- •I. Read the text to get the general understanding of it.
- •II. Find the English equivalents in the text and use them in the sentences of your own:
- •III. Explain the following notions in your own words:
- •IV. Insert the prepositions:
- •V. Discuss the following questions using the information from the text and your own knowledge.
- •Text 2 peter II
- •I. Read the text to get the general understanding of it.
- •II. Find the English equivalents in the text and use them in the sentences of your own:
- •III. Mark the following statements as True or False according to the text:
- •IV. Make a report about the Menshicovs and the Dolgorukis who had influence on Peter II. Text 3 anna, empress of russia
- •I. Read the text to get the general understanding of it.
- •II. Find the words in the text which describe or mean the following:
- •III. Continue the sentences using the information presented in the text.
- •Ivan VI
- •I. Read the text to get the general understanding of it.
- •II. Find the nouns that are used in the text with the following verbs:
- •III. Give synonyms to or explain the following notions:
- •IV. Sum up the information about Ivan IV in 8-10 sentences. Text 5 Elizabeth’s Accession to Power
- •I. Read the text to get the general understanding of it.
- •II. Find the English equivalents in the text and use them in the sentences of your own:
- •III. Insert the prepositions:
- •V. Discuss the following questions:
- •Text 6 Elizabeth’s reign
- •I. Read the text and fill in the sentences (a-g) which best fit each paragraph (1-3).
- •II. Give synonyms to or explain the following notions and use them in the same context as they are given in the text:
- •III. Act out a dialogue between Elizabeth and Bestuzhev discussing a) foreign policy or b) domestic policy of Russia. Text 7 Peter III
- •I. Read the text to get the general understanding of it.
- •II. Find the words in the text which describe or mean the following:
- •III. List all the adjectives and nouns that characterize Peter’s or Catherine’s personality and reign. Give examples of their behaviour or actions to corroborate these characteristics.
- •IV. Discuss the following questions with your partner:
II. Find the nouns that are used in the text with the following verbs:
Declare; appoint; imprison; chain up; produce; form; demand.
III. Give synonyms to or explain the following notions:
Adopt; detention; transfer; rumours; leak out; ameliorate; scourge; refractory; equilibrium; conceal; obedience.
IV. Sum up the information about Ivan IV in 8-10 sentences. Text 5 Elizabeth’s Accession to Power
I. Read the text to get the general understanding of it.
The daughter of Peter the Great and Martha Skovronskaya, born at Kolomenskoye, near Moscow, on the 18th of December, 1709.
Even as a child her parts were good, if not brilliant, but unfortunately her education was both imperfect and desultory. Her father had no leisure to devote to her training, and her mother was too illiterate to superintend her studies. It was Peter's intention to marry his second daughter to the young French king Louis XV, but the pride of the Bourbons revolted against any such alliance.
On the death of her mother (May 1727) and the departure to Holstein of her beloved sister Anne, the princess found herself at the age of eighteen practically her own mistress. So long as Menshikov remained in power, she was treated with liberality and distinction by the government of Peter II, but the Dolgorukis, who hated the memory of Peter the Great, practically banished Peter's daughter from court.
Elizabeth had inherited her father's sensual temperament and, being free from all control, abandoned herself to her appetites without reserve. While still in her teens, she made a lover of Alexius Shubin, a sergeant in the Semenovsky Guards, and after his banishment to Siberia, minus his tongue, by order of the empress Anna, consoled herself with a handsome young Cossack, Alexius Razumovski, who, there is good reason to believe, subsequently became her husband.
During the reign of her cousin Anna (1730-40), Elizabeth effaced herself as much as possible; but under the regency of Anne Leopoldovna the course of events compelled the indolent but by no means incapable beauty to overthrow the existing government. The idea seems to have been first suggested to her by the French ambassador, La Chétardie, who was plotting to destroy the Austrian influence then dominant at the Russian court. It is a mistake to suppose, however, that La Chétardie took a leading part in the revolution which placed the daughter of Peter the Great on the Russian throne. He took no part whatever in the actual coup d'état which was as great a surprise to him as to everyone else. The merit and glory of that singular affair belong to Elizabeth alone.
The fear of being imprisoned in a convent for the rest of her life was the determining cause of her irresistible outburst of energy. At midnight on the 6th of December 1741, with a few personal friends, including her physician, Armand Lestocq, her chamberlain, Michael Ilarionvich Vorontsov, her future husband, Alexius Razumovski, and Alexander and Peter Shuvalov, two of the gentlemen of her household, she drove to the barracks of the Preobrazhensky Guards, enlisted their sympathies by a stirring speech, and led them to the Winter Palace, where the regent was reposing in absolute security. Having on the way there had all the ministers arrested, she seized the regent and her children in their beds, and summoned all the notables, civil and ecclesiastical, to her presence. So swiftly and noiselessly indeed had the whole revolution proceeded that as late as eight o'clock the next morning very few people in the city were aware of it.
Thus, at the age of 33, this naturally indolent and self-indulgent woman, with little knowledge and no experience of affairs, suddenly found herself at the head of a great empire at one of the most critical periods of its existence. Fortunately for herself, and for Russia, Elizabeth Petrovna, with all her shortcomings, had inherited some of her father's genius for government. Her usually keen judgment and her diplomatic tact again and again recall Peter the Great. What in her sometimes seemed irresolution and procrastination, was, most often, a wise suspense of judgment under exceptionally difficult circumstances; and to this may be added that she was ever ready to sacrifice the prejudices of the woman to the duty of the sovereign.