User talk:Hardscarf

Image of Shamil Basayev
You wrote:
 * Hi, I saw that you uploaded basaev.jpg on the Russian wikipedia. Could you give me a source for that? As I would like to use it on the Dutch wikipedia too.--Hardscarf 20:00, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

Honestly, I forget. :/ It could've been from one of those chechen terrorist sites: either kavkazcenter.com or chechenpress.com. However, I found slightly altered images here:
 * 1) http://english.pravda.ru/img/2004/07/basaev123.jpg
 * 2) http://grani.ru/Events/Terror/m.73470.html

So I am fairly certain that the image is in the public domain. --Zealander 01:11, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

Grozny
Yes, you are right, there is no census or population count that puts Grozny over 400,000 inhabitants (actually, I am not responsible for that error - I just corrected the language). But the English is wrong again. I think you mean " a little more than". I will correct it. Please feel free to argue. --pgp 16:08, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

Projected White Russian state in Outer Manchuria
As hinted in my comment, it's the sarcastic quotation marks. The article should describe what happened, rather than lamely suggesting through punctuation what did not happen. Quotation marks should be used when quoting someone. Gazpacho 02:25, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

Revel Governorate
Hi, Hardscarf! I was using a great variety of sources to compile the History of the administrative division of Russia series, most of which were unfortunately lost in a hard drive crash about a year ago (which is the main reason why I put further work on this series on hold). I'd have to pretty much re-do all the research to restore the timeline. I do, however, remember that the statement that "Revel Governorate was considered to be subdivided into one province&mdash;Estland" comes from Konstantin Arsenyev's 1848 work "Статистические очерки России" (Statistical Sketches of Russia). Here is what it literally says:


 * Сохраняющаяся въ Государственномъ Архивѣ роспись губернiй и провинцiй 1727 года (Разр. XVI, д. 11) даетъ возможность подробно очертить областное дѣленiе, какъ оно установилось въ началѣ эпохи...




 * IV. Ревельская губернiя: составляетъ одну провинцiю, совпадаетъ съ Эстляндiей.



which is roughly translated as:


 * The list of guberniyas and provinces of 1727, which is kept in the State Archives, makes it possible to describe the regional division as it was established in the beginning of the period...




 * IV. Revel Governorate: makes one province, matches Estland.



Note, however, that Arsenyev does not literally say that the one province the Governorate made was called Estland (he merely points that it matches Estland). I tried to mirror this approach when writing the article. I know it sounds vague and ambiguous, but so does the original source. The other source I used&mdash;Yury Gotye's 1913 "История областного управления в России от Петра I до Екатерины II" (History of the regional administration in Russia from Peter I to Catherine II)&mdash;is just as vague. Gotye provides a list of guberniyas and their provinces as they existed in 1727, but the entry for Revel Governorate simply states 1 province (Estland). The best way to find out the truth, of course, is to get to the mysterious (Разр. XVI, д. 11) of the State Archives Arsenyev mentions, but I have no means to do so. The next best thing is to find Speransky's "Полное собрание законов Российской Империи" (Complete code of laws of the Russian Empire), but I was unable to get access to it either.

As for your other questions&mdash;it is correct that Revel Governorate was reorganized into Revel Viceroyalty in 1783, and it is also correct that it was renamed Estland in 1796.

Sorry if it wasn't of as much help as you expected. I lost way too many truly irreplaceable materials to provide a more detailed answer, especially about how the region was called in other countries. Still, feel free to ask me any specific questions you might have&mdash;I might be able to answer them.&mdash;Ëzhiki (ërinacëus amurënsis) • (yo?); 14:56, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your research. I pointed it out at the corresponding talkpage. I have the idea that it has something to do with the historical name Estland. Maybye the name was kept informally and introduced officially in 1796 as Эстляндская губерния. --Hardscarf 18:41, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Sources section Tashkent (Pakhtakor Incident)
Since the Pakhtakor Incident occured during Soviet times, when outside reporting was strictly forbidden, and Tashkent was a closed city due to the recent earthquake disaster, contemporary published accounts of the rioting are very sketchy. World Policy Journal (March 22 2002) http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-86744639.html, as some information, and the Lonely Planet Guidebook to Central Asia makes a brief comment. --MChew 16:18, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Cape Zhelaniya Station
It is hard for me now to recall where those exact words came from. It might not have been from the internet. I have lots of physical books at home.

After 1954 when the North Test Site was formed by a Soviet Government resolution and the 104 families living in Novaya Zemlya were moved to the mainland, everything surrounding Novaya Zemlya and the subsequent 130 nuclear tests (of which 88 were atmospherical tests) was shrouded in secrecy.

Since it was mantained, and its personnel not evacuated, the Cape Zhelaniya station had a role in monitoring the effects of those tests or some other secret undertaking, for it was not an average weather and radio station anymore, at least until 1962 when the last atmospheric test was conducted. Perhaps reading Dynamics of Air, Soil, and Water Contamination by Technogenic Radionuclides on the Territory of the USSR and Russia in 1954–2000, a translation of the Russian Journal "Atomnaya Energiya" might prove enlightening. Mohonu (talk) 01:43, 7 May 2008 (UTC)