Moscow not only expelled British diplomats, but also announced the closure of the British Council, one of the oldest foreign non-governmental organizations operating in Russia. Public figures, diplomats and experts told the BBC Russian Service why Russian officials did not like the British Council. "We are deeply disappointed by this development. In our opinion, when political or diplomatic relations become difficult, cultural relations and educational opportunities are vital to maintain a constant dialogue between people and organizations," the British Council said in a statement in response to the announcement. on the closure of the organization in Russia.
In 2016, the British Council invited actor Ian McKellen (right) to Russia, where he opened the festival together with director Kirill Serebrennikov (pictured left). Vyacheslav Prokofiev/TASS
The work of the British Council is not the first time in the focus of attention of the Russian authorities: during the previous crisis in Russian-British relations, after the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko, the organization had already had to close its regional offices. Now, after the poisoning of ex-GRU colonel Sergei Skripal in British Salisbury, the activities of the British Council in Russia will be completely stopped.
What was the British Council doing in Russia?
The British Council is an English public organization operating under the auspices of the British Foreign Office. It has been operating since 1934 and now, according to information on the council's website, it has branches in more than 100 countries around the world. The British Council is involved in educational projects, talks about British culture, conducts English language teaching projects, establishes contacts between Russian and British schools and universities. The Russian Ministry of Education has already promised to close all joint programs. The Council has been operating in Russia since 1992 (it worked in the USSR for only two years, before the start of the Cold War). His work was "pretty busy," a retired Russian diplomat who oversaw relations with the UK recalls to the BBC.
Many of the projects of the British Council were truly significant for cultural figures, Yulia Vronskaya, head of the international projects department at the Yasnaya Polyana museum-estate, told the BBC. "I remember how seven years ago the British Council organized seminars for those who did projects in the field of culture. These were one of the first such seminars in Russia, and in a sense they marked the beginning of not only professional cooperation, but also friendship between "Many experts in this field. The British Council introduced people who are engaged in something similar and who are interested in the development of cultural projects, he helped them in every possible way," says Vronskaya. For example, Council staff organized two seminars on British literature at Yasnaya Polyana, inviting publishers, translators and teachers, Vronskaya recalls. The third such workshop was scheduled for July 2018.
The editor-in-chief of the Gorky portal, literary critic Konstantin Milchin, says that he began working with the British Council seven or 10 years ago. It was the British Council that brought topical British writers to Russia and organized meetings with them. "It was a very well-thought-out meeting format, when they brought one classic (for example, Martin Amis), one young writer, and they invited one or two more Russian authors," Milchin says. "Another project I'm proud to be part of took place in late 2016, when several British authors traveled from Moscow to Krasnoyarsk via the Trans-Siberian Railway by train, stopping in different cities and arranging meetings with local readers and writers," recalls the critic. . According to him, at the events of the British Council there were no empty seats in the hall.
The Council actively cooperated with the Russian state bodies - in particular, worked with the Ministry of Education on the modernization of English language programs. In 2016, the British Council held events to mark the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare. The British Council organized the Midsummer Night Shakespeare Festival, which was opened by actor Ian McKellen, organized the Shakespeare Festival among schoolchildren, and the Shakespeare Passions train with images of the characters from the playwright's works was launched in the Moscow metro. At the same time, a free Shakespeare studies course was launched on Future Learn - you can still take it. The annual report of the British Council says that this program has affected 19 million people (13.2% of the Russian population), 30,000 teachers have passed it. The participation of Ian McKellen, who spoke about his homosexuality 30 years ago, helped "raise the issue of LGBT issues and human rights work," the organization emphasized in a 2016 report.
One of the tasks for the coming years, the British Council called work with the younger generation. The organization worked with students from 16 universities that fell into the conflict zone in southeastern Ukraine and one university in Crimea, helping students of these universities adapt to new circumstances - offering them to continue their studies remotely, helping to complete the studies they had begun, the council said in a report.
Is it a government structure?
Officially, the Russian Foreign Ministry explained the reason for the closure by the "unsettled status" of the British Council. Describing the formal status of the British Council is really not easy - there is no analogue of such a structure in Russia and this status is not literally translated. The "British Council" is a public entity that is not part of any of the executive power structures. From an accounting point of view, it is also a public company (one of the signs of such companies is that they receive public funding, but in the amount of less than 50% of their income). The council is also classified as a charitable society because it has exclusively charitable and non-political purposes as defined in the English Charities Act.
The closest analogue of such a structure is a non-governmental or non-profit organization that receives grants from the state. The Council receives an official grant from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but according to the organization itself, it is only 15% of its income. "While we receive a government grant, the British Council is operationally independent of the UK government and does not act on behalf of the Crown," the organization's website says. The official representative office of the British Council operates in Russia - it is located in the building of the Library for Foreign Literature in Moscow. How many employees work there is not officially reported. A former employee of the Moscow office, who requested anonymity, estimated the staff at 30 people.
The Council also established a commercial entity, Smart Cultural, Educational and Language Services LLC. In 2015, this company received half a million rubles from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) for testing in English. For a long time, the British Council worked in Russia as the cultural department of the British Embassy - this is how, for example, the organization still describes itself to job seekers. However, back in 2004, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that it did not consider the Council to be part of the diplomatic mission. In 2008, the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who was then Mikhail Kamynin, stated that the work of the offices in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg should be "stopped due to the unlawful activities of the Council."
At that time, this was explained by the fact that branches in the regions "in violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963" were located on the basis of British consulates general, which "did not have legal grounds corresponding to world practice."
But the Russian authorities had questions not only about work on the territory of embassies. The formal reason for closing the British Council is also the money that the British Council earns by teaching English, Andrey Kortunov, director general of the Russian International Affairs Council, told the BBC. "The conflict was that the British Council offered paid English courses as one of the areas of its work. There were doubts as to how this activity corresponds to its status as a non-profit organization, and, accordingly, what kind of reporting is required, and so on. This story drags on for a long time years. The activities of some branches were suspended, then opened. There is a certain gray area in the legislation, which you can find fault with, or you can not find fault with, "Kortunov notes.
Similar difficulties arose at the French Lyceum in Moscow, the expert recalls. Claims were due to the uncertainty of the status, including tax. "Back then they were saying that they were handling a lot of cash, like the British Council. Then the story died down, maybe a compromise was found," he says.
What does the British Council have to do with the Skripal poisoning scandal?
The work of the British Council in Russia has nothing to do with the ex-GRU colonel, but its closure is part of the sanctions exchanged between Russia and the UK amid a growing scandal. Britain announced the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats, Russia responded in kind on March 17, and also announced the closure of the British consulate in St. Petersburg and the cessation of the work of the British Council.
“We could respond very harshly, because the accusations are not supported by any evidence: remove all the MI6 employees who are sitting here, we could close all the consulates. diplomatic etiquette, not to offend," says the former diplomat. According to him, there will be a tougher reaction if Britain closes the Russian consulate in Edinburgh or the London office of Rossotrudnichestvo. Moscow's reaction can be called a dosed escalation, says Kortunov. “It can be explained by the fact that the presidential election is tomorrow and one cannot show weakness. It can be because Britain was not expected to take such hasty measures on the eve of the elections. Well, or it is believed that this leadership cannot be dealt with - they say, the May government is weak and focused on Brexit," the expert argues.
The decision to terminate the work of the British Council was influenced by the fact that "under its roof there were members of the British intelligence MI-6" detained several years ago in Russia, said Senator Igor Morozov, a veteran of the Russian intelligence service of the Foreign Intelligence Service. It's also a response to Theresa May's mention that London is clamping down on Russian intelligence activities in the UK, a former Russian diplomat explains: the Russian side felt it was time to shut down the Council, which had always been perceived by the Russian authorities as a spy organization. "For the security forces, any foreign organization is a front for intelligence agents or recruiters," says Andrey Kortunov. It is clear that they wanted to close it for a long time, but now the situation is favorable, the expert says.
At the time of the announcement by the Foreign Ministry about the closure of the British Council, he had only one office left - in Moscow. Until 2008, there were 15 British Council centers in Russia, with offices in Samara, Irkutsk, Petrozavodsk, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and St. Petersburg. All of them were closed as part of the conflict between Russia and the UK over the Litvinenko case.
Where can I take my English exam now?
Many people know the British Council as the place to take the IELTS exam. This is one of the certified English proficiency tests required to immigrate, work or study in English speaking countries. The British Council is the owner of this exam: this means that it must issue a license to the center that accepts IELTS. In Moscow, the BKC-IH Moscow IELTS Center operates under a license from the British Council. It is still possible to pass the exam: in the call center of the organization, the BBC Russian Service was told that the center continues to work as before. There is no more detailed information in the center.
But even if this center is closed along with the British Council, it is still possible to take the exam in Moscow. There is another owner of the exam - IDP: IELTS Australia. In Moscow, for example, you can take the test at the Students International IELTS test center, which is licensed by IDP. However, not only the English exam may suffer - the British Council conducts many joint projects with Russian organizations. So, until the end of April, the British Council, together with the Union of Moscow Architects, held a competition for the project of a monument to William Shakespeare in Moscow - it was to be installed on Varvarka.
Whether there will eventually be a monument to Shakespeare in Moscow is still unclear. "No decisions have been made on the competition [for the erection of the monument] yet. We all very much hope that the competition will be brought to an end. After all, the decision to erect the monument is not an individual decision of the British Council, it was made by the Moscow government, the mayor issued an order, therefore, this is not really a matter exclusively for the British Council, it is also a matter for our city," Yelena Petukhova, Special Projects Manager for the Union of Moscow Architects, told the BBC.
The British ethnos absorbed many features of the peoples who migrated from the European continent to the British Isles. However, scientists are still arguing who is the main ancestor of the current inhabitants of the United Kingdom.
Settlement of the British Isles
For many years, a group of scientists led by Professor Chris Stringer of London's Natural History Museum has been studying the process of settling the British Isles. Finally, the results of the research saw the light. Scientists have brought together archaeological data over the past centuries, thanks to which the chronology of the settlement of the islands has lined up most fully.
According to published data, people made at least 8 attempts to settle in the territory of present-day Great Britain, and only the last of them was successful. For the first time, a person came to the islands about 700 thousand years ago, which is also confirmed by DNA analysis. However, after several hundred millennia, due to cold weather, people left these places. It was not difficult to carry out the exodus, since the islands were connected with the continent at that time by a land isthmus, which went under water around 6500 BC. e.
12 thousand years ago, the last conquest of Britain took place, after which people no longer left it. In the future, more and more waves of continental settlers ended up in the British Isles, creating a motley picture of global migration. However, this picture is still not clear. “The pre-Celtic substratum to this day remains an elusive substance that no one has seen, but at the same time, few will dispute its existence,” writes British scientist John Morris Jones.
From Celts to Normans
The Celts are perhaps the most ancient people whose influence can be seen in today's Britain. Presumably fleeing from Roman rule, the Celts began to actively populate the British Isles from 500 to 100 BC. e. The Celts, who migrated from the territory of the French province of Brittany, being skilled shipbuilders, most likely instilled navigation skills on the islands.
From the middle of the 1st century A.D. e. began the systematic expansion of Britain by Rome. However, mainly the southern, eastern and partly central regions of the island underwent Romanization. The west and north, having put up fierce resistance, did not submit to the Romans.
Nevertheless, Rome had a significant impact on the culture and organization of life in the British Isles. The historian Tacitus describes the process of Romanization carried out by the Roman governor in Britain, Agricola, as follows: “He privately and at the same time providing support from public funds, praising the zealous and condemning the baggy, persistently encouraged the Britons to build temples, forums and houses.”
It was during Roman times that cities first appeared in Britain. The colonists also introduced the islanders to Roman law and military art. However, in Roman politics there was more coercion than voluntary impulses.
In the 5th century, the Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain began. Warlike tribes from the banks of the Elbe quickly subjugated almost the entire territory of the current Kingdom. But along with militancy, the Anglo-Saxon peoples, who had adopted Christianity by that time, brought a new religion to the islands and laid the foundations of statehood.
However, the Norman conquest of the second half of the 11th century had a radical effect on the political and state structure of Britain. A strong royal power appeared in the country, the foundations of continental feudalism were transferred here, but most importantly, political guidelines changed: from Scandinavia to central Europe.
Commonwealth of Four Nations
The nations that form the basis of modern Britain - the English, Scots, Irish and Welsh - have developed in the last millennium, which was greatly facilitated by the historical division of the state into four provinces. The unification of four distinctive ethnic groups into a single nation of the British became possible due to a number of reasons.
During the period of great geographical discoveries (XIV-XV centuries), a powerful unifying factor for the population of the British Isles was the reliance on the national economy. It helped in many ways to overcome the fragmentation of the state, which, for example, was in the lands of modern Germany.
Britain, unlike European countries, due to geographical, economic and political isolation, got into a situation that contributed to the consolidation of society.
An important factor for the unity of the inhabitants of the British Isles was religion and the associated formation of a universal English language for all British people.
Another feature appeared during the period of British colonialism - this is an emphasized opposition of the population of the metropolis and the native peoples: "There are us - and there are they."
Until the end of World War II, after which Britain ceased to exist as a colonial power, separatism in the Kingdom was not so clearly expressed. Everything changed when a stream of migrants poured into the British Isles from the former colonial possessions - Indians, Pakistanis, Chinese, residents of the African continent and the Caribbean. It was at this time that the growth of national consciousness in the countries of the United Kingdom intensified. Its climax came in September 2014, when Scotland held its first independence referendum.
The trend towards national isolation is confirmed by the latest sociological surveys, in which only a third of the population of Foggy Albion identified themselves as British.
british genetic code
Recent genetic research may offer new insights into both the British ancestry and the uniqueness of the four main nations of the Kingdom. Biologists from University College London examined a segment of the Y chromosome taken from ancient burials and concluded that more than 50% of English genes contain chromosomes found in northern Germany and Denmark.
According to other genetic examinations, approximately 75% of the ancestors of modern Britons arrived on the islands more than 6 thousand years ago. So, according to Oxford DNA genealogist Brian Sykes, in many respects, modern Celts of the ancestry are connected not with the tribes of central Europe, but with more ancient settlers from the territory of Iberia who came to Britain at the beginning of the Neolithic.
Other data from genetic studies conducted in Foggy Albion literally shocked its inhabitants. The results show that the English, Welsh, Scots and Irish are genetically identical in many respects, which deals a serious blow to the pride of those who are proud of their national isolation.
So the medical geneticist Stephen Oppenheimer puts forward a very bold hypothesis, believing that the common ancestors of the British arrived from Spain about 16 thousand years ago and originally spoke a language close to Basque. The genes of the later "invaders" - the Celts, Vikings, Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Normans, according to the researcher, were adopted only to a small extent.
The results of Oppenheimer's research are as follows: the Irish genotype has only 12% uniqueness, the Welsh - 20%, and the Scots and the British - 30%. The geneticist reinforces his theory with the works of the German archaeologist Heinrich Hörke, who wrote that the Anglo-Saxon expansion added about 250 thousand people to the two million population of the British Isles, and the Norman conquest even less - 10 thousand. So for all the difference in habits, customs and culture, the inhabitants of the countries of the United Kingdom have much more in common than it seems at first glance.
Great Britain(eng. United Kingdom; full name - the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, eng. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) - an island state in Western Europe, the form of government is a parliamentary monarchy. The capital is the city of London. The name of the country comes from the English Great Britain. Britain - by the ethnonym of the Briton tribe.
The state in the British Isles (the island of Great Britain and the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, a large number of small islands and archipelagos, the Channel Islands), is washed by the Atlantic Ocean and its seas. Area: total - 244,820 km², land - 240,590 km², inland waters - 3,230 km². The highest peak is Ben Nevis, English. Ben Nevis, Gaelic Beinn Neibhis / (1343 m) - located in the north of Scotland (Grampian Mountains), the lowest point is Fenland (−4 m).
Mountainous terrain prevails in the north and west - the North Scottish Highlands (up to 1343 m), the Pennine and Cambrian mountains; in the south and southeast - hilly plains. The climate is temperate oceanic, humid. Average temperatures in January are from 3 to 7 °C, in July 11-17 °C; rainfall up to 3000 mm per year in the west and 600-750 mm in the southeast. Main rivers: Thames - 334 km, Severn - 310 km, Trent - 298 km, Mersey - 109 km, Clyde - 170 km. The largest lakes: Loch Ness (square 56 km²), Loch Ney (square 396 km²). Forests (beech, oak, birch) occupy about 9% of the UK.
Administrative division
Great Britain consists of 4 administrative and political parts (historical provinces):
England (39 counties, 6 metropolitan counties and Greater London) - adm. center london
Wales (22 unitary entities: 9 counties, 3 cities and 10 city-counties) - adm. center of Cardiff
Scotland (12 regions: 9 districts and 3 main territories) - adm. center of edinburgh
Northern Ireland (26 districts) - adm. Belfast center
Dependent territories with capitals:
British Isles
Isle of Man (Douglas)
channel islands
Guernsey (St. Peter Port)
Jersey (St. Helier)
Europe
Gibraltar (Gibraltar)
America
Anguilla (Valley)
Bermuda (Hamilton)
British Virgin Islands (Road Town)
Cayman Islands (Georgetown)
Montserrat Island (Plymouth)
Turks and Caicos Islands (Cookburntown)
Falkland Islands (Port Stanley)
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
Atlantic Ocean
Saint Helena (Jamestown) and its dependent territories - Ascension Islands and Tristan da Cunha
Oceania
Pitcairn Island (Adamstown)
Indian Ocean
British Indian Ocean Territory - Chagos Archipelago
Population
The population growth is mainly due to labor immigrants from the countries that recently joined the European Union, who, after the enlargement of the EU in May 2004, were allowed free entry to work in the UK. Nevertheless, the birth rate in the country still exceeds the death rate, although natural increase is no longer the dominant factor in the increase in the British population. The total population (according to 2008 data) is 61,113,205. Age structure: up to 14 years old - 16.7%, 15-64 - 67.1%, from 65 and older - 16.2%. The average age of men is 39 years, women - 41 years. Population growth - 0.279%, birth rate - 10.65 / 1,000; the death rate is 10.05/1,000. The net migration rate is 2.16 migrants/1,000. 90% of the population lives in cities, with an annual increase of 0.5%. In cities with a population of St. 100 thousand people almost half of the country's population lives. The largest cities in terms of the number of inhabitants: London (6,803,000 people), Birmingham (935,000 people), Glasgow (654,000 people), Sheffield (500,000 people), Liverpool (450,000 people), Edinburgh (421,000 people), Manchester ( 398,000 people), Belfast (280,000 people).
Ethnic composition
The indigenous people of the country make up 92% of the population of V. (2001, census), of which:
English - 83.6%,
Scots (mainly in Scotland) - 8.5%,
Welsh (mainly in Wales) - 4.9%,
Irish (mainly in Northern Ireland, Ulsters) - 2.9%.
Immigrants and their children reside mainly in the Greater London, West Midlands and Merseyside conurbations. They make up about 8% of the country's population, including:
immigrants from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh - 3.6%,
China - 0.4%,
African countries - 0.8%,
black people from the islands of the Caribbean - 1%
british nation
1. The formation of the British nation took place in a special way, which is not comparable with the French model of nation formation (opposition between the "bottom" and "top" in the French Revolution), as well as with the German model, due to the fact that Great Britain has never been a fragmented state like Germany before 1871.
2. In the XIV-XV centuries, during the period of great geographical discoveries, the national economy began to play a huge role in Great Britain, which united the population of the country.
3. Great Britain, unlike other European states, has always been somewhat isolated, due to its geographical location.
4. The religious component also played a huge role in the consolidation of the British nation (XVII century) - a revolution was made with religious motives (opposition between Catholics and Protestants).
5. Also an important role in the formation of the British nation can be assigned to the process of fencing, which resulted in the assimilation of the peasant population in cities, as well as the development of land by peasants in remote corners of Great Britain.
6. In England, the Bible was translated into English earlier than in other European countries; thus, there was a single universal English language for all British people.
7. The British often oppose themselves to other ethnic groups:
A) Britain had the most powerful and wide-ranging colonial empire in the world. But at the same time, the British demonstrated their differences with other peoples of the world.
B) The British colonial policy was also sharply different, which, unlike the French or Spanish, did not try to assimilate the natives in their colonies, guided by the principle: “We are the British! They are natives!” However, the collapse of the empire led to a fundamental shift in the consciousness of the population: national movements became more active, more and more people considered themselves not British, but Scots, Welsh, Irish. According to public opinion polls, even in England, only a third of the population consider themselves British. What for a long time united the inhabitants of the country (Protestantism, patriarchal institutions of power, monarchy, empire) has ceased to work as effectively as before. Characteristically, since 2001, the word ‘Britain’ in the title of the yearbook of the State Bureau for National Statistics has been replaced by the United Kingdom
Story
The British Isles were conquered in the 5th-6th centuries by the Anglo-Saxons. After the Norman conquest of England in 1066, the process of feudalization was completed, which was accompanied by the political unification of the country. In the 2nd half of the 13th century, the English parliament arose, and the estate monarchy took shape. The development of commodity-money relations and the struggle of the peasantry (the uprising of Wat Tyler in 1381 and others) led (in the 15th century) to the almost complete elimination of the personal dependence of the peasants. At the same time, the peasants were deprived of land ownership, which led to their rapid proletarianization. During the Reformation, in 1534, the Church of England was created. The English Revolution of the 17th century ensured the establishment of capitalism. At the end of the 17th century, political parties took shape - the Tories and the Whigs (in the middle of the 19th century they were transformed into the Conservative and Liberal parties, respectively). After the annexation of Scotland was consolidated in 1707 (Ireland was conquered in 1649-1651), the name Great Britain was assigned to the united kingdom. At the end of the 18th - 1st half of the 19th centuries, an industrial revolution took place. With the conquest of wealthy Bengal by the East India Company, the creation of the British colonial empire begins. About a third of all English investments of this time are of Indian origin. In the 1830s, the factory system of production was established. In the 1830s - 1840s. the first mass movement of the proletariat, Chartism, unfolded. In the 1840s, Ireland was struck by a famine that killed more than a million people. In 1868, the British Congress of Trade Unions was created. The British Labor Party was founded in 1900. In the 19th century, Great Britain became the largest colonial power in the world (the British Empire). During the Second World War, Great Britain was one of the main participants in the anti-Hitler coalition. During the collapse of the British colonial empire, almost all British colonies gained independence by the mid-1970s. After the Second World War, British governments were alternately formed by the Labor Party (1945-1951, 1964-1970, 1974-1979, from 1997 to the present) and the Conservatives (1951-1964, 1970-1974, 1979-1997).
Political structure
Great Britain is a parliamentary monarchy headed by a queen.
The legislature is a bicameral parliament (House of Commons and House of Lords). Parliament is the highest authority throughout the territory, despite the fact that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own administrative administrative structures. The government is headed by the prime minister.
A distinctive characteristic is the absence of any single document that could be called the fundamental law of the country, there is no written Constitution, moreover, there is not even an exact list of documents that would relate to the Constitution. Relations between the people and the government are regulated by legislative acts, unwritten laws and conventions.
Citizenship
Beginning November 1, 2005, applicants for British citizenship must take a special test "Life in the UK" on knowledge of the history, culture and traditions, as well as the foundations of the British government and public life in this country.
The test, which lasts 45 minutes and consists of 24 multiple-choice questions, is mandatory for citizenship. Earlier, London introduced a mandatory test for knowledge of the English language, as well as a system for assessing the qualifications and demand for labor skills of immigrants.
Future citizens will be able to obtain the knowledge necessary for passing the exam at courses specially organized for them. According to the drafters of the legislation, this knowledge will help immigrants quickly integrate into British society, including understanding their rights and obligations.
In 2004, 140,870 people applied for British citizenship, up 12 per cent from 2003.
Economy
Great Britain is the leader of European trade and a major financial center. Over the past 2 decades, the government has greatly reduced the share of the private sector in the economy and expanded social programs. Agriculture is highly intensive, well equipped and meets the highest European standards, producing 60% of food with less than 2% of the workforce. Leading industries: oil and gas production, mechanical engineering, chemical and petrochemical, ferrous metallurgy, oil refining. Great Britain is a highly developed industrial country, a major supplier of finished industrial products to the world market and a major exporter of capital (mainly to developed countries). GDP per capita $36,600 per year. It ranks 13th in the world in terms of living standards. Extraction of oil and natural gas (mainly on the shelf of the North Sea), coal. The most developed mechanical engineering (focused on the production of non-standard products, as well as various types and types of machines), including electrical and electronic, transport (including large aircraft, rocket, car and shipbuilding), machine tool building, agricultural, industrial equipment production, hoisting and transport technology, etc., chemical and petrochemical (Great Britain occupies one of the leading places in the world in the production and export of synthetic fibers and dyes, plastics, detergents, fertilizers, etc.), pharmaceutical, oil refining, ferrous (high-quality steels) and non-ferrous ( tin, aluminum) metallurgy. The oldest branch of English industry - textile - has lost its former importance. Large food flavoring (traditional production of whiskey, beer; processing of imported agricultural raw materials) industry; production of footwear, knitwear; famous English porcelain. Dairy and meat and dairy cattle breeding and bacon pig breeding predominate in agriculture; meat and wool sheep breeding. They grow mainly barley, wheat, sugar beets, oats, and potatoes. Vegetable and fruit growing (large greenhouse and greenhouse farm), floriculture (daffodils, tulips).
GDP for 2006 was $2.151 trillion; for 2007 - 2.215 trillion dollars; 2008 - $2.231 trillion The UK's GDP in the first quarter of 2009 fell 1.9 percent from the previous quarter, a record drop in 30 years. In the fourth quarter of 2008, the fall in the country's GDP amounted to 1.6 percent.
The economically active population is 31.2 million people. 1.4% of the population is employed in agriculture, 18.2% of the population in industry, and 80.4% of the population in the service sector. The unemployment rate is 5.5%. Monetary unit - pound sterling = 100 pence.
The annual budget revenue is $1.107 trillion; the annual budget expenditure is 1.242 trillion dollars. Investments in the economy amount to 16.7% of GDP. The inflation rate for 2008 was 3.8%.
Exports for 2008 amounted to 468.7 billion dollars. Exports: machinery and equipment, oil and oil products, cars, weapons, chemical products, medicines, food. Export partners: USA -14.2%, Germany - 11.1%, France - 8.1%, Ireland - 8%, Netherlands - 6.8%, Belgium -5.3%, Spain -4.5%, Italy -4.1%. Imports for 2008 amounted to 645.7 billion dollars. Imports: finished industrial goods, machinery and equipment, raw materials, metals, food products. Import partners: Germany -14.2%, USA -8.6%, China -7.3%, Netherlands -7.3%, France -6.9%, Belgium -4.7%, Norway -4.7%, Italy -4.2%.
culture
The culture of the United Kingdom is rich and varied. It has a significant impact on culture on a global scale. Great Britain has strong cultural ties with its former colonies, especially with those states where English is the official language. A significant contribution to British culture over the past half century has been made by immigrants from the Indian subcontinent and from the Caribbean. During the formation of the United Kingdom, it included former independent states with distinct cultures, which should be considered separately.
National newspapers: The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, The Observer, The Financial Times, The Daily Express, The Sun, The Mirror, The People.
Religion
Major religions: Christianity (42,079,000) -71.6%, Buddhism (152,000) -0.3%, Hinduism (559,000) -1%, Judaism (267,000) -0.5%, Islam (1,591,000) -2.7% , Sikhism (336,000) -0.6%, Other religions (179,000) -0.3%, Atheists (9,104,000) -15.5%, Abstained from answering (4,289,000) -7.3%.
On the territory of England there is a church with state status - the Church of England, the secular head of which is the British monarch. The Church of England is one of the local churches belonging to the Anglican Communion, which has its spiritual leader, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
According to research, the United Kingdom is a country with a predominantly secular population: only 38% of people declare their belief in God (“a God”), although, according to the Church of England in 2005, “72% of the population of England indicated their religious affiliation as Christian ".
British Armed Forces
The military forces are divided into army, royal navy, royal air force. Ground Forces −113,500 people; air force - 52,540 people; navy - 43,700 people. British Armed Forces The Commander-in-Chief of the British Armed Forces is the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The British Armed Forces are under the control of the Defense Council of the Ministry of Defence. The primary mission of the British Armed Forces is to protect the United Kingdom and its overseas territories, advance the UK's security interests and support international peacekeeping efforts. Also, the British Armed Forces are active and permanent participants in NATO operations and coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The military budget is 2.4% of GDP according to 2005 data, approximately $37 billion.
Relations with the Russian Federation
Cooperation between Russia and the UK is carried out mainly through the structures of the European Union. Bilateral cooperation thus excludes some aspects included in the EU-Russia agenda, such as fighting crime, military exercises and scientific seminars on defense issues. At the Russia-UK level, the following issues are considered: security in the field of energy, nuclear developments, technologies and the latest design developments. Joint consultations are being held on developments in the field of control at enterprises, in state institutions and on the streets (here states reach a special level of cooperation due to the complexity and piquancy of the issue, consultations are held on improving existing systems of control, surveillance and fixing attendance, appearances, etc.) . This allows both countries to increase the level of security of the population and state structures and becomes a priority in the relations of states in the field of defense and security.
So, for example, incidents with disagreement between the parties on the extradition of citizens (Lugovoi from Russia and Berezovsky from Great Britain), the ensuing expulsion of diplomatic persons and the termination of cooperation in some areas did not affect joint consultations on control and security issues. The sphere of combating terrorism also remains unaffected by political scandals, where the parties openly express their interest in cooperation, mutual developments and the transfer of experience in countering this threat. The British side highlights the importance of the fight against terrorism as fundamental to Russian-British relations, the most important area of cooperation in general, and positions this area above "political misunderstandings." This is evidenced by the statement of the British Minister for European Affairs Jim Murphy: "In terms of countering terrorism, we are cooperating very closely and will continue to cooperate."
In the context of the difficult situation of Russian-British diplomacy, numerous scandals, unfulfilled demands and claims, unwillingness to make concessions, high-profile news reports and critical articles that do not cease to develop the topic of Berezovsky’s tasks and goals, political assassinations, the involvement of Russian special services in the death of British subjects, intelligence activities of the British intelligence services on the territory of the Russian Federation, etc., the possibility of effective cooperation is reduced, the number of bilateral projects is reduced.
Legal acts: In 1997 the Russian Federation ratified the Double Taxation Convention with the Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. From this moment on, tax obligations fulfilled in one city are recognized as fulfilled in another.
Interesting Facts
- The UK does not have a written constitution.
- The House of Commons is the only place in Britain where the Queen of England cannot enter, as she is not a member of the House.
- In Great Britain, by tradition, the position of First Lord of the Treasury is held by the Prime Minister, and the position of First Lord of the Admiralty is held by the Queen.
Modern England is often also called Britain, and it is this name that most suits the described country since ancient times. Because when Julius Caesar appeared on the shores of Foggy Albion (55 BC), the Britons lived here. These Celtic tribes inhabited modern England at the time when Caesar invaded these glorious lands, thus initiating the Roman phase of British history.
Therefore, we can say that the history of England actually began with captivity, which turned out to be a very contagious affair for the descendants of the Britons, who founded the British Empire several centuries later, uniting the lands of several continents.
Caesar and Britons, Picts and Scots
So, the era of Caesar, England, the history of the country at the very beginning. The Romans capture the entire southern territory of the island (now there are lands that make up the territories of England and Wales), which entered the Roman Empire and remained in it until the period of collapse (5th century AD).
And it was a time of intrigue and compromise Because inherently weak, the Britons nevertheless desired to be free. They did not want to "walk under the Romans", and as an alternative they turned to the German barbarians for help (the battle of the Roman legionnaires with the barbarian tribes is very plausibly recreated in the film "Gladiator").
However, as long as the Roman legions stood on the soil of England, the Germans could not take possession of new territories for them.
And only with the departure of the Romans (V-VI centuries), the barbarians managed not only to help the Britons (the chronicles of those years testify that it was they who interceded with the Germanic tribes to protect them from the ancestors of the Scots - the Picts and Scots - from the north), but and subsequently push the "natives" to Wales and Cornwall.
Egbert and Alfred the Great
In England of those years, aliens representing three groups of Germans were in charge - these were combat brigades of the Jutes, Saxons and Angles. On the territories taken from the Britons, they formed their own separate kingdoms.
In particular, the history of England keeps evidence of the existence of the Union of the Seven Kingdoms - the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy.
The kings were then called "Britwalds" (that is, the rulers of Britain). Most researchers believe that the history of this state, as a united kingdom, is associated with the name of one of these Britwalds named Egbert (date of birth unknown - 839). The fact is that when the Danish Vikings attacked the eastern lands of England, it was he who managed to rally the rest of the Britwalds around his kingdom of Wessex.
However, the truly "royal" history of England actually began two centuries later, when Alfred the Great (871-899) first coined the titled phrase "King of England". Some, however, tend to consider 1066 as the "zero point", when the Normans landed on the shores of England.
From William I to James I
Actually, from this date no unification followed. On the contrary, through the efforts of William I the Conqueror, the Franco-Norman order reigned in England. Wales was conquered and became an integral part of a single state in the 13th century. With Scotland, the unification took place much later, in 1707 (the so-called "Act of Union").
All this time, the future kingdom went through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance - to the time of Elizabeth I, the last of the Tudors. James I, who replaced her, was actually James VI, but not in England, but in Scotland. (Since English traditions provide for giving the serial number of the king, only on the basis of the presence or absence of such in the annals of Britain, and Yakovov did not know the history of the country before him, he was destined to become the first of them).
French trail and reformer kings
Britain's closest neighbor was France, which predetermined the most powerful influence of this country on the fate of all generations of the British. Even William the Conqueror, having made historical claims to the English throne, remained to rule French Normandy.
Yes, and his great-grandson Henry II Plantagenet had power over about half of the rulers of the French provinces, who were his vassals. It was to this king that the idea of judicial reform belongs, from which the jury later formed.
Henry gave the throne to Richard I the Lionheart (1189-1199). It was the time of the Crusades. But his younger brother John Landless (1199-1216) took up the strengthening of the English coast from the appetites of the French monarch.
However, Philip-Augustus proved to be a more skilful master of warfare, and after 1214 Britain lost its influence over practically all French provinces. John, however, entered the history of England as the creator of the first constitution of this country (the Magna Carta law).
His son Henry III (1216-1272) also distinguished himself: he initiated the creation of the world's first parliament.
The accession of Wales also became famous for Edward I (1272-1307), who succeeded him.
Centralization, language reform
Despite the activity of the English kings, Scotland maintained its independence for many centuries. As a separate kingdom, this part of the British island was formed in the 9th-11th centuries. The Angles, Saxons and Jutes, already mentioned above, who settled in the southern part of Scotland, had a great influence on the established ethnic community.
Meanwhile, in England itself in the XII-XIII centuries, centralization continued, accompanied by the development of the economy and the growth of cities. The population was also consolidated, the history of the English ethnic community was a merger of the Angles, Saxons and Normans. At the same time, the language standard was formed..
Previously, commoners communicated with each other using the Anglo-Saxon language, and the royal society, nobles and nobility (as later in Russia) - in French. Now the London dialect, not without the influence of French, united the existing bilingualism. It must be emphasized that at present the British speak three main languages, adopted traditionally on the shores of the Foggy Albion.
This is, in fact, English, with which the vast majority of Britons communicate, as well as Welsh (every fourth Welsh uses it) and Gaelic.
The latter is used by about 60 thousand Scots, in fact, it is nothing more than the Gaelic language in its Scottish dialect form.
The Market, the Hundred Years' War and the Wars of the Roses
Serfdom was gradually pushed aside by the development of the wool industry, and with it, other sectors of the economy. A new type of relationship penetrated into the village - commodity-money, here sheep breeding developed by leaps and bounds. Feudalism thus dug its own grave already in the 15th century..
Meanwhile, the reign of Edward III (1327-1377) was marked by new British claims to the French throne.
As a result of the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453), the French fleet was sunk (1340), the Frogs' army was defeated at Crecy (1346), and their king himself was captured at Poitiers (1356). Thus, the history of Britain began a new countdown to English influence on the continent.
The fiasco at Agincourt (1415) forced the French monarch to leave his throne in favor of the reigning Henry V. However, wars never benefited the common people. If in England the revolt of Wat Tyler (1381) became a reaction to the Hundred Years War, then in France it became the cause of the feat of Joan of Arc, and Henry VI in 1453 was forced to leave the continent back to the island.
From the same time, the beginning of the war that the Lancasters and Yorks unleashed between themselves (Scarlet and White Roses) takes its countdown.
Beginning in 1455, she wiped out all the pretenders to the royal throne from both warring parties, clearing the way for the Tudors. And the new king of England, Henry VII (1485-1509), laid the foundation for the rule of the Tudor dynasty. And he not only ascended the throne, but, being a relative of the Lancasters, married a representative of the York dynasty. Since then, the enemies have reconciled, and both roses have reigned on the coat of arms of Henry VII.
Absolutism and gentry, Stuarts and Cromwell
The unlimited power of the king was laid down by Henry VII, and his descendant Henry VIII (1491-1547) reformed the church, declaring himself head of the Anglican Church. Edward VI (1537-1553) declared Protestantism the religion of England, the 16th century is also known for the emergence of new nobles - the gentry, from which the bourgeois later went.
The intensive seizure of peasant lands by them formed the basis for the emergence of capitalist relations.
The last of the Tudors, Elizabeth I (1533-1603), found himself without an heir, and it was James I, from whom the Stuarts ruled in England. Under him, the Protestants began to be pushed back by the Catholics, and his son Charles I (1625-1649) aggravated the confrontation with Parliament and, having brought the country to the Civil War, was executed by Cromwell's supporters. The latter, in just five years of his reign, annexed the lands of Scotland and Ireland to England, and from that time the history of the kingdom became united.
End of the Stuarts, bourgeois revolution
In the following decades, the monarchy triumphed (Charles II), in the 17th-19th centuries, two Tory and Whig parties, now traditional for England, were formed., and the Slavic Revolution (1688) marked the end of the Stuarts and the strengthening of the bourgeoisie.
It was the "Slavic" King William III of Orange who helped to strengthen the Tories and Whigs, as well as the press. At the same time, the history of the country's first Bank of England (1694) begins.
Under Anne Stewart, England and Scotland became inseparable (1707).
The bourgeois who came to actual power completed the formation of England as a nation.
The peasantry disappeared in the 18th century. By this time, in three wars, the British managed to break the onslaught of the Dutch, and the wars between England and France continued as the British Empire was created.
However, the Treaty of Versailles (1763) contributed to the civilized redistribution of the colonies between France, Britain and Spain. Australia becomes a state-scale colony (parliamentary laws of England 1768-1771).
In the 18th century, the era of Hanover contributes to the rise of Parliament as the ruling body of the state. The accession to the throne of 18-year-old Victoria (1837) marks the beginning of the longest reign in the history of England. By the same time, Britain becomes the most powerful world power..
Modern England
Today Britain, with 39 counties, is one of the most densely populated countries in the world.
It is the second largest economy in Europe and the fifth in the world.. Tourism is widely developed here. The largest cities in England are London, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow. The population is almost 60 million people. The cost of living in England is still measured in pounds sterling, although the national currency is the euro.
On Saturday, March 17, our Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the closure of the Russian representative office of the British Council, an international organization that promotes cooperation between the UK and other countries in the field of culture and education. The move comes in response to the UK's decision to expel 23 Russian diplomats following the Russian-suspected poisoning of former GRU officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. In addition, Russia is also expelling 23 British diplomats and closing the British consulate in St. Petersburg. The closure of the British Council is a very sad event for Russian culture. Buro 24/7 confesses his love to the British Council and remembers what important things he did in Russia.
The British Council was founded in 1934 in the UK, has been operating in Russia since 1992, but in general it has representative offices in hundreds of other countries. This international organization is considered charitable in its homeland, its head and patron is Queen Elizabeth II. In Russia, as our Foreign Ministry points out, the status of the British Council has not been officially regulated. With the same wording, the organization's representative offices in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg were closed in 2008, after the poisoning of former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko, which was followed by an international scandal. However, whatever the status of the British Council in Russia, it did a lot for the development of culture and education in our country, and, it seems, it did it better than our Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education.
In Russia, the British Council developed English language training programs in cooperation with our Ministry of Education, selected candidates for the Chevening scholarship (which can be used to study for a master's degree in the UK), held cultural forums, seminars, lectures and round tables, collaborated with festivals, helped to bring exhibitions of British artists and arranged concerts for young promising British musicians, and also sent Russian specialists to study in Britain. Thus, the British Council helped to develop teachers, curators, musicians, producers, organizers, journalists, heads of cultural organizations, fashion industry workers, scientists and everyone who in one way or another came into contact with culture and the study of the English language and was interested in them. The activities of the council, no doubt, have always been educational.
The UK is a country of developed creative industries. They know how to create, promote and sell cultural products and events, export their culture abroad. Education in the United Kingdom is still one of the best and most prestigious in the world. Constantly mired in political upheavals and economic crises, Russia inevitably lagged behind the British both in terms of culture and education. Both of our ministries - that of culture, that of education - support the general course of archaization and, it seems, are not interested in adopting the successful experience of colleagues from other countries. With such an approach, we will not soon be able to achieve any decent level in these areas.
While the country's budget was prioritized on defense, the British Council showed us how inspiring, impressive, interesting and diverse cultural life can be, how entertaining and exciting education can be, and how original and unexpected the promotion of all this can be. “Shakespeare train” in the subway, witty joint materials with Arzamas, video lectures with Postnauka, the journey of English writers along the Trans-Siberian Railway and many other projects, for most of which our officials would not have had the courage or ingenuity.
Almost everything this organization did was free. The Council, despite the closure of its representative offices in Yekaterinburg and St. Petersburg, held its events throughout Russia. It would seem that our state should send domestic scientists and cultural managers to improve their qualifications and acquire international relations, but no, the British Council did this more often and more efficiently.
What can all this lead to?
2019 was supposed to be the Year of Music in Great Britain and Russia. For Russia, where there is practically no music industry, this would be an invaluable experience. Just think: there is (or rather, there was) an organization that can bring us innovators of the British music scene and not charge money for a ticket to such a concert. The help of the British Council made it possible to bring to us with less difficulty British cinema, which did not go into wide distribution, but invariably aroused the interest of hundreds of people greedy for new knowledge and impressions. The queue for the Pre-Raphaelites in Pushkin and the tour of the National Portrait Gallery in London in Moscow - this also happened thanks to the British Council.
The problem is that in Russia there is no organization capable of replacing the British Council, either at the level of the state that closed it, or as a private initiative, no matter how many excellent cultural funds and projects we have. This organization gave us insight into things that sometimes seemed difficult and inaccessible. It is a pity that, apparently, this will no longer be the case. The development of culture makes us more humane and happier, but for some reason this is still not a priority in our country.
