MAKIN THE LAW MAKIN THE LAW

haha yes! possibly! i always confuse mendeleyev with gregor mendel who is not a russian so had confused myself subliminally there

(also: ends with v is a more fun theme TO MY STRANGE MIND)

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does that make v. Charles (carlos) V? he was a contemporary of Henry VIII who would be the obvious reference for monarchs and weddings...

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what is his deal outscoring-wise?

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iii is chekhov for his play three sisters,

and Uncle Vanya I spose

viii is mendeleyev maybe for his periodic table

No need for the maybe, element 101 is mendelevium.

vii) is probably one of those two writers who died in duels in somewhat quick succession -- Pushkin and Lermontov if I am not mistaken? I'm inclined towards Pushkin (although this kills the -v theory)

ix) If anyone know what the Prix Galabert is for, maybe deducing which Glenn it is can help us find the Russian... John Glenn? Glenn Gould? Some writer called Glenn I'm not remembering?

Also, I'm wondering whether/how Kipling might fit into this.

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(just a guess so far, will google in a bit, they all had several wives due to death though, even the cat-lick ones)

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agincourtgirl.livejournal.com

ix is about space exploration, so that means it's John Glenn. Other than that, I don't know.

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hmmm vague little memory-nag ssez the prix galabert is a piano prize, in which case more likely glenn gould than john glenn

(the russian john glenn is presumably yuri gagarin, tho it might be commander leonov) (whose hand i have shaken!) (and whose capsule = vostok 3? crash-landed in the frozen forest of PERM and he couldn't get out b4 the pick-up team arrived because the capsule was surrounded by WOLVES!) (oh those russians)

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hmmm, just the one wife (although several mistresses) it turns out.

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I think this is about Russians... When was Ivan the Terrible approx?

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Georges-Charles de Heeckeren D'Anthès ["possibly the most cursed character in Russian literature"] met also Pushkin and his wife, Natalya ("Natasha"), a beautiful flirtatious young woman, who had many admirers. D'Anthès courted her in such a way that Pushkin threatened him verbally. D'Anthès then married Natalya's own sister, Ekaterina Goncharova, on January 10 1837. It is questionable whether d'Anthès's engagement and marriage to Natalya's sister was devised to contradict society gossip that he was in pursuit of Natalya. In any event, this was not enough to soothe the conflict between the two new brothers-in-law, especially since an anonymous letter went round, nominating Pushkin Deputy Grand Master and Historiograph of the Order of Cuckolds. His furious jealousy made him write an insulting letter to d'Anthès' adoptive father. Pushkin having refused to withdraw these abuses, a duel became inevitable.

On the evening of 8 February 1837, d'Anthès shot first, mortally wounding Pushkin in the stomach. Pushkin, who had fought several duels, managed to rise and shoot at d'Anthès, however, only lightly wounding him in the right arm.

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also worth exploring (as a theme): first names?

gagarin = yuri and leonov = alexandr i *think* but i don't know ANY of chekhov, lermontov, molotov, pavlov, mendeleyev

ivan the terrible = ivan and i think he is semi-contemporary with henry viii (wasn't he on elizabeth's possible husband list?)

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gagarinv, call him by his (new) name! ;)

Chekhov = anton?

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yes, also Pushkin = Alexandr

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ivan the terrible married seven times, henery viii only six

as to overlap, henry died 28 Jan 1547, Ivan was crowned 16 Jan 1547, so looks like 12-day overlap -- BUT I DON'T KNOW IF THESE CALENDARS ARE THE SAME! cf various glitches and glinks in russian and uk history

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koganbot

Grr. Gagarin is the Russian Alan Shepherd, who somehow always gets overlooked. (Not that that's relevent to this quiz.)

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koganbot

Gregorian calendar didn't go into effect until 1582, and I think the difference was 10 days (so you'd still get your overlap, but only two days) except that as you say there may have been various glitches and glinks in Russian and Brit counting anyway.

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koganbot

But the October Revolution did take place in November. Or vice versa.

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but was the russian -- orthodox? cyrillic? -- calendar in or out of step with the pre-gregorian?

(i know there was a modernising adjustment during the bolshevik revolution, but not how much it was)

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Rasputin?
Trotsky?
Litvinenko?

did any of these meet with a pope?

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possibly the last as he was a journalist, tho his beat was russian politics and i don't see how a papal link ties into to his murder

i would be STARTLED if either rasputin or trotsky met a pope! delighted to be proved wrong but blimey!)

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I was wondering if R or T were bumped off for betraying whatever principles they previously stood for (my knowledge of russian history = about this -> <- big, as you can see)

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yes, that's why it's "old* russia" new year in traf sq this weekend, ju to julian calendar

*ie tsarist as far as i could tell

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hmm googling rasputin pope brings up lots of rod steiger obits...

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T arguably yes -- in that trotskyism betrayed the "principles" of stalinism -- but there was no papal dimension; R was bumped off for STICKING to his principles, viz it is OK to thought to be boffing the tsarina* if you are a mesmerising monk who doesn't wash ect ect

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I knew this had to be a composer. First thought was Shostakovich. Second thought was Tchaikovsky - and google confirms the latter. Full anecdote to follow.

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Tchaikovsky composed his Fourth Symphony between May 1877 and January 1878. This period in the composer’s life was a particularly poignant, paradoxical and turbulent time. It was poignant in that Tchaikovsky would enter into an extraordinary relationship with the wealthy widow Nadezhda Filaretovna von Meck that would prove to be most beneficial to him. Hearing The Tempest, his first orchestral work, performed, piqued Mme. von Meck’s interest in Tchaikovsky. The two entered into a fourteen-year relationship maintained entirely by correspondence. Remarkably, although they exchanged in excess of 1,000 letters, they never met* each other. Furthermore, Mme. von Meck became Tchaikovsky’s patron and benefactor, supporting him, at first through commissions, then loans (the repayment of which was never expected) and finally through a regular monthly allowance. It was Mme. von Meck to whom Tchaikovsky would dedicate his Fourth Symphony.

The paradoxical aspect of Tchaikovsky’s life at this time stems from the fact that, despite self-awareness of his sexual orientation, he allowed himself to be connived into a marriage with a beautiful young woman named Antonina Milyukova who had recently graduated from the Moscow Conservatory where he taught. In early May 1877, while working on the sketches for his Fourth Symphony, Tchaikovsky received a passionate declaration of love from Antonina. Although the composer did nothing to further encourage her, more letters followed including one in which she threatened suicide lest Tchaikovsky meet her. He capitulated and met Antonina at her family’s home on June 1st. For reasons not totally clear, within a week of their first meeting, Tchaikovsky proposed to Antonina.

The two were married on July 18 and a nightmarish turbulence overtook Tchaikovsky’s life. By this point in time, he had fully sketched all four movements of the Fourth Symphony. Because of the strain created by the marriage, Tchaikovsky made a pathetic, unsuccessful, attempt at suicide. After reaching total nervous collapse, he was advised by a specialist to completely sever his ties with his wife. Tchaikovsky’s brother, Anatoly, left immediately for Moscow in order to arrange a separation from Antonina.

*some sources dispute the "never" bit

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haha then it's not even a V

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but nb ivan grozy = ivan the terrible = ivan iv

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i: not known yet
ii: "Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich Molotov (Russian: Вячесла́в Миха́йлович Мо́лотов, Vjačeslav Michajlovič Molotov; March 9 [O.S. February 25] 1890 – November 8, 1986), Soviet politician and diplomat, was a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from Presidium (Politburo) of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev. He was the principal Soviet signatory of the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact of 1939 (also known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) and the Molotov cocktail was named after him."
iii: "Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (Russian: Анто́н Па́влович Че́хов, IPA) was a Russian short story writer and playwright. He was born in Taganrog, southern Russia, on 29 January [O.S. 17 January] 1860, and died of tuberculosis at the health spa of Badenweiler, Germany, on 15 July [O.S. 2 July] 1904. His playwriting career produced four classics, while his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics... Chekhov renounced the theatre after the disastrous reception of The Seagull in 1896; but the play was revived to acclaim by Constantin Stanislavski's Moscow Art Theatre, which subsequently also produced Uncle Vanya and premiered Chekhov’s last two plays, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard."
iv: tchaikovsky [see jeff's wiki-xposition above]
v: ivan the terrible married seven times, one more then henry viii
vi: [is this something to do with catherine the great? she had a weak husband who was smothered, and imperatrix means empress?]
vii: pushkin [see anatol's wiki-xposition above]
viii: "Dmitri Mendeleev (Russian: Дми́трий Ива́нович Менделе́ев, Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev listen (help·info)) (8 February [O.S. 27 January] 1834 in Tobolsk – 2 February [O.S. ] 1907 in Saint Petersburg), was a Russian chemist and inventor. He is credited as being the creator of the first version of the periodic table of elements. Unlike other contributors to the table, Mendeleev predicted the properties of elements yet to be discovered... Mendeleev also investigated the composition of oil fields, and helped to found the first oil refinery in Russia. [He] died in 1907 in St Petersburg, Russia from influenza. The Mendeleev crater on the Moon, as well as element number 101, the radioactive mendelevium, are named after him."
ix: [the Prix Galabert is space-related, so Glenn is likely to be John Glenn]
x: "Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, Russian: Иван Петрович Павлов, September 14, 1849 – February 27, 1936) was a Russian physiologist, psychologist, and physician. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1904 for research pertaining to the digestive system. Pavlov is widely known for first describing the phenomena of how he was able to train his many dogs to drool on command."

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ix: Yuri Gagarin is correct, according to biography.com:

Russian cosmonaut, born in Gagarin (formerly Gzhatsk), W Russia. He joined the Soviet air force in 1957, and in 1961 became the first man to travel in space, completing a circuit of the Earth in the Vostok spaceship satellite. A Hero of the Soviet Union, he shared the Galabert astronautical Prize with John Glenn in 1963. He was killed in a plane accident while training.

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vi: Have now wikiread about the accessions of the four Russian empresses (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Russian_empresses) listed as such, and the closest fit seems to be that of Catherine I, which would make the answer her husband Peter the Great:

"The year before his death, Peter and Catherine had an estrangement over her support of William Mons (brother of Peter's former mistress and secretary to Catherine) and his sister Matrena, one of Catherine's ladies-in-waiting. Peter had fought his entire life a somewhat hopeless battle to clear up corruption in Russia. Catherine had a great deal of influence on who could gain access to her husband. William Mons and his sister had begun selling their influence to those who wanted access to Catherine and, through her, to Peter. Apparently this had been overlooked by Catherine, who was fond of both. Peter found out and had Mons executed and his sister exiled. He and Catherine did not speak for several months. Rumors flew that she and Mons had had an affair, but there is no evidence for this.

Peter died (28 January 1725 Old Style) without naming a successor. Catherine represented the interests of the "new men", commoners who had been brought to positions of great power by Peter based on competence. A change in government was likely to favor the entrenched aristocrats. For that reason during a meeting of a council to decide on a successor a coup was arranged by Menshikov and others in which the guards regiments with whom Catherine was very popular proclaimed her the ruler of Russia, giving her the title of Empress."

Still more than a bit tenuous -- the affair is only a rumour, and the execution doesn't appear to be all that connected with Catherine's succession.

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Maybe we should add a rule that when in the google/wiki phase, other forums discussing this quiz itself should be declared Out Of Bounds until people have given up and or the next set has been put up?

Have checked what the QI ppl say about 6.1 and 6.6, but will put off posting until dubdobdee puts up next set (btw I am not entirely convinced about them).

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sure! i have been avoiding them anyway bcz i am 1 x big snob

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Answors from QI:

i. Nikodim, Metropolitan (archbishop) of Leningrad. According to liberalslikechrist.com (!),
An extremely liberal Russian prelate who believed that Christ's dictate of a redistribution of wealth society could be successfully incorporated into modern civilization despite the fact that the attempt to do so in Russia had failed. He was a close friend and ally of Albino Luciani. Early in the thirty-three day pontificate of John Paul I, on Sept. 5, 1978 (just 29 days after Paul VI's death), the 37 year old prelate fell dead at the Pope's feet. Rumors surfaced that he had been poisoned by coffee that had probably been intended for the Pope. Again, no autopsy.

vi. Count Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov (1734-1783), who carved for his family so illustrious a place in the Russian history, was the son of Gregory Orlov, governor of Great Novgorod. He was educated in the corps of cadets at St Petersburg, began his military career in the Seven Years' War, and was wounded at Zorndorf. While serving in the capital as an artillery officer he caught the fancy of Grand Duchess Catherine Alekseyevna, and was the leader of the conspiracy which resulted in the dethronement and death of her husband Peter III (1762).

So the suggestion about Catherine the Great seems correct after all.

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i love the name metropolitan!

yes orlov is indeed who i wz thinkin of -- we did russian history for one term when i wz 15, and the teacher (very bachelor) was strangely obsessed with catherine the great -- "insatiable" he said she was, but not what this meant! plus he read us some great long passage out of a DENNIS WHEATLEY novel about her!

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