 2004. On 15 February 2011,
27666-494: Was chosen as the new capital of the reunified empire under Han. At the beginning of the Western Han ( traditional Chinese : 西漢 ; simplified Chinese : 西汉 ; pinyin : Xīhàn ), also known as the Former Han ( 前漢 ; 前汉 ; Qiánhàn ), thirteen centrally-controlled commanderies —including the capital region—existed in the western third of the empire, while the eastern two-thirds were divided into ten semi-autonomous kingdoms . To placate his prominent commanders from
27840-474: Was completed in 1916, the former Chinese Eastern Railway route continues as an important connector between the two countries' railway networks. The western border point ( Zabaykalsk / Manzhouli ) and the line connecting it to the Trans-Siberian main line, are now being upgraded, with the goal of enabling the railway by 2010 to pass 30 freight trains in each direction across the border, each one up to 71 cars long. The cross-border freight volume at this rail crossing
28014-490: Was convinced by the accusations of the eunuchs Li Run ( 李閏 ) and Jiang Jing ( 江京 ) that Deng and her family had planned to depose him. An dismissed Deng's clan members from office, exiled them, and forced many to commit suicide. After An's death, his wife, Empress Dowager Yan ( d. 126 AD ) placed the child Marquess of Beixiang on the throne in an attempt to retain power within her family. However, palace eunuch Sun Cheng ( d. 132 AD ) masterminded
28188-424: Was first empress, then empress dowager , and finally grand empress dowager during the reigns of the Emperors Yuan ( r. 49–33 BC ), Cheng ( r. 33–7 BC ), and Ai ( r. 7–1 BC ), respectively. During this time, a succession of her male relatives held the title of regent. Following the death of Ai, Wang Zhengjun's nephew Wang Mang (45 BC – 23 AD)
28362-405: Was first introduced in North America when Russian explorers voyaged into Alaska and claimed it for Russia during the 18th century. Although most Russian colonists left after the United States bought the land in 1867, a handful stayed and preserved the Russian language in this region to this day, although only a few elderly speakers of this unique dialect are left. In Nikolaevsk, Alaska , Russian
28536-421: Was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 19% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. According to the 2014 Moldovan census , Russians accounted for 4.1% of Moldova's population, 9.4% of the population declared Russian as their native language, and 14.5% said they usually spoke Russian. According to the 2010 census in Russia , Russian language skills were indicated by 138 million people (99.4% of
28710-446: Was in revenge for Dou's purging of the clan of his natural mother— Consort Liang —and then concealing her identity from him. After Emperor He's death, his wife Empress Deng Sui ( d. 121 AD ) managed state affairs as the regent empress dowager during a turbulent financial crisis and widespread Qiang rebellion that lasted from 107 to 118 AD. When Empress Dowager Deng died, Emperor An ( r. 106–125 AD )
28884-409: Was killed by allies of the Xiongnu in Karasahr and Kucha , the garrison at Hami was withdrawn. At the Battle of Ikh Bayan in AD 89, Dou Xian ( d. AD 92 ) defeated the Northern Xiongnu chanyu who then retreated into the Altai Mountains . After the Northern Xiongnu fled into the Ili River valley in AD 91, the nomadic Xianbei occupied the area from the borders of
29058-435: Was near the commandery of Rinan where Chinese sources claim the Romans first landed, as well as embassies from Tianzhu in northern India in 159 and 161. Óc Eo is also thought to be the port city " Cattigara " described by Ptolemy in his Geography ( c. 150 AD ) as lying east of the Golden Chersonese ( Malay Peninsula ) along the Magnus Sinus (i.e. the Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea ), where
29232-450: Was persuaded by Cao Cao (155–220 AD), then Governor of Yan Province in modern western Shandong and eastern Henan , to move the capital to Xuchang in 196 AD. Yuan Shao challenged Cao Cao for control over the emperor. Yuan's power was greatly diminished after Cao defeated him at the Battle of Guandu in 200 AD. After Yuan died, Cao killed Yuan Shao's son Yuan Tan (173–205 AD), who had fought with his brothers over
29406-595: Was reinstated when it was bestowed on Ban Chao. Foreign travellers to the Eastern Han empire included Buddhist monks who translated works into Chinese , such as An Shigao from Parthia, and Lokaksema from Kushan-era Gandhara . In addition to tributary relations with the Kushans, the Han empire received gifts from sovereigns in the Parthian Empire , as well as from kings in modern Burma and Japan . He also initiated an unsuccessful mission to Rome in AD 97 with Gan Ying as emissary. A Roman embassy of Emperor Marcus Aurelius ( r. 161–180 AD )
29580-414: Was still much less than 0.1% of the number of containers that travel via China's sea ports (some 170 million TEU). The original Moscow–Vladivostok route, completed in 1904, cut across China's northeastern provinces , or Manchuria ; the section of the railway located within China was known as the Chinese Eastern Railway . While the more northerly Trans-Siberian route, located entirely on Russian soil,
29754-402: Was the sixth-most used language on the top 1,000 sites, behind English, Chinese, French, German, and Japanese. Despite leveling after 1900, especially in matters of vocabulary and phonetics, a number of dialects still exist in Russia. Some linguists divide the dialects of Russian into two primary regional groupings, "Northern" and "Southern", with Moscow lying on the zone of transition between
29928-413: Was then forced to commit suicide. Students from the imperial university organized a widespread student protest against the eunuchs of Emperor Huan's court. Huan further alienated the bureaucracy when he initiated grandiose construction projects and hosted thousands of concubines in his harem at a time of economic crisis. Palace eunuchs imprisoned the official Li Ying ( 李膺 ) and his associates from
30102-399: Was troubled about the abundant Han-manufactured iron weapons traded to the Xiongnu along the northern borders, and he established a trade embargo against the group. In retaliation, the Xiongnu invaded what is now Shanxi , where they defeated the Han forces at Baideng in 200 BC. After negotiations, the heqin agreement in 198 BC nominally held the leaders of the Xiongnu and
30276-455: Was used to exchange goods, ideas and people primarily between China and India and the Mediterranean and helped create a single-world system of trade between the civilisations of Europe and Asia. Exports from Asia transported along the Silk Road included fabrics, carpets, furs, weapons, utensils, metals, farm produce, livestock and slaves. Civilisations active in trading during the road's history included Scythia , Ancient and Byzantine Greece ,
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