Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Fatherland.
His work, primarily satire, consisted
of novels, sketches, and stories that sought to
expose the inequities of contemporary condi-
tions and the pettiness of officialdom. His best-
known work,
The Golovlev Family
(1872-76),
skewers a clan of country gentry. During Soviet
times, the main public library in Leningrad (St.
Petersburg), affectionately known as the
pub-
lichka,
was formally known as the Saltykov-
Shchedrin library.
San Stefano, Treaty of
(1878)
Signed between Russia and the Ottoman Empire
on March 3, 1878, the Treaty of San Stefano
brought an end to the
RUSSO
-
TURKISH WAR OF
1877-78
. Representing the Russian side at San
Stefano (the present-day Turkish village of Yeil-
koy) were Nikolai P. Ignatev (1832-1906), who
until 1877 had been the Russian ambassador in
Constantinople, and Aleksandr I. Nelidov. The
main provisions of the treaty recognized the
independence of Romania, Serbia, and Montene-
gro, all former provinces of the Ottoman Empire
that had managed to gain varying degrees of
autonomy in previous decades but not formal
independence. Bulgaria was to become autono-
mous under the suzerainty of the Ottoman sul-
tan, with the Russian army remaining in the
country for two years. The treaty was seen by the
other European powers as excessively favorable
to Russia and was superseded four months later
by the Treaty of Berlin (see
BERLIN
,
CONGRESS OF
),
which among other provisions reduced the size
of the new Bulgarian state and forced Russia to
return some of the Turkish territories it had
received at San Stefano.
Samarkand
An ancient city along the Silk Road to China,
Samarkand was a part of Russia and the Soviet
Union from 1868 until 1991; it is now part of
Uzbekistan. Early references to Samarkand date
back to 329
B
.
C
., when it was mentioned as
Maracanda, capital of Sogdiana, a kingdom con-
quered by Alexander the Great. In the eighth
century, Samarkand was captured by Arabs.
From the ninth to the 11th centuries, control of
the city changed hands frequently, and it was
ruled by a succession of Persian and Turkic
rulers. In 1220, it was destroyed by Genghis
Khan. In 1369, Timur rebuilt it as his capital. It
soon became the most important cultural center
in Central Asia and a rich trading city on the Silk
Road, the point where a network of other impor-
tant routes converged. In 1500, Uzbeks con-
quered the city; by 1550 they had moved their
capital from Samarkand to
BUKHARA
, initiating a
period of decline for the city that lasted until the
18th century. Samarkand was annexed by Rus-
sia in 1868. Economic revival was facilitated by
the construction of a railway (1896) that restored
its earlier status as a trade nexus. Under Russian
and Soviet rule, both Bukhara and Samarkand
were overshadowed by Tashkent, which became
the capital of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic
in the 1930s. Samarkand contains gems of 14th-
and 15th-century architecture including Registan
Square, a complex of 15th-century colleges, 13
mausoleums from Timur's time, including his
own from 1405, the Shah-Zindah mosque, and
the mosque of Bibi-Kanum (1404).
Sarai
The capital city built by the Mongol leader
BATU
KHAN
in 1254, Sarai was the original administra-
tive center of the
GOLDEN HORDE
. In old Russian
historical sources it appears as Sarai-Batu, Old
Sarai, and Great Sarai. It was built on the eastern
banks of the Volga River. In 1260, it was sup-
planted as the capital by Sarai-Berke, also
known as New Sarai, built by Berke Khan. The
princes of Rus paid their tribute to the Mongol
court at Sarai and were occasionally summoned
to confirm their subservience to their Mongol
overlords. The famous world traveler Ibn Battuta
visited the city at its peak in 1333 and wrote
glowingly of its beautiful bazaars and broad
streets, teeming with Mongols, Kipchaks, Rus-
sians, Byzantines, and Cherkessians. After 1361,
however, Sarai-Berke became a pawn in the
internal struggles of the Golden Horde, fre-
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