Posts Tagged ‘legends’

History of the Russian roulette

Posted by Nicolae on October 8th, 2008 under Russia, Russian roulette
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Legends abound regarding the invention of Russian roulette. Most of these, predictably, take place in Russia, or occur among Russian soldiers.
In one legend, 19th century Russian prisoners were forced to play the game while the prison guards bet on the outcome. In another version, desperate and suicidal officers in the Russian army [...]

History of playing cards

Posted by Nicolae on August 31st, 2008 under History, Playing cards
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Early history
The origin of playing cards is obscure, but it is almost certain that they began in China after the invention of paper. Ancient Chinese “money cards” have four “suits”: coins (or cash), strings of coins (which may have been misinterpreted as sticks from crude drawings), myriads of strings, and tens of [...]