Appendix

*Ivan IV Vasilyevich (known in English as Ivan the Terrible (= inspiring fear) (August 25, 1530, Moscow – 28 March 1584, Moscow) was Grand Prince of Moscow from 1533. The epithet "Grozny" is associated with might, power and strictness, rather than poor performance, horror or cruelty. Ivan oversaw numerous changes in the transition from a mere local medieval nation state to a small empire and emerging regional power, becoming the first Tsar of a new more powerful nation, acknowledged as "Tzar of All Russia" from 1547.

*Yermak Timofeyevich (his last name, if any, is unknown) (born between 1532 and 1542 – August 5 or 6, 1585), a Cossack leader, Russian folk hero and explorer of Siberia. His exploration of Siberia marked the beginning of the expansion of Russia towards this region and its colonization.

*Boris Fyodorovich Godunov (born in 1551 – 23 April 1605) was de facto regent of Russia from 1584 to 1598 and then the first non-Rurikid tzar from 1598 to 1605. The end of his reign saw Russia descending into the Great Tumult.

*Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov Russian Tzar (Jul. 12, 1596 - Jul. 13, 1645). He reigned as Tzar of Russia from 1613 to 1645. He was elected Tzar by the Russian nobility, the Boyars, on February 7, 1613. He was the first Romanov to be placed on the Throne of Russia.

*Veliki Ustug (Great Ustug) – an ancient Russian town, the contemporary of Vologda and Moscow, founded in 1147 at the junction of two rivers Suhona and Yug, the place, where the largest river of the European North – Northern Dvina - springs from.

*Taymyr Peninsula is a peninsula in Siberia that forms the most northern part of mainland Asia. It lies between the Yenisei Gulf of the Kara Sea and the Khatanga Gulf of the Laptev Sea in Territory, Russia.

*Albazino is a village in Skovorodinsky District of Amur Oblast, Russia, noted as the site of Albazin, the first Russian settlement on the Amur River.

*Sophia Alekseyevna ((September 17 (27), 1657 – July 3 (14), 1704) was a regent of Russia (1682-1689) who allied herself with a singularly capable courtier and politician, Prince Vasily Galitzin, to install herself as a regent during the minority of her brothers, Peter I and Ivan V. Sophia was the third daughter of Tzar Alexey I of Russia by his first wife, Maria Miloslavskaya. After the death of her full brother Fyodor Alekseyevich on April 27, 1682, Sophia unexpectedly entered Russian politics, trying to preclude her young half-brother, the 10-year old Peter Alekseyevich, and his Naryshkin relatives, from inheriting the throne.

*Buffer zone is any zonal area that serves the purpose of keeping two or more other areas or countries distant from one another. A buffer zone is formed to create an area of separation between disputing or belligerent forces and reduce the risk of renewed conflict.

*Peter I (Great) or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov (9 June 1672 – 8 February 1725) ruled Russia and later the Russian Empire from 7 May 1682 until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his weak and sickly half-brother, Ivan V. Peter I carried out a policy of modernization and expansion that transformed the Tzardom of Russia into the 3-billion acre Russian Empire, a major European power. Peter I had two wives with whom he had 11 children. His eldest child and heir, Alexey, was suspected of being involved in a plot to overthrow the Emperor, and died in Petropavlovskaya fortress, possibly due to injuries sustained during torture.

*Stretelets – (literally "shooters") were the units of Russian guardsmen in the 16^th - early 18^th centuries, armed with firearms. Russian military corps established in the middle of the 16^th century that formed the bulk of Russian army for about 100 years, provided the tzar’s bodyguard, and, at the end of the 17^th century, exercised considerable political influence. Living in separate settlements (slobody), they performed police and security duties in Moscow and in the border towns where they were garrisoned; they often also engaged in trades and crafts.

*The Bering Strait is approximately 53 miles (85 km) wide, with an average depth of 98–160 feet (30–49 m). It connects the Chukchi Sea (part of the Arctic Ocean) in the north with the Bering Sea (part of the Pacific Ocean) in the south. It is one of the biggest of its kind. Although the Cossack Semen Dezhnev passed by the strait in 1648, it is named after Vitus Bering, a Danish-born Russian explorer who crossed the strait in 1728.

*Karl Robert Nesselrode, also known as Charles de Nesselrode, (Lisbon, Portugal, December 14, 1780 - March 23, 1862) was a Baltic-German Count and a Russian diplomat and a leading European conservative statesman of the Holy Alliance.

*Nikolay Nikolayevich Muravyov-Amursky (August 11 , 1809—November 18, 1881) was a Russian statesman and diplomat, who played a major role in expansion of the Russian Empire to the Pacific Ocean.

*Page Corps (Russian: Пажеский корпус) was a privileged military establishment in Imperial Russia, which prepared aristocratic children for military service. After the Russian Revolution the Page Corps was replaced by the Suvorov Military School.

*Russo-Turkish wars were a series of wars fought between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire during the 16^th, 17^th, 18^th, 19^th, and 20^th centuries. It was one of the longest conflicts in European history.

*Ubykh people (Убы́хи) are a group who spoke the Northwest Caucasian Ubykh language, and its last speaker finally died in 1992. The Ubykh used to inhabit an area just northwest of Abkhazia in the Caucasus. They were probably one of the populations to inhabit the ancient nation of Colchis. The Ubykhs were semi-nomadic horseback people.

*Trans-Siberian Railway or Trans-Siberian Railroad (Транссибирская магистраль, Транссиб in Russian,) is a network of railways connecting Moscow and European Russia with the Russian Far East provinces, Mongolia, China and the Sea of Japan. The construction started on May 19^th, 1891 and it was finished on October 5^th, 1916 when the bridge across Amur River started to operate.

* Dalny, Lueshun, and Port Artur. In the late 19^th century, the Russians acquired this area as a concession in 1898 and set about constructing the port of their dreams and an alternative to the only partially - ice-free port of Vladivostok. The Japanese navy attacked Port Artur in February 1904, crippling and blockading the Russian fleet. Soon the port passed into Japanese hands and the Japanese completed the port facilities in 1930. In 1945, the Soviet Union came back to that place for more than 10 years. Today the city Dalian is the costal city. It has been known by several names: Dalny, Lueshun, and Port Artur. It has the largest harbor in the northeast and is also one of the most prosperous cities in China. Crossed by old colorful trams, the city exhibits some wonderful architecture and has refreshing acres of grass and lawns, beaches and parks.

*Governor-general, also known as governor general, is a vice-regal representative of a monarch in an independent realm or a major colonial circonscription. Depending on the political arrangement of the territory, a governor-general can be a governor of high rank, or a principal governor ranking above "ordinary" governors.