The Shrovetide processions - banned in turn by the Catholic Church in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and by the socialist government in the twentieth century - play an important role in securing cohesion within the village community.

UNESCO: Culture

The decades go by, they turn into centuries, and we forget.

CNN: When Italian immigrants were 'the other'

Three centuries ago, when Peter the Great was trying to turn feudal, agrarian Russia into a modern state, he encountered a major source of friction inside the system.

NEWYORKER: Net Impact