Abraham Hannibal
Moscow (population 2023: 12,412,154) is the capital of the Russian Federation and the most populous city located entirely in Europe. It is located in the west of the country. Moscow is also the capital of the Central Russian Federal District. With a population of 13,149,803, the administrative unit City of Federal Importance Moscow includes several other localities. The city is by far the most important political, economic, scientific and cultural center of the country.
Moscow was built around the 11th/12th century. The creation of the fortifications (Kremlin) is dated to the beginning of the second half of the 12th century. In the 13th century, Moscow became the capital of a sub-principality of the Grand Duchy of Vladimir. In the 14th century, the princes of Moscow established themselves as the rulers of the entire Rus. However, in 1247-1480 Rus was subject to tribute to the Golden Horde which devastated Moscow in 1238. In 1571, the almost completely wooden city was burned down by Tatar troops. At this time, however, Moscow was the undisputed center of power in Russia. The first higher education institution in Russia was opened in the city in 1687 and it's first university in 1775. Peter the Great moved the capital to St. Petersburg in 1712. In addition to the loss of power, weakened by riots and plagues, its development lagged behind that of the new capital. The invasion of Napoleon's troops in 1812 brought a deep break in Moscow's development, and the city's population set fire to their houses to defend themselves. The reconstruction that quickly began gave Moscow a modern cityscape.
In the 1890s, Moscow's population exceeded 1,000,000, and shortly after the October Revolution in 1917 and the transfer of the capital of Russia and the Soviet Union to Moscow in 1918, the city's population surpassed that of St. Petersburg. Moscow experienced an enormous expansion of its public infrastructure, and numerous showpiece buildings were constructed up until the Second World War. However, the partly considerable expansion of living space was never able to keep pace with the population growth, which could not be slowed down by various immigration restrictions, some of which still apply today. However, the city also grew as a result of incorporations, particularly in 1960 and 2012.
In 1980, Moscow hosted the Summer Olympics. In the following years, however, the growing crisis in the Soviet Union also affected the city, which, following the decentralized movements in the republics and unrest in Russia itself, was finally directly affected by the attempted coup in 1991. After the final collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991, Moscow remained the capital of Russia, a much smaller but still the largest country in the world in terms of area. Since then, the city center in particular has been increasingly characterized by modern, prestigious buildings. The reconstruction of churches that were destroyed or repurposed during the Soviet era, the renovation of buildings from the pre-Soviet era in the city center and the expansion of the transport infrastructure on the outskirts are further features of the city's development in the post-Soviet era.
To modernize
The Russian Federation is the largest territorial state in the world and is inhabited by about 145 million people. The capital and largest city is Moscow, with about 11.5 million inhabitants, followed by St. Petersburg with more than 5.3 million inhabitants. The majority of the population lives in the European part of Russia, which is much more densely populated than the Asian part.
Since 1992, the Russian Federation has been the successor state to the Russian Soviet Republic (Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, RSFSR), by far the largest constituent state of the former Soviet Union. It is also the legal successor of the Soviet Union in the sense of international law.
Hannibal grew up in close proximity to the Tsar and became his personal secretary as well as aide-de-camp. He accompanied the Tsar on his trip to Europe in 1716 and then stayed in France to study. There Hannibal took part in the Franco-Spanish War. After his return in 1723, he became one of Russia's first Enlightenment thinkers. He wrote the first textbooks on mathematics and fortification in Russian, built forts in Siberia as well as in the
The Baltic States is a region in the north-east of Europe and is composed of the three states Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The Baltic States are inhabited by almost 6 million people.
Since Hannibal had been abducted from Africa as an infant, he could not exactly name his country of birth, but was always aware of his African origins. The Tsar christened him Petr Petrov. In 1727 Hannibal adopted the name Hannibal to make clear the parallel between himself and the great Hannibal of ancient history. Later he chose an elephant for his heraldic family coat of arms, to immortalize the African origin of his family. Hannibal's sons also became Russian generals. His moving life story inspired his great-grandson Alexander Pushkin as well as several other writers and filmmakers worldwide. However, Pushkin's historical novel, in which he wanted to immortalize his great-grandfather, remained unfinished.
