User:Alaexis/Abkhazwogallery

Kelasuri (or Great Abkhazian) Wall is a stone wall located to the east of Sukhumi in Abkhazia. The time of its construction is not known definitely; several dates ranging from antiquity to the seventeenth century were suggested, although more recent works have provisionally favoured a date in 6th century AD. The wall consisted of about 300 towers; most of them are wholly or mostly ruined.

Location
The wall begins near the mouth of Kelasuri River where the ruins of a large tower remained. It goes to the east crossing Kodori River near Tsebelda, then passes near Tkvarcheli and terminates near the village of Lekukhona on the right bank of Inguri.

Most of the fortifications are located in the western part of the wall between Kelasuri and Mokva rivers. Kelasuri's left bank and mountain passes were most heavily fortified. On the other hand only four towers were found between Tkvarcheli and Inguri.

Towers
The wall was not continuous as its builders made use of natural obstacles such as steep slopes and gorges. 279 towers belonging to the wall have been identified, about a hundred of them are extant. The usual distance between towers is 40-120 m, where there was no continuous wall some towers were 300, 500 and 1000 m apart.

All the towers are rectangular (7 by 8 or 8 by 9 metres), 4-6 m high and have shallow foundations. Each tower had a door in its southern wall framed by massive stone beams, sometimes a narrow staircase was also added. Embrasures were usually located in the towers' northern and western walls on the second floor.

History of construction
Since the wall was first examined scientifically in early 19th century many hypotheses on who and when built it were published.

According to Mikhail Ivashchenko the wall was built by Byzantines in VI с. to protect its possessions and control mountain passes. He connected the name of the river Kelasuri with Byzantine Greek kleisoura, a Byzantine territorial unit smaller than a theme. Several other historians supported this date although they could not agree on the length and orientation of the wall.

Yury Voronov (ru), well-known historian and archaeologist of Abkhazia, examined the Abkhazian wall in 1966-1971 and proposed a new date of its construction. According to Voronov Levan II Dadiani of Megrelia built it between 1628 and 1653 to protect his fiefdom from Abkhaz (though at that time Principality of Abkhazia was a nominal vassal of Megrelia). Per Voronov's work the embrasures in the wall were made for firearms; he also quoted Georgian historian Vakhushti and Italian missionary Arcangelo Lamberti who both wrote about the wall built by Megrelian princes for the protection from Abkhaz.

Core
The lands near Ilmen Lake, Volkhov River and Ladoga Lake, often referred to as Novgorod volost in chronicles, formed the core of the state. The assumptions of the internal structure of independent Novgorod are mostly based on the list of the builders of the Great Bridge over Volkhov (1260s) and the 1471 treaty between Novgorod and Casimir IV of Poland. The former lists ten parts of Novgorod itself and nine other entities. According to Burov, these were tysyachas that, together with the capital made t'ma (lit. ten thousand), mentioned in the 1471 treaty. Below is the list of tysyachas and their approximate locations :


 * Rzhev'skaa (Ржевьскаа), to the southwest of Novgorod, near modern Novorzhev
 * Bezhichkaa (Бежичкаа), to the east of Novgorod, with the town of Bezhetsk
 * Voch'skaa (Вочьскаа; from the the indigenous Votes), in Ingria
 * Обониская (Oboniskaya), the southwestern shore of Ladoga Lake and near Onega Lake (that gave the name to the tysyacha)
 * Luskaa (Лускаа), to the west of Novgorod, west of Luga River (that gave the name to the tysyacha)
 * Lop'skaya (Лопьская), the southern shore of Ladoga Lake and possibly territories to the north and west of the lake (Karelian Isthmus
 * Povolkhovskaya (Поволховская), in the lower reaches of Volkhov River, around the town of Staraya Ladoga
 * Yazholvich'skaa (Яжолвичьскаа), to the southeast of Novgorod
 * Knyazha (Княжа), to the south of Novgorod, with the centre in Staraya Russa, the second most important town in the country.

Novgorod with its vicinity (located on upper Volkhov and near Ilmen Lake) belonged to a separate territorial unit.

Other important towns were Porkhov, Koporye, Yama, Oreshek and Korela. Most of the towns were in the more economically developed western part of the country, in other parts only ryadki (small town-like settlements) existed or there were no town-like settlements at all.

Several towns were also not part of any tysyacha (and, thus, of t'ma) as they were owned jointly by Novgorod and one of the neighbouring states. Velikiye Luki were owned jointly by Novgorod and Smolensk Principality and later by Novgorod and Lithuania. Volokolamsk and Torzhok were owned by Novgorod and Vladimir-Suzdal Principality that became part of Muscowy.

Volosts
Vast lands to the east that were being colonised by Novgorod or just paid tribute to it were divided into volosts. Some of those volosts were :

Zavolochye, in the basins of Northern Dvina and Onega. Its name means "beyond the portages", meaning the portages between the river systems of Volga and those rivers. It was inhabited mainly by various Finno-Ugric peoples although many Slavs also migrated there in 13th century escaping Mongol invasions.

Perm, in the basins of Vychegda and upper Kama (see Great Perm).

Pechora, in the basin of the eponymous river, west of the Ural Mountains.

Yugra, to the east of Ural Mountains.

Tre, in the Kola Peninsula.

Pskov
After the disintegration of Kievan Rus in the 12th century, the city of Pskov with its surrounding territories along the Velikaya River, Lake Peipus, Pskovskoye Lake and Narva River became a part of the Novgorod Republic. It kept its special autonomous rights, including the right for independent construction of suburbs (Izborsk is the most ancient among them). Due to Pskov's leading role in the struggle against the Livonian Order, its influence spread significantly. The long reign of Daumantas (1266-99) and especially his victory in the Battle of Rakovor (1268) ushered in the period of Pskov's actual independence. The Novgorod boyars formally recognized Pskov's independence in the Treaty of Bolotovo (1348), relinquising their right to appoint the posadniks of Pskov. The city of Pskov remained dependent on Novgorod only in ecclesiastical matters until 1589, when a separate bishopric of Pskov was created and the archbishops of Novgorod dropped Pskov from their title and were created "Archbishops of Novgorod the Great and Velikie Luki".

Pyatinas
After the conquest of Novgorod Land by Muscowy it was divided into 5 pyatinas:

Shelonskaya, from Shelon River, was located between Lovat and Luga rivers to the west and southwest of Novgorod. It was one of the most economically advanced parts of the country, its main towns were Staraya Russa (second most important town in the whole Novgorod Land) and Porkhov.

Vodskaya (or Votskaya), was located between Luga and Volkhov rivers, to the north of Novgorod and on the shores of Ladoga Lake. It was also one of the most developed parts of the country and contained numerous towns like Koporye, Yama, Oreshek, Korela and Staraya Ladoga.

Obonezhskaya, from the Onega Lake was the biggest pyatina of all. It was located to the northeast of Novgorod on the shores of White Sea, Ladoga and Onega lakes.

Bezhetskaya, to the east of the capital.

Derevskaya, between Msta and Lovat rivers, to the southeast of Novgorod.

Early life
Sultan Sosnaliyev was born in Nalchik to Kabardin parents. He graduated from the Syzran aircraft school and from the Zhukov anti-aircraft military academy and served in the Soviet anti-aircraft forces for 29 years. He retired in 1990 in the rank of a colonel and worked in Kabardino-Balkaria's construction industry till 1992.

Role in the war
Sosnaliyev became the head of the military department of the newly-formed Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus. After the beginning of the War in Abkhazia he arrived to Abkhazia with the group of Kabardin volunteers through on 15 August 1992. He was appointed the head of the staff of the Gudauta-based State Committee of the Defence and was one of the planners of the victorious Battle of Gagra.

He was appointed the minister of defence in April 1993 and later awarded the rank of major general. Sosnaliyev and Sergei Dbar planned the July and September Sukhumi offensives. On 24-25 March 1994 Sosnaliyev was in charge of the last operation of the war - capture of the village of Lata in the Kodori Valley.

Post-war life
Sosnaliyev resigned in July 1996 and returned to Kabardino-Balkaria. After Sergei Bagapsh had been elected the President of Abkhazia he offered the office of the minister of defence to Sosnaliyev as "reforms were desperately needed" in the Abkhazian army. The latter agreed and served in the Abkhazian government as a minister of defence and a vice-premier till May 2007.